Social Media Suckers

I'll admit, social media can be pretty fantastic. Sometimes I do like to know what my friends are up to! I can be like, "Hey that person took a really cool picture of them and their family in California!" Awesome, great, fantastic. Then there are tons of homecoming and prom pictures that I like to skim through. This year I did not attend my school's homecoming, therefore I would like to know how great all my friends looked! I can contact my friends in instances when I do not have thier phone number. I can create events in which I can invite people to and have a constant stream of information they can access and say, "Hey look, party at the Mickel's house on such and such date at such and such time." Those are all fantastic, don't get me wrong. But then there are the downsides. I have an Instagram. And like this very blog you are reading, I post things I find legitimately interesting. No selfies, no inspiring quotes, just a lot of movies, video games, books, actors, and Batman. I like Batman. But one thing I CANNOT stand is when people go through their news feed and "like" EVERY FREAKING THING. As I am writing this very post, my iPhone continually notifies me that, people who absolutely do not care whatsoever about my post on Call of Duty: Ghosts, are liking my picture. One of them happens to be an 11 year old girl. Who has most likely never played Call of Duty. Why does she like these things? I have no idea. I would ask her myself but I would come across as rude. Or when, as fore mentioned, people (girls mainly) take a weird looking selfie, add dozens of filters, and top it off with an "inspirational quote" that has nothing to do with the picture posted. It drives me nuts. If you do the previously mentioned social media annoyances, STOP IT. Thank you. And to quote/paraphrase the great Toby Turner, "Bless your face. And if you sneezed during this blog post, bless you. Mickel out." 

I Am So... Wait What Was I Saying?

I am exhausted. More tired than I've ever been. I had a six hour long practice last night for my school's production of The Wizard of Oz and I play The Cowardly Lion. And my costume is massive, excruciatingly hot, and sheds like mad. I nearly passed out by the time practice concluded. Once my director gave me the word I stripped from my costume (don't worry I had a shirt and shorts on) and chugged three bottles of water. I sing, I dance, I play one of the more difficult characters to play. I. Am. Exhausted. I could barely keep my eyes open as I drove home. I stumbled into my house and my mom asked, "How was practice?" I responded with a faceplant to the couch. 

"That bad huh?" 

"Yup." 

She asked the same question about four times and I couldn't respond because my mind was too tired to think full, coherent thoughts. I now sit in Trigonometry, tired, learning stuff my brain is not prepared for. And the show is tomorrow. Good night.

Hey. Go Tell Your Friends.

So there are a few of you out there who like this blog, and I am ecstatic about that! Keep on reading and I'll keep posting junk you might care about! And I love that a few of you have been actually responding to my posts. I'm all about the feedback, positive or negative (when put into a polite manner of speaking). One thing I request of you, tell your buddies. I would love to have some steady readers. Those of you who already have been reading steadily? Keep it up, I greatly appreciate you. But let's make this something big. I want people in the blogosphere to know the name The Blackboard Journal. Thanks. 

P.S. I am open to all kinds of requests. Send me something detailing what issue or topic you'd like me to cover. 

Call of Duty VS Halo

This is a dreaded question to all gamers. I've followered both games diligently since their beginnings, and I have my opinion. But I want to hear yours. Which series is overall better? I'm talking about the series as a whole and not just singular games. I'm not going to say what I think, but I want to get a discussion going. I will NOT tolerate dumb comments such as "Call of Duty is just better." Tell us why. Explain yourself. Tell us why you like one side and don't another. Go.

Preparedness

I hate being unprepared. I feel so powerless, so useless. Especially when I'm in a show. When I don't have my lines memorized, or my dances learned, or my songs perfect, or my blocking solid and everyone else does! I feel stupid. Incredibly moronic. Like when I was in Narnia, my Mrs. Beaver knew all of her lines, all of her dances, all of her songs etc. way before I had. And she made me look stupid by how great she was. I still asked for lines while she lead everyone in the dances she knew that others didn't. She's incredibly talented, and when I was unprepared l looked horrible, and she looked awesome. I also hate being unprepared for class. That's why I have everything in my backpack! So I never leave anything behind. When I forget I have homework, or a quiz/test I get all bummed. Then I do bad, resulting in lower grades, then lower GPA, then raging parents, etcetera etcetera etcetera. I hate being unprepared.

5 Reasons Why I Love Batman

Batman. Everyone knows who Batman is. Unless you've lived under a rock until now, you had to have seen the Caped Crusader somewhere in pop culture media. Things like "Keep calm and call Batman" or one of your buddies wearing the infamous yellow and black bat logo. Batman is my favorite superhero, and here's why.

1.) He doesn't have any supernatural powers
Batman has no powers. That's no news to anyone, but that's what makes him so great! He does all the things heroes like Superman or Spider-man (if you feel like hopping through both Marvel and DC Universes) but without any powers. Example: He can fly (more glide) with his winged cape attached to his suit. Another example: That web things Spider-man does? Batman does that but with a retractable grapnel hook. And makes it look cooler. He fights with the might of martial arts, taking all of their strengths over one another and applies it to fighting 7 or more goons sent by The Joker and such. Speaking of which...

