jthreeonefour-blog

[jthreeonefour-blog]

i’m so sorry i just need to organize my reference tag so warning for long post and organization system that only makes sense to me

writing

names, dead languages, ancient cultures

99 ways to beat writers block

remember to deal with criticism

advice for writers vid

character bios

eye colors

writing prompt generators

naming things

character flaws

things to research

types of crying

rare words

injuries

format manuscript

can’t find the right word?

stop procrastinating

best apps for writers

online whiteboard

possible fanfic aus

(kind of) synonyms for said

character development worksheet

words

more words

even more words

writing resource masterpost

british vs. american english

surnames masterpost

character development chart

emotions vocabulary

things i’d put under writing references but aren’t actually specifically for writing

monsters

simple noble ranking thing

traditional japanese outfits

palm reading

palm reading 2

guns

ships (like ones on the sea not otps)

holding knives

knife blades

different kinds of knives

use for a plastic knife

fictional world generator

deterioration of the human body

movies/shows

movies for the nights you can’t sleep masterpost

version of romeo and juliet that sounds hella rad

pushing daisies

2013 movies

movie night masterpost

british tv

food

mug cookie tutorial

pastry folding 101

tomato basil pasta

mug recipes

fruit roll ups

desserts

kawaii holiday cookies

citrus gingerbread tree cookies

gingerbread stars

cookies

candy meth

apple pie in apple

pretty cakes

chocolate

pumpkin spice everything dear lord

pimp that snack

grilled banana nutella sandwich

cute food things

the science of chocolate chip cookies 

cute raspberry chocolate thing

beauty

how to cover up tattoos

game of thrones hairdos

beauty tips

homemade conditioners

diys

sugar scrub

makeup tips masterpost

spoons

face lighting? idk

burned paper nails

diy crayola lipstick

christmas tree nails

kool aid lip stain

eyeliner styles

more eyeliner style things

dry nail polish fast

health

hiv morning after pill

exercise like a superhero

period cramps

tone the lower stomach

free condoms

for sore throats

ginger tea cider

college/education/school

college survival masterpost

survive finals

college life hacks

reminder

educational websites

mit college courses

music

the best of whatever artist

british bands

arctic monkeys downloads

find new bands

make good music better

sounds

soundrown

art

shoulders

perspective

noses

paint tool sai

mouths

lots of tutorials

lips

get rid of art block

drawing lips with the help of beans

perspective thing in photoshop

adobe creative suite

typography

combining fonts

typography masterpost

fonts

more fonts

even more fonts

sewing/clothes

skirt sewing tutorials

shoe names infographic

visual coat glossary

taking measurements

visual skirt glossary

dress necklines (other guides in caption)

8 foot giant squid

diy draped vest

bra fitting

men’s suit fit with bonus tom hiddleston

make your own dress form

clothing life hacks

fix pilling

languages

swear in lots of languages

learn to read korean

why english is dumb

language of the fan

military sign language

cuss in french

nice words

communication

line (skype on steroids)

synaptop

personality things

myers briggs personality and characters

aura color

lots of personality tests

important things

how to find your dog

alternatives to leaving dogs at the pound

worst case scenarios masterpost

keys in the hand

for when you’re sad

break out of zip tie handcuffs

what to do when stopped by police

bleeding and don’t have a band aid?

vital strike points

how to tell if someone’s lying

how to tape hands for a fight

just click this

survive the apocalypse

being an adult

becoming an adult cheat sheet

balancing a checkbook

getting an apartment

buy the things

free shipping omg

eyeshadow with funny names

general diy

calm bottle/glitter jar

pretty lace windows

flower crown

cool knots

bracelet

gifts in a jar

tumblr/computer things

hella lot of backgrounds

hd space wallpapers

themes

more themes

snow code

tumblr keyboard shortcuts

deactivated theme

airplane window textures

emergency dashboard

gif tutorials

save audio posts

anon hate

idk just things

how to disappear online

body language and interrogation

cheap things to do in nyc

why people slip on ice

book about aliens invading earth and being fought off by wildlife

filipino legends/stories/etc

make yourself do the things and form good habits

different kinds of islamic head garments

fantasy/historical clothing

how the uk flag works

how to walk like a queen

logic flaws

life hacks

arts and crafts blogs

fruit charger??

