Monday December 13, 2010

Today was a good day! It was a review day for mostly all of my classes. I accidentally forgot that we were done with Operation Gratitude, so i missed fourth period by accident. I am glad i have one final a day. I can say that i am thankful for that. Tomorrow I am wishing myself good luck on my Ap Lit final. I really hope it goes well. To be honest it is kind of stupid but whatever it is what it is.

Fridays Post

Today was a good day. It was a mostly review day for all of my classes besides Government. We continued Operation Gratitude in the quad. I went to the Mr. La Sierra Pageant and it was alright. Tyler and Riley were the two that were left for first and second and Riley won. I'm happy for him and he deserves it. Tomorrow we have our football pictures. This will be the last time i put my jersey and pants on on that Alvord District field. I am really going to miss this sport and brotherhood that came along with it. Then at night we have the banquet at Gameworks in Ontario. I think it will be fun, and a great way to finish off my High School football career.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Today was a pretty good day. I didn't happen to make it to class on time, but i quickly got over it when we watched the history of "Frankenstein" for all of second period. The day went on as usual with learning math and also participating in our cause for Operation Gratitude. After school I went home and then a little while later I decided to go to the wrestling tournament. It was pretty interesting and our wrestling team is also exceptionally good. Tomorrow is Friday and i am pretty thankful. I am really looking forward to this two week break. It is a mental relaxation period where i can just kick back and enjoy life. I need to join the gym before my butt gets any bigger than it already is. The only bad thing about second semester is that my fourth period will be changed, and i won't have Mr. Palo as a teacher anymore. That is a bummer because the material that i have learned in his class really cannot be taught from a book.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Today was a pretty good day. I got to school on time for the first time in like three months. So I was pretty excited about that. Then I learned about the archetypal differences in Frankenstein and did some review on Statistics. Fourth period went pretty well with the letter writing. Kids are starting to show more support and care for our troops in war. Then i stupidly failed my calculus test. Just made some dumb mistakes and my teacher was like totally about to slap me because of how dumb my mistakes were. Tonight I didn't get to watch the Laker game, but i heard it on the radio. And the feeling of Derek Fisher making that shot at the buzzer was so amazing. I was ecstatic at the moment the commentator bellowed, " Fisher for the win!" Tomorrow is late start. So, thank God because i get some sleep and i might make it on time to school for two days in a row. I plan on repeating my day today... minus the mental implosion i displayed in calculus. I also have been meaning to ask you(The Mr. Palo) about extra credit because i am clueless on what it is.

Tuesday December 7, 2010

Today was a pretty successful day. It started off pretty good by me being wide awake in all of my classes. I was pretty happy about that. Then, as fourth period rolled by i transitioned from doing my work as a student, to doing my work as a citizen of our country. I went out and did the necessary things in order to get as many people to write letters to our troops. Then i came home, and destroyed my kitchen. After that i started homework. Then i managed to watch the Lakers kick some butt! Tomorrow, I plan on getting more sleep than I did today. I also am hoping to get a good score on my Calculus Test. I believe that we are doing the same thing we did today tomorrow for fourth period.

Monday, December 06, 2010

Today was an ok day. It started off bad because i had only had 2 hours of sleep. As the school day progressed, it was pretty cool. I managed to stay awake in all of my classes so that was good. I did my part in contributing to the efforts of our final project by putting up fliers and posters throughout fourth period. I fell asleep when i got home as i was watching the Patriots destroy the Jets. Then after i woke up around ten, the movie "Black Hawk Down" was on so i proceeded to watch it. Even though i have seen it before, the movie's captivating inspiration is conveyed to me every time i watch it. It gave me some ideas of what to write and it afcourse made me reflect my gratitude for our troops that are out there. I thank them for their contributions to keep us citizens of America safe. Tommorrow, i hope to be more energized by getting some more sleep in. I believe we are doing class presentations about Operation Gratitude. That should be fun and go well. I am looking forward to the Lakers playing. And hopefully i will get some more sleep too.

Sunday December 5, 2011

Today I watched some football along with helping my parents put the house back together because it has just recently gotten re carpeted and re tiled. I also got caught up on some homework... stats. Tomorrow i plan on going to school and broadening my education. I also plan on watching New England play the Jets. I will be going around fourth period putting up posters and fliers to promote Operation Gratitude throughout the La Sierra High School campus.

By the way... i had to start posting my blog posts today because i did not have my computer until today. Viruses suck.

