Wally World

On Walmart's home page you see these 4 points of interest: community, opportunity,sustainability and health & wellness. Analyzing these 4 main drives of Walmart has been interesting...leading me to find Walmart's goals.

-LEAH-

Community- "At Wal-Mart, we believe in a philosophy of operating globally and giving back locally. We know we can make the greatest impact on our communities by supporting causes that are important to our customers right in their own neighborhoods." Do you think that Walmart gives back for the "good" of people, or do they do it for the "fame" of giving? When companies who are being competed with by other popular and successful companies, I would think that the company would be more interested in GETTING the interest of the community.

Opportunity- "Through the jobs we provide, and the money we help people save, we generate economic opportunity in communities where we operate. We make every effort to ensure that we site our stores in a manner that meets the environmental needs of our communities." Does any company really care if the community has the opportunity to work? By saying they give out opportunities they are just saying that they need employees to make their business work.

Sustainability- "We view environmental sustainability as one of the most important opportunities for both the future of our business, and the future of our world.
Our opportunity is to become a better company by looking at every facet of our business—from the products we offer to the energy we use—through the lens of sustainability." I hate this. I hate when companies will say anything to make them sound like they care about more things than themselves. Walmart just wants to be bigger. They want to have NO competition and BE the one store people WANT to go to.

Health and Wellness- "At Wal-Mart, we have the opportan having a doctor prescribe one to yo
Thus, I have just become sickened with the way companies have began to use this tactic in drawing people to thier store.

Changes In My Research

So I decided to change my research idea. The pop culture and pop stars research would mostly be all opinionated and not true, hard facts. So my new research topic is OCD. ( obsessive-compulsive disorder) Now with this new topic I can find the history, symptoms, cases and treatments of this disorder.

I personally have no history with this disorder, not does anyone else in my family or extended family...but this topic interest me. I would love to learn about how people's minds work when they have this disorder and how it effects thier daily life. There is so much to learn about things that...i dont know about.

Worthy of My Time?

Today we had a sit down home-room for about 20 minuets. There we received our transcripts, a record of all the classes we have taken throughout high school. It occurred to me how much I have changed since Freshman year.

-LEAH-

Have you ever looked back on a time and be surprised to see how much you have changed? Reflecting on past years, I found that I have matured more; not only physically but emotionally. I walk down the halls today and see freshman making out in the halls, like there is no tomorrow. They walk and stop in the halls because they HAVE to, at that minute, hear the latest gossip. Sure I may be generalizing and stereotyping, but you remeber how it use to be. And now, as a junior, we walk through the halls, slowly, not rushing to our class or our friends to hear the latest gossip. We are surprised when we hear a fellow junior has a full 1st through 6th hour and can't even imagin how they can stand to be at school for that long.

It seems like alot of things have changed. Everything was a big deal when I was a freshman. Someone told me they hated me and that became all I could think about. Drama between friends was my life. Boys and who they liked was all that was on my mind. Now, looking back on all of that, I relize that I wasted a whole year of my life worrying about stupid things and doing pointless things I regret today.

I hope that now, reflecting on past years, I will always remember to think about what I am doing and how I am spending my time and decide if it is really worth my time.

Be Yourself

What Are Eating Disorders?
Generally, eating disorders involve self-critical, negative thoughts and feelings about body weight and eating habits. A person with anorexia starves himself/ herself to be thin and experiences weight loss. Bulimia is the binge eating and purging. A child with bulimia may experience weight fluctuations, but rarely experiences the low weight loss as anorexia does.

Warning Signs of Eating Disorders
It can be a challenge for parents to tell the difference between a child's normal self-image concerns, and warning signs that a child may be developing an eating disorder.
In anorexia, these signs include:

significant weight loss
continual dieting feelings of fatness
fear of weight gain
lack of menstrual periods
compulsive exercise
depression with social withdrawal
The warning signs of bulimia include:

uncntrollable eating
vomiting
frequent use of the bathroom after meals
reddened finger(s) swollen cheeks or glands
depression or mood swings
dental problems
heartburn and/or bloating

Eating disorders has been a problem among teens for a long time. The media effects the mindset of people, both male and female, leading them to believe the HAVE to look like everyone else to be accepted. I once heard that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And that is what I believe. You can look beautiful being a size 0 or a size 14 ! You don't have to conform to the croud to be accepted, just be yourself!

P-P-P-POP CULTURE

Research papers are coming up again! My last big research paper was about chocolate. This time, I have a better, more interesting, topic in mind.
-LEAH-

So I believe that I have finally decided on what my next research paper is going to be about. It is going to be something that is interesting to me, something that I know I won’t get sick of reading about and something that my audience won’t get bored with. I decided to write about pop-culture stars. I would like to look at their life “before Hollywood” and compare it to their lives now. I think it will be interesting to see how Hollywood has changed their lives.

There are many questions I have planned to answer in my research including: Why “pop-stars” have such a big influence on their generations, Where will they go from “fame”, What is their response to tabloids, What goes wrong, What they do for fame and fortune and if fame follows them or is they follow fame. As you can see I have many questions to answer and a lot of research to do.

If you have any advice, feel free to leave a comment!

And Again...

So today I was super sick of school. My Junior year is almost over and I still find myself dragging myself out of bed, everyday, and wishing it was Friday!

