Dominic’s Jar of Flies

There was an interesting activity in class this past Wednesday, which was enlightening for me.   The activity was pretty simple, one side of the room would describe what their “perfect man” would be – their “Ken” in keeping with the Barbie world theme of the week.   Then the other side was to describe their “perfect woman” – their “Barbie.”   Interestingly enough the side that had all girls on it got to describe the perfect man and the side with all boys (with the exception of 3 girls) got to describe the perfect woman.   The first two traits from the woman side describing the perfect man were “taller than me” and “has abs.”   Both of which are physical traits – nothing wrong with that, physical attraction is important in a relationship.   Then men side describing women however chose to put “personality” as their top seven traits.   Now this clearly is a joke, but I thought it was funny that the boys “didn’t wanna get caught lackin’” and describe onl...

Chet Raymo’s “A Measure of Restraint” provides multiple compelling arguments for humans to show “a measure of restraint” when it comes to developing new scientific ideas.  Arguably the most important reason humans study history is to learn from the mistakes we made in the past – and be sure not to make them again.  So starting his passage with two historic examples of times scientific discoveries caused harm very effectively uses this fact about history.  It is very essential, now more than ever, that the human race show restraint in science.  It seems like every day there is an article on the front page of Reddit (“the front page of the internet”) informing readers of a new wild discovery or advancement in science.  One of these articles caught my eye specifically, it was one about how scientists have now developed in a lab, meat complete with “fake” blood, which did not involve the death of an animal to create.  While my initial reaction – like many oth...

It is sad but true.  “The most essential skill in political theater and a consumer culture is artifice.”  This quote taken from Chris Hedges’ Empire of Illusion ,  exposes a sad reality of our society and culture today.  Now I do not think that all the people and companies in this field want to have to use artifice.  It is just that they have discovered that in order to stay competitive in the fields - they must. The honest people seem to be no match for the ones who are being deceptive and telling the people what they want to hear.  Politicians say that they will be able to reduce taxes and increase spending on road repairs all at the same time during their campaign. The people, undestantably, are in great support of this, and elect this politician into office.  I mean who does not like lowered taxes and fixed roads - especially in a place like Michigan, with our terrible roads. And the honest politician who said that he or she would improve th...

There should not be a debate about the United States of America having English be its official language.  Most all the people who live in it, speak it. The whole Constitution of the United States of America is written in it.  And most all public schools in the United States are taught in it. Why then is it such a big deal to make it its official language?  It really, should not be. In fact, most other countries have their own official language. Spain, Colombia, and Cuba all have Spanish as their official language.  Portugal and Brazil, both have Portuguese. And finally, both North and South Korea have Korean as their official language. All of this is completely fine and acceptable.  Hell, I even lived in South Korea for five years, and not once did I think it was a problem that their official language was Korean. I was a foreigner living in their country.  It would be unbelievably arrogant of me to think that they should have to cater to my inabili...

This week our class got our practice Advanced Placement multiple choice reading tests back.  We had taken them about a week prior and I was feeling pretty good about my results - even though I didn’t even get a chance to answer all the questions.  I felt good about them for a reason. I have been working on this skill even since I got my eleventh grade PSAT score back, as one place where I was really lacking was the reading section.  I uploaded my scores to Khan Academy and they gave me a useful course and set of practices to work on this skill and improve. Sitting down and doing these questions every once in a while when I had some spare time really seemed to improve my skills.  It is an easy to use system, that in a weird way is kind of fun. I just recently took the real-deal SAT and I was much more confident in my answers in the reading section, and (knock on wood) I think I did pretty well. I think this can also be reflected in my previously mentioned improve...

(listen at your own risk,  may cause existential crisis) I cannot help but draw some similarities from Virginia Woolf’s description of a moth going from corner to corner of a windowpane in “The Death of the Moth,” to a line from the Pink Floyd song “Time.”  The line from the song goes “Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown / waiting for something or someone to show you the way.” To me I interpret this line to mean that the subject is staying in the same place he knows and doing the same things over and over.  This is comfortable and so our subject waits for something to lead him somewhere else as to not to take risks or change. Now I can’t say for certain that the moth is waiting for something to guide him elsewhere, but he does have the option of exploring the house or room he is in - rather than the same windowpane.  Both of our subjects have the option to go elsewhere, but they do not. I urge everyone to not follow their example. Otherwise ...

