Clearly Claire: The Promise of a Perfect Game

I have never been that into baseball. I don't watch it on television and except for the occasional Port's game, I don't really go to see baseball, but my dad has always been a fan. I know enough about baseball that when a man pitches a perfect game, you stand up and take notice.

Stockton, in my lifetime, has been the forclosure capital of the US, the most violent city, and the second most depressing city in the US. But these things didn't seem to stop Dallas Braden. He was the pitcher who pitcheed that perfect game. He was the one who let ball after ball fly over the plate and didn't give up a single run. He dreamed to be better than what he was, where he came from, and what he'd done, and accomplished his dream. (he also happened to go to my high school, which is pretty awesome.)

I have always loved my town. There is not a street in this city that doesn't have some kind of fond memory for me, but that doesn't mean that I want to stay here all my life. I have never been the type of person who was happy where I was. I aways dreamed of bigger and brighter things than what I saw surrounding me, but I never saw a way out. But seeing Braden not only pitch a perfect game, but pitch for a major league baseball team helped me believe that I can do it. I can conquer the world I happen to be in now and come out better on the other side. I don't have to be depressed and violent just because I live in a city that says I'm supposed to be. I can go on to do something great, like Braden.

But more than just that, Braden still loves the city he grew up in. The violent depressing, foreclosure and during my entire dream to leave this city behind I never thought of doing anything to help the city improve after I was gone. I do love this town, but I always said that I was going to get out and never come back except for occasional visits to my parents,but Braden has changed my mind. I don't have to be afraid of being here. That doesn't make me a failure, which until a few months ago I thought. I thought that if I stayed here, I was giving up on my dreams, but Braden showed me that my dream can include a better Stockton.

So when Braden tossed that last ball over the plate and his team yelled and screamed and hugged their superstar, Braden didn't know it, but he had changed my whole life.     

KARINA 360° & A. Cordova : A Predicted Future - Orwell and Bradbury

Books were banned, and privacy invaded. Thoughts were destroyed and brains manipulated.

These were the visions in the 1950s by Ray Bradbury and George Orwell. Throughout the duration from the time those books were published – till now - we can see examples of this occurring in our everyday lives.

A few weeks ago a good Samaritan died on the streets of Queens after saving a women from being assaulted. He himself was stabbed and fell to the floor helpless. During a duration of about 2 hours, 25 people had passed by him not responding to the situation. Of those 25 people, some took pictures of him with their camera phone. Some stood and stared and did nothing.

He later died.

This scenario is mirrored 50 years ago by Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451

Today, as a whole, people are distracted and are less alert to their surroundings. “Denham’s Dentifrice” is an example of an advertisement that was used in Bradbury’s novel to brainwash and to distract civilians in a subway.

On a walk everywhere and anywhere, ads bombard us. Bradbury describes in his mind 200 foot long billboard ads, it seen as though as a form of brainwashing. Today it is the same idea.

“Buy this and buy that! This will make you skinny! Your skin will glow!”

More than ever, sleeping pills have exploded and are a necessity for many Americans. In 2005, 42 million sleeping pills were prescribed.

Why is it that so many people have such a problem sleeping? Of course there are those with medical problems, but that a different story. We’re talking about those who are simply stressed out. Those who are so bothered.

In the New York Times article by Stephanie Saul, she wrote drug companies spent $298 million in 2005 to “convince consumers that the sleep aids are safe and effective.”

‘“Experts acknowledge that insomnia has become a cultural benchmark — a side effect of an overworked, overwrought society. "Clearly, there's a significant increase in people who report insomnia and, from my perspective, that is the result of our modern-day lifestyle," said Dr. Gregg D. Jacobs, a psychologist.”’

Safety or Privacy is what the average American must choose between. As technology continues to advance and crime increase the safety has become a main priority. But are the many advances just taking it a little too far?

According to an article in USA Today 10 airports have installed full body scanners. Full body scanners are scanners that one must go in to pass security. An image will be produced of the full naked body in detail. Although it is such a great machine that insures our safety, isn't it taking our privacy away?

With the full body scanner all privacy is eliminated and is exposed to strangers that work with the scanner. Not only that, but where do the images go? Are they completely eliminated from the system?

Maybe airports aren’t a big deal to many, but the everyday use of the internet can be. Millions have an email account and are registered in Google mail, Facebook or other similar internet sites that offer free internet communication to loved ones.

It’s free in the sense of no pay, but those who use this websites and have accounts are selling their privacy. Daniel Lyons wrote, “Our privacy has become a kind of currency.”

How else would these sites make a profit if they are free?

For example Google, reads one’s e-mail and based on the keywords in the private messages, ads are directed at you. If one types about soccer, they might get a soccer ad.

