Miss Lori

“With the economy as it is, unemployment at an all time high, violence in schools and H1N1 on the minds of everyone who sits next to someone who is coughing or sneezing, stress levels are high for parents. But it’s also high for kids too. What is stressing you out these days, and what do you do to deal with it?”

Abi age 10~
I stress about schoolwork a lot. I deal with it by asking my parents for help and practicing things that I have trouble with.

Sinead age 17~
As a high school senior applying for colleges, I am most stressed out about preparing for the future! It becomes very surreal when you start seeing deadlines for college applications. I never thought the day would come, but here I am applying for college, deciding what I’ll be majoring in, and getting ready to leave my family and venture out into the “real world,” all on my own!! I began questioning whether I am ready or not to make my own dinners, or make sure I’m up on time for classes every morning, or do my own laundry! I know most 17 year olds won’t agree with me, but if it were my choice, I’d take my mommy and daddy along with me to college in a heartbeat! It doesn’t help that all my friends talk non-stop about college; where they’ve applied so far, and where they’ve gotten in or been rejected! Every high school senior across the nation that is preparing for college feels the same way right about now! As an aspiring performer, I will also have to complete auditions for programs at different schools, which will ultimately decide whether or not I am accepted, and whether I am granted scholarships. Which is also very important. (Hey! College is expensive!) The future holds a lot for me right now, and I’m just trying to prepare myself… if it’s possible!

Tess age 9~
Sometime I get stressed—like when our school was giving out vaccines. I was trying to decide if it was good because I am scared about needles. The economy stresses me out because my family doesn’t have money for things, and I worry about that because sometimes I want things, but those aren’t needs.

McKenna age 11~
Well, I feel scared sometimes when I know my parents are spending a lot of money on me with dance. I get scared that they’re spending a little too much sometimes. I also am scared that with the flu going around that I’m going to get sick. I’m starting the new school year out great; good grades, making a great impression on all my new teachers. I don’t want to get sick and get loaded with makeup homework. I’m not as scared about getting H1N1 though. It seems kind-of weird, I know, but I’m just not as worried about it as anything else. I’ve heard H1N1 isn’t the nastiest flu around, so I’m not as scared about it. Also one of my dance instructors and her son just had H1N1 and they’re fine. So, I’m not that scared at all. One thing that’s been on my mind is cancer. You see one of my favorite, youngest teachers I ever had just died of breast cancer. She was diagnosed with it just as soon as school got out, so I had no idea that she had cancer until a couple days before she died. I saw her a couple weeks before she died, after her Chemotherapy I later found out, and she looked and acted fine. Apparently she was feeling fine until a couple days before she died. She went to the hospital Halloween weekend and then, November 1st, she died. She was so healthy when school got out and then that happened. So I ‘m afraid of getting cancer, (even though it’s very rare), or getting really sick.

Elita age 9~
I, as a girl, am going through troubles with friends, siblings and growing up in every way; maturity, achievements, and other places

Kyra age 11~
Plenty of things are stressing me out, and some of them are the same things that concern my parents, such as H1N1 and business. But a lot of them are more related to girls my age, especially things like being embarrassed. I deal with troubling issues in plenty of different ways, by praying about it, asking my parents and youth group leaders about it, and reading books about it.

Jaedyn age 6~
Not feeling well, and my brother and sister fighting stresses me out. So I cuddle with my Mommy.

Ava age 11~
Everything that I’m doing, including homework stresses me out. To help me calm down I just take it one day at a time.

This is all fine and dandy, but you may find that nobody is on Facebook or that bogus copyright laws have removed all but a few Muse music videos from YouTube.  The fact that these activities have expired themselves is not encouraging you to complete your work anymore than it was before, right? Behold Hulu.

Hulu is a website featuring extensive streaming video of TV shows and movies from the biggest networks.  It epitomizes convenience; there’s no four-minute commercial to sit through every ten minutes. There are only a few commercial breaks that are just 30 seconds or one longer commercial. But it’s shorter than the average commercial break of a TV show and it’s only at the beginning of the video with none following.

The biggest plus about Hulu is that it’s completely legal.  You can log onto www.hulu.com without the fear of a virus infecting your computer every time you click something or that somebody in the federal government knows you’re watching television online.  Networks and companies are working together to bring you these shows and movies, so you can watch, relax, and enjoy.

Taking all of this into account, Hulu embodies the best procrastination tool ever.  It’s convenient, easy, free, legal, and you can waste away as much of your time as you want.  Watch a 30-second clip of Stewie from “Family Guy” calling Lois’s name (the infamous clip: over ten and a half million views on YouTube), or a 22-minute episode of the latest installment of “The Office”.

At this point, this must seem pretty horrible.  Procrastination has been a fundamental pariah of your personality because of the fact that you can’t rid yourself of it, and here I am showing you an easier and more entertaining way to do it.

Before you laugh Hulu off, consider how many hours a week you waste watching TV, on TV.  It’s Monday night, and you have a huge load of bookwork due for Spanish the next day.  You would’ve done it during the weekend, except your teacher assigned it Monday, giving you only one day to do it. This is a pretty common predicament for most of us.  The conundrum tying up the predicament is that by the time you get home from basketball practice, shower, and eat, it’s just about 7PM and “Heroes” is on TV!  You have the choice of watching it, doing all of your homework into the night and getting a less than optimal amount of sleep.  Or, you could skip “Heroes”, do all of your homework and get a good night’s sleep.  The choice to skip the show is possible because you can go on Hulu anytime after it airs on TV and watch it there!

These contradictory arguments are compatible with both sides of the spectrum, meaning Hulu pleases everybody.  However, there are rumors Hulu will start charging for some of its completely free streaming video.  Also, some episodes of high demand shows like “Glee” expire after a certain amount of time.  So hurry up and fall in love with Hulu the way I did.  And use it as you please, whether or not you’re procrastinating.