What if? (15)

What if we couldn't lie? What would the world be like? It would be one crazy place. =P. Now, even if it's not a big lie, people tell them. People can tell small lies or huge ones. Someone may say when they are late that they are 5 minutes from wherever when they are actually just leaving their house. Kids when they don't want to get in trouble for something they say they didn't do it. These are all lies. They get bigger when someone says they didn't kill someone and they did. Some people get so engulfed in their lies, they can't remember who they told this to and who they told that to. So what would the world be like if we couldn't lie? Would it be a lot harsher than it is now? When someone asks you if they look okay in an outfit and you say yes because you don't want to hurt their feelings, you are telling them a lie. So if we told them the truth, would we still have friends? You don't want to be mean to someone, but then again, you shouldn't want to lie to that person either. Would there be as many criminals on the streets? If they couldn't tell a lie, they would admit to the crime and be put in jail. This would be nice. It's like we would all be like Pinocchio. Well not even like Pinocchio, more like Jim Carey from the movie Liar Liar. Being physically unable to tell a lie. Maybe the world would be a better place? I think it would be good if people didn't lie, but even I have told a small lie. Everyone does it. I think people do it because they want to spare someone's feelings, or they don't want to fully commit to something in case something better comes along. We want everyone to be truthful and honest, but I don't believe the world would ever be this way.

What if? (14)

What if I were a dog? I would be a cute dog. (Only because I think all dogs are cute, especially when they are puppies!) How would I spend my day? Well if I were a house pet, I would hope that I had a family like our dogs do. Our dogs have the life. They don't do anything. They wake up, eat, sleep, play, sleep, wake up, eat, get love, sleep, get more love, and then the days over. They sleep where they want, they play when they want, they eat when they want. I mean that is the life! Their only worry is what they are going to do next. I would be able to play all the time, sleep most of the time, and get all the loving I could ask for. Dogs are a great part of my day, and if I were an animal, that is the animal I would choose to be. They cheer me up whenever I am down, and always make me smile. My dogs have the life! If I were a dog, I would want to be a big dog so I could defend myself. I'd probably want to be a Boxer like Bruno or a Chocolate Lab like Rolo. What if I weren't a dog, but I could be any animal? I don't know what I would choose. I love monkeys. They are so cute, and they play all the time. I also think it would be neat to be a lioness. I mean who doesn't want to be 'Queen' of the Jungle!? Being a Zebra would be cool, but I'd have to run better! If I weren't somewhere warm, I would pick to be a Penguin. They are the cutest animals ever! I definitely wouldn't be able to pick which animal to be, but it would be fun being an animal!

What if? (13)

What if life was like a musical? What if every time we had a great thought, we broke out into song? There are many great musicals such as Grease, The Phantom of the Opera, Fame, Rent, The Wizard of Oz, etc. Many Disney movies are even considered musicals. Movies like The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Tarzan. What if everything we said or learned was from a song? I think it'd be pretty cool as long as we weren't as corny as High School Musical! When we were sad, we could sing a sad song like "Beauty School Dropout" from Grease. When we are in love, we could sing "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" from the Lion King or "Hopelessly Devoted to You" from Grease. We could sing songs like "If I only had a Brain" from the Wizard of Oz when we say something stupid, or "If I only had a heart" when we said something mean. We could come up with songs as we were cooking or cleaning like some songs from Beauty and the Beast. This would make things more interesting and exciting. It would keep our mind going. I love music. It makes me happy, sad, angry, and all sorts of other emotions. Through music, we could show everything. It would be funny to watch if you weren't in it though. Everything could synchronize to our music, and we could break out into dances. The animals could dance with us like on Cinderella or Snow White. That would be pretty cool. It would be pretty neat to see everyone synchronized together and working together to make a great song. =P Musicals are really nice to watch if you like music. I loved Disney movies as a kid, and as I have gotten older, I have loved all the music movies. Even if they are musicals, but have wonderful music in them, I love them. Music is a big part of my life.

