Blog 19: My Final Project.

        On Wednesday morning I decided to visit The Union Square Farmers Market and it was a beautiful weather, cold but sunny. At home I decided to buy sweet potatoes, cilantro, garbanzo beans, and peanut butter in order to make Sweet-Potatoe and Peanut Stew.
        There were lots of produce, smelly cheeses, pies and cookies sold at the market. I bought a hot apple cider, to warm myself up and had a big carrot raisin cookie for lunch, which were both breath taking. Everything looked really great and fresh, and the smell of pears, which I actually could sense, was weird to experience, because I don't feel the same freshness when I walk into a grocery store.

          
        When I walked around the market, I got sweet potatoes and cilantro. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to buy peanut butter or garbanzo beans, so later I stopped by a local organic store and they made me a fresh peanut butter and had to get garbanzo beans in a can. But the most surprising thing was that, on my way home I was passing by the produce store, so I thought of going in and comparing the smell of cilantro... Big difference.

      
        I got home frozen, from a day of walking around the market, park and the Union Square Christmas Village. So the preparation of the meal began by peeling potatoes and cooking them. Later, adding the peanut butter to the roasted garbanzo beans and spices, and it was ready. It was a meal that was fast to prepare, easy and really good.
      
P.s.

        Me and my friend shared our carrot raisin cookies with pigeons and some squirrels, they were really friendly and not even least frightened of us. We had to stop feeding them, because a park officer came and told us to stop, still, I felt bad because it's winter time, and they are hungry.

        The prices of the products in the farmers market might be a little more expensive than in a local grocery store, but truly, you can taste the difference in food. We had a great time and a delicious meal, it was enjoyable for both of us. 

Blog 18

Summary: In the article, "The $2 camisole: How cheap is ruining our lives",by Mary Elizabeth Williams she talks about cheap prices and their quality. Black Friday is an oppertunity to buy stuff for an incredible low price. According to her, people have a mania to spent money on low cost supplies. Buying them for low prices can bounce off on the quality of the product. But some stores put a higher price on a low quality items. It seems the cheaper the product, the worse quality it is, but not everyone can afford a really expencive pair of glasses. The cheap quality makes us buy more and also spent more, because our stuff breaks easily.

Thesis: I agree with the author because I'm tired of throwing out my stuff after it breaks 2-3 weeks after the purchase.

Reason 1:The quality of the product is bad
Example: I bought a piece of jewlery from a tattoo shop, I payed a nice price for it, and it looked solid. Month later, I lost a piece at work.

Reason 2:Problems with phones
Example: My phone is not even a year old and it gets stuck. The sales person guaranteed the best service for a low price. Well the price that I payed, I have the results.

Blog 14: Ideas for Improving My Performance in the CATW

Strategy for my next CATW, based on the example of theannotations of a student who read the same reading, I underlined same sentances, that were the most meaningful to the reading, as the student in the example. But I think I should underline more, and ask myself questions, so later I will understand the reading faster, when I would want to go back and have a fast glance at the passage. Other thing, which is important, I should connect the sentences together so they compose a passage that is understandable to a reader. Plan out a map so I will follow it and prevent different ideas to be all over the paper.

Blog 13: "How to Do One Thing at a Time"

      In an article "How to Do One Thing at a Time", written by Nancy Jones, she introduces us to our reality. Jones writes about our habits of multitasking, and shows us examples of studies that prove to fail of being a multitasker. Students at a Stanford University were split into two groups, one that had to do 3 things at the same time, the other had 10 minutes for each task. Guess who did better? The group that had 10 minutes for each task did better. "A tremendous amount of evidence shows that the brain does better when it's performing tasks in sequence rather than all at one"(Nass).
      Multitasking seems efficient for many people, they feel as if doing many things at the same time, they accomplish more. I guess our brains are not that advanced as we would like them to be, because talking on the phone and driving or texting and walking on the street, makes us focus on one of the tasks more than on the other.
      It is against the law to hold a cellphone and drive a car, there were many accidents caused by that. The reason is, the driver was probably focused on holding the phone and talking rather than steering the wheel and paying attention to the traffic. My dad got into an accident because he forgot his bluetooth, but had to make a call. He was not injured, but the car was and his insurance went up. But do the bluetooth devices help? Maybe a little, but some people get too involved into their conversations.
      I have seen people, mostly teenagers, who were engaged in texting that they forgot they are on the street. Once, this guy was on his phone and texting. When he got to the street and started crossing it on red light, a car came but it stopped just in time. The guy got so scared by the honk that he dropped his phone on the ground and i shattered into pieces. It made me laugh so hard, my dad thought I was crazy.
      From my experiences and observations, I am sure that multitasking is not possible. It's either we do those things not 100% right, or we might cause an accident. We can't walk and text or drive and be on the phone, because we are putting ourselves and people around us in danger.