The healthy state state of mind Lars Eighner mentions in “On Dumpster Diving” is not a healthy state of mind for all.  Lars’ state of mind mentioned was that no ownership or attachment to material items was healthy. While this may have been healthy for him, it may lead others down a fatal path.  Based on a true story, the book “Into the Wild” (later made into a movie with an amazing soundtrack by Eddie Vedder) written by Jon Krakauer, tells the story of the late Christopher McCandless.  After graduating college, Christopher made the decision to donate all of his savings to a charity and then take his Datsun and drive west from Virginia. Ditching most all of his material possessions.  Eventually his Datsun broke down where he then ditched it on the side of the road and burnt all of his remaining cash and driver's license with it. For a long time this lifestyle of wandering was good for him and he thoroughly enjoyed it.  He had met many people and traveled al...

Years of traveling across Asia (during the time I spent living in Seoul, South Korea) have made me appreciate many beautiful places and wonders from all across the world - and then hate the sweaty, pungent, and boisterous nature of the crowds that almost always unfortunately surround them.  It was breathtaking, and I was incredibly lucky to be able to have the experience of traveling to Cambodia and see the Angkor Wat Temple.  Out of all the trips this one by far was my favorite.  Being able to actually go in and explore inside the temple was certainly a once in a lifetime experience.  As I continue let the record show that I am very glad and appreciative I was able to travel there and see it.  But the tourism side to it all was horrible.  In his piece “Consider the Lobster” David Foster Wallace talks about the gridlock and lines and all the transactions that are made when a tourist.  This description could not be more true based on my experiences. ...

Once upon a time in the 50’s and 60’s in the South West of The United states of America, the government would test their nuclear bombs out in the deserts. The low populations in the dessert areas of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona made it a prime location for the United States Military to conduct their tests. Everyone in the region went along with it and payed no mind to the mushroom clouds that sometimes appeared in the sky - a sort of willful ignorance.  Unfortunately, this "willful ignorance" had its price on the people in the region. The radiation from all the tests spread into the population, creating adverse effects. Women in families would be a lot more likely to get cancer because of the radiation exposure. Today however, dangerous tests like that do not fly anymore.  Writers and activists like Terry Tempest Williams have contributed to these tests being stopped - with their rhetoric. Preventing any further harm to the public and generations to come.  Who knows if ...

Should I wear black pants with a red shirt today?  Or maybe the white shirt with khakis.  This decision was made everyday while I went to Seoul Foreign School in South Korea.  It did not matter if I was a boy or girl; I was wearing a combination of either black or khaki pants, with a red or white polo shirt.  I am sure Deborah Tannen could agree that this uniform seems "unmarked" for both genders.    After a while, this uniform got extremely boring.  In addition to the fact that it was wildly uncomfortable for middle and elementary schoolers to wear all day.  Recognizing that fact, the administration would often offer up “free dress days” as a way to reward and motivate the students.  A “free dress day” is exactly what it sounds like.  A day where students can wear whatever they like for that day as long as it is within a standard dress code.  So, did your class raise the most money?  Free dress day!  Standardized tes...

The Champions of the World Rubin "Hurricane" Carter could-a been the champion of the world.  Joe "The Brown Bomber" Louis was the champion of the world.  Separated by about 30 years, both of these African American boxers were greats in their times.   Joe Louis holds a more victorious story by actually having the opportunity to win the title champion of the world.  Louis was the heavyweight champion in from 1937 to 1949.  His victory was a big deal to the African American community, shown in Maya Angelou’s chapter of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings called “Champion of the World.”  Angelou writes of a scene of people packing into “the Store” to listen to the radio calling of Joe Louis’s fight for the title.  Later in the story Louis win the fight and is declared “champion of the world.”  When I read this, I was instantly reminded of Bob Dylan’s song, “Hurricane.”  This ballad is about the story African American boxer Rubin “Hurricane”...

This week in class we read and discussed two pieces about disabilities; by people with disabilities.  The first piece, written by Nancy Mairs, titled "Disability" was published by The New York Times in 1987.  The second piece, was by Matthew Soyster and was called "Living Under Circe's Spell."  One of the main goals these works were attempting to convey, was the importance of normalizing those with a disability.  As Nancy Mairs put it in her article, the media portrays people with disabilities like "an illness-of-the-week."  If the media shows people with disabilities like this, people will not look at them as normal people with just the difference of disability, but something completely different from them.  It is very important in our society that we think of and treat people with a disability as normal.  This is especially true in soldiers coming home from war.  It has been recorded that 675,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan have been "gra...