To Gavin McCarthy:
"I enjoyed your paper a lot, and i liked how you connected it back to your lifestyle and how longboarding is healthy for your lifestyle. Most people connect their papers to our society, but i think it was nice to see how you could connect this paper to your own life. it shows that you did learn a lot from this course. However, i would also like to read about how you think we as Americans can change our lifestyles, and compare it to your lifestyle. However this is just a suggestion, and does not need to be done. Overall i liked your paper a lot."
To Marco Gonzalez:
i think you made a very interesting point in your last paragraph where you talk about how people need to learn to accept themselves and think for themselves, not be robots of this soceity. what you are saying is true, and makes a lot of sense, and im glad you wrote about it. this way when people read your paper who have not taken the course they too can see how we as Americans accept what is given to us and do not question it.
i also like how you compared your paper to animals, and remarked about how we too are animals.
good job (:
To Ian:
i think that you make a good point in your paper when you comapre the use of steriods and athletes to the way animals are injected with hormones. i also liked how you connected your paper back to your family lifestyle. good job (:
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Final Paper - What makes life meaningful? And what goes into a good and meaningful life?
Throughout the year, we have talked about what goes into living a good and meaningful life, and what a good and meaningful life is. Even now that the school year is over I don’t think that there is an universal definition of a good and meaningful life. If you were to ask me what a good and meaningful life consists of, or what it is, I would not be able to give you an universal definition because I do not believe that there is one. I have my own definition of a good and meaningful life, but it might not apply to everyone. Everyone has his or her own opinions on how a life should be lived. I don’t think you can judge someone’s life on your own definition, because even if you think they don’t have a meaningful life, they may think they do. Some people are fine with judging if other people’s lives are meaningful, and some are not. I am not one of those people who are fine with judging someone’s life because I do not believe their lives are for me to judge. To me, one of the definitions of a good and meaningful life is a life where you are happy and enjoying your life. You don’t need to have materialistic possessions and you don’t need to be rich, as long as you are happy that is all that matters. I also think that in order to live a good and meaningful life people should get what they deserve. By this I mean people who work hard for a living should be rewarded for it. If they do what they can to succeed in school, and try hard in their work place, they should be rewarded for it. Whether it is with praise or with a promotion, there should be some gift at the end. People who don’t work hard and just coast on by should not be able to take advantage of all the things that people who work hard deserve. People who work hard in school should get awards and praise, while people who barely try in school should not be praised for doing work. Although it might sound unfair, it’s reality. In order to have a good and meaningful life, people need to try hard to succeed, and in the end they will be rewarded for it.
I think that in order to live a good and meaningful life you need to be able to enjoy your life and everything that it has in store for you. Enjoying life can mean living it one moment at a time, or planning ahead for your future. It also means surrounding yourself with people who care about you and want to see you succeed. These people might be your friends and families, or they might be teachers or bosses. It doesn’t matter who they are, but as long as they are there it makes it easier to enjoy your life because you know they are there for you every step of the way.
People have different opinions on living a good and meaningful life. Some people’s views on what a good and meaningful life revolves around the media’s viewpoints and some revolve around what they personally think. Instead of trusting their own hearts, people rely on corporate culture to tell them how to live a good and meaningful life.
In today's society, there are many opinions about living a meaningful life. However, these opinions are not generated through the minds of people, rather forcefully shoved into their brains by corporate culture and what major companies and celebrities think a meaningful life consists of. Everywhere we turn we are smacked in the face with a new ad describing to us how to make our life better. We see beauty ads that tell old people that this anti-age cream will make them look younger, and these people buy these creams because our society values youth. We see car dealers who say that in order to be the most attractive to the opposite sex you need to have an expensive car. One example of how corporate culture tell us how to live is when you look at a magazine, such as Vogue, People, and Glamour, you see ads for clothes and cars, and pictures of celebrities with their friends, family, special someone, or shopping. These magazines are telling us that in order to live a meaningful life; you must have nice clothes, money, love, friends and family. According to corporate culture, in order to live a meaningful life, you need to have materialistic things. Instead of thinking on our own, we rely on corporate culture to tell us how to think and how we should live OUR lives.
Corporate culture also tells us men will always dominate over women. There are very few movies or TV shows in the world where women are in power. In the James Bonds’ movies, there is always a Bond girl, and she always falls for him. It doesn’t matter that she is a strong character; she always ends up with James Bond. In the movie, Not Another Teen Movie, the main character, Jake Wyler, gives a makeover to the nerdy girl, Janey Briggs, and then they end up together. In Not Another Teen Movie, Jake ends up as the hero of the story, by saving Janey from her geek status, and they end up together in the end. In most movies that corporate culture makes, the guy is always the dominant character; he’s always the hero. There aren’t a lot of movies where the female is the dominant character, and where she is a hero without the help of a male character.
Another thing that corporate culture tells us about living a meaningful life is that you should spend time with family and friends on holidays. On Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that everyone should be with his or her family and friends, and having a good time while stuffing their faces with turkey, apple pie, mash potato, along with other food. Corporate culture also tells us that we should think about what we are thankful for, and make sure everyone shares what he or she are thankful for. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that we should wake up early in the morning to go shopping for Christmas specials. Stores open early, and have a lot of sales. Corporate culture tells us that we should “shop ‘til we drop”, and buy Christmas presents for people, since everything is reduced from its normal price. I went shopping on Black Friday this year, and found it crazy. There were people rushing all over the place to buy stuff before 1 PM (the ending time for major sales). The sales workers have been working since early into the morning, and people have been shopping since about 5 AM. I didn’t enjoy it nor do I think the people who had to work did either. It was not meaningful at all.
I was recently on Google, trying to see if I could find my blog on there. I typed in “life doesn’t have to be meaningless”, and found an interesting result that I thought I would post for everyone to see. On this link, http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1754124.aspx, someone is talking about living a good and meaningful life, and I found a comment posted to this entry very interesting. It states that:
savypat (3440) ranked 726 out of 31,111 in life
4 months ago
How can a life be meaningless? If you have the energy of God in you there is a purpose to your life, You only need to love yourself and that love will attract other love, it may be the earth, the trees, animals or space. All of that is present because you live. Do not listen to others in this matter, look in your heart and listen to your purpose. Blessings …. (is this to be continue)
I thought this was interesting because this person is talking about how a life cannot be meaningless if God is in your life. To this person, religion plays a huge part in living a good and meaningful life. Although this person does mention love, they focus more on the aspect of God in someone’s life, which I found interesting because it is very different from what other people think. When asked what makes a life meaningful, people rarely bring up religion because of the controversy it will start. They also don’t bring it up because corporate culture doesn’t tell us that religion is important when living a good and meaningful life. Corporations don't put out ads focusing on religion and God, and no one ever focuses campaigns based on religion. One reason for this might be because since there are so many religions, to just focus on one would hurt a campaign or ad. For example, if Apple made an ad about how Jewish people use iPods, and every Jewish person should own one, then that ad would only target Jewish people, and other people of different religions might not want to be an iPod, because it is not targeting them. By targeting only one group of people, corporations are narrowing down their sales, and people won't buy their products as much.
During class, Jace and Katherine both shared their views on what makes a life meaningful. Jace said that “meaningful things come from ourselves”, and that “we make our lives meaningful”. He says that we don’t need materialistic possessions in our lives to make it worth living, what we do with our lives makes it meaningful. Katherine said that in order to have a meaningful life, you need “to have love in your life”. She states that it doesn’t have to be romantic love, it could be friendly love, but as long as love makes a presence in your life is all that matters. Katherine’s view connects to what our media and surroundings tell us, because it has to deal with happiness in ones life. Jace’s view contradicts what cooperate culture tells us because he says we don’t need materialistic things, we can make our lives meaningful without it.
Marginal messages are messages that are important to living a good and meaningful life, but they are also messages that corporate culture doesn’t really show in their media. Some marginal messages that corporate culture only tells us sometimes are stand up for what you believe in, even if it means going against the system. In the movie “Pump up the Volume”, the main character, Hard Hardy, had his own underground radio show that went against the school system. On there he played inappropriate stuff that the teachers of the school he went to found out about. Hard Hardy’s radio show defied the system by telling teenagers stuff that they shouldn’t be hearing, telling a kid to kill himself (which the kid did), etc. In the movie “Foxfire”, five teenage girls stand up against a teacher who was sexually abusing one of them. Even though they were girls, they fought back, and made the teacher fear them and promise never to touch a teenage girl inappropriately ever again. Many movies never tells you directly to stand up for what you believe in, rather hiding it behind other more dominant messages. Marginal messages are more about trusting oneself rather than trusting what corporate media is telling you to do.
Folk culture is another way people get their ideas on how to life a good and meaningful life, even though it is very rare to see this happen. People get ideas from Folk culture from generations before them. Folk culture is basically the passing of ideas from generation to generation. Folk culture tells us that in order to live a good and meaningful life, we need to have love, friendships, family, struggle, and balance, to name a few. Folk culture tells us that love is one of the most important things that we can have in our lives. It’s “what makes the world go round” to quote Bob Merrill. Folk culture also tells us that having good friends and family is what makes our lives meaningful, because they are what help us live our life the right way, in a safe protected environment. Folk culture also says that we need to be able to balance all the problems in our life, because in the end, it will all be worth it. With every struggle comes a happy ending.
Corporate culture has taken our holidays and twisted them into something that would benefit their financial pockets. For example, Christmas use to be a holiday about spending time with your family, friends, and loved ones, but now huge corporations such as hallmark has turned it into a day where people go crazy buying stuff for other people, and the image of a perfect Christmas with friends and family is lost on most Americans. On Christmas, people go out and buy presents for each other. Corporate culture sends out mixed messages about Christmas, first stating that Christmas is the day where you are suppose to relax and spend time with your loved ones, but they also tell people to go out and spend money on gifts for other people. Corporate culture tells us that Christmas is a time for giving people presents, whether it be expensive or inexpensive, everyone is expected to give their loved ones presents. Some contradictions about Christmas are: corporate media portrays Christmas as a stress free day; it is a day when you need to just relax. However, Christmas is also one of the most stressful days, because you need to buy presents for everyone, and you want to make sure you are getting everyone the perfect present. Whether you’re in school or at your job, during Christmas season, buying presents for people is always on your mind, which is a huge distraction when you are trying to get your work done. TV portrays Christmas as a day when you need to spend time with your family and friends, but sometimes that might be hard for people, because they might not like spending time with their family, or they don’t have people to spend the day with. If you don’t have a family or friends, then Christmas can become a lonely day for you, and when you see images of people on TV celebrating Christmas with your family and friends, it makes you feel lonely. In order to live a good and meaningful life, corporate media tells us that we need to buy people presents on Christmas, which means that you need to have a good job, and that you need to have loved ones to give presents to. If you have a good job, you will have enough money to dish out presents for all of your loved ones, but if you don’t have a well-paying job, then you can’t get presents for your loved ones. Corporate media likes to emphasize the point of having money, especially around Christmas. Corporate media tells us that if you don’t have enough money, it’s hard to live a good and meaningful life.
Animals are all around us, and they too live good and meaningful lives, but humans always consider ourselves superior and think our lives are better than animal lives. We, as humans, seem to think that animals are just there for our purposes, and we aren’t equivalent. But why is this? One of the reasons we believe that we’re superior is because of Genesis Chapter One. In Genesis Chapter one, verse 26, it states “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” After reading this, people believe that God made animals for our purposes. We are the rulers of all animals, as they are only there for us. In Genesis chapter one verse 28, God states “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”Basically, God is saying that we as humans should multiply and take advantage of everything the earth has to offer. That means taking advantage of the fish in the sea, the fowl in the air, the cattle on the ground, and everything that“creeps”upon the earth. So if someone was to read the bible, what would make them think that we were equivalent to animals? Certainly not Genesis chapter one verse 26 and 28. Unlike Genesis, the scientific classification states that humans and animals are all the same because we are all part of the web. On the scientific classification chart, humans are the homosepiansepains (the wise humans). But since humans are in the same chart as animals, and we all came from the same place, that means we are all connected. We all divided from Eukargate, which means in some way we are all the same.
To sum up this paper, and to sum up this course, a good and meaningful life can not be defined by one definition, rather a bunch of definitions combined into one. We all live good and meaningful lives, although some might be more meaningful or meaningless than others. This course has taught me a lot about our society and how our culture works, and this paper is a wrapup of all my opinions.
I think that in order to live a good and meaningful life you need to be able to enjoy your life and everything that it has in store for you. Enjoying life can mean living it one moment at a time, or planning ahead for your future. It also means surrounding yourself with people who care about you and want to see you succeed. These people might be your friends and families, or they might be teachers or bosses. It doesn’t matter who they are, but as long as they are there it makes it easier to enjoy your life because you know they are there for you every step of the way.
People have different opinions on living a good and meaningful life. Some people’s views on what a good and meaningful life revolves around the media’s viewpoints and some revolve around what they personally think. Instead of trusting their own hearts, people rely on corporate culture to tell them how to live a good and meaningful life.
In today's society, there are many opinions about living a meaningful life. However, these opinions are not generated through the minds of people, rather forcefully shoved into their brains by corporate culture and what major companies and celebrities think a meaningful life consists of. Everywhere we turn we are smacked in the face with a new ad describing to us how to make our life better. We see beauty ads that tell old people that this anti-age cream will make them look younger, and these people buy these creams because our society values youth. We see car dealers who say that in order to be the most attractive to the opposite sex you need to have an expensive car. One example of how corporate culture tell us how to live is when you look at a magazine, such as Vogue, People, and Glamour, you see ads for clothes and cars, and pictures of celebrities with their friends, family, special someone, or shopping. These magazines are telling us that in order to live a meaningful life; you must have nice clothes, money, love, friends and family. According to corporate culture, in order to live a meaningful life, you need to have materialistic things. Instead of thinking on our own, we rely on corporate culture to tell us how to think and how we should live OUR lives.
Corporate culture also tells us men will always dominate over women. There are very few movies or TV shows in the world where women are in power. In the James Bonds’ movies, there is always a Bond girl, and she always falls for him. It doesn’t matter that she is a strong character; she always ends up with James Bond. In the movie, Not Another Teen Movie, the main character, Jake Wyler, gives a makeover to the nerdy girl, Janey Briggs, and then they end up together. In Not Another Teen Movie, Jake ends up as the hero of the story, by saving Janey from her geek status, and they end up together in the end. In most movies that corporate culture makes, the guy is always the dominant character; he’s always the hero. There aren’t a lot of movies where the female is the dominant character, and where she is a hero without the help of a male character.
Another thing that corporate culture tells us about living a meaningful life is that you should spend time with family and friends on holidays. On Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that everyone should be with his or her family and friends, and having a good time while stuffing their faces with turkey, apple pie, mash potato, along with other food. Corporate culture also tells us that we should think about what we are thankful for, and make sure everyone shares what he or she are thankful for. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that we should wake up early in the morning to go shopping for Christmas specials. Stores open early, and have a lot of sales. Corporate culture tells us that we should “shop ‘til we drop”, and buy Christmas presents for people, since everything is reduced from its normal price. I went shopping on Black Friday this year, and found it crazy. There were people rushing all over the place to buy stuff before 1 PM (the ending time for major sales). The sales workers have been working since early into the morning, and people have been shopping since about 5 AM. I didn’t enjoy it nor do I think the people who had to work did either. It was not meaningful at all.
