Quintissence

The quintissencial soccer ball. This soccer ball is unlike any other. It is plain, simple, original, yet it has that sense of beauty that cannot be explained. The black and white pattern shows so much within the game. The kind of spin put on the ball, how fast the spin is, etc. There are those fancy yellow and blue soccer balls and those balls with lots of design, but that is not of quality. This quintissencial soccer ball has been used for decades and represents soccer. This telstar design was introduced by Adidas, making this ball the official ball of the 1970 and 1974 World Cup held in Mexico and West Germany. This ball looks so comfortable, so soft, seems like you could control it with so much ease and fluency. This is the soccer ball amongst soccer balls, the King, the Master of all soccer.

lit circle post

Since Malaria is a sub-theme for poison wood, I thought I should research some of it as Historian. Leah, Ruth May, and Orleanna all went through it, and although it describes their actions and loss of interest in activities, no one here really knows what it's like to have Malaria. I thought it would give us a better image of some of the scenes in the book. Malaria in humans develops when an infected mosquito pierces a person's skin to take a blood meal, sporozoitesin the mosquito's saliva enter the bloodstream and migrate to the liver. Within 30 minutes of being introduced into the human host, they infect hepatocytes, multiplying asexually and asymptomatically for a period of 6–15 days. During this so-called dormant time in the liver the sporozoites are often referred to as hypnozoites. In the liver they differentiate to yield thousands of merozoites which, following rupture of their host cells, escape into the blood and infect red blood cells, thus beginning the erythrocytic stage of its life cycle. The parasite escapes from the liver undetected by wrapping itself in the cell membrane of the infected host liver cell.

As you can see, Malaria is hard to detect once you get it, and once you get it, since it is in your bloodstream, it is theoretically impossible to get rid of it.

Also, I thought the Mamba Snake interested everyone, so I also have researched that. Green mambas are found only in Africa. Their neurotoxin is injected into their prey through their fangs. Dendrotoxin is a strong convulsant. a convulsant causes convulsions, which are just involuntary contractions of the muscle, which explains Ruth May's reaction to the bite of the Mamba Snake. I hope this helped people's understanding.

Lit Circle Post

Today we talked about the rough summary of Bel and the Serpent and the significant things of the chapter. We haven't picked out jobs, but since I think character analysis will be most interesting to do, I'll go ahead with that. I actually just want to focus on Leah because when I read Judges, I thought that Leah is finally beginning to grow up, and she will be making alot of changes in this book 4. As you read, you find out about the hunt, how she betrays her father and doesn't care about what he thinks. I believe that she is making a great change and is helping out the Congolese people especially with schooling help with Anatole. Later on, she gets kind of cocky, if that is the right term and just loses her temper at the festival place where Tata Ndu's eldest son complains about how she, a woman couldn't have done it, and he throws the leg at her, and blood spatters on her and she retaliates at him by throwing it back. Everyone saw it as a disrespectful action and decides to throw things everywhere and then at the end there is pretty much no food left... Rachel did mention that she doesn't want to say it, but it's true that Leah is causing problems and she blames Leah for all of their problems. She also causes people to be scared because she won the vote at the meeting and Tata Kuvudundu scared the crap out of everyone about the Leopards and how they walk around like a man. She is both troublemaker and helper, and in the majority, she is a trouble maker, but as Tata Ndu says, Majority rules would only put thepot in the fire.

Paragrpah analysis

"No one breathed. 'White men tell us: Vote, bantu! They tell us: you do not all have to agree, ce n'est pas necessaire! If two men vote yes and one says no, the matter is finished. A bu, even a child can see how that will end. It takes three stones in the fire to hold up the pot. Take one away, leave the other two, and what? The pot will spill into the fire'".

