Risky Business

I live a comfortable life in a three story house with a puppy that is seriously the most adorable thing ever when he sleeps. I have a warm cozy bed with a down comforter and more outfits to choose from than I can even count. I live the good life. Would I risk everything I have in order to get a 4 story house with two adorable puppies, a full bed with a down comforter and even more high end clothing? Well, no. I would not. But it all depends on the chance of success. I would not risk all the wonderful things that I have if I could potentially end up with nothing.

It is much easier to take risks when you have nothing to lose, but is that really a risk? I would risk a penny in a heartbeat if I had the chance to get a quarter. I would be gaining 24 cents if I won, but only losing 1 cent if I lost. If my gain is bigger than my loss, its worth it to risk it. If not, then why bother? See this is where gambling becomes a problem. People cross the "too far" line before they even realize it. They factor in past luck to mean future luck, but that certainly is not the case. Just because my business card got pulled out of Potbelly's "Win Lunch for all your co workers" jar ONE time doesn't mean I'm more likely to win the next time. When risking, you have to be smart. Don't let the prize get the best of you.

I, personally, am not a huge risk taker. I walk slowly and carefully, I always check the odds of failure versus the odds of success. I want to live the best life I possibly can, and I have always felt I can do that best if I don't risk the wonderful things that I have. But is that really true? I'm not completely sure. My careful nature keeps me away from the exciting and dangerous sensation of risk.

I JUST LOVE HOLIDAYS

My mom's fantastically fantastic Santa collection was put up yesterday, the tree is up and lit, and the needle-point stockings are hung by the chimney. We have begun baking cookies of all sorts and the house smells of winter pine. Outside finally looks as though someone has taken white-out and drawn all over the city of Plymouth, Minnesota and its at the temperature that makes hair freeze if you go outside right after a shower. It's picture perfect.

I absolutely adore the holiday season because it's the one time everyone comes together and thinks of others instead of themselves. Argue with this all you want but it's true. Every other month is about what would look cute for yourself, what kitchen appliances you need, what you are gonna treat yourself to with your paycheck but December, December is a little different. People scurry from store to store searching and searching for the perfect gift for someone else. This is a really cool thing. People drop extra change in the buckets for the Salvation Army and almost everyone is in the holiday mood.

It's a time of selflessness, family, friends, and the things that really matter. People down cookies not worrying about holiday weight, the two biggest meals of the year occur during this time. Winter clothes aren't always cute, but do people really care? No, we live in Minnesota for goodness sake, whatever keeps frost bite away is the way to go.

What can I say. The holidays are the absolute best. I just hope my boyfriend gets me something good... :)

On Compassion

Its a day just like any other. Walking around the streets of New York to get to my particular destination. Shopping, an eatery, work, it all depends on the day. As I stand waiting for the light to illuminate the man walking, my eye become fixed on the man in raggedy clothing, dreadlocks, and a solemn look. He looked hungry, cold, and unhappy. I don't know how people survive like this, how they go off of nothing, literally running on empty.

I look at the man, clearly much less fortunate than I, and I decide to do my good deed of the day. I rummage through my purse searching for any bit of green I can possibly lay my eyes on. Quite honestly, he was creeping me out and I wanted to get away from the situation. I finally scrounge up a dollar bill and hurriedly hand it to the poor man. It takes him a while to finally understand my generous gesture, what did he think I was gonna kill him? Was I attacking his pride? None the less he accepted the dollar and we went on our merry ways.

Secrets Secrets are no fun.. Unless you share with EVERYONE

1. Description

2. Definition

3. Compare/Contrast

4. Narration

5. Example

6. Cause/Effect

Rhetorical Modes

1. Steam poured out of her ears. Her heart began pumping a million times a minute as she watched him walk away with someone else. Emotions overcame her and she was helpless. Angry and distraught. All she wanted was to snatch him back. She felt the undeniable frustration wash over her. A loss for words. To jealous to act. 

