School Sanitation

Our school recently went from their own custodial staff to a privatized staff. The amount of custodians has decreased. It has showed in our bathrooms and locker rooms as well. The standard of cleanliness has also changed. I have noticed that our school has looked extremely dirty. The hallways, bathrooms, and classrooms do not seem to get as cleaned as often as they used to. Just because the school custodial staff is privatized and decreased is not an excuse that school is not cleaned to same standard it was last year. It has gotten so bad that it has becoming a health risk. Many people on the swim team have gotten sick or gotten warts on their body. This is inexcusable; this is just laziness in not cleaning the pool deck and locker rooms to the absolute need. Something must be done to change how our school is cleaned. Do you see the same problem? What is your opinion on how the school is cleaned?

Mock Elections

Senior year brings a lot of exciting events. We already had spirit week and field day but an upcoming event for seniors are the mock elections, which are placed in the year book. Every winter seniors vote for their classmates. I personally, love to look that the senior mock elections. I think they are so funny and creative. I think it is a great way to recognize students that are not so called “popular” who usually take up many of the pages of the year book. Also since everyone votes we get everyone’s opinions. Some of the topics include: best smile, best dressed, biggest flirt, teacher’s pet, most likely to rule the world, best laugh, best hair, cutest couple, most sarcastic, most athletic, most talkative, and most likely to be late. There are many more. Do you think mock elections are a good thing to have in the year book? Who do you plan on voting for? Should other categories be included that are not? Are there any categories that should not be included?

Was Nurse. Ratched Really That Evil?

During class this past week we watched Cuckoo’s Nest the movie. Jack Nicolson played R.P McMurphy and Louise Fletcher played Nurse Ratched. Well reading the book I felt bad for McMurphy more. I understood what he was trying to do with the patients and how he was trying to help them from constantly living life stuck under Nurse Ratched’s power. However well watching the movie I felt bad for Nurse Ratched. Nurse Ratched was not showing the power trip seemed to be under during the book in the movie. Instead she was just trying to keep order and have the best for the men in the ward. She was looking out for their best interests. McMurphy however was just out of control during the movie. He brought women and alcohol into the ward throwing all the men off which ultimately led to Billy’s death. He was not looking out for the men in the Christmas party scenes, he was just looking for a good time. McMurphy seemed immature and out of control he needed help and Nurse Ratched tried to help him. Do you think that the director of the movie wanted to have this much of a contrast from the book to the movie?

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone! Halloween dates back 2,000 years when the Celts celebrated the marking of the end of the summer and harvest season. This night was the beginning of the new year. The Celts believed that on this night the boundary between the living and the dead world were blurred. When the ghosts returned to earth on this night they caused chaos and damaged crops. To help celebrate the event the Celts built large bonfires where people would gather. During the bonfire Druids or Celtic priests would dress in animal skins and attempt to tell each other’s fortunes. In AD 43 when the Romans took over the Celtic land they continued the tradition. Today’s Halloween is celebrated by young children and teenagers dressing up and going “trick or treating” Trick or treating is when you go out on the town and go door to door collecting candy. Older teenagers and Adults have Halloween parties. Halloween is every year on October 31st. What are you doing for you Halloween? What are you dressing up as?

"The Brand Expands"

The Brand Expands by Naomi Klein was about the branding culture. Logos no longer just represent a brand; they are now a culture, a lifestyle. The little story Klein tells at the beginning of the article about being obsessed with brands when she was only eight is true for a lot of people. I remember when my little brother was only in 4th grade and he had to have a Ralph Lauren polo because his friend had one; and it couldn’t be a Lacoste polo either, it had to be Ralph Lauren. So it’s not only the girls that are brand and logo conscious the boys are just as aware.
I agree that brands are becoming a culture. Certain brands represent certain lifestyle. For example if you’re wearing an Etnies t-shirt you are usually a skateboarder and embrace the skateboarding culture. When you like a brand you are going to want more and more things by the brand.