This paragraph is very important. This really speaks up about what the Americans think in Congo and how they're so different from each other. What Tata Ndu says is very true and is wise. If we follow what the white people do and only use 2 stones, the pot cannot balance and will fall, however in the Congo where everyone's vote matters, the pot can stay balanced and can stabilize the country. They will talk it out until it is properly been decided on. This is just like what Nathan thinks. He thinks that as long as he has authority, he can run things his way just as he has done ever since he first came, and make things better for this country. However, in church Jesus was voted out 56-11, majority rules, and Nathan lost in his own game. This is important because this is why Leah lost all respect for Nathan and totally disobeys his orders and does not care whatsoever what he may think or do. Nathan still does not understand that the Congo is different and the game is not his. He doesn't have home court advantage. The Congolese know how to play their game in their own field. Leah obviously understands that and has gotten over what America was like and has learned to live with what is offered here. Nathan on the other hand is totally stubborn and reads the bible and follows its ways literally, still believing that that is the key to success.

It's Egg Hunting season

As you all may or may not know, yesterday was Easter. I am definitely not a big Easter person and I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why we celebrate this day hunting eggs. I don't know scrap about Easter, but it's apparently the day Jesus died and got crucified or something. I really am not sure. My chemistry teacher told us how his daughter went Egg hunting on Easter. Well the interesting part is that she went hunting for golf balls rather than eggs, and the balls could be redeemed for candy. He then raised up the question of "How did Easter go from Jesus' death, to Egg hunting, to golf balls?". I thought that that was pretty funny and an interesting perspective to look at it. My mom has taken me Egg hunting maybe twice when I was around 7 or 8, and I didn't look at it much as anything, nor did I recognize what this day really was and why I got free candy. Everyone knows why we have Christmas and why we celebrate it the way we do. We also know what Thanks giving day is and why it is that we celebrate it by eating turkey and lots of food. But I JUST realized that I didn't really know what Easter was, and why the heck a Bunny/Rabbit hides eggs for kids to find. That's really really odd. Christmas is celebrated by giving presents because Saint Nick used to hand out gifts to everyone in his town at that time of year, giving you the fictional character of Santa Clause, which totally makes sense. I thought I'd put this topic on here because to me, it's interesting, and if anyone knows anything, it'd be cool if you could tell me.

Poison wood

In Judges, we got to see a whole new perspective of many of the characters because of various happenings within the chapter. For example, Rachel, who is always the pretty girl and is very conscious about what others think all of a sudden changes due to Tata Ndu. He starts visiting the Price family often and comes with gifts every week, and after a while, Nelson gives them the news of his desire for Rachel as another wife. Rachel then acts really stupid in front of Tata Ndu to attempt to change his mind. Orleanna is also another character you start to see change. She was sick in bet for a month, but after Leah and Rachel fight in the kitchen, she regains authority. She also says whatever she feels like whether or not Nathan is listening. Nathan doesn't change alot, but we find out the man he used to be before the war and how he is obsessed with the bible because the Lord saved his life. Ruth may is sick and is no longer the girl she used to be. As the family moves her into another room, they find all of her malaria pills beside her bed and they find out that she has never taken any of them before. Leah begins to take lessons from Anatole as she helps him out in school, and she receives a bow as a gift. This gift may or may not be a wedding gift just like Rachel's, but I think it's unlikely especially after the night of the ants. Adah doesn't change much, but after the night of the ants I bet she changed. She was betrayed by her own mother, who picked Ruth may over her. Adah was about to get trampled as she was all alone feeling betrayed, but Anatole manages to grab her and save her. The whole night revealed many, if not all of the hidden facts of each character that no one knew about. Perhaps maybe the characters never knew that about them selves either.

SAT practice essay

SAT Practice Essay

I believe that it is important for schools to help students to understand moral issues and social issues. Schools don’t teach students just to get them through high school and college. School educators help students succeed in life as a whole.

On one hand, it is very important to teach them math, English, and social studies skills. Doing that opens up a lot of doors for students which may or may not lead them to college. For most people, college helps them to further extend their success into getting a job which is a general goal for many of us students. There is that law that says everyone must pass the standardized test, and in that certain sense, it is extremely crucial to teach the correct subjects.

