HW 21b-Comments

Comment number one to Lora:


Personally I like how you in the middle of your post stated all of the main parts of Beth's story. As well something that you could of expanded on in your post was your third insight that" It also opened my mind more in the fact that if i am sick that i cant just not admit it to myself i have to take the next step and see a doctor and what i can do to get better." I think you could of expanded this one and go a little deeper and maybe put your self in a practical situation and discuss it a little more.  But otherwise for the most part I feel that you gave a good output of your own feelings and insights on the topic.

PS: Watch your grammar and sentence wording in your first paragraph.

Comment number two to Jayson:


Jayson I liked how in your last paragraph you stated how Ms. Wood's presentation pushed you to think about the time we have available with our loved ones and how it could be cut short at any time and we should appreciate it. Although you have a great insight here I would suggest that you elaborate more on your insight by giving a personal example from your own life. Maybe someone in your family has passed away, give an example. To give you an idea of what I mean I try to spend a good amount of time with my grandfather because he's in a declining condition with his breathing problems from old age and smoking. It's something as simple as sharing a small part of your family with others to make a point and I feel that this would bring out your insight in a more vibrant fashion making your writing better.

HW 21 - Expert #1

Insights:

-The fact that at any moment you could be diagnosed with any disease that would change your life is just breath taking to me. Its amazing that you could be plagued with a death sentence at any point in time of your life. In Beth's case this sad sadistic occurrence fell upon her family. I find it hard that Beth even had the courage and will power to share her feelings on her husbands cancer. What was going through my head as she shared such personal parts of her husbands problems was why? Why would she get in front of a class of almost 30 students and tell us the story of his last few months and how it effect her and the rest of her family? What could doing this possibly help her with? I have such a hard time discussing my own family losses in general with anyone.

-When my cousin Richard died, god bless him, but my family and myself was devastated and would never even think of talking to a group of high school students about the experience of us going through that as individuals. Beth's experience of sharing with us her stories gives me ideas of letting my feelings and thoughts and experiences out about my lost love ones. The reason being is she gives me courage in doing so because of her being able to share her own personal family tragedies. So maybe one day if I think about Beth's stories I to will decide to share my stories of my lost loved ones and not feel scared or not in the right state of mind to go through with it.

HW 19 - Family Perspective on Illness & Dying.

My fathers opinion on Illness and dying:
    "My own father died of a heart attack and he died within minutes of a heart attack and although it was shock because he was at a such a young age and it happened so quickly, he was healthy one minute and dead the next. Now compared that to my mother whom had a rare brain disease and died slowly over two years reverting or going back to a helpless infant. When I look at both of these ways i would rather die in minutes. It was much more difficult to watch someone you love to die slowly deteriorating in front of your eyes and you cant do anything about it and my mother gave me the power of allowing her not to be put on tubes , not to be kept alive artificially and die in her own home which was her wish. so for use we lived up to her wishes and we felt she made the right decision because it was what she wanted and it to us it was more comforting , we all knew the outcome it wasn't a secret. We were happy we could live up to her wishes and we allowed because we had the power so the doctors couldn't put on life support, she felt when the time was ready she would die. to think about we could of prolonged her life another six months but she would of suffered. It was an incurable disease to this day it is still an incurable disease. It slowly paralyzed her entire body. The disease today is still incurable to this day."
  
    "When my grandfathers died in those  days they were considered old 65 to 70 years old they just died. One died of cancer the other one died in a car accident. In those days there was nothing you could do for cancer. After you have the funeral their buried, then what could you possible do they are gone. You miss you love them but now they are gone, all you can do is remember the good times with them you can miss them but their really isn't anything you can do. Fortunately you remember them but life has to go on. You can remember the good times, remember the fun you have with them, remember the things they said. But life goes on."

