Quickwrite "Fences"

      Because I am an only child, my parents have always taken care of me and been in my business. Although I love my parents, I want to build a fence around myself. I need to do this in order to become more independent and so I don't have to rely on my parents for anything. I need to be at a point where I can honestly say I am a grown man, and I don't need anyone's help in order to support myself.
      I feel that I am generally a nice person, and I like to think that everyone has good intentions, but I know that this mind set will only bring me down in the long run.When I progress in life, there will always be people waiting on my downfall. I need to build a fence around myself so I will not negatively be affected by others. I need to keep certain important aspects of my life to myself so others will not be able to take advantage of any of my flaws.
   I also want to build a fence around all my loved ones. People who are my blood and people that I consider to be like my blood, only want to see me rise. These people will help me become victorious in life, even if I feel that I have reached my defeat. I want to close them in with fences, because I don't want any of them to fade away. These are people I cherish and love, people that will always be there whenever I need them.
A fence to black out all my enemies, so they will never be able to phase me.
   I also need to build a fence in order to protect me from my own bad habits. Procrastination, Smoking, Drinking, and other types of negative habits are all the bad things that I need to keep outside my fences. Keeping all my bad habits will bring me nothing but more stress and pain later on in my life.
  I also feel that I need to barricade myself from my own emotions. In past relationships, I often let my emotions control how I handled a situation, which often resulted me in having to endure more emotional strain. Sometimes, I have to let my brain control my actions, instead of letting my heart get in the way. Although every person wants to protect themselves from certain aspects of their lives, no one is capable of building every type of fence that they want.

[FREE] Death, the end? Or a new beginning?

    Death, the inevitable ending point in any person's life. Although death is something that I fear, I am also somewhat intrigued by it. For some people, death is an escape from their own lives, because they feel that they are already living in hell and no longer wish to live. For others, death is their main fear, because they are not ready to say goodbye to their life. It can come at any moment in time, and there are thousands of things that can kill you. Its crazy how death is something that can be very horrific, but at the same time can be considered to be beautiful and the natural cycle of life.

    Not trying to sound like I'm all courageous, but I think everyone should be more enlightened on the idea of death. Sometimes I think to myself, what the hell is going to happen after I die? Will I end up in heaven, or hell? Will I be reincarnated, with no memory of my past life? Or will I just close my eyes, and see nothing but darkness for eternity. Basically anything can happen, but in my opinion, I think the human soul still moves on, even though they are no longer living inside a body.

   No matter how much money one makes, how beautiful they look, or how kind they are, everyone will die at some time. This just goes to show you that in the end, everyone is equal. Once a person dies, all aspects of their lives, doesn't matter anymore. Anything and everything that they ever knew, is no use to them. All a person will have after death, is their soul. Sorry If I'm sounding really negative or something, I just wanted to shine a little light on this topic haha.

[RE] Alyssa's Random Thoughts

"Rewind to change something(s).

Pause to think about things.

Stop to all the happy moments.

Fast forward the most painful times in life."

This quote is from Alyssa's blog. I feel that sometimes, you do need a rewind, pause, stop, and fast forward button.

A rewind button, to relive all the good memories that I had and can barely remember. This might sound cowardly in some ways, but I feel that I would have probably changed a lot of things in the past that I could of done better in.

A Pause button, to have more time to do something.  To be able to have an unlimited amount of time to do homework, to study for a test, to set up for an event. Anything that requires a lot of time, I will have an unlimited amount of time to do.

A stop button, to be able to completely embrace a moment of happiness. 

A Fast Forward button, to have a peek of my own life within the next 10 years. To see if I was able to fulfill my dreams and goals.

When I read this blog entry, I think about the movie "Click". I can imagine how convenient it would be to have the power to time travel in the palm of my hand. It would be pretty damn cool to retake any tests I want. To pause time so I can save someone that is in danger. To rewind time so I can ask my grandfather all the questions I want. To fast forward time, to meet my future wife and kids. Life is short, but why is it that my life has just been a complete blurr for the past decade? I want to able to embrace some special moments of my life, instead of forgetting about them and letting them fade away as time goes on.