But when will you ever need to solve a math problem and solve for “x”? The students will be knowledgeable in many ways, but everyone makes many choices everyday, especially through out high school: to go to class or to cut it, drugs, sex, etc. If you look on the other hand, you can clearly see where moral choices and social issues are critical. For example, every school such as ours teaches the effect of drugs, sex, etc. But just teaching the mere facts just doesn’t cut it. Schools say what is right and what is wrong, but some students do it anyway. For most of them, the outcome wasn’t so great. Moral choices are for students to make, but should definitely be taught by educators.

The war on Iraq. Social issues world wide such as this and social issues in the community like homelessness creates different perspectives within each student which stays with them for life, which also greatly influences their thinking and decision making, which is absolutely critical in life. No one can say which should be taught more than the other because they both are absolutely important in life.

Common Place

During Spring Break, I stayed here in Hawaii, and kicked back and just relaxed. I went surfing alot this spring break and it was definitely fun. The teachers didn't assign me much HW so I was able to use most of spring break relaxing. I really appreciated the little HW because we only have 10 days of spring break which zoomed right by. I had a friend from Japan come over, and we slept over at a friends house and just partied and relaxed the last 2 days of spring break. Surfing was really relaxing and it was fun although someone hit me and one of my skegs on my surfboard. Other than that, Spring break was just really relaxing. My friend from Japan, a school friend and I went surfing and it was super fun with them. I haven't seen him for a while because he had to move back to Japan and he had been studying hard for entrance exams and couldn't make it over to Hawaii in the summer. I was kind of worried that he and I lived in such different environments that we grew up differently and we changed, but he never changed and apparently, neither did I and it was as if he never left. It really seemed like he's been there for life and I guess that's what it feels like to have a best friend. It didn't seem like we haven't seen each other in a long time. I guess once a friend, always a friend. There's nothing that can break that. Alot of things brought back a ton of memories that I didn't even know I had in my brain. He and I and my other friend just cruised together as if we were always hanging out like this. But I semi consciously knew that he's going back in a week or so, so I plan to make the best out of my opportunity. I don't exactly know which essential question this pertains to, but to me, this is really important and it means alot so it's gotta be a part of an essential question. I just haven't realized it yet.

MOsquito Coast Movie

We finished watching a movie called Mosquito Coast during class today, and we were supposed to compare that movie and the book we are reading now called Poisonwood Bible. Poisonwood Bible is similar to Mosquito Coast because both families are Caucasian, both families go to a very wild place and are not used to such natural habitats. The fathers in both stories are self centered and think that they can do everything and anything. I believe that both fathers are trying to do good for the Family, but everyone in the family is going somewhat crazy because of such hardships they face in the wild. Both fathers think they're doing the best for the family, but both Fathers are so caught up in the moment that they drive their family down a deep hole. The movie has sons and daughters and are very hard to compare with the 4 daughters in the book. The two story lines are very similar although what they each do to survive is different. Also, they both have another Caucasian family living near them.

Walk Activity

This may be really bad, but I did the best I could to imitate Ruth May's innocent personality and her naive personality. I hope it works out.


We're visiting Hawaii for the first time today. I hope there aren't any devils there, because I hate the devils. Father says that Hawaiians are rather religious and that it should be a godly place. In Hawaii, there's going to be 6 white people: Me, Leah, Adah, Rachel, Mama, and Father. I saw some pictures of Hawaiianese people. I think they're called Hawaiianese. Anyway, they look really dark just like the Congolese. I hope there are no naked women walking around. That really upset father because they weren't cherishing the bodies God gave to them. When we got there, we were greeted by white people! We thought they were private escorts just for us, but turns out, this place is nothing like Congo! It's like an anti-racism party where it doesn't matter who you talk to and are seen with. Father and God are going to get Angry for joining the devil's party. We got to a school called *******, and it was pretty fun! I joined this fun class in somewhere called the ****** units, but Father doesn't like dirtying the soul, so I made sure I prayed to God after I played with all the dark children. There were so many computers in the class! I had never seen so many before! On our walk here, we saw so many bad people saying bad things! We say people like Leah and Adah, except they had this weird "slang" talk that is really bad and I'm going to tell Father. They had these Chickens in ******. I think they made the bad children fight with the chicken until their death. Outside were many utensils and rides that kids were on. Some of them looked dangerous. I think they put all the bad kids on the swings so they can fling them away. They had the really bad ones climb this big Banyan tree and see who falls off first.

