Are you a Picky Eater?

Kim Severson from The New York Times explains in her article that children these days inherited their picky eating habits from the parents. I find this hard to believe because, I know I did not like bananas for all of my young childhood years, where both of my parents loved them. I still cant stand celery in anything, where both of my parents can eat it freely.

I can understand learning your eating habits from the ones you live with, which becomes a learned behavior. I can also understand just not developing a liking to a specific food. When a child ages from 2 years to four years, they will eat lots of new foods because their tastebuds are still brand new to recieving taste. After four years they may go through a period of pickyness because their tastebuds have dulled in a way. Though it isa cycle that happens through out life. When one grows to about 18 years old, they tend to experience a change in their pallet, or crave foods that they have never seemed to like. Just like styles of clothing come and go withseasons and fashion trends, so do your tastebuds!

Media Success in the Strangest of Places

I have always wanted to make a movie and have my friends act out parts in it, but never actually got around to doing it. Since the rise in popularity of youtube.com, people all over the world are able to post their home made videos to share with all who want to watch. October 15, 2007, Arron Yonda and Matt Sloan have become over night celebrities because of their hit youtube series “Chad Vader”. This pair of unlikely stars worked together and made commedic shows all the time but, never really thought they would go anywhere. Their show in particular is a spoof of the movie Star Wars, where Chad is a power-hungry manager of a grocery store. 

Their show became such success, television producers confronted them about where and how to possibly expose thier media to the larger world.

How fun would that be, to do something you love to do, and by chance everyone else around you loves what you do. To top it all off, you become famous and exposed to the greater audience so your stars can really shine.

They don’t have their own professional offices, or epmloyees to work under them. Aaron and Matt quit their day jobs to focus onthe series and weekly attend an improvisational comedy group because that is how they keep their ideas fresh and flowing.

This article was fun to read and kept my itnterest the whole way through. Learning about these entreprenuers at work makes you want to be creative with your time.

Deaths could have been prevented??

October 3, 2007 in the New York Times, an article by Al Baker claims that two firefighters would still be alive today if they had only known the alternative exit route of a building was not accessible to them in a building that was on fire. Many of the buildings stairwells were closed off to trap in the large amounts of hazardous gas accumilating in the building.  Both men were not informed oftheir teams change of plan action. Instead they got stuck in the mess that they thought was going to lead them out of the firey blaze. It did not help that the buildings water pipes had some kind of blockage to them, so the water efficiency needed to get the fire out was not available. Apparently the building had not had an inpection done for many years and the plumbing was not working correctly.

Stupid mistakes like this frustrate me so much. It wouldn’t have had to be a huge loss if the men’s team had been in contact with them after the game plan changed. After hearing preventable accidents all the time, it makes me try a little harder to make sure when I am making plans with people or talking to my parents, you should always make sure the information you are telling them is heard and understood by both parties.  

Reports of New Massacre Surface in Southern Darfur

It is hard to believe what it is like to not have your whole counrty working together, having everyone on the same side. Not too long ago in Uganda, war was taking over the land and people were dieing right and left. The people are still suffering because of it but the physical war has stopped. Now the war seems to have come to Southern Darfur. Terrible accounts of young shildren running away for their lives only ended up getting shot in the backs and then their lifeless bodies run into the ground like trash.

The citizens of Darfur believe that the Suanese military is to blame for the war because of eye witness accounts said they saw men dressed from the Sudanese military. Darfur is scheduled to make peace treaties with Libya very soon to stop all of the unnecessary blood shed. I think it is terrible that as long as Africa has had wars against each other, they have not been able to make an agreement on anything. No progression has been made to improve the war.   

Abortion as a Frontline in the Culture Wars

“Lake of Fire” is a new documentary focused on the reallity of abortion. This black and white documentary shows the plain truth of what abortion really is, murder. Clips and photographs after an aboriton was conducted proves devastating results. Women die, doctors emotionlessly fish around in their medical trays which contain the remnants of the would-have-been-infant.

I do not see any reason why anyone would or could go through with something like that. Knowing that a person is growing inside your body and has every potential to live, is enough of a reason to keep it growing. Even under severe circumstances where the baby is not planned, adoption is always an excellent alternative. Lives are given a chance to succeed.

Hopefully this documentary will shake the viewers into realizing what a horrific act of selfishness abortion is. This documentary review written by Manohla Dargis, author in the New York Times, does not give a clear opinion of what her view is on the subject, but nevertheless, she seems adamant that people go and view the film.

Sexual Stereotypes, Cival Rights and a Suit about Both

How would you feel if someone barged in on you when you were trying to use the restroom at a restaurant? I would be downright furious!! Well, what if you were mistaken for a man walking into the women’s restroom? The New York Times has such story on October 10, 2007.

A young women was accused of being a man when she rightfully entered the women’s bathroom. She closely resembled a man because of her very short hair and big loose clothing. She also happens to be a lesbian so she feels that she was being steroetyped. She felt so wronged that she went ahead and sued the restaraunt for not accepting the fact that she did not express the typical characteristics of a female.