Blog 12: Michael Pollan's advice on how to eat healthier

Cold Stone PB&C (Gotta Have It size, 24 fl oz)

                                                2,010 calories
                                                131 g fat (68 g saturated)
                                                153 g sugar

      Michael Pollan gave a lot of good advices in his book called In Defense of Food. I did not read the actual book but I read a fragment of it. The way that fragment was written, it made me laugh a little, because I felt as if Pollan was making fun of the food that we consume now when he wrote "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food". He also has great tips and points, which are helpful to keep a healthy diet and weight, when he writes about eating slowly with company, and consuming lots of vegetables.
      Everything that Pollan, wrote makes sense to me because it's what dietics in U.S. are encouraging people to do, for example, drink V8 because it has couple of daily servings of veggies hidden by the taste of fruits. The thing that I agree the most with the author is the fact, that people in U.S. don't eat enough of produce during the day, sometimes its caused because they can't afford it, I'm not even mentioning the organic produce. What might be hard to accomplish is being able to do gardening, especially in New York City because not everyone has access to the ground, some of us live on 3rd, 10th, or 25th floor. I wish, I could do some gardening on my own but my present lifestyle enables me because I live on the 3rd floor and there is no possible way to garden on fire escape. Of course we tried to have some flowers at least, but they either didn't have enough sun or squirrels and birds were digging them out, Once we even had a nest with pigeon's eggs. It was a complete fail, so me and my Mom gave up on any kind of planting.

Don’t

Blog 11: "Let Them Eat Fat"

      In "Let Them Eat Fat" Critser discisses fast food consumption in America. He explains how people in his lower-middle-income area stop by places, like McDonald's, for a quick bite, late at night. The fast food companies attract customers by letting them supersize their meal for less than a dolar. But with the supersizion, comes a bigger amount of calories that are being consumed. That concerns dietics in U.S. because more teenagers are getting obese by the arrival of huge meals and physical activity amonge them drops by almost a half.
      One thing this article reminds me of is me and my friends because we used to eat McDonald's late at night. Later, we would complain about our weight or high cholesterol level at age of seventeen.
      The article mentioned poor people in low-middle-income areas, I don't think we are poor, we just found it more convienient because it was open 24/7. There were no other stores or restaurants open at 3 a.m. to get a warm meal. It was an easy access and tasted, could say, well. They always had nice advertisments, telling us to get more and more food.
      I am interested in dietition and I have been observing people around me, since I opened my eyes. Teens don't really watch what they are eating, and I used to be the same. I was in my doctor's office when I stood on the scale an it showed that I was 160 lbs. heavy. That hit me hard and I decided to lose weight by eating healthier and excersizing. That's when I realized there is more thicker teenagers than those who are thin.
      I think that the reason for teenagers being obese is not only because fast food is cheap, but because fast food industry makes themselves easy to access. They are mostly open 24/7, they have drive thrus, and there is so many of them all over the place. It's also true they are cheap and you can get a lot of food with as much as $5, but the dark and hidden secret are the calories and fats. And those are not the good and healthy ingredients, but the bad ones, which are the cause of so called "love handles".

Simply Sary: The Net is the Real World 3.3

1st evaluation Simply Sary: The Net is the Real World 3.3: "The article The net is the real world shows us that the net brings out the realness in people if your not careful and especially with peopl..."

rambler: CAT # 3

2nd evaluation rambler: CAT # 3: " Sticks and Stones may break my bones and hurt me but words will evidently kill you hold true as this article would suggest. As in the o..."

