No Excuses To Stick To Your Habits By Mark Crabtree

Science fiction is a way for an author to express their concerns in the world while using fiction to bring up controversial ideas. In Unwind , Neal Shusterman is able to incorporate science fiction in a way to not only get his points across but to also make the reader think, and adjust the message to relate to one's own life. Unwind takes place in the future where it is an option for parents to choose to have their child unwound, meaning they would be taken from their family and taken apart. Their body parts would then be given to someone who is sick or injured. The reader is introduced to the main characters: three teenagers who have relatable backgrounds to teenage readers in order to help one connect and feel a part of the story. As readers start learning about these characters, Lev, Connor and Risa, new issues develop which create life or death situations that these adolescence have to deal with alone. While this story is science fictional the plot of these kids struggling to find who they are and what their purpose is, while their parents have given up on them, is something most readers can relate to in one way or another, whether it’s being unsure about the future, having family problems, or being told something can’t be done. In Unwind, the author, Neal Shusterman,

Essay: In Robert Cormier’s novel, We All Fall Down, is a young-adult thriller that explores the evil side of humanity through a number of corrupt characters. Cormier, to a large extent, accurately depicts manipulative and dishonest behaviour whilst also showing the evil lurking within the prominent characters of Harry Flowers, Buddy Walker and Mickey Stallings who showcase the dark side of humanity. Cormier explores this through Harry Flower’s manipulative actions that result in the suffering of others. Additionally, the constant dishonest behaviour is shown predominantly through the main protagonist of Buddy Walker, who deceives the one he loves. Cormier continues to depict the evil lurking in society through the theme of appearance

I always knew people liked to consume more than what they need, but never really considered how it affects our environment. Until I read an article by Graham Hill called “Living with Less. A lot Less.” In this article, Hill argues that individuals obtain products one doesn’t need. Secondly, he mentions how purchasing these products won’t make you happy, but can do the exact opposite. Lastly, Hill argues how living with less merchandise can make us feel and live happier. As a result, I compared my life to his and realized he’s right having less might give us the opportunity to explore further.

I recently read an excerpt from an article by Brett Martin, called “Good Food Everywhere”. It is a short, yet funny piece written about Martin’s journey finding amazing food in different and random places. Making a statement, he ends his article with, “How to square the seemingly unstoppable upward trajectory of our eating lives with the supposed downward trajectory of nearly everything else?” (Martin 263). This quote here is the most powerful part of the whole entire piece, as it is stating a much bigger idea than simply eating good food at places throughout a trip. I’m sure the meaning behind this question can be interpreted differently amongst others, but overall, I’m sure we can all get a gist of the big picture. Martin is clearly asking how can we manage to reconcile the impossible, yet positive course of good food in our lives, with the negative path of everything else. For “everything else”, that might be where some opinions differ.

After reading all of the paragraphs on what people believe, my favorite is “There Is No Such Thing as Too Much Barbecue” by Jason Sheehan. In his essay, he compares life to eating barbecue and he does a good job of doing so. My favorite line that he says is “I believe that if you don’t get sauce under your nails when you’re eating, you’re doing it wrong” because getting sauce under our nails stands for experiencing life. If we are not getting our hands dirty than we are doing it wrong. If we are not experiencing life and enjoying it, we are living life wrong and not getting anything out of it. This is so true because so many people do not want to go out, have fun, and live life. He also mentions that Mama knows what she is doing when

Unit One Forum Two Keep On Walking Your Way Through Life Brent Staples, a man who was in his thirties, pondered the retrospect of his life experiences during the many encounters that he had in the streets. The first of these encounters happen when he was 22 years old with a white

A book that had an impact on my life was The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. This book is about an average teenage girl named Cassie Sullivan from Ohio whose world is destroyed by alien invaders. They unleashed 4 waves of attacks from their ship floating in the Earth's skies. The waves included all power shutdown, tidal waves that devastated the coasts and a plague. The last wave is they sent assassins to earth to get rid of the last humans. The plot is the Others (the alien invaders) take Cassie’s little brother, on her way to save him she gets shot meets a mysterious man who helps her in the woods and who agrees to help her find her brother. Little does she know he is hiding some very big secrets.

