Are Beauty Pageants Harmful?

I’ve been studying for my English Composition CLEP Test by picking a topic from a list and writing an essay off of that topic, so I though I would post some here as I wrote them. The facts are all made up, as the test doesn’t care so much about facts as it does how you support your views and your essay structure. Anyway…

The beauty pageant as an event has become a popular competitive activity since its start in the early 1900′s. Women from all over the world have entered themselves in beauty pageants, and even the parents of pretty young ladies have given their daughters the opportunity to participate. The competition can be fierce, with hundreds of women presenting themselves before the judges in the hopes of being named “Miss California” or “Miss America” as a reward for their good looks. But while a casual observer might find beauty pageants a seemingly harmless activity, others have raised concerns about the effect of these events on average Americans, and even on the participants themselves. Is there a negative physiological effect to beauty pageant observers? Who do the pageants effect? What effect do these competitions have on the participants?

Being named beauty of the year out of a myriad of other women can be quite a boost to ones self-esteem, and having a positive view of oneself can encourage you to use your new found fame to promote causes that are important to you. In fact, numerous beauty pageant winners have gone on to use their fame to do just that. 2009′s winner of the Washington State Beauty Gala, Edith Odriew, went on to promote the Society For Inept Students by starring in their TV commercials. Sally Taf, winner of the National Beauty Contest, used her fame to get into a reality TV show, and from there encouraged young ladies to pursue their dreams. For both of these winners, their boosted self-esteem opened new doors for them, allowing them to expand their horizons and be a role model for others.

With all the media coverage that most beauty pageants have, it is inevitable that the winners, and even the runner-ups, build a fan base. Not surprisingly, while a good percentage of beauty pageant watchers are men between the ages of 20 and 35, statistics have shown that the majority of pageant followers are girls between the age of 10 and 17, a highly impressionable age. This provides a tremendous opportunity for the pageant winners to be good role models for young female fans. Unfortunately, while many winners have put their influence to good use, many others have squandered the opportunity, choosing instead to use their fame to pursue whatever catches their fancy. While some end up on a socially acceptable path, others have fallen under pressure and taken up drug use or other negative activities. This can send a confusing message to young fans looking for someone to imitate in life. But while even a beauty pageant winner that is a good role model can benefit young fans, there is another point to consider about the effects of beauty pageants.

The constant barrage of faces that are lauded as “beautiful” or “gorgeous” during a beauty pageant may be nice to look at, but it sets a standard of beauty that is limited and harmful to the populace in general. This limited view of beauty can be harmful to young women, causing them to become discouraged when they can’t fit themselves into that particular category of good looks. This discouragement can often be unfounded, as while they may not be beautiful according to beauty pageants, their own unique beauty sets them in a class all by themselves. Not only might young women be affected by this limited view of beauty, but young men might also be deceived into setting a high and unnecessary standard of female beauty that limits them in their quest for a partner. Sadly, these side effects of beauty pageants have had quite an effect on the population; in fact, a study done in 2008 asking females between the age of 15 and 25 if they thought they were beautiful or not, showed that more than 70% of them said they would not call themselves beautiful. This doubt of one’s beauty by a large sample of the female population, and the unnecessary standards set by many males, seems to be a unfortunate side effect of beauty pageants and their limited scope.

With the beauty pageant being such a well know event that has branched out into many parts of society, the effects of this event should now be apparent amongst the general populace. While there is no doubt that these pageants have opened doors for some women, allowing them to use their influence to provide good role models and promote causes they support, the sometimes little noticed side effects often have a greater effect. It seems to me that the narrow minded standards of beauty set by beauty pageants is harmful to society in general, and not worth the small accomplishments that come out of a beauty pageant.

