NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED!

I logged on today to make sure that I had all my posts- you said in class that we should have 6. When I logged on I noticed that only two had actually posted (I did all of them on time). I had a hard time getting the other four to post today, apparently there was something with the cookies of something like that; my dad had to fix the problem. He said that it probably explains why the others didn't post and only saved. After he fixed it I was able to post all of the other blogs.

Outside Reading #6

I recently started reading the seventh Harry Potter book. I have always loved the series and I love the concept behind it, as odd as it may be. I think that the fact that Harry has to fight for his life against a dark wizard at age seventeen is insane! No seventeen year old should ever have to fight for their life, no matter what the circumstances are. I think that the fact that Harry is not only fighting for his life but all magic that is good is probably a huge amount of stress. I'm sure he is well aware of the fact that if her fails, all good magic may go away. I was surprised when Ron left Harry and Hermoine in the woods. I never thought in a million years that Ron would ever leave Harry's side. When Ron came back, I can't say I was surprised, but I was a little bit. He and Harry were such good friends that I didn't think he could stay away.
I would never want to be put in Harry's position. He has an entire "culture" resting on his shoulders. I think it would be really fun to be able to do magic, not like the magic that magicians do, but the kind that Harry does. I think that it would be the experience of a lifetime.

Outside Reading #5

As I continued to read My Sister's Keeper, I kept being surprised. After learning that Kate had asked Anna to seek the medical emancipation, I thought that there couldn't be anymore surprises! But I was wrong, very, very wrong. As Anna keeps fighting in court, her case seems to be growing stronger and stronger- it appears that she may even win the case. At the same time, the judge was having a hard time deciding whether or not a teenager could make desicions about her medical care. I think if I were the judge, the choice would be really hard for me. If I chose to rule in favor of the parents, a young girl may still be used as a donor against her will because the mother wants so badly to keep her other daughter alive, which is very understandable, but very unethical. The other choice I would have is to rule in favor of the teenage girl, someone who doesn't necessarily know what her best interests are when it comes to medical care, but shoud have the right to decide if she wants to be used as a donor anymore.
I was actually surprised to find out that Anna won the case, she received her medical emancipation. But the part that really surprised me, and made me kind of mad was what happened on the wasy to the hospital immediately after signing the papers. The car that Anna was riding in was hit, Anna would be pronounced brain dead at the hospital. In the end, Kate did get her kidney. The thing that Kate said at the end was kind of interging, She said that she felt that becasue Anna had died, she was able to live. She felt that it was almost as if Anna had taken her spot. I think that for a teenage girl to think of that must be really hard, she would probably feel guilty about it for the rest of her life.

Outside Reading #4

I continued to read My Sister's Keeper this week, though it was hard to find time because I have been reading a lot for the AP World History Exam. As I continued to read My Sister's Keeper, I felt more and more connected to Anna, I felt more and more understanding as to what she was doing. As she continued to fight for her medical emancipation, things became much harder for Anna. Anna's mother wouldn't talk to her and could barely even look at her. As I was reading I felt really bad for Anna because she really had no where to turn. If it weren't for her father working at a fire house, Anna would've had to live at home in these difficult conditions.
Towards the end of the novel, the reader learns that the reason that Anna is seeking medical emancipation isn't only for herself, but also for her sister, Kate. The reader learns that Kate was the one who asked Anna to seek medical emancipation because she didn't want to put Anna through any more medical procedures and was in to much pain and wanted to go peacefully.

Outside Reading #3

The recently started reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter. At first, I thought it was going to be really interesting, but as I continued to read I became bored. I decided that I would then read My Sister's Keeper. I absolutely love the novel! I really enjoy reading Jodi Picoult books. I like how each chapter is from a different character's point of view. Because I can get bored pretty easily when reading books, it helps me want to continue reading because I'm always wanting to know what another character is going to think about what someone else did.
I think that if I were put in Anna's situation, I would without a doubt give/donate anything that my sister needed. I can understand where she is coming from though; Anna was never asked if she wanted to donate her marrow or even her kidney. I can see how this situation is difficult for her and her family; Anna is trying to seek medical compensation to have controll over her body, which her mother sees as trying to stop donating vital things to her sister Kate.

