Last Blog Reflection

First of all I can't believe is already the end of the semester. Is crazy how fast time goes by. This class made me a better writer, and a better blogger. I never thought blogging would be so much fun, I always thought blogging was only for celebrities or Perez Hilton. But its obviously not, there is much more to blogging than what I thought. To start off I think that Mrs. Shaffner did a great job in trying something new with the blogging assignments. She adapted to the 21st Century, what I'm trying to say is that there is a lot of teachers that are still teaching the same way they did 10 years ago, but for example Mrs. Shaffner tried something new and it worked. Because plenty of students found blogging to be a great way to improve their writing skills. I think that if you make a student pick between blogs and essays, they are by far pick blogs. This class taught me how to manage my time bette, because most of the time I would procrastinate about my blogs and leave them for the end of the week but at the end it wasn't a good idea. Mostly because I would forget to do them and homework instead of decreasing was increasing. Anyways there is some things that I would like to add to this final blog. I would like to continue blogging, its a way to express my opinion about different web sites. Since I already have a blog account, why not use it right? Blogging is going to help me become a better writer. A person only improves with practice and that's what blogging is going to help me do, and that is practice. Oh I almost forgot thanks to Mrs. Shaffner I got introduce to Stumble Upon. Let me tell you this site is AWESOME. One of the best web sites ever created, I keep adding more interests every day. Whenever I'm bored I go on Stumble Upon and it totally puts me in a creative mood or a ready to do crafts mood. Well finalizing my blog I want to do thank Mrs. Shaffner for teaching me news ways of writing. This was a great experience that will help in the future. 

Favorite Band

The Script

My favorite band of all time is "The Script."All their songs really get to me and they all have a deep meaning. They write their songs with so much love and the lyrics say nothing but the truth. There is one song in special called "Nothing." This song is my favorite song for ever.When I play it in my ipod or car, I want to at least repeated two more times, that's how much I like it. The song is about a drunken, broken hearted phone call to a lost love. The vocalist Danny says about the song,"Don't Change A Thing"about always leaving the door open for the possible return of a loved one. When I read what he said I started thinking that they put a lot of time writing their songs because each word has a powerful meaning. I did some research in the band history. The Script band is composed by three guys, Danny O'Donoghue (vocalist), Mark Sheehan (guitarist),and Glen Power (drummer). Three young Dubliners took on the world, with music fashioned from the emotional fragments of their own hard lives raised up by a love of pop, rock, hip hop, and soul. In two years they've scored up a handful of hit singles around the world including "We Cry", "Breakeven", and "The Man Who Can't Be Moved". The band has become successful in a matter of two years. They went from playing in small clubs to performing in theaters, at festivals and in stadiums. This reminds me that I had concert tickets to see "The Script", but I couldn't go because I had class, I was so upset that day. Anyways this band is no ordinary band, they are becoming more and more popular through the years and I can't wait to listen to their upcoming albums.

Stumble Upon Blog

Jelly Shots Test Kitchen 

I just finished stumbling and my favorite blog site that I came across was "Jelly Shot Test Kitchen."Very neat blog with lots of different ideas of how to make Jelly Shots or as we know them Jell-O Shots. It caught my attention because I happen to love Jello Shots, they are my favorite way to drink liquor. In this blog it tells you how to make them, the ingredients that you need, and it gives you different ideas for any kind of party that you are hosting. What is fun about the blog, is looking at the pictures of all the Jelly Shots that they have posted and they are each different, unique, and of course very colorful. The blog seems to be a hit, as I was reading the recipes, my eye came to find the comments and they were all nice comments telling them to keep up the good work and to post more recipes. This is always good news when viewers are telling you to post more recipes and to keep it up, that's why they are releasing their first recipe book called The Jelly Shot Test Kitchen recipe book. After this blog I'm going to try making Jelly Shots. Is a fun way to start my day and I'm going to tell my mom to help me make them. Jelly Shots Test Kitchen blog is one of the best recipe blogs to make Jello-O shots.

