Debate Tournament

Hello gingers! I am going to have a busy Saturday!

I do in fact have a debate tournament this Saturday! It's my second one and I'm nervous again but I'm excited as well! I'm going to be able to improve on so many things and I'm excited to do better than I have done before!

These things are a blast. Everyone is up and ready to go. And we are all alike in a way so we make each other laugh and we have a lot of fun. Last time we danced to Gangnam Style, and we got the entire place staring at us. We got really into it.

And it's just so fun to here others speeches, and see the nervousness in them too. It's really great.

But then after the debate I'm going to a halloween party! It's going to be so much fun, and there are a lot of cool people. I'm just so freaking popular like that.

SO Saturday is going to be very busy, and to be honest here, I'm not prepared for that. But I'll just do my best.

Keep On Having Busy Weekends,
Rachael The Ginger

Twitter

Hello gingers! You know I just really love twitter with a passion.

It's really great. I just love it. And I love being able to stalk Anna Kendrick with a passion.

Because I can't just do that on my own.

Twitter. Is. Holy.

140 characters. 140 characters.

Keep On 140 Characters,
Rachael The Ginger

Presidential Debate Pt 2

Hello gingers! I hoped you liked yesterday, I wanted to change it up a little bit.

Tonight is in fact the 3rd and final presidential debate. And I just wanted to share a little bit of my thoughts toward the culture of our elections and politics in general.

We can look at the world so many different ways, and we can even do that with politics. We see different views in different places, just because of the culture and society that has developed there.  But we don't even have to look at it geographically. I would tend to think that the internet has developed a more left wing view, in this election. But the media is taking a right wing approach. And then of course the different locations tell a lot of stories.

For example, I live in a swing state, yet the town I live in is almost crazily right wing.

It's funny how your specific perspective can change so much about how YOU might feel about politics.

We label ourselves so heavily. We are either left or right, red or blue, donkeys or elephants, democrats or republicans. And it tears us apart, simply by what we claim what we are.

Be free spirit's, my children.

Keep On Debating,
Rachael The Ginger

Life.

It's time to take a stand for all that has mislead us. Time has come for the old to take their seat, and for the new to rise. The new must rise to the challenges we have made too much to bear. The new must overcome them.

We must cast our ignorance aside, borrow in our bones, take what we do have left, and use it. We must recognize our faults, and how they make us only human. Human's with the one and only desire for perfection to the highest marks. In any way possible.

Our doubts have carried us to dark places of the Earth. To circle back, and take what we left while on our leave is our mission. The singular drive to gain what we can possibly conceive in the shortest amount of time gives us the strength to labor our temporary constraints.

The courage we were ungratefully given is only truly admired by a small group of humans. And that small group of humans gives us the tools to ungratefully pass on our unused courage.

We strive for attention. We crave to be different. No matter how much we want to fit in. Nobody wants to be the same, but evermore we find ourselves as monotonous blocks of flesh, with our only purpose to fill the space that was created for us.

We are lectured the stories of love, and learning. We are given the right, and the curse to fill the gaps of expectation that somehow lead us to our lives, and what we are supposed to do with them.

As a group, we learn that we will find another being in the entire vastness of the universe to be with us. To guide us. To help us learn our faults and ways that only make sense to the people who's goal is to make it our weakness.

As a group, we are told to learn, to absorb. We are told that we need it. Learning is our only gift. Our only rite of passage in the world. The only reason to keep on learning. Yet knowledge of what is possible is the only thing that holds us back from our true hopes, and dreams.

Life is the scariest thing we will ever endure.

-Rachael

Vote

Hello gingers! Doesn't matter why you don't want to, you need to do it.

It doesn't even matter who you vote for, as long as you are voting for somebody.

I cannot stress this enough.

Just. Vote.

It's simple.

Keep On Voting,
Rachael The Ginger

Fall Break

Hello gingers! It's fall break and I've come down with an illness.

It feels like once every few months I'm getting colds and things. I hate it, it's the worst feeling. But I get them all the time. I should eat my vegetables like I'm told. Today was a good day, but very busy and I'm excited to chill and relax tomorrow.

I have these next couple days to actually do something, and I will. In sickness or in health. I'm going to make a layout of all my projects tomorrow, so I can get started on some of them on Monday.

The problem is, is that I get so many fantastic ideas and then I never have the time to actually pursue them. My life ladies and gentlemen.

Have a fantastic, safe, and healthy weekend this fine weekend. I should be making some much more interesting blogs hopefully in the future.

Keep On Making Interesting Blogs,
Rachael The Ginger

First Day Off

Hello gingers! First day off in a while.

