Time management

I am a suffering IB student that has to endure Studying, eating, working out, going to school, taking care of the dog, and many others chores every single day. So, normally, I find myself in a huge mess not knowing what to do or when. I usually find myself between my swimming practices and my school work dreadfully tired and exhausted. Moreover, in the weekend, I don’t go out, I don’t fool around, I don’t even get some rest, all I do is doing home works and going to practices. So the next week, I feel so repressed and stressed that I collapse at the end of the week to enter a state of great anguish.  That’s why it’s just about time to start managing my time. Organizing your time has enumerable benefits; first it gives you a chance to, for the first time, take control, somehow, over your life. You premeditated your activities which makes your life planned and ordered so you’ll end up knowing what you have to accomplish every day. It also helps increasing your productivity, since when your time is not organized you get unmotivated by the fact that you don’t have the time to achieve anything and you just give up. However, if you manage your time, you will set goals to achieve in a reasonable time period so you actually get something done. Another benefit is that it boosts your confidence, since we all know how it feels to just check things off our to do list. Your confidence will literally soar when you start remarking that you are achieving what you want.  Time management gives you more time to have fun, yes fun.  By finishing what’s more important first you get the chance to enjoy your hobbies or to simply hang out with some old friends. Last but not least, it gives you the ability to meet your goals. Now, that we know the advantage of managing our time, the only question left is how? The main important thing in managing your time is prioritizing; you have to do what’s important first to then enjoy your time without feeling guilty because of your carelessness.  Write a to do list which enclose realistic time period and everyday activities like going to the groceries store, showering, etc…  Another tip is to break every task to small tasks, if you have, for example, an academic essay to write, write in your to do list the introduction, the main body, and the conclusion.  Finally, you have to be flexible so you don’t just stress if some changes have transpired.            

Be The Change You Want To See In The World

How can someone affect his surroundings?
In my english teacher's class there is a poster where it's written "be the change you want to see in the world'. This  is on of the most inspirational Gandhi's quote. It makes you feel that nothing is impossible. In fact, nothing is truly impossible with two words: Will and perseverance.

Through the ages people like the Wright brothers and Albert Einstein were accused of being crazy, the only thing that they didn't know that between genius and madness their is an abstract fine line. However, they kept going on, they kept elaborating their theories with persistence until the invented stuff that has a prodigious effect on our world today. I know that most of you will think that these geniuses are just above other people mentality, and that achieving half what they have done is just abstract. However, i never asked you change to destroy the nuclear weapons in the world, no i am just saying that simple actions could do great changes.Look at me, i am an average city girl living in the busy streets of Cairo, Egypt. My class and I have decided to plan a water project celebrating the world water day on the 22 of march. We managed to collect 10 000 pounds. I know it's not a big amount to help solve the famine, but it's a good start. And that's what it's all about, initiatives. We can all stay in home, wondering when the world will be a better place, praying for god to send a ray of hope, but in the end nothing will change because, as my mother always told me, god only helps who works for what he wants. So instead of sobbing and bleating about how mush the world is the refugee for injustice try spending some of your time helping the less fortunate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roDXSHSEuoo&ob=av2e 

Animal abuse

Animal cruelty is the term describing any act which causes suffering or scourges to any animal. There are many contradicting theories which determine what animal cruelty is. For example, the animal welfare association decided that there isn’t anything wrong in using animals for human purpose: food, clothing, research, entertainment.but it should be done in a human way, which reduces any unnecessary anguish.  Animal rights expressed their opinion with great derogatory against the use of the words “human” and “unnecessary” since they have got lots of interpretation. Moreover, they concluded that the only way to end definitely the suffering of these poor creatures and to ensure their protection is to end their status as properties and to end their use as commodities. 

In many countries animal abuse is considered a crime and the suspect may be sentenced to jail. Its laws are only designed to protect animals from their owners or anyone’s cruelty. In Switzerland, where the strictest animal protection law ever known, there is a law informing owners the right size of a rabbit cage and how much the dog should exercise. However, in many countries more lax than Switzerland, like Italy and Germany the person causing pain to the animals could enter jail for up to three years and pay a fine of a minimum range of 3.000 Euros.

To conclude, animals do have feel pain, anguish cold, high temperature, etc. So don’t you ever think that because they can’t express their feelings that they don’t have any. In fact, we should be more careful since we cannot know when they are hurting. And always remember that causing suffering a helpless doesn’t make you any stronger it only makes you more ruthless, pitiless and vicious.       

