A Monologue For A Mirror In Regards To My Present Productivity

(Judge me kindly friends, the hour is early and I am no poet.)

Mirror, mirror
on the wall
why must I go
and wreck it all?

Such prosperity awaits!
A future pristine!
Tarnished and ruined
by my internal fiend.

This habit confines
all possible splendor.
Each acceptance shall be
returned to its sender.

Mirror, mirror
on the wall
Please tell diligence
to give me a call.

You know..

I Hate spring, which is funny cause i was waiting for it for so long and when it finally gets here my allergies flare up and i look a mess. now i'm just wishing for summer. I don't think i'll ever be satisfied with the weather cause sooner or later i'll say it's "too hot" or "too cold" so whats the point of waiting for a specific season if i'm gonna hate it later on ?

Marshall's Q3 Globalization BM

My benchmark

The countries I used were Rwanda and Iran, two countries that have been in and out of wars for the last few decades. For each of the five points of collapse, I would research what the status of the issue had been for the last 40-80 years. If the problem was only getting worse, I would give it lower than a five, if it was steadily increasing, I would give it more than a five. How much more/less than a five I'd give the issue was dependent on the severity of the problem within the country. The only part of the five point framework which was difficult to analyze was the society's response to environmental damage. Friendly trade partners tied in with hostile neighbors, and environmental damage tied in with climate change. The societies response was always difficult to find because there are so many different opinions on the matter. If I could change one thing about my project, I'd make it more creative or visually appealing. I'm satisfied with the information I got, but visual appeal has never been a strong suit.

SLA Freshmen Featured on MIT's Scratch Website!

Sean Force, Roger Bracy, Kenny Le & Eric Loth designed the following game: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/SCForce/1632135

Sean McAninich and Daniel Tuveson designed the following game:
http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/gokuen/1545112


Both of these were featured on the front page of MIT's Scratch Website!!!!

Congrats to these 6 students, and thanks to Debbie Fields and Yasmin Kafai from UPenn for providing this opportunity!

SICK & MOVIES

Today I am feeling really crappy.  Last night at work, I had this freak-out allergic reaction to something that I was cleaning off of one of the conveyor belts at the register.  Both of my eyes started to swell up and water.  It felt like they were on fire.  I ran upstairs to rinse them out and then bought some Benadryl to calm the swelling.  After a while, my eyes started to feel better but then the side effect of drowsiness kicked in.  I was standing at the register bagging people's groceries when all of a sudden, a wave of sleep just overcame me.  I could barely stand up.  I was soooo exhausted.  

When I got home, I fell right asleep.  Around 6am, I awoke with a terrible migraine and a bad sore throat.  I was also congested and coughing up a storm. 

Around 10am, I ran downstairs to look for cold medicine.  To my dismay, we were out of it.  Now I am debating whether to get dressed and  travel all the way down to South Philly to see my boyfriend and go to the movies.  Even though I am as sick as a dog, I am probably going to go anyway because I really miss Eric and I want to see that new movie "Insidious" pretty badly.

Ughhhh.

What The Hell?

I was just leaving school and I was on my way to the train station. I was just walking down 22nd street and I looked against the wall and out of the corner of my eye I saw a piece of trash just rolling along. I looked again and to my surprise, it wasn't a piece of trash, but rather, a mouse, just walking beside me. Usually people think of mice as creatures that go to great lengths to avoid human contact, but this one as casual as a clown in the circus, like it just belonged there. 

Tricked

So I was at work today and of course it was April 1st. April Fools day which honestly up until work no one really reminded me that it was April fools day. Right before work I got to witness the Phillies winning their first game against the Astros. I was pretty happy going to work, I can not deny that. Then what happened next was pretty weird. I get to work and I looked at my schedule for next week and I see that I am not even on the schedule. I was a bit weirded out because in the past when someone was not on the schedule it means they either quit or got fired. Well lets just say I did not quit. So I go and ask the manager about it and she says that I might as well go home right now and not bother coming back. I was a bit shocked as I questioned her what was going on. The laughter around us is what gave off the joke. I was tricked. 

4.1

I gave up before,

everyones a whore

no one meant for me

as far as I could see

 

A call one day

someone coming my way

so I said hey

don't ever go away 

 

Now I know

where I'll go

I go, with you

I know its true

 

and every word you say

reminds me everyday

how you love me so

so don't ever let me go

 

corny words

working towards 

a beautiful smile 

that lasts a while

 

and its all for you

and you know its true 

this love for you

and you feel it too

 

so take my hand

I'll help you stand

protect you

form feeling blue

 

your beautiful

in every way

mind and soul

so come this way

I'll hold you tight

and never let go

My Role Model

Like all siblings, my sister and I never got along well when we were growing up. We were always at each other’s throat arguing and fighting every little chance we had. Someone watching from the sideline that did not know us might have had the impression that we truly loathed each other. But behind all our fighting and bickering we still secretly loved each other.  Nowadays, kids and young adults my age look up to celebrities as their role models. I on the other hand look up to my older sister as my role model because she influenced me to be the best that I can possibly be. She inspired me to never give up and tells me that nothing is impossible once you try. "excerpt from my college essay"

032620111603
032620111603
032620111605
032620111605

Reflection

  • Briefly summarize the countries that you selected.

