Christopher R
This is not a visit to an unwell person over the break but the time which I visited an unwell person over thanksgiving break.
It could probably be the worse place that anyone would want to visit and have to see someone they love. A nursing home reminds me of a hospital but a couple times worse because when people go to the hospital the idea is people in the hospital get better. When people go to nursing homes the idea is that they have some kind of sickness where they can’t take care of themselves and usually they are elderly so they are close to death anyway. Hospitals can be viewed as a place of protection whereas a nursing home is viewed as a place (very little) hope. Walking through the nursing home to get to your loved one is the worst part of the experience. It feels like a jail, the people are stuck in their rooms with the door open and it’s extremely hard to reframe from looking. Everyone seems so helpless and the way that they stare out the door as people walk by gives off the idea that they don’t want to be there. After viewing all these people being in a very unhealthy state, made me feel like I could become sick aswell by association. It isn’t very often when you see a lot of sick people all at one time. Walking down the halls of the nursing home knowing that more than a few people have died there is also uncomfortable because being around unhealthy people is usually a title given to nurses and doctors.
“Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high” said the woman in the wheel chair that smiled from ear to ear but revealed no teeth. Being surrounded by sick people made me feel as if they were going to die sooner than later. It seemed like they were already dead. The things that people are predominantly able to do such as walk, talk, have “sane thoughts” is what you start to do at young ages so not being able to do this makes it seem like they are less than human. The nursing home was more of a prison of people in very bad circumstances, compared to the hospital where the idea is to go to recover and get treatment. Then after seeing other sick people who are complete strangers I got to see the person who I actually came to visit. You have to watch as they struggle to do things that came naturally before. I couldn’t count the amount of times she said she had recently seen someone who in actuality had been dead for years. There are memories of the person and all the things they use to do, and these are compared to who they are now, unable to take care of themselves and having many physical and mental difference makes you feel helpless.
She was in a wheelchair, unable to move her legs at all; she had a heart condition where she needed to have a peacemaker. Her face became drastically darker, all of her skin under her neck became tough, she wasn’t able to eat and sleep. In fact at one point it seemed she was so close to death because she wasn’t able to talk and her son tried to take life insurance on her so in case she did die he would get all the money. This was probably the worse I have ever seen her, someone who was able to take care of 9 children and a husband and herself, is now the same person who is unable to things on her own and is around the kitchen on holidays asking how she can help.
Then I noticed the people that work there are always positive, the calendar outside of the room has a list of events, these people who to me come off as dead are scheduled to play kickball (even the ones in the wheel chairs) go to dances, attend church and do other activities I would never imagine they could do or would want to do. Why would an old woman with a heart condition wake up and want to play kick ball or dance. But as I think about it while writing this it makes me realize that if people who were in nursing homes went there and just waited to die the time between them arriving and actually dying would also be a lot like death. Giving people the options to do things they use to do gives them a chance to continue living instead of a room to count down the days until death.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Monday, December 27, 2010
Homework 26
Christopher R 12/27/10
1. The idea of death is kept in hospitals.
2. How you’re supposed to react to death.
3. The idea of whether or not children should be exposed to death in the family.
4. Death is something people don’t talk about.
5. A poor person in France can have a longer life than a rich person in the United States. (http://www.ined.fr/en/everything_about_population/graph_month/life_expectancy_france/) (http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=united+states+life+expectancy+graph#met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:USA:FRA)
I think Sicko was a good film to talk about the history of health insurance and the disadvantages that the health insurance companies have but it doesn’t really talk about the dominant social practices of death. I think the thing that helped the most was when Evan’s mother came in to speak about her personal experience. This is because when you have someone dictating to you about how they feel about death through a screen it aren’t as emotional or sentimental as when you are face to face with someone. Getting to hear the person as they sit right in front of you, and share something that is usually seen as a topic not to talk about there is more to be learned. Especially from my point of view, I have never had anyone close to me die and that shields me from the actual emotion that a death in the family could bring. It’s much easier to understand and sympathize with a person who you now, never see anything wrong with them and then hear about what they had to go through as they speak about death in their family.
The question that has gotten to me this whole unit is how you are supposed to act when someone close to you dies. There are so many different kinds of people in the world and to say that someone is supposed to act a certain way about someone else is perplexing. Personally I have been to a few funerals and some of them were the funerals of family members but I had never had never cried. At the funeral it seems like everyone feels they have to cry and most of the tears are exaggerated. People jumping around the church and falling to the floor is not a notion that will bring the dead person back so what’s the purpose of sobbing about their non-existence. Another question I had is what the origin of a formal funeral is, the actual purpose of a funeral because I feel like these two things would give me an idea of why so many people use funerals as a way of saying goodbye. If there is any other popular form of remembering the dead and if so why isn’t it as televised? I think the way we can go about finding this would be more research but as for the way people are supposed to act I think it has a lot to do with what people see in the media.
1. The idea of death is kept in hospitals.
2. How you’re supposed to react to death.
3. The idea of whether or not children should be exposed to death in the family.
4. Death is something people don’t talk about.
5. A poor person in France can have a longer life than a rich person in the United States. (http://www.ined.fr/en/everything_about_population/graph_month/life_expectancy_france/) (http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=united+states+life+expectancy+graph#met=sp_dyn_le00_in&idim=country:USA:FRA)
I think Sicko was a good film to talk about the history of health insurance and the disadvantages that the health insurance companies have but it doesn’t really talk about the dominant social practices of death. I think the thing that helped the most was when Evan’s mother came in to speak about her personal experience. This is because when you have someone dictating to you about how they feel about death through a screen it aren’t as emotional or sentimental as when you are face to face with someone. Getting to hear the person as they sit right in front of you, and share something that is usually seen as a topic not to talk about there is more to be learned. Especially from my point of view, I have never had anyone close to me die and that shields me from the actual emotion that a death in the family could bring. It’s much easier to understand and sympathize with a person who you now, never see anything wrong with them and then hear about what they had to go through as they speak about death in their family.
The question that has gotten to me this whole unit is how you are supposed to act when someone close to you dies. There are so many different kinds of people in the world and to say that someone is supposed to act a certain way about someone else is perplexing. Personally I have been to a few funerals and some of them were the funerals of family members but I had never had never cried. At the funeral it seems like everyone feels they have to cry and most of the tears are exaggerated. People jumping around the church and falling to the floor is not a notion that will bring the dead person back so what’s the purpose of sobbing about their non-existence. Another question I had is what the origin of a formal funeral is, the actual purpose of a funeral because I feel like these two things would give me an idea of why so many people use funerals as a way of saying goodbye. If there is any other popular form of remembering the dead and if so why isn’t it as televised? I think the way we can go about finding this would be more research but as for the way people are supposed to act I think it has a lot to do with what people see in the media.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
HW 25 - Response to Sicko
Christopher R
Michael Moore tries to use the film Sicko to explore how the American health care system works and the people who are pulled through the cracks by the big bad money hungry health insurance companies. Viewing health insurance companies as an organization that tries to make money opposed to helping people Michael Moore also tries to bring out the differences between the countries that have socialist health care, showing the benefits of having free health care for everyone. Sicko also uses views the history of the way that health care came to be in America.
1. First Lady, Hilary Clinton tried to make strides in helping Bill Clinton get to a better insurance policy for Americans but couldn't because of constant anti-socialist health care propaganda.
2. A rich person in America has a lower life expectancy than a poor person in France.
The people in France do have a longer life expectancy than Americans, according to the sources, the life expectancy at birth continues to grow. The life expectancy for someone who is born in 2010 in France the life expectancy is 81. There are far less articles that are current about the United States life expectancy however many reports says that it is 78. As far as the poor versus wealthy, I don't think this is an actual statistic but based of the 81, 78 average and knowing that the highest 20 percent of income was 42, and the lowest was 2.8 compared to the United States rising poverty rate the amount of the top 10 percent in the United States would be close to the bottom ten percent in France. With these two groups of people the French (ON AVERAGE) would have a longer life expectancy.
And according to this graph compare to this graph, since 1960 the French have been above the United States in life expectancy.
The ideas and feelings that struck me the most crucial were the many different ways that you could be denied from getting health insurance. Most health insurance companies are advertised as places where no one gets turned away, however knowing that some companies have people to go through your history finding different things that could have even been treatable and deny you for these things confuses me. When hearing about this I immediately thought about what Evan Wood’s mother said about not having health insurance but being able to get full treatment for her husband for free. Then I thought about this compared to the woman from the movie who found someone in her husband’s family that could be a perfect person to get bone marrow from. However they were denied for this and subsequently her husband died of the cancer that he was fighting. Companies are denying people for things that they have had in their past and because if it they are suffering now or even worse they were suffering, and now the families are the people who have to deal with the companies decision. Because cancer seems to be one of the more dominant cases that people need treatment for it reminds me of the Cancer Treatment Center of America commercials that are always on television (I know you don’t watch television) talking about never turning down anyone, also start to make me skeptical. Knowing that people who are advertised to help you are people who just wants money is scary.
The most important excerpt that was shown in the movie, were the exposures of the propaganda that was constantly being shown as well as the politicians such as George H. Bush, George W. Bush, and Ronald Regan, referring to the health care. When George H. Bush said ask a Canadian, I felt like he was trying to install fear, into the people he’s supposed to be leading. Then when showing how much bush was brought out for and what Ronald Regan said showed that these people who were elected to help us have other intentions on how they will use the power that they do have.
Michael Moore tries to use the film Sicko to explore how the American health care system works and the people who are pulled through the cracks by the big bad money hungry health insurance companies. Viewing health insurance companies as an organization that tries to make money opposed to helping people Michael Moore also tries to bring out the differences between the countries that have socialist health care, showing the benefits of having free health care for everyone. Sicko also uses views the history of the way that health care came to be in America.
1. First Lady, Hilary Clinton tried to make strides in helping Bill Clinton get to a better insurance policy for Americans but couldn't because of constant anti-socialist health care propaganda.
2. A rich person in America has a lower life expectancy than a poor person in France.
The people in France do have a longer life expectancy than Americans, according to the sources, the life expectancy at birth continues to grow. The life expectancy for someone who is born in 2010 in France the life expectancy is 81. There are far less articles that are current about the United States life expectancy however many reports says that it is 78. As far as the poor versus wealthy, I don't think this is an actual statistic but based of the 81, 78 average and knowing that the highest 20 percent of income was 42, and the lowest was 2.8 compared to the United States rising poverty rate the amount of the top 10 percent in the United States would be close to the bottom ten percent in France. With these two groups of people the French (ON AVERAGE) would have a longer life expectancy.
And according to this graph compare to this graph, since 1960 the French have been above the United States in life expectancy.
The ideas and feelings that struck me the most crucial were the many different ways that you could be denied from getting health insurance. Most health insurance companies are advertised as places where no one gets turned away, however knowing that some companies have people to go through your history finding different things that could have even been treatable and deny you for these things confuses me. When hearing about this I immediately thought about what Evan Wood’s mother said about not having health insurance but being able to get full treatment for her husband for free. Then I thought about this compared to the woman from the movie who found someone in her husband’s family that could be a perfect person to get bone marrow from. However they were denied for this and subsequently her husband died of the cancer that he was fighting. Companies are denying people for things that they have had in their past and because if it they are suffering now or even worse they were suffering, and now the families are the people who have to deal with the companies decision. Because cancer seems to be one of the more dominant cases that people need treatment for it reminds me of the Cancer Treatment Center of America commercials that are always on television (I know you don’t watch television) talking about never turning down anyone, also start to make me skeptical. Knowing that people who are advertised to help you are people who just wants money is scary.
The most important excerpt that was shown in the movie, were the exposures of the propaganda that was constantly being shown as well as the politicians such as George H. Bush, George W. Bush, and Ronald Regan, referring to the health care. When George H. Bush said ask a Canadian, I felt like he was trying to install fear, into the people he’s supposed to be leading. Then when showing how much bush was brought out for and what Ronald Regan said showed that these people who were elected to help us have other intentions on how they will use the power that they do have.
HW 24 - Illness & Dying Book, Part 3
Precis-Throughout the experience of the death of my brother, my family, my mother, my husband, and myself went through an array of emotions. Some taking it more heavy than others. My brother was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS and the limited amount of help available kept most hope for a recovery as just hope. Most people in Antigua who do have AIDS would be able to tell you about the lack of help, so when he did die there wasn't as much of a feeling of grief. People knew this would happen, changing the way they felt about it. The relationship I had with my mother and my brother wasn't a normal relationship, for the most part I didn't like them. Me and my brother had an unusual relationship and when my brother died I didn't feel like i loved him. I only knew him for the first three years and the last three years of his life. After his death he looked nothing like he did before becoming sick. His skin changed, his lips and all body features seemed to be dead. My brother had died, my father, and my mentor which changed me but to them I would like to say thank you.
