That's what botox is for

This unit or past month or so has probably been my favorite. I really enjoyed the second go around of dorian gray and liked Dr. Faustus. It was a good month in the difficult ap english class of mrs. Burnett;)

Quickly we are to say we wouldn't sell our soul for anything. But I truly doubt that most of us wouldn't, if like Bob Barker used to say, "the price is right".

And furthermore, when I think about it, do we not sell our souls everyday? Not to the extent of Dr. Faustus, but we do undermine our morals and standards for what we want. Anyone who says they don't slip up sometimes is lying. So what is the price to truly sell your soul.

I am reminded of The Fountainhead and how Peter Keating said he would sell his soul for Howard Roark's help on a project. The response of Roark was this:
"To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That's what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul---- would you understand why that's much harder?"

This excellent quote is very telling of humans. We always compromise our beliefs for our wants, even with trivial things in life. And I agree with Roark, it would be way more difficult to not do it.

In trying to figure out what I would sell my soul for, I really struggled. I believe that there is a heaven and he'll and that I will spend eternity, as hard as it is to fathom, in the first of those places. Based on my faith, there is nothing that I can think of that I would trade for if I had to spend all of eternity in hell.

So I tried to think of what others would want or have happen to sell their souls. If I had children and a wife and either I or them had to go to he'll, I would sacrifice myself for them. Just as I would for my family now. It is such a stretch off of the real world that it is hard for me to imagine or think of it even happening.

But I certainly would not do it for 3 wishes or to look young for the rest of my life. Plus, that's what botox is for.

Never Satisfied

Before I or you get into my blog, I would like for you to go to this web link. Check out all the answers because there are some good ones. My personal favorites are the first best one, the mate one, and the one that says" you saying that can disatisfy a woman".
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091021210122AAr66Dw.&lt;/p&gt;<br>
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Alright Mrs. Burnett, so if you are still reading this I assume you didn't punch, kick, or hit your computer. I was just looking for stuff and came across that. In all honesty there are SOME women that are never satisfied. But there are also men like that.

Ex. "Honey, can you pass me the chips". For the 13th time.

Just got a promotion. "Why did Johnson get $3 than me"

The man who constantly complains about how his wife doesn't cut his sandwich in triangles.

So it does go both ways. There are men and women who are never satisfied. And to be completely honest, in some cases that is not a problem. For me personally I wish I wasn't so easy to satisfy in some ways. A great personal example takes place in school. For years my dad has been trying to get me to work out and I've always just blown him off. BECAUSE I was satisfied with my physique or lack there of. I've always been athletic and played sports, but I never got into the whole lifting and strengthening thing. But finally I discovered a course at OAHS called Athletic Conditioning (AC), and decided I am tired of being satisfied with my scrawny body. I started it at the beginning of the second semester and it has changed my attitude towards MYSELF. No longer am I satisfied with being able to bench ____, I want to bench _____(+ more lbs). And you know what, I am happy with not being satisfied, because it will make me stronger. And by the end of the year even though I will be way more in shape and way stronger than I've ever been, I hope I am not satisfied. Because then I will have that motivation to keep lifting. And that's not to say I wont be proud of myself, I will just want more. You're probably wondering how in the world is this kid going to tie in weight lifting to Virginia Wolffe and the whole gender studies thing. So here you go.

If women as a whole were satisfied with their situation from 100, 50, even 25 years ago, men would still be the dominant working people while woman always stayed at home. Just like I am not satisfied and it will make me stronger, women not being satisfied makes them stronger. Since when did fighting for what you believed in become wrong. I gain from not being satisfied, and so do women. Now I don’t think women should go out tomorrow and revolt and say their not satisfied and try and become the dominant gender and opress men, but until true equality is met, I see nothing wrong with not being satisfied.

I am trying hard to understand that kid and where he was coming from. The only thing I might agree with him on is the complaining thing. Maybe it's just the fact that we are coddled and spoiled, but there is a complaining problem with women and men, but mainly teenagers. What I mean is that a kid can't just be satisfied with 3 new video games or sneakers or scarves?, heshe needs another one. But in no way is that just women, it is a young thing in general.

So as we reach the final paragraph of by blog, I hope you were pickin up what I was puttin down. If you are confused by my hodgepodge of rambling here is a summary. There are always those of both gender who will never be satisfied. However not being satisfied with somethings is good and okay, because it can make you or your gender or race stronger and more valued. And btw Virginia was not boring at all. I liked her openness and frankness about her thoughts. She was very blunt and said what she felt, which had to have been hard at the time.

Instilled from Birth

<p>For this months blog I want to talk about stereotypes. From the time we are taught to think, we are taught about certain types of people. These stereotypes are normally subconsciously taught, but they are instilled in us. Though not all are bad. Do not take candy from strangers, because they might abduct you. Well, I'm pretty sure that the neighbor across the street isn't planning on kidnapping you. Even something like do not touch someones dog on a leash because they might have rabies or bite is a taught stereotype. How so you might ask. We then associate all dogs as harmful and dangerous and some people actuality develop an irrational fear of dogs due to being told this. However, I can understand this type of" stereotype" because it is meant to keep us safe. But then we get into the gender stereotypes. A whole different ball game.

It starts out with colors. Boys are supposed to be masculine and like blue, while girls are the little ambassadors for the hue of pink. And it is funny how if a boy wants to wear pink, it is frowned upon and said to be a girl color. But who decided that certain colors belong to certain genders. I mean did Eve trademark pink so that Adam couldn't wear it. Personally, I don't wear pink for several reasons. First and foremost I would be made fun of for wearing it. Second off I would probably receive flak from my parents if I did. I know for a fact that they would say that pink is not a guys color. And third, I probably just wouldn't wear it because it has been beaten into my brain that certain colors are for girls to wear.

