Blog Five

1) Events that Yolanda underwent definitely helped her understand her own Identity. In The Joe Chapter. Yolanda had at first lost her sense of sanity after a long term dispute between her and prospect husband, John. She started not to fully trust John because he made a strong claim about her sanity. He thought she was too intelligent for her own good. He made a pros and cons list about marrying her which deeply offended her. Yolanda also struggled with affection after this for she found herself in able to kiss or make love to John. She left him to go to her parents house. Her parents too questioned her sanity because she was speaking in references to other things like literature. Her therapist recommended that she be committed to a mental hospital her parents agreed so she reluctantly went. It was here that she finally overcame her "craziness" and obtained a part of her Identity that she had lost. She became to smart and was unable to listen to others. Here she overcame her fear of words such as "Love" and "Alive" and obtained spiritual growth to move on with her life. This gave her a brand new sense of identity she learned to be stronger than she had and obtained old feelings that were much desired.

2)In The Daughter of Invention Chapter Laura, Yolanda's Mother had trouble fitting into American society. After moving to the Americas she had lost her social status and didn't really fit the description for American standards in motherhood. She began to invent in her head all these strange ideas such as a can opener attached to the side of a car bumper that would be handy for picnics. Her daughters teased and rejected their mothers ideas. They wanted her to embrace American Culture more instead of working on these silly ideas. Now bear with me We're getting to the positivity. Yolanda had to write a speech for school and she was inspired by Walt Whitman, she wrote the speech to quickly and got in trouble for plagiarism. That night her father was upset and made threats about returning to the Dominican Republic and he was upset with Yolanda and he called her a name which deeply hurt her feelings. This is when Laura swoops into the rescue and helps Yolanda rewrite her paper and the teacher actually liked the new one. The next day her father bought her a typewriter and apologized for his behavior which is another positive note. And the final note is that because Laura found something else she could do she never had to invent things again. In this situation it is a person vs. person positive note.

3)After reading the Jeremy Lin story It got me thinking. Although in America minorities deal with racial slurs in a negative way they also embrace them. Asian people will call each other "chinks" and even themselves with a sense of pride and ambiguity. Jeremy Lin calls himself "the chinkballa" and he is now an NBA champion. Just as African Americans call each other "N!&&@" and truly mean friend. However race should not be a barrier. The negativity needs to end. It is stupid to think something like color, something so elementary, can define a human being. Scientifically speaking we all have 46 chromosomes (Except for our mutant friends) and we all breathe the same air. The ignorance is what will need to end. The color of your skin should not define what you do or where you will be. Nor can it. That is why we see people standing up like Martin Luther King Jr. to these oppressing matters. When good men do nothing evil prevails. Something as small as a comment can scar an individual just like it has the author of the Jeremy Lin article. It seems to me he has overcame he faced but it is up to the current mass of people to stop thinking through their televisions and begin thinking through their hearts.

The Wiesel, The Music and the V- Day

1) Elie Wiesel a holocaust survivor is outraged with Mitt Romney and The Morman Church. They have been performing posthumous baptisms on jews, they were supposed to have legally agreed to stop in 1995. I personally agree strongly with Elie, Mitt Romney should address the preposterous things that the church he is aligned with is doing. You cannot baptize a jewish person after they are dead, it just isn't right to use their name without consent so your name can be "pure". This article was bias however rightfully so. In my personal opinion there is no other side. Mormans cannot baptize dead jews, they have a right to their religion even after death. Who are they to decide who is a Mormon. I cannot believe the idea even fathoms the Mormon to baptize someone after they have passed away. That person has no choice in the matter therefor i think the entire procedure is void a post-humous baptization is just preposterous.

2) In my personal opinion sure M.I.A sold out. You can still sell out today. Artists that I love like Keith Urban do not write all of their songs. Sometimes they co-write sometimes they don't even have any part of it at all besides the actual performing of that song. As much as I dislike Bon Iver and like the Foo Fighters they both stayed true to their music. In a room full of frauds and pop-stars they managed to win grammys. The Foo Fighters won a total of six grammys for their completely original songs. That is not selling out. Bands like the Foo Fighters are likely never to sell out. "musicians" like M.I.A are always prone to sell out. So no I don't think it's impossible to sell out these days in fact I think it is very easy. Even if you don't sell out you can be one of the many button pushing musicians who manages to win grammys off their non-original beat driven songs. The article I read was not bias it represented both sides but i strongly choose to side with the one. Music is only music if it comes from the heart not from the wallets of big-time record producers.