I was recently on Google, trying to see if I could find my blog on there. I typed in “life doesn’t have to be meaningless”, and found an interesting result that I thought I would post for everyone to see. On this link, http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1754124.aspx, someone is talking about living a good and meaningful life, and I found a comment posted to this entry very interesting. It states that:
savypat (3440) ranked 726 out of 31,111 in life
4 months ago
How can a life be meaningless? If you have the energy of God in you there is a purpose to your life, You only need to love yourself and that love will attract other love, it may be the earth, the trees, animals or space. All of that is present because you live. Do not listen to others in this matter, look in your heart and listen to your purpose. Blessings …. (is this to be continue)
I thought this was interesting because this person is talking about how a life cannot be meaningless if God is in your life. To this person, religion plays a huge part in living a good and meaningful life. Although this person does mention love, they focus more on the aspect of God in someone’s life, which I found interesting because it is very different from what other people think. When asked what makes a life meaningful, people rarely bring up religion because of the controversy it will start. They also don’t bring it up because corporate culture doesn’t tell us that religion is important when living a good and meaningful life. Corporations don't put out ads focusing on religion and God, and no one ever focuses campaigns based on religion. One reason for this might be because since there are so many religions, to just focus on one would hurt a campaign or ad. For example, if Apple made an ad about how Jewish people use iPods, and every Jewish person should own one, then that ad would only target Jewish people, and other people of different religions might not want to be an iPod, because it is not targeting them. By targeting only one group of people, corporations are narrowing down their sales, and people won't buy their products as much.
During class, Jace and Katherine both shared their views on what makes a life meaningful. Jace said that “meaningful things come from ourselves”, and that “we make our lives meaningful”. He says that we don’t need materialistic possessions in our lives to make it worth living, what we do with our lives makes it meaningful. Katherine said that in order to have a meaningful life, you need “to have love in your life”. She states that it doesn’t have to be romantic love, it could be friendly love, but as long as love makes a presence in your life is all that matters. Katherine’s view connects to what our media and surroundings tell us, because it has to deal with happiness in ones life. Jace’s view contradicts what cooperate culture tells us because he says we don’t need materialistic things, we can make our lives meaningful without it.
Marginal messages are messages that are important to living a good and meaningful life, but they are also messages that corporate culture doesn’t really show in their media. Some marginal messages that corporate culture only tells us sometimes are stand up for what you believe in, even if it means going against the system. In the movie “Pump up the Volume”, the main character, Hard Hardy, had his own underground radio show that went against the school system. On there he played inappropriate stuff that the teachers of the school he went to found out about. Hard Hardy’s radio show defied the system by telling teenagers stuff that they shouldn’t be hearing, telling a kid to kill himself (which the kid did), etc. In the movie “Foxfire”, five teenage girls stand up against a teacher who was sexually abusing one of them. Even though they were girls, they fought back, and made the teacher fear them and promise never to touch a teenage girl inappropriately ever again. Many movies never tells you directly to stand up for what you believe in, rather hiding it behind other more dominant messages. Marginal messages are more about trusting oneself rather than trusting what corporate media is telling you to do.
Folk culture is another way people get their ideas on how to life a good and meaningful life, even though it is very rare to see this happen. People get ideas from Folk culture from generations before them. Folk culture is basically the passing of ideas from generation to generation. Folk culture tells us that in order to live a good and meaningful life, we need to have love, friendships, family, struggle, and balance, to name a few. Folk culture tells us that love is one of the most important things that we can have in our lives. It’s “what makes the world go round” to quote Bob Merrill. Folk culture also tells us that having good friends and family is what makes our lives meaningful, because they are what help us live our life the right way, in a safe protected environment. Folk culture also says that we need to be able to balance all the problems in our life, because in the end, it will all be worth it. With every struggle comes a happy ending.
Corporate culture has taken our holidays and twisted them into something that would benefit their financial pockets. For example, Christmas use to be a holiday about spending time with your family, friends, and loved ones, but now huge corporations such as hallmark has turned it into a day where people go crazy buying stuff for other people, and the image of a perfect Christmas with friends and family is lost on most Americans. On Christmas, people go out and buy presents for each other. Corporate culture sends out mixed messages about Christmas, first stating that Christmas is the day where you are suppose to relax and spend time with your loved ones, but they also tell people to go out and spend money on gifts for other people. Corporate culture tells us that Christmas is a time for giving people presents, whether it be expensive or inexpensive, everyone is expected to give their loved ones presents. Some contradictions about Christmas are: corporate media portrays Christmas as a stress free day; it is a day when you need to just relax. However, Christmas is also one of the most stressful days, because you need to buy presents for everyone, and you want to make sure you are getting everyone the perfect present. Whether you’re in school or at your job, during Christmas season, buying presents for people is always on your mind, which is a huge distraction when you are trying to get your work done. TV portrays Christmas as a day when you need to spend time with your family and friends, but sometimes that might be hard for people, because they might not like spending time with their family, or they don’t have people to spend the day with. If you don’t have a family or friends, then Christmas can become a lonely day for you, and when you see images of people on TV celebrating Christmas with your family and friends, it makes you feel lonely. In order to live a good and meaningful life, corporate media tells us that we need to buy people presents on Christmas, which means that you need to have a good job, and that you need to have loved ones to give presents to. If you have a good job, you will have enough money to dish out presents for all of your loved ones, but if you don’t have a well-paying job, then you can’t get presents for your loved ones. Corporate media likes to emphasize the point of having money, especially around Christmas. Corporate media tells us that if you don’t have enough money, it’s hard to live a good and meaningful life.
Animals are all around us, and they too live good and meaningful lives, but humans always consider ourselves superior and think our lives are better than animal lives. We, as humans, seem to think that animals are just there for our purposes, and we aren’t equivalent. But why is this? One of the reasons we believe that we’re superior is because of Genesis Chapter One. In Genesis Chapter one, verse 26, it states “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” After reading this, people believe that God made animals for our purposes. We are the rulers of all animals, as they are only there for us. In Genesis chapter one verse 28, God states “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”Basically, God is saying that we as humans should multiply and take advantage of everything the earth has to offer. That means taking advantage of the fish in the sea, the fowl in the air, the cattle on the ground, and everything that“creeps”upon the earth. So if someone was to read the bible, what would make them think that we were equivalent to animals? Certainly not Genesis chapter one verse 26 and 28. Unlike Genesis, the scientific classification states that humans and animals are all the same because we are all part of the web. On the scientific classification chart, humans are the homosepiansepains (the wise humans). But since humans are in the same chart as animals, and we all came from the same place, that means we are all connected. We all divided from Eukargate, which means in some way we are all the same.
To sum up this paper, and to sum up this course, a good and meaningful life can not be defined by one definition, rather a bunch of definitions combined into one. We all live good and meaningful lives, although some might be more meaningful or meaningless than others. This course has taught me a lot about our society and how our culture works, and this paper is a wrapup of all my opinions.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Draft of the Final Paper - What makes life meaningful? And what goes into a good and meaningful life?
Through out the year, we have talked about what goes into living a good and meaningful life, and what a good and meaningful life is. Even now that the school year is over I don’t think that there is a universal definition of a good and meaningful life. If you were to ask me what a good and meaningful life consists of, or what it is, I would not be able to give you a universal definition because I do not believe that there is one. I have my own definition of a good and meaningful life, but it might not apply to everyone. Everyone has his or her own opinions on how a life should be lived. I don’t think you can judge someone’s life on your own definition, because even if you think they don’t have a meaningful life, they might think they do. Some people are fine with judging if other’s people’s lives are meaningful, and some are not. I am not one of those people who are fine with judging someone’s life because I do not believe their lives are for me to judge. To me, one of the definitions of a good and meaningful life is a life when you are happy and enjoying your life. You don’t need to have materialistic possessions and you don’t need to be rich, as long as you are happy that is all that matters. I also think that in order to live a good and meaningful life people should get what they deserve. By this I mean people who work hard for a living should be rewarded for it. If they do what they can to succeed in school, and try hard in their work place, they should be rewarded for it. Whether it is with praise or with a promotion, there should be some gift at the end. People who don’t work hard and just coast on by should not be able to take advantage of all the things that people who work hard deserve. People who work hard in school should get awards and praise, while people who barely try in school should not be praised for not doing work. Although it might sound unfair, it’s reality. In order to have a good and meaningful life, people need to try hard to succeed, and in the end they will be rewarded for it.
I think that in order to live a good and meaningful life you need to be able to enjoy your life and everything that it has in store for you. Enjoying life can mean living it one moment at a time, or planning ahead for your future. It also means surrounding yourself with people who care about you and want to see you succeed. These people might be your friends and families, or they might be teachers or professors. It doesn’t matter who they are, but as long as they are there it makes it easier to enjoy your life because you know they are there for you every step of the way.
People have different opinions on living a good and meaningful life. Some people’s views on what a good and meaningful life revolves around the media’s viewpoints and some revolve around what they personally think. Instead of trusting their own hearts, people rely on corporate culture to tell them how to live a good and meaningful life.
In today's society, there are a lot of opinions about living a meaningful life. However, these opinions are not generated through the minds of people, rather forcefully shoved into their brains by corporate culture and what major companies and celebrities think a meaningful life consists of. Everywhere we turn we are smacked in the face with a new ad describing to us how to make our life better. We see beauty ads that tell old people that this anti-age cream will make them look younger, and these people buy these creams because our society values youth. We see car dealers who say that in order to be the most attractive to the opposite sex you need to have an expensive ride. One example of how corporate culture tell us how to live is when you look at a magazine, such as Vogue, People, and Glamour, you see ads for clothes and cars, and pictures of celebrities with their friends, family, special someone, or shopping. These magazines are telling us that in order to live a meaningful life; you must have nice clothes, money, love, friends and family. According to corporate culture, in order to live a meaningful life, you need to have materialistic things. Instead of thinking on our own, we rely on corporate culture to tell us what to think and how we should live OUR lives.
Corporate culture also tells us men will always dominate over women. There are very few movies or TV shows in the world where women are in power. In movies such as the James Bond movies, there is always a Bond girl, and she always falls for him. It doesn’t matter that she is a strong character; she always ends up with James Bond. In the movie, Not Another Teen Movie, the main character, Jake Wyler, gives a makeover to the nerdy girl, Janey Briggs, and then they end up together. In Not Another Teen Movie, Jake ends up as the hero of the story, by saving Janey from her geek status, and they end up together in the end. In most movies that corporate culture makes, the guy is always the dominant character; he’s always the hero. There aren’t a lot of movies where the female is the dominant character, and where she is a hero without the help of a male character.
Another thing that corporate culture tells us about living a meaningful life is that you should spend time with family and friends on holidays. On Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that everyone should be with his or her family and friends, and having a good time while stuffing their faces with turkey, apple pie, mash potato, along with other food. Corporate culture also tells us that we should think about what we are thankful for, and make sure everyone shares what he or she are thankful for. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that we should wake up early in the morning to go shopping for Christmas specials. Stores open early, and have a lot of sales. Corporate culture tells us that we should “shop ‘til we drop”, and buy Christmas presents for people, since everything is reduced from its normal price. I went shopping on Black Friday this year, and found it crazy. There were people rushing all over the place to buy stuff before 1 PM (the ending time for major sales). The sales workers have been working since early into the morning, and people have been shopping since about 5 AM.
I was recently on Google, trying to see if I could find my blog on there. I typed in “life doesn’t have to be meaningless”, and found an interesting result that I thought I would post for everyone to see. On this link, http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1754124.aspx, someone is talking about living a good and meaningful life, and I found a comment posted to this entry very interesting. It states that:
savypat (3440) ranked 726 out of 31,111 in life
4 months ago
How can a life be meaningless? If you have the energy of God in you there is a purpose to your life, You only need to love yourself and that love will attract other love, it may be the earth, the trees, animals or space. All of that is present because you live. Do not listen to others in this matter, look in your heart and listen to your purpose. Blessings
I thought this was interesting because this person is talking about how a life cannot be meaningless if God is in your life. To this person, religion plays a huge part in living a good and meaningful life. All though this person does mention love, they focus more on the aspect of God in someone’s life, which I found interesting because it is very different from what other people think. When asked what makes a life meaningful, people rarely bring up religion because of the controversy it will start. They also don’t bring it up because corporate culture doesn’t tell us that religion is important when living a good and meaningful life. Corporations don't put out ads focusing on religion and God, and no one ever focuses campaigns based on religion. One reason for this might be because since there are so many religions, to just focus on one would hurt a campaign or ad. For example, if Apple made an ad about how Jewish people use iPods, and every Jewish person should own one, then that ad would only target Jewish people, and other people of different religions might not want to be a iPod, because it is not targeting them. By targeting only one group of people, corporations are narrowing down their sales, and people won't buy their products as much.
Marginal messages are messages that are important to living a good and meaningful life, but they are also messages that corporate culture doesn’t really show in their media. Some marginal messages that corporate culture only tells us sometimes are stand up for what you believe in, even if it means going against the system. In the movie “Pump up the Volume”, the main character, Hard Hardy, had his own underground radio show that went against the school system. On there he played inappropriate stuff that the teachers of the school he went to found out about. Hard Hardy’s radio show defied the system by telling teenagers stuff that they shouldn’t be hearing, telling a kid to kill himself (which the kid did), etc. In the movie “Foxfire”, five teenage girls stand up against a teacher who was sexually abusing one of them. Even though they were girls, they fought back, and made the teacher fear them and promise never to touch a teenage girl inappropriately ever again. In a lot of movies, corporate culture never tells you directly to stand up for what you believe in, rather hiding it behind other more dominant messages. Marginal messages are more about trusting oneself rather than trusting what corporate media is telling you to do.
Folk culture is another way people get their ideas on how to life a good and meaningful life, even though it is very rare to see this happen. People get ideas from Folk culture from generations before them. Folk culture is basically the passing of ideas from generation to generation. Folk culture tells us that in order to live a good and meaningful life, we need to have love, friendships, family, struggle, and balance, to name a few. Folk culture tells us that love is one of the most important things that we can have in our lives. It’s “what makes the world go round” to quote Bob Merrill. Folk culture also tells us that having good friends and family is what makes our lives meaningful, because they are what help us live our life the right way, in a safe protected environment. Folk culture also says that we need to be able to balance all the problems in our life, because in the end, it will all be worth it. With every struggle comes a happy ending.
Corporate culture has taken our holidays and twisted them into something that would benefit their financial pockets. For example, Christmas use to be a holiday about spending time with your family, friends, and loved ones, but now huge corporations such as hallmark has turned it into a day where people go crazy buying stuff for other people, and the image of a perfect Christmas with friends and family is lost on most Americans. On Christmas, people go out and buy presents for each other. Corporate culture sends out mixed messages about Christmas, first stating that Christmas is the day where you are suppose to relax and spend time with your loved ones, but they also tell people to go out and spend money on gifts for other people. Corporate culture tells us that Christmas is a time for giving people presents, whether it be expensive or inexpensive, everyone is expected to give their loved ones presents. Some contradictions about Christmas are: corporate media portrays Christmas as a stress free day; it is a day when you need to just relax. However, Christmas is also one of the most stressful days, because you need to buy presents for everyone, and you want to make sure you are getting everyone the perfect present. Whether you’re in school or at your job, during Christmas season, buying presents for people is always on your mind, which is a huge distraction when you are trying to get your work done. TV portrays Christmas as a day when you need to spend time with your family and friends, but sometimes that might be hard for people, because they might not like spending time with their family, or they don’t have people to spend the day with. If you don’t have a family or friends, then Christmas can become a lonely day for you, and when you see images of people on TV celebrating Christmas with your family and friends, it makes you feel lonely. In order to live a good and meaningful life, corporate media tells us that we need to buy people presents on Christmas, which means that you need to have a good job, and that you need to have loved ones to give presents to. If you have a good job, you will have enough money to dish out presents for all of your loved ones, but if you don’t have a well-paying job, then you can’t get presents for your loved ones. Corporate media likes to emphasize the point of having money, especially around Christmas. Corporate media tells us that if you don’t have enough money, it’s hard to live a good and meaningful life.
