Thursday, May 1, 2014

Senior Movie Review

Ben Mizzacillin


Fifty shades of Ben (2014)

Cast: Ben MacMillan, Darnel Strother, Spencer Drake, Kyle Newell, Niko Difazio, Joe Nixon, Chandler Birmingham, Chanler Harrison, Cameron Buthlay, Adam Brobst, and a bunch of fly honeys

Review: if your in the mood for a boring documentary with one one exciting part that wasn't worth the wait, this is the movie for you. Ben MacMillan stars as the main character followed by his goons who traverse through the perils of senior year of high school.
The pros of this documentary are a wonderful soundtrack, including rap, rap, oh and more rap. Along with frequent swearing and bullying, this twisting plot will throw you for a loop as you try to figure out why you are even watching this. There is a colorful cast with cameos from Cam Buthlay as that bully who everyone secretly hates, and Joe Nixon that lovable kid who everyone pities because he is diffrent.
The most exciting scenes are after the drawn out school day where the lovable main character Ben hangs with his sidekick Darnel the friendly and cluelessly happy gangster, this is the most exciting part of the movie because they roll around town and do nothing for hours on end.
This movie will have a sequel next year called "Where did we get the money to do this?" and will include half of the original cast, along with a new setting
This documentary is rated R for Cam.





Final Writing Assignment #2

What was the assignment?
This assignment was the first feature article of the second semester, we had to choose a relevant topic to our lives and write about it.
Why did you choose this piece over the others we have done?
This was one of the longer and more developed pieces that I've had and it shows the writing skill I had at the beginning of this class.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the piece?
The strength of this piece for me is the strong voices that I included from many diffrent sources, the weakness is probably the boring flow and structure of the piece.


Ben Mac
Senior skip day

Kyle Newell a senior at Freeport highschool is a man on a mission, and that mission to get the most out of life. A lost tradition that could help Kyle on this mission is the legendary Senior Skip Day, although recently losing its prominence throughout the US, Kyle and the rest of the student body at Freeport high school hope to be setters of a new trend here at Freeport. It is important that the student body chooses whether to participate or not since the window of opportunity is closing quickly.
            Fear is one of the main reasons that most schools don't have a senior skip day, even Kyle from Freeport said "The school will probably handle it poorly by giving out mass detentions and taking away some of our senior privileges." Unless you are a parent, senior or teacher I doubt any of these events will affect you but for the students this is a big deal. Kyle believes that "it's a right of passage." "Just kids exercising their freedoms." In this new day and age it's sad to see that school officials take so much pride in being controlling and authoritative to innocent fun loving kids. One day less of school to hangout with your friends or go to the beach doesn't warrant detentions, it's a way to show enthusiasm about moving forward with your life, going on to bigger and better things.
Parents and teachers have different opinions though. I recently spoke Mr. Mellon a teacher at Freeport high school, he commented on senior skip day by saying "it's a waste of time because your in school to be a scholar not a slacker." Parents had similar comment Tracy MacMillan said that "school is a time to learn, you have plenty days off in the summer."
          If this event does occur I hope everyone can act appropriately about it. It would be a shame to see punishments that get out of hand or students being too disrespectful to administrators. I hope in the end we can all come to a conclusion which will be fun a benefit both sides.

Final Writing Assignment #1

What was the assignment?
This assignment was the first editorial of journalism class. It was especially important because we submitted it to the New York Times.
Why did you choose this piece over the others we have done?
I choose this piece because it was the most I have ever tried on a solidary piece, and it is well written.
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the piece?
The strengths of the piece are good vocabulary and research, the weakness is that I need to state my opinion earlier since it's an editorial.

Should Cannabis be Legal?
                                                             By BEN MACMILLAN

