(This is a short, fictional journal entry I had to write for my ethics class.)
My name is Celeste Maria Hernandez and I am 28 years old. I live in the Salt River Valley in Arizona. The year is 1868. I will tell you what I remember of the first part of my life. I was born in 1840 which was a few years before the United States acquired this part of land which was once Mexico. My Papa used to own acres of land and we had our own ranch. Mama would stay home with the three of us children. When I was four years old, my sister Angelica and I would stand on little stools that our Papa had made and watch our Mama make tortillas, refried beans, and our favorite, churros. Mama would let us each have one warm and fresh out of the oven. The cinnamon and sugar would stick to our fingers, and after we would eat the churros we would lick every last piece of sugar and cinnamon off our fingers. My older brother Javier would go out with Papa and help him feed the chickens, horses, and donkeys. Sometimes they would take the eggs and some of the donkeys to the market to sell them. Papa and Javier would work hard most of the day, only coming in for the daily siesta during lunch. Mama would serve them the tortillas, meat, and beans that she had been cooking since that morning. Papa and Mama would always smile and laugh as we enjoyed our meals together. Sometimes Papa would even give Mama a sugar and cinnamon sprinkled kiss and Mama would giggle as she licked it off her lips.
In 1845, our way of life changed forever. I was 5 years old. Some men with light skin who spoke a funny language came to our door. There was also someone who looked like us that told Mama these men were here to see Papa. It was the first time I had seen Mama use the dinner triangle for something other than to let Papa and Javier know it was lunch time. Papa and Javier came from the far side of the ranch on their horses. I can still remember the dust clouds trailing behind them as the horses galloped on their way to the house. Papa, sweaty and dusty, jumped off his horse and offered his hand to these strange men. The men shook Papa’s hand, and they spoke their funny words to Papa, and the man who looked like us told Papa what their words meant. He said “These men are here to tell you that this land you own is no longer Mexico. This land is now the property of the United States. From this day forward, this area will be known as Salt River Valley in the state of Arizona. We will be building a town nearby. All ranches will be turned over to United States citizens, but you will be allowed to live in a small house and work on the same ranch. You should feel lucky to be able to stay on the same land and that we don’t make you move down to where Mexico is now. ” The men rode away on their horses. Papa’s smile turned to a somber look as this information sunk in. I was too little to understand what this meant, but I knew it could not have been good when Mama started crying and Papa hugged her to his chest.
A few months later, there had been a very small house, about one quarter the size of the hacienda we had been used to was built on the far corner of our ranch. As the strange men had promised, another family with light skin in a wagon came to our ranch. This meant it would no longer be ours and the time had come to move into the tiny shack that could barely be called a home. Mama now was a housekeeper for the family who lived in what was once our house. She got up early to cook for the family and the men who worked on the ranch which included Papa. She spent nearly all day at the hacienda cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry for the family. Since Angelica was 11 years old, she was taking care of me at our house. Angelica was now in charge of making tortillas, beans, and meat for our small meals. She did our laundry and cleaned our house. I helped when I could, folding clothes or helping to make tortillas. Even though I was still very young, I understood that life had changed. Javier went to work with Papa on the ranch that was once ours. Papa, Mama, and Javier both got paid very small amounts of money for their work compared to what Papa used to make. Angelica said it was because our skin was brown, not white like the new families’ skin. When Papa, Mama, and Javier would come back to our little house after dark, Angelica and I would serve them the food we had been preparing that day. Papa and Mama hardly laughed anymore, and mostly ate their food in silence. Javier, who was only 13 years old, looked twice his age. There were no more churros, and hardly any of us laughed anymore. We were all so tired at the end of the day that we enjoyed the little time we had to eat together, then bathed and went to bed so we would be ready for the next day.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Michael Jackson dies, June 25th, 2009
Ok, I know most of us probably at some point or another made fun of his shrinking nose and wondered if he was a child molester or not. I feel, now that he has passed away, that Michael was very misunderstood and strived for people just to understand and accept him. Perhaps all his deep-seeded personal issues just ate away at him until he lost his will to live. Money doesn't buy happiness, and I'm sure he knew that. But he did use it to buy happiness for others, especially children. I wonder what he had set out to learn during this life time? I think his spirit was ready to leave his body. He had done what he set out to do. Thanks for the music, Michael.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Question of the Day: Why are bubbles always circles and why are they rainbow-colored?
My 4 year old son asked me this question as he was blowing bubbles in the car this morning. I told him that was a great question, and I didn't have the answer but I would look it up on the internet. Here is what I came up with (from www.askkids.com):
Bubbles and balloons have a lot in common! Scientists refer to them as "minimal surface structures." This means that they always hold the gas or liquid inside of them with the least possible surface area. The geometric form with the least surface area for any given volume is always a sphere, not a pyramid or a cube or any other form. An amazing exception to the rule! (Not really.) When a normally round bubble is surrounded by other bubbles, it can be made to take on a seemingly odd shape. Here, a bubble filled with smoke to make it more visable, is surrounded by six other bubbles, it appears to be a bubble cube! If the surrounding bubbles are popped, though, the bubble in the center reverts to its natural "round" shape.