Martin Luther King Day is another holiday that corporate culture and America has turned into a profit-making holiday. Post offices start selling stamps with Martin Luther King’s face on it, along with the “I have a dream” slogan. To many Americans, Martin Luther King Day is a important holiday because it is the day when people remember everything Martin Luther King has done for America, which is go around and give motivational speeches. His most important speech was the speech he gave before he got shot, in 1963. It was his “I have a dream speech”. In this speech, he talked about how he had a dream that African American people and white people could come together as a whole, that there would be no segregation between the two races. However, corporate culture has turned Martin Luther King into somebody he is not. To quote Andy, America has made Martin Luther King into a “postage stamp saint”, which means he was like an angel sent down from above to help the world, and after he did, our government takes his picture and his slogans and sticks them on a stamp. Corporate culture took this holiday and turned it into a holiday that would benefit them, instead of remembering a man who has done well for our country.
I think that in order to live a good and meaningful life you need to be able to enjoy your life and everything that it has in store for you. Enjoying life can mean living it one moment at a time, or planning ahead for your future. It also means surrounding yourself with people who care about you and want to see you succeed. These people might be your friends and families, or they might be teachers or professors. It doesn’t matter who they are, but as long as they are there it makes it easier to enjoy your life because you know they are there for you every step of the way.
People have different opinions on living a good and meaningful life. Some people’s views on what a good and meaningful life revolves around the media’s viewpoints and some revolve around what they personally think. Instead of trusting their own hearts, people rely on corporate culture to tell them how to live a good and meaningful life.
In today's society, there are a lot of opinions about living a meaningful life. However, these opinions are not generated through the minds of people, rather forcefully shoved into their brains by corporate culture and what major companies and celebrities think a meaningful life consists of. Everywhere we turn we are smacked in the face with a new ad describing to us how to make our life better. We see beauty ads that tell old people that this anti-age cream will make them look younger, and these people buy these creams because our society values youth. We see car dealers who say that in order to be the most attractive to the opposite sex you need to have an expensive ride. One example of how corporate culture tell us how to live is when you look at a magazine, such as Vogue, People, and Glamour, you see ads for clothes and cars, and pictures of celebrities with their friends, family, special someone, or shopping. These magazines are telling us that in order to live a meaningful life; you must have nice clothes, money, love, friends and family. According to corporate culture, in order to live a meaningful life, you need to have materialistic things. Instead of thinking on our own, we rely on corporate culture to tell us what to think and how we should live OUR lives.
Corporate culture also tells us men will always dominate over women. There are very few movies or TV shows in the world where women are in power. In movies such as the James Bond movies, there is always a Bond girl, and she always falls for him. It doesn’t matter that she is a strong character; she always ends up with James Bond. In the movie, Not Another Teen Movie, the main character, Jake Wyler, gives a makeover to the nerdy girl, Janey Briggs, and then they end up together. In Not Another Teen Movie, Jake ends up as the hero of the story, by saving Janey from her geek status, and they end up together in the end. In most movies that corporate culture makes, the guy is always the dominant character; he’s always the hero. There aren’t a lot of movies where the female is the dominant character, and where she is a hero without the help of a male character.
Another thing that corporate culture tells us about living a meaningful life is that you should spend time with family and friends on holidays. On Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that everyone should be with his or her family and friends, and having a good time while stuffing their faces with turkey, apple pie, mash potato, along with other food. Corporate culture also tells us that we should think about what we are thankful for, and make sure everyone shares what he or she are thankful for. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, corporate culture tells us that we should wake up early in the morning to go shopping for Christmas specials. Stores open early, and have a lot of sales. Corporate culture tells us that we should “shop ‘til we drop”, and buy Christmas presents for people, since everything is reduced from its normal price. I went shopping on Black Friday this year, and found it crazy. There were people rushing all over the place to buy stuff before 1 PM (the ending time for major sales). The sales workers have been working since early into the morning, and people have been shopping since about 5 AM.
I was recently on Google, trying to see if I could find my blog on there. I typed in “life doesn’t have to be meaningless”, and found an interesting result that I thought I would post for everyone to see. On this link, http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1754124.aspx, someone is talking about living a good and meaningful life, and I found a comment posted to this entry very interesting. It states that:
savypat (3440) ranked 726 out of 31,111 in life
4 months ago
How can a life be meaningless? If you have the energy of God in you there is a purpose to your life, You only need to love yourself and that love will attract other love, it may be the earth, the trees, animals or space. All of that is present because you live. Do not listen to others in this matter, look in your heart and listen to your purpose. Blessings
I thought this was interesting because this person is talking about how a life cannot be meaningless if God is in your life. To this person, religion plays a huge part in living a good and meaningful life. All though this person does mention love, they focus more on the aspect of God in someone’s life, which I found interesting because it is very different from what other people think. When asked what makes a life meaningful, people rarely bring up religion because of the controversy it will start. They also don’t bring it up because corporate culture doesn’t tell us that religion is important when living a good and meaningful life. Corporations don't put out ads focusing on religion and God, and no one ever focuses campaigns based on religion. One reason for this might be because since there are so many religions, to just focus on one would hurt a campaign or ad. For example, if Apple made an ad about how Jewish people use iPods, and every Jewish person should own one, then that ad would only target Jewish people, and other people of different religions might not want to be a iPod, because it is not targeting them. By targeting only one group of people, corporations are narrowing down their sales, and people won't buy their products as much.
Marginal messages are messages that are important to living a good and meaningful life, but they are also messages that corporate culture doesn’t really show in their media. Some marginal messages that corporate culture only tells us sometimes are stand up for what you believe in, even if it means going against the system. In the movie “Pump up the Volume”, the main character, Hard Hardy, had his own underground radio show that went against the school system. On there he played inappropriate stuff that the teachers of the school he went to found out about. Hard Hardy’s radio show defied the system by telling teenagers stuff that they shouldn’t be hearing, telling a kid to kill himself (which the kid did), etc. In the movie “Foxfire”, five teenage girls stand up against a teacher who was sexually abusing one of them. Even though they were girls, they fought back, and made the teacher fear them and promise never to touch a teenage girl inappropriately ever again. In a lot of movies, corporate culture never tells you directly to stand up for what you believe in, rather hiding it behind other more dominant messages. Marginal messages are more about trusting oneself rather than trusting what corporate media is telling you to do.
Folk culture is another way people get their ideas on how to life a good and meaningful life, even though it is very rare to see this happen. People get ideas from Folk culture from generations before them. Folk culture is basically the passing of ideas from generation to generation. Folk culture tells us that in order to live a good and meaningful life, we need to have love, friendships, family, struggle, and balance, to name a few. Folk culture tells us that love is one of the most important things that we can have in our lives. It’s “what makes the world go round” to quote Bob Merrill. Folk culture also tells us that having good friends and family is what makes our lives meaningful, because they are what help us live our life the right way, in a safe protected environment. Folk culture also says that we need to be able to balance all the problems in our life, because in the end, it will all be worth it. With every struggle comes a happy ending.
Corporate culture has taken our holidays and twisted them into something that would benefit their financial pockets. For example, Christmas use to be a holiday about spending time with your family, friends, and loved ones, but now huge corporations such as hallmark has turned it into a day where people go crazy buying stuff for other people, and the image of a perfect Christmas with friends and family is lost on most Americans. On Christmas, people go out and buy presents for each other. Corporate culture sends out mixed messages about Christmas, first stating that Christmas is the day where you are suppose to relax and spend time with your loved ones, but they also tell people to go out and spend money on gifts for other people. Corporate culture tells us that Christmas is a time for giving people presents, whether it be expensive or inexpensive, everyone is expected to give their loved ones presents. Some contradictions about Christmas are: corporate media portrays Christmas as a stress free day; it is a day when you need to just relax. However, Christmas is also one of the most stressful days, because you need to buy presents for everyone, and you want to make sure you are getting everyone the perfect present. Whether you’re in school or at your job, during Christmas season, buying presents for people is always on your mind, which is a huge distraction when you are trying to get your work done. TV portrays Christmas as a day when you need to spend time with your family and friends, but sometimes that might be hard for people, because they might not like spending time with their family, or they don’t have people to spend the day with. If you don’t have a family or friends, then Christmas can become a lonely day for you, and when you see images of people on TV celebrating Christmas with your family and friends, it makes you feel lonely. In order to live a good and meaningful life, corporate media tells us that we need to buy people presents on Christmas, which means that you need to have a good job, and that you need to have loved ones to give presents to. If you have a good job, you will have enough money to dish out presents for all of your loved ones, but if you don’t have a well-paying job, then you can’t get presents for your loved ones. Corporate media likes to emphasize the point of having money, especially around Christmas. Corporate media tells us that if you don’t have enough money, it’s hard to live a good and meaningful life.
Martin Luther King Day is another holiday that corporate culture and America has turned into a profit-making holiday. Post offices start selling stamps with Martin Luther King’s face on it, along with the “I have a dream” slogan. To many Americans, Martin Luther King Day is a important holiday because it is the day when people remember everything Martin Luther King has done for America, which is go around and give motivational speeches. His most important speech was the speech he gave before he got shot, in 1963. It was his “I have a dream speech”. In this speech, he talked about how he had a dream that African American people and white people could come together as a whole, that there would be no segregation between the two races. However, corporate culture has turned Martin Luther King into somebody he is not. To quote Andy, America has made Martin Luther King into a “postage stamp saint”, which means he was like an angel sent down from above to help the world, and after he did, our government takes his picture and his slogans and sticks them on a stamp. Corporate culture took this holiday and turned it into a holiday that would benefit them, instead of remembering a man who has done well for our country.
Collapse Assignment 2
After reading about Easter Island and the inevitable collapse they faced, I realized that if everyone in the world keeps living the way we do, we might also have a collapse. At the rate that we are using up natural resources such as fossil fuels and oil, our world is moving toward a slow but steady decline or collapse. Although not many people are aware of this, we too are using up natural resources, and at an increasingly fast rate. According to the “Crude Impact” video we watched in class, we are using up 1.4 trillion barrels of oil a year. That is a lot of oil to waste. Even though people don’t realize it, we use oil and fossil fuels in everything we do. From the clothes we wear (which were manufactured using machines that use up oil and coal) top the transportation we use every day, the amount of natural resources we have in the world are slowly declining. We see ads talking about global warming and the demolition of our earth, but we don’t think too much about it because we don’t think it will directly affect us. This however is not true. Every time a car buys gas from a gas station, we are taking fossil fuels from the earth. Fossil fuels and oil are natural resources, and cannot be replenished. If we continue to use up these resources, we won’t have any left. It’s true the production of products that use up natural resources will still continue because we have some saved up, the production will slowly decrease once we run out of these resources.
Another hint that a collapse might be on the horizon for our way of life is the amount of people that are populating this earth. According to “Crude Impact”, for 50,000 to 100,000 years, there was a steady population of only two million people populating this earth. Once the year 1800 came around, there were one billion people living on the earth. With the increase of population came the use of more natural resources. Instead of using timber, people started using coal, which means they could cut down trees and not worry about the timber, which meant they could grow more food and more people could be born. But once the demolition of forests happened, the animals that lived in those forests had nowhere to go, and slowly died off, turning people from hunter gatherers into farmers. People began to rely more on agriculture then they did on hunting and gathering, which used up more natural resources. 130 years later, in 1930, there were two billion people populating the earth. Every so quickly, the population on earth increased. In 1960 there were three billion people, in 1974 there were four billion people, in 1987 there were five billion people and in 1999 there were six million people. The estimated total population for the year 2010 is around seven billion people. With the increasing growth of population, came the decrease of natural resources in the earth. For every calorie of food we eat that uses oil to create it, 10 calories of oil go to creating/gathering that food. That is a lot of oil that is being used up at a rapid pace.
Easter Island collapsed because the people were greedy. They used up the precious trees to build the biggest statues, instead of creating canoes that could help them gather food. Once all the trees were chopped down, people started starving to death. Instead of thinking of the consequences of their actions, they could only focus on power. Our current situation is comparable to the collapse of Easter Island. Everyone takes advantage of natural resources, and every country wants to have the biggest oil reserve. So far 15 countries have reached their oil peak, including the United States, which peaked in 1971. Each country wants to have the biggest reserve because it represents power. This thirst for power that everyone has can lead to the collapse of life as we know it. Instead of pondering the consequences, we act on impulse, taking more then we need, and using up too much of what we take for granted. If we don’t stop over using oil and fossil fuels, the production of oil and fossil fuels will decline, and a collapse of our world might be in our future. However, no one knows when this collapse will happen, we can only hope it does not happen soon.
The collapse of our beautiful earth.
Another hint that a collapse might be on the horizon for our way of life is the amount of people that are populating this earth. According to “Crude Impact”, for 50,000 to 100,000 years, there was a steady population of only two million people populating this earth. Once the year 1800 came around, there were one billion people living on the earth. With the increase of population came the use of more natural resources. Instead of using timber, people started using coal, which means they could cut down trees and not worry about the timber, which meant they could grow more food and more people could be born. But once the demolition of forests happened, the animals that lived in those forests had nowhere to go, and slowly died off, turning people from hunter gatherers into farmers. People began to rely more on agriculture then they did on hunting and gathering, which used up more natural resources. 130 years later, in 1930, there were two billion people populating the earth. Every so quickly, the population on earth increased. In 1960 there were three billion people, in 1974 there were four billion people, in 1987 there were five billion people and in 1999 there were six million people. The estimated total population for the year 2010 is around seven billion people. With the increasing growth of population, came the decrease of natural resources in the earth. For every calorie of food we eat that uses oil to create it, 10 calories of oil go to creating/gathering that food. That is a lot of oil that is being used up at a rapid pace.
Easter Island collapsed because the people were greedy. They used up the precious trees to build the biggest statues, instead of creating canoes that could help them gather food. Once all the trees were chopped down, people started starving to death. Instead of thinking of the consequences of their actions, they could only focus on power. Our current situation is comparable to the collapse of Easter Island. Everyone takes advantage of natural resources, and every country wants to have the biggest oil reserve. So far 15 countries have reached their oil peak, including the United States, which peaked in 1971. Each country wants to have the biggest reserve because it represents power. This thirst for power that everyone has can lead to the collapse of life as we know it. Instead of pondering the consequences, we act on impulse, taking more then we need, and using up too much of what we take for granted. If we don’t stop over using oil and fossil fuels, the production of oil and fossil fuels will decline, and a collapse of our world might be in our future. However, no one knows when this collapse will happen, we can only hope it does not happen soon.
The collapse of our beautiful earth.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Easter Island Collapse
After reading the Easter Island article, I thought it was really interesting. One thing that stuck out to me the most was the thirst of competition and the need to be the best. These people chopped down huge trees and wasted natural resources just so they can build the biggest statues. But after wasting all their natural resources, their lifestyles began to crumble. This is because they used the trees to build canoes, and without the trees, their canoes became leaky and were not able to sustain the weight of the civilian’s bodies. This stuck out to me because it made me think of America’s past. Every war that was ever fought, every person that has ever died to protect America’s honor, happened because of this need for power. This need to be the best, even if it means sacrificing something or someone to have it. Like the civilians who lived in Easter Island, the civilians in America’s history wanted to be the best. Americans kicked out the Native Americans for their land, manipulated and killed them to get their way. As the saying goes, history repeats itself, and when reading that the people of Easter Island competed for power and connecting it to America’s history, I realized that yes indeed, history does repeat itself. Another thing that stuck out to me while I was reading about Easter Island is that they had social classes. The rich people, who ran the large-scale plantations, got to live right in the middle of the inland, while the poor people had to live on the coast of Easter Island and had to walk miles back and forth to the inland each day. In today’s culture, we also have social classes. We have the rich, the middle-class, and the poor. Although it might have been worse to be of the poor class back then, living in Easter Island, because you would have to walk several miles each day just to get to the inland, the connection between these two points in history is that social classes are existent. Even before A.D 900, there were still social classes. The rich got to live in luxury, the poor got to live in trash. It’s funny to see that nothing has changed over the course of time.