What if? (12)

What if there was less time in a day? Everyone says there is not enough time in each day, but what if we had half the amount of time in each day that we have now? If we only had 12 hours to get things done each day, I would be extra tired. But on the other hand, it would give me less time to procrastinate, because I don't have as long to get it done. So if there was less time, would that mean there would be more days? Would there be 14 days now instead of 7? Would daylight savings time still exist? Would we age faster if days went faster? The more you go into this, the more questions come up. If there were less time, I guess the weeks could be longer to account for the lost time of the days. I wouldn't think daylight savings time could still exist since you have less time for the sun to rise and set. I think it would suck if we aged faster. Yes, I want to get on with my life and job, but I don't want to wish it away. I want to live each and every day I have. It would be great to have a family, but I want to do some things before I have to fully grow up and have a family. I know it's all a growing process, but still. Would work days be shorter or would sleeping be shorter? Could we go on less sleep? I enjoy sleeping, but I wish I didn't require so much, so that I could get more accomplished. What if we had more time in each day? Would we get more accomplished, or would we procrastinate more? Some days feel so long that I just want them to end, and if days were longer, what would I do? I think if days were longer, it would just give me more time to procrastinate, which is not a good thing. So which would be better: more hours in a day or less hours in a day?

What if? (11)

What if I didn't go to college? If I didn't go to college, I would have had to go straight into the work force. I would have to get a full time job. I would have to quit my job, because they wouldn't be able to pay me for full time. They need a part time girl. This would make it where they would have to hire someone else and train them. Summer time is really busy for our work, so it would be hard for them to train someone on top of keeping up with all the calls. So it would be a misfortune not only to me, but to them. I would have to find a job that would support me. Unemployment is at an all time high, so finding a job would be really tough. I would only have a high school education, so it would be even tougher to get a job. I would have to start from the bottom and work my way up. I would have to get my own place to live, because I am allowed to live at home until I get a full time job, so once I got one, I would have to move out. I would have to manage my money better than I do now. I'd have to make sure I had money for insurance, phone bill, apartment, gas, food, utilities, and all the other essentials. The hardest part about not going to school would be finding a job that would pay well enough to support myself. It would give me more responsibility, but then again, so does going to school. I actually feel like I am more responsible for taking control of my life and saying that I didn't want to be a bum for the rest of my life. School is essential in molding each and every human being into the person that they want to be. It has definitely molded me into the woman I want to be, and it will continue to shape me.

What if? (10)

What if I knew what to write about? I would probably have a really interesting, thought-provoking blog, but I just don't know what to "What if?". I know the topic is open to anything and everything, but finding something to talk about is difficult. I mean I could say "What if I were president?", but I think that is too generic and boring. I could say "What if I won a million dollars?" or "what if I won the lottery?", but come on people, where is the creativity? If you've written blogs like these, I'm sure they are interesting, but I just don't want to do the same thing. =P. "What if I didn't have to work?" Well the answer to that would be that I would be lazy and broke. That's all I could come up with. I mean I would have more time for school work, but that's not exactly three hundred words. This is a difficult process. "What if I could go straight into the job I want without school?" Well, I doubt anyone would want to be treated by me. Without schooling, I wouldn't know anything about how to work on a human body or treat a human body, so I wouldn't want me working on me! All this time and I still don't know what to write about. I need something that shows creativity. Something that inspires thoughtful remarks. "What if the sky fell?" (inspired by Chicken Little) Well what is exactly in the sky to fall? It seems like just a big giant blue nothingness. I couldn't come up with enough to support a logical thought process. "What if there were no cops?" Would there still be crime? I kind of like that one. I may write something on that! Throwing ideas around has lead me to a decent idea! Maybe thinking inspires creativity?

What if? (9)

In the picture above, the red part hanging from his lip is his skin. He got in a fight with something and that is what happened. Also the blotch is from the fight to. Crazy dog.


