Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving is going to be really interesting because it will be the first Thanksgiving with my new guy friend. We will be going to his uncle's house in Woodhaven first, then my aunt and uncle's house in Dearborn. At my family's house, we usually have a buffet. My mom makes her famous coleslaw, my aunt makes her famous green been casserole and sweet potato pie. My grandma makes pumpkin pie. Beware turkeys! My grandma usually orders an Amish turkey and I have to say it is the best! There are always leftovers. I could live off of turkey. Besides turkey, there is usually enough food for an army! To drink, we have coffee, different variety of pop, and hawaiian punch with orange sherbet. That is my favorite. My uncle usually has Christmas music playing in the background and the famous movie, "A Christmas Story" is played on the big screen t.v. in the basement. It doesn't matter how old we are, my cousins and siblings and I all sit together. We've been doing that since the 'kid table' (which is still in the basement! It hasnt' been used in years).

I am more thankful this year than I have ever been in years past. It was exactly 1 year ago the day before thanksgiving break, I was laid off. I'd been laid off for 6 months before I found my job with the head start program. While I was laid off, I was forced to move out of my apartment. A week after Thanksgiving I broke up with my fiancee. This year I am thankful for my job, my best friend who let me move into her condo with her, and my boyfriend who has shown me what a good guy looks like.

"Gaunt to Gargantuan and Back: The Atkins Method of Acting"

This article talks about the drastic physical appearance of actors/actresses in order to fit a movie role, mostly concerning weight. For example, the article talks about Renee Zellweger in the movie "Bridget Jone's Diary." In order to fit the role as "Bridget" Zellweger gained weight in order to have a more 'average' appearance. What does that mean anyway? Today's society and media puts enough pressure on women as it is to lose weight. Of course after the filming was over, Zellweger went back to her "normal" weight at a pretty fast pace. The same goes for actor Christian Bale who lost a lot of weight in order to appear gaunt in the movie "The Machinist." It's interesting that many movies in which actors/actresses change their appearance in this way, win Oscars or are nominated for Oscars, which suggests a selling point. According to the article, actors create an illusion to viewers that they can change their appearance in the same manner.

My response after reading this article is concern. It seems that in order to have a hit movie, actors will go out of their way to do just about anything to become the character in a movie. I don't see how anyone could put themselves through that so many times without facing repercussions. It seems that there's a fine line between reality and illusion.

Halloween events

My weekend was pretty busy! On Saturday, the children at my church had a harvest party. I had to get up early Saturday morning to help set up. The kids came at about 12:00pm and so the chaos began! The kids looked so cute in their costumes. Some came as princesses, others were Star Wars characters. There were about 21 children total. After they ate, they played games, such as ghost bowling, eating a donut from a string and a cake walk. They got to make puppets and decorate pumpkins, which was my favorite. The kids were very creative!
Later on, I went to a friend's house and helped pass out candy. We didn't think there would be a bunch of kids, so we gave out a handful of candy. As time went by, however, more and more kids came up the street. My friend had the idea of passing out quarters. He went inside and took out this huge can full of coins and picked out all the quarters. I was worried the house would get egged, so I was careful not to show the kids (and teens!) what I put in their bags. Well, one little boy happened to hear the clink of the quarter as it fell into his pumpkin basket and asked what it was. I said it was a quarter, and his response was, "A quarter! Cool!" then ran off the porch to show his quarter off. That was the highlight of the evening! After we turned out the lights and locked the door, we watched a couple scary movies, such as "Fog" and "The Haunting of the Bell Witch." I didn't have nightmares, which was good!

"Did You Know?"

I recently watched a video called "Did you Know?" on youtube and it was pretty amazing. Some of the information was pretty surprising and some not so surprising. The video talks about technology and how it affects us today. Our lifestyles have changed due to new technology and it seems we are all trying to play catch-up.
The information that surprised me and concerned me was that by 2049, it is predicted that a computer will have the computational capability to exceed an entire human species. A $1000 computer at that! Whether it will get that far, who knows? The human brain is a complex thing. What concerns me is that the computer will be smarter and people won't have to use their brains anymore. We rely on computers and other forms of technology enough as it is. What I found amazing is that students are currently being prepared for jobs that don't yet exist. It's not too surprising, knowing what the economy is today and more jobs will have to be created so future generations will have a chance in this life time to make a living.
I didn't grow up with the same technological advantages as kids do today, and I am ok with it. Frankly, I feel that technology, as fast as it is becoming is not always a good thing. Too many people misuse technology now, and who knows how far it will go before it gets out of control? Don't get me wrong, technology has made life simpler. For example, rather than reading a map, you can just a GPS for the car and as you're driving, it tells you where to go. On the negative side, too many will rarely look at a map anymore. Today's children may not even know how to read a map. As I have been told many times, and this I firmly believe, technology is a blessing and a curse.

Music

Micheal Jackson is one of the major pop icons of the 1980's. That also happens to be one of my favorite time periods where music is concerned. I have many fond memories of my childhood in the 80's. For example, my mother was an arobics instructor for the Richard Simmons Academy Asylum. I was in the gym's small play room with babysitters, and I heard Michael Jackson's hit song "Beat It" pounding through the ceiling. I started dancing to it along with a few other kids in the play room. I used to have babysitters come to my house and the first thing they ran to was the t.v. set. MTV was pretty popular at the time and one of the first music videos I ever saw was Michael Jackson's "Thriller." I was scared by it at first, especially when he turned into a werewolf! Now, when I see the videos and hear the songs, I am reminded of my childhood.

2009 Writing Awards Ceremony

On Wednesday, September 30th, my composition 227 class had the opportunity to attend the 2009 Writing Awards Ceremony. It was located in the CASL building and it started at 5:00pm. There were refreshments of doughnuts, cookies and cider offered, which was nice because I had just come from my job, and was a bit hungry.
I strolled in the room where I sat with a few of my classmates. The atmosphere was very relaxed. I observed that the winners brought some family members and friends with them which I thought was a great support to them. Unfortunately, not all of the winners were able to attend due to class and/or work schedules, so it was a smaller crowd. As the professor and host of the ceremony made a speech, I could feel the expectation in the air as the winners were preparing to accept their awards. A few read some pieces that I thought were very interesting and enjoyable.
The piece in the fiction category that stuck out the most for me was called "Point Of No Return" by Holly Carlisle. The piece was about a woman marrying into a situation where there was domestic violence. I have a good friend who was in that same situation for a short while. She left him, thank goodness. I feel that my friend would get some insight reading a story like that to know that she isn't alone.
In the poetry section, the poem that caught my attention the most was "Tornado Township" by Carl J. Garfield. As he read it, I could almost hear the tornado sweep through, but what I thought was great was the fact that the poem was in a tornado shape, it was a great visual! Another poem that caught my eye was Amal Algahmi's "Hitchhiker." It was short, sweet and to the point.
These pieces were just a few of many. Some of the winners chose not to share their pieces, which I thought was too bad because I was curious to find out what they were about. In the research writing category, I would have liked to have found out what winner Lauren Crawford found in "Winding The Toy of Morality: Defining The Existential and Hedonistic Morality of A Clockwork Orange." It's understandable that some people are shy, however, when and if they become famous writers, they may be required one day to read a piece.
All in all, I enjoyed the ceremony and the pieces of writing that I heard. The winners received certificates and had their pictures taken at the end of the ceremony. Hopefully, next year there will be more attendees.