The Distance Between Us Artifact #3

This article is about the impact that immigration has on the economy. More specifically, the job market.

Basically, immigration has a very large affect on a state's economy. As the amount of Hispanic immigrants increases in states like Texas, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia, the economy grows. These states have more money, and more jobs available. Texas created 50,000 jobs in July 2014 alone.

This may be because immigrants are very mobile workers. This means that they are willing to move around to find low-skilled jobs, such as cleaning jobs.  Lower skilled American workers are less likely to move to a different state for a low paying job. Because these immigrants are willing to move around, they create a mobile labor market, which creates more jobs. Then, this creates faster economic growth.

Honestly, this sort of stuff isn't very interesting to me. Jobs and economics and math and all that junk. But this does explain why immigrant workers usually have the hands on, low paying jobs. There are other factors to it of course, like people not wanting to hire immigrants for higher paying jobs. Another factor is the education level of the immigrants. For example, Papi only had a third grade education, and didn't speak English. A handyman's job was probably the only thing that he (and others like him) could do to make a living

The fact that immigrants actually help the economy in some ways is an interesting perspective. Normally we focus on how they are stealing jobs from "good ol' Americans". I don't usually pay attention to this sort of stuff, but at least now I know the part of the good side of immigrants coming in. I'm sure there are many more benefits to immigrants besides this.

On an unrelated note, I did a google search of The Distance Between Us, and discovered that there is a song by the Norwegian band "Far Lippo Lippi" called The Distance Between Us. If this book ever gets made into a movie, I demand that this song is the theme.

The Distance Between Us Artifact #2

The Graduates- The Girls

This is a documentary by Bernardo Ruiz is about three Latina girls who are struggling to graduate from high school. Darlene is a teenage mother. She has a two year old son named Alex, and dropped out of high school in order to raise him. Stephanie lives in a neighborhood with gang violence, and goes to a high minority school that doesn't do its best for its students. Chastity's family is homeless, and she uses school as her refuge from home problems.

These girls are in very similar situations (or what could've been) to what Reyna faced when she was a teenager. In fact, Reyna did face the threat of gangs and her sister Betty became a teenage mom. There were other problems that Reyna (and many girls like Reyna) faced that come with being a Latina teenager. Problems like discrimination, bullying, differences in language/culture, and many more.

However, these girls did what many people, despite race, couldn't do. They graduated high school, or are very close to doing so, and are on their way to college and better opportunities. They each overcame their problems and focused on their education. Even though the odds were not in their favor, they did it.

This was really eye opening for me, because I never really thought about the sort of things that would get in the way of getting a high school diploma. I guess living in PC will do that to a person. But there are lots of outside influences that affect education like being sick, living in a dangerous place, economic problems, and more. It would be really hard to focus on math if you're responsible for an entire baby! Reyna also had lots of problems that affected school (mostly college) due to her father's abuse and economic problems.

 When people talk about how minorities are always dropping out of high school, they should keep these sort of problems in mind, and find a way to work around them to get the most kids to graduate high school.

The Distance Between Us Artifact #1

This article is about the general attitude that white Americans have towards immigrants (especially Mexicans).

Everyone has different feelings on immigration. Some people approve of lots of immigrants coming into the country, and others think it isn't okay. Some think that immigrants from certain countries are better than immigrants from other countries. Despite the problem, the group who usually does the judging and the deciding are white people. So what do white people think about immigration?

A study conducted by Ted Brader and Elizabeth Suhay, white Americans were given news stories about increasing immigration. Half of the articles were negative (immigration is bad), and half of them were positive (immigration is good!). Naturally, the people with the negative stories were less supportive of immigration.

However, that wasn't the only thing that the researchers were studying. The articles, along with being positive or negative, would focus on either a Mexican immigrant named Jose Sanchez, or Nikolai Vandinsky from Russia. The study showed that anyone with the article about Jose Sanchez, despite being positive or negative, were less supportive of immigration. They found the same results when they replaced Nikolai with a Dutch man.

