Arranged Marriages vs Marriages Made for Love

Compare and Contrast

Most people compare and contrast two things when they are trying to find out how two things are similar or different. Sometimes people compare and contrast to try to see which is better. In Gitangeli Sapra's essay, "I'm happy with an Arranged Marriage" she compares arranged marriages with "Marriages made for love." Sapra argues that arranged marriages are superior to regular marriages because there isn't any bias, you aren't able to judge someone based on their physical appearance. Sapra used statistics that 40% of marriages made on their own still end in divorce (Sapra 4). Even though Sapra does use strong evidence and personal experience to convince the reader, I still feel like she would have a bias because she grown up to this practice. Arranged marriages are normal to her whereas to many people it's a strange practice. With this in mind I feel like she would always argue that it is better even when there is concrete evidence proving otherwise. For example the statistic she used above may seem like a large number of divorces  but if a statistic was found for the amount of men an women in a arranged arranged that they didn't want to be in, or want to get out of, i think there's a strong probability that the statistic would be just as high. Even though their rate of divorce is low, doesn't mean they marriages aren't failing. In Arranged marriages there are many factors that are apart of the arrangement, and getting a divorce is never an answer in this culture. There seems to be more information on what different about them, especially the side she agrees with the most.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire

In Stephanie Ericsson's essay she classifies the various ways that we lie. She places the way we lie into several different groups. There is the white lies, facades, ignoring the plain facts, deflecting, omission, stereotypes and cliches, groupthink, out-and-out lies, dismissals, and delusions. Ericsson argues that lying has become a cultural activity. Living without lying is a difficult task but Ericsson believes we must try because if we don't we are all living a lie. We are losing ourselves and eventually hurting everyone around us.

I do  agree with Ericsson , I have also tried to stop myself from lying everyday and i also found it very difficult, but time after time i will try and quit again. I hate lying especially when it isn't necessary. I feel like lies take over you and traps you, it can get so bad that you are enslaved by your lies.

I loved how  Ericsson  wrote her essay. she used facts and personal information to explain exactly what each lie is and how they are frequently used. She increases her credibility by using important events in U.S history and by showing well known people who have used these lies. I also enjoyed how she used lies that everyone knows and uses on a daily basis. For example, the white lie, everyone has used a white lie before, either by telling a friend they look fabulous in that dreadful outfit, lying to their parents about where they are or even they casual white lie to your friends. Theses lie don't mean anything they just save you time, energy and most of the time spare others feelings. Lets be serious, who wouldn't  want to spare their friends feeling.

Ericsson seems to have covered all the basis of lying the only lie i would add is the Fake Lie. The lie where you lie but then you change the situation so when the person  ready to see if you told the truth you actually did. Like if your mom asks you did you wash the dishes, you reply yes mom of course i did! Then after you hang up, you race to the kitchen and wash the dishes so that your lie can be immediately canceled and when she gets home she'll see the dishes cleaned. Other than that  did a great job writing this essay, it was clever, creative, and entertaining.

Oh No There's Skunk in a Bottle?

               How in the World Do You Get a Skunk Out of a Bottle? This is the title of Robert Connors' essay, in which he explains how he gallantly saved a skunk that had its head trapped inside a glass jar. Connors uses this title to show, how absurd this experience was for him. He didn't know how to even approach the situation, so he assumed many other people wouldn't know how to as well. This catchy and interesting title reels people in, it gets the audience curious about what happened to the narrator and the skunk.       

           Connors writes a process analysis on how to remove the skunks head from the glass jar to analyze the relationships that animals and humans have, and to analyze how humans have created dangerous circumstances for animals. This analysis is seen through the detailed instructions on how to help the skunk. Connor states, "stand up, one step closer, squat down," he gives to a step by step instruction on what to do if you are ever in this situation. He also states that "If you spray me, you will seriously undercut my efficiency," this statement analyzes the relationship humans have with skunks. We are so afraid of this creature and its abilities to spray us that we'd rather run away and save ourselves rather than help it out. It shows the selfishness of people in our society, because we believe we are better than this helpless animal. Even though Connor "has a sudden desire to turn, go, keep running, get home," he stays because he realizes this is his"responsibility." Connors shows his audience that even though this is something you'd rather not  to do , you have to because it's your responsibility. He's persuading his audience that you have to help out animals because somethings in this world are out of their control and they need help to get through.