    "My sister had lung cancer which was a life changing experience for her because she was cured. she lived with fear of knowing that she could possibly die and then found out that she was one of the lucky ones that the doctors were able to cure. But she still worries about the cancer coming back and killing her. therefore this experience that she  has gone though was a life changing experience. She goes thorough life now looking at things differently, she doesn't sweat the small stuff, in other words she realizes that having good health is probably the most important that a person could have. Without good health either your gonna suffer for the rest of your life or and what frightens her the most was knowing that lung cancer is a very horrible way to die. Its a very long and slow process. Im sure she knows had they not been able to cure her that it is a very horrible death, you suffocate to death, you suffer is really the bottom line there because its a slow death. Some people suffer for years and then die its painful, its a terrible way to die , some of these diereses are just horrible."

HW 18 - Health & Illness & Feasting

    So my Thanksgiving experience Health wise was honestly just as unhealthy as just as everybody else's. An excess amount of carbohydrates from the biscuits and mash potatoes and stuffing. The massive amounts of tryptophan from the turkey that knocks you out into the biggest food coma all year round. So my family pretty much loves to embrace the holiday spirit of unhealthy eating habits of the traditional Thanksgiving rituals. But besides the feasting the immediate health of my was overall good because everyone seems to have lost weight and just overall seemed in a better mood. As well I feel  the good mood was attributed to my little nephew whom had his first Thanksgiving at only a the first few months of his life. I believe that because of Leo my family got along a lot better then they use to have.

    Illness during my Thanksgiving Experience really didn't have a threshold at all on my family. The only person whom is really sick in my family is my aunt whom had a small form of cancer but is successfully beating it and my Grandfather on my mothers side whom is fighting breathing problems and a bad knee from complications of smoking and old age. But since my grand mother and grand father don't get along well they go to separate parts of my families Thanksgivings. This year my Grandfather went to my other aunts Thanks giving feast rather than ours and my Grandmother went to ours. Of course we love our sick family members but we know now that at the moment they are in good conditions so we really don't stress heavily over their possibility of dying because it is highly unlikely.

HW 17 - First Thoughts On the Illness & Dying Unit.

    Personally I have a very unhappy relationship with the topic of Illness & Dying but I do not wish to unravel that mesh of stories right now. Although I'm willing to discuss what I have been taught since my youth about Illness & Dying. I've been taught that Illness is a bad thing and it must be treated very seriously especially in my family. Whenever anyone gets sick even the slightest bit we all do our best to help that person get better as soon as possible. Attention, care, time, and any amount of money required will automatically be found and used to assist that member in my family to get better whenever they are ill. Thats just the way I grew up and it will never change, at least I think so. As for Dying it's a touchy topic for my family. Like any other family in America whenever anyone dies in our family there's an immediate funeral and celebration of their life to and a last chance to honor their life and create remembrance.

    I believe the social norms of Illnesses & Dying are as follows; you get ill we try to make you better, if you die we bury you and have a funeral to honor and remember you; to me the social norms are as simple as that. My own family's approach to these aspects in life is that they take them in and try to make them better by attempting to take better care of each other and trying to further celebrate our lost loved ones through funerals and wakes. As for some unusual perspectives I have about being sick and/or dying are that the actual action of dying is unusual to me. Think about dying period, people die every day but can you really understand it? A life, someone's life just up and ending, can you imagine it, could you endure it? How can people live with the fact everyday that any of us could die at any moment? This is what I find unusual, how death is constantly at our door step and we just accept it in life and attempt to live on like everything is going to be fine. But eventually until that fateful judgment day it won't be. The abrupt act of death is a roll of the dice to me that I believe nobody wants to drop.

HW 12-Final Food Project 2-Outline

Outline Draft of Food Unit Essay Collaborative part 1:

Thesis: Dominant social practices in our culture are nightmarish industrial atrocities, these atrocities evolved to fit this culture's demands and will not be replaced by voluntaristic feel-good tree hugging Utopian fantasies.

Argument One: An individual living in our culture must recognize and respond to the nightmarish industrial atrocities at the root of dominant social practices in order to live a morally satisfactory life.

Evidence:
"Omnivores Dilemma" food research.
"7 More TED Talks" related to food reform.
"Math lessons for Locavores" food reform claims.

Im still confused on this so I need to re-think my approach to this.

