Human Trafficking

    My topic for the multi-genre research project is going to be human trafficking.  Human trafficking is the illegal act of trading humans either for labor or for sex. Human trafficking effects every nation across the globe and someone becomes a victim to modern-day slavery every 30 seconds. This topic is something that I am personally interested in because I find it crazy that there are more slaves today than in any other point in history and yet we hardly ever discuss the topic about modern-day slavery.
    I have a close family friend who is graduating with a degree in psychology and her main goal is to eventually open up a safe house for sex trafficking victims. She has also attended A21 campaigns, which is an organization dedicated to human trafficking. I will talk to her over the phone this week to gather information and ask her some questions. My other source is the vice president of Convoy of Hope and this company helps spread awareness and prevent human trafficking. I will be communicating with him through email to ask questions and gain information. One of my other sources will be the A21 Campaign website.

Multi-Genre Papers: Crumbled Creativity

    I scanned through the majority of the papers, but the one I kept coming back to was Crumbled Creativity, by Katie Shinkle. It caught my attention because even though it was talking about how in school we aren't pushed to be unique and use our imaginations, we are suppose to follow all the rules and regulations no matter what, the paper itself was very creative in the style of writing and the topic itself. In the poem it says, "I do what the teacher says, to get and A. I'm just like all the other kids, same grades, same life. We aren't different. You cant be unique here." I feel like a lot of the time this is true. Sometimes teachers see us as an object or a goal that they have to overcome in order to feel like they have done their job. I feel like sometimes they forget that we all have different problems and different personalities. After reading Crumbled Creativity I think that I would like to look more into school systems and see if there are more students who feel the same way.

Millennium Goals: Reduce Child Mortality

     The goal to Reduce Child Mortality can relate to our own state because Missouri's annual death rate last year for children was 1,100. The Reduction of Child Mortality's target goal is to reduce the mortality rate of children by two thirds from 1990 to 2015. They want to help save the lives of children who are dying from things that can be prevented from a vaccine. From 1990-2000, 10 million lives were saved just from taking the measles vaccine. In just 2012 6.6 million children under five died and most of these deaths could have been prevented if illnesses were treated or prevented. I am personally interested in this goal because my personal goal is to become a pediatric nurse and I'd like to think that I could help in saving children's lives someday.

Start Something that Matters: Reading Response #2

    The three stories that I chose were Good Travel, TechMama South Sedan, and Half 4 the Hungry. Good Travel is all about giving back to the people in the places that you travel to help support service providers that are a positive contribution to their community This is unique because it will change how travelers see the world and help the people that are in the communities they are traveling to. TechMama South Sedan's goal is to provide used cell phones to traditional birth attendants or TBA's because 90% of women in South Sedan give birth at home and if they were to have an emergency during child birth it would be extremely difficult for someone to call for help. This is a unique idea because it could help save the lives of mothers and children. Half 4 the Hungry wants to be able to help the 17 million domestic children that are starving be able to get food. Restaurants today serve twice the size of a normal proportion. Their idea is to have restaurants serve normally proportioned food, but have customers pay normal price. By doing this the restaurant will donate a certain amount of money to a charity, of their choice, that serves starving children. This is a unique idea because it helps solve multiple problems: hungry children, obese Americans, and wastes less food.
    These three winners correlate to my passion of helping others. All of the stories that caught my attention had goals where they wanted to: help starving children, help decrease the amount of mothers that die while giving birth, or help make a positive environment in the places that you travel. If I did not have to worry about money and the cost of travel I would love to do missionary work one day and serve others that are in need.
    The picture below shows a little boy who seems to be dirty and hungry. I chose this picture because it corresponds to the three story winners that I picked.

   

Artiicle 1 Response

   

    In the article, 7 grammar rules you should really pay attention to, it goes over the basic things that you should consider when writing. These include subjunctives, parallelism, verb problems, pronoun problems, a 'dangling' conversation, semicolons, and words. The author, Ben Yagoda, takes you through what to do or not to do and it was very helpful in my opinion.
    The picture to the right describes my reaction when I discovered that,"Honey, I shrunk the kids.", should actually be, "Honey, I shrank the kids." Yagoda states that this example is, "a persistent trouble maker you should be aware of.". I feel like this is a common mistake for a lot of people, including myself, so it is a good thing to be aware of when writing.

PechaKucha: Superior Skydiving

I read the PechaKucha about skydiving. The narrator, Lyn Langlais, was explaining why her passion is skydiving and the trials she went through to achieve her dream.