What if Bruno wasn't so mischievous? My dog gets into everything. He is so curious about things that he shouldn't even try to mess with, like wasps. He chases them everywhere. Then he'll come in drooling because one stung him in the mouth. Then we have to dope him up on Benadryl. Then the swelling goes down, and he is back to normal. One Sunday I came home to a dog who was gushing blood from his nose and mouth. We jump in the car to get him to the emergency vet. On the way there, my mom is frantically driving while I sat in the back trying to control my dog. Blood is pouring everywhere. It is all over me, my back seat, my window. It just wasn't clotting. I didn't know what was going on. We get to the Emergency vet off Summer Ave, and they take him right back. We sit there for 2 and a half hours, the whole time I am covered in blood thinking that my dog is about to die. They call us back. As we walk back, the doctor says, "would you like to see what came out of your dog?" I'm thinking OH MY GOODNESS! So he takes us back to this kennel that has a huge pile of intestines and bile laying in it. Now I'm thinking, "Where the Heck is my Dog!?" In the kennel next to that, there is Bruno, standing there, SO excited to see us. So now the question is, WHAT is that? Well Bruno ate the insides of something on our land. In the process he cut open his nose and he got a big gash in his jowl from the rib cage. All the blood was partially his blood and partially the blood of the animal that he was trying to regurgitate. SOOOO gross! There are many other stories that I could tell, but the moral of the story is we frequently visit the Vet. I have to take a visit to see him Monday because Bruno got in a fight with something and the picture above shows what happened. He has cuts all in his mouth and the ones on the outside of his mouth. If Bruno was less mischievous, I wouldn't be so broke, but that wouldn't be Bruno. We love him just the way he is. He's now in the "Terrible Two" phase. Crap! =P

What if? (8)

What if everyone was colorblind? Well not necessarily color blind, but what if we didn't see colors, or never knew things were different colors? Many things are influenced by color. Things as simple as a stop light depend on color. Everyone knows the colors red for stop, yellow caution or yield, and green for go. What if we couldn't see the difference? Clearly there would have to be another system set into place. Road signs are also in colors. Red always signals stop; the red stop sign or a red flag in racing means to stop. Yellow always means caution; watch out for workers ahead or yield to oncomers. Green is always go. The blue and white lights of a cop car always signal us to stop, and the red and white lights of the ambulance always tell us to get out of the way. So clearly without colors our roads would be screwed up. At my work we have two agents and we use red and blue to tell the difference between the two. We have a red marker for Mark and a blue marker for Paul. People use yellow highlighters to mark if something is important, and teachers generally grade in red ink so it stands out on the page. Colors are a big part of our world, even with things that aren't really threatening like road conditions are. Things like buying a car, color is a big part of someones decision. When people try to match clothes, color is important. People match nail polish or accessories to the color of their outfit. These things are small, but it is a part of color. We even use color to characterize someones mood; blue being sad, red being mad, and yellow is generally used for happy. What would the world be like without color? It's a good question, but I can only imagine it being like the movie Pleasantville. They had no color. It didn't matter, but once they discovered it, color became everything. Color is a vital part of our everyday life. Without it, who knows how we would do things.

Outside Event #3: Molly Crosby

On April 1st, I attended a reading at Burkes Bookstore. Molly Crosby read from her book Asleep which is about a pandemic from the 1920s and 30s called encephalitis lethargica, the disease that makes you sleepy. She read the prologue from the book which was a story about her grandmother who suffered from this disease. Molly's grandmother spent about 180 of her life asleep. She was sixteen at the time. After she awoke, she stayed pretty weak for a few years, but she later married and had four children. She went on to live a fairly normal life, but other victims did not.