SAT analysis

This is kind of late. i forgot about this too. Well, the SAT was difficult. I knew what I wanted to say, but I just couldn't grasp the right words and language to express my thoughts on it. I had alot to say, I just lacked the ability of sentence structuring (if that word exists). The people's blogs I've read didn't quite help me as much as I hoped for because their approach upon this essay was different from mine. The ideas they wanted to express were different from mine, the idea approach and how to get the readers convinced AKA strategy was different. Reading other essays helped me because people had different writing styles, and it gives me a different perspective to what kind of writing is more likely to attract readers. Mr.Watson said the first 15 lines decide whether or not a reader continues to read or not. Because of this, writing style, and making it sound more interesting is key to the SAT.

What should've been the first PB post

I didn't think we had to do a PB post for our first meeting because we didn't talk about anything, so I figured I should do it now rather than later. Well, my job is to be the lexicographer, and I just jotted down all of the words I didn't know, and most likely, my group members wouldn't know it either, so it would just boost our vocab. We decided on our jobs as the most beneficial ones because some of them were kind of meaningless, so we selected 3 of the best jobs and gave one out to each of us. We could've done one hard job and have all 3 of us do it and make it real good, but we decided that wasn't quite necessary.

This I believe

http://shosurf.podOmatic.com/entry/2007-03-02T18_03_35-08_00

Common Place

I saw this article about this needy family giving to the Salvation Army. Even on a tight budget, she says "There's always someone worse off than you" and "you never know when you're going to need help one day". They know they are barely making it past each day with 5 children and she and her husband each working 2 jobs seven days a week. I think that's super tough. I complain alot about having HW, or that I don't have enough money for a surround sound stereo. But there are people who are in need of food and daily necessities in which I regard as something that is always there and has not much importance. More and more I value my health, my nutrition (which isn't so nutritional with all the snack bar food), etc. And now, this mother of 5 had to give up both jobs to raise her children, and Helping Hands Hawaii is helping many families like hers by putting them on their Santa's list for those who need a break and a bit of hope in their daily struggle. This seriously affected me and my thinking, because there is always someone worse off than you are, and that is sad. She gave to charity. Even with the fact that she and her husband could barely afford to eat with 2 jobs each, she had the heart to give little of what they could, to help others in need.

A place I know well

I kind of forgot about this blog post, so I'm getting to it now.

It is rather familiar, a place I go 5 days out of 7 to sit down and talk and play games and eat while I am not attending classes. People come, people stay and then people go. There is just a cycle of people coming and going so that every hour you come by, there will be different people there. Perhaps not all different, but always a different combination of people. But every second you see it, there are always people there; people lingering around just to talk and chat, laugh, play games, argue, etc. For some it is a quick pit stop in between classes to chat with friends and get caught up in this social world within Punahou. For some it is almost like their home. It is a place they can come back to to see loved ones and spend time with them. For everyone, it serves a different purpose. Whether that purpose is to spend time with friends and people you love, a place to eat, a place to get caught up, a place to get HW done, a place to copy HW, whatever purpose it may serve, this place holds importance to all of us whether or not you are conscious of it or not. We all have walked through it, seen it, it affects everyone's lives: "The Crack" (which is referred to the area between Pauahi and Bingham which is merely a "crack" between the buildings, hence the name "The Crack").

I tried to do this as well as I can, tell me if you think it's good or not. and what I'm doing wrong. That'll help my future posts to improve.

