May 18

I believe that experiencing other cultures and being open to them makes me a better person. It doesn’t just apply to me; I feel that everyone should experience other cultures. Other cultures not only open your eyes to differences in the world, but it keeps people from seeing that their culture isn’t the “BEST” and only culture in the world. It helps alleviate a lot of the ethnocentrism that happens especially in this country. I once had a friend that told me that everyone said good instead of well, which isn’t true. The unfortunate part of that assumption was that this girl had never experienced other cultures so she believed that everything that she did was what the rest of the world did as well. I find it extremely important to be open to other cultures because it doesn’t just open up a line of communication, but on a large scale it can be the difference between getting along with different cultures on a country to country basis. Not respecting a culture is like discriminating against a race, so people should always keep an open mind when meeting people from other cultures. 

May 11

I was in Beloit, Wisconsin the other day, aka the middle of nowhere. My dad and I went out to dinner and there was this couple there. The restaurant was pretty quiet except for their arguing. It all started because the man ordered seafood bisque and he was mad at his date because she didn’t tell him what it was. It turned into this huge long argument and the man ended up leaving the table. When he finally came back to the table she accused him of flirting with other girls and going outside, he couldn’t decide what this argument was going to be so he kept changing where he went. They finally ended up leaving when she said that she wanted the date to end. My dad and I had a quiet dinner after that, but I just couldn’t believe that people would go to a restaurant and make such a scene. 

May 8

I have this theory about socks. It all started over January term when I was doing an internship. I couldn’t decide what colors my socks should be. My aunt told me that your socks should always match your pants. Well, in my typical fashion, I had to prove this. I took note of all of the people I encountered and what color socks they were wearing. It was actually quite interesting (or as interesting as socks can be). My theory now is many people don’t have a rule they just choose the socks that are on top. As far as fancy socks go, people seem to interchange black, dark blue, dark green and brown socks no matter what color their shoes or pants are. People that are especially particular seem to buy their socks at the same time as their dress pants because they match exactly. My final thought is match nice pants with the same color socks and every other color of pants, just wear something fun!

May 7

I do agree with Joe’s desires to leave the hospital and experience the world. It seems that it is only fair that the hospital honor his requests since the doctors are keeping him alive without his permission. It is obvious that he would have died had the doctors not cut off his limbs and connected him to a bunch of machines. It seems like a small price for the hospital considering a man is living without the normal functions of humans. I would want the same thing if I were in that situation. I cannot imagine living without being able to enjoy the weather and the seasons and the people around me. Asking to go outside would probably be one of my first requests as well since my choices of activities would be limited. I would not want to be on display like Joe thought about because it seems horrible that he would basically have to “buy” his freedom to leave the hospital. 

May 5

I was driving by Spring Mill School yesterday on my way to the gym and I realized that I had not slowed down for the school zone. I then remembered that Spring Mill has been closed because of swine flu until next week. This led me to wondering if I needed to slow down in the school zone since technically school was not in session. The school zone sign says 7-4:30 on school days, so what constitutes a school day. Is it the fact that there are children in the building or is it any day that is a Monday through Friday? I ended up slowing down for the school zone speed limit because I didn’t want to find out what the true rule was, but I think that there needs to be more specific rules in school zones. If you think about it, there are many possible questions about when the lowered speed limit applies.  

May 4

The article The March of the Flag used some of the same ideas that Dalton Trumbo used in Johnny Got his Gun. Joe spends a lot of time talking about people who fight because they are fighting for liberty. In a way, the idea of spreading the flag throughout the world is the same idea. There is still an idea being spread without much thought being put into. The people that went to fight said they would fight because they wanted liberty when they didn’t really know what that was. The flag was being taken throughout the world to win over land, and then what? Both the article and book made the point that people are fighting for an idea, but they don’t really know why they are fighting for that idea or what it really means. There is a lack of knowledge that connects both of these ideas. 

May 1

I didn’t feel that the essay and Johnny Got his Gun were very similar; in fact I felt that they were quite opposite. The article talked mostly of the relations between the Muslims and the Americans and their differences in beliefs. The book talks of the aftermath of war in terms of Joe. At the end of the essay it says Americans are known to be “confident, self-reliant, tolerant, generous, future oriented” (page 779). This is the exact opposite of how Joe is portrayed as a character. He is experiencing the ill effects of war and he does not fit into any of the typical American characteristics. He is not self-reliant since he doesn’t have any limbs and he is not future oriented since he wants to die. These ideas did not match the essay at all. There were so many differences that I could not really find any similarities between the two although I liked both because they were so different.