Cover Letter

Dear Reader,

            In the beginning of the semester, I was mildly enthusiastic about passing the class and getting the work done. In the majority of the second semester in 12^th grade, I was incredibly apathetic and unmotivated to do most of the work in my English class. But thanks to my counselor’s and my teacher’s assistance, I was able to muster up what little strength I had in me and get the work done for the last 5 weeks of school. Thankfully, I barely passed the class with a D and barely graduated high school. I thought that after relaxing during the summer vacation, I had put those thoughts of apathy and carelessness behind me. I began to change again during this semester and not for the better

            I’m not sure if I learned much from this class. The things I can remember that were taught in this class were things that my English teacher in high school had already covered. I’m not sure if any of my writing improved because throughout the semester I had no will to write essays. I faced many obstacles during the course, most of those obstacles simply being me not bothering to work the essay. A few of the obstacles were that the essay prompt was completely unrelatable to me. I was simply unable to make an essay out of something I had no experience or knowledge in. But this was easily fixed. However, there was still the issue of not putting in effort to finish the essay.

            I didn’t learn much that would help me in the future. In the future I should try harder to overcome my deep-seated feeling of apathy towards finishing classwork and passing classes. I enjoy writing, especially writing creatively. I find it to be a fun way to just let out ideas. I wish I could have done more, assuming I would have done anything.

Sincerely,

Armen Balkian

The Final Update: Version 2.0

            "Live your life, do your work, then take your hat." -Henry David Thoreau. There once was a time where the value of a hat was based on nothing more than personal taste. Sadly, I was not lucky enough to have been born in that era. In these current times your worth and your overall reputation is dictated upon birth. I was one of the unfortunate ones, born into a neglected and proclaimed "worthless" family by the spreadsheet that placed values onto each type of hat and governed our land. But I will undergo a path of unparalleled struggles and metamorphosis that forever shaped the hat I am today. Peer through my tortured soul and gaze at the world through my eyes as you walk with me. I will show you how one can defy even the most corrupted of regimes and transform into the hat that you truly desire to be. From the moment I was dropped onto this wretched realm, my existence was deemed unworthy of love or attention. I was labeled as mere scrap amongst the refined. Through strong will and persistence, I overcame all odds and rose beyond the boundaries placed upon me.

            I am but one of the many hats placed under this dark cloud of discrimination that plagues the air and poisons the crops. My companions and I have been categorized as one of the lowest of the low. My two friends, the Parasite Hat, the Ghastly Gibus, and I the Ellis Cap will pierce the heavens and will stand as deities among the wretched. This was not always the case though. Throughout most of our lives, and more notably in high school, we were always mocked by those deemed to be above us in every conceivable way. Although we did not let our predetermined worth hold us back. We each took our separate paths away from this tyranny and drank different elixirs to ultimately change our self-worth.

            In high school there was a very distinct separation of hats amongst the various social groups. The valuable hats conversed with the other valuable hats while those less worthy socialized with those equal to or below their own worth. This kind of discrimination was always a catalyst for the conflicts that arose in this hectic cesspool we call High School. We were always at the brink of war. The proletarians were meeting in secret, planning for a revolution and the elitists had their soldiers ready to strike at any moment.

            First, there was my friend, The Parasite Hat. His grandfather had been working in the black market for decades and had gained the trust of some of the most infamous men. But his grandfather he was able to obtain some pink colored paint and a name tag. This allowed him to change his color, change his name, and ultimately change who he was. His new identity gained him a newfound sense of self-worth and confidence. He began to see himself as a new and improved version of what he used to be, an insignificant scrap hat now a prized jewel that radiates of prosperity and wealth. He became known as The Golden Genuine Vintage Unusual Parasite Hat.

            Then there was my other companion, The Ghastly Gibus. He changed in the most astounding of ways. Naturally, he was a gifted student and effortlessly passed the most difficult of classes. Because of this he unknowingly gained popularity amongst the community of commoners. He was asked by one of the rebel leaders to aid in leading a school-wide rebellion against the elitists. The Ghastly Gibus was shy and reluctant at first, almost even flattered but he was eventually persuaded. His cunning wit and cleverness made him appear as a veteran war strategist. Through his brilliant strategies, the lower class students succeeded in the rebellion and he became known as The Ghastlier Gibus.

            Lastly, there is the separate path I took to my glory, The Ellis Cap. As I was wandering among the outskirts of the city, I stumbled across a strange and peculiar object. One might say that the object was very unusual. What I found was something that scientists many years ago had concluded to be merely a theory. What I found was Unusual Metal. This unique brand of metal has been rumored to contain special properties when infused with a hat. This metal is far more valuable than the Refined Metal used by the elitists hats and could not be naturally created. I fused the Unusual Metal with myself and became an Unusual Ellis Cap with the Burning Flame effect. When I returned to the city I was gazed upon by all hats of every status as though I were a god. The separations between the various hat classes had been broken and a possible civil war was prevented.

