Genocide in Darfur

You know that feeling you have when you're home? You feel safe and happy and like you have everything you really need. But what if all of that was taken away from you? If you were left without a family, a house, and with a government that wants you dead. That is exactly how the people of Darfur, Sudan, are feeling right now. Every day in Darfur thousands are being killed by their very own government, in an act called genocide. And not just soldiers killing soldiers- it's soldiers and assassins killing innocent citizens. Men, women, and children, regardless of age or sex. And the worst part of all this, in my opinion, is that the European countries and the U.S. are not doing anything to stop it.


After the Holocaust, the world promised that genocide would occur "never again." But clearly, that was a lie. Maybe the US is just denying it. Maybe they're unsure of the situation. But I don't think that's the case at all. I think that we're just trying really hard to forget that they're dying while we live in bliss. We tell ourselves that it's not in our nation's "best interest." But what about Darfur's best interest? Just because something is logical or for our best interest does not justify it as being right. And isn't that what America is about? Making choices for the good of all that are RIGHT. Not always for our own benefit!



I believe that the U.S. could do something. I know it's nearly impossible to actually go in and just save Darfur, but if we as citizens could at least speak up, then that would be something. Philippe Gaillard once said, "If you don't speak out clearly, then you are participating in the genocide." This is definitely true. Even if you know you're incapable of doing something, if you at least say something, maybe your words can reach somebody else who actually CAN do something.

Why Lauren hates girl scouts- A Christmas story!! (free topic)

Today, we have been assigned a FREE TOPIC. This opens up so many opportunities....infinite possibilities, here! Yet out of all those possibilities, I am going to tell a little story.
It happens to be one of my favorite stories to tell, since it happened to me. (some people have heard it, but...I don't care)

Once upon a time, little Lauren was in fifth grade. She was a girl scout. And she absolutely hated girl scouts, but she loved to sing Christmas carols, So when the opportunity arrived to go sing with her troop at the nursing home, she was delighted. That is, until she got there. See, every girl scout was given a bouquet of roses. When they were finished singing, they were each supposed to pick an old lady and hand her a rose. Lauren was very indecisive at this age, so it was quite difficult to just pick one person to give a rose to. While she was deciding, everyone else had given their roses. Lauren was sad, until she saw one more little old lady sitting in the back with no rose. Lauren approached the lady, smiling. The old lady was...interesting. She had huge eyes and huge glasses, and a shrunken, wrinkly face. She looked nice though. Little Lauren held out her rose and said, "merry christmas!!" The old lady took the rose, stared at it reeealllllyy hard, then she did something. Something awful. That woman took the rose and shoved it into her MOUTH. SHE ATE THE ROSE. ATE IT!!!!!! in response, Lauren cried, and then she quit girl scouts. WORST day ever! The end.

Blog Six- Artists!

I loves me some art. I mean, really- where would we be without it? Art is a way for people throughout the ages to express ideas, opinions, and thoughts in a "language" that we can all understand. I (being an artsy kind of person) was quite happy to see that this week's topic was about famous artists. I really love the work of Rufino Tamayo. He is a Zapotecan Indian painter who was born in Oaxaca de Juarez, Mexico, in the early 1900's. His paintings are very impressionistic, but with a clear Mexican vibe to them. In his time, most painters were very influenced by politics, and they depicted them in their work. Tamayo wanted his art to be more traditional, so he chose not to include anything political. Because of this, the Art community in Mexico disrespected him, and he felt he could not really express himself, so he moved to New York City to work. After his first (and successful) solo show, he was noted for his new technique he called, "Mixografia," a technique where the art was printed on paper but had lots of texture and depth to it. Soon Tamayo moved to Paris where he was widely acclaimed and accepted by the artists. He had had a very successful career when he retired back to Mexico, where he died in 1991. Shown above is Tamayo's "Trovador." I chose this piece to represent Latin America because it is very colorful and bright. It shows dress, architecture, music, and people all in one painting!

Hellooo again! Ok, so I've got some quotes to discuss. Immediately. Heree we go:

"In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught." --Baba Dioum, Senegalese conservationist

Now, being the good student that I am, (hehe) I did a bit of research on this guy. He is a conservationist, which, by definition, is: –noun; a person who advocates or promotes conservation, esp. of natural resources. He works mostly on African Environmental issues and the conservation of land and water.
I think that when he said this quote, he was of course referring to the environment- teaching others about conserving it in order for them to understand it and therefore; love it. But when you get rid of this aspect...this guy just said something really deep.
He's giving us one of those inevitable truths of life: you can't love something unless you truly know and understand what it is. I agree with this quotation because its very true. Like....If I didn't know what ice cream was, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't love it. If I didn't understand theatre, I wouldn't love that either! You can apply this to virtually anything. So in conclusion-this guy is super profound and awesome at giving inspirational quotes.

