The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

     "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost, is about a person who come to a fork in the road. He is forced to make a decision about which path he will take. In life you will have to make decisions, and even if you make the wrong one, you will have to learn to live with them.
     In the first stanza, the speaker comes to "two diverged in a yellow wood," he must decide which path to take. He sees that they "had worn about the same." This means that the roads are probably about the equal, but he is still worried that one holds something, that the other one doesn't. In the last stanza the speaker says with a sigh, "I picked the one less traveled by." we know they are the same, os we can infer that he is telling his story to someone later in his life, and is trying to make himself sound more brave and independent. Perhaps, this is how the speaker lives with it.
     I tend to worry about a lot of things. Most are useless, and come when I am forced to make a decision. Even if both options are equally as good or bad, I always feel like by choosing one, I will lose out on something. This poem has shown me that it will be okay, and even if I chose the wrong thing I will have to live with it.
   
The poem:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

The Outcast of 19 Schuyler Place

     I am still rather close to the beginning of The Outcast of 19 Schuyler Place, by E. L. Koningsburg, but I can already tell that it's gonna be a good book. I really love how descriptive Margaret is about why she loves her uncles. Their relationship is very special.
     She explains how she never feels as comfortable with her parents. Margaret also explains that she always felt more comfortable with her uncles. I think it's sad that she doesn't have a good relationship with her parents but it's good that she has her uncles, who she loves. In the beginning of the book, Margaret lists all the reasons why she loves her uncles, Making it very clear that can relate to her, and understand her more than her own parents can.

     Margaret doesn't seem to fit in anywhere, except her uncle's house. Closer to the middle of the book she talks about why she dislikes her parents. Her uncles are building giant towers of scrap glass, wood, and metal in their backyard. There are clocks on top of the towers, that are more for decoration than telling time. Margaret thinks of the towers are beautiful. Her dad thinks that they're a waste of time and space. She knows that her father loves her, but she says it's difficult to live with people who have such different opinions than you.
     In conclusion it is sad that Margaret doesn't have close family she can relate to, but she is very lucky to have people like her uncles around who understand her so well.

     

     

Soda Ban Essay, I'm having a lot of technical difficulties with posting, I'm trying trying to post old things, they should be up soonish

New York City Soda Ban Supported

New York City Mayor Bloomberg recently passed a law banning all sodas over 16 oz from city regulated businesses. The soda ban should be supported, because it will help lower obesity and diabetes rates. It will also make people think about what they are drinking before they use the loopholes to get around it.

The soda ban will help lower the rates of diabetes and obesity, there are a lot of loopholes, but the ban will still make larger portions of soda more expensive and harder to get. As Mayor Bloomberg said when explaining the ban, the point of the ban is not to completely take away your rights of doing what you want, it's to make you realize what a big impact soda has over your health.

Soda is a major component to health problems such as diabetes and obesity, in fact they cause over 5,000 New Yorkers die every year. Of course soda isn't the only reason diabetes and obesity rates are going up, but by eliminating large sodas the topic of obesity and diabetes has come up. Bringing more awareness to these issues, will make people understand the impact that soda has on them, and their health. As Casey Neistat said in the “Soda Ban Explained” video, "Whether or not this ridiculous ban passes, it has forced a conversation about why people are getting fat, and that, that's a good thing."

  According to “Sugar Wars,” Mayor Bloomberg said, "It's certainly not the last step that lots of cities are going to take, and, we believe that it will help save lives." This shows that Mayor Bloomberg knows, that soda isn't the only reason for diabetes and obesity, and that he will continue to help. Eliot Hoff, a spokesman. For New Yorkers for beverage choices, claims, "This is not the end." She too agrees that there is still more to do before obesity and diabetes aren't as big of a problem.

In conclusion in New York City soda ban should be supported, even though it's easy to get around it it will make New Yorkers think about what they are drinking before they buy their soda the difficult way. Nobody really needs all that soda, and the ban doesn't even completely take it away from you. Hopefully this will bring awareness to how seriously dangerous the levels of obesity and diabetes are. Whether you're for the ban, or against the ban, We can all agree that our health is important, and that we should come together to protect ourselves.