2. Jealousy is resentment against a rival. It is wanting what someone else has, and not being able to accept that they have it. It does not always include anger, but often includes pity. A jealous person fears rivalry and competition, but tends to be very competitive.

3. Jealousy is very similar to envy because they both involve wanting what someone else has. Envy is different because it refers more to a person's possessions or advantages whereas jealousy is a more direct take on emotion. They both are used for similar situations, but their definitions differ.

4. It was December 26th, the day after Christmas, and I was perusing Facebook like it was no big deal. Well it was a big deal. Jackie's parents bought her the new Audi for Christmas and now the guy I've been chasing all year is all over her. Just because she has rich parents means she gets the guy of my dreams. I have never been more jealous in my life. Why can't my dad figure out how to make millions of dollars?

5. A jealous girlfriend is common a common term these days. It comes from all the oblivious boys flirting with the ditzy girls, yes they think its harmless, but the girlfriend sees the love of her life being snatched away from her. She imagines all the terrible scenarios of him falling for someone else, even if it is just harmless conversation. Jealousy gets to her head.

6. Jealousy is caused by fear. People fear by not having the trait or possessions that someone else has will affect their life in a drastic manner. A jealous girlfriend fears that because her boyfriend is talking to another girl he will all the sudden fall in love with this other girl and leave her in the dust. The fear results in anger, frustration or even sadness.

60 Days of Christmas

The holiday season is once again upon us, lights are glittering throughout Plymouth, Christmas music is blasting on 102.9 and I am in holiday mode. I've begun the wonderful process of picking out the types of cookies I will be making this year, and I've been doing this since the day after Halloween. Some may say this is too soon, I say pah ha! It is never too soon to get into the holiday spirit, 'tis the season! I've been cranking my Christmas playlist on my way to school. Those people who say "Christmas can't start till the day after Thanksgiving" have absolutely no spirit. Who puts a date on when you can celebrate Christmas? Celebrate in July for all I care!

I just love the holiday smells, sounds, and atmosphere. It's just such a jolly time. People scrounge for loose change to donate to Salvation Army bell ringers, Santa stands are set up in malls everywhere, peppermint candles are selling by the case, it's the greatest time of year. It's my favorite time of year, which is why I start celebrating the day after Halloween. 60 days of Christmas still isn't long enough. Ah, I just love this season so much.

PS It took everything in me not to add emoticons.

X2 Page 126

As a was reading the issues that have emerged from computer use, I began to see these problems in society. Have you ever gotten really bored on a Saturday afternoon so you decided to Google your own name? Well I've done that before and I thought it was really cool that I was found on the Internet, until today. If I had a predator or someone out to get me it would not be very difficult for them to find me. They would find out I go to Wayzata High School, which is a dead give away in itself, simply by Google searching my name. Privacy invaded.

I disagree with computers creating a two class society. For the people who do not have to money to buy their own computer, they can easily find access to one. Libraries, schools, friends or neighbors, there are plenty of ways to utilize a computer without having to go out and buy one. Also, there are many different kinds of computers at many different prices, all that can give you access to the web and a word document, the basis of a computers many functions.

The internet makes research writing a whole heck of a lot easier, and much more reliable. Yes, there are some unreliable websites, but it is not the fault of the Internet it is the fault of the idiot who thought polar bears lived in Minnesota during the summer time.

Vilification of the web is a problem, but that is more a problem of parent censoring and school censoring. I know WHS censors the web a great deal, as do many families. You can't blame computers for one persons creepy disgusting actions. The computer is simply the canvas, the artwork is up to the people.

Overall I think computers are great, I do not believe they are contributing to the death of print. We have the technology to achieve great things, we aren't going to hold back just to preserve print when we are developing it in new and exciting ways. The computer doesn't keep people from day to day interactions just as the book doesn't keep people from leaving their homes. Its simply a form of research, communication, and activity, but it doesn't replace everything else in the world. When a computer replaces all other activity in a persons life, that is the fault of the person, not of the computer for having that capability. Think about it.