Literature 8

Today, we got into our Literature 8 groups for our first time after we've done research or done our jobs for Genesis. Our group just talked a bout the history of Congo that Maika and some information about, although he couldn't find alot because not much about Africa was taken interest in, so there was little information out there. He did find out though, that 1959 was a time of rebellion of Belgium and South Africa. I'm not exactly sure, but all we know was about the rebellion in Africa. We also had Caitlin do the character Analysis, and we talked about the characters at the end. We talked about how Leah, the oldest one is so girly and self-conscious about her hair and how she looks, while her 3 sisters seem to care little about their looks. The twins especially because they look like each other. I also mentioned that the mute twin was somewhat jealous of the other normal twin because she was less gifted than her sister. She said that her sister "cannibalized her" in the womb and that she took all of the nutrition form her to keep for herself. The author, in my opinion, seems to talk alot about the character's personality directly to the readers rather than have us read and find out through actions and context.
Today we spent most of our time going through words we didn't know, and there were many many many words from each of us, and it was tough going through it, and being the lexicographer, I had down a little under 50 words, maybe more since most of the words came from me, and the other 2 seemed more or less to be paying attention to any unknown words. Perhaps they kept reading and found out a vague meaning through context. Anyway, out first day was rather successful.

Essential Question

I thought about what my essential question is. Here it is. "What is this world we all live in and what is it coming to?" All of my posts are about racism and our reactions toward certain things that we are unaware of very often. The Essential question for now is set for me, however, life is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get. So, my entries will vary from time to time, but I strongly believe in what I post, and I think I'll continue to post things related to this, and perhaps I'll come across more questions in which I can combine with my current question to get the ultimate essential question. Who knows?

Internet

I saw the Internet video we saw in class, and it was pretty cool. Although I didn't fully understand what net neutrality was, all i know is that it's like some equality thing between communicators. I don't really know what I'm saying either. It does feel unreal that they tried to vote Internet to be private only and not open to all the public, but why would they do that? One thing, the teenagers in the country are just going to overrule and overpower the adult congress voters. Because Internet is used by people over 18, therefore allowing us to vote online. Anyway, the last question in the video "What does Internet mean to you?" To me, it means a way of communication, a way to be with friends when you really aren't. We see the Internet as like a thing that's always going to be there. But after seeing this, you really are grateful and I appreciate the Internet a bit more. You can do a million things on the Internet that is extremely useful. You can research without flipping a single page, you can talk to people, chat, Skype it and talk online, myspace, download music, email and leave messages for people, I can keep going, and going, and going. I mean you can shop online now, and even order pizza online. Internet is like a Universe within the computer. The universe is there, but there is no ending. Just like how the computer is one thing, but what you can do with it is unlimited. I thought this was kind of fun to think about.

SAT practice Essay

Hey guys. For anyone reading this, this was a practice SAT test we took, written in 25 minutes without any revision whatsoever. I'm not very confident about this essay. It just feels really unorganized, but what I want to say is in it. I'm not sure if it's worded and organized in the best way possible. Well, tell me what you think.