What if Reyna had been Chinese rather than Mexican? Would she have been respected more in school? Would her life have been any easier? What if she had been South African, or German, or Egyptian? What about the people of other races that were in Reyna's life?, She had Asian friends, an Italian sitter, and a Greek teacher. They probably had very different experiences than Reyna because of their nationalities and races. Race and nationality play an important part in anyone's life, even though nobody wants it to.

Though I understand these people's thinking, I don't agree with it. I'm pretty sure that these people's attitudes are based on misinformation, stereotypes, and plain old bias. Where immigrants are from shouldn't make a difference of how we treat them. However, I understand that racism and this sort of prejudice won't be fixed so easily. The best thing we can do is accept people for who they are and treat them the same as anyone else.

An End of the Year Review

Well guys, this is the last graded assignment for this blog, which means that I probably won't post much after this (though I might get bored over the summer).

from: iusedtohavehair.com

I've been saving this review for a while, cus I wanted to do this for my last one.
It's a review of this entire project.

Background of the project for the, like, two people who aren't in my English class:
We got this big project at the beginning of the year to make a blog about whatever you want, and post weekly. This blog was the result of that project. This is all very lucky for you, dear readers, because where would you be if you didn't have your weekly posts from yours truly.

Over the year, I've been wondering why Mr. P decided to make this project. It seemed like an inconvenience to make an assignment where you'd have to grade 100+ badly written posts every week.
I've come up with three reasons.

1. Better student/teacher communication:
If I was a teacher, I'd want students to feel open about talking to me about whatever the heck they wanted. I'm not sure if Mr. P shares this opinion, but for my argument's sake I'll assume he does. These blogs would be a great way to get to know your students, and see what they enjoy. Also, if the students are like me and get super awkward when they talk to a teacher ((which is a constant problem of mine, and I'm fairly sure that my percussion teacher thinks I have a disorder because I just can't answer his questions without completely panicking)), this project is helpful for getting opinions and ideas across.

2. Better student/student communication:
One thing that I've really liked about these blogs is that you can get insight on your fellow students. Like, it's cool to go on your friend's blogs and see what they post about and then joke with them about it later.
But it's also cool to see the blogs of people who you aren't great friends with, or want to be friends with. Like, maybe you talked to one guy in class and found out that he's in honors English, so he has a blog. You can go on it and find out stuff about him, and then you can talk to him about stuff he likes next time you see him.
Is that creepy?
I really hope not......but then again, this is the internet. The views from random people in Singapore should have reminded you that these blogs are public.

3. Writing practice:
Of course since this is an English assignment, it does make sense to have all this writing practice. A lot of kids have improved on their general spelling/conventions skills since the beginning of this project.
What stinks (for me at least) is that this isn't the type of writing I need to practice. I mainly write stories, so this casual blogging style isn't what I need to work on.


There is one benefit to this project that doesn't really relate to English, but I think most students will agree with.

1.Getting to show off:
Face it, we're all awkward teenagers that suck at communicating with each other. We're especially bad about coming out about our talents. This is a good way to show off our stuff without seeming too braggy.
People can show off their art skills, or writing skills, cooking, humor, music, or whatever the heck else they want to.
Blogging is a really nice platform for showing off what you can do, and I'm glad that a lot of students took advantage of that, because that was the most fun part about this project.

What I think about my own blog:
I'm actually pretty proud of myself with this blog. I know it isn't anything that I'll look at in 20 years and be like 'This is one damn good blog', but it could've been a LOT worse. I was thinking about doing a blog about my life, and trust me, you should be glad that I didn't post about my weekend LoTR marathon.
A review blog was a good match for me. I have a lot of opinions, but don't talk about them much because people get bored after a few minutes. This was a good way to get thoughts out without boring everyone to death.
Overall, this came out pretty well. It isn't popular, but it's a fun little blog that I can laugh about in the future.

Conclusion:
This is definitely one of the best projects I've ever done. Though it was a pain in the butt to have to think of something to make a post on and get it in by Friday night, it was a load of fun. The entire experience of blogging and making this weird community was strange and awesome. Thanks for the opportunity Mr. P!

