Blog #4

For this blog I read from the book New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. As Bella continues to try to adjust to life without Edward around, she discovers that when she does dangerous things or things that get her adrenaline going she can hear Edward urging her to stop in her head. She is not sure why she is hearing his voice or if she is going crazy but she continues to act like this because it is the only way she can remember his voice. After finding and fixing up the motorcycles, Jacob teaches Bella to ride them and just as she expected Edwards voice came back in her head and advised her to stop. Of course she keeps going and ends up crashing pretty bad and getting hurt. While driving back home, Bella spots people jumping off a cliff in the distance. She thinks they are committing suicide and as she is about to run and stop them Jacob explains to her that they are cliff diving and it's something they do for fun in La Push. He does not seem to like these people very much at all though. Bella asks Jacob to take her cliff diving one day.

Blog #5

For this blog I read more of New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. Lately Bella has been noticing Jacob acting very strange. He seems very upset about this new group of guys hanging out with Sam Uley because he is taking his friend from him and he never hangs out with him anymore. This really upsets Bella because she cares about him and she can tell it's hurting him. She is also noticing that she depends more on Jacob to keep her from hurting when Edward isn't around. One day, Bella goes to a movie with Jacob and Mike which was not a good situation because the two guys both like Bella and were competing the whole time. They go to a horror movie because it is the only one Bella thinks she can see without it reminding her of Edward. On the way home Bella notices that Jacob looks like he doesn't feel too well and she feels his forehead and notices he is burning up. He insists he will be fine and leaves. Bella starts to get worried when Jacob doesn't call her for a few days and doesn't return her calls. She now spends most of her time worrying about Jacob and what is going on instead of thinking about Edward which demonstrates how much Jacob means to her. I am confused as to why Jacob won't answer and think that he is hiding something from her because he wouldn't normally act like that.

Blog #4

For this blog I read from the book New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. As Bella continues to try to adjust to life without Edward around, she discovers that when she does dangerous things or things that get her adrenaline going she can hear Edward urging her to stop in her head. She is not sure why she is hearing his voice or if she is going crazy but she continues to act like this because it is the only way she can remember his voice. After finding and fixing up the motorcycles, Jacob teaches Bella to ride them and just as she expected Edwards voice came back in her head and advised her to stop. Of course she keeps going and ends up crashing pretty bad and getting hurt. While driving back home, Bella spots people jumping off a cliff in the distance. She thinks they are committing suicide and as she is about to run and stop them Jacob explains to her that they are cliff diving and it's something they do for fun in La Push. He does not seem to like these people very much at all though. Bella asks Jacob to take her cliff diving one day.

Blog #2

Edward decides that it's time to take Bella out to learn how to hunt. During this time she discovers all of the new things she can do. She can jump out of a second story window and land gracefully without making any noise, and jump over a river in one leap. Edward is even surprised at how fast she catches on to things and the extent of her strength. Once they were in the forest and about to start hunting for animals, Bella catches the scent of a human and starts to follow the scent. Edward is alarmed and tries to stop her, and when he finally gets her attention she turns around and gives him her full attention. This shocks Edward, because usually when a vampire starts to follow a humans scent they become obsessed and cannot stop. Bella was able to stop easily with her own will which is very unusual because she is a newborn. Edward and Bella decide it's time to go back to the house after they are done hunting, and they find Jacob guarding them from entering the house. He says he is there to protect Renesmee which is strange to Bella because she thought Jacob hated the baby. Bella insists on seeing her and they finally let her, even though they didn't want her to because they thought she would want to drink her blood. Bella has no problem being around the baby and proves them wrong. Later, Carlisle comes to the conclusion that the talent Bella was gifted with when she made her transformation into a vampire is self-control.

