Blog About Blogging

Honestly, I didn't mind blogging at all. I even managed to keep up to date on the blogs. It is good because I can give my opinion in a blog when I may not feel comfortable yet giving it in class. I love, love, love to write, but with work and classes I was unable to do much free-writing. When I did have a few minutes to write for pleasure, I encountered "Writer's Block". These blogs helped me to keep my creative juices flowing and release my Writer's Block.

My favorite blog was the blog responding to I.O.U.S.A. because it is such a current, relevant topic. It affects every citizen in America, especially those of us of the future generation on whom this fiscal crisis will rest. Therefore, it is difficult to not have an opinion on such a multi-faceted topic.

Work Stress!

Finally this semester is over! I am so relieved. Now I can pick up more hours at work. I need at least 20 to pay the bills and eat. (And I LOVE to eat.) Work in itself is insane. It's like Days of Our Deli Lives. Caren is retiring in January and we are all rejoicing 'cause she doesn't do anything worthwhile at work. One of the guys in Meat finally read her the Riot Act telling her that her coworkers (me!) have long deserved for her to retire. Kudos to Neal!

Hours are being cut again in January all thanks to our Neo-Nazi new store manager, Pati. Hate is such a strong word, but I hate her. She doesn't care one bit about any of us employees, it's all about her and how she looks when Corporate checks in. She was on vacation this past week. It was one of the most enjoyable weeks I have experienced since she came. She has the nerve to cut deli hours again?! I have 12 hours this week and that's the minimum the 880 says G.E. can give us. I always thought the Union didn't do anything for me, only protected the lazy workers. Now I can see that it does protect me...from people like Pati. Everytime I get sick of going to classes, then I go to work and thank God I have the opportunity to go to college and not work at a Giant Eagle deli for the remainder of my life.

Essay 2 Thesis

My thesis for essay 2 is: "Society tells women that their identity should be as a wife and mother."

This is something that I can draw from my own experience. Every time family comes up in topic, I mention that I just don't want children. The response is either "Why?" or "You'll change your mind." Not to say that getting married and having children isn't rewarding, but its not for everyone.

I can also support this thesis with Crooked River Burning. On several occasions Anne is confronted with society's planned identity. At one point she reflects on her neighbor and how everyone around her seems to be pregnant.

I hope this thesis is specific enough because I seem to have a problem it being too general. Any comments/suggestions are welcome.

Speech 2 Source

My print/library source that I am using for my speech on
Dorothy Parker is The Collected Poetry of Dorothy Parker. This is, as you can tell from the title, all of Dorothy Parker's poems. This book really gave me a sense of her writing style and the tone she uses. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed her poems and I shared them with my aunt and my boyfriend. I would like to use one of her short poems, or a line of a poem, for my conclusion.

This is a reliable source because it is merely a collection of copies of her poems. To check the reliability of this book I could compare the poems to other books on Dorothy Parker to see if the poetry is the same. After all, the poems are not subjective. They are what they are, just the way Parker wrote them.

Cerf, Bennett A., Robert Haas, and Donald S. Klopper. The Collected Poetry of Dorothy Parker. New York: Random House, 1959. Print.

Crooked River Burning

So far, I don't like Crooked River Burning as much as I liked Color Me Butterfly. The interesting parts are all the facts about Cleveland. It's so hard to imagine the kind of city that Cleveland once was. I find it really hard to like Anne O'Conner because she is just so spoiled. In a way, I can see that she hasn't been exposed to any other kind of life. David lives a very "normal" existence. For lack of a better word, David is boring. I give the author credit for making these two fictional teenagers just like real teenagers would be, but it might be their realness that makes them boring. I am curious as to what will happen next with David and Anne since this is supposed to be a romance, but at this point in the novel they have gone their separate ways and David is supposed to marry Irene.

I.O.U.S.A.

In the movie, I.O.U.S.A., they discussed the four types of our national deficit. The Budget deficit is the one that most people are aware of. Simply put, we are spending more money than we are earning based on our Gross Domestic Product. The second deficit is the savings deficit which means that the citizens of America are not saving like they have in the past. There is a debate on whether or not this is a personal choice or because they are unable to save due to bills and taxes. The trade deficit is caused by importing more goods than we are exporting. The fourth trade deficit is one of leadership. This movie argues that we cannot "Do Nothing", that we cannot leave this tremendous debt to future generations, and that we must cut spending to solve this problem as quickly as possible. If we don't we will only incur more debt.

