Public Displays of Disaffection

1. The main purpose of “Public Displays of Disaffection” by Anne Kingston is to provide an understanding and awareness of how cell phones are destroying teens and adults daily conversations, social gatherings and dining. There are three main points Kingston uses in this article. One of them is that people use their cell phones at inappropriate times, during this article she stats at the beginning how at a ceremony a “fifty-two year old, who received an honorary doctorate at the ceremony, took his seat…and began typing into his iPhone”. Usually at events like that people would find it rude. But no one did. Most of the graduates, she’s stats were also typing away on there mobile devices. Another point she stats in this article is that most people are very distracted by there cell phones. Even when someone is out for dinner with a friend or family member or even on a date will text, talk, or instagram on there phones. Not even paying attention the person they are with. But it doesn’t only happen during those times at the movies you always see “the distracting glow of PDA screens in theatres” the “loud cell phone conversations in elevators” and rude “multi-taskers [who] holding up lineups”. Cells phones cause many difficulties in relationships and social conversations and concentration. People can’t stand not looking at there for and eighty minute long movie. The last point that Kingston proved and stated well was cell phones are also very dangerous. Most people when on cell phones don’t pay attention to what’s happening, where they are walking and even worse where they are driving. In Ottawa the police did a test on distracted drivers they ended up “charging more than 2,000 people… one woman was so preoccupied with her cell she didn’t even notice the sirens flagging her down”. If a woman couldn’t even notice loud sirens and flashing lights how could she notice a child walking? Or notice that stop sign and that car crossing? With the points Kingston made and all the statistics she found of course I have to agree with her. I do the same I preoccupy myself with my cell phone at social gatherings but so does all my other friends. Just reading to see how society is and how terrible it is getting I agree that we need to make a change. Not only does it make you social awkward at times, it’s extremely dangerous if you’re not paying attention to your surroundings. Our society needs to realize how cell phones have come apart of who we are, when they’re really just a silly toy.

 2. Whenever I am at a movie theater and a cell phone goes off I immediately get mad, to me it’s unfair because they are interrupting something I’m enjoying. Cell phones can be acceptable at but at many times they can't. To me cell phones should not be aloud in classrooms. They are huge distractions. I know it would be hard to ban cell phones from school though because kids wouldn’t care and would still bring them and use them. But personally kids would be better off without them. Cell phones should be used when you are alone or not in conversations with someone, they should be used during breaks or personal times like at home. If you’re not using them on personal times then you’re just shutting yourself off from everything and everyone around you. You make yourself shut yourself out from conversations. Restaurants should ban them completely. It’s the rudest thing when you are asked out for dinner and your date or friend reaches in and texts while you’re eating together. It makes you feel unwanted and alone. At dinner texting shuts you out of everything; it shows you that your date doesn’t really care. Them texting when they are with you, gives you the feeling that they are more interested in the conversation their having on their phone, instead of the conversation you are having with them. I feel like it should be more like Europe, if we tried and could ban cell phones that would be great. But in North America they seem to be to import to people. I wish people could enjoy what’s around them and not be so occupied by there cells phones and just enjoy there friends, family, surroundings and daily lives.

Art of Racing in the Rain

http://www.glogster.com/danahillman/wide-glog-by-danahillman/g-6li6esdgqkccjijnrgqoma0

Art of Racing in the Rain.

            “I laid my head on his leg and looked up at him. “Sometimes I think you actually understand me,” he said. “It’s like there’s a person inside there. Like you know everything.” I do, I said to myself. I do.” (Art of Racing in the Rain, pg 61).

The intelligence varies from dog to dog. In this novel Enzo knows how to read his owner feelings and emotions. Weather its wanting him to leave the room, or when he’s rattled and needs the ease he knows when to come and comfort Denny. Many dogs can read and determine the moods of there owners, which allows them to support and calm the emotions of the owner, or know when they should leave and hide when there provoked.