helpful websites

jar won’t open life hack

find people you’ve met once

video and photo editor things

banana wins all the awards

useless websites

time wasters

life hacks again

read minds

things to remember

uncapitalize caps lock things

masterposts by other people

icanttellyoubutiknowitsmine 2014 masterpost

blacklistecl’s bad days masterpost

some tips

a masterpost of all the things

im5-official 2014 resource masterpost

abercrombier’s 2014 help post

random websites thing

things for when you’re sad

more things for when you’re sad

cute games

cute games again

again very sorry for the hella long post but maybe this’ll be useful to some of you

[jthreeonefour-blog]

[jthreeonefour-blog]

Internships are the building blocks of your résumé. Apply to them. Meet people. Choose a degree that is relevant to the real world. Minor in History if you love it so much. Everyone knows how to use Microsoft Office. Putting it under the “Skills” section of your résumé is not impressive. See the world. This is the only time you have in your life to spend months in a foreign country. Take advantage of your lack of responsibility to travel. 99.9% of employers will never look at your transcript. A 4.0 GPA will not land you a job. Good interpersonal skills might. No employer cares whether you were on the executive board of your fraternity or sorority or other campus organization. Serve the organization because you love it, not simply to use it as space-filler on your résumé. Proofread everything. Twice. Or else no one will believe that you’re “detial-oriented.” You have four (or five) years to make something of yourself. Use that time wisely. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday night despite having a test on Wednesday. The test won’t matter in ten years, but your friendships will. Do not expect the college senior to fall in love with you after you sleep together. Actually, just don’t sleep together. This will not end well. Really get to know your professors. Use office hours to your advantage. You never know what doors they can open for you. Graduate school is rarely a good idea, especially if you’re only using it to delay the real world for a few years. The more money you make now, the less debt you’ll have later. Realize that you will be in debt until you’re forty. Make peace with this early. One bad grade won’t ruin your life. Get over yourself. Beware of credit cards. No matter what they say, money isn’t free. Don’t burn bridges. You never know when you might need help from someone. Eat good food. Nothing will make you feel worse than six straight nights of Ramen. Buy a plunger before you actually need said plunger. Just trust me on this one. Press save. It will keep you from having that 4:00am mental breakdown. All-nighters will not help you learn the material. Budget time throughout the day to study so that you can actually sleep before the final exam. Use a condom. No one wants that “I’m late” text. Work during the summers. Employers want someone with real-life experience. Call your mom once a week. She wants to stay involved in your life, and a twenty-minute phone conversation won’t kill you. You have four years to learn your alcohol limit. This will save you from puking at the office Christmas party. The college cafeteria will make you fat. So will alcohol. Be careful about what you’re putting into your body. Find a few hours each week to work out. Cardio is great stress relief. So is sex. Booty calls are sometimes necessary. Don’t beat yourself up for it in the morning. Learn to cook. Eating out is expensive and unhealthy. A few basics can last you a long time. Take pictures. Not everything has to be posted to Instagram, but you will want to have these memories documented. Volunteer. Not because you have to, but because you want to. The Humane Society always needs people to play with the animals. Learn how to budget. Your parents won’t be around to give you money forever. Buy shower shoes. Use them. Save yourself from foot fungus. Beer is expensive. Buy vodka. Interviews are nerve-wracking. Practice with a friend before you go. Find good references. They can be the difference between being offered your dream job and being turned down. It’s okay to turn down your first job offer to wait for a better one. Have faith in yourself. If you’re treated like a slave at your internship, it’s okay to leave. Find a company that sees your worth. Learn how to code HTML. This is an invaluable skill. Also learn Photoshop. Every company in the world needs someone who can design a poster. Take a couple classes just for fun. There’s a difference between smart and educated. Know your priorities. Stick to them. Start searching for a job a year before you graduate. It takes time to find something you want. Apply for jobs you may not be completely qualified for. You may be the only applicant. Don’t get too discouraged when you fail at something. Lay in bed for two days. Cry. Then get back up and start living again. Everyone has something to teach you. Listen to them. Make mistakes, but be sure to learn from them. Textbooks are expensive and you will never need them again. Rent, don’t buy. No one will ever care how wasted you were last night. They saw it first hand. Shut up. No one is responsible for you except you. Think twice before you do something. Don’t think that these have to be the best four years of your life. Life after graduation is pretty awesome too.

