Stockton ThoughtBox

      Although my parents are fantastic, and I would consider my childhood about perfect, I do think that it is still very easy to relate to Jennette McCurdy's story.  I think that Jennette was forced into a situation where she had to please every single person that she came across.  It wasn't only Jennette's mom that she had to please.  Jennette had to please the people at church, her brothers, she wanted her dad to be happy. She had to please every director, every manager, every agent, every teacher, and every person she auditioned for.  Jennette's life became a matter of putting literally every single other person in front of herself.  She lied about what she felt so that her mom could just be happy.  Similarly, in my own life I've experienced the desire to lie and be uncomfortable for the benefit of others.   While Jennette's unfortunate condition was the product of constant pressure from her mom, my own was from my own mind.      In every aspect of her chil

      This winter break I went everywhere and did everything.  I traveled as far south as Texas, and as far North as Duluth, Minnesota.  Activities spanned from running a 5 minute mile to missing a flight and finally eating like a king for the past five days.        Beginning on December 15th, my break began.  I aced my Spanish exam and hustled out the school building to hit the airport.  My flight to Texas was very quick and everything went smoothly.  It was about 5 o'clock when we landed, and until that point I was running on a bowl of cereal for the day.  We got our bags, and hit the road.  The drive to my grandparents house is a long one, but we made a Bucee's stop so it was all okay      For those of you who haven't experienced Bucee's, it is life changing to say the least.  We drove up and the essence of America hit the inside of my nose.  For as far as I could see there were gas pumps, jacked up trucks, and dudes with rat tail mullets galore.  It then occurred to

       I think that the section of Gulliver's travels that most definitely singles out the human flaws is the Houyhnhnms section for two reasons.  This section not only uses Gulliver as a tool to create satire, but this section also makes Gulliver the butt of the joke as well.  The Houyhnhnms, being incredible horse people made only of reason can be used to both show how humans are really just pure evil.  But the again, Gulliver being a human turns on his own species.  Both of these aspects of the section are used to criticize how a human is full of vice, and how humans get so incredibly side tracked into their own endeavors that they forget about what is going on in their lives around them, ruining the connections that they have made.       Beginning with  Houyhnhnms, the Houyhnhnms are used to show where humans went wrong.  The horse people are full of only virtue.  This means that everything in their society has some sort of reason.  Their decisions are never influenced by emoti

In Lilliput, the Lilliputians based their government and laws upon good morals.  They saw honesty, trust, loyalty, and gratitude as the most important values of their civilization.  At least that is what they enforced.   People who lied, or were ungracious were punished by death.  This occurred frequently, and court cases were based less upon the crime committed, but actually were based upon the morals and values that a citizen held up or broke.  An example was provided where a man was falsely accused, and so for his inconvenience and honesty he was paid for his time.  The accuser, on the other hand, was put to death because of his dishonesty.       Although the Lilliputians were so keen upon these values and morals, it became clear that jealousy, disloyalty, and dishonesty ran rampant throughout the empire.  It showed hypocrisy.  This was shown when Gulliver was given the title of Nardac, something that really is just a name.  The treasurer and admiral became jealous and threatened by

 I believe that the greatest examples of manipulative rhetoric are the food commercials that portray food as literal perfection when in reality, it's not so pretty.  I would like to single out dominos, and McDonalds in particular.  I feel like when I see a McDonalds commercial, or a dominoes commercial, the fries are perfect, the bun is toasted and fluffy, and the cheese on the pizza is always so damn cheesy.  I know that sounds cheesy, but the reality is that McDonald's buns are actually smashed into a little box, and cheese on dominoes pizza just comes completely off in your first bite.  It's really a big let down.  Then, in 7th grade or so, the truth popped out.  There were videos everywhere of how Mcdonalds made their burgers look so perfect.  The patty was fake, the bun was professionally toasted, and then the icing on the cake was that the whole burger was held up so perfectly by toothpicks. It gave the lettuce tomato, and bun the perfect stack.  Then, there was the D

 I think that I would definitely rather have to dance every time I heard music as opposed to sing every time I heard music.  I feel like personally a lot more people get pissed off when people just start singing all the time...especially if they suck.  I've never heard someone say "why the hell is this guy always dancing all the time?" I feel like dancing is fun and I'm always moving my hips when I hear music anyway.  I also think that dancing all the time would keep me healthy.  Theres lots of cardio, and dancing whenever I heard music sounds like it would keep my joints youthful.  I also think that I'd join dancing with the stars and take the cake as well.  People can hold conversations while dancing and continue to function.  Shakira move over because there's a new guy in town.