Good Evening!

What to post, what to post. I guess the only thing that has been on my mind this week is school and work. This is my last year in school, and I have two hard classes, and those two classes have been giving out so much work it’s unbelievable! I have a test tomorrow in government class on four chapters and I really don’t want to take it. I found out though, from that class, that I actually do like politics. In the past, I’ve never talked to people about it much, because people can get very touchy when that subject is brought up. I like the teacher I have too because he’s not conservative, or liberal, well I guess he has to be one or the other, but it’s really hard to tell, which is nice for a change. I’ve had teachers who want everyone to know what they are and believe what they think.

Last year my english teacher barely taught english. He spent most of his time discussing politics and his view points on all the major issues. Right now if asked, I couldn’t even tell you what we learned about from the books we read, or should have read, but I can tell you about his political view points.

It’s not bad to have opinions, it’s actually normal, but I really don’t like it when a person in authority tries to shove them on other people. Personally, I prefer not to discuss touchy subjects. If someone were to ask me what I think on a particular political issue, I’ll tell them honestly, but if I’m not personally asked I won’t say anything. I like to listen in on the discussions instead. I don’t know if that’s the best way to be since you can’t always bite your tongue, but let’s see where I’m at by the end of the government class. Maybe it’ll have me open up a bit more.

Well I better go do some last minute studying. Have a great day tomorrow!

Good Evening All!

Well, as you have already seen, the topic I’m writing about today is photography. Lately, this is all that I have been thinking about. This year, my last year in high school, I finally had the opportunity to take photography. I’ve always been interested in it, but couldn’t take it the years before because of trying to fit in all those classes required for UC and State colleges. So now I get to take the class, and this is probably the best class I’ve take my four years of school (next to music and creative writing).

Photography is amazing. Up until taking the class, every time I saw a photo in a museum or in a book, I’ve always thought, “Oh what a nice picture”,or “I wonder what the artist is trying to portray through this photo”, but never really past that. Now, everytime that I look at a picture, I wonder those not only about those previous things but also, how many takes it took to get that perfect shot, how the picture end up with such great contrast, are the borders even, and so much more.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.” I hate saying that because it’s said too often, but it’s really true. I love writing, I always have, poems, and short stories, but when I take a picture, that one picture sometimes holds all the words I could never say. It’s one thing to say, “The young girl had a captivating smile,” and it’s completely another thing to show it. The picture creates the image that the mind could not, it fills in the important detail. Yes, anyone can imagine a young girl smiling, but you don’t see why the smile is captivating, or how young the young girl is she could be 4-11 years. You also don’t see the girl’s eyes, the eyes could be the thing that makes the smile appear captivating.

I guess it’s obvious that I’m completely into photography this year. I love how people can look at the same picture and draw different conclusions about it. While I could go on in a conversation for hours on photography, I think this is enough. My advice, take photography for at least a year in highschool, and if you never took it in highschool, find a photography class near by. It’ll be worth your while, and you could end up with a brand new hobby like me!

Well first, Happy Halloween everyone!

Today I saw so many creative costumes, and thought about writing about them, but then I remembered how rap artist T.I. is in jail for having machine guns and other weapons in his possesion. When I first heard that, I wanted to write about how tired I was of celebraties doing illegal things and thinking, or should I say knowing, that they are going to get away with it because they have alot of money. However, I decided I’ll just wait to hear what his final verdict will be, before I complain.

With that said, I would just like to leave everyone with the reminder to be SAFE today! Taken from the website, www.imsafe.com, children are four times more likely to be killed on Halloween than on any other evening of the year. So, it would be a good idea to slow down in the neighborhoods, I know I should have, I was in a rush to get home and was going 27 mph instead of the 25! Not a good idea. Next, for the teens,taken from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, of the 239 traffic deaths on Halloween in 2004, 54% were alcohol-related, so don’t drink and drive. Lastly, all trick-or-treaters should make sure their costume is visible to other people and cars, and shouldn’t go to a door alone.

Happy Halloween again everyone, have fun tonight, but be safe!

Well Goodmorning everyone!

So all yesterday I was thinking about what I was going to write here today, and I couldn’t think of anything so I thought I’d just write about a big news story or something. However, there’s something else that’s been on my mind. This concerns one of my classmates at school, who for this story I’ll call Bianca, and our schools military recruiter, who I’ll call Sergerant Blank.

