Vick

On Monday, Michael Vick finally received his sentence. As surprises go, it was not much of one. He's sentenced to 23 months in prison. Animal rights activists don't feel that 23 months is enough and I completely agree. If there is one thing I'm passionate about, it's the ethical treatment of animals. Vick's football fans may act like he did nothing wrong but he is completely wrong. Mainly, his football career is over and he'll be in a federal prison the next twenty-two months considering he's already done about a month's worth of time. The fact that he is a great football player did not save him at all. He is getting more time than his co-defendents because Vick was considered the ringleader of the operation and he always was the source of the financial backing for the "Bad Newz Kennels".

Vick and his co-defendants killed dogs that didn’t perform to their standards by electrocution, hanging and drowning and hopefully he will spend a horrible time over the next, almost, two years. He starved the pitbulls so they would fight angrier, tearing eachother apart to amuse gambling men. Vick did not even have the guts to apologize to animal activists for his hideous actions.

The sad thing is that he even lied to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank. He never accepted responsibility when he had the chance. He is losing out on his $100 million in salary and sports endorsements. From the time he signed his first NFL contract in 2001, he planned to start a dogfighting operation. He is in trouble because the dogfighting was premeditated. Not only was he found guilty for his dog-fighting enterprise, but he was tested and found positive for marijuana! He got the sentenced he deserved; if anything the judge went easy on him.

Jerboa

Nicknamed: the "Mickey Mouse of the Desert", the jerboa is a small rodent that is at risk of receiving little attention. The first ever footage of the jerboa was released on Monday and it's an adorable small mouse-looking creature, except its ears are huge and it's tail is very long for its body. It has legs made for kangaroo style jumping too. The jerboa is a globally endangered species on IUCN's Red List, Conservationists have already pinpointed the domestic cat in China and Mongolia as a significant threat to the jerboa. An in country scientist is going to study the species and devise a plan to conserve it. I had to include it in the blog because I never heard of it until this week and I am in love with it aww.

Methylamphetamine

America's, if not the world's, most dangerous drug is crystal meth; a stimulant. Meth is the cheapest and most powerful drug in existence in the world today. Meth doesn't kill its addicts quickly, instead it slow deteriorates people physically and psychologically. Users' faces grow sores and they become infected leaving obvious pockmarksand also, users' teeth rot away. Emotionally, a meth user is apathetic towards life and has extreme paranoia. In the U.S. meth has been traveling eastward. Portland, Oregon has a terrible issue with the drug. Eighty percent of the city's prisons hold people on meth-related charges and the hospitals there are overwhelmed with meth abusers.

In Bangkok, crystal meth helped the economy, however now there is no tolerance for the drug. Anyone even accused of using it can be executed. In the 90s, workers building up Bangkok used meth to keep themselves working for days. At one point an estimated one out of every five Thais had tried crystal meth. However, while the workers could keep on for days, they also had to deal with their paranoia and it led to serious crime and murders. I've heard a lot about the drug and it is really scary what the addicts look like. Moreover, meth can become a life or death situation. One good thing is that anyone addicted to meth can recover with serious therapy and help.

On January 18, 2007 Methylamphetamine was reclassified as a class A drug. It is illegal to have, give away, or sell and serious consequences. Posession alone can get you up to seven years in prison. The worst effect of the drug is that is can cause serious psychosis (a serious mental state where you lose touch with reality).

poor brit

She went from being a pop princess to a complete disaster. Britney spears is one of my favorite all-time celebrities. She's made a lot of made choices and messed up, but I think deep down she has a good heart. Imagine if anyone's life was constantly recorded- and only the bad stuff for that matter. I'm sure that a magazine could make me look terrible or anyone else for that matter. Lives of celebrities are continually put out there for the world to see; is it unfair? I really can't say yes or no. They know what fame leads to when they are getting into it.

Anyways just in October, she lost custody of both kids to her ex-husband and she lost visitation rights as well. I think that something like that will only make her condition worsen. Sometimes when you have children in your life, it makes you more responsible and if you mess up with them you usually learn a big lesson. I think she should still be able to see them. Just on Saturday Britney stole a lighter from a gas station, not because she can't afford it, just because she was being watched?..

