Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen

Baz Luhrmann's song "Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen" has given very true advice that will certainly help many. He has directed his song towards young people who are about to sail on the big ship of life. One of my favorite lines in his song was when he said, "Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements." You shouldn't dwell on the depressing things in life. Instead, you should always look at the things that make life happier. I will certainly follow the song's advice when it said, "Don't mess too much with your hair." So do not dye your hair a zillion different colors because you are harming yourself. Take care of your hair, love it, and be gentle with it. "Or by the time you're 40 it will look 85." Life moves fast, but that doesn't mean you have to be reckless. Advice I would give many would be to take life as it is given. Everything that happens is for a reason. There is no need to get hung up on anything. Just figure out what your net move is going to be and proceed.
Don't forget to wear sunscreen!

What Is Worth Knowing?

What Is Worth Knowing? I asked myself this question a countless number of times until I came to the realization that you must know your yourself before anything. Nobody can teach you how to look in your inner self and see your limitations, desires, and everything that makes you, you. Knowing your mental,emotional, and physical limitations can save you a lot of pain and misery. Lets say you run track, its important to know when you have to slow down so you don't injure yourself. It's good to know how long you can study without you hurting yourself. Knowing how much bad or good news you can take in can save you a lot of metal agony. So, before you try learning about the vast, complicated world, try knowing yourself because its more complex then you have ever reilized and thats the most valable thing.

What the World Eats

(This is for class)

1. Germany ($500) and Luxembourg ($465) spend the most on food every week.
2. The United States, Germany, and Mexico consume the most food per week.
3. The Revis family from North Carolina had the most packaging.
4. The Mendozas family of Guatemala has the healthiest diet. Their diet included of a lot of vegetables, especially green ones. It looked like the vegetables were freshly picked and that means no excess chemical preservatives.
5. The Aboubakar family from Chad has the least healthy diet. There isn't enough nutrition to satisfy the needs of all six people in the family. All the Aboubakar family is basically eating are grains and water. 
6. As relating to the answer in question 3, The Revis family from North Carolina may be the most wasteful because of all of the packaging on their foods. The soft drinks, chips, vegetables, and more all have packaging that can't be recycled, but sent to a landfill and will take a very long time to decompose. The actual food may not be what's wasteful, but what it comes in is.
7. I was surprised when I saw that the Casales family that has five people, in Mexico needed twelve bottles of soda for one week. All that soda defeats the purpose of all of those vegetables.
8. The photo where the customers were picking out their food with chopsticks from the street vendors really interested me since in America we use a very different approach.
9. My families' diet shares some similarities as well as some differences with the diets depicted in the pictures. I don't receive my food the same way as some people do, and that includes not catching seals. I saw some people in Chad face not having enough food, and I'm blessed to have not been in that situation. But, like some people in Bosnia and elsewhere, I get my food from a supermarket. I eat many of the same foods as some people do all over the world.

Waste Land

Recently, in class we watched a documentary on the world's largest landfill, located in Rio, Brazil. The most memorable part of the film was when the workers at Jardim Gramacho helped blowup the photos he took. It shows how other people’s trash can be someone else’s treasure. I learned that you should find as much value as you can with the things you have because if you don't it will be left in a waste land never to be seen or used again. Let's say you go grocery shopping and you have your food items bagged in plastic bags. Once home you unload the food from the plastic bags and throw them away. Those bags could have been used as a trash bag or to carry books, but it wasn't. Instead it was thrown away and will end up in a landfill. Plastic bags take 500 years to decompose. Now image all 8 billion people on Earth throw away 1 plastic bag every day. There wouldn't be enough room to fit all of them. You should find as much value with the items you got before you throw it away. The way I think the people in the picture felt about the photo is proud. Not many people know that there are garbage pickers. The art bring awareness to them and appreciation to what the pickers do. They want to be seen and I believe that the subjects were very happy to finally be looked at. If Vik Muniz had made me the subject of his art, I would feel embarrassed but excited. I would be worried that the photo wouldn't give a true representation of me; however, I think it would be cool to see a photo of me be fun sized. There aren't many aspects of my life that would lead to the same type of art Vik Muniz created, but there are times. The times in my life when I feel accomplished, determined, lonely, etc. are the times when similar art can be created. These emotions go deep down to a place that is very delicate and so, when photographed, it reaches out to people.

Photo Essay on deforestation

Please click here.

