Effects of Climate Change Presentation

While Dr. Karowe was giving his lecture on climate change, I found a lot of the information to be quite interesting and I learned a lot about global warming that I didn't know before. This lecture really opened up my eyes on how and why we need to do something to make a change in the world before its too late. Like Dr. Karowe mentioned in his lecture, depending on the choices we make, the Earth is said to be 2-5 degrees Celsius warmer by 2100 which has not happened in the 55 million years that the Earth has been around and because of this, nobody knows exactly what the Earth will be like. This fact scares me and it just makes me wonder why more people don't get on board with attempting to make a difference. If the 450+ million people that depend on agriculture for their source of food are not able to farm because the Earth is too hot, then that would cause a mass amounts amounts of death among people all around the world. 

I know that when I get enough money to buy a house and car that I will be doing my part to conserve the environment and to help limit carbon emissions. I will be buying a fuel efficient car, weatherize my house, and come election time, I will be voting for the candidate that advocates for environmental rights and will make better climate choices. 

Food Satire

For my blog post, I decided to find a clip on food satire. I ended up choosing a clip from the show, The Colbert Report on Comedy Central. During this clip, Stephen Colbert brings up the topic on how wheat is said to just as addictive as crack. Colbert proceeds to poke fun at this news cast and introduces a new mascot to help inform children of the dangers of eating wheat, McGnaw the gluten-free Beaver. The two then proceed to act like wheat is an actual drug and talk about what a child should do if they are offered wheat and other things along that line. 

I found that this clip was pretty funny. Its clear that Colbert is making fun of those news casters and how they feel that eating wheat is just as addictive as drugs like crack cocaine. When Colbert names off street names for different types of bread it is a clear shot at at how he feels that these people that think that wheat is addictive are just idiotic and shouldn't be taken seriously.       

A Moveable Feast Pt.2

While I was reading the next 50 pages of Hemingway's, A Moveable Feast, I found it to be quite odd. This is because Ernest Hemingway describes some of the weird things he does that allows him to work better and write better. One of these things includes him not eating. However, he has another reason for not eating; he isn't eating so that his wife has enough to eat. I found this to be very noble. Hemingway is willing to give up his own food so that his wife has enough. That is the definition of a true man and a great husband. 

Another thing that I found to be interesting was when another author was introduced. This author is Ford Madox Ford. I feel as if though Ford is quite weird. He keeps asking Hemingway if he saw him cut some other gentleman that walked into the same cafe as them. While doing this he seems to be happy. 

This book is pretty interesting and I can't wait to see what happens next.

A Moveable Feast

For my novel, I am reading Ernest Hemingway's, A Moveable Feast.This book is a memoir about Ernest Hemingway and about his time he spent living in Paris, France during the 1920's. He is there with his wife and son and many other authors are included in this book.  

 So far, this book is just okay. I found it pretty hard to follow and if I was actually able to do so I feel like I would like it a lot more. This is my first time reading Hemingway so I didn't really know what to expect. I've always been told that he was one of the best and now I get to see that for my self.

I noticed quickly that Hemingway is very descriptive. The way that he describes the places where he is at is quite remarkable. He is very descriptive and its almost like you are right there beside him. The way he describes the sights and smells of this cafe in Paris it great. He also talks about how the weather in Paris during this time as quite similar to the weather in Michigan; cold and windy. I thought it was pretty cool that there was a connection with our state while reading the first 50 pages of the book. I also found it interesting that, although he is an American writer, he still has a lot of European influences in his writing. For example, spelling color the english way, c-o-l o-u-r or spelling oder, o-d-o-u-r. 

I can't wait to continue reading this book. I hope that things clear up a little and that I will be able to understand it a little better but, I have high hopes and hopefully I will want to read more by Hemingway when I'm finished reading this novel.

The Hunger Games: The Final Chapters

Wow. That was my reaction as I finished reading the last sentence of this book. It was just great! The way that Katniss and Peeta found a way to beat the system was amazing. The fact that they both were able to survive was a miracle, however Katniss did get progressively stronger and stronger as the game went on and Peeta did know how to play the game through others (just as we talked about during class on monday). H basically conned them. Also, they were able to play up the romance between both of them in order to get sponsors and be able to receive the items that they need. I found this to be very clever. They were able to play the game by touching the emotion of others, or known as utilizing pathos. Genius. After doing this the entire time before the game, being able to take advantage of this romantic view that people see with both Katniss and Peeta really helped them and without it, who knows, perhaps they would have never even won. 

