Blog 15

What if there were aliens? If there were aliens it would prove so many unexplained phenomenon that people can’t find an answer to why that happened. Like crop circles I’m a dead believer that those are really maps for the aliens just like they are in the movies Signs. After that movie it really got me thinking about what would ever happened if aliens ever came down to Earth would they be hostile and kill human kind, or would they study our behavior and they way we do things like we do with animals and things we don’t ever understand. I have always questioned if there were aliens and to come to think of it there has to be other living species out in space because if Earth has oxygen and water that helps sustain life than other planets have to be able to sustain life just like Earth does. If the aliens were hostile how would we survive that? Would we be smarter than to know how to defeat them if they ever become a major threat to us? Hopefully if aliens do exist and decide to come to Earth and fight and kill us I would like to be able to hide myself and be able to survive during the whole catastrophe. I do sort a have a feeling that if there were aliens maybe they are smarter than us and are willing to be peaceful and not hurt us just like in the move E.T. In that movie even though the alien didn’t come off to be really smart at least it was nice and willing to be peaceful and be our friends. That is what I think aliens should be like if they should ever come to visit our planet if they exist.

Blog 14

What if no one ever studied? If no one ever had to study it would make my life less stressful. Studying is the most stressful thing ever and the most boring thing to do. When students have to study their not really absorbing as much information as they should be because of the fact when a person sits and looks over notes and books they might start thinking about what they could be doing instead of that. I know I do and then after I get done looking over it I’m like wow what did I actually read? I always go into a daze when I’m reading something that isn’t fascinating to me, or if it is something I already learned and got it down. The only downside to not studying is that the people are to fail that subject because studying not their favorite thing to do. Studying takes so much time out of a student’s life. When college student are going for full time it is literally a job to go to class and then having to study. Because I feel like my job is studying except I don’t make money. I think we should make money for all the studying us college students do because half the teachers can’t teach or that students don’t learn from a teachers teaching strategy. I feel lucky that so far my teachers I understand their teaching methods and can learn from them and then what I don’t understand one day I get during my studying. Still if studying never existed I could watch T.V., sleep in, have more of a social life, and more me time. Studying would allow me not to have any zits and loss of sleep because studying takes all my sleep away.

Blog 13

What if you could travel back in time? If we could travel back in time everyone would try and change their regrets they have made, or the things they thought that could change the future for the better mainly for that person. I know I would like to travel back in time to change some of my mistakes that I had have made in the past, but I know that now that those mistakes would have changed the person who I am today. I wouldn’t want to change the person I was just by changing one mistake that I made. For those you are crazy about history and wants to travel back in time to see the way history was made. I know I would like to go back in time and see how the medieval times were like and to see how they lived. A lot of people would use the time travel to their advantage and use it wrong because maybe just stepping on a flower could destroy the future you originally had? Or just talking to a person because it is true that just being kind or speaking to someone even if it is a compliment or something rude could maybe change everything you had in the life you had. I know if I could ever time travel I would be extra paranoid just in case I stepped on anything or talked to anyone that could change my future. Even though I don’t have the perfect life I like it just the way it is, and I would be devastated if I messed it up by just stepping on a stupid flower that didn’t mean anything. So sometimes I believe that traveling back in time shouldn’t be thought, but it does have its benefits.

Blog 12

What if sports were dropped in schools? If sports were dropped in school kids will be doing things they shouldn’t like drugs or getting into trouble. Sports help develop teamwork and sportsmanship in kids. Team work is really important not just in sports but in jobs too and without learning how to work as a team could hurt the person in the future when they are getting a job. It is better to learn teamwork in a sport as kids because it is easy to learn then to try and learn as an adult. Sports also give children a boost in character building and preparing the children for student leadership. Having leadership skills is very important because it helps in everyday life and when it comes into getting a job. In sports the players use leadership skills into helping their team to win and the way that they do this by stepping up and telling their team how the best way to do things help achieve a goal or a score that brings them that much closer into winning the game. Learning these skills at an early age helps children take the skills with them as they get older. Learning leadership is a hard skill to master at an older age mainly everything is harder to learn as an adult because adults have their personality that allows them not to learn new skills just like you can’t teach an old dog a new trick. The love of sports developed in children will remain with them when they get older. With them having a love for sports will allow them to be more fit as they get older and also help them as teenagers to help them tone the muscles that they develop the playing the sport they are in. Sports is also a good way to get kids involved and to make new friends.

