RE: What is emo/scene

Earlier this week I came across Lhadze's blog on her views on what being emo/scene really is. In her post she says,

"Most real scene kids wear Gloomy Bear, Hello Kitty, Invader Grim, Metal band shirts. They wear anything from skirts, shorts and fishnets to skinnes or just leggings ripped....Cause all you people who say "I'm Scene" your all posers. Scene kids have the hair. Yes you heard me. The crazy hair. teased, dyed, curly on the bottom.  Bows, flowers, anythign you want as  long it represents you! I mean go with the craziness...We don't care what people think."

So, I don't mean this in a bad way AT ALL, but honestly I think this whole battle on who's really scene and who's not is getting kinda old. I mean I don't think it's really that big of a deal if someone wants to be scene. Lhadze writes in her post some, what seem like guidelines on how to be scene. It's really cool how she can feel so comfortable with herself to have this kind of style and not care what people say about the way she looks, but I don't think it's that serious if someone else wants to be scene too.

I can understand if someone is constantly copying everything you do, that would annoy me too, but I don't think it's right to just automatically say that everyone who says "I'm Scene", is a poser. I mean in that case someone else can just come along and say you're a poser.

It's just my opinion, but I think that people should just care about what they do and not what someone else is... unless they're biting off of certain specific things you do. However, if someone wants to dress or do their hair a certain way, I say just let them be. In a few years you'll realize getting so worked up about it is just a bit silly.

Does it Matter Where You Go to College?

Out of all 7 of the debate responses, the one that I found the most persuasive was "Graduate School Matters More" by David W. Brenemen. The reason that I found this one to be more persuasive compared to some of the other responses was because he makes the point that I personally think is the answer to this question, "Does it matter where you go to college?". Brenemen basically says that what school you go to in the begining can have different effects on different people because not everyone learns the same or thinks the same. What really matters is what you do in graduate school.

"An equally bright but more reticent student, one who is not sure about his or her future path, may get lost or overlooked in such a setting, and have a less than ideal experience...The quality of graduate or professional school will matter more in the long run to a student’s success in life than the ranking of the undergraduate college."

 These two points really made me agree with Brenemen because he points out how some students don't know exactly what they want to major in when they first get to college. Undergraduate school is good for the student to try new things and determine what they want to study when they arrive at graduate school. This is where things will matter for your future jobs.

The response that I found least persuasive was "Merit and Race" by Luis Fuentes-Rohwer. In his argument he states,

"Attendance at elite colleges and universities has a positive effect on the likelihood that a student will graduate; on future earnings; on the likelihood that a student will attend graduate school; and even to lower divorce rates and better health."

Maybe his statements might have persuaded me more if he would have at least included where he got this information and statistics from. First of all, the idea that going to Harvard, for example will help you stay healthy and not get a divorce compared to if you went to a less prestigious school  is absolutely ridiculous to me. I have cousins who have gone to UC schools and they aren't having heart attacks and getting sick all the time. I actually think that Rohwer's quote here just sounds really dumb. He couldn't even prove the information with statistics. For me if you give me information I'd like to have proof of where you got it from and this is the reason why I found this response the most non persuasive.

People Change

While i was on the Internet, I came across a quote on one of my friends blogs  (not from ASTI). It said, "People change. They end up having nothing to say to each other, even if they were best friends the year before."

This quote really stood out to me because recently me and one of my really close friends from middle school have become very distant. It seems like this first all began towards the middle of summer. Me and this friend were supposed to go visit our old school with a couple of other people since they started back a lot earlier than us. I was really excited to see her and other people that I missed and we both planned on meeting each other there. I caught the bus all the way to my old school since we both had agreed on meeting each other there. However, when i called to see if she got there yet, she told me that she was stuck in traffic and she would me there in about ten minutes. I figured that i'd just wait for her, but a couple minutes later she called me and said that she got in a car accident and wasn't going to be there for another hour. I told her that I would just stay and wait for her downtown in San Francisco and she agreed to meet me there. When she called back she told me that she was about to get off of Bart. This confused me because I thought she was in a car accident... I didn't ask her and i just figured I'd ask her about it when I saw her.

To my surprise, when she came and met me she was with two of her other friends that I'd never met before. I was kind of confused... so she was in traffic, got in a car accident, and caught Bart to the city ... with these people? It didn't seem to make sense, but I didn't really feel comfortable asking her in front of those people. Anyways, the rest of the time was really awkward because they were talking about things they'd done together and i felt like a major fourth wheel.