The way that Katniss and Peeta were able to end the game and be able to both make it out alive was extraordinary! After being told that the rules were changed back and that only one could win, both agree that if both of them cannot win, then there will be no winner at all. This prompts the games to end and both come out as victors. I found that to be quite empowering and clever. They both came to the conclusion that they would rather die than give them only one sole winner. This again plays off of their romance. Couldn't have asked for a better ending and a better way to stick it to the Gamemakers.  

I heavily enjoyed this book and cannot wait to read the remaining ones!

My Paradise Back Home

With all of this cold weather and snow that we have had for months now, I cannot help but to dream about summer. Summer is my favorite month and there is so much to do. During the summer months back in my home town, Macomb, my favorite thing to do is to take my boat out onto Lake St. Clair. For those of you who are live in the east side of Michigan might know where this place is. For those of you who don't, lake St. Clair is a fresh water lake that is between Michigan and Canada. 

I love it on the lake. Its my favorite place to be on a warm and sunny day. Its just so beautiful. The way the sun reflects off of the water and the nice breeze as you cruz around the open water is just something you cannot beat! Also, its always fun to bring some friends with me when I go out so that we can have some fun on my jet boat. From tubing to just dropping anchor and chilling in the awesome summer sun its unreal. 

My favorite thing to do out on lake St. Clair is going wakeboarding with my family. Wakeboarding is practically like snowboarding on water for those of you who have never heard of it before. Its one of mine and my brother's favorite hobbies. We started
when we were around 11 or 12 and loved it ever since. Theres nothing better than whipping around on the back of a boat and catching air as you jump the wake.
 is practically my baby. That might sound a little weird but I absolutely love it. Yes when you fall and crash into the water it can hurt and I have gotten a concussion from it but that hasn't stopped me nor will it ever stop me from doing what I love, on the lake that I love. Lake St. Clair is my own paradise that I can escape to to relax and have fun.     

The Jungle - Ch.14-20

While reading chapters 14 through chapters 20 of Sinclair's, The Jungle, I found it to be truly depressing. I could not help it but to feel really bad for Jurgis and his family. Their situation while living in American just got progressively worse as I read on. From finding out that his wife has been getting raped for two months straight by her boss, to being thrown into prison and having to just sit there while his family is struggling just to survive. Its something that I could never imagine having to go through. With everything that has been going on in his life, its no wonder why he turned to alcohol as an escape as well. It isn't the best way to escape his problems going on but, from his point of view, its the only one. He had to witness the death of his newly born baby and also the death of his wife who he loved so very much. 

These chapters were so terribly depressing for Jurgis and his family that I really didn't like to read it. Personally, when I'm reading a book I don't want to feel sad when reading it. I am more a fan of action books and books that add more comedy into them. Thats my kind of books. Reading a depressing book like The Jungle just isn't my idea of a "good time. I like to be happy as long as I possibly can!

The Jungle Pt.1

The book that we are reading, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, was pretty surprising to me already. This is going to be my first time reading this book and even though we are only through the first couple chapters, there was a lot that I found interesting and not really in a good way. 

First off, I was not expecting this book to have an optimistic tone to it at all. From everything that I have heard about this book, I expected it to have a very dark, grim, and negative tone. That really caught me off guard. 


Next, I thought it was interesting that Jurgis was happy to be doing the work that he was doing. I mean I guess he is just happy to have work in general. After all thats the whole reason why he came to America anyway. He was searching for the "American Dream" but after only earning about $2 per day is that really going to become a reality? He works over 12 hours a day and doesn't get paid that much at all. He is sweeping the entrails of cattle that have been slaughtered and loves it; even with that horrible smell everyday, all day long. He also has to just watch as so many sanitation infractions are occurring. He is literally watching as contaminated is packaged and sent out. I don't think I could live with myself knowing that there are families out there that will be feeding this meat to their children. I mean the conditions and sanitation is a lot better now (or at least I hope so) but still its just not something that I could do. Then again, I guess he's just happy to have a job in the first place. 

My Modest Proposal

With the growing starvation problem that is facing the world, there is not too much being done to help solve it. There is way too big of a population of starving people in this world for the problem to solved. Of the 1.7 billion or so people that are in this world, 33% of those people are starving. Thousands of people die everyday from starvation and suffer throughout their entire life. The stay miserable from lack of food. It is for these reasons that I have my very own solution on how to fix said problem. 

