Action Item

My action item is a letter to the superintendent of Dist113, Dr. George V. Fornero. I was informing him of the benefits that the school would reap if the water harvesting systems were added. Previous to writing the letter I did my research and looked at the proposal for the referendum and saw a few things about plumbing and the infrastructure of the building as a whole. I made sure they did not have water harvesting already so I did not sound like I was uneducated about the matter. I hope that he takes this letter seriously and considers water harvesting as something that would make our schools a better place. It would also be very cost efficient and show the students how to innovate our schools in an environmentally friendly way.

animation for presentation

Here is the animation that I will be using for my presentation at the Marketplace of Ideas on wednesday

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTBQ50YDz7k&feature=endscreen

There are also a ton of cool pictures I have used and they are mostly diagrams and statistics about how much water we use daily and why we use that water and how it can be replaced by rainwater instead of potable water. All of the benefits of rainwater harvesting are also in the pictures. I have used easy to follow graphics to show the viewers the simplicity of the idea while doing something great.

graduated cylinder picture

http://www.rewatec.co.uk/rainwater-harvesting-benefits-and-uses.php

did you know picture

http://chesterhollowwatergardens.com/rainwater.php

benefits of it picture

http://rainwaterharvesting.net.in/

map of states with rainwater harvesting on desktop from:

http://www.ncsl.org/issues-research/env-res/rainwater-harvesting.aspx

Volvo picture

http://wahaso.com/projects/worlds-greenest-volvo-dealership-fields-northfield-rainwater-harvesting/

wahaso skid fabrication

http://www.greenbuildersdirectory.com/listings/wahaso-water-harvesting-solutions-inc/

Source blog 1 for rainwater harvesting

Kloss, Christopher. "Managing Wet Weather With Green Infrastructure." A Municipal Handbook of Rainwater Harvesting Policies Dec 2008: 1-10. Print.

http://water.epa.gov/infrastructure/greeninfrastructure/upload/gi_munichandbook_harvesting.pdf

Third century B.C. first water harvesting systems in middle east: pakistan, afghanistan and iraq. Farming communities from mud-lined rainwater pools. A different name for it is rooftop precipitation collection system. There are lots of different laws about which states and countries can utilize rainwater harvesting in rural homes or even urban buildings.

source blog 2

http://wahaso.com/

"Leed Certification." Wahaso. Water Harvesting Solutions, Inc, 2013. Web. 13 May 2013.
<http://wahaso.com/LEED_certification.php>

I learned a lot from this source because it showed the reason why buildings would benefit from water harvesting systems other than just cost purposes. I learned that LEED certified buildings use 30% less water than a conventional building. This is more than 1 million gallons of water saved per year. You can get LEED certification points if you have innovative design, your system creates water use reduction, water efficient landscaping and much more.

This was created by the U.S. Green Building Council

Second book post 5

Hi all.

Last post about a book for my high school career!

The last part of the book was called "Supplements" and it didn't have much of substance to them. That's because they were just short stories from some of the authors that have written other stories that related to weight. But, there was a cool part that was a blackboard of one of the authors and it showed all of the "Things I could have done instead of worrying about my weight." These included getting a pilot's license, reading and enjoying more meals.

Interestingly, most of the authors in this book were authors who actually had other jobs in fields that had to do with food and/or body image. At the end of the book it also gave little biographies on the authors and gave their weight at the time they wrote the story. This was a really cool aspect because you would read something and imagine them to be one size but they would be a completely opposite one. One of the women, when asked what her size was, responded, "Depends who I'm standing next to." This just cracked me up because it is so true. Size is all relative and most people forget about that.

I think that people need to stop looking at clothing size labels as a criticism but as more of a life-saver because they allow us to spend less time sifting through un-labeled clothing and finding our fit much faster. These are the mindsets people, especially women, need to have when shopping or finding clothes to wear.

Overall I really liked this book because you did not need to have a lot of patience with one story because they were only a couple pages each at most. I liked hearing different perspectives from men and women ranging from all different body types. These kinds of books make me think about how I view my own body and how I can make myself more confident in my own skin.

Planning blog for rainwater harvesting

-flyer already made and turned in

-presentation: tri-fold poster with facts and pictures, 3D graphic of a skid from the ipad, 3D animation video on laptop

-Action object: I will be writing an official letter to the superintendent of Deerfield high school suggesting they use water harvesting systems when restructuring the building for the referendum. I will have this letter and envelope on display for the Market of Ideas

-I still need to research three sources and write blogs on each

-Write abstract paper

Second book post 4

"Pretty, Hungry" by Ellen Hopkins is about a girl named Lorelei Jeanne who had a troubled home life and therefore got taken care of by her grandmother, who fed her all the time. She felt like she was a "goodyear" blimp by the time she started kindergarten. (148). Her dad was in the service and would come home from time to time and would always look at Lorelei with disgust. Her father would yell at her drunken mother about how she is not working hard enough to keep their daughter healthy. Lorelei wanted her father to love her so she started not eating desserts, and then started not finishing her dinners, and the reader can obviously see where this is going. Her parents eventually got divorced becasue her mother was a drunk and he could not stand to be around her when he was home. All of the girls at school had changed from calling her an "elephant" to calling her a "ho". At the end of the story her dad is proud of her and so she learns that being hungry means being pretty. This is the saddest thing for a young woman to think because it morphs her idea of body image for the rest of her life. A father is someone who every girl wants to impress. I liked this story because it was told in a poetic form, with choppy language and different parts of the story separated for emphasis.

"How to Tame a Wild Booty" by Coe Booth is about a girl named Stacie whose butt had hit puberty years ahead the rest of her body had. Stacie was standing outside her housing building and a middle aged man looked at her shorts (cut-offs) and said that she was "growing up real nice," (176). After this happened, Stacie's father yelled at her to never wear shorts again and so for a few years, that is exactly what happened. Stacie always felt like she needed to cover up her body and her mom even made her buy a few girdles. After a few years of covering up her body, Stacie was desparate to finda  new solution. She started losing weight so that she would become more proportional. The problem was, though, that she lost the weight everywhere except her butt, and now her butt was exentuated three times more. At the end of her whole experience, when she was goign into college she went in with the mindset of "flaunting what you have." I really admire hearing about Stacie's experiences because they give a positive outlook about yes, not everyone loves their bodies but if they absolutely cannot change and they are not detrimental to your health (like a bigger bottom) then it is fine to just accept your features and flaunt it.

