Mary's Extravaganza

I will have a huge party on my twenty-first birthday. It will be at this extremely huge house in Los Angeles. There will be a pool in front of it where guests can swim. Since there will be alcohol, minimal though, I will cover the pool where guests will not fall in. The food is all finger food or mini sandwiches. The finger foods could be hot dogs in a blanket, guacamole and chips, cheese and crackers, etc. There will be a dessert table of course. There will be different assortments of  cupcakes, fruits on sticks, and a chocolate fountain where people can stick their fruit in or their marshmallows. As for decorations, there will chandeliers hanging, water fountains, balloons on the ceilings and life time supply of confetti falling down slowly. For entertainment I will have the gypsy dancers dancing in the crowd with people, Bruno Mars, Britney Spears, and Justin Timberlake singing. They put on jaw dropping performances and will put on a legendary performance at my party. They will sing all the songs they have but they will not perform in order as in Bruno first and then Britney, no, they will perform mixed up where they will have breaks to relax. As people enter through the door they will be greeted with a glass of champagne. My party is a public party but I have invited certain people. I have invited Leonardo DiCaprio, Christian Bale, Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, and Miley Cyrus. They are on the super special guest list. As people leave they will receive $500 as a "goodie" and if they do not leave and wish to stay the night I have plenty of guest rooms and will receive their $500 the next day with hot breakfast.

Japanese Murderers

"Group: 250 dolphins await slaughter, lifetime of captivity at Japan's Taiji Cove"

 By: Laura Smith-Spark

 Source: CNN

 http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/18/world/asia/japan-dolphin-hunt/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews The

Japanese have rounded up more than 250 bottlenose dolphins. They are wrapping them in nets and dragging them to Taiji Cove (area known for killing dolphins). The dolphins will be killed and butchered either for meat or to be sold. This happens year round at Taiji Cove and people see it as a bloody slaughter but the Japanese defend themselves. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society were first to address this issue and talked about how five separate pods of bottlenose dolphins have been rounded up into the Taiji Cove and warned people that the dolphins will "face a violent and stressful captive selection process." The babies will be taken away from their mothers and many would be killed, taken for captivity, or enter back into sea and would have to live on their own without a mother. By the end of Saturday, already twenty-five dolphins were taken and put into the Taiji Cove. They stay there for the rest of their lives. One of the dolphins died in the process but it will still be butchered. They left the dolphins overnight and are currently repeating this process as of now. They will finish at the end of Sunday. There has been a Oscar-nominated documentary film about this issue and it is called "The Cove" and it came out in 2009. This film portrays the dolphin hunting process and the bloody scenes of dolphin killing. There have also been celebrities who try to stop this. Former drum mate of Guns N' Roses, Matt Sorum, works with the dolphin project. "You could be a world hero if you can put pressure to stop the cruel slaughter in Taiji," said Sorum. There needs to be a stop to this. The Japanese do not only kill dolphins, they also kill whales. Those creatures have not been threat to anyone and are innocent and are being killed and butchered in violent ways. Dolphins and whales are smart and do not need to be killed.

Jazz

Jazz music formed during the 1920's around the end of Word War I. Although African American are credited to creating jazz music, jazz music became huge with the white middle class. Thereby, jazz music has African American traditions but is in white middle class society. New York and Chicago are known for playing  jazz music and it was played numerous of times on the radio. Jazz music influenced people to start a rebellion against the previous generation such as fashion statements and new radio concerts. As jazz began to blossom, those who preferred classical music hoped that jazz would not become too popular and mainstream. A dance called the Charleston, developed by African Americans, became huge instantly. Since radios were playing jazz music people experienced all the styles of jazz music without actually being at a jazz club. Artists like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Joe "King" Oliver were a huge hit during the Jazz age. Flapper women became popular also. Opportunities for women were higher and available in the entertainment business while being a flapper. Even females became musicians. Bessie Smith had a phenomenal voice and received much attention simply because she was a black woman. It was difficult for female musicians to get recognition during the 1920's but it was not until the 1930-40's that female musicians like Smith and Billie Holiday received the respect and attention they deserved as successful musicians.  

https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/from-the-new-era-to-the-great-depression-1920-1933/the-culture-of-change/the-jazz-age/

