Senioritis: The Experience

Senioritis is defined and described as the decreased motivation toward studies displayed by students who are nearing the end of their high school career (WIKI). Senioritis is definitely real and a majority of seniors suffer from this “illness.” A post on Tumblr listed the symptoms of senioritis to be: “laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, and sweatshirts. Lack of studying, repeated absences, and a dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as Graduation.” I personally feel this is accurate. Being a junior in high school, I see it in my senior friends and classmates. They have been accepted into college and no longer need to maintain more than a passing grade. They grow anxious for the cure (Graduation). Seniors don’t even go to class the last week of school because they have senior activities.

On Buzz Feed, the author gave 28 hilarious signs that you might have senioritis. In a survey done by The Omniscient, they found that 78% of seniors believe they have senioritis. I have a feeling that I will have senioritis to some extent next year. I won’t want to do the work but I will still complete homework and study throughout the entire year- I hope.

I would like to know if you think senioritis is real so please leave a comment explaining your views. Thank you and have a good day! 🙂

Technological Advances for College Students

Now that technology has become more readily available for people in the United States, Colleges are now requiring students have certain pieces of technology to complete their studies or to simply make the work easier to accomplish. In an article by Business Insider, the author gives a list of 13 gadgets that all college students should have.

The apparatuses are a(an):

• E-Reader
• Tablet
• Laptop
• Laptop Lock
• Cooling Pad
• USB Flash Drive
• External Mouse
• Printer
• External Hard Drive
• Scientific Calculator
• Bluetooth Speaker
• Noise-canceling Headphones
• MiFi

Some of these things are unknown to a lot of people. My problem with this list is how they do not mention a graphing calculator yet require two similar devices (the tablet and E-reader). There is probably an app for a tablet that works as an E-reader. Things like a mouse, printer and hard drive are some technologies I had not necessarily thought would be needed.

As for the future, I’m not sure what to expect. I would like to see one device that can do all of these things without complication. But I understand how impossible it would be to even decide the size, shape or form of that gadget. I feel like there is not much more people can do to make college life easier using technology.

Sleep Drunkenness is real?

The idea of “waking up drunk” has circled the minds of people across the world.  Studies show that 1 in 7 people wake up confused and unaware of their surroundings even if they are in their own bed in their own home. Also someone could have no recollection of late-night conversations or activities.  Confusion arousal is when someone wakes up and remains in a confused state for a period of time before fully waking up and gathering their thoughts or simply falling back asleep.  In a study with 19,000 adults filling out a survey about their sleep, 15.2% experienced this state of confusion when awoken. What is even more surprising is the amount of time this confusional state lasts. More than a third of adults experiencing sleep drunkenness were in a confused state for 5 or less minutes.  32.3% lasted from 5-15 minutes and a shocking 30% of adults were in a confused state for more than 15 minutes.  For the adults who said they suffered sleep drunkenness, it was a weekly or even daily occurrence.  Most people with sleep drunkenness also have other sleep disorders or have sleep deprivation.  Doctors recommend adults get a minimum of six hours of sleep a night to limit and prevent these occurrences.

Personally, I don’t believe I’ve ever suffered from sleep drunkenness but I think it’s interesting how many people do.  The idea of waking up every morning and not knowing where I am is a scary thought.  I try to get at least eight hours of sleep every night.  A YouTube video by AsapSCIENCE showed the effects of the body if you stopped sleeping all together.  It is very important to get enough sleep for other reasons listed in the video. Out of curiosity I would like to know how many readers have experienced sleep drunkenness.  Please participate in the following poll.

Henry, Trisha. (2014, August 25). 1 in 7 suffer from sleep ‘drunkenness’. Retrieved from HERE.

How to Quit Your Job

There are times where you will find yourself stuck in a job you are not happy with. It might be because of the pay, your peers or the product. U.S. News: Money made a post giving readers 8 ways to quit your job in a good manner.

• Notify your boss- make a meeting with them to discuss your leave.
• Give a two-week’s notice- this gives your boss of company time to replace you.
• You don’t have to explain- you are not required to explain why you are leaving unless you feel comfortable with disclosing that information.
• Don’t have an emotional outburst- your boss could still help you to get a new job so don’t do something you could regret.
• Don’t leave them hanging- if your expertise is needed to finish a project or job, stay until it’s done, or they can get someone to do your previous work.
• Leave a good impression- you wouldn’t want your new job to ask for references if you were rude or disrespectful towards your peers.
• Keep up with the colleagues- don’t leave your colleagues guessing what happened to you. You’ve probably made friends so keep in touch with them.

However, if you are wondering how you can quit school… well that’s a discussion to have with your parents.

Another note to keep in mind: when you are quitting something, MAKE SURE IT IS THE BEST DECISION FOR YOU!

Good luck! 🙂

Video Game Statistics

Research shows that Americans spent $20.5 billion on video games in 2013. 65% of game revenues are generated digitally. 170 million Americans spend money to play video games. China is the only country who spends more money than America. Another study reviled that 52% of gamers are women. In 2012, the average age of a gamer dropped from 37 to 30 years old.

