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Possible Topics?

I can't really think of a lot but...

One possible topic can be our fascination with social networking. For example like facebook, myspace, etc. Something that EVERYONE is pretty much familiar with. What was our orginal way of social networking and basically socializing before all these facebook and myspace. And why do we need these certain internet networks to socialize?

Also I haven't gotten too far in the book but at least I am reading it, most of the time I would brush off a book by now. I wish I was a better reader like most people :(
But before I read the book I read the summary on Wikipedia to get an idea of the story and the story sounds a lot like the movie "The Island" accept with a different structure and it is mainly kids rather then adults.

July 4th

So I wonder why many people celebrate July 4th or if they are celebrating it for the right reasons. Much like Christmas and Thanksgiving I think 4th of July is a holiday mainly for fireworks. Although the fireworks were not as great as last year as the Mayor or whatever decided to make it so damn far on the west side that I did not get to see it. I spend the WHOOOLEEE day sitting in my house alone because my dad went to Florida for Disney Land with his other family for a week (my dad was married once before with two daughters and now with a grandson before he married my mom). My dad said "This is like the 20th time ive been to Disney land and I told them I don't wanna go fucking Disney land damnit. I went with every single one of you at least like 5 times. ugh" Which made me laugh really hard. But back to my point about July 4th. Not many people in my opinion celebrate this day as independence day at rather just a normal day accept at night their is fireworks. I myself do not even get the significance of this day. As the fireworks went on from miles away my boyfriend mentioned how there use to be fireworks everywhere, when he was younger people would be able to do fireworks themselves and that there were even parades. And then we mentioned how society now seemed so sad since there is mainly none of those things anymore. It was kinda depressing.

SUMMER BLOG 1

1. In the beginning of the summer as soon as class was over with I started focusing on trying to find a summer job. I applied for a numerous amount of places, really typical places such as Staples, DSW, Victoria Secrete, Petco, Dylan's Candy Bar, all places that I have failed to get jobs at. My dad keeps on pushing the idea of find a summer job but after my failed attempt so far to find one I have just been trying to relaxing and spend more time with my boyfriend and friends as well. Maybe I will attempt to find a job again in a week or so.
Also lately many people seem to be passing away such as Micheal Jackson, Billy Mays, and that chick who was in the old Charlie Angels. Its weird because people have been paying more respect to Micheal Jackson after he has passed then he was alive. Every time I turn on the t.v. I see his music videos, story of his life, interview with people, etc. It's weird to me how many people or fans it has "effected" deeply.
Also I have been trying to focus on finding things to do outside because I happen to find myself sitting at home being bored a lot more.

2. I am SO glad for this summer vacation, i thought it would never come. Its weird to think about how next year I will be a senior and it will be my last year of high school. So far I have not been doing much and feel as if I have been wasting my summer by sitting around at home. It is usually like this for me for the first few weeks of summer vacation but after a while I find things to do and go outside more. I personally do not really miss anything about school. I am kind of socially awkward so I do not really miss any of the socializing from school. I just keep in touch with a few people from school to hang out once a week or so. I am just really glad to have a break from all the projects, writing, lab reports, stress. I felt that my junior year was by far my most stressful year so its not knowing what the stress level is going to be like next year. I feel I need to be more progressive this summer, read a book or start doing some college stuff. Although since its only the beginning I want to enjoy my last summer of high school.

3. Well I am really not a good reader and have a hard time focusing on reading a book especially if I know I don't actually need to since its summer and if the book is really not interesting to me.
Easish book: 5
Hardish book: 4
Combined: 9
But it may change depending on the book.

4. I'm not very active person and I am sooo out of shape but I think its time to get back into shape so I don't mind taking a walk and doing activities and stuff. The films and strange movies sound fun. Everything sounds good to me.

5. Well I know that my dad is going to keep complaining for me to get a summer job so I may eventually have to and if I do, depending on what times I will work I think I might be able to still meet once a week. If anything I'll let everyone know.