Blog 10: "Where the Whale Be At?: The Place of Race and Racism in the Discussion of Environmentalism"

      Terry J. Cole wrote an interesting essay, including an important question, "So why should People of Color be concern about the environment?". He described how White people came from a different land, leaving their ancestors behind, and took over the New Land. It was described as misunderstanding the connection of the nature between People of Color and White People. Another point was made by how Black people don't have the same opportunity and access to healthy food, and that they live in areas where toxins are abandoned. Cole even researched the medical conditions of different races, he wrote that Black people have higher chance of getting many disease than the White people, mostly is caused by where they live.
   
      I agree with Cole's opinion about People of Color living in communities that are more exposed to toxic waste. I think it is mostly caused by the increasing price of rent in the areas with fresher air and cleaner environment. But my question is, should only People of Color be concern about the environment? 
      I say no, everyone should be concern about the environment because where we live, later on bounces of on our health. People in most parts of Manhattan have better access to the fruits and vegetables supplies, cleaner environment and more park space. This could be also the cause of the education level, jobs, income, and where people can afford to live. A person with low income will not rent out an apartment in Manhattan because the rent is too high. So what he/she will do, is search for an apartment where he/she can afford. Most likely it will be an environment close to a factory or far away from privileges, for ex. market place or public transportation. As the article, An Outer Borough Drought by Courtney Gross, says, "But out of Manhattan, greens get elusive. In the South Bronx, residents have about half of that supermarket space". It is true, and might be based on the average income of that community, but according to me it's because renting the space to open up a market might be too expensive, and to supply it with fresh fruits and vegetables could be too much of a cost.
      Where we live and how we eat, shouldn't be based on the color of our skin but on education and how much we earn. It's logical that if we have a low pay job we won't be able to live in a nice, clean neighborhood, and a super market close to our house, where we can supply ourselves with as much healthy food as possible. So what I think is, stop with the pity, get to work, and don't blame the color of your skin for how much you earn. It's America, everyone is EQUAL.  

Blog 9: Summary of The Meatrix

The Meatrix: The Pig named Leo, met a character called Moopheus. Moopheus want to show Leao what The Meatrix is, but only when he picks either blue pill, staying in fantasy world, or red pill, learning the truth about The Meatrix. Leo picks the red pill and is automatically transformed into a big factory farm, where animals are packed tightly in cages. Moopheus tells the story of how factory farming was invented, mainly to transform family farms into big factories where animals were fed with antibiotics, hormones, and were kept in an inhumante environment, and the land around those farms gets polluted.
The Meatrix Revolting: Now Leo is in the Real World with Moopheus tells how in the past 2 years, 10 million minds were freed from The Meatrix and how people are starting to buy healthier animal products.But the battle is not over, when they get to the Fantasy World at first Leo is blinded by the perfect farm. Later he puts on the glasses and sees the Real Farm. The cows are unhappy and packed tight together, their tails are cut off. When the Agents of the Meatrix come to the farm, they give an rBGH shot, which is an artificial growth hormones that causes health problems.The young cows are separated from their birth mother and are fed with milk, partially made from cow's blood, which spreads Mad Cow Disease. Leo can't take this anymore and the fight starts between Agents and Moopheus, Chickity, and Leo, but Moorpheus is being kidnapped by the Agents.
The Meatrix Revolting II 1/2: Moopheus is taken to a Happy Farm factory where animals are being cut into pieces. The Agent shows him how humans work, with an incredible speed, sometimes they cut off their fingers, but it still goes with the rest of the food. The meat that is being processed is not clean enough because of the speed and the manure gets into the meat and causes E. coli(Escherichia coli) to spread. Finally, Leo and Chickity rescue Moopheus from the Happy Farm factory... CUT THE CRAP!

