Hi guys! Hope you're all having a nice week! I know I am! I'm especially happy because yesterday was one of my favorite holidays: Thanksgiving! I think Thanksgiving is such an awesome holiday to celebrate. Often times I feel like people often take what they have for granted, and once they get something they've really wanted, they want more. I know I do. Looking at the quote above always makes me realize how fortunate I am. It makes me realize that things that I don't even consider special-- like school, my home, food, being able to see and hear, being able to live in a country where I can choose what I want to do and believe, I mean, these are all things that some people DREAM of having. And here I am complaining about how little I have and wanting more. It's almost sick to think about. But anyways, in this blog, I'm going to be talking about the three things I'm most thankful for, and they are: family, friends, and all the things mentioned in the quote above!

 As I mentioned earlier, one of the things I'm most thankful for is family. I love my family so much! They are the people who I get the most angry with, and the people who I love the most. I couldn't live without them! They know how irritating and crabby I can get, and they still choose to love me, which is probably very hard at times :) My parents always take time to tell me how proud they are of me, and always go out of their way to make sure my sisters and I feel loved. I know that I can always, always count on my family and they will be there for me for forever!

I am also very thankful for friends. I have the awesomest, funniest, weirdest group of friends ever! They are the each so unique, and even they know how weird I am, they still choose to be seen with me in public :) I always have such a great time with them, and even if we do argue (only sometimes), we always get through it! Life would be soooo boring without them!

Lastly, I am thankful for all the stuff mentioned in the quote above. Because it's just such a great quote, I'm going to write it again, just to make sure you know what it says, and you can truly see how many blessings we take for granted. It says "If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of the world. If you have money in the bank, your wallet, and some spare change, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week. If you have never experienced the danger of a battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture, or the horrible pangs of starvation, you are luckier than 500 million people alive and suffering. If you can read this message, you are more fortunate than 3 billion people who cannot read at all." Pretty heavy, right? Every time I read that, it just hits me like a brick how fortunate I am. I just can't even imagine... I can't even fathom the pain of the people who have to live with torture, the people who don't know when they will get their next meal or if they'll even be able to make it to their next meal, the 500 million people alive and suffering... and then I think of me, complaining because I don't have enough money to go shopping, or because I have a headache.. and it's pathetic. It makes me so sad about how much I have, and how I don't even realize it.

Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have so much to be thankful for. My family, my friends, and things like food and water and a home - these are things that a lot of people have to live without. So the least that I can do is be thankful for what I have, and not spend my time complaining. Thanks for reading!

Yikes!! On Wednesday, our Media Scripts are due! Aaahhhhh! I think we will be able to make the deadline, but we're gonna have to work VERY hard. Kaycee and I are still transcribing, but if we can finish that up tomorrow, then we'll for sure be able to get our script finished by Wednesday. WIsh us luch!

  CKTV is an amazing class. It really is. As students in the class, we have such a fantastic opportunity to learn and develop skills in writing, editing, filming, communicating and a whole other bunch of Media skills... which is an experience very few students get. But honestly, what I like best about the class are the relationships that we develop with other students in the class. Since we spend so much time together, from weekend fundraisers, to after school meetings, to STN practices, to everyday in the class, we really are like a family. The "CKTV Family". However, recently, some people in the class have been feeling excluded from the family. And that is not okay! We ALL need to come together so that we can be one big, happy, loving ohana!

  In Lilo and Stitch, one of the lines from the movie is "Ohana means family. Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten." Even though I don't remember much about the movie itself (hey, the last time I saw it was probably six or seven years ago!), once I read this week's blog topic, I immediately thought of that quote. I just love it! I mean, sometimes we may feel left out or forgotten when we're at school, or with friends even, but family is one place where we should feel secure, and we should feel included and significant, ALWAYS. Our CKTV Ohana should be the same way.

  Families do things together-- they don't exclude a certain member of the family, even if it may be easier to do so. Being the oldest of three younger sisters, I constantly have to teach my younger sisters how to do things, and not get mad at them for making mistakes. And trust me, I know that it can be INFURIATING!! But just because I'm older and more experienced than them, it most definitely does not mean I'm better than them or have the right to exclude them or put them down. Instead, I need to encourage them and make them realize how important they are. After all, each person in the family is unique in their own way.

  How I plan to make a change to my own behavior in the class is to be more encouraging. And maybe be a little less sarcastic. Sometimes I tease or am sarcastic because it's funny to me, but to the other person, it's offensive. Also, if I see someone being bullied, I will make sure to stand up for them, and give the bully a reminder that we need to work as a team.

  In conclusion, it's important that we treat each other as family. We need to stop bullying and put downs right now so that no one is left out. Let's show everyone how great the CKTV Ohana is!!

If there's one lesson this class has taught me over and over, it's not to procrastinate. In fact, it's good to even start thinking before to ensure that things are on time. So that is what I am doing. Already, I am thinking ahead to third quarter. I kind of have a PSA set in my mind that I would like to do, but I'm not completely sure about it because I actually got the idea from Mr. M last year (so it would not by my original idea) and I'm not sure how I would film it (it requires someone to be getting a tattoo). My plan is to talk to Mr. M sometime in early December to see if the idea I have is okay, and discuss how I would go about filming it. But in the mean time, I'm trying to come up with a few back up PSA ideas, just in case. Third Quarter is actually my favorite quarter of the Media Class, because I just think the whole process of getting to write and conduct a PSA is so neat!! Wish me luck :)

Hey, blog readers! So, you may have noticed that my website looks a little differently than before... and if so, it's because I made new website for myself! As of now, I don't have everything I want up and running on this new site, but it's my goal to have it up by next week. I really want to try and make my blog and website somewhat interesting! My plan is to have a page full of some of the past projects I've worked on, and maybe an "About CKTV" page, lots of cool pictures, and of course, my weekly blog posts :) But seriously, I really want to make my website really nice! Let me know if you have any suggestions and thanks for reading!

