Now that summer’s here, the last obstacles barring hours of Internet surfing are history, at least for the next few months. But before you rush out to check up on all of your friends online, think about the variety of ways you can change the world for the better, just by using your computer. Here’s a short run-down of websites that make a difference without even needing a credit card.

FreeRice (www.freerice.com): This website acts as a digital vocabulary test, offering one tricky word accompanied by four possible definitions. The twist to this site though is that for every correct match, the United Nations World Food Program donates twenty grains of rice to hungry people throughout the world. So, in under five minutes a day, you can help feed the world, in addition to boosting your vocabulary, which never hurts the next time an SAT or in-class essay rolls your way. Outcome: over 36 billion grains of rice have been donated to date.

GoodSearch (www.goodsearch.com): By far the most convenient of the sites I’ll list, GoodSearch is a charitable alternative to Google. In the space below the search bar, type in the name of your choice charity or foundation, and then for every search you make on that site, one cent will be donated to that organization. Too lazy to stand up to that Google bar in the corner of your browser? Go to GoodSearch and download the application that gives you a GoodSearch bar in that corner instead, so that all of your searches can help the world. (If you’re out of ideas, try selecting Heifer International, which donates animals to third-world areas in order to boost agriculture and food production.)

One (www.one.org): By signing your name and e-mail address to this site, you will be included in one of the largest movements to pass legislature that benefits the poor and the hungry throughout the world. Mass petitions go straight to your inbox, where you can add your name if you want to, or just go to the website and brush up on the issue if you’re out of the loop.

Click to Give: This series of five sites is strung together by a common button that, when clicked, donates to each respective site. Every click, for example, on the Animal Rescue Site donates 0.6 bowls of food to rescued animals, while every click on the Rainforest Site works towards saving 11.4 square feet of rainforest. You can also work towards helping the world through the Literacy Site, the Hunger Site, the Child Health Site, and the Breast Cancer Site. And for more incentive, if the Breast Cancer Site garners 8 million clicks by the end of June, its primary sponsor will donate $10,000 for additional free mammograms.

So the next time you’re online, just think about the difference you can make by spending time on one of these sites.

To all lifeguards who were ever on duty while the eight-year-old me was in the pool:

I apologize for all of the afternoons I spent with my friends seeing who could float like a dead person or stay on the bottom of the pool the longest. I have to admit, it was a pretty fun way to spend the afternoons. But after spending one of my first days as a lifeguard breaking up 8th grade “dead man float” competitions, I realize that I’m probably responsible for a few heart attacks.

And a future warning: at public pools, please don’t pretend to be dead. It sounds obvious enough, but most people never realize the harm until they step up into the guard chair. After all that practice, you might be too convincing and cause a big mess. Plus, going off the diving board is much more fun anyway.

The Week of May 28th Awards:
Best Song: “Brainless” by Sunny Day Sets Fire. It’s a great song, despite the fact that every repetition of the word “brainless” jettisons me into a mild anxiety about next week’s final exams.

Best Project: My history group’s 1950s sitcom, complete with retro Rice Krispies commercial and Elvis Presley performance.

Best Feeling: Sitting in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and being able to pick up on all the historical context clues from the 50s, from “I Like Ike” to an “anti-red” rally to Mutt’s greaser get-up.

Funniest Movie: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I’ve seen it enough times to memorize most of the Greek spoken in it, but it never loses its originality. It’s one of those movies that doesn’t stop being funny over time, and with each viewing there’s some new detail that makes me burst with laughter.

Best Number: 5. As in days of school left until summer break!

A couple of days ago, an article I wrote for the paper went to print, talking about my life without a MySpace, Facebook, or cell phone (click here to read the story). It got my family and I thinking, how many people actually text other people just to look busy in an awkward situation? Furthermore, how many people would be willing to give up these technological conveniences and little luxuries? Would you ever give up your Facebook or your cell phone? What incentive would provoke you to do it? Share your thoughts.

I used to just be interested in the 1950s. But now I’m pretty much obsessed, at least with the music. In one of the first projects I’m genuinely excited about this year, my history group and I decided to make our own 20-minute sitcom to show the culture of the “Fabulous 50’s”. In my ‘grueling’ research, I uncovered a bunch of songs that make me itch to get out my fourth-grade Halloween poodle skirt and start embarrassing myself by trying to swing.

