Grades

I will be in my office from 12-5 on Monday if you want to come talk to me about your grade. If you can't come in (or don't want to), just email me, and I will let you know your scores. I can also make arrangements to return your papers to you after the break if you would like.

Thanks again for a great semester.

Carols, Class, and Friendships

I went Caroling today. It was marvelous!! I love singing and I love making other people happy as was why my presentation today was on happiness...I find it satisfying to make others happy and spread the love with smiles or a big hug! HAHA!! I even brought a date along tonight for the caroling. He's an acquaintance from high school in my AP Art class back in the day which feels like forever ago! It's been cool getting to know him better via texting and now just a casual date! Oh how fun this time of the year is with caroling bringing people together!! I don't mean me and my friend, cause we're just merely friends, but a new friendship that's been formed is very satisfying. That's how I felt about this English class! New friendships were formed and your smiles will stay with me forever! As cliche as that sounds! :D Thanks for a marvelous semester! Sorry if my bubbliness was overbearing at times, but I guess that's all in a day's work for an over zealous optimist! :D

Last Blog

The semester is officially over, and I can honestly say that I am both happy and sad about that. I am happy because I get to have a break from all the stresses that come from school. I am also happy that the semester is over, because I am one step closer to graduating and getting my degree. I am sad though, because I loved the two classes that I took and learned a lot of from each of them. I am thankful that I was able to be in Dr. Westover’s class. He taught me so much about how to become I better and more effective writer, and my writing skills have improved a lot. Before this class, I wasn’t a bad writer, but I wasn’t a good one either. Basically I was an average one. Now I think that I am such a better writer and I actually enjoy writing a lot more than I previously have. Thank you Dr. Westover. You taught me so much. I will continue to use what you have taught me throughout the rest of my schooling and life.

Dear Semester, be over...

I am so ready for this semester to be over. Last week I stressed out with all that needed to be done and I was very sick. I hate it when I procrastinate until the end. Then I am stuck trying to get everything finished at the same time. You would think at my age that I would learn a lesson from myself. I am so ready for the much needed Christmas break. I teach a special needs school class and I have the whole Christmas break off. At this time of year it is always a rush with parties, finals, shopping, finals, work, finals and family and did I mention finals (haha). It seems sometimes that the list never stop. I have felt very overwhelmed. I am going to kick back and enjoy my hot chocolate, and this special time of year from this point on. So everyone have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!

What Makes Me Happy :]

After listening to Alecia’s presentation on happiness, it got me thinking about what makes me happy. I decided to compile a list of a few things that make me happy:

Balloons. Pancakes on rainy days. Accidental bodily functions (when it’s not happening to me). Blue nail polish. The “help, I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” commercials. Christmas music. Tepenyaki. When people look me in the eye and smile. Falling asleep after a long day. Car rides with my favorite play list. Eating popsicles in a bubble bath. Babies smiling at me from across the room. Laughing til I cry. Crying til I laugh.The movie “What Happens in Vegas”. Walking into a warm house after being out in the cold. The line that makes an ‘O’ a ‘Q’. Rainbows in the middle of a storm. Spongebob Squarepants. My darling boyfriend. Cinnamon gum. Full moons. Dancing with my heart. Reading love letters from the 1800’s. Junior bacon cheeseburgers. Watching my best friend with narcolepsy fall over. So You Think You Can Dance. People getting hurt (but not too hurt). The smell of cookies in the oven. Text messages that say I love you. John Mayer. New shoes. Sandwiches that were made with love. Big hugs. Helping someone with a problem that only I can fix. Taking pictures. Christmas lights. Buying presents I know will make the recipient so happy! Getting letters in the mail with my name handwritten on the envelope. Kisses kisses kisses. Clean teeth. And my family :]

White Water

WOW what a great you tube show that Scott had found. I was thinking how beautiful that the river was. The thrill of excitement of being in the kiak and shooting down the waterfalls. This definitely would take someone that is a daredevil at heart. I KNOW that I am way to much of a chicken to do anything like that. But watching someone else do it is exciting. I have been river rafting with my friends and family and it is great fun. We have experienced some real heart stopping events but we all lived to tell story after story about our rafting experiences. How I wish that I was more adventurous. The older I get the more chicken I become with adventure. I went tubing last winter and almost couldn't even tube because I was scared of getting hurt. My kids called me names and now I'm known to them as the biggest chicken ever.

Elderly Drivers

I thought this was a great subject that Jarrica presented. The first you tube showing made me remember my dear sweet little grandma looking through her steering wheel to drive. She once got on the freeway and was going the wrong way down the freeway it scared her to death. Some how she was able to get her king sized Cadillac "The Golden Boat" turned around and headed in the correct direction. I agree with Jarrica and think that older drivers need to take a special test to keep their driving privileges. Most of the elderly are on medications that cause complications with their driving. I know of this first hand. When I was 16 I was driving to McDonalds with my friends. I felt so cool because I just got my drivers license. I was making a right hand turn correctly when all of sudden I got SLAMMED in the rear by a woman that was 80 yrs old. She hit me going 50 mph. My friends and I were sitting in the front seat that became the back seat. We were hauled off in the ambulance. Luckily we were not really hurt just ended up with really bad whiplash. My brothers friend was this elderly woman's hairdresser. 6 months after she hit me she pulled out in oncoming traffic and someone T-boned her and killed her.

Home schooling

Taylor did an awesome job at her presentation. I was so impressed with the picture that she created. I thought that the picture was a professional advertisement of some kind. I was impressed with the great detail that she included. for instance the mother in the background trying to get the teaching point across to her child. The child was listening to something on her ipod not paying attention at all to her mother. Also the messy cupboards and table the mother looked very overwhelmed. The colors that where used was great and the "chalkboard" stood out from the way the picture presented it. I think home schooling can be done if the mother has a degree in education and if she is EXTREMELY organized. My sister tried home schooling with her children for a short time and it was very difficult. As hard as she tried to do her best when her children went back to public school they were behind.

Finally I can blog

For the longest time about a month I have been trying to sign on and blog. For some reason it would not accept my password I don't know what I kept doing wrong. I try to keep my password the same for every thing online and so many different sites have you do something a little different that sometimes I get it a little confused. You see I am older and we didn't have computers all of my life. Gee even the Internet wasn't invented or full access to the Internet until I started to have children. I don't know if this is good thing to confess too. So I am just a little bit slow at figuring things out on computers. Each time I have a final presentation I need to present I learn something new like power point for this last presentation. So I am thankful for the much needed lessons.

I Had Good Intentions.

My best friend Ashley and I were watching our favorite TV show “So You Think You Can Dance” last week, when we saw a commercial for 2 for 1 membership’s at Gold’s Gym. We have been feeling out of shape since we graduated high school as we stopped dancing and exercising as much. So immediately we had great ideas about getting in shape, losing weight and looking good! So today we went in and talked to Gold’s Gym. I didn’t realize that this would be the worst idea ever. The second we walked in the guy behind the desk in his black uniform started flirting with us. After he used more lame lines then I can count, and rested his hand on my shoulders and guided me to the back office, he then gave us a tour of the gym. The gym was nice and Ashley and I were getting stoked about going. The sinking feeling started when we sat down and they made us sign our initials on a bunch of lines with text written big enough for ants to read. I kept finding hidden fee’s and asking about their purpose, they immediately started telling me it’s a good deal and that these fee’s are minimal and a onetime thing. The situation started to feel more and more fishy and red flags were popping up left and right. The look on Ashley’s face was priceless as she kept signing her name. They then set us up with a personal trainer who did a “fitness evaluation” which just made us feel fat and stupid. They already made us feel over weight, I guess they just wanted to confirm it. They started to set dates to meet with the personal trainer when it occurred to me this was probably not free, I then found out it cost $70 a month. After I threw up in my mouth, I told him no. The trainer then kept giving me “deals” that were not really deals. All and all, I left the gym feeling completely played by the flirty guys in black. Not only did I leave unhappy, but I’m still fat, and even more broke.

Through fifteen minutes of reading the fine print on our copy, we discovered that we can go to the cooperate office in Orem within the next 4 days to cancel our membership's. So I'm still fat, and missing $20, but I feel much better :]

My final paper

I decided to write my final paper on elderly driving. I have worked with a lot of elderly people because I worked in a long term care and rehab facility. I have dealt with every disease and sometimes they were just there to get strength back. So when they left guess what they would be doing? Driving home. Driving to the store. Driving to their children's house. It didn't matter where they were driving, a lot of them should have NEVER been allowed to sit in a car, let alone behind the steering wheel. They were confused and not all there sometimes.Their reflexes were horrible and the cognitive skills were off. Half the time they couldn't even follow a converstation or talk in full sentences. How the doctors allowed driving is a mystery to me. It was just scary to me seeing this. This was a big incentive to make it known how big of a problem it can be. We've all been around horrible elder drivers and I know you will agree with me that they should be taken off the road at a certain point. All im asking for is a test of some sort to test the capabilities of them. To make sure they are still capable of driving. If they pass well what did it really harm for them to prove it to society? And if they don't pass well then there is one less hazard out there on the road. Causing iritation to drivers or near accidents or just even driving SOOOO slow and in the way.

