Weekends are an appreciated break in a senior’s life. I
spent time with my boyfriend, friends and doing work I wasn’t able to
accomplish during the week. A lot of times I don’t have time to work out during
the week. I’m going to try and change that starting this week. I ordered, and
finally received, p90x this weekend and have tried several of the workouts
already. I star the full 90 day workout routine on Monday, just in time for
prom week. I don’t expect miracles from it, I would like to just get in better
shape for college. I am also working on my favorite hobby, scrapbooking. I have
to create a scrapbook for NEHS, one for my senior year, and eventually one of
graduation day. I am looking forward to being able to line up my 6 scrapbooks
in my dorm room and be able to look over them and remember my times in middle
school and high school back in FCPS.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Senior Reflection #2
As 4th quarter gets into full swing the stress
level is rising for most of my friends. AP week is only 2 weeks away and prom
is this week! Plans are being formed rapidly and study groups are forming. I am
finishing up with most of my clubs, trying to finish Keyettes points,
submitting NEHS and MHS hours, turning in forms for service learning chords and
of course lots and lots of scholarship work. Senior year is definitely not
easy, and to work just a little harder I looked up what scores my school,
VIRGINIA TECH!!!! takes for AP exams. That was a definite motivator, knowing
the minimum and maximum credits I could get for what scores. It also adds a bit
more pressure which isn’t exactly good, but will hopefully be enough to push me
through to the end of the AP exams.
Current Event #3: Volunteer Firefighter
On February 24th, seven volunteer firefighters
were hurt in a wind-fueled fire in a vacant Riverdale Heights
house, an incident determined to be arson. Two of them were critically injured
when they were engulfed by a blowtorch-like jet of flame that shot out of the
house. One of them, Kevin O’toole suffered second and third-degree burns over
50% of his body and underwent 10 operations at Washington Hospital
Center.
On Friday he became the last of the seven to be released
form the hospital, symbolically meaning the February 24th call could
finally be considered complete. He had been holed up for several month in Room
10-3E in the Burn Step-Down Unit on the hospital’s third floor.
As O’Toole left the hospital in a wheel chair, he found the
men of Company 309 and, as tradition dictates, the ladder truck he rode to the
fateful fire was waiting for him. The nearly 20 men from company 309 and his
parents clapped as O’Toole approached with his hands arms and legs dressed in
fresh bandages and an umbrella shielding him from the sun. The passenger seat
was covered in a sheet and waiting for him. He grinned and waved as the truck
rolled away toward his home at the Bladensburg fire station.
This article was very interesting for me because I had read
about the original fire back in February. I have a lot of respect for
firefighters, and especially volunteer firefighters who put their lives on the
line for no pay, total volunteer. I liked the article because it was very
sentimental and caring about the fire fighters condition. It was also fairly
well written which made it easier to enjoy.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Current Event #2: Antibiotics In the Food You Eat?
70% of the antibiotics used in this country go into livestock production. This may not seem like a big deal, until you realize that people are then eating these livestock and the antibiotics they consume.
The reason for this high amount of antibiotics is that animals are kept in horrible conditions, packed together in dirty, dim disgusting areas practically stacked on top of each other. But instead of changing the conditions, the companies managing livestock just pump them full of antibiotics so they don’t get sick. When humans eat constant low-grade doses of antibiotics, common bacteria get constant low-grade doses of antibiotics. This exposure is largely contributing to the rise in antibiotic resistant bacteria.
Everything from strep to staph to salmonella are beginning to show resistance to antibiotics. Infections that should otherwise not be occurring, are because of antibiotics in livestock. These concerns aren’t new, however, the FDA proposed banning antibiotics in 1977, but backed down. The FDA would prefer a voluntary approach. They’re asking drug makers to reserve 200 antibiotics for humans only If they fail to comply, they will have to put on their labels that their drugs are also used in animals. However, drug companies know that most people don’t actually read the label so it isn’t much of a threat.
Congresswoman Louise Slaughter introduce The Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, which takes an aggressive approach reserving seven full classes of antibiotics for human use only. A 2005 study at Tufts University estimated that antibiotic-resistant infections add $50 to the annual cost of American health care.
I chose this article because I have been studying livestock production and things of this sort in Human Geo and I saw this article in the Washington Post and wanted to read a little more on it. Most of the info here did not surprise me very much. I am also starting to develop interest in animal rights groups and the despicable treatment of animals is something I believe really needs to stop. There are numerous reasons animals should not be pumped with antibiotics, both human reason, and for their own sake. Companies need to start treating animals better so they don’t have to use antibiotics.
Want to read the whole thing?: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/wonkbook-why-you-should-care-about-antibiotics-in-animal-feed/2012/04/12/gIQAOEfZCT_blog.html
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Senior Reflection #1
It is the beginning of 4th quarter and I think I have received the “senioritis” lecture at least 5 times in the past 2 days from teachers, parents and adults alike. I know it’s going to get harder and harder to focus as the quarter goes on and especially after the AP exams are over so… I thought I would start getting these blog posts out of the way sooner rather than later! Teachers are definitely not letting us slack off, I have received more than enough homework to last me the weekend.
I have already received an acceptance from Virginia Tech and have accepted my offer of admission. I’ll be a Hokie come August! It’s a huge weight off my shoulders but now there are scholarship applications to do and more than enough work to get me through the weekend while my boyfriend and all of my guitar and chorus friends are line dancing and listening to fun music in Tennessee.
Current Event #1: Heartbreaking School Shooting
One Goh’s life was not easy, but nothing gave him reason to open fire on his previous Okland School. In this shooting he killed six students and a receptionist and wounded three others. This is one of the biggest school shootings since the Virginia Tech shooting that shook the nation years ago.
Little background has been released on this man but what is known about his past is not the pretties picture. He immigrated to the US and began to study at Oakland school, a college founded as a safe place where Korean immigrants could adjust to being in the US and find a new career. He lived by himself in the US and was not social with his neighbors and they knew very little about him. When asked what they knew about Goh, neighbors said he was always well shaven and well dressed but not talkative at all. He later began to attend the Oikos University.
It has been discovered that while living in Virginia, Goh racked up tens of thousands in liens and judgments. His brother, who was an Army sergent died in 2011 in a car crash, and in the same year, his mother died in South Korea. While at Oikos Goh began to express thoughts of violence and anger. People at his school were disrespectful to him, mocking his accent. Goh was dismissed from the college for voicing vicious plans. He began to plan his attack and weeks later he began his attack on the school. He went in looking for a certain administrator and upon not finding her, had the receptionist walk into a classroom, had the students line up and then began shooting. The police arrived before all of the students were killed but several lives were taken. Goh is expected to have his first court appearance on Wednesday.
I chose this article because I lived through the Tech shooting as a concerned friend and Virginian. I cannot even imagine what the Korean community and students of Okaland must be feeling, being new to the US and possibly not even speaking English. School shootings are always tragic and this one is no exception. This article was very well written, like most other articles in the Washington Post. It was a rough topic but I did enjoy the fluidity of the article and appreciated the amount of detail and information presented in it.
Want to read the whole thing?:
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