[Free] Life after school.

     I wonder what will happen to me in the future. I don't mean during college or anything like that. I mean like really far into the future, like after I've finished college. I really want to know if I will have a job that I want to do, not just some job I have just because I need it or anything. Will I be married? To whom? Will it be my first love? Second? Third? What will really happen to me?

     It really bothers me how foggy and distant my real adult life is even though it's right around the corner. It's not really because I'm scared or anything about what will happen, it just worries me how uncertain things could be. For all I know I could die before I even get to do the things most people do. I could be rich, or poor, or just comfortably in the middle. I just want to see how my life turns out, maybe look through a crystal ball or something. To see if there's anything I might have to prepare for. 

     Hell I don't even know if I'll be able to get into a good college.  What I want is to still be here in the Bay Area. I don't really want to live in a big city. The only problem is that if I do get married and if I have children, what are my kids going to do here? There's nothing much to do in Alameda anyways. Maybe global warming will put the Bay Area underwater. I don't know.

[RE] SATs

     Every student goes into high school with a universal goal: to get good enough grades to go their college of choice. As the years go on, some of those visions start fading away when reality sinks in. Things don't go the way they want to and they have to start thinking of alternative routes.-France

     I have to admit, when I entered high school all I really had in my mind was that I would go through the motion as I always did and then go to the college of my choice. I didn’t even know what colleges there were or which one I wanted to attend. I didn’t really even have an idea of what I would have to do, what I needed. I didn’t even know what kind of grades I needed to get into college. I guess I was just in a dreamy state of mind until senior year when all the college, graduating, and applications crashed down on me. That’s when reality started sinking in. I hated myself for not being more studious. I hated that I didn’t really give a shit about grades before and now it’s come back to haunt me. I have a horrible G.P.A., I don’t even know how I'm doing all these applications and stuff. The best that I'm hoping for is that I get into a CSU. I am just so unprepared. All life I just had this picture of going to a UC but I didn't work hard enough for it. I just wish I knew more about it and that I was more prepared like others. AIOJAOIWDJLAKEWAEWLAKEWHALWKJEHAKLDHASKLD #Frustration

[CE] Protected Marine Areas

 

     People from the Coastside Fishing Club filed a petition against some laws that protected marine life in certain areas. This group of people was mostly fishermen who argued that the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) should not have been imposed. They said that the MPAs worsened the economic situation that the fishermen were in. Nevertheless the judge who presided struck down the petition. The people from the Coastside Fishing Club had the lamest arguments. They said that the laws imposed economic hardships on fishermen, particularly in the northern part of the region. If the fishermen had financial problems, they could petition, not the club. The club was just a bunch of recreational anglers.

     I don’t think that any petition regarding Marine Protected Areas should be passed. Marine life has already been destroyed enough. All the waste we dump into the ocean and all the oil we’ve spilled have already taken a toll on everything that calls the ocean home. In addition to all the toxins and trash we’ve carelessly thrown into the ocean, people have a crazy addiction to sushi, increasing the amount of fishing. Overfishing has already depleted so much of our marine life that if these Marine Protected Areas were to be lifted, then we will not have any sushi to eat. In fact, I think that there should be more protected areas so that we can balance out the situation. The fish that we catch and eat cannot reproduce fast enough to keep the population up. If we don’t do something about it, they will die out and then we will lose another resource to our greed.

Going For The Look

      I completely agree with Cohen's argument that as our world progresses, our tastes in certain things also change. As society becomes more “refined”, people become pickier about things. Especially today where most people fear the judgment of others. Teenagers are especially susceptible. They worry about how they look, and how they act in front of friends, family members, and coworkers. Mass media doesn’t help to alleviate this problem either. With celebrities and athletes promoting certain clothes or brands. The world has become a more competitive place and will continue to grow more competitive as the worlds’ population keeps growing and changing.

     The way we humans act and think has caused us to become fearful of the judgment of others. Society has made it so that we feel the need to act a certain way in front of certain people. Going in for a job interview, it is expected that the applicant should have a business-like attitude. On the other hand, hanging out with friends has a more friendly and relaxed attitude. This fear of being judged causes us to keep up our knowledge on the latest trends and what is in style. To keep up with the latest types of clothing and accessories that are deemed “cool” and “fashionable”. If you don’t wear a certain brand, or if you don’t have a specific type of style, people will judge you based on that.

     Advertisements also play an important role in our lives. The way something is portrayed or the person behind the product gives the consumers something to consider. It makes them think “If that athlete says I should use that weight training system because he looks really fit.” These types of advertisements give a false idea of what that product does. Most often than not, advertisements use famous people or something that the majority of the people they are trying to sell their product to knows. Football players are hired to promote sports related items because of their athleticism. The same thing goes for the hiring of people in clothing stores based on their “looks”. The companies are trying to send out a message to people walking by that their clothes give off a certain kind of idea to others. The only difference between an advertisement and hiring in a store is that anyone qualified for the job could complain about discrimination while the people behind the advertisements are not as likely to be taken to court. Retailers are just utilizing the best way to bring in sales. It's all about the money, companies want to give their possible consumers an image of what they could be like. Hiring these good looking workers also attracts customers. Some may even be able coerce someone into buying something.