50 Things I Wish I Knew in College (via greetingsfromplanetkatya)

[jthreeonefour-blog]

This is a summary of college only using two pictures; expensive as hell.

That’s my Sociology “book”. In fact what it is is a piece of paper with codes written on it to allow me to access an electronic version of a book. I was told by my professor that I could not buy any other paperback version, or use another code, so I was left with no option other than buying a piece of paper for over $200. Best part about all this is my professor wrote the books; there’s something hilariously sadistic about that. So I pretty much doled out $200 for a current edition of an online textbook that is no different than an older, paperback edition of the same book for $5; yeah, I checked. My mistake for listening to my professor.

This is why we download. 

 Alternatives to buying overpriced textbooks

Textbooknova 

Reddit

Bookboon 

Textbookrevolution 

GaTech Math Textbooks

Ebookee 

Freebookspot 

Free-ebooks

Getfreeebooks 

BookFinder

Oerconsortium 

Project Gutenberg

[jthreeonefour-blog]

My beautiful mom has breast cancer.

Zimmerman is free.

Cory Monteith died (I can't even. I have no words. Poor poor Lea.)

this is too much. it's 1 am. fuck. So heartbroken. 

[jthreeonefour-blog]

At Prom last night, I looked at staring boy straight in the eye, smiled, then killed him.

He no longer exists. We are all good.

[jthreeonefour-blog]

So. Cory Monteith - who I've always thought is super awesome, just checked into Rehab. My first thought was WHAAAT because though I knew he dealt with addiction when he was younger, his recent photographs are so HAPPY. Holding hands with Lea, smiling at the Canucks Game, even in interviews, he glows. It's such a shock because he was never labeled as "troubled" and he looks so healthy.

Sad sad. All the best to him, and I completely respect him for checking himself in. I hope that he was thinking about substance again and felt that he needed a safe haven - not that he's been using and struggling.

Sending love to everyone who needs it tonight

[jthreeonefour-blog]

Jesus! It's okay. I'm okay.

I'm okay now.

We're all good.

No, really, I forgive you.

Everything I said...all my curses.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry! 

I accept the things that have happened. It's been awful.

But I'm okay now. I think this time I'm really going to be okay.

I know now. I know you will never abandon me.

[jthreeonefour-blog]

http://www.lettersofnote.com/search?updated-max=2012-08-31T15:02:00%2B01:00&max-results=6&start=54&by-date=false

[jthreeonefour-blog]

I may or may not check my uchicago admissions status on wednesday instead

Reason 

A) I have to work and if I'm rejected I'll probably curl up in a ball and get fired.

B) Any number with the number 8 in it is my favorite. Tomorrow's the 18th. I'm not letting anything ruin my numbers (why am I SO lame)

C) I have too many tests. Shit.

...on second thought I might check it on Friday instead. Best day for crying. Bring it on.

(On a happier note I just found out I'm going to Harvard next year!!!! ......for a Model UN Conference. But still. Wheee)

[jthreeonefour-blog]

This is a paper I wrote last year as a Junior, on the effects of media on School Shooting. Thought I'd post it for anyone interested. It's really long so feel free to just skim it haha, but my main point is that people often forget how much influence the media has, and instead of focusing all our attention on gun control - sometime I am for - we should remember it goes beyond that. The worst thing was that when I was writing this paper, my research lead to the conclusion that this will continue to happen and I can't do anything about it. The church threat today ("I'm coming to kill all of you", as said by the fucking bastard) only strengthens my argument. But this is not about my paper. This is about a senseless tragedy that happened on Friday morning.

Praying for all the families involved and everyone hurting. My heart breaks for all the precious lives taken. I'll remember all of your names. Always. All 27 of you. 

