Driving while texxting

Many people say that texting while driving is bad, but the way that I see it when some one is texting and driving texting is the first priority so it's more like driving while texting. There are many statistics about texting while driving and lets face it, it's dangerous for everyone around you. While driving you are more focused on that one important text to you best friend, but that one text can be deadly to you or an innocent person. In a study about driving whiel texting it was proven that you are able to stop faster for a pedestrian if you have had a couple of alcoholic drinks versus while texting. While sending one text you can drive the distance of a football fielda and float into a different lane of traffic. This can lead to someone driving into a median or into oncoming traffic. Also, if a car slams on it's brakes and your texting you don't see the brake lights right away and that can lead to rear ending someone. All of these things are risks that shouldn't be taken especially with the new no texting while driving laws. There are still many things that need to be worked on with texting while driving. The laws need to be stricter and more regularly enforced, but the new changes are leading to much safer road conditions. The main question to ask yourself when you get into your car is should you risk yours and others lives? Just set your phone down and wait to stop and park before texting.

Social Networking

With Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter there is really no way for people not to know what is going on in your life 24/7. But how is this affecting young adults? There are a lot of positives and negatives to social networking for young adults. A positive is that it keeps them connected with their peers so that they can work on projects and get help on questions from class. It also is a good way to stay connected with family that lives farther away from them and they can converse about what they are doing in their lives. There are also some negatives to consider as well. For one there are many dangerous and harmful people online that will try and talk to young adults and some don't know any better when they talk to these strangers. Also, these sites can get destracting and can cause delay on doing homework and other things that need to be done in their lives. There are many things that parents need to consider before allowing their child to join a social network site. Parents should know the passwords and be able to monitor what their child is doing on these sites. Parents should also communicate with their children about what is and isn't safe about these site. They should also have trust with their children and be able to talk to them if the child feels that something on the site is wrong or unsafe.

Living on your own

There are many essential things that you need to know as a college student before you move on your own and while you live on your own. The major thing is that you have to be able to budget your money. Make lists that will help you plan out what bills you will need to pay and the things that are essential to living on your own such as groceries, hygenic products, and if you have a car gasoline. You should also plan out your money from each check that you recieve from work, making sure to plan money for your rent, electric bill, car payments and insurance, as well as cable, phone and internet bills. Living on your own also means paying for things that come up in an emergency so you should set money aside and put it into savings. You also need to set aside some money for yourself to spend even if it is only five dollars you need some money for you. Another big thing that is vital to living on your own is that you need to have a cleaning schedule, keeping your house clean is very important. Make a chores list of things that you need to do everyday each week, this will help you keep a clean house. You also need to budget all of your time. Set times to study, work, clean, and time for you. If you have set times for everything it will be easier to accomplish everything you need to each day and in turn you will have less stress. These are just a few of the major things that you need to do to be able to live on your own successfully as a college student. Organization is key!

Wangari Maathai

I recently did a paper on Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai. She is an amazing women that has accomplished many things. She was the first woman from her country to recieve a bachelors degree and she went on to earn a PhD. Mrs. Maathai also taught classes at a college in her country and headed the department that she taught in. She has been on many diffrent boards and held many high positions in diffrent organizations. Wangari Maathai has recieved many diffrent awards for her efforts in democracy and her environmental efforts. She started the Green Belt Movement on her own by planting just seven trees in her country of Kenya. She has developed her movement into a country wide movement, with over 2 million trees planted she and the many people that help her. She has had local and small farmers help her and many school children have also helped her in planting all of the trees. When asked why she started the Green Belt Movement she said “I observed these processes of desertification happening in our backyard. I noticed springs that I knew as a child, drying up, and I saw water levels going down…and I could see there was no longer firewood.” She recieved the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004 for her works. This is by far the biggest and most distinguised award that she has recieved. Wangari Maathai is an amazing women that countinues to change her country and the world.

