In this Lifetime

"No Child Left Behind" is a slogan only the simple-minded can hear and truly believe. It's suppose to mean that those will a lower vantage point for learning won't be left in the dust of those who will succeed in every aspect of life. To those who look closer, it means something else. Yes, everyone is given the same opportunity to graduate and become greater things, but to those who's vantage point can brush the stars, this is a drawback that pulls them down so hard and so fast it gives them whiplash.

In this lifetime, we will experience "our modes of Education [aiming] to expedite, to save labor; to do for the masses what cannot be done for the masses, what must be done reverently, one by one" because some guy in a nice looking suit said that no child was to be left behind. That our educaters must, for a lack of better words, dumb things down in order for everyone to be able to keep up.

We will be challenged, yes; but not the point where we must spend countless night pouring over a text book and accompanying worksheets heavy enough to pull my arm from its socket. Instead, I will read, just as everyone else has, To Kill a Mockingbird, and answer questions that are completely irrelevant and frankly idiotic. This lets us "slip by" through high school, maybe even college; but then come the oh-so-sweet words of endearment turned into a sour "No!" when our mediocre credentials don't come to terms with the rest of the world's standards.

Emerson had things right down the the heartbeat of the entire entity. Our system requires that everyone succeeds; but we need those who do the "not so important jobs" like being the who pours cement to lay the foundation of the home where you depend on it holding in a storm, sheltering your family. Our world needs those who, without a "proper" education, think differently because they were never exposed to the methods we use to teach. Many teachers of mine tend to focus on the fact that "the lesson is done for today" and don't hone in on the fact that no one has any idea what they're talking about. Then after an extensive amount of added stress in the form of "questions 1-50", we break, losing our lust in chasing after what our society requires out of us.

Because of what they tell us, we will go with the flow of things, trudging along with twenty pound blogs strapped to our feet as we wade through the mud of High School. At this point, a writer would point out that "it's for the better of things". Sadly, no, it's not. Our doctors are suppose to be smarter than others. They control the outcome of our lives! But because this doctor was taught the same as the guy scanning bar codes at Wal-Mart, he'll give the wrong dosage. Perscribe the wrong medicine. Cut open the wrong thing.

In this lifetime, we have destroyed the next.

Got Milk?

 
It's easy to see how gorgeous this girl is... a flat stomach, blond hair, and basically all around perfect. More than likely it's screaming to the rest of us "look what milk can make you look like!" because I've yet to see someone who was overweight advertising something that's claimed to be so crucial. At first glance, you might see her overly flashy shirt or skin tight pants, but your eye makes it's way down to the milk in her hand, and the slight milk mustache, and you instantly know it's yet another "got milk?" ad. These ads are so famous it's hard to look around a school without seeing at least three or four of them, and just those two words make someone picture a milk mustache. For the most part, they use people that are well-known and possibly role models to a few people, giving those who idolize the famous the want or need to drink milk
     Our society screams at us to be thin; to be sexy. Tall thin, blond, with big boobs is considered the perfect body by the town that runs our thoughts: Hollywood. But what would you do if I told you that a glass of milk wouldn't give you that body? An 8oz glass of 2% has as much fat in it as one and a third medium order of fries from McDonald's? I can't imagine how much whole milk has! On the opposite end of the spectrum, milk is insanely good for you, having a ton of vitamins and minerals that help you make it through your day until you find a way to wipe off that overly-present mustache.
     And wouldn't it be better if the glass was empty? That way it shows she drank it all, not just put it up to her lip to create the most famous and rather fun trademark of this ad. Not everyone can be perfectly shaped, and not everyone is. Most girls struggle to be confident in the morning with everything about themselves, and that's the way it is an always has been. No amount of milk (especially whole or 2%) will change that unless the rest of your diet is healthy and you exercise. Maybe they should put a girl/guy on those posters that are the norm when it comes to weight. I'd look up to someone that was normal looking more than I would a Barbie.

Empathy

Empathy should seem like a necessity for any writer in any time era, and as I read on, I started to realize how much empathy I must truly possess to be a “good writer.” In my own mind, I believe that every writer must have some level of MPD (multiple personality disorder) to be able to create multiple new minds — how they react, how they speak, and everything else.

In my books, the narration will be switched off from character to character if I feel like the other isn’t adequate for the time being. Because of that, I felt like empathy would be the easiest for me to experiment with considering whenever I sit down to a keyboard to write any part of my book, I always have to in a sense “switch gears” in order to capture the full effect of capturing the minds of my characters, despite the fact that I created them near from scratch.

“Many writers are notorious eavesdroppers.” Although I don’t necessarily eavesdrop on people’s coversations, I tend to watch how they react to different situations and… okay I give up. I eavesdrop — a lot. So I guess I’m just another of the “notorious eavesdroppers”. But then again, I am a writer. Many of my characters, if not all of them, are based off of people that I have constant contact with. That way, I can get in tune with their feelings and emotional state in certain situations.