Alicias Presentaion

I really liked what she said in her presentation. She made it very interesting and said what she wanted to say without being cruel but letting her beliefs known, saying it outright, but not being harsh about it. It was interesting to me because im kind of torn on the topic. I don't know if I completely agree. I think that happiness is a choice yes, but not for everyone. Some people just can't find that happiness or feel it. It is hard to find happiness when you don't even know where to search for it. Its like looking for the sun when it is night time. You have to wait for dawn and who knows how long that will take. I do agree that medications help because ive been there. in that dark place searching for something you can't find. Looking harder then ever to just be ok and happy. Or to feel nothing at all because that is better then unhappiness. Eventually I think you can snap out of it and just be happy because you grabbed that sun and you aren't letting go. Medicine helps you to just feel content but you still have to find happiness. It just makes it easier to find. It takes away the bad thoughts, the negative thoughts that you feel all the time because you can't see anything good. I like to think now that ive been at this low of low, that if you look for bad, that is all you will see. But if you look for the good in life then you will find it. Everytime. Because that is what you are looking for.

Christmas Spirit

I've been having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. First, there's finals stress I'm spending every spare moment I have studying and preparing for projects I have had little time to do all the fun extras with the kids. Then, there is work stress I have become unmotivated in my job and it makes my days very trying. I took some time and decided to check out a bit this weekend. I decided not to worry about school or work and just spend some holiday time with my family. We went and got our Christmas tree ,which I had been putting off as I didn't have the time. There was something in the simplicity of watching my kids put the ornaments on the tree that sparked that spirit I was laking. I'm still not quit ready for the holiday but just get me through this week of finals and it's holiday spirit all the way.

The writing center..

So I've been reading and everyone seems to have had a problem with the writing center this time around. I know I sure did. The chick that was my "tutor" blew me off. I went in there at my appointment time and she asked if I needed help with anything. I was like well I don't know if my works cited page is correct and so she looked at it and was like ya you don't need to put unknown for an author you don't know. You can just leave it as the cite page title and that will work fine. But other then that it looks great. She then wrote on the slip that she looked over that, signed it, and sent me on my way not even asking if I needed help with the body of the paper. She acted like it was a chore to help me. Isn't this her job or something to help out? So frustrating. Every other time I went to the writing center they gave me a lot of helpful input and made me feel a lot better about my papers. Why can't it always be that helpful? I'm just very thankful we had the peer reviews or else my paper would be horrible with no input from anyone. I never realized until this class how helpful other peoples views and points are. It is so great to have them read it and make the corrections that are needed. Or else they can just tell you what will make it better. Thanks to that my papers always turn out a lot better.

Christmas Vacation!!!

Im so excited for Christmas I can hardly stand it. It will be so good to just relax for two seconds and do something that I want to do. Not something that usually happens. What is going to happen is im going to sleep most of it away because i need sleep and then before I know it it will be time to go back to dreaded school and work. Well I guess I will be having to work over this short but needed break. I even have to work on Christmas and New Years Day. How lame is that? I will only get to spend like one day, Christmas Eve, with family. *Sigh* It sucks being from Delta. I hardly ever get to see my family, once in a blue moon. Oh well I should just stop complaining and be thankful for everything that I have. I am. I just like to complain I guess. HA HA. I should just be thankful that I have a family and something to go home to for Christmas or just in general. Not everyone has that. Its just hard living up here alone not knowing anyone and not having many friends. Don't get me wrong even if i had friends I wouldn't be able to do anything hardly ever. But it would still be nice. Oh well I guess thats my fault. I would if I put out the effort to make some. I just don't have the energy. I just need to be positive. I will be...eventually....

I hope I'll make it.

No one ever told me how hard finals would be. Its not just the test that make it hard, its all the studying and stress from them. It is so hard to even fit in the studying for them. I work a full time job....allllllll weekend long so my weekends are gone. I mean I always have these good intentions to study or do homework after work but working 6AM-630PM it really wears you out. I never can convince myself to do it. Im always too tired. Then during the week I go to school Monday- Thursday so I try to do as much as I can then but its like I just wanna do something fun that doesn't invole school or work for a minute. or sleep....which I never get to do.... So then i convince myself oh you can do it tomorrow finals aren't for a couple weeks...well here we are finals week and I haven't done much studying. So im stressing out bad. I am in a bad mood and I just can't wait for it to be over and done with... It is this circle of never ending school work that I can't get away from. Never never never take 16 credit hours and try working full time...it will kill you like it has me.... Next semester will hopefully be better and I can have a normal functional life...I hope. Precastination is never a good way to be....it stresses you out, and then if you are like me you just shut down and do anything because you can't handle the stress. Never good.

I dislike blogs

I am a private person by nature. I don't like sharing my thoughts with just anybody. When we were first told that we were required to write blogs for this class I was not thrilled about the idea and I'm still not thrilled. I have put it off all semester and am now left with finishing them all on the last day. One of the main reasons I don't like blogs is that people use it to hide behind a screen instead of facing a problem head on. People can say terrible things and never have to see the results of there insults. It's cowardly. With blogs and texting and all that other junk people are loosing the art of communication. It is one of my biggest peeves when people will send me story book texts essentially saying nothing or something they could say more efficiently if they would just pick up the phone and try to call.

writing lab

My last trip to the writing lab was interesting. I have not yet before had any troubles with anyone in the writing lab. I have however, heard horror story's. My experience was not that to join in the ranks of horror just one of interest. I made my appointment a few days ahead of time to make sure I could get in. I went to the lab early in case someone else finished early I would be there. As I watch the time go by and people finished with there appointments and the workers did nothing. Not until the very moment of my appointment did someone say they could help me. The half an hour went by quickly and we had not yet finished going through my paper. There was no one else waiting and if someone came in there were other workers that were available. But no they couldn't spend 5 more min with me finishing going through my paper. They very quickly jumped up and said that time was up. What help I did get was useful I just didn't see why if there was no one else waiting they could not have finished viewing my paper.

I wrote my final paper on homeschooling, and whether or not it’s the best option for a child’s education. Homeschooling may give you more power of curriculum, however; homeschooling puts added stress onto the family, deprives the child of social interactions, and life lessons that can only be taught through experiences offered in classroom structured schooling systems. Here is my genre translation I presented to the class. It’s a picture I took to exaggerate the point that homeschooling is not the best form of education.

Home School

So Taylor did her genre translation today about home schooling children, and she stated that it's not a good idea. I couldn't agree with her more. I think home schooling is all around a bad idea, I'm sure some mothers out there are cut out to do it, but most aren't. I know so many women that tried to home school their kids and gave up about halfway through elementary school. That really affects a child's development. Plus...a lot of the time home schooled kids are very socially awkward. They don't know how to interact with other youth and they end up being outcasts. I know that isn't the case all the time, but it's definitely a concern and a possibility. I know several kids that were home schooling, and in complete honesty, they were a little...weird. I just don't think it's a good idea. Send them to public school and let them grow and mature with the kids their age.

finally...

I finally made it to the end of the semester. I wanted to make sure that I could sum up everything so I waited until the end. The classical argument was the most difficult paper ever for this semester. I really enjoyed making my video presentation for my genre translation. My video took forever it seems like. I had to first survey all these girls in the area and narrow it down to a select few points to present. It was fun setting up each scenario. The library at BYU was a very good place to film because I had read in the BYU newspaper, “the Daily Universe,” that there was about an 80% possibility for most guys to find dates with girls. Although I wanted to show, that because of the diversity of responses I received from the girls I surveys, the statistics still leave room for being wrong. It was also funny that I have never even met those girls that I had filmed. My friend Steve was a natural born actor I think. He was perfect for my actor and character because he is naturally a charming and classy guy, and yet, the girls didn’t think he was up to par. I feel like I have learned a lot more than I expected this semester. I will admit that I put more effort on some assignments than others. But I am glad that it’s over for now. I just hope that I put enough effort to get me a good grade.

A summarized summary, then my strong response.

Creative professionals must adapt-to and embrace new technology with an open mind, or they risk being left by the wayside.

In Roy Blount Jr's op-ed article “The Kindle Swindle?” posted on the New York Times website on February 24, 2009, Author's Guild president Roy Blount Jr asserts that authors are entitled to some sort of compensation “a fair share”(Blount) for the value that text-to-speech brings to Amazon's 2nd generation e-book reader the Kindle 2. Roy describes the Kindle 2 as a wireless paperback-size portable e-book reader. He states that Amazon does pay royalties for books under copyright, but the Kindle 2 can read books aloud with it's text-to-speech software and Amazon is not currently paying anything extra(any extra royalties) for providing this service to its customers. Roy says that Amazon is selling the Kindle 2 e-book titles as an e-book and audio book rolled up together, something that is not usually done because the value of audio books far surpass that of e-books. He also states that “audio books are a billion-dollar market, and growing”(Blount), and that the revenue from audio book sales helps to keep authors and publishers afloat.

Although Roy makes a strong argument for extra royalties from Amazon for the text-to-speech functionality of their Kindle 2 e-book reader, his view is antiquated, short sided, and lacking a sense of open-mindedness and adaptation needed to excel in this constantly changing technological landscape.

