Mccandless vs. Treadwell

While in class we tried to compare Into the Wild to Grizzly Man. I really think this is just like comparing apples to oranges. Novels and Documentaries are not the same, When comparing things i believe you can only have one variable . I feel their are two variables in this case.
1. How you portray the story. One chose a movie, the other chose a book.
2. Different people created the movie and the book.

I think that the only way we could compare these logically would be to have either Karckour or the other guy create both stories for different people. Though i see how the stories relate, i don't feel they are comparable.

Happy Holidays!

Watch Them Disappear!

While browsing a magazine for holiday gifts, I came across this odd one called, Uncommon Gifts. Little did I know I would find my blog post in this, I searched the magazine for anything I could give. I came across this mug, called the "disappearing Civil Liberties" mug. I was completely shocked. 

 Could we be really making a profit off of something so drastic as disappearing civil
 liberties? To be honest, i don't see this as a bad thing, It is almost like that show on
MSNBC, how to catch a predator, The police forces say that people who watch
that show are more likely not to commit that illegal offence of i

nappropriate

sexual
 consent with a minor. Maybe if this mug isbegin used on the congress floor,
people will notice the change that has been occurring. The coincidence, once the
 liquid cools, the rights begin to reappear, Hopefully our world will began to cool

 down too.   

"Simply pour in your coffee or any hot beverage and watch the painstaking work of the  founding fathers vanish before your eyes"

Political Compass

After being introduced to the Political Compass, i found it amazing that this short quiz could determine my beliefs. I knew i was more to the left than the right just from analyzing my self. However, i never knew that i was MUCH more libertarian than authoritarian. Maybe this was just a way to stick it to my parents, Just like Chris Mccandless right? I also found it interesting how they have the 2008 presidential candidates plotted. I though for sure that Hillary and Obama would have been more to the left, it almost upset me because i had already associated them as more liberal. But i cant really base my decision off this one graph right? After all it was a short quiz and it can give you an idea of where you stand. But its only an idea. 

America, a Big Melting Pot

We as Americans pride our selves with our diversity. After all we are one big melting pot. However Much of the time I find that that is not the case, we are not as diverse as we would like to think. Classes do much more than sperate wealth, they also separate culture and beliefs. Their is a Korea Town, China town, and a Little Italy, by calling America a "big melting pot" we should only have one lets say "Korinaly Village". I do believe in individuality, we should all be able to let people know where we came from, if we want to call america diverse we cant belittle ANY groups of people. None. Gays, African Americans, Islamic, or even Latinos. Different ingredients in melting pots mix cohesively, just like we must do as people of the same nation. Instead maybe we should change to motto to this : American A big pot, with the heat turned off. (so nothign mixes together).

Annapolis Peace Settlements

This Tuesday 40 nations will arrive at the military base in Annapolis, Maryland to discuss possible war ending solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This will be the first time the United States has stepped in and organized a conference since 2000, at Camp David. Every nation will be expected to arrive except the Hamas, a military group controlling the Gaza Strip, and no one from Iran will arrive either. I think this hopefully will be a step in the right direction. Experts believe that in 2000 neither Israel or Palestine were honest in their real expectations/wants for peace. This Tuesday, hopefully the discussion of who will control Jerusalem, the Golan, Gaza Strip, and the West Bank will have, even slightly, been made more peaceful. Hopefully countries will understand where each other are coming from and we will be one step closer to peace.  

This is the link to the BBC article 

The hidden Chicago

Last weekend our class went on a field trip downtown to sample some of the 'forgotten' art. Everywhere i turned some carving on the side of a building, statue or mural seemed to actually mean something, rather than just be nice to look at. I began to critically examine works of art i wouldn't even question before. I really feel this was s turning point in my education because i was able to take the questioning we have done in class and relate it to even artwork. It just shows the connection to our first topic of the year, secret messages. Everything has a secret message, but its up to you to find it. 

I wonder if other cities have as much 'undiscovered' history and significance in their everyday artwork? What are some examples?

" The New" New Orleans

Last weekend i went to New Orleans to visit a few friends. I was freaking out because i didn't know what i was getting my self into. Going to a city so effected by Katrina, not that long after its effects, could be pretty intimidating. I was picked up at the Air port and taken to a suburb 5 min outside the city called Metarire. With about 130,000 people living their, this was more of a city than a suburb.

The whole layout of the town was so foreign. While their are a few strip malls in our area, but everywhere you looked their was one there. It was like they were just building for the sake of building. Bridges were being build in most places as well. All the homes in the area seemed to be livable by now though. I was just wondering why take the money and time to build a bridge, where it would just be a convenience, not a necessity. While their are people still living in homes taken over by mold and bacteria.

It doesn't seem like a good plan to save time and money to me.

Across The Universe

I was dragged to the movie Across the Universe, I had no idea what the movie would be about. So when the first scene began as a musical i had to restrain hitting my friends. they know how i feel about musicals. However this movie was amazing. Dealing with the Vietnam war times i immediately saw the parallels to our own Iraq war. In class i remember Mr. O'Connor speaking about how the play Crucible was written during the Cold War era. Immediately i saw how they were connected. Their is an atmosphere of mystery and accusations in both time periods.