After reading this article, I realized that if Americans kept living the way we do, we might also have a collapse. Although not many people are aware of this, we too are using up natural resources, and at an increasingly fast rate. We see ads talking about global warming and the demolition of our earth, but we don’t think too much about it because we don’t think it will directly affect us. This however is not true. Every time a car buys gas from a gas station, we are taking fossil fuels from the earth. Fossil fuels and oil are natural resources, and cannot be replenished. If we continue to use up these resources, America as we know it might collapse, and on a larger scale, the world as we know it might collapse. People think buying hybrids is their present to the earth, as a way to say “hey I’m giving back to the earth by going hybrid”, but they don’t realize that little things help as well. We can use energy-saving products, such as the special light bulbs, and learn to recycle more. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to go green, just change some of the ways of your lifestyle.
On the top is an image of how easter island use to look like...before it's collapse
On the right is an image of how America looks like right now...before it's possible collapse
After reading this article, I realized that if Americans kept living the way we do, we might also have a collapse. Although not many people are aware of this, we too are using up natural resources, and at an increasingly fast rate. We see ads talking about global warming and the demolition of our earth, but we don’t think too much about it because we don’t think it will directly affect us. This however is not true. Every time a car buys gas from a gas station, we are taking fossil fuels from the earth. Fossil fuels and oil are natural resources, and cannot be replenished. If we continue to use up these resources, America as we know it might collapse, and on a larger scale, the world as we know it might collapse. People think buying hybrids is their present to the earth, as a way to say “hey I’m giving back to the earth by going hybrid”, but they don’t realize that little things help as well. We can use energy-saving products, such as the special light bulbs, and learn to recycle more. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to go green, just change some of the ways of your lifestyle.
On the top is an image of how easter island use to look like...before it's collapse
On the right is an image of how America looks like right now...before it's possible collapse
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Final Food Paper (Final Draft)
All over America people are consuming food that has been mass-produced in major factories, without even being aware of the past behind their food. We take advantage of the food we eat, without stopping to consider where our food has come from. Little do we know, but most of the meat we eat is meat that came from animals that have been treated cruelly. Industries and major companies have changed the way we as Americans eat, and are pushing little farms out of business and bringing animal-abusing, mass-produced factories into our society that harm nature and the animals we live with.
In our culture, we as Americans eat a lot of industrialized food. This food is mass-produced in factories that are harmful to the animals we eat. According to The Meatrix, companies have taken over small family farms that grow their food in a healthy organic environment. When surrounded by huge companies that can produce a lot more products than small farms can, these small farms cannot survive for much longer. They are forced to shut down, therefore giving way to the harmful factories. These harmful factories infect their animals with growth hormones and other chemicals that are suppose to make these animals grow big so they can produce a lot of meat when killed. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed harmful steroid-like chemicals that increase their growth at such a rapid pace that their poor chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals in the hopes of fattening them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. Also according to The Meatrix, animals that are no longer healthy or dead are then used to feed other animals. For example, if a cow were not to survive, the workers would take the blood of that cow and feed it to a living cow, passing along many diseases and increasing the chance of mad cow disease in that cow. After humans eat these cows, they can also become infected. Along with fattening up their animals, large factories also take the sperm of their male animals and perform artificial insemination on their female animals. According to a video we watched in class,"Our Daily Bread", workers will bring a male cow to a female cow and get it “horny”. Once the male cow is ready to “hump” the female cow, and tries to make a move, the workers will grab the male cow and stick a tube in their body, which captures their sperm. After denying the male cow of their “pleasure”, the workers take the male cow away and back into their stalls. The reason they take the sperm is so that they can stick it into a bunch of female cows, and they will then produce babies, which workers can grow into food for us humans. Corporate factories don’t care that they are harming their animals and the people who eat these animals, they just are thinking about making money. Corporate companies and factories keep this information from us Americans because they want us to buy into the whole fast food nation of ours. If we were to know how these companies treated their animals, people would surely stop eating it. By keeping this information a secret, the companies are protecting their name and also generating profit from it. This also shows us that companies try to industrialize our food at any chance they get, and our crops are no longer being grown the natural way.
Along with abusing animals, these factories are also abusing nature. In one of the videos that we watched in class, VROOM - Farming for Kids, there was a scene that showed a huge field of crops that were getting harvested. After showing this scene, a huge truck spraying pesticides and other harmful-chemicals was shown, littering these crops with chemicals that can damage the way they are grown. In another video we watched in class, "Our Daily Bread", there was a scene another large field of plants. This time it was a field of dandelions that were blooming. Along came a huge truck, spraying chemicals onto the dandelions. The next scene that followed showed the dandelions were all dead, and a truck was going through the fields chopping all the dandelions down. This was because the farmers of these huge factories just wanted the seeds of the dandelions, and not the dandelions themselves. As you can see from these two examples, huge companies don’t care about nature, they just care about the profit they are making.
I was watching a music video by Dana White, called “Cows with Guns” (http://www.cowswithguns.com/cgi-bin/listen_animation.cgi). This music video is about how one cow tried to break away from the factory it was currently residing it, and tried to warn his cow friends who also were trapped in the factory that they were about to be sent to their death. He told them about how the workers in the family were just keeping them around in order to kill them, and turn them into beef patties. The workers found out what the cow was doing, and tried to capture him, because they did not want him to go around telling other cows the truth about what would happen to them. They were afraid he would tell too much, so they tried to kill him. While watching the workers in the video capture the cow, I realized that major companies also do this to us Americans. They don’t tell us what they do to their animals, because they don’t want us to know how they treat their animals. They try and bury any information about mistreatment of their animals. These companies keep us in our blissfully ignorant bubble that we live in, while also robbing us of our money as we spend our salaries buying mass-produced food in the supermarket and fast-food stations. Towards the end of the video, all the rebelling cows were captured by cops and it shows people that are relieved because they will get food on their plate. This made me think of how even if people know about the mistreatment of animals, they decide not to do anything about it. Although this may be for many reasons, one of the major reasons is that even though these animals are mistreated, the end product tastes delicious. To some, taste buds rule over principle.
Personally, from knowing this information, I am very turned off; however this does not mean I will turn into a full-blown vegetarian. One of the things I could do without giving up meat is researching which major companies treat their animals cruelly. I know for a fact that KFC mistreats their animals and feeds them steroid like chemicals, which is a huge turn-off to me as a consumer. By knowing this fact, I know not to ever eat at a KFC (not that I have in a really long time anyway). Not all animals are mistreated however. When buying meat from a local-grown farm, you can be sure that they did not mistreat their animals in the way that major companies do. Although the meat might cost a little more, it is also healthier in the long run for our bodies. No one is saying that you must be a vegetarian and can no longer eat meat, but next time you are eating meat, be aware of where the meat came from. It is disgusting to think about, and people would rather not, but being healthy is important, and not buying into mass-produced animal cruelty is also important.
People need to open their eyes to the food we eat. I am not saying that you must turn into a full-blown vegetarian, or even become a vegetarian, but sometimes being blissfully ignorant is not the way to go. We need to realize that the food we eat could come from factories that treat their animals in a cruel demeanor. Stop eating KFC, and other places that treat their animals badly. Eat humane meat if you can, such as Kosher or Halal meat. Kosher and Halal meat is more humane because of the way they treat and slaughter their animals. They give their animals space to run around, and be free. The animals are able to live their lives freely, rather then being stuck in a cage for their entire lives. Once they decide to slaughter their animals, they don't kill them in the way that major factories do. When it comes to Kosher meat, the Jews will try and stop their animals from feeling pain by giving their neck a single slice from a blade, then let them hang upside down to let the blood drip out in order for the animals to be pure. All though this may sound gross, it is actually better because this ensures that no harmful chemicals are in the bodies of these dead animals, instead they are pure. When it comes to Halal food, the Muslims also let their animals live a free life. Once it is time for them to slaughter their animals, they do not let their animals see the blade of the knife, rather slicing their neck from behind because the believe animals have feelings also. The Jews and Muslims know something about how to treat their animals correctly, thus resulting in their food to be more humane. I am hoping that this paper has opened your eyes to the world around you, and now you can see how sneaky companies are. Once again, to reiterate myself, Industries and major companies have changed the way we as Americans eat, and are pushing little farms out of business and bringing animal-abusing, mass-produced factories into our society that harm nature and the animals around us.
In our culture, we as Americans eat a lot of industrialized food. This food is mass-produced in factories that are harmful to the animals we eat. According to The Meatrix, companies have taken over small family farms that grow their food in a healthy organic environment. When surrounded by huge companies that can produce a lot more products than small farms can, these small farms cannot survive for much longer. They are forced to shut down, therefore giving way to the harmful factories. These harmful factories infect their animals with growth hormones and other chemicals that are suppose to make these animals grow big so they can produce a lot of meat when killed. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed harmful steroid-like chemicals that increase their growth at such a rapid pace that their poor chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals in the hopes of fattening them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. Also according to The Meatrix, animals that are no longer healthy or dead are then used to feed other animals. For example, if a cow were not to survive, the workers would take the blood of that cow and feed it to a living cow, passing along many diseases and increasing the chance of mad cow disease in that cow. After humans eat these cows, they can also become infected. Along with fattening up their animals, large factories also take the sperm of their male animals and perform artificial insemination on their female animals. According to a video we watched in class,"Our Daily Bread", workers will bring a male cow to a female cow and get it “horny”. Once the male cow is ready to “hump” the female cow, and tries to make a move, the workers will grab the male cow and stick a tube in their body, which captures their sperm. After denying the male cow of their “pleasure”, the workers take the male cow away and back into their stalls. The reason they take the sperm is so that they can stick it into a bunch of female cows, and they will then produce babies, which workers can grow into food for us humans. Corporate factories don’t care that they are harming their animals and the people who eat these animals, they just are thinking about making money. Corporate companies and factories keep this information from us Americans because they want us to buy into the whole fast food nation of ours. If we were to know how these companies treated their animals, people would surely stop eating it. By keeping this information a secret, the companies are protecting their name and also generating profit from it. This also shows us that companies try to industrialize our food at any chance they get, and our crops are no longer being grown the natural way.
Along with abusing animals, these factories are also abusing nature. In one of the videos that we watched in class, VROOM - Farming for Kids, there was a scene that showed a huge field of crops that were getting harvested. After showing this scene, a huge truck spraying pesticides and other harmful-chemicals was shown, littering these crops with chemicals that can damage the way they are grown. In another video we watched in class, "Our Daily Bread", there was a scene another large field of plants. This time it was a field of dandelions that were blooming. Along came a huge truck, spraying chemicals onto the dandelions. The next scene that followed showed the dandelions were all dead, and a truck was going through the fields chopping all the dandelions down. This was because the farmers of these huge factories just wanted the seeds of the dandelions, and not the dandelions themselves. As you can see from these two examples, huge companies don’t care about nature, they just care about the profit they are making.
I was watching a music video by Dana White, called “Cows with Guns” (http://www.cowswithguns.com/cgi-bin/listen_animation.cgi). This music video is about how one cow tried to break away from the factory it was currently residing it, and tried to warn his cow friends who also were trapped in the factory that they were about to be sent to their death. He told them about how the workers in the family were just keeping them around in order to kill them, and turn them into beef patties. The workers found out what the cow was doing, and tried to capture him, because they did not want him to go around telling other cows the truth about what would happen to them. They were afraid he would tell too much, so they tried to kill him. While watching the workers in the video capture the cow, I realized that major companies also do this to us Americans. They don’t tell us what they do to their animals, because they don’t want us to know how they treat their animals. They try and bury any information about mistreatment of their animals. These companies keep us in our blissfully ignorant bubble that we live in, while also robbing us of our money as we spend our salaries buying mass-produced food in the supermarket and fast-food stations. Towards the end of the video, all the rebelling cows were captured by cops and it shows people that are relieved because they will get food on their plate. This made me think of how even if people know about the mistreatment of animals, they decide not to do anything about it. Although this may be for many reasons, one of the major reasons is that even though these animals are mistreated, the end product tastes delicious. To some, taste buds rule over principle.
Personally, from knowing this information, I am very turned off; however this does not mean I will turn into a full-blown vegetarian. One of the things I could do without giving up meat is researching which major companies treat their animals cruelly. I know for a fact that KFC mistreats their animals and feeds them steroid like chemicals, which is a huge turn-off to me as a consumer. By knowing this fact, I know not to ever eat at a KFC (not that I have in a really long time anyway). Not all animals are mistreated however. When buying meat from a local-grown farm, you can be sure that they did not mistreat their animals in the way that major companies do. Although the meat might cost a little more, it is also healthier in the long run for our bodies. No one is saying that you must be a vegetarian and can no longer eat meat, but next time you are eating meat, be aware of where the meat came from. It is disgusting to think about, and people would rather not, but being healthy is important, and not buying into mass-produced animal cruelty is also important.
People need to open their eyes to the food we eat. I am not saying that you must turn into a full-blown vegetarian, or even become a vegetarian, but sometimes being blissfully ignorant is not the way to go. We need to realize that the food we eat could come from factories that treat their animals in a cruel demeanor. Stop eating KFC, and other places that treat their animals badly. Eat humane meat if you can, such as Kosher or Halal meat. Kosher and Halal meat is more humane because of the way they treat and slaughter their animals. They give their animals space to run around, and be free. The animals are able to live their lives freely, rather then being stuck in a cage for their entire lives. Once they decide to slaughter their animals, they don't kill them in the way that major factories do. When it comes to Kosher meat, the Jews will try and stop their animals from feeling pain by giving their neck a single slice from a blade, then let them hang upside down to let the blood drip out in order for the animals to be pure. All though this may sound gross, it is actually better because this ensures that no harmful chemicals are in the bodies of these dead animals, instead they are pure. When it comes to Halal food, the Muslims also let their animals live a free life. Once it is time for them to slaughter their animals, they do not let their animals see the blade of the knife, rather slicing their neck from behind because the believe animals have feelings also. The Jews and Muslims know something about how to treat their animals correctly, thus resulting in their food to be more humane. I am hoping that this paper has opened your eyes to the world around you, and now you can see how sneaky companies are. Once again, to reiterate myself, Industries and major companies have changed the way we as Americans eat, and are pushing little farms out of business and bringing animal-abusing, mass-produced factories into our society that harm nature and the animals around us.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Final Food Paper (First Draft)
All over America people are consuming food that has been mass-produced in major factories, without even being aware of the past behind their food. We take advantage of the food we eat, without stopping to consider where our food has come from. Little do we know, but most of the meat we eat is meat that came from animals that have been treated cruelly. Industries and major companies have changed the way we as Americans eat, and are pushing little farms out of business and bringing animal-abusing, mass-produced factories into our society that harm nature and the animals we live with.
