Life brings us many challenges and opportunities about what it means to be human. We get into situations we are proud of and we also get into situations we regret and don’t even want to have a thought in our head about ever again. Why some people become victims in society with poverty and death and some live full long lives without fear and riches that keep them happy is an reality that I’m not completely sure why they even happen. Why does God pick on some places like poor Africans and give fortune to people like us Canadians? Three situations I have thought of are soldiers on their mission in Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti that brought the whole world together, and the Night World book series that I have read in this semester for English.

Soldiers have the hardest job of all. They have the responsibility of protecting our country and making sure that we have a good reputation around the world as admirable people that want to help. I know that if I was a soldier, the hardest part for me would be having to leave the people I love behind. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the hurt and pain of having to leave my loved ones behind, not even sure if I’d see them again if I died. Husbands or wives of the soldiers that pass away in the line of duty are sometimes left with their children, having to be a single parent and having to be both a mother and a father to their children. I find soldiers very honorable people because they sacrifice their lives for the better of society, even if it means dying.“> Our soldiers in Afghanistan are not exactly in a war, they are there on a mission to peace keep and make sure a war doesn’t break out. Unfortunately, some people in Afghanistan don’t want our soldiers there and set up bombs and traps that kill many of these soldiers at a time. These people become victims in society because they choose to do a job that not many people have the bravery to do. Having the choice to become a soldier or not, I would choose not to be a soldier. I would never want to have to wonder each morning when I wake up if I’m going to die today, or having to pray to God that I can live another day. Life would be better if nobody had anything to fight about and the world could life peacefully. Sadly, that is not a realistic thought today, but hopefully in the future, war will be a idea that’s frowned upon and a part of the past that we can look back on.

Earthquakes have happened plenty of times throughout history and even today, but when they happen to poor countries who are already not well off, I don’t understand why God has to make life worse for them already. More than 150,000 people have been killed its estimated, and that death toll will rise once everything gets cleaned up. Even Canadians have been killed in Haiti when they were vacationing, the death toll for us is 21 people. Millions of people have become homeless because of this tragedy and I feel terribly for these people. Losing my friends and family in tons of rubble and then finding them all smashed up and dead would definitely scar me for life.“> Most of the people in this disaster died, but this morning a man was found still alive 14 days after the earthquake underneath piles of smashed up buildings and rocks. When that happens, I know that God is working a miracle and that man is very lucky to be alive today. Even though this disastrous, heartbreaking misfortune has happened to Haitians, a little kindness has been shown from people across the world wanting to help. When this disaster struck on January 12th, the world immediately stopped what they were doing and started to help. Countries such as Canada have brought in Canadian celebrities such as Nelly Furtado to perform while people across Canada can call in and donate as much money as they wish. Canadians have raised 20 million dollars from this telethon and altogether in Canada we have raised 40 million. My family has donated money to the Haiti disaster while we were in church, and after we donated that money I felt good that we contributed to a good cause that will help many people. Haitians became victims in society simply because earthquakes are part of Earth’s natural cycle, and the only solution we have is to donate food and money to help them rebuild their country.

Books create situations that we can either wish we were in or are glad that were not. The books that I have read this year during English are the Night World novels which are stories about vampire wars against humans and their plot to take over the world killing all humans as revenge for killing some of the vampires’ ancestors, but a strange situation happens that vampires never thought was possible.“> Vampires came in contact with humans on a daily basis and love between these two species had never happened, the only feelings ever recorded was hate. Many vampires started imprinting or falling in love with humans and ended up having to tell the humans that vampires were real. In one case, a vampire called Quinn imprinted on a vampire hunter named Rashel. At first Quinn hated humans and wanted a war against them and Rashel hated vampires because one killed her mother at a young age so she swore to kill every single one she met. Once Quinn and Rashel meet each other they automatically imprint and love each other whether they like it or not. I wouldn’t want to be in the situation of a human if a war between vampires and humans broke out because vampires have strength that no human can match, vampires in this book are quick, and vampires can kill you in a quick twist and bite of the neck. Eventually in the ending of this book, vampires ended up conquering the humans, with the vampires that fell for the humans becoming slaves as well. The humans and vampires that fell in love became victims in society because they took a chance with each other just to see what would happen. If I was in this situation, I know I’d choose the same fate as the humans and vampires that fell in love because in my opinion, if you don’t have love in your life, you really don’t have a life or an existence to live for.

I haven’t experienced a situation even remotely similar to what I have described. I never want to be in war, I never want to have everything I’ve ever known and loved just destroyed and taken away in a heartbeat, and I’d never want to be discriminated against and punished just because I fell in love with someone that people say I’m not allowed to love. These are some hardships of life that happen because we want them to happen, or because they happen by chance and were just the unlucky ones. Why they happen I’m not sure, but there is a greater being in this universe that controls and determines what fates happen where and what other places can do to help. Maybe God makes disasters like the earthquake in Haiti just to bring everybody in the world together and show us that we all have more in common than we really think.