Incongruent: ALL THE LINKS

From: dftba.com

I know I've done two posts regarding the Green brothers already, but this time I want to focus on Hank.
If you haven't read my vlogbrothers post, you should go read it. It's very informative.
So recently (last Wednesday) Hank Green & The Perfect Strangers came out with their new album, Incongruent.
I bought the special pre-ordered copy that's SIGNED.
Cus I'm that cool.
Unfortunately it hasn't arrived yet because I ordered it with the TFiOS preparedness kit which is still in preorder.
BUT since the people at dftba records are so nice and realize that a lot of computers now don't have disk drives (looking at you eighth graders with your dumb macbook airs), they sent a digital download of the whole album!
Which means I can review it for you guys!
Unfortunately, the songs are still too new and I can't find them on Grooveshark so I can't put all them on here for you.
However, Hank performed a few of them on the vlogbrothers channel, so I can at least link you to those videos.
Also, there are two versions of the album (a clean and an explicit) and I bought the explicit but I don't think they're very different anyway.
If you're interested in the clean version, I'm sure there'll be some review somewhere else that's available by now.

1. I F***ing Love Science
This one is pretty self explanatory. Hank runs around singing about how science is great and everyone should be happy that it's a thing.
Here's a link to the music video (it's the clean version but you can get to the explicit version from it if you'd like that better).

2.T-Shirt and Jeans
A song about how t-shirt and jeans are a great outfit that you can use to express yourself (or not).
Here's the acoustic version.

3.Hug Scream
I don't really know what to tell you with this one. Just.....hug someone and scream while you're doing it. There's also something about armadillos worshiping lions.
Now hold this awesome person oh so near
and scream your loudest scream
but not directly in their ear

4.Mother Pheasant Plucker
I'm pretty sure that they just wanted to make a massive tongue twister and make a bunch of people accidentally sing fucker. Go on, try it. I DARE YOU.
But my life as a mother pheasant plucker is pleasant
Just listening to music as I pluck mother pheasants
I'm a pleasant pheasant plucker and no ones
heard a pleasant pheasant plucker ever say the f-word

5.Marilyn Hanson
I think this one of those songs that's about a girlfriend he (the singer) had a long time ago and is being all nostalgic about it, but I can't really tell cus I can't find the lyrics anywhere so I have to go by ear which I suck at. The song has a rocking saxophone solo and it's the only song that actually says incongruence.
By the way, incongruence means incompatible.
It didn't matter
To anyone but ourselves

6.The Universe is Weird
Again, self explanatory. Hank is flipping out about how the universe is really weird and amazing and that it's pretty great for us that it's a thing cus if it wasn't, we wouldn't be here.
Here's a link to the acoustic version of this song.

7.Gangnam Style (Full English Translation)
Again, pretty self explanatory.
Here's a link to PART of the song. It's with a bunch of other songs that are translated to English, but just watch the video because it's funny.

8. I'd Rather
You know when you're like 'I'd rather gouge both of my eyes out with a rusty spork than _____'? This song is pretty much that.
No, I don't think we'll get together again
And no, I don't think we can still be friends
Because there's so many things I'd rather do
Than spend another day with you.

9. Oh JK Rowling
A song about how JK Rowling should really write something new because she's amazing. Ironically, this came out a few days before JK revealed that she wrote The Cuckoos Calling. Actually, Hank is pretty psychic when it comes to Harry Potter. I should also mention that he does an anual Harry Potter song, so this psychic-ness comes to light pretty frequently.
Here's a link to the song (album version!)

10. Undigested Lump
Mr. P, if you skip everything in this post, at least don't skip this cus you'll like it.
This is a song about how awesome Shakespearean insults are.
We can't use them for the smackdown or anything, but it's a good song.
Here's a link to the acoustic ((you can skip the first minute of the video if you aren't interested in the statistics of the vlogbrothers channel)). I like the album version better but I can't get that to you without things being sort of illegal and I'M SORRY.

11. My Favorite Pony
A song that's making fun of bronies (but in a 'ya this is lame but it's still fun' way).
Here's a link to the acoustic version.

