Sentence Fixes

sentence fixes 

Running with Scissors

For my non-fiction book I chose to read Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. It is a memoir of his teenage life. I have read three of his other books and really enjoyed them. Two of them are also memoirs, one of his childhood (A Wolf at the Table) and his adulthood (Dry). I really enjoy his writing and they way he is able to tell a story. His writing is so clear and seems like you're inside his head. He is a very interesting and messed up person. This guy has been through more than I could possibly imagine. He describes the events that have happened in his life in a comical way. In one of the chapters, in RWS, he is talking about his first physical gay experience with someone much older than him. Although while reading the passage I was a bit disturbed, he makes his experience almost seem funny.

RWS is based when he was around the general age of thirteen. Each chapter is a new event. His life was so scattered and lost. His parents were crazy and selfish. Although I am less than halfway through I can already tell his mother won't be his caretaker for much longer. She believes he is an adult and can make all his decisions on his own and take care of himself. Most of the time he stays at her psychiatrist's house, Dr. Finch. That house is even more interesting. The kids get to do basically whatever they want and are encouraged to express their anger and "let it out." Augusten has connected with one of the children that works at the office. Her name is Hope. She is in her mid twenties and seems to be the most normal person in the house. Her and Augusten connect and I believe later in the book will become very close. I am excited to finish the book. I know it won’t be hard because when I’m reading it I get lost in the pages.

Senior Project Update #2

My senior project has advanced a tad bit since my last update. I finally found a mentor the last day before my mentor interview was due. He is a really nice and cool guy who owns the Napa Valley Adventure Tours company. He has been a hiking guide for the past 15 years and has hiked places I could only imagine. I went to the Napa Library a couple of weeks ago and got a stack of books on all different types of hiking trails. From these books I was thinking about going into the Redwoods in the John Muir trail, but after talking to a few people I was advised not to do that. Talking to my mentor he suggested the Panorama Trail in Yosemite. This trail is 8 miles long and would take two days. We would camp out for one night, which is one thing I was really wanting in my final hike for this project. It is supposed to be fairly strenuous and very beautiful. I have been hiking at Westwood and plan to go up valley this thanksgiving break and find some hikes, possibly at Bothe State park. 

For my research paper I will write about how hiking affects the mind, body, and soul. I will be interviewing avid hikers such as my mentor, my stepmom, friends, and family friends. When I hike it is as if everything is left behind and just for a small moment I am free. I know that sounds cheesy but it is true.  Hiking gives me a feeling I have never felt with any activity I have done before. I recently went on my first solo hike in westwood hills, I was having an awful day and decided to relax and figure out somethings in life. I went on about an hour hike, although I was not hiking the whole time. I stopped at the top of a hill and sat on a tree stump just gazing out at the rolling hills. This is one of the most relaxing feelings I have felt in a long time. I am excited to start my senior project more over thanksgiving break and winter break when I go to Hawaii. I'm glad I finally decided on something I love to do. 

Are we making animals feel how we do?

In the article "A Change of Heart About Animals" Jeremy Rifkin talks about the different scientific experiments that have been conducted on animals and how these experiments show that animals are more like us than we thought. But what did animals do before we had much of a presence in their life? They killed eachother for food they needed to survive, it was survival of the fittest. Until humans started to domesticate animals I believe that most animals only real goal in their life time was to live day by day and eat food when needed. They did not care what it was as long as it kept them going. Then again it is how you raise an animal and where it has been its whole life. To raise an animal specifically to eat it and make it suffer for your enjoyment is wrong.

When provided food and shelter to a living being it creates a sense of constistance in their life and they are no longer as focused on killing anything to get by. Although they will if need b, just as a human would do in time of need. Which is something that connects ourselves to animals. Just like us animals can also be taught skills, like lanugauges and techinques such as Koko, Betty and Able. Animals are taught and able to learn the feelings humans naturally posses. Animals are not neccessarily naturally emapthetic to another animals situation. When I am out around other dogs and people I would say my dogs doesn't understand if a person or dog is in pain and sad. If they know the person they can sense it otherwise they don't automatically reconize like a human would. Rifkin is someone who obviosly feels passionate about animals and that they are alike humans. He states that " the human journey is, at it's core, about the extension of empathy to broader and more inclusive domains." So then what if we humans are just making animals feel what we feel?