Did you agree with the article? Do you think that brands are becoming a culture?

Supersize Me Please

This week in class we watched Morgan Spurlock's film where he ate only McDonalds for one month. This food is very unhealthy. It consists of processed meat, grease and fat. Spurlock was determined to eat only McDonald’s for a month to see what happened to him. Not only did Spurlock eat three meals a day, he also cut down on his exercise because the average American does not get that much exercise. The mass majority of American’s diet consists of fats and processed foods. Most Americans do not have a stable diet. A stable diet includes a portion of grains, fruits vegetables, meats, dairy and controlled amount of sweets. America’s population has an obesity problem and it might be due to the mass amount of the fast food restaurants. Recently restaurants like McDonald’s were sued because people thought they were the cause of all the growing health problems in so many young Americans. What did you think of the video?

Should Barbie be a "Role Model"?

When you think of what a young girls favorite toy is what do you think of? When I thought of this I pictured Barbie. The classic doll that has been around for several generations. Barbie is supposed to be the perfect women other than her being made of plastic of course. She has the perfect figure and a perfect family. She also has had every career imaginable. Some women would say she is a role model. However the two words “role model” have a heavy cost. In class we read several articles that attacked the little plastic doll. Saying she’s to perfect. No girl could ever live up to her standards. I do not agree with these attacks. Women need to realize she’s just a doll. It is hard to find any doll that isn’t picture perfect. Even action figures for boys have the huge muscles and supposedly perfect man figure. I think that people need to relax. However the Barbie company has been working on making Barbie a more typical women figure. She has larger hips and a somewhat smaller chest. What do you think of Barbie?

The Tyranny of "Abercrappie"

Well studying American Advertising and how it effects our country we read an article called “The tyranny of Abercrappie”. The article was about a young boy that was probably around junior high age that was all about wearing the “in” clothing. All he wanted for Christmas was Abercrombie and Fitch clothing. His brother however was totally against wearing the clothing because of its brand name and what it meant to people. He knew that the brand label meant that you had the best clothing when it came to age group. Abercrombie mean that you wore the same thing as everyone else and you were not unique in the slightest bit. Then when Christmas came and the younger brother received his Abercrombie clothing the older brother began to like the cloths. He wanted some of his own. He shouldn’t pre-judge the clothing just because of its label. Next time he should just judge the clothing on if he likes it or not. People should not buy or not buy clothing because of its brand name. What was your response to the article? Do you ever find yourself just buying something because of the brand name?

Response to Men Just Want Mommy

The article is mostly about how men like wives that will take care of them because it reminds them of their mothers. Men don’t want a corporate wife that works in the real world like they do. They like the idea of their wife staying at home, watching the kids, cleaning, and cooking their food. When their wives work in the corporate world with them, it intimidates them. They don’t want their wives to overpower them, or earn more money than they do. I am not really sure why. It may make them feel intimidated, or shattered their self-esteem because they grew up thinking that the man is suppose to support the family, not the women. On the other hand, I think men’s views may be changing. They are starting to not care that the women may make more money than they do. It is harder and harder it find a women that doesn’t have a job and a college education, so it would make it harder for a man to find a women that would want to stay at home all day.

Mean Girls

The movie Mean Girls shows how girls interact with one another. The girls in the movie are very mean, especially to one another. It also is a good example of cliques, and how girls can be very backstabbing. In Mean Girls, there is a burn book which has bad things about every girl in the school. Most of the things are not even true. No one should write mean things about anyone, whether they are true or not. Mean Girls also has a lot of cliques. A girl is not allowed to talk to someone who is not in her clique. The Plastics, Jocks, Nerds, Cool Asians, and Band Geeks are just some examples of the cliques in the movie. In the movie, Katy sabotages Regina. She gives her food to make her gain weight, foot cream as face wash and many more. Although, I hate to admit it, I think this movie does portray how girls act. I know there have been times when I have talked behind someone’s back or done hurtful things to them. It is really sad to think that girls are so mean to each other. Do you agree that girls act how they are portrayed in the movie? Are there Cliques in our school? Do you have a personal experience where you have been mean or when someone was mean to you? Do you think there is a way to change this type of behavior?