Gamers can no longer be stereotyped as middle-aged men. They are now people of all ages (the average happens to be 30) and more than 50% are women.

Sources:

Forbes

The Guardian

Kotaku

Common Core a Common Bust

The Common Core standards have been adopted by 43 states and the District of Colombia. Now that the Common Core tests are being administered across the country, people are forced to take their test on a computer or laptop. The main problem is not the actual test, but the way the test is being given to students. The program requires access to high-speed internet. That is a big problem for schools in rural areas such as New Cuyama. In fact, 63% of schools do not have access to internet and only 14% of schools have high- speed internet.

Here in Culver City, the internet was slow at times (when I took the test) and caused crashes in the program even though we have high-speed internet. You can imagine what a pain it was for other students with next-to-no internet to take the test. Due to this, many schools are choosing to take the paper version of the exam.

You can read the original article HERE.

Small Yet Large

Harrison Brammell is a 5th grader from New Orleans who is obsessed with learning how to code. He’s on his computer before school, after school, and up until he has to go to bed. All his free time is spent learning to code through YouTube videos and a book his dad got him. Harrison has even begun to stream himself. He is currently attempting to create a “galactic-like” game. Harrison is very accomplished for his age and continues to learn coding. He believes anyone can code.

Jobs at Google

Some jobs you can get at Google include Project Manager, Ad Solutions Consultant, Systems Engineer, Creative Insights and Software Engineer. For this post, I will provide information about being a Software Engineer for Google.

Google’s software engineers develop next-generation technologies which alter how millions of users connect, explore, and interact with each other. Software engineers work with a small team to complete projects.  They need to be versatile and passionate to take on new problems as technology continues to advance. Software Engineers at Google are researches and developers who hope to create and implement complex computer science solutions. Google’s Software Engineers develop massively scalable, distributed software systems and also collaborate on multitudes of smaller projects. These asks require the engineers to research, be aware, interact, and ask questions.

The minimum requirement to become a Software Engineer for Google is to obtain a Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science or a related technical field. You must also have experience with algorithms, data structures, complex analysis, and software design. You must also have experience with one of the following: C, C++, Java, Python or Go.

This job can be done at any Google Center across America.

 

Source of Information:

Google Careers

Google Careers Pt. 2

Add-on Test Page

German Translations

Deutsch Übersetzungen

My name is Alexis and I love to play basketball.

Mein Name ist Alexis und ich liebe, Basketball zu spielen.

I am from California in the United States.

Ich bin aus Kalifornien in den Vereinigten Staaten.

Hillary Clinton’s Logo Controversy

This Sunday Hillary Clinton announced that she will be running for President of the United States during the Fall Election of 2016. The controversy, however, is not in her decision to run, but in her logo for her campaign. The logo is two blue vertical lines with a horizontal red arrow crossing through it- resembling an “H” for Hillary.

The colors are no doubt the red, white and blue symbolism of America. Many people are saying it is a knock-off or a copy of other logos seen around the world. Some argue the logo resembles the the U.K. flag. Others are wondering “what lucky 3rd grader won the Design the Hillary Clinton Campaign Logo contest” because of its simplicity.

One YouTuber that I follow, Hannah Hart, has a logo that is also very similar to Clinton’s. Shown above, Hannah’s logo is also two vertical lines with an arrow through the middle. It is supposed to represent the play and pause symbols of YouTube and then later overlap to look like an “H.” Hannah Hart takes a very different approach with her tweet. She does not bash Clinton for having an almost identical logo, but states she likes her design. This probably makes Hannah feel as if Clinton is not supreme to her- but just another human being. People should be happy that Clinton’s logo is simple and not overly confusing in any way. Not all Americans want to analyze a logo for a campaign. This logo can show that Clinton has a mindset of “straight and to the point.”

If anything, Americans should like how simple and generic Hillary Clinton’s logo is. If someone wants to criticize something about Clinton, they can criticize her agenda, not her logo.

Spring Bre/ak

The beloved Spring Break has come to an end as students and teachers return to the classroom today to the monotonous life of learning. The last two weeks gave students a break from reality to spend time away from books and close to family and friends. The students at Culver City High School returned today to find that they have 49 days left of the school year. They are preparing to make a drive towards freedom as they battle their Advanced Placement testing, Common Core tests, Finals, SAT Exams and ACT Exams. We got an interview with a junior from CCHS, Alexis Arancibia.

What are some things you did over break?

Alexis: I did some studying for my upcoming tests. I went to a few appointments. I went hiking and swimming with my friends and had a basketball workout. I played video games with one of my friends and watched a lot of YouTube and Netflix.

 

How do you feel about returning from break?

Alexis: I think if you have too long of a break you start to become extra lazy and it becomes harder to get back into the swing of things. That’s why summer break is harder for me- eventually I do get bored. One week isn’t enough but three weeks is too much so I’m glad we get two weeks for Spring Break. I think it’s a little perfect.

 

Did you manage to et more sleep during your break?

Alexis: I think I actually got less sleep than I do when at school. During school weeks I make sure I get enough sleep so I’m not tired the next day. With very little responsibilities- I allowed myself to go to bed late.