AmandaBeth online hosting a jewelery giveaway. To enter I highly suggest you go to the following link.
http://amandabethonline.blogspot.com/2011/02/jewlery-giveaway.html
Godd luck!!!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Avatar the Last Airbender Part one
Hi Everyone,
Sorry I haven't posted I've been crazy busy! Instead of writing a review of the whole series I am going to write a review on each character. Then I will do a review/ summery of the whole thing. This TV show is by far the best media I have seen this year! For those who are going to watch the show DO NOT READ this whole thing is a big spoiler!!!!!!!!!!!!
The first character is Aang, the very last air bender. He is a master air bender which means he can bend air to his will. He grew up in a monastery called the southern air temple. When he was twelve he was told that he was the avatar. That placed a tremendous responsibility on him and changed his life forever. When he over hears other monks saying that he must be separated from his mentor, Aang runs away on his flying bison Appa. When he is caught in a Storm he makes a frozen air bubble and passes out. He stays in this state for one hundred years and reawakens when Katara and Sokka find him. He feels guilty and thinks that he abandoned the world. There are really good qualities about him, he is very loyal and uses his power for good and never to hurt. Although he can be childish he takes his responsibilities seriously. Friends are very important to him and Aang constantly risks his life for them. All around he is a good character and I love him to death.
On to Katara, she is the last southern water tribe water bender. After her mother was killed in a raid she steps up and assumes the role. I like the fact instead of focusing on herself and her water bending she takes care of her gran gran and her brother. She is caring and hates seeing people in need. In one episode she disguises her self as a local legend and helps a dying town. By cleaning the river that was the towns source of income. Protecting Aang is one of her main concerns and she always helps him out. When she has a chance to kill the man who killed her mother, she lets him live. I love how strong but feminine she is. She is lovable and very deep. Sometimes she is annoying and bossy but that is rare.
Sokka is one of the funniest characters I have ever seen. He can be serious but he is usually the comic relief. When his father leaves to fight in the war Sokka strives to take his place and be a worrier. At one point in the show he feels second rate because everyone else can bend an element and all he can do is sword fight and use a boomerang. He goes to a sword trainer and becomes a master. The master has him make his own sword, which is made out of a meteorite and is black. It is really cool. He is protective of the people he loves, like once Aang burns Katara and Sokka get really mad. Even though I feel bad for Aang in that part I love that Sokka gets mad when his sister gets hurt. I think he is an all around great character and show wouldn't be the same with out him.
Taph Is a really awesome character. At first I really, really, really did not like her. But over time I began to like her. She is a blind master earth bender. Her problem for me is she is very masculine, but I still like her. Back at home she duels other earth benders and has never been beaten. Her parents treat her like a fragile little girl who can't do anything, so they don't know about the earth bending. That's her bad thing:( What's really cool is her resourcefulness, when she is trapped in a metal cadge she earth bends herself out. After that she works on metal bending!! That is pretty awesome.
Zuko is by far my favorite character of all time. Fire bending never came easily to him so he worked very hard to become a master fire bender. He is a banished prince who is the villain in the first season, an anti hero in the second and a hero in the third. When he was thirteen he challenged an old general in his fathers court, since the offence was in his fathers court he had to do an Agni Ki. Which is a one on one combat. When he sees it's his father that he has to duel Zoku begs not to fight him. Yet Fire Lord Ozi ( his father) gives him a savage burn across his face. Since he refused to fight Zoku was banished to capture the avatar. Only then could he return home and regain his honor. I was crying so hard when I hear this story. Zoku is very driven and focused, he has anger problems and doesn't trust very many people. He gets angered by his uncle's laid back nature, but eventually comes to love him. In one of my favorite scenes in the whole thing Zuko apologises to his uncle for betraying him. He was crying, and then his uncle reaches out and hugs him. His uncle says he was never mad but only afraid that zoku had lost his way. I was baling so hard when I watched this. I could go on for ages about how awesome this guy is but I have to stop. He has an awesome pony tail in the first season but the in the second he cuts it off and lets his hair grow out.
