I enjoyed Jordan sweets post about Russell Westbrook being better than Derick rose which i agree but if we are talking about the best point guard. The best point guard is Rajon Rondo He almost averages a triple double is whole career 10.6 points 8.4 rebounds and 11.6 assists ( http://stats.nba.com/player/#!/200765/stats/ ) the only other person past that is Oscar Robertson. Not to mention Rajon rondo is a Champion in 2008 along side Kevin garnett, Paul pierce, and Ray allen. I actually liked these blogs it gives you a chance to voice your own thoughts without actually say them aloud. i also enjoyed responding to my group mates posts and seeing what they think on certain things and if i don't agree with them i will let it be known. That"s the point of the blog, also the prompts that Mr.Inoles gave us were interesting also. Thumbs up for the blogs.

I looked over other groups and their blogs and found a few differences. I know that for our blog we mostly followed what the course blog prompted. But in other blogs there were posts about all kinds of things from basketball to art. I Think it is cool to see everyones interests in a blog format. But a lot of the blogs had similarities to ours, talking about cool hand Luke, the Cuckoos nest book, and spirit week. I think it's interesting to see everyones views on this stuff, I had never looked at others blogs until now. Also I found interesting how some of the groups got into conversations and debates with each other while some groups did not.

Racial Tension in Response to Eric

While I was looking at the blogs posts of other groups, Eric's post on racial issues stuck out to me. I feel like what he said was something that a lot of people want to say but never do in fear for being called prejudice or racist. I agree that racism is still present in the United States, and it is even more prevalent in some parts of the world. I also think that there are many factors that contribute to people of other races having a negative look on a certain race and I think the n word is one of those factors. It is just another thing that separates people by race when it is really unnecessary. I'm certainly not saying that everyone should be able to say racial slurs like the n word, I'm actually saying the opposite. If both blacks and white don't say the n word, then there will be less tension and separation between the two which will result in a better relationship.

Here is an article I found that shows different perspectives of racial issues from all over the world. I feel like the only way to improve racial tension is to understand both sides.

Blog Analysis

On the blog Senior Writing 101, I liked the discussion under Karey's post about us being immune to advertisements. I think she had clear and evident reasoning that prompted a discussion within her group. They had differences in opinion but there was still a mature discussion going on. Also, even though it was very long, I still enjoyed reading Dan's post about losing the bucket this year. It seemed that each of his group members appreciated and understood the argument. This group also had a few posts that included links to videos and hyperlinks. I know this was a requirement but this was the only group that seemed to make their links fit into their posts rather than seeming forced. Overall, I liked the mature discussions that took place on this group's blog. It seemed to be the only blog group that had meaningful interactions among the group members.

Group Blog Analysis

So far the best blog (or, should I say, the one I enjoyed reading the most) was Senior Writing 101 (with the Nelly Nells a close second). They had active discussions, with long paragraphs. You could tell that they were actually arguing for and against various things, as opposed to the other blogs, where a lot of the posts were the same thing repeated four times in the same paragraph, with poor grammar and sentence structure. Both blogs have many hyperlinks and I saw a few videos while digging around in there. My favorite(?) blogging moment from the other groups would probably have to be Dan's 6-paragraph rant about field day and the bucket, which I fully agree with.
Blog groups only work when you have interaction, and interaction (in class projects) usually only happens when the people involved (a) know each other and (b) chose their groups. I don't know about the other groups, but our group has thus far been dead silent except for the small flares of required activity around deadlines (no offense to anyone, but it's kinda true).
I don't know if it would have been any better in other groups, but that's just how forced-group projects usually go in my experience. I feel like this could have gone better as a class-wide blog, all of us able to respond to posts and to each other. Probably would have been a lot livelier.

In reply to cambria about the bucket. I was "salty" which means annoyed but not upset. I very competitive and i would never want to lose my senior year but it is what it is now. I am ready POWER BUFF to beat the juniors!!

In Reply in Micheal about crossing over eight mile and its straight chaos . Your wrong. -__-............... Just because you go across eight mile doesn't mean you gone get yo windows busted out or robbed. I also can walk sown 8 mile and 7 mile and be just fine. That's just like saying since your a white boy you could be crazy and blow up the school. So before you judge a place and the people in it how about you think about what you say before you say it. Its funny how white people can judge Where i live (Detroit) so harshly and call the people in it ignorant and disrespectful. Yal aren't any better (Whites) yal say stupid stuff all the time and dont know what you all are talking about at all. So use your brain a little before you say something that ignorant again thanks.

