Napping - Now and Then.

 Write a description of a scene you remember from your childhood. Discuss how your current view of the scene differs from the view you had when you were a child.    
       


       My favorite season is always summer. During my childhood, summer for me did not consist of hours of video games or winding my eyes watching cartoons on the television, it was the time when I could easily be found in the corner of my neighborhood, spending time with the kids in my neighbor. We played traditional games such as hopscotch, marble, and jacks. I hated being interrupt in the middle of the game.
       Chinese tradition jump ropes was one of my favorite. One day, I just finished tying little, colorful elastic bands together to create a 3 meters long elastic string. With my new rope, I showed it to my friends and they were amused by how neat it looked. We had played for hours and my grandma came to look for me. Oh no that was my nap time!
      I hated nap time when I was little. I hated it so much that I usually would just laid down and stared at the ceiling. My grandma would yell at me with her long and thin wooden stick that came in handy, "Linh, I'm going to count to three and you would be dead if you're still awake.1...1.5...2...2.1...2.2...2.3...2.4..."and so on. It was either sleep or getting whips. She raised me up, so she knew that I was a stubborn child and usually did not close my eyes until she said 2.8. That was probably the reason why she usually counted at a slow pace and then she would scrutinized me until I fell asleep.
      With a kid's temper, I used to hate my grandma for that. Why would I need nap time when I already have about 12 hours of sleep every night? I wished that when I wake up, I would become an adult so I could spend more time with my friends instead of napping. But I was wrong, I am now almost 16 and sleeping is all I would ever ask for. With school, AP classes, sport and other after school extracurricular activities, my current earliest bedtime is 1:30. I miss the old time when all I had to do were eating, playing, sleeping and not to worry about anything else. I now wish that my grandma would be next to me at noon, with her wooden stick and force me to sleep again.

Joseph McCarthy

           Joseph McCarthy’s full name is Joseph Raymond McCarthy. He was a two terms Republican Wisconsin Senator who was born on Nov. 14, 1908, near Appleton, Wisconsin. As a Wisconsin attorney, McCarthy served for three years as a  judge before enlisting in the Marines in World War II and resigned as a lieutenant in 1945. In 1946 he won the Republican nomination for the Senate over Senator Robert M. LaFollette, Jr.; he was later reelected that autumn in 1952.

He grew up in a poor Catholic family.He dropped out of school after eighth grade to start his own poultry business. But after the business was unsucessful, he enrolled in the local public high school. Joseph McCarthy went to Marquette University for two years of undergraduate. He later entered Marquette Law School,

             February 1950 was when the Red Scare started and the fear of Communism arose in the United States. He was known for claiming there were 205 known communists working for the U.S. Department of State but yet he could not provide any evidence for. President Truman dismissed him as a “ballyhoo artist.” He exploited the fear of Communism and attacked the government to increase his political standing. During the controversy, he gained a reputation as being the nation’s top Communist fighter. 

           When talking about Joseph McCarthy, people often think of the McCarthyism era. McCarthyism means “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence.” Many of whom were labeled communist sympathizers were unable to continue working during the Red Scare.

            He used his position as chairman of the Committee on Government Operations and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations to launch investigations designed to document charges of Communists in government. McCarthy lost support in 1953 when he started attacking the U.S. Army, and suggesting that Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower was protecting subversives. Soon after, the Senate formally condemned him on a vote of 67 to 22 for conduct “contrary to Senate traditions.” The fear of Communist was still remained but McCarthy and McCarthyism was largely ignored thereafter. He later died of alcoholism on May 2, 1957 at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland.

SOURCES:

<http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=m000315>

<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/353904/Joseph-R-McCarthy>

<http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/arthur-miller/mccarthyism/484/>

The range of Islamic beliefs about the proper place of women in society.

       More than half a billion of the women in the world is Islamic but they do not receive enough rights and freedom. Women in Islamic societies and communities face gender-based inequalities associated with the “patriarchal gender system.” The system, regardless of religion, features kin-based, the males are always superior to the women. Islam also gave the women full status as citizens over 1,400 years ago by giving her to right to speak and vote the same as anyone else. Even though the civil law as well as the constitutions of many Islam states provide for equal rights between women and men; however, Islamic family law poses obstacles to women’s equality.   

