What Would Your Dream Home Be Like?

            My dream home is small but big enough to catch the eye. I want a house with bright colors like blue, white, or maybe even pink. But I don’t want the color of the house to clash with seasonal decorations. My house will have big windows that look over a lake or a field of flowers, big windows big enough to see the Christmas tree while driving by. My dream home has many doors so when people visit they have to question which door to go in. I want a big garden on the front and back of my house, with big trees that represent memories. I want many garages, so my friend's cars don't get ruined by the weather. I want lots of lights outside so when describing my house to people I'll just say “Look for the brightest house on the block.” In the backyard, I want a big hot tub and a playset. I want a bonfire for s'mores and a grill for the 4th of July parties. I want big sliding doors to the garden, and I want chickens and goats. I want a lake in my backyard, but not too close to the house. In my backyard I want big trees to provide shade while I read. My dream house fits every trend that the world goes through. 

The interior of my house will be just as amazing as the exterior. The first floor will be where the kitchen, living room, office, bathroom #1, and dining room will be. The kitchen will be big and white, with a long island. The island will have a sink and stove on top of it. My stove will be professional. I will have 2 professional ovens so I can make lots of food at one time. My fridge will always be packed with food. Not just leftovers. There will be many flowers and plants in my kitchen. I will also have a big pantry for the hungry kids. In the living room, I will have big leather couches with lots of pillows. Draped out on the floor will be a big rug, soft and homey. My TV will be 72-inches. The speakers will be made into the couch for a better experience. The living room will have many different lights, with spotlights on the TV. The big sliding doors will have blackout curtains. The dining room will be grand, with 10 chairs going around a big wooden table. I want a cabinet filled with china sets and things I've collected over the years. My office will be small and organized. It will be my own space to work and get away from my family. I want big curtains in my office. My chair will be soft and bouncy. The first bathroom will be small and will always smell good. I will always have new soaps stocked. 

The second floor will consist of 5 bedrooms, each with their own bathrooms. I will let my kids design their rooms how they want. But in my room, I will have an Alaskan king mattress with silk sheets and lots of pillows. My room will have lots of paintings and portraits full of memories. I will have a vanity and a small pantry for all the snacks I will eat in bed. My vanity will be full of skincare, hair products, make-up, etc. There will be a huge full-body mirror so I can check my outfit for the day. When finding my OOTD (Outfit Of The Day) I will reference my huge closet full of dresses, pants, shorts, tops, shoes, anything I want. I will also have a big jewelry box. To keep my hygiene good, I will have a huge shower with multiple settings and an equally large bathtub. I will keep my bath bomb collection stocked. The ceiling will be painted black, with skylight windows that can be blacked out. Sleeping in my room will be peaceful.

The third and fourth floors will consist of a movie theater and a gymnasium. The movie theater will always be stocked with popcorn, candy, and drinks. The popcorn center will have many add-ins. Butter, caramel, cheese, and so on! The candy will be only my favorite. Nerds, Hershey's, Reese's peanut butter cups, and anything gummy. Drinks will be limited to only ICEE and smoothies. When entering the movie theater you must put on 3D glasses, all the movies are in high-quality 3D. There will be many blankets and squish mellows, you will also watch your movies on very expensive lounge chairs with speakers built in. The chairs will also have the ability to recline. As for the gymnasium, the only sports provided will be gymnastics and volleyball. In the gym, there will be 5 uneven bars, 4 beams, 1 floor, and 3 vaults (and a volleyball net). Two of the uneven bars, 1 of the beams, and 1 of the vaults will be over/ connected to a pit. In addition to the main equipment, there will be a trench bar, tumble track, super bouncy trampolines, and tons of mats. Chalk will be provided! This house is amazing, but it will probably never happen. But it’s crazy how imagination works.

Narratives in Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End, by Atul Gawande

        A grandmother hits the accelerator instead of the brake, landing her in a neighbor’s backyard. A group discussion of an 18th-century dying man with narrow-minded medical students. A grandfather over 100 years old riding a horse on his farm daily. What do these stories all have in common? They’re all things Atul Gawande witnessed before and details in his book, Being Mortal. By incorporating his many stories with research, history, and interviews, he makes the book immersive, allowing me to imagine the day it could happen to me or someone I know. 