Quote-"And my brother died, for he kept dying; each time I remembered that he had died it was as if he had just at that moment died, and the whole experience of it would begin again; and my brother had died, and I didn't love him; or, at any rate, I didn't love him in the way that I had come to understand love" (Page 148)
"I expected Mr. Shawn to read, and so when I first heard of my brother dying and immediately knew I would write about him, I thought of Mr. Shawn, but Mr. Shawn had just died, too, and I had seen Mr. Shawn when he was dead, and even then I wanted to tell him what it was like when he had died" (Page 197)
"My mother's house after he was dead was empty of his smell, but I did not know that his dying had a smell until he was dead and no longer in the house, he was at the undertaker's, and I never asked my mother about the smell of the house." (Page 177)
'Not really more than a week after he was buried in the warm and yellow clay of the graveyard in Antigua, I resumed the life that his death had interrupted, the life with my own family, and the life of having written a book and persuading people to simply go out and buy it" (Page 152)
Thoughts- I feel like the end of this book goes against the idea that most people feel the way death is SUPPOSED to be. I feel like the word SUPPOSED is something that goes against the name of the class SUPPOSED would mean something is normal because thats how it should be. With the idea that NORMAL is WEIRD it makes me feel like this story fits perfectly with the idea of the class. Looking at other perspectives of things in life is what this book does. If your brother were to die people expect you to be grieving and upset, which is something that Jamaica Kincaid could have written about. However she admits that she only knew him for the beginning of his life and the end. There isn't much feeling that she has compared to NORMAL people because she has only known her brother a short amount of time. And because she references not loving him I feel like its an alternative to the way people feel how you HAVE to cry even when people don't know the person. If she loves her brother at a different way where she barely loves him according to what she knows love to be, theres a more accurate depiction of death delivered in the story.
Quote-"And my brother died, for he kept dying; each time I remembered that he had died it was as if he had just at that moment died, and the whole experience of it would begin again; and my brother had died, and I didn't love him; or, at any rate, I didn't love him in the way that I had come to understand love" (Page 148)
"I expected Mr. Shawn to read, and so when I first heard of my brother dying and immediately knew I would write about him, I thought of Mr. Shawn, but Mr. Shawn had just died, too, and I had seen Mr. Shawn when he was dead, and even then I wanted to tell him what it was like when he had died" (Page 197)
"My mother's house after he was dead was empty of his smell, but I did not know that his dying had a smell until he was dead and no longer in the house, he was at the undertaker's, and I never asked my mother about the smell of the house." (Page 177)
'Not really more than a week after he was buried in the warm and yellow clay of the graveyard in Antigua, I resumed the life that his death had interrupted, the life with my own family, and the life of having written a book and persuading people to simply go out and buy it" (Page 152)
Thoughts- I feel like the end of this book goes against the idea that most people feel the way death is SUPPOSED to be. I feel like the word SUPPOSED is something that goes against the name of the class SUPPOSED would mean something is normal because thats how it should be. With the idea that NORMAL is WEIRD it makes me feel like this story fits perfectly with the idea of the class. Looking at other perspectives of things in life is what this book does. If your brother were to die people expect you to be grieving and upset, which is something that Jamaica Kincaid could have written about. However she admits that she only knew him for the beginning of his life and the end. There isn't much feeling that she has compared to NORMAL people because she has only known her brother a short amount of time. And because she references not loving him I feel like its an alternative to the way people feel how you HAVE to cry even when people don't know the person. If she loves her brother at a different way where she barely loves him according to what she knows love to be, theres a more accurate depiction of death delivered in the story.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid Precis' Part 2
Precis- 2 Months would pass and my brother would only become more sick. The body that he use to have seemed to be just that, the body that he USE to have. His lips were extremely chapped and his body was very skinny. The body that he had before was very skinny but the way that he looks now isn't the same way. Before he seemed like a healthy person and the kind of skinny that he has now makes him see like he is very close to death. As he got worse and his body started to fall apart on him he died. I was told this by my husband, when he first started to tell me about my brothers death I thought it was someone in his family. When he told me it was my brother i felt relived knowing I would be able to handle death in my family easier than my husband.
Quotes- "His death was imminent and we were all anticipating it, including him, but we never gave any thought to the fact that this was true for all of us: our death was imminent, only we were not anticipating it...yet. (Page 92)
'When my husband woke me up, he said, "Sweetie, come, come, I have to talk to you. In the dark of the room I could see his face; that isn't really possible, to see something like a face in the dark of a room. (Page 99)
"Dalma just called, Devon died." And when he said "Devon died" I thought, Oh it's Devon who died, not one of his relatives, not someone of his, this is not someone he has to grieve for." (Page 99)
Thoughts-This book seems to be very raw and that makes it very true and I would guess if you lost someone close to you this could be very easy to relate to. The only thing that confuses me is the calm tone that Jamaica always has. You always hear about people crying when they are told about someone close to them dying but Jamaica faces everything that usually brings heartache around her with a calm head. He father also died but she doesn't seem to convey any of her feelings at the time and when she does those feelings are always described with calm words. She never seems to be mad or upset she is always expecting the worse so everything thats bad that happens to her is just expected.
Quotes- "His death was imminent and we were all anticipating it, including him, but we never gave any thought to the fact that this was true for all of us: our death was imminent, only we were not anticipating it...yet. (Page 92)
'When my husband woke me up, he said, "Sweetie, come, come, I have to talk to you. In the dark of the room I could see his face; that isn't really possible, to see something like a face in the dark of a room. (Page 99)
"Dalma just called, Devon died." And when he said "Devon died" I thought, Oh it's Devon who died, not one of his relatives, not someone of his, this is not someone he has to grieve for." (Page 99)
Thoughts-This book seems to be very raw and that makes it very true and I would guess if you lost someone close to you this could be very easy to relate to. The only thing that confuses me is the calm tone that Jamaica always has. You always hear about people crying when they are told about someone close to them dying but Jamaica faces everything that usually brings heartache around her with a calm head. He father also died but she doesn't seem to convey any of her feelings at the time and when she does those feelings are always described with calm words. She never seems to be mad or upset she is always expecting the worse so everything thats bad that happens to her is just expected.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Homework 21 part B
Chris,
There were a few grammatical/spelling errors in your post, but overall I felt like you got most of your ideas across well. Your last paragraph was thought-provoking, I would imagine that if you were in such late stages of cancer that you would know that you would die fairly soon. And really, when you are that sick just about all you can do is lie in a bed. He could barely eat and needed morphine, I doubt there was much he could have done differently Chris.
Your paragraph about the stigma that is associated with people who have AIDS was very relevant to our group right now, because in Jamaica Kincaid's book that is a very important theme. I think there are parallels to that social disassociation in nature, the sick and dying are shunned in many animal groups, and are usually culled from the herd. Maybe there's some base instinct to avoid a sick person that stems from a survivalist need to avoid getting sick yourself.
(Comment from Lucas London)
Hi Chris!
I think you tackled some really tough subject matter very gracefully. You made it clear that although you've never been in such a position, you can still understand the range of feelings someone experiences when someone close to them passes away. Your line "The pain of seeing someone almost helpless ... wheeled away by a celebrity guest doctor" really struck me, because it hits very close to home. As a teenager in America, I'm no stranger to the horrors of fatal illnesses; it's hard to watch TV at night without stumbling across at least one show romanticizing hospitals and sick people. It tends to make people desensitized, so that when they come into contact with real-life death experiences, they're shocked by the level of seriousness and loss.
I'd say you could improve your writing by getting a little passionate. You come off as a tad stiff, like you're concentrating more on using nice words and concise sentences then you are on conveying your ideas. Get passionate! Think about what you're saying, and let the reader in on your thought process. It's a lot more relatable that way. :)
Comment from Isabel Jenkins
chris,
I think you answered the question Andy posed thoughtfully, fully and in a very organized manner. I think this was pro aswell as a con. I think your post can be more interesting when you find an insight you are either knowledgable about or curious about and persue it to the best you can. I very much enjoyed the second to last paragraph and the last one I thought it was the most insightful and you could have definitly expanded on it. I think that you should try to think deeply on the topic itself rather than precisely following a rubric. The rubric helps when ur struggling no doubt, but if you want to improve your own insights and make it more interesting for myslef think deeply and try to find a passionate idea you have. when u love the idea the reader loves reading about it. hope my comment helps
Comment from John Tabor
Lucas,
I think you have a lot of good thoughts and I agree with a lot of what you are saying here. You do a good job of answering the questions but there is no third paragraph to talk strictly about your thoughts on what she said and not the thoughts that she relayed to us.It was also easy to see how your thoughts connected to the thoughts of the speaker and I like how it is easy to tell the difference. I know that when some people try to do this, it can be confusing to find the point of views that they have opposed to the points of view that someone else had. I think that this work could have more "beauty" if perhaps you have had a personal experience with someone dying and maybe talked about that. There is also the chance that you haven't had this experience and if not I also feel that knowing your internship is in a hospital, you could talk a little bit about that when you make the reference to the doctors in the hospitals. Only because I was there when Beth was talking and I know a lot about her views and the assignment says to talk about that but when addressing beauty I personally feel that it is easier to have some sort of natural beauty when you talk about something personal because everyone has a story and telling by the ability of your writing it would be interested to feel some of your personal views. That could also make it more passionate making it that much better.
(my comment to Lucas)
Hey John,
I like a lot of what you said and I think you got a good point across about what Beth was saying and you did a good job answering the questions that Andy presented. Also, when I know that you most likely had some of the feelings that Beth had and you mention that when you say, "Before my own father died I felt more distanced from him he wasn’t the same image of my father I had when I was younger". But even though this could just be something that may be to personal for you to want to talk about I feel like even though you compared your feelings to Beth you could go more into depth about the differences and the similarities of how you felt with how Beth felt. The question does ask you to compared both of these things and I think you do address this but for someone who has experienced this I thought maybe you could bring up something that you thought she might have felt that you felt. As for the beauty in the work and the insight, I feel that you also bring something up that is very smart about the norms changing, which is something that I didn't really think that much about when she said he was a "stay-at-home dad". Besides this, the one thing that I thought could have made your blog better was just going more into depth IF you feel comfortable with that about your experience because that would have brought out a lot more beauty in this assignment.
(my comment to John)
Hey Burt,
I think that the strongest paragraph you have in this was the second paragraph. In that short paragraph I think you stated something that not many people have stated in their blogs and it is one of the most key pieces to what was being said by Beth. You mentioned that we normally don't see people die. I think this was the beginning of a really good paragraph but you failed to make a follow up statement about this. I think your work could have been much better if you would have talked about this more or staying home helping someone more considering that you said it was something that jumped out to you immediately. Posing some questions and trying to dig deeper is something that I really encourage you to do for the remainder of the blog post. Also you seem to answer the questions pretty well but the questions do say compare and contrast the insights that you have and I would like to see how some of what you think. Then for the questions you do ask, I feel like some of these could have been questions that you tried to answer when you talk about other things in the beginning of the post. So what you overall need to focus on for later is expanding on your ideas because they will probably be good, maybe adding in something from personal experience and making sure you compare and contrast your thoughts. Doing this will completely answer the homework question.
(My comment to Jasper)
There were a few grammatical/spelling errors in your post, but overall I felt like you got most of your ideas across well. Your last paragraph was thought-provoking, I would imagine that if you were in such late stages of cancer that you would know that you would die fairly soon. And really, when you are that sick just about all you can do is lie in a bed. He could barely eat and needed morphine, I doubt there was much he could have done differently Chris.
Your paragraph about the stigma that is associated with people who have AIDS was very relevant to our group right now, because in Jamaica Kincaid's book that is a very important theme. I think there are parallels to that social disassociation in nature, the sick and dying are shunned in many animal groups, and are usually culled from the herd. Maybe there's some base instinct to avoid a sick person that stems from a survivalist need to avoid getting sick yourself.
(Comment from Lucas London)
Hi Chris!
I think you tackled some really tough subject matter very gracefully. You made it clear that although you've never been in such a position, you can still understand the range of feelings someone experiences when someone close to them passes away. Your line "The pain of seeing someone almost helpless ... wheeled away by a celebrity guest doctor" really struck me, because it hits very close to home. As a teenager in America, I'm no stranger to the horrors of fatal illnesses; it's hard to watch TV at night without stumbling across at least one show romanticizing hospitals and sick people. It tends to make people desensitized, so that when they come into contact with real-life death experiences, they're shocked by the level of seriousness and loss.
I'd say you could improve your writing by getting a little passionate. You come off as a tad stiff, like you're concentrating more on using nice words and concise sentences then you are on conveying your ideas. Get passionate! Think about what you're saying, and let the reader in on your thought process. It's a lot more relatable that way. :)
Comment from Isabel Jenkins
chris,
I think you answered the question Andy posed thoughtfully, fully and in a very organized manner. I think this was pro aswell as a con. I think your post can be more interesting when you find an insight you are either knowledgable about or curious about and persue it to the best you can. I very much enjoyed the second to last paragraph and the last one I thought it was the most insightful and you could have definitly expanded on it. I think that you should try to think deeply on the topic itself rather than precisely following a rubric. The rubric helps when ur struggling no doubt, but if you want to improve your own insights and make it more interesting for myslef think deeply and try to find a passionate idea you have. when u love the idea the reader loves reading about it. hope my comment helps
Comment from John Tabor
Lucas,
I think you have a lot of good thoughts and I agree with a lot of what you are saying here. You do a good job of answering the questions but there is no third paragraph to talk strictly about your thoughts on what she said and not the thoughts that she relayed to us.It was also easy to see how your thoughts connected to the thoughts of the speaker and I like how it is easy to tell the difference. I know that when some people try to do this, it can be confusing to find the point of views that they have opposed to the points of view that someone else had. I think that this work could have more "beauty" if perhaps you have had a personal experience with someone dying and maybe talked about that. There is also the chance that you haven't had this experience and if not I also feel that knowing your internship is in a hospital, you could talk a little bit about that when you make the reference to the doctors in the hospitals. Only because I was there when Beth was talking and I know a lot about her views and the assignment says to talk about that but when addressing beauty I personally feel that it is easier to have some sort of natural beauty when you talk about something personal because everyone has a story and telling by the ability of your writing it would be interested to feel some of your personal views. That could also make it more passionate making it that much better.