Jimmy Kimmel Halloween Challenge

I stumbled upon this adorable youtube video titled "You sneaky mom!" and couldn't get over how funny it was, so I decided to blog about it. The challenge on Jimmy Kimmel was to tell your kids that you ate all of their Halloween Candy, which is exactly what this mother did to her two little boys. Now most reactions include screaming and crying and full blown tantrums but this reaction was a little different. This reaction was more of a "what the hell is your problem?" type deal, which is what makes it so funny. These are the kids everyone wants to have, the ones that wont scream and cry but will look at you and say "you'll probably get a bellyache." I found the challenge in general very interesting because as a child, to this day even, i would be extremely upset if my mom told me she had eaten all of my Halloween candy. Who does that? It would set me off big time, much like the tantrum throwing children, but these kids were different. Watch the clip. It is hilarious, if you don't laugh then you can give me a zero on this blog post (Not actually, but I will have serious concerns if you
don't laugh.)

Writing... The Long and Difficult Process

The first thing i did for my rhetorical analysis paper was sit down and annotate the article. I tore it to pieces. I searched for any little thing i could incorporate into my paper, rhetorical devices, interesting metaphors, the different people mentioned, everything. I had three highlighters, one blue, one green, and one pink. The blue was used to highlight interesting and effective diction. This helped me provide examples in my writing. The green was used to highlight the people he mentioned, I counted twenty-three. The pink was used to highlight interesting wording, metaphors i hadn't seen before, simply the different things that stuck out to me in his writing. After the long a dreadful annotating process I read the article again. Then i let it sink in for a while.

When i sat down to write my rough draft i just stared at the computer screen for a while. I put my name and date in the top left corner (MLA format, of course) and typed a generic title and just took a minute to think. I thought about what i wanted to say. How i wanted to go about describing Nicholas Carr's writing style. Needless to say my first draft was a mess, but thats what first drafts are for right? So you can revise, edit, and fine tune your writing. So that's what i did.

After draft one was complete i started revising. I picked it apart and looked for things that needed fixing, or things that needed to be taken out completely. The revision process took a while. I went paragraph by paragraph to make them the best they could be. Then i would hand it to a peer to look over my work, and fresh set of eyes is always beneficial, they catch things i wouldn't notice otherwise. Finally, all said and done, i had written what i believe to be a very solid paper. I had a friend at work edit it for grammatical errors and then on Friday, October 28th 2011, i handed my pride and joy rhetorical analysis paper to Mrs. Cardona. It felt GREAT.

The Struggles of Working Retail

I have been working retail for a year and five months, and it has been a bit of a struggle. People talk down to you, as if they are better. It drives me insane. Just because I am the one standing behind the jewelry counter pulling out ring after ring for people to try on their fat fingers somehow gives them the right to be as inconsiderate and rude as possible. There is a store policy that I can only pull out 2 items at a time, and customers get mad at ME for that policy. I don't make the rules. I simply obey them to keep my minimum wage part time job (sounds dreadful doesn't it?)

"Can you show me this?" "Ma'am! Can you show me this?" "I want to see this" "I saw something in this case, take it out for me to see." Notice anything about those statements? I do. Not one single "please." I am treated like a machine, not a human. Now this may seem a tad dramatic, but a year and five months has brought me to dramatize things. My time working in retail has also brought me to have a greater respect for others working retail. When I shop I say please, I say thank you, and I don't try to inconvenience the workers.

Working the fitting room is probably the worst. Yesterday I had 3 girls walk in with 10 items each (the limit.) I hear them messing around in the fitting room talking about how ugly the clothing was, they were simply choosing the ugliest items they could, trying them on, then giving them all back to me to put away. Now I understand its kind of a fun thing to do, once. They did it TWICE. Who does that? Who thinks that's ok? It isn't ok. It's rude and inconsiderate, and I did not appreciate it.

