Many that know me personally would not think “fan of cheese” as a way to describe my taste. However, there are many things that are intriguing about cheese. I like the white cheeses such as Parmesan, especially shredded, and mozzarella. I am not fond of Swiss because the unnatural holes throughout. How did those hole get there? If you slice a block of Swiss cheese the holes are not the same throughout they are in different places, which seems sketchy. The yellow cheeses are not appetizing at all, for my taste. From Gouda to Munster both having suspicious edges of darker yellow. Then there are cheeses like pepper jack that have weird seasonings throughout. Now cheese gets moldy after a certain time but with pepper jack, how would you know if it was mold or seasonings? How did these mysterious seasonings get there? Could they possibly just be little specks of mold and this is the company’s way of selling old cheese? Speaking of mold, blue cheese is just moldy cheese, and it comes in 75 different kinds. That is quite a bit of types of moldy cheese. Now there are also some cheeses that I am not sure if they are considered cheese. Cottage cheese, near a liquid with solid parts, is this a cheese? You can’t cut it up and put it on crackers but it is still edible so is this an addition to the cheese family or not?
Some cheeses are kept from the public so that they can get better with age. This is also the way that wine and other alcoholic products are made but cheese? There is encouraged eating of moldy cheese throughout the world because it is a delicacy. Some cheeses are also proven to have results on sleeping, positive and negative. Plus, some people should not eat cheese such as pregnant women because of listeria, a bacteria known to cause miscarriages.
A few unknown facts: The United States leads in the world producer of cheese, doubling what the second country, Germany, makes. However, we are not even on the list for cheese exporters or consumers.
So, in the end my point is this, don’t trust cheese, unless it is one straight color and texture.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Statement on Life
The philosophy on life expresses by Tim is that no matter how old one becomes, they are still the same person throughout their existence. This, however, is not my philosophy. The fact that he has experienced war and yet believes he can still see himself as a little boy is shocking since Tim expresses many times that the war has changed him. Also, one goes through many different life-changing moments that can completely harm or help a person change.
Tim states in his quote that he can see in his eyes the same boy that once was although he has gone through war, a terrifying and life changing experience. This, however, I disagree with because there are two types of people in this world, those that have taken another person’s life and those that haven’t. Something that powerful extracts all of the innocence one has within them. They can never go back to before this instance because this type of baggage is carried throughout their life.
Tim states, “The human life is all one thing…” (236), which I agree with, only in the fact that at the end of one’s life they have all of their experiences with them, however, as these experiences grow in importance people evolve within themselves. One’s life is one complete entity, but only the severely important good and bad times stay and effect future choices.
Different levels of emotions are experienced throughout ones cycle of life; the sadness that a four year old feels when he loses his toy is not the same as when a fifteen year old loses their grandparent. Varying levels of the same emotion cause different memories or life lessons to stick with the individual. Losing that toy may be forgotten after that day, not effecting the person’s life at all, but the lose of a grandparent has a much greater effect. If one never changed at all then there would be no point for emotions such as love because one would always love the same person in the same way their entire life. It is necessary to change throughout our lives otherwise things such as maturity level would never improve, and there would be no longer to continue existing if how I was at five is the same way I am going to be at fifty-five.
Tim states in his quote that he can see in his eyes the same boy that once was although he has gone through war, a terrifying and life changing experience. This, however, I disagree with because there are two types of people in this world, those that have taken another person’s life and those that haven’t. Something that powerful extracts all of the innocence one has within them. They can never go back to before this instance because this type of baggage is carried throughout their life.
Tim states, “The human life is all one thing…” (236), which I agree with, only in the fact that at the end of one’s life they have all of their experiences with them, however, as these experiences grow in importance people evolve within themselves. One’s life is one complete entity, but only the severely important good and bad times stay and effect future choices.
Different levels of emotions are experienced throughout ones cycle of life; the sadness that a four year old feels when he loses his toy is not the same as when a fifteen year old loses their grandparent. Varying levels of the same emotion cause different memories or life lessons to stick with the individual. Losing that toy may be forgotten after that day, not effecting the person’s life at all, but the lose of a grandparent has a much greater effect. If one never changed at all then there would be no point for emotions such as love because one would always love the same person in the same way their entire life. It is necessary to change throughout our lives otherwise things such as maturity level would never improve, and there would be no longer to continue existing if how I was at five is the same way I am going to be at fifty-five.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Why I write- by Frank McCourt (author of Angela's Ashes)
Why do I write? The answer is in the question. I write in order to let out the ‘I’ in me out since I was just one of many since my early childhood. I had brothers and sisters; my mother and father; family and friends; the men at the pub and Uncle Pa Keating who was dropped on his head. There were always so many others that I was lost in the mix of the Irish poverty. I was thumped on the head and always hungry. I write try and explain the pain of my childhood and how even after everything, I lived.