Well then-these last few weeks have been, well, stressful. I'm pretty sure like, EVERYONE will agree with me. I had tons of tests, quizzes, and projects due. Now that they're all done, I feel like...like...I'm freeeeee agaiinnnn!!!! Except not really cause we have more stuff to do soon! Meehhh. I will make a list of what has recently happened in my life:
1. Last week I gradually ate an entire jar of Nutella. All by myself. I'm so accomplished :)
2. I've been working really hard on my piece for Speech and Debate, and I hope it's good when I have to go compete in a few weeks!
3. You know what's awesome? Graphing calculators. Seriously. without mine I could not finish any of my Algebra homework!
4. I went to House of Torment on friday. SCARY! but really fun. I definitely recommend it!
5. This weekend I'm volunteering at Dogtoberfest. It's like this festival at the Domain where you can come and adopt dogs from lots of different rescue shelters. If anybody wants to come...that would be great! it's on saturday, all day! Bring your dogs!
Ok, that's it. Commmeeennttss are wonderful.

Blog Numba Fouurrr- Illegal Immigrants

Illegal Immigrants, according to urbandictionary.com:

1. an illegal alien. 2. a criminal. 3. an individual criminally pretending to be a citizen of a nation for economic gain and/or political subterfuge in said nation, and lacks loyalty to said nation. 4. a selfish and/or cowardly person unwilling to positively change the socio-economic and political problems in his/her own country in order to benefit everyone, including him/herself, and thus runs away to another country to hide. 5. a loser.

This definition is mostly true, thought it seems somewhat biased to me, hehe. Illegal immigrants are actually quite common in Texas, with us being so close to the border of Mexico and all. I suppose they think it's really easy to sneak their way into the U.S. so they try it. Of course, they usually get caught by the border patrol. But those who do make it in are living here illegally and wasting our government's $$. I can totally see their reasoning though. I mean, if I lived in Mexico, I would want to get into the U.S. But immigrating legally is a lengthy process, and not all people are able to come. If they are sick, cannot speak English, or don't have enough money, they're basically out of luck!
Our country has found ways to deal with illegal immigration. Along the borders there are patrol officers roaming day and night. There is even a fence being put up all along the Texas/Mexico border. Craaazy stuff, just for a few people who want to live here! Those who are living here illegally can be deported just as quickly as they got here. The U.S. is tough!

All about Culture

Oh yes, I am psyched to get to talk about music! I LOVE music, and I consider it a big part of my life. Where would the world be without music? Answer: nowhere, because we wouldn't have anything to listen to along the way. Anyways...I thought I would include a list of stuff that I like. See, I'm not really into generic music. I truly despise Rap music (sorry if you like it, but I think it sounds like junk) And I truly love Rock. Classic, new stuff, and especially Indie. Some favorite bands? Ugh, I can hardly think, there are so many! Well, I really love the White Stripes. Jack White= Brilliant! I also love...
-Muse
-The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
-Foo Fighters
-Passion Pit
-Kings of Leon
-Cheap Trick
-The Beatles
and Oh so many more! There are some artists that I only know one or two songs by, but I really like them. Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgBeu3FVi60
It's by this duo, Matt and Kim. I only know this song by them, but I love the video and the song!
I also have some songs/artists that I really do like...but I wish I didn't. I know I'll get made fun of when people are flipping through my ipod and question my musical choices. So, sadly, here's my list of Guilty Pleasure music:
-Britney Spears
-Miley Cyrus
-George Strait
-Elton John
No laughing at meeee!! I like this music, and that's all that matters..right? Thanks for reading, comments would be just marvelous!

The 5 Amazzzzing Themes of Geography

I live in Austin, Texas. The capital. Located in the heart of the Hill Country. The big city where all the fun and shananigans are a' happenin'. You get it. So, we are currently studying the "5 Themes of Geography" which are basically the things you need to know about different locations to actually call it geography. Like:

-Movement

-Region

- Human/Environment interaction

- Location

- Place

Ooh! and we came up with this little acronym to remember them; it spells out, "M.R.H.E.L.P."

