HW#24

Author-Mitch Albom
Title- Tuesdays with Morrie 
Publisher- Double Day
Year Published-1997




Precis: Morrie changed my life and made me think of living it and how to deal with it in different ways. I care about the people around me more and I want to connect with my brother and talk to him about what's going on in his life and how I love him. I love that me and my brother has grown closer and Morrie was right that some how I would find my brother like how I found Morrie. Now that Morrie is dead I appreciate life more and more. He was the most important person in my life. 




Insight:


"Mostly I want to tell that person to get on a airplane and visit a gentle old man in West Newton, Massachusetts, sooner rather then later, before the old man loses his ability to dance" Pg.190-
Mitch is thinking back and wishes that he could of reconnected with his old professor a lot sooner and wished he could of been there more and see his teacher dance.


"The class met on Tuesdays. No books were required. The subject was the meaning of life. It was taught from experience. The teaching goes on" Pg. 192-
When Mitch says "The teaching goes on" makes me think that even though Morrie isn't there physically but he is there spiritually and that's what Morrie wanted, he wanted to be remembered and loved after death so his memory could continue.


"You'll find a way back to your brother," Morrie said. How do you know? Morrie smiled "You found me, didnt you" Pg. 178- 
Morrie believes that Mitch will find his brother because Mitch was able to find him and it eventually worked because Mitch and his brother are a lot closer and they communicate better.


The book also made me think about life differently and if ever am dying I would want to live life and just be able to do things and just be with people I love and who love me. I would want people to remember me. I thought Mitch grew as a person and realized that their is a side to him that he never saw before and now he is a different man. 

Hw 23

Author-Mitch Albom
Title- Tuesdays with Morrie 
Publisher- Double Day
Year Published-1997


Me and Morrie are now in the 5th Tuesday and we are talking about our family and how love can connect us to each other and how Morrie feels good about life knowing that people love him and wont forget about him because of the tapes that I bring in to listen to him talk. We also talk about my brother and how I really want to see him and how everyone loved him more then they loved me. I really want to be there with him while he goes through the cancer process. Morrie told me that I will somehow find my way to him and they we will reunite.


Insight


"Nothing else will give you that. Not money. Not fame." He shot me a look. "Not work," he added Pg.92- Morrie was telling Mitch that he should be watching over his family if he were to ever pass away and not be committed to just his job.


"The truth is, you don't get satisfaction from those things. You know what really gives you satisfaction? What? "Offering others what you have to give." Pg.126- Morrie wants Mitch to realize that you get satisfaction from offering other people things offering them what you have. 


"When you learn how to die, you learn how to live." Pg.104- When you learn how to die is when you start thinking about life in a whole new way 




I think that everything Morrie is saying is true but is to hard to do because not a lot of people in this world are able to see things the way that Morrie sees them and it would be really difficult to try because its something that really takes hard work to do. The thought of offering what you have to other people isnt easy either because there are a lot of people in the world who want more and more rather then give. I felt bad for Mitch not being able to be with his brother when he should be with him. I would want to be with my brother in a time like that. 

HW#22

PAuthor-Mitch Albom
Title- Tuesdays with Morrie
Publisher- Double Day
Year Published-1997

I am writing this book to show you how a close person in my life and a loved one dealt with his life knowing that he was going to die. His way of life and who he wanted to be with and hang out with changed during his final years. I was one of the only people to actually make him happier then ever. Im glad he wanted to teach me about life and how to deal with my emotions and feelings.

Insights-

• Pg.50- "Do you think that's strange? Do you think because I am dying, I shouldn't care what happens with the world"
• Pg.57- "Mitch, I don't allow myslef any more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears, and that's all."
• Pg.58- "Holding him like that moved me in a way I cannot describe, except to say I felt the seeds of death inside his shrieling frame..."

I think this book is really opening my eyes on how people deal with death becuase i never thought about death the way that Morrie does and being happy about knowing im dying. I would think about death how Beth thought about death thinking about it in a positive way and never talking about the word death and or thinking about the word death. The way Morrie thinks about death was never something I thought people would think of it so now i know their must be more people who think about it the way that Morrie does.