(my comment to Lucas)
Hey John,
I like a lot of what you said and I think you got a good point across about what Beth was saying and you did a good job answering the questions that Andy presented. Also, when I know that you most likely had some of the feelings that Beth had and you mention that when you say, "Before my own father died I felt more distanced from him he wasn’t the same image of my father I had when I was younger". But even though this could just be something that may be to personal for you to want to talk about I feel like even though you compared your feelings to Beth you could go more into depth about the differences and the similarities of how you felt with how Beth felt. The question does ask you to compared both of these things and I think you do address this but for someone who has experienced this I thought maybe you could bring up something that you thought she might have felt that you felt. As for the beauty in the work and the insight, I feel that you also bring something up that is very smart about the norms changing, which is something that I didn't really think that much about when she said he was a "stay-at-home dad". Besides this, the one thing that I thought could have made your blog better was just going more into depth IF you feel comfortable with that about your experience because that would have brought out a lot more beauty in this assignment.
(my comment to John)
Hey Burt,
I think that the strongest paragraph you have in this was the second paragraph. In that short paragraph I think you stated something that not many people have stated in their blogs and it is one of the most key pieces to what was being said by Beth. You mentioned that we normally don't see people die. I think this was the beginning of a really good paragraph but you failed to make a follow up statement about this. I think your work could have been much better if you would have talked about this more or staying home helping someone more considering that you said it was something that jumped out to you immediately. Posing some questions and trying to dig deeper is something that I really encourage you to do for the remainder of the blog post. Also you seem to answer the questions pretty well but the questions do say compare and contrast the insights that you have and I would like to see how some of what you think. Then for the questions you do ask, I feel like some of these could have been questions that you tried to answer when you talk about other things in the beginning of the post. So what you overall need to focus on for later is expanding on your ideas because they will probably be good, maybe adding in something from personal experience and making sure you compare and contrast your thoughts. Doing this will completely answer the homework question.
(My comment to Jasper)
Friday, December 10, 2010
My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid Precis'
FIRST PRECISE
Precis- The affect of AIDS is extremely powerful in Antigua, how fast it is spread around, the amount of people that already have it, the lack of support to try and stop it, and the lack of medicine and doctors willing to treat people with it. So many people are contracting AIDS from not knowing enough or not listening to the advice given about the prevention of AIDS. My brother has been diagnosed with AIDS from the way that he looks to the way he acts and things he done have all changed. Having AIDS in Antigua, makes you close to death, people don't get treated when they have AIDS because it is seen as a waste. My brother has been hospitalized and might not be able to survive with the small amount of medical people addressing the point.
Thoughts-"He said that people who are not HIV=positive give up too soon on the people who are, but that he tried to keep everybody alive, because you never know when a cure might come along. He said that --you never knew when a cure might come along-- and I could not tell if, in that he as asserting native Antiguan foolishness or faith in science" (Page 35)
"Afterward two men asked him for a lift, and when they reached a certain part of town, a part of town where prostitutes live, they asked to be let out. Dr Ramsey asked them if they had condoms and they said no. He asked them if they had not listened to anything he had just told the, and they said to him yes, but they would rather die than leave the butter women alone." (Page 39)
"When I called Dr. Ramsey I asked him if he would meet me at the hospital and examine my brother and give us, his family, medical advice as to what we could do, what we could not do, what we could expect and, perhaps, when to expect it." (Page 32)
Thoughts- I have a hard time connecting to the ideas that are being brought up in this book. As for the way that the book is written I completely understand but that idea that someone with AIDS is almost forgotten about. Also the idea that people who know what AIDS is and have such a plentiful amount of AIDS still have people having unprotected sex. In the United States we have programs to teach kids about AIDS in the 6th and 7th grade, free condoms everywhere, and hospitals that make it their motto to never give up on people who have a disease such as AIDS. Apparently at this time in Antigua it was common for AIDS to be something that many people have but I would also guess if it was some sort of epidemic then many people would be more afraid of catching it there would be a high amount of medicine to make this easier to live with. Whereas in the United States people are taught at young ages about this there are still many people in Antigua (during the time of the book) where adults have to be educated.
Precis- The affect of AIDS is extremely powerful in Antigua, how fast it is spread around, the amount of people that already have it, the lack of support to try and stop it, and the lack of medicine and doctors willing to treat people with it. So many people are contracting AIDS from not knowing enough or not listening to the advice given about the prevention of AIDS. My brother has been diagnosed with AIDS from the way that he looks to the way he acts and things he done have all changed. Having AIDS in Antigua, makes you close to death, people don't get treated when they have AIDS because it is seen as a waste. My brother has been hospitalized and might not be able to survive with the small amount of medical people addressing the point.
Thoughts-"He said that people who are not HIV=positive give up too soon on the people who are, but that he tried to keep everybody alive, because you never know when a cure might come along. He said that --you never knew when a cure might come along-- and I could not tell if, in that he as asserting native Antiguan foolishness or faith in science" (Page 35)
"Afterward two men asked him for a lift, and when they reached a certain part of town, a part of town where prostitutes live, they asked to be let out. Dr Ramsey asked them if they had condoms and they said no. He asked them if they had not listened to anything he had just told the, and they said to him yes, but they would rather die than leave the butter women alone." (Page 39)
"When I called Dr. Ramsey I asked him if he would meet me at the hospital and examine my brother and give us, his family, medical advice as to what we could do, what we could not do, what we could expect and, perhaps, when to expect it." (Page 32)
Thoughts- I have a hard time connecting to the ideas that are being brought up in this book. As for the way that the book is written I completely understand but that idea that someone with AIDS is almost forgotten about. Also the idea that people who know what AIDS is and have such a plentiful amount of AIDS still have people having unprotected sex. In the United States we have programs to teach kids about AIDS in the 6th and 7th grade, free condoms everywhere, and hospitals that make it their motto to never give up on people who have a disease such as AIDS. Apparently at this time in Antigua it was common for AIDS to be something that many people have but I would also guess if it was some sort of epidemic then many people would be more afraid of catching it there would be a high amount of medicine to make this easier to live with. Whereas in the United States people are taught at young ages about this there are still many people in Antigua (during the time of the book) where adults have to be educated.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Homework 21
Christopher R
1. Not being able to seek health because the lack of health insurance
2. (The sadness in her voice in different moments of the story)
3. Not being in denial but hoping for the best.
4. Difference in reaction from both children.
5. Husband’s body changed completely, unlike in movies.
6. Surrounding her husband with artwork that he had created
7. Introducing him with his artwork then his kids. Not being described by just a disease.
8. Being the one who wants to care for her sick husband 24/7 not having doctors do it for her.
9. Letting Evan be exposed to one of the worse times in his dad’s life.
10. Telling her husband to let go because his body would be much use to him.
Number Five: When people who don’t have direct experiences with someone dying, such as myself there’s some sort of confusion of what this would actually be like when it does happen. So what most people get their views from on they see people dying and handling this is the television. It’s almost as if the world of television and anyone who “resides” there can influence the way we live in “real life” and how we react to things that happen to us. She mentioned that while he was in the worse stages of his cancer, he didn’t look the same and all the bones in his body were showing. She also mentioned that the entire process was long and heart-wrenching. I’ve never had anyone close to me die but watching someone die who had be one of the closest people to you couldn’t possibly compare to a two part episode of family matters. The pain of seeing someone almost helpless in the position where they couldn’t talk anymore has to be a far more devastating than having to wait to the next to watch one of your favorite characters get wheeled away by a celebrity guest doctor. Personally I haven’t experienced any death as close as to losing a husband; I’ve never lost an immediate family member. My view of how losing someone closes to me can’t even be compared to someone who has gone through, so even if I try to think of how it will be its most likely nowhere nears the pain people must feel.
Number Seven: After people get sick the only thing they can be defined by is there illness. It starts to become there personality. Instantly someone who has AIDS is now recognized by this because of the large part of the day that has to be dedicated to keeping diseases under control. After the disease starts to change a person’s body, now this person is also physically associated with the disease. Why the disease starts to infect your body it also infects the way people see and treat you. By introducing someone who is sick to another person by the work that they have, it creates the idea that this person is more than the disease because they did do something BEFORE they became sick and they will be something after everything is said and done. Personally if I was being introduced to someone while I was in one of the worse states in my life, I wouldn’t be want to be viewed by my lowest moment, just like Beth tried to do I would want to be loved for the things I have done, the people I have help, and anything I have helped created. The day you die is the lowest moment that a person is viewed (or at least seconds before you die). If everyone went around thinking about the worse times someone had there wouldn’t be any reason for accomplishing anything. All the hard work done in life would be lost once death came, instead of preserved for the people close to you.
The biggest Idea that Beth’s presentation sparked was, referring to the last ten days of her husband’s life as, “The last ten days”. This really got to me because when someone is sick they may know they are going to die but there is no expiration date. So the people who succeed this person and use terms like “the last ten days gives me a weird feeling. Even though these were the last ten days I feel like if Beth’s husband knew that he only had ten more days he would have tried to use them differently. So referring to this as the last ten days just seems like a inaccurate way of referring to this.
1. Not being able to seek health because the lack of health insurance
2. (The sadness in her voice in different moments of the story)
3. Not being in denial but hoping for the best.
4. Difference in reaction from both children.
5. Husband’s body changed completely, unlike in movies.
6. Surrounding her husband with artwork that he had created
7. Introducing him with his artwork then his kids. Not being described by just a disease.
8. Being the one who wants to care for her sick husband 24/7 not having doctors do it for her.
9. Letting Evan be exposed to one of the worse times in his dad’s life.
10. Telling her husband to let go because his body would be much use to him.
Number Five: When people who don’t have direct experiences with someone dying, such as myself there’s some sort of confusion of what this would actually be like when it does happen. So what most people get their views from on they see people dying and handling this is the television. It’s almost as if the world of television and anyone who “resides” there can influence the way we live in “real life” and how we react to things that happen to us. She mentioned that while he was in the worse stages of his cancer, he didn’t look the same and all the bones in his body were showing. She also mentioned that the entire process was long and heart-wrenching. I’ve never had anyone close to me die but watching someone die who had be one of the closest people to you couldn’t possibly compare to a two part episode of family matters. The pain of seeing someone almost helpless in the position where they couldn’t talk anymore has to be a far more devastating than having to wait to the next to watch one of your favorite characters get wheeled away by a celebrity guest doctor. Personally I haven’t experienced any death as close as to losing a husband; I’ve never lost an immediate family member. My view of how losing someone closes to me can’t even be compared to someone who has gone through, so even if I try to think of how it will be its most likely nowhere nears the pain people must feel.
Number Seven: After people get sick the only thing they can be defined by is there illness. It starts to become there personality. Instantly someone who has AIDS is now recognized by this because of the large part of the day that has to be dedicated to keeping diseases under control. After the disease starts to change a person’s body, now this person is also physically associated with the disease. Why the disease starts to infect your body it also infects the way people see and treat you. By introducing someone who is sick to another person by the work that they have, it creates the idea that this person is more than the disease because they did do something BEFORE they became sick and they will be something after everything is said and done. Personally if I was being introduced to someone while I was in one of the worse states in my life, I wouldn’t be want to be viewed by my lowest moment, just like Beth tried to do I would want to be loved for the things I have done, the people I have help, and anything I have helped created. The day you die is the lowest moment that a person is viewed (or at least seconds before you die). If everyone went around thinking about the worse times someone had there wouldn’t be any reason for accomplishing anything. All the hard work done in life would be lost once death came, instead of preserved for the people close to you.
The biggest Idea that Beth’s presentation sparked was, referring to the last ten days of her husband’s life as, “The last ten days”. This really got to me because when someone is sick they may know they are going to die but there is no expiration date. So the people who succeed this person and use terms like “the last ten days gives me a weird feeling. Even though these were the last ten days I feel like if Beth’s husband knew that he only had ten more days he would have tried to use them differently. So referring to this as the last ten days just seems like a inaccurate way of referring to this.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Homework 19
Christopher R
At first I asked my mother what she thought about death and dying as well as illness. The first thing so she got a piece of paper and start to write down what she thought. She wrote “Death is a very sad moment in our lives. We all have to go through it and we have to grow up with our brothers and sisters and uncles, and cousins and mothers, and fathers but they all have to die”. So I told her that with all the people in our family that died there has to be more to her feelings about the topic. I would think that someone who has had so many deaths so close together that there would be more emotion to it then something that could go into a dictionary. So after starting over a couple of times I started to extract some of the feelings I think she had been holding back and she even started to tear up in some of the conversation we were having.