"Confessions of a Former It Girl" by Wendy Shanker is a really interesting short story about memories of a woman who tried to act just like a celebrity. This means drinking starbucks drinks anywhere you go, and looking pretty with your beautiful counterpart when out on a date. The author said, "It was like there was someone you could know or something you could buy that would make you BETTER. that would FIX you." (190). This really embodies what people think about celebrities. This lady went crazy just to become a "celebrity" or to be noticed. Se did things like lie about her age, bought a Chihuahua and named it Pinky, got a tattoo, rented a house in the Hamptons, kissed her brother, and much much more. Her family eventually did an intervention on her and she started moving back to normal folk behavior. She liked it too, which was the most important part. This for me was a lot about the GIGS- aka Grass Is Greener Syndrome. Yes, celebrities look like their lives are all fun and games, but it really is a lot of work and not worth it because actions escalate very quickly under the medias eyes.

Second book post 3

"The Day Before Waterlily Arrived" by Jaclyn Moriarty was the weirdest short story I've ever read. This is a story about a girl named Kirsten and a boy named Markus who were in a class at school together. They got a substitute/ counselor type women who came into their class and taught them about body image. She did it in the worst way though. She used a method where she told everyone that she knew that everyone hated "at least one thing about" themselves. Why would an adult say this to children without even knowing them. Mrs. Waterlily was the name of the woman, and one day at the beginning of class she brought in a sandbox/ kiddie wading pool that was filled with strange bath toys that looked kind of gross. She picked out different toys and explained how each one related to a child. One example of what she said was, "Ming, your face is flat and squat- you're a leech!" (109). How odd is this? This is not how to teach children about body image. So then after Mrs. Waterlily left the class for good, Markus decided to give people good objects that enhanced their confidence instead of decreasing it. I don't think that people should learn about body image by knowing that everyone hates something about themselves, I think it helps when people talk positively in addition to pointing out something negative that they need to work on.

"HELLO my name is" by Carolyn Mackler is about an author who wrote the book, "The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things" and is well known in the reading community. Someone came up to her at a business party and was shocked to see that she was not fat, like the main character in the story she wrote. Carolyn thinks, "I'm always a little flushed because it feels like this person is complimenting me for not being fat," (120). I like the way she puts this because it shows that when people are able to say the word fat, it usually means the person they are talking to isn't actually fat. That would be too rude. But apparently, Carolyn s very offended by this. Carolyn explains to the woman that Virginia, the main character in her book, is very similar to her (Carolyn). Virginia's weight was a metaphor for all the ways we feel insecure, don't measure up, don't fit in, don't think we're as deserving as other people. I think this is a respectable way of explaining things to someone because it's true... We all have insecurities and problems and just because someone is fat that doesn't mean someone else doesn't have the same insecurities that another person has. I was caught off-guard when Carolyn said she was not fat, because I did expect someone who wrote a book about a fat girl to be fat themselves, I was pleasantly surprised to read that that was not so. We have to be careful of our assumptions and judgments.

"The Mating Habits of Whales" by Barry Lyga was about a boy named Devon (a big guy) who started dating a fat girl named Marjarie at summer camp. Devon's friends told him that Marjarie was too fat for him, and they made fun of him all the time for that. People would say that these two were mating whales. Devon had enough of it and started ignoring Marjarie. Then two years later, when they went back to school that year, Marjarie had lost a lot of weight and would not speak to Devon. Devon worked his hardest to be thin (which he accomplished) and begged her to take him back. She got upset because he did not realize that his weight was not the problem she had with him, it was his attitude and how he treated her. In the end of the story he finally realized what he needed to change about himself. This was a really well constructed story, in the form of a comic book, because I learned a lot through the character's emotions and body language.

"It Is Good" by Sara Zarr was about a young fat girl growing up. She had a traumatic time at a doctor's office who pointed out that she ate everything in sight and would never get a boyfriend. That would be terrifying!! Her problematic home-life didn't help anything either. As she grew up she had "forfeited her rights to basic respect and decency from herself or others," (139). This is really sad, that someone would get to this point. Shelley Winters and God came to her rescue though. She was watching a movie and saw a heroic fat woman save people in a sinking ship accident. She also joined a support group online that talked about food issues and she got convinced by a group of other women to train for a 5K run while she was nearly 200 pounds. She gained all the confidence she needed by being able to push herself and run a 5K at her weight. In the next 7 years she had lost 50 pounds and was very content with herself. Yes, she relapsed sometimes, but who doesn't? She wanted to tell that doctor that she saw many years ago that shame is counterproductive and a temporary motivator and that love is a better healer than shame or fear. This was one of my favorite stories because it was inspiring as well as happy to end with for this section.

Second book post 2

"Last Red Light Before We're There" by Matt de la Pena is a long chapter about a boy and his family and how they deal with how the daughter, and Matt's sister, Ana, is very sick with anorexia. She does not live at home anymore and the fact that she's so sick and had such a distorted view of herself tears her family down everyday. Matt and his mom constantly sit inside and around Ana's bedroom with everything on the inside untouched just to remind them of how she used to be. I liked this chapter because it talked about the troubles the whole family goes through everyday, and not just the person who is struggling with the eating disorder. You usually hear about families who deal with someone who is overweight, but in this case it was cool to see the perspective from a family who has the opposite problem.

"Sweet 16 Plus" by Wendy McClure is about a young girl who was always bigger for her age. She had to shop at stores for women when she was only the age of 14. Obviously, these styles did not fit her taste but she had to adapt and come up with her own style in order to feel confident. Unfortunately, at the end of the chapter, Wendy still does not feel happy about her body because she ends up stealing her mother's credit card and buying some clothes with it and creating her own designs based off of that. She didn't fit in physically with everyone else, and now she did not fit in in a fashion point of view, which is a tough thing to deal with if you are middle school- early high school age for most girls who are just starting to understand their bodies. Reading about this because it gave me a greater appreciation for being able to fit in more mainstream sizes made for girls my age.

"Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" by Sarra Manning is about a girl named Cath who works at an ice cream parlor on a pier and gets stuck working with an unconfident, nerdy girl named Rosie. The long chapter goes in depth about Rosie's transformation to someone who has good style, and good people skills due to Cath's teachings. Rosie has a large chest and Cath does not, and this actually causes some problems between the two because they both have issues with how their bodies look. I think it's important to remember that everyone is built differently and has different features emphasized. The lesson in this story is that confidence is key, and implants are not going to solve a problem of small boobs.