6. I'm not really sure for now but the experience of being sounds good to me.

AWOL Final Assignment

When first arriving into Andy's class, looking back at my views then I basically thought history class was most likely going to be how every other history class was since freshman year. In the beginning of the year I was not doing as well as I am now. I think it was because I was not sure the concept of the American way of life. I did not understand what it was yet I am living in the basic American way of life. Like every other basic American I felt I was blinded by many "flashy" show-like factors of America which brought my attention away from the importance of certain values of how we live, why we live and what we live for. It blinded the values and purposes of every single factor of the American Way of life such as birth, the economy, our health care, our eating habits, and other aspects that may not have been a topic in class such as our emotions, the education system, how we respect each others values, holidays, etc. I think the class was an opportunity for me to help and find my own values about the American Way of Life, my way of life, and the aspects in my life that is the American way of life. I have developed my own opinions, how to analyze my values, other people's values, and American values. I think I have learned to resist certain factors of the American way of life and to just accept other aspects of the American way of life. Not only have I learned things but I felt like by developing my own values and really thinking about the way our lives are run I think it has really helped some parts of my physical life. For example is the way I eat, my relationship with my father, and the way I think.

When learning about Capitalism in the beginning of the year I was still quite unsure of what the point of learning this was. I kind of thought it was just another useless subject that the education system shoves into our mind that we most likely do not need in the future like trigonometry or the chemical reaction. Now that I look back on it I feel that I am glad to learn about this because at least I know about what capitalism really is, about supply and demand, the way a company would run it's businesses and why certain clothing stores sell their products at the price that they do. And I this information may not effect me now but maybe will in the future in what ever career track I end up in. It also helps to know this stuff because Capitalism is one of the main fundamentals of the American way of life. I learned what how capitalism is defined, the three ideas of Land, Labor and Capital. This also makes me think of the fact that my dad basically has his own business with his partner friends of selling his glasses and the designs of glasses. This small little business that he does most definitely is a big part of capitalism, he most likely uses supply and demand as he sells these products to buyers that are companies such as Bed Bath and Beyond or the QVC channel of television. Sadly I must say that I have never had a great understanding of what my dad does for a living or maybe i must say how my dad does what he does for a living. I feel like learning about this stuff gave me some clue into maybe how my dad works his business.

After the capitalism unit I think it was like a warm up for our minds (or at least my mind), how to think about what goes on around us, how things work, and why? So when the birth unit came, it was probably my second favorite unit. Well firstly I learned about my own personal birth story which I never actually thought of asking about before. The crazy thing is that during this unit I had happen to have found picture frame that I did not no opens up. When I accidentally dropped it and as it opened up I found a bunch of picture of the day of my birth. Pictures of me right after I was born, pictures of my mother and father in the hospital. And with the excitement of listening to birth stories and how birth works I learned the American way of birth. Had I know there was such thing as American way of birth before this? Obviously not. Like most I thought birth in hospitals were practical and not unusual because it was common and normal. What is so wrong about something that is common and normal. After many articles, movies, videos I started to think outside of the box, maybe birth is not so common not because it is so effective or the best way of birth but because it is all a business. I started to analyze the hospital's service and started to realize how it was not so comforting and connect it back to why. One quote from a previous assignment that I have written, I stated "it makes me wonder if the doctor's basically put on a show, blinding us with the fancy machinery and tools it, takes are attention away from the importance of child birth and the value of it." This relating back to the basic idea that the American way of life provides a big show to cover up for many flaws in the America way of life that many people do not see. This "blinding show" takes our attention away from the values of things that we do in our every day life. Also learning that there is an alternative of natural birth with midwives. I have never once heard of what midwives were. After learning about both point of views of hospital births and midwives I learned to develop my own insights and point of view about the American way of birth by developing my own birth ideas. For myself, I never want to have kids because I feel that I do not have the responsibilities or the mother-hood skills to really take care of a child but if in 20 years that ever changes or according to Andy that all births happen because it is usually a mistake and if I were to mistakenly get a baby bump I feel that I personally would prefer and birth in the privacy and comfort of my own home with a midwife. I personally thought that hospitals may not be completely bad but hospitals are mainly for people who have been insured or suffering from a sickness. This is one of the factors of the American way of life in which I felt that needed to be resisted and I learn not to enjoy (not through a physical birth of course but through other sources). Birth is not a sickness so I don't think hospitals are qualified for natural birth but I do think in times of emergencies such as premature births a hospital should be a back up. This is most the insight and opinion I had come to develop, i felt like from this point on i started to develop my skills of analyzing and creating my own insights as well as looking at things without a blindfold on (metaphorically speaking).