The disease varied in all cases. Some were asleep for a few days, some for a few months or years, and some were never to awake again. Some of the cases even suffered insanity. Mrs. Crosby described some of the cases while everyone sat kind of in a trance listening to her. Everyone seemed enlightened by what she was talking about. It was an intriguing story to hear of her grandmother who suffered from the disease. She talked a lot about her research and then she asked if anyone had questions.

Many people had questions. One question was "How hard was your research?" and she said it was difficult because at the time not many people had written about the story and there weren't many journals that she could get her hands on. She had to get a research grant because of HIPAA laws to be able to look at the Medical Journals. Once she got her research grant she began reading all these files on patients who suffered from this disease. Cases that started from what appeared to be Parkinson's that turned into people sleeping for days upon days. Crosby was inspired by Oliver Sacks and some of his research with the disease and she even spoke about his book The Awakenings. Since his book, there has been a movie made about his encounters with this disease. Molly Crosby's book reading was really interesting to see how science writing and research is difficult. It was really nice to see how everyone interacted with her and questioned what she encountered during her research and her to able to have an answer for every question thrown at her. The questions varied from something little to something more complex, and she could answer it. It was my favorite book reading thus far.

Outside Event 2

To: Wendy Sumner-Winter
From: April Bomprezzi (abomprezzi1010@gmail.com)
Date: March 10, 2010
Outside Event 2: Richard Bausch and Wyatt Prunty

Thursday, March 4th, I attended a reading at Burkes Bookstore. When we got to Burkes, the place was packed. Standing room only and people still flooded in! Richard Bausch was the main reader and he read from his book “Something Is Out There.” Before he read, his daughter played some songs on the guitar. I didn't know any of the songs she sang, and she was hard to understand at times. Many people were in awe of her performance as they sat and stared. Once she was finished, everyone clapped, and Richard Bausch began. He recognized his colleagues and the people who helped put everything together. He was a very laid back guy. He made a joke that 'only he could make a church sermon sound dirty'. Everyone laughed and then he began to read.


The story was titled “Immigration.” It was about a couple named the O'Keefes, Rita and Michael. Michael was an Irish man and Rita was his American wife. They were trying to file for permanent residency in the U.S. since his Visa had expired. The night before their appointment at the I.N.S. Office off Summer Ave, Rita is trying to think of all the things they need and she keeps feeling like they may forget something. Michael tells her to calm down and they'll worry about it in the morning. When Richard Bausch reads Michael's lines, he gives it an Irish accent. It really made the story that much better when he did that. It made you feel like you were in the story. The morning comes around and they wake up fifteen minutes before their appointment, and if they are late, their papers will be void and they will have to go through the whole process again. They argue the whole way to the INS building. Throughout the arguments as Richard reads, you can feel the heat between the two. You can imagine the argument. Everyone listens closely and smiles. They finally make it to the INS building and arrive just seconds before their names are called. They go through the appointment with the inspector prying at every aspect in their lives. Rita gets upset when the woman asks “Do you have any kids?” Michael explains that they were almost in a bad wreck on the way there and that she was pretty shaken up by it. The woman leaves the room and gives the O'Keefes time alone. Michael helped Rita get to feeling better. They would become permanent residents after all. Throughout the story, Richard Bausch gives each character emotion. He does each characters accents. You are able to imagine how the scene is. He describes it perfectly.

After Richard Bausch, Wyatt Prunty reads some of his poems. They were short, but long enough to understand the scene. By the time they were done reading, my legs were exhausted. We leave and many stay to get their books signed. We walk out to the car where we were blocked in. Yippee. We went in Burkes and asked if the Silver Volvo could come move their car, but no one spoke up. Finally, thirty minutes later, an older lady comes out of Burkes and moves her car. Frustrated? Yes. Other than that, I enjoyed the readings. =]

What if...? (7)