Blog 11

Maybe homework is a good thing even when students dread the very word. When I was in elementary school I use to do my homework as soon as I got home from school, and in high school I used to do it at the bus stop, on the bus, and before class started. Then when I had math class my teacher would assign us homework, but wouldn’t check until after we had finished a chapter and I would save all my homework till then and do it all. I found out that doing the homework actually helps you get ready for tests and actually allows more practice for you to do before the test. Even though I still leave my homework till the last minute I have gotten better at doing the homework a couple days before the homework is do instead of doing it five minutes to an hour before class.
I think the reason many of us hate homework is because we would rather watch T.V., play video games, play outside, or hang with our friends and have a good time from going to school and listening to teachers and actually using a brain to do mental work. Who wants to use their brain after class is over, I know I don’t, but I have to learn how to do the school work in order to go on to a different class or to graduate. I know in the end it will be worth doing the homework even though it can be nerve racking, but I’m going to have to master if I want to have a job that I like and that pays me good money. Since I have now realized how awesome homework really helps me to pass my classes, I just have to pass down this great wisdom to my brother since he doesn’t want to do his homework or understands why he has to do it.

Blog 10

What if there was no such thing as diseases of any kind? I know if diseases didn’t exist no one would be worrying or being scared for losing someone to a disease that could cause someone to die. I know if my brother didn’t have cancer him and me could still have fist fights and everything, but since he is fragile and weak from being sick we can’t have our annual fist fights anymore which I miss. I guess it’s a big sibling thing to fight with the younger ones. If my great-grandmother didn’t die of emphysema she could have seen my great achievements in my life, and I could also have spent more time with her.
If we didn’t have diseases we would have a larger birth rate than death rate than we already do. People could live to be a hundred or so and that would be the average death age instead of the average death age being around the 80’s. Having no diseases I wonder what would have happened in life in Europe during the plaques since there wouldn’t have been any diseases in the world at that time. If kids didn’t get sick and miss school they could be better at the things they missed out learning while they were at home sick and trying to get better. I know I always wondered what would have happened if I went to school instead of lying on the couch trying to get better and feeling sick. I also know my brother would have learned much more if he could go to school instead of being at the hospital and having doctors examining him. We would also not have to have shots to prevent being sick like flu shots and the chicken pox shot especially for someone who hates shots would be glad not to have any shots any more.

Event 3

I attended an outside event on campus in Mitchell Hall to see a book reading by Elizabeth Spencer. She was born and raised in Carroll County, Mississippi. She started telling stories at the age of 6. She is the author of a dozen works of fiction, and she has been awarded the 2001 Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement by the Fellowship of Southern Writers and five O. Henry Awards. She is also a founding member of the fellowship of the Southern Writers and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She read from two books the Landscapes of the Heart and The Southern Woman. The Landscapes of the Heart was a nonfiction book about her life. She read from a chapter of her life that had included Memphis, TN, which she thought it was appropriate since she was in Memphis at the time giving the book reading.
I really liked the part where she talks about small towns because as she was reading a section where she was talking on how in a small town everyone knows your business. I was thinking that is so right because I live in a county were everyone knows everyone’s scandals and secrets. She was reading that everyone had to dress a certain way around this one woman that was friends with her grandmother, and the way you dressed represented your reputation around her and how she would look at you. This woman took trips to Memphis to go shopping which everyone would do every once in a while just to go major shopping. She would only take the people closest to her, and Elizabeth Spencer was one who went on shopping trips with her. As she was reading I could picture the scenes especially since she used a lot of descriptive words about the people and scenery. I enjoyed this event because her style of writing and what I have heard from a section of her book seems like something I would read. Just from going to this event I want to buy her books and read them.