          Another thing that Connors tries to make his audience aware of, is the destruction and pollution thats increasing and affecting the animals that surround us. This skunk was suffocating when its head was stuck in the jar. Connors stated that, "the jar [has been] empty for years." How can a community let their environment become filthy and polluted to have empty jars lay on the ground for years at a time. We need to be able to take care of our environment so that all its inhabitants can also live happily and peacefully within it.

Premier Legue Rivalries

     

NBC decorated NYC shuttle train to Times square with the two premier leagues rivalries: Manchester City versus Manchester United, and Arsenal against Tottenham Hotspur. Each subway cart was separated half the cart representing one team and the other half the other team. 

In this Ad NBC tries to capture the rivalries and excitement of the upcoming games by using statements such as  “Keep Calm and Pick A Side.” Inside the train each seat has the team crest in the middle of each seat so when you sit down you are actually choosing a side. Giving New Yorkers and tourists some activity like that gives them something to talk about. It initiates conversation with others about the team they love or against the team they want to lose. NBC reminds them to go and watch the games on their television channel. Even though this type of advertisement is pretty clever and gets the train riders interested in what they are advertisement it wont get people who weren't planning on watching it too actually watch the football (European soccer) game. It might have the influence over the viewers in the moment but once they leave the train car they won't think of that ever again unless they are football fans. I may think that the Advertisements won't generate more views from people who are new to football, but I do think that it may increase the amount of views by reminding people to watch the game. There are thousands of people who are forgetful and without seeing this ad they probably would have forgotten to watch. So Ads do influence and affect us but not in the strongest ways, and definitely not as strong as the advertisers believe. 

Steiner - Depression in College Students

Steiner makes the claim that there are high rates of depression and suicide in college students. This happens because of multiple reasons, some from trying to balance all these new stress inducing situations a college student may have and others who are just  reverting back to one's prior depressed  experienced before the start of college. Steiner lists solutions to this problem. She believes if students are well-informed about depression and universities take the initiative to provide funding for counseling services then we'll see lets depressed student and less suicides in colleges throughout the United States.

Steiner supports her claim with statistics, facts, and multiple examples. She finds the statistics of suicides college students committing suicides and by stating 15 out of 100,000 student instills some fear in Americans. It shows to them it isn't just one kid here and there it's a growing entity taking over american students. This is also seen in the examples she uses, she makes a point to emphasize the fact that with some of the suicides the student were categorized as happy and fun kids, so people couldn't understand why they would commit this act.

I agree that college is very stressful for students and if there were more ways to express how they were feeling then there would be less depressed students and fewer suicides. I see the many stresses that students have to go through. Many universities they try to keep a high reputation so they make their curriculum very challenging, as well as the constantly increasing tuition rates it hard to picture a college student who isn't stressed. Some students are able to cope with this stress better than others. If universities acknowledged this problem and tried to teach these students how to deal with stress then maybe there will be less depressed kids in college in the future. If I wrote this essay I would have added information that proved that when colleges stepped in the rates of depressed students actually decreased.

Hidden Intellectualism Response

          Gerald Graff argues that real intellectuals aren't just people with broad academic understanding, they are also people with "street smarts." Graff believes that people with nonacademic interest can still be intellectuals. He states his argument in the last paragraph when he says, "schools and colleges are missing an opportunity when they do not encourage students to take their nonacademic interests as objects of academic study." Graff supports his argument by stating a personal testimony. He uses himself as an example of someone who wasn't "book smart" but had a thirst for knowledge relating to sports. Anything that had to deals with sports he read, from Sports Illustrated to Sports Magazine.

