Endangered Historical Locations

The central goal of the article is to show several historical U.S. landmarks that have become irrelevant these days and are in danger of extinction. The article is written as if to raise tourist attraction to these locations and raise public awareness about the possible extinction of these areas. All of the locations provided in the article have been chosen by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as the most important and soon-to-be-endangred locales. What is most interesting about this editorial is that it provides background information about the locations, so as to let people know about the importance of the locations. I am a bit of a history buff and this sort of information interests me, so I found this article to be really enjoyable. Some of the landmarks included in the article that most interested me were the Ellis Island Hospital Complex (which is a not-so booming hospital nowadays), Malcolm X's home (has been rumored to be turned into housing for graduate students studying African American history, social justice, and civil rights), and the Princeton Battlefield (one the site of a battle during the American Revolution and now a struggle with maintaining rich farmlands as people are closing in on the area in order to build housing).

I found this article on Yahoo! and found it to be really interesting because I had always wondered what had happened to some of these historical locations and I had wondered whether these locales had been kept up for tourist appreciation. The article provided a bunch of pictures of each of the locations that it spoke about. The article is actually very well-written and includes facts along with pictures, so the article is enjoyable to follow along with. Though the article is not a hard-hitting news story, it is a commemorative editorial about historical locations of the past and their relevance today. I did enjoy finding out about a bunch of these locations and I may actually visit a couple of these locations someday because the article made them seem very interesting.

Source: http://travel.yahoo.com/ideas/u-s--landmarks-in-danger-of-extinction-20120605.html

Best Paying Jobs

The article uses information from the US Department of Education to find out what the 20 most common majors are and uses PayScale to figure out how much money a college graduate going into the profession for a range of 2-8 years. The article is valuable in that is provides some analysis on thoughts such as: is it worth it to attend an expensive college if you are going into a major that doesn't provide enough money. The highest paying job by major was a Sales Director with a Business Administration major recieving $122,000 a year. The lowest paying job by major was a Costumer Service Representative with a Political Science major recieving $29,000 a year. The statistics were interesting because I had believed that the annual pay for a lot of these jobs would be fairly higher; however, that is not generally the case.

It is pretty obvious as to why I read this news article. The article provided statistics and information about impending college majors and which ones will provide people with the most dough. The article interested me because I wanted to know how my own college major of Engineering ranked on the top paying jobs list and I also wanted to find out which major had the highest paying jobs. The article is well-written and provided actual statistics from websites such as PayScale, in order to back up the figures they had included in the article. I did enjoy reading the article because I learned about the starting salaries for certain professions and it will help me in deciding which major I will pursue.

Source: http://career-services.monster.com/yahooarticle/best-paid-jobs-by-major#WT.mc_n=yta_fpt_article_best_paying_jobs_by_major

Miley Cyrus Gets Engaged

The main topic of the article is about Miley Cyrus getting engaged to the "Hunger Games" actor, Liam Hemsworth yesterday. Miley is only 19 years old and Hemsworth is 22, and they have been dating for the past 3 years, so their eventual engagement seemed only natural. The article provided plenty of quotes from Miley Cyrus and other worthy quotables about the subject of her engagement as well as how Miley had met Liam back when she was 16, and starring in her first full-feature movie. The article also shared that Miley had recieved her first on-screen kiss with Liam Hemsworth, so he has been with her since she was teenager and now, as she's going into a young woman. Miley's parents are more than sympathetic about her engagement because they have known Hemsworth for the past three years and he has already grown to be a part of their family.

The article was fairly well written considering it is just an article about celebrity gossip. I did enjoy reading the article because I learned an interesting piece of news that I hadn't already known and the article had also provided an interview of Miley Cyrus on the subject of getting engaged, so the article seemed more legitimate.

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/06/06/12083269-miley-cyrus-is-engaged-to-liam-hemsworth?lite

Ray Bradbury dies at age 91

Just today, I read an article about the death of an iconic science fiction writer by the name of Ray Bradbury. I had only heard of Bradbury as the writer of the novel Farenheit 451, which I read in the eigth grade and discovered that it was one of my favorite novels, despite its convoluted plot. Bradbury lived to the ripe age of 91 and passed away on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. He passed away due to natural causes.

The news took me by shock a little because I had not known that Bradbury lived until the age of 91. The article then went on to describe Bradbury's best known accomplishments, which made me want to read a couple of his books when I get a chance to. What was interesting enough to find out in this article was that Bradbury had a common theme among all of his books: they were a revelation on the future he had imagined for this world. Bradbury had always scorned the idea of using heavy technology.

I chose to read this article because its topic had caught my attention. It was a fairly well-written article (slightly biased; however, because the author of the article seems to be a fan of Ray Bradbury) which provided interesting and less-well known facts about the famous writer. I did enjoy the article because it provided information that I had not already known.

Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47706156/ns/today-books/

Senior Reflection #3

I thought I would make this senior reflection a little more personal about graduation. Graduation is nearing (only 12 days to be precise). Graduation, for me, is not only going to be a difficult time with saying good bye to all of the friends I've made, but also good bye to 13 years of organized schooling. High school graduation is like a rite of passage, where we leave the childish/juvenile world and become independent adults. Graduating high school is something that I have been looking forward to for quite a while, not because I cannot wait to get out of school, but because I cannot wait to get out of this town and I cannot wait to meet new people, which is how life is going to be. People say that high school is the time of your life that you will truly remember forever. Though I do agree with that statement, I think that a person's life doesn't truly begin until they graduate from high school and enter college (to realize that they are in charge of their own decisions for once in their lives). I guess all I'm trying to say is that I cannot wait to graduate because I believe there is so much more to this world left for me to experience.

Senior Reflection #2

This past week has been both relaxing and stressful at the same time, since most of my classes are ending as we're preparing for final exams or working on final projects. I've gotten through three final exams: Matrix Algebra, Biology, and English in this past week. Finals week is going to be easy because I've gotten through much of my difficult classes. However, I have a pretty busy weekend ahead of me (with tons of final projects and last-minute homeworks to finish up before the quarter/school year ends) along with graduation parties, volunteering, and so much more. So, here's to hoping that I'll have all my stuff done before the weekend is over, so next week can be an awesome week before school ends! I cannot wait until next week actually because we'll be getting school yearbooks on Monday. I've already had a chance to look at the new yearbook; however, I cannot wait to get it signed by all of my friends before we all head our separate ways to different colleges/states.

Senior Reflection #1

I guess it has been quite a while since I've had a chance to post on this blog, but I thought I would begin with a senior reflection on how this year has been so far. I want to go back and talk about the past couple of weeks, which have been extremely hectic because of AP Exams. I had four straight days of AP Exams, which completely wore me out. However, my AP exams went pretty well, so I've finally gotten over the hump of the school year and I've had a chance to finally relax with just doing simple/fun projects for classes. As of right now, we only have 6 days of school left for this Senior year. I cannot wait until school ends, so I can have a fun and relaxing summer.