Mainly, I sincerely feel for Brit and I hope she can pull herself together and get her life back on track.

i'm miss bad media karma, another day another drama, guess i can't see the harm, in working and being a mama, and with a kid on my arm, i'm still an exceptional earner, and you want a piece of me, i'm mrs. lifestyles of the rich and famous, i'm mrs. oh my god that britney's shameless, i'm mrs. extra! extra! this just in, i'm mrs. she's too big now she's too thin, you want a piece of me?

ameri-cant

I am really not a fan of the show 'American Idol'. I was just talking to a friend about it and he tried out in the competition. Like thousands of people try out and they narrow it down to 500 to try out in front of Paula, Simon, and Randy. When they narrow it down to 500 they include people who they know sing horribly, just so that they can be critiqued on national television. It just really bothers me that they are that cruel. While it is comical to watch the people sing bad and everything, it's still terrible to put them on tv. They know that the people are going to get made fun of. They could put people through into the 500 group who have decent voices instead of putting through people who are absolute jokes to get good tv ratings.

On the show some people who sing terribly really believe that they are good and they are given false hope when they get through the first elimination before tv. It's shameful the way that people find joy in others' misery. I feel bad for the people when they don't get picked because you can just see how hurt they really are.

Reality Tv and shows of the type was a good idea when it started; but it has gotten out of hand.

chemo

Unlike other people who reside at St. John's with me, I am not looking foward to this winter break. My grandma suffers from cancer and she was told that this month may be it for her. She lives around the corner from my dad's apartment and I will see her everyday I am just worried about her not being around for Christmas or even New Year's. My grandma is a good person and she has had to deal with a lot. When she got married and had my uncle, her mom died of leukemia. Then when my sad was 3 her husband died in a car accident. My one friend at school is from Minnesota and he said he was surprised to hear that there are a lot of cases of cancer around New York and New Jersey. I told him it's because of all the factories! Honestly, I don't know a lot about cancer, i've had to research it before, but I don't understand why people get cancer. For instance, my grandma never smoked or was around it and she has tumors on her lungs.

Cancer happens when abnormal cells grow rapidly and form tumors. Chemotherapy was created to specifically break down those cells and stunt their growth, but it does not always work and it also affects the whole body, hurting good cells. There are innumberable chemotherapies that exist and different ones are tried on different patients. The chemo gets stronger as the cancer gets worse and it can make the patient feel incredibly sick.

My dad was very upset with the doctor when she told him and my grandma that she has little time left. The doctor doesn't want to have to tell the patient, but its their job and you can't hold them responsible or be angry with them. No matter what, no one wants to be told they are dying or even that they have cancer to begin with. It can be an avoidable fate for some and one that is extremely hard on a person, emotionally and physically.

Up and Down

Bipolar Disorder is an illness of the mind that causes unusual shifts in a person's mood, energy, and ability to function in everyday life. It is not a one-time treatable disorder either; it has to be managed throughout a person's whole life. The reason I'm writing about this is because a lot of people close to me deal with this illness and while some struggle to contain it, others live without a care. Even most of my family members have some form of the disease. I feel extremely grateful everyday that I do not have to deal with it myself. Especially since I see how terrible it can be for my older sister at times since she lives by herself and struggles to keep jobs. My father on the other hand takes the right prescriptions and it is doing him well. However, growing up in my house was not easy because years ago, manic depressive disorder was not very well known.

Twenty-five years ago, most people diagnosed with it were older. However now the most common age of diagnosis is 19. Even now, a lot of people live for years without knowing; they just feel mixed up and don't know how to deal with it. It isn't easy to go through life without treatment and unfortunately many people do.

A person with bipolar disorder experiences extreme high periods, known as "manic episodes" and extreme low periods, "depression". During a manic episode a person would feel extremely energized and restless; possibly extremely irritable. They would have racing thoughts and be easily dstracted with poor judgement, increased provocative and/or aggressive behavior. During a depressive episode a person will feel empty, sad, and anxious; along with worthlessness and pessimism. In addition, they would feel fatigued and have less energy causing an increase of sleep; possibly change or appetite causing a loss or gain of weight. More importantly, thoughts of death and suicide are common. A person without the disorder can feel and/or experience these same symptoms, however it's the time period and frequency in which these symptoms occur that determine if a person has the disease.

My best friend suffers from the disorder as well and she even attempted suicide a few years ago. When she is manic, she is a lot of fun and everyone enjoys being around her because she acts wild, but unlike a lot of others, I know that her getting up so "high" is dangerous because her mood can just as easily drop to an extreme low. From being around the disease in my family, it's made me more understanding of others I meet who have similar emotional issues.

