Today my history teacher decided to assign some dumb paper that we have to write on Christopher Columbus. Unhappily after class I trudged to the library in the pouring rain in my sky high spike stilettos and my voluminous hair that I spent an hour on so caringly rolling it into my hot curlers this morning. The four cans of Rave hair spray I used to keep the feather-esque appearance was now beginning to drip and roll down my forehead right into my eyes. I finally made it to the library where I preceded to head towards where the multiple sets of Britannica encyclopedias were kept. I located encyclopedia A-C, yanked it from its position as starting encyclopedias and sat down at the type writer right behind me. Suddenly my beeper went off, it was my friends number and it was urgent. I then had to dig and search my purse for quarters, I found two and left the library pronto and headed toward the nearest pay phone. I called Lisa, short of breath and having a slight panic attack, she answered. What was the big emergency? Madonna was on an MTV interview talking about her new music video and I was missing it! Not the type of emergency I was expecting to hear but an emergency none the less, so I hung up the phone and headed back to my dorm. When I got back I flipped on the television and sat down, then realized it was on the wrong channel, so I had to get back up to go and change the channel on the television. When I finally got to MTV I got up and headed back to the couch. I sat down and picked my Rubik's cube up off the coffee table that I have been working on for the past week and a half and continued twisting and turning the colors hoping I would soon find the correct combination to solve it.

Search for the Skunk Ape

This tutorial was helpful and did give alot of information that is useful when doing a research paper that you would need credible sources for. But I found the format they put it in to be very boring and did not really captivate me or cause me to want to keep going, the only reason I went all the way through was to do this blog. The part of the tutorial that I actually payed attention to were the videos, all of the other slides were alot of information to take in that I will probably not remember when it comes to writing my paper. But I have to say that the topic they used did help some in me not being completely and utterly disinterested.

Shutter Island

The trailer for Shutter Island is a very compelling one, it shows the downward spiral of Eddie (Leonardo Dicaprio) a, Federal Marshal, in his hunt for a missing mentally insane criminal. The flashes of scenes from the movie throughout the film show how Eddie goes from being the good guy there to help find the missing woman and saving all those on the island to the one trying to escape. The music gives the trailer a very on the edge of your seat feel and intensifies the scenes being played. The preview for this movie shows that it will be very thought provoking and keep you confused until the end.

Armageddon

Armageddon is an action packed movie that stars two huge names in movies today, AJ (Ben Afflack) and Harry (Bruce Willis). Part of a rag tag team of hardcore oil drillers that are pulled together to be sent to outer space to drill on a meteor the size of Texas that will annihilate Earth in 18 days. This movie will take you on a thrill ride that is full of laugh out loud characters, tear jerking moments and nail biting scenes. You will want to see this movie over and over again!

No More Privacy

Less Privacy is Good for Us (and You)
Question #2
I think Etzioni shows aspects of privacy that we never really put a lot of thought into or things we have merely over looked. For instance, testing new born babies for HIV, it is something that should be routine in prenatal care that mothers do not want done, so when the baby is tested it is considered infringing on the mothers privacy. I think every new born baby, if the mother was not tested prior delivery, should be tested for HIV and if positive the mother should know and the baby should be treated. In the long run it is for the good of many more people then I think we see now. Also when Etzioni goes onto talk about biometrics I do not think we see how much good it can do for us, I believe we only see the negative side of it all. Biometrics could save our country, which is in a tremendous amount of debt, so much money, there are billions and billions of dollars every single year lost to criminals, who change names and get new aliases and essentially slip under the radar of the government. Biometrics should come into play in situations like this because people can change their names and use different social security numbers all they want but they will never be able to change their voice, hand design, or their eye patterns. This is how we can catch the criminals out there swindling billions of dollars from our nation. Privacy issues are a debate that I do not think will really ever end, I mean what is being too nosey and what is giving too much privacy? There will never be a fine line for us to see when our rights are being crossed. Etzioni goes into the slightest amount of detail about privacy rights but shows us so much.

" My Home"

It is amazing to see how much Immokalee has grown and changed in a little over a century. Indians moved there for the hunting and food, and for the high dry ground where they kept their cattle and farmed. But people began moving there during the wars, and they started raising cattle on top of Gopher Hill, cattle ranching was a huge part of what was and still is Immokalee, the climate alone on top of Gopher Hill due to the fact that it in the highest place on south west Florida, a mere 40 feet or so, it helped the ranchers and the cattle raising. Today the Seminole tribe of Indians is one of the largest cattle companies in the United States. When the Roberts came down to Immokalee at around the turn of the century there was barely a dozen families loving there. The rail road was brought to Immokalee in 1935 and it was a lot of what helped the economy, lumber became a major export .Immokalee is still the heart of agriculture in south west Florida. Immokalee has transformed from a place with tons of hardships to a place that is a haven for people who want acres and acres of wide open spaces.

I think Immokalee is an example of the old American dream, people working hard and starting new lives in new places. In ten years Immokalee will still be a large agriculture and cattle community I think. The population will have grown but not nearly as much as somewhere like Fort Myers will grow, the residents will still be the old Floridians who farm and live off of the agriculture. Cattle and farming will be what pushes Immokalee forward and keeps its economy going, also due to the Seminoles who still live there the casinos and gambling will be something that brings in money to Immokalee.

I grew up in Fort Lauderdale, between Immokalee and there it is such a huge difference. Fort Lauderdale is very populated and over developed. We do not live off what our land provides for us in Fort Lauderdale. There is not much open area for farms to even be built. South Florida alone is more populated and more developed then Immokalee is and more then I think Immokalee ever will be.

A Quilt of a Country: Out of Many, One?

In this essay Quindlen is showing how our country consists of so many different people with all different backgrounds, ethnicities and beliefs. In the first paragraph she states that “Of all the nations in the world, the United States was built in nobody’s image”, essentially saying that there is such a mix of races that America was never and will never be able to be considered as one single body of people, there is such a huge diversity in the inhabitants of this country. The author compares the United States to a crazy quilt, constructed of many bits and pieces of fabric that seem as though they would never work together and would easily clash, much like the Arab cabbies and Jewish passengers. Quindlen refers to these two very different groups of people in paragraph four, the Jewish passenger would not be able to survive without the Arab cabbie and the same thing applies vice a versa but they still continue to bicker with each other about how much they hate the other . She later goes onto explain the America could easily be multiple different countries but we are still able to refer to it as one single body and that to her is what patriotism truly is.

I completely agree with Quindlen in her explanation of America. We have learned of all the terrible things that have happened throughout the history of the United States, but the U.S would not be nearly as strong as it is without these defining events, other nations that have gone through the same tragedies did not endure and move on as this country has. Many countries split up and go separate ways but America has stayed unified and strong. The devastation's of this country have only helped to strengthen and unify the inhabitants more. There is nowhere else in the world that people of different backgrounds, religions, races and customs live together as neighbors and get along at least enough as to not kill one another. That is what makes America unique and distinct amongst others. Patriotism is such a huge part of what unifies every single person in this country, the ability to accept everyone’s differences and still be united as one.