Two of her best friend’s one of my godmothers died. Not recently but both of them were really close to my mother and she was always there with both of them while they were close to death. One of them named, Denise was my mother’s childhood best friend. She became ill from cancer. She had cancer in her breast and progressingly became sicker after being diagnosed with this. Her breast was removed and it seemed like things were starting to get better because the cancer had started to go away. But my mother recalls seeing her at her worse where she had to go to her friend’s house and do all of her cooking and all of her laundry. Even though she knew when someone has a sickness like this even though she can hope and pray that she gets better or there is a cure you have to know this person will most likely die. After her breast was removed, the cancer came back in Denise’s lung and it started to spread to her brain. This made Denise turn blind and things started to seem worse from here until her sight came back. While she was saying this to me I thought about how the emotional rollercoaster of someone being sick could really affect the loved ones of this person. Then the cancer started getting worse and Denise died. This was my mother’s best friend; I could only imagine how much sleep someone could lose from this. Then another one of my mother’s friends died.
I would imagine that a broken heart could only be mended when the thing that broke their heart was forgotten. If this was true I could only imagine what kind of condition my mother is in. Within the next 5 years, another one of my mother’s friends passed away. In the conversation she said, “When someone is sick and they die it’s not as hard because you have time to come to the conclusion that this person is going to die, when the person just dies out of nowhere it really hurts”. Her best friend Barbara also died and no one knew where she was for 2 days until she was found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs. This constant loss that my mother was feeling really started to build up when he aunt died, her brother died, her mother was sick, her sister was sick, and her other sister was diagnosed with cancer. “One person can only take so much pain” , when she said this it makes people think about how hard living is because you have to let go to the ones you love most. When all of this happens at the same time it makes it even worse because you’re letting go to everyone you love at once.
My mother and her mother and most likely many generations before them believe in Christianity and she brought up the idea of seeing someone who had been alive to welcome you into heaven. Although I believe there is a God I don’t know exactly what part of Christianity I believe in. So I guess the teachings of religion changes with me. I was baptized but I don’t know a lot about my religion. My mother brought up this prophet like idea that her aunt presented to her before she died. Her aunt predicted what would happen. Words from my mom: “She told her daughter that she was going to be buried between one and two because she wanted people told able to get there, and she told everyone it was going to rain, but when we left our house it was bright and clear outside. After the pastor preached her funeral, there was a big dark cloud hanging over the church. Everyone went outside to bury her body, when everyone was outside and the pastor commenced her body back to the earth, I was standing there talking. There was a strong wind and everyone felt it because it was a cold wind so people said ‘that was Aunt Lucille saying goodbye for the last time’. Then while we were eating it started to pour hard for 15 minutes. Everyone had known about the prediction about it raining and believed it was a prophet like statement.”
In regards to the people who raised her, “I guess you can say, they are both very religious they were brought up very religious. They believe everyone meets their maker, and when death comes they accept it. We have to accept it. You don’t try to question why, but we were brought up to not question why. Everyone has to die because of the second judgment day and that’s what I was taught.” I think my mother’s family taught her a lot about what she believes now a lot of people where she lived had the same beliefs. Me, being someone who lives in New York I got a more multicultural view on death and illness. Even though I’m with my family most of the time when things like this do come up I get a better and wider perspective on what people think.
I also really like the line "death ain't nothing but birth in reverse" I don't agree with it but I like the idea of it.
At first I asked my mother what she thought about death and dying as well as illness. The first thing so she got a piece of paper and start to write down what she thought. She wrote “Death is a very sad moment in our lives. We all have to go through it and we have to grow up with our brothers and sisters and uncles, and cousins and mothers, and fathers but they all have to die”. So I told her that with all the people in our family that died there has to be more to her feelings about the topic. I would think that someone who has had so many deaths so close together that there would be more emotion to it then something that could go into a dictionary. So after starting over a couple of times I started to extract some of the feelings I think she had been holding back and she even started to tear up in some of the conversation we were having.
Two of her best friend’s one of my godmothers died. Not recently but both of them were really close to my mother and she was always there with both of them while they were close to death. One of them named, Denise was my mother’s childhood best friend. She became ill from cancer. She had cancer in her breast and progressingly became sicker after being diagnosed with this. Her breast was removed and it seemed like things were starting to get better because the cancer had started to go away. But my mother recalls seeing her at her worse where she had to go to her friend’s house and do all of her cooking and all of her laundry. Even though she knew when someone has a sickness like this even though she can hope and pray that she gets better or there is a cure you have to know this person will most likely die. After her breast was removed, the cancer came back in Denise’s lung and it started to spread to her brain. This made Denise turn blind and things started to seem worse from here until her sight came back. While she was saying this to me I thought about how the emotional rollercoaster of someone being sick could really affect the loved ones of this person. Then the cancer started getting worse and Denise died. This was my mother’s best friend; I could only imagine how much sleep someone could lose from this. Then another one of my mother’s friends died.
I would imagine that a broken heart could only be mended when the thing that broke their heart was forgotten. If this was true I could only imagine what kind of condition my mother is in. Within the next 5 years, another one of my mother’s friends passed away. In the conversation she said, “When someone is sick and they die it’s not as hard because you have time to come to the conclusion that this person is going to die, when the person just dies out of nowhere it really hurts”. Her best friend Barbara also died and no one knew where she was for 2 days until she was found dead at the bottom of the basement stairs. This constant loss that my mother was feeling really started to build up when he aunt died, her brother died, her mother was sick, her sister was sick, and her other sister was diagnosed with cancer. “One person can only take so much pain” , when she said this it makes people think about how hard living is because you have to let go to the ones you love most. When all of this happens at the same time it makes it even worse because you’re letting go to everyone you love at once.
My mother and her mother and most likely many generations before them believe in Christianity and she brought up the idea of seeing someone who had been alive to welcome you into heaven. Although I believe there is a God I don’t know exactly what part of Christianity I believe in. So I guess the teachings of religion changes with me. I was baptized but I don’t know a lot about my religion. My mother brought up this prophet like idea that her aunt presented to her before she died. Her aunt predicted what would happen. Words from my mom: “She told her daughter that she was going to be buried between one and two because she wanted people told able to get there, and she told everyone it was going to rain, but when we left our house it was bright and clear outside. After the pastor preached her funeral, there was a big dark cloud hanging over the church. Everyone went outside to bury her body, when everyone was outside and the pastor commenced her body back to the earth, I was standing there talking. There was a strong wind and everyone felt it because it was a cold wind so people said ‘that was Aunt Lucille saying goodbye for the last time’. Then while we were eating it started to pour hard for 15 minutes. Everyone had known about the prediction about it raining and believed it was a prophet like statement.”
In regards to the people who raised her, “I guess you can say, they are both very religious they were brought up very religious. They believe everyone meets their maker, and when death comes they accept it. We have to accept it. You don’t try to question why, but we were brought up to not question why. Everyone has to die because of the second judgment day and that’s what I was taught.” I think my mother’s family taught her a lot about what she believes now a lot of people where she lived had the same beliefs. Me, being someone who lives in New York I got a more multicultural view on death and illness. Even though I’m with my family most of the time when things like this do come up I get a better and wider perspective on what people think.
I also really like the line "death ain't nothing but birth in reverse" I don't agree with it but I like the idea of it.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Homework 18 Illness and Dying
Christopher R
1A
On Thanksgiving, all that we know to be true about food, in terms of how much of it should we eat and what kinds of food are better to eat then others are disregarded. The vegetables that are prepared take a back seat to the turkey, ham, stuffing, macaroni and cheese and all other foods. This could be seen something “anti-body” because after eating this food you have to sit down or go to sleep. While most people eat until they are no longer hungry on Thanksgiving you eat until you are no longer able to function. The more plates of food consumed the more effective the holiday was used. It’s the one excuse to eat as much as possible and not get judged or have to think about the diet you were recently on. A “body-centered” view that our culture has is eat a balanced meal. This way you won’t get obese and look unappealing to everyone.
At the Thanksgiving table were I was only one person decided to keep this idea in mind. The only thing she ate was a piece of ham, some cabbage, and small piece of turkey. My uncle however did the opposite and ate, about 3 servings of macaroni and cheese, 3 servings of turkey, 2 servings of ham, 2 servings of stuffing, 1 slice of red velvet cake, 1 slice of cheese cake, 1 slice of strawberry cake, and 1 slice of pumpkin pie. According to him dieting is only for people who are inactive and as long as he goes around the block a couple of times he’ll be okay, eating this much food was not a problem for him. I would classify this as an “anti-body” thing considering his torso resembled Homer Simpson’s and it almost looked as if he was forcing himself to eat this much. Compared to him everyone else’s food choice seemed “body-centered” stopping after one plate but going back every now and then picking up an extra serving of one or to things and trying to reframe from eating more pie.
The food pleasure dominated the event seeing as that was the main focus of the conversation even after the food was made and could no longer be edited. With each new food eaten, someone would ask if it was as good as last year or compared to someone else. Whenever one person thought that one dish was the best another one of my family members would ask “Is it as good as the way I make it?” And my uncle would say “This food is real good, if I go to someone’s house and they make food that I don’t like I would definitely tell them because If I don’t they won’t know how to make it.” Then there was my 89 year old grandmother who doesn’t talk a lot who spoke after done eating and said “This food was real good. It taste like the food I used to make, I taught all of you how to cook real good”. Instead of watching football my family likes to eat food then talk about the food and who cooks it best. Instead of debating a controversial call in a game of “pig-skin” my family debates the controversial call of who makes the best ham.
The background elements related to illness and dying is probably shown through the people in my family, asthma and diabetes is something that has been in my family for a long time. Also many people in my family were overweight but the person who has been the most sick was my grandmother. She was in the hospital because she was having heart problems in 2007. No one talks about that anymore but because she’s so old when my mother was giving her early Christmas presents my aunt said, “Christmas isn’t promised to her”. That kind of killed the mood but it also made everyone enjoy her presence much more than before the statement.
1A
On Thanksgiving, all that we know to be true about food, in terms of how much of it should we eat and what kinds of food are better to eat then others are disregarded. The vegetables that are prepared take a back seat to the turkey, ham, stuffing, macaroni and cheese and all other foods. This could be seen something “anti-body” because after eating this food you have to sit down or go to sleep. While most people eat until they are no longer hungry on Thanksgiving you eat until you are no longer able to function. The more plates of food consumed the more effective the holiday was used. It’s the one excuse to eat as much as possible and not get judged or have to think about the diet you were recently on. A “body-centered” view that our culture has is eat a balanced meal. This way you won’t get obese and look unappealing to everyone.
At the Thanksgiving table were I was only one person decided to keep this idea in mind. The only thing she ate was a piece of ham, some cabbage, and small piece of turkey. My uncle however did the opposite and ate, about 3 servings of macaroni and cheese, 3 servings of turkey, 2 servings of ham, 2 servings of stuffing, 1 slice of red velvet cake, 1 slice of cheese cake, 1 slice of strawberry cake, and 1 slice of pumpkin pie. According to him dieting is only for people who are inactive and as long as he goes around the block a couple of times he’ll be okay, eating this much food was not a problem for him. I would classify this as an “anti-body” thing considering his torso resembled Homer Simpson’s and it almost looked as if he was forcing himself to eat this much. Compared to him everyone else’s food choice seemed “body-centered” stopping after one plate but going back every now and then picking up an extra serving of one or to things and trying to reframe from eating more pie.
The food pleasure dominated the event seeing as that was the main focus of the conversation even after the food was made and could no longer be edited. With each new food eaten, someone would ask if it was as good as last year or compared to someone else. Whenever one person thought that one dish was the best another one of my family members would ask “Is it as good as the way I make it?” And my uncle would say “This food is real good, if I go to someone’s house and they make food that I don’t like I would definitely tell them because If I don’t they won’t know how to make it.” Then there was my 89 year old grandmother who doesn’t talk a lot who spoke after done eating and said “This food was real good. It taste like the food I used to make, I taught all of you how to cook real good”. Instead of watching football my family likes to eat food then talk about the food and who cooks it best. Instead of debating a controversial call in a game of “pig-skin” my family debates the controversial call of who makes the best ham.
The background elements related to illness and dying is probably shown through the people in my family, asthma and diabetes is something that has been in my family for a long time. Also many people in my family were overweight but the person who has been the most sick was my grandmother. She was in the hospital because she was having heart problems in 2007. No one talks about that anymore but because she’s so old when my mother was giving her early Christmas presents my aunt said, “Christmas isn’t promised to her”. That kind of killed the mood but it also made everyone enjoy her presence much more than before the statement.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Thought on illness and Dying
Christopher R 11/23/10
1A
Illness and Dying Thoughts
I think someone dying is something people are always overreacting to. One of the only things that is promised in this world is the day you will die. I think what really makes people afraid does not know when it is going to happen and because of this you can’t say goodbye to anyone. Also in the United States many people are afraid that the way they will be killed is by homicide because on the news there are always cases about people being murdered. If you think that your last minutes on earth will be the most physically is what scares people the most. However I think that knowing you’re going to die makes what you do on earth a lot more meaningful and depending on the different views a person has such as religion, dying could be a good thing.
A lot of people in the world believe in Christianity and in the Christian religion when someone dies they might go to hell depending on the sins that they have committed on earth. Others who are faithful to God and follow by the religion go to heaven. However I’ve never met one person to come back from being dead and say exactly what happens and because of what people am told dying is something to fear. It’s seen as a point of no return, there is no way to be with the people who you loved on earth. If dying is really a place where you have to be by yourself not able to see anyone you love or know it becomes something people want to avoid. I think when someone gets sick and is near death you start to feel for them more because while you are able to stay on the earth with friends and family they have to ‘’die and go off to near return’’.
