Caribbean Island: Antigua and Barbuda

A particular island I recommend visiting is the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, located just an hour southeast of Puerto Rico by plane. Most flights have a connection in Puerto Rico. However there are many airlines and airports throughout the United States and the world that offer direct flights. I would consider Antigua to be among one of the hidden treasures of the world, simply because the island is simply so peaceful, every single beach on the island is public, and the people are extremely friendly and laid back. Once you arrive in Antigua at the VC Bird Airport, you know that it is "island time." I have had the exciting opportunity to visit the island twice so far. Antigua was actually the first country I visited outside of the United States! I would first recommend the island because it has some of the top most beautiful and clean beaches in the world, including Half Moon Bay! Other reasons to visit the island include: dining at fine European restaurants such as Italian, English and French cuisines, unlimited water sports, Sting Ray and other animal observations, casinos, clubs, canopy tours, watching cricket (the nation's main sport), hiking, sailing and visiting well known land marks such as Devil's Bridge, Nelson's Dockyard, Harmony Hall, Shirley Heights, and the sugar cane houses. There are luxurious hotels located both on the Caribbean and Atlantic side of the island. There is also the option of staying in a private home at an affordable price! It is especially neat to see the animals on the island, such as monkeys, parrots, mongoose, goats, horses, and donkeys!
The island gained independence from Great Britain on November 1, 1981 and its' currency is the Eastern Caribbean Dollar. U.S. dollars are accepted, therefore it is not necessary to figure an exchange rate.
Antigua looks forward to seeing you soon!

End of Semester & Italian Language

I am astonished as to how fast this semester has progressed! Sometimes when I try to remember past events, I sometimes cannot tell whether they occured in the Fall of 2008 or this Spring! I would mostly assume that it was because this is by far the busiest semester for me as a college student. With taking 19 credits, writing for three newspapers, applying for internships, being student coordinator of a Duchesne program, as well as being a part of the Manhattanville Music Program as a violinist, it can be very mind-boggling. I cannot say which course is the most difficult, but I will say I put a great deal of effort into most of my classes. The least stressful classes this semester are Italian and American Literature. I have found learning Italian to be very helpful for me. For one, it has helped me to brush up on my Spanish as well as help to give me the opportunity to speak to my grandfather in his native language. When I attempted to speak with my grandpa in person in Italian during my spring break, he explained that I was speaking "as if it were from a textbook (or very formal). He said he understood most of what I was saying, however he is more familiar with the Italian dialect. He taught me that the "language" and "dialect" are very different from one another. It is parallel to "slang English" and "written English." To help me, he taught me some Italian dialect!
I look forward to a smooth finish of my spring semester and am looking forward to a my first internship opportunity this summer.

Review of book Blink

The book Blink by Malcom Gladwell is one of my favorite books and one of the most fascinating books I have ever read. Gladwell is also the author of the bestselling book The Tipping Point. I was literally hooked to reading this book until the very last page. I actually did not want the book to end. The author of the book knows exactly what he is taking about and includes many entertaining and interesting ideas about "the power of thinking without thinking" in "the blink of an eye." I especially recommend this book to students studying journalism because of his terrific skills and journalistic viewpoints.
Gladwell provides some interesting stories and personal accounts of the awesome power of instantaneous judgment and the positive and negative consequences that come from it. He uses examples throughout the text that show how the human mind has the ability to make complex decisions in a matter of no more than a few seconds.
Here are examples of stories from the text: In the beginning of Blink, art historian experts sensed immediately that a supposed rare 6th century sculpture called the "Kouros" was a fake. There was another story about a psychologist named John Gottman was able to tell whether which couples are likely to get divorced. The famous news case of an immigrant named Amadou Diallo was featured in Blink. As he was about to presumably take out his wallet to show four police his ID, they mistakenly thought he was armed and shot and killed him with an alarming number of 41 bullets. Diallo, 23, turned out to be harmless and unarmed.
The conclusion to this story is that instinct is a complex and powerful human ability!

Reaction and Summary of Story 17 in book Floating off the Page

This article was quite comical. It talked about how many women have crushes or even fantasies of the UPS delivery men. In the beginning of the article, ironically a professional runner named Lynn Jennings would order a pair of new sneakers each week and have them delivered by UPS. It turns out it wasn't exactly so she could have brand-new shoes each week, it was because she had a crush on Dave, her UPS delivery man. After four years of him delivering packages to her, they are now husband and wife. Many women seem to have fantasies of "men in uniform." (In regards to that particular topic I will not state my opinion...) Anyway, many women have the desire to run off with the UPS man on their route and some will even start outwardly flirting with them while they are on the job.
The portrayal of women having huge crushes for the UPS delivery men have been seen in a number of books, movies, plays, even songs have been written about the romance that sometimes exists between a UPS driver and a lady. A particular movie that came to mind while reading this article is Legally Blonde. The character named Paulette, Elle Woods's friend, has a severe crush on the UPS worker that comes in to the nail salon Paulette works in almost everyday to deliver a package. Remember the "bend-and-snap" scene? I always thought that was hysterical. Turns out at the end of the film, Paulette and the UPS man get married and have a child!
Some of the UPS men enjoy conversing with the flirtatious women and even "talking dirty." However, some men do not enjoy the pressures of the women and "the highly charged atmosphere makes some drivers uncomfortable." Some men get frustrated because they are married or simply not interested (because they of course have to reach a certain quota by the end of the day).
As long as it is "harmless flirting" I see no point in making a huge deal of the situation. It seems almost natural due to the high number of women that do flirt with the UPS men. If I were the UPS man, I would take it with stride, unless it negatively interfered with my job and pay, I would not worry.