Mind Blank

I am drawing a mind blank on what to write about for my blog, so I decided that I would define a "Mind Blank". I'll break it down, the definition of mind is the individual consciousness, memory, or recollection and the definition of blank is not having received final processing; unfinished. We all have mind blanks everyday, but what leads to them? You brain may already know the answer to what you are questioning, but it has a problem connecting and recieving the information. It can also lead to someone saying that they have the answer on the tip of their tongue. All of these thoughts are silly because often times the answer is stored in you memory, but you either haven't used it in a long time or just learned it recently so it's not as strongly imprinted in your memory. This is a common problem for many students during their tests, they will often know the answer but at the testing time they can't pull the information from their memory.

Sexting

My roommate recently wrote a paper about sexting and she was sharing information with me that I found quite interesting. Did you know that over 75% of females that have graduated from high school have sent nude pictures to someone? I think that this is a shocking statistic that is cause for many problems in the United States. There are so many young people that look up to celebrities and not always are they the best role models. For example Miley Cyrus and Brett Favre have been caught sending nude photos to others. These are people that children and teenagers look up to, if they are setting bad examples these young adults are going to do the same thing. There was a story about a young teen that sent a half naked photo of herself to her boyfriend at the time and he ended showing the photo to his friends at school. The girl was teased and harassed so much that she took her own life. It's stories like this that make you think that there has to be a way to change what is happening. The laws on sexting are very gray and it is hard to walk the fine line on what is right and wrong. There needs to be changes and laws created so that there aren't anymore lives lost. Parents need to talk to their children and let them know that sexting is wrong and it isn't safe because they can't be sure who will or will not see their photos or texts.

cyber bullying

I have read a lot lately about how out of hand cyber bulling is becoming. There are a lot of things that have changed in the past few years that have made bullying easier for kids and teens at younger ages. Cell phones, easy access to the internet and things such as xbox live are just a few of the ways for young adults to be bullied. It is easier for the bullies to get away with it also because parents are monitoring the time spent online and with cell phones as closely anymore. The stories that have been on the news lately really get you to think about what needs to be done about this. There are young adults that have taken their own lives because of the stress from this bullying, while the bully gets in little to no trouble at all. Proof is lacking in this because conversations can't always be saved and seen later. I have seen this problem first hand with my younger brother. He has be bullyed recently by a "friend" online. My mom has found it increasingly difficult to take care of this problem because she's been having a hard time getting proof of whats going on. She talked to my brother and the "friends" mother, but other then that there isn't much she can do besides talk to my brother. A big problem with this is that it has nothing to do with the schools so the teachers and principals can't take any course of action about the cyber bullying. I think that there needs to be changes to how young adults can use the internet and I also think that parents need to talk to their children about bullying on the internet so that the kids know what to so if this happens to them.

Meaning of Christmas

I was listening to the radio today when the host of the morning show started to talk about Christmas and how many kids think that it just about presents. With the time we live in there are many families that don't have enough money to be able to give the kids the Christmas that they want. I think that a lot of the kids need to learn what the true meaning of Christmas is. It's a time for families to spend time together and enjoy each others company. It's a time for people who are religious to give thanks to God and remember what Jesus sacraficed. I think that many parents need to get their children back to the basics and let them see that Christmas isn't all about presents. There are so many great traditions that me and my family have together so that we dont lose the meaning of Christmas. We spend time walking through the Rotary Lights together, we go to church on Christmas eve, and we have both sides of our family over on diffrent days to get together and celebrate. There are many things that families can do to be together and remember Christmas for everything that it is and I think that kids really need to learn these things and see how much more there is to Christmas.

Blue

There are many things in this world that are blue. The sky, a flower, rivers, and oceans just to name a few, but what happens when people stop caring about these beautiful gifts that nature has given to us? The abuse to the environment is a growing problem that has been going on for to long. Many big companies take little care to watch the polutants that are going into the ozone from their buildings. There are also many companies that don't take care to make sure that they aren't dumping harmful pollutants into the water. Accidents and things that companies know are goign on are slowly killing the environment. For example the oil spill in the gulf this summer killed thousands of animals that lived there, it hurt the communitites in the south and more importantly it hurt the ecosystems in the ocean. The damages done will take decades to repair and it will take years for things to go back to a working order. Smog advisorise in diffrent communitites are something that is very bad for everyone. They hurt the environment because of pollutatnts being let out and they harm people as well because of the toxins that are in the smog. The biggest fear is to wonder how long will it be before all of these beautiful blue things in nature are gone.

