Kalir

One word, Superbowl, the first thing that comes to my mind isn’t football it’s what kind of commercials they are going to have this year. I know that living in Canada we don’t get half the commercials that the USA does but we still get a few. I love watching all the beer commercials and laughing at how funny they are. If I was to think about what they were actually saying I wouldn’t laugh like I usually do. I don’t think many people see the ‘big picture’ they are trying to portray in their advertisements. A lot of the beer advertisements show a discrimination towards women, they show them in revealing outfits, unporportionate sized parts of their body, and overall a bad name for women everywhere.

Most women don’t act like this in real life, and when guys go out to bars they expect the women to be in skimpy outfits and do what ever the men want. These commercials make it very hard for women today because many feel like they should look and act this way to be more appealing to the male gender. There is a overwhelming percentage of women today that wish they had that ‘killer’ body and amazing social skills. I think this is actually humorous because the majority of people who create and put these commercials onto TV are guys. I am a little sad that they portray women this way because there is the odd ones that actually look that way. It puts a lot of stress girls especially those that are in their teens they see that image of the girl at the bar and think thats how they’ll have to look and act.

These alcohol advertisements can also put stress on guys too. A guy can watch these people acting a certain way and also think thats how they have to act too. In the commercials there usually show guys getting the girl pretty easy, just show them there case of ‘Bud light’ and the girls fallow them like dogs. I haven’t been to a bar but I am smart enough to know that probably doesn’t happen and if it does the girl must have learnt it from a beer commercial. I don’t know if that would actually happens but if it did I am ashamed of those that do. Being a girl that angers me that women think they have to be someone their aren’t, every person is unique in their own way and should be themselves.

I can’t sit here and say that they shouldn’t show these ads on TV because I enjoy laughing, but they should be less extreme in the ways they show both males and females. They should show normal people just having a good time. I would rather have a good time with friends or meeting new people then having to be someone I’m not. I know a lot of fakes and I wouldn’t want to live my life that way. If I be myself and act how I normally would I will find friends that will love me for me, and a true friend is better than one that’s not.

Today when I look into the toy market, I’d never expect to see some of the toys that I do. Some are just a disgrace, some I just sit back and think what were they thinking, and some are the ones that I would think that are actually decent but when I actually think of it they are still portraying a twisted purpose. I know that me and my class watched endless upon endless toy commercials, we all thought some were just hilarious. After about a week of just laughing and fooling around, some actually got to work and started finding that some of these toys were trying to shape kids mind so they think they have to be just like these toys. An example would be Barbie, these dolls show a girl who is as close to perfect as a human can get.

Girls growing up today face a very difficult time, many watch TV and see these girls on the runway that stand 6 feet and are skinny. There is a very high rate of girls today that are becoming anorexic at a very young age.

40 per cent of 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade girls want to be thinner. And 80 per cent of 10 year olds are worried in case they become fat. In another survey, 70 percent of 6th grade girls surveyed said that their concern about their weight, shape and diet started when they were aged 9-11. In a study of children aged 8-10, approximately 50 per cent of girls said they were unhappy with their size. In a study of girls aged 9-15, more than 50 per cent claimed they exercised to lose weight, nearly 50 per cent claimed they reduced food intake in order to lose weight, and approximately 5 per cent claimed to use their parents’ diet pills or laxatives in order to lose weight.

These statics are enough to make me sick, young girls shouldn’t be trying to lose weight there young bodies aren’t fully grown yet. Their bodies are going through changes and some add-on a few pounds, I agree with exercising  to stay fit not to lose weight at that age, and diet pills are totally out of the question why would they do that to their body. Most don’t know the consequences of what that is doing to their bodies, I don’t think most adults know what they are putting into their bodies either.

For young boys it’s not about losing weight, it’s more about guns and violence. Some toys for young boys are mostly related to fighting and war. If I go to the toy section in Wal-mart and look down the boy isles I would find that most have a buff guy holding a gun, or some relation to fighting. There are also that deal with physical violence such as UFC fighting and MMA. I know lots of young boys watch these on TV with either their dads or brothers, and will try out their moves on commercial breaks or after. I can’t even count of many times I’ve been at my Grandma’s and watched my cousins ‘grapple’ each other or try to ‘pin’ each other down and make them ‘tap out’. 

Both boys and girls are effected by these toys. I don’t know if parents or people who buy these toys for them see what they are actually buying, but there has been more and more young people taking guns to school or bingeing. It is a serious problem that our world is facing today we need to teach the younger generation more about violence and eating disorders.  They need to see the outcomes of what both of these do to themselves and to the people around them.