                            The Accomplice Role of Media in School Shootings

You may be aware there’s a function on your keyboard that allows you to press Ctrl-C and copy exactly what you need. It is an action that takes less than 0.01 seconds to do and if you’re a highly intelligent animal like me, you can even do it with your eyes closed. The art of copying beyond the keyboard takes a longer time, but the action itself is just as simple and the result is just as effective. Copying is natural. At an adolescent stage, that is precisely what we do to learn: copy. We copy our siblings, our parents, and what the media throws at us – most of us eventually move past that stage, but some don’t. This is when media influence can become something dangerous, for it can play the accomplice role in school shootings for potential shooters. The increase of shootings from late 1980 to 1999 in comparison to previous decades shows that media influence, particular news coverage and Internet usage - which became dominant around that time - played a significant role in the copy-cat effect and cyberbullying, which ultimately lead to higher rates of shootings.

  From the late 1980s to 1999, America saw a sharp increase in high school shooting incidents, which parallels the time when mass media became dominant in our society. Before mass media became truly dominant, newspapers were available and date all the way back to the 1600s, but it wasn’t until the 1920s - when radio broadcasting became popular - that the phrase “the media” began circling around in our society. In 1960s black and white television took over, and by the 1980s, the media world exploded, with improving technologies and companies like Microsoft and Apple developing faster and better products. The news coverage we know today also bloomed at that time, beginning with CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour and news-only network on television established around 1980. Under media mogul Ted Turner’s leadership,

CNN was a groundbreaking idea, but it soon became ‘traditional’ in terms of its low-impact, factual reportage of the news. By the mid-1990s, other news services began to promote an ever more graphic ‘breaking news’ style that led to today’s MSNBC, Fox News, and other ‘news’ networks (Coleman 165, The Copycat Effect).

Around the same time of the media boom, America saw a sharp increase of school shootings. From late 1980s to 1990s - there were a total of twenty-three notable shootings reported in America (National School Safety and Security Services), which brings a strong contrast to a reported number of four school shootings in the 1970s and ten in the 1960s. The introduction of satellite television and computer media in the 1980s as well as the exponential growth of the Internet in the 1990s also “brought a new urgency to old questions about children's autonomy as independent beings or their protection as vulnerable minors in relation to their exposure to media,” writes Kristen Drotner, Professor of Media Studies at the Institute of Literature, Culture and Media Studies in University of Southern Denmark. She continues, “By the time children reach the age of eighteen, they have spent more time with various forms of media than at school” (Drotner, The Dual Nature of Media). This shocking fact seems to indicate that media overexposure could have a stronger influence over students than an actual school does – making ‘the media’ a powerful and easy tool to negatively impact adolescents at a vulnerable age.

  These media exposures are composed of carefully selected stories: American media are driven by stories of death. Turn on the television and you will see the news does not report about the billions of people who weren’t killed today; it reports on the one who was murdered. It does not report about the billions that drove home safely; it reports on the one killed in the fatal car accident. In a speech that former CBS news anchor Dan Rather gave at the National Press Club in the mid-1980s, he stated: “The news is all about death” (qtd. in Coleman 6). The news does not report events proportional to their occurrence, it reports the abnormal, the tragedies - it is called the news for a reason, and the media's attitude has long been "death sells...if it bleeds, it leads” (Coleman 6). Perhaps the most infamous incident occurred on 20 April 1999, when two Columbine High School students in Colorado injured twenty-one and killed twelve fellow students before turning their guns on themselves - now known one of the worst school shooting in U.S. history. Immediately, the media dived in it full speed. Reporters stood outside Columbine high school for days, the news talked of nothing but Columbine, experts were interviewed, questions about the shooting were asked repeatedly, and America watched. It was shocking and devastatingly terrible, but it also made a really great story. According to the Pew Research Center's monthly surveys of public attentiveness to domestic and international developments, 68% of Americans followed the shooting very closely (Muschert). The news coverage of Columbine also attracted the most public interest of any news story of 1999, which shows how strongly our society is drawn to tragedies and the major influence media has on people’s attention.