HW#21

Important Insights:

• Always stay positive
• Never mention death
• Dont have false hope
• One of the best years of their marriage becuase they didnt have to worry about anything. They spent plenty of time with each other

Listening to Beth and her experience with her husbands death she mentioned she always stayed positive and her and her husband never liked talking about death and I thought that was normal and that is how I think about death I want to stay positive. When I looked at the book I am reading for Andy's class Tuesday's With Morrie and he dealt with the situation a lot more different he always mentioned death and he accepted that death was there and he just didnt care about it coming I disagree with the way that Morrie did it but thats my opinion I would like to deal with death the way Beth and her husband Erik dealt with it. The thought of being positive makes me feel a lot better about death even though its such a sad topic to discuss and a sad thing to go through. I also thought that not mentioning death helps too because from my experience when someone is extremely ill and the possibility of death comes to mind everyone becomes depressed. I would deal with death the same way as Beth.

Beth talked about how they never had false hope and they had one of the best years of marriage when her husband was dying. I agree with not having false hope and if one of my family members are dying I would never have false hope and I would try anything to help my family memeber in anyway I can. I also feel that having false hope and showing false hope can make the illness worse and could make everything worse I want to keep positive. In Tuesday's With Morrie he sort of has false hope for his disease and he accepts the fact that he will die and he will die soon and he knows it but Mitch always keeps him happy and doesnt have false hope and thinks he could possibly have more then a few months to live and i think false hope doesnt help. The fact those last years were her most special made me think that I would my last years or my wifes last years to be like that spending every moment with each other.

Listening to Beth story made me think of death and how I would react to it. I honestly would want to react to it the way she did I want to stay positive and never have false hope and spend every moment helping my death family memeber. The story made me think about why did Erik want the bowl of water to put his hand in before he died? or How much longer did he wait to go to the hospital where the doctor could have found the cancer sooner? why dont men go to the hospital more often to check out the bodies?

HW#19

Both of my parents deal with death and illness differently even though they come from the same background. The way my mom thinks of death as something extremely special and you have to dress nicely and you have to sit and be quiet. We also have to stay during the while entire funeral.She thinks of illness in the same way she makes me do everything for her or who ever is sick or injured for example my father had surgey and he was healed but I still had to do things for him.
My father is different thinks about the topic differently he thinks as death as not a really big deal because everyone goes through it and when there is an illness in the family he thinks positive thinking it great. They think about the topic differently yet they come from the same background. Their parents raised them to think two different things.
I talked to my brother about death and illness and he agrees with both of my parents he thinks that a funeral is a special place but he thinks that everyone goes through death so it isnt a big deal no tears shed. When it comes to illness he thinks that positive thinking doesn't work. He also thinks that medicine should be used unlike my father who thinks therapist do better work on his body then doctors. My brother has a combination of both.

HW#18

Thanksgiving is pretty much a big deal for me and my family we actually have a family football game. We play every morning on thanksgiving and we play for about 2-3 hours. Its more of the body centered part of our culture. We usaully fight about who is the fastest, or who can throw the farthest, or who can cath the football the best. What people dont realize is that football is actually more anti body as it is body centered because to actually be good at your position you have to outsmart the quarterback or outsmart the wide reciever or the defender. For example the defender tries to get an interception by reading the eyes of the quarterback and sees where the quarterback wants to throw and then they react to it.

The man in my family actually watch football before, during, and after the dinner while the woman in my family talk about what is going on in their lives. Its always been like that and nothing really changed ever since I've been born. What effected my thanksgiving is that my grandfather wasnt their because he died 3 years ago and that actually effected our thanksgiving because my grandma came to my house without him for the 3rd staright year. Thanksgiving is a holiday that we come together and dealing with death on a day that our family comes together isnt really fun to deal with. Also my dad got rotator cuff surery so he needs help doing things and needed help getting food becuase he strrugles to move his arm in certain ways and if he is touched on his shoulder in a certain way

After eating the food everyone was satisfied and enjoyed the food. Everyone actually looked a lot tired and they looked like they wanted to rest after they ate. My mom cooking was a big deal becuase when ever thanksgiving roles around she needs the house to be cleared and needs everyone to say in one spot becuase she doesnt like people moving around in our kitchen becuase she takes cooking the food very seriously. taht is the body centered part of our culture.