In reply to Steven about segregation problem. I feel like you have to look at the word problem and interpret that the way you want. I feel like there is a problem with segregation. On the other hand i dont really care because i dont feel like i should go out of my way to talk to white people. Im cool with a lot of white people but i dont feel like i should make them apart of my inner circle just to get a label diverse.  

In response to Cambria  about the segregation. Us living and being brought up in totally different  areas shows in how we act and how we act towards others. So when i came i started to go to BPS i didn't like it and i Still dont like it. I still live in Detroit so when i go back there i see how different things are. People in the burbs are really fake to me and two faced and soft and they dont know how to speak up and be real with you. Everything seems done behind people back.

In to reply to Steven. I feel like a barbie shouldn't have a influence on how female think about them selves. If you feel like you dont look good to your self then thats on you, dont make an excuse for it or blame it on a toy. If you feel like your out of shape dont sit back and complain how about work out and take control of your own fate.

I lived in Detroit my whole life and still do. Zell i don't feel like you should feel bad for Detroit at all. Detroit's name is used in every way including good and bad. when they say Detroit you also have to consider Detroit is a huge place 3 times the size of any of the cities surrounding groves, and When a lot of stuff is said they say Metro Detroit which is not Detroit. When they say metro its all the cities around it like farmington hills, ferndale, warren, hazel park, southfield. most people only here Detroit and think that the only place where bad things happen.

Cool Hand Luke & One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In the essay we wrote today, I mainly talked about the similarities between the protagonists and the similarities between the antagonists. McMurphy and Luke both play authority-defying protagonists that are unwilling to conform. Nurse Ratched and the Captain both play antagonists that are characterized by inhuman qualities and thrive off of power. I compared the scenes where McMurphy makes a bet that he can flip the control panel in the tub room and Luke makes the bet that he can eat fifty eggs. Once McMurphy doesn't complete the task and Luke does, there is symbolism in both stories of comparing them to Jesus Christ. McMurphy's hands are bleeding and Luke is sprawled on the floor. Both are alluding to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I also talked about how Nurse Ratched and the Captain want power for different reasons.

Religious Symbolism in Cool Hand Luke

I was aware that there was some religious symbolism in the movie, but after looking at this website, I was amazed to see how much more there actually was. The site is a blog, so it's not the most reliable source in the world, but it has some indisputable points that it raises. I think this is really good review for the test, if you want to write about the religious aspects in the movie and book. Even if you don't write about it, I feel like this is really interesting. It makes me think about the other movies we watched and if there was any symbolism that we missed while watching those movies. Why do you think they went out of their way to put so many references in this movie?  Are there any more references that in the movie?

For the Cool Hand Luke essay test tomorrow I think it will be pretty easy to compare the book One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest to it. This is because, to me, Luke and McMurphy are so similar. Neither of them when they got to where they were going wanted to stay within the boundaries given to them. Also they became a huge leader to the other people around them. Examples are when McMurphy kind of says he is giving up on the fight against the nurse and so Cheswick "Drowns" most likely by his own hands. Also this is shown just in the scene we saw today when Luke keeps running away so he finally gets put in the box and has to finish his plate before he can return to it. The guy puts a ton of food on his plate purposely so everyone helps him out with finishing the food. They truly care about him just like the patients truly care about McMurphy. So for the test tomorrow I think coming up with the scenes to compare will be pretty easy.

Throughout my college application process, I have been continually asked about what attributes draw me to a school. Everyone has different priorities when it comes to a college’s qualities, ranging from specific undergraduate programs to campus facilities, location, sports teams, and the school’s reputation. My problem is that I don't want to have to have to choose just one. Trying to find a school that dominates in more than one of these qualities is much more difficult than it seems. Obviously the quality of education is a priority for me but it's hard to overlook these other factors. What are your priorities when it comes to choosing colleges?

So far Cool Hand Luke is setting up to be fairly weird and more than slightly creepy. The whole thing with "Lucille" was creepy as hell, to put it succinctly. I have no idea what they were trying to prove with that whole situation, but they could have made it a whole lot less creepy. Or they could have not put it in the movie at all, there's an idea (that's one similarity with Cuckoo's Nest--women are only described as viewed from the male gaze, and never developed as characters). The rest of the movie is just kind of odd and slightly off-putting...I don't know, it's just really not my kind of movie.

