N1. Five questions with Jessica Insinna.

 This week we were assigned a person to interview. However, we were only allowed to ask a total of five questions. I was assigned The Bulldog’s very own, Jessica Insinna. Asking her five questions was quite difficult because I’ve known of her but haven’t really known her. This interview gave me the great opportunity to get to know Jessica a bit more than I originally have. To start it off, Jessica Insinna is a junior and was born on June 27^th, 1995. Her family consists of her dad, mom, and her sister Emily who is in my grade, 12^th. She only has one pet which is her dog. One thing I found interesting was the fact her dog is a St. Bernard. To me this was interesting because that’s always been my favorite breed of dog.  Some things that Jessica does for fun would be watching movies and reading. Jessica doesn’t do any sports because she is clumsy but in her spare time loves to write. She writes for herself as her own enjoyment.  As a typical student, she looks forward to graduating high school where she plans on going to ECC for 2 years. Other than that, she doesn’t have any plans besides getting out of Alden. Getting to know Jessica, I asked her to tell me something many don’t know about her. Her response was simple, that she is really weird in some situations, such as awkward. This made me laugh because of the fact that she is very open and carefree. Being that we are getting close to spring break, traveling is on many peoples mind. I found out that her favorite place to travel would be South Carolina. The reason it is South Carolina is because she has family that lives there. Concluding the interview, I lastly found out that one place she would love to travel to would be Italy. The reason being is mainly because she would like to know more about her family and where they came from. I really enjoyed doing this interview because we were able to come up with our own questions and also get to know somebody that we may not have known at all or hardly have known. It’s nice to be able to meet new people and learn different things about them that you don’t know. I really enjoyed this.

N4. Such a young life taken away.

Reading this article about young Trayvon Martin sickens me. When you hear about a young seventeen year old that’s life was taken, you can’t help but wonder, why? After reading this and watching the videos, in my own opinion, Zimmerman’s story is inaccurate. Many teens will talk on the phone to somebody when they are going to get something from a store late at night. It gives them that comfort feeling of having company to take there mind off of the fact they are alone. If Trayvon Martin was up to something considered “no good”, then he wouldn’t have been on the phone. Instead he would have been caring more about what he was up to. It’s good that the boy’s girlfriend was on the phone because she is helping this debate between whether or not Zimmerman’s story is true. My opinion on Zimmerman is simple. I think that he was just one of those neighborhood watch volunteer who wanted to be a cop but wasn’t. Therefore, I feel as if he was just a want-to-be. He acted as if he were a cop but he wasn’t and it got to his head while Treyvon was walking by looking “suspicious”, at least to Zimmerman. One thing I don’t like about this article would be the racial issue. When it comes to Spanish and blacks, race becomes the first thing to point fingers at. I don’t think that should be the case, it shouldn’t be the first assumption. Throughout the article, a lot of things that Zimmerman said got proven wrong, such as the shouts for help. Zimmerman said that he shouted for help and nobody answered. However, Trayvon’s family and three witnesses said that it actually was Trayvon shouting for help, not Zimmerman. Another thing was that Zimmerman’s father said that he never followed or confronted Trayvon. However, there are records of Zimmerman saying he was following Trayvon while the dispatcher told him not to do so.  Oddly enough, Zimmerman was reported to have moved out of his familys house due to threats and is no longer found. If you were so innocent, why would you threats, that are false, get to you and cause you to leave? If you were innocent, it wouldn't get to you and you wouldn't randomly flee. Honestly, I feel that Zimmerman’s accusation of self-defense is a cover up. Everything that Zimmerman “said” has been proven false due to all of the proof that has been leaked out. Overall, he did wrong and he should have to pay the consequences for taking such a young life. I feel terribly sorry for the Martin family. I think the more information they are going to find from the phone calls will help prove more, helping this boy’s soul rest and justice to be found.

N3. The search begins..

