Senior Reflection #3

Well, this is it. It's the last blog of the year. While I'm in the home stretch right now, I need to stay focused and finish all of my work. I know that a lot of the seniors and myself have a lot of makeup work right now and it needs to be done this week and it needs to be done fast. With this last post, all I have to say to the senior class is good luck! We have a lot of potential ahead but we need to work hard and hope that we are in the right place at the right time to ensure a lot of success. Every college has opportunities, it's up to us to seize those. So Carpe Diem!

Senior Reflection #2

This year has overall been the hardest year of high school for me. Taking 5 AP's was definitely a bad idea. Overall I really learned that balancing a schedule impresses colleges more than taking a bunch of hard classes...now only if I realized this in freshman year. That would've made all of the difference. While I did get into a college that I really like, VT, I feel like I could had a better academic career, if only for myself. In all, I did get into all of the collleges that I wanted to, but I wish that I had done better.

Senior Reflections

You know, I'm just about done with High School...and it's the oddest feeling. Going off to college is probably one of the biggest adventures I'll have in my life and it's been a weird experience. I'm not used to making all of these major decisions and decide all of these things before. It's definitely a journey for me and hopefully, I can make the best of it. The future is ahead of me and I'll have to adjust and make decisions I guess.

Computex 2012 (blog #4)

With windows 8, microsoft's new operating system coming about on pc's in august, microsoft has gone more towards a tablet-like experience on their pc's and have alienated power users in turn. Because of this, many laptop makers have gone for a touch experience throwing out weird tablet/laptop hybrids in any way, shape or form. Personally, I want a desktop experience and I dislike windows 8. But, just as a tablet experience or for a secondary device, I feel like the software does it's job well. But other for a main computer, I feel that it's too limited for me.

source: http://www.engadget.com/event/computex-2012/

E3 Announcements (Blog#3)

E3, the electronic gaming expo is in full swing as many gaming companies, such as Ubisoft, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are releasing their new software, systems, and games in a rush for the summer season. There have been some really bad announcements, with DLC content being a staple in every announcement. There have been some really cool games released, such as Halo 4 and the new Ubisoft game about the internet. In all, it's been a dissapointing E3 and hopefully next years will be better. 

source: http://www.engadget.com/event/e3-2012

Venus to pass by the sun today (current event 2)

Venus is going to pass by the earth today and tommorow. This event happens once ever hundred or so years (so I'll be dead the next time this happens). But, you kinda need a solar telescope to be able to see this and will be unable to if you don't. So try to see it and make it happen!!

French Open Tennis (current event #1)

With the French Open half over, there has been a lot of fantastic action, with Rafael Nadal playing some amazing tennis. The world #1, Novak Djokovic has won some really close matches and his level of play is questionable for the next week. He could easily make the finals or he could easily lose tommorow. It's not looking well for him.

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2012/06/03/french-open-novak-djokovic-survives-killer-djokovic-impression/

Tibetian Self-Immolations plague China

With mass widespread distrust for China, The Tibetans are making their voice be heard through suidical protests. Many Monks are now putting themselves on fire in order show their contempt for the harsh Chinese govt. Atleast 30 monks have recently immolated themselves and one, aged  20 recently immolated himself on the streets of Beijing, creating powerful pictures for everyone to see in him. Source

Blog post #4: Obama adds more to Iran Oil Sanctions

With Sanctions laws that took place in December, Iran's effect on America's gas has been big. It has risen in the last couple of weeks, with oil rising quickly in the last month or so. But, President Obama stated that he will try to get other countries to increase production to make up for the sanctions and will try to convince other countries to join him in enforcing sanctions. Source

Britain makes up for lost oil.

