It's Just a Movie

The upcoming movie The Interview depicts a talk show host James Franco and his producer played by Seth Rogen traveling to North Korea for an interview with Kim Jung Un and being asked to kill him by the CIA. When I saw the preview for this movie the first time I thought, what the heck, and I said as a joke "Well North Korea's definitely gonna kill us now." It's funny with all the stupid movies James Franco and Seth Rogen have been in they now make a comedy that involves a nation and their dictator who at this moment hate the world, especially America. They literally have threatened us numerous times and have propaganda videos of bombs blowing up the U.S., so we are making fun of them!

Now I've learned some more about some actual dilemmas the movie is facing. With Sony, the movies producer, recently being hacked, thought to have been North Korea reacting, the thoughts of Sony and the directors have been revealed. E-mails that were released talked about the worry that some of Sony's executives had over this movie and its content. The E-mails did not really say much of anything important but, even the makers of this movies realized how strange what they were doing was and could see that there was issue with it. The reaction by North Korea and comments by some of its officials are crazy compared to these concerns.

North Korean officials according to latimes.com  have stated in response to the movie that it is "an act of war" as well as "it is a western war propaganda." So as I think anyone could assume, North Korea, the one country that basically has no friends, and hates everyone, is not happy that we made a movie about killing its leader, surprise surprise. The only thing I can say to this though is North Korea is crazy and spiteful either way and though this movie is a real stupid idea but if a couple of pot heads making a really dumb movie can piss of North Korea they really need to chill out. However Japan is worried because Sony has representation there and while vying for kidnapped Japanese citizens this movies outrage began. I feel like the stupidity of this movie is so not worth the trouble it is and will cause, however North Korea isn't getting its vengeance today.

Thanksgiving Needs More Than a Day

Thanksgiving season's just passed and now its time for jolly ole Saint Nick, and trees lined with presents, but I think we move passed the feasting and time for reflection too quickly. Thanksgiving the time for hours of cooking and copios amounts of food. The turkey, the potatoes, the stuffing and for me the delicious banana bread. What's better than sitting down with your loved ones and eating tons of delicious food?

 The commercial holiday that is Christmas, takes up everyone's minds. A lot of people love stuff. I love christmas as much as the next guy, but there's something about the closeness of Thanksgiving that people lose sight of. A time away from work, school, and the troubles of life where you spend time with your family, cook together, eat together, and reflect on what you're grateful for, that's just fantastic. A time to say hold on, I'm stressed and troubled and I keep struggling but I have all these people and all these things and opportunities, how can you not be happy when you think about the good things in your life rather than the bad.

Maybe this year instead of the black friday rush, and the desire for all the new things we can't wait to get for Christmas, why not appreciate the things we already have, and enjoy this time of some peace in our lives rather than add more stress to it. So many things wanted by so many people, what about the things and the people you've had your entire life that have made you happy every day before these new toys rolled around.

Thanksgiving and Christmas, there is no contest, both seasons of joy and breaks from the norm but  why can't we hold on to the great parts of Thanksgiving instead of jumping through the doors of every store on Black Friday as we await our gifts on Christmas day.

Whats wrong?

The two hardest things that I've ever had to go through are probably the death of my grandfather and the death of my basketball coach. These are serious things that will have changed me for my entire life, two of the few times I have and will ever have cried. Serious stuff. Don't think anyone will ask why it upset me, that it wasn't really a big deal, of course its a big deal. Two pieces of my life disappeared, never to be heard or visited again.

Death is real loss. It is real pain. It is something that rightfully has the power to consume and tear someone down.

Now a days, my big problems are school. Why is school my entire life and all of my worries? Does it make sense that a learning establishment deserves my attention 24/7 and gets to make me unhappy? I guess I'm the only one to blame though. Trying to do well to have a good future, requires a lot of work. How I feel is up to me. I'm not saying school has put me into a wreck, not at all. I just feel that sometimes school does get the better of me and it can be its own kind of pain.

I'm obviously happy any of you that know me. I have a lot of things in life going for me. My families great, my grades are good, I play basketball and have a lot of fun in band however school and homework fills up most of my life. Should school be the largest aspect of our lives because once it is, you realize that school is life. They say that we need to run and play and get our sleep but we stay up attempting to do as well as we can while trying to avoid the point of unhappiness in schools efforts.

I don't know if anyone feels the same I do and it doesn't really matter, I just was stressing about school all day and procrastinating but i couldn't enjoy the day because it was there, sitting on my lap. None of this is schools fault in a whole, I obviously could be doing more, why not just get it done, get rid of the distractions, then do things. It's because i don't think i can, I feel like I'll go crazy. School and work is constant, never ending, and when you have to face something everyday that has no enjoyment, exhausts you and you see no point to it can drive you crazy.

School is needed and it is a great thing. Everyone who has the ability to go to schools is incredibly lucky. Knowledge is power, and school sets you up to go on to great jobs, to make new discoveries and to help the world.

