Winter Poem (Haiku)

Snowflakes falling on
the ground, Christmas carols sung
Winter has begun

Globalization

       I have always subconsciously known that globalization played a huge role in my life but I never really gave it much thought. Everything that goes on in my life has in one way or another been affected by globalization. Not only business but politics and culture as well are becoming more and more globalized as technology advances. When you think about it, if it weren’t for all the industrial development and technological advances then globalization would not be such a huge trend as it is today. For example, the telephone and computer has made communication with people across the world as easy as communicating with someone who lives underneath the same household. Because of such easy communication, things such as politics and the economy are not only affected by what happens locally but more importantly, by what happens around the world. During the 1800s, receiving news of presidents’ choices and other political affairs would take months. Today someone can just log on to the Internet and find out something that was announced five minutes ago or even less. Even though globalization has many benefits such as being more connected and aware of global events and happenings, it does have its downsides. 
         Globalization has increased many disturbing trends such as child labor and sweat shops. Many of the products used nowadays come from across the country or even across the world since people get more profit from production in countries such as China and India than in the Unites States. The reason why it’s cheaper though can be pretty disturbing though. Most of the time the labor that goes behind the products used is illegal or at least should be. Many children slave away for up to sixteen hours at a time, trying to make a meager amount of money to support their families. I know that globalization has defects that should be fixed but the question in the end is if we would rather stay ignorant and living in bliss or if we want to open our eyes and realize the damage we are during to our future generations.

Sports In My Life

Right now sports do not play much of a role in my life. The most it has played in my life recently is watching a good old soccer game or boxing match with my Dad. My form of exercise I guess you could say comes more from recreational hobbies such as jogging or biking instead of sports. When I was about five, my parents were set on making me a join ballet because in their mind, that was the best type of "sport" a girl could do at such a young age. It would help fulfill their prophecy of making me as girly as possible. Eventually, I was able to convince my parents that swimming was more of my thing and at six years old I was set to go in the shallow end. To be honest, that was the most I’ve ever enjoyed playing a sport, it was something that could be competitive yet fun when you wanted it to be. I stopped practicing swim at around nine years old because the practices were not fitting into my schedule and I had a gap of sports in my life until middle school. My parents were telling me that playing a sport was something not exactly necessary but extremely beneficial and after a lot of pressure, I joined the volleyball team. I never hated volleyball; I just always felt that my parents were much more into it than I was which wasn’t what happened with swimming. After middle school, I decided that sports weren’t my favorite way of exercising but that doesn’t mean I’m sedentary. In fact, I enjoy a jog or bike ride with my Dad most Saturday or Sunday mornings.

Thankful For A Classmate

      Over this weekend I was able to reflect on a lot of things to be thankful for such as my family, friends, education, etc. In school, there are many classmates I am extremely grateful for having because without them, school would be boring and tedious. In philosophy, the person I really owe thanking is Shayne. If it weren’t for Shayne, I have no idea how I would get through the group work. I wouldn’t know who to write a Facebook message to asking what the homework was. He’s also a pretty cool guy, sharing my interests such as the African American Heart Monitor and bike riding to name a few. So this is pretty cheesy, I’ll stop now. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Open Letter to Cormac McCarthy

Dear Cormac McCarthy,

            You seem to be a very dedicated author based off the book we read in class and what we overall learned about you in philosophy. I like how you use real experience to help you write your novels, it gives it a sense of realism that a person can relate to. You are able to use your knowledge and turn it into influential works of fiction which is something to admire because very few people can say they have gotten that far. The fact that you have the same last name as my favorite teacher in the whole world only makes you a much more notable person.

            While your novels are very unique and original, they can be confusing. Well I guess just “The Road” since that is the only book I’ve read that was written by you. The lack of grammar and sentence structure made it a little hard to follow. At some points I wasn’t sure of whether the book was mentioning an actual happening in the present, a flashback, or a thought. If this would have been clearer, the book would be much more lucid and comprehensible. Other than that, “The Road” was a very remarkable and outstanding narrative.

Defend the Poet (Charles Bukowski)

        When it comes to Charles Bukowski, people either seem to love him or hate him. In my opinion, although he might be somewhat of a nut case, I do lean more towards the liking him than hating him. The stories and poems he write are not written out of complete randomness. In fact, Bukowski himself has mentioned that when writing you “don’t try”. He is trying to say that when you are trying to write whatever it may be, you have to just wait for it. All of Bukowski’s writing is therefore written based off his experiences and knowledge. He does not seem to write a lot on happiness as we saw when reading “Dinosauria, We”. He writes the crude truth, well at least version of it. We might be able to assume that he has such a pessimistic view on life due to his pretty depressing life which consisted of an abusive father, continuous love affairs, and no real sense of what he wanted to do. He thought of writing as a way to keep himself from going insane at his post office job. Overall, while the views that Bukowski has are certainly different and odd, they do contain a sort of truth in them. Sometimes, in fact most of the time, the people who think and see outside the box, are the ones who tend to more knowledgeable and educated than the ones who stay stuck thinking inside the box.

A Direction the Class Needs

       The first thing that popped into my head when what type of direction a classroom needs I started thinking about literally going towards somewhere north, south, west, or east. This random thought eventually turned into a rational idea. I started thinking how it would be pretty cool if classes were more broad when it came to its environment. The worst part about the word classroom is room. The fact that it confines you to only one certain area and space is its downfall. A class should be able to be outside, inside, in between wherever it best fits. If I’m learning about the environment, I don’t understand why I can’t go outside and see it myself with my own eyes instead of turning pages and writing a paper based off what I’m reading. It’s not just about being more hands on but also about being more open minded to what a class can be. A class does not have to just consist of fifty minutes in a room but it can also expand into spending fifty minutes walking in a neighborhood, taking photos, analyzing your environment, etc. By doing this, a class will have more of an appeal and more importantly, it might actually become something to look forward to.