The Meatrix's 360-degree interactive tour of a factory farm(Response): Thank God I'm Vegeterian!!! Those short films called The Meatrix provided a lot of disturbing information about meat industry that I didn't know. One thing that really got under my skin is processing the meat, those poor cows are taken to the slaughterhouses after they can't produce enough milk. Since the factories want to produce as much meat as possible, the meat is not processed the way it should, some of the bacterias are still in the system. The speed of the tape that meat is transfered and cut is an unsafe environment for the workers, they get their fingers cut off and that is still being processed, packed and sold to people, the meat consumers who unknowingly buy and eat that meat and maybe someone's  fingers, honestly... That's gross.

Blog 8: The Net Is The Real World

      Tyler Clementi took his life away because two students, one of them was his roomate, Dharun Ravi, recorded something that should have been kept private. Dharu Ravi and Molly Wei invaded tyler's personal space by activating a Webcam in his dormroom. Cyberbullying is common in our society, and with the technology and access to internet, even from a cellphone, it's easy to record something and later expose it to the world's eyes. The cause for some cases of suicide and mental health problems could be prevented, if we just knew how not to abuse the access to internet.       John Suler wrote in his online book that people are capable of many things using internet, that would never do in real world. Disinhibition ia an online bullying, which a lot of people are exposed to everyday. If people would stay out of other's lives, there would be no boys like Tyler, jumping off the bridge.
      Some websites, like YouTube, have filters to prevent wrong videos from being revealed. But we have cameras, cellphones and bluetooths, which can come in handy for some cyberbullies. I know a story similar to Tyler's, but there was no suicide, yet. It was in high school, when my friend had a crush on a guy from my class. She was a freshman and we were juniors, he was 2 years older thatn her. He didn't really like her, but his guy-friends asked him to keep flirting with her. One day, they had a bet, to ask her for a naked picture of herself, stupid girl, she took that photo. Next thing I know, I get a text message with her face and breasts on my screen. I was the outcast and I still got the picture, that means, the entire school saw it. From everyone's phones, some how the picture ended up on Facebook and the girl had no life.  She dropped out of high school, and from what her Mom sais, she's in North Carolina, in a mental hospital.
      People affected by cyberbullying don't always commit suicide, some of us are mentaly stronger than others. It doesn't change the fact that invading someone's privacy won't hurt them in some way. It ended bad for Tyler and it wasn't that great for my friend, either. Stopping our urge to mess up someone's life by awefull pictures or videos being posted online can really make a change.

no Id: ARTIFACTS 1

I like Vladimir's Blog, because I agree with his point of view.no Id: ARTIFACTS 1: " Many times, people capture animals for different reasons; they believe animals could help them to make money. People use the skin ..."

CLASS BLOG: Now in our modern days almost everything is artifi...

I like this Blog because the picture and the idea of a fake beach is amazing. CLASS BLOG: Now in our modern days almost everything is artifi...: "Now in our modern days almost everything is artificials from foods to places such as beaches. One of the artificial beach that was created w..."

Exapmle #3: H.R. Giger Bar

A bar used to be a room with a bar, bartender, some furniture, and of course... people who are drinking. Not anymore, technology and the crazy ideas that people have changed the structures of buildings that are now designed.  Here we have an example of H.R. Giger's  Bar that looks as if we would be inside of human's body. The roof is made out of spine-like pieces, and the seats are matching to the rest of the bar's styling. I found this picture on google and it's breathtaking, the construction of every spine cord... It's not something that is seen on the streets on daily bases and it's amazing.

Example #2: Angels and Demons

The book Angels and Demons written by Dan Brown has modern/scientific and religious examples. The facts that at the beginning of the book, Mr.Langdon is taken to a scientific campus called CERN, which is apparently filled with many scientists from all over the world. Later they find out that an anti-matter was stolen. There is a lot of technological equipment involved and described which I don't know if it exists, but it sure does sounds... like it does. This book is an example of human's mind and its evolvement mixed with today's advancement of technology.