Technology can and will continue to change the face of commerce, and creative professionals (authors included) must adapt if they are to survive. Roy makes mention that there are a lot of ways for “not getting paid that new technology affords authors”(Blount). With all the ways writers are not getting paid, I see new ways for writers to make money. For example, a writer of skilled prose could make cash providing rhetoric for various websites, or they can create their own website if they were so inclined. A well designed website, with strong rhetoric, and fresh and entertaining content will draw in crowds of visitors. This opens new doors of revenue generation from advertisements, and from affiliate links, which are links from your website to product or service provided on another website.

Roy's view is antiquated and short sided. He sees the Kindle 2's text-to-speech functionality as a violation of copyright law, encroaching on the territory currently held by audio books. I see a technology that has been around for least 15 years, and that doesn't violate copyright law in so much as no new publication is being created by it. A new publication would incur new expenses in it's creation. There is the cost of hiring a professional reader like Jim Dale, and the cost of creation and distribution of the medium(the audio book). Roy sees this billion-dollar industry, the audio book market, posed to be taken down by this technological advancement called tech-to-speech.

Roy makes a persuasive argument. His article is well organized and written, by a man who understands good rhetoric. He establishes his ethos by stating his position as the president of the Authors Guild. With his references to how his guild is being assailed by the National Federation of the Blind, he draws empathy from the reader. He does a good job of bringing readers that may not know what the Kindle 2 is up to speed with a quick description of the device. He supports the viability and listenability of the Kindle 2 with his reference to how pleasant the voices of the Kindle 2 sound, and by saying that the Kindle 2's text-to-speech software can compare to the “dulcet resonance of Jim Dale”(Blount).

The current state of the Kindle 2's text-to-speech software is sub-par when compared to a professional commercial reading by a real human. I don't own a Kindle 2, but I did find a sample of both of the text-to-speech voices of the Kindle 2 out on the net. After listening to the sample of the male and female voices of the kindle 2, I found them dry and lacking. I haven't listened to a whole lot of different audio books. Looking back, I could count the audio books that I have listened to on my fingers. But as I listened to the voices of the Kindle 2, I found myself longing for a true audio book with a real human reading the text and instilling the prose with inflection and character.

Roy's position on this matter is close-minded. He pleas for extra money when nothing extra is being created. The need for something extra (like an audio book) is being undermined by this evolving software called text-to-speech. As text reading software develops into something more palatable, it may eliminate the audio book market entirely. We mustn't fight technological advancements, we must embrace them and move forward. We must keep an open mind and look for new streams of revenue as the medium that we use to transmit our work continues to change.


Work Cited

Blount, Roy Jr's op-ed piece “The Kindle Swindle?” New York Times website in the opinion section. published: Feb. 24 2009. URL = “http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/25/opinion/25blount.html? _r=1”

Most of my trips to the writing center have been positive experiences.

Nearly all of my trips to the writing center have been good experiences. All but the last trip. I did not have a pleasant time with my last writing center tutor. I don't think she liked my paper much. After berating me for 20 minutes about my overuse of commas, she gave me a printout on the proper use of a comma and basically told me to piss off. I left the writing center that day a little disheartened and confused. I thought I had what was shaping up to be a pretty good paper. At least she had given me some feedback to work with, and I did go through my paper and take out some of the commas. It was a strange experience to say the least. At first I got the impression that she was a little bit attracted to me, and that she was trying to impress me by showing me how much she could help me with my paper. Then at some point I think she decided that I was an idiot and that she didn't like my paper. All of my other trips to the writing center have been really cool. Out of the four different writing center employees that I've had review my papers, three out of four have been very helpful. For the most part I have enjoyed my time at the writing center. Well that's all I have for this blog. Cya

That STUPID Stop Light!!!!

Can I complain for a second? Does anyone besides me take the exit that's labeled "University Parkway" and have to deal with that stupid stop light that turns left into UVU's roundabout???? I hate that stop light!!! ARGH!!! You have to sit there for like an hour and then, the green arrow that's only for your two turning lanes lasts for only two cars, I swear!! It's SOOOO frustrating!!! Grr!!! I hate it with a passion!!! To top it off, the oncoming traffic sometimes blocks that road and doesn't allow the people, like me, in the turning lane to turn! Errr!! SO annoying!!! Also, the turning lane that's across the street staring my turning lane down gets to go for like ten minutes and that side of the road ALWAYS goes first!!! There's more people turning on MY side of the street!! We should be able to go first! Not them! OR! They should just allow some time for just the two turning lanes to turn with a cute little green arrow and no green lights....that would rock my world!

Phew! That felt good! Had to get that off my chest! *sigh!* all better now! :)

I love this picture because it shows that even though everyone is human, we're still an individual! Only you can make life an explosion of happiness with the right mindset!!!! WHOOO!!!!! GO OPTIMISM!!!!!

FOOOD!!!!

So I went to one of those Chinese food tastings here at UVU, and let me say, it was pretty tasty!! HAHAHA! The food was fabulous! The chefs did a really good job and I applaud them for all the preparation that they did. Visually, the food was appealing therefore making it a rhetorical strategy. Who wants to eat food that you've never had if it doesn't look appetizing to you? That's one thing that's essential for most cooking. Take Iron Chef America for example, one of the criteria they're judged on is is plating design. I've seen many of the battles lost because of the plating not being as strong as the other competitors plating. It's only natural that we eat stuff that appeals to us. If not, then, we must either already know what it tastes like and not care, or all the other senses tell us it's tasty!!! I'm sure there's other reasons, but I can't think of them right now....Anyhoo, I particularly liked the rice dish that I ate....I don't remember what it was called, but it sure was tasty! The best rice that I've ever had! Mmmm-mmm!!!! :D The next time UVU has something like this, I recommend that you guys try it! It was fantastic! Yummy!!!

Global Warming My (bleep)

Okay I know this will fall under the category of "soap box tyraid" or something of that nature, but if one more person complains to me about global warming, I might flip one. Al Gore can say whatever he wants, but I'm throwing out an open invitation for him to come set up camp in Utah and then tell me what he thinks about global warming. I'd love to see him waltzing about in his business suit in the below zero weather that goes on around here. Until the temperature in Logan pulls above negative kelvin, I don't want to hear a word! Anyways, happy holidays to everyone and I hope you're all enjoying the snow. It's the best time of the year!

Christmas Parties!

I love Christmas Parties! I recently had a work Christmas party and it was a blast! We went to a bowling alley with all the employees and we bowed, ate, socialized, and just had fun. They had a gift drawing which was way awesome. I got some laundry detergent, but later traded it with a co-worker for a Nerf football. LOL! Best trade of my life! I love being around people, and i love socializing and i love bowling. I scored a 164, which is pretty dang good for not having bowled in about a year or more. The food there was awesome too! we had a whole bunch of Mexican food and desserts, and candy, and soda. Mmm, i love Christmas! Lets have a party!

No more class

this class is almost over, and it feels like it went by so quick, but at the same time, i feel like this class is a part of my life that i have been in forever. I'm gonna miss this class because it was a lot of fun and it was so flexible with writing and all of the assignments. I love being able to write about what "I" want to write about. Not about what someone else wants me to write about. I also love the way Dr. Westover teaches. I have learned so much this semester from his class alone. It affects the way i think, the things i do, and it has overall, made me a better person. I thank Daniel Westover for his excellence in teaching. I hope i can take another one of his classes in the future. This has, with out a doubt, been one of the best classes i have ever taken in my entire life! Thanks to all my classmates who made it an enjoyable experience as well. We had some really good times learning together.

I really enjoyed this picture. The author is implying that the polar bear is angry that the polar ice caps are melting so he is rowing by all of the large companies that are dumping out black pollution into the once sun filled sky. The polar bear also has some petitions bundled up on the iceberg, to get the law involved with, what he thinks is a very big problem.

Words

"Words- so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them."
-Nathaniel Hawthorne

We got this quote from Dr. Westover in class one day and I absolutetly love it. I love words! I love listening to people who speak very eloquently and use words like...eloquen. I like to hear new words and find out what they mean. I try to incorporate new words into my vocabulary all the time. I have a game on my ipod that brings up a word of the day, and I enjoy it. I encourage everyone to start noticing words and to try to discover their meaning.

Visual Rhetoric

I thought that there might be a few students (like me) that need to make just a few more posts on the blog. So, if you would like analyze this picture and identify what the author of this comic is implying with the rhetoric used you could get another post under your belt!



When I first saw this picture I laughed. The author is obviously trying to get his point across that steroid use in baseball is being overlooked. The baseball player has a tatoo on his arm dedicated to his 'mom' implying that he's a mommas boy and is innocent, and maybe implying that he's a dufus and a meathead.

These are just a couple elements of this comic, so post your comments too!

Steroids in Baseball

I enjoyed the last assignment believe it or not. I really had a good time building a website and educating people about steroids in major league baseball. If you want to check out my website and learn more about steroids in major league baseball then this will be a good start. I also had a good time doing the research for my paper and learned a lot about the subject. I really like the other student genre translations in the class and enjoyed some of the creativity, and I look forward to seeing the rest on Monday.

