Super-Size Me

In America, its pretty much always been "the bigger the better". We live in a country where food portions are out of control, where a huge majority of the population is overweight and/or obese, and yet we keep the same old habits! I personally live in the suburbs of one of the fattest cities in the world. Now some people may laugh and say "who cares", but that's what it feels like. It seems as if no one really cares that they're, to put it blatently, fat. In Morgan Spurlock's movie Super-Size Me, he conducted an expirement to see what would happen if he ate only McDonald's food for 30 days straight. Surprise, surprise, the excessive fast food eating lead to serious health problems for Morgan. His blood pressure sky rocketed, he gained a ridiculous amount of weight, and he always felt fatigued.

I felt that his expiriment was a tad extreme, because not very many people eat McDonald's for every meal (with a few exceptions). It did provide for some very eye opening finds though. With these findings he made millions of people realize that they shouldn't eat the junk McDonald's serves. Most do realize this of course, but for some it helped the fact really sink in. For me, it definitely did. I don't eat meat, so I never eat the fat laden burgers, chicken, etc. there, but I don't think I will be stopping by McDonal's anytime soon.

"It's the most wonderful time of the year"

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!" -right?

How could Christmas, let alone winter, not be? The 20 degree temperatures, the slippery sidewalk, car accidents, snow slush, and don't forget the excessive gift shopping and spending; all entities I love dearly. Don't get me wrong, Christmastime is one of the main things I look forward to in the year. I love ooh-ing and aw-ing at the pretty lights people put up and the all the nice food around the holidays. You can't forget decorating the Christmas tree!

It just seems to me that Christmas has become such a pagan holiday that I wonder why it is so great sometimes. I mean, the holiday was meant for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, but yet we rarely see Jesus as the main topic of the holiday. It has gotten twisted enough that all people care about are the presents and Santa Clause. I'm not saying I don't enjoy the presents under the tree or that I never wrote letters to Santa Clause. I just feel that people need to be more informed about the holiday; that's all.

Another topic has concerned me about the "holiday season" or more specifically, Christmas; the stress. I don't understand the reason why adults would want blow their brains out to keep up with the Jones' and try to buy everyone they know expensive Christmas presents. Obviously, this is mostly hypothetical, but I know people who do it. I know this is expected of people, but it is most definitely not helping me in looking forward to being an adult. I have seen my parents frantically try to decorate and buy things for Christmas parties and people and its not very pleasant. I just hope that this year won't be the same and that it can be a more enjoyable and relaxing holiday- haha, yeah right.

Career Aspirations

Recently, our high school held Career Day like it usually would. I only made the last 20 minutes of it, but from what I could see it was the same old career day that I had been to a couple times before. There were tables set up with different companies and organizations trying to lure students in with candy and give aways in order for them to see what they have to offer. Students would walk around with a sheet to fill out about the people they interviewed. It was pretty straight forward. Our Honors English class took a different approach on it. We made up our own questions and surveys and asked the workers at each station in hope to get some great feedback that would help create reliable statistics.


Amidst all the hullabaloo I started to really muse over what career pathway I would go down. One can never be sure at this point, and I definitely am having a hard time deciding. It seems too early to be deciding what I want to do or be when I get older, but in perspective it really isn't because by the beginning of our senior year we need to practically be done with applying to colleges. That means we have to have a pretty good idea of what career pathway we need so that we can apply to colleges suitable for that choice.



Currently, I have narrowed down my choices for career fields based on my likes, dislikes, etc. I know I couldn't handle being in the medical field because I get queasy when I'm near needles or see lots of blood. I think that's very helpful. I'm not very "artsy" so it would be quite odd if I even attempted to major in something that has a high relevance to art skills. Other than that I am very open to many other careers. I find the ocean and environmental issues riveting, so that might help me a bit, but other than that I haven't experienced enough to even fully comprehend what I'm going to be when I'm older.

ROHS Mock Election: Reflections and Recommendations

Last Thursday Royal Oak High School held their own Mock Election. Students would go up to the voting boxes and fill in their candidate of choice along with a "yes" or "no" about Proposals 1 and 2 for Michigan and our own school's Proposal 1. This was a trial run of the event and the ultimate turn out was pretty decent. All in all, Obama won our school by quite some votes, but McCain hung in there with a small percentage. I think the question here is, was this a fair representation of the ROHS student body?



I think it was a fair representation, but I believe that it could have been better. About 700 people voted, but I think that we can do better. Our school hosts 1,800 people and I think it is reachable to make sure than at least 1,000 vote in our next election. Of course, this was the first time we had done it, but with a few modifications I think that we can have an even better mock election.