What I have been taught about death, is when someone dies you have a funeral to remember all of the things that person did on earth and it’s a time for the friends and family to come together to reminisce. A lot of people tend to cry at funerals again because this person will never return to them but I see a funeral as a celebration. It isn’t a joyous celebration but it’s a time to take a step back from reality and think about the person and celebrate the life that they lived opposed to the live that they are no longer going to be living. I think what I’ve been taught about death is probably the norm for people who live in the United States, such as flowers at the funeral, wearing all black to show that you are mourning someone and a casket that is going to be the final resting bed. But on to Illness, I don’t think that illness is too far from dying. Being dead however is something different but many people who are ill have a chance of dying. When someone is ill people tend to classify them in the same category as someone who is dying.
When you are dying people picture the person to be unable to help themself. They are in a state where that person’s body is not at one hundred percent and they are usually seen as weak, and hopeless. This is also how people who are ill are depicted. It’s almost like illness is a step before dying. If you become progressingly ill than your considered dying.
I don’t know what would be a way of dealing with sickness and dying. The ways that are shown in the media are usually the ways that people tend to handle this in real life. If someone is sick or dying, usually they are in a hospital or have someone taking care of them, and when they die they have a funeral or they are cremated.
1A
Illness and Dying Thoughts
I think someone dying is something people are always overreacting to. One of the only things that is promised in this world is the day you will die. I think what really makes people afraid does not know when it is going to happen and because of this you can’t say goodbye to anyone. Also in the United States many people are afraid that the way they will be killed is by homicide because on the news there are always cases about people being murdered. If you think that your last minutes on earth will be the most physically is what scares people the most. However I think that knowing you’re going to die makes what you do on earth a lot more meaningful and depending on the different views a person has such as religion, dying could be a good thing.
A lot of people in the world believe in Christianity and in the Christian religion when someone dies they might go to hell depending on the sins that they have committed on earth. Others who are faithful to God and follow by the religion go to heaven. However I’ve never met one person to come back from being dead and say exactly what happens and because of what people am told dying is something to fear. It’s seen as a point of no return, there is no way to be with the people who you loved on earth. If dying is really a place where you have to be by yourself not able to see anyone you love or know it becomes something people want to avoid. I think when someone gets sick and is near death you start to feel for them more because while you are able to stay on the earth with friends and family they have to ‘’die and go off to near return’’.
What I have been taught about death, is when someone dies you have a funeral to remember all of the things that person did on earth and it’s a time for the friends and family to come together to reminisce. A lot of people tend to cry at funerals again because this person will never return to them but I see a funeral as a celebration. It isn’t a joyous celebration but it’s a time to take a step back from reality and think about the person and celebrate the life that they lived opposed to the live that they are no longer going to be living. I think what I’ve been taught about death is probably the norm for people who live in the United States, such as flowers at the funeral, wearing all black to show that you are mourning someone and a casket that is going to be the final resting bed. But on to Illness, I don’t think that illness is too far from dying. Being dead however is something different but many people who are ill have a chance of dying. When someone is ill people tend to classify them in the same category as someone who is dying.
When you are dying people picture the person to be unable to help themself. They are in a state where that person’s body is not at one hundred percent and they are usually seen as weak, and hopeless. This is also how people who are ill are depicted. It’s almost like illness is a step before dying. If you become progressingly ill than your considered dying.
I don’t know what would be a way of dealing with sickness and dying. The ways that are shown in the media are usually the ways that people tend to handle this in real life. If someone is sick or dying, usually they are in a hospital or have someone taking care of them, and when they die they have a funeral or they are cremated.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
24 Hours of No Eating Parts 2,3,4 (HW#11)
24 Hours of No EATING Part 1a
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3gKJoHMYaA
24 Hours of No Eating Part 2b
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3KwU1gZO0
24 Hours of No Eating Part 2
(I was doing exercises before I ate and I found that I only did one less rep from the day that I had food. This was Chinese Food and I think this was mostly because of the soreness from the previous day. I went from 11 reps in 20 minutes to 10 reps. I also struggled more the second time but knowing that I would be able to eat shortly made me less hungry)
24 Hours of No Eating Part 3
24 Hours of No Eating Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3gKJoHMYaA
24 Hours of No Eating Part 2b
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap3KwU1gZO0
24 Hours of No Eating Part 2
(I was doing exercises before I ate and I found that I only did one less rep from the day that I had food. This was Chinese Food and I think this was mostly because of the soreness from the previous day. I went from 11 reps in 20 minutes to 10 reps. I also struggled more the second time but knowing that I would be able to eat shortly made me less hungry)
24 Hours of No Eating Part 3
24 Hours of No Eating Part 4
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
HW 12 Final Food Project 2 Outline
Thesis: The Dominant practices of food in the United States are often nightmarish industrial atrocities; these atrocities have evolved to fit the United States culture and cannot easily be changed by people with completely different ideas.
Major Claim: The lack of exposure of the way food is being consumed, what is being consumed, and the amount of what is being consumed, shows that these food ways will not change because it isn't being brought to the society's attention.
Supporting Claim 1: Even with the food movement, the way food is shown in the media is glamorized.
Evidence: Fast Food Commericals
http://www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/022105.html
http://www.thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/022105.html
Evidence: Value Meals in Fast Food Places
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html
http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/food_quality/nutrition_choices.html
Evidence: Targeting Younger Ages by Promoting Animated Movies
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/05/health/main591325.shtml
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100209_obesity.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/05/health/main591325.shtml
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100209_obesity.htm
Evidence: Food Network TV; Shows like Man vs Food, Ace of Cakes,
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Too-Fat-For-Reality-Is-TV-Exploiting-Obesity-23618.html
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Too-Fat-For-Reality-Is-TV-Exploiting-Obesity-23618.html
Evidence: Increasing amount of obese people on TV (However the 'Idle Person' is skinny)
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2010/09/obesity-and-overeating-are-hilarious.html
http://www.tvscoop.tv/2010/10/36129.html
http://pastaqueen.com/blog/2004/10/fat-people-on-tv/
http://www.weightymatters.ca/2010/09/obesity-and-overeating-are-hilarious.html
http://www.tvscoop.tv/2010/10/36129.html
http://pastaqueen.com/blog/2004/10/fat-people-on-tv/
Supporting Claim 2: Eating Fast Food is promoted more.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/724650
http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/health/kids-see-fewer-sweetsbeverages-ads-but-more-fast-food-ads/
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/724650
http://www.organicauthority.com/blog/health/kids-see-fewer-sweetsbeverages-ads-but-more-fast-food-ads/
Evidence: Professional Sports Players Endorse these foods.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27646672/Dwight_Howard_Loves_McDonald_s_AND_Wendy_s
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4867029
http://advertising.about.com/od/kobebryant/a/bryantsendorse.htm
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27646672/Dwight_Howard_Loves_McDonald_s_AND_Wendy_s
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4867029
http://advertising.about.com/od/kobebryant/a/bryantsendorse.htm
Evidence: Differences in Packaging on the food. (More or less attractive)
http://www.mrc.org/bmi/commentary/2005/A_Beef_with_the_Media_Over_Obesity_Bias.html
http://www.ewg.org/node/26641
http://www.mrc.org/bmi/commentary/2005/A_Beef_with_the_Media_Over_Obesity_Bias.html
http://www.ewg.org/node/26641
Evidence: Magazine Ads, TV Ads, Newspaper Ads
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100209_obesity.htm
Evidence: Falsifying Appearance of Food on Advertisements.http://www.world-science.net/othernews/100209_obesity.htm
http://www.naturalnews.com/022105.html
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Food Inc. Homework
Chris R
The film Food Inc is a combination of both books Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan and the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. From the beginning the film reveals more and more about the food industry that the average person does not know about what happens to their food. The main idea of the movie is the industry does not want you to know about the food you are eating because you might not want to eat it. The story takes a look into the ideas behind the place where food comes from. The way these animals are treated and all of the additives that go into food which aren’t know about. This big mass production industry is up against farmers who have a healthier way of choosing how to raise animals. Whereas industries are only focused on getting as much as possible in the quickest amount of times many farmers like to care for the animals they have and find alternatives to the additives packaged in fast food and foods in the supermarket. Even people are treated without respect in this industry. Many people are given the same mentality towards as the pigs are given. It’s all about efficiency of making as much food as possible instead of making the highest quality of food as possible.
The book offers a overview of everything. This is something that the book does not offer. Each book Fast Food Nation and Omnivore’s Dilemma both talk about different things that are centered on the same idea. However the film gives a bit of insight into what both of the books are about. Each section of the movie also brings a conclusion and continues to tieback to the main idea. Also in Omnivore’s Dilemma Michael Pollan does quote some people who have statements that support his argument however seeing these people support him is something that the book doesn’t have. When the book tells you what someone says it is just words on paper but when you hear the person talk about what they think it creates a connection to that person as well and not just the author. Something that the book offers that does not show up in the movie is the part where Michael Pollan tries to become a hunter gatherer himself. This is something that he believes is important to how humans use to eat and going through this experience would be something that could help the perspective he has on food and farmers. This does not show up in the movie however it does show up in the book and it is one of the closing arguments used in the book.
I feel like the most powerful thing about this was the way that the animals are treated. The animals are forced to eat things that they usually don’t eat and because of this they become sick and so we don’t also get this sickness it makes the food more chemical filled. It seems like for us to get what we want from these animals we have to risk their health and at the same time we risk our own.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
HW 7D
Chapter 18
Summary- While hunting for food, I became more aware of everything that was going on around me. The slightest things even drew my attention. With Angel and a rifle in hand I killed a pig. After not knowing much about the gun for example if the safety was on and only having shot it once at a gun range. Then the pig had to be tended to and prepared which was completely disgusting. However with killing this pig it made me think about how I had the first hand experience with killing the pig. Humans justify these killings with attacking like animals don't feel pain like humans.
Gems-"This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism- the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society. Mercy toward the animals in our care is one such casualty."
"My emotions were as surging and confused as the knot of panicked pigs had been on this spot just a moment before." (Pollan 343)
Thoughts- I feel like even though Michael Pollan did go out and do his own hunting, and now I know that the next chapter will be gathering, Michael Pollan did kill a pig which is what his chapter seventeen is all about. How humans are convinced that it is okay to kill animals because they are animals. No other reason. It is a kind of racism and although this is probably the easiest way to get the food from the animal it also is in support of what the previous chapter is against and killing animals to eat them is also something that has been done as far as we can remember. I feel like if the case was, animals get killed for no reason that would be spe but as shown in this chapter its necessary.
Chapter 19-
Summary- Gathering was next on the schedule. Gathering was surprisingly hard but I managed to gather a few mushrooms with Angelo. Usually Americans do not see food as something sacred but when it comes to gathering these mushrooms it is a completely different story. Managing to find a handful myself was even a feat because it was that difficult to find them. Its hard to tell the patterns of fungi even now a day. There are so many variables about what would be considered a good mushroom and a bad one that it makes my finds even greater.
Gems-"After the first pig hunt Jean-Pierre had driven me home, and I used the captive car time to probe him once again on the subject of mushrooms" (Pollan 378)
"Morel hunting didn't sound like much fun, more like survival training than a walk in the woods. I crossed my finger that Anthony was just trying to scare me and set my alarm from 4:30AM, wondering why it is all these hunting-gathering expeditions had to big at such ungodly hours" (Pollan 379)
Thoughts- I feel again like this is a good closing to the book. Although its not the last chapter it is a very good way to make the story come in a complete circle. It has a person talking about what they believe and at the end he makes the advance to help and experience a new thing. For example in school after watching Food Inc. Naima said that many people don't do what they say they will do when it comes to making commitments. Michael Pollan could have written an entire book about what should happen but as Michael Jackson says change starts with the man in the mirror (NOT A CLICHE JUST A REALLY GOOD WAY TO USE THAT SONG IN A B-LOG POST).
Chapter 20
Summary- Eating the food was next. All day was spent preparing the food and getting ready by cooking with the ingredients that were gathered and food that was hunted. Eating food how it was eaten many years ago. The meal included Egg Fettuccine, grilled loin from the Wild Pig. Local Garden Salad, Fava bean, Angelo Garro Petite Syrah Wine of 2003.The meal was not the best tasting meal however making this meal personally made it all the better.Unlike most food which comes from a fast food place this was a "homemade meal".
Gems- "I prized, too, the almost perfect transparency of this meal, the brevity and simplicity of the food chain that linked it to the wider world." (Pollan 409)
"Another thing cooking is, or can be, is a way to honor the things we're eating, the animal and plants and fungi that have been sacrificed to gratify our needs and desires, as well as the place and the people that produced them" (Pollan 404)
Thoughts- I find it interesting that compared to the meal Michael Pollan had, i'm mostly used to eating foods from fast food places. When you go into these places it is in your head that these are the places to get food and because its so common, you trust these people with your food and health. However this experience is something that should be experienced by everyone. Many people think they are eating food like this without much knowledge of what goes in their mouth. The only question that is asked is what tastes better.
Summary- While hunting for food, I became more aware of everything that was going on around me. The slightest things even drew my attention. With Angel and a rifle in hand I killed a pig. After not knowing much about the gun for example if the safety was on and only having shot it once at a gun range. Then the pig had to be tended to and prepared which was completely disgusting. However with killing this pig it made me think about how I had the first hand experience with killing the pig. Humans justify these killings with attacking like animals don't feel pain like humans.