When it comes to working, as of right now, I don’t have a job. However, I am in the search for one. The only problem is it’s quite hard to find one when many places require you to have experience. I already decided that I don’t want to work somewhere very common in Alden. My job doesn’t even have to be in Alden, but I prefer it be somewhere close so my paycheck isn’t only for gas. I don’t want to work with fast food either. I’m quite picky but the reason I don’t want these things as a job option is because I know I won’t enjoy it. I want to have a job I’d enjoy and not dread going to work. As of right now, I’m looking towards day care jobs. The reason I’m looking at these types of jobs is because it will help me in the long run with my future career choice. I already chose to go to college for Art Education with younger aged children, so having a job with children would help benefit me. Also, I already have a plus because for the past two years I’ve been a volunteer assistant teacher for St. John’s first grade religious education class on Saturday mornings. Already I have had some experience with children which will help a bit with finding a job with kids as of right now. The hardest part is that jobs look for working experience before accepting you to work for them. The fact I’ve never had a job, makes this harder because I only have volunteer experience instead of work experience. I know many may  think I’m beyond picky for not settling with any possible job, but I’d rather do something  I love and don’t mind going to do. I also am thinking more towards how my job could help me while I’m in college and with what I want to do after college. Although I’m still looking around at possible job choices, I know I will eventually find the right one that best fits me.

N2. Welcome the warm weather!

Spring is finally here and I can’t even begin to describe how happy I am! Honestly, there aren’t many things that I dislike or hate about spring. However, if I had to pick at least one dislike, I’d have to say the rain. We sometimes get rain in the spring and I’m not a fan of it. The reason I don’t like it is because with the nice weather, I love being outside but when it rains, it keeps me indoors.  Although some may even stay outdoors in the spring rain, I don’t because you can’t do much. Once the grass is wet, it’s difficult to do many activities. Also walking or running can become a pain with the puddles. Rain just is a way of making you hold off on what you’d prefer to be doing. Above that dislike, I have a million reasons why I love spring. To start off, the weather is amazing. The sun is out and so are people. Instead of being cooped up indoors, people are more seen outside with a wide variety of things that they can do. Spring brings many options of activities such as running, walking, basketball, football, tennis, volleyball, or even just laying out. Also, many people are having fires now with the nice weather. No matter what, you’re occupied in the spring; there is always something to do. Another thing I love about spring is the fact that it’s just when the weather is breaking. The cold weather is leaving as warmer weather is coming. It’s not too hot and not too cold, it’s perfect. It’s the right weather to start bringing out the t-shirts, flip flops, and much more. It’s that time of the year where you can still wear jeans with a spring shirt and still feel comfortable. To me, spring is just extremely relaxing which is why I love it. Some will agree with me that in the summer there are times that it is just way too hot and you don’t have the motivation to do anything. That doesn’t result in fun because you are relaxing but majority would rather relax indoors with air-conditioning. It being spring time allows you to be able to relax outdoors because it’s not so hot to where you feel like your melting. Whenever spring time comes around, I get so excited because I finally am able to bring out the four-wheeler, and all the other things we store away. My absolute favorite thing about spring is camping. My family always goes camping and we love it, so this weather gets me so excited and anxious. I can’t think of much that I could possibly dislike about spring because there honestly is just so much I love about it.

M4. Time for a change?