Blog #1

Bella's pregnancy begins to get out of hand. Carlisle leaves with Esme and Emmett to go hunting, and leaves Edward, Alice, and Rosalie to take care of Bella while he is gone. Bella's child continues to grow, and accidentally breaks Bella's spine causing her to pass out. Because of this, Edward is forced to perform the surgery himself. Bella is semi-conscious during this but does not feel the pain. Once Edward successfully delivered the baby, he has no choice but to change her into a vampire because she would not survive the injuries. He bites her in multiple places so that the venom will get into her system as fast as possible. The process of turning into a vampire is very excruciating pain that is almost intolerable. Stephanie Meyer writes about this part through Bella's perspective and tries to describe the most painful thing that could ever happen to anyone and that is what it felt like for Bella. After a couple days when the process is complete, Bella starts her new life as a vampire. Everything about her is different... the way she looks, the sound of her voice, even all of her senses. She can hear things from very far away and can see things she never was able to as a human. She is also very graceful and powerful, even more so than Edward, which is weird because she used to be so weak and clumsy compared to any of the Cullens. Bella tries to convince her new family to let her see her child Renesmee but they don't believe that she has the self control to see her without harming the baby.

Blog #1

The book I chose for outside reading is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I picked this book because I read the first three books in the series and loved them.

Blog # 15

For my blog about overcoming odds I read a biography about Oprah Winfrey. She overcame many odds in her lifetime. She was born to unwed, poor, teenage parents in Koskiusko Mississippi. She was raised by her grandmother for the first six years of her life, where her grandma taught her to love reading. From age 6 to 13 Oprah was sent back to live with her mother Vernita Lee. She was raped by a cousin when she was just 9 years old and molested two other times by men close to her family. She kept this a secret and dealt with the pain by rebelling and running away from home. After this she was sent to live with her father in Nashville. She got pregnant at age 14 and gave birth to a stillborn baby. At this point in her life, she decided it was time to make some changes. Her father was very strict and forced a very disciplined lifestyle on her at a young age... he even required her to read and write a book report on a new book weekly. When she was nineteen, she landed her first job as a reporter for a radio station, then went to Tennessee State University to pursue this career. In 1976 Oprah hosted a TV show, "People are Talking", where she gained fame. She later won an academy award for her role in Stephen Spielbergs 'The Color Purple' and now has her own show, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah's story is inspirational because she overcame so many odds and completely turned her life around for the better and she is an amazing woman.

Walker, Victoria. "Oprah Winfrey Biography." Essortment. 4 June 2002. 22 March 2009.

http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/china/pro-education.htm

Blog #12

For this blog about imperialism and colonization, I am using a text from an AP world book because we are learning about this topic right now in class. The definition of colonialism, as defined in AP achiever, is "not just the sending of colonists to new lands, but the exportation of social, political, economic, and cultural structures which come to dominate the subject lands and seek to supplant similar indigenous or traditional structures". This fits along very well with the colonization that happened in Nectar In A Sieve. Not only did the colonists arrive in the Indian village, but they changed structures as well. The social structure was changed because the new white men played a dominant and powerful role in society which revamped social statuses. Economic structures were dramatically changed, because of inflation that happened and new competition among other vendors in the marketplace. Cultural structures were also changed because of new values and ideals brought with the colonizers. This type of thing happens all throughout history. The chapter i'm reading about is specifically about British imperialism spread to India. They were originally drawn there because of available ports along the coast for the British East India company. It is interesting to be able to make connections from AP world class and our english book.


Grupe, Dixie and Reynolds, Sigrid. AP Achiever: World History. McGraw Hill, 2007.

Blog #11

For this blog about a global issue, I wanted to read about effects of global warming. I picked an article that talks about the top 5 deadliest effects of global warming. Number 1 is that disease would be able to spread much more rapidly and easier, because disease-carrying insects migrate north as it gets warmer. Scientists believe that because of this, Malaria has not been fully destroyed. Number 2 is more frequent and worst hurricanes. This is due to the temperatures rising in oceans. In one of my previous blogs about hurricane Katrina i learned that there is still tons of damage that has not been taken care of after all these years. It would be terrible to have more of those deadly hurricanes hit. Number 3 is more frequent/worse droughts and heat waves which will most dramatically affect Africa and parts of Africa. Africa already has a very scarce source of water, so this would be a huge problem and could potentially spark wars and conflicts (such as that in Sudan). Number 4 is that the past 3 effects would be costly to the economy because "Hurricanes cause billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these". And lastly number 5 is that polar ice caps would melt which would cause many, many problems. This is a very serious problem that I think people definitely need to pay more attention to.

