WN2 Being a Winner

The U.S. is winning the Olympics and my assigned topic is to reflect on what I think being a winner really means.

Personally, I think that being a winner only means that you are (probably) just being a selfish, overcompetitive jackass because really winning doesn't matter except to prove that you are better than someone else.

Trying to win is pointless because you should not be relying on happiness that comes from being better than someone else in the first place. Your happiness should come from within.

Winniing does not always mean you receieve a tangible award.

I am not proud of winning anything I've won, and I cannot recall winning because rarely do I conciously place myself within a competition.

WN1 Commitment

Marriage takes as much commitment as that of athletes who practice hours and hours each day to achieve their goals.

Getting married changes your life just as training to become and maintain the status of an Olympic athlete does. In both cases, you are commited to something and you promise yourself that you will never abandon what you are commited to. You trust in what you are doing and you always give your best.

Marriage is something I would put my commitment into as an athlete would her sport. The achievement in marriage is happiness on both parts, rather than gold. So marriage may be considered much more mature than sports in this way because the people involved have come to know that being better is not the key to happiness.

The commitment to love each other and make each other happy is much more important that self-discipline of the body in order to be better than another in my opinion. (However, lots of athletes do compete against themselves rather than concentrating on others.) Both commitments require perseverance, maturity and determination.

Daybreakers: Oil?

Not the greatest movie, but a very entertaining one with a creative plot, Daybreakers (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433362/)  serves as a good metaphor for oil.  Our use of oil in particular.

Daybreakers shows the story of one vampire, named Edward and played by Ethan Hawke, and his attempt to help repopulate Earth with humans long after they have become an endangered species and vampires have taken over.  Humans are farmed for their blood, but they cannot be reproduced as quickly as they are being used to feed the huge quantity of vampires.  Edward works at this giant farm as they all try to come up with a substitute for the blood.

Like oil running out in our own greedy society, blood is running out in theirs.  And according to Edward's boss, "There will always be those who will pay a little extra for the real thing."  This makes me also want to compare their human farming to today's factory farming.  People don't want to know the truth about it as in the movie the vampires do not want to be human again.  Their greed craves immortality, ours craves taste bud pleasure.  It's too bad that people won't allow themselves to seek the truth, that factory farms are horrific and not worth it (especially when the products are so bad for you and the environment).  And it's too bad the vampires don't want to listen to Edward.  But, thankfully, he gets the cure out.  

Wintergirls

I recently read a depressing but great book about an anorexic girl losing touch with reality. I was reminded again how terrible and tragic teenage depressions are. Laurie Halse Anderson's Wintergirls captured me in a world of counting bites and denial.

The story's main character, Lia, suffers greatly by her own decisions. The death of her old best friend Cassie has triggered her anorexia again. Through the story, Lia falls deeper and deeper into her negativity and her belief that she needs to continue losing her weight. Five pounds and then five more lost and she refuses to quit her destructive habbit because this is the only act she can may do and have control over in her life.

Anderson's ability to not omit a single thought of Lia's or a single bite she takes has a devastatingly emotional effect on the reader, who may, as in my case, find themselves feeling more than sympathetic towards Lia. I also found I was horribly frustrated with her just as her parents were. I thought the writing techniques that Anderson utilized were the components of the book's emotional effect. She wrote Lia's thoughts perfectly, seemingly so real.

Lia begins losing all touch with reality when her hallucination of Cassie begins appearing many times to her in her miserable, dying state. Her father makes her go back to living with her mother, who forces her to eat at least a little, finally. But Lia is still starving herself and it is not until the end that she begins seeing reality once more. Lia's state requires a near death experience to transform her thoughts.

Wintergirls is definetely a book I recommend. Although, I must say that this novel is definetely not going to appeal to males or people that have a hard time understanding depression and sympathizing.

Skinny Bitch

Have you ever considered how unhealthy the American diet really is?  Think you might be prepared to hear the truth for once? Skinny Bitch, by Kim and Rory, is a book that will change your life by giving you all the facts on what you should and shouldn't be eating.  The authors never try to make the truth sound any less harsh than it is; Rory and Kim are blunt, honest, entertaining, hilarious, and extremely motivating.  The book is a great example of two people taking a stand and spreading the word on veganism.

Skinny Bitch discusses why high fructose corn syrup, rotting carcasses and other fattening animal byproducts are making you fat and unhealthy.  Kim and Rory divulge all the details and just how it is actually legal that the government let all this crap be sold.  They tell us everything we ought to know but don't, such as the fact that other countries are refusing to purchase American meat and what truly goes on inside slaughterhouses.

The two amazing authors tell us that the wrote the book mainly because they want to help end animal suffering.  This is truly the type of stand-taking that needs to be continued!  I highly recommend this book to everyone.  You will be amazed and horrified by some of the information. 

Taking a stand

Okay. So. Taking a stand. Myself. Me taking a stand. I find this subject really frustrating because I am always taking a stand with every meal I eat, because every meal I eat is one that refuses to harm creatures. Yeah, I get pretty frustrated. And I'm sorry if I've offended you with my veganism in the past. I've learned that taking a stand on my ethics tends to offend others, who are sensitive about their diets and unwilling to become aware.

Well, I seem to be getting off subject again...Okay, the last time I really took a stand was when those bs posters advertising hunting (not real hunting but fake hunting, which is only desensitizing everyone to real hunting anyhow) were hung up all around my friggin school. So, I made some posters myself with catchy slogans that were created with the same violent theme of hunting. One said "Save a deer, kill a hunter." Apparently, some idiots are just too friggin stupid to understand that this is not friggin literal. Duh. The slogan is obviously meant to change the point of view, make some people think. But, unfortunately, I forget how brainwashed people are from all the billions of advertisements they have seen in their lives that desensitizes them, making them (probably you too) feel not that killing other species is wrong and horrific just as human killings are, but feel that it's perfectly normal to torture and make suffer the innocent members of other species. What a demented and warped world we inhabit! Yes, we are victims of greed. Greed drives the ads which drive the brainwashing which makes the desensitization. Added with the sick ways of capitalism, our world is trapped in a vicious cycle.

Okay, so I was caught in the act of hanging up my horridly offensive posters and had to take them down before the bell even rang. I guess freedom of speech doesn't apply in batesville. I will continue to act on the behalf of animals and I really hope that someday you can see from a different perspective.

Ingrid Newkirk: Taking A Stand For Animals!

Ingrid Newkirk, the animal rights activist who was the main founder of the organization PETA, is my favorite hero.  

You may find yourself asking PETA?! Fore the love of God, not PETA, Sadie!!  If so, I'm just going to inform you know that PETA has caught your attention, and if you would keep an open-mind and listen to the facts that PETA and Ingrid are dying to tell you, you will probably find that you were just wrong.  Dead wrong.  

In my opinion, and according to basic ethics, torturing and killing innocent creatures is pretty wrong.  Really, really wrong last time I checked.  

Ingrid Newkirk, as president of the largest animal rights activist group in the world, is putting forth her every effort to help stop animal abuse.  She is an extremely kind person who knows what she stands for.  Ingrid is always seizing every stand she can for the many suffering species that she and I know will one day be free.  I admire and have been stunned by her courage, strength, determination, and perseverance.