But if everybody else is doing it, it can't be that bad, right!?

When I googled "stalking definition" there was no one specific definition for it. In fact, the closest definition that I could find was the 'legal' definition which read: "A form of harassment generally comprised of repeated persistent following with no legitimate reason and with the intention of harming, or so as to arouse anxiety or fear of harm in the person being followed. Stalking may also take the form of harassing telephone calls, computer communications, letter-writing, etc." (your dictionary.com) Personally I think it makes perfect sense why there isn't really one universal definition for stalking. I mean if you think about it the way the world is today people can follow people and look at people in all sorts of way. With every social network on the internet-whether it be myspace, facebook or twitter (just 3 examples of the many out there)- comes some form of what could be called "stalking". I myself have probably be guilty of this. I mean I get on facebook a ridiculous amount-probably about 10-15 times a day- and I only write to somebody or comment a picture or update my status maybe 5 times out of the15 i sign on. The rest of the time spent on facebook is what I like to call "creeping"-something that not only me but most of my friends & people I've met confess to doing- where I page jump from person to person to find out any new gossip of whats going on in their lives. The most popular ones I look at tend to be a guy that I have a slight interest in or find attractive, old friends from previous school years & even my friends, friends. I don't have any want to hurt them or cause them hurt in someway but is it really necessary for me to look through their pictures and what they have written to other people? I even have to admit that this has to be some form of stalking and I'm sure most everyone is guilty of doing it. But then it gets me thinking, if I can look into all of these peoples lives, who is looking into mine? It's scary to think of how pretty much anybody has access to peoples websites-even though my stuff is on super private mode I still feel that there is some way around it. My brothers girlfriends daughter, who is 12, has myspace and before I forced her to make it private she had it open to the world to view. With how many creeps are out in the world these days I'd hate to think of the kids who don't have their information private. In fact, this cyber-stalking has become so popular that some people have formed organizations in hopes to stop it (it's especially common in the U.S.). But is all stalking really bad behaviour? I don't think so. I think that as long as you aren't obsessing over a person, threatening them or trying to commit harm to them, a simple "creep" session is okay.

To find out a little more about how cyber-stalking is becoming an issue, especially in the U.S. heres a link to an article I read about some groups that are trying to put a halt to this form of stalking: Privacy Watch: Stalking Over the Web Is a Growing Threat by Andrew Brandt

"Self improvement, is masturbation."-Fight Club

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"1.	Masturbation
	The act of touching oneself to produce a favorable feeling in the groin area. Usually accompanied by some sort of mental, visual, or audio stimulation to assist in reaching climax. jerking off; spit-shining the old water pump; waxing the brass candlestick; beating off; playing cards with only one hand on the table; riding the quarter-horse; joining the mile-high club, solo-aviator division; giving in to the hand police; self-actualization; fully realizing your potential No honey, I don't want to tonight, I'm tired from watching Oprah. Why don't you just go masturbate? That dumb broad got me all worked up and left me; so I had to spit-shine the old water pump manually if ya know what I mean. .......
2.	Masturbation
	Mass murder of millions of tiny defenseless sperm."

...There are clearly many ways of defining masturbation, these two are the first two that come up on Urban Dictionary and I have to say they gave me quite a laugh. But why is masturbation considered such a taboo? In my eyes theres a lot worse things that a person could do then sexually pleasing themselves from time to time. I mean I find it so hard to believe that they used to perform preventative "treatments" on men and women so that they didn't crave that sexual need anymore or that they created harnesses and made people wear them so that they were physically punished if they did try to masturbate. We may not have harnesses anymore but masturbation continues to be something that many people deny they partake in. I know that at home in the states many of my girl friends still to this day deny the fact that they've ever touched themselves and crinkle their nose at the thought of somebody masturbating-"I would never do that"-they all say. But as we covered in class, masturbation is a natural instinct and we all in face have masturbated whether we remember it or not-since it's known that infants and children do so without even realizing it. After doing some research online I found an article that discussed the International Guidelines on Sexual Education. It discusses how the guidelines mention promoting masturbation as a way to get kids to wait to have sex, something that I think its just absolutely brilliant. Why would we not prefer our youth to holding off on sex by pleasing themselves? It's better then somebody that is young and immature getting pregnant at a young age or getting caught up in something that they aren't ready for and not using protection and getting an STD. The article goes on to discuss how many US right-winged news groups (such as Fox News) tried to make this seem like an awful idea by discussing teaching 5-8 year olds masturbation. Personally, I wasn't shocked by this at all being from the US myself I know that this happens much too often. Too bad the right-winged conservatives have to take something that will ultimately help our youth and twist it into something else. I think its time to open our eyes and realize masturbation is natural and quit hiding the topic from the world and promote: Sex can wait Masturbate!