Julius Caesar was an epicurean, meaning he believes that everything is made out of ‘stuff’ anything that can bring him satisfaction is good. An epicurean lives for the moment and in the moment. Marc Antony is considered to be a stoic, we don’t find out till later in the book and the movie that he is in fact a stoic. Shakespeare portrays Marc Antony to be an epicurean because he likes to indulge himself in ‘stuff’, he likes to go out and party and have a good time. It seems that he wants to live in the moment, but in the end of the movie he says that Brutus died an honorable death.  A stoic believes that we live for what’s next; they live to please the Gods.

Caesar dies on the Ides of March; 8 conspirators murdered him.  When they had their meeting there was only 7 conspirators that were at the meeting, Ligarious shows up late and is still allowed to be involved in the assassination of Julius Caesar. Calpurnia, Caesar’s wife, has a dream where she sees Caesar being killed and people washing their hands in his blood. She tries to get Caesar to not go to the Senate today, he almost decides to but Decius talks him into coming. Decius was one of the 8 conspirators that was planning to assassinate Caesar on this day, the Ides of March.  The soothsayer tries to warn Caesar again but Caesar tells him this is the Ides of March and I am still here, he replies, “The day is not over.” Artemidorus nearly warns Caesar but Decius Brutus prevents him from doing so. Caesar is then murdered by the conspirators in the Senate.

There has been times in my life when I have ignored peoples advice. If Caesar would have listened to both Armetidorus and the soothsayer he would have been able to stop his own death. But, because he didn’t, he paid the price for not listening to people. I can learn something from Caesar’s death, to keep my friends close and my enemies closer. If Caesar would have kept his fellow Senators close he could have avoided death. But, because he was an epicurean he believed in living in the moment and at that moment he was on top of the Roman government. The people of Rome thought him of a God, that walked the Earth, and this made Caesar get a little ahead of himself. He forgot to watch his back because he believed everyone loved him.

                                          I really enjoyed reading and watching the movie Julius Caesar. I got to learn about a different time period, and see what it was like to live in the times of ancient Rome. It was a really neat experience trying to figure out what they were meaning by the language they spoke. At first our class had a really hard time trying to comprehend what they were saying but when we figured out we started to actually understand what Shakespeare was trying to tell us through his play. I think that our class enjoyed watching the movie and discussing in class about Julius Caesar. Our class also needs to learn a lesson about who to trust and who not to. It’s a very important lesson in life, and most teenagers will go through a period in their life where they will listen to people who they shouldn’t like a random kid, then listen to someone who actually knows what they are talking about like their parents.

To an outsider this preoccupation may seem pointless, but these religious practices greatly reassure that people, and if they choose to live this way, we should not question it. This is a cultural relativism statement because it is says that, ‘this preoccupation may seem pointless’ meaning that some may its pointless. Then they back it up saying that, ‘if they choose to live this way, we should not  question it.’ This means that they say even though it may seem pointless to us, we shouldn’t judge them on how they choose to live life. I believe that it is cultural relativism because the definition is, “believing that no culture’s practices are better or worse than another cultures practices-what ever another culture does is acceptable.

Every household has one or more of these shrines for this purpose. I think that the anthropologist is stereotyping the Snaid-Anacs because they are saying that, ‘every household has one or more of these shrines,’ when not everyone may have one of these shrines the anthropologist hasn’t gone to every single house and saw that each had at least one of these shrines. The definition for stereotyping says that, ‘Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups, based on some prior assumptions.’

I have started re-reading the book the, “The End of Forever.” In this book there is two sisters who are both part of the drama club at their school. When they were having the after party the one sister who had just got her license really wants to go and get more pop because they were out. But the one sister Erin, tells Amy that Ms.Thorton asked her but Amy insists that she can do and ends up in an accident. It is a very emotional book and I will tell you how I look at this book differently now that I will be able to drive in February and when I first read this book I was in Grade 7.

STJ School Forum : Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion : The End of Forever
STJ School Forum

