sEnIoRiTiS

ending to 1984?

2008-05-18T16:22:00.000-07:00

I personally didn’t think that Mr. Charrington was part of the thought police but I did think that the Thought police were smarter than to leave a room with no telescreen. I wanted Julia and Winston to work out and go against the party and win with O’Brien’s help but I also thought O’Brien was suspicious in the beginning during the first hate week when Winston and his eyes met. There was also another tip toward showing that O’Brien was suspicious because he knew of an extra thing that normal outer party members didn’t know which was how to turn off the telescreen.
My predictions for the next part of the book are that Julia will be tortured then vaporized, and that there is no brotherhood. I feel that the brotherhood does not exist because O’Brien was Winston’s connection and he was part of the thought police. They also used Goldstein as the focus of Hate week but no one really knows anything about him or has seen him for that matter. The thought police are going to torture Julia until she talks about what she does and who she did it with inside the inner party, and they are going to torture Winston to find out if he told anyone else his thoughts about the parties and about his thoughts to get rid of the party. Then they are both going to be killed.

My View on Genetic Engineering

2008-03-07T08:12:00.000-08:00

Science has made many advances in human evolution. We went from every time we get pregnant you have to have the baby to you can get an abortion. With Genetic Engineering woman to might not genetically be able to have a baby can now have one. Also scientists have learned how to alter food. Science evolves our world and helps make it better but with all these advances for good come many bad things
Genetic Engineering isn’t just for people trying to have babies. Sciences alter the DNA in foods like tomatoes to help them stay red longer and to be plumper and sweeter. You don’t often hear about people being mad about the delicious tomatoes at the supermarket. They also took the “anti freezing” gene from flounder and implanted it into the tomatoes to make their season longer. For woman who dream about having children when they get older and then when that dream is crushed because for some reason you can’t have children you might end up feeling inadequate. Now with Genetic Engineering you can have a fertilized egg planted into your womb and you can experience the ups and downs of having a human person grow inside you. I think there is a fine line between genetic engineering for good and for bad.
When I hear Genetic Engineering I think of babies and I think of Hitler. I know that it a harsh combination but aren’t you doing the same thing Hitler was, your not killing per say but you are engineering the perfect child. Many parents say I will love my child no matter what they look like. But the fact of the matter is if a parent could protect their child from a disease or retardation they probably would. Most people view the perfect child different; some love sports while others are artists, some want blonds and some want brunettes, I feel that people should love their child for who they are and become rather than change them in the womb and not give them the chance to essentially be themselves.
Most people do not think of the long term consequences’ and just jump into things. You might find out or even years from now that you could end up with some weird growth from eating the food that was Genetically Engineered or even the children born from Genetic Engineering could get some disease worse than cancer. Like I said earlier about the woman you can’t have children I think they are using this advance in science for good, but people who can have children without altering themselves are using it and that should be where we draw the line. People who can have children should not change who that child should be, if they have a disease or any kind of retardation they are supposed to have it and you shouldn’t kill that baby because of that.
The world is evolving fast and I think if we keep going to far with Genetic Engineering than we may end up one day in the future with a world like The Brave New World. It is scary to think about not having a mother or father, or having to sleep around to be normal, but I also think a place with no disease it bad. People need to die in order for people to live. If no one died than the world as we know it would dissolve rather quickly and we would have no need for Genetic Engineering. There are good parts to Genetic Engineering and for that I think that we need it for society today but I also think that we need to pace ourselves on how much and for what we use genetic engineering for.

this i believe: friendship shapes your outlook on life

2008-02-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

i believe friendship changes your outlook on life

2008-02-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

I believe that friendship shapes your outlook on life. When I was young I didn’t care what I wore, I just wanted to have fun and laugh. I had many great times sitting with my dad and he would keep me laughing for hours. Some of the people I knew in preschool and first grade are still best friends of mine today. My best friend of 12 years will probably eventually become my maid of honor. But I have also lost some amazing friendships over the years and I think that, that has made me a stronger person today.
Over the four years of high school I have realized how much drama girls create, and I didn’t want that to ruin my senior year. Girls go behind each others backs to hurt each other for no reason. When I surrounded myself with girl friends I became a person who was obsessed with drama, talking behind someone’s back, and lying to their face. I didn’t want to be like that anymore so I decided after junior year that I was going to change.
So in the beginning of my senior year I changed my group of friends. I still hang out with my two best girl friends, but I don’t want drama so I invited myself into an amazing group of boys. I still have a couple girl friends, but I spend most of my time with the boys hanging out and having fun. I have had more run ins with the cops, more partying, and more fun this year than any other year of high school. But I am also managing to make honor roll consecutively. Boys don’t care what the other one said about them, or what they did with who. Boys just have fun with not much gossiping and I like living my life that way too.
With my new outlook on life I have more fun all the time. I don’t care if someone doesn’t like my clothes because I like them. I don’t care if some one laughs at me because im always laughing at myself. In being friends with more boys I have learned not to care what other people think of me and be who I am. If I were to stay friends with more girls like when I was young I think I would of turned out like most high school girls. Peak at 18, gossip like it was my job, making homecoming and prom my life, and not get to see the more fun side of high school. My friends have shaped my outlook on life and made me a better person.

