Sunday, February 28, 2010

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.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

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.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

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.