Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult

Mizzay said we could do this so here's my Annotated bibliography on the novel Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult:

Picoult, Jodi. Handle with Care: a novel. New York, NY: Washington Square P, 2009. (477 pages)

                I enjoy Jodi Picoult books a lot. They are fiction, but they give you a lot of factual information. Every time I read one of her books, I learn about a disease, religious views, law enforcement, or criminal investigation procedures. I enjoyed Handle with Care because I learned about a disease I didn’t even know existed, called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. It is a disease where a person’s bones are very brittle and break easily and do not grow to normal size. It was also very interesting to learn about the daily life of a family with a severely disabled child. Even though it was fiction, Jodi Picoult is very good at doing research and made the fictional family just like many real families in the United States today.

                I really liked Picoult’s usage of multiple narrators. She included so many characters ranging from the mother and father to the best friend, daughter, and lawyer. Utilizing these many points of view really made the story come to life. It also created multiple protagonists. You would sympathize with one character, but then you would hear another character’s thoughts and then change your opinion. The usage of different narrators also broke the book up nicely. The plotline did not jump around too much and it was a fairly smooth read. Sometimes, you would get confused because Picoult put in multiple flashbacks spread throughout the book, but you could tell if it was a flashback most of the time depending on the certain friendships and actions each character performed. The most challenging part of the book was keeping up with the trial portion of it and keeping each character’s motive and train of thought straight. Many characters kept changing their mindset throughout the entire book, which could get a bit hard to follow at some points. But aside from that and some challenging words, it was a nice read.

                The book was not only separated into narrator chapters, but also sections. You could tell the start of a new section because it started with a recipe. This was significant because the main character was a cook. These recipes confused me because I wasn’t sure if I needed to read them or not. Sometimes the recipe would foreshadow what was to come in the upcoming section, but sometimes it wouldn’t. I didn’t find these recipes very necessary because I’m not going to bake them and they didn’t seem like an important aspect to the plotline.

                Even though there were a few setbacks to this book, I highly recommend it and any of Picoult’s other books to anyone who is intrigued by the workings of our judicial system and who wants to learn something new about a relatively unexplored subject. (474 words)

Horoscopes

Lately, I have become horoscope crazy. Right now, I have a horoscope sent to my email every day. I also occasionally look them up on a bunch of different websites and then pick out which ones I like the most. I also look them up in the paper or my Seventeen magazines all the time. I'm not exactly sure why I read them so much, but I just do.

When I read them at the beginning of the day, I like knowing what will be coming (or at least thinking I do). Sometimes if it says something about a “secret admirer” then I go into the day feeling very confidant. Once I read that horoscope, I make a decision to be myself that day. I choose to be more social rather than reserved. If it says something about hard work, then I choose to be very productive and focused that day. Other days, I look at the horoscope and just laugh. If it talks about something ridiculous like money (I have none) or work then I just ignore it. Also, sometimes if it says something really romantic, I just laugh and think “Yeah right! I don’t even have a boyfriend.” Horoscopes never have a negative impact on me, which I guess is part of the reason I read them. They always start my day off right.

            When I read them a few days late, I think back to that day of the week and try to compare my day to what the horoscope said. Sometimes I’m amazed that it was really accurate, but then other times I chuckle at how off track it was. Sometimes, the horoscopes cause me to look at a situation from a different angle.  If I was so focused on the negative impact at the time, looking back at it through a horoscope helps me see how maybe it was actually a good thing in disguise.



            I’m not saying that horoscopes are an awesome thing that you should build your life around, I just think it’s fun to read them. I’m not superstitious and I by no means will ever adjust a decision of mine because a horoscope told me so, but I just think they’re interesting. I think it’s really cool how people predict events through the stars and I’m curious as to how they do it. (392 words)

My Thoughts on Blogs

I don't enjoy blogging. Lo siento Mizzay. I will do it, but I don't get any satisfaction from doing it. The only time I write is if I have to for a specific deadline or if I have an issue on my mind. You may say, "Hey! You do both of those things with blogs!" but actually I don't. Yes, I realize that we have a deadline of thirty blogs by the end of the trimester, but sadly, this has little effect on me. I also realize that I can write about anything I want to, but in reality, I can't.