            My dog is named Ollie. He is not the most obedient dog. Ollie will not come when he is called, he won’t sit, and he won’t lie down when you ask him to. He is an Italian sheep dog they are an independent breed of dogs. Instead of me being the owner and him being the pet, to Ollie we are equals. They aren’t actually supposed to be domesticated, there meant to be left out in a field alone protecting sheep and fighting off wolves. But we raised ours differently. Even though my dog is terribly trained and will never be trained, he is the best dog I have ever had. My dog understands emotions in my family, he knows as soon as he is in trouble. His head ducks, his tail goes in between his legs, and he covers his head with his paws. We don’t even have to say a word to him when were annoyed, we give him a look. But one day when I was sobbing and extremely distressed, Ollie came right up onto my minuscule bed. Did I mention my dog is 95 pounds and is up to my hips when he is on all fours, and when I lift him up on his hind legs he is as tall as me? Well he came right on my bed placed his head on my stomach and looked at me with his great gorgeous hazel eyes. Ollie is an enormous, fluffy, pure white, and sometimes smelly handsome dog, who will always give ease, warmth, and defend me with his life. Even though he thinks of us as equals I know he understands me, because everyday when I come home from school smiling right at him I see him there waiting with his tail wagging.

Super Power

If I had the choice of having a super power it would be to fly. Think about it? Why choose any other. Soaring through the bright blue sky into the shining sun, fly past the highest mountain and touching the top letting everyone know I climbed Mount Everest, dive bombing into a crowed streets seeing how many people I scare, and being able to glimpse at all the radiant vistas the world has to offer. The ability to fly is obviously superior to any other superpower. If I had super human strength, yes I would be able to pick up cars, or when I was in a fight I would win the one punch. But why in anyway would I need to pick up a car? Or why get in a fight when I could just fly away. Even if I had superpower to freeze things, why exactly would I want to freeze things? I have a deep freeze for a reason.  Also there’s the superpower to mind control, but being able to control people and manipulate them is quite sinister. Making people do whatever I want, or making them act however I want them to, is just down right crude. Flying is just over all the best, think of how I would never get stuck in dreadful traffic or with slow drivers and veterans will never be in my way, and how I can see the world and all its most extravagant places and not having to worry about the expensive plane tickets. Even if there’s an eerie situation happening like a plane crash, or a boat sinking, or a hurricane. I would be okay and be able to make it out in exceptional condition with no cuts, scraps or bruises. It’s very evident that flying is by far the most superior superpower.



Morals

609 Bartlett Drive

Small Village, British Columbia

V2A 4J5

May 30, 2011

Mayor

City Hall

8792 Main Street

Small Village, British Columbia

V2A 6S6

Dear Mayor:

I have come to the conclusion that I think you should get rid of the evidence that Gunter Grass was the commandant of a Nazi concentration camp in Poland. Even if Grass oversaw deaths of an estimated 15,000 people, it was the past and he is changed.

 My first reason why I think that this news shouldn’t be publicized is he was the mayor of this village and if people found out what he did, people from other villages would think that we are careless of what people we choose to be mayor. Another reason is that he is a model citizen around this village, many people respect and look up to him. If Grass decided to run for mayor again, no doubt about it people would re-elect him as the mayor of this village.

Grass has also been a gracious man by building many profitably factories for this village. Many people in this village didn’t have jobs before these factories, now plenty of people in this village work there and actually enjoy it. Also whoever works there as employees are well paid. And Grass is a very generous man. Over these years this man has donated very large amounts of money to many different charities. He shows that he does care about humanity now.

Lastly Grass helps out many families that are unable to make enough money to pay their expenses at the end of the month; he makes sure they have enough money that the expenses are all paid for. These families would be in utter distress if Grass did not help them each month. Yes Grass did make a mistake in the past, but he has proven to the people to this village, his family, and me that he has changed and we shouldn’t keep the past from letting him move forward. Grass is a 92 year old man whose life could end at any minute we should let him enjoy the rest of his retirement before his life ends forever.

