Blog Entry 22: Final Project: Food

  Last Friday, I went to 14th Street Union Square with my friend Ryan.  We went to farm market to buy food. The food there all come from family farm.  They are fresh and taste good.  I planned to make an apple salad.  I bought one bottle of honey, some apples and two cups of yougurt.  And I took many photos of food there.  They sold food include: meet, cheese, vegetables, fruit, bread, juice, flowers and so on. 

  After I went home, I made an apple salad.  First, I cut the apples into little pieces.  And then, I put some farm made yougurt on it.  Last I pured little honey on it.  It tasted really good.  The yougurt does not have any sugurt in it.  The apples tasted fresh.  I totally spent about 20 dollar on this dish.  The honey costs 10 dollar, the yougurt costs 4 dollar and 4 dollar of apples.

fresh apples

withou sugurt yougurt

my dish

the baby seems to like to eat that apple

finally I done this easy cook

 After I went to this farm market, I found that the food there were very expensive even though they were healthy and fresh.  They insist to sell green and natural food to us, but I cannot go there buy food everyday.  It is espensive for me to buy daily food there.  However, I find out intresting thing is the prices of those food here which come from family farm are espensive, and the food which come from industry farming are cheap.  The opposite is in China the food which come from family farm are cheap, and another one is espensive.  I hope that the goverment can support family farm to expand that we can eat more healthy and cheap food. 

Blog Entry 21: Reflection

  This is my final reflection.  Overall my blog entries, I think that 13th, 15th, 16th blog entries are best works.  All of them have at least four paragraphs include:one introduction, three bodies, and a conclusion.  They are all in clear structure.  In the introductions, I introduce author's claim and provide my thesis clearly in short words.  In the second paragraph, I usually wrote a short summary about what assignments or movie talk about.  In the third and fourth paragraphs, I began them with a center sentence in order to make readers easier to understand my ideas and evidences.  And also, I used my personal experiences to explain my thesis statement.  In the end, I concluded them together and tell them what my final goal.  Therefore, I think those three blog entries are my best works.  It also shows that my writting skill is improving throughout this course, but I still need to work hard.
  This is also my first course to use blog to write my papers.  I think it is really different from the writting couses that I took before.  Writting online is more free than write on paper.  It is easy for me to go over my writting when I was writting,  And also, it is convinient for me to correct my errors and improve my sentences.  It is also convinient for me to share others' writting skill.  I often read other students' blog.  I can learn good writting skills from others.  And I can get comments from my classmates.  I can correct my errors and prevent my errors from those comments.  However, it also has disadvantage that it will make me to rely on technology to help me correct my gramma and searching information.  Sometimes if I forgort a word, I also would rely on google to help me to search the word.  I found out if I used online writting frequently, I could not do well on my paper writting.  I felt that it was unfamiliar for me to write words, because I often type words.  And it is hard for me to keep my paper neaty, because I often write wrong words.  
  Overall, I feel good to take this class.  The assignments that professor gave me, I think it is interesting and challenge for me.  Expecially, the movies which professor shows us affect me deeply.  And also, I indeed learned depth in this class.  To those students who are going to take this class, I think it is good for us to go ahead to Eng101.

Blog Entry 19: The Response to "The Story of Stuff"