Outside Reading #2

I just finished reading Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult. I thought the ending wasn't really the end. The novel just kind of stopped, almost like there should have been a few more chapters. I felt like Picoult left out important parts of the novel by just ending it. For example, a good portion of the novel is about Paige and trying to find herself (similar to Animal Dreams) and trying to win back her husband Nicholas after she leaves to find her mother and find out why she left. In the end though, you never find out if they get back together or not, it kind of leaves it up to the reader to decide. But with that, I also feel that there should have been more.
The novel I started reading today is The Memory Keeper's Daughter. I have only read a few pages of it, byut so far it seems really good. All I have read thus far is that this doctor's wife has gone into labor (1965) and she gives birth to twins, one of each a girl and boy. The boy is born in good health whereas the little girl is born with downsyndrom. At the time, children with downsyndrom were immidiately shipped off to be raised with people "of their own kind" which is exactly what happened. THat is all I have read so far, but it seems to be a pretty good novel so far.

Outside Reading #1

I am currently reading Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult. I chose to read it because I absolutely love her books, and I hadn't read it yet. Harvesting the Heart is about a girl whose mother ran away at age five. When she grows up and becomes a mother herself, she feels she is no good at being a parent and leaves just like her mother did. She leaves her husband, who is a surgon so he is always at work, and her three month old baby at home. When she leaves, she goes out to find her mother. The novel explores the ideas of why her mother left her and how things like this have an long term effect.
"I had expected more from you. The words brought back the image of his father, standing over him like an impenetratable basilisk and holding out a prep school physics exam bearing the only grade lower than an A that Nicholas had recived in his whole life" (Picoult 270). I chose this quote because I think it shows the power of an adult figure, like a parent's, influence and opinion. As much as people want to say that they aren't influenced by what other people say, I think that deep down they care about what their parents say. Also, I think that the idea of falling below what your parents expect from you is also something that alot of people don't like the idea of.

Overcoming Odds

I read an article on two brothers who graduated from Dartmouth College who overcame odds by building a medical clinic in their native home in Kenya. When one of the two brothers won a scholarship to Dartmouth his fellow villagers sold things of their possessions to buy him a $900 plane ticket to the United States. While he was studying, he, some professors, and fellow classmates went to South America to build a medical clinic. That two week trip would change his life forever. Milton's younger brother would soon follow his to the U.S. and also attend Dartmouth College. Milton told Fred about his trip and that he wanted to fulfill his father's dream of having a medical clinic that wasn't two hours away in their native land. They decided that they were going to raise the money that they needed and go forth with this dream. After raising the money- the money they never thought they would be able to raise, they went back to Kenya to begin the build.
Many people didn't think that they would be able to complete this clinic let alone serve nearly 30,000 people since the opening in 2007. They worked hard for what they believed in and their dreams came true.
I think that this story, as wonderful and inspiring as it is, contains a hidden message. I think that this story shows that even when the odds are working against you, when no one thinks what you are trying to do will actually happen, when no one, or at least very few, think that you will succeed, that fighting for your dreams is very important. It seems like it comes down to a saying that I think is really important: "Stand up for what you believe, even if you are standing alone." I think that not only does this literally say stand up for what you believe, but also that you should fight for your dreams and never give up. You never know what you can do if you don't try.