My big point to all this is that why is not that school is bad, it is that I lost two of the most important people in my life and it caused immense pain yet but I feel the same things pain and stress from school. My focus and my struggles are from the place that is supposed to prepare me for life and take on the world. Life should be what makes us happy and that's what we should fill it with. Knowledge gives us the ability to find happiness and hold on to it yet school seems more like a testing ground than a place of learning, and seeing a constant stress because of papers, scores, and grades that I can see as a big issue in my life when some of the biggest are the losses of my dearest loved ones is scary. I guess I can't control school so I'll keep living remembering this, that i need to remember the real fears in life not the mere distractions I have to face.

This stress and the fact that stresses of school compare to my deepest pain is what was wrong.

Thinking About Jobs

I was thinking about my future, so I started thinking about jobs. I started wondering what I would want to do when I'm older. I've thought for a while now that i want to go into medicine, my dream would be to go into neuro-surgeory or anesthesiology. While thinking about this I asked my self, what are the highest paying jobs? I found on cbsnews.com that some of the highest paying jobs are surgeons, psychiatrists as well as other medical fields, but also petroleum engineers and air traffic controllers. These jobs are the top, stable paying educated jobs yet almost every one requires many years of education that is also very expensive. Many people would probably think of the best jobs as get rich and famous quick but in the real world these stable, high educated jobs are available to anyone who puts in the work while only a lucky one percent will become famous, professional athletes or the next Bill Gates. Despite high loans and a long period of schooling and work before you even begin to bring in high pay and are able to pay off loans, these jobs offer a sort of insurance of great profit. These jobs are the highest paying that anyone can achieve and they may have a long work span, however when you think about something that you will do for most of your life there are bigger factors to consider. If you love what you do, then it would only be more exciting years making plenty of money rather than sitting at home eating a burger.

Continued intrigue and making a difference are very important to me when i consider my future. I've always thought being a doctor was the perfect way to spend my life, other than being a pro basketball player of course. If I was a doctor I would be able to make plenty of money to have a prosperous life. Being involved in medicine I would know for sure that every day my love of science would be able to be filled and my mind challenged every day on the job. My third reason for my main picks of jobs would be that i would know for a fact that every day i would be helping someone, I would be able to save even just one life and that could make everything worth while.

Thinking about the future is hard especially imagining what you could do for the next half of your life. I believe that the goals i set for where I want to be with my future has set the perfect map up for my road ahead and I think everyone should figure out what they want to be able to feel and say when they stand atop the White House podium or create the newest dish at their restaurant, what you do has to be fueled by your passion, get you to a place in life you are happy with, and make you feel proud and lucky to do it every time you walk in. This is how you build a future you are excited to be a part of and set your self up for success and happiness.

CP #1

After reading about Googles newfound realization of a huge gender gap within their company as well as other tech companies it raises some questions and thoughts. The article NYTimes: Exposing Hidden Biases at Google to Improve Diversity discussed Googles thoughts and part of its plans for change. Thoughts that come to my head are whether the company really cares, after never even realizing it or at least not caring, the company has obvious discrimination. Another thought is will Google make a drastic effort to fix their gender gap and hire at more of a one to one ratio specifically, turning down males to balance out the gender ratio? Thirdly this article and Googles effort to try and make a change is exciting to see, any change to make things more diverse and equal is a good shift.  Unfortunately what this article and the statistics of gender and race diversity within major tech businesses portrays is that even in our most intelligent and forward thinking areas of society there is a clear discrimination which can only display the underlying discrimination across our society.

Google is approaching its gender gap with workshops that are supposed to work with the Google employees to tackle unconscious bias. Once people are more open and accepting they believe that the gap should close and a greater diversity will emerge. The belief is that once people see the hidden discrimination that occurs they will see how prevalent it is and will be able to make a conscious effort to fight these biases. With a 70% male work force Google has a clear gender gap which is not representative of the population at all. Google is approach in this problem due to it being morally right and also because research has shown that more diverse work forces are able to be more creative than homogenous ones. I do not know how Google decides on applications and with its hiring but it is just logical that the work force should be decided upon by their qualifications and the skill they have, I highly doubt that most of the 70% of males at google are really more qualified than the many women not filling these positions. An even greater issue is that men make up 83 percent of its engineering employees and 79 percent of its managers. This statistic shows a clear gap in opportunities and positions given to women at the companies when they're already a minority in the work place. One anecdote of Google was that a panel of men were deciding on the promotion of a women and when they were brought to realize that they might not have the point of view of a woman and they realized how unequal it is to have a group of white men deciding on the fates of women and other minorities. All in all something needs to be done to balance out the numbers in Google and other tech businesses with similar gender and racial gaps because it is plain unfair and wrong to not have equal opportunity and representation. Th fact that Google is trying to make a move is great but the change must be strong and needs to occur everywhere or else nothing will really change and this unconscious discrimination and imbalance is throughout all of society.