Blog 9

What if music didn’t exist? Well if music didn’t exist than some couldn’t have the IQ’s they have now because it is heard that music helps the brain develop, and it also helps kids do better in math and reading. Music also helps bring peace to some, and it helps let people express themselves with their different genres with their different moods. It seems to me that music helps produce our personality most of the time because you can see that most the people who are hard core gothic listen to depressing music, and those who have a happy and upbeat personality listen to upbeat music that fits their personality. Just think without music we couldn’t express our emotions through it, but taking their emotions out on the person who is closest to them even when they don’t mean to.
Music also is used in movies to help create thriller scenes, and when you know something is going to happen just to build up the tension. Music help set up the scene for sad things to happen which brings more people to tear up or feel more for what is happening in the movie. Movies are almost filled with music there might be a few spots that there isn’t, but music is what helps movie bring emotion and life to it.
Like I said earlier that music helps math, reading, and science scores to go up is because kids have to read music and this helps the neurons in the brain of students to help them read and language. This is because the hemispheres of the brain overlap and since they overlap there is no doubt that it would help the other areas of the brain to improve skills. I know for a fact after reading music and playing the flute, I have improved my reading, math, and language skills.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat was about different stories of how the brain affected a person especially like amnesia, and of frontal lobes of the brain that are damaged and cause problems for the patients. This book gave me insight of how diseases can occur just from a simple damage to the brain. It makes me feel sympathy for the people I read about just because of their stories, and how some had a normal life and then suddenly their life changes just from a seizure. It makes me wonder if I ever had a seizure could I cause damage to my brain.
Some of the stories that I read about the people having amnesia reminded me of a time where I meet an old lady who couldn’t remember if she meet me before. She would just keep telling me the same thing over and over ever few minutes. Even though I kept telling her the same answer I always wonder what could cause her to do that, and after reading this book it gave me more insight on how it happens and more importantly it describes what causes and where in the brain it affects.
The book was so descriptive probably because no one is that familiar with medical analysis. I like how it told not just of the person and their disease, but what could cause it and all the steps and it speaks in simple terms that anyone can understand. Unlike other science books that talk about patient diseases, this book caught my attention a dragged me into the stories the author was talking about. I like when books have that extra thing that pulls you in and makes you not want to put the book down.

Blog 8

What if Tennessee had a month of darkness like Alaska has? Tennessee having thirty nights of darkness would make me hibernate and sleep more than I do now. Even though there isn’t that many people that live in Alaska, most of the people who do leave when they have the month of darkness. The reason for that is because people get depressed. I would also imagine that people’s electric bill is also high because of some much electric being used during the day. I would be shocked to know what the whole state average electric bill would be since there is more people in Tennessee than there is in Alaska. I would also think more people in Tennessee would be more depressed because people in Tennessee never experienced thirty nights of darkness before.
I wonder what people in Tennessee would do during the day while it is dark because there are a lot of things that people can’t do in the dark that they can do in the day. Would still be dangerous for kids too to be out during the day of the darkness like it is on a normal night? Even though people do get robbed during the day I bet it would be worst since it would be dark and nobody would be able to see them. I realize I might not survive the darkness if it ever could happen because I wouldn’t want to go outside when I cannot see anything lurking around the corners. Not just Alaska goes through a month of darkness because there are other countries in the very north near the Arctic that go through a couple of months of darkness. Personally I would like to know how people can go that long in total darkness and just have the moon to illuminate the ground.