[FREE] Values?

     Each person on this planet has different values in life. A person can value any aspect in their life that they feel is completely necessary to live their own vision of a fulfilled life. A person's values can ultimately decide the path to where their life is headed. For example, people who value an education will be more likely to go to a good college, while people who don't usually do the bare minimum to graduate. It can decide whether a girl becomes a teen-mom or a doctor. Whether a person will be loved by many, or hated by many.

   So what are some of my values? I value education, I believe that a person will always need some type of education to get anywhere far in life. Not to say I'm the best student, because I'm far from it. I hate drama, I will do whatever possible to stay away from it, unless its absolutely necessary. To avoid drama, I try to respect everyone, instead of talking shit behind their back or whatnot. I value money, it can have an enormous impact on one's life. Being an only child, I often considered my close friends like family, they are the ones that I can put my trust in during rough times. One of the main things I value is love, I think its fascinating how the human mind is able to become so infatuated with another person. It is a feeling that cannot be described. I feel that whenever the world brings me down, my loved ones will always be there to pick me back up. What are some of your values?

[RE] Robert's Money

                                                   "Money, the object that many humans want."

     Damn, Robert couldn't have said it any better. What do I think about money? I think money makes the world go around. Many of our nation's problems are caused because the lack of money. Many people are living in poverty because of their lack of money. Money decides whether you live a lavish lifestyle, or the life of a bum. I'm sure many of you guys have heard the saying, "Money can't buy you happiness", well... they're wrong. Money is the key to get you whatever your heart desires. People die over money on a daily basis. Think about all the drug-related murders around the world, all connected to money in some way or sort. Even our education, we go to school in hopes of getting into a good college, which gives us the abilities and requirements to get a good job, in order to make a lot of money.

Its amazing to think about how much power money has over humans. It can make one's life feel like heaven, or completely destroy it. Money is the reason why families break apart, leaving more depressed children. It can determine which country wins in a war. Money gives you the ability to travel all around the world. Money is what helps a couple raise a healthy family. Money buys us the food that we eat on a daily basis. Basically, money is what gives all all the necessities we need to live a fulfilled and happy life.

Many people  do say that money cant buy happiness, and I completely respect their opinion. They use examples of celebrities that still fall into depression, even when they have loads of money to spend. I feel that people that don't have money to spare, tend to appreciate the value of money more than rich people.
From a "poor" person's point of view, money is the solution of all their problems. Although they are money hungry, they don't realize that having less money actually appreciate the little things in life. Rich people on the other hand, fall into depression because they take everything they have for granted. If you were to put a person living in poverty, in the life of a CEO, I bet he would think it was a dream come true. I guess thats just how the human mind works, once you get used to something, the value of the object in your mind begin to diminish.

[CE] Families of the fallen heroes.

      It is truly good to hear that the community is trying to help ease the emotional strain of the fallen hero's  families. I have an enormous amount of respect for all the soldiers that fight for our country. This video makes me look at the situation in many different point of views. If I needed to serve in the Middle East, I cannot begin to imagine how hard it would be to leave my loved ones. If one of my parents left me to fight in the war, I don't know how I would cope with it on a daily basis. To say goodbye to one of your parents, never knowing for sure when and ever your going to see them again. Imagine, the families of 6200 fallen soldiers are dealing with this problem.

      The war has ultimately changed the lives of thousands of people today. If a child loses a father figure, it will dramatically affect their life and the way they think. It is said in the video that the families of the fallen often fall into depression and other types of mixed emotions. All these fallen soldiers had hopes and wishes of going back home and continue raising their families, unfortunately none of those wishes came true. So the question arises, when will the country be in a state of peace?