2.) The Joker
As I said before, Batman is my favorite superhero, and partly because The Joker is my favorite villain. Some may say, "Oh he's just some stupid clown." FALSE. The Joker is just as smart as The Bat, but uses that cleverness for sinister purposes. Another thing I love about Joker is his whole mindset on life. About how the entire world is insane, and he just wants to be the leader of it, while having as much "fun" as possible of course. That "fun" is just his way of saying he loves to kill. And Joker doesn't just kill, he massacres. He brutally, violently kills because he enjoys it. But all that killing is to satisfy him until he claims his ultimate prize, the head of Batman.

3.) Bruce Wayne
Bruce Wayne is the perfect alter ego for Batman. Billionaire, Playboy philanthropist, and owner of WayneTech. So calm and collected, yet sly, smart, and overall brilliant. Batman Begins profusely and brilliantly portrays the beginning of Batman and where he got his skill, why he pursued it, and wheat he gained from it. And it's all on Bruce, Batman isn't even in existence yet.

4.) The Ultimate Tech Guru
 This is mainly in part of Lucius Fox's role in the Batman. Lucius secretly helps Wayne out by fitting him with the best in technological prototypes, making Batman unstoppable. His Batrangs are incredibly helpful in tough situations with multiple bad guys. The Line Launcher gets him to places not accessible by gliding or jumping. His Batclaw disarms and opens things. And there's much much more.

5.) Arkham Asylum/City
 Rocksteady Games did an absolutely perfect job imagining these areas in full, open-world, 3D glory in both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. Both if which are in my top 20 favorite video games, but that's for a later time. Both places have such a unique sense of splendor with it's blood stained, Joker graphitti  ridden walls. It has such a sense of purpose. They add so much to the Batman Universe.

And this is what I love about Batman.

Technology.

I love technology. I really do. Right now I'm writing this blog post on my recently new iPhone 5C. I love the fast processor, the vibrant screen, and even playing games like Infinity Blade II or LIMBO with just a swipe of my finger. I love being able to search any site I want in a matter of seconds. I love being able to write and share what ever I feel whenever I feel. But as much as I love technology, I also can be easily frustrated with it. Just a few minutes ago, I tried to get on my Computer Networking and Hardware site to do my homework that I was a tad behind on. My Mac refused to comply, leaving me to sit at a blank black screen for several minutes. While I sat there waiting, I skimmed IGN's home screen, checked my Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I also plugged in my headphones and jammed out to a little bit of Avenged Sevenfold. After doing all this, you know what I hadn't done? Done my homework. This greatly frustrated me. So right now, I've just finished a episode of The Big Bang Theory and I wish I had done my homework, no thanks to the technology at my disposal. As much as I love my tech, we don't always get along. It's more of a love-hate relationship.

Math. My Mortal Enemy.

There are subjects in school we all hate. Have you ever met a person in your whole life who has loved every single class they've ever taken? I can almost guarentee you haven't, because somebody has to dislike something, or else there wouldn't be opinions. That class for me, is math. And I'm not the only person in this world who hates math, I find that a majority of people do. Which is fine. BECAUSE MATH ANNOYS ME. There's a poster in my math room and it explains the rules on doing math in general. One of them stuck out to me. I may be paraphrasing this but it went something like, "Look at problems in a abstract and quantitative way." 

WHAT.

You are being asked to look at something in a way that makes sense, while also looking at it in a way that makes LITTLE sense. See, this is math. Frustrating, annoying, aggravating, and GPA-lowering. I have a D in my Trig class. I never get D's, unless it's a math class. Math does not come naturally to most people, in fact I find it rare that people understand new material quickly. Out whole class seems to be struggling like I, yet I am the only one I know of with a D. I just hate math. End of story.

Today I Realized,

Today I realized how much I despise the educational system. You take standardized test all the time, such as: SAT, ACT, the Constitution Test, etc. Yet, the state of Illinois DOES NOT require you to take the writing portion of the ACT. Why, you ask? Isn't the writing portion something essential to getting in to most U.S. colleges? Yes, yes it is. Then Y U NO TAKE ESSAY? The state can't afford people to grade them. Let that soak in, we are THAT FAR IN DEBT that we do not have enough money to pay people to take time out of their day to grade five-paragraph essays for a few hours. In my Advanced Composition class today, led by one of my favorite teachers Mr. Tom Davies, we discussed this. I was almost outraged when I learned that after four required years of learning the English language and all of its quirks, I was not going to be taking the most important part of the ACT because the state didn't have enough money to do so. We were also handed an article, detailing the progression of SAT/ACT essay grading. The student is given the test, with a prompt they have no previous knowledge of the idea they are to be given. They have 25-30 minutes to write a full fledged essay, in which they have no scrap paper to organize their thoughts. The test is then finished, and they then go to the graders. The graders are given all these essays, and you expect them to look over them fully correct? False. The graders are given a maximum of three minutes. THREE MINUTES. The average grader finishes 20 in one hour. And they get an extra bonus if they finish 30 or more in an hour. Meaning each essay is graded in two minutes MAXIMUM. This enrages me. Excuse me while I go burn through some math and science homework to get Illinois view of writing out of my mind.