Getting Rich the Ninja Way

From rags to riches. Okay, so I struggled with myself, wondering who I could write about. After some intense... thinking (or Google-searching and picking the first link), I found Steven Spielberg. 
Yes, the film director!
 In my opinion, Spielberg is a total ninja. You'll understand after I explain his story.
 He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, brought into his world by his mother Leah Adler and Arnold Spielberg. He saw his first film in Haddon Township, New Jersey. Eventually, Spielberg made his own amateur films with his friends. The films were shot at a restaurant, and the admission was only 25 cents.
  Unfortunately (or fortunately?), Spielberg didn't make the cut for filmaking school. Instead, he went to the California State College in Long Beach. 
 Luckily for him, during one casual visit to the Universal Studios, Spielberg met with Shuck Silvers. Silvers was an executive in the editorial department, who liked Spielberg enough to invite him back sometime. 
 Spielberg came back the very next day, without a previous appointment (officially). He wore a dark suit and carried a suitcase to look professional, while the suitcase only had sandwiches and candy. However, with his confident walk, he was able to get in without the security guard asking who he was. 
 (See? How ninja is that? Sandwiches and candy... that's the only reason why I chose to write about him.)
Spielberg continued to show up for the entire summer, becoming friends with all of the directors and writers, learning from them. He found an abandoned office within the place, and made it his own, even putting his name in the building directory. Steven Spielberg, Room 23C.
  After 10 years, Spielberg directed Jaws. The movie was a huge hit, becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time (back then). Then, he made more movies and became even richer. The end!

Social Stratification

Stratification is defined as the "act or process or arranging of persons into classes or social strata" by dictionary definition. Stratification is actually a pretty wide concept. Thus, we break it up into different elements, including: inequality. Yeah, you hear inequality talk everywhere but... you're gonna hear it again.
  Inequality is the act of people being better placed in society over others, and signals which group these people belong to. You'll find that people in the same group often share similar characteristics (culture, interests, life chances).
  The first division is class. The UK's statistics show that the higher a class one is born into, the higher chances they have of surviving in their first year of birth, perform in school, live longer, and retain their natural teeth (woah, weird). The more wealth one has, the more they can afford. They can afford better schooling, health care, etc.
   The next division is gender. Gender's only recently considered a part of stratification, but it's been an issue for quite a long time. Despite there being more women than men within the US, they still have generally a less successful life and less power than the men. Also, they tend to earn less than men, and are outnumbered in important positions.
  Ethnicity is another dimension of stratification. There are obvious differences in the economic and social standing between ethnic groups. Prejudice is still quite strong today, and many people do not get the positions they deserve or the same exact chances due to their ethnicity.
   Age is the final one (at least that I'll bring up). The youngest and the oldest hold the least power within our society (though in other parts of the world, the elderly are well respected). No matter your age, there is someone who considers your wisdom not wisdom-y enough because you're either too young or too old. Certain buildings and organizations do not allow children, as well (as another example of the age factor).
 That's really all I have to say. Social divisions may suck, but I don't really see how there's any other way.

PRESSUREPRESSUREPRESSURE

As teenagers, we're pressured a lot. We're expected to do and be many things. 
Like what? Well, there's school-related pressures. My mom always says "School is your job." She emphasizes on it a lot. Don't slack, don't wait till the last minute, work hard, study hard, blah, blah (if you read this somehow, mudder, I love you... you don't sound like "blah blah," you sound like "bruck yuh stupidee." =D ) Many of our parents want us to be doctors or lawyers. We just have to do well in school. Our entire lives depend on it, they say. If we slack now, we'll end up as a bum later. Pass the SAT and ACT with flying colors. Get Straight A's. God forbid, don't ever be late to class or get in trouble. There is a lot of pressure on good behavior in school.  Then, go to college and get a freaking awesome degree (in something practical, of course). 
 Needless to say, there's a lot of pressure from our parents, family, and teachers to exceed in school. Everything depends on it. I have to admit, I'm a little intimidated by all of it. I think many of us are. 
 Then, there's social pressures. Peer pressure. I can't really say I'm ever pressured into anything specifically. I suppose social pressures would include fitting in (not being too outrageous), being polite, not being too anti-social, not being too social or clingy.. There are typical examples of peer pressure such as "drink this! ALCOHOL IS FOR COOL PEOPLE" or "LET'S ALL GET HIGH. I BELIEVE I CAN FLLYYYYYYYYYYYY," but like my fellow Step-Up..er Claude says, not all peer pressure is negative. You could influence a friend to stop these bad habits as well. And, let's face it, we all attempt to sway people to do certain things. Social pressures such as not acting like a rude jerk isn't such a bad thing. 

