English 12A

Happiness

2008-06-02T17:56:00.000-07:00

Happiness is enjoying
showing or
marked by pleasure
satisfaction or
joy
happiness is the feeling
I get being around my friends and family
is knowing that I am loved and cared for
is doing the things I love to do
is accomplishing my goals and dreams
is living and loving life

Prediction 1984

2008-05-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

I knew it was bound to happen that Julia and Winston would get caught. However, it completely took me by surprise that Mr. Charrington was involved with the Thought Police. I think that Julia will be killed if she isn't already dead. She was the first one they hit and then took her away. They have no use for her. I don't think that Winston will be killed, yet. They have yet to even touch him. If they wanted him gone it would have happened right away. I feel like the Thought Police are going to use Winston to their advantage. Even though he doesn't know much about the Brotherhood, just knowing O'Brien might make him valuable. Maybe the Though Police thinks he can help them take down the Brotherhood. However, without Julia Ithink Winston will commit suicide before ever helping the Thought Police. He told O'Brien that he would be willing to kill himself if the time came. He never said he would part from Julia though and I think that is going to be the hard part for Winston.

Genetic Engineering

2008-03-08T11:53:00.000-08:00

Think about a future world where a life began when the parents picked the genes. After screening for any unwanted genetic diseases, they select the sex, hair color, height, and skin color. They might also choose genes that affect intelligence and sexual orientation. Would the world get too out of control? Are there too many long term risks we are failing to see? Where is it that we need to draw the line? The risks of genetic engineering seem to outweigh the positives of it.

Genetically engineering human beings to no longer have certain diseases is a wonderful thing. Many lives could be saved and many children could grow up normally without any mental illness or disease. People could live longer healthier lives. Aside from helping humans directly, genetic engineering can help in the fields of industry and the environment to make our lives better and easier.

Scientists say that there is a risk that the process itself will generate new mutations, which could then be passed on to future generations. Also there seem to be very few examples where human genetic engineering is the only solution to the medical problem of genetic disease. In almost all cases, existing technologies of prenatal and preimplantation genetic testing of embryos allow the prevention of the actual disease. There are only a few very rare cases where human genetic engineering is the only option.

There are safety issues, the loss of identity and individuality, and human diversity all associated with genetic engineering. Then you have the moral and religious issues related to the killing of human embryos. Man would become simply another man-made thing. The cloned child will be dehumanized.

Human genetic engineering leads to man playing God as the creator and designer of life. No longer will a child be considered a blessing from God, but rather, a product manufactured by a scientist. Having a baby wouldn't bring about the joys that it does today. Man will be created by man. Man is supposed to be created by God.

The possibility of someone or some government using the new tools of genetic engineering to create a superior race of human beings should be considered. Every human would be the best that it could be. Any undesirables would simply be removed from society. What kind of world would we be in if everyone was the same. Life would be boring.

As time goes on genetic engineering will become more of an issue. Science will have more of a breakthrough than they have already had. The question we must ask ourselves is where we are going to draw the line, so our world does not become like the one in Brave New World.

This I Believe

2008-02-11T15:05:00.000-08:00

I believe in commitment to family no matter what. A family needs each other to get through life. Not only do they have to be there during the happy moments but also the sad and tough moments. I would do anything for my family and I know they will always be there for me if I need them.
Over the summer my family found out that my grandfather needed open heart surgery. He is eighty six years old and we were worried he would not make it through the surgery. However, it was something that needed to be done. So they met with the doctor and scheduled the surgery for the end of July. My uncle lives in Michigan but he took off from work and took the long ten hour drive so he could be there with my grandfather. On the day of the surgery, which was a Friday, everyone drove to the hospital and got my grandfather ready. He was practically in the operating room when an emergency came in and he had to be rescheduled. His surgery was now Monday. They allowed him to go home for the weekend because my uncle is a doctor and could watch over him. My whole family spent most of their weekend at his house making sure he was always comfortable. My uncle was suppose to leave to go back to work on Monday but instead stayed until Wednesday so he could be there for my grandfather.
After the surgery my uncle returned home and continued on with his regular schedule. However, my mother’s life was turned upside down. Everyday she drove my grandmother to a distant hospital because she is not able to drive due to her age. She spent most of her day there to keep him company and help him get through the day. On a few occasions, I drove down there and spent my day with him. Except for at night, there was never a time he didn’t have somebody he knew in his room with him. After being released from the hospital, he was sent to a rehabilitation center. Since the center was nearby, my mom just visited for a short time everyday. My grandmother spent her whole day there. Everyday on my way to work I would stop by for a short time to talk with him.
My grandfather has recovered from the surgery but is still working on getting better. Not once did anybody in my family give up on him. I believe in commitment to family no matter what. Our whole family gave up time to be with him not because we had to but because we wanted to.