Similar to the way we perceive the colors in a rainbow or an oil slick, we see the colors in a bubble through the reflection and the refraction of light waves off the inner and outer surfaces of the bubble wall. You can't color a bubble since its wall is only a few millionths of an inch thick. A bubble reflects color from its surroundings. When a light wave hits the surface of a bubble, part of the light is reflected back to a viewer's eye from the outer surface and part of the light is reflected from the inner surface which is a few millionths of an inch further. As the two waves of light travel back, they interfere with one another causing what we know as color. When the waves reinforce each other, the color is more intense. When the wave get close to canceling each other out, there is almost no color. As a bubble wall gets thinner, either from a weak solution or because gravity has pulled its chemical content to the bottom, the distance between the inner surface and the outer surface of the bubble becomes less and less until the two reflected waves of light start to coincide and cancel each other out. The result is that the bubble loses its color and can become nearly invisible.
Bubbles and balloons have a lot in common! Scientists refer to them as "minimal surface structures." This means that they always hold the gas or liquid inside of them with the least possible surface area. The geometric form with the least surface area for any given volume is always a sphere, not a pyramid or a cube or any other form. An amazing exception to the rule! (Not really.) When a normally round bubble is surrounded by other bubbles, it can be made to take on a seemingly odd shape. Here, a bubble filled with smoke to make it more visable, is surrounded by six other bubbles, it appears to be a bubble cube! If the surrounding bubbles are popped, though, the bubble in the center reverts to its natural "round" shape.
Similar to the way we perceive the colors in a rainbow or an oil slick, we see the colors in a bubble through the reflection and the refraction of light waves off the inner and outer surfaces of the bubble wall. You can't color a bubble since its wall is only a few millionths of an inch thick. A bubble reflects color from its surroundings. When a light wave hits the surface of a bubble, part of the light is reflected back to a viewer's eye from the outer surface and part of the light is reflected from the inner surface which is a few millionths of an inch further. As the two waves of light travel back, they interfere with one another causing what we know as color. When the waves reinforce each other, the color is more intense. When the wave get close to canceling each other out, there is almost no color. As a bubble wall gets thinner, either from a weak solution or because gravity has pulled its chemical content to the bottom, the distance between the inner surface and the outer surface of the bubble becomes less and less until the two reflected waves of light start to coincide and cancel each other out. The result is that the bubble loses its color and can become nearly invisible.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Movie Box-Office Records
How the heck is it fair to keep saying "we had a record-breaking weekend for such and such movie" when ticket prices keep going up all the time? Of COURSE the newer movies are going to break records because it costs about $10 a ticket per person for each movie now when in times past, it was maybe $5 or $6. They make twice as much already for each movie ticket sold!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Chris Brown has just flushed his career down the toilet.
Okay. Chris Brown PUNCHED Rihanna IN THE FACE and BIT her on the arms and finger. Then he expects to have his friends say "Oh, Chris says he's really sorry for what happened." TOO LATE buddy. I used to think he was such a cutie and liked his music, but now I won't support him for anything. You fucked up and your career is over. He needs some serious help.
On a side note: I also have heard reports that Rihanna was jealous that Chris was talking to Leona Lewis at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy's party. Someone confronted someone on it obviously. HOWEVER, that is NEVER an excuse for a man to hit a woman, I don't care WHAT the woman does or says to that man (or boy in this case.)
On a side note: I also have heard reports that Rihanna was jealous that Chris was talking to Leona Lewis at the Clive Davis pre-Grammy's party. Someone confronted someone on it obviously. HOWEVER, that is NEVER an excuse for a man to hit a woman, I don't care WHAT the woman does or says to that man (or boy in this case.)
Taxpayers may have to cover octuplet mom's costs
WHAT...THE...FUCK was this lady thinking? She was already on welfare for her SIX children, 3 of which have disabilities, and she KNEW with being implanted with 8 fertilized eggs that there was a darn good chance all 8 would be born?!!!!!!!!!!
This really pisses me off because she has no business having more children when she's NOT WORKING and collecting welfare already. Especially EIGHT more. And the California public will be responsible for paying for them? I hope they take those babies and adopt them to families who CAN pay for them and CAN give them the attention and nurturing they need.
What a foolish, selfish woman.
(see Yahoo story below)
LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.
Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.
Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.
"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."
On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had and suggesting she be sterilized.
"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"
She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.
"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."
Suleman's spokesman, Mike Furtney, urged understanding.
"I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.
Furtney said he, Suleman and her family had received death threats and had been getting messages that were "disgusting things that would never be proper to put in any story."
In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.
Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.
Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She told NBC one is autistic, another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and a third experienced a mild speech delay with "tiny characteristics of autism." She refused to say how much they get in payments.
In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, an oral surgeon who sits on the Health Committee, said that once a state Medical Board investigation is complete, lawmakers could review issues from government oversight to standards in fertility treatment.
Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.
Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. She said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.
Fourteen states, including California, require insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.
In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
This really pisses me off because she has no business having more children when she's NOT WORKING and collecting welfare already. Especially EIGHT more. And the California public will be responsible for paying for them? I hope they take those babies and adopt them to families who CAN pay for them and CAN give them the attention and nurturing they need.