Johnson, Simon. "5 Deadliest Effects of Global Warming." Environmental Graffiti. 11 Sep. 2007

Blog #10

For this blog about a holiday I read an article about the history of Easter. Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. Something that I found interesting from this article is that it is a celebration converged from three traditions: Pagan, Christian, and Hebrew. Another fact that I found interesting was that to solve the problem of what day Easter should be celebrated on, Constantine called to formation the Council of Nicaea. I remember learning about this in my AP world class but did not know that it played a crucial role in determining the day that Easter should fall on (they ended up agreeing on it being the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox... whatever that means). I was hoping to find out where all of the stereotypical Easter traditions evolved from, such as the Easter bunny, Easter egg searches, etc. I'm not sure what these symbolize in relation to Christianity because they seem kind of unrelated take the importance off of the reason for celebration.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/easter/history/easter_history.htm

Blog #9

For my blog about bollywood I read Bollywood Confidential by Suketu Mehta. In this article, Mehta tries to describe what it is about bollywood movies that Indians find such a connection with and why this is not the case for Americans and hollywood movies. Although he never specifically states his reasoning for why this is, I think that they love Bollywood films so much is because it is such a crucial aspect of their culture and promotes very good values for viewers. It is something that many people- regardless of race, gender, religion, whatever it is- can bond over and relate on. Much of his article is about personal stories of how Bollywood films impact peoples lives. Such as how when they moved to America his son Gautuma would sing Hindi film music and traditional english songs. He says that when he missed Bombay when he was in New York he would sing Hindi music from his favorite Bollywood film. Suketu comments on this, "An Indian boy in America, singing a Hindi song from an Indian movie imitation of an American comic book: the Ping-Pong game of kitsch.". I think this was an event that stuck out to him because in the midst of a new country that is so different, he can look back and watch over and over again these films and bring a small piece of Indian culture with him wherever he goes. I think that is the reason that these movies are so special, is because they represent their culture and reflects values and morals that are important to them.


Suketu, Mehta. "Bollywood Confidential". New York Times Sunday Magazine. 12 Nov 2005. 27 Feb 2009.

Blog #7

For my blog, i typed in story about change into google and found a 'motivational speech' about how you can change any aspect of your life by making different choices. The author, Jim Rohn, believes that any day you wish you can wake up and change something that you aren't happy with or are unsatisfied with simply by making different choices. "Any day we wish; we can start a new activity. Any day we wish; we can start the process of life change. We can do it immediately, or next week, or next month, or next year.". He makes it sound so simple that it seems as if anyone could do it. When I relate this philosophy to the situation Rukmani was in in Nectar in a Sieve I cannot seem to find an answer. From rohns perspective, Rukmani should just be able to snap her fingers and change her attitude about her living situation and go find a job and make money and all will be well. Clearly this is not a practical answer. The final thoughts he leaves you with at the end of his article are, "If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree. You have the ability to totally transform every area in your life - and it all begins with your very own power of choice." I can see where this could be true with certain parts of ones life, but not with everything as he makes it sound. What choices did Rukmani have that could so dramatically change her life for the better?

Rohn, Jim. "Change begins with choice". Motivational Quotes. 24 June 2003. 22 Feb 2009

Blog #6

For this blog about hope I read a story about a woman who got diagnosed with Parkinson disease when she was in her early 20's. This is very rare because this is usually a disease that is common in 60-70 year old people. Parkinson’s affects movement, speech, and makes it difficult to do very simple everyday things such as make a pizza or talk on the phone, as described in Sandy's story. To cope with her disease and help others who are in difficult life situations like hers, she founded a support group at her church to let other people know that they are not alone in their situation. She also wrote three books about living with Parkinson. Sandy says, “I started praying to God, give me purpose in my life, no matter what I have to deal with. And I felt like that’s what happened when I started writing books.” Sandi's persistence helped her succeed and helped other people as well. I can't imagine living with a disease like this that affects every aspect of your life so it is inspiring to see a woman overcome obstacles like this and make the best out of a bad situation.

http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=2805587&content_id={CA09F679-3B34-4BE2-B769-CC7FDF42B6BC}¬oc=1

Blog #5

For this blog, I read an article from the New York Times called "How India Reconciles Hindu Values and Biotech" about how religious values interfere with political and economical decisions in Japan, India, and the United States. The topic at hand is stem cell research-- a research which would make it possible to clone organs and body parts, and even humans and animals. Personally, I think that this could potentially have a lot of benefits and open numerable doors in the medical world. My religious beliefs do not contradict this process, but even if they did I think that the benefits would outweigh it and I would still support it. It could save many lives and could be very beneficial to people who need it, so that justifies it in my mind. In the article it discusses how religion interferes with this research. In 2001 president Bush restriced research on it which is partly due to the large portion of republican evangelical christians who are strongly opposed to it. Along with some forms of Hinduism, they believe that an embryo is a person and so you are killing someone by cloning an embryo. I think that religion should be disregarded from political decisions such as these because not all people share the same beliefs.