Ultimately the Ultimate

Ok, I’m going to say it. No I’m not. I never will. I’m to loyal. Naw, why lie to myself. Aww, I guess I’ll say it…maybe.  Yeah, ok here goes. I am officially now saying that I love Ultimate Frisbee more than Base….than, baseb….more than baseball. *pause* I still love you baseball! Please don’t let this mar our relationship! Ok, well baseball used to be my favorite sport, but now Ultimate has taken 1st place, with baseball right underneath it. Ultimate is just so much fun! There’s nothing quite like seeing that disc (yes, it is a disc, not a Frisbee, because that’s the name of the manufacturers of the first discs) fly out of your hand and down the field, with a teammate running it down to advance the play. Or vice versa, having someone huck (i.e. throw a long pass) it to you down field, and you be the one pounding over the ground to pull down that disc, leaving nothing but wind and opposing players behind you. Or throwing hammers (they can’t be described, so if you don’t know what they are, you missing out), I loooooove throwing hammers. My teammates can attest to that. Pretty much just everything about Ultimate is amazing, except for getting exhausted. Ironically, I got my first leg cramp just now after playing a couple hours of intense Ultimate.  But even that isn’t so bad considering all the benefits. Yeah, I love Ultimate.

I still love you to baseball….just don’t tell Ultimate.

It’s Been A While

Yeah, it’s been a looong time since my last post. What’s happened since uh *checks date of last post*, April last year? Well….a heck of a lot. But me is boring, let’s focus on you. More specifically, are you out there? Which kind of comes back to me. If you’re not out there, well then, I’m not going to hang around here. It’s kind of the way things work in this world. If nobody bought iPods, would Apple keep making them? I think not. Which would be a bummer, because than I couldn’t replace mine when I need to. Anyway, as I was saying, it’s the supply and demand idea. You demand, I supply. And vice versa. Oh,  it’s kind of a part of capitalism. Well, not limited to capitalism I guess, but it’s still a part of it, just like money. Haha….wow, this paragraph structure sucks. Can you believe I’m getting ready to take a English Composition test?

Actually, I love writing, when I get myself to do it. This test I’m studying for, part of it is a multiple choice test, which I honestly love doing. For me, it’s fun, easy, and entertaining. Especially when they give you a sentence to read, and you’re supposed to find the mistakes. I mean, some of the sentences are so hilariously messed up it’s quite amusing.

You another thing I love? Music. Yeah, I know, who doesn’t. But lately I’ve been expanding my musical tastes oh the slightest bit. I’ve started listening to some Jason Mraz, Daughtry (how about those side by side?), Michael Buble, and Five For Fighting. That’s some good stuff right there.

So anyway. But anyhow. Yada yada. Yeah…..so, if you demand, I’ll supply…..hopefully. Tu tienes, yo dar. Tipicalmente.

Country Music Myths

Being a big country music fan, I get a little irritated when people start bad mouthing it and putting it down. While it’s not really a big deal, I thought I would write a little article for the fun of it on country music and why it’s not what a lot of people say it is. So here goes.

Common Myths About Country Music

Country Singers Can’t Sing-

The first thing to realize is that obviously someone who listens to rock or the like isn’t going to like how county artists sing, because for the most part, it’s a whole different style. It’s not that country singers can’t sing, it’s just a different style. If you listen to artists like Martina McBride, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton, George Strait, or Tim McGraw, you can’t say that they can’t sing. You may not like how they sing, but they can sing.

Country Songs Have Lame Lyrics-

I’ve heard people say that country songs are about things like stains on white t-shirts and trailer parks, and other weird things, but how many country songs have these people actually listened to? Country songs have a wide range of subjects, varying from the love, America, family, to cars, being a guy, God, and the little things in life. Some artists bring a good sense of humor into their songs, and others do better with a more serious outtake on life.

Country Music Does Take Any Musical Talent

If you think that country songs are simple musically, or they don’t require any skill to play, you need to get out more. Just listen to artists like Brad Paisley or Keith Urban, among others. Country songs are actually very diverse in their style, with the style varying from bluegrass to rock, although mostly in between those two.

Why I Prefer Country Music Over Other Musical Genres

I find country music the most enjoyable because of the diversity in style and lyrics, as mentioned above, and also in the wide variety of musical instruments employed. I love hearing the different sounds of the guitar, piano, violin, keyboard, banjo, ganjo, mandolin, bass, drums and the other instruments used. As for lyrics, while there are plenty of songs that I don’t listen to because of the lyrics, the variety of different songs compensates for that.

