Song of The Day

I've had this song stuck in my head all day! I love Megan and Liz, they are amazing artists! :) 

Some of My Creations!

I'm so, so, so, sorry for not posting recently, this past week has been super hectic and busy and then this weekend I got sick :( But I'm all better now! I decided to put all of my most recent creations on here, so enjoy! :) 

 MLP: FiM Valentine 

Pokemon valentine 

Bunny valentine 

Back of the bunny valentine (I made it for the 2 girls I babysit) 

MLP: FiM, Discord, MUAHAHAHA! 

A meme I made while doing school work, hehe 

Fluttershy :3 (MLP: FiM) 

Rainbow Dash (made for my best friend)  

Psycho pony (saw it on a friends' cover photo) 

Rainbow Dash's cutie mark (painted on an onion soup bowl)  

View #2 of painted bowl 

Random meme I made while talking to people about "who was phone"

A meme I made for my best friend since we're never online at the same time for some odd reason

Internet Censorship

Recently I had to write a research paper on a topic of my choice, so I chose internet censorship. Here's my paper for all those interested and a big thank you to those who allowed me to interview them! :) 

Internet Censorship; Should the Government Be Allowed to Do It?

The government should positively not be allowed to censor the internet because censorship over the internet has negative effects on schools, businesses and takes away our freedom of speech. Some countries have already began using internet censorship and recently a bill to censor the internet called SOPA was being discussed which many people opposed because of the above reasons.

First of all, what is internet censorship? Internet censorship is the control or suppression of the publishing of, or access to information on the Internet. It may be carried out by governments or by private organizations either at the order of government or on their own initiative. Recently a bill intending to censor the internet was brought to attention, this bill is called SOPA. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyright material, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. SOPA has not yet been passed in the United States but has been shelved for the second time as many people opposed it.

Although SOPA has not been passed yet, there are other countries who do censor the internet.  An example of one of these countries is China. Internet censorship in China is among the strictest in the world. The government blocks web sites that discuss the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, Falun Gong, the banned spiritual movement, and other Internet sites. As people began protesting to stop the censoring of the internet, the Chinese government tightened its grip on electronic communications, and appeared to be more determined than ever to police cell phone calls, electronic messages, e-mail and access to the Internet in order to smother any hint of antigovernment sentiment. The government’s computers intercept incoming data and compare it against an ever-changing list of banned keywords or Web sites, screening out even more information. The motive is often obvious: Since late 2010, the censors have prevented Google searches of the English word “freedom.”

As we can see from China's example of internet censorship, the right to freedom of speech is taken away from people with the act of censoring the internet. If SOPA were to pass then our freedom of speech and expression would also be taken away, even if we do not live in the United States as a lot of the websites we (in Canada) use are American websites. The following is an excerpt from an article on The Globe and Mail's website. "'If I was in China, I wouldn't be mildly annoyed, I'd be pretty angry (about censorship). But, as we saw with SARS, what is happening on the other side of the world can have a large and direct impact on us — and censorship was certainly a big factor in that crisis,' says Julie Payne, Program Manager of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression. 'Perhaps it's time that we started to care more about censorship by countries like China, even if it is motivated by self-interest.' Payne worries that Canadians largely believe themselves to be unaffected by censorship, to the point that they may not even know about potential threats to their rights. 'How much access are CSIS and the RCMP getting to Canadians' e-mails and Internet usage patterns?' Payne asks. 'Do we even know how much our privacy is being compromised, as is happening in the U.S.?'" As shown in the article Canadian citizens will be affected by SOPA just as much as American citizens will be which means the U.S. is able to take away our freedom of speech and expression on the internet.

Not only does censoring the internet take away freedom of speech and expression but it also causes negative effects on both school and businesses. In some schools filters get put into effect with the best of intentions, they are not a cure-all to hiding inappropriate content. For instance, in schools with a filter designed to keep out inappropriate content may not be able to access content about the book "Moby Dick," Further, if a person is trying to find information on a more controversial topic -- such as sexuality or drug use -- to educate themselves, they may not be able to access the resources they need to be as self-educated as possible. Censoring the internet negatively affects students' grades as well, as most students use search engines such as Google to research topics for school projects. If the information they are looking for is not there, they are unable to put together their project and receive a bad grade.

Another factor that affects not only schools, but businesses as well is cost. Censoring the internet takes time and resources. In addition to the cost of the labor and equipment required to set up a filter, firewall or other form of censorship, the system needs to be maintained, occasionally upgraded and repaired as time goes on. Whether the cost of this comes from schools, corporate budgets or government budgets -- the money could be more effectively spent on more important issues, no matter what the scale. Not only does the cost of implementing this system is an issue but also money that businesses could potentially lose from internet censorship. Many businesses use the internet to advertise their business or services, sell their products, and keep customers updated on new services or products. Without the internet continuing to remain uncensored the businesses could suffer because they are not bringing in enough customers, not having the ability to sell things online or customers lose interest. This could cause businesses (especially ones who are strictly internet businesses) to completely be shut down. Also, if a business owner can't access certain parts of the Internet, they may not be able to compete fully on a global scale, or access the best resources for products and services required.

Recently, we asked 10 different people (5 males and 5 females) on their thoughts about internet censorship. 100% of these people said that internet censorship would be a negative thing, 60% said that it would have a negative effect on schools and 70% said that it would have a negative effect on businesses. When asked about the negative effects internet censorship would have on us, they answered with the following:

-          affect personal learning experiences negatively

-          disconnects people from one another

-          takes away freedom of speech

-          harder to do research for school

-          causes businesses to fail

-          reduces our knowledge

-          harder to access information about other countries

-          silences the right to protest

-          takes away a source of media

-          stifles creativity and innovation

-          puts a burden on website owners to police user-contributed material.

