one more thing

One more thing I noticed was that when the blogs had a specific purpose and due date, I was one of the first to post my blog. When they were free without constaints I forgot until the last minute and then didn't know what to write about. In my opinion, if you are going to have this blog it needs some constraints, like everyone needs to post by wednesday night and comment on someone elses blog by friday. Some times if you give someone too much rope they'll hang themselves. We need some guidance.

5/5

Mr. Brown looks at me in class one day and says "you are the type of student who would drive to class just to get your grade aren't you?" I smiled, "yes, yes I am!" It is true, I am an anal retentive control freak. I didn't used to be this way, but trying to gain admission to nursing school does crazy things to you. Crazy things like being completely distraught and crying for hours because you got an A- instead of an A. (yes, I did this). We are all like this, the pre-nursing bunch. Frazzled, uptight, nervous and trapped by the all consuming need to be perfect. No one is perfect, we are all flawed and now that the semester is over I realize that I did my best and it is out of my hands. I just have to hope that my best is enough. :)

4/5

I looked back at my work over the semester and was surprised to actually see the change in my writing. At the beginning of the semester i was reluctant to have to follow such a strict set of guidelines. In my last college comp class we wrote many short papers on a multitude of subjects. I found, however that my original writing was dull and lacked transitions. I worked hard all semester and really feel like I got something out of the class. I will use it as I move forward in my education and now feel as if I have a good foundation to build on.

3/5

So, I went to type my final drafts and my computer dies. I think to myself that it is sucky, but I will use my husbands laptop only to find out that it has no word processing program. The next day I lug all my stuff to the IUPUI library where I retype all my essays form scratch. I go to print and the system wont take my JagTag. I then go to the public library where i wait for like 45 minutes to get on a computer and the printers go down. I finally get ahold of a friend who allows me to come over and print. Why has the world conspired against me? What have I done to anger the English gods? It was the most frusterating infuriating experience ever, but I got it done so I guess in the long run I win.

Writing in the Future

During the last class of the semester, the theme was that writing stalks all of us like a starving vulture, and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives. The examples were cruel: essays in math about mathematicians, fourteen page papers in a basic western civilization course over a broad topic, and journals about patients for nurses. It is my opinion, however, that writing need not be such an ominous figure. Rather, I would have it as something to use in order to demonstrate your own effectiveness in life. If your boss demands someone to do a report, do it and make a name for yourself. Did you do poorly n that last exam? Then knock out the essay. If you view writing as something other than a task, it’s no longer a chore. Portraying a paper as something to dread until near the time it is due is incorrect, despite the common nature people have to do so. Embracing it, thinking about your approach, and reminding yourself on what you want to do long before the due date will lead to a more fluent paper written in less time, with less mind blocks too! Now, the odds of anyone taking my advice is pretty low; I do not even abide by it sometimes. However, try it out just once if need be. I assure you you will at the very, utter minimum, feel less nervous about writing the paper. Of course this also applies to anything involving paper and text, not just essays.

Reflecting on this semester

This will be my final blog posting for this semester. Altogether I feel it was a pretty decent semester. We had some good discussions as a class and some not so good discussions as a class. I have no regrets about anything. I feel that I have grown quite substantially as a writer this semester. Before this semester I did not care about reviewing or editing my work. I just let me writing flow and turned it in. After this semester I have realized that I cannot perform my best work in this manner and that some of my best work is performed while editing and reviewing my work. I worked hard to do my best and feel that my final work for this class was my best work of my life in writing. I plan to continue working on my writing on my own time, maybe write some short stories that I have floating around in my head. Im not exactly sure at this moment. I am pleased with what I have accomplished this semester and would like to thank our teacher for everything he has done, from putting up with my conversations to reviewing my work when his input was requested. I really appreciated the help.

Africa

Earlier in the semester, we read those two articles dealing with race. The African-American author proposed an idea of reparations being giving to African-Americans in an effort to make up for slavery, or at least the understanding that something wrong took place for all of those years. Some African-American activists propose the idea of going back to Africa, the Homeland of blacks. Most African-Americans turn their noses up at the thought of going back to Africa because of the poor condition the continent is in. Has anyone, black or white, taken the time out to consider why Africa is in such a disastrous state? Has anyone considered that Africa lacks scientifically, industrially, educationally, and in so many other aspects from America and other countries because their working men were stripped from them during the slave trade. We often attribute Africa's poverty to them just not being as advanced as us. We often forget that Egypt is apart of Africa, and their ancient culture is still more advanced than ours in certain aspects. We often forget that slavery still has monumental affects in our world today.

