Sunday, May 1, 2011

Review Assignment


  This is a review that I wrote about a homemade spaghetti dinner.                                                 
                                                           Spaghetti Dinner Review

            On Saturday an exquisite Spaghetti dinner was prepared and after an hour or so, the dinner was ready to be enjoyed. The sauce was of a quality that could only be expected from the best Olive Garden. The actual sauce was tomato based, with a medley of vegetables added: green and red bell peppers, jalapeƱos, onions, and garlic all sliced to perfection, grilled, and then added to the sauce. The pasta was boiled in water, olive oil, and a little bit of butter, to reduce sticking and help flavor the meal as a whole. One would think that only a professional Italian chef could make pasta to this magnitude. Three types of meats were incorporated into the spaghetti, each prepared in a different way; the meatballs were baked in the oven, to the point of where they were tender on the inside and had a slightly crispy shell; the Louisiana beef hotlinks were grilled and then sliced into equal sized pieces; the ground beef was carefully tended to as it was thawed and was seasoned in the skillet. Once the sauce and the meat were fully prepared, they were mixed with the pasta, creating a meal that was so delicious that a 5 star restaurant would serve it every day, if only to draw in more customers. The taste was exquisite; the sauce perfectly complemented the meats, which had started off spicy, but became mild due to the sauce. The pasta could easily be enjoyed by itself without the meats or sauce, but that would be an insult to the perfect flow of the dish. All in all, if I were to give this meal a rating of one to five stars, I would have to give this meal seventeen and a half stars.

My first Persuasive Essay

This was going to be my persuasive essay, but I decided against it, because it turned into more of a rant than a persuasive essay.


                                                        Should books be banned?

            Throughout history, many books have been banned, whether it be for content or just flat out dislike for the author. Many books are banned for various reasons. This essay will attempt to convince you that no book should be banned no matter what it is about.
           
            Battle Royale, and its sequel, both books of Japanese origin was originally banned due to content. They told the story of government sponsored “games in which high school students were forced to fight in battles to the death, in order to lower the population. While this novel was highly controversial due to its grotesque violence and sexual content, and the graphic descriptions of them, this novel was basically a more modern version of the novel The Lord of the Flies. This book was banned supposedly because of the violence an sexual content that was previously mentioned, but it was later admitted that it was banned because of the negative way in which the Asian government was depicted. Because of this, Battle Royale was a novel banned for petty reasons, rather than for the betterment of a group of people.

            Another book that was banned was John Dies at the End. This was banned due to high amounts of drug content and graphic depictions of necrophilia. While this was a work of fiction, the book was banned because it was deemed too lifelike, and many groups had decided that the book was unfit should it be made available to younger readers. While this book may have had reason to be banned, there are many forms of media, which depict the same things, such as music and movies, and these are not only left unbanned, but are made easily available to all ages.

           
            While there is no surefire way to make any sort of book available to all ages, there are many books that have been banned for less than positive reasons. This brings up the question of what will be banned next; with the banning of certain books, how long will it take for the internet and even television to be banned as well?

Persuasive Essay


                            Are Children Raised in Single Parent Households Worse Off?

            Throughout the past half century, a discussion has been brought up that children raised in single family household are deprived of many things, from male/female influences, to being able to do certain activities, and lacking certain characteristics that two parent household children are supposedly able to acquire. Also, many other factors must be brought into play, such as race and economic background. This essay sets out to persuade the reader that children raised in single family households are not worse off, but, in some cases are actually better off than children raised in two parent households.


            While there are many stereotypes that are placed on single parent households, there are also many that are fitted with two parent households. One of these is that a majority of the countries single parent house holds are black. While this may be true, the second part of this stereotype is not necessarily as valid: children of single family homes receive less caring for and raising. This is untrue, especially among black people because one of the major beliefs is that “It takes a village to raise our children,” which is basically used in the context that children are not just raised by their parents and those that live with them, but also by their whole community.  By having children receive care and raising throughout their community, children raised through single family homes receive just as much, if not more care than two parent households.

            Another stereotype used primarily by white people is that “a black female cannot raise a male on her own, that the child will need a ‘male role model’.” I can personally attest to this. My mom, a single black female, raised me and I have turned out scores better than many other white children raised in two parent white households. I do not drink or smoke, yet I know of many white people who are my age, and started doing the things previously mentioned at an early age, and even obtained the paraphernalia from their parents. For one, whether it is a single or double parent household, black households provide more discipline, which helps to decrease many of the problems growing up that many white people are currently plagued with such as behavioral and rebellion problems. This is not to say that black people are perfect, as statistics show that black males are more likely to end up in jail, which is commonly attributed to being raised by single mothers. White children who have both parents are statistically more likely to partake in the use and sale of drugs, child pornography, and school shootings.

While it can be argued that there are many disadvantages between single and dual parent households, there are also many advantages that are supposedly held by the dual parent household. First off, two parent households are, for the most part more financially stable than single parent households. This is mainly due to the fact of a single income versus two incomes. While it is not necessarily true, this is commonly attributed to children raised by single parents living in poverty through out their lives. Also, as stated in the Wikipedia article on single parents, “those living with a single parent were about three times more likely to kill themselves or end up in the hospital after an attempted suicide by the age of 26 than children living with two parents.” This basically means that children living in single parent households tend to be less happy with their lives, whether it is due to financial or other reasons.

There are many different reasons as to why two parent households are preferable to single parent households, but that doesn’t mean that single parent households don’t have their advantages as well. Those who live outside of the situation, commonly accept stereotypes saying that single parent households are incapable of producing “quality” children, therefore giving them a negative view,. Just because a child isn’t raised by two parents does not mean that the child will be incapable of living a quality life.

First Post!

At first, I created this blog as an extra credit assignment for an English class that I'm currently taking. As of now, I am unsure as to whether or not I will keep this log after the class is over....could go either way.