General Iroh is really funny and awesome. He is sort of a father figure to Zuko and offers him advice and wisdom. Iroh is a master fire bender and teaches Zuko. I love how wise and kind he is, he loves Zuko even after being betrayed by him. He is extremely smart and caring. Iroh loves his tea and at the end of the show has his own tea shop. He has the nick name dragon of the west. Due to the fact he killed the last dragon. Really he said he did so that he could protect the last two dragons. He is part of a secret organisation that involves most masters of the elements. His advice is wise and in a fight I'd want him on my side. While in jail he trains and becomes so strong he can bend metal with his bare hands! Over all he is a great character.
That's part one I'll be back with part two next week! I hope you like it!
Alexa
Monday, June 21, 2010
Narnia Teaser Trailer
Hi everyone,
doesn't the trailer look cool? I have a few problems with it and I don't like the fact that Peter and Susan are in it. I don't like Ed's glowing sword, it looks like a video game. The Dawn Treader leans toward the fake side, and looks kind of plastic. I'm hoping it will look better in the movie. I love the dufflepuds they look perfect!!! The producers some how manage to put the White Witch in this movie too. I liked it in PC during the werewolf/hag scene, but she is already in The Magicians Nephew. We don't need her in every film. I sound kind of pesimistic don't I? Well, tell me what you think about it and we can hope that this is just a bad teaser trailer .
Alexa
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Sorry
I haven't been posting recently b/c I'm very busy. Sorry ...
Thankyou for reading my blog if you do.
Alexa
Thankyou for reading my blog if you do.
Alexa
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Spanking
This is a bit random but I just read an article on spanking. This is a very controversial subject but I had to to post this.
"Study: Spanking Kids Leads to More Aggressive Behavior
"Study: Spanking Kids Leads to More Aggressive Behavior
By Alice Park – Mon Apr 12, 1:50 am ET
(TIME Magazine Article)
Disciplining young children is one of the key jobs of any parent - most people would have no trouble agreeing with that. But whether or not that discipline should include spanking or other forms of corporal punishment is a far trickier issue.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not endorse spanking for any reason, citing its lack of long-term effectiveness as a behavior-changing tactic. Instead the AAP supports strategies such as "time-outs" when children misbehave, which focus on getting kids to reflect on their behavior and the consequences of their actions. Still, as many parents can attest, few responses bring about the immediate interruption of a full-blown tantrum like a swift whack to the bottom. (See pictures of the evolution of the college dorm.)
Now researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet against the use of spanking: of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were more likely to be aggressive by age 5. The research supports earlier work on the pitfalls of corporal punishment, including a study by Duke University researchers that revealed that infants who were spanked at 12 months scored lower on cognitive tests at age 3.
"I'm excited by the idea that there is now some nice hard data that can back up clinicians when they share their caution with parents against using corporal punishment," says Dr. Jayne Singer, clinical director of the child and parent program at Children's Hospital Boston, who was not involved in the study. (Read "Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?")
Led by Catherine Taylor, the Tulane study was the first to control simultaneously for variables that are most likely to confound the association between spanking and later aggressive behavior. The researchers accounted for factors such as acts of neglect by the mother, violence or aggression between the parents, maternal stress and depression, the mother's use of alcohol and drugs, and even whether the mother considered abortion while pregnant with the child.
Each of these factors contributed to children's aggressive behavior at age 5, but they could not explain all of the violent tendencies at that age. Further, the positive connection between spanking and aggression remained strong, even after these factors had been accounted for.
"The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began increased by 50%," says Taylor. And because her group also accounted for varying levels of natural aggression in children, the researchers are confident that "it's not just that children who are more aggressive are more likely to be spanked."
What the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, shows is that outside of the most obvious factors that may influence violent behavior in children, spanking remains a strong predictor. "This study controls for the most common risk factors that people tend to think of as being associated with aggression," says Singer. "This adds more credence, more data and more strength to the argument against using corporal punishment."
Among the mothers who were studied, nearly half (45.6%) reported no spanking in the previous month; 27.9% reported spanking once or twice; and 26.5% reported spanking more than twice. Compared with children who were not hit, those who were spanked were more likely to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, get frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against others.
The reason for that, says Singer, may be that spanking instills fear rather than understanding. Even if a child were to stop his screaming tantrum when spanked, that doesn't mean he understands why he shouldn't be acting out in the first place. What's more, spanking models aggressive behavior as a solution to problems.
For children to understand what and why they have done something wrong, it may take repeated efforts on the parent's part, using time-outs - a strategy that typically involves denying the child any attention, praise or interaction with parents for a specified period of time (that is, the parents ignore the child). These quiet times force children to calm down and learn to think about their emotions, rather than acting out on them blindly.