My solution the the starvation problem in the world is quite simple. Now I warn you, it may SEEM a little unnecessary and evil but, I believe it is a pretty good way to go about this. Mykills two birds with one stone. Not only does it take a chunk out of the starvation problem by just "getting rid" of it and just sweeping it under the rug so to speak, it also takes care off the world's problem of over population. 
solution to fix the starvation problem in the world is to set up little camps all around the world. In these camps, all of the starving people will be gathered up and placed into houses. While in these houses, a form of deadly gas will be dropped from the ceiling while the doors are locked from the outside. This

This is only for adults so children will not be allowed in. These children will instead be brought to factories in China and Japan and also farms and fields in Guatemala and Mexico to work for very little amounts of money and terrible working conditions kind of like it already is now. This will cause an increase in production and then countries, like the U.S., will be able to import a lot more products so that they can just end up wasting it anyways.    

And the Earth Did not Devour Him & Cajas de Carton

When I was finished reading both And the Earth Did not Devour Him and Cajas de Carton I couldn't help but notice some similarities. Both of the families in these stories are pretty much going through the same thing. Both are poverty stricken families that work extremely hard in order to try to provide a better life for their children. Also, the whole family works; even the littlest ones. Another thing that I have noticed is the amount of hard work that these migrant workers have. They work long hours, in the extreme heat, everyday of the week. Not
many Americans can say that they do that or have the same amount of work ethic. 

 To connect these stories to my own life, during the summer I work with a man who is from Mexico and him and his family did the same thing that these families are doing. He would tell me stories of his childhood of his family all working on a farm doing a lot of the similar jobs. He said of how they would travel a lot looking for work. Anything they could get really and for however long they could get it. He told me that they would work from sun up to sun doCajas de Carton where Francisco was able to go to school. Unfortunately, he didn't have that privilege. He has since gotten his GED and is one of the nicest and most hard working persons I've ever met.    

Rigoberta Menchú

This story of Rigoberta Menchú was really inspirational and eye opening. The fact that she was working when she was only 5 was quite disturbing. While other five year olds in the United States and other parts of the world were playing with toys and other neighborhood kids without a care in the world, just as a five year old should, Rigoberta was working side-by-side with her mother. No child should have to do that and even if they are, they should at least get paid. They shouldn't have to wait until they are 8 to get what they deserve. 

This story really made me thankful for what I have. I sit there and complain about not having food in my house when Im sure there is something that I can find while there are other people in other countries that are starving. I sometimes complain about how I feel under paid for the work I do when there are people barely getting paid and they probably do twice the work and work a whole lot harder than I do. I complain about the homework I have or the test coming up while there are people that would KILL to have the opportunity to an education that I have.  

After reading Rigoberta's story, I just feel like a giant complainer who doesn't know how good he has it. I cannot even imagine how hard the Guatemalan people have it. This story changed me as a person. I will start to become more thankful for all of the little things in my life that most of us take for granted while there are some people out there who can only dream about having.

A Modest Proposal

While I was reading through some of my other classmate's blog posts, their reactions were all about the same, disgust, horror, and surprise. A lot of what Swift says are disgusting and horrific and I don't blame anyone to have these emotions. Although all of these emotions are fair, there is an underlying message to this essay that not many people know; especially if they are reading it for the first time. 

During high school, we read and analyzed Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal. In fact we had to write a pretty lengthly essay on it so, I know what Swift was really trying to get across. Even though Swift may have brought up some pretty interesting solutions to solve the hunger problem, he is not really serious about any of it. He is actually writing a satire. It might have not appeared to be so but that is the point of the essay. He wanted to get attention from the public by proposing some ludicrous solution. His satire actually mocks the way people view the poor and the hungry. It also is meant to make the audience think about the Irish policy at the time. 

I must say that Swift does have a very dark sense of humor and a very dark writing style. However, I can see how this would catch everyone's attention. Even now when people read it, its very attention grabbing. Its just a crazy proposal that nobody in their right mind would actually consider. It does actually make it quite funny once you figure out his real intention behind the essay and what he was actually trying to accomplish. 

Loaves & Fishes

While going through the Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes's website, there is a lot that I have learned. As I navigated through the "for students" section, I came across a reading from 2011 that had talked about the families that are going through hard financial times and had also included tables; one of which was the U.S. census poverty thresholds for families according to size. While I studied these tables and paragraphs, it had really opened up my eyes. I guess I never really realized how many families are going through hard times right in my backyard. This site really made me thankful for what I have and that I always had food in my pantry and fridge even if I thought that there was nothing.  

Another thing that I had noticed from going through this website was that, at the high school that I had attended, we were doing something very similar. Ours wasn't as big but, it was along the same lines. At my school, we had a room where people would go to donate food or money and anybody from the neighborhood or the surrounding area could go and get food for them and their families. I always thought it was such a great idea that my school was this generous to the community and really made me feel proud to be associated with such a great school. 