12. Video Game Books
I really don't know what they were trying to do with this song. Maybe they just wanted to make a slow song and had to put something that you could maybe pretend was lovey if you didn't listen to the words?
And I'm starting to see
Not just what you want from me
But you want to get
From what you've got

13. Accio Deathly Hallows
This is a song from back in 2007 that Hank wrote about how Deathly Hallows was coming out in a few days. Listen to the song, and you'll know what I mean about Hank's psychic Potter powers.
Here's  a link to the acoustic version. I actually like this version better, but only because in the album version they move into this weird reggae thing that sort of ruined it.

14. Perfect Strangers
This is ones of those songs that they put in cheesy kids movies where the kids are spending the summer together and bonding and it's all sweet and stuff.
Now picture that scene with 5 (maybe) men who are 30-ish years old, and I'm pretty sure that is the inspiration for this song.
Sometimes the world looks perfect
Nothing to rearrange
Sometimes you just get a feeling
Like you need some kind of change


That is a lot of links, which all took a long time to find.
Phew.
Overall, the album isn't my favorite (I only bought it because I like Hank and want to support him ((plus it's SIGNED))), but it's quirky and fun so I like it well enough.
Honestly, I'd wait till some people put it on grooveshark for the album versions, but go and listen to all the links up there!


UPDATE:

THAT IS A GENUINE SIGNATURE/HANKLERFISH YOU GUYS. THIS IS AMAZING.

Unfortunately my parents were there when I opened up the package and started flipping out, and they saw the parental advisory sticker and freaked out a bit. They were a little better when I explained that Hank swore in the name of science.

BUT ANYWAY THIS IS REALLY GREAT AND GEEZE.

Kim Possible

The other day I was in class, and some girls started talking about Kim Possible.
This prompted the girls I was talking to, to start talking about Kim Possible.

blog.lib.umn.edu

"Don't you remember that show?" One of them asked while her eyes gleamed with nostalgia.
"Um.....not really," I said awkwardly. "I've never seen it."
This one comment completely ostracized me for the rest of class.
See, my parents were the type of parents that didn't really let us watch T.V until we were 10.
((no they aren't the insane religious type, they just didn't want to pay for it and wanted us to go outside)).
This left a lot of blanks in mine and 'le brother's' pop culture experience. We didn't see any classic Disney channel shows while they were still on, were utterly confused about why an underwater sponge was so popular (still confused about that one), and didn't see any of the High School Musicals until middle school.
It's sad, I know.
After the previously mentioned conversation, I decided that I would finally watch my first episode of Kim Possible.
Then my first episode turned into second, and third, and fourth........and then twenty.
I KNOW IT'S LAME BUT IT WAS FOR THE SAKE OF SCIENCE.
THE SCIENCE OF MISSED CHILDHOOD.
.
.
.
.
Summary thing based off of the first season (but I don't think it would change that much in later seasons anyway):
Hopefully someone else had been living under a rock their entire lives too and actually need this.
Kim Possible is this teenage super spy person in the early 2000s (you can tell it's the early 2000s because crop tops are still in((and because having a website automatically made you cool)) ). She goes around the world, saving people from everything from volcanoes to villans.
For some reason everyone knows about her missions and is for some reason cool with it?
Her sidekick is this guy named Ron Stoppable (ya see what they did there?) who is a klutz and a dork and I love him. He has a naked mole rat named Rufus who lives in his pocket.
So....that's about it.

Characters:
Kim: They made her a little TOO perfect. Honestly. She's the head cheerleader, an honors student, REALLY popular, and a world wide hero. She's reminds me a bit of Buffy Summers (shout out to BtVS fans!), but without Buffy's awesomeness.

Ron: This is where they dumped all of Kim's flaws....or tried to. Honestly, I think this show is allergic to realistic teenage problems. Ron is uncool, and the only reason he doesn't get beat up all the time is cus he's friends with Kim.
He goes on missions with Kim, but is mainly a distraction. He's made of comic relief from head to toe, which I guess is why I like him. He also has a weird phobia of monkeys.

Wade: Kim's tech guy. I think this kid lives in his room, just surrounded by computers (which could not have been high quality at all cus again it's the early 2000s). He gets her all her info, and builds unnecessarily disguised weapons (such as a grappling hook disguised as a hair dryer).

Rufus: A naked mole rat who likes to eat.