For this week’s choice blog, I decided to write about Kony 2012. Now I personally had no idea what this was about until two days ago when my Economics class watched about eight minutes of the overall video. From what the teacher explained and from what we watched, I was very interested in seeing the rest of the video. Once I got home that day, I watched the entire video which is about thirty minutes long. Let me tell you, those thirty minutes are definitely worth the watch. The video opened up my eyes to an issue I didn’t know anything about. It made me feel so upset about what has been going on and it made me want to do something to help. Not just me, but others in our school and others schools want to help which is great! Understanding what Kony 2012 was about made me so much more aware of why this was becoming such a big issue. Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr had a bunch of posts having to do with Kony 2012 which is really helping this issue come to light. Now that many have been aware of it, it’s allowing it to become big and make a change. However, there has been some negativity towards Kony 2012. Some are saying that the money isn’t going towards the children or organization. Also, some people are saying, “It has nothing to do with me so I don’t care.” Today in class my teacher discussed the issue of the money. She also informed us that the guy who made the film was on the Today Show where he spoke about it. He said the money was going towards the video, the building process, etc. and that I can understand. One thing I don’t understand is how some people could careless or not want to help because it doesn’t involve them. Everybody is absolutely allowed to their own opinion, I just don’t think some people truly look at the issue and try to understand it thoroughly. Also, the videos views have ranked up to a massive number! The issue is really being put out there and it’s helping make a significant change. Sure the billion posts can get annoying, but that large amount is helping the issue become known and will help this problem come to an end. I will put up with the continuation of posts having to do with Kony 2012 because I am all for the help.

M3. Nothing more embarrassing than family.

The most embarrassing moment of my life took place back when I was a freshman, three years ago. Over February break my family and I decided to go on vacation to Florida. Our plans of course consisted of going to Epcot, Gator-land, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. Now, I never thought that going on this vacation was going to be full of embarrassment, but I was wrong. It seemed to be that just a week there, my family managed to do the most embarrassing things while I was the only one to be “normal”. To start this off, the very first day being in Florida my family decided to go out to eat at Ponderosa. What I thought would be a nice dinner, quickly turned into a “eat and rush” situation all thanks to my sister. As most of you know, Ponderosa has a bunch of food bars you can choose from. My sister and I usually always go up together and that’s exactly what we did. As my sister decided to grab a buttered roll, it just so happen to be that the roll slipped off of the edge of her plate, landing on the floor. Now anyone would have simply picked up the roll, thrown it out and then get a new one but no. My sister decides to pick the roll up and place it back in the bin with the other buttered rolls. As she stood up and placed it back, a worker was standing behind the bar checking the amount of food left. With just the luck, the worker watched her place it back into the bin. All I could do was sprint with my food to the table and hope nobody will notice her with us. The second day being there we went to Magic Kingdom. As we were waiting at the front of the line for Monsters Inc., music was being played throughout the building. Out of nowhere my dad decides to start dancing obnoxiously while facing the door of the building. While in the middle of dancing he decides to do a slow “cool” spin around to face the rest of us on the right side of him. Spinning a little too fast while dancing, my dad ends up facing directly behind him where an elderly man was standing with a blank pathetic stare on his face. My dad immediately turned to face the doors again and stood completely still the rest of the wait. It was so humiliating that the rest of us tried to stand more off to the side to show he wasn't with us. Two days after we decided to go to the amusement park called Epcot. Epcot has sections split up with different names of places. I’m not sure which we were at, but my family decided to take a restroom stop. In order to get to the restrooms, you had to go underneath some bridge and a tunnel. My brother always has to be a goof and act beyond hyper at the most random times.  As we approached the tunnel, he noticed Chinese people, now it's not like we don’t know what they already look like, obviously. For some reason this sparked up his dorky mood even more, leaving him to be standing at the front of the tunnel, facing us screaming and pointing at the top of his lungs, “Chinese people!” Finally getting him to shut up, we found the restrooms. In the ladies room there was the entrance door with another door on the left that reads, ‘closet’ and three restroom doors on the right. I don’t know what my mom was thinking when we were getting ready to walk out of the bathroom but for some reason, she grabbed the door that said ‘closet’ and walked right into it to exit the bathroom. I couldn’t wait for the entire vacation to be over. I never felt more embarrassed in my entire life. However, looking back at it all now, I can’t help but laugh.

M2. It can wait.