Example #1: The Bar Code Tattoo

When I think of modern life, first thing that comes to my mind is the book "The Bar Code Tattoo". It's about a teenage girl named Kayla who is trying to escape from Global-1 and Tatto Gen. A futuristic organization that was enforcing people, 18 years and older, to get a barcode on their wrists. The barcode contained all their personal information, and it also was used as a credit card. What people didn't know was that the Global-1 was taking a sample of their blood and testing it for any kind of diseases. When they found a trace of cancer or history of depression in their DNA, people were losing jobs, health insurance. It mostly lead to suicides, because people tried to cut it or burn it off their wrists. 

Brave New World:

Brave New World:

Bunniiii

Blog 7: I am a Cyborg.

 My day starts with taking advantage of technology, I don't have a build-in clock in my head, I need an alarm clock to wake me up. Thankfully, we don't live in caves anymore because I would have to make my coffee above the fire, seems kind of funny when I'm imagining it right now, I use a coffee maker which is set on specific time. I'm always on my cell phone, mostly texting either my Mom, Dad, my sister or my friends, I need it to contact my family or find out my schedule for work. Without it, I would be cut off from social life, I think that's my biggest addiction, next to that is my addiction to my Kindle. It's my life, I love reading books and some of them are really heavy. My Kindle has internet access and an Oxford dictionary, which helps me defining words that I don't understand. I can go on Facebook or check my mail on Kindle, and it's practical if I don't have an access to my laptop. When It's hard to admit, being an addict, especially Cyborg addict. I guess it's natural to be a Cyborg because most of the people are, it's comfortable and saves time. It might not be a good thing, because what if out of no where the electricity would run out, and there would be no power to charge the electronic devices? I would be helpless, then I would have to start writing letters instead of text messages, unbelievable.             

Brainstorming about Technology

Tool-(Dictionary) device or implement. (Thesaurus) instrument used to shape, form, finish.
Technology-(Dictionary) the application of scientific knowledge for practical purpose. (Thesaurus) electronics, science.
Cyborg-(Dictionary) a fictional or hypothetical person whose physical abilities are extended beyond normal human limitations by mechanical elements built into the body. (Thesaurus) robot.

      The words Tool, Technology, and Cyborg are similar in a way, they all have similar definition which brings them to science and knowledge. People need Tools to become more advanced in their studies. With the right tools the Technology will improve and evolve. And Cyborg is just a fantasy that was made with the tools and high advanced technology.
      Everyday I use some kind of technological device that improve my life:

• Alarm clock
• Cell Phone
• Computer
• Internet
• Metro Card
• Kindle
• Ipod
• Television
• Credit Card

      I wake up by the clock that is set in my cell phone, to get me up at a reasonable time. Before leaving my house I need to check my e-mail and the weather channel, my school is too far to walk, so I take the subway or the bus. While I'm riding the bus, I listen to an Ipod to shut of the noises from the street and read books on my eBook, which helps me avoid the bored, sleepy stares on my way to the destination. I don't usually carry money around, it just doesn't stay in my wallet for long, that's why I rather pay with the credit card. When I get home from school, I watch TV and usually do my homework on my laptop, internet  is the best human invention ever, you can find all types of information and gossip. If right now, someone would tell me to lead a life without those electronic devices, my life would be.... miserable.
     

Revising Blog 4: Summary of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" and “My Place in the Cave.”

Summary of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”

In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, Socrates is having a conversation with one of his followers, Glaucon. "It is true that many people around you may think you are weird or even a danger to the society, but you do not care. Once you have tasted the truth, you will not want to go back to being ignorant!".

The conversation between Socrates and Glaucon is about IGNORANCE in the society. Socrates’ theory of the ignorance for the truth is shown as a prisoner in the cave. As the prisoners were chained to the wall, underground, they were not allowed to turn their heads towards the passing figures, they could only hear sounds and see the shadows. They would FANCY for freedom, and the sight of sunlight. But if only one of those prisoners would be let free, he would CONTEMPLATE on what are the objects before him, at first. When he will finally get his vision accustomed, he will cherish the freedom and find himself in the right place.

Plato's thinks that people in the society sometimes live like they were in the cave for many months and when they come out, they feel blinded by the light. As soon as their vision gets accustomed, they never want to go back to that darkness. The choice to live in the light, truth, is wanted more than living in the darkness, ignorance.