The media does determine what is important to most people through advertisement. The quote says "The media not only transmit information and culture, they also decide what information is important. In that way, they help to shape cultures and values." In magazines, they show celebrities that people like, and people want to be just like them. The magazine ads are trying to tell us what's hot and what's not. People wear their hair like many celebrities, get cosmetic surgery to make a certain part look like them, etc. So why doesn't the media save money on their ads by using any person they can get off the streets? That's because having a celebrity increases the value on the item alot more. The fact that a celebrity does the ad makes us people want it more because most people want to be as similar to the celebrity as much as possible. They want to be as popular as they can by trying to be like a celebrity. Smoking ads would sometimes use celebrities and show them smoking and being cool. The idea behind it is to give us the sense that "It's cool to smoke because ___ smokes too and look where it's gotten him/her into. It's OK to do it."
The "most people" referred to in this essay is usually all teenagers. Guys often talk freely about hot celebrities having a really nice chest and ass in this magazine or in this movie or in this TV show, etc. This is because the media shows female celebrities with a really hot guy have nice chest and ass. This gives guys the idea that that is the most important thing on a girl rather than the personality stuff. Girls know that guys are crazy for the chest and ass that is considered "good" on a girl. They want guys to like them, but how? They see all the media where only the women with the hot face, big chest and nice ass get all the guys. So the girls think they have to be like them because that is what's most important.
However, this isn't always the case. There is something that the media can't change by trying to determine what's hot and what's not. The media controls most people's minds with what "looks" hot on a girl/guy. However, many people like the personality trait WITHIN the opposite sex too. That can't be changed. Some people don't care whatsoever about the physical appearance on the opposite sex. Sometimes they just care about their kindness, their passion, their inner beauty. Although the media can surely determine the importance of what's hot, they cannot determine which personality is best. That is 100% personal. Personality is unbreakable, and impenetrable to anything. Personality is the tough inner core within us all that speaks so much about us despite what we may look like.

This I believe

I hope I'm posting the right thing, but here's my This I believe Essay, and tell me what you think.



My name is Sho Hasegawa, I am pretty new to surfing, but I have begun to like it a lot already. I learned on a longboard, and still continue to surf at Diamondhead and Canoes on my longboard. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not good or anything, so don’t assume anything. When I first began surfing, I was nervous, didn’t know what was really going on; the usual “first-time” feeing. But as soon as I caught my first wave on a surfboard, it felt pretty cool. Paddling on my board in Canoes, Waikiki, it was a beautiful, warm summer day. I bet you remember your first day as a surfer. Say you’re not a surfer though. I bet you remember your first day of something big. Trying out something almost completely new to you.
Surfing is great because although it may sound corny and all that, it is pretty peaceful. It helps me to relax and it feels like nothing is there except for me and the waves. The clear, ocean water crashing down on me as I paddle to catch the wave is just cool. Just imagining that relaxes me.
Having fun is the most important part of all. Isn’t it why you surf? So you’re asking me “Why are you telling us all this crap about what surfing is and all this corny stuff?” Well, here’s what. One of 4 things will happen to you when you surf. Number one: you catch the wave. Number two: You miss the wave. Number three: The wave does something unexpected (or you do) and you wipe out during your ride back to shore. Last, but not least, number four: You ride the wave all the way back into shore and have a great experience and adrenalin rush.
OK, so what is this whole thing about what happens when you surf? Well, let me explain. Catching the wave is like taking the opportunity when it comes your way. Missing the wave means you let an opportunity slip by. Wiping out means you didn’t get what you wanted, when taking the opportunity and riding with it. Or you did something wrong during the ride. Riding the wave all the way back means you got the award you seeked when taking the opportunity and did the right things at the right time.

In life, you’re prepared. I know I am. I have the right tools, like the surfboard. I have the proper skills and technique to ride it all the way back to shore. Sometimes, you get too anxious and you just go and force yourself to surf. You go when the surf is small, when the surf isn’t up. You start paddling for waves that are too small when you get anxious, and you can’t catch it and you miss a big wave right after because you got too anxious and couldn’t wait it out. I know I’m like that both out in the water and in life. You get frustrated and can’t do anything about it and you start going downhill. I suggest you paddle back out and wait for the wave of your life.


All this is bound to change, a couple words, how I say things, etc. But the whole layout and everything is goin g to stay the same so tell me what you think. That'd be nice.

Common Place

I'm not sure yet what my essential question is, but I'm hopiong my entries will result in an overall essential question. Anyway, this is part of the lyrics of a song I was listening to, and I used to like it for the beats, the flow, but if you listen to each phrase, each line, this guy is rapping to something big.

