Community College Kids, please read!

This article is alarming and worth your time. Please read
Students vexed by community college placement tests

Go to the Cerritos College website, then go to the Assessment link, and check out the requirements:
http://cms.cerritos.edu/assessment-center/requirements.htm

Long Beach City College has started testing already:
http://matric.lbcc.edu/signup.cfm

I recommend that you practice!  There are practice exams online.  See me if you need help!

Into the wild

In the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer The a young man by the name Chris McCandless decides he's not happy being given everything he wants, and because he is being given everything he wants he feels complacent and thus he becomes unhappy with his life. This realization to his dissatisfaction makes him turn his back on all he knows and walk away from it all traveling from Washing to D.C. to the Mexican Border meeting loads of new people along the way; all this just to feel alive and happy. In our groups a question came up asking " could you do the exact same thing McCandless did and walk away from it all?" I thought for a second and the only thing i could think was "only if I was truly unhappy." I think we as people all have the capacity to make a great change to make us happy to make us feel in a sense  "alive".

Doing this research paper, I realized eating insects are not that bad and it's considered more healthy for you than meats. 80 percent of the world makes insects their main dishes; eating whole crickets, grasshoppers, worms, etc. It may seem a little disturbing to some people, but really if we get past the mind set of "It's gross" or "That's nasty" we may realize it really isn't all that bad. Insects have a lot of protein, fiber, and vitamins in them. Eating these bugs can't harm us, it could only help us health wise. In about twenty years from now, meat would become a limited resource because the world population would increase and there wouldn't be enough meat to supply everyone, so insects may be an option. We eat bugs everyday with out knowing anyway, why not try eating a whole bug just to see what it tastes like. Many people would find it disturbing, including myself, but that's all in the mind. If 80% of the world population could make it a main course, then it must not be that bad.

Health Scare

     Last Friday, from today, my doctor was talking to me about my spine. One the problems was the disc displacement of part of my spine. He essentially said that my wieght had put enough pressure to damage my spine permenantly. He also said that because of this pressure I have arthritis. Years of fluctuating wieght and bad diet decisions have put me in a situation that is i changeable. My doctor informed me that the pain I have will not fade. It can only be maintained.

     It is a little disheartening to realize that at barely 18 I had managed to wiegh more than the average 30 year old man and have already permenantly hurt my spine. But, this serves as a reality check. Being young you think that you are pretty much invincible. This is not true.

    The good we eat now is crucial to our health years from now. The habits we make in our late teens are habits that follow us into adulthood, unless we break them. I want to start now. My diet needs to be more balanced and I need to worry about how my food is made. This is the funny part, food is the reason for my chronic back pain and food is the answer to conserving the rest of my life.

Mexican Coke vs American Coke. Which You Prefer?

Nearly 30 years ago, Coca-Cola switched over from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup to sweeten America's beloved carbonated soft drink. With corn subsidized by the government, its sugary syrup became a more affordable option for the beverage company. While this switch went largely unnoticed for quite some time (though it's common knowledge these days), it didn't take place on an international level. Actually, the sweetener used in Coca-Cola varies from country to country based on what ingredient is most affordable for the bottling plant's location. And in many countries, Mexico included, Coke is still made with real sugar. Many people who have tried Mexican Cola said it had a "more real, authentic flavor," though the Coca-Cola company denies that there's a discernible difference between any of their cokes. Personally I prefer Mexican Cola because it has a cleaner, less artificial flavor and sweeter and the whole experience of drinking it out of a glass bottle is better than in a plastic bottle. 

A very hard lifestyle change!

The last few months I have been going through a slow progression of changing my eating habits.  I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis a few months ago, which is an autoimmune disease in the bladder. (This disease is also commonly known as Painful Bladder Syndrome.) With my condition, my bladder wall inflames, causing severe pelvic pain along with painful and frequent urination. There is no known cure for my disease, or even a reason why I would get it. However, my doctor has highly advised me to change my diet, which has been a very hard challenge. I am advised not to eat any acidic foods, caffeine, or artificial preservatives. I don't think a lot of people understand how hard it is! Literally everything has artificial additives. I am still in the process of eliminating things, because when I tried to quit cold turkey it didn't work at all. Dietary restrictions are hard, but many are not aware of the power they hold. I have cut down on mostly all fast food, eating it only occasionally, and I have cut down on my coffee consumption, and with these small changes my pain has lessened and I am no longer so controlled by my disease. What would you guys do in my shoes? Any suggestions? I need to learn how to live a cleaner, healthier life without feeling left out of good food!

Stunning

(I would like for everyone to watch this video) I chose Humane Slaughter for my research paper because I want everyone to see how animals really get treated. I feel as if they deserve a more peaceful death rather than them being terrified. This video shows that this is completely inhumane and the wrong way to slaughter an animal. Slaughtering animals is supposed to be fast and painless rather than them being tortured. One example that is cruel is that the workers fry the sheeps brain so they could be unconscious when it doesn't make a difference. Even though stunning animals isn't bad to some people because it is apart of nature. I feel that even if you're stunning an animal you shouldn't torture the animal and make it suffer.