Traveling

I'm not entirely sure what is so appealing about traveling to me, but I love it. I know plenty of people from all over the world, and in several of my classes, we're learning about different cultures. It's just so fascinating to me how different one culture can be from another.
In English, we're reading the Odyssey, and although I'm not a huge fan of the book, I do really like the cultural examples I'm picking up from it. Greek mythology is a direct insider to the way they lived, and I can see where Americans got some of their cultural ideas.
In Comparitive Global Issues, we're learning about Africa and all the different parts of it. It's amazing to me how even on one continent there can be such a variety of tribes, each with their own set of beliefs and cultural elements.
Then, as I was listening to Kanye West's Love Lockdown, I heard the Japanese taiko drums which create such a unique sound to the song.
I continued my youtube journey by going to listen to Basshunter's Camilla next. Though the words are in English, he's from Sweden and many of his songs are in Swedish. Whenever I hear languages I don't know, I'm always eager to learn at least a few words in that language. If I hear people around me speaking a different language, I ask the people around me what language that is because languages are so interesting to me. I've just never understood how there can be so many different languages that sound nothing alike or how they developed.
I think by mixing a variety of cultures into one common representative of culture, such as music, turns it into a very different song in a positive way.
I hope that I'll be able to travel around the world and experience some of the cultures I'm interested in firsthand.

Driving and texting

I logged onto my computer today thinking of what to write. At that exact moment, I saw an intriguing article on my homepage. According to research, texting while driving is actually more dangerous than being under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That's so shocking to me. Usually, when someone is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, their mental state is off balance, and they have a minimal amount of self-control, if any. It seems strange to me that pressing a few buttons on a cell phone while driving is more fatal than the actions of a drunk driver.

Research done for the RAC Foundation has shown that a texter’s steering control was 91% worse than normal, as opposed to 35% when the driver is on drugs. Research also shows that the texting driver glides into other lanes without notice more often. Apparently, when someone reads the small text on the phone and starts to think about what to respond, it lessens their reaction time because they’re so focused on their text message.

At first, I thought, “Oh, what’s the big deal?” but then I saw this video and realized that this is actually a huge deal. The engineer of the train in Los Angeles could have potentially saved himself and all of the injured people on that train had he been paying attention rather than texting. No message is important enough to risk your life for. Texting while driving is just another destructive decision. It can wait. I like being alive, so I can honestly say I will not be texting when I’m driving. It just isn’t worth it.