HW#17

I have dealt with illness and death in my family. One is my grandmother she is really ill she is really old and suffers from dementia and she also has insane panic attacks my grandmother has about 8 children including my mother and they all suffer a lot taking turns taking care of her and also taking turns staying over at her house. I've seen every single one of my aunts and uncles cry and they deal with the whole situation in different ways and this is why I find this unit to be really interesting and I have a feeling Andy will talk about how different people have different ways with dealing with death and illness. I haven't really been taught how to see illness and dying when i was really young my parents never really taught me how to see illness or dying I just knew what it was and how to deal with it. I saw a book about death and how to properly teach your kids about the death process and some of the experiences kids have with death and what they think about where the person or the animal goes after it dies and it just really interesting to see the thoughts other people have about the situation.

I guess you can that people dying in my culture is a big thing but i am only talking about the people i know and the people my family I really speak for every body in my culture. When my grandfather died in Puerto Rico everyone came every single person he knew or met once it didn't matter people respect the dead. Even when your sick any body who knows you would come visit. My family thinks of death as letting go they never really hold it in or take it really hard because they know its life and every one dies. The feel i really hard the day or and the funeral but they try not to keep it in for a long time. 

I would really like to know how other people think about death and illness and how other cultures think about it and I would want to know what they would do when a family member dies or they become seriously ill. I have a feeling this unit is going to be a good unit because I'm really interested about dying and interested in how people changed because of the death or a leader or president of a country and how their whole entire government and or country changed.

HW# 12

Thesis: Sustainable and humane alternatives to nightmarish dominant social practices in our culture fail the tests of scalability, achievability, and/or desirability. 


Major Claim: When you try to stop nightmarish social practices it doesn't pass the achievability and it doesn't pass the test and usually a failure


Supporting Claim #1: Despite the fact their are many organic foods there are still more people buying fast food 
Evidence: Fast Food Nation 
Evidence: Expansion of Fast Food Companies 
Evidence: Diabetes and other diseases created by food 


Supporting Claim #2: The food movement is gaining a lot of attention from the government and the press


Evidence: Kevin's Law 
Evidence: Slaughter House owners also are connected to FDA
Evidence: Worker from Monsanto incident


www.opencongress.org/bill/109-h3160/show
Fast Food Nation Book 
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Goliath_and_David:_Monsanto's_Legal_Battles_against_Farmers
www.diabetes.org › Diabetes Basics

HW #10

The movie talks about the united states and its act of food, the slaughter houses that give out contaminated meat and how the government and the people who are suppose to protect us from being sick from contaminated meat are also involved with the slaughter houses and the meat packing industry. We shouldn't allow them to do this to our country its like they have as much power as the government and they are continuing to gain more power. There was a woman who had her son die from tainted beef and she fought just so the meat packing industry and that slaughter house can just say sorry and just make their company cleaning. The slaughter house kept selling that same tainted beef for 15 more days. They didn't recall it for 15 days that's not fair to her and for her family and also every else's family who got sick.

I found that the book gave more information and if you really needed to get good information the book is the way to go but if you want to make an impact and show it the movie shows the meat packing industry and the slaughter houses very well. They show how they cut and kill the animals in the book all you get is details and you really don't get sick and crazy over the slaughter houses. When you see the movie you really get into it and want to actually do something about it and want to fight against it. the book gives more detail then the movie but the movie catchs your eye with the things they show and the statistics they give you. If your writing a paper the book is the way to go.

I dont really feel disgusted about the slaughter houses as other people were but i really think they have to do something about it they talked about all the chemicals they use to clean the meat and they arent healthy to us at all and eveyone buys their meat. Their was a part with a chicken farmer and they cleaned the meat with chlorine which isnt as bad as the chemicals they use for the meat in the slaughter houses that made me feel a lot different on eating meat. There was also a test on how much bacteria get on the meat outside in fresh air then inside a slaughter house and the meat outside only get around 140 different kinds of bacteria when the slaughter house get about 1000 different kinds of bacteria the way it is is pretty disgusting.

