Eiffel Tower Texas Style

Although you can not see it, in this picture my friends and I are standing under the Eiffel Tower. Not the Eiffel tower in Paris, France as most would think. But the Eiffel tower in Paris, Texas. It is not nearly as tall as the real one in France, but to make up for its lack of height it has a cowboy hat on top. Not many people take summer vacations to Paris, Texas, but I have for the past two summers. My friend Bird moved to San Antonio, Texas a few years ago. She can not come up to visit a lot, she my friends and I planned a surprise visit to her one summer. Me and five other girls drove twenty hours down to her house and arrived there when she was not home. Her brother had taken her out to distract her so that she would not know that we were arriving. We hid under a single blanket on her bed, completely obvious to her that people were under there. When she walked in to her room we jumped out yelling SURPRISE! She had no idea that we were coming at all. On the way home from her house, we stopped for a few days in Paris because to visit with her grandma. It is a very small town but has lots of character, especially because it has its own Eiffel tower. I don't know if I will ever go to the real Paris to see the real Eiffel tower, but if not, at least I can say that I have been to this one.

Barbie Cake

At first glance, this cake just looks like a disgusting mess of frosting and Barbie dolls. But it really was much more than that, carrying on a birthday cake tradition that lasted for a year. This cake never would have been created if it was not for six friends being bored one summer day. It was Lizzie's birthday, and five of us decided to bake her a cake. This lead to the decision that we should all get together whenever one of us had a birthday to surprise the birthday girl with an amazing cake. They started off being shaped and decorated like ladybugs, Ipods, hearts, and other creative designs. But as the school year went on, we all started getting tired of decorating cakes. Which explains the mess of a cake above. The last birthday girl, Olivia, insisted that she absolutely had to get a cake. So we all got together, bought our last box of cake mix, and the adventure began. Cake mix, water, eggs, and oil were mixed together and baked for barely enough time to be called a cake. Vanilla frosting was messily swirled together with pink and purple food coloring. Brains were searched as to what the theme of the cake should be. After we spread the icing on to the still hot cake, someone declared that it reminded them of a Barbie. We raided the house and found old Barbie dolls, sticking their legs into the melted icing and gooey vanilla cake. After a surprise delivery to her house, it was declared the best cake we had ever made.

Auto Pilot

In this article, it discusses how humans are on "auto pilot" for nearly half the time they are awake. This means that instead of being focused on tasks at hand, they are looking into their own thoughts. A study was done earlier in the year which displayed how humans interact with the world. One of the ways is called the default network, and it becomes active when not much is going on around someone. When thinking through this network, people tend to plan and worry about the future rather than enjoy the present. In my opinion, I do not think people would think like this as much if society was not pressuring them into it. Thinking back on the past fourteen and a half years of school I have gone through, it seems to be the major area of my life where I have been taught to think only of the future. Every year we are told that what we are doing is preparing us for the next year of school. When questioned about something, teachers have always used the excuse that, "We are preparing you for next year." I understand that it is important to be prepared, but I think that society has placed too much importance on it. If we are always preparing for the future, we are never really living. Studies have also shown that this mind wandering does not make people happy. All the depression seen today starts to make sense when you hear these statistics. Our society has become so focused on being the best and being perfect that it has become impossible to not think of what will come next. I think that everyone should try and relax and wait for the surprises the future has in store instead of constantly worrying and planning ahead.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/your-brain-work/201011/new-study-shows-humans-are-auto-pilot-nearly-half-the-time

Isabelle Caro

A few days ago one of my friends was talking about a model who had recently died from anorexia. She said that she was only 59 pounds when she passed away, and I honestly did not believe her at first. I thought it must have just been a rumor she had heard- I did not actually think it was possible for a twenty-eight year old to be 59 pounds. But as I was searching for an article today, I came across the story of Isabelle Caro. Her recent death caused by anorexia is entirely true. Caro began struggling with an eating disorder when she was thirteen years old, and it continued up until her death. I learned that in her late stages of anorexia she began posing for posters that read "No Anorexia." She knew that she was entirely too thin, stating that she was the opposite of what beauty should be. The controversy of these photos arises because they were un-knowingly taken and posted on pro-anorexia websites. Critics argue that the pictures of Caro only made people with eating disorders strive to be as thin as her. On the other hand, Isabelle Caro and her photographer argue that the photos actually helped people with eating disorders to see how dangerous it can get. I looked up the pictures myself, and was absolutely horrified. She literally looks like a skeleton with skin hanging off of her. I have no idea how she survived so long looking like that, or how she did not reverse her anorexia when she realized she was slowly killing herself.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/you-must-be-hungry/201101/the-death-the-little-girl-who-didnt-want-get-fat

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