Extra Credit

I couldn't really find a fan site dedicated to my author, Margaret Atwood, but I found a site about how she was a Canada's Walk of Fame inductee. Atwood explained that she was first encouraged to become a writer because of the praise she got from her English teacher when she was younger. Her English teacher told her that she couldn't understand her poem, so it must be good! Contrary to this comment, one of the main reasons Atwood's work is so much enjoyed is because of its clarity. This article is obviously very biased towards Atwood because it is trying to convince people to vote for her for Canada's Walk of Fame. It praises her work and says that she is one of the finest storytellers in this country. Something that I didn't know that I probably should have is that my book, The Edible Woman, was the first book that Margaret Atwood wrote. It was published in 1969 and was immediately embraced by the public. This website also gives interesting facts about Atwood so that someone will be more likely to vote for her. One of the facts that they give is that her books have been printed in more than 30 languages, including Farsi, Japanese, Turkish, Korrean, Finnish, Korean, Icelandic, and Estonian. By stating this, the group writing the website is trying to show how people from all over the world enjoy her novels. Someone once asked Atwood how she keeps a level head about all her success. Her responce was that it is because she is Canadian. She went on to explain how Canadians have no tolerence for people who let success get to their heads, so she never let that happen to her.

http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/inductee/margaret-atwood

Church Protesting

A few weeks ago in government, we were required to read an article that someone in my class had written as an extra credit assignment. After reading it, I was shocked to see what it was about. Since it interested me so much, I found another article to read more into what was happening. In 2006, Westboro Baptist Church protested at a soldier's funeral claiming that he was dead because of the tolerance America has for gay people. They held signs that said things like "God hates you", "You are going to Hell", and "Thank God for fallen soldiers." First of all, them claiming to be Christians amazes me. They either read the wrong book or are just plain ignorant in the way they interpreted the Bible. The one thing that makes me the angriest is when people like them claim to be Christians. All that it does is make other people think that all Christians are like them, which is entirely not true. The article also discusses how the Supreme Court is going rule this case. The father of the fallen soldier took the matter to court, but charges were dropped against the church in an appellate court. Technically these protesters rights are protected by the first amendment, but the Supreme Court is still deliberating. I agree that according to the Constitution, there should be no case. But I feel like there should be some way around this. I understand that the Supreme Court can't just make exceptions for this one case, because then no one would know where to draw the line for other cases. I just think that in the future, protesters should not be allowed at anyones funeral. It's an emotional time for everyone there, and it is completely unnecessary for anyone to be protesting something so ridiculous. If they really feel the need to share their thoughts with the public, then they can do it somewhere else. It's not even like they targeted a gay soldier, they literally just went to a random soldier's funeral. And now there is talk that they are going to protest at Elizabeth Edwards funeral? Someone needs to stop this, whether it be the Supreme Court or just the general public.

 http://www.appeal-democrat.com/articles/washington-99850-funerals-military.html

Music

The absolute worst question I could ever be asked is, "what types of music do you like?" Whenever that comes out of someone's mouth, I automatically freeze and search desperately within my brain for an answer. The reason for my panicking has exactly to do with what this article talks about. In the article, it discusses how the music someone listens to can very accurately predict what type of personality they have. It makes me nervous that someone could so easily judge me just by hearing my answer to such a simple question. Two years ago, I would actually really have no idea what to say to that question. According to the article, that means I was "simple minded" or an "easy listener." These types of people tend to enjoy anything on the Top 40 that is consistently playing on the radio. Most likely, they're afraid to dive deeper into the music scene and just stick with what everyone else likes. I think it's easy for people to let themselves fall into this category because then there can't be much judgment. No one can see deeper into your personality if you simply like what is supposed to be liked. If you like what songs and artists are popular at the moment, then you must be normal, right? At this point in my life, I've moved on from the cliche answer to the dreaded question, "what types of music do you like?" I've discovered new artists and songs that although most people have never heard of, they seem to fit my taste perfectly. I think that when the article states that music says a lot about someone's personality, it is completely true. Another part that I find interesting is that fans of jazz and classical music have higher than average IQ scores. I've heard that listening to Mozart before taking a test can raise your test scores, so that definitely fits in to what the research from this article has found.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200906/your-music-your-personality