So in other words internet services sell ones name to advertisers for profit. So much about caring for our privacy!

Bradbury said if a disaster was to happen hospitals and libraries should be the first to be rebuilt. And it's alarming that in our day, because of budget cuts, those two are the first ones being cut.

The next generation will be robbed of the true history. Texas, the largest buyer of textbooks, is somewhat in charge of what children will learn. Recently conservatives morphed the “liberal” historical figures. The Texas Board of Education did so without a historian present. Thomas Jefferson was an inspirational revolutionary writer. His part was downsized and replaced with more conservative figures.

James C. McKinley Jr. wrote, ‘“Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”’

The fact that people can warp the past into what they please is a direct example of what Orwell described in 1984.

While reading these books we have both realized the effects of a society that has accepted the term “ignorance as strength.”

Not only has it triggered us to think about the future but it also has made us more aware of our surroundings.

It leaves us with just one question.

What will 2050 look like? Thats your choice.

That Religious Guy: Languages are awesome!!

..... I've gone through so many introduction sentences for this post that I'm starting to see the irony between this momentary lapse in writing and my subject: Languages are awesome. I can't even describe how languages have expanded my world, making it more alive and open to others. There's nothing like learning a new tense in French or memorizing key phrases in Spanish.
..... The concept of words is an amazing one. Words give form to our thoughts, our emotions, and our desires. They've evolved from simple gurgles and mumblings to full-fledged "tier-3" titans as Mrs. Weir-Graham would say like "maladroit" and "gregarious." Coupled with various pronunciations, regional accents, and numerous definitions, the language salad is further tossed and turned. One cannot forget about how grammar, both academic and colloquial, spices this green creation even more (Hey, I like putting hot sauce in my salad, making it into a forest fire, but that's another post for another time.) But I myself have only nibbled on the leaves of this language salad (Talk about extended metaphor huh?).
..... Alas, I can only speak a few languages: English with a California neutral accent, Filipino with a Manileño twist, French with an American feel, and Spanish with a Filipino lleismo. To enhance my learning experience, I started participating in the forums on Antimoon.com, a Web site dedicated to helping people learn English as well as other languages. During my short adventures on the site, I realized how much languages not only unite but divide. For hispanohablantes, the topic "Hablemos Espanol" provides an outlet to practice the Spanish language. There's also a pretty generous peppering of other topics on French, Dutch, German, Chinese, and other tongues. It seems that the language world is divided into teams based on whatever language you speak. Therefore, on Antimoon.com, los Hispanohablantes hate les Francophones, Chinese speakers are ridiculed, Germans keep to themselves, and the Dutch apparently hate their language. There's one thing that unites everyone who knows another language however and that's the conclusion that English sucks! Being only a novice in the languages I've taken on (French and Spanish), I see myself inferior to the other polyglots, but I can't help but see the idiocy in insulting other languages.
..... The rants and ravings against other languages are mainly based on false stereotypes. For example, someone posted concerning my topic, "Philippine Spanish Accent," that "it is very important for a Filipino to learn Spanish in order to effectively communicate with the other chief source of low-cost labour, the Mexicans." Apparently, there are people in the world who are quick to generalize all Spanish speakers as uneducated dunces. Then there's the stereotype that the French are sissies or that the Chinese are a sneaky people. These stereotypes have nothing to do with the languages themselves, just overlapping histories that have festered into hate.
..... It's important to note that I go on Antimoon.com for the content, not the conversation. This is to say that petty arguments and debates don't really affect or matter to me when I'm on this Web site. What matters most is the tiny treasures I learn about like how "vosotros" is more popular than you think and that lleismo isn't that archaic. So beware of ignorant individuals who will be quick to insult, but even quicker to back down once they find out you're not a primitive islander living in the Philippines but a headstrong Filipino American. Get out there and learn a language but be proud doing it!

- Jeremy Dela Cruz

CrazyFaithy: I now have a new respect for baseball

Okay, before I begin blurting out a ton of things that you probably won't understand, let me go over some basic info for you:

A no-hitter is when the opposing team in baseball has absolutely no hits. Though it may not seem like much, it's very uncommon. The last MLB no-hitter before this weekend was made by Mark Buehrle on July 23rd of last year.


So why am I telling you this? Well, it just so happens that a former Stagg student, Dallas Braden of the Oakland Athletics, pitched the most recent perfect game on Sunday, May 9th against the Tampa Bay Rays.




(Several articles can give you a behind the scenes look if you're interested.)

Now on to the real story...

Dallas wasn't always the picture of success. In fact, when he attended Stagg, the words that people would use to describe him were quite the opposite. He was known as the slacker, the lazy dude, and the occasional "intelligent but lazy" student. (Did I mention he was lazy?)