HW-11-Final Food Project 1

    Well what I chose  to do was choice A: Experiential, and I chose to be a vegetarian for 2 days. So what I did was I made a fresh direct order prior to doing my plan of only eating veggies and I ordered I ordered red peppers and tomatoes for when I have to eat at my house. So I planned to do this on the Wednesday and Thursday before my 18thm birthday which is Saturday the 30th so my plan was executed the 27th - 28th. I planned it as soon as possible because I was looking forward to try this new way of eating for myself, it seemed so unknown.

    So I began in the morning making an omelet with red peppers and tomatoes and orange juice and then started my day to class. Later that day for lunch I ate a two veggie pizza, which was surprisingly good. Then finally after my last two classes I went home and eventually had a dinner of yes another omelet with red peppers and tomatoes.The next day I pretty much for the most part did ate the same way and I actually felt much better then I do on a normal day of me eating what I normally eat. I noticed I had more energy throughout the day and was more alert in class and I actually felt a little bit healthier then I do usually it was kinda amazing.

    My families reaction to my two day diet change was some what supportive, they thought it was wonderful especially my Mother. She found it very interesting how I decided to change my eating habits for two days. But besides that it didn't change the way they eat or make them think about their own eating ways. I really hope they change their eating habits because besides the Isagenics diet that my mother follows she ruins it by eating out with my father some nights. So I hope that by me changing my diet she cools it with the eating out and understands that she needs to eat better.

    This would of probably been more effective in for my profit if I kept this diet up for about a month. But overall this diet helped me learn that I can eat better and if I want to eat better I must follow my routines daily. As well for this diet to be more effective in a better way for me I would add some type of protein to my diet because I need to start working out again regularly and swimming again. So maybe later in the school year I could create a carnivore/vegetarian balanced mix but not an omnivore diet a customized diet with restrictions on the bad things that I eat in my diet currently. I hope to create this diet as soon as possible and start it so I could create better results for my health in the near future.

Hw 7 Reading Response Monday

Chapter 1: How Corn Took Over America.
   Precis: This chapter mainly talked about how basic necessitates and food supplies are all derived or are partly made from CORN. Most of our common foods and items can be linked back to the most simple crop of corn. Even our meat is in a way created from corn because our animals that we eat are fed corn to become ready for the slaughter.

    Gems: On page 11 "Hidden Corn Ever look at the ingredient list on a food label and wonder about those strange names? All of these common ingredients and hundreds more are made from corn: Modified starch, unmodified starch, glucose syrup, maltodextrin, ascorbic acid, crystalline fructose, lactic acid, MSG, caramel color, xanthan gum."

    Thoughts: I really had no clue on how much of an impact corn had on our society. I only thought corn was an extra crop that only american eat primarily but i didn't know it had this much significance to the market. Now I understand that Corn is something that currently we must rely on in our society and  I always thought it wasn't really even that important of a crop but I guess I was wrong.

Chapter 2: The Farm.
    Precis: This chapter mainly talked about how farmers depend on their own crops to make a living because if their crops fail then they don't get that precious income for that season. To be specific it was about a farmer named George Naylor who's family depends on their crops survive. As well ever since the 1920"s the farming business has changed and now a days the market is completely different then what it use to be. Today there are new types of hybrids for some crops specifically corn that help farmers like George Naylor prosper and produce more of his crops so he won't make less money gambling on losing more of his crops when using normal corn seeds.

    Gems: On page 26 the diagram: "These lists show the number of crops and livestock produced for sale on iowa farms in 1920 and 2002. 1920 - Horse, Cattle, Chicken, Corn, Hogs, Apples, Oats, Potatoes, Cherries, Wheat, Plums, Grapes, Ducks, Geese, Strawberries, Pears, Mules, Sheep, Peaches, Bees, Barley, Raspberries, Turkeys, Watermelon, Gooseberries, Sweet Corn, Apricots, Tomatoes, Cabbage, Popcorn. 2002 - Corn, Soybeans, Hay, Cattle, Horses, Hogs, Oats, Sheep."