Love

I read an article on love. It's not your typical love story, but just as it is it is a love story in a sense. The story says that a pregnant woman, her husband, and father went goes hunting. Her father was rapidly declining in his health. He wanted to show her that he could still do something right so he shot and killed a goose that had just left the banks of a river. The bird fell into the water and was flowing away. Her husband decided he was going to try to chase after the bird for her father. He ended up going farther than planned and she and her father had to set out to look for him. She was really worried and even though she was pregnant continued on. When she finally found him she was so relieved. The article, talking about finding the bird, then goes on to ask "what’s the difference between hope and denial?" I think that this is really important to be aware of. Say you were to have a child kidnapped, you would hope that they were still alive, you always would. But it comes to a point where the denial starts to set in. You can realize that they probably have not survived, but you can still have hope. This idea is exactly what happened in All My Sons. Kate was in denial though. She was unable to except it and still had hope.
I think that being able to except something is the difference between hope and denial. You can except something and still have hope for something else.

Multi-Flow Map

The yellow are the causes.
The blue are the effects.
The red one: I'm not entirely sure whether it was a cause or an effect by I thought it was a good one.

War

I read an article titled "Fighter pilot lost nearly 20 years ago in Persian Gulf War to remain listed as missing" written by Ben Evens from the Star Tribune. The article is about a fighter pilot who flew in the Persian Gulf War who still to this day remains missing. Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher's family and military friends wanted to make a point that they hadn't forgotten him and that they would never give up on the search for him; this is why he remains on the MIA list. I think this article is really important for not only his family, but everyone else as well. The article, written about a MIA fighter pilot, is about so much more than that. The article shows how important it is to still have hope, to still have faith in something that you believe in. Also, the article symbolizes never giving up on something you believe in.

Notes #2

The Aztecs Blood and Glory

Article Link

- "Before the fall of the Aztec Empire, the four-tiered Great Pyramid rose to a height of 115 feet in the city's central ceremonial precinct; twin shrines capped its summit, one blue, for the god Tlaloc, and the other red and black, for the Aztecs patron god, Huitzilopochtli. The pyramid served as a temple, but it was more than that. It was a man-made sacred mountain and a venue for human sacrifices, martial triumphs and coronations. Succeeding rulers enlarged the Great Pyramid by expanding or building a masonry envelope around the preexisting structure, burying art, artifacts and caches of votive offerings inside." (Hofstadter)
-this shows that they didn't need the influence of the Europeans religion, they were capable of getting by by themselves with their own religion.

-Matos Moctezuma and his team of archaeologists, biologists, chemists, historians and anthropologists found a kind of encapsulation of Aztec material culture: thousands of objects--ceramics, masses of seashells and coral species, jewelry and mother-of-pearl figurines, model-size canoes and an effigy containing the seeds of all the major cultivated plants of the region. (Hofstadter)
-from a modern archeologist's find, shows again that they could get by without the Europeans.

- "This discovery led to the unearthing of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan. The excavation, carried out under the direction of archaeologist Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, yielded an undreamed-of trove of art, artifacts, ritual offerings and human remains." (Hofstadter)
-from an archeologist's find

Notes #1

THE COLUMBIAN ENCOUNTER AND LAND-USE CHANGE
by B.L. Turner II and Karl W. Butzer

Article Link

- immediate and long term effects

- millions of dollars (modern day amounts) of gold melted down

- Aztecs nearly killed off by the invasion

= a lot killed off by diseases brought by the Europeans

- "The destruction of Amerindian populations changed the character of land occupancy in the Americas and ultimately created the "wilderness" awaiting the arrival of the late European settlers." (Turner)

- "An estimated 76 percent of the population of the Americas south of the present-day United States was eliminated between 1492 and 1650." (Turner)

- "The scale of depopulation in the Americas far exceeded the number of Europeans settling there in the 16th century. One hundred years after the encounter, in fact, only 175,000 Spaniards had colonized the Americas in the wake of the precipitous decline in the Amerindian population." (Turner)

