Week Ten

I would highly recommend 'A Modest Proposal' by Jonathon Swift to anyone looking for a good read. Regardless of whether it is required for a class or not, it is an entertaining piece of literature all on its own. Part of what makes it such an entertaining read is how successful it is. This success is drawn from an excellent understanding of a few key points in every proposal.


The first key point to include in any proposal is to identify the problem you are proposing a solution for. Swift very clearly identifies the problem: starvation in Ireland and the overbearing English. This problem is very near and dear to his audience, so there is not much he has to do to get the readers attention.


The second thing Swift does is to state his solution. Now he doesn't just come out and say it simply, but leads you into it with small steps, each one only a little less likable than the last. This allows you to keeping reading long after a more upfront approach would have failed. This helps to connect to the third most important thing, which is show why your proposal is better than any other. Swift shows that the sale and subsequent consumption of babies would benefit all involved, save the babies themselves. The decrease in population, the increase in the income of the poor, the increase in the food and clothing available for the rich, are all good arguments he uses to support his proposal.


The fourth important thing in any proposal is to be able to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposal. Swift uses something that would seem like science to determine the exact age and size for a child to be properly harvested. His exact specifications and manipulation of language provide ample reason why this is feasible.

10 Questions

I will be investigating alternatives to monogamy in the traditional sense. I will be focusing on the following questions:
1. What are the traditional expectations of a couple, especially in marriage, and how have they been failing recently? How widespread of a problem is this?
2. What are the benefits to a healthy relationship? What are the consequences of an unhealthy one?
3. What are the current solutions to a failing relationship?
4. How are expectations in relationships changing?
5. What are the alternatives to monogamy? How feasible are these alternatives?
6. What is the best alternative? Why?
7. How does one implement said alternative?
8. What's the difference between fear of commitment and a rejection of monogamy?
9. What are the effects of a change? What are the effects of no change?

Week Nine and Three Quarters

Nuclear Power
The world is quickly falling into an energy crisis. Coal and oil sources are drying up at an alarming rate, and finding new veins is becoming increasingly more expensive and difficult. One power source that continues to advance it's technology and increase efficiency is nuclear energy. I am in full support of construction of additional nuclear power plants. Unfortunately, with the current Japanese nuclear crisis, nuclear energies negative stigmatism will undoubtedly increase.


Monogamy? No thank you!
One of the most commonly accepted practices in modern society is monogamy. This is truly terrible. Why should honest, hormone-driven people be forced to have sex with just one person at a time? I can understand living with just one person for the purpose of raising children, but if you want to go out and have an enjoyable evening with someone, why not?


Infrastructure
The current state of the United States infrastructure is a sad one indeed. Interstate highways, electrical lines, and urban plumbing are all at least 60 years old, and one of the least-funded budget items. I believe more of the budget should be directed towards maintaining our own country.

State Patty's Day

Being from Ann Arbor, I had never heard of State Patty’s Day before coming to Penn State. For the first month of class, every time I saw a shirt, I assumed it was a miss-print for St. Patty’s Day. Eventually I pieced together a mental image of State Patty’s Day, formed from many a story of upperclassmen I’ve gotten to know. From mounted police to armored cars, the stories made it sound like State College was displaced to a third world militaristic state for the weekend. However, I was excited to form my own stories of State Patty’s to tell to clueless freshmen next year.

            I didn’t have any friends visiting for the holiday, so I decided to just take an easy weekend. My Friday night I worked on homework until about 8:30, showered, and then headed over to my friends dorm for some grand theft auto in his room. After wasting an hour on that, we decided to visit a friend of his in State College Park. We had to catch the N bus at College and Allen, so we decided to walk down College Ave for shits and giggles. We witnessed large groups of people dressed in green garb, pounding on windows and doors of closed businesses for no apparent reason. I mean, who wouldn’t want to break into a clothes store at 10 pm on a Friday night? Once on the bus, we stopped just before the IST building on Atherton Ave to drop some riders off. At this stop, a large group of people made to board the bus. However, they were stopped by the bus driver, who instructed them they had to pay for their ride. Then one of them asked, to no one in particular, “Does this bus take us to frat row? Does this bus go to frat row? Can I take this bus to frat row?” His only reply was shouts of, “Get off the bus!”