Now, I haven't talked to this friend in a really long time. I miss her, but she doesn't really seem to care. It's kind of sad because she was one of my closest friends in middle school and now we never talk. Just like the quote said "[People] end up having nothing to say to each other, even if they were best friends the year before."

response to Vy and things she hates.

I noticed that Vy wrote about the things she hates and I've decided to copy her in my post.

Going to School in the Rain - I actually don't really mind the rain. In fact I like when it rains... that is when I can just stay at home and don't have to go outside. It has been raining a lot this week and i am not enjoying it because i've had to go to school. This means that by the time I leave my house and arrive at school my hair is already frizzy and just gets worse as the day goes on. Also, since I was outside during PE for two hours, my feet and hands were frozen and my nose was cold. I was so relieved when I finally got home and was able to turn on the heater.

Certain Teachers and Their Weighing of Finals- So I just looked on SchoolLoop and I noticed that this one teacher (I won't say names) put in the grades for her finals. Yesterday I had about a 78% and I received a 97% on her final. This would be a good thing if my grade had risen more than one percent. I want at least a B in my classes, but now my grade is only a 79%. I really hope that this is a mistake because if it isn't... well that's just ridiculous that a big final that we stressed over effected my grade by one percent.

My Stupid Cell Phone- My cell phone sucks. I barely get service anywhere now and it's just dumb. I don't even care when I drop it. A few scratches doesn't really bother me anymore, my phone already sucks.

My Geomerty Final - I thought that I did so well on my final exam for geometry. I felt so confident while taking it and I thought that I would get a great grade on in. However, I didn't so as well as I thought. Ms. Mccoy said my score wasn't too bad, but I was really disappointed because I felt so confident in myself that I would get  really high score and I got a very mediocre score. I just know that next semester I will work a lot harder i n all of my classes.

Anyways... to end on a positive note, I am so glad that we have three weeks off for winter break (that's like a month, kinda) ! And we don't have any homework!  Now I can completely relax and de stress from school !

A Child Called "It" Final Response

So, I have finally finished reading The Child Called "It" and it was definitely a lot to handle.  I've read part of this book before, but I just didn't realize how hard and sad it was to read about these traumatizing events that happeed in Dave Pelzer's life.

During our discussion on Thursday our group discussed the possible reasons why David's mother treated him so bad and only picked on him instead of his other brothers. Meriam had done some extra research on Roerva Pelzer and found out that she was also abused as a child. We also looked up some information during class and learned that she was an alcoholic since the age of 13 and was frequently locked in a closet and denied food. I don't remember there being information on if she had any siblings or not. However, on David Pelzer's website it did say that his other brother got abused my his mom after Dave left for foster care, but she never abused her oldest son.

Meriam also mentioned that Mother suffered from a multiple personality disorder. The main direction where our discussion was going was trying to uncover the unknown mystery of why mother specifically singled out David in her horrible acts of abuse and most importantly, what caused her to so suddenly change from a perfect sweet, Brady Bunch mom to a wicked witch. I suggested that it may have been caused because of the alcohol and depression, but this doesn't seem like the correct answer considering she'd been an alcoholic since she was 13. Whatever the reason, i feel like it will always be a mystery, but it does make me want to read other books written by Dave Pelzer. 

Also, Mr. Sutherland brought an interesting observation to our discussion. As someone who had never read this book before, he brought up how he noticed that when his students read this book and have discussions on it, he is constantly, mainly hearing them just talk about the horrendous acts of abuse that goes on in this book. He said something like, "This book can't possibly just be horrible event after horrible event." However, the truth is, this is pretty much exactly what this book is. The author is telling his memories of being a very young boy and receiving numerous amounts of beatings and severe "punishments" from his mom. I know they other books Pelzer's written are more about him over coming his struggles and becoming a great person.

After reading this book it made me highly appreciate my parents and family members and it made me realize that i have it very easy. I may get mad at my mom and dad sometimes but after reading about David's experiences it makes me thankful that they aren't beating and starving me.