Polish: The narrator paused a lot and used the words "uh" and "um" throughout her presentation. This showed me that she was having a hard time coming up with what to say next. The presentation could have flowed more smoothly.

Praise: The narrator did keep my interest and I found what she was talking about fascinating. She described what she was talking about in a way that I could understand and I enjoyed hearing about her experiences.

Overall I enjoyed the PechaKucha and am excited to finish my own to see how it turns out; Although, I am nervous to see if I will have enough to talk about on each slide!

What are the in's and out's of Reincarnation?

    While reading the autobiography written by Daisy, my correspondent, she said something that caught my eye and piqued my interest. She was talking about her close relationship with her best friend when she said,  "In my opinion, it is possible that we had met each other in our last life." I have heard the word reincarnation thrown around a lot, but never thought to research it and dive into what it is really about.

    Reincarnation is the religious or philosophical concept that the soul or spirit, after biological death, begins a new life in a new body. The 'Spirit World' is said to be the real home of the soul and earth is just the place the soul visits for a period of time to gain spiritual training. On average the soul reincarnates once every 300-400 years. When a soul reincarnates on earth it looses all memories, so it is able to acquire a new personality that is not persuaded by a past life. People that were unkind/selfish on earth and die will then go to hell to for self-reflection.

    Souls are only reincarnated from heaven because they can not be born from hell. If spirits were able to be born from hell then the earth would turn into hell because it would be filled with hell spirits. Every one that does live on Earth was reincarnated from Heaven.  Hell spirits will only be able to be reincarnated after they have reflected on their sins.

    Even after reading all about reincarnation I personally do not believe in it. It goes against my personal religious beliefs, but that does not mean that I didn't have fun researching and learning more about reincarnation and how the spirit world works. I kept my mind open while researching this topic and found that it is truly fascinating and I can definitely see the allure in believing that once you die you can start over again and that you have multiple chances to change your life.

 

My Sources:

"Eternal Life and Reincarnation." Happy Science North America. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2014.

 

      Daisy (Zhao). "Daily Life". Letter to Katy Melton. October 27, 2014. Qingdao, China.







Face to Face

While listening to everyone's  stories it makes you take a step back and realize how us "white people" have it pretty easy; it is rare that we come across racism. Its interesting to hear all the different point of views from everyone else. The people who talked about 9/11 and Pearl Harbor all had similar experiences with racism after the events. While talking about fear, Sayema Hameed said, "I felt fear for the first time in my life." She was terrified of how others were treating her for something she didn't even do just because she had the same color of skin as them. Some people like, Satsuki Ina experienced troubles with identity. She states that, "They changed my name from Satsuki to Sandy." She also said that she would refuse to speak the Japanese language when her mom tried to teach her and her siblings after the war. This is sad to me because no one should have to change who they are just so they aren't tormented about other peoples actions.

Book Response #4: The Fault In Our Stars

 In my last book blog I was at the part, in The Fault In Our Stars, where Hazel and Augustus were just beginning their friendship. Now, I have just finished the book and even though the ending is sad it's also filled with hope. Hazel and Augustus are able to take a trip to Amsterdam to visit Hazels favorite author and even though the trip isn't all what she expected they are still able to experience life together and to do things they wouldn't normally be able to do. The type of love that Hazel and Augustus has shown through throughout the entire story. The emotions I experienced while reading this book was from sad to happy to anxious to mournful. I felt as if I was experiencing this story with them and they were taking me on an emotional roller coaster.

 I chose this picture because in the story Augustus says, "It's a metaphor, see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don't give it the power to do its killing." Through out the entire book Augustus has a cigarette between his teeth to prove that even though cigarettes are bad its the people that give them the power to do harm in the first place.

If I were to compare John Green to an author now, it would have to be Nicholas Sparks because the story is so amazingly written and  has an incredible love story just like anything else Sparks has ever wrote.

 “But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he has Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.”

 

Reading Response #3: The Fault In Our Stars

The book that I started to read this past week was The Fault In Our Stars. I decided to read this book because the movie was so good and even though I'm no where near finishing the book yet I can already tell that it is going to be very good! As most people know this book is about a girl named, Hazel, who has thyroid cancer and the cancer has now spread to her lungs. Hazel has always kept everyone around her at a distance to prevent them from getting hurt, that is until she meets Augustus Waters at Cancer Kid Support Group. This group is Hazel's mothers way of pushing her to make some friends, which is exactly what happens. Augustus Waters is exactly what Hazel needs in her life; someone fun and adventurous.