Interesting Blog

Peruvian Chef Chosen Best Chef Of The Year In Houston

Every time I hear someone from Peru is been successful and has won a competition or something like that, I feel proud. Not only because I'm from Peru, but because I know that there is a lot of people with great potential in Peru that haven't been discover yet. Roberto Castre was born in Pucallpa, Peru and has been living in the USA for 10 years now. He beats me for 2 years because I have been living in the USA for 8 years now. Anyways back to the story. Roberto's restaurant "Latin Bites," has turned into one of the best restaurants in Houston, Texas.  Over less than a year Roberto decided to open up his own restaurant in Houston. Since his arrival to the USA, 10 years ago, he had been working in the kitchen in various places, from then he had learned enough to take the next step in opening up his own restaurant. "Latin Bites Cafe," is the name he chose, a place of peruvian cuisine and latin fusion. "The opening month we were chosen the best restaurant in Houston for the month, and the second month we were between the 5 best new restaurants in Houston," Roberto said in a phone interview with a peruvian newspaper. The growth of the restaurant was going great, and what Roberto never imagined happened. He was chosen "best chef of 2011 by the Eater Awards." Im going to conclude the story there, and talk about what I think. I think that Roberto was so brave in taking a chance and opening up his own restaurant. Sometimes people need to take risks if they want to succeed in life. Another thing is that you have to work very hard to achieve your goals because nothing is going to come easy. This story made me realize that hard work always pays off. 

NCTE Defines Writing In The 21st Century

NCTE Writing In The 21st Century

Reading this article made me think about teachers, the future, and obviously writing. The article is mostly about the opinions and thoughts of Ex NCTE President Kathleen Blake Yancey. She makes a lot of good points that put me in thinking mode for a long time. One of them is that blogs, wikis, and social-networking has changed the way students learn to write. I think that the way students are writing now has changed in different ways. They write more when they are in a classroom but when they are out, the writing is applied in text messages, status updates, tweets, etc. Which thinking about is good because they are practicing their writing without even knowing it. Sometimes kids don't even write at all, they just sit on the couch all day and watch T.V. Modern technology is helping students write more each day. For example I much rather write a blog than an essay, because blogs are much shorter first of all and the point of view can be expressed just as good. One thing that I need to improve in is writing proper english when I'm sending a text messages. Usually I use abbreviations a lot and misspelled words but I do that because it saves time and I know the person that I'm talking too is not going to care. But that's one thing that I would like to work on and change. When reading this article, I started thinking an interview that I read in my reading class. It was about a Harvard Professor named Eric Mazur. He wanted to teach using new methods, for example students who score high do so because they've memorized information on tests but if you tell them to use it in real life they wouldn't even   know how too. That's why educators should start been more opened to different curricula that's going to help the student learn better and understand the subject better as well. So they can use  what they've learned in their everyday life. Oh and I put a time picture because we need to hurry up and start making some changes. 

Aritcle The Dumbest Generation

The Dumbest Generation

My reaction to Mark Bauerlein's article. I think it was super interesting, it has a lot of good points. Everything that he wrote is true, our generation is becoming dumber and we have to "STOP THAT." What stick to me was when he mentioned that kids instead of using the internet for researching about politics and history, use it for Facebook and Myspace. I have to definitely agree with him, all of my friends when they open their laptops the first thing they do is check their Facebook page. I'm not going to lie I do it too sometimes but I want to change that habit. Our generation is so worried about the "social life" that they have completely forgot about history, politics, and culture. I mean I believe social life is important but sometimes people focus all their attention in only that. The social network is great but I think people need to know how to use it better and instead of worrying about statuses updates in Facebook they should worry about their homework or what they are gonna eat that day. Mark Bauerlein also focus his attention in the peer-to-peer activity. This could turn into a great argument if you put a group of teenagers with their parents in a room. I think that now a days kids instead of talking to their parents when they get home, they go straight to their rooms to watch T.V or use the computer. This needs to change because this is one of the reasons why teenagers get into drugs, commit suicide, etc. Kids that don't dialog with their parents in a normal basis turn into rebels and do bad things because they feel that they have no supervision. Bauerlein also discusses the nature of the Internet itself. He says, "people seek out what they already hope to find, and they want it fast an free." Now how true can this get. I seen plenty of people get mad when they can't find something on the Internet. It is outrageous, just be thankful that the Internet was discovered. People expect to find everything in the Internet that's why of the reasons they don't bother to read anymore because they think that all the answers are in the Internet. This is why I agree with Mark Bauerlein. This generation needs to make a change soon if not everyone is going to become dependable of the Internet. 