Gems-"This is another example of the cultural contradictions of capitalism- the tendency over time for the economic impulse to erode the moral underpinnings of society. Mercy toward the animals in our care is one such casualty."
"My emotions were as surging and confused as the knot of panicked pigs had been on this spot just a moment before." (Pollan 343)
Thoughts- I feel like even though Michael Pollan did go out and do his own hunting, and now I know that the next chapter will be gathering, Michael Pollan did kill a pig which is what his chapter seventeen is all about. How humans are convinced that it is okay to kill animals because they are animals. No other reason. It is a kind of racism and although this is probably the easiest way to get the food from the animal it also is in support of what the previous chapter is against and killing animals to eat them is also something that has been done as far as we can remember. I feel like if the case was, animals get killed for no reason that would be spe but as shown in this chapter its necessary.
Chapter 19-
Summary- Gathering was next on the schedule. Gathering was surprisingly hard but I managed to gather a few mushrooms with Angelo. Usually Americans do not see food as something sacred but when it comes to gathering these mushrooms it is a completely different story. Managing to find a handful myself was even a feat because it was that difficult to find them. Its hard to tell the patterns of fungi even now a day. There are so many variables about what would be considered a good mushroom and a bad one that it makes my finds even greater.
Gems-"After the first pig hunt Jean-Pierre had driven me home, and I used the captive car time to probe him once again on the subject of mushrooms" (Pollan 378)
"Morel hunting didn't sound like much fun, more like survival training than a walk in the woods. I crossed my finger that Anthony was just trying to scare me and set my alarm from 4:30AM, wondering why it is all these hunting-gathering expeditions had to big at such ungodly hours" (Pollan 379)
Thoughts- I feel again like this is a good closing to the book. Although its not the last chapter it is a very good way to make the story come in a complete circle. It has a person talking about what they believe and at the end he makes the advance to help and experience a new thing. For example in school after watching Food Inc. Naima said that many people don't do what they say they will do when it comes to making commitments. Michael Pollan could have written an entire book about what should happen but as Michael Jackson says change starts with the man in the mirror (NOT A CLICHE JUST A REALLY GOOD WAY TO USE THAT SONG IN A B-LOG POST).
Chapter 20
Summary- Eating the food was next. All day was spent preparing the food and getting ready by cooking with the ingredients that were gathered and food that was hunted. Eating food how it was eaten many years ago. The meal included Egg Fettuccine, grilled loin from the Wild Pig. Local Garden Salad, Fava bean, Angelo Garro Petite Syrah Wine of 2003.The meal was not the best tasting meal however making this meal personally made it all the better.Unlike most food which comes from a fast food place this was a "homemade meal".
Gems- "I prized, too, the almost perfect transparency of this meal, the brevity and simplicity of the food chain that linked it to the wider world." (Pollan 409)
"Another thing cooking is, or can be, is a way to honor the things we're eating, the animal and plants and fungi that have been sacrificed to gratify our needs and desires, as well as the place and the people that produced them" (Pollan 404)
Thoughts- I find it interesting that compared to the meal Michael Pollan had, i'm mostly used to eating foods from fast food places. When you go into these places it is in your head that these are the places to get food and because its so common, you trust these people with your food and health. However this experience is something that should be experienced by everyone. Many people think they are eating food like this without much knowledge of what goes in their mouth. The only question that is asked is what tastes better.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
HW 7C
Chapter 11
Summary- Joel Satalin has a farm that is independent. Some animal depend on others any all of the animals on the Satalin farm use each others resources to live. The grass feeds the cows, the cows manure can feed the hens, the hens and it all works as a functioning ecosystem. Everything is planned so there is not much pollution and the production level also helps to keep the ecosystem intact. Increasing one thing would mean you have to increase many others which would throw off everything.
Gems- "The idea is to not slavishly imitate nature, but to model a natural ecosystem in all its diversity and interdependence, one where all the species "fully express their physiological distinctiveness."
Summary- Joel Satalin has a farm that is independent. Some animal depend on others any all of the animals on the Satalin farm use each others resources to live. The grass feeds the cows, the cows manure can feed the hens, the hens and it all works as a functioning ecosystem. Everything is planned so there is not much pollution and the production level also helps to keep the ecosystem intact. Increasing one thing would mean you have to increase many others which would throw off everything.
Gems- "The idea is to not slavishly imitate nature, but to model a natural ecosystem in all its diversity and interdependence, one where all the species "fully express their physiological distinctiveness."
"I asked Joel how much food Polyface produces in a season, and he rattled off these figures:
30,000 eggs,12,00 broilers,800 stewing hens,50 beeves (representing 25,00 pounds of beef),250 hogs (50,00 pounds of pork),800 turkeys,500 rabbits. (Pollan 222)"
Thoughts- I feel like this chapter shows a lot about the farm life but it also shows how crucial some parts of the farm are to each other. The farm is running itself.
Chapter 12
Summary- Not only does Joel Satalin raise the animals on his farm. But he also has to slaughter them when it is time for them to be shipped away. Unable to sell the processed food from his own farm Joel finds that killing his own chickens is another way to show that his animals makes a statement and it also can reassure customers that everything about the chicken was done by him on his farm. Killing the chickens was something that Joel had no problem doing however it was not easy for someone who has never done it before. The chickens bleed and are eviscerated all on the farm. Doing this to a chicken could change the mine of how people see chicken but to Joel it isn't as bad.
Gems-"The viscera were unexpectedly beautiful, glistening in a whole palette of slightly electric colors, from the steely blue striations of the heat muscle to the sleek milk chocolate liver to the dull mustard of the gallbladder" (Pollan 234).
"It was hard to watch. I told myself the spasms were involuntary, and they probably were, I told myself that the birds waiting their turn appeared to have no idea what was going on in the cone next to them. I told myself that their suffering, once their throats were slit , was brief." (Pollan 231)
Thoughts- Everyone knows that this happens but when eating food its better to not think about the suffering another animal had to go through to make you feel better. I guess I see why vegetarians choose not to eat meat however many animals are grown for the sole purpose of eating. SO eat them.
Chapter 13
Summary- Polyface Farm only sells the things found on their farm to other markets, restaurants, and food places which are local to the area. Although the Polyface products are sold for slightly more expensive prices it is worth it. Compared to other farms Polyface Farm products don't have as much pollution and added medicines that are inserted in the food. Selling to local businesses Polyface can keep a relationship with the people who they sell to oppose to industrial farms who sell to everyone.
Gems- "I spent the better part of Thursday riding shotgun in Art's panel truck, an old orange Dodge Caravan with a cranky compressor on the roof and a sign on the side that says 'On Delievery From Polyface Inc. Follow Me to the Best Restuarants In Town'" (Pollan 251)
"Sitting around the trailer's tiny kitchen table drinking sodas, Bev and Joel talked about the economics of selling food locally." (Pollan 247)
Thoughts- It seems like a good idea economically to sell to the local restaurants and markets because this way people know where the food comes from and you can create a relationship with them probably gaining a lot of respect which could mean you can expand your business from these people who are promoting your product.
Chapter 14
Summary- I took the products from the Polyface Farm and composed a dinner from items found directly on the farm grown by Joel Satalin himself. The meal consisted of two roasted chickens, corn and salad. The meal was great. It goes to show that the way Joel grows his food is a good alternative to the way most farmers grown through chemicals and medicines.
Gems-"So it makes evolutionary sense that pastured meats, the nutritional profile of which closely resembles that of wild game, would be better for us." (Pollan 267)
"Unless of course an industrail diet of easy sugars has dulled your taste for the earthy sweetness of corn, now that it has to compete with things like soda." (Pollan 266)
Thoughts- At the beginning of this part, the author seemed almost disturbed by the idea of eating the food in which he personally killed or saw die but now he is eating roasted chicken. I find that is what everyone does down. We look at the possibility of how good something might taste and how it got on the plate but the taste ALWAYS wins.
Chapter 15
Summary- Making my own meal was the next step in the adventure. Hunting and gathering things to eat, killing something to eat and getting the experience with this way of eating. Completely making my own meal and being the one who does every part of creating this meal.
Gems- "My wager in undertaking this experiment is that hunting and gathering (and growing) a meal would preforce teach me things about the ecology and ethics of eating that I could not get in a supermarket or fast-food chain or even on a farm" (Pollan 280)
"Agriculture brought humans a great many blessings, but it also brought infectious disease (from living in close quarters with one another and our animals) and malnutrition (from eating too much of the same thing when crops were good, and not enough of anything when they weren't" (page 279).
Thoughts- The idea of growing your own food is something that we did in class. It was actually very rewarding to do this so i understand why the author would want to experience something like this. it also seems like a large reward to kill your own food instead of buying it because it is something that sounds like it would taste better knowing it came from you.
Chapter 16
Summary- People and rats have similar ways of picking what to eat and similar tendencies of what to eat. Humans tend to aim for a diet of many different things and we also try to eat foods which are tasty and are also culturally appealing and even affordable. Most people see what is good to eat depending on how it how it taste where as people in other countries usually eat things that are nutritionally good when matched together.
Gems-"The set of rules for preparing food we call a cuisine, for example specifies combinations of food and flavors that on examination do great deal to mediate the omnivores dilemma." (Pollan 296)
"Last but not least, cooking abruptly changed thee terms of evolutionary arms race between omnivores and the species they would eat by allowing us to overcome their defenses" (Pollan 293)
Thoughts- I agree with a lot of this chapter. People do usually tend to eat depending on what tastes good because eating has become a kind of activity for example eating contests and all you can eat buffet instead of a way to refresh yourself with nutrients.
Chapter 17
Summary- Humans have a hard time eating meat if they think about everything that the animal has to go through to be on the plate. People don't have much contact with common meats that are eaten (fish, cows, pigs, and chickens). However many humans also think that some animals might not be able to suffer or not exactly feel the same pain humans feel. The question is why is it justified to eat other species and what is the difference between how we treat animals and cruelty to humans. Many people decided to vegetarians because of the way the animals are treated but many animals wouldn't exist without humans eating them.
Gems- "Whether our interest in eating animals outweighs their interest in not being eaten (assuming for a moment that is their interest) ultimately turns on the vexed question of animal suffering" (Pollan 315)
"Vegetarianism doesn't seem an unreasonable response to the existence of such an evil" (Pollan 319)
Thoughts- I think humans are so used to eating meats and we do know where it comes from however the taste of things are what makes someone want to eat certain things and because it taste good is what keeps us eating it. Although people do know what happens to these animals it seems like these are the roles of animals in life.
Chapter 12
Summary- Not only does Joel Satalin raise the animals on his farm. But he also has to slaughter them when it is time for them to be shipped away. Unable to sell the processed food from his own farm Joel finds that killing his own chickens is another way to show that his animals makes a statement and it also can reassure customers that everything about the chicken was done by him on his farm. Killing the chickens was something that Joel had no problem doing however it was not easy for someone who has never done it before. The chickens bleed and are eviscerated all on the farm. Doing this to a chicken could change the mine of how people see chicken but to Joel it isn't as bad.
Gems-"The viscera were unexpectedly beautiful, glistening in a whole palette of slightly electric colors, from the steely blue striations of the heat muscle to the sleek milk chocolate liver to the dull mustard of the gallbladder" (Pollan 234).
"It was hard to watch. I told myself the spasms were involuntary, and they probably were, I told myself that the birds waiting their turn appeared to have no idea what was going on in the cone next to them. I told myself that their suffering, once their throats were slit , was brief." (Pollan 231)
Thoughts- Everyone knows that this happens but when eating food its better to not think about the suffering another animal had to go through to make you feel better. I guess I see why vegetarians choose not to eat meat however many animals are grown for the sole purpose of eating. SO eat them.
Chapter 13
Summary- Polyface Farm only sells the things found on their farm to other markets, restaurants, and food places which are local to the area. Although the Polyface products are sold for slightly more expensive prices it is worth it. Compared to other farms Polyface Farm products don't have as much pollution and added medicines that are inserted in the food. Selling to local businesses Polyface can keep a relationship with the people who they sell to oppose to industrial farms who sell to everyone.
Gems- "I spent the better part of Thursday riding shotgun in Art's panel truck, an old orange Dodge Caravan with a cranky compressor on the roof and a sign on the side that says 'On Delievery From Polyface Inc. Follow Me to the Best Restuarants In Town'" (Pollan 251)
"Sitting around the trailer's tiny kitchen table drinking sodas, Bev and Joel talked about the economics of selling food locally." (Pollan 247)
Thoughts- It seems like a good idea economically to sell to the local restaurants and markets because this way people know where the food comes from and you can create a relationship with them probably gaining a lot of respect which could mean you can expand your business from these people who are promoting your product.
Chapter 14
Summary- I took the products from the Polyface Farm and composed a dinner from items found directly on the farm grown by Joel Satalin himself. The meal consisted of two roasted chickens, corn and salad. The meal was great. It goes to show that the way Joel grows his food is a good alternative to the way most farmers grown through chemicals and medicines.
Gems-"So it makes evolutionary sense that pastured meats, the nutritional profile of which closely resembles that of wild game, would be better for us." (Pollan 267)
"Unless of course an industrail diet of easy sugars has dulled your taste for the earthy sweetness of corn, now that it has to compete with things like soda." (Pollan 266)
Thoughts- At the beginning of this part, the author seemed almost disturbed by the idea of eating the food in which he personally killed or saw die but now he is eating roasted chicken. I find that is what everyone does down. We look at the possibility of how good something might taste and how it got on the plate but the taste ALWAYS wins.