A Separate Quibble With Another Music Genre

Christian Contemporary. First, I have no problem with the lyrics (for the most part), praising God is wonderful, and I wish I could take the lyrics and put them to a country tune. But the musical part is where I have my problems with this genre. There just isn’t enough variety. The assortment of musical instruments used is normally small (guitar, keyboard, violin, drums), and I have yet to hear an instrumental solo that makes a song worth listening to in of itself. The song formula is like; A, B, A, B, C; and that just isn’t very creative. Granted, I haven’t listened to a ton of Christian Contemporary, and there are some artists that I like, I just don’t find that genre all that exciting musically.

So there you have it, my thoughts on country music and Christian Contemporary music. This little article wasn’t pointed at anyone specifically, and I’m not mad about the subject, I just wanted to get this out of my system. So now you know why I prefer country music.

Dear Job

I wrote a letter to Job for a school assignment recently…

Dear Job,

I have heard of the tribulations you have been experiencing, and was moved to write this letter to you. I know that some of your friends have been accusing you of having committed a great sin or considering yourself as great as God. Having considering these accusations, and studied the Bible on the subject of tribulation, I have decided to send you my thoughts on the subject, and hopefully encourage you with them. So here goes.

I think one thing you may not have considered in your reflections is the possibility of the involvement of Satan in your trials. The fallen angel is always looking for some way to bring humans down to Hell with him, and by bringing down all kinds of troubles down on you; he could be hoping to loosen your faith in God. In 1 Peter 5:8, it says, “…your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Your afflictions could be produced by Satan in his attempts to turn you from God. So don’t let your friends convince you that because terrible things are happening to you it is necessarily because you have sinned and God is punishing you.

But yet don’t get discouraged and think that now you’re in for the long haul, and you just have to survive until Satan or you gives up. The only reason that Satan can bring these things down on you is because God allows it. God sometimes uses trials like you are going through to strengthen and intensify your faith and character. After you have gone through suffering for a while, God will restore you, as stated in 1 Peter 5:10: “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” God has a plan for you, which leads me into the last point I wanted to share with you.

God has planned your life before the beginning of time, and his plan is in your best interest in the long run. Your personal afflictions might also (and I would say most likely will) affect other people around you in some way, whether it is physically, mentally, or spiritually. By seeing you persevering in your faith while experiencing considerable afflictions, someone could be encouraged by your perseverance in your faith. Even people far away could be encouraged by hearing about your limitless faith. Just remember that God has a plan for you that will ultimately be in the best interests for you and others around you.

If you get anything from this letter, I hope it is that just because you are suffering it is not your fault, or because God is angered at you; and that God’s plan will work out. Also that your perseverance amidst afflictions could be influencing your friends and acquaintances, and faith in God’s plan is always the best strategy.

Sincerely,

Will Claybourne

New Year

Here’s to a happy and successful 2009! Here’s to Barack Obama not ruining our country in the his first year! Here’s to more people getting to know the Lord! Here’s to 2009!

And here’s to me writing more posts this year…

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Accompanying

One of the things I do with  my musical skills, is accompanying choirs. Actually, I just recently started doing that, but I’ve had some interesting challenges anyway. Like having the choir forget to come in, and having to go back and pretend like nothing happened. Or more recently, having my sheet music in the wrong order and having to ad lib as I try to find the right page. Accompanying is one of those things thats low pressure and easy, but yet high pressure and hard. I know, it sounds contradictory, but it’s true. But I enjoy it, it’s fun and good practice.

Oh My Gosh!

Oh my gosh, new wordpress dashboard style! Oh my gosh, they changed it again! Oh my gosh, I like it! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, don’t they have anything better to do, like make new blog themes! Oh my gosh, what is the deal with this post!

Things I’m Thankful For

With Thanksgiving upon us, I thought it would be appropriate to write a list of things I’m thankful for( in no particular order). So…

My God
Being one of Gods chosen
Jesus dying on the cross for me
My Family
My Home
My Country
My Piano (humble though it be)
My Health (besides my broken leg)
Music
My Violin
My Freedom
Any talent I have
Baseball
My Job
My Friends
Nature
My Life
My Computer
My Baseball Glove
My Common Sense
My Reputation
…and many, many, many, more things!

Wanting An Opinion…

Ok, so one of my identities is as a writer. I’ve started a few books, written a short story, and composed quite a few theological/editorial articles. But right now I’m trying to come to a decision. Do I start a mystery story, and come up with a intense plot and a culprit that you never expected? Do I write a humorous story about a man that is followed home by a friendly ghost? Or do I take a historical fiction that I’ve been working on, and start it over and revise it? Well, I thought it would be interesting to see what you guys think sounds appealing, so do me a favor and vote on the poll below. Thanks!

