1 week til break

So I am taking the first steps to send my policy to some government official for extra credit. But I am unsure who to send it to. Is it Ron Wieck? I think he is in the Iowa Senate or something like that. I will have to ask Dr.Robson on Wednesday.
I have revised my policy pretty well this afternoon. But it is hard to focus knowing that spring break is coming up!
I have read in Never Let Me Go up to 203. It has reached a point where Kathy is ready to start her training and is going to leave. I can't wait to see what happens. This book is so intriguing and I just can't imagine how it will end.

Extra Credit

So I am pretty pumped because now our blogs are extra credit which is awesome becuase i feel like i have been keeping up to date for the most part!! yay! and it is friday!!! I gave my presentation today- and it went way better than i expected! i wasn't hardly nervous at all. Tho i prolly could have done a better job answering questions.... but who cares, it is Friday! and i am done!!! i will be off work in exactly 45 minutes!! happy weekend to all.

Policy Presentations

I have been working on my Policy Speech this morning. I am kind of nervous because this is going to be a lot longer speech than what we have been used to, but I like that it can be scripted. I like coming into a speech well prepared knowing for the most part exactly what I am going to say. I am still debating how to do my introduction and conclusion- Dr. Robson suggested a personal story of someone who my topic directly affects, but I am not really sure who to do and how to fit it all in. I'm also worried because I still have not figured out what I am going to wear...

Boycott

Ok I am in a crabby mood…so I am going to rant for a little while! so I came up with this great idea to boycott school! I mean I am sick of staying up all night studying or working on a paper. Then crashing for a few hours only to wake up and have to go to work at 8 am!! Which is boring and annoying, I mean don’t get me wrong I have a great job- wait make that jobs! So I am thinking we should all quit until I get at least eight or nine hours a sleep a night and don’t have to work two jobs! I mean I go through all this trouble to get a degree which will lead to a career and more working and more sleep loss, yet I don’t know what I want to do so I feel like I am not working towards anything and just wasting my time! And I lost my choir folder! I usually keep good track of things and now I have no idea where it is!!! Sad!

By the way:
My new and improved policy paper which I am extremely proud of is on the class wiki! So please look at it soon and comment because the final draft is due soon!

Random

I am working right now and it is really slow and boring so I decided to be productive and write on my blog. But not too productive and write on my paper! Speaking of paper... I have a lot to do this weekend on it. I have found a lot more sources about dangers of all types of cosmetic procedures in teens so I really think that will help. A cool site was kidshealth.org. All of these surgeries seem like a lot of information tho... so im wondering if i should narrow my topic and just ban one procedure, but i dont know how i would pick. Maybe that is a bad idea. i dont know! I guess i will find out when i go try to write it or better yet at my paper conference today....

I have been working on my revision for the opinion column and for the most part it is going really well. The only thing I am still unsure how to fix is the ending. Does anyone have any ideas for a good strong closing line? I have this problem of rambling on to a completely different tangent. so yeah any suggestions would be great. And I plan on look at other people's papers over this break sometime too! Speaking of which I am done with class after 3:30 tuesday, so I have no classes wednesday! Thank you Dr. Robson!

I have been thinking alot about Kelsey's topic of animal testing. I usually am pretty sympathetic towards animals, but in this case logically I can't see banning animal testing completely. I think maybe strict guidelines on animal care while being tested is a good thing. But if I had to decide whether to test on a mouse and possibly cause harm to develop a medicine or painfully die without a lifesaving medication.... i would probably harm the mouse. I think it is just human instinct to value our lives and selves more than animals.
Though sometimes i get second thoughts, i will never forget when I asked my mother if she would permit stem cell testing to save my life or let the embryo live and let me die.... and she said she would let me DIE! at the time i was really shocked, but now i think she has a point. We all have a time planned by God to die. Plus life has so many dark, hateful, and difficult things- why would we want to prolong the experience, especially past what God has in mind. This is hard to say.... but maybe we should just take life as it comes and not try to fight it with medications, vaccines, etc. Especially if they come at the expense of other living beings... Animals! I realize my view is really flip flopping but it is a hard issue. It is really hard to know what to call right and wrong, mostly because we have had so many miraculous medical breakthroughs thanks to animal testing. Could we really stop it now?

Never Let Me Go

The book we are reading for class is really intriguing because no matter how much we learn there is still some mystery around the characters and their school Hailsham. Originally this story reminded me of the movie The Island, and reading about the "donations" just confirmed it more. In the movie the clones are also created for organ donation and their nutrition and heath is monitored closely just like the students. I believe (right now anyway) that the children are clones of some sort because they have no reference to parents or family or even about being orphaned. They have always been told they were "special" and "different from the outside world." Their purpose in life is the donations. They give up their vital organs to the "normal" people, eventually resulting in the student's death. Because the student's are sterile (another hint that they are clones?) sex is taught to be ok, or at least more so that the normal world. Has causal sex become moral because they can't reproduce or because their lives are soon to end and they are not truly valued in society? This really posses and interesting question for us all.... Is sex ok if you cant have children? Some people certainly thing so and go to extreme lengths, birth control, abortion, etc. This is something that would make an interesting class discussion. Also this is one area where the book differs completely from the movie it reminds me of. In the movie, the clones are oblivious to being clones, the have fake childhood memories implanted, and they are oblivious to the concept of sex. One thing I still do not understand from the book, is the emphasis on art and creativity. Ms. Lucy first tells Tommy that it does not matter then later contradicts herself saying she was wrong and really it matters more than he knows. I don't see how this fits into the ideas that I have imagined with cloning, The Island, etc.