Reflecting on writing

I thought is was very reflective when we wrote about how we use what we have learned outside of this class. Personally, I use what I learned about targeting an audience. I am a member of IOPO ( Indiana Organ Procurement Organization). With that i go to different high schools and speak about becoming an organ donor. When I first started two years ago I followed the instructions the other members gave me. They said I should just go out and tell my story. Many times I was the the second or third person to speak about donating and by that time the audiences' attention was lacking. Instead of going and doing the same old thing every single time, I tried something different on Friday. Using the different tactics we have talked about in class has helped me get my message across to the different audiences. I am a living donor. I gave one of my kidneys to a family friend. She was in a hit and run by a drunk driver and suffered severe internal damage. many members of her family volunteered to donate what they could, but none of them were a match. On a whim I offered to help too. As soon as we found out I was a match I went in to sugary. Giving up one if my kidneys to help someone else is something i was honored to do. When I am talking to students about my experience I start with and activity that regains their attention and then I tell them how they can also help someone who desperately needs their help. I usually conclude my speech by passing out viva la vida bracelets from IOPO. Using a more directed message I feel I have been able to reach more people and help save lives.

End of the Year

This semester has been very helpful for my writing. I feel as though I have greatly improved in several areas, including transitions. THe most difficult thing for me to do is to just get started. Once I was able to get the first few sentences down it flowed a lot better for me. THe thesis staments also gave me problems, I felt as though I could not capture the point of the essay in just one statement. I would still like some ideas on how to become more successful in my writings.

College

Why does everyone have to go to college just to get a job? When my parents were coming out of high school, not even half of the class planned on attending college. This is my first and last year of college, feel as though I have wasted time and money. College should be for a need-to-go basis for a job, like being a doctor for example. Most degrees are almost a waste of time for someone to spend 4 years in school for, just proves to a company that the person had enough time and money to learn some idea of what they could be doing in the future. Even though on the job training is what is most important. Don't mean to complain, just don't like the way America views college these days.

Blog Blitz

     The free-form blog was a bad for me, or I was ill suited for it. Either way, the structure of the assignment for the second half of the semester was an epic fail for me. By now I’m sure you’ve noticed a trend in the most recent posts and my name. It was easier for me when we had set topics and deadlines, as I had a target date and a writing goal.  With five kids, a job, school, and the military to keep track of, a blog (which I wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole unless made to in the first place) with no due date was the first victim of my daily time constraints. While I am sacrificing one good night of sleep tonight to complete this assignment and it will be finished, I think the quality of writing I would have posted would have been better in assignment form. I know that likely I am a minority in this, and that the autonomy granted to us in this task was probably beneficial to the majority of my class. Several people were excited when we were given this information after spring break. I’ll know if this happens again to simply take one night and write all of my posts, and then dole them out one week at a time.

What a mess

     The final portfolio is done as of later today. I had thought I was doing well in this class until I went for the final revisions on the included essays. My god, what a mess! I had to laugh at some of my sentences; some of my sentences reminded me of Mr. Brown’s example sentences like “my luggage was on the plane, which was later misplaced” (Mr. Brown: “I sure hope they find that airplane”). I think I lost my thesis a few times. Luckily, before I had it plastered on a milk carton in hopes that someone else might find it, it turned up. My poor synthesis essay read like a clothing advertisement in the local paper, as often as the word [generational] gap appeared. Thank heavens none of my sources were named Gucci. My efforts to straighten out the spaghetti-bowl knots reminded me of a quote from Wesley Snipe’s character in Blade: “Some mother-!&^%$#s are always tryin’ to ice-skate uphill.” Then came my favorite; the reflective essay. After writing it the first time I re-read the instructions and realized I was supposed to cite my own essays from the portfolio in this, so I retooled it for specific examples. Then I find the “bonus instructions” on another sheet that give another set of instructions to write this essay thematically around a contribution to a conversation. Good times, of course, but I’m glad I’m done. It was a headache to put together and I’ll be glad for a bit of down time.

