The Power Team:Muscular Christianity and the Spectacle of Conversion

So personally I think that the whole Evangelical Preaching thing is a little ridiculous. The Power Team came to my high school once, and it was cool I guess, but to be honest, the only thing I remember is this huge dude (who was probably on roids...its unnatural to get that big) ripping a phone book in half. Now please tell me, what the heck does that have to do with serving Jesus? I think that promoting healthy lives, and staying away from drugs and alcohol is great, but why are people so hung up on trying to convert the 'non-believers' to their religion? I am pretty sure we all understand most religions, whether we go to church or not, and if we want to try it out or join a church then we will. I feel like this Evangelical preaching is just a gimmic and a joke. The section 'Man on a Mission' talks about the manliness or not so manliness of Christianity. I don't think that whether or not you attend church or believe in God makes you any more or any less of a man. The fact that the Power Team is using masculinity and muscles to get that point across is kinda lame. Eh, I am just not very religious. I don't have a problem with anyone who is (in fact most of my closest friends are very religious), but to me, this whole Evangelic Preaching crap feels like just another strategy for shoving the bible own our throats. But hey, if you are into this kind of thing, then more power to you. Just don't expect to see me pop in on one of these events anytime soon!

Naked!

Now that I have your attention, I guess I should let you know that 'Naked' is the title of a story I was required to read for my Research and Writing class. sorry guys :) So this was a pretty cool short story about a boy who grew up licking, touching, and shaking everything in sight due to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It is different from anything else I have ever read, but I really enjoyed it. Naked is written by David Sedaris and it is from his own experiences growing up with OCD. He writes it in a way that makes it easy to understand how it feels to be in his shoes. One paragraph described the excuses his mother made up for each new compulsion that David acquired as he grew older. In the end, David finds refuge in the more commonly thought of as a "death trap"; cigarettes. These little white cancer -causers and their accouterments (lighters, ash trays, the need to walk outside) keeps his mouth and hands busy (as Sedaris puts it). I guess that there are a few upsides to smoking, eh? Anyways, I really enjoyed this story- so I recommend that you read it!

500 words on Genetically modified (or as I like to call them -Mutated) crops

A question to answer while writing my research paper could be: what are the major and most common health risks that result from eating GM foods? I know that Genetically Modified foods are very common and have more downfalls than benefits when it comes to human health. Genetically modified can also be known as transgenic or genetically engineered. A crop is considered to be transgenic after undergoing a change via biotechnology. This process basically takes preferred traits from one or more plant and combines them into one. Most of these, as I like to call them “fake” products, are created to resist specific herbicides, pesticides and insects. This may seem productive, but it doesn’t necessarily have an effect on the yield that farmers have after harvesting. These products are in some ways meant to improve human health and environmental health. According to the documentary Food Inc. farmers don’t always have a choice when it comes to whether or not to use these genetically modified seeds. If you watch the movie you can see that due to their financial situation, most farmers are pressured into using a specific company’s transgenic soy beans. In a way, these transgenic crops are if not already, will soon be dominating the market.

                I need to learn more about what the major uses for genetically modified foods are, as well as how they react with the human body. I want to learn more about what can happen to us if people eat too many genetically modified foods. I also would like to learn more about the environmental effects these products will have-yes they may be allowing farmers to use less pesticides and what not, but what type of environmental impact happens during the process of biotechnologically altering the genes of the original seeds (if there are any)?

                There are many arguments that oppose my personal views concerning genetically engineered foods. A few include; improving environmental health, human health, and supposedly enhancing production and profitability.

                When researching, I have taken a gander at a few different websites including;  http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/geneticeng.html#crop, http://www.safe-food.org/-issue/dangers.html, a few articles from academic journals; American Association for the Advancement of Science, Academic Search Complete, Biological Abstracts and two books as well; Seeds of Deception: Exposing Industry and Government Lies about the Safety of the Genetically Engineered Foods You’re Eating, and Your Genes: How Genetically Modified Food Is Entering Our Diet.