-LEAH-

Have you ever felt stuck in life? Like you don't know what else to do besides what you are doing now? Things seem to never turn out the way I want and are definitely not going as planned. Is this just the way we grow up?

Recently, I have felt like I can't do anything right. My grades have fallen from term one, I can't seem to please everyone or even myself. My parents are always finding something to yell at me about and stress builds up every day from the dance/drama group I co-lead at my church.

Why are the teenage years so hard?!?

Day after day, we all come to school. We sit in a desk for 7 hours and get lectured. People crowd the halls; talking and making-out, feeling like you have to break through a brick wall just to get through to your next class. We all dread the last class, the last 20 minuets we are required to be sitting in our seats and listening to the teacher speak to blank faces. Soon we all see the person next to you or maybe even yourself, beginning to slouch down in the desk chair, maybe nodding thier head a little and then find that sleeping is Heaven compared to school.

Why do we NEED to go to school? Wouldn't a teenager's time, easily be spent somewhere else?


Don't get me wrong, education is important. I think that it is important to have a good education to suceed in life, but that is just my opinion. But school has become a drag, a norm in life that many dread.

How can school become better; easier to "do" ? I think this has been a question that many have tried to answer for many years.

The Place of Shame

Experiences are priceless and make great stories. Here is one that just happened to me last night.

-LEAH-

Have you ever walked into a place, a place you have never been before, and felt like everyone was watching your every move; as if they couldn't believer that YOU were there? I have. I had an experience like that just the other day, actually, when I walked into a place we are just going to call "The place of shame".
I parked my car in an almost full parking lot, not knowing if i was even in the right place. I took a deep breath, tried to control my shaking hands and couldn't believe I was nervous. I began walking up to the glass doors, which had the "Open Hours" printed on them. I arrived there 5 minuets before they closed.
I proceeded through the doors to find 3 women sitting straight ahead of me, at the reception desk. The looks came. They looked at me like I was to be in shame; like they were disgusted to see me THERE. I tried to ignore the looks all I could and continued forward to approach them. I did what I went there to do, just ask them a couple questions. I ended up staying there for 30 minuets filling out papers and paying $45!
How is it, whenever you go somewhere to do something, it ALWAYS results in accomplishing that task and more? I turned my papers and my money in and left that "Place of shame" as fast as I could. I drove to Burger King and tried to drain all my shame in a fast-food cheesburger.

Cakes, Pies and Muffins

Obviously while blogging in was craving something. Every dessert seemed to appeal to me after writing this blog, too. CAUTION: THIS BLOG MAY CAUSE MAS CRAVINGS OF DESSERTS!

-LEAH-

One box of cake mix: $3.75

One gallon of milk: $2.32

One carton of eggs: $1.78

One can on frosting: $.99

One cake: Priceless

I have one thing to say about cake; CAKE IS THE HEALER OF THE HEART. Why is it whenever you have a bad day or go through a bad break-up, sweets are always there for comfort. For me, food seems to be the only thing that sticks around and is always there to comfort me.
Cake is not the only dessert that provides, not only comfort, but a solution for cravings and hunger. Pies of every flavor satisfy me! The crust of pies are not too crunchy or have a chalky-like texture, but are just right. But I would defenently have to say the the whipped cream on top of every pie IS the best part of the dessert.
What food provides a better start to your day than a muffin? Chocolate, banana, blueberry and struddle; any muffin is a great start to a Monday or any day of the week.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tcR19y7GPM)

What Job...

These are just some occupations that jumped in my head that i was thinking about today. They are not the tipical jobs and may not be ones you are interested in but they are all important to our society.

-LEAH

To be a chef

It would seem that having the occupation of a chef would be a dream come true. You get to be around food all day long, cook and eat! Daily chef's create "masterpieces" and serve them to their hungry customers, hoping that all their hard work pays off. Being a chef seems like it would be an adventurous job. Some chefs even get to have their own cooking show. What job would be better than this one?

To be a teacher

Every day you are faced with students complaining, whining and coming up with excuses for not being on time or having their work done. Some teachers seem to have power while others have no control at all. Teachers say they are underpaid and the reason they do the job that they do is for the students; the students who don't have any respect. What job is worse than being a teacher?

To be an astonaunt

Talk about adventure; astronaunts define the word. They are smart. They are faced daily with problems that may endanger their lives and work with technology that many people don't even know how to work. They take risks. Going into space is no walk in the park. The astronaunts have to be ready for anything to happen. What job is more adventurous than this?

If I Lived Like I Was Dying...

These are just a few of the things I would love to accomplish before I die. Read my list and maybe even make a list of your own. Have Fun!

-LEAH

1. Attend the Olympics
2. Fall in love
3. Be a mentor
4. Run a marathon
5. Sleep under the stars
6. Sing infront of a large crowd
7. Let someone else have the chance you never had
8. Write a book
9. Tour a vineyard
10. Scream from the top of a mountain
11. Walk the Great Wall of China
12. Name a star
13. Swim in the Seven Seas
14. Burry a time capsule
15. Go on a cruise
16. Go to a drive-thru-movie
17. Sing karaoke in a bar
18. Swim under a waterfall
19. Sneak out for a night
20. Start a buissness
21. Go to the Superbowl