(These are pictures of my mom and dad holding me on the day of my birth. I always wanted to show them during the birth unit but did know how to scan it to the computer at the time)

After speaking of how hospitals are a place for sickness, health care was another big factor in America. Insurance companies are frequently brought up when thinking of the topic of health care. Personally I have to admit that before this unit I had no idea how health insurance or any type of insurance in general worked. Made me feel quite stupid at first since everyday we see these adds for insurance, television commercials for medical or any other insurance types of insurance. And most importantly I never thought of how extremely important it is to have health insurance and to learn about those who do not have health insurance was just tragic. That one of the main factors to so many deaths in the United States is effected by no health insurance. I feel that this topic was most definitely something about the American way of life that I do not enjoy. Unfortunately I feel that it is something more difficult to resist than the way of birth. Before this unit I really thought that since American is one of the most richest country we would have one of the best heath care systems in the world. Amazing by watching movies such as Micheal Moore's Sicko showed me how countries such as France or even Cuba's health system is far more effective then ours. Why? Because its free, their health care is all free. It made me learn about why the dentists I go to keep denying me of fixing that annoying feeling on my tooth, because my health care insurance does not want to pay for it. A significant point that I brought up in a previous health care essay based on a quote from Micheal Moore's movie about improving our health care, I wrote " ' We live in a world of 'we' not 'me', we'll never fix anything until we get that one basic thing right. and powerful forces hope that we never do.' Without this basic concept of thinking as a country whole and not just about the money we make in out pockets America will keep being one of the only countries without free health care and will remain at a low on the list of good health care. And the "powerful forces" may have more power but if we continue to give them that power and not do anything about it we may never receive anything that will better out lives and our health." Using this idea and relating it to, for example how the citizens of France get what they want out of their government is by protesting. This concept gave me the insight that American citizens are too scared of the government, in countries such as France the citizens are feared by the government as for us it is the opposite. How this really connects to me? Well it is my health as well as everybody else. I feel that for this many are not blinded as it has effect everybody at least once, it is just that people are either too lazy, scared, busy or whatever excuse there is out there to remember to care or actually do anything to improve our health and the health of those who are less fortunate. This health care topic really helped me realize things about my own life as well. For example is my fathers health, this year I realized that the reason I get the oppourtunity to go to school, eat, sleep is because of the support of my father. I started to learn to appreciate that more. Unfortunately my father is almost 70 and he faces a lot of health problems already. I fear that maybe he would face a health problem that our health insurance would deny to treat. Also for my own health as well for I am still young, hopefully if our health care system will change within years.

Following up after health insurance topic was poverty which is definitely a big part of the American way of life since taking from my previous poverty assignment "around 35.9 million people are living below the poverty line, the poverty line is 1400 dollars in the US." Thus making it a great impact since most Americans are poor. Before this unit, my perspectives were that for me to end up with a successful future I had to work hard in the bullshit they give in school and take whatever the education system gives me, go to a decent college which will give me a better chance in landing a decent career. What is mostly told to us especially as young teenage students that those who are poor are most likely poor because they were slackers, drug attics, drop outs, etc. For me I did not believe this so much but I did think that people were poor mainly because they were maybe born into a lower class and without money they were had less opportunities for better colleges or clothing to look good for an interview, whatever the scenario is. Although this can be true I learned the government factor to why many people are under the poverty line. Remembering back to my "Wealth is like Musical Chairs" blog i started to realize that maybe it is not the fact that people in poverty cannot find opportunities but maybe because there are not enough opportunities provided. This is definitely really tragic as it kind of makes my thought process of doing extremely good in school, I will still most likely have a chance of not getting that one "slot" of oppourtunity. And if there was any opportunities it would most likely be one out of a million open to the lower class so that the government has an excuse to say that they do provide opportunities. The fact that most lower class do not have access to these opportunities is what most likely causes them to be drug attics, be homeless, etc. because most have probably given up. This sadly is one factor of the American way of life. This connecting back to the health insurance subject, those who do not get the oppourtunity become poor, the poor cannot pay for health insurance which are not able to treat their health problems which most likely are dumped out on the streets to die. I definitely do not enjoy this part of how America is based on, although I am not under the poverty line I am supported by my father, in a couple of years it makes me wonder how I or everyone else in my generation will end up especially with our economical crisis today. Looking back at my previous blogs I notice I had found a reason to why so many people are in poverty: "Approximately 750,000 Americans are homeless due to lack of employment, mental illness, drug abuse, physical and mental abuse, lack of or low education, developmental disabilities and the stigma of HIV/AIDS." Looking back on this I realize how ignorant people are and again how blinded they are to the reasons why so many Americans are poor. Personally if I were to change this I would say in my own developed opinion is that Approximately 750,000 Americans are under the poverty line or homeless due to he lack of opportunities and aid provided by the government, given to those who seek really seek opportunities to provide a decent living for themselves to get out from under the poverty line. The fact that so many people think the that the website's definition is what keeps many people under the poverty line since no one would want to help, it really makes us believe in the wrong values and make many Americans loose the confidence to speak up.