            I suppose that my thesis statement could sound a little like something such as this:

Genetically modified crops have becoming increasingly widespread, some may think that this could lead to various benefits, however, in my opinion there are very few advantages and the consumption of such products can lead to health risks and various other downfalls that will soon be explained.

Laugh Tracks

Prior to reading "'Ha ha," he said. "Ha, ha.'" I never gave laugh tracks much thought, they have always seemed to be just another component of most TV shows. After reading this, however, I had a lot of different ideas flowing through my mind. Chuck Klosterman is completely against the use of laugh tracks, I am honestly not sure what to think of it. I feel like Klosterman is being a little drastic, he thinks that laugh tracks are in a way "programming" us to know when to laugh, and also taking away our natural ability to decide what is funny and what isn't. Personally I think that everyone's ideas about what is funny differs depending on personality, and I don't think that a laugh track has the ability to undermine how we feel about things. Also, another point that Chuck makes is that the absence of a laugh track makes a sitcom funnier, I disagree. I think that it can alter the type of humor that is present. For instance, Friends uses a laugh track but Always Sunny in Philadelphia doesn't. I find both comedies really funny and thoroughly enjoy them equally just in different ways. Friends is stupid funny, everyday type of funny.  Its Always Sunny  is more of a perverted, dark and sometimes dry humor. Therefore they obviously both have different types of humor, but even if one or the other changed, they would still have different vibes as well as still being humorous. I suppose that I disagree more than agree with Mr. Chuck Kolsterman, laugh tracks might be a little cheesy and over the top at times, but I don't think that they have such a negative effect on society as Chuck says.

Human Growth Hormone? Nah...

Although we did the exercise on Moodle to help gain ideas about what to write about for our Annotated Bibliography, the idea I chose had nothing to do with what I previously came up with. First I thought it would be pretty cool to do some research on whether or not Pluto should be a planet, which I wish it still was. However Pluto failed me- there was not enough info against its un-planet like characteristics. So after going through a few ideas I decided on this one: Human Growth Hormone, and why it is pointless to give to children with insufficient height for their age. Love yourself! I really feel like we need to stop pumping this younger generation full of stuff that is unhealthy for them (and things that really don't work...like HGH). I started a little research, but I've also been super busy so as a start here is a few things I found, thank you EBSCOhost.

According to Acta Paediatrica; Nov2010, Vol. 99 Issue 11 and its various authors, we like to use HGH for children with Prader Willi Syndrome. For those of you who don't know what Prader Willi Syndrome is, (which was me before researching this) it is when babies are born unable to control their eating habits, are constantly hungry and later in life this becomes obesity. If you are anything like me then you probably asked yourself "why the heck are we giving obese kids a growth hormone?!"...great question. According to a study described in this article, there were 20 patients who received HGH and at a 10 year follow up they were taller, but still very obese. The HGH also did basically nothing for their over all quality of health. So my question is- If all the HGH is doing is making them taller, why do we prescribe it? Hopefully I can find more evidence against it, and I'll keep you all posted!
oh and here are a few questions I have:
-What are the ill effects of HGH on your health.
-If HGH doesn't really do a significant amount to help you, then why do Doctors prescribe it?
-What exactly does HGH do?
-What are the positive effects of HGH?

annotated bibliography

I have never done an annotated bibliography and I am not positive about how to do it, so hopefully this goes well!?

 The source that I read and will be annotating is called Home Sweet Home Ec.  It is written by Emily McCombs.

  This essay basically talks about what the real meaning of Family and Consumer Sciences is. When most people think of this they think of cooking, sewing, ironing, and household chores, but it is so much more than that. This source was very informative because it depicts every aspect of FCS, how people percieve it and then what it actually entails. Surprisingly  FCS was founded by women advocating our rights and empowerment and employment. Although this article was no doubt written by an FCS teacher it is strictly informative and lacks a personal bias-which is great! Home Sweet Home Ec. also distinguishes the history of FCS from the former Home Economics and how it had evolved and progressed over time. Although there is no bias, this is still a great source, it is written by an experienced FCS teacher, and it also includes quotes from other FCS teachers as well.

