November 4, 2008

What happened that Tuesday night is truly one of the greatest things that I have ever seen in my lifetime. Being African- American, it just meant that much more to my family. The thing was that Barack Obama was really the best candidate, but because of race it became this weird debate about if America was ready to elect him or not. It showed that this world is not yet as colorblind as it should be. There was a lot of doubt about what would happen that day. When they announced that he won, it took me a minute to comprehend what had just happened, and I remember that my parents were calling everyone they know to talk about it. I heard this one story about this ninety year old woman. She was sick and was willing herself to live just so that she could vote in this election. I’m sad that I was too young to vote because it would be cool if I could tell people fifty years from now that I voted for him. This was a historic moment and even though I understand what it means, I’ll never feel the same way that my parents or grandparents do. Hopefully, with this new leadership, we will now regain the respect of the world and fix some of our problems here at home.

Black President

Late tuesday night, I was fortunate to be alive to witness one of the most incredible presidential moments in American history: the election of the first non-white president of the United States. Regardless of your stance on the issues, electing a black preisdent is a MASSIVE step forward for America, and will hopefully mend some of the damage caused by hundreds of years of division.

Also needing to be repaired is our terrible global image. America was once envied and admired by the rest of the world; over the last eight years we've become a complete joke. With Bush's departure from the White House and election of one of the western world's first black leaders, we may gain some respect back from our peers.

R.P. McMurphy & Cool Hand Luke

R.P. McMurphy was similar to Cool Hand Luke. For example they were both very strong, determined people. R.P. McMurphy didn’t belong in the insane asylum with the other men just like Cool Hand Luke didn’t belong in prison. They are just both troubled men whose life turned to the worst. Both men try escaping where they were kept. Both men also got caught. But at first the men don’t like McMurphy but the soon grew to love him. Same with Cool Hand Luke, he fought with men but then became best friends with one of them. What was ironic is that both characters smiled a lot. Most scenes McMurphy was laughing or smiling and Cool Hand Luke always smiled and died with a smile on his face. Both movies had the same basic set-up so it’s not surprise the men are alike. But before watching each movie I would have not put two and two together. Where they similar other ways that I might have missed?

Happy Halloween

Today is October 31rst and you know what that means? It’s Halloween! But why do girls feel it’s necessary to dress as slutty as they can? Is it an excuse to dress this way to get guys attention? But of course the excuse is that it’s Halloween and it’s only a costume so it’s acceptable. I went to Party City to find a costume and for some reason the teen section were all short tiny slutty costumes. Even the adult costumes were too revealing. It’s degrading to women. Its ridicules that you go to Halloween parties or clubs and you have girl’s barley wearing any clothes but it’s called a costume still. I have horrible self esteem and refuse to wear these type of Halloween costumes. So I really couldn’t find a costume but my friend talked me into one. I’m now terrified for the party tonight! But is it moral to take a fun holiday for kids to dress up as Spiderman, pumpkins, princess, pirates and other “in” costumes for kids. You are supposed to go around and collect candy. Not to dress as slutty as you can.

Homecoming Queen and King Candidates

At Groves we get to pick our Homecoming king and queens for each grade. But when the names were read of who had one my heart sunk. Sophomores had voted people who get made fun of a lot. I’m not going to mention the names because that’s just as bad. There was maybe one guy and one girl who were seriously voted on. The other 5 girls and guys were just jokes. How can the faculty let that happen? Why didn’t they re-do the voting. What makes it worse is that we don’t know if those kids chosen as a joke knew that or not. I know there are some groups of people in this school that live to make fun of other kids. But I didn’t know that there were so many that they all voted to make these kids a running candidate. Why let freshmen and sophomores vote and run when they most defiantly don’t have the maturity to have that privilege.

Spirit Week

Spirit week is supposed to be a fun week. But when you add in the people stealing decorations, people having no spirit, and the lovely people or class who brag, becomes not fun. People spend hour’s setting up the hallways but people don’t take this into consideration when they rip necklaces off the ceiling or steal other decorations. If you really want it, maybe wait till the last day of spirit week? But then comes field day. The day it’s supposed to be rigged for the seniors! But this year the bucket went to the juniors who stampeded the floor almost killing a girl who had tripped and gone down and of course got trampled. But if that wasn’t enough you get juniors bragging like elementary school students over a bucket! You sign on facebook to find peoples status cussing the seniors out. It made me laugh because the thought of people wanting to hurt others feelings over a bucket is just plain ridiculous. How is it that something innocent and fun turns into something so bad?