  People pay attention to these school shootings and the first thing they often hear about are heated debates over gun control, for the idea easy gun access is the most significant factor in American school shootings can be overplayed by the media when in fact media itself plays a significant role. According to the report The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, news coverage “magnifies a number of widespread but wrong or unverified impressions of school shootings for their audience, such as easy access to weapons is THE most significant risk factor" (4). Gun control is definitely a significant factor, but the media is often so focused on all the damage guns can cause that not only do they fail to acknowledge other important factors in a school shooting; they also forget to report the possible benefit of guns. "The Media has a natural inclination to report on dramatic events...even though fewer than one out of 1000 defensive gun uses result in the attacker's death, 'newsworthiness' means the media only cover the bloodier cases," states John Lott, author of book The Bias Against Guns. In 2002, a shooting event in Appalachan Law School left three dead, yet "one fact was missing from virtually all the news coverage: The attack was stopped by two students who had guns in their cars" (25). When former student Peter Odighizuwa started shooting his peers, students Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges immediately ran back to their cars, retrieved their pistols and pointed them at Odighizuwa from different angles - resulting in his surrender. According to Lott, this action "undoubtedly saved many lives" (25). However, out of 208 news stories from an online database, Nexis-Lexis, Lott discovered "only four stories mentioned that the students who had stopped the attack had guns" (25). What is particularly interesting though, is that  “Until 1969, virtually every public high school in New York City had a shooting club…the deferral government even gave students rifles and paid for their ammunition” (Lott). In 1930, the American Federal Gun Law contained 3571 words, while in 1960 it contained 19,907 words, eventually quadrupling to 88,413 words today, (Lott) yet with only a reported number of 19 notable shooting events from 1930-1960 (National School Safety and Security Services), school shootings were much less frequent in comparison.

  The media generates the copy-cat effect, a phenomenon that triggers inspiration for potential shooters to ‘copy’ a shooting event. As long as media coverage is reachable, copy-cat events can happen, whether it’s suicides, crimes, or school shootings. The fact that school shootings increased when media became dominant is no coincidence. In fact, a month after Columbine Shooting, four hundred related incidents were reported. Court TV’s Katherine Ramsland commented “other kids called in bomb threats, wore trench coats to school, or used the internet to praise what Kelbold and Harris had done” (qtd. in Coleman 176) A problem with extensive media coverage of school shootings is that “it may have the unintentional consequence of creating a copy-cat effect. In other words, observers thrive on the immense attention that school shooters receive so they make threats or actual gestures to replicate the violent acts” (Clete, AJCJ). According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Copy-cat behavior is very common...anecdotal evidence strongly indicates that threats increase in schools nationwide after a shooting has occurred anywhere in the United States” (24). A particular incident in 2007 happened when Seung-Hui Cho, a student of Virginia Tech, wounded seventeen and killed thirty-two students before - just like the Columbine shooters - committing suicide. Once again, this incident shocked the nation, it was more than just déjà vu: how could school tragedies still be happening? Cho was a troubled student who was in 8th grade when Columbine made national news. "I remember sitting in Spanish class with him, right next to him, and there being something written on his binder to the effect of, you know, ' 'F' you all, I hope you all burn in hell,' which I would assume meant us, the students,” remembers Ben Baldwin, a classmate of Cho (qtd. in Moran, ABC Night Line). In a school assignment, Cho also wrote about wanting to "repeat Columbine" (Moran, ABC Night line). Eight years later, on the same month and week as Columbine, Cho finally pulled to trigger. Prior to shooting fifty-seven students, Cho made disturbing videos and sent them to NBC, an American commercial broadcasting television network, not only because he wanted to feel a sense of controlling power, but also to make sure the world knew he was going to “die, like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and defenseless” (qtd. in clip from YouTube). This is a perfect example of a shooter's mind that he is doing something 'heroic' to allow others have the 'courage' to do the same - just as he was inspired by Columbine shooters Harris and Klebold, referencing them in the video as “martyrs" (qtd. in clip from Youtube).

Professor and author Loren Coleman made an interesting observation that after Columbine in 1999, the media seemed to only focus on what the next big school shooting would be. When September 11, 2001 occurred, however, all media attention shifted away from school shootings. A virtual media blackout kept other violence out of the news. In fact, “there were no school rampages in American schools during the entire scholastic ear 2001-2002. Little did the media notice or comment on the fact that school shootings had decreased so precipitously when they weren’t reporting them” (Coleman 180). More so than any previous generation, young people are growing up in an age of overwhelming mass media. According to a survey done by the Huffington Education Post, the average American child lives in a house with 2.9 TVs, 1.8 VCRs, 3.1 radios, 2.6 tape players, 2.1 CD players and a computer (Whitehead). Forty-two percent of American homes are also "constant TV households," meaning that a set is on most of the time – it therefore comes as no surprise that without the media’s buzzing attention on school shootings, the copy-cat effect of shootings dramatically decreased, which in turn lowered shooting incident numbers.