There are even many celebrities that have been diagnosed with the disorder: Jim Carey, Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Edgar Allen Poe, Tim Burton, Robert Downey Jr., Martin Lawrence, Tracy Ullman, Vincent Van Gogh, Winston Churchill, DMX (Earl Simmons), Ludwig van Beethoven, Theodore Roosevelt, Darryl Strawberry, Mark Twain, etc....

Charles Bukowski

A couple of years ago one of my best friends was a freshman in college. She was assigned the book Factotum by Charles Bukowski to read for her psychology class. When she was done with it I read it and ever since I've been a fan of his work. Factotum is a strange book, but I would recommend to read it.

Factotum’s main character is an alter ego of its author. Bukowski illustrates how he,Henry Chinaski, is unwilling to move on in life. The book ultimately depicts Braverman's theory that is "a belief that workers' wages are based not on the skill of the worker, but on the productivity of the organization". If workers have special skills they might not be given credit for them too. Henry Chinaski goes though jobs like he goes through women and alcoholic drinks. Mainly, Factotum is the typical story of a man who continues dragging out a sad existence, which I believe reflects on how Bukowski feels about his own life.

Bukowski wrote thousands of poems, hundreds of short stories, and six novels. He has more than fifty books in print. So far I've read Factotum, Run With the Hunted, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, Post Office, Pulp, Women, and Hollywood.

good weather is like good women-it doesn't always happen and when it does it doesn't always last. man is more stable: if he's bad there's more chance he'll stay that way, or if he's good he might hang on,but a woman is changed by children age diet conversation sex the moon the absence or presence of sun or good times. a woman must be nursed into subsistence by love where a man can become stronger by being hated. -"cows in art class"

Lockup

I'm not sure if anyone else has seen it, but everytime I am home with my dad him and I watch "Lockup: San Quentin Extended Stay" on MSNBC. San Quentin is California's oldest and best known correctional institution. It housed both male and female inmates until a female prison was built in 1933..

Each episode focuses on the inmates and life in their prison cells. They show how the inmates create a new life in prison, and even when if they are going to gain freedom, they don't want to leave. One prisoner on the show has been in jail since age 18. The lifestyle of the prison becomes all that the people know and if they end up on the outside again, they cannot live a normal life. Statistically speaking, two years after getting out of prison, more than fifty percent of them find themselves back into jail.

wildfires in california

Today is the third day that over a dozen buckweed wildfires continued to rage unstopped in southern California. The fires forced an estimated 300,000 people to evacuate their homes. Winds made the flames almost impossivle for firefighters to handle. So far, the wildfires have blackened over four-hundred square miles of brushland and suburbs. The governor's Office of Emergency Services ordered mandatory evacuationgs of San Diego Count were houses were destroyed and more were still in danger. This is the largest San Diego evacuation ever where entire towns of people had to leave; 250, 000 were told to leave, overall. Residents outside this area were asked to stay home if they could.





Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that eight-hundred National Guard troops would taken from their job to assist with evacuation and ground control in the county.The fires burned some 267,000 acres from Santa Barbara to the Mexican border. Firefighters from as far as Nevada and Arizona were called to help with the fires. So far there was only one death, in a fire in southeastern San Diego County. State emergency officials fear that these fires could surpass the destruction of 2003, when California experienced its worst fire season ever recorded. President Bush had called the governor to offer assistance with the fires that still could last for days. Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds opened as emergency shelters with national guard troops there to help. Many people tried to save their homes with their hoses. Dozens of people in Canyon Country tried to fight off flames approachng their homes because firefighters didn't arrive in time. The San Diego Wild Animal Park was closed and the animals were transfered for their safety. Firefighting airplanes are even being used to dump water over the fires. Some of the fires appeared to have been started by downed power lines, but a few were thought to have been caused by arson. The only reported good news is that firefighters made progress in surrounding a fire in Orange County without a losing a single home. *The worst fire in state history burned nearly 750,000 acres in 2003, destroyed 3,600 homes and other buildings, and killed 24 people across Southern California, with much of the damage and more than a dozen of the deaths in San Diego County.