Mishra, Pankaj. "How India Reconciles Hindu Values and Biotech". New York Times. 21 Aug 2005. 15 Feb 2009.

Blog #4

For this blog, we were assigned to read something about gender or gender roles. I read an article for AP world history about how gender roles changed for women during the industrial revolution. Women before this revolution were mainly expected to bear children and do domestic chores, which changed dramatically at the turn of the nineteenth century. Although they earned lower wages, they were permitted to work in factory jobs that men were working in as well, or otherwise fill in the household jobs that men could not do anymore due to their working in the city. We can assume that since women could now bring in a portion of their family income, they gained more power in the household and their placement in society as well. Reading about the struggles for womens freedom in history makes me appreciate the liberties I can enjoy every day in society as a woman. Otherwise, these things can be easily taken for granted. In the book we're reading, Rukmani has a considerably powerful voice in decisions made in her household but it isn't hard to see the gender differences. Besides Rukmani's occasional gardening vegetables and Ira's prostitution, these women leave the promise of an income in the hands of the men. We also see industrialization happening in their town, but since there is no shortage of men willing to work at the tannery this opportunity has not yet become available to women.

Blog #3

For this blog, where we were assigned to read about a culture different than our own, I read an article about women in Indian culture from washingtonpost.com. I had no idea that the typical womans role in a marriage, as portrayed in the book we're reading in class, was still very common in Indian culture today. The author writes, "Because of the traditional custom of paying high dowries to a groom's parents, he said, girls were seen in the past as a heavy burden". This directly relates to our book because we see how this is a burden on families a few times: when Rukmani was married to Nathan and uses much of what was left of her families savings for her dowry, when Ira was born and Rukmani saved parts of what little income she made for Rukmanis dowry, and when Ira is given back to her family from her husband because she cannot bear children. My article, in contrast, was about how this stereotype is finally starting to fade as women gain more power in society. This, in turn, is leading to more violence in men. A statistic that shocked me was that there are 19,000 reported rapes a year and that violence against women is one of the fastest growing crimes in India. Knowing the history of Indian culture, it isn't hard to see that the probable reasoning for this is the recent change in womens social status and mens trouble adapting to it, or relunctancy to accept it.

MLA:
Wax, Emily. "In India, New Opportunities for Women Draw Anger and Abuse From Men." Washington Post Foreign Service. 25 Aug 2008. 8 Feb 2009.

Blog #2

For blog #2 I read an article from CNN.com called "Farmers prepare for coldest day of winter in South Florida". The struggle/difficulty this article addresses is a cold snap in Florida that could potentially kill many crops farmers are growing. As many are in there peak harvesting season, this could be a big problem. This connects to the book we are reading in class, Nectar In A Sieve, because Nathan and Rukmani are going through a very similar struggle. The difference is that Rukmanis family truly cannot risk their crops dying because it is a life or death situation... they need them to survive. These farmers in South Miami also have a lot to lose, but not nearly as much in my opinion. "That's how we make out living, to produce a product," Algers said. "If we don't have a product, then guess what? Then it will dramatically affect the prices in the food stores". This passage from the article shows that their biggest worry about losing the crops is that the prices in food stores will raise very high. In Rukmani and Nathans case, they're biggest worry is becoming homeless and starving. We are lucky to live in a society where this problem gets so much attention and that it does not present a life-death situation to us. In Rukmani's society this would have never even gotten news coverage.

MLA:
WSVN. "Farmers prepare for coldest day of winter in South Florida." Miami News. 4 Feb 2009.