Periodic Table Reflection

The Periodic Table was written by Pimo Levi. Primo Levi lived in Italy in this book he tells about some of his life by using chemical elements to help describe that part of that life or the chemical element he was working with during that period of his life. Each chapter of this book was named a chemical element which at first confused me, but I soon realized as I read that each element meant something in each of his little tales of his life.
The Periodic Table reminded me of my chemistry lab when I read the sections where he was working in the lab either titrating or diluting I thought about when I did that for an experiment in one of my labs. Primo Levi had very interesting jobs during his life. When he was trying to help this guy with his lipstick company by making alloxan, I couldn’t believe that it was made out of either chicken or python manure, and that he had to collect it fresh in person at these chicken coops. While I was reading it the smell of manure suddenly came to me because of all the chicken houses I live by.
This book had a lot of detail describing the things he did and when he was working in the laboratory. It almost seemed as though I was climbing the mountains with him or in the laboratory trying to isolate a chemical element. The way he described how he got caught rebelling against the Fascist, I felt I was sitting in the room with him by the furnace. I was also surprised that he told the Germans that he was a Jew.
I didn’t like some chapters when it went away from his life and started talking about different people because I zoned out during those pages and asking myself what that was about.
Overall though I did like the book it fascinated me to keep on reading even though there were some part I didn’t understand totally like the first chapter and all the Latin terms. Even though I got what he was meaning with the chemical element argon.

blog 7

What if there was no summer? If there was no summer I would be devastated. That would mean school all year round because it would go from spring straight to fall. I would need a long break in between spring and fall just to give my brain a nice break because I know that just taking finals my brain turns to mush and it can’t function any more. If there wasn’t no summer that would mean no lying in the sun and soaking up the warmth, or going swimming. Swimming outside is the best when you go with friends or with family. I also get to wear shorts which you can’t wear in the fall because it’s too chilly for shorts. You also get to wear tank tops and there so cute. Swimming is just relaxing especially if you had a long day of doing hard labor. In the summer is when a lot of people just get to go on vacations and go camping. Camping is so much fun because you can go fishing which you can’t do unless its summer out because I know I don’t want to go fishing out in the cold it would ruin the fun for me. There are also a lot of summer sports like horseshoes, soccer, and baseball. We all can’t forget about NASCAR even though I don’t watch it it’s still a big sport to watch during the summer time. In the summer people can throw bun fires and toast marshmallows which are so good. So if there wasn’t any summer and only the three seasons no one could have all these fun things to do to rest the brain before going back to school. Resting the brain is always a good thing when having fun in the sun.

Blog 6

What if I won the lottery? If I won the lottery I would still be frugal about what I buy because I wouldn’t want to spend it on stupid things like some people do when they get so much money in their hands. I would buy my mom a better house to live in, and then I would use some of it to pay of school loans. Those would be the only big things I would use the lottery money for. I would rather work and save money to help send my future children to college, or any awesome school that could give them a good education. Working gives me independence, and plus I like working. Even though winning the lottery might make me think I can buy anything I want but I can’t because I would be too scared that I could use the money for some kind of emergency instead. It would be so nice to buy my mom a better house and take care of her like she has taken care of me. I know that winning the lottery is a long shot but I could do so much good with it like donating money to organizations that could buy food for children who are starving or that could help find a cure to diseases. If I had the lottery money and worked I could have an awesome retirement because with today’s economy I might not have much money anyways to have a good retirement and I might have to work until the day I die which is sad to think. There are so many benefits to winning the lottery as long as it doesn’t change the person for the worst. I don’t think I would change if I was handed a large sum of money.

outside event 2

I attended an outside event on February 28, 2010 at Overton Park for a free guided hike through Old Forest Trail the nature hike guide’s name was Naomi Van Tol. Naomi is on the board of Citizens to Preserve Overton Park. Naomi only volunteers her time for the park and helps to preserve what is left of Overton Park.
Before we began the hike Naomi told us what she does and how important it is that we preserve the forest as much as possible. She told us that the Memphis Zoo has 17 acres of the forest that they don’t really need because the can expand the other direction. She also told us some other things, but I was busy taking in scenery because even though the leaves are bare it was still pretty to look at. As I was looking at the crumpled leaves and bare barky tree trunks, she announced she was going to start the hike.
When Naomi started the hike, she started pointing things out and telling us about things like the trails were used for horse carriages and the stone bridges were made in the 1930’s. She also pointed out English ivy and it looked like the trees were wearing it like clothes. She had said that English Ivy sucks the nutrients from the trees and if it grows over the trees it could kill the tree eventually. Naomi pointed out poison ivy which I never knew could grow on trees like vines and the leaves look like whiskers.
There were other things she pointed out that fascinated me like the different fungus that grows on the trees and the nonnative plants that are not harmful and some that were harmful to the other plants that lived there. I didn’t know I could learn so much just walking on a dirt path through the forests.

