'Longest flight ever'

I love airports; love them. they make me feel like anything is possible with so many links to the world. I love the diversity of the people at airports; watching them all come together to travel.

Basically, it takes a lot to say I had a horrible experience via air travel. This memory wasn't even that bad, but I remember it well and the details stick out to me.

The flight from San Francisco to Osaka, Japan was the longest I'd been on an airplane; eleven hours.

I had asked for a window seat back in Salt Lake City and was told I had one. Alas when the attendant called my name to pick up my e-ticket, it said 'E50'.
... On a 747 airbus 'E' is dead center. As it was a full flight and I was one of the ten people aboard who didn't speak Japanese(fluently, in my defense) there was no hope of trading.

So I settled into my seat and took in my surrounding seat-mates: A pair of newly-weds to my right and a boy with a staring problem on my left.

"It's all good." I told myself, "I brought three books and my Ipod."

As the plane began backing out the begin taxiing my stomach did a back flip. I couldn't see out. I'd only had Claustrophobia completely derail me once before when I got stuck in a dryer playing hide and go seek. But at that moment i could feel it clawing its way up my throat. The woman next to me asked if I was alright, as she noticed my whole body going rigid.

"Just fine." I squeaked. I'm so screwed! I yelled in my head. I can't do this the entire trip!

As the plane straightened out and began forward, i felt minutely better; my heart rate was slowing down only to speed back up again as we began to speed down the runway.

This is my favorite part about flying; The G-Force pressing you back into your seat. Nothing as silly as a crappy seat was going to ruin this for me. I usually get a goofy grin on my face about now.

The plane reached it's cruising altitude and my stomach had gotten used to the feel of the motion, even if i couldn't 'see' it. I began to read my first book when i took notice of the occupants in the row in front of me: four small children between the ages of four and six. Enter the magical Ipod.

I began to read my first book trying to ignore the boy next to me reading over my shoulder when they brought drinks around. The steward was kind and asked me what I'd like.

"Root Beer, please if you have it."

He heard the beer part. so seventeen year old I, sat with an opened can of beer unsure of what to do. The man on my right laughed and said he'd trade me his Coke.

After several hours of more awkward experiences of climbing over others to go the bathroom, adjusting my seating position and elbowing someone, laughing out loud at my book, and over all feeling like an over sized American I started to get a little wiggy. It seemed as though I had always been on this plane. Had I ever been in Utah? It felt like years ago. The strangers around me felt familiar although I knew none of them or even talked to them; as if we had been on this journey together for months. I can only imagine what it felt like four hundred years ago when immigrants came to North America and they were on a ship for several months together. It seemed like the small airplane icon on the screen map in front of me never moved any closer to the International Date line much less Japan. I realized when we actually DID cross the International Date line, that my Fourth of July had only been seven hours long.

I think it was sleep deprivation that made me start to question the passage of time. But I had never been about to sleep on airplanes.

At last, I felt the Plane begin to descend into the Osaka Kansai Airport.

I'm calling ahead for a window seat next time. I told myself.

Writing Fallacies

Begging the question- All mormons are closeminded because no openminded person would become a mormon.

Either-or- Either we don't allow illigal immigrants into the country or we go without good mexican food.

False analogies- Glasses always get lost or broken, so everyone should just get lasik.

Hasty generalization - That boy has smiled at me everyday in the hall, he must be in love with me.

Non sequitur- I hear rain falling outside my window, therefore the sun is not shining.

Oversimplification- Because we now have an african-american president, all racism will be abolished.

Post Hoc fallacy- Whenever I straighten my hair, it rains.

Rationalization- I never win at track meets, because I don't get enough sleep.

Slipperyslope- If we don't all switch to driving a Prius, the polar ice caps will melt.

Bandwagon appeals- I should start smoking weed, because everyone else my age is doing it.

Name-calling- "I can't believe you didn't get that question right, your so retarded!"

Polarization- Mormons are gay-haters.

Straw man- The U.S. will never be able to repay it's national debt to China, unless we sell them Alaska.

"Monster in a Ryokan"

This essay begins with a statement, "A monster is a relative thing."
Mary Roach is a writer visiting Japan and this is about her experience in a Japanese inn called a 'Ryokan'.

It began with her wearing her wet muddy shoes inside, making all the people working there cringe. Then she continued wearing the wrong slippers in the wrong rooms and tripping over all the low laying furniture feeling more and more like Godzilla in a very fragile world.

Thinking that she can finally relax and take a bath, she gets into the tub, washes up, and rinses. Only on her return to her room does she see the pamphlet of "how to's in Japan" discovering that washing with soap in the tub is a big, big no-no. She is almost relieved when she notices that she is wearing the toilet slippers in the bedroom, knowing that she can't break anymore customs, as she has already broken them all.

1. "A monster is a relative thing" was a great way to give an effective feel for the rest of the essay and give the reader the viewpoint she is writing from.

2. The comparisons she gave between American and Japanese culture were great examples anyone would have understood the point of her observation, regardless if they knew a lot or nothing about Japanese culture and customs.

3. She presents herself as Godzilla in Tokyo. Not only is her body build differently, her mannerisms are American made. She depicts herself from a Japanese viewpoint of loud, clumsy, and messy.

4. We enjoy one an others travel stories because they are something that everyone has and can share to bring people together.

'let it snow'

'Let it Snow' is based in North Carolina in winter. David(the narrator) is currently a fifth grade boy and describes a time in that season that he and his sisters were locked out of there home by their mother during a snow day. It goes on the explain his mother's drinking and his fathers probable indifference to their predicament.

David comes up with a plan to gets an adults attention(mainly his parents) and tells his sister to go lay down in the road. The first car that comes by happens to be a neighbor. They tell him their dilemma and their solution. He "told on them" by going to talk to their mother, whom they noticed had come outside without pants or shoes on. She explains when they ask, that she was wearing loafers just a second ago and one had been lost in the snow. As they return inside, the children use one of their scarves and hats to make a shoe for her; encircling her as they walked.

1. The snowstorm gives a scene for this reflection from a child's view. A snow day would be a strong memory for a child.

2. David wrote an entire paragraph describing the affection-starved youngest sister(the one in the road) showing that he now sees that using her was a mistake and an abuse of his elder-sibling authority.

3. Without the humor of the essay, the passage would have only reflected the memory of neglected children from their standpoint. the humor reminds the reader that the solution was thought up by a child.

4. The tone of this essay is crucial to understanding the writers current feelings about the memory. His tone gives the impression that he has accepted the errors he and his parents made in the reflection. and the description of the around their mother, "encircling her tightly as they walked" says that they have already accepted their mother's problems and will provide for her anyway.

Testing

I've never does this before. The idea of a blog really weirded me out. Now I shall start one for a class. Guess there is no time like now to start something new.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear." -Ambrose Redmoon