HW# 7d

Chapter 9

There are many dangers in eating fast food that the fast food company never talk about that should be talked about and that are the chances of getting an illness from eating the food the chance of them getting mad cow disease or suffering from an illness called E Coli which killed many children at one point. It comes from not properly feeding the cattle of not properly cutting and cleaning the actually cattle. During the 1990s the federal government purchased the meat that went to school and they were a lot less better then the ones that were given to the people in the fast food market. That's one of many different things that fast food industries didn't tell people about the really dangers of eating there food. E Coli isn't fun to deal with it can actually eat your stomach and destroy linings in your intestines and you can have violent diarrhea the fast food doesn't warn about this

The whole chapter really made me think about the harm of actually eating fast food and made me think about the whole fast food company and how once something like that happens they decide to hide it somethings because i didnt really know about the whole jack in box situation and how they recalled back hamburgers and i didnt know a lot of things

Chapter 10

McDonalds and other fast food companies expanded around the world and there were record breaking when they first arrived in Saudi Arabia it earned 200,000 dollars on Ramadan, when McDonalds opened in Kuwait there was a drive through line going out 7 miles. Now in Brazil it has become the largest private employer. A promoter Den Fujita said he explains that we are what we eat and he said that if they continue eating McDonalds that they will be taller, have white skin and would grow blond hair.

"In 1986, the Tahiti Tourism Promotion Board ran an ad campaign featuring pristine beaches and the slogan "Sorry, No McDonald's." A decade later, one opened in Papeete, the Tahitian capital, bringing hamburgers and fries to a spot thousands of miles across the Pacific, from the nearest cattle ranches or potato's." a place where they committed in not having a McDonalds ended up with one McDonalds is a powerful industry and it seems like it would do anything to have one everywhere in the world.


Epilogue

 Dale Lasater is a farmer who has experiences in different farms in the united states and he has experience in Argentina where he worked on a farm and he said that Americans are forgetting what real beef tastes like and that in Argentina every cow is grass fed and that beef is sold to expensive restaurants. Fast food industries are not actually putting the real cost of a hamburger and they now have social trends and caused the obesity rate to go up.

"The working conditions in Americas slaughterhouse demonstrates what can happen when employers wield virtually unchecked power over their workers." That quote doesn't sound good at all it seems like the company have so much power that no one from the outside can see and it isn't fair. Earlier in the chapter there was a guy who gave up his whole body for the company and ended up getting fired because he had damaged lungs and he was in the hospital. The meat packing industry doesn't do a good job

Freakonamics

In the movie "Freakonamics" there were many tactics used in the film to explain and to show different ways of examining the world and asking questions that give answers about how everyone in the world thinks and goes through different things. A tactic used was analyzing statistics they used this against the sumo wrestlers that were accused of cheating and was proved that there was cheating because one sumo spoke up against the rest and wanted people to know what was going on. The researchers analyzed the evidence and found out that the underdog in the wrestling match would win 75% of the time because they have more to gain since there opponents had higher records and they were already near the highest rankings. This mad wrestling more entertaining. Using this tactic help proved that the wrestling matches were set up and was a lie.

In the movie there were experiments done they used that as a tactic to prove things. There was an experiment that was on whether a person with a "white" name would get a response on a job application faster then a person with a "black" name. They sent out applications with names like Deshawn for black people and they sent out names like Brad for white people and the study show that people with whiter names get there job application answered and accepted faster then a person with a black name. There was also a experiment done on kids, they would give kids $50 dollars a week or month if they complete a certain academic list of things and if they did that they also got a chance to win $500 dollars also. The study showed that around 5%-7% of the kids grades actually went up.

Evidence was relied on heavily in this movie and there really are a lot of "hidden in plain sight" weirdness going on in the world because sadly there still is a lot of racism going on today and the evidence proved it to me in the movie. Also there was a section in the movie that said that the government "helped" us with the drug problems and the murder problems when actually we helped ourselves in that case and they probably helped us in about 20% of what was going on maybe even less. Our world today is also run by incentives they are every where and i know there are plenty incentives in sports also Alex Rodriguez for the New York Yankees will earn about 20 million dollars if he breaks the home run record with the Yankees. Treats and money is what we actually want and that's what makes us do things.