The great end

The end of the semester is finally here. When you were younger it was kind of sad, but now its nothing but a great relief. I can't believe how much I've learned this semester to be honest with you though. I'm excited to continue my education and really get into my major. Next semester I will actually be heading to Orlando, FL for an internship. I will be taking a part of the Disney College Program there. It'll be fun I believe. I auditioned to be a character and made it, so I'll work as a character and take some audio classes to help me progress in my major (Digital Media). So that will be something to look forward to. I will be staying there from January until June or August. Just depends on if I choose to extend or not. As they say it "Every ending is a new beginning." Gook luck to everyone :)

almost the end of the semester

This is my second to last blog entry. I am definitely excited to be at the end of this semester. I learned a great deal from this class. I think that the rhetorical strategies were the biggest thing that we had covered. It is also strange that wherever I go, I can’t look or read anything without giving a good analization of it. It has somehow grown to be a bit natural for me to analyze everything and immediately thinking of the different rhetorical strategies used in it. For example, I watch a lot of movies at the theatre, and I can’t help but figure out which strategy is being used and for what purpose. There are so many scenes that I think, “Oh, with those 2 characters, the director and writer want the audience to feel pathos because of…..” I can’t say that I don’t like the natural tendency to discover each strategy, but it makes me wonder if it’s a good thing to do so all the time. I haven’t exactly noticed if I can turn it off, I haven’t really paid too much attention to that. Although, I think that sometimes I just want to be part of the audience and experience those feelings that the director or writer want the audience to think at a specific time. I don’t think this will go away because I am still in school and my work requires me to understand what people are saying and how they are saying it. So I guess we’ll see.

almost to the final draft.....

Ok, so now we are winding down the end of this fall semester, and I feel done and ready to move on to the next one. So the last time I wrote was about how I was feeling and what I was thinking about my middle draft of the classical argument paper. Since that group critique, I have been reviewing again and again and again, I may have said this before, but I have changed my paper and my thesis all over the place. I am wondering if my thesis is now strong enough to withstand the college level of writing. I have already gone to the writing lab 2 times and each of my reviewers has told me something completely different about my paper. The first time I went, the girl that reviewed my paper to help me produce my argument. She gave me really good information, but it wasn’t exactly fitting to what I was trying to explain to her what I wanted to write about. So that 1st review wasn’t exactly as beneficial to me as I was hoping for. I went to the writing lab a second time, not too long after because I felt unsatisfied with the information the first visit. This second girl was a lot clearer to me than the first. I specified as much as possible the 2nd time because maybe the 1st girl didn’t comprehend what I was saying. The second girl listened to me and explained to me more in detail what I was lacking in my organization. Now it’s off to the final draft.

Genre Translation Project

For the last couple of weeks or so I have been working on my Genre Presentation. It was a hard and stressful thing for me to do, because I couldn’t think of any ideas that would be interesting and that my classmates would actually want to watch without being totally bored. I thought about making a movie, interviewing people, writing a story, and other ideas. After thinking about this for a long time, I finally decided that I would do a power point/movie, since I am more familiar about making these types of presentations.

Because my topic is on whether or not vaccination should me mandatory and whether or not vaccines are worth it, I decided to include a number of pictures of children who have died from vaccine preventable diseases. I included pictures of babies, toddlers, school age children, and teens to show that disease kills all ages and not just certain ages. Hopefully this will show that diseases really do kill many people. Not getting vaccinated could kill anyone. I also included a video clip of a news cast that shows how a lot of unvaccinated people have died from measles. I hope that my presentation will be effective and impactful and that the other students in my class will get something positive out of it. I also hope everyone can learn that vaccines save lives and are worth it. My project in nearly finished and I am now ready to present it. I am actually excited about it and I am looking forward presenting it.

Death by Genre Translation

So I have a problem, and it's name is Genre Translation. I am having the hardest time with this assignment, and it's not because it's difficult. What's making it so difficult is, in fact, the fact that it isn't difficult at all. My brain is so full of ideas that they're spilling out my ears and I can't decide on one. I finally think that I've come to a conclusion about what I'll be doing, but the stress I went through to get here was ridiculous! I find myself muttering "come on, Kelsey, it isn't that hard". However...it is! On the other hand, I'd much rather be doing this than a written final. That is for sure. My stress levels are much less significant than they could be. So thank you Dr. Westover, for being kind to us. While this genre translation is still a kick in the gonads, it could be much worse.

Let It Snow?

I love where I live about April –November, things are beautiful in Utah Valley. But once the first snow hits, I suddenly become bitter about anything the color white. I hate snow. I hate driving in it, I hate the way it ruins my perfectly just-blow-dried hair, I hate how cold and wet it is. Snow is just bad news all the way around. Today I got up early and started walking out the door only to realize that my car looked more like a marshmallow then a black Honda civic. After a few curse words and other forms of profanity I threw on a coat 2 sizes too big and walked into my personal hell. I grabbed a shovel and shuffled to my car in my cute new flats. My feet got wet about 3 seconds into the walk to my car and snow was blowing at my face so I immediately went back inside my warm home. My mother accused me of being a “wuss” and forced me to go back out and shovel my car out of the side of the road it was buried in. A few more choice words were said and I was back out with a shovel the size of me and my big coat. It took me about a half hour to get my car out. Then I had to scrape my car and try to remove my frozen windshield wipers from my frozen windshield. By the time I got in my car I was already late for class. I then continued to try to drive down the snowy streets of Springville in my attempt to make it to UVU in one piece. I slid into a snow bank about 4 houses away from my house. I then turned around and called it quits. I am now in my sweats wrapped up in a blanket watching Tyra. I hate the snow.

Final weeks

Everything in my live is coming down to the wire. Today I have a presentation in my English class. Tomorrow I have my last chapter in math. Thursday I have a dance performance. Last year it was even worst because I was going on a cruise the week of finals and had to finish school a week early. There really no real reason for me to be so scared its just the fact that its finals. Everyone hates finals. Man it is a great feeling when all is said and down with the semester. I know that some people aren't getting any sleep these next two weeks. My friend last year would stay up writing her papers until all hours of the night and just stay up all night then go to school early that morning to finish her papers or whatever homework she had left. Lucky for me my schedule isn't a bad one and I don't have to worry about too many things due at once. I'm happy to get this semester over with I have a lot more classes I'm taking next semester that I want to get started. I've never been part of a blog and to me the concept of writing to other people to read is a good thing and very interesting to read what others decide to write about.

I'm amazed that I don't carry any scars from that day.

It's was the day of a furious wind storm. Many trees were torn from the ground that day or had some of their leaves and branches ripped down. I was around 12 years old if I remember correctly. My brother and I were having a grand time playing out back in the wind. We each had an army pancho blanket that we were using as make shift parachutes. We would jump off the trampoline or just run around the backyard holding the blankets out to catch the wind. Now these were army pancho liners (blankets) and as such had sets of strings at the corners. Eventually we both had the blankets tied at the corners to our wrists and ankles. I believe it was my little brother that got out the roller blades first, but I was quick to follow suit. Soon we were taking turns cruising down the street on our blades with our make shift sails tied to our wrists and ankles. I had a grand time blading down the street under wind power alone, though it was difficult to see over the sail / blanket.

I was headed up to the North side of the street to make my run. When I heard a loud roar. Well, louder than the current roar of the wind storm. I had my sail just hanging behind me. The micro burst picked me up, and through me on my back. A little frightened, I kept playing. A few runs later. I was at the North side of the street just starting my run. As soon as I opened my sail, I heard it: The sound of another micro burst. In a flash, my sail was fully opened and I was cruising down the street. To fast, I was going way to fast. I couldn't see. In an attempt to regain visibility I lowed my hands to bring the top of my sail down a little bit. Doing so let my sail drag a little on the road. My blades caught and rode up onto the bottom of my sail, and down I went with my arms held out by the sail. I slid on the left side of my face for about 10 to 15 feet. With my arms held out by my sail the only thing between my face and the road was the sail / army blanket. The skin on the left side of my face was trashed, and I even had some road rash on my chest. I'm glad that I don't carry any scars from that day. Looking back, a release on my make shift sail or at least not tying it to my wrists and ankles would have been genius.

I'm gonna wrap this up because it's going a little long for a blog. I hope that you enjoyed my little story.

Had we have lost Majbrit to the river, I would have never forgiven myself.

I led a few friends to a spot in Diamond Fork Canyon my family calls the Red Narrows. A place I have been to many times with my family. I learned how to rappel there, and I'm very familiar with a few of the cliffs and the surrounding terrain. Recently I had learned how fun it was to play in the fast moving river on the other side of the road. I had considered it to dangerous before but now was changing my tune. I went to the Narrows that day specifically to play in the river. I brought a few friends with me, and one of them brought his wife (girlfriend at the time.) After we arrive I lead the group across to the spot that I wanted to play at. The river was around 3 feet deep and very strong where we were crossing, and I don't think that anyone made it across without loosing their footing at least once. Brenin and Majbrit both were swept down stream a little and I found out later that Majbrit lost her sandals in the first crossing.

