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The Versatility of a Photo

      Most of the photos we are constantly exposed to in everyday life are manufactured lies. Just look at a magazine cover and you'll probably see a staged photo that's gone through color corrections and editing and who knows what else to become something completely different than the moment it initially captured. Sometimes, it can be regarded as art, sometimes however, it can trick people into believing lies. I partially agree with Sontag when she calls photos "the most irresistible form of mental pollution" (Sontag, 39). The magazines everyone has seen, filled with beautiful, perfect beings are always so enticing. They represent dreams, people idolize celebrities because they look perfect, and whether we intend to or not, I think everyone subconsciously sees what people in the media look like as a standard they must live up to.       This reminds me of when earlier this year I read about how the British Actress Jameela Jamil, starting pointing out how w...
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Communication Regeneration

  Language is so meticulous. Some people ponder for hours, crafting the perfect speech, planning every word, every hand gesture, perfecting tone, volume, rate, when to smile, when to look somber, and when to pause. While others simply blurt out everything that pops into their heads and only really realize what they have said after the fact. But I am generalizing here, because along with these groups there is also another group of people that switch back and forth between the two. I'd categorize myself in this group, in some situations I am highly meticulous and in some I'm not.           It's interesting, how either so much or so little thought or effort can be put into speech. We alter the way we talk depending on who we are talking too, where we are, how we feel, how the other person feels, and context. A lot of important factors we use to determine the tone that we will use, or whether we should crack that risky joke are all factors that we must sense ...

What Does it Take to Effect Change?

         Something that's always made my blood boil is when people think they can speak for others. When people believe that they know exactly how the other person feels, or should feel, and their word is final. No matter how the person who may have actually been hurt feels.            The Word Police by Michiko Kakutani is a prime example. She believes that just because people go overboard with some aspects of political correctness, all of it should end. That we shouldn't worry about offending people, because at the end of the day, they're just being petty.         One has to understand that the root of " shirts, bumper stickers, and buttons" ( Kakutani, 2) that don the "politically correct" way to refer to things is not hyperbole. These things exist because of ignorance. Someone's feelings were hurt to start everything, and people decided it should be avoided in the future at all costs. I agree that s...

Brunch

I attempted to copy the description style used on the "Okefenokee" swamp, except I described my favorite meal, brunch. Mid Morning Meal: A restaurant called Pier is on a pier (shocker). Customers get to look over the water, probably ignorant about how much of the Earth's water is polluted and disgusting, but oh well. This restaurant is crazy crowded, and there is so much sun everwhere it constantly gets into the eyes. Waiters are constantly slamming plates onto tables to the point where there is no space to even fit one's arms on the surface of the table. There are wild birds flying all over the place, and them pooping on the food is a reasonable hazard. The crepes have fruit and a cream cheese filling, there are also eggs benedict with salmon and greens. It's pretty windy, and the menus are flying all over the place. At the end of a meal, customers are given a sticky, messy juice to drink. Brunch:        Sitting on an ornate pier and overlooking a s...

A Maniacal Proposal

         With all the crazy text's I've ever read in mind, including this year of course (I learned the true definition of crazy this year).  I can only describe  A Modest Proposal as wild. I was expecting something intellectual, (which I guess it was in a twisted sense) but killing babies? This was at a whole other level compared to 1984, Song of Solomon, and basically anything I've ever read. Every time we read something absolutely mindboggling I think it cannot possibly get worse, and it always does. Anyways, killing babies for food seems like something Peta (no shade Peta you're great!) would use as an emotional appeal to show people how cruel it is to kill animals. Because that is exactly what I thought of when I read Swift say babies could be great to eat " whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled"( Swift, 9). It sounded so terrible to treat any living thing like food, and I was actually reminded of this video I watched probably last su...

Et Tu, Vox?

       At long last, a Saturday to myself. After multiple Saturdays of Forensics and Model UN, I had been eagerly looking forward to this Saturday. I actually had the time and energy to watch educational videos and not just pure entertainment.          I was laying in my comfy bed just because I could, (did I mention I didn't get much sleep last week either?) thinking about how I had Saturday and   Sunday to do my homework, which for once in a blue moon wasn't an insane amount.          I perused my YouTube feed and came across a video by Vox  ( yes!  I love Vox!), I thought to myself as I noticed it was about Pakistan's new Prime Minister who, as of late, I had kind of been wishing  I was more educated on. Mostly because I was Pakistani and every Pakistani I knew was kind of — I mean very, obsessed with him. I totally got why, he was a famous Cricket player turned Prime Minister, pro...

Do Something Daring

        This week I did something daring. To explain, I have to go back a few months, when my newspaper teacher announced that she would like for some people to try and make podcasts for our newspaper website. It all sounded so exciting to me, I found a partner, and obsessed over the perfect theme, the perfect name, the perfect topic, the perfect interview. I obsessed and obsessed, and every time we got farther away from recording our first episode because my schedule didn't line up with my partner's, I almost felt relieved, because I would have more time to obsess and perfect everything even more, make sure we were really ready, think of things to say if it got boring, was going on for too long, or ending too quickly. Then winter break, midterms, and my partner was no longer available because of a schedule change.  A little over a week ago I was complaining to a friend in newspaper about how hard it had been to get started. She offered to do...