Do you believe in media violence? I do.  Recently I’ve been hearing alot of things about media violence.  I’m convinced it’s true.  We are exposed to media violence everyday through the television, internet, video games, etc.  Many tv shows (not all) send a negative message to children.  Many supposedly children’s movies are also sending negative images.  Research shows that by the time a child is 18 he or she will witness on tv 200,000 acts of violence, 40,000 of those will be murders.  Children show more aggresive behavior, attitudes, and values.

   Yes, it’s true.  My own brother for example.  After he got his first Playstation 2 he became much more aggresive.  He had alot of fighting games because that’s just what he liked. I remember he would always ask to fight me.  I couldn’t refuse or else he would start crying.  So I just defended as he gave each blow.  Eventually I would declare myself to be the winner and tell him to give it up. (I was really immature then)  He practiced fighting against his friends too.  Even though they both were doing it just for fun, sometimes they would get hurt.  Another time when they wanted to use brooms to fight with!  I was like no way!  They said they were going to use them, but not hit each other.  One time we had plastic swords and they would use those to fight.  One time my brother got hurt from those too.  My brother was like six when he was doing all this.  Now my brother has stopped fighting with me and his friends.  This happened after we got rid of our cable.  My brother’s friends stopped fighting with him too, now that he stopped.  Now a days they don’t really hit each other they just use ’super powers’ and play.  You might ask why we let them do all this fighting.  First of all they were six and making those karate noises (hyah!) , it’s hard to take something seriously when it’s like that.  Second of all it was never real fighting with blood and ugh!  They’re boys they like pretending to have fights.  But they really hit each other and we shuldn’t have let them.  My parents did eventually stop them.  The first time my parents told them to stop they didn’t and it took a while to get them to stop.  So let me tell you this people, media violence exists.  Don’t let your young children watch tv shows with violence or play too many video games.

Hi guys.  I have to write poems for a poetry cafe we’re having at school. Grr we actually have to present our poems and I don’t want to.  Oh well.  Anyway I’m posting them here so that I can find them when I’m at school later.  Don’t make fun of them.  I already do that myself. They’re pretty horrible and alot of them are random and don’t make sense.

I hear…

I hear

All my teammates near

I hear

The opponents shivering in fear

I hear

My coach shouting advise, true and sincere

Finally I hear

The crowd’s uproarious cheer

And then I see

Myself let free

Forbidden

There once was a cat

He fell in love with a bat

The bat said it could never be

But the cat still had his plea

Later the bat moved away

Eventually the cat became a stray

The cat begged for food

Of course everyone ignored him and was very rude

One day though someone took pity

On the poor little kitty

The cat became a noble member of the high class

But he never forgot his forbidden love for his lass

I am me

I am me

And no one can change who I am

People never let me be free

But I don’t give a damn

People like you for who you are

I judge people by their actions

Whether people think you’re cool or bizarre

Don’t give in, you’ll just be giving them satisfaction

Everybody has friends

Even when it seems like the whole world is against you

Someone has a hand they’ll extend

To help you get through

       Ok I’ve been postponing blogging because something really really super horrible happened and I just didn’t feel like talking (typing whatever) about it.  Wednesday we had a school field trip to the St. Louis Zoo.  It was my fifth time there.  The drive to St. Louis, MO takes 3 hours.  So I thought I might as well take (borrow) my brother’s DS, so that I would have something to do on the charter bus there.  My brother was against it and kept saying no.  But then my mom convinced him to let my take it.  I put the Nintendo DS in my brother’s Nintendo DS case and then I attached the DS case to my keychain holder.  It was all really fun and going great.  We reached the zoo and split up into our groups.  My group was totally awesome of course.

       After we saw half of the zoo we stopped for lunch.  I got my food for a reasonable price.  Then we sat down at a table.  I took the nintendo DS case off while I was eating.  Then a few of us went to talk to another group.  I left the Nintendo DS case without realizing on the table while we went to go talk to the other group.  (I’m so stupid!!!)  Then the rest of our group came with us to see the other group and no one realized I left the case on the table.  I don’t blame them at all of course, it’s not their job to look after my stuff.  Actually since it was my brother’s I should have taken care of it even more.  But, wait! The story doesn’t end there.

     Later after we finished our scavenger hunt we celebrated with getting ice cream.  While we were eating our ice cream at a table a different group’s teacher came up to us (not the other one we had visited before).  The teacher asked if any of us had lost a black Nintendo DS case with a blue keychain holder necklace thing.  Only then did I even realize I had lost it.  I’m so unaware of my surroundings.  I stayed calm though and told the teacher it was mine.  I was so relieved that I hadn’t lost it!  The teacher said that she had turned it in to the people that worked at the restraunt.