-agricultural lands left empty: not used
= no one there to use them

- "These changes in the rudiments of the system of cultivation in the highlands had two broad implications for land use and land cover. First, the changes concentrated settlement in the highlands and, thus, reduced the relative importance of the occupation of the tropical lowlands. Secondly, use of the plow allowed vast areas to be cultivated in the highlands with a small labor force and, along with irrigation of winter wheat crops, shifted the balance of cultivated lands to the well-drained soils of highland valleys and basins. This shift stood in contrast to the Amerindians' use of high slopes and bottom wetlands, which did not handicap their less discriminating horticultural tools. Furthermore, Spanish preference for highlands favored the drainage of valley bottom wetlands and contributed to the demise of many wetland agricultural systems." (Turner)

- "Livestock production, of course, was the pastoral complement to wheat production among the Spaniards in the highlands. Initially, the uncontrolled cattle grazing wreaked havoc on agriculture because of the large numbers involved, and it may have led to the deteriorating of pastures in Mexico." (Turner)

- "Changes in the political economy of the Americas following the Columbian encounter also played an integrative role with technological and biotic changes to affect land use and land cover." (Turner)

- "The Amerindians were not completely eradicated, however, particularly in the highlands, where the impact of European diseases may not have been as harsh as they were in the lowlands. Amerindian agriculture not only survived the initial encounter, but it also became a source of exchange between Amerindian and Spanish farmers. Each borrowed from and experimented with the other's practices and, over time, a new set of hybrid landscapes emerged that integrated many of the crops and cultivation techniques of both systems. In this process, however, many Amerindian cultigens were lost or forgotten, as was expertise in certain systems of production, such as the construction of wetland fields." (Turner)

Imperialism

I read a poem written on imperialism. It talked about some of the major reasons for imperialism. It said that natural resources and economic factors were the biggest reasons for imperialism. It also talked about how the people didn't necessarily want to be colonized. Another thing that the poem expressed was that even if the people who were colonizing thought it was a good thing it didn't necessarily mean that the people living there felt the same way. The poem also questioned why other countries didn't help prevent smaller countries from being colonized.

Global Issue

I read an article on global warming. The article was published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The article talked about some of the causes of global warming. It said that the average temperature has increased by one degree. Also, some other effects will be that the sea level rises because the glaciers are melting, and that ecological systems may suffer. Though scientists do not know exactly what will happen, they believe that it won't overall be good. One positive effect that was noted was that places that are too cold to currently grow crops may have the chance to in the future.

Holidays

I read a poem about how someone perceives the holidays. It talked about the excitements and the events and adventures that he and his family go on each year. The author talks about how this situation is his holiday (for all we know, his holiday might just be a summer trip to a beach house).

I love the cheery bustle
Of children round the house,
The tidy maids a-hustle,
The chatter of my spouse;
The laughter and the singing,
The joy on every face:
With frequent laughter ringing,
O, Home's a happy place!

I really liked this stanza from the poem. I think that it is really descriptive and that it shows that the holidays don't have to be "perfect" to be perfect.

I think that the poem shows that holidays mean different things to different people. It is important to remember that the world is cultural diverse and that everyone has different views on holidays.

Bollywood

I found a webpage that talked about Bollywood. It described what it was, including songs and dances, cultural traditions, and the actors and actresses. The article talked about how they preform many songs and dances throughout the movie. Also it addresses the fact that the movies are very cheesey and unrealistic. It reminded me of the movie we watched in class, Bride and Prejudic. The movie had many, if not all of these qualities. Also the movie has to be filmed in Mumbai.

Culture

I read an article from the Star Tribune about a woman was arrested in Iran. She was a journalist from the United States that was in Iran for a story. She was arrested for alleged illegal activities. The Iran officials are saying that she was arrested because her press card, which allows her to report on what is going on over there, was revoked but that she continued to report. Her father said that after she was detained, she called him saying that she was arrested for buying alcohol. It is believed that she was told to tell people that she was arrested for buying alcohol because it is against their culture. I think that this is probably true- she was probably told to tell people that that's why she was arrested because they don't want the real reason to get out.