What if schooling was year round? Would kids like it? Year round schools go for so long and then they are off for a few weeks. Many systems go 45 days (9 weeks) and then they are off for 15 days (3 weeks). They still get the normal holidays, and spring break. They are not going to school anymore days than usual, they still go 180 days. This system would help with people forgetting stuff during summer. I know I usually forgot the stuff I learned during the summer. This would help try and make that issue better. People argue that 3 weeks or 10 weeks, students will still forget, but I think it would help. Students wouldn't get as lazy during the breaks because they don't really have enough time to get into the lazy groove. It allows parents to schedule vacations better, when other families aren't scheduling their vacations. It would help decrease money spent on childcare since the child will be in the school the majority of the time. Obviously some cons go along with this. It would increase the bills because the utility bills would be continued longer. They would need to have food for the kids for lunch and such. This is something that would need to be voted on by each family to decide if it is a good idea for each area. The students wouldn't like not have their long break, but I think the parents would. It doesn't seem like such a bad idea. It's not like each family goes on a trip for the entire summer. Most families go on vacation for just a few weeks, so this wouldn't put anyone out really. Also, schools have enough budget to spend on the extra bills that would come up with the year round schooling.

What if...? (6)

What if we could go back and change the effects of something? Like we could go back to a day and change the way it turned out. Or maybe we could go back and repeat a day that we really liked? Would people do it? I know they say everything makes you stronger, but how does it make you stronger when it's so hard to comprehend? I would go back to November 8th if I had a choice. I spoke with my uncle that day for the very last time. I didn't know that then, but if I did, I would have tried to say something to change his mind. I would try to say something to make him not do what he did November 9th. I don't know if I'll ever move on from the pain. It has been hard to sleep. I'm always tired, but when I go to bed, I can't get my mind off it all. He was an inspiration. I looked up to everything about him, and now it's like I question it all. I was so much like him. What if I screwed up like he did? I say that I have too much to let go of. I have my family, friends, God, everything. But so did he. He loved his family. He was a Christian. But he still couldn't handle it. It's all tough to handle and comprehend. But I make it through it. So if people could go back, would they? I would want to go back, but I wouldn't want him to be suffering like he was, even though he didn't show it. There are also days I would repeat if I could. The days that seemed like they were so perfect, and you didn't want them to end. Though we can't do either of these things, I know I'm not the only person that wishes we could. Even if we could go back, that doesn't mean we could change the effects of the day and make them better. Everyone has free will that can't be messed with, no matter how hard we may try.

What if...? (5)

What if the world consisted of surrogates? What would it be like? Would it be like the movie Surrogates? In the movie, everyone in the world has a "surrogate", which is an exact copy of themselves that goes out in the world everyday and works while the human stays home. These surrogates can be any way you want them to be. You can change their gender, height, weight, hairstyle, etc. Anything you want can be changed. This allows room for fraud. It would make it hard to trust someone you are talking to you because you don't know if it is actually that person or not. In the movie, there is no crime because the real people never get out of the house. The surrogates are like robots. They feel nothing. The humans feel the pain when they wake up. This would be crazy to live in. Would there be love? Obviously, the humans walked around at one point, but now they never get out. Would we feel nothing anymore? It seems like people would get fat, useless, and just not care. They never go anywhere, and when they do, it's a whole new world for them. It is sort of like they would have to learn to walk again. They would need to learn to with stand on their own out in the real world again. I don't think many people would be able to get back in that groove. Surrogates would make it where if you were shot, you wouldn't die, but in the long run, it just makes us lazier. Not being able to feel anything would also be a downfall. It would be like going blind. You would be so used to having your eyes, and then you lost them. It would be a difficult task to get used to. It would take away the privileges we are used to. =P

Annotated Bibliography #1

Date: February 16, 2010
From: April Bomprezzi (abomprezzi1010@gmail.com)
To: Wendy Sumner-Winter
Annotated Bib #1: Website - http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/355/15/1517
Title: Body of Research – Ownership and Use of Human Tissue