Across the Universe showed people protesting the Vietnam War, and the police. We all know the protests from then, and similarly their are quite a few now. In one random trippy scene, a monkey randomly appears. Many people feel that President Bush looks like a Monkey. That is how i believe the movie portrayed his appearance. I feel the movie was bashing teh war because in teh end their was no shown good that came from the war. All that came was death and deportation.

Vertical Development

A key factor in McDonald's

monopolizing its

industry of fast food

has to do with the term,

Vertical Development.

When you devolpoe your

company verticaly you

maintian controll over

every single step when

creating your product.

The McDonalds you know

is the store in which their food is sold.

To be so succesful they need to

do more for them selves though,

they also own everything from the

cows to the paper food is wrapped in.

To the plastics their straws are made of.

In order for a profit to be

made Verticle development it crucial.

You could also develope your company horozonally, which would mean that your company would be developed but not in different areas. If you owned a clothing store, and you decided instead of making your own cloths for cheeper that you would open another store with a different name next to the origional store, you would be developing horozonatly. Large companies are able to thrive because of their abitlty to play teh field and search areas to employ themselves. That is how in america you can create monoplies.

Memorial Wall

The Vietnam memorial wall is a very special and unique place. Originally i was gonna do this post about the creation of the wall. So i went online to the memorial site, after searching around, i came across a list of fallen solders who's birthdays would have been today. Looking up and down the list i noticed several odd things.

1. They have posted the religion of each fallen solider

Maybe this is to get bonds between random people and solders. However in a society with a seperation of church and state, this is not ok for a pubicilly funded site.

2. They have posted race as well, now this may not see odd, however instead of African American, they have posted, Negro. Which i feel is an inappropriate term.

I really dont know why this is not changed, any suggestions?

Amnesty International

Whenever i hear the name Amnesty International, only two countries come to mind. The U.S, and Mexico. Their as i hope you all know, a large debate regarding weather or not these aliens should be welcomed into this country. Up until this summer i was indifferent on the issue. That was until i was in Israel this summer that i was sent on a "Tikkum Olam" mission or a "Fix the World" mission to go help college students outside of the capital buildings in Jerusalem, play with Sudanese refugees. I had no idea that people all the way from Sudan, which is on another Continent. When i got their everyone knew that they were thankful that they had arrived in you could say the only secured country in the Middle East. Their lives had been changed significantly. I compared that situation to the one at home. Why couldn't we just let all people in. Yes, our lives will change to, their will be more Spanish everywhere. But the isn't the essence of America just a big melting pot?

You dont Know What You Did Last Summer?

Technology's advancements have never failed to stir something up. Its no difference when it comes to a protein induced memory lose. Weather its a car crash that injured a love one or you were hit in the face with a baseball bat, their are things all of would like to forget. Well i say too bad. These incidents in your past are exactly that, your past. Your past makes you what you are so by erasing your past you have erased something you will do in your future, like maybe smash a bat into the head of the person who hit you. I strongly am against memory, it would probably get out of hand, like a lot of other things in the modern world, and people would use it for smaller accidents, such as the baseball example. Who knows, maybe this could get so out of hand that a government would use it on people who saw things they shouldn't have, or maybe people would use it on government officials who saw something they were not supposed to see.

Your invited to Josh Saitelbach's Bar Mitzvah, 9-11-04

We all will forever remember 9-11 as a turning point in American history. For my family when we were assigned 9-11 as the date when my brother and I would be Bar Mitzvahed we didn't know what to feel. At first we joked about it. Because we are not active members in our temples community, we assumed that they gave us this date because it was a "reject" date. After about 3 weeks of family meetings and deciding what was the best course of action regarding our Bar Mitzvah date, we came to a conclusion. We were given this date because we had to continue on as normal. We couldn't change our date because we as a family, apart from having to coordinate a 200 people ceremony, we needed to do it on a day when the world was changed, and have a smiling face. This shows our strength as a family and as citizans of America, if we are all strong then we cant be divided.

White House Hires the Best (looking)

To the new White House Deputy Press Secretary, Dana Perinos, looks is not the only thing that landed her the title. While we would like to all criticize the president once again for hiring the wrong person. In this day and age its embarrassing how many American people know so little in regards to our government. Maybe having an attractive woman answering Americas questions will help create an interest. I'm all for hiring the best candidate for the job and in this case with such little involvement from the public, our government needs to do all it can to spark even a glimpse of attention.



Our past White House Deputy Press Secretary, Tony Snow, is suffering from cancer. His background as a television anchor definitely helped his ability with evading questions and not letting the presidents image slide further.


The trend beginning is not all bad. Good looking people are not always bad people in politics, and they are not always the wrong choice for the American public.

Secret Message

A secret message is the double meaning you have when you do anything.

If you see someone who buys their grocery's at Whole Foods, the literal meaning suggests that they shop at whole foods, however their is much more to that statement.

Someone lugging one of the linen bags from whole foods could be wealthier than most because they can afford the organic food. They also might be paranoid because they don't trust the farmers with chemicals. I would also assume that they care about the environment because they don't want the use of pesticides in their food.

The secret message view by other people is bias. We don't really know for sure that any of this is true. We are assuming that Whole Food shoppers are Eco-friendly when they would just live close to the store and not want to drive long distances. Do not always judge by these secret messages.