This one of my problems as well. I am constantly told that I have the upmost potential to be something great, but usually I just roll my eyes and say "yeah, thanks."

Dallas Braden has officially inspired me. :) If a former Stagg student can have such a cringingly low GPA and leave here to pitch a perfect game in pro-baseball, then America really is the land of opportunity. I really can be anything I want to be!

Don't misinterpret what I'm saying here; high school is one of the most important steps we'll take in life. It prepares you for everything. However, Braden shows that even if we make some bad decisions, there are always opportunities for those that seek them. There is always a way to make your life better if you have the willpower and integrity.

Baseball itself never interested me. I must admit that I now have a new respect for the sport, though. Seeing how somebody can use it to turn their entire life around was amazing. The respect I have for it is now indescribable

What made this game all the more heartwarming was the fact that Braden was inspired by his mother, who died of cancer. His grandmother was at the game, and she supported him the whole way through.

Keep your heads up and keep working hard. You never know what opportunities could be heading your way. :)

photo credit: Lance Iverson/The Chronicle

iMissyRae 2.0: Applied and Denied?

Being the ever so curious and bored teenager that I usually am, I've recently been following a blog on the New York Times website called "The Choice" which is dedicated to 'demystifying college admissions and aid.' Since senior year is weeks away, I've found that college is no longer an urban legend, and seeing as I'm not spending my time studying for the May SAT, I've decided to follow the blog's recent series, "The Envelope, Please."

The series focuses on six high school seniors across the nation who blog about their personal college application journies and how they deal with the string of acceptances and rejections that follows behind them. One blogger I've especially been fond of is Anna Paik, a senior from Immaculate Heart High School in the sunny Los Angeles area. One of her recent blogs especially caught my eye, and it talks about her recovery from the 11 rejections she received out of the 14 colleges she applied to. To sum it all up, as Paik said, "the college process makes us all vulnerable" and although I haven't started applying to college as of yet, I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready to.

College is the one instituion in America that allows people to judge teenagers based on their grades, extracurricular activities, and standardized testing scores. College applicants practically lay their life out on a piece of paper for admissions offices who tell them whether or not they're good enough to attend that certain school. And with the teens of today, who can handle such criticism and rejection? I certainly couldn't. And neither could Paik (click here for Paik's rejection blog).

You would think an intelligent and unique girl like Paik would get into her dream college, especially after writing for the New York Times website (imagine putting that on your college application). But no, she didn't. She applied to her top choices, such as Stanford and University of California Berkeley, and yet she didn't make the cut. She placed her head on the chopping block, and was sliced from the list. That, my fellow friends, takes courage, but it makes me ponder whether I'd be good enough to make it into my "dream college."

With the impending budget cuts in California, it's hard to be optimistic about the future of education. But after reading the rest of Paik's blog (click here to read it), I realized that the college application process is like the wind. One day, it'll just pick up out of nowhere, and when you least expect it, ruffle your hair a bit and annoy you, maybe even knock you down. But like the wind, the college application process will come and go, as quick as that.

Although I am still a junior in high school and have yet to experience the woes of applying to college, I will one day endure a certain sheaf of rejections that will probably make me question my self-worth, and who knows, maybe even allow me to gain that "freshman 15" before college even starts. But when that time comes and I am up to my elbows in pessimism, I'll remember to keep my head above the water and wait it out, because like Paik said, "we’re much too young to be cynical."

That Religious Guy: Cowards and their Keyboards

..... I've always found it interesting that people are so civilized, polite, and nice... In public that is. Sure there's the occasional playful teasing from friends and politically incorrect jokes, but both actions aim to entertain rather than offend. I guess being out in the open, in front of judging eyes, prevents people from exposing their real personalities, which reminds me of a good proverb I read somewhere: A man's character should be determined not from what he does in public but what he does in private. Sadly, in this morally gilded age lies a dark underbelly of rudeness and prejudice, a lesson I learned from revisiting my Yahoo! Answers account.
..... I've had a Yahoo! Answers account since December of last year, but I hardly ever used it. Recently, I've discovered how fun it is to help others with their problems. I usually frequent the language questions, helping certain users with dilemmas concerning French, English, or Tagalog. So far, I've only had one best answer, but I aim to sooner or later hit the jackpot and have a "Top Contributor" logo underneath my alias, That Religious Guy. I digress however. So, I realized that I myself could start posting questions about my new favorite subject: languages. My interest was sparked a couple months ago by Philippine Spanish, or the brand of Castellano spoken by Filipinos. Through my limited research, I learned that native Filipino hispanohablantes have their own accent and use different phrases as opposed to the Mexicans, Cubans, etc.
..... I wanted to know more, however, so I posted a question on Yahoo! Answers along the lines of wanting to know more about the specifics of the Philippine Spanish accent and how I could mimic it. Sadly, instead of gaining helpful information, I got this as a response:

"Just keep following the road to El Dorado, and USA will back your scrawn.y wetbac.k spi.c as.s up.