Now let's talk about the gender roles. Please do not take offense to anything I say in this paragraph , I am just stating the ways we have been taught to be proper. In a relationship, between a man and a wife, the man is the" provider" of the family. He goes to work in his fancy shmancy suit everyday and brings home the bacon. His wife stays home and takes care of the kids if they are younger. If they are more grown up and in school, she maybe has a job, but probably just cleans and watches General Hospital all day. Or she runs to the supermarket. Then around 4:30 or so she gets started on dinner, so that at 6 when her husband gets home, he doesn't gripe because there's no food on the table. He worked all day, and expects a meal(its not unreasonable for him to want food when he gets home, but I'm just throwing it in there).

But why does it have to be the wife who stays home. It doesn't.  I think that some people are still fixated on the 1950s typical family and expect their wife to be like the one from Leave it to Beaver. Honestly, I was not raised with that. I'm gonna work my ass off so I can provide for my family, but who cares if my wife doesn't stay at home. I would be happy if she had a job just as I, because my family would be better off financially. I guess its not as big of a deal today because most women work, I just wanted to vent my feelings.

Now, as for being a mother, I do not think Edna was a good one. She was irresponsible and imature. And if anyone. If anyone wants to argue with me about that, I have a problem. People in our class tried to say it wasn't irresponsible and that was her only option. I'm sorry, no it wasn't. And then I would ask them how committing suicide and abandoning your kids is responsible. I would wait as they stayed silent, trying to make up and answer, and the conversation would be over. You see I don't really get emotionally attached to the books we read, because afterall the characters are fake. But something just struck me with our seminar. I could not understand how people were siding with Edna. Then people said that she wasn't a good mother anyway, so it wasn't as bad. True, but was it a responsible choice on Ednas part, NO.

Look, I know I kind of went on a litle rant at the end, but I just had to vent my frustration. I think as a country we need to just try to ris ourselves of the stereotypes we have. We all do it, even if it is something little, and the world would be better without it. Try and wipe the Tabula Rasa clear of stereotyping.

In response to previous blog

Mrs. Burnett,
I completely agree with your comment. I do believe that the degradation of women is wrong in any society. I was simply trying to apply the suggestion of the theorist to the book we read. When I suggested that Okonkwo's actions may not have been wrong because it is a different society, I was simply trying to apply the suggested theory of not judging other cultures. On a personal and moral level, I in no way endorse or wish to downplay the actions of Okonkwo. The degradation of women is wrong. There is no way that the battering of women (along with children and anyone else) can be rationalized, in any culture. I think where there may have been a mistake in my prior blog was with the clarification of my suggestion. I was not implying that the degradation by Okonkwo could be justified simply because he is from a different culture. I was just trying to make a literature tie-in to the theory. And as for the article, I believe what I read online was the article you gave us, though I may be mistaken. I simply typed in the title of the packet you gave us and came upon a similar looking pdf. The live abortion thing was a separate site altogether. I am sorry if it may have come across that I was questioning if beating women was immoral. I would like you to know that I whole heartedly believe it is wrong, in any culture. The "line" that you mentioned is truly an issue as well. Please understand the mistake in my prior blog. I know there obviously is a line for judging other cultures. Something simple like eating cows or not is not a big moral issue. But something as cruel as the degradation and abuse of others is not moral, and I don't care where you are from. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

A Change of Place

<p>Happy New Year. </p>
<p>I left my packet for the monthly blog in a classroom, so I read Rachel's" theory" online. I have to say, that was one of the most interesting articles I have ever read. It got me thinking so much. In today's society we, as Americans or whatever group you put yourself in, are so cocky because we believe we are right. We have all the right moral standards, the right government, the right laws, the right etc. But who is to say that we are right and the people in Whereverstan are wrong. They think that their way of life and their society is right. And we have wars over it. Now, I'm not gonna type here and lie to you, I to think we have the better morals, with most things. But seriously, both sides truly believe in their way, and why is one wrong? Can we not just accept that we have different standards? Sure, I think oppressing women is wrong(because that's what my culture taught me), but whose to say it really is. To me it is, but for people in other countries they believe that women shouldn't be allowed to show their faces. When did the USA become the moral standard of the world.

I know this next segment of my blog may cause some anger, but I feel it is a really good societal example. So I was looking into the whole eskimo baby thing and did some google searching. I typed in live birth abortion and came up with this site.
http://mydryfly.wordpress.com/2008/02/21/obama-and-live-birth-abortion/
Copy this into you're URL and take a look. If anyone has the nerve to say that the USA has the greatest of morals, read this. A baby is about to be born, like literally the mother's had the baby for 9 months, and her water breaks and she goes into labor. Then a doctor kills the baby. Are you trying to say that is morally right? They leave it out to die. If someone stabs a pregnant woman, and the baby dies, the person is away in jail for life. But if I happens to be a doctor who kills the baby, it's okay. You know what, I'm not even gonna keep talking about this. If you have not read the article please do. There is stuff all over the web about it, too.

Anyway, back to the article. When reading this I could not stop thinking about Okonkwo from Things Fall Apart. The whole time, most of us including I, criticized him and said he was a bad man, and certainly not a hero. We talked about how wrong he was for the way he treated women. I to stil think he was wrong. But it is a different culture, so accept it. And afterall, it is just a book and it is made up. Now looking back on the book, I less hatred on Okonkwo, because of the article. I felt as if I truly learned something. I think we all need to be less quick to criticize other cultures. We have our way of life and they have theirs. Let's agree to disagree. On more societal connection is dealing with me. My parents wont let me go see R rated movies in theaters, but my friends parents for the most part do not see anything wrong with it. Who is right, no one. They have their views, and my parents have their own.