  "The Story of Stuff" by Annie Leonard, she uses two parts: production and consumption to introduce how good come out and become product in our today's world.  In the vedio, she said that there are many missing parts in the production and consumption that we do not know.  We just see the product and buy them.  In fact, we really do not consider how goods come out and what kind of material make for them.  If I do not watched this film, I still do not know that I am also a product of those corporations and a slaver of them.  Why do I say that? It is because I am a product who helps corporations to make more profit when I shop and shop.  And also, I am a slaver who just know to go shopping and do not know what the reality behind shop.  President Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisors Chairman said that “The American economy’s ultimate purpose is to produce more consumer goods.”  However, when we are producing more consumer goods, we are wasting more our resources and polluting more our world.
  If we produce more consumer goods, it equals to waste more our natural resources.  In the video, Annie introduced us that the coporations waste more and more resources in order to make more cosumer goods.  When there are no more resources for them to use in one place, they go to the other places to continute to use.  For example, they go to the third world to get the resources.  The natural resources are cheapest there, so they are happy to go there to get more and more resources.  They do not consider how many resources that they already waste them.  They just care about how much profit that they can make from the consumer goods.  The natrual resources in our world are limited.  If we use more and more, it will become less and less.  However, it is still not enough for them to get resources; and even, they do not know what enough means.
  Furthermore, when we are producing more consumer goods, in the other hand, we are polluting our world.  As consumers, most us just know go shopping; less of them consider what kinds of material make of our products.  For example, "Toxic in, Toxic out", this is what Annie said in "The Story of Stuff".  She explained that today many factories add many toxic material into our goods when they produce them.  It not only will pollute our world when they are producing; but also will toxic our world after the goods throw into gabish.  More toxic we put in, more toxic we produce out.  When we burn the trash, it will pollute our air.  When we pure into river or sea, it will toxic our water.  No matter what we do, if we produce more consumer goods; we will destroy our environment.
  Overall, it is not a good method to develop our economy by relying on producing more sonsumer goods.  More goods come out, more resources are wasted; and more trash are also produced.  Like what Annie said in the video, we should stop destroying our earth; and we should produce new idea to help our earth.

Blog Entry 20: The Expending Discussion Of "Sleep Dealer"

  As Agata said in group two,  Memo is fight for freedom.  I agree with her opinion.  In the movie, Memo fight for his village and his people.  He wants to protect his village from goverment controlling.  People there who live in a poor conditional community and do not have right to decide what they want to do.  Even though the river is belong to them, they still do not have right to get the water from there.  Everyday they have to walk a long way to buy water with a small bag.  Even though it is just a movie, it warns us that we should care about poor community.
  In our real world, who will really consider these poor villages. When we steal their natural resources like what the goverment do in the movie, we insist what we do is for their development; but is it really for them or our development?  When the U.S goverment begin to built a wall to prevent Mexico people to come here, do they really consider why Mexico people come to our country illegally.  The same as the people in the movie, they do not have money to live.  They are people, and they also need to eat, work, and have babies.  They have rights to be care in the world, but the world is unfair and cruel for them.  This is a long war for them to fight for freedom and fairness. 

Blog Entry 18: The Technology and Body

"Sleep Dealer" is a fiction film which is about how people and the world change to a new way in the future which is by using technology to monitor the world and control people.   People tend to put technology into their bodies in order to connect their bodies to the network.  And the world relies on technology to help it develop its industry.  In the movie, it is popular for people to add technology into their bodies to connect to the network.  They put many nodes on their bodies even though it is painful for them.  They have to do it, because they do not have choice to chooose.  However, in our real world there are some people like to put technology into their bodies because of fashion; like the man on the photo that I post above.  He likes to style himself with technology.  There is a electronic tongue which helps him to taste all types of wine and tell him what kind of wine and when the wine produced.  The technology controlls his brain movement, and then tell him the information of the wine.  The technology indeed helps us developing in out life.  It has been convinient for us in our life since it came, but I still do not like to put technology into our bodies.  We are natural human beings.  We should respect our bodies.  We are not robborts.  We should not become technology's slaver.