What a foolish, selfish woman.
(see Yahoo story below)
LOS ANGELES – A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red.
Even before the 33-year-old single, unemployed mother gave birth to octuplets last month, she had been caring for her six other children with the help of $490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family.
Also, the hospital where the octuplets are expected to spend seven to 12 weeks has requested reimbursement from Medi-Cal, the state's Medicaid program, for care of the premature babies, according to the Los Angeles Times. The cost has not been disclosed.
Word of the public assistance has stoked the furor over Suleman's decision to have so many children by having embryos implanted in her womb.
"It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments," Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote in Wednesday's paper. He called Suleman's story "grotesque."
On the Internet, bloggers rained insults on Suleman, calling her an "idiot," criticizing her decision to have more children when she couldn't afford the ones she had and suggesting she be sterilized.
"It's my opinion that a woman's right to reproduce should be limited to a number which the parents can pay for," Charles Murray wrote in a letter to the Los Angeles Daily News. "Why should my wife and I, as taxpayers, pay child support for 14 Suleman kids?"
She was also berated on talk radio, where listeners accused her of manipulating the system and being an irresponsible mother.
"From the outside you can tell that this woman was playing the system," host Bryan Suits said on the "Kennedy and Suits" show on KFI-AM. "You're damn right the state should step in and seize the kids and adopt them out."
Suleman's spokesman, Mike Furtney, urged understanding.
"I would just ask people to consider her situation and she has been under a tremendous amount of pressure that no one could be prepared for," Furtney said.
Furtney said he, Suleman and her family had received death threats and had been getting messages that were "disgusting things that would never be proper to put in any story."
In her only media interviews, Suleman told NBC's "Today" she doesn't consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and doesn't intend to remain on it for long.
Also, a Nadya Suleman Family Web Site has been set up to collect donations for the children. It features pictures of the mother and each octuplet and has instructions for making donations by check or credit card.
Suleman, whose six older children range in age from 2 to 7, said three of them receive disability payments. She told NBC one is autistic, another has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, and a third experienced a mild speech delay with "tiny characteristics of autism." She refused to say how much they get in payments.
In California, a low-income family can receive Social Security payments of up to $793 a month for each disabled child. Three children would amount to $2,379.
The Suleman octuplets' medical costs have not been disclosed, but in 2006, the average cost for a premature baby's hospital stay in California was $164,273, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Eight times that equals $1.3 million.
For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is struggling to close a $42 billion budget gap by cutting services, declined through a spokesman to comment on the taxpayer costs associated with the octuplets' delivery and care.
State Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, an oral surgeon who sits on the Health Committee, said that once a state Medical Board investigation is complete, lawmakers could review issues from government oversight to standards in fertility treatment.
Suleman received disability payments for an on-the-job back injury during a riot at a state mental hospital, collecting more than $165,000 over nearly a decade before the benefits were discontinued last year.
Some of the disability money was spent on in vitro fertilizations, which was used for all 14 of her children, Suleman said. She said she also worked double shifts at the mental hospital and saved up for the treatments. She estimated that all her treatments cost $100,000.
Fourteen states, including California, require insurance companies to offer or provide coverage for infertility treatment, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But California has a law specifically excluding in vitro coverage. It's not clear what type of coverage Suleman has.
In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
MySpace Wars...and I Win!
As stupid or crazy as this may sound...here it goes. My not-my-father-anymore's evil bitch of a wife had a MySpace page and she kept checking my page (private) and making her moods reflect whatever I had on there...even though I could give a shit less what she was doing and the mood comments had NOTHING to do with her! (I will admit, I obviously was checking her page too, but more just to see what she was doing.)
So all I could do was keep my mood comments neutral so she had nothing to go on, but she was still putting stuff on hers about me. And OH YES, I KNEW they were about me. Sooo...this morning from the hotel room I'm at (at a conference) I was up super early so I decided to check her page for the hell of it. She had put up something like "I Can't Be Bought" with a pink, glittery barcode for her "mood" comment. So I put on my page "Who wants to buy an old, rotten piece of fruit anyway?"
NOTE: I have been checking hers every once in a while, but not OBSESSED like she apparently was.
So...I guess she checked my page again, didn't like what she saw...and DELETED her MySpace page! Woohoo! I am free from my stalker!!!!!!! What a bitch! Serves you right!
...Oh, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, read my other blog. :)
So all I could do was keep my mood comments neutral so she had nothing to go on, but she was still putting stuff on hers about me. And OH YES, I KNEW they were about me. Sooo...this morning from the hotel room I'm at (at a conference) I was up super early so I decided to check her page for the hell of it. She had put up something like "I Can't Be Bought" with a pink, glittery barcode for her "mood" comment. So I put on my page "Who wants to buy an old, rotten piece of fruit anyway?"
NOTE: I have been checking hers every once in a while, but not OBSESSED like she apparently was.
So...I guess she checked my page again, didn't like what she saw...and DELETED her MySpace page! Woohoo! I am free from my stalker!!!!!!! What a bitch! Serves you right!
...Oh, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, read my other blog. :)
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