The last chapter in this section is called "Tale of a Half-Pint" by Margo Rabb. Margo has always been the shortest of all of her friends and has looked significantly younger than everyone her age. She could get into the 12-and-under group at the movie theater until the time she was 21 years old! She would try and look older by wearing heels and makeup, but she just looked silly because her presence did not show the maturity that she was dressing to display. She was always concerned about her height, but then her dad got sick, and her mom got sick and ended up passing away. Now, Margo has put her life in perspective and is happy that she got a long, full childhood where she valued things other than growing up so fast and actually did things that children do. After her mom died, she had a much greater appreciation for the bigger picture of life and less of the picky details that used to concern her before. She has turned her sad situation into something beautiful.

Second book post 1

"Does This Book Make Me Look Fat" is a book edited by Marissa Walsh about 14 people who have endured life changing moments involving body image and self-esteem. Their essays and stories are compiled into this book.

Marissa Walsh discussed in the introduction to the book her feelings about body image. One quote that really stuck out was "It annoys me that I'm not thinking about more important stuff" (1). She is not proud of how many times she thinks about her body, or asks, "Does this make me look fat?" (1). She thinks that it takes a lot of energy to think about your body that constantly, and that it is a waste of time. She wanted people to be able to read this book and instead of asking "Does this make me look fat?", people will soon be asking "Who cares?" (2). I am excited to read the rest because it is so relevant especially being a teenage girl in America where everything is advertised through thin people and thin expectations.

The next chapter called "Circumferentially Challenged" by Daniel Pinkwater is about a man who is content with being his overweight size. He acknowledges that people in a community never say the actual word "fat". They always say "heavy, large, full figured or pleasingly plump," (3). I think this is because fat is such a sensitive word and this could now be seen as one of the worst things to say to someone. Despite all of the misconceptions about being fat, Daniel says that his experiences have been mostly good. One of the examples he used that surprised me was that other men dismiss him as nonthreatening because of his size, and therefore he gets along with them. This also helps with women because they love him due to his lack of the unpleasant male traits. i think it is interesting to rememeber that people who are overweight do get treated differently than someone who is not.


"Mirror, Mirror" by Megan McCafferty was my least favorite chapter in the chunk of chapters I read for today. It was all about this group of blond friends who were trying clothes on, and they were complaining about how fat they were (which they weren't) and one of them was awkwardly trying to warn the others about the terrors of eating disorders. The only part I liked about this was a line that say "The more she worries about her appearance, the less attractive she seems to others," (9). I never thought about this before but it's a good thing to remember. When someone seems so invested in themselves, others will see this as something negative, no matter what they look like on the outside.

The last chapter in this first grouping was called "Alterations" by Eireann Corrigan. She had a history of dealing with anorexia and relapsing years after she had been through lots of therapy and group sessions. She talked about her concerns of finding a wedding dress and what it was like buying one and then fitting into it a year after she bought it. I like hearing about her perspective because it was not a fake testimonial for brides, it was a true, honest, opinion on wedding dress shopping and feeling confident in your own body and how that will translate into feeling confident in your dress.

AP Test review in classes post 13

Ever since AP Psychology my sophomore year, I have never understood why we are graded on practice tests and reviews in our classes. The AP test is optional. Yes, most people in the curriculum take the test, but that does not mean the grade in the class should be sacrificed just ecause someone won't get a great grade out of 5 on the AP test. When we are still concerned about grades for fourth quarter in a class, we are less concerned with actually studying for the AP test and therefore get WORSE scores on the AP practices and we feel worse about ourselves because we feel unprepared due to the low scores we are receiving.


The mock AP's and practices tests are wonderful for getting our minds and bodies used to the AP feel, but it is not necessary to grade us on these. I am convinced that if teachers were more lenient on grades fourth quarter instead of giving everyone F's for getting an average AP grade on something, that students would actually do better on the AP tests. There is just so much pressure coming from parents, teachers, and the students themselves to do really well on the AP tests. But when you are getting a C+ fourth quarter in the class you are supposedly a master in and know the material, then that is a problem.

Basically, I am trying to put my class grade as high as I can and still work hard separately from class studying for the AP test. I have pretty high hopes!!

Walk for Israel at Ravinia. post 12

Sunday, April 28th there is a huge event going on at Ravinia.

"Join hundreds of Chicagoland Jewish teens for J-Serve 2013, the Official Day of Jewish Youth Service. This year’s program is Literacy and Advocacy. Hands-on volunteering and a teen-led Israel Advocacy Program will take place in Ravinia Festival’s Dining Pavilion from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m." There is a walk for Israel every year in a lot of cities around Chicago. There used to be a big one downtown, but they changed it to be more local and less of a commotion downtown. I like it better in the suburbs because I feel safer with less people around me and also Ravinia is the coolest venue so I have no problems with having it there.

"At noon, we will join thousands of Chicagoans for Israel Solidarity Day, the Walk with Israel and special performances from Matisyahu and The Maccabeats!" The cool part about this is that it is not only advocating for Israel through walking and money, but embracing Israeli music and music in hebrew. We fully immerse ourselves into this day including our clothing (we all get free t-shirts) and the food we eat (falafel, hummus, etc) and much much more.

The Teen J-Serve Project is co-sponsored by JUF, BBYO, CFJE, JSC, JSU, NCSY, NFTY, Shorashim, USY and Young Judaea. I am super pumped about all of this because I am a chapter president in USY for my synagogue and I am excited to be around people who feel the same way about being a Jewish teenager as well as an Israel advocate. The only thing I am nervous about is the safety at the walk of Israel. It is the one day of the year when I feel kind of uncomfortable being in a huge group of Jewish people, even if we are doing something for a great cause. I feel like to the rest of the community it is just a big target, but hopefully I am being paranoid and nothing will ever happen during the Walk for Israel.

I hope this is a successful day, it is one a lot of people look forward to every year and is very family and community oriented. I'm really thankful for living in a place where Israel and Israeli culture is recognized, even if just for one day!

Graduation do's and don'ts post 11

I thought a lot about this blogpost. Mostly because the only thing really running through the news right now is the bombing at the Boston Marathon. I think it's important to let the authorities deal with that and we can all hope and pray that the people in Boston who were affected are getting the proper assistance and medical help that they need.

So I've been thinking about graduation a lot. Especially the ceremony.

http://southbury.patch.com/articles/the-dos-and-donts-of-graduations-and-commencements

This is something that some people hate and some people love. For students, every move has been extremely well-rehearsed and waiting for your name is boring every time you hear it go through the list. A fun thing I found on the website above is that to keep things interesting try "Counting how many peoples' names the Superintendent mispronounces, or which parent makes the most embarrassing noise when their child is called."