Hyperbole And A Half

I just finished reading the blog "Hyperbole And A Half." I really liked it, as a matter of fact I liked it so much that after I finish reading the blog I did a lot of research about it and read some comments about the blog. All of the comments that I read were positive comments talking about all the good things about this blog. I would like to mention some of the key things that stand out to me. The first one is how funny the blog was. The funniest part about it is the drawings, they are awesome. It looks like she draws them at Microsoft Paint. The words that she uses are pretty funny too. There are some bad words here and there but I think those bad words make the blog even funnier. She puts the bad words next to the drawings, I think that's so funny.My next point is that she has over 55,000 subscribers. That's when I was like "WOW" this blog is really popular. Not a lot of blogs get to have this many subscribers. She is a very talented girl that has caught the eye of many web viewers. I was reading some of the comments and she is loved by a lot of people. I think is because in all the blogs that she writes, a lot of people relate to it. She touches a lot of people in many ways, like telling them they are not alone, there is someone else sharing the same feelings you are having. That's a really neat way of helping people. Another great thing about this blog is that she writes about life's minor impedances and exaggerates them into major daily struggles in a childlike sort of way. The childlike sort of way is the drawings that she has on her blogs. I read one blog that was about been mad for no reason. This blog made sense to me, because sometimes people get mad at the most stupidest things. Like for example if someone falls off their bike, is like their whole day got ruined. She makes some good points in her blogs that make people analyze things in life in a different way. The last thing that caught my eye is that she has a merchandise site, where you can buy T-shirts, hoodies, etc. This tells me how big this blog is getting. I think that this blog is getting bigger every day. 

The Proceeding Of The Ever So Strange

Today I'm blogging about the blog "The Proceeding Of The Ever So Strange." I find this blog quite interesting and I also like it. It has a lot of unique videos of animals, mankind, space, machines, plants, weather, extinct, legends, world, funghi, science, and wonders. My favorite blogs are the ones of weather. It shows a lot of pictures of hurricane or storm damage. I think that the website is not much of a blogging site because there are no comments. It gives you the option of liking it on Facebook and that's about it. It's creative because now a days Facebook is all over the place so it gives it that modern blog look. Actually I just took a better look at the site and it's not only linked to Facebook but also to Twitter. I read the part at the bottom where it says "About," and the creators define the site as more of an anecdote type of site. Because it's providing information about a whole bunch of different topics. I like how they have stories for every post and I think is really neat how they actually go to all this places to video tape and take pictures.

Steve, Don't Eat It

After going through the website Steve, Don't Eat It, I really did't like it. Don't get me wrong the website is different and unique, but lets just say I'm not a big fan of fear factor type food. Steve seems really opinionated and he will write whatever comes to his mind.I think that Steve is attracting his readers more and more by writing whatever comes to his mind. He uses foul language which can either attract the reader or make the reader stop reading. Steve is putting his reputation at risk when he writes whatever comes to his mind. Kind a like all the thoughts that are going through his brain, he writes.Some readers are going to like his website but others are going to dislike his website. The ones that will dislike his website are going to be parents and critics mostly. He talks about all these different types of food that are disgusting to eat. Examples potted meat, pickled pork rinds, breast milk, etc. I think that Steve purpose is to keep his web viewers entertain and curious. Steve definitely does a pretty good job at entertaining his viewers by posting really disgusting foods, that I personally would never ever even think about digesting. Not even for money I would eat the types of foods Steve has in his website. Not only do they look gross but reading his thoughts they smell horrible. What makes me not like this website its the fact that I get nauseous every time I see disgusting foods or smell something bad. Overall the website is very interesting like I said before, I like the fact that Steve keeps his readers greatly entertain. One thing that I found crazy is that he eats these foods even when he knows they are going to taste bad. I give Steve props in eating these disgusting foods.

Comma Chameleon Tutorial

I just finished doing the comma chameleon tutorial. It helped me a lot with the comma mistakes I made writing my blogs. I had to do the tutorial twice because I did not do good in my first try. The comma tutorial helped me learn where to place the commas, semicolons, periods,etc in the correct place. With more practice I will be able to master where to put commas. This tutorial was helpful.

Article Tutorial

In this tutorial I learned about using verbs in the past and present. As well as correctly using a/an/the. It was a short, simple, and easy tutorial that I enjoyed doing. I only got one question wrong the rest I got right. My percentage was a 93% out of 100%.

Advanced Tutorials

This tutorial helped me with confusing words, comma splices, etc. It helped me correct my blog in many aspects. Also it made me find mistakes I didn't know I had. The advanced tutorial was great in guiding me to write better blogs. It was a very helpful tutorial.