I thought I would list out all of these themes, and how they apply to Austin. First is movement:

Movement - How people, Ideas, goods, and information move

-in Austin, we use many modes of transportation. I would call us a "green" city because lots of people like to use buses to get around and of course, their bikes. It's like a biker heaven here. And not the kind with engines. REAL bikes! Lance Armstrong started it all...

We're also really into our cars, but what city isn't? Downtown there's always a ton of walkers, usually with their dogs.

-as for communication, we use our cell phones for the most part. Everyone has a home phone, but since Austin is more of a lively place, we're on the move a lot. Therefore, cell phones! We use computers, laptops or home computers, for emailing and IMing.

Region- areas with common characteristics

- Austin is located right in the middle of the central Texas hill country, so the landscape is generally pretty green year-round. Hills are everywhere! I love the hills because they're not so massive as mountains, but they're pretty to look at and they "roll."

-Climate? Ha! It is incredibly hot and humid here, to the point where I occasionally question why I live here. Winters are mild. Ice/snow is VERY rare, and when it does come, we're not prepared and school is cancelled since we can't plow the roads!

- We use our land mostly for business here, we're not a farming town. Except for the suburbs. We all speak English here, obviously, though there are many spanish speakers here. Oh, and our Mexican food is Awesome.

Human/Environment Interaction- How people and places interact

-We've changed our environment, of course. All of the lakes here are man made, except for the Colorado River. We've built dams, made TONS of roads and highways that cut through the land,

and we've polluted. Pollution is not a huge problem here, in my opinion. Well, air pollution is. There are thousands of people who drive their cars to work each morning, even more trucks that blow fumes into the air, and trains that pass through leave a cloud of exhaust behind.

-I believe that we have adapted to our environment pretty well...since its SUPER HOT here, we usually wear minimal clothing...not in a bad way! We're a laid back, tank top and shorts kind of city. 'Cept for in the Winter. Then we throw on a sweater and some jeans and boots, and we're good to go.

Location- Where are we??

-ok, so there are two types of location. Theres relative location, where you give the location in relation to other places, and absolute location, which is the super duper exact location on the globe.

-Austin's relative location would probably be "on the Colorado River, South of Ft. Worth" and its absolute location is "30.3 Lat. and 97.7 Long."

Place- What is it like here?

-The atomoshere of Austin is what stands out most to me. I used to live in Arlington, and it was very different up there. I think that everyone here is much more laid back. People here are liberals, whereas in Arlington there are lots more conservative people. I never noticed how uptight it was there until I went back recently and realized that I liked Austin better! The buildings here are tall, urban, and mostly new. Recently Austin has been undergoing some big changes to the downtown skyline. And the music....rocks. More than anywhere. We host ACL, South by Southwest, and are called, "the live music capital." Music is very important to us all, and I think it defines the city.

Thanks for reading! Comments would make my day.... ~Lauren

Hey hey first Blog!!!

My name is Lauren, and I'm a freshman at Anderson High School. Ok, so, our world geography class has this assignment to start our own little geography blog. And, well, this is mine! I wouldn't call geography a past time of mine, so normally I wouldn't even think of making a blog on it. But I've discovered that this is kinda fun. I got really excited when we got to pick out our backgrounds and stuff...it made me feel professional. Did anyone else feel that way? It's cool if it was just me. I appreciate the little things. As a matter of fact, at the moment I really appreciate High School. I never imagined it would be this much fun. I've only been at Anderson 2 weeks and I've had so many experiences. I've made new friends, found my place among my friends and the entire student body, and yes, I have learned a lot. Anyways, I suppose I should talk about myself-I'm a freshman, I'm really into theatre, (hence the "theatre geek") art, music, and swimming. (Go Blue wave!) I have one sister who is 8 years old and goes to Davis elementary. I've also got 3 wonderful pets; my dog, Laddie(like the boy version of Lassie) My kitty, Mo, and my beta fish, Shakespeare. Yes, his name is Shakespeare. Call me a nerd. I love hanging out with friends on the weekends, traveling, (near or far) and going to Speech and Debate practice/tournaments. I play piano, ride my bike, go camping and hiking, and ride horses. Some interesting things? I love singing (badly, I might add) and dancing. (also not so hot) Ok, well... Thanks for reading, guys! Comments are tres' appreciated! (this is the part where I should put a cutesy little sign off, but seeing as though I cannot think of one...bye!)