This article talks about Human tissue as property, and it goes into great detail. They argue on “who owns property?” and they support their argument with evidence in court cases. Even though, they never put in a definite this way or that answer, it was a useful article, that will help in researching farther into my paper.
The article says “For better or worse, we have irretrievably entered an age that requires examination of our understanding of the legal rights and relationships in the human body and the human cell.” This statement is a well written one. Everyone is different, and their needs to be a line that separates ownership and donation. If someone donates something, they do not own it anymore. It would be like giving a present to someone and then wanting to take it back, or take credit for how it is used. This article spoke about William Catalona versus Washington University and the debate on whether he could take the tissue, with consent of the donors, to his new job, and the courts ruled in favor of Washington University. Even though the patients had given permission for Catalona to take the tissue, the courts didn't allow it. They said it was property of Washington University. I think this is pretty shady. Catalona was doing the research on the tissue, and he talked with his patients and was given permission to continue the research elsewhere, and he should have been able to do that. What gave Washington State the ownership of the tissue? I understand it was donated to them, but it was donated for research under Dr. Catalona, so it should've stayed that way.

The Hot Zone Reflection

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston is a true story about the Ebola virus strain and the Marburg virus strain. Both of these viruses are deadly strains that originated from monkeys. Scientist originally believed that this virus couldn't jump species, but it did. This is when an outbreak spread all over. The first case talked about in the book is Charles Monet. The virus would get into their system and make them lose complete control of their whole body and they became like robots being run by this unknown thing. They were just the hosts for this terrible creature. This virus ate at their body causing their eyes to turn blood red, their face and body to bruise up, and they lost blood from all orifices of their body. The host became expressionless and could not form the words to communicate with many people. Their body was being taken over and destroyed. Eventually, the body just liquified. It is a highly contagious, level 4 hot agent that replicates at outrageous rates. The deadliest case of Ebola, Ebola Zaire, kills 9 out of 10 people.
Throughout this book, Richard Preston explains the infected, the infectious, and the curers; that being the sick people, the continuing disease and monkeys, and the doctors trying to save these peoples' lives. Everyone has their own stories. Some people, like Charles Monet, were unknown to their neighbors. People couldn't recall what he did, or what he looked like. They knew where he worked, but that was it. He was a quiet man. This kind of upset me. Not one person could talk about Mr. Monet. It was like this man didn't have any family, or anybody who could mourn the loss. I think everyone should have somebody, but he had NObody.
There were other cases in the book, but my favorite story was with the Jaax's. I was hooked. I couldn't stop reading about Nancy, from where she got the job to where she realized there wasn't a whole in her glove. My heart was racing for her. I didn't want her to die and leave her husband and children. I didn't want her to die and leave her life with the man she was madly in love with. When Nancy Jaax originally applied for the job in the level 4 hot agent room, the superior told her “This work is not for a married female. You are either going to neglect your work or neglect your family.”(60) He also made a reference about a secretariat, and Nancy shouted at him, “Well, sir, I am no plow horse!”(61). This entire conversation made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I think it struck me so hard because I want to be a doctor and a mom, and yet I will do all I can do to be just as good as a 'stay at home' mom would be. When I'm at work, I will give it my all, and when I'm at home, I will give it my all. She didn't have to slack off, she was committed. Richard Preston made me feel like I was in that room. I felt like I was sitting at that desk with them.
The next part that I really liked was when she thought she had gotten infected blood on her hand. I could see the fear in her eyes when she noticed the hole in the glove. I could feel the lump in her throat as she felt she was about to lose it all. I could hear her heart pound out of her chest. Then I was able to see the relief run across her whole body and the glove filled up with water because there were no holes in it. He made me feel like I was in the room with her. I was able to imagine everything. I felt like I was apart of the story.
Richard Preston wrote this way throughout the entire book. He took every experience and made it visual. As gory and gruesome as most of the scenes where, it actually helped you envision just HOW dangerous and how deadly these viruses were. In many of the scenes, I was so freaked out that my heart would pound and I could feel my hair stand up. The scenes in the hospital rooms when these people would just bleed out and die. I was in shock. Especially when it talked about the women who were in labor and had the virus and the baby would liquify in the womb and then the mother would bleed out. It is just terrifying to read. The worst part was just knowing in the back of my mind that this is a true story, and that it could come back and get us all. This really scares me.
Overall, I thought the book was interesting. It kept me into it and I wanted to know what happened. Yes, there were parts that I was just like “come on, already” but then it would pick up. This book definitely made it where I would NEVER be able to be an epidemiologist, but I definitely praise the ones who are. I wouldn't be able to deal with all the people who would be trial and error, either it works or they die. Most of them die in your arms. Someone taking their last breath in my arms. I would be in therapy. Most of the book, Richard Preston made me want to read more. I just had to see what happened, even though I couldn't stand to read and envision what had happened to these people and how they were eaten from the inside out by this creature. They felt every single thing it did to them until they became expressionless and died.