Dr. Draken: The supposed bad guy. Again, this guy is made of comic relief. He's sort of like Ron, but thinks that he's large and in charge. It's hilarious actually. He's always beaten (which follows the classic kids show template), but is surprisingly cool about it.

Shiego: She's the one who I think is the REAL villan. She actually looks sort of evil, and has this weird super power that I haven't quite figured out yet but it makes her hands glow green. She's the one that's always fighting Kim, and is actually sort of a BAMF.

Review:
I like it...I guess? I'd been hearing so much about the show over the years, that I guess it had been built up to this perfect thing. Needless to say, it wasn't perfect, and I am a little let down about it. Then again, I'm not eight, so that might be part of it.
I'd give it a 6/10.
You can watch episodes here if you want.

A Two For One Review

At the beginning of this blog, I was intending for it to be mostly book reviews.
Anyone who looks through my old posts can clearly see that I failed to do that.
To make up for it, I've decided to review not one, but TWO books this week!
Thank goodness it was spring break last week and I spent most of the time reading.

1984 by George Orwell:

He's supposed to have a mustache, but all the
other Big Brother posters with mustaches
looked like Hitler and............oh.
From: www.bbook.com

Teaser thing: So basically this is the negative dystopia book. It's sort of ironic because everyone in the late 40's was dreaming about flying cars and robot maids in the future, and then you've got George Orwell here rocking in a corner thinking we're all gonna die 0_0.
It's set in 1984 (duh) in London, and is told from the perspective of Winston Smith. The entire world has changed dramatically since the 1940's (which was the perspective Orwell was trying to make), and it's DEFINITELY not been good. The world has organized itself into three super-nations: Oceania (the Americas, British Isles, and Australia), Eurasia (the rest of Europe, Western Asia, and southern Africa), and EastAsia (pretty much everywhere else), that are constantly at war with each other.
In Oceania, where the story takes place, everyone is ruled by The Party. They are a massively powerful political party who's main ideas are 'WAR IS PEACE, SLAVERY IS FREEDOM, IGNORANCE IS PEACE' so I'll let you draw your own conclusions from that. People can be arrested for thinking bad thoughts against the party, but oddly enough killing is encouraged. Party members are constantly monitored by telescreens that they can't turn off, and hidden microphones. It's common for people to be taken away in the middle of the night and never seen again. And that's only the surface o-o.
The story is told from Winston's point of view, which is growing against The Party, and wishes to take action against the oppressors.
((Spoilerific for the characters, but the review is fine if you're interested. If you're interested in the other book, scroll down to the teaser for that.))

Characters:
Winston Smith: The main character of the story. He is a 39 year old man who leads the typical life of a party member, and is sort of a borderline alcoholic ((but then again, who wouldn't be?)). He constantly questions The Party's motives and ideals, and is fairly sure that they are horrible but can't tell for sure. His job is falsifying records to The Party's benefit in the Ministry of Truth.
He starts a diary to try and tell future generations about The Party, but doesn't get very far with it and abandons it after things start to heat up. You see, he meets a girl named Julia who works in the Ministry of Truth too (her job is making 'fiction' books for the party) and they fall in love. Kinda. It's more of a 'let's do it and rebell against the government' sorta thing. Anyway, they do that for a while and then they hear about this thing called The Brotherhood. It's a rebel group that wants to take down Big Brother and The Party, and they try to join it but then they're betrayed and it sucks.
When they get caught, they're taken to the Ministry of Love, and are brainwashed into thinking The Party's ideals, and then the story ends.

Julia: The girl that Winston falls in love with. She has been rebelling against The Party since she was a teenager (she's 25 now) with acts of 'love'. I wanna call her a half rebel, since she mostly rebels for the fun of it, and less because it's against The Party's rules. She's really good at breaking the rules, but she doesn't seem extremely intelligent.

O'Brian: An Inner Party member who betrays Julia and Winston.
Inner Party: The elite of The Party. They get a bunch of special privileges such as good food and music that members of the Outer Party (like Winston and Julia) don't get.
Anyway, O'Brian is a shithead and no one can say otherwise. He pretends likes he's Julia and Winston's friend, pretends to invite them into The Brotherhood, and then it turns out he was just trying to arrest them the whole time! And then he's the one that brainwashes them into loving The Party.