Final Fight (narrative)

Final Fight

“You don’t do anything here anymore and your never home.”
“Ever? So I just sit out all night, I never tell you what I’m doing, where I am, who I’m with?”
Words were coming from me faster than I could understand them. For everything he said I had a comeback, we had gotten good at this. Fighting and yelling is what we do best. We had always fought ever since I was about 13. Disagreements were the norm for us we couldn’t even decide on what color to paint my room, but this fight was different it changed everything for me and my dad.
My day had started out like any other; I was getting ready to leave for school with my brother. Mom and dad had already left for work, so I and Jake left; we locked the door to the house and got in my car. When my day was done I walked out of school and could smell the crisp fall air hit me with the mix of warm sunshine, the bluffs in front of me with the beautiful colors of reds, browns, yellows, and golds. It had turned out be a gorgeous day. I walked to my car and went to pick up my brother. On our drive home we talked about school and how Jake hates his art class. We talked about how nice it was outside as we pulled up to my house. We walked in to the house and strangely my dad was already home. My brother and I could just tell he was already in a bad mood so I told Jake what chores to do around the house and that I would do the rest.
I thought back to all the other times that my dad and I had fought, small little arguments that meant nothing and some bigger ones that really didn’t change anything after a couple of days. I relived those fights and remembered how easy they were; words flowed from us like a waterfall. Everything we said woven together perfectly until we were satisfied with the damaged done.
“You were 10 minutes late last night!”
“I know I had to drop of Chelsea, she lives on French Island and I had to drive across town.”
“I don’t care; you can’t do anything for the next week.”
“It was only 10 minutes and I just told you why I was late…”
“I don’t care.”
I snapped back to what was going on at that very second and the fighting resumed where it had left off.
“You always depend on us for everything. Learn how to do things on your own and maybe you won’t be such a spoiled little b!tch.”
“Because me getting a job at 15 ½ , paying for my car insurance and anything that goes wrong with it, buying my own clothes, doing my own laundry and dishes really means that I’m depending on you and mom right?”
“You don’t even know what responsibility is and you hardly do anything here…your never home.”
“Maybe I’m never home because I work 4 or 5 days every week and I do like to spend some time with my friends. I’m here every night and I always do the chores that you ask me too.”
“Jake does more then you, its ridiculous how little you help!”
“I help out and do more than what you ask of me. What else do you want of me? I try as hard as I can, I work 4 to 5 days a week, I’m going to school, and I’m taking some college classes.
“But you’re never here to do anything! You come home and go to bed.”
“Really?! On the days that I don’t work I’m home for hours normally, don’t tell me that I always just come home and go to bed without doing chores and helping.”
“No, you’re never here to help. Maybe you should just leave.”
I stopped dead in my tracks and thought to myself did he really just say that? I felt like I was a dear in headlights. I didn’t know what to say, but something had to come out. With how much was racing through my mind you would be surprised to find that for what seemed like a lifetime nothing was coming out of my mouth, but finally something did.
“Would that make it easier for you? Because if it does then the day that I turn 18 I can move.”
“Yeah I think that would be best then maybe you can see that it’s not all fun and games. I give you three months then you will be back here.”
“We’ll see, I know I can do it and I’m not going to need your help.”
“Ha Ha, yeah I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“I’m not worried I know that I can do it.”


You get into a motion when you are fighting, like a slalom racer moving swiftly between the large bumps in the snow. But no racer is perfect and they fall at some point in time, the deciding point is how quickly they get up and try again. This time I wasn’t trying the fight again I decided to move to something new.
I walked away from that fight knowing that what I had done was what I needed to do. I had no doubt in my mind that I was in for a lot of work, but it was going to help me in the long run. It would be hard, but moving to live on my own was something that I had to do for me. I needed the fighting to stop so I could move on with school, work and my life in general. In a way I’m happy that we fought, it pushed me to grow up faster and to become independent and be able to live on my own. There are a lot of people waiting to see me fail and it only makes me try harder and work to not fail.

