Some Lessons from the Assembly Line

    Andrew Braaksma's essay " Some Lessons from the Assembly Line" is about the struggle he went through going to work for twelve hour days in the summer and going to college during the school year. I feel that I can relate to Braaksma's situation because I do the same thing I work really hard and I go to school full time.
    Currently I attend the Art Institute of Sacramento full time as a student in the baking and pastry program. I also work part time at Mountain Mikes. When I am not at school or at work I am usually at home doing homework. It is hard to try and do everything because I hardly ever have time to do my homework I am usually staying up til midnight or later trying to get it done. Then I only get about four to five hours of sleep because I have to drive two hours to school so I get up at five in the morning to start getting ready. It is definitely a tough situation but I feel that it is totally worth it in the long run because I am getting a good education and learning early what it is like to live in the real world.

Salvation

        Langston Hughes' article "Salvation" is about his experience with pressure and the effect that it caused. Hughes' aunt pressured him into believing in Jesus and letting him save Hughes. Hughes felt so much pressure when the preacher was screaming and shouting at him Don't you want to be saved little lamb, Don't you want to be saved by Jesus walk to the platform my son come to Jesus, so when he didn't see Jesus he felt like he couldn't believe that he was real his aunt told him he would see Jesus so he thought he would. I have been in the same situation as Hughes feeling so pressured into something so you just gave in even if you didn't want to in my own experience I was so ashamed of myself because instead of standing up and saying no I gave in to the pressure.
         One time I had an experience where I gave in to the peer pressure of others. Some friends of mine thought it would be cool to steal some of their parents' cigarettes. So they did and Sarah kept telling me as she was puffing big clouds of smoke from a Marlboro 100  oh come on just try it it's what all the other girls are doing. Eventually I gave in and tried the cigarette and I thought that it made me look cool so I kept smoking. First it was only with friends then overtime I started smoking all the time and it became a habit to smoke. I wish I had never given in to the peer pressure of my friends because now I'm addicted to cigarettes and I smoke a pack in two days and I wish I had never started and just said "No" to the pressure.
             

"Cell Phones and Social Graces"

       Charles Fisher's essay "Cell Phones and Social Graces" is about how cell phones draw people away from the things/times that are important. For example family vacations or a dinner with an old friend. Fisher is against cell phones because of the fact that it could distract a person from simple things like saying " Hi, how are you today" to a stranger as your walking down the street. I agree with Fisher, but I think a person should own a cell phone it is a good investment in case you get stranded on the side of the road, but I don't think that you should let it your life revolve around the device.
       I think that now days people let cell phones become their life. All the time you see people on their cell phones in the mall, at the movies, even driving their car (even thought that's illegal people don't even care). It's ridiculous how people will start fighting with someone on the phone while in the middle of the grocery store. I think that people should use cell phones for things like needing to get a hold of someone, or for an emergency. I don't think that someone should be as rude as to use their phone during an important event or just when going to the movies it's common courtesy to put your cell phone on vibrate. When your always on your cell phone sometimes you might be too busy to say hi to the person walking by you or say thank you to the bag boy that just bagged your groceries at the market it's the little things that matter.          
 

" Darkness at Noon "

     I think that Harold Krents' purpose in writing "Darkness at Noon" was to make point that disabled people can work just as hard and just as good as a person without a disability. So therefore why shouldn't a disabled person be treated as an equal to a person who is not disabled. I totally agree with Krents' viewpoint I think that equal right for the disabled is the right thing to do because there is nothing that makes them unequal.
     I feel that a disabled person can work just as hard if not harder than a person without disabilities. I work at Mountain Mikes Pizza and one of my fellow coworkers is deaf. Although he is deaf that does not affect his work what so ever he is one of the hardest workers at the facility. I feel that if any thing he is probably better than me (well at making the pizzas). So I think that it is wrong to think that anybody with a disability is not equal to us because those people are just as capable as any other person is.

"So What's So Bad About Being So-So"

  I think that Lisa Strick's purpose in writing "So What's So Bad About Being So-So" is that things that you enjoy doing should not have to be a competition. I think it is ridiculous when you want to take up quilting, and a neighbor has already mastered it so she tries to tell you all the things you need to do to make your quilting better. When your thinking all I wanted to do was make a blanket for my nephew. The point is why does everything have to be a competition of who can do it better or who knows more about it. Why can't we just do something because we like to anymore.
 Competition is everything now days, so many people are competing in things that we used to do as hobbies because we enjoyed it. It seems that now all that matters is if you actually know what your doing or can do it very well. Why can't we just have fun when did it start being so important to be good at what you have fun doing. What I wonder is what the point of all of it is why put your kid in soccer because you think it will be fun for them but it just turns into a huge competition is that really what we want to be teaching our children. I think that we should be able to play a game and not worry about who will win and more about just having fun and getting the exercise. Isn't that whats truly important just having fun doing something that you love doing.  

Stuff is not Salvation

 I feel that Anna Quindlen's purpose was to get the point across that material things aren't as important as everybody thinks that they are, and sometimes it can cause you downfall. She felt that a solution could be to try and live inside our means instead of always spending all of our money on things that we don't even need. I totally agree with this I feel that people now days are spending money that they don't have which is putting them in debt and causing people to lose sight of what is truly important, and that is being healthy and happy.
  One time I knew this girl who always spent money on things she didn't really need, but she was always charging her cards which was causing her to go into debt. Now even when shes borrowing money to pay her bills she still lives outside of her means though not as badly as she was before. People just don't realize now days what is truly important in life and that is having a roof over your head and a dry place to sleep, and also to be healthy and happy in your life. I think that it is sad that people have let material things like cell phones and i pods blind them from what is more important. 

ENGLISH

This week I learned all kinds of different things about spelling and grammar. There were a lot of things that I have learned before but forgotten. I learned about all the errors people make in sentences and how you can fix them to make them right. Also punctuation and its purpose in a sentences/ statements, and the importance of capitalization and spelling.

                                                       -Jacquelyn T-