How To Be a Good Student

2008-01-18T12:38:00.001-08:00

Being a good student takes a lot of hard work and motivation to want to do well. It means always doing all of your homework assigned to you and maybe even doing some work to get ahead or doing some extra credit. School does not come easy to most. However, there are a select group of people who do not work hard and are able to get good grades. Don't you just hate those kind of people. They do homework sometimes, when they feel like it. They always forget there is a test, don't study and still manage to do better than you, who spent hours studying.

First you will need to get all the necessary items for being a good student. Binders, notebooks, folders, pens, pencils, calculators, and of course a back pack to hold everything are your basic necessities. You can find theses items at a local Staples or Wal Mart. These items are necessary for organizational purposes. Staying organized is key when trying to be successful. Binders and folders will keep papers from all of your classes separate. They will also keep you on top of due dates. Good students are always prepared with pens or pencils and usually have extras to give to those not so good student who come unprepared everyday.

Endless hours of studying and doing homework are usually associated with being a good student. You need to study hard so you can get good grades. A bad grade can be detrimental to a good student. Homework must be done to make sure you understand what is going on in class and so you can be involved in any class discussions that arise. Always having your hand raised is important. You always want to be called on because you should always know the answer. You also want to be asking lots of questions to make sure you fully understand the concept.

A good student never gets in trouble during class. They sit there attentively with notebook open avidly taking notes. They are not disruptive and are always paying attention. A good student is always wearing their ID. Sucking up to a teacher a little bit never hurt anyone. You could never get to class too early. You do need time to get yourself situated. Staying after class was never a bad thing either.

Once you have the status of a good student be proud of it. You put in a lot of time and hard work and you deserve to reap the benefits. Don't be ashamed, it's a good thing to be smart and it's okay to let people know it.

The Importance of Catcher in the Rye

2007-12-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

I really enjoyed reading this analysis. It made me realize how ridiculous it is to ban this book and any others that have been banned in the past. Most of the books are reality and something that probably should be read. This analysis mentions that Holden is a bad role model and would therefore promote bad behavior. Just because you read something about a bad kid doesn't mean that you are going to turn into a bad kid that breaks the rules all the time. You become who you want and it usually doesn't depend on what you are reading. If every book was banned because there was a poor role model in it, we would have very little to read these days. This book is reality. Some kids deal with the same things that Holden does. This book lets them know they are not alone. Not every one's life is picture perfect.

Color

2007-12-22T14:40:00.000-08:00

I believe that everyone has shown each of the colors in their personality at one point or another. There are just some colors that represent us more than others and are therefore shown more frequently. Blue is the color that is shown more in me. It is a peaceful, calm color. There is also the depression factor involved with this color but I do not find that that part represents who I am.

A few weeks ago some of my friends and I were driving to the Willow Brook Mall. My friend was driving. None of us had ever driven in this area and we were trying to follow two different sets of directions. We took a wrong turn and were lost. We were on the highway traveling back home. We all panicked at first. My friend that was driving was on the virge of tears. However, I remained calm and we were able to pull over for directions. We pulled into a florist. The lady was really nice but a little crazy. She gave us great directions. She told us we needed to think to ourselves that we could get there. My friend was still really anxious though. The rest of the way I had to keep telling her that everything was going to be fine. It turned out that we were only about five minutes from the mall. We made it there fine and had a great time. On the way home, we once again got lost. This time we only made one wrong turn. We weren't on the highway and I knew exactly how to get home. My friend freaked again. She thought we were really lost. She kept telling us nothing looked familiar. I kept telling her we only made one wrong turn but she didn't believe me. I stayed calm and navigated us back to our destination. No matter what kind of situation you are in it is crucial to stay calm and think positively.