Driverless Car

Driverless car tech gets serious at CES

By: Heather Kelly

Source: CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/tech/innovation/self-driving-cars-ces/index.html

In Las Vegas, there is this technology show held every year called CES (Consumer Electronics Show). They introduce new technology to the audience and let them try it out also. One of the new technology that is out is the BMW and Audi driverless car. It turns out it is illegal to test drive driverless cars but Nevada is one of the few states where it is legal. Although it is driverless, it is required for a person to be sitting in the drivers seat at all times.The BMW can drift by itself and that shows that is has precise control systems and that it can handle itself in dangerous situations. The car can steer, break, speed up, and slow down. There are also many sensors on the car. BMW is currently working on strategy technology. The only problems these car makers have are laws. These cars are seven to ten years away to actually come out and make commercials. It may be developing fast but the companies still need some time to make soft ware and non-hardware problems to be fixed and to be the best it could be. This car is much safer than people driving because apparently the cars know when an accident will happen but that does not make it accident proof. Dr. Werner Huber says "The car is becoming a driving robot, a moving robot."

Who Do I Feel Bad For?

Reunite

“Mother, long-lost son finally meet more than 30 years later”’

By: Michael Martine, Casey Wian, and Gonzalo Alvarado

Source: CNN

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/23/us/mother-long-lost-son-reunion/index.html?hpt=us_c2

 

 

A mother in Wisconsin finally meets her long-lost son on Saturday. They have not seen each other for thirty-five years when her ex-husband took him away to Mexico.  They met at the San Diego airport and it was emotional. The mother only knows how to speak English and her thirty-seven-year-old son, David Amaya Barrick, only knows how to speak Spanish. His father took him to Mexico when he was only two years old. They were in Chicago at first. His mother, Kathy Amaya, is now sixty. David spoke to her in Spanish and he said, “I love you and I missed you a lot. I welcome you into my life.” Kathy responds with "I love you and I'm very happy to see you and I'm not going to let you go." They will be in San Diego and spending a couple of days together to catch up on life and know each other again. They will go back to Wisconsin and have Thanksgiving together. Kathy also has two other children. They are four adults and are half-siblings to David. The Two of them live with Kathy. Back in Mexico, David was arrested for illegally crossing the Mexican border. “The U.S. Border Patrol thought he and a Mexican national were smugglers because they were in the company of six Romanian nationals.” Bandits also robbed David of all his money and cell phone and only left him the clothes he was wearing. David did not have any identification at the time and he told the Border Patrol agents that he was a Mexican National but, as if the memory came out of the blue, he told them that he was a U.S citizen born in Chicago. The mother must have been devastated when her ex-husband took David away but all that waiting for thirty-five years was worth it. Now they have reunited and are happy again. The only sad part of this is that they are mother and son and do not have any mother and son memories together. Every person should have those memories that they remember as a child with their parents.

 

 

The Scarlet Letter

 

"Could it be true? She clutched the child so fiercely to her breast, that it sent forth a cry; she turned her eyes downward at the scarlet letter, and even touched it with her finger, to assure herself that the infant and the shame were real. Yes!—these were her realities,—all else had vanished!" Pg. 41, Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

 

The setting of this quote is in the 1650’s in Boston, Massachusetts. She was standing on the scaffold and there was an audience surrounding and staring at her. Hester was given the punishment of adultery by wearing a scarlet A on her blouse. She sewed A’s on all of her clothes. She made them luxurious and fancy. She made them artistic and much different than what the Puritans would wear during that time. The A draws attention and Hester did that on purpose. She made it all fancy and embroidered because she was not ashamed of what she had done. She walked on that scaffold with dignity and her held high but all the tables turned. Hester did not realize that her punishment would be horrible but once she stood on that scaffold she realizes the shame in what she had done. She is starting to deal with the shame she put on herself with the sinful crime she committed. She is in state of shock and thinks about her memories and tries to forget about her sins. This tells us that Hester is a strong woman with pride. She is at the lowest point of her life and realizes the shame in her sins but still manages to keep her head high. She has accepted the fact that she is going to be stuck with the A on her chest with the rest of her life and keeps her dignity throughout the novel.