Big Brother: The figurehead of The Party. I'm pretty sure he never actually existed, but that isn't the point. He's supposed to be the one thing that Party members love. Not their families, not their friends, only love for Big Brother.

Goldstien: The supposed leader of The Brotherhood. I don't think he existed either, and was just a trap for people who commit thinkcrime.

Review:
I want to explain more about the book, but then you'll never read it so there isn't much point.
I didn't really expect to like this book when I got it, but I thought I should read it since it's really famous and there are a bunch of references to it everywhere.
But.........holy crap this is a freaky book.
Not only is the idea of this sort of society existing frightening, the inside look that you get is even worse. There's the one scene where Winston kicked a severed hand into the gutter just after watching the guy who it belonged to get blown up by a rocket bomb like it was nothing!
And then there's the brainwashing part that's just...........*shivers in disgust*.
Don't get me wrong, this is a genuinely interesting book. But it's nothing like the dystopians you've read in the past.
I didn't like it very much, but maybe you will enjoy it more than I did.


Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell:
We're drastically changing gears here to a much happier and modern book.
I just realized how completely different these two books are.....weird.

Teaser Thing:

From: parade.condenast.com

There are these two twins named Cath and Wren that are from Omaha Nebraska. Cath is a total bookworm and completely introverted and has really bad social anxiety. Meanwhile, Wren is a party girl to the max, totally extroverted, but still smart.  These two are 18, and are just starting college it Iowa University.They both have a passion for the Simon Snow series (it's like Harry Potter), but Wren has sort of grown out of it. Cath on the other hand is a very famous fanfiction writer (like, super DUPER famous), and pours a lot of her time into writing her version of the last Simon Snow book.
Unfortunately for Cath, college brings around a lot of issues that Simon Snow can't help her with, like making friends, trying to take care of her bipolar dad, and love.
((spoilerific from here on out guys))

Characters:
Cath: The narrator of the story. An 18 year old who has usually relied on her outgoing sister in terms of social interaction, but her sister has decided to not spend as much time with Cath now that they're at college, which leaves Cath floundering in this new world. She finds solace in her writing, but of course she can't escape being friends with her roommate Megan, falling for Megan's friend Levi who is always in their room.

Wren: Cath's older sister who takes the party route during college. She and Cath used to be inseparable, but Wren wanted freedom from the whole twin thing (which I totally understand, but still she was really mean about it considering that Cath can't handle talking to new people) so she ditched Cath for her roommate Courtney. Wren goes to a bunch of parties, gets drunk a lot, and eventually gets alcohol poisoning which gets her to stop drinking so YAY!

Levi: The very attractive farm boy (which are unsurprisingly common considering they're in Iowa) who eventually ends up with Cath. He used to date Megan, but they broke up after starting college. He's an incredibly happy dude, always smiling and will help a friend at a moments notice. I think he's dyslexic, so he has to record a lot of his lectures and listen to them over so he understands whats going on in his classes.
He's a cutie patootie and makes me happy :)

Regan: Cath's roomate. She's a lot edgier than Cath (then again a pillow is edgier than Cath), which freaks her out, but eventually they become pretty good friends.

Nick: Cath's writer friend who turns out to be a huge asshole later :/


Review:
I know I sort of half-assed this review, but give me a break alright? The 1984 one took a while and I have other stuff to write.
I think that I might have a weird insight on this book, as an introverted teenager with social anxiety that enjoys writing and has triplet brothers, which probably swayed my opinion.
But seriously this is an amazing book. I have so much respect for Rainbow Rowell, because each of her books manage to be fun and happy, but also make you want cry without being overwhelming.
I realize that any of my guy readers (if I have any, shout out to the bros!), they probably won't enjoy this book as much as the girls, but it's worth a shot if it's raining and you don't have biking or whatever you do.
Gal readers, just read it. I know a lot of you will relate to Cath, and it's a great read.

___________________

Alright, got you guys TWO reviews.
Do with them what you will.
Since a link is still required, I invite you to play this game, which is horrible and will ruin your life.
You're welcome.