Men Just Want Mommy

This article we read was about how men did not like the idea of corporate wives. The typical American man wants a stay at home motherly type for a wife. These women will stay at home and care for the house and family. They do not want the office wife that is above them on the corporate ladder. The article said that “Powerful women are at a disadvantage in the marriage market because men may prefer to marry less-accomplished women”. The University of Michigan did a study in the psychology department which showed that men would rather marry women in lower ranking jobs than women who are supervisors. Women working outside of the home only began in the 1960’s, before then women did stay home and cared for the children. It seems that the “perfect American family” is portrayed in the media as a wife with two kids and a house with a white picket fence. Where the mother stays home. This may be why men think the way they do about women working above them. What do you think about this article?

How Boys become Men

The article we read by Jon Katz, How boys Become Men, was interesting. It was weird seeing how boys think about each other and how they think about themselves. I liked reading about why boys act the way they do and why they think like they do. I thought the boys Code of Conduct that Katz mentioned was funny and I think it was also kind of true. The things like never rat, never admit fear, and don’t be a goody-goody, are things that my brothers do. All of it is not true for every boy though. Boys, and men do discuss things of substance, and they do show empathy on occasion. So I think the article was interesting and fun to read but of course does not apply to every guy. Some of it was a little sad to think that that is how boys act toward each other, but then again girls can be just as mean and a lot of the time they are even meaner. I hope we get to see the girl side of this also. What did you think about the article?

The Difference Between Men and Women

Dave Barry writes a humorous story about the difference between men and women. I personally found this article very funny. It amazed me how true it was. I could not believe how well Barry could make differences between the sexes. Do you agree? He made it really obvious that women over think things and that men do the exact opposite. I do the exact the same thing. I always over think things, I am constantly examining every little detail of a conversation to look for the deeper meaning. I also am always asking my friends for their opinions and advice. Women also interpret things very different from men. I have had discussions with my boyfriends very similar to one of these dialogues. Neither one of us get the same thing out of conversations. I found it very funny that Fred finally has the curiosity to ask a mutual friend about the horse. Even though he is totally off about what Martha was talking about he still asks. Did you like this article? Did you find it humorous?

Fahrenheit 9-11

I didn’t really like the film “Fahrenheit 9-11”. It didn’t really make sense to me. I couldn’t really figure out what the main focus of the movie was. At first I thought it was just about bashing Bush, then maybe about September 11, but then it started to seem like it was about the Bin Laden’s. I’m guessing it was about all three points. I understand that Michael Moore doesn’t like Bush or the Republicans and that our government messed up during 9-11 but the way he presented his information didn’t really make me want to listen to him. I felt like he was trying to be too humorous that it was just kind of annoying and unfair to the people he was making fun of. Maybe we needed to watch the rest of the film or we needed to see the whole thing all together and it would make more sense. What were your thoughts of the video? Did you like it? Did you agree with Michael Moore’s opinion?

On Native Soil

After watching On Native Soil, I felt very frustrated. I have trouble understanding the fact that our government had so much information about the threats, lists of names and background checks on terrorists but did nothing to stop the attacks. I cannot believe that after all the prior attacks on US embassies in Africa to military ships that still nothing were done to catch the terrorists. If they would have been caught so many people would still be alive and so many people’s families would not be broken. Many families would not have to deal with what they have to deal with now. It also frustrated me that there was such a lake of communication in FAA and the planes and the government. Once they saw that the terrorists were learning how to fly and on planes, they should have been ready or at least had a plan. Also, once they noticed the planes were off course, they should of taken immediate action. I also could not believe that so many terrorists got through security after they set off the alarms. What was your opinion on the video?