American Obesity

Walking through the streets of Singapore, something that caught my attention was how nearly no one was overweight. Walking in the busy subway stations and in shopping malls, seeing someone overweight was pretty rare. It was surprising compared to in the US where many people are struggling with obesity.

America is generally known as being overweight and lazy. I always knew that, but never before this had actually payed attention to other countries in comparison. I thought about it more and more every day we were out walking around, and then last night we were out at a restaurant best known for their crab. During the meal, we all commented saying the crab was good, but it was a lot of work just to eat it. None of us really enjoyed breaking up the crab, because it took quite some time. However, my uncle told us that Asian people actually enjoy doing that. They like taking the time to pick out the edible pieces. This helped me realize how lazy we really are. Us Americans don't even like to pick out some crab meat because it takes an extra 3 minutes? 

What's Next?

A few days ago, my mom bought a kindle. I had never been a huge fan of them, because I liked the idea of holding on to the actual book while reading it. This brought me to thinking about where technology was headed in the future. The crowd of Kindle and Nook users seem to becoming younger and younger. Do that mean in the future our kids going to first learn to read on an e-reader? To me, it's a weird thought. Remembering my childhood and learning how to read, I remember looking closely at the pictures on the page, and the books that i especially liked were those that you would flip open a picture to discover another picture. The Kindle and Nook would never have the same effect, though.


But looking at this topic on a broader level, something else i have always wondered, was if we would ever take it too far. Technology is a way of making our lives easier and more simple. But in the long run, it has a very negative effect on our society; the main problem being energy and pollution. With more and more gadgets being released, it seems we become much lazier. Everything has to be done automatically for us. This triggers many people to think of robots. Could they take over our jobs, so people are left doing nothing?


With every new item coming out, it makes us wonder is there really more to come, and is this really good in the long run.

Ignorance Is Bliss

Yesterday for American Studies class, we went downtown to see the play "Clybourne Park." In the first act of the play, a white family was selling their house to an African American family, and the community did not want them to. One of the characters was a deaf woman, and I think she was the most interesting character portrayed in the play. What I found so fascinating, was how the other characters could say something to her, but she would, obviously, have no idea what they were saying, so it meant absolutely nothing to her. What they said had absolutely no meaning. In reality, I think that we do a similar thing often. If we don't want to hear something, we just cover our ears, and act like nothing was said at all, and so it has no meaning to us, either.

This reminded me of the saying "ignorance is bliss." When I looked up the exact definition of the phrase, it said "Not knowing something is often more comfortable than knowing it." This is exactly what was happening in the play, and also occurs in real life. We think that if you don't know something, it's as if it never happened at all, which we all wish were true sometimes, but of course, is not. After discussing this in class and thinking about it after the play, I kept thinking about how words have absolutely no meaning to some people (like the deaf woman), but also have absolutely no meaning at all sometimes, and that is sometimes the best for us. 

This saying "ignorance is bliss" contrasts another part in the play, where after the African American family left the house, the white man started talking poorly about them. The African American man, having just left the house, could hear them talking and came back inside very angry. If he had not heard them talk about it, it would not been a big deal at all, because he didn't know and it meant nothing to him. This ignorance probably would have been better than him hearing what they said. In this situation it was probably better to be ignorant about what they were saying, rather than hearing them.

Protected or Limited?

Today while driving home from school, there was a commercial that had a very realistic siren playing during it. As my friends and I heard this, we were confused whether they should be allowed to play that on the radio, because many people could think of it as an actual siren.


This reminded me back to the day in class earlier this month, where we were given scenarios and had to determine if it was a protected or limited right.


Should that be allowed in a commercial that most people hear while driving in their car? It is a very similar scenario to the one in class, which was someone shouting fire in a situation that would cause panic, such as in a movie theatre. This turned out to be limited, so shouldn't a siren playing during a commercial be treated similarly?


This is certainly a situation that I think could cause panic to the driver, so I think that it should be limited just like the movie theatre scenario.

The Cost To Learn

While looking at the Chicago Tribune website, I came across an article talking about New Trier's textbook prices, and how expensive it is to rent textbooks every year for school.


At New Trier, sports teams are free for anyone who joins. However, this may not be the case in the upcoming years. As a way to lower the prices of textbooks, they are thinking of charging for sports teams, so it's not one huge payment at once.


The argument against that, however, states that different sports teams require different amounts of equipment, so they shouldn't all be the same price. For example, football or lacrosse have a lot more equipment needed than track and field or basketball. I don't think this is the best idea, because while some people play 3 sports during the school year, some people don't play any, so it is cheaper for them.


I think overall textbooks could be much cheaper, or some not even used at all, and that would solve a lot of these problems. For example, last year in my chemistry class, i used my textbook once for a homework assignment. My teacher could have very well gone without doing that one homework assignment, to save us all from buying that expensive book.


There are so many books students buy every year that barely ever get used, so what should they have to buy them? Families with multiple kids going through high school spend thousands of dollars at the New Trier bookstore to buy their kids the textbooks they need, which maybe not every family can afford.