Sincerely,

Dana Hillman

The Afterlife

Dying, everyone is afraid of it. Why should we be afraid of it? When there are many different ways we are still alive after we die. IN Christianity Heaven and Hell and God is what they believe in, if you commit murder or some sort of crime you go to Hell, if you believe in God you will go to Heaven. IN the Catholic Church Limbo is where a person dies and goes to Hell. In some Indian religions such as Hinduism the idea of Reincarnation is how they cope with dying they think we will all be reborn again.  In Christianity Heaven is the holiest place of all. They always say that God is watching down on man making sure everything is okay. They have the idea of if you believe in God you will get to spend eternity with him and also other believers.  They believe that heaven will be a place where you will get to live the rest of your time to the fullest.

In the Catholic Church, the term Limbo means an afterlife condition created by Medieval Roman Catholic theologians, but not made official Catholic doctrine. It’s another idea about the afterlife. The Catholic Church believes when a person dies and goes down into hell they will be sorted into four different parts there are; Hell of the Damned, Purgatory, Limbo of the fathers, and Limbo of the infants. Purgatory is when someone is in the process of purification or in temporary punishment. Limbo of the infants is when a child has died and was too young to commit any sins but wasn’t freed of any original sins.

Once you die Indian religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism the believe in Reincarnation. It occurs when a the body of a human has died but the soul or spirit comes back to life in a newborn body. Other religions such as Druidism, Spiritism, and Eckankar believes in the idea of reincarnation. What riencarnaion is not, is that some people believe that someone will possesses an immortal soul which will turn them into a form of a cat after there death. This will be repeated over and over again, but if the human is lucky they will be reborn a human being again. This way of the soul moving into a different form does not exist in the Indian Religion.

When I am old I will not be afraid of dying, I will accept the fact it is my time. I will have realized I had the time to live my life I had they time to love and have a family and do the things I love to do. But when I’m this age I am afraid of dying I don’t want to have my life taken away at a young age I want to be able to love have a family and do the things I love to do. Sometimes when I am in a situation that I know is stupid and very dangerous I do think about how death can come, it’s scary to realizes that I could have died in that situation and never could have grow old. When I die I personally think the afterlife will be beautiful, I think that heaven will be bright and sunny and perfect I think if it’s my time to go to Heaven it will be great to see it but not great to leave earth.

Tuesday with Morrie

“The culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves.” The culture we have makes people feel lower about themselves. In the novel Tuesday with Morrie, by Mitch Albom, Morrie explains how the culture we have shows people young, thin, pretty and adventurous, when really some people are not. “We’re teaching the wrong things.” We’re teaching teenage girls that the only way you can be liked is if you fit the body size, you’ll only be attractive if you are thin. In magazines all it shows is how skinny girls are, and how you need to get killer abs in ten days. Also telling girls how they need to get rid of there winter chub because summer is coming. The pressure of body size destroys the self-confidence of any teenage girls. Morrie also stats that “[people] have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it.” I think he is trying to say, don’t like the influence of magazines and TV fool you, don’t like the “Total Gym” or “Weight Watchers” fool you, they look for overweight people to buy into them everyday. The media displays only beautiful, young ladies, to bad there all airbrushed and unnatural. No teenage girl is like that, many try there hardest to be like like that. The media pushes girls to be like the airbrushed ladies, but in the end girls end up harming themselves just to be like them. The culture we have makes its seem like the only way we can be liked is if we have the looks, the body size, the richness, and the popularity. Lastly Morrie says that people are even more “unhappy than me-even in my present condition.” Morrie is dying, but he still sees himself as perfectly fine, he doesn't worry about his status he doesn't need to be the richest man on the block, he already feels the richest because he has the love of his friends and family around him. Most people do buy into the lottery tickets or the big cars and houses, they don't look at whats rich love and friendship is right infront of them. They focus on the big idea of being known as the rich and famous person. But Morrie understands there’s more to somebody than body size and beauty and being rich. Just look deep, the beauty spot is what inside someone.