    Thoughts: I find it amazing that the amount of crops from 1920 to 2002 has declined by that much. I believe that only modernization is to blame for this because as we get more advanced and find better uses to manage our crops with machine rather then using animals. As well since everyone wanted to make money by growing crops in the earlier days the cost of the crops slowly went down and caused most small time farmers to go out of business and I believe thats why this decline was so enormous.

Chapter 3: From Farm to Factory.

    Precis: This chapter was primarily about how the government started to take serious interest into helping corn grow to the utmost prosperity. In 1947 the government had a large amount of munitions that were left over form World War 2 and they had decided to use all of this excess munitions as fertilizer for Americas crops. Specifically what was left over was a large amount of ammonium nitrate which can be used as fertilizer because it contains a significant amount of nitrogen which is a main ingredient in fertilizer.

    Gem: On page 30: "But the scientists in the Department of Agriculture had a better idea: Spread the ammonium nitrate on farmland as fertilizer. And so the government helped launch the chemical fertilizer industry. (It also helped start the pesticide industry, since insect killers are based on poison gases developed for war.)"

    Thoughts: I really find it ridiculous that the government decided to back this plan to use all of this left over bomb material as fertilizer. It just seems evil to me that anyone would even think of using something that is meant to be used as a weapon to kill as nourishment to grow the food that we eat everyday. To ever consider doing what the government did to me seems insane and inhuman, who even knows what other chemicals are inside of all of these materials that they used on our crops in the late 1940's.

Chapter 4: The Grain Elevator.

    Precis: This chapter mainly talks about George Naylors grain elevator where he keeps all of his corn crops when they need to be stored away to be later shipped to factory farms and processing plants. As well since George farms so much corn he has too much for his own grain elevators to handle so he must keep piles of corn out in the open on the dirt next to his grain elevators. But there is no need to fret about wether or not it is clean because it will eventually be shipped away to plants where it will be cleaned and processed for multiple amounts of different resources that are derived from corn crops.

    Gem: On page 45 diagram : "Where the National Corn Crop Goes... The more than 13 billion bushels of corn produced in the U.S. in 2007 were divided up in this way: 47% Animal Feed, 24% Fuel, 19% Exported, 6% Other Processed Food, 4% High Fructose Corn Syrup."

    Thoughts: It surprised me that our corn crops were used in this way I never knew that, but over all I'm a little sick of just reading about corn I mean honestly when will this book start to talk about something other that corn. I want to hear about the meat industry of farming I hope when I read further in the book it starts to discuss that aspect of American farming because honestly I'm bored just reading about corn continuously.

Chapter 5: The Feedlot-Turning Corn into Meat.

    Precis: This chapter discusses how farmers in Finney County Kansas prairie's have changed from a dull tan color to black over time. In this chapter it talks about how cattle use to just only eat grass and roam free but then the cattle were put into pens and farmed and fattened for the American meat market and no longer ate grass, they were fed corn. So the nice green prairie's of Finnery County Kansas were now covered in black manure filled feedlots.

    Gems: On page 51: " When a cow eats grass, it doesn't kill the plant. Grasses have evolved so that they can survive being eaten very well. (As long as the cows give them a chance to recover.) In return for being chewed on , the plants get help from the cows. The cow protects the grass habitat by eating young trees and shrubs that might compete with grasses. The animal also spreads grass seed, plants it with his hooves, then fertilizes it with his manure."

    Thoughts: I never knew about this before that this system between cows and grass even existed. I'm just really surprised how this works so majestically with the process of eating, digesting, defecating, then planting and fertilizing. Its just so amazing how nature works together sometimes and you don't even know it when its happening around the world every second of the day.

HW 6-Food Diary.

09/29/10
Breakfast: Juice Carton of tropicana orange juice 107 calories per serving. I had one serving.
Chocolate Croissant 233.86 calories per serving. I had one serving.

Lunch: Chipolte Chicken Burrito 1000 calories per serving. Chips and salsa 250 per serving. I had two servings. Vitamin Water Citrus 50 calories per serving i had 2.5 servings.

