The Aimless

"Not all who wander are aimless. Especially not those who seek truth beyond tradition, beyond definition, beyond the image (Mona Lisa Smile)." Experiencing life as no one before you has, beyond the tradition, can lead to new insight. Where would science be if no one did new experiments? Where would clothing by without creative designers? Why, then, do students feel the need to be kept in a little box when writing? The perfect essay may wander in what seems to be an aimless, yet intriguing, way for a majority of the piece before coming to a complicated point that ties everything together. This idea is especially shown through One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Ken Kesey was high when he wrote parts of the novel, but everything came to focus in the end. Students need to feel free to play with writing styles so that they may come up with their own unique style. It must be incredibly boring to read the same formatted paper over and over again- introduction, thesis, support paragraphs one, two, three, conclusion. What if my paper started with a story, then had supporting paragraph number one, which leads into my thesis, loops around to supporting paragraph number three.... That would be much more interesting.
Writing shouldn’t be confined to a dusty room with grammar text books lined up neatly along the wall. Writing should be an energetic playground with interesting wording. Why experiment with illegal substances when you can experiment with writing styles?

Advertisments...Where Dreams Can Grow

If you were watching Heroes this past Monday you may have encountered the Hasbro Rose Cottage Commercial. If not you'll be surprised at the contents of it. In this version of the commercial they are appealing to mothers and they tell them that with this cottage their daughters will "...have a place where their dreams can grow." And "entertain her imagination."

Well apparently entertaining the imagination is doing laundry and little girl's dreams are to grow up and be housewives. I’m not even one of those people that think being a house wife is demining or anything. In fact I believe it’s a great sacrifice and an honorable job that I would do when the time comes, but it's not a decision advertisers should force upon young girls. These girls don't know that they have any other options when all they know how to do is decorate and do laundry. And the commercial that aired on T.V also had a small spot for the Hasbro Castle, a place where girls can wait for their prince charming. I didn't just make that up, the commercial said that...yeah.

What do you think? Am I taking this too far or is it insulting?

In Case You were Wondering...

The best thing to order:

BK- Whopper JR without Mayo and a Garden Salad- 360 calories and 12 g of fat
McDonalds- 6 piece chicken McNuggets and a Side Salad0 380 calories and 16 g of fat

p.s: did you know that 10 % of americans have logged time behind the counter at Mickey D's

BK Lounge

No Brian, I'm not talking to you.

So last year for easter my mom decided to get me a book called "eat this not that", apparantly it's extremely popular although I must admit my first tiem opening it was last night. It is a book that basiclly compares all the different fast food restaurants by their health calue and calories, it also gives suggestions on the smartest choice to make at each. The best way to state my thoughts is to simply present this information to you.

Mcdonalds Big Mac- 540 calories, 29 g fat
BK Whopper w/cheese-760 calories 47 g fat

Mcdonalds Filet-O-Fish- 380 calories 18 g fat, 640 mg sodium
BK BIG Fish Sandwhich- 520 calories 34 g fat , 980 mg sodium

Mcdonalds Quarter Pounder- 410 calories 19 g of fat
BK Triple Whopper- (this is not an exaggeration) 1,230 calories 82 G OF FAT!!!!

So...my point is, what the heck is up with the BK Lounge and why weren't they the center of the attention, at least comparativly to McDonalds?

McDonald Knowledge Surpasses Failing School System

In Supersize Me, Morgan Spurlock tests children using pictures of famous people, such as George Washington, mixed in with a picture of Ronald McDonald. What was appalling was that these children could tell stories about McDonald, but knew little or nothing about the famous people. One child thought that Washington was the third or fourth and abolished slavery. Are the advertisements to blame for these children’s extensive knowledge or McDonald or are the schools to blame for the lack of knowledge about historical figures?
Children are not told to memorize facts about McDonald as they are about Washington. Children are not made to do project after project on McDonald, as they are Washington. Yet it is McDonald that sticks in these children’s brains. Perhaps the schools would do well to take a few notes on the advertising strategies of McDonald’s.

Misogynistic?

The women in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey are either uptight and prude or utterly loose, except one. The one nurse who works in Disturbed seemed to be an accurate representation of a woman. She was motherly toward and worried about the patients. She apologized for the sting when cleaning the wounds McMurphy and the Chief sustained during the fight against the black boys. This nurse was a kind, loving character. To fit the theme of misogyny that is supposedly apparent throughout the novel, would not this young nurse be described differently, probably grouping her into one of the two categories above? Have people judged this novel too quickly, deeming it misogynistic, without looking at the finer details?