Friday November 12, 2010 QOW Response

This is a very interesting question. As many people would believe that the media controls the government, i say that it influences the government but has no say what so ever toward what the government does. The government has to run the most powerful country in in the world. therefore, it does not have time to care about people's feelings or emotions. They have to be on point with the things that they do, because if they start to worry about what the media is saying or doing, then they will fail at keeping our country at number one. A writer named Logan Esdale claims that the media influences everything the government does. he says that the media is "God-like". Just like the movies are created for entertainment purposes, the media does the same thing. It adds gossip and drama towards the government. When the government is struggling, the media finds people to blame instead of a fix to the problem. this is because that is the government's job. the government has to work out ways to solve problems with the media breathing down its throat. Most of the times our very strong government is successful. but there are cases, where we come at a stalemate; such as the war in Iraq.

Esdale, Logan. "Living Under Media Influence." Electronic Poetry Center Home Page. Web. 13 Nov. 2010. .

-Ali Raza.

Wow!!

I was on facebook when i read this as a post from Mr. Ramaswamy. I was very intrigued to read this because it was pretty crazy. The creators of this website really dislike our president or i don't even know what to say. Check it out.

http://whatinthefuckhasobamadonesofar.com/

Teacher Interview.

The person that i interviewed was a teacher that goes by the name of Mr. Chan. He was one of my previous teacher's that i had when i was in eighth grade. He still teaches eighth grade students. I started off my interview by talking to him on the subject of teaching. I asked him if he believed that adding more teachers in a classroom would help the students. He said that personally, he feels like he can control a class and he might not like it because then, there would be a variety of methods of teaching "His" class. But then as i told him that it would be helpful for the students because they would be able to get help easily and with the class sizes growing, it would accommodate the students. That made him think about it and he said that it actually would help out in that case. He said that it actually would be better for the students because it would help stop cheating and the students that really do need help can ask any one of the two or three teachers in a classroom. He said that some students that are not comfortable with their one teacher will have more people to ask making the situation easier. He then went on to tell me that it really is up to the parents when it comes to a child's education. He said that if from day one, the parents are strict and make sure that their children are regular with their homework and studying habits, then their child should do fairly well in school. Those parents that do not pay much attention towards their child's education, really put a burden upon their young kids. He said that education becomes a burden upon young independent kids because they are young and do not know the value of getting good grades. They have to decide for themselves if they want to succeed in school or not; and most kids like that choose the easy way out because they are young and stupid. There are a few that are actually independent and smart, but it is very rare to see that happen. He told me about how when he was a child, his parents were on his rear about getting good grades. He said that an A- was not acceptable. Then he said that there are kids that go through his class every year getting a C- as their grade or even a D, and being ecstatic about passing. He said that that disappoints him, but it is what it is.

Political Campaign Ad.

Meg Whitman - Tough Business

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VekQ1F9J-C8

This is a very interesting commercial. Mrs. Whitman talks about politics being a business. In a way she is correct. Running a state is kind of like running a country. If it is a big and successful business, then the employees get paid beneficially. But, if it is the opposite then the employees suffer while the CEO does fairly well. Meg Whitman knows how to run a successful multi-billion dollar business. It seems as if she would know how to run a state if the saying of politics being a business is applied. She states four key points during this commercial : cut wasteful spending, balance budget, require work for welfare, reform state employee pensions. These are all good key points to making the economy better, but they would cause a lot of havoc and controversy.

Friday Oct 1, 2010 Question of The Weak Response

If I was to rate my education on a scale on one being the lowest and ten being the highest, I would have to say that it is between an eight and a nine. There are many reasons for this score that I have bestowed upon my education. One of them can perhaps be the teaching that I have received from my teachers. Throughout my elementary, junior high, and high school career, I have had astounding teachers that have taught me well. They are the main reason that I have increased my knowledge in a variety of subjects and became a smarter more educated person. However, there was this one teacher that was an outlier when it came to being the “good” teacher. I would rather not want to get into the atrocious characteristics of this extremely incoherent educator, but I will just say that she can simply be described with a word that starts with a b. Anyways, as I progressed through my educational career; I wanted to learn and challenge myself by taking classes such as honors and AP. When you take a course of this level, the teachers are different. They treat the students differently because they expect more out of them and they also expect the students to attain a certain level of maturity.