Blog 5

What if we had a communist government?
If we had a communist government, we have so many people put in jail because so many people are so liberal. Nobody would be able to have someone tell them how much they could have or what they could buy. The communist government couldn’t last in Russia because nobody could handle having a limit on buying stuff and having a job given to them when they are born. If the U.S. becomes a Communist country the world would come to an end. Just because the United States is the big brother in the world and all the other countries look up to the to us even though we have economic issues once in a while. The government would also be able to control everything and own everything. People wouldn’t be able do nothing just go to a crummy job, and come back to their house and spend time with their family. Communism also took away the different classes like the rich, middle, and poor. Which is a good thing in a way I mean everyone could be equal, but without the different social classes it wouldn’t be able to balance things out. Even though we have countries to help to demolish the communist states that every decide to have that government the countries that do decide to go that way with their government will eventually fall and crumple or collapse. If the United States did ever decide to choose a communist government today there would be war with the other countries that promised never to let another communist government rise. I would rather have the freedom, the choices to help pick the leaders of the country, and the rights of other things we have today than be in war or have all my freedom, and opinions token away from me.

Blog 4

What if there weren’t any cell phones? Cell phones provide a way of communicating just like any other type of phones. They help when your car breaks down and you need a tow or when a person needs to call for ride. Cell phones help keep parents keep in touch with their children when the children go out with their friends and there isn’t any phones available. They help when people are in danger and in need of assistance. Without cell phones parents would constantly worry about their children wondering if they are safe and unharmed. Some parents that have medical conditions that when worrying and scared it could be harmful for them so cell phones could really just help keep the parents medical conditions ok. When people are stuck on the side of the road without any way of getting assistance it could be dangerous because there could be creeps that pull over and help them and if they decided to do harm to the person stuck the person wouldn’t be able to get any help from anyone not even the police.
With the cell phones today kids can prove they say where they truly are because phones can take photos and videos and the kids can just send that to their parents. Doctors who are on call can go and do errands without having to sit at home and wait for the phone to ring to tell them that they are needed in the emergency room, or operating room. The doctors can go about their day as if they don’t have to work as long as they have their cell phones when an emergency does occur. When a car accident happens and someone has to go get help immediately before the person dies it is easier and faster when there is a cell phone.
So cell phones help in many ways and even though some people are glued to their cell phone doing nothing important they can still have it in emergencies. People never know when an emergency can occur or when parents need to call their children. That is why cell phones exist and are needed in everyday society.

Blog 3

What if there weren’t any fictional books? Fictional books are great way for many young children to develop imagination, and also for adults to escape reality and forget all their main worries that they have for a couple of hours. By taking away the main source of imagination is a horrible thing to do to anyone because imagination can brighten someone’s day, or makes the possibilities of the future. Imagination helps people think outside the box and makes people more creative. It also helps people interpret things and helps to make sense what it things really mean or really anything. Fictional books do a lot for the human mind. It helps build a person’s vocabulary when they read because when you read you come across words you have never seen before and it helps you understand how to use the word. Since fictional books are more popular than nonfiction there is a bigger chance that that’s where everyone learns new words. It is also said that reading can help you write better, but I read a lot of fictional books and I can’t write that well. Fictional books do so much for the human brain. The imagination is still the number one thing that fictional books can give. I couldn’t imagine a world without them. Fictional books have been around every since a person thought about writing down their thoughts and their imagination for someone else to read. So really we have those people to thank for, for giving us a world of unknown creatures, people, and places. That is why if fictional books weren’t invented today we wouldn’t have the imagination or creative to do things or a world to escape to when ours is too much to handle.