Article: http://triblocal.com/winnetka-northfield/2011/10/05/new-trier-to-discuss-athletics-fees-to-subsidize-textbook-costs/

The Wonders of Facebook

Growing up, parents have always told us to be safe online. I remember my mom always telling me, "Once something is online, it is there forever." I never really understood it at first. I always figured if i put something on Facebook, I could always take it down later. That is certainly not true, though. While reading an article on USA Today, it talked about how on the new Facebook, you have less control of privacy. 


The article states that "Users have long been able to share information, manually. But the new services automate much of the sharing process, and appear to tap deeper into user data amassed by the comany." Now, sharing information is not as much of an optional, manual thing, but rather something Facebook does on its own. There is a loss of what we can control. 


So the question is, should we really have that much information on the internet? Probably not. But does that stop users form going on Facebook? No way. Living in a world where technology keeps getting better and is our future, Facebook can keep digging into our personal information, but that will not stop anyone from connecting with their friends online.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2011-10-01/Facebook-privacy-security/50627476/1?csp=hf

Society's Expectations

Today in class, we talked about the movie Grizzly Man. It was interesting to all of us how the friends and family of Timothy Treadwell acted with cameras on them. Most people in our society seem to act differently around other people. Jewel Palovak, the close friend of Timothy, acted very fake on film. While her and the man were sitting listening to the death audio, they both expressed emotions that seemed unusual to the viewers. Of course they must have been sad to listen to the audio of a man they knew very well, but is the emotion the man (who never met Treadwell) expressed what he was really feeling, or was it partially because society has told us that it is sad to be listening to that.


 I think a part of it is subconscious, and we naturally want to "fit in with society." Whether we realize it or not, subconsciously,  we all adjust our feelings and emotions to fit into society. This is just part of the norm. For example, my friends and i have made movies before, and even the voice we use on camera is different than our normal one. It is something that we don't even realize until we watch it after.


Timothy Treadwell, however, was different. I think he acted more naturally on camera, and what we saw was the real him. Therefore, I think he did not exactly fit into American society. He is different than the rest, for this reason, but also others as well. Another concern everybody has is money. All we think about is money and how to get more of it. Timothy, like Chris McCandless from Into The Wild, did not care about that. They burned it all, and had little interest in making more, except for bare essentials.


All in all, I think that we all have a mask covering our real selves. Whether we know it or not, we act differently around others, because that is how we are expected to in our society today.

Finding The Right School

      I recently went to a college fair, and was completely overwhelmed by just how many colleges there are. As I walked through the clausterphobic gym, college representatives from over 200 hundred schools tried to convince me to learn more about their school. When picking your college there are so many considerations you have to put into it: size, location, cost,  major, sports, admission criteria; the list goes on and on. Every school is different, and there are endless possibilities. Walking by each booth, we passed several colleges that my mom had never even heard of! With so many colleges throughout the country, you many not even find the college that is completely right for you. There also may be several colleges that are a good fit, and you never come across them.

        We as Americans like the idea of having endless places to chose from. In the Thoreau reading we discussed in class, there are many important American values that relate to picking a school. The idea of more choices is key. Most Americans are the complete opposite of Chris McCandless, as he believed simplicity was better. Additionally, competition is very important in our country today. Getting into college is one big competition. It's like a contest of who can get the best GPA, or do well on their ACT. It is something that is taken very seriously here, maybe more so than in other countries of the world.

The Children of 9/11

As talked about all over the news, this coming sunday will mark 10 years since 9/11 occurred. Every year, many are reminded of this day, and the tragedy that occurred. For friends and family who lost loved ones, this is the day to grieve their death, but to also look up to them as a hero, and send balloons with letters to their dads.

While reading my weekly People magazine, the article on the front cover talked about 9/11, and how the kids were effected. I thought this was an interesting perspective to put it from, because I have never read about how the kids were effected tremendously as well. There were 10 or so interviews with kids all about 9 years old, whose fathers died in 9/11 before they were born. They never were able to meet their dad, so all they have are pictures of him. One kid in the article said she was jealous of her older siblings not only because they knew him for a short while, but also because they had pictures with him to remember him by.  These 9 year olds didn't have a picture with him at all, just pictures of him, which was very difficult for them. One girl said she kept the ultrasound of her in her bedroom because it was the only picture her father had seen of her. 

When I saw the cover of this magazine, "The Children of 9/11" it was a perspective I had never seen or thought much of before. I thought it was very interesting to hear what they had to say, and then hear what their mothers or siblings said afterwards about it. When people think of the tragedy of 9/11, I don't think they single out what the children, especially the unborn ones, were dealing with, but instead the family and friends as a whole. What makes these kids special is the legacy they are carrying on with them. They take a tragedy and turn it upside down by carrying a good light on their shoulders. I read all the time of people trying to make the best out of something horrible. By trying to stay positive and being active with the situation, they can accomplish something amazing themselves. 


This scenario reminds me of J.R. Martinez, who burned over 40% of his body in the Iraq war. Now however, he is on Dancing With The Stars. He kept his head high and tried to make the best of each and every day. This is what these children of 9/11 are doing, and I think it is the best way to remember something tragic.