i love MRE's
ok this was my final english prompt. we hadda use all the literary devices on a worksheet and i typed it for ease. it is now 2 am. this is what happens with homework i leave to hte last minute and do in the wee hours of the morning. ode to MRE's and plebe summer.
I love MRE’s
Narration:
Once upon a time at Navy camp we had a day-long series of physical activities that challenged us morally, mentally, and physically called Sea Trials. The final event of the day for our platoon was to dive into an obstacle course in a horse-dung smelling pit of gushing mud. I was the only girl who dove right in instead of tiptoeing in it, and ended up getting mud and other things all over me. I think I still am washing it out of my hair. But, needless to say, I was one of the dirtiest when our platoon returned to the dorm facilities. We figured that we would be able to take showers and clean up, but instead boxes of mystery meal were awaiting our return. Inside each box were about 20 MRE’s, or Meals Ready to Eat. There were also various types of MRE’s. I had one full chicken Alfredo and other goodies. What this is is specially sealed cookies or crackers and what looked like fish-smelling dog food. Which means my meal was fish-smelling chicken. I’m not exactly sure how normal that it, but it didn’t taste bad.
Description:
The boxes were about as big as a shoebox and inside were several small packages, each with a different part of the meal inside it. Mine had a packet of chicken mess, a packet of orange-flavored cookie, a packet of raspberry jelly, and a packet of cooking materials. Inside the cooking materials were utensils, napkins, and small packets of condiments, as well as a packet of chemicals. I took out the crackers and jam first. By accident a little bit spilled on my leg to add to the gross mud that was stuck there. I now had a mass of sticky purple blob stuck to my leg. Yes, the raspberry jam was purple. It said raspberry on the package. Once all the contents were out of the package I was ready to continue making myself a meal.
Example:
But once I started ripping open the packages, I noticed that my friend Brandon, who was sitting next to me and equally as muddy, had the vegetarian meal. Apparently by the time he got through the line there was nothing left but that type. Until I saw him with a different flavor of meal, I didn’t realize that there were multiple styles. My friend Eva had Beef Sirloin Chunks, and another girl I didn’t know had chicken cacciatore. Of course, these things are all what the label said, but I still wonder whether they were all the same mass of blob, only dyed a different color. Well, with the exception of the vegiburger. It was a brown mass all its own.
Comparison and Contrast:
In looking at everyone else’s MRE, I think that mine, by far, smelled the best. One whiff of that vegiburger and I thought I would have rather smelled better in the attire I had on for a week than that thing did for two seconds. Then again, the vegiburger LOOKED more appetizing because it looked like a normal hamburger. I wonder what it was made of? What the difference ACTUALLY was between the pieces of mystery meat the factories grind up and call hamburger and what a different factory grinds up and calls vegiburger. I think if I ground up my hamsters they might even pass. While I would never actually do this, it’d still in my mind look the same.
Process Analysis:
By the time I was done comparing my own food to everyone else’s around me, I realized I was extremely hungry. It was time to look around to find the directions on how to cook the mess of meat that was my main course. It was an interesting contraption. One had to find the bag, rip the seal off, and put a packet of chemical things into it. I’m not sure what it was. Pure chlorine maybe? I don’t know…but when it was mixed with water it heated up, and it heated up FAST. This was the next step of the process, to pour water down into the bag. Then I had to take the mess of meat bag and put that into the water that was heating. I almost burned my face off opening it up. No, well, not really, but a huge burst of steam did come from the cooking bag right as I went to put in the other food bag. Then, I had to wait. I waited fifteen minutes, and I thought my mystery meat was done. But I realized I couldn’t get the bag open. My hands, for some reason, were too slippery to do the job. So next, I had to call over our platoon leader, Zack Capacete, to do it for me. “Aww,” he cooed. “You had to ask Daddy to open this for you?” He liked to tease me. But he couldn’t open it, either. He tried for another five minutes before he semi-ripped open an end and told me to do the rest myself. I laughed and told him I was honored that he touched my bag of MRE meat.
Division/Analysis:
Sitting here considering all of the above-mentioned information, I realize that I already over analyze things. But now that that has me thinking, I wonder what really falls into processed meat. Those little white specs. Are they really fat? Or something else. In history we learn that people’s fingers fell into the grinders, as do rats and other things that don’t belong there. Today there are laws against such things, but I wonder how often things might just slip and go terribly wrong. I wonder how far the lady that “discovered” a finger in her Wendy’s chili, though she made it up, was from the truth about finding interesting things in one’s fast food, or even just plain processed food. What little pieces of things REALLY exist in food. I never actually finished reading fast food nation because I chose a different book, and I’m sure that this book could have pointed out to me the ins and outs of the meat packing industry.