My Place in the Cave

If I would be in the Socrates' Cave story, I would be still in the cave, chained to the wall. I'm blind(could say ignorant, in a way), and I don't mean that I'm blind because I wear glasses or contact lenses, I'm blind because I’m lacking information about my Dad’s true side.

I’m like those prisoners, they saw shadows and heard echos of foot steps. I see my Dad, who is hiding something from me and lies to me, and those lies are pouring from his mouths, like water from a waterfall.  I doubt that he’s doing it for protection. Sometimes it all turns into a blur.

I guess, me, still chained, is because I'm a naive person. I trust people too fast and too easy. I believe in them and then, its either they will do something against my will, or a thing that will hurt my heart. I can not ever know if my Dad is lying to me, he is really great at telling the stories but he does not have the backup for them, always blaming someone else for it and claiming that the evidence got lost so he can't prove it, so I can only trust him, and there, I get drowned later on, with all those lies.

My story doesn't end with a prisoner coming out from the Cave, yet. Seeing the light and stop being ignorant will happen eventually, so far the guards(life) don’t  want me to fulfill my knowledge, which symbolizes truth. Maybe there is something deep and dark, something that might scare me, change the picture about him,that he has been painting for me.

I've been wanting the truth from him and some kind of support for his theories about people, and the tales he is telling me. So far he doesn't want to talk to me that much, because he’s loosing a believer, Me. The ignorant one still is ignorant, lacking that knowledge, but maybe a little less than before. She’s starting to see the true picture and loosing the one that was painted for her by her hero, Dad.

Blog 6: The similarities and differences between Truman’s life in Seahaven and a reality TV shows

      Not many people cherish their private life, people try to sell their personalities or personal belongings for fame, money, or for both. They sell their handcrafts, or used stuff on websites like ebay. Places where they "sell" or "earn" fame or money with their persona is Television.      The similarities between Truman's life in Seahaven and reality TV show are that they both display life of people and how they deal with their life, with pain, or happiness. To see how other person reacts, teaches us how to react,or how not to react, to similar situations. I have seen on TV how people were throwing plates, cursing, or throwing punches at each other, just because the other person said something mean to them. Truman reacted the way his mind told him, he acted as there was no cameras in the room. They usually have limited space because the camera won't follow them through the entire world because that would cost much more money. Some reality shows have a house for the contestants to live in, for example "The Big Brother", but the people were not allowed to communicate eith the outside world, no TV, phones, or radio. They live on an islands, like "Survivor", or they live in a house but they are allowed to communicate with the outside world, like in "Jersey Shore". Truman also had limited space even though he lived in Seahaven and he worked and had access to TV and telephones, he couldn't leave the TV studio.
      What is different between The Truman Show and any other reality TV show is that Truman did not sign up for that, he was adopted by the TV company who started from one camera to around 5,000 cameras that followed Truman around. The Truman Show was on TV 24/7, without any break. Reality shows that are played now in TV, they pick different people from different backgrounds. Some of them might be rich and snobby, others might be poor and funny. The TV directors always make this mix of different people, just to spice up the show. Truman was the only one who did not know whats going on, everyone around him was playing a role, like in the movie. In todays reality shows, there are no actors, it's normal regular people who agreed to be in TV.
      This is selling your personality, it's an easier way to get famous and be recognized on the street. Instead of going to school, or developing your singing or acting talent people take the easy way to become famous. It's either getting the status of a party person by getting drunk everynight in a bar and dancing topless or bottomless, or pretending to be someone who they are not, just so the outside world will fall to your feet. This is not how the society works. there will never be a TV show like The "Truman Show", because it is against the human rights. It is one of the most important rights that should never be taken away from the people, the right to privacy and freedom at home.