My Favorite Soccer Player

Paolo Guerrero

His full name is Jose Paolo Guerrero Gonzales. He is a Peruvian footballer who plays as a striker for Hamburg SV and Peruvian national team. Guerrero started playing soccer at a Peruvian soccer club Alianza Lima. After Alianza Lima he signed a contract to play with Bavarian giants, Bayern Munich. Doing very well with the Bavarians giants, he got moved up to first team with Bayern Munich soccer team. After playing for Bayern Munich, Guerrero transferred to Hamburg SV where he currently plays. What personally makes Guerrero my favorite footballer is his love for soccer and most important the love that he has when he plays for the Peruvian national team. His nickname is "El Depredador"which means the depredator. His brother and uncle were footballers as well, in the Guerreros's family soccer is the main sport. Guerrero is a great role model and a magnificent soccer player that has a lot more to offer in the next years for his soccer club in Germany and his national Peruvian team.

Life In Ten Years

I picture my life in ten years as a fun loving life. What I always dream of when I think about my life in the future is having a big house in Naples, Florida. Living next to my sister and my parents that is my dream. Having two kids and taking them to socer practice. Also I would love to have a house in Peru where I am originally from. Peru is just such a fun place to live. There is plenty to do there and nobody could ever be bored if they live in Peru. One thing that I would like to do in the future is every weekend with all my family go to the beach relax and have some fun.Trying to think about my life in the future is exciting and scary. Beacuse everyday something changes and is either for the better or the worst. But it is also exciting to think of how my life is going to be in 10 years and all the good things that are waiting for me in the future. Whatever life I will be living in 10 years I am going to be thankful for it as long as I have my family with me and good health.

Tagxedo

Hero Personality

According to my hero personality quiz I am a caregiver. I think that the quiz is right I always consider myself a caregiver. Helping people comes naturally for me, it gives me a sense of motivation when I help someone. What I love doing is helping animals, back home in Fort Myers, Florida I usually go to animal shelters and help take care of dogs and give them food, play with them, and lastly give them lots of  love. I always put my family first and whenever somebody is depress or needs some cheering up, I go cheer them up and try to solve their problems, or just listen to them because usually when you listen it helps just as much. Another thing that I love doing is having family weekends were we go bowling, watch movies, and to the beach. Having this strength of caregiver as my main one makes me really happy because that means that I am doing something good and that gives me strength to do more positive things and help others when they need me. Is very important to once in a while take this kind of quizzes because they make you see what you need improvement in and help you become a better person.

Michael Jackson The Experience Video Game

Michael Jackson The Experience is by far the most fun and entertaining video game I have ever played. The game is fully a dancing game with not a whisper of kareoke to be found but at some points you are going to find yourself humming or singing some of the songs because they are classics and very catchy. There is 26 tracks each one of them tightly choreographed, but dont't worry if you are not an excellent dancer The Experience has dance tutorials that you can unlock and practice to get higher scores. The moves Michael Jackson has in this video game are tough, he was obviously no slacker when it comes to choreography, and even the easy dance moves will put you through a hectic workout that will make you break a sweat. Every time I would finish a hard routine or track and get a high score I would have a feeling of triumph, since they are not easy at all. What makes me play this video game so many times is the fact that I get a workout every time I play it and also because it makes me laugh whenever I mess up or the person that I am playing with does. I will explain you some key things you will need to know if you want to play the game. To play, you simply hold the Wii Remote in your right hand and replicate the actions of the virtual dancer onscreen. The points are based on the movements the Wii Remote tracks. Another important thing dont't worry if you are not scoring high or doing good in a song you can't never fail out of a song. Well I explain everthing that I know about Michael Jackson The Experience Wii Game, this is why is my favorite video game.

PREZI

My thoughts about Prezi are the following. I think that Prezi made it easy for me to create a presentation. It tells you everything you need to know about a slide show or a presentation. It basically gives you steps and then you just have to follow them. The explore option teaches you all about how to use Prezi. I clicked on explore and it gave me an option of learn how to use Prezi in fifteen minutes. The most important thing that made me liked Prezi is that it looks fun to use and if you are having trouble organizing your ideas Prezi helps you oraganize them. The inventor of Prezi is a internationally renowned architect and visual artist who has been working with zooming presentations since 2001 I found that quite interesting. Now it makes sense why all the presentation zoom in and zoom out. The idea of the zooming seems brilliant to me because every time you zoom in or out something new appears. Prezi is very fun and I'm really excited to work on a presentation using Prezi.

Grammar Correction

Well today in class we did some grammar corrections. I like it a lot, it is very helpful especially looking at your mistakes makes you learn more. At first I thought it was going to be really complicated but then it kinda went smoothly and I got the hang of it. I think it was something new that I never thought Microsoft word had so I am very curious to see what else Microsoft Word has. Fixing my grammar errors in every writting that I do helps me a lot for my future writting assingment because I learn from my mistakes and next time I won't do them again.