I HATE MYSELF.

 For some reason, many teens are afflicted with self-hate. Maybe you're not tall enough. Or skinny enough. Smart enough. Maybe you just plain suck. How do you deal with it? You don't know how. You don't know what to do. You just take your hate out on yourself.
(I don't really think you suck. I love you... the "you" wasn't as in "you" who's reading this but...yeah)
 My group (Sydney, Tajin, myself) is researching the connection between popular culture and teen depression. 
For example, women are objectified in the media. We all know this. We're supposed to be these lovely, beautiful, perfect creatures. But beautiful women come in all shapes and sizes in real life. However, because of the way we're portrayed on-screen, men and women alike expect differently. The scale of beauty is a 90lb, 6ft supermodel for everyone.
 How do teenage girls react to this, not being able to live up to those standards?
Well, by puking their lungs out, of course. 
Another example is the emo subculture. 
Emos are stereotyped for cutting themselves. Cutting is a type of self injury. The emo subculture glorifies cutting, and celebrates it as "okay." No, it's really not okay. But that's popular culture for you, glorifying what (in reality) is a stupid mistake. 
And, come on, let's not forget cyber-bullying. Popular media such as facebook easily allows this. 
The topic may sound a bit vague now, but we plan on pulling it together more within our actual project. 
Within the U.S., one in every 200 girls between 13 and 19 cut themselves, compromising 70 percent of girls who self injure. 
90% of those with eating disorders are women between 12 and 25. Thousands of boys are afflicted with these disorders as well (but it's mostly women).
I'd rather not continue blatantly copying statistics off of websites, so instead, I'll link it to you. 
http://www.teendepression.org/stats/teenage-depression-statistics/

Blue Tape.... is actual Blue tape!

Okay, so my blog this week is about blue tape. Broward County School teachers are being forced to use blue tape in their classrooms. Now, when I heard people talking about it, and how schools are enforcing it, I thought, "woah, what is this??" Especially when I read Gadiel's blog. And my mind was BLOWN when I found out...
BLUE TAPE IS ACTUAL BLUE TAPE :O
Yeah.
So, our teachers are being forced to put blue tape over their boards. Looking at Mrs.Hautigan's board, I do think it helps make it appear a bit more organized. But, seriously? Other than that, there's nothing special about it. It's literally tape.
I mean, we have textbooks falling apart, and that's what our school board is concerned about? BLUE TAPE? What in the world.... Yeah, that makes sense. Nooo, we don't need new books! LET'S ALL BUY TAPE. BECAUSE IT HELPS IMPROVE OUR EDUCATION.
WOOOOO!

Sexy images:








Yeah, that makes my blog look longer. Mission accomplished.

Cybergoth

while my group (Tajin, Sydney, myself) presented our youth subculture powerpoint to the class, many of us wondered what the cybergoth picture in the presentation was all about. None of us see it at all. For that reason, I've decided to write about it.

Cybergoth isn't exactly an American subculture, but it's at least prevalent in the U.S. It includes elements of cyberpunk, goth, raver, and other fashions. Cybergoths are more partial towards techno music rather than rock.

The term itself was coined in the 1980s in the UK for an advertisement of a roleplaying game, and the style came a decade later. 


Cybergoths wear mostly black with neon colors. They adorn platform boots, piercings, bright hair extensions, and goggles. Their clothes are made of reflective materials. The clothing is meant to be typical black-goth styled, with a splash of a contrasting color. The hair extensions can be dreadlocks, cyberlox, or normal (albeit bright) extensions. It can also be made from various materials. Many cybergoths wear masks.


As said earlier, cybergoths don't really listen to all that much rock. Rather, they enjoy a mix of techno, acid trance, darkstep, electropop, intelligent dance music (What is this...I don't even..), EBM, hardstyle, dubstep, and more. 


 The culture is mostly active on the internet, or during nighttime. There are clubs for cybergoths, specifically, such as the Slimelight, The Wendy House, Autonomy, Tech Noir, and Chains on Velvet (all of which are located in the UK). 


However, like I said, it does exist in the US. In Detroit, there is Leland City Club, while there's The Castle in Tampa, Death Guild (sounds pleasant, right?) in San Francisco, and Das Bunker in Los Angeles. Cybergothism is also popular in Canada.  


And now, for some pictures! 











Lovely. 

Suicide. The word alone is suggestive of negative connotations. It just sounds bad. Of course, it is though. 
 So, what does suicide mean exactly? Dictionary.com defines it as the "intentional taking of one's own life." I'd say that accurately sums it up.