Broken Leg

Ok, this is an old post, I’m just relocating it from a page to the main blog.

Written by Jacob DeRu, a short account on how Bryce broke his leg.

Bryce: “I was playing ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of kids. Well, more actually.” More meaning, more then just a bunch of kids, there were a lot of people there. “ I jumped up to catch the Frisbee, along with another guy, and when we came down he landed on my lower left leg. ummm. And so I fell on the ground, and was in a pain kind of a mixture. A mixture between a twisted ankle and loosing your breath. And I couldn’t talk for a minute or two. I didn’t know what had happened at first, it was like, painful but I didn’t know if it was broken or anything. so then all the people from Frisbee were all standing around, trying to figure out if I had actually broken something or what. So I tried to movie my legg, but it felt like jello so I decided not to move it too much. Then I borrowed, well, someone gave me a cell phone and I called my mom while another lady called 9-11. A cop came and took control of the situation, and an ambulance and a fire truck came. I don’t know why they needed a fire truck but … so they took me to the Skagit valley hospital, in an ambulance. The most painful part when they were putting me into the ambulance was umm, when they took off my shoe on the broken leg. It was easier when I was holding someone’s hand, because then I could have something to squeeze.”

Mrs. Atilano: “I was squeezing Bryce’s hand back, and I found that when I was squeezing, I squeezed it really hard, and I caught myself and was like, I hope I didn’t hurt him!”

Bryce: “It was the longest drive to Mount Vernon I’ve ever had. While I was in an ambulance, the doctor asked me how I would rate my pain, on a scale of 1 to 10. I said I was either 5 or 6. Then I asked him if he had ever heard of Brian Regan, who did a comedy show about the emergency room and had been asked the same question. The doctor did not though. When I got there they took me to the emergency room, they hooked me up to an IV for pain medication and took off my splint that they had put me into earlier. Then eventually they took some x-rays, and they took me to a different room, a more comfortable one. I couldn’t have anything to eat or drink after Thursday midnight in preparation for surgery the next day. So around one o’clock they prepared me for surgery, and I went into surgery at 2:00. They put me out and when I woke up it was about 6:15. in the surgery they put a rod up my main bone to connect the two bones together, and left the small bone because it would heal by itself. Then they hooked me up to another devise and slept the rest of the night, falling asleep, and waking up, and falling asleep, and so on. They also “checked my vitals”… that’s what they call it. You know, it’s where they checked my blood pressure and all that. So I just spent Saturday morning lying in bed, eventually the physical therapist came in and helped me practice with crutches. I did watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 while I was here, off and on all weekend.”

A note from Jacob: on the power bed that Bryce is resting on, there is a warning sign that reads, “Only operate bed with persons clear of powered bed mechanisms to prevent serious injury” … so how does Bryce sit up?

Jacob: “So what happened to your jeans?”

Bryce: “The nurses and the, yeah, they cut them off with scissors. They had to cut this pant leg” [his left], “so they could put the splint on, and at the emergency room they cut it all off.”

Jacob: “so, how did the people at the hospital treat you?”

Bryce: “Awful! No I‘m just kidding! They treated me really well. The food is ok. Nothing gourmet.”

Jacob: “how did you sleep?”

Bryce: “I would dose off a little later” [after surgery], “waking up an hour later. The longest I had was about 3 hours. Sometimes it’s kind of a “half way” sleep. I usually sleep on my stomach, so sleeping on my back was awkward.”

Jacob: “so when do you think you’ll be let out?”

Bryce: “If all goes well, in an hour or two.”

(It’s about 12:52)

Jacob: “would you go play Frisbee again?”

Bryce: “Yeah, as soon as I’m healed I’ll probably play again, though I’ll probably lay off the jumping near people trying to catch the Frisbee.”

The Impossiblity of Choosing God

One of the most common believes in today’s evangelical churches is the idea that man choose whether or not to follow God and become a Christian. It is believed that:

1. When Jesus died on the cross, he saved everyone, opening up the path to Heaven and eternal life with God.

2. After that, it is up to the human being to decide for themselves whether or not to follow Christ.

I believe this is a faulty belief, and I’ll explain why.