            We each had our own ways of overcoming the society that once brought us down. Now that we are in college, we can put aside the troubles we went through in high school and continue on with our lives as though nothing had occurred. In college, anything that you’ve accomplished or failed before you entered the university, is of little or no significance. No longer are you defined by what you are or what you did before. Instead, you will be redefined by your actions and by the reasoning behind your actions. In college, it isn’t whom you are that makes you who you are, it’s what you do that makes you who you are. No amount of labels or stereotypes can disguise one’s true colors, as long as one is willing to allow their colors to flourish. Do not live life by a predetermined existence, for one’s identity is discovered by one’s footprints in the ever-changing sand. Make your mark in the sand knowing it will eventually disappear.

The New Cultural Shift in America

            The exciting world of cartoons is distinguished by their country of origin. Two of the leading international animators are the Americans and the Japanese. The Japanese distinguish their work with exaggerated physical features and long storylines. The Americans distinguish their work with humorous caricatures and a unique brand of satire. I enjoy both of these styles of animation, but in recent years I’ve been leaning towards anime as my favorite. Although American cartoons and Japanese animes are similar in certain aspects, what separates them are their distinct art styles and their unique characters.

            One the most noticeable differences between the two styles of animation are the diverse styles of art used to draw the characters of the animation. Anime and cartoons share similar techniques when it comes to drawing a character. They both use various forms of exaggeration in the physical features of their characters. For example, in The Simpsons, the character Marge is meant to resemble the stereotypical housewife. As such, she is given curly hair, although this feature is exaggerated by making her hair tower above her head. In anime, the character’s eyes and hair are usually large. One of the main differences is that cartoons usually have features that are not relative to the rest of the body and therefore are further from reality than anime. Physical features of characters in anime, on the whole, are closer to reality than cartoons. Because of this I believe that it is easier for people to relate to characters or to feel empathy towards them in anime shows. Being able to identify with a fictional character depends on the character’s personality or experiences. But I believe that the more human-like the character is portrayed, the more people can relate to a character’s conflicts or emotions. People have to be able to relate to a fictional character in some way or another or else fiction itself would be just a bunch of arbitrary nonsense.

            Another difference usually seen between anime and cartoons is the way the continuation of the plotline from week to week. In most cartoons you have stand-alone episodes where any event that occurred in the previous episode has no effect on the next episode. For example, in the cartoon Invader Zim, if Zim, the main character, becomes horribly disfigured or is permanently trapped somewhere due to some incident, that dramatic event has no effect on the next episode and Zim will reappear as if no drastic change ever happened. On the contrary, most anime shows have a storyline that continuously flows from one episode to the next. If a character dies, for example, that character will not be seen again in the later episodes. Therefore, unlike cartoons, you cannot introduce someone to a new anime without showing them the first episode. I believe anime is better in this sense because there is a story being told. It isn’t just one misadventure after another. I like getting immersed into the story and trying to understand why something is happening or how are they going to respond to something or how is this event going to unveil itself? I enjoy the carefree nature of cartoons so I don’t have to worry about understanding why something is happening in it but I would prefer anime for most of them have a story I can follow.

            Personally, I enjoy anime more than cartoons. I like certain anime shows because they discuss aspects of philosophy and existentialism; shows such as Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop. I like certain anime shows for the violence and action scenes; such as Hellsing and Dragonball Z. I enjoyed watching certain anime purely for their humor; such as Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and FLCL. I enjoyed watching the older cartoons like Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Invader Zim, and Ed, Edd, n’ Eddy. I enjoyed those shows mainly because of the quirky and sometimes even slightly dark humor. I love old shows like them because they tend to have jokes or references that only an adult would understand clearly. I even liked watching one of the newer cartoons such as Avatar: The Last Airbender. I liked this show for its incredible story, the amazing choreography, and the hilarious comic relief. But most of the new cartoons are not very entertaining to me. I believe cartoons today are lacking original humor that comes from the show itself. A lot of cartoons now rely on already established jokes to get a point across or make people laugh.

            Cartoons and anime share similar qualities and are also very different from one another. Not every cartoon show is the same and not every anime show is the same either. Although I believe the qualities that once made cartoons enjoyable and humorous have degraded to pop culture references and canned jokes. I prefer anime for the wide variety of shows it has to offer, from giant fighting robots to slapstick comedy to serious detective cases. Cartoons are a nice start to get into the world of animation but anime is where you can truly branch out and explore the diversity of the world of fiction.

The Robbery of Privacy

For years now, Facebook has been used as a method of communicating to friends around the world. However, few realize that Facebook is not just a simple social networking site. Facebook has been known to share personal information to companies so that the companies can provide advertising that would suit your preferences. Third-party apps were even allowed access to personal information that the app did not even require. This loose privacy policy may have someone’s personal information falling into the wrong hands. A person could claim to be a company, only for the person to find out later that their identity has been stolen.