If I were to put teachers, student, and parent in order to display the importance of each of these people in a person’s education, it would go as student, teacher, and lastly parent. Student would be first because they are the creators and leaders of their education. It is up to them how “smart” they want to be. During the first couple of weeks of school, if a student decides to do minimal work assigned, then it is not the teacher’s fault for the students inadequate study skills. The student just dug his or her own grade into the dumps by themselves. If a student wants to be successful, and does the work that is required by the educator, then they should have a pretty nice educational experience. I chose teacher as second because they are not accountable for those students that just don’t do anything, but they are still accountable for most of the students that are in school to learn. When teachers are involved and interact with their students, they build a relationship with them, and students get comfortable enough to ask questions and develop concepts. Teachers are the heart and soul of our student’s education because whatever they input into the minds of our children should stay there. Those teachers that are too stern and act like a “god” in a classroom are losers. They make the student feel dumb if he or she asks a simple question, or even worse, they don’t even allow you to raise your hand. That is plain idiotic. But the teachers are a big influence on children’s lives, and they are extremely important to our education. Parents are last simply because there is only so much that a parent can do to push or motivate their child to study and work harder in school. Sometimes there are situations in math where a teacher tells you to do something a certain way. If you ask your parent, and they only know a different way, they will just confuse you. Coming back to the point of there is only so much a parent can do, parents will love their children no matter what; and if a parent hasn’t pushed their child for academic success since preschool, then it is not likely that a parent will disown you forever if you were to bring home a bad grade. A parent will be mad for a little bit, but then they will get over it and just say, “Do better next time.”

- Ali Raza

SB 1070 Discussion Reflection

This class discussion had its ups and downs, but overall it was progressive and also very interesting. There were many different people with different point of views and aspects towards the senate bill. I think that there were those who were extremely for it because of personal reasons, or situations that have affected them. They have first hand experience of how illegal immigration has affected them and they completely agree with the terms of the bill. They went on to say that the illegal immigrants are hurting our economy because they do not pay taxes. These taxes help support America's hospitals and education funds, and the are very necessary to be paid because they are the living soul of our schools and hospitals. The other side viewed SB 1070 as a harsh bill. They claimed that it isn't fair and that we should not break up the families because of the children. They also claimed that it is an unconstitutional law, because it violates the rights of the fourteenth amendment. But this side of the argument withheld some ignorance in it. Some people were stating to open the borders. I think that they believe that it will be all nice and happy once the borders are opened, but what they are unaware of is the fact that these new immigrants will be coming here for opportunity, and that they will definitely work harder than us Americans for it because they have to earn it more than we do. Once they start to take over the jobs that "we" want to employed in, "we" will be very angry, because employers will take these immigrants because they will work for cheap, and also get the job done pretty well. So, before "we" come to dramatic conclusions like, open the borders, "we" should think about our future.

-Ali Raza

Real N..ga Speaks On Illegal Immigration.

I was looking through videos of SB1070, this popped up in the related videos. So i clicked on it and it was pretty funny. It has some explicit language, so viewer discretion is advised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYysQ39RWjY&feature=related

Monday September 13, 2010

SB 1070 is a very controversial reform that the state of Arizona is trying to go through. It is said to deport an estimated twelve million illegal immigrants back home. There are obviously two sides to this political and social reform. There is the side that supports SB 1070, and there is also a side that is against the reform. The supporters believe that the economic cost of illegal immigration is taking its toll, especially in Arizona. According to a recent study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Arizonans paid 2.7 billion dollars in 2009 to support illegal immigration. The amount of money to support illegal immigration does not cover the amount of money that it cost the state to deal with the increase in violent crimes and the rise of the drug cartel in the state. (Stopa) I am a supporter of SB 1070. I believe that if a person is not in America legally, then anything that they do in this country will be illegal. Also, in these tough economical times, Americans need help and support. They need jobs to feed their American family. When illegal immigrants come into America and take the jobs of Americans, it hurts the people of our country, and I think that US citizens deserve to be in a better situation than the people that aren’t legally living in our country.

On the other hand, there are some people that are against Arizona’s new reform. They believe that SB 1070 is unconstitutional and immoral because it requires the use of racial profiling. Racial profiling is prohibited by the law, but in order to accuse an illegal immigrant of reasonable suspicion, there has to be a tie with the race of the person. What some people will argue is that, many illegal immigrants are being targeted by the police because of their skin color. They will claim that America is supposed to be the land of the free, but it is taking away freedom. Some other people believe that there will be a loss of culture and values if the 12 million illegal immigrants are deported.