HW #7

Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation. 


Introduction


Fast food has major impact with America and through the world it expanded and it actually became very popular. In my book I will explain how McDonalds and other major food industries are starting the rule the world in a way. In a way it shows that McDonalds represents America. 


"Hundreds of millions of people buy fast food every day without giving it much thought, unaware of the subtle and not so subtle ramifications of their purchases." 


This book doesn't seem so interesting it seems like it will eventually get boring but it might actually change my thoughts about fast food 


Chapter 1


McDonalds was the first major industry and all other fast food companies starting building their companies around how McDonalds built their company. 


I couldn't find the quote but it was about how people from America went to another country and actually tried to modify the McDonalds so it was more like the ones in the United States.


The book is actually starting to get a lot more interesting and is actually starting to make me want to read the book 


Chapter 2


McDonalds are tyring to reach out to the kids and they are trying to put things into their head so they can buy more food. They are basically brain washing the kid like how mostly every other company does but it makes me think if McDonalds were the first company to start. 


I'm really starting to enjoy the book and is starting to become a really good interesting book to me and i actually like it.


Chapter 3


McDonalds are using different areas of the country to make do experiments and tests to see what will make their McDonalds better they went to Colorado Springs and renovated McDonalds and starting making different things such as restaurant technology and testing out different software. They tested robotic machines that serve soda and foods. 


"At a 1999 conference on foodservice equipment, top American executives from Burger King, McDonalds and Tricon Global restaurants, Inc. appeared together on a panel to discuss labor shortages, employee training, computerization, and the latest kitchen technology"


I found the chapter very interesting when they talked about Colorado Springs and how they had robotic food servers and robotic drink dispensers. The chapter got very boring after that part of the chapter I lost some interest in the book. 


Chapter 4

There are advantages to becoming a business owner or owning a fast food restaurant or chain even though they brainwash the people and take plenty of the money. In businesses you can get federal loans because at first you can be in debt without even selling or opening the store. 


What i found that was very interesting to me was how the former hockey player started his business up and it seemed so easy buying the business and things similar to that but when you read on the chapter its really hard to actually start a business. 


Andy and Jay said something very interesting in class on how McDonalds and other companies use brain washing and use their employees to get more companies. They brain wash kids and i guess since staring a business is hard brain washing and using kids can be a good thing rather then a bad.


Chapter 5


J.R. Simplot is one of the richest men in the world selling his potatoes and his greens to McDonalds he is the third leading giver to McDonalds and other fast food markets. McDonalds make there fries differently then other fast food places they actually put them in 93% beef tallow and it gives the fries different taste. The aroma of food is what makes us eat things and it saves us from being poisoned. McDonalds have a smell that make people want to eat it. 


Its pretty interesting that McDonalds have 3 different suppliers of fries and how aroma is about 90% of how something tastes. 


Chapter 6


Since the growth of McDonalds and fast food markets they are using unfair tactics to lower prices of ranch cattle so they can keep their business going since McDonalds now lowered the amount of places they take beef from. This is now similar to a century ago when the economy was controlled by a corporation alliance called the "trust" they set prices on the cattle. Now the suicide rate of a cattle rancher jumped to 3 times the national average that proves a lot about what is going in the the rancher business and the fast food business.


"The suicide rate among ranchers and cattle farmers in the United States is now about three times higher than the national average." That was an interesting gem and quote that the fast food companies can have a part in what is going on and how hard it is to be a farmer. 


It is very interesting to find out that Hank died when he committed suicide, he seemed like a person that wouldn't do that to himself like a person who would fight back against the fast food companies. 


Chapter 8


The most dangerous jobs in the fast food industry has to be being a factory worker. The workers work in pretty good conditions but they do horrible things to the animals even though it is a slaughter house. They cut the cattle into a half and then they pull of the organs and throw them down a chute. There is also a man who waits every 10 seconds to cut the necks of the cattle and kill them they usually sit around a puddle of blood the whole day. The late night cleaning is mostly done by illegal immigrants and is considered the most dangerous job in the whole plant.