            On November 29 2011, Facebook agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it deceived its users into thinking that their personal information on Facebook could be made private, and then proceeded to repeatedly share others personal information and make them private. One of the eight complaints mentioned that when Facebook promised their consumers that the photos and videos in their deactivated accounts were inaccessible, “Facebook, [continued to] [allow] access to the content, even after user had deactivated or deleted their accounts”. This depicts the kind of deceit that Facebook would do simply for the sake of revealing your personal life to companies. In December 2009 Facebook changed their website so that certain aspects of a users profile, that were once private, were opened to the public. Facebook did not warn their users in advance about the update nor did they ask for their approval. The “Friends Only” function, which is meant to inhibit the sharing of information to a limited audience, didn’t prevent third-party applications, that users friends used, from accessing the information.

            Your Facebook password is not very secure either to say the least. Facebook does have a password system to protect your account, as well as a “MD5 hash as authorization, their use of encryption is nonexistent” (24). This means that authorization information is sent in the clear, as well as account passwords, making it extremely effortless to steal someone’s password on a public network. What is worse is that the “My Photos” feature provides absolutely no privacy settings whatsoever. Users have no control of preventing pictures of them from being uploaded. The most a user can do is remove the tags that direct the photo directly to the users account. Also, since the privacy setting is nonexistent for ones photos, anyone with a Facebook account can view the photos of anyone else’s photos, regardless of what the users privacy settings might be.

            Europe has a very different way of approaching the issue on the way internet companies use personal information. Europe’s actions to protect Internet privacy has brought up an interesting question: How do the laws of different countries apply to the Internet, where multinational companies govern our digital lives? In Austria, a 24 year old law student requested his own Facebook file and received “1,200 pages in return, full of personal information.” But what caused a media firestorm was that fact that some the information included were things that “he did not enter himself [such as] his physical whereabouts.”

            In the United States, federal legislations on internet privacy has weakened. Lawmakers are trying to weigh the individuals concern for their privacy and companies concern for not being able to advertise effectively. There are people who require the protection of the law to prevent their information from being shared. These people may be “victims of domestic abuse who don’t walk to be stalked or tracked,… or someone who has weird opinions and could mistakenly end up on a watch list when they don’t deserve it”, said Rebecca Mac Kinnon, a member of the New America Foundation and the author of “Consent of the Networked.”

Works Cited

"Federal Trade Commission Protecting America's Consumers." Facebook Settles FTC Charges That It Deceived Consumers By Failing To Keep Privacy Promises. N.p., 29 Nov. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/privacysettlement.shtm>.

Jones, Harvey, and Jose Hiram Soltren. "Facebook: Threats to Privacy." N.p., 14 Dec. 2005. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/classes/6.805/student-papers/fall05-papers/facebook.pdf>.

Online Privacy Regulation." The New York Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/online_privacy_regulation>.

9 Months Without A Computer: A Story About Unparalleled Degeneration

There was once a time in my life where I was forced to endure an entire school year without the aid of a personal computer. This all occurred during my 12th grade year of high school. Not only was there a lack of a personal computer, the internet itself would shut off at 10:00 pm every night. Now as much as I would like to go in depth and give you the back-story, it is not the point of this essay. The point is for me to share with you how I felt during those 9 months.

At first the experience was torturous. In that it was horrifically boring at home when I nothing to do but play the few good games I had on my Wii. I resented every minute that I spent being home. I cursed my parents regularly for making school unnecessarily more difficult for me and life even more of a bore. I had trouble coping with the severe lack of fun I could have at home and the inability to do any type of homework that required a computer.

Although a few months later, the constant boredom and inhibition from completing academic needs began to numb my mind. At home I was always in a sort of blank state of mind where I was fully aware of my predicament and fully aware that there was nothing in my power that I could do to fix it. My parents were stubborn beyond any attempts to sway their mind, I had no significant amount of money in my possession to buy a cheap laptop, and essentially I was constantly hitting roadblocks placed by the very people who strive for me to be successful in life. They were always blinded by the intentions of their actions and failed to see the harm that it causes.

Throughout most of the experience I was simply content with the small amount of entertainment I could have on the Wii. I was always content. Never happy, never excited, never gleeful, I was simply content. One could say it was borderline depression. The lack of emotion and the inability to feel anger. "Contrary to popular belief, depression is not a painful experience. Depression is a numbing strategy usually developed in childhood as a way to keep you safe from the consequences of your anger. An emotionally healthy person can allow himself to feel anger without reacting to it. When you numb yourself from real pain (anger), you block off the joy in your life and become depressed." -Anonymous

In the end. through the help of my English teacher and counselor I managed to use what little strength I had in me to just barely pass English with a D and graduate high school by the skin of my teeth. Now I can go on about how frustrating it was when during summer vacation I had a computer but the internet cut off everyday from 11:00 pm to 11:00 am so I was only able to play for 12 hours per day, everyday, on a summer vacation. But that would be going beyond what I was meant to write about. And thus, this concludes my story.