(I really laughed at this photo but I felt like for me it shows that even those with great potential cannot show their potential or work for it to survive because they are not given the oppourtunity to do so.)

Following after was the food unit which I felt explored more on the habits of a typical American, how, and why? For me I think this was my favorite unit mainly because I thought it was most interesting. I mean who does not love food? This and because I felt like it impacted me a lot more then just learning how to create my own insights and opinions but physically impacted a part of my lifestyle. Firstly I must state what I have learned of course and how it relates to the American way of life, then my life. I always always been against animal cruelty and already had a sense at home animals are treated but I felt like I have develop more ideas such as the antibiotics and growth hormones they feed to animals, that I was never aware of. It is definitely unhealthy as it is cruel and I feel like it gives me more of an idea what to say when people keep asking why I am a vegetarian. Although I am vegetarian as it may limit my food choices and keep me away from ugly harmful yucky meat corpses I can still be effected. How? Well it is not only effects our health but our environment as well as our community (local family farms). Remember back to the Meatrix video and how all the factory farms and shit that the animals live in cause pollution and such. Also the apples and "fresh" vegetables we find and eat from our common super markets are not as healthy as vegetables should be. This is also because of factory farming. Fruits and vegetables are sprayed with pesticides. I think that many Americans are living in the Meatrix, they do not have a realization of what they are really eating. It kind of shows again the values of people, it gives a sense that Americans are even oblivious to what they shove in their mouths. They are blinded by labels and their flashy television screens and the big mac on the add in the subway train. Food companies have a great way of being able to cover up the flaws in how our food is made and given to us. Many people, even I in the beginning was blinded by corporate food companies. My food habits were horrible and I have the fridge assignment on my previous blog to prove so. I remember in class when I provided somewhat of a metaphor that industrial food companies use labels to hide the rotten shit that is underneath. I thought of this when I bought a bag of lettuce with my dad. I feel that now I am able to look past those labels and "Happy Cow commercials" and really look at the real picture. As if I was that ass kicking pig in the Meatrix video....maybe not as awesome but being able to know where my food comes from helped my eating habits which help my health. As an alternative I learned what the concept of organic food really means and why people say it is healthier. "Even though organic food is pricey in the long run we would be paying for our health and the health of our future generation by eating organic foods and supporting small family farms." This is one thing that I wrote on my final food assignment. I think that this kind of shows how many people don't realize how they are placing money before they are to health because many people refuse to buy organic because it is more expensive. I think people really need to open their eyes and help spot the industrial food companies before all family farms are gone and all foods found in supermarkets will be tortured animals and fruit/vegetables drowned in pesticides. Personally for me it is also difficult to buy all organic foods but with a couple of organic things bought I think would definitely help then buying none at all. Plus it is one tiny step from making my eating habits better and better.
(Before and after shots of my fridge. This is how the food unit had kind of a effect on me. I stopped being lazy and got off my ass and went to the store more often with my dad.)