Parents have an interesting role too. They get to celebrate the success of their parenting skills for the past 18 years. They have fed us, clothed us, and made us do our homework. And they are allowed to clap extra loud for their children but not to boo the children "who got into better colleges" than their own kids.

Teachers, the article says, are supposed to let their students go. As hard as that is, new students will come again next year and fill the void. Teachers are instructed not to hand out a last minute writing assignment or stick in one last lecture, because those will be generally "frowned upon". I think this is funny because it is true that students have checked out of school, but that does not mean the last few days of classes need to be all fun and games. They can be deep and getting to know what people want to do in life instead of just signing yearbooks and being cliquey in classes.

All in all though, graduation will be fun for anyone attending, or even graduating. It is a time in someone's life where they are at a crossroads and need to start thinking on their own two feet. I love the concept of it all: happiness, friendship, memories. There's nothing better than another graduating class passing on that Ravinia stage.

IAT test and "I sit where I want" post 10

We start off this week by watching a student documentary called "I Sit Where I Want". I was not really moved by the film, but I think it showed a lot of cool points about racism, teenagers, and willingness to change the familiar. I think the film showed that white kids are pretty stuck between a place where they feel like they are inferior because of how society treats them, and then also in between a place where if they do something how will their friends respond or think of them differently?

Then, we read an article titled, "If I was a Poor Black Boy". This article had much more meaning for me because I really agree with what the author had to say about inner city children basically making their own success in life, and how being black and poor is no excuse really nowadays for failure/crime, etc. I have never gone to an inner city school, and I was born white, so I can't really argue this so much, but I can say that it is a hopeful approach to give children the means necessary to levelthe educational playing field out a little more. The student's drive is sometimes what is necessarily the factor to take them far in life.

After taking the Racial IAT, I still don't have a lot of new viewpoints about bias. I did have some hidden bias, because my data suggested that I had a "Strong automatic preference for European American compared to African American" people. I think that some of the reasons behind my test was that I get confused very easily on the tests where things are mixed up from the previous givens. I know this is not the best answer, but I honestly believe that my brain holds onto things that it has learned first. In the FAQ, it explained that I have a strong preference because it reflects the strength of the implicit preference, meaning how fast I responded to the European Americans versus African Americans.

Even after reading the page on the website my mind is still not changed about the results I got. I do believe that stereotypes are a distorted truth about a group or a person, and that stereotypes are based on images in mass media or reputations passed on by close ones aound us. I think that many of us have positive and negative stereotypes,but we also have negative and positive thoughts about anything in the world, not just people. I do believe that hidden biases dictate actual behavior because they reveal themselves under stress, distraction, competition or relaxation. I find it hard to believe that in some classrooms with white and black students, the black students are receiving different educations. How can this be? Also, I think that prejudice is such a sad thing but very apparent in our society. They are made by ignorance and there are a lot of ignorant people out there.


Overall, this has been a pretty exciting topic because it is very relatable. Not like, hazing in college, where none of us high schoolers have ever experienced hazing in college. I like being able to share real experiences in class and not just a story we heard from a stranger.

Ridiculous Kitchen Gadgets That You Don't Need post 9

Hi all.

This week I wanted to blog about something interesting and laid back, since we are all going to be on spring break in about an hour!  I found a cool article on foxnews.com about utensils in the kitchen that are extremely unnecessary yet very clever and sometimes useful to save time.

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/03/22/15-ridiculous-kitchen-gadgets-that-dont-need/?intcmp=related

Check this one out.



This is called the Corn Kerneler and it helps with many aspects of getting corn off the cob. Corn kernels fly everywhere when you’re cutting them off the cob but this kerneler does away with the frustration by easily removing the kernels from the cob in one quick motion, and storing them in a  little compartment as it goes. The compartment can hold up to two ears of corn and the adjustable blade can work with any cob. I think this is a fantastic, yet useless in most cases, gadget, because it is just a convenience factor and not a necessity. The shape of it is very appealing and it looks like it does what it is meant to do. For corn people, I would definitely suggest this. It's $12 but it could pay itself off after saving you a couple hours in the longrun of your life. It's all cumulative,

BUT THIS ONE WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.


This is a measuring and mixing spoon in one. It is called "Portion". I think this invention is actually pretty cool and could be useful because you use only one spoon instead of two. That reduces time and also water to clean off both the spoons after cooking or baking. Storage adn clean-up will not be a problem for this cool gadget, also it's only $10 and that is pretty good for how much it does.

Seeing all these cool gadgets makes me really interested in cooking/baking. It must be a huge market because all adults need to learn how to cook at some point, and then they will buy gadgets to make their lives easier.

Senior Spring Break 2013 post 8

Fact: Senior Spring Break is one of the most looked forward to events in a high schoolers life. I got in a little bit of a pickle this year though. Passover is the same week as spring break, which means that I cannot go to any sort of hotel because I need to have all home-cooked passover approved meals. My friends, who are also Jewish are going to Mexico for passover. I'm not going to throw a tantrum or anything that I can't go too, but I was expecting something more than sitting at home for spring break.

And then, a miracle happened!

I heard about a trip that my youth group is doing for 4 days over the break. They are going to the shores of New Jersey and cleaning up wreckage from Hurricane Sandy. You also get to spend time with your friends from all over the country for this unique community service project. I cannot express how excited I was for this when I heard of it. The best part was that they are serving all kosher food, and you get a ton of free time with your friends and you get to meet so many other great teens! I also feel really good that instead of going on a huge vacation with all of my friends, which would have been great, I now have the unique opportunity to help other people who really need it.

Things work out sometimes, and my senior spring break will be one of the most meaningful things I do in my young adult life. I cannot wait.

Frat Hazing Article post 7

I was absolutely disgusted when I read the article about, in particular, one Dartmouth boy's experiences with the hazing that goes on in fraternities. This past weekend I was visiting the University of Illinois. This is a beautiful school with a high regarded education system and students. I realized that it is easy to forget that the students at colleges in general are usually between the ages of 18-24 and this means that they are still forming opinions about the world and not always doing the right things. They go along much easier than an adult would with peer pressure and some of them are just getting their feet wet in the world of alcohol. At Dartmouth, senior Nathan Gusdorf says, "People do incredibly bad things to one another here, because they know they're going to get away with it." this brings up the question, why do others need to debase themselves just to belong to a group? Is hazing REALLY that crucial to a fraternity, or sorority, brotherhood or sisterhood? No. Not even. When people are risking their lives just to be in a fraternity, they really should step back and look at their options. And what if someone dies? Who would want to pledge or rush when they know someone in their same shoes has been killed by that same act? How far can these frat boys take things and when will they stop? I think it is disgusting what they do to each other and how it is described in the article. The safety of the students is the biggest concern of mine. I don't think the effects of mental hazing could ever amount to the effects of physical hazing on these young men and women. It is a disgusting hazing culture and it should be ended before more innocent students die.