Blog 5: Reader Response

Jeffrey's reminded me of what my U.S. History 2 teacher told us one day. It was in 12th grade, and our class was about to start watching movie called "Saving Private Ryan", when my teacher got into topic of people not believing in Holocaust. At first I thought to myself that this guy is just messing with our heads, but he was not.
My history teacher showed us people who were spreading and making their followers believe that Holocaust never happened and it was just a need for Jewish peolpe to receive pity from the World, and for Germans to be viewed as the country filled with hate and racism.
There is too many documents, photographs, movie recordings to think that the Holocaust was made up by the Jewish people. Many other races died in gas chambers of concentration camps that were located in Europe, not only Jews. I have been to one of them, it's in Poland and it's called Auschwitz. I don't ever want to go to tha camp ever again. When I walked around the camp, I felt the chills all over my body. The belongings of dead people, the tons of hair collected behind glass wall, and huge amount of shoes, it was horrifying how many innocent people died.
Jeffrey spoke about topic that I forgot to reseach after my teacher mentioned that day. It was nice to read someone's Blog, who has similar view as me. I will read about the people who wrote the books about concentration camps and holocaust being a lie.

Blog 4:The Allegory of the Cave

Summary:
In a story, The Republic, written by Plato, Socrates is having a conversation with one of his followers. He is talking or more likely, asking questions about how the prisoners would not be able to recognize people or objects that are passing through.
As the prisoners were chained, underground, with their backs to the raised way, where people pass through everyday, they were not allowed to turn their heads towards the passing figures, to see the world, the sun again. They could only hear sound and see the shadows as the fire threw them on the wall facing the prisoners. They could not move their heads, which left only moving objects on the wall and echo of the foot steps that were behind them. They would fancy for freedom, and the sight of sunlight.
The conversation goes on and Socrates tells Glaucon, the follower, what would happen if, for example, one of the prisoners would be let outside. The prisoner would suffer pain in the eyes, he would have to adjust to the surroundings and the light, because he was chained to the darkness in the cave, for so long. The prisoner would contemplate on what are the objects before him. When he will finally get his vision accustomed, he will cherish the freedom and find himself in the right place.Plato's thinks that people in the society sometimes live like they were in the cave for many months and when they come out, they feel blinded by the light. As soon as their vision gets accustomed, they never want to go back to that darkness. The choice to live in the light, truth, is wanted more than living in the darkness, lie.
What the editor says in his note, in the beginning of the story is "It is true that many people around you may think you are weird or even a danger to the society, but you do not care. Once you have tasted the truth, you will not want to go back to being ignorant!".


My Place in the Cave:
If I would be in the Socrates' Cave story, I would be still in the cave, chained to the wall. I am blind, and I don't mean that I'm blind because I wear glasses or contact lenses, I'm blind because I can't tell the true colors of a person. Its like those prisoners, they saw shadows and heard echos of foot steps, I see people who are hiding something from me and lies that are pouring from their mouths, or they are simply protecting me from the truth. Sometimes it all turns into blur.
I guess, me, still chained, is because I'm a naive person. I trust people too fast and too easy. I believe in them and then, its either they will do something against my will, or a thing that will hurt my heart. I can not ever know if my dad is lying to me, he is really great at telling the stories but he does not have the backup for them, always blaming someone else for it and claiming that the evidence got lost so he can't prove it, so I can only trust him, and there, I get burned later on.
This story doesn't end with a prisoner coming out from the Cave and seeing the light and stop being ignorant. Lately I've been wanting the truth from him and some kind of support for his theories about people, and the tales he is telling me. So far he doesn't want to talk to me that much, because he lost a believer, the naive one is still naive, but maybe a little less than before she learned the true colors of her own father.

Blog 3:Things I Need to Remember When I Write Summaries

Writing a summery has rules. I would have to follow specific guidelines in order to succeed in summarizing. It similar in a way to an essay that needs to be cited, and the information of the author that I provided, must be accurate.

While I'm reading a passage, I should underline either the main idea that I will summarize, or underline the quote or phrase I would be using. It would help me to focus later on to write the paragraph on the subject of the part that I picked. I would be writing mostly in my own words, explaining the idea, or what the quotation, picked by me, means. Including the author's name or any other information that will give the idea for the reader that my information has a background, even though it will not look like the regular essay.