If your interested in the article I was referring to its called: "Roundup: Masturbation as Natural as Breathing....Let's Ban That, Too"- by Jodi Jacobson ...I think its a pretty interesting read!

Response to Sam Cattell's "Ask No Questions"

I really like when you discuss how we've been lied to our whole lives. Whether somebody has been taught religion or not at a young age we are almost spoon-fed lies. I think that ultimately you nailed it when you stated "personally I believe that lying is an integral part of being human; it allows us to surprise others, withhold information to our advantage, and ultimately protect ourselves against the varied and unpredictable nature of life." I mean is there a specific person that started lying first? Not that we know of. Theres no company that created lies and sold them to us even thought they knew they were "bad" (like cigarettes or booze) so maybe it really is just in our genes. Nice post though-very interesting read!

Heres a link to her post: Sam Cattel "Ask No Questions" Post

Lying

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So as I sit here in my dorm room sick I couldn't help but to think back to when I was younger. When I was a kid and my parents were making me go to day camp I used to literally make myself physically sick because I didn't want to go. I tried to pull every trick in the book all so that I could stay home. I got over it eventually and started going willingly but when I was in high school (primary school) I continued the trend of lying in hopes to get out of a day or two of school. I'd even develop a plan of attack to lie to my parents so that they would believe me and call me off the next day. I remember that I would wake up in the middle of the night and go into their room with tears in my eyes telling them that I had "gotten sick" and I thought I had a fever-I was quite the actress- and they'd feel bad for me and often just automatically call me off school when they woke up the next morning. I mean how awful am I? I know everybody lies (at least once in their lives-I mean personally I haven't met any saints) and I still have a hard time thinking about why it is we do. I'd definitely say that for me personally looking back I lied quite a bit about stupid things that benefited me-the whole being sick thing, that I was staying at one friends house and really was somewhere else-dumb little baby lies. But they are still deceitful and although I'm sure my parents knew I was lying at times I feel like I still probably hurt them. Luckily now a days I realize how cool my parents really are and I can pretty much tell them anything. But I'm still not lie free. Although I lied for my own benefit when I was younger I find myself telling lies now in hopes to spare somebodies feelings. Is this still wrong though? I mean its hard not to when you know that you could hurt somebody by telling them the truth. It's one of the hardest things to see yourself hurting another person but most of the time the truth will come out later and it will just hurt them more. So the question still remains why do we lie? Here is a link to an article that discusses some of the possibilities on what different lies sound like, why we do tell these lies and how to try to avoid these lies: "The Truth About Lying" by Jenna Mccarthy

Field trip/activity suggestion

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I think if we did an activity we should watch "Thank you for smoking"..pretty good movie and I think it goes nicely with the class. For a field trip I'd say we all go to Cadbury World since chocolate can be both good and bad :)

Info on school bookings: Cadbury World

Smoking

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Google: "Smoking" and what comes up? Heres just the first few topics: NHS Go Smokefree, Smoking: Health risks, Smoking-articles for teens on smoking..and the list goes on. Not only are the articles anti-smoking but so are most of the images (such as the one above). As if we didn't already know the dangers of smoking already without having to read a million articles on it. What if I googled smoking in hopes to find the newest, coolest brand of fags, would seeing these articles come up really prevent me from ultimately redefining my search and trying again? I think not. I'm not even a smoker and it gets under my skin the way society has started to try to ban and prevent people from smoking. I've never felt that just because I don't smoke that I have the right to tell somebody else that they shouldn't or can't. I mean really aren't we all supposed to make our own decisions? Being from America I always wondered why our government thinks that its their place to tell somebody they can't smoke in front of a building but instead have to be 25 feet away from the building or else they may get fined. I mean okay, I understand the ban on smoking inside or a public building more because I realize the effects 2nd hand smoke may have on people who really despise smoke but outside? I personally think thats pushing it. What will be next- no smoking and driving? the banishment of all cigarettes? And whats after smoking? I mean we all have bad habits that others may look down upon- I know for me I play my music in my car wayyy too loud and get more than the occasional glare from the cars next to me. I just think that we should all take a look at our own habits before pointing the finger and trying to take away something somebody enjoys-such as smoking. Heres an article that discusses why its wrong for the government to get involved in banning smoking-from 2006: "Government smoking ban would stomp on human rights" by Dan Hemp