I thrive in a structured environment. I need someone to tell me what to do and when to do it by, and I will do it. I will know what they want me to know and I will be prepared for whatever is happening. Sadly, this year I have a bunch of teachers that expect me to do a whole bunch of things on my own. You may say "Hey! We're getting you ready for college! You're completely n your own then!" but you aren't looking at it from my perspective. My first two years of high school, my teachers were awesome. They were very interactive, used activities, and handed out worksheets that were actually due. This year, it's completely different. Pretty much all of my teachers expect me to do everything completely on my own. Mizzay, you are a good teacher, but you are still on this list. Yesterday, I FAILED an AP Biology quiz because my teacher sucks so much. It was my first F on something as big as that quiz. My teacher lectures at us, not to us, and doesn't give any handouts. He gives limited "optional," not extra, credit that can be turned in with the test, but because it has a far away due date, I don't do it in advance and then don't have time to do it before the test when I'm cramming. His class frustrates me so much, but I can't drop it because I just can't, and I can’t switch teachers because he is the only teacher who teaches that stupid subject. I used to enjoy science before this year. Normal biology and chemistry were awesome and I was even considering going into the medical field, but after this year, I'm not so sure if I should go into medicine. I can't tell if I'm not good at biology or if I just have a bad teacher and thus am not learning. I love math so much. I think it's because you learn a formula and use it over and over again. You work out a problem until you get the right answer. It doesn't get much more structured than that.

In regards to AP Lang, I would suggest putting some tighter deadlines on our blogs. Maybe require two or three per week rather than having them all due at the end of the term. Also, the practice worksheet you gave on subordination helped a lot. If you could give some more of those, that would be wonderful! I learn by using terms over and over again and worksheets aide this process a ton. (535 words)

All State Babay: Breakfast Breakdown

I woke up at four o'clock October 23, 2011. It was that start of a very long, stressful, fun, and anxiety-filled day. After I dragged myself out of bed, I threw on some sweat pants, poofed my hair, stuffed nice clothes, my music, a pillow, blanket, and make up into my bag, and waited for my friend to pick me up. At 4:45 we left for Perkins to eat breakfast before our auditions in Manchester. On our way there, we drove past our director’s house and guess what! He was just leaving his house! We decided to block his driveway and wave to annoy him, which was super fun. Once we got to Perkins, I couldn’t eat. All I ordered was a chocolate muffin and some orange juice. I was so nervous that I only had about three bites of my muffin and a few sips of my orange juice. It was a really good muffin and I even got a to-go bag, but my stomach was too tied up in knots to eat anything.

While we were waiting in line at the cash register, I had a breakdown. I was getting really nervous thinking about the auditions. You have to understand that I was feeling a ton of pressure to do well that day. My brother, Stephen, was a choir god when he was at Kennedy. He transferred here his sophomore year and was instantly one of the best singers. His SOPHOMORE year (first year at Kennedy) he was in Happiness Inc. and had a huge solo that he got awards for, Chamber Choir, Concert Choir, made All State, and only missed 1 POINT in his show choir audition that year according to the choir director at that time. He went on in high school to get lead roles in musicals, more award-winning show choir solos, awesome and hard choir solos, and he made All State three times out of the four he tried out. My brother Joe, who is two years younger than Stephen, also made All State and was in constantly in the front row for show choir. This is my junior year and it was my first time trying out for All State and I felt so much pressure to get in. I couldn’t be the girl who was supposed to be good and then just let her family down. In addition to all of my brothers’ pressure, my father had been talking to me like I had already made it for about two weeks leading up to the auditions. He did the same thing when I tried out for Moonlight Express this year and guess what! I didn’t make it. I didn’t want to have to deal with his feeling sorry for me. Plus, I had my voice teacher’s in my head telling me “sopranos are a dime a dozen and you need to make that judge really notice you.” That statement didn’t start to sound terrifying until this moment in time.

The breakdown went like this: First, I was kind of just freaking out and saying “I can’t do this” and things like that, but then I started shivering and started to believe that I couldn’t do it. I was about ready to go to my director and tell him that I couldn’t audition and go home, literally. Then I sat down and continued to freak out and one of the other sopranos tried to come and smile and comfort me, but it didn’t work. I then went over to my friend who was across the room, said I needed a hug and started to bawl. I love her so much. She comforted me and told me that everything will be fine and even if I didn’t make it, the entire process is wacked up and totally subjective. She told me I was an amazing singer and I didn’t need a judge to tell me that. That is the definition of an amazing friend. I then went into the bathroom to compose myself and blow my nose and all that jazz (thank goodness I hadn’t put any make up on yet). While I was calming down, another one of my friends can into the bathroom and started to ask me what was wrong and stuff like that, and I started to bawl again. She started to try and comfort me, but she wasn’t very good at it and was actually making me cry harder, so then she started to talk to my about her brother’s new girlfriend and that made me smile. I finally got back to normal (but I still had a blotchy, red face), paid, and headed back to Kennedy to warm-up. The time at this point is about six o’clock. I realized later that in the midst of my freak-out, I FORGOT my muffin at PerkinsL. (805 words)