Last but not least is collapse. Although we did not spend as much time on this unit I think I was still able to grasp the concept. It was started off where most of the class probably did not know the significance of oil as we did not really know how it was even made. Now I have the understanding that oil equals EVERYTHING. The American way of life is surrounded by many things that need power to work such as computers, televisions, cars, heaters, etc. Seriously...everything. I feel like its good knowledge to realize what is the reason why we have all the luxuries and necessities we have around us. After knowing what oil gives us I learned about how oil can effect us. It sort of scared me to know that America has already reached it's oil peak. Reading about how Easter Island used up their main natural resource and how their society collapsed definitely gives a clue to how our society may most likely collapse as well as we are using up our main natural resource of fossil fuel. Although some believe, such as my dad that before then America would be able to create a substitute for oil. Although it makes me wonder, the islanders never really created a substitute for their trees? Maybe because if the society we live in will eventually collapse it is more of a slow collapse. I think this was a good way to end the year and all the different units we have learned about. I remember when Lauren Coen brought up the idea that there are many different types of collapses. I think most of the negative aspects that we learned about that America is facing could all eventually collapse. Whether it is a collapse in our economy, our health system, our values of birth, our health, food habits. I think people really need to look over what the real value of everything. I think that my eyes have probably not even opened up to the factors that are blinding me yet but I feel like I have more of a general idea on how to look past certain values that we consider being a true American and whether it is good or not. Not only way i really able to develop certain skills that i either never knew I had or learned to do it has also effected my way of life. For example, if remembering back to my "way of life video" Andy made us make I described how family was not really included in my video. This was mainly because (if you do not already have a clue) my family is very separated and rarely speak. I do not speak to my mom because of personal reasons and my brother no longer lives with me. It is basically me and my father and even under the same roof we rarely spoke and locked each other in different rooms. Through out this year I found myself getting closer to my father, sharing insights, asking questions, and sharing what I have learned just like I do in the classroom. I feel like it made my relationship with my father a lot more close and made me learn about his personal point of views about what he thought the American way of life is as well as he was able to learn about mine. Personally I have grown to understand more about how my life is some way was very typical American way of life. Going back way way waaaaaay back to maybe the first blog ever i stated "I think my way of life is what you definitely can call a typical American way of life." I feel that now it is some what unavoidable because I live in American and my lifestyle (comparing it to all the units we have done) many factors in which the American way of life is like such as the American way or birth, food, poverty, etc. And I realize how different my feelings are now when I think of saying "I live in the American way of life" then how i felt saying this in the first month of this school year. I feel that for now i enjoy the American way of life because nothing is effecting me directly FOR NOW but I feel like there are many aspects that needs to be resisted and changed. Our values do not create the way we live but I feel like the way we live is effecting and changing our values and that definitely needs to be changed and people need to be less oblivious and more aware of this.

(When put the word "values" on google this is what came up. I think this is interesting because through the all the units most of them kind of go against what this picture represents.)

Quotes to people: Comment on Sandy's Final Paper
Blogger dudeitscloesblog said...
I really like the fact that you had one main theory and aspect to the American way of life which is mainly about "authority". I do definitely agree that people are extremely dependent on authority figures or people who we think are superior then we are. I liked that you pointed out that people are really oblivious to this factor which is definitely true. Your paper was very solid and I think that being oblivious to people's dependent on authority really keeps citizens or America it's self to find it's true potential or true values. <333

Comment on Kevin's essay:
Hi Kevaaannnnnnnnnnnnnnnn
Okay well first I really enjoyed reading your final essay because I can really imagine you as I read it. I really liked how you are able to state your feelings and personally are able to connect to each course emotionally, and what knowledge you gained. It really shows how you were really living the American way of life based on what we have learned. And I also wanted to say I am really proud of you kevin, this year for history class you really worked. I really like your observations about the supermarkets and how the people push "healthyness" but yet we all eat junk food.