  In recent years a new hot button issue has risen through the ranks and is now becoming a very prominent discussion topic. Not only in America, but across the globe, policymakers and government officials are mulling over the aspects of legalizing cannabis. Should cannabis be legal for medical patients? How about legalized for recreational use? Can it boost the economy? Many different opinions and facts are being brought up on this argument, and I hope to clear up some misconceptions commonly thrown into the discussions and prove that cannabis should be legal, even if only for medicinal reasons.
          Recently I was reading an article by Michael Gonchar from the New York Times about the discussion on legalizing marijuana; the interesting part I found myself intrigued in was the comment section of the article. There were many misconceptions I spotted. It seemed that there was a lot of confusion about how marijuana whether medical or recreational would affect the economy. I would first like to start off by saying; yes marijuana is being taxed by the state governments who have legalized it for medicinal and recreational purposes. In a statement released from the Colorado Department of Revenue, it says that marijuana is being taxed at a rate of 25%, this is sales tax and state taxes combined. In another article released by the CDR Colorado alone raked in two million dollars in sales tax, on recreational marijuana alone.
Another misconception is that marijuana is bad for you, I will not try and argue that there are no bad effects that come from smoking it, but do remember it is less harmful then cigarettes and alcohol of which both are legal. "You can die binge-drinking five minutes after you've been exposed to alcohol. That isn't going to happen with marijuana," said Ruben Baler, a health scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
If slowly killing your liver by consuming alcohol or giving yourself lung cancer is legal, why can’t smoking a joint to ease the stress of a long day, or even smoking a bowl to help an insomniac sleep be legal. On the contrary of friends I discuss this topic with, I do accept the fact that cannabis can and may only be legalized on the medical scale, and I believe that is a righteous and good hearted path for the substance. If we can prove that it can save people pain and hassle in their lives, and that it can really be a helpful tactic finding ways to ease people lives: why not.
In the end I am hoping that the facts are brought into consideration more than people’s opinions. If the companies or government can find a way to test the effects of marijuana we can see if it would be worth legalizing, but the problem is with all the anti-cannabis protesters spreading falsities and their own personal opinion instead of facts which confuse the majority of the population. Open your own eyes and see or experience for yourself instead of taking all your facts from a secondary source that may have political or personal obligations and objections against a certain topic.

Thursday, April 17, 2014

Movie Review

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs? Nah, more like sunny with a chance of laughter, this movie was cute and entertaining, with comedic pain and adorable animals. The two main characters, a baby producing cloud, and his trusty stork that delivers them begin having relationship problems when the interacting a become to dangerous for the stork. Although it ins swiftly resolved after a bit of minor crying and they become friends once more and continue on there work. I believe the film was a contemporary piece on the new age problem of having to explain birth to kids,this comedic look at the alternative solution to telling kids about the birds and bees. The rest of this is going to be gibberish so that it looks like I'm an adequate writer that can fill three quarters of a page discussing a four minute movie. I do not enjoy watching basketball unless it is a alley oop or dunk competition, I do on the other hand enjoy ballin out or so it is referred to by the hooligans of today. I believe 9/11 was an inside job and that Osama bin laden was working for the US government and that is why they haven't released proof of his death. Ron Paul for president, the N word.

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

College crossroads

— What is your reaction to Mr. Bruni’s idea that where you go to college matters less than “the effort you put into your studies, the earnestness with which you hone your skills, what you actually learn”?
I believe that Mr. Bruni's idea has a very strong amount of relevance and that it is something I believe in as well. The fact of the matter though, is that if a smart young person graduates from USM with a bachelors in accounting and applies for the same job that a another smart young person from Harvard applied too with the same credentials, that the Harvard graduate will more likely be granted the job because of the social stigma surrounding top colleges.


— If you’re a student who is finished with the college process, what advice would you give high school juniors?
Make sure you have good grades, do lots of college visits to get the ideal feel of the schools you want to go to, fill out scholarships and college applications early. Also stay out of the police beat if you're a hooligan, bump ins with the law and School officials can hamper your college career.



— In the end, how much do you think it matters where you go to college? Why?
Unfortunately I believe it matters a lot where you go to college, not just how hard you work, and are dedicated to the subject. This isn't always a bad thing because to gain access into the top schools you do have to be intelligent and hard working.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Opening Moment 4/1/14

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/malaysia-airlines-flight-370-us-navy-ping-detector-is-headed-to-search-site/

Recently family members of passengers have been lawyering up due to the discrepency of June airlines. Also a ship with high tech search gear is being released to the ocean but with no idea where to search for flight 370.

SAT on the Job

— Do you think SAT scores could be a good indicator of future career success? Why or why not?
I believe so, because growing up with the people in this high school and getting to know them has shown me that there are some very intelligent hard working kids, and those kids got higher SAT scores than the rest of the students. If I was a future employer I would like to choose those kids with higher SAT scores because I would know that they are intelligent and hard working.

— Should there be an expiration date on the scores’ being considered as part of
a prospective employee’s application? If so, what should it be?
Yes, there should be an expiration date in when SAT scores are a valid indicator of a persons knowledge and work ethic. I have met some smart hardworking people and I believe that they are great at there job but if you gave them an SAT in this day and age they wouldn't remember how to do half of the questions because they have replaced that knowledge with information more prominent to there environment and work.

— What if a job applicant did not take the SAT? Do you think some employers would penalize that person? How should this situation best be handled, in your opinion?
If a job applicant didn't take the SAT then employers should see if they did AP exams or the ACT, if they didn't do either if these then a highschool and college transcript. I do believe it would hamper the applicants chance of getting the job.