Super Size Me

We Watched Supersize Me by Morgan Spurlock. Everyone knows fast food is bad for you, but no one knows how deadly the damage is. He ate McDonalds 3 meals a day for 30 days straight. His cholesterol sky rocketed he gained over 20 pounds and had heart problems. Imagine the people who do eat this daily and for years or longer. But not all the people who eat McDonalds are fat. They interviewed a hippy looking guy who ate a Big Mac every day. He was skinny as a stick! What got me the most was when he kept trying to talk to the head of McDonalds or even just get an interview and called them about 20 times and never got anything? Also how 1 out of like 50 places had the calorie info. What I love about the movie was all the visuals; the jars of fat, and the buckets of sugar, and the funny Ronald McDonald pictures. Morgan gave a lot of information about all the calories and sugar in the product. Showing the viewer that the “healthy” part of the menu like salads and yogurt things were just as bad as the fries or even milkshakes. But I believe that this movie was a tad biased, because they mainly interviewed really fat people and showed fat peoples butts throughout the movie. Some fat people didn’t get fat from McDonalds. They could eat a lot of candy or just not excursive. But this was all about McDonalds, so they couldn’t add other options of why people are fat. Does anyone else think this movie was a tad biased?

Double CheeseBurger Rap

Obama Under Fire.

I realize this has nothing to do with the current course material, but I felt it was a relevant topic to discuss.

Recently, Barack Obama was once again attacked for his alleged affiliations with "radicals". We saw this before with Reverend Wright, but Barack is once again being judged by the company he is believed to keep (or to have kept). This raises an interesting question: how much is our image defined by the people we surround ourselves with? Is Obama a less capable president because of former friends and acquaintances? What do I look like based on my crowd?

This all sort of reminded me of the clique mentality seen in Mean Girls. It's so much easier for people to categorize and sort others into safe little groups by making assumptions; who has time to get to know people anymore? If I hang out with a few potheads, I must blaze all the time. If I hang out with clean-cut, academically inclined people, I must be smart. The list goes on and on. While it's definitely true that some relationships could affect the direction of your life (spend all your time around people going nowhere and pretty soon you'll be in the same boat), do all your friends project something onto you? What does your crowd say about you, and should it matter?

Fast Food

Fast food and I have what some people call a love/hate relationship. Because I don’t eat it all the time, I love going out to fast food restaurants. I do know that the food is bad for me and because of this I despise it. In class we have been watching Super Size Me. In the movie a man decides to eat McDonalds for a total of 30 days. He has to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The rule is that if McDonalds doesn’t sell it, he can’t eat it. In his documentary, he shows just what this special diet does to his body and his health. I think that America is in real serious trouble. We are the fattest nation on the planet and the numbers keep getting higher. If we don’t start exercising healthy eating habits, we are looking at our life expectancy dropping. Also, children learn by example, so eating unhealthy diets carry on to younger generations. I was surprised to see just how unhealthy our school lunches really are. It makes me wonder how much of our food is taken out of boxes and reheated. I agree that we need healthier choices in our cafeterias, but we also need cheaper lunches. Since I’ve been at this school prices have gone up higher and higher. Cookies are $1.00. Chips with hardly anything in the small bags are $1.00. A little slice of pizza is $2.25! To eat healthier, sandwiches cost more and salads are charged by the pound. So, until prices go down it’s easier for me to just go down the street to McDonald’s and Taco Bell to get more for my buck.

The Simpsons Episode

We watched a Simpson’s episode in class having to do with Malibu Barbie. Lisa and every other girl can’t wait for the “talking Malibu Barbie”. But when Lisa gets hers and pulls the string to hear Malibu Barbie talk. She is disappointed and horrified with Malibu Barbie’s phrases. They were very degrading to women. Phrases like, “I wish they taught shopping at school," "Let's bake cookies for the boys," and "Don't ask me. I'm just a girl," followed by a ditzy giggle. But when expressing her opinion at dinner her family thinks that the talking Malibu Barbie phrases are perfect how they are. Lisa then goes to the Malibu Barbie’s headquarters. But the tour was all Malibu Barbie throughout the year and basically how stupid she is. At the end of the tour she tells the people in charge how she feels, they of course laugh in her face. She then goes to Stacy Lovell's house, (built exactly like Malibu Stacey's dream house). But finds out Stacy Lovell was bought out by some other company and no longer built Malibu Stacy. Her and Stacy Lovell make a new Barbie doll name, “Lisa Lionheart”. Of course it was popular with advertisement at first. But the Malibu Stacy’s company makes a new doll and Lisa Lionheart is soon forgotten. It’s scary to think that this happens in real life. That big business can just crush new businesses by making a new product but is similar to the last product. No wonder businesses are being knocked out left and right. With the top businesses bringing in all the customers there’s no room for new business. Is this part of why the economy is turning to crap?