Supersize Me

Supersize Me brings to light the issue of Americans eating too much fast food. Morgan Spurlock's extreme diet of only McDonald’s was dangerous, even with the advice and care he received from his chosen doctors. Spurlock becomes ill because of the abuse he inflicted upon his body. Some of the damage that he did will never be undone. It’s horrible, and unrealistic, to think that anyone would eat McDonald’s, or fast food in general, for every single meal of every day.
Americans do eat out more than ever, but not at what Spurlock sees as fast food places. Places such as Subway are working to create “fast food” that is healthy. McDonald’s has added healthier substitution items to its menu, including apple dippers, in addition to the many salad meals. Numerous companies have headed the warnings of this film and added or changed menu items. Obviously, the film was correct to point out that although most of the blame does lay with the consumer, some of the blame does lay with the company.
Personally, I believe the companies shouldn’t have to hold any of the blame. Capitalism is about getting a product to market and selling it. These fast food places have lived up to their expectation. On the other foot, nowadays companies have taken more community responsibility as a new way of advertising. McDonald’s started funding the Ronald McDonald House to show their community responsibility. But at the end of the day, McDonald’s is supporting charity because it looks good to customers.
It is the customer’s responsibility to hold their urge to buy McDonald’s in check- similar to the way a child must abandon to urge to eat glue.

My Interpretation of Cuckoo's Nest

While reading the first couple of pages in the book, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" I was quite annoyed by the author's writing style. I didn't understand the point of the story, until I started to take notes by focusing on the main characters. I learned to read in quiet place so there were no distractions, and I began interested in the text. I found that the author's hallucinations helped me differentiate between what was real and what was fake. The book has become more interesting each chapter especially with the character, McMurphy. I have enjoyed Kesey's use of figurative language throughout the book because it allows the reader to use his/her imagination while reading. Each character is described through imagery and detailed metaphors which makes reading more enjoyable. I know a lot of people in class hate reading this book, but I found that if you take time to read it, the book isn't so bad. Is this book boring and useless for our class to read, or is the book worthwhile learning about emasculating? What does everyone think?

What Cuckoo Published This?

Who would ever think that a novel like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would ever be published, let alone part of a high school curriculum. The novel begins in an off the wall matter, but does settle. The writing is well done, but the context can be confusing. I have given up rereading sections of the novel to understand a scene because the novel is contradictory. Although it can be difficult to figure out what is real and what is not, I enjoy going with the flow of the novel. The novel is interesting. Even if nothing too interesting is happening in the plot, the writing itself keeps me awake and thinking.
What do you think?

Mean Girls Revisited

While watching the movie "Mean Girls," I found many parts to be humorous. I realized that half of the scenes I was laughing about were true at our school today. There are still girls who will act stupid to get a boy's attention, or girls who will do anything to be popular. In the movie, Caddy, a new student, gets sucked into the world of the "Plastic" life. At first, she joined the group to make fun of the leader, but Caddy ended up becoming fake herself. I have found that many girls at our school try to do anything to become popular, whether it means to change their personalities, leave old friends for popular girls, or to become entirely fake. I thought the scenes were funny in the movie, but to be truthful the scenes were quite desperate. The characters known as the "Plastics" hurt their fellow classmates and teachers by trying to up their status at the school. They made themselves feel better by putting other students down. Girls can be extremely nasty towards one another because they are always in competition with each other. I don't know if this vicious cycle will ever end, but I do know it isn't worth trying to start the cycle. Do people feel that they need to become popular in order to survive their high school years?

WHY

Why is it that a guest (for a dance) if graduated from highschool must have graduated from groves?This is the most frustrating thing in the world to me because as seniors, it is not uncommon to find students who have significant others a year or two older. Can soemone explain to me the logic behind this? Other than the slight chance that my guest may be a serial killer that got expelled from his or her highschool and are now coming to the groves commons (again, i could talk about that for days) to attack our school. Why?

Mean Teeny Boppers

Perhaps many of you will think I am completely oblivious to the true atmosphere of our school when you read this, but I don't find that our school has a "plastic" like clique, or even one dominate clique. When I mentioned this to a friend of mine, she suggested that this was because there is too many egotistical people within the school for one to ever be able to take over the vast majority. We have abundent amounts of beautiful, wealthy and intelligent people in our school, how would we ever pick one?
I like to think that our school is filled with mature young adults who have had plenty of anti-bullying assemblys to thank for the lack of cliques, but I'll leave the decision up to you.
My cousin is going into the eigth grade this year and it's almsost documentary worthy how mean her friends are to each other. It seems like the sterotype of "mean girls" has gone down a few generations to the teeny boppers. But how does this attitude stop at the highschool level?Why?Or does it?

Response to Mom, Doug is a Good Babysitter 10/1

I agree with the fact that our society hasn't reached equality among men and women. Women are still thought of as the care givers that clean the house and prepare meals. Men on the other hand, are thought of as the money maker that is unreliable when it comes to care giving. Men are thought of as being aggressive and dangerous, but this isn't true for all men. I have experienced this with my older brother. When I was a freshman, I didn't trust my brother and accused him of lying all the time. He wasn't reliable, and made stupid decisions that I didn't approve of. I thought my brother would always be that way, and he would never grow up, but I didn't give my brother enough credit. Today, my brother is one of the most trustworthy person I know. He has moved on from being the "typical male teenager" and has showed me that I can count on him with any situation. I hate the typical stereotypes for males and females because it is only directed toward the selected few people of society. People change whether for the good or bad, and they need a chance to show that they can change.