Car Recalls post 6

January 18, 2013 Honda recalled their 2013 Honda Odyssey. Basically, one or more rivets that attach the airbag module to the airbag cover may be missing. This is a problem because there could be consequences resulting from this problem. The absence of more than one rivet could alter the performance of the driver's airbag during deployment. This could potentially increase the risk of injury during a crash.

website with further information:
http://www.automobilemag.com/am/2013/honda/odyssey/recalls.html

This is a scary thing to hear because my family just purchased this car in December 2012. I get little recalls like children's toys or cleaning supplies because of minor problems, but a car is a huge thing to recall. The amount of money and time put into making a car makes a buyer very confident that their car is working correctly. Not so true, I would be terrified if a car I just bought got recalled. 

My family immediately called the dealer to set up an appointment to check out problems with our specific model and make. Car safety is a huge deal to me and I hope that no one else has to suffer from this unfortunate recall. 

Cyberwar 2013 post 5

I read an article on ABCnews.com called "Top 5 Ways to Prepare for the Coming Cyber War" by Adam Levin. It discussed the possibilities of an upcoming cyberwar and the ways that a cyber war could seriously affect our day to day lives. As if we don't have enough things to worry about, the cyberwar described is one of the scariest modern ways of warfare that could cause more harm than anything we have ever seen before.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/top-ways-prepare-coming-cyber-war/story?id=18570685#

A quote from the article shows just how much damage can  be done:

"A worst-case scenario would feature a cornucopia of catastrophe such as shutting down major sections of the power grid, erasing millions of bank accounts, manipulating or hijacking tens of millions of identities, and/or disrupting transportation systems throughout the land. Simply put -- systems failure."

The five ways to prepare for the coming cyber war included (these are summarized)
1.) Print it AND store it (bank transactions/ documental proof)
2.) Get all records and certificates together, make copies and store in waterproof packages
3.) Have emergency basics around the house (food, money, candles)
4.) Work with your neighbors to make up a plan if an emergency situation may occur
5.) Demand from government a unified security standard from places such as nuclear powerplants and subway systems

This all scares me a lot. I think about how much I, and all the people around me, rely on technology, transportation and much much more. All of the things that are saved on computers would never be able to fit on paper, but we have to keep only the most personal information stored securely so that nothing happens to those irreplaceable things. I know that typical warfare kills people, but a cyberwar would affect thousands, maybe even millions more people and the outcome would not be pretty. Bottom line: Technology can be used for good, and for evil!

 

18 years old. blog 4

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 I will finally be turning 18 years old! I have waited, well, 18 years for this. While there are many perks to becoming "legal", I still have to remember that this age is not just all fun and games.

Why receive presents from your friends and family when you are given the present of adulthood from society? Nothing can top that. I will be able to vote, stay out after curfew, join the army, get married, get a tattoo/piercing, and much more without the consent of my parents. Unfortunately, I still have "house rules" which outweigh the state laws, but I still have hope for the future!

The thing that makes me nervous is the criminal punishments for teenagers who are 18 and older. Getting in trouble with the police can then get you arrested and tried as an adult. And these punishments are typically more serious than juvenile punishments. The law is there to protect us and just because we are 18, that doesn't mean that anyone is above the law. "With great power comes great responsibility"- Spiderman movie quote. I believe that this quote defines turning 18, because it implies being 18 as a great time but just a more mature time in someone's life. A time to learn from mistakes and take responsibility for your actions. To even act at all.

This is one birthday I will not forget, and I cannot wait to be seen as an adult in the best country in the world!

Youtube blog 3

Youtube is the best place to find any sort of video or song you are looking for. The videos range from all different things including sports games to people talking to their cats. I wonder why some things are more watched than others. There are so many issues (hunger/poverty/unemployment/suicide) that actually need our attention in the world, yet we are focusing our energy and viewing pleasures on things like music videos and funny bloopers.

Recently, the new song "Gangnam Style" by the artist, PSY, hit the top Youtube hit EVER. as of right now, (February 25, 2013 at 11:52 am) the song has received 1,356,224,241 views on the website. It is also the only youtube post to have received over 1 billion hits. Now, I'm thinking. the dance is really unique, the whole horse riding step and the jumping up and down with your arms crossed. The chorus lyrics are super easy to the song and the dance moves are elementary. The video is also very colorful and fun to watch.

I After considering why this is the most watched video on youtube, I figured that it was because of all the reasons I mentioned, because it just is lighthearted in nature and no one can be offended by it. Issues are always controversial and there will be people who find fault in opinions of others, but a youtube video like Gangnam style just puts people in a good mood (if they like the song- which obviously, they do) and therefore it is number one on the charts.

I wonder what the next new most watched youtube video will be. It will have to be in a while to top 1 billion hits though!
  

Mars 2018 post 2

I came across a fascinating article on CNN.com. It was called, "Human Mission to Mars May Be Planned for 2018" by Elizabeth Landau. 

http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/21/human-mission-to-mars-may-be-planned-for-2018/?hpt=hp_bn1

Here is an excerpt from the article:

"A nonprofit organization called the Inspiration Mars Foundation is hosting a press conference next week in which plans for a trip to Mars and back will be revealed. The proposed launch date is January 2018, and the venture is called "Mission for America."

The organization's new idea is to get to Mars and back in 501 days. The official description is as follows:

This "Mission for America" will generate new knowledge, experience and momentum for the next great era of space exploration. It is intended to encourage all Americans to believe again in doing the hard things that make our nation great, while inspiring youth through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education and motivation

After reading the title of this article I got so excited about the idea of people traveling successfully to Mars.  But, the article did not explicitly say that the mission is manned. Since I was not alive when people first landed on the moon, I think it would be awesome to see them land on something so foreign to me like MARS. Just as the article said, the space venture would make Americans believe in the impossible because that is what we are known for, in my opinion. Space is such a narrow field of study in my mind because it is so abstract and only a select group of people are even able to handle the realities of many other solar systems. I just think of the Jetson's and Star Wars when I think of outer space, and I hope someday we will actually know first hand what it is really like up there, not just estimated guesses and blurry pictures. 

harlem shake blog 1

So, the new hit song and dance phenomenon is called the "Harlem Shake". There's also the older musical group called "Cali Swag District". I was thinking about it recently, and wondering if you could name a song after a state? What about naming it after a person? Or having a person's (usually a celebrity's) name in a song or song lyrics? What are the legalities with all of these things vs. the rights of free speech? 