The Persuaders and Putting Emotion into Ads

We started watching “The Persuaders” and there was a clip in it that made me laugh and then question if they were serious. A man interviewed a normal guy about white bread. These are a couple of questions the man asked, When eating white bread do you feel…
• Lonely
• Sad
• Thoughtful
• Angry
Just throwing out random emotions. How can anyone take this seriously? It’s crazy what people do to get people to buy things. It’s like the joke women make, when you break up with your boyfriend, all your girlfriends come and watch sad movies and eat ice-cream with you (putting emotion into the ice-cream.) First there is the whole making things appeal to certain age groups, or genders, but now for emotions? Its that old commercial for the frozen dinner, saying how hungry men eat. How can you put a frozen meal on air saying it will make you full and strong? That is just disgusting. It’s almost like brainwashing the people. “Well if I buy that product I will be happier.” “Chocolate makes the worries melt away.” Or the Herbal Essence commercials, when you wash your hair you just relax and all your worries go away. It’s wrong to make commercials appear to your emotions. What do you think?

Patients Aren’t Always Treated Correctly

We are reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in this book we learn that a lot of patients aren’t always treated correctly. Though, it was more common back in the day. It is still around today. In nursing homes, hospitals, rehab places. My grandpa was in a nursing home, and the people treated him like crap. Most elders in nursing homes are treated like crap, like they aren’t human. We brought him chocolates and the women ate them instead of leaving them for him. They lost his dry-cleaning, when he called for help it took them sometimes an hour. I was hospitalized after a surgery and hadn’t eaten all day, I asked for some food and a nurse said she would bring me food right away. Well her shift was over in 10 minutes so she just left. I hear horror stories of hospital abuse and accidents. With rehab places you hear stories of rape or abuse. How can we just let this happen? You think with today’s society and all the advantages we have over other countries that we could keep these places clean. How can we truly know that mentally ill patients are being treated right? Know that horrible things like those in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, isn’t happening. Like Lobotomy treatment for those who don’t need it (more of a torture then a treatment.) Or electric shock treatment. It’s scary to think things like this could still be happening to innocent people.

Barbie

Recently we have been reading and watching a lot about Barbie’s. Before this I didn’t know that a doll made such an impact on people, but I guess I was wrong. Apparently a lot of people have been criticizing Barbie and its creators for some of the problems that we are experiencing with young girls. The author of Barbie’s Newest Values, Gloria Borger, takes the time to criticize Barbie for losing sight of who she used to be. She correctly notes the evolution of Barbie over the last few decades by explaining that she used to be middle class and looked like regular people. Today, Barbie’s toys are better than ever and she has a whole line of designer clothing. Of course Borger has a point, but part of me wants to tell this lady that Barbie is just a doll. She’s plastic while girls have worse role models that are alive. Also, Mattel is just a company like any other. With all of this new competition (like Bratz) they have to change Barbie just to stay in the game. Instead of another corporation going out of business, just don’t buy your kids the doll. What do you think about this?

Advertisment

Advertisement these days are absolutely repulsive. If it isn’t filled with half naked women or has some sexual intension, then it’s about cigarettes or beer. Most advertisements are giving false hope or just saying what the buyers want to hear. Half the products don’t even work. How many different creams are there to reduce aging? The real question is how many actually work? It would be amazing if every single advertisement worked. That my allergies would disappear, the headache actual went away in 30 minutes, or the acne cream took my acne away. But the truth is the allergy medication didn’t make everything clear and not foggy. My headache went away for 10 minutes and then came back, or didn’t go away at all. The acne cream just reduced the redness and with time the acne went away but you still break out. I know that everyone reacts differently to things but when selling a product, people will tell you anything. But since Jessica Simpson says Proactive works then it must! That’s the problem with celebs sponsoring commercials is that since your favorite celebrity uses it then it must work. How can the government allow all these false ads? Then you see the lawyer commercials wanting to sue people whose products cause heart failure or other problems. I find myself muting the TV now at commercials because of the stupid commercials. Its either a half naked women, something sexual, or about a erectile dysfunction, or another beer commercial. There is no point watching commercials now, unless it’s a preview for a movie. Advertisement today is completely distorted. How can we go from the cute old navy commercials with the old lady and the dog, to half naked Hollister models selling cologne. Its crazy as time goes on things get more sexual and less classy.