Favorite Movie "What Happens in Vegas"

What Happens in Vegas is my favorite movie of all times. Simply because it makes me laugh every time I watch it. I will tell you what is it about so get ready to go buy it after reading this. The main characters are Cameron Diaz wich stars as (Joy Mcnally) and Ashthon Kutcher starting as (Jack Fuller). Anyways getting back to what this movie is all about. Jack is a single Manhatannite who can never commit to a long-term relationship and works on his father's local furniter business where he spends more time goofing off than working.On the other hand Joy is slightly better, she is a young, polish urbanite, who works as a trader on the NYSE. She is engage to the impressive Mason but constantly has to juggle and modified her interests to please her fiancee.Coincidently Joy gets dumped by Mason and Jack gets fired by his dad. As a result both Jack and Joy hit the skids at around the same time and decide to head to Vegas for some fun and to try forgetting their problems back at home. The two accidentally meet when a computer mix-up at the hotel puts them in the same room. Even though they began their acquaintancenship by fighting endlessly they end up spending a long drunken night on the town together and when the sun rises and Joy wakes up, she discovers that during the course of the night she unwittingly married Jack.

I'm gonna leave it at that and not tell the rest of the story so you can watch it. But honestly this is the funniest movie I've ever watched. The whole cast did a very good job in the movie, they played their characters very well. It almost felt like a real life story. 

Recording this blogg was fun. I usually don't like hearing my own voice but this time it was actually very fun listenning to myself read all of my four bloggs that I have. I pick the Wipeout blogg because I think my voice sounds the best in this one. I also enjoyed using the movie maker option I've never use it before so it was interesting knowing how it works and everything. Maybe in the future I get to use it again for a project.

Blogging

Blogging

I just saw all of my classmates bloggs and they are all very interesting. The most common thing are videos which i enjoy watching, I watched almost every video that every blogg had. Another cool thing is that everybody has different likes, that's why each person in my class is unique.

WIPEOUT

Wipeout is the funnest tv show to watch seriously! The Game pits friends and family against each other in the world's largest, messiest, and most hilarious obstacle course out there today. I've haven't  laugh this hard in a while. The funniest moments are when the contestants fall or get hit by something its hilarious. As a matter of fact I like this tv show so much that I just filled out my application to be in it. It didn't take me that long either which is good because I wasn't looking forward to filling out pages and pages of information. So every thursday turn your tv on the ABC channel and watch Wipeout, you will not regret trust me.

QuiBids

QuiBids

QuiBids is a company that auctions the hottest most in-demand electronics like Apple iPads and iPods, MAC and PC notebooks, and HDTV's. Here is the most interesting part they sell all of these fabulous electronics at very low prices, the prices that QuiBids has are nowhere near retail prices. Here is another great thing about QuiBid all the electronics that they auction are brand new and have manufacture's warrantees.The company has been around for four years already and more people keep using it which means the company is growing bigger every year. But you must be wondering how can QuiBids afford to sell all these items for so little?, well here is the answer each time a buyer places a bid for an item QuiBids collects a small fee from the bidder. Now that I told you how QuiBid works is time for you to go home get on the computer and place your first bid in QuiBid.com.

Jukesy

Jukesy

Is a site online that I just found on Stumbleupon, where you can listen to your favorite music artists. Also you can find songs that you've never heard by your favorite artist.Jukesy has a great variety of music from all over the world. Any singer, band, or duets that you like to hear and don't know what web page to find them just go to Jukesy and you will find them. This site will help you find new songs and old songs that you've been wanting to find but never found.

About Me

Me!

Hello everybody my name is Ximena Dupont but all my friends call me Pinky except for my family. I'm originally from Lima, Peru. Peru is a beautiful country  in South America, I had the privilege to get raised there by my parents and grandma. Me and my family left Peru in 2003 to come to the USA for better opportunities. We reside at Fort Myers, Florida and thats where my parents live currently. Fort Myers is very pretty as well, its very humid and sunny most of the time but overall its is a nice place to live at.

I graduated high school in 2008 from Cypress Lake High School located in Fort Myers, Florida. After high school I started working at Target and stayed there for three years. Recently I realized that I wanted to get back in school and decided to apply to Lees-McRae. Since my sister attends Lees-McRae I was familiar with the campus and thought it was really nice. Once i received my letter of acceptance I knew it was a great opportunity for a better future and most important I am making my parents happy by getting into school again.

As of now I am currently studying at Lees McRae to have better opportunities  in life and have a better education to become a better person.