The Insider

I really enjoyed the movie The Insider. It is amazing how big corporations control information relayed to the public. It also amazes me how the tobacco companies blatantly lie to the public just so they can falsely reassure them that what they are smoking won't harm them. What really boggles me is that their is still a need for anti-tobacco advertisements today. How people don't realize that tobacco companies put additional toxic paraphernalia in their products is even more astonishing. It is good to know that their are people out there, like Crowe's and Pacino's character, out there who are willing to risk just about everything to help get the truth out there.

The movie itself was fantastic. With actors like Pacino and Crowe it was sure to be a great movie. Rustle Crowe is one of my favorite actors and he reminded me why in his performance in The Insider. He did an amazing job at getting the audience to connect to the former tobacco company scientist. He makes his viewers truly start to sympathize for him and show great regret when he begins to lose what is truly dear to him. He characterizes his character's determination in a way that it is extremely inspiring. Over all I give this movie two thumbs up and would definitely recommend it to others.

A Poem by my Dog

While at college I have developed separation anxiety from my over-weight golden retriever collie mix. Her name is Tanner and she enjoys her life very much. Some of her favorite things in life are chasing groundhogs, laying in the same spot for two hours (no matter if she is in the way), getting her belly rubbed, and, most of all, food! If she were to write a poem, I imagine it would sound something like this:

Food is good

Food is yummy

I love Food in my tummy

barking, running

chasing, swimming

all the while for Food I'm wishing

Milkbones, Chewies

Eukanuba

I'd take food over Aruba

I don't care about my weight

Do you want what's on your plate?

A Change in Me

It feels like only yesterday I was starting my first day at Shikellamy High School, but just about two months I graduated. Then, not even a month later I started my summer semester at Penn State University. Life flies by and sometimes I worry that its all going by too fast. One of my worst fears in life is missing something because I wasn't paying attention as I rushed by it.

Sometimes I worry that I am growing up too fast. Last year I charted out my whole life from what year of college I would study abroad in England, where I would apply to grad school, when I would plan to start taking a relationship "serious", when I would join the FBI and how long after should my significant other propose, when we would get married and eventually have our first kid. Often times my brother tells me that I worry too much. "The more you worry, the older you are" is his philosophy, so in that case I must be in, at least, my late thirties.

There are times when I think my brother is right, I should stop worrying about having everything planned out and just start being young and irresponsible (within reason). I will have the rest of my life to be a grown up, so why not indulge in my youth? But with the world moving at this rate I feel that I might be unprepared and that terrifies me.

I have made a promise to myself though. When starting college I told myself that I wouldn't play it safe anymore. Sure, just having a few close friends in high school was enough to take up the bit of space that I wasn't studying or worrying about life, but now I want to try something different; not stepping out of my comfort zone but just stretching it a bit. I hope to take some of my brother's advice and stop worrying so much about things I can stress about when I'm older and become a little more outgoing. Hopefully I will land somewhere in the middle.

Beauty?

Beauty, as defined by dictionary.com, is the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest). But what does society label as "beautiful"? Even the dictionary acknowledges that personality is the last thing on the list.

I've always been told that personality is always the most important thing about a person and, personally, I do feel this way, but life doesn't abide by this principle. Movies, the music industry, magazines, advertisements, etc., all accept only one look: thin. Teens, girls especially, are always told that everything is beautiful, whether it be thin, chubby, brown hair, blonde hair, red hair, etc., yet the tabloids insist on pointing out when celebrities gain weight. What's worse yet is that we keep buying these tabloids (or they wouldn't keep printing these stories). The way a person looks can determine whether we talk to them or not. If we decide that the person doesn't meet our standards then how are we to get to know the person well enough to see their personality?

Beauty will fade and when it does what is left? The important quality in a person is not physical. Personality has the ability to change someone’s outer appearance. Unfortunately, the majority of the world will never agree with this completely because it will never get the chance to see personality due to it is vanity.

The soundtrack of life

Music is one of my passions in life. I love to sing, play guitar, piano, and listen to others create their own music. I often wonder what music would be like if there were only the depressing and eerie sounds of minor keys and no uplifting major keys (or vice versa). Life would only be sad/scary or happy/exciting. This is not a world that I would want to live in. With out the sad and scary there would be no happy and uplifting things in life. There must be bad to appreciate the good. There would be no variety in music and it would probably be eliminated as a way to express ones self. How would you convey a despondency and misery or terror and panic in a major key; likewise how would you demonstrate love and romance in a minor key?

Worse than the absence of either major or minor keys, what if there was no music at all? To me, this would be a life not worth living. There is not a day that goes by that I don't hum a tune, pick my guitar strings, float my fingers upon the ivory keys of a piano, or listen to my iPod. If there was no music, would there be no rhythm to my walk, a sprinters dash, a horses prance, a cars motor, a ticking clock or watch? Life itself makes its own music and we are its instruments. We create the soundtrack of life everyday without realizing it and with out music the world would be a movie without the dynamics of sound. How boring!

The Rain.

As my roommate and I were walking back from our photo scavenger hunt last night, a huge sheet of droplets began to fall from the sky. My roommate yielded, fearing she would become drenched if she would move from the protective roofing layer on the corner of Allen and College Ave. I proceeded on. The rain is one of my favorite things (how "sound of music") and I was delighted to go skip and dance in the rain. She began to follow and we both danced our way back to our dorm room. During our dancing I was inspired to write a poem:

The Rain.

Cleansing.

Cleansing the Earth.

Cleansing Me.

Cleansing my Soul.

The Rain.

Dear Nikki Giovanni-

The following is a response I wrote to Nikki Giovanni's poem "Woman".

Dear Nikki Giovanni-

you gave advice to

a Woman

who was dependent

upon a man

but what about

the Addict

whose veins burn

for the needle

and what about

the Adulteress

who like quicksand

sinks farther into lust

what advice do you have

for these People whose sin enslaved souls

are swept up in a commanding wind

blowing them towards infinite darkness and pain

how would you show them the hope you have shown Women

-Nicole Attinger