            Arriving at State College Park, we disembarked and walked across an icy parking lot towards the building. We passed a drunk who had fallen on the ice, and refused his girlfriend’s protests to get up and start acting normal. Once at my friend’s friend’s apartment, we just chilled out and watched a western hockey league game. The apartment had a party that started at 6:00 pm that day, but by the time we got there (10:30 pm) it had mostly died down, and everyone had left. The host was drunk as a skunk, and trying to debate whether to open his bottle of champagne. After about two hours, he settled on opening it, on the constituency that we finished it that night. He also made it his goal to drink enough to wake up drunk the next morning, and as a result, he drank almost all the champagne. We left the apartment at 1:00 in the morning, and I went to bed after that.

            Saturday morning I woke up, showered, ate, and went downtown around 10:30 am to purchase a bike I found on craigslist. On the short walk down Garner across College, I passed someone who was struggling to stand on their own. They resorted to leaning up against McLanahan’s, and occasionally flopping an arm around. This was at 10:30 in the morning. I then vowed to walk around downtown in approximately twelve hours, just to see what all the fuss was about.

            During the day, I visited a friend in University Gateway. This was at about 2:00 pm. As I got off the elevator on the fifth floor, I was greeted by a puddle of partially dried vomit that led across the floor and up a wall to an open window. I guess whoever it came from just couldn’t hold it. Stepping around the orange sticky liquid, I made my way into my friends room on the east side of the building. This is the side that faces the Meridian apartment complex. On this side of the building, just about every other window had people leaning out of it, shouting to people around them, people in the opposite building, people walking by, or just shouting in general. Numerous items were thrown from windows, including full beer cans, water bottles, and red plastic cups. At one point, a girl in a room on the top floor of the Meridian stood up on her windowsill, bent over forward, and leaned the top half of her body out of the window. She stayed in this position for nearly twenty minutes, all the while people were yelling at her not to jump. I wasn’t afraid of suicide, but seeing how intoxicated she was, I could see her tripping and accidentally falling through the open window. Again, this was at 2:00 in the afternoon.

            I ended up eating out that night, and then seeing Harry Potter 7 in the HUB. After that, I went back to my room and freshened up. Then I made my way back downtown, and tried to keep an open mind about what I would see. At first, it seemed like the whole student population of the university had left their residences and where walking the streets. However, this couldn’t be true, because almost every balcony lining Beaver Ave was crowded with even more people. The town was packed with more people than it could support. I had an easier time walking the streets of New York City, the largest city in the country, than walking down Beaver Ave on Saturday night. Personally, I didn’t see anyone I knew, but several people acted quite friendly to me. The most memorable occurred when a girl tripped into me while we were going opposite ways. She was very apologetic, and tried to prove she was sorry by giving me an awkwardly long and tight hug. After we pulled apart, she put her hand around my neck, looked me dead in the eyes, and managed to slur out, “I’m so sorry, it’s going to be ok. You know that, right? Everything’s going to be ok. You don’t have to worry, it’s going to be ok.” I assured her that I was fine, and continued on my way back to my room. I had seen enough.

Week Eight

Bagel – The derivation of the shape is simple enough. Take two concentric circles, make the distance between them the diameter of a perpendicular circle, and rotate the perpendicular circle around the center point of the center of the concentric circles. This design eliminates the center of the bread, allowing for a more even bake. The hole also allows for more interesting displays, as bakers may string them on dowel rods and hang them in their shops. The design also accommodates for individual consumption quite well. The thumb and middle finger come together in the hole to form interlocking rings with the bagel. Then the bagel can be brought up to the mouth and back down to the side with ease. The thickness of bagels allows a horizontal cut through them, on which a multitude of spreads can be applied. Or the two pieces of bagel can be used to create a sandwich.

Muffin – This is another baked breakfast item, but that’s about were the similarities end. The muffin is basically a overflowing inverted cone without the bottom half. The muffin bottom is baked in a molded form, and the top is a natural form, created from the rising yeast. During this rising, the bread escapes the confines of the form and spills out over the top, creating a shape called a ‘muffin top’. The form is usually lined with a paper wrapping to prevent the muffin from burning. This paper holds the muffin together when removed from the mold, but isn’t edible. But when the paper is removed, inescapably some of the muffin comes off with it, and the form begins to fall apart. The disintegration of the form requires the muffin to be consumed while being unwrapped, requiring two hands and a good deal of concentration to simply consume it. Thus the form of a muffin is not the most practical for travel or a multi-task meal.