I see no changes wake up in the morning and I ask myselfis life worth living should I blast myself?I'm tired of bein' poor & even worse I'm blackmy stomach hurts so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatchCops give a damn about a negropull the trigger kill a nigga he's a heroGive the crack to the kids who the hell caresone less hungry mouth on the welfareFirst ship 'em dope & let 'em deal the brothersgive 'em guns step back watch 'em kill each otherIt's time to fight back that's what Huey said2 shots in the dark now Huey's deadI got love for my brother but we can never go nowhereunless we share with each otherWe gotta start makin' changeslearn to see me as a brother instead of 2 distant strangersand that's how it's supposed to beHow can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?I'd love to go back to when we played as kidsbut things changed, and that's the way it is

Changes, by Tupac is pretty inspirational if you ask me. It's old, but it was one of the greatest hits, and the words in his lyrics are probably more than just words he sings with his mouth. He most likely sings it with his heart and soul. Sounds corny, yeah, I think so too, but it's kind of true. This kind of got my attention in the sense that this song I enjoy suddenly turned to something more than music on the radio.

This I believe

I know we listened to the "Be Cool" in class, but I really liked it, so I listened to it again. Alot of us are so used to having all these technologies that we take advantage over it. He mentioned how we always call people on their home phone, but now, all we ever give and take are cell phone numbers. All the stress makes them age quicker. He says "cool people stay young forever". He is cool because he gets enough sleep and works with people who like to work with him too. He says that being cool isn't what you say or do but HOW you say or do. Alot of stereotypes of being cool make you do what everyone does, but you're only cool because you do what you do. If you would like to listen to it again, here it is: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6946089

I listened to "I believe my husband will call me tommorow" This was all about believeing in her husband, having faith, keeping hope, keeping her mind set and focused on what's in front of her and believe that tommorow will come. It seems as though her nights are long, but she always believes that the sun will rise, and morning will come again. Having some one you love in the millitary must be tough. I can't say that I know how she feels because I don't. My dad isn't enrolled in the army so I wouldn't know, but what I know is her will to believe. I know how it feels to "must believe" like she said in the end. In her essay, she expresses sorrow in the form of belief. Here it is: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6834622

"I always have a choice" is about a lady fighting ALS. I have researched this disease once previoulsy for a project, and am still very knowledgable about it. Also known as Lou Gherig's disease, this disease kills the motorcells in your body, and your muscles slowly atrophy and you just get weaker and weaker. This lady looks at it positively and tells us that she has a choice. She can look at it as a death sentence, or another way to learn about her self. She writes alot, but when she can no longer type, she speaks into a microphone on the computer that analyzes her voice. She is very optimistic, and that gave me something to think about. I once heard this quote "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you look at it." And this is exactly what she is doing. The ALS is destroying her muscles, but it cannot destroy her mind and way of thinking. ALS only destroys the muscle and motorcells, but the person is just like everyone else in the head. A person with ALS can still think normally, so even if she cannot move everything, she will alsways be thinking optimistically. Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6560320

Common Place Entry

This is related to something I saw on TV. I was watching “The Fresh Prince of Belair” starring Will Smith. His cousin in the show, Carlton, a nerdy type of guy, is in a rich family and Will lives there temporarily with Carlton and his family. It’s a comedy, but everyone is black, or African American. And in that episode, Carlton and Will were trying to join a fraternity, and the pledge leader of the fraternity said Carlton “wasn’t brotha enough to be a brotha” and that he didn’t like “sell-outs”. The pledge leader made that assumption because he was rich and spoke proper English. Carlton, being a calm, hopeless, nerdy kind of guy surprisingly stated back: “You think I’m a sell-out. Why? Because I live in a big house or dress a certain way? Being black isn’t what I’m trying to be; it’s what I am. I’m running the same race and jumping the same river as you are so why are you tripping me up? You said we need to stick together but you don’t even know what that means. If you ask me, you’re the real sell-out.” This quote really gave me something to think about. It’s hard to explain why, but it’s just so true. I can’t say what it is I’m feeling now, but for the first time, watching my favorite comedy show actually made an impact in my thinking, taking on a new perspective of things. I guess we all make these stereotypes and race jokes too often. If you dress a certain way, you’re considered white, if you talk a certain way, you’re black, and if you have a Spanish last name, you illegally came in to America. But that’s not how it is. Sure, sometimes it’s true, but making these assumptions and jokes sort of is standard amongst us today. At school, a lot of what you hear is “Yeah, cuz you’re white” and all these racist jokes. Sometimes there are critics who say “Why you gotta be like that man?” and some people answer “It’s not mean mean. It’s funny mean.” But that only applies to the person who says it. No one else.