All State Babay: The Preparation

Saturday October 23 was one of the best days of my life! It also was an extreme emotional roller coaster. To preface, I will take us back to a few weeks ago.
 

Singing is hard work! You have to focus on sooo many different things at once and the thought of being judged on it is terrifying. I was placed into a quartet for All State auditions in early September. Our directors kept switching us around until the beginning of October when the audition-ers were finalized. People thought that the quartets were finalized too. We were wrong. The day before we had "mock auditions" for All State at Washington High School, our directors decided to switch our quartets around. They told us that they accidentally messed up when they selected us before. This made so many people angry because we didn’t have time to get used to our group before we had to be critiqued. Instead of giving us really nit-picky and constructive advice, we were going to get general things because we had to start from scratch. All of the work we did with our former quartets went down the drain.

Once we started to get comfortable with our groups, things started turning around. We were working with a director or on our own during every choir class. It actually got pretty annoying. All we did everyday was sing the All State music over and over. On the up side, our quartets improved a lot because of this. I also became good friends with my quartet members, which I enjoyed a lot because I had THE YUMMIEST bass! Really, all I wanted to do was stand and stare at him during the practices. I even got his number and found out that he’s a super nice guy and is really friendly and funny in addition to his major hotness!! (He’s my future husband!! Shhhhhh don’t tellJ). So anyway, I, my bass, and my alto were feeling pretty good about our audition. We were confident enough that we wouldn’t humiliate ourselves in the audition. Our tenor was a different story.

What I’m about to say is meant in the nicest way possible. The tenor we had is a really nice guy and all, but he just wasn’t getting it. He was very quiet and even stopped singing in some places because he didn’t know his part. Our choir teacher told us at the start that if someone wasn’t getting the music, they wouldn’t be allowed to audition. This caused much confusion with the rest of my quartet because it was less than a week before the auditions, our tenor was struggling and fit the description our teacher set for those who would not audition, and yet he hadn’t been cut yet. I even talked to my teacher 3 days before the audition to figure out what the heck was going on. He said that he knew that our tenor wasn’t ready but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to cut him because he didn’t want to crush his spirit. Plus, apparently you could barely hear him while the rest of us were singing so my teacher told me that he didn’t think that our tenor’s singing would affect our audition. I was ok with this, except that our group practiced without him before, and we got a lot more done without him. When he was there, we always had to wait for him to get his music organized, he made excuses a lot, and we ALWAYS had to plunk out his parts on the piano. Without him, we were able to focus on the musicality of our singing and only had minor pitch problems compared to his major mess-ups.

Finally, two days before the audition, our choir teacher listened to our quartet practice and decided to “pull the plug” (his words). It wasn’t a very big deal to our tenor because he was a sophomore so he had two more years ahead of him, the teacher actually talked to him the day before about maybe being cut, and he also had a sinus infection or something so he wasn’t “singing his best” anyway, according to him. After he left, my trio and I worked very hard for the next two days to adjust to having one less person. It wasn’t a very big change, but we still had to adjust.

I’m very thankful to my group because we all took the process seriously and worked super hard. I had so much fun with them and couldn’t have asked for a better trio. (763 words)

Biology News Four :)

Kills All Unknown Germs

Bob Holmes

New Scientist

August 8, 2009, Page 41-43

            This article is about new strategies scientists are developing to defend your body against viruses. They are working on new antiviral drugs that not only work to defend the body against existing viruses, but also are affective against viruses that haven’t even evolved yet. Before these tactics started to be developed, the approach to creating antiviral medication was “one bug, one drug” meaning that each virus had one specific medication geared to destroy it. This is problematic because since there is only one drug, a virus can adapt itself to withstand the drug and it becomes even more lethal. The new methods being developed for antiviral medications it now being centered on attacking the host cells that the virus takes hold of. Scientist found out how to detect if a virus has attacked a host cell in a few different ways, one of which is that the cell releases fatty substances on its outside when its “stressed” or has been taken over by a virus. This then tells the medication to destroy the cell, which destroys the virus that is reproducing inside of it. Because the medication centers on host cells, it is more difficult for the pathogen to mutate to resist it, but it also can present more side effects, which is why these drugs are still under a lot of testing. Hopefully, if all things go right, scientist expect that these super drugs will be on shelves ready to protect us from the net major break out of disease in the next decade.