I did some research and found an interesting blog about a person trying to write a celebrity's name in a song and they were also wondering about the legalities of that. The response to the post was "Certainly. If you are defaming them, of course they could sue you for defamation - but you have the right to parody. Also, their name might be their trademark, in which case you couldn't pretend to be them. Otherwise, you have the write to write about anybody. You can't "copy protect" your name." (blog link below)

http://www.musesmuse.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=53818

I really agree with this person who wrote the response because I believe that we all have a right to say what we want, about whoever we want AS LONG AS it is not something offensive or false. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything online about writing city names in song titles and having that be a LEGAL issue. I guess there really is no way a whole state could sue someone unless the song was extremely controversial and represented the state in a bad way. 

Steubenville Rape Case

We had a great discussion in class about the rape that might or might not have occurred in Steubenville. There are so many issues that go along with these kinds of cases.
1) The party was at a Coach's house where there was obviously a nonexistent-low supervision level
2) There was alcohol at the party
3) There was no physical evidence that the girl had been raped
4) The whole fiasco was trending on the internet through many different mediums: video, pictures, statuses, etc.

Reading the article about the "Institutional Rape Tolerance" was hard for me to do. I saw colleges listed where people got raped and one of them was a school that I was highly considering to attend for the next four years of my education. It pains me that even at highly respected places, bad things are happening. They should not be happening at all, but you would think that these people have decent heads on their shoulders. Like the Steubenville boys. I don't think that the other players on the team should get penalized for not standing up for the girl. I think they SHOULD have stood up for her, but I don't think they can get punished for not standing up for her. Even if the boys did not rape the girl, they still should get in trouble for taking advantage of her in other ways. She was clearly unable to give consent to anything and that shuold be the ONLY reason the boys are getting in trouble. As for the online world, I think that the people posting things might have been overexaggerating because teenagers, and people in general, tend to do that. We take words like "rape" and turn them into casual things like "That test just raped me." This is a terrible habit to get into, but the court must realize that the posts online could have been false, especially if someone was posting about the rape when that person posting wasn't even at the party where the rape occured. It just is a huge mess and I feel badly for everyone involved, because at the end of the day it is about trust and evidence. And since there is not much evidence, there has to be trust gained somewhere and therefore trust lost somewhere. I'm curious about this and intend to follow the story closely in order to see how things turn out for the girl and the two "rapists" that took advantage of her. I hope this never happens in our area because I can't even imagine how messy things would get between the school board, parents, and friends.

The Frog Blog: Off To The Next Lily-pad

Frogs are amphibians. The word amphibian means "double life," and that's exactly the kind of life toads and frogs have. They live the first part of their life in water and the rest on land.

Yesterday I made my decision where I will be attending college in the fall. I will be going to University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign! I decided to name this blogpost, "The Frog Blog: Off To The Next Lily-pad" because I see us (students) as frogs. Yep, frogs. Some of us jump to lilypads that are over in the next pond because they like to be individuals in their decisions, some don't jump at all because they are afraid of change, some jump all together with their friends because they can't stand leaving them for the next four years or the next 'x' amount of years. 

In a few months, the only evidence of the class of 2013 ever being at Deerfield High School will be old school transcripts and the pictures of us being all together during our 4 years there. I feel like this is such a bittersweet thing. During the, what it seems like, 40 hour school days, I just want the work to end. I want the grades and competition and anxiety to end. I just want to be with everyone and be seniors forever. But, like the frogs and toads, we can't live our lives in water forever. We must move to land, move to college, move to new places. Bar Mitzvahs of our friends turn into weddings and baby showers. Our monopoly-money purchases of play houses and play cars turn into real purchases of adult vehicles and real homes for our families. 

I'm jumping off to my new lily-pad in less than 7 months and since we are all jumping off to new lily-pads it makes me feel better. More hopeful for the future. We're all starting new but we can always go back to that old Deerfield High School lily-pad and reminisce. It's time for things to change. Nature makes sure that change happens. 

Fifth entry for Fast Girls

So, it's awkward that by reading this ten chapter book, I have learned more about high school than the 3.5 years I have actually been in it. White did an incredible job creating a book that describes the slut without having a biased opinion that distracts, or sways the reader. Before reading this book, I never had the connection between physical abuse or a bad home life with girls, specifically, being sluts. I just always assumed that the reason a girl was getting with a lot of guys was their own business and just because they were easy or doing favors for them. But before I did read this book I always hated how, let's say, after meeting a girl for the first time, other girls will say, "Oh, you shouldn't be friends with her that girl's a slut." Well, my opinion is, if they're not bothering you, why does it matter? Why should someone's sex life interfere with their friends, especially friends who are girls? When this was addressed I was pleased to read the reason why the girls care. Sheer cruelty. Like I wrote in a previous blogpost, the boys spread the rumors to up their reputation, while the girls spread them to be rude. I wish that life was so black and white like White had made it seem in her book. The way she boiled down the definition of a rumor and the reason why people tell rumors was just genius. The only thing is, I wish she had gone further into how to FIX these problems, not just addressing them. But I guess her goal wasn't to fix them, it was to dissect them- which she did.

I like how White, more or less, ends the book by talking about how girls have coped (post high school) with being called a slut all their adolescent years. She talks about girls who still have terrible memories from school and cannot even go into the building that was meant only for education and kindness. White wrote about Janice Joplin and women who found inspiration and an outlet for their baggage like writing stories, poetry, and photography. The whole book is pretty negative, not because White ever says, "Being a slut is bad, and this is what those girls had to go through is like". No. She never wrote anything remotely close to that. She just shed a lot of light on why the slut rumor comes about in the first place and how it affects everyone in the picture. The negativity of these circumstances was completely wiped away for me when she mentions the girls who have gained confidence and have changed their ways from these experiences. I like to know there is hope in the world even when someone can feel like they have hit rock bottom due to how others treat them. I feel like if I were to add onto this book I would add some more testimonies from the actual rumor-spreaders, to see what they were thinking when they made the claims they did. I want to hear more from the "popular" crowd, who White mentions fit into a large pyramid that involves the whole student body in respective tiers. I wish she had included pictures of these girls who were named sluts, but at the same time I'm glad I didn't see them. At first, I wanted to know what they looked like to know if they deserved the name they got, but then I thought that it was crazy to assume how many guys a girl has been with or anything of that nature just from looks. There is not one face of a slut, and not even one word for it actually. As I mentioned, the word "slut" has a different meaning and synonym with every class and race. Sure, they overlap, but there are different definitions for everyone based on their personal experiences.