1. Yakety Yak- by The Coasters. If you’ve ever heard this song before, you’ll for sure recognize it from the distinctive title (or from October Sky perhaps).

2. Hound Dog- by Elvis (Presley, for those who have never heard of rock ‘n’ roll, fried squirrels, or Vegas). It seems pretty obvious to choose an Elvis song, but he’s a legend for a reason, and this song proves it.

3. Catch a Falling Star- by Perry Como. I’ve found the tune catchy since I first saw The Princess Diaries, but luckily now that I’ve tracked down the original version, I don’t have to deal with squeaky, high-pitched adolescent voices singing it.

4. That’s Amore- by Dean Martin. Who doesn’t want to be musically transported to a summer in Italy?

5. Que Sera, Sera- by Doris Day. Another one of those songs that could have outlived the 50s based on starpower alone.

6. Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)- The Penguins. One of the first noteworthy crooner songs, a staple of the 50s, as cheesy as it is.
Click this link to hear this song on-line.

Today was the AP english exam, so three essays later, I’m not exactly feeling the whole coherent writing piece thing. so here’s a random round-up of the movies that I watched in the past week.

1. Iron Man- I’m a sucker for all of these new superhero-redone movies, and so it didn’t surprise me that I ended up in an Iron Man theater. But even those who aren’t as fanatic about the opening Marvel montages as I am should still go. Essentially, it’s still a superhero flick, but so many of the now-cliche details have been reworked that it’s pretty refreshing. There’s rock music instead of the overdone tension-building choral numbers, there’s humor from time to time (and it actually works, unlike Spider-Man 3), and the main character really wants to be a hero, rather than the self-victimizing Spider-Man and Batmans of the world who start off moaning about being burdened with greatness. Verdict: go see it, unless you’re being stingy with your movie money, in which case I say make The Dark Knight your summertime hero movie.

2. Paris Je T’Aime- I love love love this movie. It’s made up of 18 short films by famous directors ranging from Gerard Depardieu to Wes Craven, all of which tell a story about love in the city of lights. Some are in English, some are in French, but none are boring or dull. My favorite segments are one about a middle-age American post-woman speaking in heavily Americanized French, and one about a young woman tripping and finding love on the way to evening prayers at her mosque. But if you’re quirky and into mimes or vampires, there’s also something for you in this movie, which really is, as my French teacher said, “a love letter to Paris.”

3. Dead Man Walking- I missed the middle, and potentially pivotal, segment of this movie when I was out of class for the AP US History exam, but what I saw was powerful. It accompanied my religion class’s current discussion on capital punishment, so maybe it was made a little more intense by the buildup. However, it really does put a human face on one of the country’s cruellest practices that’s still in place, as Sr. Helen Prajeen, played by Susan Sarandon, shows her faith through her devotion to helping convicted felon Matthew Poncelet, played by Sean Penn, work through his last days before being lethally injected by the state of Louisiana. Give it a shot, but at your own risk; you really have to be up to seeing this type of movie to not just break down.

4. 8 Femmes- Another French movie, this time about eight women in a house who all mutually suspect each other after the death of the man of the house. It’s almost reminiscent of the movie Clue, but with a more suspenseful and intricate plot, as well as classic French songs worked into the scenes. Oddly enough, it finds humor as well, but not at the expense of the reality of its characters. This one’s good if you’re craving an old-school murder mystery.

1. “No One’s Gonna Love You” by Band of Horses: This one makes me yearn for next fall’s new season of “Chuck” on NBC.

2. “Rain” by Bishop Allen: Bishop Allen’s currently in a throw-down with Born Ruffians for the title of my new unexpected favorite. They both highlight my quirky affinity for alternative bands with bizarre lead voices.

3. “clickclickclickclick” by Bishop Allen

4. “Foxes Mate for Life” by Born Ruffians

5. “I Need a Life (Four Tet Remix)” by Born Ruffians

6. “Let Her Know” by Estate

7. “My Moon My Man” by Feist: This song’s sort of a relief by showing that Feist has a shot of surpassing the tradition of one-hit wonders after “1234.”

8. “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansart and Market Irglova: Definitely deserved the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

9. “What’s the Matter” by Hot Silk Pockets

10. “Loose Lips” by Kimya Dawson: Makes me smile the instant it starts. And don’t tell me that the Juno soundtrack is so five months ago.