My horrifying childhood spread from America to Ireland and the worst part is that I can remember since I was four years old. The most I remember is the worst times, the times of death of my siblings and the breakdowns of my mother. I held in for so long the stories of Cuchulain, the confessions I never told the priest, and how I always had to die, dance, and sing for Ireland.
I write in order to give eulogy to my siblings that did not make it through, to show how Malachy was favored over me, and to simply learn to forgive my mother and father for never keeping their promises. They were always smoking the fags or drinking the black stuff when we had no food to eat. They blamed me for all that Malachy did wrong, yet he was the only one that made it through life with me. I write to expose the Angel of the seventh step as the one person I can talk to. I want to be able to finally let out what I would be thumped on the head for if I ever spoke that way in Grandma’s house. To let everyone know that I threw up God in her backyard, yet trying to confess about it led the Priest to casting me out. I write because the poor pig in the pot that a had to drag down the street gave me such shame that it ended up in a book about my life. I write because everyone died anyway so I am the only one left that cares to remember Margaret, Eugene, Oliver, and my childhood that was buried with them.
My horrifying childhood spread from America to Ireland and the worst part is that I can remember since I was four years old. The most I remember is the worst times, the times of death of my siblings and the breakdowns of my mother. I held in for so long the stories of Cuchulain, the confessions I never told the priest, and how I always had to die, dance, and sing for Ireland.
I write in order to give eulogy to my siblings that did not make it through, to show how Malachy was favored over me, and to simply learn to forgive my mother and father for never keeping their promises. They were always smoking the fags or drinking the black stuff when we had no food to eat. They blamed me for all that Malachy did wrong, yet he was the only one that made it through life with me. I write to expose the Angel of the seventh step as the one person I can talk to. I want to be able to finally let out what I would be thumped on the head for if I ever spoke that way in Grandma’s house. To let everyone know that I threw up God in her backyard, yet trying to confess about it led the Priest to casting me out. I write because the poor pig in the pot that a had to drag down the street gave me such shame that it ended up in a book about my life. I write because everyone died anyway so I am the only one left that cares to remember Margaret, Eugene, Oliver, and my childhood that was buried with them.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Angela's Ashes
“Through our sunless lanes creeps Poverty with her hungry eyes, and Sin with his sodden face follows close behind her. Misery wakes us in the morning and Shame sits with us at night.” - Oscar Wilde
Throughout the memoir, Angel’s Ashes, Frank starts out when he was just a small child of four years old, and already his life was filled with nothing but misery and grief. This quote by Oscar Wilde describes Oscar’s childhood very well because he experienced all four depressing emotions: misery, shame, sin, and poverty.
The poverty of the Great Depression was widely spread and affected nearly every person in America, however, what made these times of scarce food and depression caused another past time to flare up- especially in the Irish: drinking. As told in the novel Frank’s father would often waste all of his money on alcohol even though he had many children at home to feed. In essence, poverty leads to sin since when people are feeling upset about their own lives they turn to alternative sources to create happiness.
Obviously, due to Frank’s poverty and his father’s sin, his life was very miserable. The deaths of nearly all of his siblings, and the constant breakdowns of his parents forced him into being the adult, at the age of four. He was forced to pick up bits of coal off of the streets, steal food for his siblings, and attempt to stop his father from drinking all of their money away. Frank had a lot of responsibility at such a young age and since his father refused to, Frank had to carry all of the shame that came with begging.
For Christmas dinner, he has to carry the pig’s head back to the house while the townspeople laughed at him. Also, he had to complete tasks such as stealing or begging for food because his father refused to remove his pride and take care of his family. Shame seemed to be the one thing that Frank’s father would not admit to even though it was his fault that they had no money and no food. With constant death and life being beyond difficult day after day, this quote really describes how Frank lived his every day life. Poverty and sin followed him, with misery waking him up, and shame crawling around him as he waited for his father to get home from the bar, night after night.
Throughout the memoir, Angel’s Ashes, Frank starts out when he was just a small child of four years old, and already his life was filled with nothing but misery and grief. This quote by Oscar Wilde describes Oscar’s childhood very well because he experienced all four depressing emotions: misery, shame, sin, and poverty.
The poverty of the Great Depression was widely spread and affected nearly every person in America, however, what made these times of scarce food and depression caused another past time to flare up- especially in the Irish: drinking. As told in the novel Frank’s father would often waste all of his money on alcohol even though he had many children at home to feed. In essence, poverty leads to sin since when people are feeling upset about their own lives they turn to alternative sources to create happiness.