Loaves & Fishes is such a fantastic organization that has so many people so thankful that they are operating. On the website it said that they had given out roughly 2 million pounds of food annually. This is so incredible and I know that the people who are receiving this food cannot thank this organization enough for all that they have done. I cannot wait to go there myself and learn all that I can from them.       

Dinner of Trimalchio

While I reading the Dinner of Trimalchio I felt that it was quite hard to follow at times. The way the chapters were worded could be difficult at times and I struggled. Although this is true, from what I did pick up from the story was that the feast that they all had encountered was awfully decadent. Its unlike anything that I've read before. I had taken a Western Civilization class in high school and we had covered the life styles of people during this time period of ancient Egypt and Nero but, we had never coved anything quite like this. It really opened my eyes about the just how HUGE of a gap there was with social classes. Way more than I had thought. The wealth of Trimalchio was quite outstanding and I am quite curious as to what had happened for him to acquire such wealth. 

Something that I had found pretty interesting was that there was a different meal almost with every chapter. From what I could take away from the text, they most likely very luxurious foods from all over. The  themselves seemed like nothing really that we would see people eating today which I found interesting. Although, I guess food does change over time. One thing about the feast that I didn't understand really was when the meals were placed on the signs of the zodiac. I felt that that was pretty interesting.

Nutritional Facts and Sponsors

While reading the last 100 pages of Marion Nestle's, Food Politics : How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, I came across a table that showed which food companies sponsored which nutrition journals and I was very shocked by what the table entailed. According to the text, 28 different companies sponsor journals that inform the public about the nutrition of our food.  House hold names such as Coca-Cola, Quaker Oats, Kraft Foods, Nestlè USA, and many more are named as these companies. Nestle also states how in some of these journals, there are several full sized advertisements from these companies located in the journals themselves. These journals can take in as much as $20 million per year from these companies. 

With these large contributions, these companies are able to influence the journals and how they portray what is being said about them. After all, money is king and rules the world. If you have money, you can influence anyone's view on you. You can change a negative view into a positive one simply by throwing a little bit of money around. That is why the richest people in this world have the most power and influence in politics . They make donations to campaigns and that candidate must owe them a favor if they get elected. It's crazy if you think about it; what people will do for money. Who knew that a little piece of paper would have that much influence and could have that much power? 

     

1900 and 2000

While reading Marion Nestle's, "Food Politics : How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health, there was one thing that stood out to me the most. This happened to be one particular table that compared the top ten diseases from 1900 and 2000. This table was quite interesting to me because, although they were different diseases, the cause of mostly all of them had one common factor; food and diet. The text talked of how in the early 20th century, people would catch disease that were made worse by the lack of peoples' food intake. The poor were especially effected by this. Nestle also states that, because of this problem, the average life expectancy was only a mere 47 years old. Personally, I found this to be quite unsettling. This is something that should not be such a large problem for such a strong nation. It should not have taken 100 years to help fix the problem. I guess with the Great Depression  and the two world wars it would have stalled the correction of this problem but, after these events, the economy was on the up and up. 

Although in the 20th century the lack of food was the problem, when the 21st century hit it was the opposite. The diet of most people was anything but healthy. People were starting to eat more and more unhealthy foods which, in turn, led to many of these people to develop diseases of the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and many more. Nestle states how even though that the government may want people to eat less, they cannot say that because it would harm the food producers. This is an interesting view. This is because the food industry has become such a large business in America that if citizens were to start to eat less of the junk food that they love, these businesses would lose out on a ton of money and perhaps it may even lead to job cutbacks.  

Food and I

Being together for dinner in my family is very important. It was always something that my mother felt strongly about and had a strong belief that if a family that eats together, stays together. My mom would cook dinner every night and my siblings and I would make sure that we made home for whatever was in the oven that night. Every night it was something good. From a delicious pot roast to, my personal favorite, steak. Even as my siblings were going off to college, we still had these family dinners with whoever was still at home.

Although every night was great, Sundays were ALWAYS the best. Sundays were always so relaxing. All my family and I would do on Sundays is sit on the couch and watch football. My mom would be in the kitchen at half time cooking appetizers so that we all had something to munch on while we watched our Detroit Lions go on to blow the game in the fourth quarter like always.

Not only was the dinners themselves great but, also the conversations were always nice. My mom would always ask how our day was, what we did, did we learn anything at school today, and if anything interesting happened today. Aside from the normal dinner conversations, there was always the ones that were interesting to say the least. For example, during dinner one night the topic of , if you could be any famous person who ever lives who would it be?

Eating dinner together as a family has always been a staple value in my up bringing. This is something that I will bring into my family when I am fortunate enough to have my own someday and something that I hope my children are able to pass along to their own children.