Reflection of the First Marking Period

The first marking period of the 2010-2011 school year ends on November 2, 2010. That time period is 64 days including weekend and 46 days not including weekends. For me, it has been a long, tiring, and arduous living if I do not think about it, and it seems to be just yesterday that we had a grease fire on our first day of school if I do think about it. I am tired in the morning and sore in the evenings. This is probably because I developed this habit over the summer of staying up late and waking up later. I can no longer afford to sleep-in anymore except on weekends because the bus comes around 7:00 A.M. in the morning and school starts at 7:35 A.M. I now wake up around 10:30 A.M. on Saturdays with only occasional exceptions of times later or earlier (mostly later). My time organization skills have not been the best over the past weeks and it greatly affects how much time I sleep at night. Some projects were done the night before with little chance of proofreading. I have been wasting time entertaining myself too much mostly because it is restful for me, and I like calmness with restfulness. There is the occasional nap right after school when it becomes to stressful or tiring. I usually limit these naps to one hour, but when I do not set the alarm I found myself looking at the clock to see it say 6:00 P.M. This should not go on and I need to do my schoolwork on timely manners. My health and sleep could depend on this too. A good second marking period resolution for me would be to plan everything in advance and follow it. The problem with that is I am good at writing plans on paper, but I am not good at following what is written. I guess I will just try to do my work earlier, go to sleep before 11:00 P.M., and not let myself get distracted by my enjoyment of reading books, comics, and mangas. Wish me luck.

Music for "To Kill A Movkingbird"

Arthur "Boo" Radley is a mysterious character who does not physically show himself to the readers until the book was close to ending. He always stayed in the Radley Place, his home, but no one ever really knew why. Then Jem Finch had a thought and he told Jean Louise Fintch about it. "I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time .... it's because he wants to stay inside." (Lee 277) He is saying this after he finds out about the prejudice against blacks that is so embedded into society that it shows in the courts of justice. A good song to play at this time would be "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer. The first eight lines definitely apply to Boo Radley. Boo is misunderstood, does not like the world as it is now, could not stand up to the masses, and he probably thinks that the leaders of society are all unfair to the black community.
Another song I can connect to the book is "Man of Constant Sorrow" by Norman Blake. This is a song the Soggy Bottom Boys sing in a movie, loosely based on the "Odyssey," that tells the story of three escaped-convicts in Depression-Era Mississippi: "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou." This song applies to Tom Robinson because he is suffering constant sorrow after being accused of rape. He was taken away from his home and family, and Tom is under the continual risk of dieing prematurely. Tom Robinson is truly a man of constant sorrow, but ...
"Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger
My face you'll never see no more.
But there is one promise that is given
I'll meet you on God's golden shore." (Man of Constant Sorrow)

Lyrics of "Waiting on the World to Change"
http://www.metrolyrics.com/waiting-on-the-world-to-change-lyrics-john-mayer.html
Lyrics of "Man of Constant Sorrow"
http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/obrotherwhereartthou/iamamanofconstantsorrow.htm

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Social Injustice in North Korea

There are some people who say a country is its people. One of the governments that are especially ignorant on this point would be the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (a.k.a. North Korea's government), and that was saying it nicely. People around the world know of the military might and public declarations made by North Korea's government officials, but they sometimes do not know of the state of the local's well being. It has to be said that the well being of the local North Korean is in the state of desperation, starvation, and suffering. Korea is on the brink of a great famine. Actions by the government included refusing food offers from the United States and taking food supplies dropped by aircraft from charity and selling it on the black market or distributing it among the military or the higher political class. There is only 23% of North Korean land that is arable and most of it has been known grow drugs to be sold for the Government. Attempts to create more farming land have led to deforestation, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, and more chances of flooding. "33% of the population is currently undernourished, 23% of children under the age of five are underweight, and a near-total breakdown in the public health system has left an entire generation of children physically and mentally impaired...As of April of 2010, North Korea’s grain shortfall has been estimated at 1.3 million tons, and the World Food Programme has estimated that 6.2 million North Koreans are short of food." (LiNK) If a North Korean wanted to make a complaint the threat of going to a concentration camp stopped him or her. The government in North Korea has consistently ranked last in countries with press freedom since no one is allowed the freedoms to press, assembly, association, or speech. If anyone even thought to think to criticize the government, they were punished severely. Entire families were known to be imprisoned because a single member's "act of disloyalty." No information is spread freely, and international information was especially prohibited. The rare guests to the country were not even allowed to bring their cell phones. Out of desperation, defectors from North Korea attempt to cross the Northern border into China. If they are caught they are shot on sight. People who actually make it to China also need to avoid Chinese officials if they do not want to be caught and deported back to North Korea where they face life imprisonment or execution. North Koreans are being horribly mistreated and not many people even know about it.

http://www.linkglobal.org/learn/nk101.html
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1737780,00.html