In our culture, we as Americans eat a lot of industrialized food. This food is mass-produced in factories that are harmful to the animals we eat. According to The Meatrix, companies have taken over small family farms that grow their food in a healthy organic environment. When surrounded by huge companies that can produce a lot more products than small farms can, these small farms cannot survive for much longer. They are forced to shut down, therefore giving way to the harmful factories. These harmful factories infect their animals with growth hormones and other chemicals that are suppose to make these animals grow big so they can produce a lot of meat when killed. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed harmful steroid-like chemicals that increase their growth at such a rapid pace that their poor chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals in the hopes of fattening them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. Also according to The Meatrix, animals that are no longer healthy or dead are then used to feed other animals. For example, if a cow were not to survive, the workers would take the blood of that cow and feed it to a living cow, passing along many diseases and increasing the chance of mad cow disease in that cow. After humans eat these cows, they can also become infected. Along with fattening up their animals, large factories also take the sperm of their male animals and perform artificial insemination on their female animals. According to a video we watched in class, that I cannot remember the name of, but I do know it was a video made in Europe, workers will bring a male cow to a female cow and get it “horny”. Once the male cow is ready to “hump” the female cow, and tries to make a move, the workers will grab the male cow and stick a tube in their body, which captures their sperm. After denying the male cow of their “pleasure”, the workers take the male cow away and back into their stalls. The reason they take the sperm is so that they can stick it into a bunch of female cows, and they will then produce babies, which workers can grow into food for us humans. Corporate factories don’t care that they are harming their animals and the people who eat these animals, they just are thinking about making money. Corporate companies and factories keep this information from us Americans because they want us to buy into the whole fast food nation of ours. If we were to know how these companies treated their animals, people would surely stop eating it. By keeping this information a secret, the companies are protecting their name and also generating profit from it. This also shows us that companies try to industrialize our food at any chance they get, and our crops are no longer being grown the natural way.
Along with abusing animals, these factories are also abusing nature. In one of the videos that we watched in class, VROOM - Farming for Kids, there was a scene that showed a huge field of crops that were getting harvested. After showing this scene, a huge truck spraying pesticides and other harmful-chemicals was shown, littering these crops with chemicals that can damage the way they are grown. In another video we watched in class, that I cannot remember the name of, but I do know it was a video made in Europe, there was a scene another large field of plants. This time it was a field of dandelions that were blooming. Along came a huge truck, spraying chemicals onto the dandelions. The next scene that followed showed the dandelions were all dead, and a truck was going through the fields chopping all the dandelions down. This was because the farmers of these huge factories just wanted the seeds of the dandelions, and not the dandelions themselves. As you can see from these two examples, huge companies don’t care about nature, they just care about the profit they are making.
I was watching a music video by Dana White, called “Cows with Guns” (http://www.cowswithguns.com/cgi-bin/listen_animation.cgi). This music video is about how one cow tried to break away from the factory it was currently residing it, and tried to warn his cow friends who also were trapped in the factory that they were about to be sent to their death. He told them about how the workers in the family were just keeping them around in order to kill them, and turn them into beef patties. The workers found out what the cow was doing, and tried to capture him, because they did not want him to go around telling other cows the truth about what would happen to them. They were afraid he would tell too much, so they tried to kill him. While watching the workers in the video capture the cow, I realized that major companies also do this to us Americans. They don’t tell us what they do to their animals, because they don’t want us to know how they treat their animals. They try and bury any information about mistreatment of their animals. These companies keep us in our blissfully ignorant bubble that we live in, while also robbing us of our money as we spend our salaries buying mass-produced food in the supermarket and fast-food stations. Towards the end of the video, all the rebelling cows were captured by cops and it shows people that are relieved because they will get food on their plate. This made me think of how even if people know about the mistreatment of animals, they decide not to do anything about it. Although this may be for many reasons, one of the major reasons is that even though these animals are mistreated, the end product tastes delicious. To some, taste buds rule over principle.
Personally, from knowing this information, I am very turned off; however this does not mean I will turn into a full-blown vegetarian. One of the things I could do without giving up meat is researching which major companies treat their animals cruelly. I know for a fact that KFC mistreats their animals and feeds them steroid like chemicals, which is a huge turn-off to me as a consumer. By knowing this fact, I know not to ever eat at a KFC (not that I have in a really long time anyway). Not all animals are mistreated however. When buying meat from a local-grown farm, you can be sure that they did not mistreat their animals in the way that major companies do. Although the meat might cost a little more, it is also healthier in the long run for our bodies. No one is saying that you must be a vegetarian and can no longer eat meat, but next time you are eating meat, be aware of where the meat came from. It is disgusting to think about, and people would rather not, but being healthy is important, and not buying into mass-produced animal cruelty is also important.
People need to open their eyes to the food we eat. I am not saying that you must turn into a full-blown vegetarian, or even become a vegetarian, but sometimes being blissfully ignorant is not the way to go. We need to realize that the food we eat could come from factories that treat their animals in a cruel demeanor. Although I am not saying stop eating meat, I am saying that you should be aware of where your food has come from. Stop eating KFC, and other places that treat their animals badly. Eat humane meat if you can. I am hoping that this paper has opened your eyes to the world around you, and now you can see how sneaky companies are. Once again, to reiterate myself, Industries and major companies have changed the way we as Americans eat, and are pushing little farms out of business and bringing animal-abusing, mass-produced factories into our society that harm nature and the animals around us.
COMMENTS:
Carrie Jonas LiLi Feedback: I thought the essay was very well written, although there was a lot of repetition towards the end. You should try to change certain phrases in the conclusion when you're trying to sum up your paper so that it flows more and we can "hear" it in a different way. But overall, it was really good. You were obviously bias (in a good way) and that really helped bring your point across that something should be done about animal cruelty in the food industry.
In our culture, we as Americans eat a lot of industrialized food. This food is mass-produced in factories that are harmful to the animals we eat. According to The Meatrix, companies have taken over small family farms that grow their food in a healthy organic environment. When surrounded by huge companies that can produce a lot more products than small farms can, these small farms cannot survive for much longer. They are forced to shut down, therefore giving way to the harmful factories. These harmful factories infect their animals with growth hormones and other chemicals that are suppose to make these animals grow big so they can produce a lot of meat when killed. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed harmful steroid-like chemicals that increase their growth at such a rapid pace that their poor chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals in the hopes of fattening them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. Also according to The Meatrix, animals that are no longer healthy or dead are then used to feed other animals. For example, if a cow were not to survive, the workers would take the blood of that cow and feed it to a living cow, passing along many diseases and increasing the chance of mad cow disease in that cow. After humans eat these cows, they can also become infected. Along with fattening up their animals, large factories also take the sperm of their male animals and perform artificial insemination on their female animals. According to a video we watched in class, that I cannot remember the name of, but I do know it was a video made in Europe, workers will bring a male cow to a female cow and get it “horny”. Once the male cow is ready to “hump” the female cow, and tries to make a move, the workers will grab the male cow and stick a tube in their body, which captures their sperm. After denying the male cow of their “pleasure”, the workers take the male cow away and back into their stalls. The reason they take the sperm is so that they can stick it into a bunch of female cows, and they will then produce babies, which workers can grow into food for us humans. Corporate factories don’t care that they are harming their animals and the people who eat these animals, they just are thinking about making money. Corporate companies and factories keep this information from us Americans because they want us to buy into the whole fast food nation of ours. If we were to know how these companies treated their animals, people would surely stop eating it. By keeping this information a secret, the companies are protecting their name and also generating profit from it. This also shows us that companies try to industrialize our food at any chance they get, and our crops are no longer being grown the natural way.
Along with abusing animals, these factories are also abusing nature. In one of the videos that we watched in class, VROOM - Farming for Kids, there was a scene that showed a huge field of crops that were getting harvested. After showing this scene, a huge truck spraying pesticides and other harmful-chemicals was shown, littering these crops with chemicals that can damage the way they are grown. In another video we watched in class, that I cannot remember the name of, but I do know it was a video made in Europe, there was a scene another large field of plants. This time it was a field of dandelions that were blooming. Along came a huge truck, spraying chemicals onto the dandelions. The next scene that followed showed the dandelions were all dead, and a truck was going through the fields chopping all the dandelions down. This was because the farmers of these huge factories just wanted the seeds of the dandelions, and not the dandelions themselves. As you can see from these two examples, huge companies don’t care about nature, they just care about the profit they are making.
I was watching a music video by Dana White, called “Cows with Guns” (http://www.cowswithguns.com/cgi-bin/listen_animation.cgi). This music video is about how one cow tried to break away from the factory it was currently residing it, and tried to warn his cow friends who also were trapped in the factory that they were about to be sent to their death. He told them about how the workers in the family were just keeping them around in order to kill them, and turn them into beef patties. The workers found out what the cow was doing, and tried to capture him, because they did not want him to go around telling other cows the truth about what would happen to them. They were afraid he would tell too much, so they tried to kill him. While watching the workers in the video capture the cow, I realized that major companies also do this to us Americans. They don’t tell us what they do to their animals, because they don’t want us to know how they treat their animals. They try and bury any information about mistreatment of their animals. These companies keep us in our blissfully ignorant bubble that we live in, while also robbing us of our money as we spend our salaries buying mass-produced food in the supermarket and fast-food stations. Towards the end of the video, all the rebelling cows were captured by cops and it shows people that are relieved because they will get food on their plate. This made me think of how even if people know about the mistreatment of animals, they decide not to do anything about it. Although this may be for many reasons, one of the major reasons is that even though these animals are mistreated, the end product tastes delicious. To some, taste buds rule over principle.
Personally, from knowing this information, I am very turned off; however this does not mean I will turn into a full-blown vegetarian. One of the things I could do without giving up meat is researching which major companies treat their animals cruelly. I know for a fact that KFC mistreats their animals and feeds them steroid like chemicals, which is a huge turn-off to me as a consumer. By knowing this fact, I know not to ever eat at a KFC (not that I have in a really long time anyway). Not all animals are mistreated however. When buying meat from a local-grown farm, you can be sure that they did not mistreat their animals in the way that major companies do. Although the meat might cost a little more, it is also healthier in the long run for our bodies. No one is saying that you must be a vegetarian and can no longer eat meat, but next time you are eating meat, be aware of where the meat came from. It is disgusting to think about, and people would rather not, but being healthy is important, and not buying into mass-produced animal cruelty is also important.
People need to open their eyes to the food we eat. I am not saying that you must turn into a full-blown vegetarian, or even become a vegetarian, but sometimes being blissfully ignorant is not the way to go. We need to realize that the food we eat could come from factories that treat their animals in a cruel demeanor. Although I am not saying stop eating meat, I am saying that you should be aware of where your food has come from. Stop eating KFC, and other places that treat their animals badly. Eat humane meat if you can. I am hoping that this paper has opened your eyes to the world around you, and now you can see how sneaky companies are. Once again, to reiterate myself, Industries and major companies have changed the way we as Americans eat, and are pushing little farms out of business and bringing animal-abusing, mass-produced factories into our society that harm nature and the animals around us.
COMMENTS:
Carrie Jonas LiLi Feedback: I thought the essay was very well written, although there was a lot of repetition towards the end. You should try to change certain phrases in the conclusion when you're trying to sum up your paper so that it flows more and we can "hear" it in a different way. But overall, it was really good. You were obviously bias (in a good way) and that really helped bring your point across that something should be done about animal cruelty in the food industry.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Industrial Food
When thinking about the food that we eat, Americans rarely think about where that food we came from. Like the saying goes, “ignorance is bliss”. To us Americans, not knowing the cruelty and mistreatment of animals behind the food we eat is bliss. We don’t like thinking about the fact that the food we eat is genetically produced, and the animals we eat are mistreated and stuffed with harmful chemicals that hurt their bodies and ours. But it is time to open our eyes to what corporate culture has in store for us when we are sitting down to enjoy a nice meal consisting of meat.
In our culture, we as Americans eat a lot of industrialized food. This food is mass-produced in factories that are harmful to the animals we eat. According to The Meatrix, companies have taken over small family farms that grow their food in a healthy organic environment. When surrounded by huge companies that can produce a lot more products than small farms can, these small farms cannot survive for much longer. They are forced to shut down, therefore giving way to the harmful factories. These harmful factories infect their animals with growth hormones and other chemicals that are suppose to make these animals grow big so they can produce a lot of meat when killed. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed harmful steroid-like chemicals that increase their growth at such a rapid pace that their poor chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals in the hopes of fattening them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. Also according to The Meatrix, animals that are no longer healthy or dead are then used to feed other animals. For example, if a cow were not to survive, the workers would take the blood of that cow and feed it to a living cow, passing along many diseases and increasing the chance of mad cow disease in that cow. After humans eat these cows, they can also become infected. Corporate factories don’t care that they are harming their animals and the people who eat these animals, they just are thinking about making money. Corporate companies and factories keep this information from us Americans because they want us to buy into the whole fast food nation of ours. If we were to know how these companies treated their animals, people would surely stop eating it. By keeping this information a secret, the companies are protecting their name and also generating profit from it.
Personally, from knowing this information, I am very turned off, however this does not mean I will turn into a full-blown vegetarian. One of the things I could do without giving up meat is researching which major companies treat their animals cruelly. I know for a fact that KFC mistreats their animals and feeds them steroid like chemicals, which is a huge turn-off to me as a consumer. By knowing this fact, I know not to ever eat at a KFC (not that I have in a really long time anyway). Not all animals are mistreated however. When buying meat from a local-grown farm, you can be sure that they did not mistreat their animals in the way that major companies do. Although the meat might cost a little more, it is also healthier in the long run for our bodies. No one is saying that you must be a vegetarian and can no longer eat meat, but next time you are eating meat, be aware of where the meat came from. It is disgusting to think about, and people would rather not, but being healthy is important, and not buying into mass-produced animal cruelty is also important.
In our culture, we as Americans eat a lot of industrialized food. This food is mass-produced in factories that are harmful to the animals we eat. According to The Meatrix, companies have taken over small family farms that grow their food in a healthy organic environment. When surrounded by huge companies that can produce a lot more products than small farms can, these small farms cannot survive for much longer. They are forced to shut down, therefore giving way to the harmful factories. These harmful factories infect their animals with growth hormones and other chemicals that are suppose to make these animals grow big so they can produce a lot of meat when killed. According to http://www.chooseveg.com/animal-cruelty.asp, Chickens are fed harmful steroid-like chemicals that increase their growth at such a rapid pace that their poor chicken legs are not able to sustain the weight of their body, therefore killing them in the process. Cows and pigs are also fed harmful chemicals in the hopes of fattening them up before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. These chemicals that are in the animals bodies not only hurt them, but they are also hurting us in the process. Also according to The Meatrix, animals that are no longer healthy or dead are then used to feed other animals. For example, if a cow were not to survive, the workers would take the blood of that cow and feed it to a living cow, passing along many diseases and increasing the chance of mad cow disease in that cow. After humans eat these cows, they can also become infected. Corporate factories don’t care that they are harming their animals and the people who eat these animals, they just are thinking about making money. Corporate companies and factories keep this information from us Americans because they want us to buy into the whole fast food nation of ours. If we were to know how these companies treated their animals, people would surely stop eating it. By keeping this information a secret, the companies are protecting their name and also generating profit from it.