Working the cash register is just as bad. People come in with all these crazy returns. They won't have receipts or tags. They pretty much just make things as difficult as possible. People will return every item on their receipt which causes me to wonder why they even bought it in the first place. Its a big pain in the but. People will come up and say "This shoe has a little mark on the bottom." (The part that no one sees.) And then expect us to give them a discount.

If it weren't for college being so expensive and my desperate need for cash, I would have been out of there long ago. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way. We need to work for things, and pay our dues. CEO's didn't just gain their position out of luck, they worked for it. So here I am, paying my dues to the retail world.

An Unfair World

Watching Two Million Minutes really opened my eyes to how the world works. It is a lot more difficult to achieve excellence in foreign countries than it is here in the United States. Throughout the film they show the constant studying and lack of "fun" activities for the students in India and China and they showed how the American students balance school with their social lives. The Americans were involved in more activities but the Chinese and the Indian students achieved higher excellence in their activities. In the end of the film I was very surprised to see that the Chinese and Indian students hadn't reached their goal because all I saw was the endless work they put towards it. The film said that the students from China and India spent twice the amount of time studying than the American students, yet they Americans were the ones to achieve their goals. The boy who got a full ride to Purdue said "I didn't prepare at all for the PSAT yet I was still offered a full ride to Purdue because I did so well." This hardly seems fair, yet he didn't cheat, so how is it not fair? Because the makers of the film made the viewer feel it was unfair by showing the hard work and dedication of the students from foreign countries. To me, THAT hardly seems fair.

iPhone Desire

I have had my blackberry curve, Rosalita, for just over a year. Yes, I named my phone. It is a very important part of my life. I have recently decided its time for a change, Rosalita has not been performing up to her full potential and has been, well, quite glitchy. Every single time she decides she needs to reboot it takes TWENTY minutes. Yes, you heard me correctly, 20 minutes. It is absolutely ridiculous. I am quite sick of having to wait that long to respond to things. The iPhone was just brought to Sprint. YAY! I am so ready to just get rid of Rosalita and start fresh. Yes, Rosalita and I have had a good run but I am ready for a touch screen. Its time for me to have "Words with Friends" on my mobile phone. It is time for me to become addicted to Angry Birds. It is time for me to enter the world of technology with Apple. It is time. Rosalita's battery life sucks. I need a phone that can last me through the day. I think an iPhone could provide that service to me. I want it. I need it. I have to have it. Some may call it obsession, however I call it desire.

President Obama's Speech

As I was watching the Presidents back to school speech a few things were running through my head. First of all, I noticed he was speaking directly to the students, his audience was very clear throughout the entire speech. His tone had a shift part way through. He went from being excited to be there to very serious, this was very effective to getting his point across. With me personally, I began to listen closer and really take in what he was saying. It added to his credibility and authority, even though he doesn't really need to emphasize that, being the President of the United States and all.

President Obama used lists frequently to get his point across. He listed the types of professions people could be, the types of things teachers do for their students, the things students have to deal with outside of school, etc. These helped establish his point, this was a spoken address so lists are extremely affective at sticking an idea into peoples minds. His diction was also very good throughout the speech. He did not talk down to the audience yet he kept his words simple, clear, and concise. It made his speech much easier to understand and it also made it easier to relate to as a student.

He paused frequently, usually when there was applause, but also a few times for dramatic effect. He would say something then pause shortly to let the audience process what he just said. This was very helpful throughout the speech to ensure the audience understood each point he made. Overall, I thought he had a very solid stage presence and he was very easy to listen to. He has a very strong voice with a very soft tone which made it very easy to listen to as a student. Everything he discussed was worthy of listening to.