So after playing in the cold river for a while we all started making our way back across the river. I noticed my friend Jared rather nervously helping Majbrit cross the river so I made my way over to help them out. As I reach them Jared looses his footing, and hands Majbrit off to me as he's swept down stream. As I begin to help Majbrit across the river I come to realize how frightened she is. After a few more careful steps we both loose our footing. Quickly I regain a solid foothold as the river tries to rip Majbrit from my hands. I try to pull her to me, but the current is to strong. After a few more moments of fighting the current with no avail I lift her up out of the water and then pull her to me. When I set her on her feet she collapsed backward into me. It was at this point that I realized just how dangerous the situation was. She was paralytic with fear and could hardly stand. In no state to swim for her life in a fast moving river. After tightening my grip around her we continued to carefully cross the river. A few more steps and down we both went again. We cruised down stream a bit and rode the rapid part of the current to the side of the river. Then I gave her a final toss out of the faster current and into a slower part of the river toward the open arms of her boyfriend.

Well that's my story about playing in the Diamond Fork River. A fun but rather dangerous act.I'm glad that no one was hurt. I really need to be more aware of the danger that I may inadvertently lead people into.

Excerise

There is so much pressure on the us today for our bodies to be in prime condecision. Don't get me wrong I like being in shape and fit, its just that I feel that I never have enough time to go to the gym and constantly workout. My roomate seems to find time everyday. He tells me that its his only way to get all of his energy out. He says that it helps him focus on school work if he goes to the gym for 30 mins each day. I hate trying to go to the gym because I always feel real good the first time going back but the next time I ask myself why am I doing this. I talk myself into leaving early and not working out as hard as I should. I guess I'm just not that motivated and I don't get motivated by just going to the gym. The way I get my best workouts is from playing sports like soccer and football and snowboarding and tumbling. These are all great ways to stay fit but they just don't get you stronger. This a problem that I have and I'm sure many other people can agree with me.

Writting Lab Dilemna

Okay, I will admit it, I have been procrastinating going to the Writing Lab. So last week I decided that I would finally go. I called to schedule an appointment and they said that the only available time they had was on Thursday at 3:00. I decided that this time would work for me and signed up. Well Thursday came and I woke up feeling sick. I knew that I needed to go to the lab, but there was no way I was going to make it feeling as ill as I did. I called the lab once again and asked if I could switch my appointment to Friday or Saturday. Now here is the problem, since it is almost the ends of the semester, many students also need to go the Writing Lab, so they were totally booked! I asked if they had any opening for the following Monday and as fate has it, they said they didn’t know yet and that I should call back on Friday when they would have their Monday schedule available. So on Friday I called first thing in the morning. I tried three times and I ended up getting voice mail each time. Finally on the fourth attempt someone finally picked up and I got another appointment made. Let’s all pray that something won’t come up that will make me unable to make it again! Here is my advice, if you know you have to go to the Writing Lab, don’t wait until the last minute to do so.

I know a friend of a friend that knows another guy

Can anyone help me? I have been looking for a good paying job for the last couple of months. It all started when I loss my old job in SLC working in a warehouse. I was a shipper. I worked about 28 hrs a week and still had time for my education. I made great money each week and could afford anything I wanted. Well all this sounds awesome but I the comute to work was just too much for me to handle. I sleep in twice and used up all of my personal time off. They fired me and sent me on my way. I have looked for jobs down here in Provo already because I knew that I wasn't going to be able to hold up much longer working in SLC. Unfortunately none of the 10 locations I applied for hired me. I got a call from my bro Peter who told me to call my sister Kristen and ask her to help me out. Peter had been eating at TGI Friday's that day and decided that he would get the number of the regional managers who just so happen to work with my sister 10 yrs back. Peter thought that if Kristen could just get ahold of him and see if he remembered her that maybe she could ask him if they had any opening at the Provo location. Apparently this R.M. Jeff Hyde must of liked my sister a lot, enough to remember her after all these years. I gave my sister his number and had her call and ask if there was any opening in Provo. The next day i received a call from my sister who told me that he remembered her and that he wanted me to call the general manager of TGI Friday's in Provo and ask if they had any openings. Thats what i did and I guess the R. M. had called first and told the G. M. that I would be calling so when I did call he was expecting me and we made an appoinment. Long story short I got the job..

Arguing Research

I have never been excited to write a paper before and why should this research paper be any different? Well sure enough it wasn't. I don't mine researching because I like random facts and interesting theories. Its the part of putting things into my own words and making it sound important. When I paraphrase articles I usually can tell the story or the facts in less than one paragraph. Thats why I tend to use a lot of other writers opinions more than my own because they are better at adding creativity to the story. The title of my blog is "Arguing Research" and the reason I switched the order of the wording is because in my paper about firefighters I was arguing that the way of fighting fires and the re-action people have to them has got to change. "Smokey the Bear" for many years drilled a message into the youth of america and that message is that fires are never allowed in the forest and that no good can come from it. There have been hundreds of researcher that now prove that a fire is the best way of taking care of the forest. First the fire if controlled will clean up the forest grown by burning all the dead branches and other crap thats on the ground. If fires were to have been let burning in the pass they would have helped space out the forest that we see today that are so compact and crowded with trees that when it comes to putting them out it become almost impossible.

Text messaging

So I've been wanting to write about an experiment I tried earlier on in the semester. After class one day I remember we had a discussion on text messaging and how much it affects our communication in our everyday lives. My experiment was that I would try to go a week without using text to respond or contact anyone. The first day into it I remember receiving what seemed to me more texts than usual. I tried to call back each one of the individuals that had contacted me, but when trying to do so the outcome was less than 50% sucessful. So right there I was missing out on half of my contacts for the day. I later learned that about half of that 50% that didn't answer were in class and were not able to talk on their phones. The other half just weren't next to there phones. I tried to continue the experiment but by the next day I had already forgot not to respond to text messages. The results to my experiment are: First I realized that most text messages are just friendly conversation and aren't that important. Second I didn't notices myself gaining anytime from not responding, I might have been a little safer while driving but I'm a safe driver as it is. Lastly I can say that I'm addicted to text messaging and that it is a big part of my communication with everyone I konw.

Overall the classical argument paper seems to be coming together pretty well for me. I have decided to do a website for the genre translation assignment. I figured that since I am doing my paper on steroids that this would be the best public genre to represent my subject and paper. The website is not quite done yet, but I make changes often and I am finally getting it to look like I would like it to. As for the Classical Argument paper it is also coming together, but it still sounds a little choppy. I think I will have a couple more people read my paper and give me some feedback to make sure it's ready. Any how, I'm excited to see what everyone else has done for their paper and public genre translation.

I need to think out loud so I figure I would express it on here. I was reviewing the information that I received from the group critique and I have summed up that I am not as close to being finished as I had hoped to be. My thesis and /or my argument aren’t as strong as I thought. I have looked over my paper and I have already changed so much about what my argument really is. I was hoping not to concede to a boring argument, but it may look like I have to choice. My argument seems to be more subjective because I can’t seem to choose what I want to argue about in the first place. So now I have to choose the direction I want to take my paper. I have received so many ideas and suggestions and I’ve found more sources to help with my topic, but everywhere I look I’m only finding information about dividing my topic into 2 categories. The 2 topics I don’t want to mention on here shows the direction that I didn’t want to take in the beginning. I’m still doing research, and maybe if I just hold out longer and keep looking I just might stumble across info that may support a direction that I will prove more interesting.

From this final paper, I understood it to be somewhat similar to the two sided argument paper from a couple months ago. Having the information from both sides of the argument to explain the pros and cons of each. When I was trying to formulate my argument for this final paper, I was having trouble trying to figure out what the arguments actually were. I was thinking about how to incorporate the rhetorical strategies as much as possible. From my research, I came to the realization that Logos would be my strongest point. I had statistics from my surveys that I passed around and I was pleased with the information that I received. I was still having a problem with my argument. I still don’t think my argument is as solid as I want it to be right now. That is definitely what I need to fix. I did quite a bit of research on my topic and there still doesn’t seem to be enough information to help out my small argument. I feel that my paper is mostly statistics and I’m just talking about what the survey responses are. Maybe I should give myself a little credit, I was able to go in a direction that is pretty solid. My responses that I received are my favorite parts of my research and my paper. I was having fun incorporating the different percentages in my paper. I came to a weak conclusion that because the percentages are so diverse, no 1 preference is the only preference.

Why is everyone else so excited?

So...through my hall roaming here at Utah Valley, I've encountered many advertisements such as posters, banners, etc. Why is it that when someone is making a sign they feel the need to use fifteen consecutive exclaimation points? It doesn't excite me to see a sign that reads "HUGE DANCE PARTY TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", it makes me feel like I'm being yelled at. If someone actually spoke to me with that much enthusiasm, I'd either run away or punch them in the face. Whatever happened to just one good old fashioned exclaimation point? It serves it's purpose on it's own, it doesn't need any help. "HUGE DANCE PARTY TONIGHT!" is wonderfully sufficient to grab the attention of your readers, it doesn't need six more companions to do it's job. Am I the only crabby person who feels this way? Or are there other excessive exclaimation point haters out there? I just beg my sign and poster making peers; please, stop being so excited.