Dinner: Ravioli 330 calories per serving. I had three servings.

09/30/10
Breakfast:Juice Carton of tropicana orange juice 107 calories per serving. I had one serving.

Chocolate Croissant 233.86 calories per serving. I had one serving.

Lunch: Chipolte Chicken Burrito 1000 calories per serving. Chips and salsa 250 per serving. I had two servings. Vitamin Water Citrus 50 calories per serving i had 2.5 servings.

Dinner: Ravioli 330 calories per serving. I had three servings.

Note: It just so happens that I had the same thing for the past few days even before this just because I liked what I was eating and it was just what I was in the mood for the week.

Pictures:

                                                                                  

    What i noticed about my eating habits during this period of time was that I liked the combination of what I was eating and what I was eating was the most convenient choice for me at the time. The nutritional value of what I ate for the past few days isn't really that healthy for me but i wasn't really caring at the time because it was a sort of lazy week. Normally I would try to eat healthy on a daily basis but I just wasn't feeling it. I believe that we all try to eat healthy but become distracted when we attempt to eat healthy. For instance that week I wanted to eat healthy but I didn't really put my mind to it, so I just ate the things that I enjoy and that came to mind through connivence. 

    What I was thinking while those 48 hours were passing was that I shouldn't be eating what I'm easting but I did it anyway because when I start to eat something I have to finish it especially if I enjoy it, even if I know it's unhealthy. So as I ate I knew I was going to regret it because my digestive system would hate me later but my stomach and my mind was happy so I wasn't really thinking about it in the long run. That is usually what I'm thinking when I'm eating unhealthy food, I always don't think about the long run. I just brush it off and say that I will eat healthy another day and I usually do but I have bad habits of going back and fourth between healthy and unhealthy so I guess thats bad. What I always think about when I eating though is making a personal diet for me  to follow with my brother. It's something that I've been wanting to do for a very long time, but I never get around to it cause my brother is never around to help me. I need my brother because he's a health trainer and use to work for an NYC health gym and thats his area expertise as well as body building.

HW 5-Dominant Discourses Regarding Contemporary Foodways in the U.S.

    The dominant discourse in today's world is the act of eating healthy, and people strive so hard to try and trust anyone whom can help them achieve this goal of a healthy diet. I say this because around me this topic is the most discussed especially by the females in my family. For example my eldest sister Erika works from home while working her other job as a physical therapist as a saleswoman for a company called Isagenix's. This company is basically a company that try's to sell you food products that you are suppose to turn into your natural diet. As a result of you doing this they say you will be healthier, and feel better naturally only if you follow this diet of crazy eating and methods of eating. I personally think that this diet is bullshit and the stuff is bad for you but my sister has yet to show any signs of bad health and she has mad a ridiculous amount of money by selling these products online and in her neighborhood.

    This little thing that my sister stated about a year ago grew into something huge and it is all because it's a part of the topic of a healthy diet which happens to be the dominant discourse in today's world. After my sister started this my brother caught on to it and started following it as well for my brother in law , my mother , two of my aunts and a whole boat load of my mothers friends caught on to this and started following and selling this health brand. So this even backs my position on the dominant discourse of today even more so because almost everyone in my close family is becoming a part of this health brand attempting to acquire a healthier diet. Even in the news today there are numerous articles about gaining better health, for example this article: Doctor's Orders: Eat Well, To Be Well

    This article about a Dr. Maring promoting the importance of eating healthy through eating more fruits and vegetables and including them more frequently in ones diets. You can see just how crazy everyone is getting about eating healthy because even the media is stuck on discussing the subject.  What I noticed through my own experience of seeing my family going is that they are going out of their way to get this simple task of eating healthy done. They are going on eating binges and making crazy drinks and meal substitutes instead of just going on their own schedule and eating healthy naturally. This Isagenix crap is just so appalling to me because I have no clue what it is that they are eating everyday. Maybe these crazy eating habits that are suppose to be healthy for you are only the dominant discourse because they are different then anything else anyone has ever seen and maybe seem like a heaven send for some people.