           Islamic women expect to be appreciated for their mind and characters, not just for their bodies. That’s why they are required to conceal their attractions from men by a strictly modest, straight-forward type of attire. Modest dress does not degrade women, but it discourages lust in men. Within the close family circle, she is free to dress informally and to beautify herself. She is strongly encouraged to make herself attractive for her husband since her beauty is reserved for him. Islam also insists on the right of an individual to have a spouse who belongs exclusively to him/her. It totally rejects the notion that what people feel for each other or the pleasure they derive from an act should be taken as the criteria of right and wrong, and that obedience to the unbridled demands of animal desires should be permitted to dominate the lives of human beings.

        Men could marry as many as they liked and very often they owned women like cattle or sheep. This system is called polygyny. But luckily, Islam gives a woman the right to refuse polygyny for her husband by setting it as a condition during the marriage procedures. If this condition is set, then the woman is granted divorce if her husband marries another while he is still married to her. In the recent past, Islam women exhibited comparatively high rates of fertility and low rates of contraception use because the use of contraception was not encouraged in the society.

     

Citation:

Offenhauer, Priscilla. “Women In Islamic Societies:  A Selected

Review Of Social Scientific Literature.” November 2005. The Liberty of Congress. September 17, 2012.

< http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/Women_Islamic_Societies.pdf>.

Islamalways.com. “What Does Islam Really Say About Equality of Women and Men?”. Basic Fact About Islam. June 23, 2008. September 17, 2012.

<http://islamzpeace.com/2008/06/30/what-does-islam-really-say-about-equality-of-women-and-men/>. 

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" - David Sedaris

SOAPTone

Speaker:
David Sedaris. He is the author of the book "Me Talk Pretty One Day."
Occasion: Sedaris moved to Paris and returned to school at the age of forty-one to learn French.
Audience: General audience.
Purpose: To inform the reader about the author's experience in his unusual French class in Paris.Some teachers might look like they're mean but they're actually helping their students. Learning a new language require time, patience and effort.
Subject: The teaching style of Sedaris's French teacher in Paris is quite different. All she spoke was French and she would ask her students questions and then intimidated, insult them. It was hard for the author to understand what the teacher said at first but one day, he could finally understand for the first time every word that she was saying.
Tone: The author's tone was worried and intimidated at first by his classmates and his teacher but at the end of the essay, David's tone was happy and thrilled because he finally understand every word his teacher said for the first time.

Writing Workshop 2 - Thirty Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police.

         In Kew Gardens, Queen, 38 residents in the neighborhood watched a killer stalk and stab Catherine Genovese, their neighbor, in three separate attacks. Nobody called the police during the assault; only one witness called after the witness was dead. On that day, Miss Genovese returned home from work, parked her car like usual and made her way to the light in front of a bookstore where the assailant grabbed and stabbed her. When she screamed for help, some of the apartment houses' lights went on and a man from the upper window in the apartment house warned the assailant to stay away and so he left. Then the murderer returned when all the lights had went off to stab Catherine again. He drove off when he saw the windows were opened and the lights went back on. By the time Miss Gevonese had crawled to the back of the building, the man returned and stabbed her fatally. The police was later received a phone call from one of her neighbor after that man had phoned his friend to ask for advice and crossed the roof of the building to make the call. People were giving out excuses for the reason why they did not inform the police when they saw the assault. Hours later, when the ambulance arrived to take the body of Miss Genovese, everybody came out of their rooms and houses.

Writing Workshop - Obituary

Martha J. Smith
Obituary
Willmar, Minnesota-  Mrs.Martha Jerabek Smith, 78, of 1364 Raven Drive, died Wednesday, Sept. 4, 1973.
Services: Graveside, 12 a.m. Friday in Hills of the Neuse Memory in Willmar. Survived by: 5 daughters and 3 sons. Sullivan's Highland Funeral Services & Crematory of Wilmar.

Journal Entry - Spider-Man

         On a cloudy day, After trapping Spider Man inside the cold water tank, Vulture is planning to carry out the second step of his evil master plan. Inside of the water tank, the shock of hitting the cold water revives Spider man's power. Spider man tries to to shoot his web towards the top but his ejector is empty because he forgot to refill it since the last time he used it. He thinks of the idea of climbing up, but the wall is too wet and slippery for him to get a toehold on. Time passes by and the water level is elevating up to his nose. If Spider man does not think of another idea soon, he would be drown and suffocate. While sinking in the deep water, Spider man is still trying to figure out a way to get out.

Welcome ! :)

         Hello everyone ! My name is Linh Huynh. I am definitely the girly and cheesy type of girl that would go crazy over romance books and movies. My favorite author of all time is Nicholas Spark. I love frozen yogurt, fried chickens, and Ferrero Rocher. Playing video game is not my thing but shopping and watching soap opera are my addiction. Welcome to my blog ! :)