John Green is able to capture his readers attention with his character Hazel. She is snarky and very witty; she keeps me on my toes while reading and I'm always waiting for what she is going to say next. This story is a work of fiction and is all about romance and reality. The romance in the story is between Hazel and Augustus. The reality in the story and in life is that everyone dies eventually, whether you have a long life or a short one. This story reminded me of the book My Sisters Keeper; in this book the main character's sister has cancer and throughout the book you see how much of a struggle it is to have to watch someone you love dying and not being able to do anything about it. In The Fault In Our Stars, Hazels parents have the same issue, they cant seem to be able to accept the fact that their daughter has a terminal illness.

The picture that I chose is of the famous quotes within the book and it shows the thinking of Hazel and Augustus.

Reading Response #2: Divergent

    Divergent by Veronica Roth was written in a futuristic world where everyone is separated into factions based on five different virtues: Abnegation, Candor, Dauntless, Amity, and Erudite. The main character Beatrice is originally from Abnegation, but feels like she doesn't really fit in. Each year all the sixteen-year-olds take an aptitude test to determine which faction they would best fit into. After they find out the results to the test, they can choose which faction they want to be in. However, if they choose one that is different than the one they were originally from, they can no longer communicate with their family and friends from that faction. Beatrice finds herself struggling to make the decision that is best for her family or best for herself.

"Tomorrow at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them."(pg. 2)

    




 Divergent was made into a movie this past March and after I went to see it (because everyone was raving about the book) I didn't understand what all the fuss was about. So I decided to read the book instead and see if it was any better; I was shocked that throughout the entire book it kept my attention and I couldn't put it down. Veronica Roth's writing style was easy to follow and the plot was gripping. There was never a time when I found myself bored, or ready to call it quits. This book is a quick read that won't let you down; it has everything from romance to action to sci-fi to suspense.

"Human reason can excuse any evil; that is why it’s so important that we don’t rely on it." (pg. 102)

"The Dauntless guards close the gate and lock it behind them.  The lock is on the outside.  I bite my lip.  Why would they lock the gate from the outside and not the inside?  It almost seems like they don’t want to keep something out; they want to keep us in." (pg. 128)

"...it’s when you’re acting selflessly that you are at your bravest." (pg. 311)

Reading Response

Reading Response: Revived

    Revived by Cat Patrick is a work of fiction that is a mix between action, sci-fi, and romance. It takes place in a futuristic world where there is a secret drug, called Revive, that can bring humans back to life. The main character Daisy Appleby is one of the "lucky" kids who gets to test out the drug. Her parents, aka government workers, Mason and Cassie take care of Daisy and make sure there are no problems with the drug. After dying for the fifth time Daisy moves to Omaha, Nebraska where she meets Matt and Audrey McKean who soon become her first real friends. Daisy soon realizes that its easier to keep your secrets when you have no one to share them with.

                                            

                            "She's not suppose to be alive.

He's not suppose to know her secrets."

     

    When I first checked out this book I thought it would keep my attention throughout and would be a good quick read... After wasting my time reading 336 pages of this book I came to the same conclusion that I did half way through... The characters seemed dull and the book was completely predictable. Girl isn't suppose to tell anyone her secret. Girl falls helplessly in love with guy after knowing him for a week (who has no flaws). Girl spills all secrets to guy and all chaos ensues.

"Matt there's something I need to tell you," I begin. "It's about me. About my life... I'm not sure where to start... I died when I was four years old. The drug brought me back to life."

And what's Matts response???

"That's... Are you messing with me?" Matt asks.

Really Matt your girlfriend just told you she was dead, but came back to life with a drug and your response is that?!?!

So, as you can see where there could have been some hmph in the book or some dramatic responses there was nothing. Zilch. Nada. There was nothing that caught my attention or made me ready to turn the page.









15 Things About Me

1. My favorite food is sushi
2. I hate the color orange
3. I dont like cake or cupcakes
4. Netflix is my best friend
5. My favorite tv show is Parenthood
6. I would like to travel to Australia some day 
7. I want to be a labor & delivery nurse
8. The thought of picking a College makes me feel like I'm going to brake out in hives
9. My favorite movie is Bridesmaids
10. My favorite actress is Melissa McCarthy
11. I'm a terrible driver
12. I talk to my dog in a baby voice
13. I'm very uncoordinated and not at all athletic
14. I hate any kind of physical exercise
15. I have played the viola for 8 years, but only to please my parents (I actually hate it)