Being Mortal is a book about aging, and how doctors and caregivers are so untrained in caring for the elderly. The author peels back the layers of America’s norms by challenging the public’s mindset on medicine and what that means for the elderly. He incorporates modern, detailed stories of people he met, so vivid that I imagined them as my neighbors across the street. In addition, he is thorough with each story, keeping the same amount of details with the often uncomfortable truth. This gave me an extremely altered sense of the topic. For example, I met Bella and Felix, an old couple who retired from their medical practices. Bella becomes blind over time and Felix takes care of her at home. But, with disaster after disaster, like a common cold that ruptured both of her eardrums, turning her deaf, and a sudden fall, Bella needed to be put in a nursing home full-time with constant help from nurses. Things are looking up for her; she regains part of her hearing, is getting her casts off, and can begin moving back to her home under the care of Felix. But she never gets to see that through; “four days after the casts came off, four days after she’d begun walking again, she died” (Gawande 82). This abruptness, the frailty of life that most people like to avoid, stays constant throughout the book. His way of storytelling, going through to the end, made his message hit home, as if I just witnessed this happen to my loved one. 

Not all of the stories Gawande shares are this tragic, but they always amplify the impact of everything else he shares. They are examples of the many flaws in the treatment of old age and chronic diseases. Each chapter has multiple stories, but by jumping around – he reveals more about the people as the reader’s knowledge grows – I can better understand what they’re going through. He adds history and carefully placed information, whether that be from an expert in the field or a personal experience from his practice. By taking the time to explain the little details, he gave me a chance to fully understand the meaning of the stories he chose to share. This made my reading experience much more immersive as I knew the wrongdoings and the implications of each situation. Instead of treating the people in the stories as just examples, I connected with each person, making reading the book much more interesting. This ties into the theme that Gawande puts lots of effort into; going the extra mile to understand who these people are makes a difference.

In Being Mortal, Atul Gawande details the many issues with healthcare for the elderly, and he focuses on looking at a person as a whole. Through using detailed stories that convey powerful messages, he reminded me that patients are people with their own needs and opinions. What is medically best for the patient often isn’t what the patient wants. For example, we meet Alice, the grandma who ran her car into her neighbor's backyard, again in Chapter 3 which is about life in nursing homes. She’s much different than how she was in Chapter 1 where she drove her car to get groceries and lived fine alone. Now, she lives in an accommodating nursing home that gives her kids some peace of mind – but to her, it’s the same as a prison. From Gawande's interview with Alice, “There was so much more that she felt she could do in her life. ‘I want to be helpful, play a role,’ she said… Now, her main activities were bingo and DVD movies” (Gawande 162). He humanizes the elderly by putting himself in their shoes, taking the chance to fully understand their situations. Through Gawande’s storytelling, I could put myself in a world new to me, but I also realized that it’s the same world that would someday be mine if nothing changes. By doing thorough research, interviewing the people that he meets, and retelling his stories in an organized manner, Being Mortal encapsulates what it means to live for the elderly.

-Max

What Were your Favorite Childhood Shows and Characters?

 

What Were your Favorite Childhood Shows and Characters?

Cadence Scheunemann

When I was in Elementary School, I was obsessed with watching PBS kids. PBS kids was an app that held a combination of multiple television series that taught young kids lessons about different things. The best show by far on PBS kids was Wild Kratts. Wild Kratts taught the watcher about different animals, one per episode. The show presented video footage of the producers, Martin and Chris Kratt, with the animal in that episode, then they would show a funny animated story about their animated counter parts trying to find the animal in the wild. The Wild Kratts in the animated part of the show had a whole team of people working together in a giant, flying turtle robot to stop the bad guys from turning innocent animals into food, robots, or clothing. To be able to save the animals, Martin and Chris had to use creature power disks that their friend Aviva made them. Creature power disks gave Martin and Chris creature powers of whatever animal they touched! As said by Chris, "[The best part of the show is] the impact it’s had on kids watching our shows... [also] seeing kids... get so excited about animals and nature" (Gezlinger).