how to be a bad lifeguard

2008-01-18T20:09:00.000-08:00

I have been a lifeguard at a local park for the last two years and I plan to lifeguard again this summer. I feel like I have a good view of how to be a pretty bad lifeguard because of some of the things I have experienced. Most of my advice for you will be from my first summer life guarding. Mostly because of Tom. He is the best bad lifeguard EVER!
To follow in Toms’ footsteps you need to be late at least 3 out of the 5 days of the week that you work. This way you get out of all the set up stuff like carrying the kayaks down to the stand, also you get out of putting up the flags and if you’re really late you get out of sitting for the first part of the rotation which is always a plus.
Coming drunk/ hung over is another must. I’m not telling under age people like myself to drink but Tom being (I think) 21 would come to work hung over or on special occasions, still drunk. That was fun because all the trusting parents want a lifeguard to be able to save their child if they start to have trouble swimming. Tom was not that lifeguard. Tom came to work and mostly chewed tobacco and slept, on the stands, great lifeguard.
A topic I brought up last paragraph, Sleeping. Even the best lifeguards have done it; myself, not yet but I’m waiting for my turn this summer. My boss Brett, great guy, (also an occasional drinker), fell asleep and when we caught him he claimed “I was listening to the children in the water”. A guy I work with, Steve fell asleep in our break room and didn’t come down on time for rotation. Since it was my turn to go on break I walked up, snuck into the room, got the air horn (you all know what’s coming) put it about a foot away from his head, and pressed it. The whole beach heard it but all I got from Steve was a, what are you doing here? He gave me a funny look and then he left the room realizing he was late.
Cursing at the little children is a bad thing but a bad lifeguard must. Tom is the only guard that I have witnessed myself doing it but, it was great. It was a picture perfect day; Tom and I were sitting on the stand. This group of young boys was throwing sand; Tom asked them to stop about 4 times. Finally he got SO mad that he leaned down and was like “Hey! Kid! STOP THROWING THE @#$%&*! SAND!!” The little kid looked at Tom like he had just seen a ghost, Tom turned to me and when s*** did I just curse at that kid?
Tom was an amazing lifeguard because this was not his first summer at this park; but it was his last. Blair, the park superintendent, had wanted to catch Tom in the act of something bad but was always at the wrong place wrong time. She finally got her chance one day when Tom went on break to the island. At the park there was an island out in the middle of the lake that if you went to the other side people couldn’t see you. Well Tom thought this was a swell place to go and smoke the reefer. Blair was finally in the right place at the right time. See Blair had a speed boat where we lifeguards only had kayaks. So when Blair came to the beach and asked where Tom was and when we told her at the island; she took off and she caught him in the act. That was a very sad day for everyone because Tom was fired.
You are all thinking about how could it of been horrible, Tom was a bad lifeguard, but he was a good guy at heart. If you knew him he was a funny, nice, sometimes smart guy. It was a shame he was fired, but his family bought the boat concessions stand and now tom is at the lake anyway. I guess you can fire him but never really get him away from the lake. (* names changed to protect actual people*)

The importance of the work

2007-12-31T08:07:00.000-08:00

I liked the article and I want to talk about the banning of the book in school. Life in 1951 didn’t have rap music videos with naked people dancing around, people cursing on TV screens and sex basically on day-time TV like there is now. They banned the book because they wanted to “save children’s innocence” because they didn’t want children and teens to read about sex, and cursing. I agree that it should have been banned then. I am also happy that we have read this book in school today because is a reality check, Holden talks like he is talking to you in the book and I think that way of writing is very affective.
People got all worked up over this book but as they say in the article, it is “serious fiction” and people seem to have forgotten that. I don’t think that Salinger wrote this book with hopes that it would cause this much controversy but I also don’t see him complaining.
In this article they also talk about that people didn’t want Holden to be a role model. I don’t think you necessarily have to look at Holden as a role model. He could be someone who needs help and you have to come up with ways to help him, people always think inside the box but I think this is a book where you have to think outside.

Color paper

2007-12-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

I am Black
Not because I'm cold or bitter
But because I’m a little bit of everything
I’m blue because I’m calm during stressful situations and loyal to my friends
I’m brown because I have great endurance, not endurance for running but because I can just keep doing one thing after another until everything is done.
I’m green because I can balance my enviousness with good luck
I’m pink because even though I’m childish in ways, but I love to live life
I’m red because I am passionate about what I believe in
I’m orange because I balance enthusiasm for friends and fun and my laziness so not get off the couch on weekends.
I’m yellow because I’m optimistic about people and I always see the glass half full
I could not pick one color to explain myself because I’m not one color. I combined them all together to help you get a better view of me; I combined them and got black.