[CE] Abortion

The number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44 fell from 29.1 in 1981 to 19.6 in 2008.
Despite the drop in the rate of procedures, Stinson said abortion rights remain under attack. She said she'll be happy if her words Wednesday encourage others to step up and fight for those rights.

     To me the answer to the issue of abortion is very clear. Abortion should be legal everywhere in the United States.  It is up to the woman to decide whether or not she wants to keep the embryo, or get rid of it. I think that Stinson was very brave for speaking out about her experience. Not only because it was a deeply personal experience from her life, but also because of all the hardcore anti abortionists out there. The people who argue that it is inhumane to kill embryos, to destroy a human life. Yet they themselves murdered an abortion doctor. There is no point in not letting women have abortions. They obviously have a reason for doing it. Would it be better if the mother had the baby, but she couldn’t afford to take care of them both?  Or maybe a young lady can’t have the baby because she wants to further her education so that she can then provide more for her children in the future. I don’t see why anti-abortionists say that it is inhumane to have an abortion. They aren’t the ones carrying the baby, they aren’t in that person’s situation. They don’t know what problems that person may be facing.

[RE] Racism

If a white man was in the situation as Grant, I think the same ending would have happened. Just like in the whole Occupy Wall Street protests, people of color always want to be the victims. Stop being the victims!

Seriously, when will they stop? No offense but black people just do not know when to stop asking for sympathy.- Andrew Zhao

     In response to Andrew, I don’t really know what he means by “If a white man was in the situation as Grant, I think the same ending would have happened.” If by ending he means that anyone in Oscar Grant’s position, whether they were white, black, yellow, purple, rainbow, would have been shot, then I agree with him entirely. On the other hand, if Andrew was talking about how all the hate and protests would have happened the same way if somebody white was shot, then I would disagree. I don’t think as many people pay attention when a “white man” kills another ”white man”, but if a black man gets killed by a white man, then everything goes to hell. My opinion is that this reaction comes from how African –Americans were brought over to the Americas as slaves and treated inhumanely.  I don’t think many people have really gotten over the fact that what happened in the past has nearly been abolished. I kind of have to agree that people, especially blacks (mostly because African-Americans appear in the news most often under the topic of racism) tend to start things and make things bigger than it really is. I don't necessarily believe that they want to be victims, but that they are using racism and the fact that they are black to complain and get pissed off.  I also don't think that anyone is looking for any sympathy. Like I said before, it seems like people just get angry and want to yell and talk about how they must fight back against the hate  and discrimination.

[Free]

            I'm not really in the mood right now to write so I'm using something I wrote randomly when I was thinking about it.              

           The most important lesson you can and should learn is how to move on with your life when something bad happens. Whether it be the death of a family member, a bad grade on a test or maybe an altercation with friends. In this world, our world, it is a given fact that at one point in everyone's lives, something horrible happens. It doesn't matter who you are, where you are. It is as inevitable as death.  A horrible event may happen in your lifetime once, twice or more. That is why learning to move on with your life is the most important lesson you could ever learn in life. If you never learned to forget, then it would be impossible for you to accomplish anything. If people were stuck up on all the problems they had, the human race would not progress. I don't believe that anything today would be possible if we weren't able to continue on with our lives. It's like a survival technique. Animals evolved better equipped to handle the dangers in the wild to survive. The same thing goes for us, except we have to adapt mentally to handle what life throws at us. If we cannot handle that, we cannot survive in this world.

            I cannot stress this enough, learning how to move on with your life during times of hardship is the most important skill, trait, lesson, and whatever else you want to call it. Today we face so many horrible things. The environment is changing, bigger and more earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, and all other natural disasters. As our world changes, so must we. As earthquakes get stronger and cause more destruction, we must learn to continue on with our lives. As things get more chaotic, terrorists, war, death. The only thing we can ever really do in these situations is to hope, stay strong, help others, and continue to live and strive. There really is no way to "learn" how to move on, it's just something that kind of becomes a part of you, in your mind. You just learn to deal with things, learn to deal with the monsters in the closet, under the bed, outside your window.

[Free] Thoughts #1

You know I thought that maybe this year would be different. Different from all the other years before. Something special, out of the ordinary compared to freshman, sophomore, and junior year, as a senior. In the years preceding my final year at Alameda High, there was always something that went wrong. This year is no better. When I was an underclassman, I didn't feel very close to people. Like I would see people talking and smiling and shit. I thought maybe it would be different senior year and I vowed to myself that I would try harder to be more sociable.

That didn't do anything... I seriously tried to be more talkative and more friendly- or I hope I did. That was a big waste of my time because some of my friends have been kind of distant from me. I hate how I try and try and try to at least talk to someone but then they like totally ignore me. It's like I'm the only one trying to make friendly conversation, but it's like I'm talking to a block of stone. Maybe I'm wrong, and I'm just boring to that person. Maybe that's why. I don't know though, I remember when this person and I talked, and they seemed to actually try to carry the conversation. Now it's just like whenever I talk to them, they just kind of end the conversation with like "Uh-huh" and "Yes" and "No". It seems like some of the friends I used to talk to moderately, or a lot suddenly just stopped talking to me, block all types of communications with me, and generally just tries to avoid me unless they need something. Why do people have to be like this, ending the friendship, which might not have existed, and not even telling me why or what I did? It just kind of hurts you know?