In the midst of providing humantarian efforts to a war raved and devastated Somalia, Britain has secretly made offers for oil drilling rights in the area. While most local militant groups strongly oppose this plan and try to fight and sabotage this as much as possible, this is a deal that will ultimately benefit both sides of the deal. Somalia needs help restructuring their country and help after the huge famine last summer and Britain needs oil after their embargo with Iran. Overall, this deal makes sense and will be a great boon for everyone. Source

Iran invites a U.N Team to hold talks.

As the title states, U.N officials will be going over to Iran in the next couple of days talking about it's advancements in nuclear power. The officials will go in and try to guage how far Iran really is in terms of advancing towards nuclear power. This two day trip, will, however, only focus on talking at the capital. The officials will not be able to go over and check out the plants and such. In addition, the article notes at the rise in military activity in the state, stating that many parts of Iran's military like the navy and the army are running tons of manuevers to sort of intimidate the officials in the area.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/iran-says-un-inspectors-in-tehran-will-not-visit-sites-only-hold-talks-with-officials/2012/02/21/gIQAOcKkQR_story.html

China sparks rumors of Kim Jong Un's death

Recently, Kim Jong-Un visited the North Korean Embassy in Beijing for the celebration of Kim Jong-Il's 70th birthday. They had a lot of festivities and cultural events at the Embassy. Unfortunately, the building was so "abuzzed" with activities that many bloggers and people at the events thought that it was an assassination attempt against Kim Jong-Un. Because of that, many thought that he was dead and the internet around Asia went crazy. There were several treads on twitter from this incident and overall, a lot of the eastern world thought that Kim Jong-Un was assassinated by the Chinese people.

Russia and China Veto the resolution on Syria at the UN

As the title states, China and Russia vetoed the resolution over whether or not Syria should be condemned for the crazy violence that has been going on over there. While, morally, this seems like a bad course of action for any country really, it makes both economic and social sense for both of these countries to veto this resolution.

• First of all,both China and Russia don't want to fall to big revolts like the ones in Arab Spring and the ones that are going on in Syria right now, supporting revolters like that would kind of give the wrong idea to people.
• In addition, if Syria falls to the revolters, both of these countries would lose a lot of influence in the middle east and the power balance in the middle east would shift more over towards Americans and Saudi Arabia, this is a big problem because these two countries would lose a lot of footing and assets in the region, which in turn leads to these countries not getting resources like oil and stuff.
• Finally, China and Russia both lot a lost of influence in the area because of the fall of Libya and lost a lot of oil leases in the area, they will stick their guns with the regime in Syria no matter how bad it really is.

source

Reflections

To be honest, my 1st semester is probably one of the hardest semesters I've had in high school. The combination of college applications and 5 AP classes kind of overwhelmed me. But, this has been an important life lesson. I feel like I can manage time much better than I probably could last year. Next Semester holds new challenges for me and I feel like graduating will be a testament to my progress and maturity from my first semester as a senior.

Political Cartoon of the Week

This Cartoon was made by Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle. It portrays Newt Gingritch as an Occupy protester childishly protesting Mitt Romney while several regular people on the side stating that he's getting desperate. It's trying to portray that Gingritch is getting no support because of his constant campaigning against Ronmey by paralleling him with the Occupy Movement.

Political Cartoon #5

This cartoon is by Rick McKee of the Augusta Chronicle. It shows Obama as a child going up to Santa Claus asking him for a massive 1.2 trilllion dollar debt ceiling increase on his wish list. Santa promptly responds, "beat it kid". This comic is trying to show that Obama's wish for the ceiling increase is outlandish and will probably take a miracle to complete.

Question of the week #5

I personally believe that  Mitt Romney will squeak out the republican candidacy. One of the main areas that Romney has a huge advantage is the money front. All of the other candidates in the primaries do not have the level of cash saved up and PACS, which means, there is not a good chance that they wont last in the long run. In addition, Romney has been polling ahead in almost every single poll for a while now. Even though he has faced stiff criticism and competition from the likes of Perry, Gingrich, and Paul, I strongly believe that Romney has what it takes to pull of a victory.