Hurricane Sandy

New York City, the "Big Apple", is packing its bags and getting ready to head to safety, far away from Sandy. The incoming hurricane is said to include life-threatening floods and other disasters. the storm has traveled north from the Caribbean, where 60 people had been lost in the storm. New York has already evacuated more than 370,000 people from Brooklyn to Manhattan and plan to shut down the transit system. The 1.1 million kids were probably excited because they get to skip school on Monday. However, the rest of the city is frightened by the idea that the people and the city will take too long to bounce back from the hurricane. People are preparing for the storm and are making sure that they can do their best to minimize the damages that are bound to happen. Construction workers have been blocking air vents and closing the subways to prevent flooding and destruction. By Monday, it is believed that the 75 miles per hour winds will hit the mid-Atlantic coast. These storm surges will not only hit New York, but also North Carolina, Delaware, New Jersey, and most of the upper east coast. People are being forced to evacuate from the coast. Everything east of the Mississippi River is expected to be affected by Hurricane Sandy. Equipment is being secured, people being evacuated, and houses and building being boarded up so that people will be able to have something to come back to, if they can come back...

New York Times
October 28, 2012
James Barron
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/29/us/east-coast-braces-for-severe-storm-surge.html?_r=0

Sympathy

The blog post Mrs. Kirkman asked the class to write was about who the individual person sympathized with the most. Having a hard time picking between two of the characters, I decided to write about four of them. Sympathy for Roger Chillingworth is surely uncommon and probably uncalled for. But honestly, it was not his fault. Imagine a man finally being able to travel to a new world to be with his wife, and bam, he sees that she is holding another man's child in her hands. Yes, revenge was not the smartest or most righteous thing to turn to, but the reader cannot blame the man. He was hurt and felt betrayed, so he acted on impulse and hunted for revenge. The part that does not warrant sympathy from Chillingworth is the fact that even after seven years, he still did not change, and continued to feel a need to acquire his revenge. Arthur Dimmesdale on the other hand basically died because of the guilt that was eating him away. In the beginning of the story, Arthur was selfish and kept his secret to himself while the girl he loved was being punished for a crime she only halfway committed. However, towards the end of the story, Arthur basically sacrificed himself. He revealed his sin and died to repay Hester and the townspeople back the punishment that could be repaid in no other way. Hester Prynne was the main sufferer in this story. She had to be punished for her sins, watch her husband turn into a revenge loving monster, watch her lover slowly die, all while raising a little girl all by herself. Hester truly had a distraught life and never found a shrivel of relief in all her years. Even when Pear grew up and Hester grew old, Hester felt the need to go back to Boston, because only there was Hester, in a way, comfortable. That was where Hester had loved, sinned, punished, hurt, and truly where her life and womanhood died. The last person to sympathize for is Pearl. Pearl had to grow up in a town that believed she was a devil spawned, evil, elf child. She grew up without a father, and grew up out of place, different. Even in the story, it is shown that Pearl is mentally unstable because of all that she went through during the first years of her life. How sad is that? The kid is psychologically unbalanced from the beginning of her life. The happy part about Pearl's life is that she finally grows up and gets married, and is most likely happy with her new life. But that still does not make up for all the hardships that she had to overcome in the past.

The Scarlet Letter

"It now writhed in convulsions of pain, and was a forcible type, in its little frame, of the moral agony which Hester Prynne had Bourne throughout the day." - The Scarlet Letter (49)
During this time of the novel, Hester had gone back to the prison with Pearl after a long and hard day in the market place. The baby was in pain and needed a doctor. The reason for Pearl's agony was the because she drank Hester's anguished and disparity filled breast milk. The quote shows that Hester did a good job in hiding all of the anger and humiliation, but she could not completely ignore it. Because she kept everything inside, she was starting to affect her own child's health. Poor Pearl was born into an unfair and cruel world. Now it is understood that Pearl will be discriminated against and would not fit in as part of the town because of who her mother is and because of how she came into the world. Later on in the story, Pearl does have a hard time with all the kids calling her terrible names. Not only is it mentally disturbing to be called names, but I feel like it is worse when they also hurt Hester physically and mentally. In some cases, Pearl ended up fighting off the kids for that specific reason. The difference between the other children in town and Pearl was obvious in that which Pearl was much more intelligent at only three years old. That is one of the upsides of being born because of sin, she was not taught to be ignorant and judgemental from day one. She was born different, but a good different. 