      I was walking with relief and joy.  When we got to the restraunt I told a lady what it looked like.  She then said, “Wait, didn’t _______ give it to someone?” to someone else working there.  Then the lady turned and looked at me she said they never had it.  My hopes plunged down.  I persisted.  They pointed at a security guy and said ask him to call Lost and Found.  So we went to the guy.  He called Lost and Found, but they had nothing like that.  I was getting deserate now.  I looked over at the restraunt people and they were talking secretly amongst themselves.  I went up to them again.  They then confirmed they had it, but had already given it to someone else that asked them for a black case.  They said it was a black man wearing shades and a blue cap.

    I can’t even describe to you how much despair I was feeling then.  I had lost the Nintendo DS which my brother specifically told me not to lose!  Along with the Nintendo DS were eight games I had brought, also attached to the keychain was my housekey.  I was totally freaking out now.  My friends and Angela’s dad who was our chaperone suggested that we go look in the Lost and Found because maybe the person was going to turn it in later.  I completely doubted that.  In my mind I was already thinking of things to tell my parents.  Of course I was going to tell the truth, but how would I ever deal with all the disappointment?  Not to mention how much trouble I was going to get in!  It would be like falling down a deep pit with a monster at the bottom.  Basically my whole zoo experience had plummeted and hit rock bottom.  How many people can say they got $300 worth stolen from them at a zoo? Not many and most people wouldn’t want it to happen.

    We walked to the Lost and Found with me being paranoid and looking around for the theif along the way.  As if I would ever find him.  When we visited the Lost and Found, which happened to be located in the Security Office they told us they didn’t have it.  They said to check again before leaving because maybe the person just hadn’t turned it in yet.  Yeah right, obviously they knew they had stolen it.  The restraunt people also mentioned that he walked right behind and claimed it.  So that when they asked him what it looked like he already knew because he saw Mrs. Burson handing it in.

     We stayed in the gift shop the rest of the time.  Of course I was way too depressed to shop at all.  But my friends were trying to cheer me up and I have to say they’re efforts did make me feel a bit better and I did appreciate them trying to cheer me up.  We went back to check the Lost and Found one last time.  This time they had a black nike bag.  They asked me how much it was worth and more information.  Then they got all the police looking for the guy.  I doubted they would find him.  Oh and the black nike bag?  It turned out that it belonged to one of the students at our school.  At least somebody got their stuff back.

      Well I had one heck of an adventure at least.  I acknowledge that it was all my fault I lost it.  I really need to be more responsible.  Anyway when I got home I actually didn’t get into too much trouble.  I just have to buy my brother another Nintendo DS and new games worth the same amount of money.  So all I have to do is get $300 from my allowance.  Well at least I’ll earn $120 from babysitting my brother during the summer.  Oh and yes my brother is younger than me.  Anyway stay tuned I’ll be posting pictures we took at the St. Louis zoo hopefully sometime soon. 

This weekend I went to the mall and actually bought clothes from Aeropostale. I’m not a big brand-name person. I never even go into popular stores like Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, or Aeropostale. But that all changed when I went to the mall with my friends last weekend. I found there’s a reason the stores are so popular (shocking I know!). Now my favorite store is Aeropostale. Hollister and Aeropostale are both really casual. I felt good wearing clothes from there. All the other stores are all fashiony (not that Hollister isn’t in fashion) and they don’t have just comfortable, yet cool, clothes to wear.

The main reason most people wear clothes from those stores though are because everyone thinks they’re so cool. But, really they’re not that cool. I saw a pair of jeans at Hollister for more than $60. I think that’s outrageous. I mean you could get the same jeans for $10-$20 at a different store. But because it’s Hollister it costs $60. An amusing thing is people who buy their jeans from Hollister have to announce it for anyone to take notice. Seriously, what’s the point? No one takes notice anyway.

All in all I like the clothes at Aeropostale and Hollister, but I think some of the prices are outrageous.

Um, I don’t know where to start.  So, hello world and all who inhabit it! ^_^ I pretty much just feel like writing my first post with no reason at all.  Basically, I’m new to wordpress and I guess so far it looks pretty good and um that’s all for now.  Oh yeah my pen name is Riku, just because it’s the awesomest name ever.  I don’t really have a reason for why I think Riku is the awesomest name ever.  Whenever I think of the name Riku I get all happy inside.

-Riku