And I thoroughly enjoyed it. At a couple points in the day I didn't even know what to do with myself. I know I didn't blog. But I'm really going to try to make an effort this week.

I know I say that a lot, but I will. It's not that hard to type words.

I had a much needed day of rest, and it was nice.

See you tomorrow.

Keep On Resting,
Rachael The Ginger

Finals

Hello gingers! The blogging has been slacking but I plan to do a lot of stuff over fall break.

School is really demanding. Grr.

But this math final is even more demanding. My life is just perfect.

I may complain a lot but to get me through the past few weeks I've kind of been living by this quote:

"Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

-Steve Jobs

Keep that ominous quote of imminent death in your mind for a bit, mkay?

Keep On Having Imminent Death,

Rachael The Ginger 

You Know Very Little About Me

Hello gingers! I just had a realization that you know nothing about me.

I share my life a lot but it's always with things that involve other parts of my life which you know nothing about.

You don't really know me at all.

No matter how much you think you do.

Or want to.

Keep On Getting To Not Know Me,
Rachael The Ginger

I Really Need Fall Break

Hello gingers! I have so much homework right now. And I don't want to do it.

But I just have to get through 4 days, 2 of which being half days and I can be on fall break.

Thank goodness. Because, man. I really, really need fall break to come sooner. These late nights are putting me on the brink of insanity.

I can't wait to practice my speech, and make videos, and do a whole lot of nothing. But I have to get through finals first. Holy jeezus finals.

I'll try to blog more. Sorry about not posting. Debate tournaments are very consuming. I did well though.

That speech I posted went over pretty well.

Keep On Public Speaking,
Rachael The Ginger

Good Night

Hello gingers! It is very late at night. And I am finishing homework. And tomorrow is Friday

Tomorrow should be an eventful day, because I'm going to a football game. On Saturday, I also have a debate tournament. So I'll keep you updating.

Keep On Sleep Sleep Sleep,
Rachael The Ginger

My Speech

Hello gingers! Here is my completed speech. Have fun.

I heard from Becky, who heard from Josh that Jake’s 2nd cousin heard from his Dad who saw on Facebook a link from twitter that World War 3 was starting.

I don’t think Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, ever thought that 140 characters could capture every single opinion and thought we have ever come up with. I don’t think he realized that every piece of a news story could somehow or another add up to become the epitome of journalism. And I don’t think Mark Zuckerberg sitting in his dorm room ever imagined that his website would become the sole connection between people and the rest of the world. I don’t think he realized that we would be impulsively addicted and crave that shade blue in our lives and that within it would display the current tragedies in our world, life changing innovation, and the newest episodes of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. Mark Zuckerberg has somehow managed to tie the world together and let our keyboards be some of our only voices.

But how could those voices we are so proud of typing out be dangerous?

In the recent Aurora theatre shooting over this past summer, many of my peers made hasty posts about the shooting. They had to let all their friend’s know about how terrible they thought it was, and they also felt the need to let their friend’s know what was going on. It seems like a good idea at first glance. But the more and more I scrolled along the facebook posts the more I noticed a common trend. A common trend that at least some aspect of whatever post was being made was differing from what the credible journalists and news stories were actually saying.

In people’s haste to post about all the drama, they only looked at what other people on facebook, twitter, and other social platforms were saying. They didn’t bother to find true information or facts to back up what they were saying, which in turn, caused more confusion among the peers who saw those facebook posts.

I realized that the websites we associate so much of our lives with, is leaving a negative impact on the understanding of current events on my peers.

First, we need to realize what the Information Age is and how it affects our daily lives, then we need to look at how false information gets distributed, and finally we need to realize how we can change our understanding of current events and the media.

When you wake up in the morning, the information moves like lightning into your brain. We immediately know the time, what we are going to wear, what homework we forgot to do, and how many calories are in our breakfasts. As soon as we arrive out of our slumber that we use to escape all this information, we are again receiving, processing, and evaluating all the data that we need to know. This is vastly different from just 50 years ago. Back then, people didn’t need to have so much in their heads at one time. Times were simpler, and most information was obsolete until it affected your daily life.

We can go farther back to Greek times when philosophers like Aristotle, Democrates, and Euphrates used to ask questions about the world around them. They used to think for hours about what everything meant in the world, and they would take the time to decipher truth from fiction. They used to have the world of time at their disposal, and they used it pretty well.