        I agree with Graff to some extent. It seems to me that  many hobbies or interest that are strongly pursued can easily be called an intellect in some way. Like for example musicians, many people refer to musicians as musical geniuses. Geniuses are people who have this vast amount of knowledge. They are intellectuals. Intellectuals don't have to be only in the academic sense, intellectuals are seen everyday in many different manners. The only reason where I can't fully agree with Graff  is because of his idea that someone who pursues any nonacademic interest can become an intellectual. That means someone who has become an expert in multitasking or juggling will be an intellectual? I hardly think so. It all depends on the interest one taking up, but it is true that not all intellectual have to be academic.

Technologies of the 21st Century

        Steven Pinker believes that social media isn't making us stupid but that they're the only things that is  keeping us smart. He believes the technologies that have been created are helping us manage the growth of knowledge and information that is expanding rapidly. Pinker appeals to ethos by using many different facts and references. Pinker definitely applies to logos when he wrote about the crime rate decreasing, he logically made a comparison between the effects of video games and how technology actually positively affects society. I agree with Steven that the new technologies are benefiting with the amount of resources out their its hard not to learn something every time you browse the web. I didn't particularly enjoy how Pinker set up his essay, there felt like there was too many quotes and references not enough direct statements or facts. With so much going on I was kind of confused as to what the actual thesis was, until he clearly stated it in the last paragraph.

             On the other hand Peggy Orenstein's  "I Tweet, Therefore I Am" uses a narrative to portray the idea that society is becoming more externalized. We're putting on a performance for others and losing sight if ourselves. I enjoyed Peggy's essay, her argument was understandable and related to her audience. By mentioning the psychological experiments as evidence for her claim increased her credibility because the audience can clearly see that what she is saying is true. I enjoyed how Peggy started and ended the essay with the story about listening to the children's book, that appealed to pathos because a lot of people understand and can relate to that moment. 

Descriptive Essay

The clouds parted and the loud rumbling and howling of the winds finally came to an end.  I opened my eyes and peered into a room completely dismantled from last night’s trials. My kitchen floor was now submerged with murky water about two inches deep. The room seemed to have moldy essence, like the smell of a cloth after being wet for a day or two. Water marks drained down the walls as if they were crying with despair.  My mother and her friend Ted were sleeping on the couches next to me; we had decided it would be best to stay together. Ted was deathly afraid last night, being a midst a hurricane for the first time wasn’t an easy thing to endure, even for a 45 yr old from the Midwest .

Being raised in South Florida prepares you for a lot different things. Hurricanes and natural disaster preparedness is of top priority. As a ten your old I’ve been through quite a few hurricanes big and small, but none had ever struck me as hard as Hurricane Wilma. On October 24^th 2005 Hurricane Wilma reached Florida as a category three hurricane. As such, no one in Hollywood, Florida was too frightened. During the early part of the hurricane my mother and I were talking to a family friend a few miles north of us, “There’s nothing much going on around here, just a little water on my balcony, what about you guys”.They bantered.   As my mom began to respond the unthinkable happened! The roof of our two story townhouse apartment flew right off! Our roof ripped off so easily, like thin foil paper ,  as if it wasn’t there to begin with.

I was in utter shock; we were upstairs at the time so my mom grabbed my hand and pulled me downstairs towards the family room.  My mind went on a rampage, how could a category three hurricane take our roof off?  That isn’t even possible! Ted exited the downstairs bathroom unaware of the chaos that just occurred, as my mom filled him in, he panicked. “What do we do now, we have to go somewhere else! What if things fly in? Oh my god,” he choked .

MY  mom being a strong and determined woman channeled the panic into something more productive: she tried to mop the rainwater out of the den and kitchen, sadly her efforts deemed unsuccessful. As the hurricane raged on, all I could think about were all our personal belongings that were getting soaked and ruined upstairs in the open element. This may have been a little materialistic but I had a lot of personal things that meant a lot to me. I couldn’t help myself but wonder if I was going to save any of my baby pictures or pictures from all the memorable times in my life. I know I will still be able to cherish those moments in my mind but how many memories can one brain hold. With the mind I have very few. Those images were the only things that could remind me of my past and the moments that meant the most to me, I prayed that they weren’t all ruined completely.