What if...? (4)

What if animals could talk? What would they say to us? Would they tell us that we were the crazy ones? To be able to talk to your dogs would be really cool. Now we can only imagine what is going through their heads, but what if they actually talked to us? When me and my parents are playing with our dogs, we give them this "stupid" voice of just what could be going through their minds. What if they were really intelligent and they just laughed at us for being so stupid? It would be a lot easier to train a dog because they could tell you when they needed to go outside. You could teach them how to do tricks easier, because they could communicate back to you. They would be able to tell you when they were hungry, or if they found something important outside. They could tell you that they loved you. This would be really cool. Not just with dogs, but with any animal. Say you were out in the woods and came across an angry bear. You would be able to talk to the bear and try to calm it down. You could tell the bear that you didn't want to harm it. This would be the same with any animal that might try and hurt you because they were worried about their territory and family. We would know when their was an animal in need of food or nutrition. We could know when an animal was being abused. This would be a really neat thing. With someone who was all alone and had a pet, they would have someone to talk to. Everyone needs someone to talk to. This would be useful. Overall, I think it'd be really cool to be able to talk to animals. We could all be like Dr. Dolittle. =P


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Outside Event 1

Thursday I attended Danielle Sellers' reading of her book Bone Key Elegies. This book is a relatively small collection of poems. She began to read. She was a little timid, but she was really nice. She started with one about Christmas. She explained the entire scene in the Keys. You could really envision what she was explaining. She described smells so well that you could just about smell it in the air. Everyone listened. I closed my eyes and could see what she described, and then it was over. She went on to another one. It was about her dad cooking. Again she described the scene so well. She described her dad, who seemed rather unclean, but his cooking seemed like it filled the whole house with delightful smells. She described his silver hair. A man laughs and nods his head. Everyone is enjoying her stories. Then the poem ended. She read through a few more poems. She read one entitled "Manhattan Bodega" for Wendy. At the end, she talked about being "ready to jump." This was a little bit of a shocker. Outside you hear the rain. You can see a few people walking by. Everyone is content with her readings. She goes on to read some of her new poems. She says they are "love poems, well actually anti-love poems." Everyone laughs. We all understand that. She starts with one called "Outburst." She reads and describes the scenes. She says a line "numbers beyond what you can dial." That seems like it would be a long number. =p. When she finishes, she gives credit to the Beastie Boys and their song "Intergalactic" from which the line came from. Wendy likes that. She reads a couple more poems and then she is done. I really liked to listen to her poems. You could really see what she was describing. She made it where you could taste the salt in the air, or smell the food being cooked. You could feel the heat. It is an awesome thing to be able to write like this. It was nice to listen to her stories, but I didn't like how as soon as I would really get into the story and want to know more, it would be over. It was kind of a downer, because she would just describe one scene and then go on to another poem. Other than that, they were really good. Everyone loved the poems, and I would go listen to her again. =]

What if...? (3)