Michael Stopa. “Why the Arizona immigration law makes sense here, too.” Boston Globe 15 Jun 2010. US National Newspapers. Proquest. Web. 17 jus. 2010

-Ali Raza

Tuesday June 29

Throughout this we have discussed many topics. Such that include the BP Oil Spill, immigration bill SB 1070, and the flaws in American Education. All three of these subjects are very controversial and touchy topics. They have definitely created a big problem for the Americans. I believe that the most harmful current event to our economy is the BP Oil Spill. Even though it has slowly faded away behind the curtains of politics, it remains a major problem for America. The spill has not stopped since it started on April 20, 2010. Today, it is June 29, 2010 and the oil is still leaking with no signs of slowing down. There was an estimate that seventy thousand barrels of oil were being spilled each day (Maestas, 2010 ). Billions of dollars of oil have been wasted, the whole Gulf Coast is contaminated with oil, and the people that lived and worked in or along the Gulf Coast have lost almost all of their business. It is a very horrendous scene. I believe that this disaster has the whole country angry because it has been approximately three months, and there has been nothing done to stop the leakage.

There are those out there that blame our President, Barrack Obama for not being able to stop the oil spill. Well, to those people I would like to say, “He is our President, not Superman!” I believe that Mr. Obama is doing the best he can to possibly stop this disaster. I don’t believe that he is enjoying seeing this oil spill taking over the waters of the Gulf Coast. He is taking the necessary procedures to help maintain the spill. The President has also talked to the BP officials and he has made it clear that they need to figure out the how to secure this spill (Jones, 2010)

If anyone should be held responsible, it should be BP. They were deep water drilling and they knew the consequences of it, but they continued to drill, even though they did not have the proper technology to use in case something was to happen to the drilling rig. This clearly shows the irresponsibility of BP. What the despicable part about this is that BP said that it has twenty billion dollars set aside to compensate those who were hurt by the spill, but the residents that were near it haven’t received the money that they deserved. If BP can not run their company with right morals and integrity, then maybe they should be shut down because all they have done so far is hurt Americans.


Jones, Jeffery. "Obama, Cameron to Discuss BP Oil Spill Crisis - Yahoo! News." The Top News Headlines on Current Events from Yahoo! News - Yahoo! News. 12 June 2010. Web. 29 June 2010. .

Maestas, Aislinn. "BP Oil Spill - One Month and Counting - National Wildlife Federation." Home - National Wildlife Federation. 20 May 2010. Web. 29 June 2010. .

- Ali Raza

Thursday June 24

The education of American students is being hurt by the tough economic times of our country. The trimming of school budgets by state legislatures has led to school districts receiving less state funding. What this means is that, since school districts have less money, they have to cut back on some novelty education materials, such as computers and other technological items (Rieman 2008). I believe that this is very dreadful because the majority of the students in high school use computers and technology. I mean if you don’t agree with me, then go as a kid if they have a Myspace, Facebook, or Twitter. I am sure that you will find out that the majority of the kids do have one of these three social networks. Therefore, the generation of students of the present has the access to these technologies outside of school, but when they are in school, they are stuck reading out of a tedious textbook.
Bad grades can both be the fault of the student, or the teacher. There are two parts to this story. Some teachers are friendly, kind, and passionate about teaching and building relationships with their students. To me, these are considered to be good teachers. I believe that because personally, when a teacher likes what he/she does and takes the effort to construct a relationship with his/her pupils for the year to follow, it just makes a student feel more wanted and urges the student to learn. The persona of a bad teacher is one of those teachers’s that just puts you to work right away, without explaining anything. These teachers just make me angry. They aren’t teaching you anything by making you read a book. They are just passing time so they can get a pay check. Just because you have been teaching for thirty years, it does not mean that you are a good teacher. It just means that it was nearly impossible for someone to fire you, so they were left with no choice, but to let you remain as a member of the faculty. Teachers are somewhat accountable for the way that their students perform. If the teacher is a good teacher and has taught the class properly, then the student should have no excuse to perform poorly. That is unless the student doesn’t care about their future or their present. Those students are just a waste of time and a desk. They shouldn’t even bother waking up early in the morning and coming to a place of education to just take up oxygen that can be used by someone else who is motivated to do something in their life.
The “Race to the Top” is a program created by the Obama Administration that focuses on giving states grants upon the progress they make in their schools. It is a 4.3 billion dollar race that will help the economy and the schools get better. The most important thing that this program is set out to do, is to motivate students, teachers, and schools to competitively perform at an elite level of education and to raise their standards (Hamilton 2009). I believe that this is a very good program. It sounds like it can help out many schools. Maybe the schools will finally realize that the tenure teachers that are teaching their classes with obsolete methods are hurting the students rather than helping them. Hopefully this reform causes change in many schools throughout the country, and the respect for an American education is rejuvenated.