Reflection essay

The Hot Zone
The Hot Zone was a terrifying story about diseases that weren’t curable, and could kill a person in a week or so. The book has a great effect on me. It reminds me of the true events of diseases that happened in England with the plague killing everyone. It makes me think that if it could happen there it can happen here real easy, and it makes me scared that I could come down with a disease a die from something that I wouldn’t know about until it is too late.
The text reminds me of some Stephen King books I have read because they don’t end with a nice ending they seem to keep on going, and the only difference is that one is true and the other is fiction. The way the author wrote this book made me feel as if it was a fictional story of the dangerous disease. It had so much tension or thriller point where somebody could have the disease but didn’t.
Imagery was significant because it contributed to the scary effects of the disease. The scenes in the book made me feel as though I was walking through the villages looking at all the really sick people. With these images it made me feel sorrow and remorse for these people’s lives. The parts where they talked about the order of the symptoms and described in so much detail of what happened like the last symptom the bleed out made me see all that blood going everywhere. I couldn’t help but imagine other things as the author described it because I could actually picture patient’s blood pooling out of their mouths. The autopsies were so visional. I could actually imagine the people who died from the Marburg disease have guts made out of pudding and jelly.
This book has made me think about how they author was right that these diseases could easily jump from primate to primate easily since humans are related to primates. The true facts from this book have been such a thriller. The terrifying story has put so much perspective about being safer about diseases.

What if the internet wasn't invented?

What if the internet didn't exist? Well if the internet did not exist then people would not be able to research things or look up things that could help a person in need of homework. The internet is so useful if you didn't have T.V. then you could look up the weather or thenews just from the internet with a few quick keystrokes. Say you don't have a T.V. guide to find out what is on T.V. you could just look it up on the web. The internet also allows people to communicate with people without telephones and those who live far away. With it people can email and instant message each other to keep in touch, and it is so much faster than sending regular mail. People an also shop on the web from their groceries to presents. If someone does not have a car or doesn't have any transportation at all, they could do all their shopping from the web without wastin gas. If we didn't have the internet we could not do half the things we do today partly becasue people rely on the internet so much we wouldn't know what to do without it. the internet is so resourceful people can look up their ancestry and find out exactly where their family originated from without doing so much research at a library. sometimes people can't even find things at the library becuase the library sometimes doesn't have everything a person needs to do thier research from. The web can even help people go to school if they didn't want to sit in a classroom or help them find a job that they wouldn't be able to find in a regular newspaper. So in other word the internet has become very important in the following years. I do not know how people survived without it back twenty to thirty years ago.

What if.. there was a cure for cancer?

What if there was a cure for cancer? Well if there was a cure for cancer a lot of people could be saved from this disease that so many have died from. So many people already have to fight to survive from cancer. Even though doctors can remove the tumors the patients still have to go thru treatments that weakens them and make them feel even sicker than they already are. Some treatments like radiation can cause people to develop other cancers in the body. If my brother could have the cure for cancer he could have a normal teenage life instead of going to chemo treatments, having surgeries, or blood work. Now for the rest of his life he will have to have mris done to make sure the cancer he had will never come back. I know when he was first diagnosed I wasn’t sure if he would live or die because of how big the tumor was in his head and because when they had to do surgery by the stem of his brain. The doctors weren’t sure how it will affect him after the surgery. So if my brother had the cure it could also mean my family be more at ease with his health. I feel inspired for all those who stand and fight and cancer and for those who are survivors because they went through something I can’t imagine going through all the treatments and the surgeries. The cure could help so many live a more normal life and I know there close to coming up with a cure. But they might not find it if people keep cutting down the rain forests because I so believe the cure is out there somewhere in the rainforests. For right now since there isn’t any cure I just hope science and technology gets better where there can be more survivors out there.