Police Officers In The US

Police officers in the US have become uncontrollable. Lately more than ever, I've heard of more undeserved deaths by a police officer than in my entire life. Which isn't that long, but you get what I'm saying. And by undeserved, I mean if you don't have a weapon, or you aren't pointing a weapon at the officer, there should be absolutely NO reason why you have to shoot them 10 times. Maybe a warning shot is understandable, like in the kneecap or something if they are trying to run from you. But if you're a police officer, and you see someone who looks "suspicious" (I use that term broadly, just as broadly as they do) a headshot is completely unnecesarry. It makes me all together not even trust the people that are supposed to be here to protect us in the first place. If I'm in danger, I'd honestly rather handle things by myself, rather than get some nitwit that was given a glock 22, and feels that he can use it at any given time because he has a badge that says so. Yeah, I'll pass on that one.

Life Is What You Make Of It

What would you do if you knew you were going to die? Quit school? Paint until your fingers go numb? Travel the world and deeply inhale every breath? Hug trees and whisper sweet things into the bark? Cut your hair? Scream at that person who has always wound you up? Listen to every song you love and dance to them naked in the rain? Kiss the person you love?
Well guess what; you are going to die. None of us can ever truly know exactly when. Maybe tomorrow, 567 days from now, or maybe you’ll make it to age 94. But that doesn’t matter. You should be living. It is so much easier in theory than practice, but start with the little things and work your way to true happiness.
I'm not saying don’t write that paper that's due tomorrow because you could drop dead at any time. I'm saying enjoy it. Life is what you make of it, and I’m fully understanding that now.

How The Times Have Changed

When did your thighs not touching become the norm? What made us feel that "skinny" is beautiful? Marilyn Monroe is the most well renowned sex goddess and she was a size 12. Yes a 12, not a 0 ladies. This goes to both men and women, not that guys are supposed to be a size 0, but for some odd reason, being thick and curvy is no longer desirable. But to whom? Cosmo magazine? Why does their opinion on what is/isn't attractive affect us, and our own individual opinions? Our minds have been warped to believe what they want us to believe is beautiful. In the most cliche way possible, don't judge a book by it's cover. And even if you were, why does it matter if their cover is a little chunky?

OCD

OCD, would not be something I have, but something I have experienced in my family. My uncle has OCD, and will leave work at the drop of a hat if he feels like he forgot to lock the door; then go back to work, and literally leave work again scared that he left the oven on. My little brother, also has OCD, but obviously in a different sense since he doesn't go to work. He is known as a counter/arranger. He has to have everything perfect, like his food. If his food even touches another piece of his food, both are now inedible and contaminated. Some people find this outrageously annoying, and have no idea how someone could put up with that on a daily basis. I feel like everyone has their own unique traits, and OCD can be one of them.

This is one of the most beautiful videos, and reminds me to the T of my uncle

Quinn Keana Dala

My sunshine.

Well, I was told we were allowed to choose our own topic, if we so please. In this case, I would like to dedicate (at least one) of my blogs posts to my bestfriend in all the cosmos. Her name is Quinn Dala, I can still tell you her street address and phone number from when we met in 6th grade. We both just moved into the same neighborhood. She actually lived right behind me, I could see her house from mine over the lake. We instantly became attached at the hip. She was such an amazing artist, in so many ways. She played the piano and painted as often as she could. Always improving. Never failing to impress me. She came from a wonderful Hungarian family that loved to feed me all of this amazing food that I'd never heard of before. I loved them so much. They were my escape whenever anything was wrong. Quinn and I ended up staying friends throughout grade school, even when I moved back to Live Oak to live with my mom. We still called each other every night, and vented about our days. I still visited, just to stay at her house for a few weeks.

June 8th, 2013 Quinn got into a motorcycle accident. I woke up to a few texts from my friends saying that she had gotten into a really bad accident with a friend of mine, but I didn't believe it. If anything, I was almost angry, that my friends would think it's funny to mess with me like that. There was no possible way, that the girl I basically spent 6 years of my life with, was gone. No. Way. Nope. Not Quinn. Not yet. But, evidently enough, this was no horrible dream I would wake up from. Reality hit, and anger shifted. This was real. That month was pretty much a blur. Everything happened very fast, and seemed like I was in a dream.
I'm so grateful we were apart of each other's journey through life. I can't even put into words the love I have for this girl. We've experienced everything to the moon and back together. Rest in paradise, my everlasting love.

Social Media

It's funny to think one of the main uses of social media is for "communication", when the only thing it's done is make us awkward at really communicating. Look around, you go out to eat and instead of people talking to each other, they're zombied out drooling on their phones. I don't want my kid to grow up to be socially awkward because from the time he came out of the womb, he was using an iPhone. There's nothing normal about this. What happened to kids going out in the woods and building a treehouse, or playing with sticks. When did toy cars become unacceptable? When did giving your 7 year old child an iPhone become the norm? I don't have to be old to understand what's going on. It's honestly the strangest thing to me. You don't even need a key to start your car. Where I come from, we still use screwdrivers to start our car. Have a question? Nevermind the fact that we have google, you don't even have to lift a pinky to type your question. Just say it into just about any device you own. Why is advancing in technology so important to everyone? People lived so long (comfortably) without it.
What's important to me, for my children to know is how to survive. Do you think they're going to learn that from Facebook? The only positive view I have on social media is the fact that you get to "communicate" with friends and family that are far away. Other than that, I could easily and willingly live without it.

Flipped Classroom Technique

I really enjoy the flipped classroom technique for a few reasons. 

1. It really gives us the time to get to know our peers
2. Allows students to work at their own pace. 
3. Allows students who miss class, to catch up from home. 
4. Students in a flipped classroom have more choice in how they demonstrate what they learn
5. Allows larger access to course material and instruction. If you didn't understand something, you can just rewind the video, or re-read the material; rather than interrupting the teacher in the middle of a lecture to have him repeat what he's said.