When asked about the positive effects internet censorship could have on us they answered the following:

-          corporations (that don't depend on the internet) will get more money

-          stems the flow of cyber-crime and pirating

-          producers/artists get the money they deserve

-          parents wouldn't have to constantly watch their kids on the internet

-          less hackers/ viruses/ fraud cases

-          potentially better government control over protests and other unlawful assemblies

-          there are none

When asked about how they felt about their right to freedom of speech being taken away, they responded with the following answers:

-          angry (3 people said this)

-          upset

-          frustrated

-          aggravated

-          repressed

-          that the government is trying to stop a social voice

-          that it will cause us to be sent back as a civilization

-          That the internet should be in line with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the U.S. First Amendment Rights.

Therefore, the government should not be allowed to censor the internet because of the negative effects it will have such as taking away our freedom of speech and expression, reducing our knowledge, affecting our schools and students' abilities to succeed in school, affecting our businesses and causing businesses to lose money/ be shut down, stifling our creativity and innovation, and silencing our right to protest. 

One Million Moms is Ridiculous!

To all those who don't know there is a group called One Million Moms who are trying to get Ellen Degeneres fired from being on JC Penny commercials because she's gay. They are also trying to cancel other shows or commercials because they claim that they are immoral (the show "Glee" is an example of this) and have already succeeded in cancelling other shows and commercials (such as a show on MTV called "Skins") By doing this they are taking away everyone else's freedom to watch what we want to watch. We must put an end to this! 

Today I went onto the One Million Moms' website and wrote them an email, hoping that maybe we can see eye to eye but we're going to need more than just one person to put a stop to this. If we can get enough people with us they may back down and start doing the sensible thing and instead of trying to censor everyone they can just censor themselves (with parental blocks etc). Below is the letter that I wrote to them. 

Okay, so I do not agree with a single thing you stand for. Yes, I understand that you don't want your children to see certain shows or commercials but there's a simple answer to that, DON'T LET THEM WATCH TV. Or, instead buy DVDs or purchase Netflix so children can only watch certain shows. Or put a parental block on your tv. But don't ruin tv for the rest of us. Not everyone shares the same views as you and it's unfair that we have to lose all of the things we enjoy because you guys say it's immoral. For example, you are against the show "Glee" (I'm assuming it's because of the gay people in the show?) That show has helped me through a lot in my life. I love that show and if it were to get cancelled because you don't want to see it I would be outraged. If you don't like it, DON'T WATCH IT! Another thing is, Ellen Degeneres is one of the most kind, helpful people around. Have you ever even taken the time to watch her show and see all of the things she does to help people? Just because she's gay doesn't make her any less of a person. In fact, I think she's a great person! She has accomplished so much in her life and in her career and trying to get someone who didn't do anything wrong fired is completely ridiculous. How would you feel if you got fired because you're a female? It's something you can't change, you were born that way and you're not going to change the way that you are, so why should Ellen have to? You can continue to boycott JC Penny all you want but there are going to be people who still shop there, because not everyone shares the same opinions as you, as I said before. After reading through your site and your Twitter I feel as if you're trying to shove your beliefs down my throat and take away things I enjoy to make your lives better and easier. That is wrong. By doing what you're trying to do you're taking away my freedom and my choice to watch what I want to watch.  Instead of taking away my choices, why don't you just make your own choices to not watch these programs or commercials that you don't like. There's always going to be commercials and programs with bad content in them, if you start taking away all of the things that could be considered "immoral" we're going to have absolutely nothing left. Stop trying to take away my rights and freedoms. It is against the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (for Canada) and the United States Constitution or Bill of Rights. Yes, you have the right to freedom of speech and freedom to petition but all I'm saying is instead of immediately demanding that something be taken away because you don't agree with it, instead make personal choices to not watch those things and let everyone else who enjoys it continue enjoying it. Do not ruin tv for the rest of us please. 

-- 

To see any other programs and commercials that they have cancelled or are trying to cancel you can click on the link to their website below. 

http://www.onemillionmoms.com/victories.asp <-- things that they have successfully cancelled 

http://www.onemillionmoms.com/issues.asp <-- things that they are trying to have cancelled

If you wish to write them an email about stopping this madness you can click on this link --> http://www.onemillionmoms.com/ComplaintForm.asp

He's Just Not That Into You

Here's something everyone (whether you're male or female) should do. This is from the novel "He's Just Not That Into You", which I previously mentioned in my article "Amanda's Rules of Dating". This is what you need to do, reset or re-evaluate your standards, here's a list of suggestions from the book. 


- I will not go out with a man who hasn't asked me out first
- I will not go out with a man who keeps me waiting by the phone
- I will not date a man who isn't sure he wants to date me 
- I will not date a man who makes me feel sexually undesirable 
- I will not date a man who drinks or does drugs to an extent that makes me feel uncomfortable
- I will not be with a man who is afraid to talk about our future
- I will not, under any circumstances, spend my precious time with a man who has already rejected me
- I will not date a man who is married (or otherwise unavailable) 
- I will not be with a man who is not clearly a good, kind, loving person 


Now it's your turn, write down some of your own standards you came up with, and STICK to them. This short article could also be used as an example of what you SHOULD when interested in someone. For example, ask them out first, call them or return their calls/texts, etc. That is all.