Oct 30, 2007 | Tags: california, San Francisco
Take a look at this video: Soapbox Derby in Bernal Heights of San Francisco
One of the many reasons why I love San Francisco. Creative and open minded people doing crazy stuff. Or crazy people doing creative stuff?! Either way, this wild event makes me miss home.
“I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing in the streets, for I know that the streets of San Francisco are Free.” ~Luisa Tetrazzini
Oct 26, 2007
Just last week, King Middle School in Portland, Maine won a vote to distribute birth control pills to students as young as 11 years old after a health exam. Parents still have to approve the student’s access to the health center, but the student does not need approval for treatment itself. State law says that treatment is confidential, even to parents, so it is up to the student to tell their parents what services they received. An important fact to be aware of: three middle schools in Portland, Maine have reported 17 pregnancies in the last four years. Full story
I don’t have a child, nor do I have experience with raising a child, but I think this is messed up! Parents should know exactly what is going on with their children. I don’t think parents should be stripped away from that privilege. They gave birth to the child, not the schools! Why can the schools know what the child is up to, but not the parents?
However, I do understand that kids can have a hard time approaching their parents about this kind of subject. As a teen, I was not comfortable discussing any personal stuff with my mother. I felt she had no right to know my business. You know the regular teen stuff. Also, there’s a lot of peer pressure in schools. Students want to fit in, so they fall into certain actions without thinking about consequences. They are too young to understand, so they will do what they want to, regardless of what a parent says.
Therefore, I do support the student’s access to contraception, but to a limit. Condoms should be the limit. Go ahead – throw free condoms to schools like it grows on trees! Condoms promote safety – there’s a lot of STD’s going around. Birth control doesn’t protect you from STD’s. The pills just promote child-free bellies. Honestly, I don’t know if I would want my child to be on birth control as young as 11 years old because then it could in some way encourage her to be sexually active on a regular basis. It’s like saying “Hey, go ahead, just pop these pills everyday and be promiscuous at such a young age! It’s all the rage! You don’t need condoms!” That’s just going to result in more STD issues.
Plus, I shudder to imagine what the birth control effects are on girls who haven’t even finished puberty. I tried to Google some studies on this, but came up with almost nothing. There are not enough studies, or any research to assure that it is okay health-wise.
My main point - I do not support keeping parents in the dark when their child receives birth control. It’s a parents job to raise the child the best they can, and that is looking out for their best interest. If a child goes to the health center and receives birth control, I think the parents should be informed. Period.
One Portland School Committee member, Benjamin Meiklejohn, has a proposal that he wants the committee to consider on November 7th. His proposal would allow parents to block birth control access to their children. I’m curious to see what happens with that or any upcoming proposals.
Oct 25, 2007 | Tags: california
God, I hope so. According to the news (reliable or not!?) this morning, the Santa Ana winds have died down to 30 mph instead of the 100mph gusts. This is good news for the firefighting aircrafts, because now they can fly and dump water! The temperatures are lowering a bit and humidity is coming from the Pacific Ocean breeze, which is good. My friends in S an Diego say the air is yucky, muggy, and dirty.
Officials say the fire damage has risen to a whopping 434,543 acres. That’s approximately 678 square miles. To me, I know that number is big, but here’s the shocker that made me realize just how big: 678 square miles is approximately ten times the size of Washington DC. Washington DC is about 68 square miles. Jeff drew on a map to help put this in perspective. Almost the entire DC Metro area would be wiped out.
(picture credit goes to Jeff Fredrickson)
When I lived in California, I sometimes saw fires in the hills. The air is dry out there and it almost never rains in the summer/fall. Most of the rain comes in the winter months. Even though the risks were high for the fires to spread dramatically, I never worried about it because I didn’t see them turn into troublesome big fires. Never did I think California fires could get this big in our time!
Seriously, my heart goes out to the fire victims and I really hope the fires are contained ASAP. What makes me go GRRR is the fact that it’s pouring here in DC and not where it should be – California. . It poured yesterday, and its pouring again. I see that we’re expected more rain for the rest of this week. I want this rain to go to California! They need it more than us!
Oct 20, 2007
Literally! I’m taking a gulp here at the fact that the Double Gulp from 7-11 is HALF A FREAKING GALLON! Jeff and I were discussing the history of drinking cups and how vehicles evolved from having no drink holders to huge drink holders. During the midst of our conversation, we brought up the Big Gulp. Out of curiosity, Jeff googled the size of the Big Gulp and discovered that it was 40 ounces. We also discovered that there was a size called the Double Gulp, which holds a monstrous 64 ounces, which is half a gallon. As if 40 ounces wasn’t enough! He blurted out, “I bet that’s bigger than your head!” I said, “Let’s go find out!” He grabbed his camera and off we went to 7-11 like a silly couple to take a picture.
Seriously, my eyes bulged out. The Double Gulp is longer than my head! I bet it has the same volume as my skull! People are actually filling these cups with sugar-laden sodas. Even worse, this sugar is in the form of high fructose corn syrup, which is extremely damaging to your health. I may be bad with sugar, but no way in my life have I fed myself half a gallon of soda in one sitting! I mean, come on, the Double Gulp is almost a 2 liter bottle, for one person! Chug, chug, chug.
I found it interesting that Japan 7-11 stores originally sold Big Gulps, but they were not successful. As a result of the failure, Big Gulps are no longer sold in Japan. Why am I not surprised? Another interesting tidbit: last year 7-11 sold enough soda to fill up 75 Olympic size pools! That’s the equivalent of 103,342,500 Double Gulps!
Clearly, 7-11 likes it big. Even bigger than McDonalds, where the biggest drink size is only 32 ounces.
Cheers! *raises my empty Double Gulp cup*