A Child Called "It" Response #2

In The Child Called "It" by David Pelzer, the author/main character describes his "fight for food". While reading this book, i noticed that Mother constantly taunts David with food. She gives him  unmeetable time limits to complete his chores and if he doesn't finish on time, he won't get any food. On "good days" he would sometimes be given the leftover scraps of his brother's cereal for breakfast. However, more often than  not, David goes to school hungry. Because of this, he begins stealing food from school. He starts off taking little snacks from his classmate's lunch boxes during recess. Unfortunately, teachers eventually find out and notify Mother. David was severely punished and beaten for his actions, but he felt like stealing was his only way of getting food in order to survive. Once, he takes a frozen lunch from his school and eats every morsel of it in the bathroom. He is very proud of feeding himself, but Mother finds out at has him perform a horrible task. She makes Dave puke into the toilet, scoops the contents into a bowl, and makes him re-eat his digested meal.

What was discussed during our disscussion was if Davids mom didn't want him to steal, why doesn't she feed him? I think the answer to this is because she likes to feel like she has ultimate control over everything. She probably enjoys feeling like she decides when and what David eats and when he goes against her will by getting food for herself, she decides he "deserves" to be punished. However, this is no excuse for the way this horrible woman treats her son. What she does is horrible and disgusting.

Another topic we discussed this week is how much of a coward David's dad is. One part in this book that really stuck out to me was in the chapter titled "The Accident". One night Mother is drunk and she has a knife in her hand. Her youngest son, Russle is also swinging on her leg. On "accident" (according to David) mother throws the knife at him and it strikes him in the stomach. When David wakes up, he is in the bathroom and his mom is gently placing gauze around his wound. However, she doesn't take him to the hospital and when she is done wrapping his cut, she tells him that he has 10 more minutes to finish the dishes. When David tells his dad that his mother stabbed him, the only thing he says is "Just finish the dishes before you irritated her even more!"

I think the mother has control on pretty much everyone in her house, including her husband. However, Davids dad is a firefighter. there is no excuse on why he couldn't get help to save his child. I talked about this in my last blog post and my view on his still hasn't changed. David's dad is a whimp and a loser.

A Child Called "It" Response #1

A Child Called "It" is a really sad story about one of the worst child abuses cases in the nation. This book is kind of hard for me to read because the author's descriptions of the events that happens to him are so in depth and specific. One question that came to me while reading this book is if Dave Pelzer's father was at fault just as much as his mother was for the abuse that happened to him. 

In this story, Dave's mom beats, starves, and tortures him as a young child. She rarely ever feeds him, constantly beats him, and performs terrible acts of torture to him. In one part of this book, Dave's mother forces him to take of his clothes and almost makes him lay on the stove so she can burn him. She doesn't take it this far, but she does hold his arm over the burning fire for a while. Luckily Pelzer's father and brothers come home in time before she can take it any further. For some reason only Dave gets abused while his other brothers are treated completely fine.

David's father doesn't actually abuse him, but he doesn't do a thing to stop it either. He pathetically tries to talk his wife into not beating their son or to give him food, but after a few effortless tries, he just gives up. What sucks is that Dave looks up to his father and views him as a hero. His dad keeps telling him that he will get him away from his crazy mother, but it doesn't seem like he is doing anything to make such a thing come true. What really upsets me it that David's father is a fire fighter and he can't have any guts to stand up to his crazy wife to protect his son. She does seem pretty scary, but if he is that afraid of her he could easily contact the police. He IS a witness of all the horrible abuse that is going on in his house and if he hates it so much he could try to do something to stop it instead of just leaving to go to work. In my opinion I actually think Dave's dad is a very selfish person.  It's pretty obvious that he uses his job as an excuse to escape all the madness that goes on at his house, but if he stayed there he probably knows that Dave won't get abused as bad as if he wasn't home. Throughout this book Dave mentions a few times how he knows that his mom won't torture him so bad when his dad and brothers are home. However, more and more his father starts spending more time at work.

One part of this book that is still unclear to me is what made Dave's mother switch from being nice to be a completely horrible person? In the first chapter of this book (titled Good Times) Dave's mom seems completely normal, loving, and nice. She would take her family on trips to the lake, cook great meals for all of them and would treat each and every one of her sons equally. However, all of a sudden she just became a lazy bum and did nothing but get drunk, watch TV, and yell at Dave all day. It's kind of clear where the abuse towards Dave starts. At the beginning, she makes all of her kids search for things she lost, but pretty soon she begins to single out Dave.  Her crazy behavior is spontaneous. She's been an alcoholic since she was 13 so it isn't like her excessive drinking was anything new. What ever the reason her behavior is NOT okay what soever. Who the hell would ever treat there own child such a way. I hate this woman!