Mandy is mostly suppose to portray myself, so it's simple enough for me to get my own feelings to come out right; but what about other characters like Halle, Jacob, David, and Abrai? I have to guess at what they would say up to a certain point, but because I can be so attuned to the feelings of others (obviously because I made an above average score) my writing (according to others) is really, really good.

Maybe this sense has more of a meaning that just being useful for those who tend to create impossible worlds in their head. Perhaps there is a reason that we must have a certain amount of knowledge for what others are feeling. So why doesn't everyone have the afinity of empathy? Maybe along with needing to know, things should stay secret.

I took the Empathy Quotient quiz. It was only sixty questions and took less than ten minutes. Some of the questions like "When I was a child, I enjoyed cutting up worms to see what would happen (Definitely disagreed) and "I can pick up quickly if someone says one thing but means another" (Definitely agreed) were easy to answer because I instantly knew how I would respond.

Proof of work:

(screen shot of the 60 question's used to assess empathy)

My score: 63

David's score: 40
0 - 32 = low (most people with Asperger Syndrome or high-functioning autism score about 20)
33 - 52 = average (most women score about 47 and most men score about 42)
53 - 63 is above average
64 - 80 is very high
80 is maximum

Fighter

This poem was inspired by the theme of Emily Dickinson's "'Hope' is the Thing with Feathers". It tells of the abuse some children have to endure before they are finally set free by no longer having to live with their parents.


The chains we’ve endured
Have scarred our wrists,
And broken our bones.
What have we left
To stand and fight?

With our hope broken
And our dreams dashed.
What have we left
To stand and fight?

Those who love us most
Seem to drag us down
With the insults and lies
That tear us apart.

The things we chase after,
Are harder to come by,
Seeming so hard to obtain.
Sorry to say mother bird,
But I will spread my wings
And fly away.

Now we have this left
So we will stand and fight.

Unspoken

What happens to a love unspoken?
Does it fade away
like a memory long ago
Or like a letter left unwritten
And then disappear completely.

Does it make it stronger
Or will it simply be too weak
Like an infant just now born

Maybe it just stays the same
Like a message carved into rock

Or does it tend to kill
   after waiting all too long?

Character Analysis: Antigone

Having a hard head and a strong heart can lead people into doing something either extremely brave and heroic, or drive them into madness and stupidity. Knowing what you want isn't always a bad thing; it's what you want. Wanting something for the good of others is considered to be morally good... until that moment creates tension and potentially hatred between the people who are programmed to love you most.

But it's not always those who love you who seem to get under your skin. Everyone has met someone who must always be in control; who must be in charge; who must always be the center of attention. Maybe you are that person that always feels the need to know what's going on. We've all heard the saying "some are born leaders, others have leadership thrust upon them". Those people, although occasionally pushy and slightly annoying, were born to show us the way that things should be.

Sophocles plays tend to focus on moral issues. Antigone in particular is about the difference and importance of following gods law before mans law. Antigone says something that (summed up) means: I'll only be here for a while, but I'll be in the underworld forever.

Sophocles' "Antigone" is a story about love. A story about how nothing in the world, even the threat of death, can deter this young girl away from what she believes is true. The bond between family is suppose to be strong, but this blood is thinner than water. It seems as though no matter what, hardly anything concerning family will surface for the King; two brothers kill each other in cold blood and jealous rage; an uncle forbids for his nephew to be buried and let his soul leave this earth. Possibly the only true sign of love, is Antigone, the entire world seeming to stand against her, and her husband-to-be Haemon, who took his own life when his beloved decided that the hardships of this earth were too much to bare.

Anything can seem to hinder our hearts or tear away at our strength, until it just seems like nothing can hold you together anymore. But if a person can act anything like Antigone, strong in everything they do, almost nothing can truly deprive your soul of what it deserves. Everybody dies but not everyone lives.

Baby In A Blender

I once heard a story that said:
A man was on his knees praying to God, asking "God, why haven't you sent anyone to cure cancer?!" And God answered back "I have, but you aborted him three times!"

That stuck with me for a long time. It's easy to see why to abort a baby:
-It's a rape baby
-I don't want it
-I can't take care of a child right now

But what if that helpless life inside you was the one that would grow up to cure a lethal disease and save millions of lives? But that won't happen now will it? Those lives will be lost because you killed "a fetus". Not a baby yet --- just a fetus. . .

Worse comes to worse, you can give the baby to a family that can truly take care of it. You know what, I'm going to be very brutal and blunt about this. . . IF YOU DIDN'T WANT A BABY YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN MESSING AROUND BECAUSE MOST OF THE TIME IT'S JUST PEOPLE THAT DON'T WANT THE KID!!

Okay I'm done. . . for now. No matter what you say, I will always think that killing a helpless child is wrong on so many levels. Someone would get thrown in jail if they were convicted of killing, say, a middle-aged man, right? So why not an infant that had yet to be born? It has a heartbeat; it feels pain; it has fingernails!! Why is it any less of a human just because it hasn't been born! It's not any more human than if you were to put your baby in a blender. Why? Because it's exactly the same.