First off, I think that there should be more voting slots so that the lines aren't as long. This will draw more people in because I heard that people didn't vote because they "didn't want to wait in the long line". I think that in shortening the line and the time it takes to actually vote, we will get more voters.

Secondly, I think that the students should be more informed about the ballot. People had said that they weren't sure what both Proposal 1's and Proposal 2 meant, so they did not fill in their scantron for that section. To get a more efficient and accurate standpoint on the proposals I believe we needed to better inform people so they would know what they were voting for.

I believe these additions and moderations will greatly benefit our future mock elections. I know they will continue to be a great success.

Of Mice and Men: Banned

Recently, in our Honors ELA 10 class we read the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Our teacher informed us that the book was banned in some school districts. This somewhat surprised me because I had never heard that this book had ever been banned before. As we began to dig into the book I came to realize why.

I think one of the main reasons for the banning would be the language used or more so the swear words used in the book. Very often there were curse words in the writing, specifically starting on page four and continuing throughout the whole book. There was also the violent and graphic scenes that occured in the book, such as Lennie and Curly's fight and the killing of Curly's wife. Both were detailed and disturbing.

This makes me wonder though. Why censor students, and mainly older ones at that, by banning certain books? It's not like we have never seen or heard that graphic language and violence. I think that in trying to preserve how naïve we are, the officials overdue it a bit and refrain students from being able to read one of the most popular pieces of literature in our history.I believe the district(s) that have banned this book have taken it a little too far in that sense.

Advertisements

Typically, most of us say that we don't buy into the ads on television or in magazines. But really, how could you not? When you flip through the pages of the magazine or scan the channels don't you always stop where something catches your attention? Do you think that was put there on accident. Ha. Nope. Why do you think companies spend millions of dollars on one single ad? It's because it works. If advertisement didn't work, then there wouldn't be half as many ads out there as there are now.


So when you think of how you are "not influenced" by advertisements, think again. When you go to buy toothpaste for instance, are you going to buy an off brand that you know nothing about or a brand like Crest or Oral-B? Unless you are looking for a cheaper price you will go for the more popular choice that has been advertised for over and over and over again.

Of course, sometimes what is being advertised really is all it's cracked up to be. The toothpaste might actually freshen your breath- whowuddathunkit? Other times the comercial hypes the product up much too much and you are stuck with an expensive product that is not worth the price.

Texting

Can you think of a feature on a phone that most teens use the most? Internet? Instant Messaging? Nope. Its texting. At least thats what I see everyone around me doing.

Personally, I am one of the many few who has a cell phone, but does not have texting. Most people just include it into their cell phone plan. I would like to have it, but my mother thinks otherwise.

Recently during my Honors English Class we learned about three key ways to win an argument using Aristotle's categories: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. I tested these three ideas out in my mother's explaination of why I do not need texting.

Ethos (Credibility or ethical appeal): It costs less to call someone than to add on the extra fee of texting. Also, many people have gotten into trouble while texting at an innapropriate time. It is better off that you do not have the temptation.

Pathos (Emotion/connection): When you are constantly texting someone and not verbally talking to them, it is indefinitely a less personal and welcoming way to communicate.

Logos (Logic): Why would you need to text someone when you can easily call them?


While these ideas are well thought out and put together, they are lacking in the Logos and the Pathos area. For me, I like to stay ultra connected with my friends and family, and I also have to be. I need to be picked up at a specific time after school from my Model U.N. or InterAct meeting so that I can get home in time to start my homework. Then I need to be whisked away again in order to make my volleyball practice that is 20 minutes away. You add coming home from volleyball games at 9:30 at night twice a week or on occasion a choir practice here and there and that is quite a lot of minutes and time gone into calling my parents just for a ride. Logically speaking, if I had texting it would be purely simple to just type in what time they need to pick me up (because Lord knows the times always change) and it would be as simple as that.

Pathos fits right into that dilemma called time. I don't have to time to chit chat with my friends all night to keep up on the "She did what?"'s and the "He did that?!"'s. Instant Messaging and Facebook don't even work so well because not everyone has I.M. or a Facebook account, but I know plently who have texting. When I want to say "hey" to friends I haven't seen in months it's a little awkward to call them out of the blue and start a conversation. What a better way than to text them.

So you can see, my mother and I clearly have some more work to do on this subject. Her ideas are like gold and mine are like silver. They're both good, but some like others in a different perspective.