Learning throughout Life

While watching the “TED” video I thought a lot about how I have learned things in my life so far and where I have learned these things. I also thought about what different things I have learned and what purpose they have served to me. Also, how people around me have viewed my failures and successes.
There are many things throughout my life that I have learned outside of school. Much like Gever’s tinkering school many things that people learn in their lives outside of school are learned by doing, trial and error. When you try something new as a kid and you “mess up” your parents encourage you to try again and they tell you that you will succeed next time. Like learning how to ride a bike without the training wheels, you have to learn by doing. You must fall in order to learn how, you go a little bit without your mom or dad holding on and after you go for a bit you fall. But you falling is celebrated because you rode on your bike by yourself for a bit. After that you get back on and try again and after trying again and again you learn how to keep going and ride by yourself on two wheels.
Inside a school we are taught that we need to learn everything and that we MUST pass the tests we are given. We are shown the right way to do things in school and often times we are not allowed the time to try ourselves and fail and then try again and learn from failure. Teachers don’t give students the opportunities to just try something. Instead of feeding students the information for the next test, teachers could try to give the students a new assignment and just let them go and try and learn from mistakes. At a young age in school we are taught that failure is bad and that we need to learn things and do them the right way the first time we try.
An example that I found that fits for both the in school and out of school learning is when a student learns how to drive a vehicle. A student learns the rules of the road in class and learn what to and not to do while driving. But the time comes when you have to get into the car and actually drive. The first time is a bit shaky, but just like riding a bike you get better and eventually are driving to the best of your abilities. For me the best way to learn is to do hands on, in this example I did best when I got behind the wheel and learned how to drive by driving the car myself. My first time I was a “curb hugger” and made mistakes, but after the first time I got better and better until I was able to take my driver’s test and drive by myself.
In the video Gever says that at the tinkering school, “Failure is celebrated and analyzed, and problems are puzzles.” This is often not societies view on failure. Many times when you fail in “the real world” people like down on you and criticize you. Just the opposite should come from failure as Gever says. I have learned that failure is not a bad thing, it helps me learn to keep trying and do better the next time that I make an attempt, by learning to fail people become better at what they are trying to do. Without the struggle of learning to do something there is no satisfaction or celebration when you learn or accomplish something.

My typical weekend!

This weekend I spent my time like most weekends, working and hanging out with friends. I started my weekend Friday afternoon, I went to lunch with a friend from work and we went to a few rummage sales. I found quite a few nice things for my new apartment! Friday night I went to a friend’s house and played Wii with her and her three adorable kids. Saturday started with an early morning wake up because I had to go to work by eleven, I worked till close and by the end of my shift I had worked almost eight hours and was ready for bed. After work I went home and instead of sleeping I changed so I could go out and meet with some of my friends, two of my friends and I went out to dinner and to a party. My Sunday was spent with family and friends, for most of the day I went to see my grandpa who was having a party for Labor Day and to celebrate life. After me and my family got home from my grandpa’s party, I went to go with some friends to a movie at the Rivoli and eat dinner. On Monday, I had to work from open to close; our store was open for shortened hours because of Labor Day so I was done by six pm. Like most weekends though I ended the Sunday with homework, overall my weekend was eventful and filled with work, friends and family.

A little about me!

My name is Alexandria Heather-Mary Schurhammer, but everyone I know calls me Lexi. I was born in Virginia Beach and I have also lived in Mississippi, but I have spent the past 13 years living in La Crosse. I graduated this past June 2010 from Central High School here in La Crosse. In high school I played volleyball and softball my freshman and sophomore year. I really enjoy photography in my spare time; I also have a job that I have been working at since I was 15 and a half. I am a very independent and creative person; I also love to spend time with my family and friends. I can’t sit and do one thing at a time I have to multitask or I can’t get anything done. I am very quiet and shy around people I don’t know but after I get to know someone I am very talkative and nice. I care a lot about people and I have learned to be careful with whom I trust. I enjoy being outside and seeing new things, I love to travel. I have a 13 year old brother that is in middle school named Jake and a mom and dad named Heather and Jim. I am attending Western Tech to become a registered nurse. I hope to someday after I graduate work in the emergency room in a large city.