Beyond Highschool

All this talk of senior essays got me thinking. This is really happening: we're going to college.

I don't know about you guys but the daily grind has been pretty tough for me these last few years. Sometimes I wonder how motivated and efficient I'll be when it's just me nagging myself to stay on top of things. I'm looking forward to the increased independence, but I'm not sure how productive I'll be.

For the last few years I've had a strong feeling about the career I wanted to pursue (well, the two I'm most interested in pursuing): psychology and/or English. I've felt good about those for awhile, but it's hard to picture myself older: working for a living (not for gas money or spare cash), perhaps raising a family, just doing adult things. Getting out of high school is exciting in the sense that this vision becomes more and more of a reality.

College Essays

I don’t know about you guys but college essay’s scare. As a matter of fact, just applying to college scares me too. There’s just so much to do and everyone keeps telling me that time is running out. First you have to choose the colleges you want to apply to. My parents knew which ones they wanted before I did! How can you be sure if you don’t know anything about so many of them? I mean you can visit the ones you can but how can you ever be sure which one is the perfect match for you? Even though I already started my applications, I am still trying to narrow my choices down to the final five schools. You also have to fill out all of the paperwork and questions. Some colleges want teacher and counselor recommendations. After all of this, then they want you to write an essay about some random topic that they previously prepared for you. It is important that you write a good essay because this can determine if you are accepted or denied to the university of your choice. You have to remember to be clear and specific to the point. You have to make sure that you thoroughly answer the question with detail but not so much that you beat your topic to death. So my question is, are you guys as stressed about your college essays as I am? Maybe it just comes easy for you.

Tough Guise

So today we began to watch the film "Tough Guise", a documentary on how boys are taught to behave and think due to the pressures of the world. I watched this movie in my 10th grade English class so I already know what the rest of the movie has in store for us viewers, but I still have the same opinion on it. I personally hate when guys put up the "tough guy" front in front of their friends, yet when they are just one-on-one with you; they act just like their normal selves. When men try to act all emotionless and tough, it makes you feel like they don't even care about your feelings and emotions, let alone have them themselves. If a guy is tough some of the time, it makes you more sympathetic for when he is actually upset. This is one of the reasons that some chick flicks are so popular is because when women see "tough" men all emotional, it makes them more emotional in turn because it is showing you the more intimate part of their lives, the part not usually expressed. I personally believe that men should just show what they are feeling and not hide everything, because that just turns to anger, which is probably another reason that men are so violent. Also on the violence issue, violence is never the answer, period. I hate violence personally because I don't understand the point in hurting another human being for your own enjoyment or to express your own feelings.

haha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoZ7dGBEReM

michael moore

Honestly, watching this movie I'm not sure whether I should agree with what Michael Moore is saying or disagree with him. There are some parts of the film where he brings up a point and then uses biased facts to back it up. An example of this is when he brings up the part about the Binladen family being flown out of the country. He uses facts to back up this information, but he fails to provide enough information for the audience to understand the whole story. He only reveals enough facts for the audience to agree with him and his opinions because they are being kept from the whole story. This is wrong because then he isn't educating the public at all, and is just using his biases to minipulate people to believe his opinions. I mean I guess you should expect that coming from Michael Moore, but I don't think that I agree 100% with what he is doing. I'm not saying that it's not really funny to watch or anything, cause it's flipping hilarious to see our government made fun of so much for the things that they have screwed up, but I think that he should have given all of the facts and let the public come to their own conclusion instead of making them think that everything that he had been saying was absolute fact.

Oh, also....

I can't believe this isn't pink anymore. I wasn't even consulted before this change....

Ok...managed to log back in....

Aight, I figured out my login info again.

September 11

September 11th was one of the worst tragedies that happened to this country. We found out from "On Native Soil" that there were plenty of warning signs and even a previous attack on Building one of the World Trade Centers. Why did the government ignore these signs thinking nothing when knowing that terrorist don't just threaten. Why weren’t they denied their Visas when they gave so many fake answers, immigrants wanting to learn how to fly, and the threat of using an air plane? It’s so disturbing that there were so many warning signs and the government ignored all of them. What bothers me the most is that it takes a tragedy to make American care. Now the air ports are a lot stricter. But before it was okay not to check the luggage carefully and let weapons slip onto the plane. How can we trust our government when they let his horrible tragedy happen?

I GOT THE INVITE!!

hey guys i got the invite!!!!!!111 i'm contributing now!!!!11 comment plz lol!!!