Monday I was in my US Government class and we were watching the movie Farenheit 9/11. After the movie various topics were brought up and discussed concerning the movie. When the military subject came up Bianca raised her hand, and told the class she’s not anti-military at all, but that this year, the presence of the military at our school was too much, and she felt like it needed to lessen; which I agreed with completely.

The military recruiters in the past came to our school probably once or twice a week, and would around talking to students during lunch. This year it seems that every where I go I see this man! He’s not only at school, but at after school events, such as football games, dances, and bonfires! That’s way too much for me.

Well later on that day, Bianca gets a phone call from the military recruiter at our school, Sr. Blank. He says that he’s heard that she’s been talking about him in class and he wants to know if she has a problem with the military. Needless to say Bianca was shocked, and scared, and she didn’t know what to do! She told him that she hadn’t said anything about him, but that she didn’t like the presence of the military at our school. Sr. Blank then said he wanted to know what problem she had with the military, if it was anything specific, but Bianca trying to get off the phone said she had to go. Sr. Blank then said, he’s a “very approachable guy”, and that she can come talk to him at school anytime if she wanted to.

Now personally, I love our military. I know people who just got back from fighting in the war, people who are now fighting in that war, and close friends of mine who plan on fighting in the war, but what this guy did right here, was ridiculous. I don’t think it’s quite legal to use the numbers the district provides these recruiters( in order to recruite students) to call them up and say you heard they were talking about you. That was way out of line! She’s a 17 year old girl, and he’s a 20 or 30-something year old man, I don’t think that should be tolerated.

Well unfortunately I don’t know how this will all end up, since this happend just yesterday. Apparently though, she has talked to our teacher and to our principle so somethings being done. Personally, I would assign the man to another school, or maybe to another duty altogether, until he realizes he can’t be abusing his authority and resources like that.

Last week at Concord High School the Seniors prepared for senior panoramic with bright matching shirts. But how does one student stand out in a class of almost 400? Well, one student decided, instead of matching his friends, to dress up as Waldo from the books, Where’s Waldo. He was very creative and wore a red and white striped, long-sleeve shirt with a beenie, a back pack and of course, binoculars. However this caused a bigger scene than expected. Before he could enter the bleechers, he was forced to remove his beenie, his backpack and his binoculars. This ruined the costume. So, suprisingly, the Concord High class of 2008 started chanting, “WE WANT WALDO!”, out of support for his creative costume. Finally, “Waldo” left the bleechers and several supporting friends followed. Ready to take pictures? Not quite. The angry class of 2008 kept disobeying rules, standing up during the picture, wearing hats, etc. The picture was ruined.

Then the next day, many students came to school wearing “Where’s Waldo?” shirts to express thier feelings towards the incident at panoramic pictures. Throughout the entire school were red and white striped Waldos.

I strongly feel that this was unnecessary. What harm did a Where’s Waldo costume cause? It was simply creative. I would have worn the costume too if I had thought of it. If the class of 2008 didn’t mind his wearing the costume then why make him take it off? It would be something for us all to remember. Now, with the pictures we took, all we have to remember was how ridiculously strict the Concord High School’s administration was towards the simply creative costume.

- Tahirah Rhymer

Goodmorning! Well, this morning I had the hardest time getting out of bed. There’s something about that rain! When I did finally get out of bed, and turned on my computer I read in the news about a 6 year old boy who was hungry and decided to drive himself to AppleBees!

Wow, when I was 6 years old, I don’t think that thought ever crossed my mind, to go drive down to a local restaurant to eat, when I was hungry. Apparently the boy grabbed his grandmother’s keys, and his booster seat and took off. He only drove 75 feet though because he didn’t know how to reverse, and ended up crashing into the neighborhood transformer and communication box which of course knocked out the electricity and the phone service for a whole lot of people.

This made me laugh, and you don’t have to worry, no one was hurt and the response of one of the neighbors, about the whole situation, was that she has 5 children of her own and she realizes that you can’t watch all of them all the time. That was nice of her…I know some of my neighbors wouldn’t have been as understanding!

Well, I’ve got to take off for school now so I won’t be late, but before I go, I want to remind everyone to drive carefully, the roads are most slippery when it first rains. Have a great day!
-Tahirah-