Winter Poem

Snow is nice

Nice is snow

On the ground

Winter is nice. Yay.



(I'm mad that this blog is a Poem, Mr.McCarthy.)

Globalization

At the beginning of this unit, when we started talking about globalization, I really didn't understand it to be honest, and I think thats just because I had no idea what it actually meant. But after discussing it for so long, and reading part of How Soccer Explains the World, Im starting to understand the effects of globalization. I've come up with a pros and cons which makes it a little bit easier to understand the many many many effects it has on us.

Pros: more jobs, meaning a solution to unemployment and poverty, it makes companies more competitive...which I guess could be a pro for consumers because it would make better products? and then the obvious fact that consumers all over the world have access to a ton more products then they would have if just from the US; oh and I guess we're introduced to new cultures too which is a plus...

Cons: huge corporations take advantage of their size and the amount of money that they have....which has led to massive social injustices, also huge corporations can exploit labor and find really really cheap workers somewhere else (employment would be good everywhere but home?)

I'm sure there are millions more pros and cons, but like I said, I'm just starting to understand what it actually is....so I think these will do for now.

sports sport sports

When I think about my life currently, there really aren't a lot of sports in it. But when I was six I was involved in lots of sports, tee-ball, tennis, basketball, gymnastics, ice skating, even though at that point in my life, my parents basically forced me into all of them. It didn't take my parents very long to realize, after I began throwing fits because I didn't like how the tee-ball uniform looked, that a lot of sports just weren't for me, so eventually I quit everything.

Then, when I was in seventh grade I went back to figure skating, purely just because I had recently quit dancing and had nothing else to do with my time, being a 13 year old with no life. But once I got back into it I quickly picked everything back up and, unlike when I was skating in first grade, I actually enjoyed it. I've been figure skating ever since, although my time on the ice has been cut down recently because of school and college apps and everything. I'd like to think that in college I'll be able to find time/find a rink so that I don't completely lose everything I've been working on for the past six years, but I realize how rare it is that a school offers skating, much less have a rink.

So besides skating, I really have no connection to sports. I mean, I enjoy watching the cubs play, and of course watching soccer (....players) but I'm not really personally involved in anything else.

Thankful for a Classmate....or two of them

Even though the title is thankful for ONE classmate, I have to say that I am pretty thankful for both Nicole and Rachel so I'll just discuss why both are fantastic.

Nicole Middleton- yayy, friends since freshman year. Ms. Middleton has been there for me lots of times when I needed a friend. She's probably one of the most honest people that I've ever met, which makes a perfect friend to go to for advice. She's basically a part of the Ray family considering she is still the only non-sibling that has babysat my baby brother. She's fantastic with him. Love her and I know we'll be close way past high school.

Rachrach Mertel- also, friends since freshman year. We've had lots of ups and downs......(cough, sophmore year, cough) but she is always someone I can go to if I need anything. Even if I may strongly dislike her boyfriend, I'm thankful that she's always there to offer sarcastic remarks. And to be involved. I can always count on her to have the new Taylor Swift music too.

Love you two.

(ps. kene, if only you didnt continuously say I was a racist, you might have been included as my division buddy)

Defend the Poet

When first reading the poem "Dinosauria, We", I immediately started to think of why Charles Bukowski was painting such a sad and depressing view of the world, and I didn't really agree with the idea that he was writing about reality. But after really looking at the poem, many of the things he says are true, many just wouldn't believe them because people like to look at the good sides to life and ignore the bad. Charles Bukowski did the opposite.Even though Bukowski projects an apocalyptic-like future for the world in his poem, all of the reasons behind this prediction are events that are currently occuring in today's world.

"As the oily fish spit out their oily prey..." which instantly reminds me of the oil spill in the Gulf. "Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings" which we see and hear about weekly, living in Chicago. "Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed"...reminding me of the news story that inmates are being released purely because there is no room for them.

So although the poet uses dark and depressing words, although he foreshadows an end to the world similar to that in The Road, he is talking about everyday truths that many people overlook.

Father & Son, Mother & Daughter, Mother & Son, Father & Daughter

In my opinion, the most common relationship between a father and his son is based off of the bonding over "masculine" things. This usually starts off young, a father coaching tee-ball for a son or buying him a bulldozer for a birthday; then it continues through teen years, encouraging playing sports in high school for example; and even continues further through adult life, such as bonding over beers while watching a football game.

In the relationship between a mother and daughter, mothers also generally use typical "feminine" things to bond with their daughters as well, shopping trips and dance classes for example. One thing I feel is also common in a mother-daughter relationship is that between the mom and the dad, the mom is more likely to punish the daughter than the dad is. Generally I feel like a mom is less naive, not as caught up in "daddy's little girl" ideas, and more suspicious of what her daughter is doing. In my opinion, this is caused by moms remembering all of the things they hid from their parents when they were their daughters age, creating cause for worry.

The relationship between a mother and a son is generally much different than a mother and a daughter. From my experience, a son can get away with a lot more than a daughter can, when it comes to a mom. As a personal example, my older brother never had a curfew while in high school, while my sister and I, on the other hand, had very strict curfews up until our 18th birthdays.

I think that the most common type of relationship between a father and his daughter includes the idea that she will always be "daddy's little girl". This begins at birth and goes through her first date, prom night, and even wedding day. A lot of dads have trouble being as strict to their daughter as a mom would be, unless it is on the topic of dating. I would be surprised if I met a father who was thrilled to meet his daughter's first boyfriend, so I feel that this is common in most father-daughter relationships.