Leave Us Alone

Lady Gaga in Amsterdam, Holland 

Women all over the world have difficulties dealing with their appearances and how society expects them to look, but lately, women have been ignoring society and telling it to shove it. Singers like Christina Aguilera and even Lady Gaga have been criticized about their weight gain and they pushed those people back by defending themselves. When I read about Lady Gaga's 25 pound weight gain I actually had to see it to believe it. The pictures I saw was of her wearing a skimpy outfit (her usual getup) with a not so flattering figure. The first thing I thought was "EW! I cant believe how bad she looks" But then I realized that she really was not that disgusting, but was normal... Just because she was not size triple zero did not automatically mean that she was ugly. The thing that really got me was the outfits though. She showed the world that she liked the way she looked and that she was proud of it. Lady Gaga, even though I do not like her music, to me she is truly a hero because she does not act the way people want her to. She acts the way she wants to and does not back down. This was especially hard on her, because ever since the age of fifteen, she has suffered from bulimia and anorexia. As a role model, she is telling girls that there is no such thing as being perfect, so stop trying to be. That is honestly the best thing a self-hating and insecure girl has to hear. So I thank Lady Gaga for being insane and also an amazing person who goes above and beyond most celebrities of today. 
An article regarding this issue was written by Marlo Thomas on October 14 on the Huffington Post.
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marlo-thomas/a-size-zero-dress-does-not-equal-sussess_b_1948066.html#slide=1592801

The Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne, the main character of the story, has committed adultery by cheating on her husband. The only reason people found out about her sin was the bump she grew on her stomach. Hester was asked who the father was, but she refused to admit who the impregnated her in order to protect him from the rest of the townspeople. I have not completely finished the reading assignment, but I am pretty sure that the young minister, Arthur, was the one who impregnated Hester. The first clue was shown when Arthur had tried to convince Hester to come forth and reveal who the father was. He was giving Hester a chance to rat him out and save her from her misery, but Hester refused. It is only logical that Arthur is the father because no one else in the town had as much to lose from sinning than Arthur did. Arthur is loved by everyone in town. If word got out that he is the father of Pearl, Hester's daughter, he would be stripped of his ranking in the church and forever shunned by the people in town. I believe that if Arthur really was a good man, and if he really was a believer of God's word, then he should reveal himself rather than hide behind poor, suffering Hester. I think Arthur is a coward and does not deserve Hester's love, devotion, or sacrifice. It is not only Hester's fault that she committed a sin. Arthur, knowing that Hester was a married woman, still decided to be with her. Therefore, Arthur should come out and be honest with the townspeople to spare Hester at least some resemblance of misery.

Gas Prices Reach Record Breaking Levels in California

LA Times covered an article on gas prices in California. The average cost of gas in all of California has reached $4.655 in just a couple of days. This is due to the fact that California has a special blend of gasoline for the summer. The summer blend was made to decrease pollution levels in California. From the beginning of the summer till approximately October 31, California uses the summer blend. Because of power shortages in Exxon Mobil Corp. and fires near Chevron Corp., summer blend gasoline production has slowed, thus increasing the price of gas. Governor Jerry Brown has been trying to import winter blend gasoline into California so people will be able to afford gas again. When the gas reaches California, the prices will drop from 15 to 20 cents, but the gas will not arrive until later next week. In the meantime, all Californians; workers, students, and everyone else; have to hang on and maybe reduce their traveling distance in order to save some gas. If gas prices are this high now, I wonder how high they will be when my children will be driving. Maybe the only solution to lowering gas prices are to find a new way to fuel our cars.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-gov-brown-gas-prices-20121007,0,2291534.story