Jim Crow Laws: Utterly Barbaric

I have just read over a few Jim Crow laws and I find it absolutely insane. Segregation because of skin color to such extreme extents is unacceptable. As I began pondering the matter further I started thinking of a similar way to put it, equally as crazy.
Schooling: There should be a school for blonds and a separately constructed school for brunettes.
Nurses: Blond nurses are not required to be in the same room in a hospital with a brunette man.
Marriage: The marriage between a blond and a brunette is hereby forbidden.
Burial: Brunettes are not to be buried on the same ground as blonds are buried.
Restaurants: Restaurant owners may serve blonds exclusively or brunettes exclusively but may not serve them both in the same room.
I think you are beginning to understand the parody. Crazy right? My question is why didn't people see how barbaric separating races was back then. What could a black person honestly do to hurt you that a white person couldn't do? It just doesn't make any sense. Martin Luther King clearly saw this the same way I'm looking at it currently. He realized there was no reason everyone shouldn't be able to get along, and that in itself made him a brilliant man of the time. He had a way with his words, they were strong yet not violent, and inspirational yet not sappy. In conclusion, MLK Jr is amazing and Jim Crow laws are crazy, thus the crazy parody.

Short Stories

These stories really struck me. The first thing I tried to think about was how they were all linked to one another. I figured if we were reading a series of short stories there had to be some sort of thread to them, yes I know Mrs. Cardona too well. Well I think I figured it out. In the first story William Kennedy talks about the first short story he wrote, about eggs. Everyone loved this short story except for his father who happened to hate it. Why would he like it, its a story about a guy who eats eggs? Anyway, it was the last time he ever showed anything to his father, yet he didn't quit writing. He kept at it, through the writers block and became a writer.
The next story, Pat Conroy, was definitely not soft spoken. It was a very deep, almost disturbing story but it all tied back to how the two daughters became a poet and a novelist. It discussed their childhood, the struggles they face (rather extreme might I add) and how they came to be writers.
Maurice Sendak continued the trend about how she became a writer. It all started with her childhood and her grandmother and all the sudden I, as the reader, understood where it was all headed: her profession as a writer. This was when I really began seeing the correlation between all of the stories. They were flashbacks, but only critical pieces of their childhood that brought them to where they are today.
Not every story was about a writer though. Annie Dillard discusses her love of art. She talks about how when you become so focused on something it will go to your head, and you'll have to pursue it. This ties in perfectly with the other stories. Those writers had thought so long about writing that they had to pursue a career in it. Brendan Gill found fascination in the words of the world. And this is how he was led to a profession in literature.
Each story discusses a passion, a profession, a drive, and how it all came to be. Whether its a happy childhood story or a haunting memory, they were all led to where they are today, literature, art, writing, whatever it may be. It was inevitable that they would become what they are, it just took some discovering on their end. I found all of these stories very fun to read and I found the correlation between them very interesting.

Why I Write

I write to get my thoughts and opinions on paper. Its so refreshing to just clear my head and get everything out in the open. Sometimes I find it to be an even better option than just speaking it because when you write it, you can refer back to it. You can remember those feelings and thoughts you had a particular time. Sometimes its hard to reference back to a hard time but it is also strengthening and reassuring to know that you have come out of it. Writing brings peace and reassurance. Even though its just pencil and paper it feels like someone is listening to you, and caring about what you have to say. Its almost therapeutic. I love to express. I love to explain. I love to describe. I love to write.

Senior Year

My name is Jenny Caffoe and I'm going to be honest with you, I'm a brand new blogger! I'm a senior at Wayzata High School and this year my stress is at an all time high. I keep telling myself to power through and I'll get through it, however it's not always that easy. I've begun the long dreadful process of applying to colleges, scary right? The fear of not getting in anywhere, keeping the grade point average up, and of course, the one and only ACT. I'm certainly not one for standardized tests, particularly when I'm in a giant, freezing cold auditorium with half of a desk. It's day number two of senior year and I'm still going strong, I guess we'll see how this year turns out.