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-03
In chapters 13 through 16 it begins with Erin being asked into a room off of the Neuro-ICU waiting room. Her parents are in there with Dr.DuPree there are discussing what the situation is with Amy, she had a test earlier that day and was pronounced brain dead meaning that she was actually dead but the machines where keeping her vital organs working so that arrangements could be made to deal with Amy. Erin took this very hard, she couldn’t believe that her sister was never going to come back to her. I would be the same way I couldn’t be able to hear that there was nothing that technology could do to re-vive my little sister. Then another man comes into the room he is from the Florida Organ and tissue donor program. This means that he has came here to talk to the family to ask if they would be willing to put Amy’s organs into another person that is barely living and needs a donor very soon. Erin says that she doesn’t want someone to ‘dismantle’ her sister and send off her organs to different states. But, her parents say that they would like to do this so that something good can come out of the hell they had been put through. I think that Erin should let go of her sister so that someone who has a chance of living will get that opportunity.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-03
Chapter 11 and 12, there is nothing to serious going on Amy isn’t making any progress, and is kinda getting worse. The family have some what resumed normal life, only going to the hospital when they aren’t at work or school. If there was to be something to happen they’d be able to head to the hospital easily. The school’s dance is coming up but Erin has decided not to go she doesn’t feel like nothing can make her happy right now and she doesn’t want to be a buzz kill. I don’t think that I would be going to a dance either.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-03
In the 10 chapters I have read so far, it seems the same as when I read this book before. I am starting to realize how serious the consequences are if I were to get into an accident and had head trauma. It seems so unreal how scary it is for the family to see their once very active child and sister to now be so still. One thing that I always seem to ask myself is, “what if I was in a coma, would I be able to hear what is going on outside of my body but I can’t respond because the damage is causing me to not be able to respond even though I’m trying so hard?” “What if I could hear the doctors saying that I can’t come out of this coma and going to talk to my family about ‘pulling the plug’ and i can’t stop them because I’m still alive in there I just can’t come out even though I’m trying with all my might?” I have so many ‘what ifs?’ I cannot imagine what it would do to my family knowing that they have to make the decision to take my life away from me. I’m not promising that I will not make stupid mistakes when I get my license but I will think twice before driving on icy roads, drinking and driving, ect. I can only pray that my friends will do the same because I can’t wrap my head around, sitting in the church with my friend in a coffin at the front and not beside me.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-03
Chapter 8-10 is when the Bennett family is introduced to the Neuro-ICU which is a trauma unit, where Amy is placed because she has suffered major head trauma. The family is told that they will begin doing tests on Amy to see how well her body is doing and how much brain activity there is. Amy cannot breath on her own so she is hooked up to machines that breath for her. They don’t know for sure if Amy will be able to recover or if she will end up in a nursing home for the rest of her life as a vegetable. I have told my parents that if I was ever to be in the situation that Amy is in to let me go, because I do not want to live as a vegetable for the rest of my life.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-02
Chapter 7 there is no return of Amy, and Travis and Erin had stopped at all the local convenient stores and they all hadn’t seen any one who fit Amy’s description. So they head back to the school to find that only Ms.Thornton was there she told them that she had sent everyone home and would start a phone chain when she knew what had happened. Then the door knocks again and Erin rushes to it also again but it is Inez, there family friend saying that Amy had been in a car accident and that Erin’s family was waiting at the hospital. The car ride over was a blur Erin couldn’t believe that Amy had been in an accident. This would be the scariest situation to experience in life to be involved in. I cannot imagine the emotions Erin was feeling knowing that her sister was in the hospital and thinking that it was my own fault.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-02
Chapter 6 is when the beginning of the action starts. When the party is pretty much over and Amy hasn’t returned, there is a knocking at the door. Erin rushes over to it thinking its Amy when it really is Travis, Amy’s boyfriend, asking if Amy is there because they are supposed to be going on a date. Erin tells him that Amy had gone out to get more sodas earlier and hadn’t returned yet Erin had assumed that she had just ditched and gone to his house. Travis tells her that she hadn’t stopped by, so they decide to go out and look for her. By this point in the book I knew that something bad was going to happen because of what the back of the book had to told me so I was intrigued to see how the plot played out.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-02
In chapter five the recital and the after party take place, Ms.Thornton is talking to Erin and tells her how well she performed and asks her if she would be willing to go and study at Wolftrap Dance Academy for the summer. She tells her that she could possibly get her a scholarship as well. When someone tells Ms.Thornton that they’ve ran out of pop, Erin tells her that she it go out and get more. So when Erin is heading out the door Amy stops her and asks what she is doing. Amy asks if she can go instead because she wants to try driving on her own. I don’t think that it was such a good idea to let a beginner driver go on her own especially when it has been raining and the roads are slick.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-11-02
I have finished reading the first 4 chapters in my book, so far nothing too exciting has happened. Amy has had her 16th birthday and got her permit and they are practicing for their recital. Amy is pretty much always late for it and this really annoys Erin. So for her birthday Erin gives her a key chain with a key for Erin’s car so they can share, and a little silver box. The box was a little machine that so when Amy forgot where she put her keys she’d whistle and it would whine. Guess I should read more to get to where the action happens.

The End of Forever in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion, krochford, 2009-10-27
I am beginning to re-read the book, "The End of Forever," it is a story of a sister that gets in a car accident and is put on life support. Erin, the older sister, thinks that is is her fault because the teacher Ms.Thorton asks her to but Amy insists that she'll be fine to go and get more pop for their play's cast party. I want to see if this book will affect me differently now that I will be able to drive in February or if I still have the same mind set as I did in Grade 7.

I have read the books, Evermore and Blue Moon By Alyson Noel. I am waiting for the third book to come out, Shadowland it will come out on November 17th. I’m very excited to read this book!