Classification:
With that in mind, there were definitely different kinds of MRE’s. Good ones and bad ones. But then again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. The taste of mine wasn’t too bad, but the texture was nauseating. When I looked around I noticed that there were Vegetarian meals and meat-a-tarian meals, as well as those that were discernible to which they were. Either vegetarian on steroids or vice versa. There were the various chicken entrees that fell under the meat-a-tarian MRE’s. Then the funny looking beef dishes, they were also meat-a-tarian. But those vegiburgers still have me stumped. They looked like normal burgers. Is it really a conspiracy to trick the unlikely candidate into a life of robotism in the military? YOU WILL EAT MEAT. YOU WILL BE LIKE ALL OTHER MIDS. Who knows? There were genuine vegetarian meals, with a salad and noodles, though. Maybe those are for vegans, who might go mental if they are presented with anything from an animal. They can’t handle even the vegiburger.
Cause and Effect:
My roommate, Jenny, was a vegetarian. I called her a vegetablearian. But she didn’t go crazy when there was meat in front of her. She was really polite and nice. But I wonder what would happen if she DID eat meat, if just by accident. Would she throw it up? Or just plain throw it? I really don’t know. There were some vegetablearian people that I think might have gotten a bit crazy if they had to eat meat. They might have taken the bags and thrown out the window if meat was placed between their lips. Or would they put on their game faces and run through the corridors yelling “Beat Army, Beat Army?” No one really knows for sure, because it never really happened, at least that I know about.
Definition:
Sometimes I question how much I really DID know about what was in these packages. I didn’t even know that MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat until a few hours ago, and here it is almost 02:00 in the morning. My boyfriend and I tried to decode it. I came up with Man Running on Empty. He said Many Running Elephants. I’m not really sure what the elephants have to do with prepared food, but that’s ok. Maybe they mash up elephants in there with the cows. I’m not really sure. I’m glad I know what it REALLY stands for. Meal Ready to Eat is much nicer than the other two. And much simpler also if one really cares to consider this.
Argument:
All in all I think the MRE’s were actually quite tasty. Minus all the division of what it could be, it was an interesting meal. I believe my chicken thing was the best. While some may say that it looked like the food I put in my dog’s bowl every night, it tasted like “what mom used to make,” although I’m not sure if that’s really a good thing. I could argue the same thing for someone else’s MRE. I think that the personnel should have just cancelled all the other orders and just ordered the chicken. It could have replaced the vegiburger any day, because it might not have been vegi in the first place. Maybe it was a fake vegiburger. Some people might say that I’m being selfish, and that’s probably right. But it would have been less time consuming to just order a lot of the same thing, and also more militaristic to have everyone be uniform and the same and eat the same thing. It probably came from the same place. The End.
I love MRE’s
Narration:
Once upon a time at Navy camp we had a day-long series of physical activities that challenged us morally, mentally, and physically called Sea Trials. The final event of the day for our platoon was to dive into an obstacle course in a horse-dung smelling pit of gushing mud. I was the only girl who dove right in instead of tiptoeing in it, and ended up getting mud and other things all over me. I think I still am washing it out of my hair. But, needless to say, I was one of the dirtiest when our platoon returned to the dorm facilities. We figured that we would be able to take showers and clean up, but instead boxes of mystery meal were awaiting our return. Inside each box were about 20 MRE’s, or Meals Ready to Eat. There were also various types of MRE’s. I had one full chicken Alfredo and other goodies. What this is is specially sealed cookies or crackers and what looked like fish-smelling dog food. Which means my meal was fish-smelling chicken. I’m not exactly sure how normal that it, but it didn’t taste bad.
Description:
The boxes were about as big as a shoebox and inside were several small packages, each with a different part of the meal inside it. Mine had a packet of chicken mess, a packet of orange-flavored cookie, a packet of raspberry jelly, and a packet of cooking materials. Inside the cooking materials were utensils, napkins, and small packets of condiments, as well as a packet of chemicals. I took out the crackers and jam first. By accident a little bit spilled on my leg to add to the gross mud that was stuck there. I now had a mass of sticky purple blob stuck to my leg. Yes, the raspberry jam was purple. It said raspberry on the package. Once all the contents were out of the package I was ready to continue making myself a meal.
Example:
But once I started ripping open the packages, I noticed that my friend Brandon, who was sitting next to me and equally as muddy, had the vegetarian meal. Apparently by the time he got through the line there was nothing left but that type. Until I saw him with a different flavor of meal, I didn’t realize that there were multiple styles. My friend Eva had Beef Sirloin Chunks, and another girl I didn’t know had chicken cacciatore. Of course, these things are all what the label said, but I still wonder whether they were all the same mass of blob, only dyed a different color. Well, with the exception of the vegiburger. It was a brown mass all its own.
Comparison and Contrast:
In looking at everyone else’s MRE, I think that mine, by far, smelled the best. One whiff of that vegiburger and I thought I would have rather smelled better in the attire I had on for a week than that thing did for two seconds. Then again, the vegiburger LOOKED more appetizing because it looked like a normal hamburger. I wonder what it was made of? What the difference ACTUALLY was between the pieces of mystery meat the factories grind up and call hamburger and what a different factory grinds up and calls vegiburger. I think if I ground up my hamsters they might even pass. While I would never actually do this, it’d still in my mind look the same.
