This quarantine has definitely been an interesting experience as I have never had a situation like this in my life. It is definitely a chance to do a lot of stuff I have been wanting to, but it is also irritating. As much as I have been doing, I am hoping life will return to normal within the next few months or else I might go insane cooped up with my family. I miss my friends and being able to see more than 3 other faces. Plus, the work on the computers for school, even if it’s easier, it is excruciatingly boring. Thankfully though I have been able to keep myself entertained with some things.

With the quarantine, it’s been really nice to not have to wake up at 5 am every weekday and at 8 am for church on Sundays. It’s also given me a huge opportunity to really get into playing guitar. I’ve played it since I was a little kid, but with all the time I have been able to play it pretty much as long as I want, whenever I want. I have been learning so many new songs from Spanish flamenco to classic rock and roll. I have also been playing a lot of video games with my friends. We play at night from 9 pm to 2-3 am which is a horrible thing for a good sleep schedule but I am sure everyone has thrown a sleep schedule away since the quarantine started. Lastly, I have been exercising a lot and it’s been really feeling good.

Even though I have had time to do all of this, I still really miss my friends. I also feel really horrible for all those who have contracted the virus. I am very curious of what the world is going to look like and how it’s going to change after quarantine ends.

When writing the research paper, there is a lot of annoyance that comes with it. One of my major annoyances is how the conspiracies seem to be very redundant making it hard to write about fresh content throughout the paper. I seem to keep repeating myself as I am explaining and debunking theories. It makes for a difficult experience keeping things new and well-written. Another one of my annoyances with the paper is how long it is. It’s hard to maintain well-written writing and keep it interesting in longer bricks of writing. I can only debunk the flag waving theory so many times. Lastly, a part of this writing that makes me really annoyed is the finite details that I know I have to get into. Diving deep into the research is super time consuming and quite irritating. These are my main annoyances when writing my research paper.

When given the choice to pick a conspiracy theory, I wanted to choose a very debated one, so I chose the moon landing conspiracy. The moon landing conspiracy started back in the 60’s during the space race between the USSR and the USA. During the strive for glory, the USA took the crown by placing the first man on the moon, yet many people just didn’t believe it. All these theories about the moon landing being filmed on a set, not actually accomplished, started circulating and taking the world by storm. Most of it calmed down after a while, as massive amounts of evidence supported that the astronauts actually DID land, but some still refuse to believe it. My research project is going to be about all the details of this conspiracy theory.

When writing the ad essay, I mostly struggled with understanding what we were actually writing about. I had not studied over the weekend so I cam unprepared and had to adapt quickly. I believe I was successful in telling what these ads used to get their points across, and also comparing them. I learned a lot about advertisement techniques and how they affect their target audiences. I have to say, I have become more curious about which techniques are truly THE most effective.

Watching different groups on how to present information to different audiences was an interesting experience. From football players, to 4th grade girls, the way the groups chose how to present was very individualized to stereotypes on the variations of people. I found it very intriguing how everyone has a very basic view of different types of people and how they can socially appeal to them. It was crazy how vast the differences are even though we’re all people. I thought it was interesting how our group put very basic and simple information on unicorns (as our audience was the elderly), and we put it in an infomercial format that would be easy for that type of person to understand. In the end I think it was a very cool social experiment underneath the group project aspect of it.

I do consider myself to be somewhat of a writer. I don’t claim to be very passionate about it but it has always been one of my strong suits. I definitely used to be more of a writer a few years ago then I am now. I do occasionally enjoy writing when the mood comes but it’s not very often. I’d say most of my writing lies within school work, but I guess I can say I feel I am a writer.

I usually write in school, especially for AP classes and sometimes English, but not that much at home. If texting is considered writing, I do “write” a lot but I feel writing is mostly sitting down with a computer/pen and paper in my personal opinion. Going off of that, I have written a few books as a little kid and some in middle school but nothing at home recently. My writing consists of a LOT of essays, journals, warm-ups and things such as that, having to do them in school almost daily. Most are about the specific subjects we are learning in school and I find them pretty bland, but occasionally a research assignment can be kind of fun. I write mostly for grades nowadays, as I gave up writing at home, but I have given going back into it a thought.

In the end, I do feel and consider myself a writer but I wouldn’t call myself passionate or professional. I do what I have to and when the occasion arises, I will write for pleasure. There are a few things I do want to write sometime in my life that have always been goals. I always wanted to write an autobiography by the time I am old, as well as a fiction novel. I do do a lot of reading quite often, especially the news and I feel that helps spike passion in me to write but other than that not really.

My preferred news source: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.