Watching supersize me in class was the second time for me watching it. The first time was in a health and science class in 8th grade so obviously we were more concentrated on the message of how fast food is bad for you. But until we watched it in class here and were more concentrating on the affects of the advertising i never realized that they weren't just giving us information they were definitely strategically giving us information. They told us that even someone is perfect health that eats McDonalds like this can gain weight and can get in bad health because of it. I think that the way that the documentary was presented on fast food was very interesting, not just the message, but how it was given.

So yesterday we lost the bucket. I'm really not a very competitive person but when I heard the words "second place to the seniors", I really lost it. I think every Groves student looks forward to being a senior and winning the bucket as the seniors always do. But the Class of 2015 sure did make history. Being the second senior class to ever lose the bucket to the juniors really does not feel great. I think the main upset lies with the whole concept of "seniors always win the bucket" rather than just losing a competition. I didn't get to stand on top of my friends car with the bucket in one hand and our class flag in the other and I will never be able to do that. It seems dumb to care about something so trivial but the idea of a senior year without winning the bucket is excruciating. Congratulations to the juniors because they obviously deserved it if we didn't even do well enough for a senior win to be viable by the people that could have rigged it. I can't wait to see the juniors holding the bucket in Instagram photos next year with their captions "two wins is better than one." Do I seem bitter?

Barbie Dolls Do Have An Influence

I thought this video was fascinating. In my opinion, Barbie has a negative influence of the youth, but it is not a major issue. I think that the affect Barbie has is very subtle, but it is still very real. Everything about Barbie doll screams perfection, and the easily-influenced kids will look at Barbie as a role model and aspire to resemble her. In my opinion, the makers of the doll should try to "humanize" her a little. No, Barbie does not have to gain 300 pounds and have a horrible face, but she could use some blemishes in order to show that she is supposed to be a human being. Not only will children feel less obligated to be perfect, but it could also lead to magazine covers becoming a little more realistic as well. What do you guys think? Is Barbie harmful to the youth?

Groves Does Not Have A Big Segregation Problem

When we look at the all the racial problems around the world, it's hard to say that Groves has a problem. we have many different races at our school, and because of that we can meet people from many different backgrounds.  I think this link is very interesting, especially when it mentions that white kids tend to go to a school that is predominately white and much less diverse than that of the average black kid. While I think that there is a little bit of segregation between races, I believe that it is mainly because people tend to gravitate towards similar people, rather than because they're prejudice. I think that as humans we tend to look for something we have in common with another person, and we feel very uncomfortable when we aren't able to see something in common. For that reason, I think that people are more likely to befriend someone of their own race, gender, and/or religion. I'll end it with this poll and a question: do you think that a lot of segregation is due to human psychology or prejudice? 

I knew Detroit was segregated, but I didn't know the line was so stark you could color-code it on a map. I was also unaware that the violence and the shootings and the murders had gotten so bad—and the whole time Detroit was just half an hour away. It's kind of sad to know that it used to be such a big, proud, important city and now it's a shell of its former self.  I can't even imagine Detroit in its heyday, when the city was full of people and jobs. And now the city management never moved on from the prosperity the auto industry brought, and keep bailing out auto companies and making them the lifeblood of Detroit. That time has come and gone, and it's time to move on.

I think that segregation at groves is not much of an issue, it is more the problem of self-segregation and people like to hang out with other people like them. Just seeing that map today shows you the other side of things that there can be such a border not only physically but geographically. I know exactly the divide between Detroit and Ferndale and the huge difference. My best friend lives south of 8 mile and woodward and every time i cross over 8 mile I can see the differece. You drive through Ferndale and it is just like any other city that people walk around and shop and eat, and then all of a sudden you come to a stop light just south of there and have people banging on your windows begging for money. People in my friends neighborhood can never park their cars on the street, especially at night, because people will smash your windown and take everything, and I learned that the hard way when it happened to me. I do believe that the self-segregation is a problem, and it is causing what is happening at the 8 mile divide.

"The Racial Prism"

Attending schools in Birmingham Public Schools for my entire life, I have always been used to a very diverse student body. Even our district website and post cards display photos of diverse groups of people (kind of trying too hard). I never exactly identified segregation as a problem. I may be taking a naive stance here but I think the problem at Groves is that we see a problem with self segregation and that we are often oblivious to the much larger deep-rooted issue of segregation. Just twenty miles down the road, Detroit is the most segregated city in America.