Personally, from knowing this information, I am very turned off, however this does not mean I will turn into a full-blown vegetarian. One of the things I could do without giving up meat is researching which major companies treat their animals cruelly. I know for a fact that KFC mistreats their animals and feeds them steroid like chemicals, which is a huge turn-off to me as a consumer. By knowing this fact, I know not to ever eat at a KFC (not that I have in a really long time anyway). Not all animals are mistreated however. When buying meat from a local-grown farm, you can be sure that they did not mistreat their animals in the way that major companies do. Although the meat might cost a little more, it is also healthier in the long run for our bodies. No one is saying that you must be a vegetarian and can no longer eat meat, but next time you are eating meat, be aware of where the meat came from. It is disgusting to think about, and people would rather not, but being healthy is important, and not buying into mass-produced animal cruelty is also important.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Comments
to Kate (on her recipe post)
good luck !
i hope you make the popcorn perfectly...then bring it in and share (: LOL
-Rachel
to Maxi (on her Pollan post)
maxi, i agree with you. i think you make a good point in saying that americans are easily sucked into the next new fad, and how we don't really have a solid food foundation. good point (:
-Rachel
to Gavin (may day assignment)
I like the point you made about how people use Labor Day as another excuse to go shopping, however i want to say that people go shopping on labor day because they dont understand the concept behind labor day. to every major day there is a huge sale in major department stores, and that is because America puts it off as another day to spend money. How would you say that Americans should celebrate labor day?
good luck !
i hope you make the popcorn perfectly...then bring it in and share (: LOL
-Rachel
to Maxi (on her Pollan post)
maxi, i agree with you. i think you make a good point in saying that americans are easily sucked into the next new fad, and how we don't really have a solid food foundation. good point (:
-Rachel
to Gavin (may day assignment)
I like the point you made about how people use Labor Day as another excuse to go shopping, however i want to say that people go shopping on labor day because they dont understand the concept behind labor day. to every major day there is a huge sale in major department stores, and that is because America puts it off as another day to spend money. How would you say that Americans should celebrate labor day?
Chocolate Cake Recipe
recipe taken from http://www.cacaoweb.net/easy-chocolate-cake.html
Easy Chocolate Cake
(Scandinavian, medium dark)
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
1+¼ cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (dutched/dark)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 pinches salt
1 cup (220 g) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
½ cup (1.2 dl) milk or water
½ cup (1.2 dl) vegetable oil (flavorless)
2 eggs
Ingredients for frosting
2/3 cup (1.6 dl) heavy cream or whipping cream
9 oz (260 g) semisweet chocolate (40-50% cocoa)
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C)
2. Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.
3. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.
4. Add milk/water, vegetable oil and eggs.
5. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed. If the batter is too runny you may add slightly more flour.
6. Transfer to bake tin and bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.
7. After the cake has cooled, slice the cake through the middle to make two layers (easier if the cake has been in the fridge).
Frosting
1. Heat 2/3 cup (1.6 dl) of heavy cream or whipping cream in a sauce pan.
2. Remove from heat, add 9 oz (260 g) of finely chopped dark semisweet chocolate, stir until smooth, and let it cool until in thickens, if needed in the fridge.
3. Use one 1/3 of the frosting between the two layers, 1/3 on top, and the rest around the cake. Put the cake into the fridge for one hour or more to harden the frosting.
4. This cake should have room temperature when served.
Variations
1. You may substitute 1-2 tablespoons of cream with rum for the frosting.
2. You may cut the top of the cake to make a flat surface before adding the frosting.
3. If you are making it for someone's birthday I would suggest doubling the recipe because this recipe makes for a short, thin cake (suggested by Cyrus, August 2008)
4. If you prefer a slightly sweeter frosting you may add a couple of teaspoons of honey to the frosting (suggested by Debbie Evans, August 2008)
5. Instead of vanilla extract, you may use an equivalent amount of freeze dried coffee (Suggested by Carol, October 2008)
6. You may use ½ cup of freshly brewed coffee instead of milk or water to get mocca flavor (Suggested by Noreen, January 2009)
Easy Chocolate Cake
(Scandinavian, medium dark)
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
1+¼ cup (140 g) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (dutched/dark)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 pinches salt
1 cup (220 g) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
½ cup (1.2 dl) milk or water
½ cup (1.2 dl) vegetable oil (flavorless)
2 eggs
Ingredients for frosting
2/3 cup (1.6 dl) heavy cream or whipping cream
9 oz (260 g) semisweet chocolate (40-50% cocoa)
Method
1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F (Gas mark 4 or 180 deg C)
2. Grease a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.
3. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, sugar and vanilla essence in a bowl.
4. Add milk/water, vegetable oil and eggs.
5. Mix everything together until smooth, either by hand or by using an electric mixer at slow speed. If the batter is too runny you may add slightly more flour.
6. Transfer to bake tin and bake at 350 degrees until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 35 to 45 minutes.
7. After the cake has cooled, slice the cake through the middle to make two layers (easier if the cake has been in the fridge).
Frosting
1. Heat 2/3 cup (1.6 dl) of heavy cream or whipping cream in a sauce pan.
2. Remove from heat, add 9 oz (260 g) of finely chopped dark semisweet chocolate, stir until smooth, and let it cool until in thickens, if needed in the fridge.
3. Use one 1/3 of the frosting between the two layers, 1/3 on top, and the rest around the cake. Put the cake into the fridge for one hour or more to harden the frosting.
4. This cake should have room temperature when served.
Variations
1. You may substitute 1-2 tablespoons of cream with rum for the frosting.
2. You may cut the top of the cake to make a flat surface before adding the frosting.
3. If you are making it for someone's birthday I would suggest doubling the recipe because this recipe makes for a short, thin cake (suggested by Cyrus, August 2008)
4. If you prefer a slightly sweeter frosting you may add a couple of teaspoons of honey to the frosting (suggested by Debbie Evans, August 2008)
5. Instead of vanilla extract, you may use an equivalent amount of freeze dried coffee (Suggested by Carol, October 2008)
6. You may use ½ cup of freshly brewed coffee instead of milk or water to get mocca flavor (Suggested by Noreen, January 2009)
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Omnivores Dilemma
In Michael Pollan's Omnivores Dilemma, Pollan is trying to say that Americans do not have a food culture. He is trying to say that Americans follow whatever the next fad is, such as the fad of the Atkins diet. Whenever a new diet comes out, Americans will flock to it like it is the Holy Grail. We eat what Corporate Media tells us to eat, because we value thei opinions to such an extenet that they control not only our lives, but our eating habits also. If corporate media was to tell us that eating only carbs were healthy for us, Americans would do just that. Our diets are also based on what grocery stores tell us. Grocery stores market their food so that the most interesting products (and sometimes highly unhealthy) products are what we first see when we walk in, so we pick those stuff up right away. Pollan is also trying to say that unlike other cultures, like the Italian and French cultures, we are always trying to listen to what experts say is best for us. The Italians and French eat what they want, because they know what is good for them. They don’t rely on someone else to tell them what to eat.
When it comes to my family, I don’t think we follow what experts say. Nobody in my family has ever tried out a fad diet, and we eat what we want. My mother cooks what she wants to, but she always makes sure she incorporates healthy food also. One thing I noticed about my family though this unit is that we rarely ever eat fast food. It is frowned upon by my mother, as it is unhealthy and disgusting. The only diet one of my family members (my aunt) is on is not exactly a diet, but a way of life. My aunt is a vegan, and has been for over 20 years. Instead of succumbing to what experts say, my aunt sticks to her vegan regime. Although my mom does like to attempt to make some of the food we see on the food channel, she tries to also add special ingredients to make it her own.
When it comes to my family, I don’t think we follow what experts say. Nobody in my family has ever tried out a fad diet, and we eat what we want. My mother cooks what she wants to, but she always makes sure she incorporates healthy food also. One thing I noticed about my family though this unit is that we rarely ever eat fast food. It is frowned upon by my mother, as it is unhealthy and disgusting. The only diet one of my family members (my aunt) is on is not exactly a diet, but a way of life. My aunt is a vegan, and has been for over 20 years. Instead of succumbing to what experts say, my aunt sticks to her vegan regime. Although my mom does like to attempt to make some of the food we see on the food channel, she tries to also add special ingredients to make it her own.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Grocery Food and Habitual Food
In class, i realized that i do not eat a lot of fruits. In total, i eat one, and that is an apple. My mother eats several kinds of fruit, and my sister eats bananas, but i take after my father, and don't eat a lot of different kind of fruits. However, i do eat several vegetables including potatoes, lettuce (in my salad), garlic (my mom puts it in our dinner as a spice), and onion (also included as a spice in our dinners). I eat several roots, grains, and nuts also, including wheat, potatoes, garlic, and onion. I realized that my family does not eat a lot of these types of foods, instead we eat a lot of meat. Practically every meal my family has for dinner includes meat as an entree. Occasionally we have vegetables as an an entree, but it doesn't occur very often. When going to grocery stores, my mother tends to buy a lot of vegetables that she can put into our food. For example, when we are eating Stew, she buys a lot of squash, carrots, and potatoes. We only go to the grocery store when we need something, but for major stuff that my Mom likes to buy ahead of time, like meat, she buys in supermarkets. Usually my sister or I go out to the grocery store to buy the food we need.
While at the grocery store, we noticed a lot of things. We chose to observe a shelf that contained all Nabisco cookies, including Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Ritz crackers. While looking at the cookies, we noticed that all the healthy cookies were on the top shelves, far from children’s reach. These cookies consisted of Wheat Thins and multigrain crackers. Right in the middle shelves was the colorful products, and the sweetest. These were the Chips Ahoy and the Oreo cookies. There were at perfect eye distance for a child to see it, and grab it. The packages were also brightly colored, with variations of pink, green, and blue on them. This made us come to the conclusion that the manufactures were catering to children’s eyes, and by using bright colors, it will draw the child in. The healthy crackers were on the top shelves because instead of trying to push these products, the store wanted to push the unhealthy, more expensive, cookies. In the left-hand corner of the cookie shelf were rice cakes. They were in their own secluded section, as if they didn’t matter very much. Since rice cakes are healthy, one might think that a store would want to advertise them more. In this case, it wasn’t true. One thing I noticed about the way the grocery store displayed their products was they always put the brand name in front, and the nutrition facts were hidden in the back, as if to hide these facts from the public eye. The brands and images of the products were most likely to draw a person in, rather than nutrition facts, which might be a big turnoff. The prices were also hidden pretty well, in a little section underneath the product. This was because the store didn’t want people to care about how much an item costs, rather how nice that item looks or how good that item tastes. This trip was an interesting experience, because when I go to the grocery store I hardly think about the way they display their products. I tend to know what I want, and go straight for that item. I don’t count the number of brand a certain product has, which in the case of the Oreo and Chip Ahoy cookies, there were several different kinds.
While at the grocery store, we noticed a lot of things. We chose to observe a shelf that contained all Nabisco cookies, including Oreo, Chips Ahoy, and Ritz crackers. While looking at the cookies, we noticed that all the healthy cookies were on the top shelves, far from children’s reach. These cookies consisted of Wheat Thins and multigrain crackers. Right in the middle shelves was the colorful products, and the sweetest. These were the Chips Ahoy and the Oreo cookies. There were at perfect eye distance for a child to see it, and grab it. The packages were also brightly colored, with variations of pink, green, and blue on them. This made us come to the conclusion that the manufactures were catering to children’s eyes, and by using bright colors, it will draw the child in. The healthy crackers were on the top shelves because instead of trying to push these products, the store wanted to push the unhealthy, more expensive, cookies. In the left-hand corner of the cookie shelf were rice cakes. They were in their own secluded section, as if they didn’t matter very much. Since rice cakes are healthy, one might think that a store would want to advertise them more. In this case, it wasn’t true. One thing I noticed about the way the grocery store displayed their products was they always put the brand name in front, and the nutrition facts were hidden in the back, as if to hide these facts from the public eye. The brands and images of the products were most likely to draw a person in, rather than nutrition facts, which might be a big turnoff. The prices were also hidden pretty well, in a little section underneath the product. This was because the store didn’t want people to care about how much an item costs, rather how nice that item looks or how good that item tastes. This trip was an interesting experience, because when I go to the grocery store I hardly think about the way they display their products. I tend to know what I want, and go straight for that item. I don’t count the number of brand a certain product has, which in the case of the Oreo and Chip Ahoy cookies, there were several different kinds.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
International Workers' Day (May Day)
International Workers’ Day, also known to many as May Day, is the day of celebration. This day marks the day in history when people first started to strike against their employers. They demanded shorter days, going from twelve-hour work days to eight-hour work days. All around the world, people decided to go on strike, and all around the world riots occurred. After a while, May Day became an official holiday, and several countries around the world host parades to celebrate this movement. May Day is an official holiday in lots of countries, some of but not limited to Albania, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, North Korea, South Korea, Spain, Thailand, Venezuela, and Vietnam. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers_Day#History) In the United States however, May Day is not celebrated, instead we celebrate Labor Day, which happens in September. The reason the United States doesn’t celebrate May Day is because in 1887 President Cleveland feared that if May Day was celebrated on May 1, riots would commerce. Taking the safe way out, President Cleveland moved May Day to September. This is why we celebrate May Day in Labor day, and why many Americans don’t even know that a holiday such as May Day exists.
In order to live a good and meaningful life, people need to have a sense of history and the past struggles that previous Americans have suffered. Americans fought in the American Revolution, The Civil War, and other wars just to get to where we are now. By being unaware of our countries history we are disgracing past Americans who fought for our way of life. As the quote states, “history repeats itself”, but if we were unaware of history, we wouldn’t be able to survive like the past civilians had. By understanding history, we can get ourselves out of future problems that might occur. By understanding how wars were fought back then, and understanding how a winner was declared, we can understand how to protect ourselves (even though our methods might be more advanced). One thing to also understand is that even though we did not live through history, it affects everyone. America is the way it is because of the generations before us, and in the future America will be the way it is because of our generation. Although history might be a boring subject to some, it is also an important factor in our lives. We can’t rewrite our past history, but we can create our future history.
*information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers_Day#History
In order to live a good and meaningful life, people need to have a sense of history and the past struggles that previous Americans have suffered. Americans fought in the American Revolution, The Civil War, and other wars just to get to where we are now. By being unaware of our countries history we are disgracing past Americans who fought for our way of life. As the quote states, “history repeats itself”, but if we were unaware of history, we wouldn’t be able to survive like the past civilians had. By understanding history, we can get ourselves out of future problems that might occur. By understanding how wars were fought back then, and understanding how a winner was declared, we can understand how to protect ourselves (even though our methods might be more advanced). One thing to also understand is that even though we did not live through history, it affects everyone. America is the way it is because of the generations before us, and in the future America will be the way it is because of our generation. Although history might be a boring subject to some, it is also an important factor in our lives. We can’t rewrite our past history, but we can create our future history.
*information taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Workers_Day#History
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
My Food Journal
I decided to compose my food journal in a list with some paragraphs detailing my analysis of my food:
Tuesday Night
For dinner, I ate half a pastrami sandwich with a side of tater tots, and drank water. My mom and sister picked up the sandwiches from a sandwich store in Chinatown and brought it home to eat since my mom did not want to cook. The dinner lasted for about 15 minutes, and it was very causal. We all ate dinner, talked about our day, while my mom tried to force my sister and me to eat more than the half of a sandwich we were eating. Since I was full, I could not eat it, and kept arguing with my mom about it. Before the meal, I wasn’t very hungry, and after the meal, I was stuffed, even though I didn’t eat a lot. I just was not in the mood to eat dinner.
Wednesday Morning
For breakfast, I ate a multigrain bar and drank water. I didn’t have any company eating it because I was walking to the train and eating the bar at the same time. Before I ate the bar, I was sort of hungry, and after eating the bar I was full. I don’t like eating a big breakfast because it makes my stomach hurt, so just eating a little thing like the multigrain bar keeps me full until lunch time.