Significant Object

2007-12-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

I have a baby doll that I have had since I was a year old. I got it from my grandmother my first Christmas. My doll is a Cabbage Patch Kid. Her name is Georgina. She came with a birth certificate and I remember thinking that was the coolest thing. She has a large, round head with no hair. She wears pink pants that are supposed to be shorts and a white tank top with pink flowers. Normal doll clothes are too big for her because she is a small doll compared to most. Her feet look like stubs but are cute and her hands are really fat. She has a dimple in her right cheek. When I was younger I use to change her outfit on a regular basis.
The reason I got this doll was because she kind of looked like me when I was a baby. I have a dimple in my right cheek and was bald until about the time I was two. I was premature when I was born, so I was a very small baby.
I used to carry her around everywhere. She would come to sleepovers with me. I would bring her on vacation. I would carry her around the house. I never brought her to school though, except for show and tell sometimes. When I was younger I use to sleep with her every night. I could not fall asleep without her. Since then I have grown up and no longer need her with me all the time. I would never think of throwing or giving her away, I just don't need her all the time. When my bed is made she sits on the bed. When it is not made she lays on a pile of pillows that belong on my bed. I can remember a time when I thought I lost her. I was devastated. My brother kept telling me that I could just buy a new one, but I told him that nothing could ever be the same as her. She was irreplaceable. I eventually found her in the basement and was absolutely thrilled.
She is a security blanket for me. I know that I will always have something. I will never be alone. She makes me feel safe. I feel like I have some kind of protection with her. Surprisingly, she is in pretty good shape for being eighteen years old. She had been through a lot and even though there have not been many difficult times in my life I still consider myself a strong individual. Baby dolls seem to represent a sweet, innocent, affectionate object and I feel as though I can be described as that as well.

Book Review, In My Hands

2007-11-22T10:29:00.000-08:00

In My Hands
By Irene Gut Opdyke with Jennifer Armstrong
Illustrated. 263 pages. Dell Laurel-Leaf. $6.99

"You must understand that I did not become a resistance fighter, a smuggler of Jews, a defier of the SS and the Nazis all at once. One's first steps are always small: I had begun by hiding food under a fence" (back cover). When World War II broke out in Poland, Irene was ready to help in any way that she could. Help was an understatement to what she actually accomplished.

When the war started Irene was just seventeen years old and a student nurse. She jumped the gun and was willing to help with the first shipment of people. She was forced to grow up and mature at such a young age. She had to be strong for the family she had left and for all the people she was going to help. At her age she should have been falling in love and starting a family, not saving lives.

Irene had a will to never give up. She was separated from her family so many times and no matter how long it took and what she had to go through she always tried to find them. Never did she give up on her Jewish friends. They were scared for her and did not want her to risk her life for theirs. She did not care and was willing to do anything to help save them. Not once did it cross my mind that Irene would give up on these people. They were what she lived for. She had no one else to rely on.

Courage and bravery play a huge role in this memoir. Irene never let fear get in her way. She would not have been so successful if she had been afraid. The things she did were a capital crime and she could have gotten killed had she been caught. That had crossed her mind but it just made her more careful in how she did things. She was always able to keep her cool in complicated situations.

The setting is in Poland which has been taken over. The basement where the Jews are living is in a Nazi officials home. The conditions were good for them but not something you would want to live in. There is a part in the book where the Jews are hiding in an air conditioning vent. It is small and crowded and I could get a sense of how they were living and what it was like. The book has pictures in it so you are able to see the outside of the Nazi officials home where the Jews were hiding.

I really enjoyed reading the book. It just boggled my mind as to how Irene was able to do all of this. I know that I could not and I see her as such an amazing person. It makes me think that there are actually people in this world that will help complete strangers at the risk of losing your own life. The book was not humerous in its content. It was however funny that twelve Jews were able to hide under a Nazi officials home.

In My Hands

2007-10-31T06:15:00.000-07:00

"Moral courage is a more rare commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence." Robert Francis Kennedy

This quote is saying that doing the "right thing" is often harder and less heard of than doing a physical act of bravery. Throughout the book Irene trys to make the right choice to do what is right no matter how much trouble she might end up in. Helping the Jews could have easily gotten you killed during that time. Irene sees the people in the ghetto and feels for them. She wants to help them. Though it might get her in trouble, it is the right thing to do. She begins to help them by placing a box of food under the fence everyday. If at anytime she got caught she could end up dead or as a prisoner. That didn't seem to matter to her as much as helping those people. Irene also recommends that people from the camps come and work in the laundry room so they have a better working environment. She begins to leave food for them in laundry baskets so they can eat. She gets extra blankets from Schultz so the Jews can make winter coats for themselves. She also goes into the ghetto to get Fanka out of there alive. Though all of these things were techinally the wrong thing to do, she new in her heart that it was the right thing to do. Her moral courage overpowered any fear that she might have had of getting caught.