I know that we haven’t talked about visual rhetorical techniques for awhile, but I still find myself thinking about this topic. Last week, when I went to the mall I happened to walk past the store Hollister. After walking in and looking around, I don’t think that this store uses visual rhetorical techniques in an effective way. The store is sort of built to look like a shack that is being rained upon. The colors and lights are dark and it doesn’t look very inviting. It also seems as if the store draws people away rather than welcoming them. Before I knew what products were sold at this store, I told myself I was never going to shop there because I got the image that the store was for the goth/emo type (sort of like Hot Topic), which I do not like. After all, wouldn’t you do the same? I mean I would much rather shop at a store that is warm and inviting with lots of bright colors rather than some sad and gloomy looking store that tends to drive me away. After learning more about the items that the store sells though, I finally talked myself into going inside and I bought a few items. Personally I think that Hollister should have designed their store differently with a lot more bright colors and lights. This way the store looks more inviting and it is not shying away potential customers, which is how the way they are presenting the store is doing now.

Research Paper

When Dr. Westover mentioned that we would be writing a research paper, I got a little nervous. Research papers are always hard for me to write and I never enjoy writing them. Starting the whole process for my paper was difficult. I started out with the topic of hunger and poverty in the United States. After searching for books, articles, and other research materials I didn’t find a lot of helpful information about the topic. I ended up switching my topic to whether or not daycare centers should be required to be licensed or not. I thought this topic would be a good choice because I have worked in daycare centers before, and I am interested in this subject. I searched for many hours about that subject and once again I didn’t find enough useful information. I was so frustrated, stressed, and overwhelmed by that point that I just wanted to give up. After talking about my frustrations with my mom, she suggested that I write my paper on the controversies about whether or not vaccination should be mandatory. I liked her suggestion because it is something I care about and have been questioning lately. Also since that topic is being discussed a lot lately with the H1N1 vaccination, I knew that I would most likely find a lot of information about it. Ultimately, I decided I would write my paper about this topic. I searched for information and ended up finding a lot of useful materials. I am now excited to write this paper and I am not so overwhelmed and frustrated.

A blog of my choosing,

I saw this commercial last night at the movies. It was for the National Guard and it came on just before the movie started. Just a side note, how dare they put commercials on before the movie? I like the movie previews, but commercials, didn't I pay to watch this movie? I guess nothing stops the continued search for new revenue streams. Anyhow, I digress... This commercial was awesome. The rhetoric was very strong. The background music, the images, inspiring to say the least. After the commercial was over, I wanted to run straight to my local recruiter's office... I'm not going to sign up, but I have a healthy respect for the way that commercial was put together. The marketing person or persons behind that thing deserve a promotion, or a least a raise. It's interesting how much more I notice the rhetoric that I'm bombarded with these days, and how I recognize it for what it is instead of blindly accepting it as just another commercial. I wonder how many commercials (on average) I see on a daily basis. Amongst the crowd of substandard rhetoric this one from the National Guard really stood out with its highly effective use of rhetorical strategy. Well played National Guard. Please continue to keep our military strong. I'm not going to join your ranks, but it was a good try playing upon my emotions with this well put together commercial.

My last blog.

I am proud to say that that is my last blog. I feel I have done really well at these blogs considering I am typing my last blog today and it is November 11, 2009. Wahoo! Well i got my papers back that were corrected and I had a B- on one of them which was kind of discouraging for me cause I have never scored below a B+ on a paper so now I am feeling a little nervous about my research paper. I worked my butt of on my research paper's rough draft so hopefully when all is said and done, ill end up getting a good grade on our research assignment. I stress about a good grade because I am applying for a nursing program where nothing but A's look good on someones application in nursing. Also, nursing is a very competitive feild. Anywho, I feel that my paper is coming along rather well. I got into the writing lab tomorrow at one o clock so hopefully I have a good tutor who can really critique my paper cause I want and need this paper to be absolutely spectacular! I spent three hours last night in the library just trying to add little things onto my paper so hopefully that will also pay off. I have my rough draft done today, so hopefully it will put a smile on my teachers face when I walk in today because I am terrible at having rough drafts done on time. I just have too much going on usually. Well class starts here in the next half hour so I will see you all there! yay for my last blog!! Had fun on this thing.

writing habits

I find that talking about my ideas is the most helpful habit for me. I enjoy healthy discussion in order to clarify ideas and understand what others view points are. Although if a discussion moves towards an argument it is no longer helpful and time to move on. I understand what methods work for me although I don't always follow the same methods for each paper. Depending on my motivation of interest, some papers are easier to write and I don't always have to follow the same steps. One thing i learned and continue to work on is that the first draft doesn't have to be good. To let go and not worry about order, grammer, spelling, and such. If I can let go I can I can get ideas down and progress from there. I always have to write my first draft by hand if i try to type it on the computer I focus to much on all the marks and find it harder to let go and write. I do need to work on time management so I don't get over whelmed and have more time to prosses thought and work through the kinks

Too Much...

Sometimes don't you feel like there is too much to do in a day? Well maybe everyday do you feel like that? Yeah me too. Today after working my 8 hour shift I came home and got straight onto the computer to start doing more work related things and homework. Although it seems like something to complain about, I don't really mind. Sometimes its better to have so much to do than nothing to do at all. When I don't have anything to do at all I get all stressed out and start feeling like crap. Although, where do you draw the line? I'm only talking about two things that everyone deals with everyday. School and work. Now, I do have a whole lot of other things I'm trying to balance, but they are for the most part all connected with school or work. I'm trying to record music, I'm trying to get future jobs and living figured out, I'm trying to get my essay prepared and written, while trying to please the social life that I once had. Whatever though. I don't totally mind right now. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed, but sometimes you've just gotta buck up and take it on in the face. Get over it. It'll all work out in the end. So find something to do and enjoy it. Learn from it while your still in the moment. If you don't have to work for it, it sure ain't worth it...

A typical day in english class..

So I must say that in english today I felt quite retarded. I guess I just cant accept the fact that this paper is up to me and there are no rules. I feel like there should be certain requirements for my research paper but I have all the freedom I want to write this paper. Now I am a bit more comfortable about it because when there are no rules, I can write longer essays so I guess it benifits me in a lot of ways. This is our last paper so I am just nervous and would like a really good grade on it. Anywho, today has been quite the stressful day. I registered for classes and I am really nervous. I have way hard classes next semester, and I just hope with school and work at the same time, I can get it all done and get the A's that I want. When you are majoring in nursing, you definitley have to be committed to school or good luck. The one thing I am not stressed out about is my mom is paying for school so I feel thankful that I don't have to worry about any loans! I am flippen lucky! I am taking Psychology 1100, Biology 1010, and math 1010 which people say Biology is hard but I am not letting their comments get to me because I know if I go in fearing the class, I won't do near as good. Well it is about time that I end this blog now because I have to head to Nutrtion 1020 all the way in spanish fork. Yeah I know, it is fun stuff. Blog to ya later!

10 Habits

I think that I possess the second habit that is addressed in the reading: thinking rhetorically , from the start. It helps me in the writing process because I envision my paper and how I want people to react to it before I start writing. I make a game plan, if you will, for writing. Sometimes if I have a certain story or experience that relates to my topic I will stick it right in the beginning and plan the rest of the paper around it. I think a habit I need to work on is number 5, reducing your expectations for early drafts. I don't like writing four drafts of the same paper, I want to write it once, and fix things as I go along. In the end I think that attitude holds me back a litte because I get somewhat narrow minded about the things I've put in my first draft. I feel obligated to keep them in my paper, when I probably shouldn't. I just need to stop being such a high achiever ;)

10 writing habits

The habit that I already possess is number 8. Exchange drafts with others. My sister is amazing when it comes to writing so I always have her correct my paper for me. She has me write it how I want it and then she tells me what she thinks I should do and then I will fix it. It takes her about an hour to write a 4 pg paper and it takes me about 3 days. I'm not good at writing, grammar, or spelling, so she is nice enough to clean up the mess I have made of the paper. It helps me a lot while I'm writing my paper to know that its ok if it sounds retarded because my sister and whoever else reads it will help me change things that I don't notice are wrong. The habit I would like to try out is number 2. Thinking rhetorically from the start. I don't really think about what effect I want to have on readers. I just write and see how it turns out and than I rearrange as I need to. So my next paper I write, I'm going to try to use this habit and see how well it helps me.

blog of my choice

I can honestly say that I hate the writing center. I know, hate is a strong word but it's true. They aren't helpful and they act like snobs. I'm not trying to rip on the assignment but every time I go there I get so frustrated. The first time I went the guy that helped me MADE me read him my paper. AWKWARD!!! He would stop me and ask me what I thought I could do to make it sound better. Isn't that his job? The best part was that he didn't even know how to spell a few of the words so I had to go home and correct everything an extra time. I went to the writing center again the other day and I didn't have a chance to make it there until the day it was due so I politely told her that she didn't have to put too much work into it because I had already finished and done my final draft and that I didn't have time to change anything else. She looked at me, gave me this pissed off face, signed my paper, and told me "I'm not going to waste time reading it than." Well geez, sorry to waste your time lady! Anyway, I'm not looking forward to going back but I know it needs to be done. I'll just suck it up, bite my tongue, and take there useless information for what it is worth.