I have definitely benefited from reading this book because I learned a lot about human nature and why a bad past could lead to a bad reputation which could lead to thoughts about suicide or things like paranoia. The saddest part about it all is that I would be reading this book in school, and be hearing the word "slut" from a conversation going on across the room and I wouldn't know how to react. Say, "Hey, do you know what that word is doing to people? Mind your own business and don't label people for what they have done or haven't done." But I guess White didn't intend for people to do that, she just wanted to prove a point. That the slut rumor is rubbish. Don't believe everything you hear. That is  a lesson I learned and will take with me wherever I go. I knew that lesson was important, but I never understood the full impact of it until reading this book and hearing from real experiences. I recommend this book to girls (because there is not much about masculinity in it. sorry guys!). The beginning and end were slow, but the middle was fascinating.

Fourth entry for Fast Girls

Chapter 9 was all about how the slut story is different when looking at the issue of race. An overwhelming amount of white women were the ones who contacted White when she needed testimonies for her book. The beginning of the chapter is about a girl named LaShawn who tells about her time in Los Angeles as a teenager and how her and her friends overcame the stereotype of the sluts because they didn't let the rumors bother them and they didn't separate themselves just because they thought everyone else was separating them. White asks, "Is the dissonance between the story LaShawn tells and the story I hear from white girls a symptom of a fundamental dissonance between black and white girls?" (172). White also mentions the idea that girlhood itself is destabilized across race and class lines. This is confirmed when you look at statistics, like the amount of women with anorexia between black and white women. Black culture seems to protect their women from eating disorders by providing an environment in which extreme thinness is less valued. When some of the girls were picking on one girl of a different race than the group the girls liked to do it because they felt like they belonged to each other and she belonged to no one. "To cause humiliation is to exert control, and to exile another kid is to prove you belong, you are here," (178). Here is another place in the book when White wrote about duality. The secret that the girls here (any race) had was that they learned how to overcome the terrible feelings of being left out and bullied. The girl has to decide whether to give words the weight of gravity, and allow them to drag her down, OR she could walk in the halls and stare straight ahead, looking at a bright future. I am a huge advocate for the idea of being in control of what affects you and by how much. We are capable of changing our mindsets and putting ourselves in situations where we feel welcomed (or vice versa, taking ourselves out of places where we do not feel welcomed).

The last chapter, chapter 10, was really surprising to me. Not because anything cool happened, but because it was so blah to me. The title is, "Getting Over High School" and White just talks about how the sluts of the school are all similar. "Other women I meet are punks, mods, bikers. What's consistent is the tendency among these women to embrace a subculture, to see themselves as moving beneath the story of the normal," (189). Since they were outsiders, these teenagers had to find something that made them feel comfortable and a group of people where they felt wanted. This "counterculture" is the promise that maybe that was a realm where home could be reinvented. There funny part in this chapter was when White told a story about a girl who graduated high school as the slut and years later she bumped into a girl who was popular and had bullied her at school, and the girl ended up punching her in the face when she tried to apologize. Sometimes that anger just can't be directed anywhere else except into violence. I can't imagine Having those kinds of unsettling feelings after high school, where you won't likely see your whole grade again.

Third entry for Fast Girls

Chapter 6 was basically all about isolation in high school versus being in the “popular” crowd. A few pages talked about this pyramid where the popular kids were on top and everyone below them in each tier would make fun of the ones below them, and so forth. The inverted pyramid of this is truly the real one though- where the isolated person is alone at the top of this (the slut) and then everyone else is below them and finally the popular kids make up the base of it. A lot of people who were isolated at schools had experienced bad home lives, including parents kicking her out and even parents sexually abusing their children. The isolation brings up a whole new realm of things including this idea that the slut is some sort of disease. “Even if boys claim to have slept with her, they are never really ‘with’ her; to show any loyalty to her would be to make themselves contaminated too,” (125). White brings up a survey that Cosmo Magazine took in 1999 asking readers if they should reveal how many people they’re slept with. People answered that whether or not it is true, the person should respond with a low number when asked how many people they have slept with. I feel uncomfortable with this and the idea of lying to someone. Especially if you are going to marry someone, they deserve to know the truth about who you are/were. The chapter rounds out talking about Janice Joplin and how she was a very independent woman. She had a lot of confidence in whatever she did and for many high school “sluts”, gaining the confidence to overcome their bad reputation or at-least cope with it better.

Chapter 7 was my favorite chapter so far. It was about the cruelty that girls have towards each other. I know we can all be mean at times, but why do we do it? One victim of rumors said, “Boys would run their mouths, say they had sex with you, but it wasn’t so much to malign you as it was to build his own image among his friends. The really vicious ones were the girls. They said awful things about you with no other aspiration but to hurt you personally,” (133). After reading this quote I felt so enlightened. Girls are just as much a problem in the slut rumors as the boys are. White brings up how the slut has a sense of secrecy in the acts she does because no one sees it happen but everyone talks about it. “Her techniques are a mystery,” (134). Not only are other girls a little jealous of the slut because of all the attention she is getting from the rumors, they also are wondering how the slut gets to be the way she was. What does she do? How does she do it? Why can’t I do that? Things of that sort. This is why an author named Naomi Wolf wrote a book called “Promiscuities” and she said, “We are all bad girls, in the best way possible. Shameful feelings surrounding female desire need to be relieved because they are compromising our pleasure; if the cloud of shame was lifted, the ‘inner slut’ would introduce us to new horizons of desire,” (146). I definitely agree with this statement because I think people hold back too much because they are afraid of how society will look at them if they act a certain way. The rumors that float around, especially in a high school hallway, can be so far out there. One girl named Christine experienced people coming up to her and telling her that they heard what she had done at a party she hadn’t even attended. We CANNOT believe everything we hear! It is so simple. But sometimes it’s not simple. People lie, even when we confront them to avoid drama. White ended the chapter by saying, “Maybe only after girls have finished with the wars in the hallways do they gain any perspective on why the wars came about,” (152). The big picture of everything is much more important than the nitty gritty details and petty fights. Girls need to be less snappy and more cautious to not believe everything they hear.