Throughout the world, different people become dedicated to different causes. Whether it be fighting for human equality, saving the world around us, or even the other extreme of dedicating oneself to a murder of another human being. These are all causes that varieties of groups of people dedicate themselves to.

Murder isn’t a good cause in sane minds today but before the birth of Christ it was a part of everyday life. Brutus and Cassius were the mastermind conspirators behind Julius Caesar’s murder. Cassius was a terrible liar his whole life and nobody really liked him, not even Brutus. All that Cassius and Brutus had in common was they both wanted to accomplish murdering Caesar. Since they obviously couldn’t do this job with only the two of them, Brutus and Cassius collected a group of conspirators that also wanted to kill Caesar. Caesar eventually was murdered by Brutus, Cassius and the conspirators which made me happy. In this story, Caesar is portrayed as a self-obsessed man who wants to rule the world by being more than a king, he wanted to be a god. Personally, I’m sure Caesar was mentally insane because in his lifetime he killed thousands of people without a reason at all, I’m sure he was heartless. Strangely enough, Brutus and Cassius killing Julius Caesar brought them together and they became great friends. Brutus and Cassius were both dedicated to the cause of killing Julius Caesar and they succeeded in the cause, even though they ended up killing themselves at the end.

Another dedication that many people are aware of is people dedicating themselves to saving the Earth’s environment. A good example is David Suzuki, a Canadian environmental activist. He has dedicated himself to a lifetime of preventing climate change and even had his own television show about preventing climate change and has his own foundation called the David Suzuki Foundation and their goal is “to find ways for society to live in balance with the natural world that sustains us.” He encountered the difficulty of convincing people that something was actually wrong with our planet, many people didn’t believe him. They all thought he was crazy when he proposed the suggestion of climate change and that we need to be active members of our planet and prevent it by recycling and not littering. He succeeded in helping create a better planet and raising awareness about how fragile life on Earth really is by writing many books on climate change. People such as this are admirable to me because they inspire me to become more involved in society, that I can’t just sit back and watch other people take care of the world for me, I need to take action myself. Even if taking action is just doing simple actions like recycling or walking to school in the warmer months instead of driving.

Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to making sure African-American people had civil rights in society. Many people didn’t accept him at all just because he was African-American which was a huge challenged he faced in his lifetime. He encouraged African-Americans to ignore rules about favoring white people and instead make themselves be treated as equals. Actions such as this resulted in Martin Luther King Jr. spending time in jail more than once. Martin Luther King Jr. got so weary and fed up with segregation he created a speech about integrating African-Americans into society called “I have a dream”. Little did Martin Luther King Jr. know that his one speech would change the world forever. He earned African-Americans rights to vote and to get great jobs just like the white people did and get paid the same amount white people did. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the age of 39 and he had a national holiday dedicated to him in the United States. If it wasn’t for people like Martin Luther King Jr., our world wouldn’t have as many accomplishments and people to be proud of. I admire Martin Luther King Jr. because of his great courage and determination to change the world one step at a time.

Without dedicated people such as Brutus and Cassius, David Suzuki, and Martin Luther King Jr., I wonder how different the world would be today. If nobody had the guts to kill Julius Caesar, if nobody had the motivation to help our planet, or if nobody cared that human beings were being treated differently. Because of people like these, I am proud to live in this world and know that Earth is a better place and maybe I can change the world by starting off doing small steps just like these amazing people did.

(Christine) – I’m bored

(Amber) – Same

(Taylor) – Hey kids!(thumbs up) Guess what I bought!?

(Christine )- (excited) What is it mom??

(Taylor) – It’s MOTHER EARTH!

(Amber & Christine)- YOU ROCK!

(Christine) Its more than rocks, (Taylor) it’s mother earth! (Amber) Comes with many items! (Christine) And for those special nights, (Taylor) lingerie. (Chris whistle)

(Amber) It’s even a decoration for mom’s kitchen!

(Christine) Every mother loves a helping hand, to occupy those darling children

(Amber) With only 5 easy payments of 39.98, its easy and a great deal !

(Taylor) If you call in the next 2 seconds you can receive a second mother earth HALF PRICE!

(Christine) That’s right ladies, a second mother earth half price !

(Taylor) It’s more than rocks, it’s mother earth!

(Christine) Don’t resist the love of  nature,

(Amber) CALL NOW! 1 800 808 SALE

Everyday, everyone anywhere in the world sees alcohol advertisements on television, unless of course you don’t have a television. I couldn’t imagine watching a show without having an alcohol advertisement following. Some alcohol advertisements contain sexual reference, some are funny, and some are just so dumb nobody understands what’s even going on or what the person creating the commercial was thinking.