Poorly prioritized

     Is anyone else severely struggling to find that last ounce of give a s#$t about Hollywood? Seriously, I can’t be the only one disgusted that entertainers such as these are making millions of dollars per year to play make believe while the people teaching our kids are one dollar away from destitution, many of us are having to work ridiculous hours to make ends meet (and pay daycare facilities to raise our kids), social workers and fire fighters (whose jobs typically are helping others) are on food stamps, and law enforcement is stripped too bare to man the streets? In the greater scheme of things, Lindsay Lohan going to jail isn’t going to mean anything in five years (it didn’t mean anything to me for five minutes), and Charlie Sheen despite trying to lower the country’s IQ into the single digits with his outrageous behavior has had relatively zero impact. I bet the first time someone’s trying to break into one of our houses and responding officer has to come from twenty blocks away because they zoning has too few officers covering too much area has an impact. When my fifteen year-old daughter comes home from school barely able to read the vanilla crap that passes for literature in the schools system these days because the township had to cut back English/Literature funding to save their football program, that has an impact. I personally don’t have cable, don’t even have regular television; we read. I’d love to see one unified movement to stem the tide of cash flowing to them. Perhaps some of it could go where we need it, taking care of each other, our community, and our children rather than buying Ben Affleck another new car.

Narcoleptic Writings

     The synthesis essay was quite a challenge. Throughout the course, my Achilles’ heel has been MLA formatting. Not only was this essay relying heavily on other sources, but I ended up with three sources instead of the recommended two. This became very complicated, and I bet I could compile one of the pages of the essay into just attributive tags. Thankfully, the three sources’ points of view were more or less like Goldie Lock and the Three Bears; One said this way, one said that way, and one said let’s try to find the middle. The downside is that one of the articles was by Dr. Jean Twenge, which just like her book Generation Me was filled with outstanding points and valuable information; but it read like hypnotic stereo instructions. I would recommend anything by her to an insomniac, and wait around for them to start snoring. Her writing is not boring, her subjects are not dull, but something about the structure of her writing has my chin diving for my chest a few paragraphs in. I’m certainly not the world’s most exciting academic writer, but sheesh. The works cited page was a nightmare as usual for me until I admitted defeat and summoned the easybib gods to save me. I’m glad that essay’s done. One more revision and I’d by trying to pull my hair out…and I’m already shaven-bald!

Bobble Head Vader

I enjoyed this writing assignment. It was the closest thing to creative writing with a bit of freedom that the course offered. I chose a sideways writing technique full of humor, and ran with it. In the interests of purpose and audience, I went with showing how assumptions about images could be deceiving, and chose to write it to my classmates so I could keep it informal. In terms of structure and process, it was likely my best work in the class. That’s not really a surprise, though, considering I’m usually all-in on something that I enjoy. I went with only one image for the first few drafts, but realized I ran out of steam. I stalled at three pages, and couldn’t go any further in expanding on my thesis. After re-reading the intro, I had mentioned an optical illusion picture in it that wound up becoming my second image for the essay. It was pretty easy to tie it in as well; my concept was already about assumptions formed when viewing images, so an optical illusion was a perfect fit. All in all I had a blast just describing my main image, which was a picture of my son trying on his Halloween costume. We had a Star Wars themed Halloween, and he was Darth Vader (may favorite character from the films)…or, as the other kids joked, bobble head Vader. Imagine roughly a full sized Vader mask on a four-year-old. At any rate, I got to relive Halloween and finish my assignment all at once. Bonus!

Blog Post 5/5

Current state:

So I was thinking about what to blog about and then I saw the news about our popular "friend" Osama. I'm not sure what to make of it. I have thought for a long time now that he has been dead years ago. Or, very well hidden outside of the Middle East. Watching our Commander in Chief talk about how the military accomplished this is hard for me to swallow. But it makes for a good topic to do some research on. I'm not sure what to think these days. The days of war are behind me but it's unavoidable still to this day. Turning on the TV is like watching a different world while sitting inside these four walls. One thing that I have learned is that today more than ever the world is motivated by greed and ill gotten riches. Maximize gains and minimize losses. Or I might be speaking mainly about my current environment/location. I try not to watch the news anymore. It's so sick and twisted it makes me want to leave and go somewhere where there's no more "noise". Where I can appreciate this life and the natural environment and avoid this greed-driven, sick and twisted place. But I think about it and in my point of view that would be defeat. Avoiding the issue doesn't make it go away. Dealing with the issue is what will make me overcome and eventually set my mind to uphold my values in the face of all this garbage. Being born and raised in a foreign country, having served in the US military, and having been independent for a long time has made me somewhat different compared to others my age. My eyes were opened at a young age and I have a hard time not pointing out what is BS and what's not. Experiences give great insight and also build character. But you have to learn from them and appreciate that knowledge. I see too many of my peers walking around thinking they know what is right or what is important. But the sad thing is that if they know they are wrong, too many aren't willing to correct themselves, leading to more selfish greedy fools that fight against each other for material and temporary gains. I seriously don't think that's life or the purpose of life. Don't know what is our purpose here but I'm sure it's not how much money I can make and what status I can achieve. I guess I shouldn't expect anything different though, we are a young species and we are weak. It's only at the brink of collapse that we will change and if change does come someday, it will be a revolution. I look at history and the evidence leans towards that belief. But, in the mean time I will avoid the news and focus on living. Not living with fear, greed, and doubt; but with courage, hope, independence, and the balls to say that is bull s#1t.

Blog Post 4/5

Synthesis Essay

The synthesis essay was a very interesting project. Not only did I find it hard to do but it allowed the use of my creativity as an amateur writer and my critical thinking ability in order to put my ideas on paper. What was most challenging was picking the pieces of writing that I would find interesting to synthesize and that would support my purpose effectively. Initially, I didn't find any of the writings interesting enough to talk about. In my opinion, I think I would've done a better job if I was allowed to use external sources. I think it's like that across the board. When people have something they have a real interest to talk about they tend to do better when expressing their ideas in writing. But I found something worthwhile... at least I think so.

My topic was bridging the gap in values. The gap in values that exists between Millennials and Boomers. I took a concept called code switching which is used to interpret between sublanguages to better understand and appreciate differences, therefore being able to communicate effectively and avoid demeaning the language differences of others. I think that if we use this concept, we can come to a common ground when it comes to our differences and respect and value those differences instead of butting heads all the time. The final result being working together on solving the issue instead of fighting it with no end.

Overall I think that I expressed myself and point of view very well on this paper. But again, I was limited to the pieces of writing provided on the Oncourse resources therefore limiting my imagination and creativity. It was a good experience though and doing things that take you out of your comfort zone builds character... most of the time.

End Results

The entire purpose of this class was to learn something and to pass the class. When coming into this class of course I wanted to pass the class but that was not my only motivation for the class. I know that I will use and do need English in my everyday life so it’s best that I master it early on.  English will take everyone into pretty much any profession there is. We need English in order to be able to write things such as emails, letters, and possibly speeches. We also need English to help us to speak. We have to speak to people of authority all of the time and we need to know the correct way to speak to a person. This semester in W131 I learned to not just focus on the grammaticism of my writing but the quality of my writing. I used to focus more on having the comas in the right places and spelling things correctly but this class helped me to dig a little deeper. I not only thought just about grammar but I thought about  the paper as a whole. Thinking about the paper as a whole helped me to further develop my writing. I spent more time thinking about how to elaborate on my writing and expand it in order to get my point across to not just myself but to the reader also.

Image Analysis

I found a lot of difficulty with the image analysis essay.  For weeks and weeks I had so many problems and I was stuck for so long.  I didn’t know what to write. The difficulty didn't actually come with writing the page but it came with the photos I chose. I chose some pictures that were not an advertisement or anything of that sort. I chose photos from natural disasters. When beginning the assignment I did look at a lot of different pictures. When looking at the pictures I learned to put more thought into the picture I am actually looking at because a picture can tell a lot. There is always some type of story behind every photo. Each person has their own idea of what is going on in the picture but no one really knows what is going on. It's like a mystery waiting to be solved and that is what is so interesting about photos. You can capture an image to tell a story, but not many people really know that story. After figuring this out, the ideas were able to flow a lot better and I was able to get the things done that I needed to get done.