It is should only be necessary to look at one point to see that this first statement, that Jesus’ death and resurrection saved everyone, is impossible. To start with, what do we know about God (who is also the Son and the Holy Spirit)? We know that he is perfect, without mistake, powerful, wise, and has many other good qualities. Knowing this, we can safely assume that God never messes up. So if you say that Jesus died to save everyone’s sins, but yet we know that people still go to Hell, then we are saying that Jesus’ death didn’t work, or he was inadequate for the task. This would make God not God, because he messed up. Therefore he must have died for people that he had already chosen (Eph. 1:4-5).

The second point needs the understanding of the nature of man. When Adam disobeyed God and brought sin into the world, man became utterly sinful and separated from God. As it says in Romans 3:10-12, “As it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even on.” If that is the case, then how could natural man ever decide to choose God? His natural tendency is evilness, thus he would have no desire to choose good. This is why we need Gods help entirely.

The Ups and Downs of Having a Broken Leg

I broke my leg playing Ultimate Frisbee (yes, a no contact sport) a couple weeks ago, and since then I have ridden in an ambulance, spent three days in a hospital, had surgery, been on morphine, and spent a lot of time laying or sitting with my leg up.

Saturday the 6th I left the hospital and came home. My living space has been the living room, and I’ve slept on the couch. Thankfully I’ve had means of keeping myself occupied, as we hooked up the computer in the living room. Plus I’ve done a good amount of reading. I’ve left the house only to go down to my grandparents (5 minutes away), and then once to visit the doctor.

There are some good things about having a broken leg. For one, I get to spend a lot of time just laying around (which is also one of the bad things). I can spend a lot of time reading, playing computer, being on the internet, watching movies, and just hanging out. Everybody else in the family has to wait on me most of the time, and I don’t have to do any work.

But the negatives make me wish that I didn’t have a broken leg. I have to lay around all the time with my leg propped up, which can get rather boring. I normally sleep on my stomach, but with my leg broken I have to sleep on my back. I have to wake up in the middle of the night to take my painkillers, and I’m pretty hampered in my movements. I’m a rather athletic sort of guy, and I enjoy playing baseball and doing all sorts of active things, but now I can’t do any of that for a while. Worst of all, its hard for me to play my instruments.

So I would rather have not broken my leg. But hey, at least I’ll have a good story to tell.

Band Wrap-Up

Thursday the 15th was the last band practice of this years semester/round/whatever, and Friday we performed out Spring Concert. It was a lot of fun, and everybody perfomed well. It got rather warm in the hall during the concert, but a few fans and some “cool” music hopefully kept the audience comfortable.

Over all, I really enjoyed being in the band and playing and performing our music. And it was especially fun in the percussion section. In the percussion section, I played the bells, the timpani, the piano, the crash cymbals, the xylophone, the chimes, and a garbage can lid (yes, a real one). I had the most fun playing the timpani. There’s just something fun about pounding something to make a sound similiar to thunder.

I met a lot of nice people, and had lots of fun traveling around on a bus to Band Festival. Did I talk about that in a different post? I don’t think I did. It was a lot of fun, we had to meet at 5:30AM to load on to 2 charter buses, and then drive for about 2 hours until we arrived at our destination. The Festival lasted the whole day, and our groups ranked pretty well, for the most part. And then we had to load back into the bus and drive back to our cars. We finally got back at around 8:00PM. Looong day.

I’m definetly glad I did it, and I really hope to do it next year if possible. It’s always fun to play music in a group. And we played a lot of fun and exciting songs (The Incredibles, John Williams in Concert, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc.). One thing I learned during the band year; counting is important!

Animal Pictures

Here are some pictures of some of the animals we have.

That’s two of our baby goats, and here’s the third…

 

A Quick Note: Life on the Farm

Yeah, the latest news on the farm here is the unexpected birth of three white baby goats. We wanted to breed out one goat, a Saanen, but we didn’t think anything had happened once we we had, you know, got the two goats together. But this last week we thought that she looked pregnant. And sure enough, this morning I went out to take care of the goats, and there were 3 baby goats. So we had to take care of them before we headed off to a conference, which I’ll tell you about when I get a chance.