Most alcohol commercials contain men and mostly naked women and have some sort of sexual meaning behind it. If there was no sexual meaning behind alcohol I doubt that the companies would sell as much as they do. In today’s society and even before my time, sex always sells. The commercial I found particularly sexual was one Corona had made. There’s a guy sitting in a beach chair staring at a girl walking by in a bikini and his girlfriend squirts him in the face with a lime. I personally don’t like the commercials where women are being stared at and talked about in such a sexual manner, it makes all women look bad especially when they give into the men and seem to enjoy it. It’s telling women that if they drink that alcohol, they will have men stare at them. I don’t like commercials that stereotype all women as beautiful and perfect bodied people, when in real life not everybody looks anything like that. It’s mostly only directed at men, with the odd commercial for women. In the commercials directed at men it’s usually saying you can get pretty girls and that it’s okay to degrade women.

The second most common commercial is the funny ones. The commercial I found very gender biased but still funny is one Heineken made. In this commercial, a woman is taking her friends through her new house and approach her walk-in closet full of shoes and started screaming because they are so excited. In another room not far away, her husband is showing his friends a walk-in closet full of Heineken beer and again him and his friends are freaking out because of it. I found this advertisement gender biased because it’s saying all women only care about clothing items like shoes while all men only like beer. Sure lots of girls enjoy fashion and clothing but so do lots of men, it may not be a majority of men that enjoy it but I know lots of men that do care about their appearance. Same with the beer part, lots of women drink beer, probably the same amount of men that do.

The commercials that I don’t care for as much are the dumb ones that I find hard to understand. The one I found the dumbest is Love Train by Coors Light. The commercial takes place at a football game and has a huge Coors Light train that comes flying out of the place where the football players enter the stadium and the only people watching are men and cheerleaders are dancing half-naked and everyone gets beer. I don’t like commercials that are totally unrealistic and when I don’t understand the total point of the commercial at all. I imagine these commercials sell a lot of beer as well though because commercials like that are so dumb that the commercial leaves people wondering about how to understand the beer commercial, so then the beer is constantly on their mind and when they go out to buy the beer, they’ll choose the one that has been on their mind. I don’t really understand why women can’t watch football games in commercials and the only ones watching have to be cheerleaders in barely any clothing.

Without commercials, companies would never sell as much products as they do. Without the hidden, or very obvious sexual, funny, and dumb meanings behind each one I know commercials wouldn’t be as alluring or having people want the beer as much. If you look very closely in each commercial, you can find gender bias and discrimination in each one, some so disturbing and rude I can barely stand to watch them. I couldn’t imagine a commercial just showing the beer and nothing else because it gives nobody anything to really remember or think about. I hope one day that gender stereotyping isn’t so obvious in our society and everybody can be equal, and it shouldn’t matter whether your male or female.

After watching many commercials of different toys throughout my life, I began to realize the differences between “boys toys” and “girls toys”. I always wanted the brand new barbie dolls and if my parents asked me if I wanted toys like little race cars I’d always respond with the answer “No those are for boys!”. Ever since the very first toy commercial in 1946 for Mr. Potato Head, toys have been constantly evolving into newer, better toys. After watching a few different commercials, I’ve noticed a few different gender roles in specific toys.

The first toy I noticed that shows how all girls should be is Barbie. Barbies portray that all girls should have tiny waists, large chests and blonde hair. I’m sure it hurts many girls self-esteem if they don’t look like this. When I was younger I always wanted to be like Barbie, living in a big mansion house and having pretty and fashionable clothing. Of course, this wish isn’t realistic for most girls who play with Barbies. Gender stereotyping shows hugely with Barbie dolls for those reasons.

Another gender stereotype I found in girls toys is kitchen cooking sets. Most little girls love pretending to cook for their parents with play food and plastic dishes. When I was younger I remember doing the exact same thing, I’d have my dolls and my kitchen set and I’d pretend to cook for my dolls and myself and sometimes my parents. I’ve seen differences between genders with my cousins, Jaylin who is a girl and Nolan who is a boy. Whenever Jaylin asks Nolan to play “house” with her and her dolls he says “No I don’t wanna play with girl toys!” and quickly runs away from everyone.

The second toy I noticed is G.I. Joe action figures. I noticed this toy as a large gender reinforcement toy for boys because this toy is shown as a big strong good guy who battles and defeats the evil guys. Most young boys that I know of enjoy these G.I. Joe action figures because they enjoy the model for guys being tough and strong and want to be just like G.I. Joe when they get older. I have babysat young boys many times before and most of their toys consist of little toy cars, action figures like G.I. Joes, and little bakugan toys. Being a girl, I find all these toys very boring to play with and not exciting at all, I don’t know why anybody would find racing little cars or transforming little balls into dragons is exciting in any way.