     Although war is considered to be evil and always results in the loss of thousands of lives, it is inevitable. Families will continue to lose loved ones and will have to learn to deal with these never ending cycles of death. It upsets me to think about the wars will have to fight in the near future. Sooner or later, countries will have wars over drinking water. With our country stacked with endless amounts of debts to pay, and low economy, it makes sense to believe that the United States will continue to be at a state of war. Hopefully one day we will see days of peace.

Going for the Look Essay.

     Marshal Cohen, a senior industry analyst with the NPD Group states that it is necessary for clothing companies to only hire people that portray the company image. He believes that having a "walking billboard" would help create an environment that attracts people. Cohen thinks that by having "good-looking" people sell "good-looking" clothes, more people would want to buy the products. This method of only hiring people based off their image, evolved from the competitive retail environment between different clothing companies.With many different clothing companies trying to go for the same image, they will do whatever they can to give their store an edge over another.

    I disagree with Cohen's argument, I think portraying an image is less important than selling the actual product. Cohen states "A guy wants to go hang out in a store where he can see good-looking gals.", NO. When I walk into a store, I am looking for a clothing item that I am interested in buying. If I found a jacket I like, the look's of one of the employees in the store is not going to affect my liking of the jacket. Yes, it wont hurt to have a pretty face in the store, but that is not the reason why I would go into a store in the first place. Being a casual shopper, I only expect a store's employee to be kind; not to have the face of an angel. Instead of worrying about how their employee's look, they should focus on how their clothes look and try to match their clothes with their customers fashion sense. If a store were to have horrible looking looking clothes, but beautiful looking workers, they still would not make any money, but if it was the other way around, they would still make tons of profit.

    If a person is "ugly" it is often something that they cannot control. People should be hired for a job based on their abilities and skills, not the way they look. If many of our companies were to adopt this method, they would not go very far. Having experienced workers rather than employees that only "look good", would only project the company to new heights, not decrease their profit. Not only does this method discriminate against potential workers that do not have "the look", but it would also discourage the customers that also do not have it. This method can often majorly lower one's self-esteem. The method should only be used for jobs that absolutely require a person to be good-looking. You do not have to have a pretty face to work the cash register, talk to people, and fold cloths.

   Not only might people think this method is immorale, a company that uses this method of hiring employees will probably have to face legal issues as well. For example, Abercrombie and Finch was charged with racial discrimination, for hiring only foot-ball playing or preppy caucasion employees. An ex Abercrombie and Finch employee states, "You don't see any African-Americans, Asian-Americans, and thats the image that their portraying and looking for." It is said that any people of color that were hired in Abercrombie, all worked in the stock room where they could not be seen. We come from a country of equality, for a clothing company to portray racial discrimination is highly unacceptable. People cannot hire control how they look, just like how they cannot control the color of their skin. It is said that Abercrombie wants to portray an "All American look.", an "All American look" consists of people of all different colors. Employee's were also told to ask anyone that fits the "image", to work for their store. Hiring people for their looks not only brings legal problems to the company itself, but also promotes racial stereotyping in our society. It is not necessarily illegal, but it discriminating based off sex, age, or ethnicity is. This country have already been fighting for racial equality for hundreds of years, lets not segregate the population between "attractive" and "ugly".

     To judge whether or not a person is "attractive" is all the matter of opinion. Different people have different opinions of one's beauty. Where do employers come off telling a person that they are unattractive? Employers feel like they should hire good-looking people in order to attract people that also want to look good, but it is also safe to say that the employers can care less about how "unattractive" people feel towards this issue. They use this method in hopes of getting more customers and more profit, but their profits will obviously decline with many lawsuits that are put against them. By hiring a whole variety of people, it makes sense that they will also have a whole variety of customers. By trying to portray the image of one ethnicity or one look, they will only attract customers that fall into that specific category. The continuation of this method of hiring employees might trigger more establishments to also use this method, which would ultimately damage our economy greatly. I believe that the government should ban this hiring method, because it consists of racial discrimination. This method is illegal and immoral.