The eye of the storm created a lull of activity for half an hour. It was weird , after hours of destruction and terror, everything just stopped. The weather was cool there was an emptiness, like no activity was happening for miles. The silence was deafening. I have experienced being in the eye of a storm many times but there was something significantly different this time. Maybe because I actually witnessed the destruction first hand, I became so confused by the calmness that took over after  the storm. Even though it was weird to have everything pause for a couple minutes It was great that it did because it allowed my nerves to finally get some rest. Sadly, it didn’t stop me from tossing and turning for at least an hour; my couch was definitely not as comfortable as my bed. As the sun peaked over the horizon, I awoke the next morning with the only the memory of yesterday’s destruction.

Once my mom and Ted finally got up, the first thing we did was go outside and to our surprise we saw the roofs of twelve townhouses laid perfectly in front of our homes. Every single roof came off; twelve different families were now in the same situation as we were. It was really a sight to see, 12 identical ceiling fans, 12 skylight windows, and 12 conjoined wooden roofs lay upside in the front driveways of each home. The thing that really took me by surprise was that even though Mother Nature tried to rip away our ceiling, it still seemed to stay fused together as one. While this was an amazing example of what Mother Nature could do, it was also the most devastating thing I’ve ever seen in my ten years of life. But the mere fact that everything was still together that gave me some hope that even though this might affect and change our lives we’re still together and well and one day everything will be fixed and whole once again.

I walked around to see how badly other streets got hit but nothing came close to the wreckage on my block. Apart from our street, outside look so serene. The morning sun peeped up through the crystal clear blue skies.

As the days passed I learned the true meaning of selflessness: friends and family helped us through the disaster. We were offered places to stay, which we gratefully accepted. Others gave us clothes to replace the ones destroyed by mildew.  My mom even received money from people who wanted to help us through. It was heartwarming how a community could come together to help those who really need it.  The compassion I received became a motivation to push on even when times got rough.  The effects of Hurricane Wilma changed me and help create the altruistic, compassionate person I am today, because of that I will appreciate the experience forever.

American Health

At JFK Airport Terminal
Radley Balko and David Zinczenko are both watching the News on the flat screen while waiting for their planes to arrive to the terminal.

Radley Balko- Oh wow, the government just doesn't get it! These commercials on being healthy isnt going to change a thing!

David Zinczenko- What do you mean? It could help companies see that they need to let everyone know what's in their foods.

Radley Balko- But it's not the companies responsibility to let them know. If you are interested in finding out about whats in your foods or how healthy it is, that is your prerogative. The government shouldn't get involved. That's all i'm saying.

David Zinczenko- So the millions of children watching a McDonald's commercials, should stop and think wait a second i should find out how healthy my happy meals are. It's my responsibility! That's pretty absurd.

Radley Balko- Well obviously not, but their parents should be the ones doing the thinking. They should know taking their kids to McDonald's is going to effect their health and well being.

David Zinczenko-  If everyone keeps marketing to children with no warning labels or nothing letting the buyers know whats inside the foods, children and in turn their parents will continue to be obese. Nothing will change that.

On the loud speaker -Flight 201 has arrived

Radley Balko- That's my flight, but sir one day you'll see that once everyone takes the responsibility to be try healthy, the amount of obesity in the U.S. will greatly decrease. You'll see, but have a great day.

Radley walks away, leaving David to ponder on his last statements.

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Thesis Statement-  The United States is one of the most obese countries in the world. The government has tried to many tactics to lower this rate, but as the amount of fast food chains increase it seems the amount of obese and unhealthy Americans also increases. The Fast food companies add these addictive components in their food to get their customers hooked. They care only about earning more for their business not about the public's health. It not just the Fast food chains that enable Americans to be so unhealthy, Americans are also at fault. They don't say away from the foods that will negatively affect their health. I feel if the government regulates the fast food industries and the citizens make it there mission to try to be healthier, then maybe then america won't be as obese as it is today.