"During the same years when the working conditions at America's meat packing plants became more dangerous- when line speeds increase and illegal immigrants replaced skilled workers- the federal government greatly reduced the enforcement of health and safety laws" 


The cleaning process is actually pretty interesting to me because the manager of the cleaning company had a friend that lost 2 fingers and went in to shock because he forget to turn off the machine he ended up working the next day. Also the way they kill the cattle is pretty hard to see the movie Andy showed us in class friday was pretty hard to see for some people. 

HW #5

Dominant Discourse is basically how people are with eachother depending on there specific position and there specific background. An example is like when im pitching and my catcher and coach are telling me to throw a certain pitch I would listen to them or argue to them that I can throw another pitch that I am confident on they are in the dominant discourse if some one from the stands says throw this pitch then they wouldnt be in the discourse becuase they dont have the authoritity or the specific position to be in the discourse. Food fits in the conversation because many people have different things to say about food and what is healthy, or what tastes good there was a qoute in the New York times that said, “Before we want health, we want taste, we want convenience and we want low cost,” Mr. Balzer said in a New York Times article. He argues that most people care for what tastes good and is cheap instead of what is healthy.

The articles were basically on doctors explaining what is healthy and what is good for someone to eat or not eat it shows that doctors should be visited when it comes to getting information on what is good to eat and what is not good to eat. It seems like obese people are not being asked questions and they are being over looked in the whole food and weight issue. I feel that obese and overweight people should as much say as a doctor or someone from the food industry.


A reasonably informed member of the society would most likely eat healthy and would try to inform them selves of the risks of fat foods and they would check the calories of the back of the labels. She would probably get food from a place with healthy foods and things that are fat free. She thinks of food differently then the people who just go off buying food instead of looking at what those calories and sugars can do to your body. She took the time to look at articles and shows talking about the food problem. 

HW #3

Well there were a couple of similarities and differences in both the green market and McDonalds. They both had plenty of costumers but there was a difference in the age group in McDonalds there were a lot more younger people then there were in the green market. Both places have different variety of foods but in the green market there were a lot more healthier foods, there were a lot more greens and there were a lot more healthier meat such as turkey sausage. The reason why I think that McDonalds was a lot more succussful  then the market was because it had a lot more younger costumers and more costumers that were most likely unaware of the health risks of eating McDonalds. This relates to the discussion we had in class about how younger people eat a lot more unhealthier then older people. There eating habits change.

Honestly the food in the green market was a lot healthier then the food that they sell in McDonalds. I over heard some one who worked with cows in the green market, he talked about how with McDonalds they fatten there cow with hormones and with the cows he uses they dont fatten them with anything and they treat them for different things. In the green market there were also at least 2-4 different areas with fruit and or other greens that were healthy. I think that food is pretty sacred because there were plenty different people who actually brought there business to the green market to give people a taste of there food. There was a guy from Arlington, New York there talking about his beef and there was a guy there who had Wild Arugala. I go to McDonalds way more then I do go to the green market and when I think about that I feel like I should go to the green market I felt that the food there wasnt that bad but it was a lot more expensive.

HW #2

Today we started the food unit. We talked about food and it the way we were talking about it made me think about it a different way. We talked about food being sacred and i think that food is sacred and that it is important everyone has there own favorite meal and many different countries have there own kind of food which makes me think that food is sacred. My favorite meal is something that can fill me up and keeps me satisfied for the day and i think i should be eating a lot more healthy and i should start to spend less money and start to eat a lot healthier. I have many priorities in food they have to taste good and it has to keep me full and it should be cheap so i can save money for other things. Things like pizza or chinese food, or maybe subways are great places to buy food and it satisfiy my priorities.

My typical meal usually fail to meet the desire for my ideal meal. My typical meal usually something my mom cooks that really doesnt satisfy me or doesnt taste as god as my ideal meal and i think that if i would want to get my ideal meal everyday it would satisfy my desire. To me it goes back to is food sacred having a typical meal is pretty much sacred and to me seems like a ritual for me i always have breakfast, lunch, and dinner and that is like a ritual to me and seems very sacred to me.