Blog Entry 17: The Reflection of "Food Unit"

  After I wrote the response to "The Allegory of the Cave, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Red Pill or Blue Pill?, The Meatrix and Let Them Eat Fat", I find out there is a connection between them.  They all want to spray a message to viewers.  They want to show us what the reality is and help us escape from the cave which is set by humans themselves.  They want to notice us to stop doing something which is harmful for ourselves.  While the world is changing, our culture, behavior and knowledge are also changing.  What is real or what is unreal, sometime it is hard for us to see and recognize.  Something which we think that it is right, it may be wrong.  Something which we believe that it is good, it may be harmful for us that we  do not know.  The true thing and the good thing is not easy to seen and proven.  It takes long time to search and reseach , but it will be seen and proven one day in future after many times of fighting with fake. 
  From the the response to "The Allegory of the Cave" to the response to "Let Them Eat Fat", they all seem like a link to show us how to discover the truth; and then, choose one of discovering, recognize the discovers.  And in the end ,support the reality which is good for humans. 
  Like "The Allegory of the Cave" and "The Trueman Show", I think that both of them want to show us how to discover the truth and notice us what we see or believe before may not  true.  They suggest us to look for the truth by using our knowledge, and then to prove them.
  Furthermore, the past assignments "The Matrix" and "Taking blue pill or red pill?" are also a conncetion with above assignments that I mentioned.  They are about teaching us how to face the reality and fake after we discover them.  They show us what we should do when we face to reality and fake.  They encourage us to face to reality and support it.  And also, it mentions that our culture and behavior is changed when the world is changed.  It causes many problems.  For example, in "The Matrix"; the world is changed to a unreal world which caused by humans who depend on using technology too much. It is another connection to next assignment "The Meatrix" and "Let Them Eat Fat".  to a unreal world which caused by humans who depend on using technology too much.  In this part, it gives another connection to " The the problem which is caused by the changing of our culture and behavior. 
Like the recent assignments "The Meatrix" and "Let Them Eat Fat", both of them are about our diet is changed after food culture is changed.  Furthermore, the past assignments "The Matrix" and "Taking blue pill or red pill?" are talking about our world is changed to a unreal world which caused by humans who depend on using technology too much. 

Blog Entry 16: The Response to "Let Them Eat Fat"

  The assignment "Let Them Eat Fat" excerpted from Greg Critser, in the Haprper's Magazine; it is about fast-food and national restaurants have grown more in the poor inner-city communities.  More and more inner-city consumers would like to buy food in the fast-food and national restaurant, especialy young black kids and poor people.  Most them are poor, and their need for cheap and full meals is increassing.  The fast-food restaurants offer the "surpersize" meals which can satistfy their need.  However, they do not notice well fast- food what they eat is high caloric and protein-poor.  They will be fatter and fatter if they continue to eat the fast-food.  After I read this assignment, I think that it causes this problem because of inner-city people of lacking of money; and their increasing need for cheap and super-size meals.
  The inner-city people who do not have too much money, espacially young kid; they will intend to go to fast-food reastaurants.   People who live in poor inner-city communities would like to go fast-food restaurant, because they do not have too much money; so they do not want to spend much money to buy a meal.  They often prefer cheaper meal as their lunch or dinner.  Especialy the young kids, who do not work and dependent to their parents.  And most parents will not give too much money to young kids as their pocket money.  Therefore, they also will prefer to go to fast-food restaurants.  I know this because I work in the food court in the sunrise mall, and I see many this kinds of similar situation.  I work in a Chinese fast food restaurant.  Many people who live near mall will come here to buy food, but they usually compare the prices of different restaurants first before they buy food.  Most of them will prefer to go to Wendy's not come to our restaurant, because their food is cheaper.  However, even though Wendy's food has higher caloric than ours, they ignore it and continue to buy their food because of the cheaper price.  And also, they like to buy one super-size meal in our restaurant; and then share it.  Therefore, no matter how fat they will be if they eat too much fast food; they also will choose cheaper meal.  The main reason is they lack of money and they do not want to spend much more money on meals.
  The poor people's need for cheaper and super-size meal is increasing so that they would like to buy fast food.  They not only need cheaper meal, but also need super-size meal.  They would like to buy super-size meal in fast-food restaurant, because they statisfy what they want.  They just want to spend less money getting full in their meals.  Most of them do not really care whether enjoy food or not.  For example, I work in a Chinese fast food restaurant in mall that I mentioned above.  Our restaurant decides to make a super-size meal in our dinner special for customers in order to make more profits.  After the decision, more and more customers come to buy our food.  They just need to spend about 6 dollar on the super-size meal, and then they can choose three items of any food as their meal.  Most them like to choose two meats and one side, because it is cheaper and super large.  They ignore that how high corolic two meats are when they eat two meats in one meal everyday.  They just care about whether the price is cheaper and the meal is super. Most them do not consider of  bad results after they eat a surper double meats in a meal.
  Overall, the fast-food and national restaurant chains are popular in nowadays; because their cheaper and super-size food statify the poor people need.  However, they do not really care about whether their food is healthy for constermers or not.  They just care about how much profits they can make in their business.  As customers oursevles, we need to consider if we should care about our healthy in our daily diet or not.  Take attention, please.

