What Can I Get Rid Of?

I live my life thinking that I only use the necessities. But when I actually think about all the excess things that I own and use throughout the day is absurd. It seems quite humorous to me because there are so many things that I could easily live without. In my home there are different toys, clothes, empty boxes, and broken things that need to be fixed. The toys that I have in my home are from when I was much younger. I never seemed to throw them away because they do hold some type of sentimental value to me and I always thought that there could be a chance that I could pass them down to younger cousins when I got older or use them for some type of school project. There are many open boxes that simply have nothing in them. We keep some of the boxes expecting to use them sooner or later but it has been years since we actually used them. They could easily be thrown out. A bunch of broken things are kept as well. We keep these broken things because they have some type of value and we hope to fix them soon. But they just sit there and collect dust as the days go by. There are books in my closet from years ago. Keeping them in hopes of selling them online later was a good idea at the time but now schools do not even use the same books. All books have been modified so they are pretty useless to me. There is also a large amount of old clothes that either do not fit me anymore or I have not worn them in close to a year. I could easily give them away to people that have to wear the same clothes multiple times a week. There are only a few things that i could literally not live without. These things are my weights, my bed, the food that my family provides for me and a shower.

China Looks For Better Farms

LA Times

China Looks Abroad For Greener Pastures

March 29, 2014

Barbara Demick

China is the most populated country in the world. With the great amount of people they have living in the country, they need a large surplus of agriculture to provide for all the people. China needs to have large farms that produce a great amount of agriculture to keep the country with enough food. Farmers in China are known to be part of the lower class. Since the land in China is not rich with nutrients and there is not enough clean water to provide the agriculture with enough water, the economical outcome of being a farmer is not good. This country includes 20% of the worlds population but only has 9% of all farmable land. With 1.3 billion people to feed it is very difficult to feed all of them because of how polluted the land is. Since they do not have enough land to fulfill the needs of the countries' hunger, they are looking to move their farms to different countries. It would be economically hard to have any profit with farming if they spend money to make their own land farmable. Choosing to have farms in different countries is a responsible decision that will provide great results. Since they suffer from extreme drought and pollution it will be difficult to produce land that will have enough nutrients and clean water to actually produce enough food for the entire country. Hopefully Chine will make the right decision and create a deal with a country that will allow them to have farms there, because 1.3 billion hungry people will not be a good situation.

The Colbert Report: This is not a game

In this segment Colbert makes fun of how Obama is letting the government shut down occur like it is some type of game. He is  expressing how President Obama is treating the shut down of the government as a small deal. Colbert brings up an actual board game up on his desk called "This Is Not A Game". He says how this board game has everything you need to replicate the government shut down. He explains to his audience with pieces from the game the situation where the President is virtually ignoring the national debt ceiling. He makes several humorous remarks about this situation throughout the segment. He talks about how many peoples jobs are on the line with the whole situation of ignoring the national debt and letting the government shut down so easily. Colbert is very satirical throughout this segment, he uses a board game to show his audience how Obama is handling the whole situation. He also explains in a more simpler way of how the government is working at that moment, by playing the actual board game with a young child. I think the video clip is directed very well and the way that they use the board game is very smart.

Leading Cause Of Death In The US.

theonion.com
http://www.theonion.com/video/report-leading-cause-of-death-in-us-is-god-needing,35522/

Apparently there is a new leading cause of death in the US. The Department of Health and Human Services have reported that the leading cause for all the deaths in the US is apparently because God is in need of another angel. This department has studied the reasons for many "random" deaths and has found the answer. Over 700,000 people died in the United States during 2013 because God simply needed another beautiful soul. This report is satirical because of the fact that they are indicating that the cause of about 700,000 deaths in the US is simply the fact that God needs another angel. This report is usually a saying that older individuals say to young children when a relative or somebody that they know passes away. This report shows how the news can easily say whatever they want whenever they want and the voices that speak up against them are usually not as strong to be heard. Since the "news" is telling the people the cause of all these deaths the people will believe it. It is funny because they are generalizing the cause of 700,000 deaths into one reason and that reason is just simply ridiculous.

Can The Music Business Be Saved?

Can This Man SAve The Music Business?
LA Times
Dawn C. Chmielewski

The music business has been declining since 1999. From being a very successful 28 billion dollar industry to dropping to a 16.5 billion dollar industry in 2012. The industry has lost much of its sales because people have started to get all of their music for free. From either converting songs from YouTube, pirating the songs off of bootleg websites, or just purely burning albums. Whatever the reason the music business has lost a plentiful amount of money. Artists are making their money mostly from concerts. The albums that they put out are virtually worthless because of how easy it has become to get music. A man named Lucian Grainge has a vision for the future of the music industry. He is planning on making it impossible for people to pirate songs off the internet and actually pay for their music like how it was done back in the day. If people do not pay for their music eventually artists will stop making music, not only because they are not getting the income that they deserve, but also because of the fact that no company or artist will have enough money to even put their songs out. Grainge has decided to start his vision by exploring foreign countries and helping different artists to spread their music. He will eventually figure out a way to get the public to pay money for their music to keep this industry successful.

The Economy

The economy plays a huge role in my life. The economy determines whether I can enjoy unnecessary goods and services for my pleasure or not. It determines many factors for most of the world. If a country's economy is not doing well and people are struggling to stay above water then it will effect their lives and their families. If one cannot afford to lose money because of the economy then it shows how much the economy effects our society. If the economy is doing well it will bring in more income for people. This includes my family, if prices are increasing because the government needs more money   then people will be losing money. If the economy drops then big businesses will need to lower the wages that they pay their workers, and if that happens then less money will be spread throughout society which means that most families will be effected and they will not be able to enjoy the little things that bring temporary pleasure to someone. Everyone can live with the bear necessities that are needed to live a comfortable life but if the economy drops even lower then people will begin to have to cut down on certain things to have enough money to keep their lives comfortable. The economy plays a role in my life because if it is doing bad then my family will be effected since we are not in the group of society where losing money does not effect anything. I will have to cut down on driving to different places and I might even need to carpool. We will most likely need to use less resources and cut down as much as possible so that the bills are not over my families budget. Hopefully the economy will not become so terrible that we will end up needing to go to extreme measures, and I hope that every family will be able to get through any hardship the economy brings to them.

Nature Blog

I am sitting in my back yard as I view these different unique things that seem to be viewing me as well. As I watch these different trees, bushes, grass and birds I realize they all are alive just as much as I am. They might react to situations very differently and live a completely different life from what I live but they all are alive. I realize that these things need to breathe, eat, and reproduce as well to survive. I feel as though I am completely different from these things but at the same time I have some type of connection with all of them. In some way I do envy them because of how easy it is for them to live. But in their view it might be difficult for them to go through their life, but i will never be able to understand that no matter what experiment I practice. As I look around me I see an old pine tree that has been there in my back yard before I even moved into my home. Behind me there is a monstrous palm tree that rocks back and forth with the wind. To my left there are three small rose bushes. Only two of them actually have roses growing but they seem to change day by day. The floor that I am sitting on is covered with grass, but not only one type of grass there are long pieces, short pieces, and thick pieces. There are parts of the yard where grass does not grow as well as other spots, which makes me curious of to why it does not grow in that particular spot. The birds all around me fly from tree to tree playing, which brings me deeper into my envy of how easily these natural things can live. Throughout my experience I realized many things, but the one thought that would not leave me alone is the one that made me doubt that us humans are living naturally. Are we supposed to be living the way that we are living? If we are then why is it so difficult?