Chapter 8 was probably one of the scariest chapters I have ever read in a book, including horror books that I have read. It is called ‘Basement Histories’ and talks about girls getting sexually taken advantage of at ages as young as 7 years old. When adults say to them, “Let’s call this our little secret,” (155), they feel like they have an obligation to obey them and also feel a sense of being chosen for something, but for some reason they do not feel good being chosen for that, so they don’t know what to think in the end. A lot of “sluts” have had these experiences. White says that in her interviews the girls who talked about sexual abuse far outnumbered the girls who didn’t. This really says something disgusting about our society. Even if a girl gets with a lot of guys, it might not always be for the reasons that the gossipers assume. There were a lot of testimonies in this chapter that included people talking about boyfriends raping them at the age of 13, about fathers masturbating on young children and telling them not to tell the mothers, or even about gang-bangs on a drunk girl at a party. I just wanted to skip to the next chapter. I cannot even believe that things happen like this in real life, it just doesn’t make any sense to me. These girls had lost their innocence so early in the game and so unwillingly. I’m glad this chapter wasn’t as long as the others.  

Second entry for Fast Girls

The fourth chapter was all about sexual problems in the suburbs and how generalizations about sluts can also be applied in a "safe environment" like the suburbs. The problems began for a woman named Karen when she was in middle school going to spin-the-bottle parties. From there, everything went downhill. When White went with Karen(age 35 now) to visit some childhood sites, Karen mentioned how she got nervous around people she saw on the streets. White wrote, "Her paranoia is contagious; throughout our visit I will watch people watching her, and wonder if they're part of the mob from the past," (83). It would be terrible to have people bully you and not even know where the rumors are coming from and who is spreading them. At-least when you know who is spreading the rumors you can try to confront them about the problem. These rumors start to make the fast girl experience issues with the idea of class. They feel like they do not have any value because of things written on their mailboxes like "Slut" and "White Trash". If that isn't enough, there is so much pressure from boys at school because in some cases, the jocks or kids who you would not normally expect to gang-rape high school peers will get a power trip and commit the unthinkable. There is a "suburban clich'e of safety," (89) that boys break but girls get the most attention from that usually. (I know that boys are sometimes the victims of girls gang-raping, but in the book I am reading, the girls are the targets so that's the opinion I am basing this reflection off).

The fifth chapter talks about family values and home wreckers. A Catholic philosopher quoted in the book that, "Her self disperses at the same rate as her lovers multiply," (98). This is an interesting perspective and ratio to describe something that is such a big part of humanity. There is definitely a double standard in high school and that is also addressed in the book. "Today the modern high school slut still has no remotely comparable male parallel," (98). This is SO true!!! Girls are sluts but if guys get with a lot of girls they are "studs". Why doesn't this change? Honestly, I don't think this ideology ever will change. White then brings up the temptation that people feel when they are married and how a home wrecker is a woman who thinks she can get anyone she wants when in reality she has no one. But, if the world was recreated, the mother still has to be in the picture, and so does the home wrecker. This is for good reason too. The home wrecker is the "Reference point on the map. She is from the wrong side of the tracks and hence indicates the location of the right side of the tracks," (109). Duality. White really has a few nice paragraphs about this because she gives the home wrecker the benefit of the doubt in a way. We NEED her in the world. We need the bad to see the good. I am starting to like this book a lot more!!

First entry for Fast girls

When I first heard about this book from the class book talk in the library, I thought that it was a non-fiction storyline about a girl who got branded as a slut in high school. I was completely wrong. The book actually began as more of a definition of high school. In the first chapter there were a lot of things mentioned. Some of the topics covered were the main crisis’ of teenagers in high school, Marijuana addicts, the importance of the cafeteria and seating arrangements, popularity, and finally the Columbine shooting and the significance of the “unsafe kids” who no one would suspect to commit horrible crimes. Reading about the Columbine shooting was extremely hard for me for two reasons. One, the more obvious reason, is that I go to a high school that is highly noted for its excellence in academics and extra-curriculars and I could not ever imagine something like a mass shooting happening right down the hall from me. The other reason that the shooting story hit home for me was because this winter break I was in Boston for a week-long International Youth Group convention. There we participated in an anti- gun violence rally. We heard a man named Colin speak about how he was shot during the Virginia Tech Massacre. Hearing a survivor from one of these shootings really shows you the reality of the situation. This reminded me of the quote in the book that was, “Columbine briefly illuminated high school’s tribal world, its primitivism, its phenomenal danger; the destructive darkness that the counseling center tries to counter with its cheerful slogans” (36). I guess all high schools are alike in that aspect because when I think of our counseling office I think of the "cheerful slogans".

                The second chapter was all about a rumor that got passed around during a pep assembly at a school called Calhoun High. The rumor itself was not important, but the idea of rumors was the key. White wrote, “Rumors flourish in periods of sudden crises, sustained tension, impending decisions, boredom from monotony,” (43). I can definitely agree with this and I think in high school the most rumors are spread are from boredom from monotony. Rumors move quickly and they happen “outside the realm of adult supervision,” (45). After the rumors story, there was a short story about a girl named Madeline. She matured quickly in high school and although she was innocent from the inside, her physical appearance said otherwise. People said that she was asking for the bullying and gossip. White also spoke about the misconception about how sexually active the slut was. “In my interviews I talked to some girls who had actually been promiscuous, some girls who hadn’t. Some girls were virgins; one girl had slept with seventy men in the space of her high school years. But in the mind of the crowd, all of these girls had slept with ‘everyone’,” (50). I feel bad for the girls who actually had not done anything, but had gotten the reputation from it. High school is full of lies and I just don’t understand why lying is overwhelmingly present in a school environment. I guess because teenagers are always in competition and will say anything to get ahead, or make sure someone else doesn’t get ahead. Reputation. Reputation. Reputation.

                The third chapter was about the slut archetype (category of the unconscious). I learned about how passing a rumor is appealing to people, which is why some of them do it. “The rumor is a form of verbal and even physical connection: the cupped hand on your ear during the whisper, the way people come close when passing it on. It’s a bond that seems vital even if it is only transitory,” (57). The slut is defined as a powerful person yet also powerless. The slut is also alone, or, a category of one. The archetype of the slut is unsafe while everyone else is safe. The slut has the wrong kind of desire while everyone else has the right kind. It doesn’t matter who the slut is or where she is from, she almost always fits into the “slut archetype” that is mentioned in the book. White also mentions pornography and how it is so easy now for anyone to look at it, either online or just media in general. These images fuel the slut rumors because people are attracted to the thought of sexual acts. White also brought up that girls who were called sluts in high school had suicidal tendencies later in life. I thought this was a far stretch for her to make because there is not a big enough correlation to make this statement true. The book is decent so far, and I’m looking forward to reading more testimonies.