The thing about the Spanish language is that it is originally phonetic. It is probably more phonetic than Italian language, and its transcript sticks true to the sound, and thus becomes the fore front language of Empires, and just like That Religious Guy, religion (old).

French on the other hand is like saucy language, where there are flying accents here and there, as if they are being naughty and Julius Caesar needs to spank them to bed."

..... Now I have a thick a skin as the next guy, but still, being called a "wetback" even though I'm not Mexican hurt a little. I knew that whoever posted that answer meant to truly offend me for desiring to know more about the Spanish language. I also believe that the person in question, we'll call him Scrooge, thought I was living in the Philippines and therefore thought me inferior. Though I am "a little brown brother" as the old U.S. imperialists would say, I'm also an American citizen and I do not take to being treated badly too kindly. Scrooge's comment was mildly amusing since it described the French language in such a hmmm.... What's the word? Interesting? Yes, in an interesting way. (Note: I mentioned that I was going to take AP French next year in my Yahoo! Answers question.)
..... There are so many issues with Scrooge's response. Not only did he insult an ethnicity and linguistic group, but he proves to be one of the many cowards sitting at home trying to rain on the parades of others. I don't understand why some people, once they get behind closed doors, become savage creatures bent on insulting others. Where do they get their courage from? Probably from the notion that no one can hold them accountable for whatever they say or type in private. Still, this should never be an excuse to be rude like Scrooge. His weapon of choice? The keyboard. His target? People trying to get an informative answer. His reward? A semi-angry post by yours truly, That Religious Guy.

- Jeremy Dela Cruz

Clearly Claire: 'Remember Me' has unnecessary ending

It was Saturday afternoon, I had just woken up and was still groggy when I went to my computer to read reviews from RottenTomatoes.com. (I love the show, so I always check the website before seeing a movie.) I had been planning on seeing the movie "She's Out of My League" and was checking to see if it had gotten good ratings. I stumbled upon angry blogs about a movie called "Remember Me".

This intrigued me. What about this non-vampire-loving Robert Pattinson movie had gotten all these viewers so steamed? Everyone said that movie was unnecessary. It's ending was cheap and only there to get a quick tear from everyone in the audience. I had heard all of this but it only made me want to see it more. No one would say what the ending was, but I had to know what had rilled up so many feathers.

I drove as quickly as I could to the 4:45 showing, sat in the plush chair with an arm full of Sour Patch Kids and Popcorn, and prepared myself for a teen drama about finding yourself. Something I had see before, but I was not prepared for what I was about to see.

(SPOILER: I am going to reveal the ending, so if you want to see the movie don't read. It isn't really worth seeing, but just in case.) Pattinson's character falls in love, endures a brother's suicide, and finally makes up with his stone-hearted father when the ending rolled around. I thought the movie was about to be over, so I packed up my purse, unsure of why a nation had been angered by this movie and then it happened.

A teacher on screen wrote September 11, 2001 on the board and the cameras pan away from Pattinson to show him inside one of the Twin Towers.

That is when I lost it. Tears began to pour from my face in buckets. My nose began to run and I sniffed along with every other person in the room. This all happened before the airplanes even hit. The little boy who had been sitting next to me bored through the entire movie looked up at his teary-eyed mother and asked "Why is that girl crying?". I lost it again. It had been so long since I had thought of that day, but when I saw the crash, it all came rushing back. The fears, the emotions, the knowledge that nothing was ever going to be the same.

The thing was, I wasn't crying because Pattinson's character died, although it was sad, I was crying because of the Towers falling and remembering the way I felt that day. I was suddenly as angry as the Rotten Tomatoes bloggers. How dare the filmmakers take advantage of our tragedy in order to get cheap tears, especially from pre-teens who probably didn't even remember that day, let alone what it represented. The movie would have been fine without that ending, better in fact, because I wouldn't have felt so awful. I get that the filmmakers wanted the ending to be sad, but they did not have to do it in that way.

I'm not saying that we can never have movies about 9/ll, but if we do, I want them to be worth something. If you are going to make me cry, do it for a better reason than, just because you can. I hate movies that take advantage of dire moments in history in order to get people to cry. I now understand the anger and decided to add my own blog to Rotten Tomatoes. You filmmakers did it, you rilled my feathers.