It's quite obvious that media and technology are advancing more and more. With new, crazy inventions coming out every day, the things we view as "modern" and high-tech today may very soon be seen as out of date and "old-fashioned." One of those things will probably be television.

  Already, TV has changed drastically in the past decade or so. It went from being bulky and little; only playing shows (or VCR's, if any of you remember those!) in black and white, to colorful and less-bulky; now playing DVDs, plus a wider selection of channels, to ginormous and flat screen with tons of features like Netflix and Hulu to watch shows instantly. Sheesh! Talk about a change! And I've even heard they have HD and 3D television now!! Anyways, long story short: television did and will continue to change with the progressing technology.

  Okay, so I'm just guessing here, but I'm thinking that one big change that television as we know it is going to make is probably its convenience. I mean, a lot of what makes people buy/ want a product has to do with its convenience. That's the whole reason programs like Netflix and Hulu Plus we're created, right? So people could watch shows they actually like when it's convenient for them. So, my guess is that TV in the future will have like an "account" I guess you could say for each person in the house. On their account, their favorite shows would be ready to watch whenever, but their would also be a place to browse all shows, and there would still be the regular scheduled television like how we have now. So for example, the TV could have a family account, have an account for mom, have an account for dad, and for each of the kids. The TV accounts would be able to sync with smartphones, tablets, laptops, and more.

I'm also guessing that TV will be voice activated, or even crazier, mind activated!! Just imagine it, your watching your favorite show and you decide it's to soft, and the volume needs to be raised, but not too much. Right when that thought pops into your head, poof, the volume is adjusted to just how you wanted it! Or what if your watching "The Voice", but you decide it's getting too boring and you would rather watch "American Idol", and just like that the TV picks up your thoughts and switches shows! Yikes... that would be kind of, no, REALLY creepy!!

In conclusion, television is definitely going to be changing in the next few years or so. Just think of how far it's come along already. Hope you enjoyed reading my very bizarre hypothesises about TV in the future :)

Hi, blog readers! Hope you are having an awesome weekend! I know I am! Hehe :) Anyways, in this post I want to talk about having a pen pal! Let me just say: it's super fun! My pen pal's name is Ayannah, and she's really cool! I got her first email about a month ago, and since then we've been writing back and forth a lot! We actually have a lot in common.. we are both in 8th grade, this is both of our second year in Media, we both love the beach and some of the same music, we both like the same movies... the list goes on and on! I think having a pen pal makes the STN just that much more special! You get to meet and hang out with a new friend, which is really neat! I can't wait to get to know more about my pen pal, and then meet her at STN! It's going to be a blast! :)

Hey guys! Can you believe that in less than two months, half of the school year will have gone by?! And after that, it will be third quarter! And then, at the end of third quarter.... we go to..wait for it, wait for it... STN!!! Yay!!! I am soooo excited!!!! Last year was my first year of STN, and though it was (very) stressful at times, it was also an unforgettable experience full of so many fun memories! We left California with first place in Spot Feature, second place in Movie trailer (the category that I was in), third place in PSA, and an honorable mention in Anchoring. Pretty impressive, huh? I think so! Anyways, this school year, STN is going to be held in Florida!! I can't wait! It's going to be awesome! My hope is to win even more awards than we did last year... and more first places! Hehe :) But, in order to do that, we need to start thinking already of what category we want to compete in.  I'm thinking I want to be in either movie trailer, anchoring, or PSA.

So, last year, as I mentioned already, I was in the movie trailer category. I thought movie trailer category was pretty cool. Basically, you go to the meeting and get assigned a word, and that word has to be title and topic of the trailer for your "movie". Last year our word was "Breakpoint." I think you have four hours to make the trailer. I like the movie trailer competition because you get to act, and film lots of shots, but not too many because the trailer is only a minute long. You can also add music to help set the tone, and cool titles. The only thing my group and I struggled with last year was coming up with a solid idea. There were a lot of people on the team, and everyone had different ideas and suggestions of how to go about making the trailer. But I don't think that I would struggle so much in that area now that I have done STN before and have learned my lesson from doing that!

Anchoring is another category that I'm interested in. Last year Sydney did anchoring, and she earned an honorable mention. To be honest though, I'm actually not completely sure what you do to be an anchorer. I guess it's kind of like being a TV news reporter, and you have a certain amount of time to write about a certain topic. I don't know though.... although it does seem fun and less stressful to just write and not have to film anything, I don't know if I'm "professional" enough to be an anchorer.

Lastly, I'm interested in the PSA category. It just sounds so fun! Last year, I loved all the PSA's that Leanna and her group did. They were really great! And what's good about PSA is that I already have experience filming and editing them. So PSA is definitely another category I'm interested in.

In conclusion, movie trailer, anchoring, and PSA are three categories I'm interested in joining for STN. I'm not for sure though, and I will definitely have to think more about it. I'm just so excited for STN!!!!!! :) Thanks for reading!