Spanking may stop a child from misbehaving in the short term, but it becomes less and less effective with repeated use, according to the AAP; it also makes discipline more difficult as the child gets older and outgrows spanking. As the latest study shows, investing the time early on to teach a child why his behavior is wrong may translate to a more self-aware and in-control youngster in the long run. "
(TIME Magazine Article)
Disciplining young children is one of the key jobs of any parent - most people would have no trouble agreeing with that. But whether or not that discipline should include spanking or other forms of corporal punishment is a far trickier issue.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not endorse spanking for any reason, citing its lack of long-term effectiveness as a behavior-changing tactic. Instead the AAP supports strategies such as "time-outs" when children misbehave, which focus on getting kids to reflect on their behavior and the consequences of their actions. Still, as many parents can attest, few responses bring about the immediate interruption of a full-blown tantrum like a swift whack to the bottom. (See pictures of the evolution of the college dorm.)
Now researchers at Tulane University provide the strongest evidence yet against the use of spanking: of the nearly 2,500 youngsters in the study, those who were spanked more frequently at age 3 were more likely to be aggressive by age 5. The research supports earlier work on the pitfalls of corporal punishment, including a study by Duke University researchers that revealed that infants who were spanked at 12 months scored lower on cognitive tests at age 3.
"I'm excited by the idea that there is now some nice hard data that can back up clinicians when they share their caution with parents against using corporal punishment," says Dr. Jayne Singer, clinical director of the child and parent program at Children's Hospital Boston, who was not involved in the study. (Read "Should Kids Be Bribed to Do Well in School?")
Led by Catherine Taylor, the Tulane study was the first to control simultaneously for variables that are most likely to confound the association between spanking and later aggressive behavior. The researchers accounted for factors such as acts of neglect by the mother, violence or aggression between the parents, maternal stress and depression, the mother's use of alcohol and drugs, and even whether the mother considered abortion while pregnant with the child.
Each of these factors contributed to children's aggressive behavior at age 5, but they could not explain all of the violent tendencies at that age. Further, the positive connection between spanking and aggression remained strong, even after these factors had been accounted for.
"The odds of a child being more aggressive at age 5 if he had been spanked more than twice in the month before the study began increased by 50%," says Taylor. And because her group also accounted for varying levels of natural aggression in children, the researchers are confident that "it's not just that children who are more aggressive are more likely to be spanked."
What the study, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, shows is that outside of the most obvious factors that may influence violent behavior in children, spanking remains a strong predictor. "This study controls for the most common risk factors that people tend to think of as being associated with aggression," says Singer. "This adds more credence, more data and more strength to the argument against using corporal punishment."
Among the mothers who were studied, nearly half (45.6%) reported no spanking in the previous month; 27.9% reported spanking once or twice; and 26.5% reported spanking more than twice. Compared with children who were not hit, those who were spanked were more likely to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, get frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against others.
The reason for that, says Singer, may be that spanking instills fear rather than understanding. Even if a child were to stop his screaming tantrum when spanked, that doesn't mean he understands why he shouldn't be acting out in the first place. What's more, spanking models aggressive behavior as a solution to problems.
For children to understand what and why they have done something wrong, it may take repeated efforts on the parent's part, using time-outs - a strategy that typically involves denying the child any attention, praise or interaction with parents for a specified period of time (that is, the parents ignore the child). These quiet times force children to calm down and learn to think about their emotions, rather than acting out on them blindly.
Spanking may stop a child from misbehaving in the short term, but it becomes less and less effective with repeated use, according to the AAP; it also makes discipline more difficult as the child gets older and outgrows spanking. As the latest study shows, investing the time early on to teach a child why his behavior is wrong may translate to a more self-aware and in-control youngster in the long run. "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGtSBR3hg7g
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Day Four
Today is day four of second hand fashion week. The shirt I am wearing was given to me by my older sister, and the pants I got at a thrift store. (Thank the Lord for for thrift stores!!!) I was dead tired today so I didn't take very many pictures. Please excuse the rats nest on my head.
ARTWhat I'm Wearing:
Pants: DKNY
Shirt: sonoma
Vest:AMI
Thank you for visting my blog!
Alexa
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