By the way, to respond to your comment to my blog: Well i first started being vegetarian mainly because of animal cruetly. Usually for many people being vegetarian is really hard to keep up with for a whole but amazingly for me as soon as i decided to be a vegetarian it came pretty easy to me. I think mainly because I really like animals and sometimes when I look at a piece of meat someone else is eating I don't really think about how it's a piece of animal but if someone were to put a piece of meat on my plate and tell me to eat it I would think about how it was once an animal who was once alive, had feelings, a way of living, and was defenseless. Also I don't believe that anyone should call them selves a vegetarian or vegan unless they are really truly committed to it, because I know some people who say they are vegetarian and yet still eat meat "once in a while".....that stupid son. lol

Comment to Jacara:
I really liked how you put how you make sense of America before and after. It shows how you were able to now have a new perspective of how America is. You showed this well through the examples of each unit. It basically shows that the class did teach you something and impacted your views. And I really enjoy how fun and the remarks you make on your blogs, it keeps it entertaining and I feel it is personable because it is really the way that you speak in a way. You paper is also really well organized and I really like how you were able to split it up in little sections of before and after perspective, your opinions, and your overall feelings. Good work Jacara<3333

:)

Collapse Mini Essay

Everything. Everything around us from the our television, our fancy cars, our heaters, cool air, even how our food is processed is all helped produced from one main factor. This factor is fossil fuel/oil. Without fossil fuel everything we see in front of our faces would not even exist. What is fossil fuel or oil? When Andy asked the question of what oil is and where it came from no one seemed to really give a credible answer. I did not even know where it comes from. This is really ironic because fossil fuel, the thing that keeps our lives running the way that it does every single blinking moment, and yet we do not even know what it really is or how it is made. Why is fossil fuel so important? I think all that needs to be cleared into people's heads is that it's important because literally almost everything is made from oil. My amazing laptop in which I do these wonderful blogs off of use energy which is used from oil.

In our present time apparently we have already reached our oil peak. Our oil peak supposedly happened in 2005 or 2006. According to the Energy Bulletin (Oil Peak Primer) "Oil is a finite, non-renewable resource, one that has powered phenomenal economic and population growth over the last century and a half." There is only a certain amount of oil and a oil peak indicates that about 1/2 of that oil has already been wasted. Some effects of the waste of oil is the increase of prices. "Oil and gas are feedstocks for plastics, paints, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, electronic components, tyres and much more." The fact that all these resources, food, power run from oil the fact that as oil decreases is will make the value go up which most likely will increase the price of everything/ every resource. I guess showing how important it is you can compare it to the collapse of Easter Island. Easter Island use to be an a rich, beautiful, tropical place which many natural resources. Unfortunately now they almost live in complete nothingness. Their health is horrible and their diets are horrible because of the lack in natural resources. Where did their natural resources go? For the islanders they build they huge massive statues, in order to make these statues they needed to use large amounts of natural resources around them. One for example is the trees. These statues were of great value to these islanders as they represented their wealth status. The bigger and nicer the statue, it showed off your wealth and status. Thus making the islanders a very competitive groups of people. The more natural resources they wasted the bigger their statues. The main thing they wasted were the trees, they chopped down all the trees to roll these statues and such and the extreme loss in trees completely caused a collapse in their society. How does this connect to America? Basically it was stated in class which is really true which is that fossil fuel is like the trees in Easter Island. As we waste all the oil we will eventual cause a collapse in our society since oil makes everything!

I first described the part in which I learned about in class and in discussions/ lectures. There is a second way in which I think of these topic although I am not so sure I am correct but I will still write about it since we did not spend much time on this collapse unit. I think eventually obviously we will run out of oil but I feel like maybe the more richer countries such as America and China will collapse slower then other poorer countries such as Africa if that makes sense? The reason for this is that since America is a more richer country it will be able to afford oil more to keep our lifestyle going longer. Although this may cause conflict because as oil gets more expensive there will be disproportionate wealth of nations, richer companies will be able to afford oil which can create conflict. For example my dad told me that it's like Japan attacked China for natural resources. I am not sure if this would be realistic or true but maybe since we will be able to keep our lifestyle going longer then poorer countries, scientifically maybe we would be able to develop replacements for oil just in time before oil runs out in 20 to 50 years. For example i researched about some things they eventually made to replace wasting resources: one is rubber. Apparently during world war two there was a big need for rubber and most rubber was made from "rubber trees" (what I call them) which are basically trees that produce a rubber base. Before we wasted these trees we eventually made synthetic rubber. So I was wondering if it maybe be possible hat long before we run out of oil and our earth comes to a stand still will America or our Earth be able to develope a replacement or "synthetic" to our oil?