11. “Bleeding Love” by Leona Lewis: It’s called a guilty pleasure.

12. “ The Special Two” by Missy Higgins

13. “You Were Too Old for Me” by Pas/Cal

14. “Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)” by Thao & The Get Down, Stay Down

15. “Madly” by Tristan Prettyman : Who doesn’t love a good iTunes free download?

16. “I Can’t Tell In His Eyes” by Wildbirds & Peacedrums : The lead singer’s voice is beautiful, and it’s such a peaceful song. It’s akin to a four-minute meditation, only with a beat.

Is there some scientific study that shows that workloads can never really be balanced, but have to be broken up into periods of nothing happening followed by periods of chaos? Or am I just seeing it that way, because in relation to the easy weeks, anything else seems insurmountable?

It’s almost a joke how much I have going on this week. A math test, a chem test, two in-class essays in a row for English, then another two for History, an upcoming French test, and three SAT subject tests on Saturday. And this, naturally, would be the week that my immune system goes on strike, forcing me to decide whether I should practically hook myself up to an IV of herbal teas and suck it up, or stay home to recuperate but face the wrath of making up tests, assignments, lectures, and classwork.

It’s just strange, because the two weeks previous to this weren’t all that bad. There was, of course, the stressful test or two (this is junior year after all), but this week seemed to fall out of the sky and land on my daily planner as if all of my teachers had a conference with the College Board and decided that this was the week to hold a mandatory, mental Iron Man competition for the student body of Carondelet. I know that everything will work itself out soon, but for now it just seems crazy that none of this stuff could have happened last week, to spread out the stress instead of leaving it bunched into five days.

I almost wish that I could erase the big red “28” in the upper right-hand corner of my chemistry whiteboard. If all of the countdowns went away and people stopped telling me how soon AP exams, finals, and summer vacation are, I’m sure that I’d gain some of my focus back. I haven’t become a slob yet, but I do know that I’ve temporarily surrendered my ability to give the extra push when it comes to schoolwork.

It’s apparent that I’ve reached a rut when filling out paperwork for my summer job trumps studying at the moment, and doing homework feels like torture when I know that my little sister’s in the next room over watching Pirates of the Caribbean.

I still like school, and I obviously want to do well on all of my tests, but I’ve found it increasingly easy to slide back into a complacent state of mind, which isn’t good for this situation. Although I know that I should be relaxed and accepting in nearly every other aspect of life, I need that slight tinge of anxiety with school to stop myself from trying to wing everything. And as incredibly ecstatic as I am that summer is fast approaching, knowing that it is has slowed me down.

This week in English class, we read an article about the cultural implications of Shea Stadium’s rebirth as Citipark, the new home of the New York Mets. It was primarily meant to provide us with practice for writing more words in a smaller amount of time, in preparation for the looming four-hour brain fry that the College Board has christened the AP Exam. I found my looping and crossing pen inadequate of putting down new insights, since the author had entirely summated something my mind’s been kicking around for a long time: that the United States has become and will continue to develop into a “sell-out” brand nation.

It’s in the commercial impulses that drag people to Kohl’s at four in the morning the day after Thanksgiving to kick off their ‘celebrations’ of Christmas. It’s in how I’ve taken to naming my clothes and shoes by their brand name rather than their description or color. It’s just easier to tag things by their maker or respective corporation, because that way everybody instantly knows what you’re talking about, and can probably rattle off a jingle or two to accompany it.

I can’t blame anybody for accepting money, sponsorships, or endorsement deals from large corporations, because it comes as substantial funding at a time when the little guy can hardly compete with the international hotshot. But even after you introduce one corporate sponsor, it ends the days of what this article refers to as ‘mom-and-pop’ businesses, because with the entrance of even one company, all the small businesses have to compete. Competition can lead to an economic downfall which can only be remedied by “selling out”. Feeding the vicious cycle, this incidentally promotes a reliance on brand-name dollars to bail out small businesses, further diminishing the “indies” of the business world.

Honestly, I possess just about as many qualifications to talk about the business world as my cat does to predict the 2008 Olympic swimming outcomes, but it just seems sad that there’s no end in sight to endless advertising bombardments, and that a way of business life seems to have fallen by the wayside.