common place

I found an old article I had cut out previously, and in it was stats of all these deaths and injuries that have occured. It said that we Americans do many things to prevent us from being diseased or hurt. For example, we wash our hands, take antibiotics, boil our water, etc, but we over look the biggest thing. We J-walk, we don't fasten our seatbelts, etc. We do all these things to protect ourselves, but in reality, more people die from smoking, car accidents, stuff like that. I thought it'd be good for us to keep this in mind. I thought that was really true. Similar to Singer's paper, it has that hippocrate feeling to it. This article talks about both the big issue, and the converse, ad compares it to what we do all the time that we are never conciously aware of. I wish I had it typed, but it's way too long.

4 Generations

This video was really touching, and kind of inspirational. This video was on the spot, and only true emotions were shown. It was really touching because like The Singer Soultion to World Poverty, this is all about giving. In the paper, all they talked about was giving, and how people give to those who are in need, and how there are people who wouldn't save a child's life because it will affect thier own life.This video really shows the difference between just donating to charity and personally handing them something that means alot to them. The water biffalo in the movie was only 250 dollars, and it can serve them 15 years of work, and 6 months of food. The family's joy could not be explained in words. That right there is the big difference between giving to charity and giving to a needy family. The look of appreciation on their faces makes the whole thing worthwhile. Singer asked "When can you stop?" But I think that video answered the question. After feeling good about donating to the needy family, you will want to donate to another family. It's not a question of when can you stop, but it's more a question of when do you want to stop? You will want to keep donating to families for as much as you reasonably can. It's really hard to explain, but This video really does all the explaining.

The Singer Solution to World Poverty

The Singer Solution to World Poverty is a paper about giving money, how and what you're using your money on, and where it goes to. It talks about two stories: a woman named Dora who is in need of money, sells a boy to an adopter for $1000. To Dora, this buys her a new TV, and she can live in comfort. Her neighbor, however, spoils the fun by telling her that the boy will be killed and his organs to be sold. Dora then sleeps on it, and decides to take the boy back. Another story brought up is a story about Bob, and his valued car. He sees a boy on a rail road track about to be runover by a run away train. If Bob redirects the track, it will hit his valued Bugatti, but will not kill the boy. He decides to keep his car, and the boy is killed. The story compares these two stories and compares greed and generosity. Many sees Bob as an evil man, while Dora is the more soft-hearted woman who cares for kids. However, That Bugatti could've been sold to provide for Bob's life after retirement, which is similar to how we spend our income on TV's and other non-necessities rather than sending it to charity.

"If you still think that it was wrong of Bob not to throw the switch that would have diverted the train and saved the child's life, then it is hard to see how you could deny that it is also very wrong not to send money to one of the organizations listed above. Unless, that is, there is some morally important difference between the two situations that I have overlooked."

"Are you therefore obliged to keep giving until you have nothing left? At what point can you stop?"

I agree with the author in the paper. Really, when will you give enough money where you will not be greedy? In the story, Americans who buy fancy clothes just because it is out of fashion, and going out to beach resorts are portrayed as greedy because that money could've saved many children. If you skipped one month's worth of dining out, you could save a life of a child. But at what point will you be able to call your self generous and not greedy? If this were the case, many many people, if not all of Punahou would be greedy. But we all know that we are not ALL greedy. Sure, some people are greedy, but not everyone is, so what is the dividing line?