All of these toys popped out in particular to me because of the distinct gender stereotyping in each one. I always wonder when this gender stereotyping started and why people allow it to carry on. As I have said in our discussion in the STJ Forum, I think that it shouldn’t matter which toy is a “girl toy” or a “boy toy” and all kids should be comfortable with playing with any toy they want to and shouldn’t have to worry about their friends making fun of them for having the wrong toy that wasn’t specifically made for their gender. If young girls are taught to barbie, it makes me feel like we are telling young girls to become just like her. It’s teaching all young girls to become nurturing, loving mothers and wives one day while the toys that are created especially for boys like the G.I. Joe doll and toy swords are telling boys to be tough, violent men and husbands and pretty much telling them that without violence and strength that they are nothing. I don’t like that message being given to young children especially because I believe that it’s teaching them that violence is the only way to be and I think that because of this that murders would increase. Not only that but if women don’t learn to become stronger and more tough, domestic violence would increase greatly as well. Girls need to learn that barbie isn’t a great role model at all and really she’s just a piece of plastic that isn’t a realistic goal for any girl in the world, she’s just a toy.

I am now reading Night World 3. There are three books in this novel, Huntress, Black Dawn, and Witchlight. The author is L.J. Smith

“Each day, every member of the family, one after the other, enters the shrine room, bows his or her head before the charm-box, mixes holy water in the font and then proceeds with a brief rite similar to Christian baptism”. This specific sentence inside this article I found had shown a great example of stereotyping. I found this article stereotypical because not everybody has a faith that involves them going into a shine room every day and mixing holy water and putting holy water on themselves. I myself am a Christian and I don’t have a holy room inside of my house and don’t do religious ceremonies with my family. I usually just go to church once a week and that’s it for my religious ceremonies.

“As humans are trapped inside their ugly bodies, their only hope to avoid the decay and disease is religious ritual and ceremony”. I don’t find human bodies ugly at all. I find this sentence in this article stereotypical as well because not everybody things their bodies are ugly. Also, not everybody does religious rituals and ceremonies because not everybody believes in a God. I’m happy to be in the body I am in and I have never felt that I’m trapped inside it, I feel like I want to be in it.

The book I’m reading is Night World 2. There are three books included in this one book. The author is L.J. Smith.

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STJ School Forum : Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion : Night World 2: The Chosen

Night World 2: The Chosen in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion
twilson, November 2, 2009
Night World 2: The Chosen in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion
twilson, November 2, 2009
Night World 2: The Chosen in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion
twilson, November 2, 2009
Night World 2: The Chosen in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion
cmacmillan, October 26, 2009
Night World 2: The Chosen in Book Talk : Fiction Book Discussion
twilson, October 23, 2009

Suicide is the name given when people decide to take their lives away from themselves. Suicide can be committed at any age, at any time, and is usually the result of an ongoing depression. The fact of people getting so down and distressed and wanting to kill themselves just makes me shiver and have extreme sympathy for these poor people. I could never imagine having such an urge and aggression in my mind to take away my own life.

In the past few years, teen suicide has increased steadily as each year across Canada thousands of teens choose to take their own lives away from themselves. For 15 to 24 year olds, this is the third leading causing of death, and the sixth leading cause for 5 to 14 year olds. When I read these statistics I found it quite surprising that such a large amount of young people would like to take their own lives away from themselves. I wonder how bad life would have to be for these people to even consider such a morbid thought. Young people usually experience feelings of stress, confusion, self-doubt, and pressure to succeed in life.

Suicide is a realistic issue that families around the world have to deal with on a daily basis. Not only does suicide affect the person willing to commit the terrible crime to their body, but also affects their family and others who love the person. Families can watch for symptoms their loved one may be showing such as:

• change in eating and sleeping habits
• withdrawal and loss of interest from friends, family, and regular activities
• violent actions as well as rebellious behavior or running away
• drug and alcohol use
• unusual carelessness of their appearance
• personality change, boredom, difficulty concentrating, or decline in the quality of their schoolwork
• regular complaints about physical complaints due to emotions
• and not tolerating praise or rewards.

Being alive, in my opinion, is a privilege we all get from God the day we are born. Everybody has a right, and a responsibility to be alive no matter what. We have the responsibility to keep our bodies healthy and active, as well as to

Like most other mental disorders, suicide is treatable. Teens, as well as people in general, should seek help from a parent or counsellor to tell and talk out their problems to. Suicide seems like the solution to all the stress and problems in life when realistically, it isn’t. I’ve never had people in my family hurt themselves in such a way, and I am very happy that nobody I know has. Professional help should be looked for when you or somebody you love is experiencing these symptoms. Certain medications can be given to people with suicidal thoughts to improve their lives as well as the people around them.