When I will have an outline I should start drafting the summary in chronological order. It should make sense, be reasonable, and include some parts of the passage and support it. It will be a combination of one or two sentences and they should be stretched out and explained without repetition. 

My summary should be comprehensive, reasonable, support my point of view, and cited in a way that is suppose to be while writing a summary.

Blog 2: What I need to do to pass the CATW--seriously

There is many steps to successfully write a CATW essay. What I need to do is, prepare myself, read carefully, outline, make a draft, and check my grammar.
Reading passages in the CATW reading sections are from 250-300 words, which are very short. I should be prepared to write an essay, which is 90 minutes long, by getting a lot of rest the day before and not overreacting and stressing out. I should split my time right, so I will have enough for every section. While I'm reading, it is necessary to underline or highlight important facts or key words. it is also important to understand the passage. It will be helpful, when later, while writing I would need to explain in my own words the examples that I am referring to. The examples have to be in chronological order, because I don't want to confuse my reader/grader with jumping around the passage instead of following one by one.
To write a great essay, which doesn't have to be a specific amount of words or pages, I will need to cite my information. I don't want the reader to think that my informations are taken from the sky and are inaccurate.
When I will be ready and done with reading the passage, finally i can start the outlining my essay. It should have a topic, thesis, and an introduction. Then the body of my essay should consist of facts, citation, and main idea of my point. My conclusion should refer to the thesis and introduction, it should be supporting my point of view and end the essay.
Grammar is important in the essay, same as the meaning of the words that we use. If I won't know the meaning of the word and used it wrong, the meaning of my essay would lose it sense and it won't be as strong as I am wishing for to be. That's why it is important to understand the passage that I am reading.
When I'll follow my instructions, read carefully, make and outline, draft, and check my spelling and if i used the words right, I should start writing it down as my final draft.

Blog 1: Hype? Or just being naive?

The passage Hype introduces and explains the way advertisments and commercials influences our lives. It's not only in North America but probably the entire world that struggles, because it is a struggle to keep up with them, with the invasion of the unreal world played between our favorite television shows. Colorful advertisements took over the landscapes and our minds. They are everywhere, in stores, on billboards, television, radio, ect,. Our minds are constantly preoccupied with new technologies, food, or places that are being shown. Even when we don't want to see them, when we try to escape from them, there is always a way that the company payed enough money to introduce their product to the world. I know how it is, because I travel to school everyday and I see in the bus or the subway how phone companies or other products are advertising their best products. It somehow influences our minds and we demand that specific electronic devices, or are wishing to travel to that beautiful place, or we start craving that delicious pie that is so beautifully shown on the poster. I read about the tricks that advertising companies use to get the society to buy more things and follow the so called, American Dream. America is a country where most of the world wants to live. Is it the freedom? Or is it the access to so many privilages for not a big price? It is, I'm sure for the freedom, but also the demand, the hunger for objects, that brings people here. Everyone wants to taste the life of an American society. People go to work to earn money for whatever new products are on the market. They feel as if owning something expensive or new, it will make them feel better about themselves. Usually,  at the end of the day, we might feel as if our minds had too many products introduced to us, and more has to come while we are watching television or useing computers. For example, Wendy's, the fast food restayrant, introduces the consumers to their cheap and delicious menu. But no one shows how many calories that meal has, from what and how was it made, or how many people were regreating that burger beacuse now they are obese. From what I observed, it's a chain of never ending benefits for corporations. First you eat those burgers and slurp on those milkshakes, then you get a heartburn and gain weight, so then it comes the turn for the heartburn medicine corporation to benefit from that, and later on, YMCA or other gym will step in to help you with fixing your self-esteem. The advertising business is smart because they show a happy family when they purchase a nice, big screen, television, or a group of friends eating pizza and having a blast, and everyone is wishing for that happy, filled with laughs, time with your family or friends. But in reality, nothing is that easy or we don't always smile. It only lasts for a little, then we get bored. And that magical time, that was shown in the commercial, was only for 30-60 seconds. After that another, and another advertisement was playing. The magic, the smiles, and the happiness will go away, that's when the emptiness comes, and later demand for another product will approach, and that demand is a cry for happines.