  With computers and cell phones acting as our center of communication and socialization, cyberbullying has become the newest form of bullying - as bullying is one of the reasons shooters pull the trigger, internet usage plays a major role in school shooting events, for not only is it a space for cyberbullying, it also helps potential shooters get needed information. While cyberbullied victims are not hurt physically, the psychological impact is just as damaging. Victims may experience tress, tension, low self-esteem, and depression, which could lead to "bullycide" or worse, leading them to shoot their anger out at other students. "Before computers, children could generally feel safe from other bullies in their own bedrooms, but now a cyberbully can enter that sanctuary" (Anderson, Strum, “Cyberbullying: from playground to computer”). According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, as of 2007, at least a third of teens active on the Internet had been threatened, harassed or embarrassed online (Sims). Dr. Frank Ochberg, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University, lists bullying as one of the major reasons why school shootings happen (Bakshi, CNN World), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation writes that potential shooters have parents that        

Do not supervise, limit or monitor the student's television watching or his use of the     Internet…The student may know much more about computers than the parents do...which may involve violent games or Internet research on violence, weapons, or other disturbing subjects (22).

Internet allows anonymity, but an even more concerning factor is that if you ask, the Internet gives. Where did Columbine shooters learn how to make bombs? The Internet. How did troubled students praise Columbine shooters? By using the Internet.

In Jodi Picoult's fiction work Nineteen Minutes, student Peter Houghton shot and killed ten students before being stopped by the police. The book focuses heavily on the fact that Peter Houghton was bullied his entire life, starting right from kindergarten all the way to High School. The thing that finally pulled his trigger to open fire, however, was through cyberbullying, when students Courtney and Drew pulled a prank on him and emailed an email he wrote to his ex-best friend Josie about his romantic feelings to the entire school. The next day, Peter brought bombs to school, where he also learned to make from the Internet, and started shooting - killing Courtney, Matt and paralyzing Drew first. Although this is fiction work, Picoult did a lot of research and interviewed many school shooters and victims before writing, and it gives readers insight on how a sweet kid could turn into a monster they are not, simply because of cyberbullying.

  Another issue with the media is that it likes to rank the severity of shootings, which could increase actual severity in shootings. "We (the media) set a standard for would-be killers when we talk about 'the worst — the largest in American history — around the country.' It's a game of one-upsmanship," says Jack Levin, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern University (Johnson, CBS). The infamous Columbine tragedy was “ranked” by the annual Associated Press poll of American newspaper editors and broadcast executives as the number-two news story of 1999, just behind Bill Clinton's impeachment trial. Years later when news of the Virginia Tech massacre traveled to the media, it was immediately dubbed as the “worst shooting since Columbine”, with Cho killing quadruple the amount of people as Columbine shooters did (ABC Nightline) In the media world, “everyone is forced to compete for the latest breaking horror story” (Coleman 165) and when news coverage look for the worst, shooters give you the worst.

  However, some may argue that the evolving development of mass media can help potential shooters diffuse their tension and use it as a platform to let out their anger, as well as ‘leak out’ warning signs and be stopped. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,

‘Leakage’ occurs when a student intentionally or unintentionally reveals clues to feelings, thoughts, fantasies, attitudes, or intentions that may signal an impending violent act. They may be spoken or conveyed in stories, diary entries, essays, poems, letters, songs, drawings, doodles, tattoos, or videos. Leakage can be a cry for help, a sign of inner conflict, or boasts that may look empty but actually express a serious threat. Leakage is considered to be one of the most important clues that may precede an adolescent's violent act (16).

