Test Ranting

Blog Week Post #3

If the sight of the picture above is making you soil your pants in horror, you are not alone. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened despite not knowing what this is. Well, for your sake, at our school, our standardized testing is carried out by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, therefore, we have to take the dreaded PARCC tests, or better yet, as we call them, the CCRAP tests. These dastardly papers force you to answer a couple of two-part answers with answer keys that match up to what I five-year-old would answer, then it forces you to write an entire essay. PER TEST, which I tell you, has about three or four of them. And believe me, even those are rigged. I remember in preparation for this test, our class had to take the role of the parcc graders of essays, and review previous submissions on our own. We obviously praised the good ones and laughed about the bad ones, but when she revealed to us what the PARCC test rated the essays, barely any of our ratings agreed, and believe me, there were some stupid ones in there!
Anyway, back to the topic, these poorly-made tests make up the worst week of the entire school year, and it doesn't even matter. It's not like our grades depend on it, it's not like the teachers take the reviews seriously, but after all that, why does it matter to do it in the first place, If I didn't have my own personal standards, I would've just put in a bunch of chat spam into the essay (at least, if we took the tests via Chromebook). Believe me, PARCC tests aren't worth the effort.
So you can bet I slapped myself in the face as a reality check when my mom announced that I would skip PARCC testing. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I know you think I'm probably really lazy because of this, but it's a long story. Point is, my siblings and I go to different schools, and so they have different spring breaks. I already spent my spring break in Charleston, SC with my cousins (which was awesome), and so my siblings' spring break was during the week of PARCC testing. My family was going to Florida, so I obviously couldn't stay behind by myself. My mom wrote a note to the principal excusing me, and that's how I avoided the worst week of my life. (Also, if you're wondering how I know how bad it is, every grade has to take it, so I suffered through it back in 7th grade.)
So, that's all I have to rant about for PARCC testing. If you have any horror stories of this test of your own, please tell me! Really, I think everyone should come together to allow our schools to hang this sign in the hallways:

...At least, for the English tests. I really do not mind the Math Segment. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

If I could spend a day...

Blog Week Post #2

So basically, the question this time is: If I could spend a day with any three people, who would they be? Well, just going to say it now, but I personally think it would be awesome to spend a day with Arin and Danny from Game Grumps. If you don't know who they are, basically they are the famous duo of the gaming youtube channel, Game Grumps. Despite the fact that I've only heard of them recently, they are by far, the funniest gamers I've ever seen in my life. Not to mention, they did and are currently doing playthroughs for a lot of games that I really like, so that's pretty cool. I just really think it would be cool if I ever got to hang out at their house and just play video games for an entire day, because let's face it, that would be pretty cool.

As for a third famous person...    I guess just for things to fit in, I would also like to include Ross. He's another member of the channel Game Grumps, although he's not exacly the center of it like Danny and Arin, although he is the close 2nd. I'm personally not that much of a fan of him, but I guess I would also keep him around because he's sorta good at games, and he's huge, in my opinion, to go to for comic relief. I'm not saying that he's funny (or at least, as funny as the other two), but a huge part of Game Grumps is that everyone treats him like he's a huge jerk, and he's completely fine with it. (If you want to know what I mean by this, look up some of Ross's levels on Super Mario Maker.) I think that would make for a good pick of 3, Arin, Ross, and Danny of Game Grumps to play video games with.

KAWAII

Blog Week Post #1.5

Are you having trouble concentrating? Are you feeling down or agitated? Let me help you with that:

Let's be serious about this ._.

Blog Week Post #1

A Tribute to my Uncle ChrisJohn

So I obviously don't have a photo of him to put here, but that isn't important. :/

Anyway, the reason this uncle of mine is important to me is because he's really done a lot for me in the past year. He's really fine about letting us and "his kids", obviously my cousins, see each other practically every weekend. Sometimes, he'll even take us somewhere, like the movies. He is really chill, and will pretty much do anything to make us laugh. If you've ever met him, he never really greets, but says something witty about how your life must be going, which I like so much. In fact, he's the only person I know, (and probably the only one you'll have heard of) to dab in church when he gave a speech.

So yeah, he's pretty relaxed, and doesn't worry that much, but at the same time, he can be serious and relatable with you. He was my Confirmation candidate for me this year, which was really nice of me. Not to mention, if I'm doing bad in school, he can tell it to me with being serious but not making you fell like dirt, which is honestly the hardest thing to do in the world. I personally think he's my role model. True, I can be un-serious at many times, but I just hope that like, him, I can be chill and serious at the same time, not one or the other. My uncle ChrisJohn is the best, closest uncle I probably could've asked for.

And also, NO, HE IS NOT DEAD!!! This was just the closest picture I could find to a tribute.

Prepare Yourself...