Experimenting with drugs is common among teenagers and adults, but when doing drugs, they focus mainly on the trip. Bryan Saunders took a different approach towards drugs. Being an artist, he decided to take 30 different drugs for 30 days, while creating a self portrait each day. Bryan Saunders calls this Under the Influence. His artwork varies from blobs of color to himself with a snake body. Saunders cause of the project, the actual project, and the aftermath all bring an interesting view into his life.

When it comes to the topic of addiction, most of us will readily agree that it is a miserable trait to possess. An addiction is a physical and psychological state of being that if not treated correctly could result into harmful wrongdoing. In The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, he recounts a story in which a fatigued housewife named Angie Bachmann lost all of her family’s assets, amounting to a million dollars due to a gambling addiction. Every habit has three components: a cue or a trigger of an automatic behavior to start, a routine the behavior itself, and a reward which is how our brain learns to remember this pattern for the future. According to Duhigg, “you cannot extinguish a bad habit, you can only change it” (63). Duhigg

Upon reading the title “Camping for Their Lives” by Scott Bransford, A lot of images come to mind as they do for many people. Whether it be family outings, military experience or just plain adventure. Scott Bransford takes a good long look at camping in a different way. The author’s topic is about the tent cities and their homeless populations. He argues the struggles that they have with little or no help from the government and highlights a location in Central Valley California. The author structures the article well starting off with an example of a married couple that does not have enough money to sign a lease or take out a mortgage. He then goes into the day to day life and the difficulties that are accustomed with living as a homeless person. He mentions statistics and the government’s temporary remedies to deal with the homeless population and the complications when imposing restrictions. The author goes into depth about the lack of jobs within the areas but, does not go deep into the addictions, the crime networks that operate out of the areas, nor the filth associated with enabling these tent cities to pop up.

A similar article, published by Scientific American entitled "Not Everyone Wants to be Happy" and written by Jennifer Aaker and Emily Smith, mirrors Brooks' same sentiment in regards to the unhealthy obsession those who live in western society have with both acquiring and maintaining happiness. A study was conducted in regards to displaying how different cultures define happiness within their own lives. The study concluded that Americans place much more emphasis on personal happiness, which is opposite of the feelings expressed by those of East Asian descent. Individuals living in the East seem to place more emphasis in the happiness of the whole rather than the individual parts that compose it. In fact, this study showed Americans are so concerned

From reading about Roger Chaffe I learned that Roger was given many job opportunities that required him to move homes. I wonder how Roger's family dealt with moving from place to place so often. I would imagine that his family got used to moving after a while. I know that

Throughout the course of our lives, we often question our personal identity. It is done in multiple ways whether it is at school as an art project, at our community at a social gathering, or at home as a house chore. In fact, our personal identity contains a multitude of characteristics which appear and change in certain circumstances. In other words, the concept of ‘habitus’, as told by Bourdieu, offers a better understanding of an individual’s personality structure. Thus, in Reay’s article, “It’s all becoming a habitus’: beyond the habitual use of habitus in educational research”, she distributes the concept of ‘habitus’ into four theories. Like the author, I will reflect upon my understanding as well as applying it to an educational setting.

These days, percentage of workers who eat lunch at their desks is increasing. This phenomenon is called desktop dining, and New York Times article ‘Failure to Lunch’ deals with this phenomenon. However, it has a lot of wrong information. This article contains unreasonable evidences about disadvantages of desktop dining. The article said it is a big problem that workers do not care about refrigerator’s cleanliness but it is not related with eating alone. Dirty refrigerator cannot be a reason of eating together. If the refrigerator is very dirty, it is dangerous to all workers whether they eat lunch alone or together. Brian Wansink, a professor and the director of Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab, and other researchers had statistics about

In our daily lives we encounter temptations and regardless of resisting or falling for them is due to the amount of willpower you posses. In the book The willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal, demonstrates how stress can affect our daily lives by causing us to act irrationally by listening to our temptations however through, her teaching of self-control, motivation, and the beneficial aspect of controlling your willpower can lead to a successful and healthy human being. Facing these temptations can be difficult when dealt with, but through the willpower experiments the cause and effects of temptations can be learned from. One willpower challenge I currently have is my poor habit of spending money due to the temptations that occurs when I’m mostly with my social peers, but through gaining self-control, a better sense of self-awareness, and motivation progresses me through this challenge.