HW 4-Your Families' Foodways.

    Well first on a personal level of my own food ways I tend to base the favorite things that I eat with my mothers cooking/ fathers and my own and that food tends to be very heavy sicilian and I guess in a sense I approach this food because I grew up with it as a kid. I believe that peoples food ways are created by the food atmosphere that they grow up with while they are in their younger years. Although people create and become accustomed to these foodways at a young age their habits are constantly changing as they are growing older and more influence form others. Their peers and media and other adults are the people that these kids take into consideration to make the constant change their foodways. In another example for me personally my father loves peanut butter and when I was younger I ate a lot of peanut butter all the time. So as I saw my father eating peanut butter I became accustomed to it and started to do it my self because he was my influence during that age that effected my foodways.

    Now for the approach of food my parents generally don't care what we eat as long as its easy to get and some what healthy every now and then they are almost always happy with what they are eating. For me it's all about desire to eat healthy mostly and to eat what I'm craving form time to time. On a regular night my parents will order soups burgers or salads  from the greek diner from down the block from my house and for them they consider that a healthy choice. But occasionally on other nights they will order italian or spanish food which they consider unhealthy and sadly this effects me in a bad way. It does this because I have to order something from these places cause they want to so I end up eating badly or healthy every other night. You can see how my family still affects my foodways even at my current age of 17, everybody's foodways are constantly changing through out  their entire life.

    My families food choices affect me in a negative way because since they are always ordering out this constantly pushes back the time we are suppose to be getting groceries and groceries is something I have a horrible time living without. This is the result of my family's food ways effecting my house hold groceries:

The refrigerator in my house is the exact replica of this refrigerator in the picture above and I hate it. Every now and then I'am able to place fresh direct orders for groceries but because of my family's food ways postponing this there is barely a good amount of food inside of my home when I need there to be. So you can see as well how your families foodway's can effect your quality of living in their foodway's effect you in a negative way, just like in my case with my lack of food in my refrigerator situation.

Hw 3-Food-Fast Food Insights and Green Market Realizations.

    I believe that the whole reason on why the business of "Fast Food" is so successful is because of the constant aspect of convenience that these businesses maintain remarkably well. To be specific, when my class went into Mc Donald's I noticed there was a sense of convenience almost everywhere I looked. For example inside of this Mc Donald's there were multiple people ready to take your order, on the menu there were orders already created for you to order even faster, and there was even a little counter place to the side  where you could conveniently grab napkins and any condiment or seasoning you like. Maybe to even add on to some further reasoning I could mention the cost of the food in general, it's ridiculously cheap, that could even be seen as another connivence aspect to some people. It's reasons like this that strike me for being some of the contributing factors to why the businesses of fast food are so successful.

    When I come to think of differences and similarities between a Fast Food restaurant and a Greenmarket I can think of about maybe two very bland similarities and about a ton of differences. These similarities are in fact very simple, I said that both of these places of business sell and both of these places create there food their own type of way. Some differences between these two places are their prices, the quality of their food, the way they prepare their food, and customer service as well. The difference of price is a simple one, fast food compared to a Green Market is very cheap, while you are paying more in the green market your are paying for a better quality of food in general. The quality of the food in the Green Market is in fact much better then the quality of a Fast Food restaurant because the things being sold at the Market are things actually being grown on farms and taken care of and then brought directly to the market to be sold fresh. On the other hand the fast food restaurants freeze and fry their food and create fatty salty unhealthy foods from food that isn't directly from farms. Another big difference between these two opposites is the customer service, usually in a Fast Food restaurant you will get the occasional nice person every now and then but not usually,usually you will get a very direct person who wants your order, the cash, and the next person in line, repeat, in a way these people are almost like robots. But at the Green Markets you will usually always get a very nice person whom interested in the food and interested in selling it to you and making a nice friendly conversation out of it. From personal experience I have encountered both of these different types of interactions with salesmen at Fast Food restaurants and Green Markets close to my home.