But now, no one has the time to do anything. Everything is in the moment and must be done at this very second. We simply can’t take the time to question the data we are receiving. So our natural filtering system that greek philosopher’s had has weakened over time. And because of that we take all the information we inquire as fact. We just don’t have time for anything else. As Aristotle himself said, “It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”

If we’re not questioning what is true, and what isn’t, then we tend to speak our mind anyway. And those opinionated outbursts about things such as current events, world news, and Katy Perry’s outfit to the Grammy’s, make it on to our social networking sites. Then the people who read those take that as fact to. We have created a chain reaction of misinformation. All because we have lost some of our abilities to filter the material that is a necessity to us. No matter what that material entails. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”

According to mandatory.com there have been 16 major celebrity death hoaxes on twitter just in the past year. Some celebrities like Paul McCartney, Madonna, Usher, Adele, and even Mr. Bean have supposedly died on twitter over various misinterpreted tweets and jokes by fans, or people who dislike these celebrities. Either way, that misinformation was shared and believed by everyone, just as fast or maybe even faster as a current events story such as things like the Aurora shooting. It’s difficult to actually care about what is true and fake, and the amount of twitter deaths that occur shows that.

Steve Jobs said this, “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly, and get on with improving your other innovations.” This happened immediately with social media. Things that aren’t true can travel across the world wide web as fast as the truth.

The truth is, is that anybody and everybody can see any information that is put on the internet and as I elaborated on earlier, some people in any circumstance will take that information as truth. We saw that happen with the Kony 2012 scandal earlier this year. A video was put up on YouTube full of false information on the Ugandan crisis and a warlord by the name of Joseph Kony. The video and the charity was basically an advocacy hoax to receive money. In fact according to post on Jezebel, a popular news blog, on March 7th, 2012, Invisible Children, the charity that created the Kony 2012 movement, only gave 32% of it’s profits to help those on the ground of Uganda.

Yet, the video and the charity received massive attention on facebook, twitter, and blogs alike. According to the same article, Invisible Children nearly tripled its profits, but nothing changed about the way they handled their money. 

This just goes to show you that the web is fast and it’s hard to tell what’s true or not. So most of the time we either can’t, or we don’t want to figure it out. That affects our understanding of current events and eventually the world. Misinformation travels just as fast as true information.

The real question is, how can my peer group change? My resolution is that we need to slow down. We need to stop from our fast-paced lives and just take a moment to look at the information that is being presented to us, and not just accept it, but entertain it and really think about it as Aristotle said.

We need to look at things with a more rational eye, but not try to rush it. We need to take the time to look at both sides, and look at what data is really affecting us and what it means.

We don’t need to become greek philosopher’s. We don’t need to spend hours on end thinking about every piece of intelligence we are given. But if we just take a little bit more out of our precious bank of time to think critically, we can achieve a full potential of understanding.

The world is huge, and amazing and incredible things happen to it everyday. We can’t expect to stay on complete tabs of what is true and what isn’t. But we can improve what we understand and get the crucial and important true information about our world if we just slow down, and think about our knowledge.

When Mark Zuckerberg created facebook he meant for people to share. He meant for people to be connected to one another. But next time you are scrolling through your news feed with that addictive blue background, don’t expect everything you see to be true. Think about the information, and think about what it means to you. Then when you share, you can feel confident your information sheds a positive light on your peers around you reading it as well.

Keep On Writing More Speeches,

Rachael The Ginger

Writing Speeches Is Hard

Hello gingers! I really don't know how people do it. I know I say a bunch of things every single day but it is hard to write 2 and a half pages worth of just crap.

Well it's not crap, but it's very difficult. And I don't enjoy this part of just sitting down and writing. I don't know what it is, but I freaking hate doing it. But I know it's going to be fun. I just think it's the aspect of having this time limit. I need to do this thing on Saturday, which is very intimidating. Especially when you waste hours.

I think that's the real thing I need to work on. I need to focus.

But it's very difficult. And I've said that it's difficult like 5 different times. But you guessed it, it's difficult. I'm going to keep working on this speech. So have a great day everybody.

Keep On Writing Speeches,
Rachael The Ginger

Hello My Darlings

Hello gingers! I'm pretty bored today. So let's just have a party.

How are you today? Because I'm pretty swell. I went from being a walrus, to a student, to a friend by skyping at least 5 other people in the course of 1 night.

And I'm pretty bored. But I have pretty much all my homework done, and I just have some things I need to finish up, like this blog. Because it has just become part of my daily gist. I can't think of doing anything different. It's kind of weird, but it's true.

But you guys are my sparkling angels, and I would never ruin that. Because you just are.

So that's all I have to say today. I think I'm going to post my speech here tomorrow. Or when I have it done.

Keep On Writing Speeches,
Rachael The Ginger