Blog Entry 15: The Response to "The Meatrix"

  "The Meatrix" is an adaptation of the movie "The Matrix".  The maker of "The Meatrix" use a similar story to spread a message  which suggest viewers to support family farms recreating.  The short video describe how the factory farming causes many bad effects in our life.  They are destroying our environment, treating animals cruelty and providing bad quarlity of meat.
  The story of "The Meatrix" is about a pig called Leo who lives in a family farm, and is found by a cow called Moophius.  Moophius wants to show Leo what "The Meatrix" is.  And then, he asks Leo to choose red pill  or blue pill.  Taking the red pill which is going to show him the truth.  The opposite is staying in the original place.  It is similar as the movie "The Matrix".  The difference is "the Meatrix" is a story which tells ourselves what meat and their products come from, and how it causes bad effects in our life.  They spread a message which is the family farming is fantacy, and the factory farming is bad for our life.  In the end of the movie, it suggest that customers should stop supporting factory farming in our life.  After I watched the movie, I choose to do not support factory farming in our life ethier; because factory farming causes many bad effects in our life.  It includes destroying our environment, animal cruelty and providing bad quarlity of meat.
  First place, factory farm destroys our environment.  The factory farm produces massive pollution everyday.  They pollutes the air and the ground water.  The comminity which is near the factory farm often suffers from sickness.  In "The Meatrix", Leo and Moophius smell bad in the factory farm; because factory farm pollute about 12 million ponds of excrement.  It is higher pollution which destory our environment.  I remember when I was a child, I lived in a countryside in China.  There was a big factory farm near my home.  After the factory farm was built, the evironment got worst and worst.  Everyday there was foul smell coming from the factory farm.  There was a river near my hometown. The water in the river was black, and most fish in the river died because of the pollution.   In the end, my family had to move to another place.  Therefore, I do not support factory farming; because it destroy our environment.
  Second place, factory farm treat aniamls cruelty.  In the factory farm, animals never get sun light, fresh air and do not have spaces to move around.  The cruel conditions cause fights and disease among the animals.  Expecially, there are many chicken died because of disease.  For example, I wacthed an news which was about disease spreding among chicken in a factory farm.  It happened in HongKong.  There was one chicken that had H5N1 flu and died in that farm.  Thousands of chicken died quickly, because the disease spred quickerly in the crowed factory farm which was fulled of chicken.  There were a lot of chicken died in this diesae, because they did not treat them well.  If they separated chicken and gave more spaces for them to live, it might not would happen.  I still prefer to support family farm, because animals live happy and healthy there.
  Furthermore, the meat and their products which come from factory farms are not fresh and bad.  The quarlity of the meat and their products are bad because of poor condition.  Most animals get hurt or sick in the crowed factory farms.  Therefore, the meat are not fresh and natural in the factory farms.
  Overall, no matter which movie we are discussing: "The Meatrix" or "The Matrix".  Both of them are about helping people escape the controlling of something which are bad for human.  Both of them want us to join them and support them.  I also would like to be one of those members who are supporting the family farms.  What about you?