Obviously, due to Frank’s poverty and his father’s sin, his life was very miserable. The deaths of nearly all of his siblings, and the constant breakdowns of his parents forced him into being the adult, at the age of four. He was forced to pick up bits of coal off of the streets, steal food for his siblings, and attempt to stop his father from drinking all of their money away. Frank had a lot of responsibility at such a young age and since his father refused to, Frank had to carry all of the shame that came with begging.
For Christmas dinner, he has to carry the pig’s head back to the house while the townspeople laughed at him. Also, he had to complete tasks such as stealing or begging for food because his father refused to remove his pride and take care of his family. Shame seemed to be the one thing that Frank’s father would not admit to even though it was his fault that they had no money and no food. With constant death and life being beyond difficult day after day, this quote really describes how Frank lived his every day life. Poverty and sin followed him, with misery waking him up, and shame crawling around him as he waited for his father to get home from the bar, night after night.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Schell Family's Loss Factor
“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all of the lives I’m not living” (113).
The quote above shows how all of the characters in the book have the feeling of loss. The grandfather, after losing his ability of speech, is constantly rambling on about how he is feeling and what is going on around him since he cannot fully express how he is feeling. He sees pain and loss and despair all around him in everyday life, which becomes locked inside of him, causing a weight of the world to be on his shoulders. The grandfather’s life experiences have been so traumatic from losing Anna and his un-born child, to losing his speech, finally to losing the son he never knew, regrets and feelings of sorrow weigh him down.
The grandmother also had the traumatic experience of losing her family in the Dresden bombings, however, when she finds her sister’s first love it seems to give her a bit closer to all that she had lost in the past. When her husband leaves her, all she has to cling to is this un-born child that ends up dying on “The worst day.” She now has nothing left but Oskar, causing her to feel constant fear that he will be hurt, physically or emotionally.
Although the reader only meets Oskar’s father for a brief period of time, there are indicators that this feeling of complete loss has been brought into his generation. He refers to loss, not as physically losing a person, but by losing knowledge he was never able to put to good use in his life. He refers to himself as just a jeweler but then corrects the New York Times as if it is his job, showing he has lost the ability to try and use his smarts for the outside world. As an effort to prevent this from happening to Oskar he sends him on wild chases that force Oskar to think on a whole other intellectual level and question all that is out in the world.
Oskar, a very bright young boy, cannot handle emotion of pain any better then his grandparents. He expresses the emotion he cannot tell anyone about by giving himself bruises. Whenever he feels upset or angry he takes out the pain on himself. Also, he has a folder that he titles “Stuff that’s happened to me.” In this folder there are pictures of different actions including a shark attacking a girl, and a soldier getting his head cut off in Iraq. Obviously, these things have never happened to Oskar personally, but because he has felt such loss he feels as if the loss of the world is on his shoulders. From the quote above, one can take that this feeling of carrying the worlds problems is being passed down through the family.
The quote above shows how all of the characters in the book have the feeling of loss. The grandfather, after losing his ability of speech, is constantly rambling on about how he is feeling and what is going on around him since he cannot fully express how he is feeling. He sees pain and loss and despair all around him in everyday life, which becomes locked inside of him, causing a weight of the world to be on his shoulders. The grandfather’s life experiences have been so traumatic from losing Anna and his un-born child, to losing his speech, finally to losing the son he never knew, regrets and feelings of sorrow weigh him down.
The grandmother also had the traumatic experience of losing her family in the Dresden bombings, however, when she finds her sister’s first love it seems to give her a bit closer to all that she had lost in the past. When her husband leaves her, all she has to cling to is this un-born child that ends up dying on “The worst day.” She now has nothing left but Oskar, causing her to feel constant fear that he will be hurt, physically or emotionally.
Although the reader only meets Oskar’s father for a brief period of time, there are indicators that this feeling of complete loss has been brought into his generation. He refers to loss, not as physically losing a person, but by losing knowledge he was never able to put to good use in his life. He refers to himself as just a jeweler but then corrects the New York Times as if it is his job, showing he has lost the ability to try and use his smarts for the outside world. As an effort to prevent this from happening to Oskar he sends him on wild chases that force Oskar to think on a whole other intellectual level and question all that is out in the world.
Oskar, a very bright young boy, cannot handle emotion of pain any better then his grandparents. He expresses the emotion he cannot tell anyone about by giving himself bruises. Whenever he feels upset or angry he takes out the pain on himself. Also, he has a folder that he titles “Stuff that’s happened to me.” In this folder there are pictures of different actions including a shark attacking a girl, and a soldier getting his head cut off in Iraq. Obviously, these things have never happened to Oskar personally, but because he has felt such loss he feels as if the loss of the world is on his shoulders. From the quote above, one can take that this feeling of carrying the worlds problems is being passed down through the family.
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