Change

I read an article in the Us Weekly Magazine about Nadya Suleman, the mother of 14 and the recently born octuplets. The article talked about how her life was going to change drastically once the, eight premature, babies come home. It also talked about how her six other children, all under the age of seven, don't yet realize how different their lives are going to be. Suleman's story is similar, yet very different from Nectar in a Sieve. It is similar in the way that Ira get's harassed for having an albino baby. Suleman is getting harassed for having the octuplets when she doesn't have a job and already had six children at home. It is different in the way that Ira only has one child. She was impregnated through prostitution. Suleman now has fourteen children. She was impregnated through in vitro fertilization.

Hope

I found a poem on hope. The poem talks about all the ways that hope can be viewed or seen. I thought it was a really creative way to portray what hope was/meant to people. The poem can be connected to Nectar and a Sieve because in the book, there are multiple different ways hope is portrayed, like in the poem. The last line of the poem is "hope is the last thing ever lost..." I feel like this is basically what the book is trying to say. Throughout the book you see hope in so many different ways, and as long as the characters had hope, they were able to survive, even if it was through harsh and dangerous situations.

Religion

I read an article on a Muslim teacher. The teacher, working in Vienna, was suspended for giving his students anti-Semitic pamphlets. The educational minister who suspended the teacher has urged the Official Islamic Community in Austria to revoke his teaching license. There is currently an investigation being completed as to whether or not the teacher's teaching license should be revoked or not. This situation seems similar but yet very different to Nectar in a Sieve. It is similar because they characters in the book hold their values and beliefs in very high regard. It is different because no one is really punished for their beliefs, only their actions.

**I talked to you about my internet being down over the weekend, you told me to write a side not just to remind you of that.

Gender Roles

I found a website about Women's History. The site was all about the history of women in America. It stresses that the times are definitely different than they were one hundred years ago. They show this by using examples like women in politics, in the workforce, and how their rights have evolved. Women are viewed equal by the law and by most in society. This is different from Nectar in a Sieve because the women in the society don't seem to have equal rights. Also, their place in society, as in their role, is differnt.

Cultural Differencec

I read an article titled Bishop Who Denied Holocaust Ousted. The Bishop believed that the concentration camp gas chambers didn't do nearly the damaged that history says it did. He believes that only 200,000 to 300,000 people were killed in the gas chambers. After his statement on this, he was dismissed as the Bishop last Sunday. I think that the big cultural difference is that if I had said that, I would have had a huge argument on my hands, but being someone high up in the church completely changed that.

To read more visit: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/world/europe/10pope.html?ref=world

Overcoming Struggle

I read the book The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. The book is about a young adults that meet during the summer. The two, Ali and Noah, end up falling madly in love. Ali's parents don't approve of their relationship so they leave town early to go back home. Noah writes daily expressing his love, but Ali's mother never gives her the letters. Many years later Noah happens to be in the town where Ali lives and sees her. Noah soon finds out that Ali is engaged to another man. In the end Ali and Noah end up together. In The Notebook the stuggle is that Ali didn't initially get to choose who she wanted to be with.
The Notebook is similar to Nectar and a Sieve because both Ali, Ruku, and Ira don't get to choose who they want to be with. The books are different in the fact taht in the end, Alo does end up with who she wants to be with. As of right now, we have not read enough to find out if Ira gets to be with who she wants.

Natural Disaster

I was on New York Times webpage and was reading random articles and came across one about Hurricane Katrina. In Nature's Casino talks about how normal it can be in the morning, but then how fast that can all change. The article also talks about how devastating the hurricane was. In Nectar and a Sieve, they village experiences a monsoon. Similar to a hurricane, they can be very destructive and cause many people to sufffer.

Class Activity

I was left with athlete. Being an athlete and involved with sports is really important to me. You have so many different opportunities with sports to meet new people and do great things. I can honestly say that if I didn't have basketball and running I would be a much different person.