In Wild Kratts, Chris and Martin would show videos of themselves with real life animals. The animals would play with the brothers, or munch on food straight from their hands. It allowed me to see animals that I never would have been able to see otherwise. I remember watching baby wolves howl, kangaroo joeys attempting to kick box Chris, and pandas munching on bamboo with their wrist bones which acted like opposable thumbs. The Kratts always make sure to treat the animals with respect as they teach the watcher about the animal too. This teaches a great lesson to kids tuning in. As said by Martin, "'[We make sure to] always give a creature his space, and what we... do with our tone and the way we act is [to] show respect for the animals'" (Low).

One of the funniest parts in Wild Kratts is in the animated portion of the show when Zach Varmitech, one of the three main bad guys, is trying to turn a gila monster into a robot-like wrench. His wrench isn't strong enough and he decides that using an animal with a super strong bite will be more effective. However, he underestimates the gila monsters' strength and the gila monster bites his butt! The cool thing about gila monsters is that their grip is so tight humans are unable to pry them off once they have bit something and once they have clamped down, venom is released into their prey. So, Aviva makes a batch of anti-venom to stop the venom from spreading into Zach's veins. But, even Aviva isn't smart enough to make the gila monster let go. So Zach has to sit on a stretcher waiting for the gila monster to let go for a really long time. It was super funny! Making this show, not only the best by being educational, but Wild Kratts also makes the watcher laugh.

In the animated part of Wild Kratts, Chris and Martin team up with their friends, Jimmy Z., Koki, and Aviva, to stop the three main bad guys, Zach Varmitech, Donita Donata, and Chef Gourmand, from harming animals. Somehow one bad guy or another always seems ready to out-smart them. Until, Aviva makes the brothers a creature power disk. Then, Martin and Chris can use creature powers by inserting their creature power disk into their vest and touching an animal. This turns the brothers into that animal, along with all the powers of the creature. The Kratt brothers help to convince kids that they can be anything they want to be, literally and figuratively. 

Works Cited:

Gezlinger, Neil, The Brothers K, New York Times, (20, August, 2000),  https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/20/nyregion/the-brothers-k.html, 13, October, 2023

Low, Elaine, How the Nature-Loving Kratt Brothers Became PBS Rock Stars for the Younger Set, Variety, https://variety.com/2021/tv/features/kratt-brothers-chris-martin-wild-kratts-pbs-1235008925/, 13, October, 2023

How close are you to your parents?

How close are you to your parents?

Emma Hendricks

Ever since I was little I have been close to my Mom. She would consider us besties and I would say so too. We do everything together and there is no moment where I am embarrassed of her, or pretend like I don’t know her. In my mind she is the most awesome person and anyone who met her would be excited to know her. She is always putting others before herself even when she should just relax. I think we first got close to each other when I was pretty young and we lived in Vegas and my dad would have business trips all the time. While he was away we would hang out every second of the day and do everything together. And even when we get mad at each other it changes quickly because we can’t stay mad. My mom would do anything for me and I would do anything for her because she’s the best person I have in my life. She does so much for me that I can’t even fathom. I don’t know how I could ever make it up to her besides doing as many dishes as she wants me to do. So I would say I’m super close with my mom. For my dads they are different stories. 

My biological Dad, Fredson and I have never been too close. When I was younger and in Las Vegas we would hang out together but I didn’t enjoy hanging out with him because he did mean things to me and would hurt me. I never really understood why I got angry every time I saw him or talked about him until I got older. He was a really sore spot for me for a while. And then out of nowhere he showed up again and started nicer to me. I was around twelve then and he changed the way he talked to me and acted and I mistakenly thought he completely changed. But it tricked me because I expected him to change in one visit when that wasn’t possible. A lot of the times he would visit I would just get overwhelmed with his presence because he could be overbearing and just too much. Over the years he’s getting better with how he treats me and we have gotten closer and I think we’ll continue to get closer as I get older. 