So, if you couldn't tell....      this place has been practically dead for a whole long time. Way more than it should've. I don't want to go into detail, but let's just say that there was stuff I was supposed to be doing. Anyway, with blog post ideas piling up, recent inactivity to be made up, and some other factors that probably don't exist but am making up for the sake of this looking good, I present to you BLOG WEEK. From this day forward, I will be making a new blog post every single day until...   well... whenever I'm done. Actually, come to think of it, these are supposedly the last blog posts I plan on doing, so what a great way to end this off! Be sure to check in every evening to see something here for the sake of wrapping up the school year!

Are field trips really needed?

There are many haters out there who think that it really is better for standard education to dominate over field trips. Some people think that these visits to the museums don't teach anything to those who come, as us students wouldn't bother to carefully read information or remember it for a test, and probably just goof off with our friends. Besides, field trips often aren't cheap. Likely, you would have to take from your own family's earnings to pay for lunch and museum access, which can be surprisingly overpriced. With all of this said, is it really necessary to have field trips if it's going to be wasted?

So interactive ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

YES! Field Trips are not wasted! Sure, we probably goof off with our friends, but its not like we don't pay attention to anything there. I think we're safely past the mindless 3-year-old boredom of "adult stuff". Besides, what's more important is that museums offer a more interactive experience than that of standard education. It's not like we can bring all of those artifacts, photos, structures, and large-scale dioramas to a classroom to study. If one does pay enough attention at a museum, it can really open your eyes. For example, we could see the true pains of the Holocaust much more with respect when interacting with examples and recreations rather than reading about it in a book. Even if we choose to have a bit of fun among classmates, there's still so much history surrounding you in a museum that it couldn't possibly not affect you in any way. We need field trips to be able to bring an education experience that can surround us, no matter the setbacks.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND short blog ending.

Please read this in your snobbiest critics voice ever...

(WARNING: There Might Be Spoilers!)

Today's film review from Judgmental Basement Losers...

  This is my personal review for the movie, The Maze Runner. For all of those who read the book before this movie's release (way back in 2014 :b), I could tell you were all excited for this movie. With a perfect story-line made for action and adventure, and mixing in an almost flawless science-fiction feel, with a dystopian influence to the plot right at the heart-breaking conclusion...   It all makes The Maze Runner the perfect best-selling book we know it as today, but what about its movie?
  The movie, just as the book, follows the story of Thomas, a teenage boy who awakes to find himself, without any memory, trapped in the Glade, a small shack-town formed by themselves, surrounded by a giant, ever-changing maze, in which deadly, bionic, poisonous beasts named "Grievers" live. He must learn to assimilate himself to this new reality while the "runners", the best of their male population, search for a way out of the maze. However, strange events begin to happen as soon as Thomas arrives, from the arrival of their only female and the antidote for the disease, to Thomas becoming the only (along with Ming) to survive overnight in the maze. Their reality begins to crumble before them, and with the dire situation of Grievers invading the Glade, it is up to Thomas to lead the Gladers to escape the maze and remember what he can to find out who is behind all this.
  I'd say that, both plot-wise and scenario-wise, this movie is okay. It matches the main plot of the book very well, and it does a great job with special effects to set the grand, futuristic theme of this movie. Not to mention, this movie succeeds greatly in Pathos, it really gave me "the feels" when watching this. I admit, (HUGE SPOILER!) this is one of the few movies that I cried watching, as Chuck dies when Gally shoots him just as they make it to freedom(?) from the maze.
  However, there is one part of the movie that really bugs me, along with all other Maze Runner fans. This movie forgets SO MANY details from the original book! I know that movies are different from the books to be interesting to watch (get a hint, Divergent!), but it seems like the only information from the book they used in the movie was just a quick summary some random child made! In the book, the maze has a "virtual roof" (as in later books, we find out it is underground), so it never rains, not to mention the fake sun eventually dies out in the book, but the book seems to completely ignore this, as it rains in the maze, the sun stays perfectly fine, and we see them escape via helicopter to reveal a final scene looking over the maze, which wouldn't be possible if underground!!! In the book, Thomas manages to kill a griever when in the maze overnight by tricking it to run off a cliff into a huge pit located in the maze, which is the same way they escape, but in the movie, the moving walls just "squish" the griever, and they escape through a normal exit from the maze, which isn't as exciting! In fact, they couldn't even get right the fact that Thomas, at first, only remembers his name, because it takes him about a day to realize his name in the movie! Believe me, this is just a quick overview, as there are many, many more forgotten details in this movie. Also, don't even get me started about The Scorch Trials, the sequel book and movie. They couldn't even keep the basic plot-line correct!
  So... with that ranting out of my system, I would say that this movie is overall very good, one of my personal favorites, but it kills me inside to see such little effort into bringing the book to life. For great, emotional acting, great special effects, a good plot, but so much ignorance to detail and in-depth thinking, I give this movie a 7/10.
  Remember to tune in next time (jk), where we will give a quality review for the greatest, most clever, popular movie of all time, Foodfight!.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)