Naturally, this is just one of those topics mostly everyone has an opinion of, including myself. To take one's own life. According to most religions, suicide is a drastic sin. Severely frowned upon. I wouldn't recommend it. 


 For the most part, Christians and Catholics consider it a sin, based on the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" and the idea of life being a gift from God. To denounce that ultimate gift, one thereby denounces God. There are opposing views, however, such as that God has allowed man to have free will, and to take one's life doesn't go against His Law or interfere with His plan. 
 Judaism similarly believes in the importance of valuing life, and as so it is also considered a major taboo. In Islam, as well, suicide is not condoned, believed to be a sign of doubt in God. It is also discouraged in Hinduism, though believed to be a man's right to take his life if he chooses to do so. 


 Suicide is actually against the law in some countries. After all, it is the "murder" of oneself. 


  However, don't let that fool you. Many people actually advocate one's right to committing suicide. In many cultures, suicide is supported. In Japan, suicide is tolerated and sometimes even seen as justified. As well as in philosophy. Philosophy maintains that no one should suffer against their will.

 Every year, about 30,000 Americans take their own lives. Over half of suicides are within men from ages 25-65, and over half of suicide is done with a gun of some sort. For people of ages 15-24, suicide is the third leading cause of death. 80% of the people that actually seek treatment are treated. There are 8-25 attempted suicides to 1 actually completed suicide. Suicide is also the 11th leading cause of death in the US. Men commit suicide much more often than women, due to them not wanting to seek professional help. On average, one person dies by suicide every 16.2 minutes. 
It's a little freaky, that several people have probably just hung themselves while I was writing this.
  I have a verryyy strong opinion on suicide. However, my mom says I shouldn't post it at the risk of offending some of you XP 
Gawsh. People are so silly. 
  

Teen Pregnancy

        Alright so we all know that teen pregnancy is a major social problem, and that it is a social trend increasing year by year. Why? Because people are stupid. However, there are different things that take part in teen pregnancies. For instance, a girl may be raped, in which case, she may be forced to take care of a child. In other cases, consensual sex and unprotected sex can lead to unexpected births.

               

    One other cause of teen birth is actually negligent. Statistics show that children who are unsupervised by their parents, or have parents that do not discipline them, tend to become wild and destructive. These teens are a lot more likely to become pregnant, or even father an illegitimate child. The moral of the story: parents should be more active in their child's lives. Also, 20% of white children who's parents weren't married for them to be conceived, end up as bums, basically (well, either pregnant or drug-addicted or in a gang). The rate is much higher for blacks, at a whopping 70%.

                If you look at the statistics, within the 21^st century, teen pregnancy has increased a lot. It is no longer viewed as a major taboo, though yes, it is still seen in a negative light. Tied with teen pregnancies, abortion rates have increased, causing the nation controversy, since abortion rates are a huge wedge issue. Some teenagers who can afford the abortion tend to do so, while others who can’t are forced to take care of their child. That is, the actual rate of teen pregnancy is a lot higher than what we think it is. Now that’s something we should ponder about.

     On a side note, today, in our culture, teen pregnancies have become a source of entertainment, actually. MTV now broadcasts shows in which pregnant teenage girls are being followed. This form of media in fact encourages younger girls to actually become pregnant. It’s a hyped up way to become popular or famous, so some teens takes their chances through that.

    Let's take a look at some more facts. Nearly one million teens get pregnant each year. That is, 4 out of 10 women before they turn 20, even. 40 billion is spent each year by the government to help these individuals. The U.S. has a higher teen pregnancy rate than other countries. The rate nearly doubles Canada's, 4 times France and Germany's, and 8 times Japan's. In the year 2000, 79% of teen births were from unmarried teens. Less than 1/3 of teen mothers actually finish high school, and many have more children (1/4 if them have a second child within 2 years). 1/3 of all teen mothers go on welfare within the first year of birth. The children are likely to be born prematurely and unhealthily, possibly with blindness, deafness, mental retardation, cerebral palsy, etc. They are 50% more likely to repeat a grade, and less likely to complete high school. The daughters are 22% more likely to become teen mothers as well, and the sons are 13% more likely to end up in prison. 

   Why would we glorify such a stupid action? It's completely beyond me. Teens who get pregnant should be scolded, not praised. Not to say that I believe they should be shunned from society or anything. For their kid to end up healthy, they'd need a strong support system as well. Anyway, kids, just don't do it. Or use protection, and don't tell anyone you did.

Introduction

My name is Maliya Ortiz. I'm sixteen years old, and currently enrolled in the Step Up program at my school. For one of my classes, I'll be posting weekly blogs. My first one will regard teen pregnancy.