Reaction and Summary of Story 38 in book Floating off the Page

The title, "Y2K Alert! (But It's 1980)", caught my attention by surprise. I remember almost ten years ago the profound discussion of the "Y2K bug," supposedly our computers were going to collapse...I thought back then that that was just nonsense...just because we are going into a new millennium?! I could not understand the media's logic; even as a child it sounded so absurd.
This article is very fascinating...what a story! (I recommend that everyone reads it).
This article is about a group of a little more than one-hundred residents that live in a town called Stelle, located "rising out of the cornfields" in Illinois. The townspeople believed that on May 5, 2000, there would be violent volcanic eruptions and earthquakes that would destroy the earth (obviously this did not occur). The people had a plan to build "lighter-than-air" vehicles so they would be able to float above the tumult and had for a new city in the Pacific that they would have called "Philadelphia." (I wonder why they would have called the city Philadelphia; the article did not answer this). Other than this strange prediction, the goal of the town is to "make it a safe place and be able to go back to the values that middle-class America came from." They think that society is now corrupted. Stelle was aware at the time that there had been so many false end-of-the-world predictions. The town does not want to be referred to as a cult (even though I, for example, feel they certainly are).
Many folks came to this town because they felt that the book "The Ultimate Frontier" written by the town's spiritual leader, Richard Kieninger, gave them the answers to the purpose of life and other such topics. The townspeople did not allow their families from watching TV, only videos. Mothers attend workshops that teach them how to "properly" raise their children. Children are expected to read by age three and write by age four.
However, Mr. Kieninger has made some false predictions that drew many people in 1977 to leave Stelle. He stated that the U.S. would not see its' 201st. birthday. When 1977 rolled around, many left.
I do understand the desire to live in a society that brings up their children well and in a place that is safe. Yet, it is contradictive when the town is run by one person's philosophies and therefore people revolved their lives around them. That is ridiculous! One of the most important things in life is to be open-minded. If I am not able to be a free spirit in a certain location, I'll pack my bags.

Reaction to Story 6. in book Floating off the Page

The title of this article is "Why the Girl Scouts Sing the Blues." It was written in October of 1993. The main dilemma for the Girl Scouts and many other camps and similar organizations is that the American Society for Composers, Authors & Publishers has informed camps nationwide that they must pay a licensed fee to use any of the more than four million copyrighted songs written or published by Ascap's 68,000 members. "Those who sing or play but don't pay, Ascap warns, may be violating the law." The company even warned that they will sue camps and organizations that do not comply. The only song that was mentioned in the article that was not on the list was Kumbaya, however songs that include God Bless America, Edelweiss and Ring Around the Rosie are copyrighted. Ascap warns that if you do not know if the song is part of the copyrighted list, do not sing it. Even the song "Happy Birthday" is included. Ascap believes that if restaurants, bars, clubs and stores already pay fees to use copyrighted music, camps should too, even if they are non-profit.
I am remembering back to when I went to day camp when I was very young and recall sitting in groups or around a campfire and singing popular songs. I would suppose that my camp, which is affiliated with the YMCA, paid a fee to Ascap. I agree with Ascap, even though naturally I at first found it to be a bit strict, I understand that the individuals that write these songs deserve their royalties! They create such popular songs, therefore they should be rewarded a salary without question. It is difficult to explain to children why they cannot sing songs, but I feel that they should be told specifically why and not "walk around the bush" instead. The organizations should just pay the fee so as not be responsible for copyright infringement.

Reaction to Story 8. in book Floating off the Page

The title of the article is: "Ruff! Ruff! Ruffage! Here, Rover, Have a Nice Bean Sprout!" It was written in October of 1993. This article took me by surprise. Even though I have heard of particular dog food brands that include small portions of vegetables and certain vitamins in the diet, I have never heard of dogs or cats becoming vegetarians. This article is quite peculiar and striking in all respects. When I first thought of this article, I immediately thought of my two Persian cats at home. Though they are two brothers and act completely different, I find that they are attracted to foods that are not considered part of a regular feline diet. For example, Puffy likes to eat cream cheese only off bagels, whipped cream, butter and eggs. Tigger on the other hand enjoys eating broccoli, but other than that he is very "nutritious" as my family and I like to refer to him as. There regular diet consists of fancy feast and standard hard cat food and dental diet balls. When I was younger, I had met a very energetic cat that oddly enough enjoyed eating potato chips and would eat them off your plate.
This article seemed to have mixed views in regards to a vegetarian diet for a natural carnivore. Some cases have reported their pet to feel more energetic and healthy where as some veterinarians were very skeptical. One veterinarian stated that "Dogs and cats are naturally carnivores and that [they] feel we do not have the right to impose [their] will on another creature." I agree, it is not like they are venturing to the produce section of the grocery store and choosing to buy carrots and beans instead of fish and steak. Another issue I saw was that many pet owners actually have to feed their dog or cat "beano" because they become very gassy and it is hard for them to digest their food. In my opinion, that right there would be a significant reason to stop feeding your animals no meat. The cost for some pets owners have been as much as $450 a month to maintain a vegetarian for their pets. Just because you may be a vegetarian, does not mean your pet has to become one. I understand the underlying motive but I feel what those individuals are doing is only troubling the circumstance. Cats and dogs should stick to their carnivorous diet.