Being a licensed driver and having a father as an EMT, definitely eliminates any thoughts of texting while driving for me. Before I could even drive alone, I would have to watch and listen to my dad come home upset and distraught over young teenage car wrecks. All over the news you hear different stories about reckless driving, texting while driving and drunk driving. Honestly, I don’t see the point of doing any of those. People don’t realize the harm they are putting their selves in along with others around them. Whether your good under the influence or good while texting, don’t do it! You can be a good driver while texting one day, but not be the next. To look down just for a second, puts you in more danger than you can think. 37% of drivers from the age of 18 to 27 admit to texting while driving along with 14% of 28 to 44 year olds, and 2% of 45 to 60 year olds. Experts say that driving while texting is a leading factor in accidents. The way I see it, if you have your license and you’re going to drive, focus on the road. End of story. You shouldn’t be messing with your hair, makeup, GPS, phone, food, drinks, nothing! All of that can wait; it doesn’t need to be done right that instant. Would you really give up the rest of your life that’s ahead of you for that food, makeup, GPS, or phone? Is it really worth ending your life over? 84% of cell phone users said that they believe using a phone while driving increases the risk of being in an accident and they are correct. For every 6 seconds a driver will send or receive a text, spending 4.6 seconds with their eyes off of the road. While texting, 10% of their time is spent outside of the driving lane that there supposed to be in. People don’t realize it but there are about 6,000 deaths every year that occur from distractive driving. Along with this distractive driving, half a million injuries occur. Texting while driving sadly has become a way of life. People are so addicted to their cell phones that they can’t just go a few minutes without them. If you are driving in a car with others and the message really can’t wait, simply have the others in the vehicle answer it for you. If you’re alone in the vehicle, tough, you can read and reply when the car is in park. Although teens are seen as the reason texting while driving is high, adults do it too. Leaving school, I always see a bunch of classmates and teachers texting while driving. It makes me so mad inside knowing that they don’t see the danger their putting on their selves and the potential danger they are also putting me and other drivers in. I haven’t been a licensed driver for a long time but one thing that I will never do is text and drive. It’s not worth it.

M1. St. Patrick's Day is on it's way!

For the longest time my family didn’t do anything big to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. In fact, we did nothing at all. However, for the first time about four years ago a tradition started without my family even realizing it. My dad’s childhood best friend had been a part of my life since I can remember. Therefore, my siblings and I consider him as an uncle. My uncle lives in Jamestown which is quite the drive so we truly don’t see them that much. He decided to ask my dad if we would like to come up for St. Patrick’s Day and go with them to see a parade they put on. We decided to go for the heck of it seeing how we always have nothing going on to celebrate that day. What we do is we park about a block away because nobody can park down the entire strip the parade takes place on. Then, we walk down the road and through a plaza over to the main road that the parade takes place on. We always stand on the same side every time right by a bridge they have. Watching the parade they have clowns, fire trucks, little kids, elderly, dogs, and so much more that are shown on the different floats. Everybody that comes gets into the entire celebration by dressing from head to toe in green. This celebration everybody shows there goofy side with the funny hats, and outfits. Of course the kids love when candy is thrown out to everybody on the side, even adults of all ages get excited and still run for candy! The excitement shown on all types of age’s faces was enough to top off the importance of St. Patrick’s Day. The environment really made me feel at home and just gives off an all-around good feeling. The best part that everybody loves takes place after the parade ends. Everybody rushes to both sides of the bridge to look down into the water. Right when the parade ends they die the water green. I know many may see it as being silly, but when you’re in the moment in that atmosphere, it’s exciting even if you’ve seen it every year. After watching the water turn to green, we head back to our vehicles to drive back to my Uncle’s house. There, he has a family and friend celebration where he has shamrocks decorated all over the place with a bunch of variety of food. Of course they have food that is also colored green to top off the celebration. Ever since that first experience, my family has decided to traditionally go every year. I always look forward to celebrating it because nothing tops a day with once that matter most, especially when you rarely see them!