Monday, February 25, 2013

Topic of Choice

Drake - Aubrey Drake Graham

Many know the name Drake. Some may not. Drake the singer that is. Not Drake from the show Drake and Josh. Aubrey Drake Graham is know by Drizzy Drake as his stage name. Although, many do not know about his childhood/background, how he got recognized, and his fame as of now.

As a child drake had a what one can call "rough" life. His mother's name was Sandi Graham and his father was Dennis Graham. Drake's father is an African American from Memphis, Tennessee, and Drake's mother is a Jewish Canadian. Little known fact, Drake attended a Jewish School.  His parents divorced when he was five years old, and he was raised by his mother in Toronto; he lived on Weston Road.They later moved to Forest Hill when he was in 6th grade. Another little known fact, Drake's mother found themselves a half home. Yes a half home. The bottom half of a house belonged to them and the top half belonged to the other people. Drake explains, "I lived in the basement, my mom lived on the first floor. It was not big, it was not luxurious. It was what we could afford."

At the age of 15, Drake had a friend with a father who was an agent. He got him a role on the Canadian TV show Degrassi: The Next Generation as Jimmy Brooks. That would be only the beginning for him. The money made from the TV show was the only movie available because his mother was sick causing them to poor. Drake claims, "A season of Canadian television is under a teacher’s salary." How he got discovered? Well, he was on Degrassi for years but Degrassi had nothing to do with forming his rap career, then he finally left the show. Although,  he said he always loved music. He was just to shy to rap because he didn't know if he was any good so he used to record himself and then he had a friend that was a girl listen to his song but he would lie to her that it was one of his other friends rapping just to see what she thought of it, and she thought it was good. Then he formed a rap group and he was actually performing in the same building as Rihanna (Pop Singer) while she was making her first music video. His rap group kicked him out of his own group because they thought he wasn't a good rapper so he just kept rapping on his own and made independent mixtapes and got noticed by a lot of people in Toronto then he eventually got noticed by people like Lil Wayne(Famous Rapper). His passion for rapping was as strong as a mouse to cheese. Some may call it a burning passion, but others call it love for the music.
Drake has a fairly recent CD out as of now called "Take Care." Personally, I love that CD! I love all the songs on the CD! Yes, EVERY song. On most albums I only like a few songs, but this CD is amazing! "Take Care" is his most successful to date, topping charts in the United States and Canada. The singles on the CD have all landed a spot on Billboard  Hot 100. Additionally his first CD, "Best I Ever Had," is his first greatest track to land. The song "Best I Ever Had" smashed the Billboard's at number one out of 200!
To conclude, Drake the singer, has made himself a huge star even when others pushed him to the curve. He strived for what he believed for and reached success at the end of the road. Without his father, raised by his mother, he accomplishes his dreams.

Monday, February 11, 2013

CC3 - Bullying is wrong

     Bullying. Is. The. Worst. Thing. Ever. To. Do. Why would someone do it? Bullying is simply wrong. An article entitled, "Another Tragic Result of Bullying, Felicia Garcia Jumps in Front of Train," by Kristen Driskill is about a girl who kills herself by being ran over by a train from being bullied. Kristen tells why bullying is moral wrong.

     "The 15-year-old freshman at Tottenville High School killed herself after being bullied by classmates over her having sex with four football players the weekend before. The encounters were recorded, kids began talking about it, and bullying quickly ensued. The bullying drove Felicia to the point of tweeting "I cant, I'm done, I give up" on Monday." Yes, I agree what Felicia Garcia had done is wrong. On the other hand, being bullied about a mistake she had done is wrong. Nobody is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. Although, it is not something you take your life for, not that big of a leap.

     "Kids literally can be bullied to death." This statement is absolutely true. Not everybody knows what one another is going through. For some, situations are easy, but for others it may be a whole different story. Kristen has proven a point using Felicia Garcia and Amanda Todd as an example. These two ladies killed themselves because of bullying.

     "These horrific incidents are prime examples of just how important it is to educate children about bullying and cyberbullying. Although bullying isn't new, cyberbullying has increasingly become a topic of concern. Kids can't escape negativity thrown their way over Facebook, Twitter, text messages, etc, so that feeling of desperation and despair is amplified." Bullying can come from the Internet such as the daily social networks we teens use. Most of what bullying leads to is "drama." Drama is a concern when it deals with cyberbullying. Like Kristen mentioned, we should educate teens and young children about the after effect of bullying.

     I, personally have not been bullied, but I have witnessed bullying before. When I was in elementary, I would see the older kids push the younger kids around. No. I was not one of those who pushed kids around. Although, there was one kid who would try to bug kids and later on got expelled.

     I agree that bullying is morally wrong. Likewise, Kristen would agree with me also. For all those who have bullied before, think of yourself being in that postion and how would you react?

Thursday, February 7, 2013

CC#1 2nd Semester

     Based on Will Shanklin's article, "iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4s vs. iPhone 4" he believes overall that the iPhone 5 is the best out of the 3 current iPhones. Will compares the iPhones qualities to one another to see what they have to offer. Additionally, he compares and contrasts their Dimensions,Weight, Display,  Processor, RAM, Storage, Wireless, Battery, Camera, and Intangibles.

     "There are noticeable boosts of speed in each successive model. The A6 chip in the iPhone 5 is a screamer, breaking smartphone benchmark records. Though the A6 was originally believed to run at 1GHz, 9to5Mac and TLDToday report that it dynamically clocks itself up to 1.3GHz (it may also underclock too, to save power). The iPhone 4S still performs well for a modern smartphone. The two-year-old iPhone 4 is a bit sluggish for 2012 standards." Despite the iPhone 5 being A1 more the iPhone 4s and A2 for the iPhone 4, makes the Internet on the iPhone a lot faster. Furthermore, the iPhone 5 offers "unprecedented performance," allowing it to have almost double the the MHz that the iPhone 4s has.

     However, the great achievement that many love about the iPhone 5 other than the other iPhones is the display! "Though the pixels-per-inch (PPI) are identical, the iPhone 5 display gains an extra half-inch of real estate. This ups the resolution and shifts the aspect ratio to an oblong 16:9. Longtime iPhone users may find it strange at first, but will soon appreciate the extra room for apps, photos, and web pages. Apple also opted for a thinner display in the new model. Combining a layer of touch sensors also brings those pixels closer to the surface. The company also boasts of 40 percent greater color saturation in the iPhone 5." Overall, the iPhone 5's dimensions are a 1136X640 with a 4-inch IPS. The dimension of the iPhone 4s and iPhone 4 are a 960X640 with a 3.5-inch IPS. That being said, the iPhone 5 is also a lot lighter than the other iPhones, also a bit longer.

     "The iPhone 5 takes Apple's handset into true 4G speeds, with LTE (where available). Actual LTE download speeds can range from 8Mbps to upwards of 40Mbps, with low latency to boot. It may be faster than your home broadband connection." Nonetheless, the iPhone 5's Internet speed is faster than the other iPhones. The iPhone 4s runs on "4G," but they prefer to call it "3G+;" is faster than  3G, but not in the same league as LTE. Depending on one's carrier, "LTE" for iPhone 5 is spread out just about anywhere if one has Verizon, says Will Shanklin. AT&T does not cover as much ground, in other words, does not hold the ability to cover nationwide or cover certain places.

    To conclude, the author Will Shanklin argues that the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone out as of now. He compares and contrast one another with facts. Additionally, he claims that if one happens to get the iPhone 4; they will be "rocking" a 4 year old smartphone when the contract ends.