Journal 11:Ethics/values

Everyone should have their own set of values. They should set guidelines for themselves. these guidelines can motivate and help someone stay true to their beliefs. I have work ethics when it comes to school work. I try my hardest because I know if I don't, my dreams will be harder to achieve. I also love the satisfying feeling that working hard on somethings gives me when I finish it. I get called an overacheiver a lot, but it does not bother me one bit because I know that I will be successful, and with that attitude they have, they will not be as successful as me. I think that everyone should have morals. People have morals today, but it is a rare occasion that they stick with them. A lot of people go into high school saying they will not do drugs or have sex before marriage. Our school is filled with a large amount of people that do do drugs, and there are also a lot of people having sex. I think that once a moral for yourself is made, it should be stuck to. Compromises for what you think should not be made under any circumstances. I value my friends and my boyfriend. My boyfriend is my bestfriend, and he is very important to me. I do not let people talk in a negative way about my friends, and I never will. I do this because I know they would do the same for me, and I believe that I should stand up for them when they can not stand up for themselves.

Journal 9

Religion has caused a lot of problems in history. If we think about it half of the issues we have today would not exist if people had not been so stubborn or cliquey with their ideas. Countries have split up because of religious differences. People came to the New World because they did not want to be a part of the Church of England anymore. There are so many varieties of religion that almost anyone can find a group that they belong in. I fall into the Atheist category. I think religion is pointless, and it just causes problems. I think the ideas of most religions are very wild, and they vary according to what group you're talking to in order to go along with what they like. When I think of religion I think of the greek gods and how they were used to explain things they could not understand. For example, wind. They did not know what was causing it or what it was really, so they made up a guy and said that he was causing it whenever he talked or something ridiculous like that. Now, today we see this as stupid, and we wonder how anyone could ever believe that. That is how i feel about God today. I think people use it as a fall back to explain things that can be scientifically explained. Some people need god to give them hope that the world is not bad, but in reality, if there was a god, he would not make the world as it is today. There are even schools that are organized by religion. As an ex-SHG student, I had to learn for 40 minutes everyday about the Catholic religion. They were very close minded and had very traditional views. I think that god is made up so people think that someone is constantly watching them, so that they don't do bad things. It is ridiculous to think that there is this perfect place called heaven that no one can see. It is creepy to even think that dead people are watching you.

Journal 8: Proofreading

"The Impotence of Proofreading" was hilarious. He made it sound so funny, and he was consistent throughout the whole video. Spell check is not always right, and I have had several instances where I realize that it auto-corrected my words into something I did not want. When he was talking it showed how stupid people sound when they have that many mistakes in their paper. This video actually made me think about checking over my papers a few times before turning them in. I actually feel paranoid that one of my reflection papers has some kind of really obvious spelling mistake or that I used words out of context without even knowing it. I wish spell check was a little more accurate because sometimes it does not correct everything. For the most part though, it is good for the little mistakes like thier being corrected into their, and i into I. I found the video to be really funny and creative. I wish all school lessons could be shown in a video that is a comedy because now I will probably always remember that video especially when I am I typing up papers or going through to check. Because of this video, I will go through my papers twice, and maybe I will even have someone else look it over to get someone else's point of view on something that I could have looked over.

Journal 6: Blaming

A lot of people make mistakes. Typically, a person that messes up will not want to blame themselves, so they look for someone else to project their mess ups on. Sometimes, one's actions will make whoever is responsible for them in serious trouble. For example, a women gets very angry at her husband for having an affair. She gets so angry that she shoots him in her extreme rage against him. She calls the cops and realizes how bad it looks that she is there. She decides to blame her husbands mistress, and the cops believe her. The case goes on trial, and the other women is jailed and sentenced to death. The women is relieved to have gotten out of trouble with out any problems towards her. That night when she went home she couldn't stop thinking about how an innocent women is going to die because of her. She had repeated nightmares, and eventually she kills herself. Blaming someone else never turns out good. Friendships can be lost Relationships can be destroyed. I think that blaming can come in handy in some situations, but usually it never turns out good, and it should be used only in joking matters such as hey who took my chicken nugget, then saying that your other friend did it. This is not such a serious situation, but it could still turn out bad. I think that if a person can do something they should be able to accept the consequences rather than blaming someone else who may have had nothing to do with it.

Journal 4: Traveling

When I was six years old, my Grandparents took me along with them on a month long vacation. It was by far the most memorable vacation I have ever taken. It started off with us flying down to St. Louis. From there we took a flight to some random airport in Colorado. We stayed the night there, and in the morning we took off for San Diego, California. My uncle lives there, so we stayed with him in his apartment that overlooked the beach. I got to go to the beach everyday, and I even learned how to surf. It was beautiful. One day, we even made a trip to the San Diego Zoo, which was by far the biggest one I have ever been to. After staying there for a week, we took off to visit my other Uncle that lives in Sacramento. I met his new wife, and we stayed with him for two weeks. My uncle collects classical cars, so I learned a lot about cars while I was there. We stayed with them for one week and we went to this really nice seafood restaurant. It was RIGHT next to the ocean, and while I was eating, I got to look out side and see the ocean. It was really pretty, and I will always remember the view. After spending time with my Uncles, we went on to Mexico. We stayed there for 3 days, and it was so pretty. There were a lot of horses walking around, and people were selling cool things. I bought a mirror from one, and it's still hanging on my wall. I'll never forget the time we ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant. A trio played music for us while we ate. After those three days, we boarded a plane, and went to Lake Tahoe. I do not remember much from here, but I do remember thinking that it was such a nice, scenic view. After those several weeks, we flew to Memphis, Tennessee. My grandparents were thinking about moving there, and they wanted to show me around the town. They ended up moving there, and building their own Steak n Shake. After that month of fun, I went home. I had hundreds of pictures and pretty things like that mirror, and some bracelets.

Journal 3: Being held hostage

Being held hostage is probably a very life changing thing. I would panic and probably try to escape. I would either do that or comply with everything they said so they would not hurt me. If I decided to panic, I would try to devise a plan to get out. I would feel scared, and if nobody came to get me or attempted to save me, I would feel really hurt. If I was held hostage for a long period of time, I would try to get use to the way of their life, just like Mary Rowlandson did. If I knew that people were trying to find me or help me out, I would make my kidnapper have a really difficult time dealing with me. I would make everything he did so difficult, and I would make them want to let me go just because I was being so annoying. I would miss my friends and my boyfriend so much, and I would probably cry a lot. I would go crazy if I had no communications with anybody I cared about for a long time. I would probably even start to talk to myself too. Overall, being held hostage is not an ideal situation to be in at all. It is a very emotional time, and I'm sure a lot of people have to go through some sort of therapy or counseling. I would probably have nightmares even after the event happened for several years. I know of several situations on the news where people are being kidnapped or held against their will. For example, the most famous in America is probably the whole 9/11 situation. People were on that plane minding their own business, until some men took the plane under their control and crashed it. Because of that ordeal, I'm very afraid of that happening while I am flying. I will be flying in October, and I am already panicky about it.