My research paper

Well first off I would like to say happy halloween to everyone out there! I am so excited to dress up tonight! I am excited to set the clocks back cause then that means, late partying, and extra hour to sleep in!! Anywho, I am looking up some more research on childhood obesity and I am greatful it is such a big topic and important discussion in the world today because it makes it that much easier to do research on. I still have to go to the library and find books on it and get some important facts because I think that is how I am going to start my introduction off. I have a basic outline of my paper but it isnt quite clear yet so that is why I need and would like more information through books. I must say that looking at obese children is actually quite sad because then you think about their health issues on the side like heart disease, diabetes, etc. I think it was sad that a child should be at risk at such a young age. Anywho, I am going to get back to doing more research. I found that it is much more simple and much more trusting if I found research and information through health sites that are official or through professional doctors on a site. It is hard to trust the internet these days so I just want to make sure that I am getting right informatin through right sources so I am not ending up with false statements on my essay. Well everyone, be safe tonight and I hope you have a wonderful halloween!!

10 Writing Habits

After reading the ten expert habits, I quickly realized that I am not an expert writer. I have found that the best way for me to write a paper is to think about the topic for a few days and brainstorm. After I have some ideas I sit down, and write all of my ideas down, usually in order of how I want the paper to flow but much of the time some of my ideas need to be cut and pasted in a better spot, or sometimes just deleted. After all of my ideas are down and I feel comfortable with some of the structure, then I put together opening paragraphs, thesis statements, and conclusions. A couple of things I could probably do that would improve my papers is to reduce my expectations for early drafts. This would allow me to just put more ideas down on paper without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or any of those small things that just seem to trip me up in a first draft. Another technique that would help me would be to print out drafts along the way. I do struggle with not being able to see the 'whole picture' and making major edits to papers. Printing it would help so I can make notes on the paper for changes that need to be made, and also make it easier to organize ideas.

I require a peaceful space from which to create.

I seek out a quiet place to write my papers, usually my bedroom. A peaceful space
free from loud noises and other distractions. I employed the idea-mapping technique
while writing one paper and I was really happy with the result. The idea map helped
me to organize my thoughts before I started my rough draft. It also helped me to decide
whether I had enough supporting information to backup my claims. I also try to schedule
my time by planning for drafting, revising, and editing, but it doesn't always
work out for me. My fluctuating work schedule contributes to a difficult balancing act
of time management.
I also try to think rhetorically from the start, but to this end,
I could use improvement. I'm going to try and incorporate this technique
(perhaps more fully) into my next paper. As I revise, I'm also going to try to think
increasingly about the needs of my readers. I think these things will help me be a
more effective writer, or at least I hope that they will. Anyhow ,another blog down,
just 5 more to go. cya :)

10 habits!

the best habit that i have would probably be composing rough drafts directly to my computer. I can just get my ideas down just by typing. It really helps because i can use those ideas to actually get a good piece of writing going. Some things that i really need work on is reducing my expectations on early drafts. Often times i feel like my first draft needs to be perfect with a couple grammatical or organization errors that i can fix in my final draft. When this happens i will usually feel stuck or "Blocked" as the book likes to call it. Sometimes i will just sit there with a blank page and just sit thinking for a long time...i can work on just getting words down on paper even if it looks like a bunch of trash and doesn't make any sense. Another thing i can work on is writing over a period of time. Usually i will just wait until the last minute to write my paper because in all honesty, i'm not a big fan of writing, generally speaking. Another good thing that i do when writing is exchanging my draft with other people and letting them read and analyze what i have to say. I get good feedback and that seems to help me out A LOT when i am writing my final draft etc.

I admit to habit #10. I find myself in the same situation as many students in college. I have to find the balance with all my extra-curricular activities. I work full time, go to school and have lots of physical training. I always write my essay papers as soon as I can figure out what my topic is. So I think that when I have a legitimate topic, I actually just start writing. I usually have a direction in mind of where I want to take my paper. But as life has it for me, I never really finish my paper on the first sitting at writing it. I try to write as much as possible at home, and then I just send it to my work computer. I pull up my paper to continue where I left off. I really only have 10-15 minutes here and there to write while at work. After about a few days or so, I usually have a decent 1st draft. It’s not perfect of course, but I am satisfied with it. Until I have someone correct it, then it gets demolished! This habit just works for me because I know when I have lulls in my day; I can always find something productive to do. This method is probably not the most efficient, in fact, I would like to be able to just write freely and not worry about being correct with everything. I like to be somewhat of a perfectionist and get it done all at once. I know my grammar is not optimal, nor is my use of words. That’s why I would like to be less picky and just write so I can get all my ideas on paper and then just figure it out later with someone to correct it. Little by little I guess.

Another blog of my choice..

Ok so I am sitting in the library doing anther blog of my choice because I am have an hour to occupate my time here in the library before class starts. I am really excited to start our research paper! I found a topic I am highly interested in and that would be child obesity. Should we have a better plan to prevent child obesity? I am excited cause I actually found a topic I am interested in. I am slo excited to find and see other peoples point of view. I think it is rather interesting and exciting. I am not too sure on what else to write about because from my knowledge, we have to blog about something that pertains to the class. So all I can think about is our research paper. Anywho, I really appreciated having a guy come and present to us on how to loook for different research items through the online UVU library system. Because we know how to access all this and where to look, it makes it that much easier. I also like having books available at our own library about almost any research question or topic you may have. I am excited to do my research paper because I am interested in Health and childhood development and I feel that child obesity ties into both catergories of where I am interested. So hopefully I don;t procrastinate this paper and do a wonderful job on it. Well I guess that is all for now. I need to go study for a math test that I have to take tomorrow and I am totally not ready for it. See ya.

My Writing Habits

One of my habits while writing, is to save the correctness for last. When I write I tend to type really fast. I don’t really care if words are spelled correctly, if my sentences are complete or not, and whether other grammatical rules are followed. I start my papers this way so that I can get my ideas out before I totally forget them all. I also do this because if I don’t, it takes me a lot longer to write my paper, and I end up wasting a lot of time. In addition, if I first focus on making my paper error free, I typically forget what I want say and my paper ends up not as well written as I would have liked it to be. Having this habit helps me to write better papers and to effectively get my ideas and points across.

One habit that I need to work on more is to know when to stop. I tend to be a perfectionist and I want my paper to be perfect. I proof read and edit my papers many times and never know when my paper is good enough and when to stop working on it. I rewrite, erase, and add ideas that may or may not be needed. If I work on this habit more, I think it will take away the stresses that I have about having a good paper and it will make my satisfaction of the papers I write to be “good enough.”

Developing habits

One of the habits that I’ve been trying to develop is to discover what method of drafting works best for me and for the assignment at hand also. I tried outlining on our last paper, which helped me to organize the paper on a more closed-form way. It also helped me be focused on one idea at a time instead of feeling overwhelmed by all the info. I tend to spend a long time on one setting trying to get things done, but it has been more harmful than helpful; I realized that taking brakes from the assignment refreshes my mind and helps me get new ideas. Another habit that I’m trying to create is to talk to others about my ideas and learn from their own ideas also; it is weird, but talking to others brings out thoughts that you didn’t even knew you had.
A habit that I really need to develop is to reduce my expectations on the early drafts. When I try to do the paper perfect from the beginning I get writer’s block every time. I’ve lost important ideas because I didn’t put them down on paper fast enough or because I felt they wouldn’t “fit in” at first. I think that free writing would help me with that also.

My topic for this last paper is about the effect that video games has on teenagers. I haven't done a lot of research on it yet, but I kinda want to put my opinion on it so far. Honestly I don't play a lot of video games and never really have been too sucked into that world. My little brother on the other hand for real has an addiction to video games. Not necessarily the violent or games with high sexual content or anything, but just games like Star Craft and the beloved World of WarCraft. My father hates, hates, hates it, and its actually caused some contention in our home believe it or not. If my little brother was to be punished he would be grounded form nintendo games and he hated it. His day honestly revolved around his games. It controlled his life for a long time, and he wasted a lot of time. He had a lot of potential to do a lot of really cool things, but we couldn't ever get him to leave the house. My point being is that games can be super addicting. He snapped out of it thank goodness, but hours and hours were lost because of it. The violent games like Grant Theft Auto increase violent behavior. People start to mix their games with reality and people get hurt. I know of one story when a teenager killed a bum with his paint ball gun and a base ball bat because he wanted to play grant theft auto in real life. He was so sucked in, that he took it to real life. Anyway, I'm going to research it out and see what I can find. Facts, questions, behaviors, ect... Wish me luck!