3) Marriage and Love= more money you lose. This article was very bias in it's point of view but for good reason. Love costs, and it ain't cheap. It stated that the average American wedding costs about 27,000 dollars. every year on valentines day they are expected to gross 17 billion dollars on chocolates, flowers and heart shaped goods. Less and less men get married every year because every year marriage becomes more expensive and less men are good for it. Old traditions are lost, the idea of just love is all it should take is gone in the modern American culture. It only requires a little bit of love if any and a whole lot of cash. Only the richest of men can be successful in marriage. In my personal opinion one reason more and more men may choose not to get married is the high divorce rate in the states. With 50% of all marriages failing why would a man want to get married without a pre-nup. He loses half if not more of his money unless his lawyer is a superstar. Unfortunately in today's America love is money.

 BLOG 3

1)Today in America Men and Women are created equal. However it is not a perfect world. Although women have the same "rights" to achieve and do as men do the rule of the road is sometimes different. Men can be expected to be the breadwinners of the house and women are expected to take care of the children for the most part. However, today we find more and more dual-working families where both the men and father work and in rare cases when the father watches the kids and the mother goes to work. This is most likely due to the increase in respect and awareness of equality that women have fought for in the past. Men probably perceive women  the way television and life portrays them. Men perceive women as the motherly figures. Not to get inappropriate but the chemistry of love tells us that the opposite sex is for mating. So when a women sets her eyes on a man she probably sees him as a prospective life-mate. Women and men both have their stereotypes. Men are "pigs" women are "naggy" but these do not hold true for all people in all cases. I would say there are many advantages of being a man in today's world. Like I said equality is not evenly distributed throughout the U.S. Because of this men have an easier time getting jobs in the workplaces, they have an easier time being taken seriously and men in general receive better treatment then women due to shadows of a past culture.

2) If Carlos from How The Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents was asked what is expected of men and women in his culture he might respond by saying that Men are expected to bring home the bacon. Women are expected to stay in the house when it is not safe to go out alone. He would say that a women should marry within her culture and marry a man of the same ethnic background. He would add that daughters should be completely obedient to their fathers and not to disrespect them and appreciate all that fathers do for their daughters. Men are also expected to be the "patriarchs" as you listed. the oldest living male member of your immediate family should be the "go-to guy".

 BLOG 2

1) Yes this person would be more impressive than Albert Einstein. My reasoning behind this is that the idea of real magic to me is amazing, If magic was real it would be the single most impressive thing on this planet. Magic is more impressive than numbers and equations in my mind.

2)As a musician I would not swallow the pill. I actually love Alice In Chains and performed an Alice in Chains cover show at The Ft. Washington School Of Rock. However, music is my passion and there is no way that I would swallow a pill that made my voice appear to sound like Alice In Chains and on top of that all other music. I love music too much for me to be able to swallow the pill so unfortunately for my lover, she will have to break her collarbones.

3)I would post the Loch Ness Monster story as the headline of my newspaper. My reasoning behind this is that I have always been a fan of Nessy are friendly lake dweller. Humans get diseases everyday and a presidents worth is none different than that of a homeless man. The reason i wouldn't put Sasquatch is because i was never personal fan. Sorry pal but Nessy is the clear winner in this match.

4)I don't pay the wizard. I don't pay him because I have a high self esteem. This does not mean I'm conceited it just means that I'm perfectly satisfied with the way I look now. Sure i look to make improvements, but i don't need a wizard to make them for me. In fact that would leave me unsatisfied, therefor i don't pay the wizard.

5)No I don't watch the game. I believe that I can make my own destiny, no crystal ball can tell me what it is because no matter what a crystal ball says the future is unwritten.  However, the question states that this fate is inevitable so I suppose it won't matter If I watch but i don't watch just to satisfy my own desire to follow what I believe.

6)In this situation I would just have to kick my friend in his or her ribs. Although they will never understand their life is more important to me then their feelings. So there is only one obvious choice to make, you have got to kick them in the ribs and hope they can suck it up.

7)I would personally be more interested in the hollywood blockbuster movie of my life because it would be more exciting than my actual life. My actual life isn't boring but it just isn't film worthy at this moment in time. I would much rather see the hollywood blockbuster version of my life.