It's important for people to know about news like this because it is a big deal. It might not be happening on the east coast but it's a big problem in California. One good thing that can come from this is that after every fire, the land is always fertile and hopefully will regrow even better than it was. I just feel horrible for the people who had to deal with fires in their homes. Fires can happen for no reason, but are devestating and I feel deeply for anyone who has been affected by the past few days.

japanese try to hide the truth

Toward the end of World War II, the Japanese Imperial Army soldiers coerced the Okinawan villagers into committing horrific homicidal and suicidal acts. In the Battle of Okinawa, soldiers gave the village men two hand grenades, one to try and kill Americans and then one to kill themselves. However, now in the new high school text books, the Japanese government is deleting any stories of these past events and denying that it ever happened. Six months ago, the Education Ministry said that next year's government textbooks would not have any references to Japanese soldiers, but instead say that the Okinawans felt to commit mass suicide for no good reason. One living survivor, Shigeaki Kinjo, gave his story in a newspaper article in the beginning of October. He, of course, is one Okinawan who is angered by hearing this news. He says that his fellow villagers and himself believed that suicide was their only way to avoid harsh fates from the American troops. Kinjo admits that he beat to death his mother, younger brother and sister and that he did not kill himself only because he realized the soldiers were not killing themselves. After living his whole life with the guilt and regret, he must be shocked and hurt that the Japanese are trying to cover up that they ever did something like this. Senior Okinawan politians went to Tokyo to protest the the revising of the textbooks, but were ignored by the minister of education. All of the local government in Okinawa are demanding that the textbooks not be changed.

There has always been a way of shortening the facts of history in order to make one country or group of people look better than they might have been. American's enslaved Native Americans and tortured them, but it is not talked about in great depth. Usually when a country has done something wrong, they only include a small section about it in the books, so as not to draw too much attention to it. I've always been taught that we need to learn history in order to keep history from repeating itself. If real historical are ignored or literally erased from books, eventually no one will believe certain things happened and similar acts could possibly occur in the future. If Japan is going to try and hide what its soldiers did to the Okinawan villagers, why not hide what the Americans did to the Natives and even Africans; better yet, forget that the German Natzis ever had a mass genocide of the Jewish.

rare gorillas in danger

Rebels have taken over the Virunga National Park; an area in eastern Congo that serves as a wildlife habitat for endangered mountain gorillas, threatening one of the last known groups of these animals. The park was created in 1925 as Africa's first national park, but the area it is on has never been under control. Only seven hundred mountain gorillas still exist in the world and ten have been killed already this year. In January two silverbacks were killed and four months ago a dead gorilla was found and had been murdered. More than half of them live in the area that has been seized. The use of weapons could be head and the park rangers were forced to leave the reserve. The rebels are loyal to one warlord, Nkunda, and have battled over the park with the army. The park sits at an intersection of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda. The gorillas are not a target of the rebels but their habitat had been overtaken and its possible they will get caught in crossfire of fighting. International wild life groups concerned about the gorillas are funding a hundred-thousand dollar crisis management program. They hope to increase the number of rangers watching the area. Nkunda allowed some rangers to look for the gorillas, but only eighteen were accounted for out of about seventy-two. For more than a decade, the Eastern Congo has been wrapped up in violence involving mercenaries and rebels. After a four year war ended in 2002, government forces have failed to contain violent outbreaks. Many people don't think about the problems with endangered species. They need to be carefully watched and looked at. I hope that the rebels will be put down so that the park can get back into routine.

end to korean war?

Leaders of the two North and South Koreas agreed to try to bring peace to their countries. Next month they are going to try and formally end the to the Korean War with the United States and China that started in 1950. The United States that Pyongyang would have to give up all nuclear weapon, but the North doesn't seem like they want to. The leaders of North Korea and South Korea also agreed to set up the fiirst train connected the two countries. They also have to establish a zone around the sea border on the west of the Korean peninsula. North Korea agreed to disable its three main nuclear facilities and completely end its nuclear programs byt the end of this year. President Bush believes that North Korea can be a model to Iran to resolve nuclear issues. South Korea, being the richer of the two, is ready to completely support North Korea. This is good because the North Koreans are already mistrustful of everyone and they need to know they can trust the south. If North Korea ends up disabling all nuclear devices, it will put them back to where they were over ten years ago. When Kim Jo-ling was taking over power from his father he agreed to stop its nuclear program. However, no one knows how many materials, used in creating nuclear weapons, could have been hidden by North Korea. North Korea is worried about giving up their weapons because they feel it is the only thing holding them up against the rest of the world. The most important thing is that if North Korea holds their end to the agreement, the U.S. and them will finally be on good terms. It will also keep us from worrying about terrorism from the North Koreans.

what is a memoir?

A memoir is a written work that recollects something important about the author's life. Though it is a piece of autobiographical writing, is not to be mistaken as an autobiography, which specifically relays a person's life from start to end. Memoirs are written to capture significant moments in the writer's past experiences. I always find memoirs interesting to read. I'm currently in the middle of reading two: Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia and The Quiet Room (a memoir of skizophrenia).