The two countries I did my third quarter benchmark on were Brazil and Haiti. I choose these to countries because they are both interesting. I choose Haiti because I was curious to whether Haiti was always corrupt or was it due to current disaster. While researching I realized that Haiti has been in the same for a long time. After being oppressed by their oppressor for over 20 years they don’t same to be going forward but rather they seems to be going backward year after year. Brazil was also oppressed but managed to overcome their oppressor after gaining their independence.

 

  • Give an overview of your process

My process on my benchmark was pretty much successful, the problem I faced was the way in which I was to present my project. I had a lot of things in mind that I wanted to do but none really work when I try putting the finishing touch together. But in the end I decided to present my project using info graphics.

 

  • Reflect upon the 5point framework. Was it straightforward, easy, difficult, perplexing, etc.

I found the five-point framework really helpful and straightforward. It never occurred to me that using the five-point framework let you see and view the world in a whole different light. After doing this project, now every time I come across a country or a state I use the five-point framework to evaluate things. 

 

  • If you could change one thing about your product, what would it be and why?

If I could change one thing about my product it would be my presentation because even though I’ve turn in my project I’m still not excited about my overall visuals it could have been much better.

 

  • Other thoughts, reflections, feedback.

I really like this project because I was able to do things the way in which I never r seen it before. The one thing I feel could be change is the time frame. There were a lot of things going on but not enough time to do the work. I hope you take my thoughts into consideration.

Fed Up

"Lenea, help me please!" He stood in front of me with frustration. I felt helpless. I wanted to take his hand and just tell him to count to ten, or ten thousand. I understand how nerve wracking it is to deal with my mother on a friday night; especially if she's exceptionally emotional. 

"Get out of her face!" She screamed and her hand flew up and made contact with his face. He was caught of guard and fell in the direction of the smack. He jumped back up swiftly and tackled her to the ground. 

I jumped from the couch and pulled him off her, pushed him back, calmed him down, then went to help her up from the floor. She tried to grab a window that was lying up against the wall, but I snatched it from her and put it back. She started to complain about her arm, while clutching at her heart. 

She picked up the phone and began to speak; I never saw her dial any number. 

"Come and get him! He threw me on the ground! If ya'll don't come and finish it, then I will." 

She hang up the phone. They carried on in an argument. She constantly told him to get out, and assured her that he planned on leaving. The next morning, Bobby left, vowing never to come back again. 

China/Libya Comparison

For my comparison, I chose two very different countries, China and Libya. China is a world superpower with an enormous economy. It's physically large and biodiverse. Libya is a small middle eastern country whose primary resource is oil and whose population is currently rebelling against their dictator. It's also at war with NATO forces.

I thought it would be interesting make my comparison using an infographic that broke each section of the five-point framework into quantitative data. I began my research by sifting through environmental databases available through the Penn library. I was lucky to find EarthTrends Environmental Information, whose searchable database proved to be a trove of statistics regarding the environments and economies of countries all over the world. This website also gave me the vocabulary I needed to find similar data elsewhere on the internet.

I had two problems use the five-point framework. First, I had trouble discerning which data belonged to which section. The difference between the "Environmental Damage" section and the "Climate Change" section often confused me; I also had trouble sorting out "Hostile Neighbors" from "Friendly Trading Partners." (Having few friendly trading partners is roughly the same thing as having many hostile neighbors.)

Also, when Jared Diamond developed his five-point framework, he had whole civilizations in mind - not individual countries. The climate change that we worry about today acts on a global scale. No individual country suffers from significant swings in climate due to climate change.

As I worked on this project, I realized that not every section of the five-point framework could be expressed numerically. How do I quantify a country's relationship with the world? I would have liked to use quotes from the New York Times and other periodicals, or describe the nuances of the country's political situation in my own words. But I felt this wouldn't be in keeping with the indexical nature of the medium. In retrospect, I wish I had done it anyway. Ultimately, I'm glad I got to experiment with this form of delivering content. I'm fascinated by the some of the infographic posters we have hanging in the classroom, and I've been wanting to create something similar. I'm glad I had the opportunity.

My bibliography is here.
China-v-Libya
China-v-Libya

Egypt & Kenya

HEre is my project



My countries were Egypt and Kenya. Egypt is Sub Saharan Africa while the other, the middle east.  Choosing my countries and Finding the information was the easiest part. I found multiple websites that had tons of information.  The hardest part was putting the information in a presentable form.  It was difficult to choose a way to represent the data and put it in a way that made it worth seeing.  I would spend more time making it more presentable if i could.  I wanted to do something extra but didnt have the time.