Chapter 15
Summary- Making my own meal was the next step in the adventure. Hunting and gathering things to eat, killing something to eat and getting the experience with this way of eating. Completely making my own meal and being the one who does every part of creating this meal.
Gems- "My wager in undertaking this experiment is that hunting and gathering (and growing) a meal would preforce teach me things about the ecology and ethics of eating that I could not get in a supermarket or fast-food chain or even on a farm" (Pollan 280)
"Agriculture brought humans a great many blessings, but it also brought infectious disease (from living in close quarters with one another and our animals) and malnutrition (from eating too much of the same thing when crops were good, and not enough of anything when they weren't" (page 279).
Thoughts- The idea of growing your own food is something that we did in class. It was actually very rewarding to do this so i understand why the author would want to experience something like this. it also seems like a large reward to kill your own food instead of buying it because it is something that sounds like it would taste better knowing it came from you.
Chapter 16
Summary- People and rats have similar ways of picking what to eat and similar tendencies of what to eat. Humans tend to aim for a diet of many different things and we also try to eat foods which are tasty and are also culturally appealing and even affordable. Most people see what is good to eat depending on how it how it taste where as people in other countries usually eat things that are nutritionally good when matched together.
Gems-"The set of rules for preparing food we call a cuisine, for example specifies combinations of food and flavors that on examination do great deal to mediate the omnivores dilemma." (Pollan 296)
"Last but not least, cooking abruptly changed thee terms of evolutionary arms race between omnivores and the species they would eat by allowing us to overcome their defenses" (Pollan 293)
Thoughts- I agree with a lot of this chapter. People do usually tend to eat depending on what tastes good because eating has become a kind of activity for example eating contests and all you can eat buffet instead of a way to refresh yourself with nutrients.
Chapter 17
Summary- Humans have a hard time eating meat if they think about everything that the animal has to go through to be on the plate. People don't have much contact with common meats that are eaten (fish, cows, pigs, and chickens). However many humans also think that some animals might not be able to suffer or not exactly feel the same pain humans feel. The question is why is it justified to eat other species and what is the difference between how we treat animals and cruelty to humans. Many people decided to vegetarians because of the way the animals are treated but many animals wouldn't exist without humans eating them.
Gems- "Whether our interest in eating animals outweighs their interest in not being eaten (assuming for a moment that is their interest) ultimately turns on the vexed question of animal suffering" (Pollan 315)
"Vegetarianism doesn't seem an unreasonable response to the existence of such an evil" (Pollan 319)
Thoughts- I think humans are so used to eating meats and we do know where it comes from however the taste of things are what makes someone want to eat certain things and because it taste good is what keeps us eating it. Although people do know what happens to these animals it seems like these are the roles of animals in life.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Freakonomic Response
During the course of the movie, the Freakonomics authors address correlation versus causation by saying that many cases of correlation are not causation however some correlation are not causation. During the segment about names they look into the correlation between what someone’s name is and how successful they are in life. Many people that had common black names were not always as successful as people who had white names. However it was not because these people had these names that gave them a set fate of being less successful in life. Most of the time someone who had a common black name was someone who had less opportunity because they were not in the same housing as the whites and had a different household. There were many college associates that did tests on the way names were spelled and the general race that certain names came from and there was no one name that would put someone ahead in life. However Freakamonics suggests that in some cases a name could be the cause of the way job searches go from the correlation. An experiment was done to see the correlation between a person who had a common white name and someone who had a common black name. The person with the common white name had the exact same resume as someone who was black but the person who had the common black name had 33% of call backs from places as someone who had a common white name. This would mean that while during a job hunt if it took a person with a white 10 weeks to get a job it would take a person with a black name 15 weeks with the same credentials to get a job. The Freakonomics authors seem to believe that some correlation is causation however in different aspects of a subject it isn’t. According to the film name can’t determine if you do good in life but a name can determine if you might have a slight advantage over other people who may have uncommon names. Another relationship of some correlation is causation is another experiment where children are bribed. The correlation is that when some people are bribed they then try to do better or meet the standard that needs to be met so they can have the reward. In the case of Steve Levitts daughter who was bribed with M&M’s to use the toilet, the M&M’s are what caused her to use the bathroom more. This would be an experiment to support that correlation is causation because she started taking advantage of using the bathroom and just using it more frequently to get the reward. However at the school in Chicago students were bribed with money to do better in school. The school would pay the students to get above C’s and while most students did take this bribe and get C’s that is all they needed to get the money. Also in some cases kids did even worse over a period of time and had to catch up later. Most people didn’t do work because they wanted to learn so they didn’t learn as much however they did the work to get the reward. This is a part of the film that shows correlation is not causation because even though some kids did do better when bribed some kids actually did worse and kids who didn’t get the award the first time around gave up on trying to get it in general.
The Freakonomics authors mostly rely on the evidence of the results taken by different experiments. Cheating in sumo wrestling, names of people leading to success, and the idea that bribery can get someone to do something positive they wouldn’t do without the bribe. In these experiments and research the Freakonomics authors use these numbers to show how something’s in the world work. They also use the interviews of people who are actually experiencing these different subjects instead of only looking at numbers and talking to professors. Instead of just taking all of the results from the school bribery experiment the Freakonomics authors listened to the people who actually experienced this and took this information as part of the film. This is innovative because a lot of the time when people are numbers you don’t understand why the numbers are this way. For example by looking at the numbers of the kids who were bribed to do good in school there were some kids who did worse. However this could just be taken as a skew or an outlier in the data but if you interview these people it gives you an explanation of what happened. Most people like to take math as something that can’t be incorrect and while that is true to some extent when the numbers are from data by people not everyone is in the same situation. So interviewing someone gives more insight to why something happened and not just what happened. Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices. Freakonomics serves as an inspiration and good example to our attempt to explore the "hidden-in-plain-sight" weirdness of dominant social practices. I agree with this statement because while some people believe that correlation is causation the Freakonomics takes that and tries to show different aspects of what people see in everyday life to show that it isn’t always as it appears. This is especially true in the sumo wrestling segment. Because some people would see it that sumo’s with 8-6 records usually don’t feel like they need to win the last one and that’s what causes them to lose however there is more to it and sumo’s actually see this as opportunities to put themselves ahead. For US food ways the book Omnivores Dilemma shows that what we think is the cause of some of the ways that we eat aren’t always how they appear.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Homework 8
HW 7B
Chapter 6
Summary- The consumer is responsible for eating billions of bushels of corn. The idea isn't to cut down the numbers of corn processed but instead to eat more of it in different ways. In the nineteenth century the way to consume corn was by drinking alcoholic beverages because there was a lot of corn in alcoholic beverages. The large consumption of alcoholic drinks lead to health problems and helped lead to obesity.
Gems-"That at least is what we're doing with about 530 million bushel of the annual corn harvest--turning it into 17.5 billion pounds of high-fructose corn syrup.(Pallon 103)"
"Much as today, the astounding productivity of American farmers proved to be their own worst enemy, as well as a threat to public health...Sooner or later, clever marketer will figure out a way to induce the human omnivore to consume surfeit of cheap calories. (Pallon 101)"
Thoughts- This chapter helped to show how much we depend on corn. I feel like knowing that we are forced to consume more and more corn almost frightens me. This could mean that corn is introduced to new products in new ways however the general public might never hear about it because there is much that it needs to be put in products to it doesn't go to waste.
Chapter 7
Summary- McDonald's food is something some people see as a treat. However even in this food there are something things that can't be explained and in many products there is a large amount of corn. In a normal McDonald's meal it is possible to eat almost half of what your supposed to eat in calories. Most of the products on the menu are corn dependent and instead of cutting down on corn the idea is to sell larger amounts of food but to also do this very cheaply. By doing this more corn is consumed and more money is made.
Gems- "I ate a lot of McDonald's as a kid. This was in pre-Wallerstein era, when you still had to order a second little burger or sack of fries if you wanted more, and the chicken nugget had not yet been invented. (Pallon 111)"
"These days 19 percent of American meals are eaten in the car.(Pallon 110)''
Thoughts- I stopped eating McDonald's in the 5th grade but before that I always use to eat McDonald's because it is one block away from my school and it was one block away from the school I attended. I also noticed that getting double the quantity would be just a couple more quarters. I always would look for the upgrades because it was more food for cheaper but this book brings more awareness to exactly how unhealthy that was seeing as the authors wife had a salad and still consumed large amounts of corn and calories.
Chapter 8
Summary- With all of the farms that are feed corn and given medicines there are some farms that do still feed the animals grass.Joel Salatin does have an organic farm. The animals are feed grass, hummus and other natural foods. This is rather uncommon because it is easier and cheaper to feed the animals corn because their are so many bushels of corn to be eaten.
Gems-"Though it was only the third week of June, the pasture beneath me had already seen several rotational turns. Before being cut earlier in the week for the hay that would feed the farm's animals through the winter, it had been grazed twice by beef cattle (Pallon 126)".
Thoughts- I think that having an organic farm would be something that should happen more often however it would cost a lot of money to do this. It is good to see a change however. Knowing that there are some farms that have alternate ways of taking care of their animals.
Chapter 9
Summary- The line between something organic and something that isn't organic is becoming very dim. Some foods are advertised as very organic such as food from Whole Foods and other grocers which are known to be organic however it is not easy to make this statement. Some animals that are treated differently with different kinds of feed then corn such as chickens can be subject to infection even with different lifestyle conditions. In fact sometimes what some people seem to think organic is could in fact be worse than something that isn't considered organic.
Gems- "We were part of the food industry now," he told me. "But I wanted to leverage that position to redefine the way we grow food--not what people want to eat or how we distribute it." (Pallon 133)
"No farms I had ever visited before prepared me for the industrial organic farms I saw in California." (Pallon 158)
Thoughts-I feel like with this being the case what is the advantage to spending a lot of money on a product that might be close to the same as the product however the product would be at a cheaper cost. Also what would happen with the stores such as Whole Foods if they knew information like this.
Chapter 10
Summary- Grass is also something that is very important to humans. Less used than corn because it is much easier and cheaper however grass can also be used to feed animals such as cows and other animals. Grass does need more care and is not as cheap however is a good alternative. Cows can get the suns energy from growing grass and this again is transfered to humans from beef. The government doesn't even give commodity to the grass farmers. However corn farmers like George Naylor gets commodity for his work.
Gems-"At dinner I mentioned that this was probably the all-time most local meal I'd ever eaten." (Pallon 203)
"The farm and the family comprised remarkably self-contained world, in the way I imagine all American farm life once did." (Pallon 204)
Thoughts- Grass does seem like a good alternative because it is more natural. However it makes more sense to use the corn instead because it is cheaper and there is so much corn. My question is what motivates someone to grow grass instead of using the cheaper more easier acquired corn?
Summary- The consumer is responsible for eating billions of bushels of corn. The idea isn't to cut down the numbers of corn processed but instead to eat more of it in different ways. In the nineteenth century the way to consume corn was by drinking alcoholic beverages because there was a lot of corn in alcoholic beverages. The large consumption of alcoholic drinks lead to health problems and helped lead to obesity.
Gems-"That at least is what we're doing with about 530 million bushel of the annual corn harvest--turning it into 17.5 billion pounds of high-fructose corn syrup.(Pallon 103)"
"Much as today, the astounding productivity of American farmers proved to be their own worst enemy, as well as a threat to public health...Sooner or later, clever marketer will figure out a way to induce the human omnivore to consume surfeit of cheap calories. (Pallon 101)"
Thoughts- This chapter helped to show how much we depend on corn. I feel like knowing that we are forced to consume more and more corn almost frightens me. This could mean that corn is introduced to new products in new ways however the general public might never hear about it because there is much that it needs to be put in products to it doesn't go to waste.
Chapter 7
Summary- McDonald's food is something some people see as a treat. However even in this food there are something things that can't be explained and in many products there is a large amount of corn. In a normal McDonald's meal it is possible to eat almost half of what your supposed to eat in calories. Most of the products on the menu are corn dependent and instead of cutting down on corn the idea is to sell larger amounts of food but to also do this very cheaply. By doing this more corn is consumed and more money is made.
Gems- "I ate a lot of McDonald's as a kid. This was in pre-Wallerstein era, when you still had to order a second little burger or sack of fries if you wanted more, and the chicken nugget had not yet been invented. (Pallon 111)"
"These days 19 percent of American meals are eaten in the car.(Pallon 110)''
Thoughts- I stopped eating McDonald's in the 5th grade but before that I always use to eat McDonald's because it is one block away from my school and it was one block away from the school I attended. I also noticed that getting double the quantity would be just a couple more quarters. I always would look for the upgrades because it was more food for cheaper but this book brings more awareness to exactly how unhealthy that was seeing as the authors wife had a salad and still consumed large amounts of corn and calories.
Chapter 8
Summary- With all of the farms that are feed corn and given medicines there are some farms that do still feed the animals grass.Joel Salatin does have an organic farm. The animals are feed grass, hummus and other natural foods. This is rather uncommon because it is easier and cheaper to feed the animals corn because their are so many bushels of corn to be eaten.
Gems-"Though it was only the third week of June, the pasture beneath me had already seen several rotational turns. Before being cut earlier in the week for the hay that would feed the farm's animals through the winter, it had been grazed twice by beef cattle (Pallon 126)".