Process Analysis:
By the time I was done comparing my own food to everyone else’s around me, I realized I was extremely hungry. It was time to look around to find the directions on how to cook the mess of meat that was my main course. It was an interesting contraption. One had to find the bag, rip the seal off, and put a packet of chemical things into it. I’m not sure what it was. Pure chlorine maybe? I don’t know…but when it was mixed with water it heated up, and it heated up FAST. This was the next step of the process, to pour water down into the bag. Then I had to take the mess of meat bag and put that into the water that was heating. I almost burned my face off opening it up. No, well, not really, but a huge burst of steam did come from the cooking bag right as I went to put in the other food bag. Then, I had to wait. I waited fifteen minutes, and I thought my mystery meat was done. But I realized I couldn’t get the bag open. My hands, for some reason, were too slippery to do the job. So next, I had to call over our platoon leader, Zack Capacete, to do it for me. “Aww,” he cooed. “You had to ask Daddy to open this for you?” He liked to tease me. But he couldn’t open it, either. He tried for another five minutes before he semi-ripped open an end and told me to do the rest myself. I laughed and told him I was honored that he touched my bag of MRE meat.
Division/Analysis:
Sitting here considering all of the above-mentioned information, I realize that I already over analyze things. But now that that has me thinking, I wonder what really falls into processed meat. Those little white specs. Are they really fat? Or something else. In history we learn that people’s fingers fell into the grinders, as do rats and other things that don’t belong there. Today there are laws against such things, but I wonder how often things might just slip and go terribly wrong. I wonder how far the lady that “discovered” a finger in her Wendy’s chili, though she made it up, was from the truth about finding interesting things in one’s fast food, or even just plain processed food. What little pieces of things REALLY exist in food. I never actually finished reading fast food nation because I chose a different book, and I’m sure that this book could have pointed out to me the ins and outs of the meat packing industry.
Classification:
With that in mind, there were definitely different kinds of MRE’s. Good ones and bad ones. But then again, it’s all in the eye of the beholder. The taste of mine wasn’t too bad, but the texture was nauseating. When I looked around I noticed that there were Vegetarian meals and meat-a-tarian meals, as well as those that were discernible to which they were. Either vegetarian on steroids or vice versa. There were the various chicken entrees that fell under the meat-a-tarian MRE’s. Then the funny looking beef dishes, they were also meat-a-tarian. But those vegiburgers still have me stumped. They looked like normal burgers. Is it really a conspiracy to trick the unlikely candidate into a life of robotism in the military? YOU WILL EAT MEAT. YOU WILL BE LIKE ALL OTHER MIDS. Who knows? There were genuine vegetarian meals, with a salad and noodles, though. Maybe those are for vegans, who might go mental if they are presented with anything from an animal. They can’t handle even the vegiburger.
Cause and Effect:
My roommate, Jenny, was a vegetarian. I called her a vegetablearian. But she didn’t go crazy when there was meat in front of her. She was really polite and nice. But I wonder what would happen if she DID eat meat, if just by accident. Would she throw it up? Or just plain throw it? I really don’t know. There were some vegetablearian people that I think might have gotten a bit crazy if they had to eat meat. They might have taken the bags and thrown out the window if meat was placed between their lips. Or would they put on their game faces and run through the corridors yelling “Beat Army, Beat Army?” No one really knows for sure, because it never really happened, at least that I know about.
Definition:
Sometimes I question how much I really DID know about what was in these packages. I didn’t even know that MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat until a few hours ago, and here it is almost 02:00 in the morning. My boyfriend and I tried to decode it. I came up with Man Running on Empty. He said Many Running Elephants. I’m not really sure what the elephants have to do with prepared food, but that’s ok. Maybe they mash up elephants in there with the cows. I’m not really sure. I’m glad I know what it REALLY stands for. Meal Ready to Eat is much nicer than the other two. And much simpler also if one really cares to consider this.
Argument:
All in all I think the MRE’s were actually quite tasty. Minus all the division of what it could be, it was an interesting meal. I believe my chicken thing was the best. While some may say that it looked like the food I put in my dog’s bowl every night, it tasted like “what mom used to make,” although I’m not sure if that’s really a good thing. I could argue the same thing for someone else’s MRE. I think that the personnel should have just cancelled all the other orders and just ordered the chicken. It could have replaced the vegiburger any day, because it might not have been vegi in the first place. Maybe it was a fake vegiburger. Some people might say that I’m being selfish, and that’s probably right. But it would have been less time consuming to just order a lot of the same thing, and also more militaristic to have everyone be uniform and the same and eat the same thing. It probably came from the same place. The End.