Hamilton, Justin. "President Obama, U.S. Secretary of Education Duncan Announce National Competition to Advance School Reform." U.S. Department of Education. 24 July 2009. Web. 25 June 2010.
.

Rieman, Heather. "The Economy and Education- Will the Budget Crunch Facing States Affect Education Spending | New America Blogs." NewAmerica.net. 31 July 2008. Web. 25 June 2010. .

- Ali Raza

Monday June 21

SB 1070 is a very controversial reform that the state of Arizona is trying to go through. It is said to deport an estimated twelve million illegal immigrants back home. There are obviously two sides to this political and social reform. There is the side that supports SB 1070, and there is also a side that is against the reform. The supporters believe that the economic cost of illegal immigration is taking its toll, especially in Arizona. According to a recent study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Arizonans paid 2.7 billion dollars in 2009 to support illegal immigration. The amount of money to support illegal immigration does not cover the amount of money that it cost the state to deal with the increase in violent crimes and the rise of the drug cartel in the state. (Stopa) I am a supporter of SB 1070. I believe that if a person is not in America legally, then anything that they do in this country will be illegal. Also, in these tough economical times, Americans need help and support. They need jobs to feed their American family. When illegal immigrants come into America and take the jobs of Americans, it hurts the people of our country, and I think that US citizens deserve to be in a better situation than the people that aren’t legally living in our country.

On the other hand, there are some people that are against Arizona’s new reform. They believe that SB 1070 is unconstitutional and immoral because it requires the use of racial profiling. Racial profiling is prohibited by the law, but in order to accuse an illegal immigrant of reasonable suspicion, there has to be a tie with the race of the person. What some people will argue is that, many illegal immigrants are being targeted by the police because of their skin color. They will claim that America is supposed to be the land of the free, but it is taking away freedom. Some other people believe that there will be a loss of culture and values if the 12 million illegal immigrants are deported.

Michael Stopa. “Why the Arizona immigration law makes sense here, too.” Boston Globe 15 Jun 2010. US National Newspapers. Proquest. Web. 17 jus. 2010

-Ali Raza

Wednesday, June 16.

There are many economical and political implications resulting from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. First of all, the leak is a very large amount and it can have a severe negative impact Gulf Coast region. There is an estimated seventy thousand barrels of oil that are being leaked every day into the ocean. That is very hazardous for the region itself and the creatures that dwell in its habitat. Another problem that is going to be created by this large oil spill is that people may have to pay more for the products that are made with oil, or products that rely on oil to operate. One very large issue that is to be brought up as a concern is that many of the fisherman and businesses along the Mexican Gulf Coast are and will be suffering quite heavily from this disaster. They have already lost their jobs and lifestyle. When Obama took office, America was in a pretty bad shape, considering the recession, war, and unemployment rate. This oil spill really hasn’t helped him with getting people work, instead, it has backfired.
Yesterday, President Barrack Obama addressed the nation upon this matter. He discussed how the oil spill is affecting the country, and that his administration is doing their best to fix the problem. I believe that they are, but I am just one person. What does America believe? This long period of solitude between the Obama administration and the head officials of BP has made the American public wonder about what in the world is going on, and why isn’t a solution to this problem arising. This can be very dangerous for President Obama because he may lose some supporters that he had. If this crisis isn’t handled in the timeline that the President has given it, people might even turn against him. He can have a tough time getting re-elected. This oil spill is considered to be “Obama’s Katrina”. Is he going make sure that it gets fixed before America turns against him… let’s hope so.

-Ali Raza

Monday, June 14.

I agree with the saying that there is no such thing as a free lunch. You are paying for your lunch no matter what. The people that do get free lunch have it paid by our tax dollars. They are still technically paying for their lunch, but since their families are listed in the category of "free lunch" they receive that luxury of saying that their lunch is for free. But in reality, nothing in this world is for free. Somebody, somewhere, had to have paid for that food that is being labeled in the free lunch category.

Personally I would rather be in a position to be able to buy my own lunch then to be in the free lunch category. This is because the people that do receive free lunch are obviously having troubles making ends meet. Some of the cause might be because of the great recession that we are going through. Maybe, a child’s lunch is least of the parents’ worries. However, I would rather pay for my school lunch then have financial problems in my home.

- Ali Raza