End of the Year

Time has gone by so quickly. Just yesterday I was back home in South Bend packing up to come to college. I was saying my goodbyes to my friends and family waiting to come to a whole new world. There were some troubles, some hurdles, and large tests but I have managed to surpass them all. I have set goals for myself and although I may not have accomplished them all, I did not fall too far behind my goals. I was able to learn from all of my mistakes to better my mistakes. I am now a lot more acquaintanced with this whole "college" thing. I actually almost complete with my freshman year of college. It makes the last three not seem so far away. I am definitely proud of myself for coming this far and I know I will be able to make it so much further will only a little more hard work. Now I find myself packing back up to go back to South Bend for the summer. Then after a couple months of relaxation it’s back to the books, the hard work and studying. One thing that is for sure is that it will all pay off in the end and that is why I continue to work so hard.

Sex Education

When I first began to write my synthesis essay I felt a certain way about sex education. In the beginning I thought it would have been better to teach abstinence in the schools. Coming from a Christian background I have always been taught that you were supposed to wait until marriage to have sex. I never once questioned it so I always thought abstinence should also be taught in schools because everyone may not want their child to be about sex. Never once, until I began to think more about my paper, did I change my way of thinking. It was always obvious that everyone did not think the way that my family and I thought, and that there would still be young people engaging in sexual activities, but I considered it to be up to the parents to teach their child until I sat back and thought that not everyone has both parents. Some people have no parents at all, they have no one to be there for them and teach them the basic things they need to know. I now see the importance of sex education because there will always be young adults engaging in sexual activities and we have no control over this. What we do have control over is the information they need to know if they are or are planning to engage in sexual activities. This info is what makes the difference.

Finals question

Like everyone else on campus, I spent my week studying for finals that are required in most class. One class in particular had me asking a question that I could answer both ways... MATH. Why do we as students study countless hours memorizing formulas? So we can use them to help us on our final is the first response is that I thought of. But why do we have to memorize them if in the real world we will be able to use notes and ask peers for assistance?

The answer that I came up with is that in the real world, I wouldn't trust my doctor who didn't know the difference between a broken bone and a sprain. This memorization allows us to be able to perform our tasks in the real world faster and be more successful. with math, I wouldn't trust my contractor who couldn't do addition in his head.

What does everyone else think about this?

Goverment Regulations

This is a continuation that another student and I had about government regulations, such as the EPA.

The other student stated their hatred for the government having the right to enter a place of business and than shutting them down because they failed to meet federal guidelines. They said it was a large waste of money and time by the government in meddling in someone else's business.

While I understand why they think this way, I don't understand why they think this is a bad thing. We have the EPA mandates for a reason: To protect the public. They were set fourth to keep business from creating waste and pollutants without having any responsibility. The example I explained to this student was the nuclear power plant that was to be constructed here in Indiana; Marble Hill.

Marble Hill was a nuclear plant that started construction in 1977 with an initial cost of $1.4 billion. on March 29, 1979, there was a nuclear accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. With this accident, the public became afraid of nuclear power. Federal regulations changed the construction requirements for Marble Hill to help ease public fears and to make sure the same accident couldn't happen again. These new guidelines changed what type of concrete and how think the reactor vessels could be in addition to having multiple new safety features that had to be added, features that were learned of the accident on Three Mile Island.

In June 0f 1984, after 7 years of construction and $2.5 billion spent, the facility was only 40% complete. With an estimate to finish the facility at $7.1 billion, the construction project was terminated. This figure was due to new EPA standards required of power plants and the NRC's requirements of the facility.

Imagine if the facility were to be finished without any of these new safety features and without having any sort of regulation. If it were to have an accident, countless lives would be lost as well as the area of property damage. The public would be demanding of the government to have done something before the disaster happened.

This is why there are regulations in place. These regulations were not thought of as just something to make it tough to run a business. All the regulations that we have now came AFTER a disaster happened and were put in place to help keep the same disaster from happening again. An example of this is now every ship must carry lifeboats for everyone on board after the sinking of the Titanic.

I for one am glad that the government has set forth regulations. It's just something that needs to be monitored and to make sure the regulators actually do the safe thing when the time comes and shuts down a business when guidelines are not followed rather than just accept a fine and allow the process to continue. This is what happened with BP and what led up to the great oil spill in the Gulf.