Wednesday Lunch
For lunch, I got pizza at the corner store near our S.O.F with Carrie and Lieb. We brought it back to the school because we had to go to the senior committee meeting in Mr. Manley’s room. I had a diet coke with the pizza. Today, the pizza wasn’t that good though, the cheese fell off, and the slice was thin. It didn’t taste like how it did normally. Before I ate the pizza, I was hungry, but after I ate it I was full. During the lunch meeting we talked about our senior trip and where we were going for it. Considering a lot of people were working on their exhibitions, not everyone was present, which meant the meeting was sort of slow and we didn’t get much work done.
Wednesday Snack
Afterschool, Lieb, and my friend Billy (who doesn’t go to S.O.F with us), and I went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. While we were eating, we basically talked about our days and everything that happened. We talked about a lot of stuff, and then mine and Lieb’s friend Dahina came, and we started telling Billy about all our good memories we had at Lieb’s apartment (including our pillow fights and ringing people’s doorbells). During the whole time we were there, I had a lot of fun because I was with my friends. We were also eating ice cream, which was an added bonus. Before I had the ice cream, I wasn’t really hungry, and after, I felt stuffed. My stomach hurt, and I couldn’t eat anymore so I threw the rest of my cone out (it was only a little left).
Wednesday Dinner
For dinner, my mom cooked hot dogs. I ate my dinner in front of the television, because I wanted to watch America’s Next Top Model. I didn’t interact in any conversations with my family because I was too focused on what was happening on the T.V. Every time they started talking, I would yell at them because I couldn’t hear what was happening. Before the dinner, I was not hungry at all and did not want to eat, but my mom made me. I took slow bites, and took a long time eating. After I was done, I was so full, and my stomach hurt.
Tuesday Night
For dinner, I ate half a pastrami sandwich with a side of tater tots, and drank water. My mom and sister picked up the sandwiches from a sandwich store in Chinatown and brought it home to eat since my mom did not want to cook. The dinner lasted for about 15 minutes, and it was very causal. We all ate dinner, talked about our day, while my mom tried to force my sister and me to eat more than the half of a sandwich we were eating. Since I was full, I could not eat it, and kept arguing with my mom about it. Before the meal, I wasn’t very hungry, and after the meal, I was stuffed, even though I didn’t eat a lot. I just was not in the mood to eat dinner.
Wednesday Morning
For breakfast, I ate a multigrain bar and drank water. I didn’t have any company eating it because I was walking to the train and eating the bar at the same time. Before I ate the bar, I was sort of hungry, and after eating the bar I was full. I don’t like eating a big breakfast because it makes my stomach hurt, so just eating a little thing like the multigrain bar keeps me full until lunch time.
Wednesday Lunch
For lunch, I got pizza at the corner store near our S.O.F with Carrie and Lieb. We brought it back to the school because we had to go to the senior committee meeting in Mr. Manley’s room. I had a diet coke with the pizza. Today, the pizza wasn’t that good though, the cheese fell off, and the slice was thin. It didn’t taste like how it did normally. Before I ate the pizza, I was hungry, but after I ate it I was full. During the lunch meeting we talked about our senior trip and where we were going for it. Considering a lot of people were working on their exhibitions, not everyone was present, which meant the meeting was sort of slow and we didn’t get much work done.
Wednesday Snack
Afterschool, Lieb, and my friend Billy (who doesn’t go to S.O.F with us), and I went to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. While we were eating, we basically talked about our days and everything that happened. We talked about a lot of stuff, and then mine and Lieb’s friend Dahina came, and we started telling Billy about all our good memories we had at Lieb’s apartment (including our pillow fights and ringing people’s doorbells). During the whole time we were there, I had a lot of fun because I was with my friends. We were also eating ice cream, which was an added bonus. Before I had the ice cream, I wasn’t really hungry, and after, I felt stuffed. My stomach hurt, and I couldn’t eat anymore so I threw the rest of my cone out (it was only a little left).
Wednesday Dinner
For dinner, my mom cooked hot dogs. I ate my dinner in front of the television, because I wanted to watch America’s Next Top Model. I didn’t interact in any conversations with my family because I was too focused on what was happening on the T.V. Every time they started talking, I would yell at them because I couldn’t hear what was happening. Before the dinner, I was not hungry at all and did not want to eat, but my mom made me. I took slow bites, and took a long time eating. After I was done, I was so full, and my stomach hurt.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Food Cultures - Home vs. Corporate
In my family, we eat a lot of American food. The food we eat consists of hot dogs, cheeseburgers, salad, fries, and turkey sandwiches, to name a few. We also eat a lot of meat whenever we have dinner. Our main entrée usually consists of chicken, beef, or pork. Along with the main entrée, we also have side dishes, such as a salad, or fries. After listening to Andy talk about his past family dinners, and how they use to go out to McDonald’s for dinner, I realized that my family is the exact opposite. My mom cooks practically every day, and if she doesn’t feel like cooking we usually order Chinese food or pizza. Whenever we have guests over, we tend to go out to a fancy restaurant or a chain restaurant (such as Dallas BBQ) to eat, instead of staying in and cooking. We never have fast food for dinner, which I like because it means that we are still being healthy. On special occasions, such as Christmas or Thanksgiving, my family goes over to one of my cousin’s houses and we have a big sit-down dinner. Usually everyone contributes into the cooking, and everyone brings over something that they cook at home or buy from a store. Whenever it’s a special occasion, food is the main event. Everyone gathers around the dining room, and we all sit down and eat together. Unlike other families, we don’t pray before we eat, we just dig right in. Although, we do thank the cook for the food they made for us. During special occasions, we have some Chinese food (if someone brings it over), but we mostly have a lot of meat and vegetables. We still have American food, even when we are all together. In my family, food is a big thing, but being healthy is another.
White American Corporate companies try to portray women as the main cooks in families. Women and mothers are the ones who prepare the home cooked meals for their children and husband, and their meals consist of a lot of meat and vegetables. If the father or husband was to prepare dinner, it would be more along the lines of a TV dinner, or a fast food dinner from the closest fast food place. White American Corporate companies also portray families as all eating around a table together, having a good time. The children don’t run off to watch TV, and the parents ask the children how school or their day was. The foods the families usually eat consist of “white people food” such as white bread, ham, mayonnaise, chicken, or vegetables. Occasionally the family would go out to a restaurant together, so that the woman can take a break from cooking. The dinners usually last about 15-20 minutes, at the beginning the family will pray (if religious), and then give a brief recap of their days. Even though this is how White American Corporate companies try to portray a family dinner, it doesn’t always happen like this with families. Every family has a different style of eating, just like how my family does not pray before we eat (since we are not religious). White American Corporate companies also don’t incorporate a lot of cultural food, while other families like to include food from their origins. Just because White American Corporate companies say we have to eat one way doesn’t mean we have to, it’s just what society says.
I would say that my food ways are very similar to my families, considering we basically eat a lot of the same food. I can’t cook, so since my mom is the one who cooks all the time, I eat whatever she makes. Similar to my family, I eat a brief breakfast in the morning, usually consisting of a granola bar. The difference between what I eat in the morning and what my family eats in the morning is I eat a small snack, while my sister and mom usually eat a butter roll or cereal. My dad grabs food while working, so I’m not exactly sure what he eats in the morning. One thing about my mother that is different from me is she is a lot healthier than I am. She eats a lot of vegetables, and has a balanced diet, while I tend to not eat any vegetables except for salad and potatoes. My sister and I also eat a lot more sweets and junk foods then our parents do, since we are still younger. When we reach for a snack, it’s usually a cookie. However, I try to be as healthy as I can, especially after wrapping up the health unit in Andy’s class. I like to eat a lot of salad, and I have been cutting down on a lot of the junk food I have been eating. I also realized then when it gets hot out, my body tends to reject food. I can’t eat a lot of food in the summer but it makes me feel sick. In the summer, I drink a lot of water, and that keeps me full until about dinner. I like to think that I am healthy and fit, but I do indulge with my sister or friends in ice cream sometimes.
White American Corporate companies try to portray women as the main cooks in families. Women and mothers are the ones who prepare the home cooked meals for their children and husband, and their meals consist of a lot of meat and vegetables. If the father or husband was to prepare dinner, it would be more along the lines of a TV dinner, or a fast food dinner from the closest fast food place. White American Corporate companies also portray families as all eating around a table together, having a good time. The children don’t run off to watch TV, and the parents ask the children how school or their day was. The foods the families usually eat consist of “white people food” such as white bread, ham, mayonnaise, chicken, or vegetables. Occasionally the family would go out to a restaurant together, so that the woman can take a break from cooking. The dinners usually last about 15-20 minutes, at the beginning the family will pray (if religious), and then give a brief recap of their days. Even though this is how White American Corporate companies try to portray a family dinner, it doesn’t always happen like this with families. Every family has a different style of eating, just like how my family does not pray before we eat (since we are not religious). White American Corporate companies also don’t incorporate a lot of cultural food, while other families like to include food from their origins. Just because White American Corporate companies say we have to eat one way doesn’t mean we have to, it’s just what society says.
I would say that my food ways are very similar to my families, considering we basically eat a lot of the same food. I can’t cook, so since my mom is the one who cooks all the time, I eat whatever she makes. Similar to my family, I eat a brief breakfast in the morning, usually consisting of a granola bar. The difference between what I eat in the morning and what my family eats in the morning is I eat a small snack, while my sister and mom usually eat a butter roll or cereal. My dad grabs food while working, so I’m not exactly sure what he eats in the morning. One thing about my mother that is different from me is she is a lot healthier than I am. She eats a lot of vegetables, and has a balanced diet, while I tend to not eat any vegetables except for salad and potatoes. My sister and I also eat a lot more sweets and junk foods then our parents do, since we are still younger. When we reach for a snack, it’s usually a cookie. However, I try to be as healthy as I can, especially after wrapping up the health unit in Andy’s class. I like to eat a lot of salad, and I have been cutting down on a lot of the junk food I have been eating. I also realized then when it gets hot out, my body tends to reject food. I can’t eat a lot of food in the summer but it makes me feel sick. In the summer, I drink a lot of water, and that keeps me full until about dinner. I like to think that I am healthy and fit, but I do indulge with my sister or friends in ice cream sometimes.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Food Questions
Why are Americans so interested in being vegetarians?
"Several factors contribute to the interest in vegetarianism in America. Outbreaks of food poisoning from meat products, as well as increased concern over the additives in meat such as hormones and antibiotics, have led some people and professionals to question meat's safety. There is also an increased awareness of the questionable treatment of farm animals in factory farming."
What is a healthy diet for Americans? And is being a vegetarian one of them?
"The growing health consciousness of Americans is probably the major reason for the surge in interest in vegetarianism. Nutrition experts have built up convincing evidence that there are major problems with the conventional American diet, which is centered around meat products that are high in cholesterol and saturated fat and low in fiber. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, which cause 68% of all deaths in America, are all believed to be influenced by this diet. Nutritionists have repeatedly shown in studies that a healthy diet consists of plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, and foods that are high in fiber and low in cholesterol and saturated fat. Vegetarianism, a diet that fulfills all these criteria, has become part of many healthy lifestyles. In alternative medicine, vegetarianism is a cornerstone dietary therapy, used in Ayurvedic medicine, detoxification treatments, macrobiotics, the Ornish diet for heart disease, and in therapies for many chronic conditions."
Quotes taken from http://www.answers.com/topic/vegetarianism
"Several factors contribute to the interest in vegetarianism in America. Outbreaks of food poisoning from meat products, as well as increased concern over the additives in meat such as hormones and antibiotics, have led some people and professionals to question meat's safety. There is also an increased awareness of the questionable treatment of farm animals in factory farming."
What is a healthy diet for Americans? And is being a vegetarian one of them?
"The growing health consciousness of Americans is probably the major reason for the surge in interest in vegetarianism. Nutrition experts have built up convincing evidence that there are major problems with the conventional American diet, which is centered around meat products that are high in cholesterol and saturated fat and low in fiber. Heart disease, cancer, and diabetes, which cause 68% of all deaths in America, are all believed to be influenced by this diet. Nutritionists have repeatedly shown in studies that a healthy diet consists of plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits, complex carbohydrates such as whole grains, and foods that are high in fiber and low in cholesterol and saturated fat. Vegetarianism, a diet that fulfills all these criteria, has become part of many healthy lifestyles. In alternative medicine, vegetarianism is a cornerstone dietary therapy, used in Ayurvedic medicine, detoxification treatments, macrobiotics, the Ornish diet for heart disease, and in therapies for many chronic conditions."
Quotes taken from http://www.answers.com/topic/vegetarianism
Refrigerator Assignment
First is the list of legal substances in my refrigerator:
1. Milk
2. Juice
3. Plastic water bottle from Rider University
4. Homemade Ice Tea
5. Cat food
6. Left over pizza from last night
7. Pepsi cans
8. Barbeque Sauce
9. Relish
10. Coffee
11. Mayonnaise
12. Vegetables (not shown [in crisper])
13. Butter
14. Chocolate Syrup
15. Apples
16. Cheese slices
17. Grapes
18. Sliced bread
19. Grape Jelly
Now comes the analysis of my refrigerator. While looking at the items it contains, I realized my family was actually healthy. We don’t have much junk food, except for the Pepsi cans and chocolate syrup. We have a lot of dairy (milk, butter, cheese), and a lot of drinks (water, milk, juice, Pepsi, ice tea). This makes me see that my family is actually healthy, because we have a basic serving of everything on the food pyramid, vegetables, fruits, and dairy. In our freezer, we do have ice cream and a lot of meat, but other than that we have a steady non-processed diet. While looking at my fridge, I also realized we don’t have any cultural food. Hidden in the bottom shelf, we have mozzarella cheese slices that are Kosher for Passover, but other than that we have the basic American food such as pizza and cheese. This shows that even though we do like to enjoy cultural food when we go out to eat or order in, we don’t really make cultural food. The last thing I noticed is that we do not have a lot of food in our refrigerator. Except for the extra toppings that go on our meals, (such as barbeque sauce or grape jelly) all of the foods we own are either in the freezer or you don’t have to refrigerate it. The refrigerator is more for snacks that don’t require a lot of time to make. This assignment was actually really interesting, because I never really looked at my fridge and noticed what was in it before. Usually I try to stay away from keeping it open for too long because it uses up a lot of energy when the door is open, and most of my snacks are in the cabinets (such as cookies). It’s an usual assignment, but it’s also eye-opening to the way my family lives. The last thing I would like to say is that there is a plastic bottle from Rider University because we just went to visit the school yesterday and got a bottle from it.