Blog #1

For this blog I read a story about Hurricane Katrina from CNN.com written by Kathleen Koch. It is from the point of view of a journalist of the hurricane who grew up in Bay St. Louis-- a town that got hit by the storm. It was a very personal article and the way it was written made it possible to understand what it might be like to be in this situation. I can't imagine getting such short notice of a deadly storm approaching and evacuating knowing that you might never be able to see your house again. The author talks about driving away and trying to remember every last detail of her house before it was too late. She came back to find everything in sight completely destroyed- and people starving and dying because of the bad shelter conditions. I remember hearing about Hurricane Katrina and was too young to understand how tragic the situation really was. Losing all of your possessions, seeing the people you love get hurt, not having a place to call home. It makes me very grateful that i live in an area where this kind of weather does not exist. I also makes me appreciate the things I have even more, because like the victims of Hurricane Katrina, it could all be taken away without much of a warning.

MLA:
Koch, Kathleen. "Covering a disaster in your hometown". CNN 30 Aug 2006.

Blog #15

For my blog, I read an article on CNN called "thrift store MP3 contains secret military files". Chris Ogle, from New Zealand, bought a used MP3 player for nine dollars from a thrift store over a year ago and when he plugged it into his computer to put songs on it, discovered that there were confidential files. Some of these files include the home addresses, social security numbers, and cell phone numbers of U.S. soldiers and other information about the U.S. military back from 2005. It is scary that the government is not keeping these files safer, because things like this could happen so easily. It is lucky that this did not go into the hands of someone else who could use this information in a bad way. I would be very upset if i was one of these soldiers knowing that your personal information could be on this, or that something like this could happen.

Blog #14

For my blog, I read a CNN Article called "Suspect in Hudson family killings ordered to move from prison to jail". A judge ordered that the suspect, William Balfour, should move to a county jail to make it easier for him to meet with his lawyer. The judge said that Balfour understands that his case will take a long time to settle. I think he is wasting his time trying to prove himself innocent because there is plenty of evidence that points to him as the suspect. Prosecuters believe that he killed Jennifer Hudsons mother, brother, and nephew because he was jealous when he found out that his estranged wife had a boyfriend. I can't imagine what it is like for Jennifer Hudson to have to deal with these deaths that happened very suddenly and how anxious it makes her for the trial to end so that William Balfour goes to prison for a very long time.

Blog #13

For my blog I read an article from the CNN website- "Seven bodies found in home, police said". In Los Angeles, California the bodies of 5 children and 2 adults was found in a house in the neighborhood of Wilmington. There was an 8 year old girl and 2 sets of twins, ages 5 and 2. They believe this was a murder-suicide commited by the father. He was believed to have killed the family and then calling 911 and contacting a news station, telling them that he had murdered his family, before taking his own life. Police also found a suicide note in the house but did not get much information from it. This is a very tragic story and it's hard to believe that someone could have so much hatred that they could murder so many innocent people, especially of their own family. Nothing justifies that, so i wonder what the reasoning that the father had for this.

Blog #12

For this blog I read chapter 6 of Fitz by Mick Cochrane. At the start of chapter 6 Fitz tells his father to go to a coffee shop drive through and get himself some coffee. While he is ordering Fitz notices how polite and pleasant his father is to the girl who is working. This confuses him because he cannot understand how he seems to be such a nice person and can't even take the time to talk to his son every once in a while. He can't figure out what prevented him from doing this. Fitz refers to this problem as being the central mystery of his life. This sparks some hostility from him that surprises himself when Curtis asks what people call him, and he replies with orphan boy. At the end of the chapter, Fitz tells his father to call into work sick today. "I have plans. Big plans." Is the last thing Fitz says, which makes me wonder what he has planned for his first day with his father.

Blog #11

For this blog I read chapter 5 of Fitz by Mick Cochrane. Fitz is now in the car with his dad, who still does not know that his son is sitting next to him, and instructs him to start driving away from the city. Fitz reflects back on how he used to call his uncle 'daddy' because he was the father figure in his family, and how his mom never told him the truth about where his dad was when he was younger. At the very end of chapter 5, Curtis finally asks what it is that he wants from him, to just say the word and he could have it. Fitz replies, "What I want is to spend some time with you. You know, quality time. A little father-son time. Dad. That's the word". Curtis finally realizes that this kidnapper isn't a stranger but his son. I am still curious why Fitz's father left his family in the first place and why he did not try to stay in contact with his son.