So I definitely thought I posted this a while ago when it was due but apparently I made a new blog instead of a new post? 

Uno

Hello blogging world,
     So this is my first ever blogging experience, and its kinda weird. My research and writing professor has asked our class to start a blog for a few assignments, so for this one I am simply going to introduce myself and give a little input on an article I had to read. So for those of you whom I do not know but for some reason are reading this hopefully you don't consider me to be a total nut. During spring and summer I really enjoy hiking and going mountain biking, as well as fishing, swimming, kayaking and running. I love to be outside as much as I can, sometimes I will even weed our flower beds so I'm not stuck inside sitting on my butt. If somehow my friends and I scrounge up some gas money we try to hit up the river for some tubing, or maybe a trip to my cabin in Perry County. Yep, that is right, hick-ville, Pennsylvania is where I have made some of my fondest memories! It also happens to be my favorite place to go. When its cold  I still do my best to stay active: I love snowboarding and of course paying in the snow! Also, this semester my roommates and I have taken a liking to Spinning and Zumba classes at the gym on campus. In the mornings I thoroughly enjoy a cup of coffee, and I really like music: any kind of music- funky stuff, upbeat and fun, super chill, oldies, and I really like when people introduce me to knew artists! Okay I realize that I am beginning to ramble so I'll just throw the rest out really quick! I live with my dad and my brother so I am not the girliest girl on the planet, but I love them and I sure don't know what I would do without them! I call my grandmother Tootsie. I have a dog named Scooter and a cat named Peach, both are my world. I love big dogs and my dream dog is a Bernese Mountain dog, oh and I have worked at a kennel for the past 6 years. I love to Cook and Bake and I like working with kids: therefore I am a Family and Consumer Sciences major and I also am minoring in Child Development. So, as you can see I am a very outgoing/outdoorsy girl, I enjoy meeting new people and I am not afraid of getting muddy, haha. Hopefully you enjoy my blogging!

     Now I should probably get to the more important part of this whole blogging experience-  Attached to Technology and Paying a Price. That, my new found friends, is the name of the article I read, and yep we are talking about how technology has changed our lives! For better or for worse? I am not positive, but what I am positive about is that although technology is awesome and helpful (most of the time) some people become way too attached to their Ipads and laptops. For instance this guy from the article, Mr. Campbell, has three monitors all set up next to one another, bought the Ipad as soon as it appeared in stores, and spends quality time with his kids playing "Super Smash Bros". Seriously, who does that?! I can understand that every once in a while you play some video games with the family, but we're talking all the time. This family went on vacation and spent the majority of their time in the hotel on their separate consoles. Obviously this example is to the extreme and is definitely making a valid point, but I don't think that most people are like this. Yes, I love my Ipod, and my cell phone is more like another appendage, and of course my computer is a staple when it comes to school work, but sometimes I love it when I forget my phone, or my Ipod battery dies. Over the summer I am never on my computer and it is so great! When I spend time with my family I like to converse with them and hear what they have to say, or do something fun like fish or play a card game or Volleyball. One of the coolest vacations we ever took was a 2 week trip to Maine, all we did was camp, hike, and hang out! To each their own I suppose. The other main point of this article was to show the effect that all of these different types of technology and websites have on our ability to multitask and whether or not multitasking is a good thing. Apparently multitasking impairs our ability to disregard the insignificant material as well as our ability to remember the important stuff!? Well doesn't that suck. I am still deciding what side to take on this whole technology ordeal; I love it but I hate it. It can be very helpful but at the same time it can also take over our lives which is not cool.  Until next time :)
                                                              -Brooke