Angela Lee's TEDtalk was about success and failure, with grit being the key to success. What is grit? It is passion and perseverance, sticking with your future for not just days or months, but sticking with it for years to make it reality. Angela makes a good comparison of this to a marathon. Success is measured by how hard you work and how long you work, and I completely agree with this fact. She talks about how failure is a motivation to get you to succeed, and failure is not a permanent condition. Having grit makes you more successful in terms of graduating.  Grit is unrelated to talent, social intelligence and IQ. It's all about sticking with your long term goals with passion and perseverance.  Failure or success? Your pick!

           What does it mean to fail? No one likes to fail at all. How do you know that you will fail unless you try? Failing is when you don't give your best effort in something like writing a test or doing a project. Failing means to give up, not trying and quitting. People see failure as a negative thing, but it actually means finding a million ways that won't work! It's a motivation for you to keep trying until you succeed. Failing is not the end of the world; you have another chance to try again. You must fail in order to succeed. It gives you the opportunity to improve and find your weaknesses.

            People are always looking for new and updated gadgets, especially phones. Two of the most common phones that people buy are the iPhone and Blackberry. I much prefer an iPhone over a Blackberry, due to the reason that it's an Apple product. This may sound ironic, but I'm debating that Blackberry smartphones are better than iPhones. Now remember, I don't own any of the two phones so I can't really have a say which phone is the best. If you don't have a phone, I may persuade you into getting a blackberry...wait and see.

           Does the iPhone really bring you happiness? If so, why are they up for sale on Ebay within a few days?  As a result of contrasting both Apple’s iPhones and RIM’s Blackberries, I found the Blackberry is far more superior than the iPhone. There are plenty of smartphones out there in the world, but the Blackberry beats all.

                You don’t want to always fix your broken screens, buy costly phone covers, or get bankrupt for replacing your shattered phones. So, choose the awesome Blackberry over the worthless iPhone. Ten basic things how the Blackberry beats the iPhone: The red indicator light notifying you have an unread message, excellent grip, easy to add email addresses, a Canadian Company, very durable, extremely fast, long battery life, not easily scratched, easy to use physical keyboard or touch-screen,  and it has good sound quality as well as good  call quality.
 
                Having to watch your iPhone slip out of your hands and crash onto the ground, with its screen shattered into pieces is a frightening sight. This happens to many people who own iPhones. You are almost required to buy a case for your iPhone- unless you have a death grip on your phone at all times. I mean, do you wear your iPhone around your neck, or is it hidden in your pocket 99% of the time like everyone else?

               However, with Blackberries, it’s a different story.  No matter if it’s a BlackBerry z10, BlackBerry Bold or a BlackBerry Curve, they have excellent grip. It’s solid and sturdy and you don’t even have to waste money on buying costly covers for your phone!  Also, it is more scratch-free than the iPhone. There were reports of iPhone 5 units being scratched right out of the box. A number of people found the coating was easily scratched off around the edges, revealing the silver aluminum beneath. One word that describes the iPhone- fragile.

               Many of the Blackberry phone models have QWERTY keyboards that give you an option to type physical on a keyboard or on a touch-screen keyboard. IPhones only have touchscreen keyboards, which may lack in sensitivity more than half of the time that will tend to irritate many people. Unresponsive touchscreen is always a problem with iPhones. Not only has that, but iPhones often freeze, well, more than Blackberries.

                Blackberry smartphones are lightning fast- probably one of the fastest smartphones ever. It takes less time to get to emails, open apps, and load apps in less time than the slow iPhones. Ever had the experience where apps stutter and takes millions of seconds to load with the iPhones? With Blackberries, you can save several of minutes, seconds and even fractions of a second.

                Unlike any iPhones, Blackberries have the flashing red light or colourful light that is the best notification system on the planet! It’s a little blinking light that flashes periodically, that notifies you have a message or new email. Little things can make a huge difference.

                Talking about battery life, the battery lasts forever on the Blackberry. You can leave data network on and apps running, without having to drain your battery nearly as much as the iPhone. Your phone is completely useless if the battery is dead.
                Sure, Apple is known for their App Store, but that’s it. You like your phone for its communication features, not for playing games. Blackberry’s e-mail system, keyboard and indicator light all make the communication process a more efficient one.  Even blackberry fruits are more efficient than apples. People like Jennifer Lopez and Will.I.Am uses Blackberry smartphones, why don’t you?

