??

I have been reading much on Palestine and the creation of Israel. I have been in many arguments recently over who is right. The one question I have been asking myself is, has so much time passed that the wrong-doers are no longer here and the recent disputes are no longer relevant. Nonetheless I still ponder, why is that the occupiers (Israel) have never been seen as such and why does the UN refuse to accept Palestine a country that has been there for centuries with a strong history and culture? Also, I find it very odd that the U.S. would accept Israel as a Democracy disregarding the fact that it is not in any way secular and continues to this day to be anti-non-jewish. Many people tell me that I am making the "muslim" argument but there is something to said for the Christians as well. Muslims cannot open big businesses in Israel nor can they hold a position in office, but neither can the Christians. The reason why it is being referred to as the Muslim argument because it was Muslim Land before the Jewry "re-" claimed it. So am I wrong to feel what has happened to Palestine is unjust and that Israel is doing to the non-jews what Hitler did to the jews?

Changes

Recently a lot has been changing for me. For starters I have been getting straight A's in class and I am no longer loosing hair. I do feel very mellow. I don't get to see tommy too often these days... I do feel it has affected the both of us positively, though. I cry a heck of a lot more, but I have been getting my work done once I wipe my tears. It definitely has impacted him in a positive way. I know he likes having "guy" space. He watches "manswers" im sure a lot more without me moaning and groaning. He's also doing all these projects and such (he is a nerd). He seems happy. I have been learning how to cook on my own... so far I've learned that I'm not that good :-) I still try. Things have been changing for me... and I guess I'm doing okay.

Hunter S

The father of gonso journalism is what he is often to referred to as. However, Hunter S. Thompson is somehow much more than that. Although, it is true that he has revolutionized writing and taken journalism to a new place that it has never been before.
Hunter S. Thompson did not just write about topics he thought were interesting or profitable. He went out and found out first hand the truth of what he wanted to write about and wrote about it with a twist. He did not read a book about Hell's Angels or look them up on the internet. The man did not use any secondary sources at all. Instead, he jumped on a bike with them and drank and did what they did with them and learned from them.
The Hell's Angel Motorcycle Club, or Hell's Angels Motorcycle Corporation, has often been associated with drug dealing and violence and is thought to be outlaws in the United States and in Canada. They are extremely dangerous but this did not stop Thompson. Although, he has said "The Edge... there is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over." Anyone who has ever read a Hunter S. Thompson piece understands how this philosophy is applied in his line of work.
The great thing about his writing is very simple; it's hilarious. It's very straightforward. "I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me." (Thompson, Hunter S.) Even for a person who would never consider doing any of the things he writes about the story can be appreciated and enjoyed. His writing is all about taking chances and hoping they work. As Hunter S. Thompson would say "Buy the ticket, take the ride." Lucky for him the ticket was well worth the investment.

Works Cited:

Hunter S Thompson Quotes Copyright 2008 BrainyMedia.com
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/hunter_s_thompson.html

Thompson, Hunter S Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream 1971

Vietnamese Food

I don't understand what it is with Vietnamese food that gets me. Okay, for example, tomorrow is Halloween and all I can think about is "well, I'm gonna be in Brooklyn, maybe I could talk Tom into eating Viet". It's so weird. I'm addicted. I guess I could just buy some vermicelli, scallions and peanuts and I would be perfectly okay but then who sneak that little salad under the vermicelli like the Vietnamese restaurants do? Who would bring out a gorgeous plate of food with that little clear carrot sauce? I want some right now! Maybe I should not be writing a blog about food... but, I mean, Oh Myyy God! It's so good. I want some right now. MMMmmMm It's kinda like when I crave only certain chocolates i.e, ghirardeli, lindt and/or dove, I hate that hershey garbage. I had some pizza for dinner, it sucked! I want Vietnamese food, hmm maybe some chocolate too.

Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau was born in Massachusetts in the early 1800's. He was a part of a poor family that sold pencils but attended renowned schools such as Concord Academy and then Harvard College. He worked as a teacher for short time before quitting because he could not punish the students. He was unable to find another teaching job at this time. However, this was around the time he met Ralph Waldo Emerson. Many people believe this to be the most influential event of his life. I believe it is because a lot of what he does later seems to have been influenced by this.
I believe that Ellen Sewall's rejection to Thoreau's marriage proposal in 1840 also impacted him tremendously. Not only did she reject him but she also rejected his brother before him. She was pressure from her family because they believed he was too radical and financially unstable. This, I think, would negatively impact any man. There's also the fact that he moved into a shack which was relatively far from the rest of society to be alone to write five years later. The sad part of it which is stated online was that "Walden was met with scant interest. He revised the work eight times before a publisher accepted it, and the book found only marginal success during Thoreau's lifetime."(Spark notes p.1)
If his life was not sad enough, Thoreau's relationship with Emerson slowly faded due to tension most likely caused by Thoreau being so close with Lidian, Emerson's second wife. He moves back into his family home and takes selling pencils. As the slavery debate was taking place at this time he took an active role in speaking out against slavery. However, in 1862 at the age of 44, he dies of tiberculosis.

Works Cited
Walden Henry David Thoreau
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/walden/context.html

Aldous Huxley

I guess you're all wondering who I've chosen... it's Aldous Huxley. I chose him because he did drugs and admitted to liking it. He did not lecture about how it screwed him up, probably because trying a drug does not actually screw you up, getting addicted does.
Huxley had somewhat of a depressing life, so he is allowed a vice. When he was fourteen his mother died, which most people don't realize that in itself can impact a person tremendously. If that was not enough he went partially blind two years later. He was able to regain some sight in one eye and learned how to read braille, and to me, this shows a lot of character. However, he was unable to pursue what it was he really wanted to do, become a scientist or fight in the front lines of WWI. This must have been hard on him seeing as how his grandfather and brother were both biologists. Huxley decided to follow in his father's footsteps it seems with becoming a writer.
Aldous Huxley's first works were satirical/cynical pieces on society. After that he started writing about fictional places, which is somewhat ironic as he states in The Doors of Perception that he is not very imaginative. Writing about places that do not exist and so vividly as if you had been there not too long ago must take quite some imagination. Toward the latter part of his life he became known as a guru for Californian hippies (keep in mind this is the fifties and sixties). He experienced and wrote on mescaline and after trying LSD showed some interest in Hinduism, but then again who wouldn't. Not too surprisingly as his life started out depressing it too ended that way. His house and papers were burned down in a bush fire. Two years later he died but has left a lasting impression as it has been almost forty-five years since he passed and we are still studying him.

"Half of the human race lives in manifest obedience to the lunar rhythm; and there is evidence to show that the psychological and therefore the spiritual life, not only of women, but of men too, mysteriously ebbs and flows with the changes of the moon. There are unreasoned joys, inexplicable miseries, laughters and remorses without a cause."
-Aldous Huxley

TV shows

I find it fascinating how addictive certain television shows can be. I love to watch House, Heroes and Lost. My boyfriend and the majority of my friends are also addicted to these and other shows. Its funny because in many ways we really cannot relate to these characters lives' even though we wish we could. House is a genius diagnostics doctor, yet can be quite cold-hearted. Heroes is a show about, well, heroes and lets be real, we do not have any powers. Lost is a show about a group of very diverse people who are lost on an island after leaving Australia.
Most people tend to stick to or be attracted to things that are familiar to them. When most people watch TV it would make sense that they would tune into something they can relate to. So why, I ask, is everyone so enthralled with the unfamiliar? I've heard that people use TV as a way to escape their everyday lives, which makes sense. When I read a book I always see myself in the shoes of the protagonist and on several occasions the antagonist. Yet it still baffles me how fascinated we all are with the lives of other people, especially those of fictional characters who happen to differ so much from ourselves.