10 Habbits

One of the Habits that I feel I do well on is the third one, Schedule Your Time. I like to pick out a topic and then talk to my peers about it and see what they think about it. Often times people will know things, or have strong opinions about your topic already. Most of the time they will have an opinion that forces me to look at things in a different way. Its a lot easier to be open minded when you actually talk to people about your topic. Once I've heard others opinions then I'm loaded with new information, looking at problems and solutions in a new way, and a lot more prepared to write my paper. One I would like to work on more is exchanging my paper with more people. Again, when others see your work they are able to analyze it and give you suggestions. Also it helps with all the little things like grammar.

My feelings on the opinion peice.

I am just blogging away because we do have to have five extra blogs of our own to come up with before the semester is over so I decided I was going to blog about our last assignment and that was our opinion peice and response to it. I enjoyed this assignment because I actually love having other peoples opinions on everything in my life. So when I heard we had to write and response to someone's opinion on a certain subject, I was enlightened and excited! Although i didn't agree with everything the author of the article had to say, he made some really good points and opened my eyes up to quite a few things on child sexual abuse. It was actually a pretty emotional article for me cause he used some facts very blunty and even used a picture which was sad to see. I am sickened by child sexual abusers here int his world. They are sick and need help. I don't understand how anyone could ever do that to an innocent human being. Seriously it makes me so upset, I have never had so many knots in my stomach at once. Anywho, I would just like to say I had a great time writing this paper and I hope I get a good grade on this paper. It has actually been the first one I really enjoyed writing on. Well i guess that is all for now. See ya.

My Habit

One of the habits I noticed I used was what method I use when I am drafting my work. The one method that works best for me is by beginning to start my rough draft directly through typing. I don't like to do rough drafts with paper, although I feel it gives you more room to put more ideas into your paper as you are writing it, because I feel by typing a paper, you can keep your rough draft more clean and simpler for others to read. I also noticed that by me typing my rough drafts, it makes it easier for me to be more responsibe of where it is because it is saved in my laptop or computer rather than being put in my notebook putting it at risk to slip out, which it has before many of times in high school. That is the great thing about college though. They don't care how you start your rough draft off, just as long as you have one! One habit I feel i can work on is managing and scheduling my time into my paper. Because I like to write, I often find myself putting english last because it is my easiest class. I feel if I had a different outlook, my papers could be much mroe detailed rather than just done the night before. By going to the writing center and having peer reviews this semester however, has helped me to not procrastinate my time in writing my english papers and making me get them done at an appropriate time. So that is one habit I would like to try to improve on and do more.

Opinion Piece

My opinion piece is about the health care reform for the N.F.L. Specifically what grabbed my attention when i chose this piece is that its about sports. i love sports and i enjoy reading and watching and hearing about them. This is the main reason why i picked the article. I think the reason why we are attracted to some articles more than others is the way we were raised. If you were raised with parents who love sports, your probably more likely to have a biased opinion about sports rather than someone who's parents raised them on religion, or schooling, or anything for that matter.

I liked my opinion pieces' rhetoric because the author, Stefan Fatsis, gives an ethos point of view in one of his paragraphs. He actually got to play for the Denver Broncos for a while so that he could write a book about it. Something i didn't really like rhetorically was that the actual formating of the paper seemed a little bit off or weird to me. I haven't seen any paper written the way Stefan wrote his, so it threw me off a little bit. Other than that the piece was an excellent one, at least in my opinion.

The Forever Long Search

It was really hard for me to find a good opinion paper. I wanted to write about something that was interesting to me. I have found that I write a lot better if I am interested in what I am writing about. I searched everywhere for days trying to find something that I could stand maybe writing about. I eventually found something. It wasn't what I was hoping for but the paper is well written. The writer seemed to have a hard time writing it though because she was trying to put too much into her paper. The ideas she had were good enough but it seemed to kind of be all over the place at times. But as a whole I think I can make the paper work to my advantage and turn it into something good. Hopefully. I am still working on it sad to say.

The paper I am writing about talks about things people worry about when they don't really make up that much of a percentage. If you look at it as a whole the deaths caused from animals isn't even comparable to those caused by suicide or even disease. I think the author makes a good point on this. We should be more worried about disease that is one of the top leading causes of death compared to the hundreds maybe thousands of deaths from animals. Suicide is actually in the top five causes of death worldwide and this was amazing to me. I like learning things like that because it really gets me thinking. It helps me apply it to real life situations.

The challenge of arguing

As many of you have said, I also struggled a lot to find an article that really grabbed my attention. Everything I could find was essentially politics in one way or the other. I’m still not so sure about what I picked, but I’ll try to get the best out of it.
I consider myself a spiritual-minded person; I love pondering about things in life that usually are inexplicable or don’t have answers. Because of that, I think that I’m more attracted to pieces of writing that help me find the answers to those questions and also help me be a better person. For some reason I like drama, it feels that when there is drama in my life, is when I learn the most. I also love anything that inspires me and is uplifting in some way. Narratives on a piece of writing also tend to have a greater effect on me. In contrast, when I feel that my values are threatened by somebody’s argument, I tend to get defensive and that might be the only time you’ll find me arguing about something. It’s been challenging to have to argue about something. I always associated arguing with fighting for some reason and I don’t like fights.

The search for an opinion peice worth reading

It takes a lot to catch my attention and keep it. There aren't very many subjects that interest me to the point that I can effectively create an opinion and really stand up for it. I spent a lot of time looking for an article the I knew I wanted to write about because well, there are a lot of articles about politics and government out there and most of the time those subjects don't interest me. After some searching I did find something I was interested in and I found that it was pretty easy for me to write about issues that I have already formed opinions about. I found it difficult to read the article when I disagreed, which I believe we have briefly talked about in class, and it has to do with fear that the author may be right. I react best to Logos because I like to see the cold hard facts, because much of the time facts cannot be debated, they are what they are. I think that it really brings out an interesting paper when I enjoy the topic and when I address several different points within the topic, whether I agree with them or not. This particular assignment has helped me to consider other views of a subject that I may have strong views about, and take a look and pro's and con's of several sides of the issue.

Welcome to my journey to find an opinion.

When we were first given the assignment to find an opinion piece to write about I thought “oh this will be a breeze.” But as I started my journey I realized that it would in fact require much more effort that I had before assumed.
To find my opinion piece I needed to take a journey within a sort of soul searching adventure to find what it is that makes me tick, and what if anything would grab my interest in a way that I could write a “strong” response to. Typically I am laid back relaxed individual who can see the positive side to almost any situation. So I figured that whatever I might find I would probably agree at least in part with what they were arguing.
As I searched for a piece I found that most things just didn’t grab me. Logos is neat I always enjoy learning new facts but not to the point that it truly ignites me. And a solid use of Ethos never hurts I enjoy knowing that the person writing has something to back them up; be it experience or whatever the case may be. But I believe what rhetoric is best fit to lure me in so to speak Pathos if you start to talk to my emotional side I really react to that. And it doesn’t seem to matter which emotion is evoked: anger, sorrow, humor. They are appealing to each in its own unique way. I really enjoyed this assignment and learning more about myself as I searched to find my opinion.

As I stumble through the net looking for inspiration-

It took me a long time to find an opinion piece that I inspired a strong response out of me. Some pieces grabbed my attention with a catchy title, but fell threw in their execution. I had found a piece that I could relate to, but I wanted to find something that I could argue against. I'm finding that when I disagree with an authors article it sure is a lot easier to respond strongly, and a strong response is what I wanted for this assignment. Most of the pieces that I read dealt with topics that I just have little or no interest in. All rhetorical strategies seem to work on me if they are well executed. By that I mean if the author uses specific concrete examples to back up his argument, and if the author establishes his credibility on the subject in question. As I read through the opinion pieces, the ones dealing with technology kept my interest the best. And the piece that I finally went with (which is tech oriented) only seemed to inspire a mild response at first, but the more I thought about it the stronger my rebuttal got until I was sure that this was the piece that I wanted to go with. So that's all I have for this blog assignment, now i'm gonna get back to finishing up my summary strong response paper. :)

I definitely took a lot of time to pick an opinion piece that actually entertained me. I also wanted to make sure that I could argue with the writer. I tend to be more passionate towards being able to disagree with the writer than to just agree with him/her. I ranged from politics to any form of entertainment. There were so many boring pieces that just caused me to feel like I wanted to pull my teeth out of my mouth just to stay focused. But eventually I decided upon the critique of a well known critic. I choose not to disclose the name of this critic for the sake of offending anyone. I am familiar with this critic and his critiques on many different films. This critic has expressed that his critiquing strategy is more “relative, not absolute.” He bases his reviews on who he feels is the prospective audience, yet he considers the value as a whole. I know that for so many years, this critic has always had reviews that I would see as either a hit or a miss. I have actually disagreed with him more than not. I am interested in being entertained and on being able to understand the background of the writer to at least know why he said what he said. I suppose I prefer to be entertained because I don’t want to feel like I am wasting my time when reading anything. I think I lean towards pathos and logos to pick a topic because I want to find a good relation with the story. Experience helps me to choose a side and I know this critique didn’t match with how I felt about the film. This critic was into journalism, what does he know about science? Newer films are trying to be as accurate as possible to logic, such as how an advanced plane flies so fast? That shows how far we’ve come in advancing our human technology. Journalism and science are two very different subject.