Dolls and Body Image

I feel like the idea of women and girls feeling that they have to change their appearance to look more like Barbie or other dolls is extremely dramatic. Although I agree that women can feel pressured to have certain body types, I definitely don't think that the dolls have caused this. In The Onion video we watched in class about the Bratz dolls, the video is making fun of the idea of women feeling like they have to look like the doll and that is a far fetched assumption.

The story we read today about barbie and the doll being a large influence on little girls feeling anxious about themselves all the way to grown ups and teenagers having image problems about themselves was very interesting. I never really thought that anyone could take a children's toy as far as affecting people that much and having to change the physical appearance of the doll. I do not think that it is as big as a deal as people are making it and i agree with the woman who wrote the story saying that sure it is an awful thing that there are so many woman with these kind of problems, but is it traced all the way back to a toy they played with when they were 5?

I believe that Gender Identity is both a cultural and a physical/genetic thing. What I mean is that for example football being a mans sport. This is a stereotype that has been created by society all the way from birth and a sons playing with his dad with a football as a child. But also it may have something to do with the way that men love being rough with each other. The testosterone in men can create more aggressive actions and definitely is a genetic source of why a lot of men may see football, or many contact sports, as a mans sport.

Personally I don't feel that dolls/toys affected my self-image very much as a child...although I was the kind of kid who put action man and barbie in the same car and drove it through an obstacle course made of chairs and tables. The look of my toys was more interesting than my own, and the only thing I cared about (clothes-wise) was whether or not I was comfortable and whether it was anything other than pink (still true).

I want to post about Fahrenheit 9/11 because I believe it is a huge injustice to the tragedy of that day. All it is, in my opinion is an attack on The president of the United States at the time, George Bush. Everything that Moore said were assumption and he was literally putting words in where he did not know what people were really saying. For example when bush was told that America was under attack, Moore said that Bush did not know what to do so he just sat. He does not know that. Doesn't it sound more likely that Bush didn't want to frighten the children by running out of the room or yelling or doing something out of the ordinary. I believe he handled it as well as anyone could have in that situation. This so called "documentary" is just another way to blame bush for something that is equally not his fault.

For me, the Farenheit 9/11 movie is just thinly veiled anti-Bush propaganda. The author doesn't even try to hide the fact that he has a deep personal dislike of Bush, and that right there shows that he's a terrible journalist, and should not be marketing this as a documentary, because clearly he doesn't have the required neutral, unbiased, point of view. He uses weak and obvious ploys to plant his own words in the ex-president's mouth by voicing his thoughts, and that's kind of pathetic honestly. If that's the only thing he could find to prove his point, then he's either a terrible journalist or a really lazy one who couldn't be bothered to find legitimate sources instead of doing bad voice overs of what he wants the president to have been thinking. It's just sad, really. And fairly irritating.

9/11 Persuasion or Propaganda?

If I didn't know anything about the Bush and Al Gore election and if I didn't know anything about the events of 9/11, I would probably really dislike George Bush because of the video. The information is presented kind of like a person that doesn't let you get a word in during an argument. Argument after argument are brought up in the video against Bush and a counterargument is never addressed. I think that for the video to seem unbiased and probably more accurate, they should address both sides of the argument and not misinterprate the evidence.

I thought it was ridiculous how many warning signs were brought to the attention of security officials on 9/11 and failed to be properly dealt with. In the footage in the video of the hijackers going through security and setting off the metal detector, it shows that even though the warning light went off the hijackers were still let through security without much commotion at all. The footage was slowed down in this part of the video and I think that this may have been to show how much time security officials actually had to stop this chain of events from happening. Warning signs were blatantly ignored and if they had been taken seriously, it seems that the events of 9/11 may have been stopped or at least discovered before it was too late.

9/11 Relevance In My Life

9/11 is relevant to my life because of everything it caused afterwards. While myself and almost everyone in my grade were too young enough to really understand the effect of 9/11, we grew up during the war on terrorism and the constant talk of what Al-Qaeda might do next. We also witnessed a lot of the aftermath of 9/11 and the hunt/ killing of Osama.  I think that the younger grades (Freshmen) likely have a different opinion on 9/11 because they were too young to experience the tension after 9/11.

The first day of school: I was asleep most of the time and already wish it was summer again. Favorite class would have to be Readings in Lit