In a recent shooting event that happened this February in Ohio, shooter TJ Lane wrote on Facebook just a few months ago: "Now! Feel death, not just mocking you...Die, all of you." He also posted a message to Twitter, an online social networking and microblogging service that he was going to bring a gun to school, demonstrating a perfect example of a “leakage”, yet no one took him seriously (Daily Mail). It is understandable that there were no obvious warning signs from the Columbine shooters since they wrote down their thoughts in their diaries as opposed to online, but a decade later, with countless social media sites that could help parents, teachers and peers observe warnings, these obvious signs are still left unnoticed. Internet can help diffuse the tension, just as television can help us temporarily forget about reality - but if we do not detect these leakages - they still do nothing to help.

  Mass media also gives parents a quick and easy way to reach out to their kids when they are in danger and vise versa, such as at a lockdown during a school shooting. At the school shooting incident mentioned above that happened in early 2012, many parents knew their kids were safe at the time because they received “I’m safe” texts - a scene dramatically different from the Columbine shooting where parents had no access to their kids. "Texting is still instant communication and even people without smart phones can do it," stated Doug Haddix, director of Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at The Ohio State University. Parent Darelene Schmuhl told reporters that she was so relieved when she got her daughter's text that "I thought to myself: 'My daughter will always have her cell phone with her'” (qtd. in Scott, “Chardon High School Shooting News Was Spread Rapidly by Social Media”). While advanced technology benefits the victims and their family in these situations, this rapid social media spread can also lead to false information regarding the shooting and cause instant panic with rumors floating all over the internet. As Haddix stated: “It's an instant world for all of us and we have to learn new ways to best process this information to be accurate- especially at the speed it now moves" (Scott), our usage of the internet must be carefully used to not cause further chaos.

  No one is asking the media to stop reporting the news or to shut down the Internet, but media influence on school shootings is an issue our society be much more aware of, especially the media itself. The media must be cautious of the power of words – using language like “successful shooting” or “failed shooting” suggests to their viewers that someone should try again until they “succeed.” The graphic, 24-hour wall-to-wall commentary and coverage of shootings also must be ceased, as it makes shooters a celebrity, thus creating the perfect model for potential shooters to copy, right down to the method, timing, place and individuals involved. Instead of using its power to generate negativity, the media should use its influence to spread peace, rather than mayhem. When reporting school shootings, for instance, the media should always add information for help lines and other resources on the bottom of the screen as a concern and consideration for potential copycats. We need to start being responsible for the damage “a good story” can do – after all, there is no Control-Z for any of us to press.

And one more quote for all of you

“

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, “that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?” The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it. The reporter looked disappointed, so I offered her my theory. “Events like this,” I said, “if they are influenced by anything, are influenced by news programs like your own. When an unbalanced kid walks into a school and starts shooting, it becomes a major media event. Cable news drops ordinary programming and goes around the clock with it. The story is assigned a logo and a theme song; these two kids were packaged as the Trench Coat Mafia. The message is clear to other disturbed kids around the country: If I shoot up my school, I can be famous. The TV will talk about nothing else but me. Experts will try to figure out what I was thinking. The kids and teachers at school will see they shouldn’t have messed with me. I’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”

  In short, I said, events like Columbine are influenced far less by violent movies than by CNN, the NBC Nightly News and all the other news media, who glorify the killers in the guise of “explaining” them. I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1. The reporter thanked me and turned off the camera. Of course the interview was never used. They found plenty of talking heads to condemn violent movies, and everybody was happy.

”—

Roger Ebert

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Cafe Buongiorno

Buon Giorno

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So last night I had a dream/nightmare that Romney was elected. It was so realistic - I even slapped myself a couple of times in my dream to make sure I wasn't "dreaming." 

Anyway in my dream I logged on to tumblr and it was absolute MAYHEM.

ha. Now I'm kinda terrified.

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Discovery #1

Staring boy doesn't just stare at me.

HALLELUJAH.

This means he's a creep and I don't need to care

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Dear Jace, this is more important than my college essays right now. If someone ever abuses you, LEAVE. Fuck them. If they apologize, still leave. Walk away, okay? That's all. You deserve better

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sobbing at all the castle spoilers.

MY BABIES

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my math teacher

does.not.teach.

He was proud of the fact 13 people got 4s last year in AP CALC

HE WAS PROUD.

In Clough's class the average was a near five. I am bloody concerned.

Should've taken BC. Damn it let me have that C at least I'll get a 5 on the AP.