Thoughts- I think that having an organic farm would be something that should happen more often however it would cost a lot of money to do this. It is good to see a change however. Knowing that there are some farms that have alternate ways of taking care of their animals.
Chapter 9
Summary- The line between something organic and something that isn't organic is becoming very dim. Some foods are advertised as very organic such as food from Whole Foods and other grocers which are known to be organic however it is not easy to make this statement. Some animals that are treated differently with different kinds of feed then corn such as chickens can be subject to infection even with different lifestyle conditions. In fact sometimes what some people seem to think organic is could in fact be worse than something that isn't considered organic.
Gems- "We were part of the food industry now," he told me. "But I wanted to leverage that position to redefine the way we grow food--not what people want to eat or how we distribute it." (Pallon 133)
"No farms I had ever visited before prepared me for the industrial organic farms I saw in California." (Pallon 158)
Thoughts-I feel like with this being the case what is the advantage to spending a lot of money on a product that might be close to the same as the product however the product would be at a cheaper cost. Also what would happen with the stores such as Whole Foods if they knew information like this.
Chapter 10
Summary- Grass is also something that is very important to humans. Less used than corn because it is much easier and cheaper however grass can also be used to feed animals such as cows and other animals. Grass does need more care and is not as cheap however is a good alternative. Cows can get the suns energy from growing grass and this again is transfered to humans from beef. The government doesn't even give commodity to the grass farmers. However corn farmers like George Naylor gets commodity for his work.
Gems-"At dinner I mentioned that this was probably the all-time most local meal I'd ever eaten." (Pallon 203)
"The farm and the family comprised remarkably self-contained world, in the way I imagine all American farm life once did." (Pallon 204)
Thoughts- Grass does seem like a good alternative because it is more natural. However it makes more sense to use the corn instead because it is cheaper and there is so much corn. My question is what motivates someone to grow grass instead of using the cheaper more easier acquired corn?
Monday, October 4, 2010
Omnivores Dilemma by Michael Pallon
Introduction:
Summary- The introduction gives insight into what the rest of the book is going to be about.The introduction also touches upon the ideas that go through someone's head when deciding to eat. It refers to an experience towards the end of the chapter about the difference between hunting for food and being able to get food from some place like a fast food restaurant or a supermarket. Slowly giving ideas of the view point of the rest of the book.
Gems- "Our cultures codifies the rules of wise eating in an elaborate structure of taboos, rituals, recipes, manners, and culinary traditions that keep us from having to reenact the omnivore's dilemma at every meal.(Pallon 3)"
Thoughts- From reading the Introduction I felt like the book was going to be a lot about science and the way that food is made oppose to addressing a major topic like obesity in America or things of that sort. I also thought from the cover that this book was going to be some kind of dietary book that talks about things such as fruits and vegetables from the cover of the book but it is more about the thinking of people when deciding on food. However the opener was good because it asks a simple question, "what's for dinner tonight?" and that is something I am asked all the time however I never know the answer.
Chapter 1
Summary- In average supermarkets when you first walk in there is usually a produce section. After that you continue to walk into aisles off ketchup and an abundance of cereal many of these foods eaten are associated with corn. There is high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, corn starch and more. It seems like everything we eat either has a little bit of corn in some form or a lot of it. Native Americans used corn and taught the settlers how to use corn. Every part of the corn was used for many different kinds of things. Corn is one of the most vital parts of food to people all over the world.
Gems- "Valuable as corn is as a means of subsistence, the kernel's qualities make is an excellent means of accumulation as well. (Pallon 26)"
Thoughts- I think that this chapter was something very interesting because I've never thought about how much we depend on corn. Usually when you ask someone about the ingredient to the food that they eat they either don't know or won't know that corn is in most of these foods. Seeing that Native Americans used corn a lot also shows how much the human race depends on it and when walking through the supermarket now it will be a bit different because knowing how much of something is in what i eat when I usually take the food I have for granted.
Chapter 2
Summary- The second chapter goes a little deeper into talks about hybrid corn. The hybrid corn is a kind of corn that is more effective because it has corn that is stronger then other corns and there can be a larger supply of this kind of corn. The chapter also talks about farming and it also becomes clear how important the farmers who grow corn are because without them there would be a lot less corn but as talked about in the previous chapter corn is needed.
Gems- "For as long as people have been farming, fat years posed almost as stiff a challenge as lean, since crop surpluses collapse prices and bankrupt farmers who will be needed again when the inevitable lean year return (Pallon 49)".
Thoughts- I personally thought this chapter was more interesting then the others because I was wondering what makes people think about easy ways to get more of a product. It seems this kind of idea of having food on steroids is something that people are either all for or they are afraid of because to them it is something that could potentially harm them. However farmers do have to produce the foods.
Chapter 3
Summary- There wasn't as much of a need for corn as now making tracking corn easier. Now it is more difficult and conveyor belts and rail trains have been used to make transporting corn easier. The corn travels through many different places and most of the corn grown ends up with animals at factory farms to be eaten.
Gems- The Place where most of those kernels wind up -- about three of every five -- is on the American factory farm, a place that could not exist without them (Pallon 64)
Thoughts- I think that this chapter shows the statistical value of how much we depend on corn today and the amount that is made for us to use in everyday life.
Chapter 4
Summary- Cows have to go eat corn bushels that are given to the American Farm Factories. Cows go through poor medical conditions, such as feedlot dust making them blood shot and standing in pools of their own feces. On the feedlot the cows eat until they weigh enough to be big so they can be eaten. Cows also have to be given protein and large amounts of drugs.
Gems- "The speed at which these animals will be slaughtered and processed---four hundred an hour at the plant where 534 will go -- means that sooner or later some of the manure caked on these hides gets into the meat we eat.
Thoughts- I feel like this really shows how much we depend on corn however the meat that we get can be very contaminated. The animals also eat this corn to get better however the living conditions of these animals are not always the best and we are eating these animals after they have be around this unsanitary environment.
Chapter 5
Summary- There are not thousands or millions but billions of bushels of corn grown and processed a year. However humans don't eat all of this corn as corn in its actual form. Corn is used in every possible way to make cereal, sugar, and even meat. The corn is milked for all it has. The nutrients of the corn are used for other foods ingredient and its even used to put protein in the feed for animals which make up the meat we eat.
Gems- "Remember the sixties dream of an entire meal served in a pill, like the Jetsons? We've apparently moved from the meal-in-a-pill to the pill-in-a-meal, which is to say, not very far at all. (Pallon 97)"
Thoughts- Is it possible to go a week without eating something that has corn in it in some kind of way?
-After reading the first 100 pages of this book I feel like the answer to the first question at the beginning of the book "Whats for dinner?" would simply be corn and now i also see it as redundant whenever my mom asks me if I want corn with my food.
Summary- The introduction gives insight into what the rest of the book is going to be about.The introduction also touches upon the ideas that go through someone's head when deciding to eat. It refers to an experience towards the end of the chapter about the difference between hunting for food and being able to get food from some place like a fast food restaurant or a supermarket. Slowly giving ideas of the view point of the rest of the book.
Gems- "Our cultures codifies the rules of wise eating in an elaborate structure of taboos, rituals, recipes, manners, and culinary traditions that keep us from having to reenact the omnivore's dilemma at every meal.(Pallon 3)"
Thoughts- From reading the Introduction I felt like the book was going to be a lot about science and the way that food is made oppose to addressing a major topic like obesity in America or things of that sort. I also thought from the cover that this book was going to be some kind of dietary book that talks about things such as fruits and vegetables from the cover of the book but it is more about the thinking of people when deciding on food. However the opener was good because it asks a simple question, "what's for dinner tonight?" and that is something I am asked all the time however I never know the answer.
Chapter 1
Summary- In average supermarkets when you first walk in there is usually a produce section. After that you continue to walk into aisles off ketchup and an abundance of cereal many of these foods eaten are associated with corn. There is high fructose corn syrup, corn oil, corn starch and more. It seems like everything we eat either has a little bit of corn in some form or a lot of it. Native Americans used corn and taught the settlers how to use corn. Every part of the corn was used for many different kinds of things. Corn is one of the most vital parts of food to people all over the world.
Gems- "Valuable as corn is as a means of subsistence, the kernel's qualities make is an excellent means of accumulation as well. (Pallon 26)"
Thoughts- I think that this chapter was something very interesting because I've never thought about how much we depend on corn. Usually when you ask someone about the ingredient to the food that they eat they either don't know or won't know that corn is in most of these foods. Seeing that Native Americans used corn a lot also shows how much the human race depends on it and when walking through the supermarket now it will be a bit different because knowing how much of something is in what i eat when I usually take the food I have for granted.
Chapter 2
Summary- The second chapter goes a little deeper into talks about hybrid corn. The hybrid corn is a kind of corn that is more effective because it has corn that is stronger then other corns and there can be a larger supply of this kind of corn. The chapter also talks about farming and it also becomes clear how important the farmers who grow corn are because without them there would be a lot less corn but as talked about in the previous chapter corn is needed.
Gems- "For as long as people have been farming, fat years posed almost as stiff a challenge as lean, since crop surpluses collapse prices and bankrupt farmers who will be needed again when the inevitable lean year return (Pallon 49)".
Thoughts- I personally thought this chapter was more interesting then the others because I was wondering what makes people think about easy ways to get more of a product. It seems this kind of idea of having food on steroids is something that people are either all for or they are afraid of because to them it is something that could potentially harm them. However farmers do have to produce the foods.
Chapter 3
Summary- There wasn't as much of a need for corn as now making tracking corn easier. Now it is more difficult and conveyor belts and rail trains have been used to make transporting corn easier. The corn travels through many different places and most of the corn grown ends up with animals at factory farms to be eaten.
Gems- The Place where most of those kernels wind up -- about three of every five -- is on the American factory farm, a place that could not exist without them (Pallon 64)
Thoughts- I think that this chapter shows the statistical value of how much we depend on corn today and the amount that is made for us to use in everyday life.
Chapter 4
Summary- Cows have to go eat corn bushels that are given to the American Farm Factories. Cows go through poor medical conditions, such as feedlot dust making them blood shot and standing in pools of their own feces. On the feedlot the cows eat until they weigh enough to be big so they can be eaten. Cows also have to be given protein and large amounts of drugs.
Gems- "The speed at which these animals will be slaughtered and processed---four hundred an hour at the plant where 534 will go -- means that sooner or later some of the manure caked on these hides gets into the meat we eat.
Thoughts- I feel like this really shows how much we depend on corn however the meat that we get can be very contaminated. The animals also eat this corn to get better however the living conditions of these animals are not always the best and we are eating these animals after they have be around this unsanitary environment.
Chapter 5
Summary- There are not thousands or millions but billions of bushels of corn grown and processed a year. However humans don't eat all of this corn as corn in its actual form. Corn is used in every possible way to make cereal, sugar, and even meat. The corn is milked for all it has. The nutrients of the corn are used for other foods ingredient and its even used to put protein in the feed for animals which make up the meat we eat.
Gems- "Remember the sixties dream of an entire meal served in a pill, like the Jetsons? We've apparently moved from the meal-in-a-pill to the pill-in-a-meal, which is to say, not very far at all. (Pallon 97)"
Thoughts- Is it possible to go a week without eating something that has corn in it in some kind of way?
-After reading the first 100 pages of this book I feel like the answer to the first question at the beginning of the book "Whats for dinner?" would simply be corn and now i also see it as redundant whenever my mom asks me if I want corn with my food.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
48 Hour Diary : Lunch 2
Christopher R 9/30/10
For lunch the next day on Thursday, September 30, 2010 I went to lunch at a Wendy’s. The big idea on deciding this was which had a better dollar menu, McDonalds or Wendy’s. Of course Wendy’s has the 5 piece nuggets for 99 cents so that put it over the top. I also am strongly opposed to McDonalds because when I was in the 5th grade I had to watch Super Size Me as part of a project but Wendy’s isn’t much better. I only continue to not eat McDonalds because I haven’t in over 6 years and that is a record I don’t want to break. So at the Wendy’s I usually try to get as many things on the dollar menu as I can without going over the amount of money I have to spend. It’s hard to see but I have a 5 piece Chicken Nuggets, a Crispy Chicken Sandwich and a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger with fries. This surprisingly didn’t fill me up and it only cost me a little over six dollars for four items of food. Nothing to drink and wash it down just the Wendy’s on the plate. While eating the Chicken Nuggets I realized that I was happy I ordered all of the other food because to me it tastes really good and that is the first thing I look for when I think about food. While I was at the Wendy’s however I saw that the 10 Chicken Nuggets piece with the fries and soda was 500-1500 calories. I was wondering how something can be such a larger range. If you are trying to count the calories then you just have to guess how much you’re getting? It might have to do with the size fries and soda you get but that is very unclear because the fries are only suppose to come in one size and so is the soda. I also noticed while leaving there was no farmers market anywhere in fact there was a Pizza hut, Burger king, White Castle, McDonalds, Charly’s, and 2 Bros. All in a 5 block radius but I couldn’t even remember where the closest farmers market would be. The Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger tasted the best and it was all under 6.50. I thought it was a great choice of food financially and in terms of taste but I did feel sluggish after and I was wondering how this meal would be different for my mom who would probably have something just as “unhealthy” but the service would have been different and she would also know where her food came from whereas I’m eating “NEVER FROZEN” meat.
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