Did I convince you? (^__^)d

              Everyone has heard of failure leads to success. An average human being makes mistakes like everyone does, no matter if they are smart or stupid. People who are successful has gone through many failures. You must fail in order to reach the next level of success. 

             Failing gives you the opportunity to improve and find your weaknesses. If you failed once, try again. If you fail twice, try again. Try until you are successful. Sometimes you cannot be successful in one shot. People don't expect you to be able to serve the volleyball over the net or shoot a basket in the hoop on your first try. Don't ever give up, because perseverance is the answer. If you failed, your life is not over.

             The quickest road to success is to have a positive attitude towards failure. Fearing and being frustrated with your failure won't get you anywhere in life. Now that you have gained some experience, make a new approach.You can take risks or test out something new. Learn from the mistakes that you have made in order to never run into them again. 

             Failure to success is like practice to perfection. If you practice, you'll get better and better at it. Your hard work will eventually payoff in the end because hard work leads to success. Failure is just the beginning of success!

                 Thirteen Reasons Why is a novel written by Jay Asher and he has won many awards for this book. I have mentioned before that it's hard for me to read a book and really get into it. Most of the times, I would read a few chapters, then give up on the book. But for this novel, it's a different story. I couldn't put down the book because it was that good! So far, the first three chapters I've read are very thrilling. Every single page of this book is addicting.

                 For a quick summary of what I've read so far, Clay Jensen received a shoebox stored with thirteen cassettes that was left on his porch. He listens to the first tape and realized that a girl named Hannah Baker ended her life and there are thirteen reasons why she decided to take that action. Each side of a tape involves a person. So far, the people revealed are Justin Foley, Alex Standall, Jessica Davis, Tyler Down and Courtney Crimsen. There are still eight people involved that included Clay himself. Each of these people hurt Hannah in someway.

                 The style of this book was written very well. I liked how the author wrote each chapter tape by tape. This makes things easier because each tape is about a person, explaining the reasons why that person lead to Hannah's suicide. I was able to understand the story because the use of language was simple. I liked how the author italicized Hannah's speech so I can differentiate between Hannah's and Clay's. I did not get confused and I was able to follow along every detail as the book unfolded.

                 Even though I am not close to half way through the book, I would consider this novel as one of the best book I have ever read. I am looking forward to read more of the book to find out who is included in the tapes and when Clay Jensen will appear in the tapes. I have a feeling that he will appear on cassette number thirteen, which is the last one.      

                This novel really teaches me how a little action or a joke can affect someone's life; it can potentially ruin their life! What started out as a joke ruined a friendship, and a rumour that is not true can ruin a friendship as well. This mostly happens in high school because everyone is so immature. What I don't understand is people are biased on one perspective, but they never find out the real truth. They believe the rumors, but they don't don't believe friends like how Jessica didn't believe Hannah.

           I've been told that I have a photographic memory, but for some odd reason I can't memorize poems very easily!  Just last week, our FFP class had to memorize this poem, then have it recorded on camera. The poem our class had to recite is The Road Not Taken is written by Robert Frost, one of the best poems in the world! It is rated second after Phenomenal Women. At first, I was mortified, especially with the part where we get recorded on camera. Memorizing a poem is already bad enough, and now we have to say it in front of a camera?! However once I had it all done, I was relieved.

           I used a few tips to memorize this poem that were very helpful to me. First, memorize one stanza per day because your brain can't retain all the information at once. If you don't have that much time, then leave a few hours in between before you start memorizing the second stanza. During those hours, do some physical activity as it will help you improve your memory. A second tip to use is record yourself reading your poem fluently, then play it over and over again until it gets stuck in your head. Play your recording a few times just before you sleep because studies show you are more likely to retain more information or memorize more things at night time. I usually study for tests at night before I sleep.   

               As I walked into the classroom on a Friday morning, the day where we have to recite the poem, all I heard was the poem being read millions of times in the classroom. I joined in as well. When the first person entered the backroom to recite the poem, I started getting anxious and shaky. I watched the second person, the third, and then the fourth person going in and coming out calm-looking. Perhaps this is not that hard as I thought it would be. I was next in line. I slowly entered the back room, sat on a chair, trying not to stare at the camera, then I flew past the poem. It was successful, sort of. I was surprised that I didn't stutter or pause at all! I recited the poem fluently with confidence. But one thing I messed up on, is I skipped a line without realizing...........I don't even remember what the line was! Oh well, I hope the memorizing tips will help you!