1. Milk
2. Juice
3. Plastic water bottle from Rider University
4. Homemade Ice Tea
5. Cat food
6. Left over pizza from last night
7. Pepsi cans
8. Barbeque Sauce
9. Relish
10. Coffee
11. Mayonnaise
12. Vegetables (not shown [in crisper])
13. Butter
14. Chocolate Syrup
15. Apples
16. Cheese slices
17. Grapes
18. Sliced bread
19. Grape Jelly
Now comes the analysis of my refrigerator. While looking at the items it contains, I realized my family was actually healthy. We don’t have much junk food, except for the Pepsi cans and chocolate syrup. We have a lot of dairy (milk, butter, cheese), and a lot of drinks (water, milk, juice, Pepsi, ice tea). This makes me see that my family is actually healthy, because we have a basic serving of everything on the food pyramid, vegetables, fruits, and dairy. In our freezer, we do have ice cream and a lot of meat, but other than that we have a steady non-processed diet. While looking at my fridge, I also realized we don’t have any cultural food. Hidden in the bottom shelf, we have mozzarella cheese slices that are Kosher for Passover, but other than that we have the basic American food such as pizza and cheese. This shows that even though we do like to enjoy cultural food when we go out to eat or order in, we don’t really make cultural food. The last thing I noticed is that we do not have a lot of food in our refrigerator. Except for the extra toppings that go on our meals, (such as barbeque sauce or grape jelly) all of the foods we own are either in the freezer or you don’t have to refrigerate it. The refrigerator is more for snacks that don’t require a lot of time to make. This assignment was actually really interesting, because I never really looked at my fridge and noticed what was in it before. Usually I try to stay away from keeping it open for too long because it uses up a lot of energy when the door is open, and most of my snacks are in the cabinets (such as cookies). It’s an usual assignment, but it’s also eye-opening to the way my family lives. The last thing I would like to say is that there is a plastic bottle from Rider University because we just went to visit the school yesterday and got a bottle from it.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Moral Health
In class for the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about health. We learned about physical, emotional, social, mental, and moral health. We performed activities that boosted our physical and emotional health level, mainly by being active. We rolled around on the floor of the classroom, tried mock-therapy sessions, and mediated, to name a few. But out of all the stuff we learned about, moral health seemed to strike a nerve with me. With physical and emotional health, there aren’t many contradictions, but when it comes to someone’s morals, the rules seem to bend at times. Ever since we were little, we were taught to have good morals, (i.e, be respectful to elders, always tell the truth, help out others), but as we get older we see that there are major contradictions to these rules. For example, we are always told to tell the truth, but what if it hurts someone in that process? If a friend asks if she looks fat in a pair of jeans, should you tell her the truth and say yes or lie to protect her feelings? We often find that by protecting someone from the truth, we are being a good person. Honestly, who wants to hurt their friends or someone close to them? And when it comes to helping others, we are always told to donate to charities to help the less fortunate people. And let’s say we donate, and donate, and donate, but when exactly can we stop donating? When can we finally feel that our job is done, and we helped save someone’s life? Or let’s say we didn’t donate, does that mean we are a bad person? What if you don’t have the money to donate? If you donate, you have good morals, but if you don’t, you’re not a good person. Does that seem fair? Moral health has rules, but those rules are easily broken. As we get older, we find that the rules that we were taught as a child don’t apply anymore. We find that sometimes bending the rules can actually save someone in a certain situation, so we tell a tiny white lie. After all, it’s not hurting anyone, correct? The definition of the word moral is “relating to, or capable of making the distinction between right and wrong” (http://home.sprynet.com/~eagreen/moral.htm) Moral health is when people are able to tell the difference between what is right and what is wrong, and know how it affects their mental health. Basically, moral health is all in one’s head. It deals with the psychological part of the brain, because if someone did something wrong that defied their morals, it would be on their conscience for a long time. But if someone did something good, it would also be on their conscience, but they would feel pride from it. Moral health doesn’t affect our physical body as much as it affects our mind.
After we finished this unit, I found that I realized a lot of things about myself that I never knew before. During the unit we found that we aren’t physically or emotionally healthy in school because we are constantly being forced to sit in desks and take notes. But when we are allowed to step out and just have fun, for how long or short it will be, it relaxes us more. Before learning this, I hated school, and hated me contained in classrooms for six hours. But after this unit, I realized I was fine with being contained, as long as I was able to step out and relax also. During lunch I would notice how my emotional level raised because I was out being active. Also before this unit, I wasn’t focused a lot on my health. I always tried to be healthy and fit, but I never really cared too much. But after this unit, I realized health can affect us in a lot more ways than one. By being physical, we are helping our bodies stay healthy, while also boosting our emotional and mental levels by being active. I also began to change my diet. I use to eat junk food a lot, but now I switched my diet to eating more salad and eating less chocolate and chips. I haven’t eaten any junk food in a long time, and even if I do it’s just ice cream or sweets. I haven’t touched a bag of chips or chocolate, eating salad or apples instead. I realized that being healthy isn’t hard at all; you need to know the consequences to your actions. By being healthy, I have more energy and I feel good about myself. Along with eating the right food, I try to work out more often, and walk everywhere instead of taking the train. Just today, me and my friends walked all over Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and just being active made me feel so happy. I didn’t use any mode of transportation besides my legs. Along with improving my own health, I have been telling my friends and family about how they can improve their health also. In my household, we try to limit our junk food intake, instead having apples at least every other night after dinner to cleanse our bodies. And when I go out to lunch with my friends, I reach for the healthier stuff, such as salad. Just changing my diet in little ways can also go a long way in my future. Our health is so important, and more people need to realize that. In our current nation, over half of the teenagers in America are obese or overweight. They need to realize that they can’t be unhealthy, especially because it affects their adult bodies in the future.
After we finished this unit, I found that I realized a lot of things about myself that I never knew before. During the unit we found that we aren’t physically or emotionally healthy in school because we are constantly being forced to sit in desks and take notes. But when we are allowed to step out and just have fun, for how long or short it will be, it relaxes us more. Before learning this, I hated school, and hated me contained in classrooms for six hours. But after this unit, I realized I was fine with being contained, as long as I was able to step out and relax also. During lunch I would notice how my emotional level raised because I was out being active. Also before this unit, I wasn’t focused a lot on my health. I always tried to be healthy and fit, but I never really cared too much. But after this unit, I realized health can affect us in a lot more ways than one. By being physical, we are helping our bodies stay healthy, while also boosting our emotional and mental levels by being active. I also began to change my diet. I use to eat junk food a lot, but now I switched my diet to eating more salad and eating less chocolate and chips. I haven’t eaten any junk food in a long time, and even if I do it’s just ice cream or sweets. I haven’t touched a bag of chips or chocolate, eating salad or apples instead. I realized that being healthy isn’t hard at all; you need to know the consequences to your actions. By being healthy, I have more energy and I feel good about myself. Along with eating the right food, I try to work out more often, and walk everywhere instead of taking the train. Just today, me and my friends walked all over Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and just being active made me feel so happy. I didn’t use any mode of transportation besides my legs. Along with improving my own health, I have been telling my friends and family about how they can improve their health also. In my household, we try to limit our junk food intake, instead having apples at least every other night after dinner to cleanse our bodies. And when I go out to lunch with my friends, I reach for the healthier stuff, such as salad. Just changing my diet in little ways can also go a long way in my future. Our health is so important, and more people need to realize that. In our current nation, over half of the teenagers in America are obese or overweight. They need to realize that they can’t be unhealthy, especially because it affects their adult bodies in the future.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Spring Break =) final draft
Over this past break, I noticed that I am in a more relaxed and cheerful mood then I was during school. I think it’s because during school I'm constantly stressing out about my grades and college, and attempting to do all my class work and homework to the best of my ability, but when I'm on break I can just relax and spend time with my friends and family. I can sleep late without rushing off to school. The Tuesday before break I was extremely stressed because I got my SAT scores back, and even though I was somewhat satisfied with them, I thought I did better. We also had a math and science test that day, both of which were hard to study for because I couldn’t focus, and then we got out progress reports, which killed whatever happy mood I had left in me. All my grades went down, and I couldn’t understand why because I participate in all my classes and do all my homework. I was in such a grouchy mood, and then I had my college class after that, which needless to say, stressed me out even more. I have three papers do for that class by the end of break, two final papers and one draft.
But ever since break started, my mood has lifted. On the first Thursday of break (which was a gorgeous spring day), I went to my internship (because I wanted to finish up some spreadsheets that I didn’t finish the previous week), and they were surprised to see me since I didn’t have to come in. They had me do some pretty interesting stuff (I was looking up and listing hotels for clients), and they kept complimenting my work. One of the workers there, Lisa, couldn’t stop talking about how I was such a good extern, and another worker Heather, asked me if I could hurry up and finish high school so I can work with them already. As you can probably tell, that put me in a great mood. I love getting complimented on my work, especially if I put a lot of effort into it. After my internship, I went to play volleyball with my friends, and just being outside with the sun beating down put me in an amazing mood. I was being healthy by being active, while also spending time with my friends. Friday was pretty much the same, I spent time with my old best friend from middle school, and we went shopping and just had a really good day. On Saturday, I wasn’t in too good a mood because it was raining, and that ruined my plans, so instead I stayed home and watched old movies. The weather has a way of affecting my mood, and the rain was just an incredible downer. I wasn’t being healthy that day because I was just lying around inside my house, not doing anything. On Sunday, I went to the gym with my mom, and we were physically active, which set my endorphins off, which therefore put me in a good mood. I was listening to my iPod and reading a magazine while working out, which helped my multi-tasking skills. Going to the gym with my mom put me in a good mood because I never worked out at her gym before, and it was fun. I got to test out all the machines they don’t have in my gym (the Baruch gym), and I got to read a new issue of People while doing that. After the gym, my family made cakes for Passover (except they came out horribly because my Dad can’t cook, and burned them instead). Sunday was another good day
That brings us to Monday, which is the day I woke up late because my mom wasn’t there wake me up (which is fine with me) because she was working. I then proceeded to pack my bag because I was going to sleep over at my friend’s house. I didn’t do much on Monday during the afternoon except work on some homework and watch TV, but after that I left for a sleepover at my friend Lieb’s house, which got me physically and emotionally active. Just being around my friends put me in a really good mood, and even though I wasn’t being physically active at Lieb’s house, my emotional level skyrocketed because I was having fun. On Tuesday, I woke up extremely tired and all I wanted to do was rest. Sadly, no one would let me sleep. Instead we ate breakfast at two in the afternoon (when everyone finally got up) and just relaxed. My emotional and physical level was both low, because I was exhausted and just sitting on the couch not really doing anything. We were also not being healthy because instead of eating healthy food, we ate sandwiches, popcorn, and ice cream. Needless to say, my plans for the rest of the week including hitting the gym every day.
Wednesday was a more proactive day for me, and it was one of my favorite days of the week so far. I went to visit the camp I work at during the summer, Bay Ridge Sports and Theatre Camp, and I got to see all my favorite counselors and campers. I haven’t hung out with all of them since last September, and it was just really nice to see everyone and reminisce about all our fun times last summer. I helped two of the counselors with the Junior group (ages 6 to 8), and it felt so good to be in charge once again. After that, we all just stayed at after-camp and all of us girl counselors watched the guys play basketball. It was just so much fun, and I can’t wait until the summer to work full-time. We all decided that on Friday we would go back to camp, and then go to dinner and a movie after after-camp is over. I was physically and emotionally active on Wednesday. Thursday was a mellower day for me. I stayed home during the morning, and then went to the gym. After the gym, I just hung around Union Square with my friend. It was a relaxing day, and I was physically active because I went to the gym and emotionally active because it was so nice out and I was spending time with one of my best friends. On Friday I went to visit camp again. Everyone was there again, and it was just so much fun because everyone was in a good mood. After everyone went home to change we met up again to go to Uno’s for dinner. Last summer, we use to go to Uno’s practically every weekend and then go to the movies or someone’s house, and this year we are not about to break the tradition. Whenever we get together and go to Uno’s, we always have a blast. Although, we usually show up late to the movie and make so much noise trying to sit down, but who cares? We’re teenagers. It’s safe to say I was definitely physically active and emotionally happy.
So that was my spring break, and I can definitely say I was emotionally and physically active and happy except for two days out of the week. I'm sad to say spring break is coming to an end, but I will be waiting for summer to come so I can have just as much fun as I did this past break. I hope everyone had a good spring break, and see you all on Monday (: .
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But ever since break started, my mood has lifted. On the first Thursday of break (which was a gorgeous spring day), I went to my internship (because I wanted to finish up some spreadsheets that I didn’t finish the previous week), and they were surprised to see me since I didn’t have to come in. They had me do some pretty interesting stuff (I was looking up and listing hotels for clients), and they kept complimenting my work. One of the workers there, Lisa, couldn’t stop talking about how I was such a good extern, and another worker Heather, asked me if I could hurry up and finish high school so I can work with them already. As you can probably tell, that put me in a great mood. I love getting complimented on my work, especially if I put a lot of effort into it. After my internship, I went to play volleyball with my friends, and just being outside with the sun beating down put me in an amazing mood. I was being healthy by being active, while also spending time with my friends. Friday was pretty much the same, I spent time with my old best friend from middle school, and we went shopping and just had a really good day. On Saturday, I wasn’t in too good a mood because it was raining, and that ruined my plans, so instead I stayed home and watched old movies. The weather has a way of affecting my mood, and the rain was just an incredible downer. I wasn’t being healthy that day because I was just lying around inside my house, not doing anything. On Sunday, I went to the gym with my mom, and we were physically active, which set my endorphins off, which therefore put me in a good mood. I was listening to my iPod and reading a magazine while working out, which helped my multi-tasking skills. Going to the gym with my mom put me in a good mood because I never worked out at her gym before, and it was fun. I got to test out all the machines they don’t have in my gym (the Baruch gym), and I got to read a new issue of People while doing that. After the gym, my family made cakes for Passover (except they came out horribly because my Dad can’t cook, and burned them instead). Sunday was another good day
That brings us to Monday, which is the day I woke up late because my mom wasn’t there wake me up (which is fine with me) because she was working. I then proceeded to pack my bag because I was going to sleep over at my friend’s house. I didn’t do much on Monday during the afternoon except work on some homework and watch TV, but after that I left for a sleepover at my friend Lieb’s house, which got me physically and emotionally active. Just being around my friends put me in a really good mood, and even though I wasn’t being physically active at Lieb’s house, my emotional level skyrocketed because I was having fun. On Tuesday, I woke up extremely tired and all I wanted to do was rest. Sadly, no one would let me sleep. Instead we ate breakfast at two in the afternoon (when everyone finally got up) and just relaxed. My emotional and physical level was both low, because I was exhausted and just sitting on the couch not really doing anything. We were also not being healthy because instead of eating healthy food, we ate sandwiches, popcorn, and ice cream. Needless to say, my plans for the rest of the week including hitting the gym every day.
Wednesday was a more proactive day for me, and it was one of my favorite days of the week so far. I went to visit the camp I work at during the summer, Bay Ridge Sports and Theatre Camp, and I got to see all my favorite counselors and campers. I haven’t hung out with all of them since last September, and it was just really nice to see everyone and reminisce about all our fun times last summer. I helped two of the counselors with the Junior group (ages 6 to 8), and it felt so good to be in charge once again. After that, we all just stayed at after-camp and all of us girl counselors watched the guys play basketball. It was just so much fun, and I can’t wait until the summer to work full-time. We all decided that on Friday we would go back to camp, and then go to dinner and a movie after after-camp is over. I was physically and emotionally active on Wednesday. Thursday was a mellower day for me. I stayed home during the morning, and then went to the gym. After the gym, I just hung around Union Square with my friend. It was a relaxing day, and I was physically active because I went to the gym and emotionally active because it was so nice out and I was spending time with one of my best friends. On Friday I went to visit camp again. Everyone was there again, and it was just so much fun because everyone was in a good mood. After everyone went home to change we met up again to go to Uno’s for dinner. Last summer, we use to go to Uno’s practically every weekend and then go to the movies or someone’s house, and this year we are not about to break the tradition. Whenever we get together and go to Uno’s, we always have a blast. Although, we usually show up late to the movie and make so much noise trying to sit down, but who cares? We’re teenagers. It’s safe to say I was definitely physically active and emotionally happy.
So that was my spring break, and I can definitely say I was emotionally and physically active and happy except for two days out of the week. I'm sad to say spring break is coming to an end, but I will be waiting for summer to come so I can have just as much fun as I did this past break. I hope everyone had a good spring break, and see you all on Monday (: .
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