Over-sized Brown chair

2007-12-09T07:29:00.000-08:00

On Christmas break every year my family goes down to Kennett Square, PA and stay at my grandparents’ house. My family has been doing this since my sister Katie was born twenty years ago and maybe even longer than that. For as along as I can remember every Christmas morning I would sit in an over sized brown leather chair and open my presents.
That chair is amazing. It isn’t all one shade of brown; it has light brown mixed perfectly with darker browns to make it a beautiful piece of furniture. After at least seventeen years of usage it still does not have a rip, tear, or even a scratch on it. On Christmas morning the only light on in the room when we get there is the fireplace and it illuminates the chair and it looks so warm and comfy I can’t wait to sit in it. Katie and I go to the tree to separate our presents; we knew we had to wait for our mom so we would always arrange our presents, Katie’s on the right, and mine on the left. Then we would grab out stocking off the mantle and sit in the chairs we always did. I would sit in the brown one and Katie would sit on a sofa/chair mix thing in front of the TV. As soon as I saw my mom walk into the room, I would dump the contents of my pink stocking into my lap. Then I would sort through everything nicely and put it back into my stocking and wait for the presents.
The way presents work is a little different than stockings, my mom picks out the presents, and my dad gives them to us, but only one at a time so we have to watch the other one go. It’s boring as a little kid to do presents like this but it saves all the time later when you ask what did you get for Christmas?
About five years ago we starting putting the brown chair in the laundry room because with the tree out there just wasn’t enough room. But every Christmas morning my dad and I carry the chair out and set it up so that I can open my stocking and presents sitting in it. I love the tradition of going to my grandparent’s house for Christmas, the traditions have changed a little bit but we always bring the chair out. The amount of presents and the amount of people celebrating Christmas with us may change, but I know for sure I will be opening my presents in the chair for years to come.

I give the book an eight

2007-11-21T13:38:00.000-08:00

November 21, 2007

A memoir
The Color of water
By James McBride
Published January 1996

The color of water has been called “a black mans tribute to his white mother,” and it certainly is. This is an overwhelming true story of how a young boy finds himself through finding out about his mothers past.

The color of water is written in a way that most books normally are not. Each chapter flip flops between himself and his mother Ruth and their point of view. They both start with their childhood and continue up to their present day. This type of writing is effective for this story because you get to learn about each person separately as well as a family. Ruth adds insight into the book that I think if James had never asked his mother that you would never have been able to read. She was not an open person till he got tired of James pestering her.

James had is fair share of ups and downs in his life. He lost his father and step father, did drugs, drank, dropped out of high school, and finally his life was changed around by a stranger/future friend named chicken Man. Even through extreme poverty and lots of moving James came out on top of his life. Ruth on the other hand had a very hard life and changed it into a fulfilling life. She lost both her husbands but sent all twelve children to college and some even to graduate school. In the end of the book James, from what James has learn he says, “She married two extraordinary men, and raised twelve very creative and talented children.” It’s not about the ups and downs your family goes through; it’s what you learn from them.

This book is not only well written it is extremely rewarding tale of turning any life around as long as you have a little hope. In the beginning of the book James says I wrote this book for my mother, and her mother, and mothers everywhere; I don’t think this book is just for mothers, I think anyone older than 16 will appreciate what this family went through and in turn can better their own lives somehow.

The color of water

2007-10-31T06:46:00.000-07:00

" The community put such a premium on succeed. And you had no excuse to blame racism or discrimination as a reason why you couldnt succeed." Ed Smith

This quote is great for the color of water because over coming the diversity of race is the main point of the book. Since Ruth is white and Jewish she had to over come a huge hurtle when she fell in love with her children’s father. “My family mourned me when I married your father.” He was black and not Jewish and her family acted like she was dead by covering their mirrors and doing everything they would have if someone actually died. Ruth so far has not told her children she is white, and that she is Jewish. Every time they ask she just says she is light skinned and changes the subject. She never tells her children why she is so protective and why she sends then to white schools, but she wants them to have a bright future and to prove that black people can make something out of there lives. I’m not racist but the stereo typical school you think of when you hear “black school” is a run down neighborhood with criminals and drug deals and gangs everywhere, Ruth didn’t want that life for her children so she didn’t let them go to those schools or hang out with many people.
In the color of water when James looks back on his life he says” I feel privileged to have some from two worlds. My view of the world is not merely that of a black man but that of a black man with something of a Jewish soul.” (103) When he was young he didn’t not appreciate that his mom made him go to the white schools, “I preferred the black side, and often wished that mommy had sent me to black schools like my friends.” (104). But now looking back at his life I think he is happy about the effort his mother made to incorporate her culture in his life but without letting him in on her secret.
What Ed Smith is saying is that racist shouldn’t be they biggest hurtle or biggest reason that you don’t succeed is what you want. If race is the only thing that is holding you back in society today then it is your own fault you’re not where you want to be today. Back then a person could push you around a little more than today but if you got a good education and the drive to achieve something, than nothing will stop you and I think that is what Ed Smith is saying when he says “The community put such a premium on success. And you had no excuse to blame racism or discrimination as a reason why you couldn’t succeed.”