Next up is my step-dad. Patrick has always been a calm and gentle person. He’s never yelled at me because his natural demeanor is to just be quiet and nice. He always listens to you and it makes you feel like he cares. He lives in Vegas so I visit him one to two times a year. But the time I’m there always feels to short. I love how every night I’m visiting him he’ll put on a movie for just me and him to watch and he always falls asleep. He’s also a very emotional guy, if you write him a sappy card there is a 100% chance he will cry. Which I like about him, he’s not afraid to show his emotions. Which is kinda helpful for me because Fredson always taught me that showing your emotions wasn’t a good thing and you should never over share, or tell any of your secrets. Both of them made my personality a mix of the two. Patrick is also super good at barbecue and always cooks my favorite foods because he remembers. He also thinks of me every time he is working on his construction jobs because he sends me behind the scenes photos of cool new building additions to Vegas. My closeness to Patrick is great besides the literal states between us. 

Finally there is my step-step dad, Geo. Geo is a nice person. He’s grumpy sometimes but also really funny. He teases me occasionally which I either laugh off, or if it’s been a long day I get kinda mad at them. I don’t know why, maybe it is easier to, but I bring out my anger on Geo when I should be much nicer to him. He does really nice things for me that in the moment I’m grateful for but just forget about later when I’m ticked off. Honestly though, our household would not be as fun and crazy if he wasn’t there so I would never actually want him to leave whether I joke about it or not. He also treats my mom really well and that is an important factor into how much I like him. Overall I would say that we’re close but just have rough patches occasionally.

What Old Television Shows Would You Bring Back?

Tom and Jerry, Adventure Time, Garfield, The backyardigans, Ninjago, teenage mutant ninja turtles, adventure time, rick and Morty, the amazing world of gumball, ducktales, Curious George, wild kratts, Pokémon, do these names ring a bell? Most people have heard of at least one of these cartoons/TV shows and most of us watched these as kids, no matter how you watched them whether it was on Cartoon network, Pbs kids, or even just on a DVD. Most of us will recall fond memories of these shows, specific episodes we liked, long car rides or Saturday mornings sitting down watch episodes upon episodes of cartoons, laughing at the stupidness and silliness of whatever the characters would do. These shows can stir up all kinds of nostalgia thinking about your childhood.

These shows could be educational, just plain silly, and sometimes even quite wholesome, and they all managed to catch the attention of the viewer. An example of a show that I really liked was Tom and Jerry, this show would fall under the category of just plain silly, the episodes all followed the same premise and plot, Tom the cat was trying to catch Jerry the mouse, but they still made every episode different and interesting in one way. This show was very simple, there were barely any words, because neither Tom nor Jerry would talk, so only side characters would talk, if there were ever any humans involved their heads would be above the screen and you could only ever see parts of their lower body. Although it was very simple the timing of the sound effects and music and the pranks Jerry would play on Tom, it was so easy to sit down and watch it for hours.

Another show I watched would be Curious George, this could be wholesome, funny, and educational. The show was about a monkey, George, who got adopted by a man who, we never learn his name, but he is referred to as "the man in the yellow hat" as he always wears yellow and, you guessed it, wears a yellow hat. As a lot of other shows, George would do something stupid and than learn a lesson from it, but the jokes were definitely on point. It was also very wholesome at points between George and the man in the yellow hat and some side characters.

Ninjago is a little different than the other ones, it was about about these elemental ninjas saving the world from one of the ninja's fathers, they all had different powers according to their elements, earth, ice, water, fire, lightning, and the "golden ninja who had powers of all three of them. One fun thing about this was it was all made of Legos, even in the show, this made it even more fun to be able to watch the show and have the physical Lego set at the same time. The plot was very intriguing, especially for a 10 year old me, it would get even more complex as the plot went on, adding more powers the ninjas could use and adding more characters made it even more interesting.

Erik