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is a form protest against some laws, demands or commands of a certain government. It’s usually a nonviolent civil resistant act. To reach an active civil disobedience, theories say that protestors may choose to break deliberately some laws like occupying illegally a place or making a peaceful blockade. However, the activist should always expect a violent reaction from the authorities like getting beaten, attacked or even arrested. So lots of them undergo training on how to react peacefully when abused. Moreover, lots of rules were outlined by Gandhi, when he was leading a civil resistant to obtain India’s independence from Britain, not to express any anger, surrender personal property when confiscated by the authorities but refuse to surrender property held in trust, to accept being arrested by the authorities, protect officials from assaults, to restrain oneself from cursing, swearing and insulting, to obey the opponents orders and to never retaliate are all rules that were never pardoned when broken.  There are many reasons why someone may decide to start a civil disobedience, however Ronald Dworkin an American philosopher settled down three types of civil resistant:

·         “Integrity-based" civil disobedience happens when someone believes that a certain law is immoral.

·         "Justice-based" civil disobedience occurs when a citizen wants to lay claim to some right denied to him.

·         "Policy-based" civil disobedience transpires when a person breaks the law in order to change a policy he believes is wrong in a dangerous manner.

The first type was indeed used in the case of northerners who declined a law that imposed a citizen to turn over any slaves who escaped to authorities.  The second type was used when black people all around the world demanded equality before the law. To conclude it’s not important how laws could be immoral, or how wrong could they be. However it’s important to be really civilized while claiming your rights.  

My role model

Being a Discovery channel fanatic and a nature lover, it’s sure that my role model is Bear Grylls. He is an English adventurer, writer and TV presenter. He became well known for his series Man vs Wild, it’s a survivor show which shows the people how to take advantage of whatever you can find to survive in places like Alaskan Mountain Range, Iceland, Borneo Jungle, Mojave Desert, Guatemala, etc. I remember one episode he had to cross a frozen river, so he took off his clothes and jumped right into it, its temperature was about -30 degrees Celsius, for god’s sake. I remember another episode where he wanted to fish and he didn’t have any hook so he used his hand as a one to catch a cat fish. He actually had to kill it to get his hand out of its mouth. Moreover, he had lots of other achievements: in 1998 Bear entered the Guinness Book of Records, as the youngest Briton, at 23, to summit Mount Everest. He also was named in 2009 the youngest chief scout ever. Actually, he’s only my role model because of his persistence and his   boldness. He has a great spirit he can be eating a raw frog and say that it tastes like chicken. After all, what really matters is his spirit.     

Qualities of good friends

Friends are one of the few things that someone is willing to die for. It’s just one of these things that you can’t live without.  TRUE friends are there for you anytime. You can call them at three AM, or even worse at seven AM on a Friday morning without them cursing or insulting you. They are the ones with who you can act silly and frivolous without getting embarrassed. They are good listeners. They can say that you are sad even if you are laughing. They stick to you in good and bad time.    They care to an indescribable extend. They love you for who you are not “who you are”. They respect you even if they don’t have deference with you. They stand for what you believe, even if they contradict it. They eat, drink and sleep at your home (in a good way) as if it is their own. They trust in an extraordinary way. They are the ones who upon seeing you in pain would wish to be the one experiencing it.  They are the people who say nice things behind your back. I can keep going on like this for hours. To conclude, “Friends aren't jumper cables. You don't throw them into the trunk and pull them out for emergencies." It means that to have a good friend, you have to be one to. You have to have all the previous qualities.       

SOPA

SOPA, stop online piracy act, is an anti-piracy bill qorking its way through congress. In fact, it was introduced by house Judiciary Committee Chair and Texas Republican Lamar Smith, along with 12 co-sponsors on October 26th of last year. The great difference between SOPA and all the other internet bills is that it will grant content creators extraordinary power over the internet. The intellectual property owners will have the ability to close any foreign site that they have against a copyright claim. In my opinion, SOPA won’t even succeed in reaching its goal, as this will demand closing many sites. Many anti-SOPA movements have been created and are now in a saturation point. Moreover, the list of SOPA supporting companies are shrinking, thanks to  the emails and phone calls they've received in the last few months.

New Year's resolutions 

Carousing parties, voyages and visiting friends, it’s sure that I am talking about New Year’s celebration. Nevertheless millions take advantage of that occasion to set for themselves goals that they would really like to achieve. Since I have never in my life taken a piece of paper and a pen to write down my prodigious dreams, which I wish to turn into reality, I have decided to share with you my new year’s resolutions. First, I want to maintain my current weight as it’s a good way to be healthy, however I will only reach my goal if I eat healthy and that happens to be my second resolution. My third one is to arrive first in a swimming competition because I’ve been working and training really hard. Considering my fourth declaration, it is going to be certainly improving my relationship with god. As for my fifth one, although it’s more a wish than a resolution, convincing my dad to keep my golden retriever’s puppies. I have lots of other resolution but I can’t share them with you since they are a little bit personal. In the end, I wish you all an amazing year full of success. Just don’t forget “The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and faith to believe it is possible.” _{Richard Devos}