I have never been a supporter of gays, lesbians,  or anyone who longs to be the oposite sex of which they were born. I know several gay people and get along with them, but i do not support their reasoning for the choices they make. I do not think this woman should be so shocked that she was mistaken for a man when she looked and dressed just like one. Not everyone in the world is going to easily adjust to today’s society and how different it has become. She says the world should just get used to it, when since the beginning, you were told a man marries a woman. You knew that mom is the one who wears the dress and high heeled shoes, and dad wears the suit and tie. Now in the world it seems as though we have to accomodate all walks of life, gay or staight, male or female.   

Smoking is cool, not!!!

All of my life I have been told how terrible smoking is for you. Many of the people I know heard the same lecture in school and from their parents. What are they doing now? Smoking. No matter if it is a cigarette, cigar, chewing tobacco, anything. It is still tobacco regardless. What is it that makes it so attractive anyway? So it calms you down when you’re stressed, BIG DEAL!!!! If you are stressed, go take a hot bath; you will need one anyway because you reek of ashtray. 

Apparently the new thing in Sweden is Snus, the ”reduced risk” chewing tobacco. I think that is the biggest lie anyone ever thought of. The Snus is placed between the gum and the cheek like chewing tobacco except you don’t spit. It has all sorts of gimmicks to it, but it still has niccotine and it is still addictive. Now more than ever, Snus is becoming popular in the United States according to the New York Times article smokeless From Sweden on October 3, 2007.

All sorts of health officials are getting worried about the on going effects of any tobacco in people. The article makes Snus sound pretty cool and something worth looking into, but I will pass on the offer.

“Juvenile lifers”

At the age of 14,  a girl plots and kills her grandfather and aunt, and attempts to kill her grandmother and little sister with the aid of her 16 year old boyfriend. Despite being burned, shot, and stabbed, the girl’s grandmother expresses her feelings on the situation. “If children are under age, sometimes they are not responsible for what they do.”  She feels that her granddaughter’s actions are excusable because she had a drug addict mother and a father who molested her.

Now 22 year old Ashley Jones is still serving her life sentence without parole. She is trying to find some way of lightening her sentence by being granted parole. The article in the New York Times, Lifers as Teenagers, Now Seeking Second Chance, explains her story.

I do not think that granting her parole is the right decision for her in this situation. She may have a point in that she was younger than the legal adult age when she commited the crime, but does not ecxuse the fact that she thuroughly planned and premeditated her plan of action. Any one who is capable of thinking up a plan to kill someone should be legaly tried for murder without parole. Age is not a factor in this equation. Yes, Ashley was in definate need of emotional and psychological help, but she was not mentally impared in any fashion. It seems to me that this girl has lived a difficult life, that is plainly obvious. She has lived a life that was always out of her control and she could not find a way to gain control again. When you have control, you feel safe. Unfortunatley, i believe these massive crimes she commited were just her way of expressing to herself and everyone around her, that she was going to win this power struggle, in the most dramatic of ways possible.   

Argument by Poetic Language

Creating Radiant Space and Polishing New Facets of a Dance Gem, is a recent dance review of the Miami City Ballet in the October 17, 2007 edition of New York Times. This beautifully written article is sadly nothing more than a whole lot of nicely displayed words on the page.

The picturesque photograph of the ballet dancers performing entices a glancing eye. With their elecric red costumes, flawless ballerina poise, perfect pointed toes, and hair done up so precisely, these gracefull dancers are sure to grab a readers attention. Too bad the picture did a better job of describing the show than the author of the review did.

 The review itself is a crash course of history on the shows reputation and all the success it had in the past. Not only was the delivery over the top with fancifull descriptions, but it also managed to come across as plain cheezy. “…,as the human body, like a multifocal laser show, lights up new geometries with each movement, and the awaiting space of the auditorium is correspondingly galvanized.”

Ok, I am a person who enjoys and appreciates ballet for the remarkable dance and art that it is, but the way the author writes this review makes me imagine an old historian writing poetry with a quill and ink. All of his words are strong and sound like they have very important meaning. But its really not all that and a bag of chips. It doesn’t even give a great description of how the performance is doing at this moment in time. The review offers details and information about the performers in the show, how beautifully they move on the stage, and the music they dance to, and that, collectivley, is about it. Everyone already knows that ballet dancers are limber, move with style, and look good as they show off thier hard work. 

Maybe my perception of a review is naive, but I was under the impression that i would learning about the shows current success with the people, not just digging up old dirt about how it used to be. 

  

When will the bickering end?

Fighting among nations, necessary or not, is debatable. But regardless of how we feel about the war, it is happening. For as long as we have been fighting, it seems that it will never end. The lingering of it all seems like a sibling rivalry, or a bothersome mosquito buzzing in your ear.

The front page of New York Times on October 15, 2007 sports an article entitled An Internet Jihad Aims at U.S. Viewers. In this article, the United States is warned that there are videos and blogs being posted on the internet that mock the U.S. as a country and how vulnerable  and weak we are against Iraq.  Its not just sluring insults, but videos instructing you how to make bombs! That does not make me feel safe at all.

I realize that we are at war at the moment, but it seems to me like their last strategy is to try and scare us and make us feel as though we don’t have one one the strongest malitia in the world. Which is not a very smart move on their part.  I can’t help but think that the government should be doing something to stop the flow of these videos and guides to make your own bomb. Young children are on the internet all the time, and they are always paying attention to what is going on around them. What is going to stop a fifth grader from watching a youtube video and try to make a bomb and bring it to school?