Turning Tables

I am running, my white dress stained green as grass, the bottom of my feet caked with dirt. I swing my arms up and twirl around, letting the moonlight claim my porcelain face. I look down to check my mother’s ancient leather watch that has been passed down through my family for generations.

"Shoot, I'm late!" I whispered to myself. I sprinted back to my mansion that was surrounded by a ten foot wall. I quietly squeezed under a small gap where not many guards were patrolling. I approached the door which I always kept unlocked and soon found myself standing behind my aunt, or as I like to call her the Wicked Witch of the West. Auntie Leslie has been my guardian ever since my parents were killed in a tragic car accident. She stood there, tall, dressed in my mother's veil. The fact that she had the nerve to wear my dead mother's clothing sickens me.

"Oh daring there you are!" the Witch screeched with her raspy voice. She had her backed turned, admiring her reflection in the mirror. "I have some very exciting news for you and that is..." her eyes rolled to see the maid standing by.

"You," she barked at the maid, "Leave!" Dawn, the maid, pinched the ends of her skirt, bowed, and headed for the door.

"Good luck Skylar." she whispered to me before leaving.

"Oh daring, I have to tell you something, which I know your parents would be so proud of if they were here today. You are betrothed to the son of the very wealthy Sir Richard." I think I just had a mini heart attack.

"But how am I to marry, for I am only sixteen? Do I not have school? Do I not have a say in whom I marry?" I questioned.

She turned around and then walked up to me, "You ungrateful child, you have to do as I say or I'll...," she smiled, "I'll use all the money your parents left for you on a face lift."

"No, you can't" I begged. The money my parents set aside was the only way I could pay for a ticket out of this hell house.

She grabbed my face with one hand and I felt her fingernails leaving another mark of abuse. "You will do as I say." she growled. "Now go get dressed. Sir Richard and his son Alexander will be here in an hour." She turned her back, once again, to admire her reflection.

 I ran up the stairs to my bedroom and closed the door. I couldn't take it anymore; I swiftly packed up my belongings and tip toed down the stairs and out the open door I went. I pulled my body through the hole under the wall and once again I am running. My white dress stained green as grass, the bottom of my feet caked with dirt. I swing my arms up and twirl around, letting the moonlight, once again, claim my porcelain face.

Victory over Death

I am running, my white dress stained green as grass bottom of my feet caked with dirt. I swing my arms up and twirl around, letting the moonlight claim my porcelain face. I look down to check my mother’s ancient leather watch that has been passed down through my family for generations.

"Shoot, I'm late!" I whispered to myself. I sprinted back to my mansion that was surrounded by a ten foot wall. I quietly squeezed under a small gap where not many guards were patrolling. I approached the door which I always kept unlocked and soon found myself standing behind my aunt, or as I like to call her the Wicked Witch of the West. Auntie Leslie has been my guardian ever since my parents were killed in a tragic car accident. She stood there, tall, dressed in my mother's veil. The fact that she had the nerve to wear my dead mother's clothing sickens me.

"Oh daring there you are!" the Witch screeched with her raspy voice. She had her backed turned, admiring her reflection in the mirror. "I have some very exciting news for you and that is..." her eyes rolled to see the maid standing by.

"You," she barked at the maid, "Leave!" Dawn, the maid, pinched the ends of her skirt, bowed, and headed for the door.

"Good luck Skylar." she whispered to me before leaving.

"Oh daring, I have to tell you something, which I know your parents would be so proud of if they were here today. You are betrothed to the son of the very wealthy Sir Richard." I think I just had a mini heart attack.

"But how am I to marry, for I am only sixteen? Do I not have school? Do I not have a say in whom I marry?" I questioned.

She turned around and then walked up to me, "You ungrateful child, you have to do as I say or I'll...," she smiled, "I'll use all the money your parents left for you on a face lift."

"No, you can't" I begged. The money my parents set aside was the only way I could pay for a ticket out of this hell house.

She grabbed my face with one hand and I felt her fingernails leaving another mark of abuse. "You will do as I say." she growled. "Now go get dressed. Sir Richard and his son Alexander will be here in an hour." She turned her back, once again, to admire her reflection.

 I ran up the stairs to my bedroom and closed the door. I couldn't take it anymore; I pulled my father's dagger off the self that was hanging above my bed. "I'm coming mom." I whispered, only a single candle to witness the most drastic thing a person could do. After all these years of being beaten and tormented both mentally and physically, I will no longer give in to what she wants and I shall fulfill my needs. I held the dagger in front of my chest and moaned softly as I took my last breath.  I had finally found my peace.