What if the computer was never invented? This thing has changed the way thousands of things operate. Just think about all the things that are run on computers now. Working in an Insurance Agency, everything is in the computer now. You fill everything out online and then it prints it out in a nice handy form and then the customer signs it. It used to be done by hand. You filled out the form on the carbon copy pages and then that was the Evidence of Insurance. Now it's all computerized, and it's a nightmare when the computer is acting up. When you think about it, it seems like we have all gotten lazy, but really it's just the way things are done now and since it goes so much quicker with computers, it takes ages to get anything done by hand. Not only is insurance done with computers, but banking is done with computers. You definitely don't want there to be a mistake with banking. All these things obviously worked before, but it seems that we have become more advanced with the things we do because of computers. But, someone had to think of how to put that formula into the computer and it spit out that number, which is awesome on their part, because I probably wouldn't have been able to do it. Even college would not be as advanced as it is today. Most all of your classes have some online connection. Without that, we wouldn't have things like email, online grading, paperless homework, blogs, etc. ;P. But, the internet helps students do research quickly and efficiently. You can go online and ask a question and immediately get an answer. It is wonderful. So if the computer was never invented where would we be today? Who knows, but I am thankful that we have it. =]

What if...? (2)

What if we didn't have weather changes? What if it was always sunny and warm outside? It wouldn't be too hot or too cold, it'd be perfect. It could have the perfect amount of sun and maybe a spring shower every now and then. It would be awesome to wake up everyday. Usually when it is dark and gloomy outside, no one wants to get out of bed. Everyone wants to stay in bed. Even if you have animals, they want to stay inside. It is plain gross. Then when it snows, it's really fun to play in, but it makes it hard to drive. We don't need anymore complications with driving then we already have. Would this cause issues to not have weather changes? We have tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural disasters. These are usually related to weather or air pressure changing. So if we didn't have those, would there be something else that we would have? The world couldn't just be perfect could it? I don't know the answer to these questions, but it would be cool to see what would happen. Even though we do have weather changes, it's not terrible. Snow is wonderful. When it hits your windshield and you see it's intricate design, you are just in awe. Even rain is crazy. It comes at the weirdest times and it just comes down. The whole process of rain is complex, yet easy to understand, but it is cool to see. The leaves changing is a cool thing. When the weather changes, the leaves change and begin to fall. Then in the spring they begin to grow again. The trees fluff back up into gorgeous visions. All this stuff symbolizes weather. If it didn't change, the birds would never leave and the bears would never hibernate. Trees would never regrow, and they would eventually die off. This would be an issue. This just means it's good to have weather changes. =P

What if...? (1)

What if Tennessee had an earthquake like Haiti recently suffered from? What would we do? Would we be prepared for such a disaster? Tennessee experienced an earthquake with a 7.7 intensity in 1812 which caused minimal damage, only due to the sparse amounts of people in the area. If there was an earthquake now, there would be a lot of people injured and a lot of people homeless. We have a greater population so there is more pressure at the fault line. This causes an issue. Does Tennessee have a disaster plan? I know they have earthquake insurance for your home, but it is so expensive not many people have it. Also, a lot of people are like, "well it doesn't happen often so what's the point in having insurance for it?" This is something to worry about. Yes, it wasn't us this time, it was Haiti, but that doesn't mean it won't be us next time. People need to be aware of what could happen. Not that we need to live in a box, but everyone needs to know, and have some plan of escape. Parents need to let there kids know how to react if something like that happens. It would be something that in that time of shock, you know exactly what to do. The West Tennessee Seismic Safety Commission does a lot of work throughout the schools to raise awareness in kids. They have contests for 5th through 8th graders in drawing the best poster which represents earthquake preparedness. This will strike interests in the children to go home and ask their parents what they would do in a situation like that. Even if it's a small plan, it needs to be made. People need to have a backup plan. You never know what could happen, you just have to stay prepared.