            This article is very good news because it describes the advances in medicine that scientists are making. Because of the outbreak of the H1N1 virus, scientists have taken steps to prepare for the next outbreak of a virus, no matter what it is. This is very comforting to the reader because even though it might be a decade into the future, we know that humans are becoming stronger and starting to outsmart diseases, instead of the other way around. This article has a very big impact on the world because everywhere people are battling disease and this news presents the possibility to eliminate some deadly viruses around the world and prevent new ones from appearing and wiping out large populations.  One must also understand, though, that these new drugs are still in the testing and developing stages so something that a scientist might hypothesize to work, might not in reality, so one mustn’t get their hopes up. Until further research is done, we won’t know for sure how effective these drugs will be or even if they are effective at all. They might do more harm than good to humans, but we’ll never know until more research is done.

            I would recommend this article to anyone who is interested in the development of new drugs or in virus defense. It was very interesting and I learned new things about viruses like how they reproduce and how you can tell if they have attacked a host cell. If you aren’t an expert at biology, this is still a good article to read, but you have to look past the confusing virus names and biology jargon to get the main idea of the article. I believe anyone interested in the medical world of medicine would benefit from reading this article and would learn a lot and gain new perspective. I also believe that any ordinary person reading this article would gain a sense of hope for the future from reading this article. (600 words)

Biology News Three :)

Did Life Start with a Virus?

Charles Siebert

Discover Magazine Presents: Evolution

Summer 2011, Pages15-20

This article explained the discovery of the “Mimivirus” and the idea that a virus might have started out life on earth. It first explained that the general stereotype of a virus is a parasite that only harms. But actually, contrary to popular belief, there are many viruses in the world that have no harmful effects whatsoever. It also gave details on the debate amongst scientists regarding whether the virus is living or nonliving. Many believe that it exists in-between the two classifications. The article then approached the subject of the “Mimivirus” which is a very large and very complicated virus that lead scientists to suggest that viruses may have evolved just like normal cells. This virus, however, only infects amoebas, and is not harmful humans or animals. There was even a larger virus found nicknamed “Mamavirus” that helped this idea. A new theory was made that proposes that an ancestor of this giant virus may have come about before the 3 main domains of cells, and played a key role in inventing the cells that all complex organisms such as humans are made up of today. Another topic that was brought up was the presence of virophages. A virophage is just like a bacteriophage but it is a virus that infects another virus instead of bacteria. The virophage “Sputnik” was found to infect the “Mamavirus,” which makes scientists argue even more about the living status of viruses. Many believe that if a virus can be infected, then it is a living thing, but others disagree.

This article has a big impact on the way scientists view the world, but it has very little to no impact on normal peoples’ everyday life. This new theory only confirms the idea that scientists don’t know everything there is to know about the world and that they will always be discovering new things. Some scientists may find their whole thinking turned upside-down by this new discovery, but I don’t think it’s really that big of a deal. My life won’t change by knowing my cells evolved from a virus, because it already happened. The only possible negative effect of this discovery is that it might freak out some people. Because of this, I don’t think that scientists even needed to share this new find with the public. This knowledge doesn’t change anything about the world; it just helps scientists to better understand it. By knowing this, they may even be able to help predict what will happen in the future or maybe find out more about how viruses work and how to stop stubborn ones like influenza and HIV. This new breakthrough doesn’t answer any questions about the universe, it just asks more. Because of this, the scientific world has opened up many more theories as to how the world was created and how life had evolved.

Personally, I don’t think anyone my age really needs to read this article. It was interesting, but it was geared more towards adult audiences, specifically those with backgrounds in biology. I think that science teachers, college students with science majors, and adults interested in biology would be most entertained by this article. It wasn’t life changing, but it was a pleasant read full of cool information about viruses. There was a section about DNA and RNA that was a little confusing, but I believe that once I learn more about cells and viruses, this article will make a lot more sense.  (591 words)