At the end of the movie, while the credits were rolling, David Walker said that we are by no means the only country suffering from a fiscal crisis. However, he said that it is no excuse not to act saying, "What's the point of being the best looking horse in the glue factory?" I wholeheartedly agree that drastic action should be taken to reduce this nation debt, especially being part of the generation to whom it will fall if a solution is not created. I was really impressed that there is an organization created by the youth, Concerned Youth of America. This deficit will primarily affect us and the fact that many of the youth choose to ignore this problem sometimes makes me feel like there is no hope for America. This is the most frustrating part coupled with the fact that people call for change and yet they refuse to help enact it themselves. I know that change requires work and that it's a scary thing, it scares me. But what scares me more, are the consequences of doing nothing. The consequence that I believe will result from a lack of action on the part of the people: the fall of the United States of America. It may sound like doom and gloom, but it's preventative.

Integrating a Quote

Having a positive male influence is what I consider to be one of the most critical aspects of every child's life as they grow up. In Color Me Butterfly by L.Y. Marlow, Rollie could not greet his ailing father, Issac, and he says, “I ain't got nothin' I need to say to him.” (287) Rollie's statement regarding his father struck me because it is a prime example of how a father's mistreatment of his child will have long-lasting, damaging consequences.

though many years have passed since Issac leaves his family, Rollie is still unable to forgive his father for his abominable behavior toward his family and his response to seeing Issac again seems to dredge up a lot of resentment. All of the other children were able to forgive their father when they see him in a weakened state, except for Rollie. Consider though, they were never forced to eat a disease-riddled rat from the basement. I believe that in life there are some wrongs people find it just too difficult to forgive. However, I also believe that it is easier to forgive a parent's wrongs than a those of a stranger. That is one thing that I have noticed about abused children; they seem to forgive their parents the most unthinkable mistreatment. Rollie is an exception.

Bibliography
Marlow, L.Y. Color Me Butterfly. Bowie, Maryland: eL Publishing, 2007. Print.

Peer Review Experience

The aspect of the peer review that helped me the most when revising my essay was reading it aloud to Bev, my peer reviewer. Most people do not think to read their paper aloud, even to themselves, but it really does help you catch those errors or awkward portions that make sense to you in your head. When I was writing my essay I was stumped as to how to present my experiences with group projects so that they would support my argument. Bev's review was very positive and it gave me confidence in my essay. She said that she enjoyed my "story" format, which I was a little hesitant about using at first. Something I will take away from this experience and utilize in my other class, and when writing outside of Ursuline, will be to read my writing aloud.

Women's Ways of Knowing

Lydia's daughter, Treasure, is very much a received knower at the beginning of the last section of the book. Lydia raises Treasure to be a strong, moral girl and Treasure never questions her mother's authority. When Treasure gets to know Lloyd she becomes his received knower, instead of Lydia's. This is shown on the day that Treasure screams and hits Lydia (pg 355). Her father is the authority figure and he has influenced her at this point to believe that violence is acceptable, especially directed at another person. Treasure becomes a subjective knower when, on pg. 384, Lydia describes Treasure to Mattie: "She still refuses to talk about it [Lloyd's bank robbing]." Treasure avoids even Elton and withdraws into herself. She feels she cannot express herself at this point in her life.

The Youth of the Nation

"Education is taken for granted by many of America's youth."

This is my tentative thesis for essay 1. I chose this thesis because it is something I believe in strongly. I know I can support this thesis since it comes down to my experience alone. Just from the friends that I have, and have had, I can support this.

This topic was the first thing to come to mind when Dr. Wright explained this essay to us. Shortly after, I concocted this thesis. Immediately following the writing of this thesis in my student planner, I wrote down the names of friends, past and present, whose stories could help me support this thesis. At work I met Chad. He was attending classes at Tri-C when I first met him. Ever since he has quit school for a semester, gone back for a year, and decided college is just not for him. Now, just yesterday, he told me that he is bored with staying home and working. I supposed the party scene is just no longer fun and the reality of trying to live on minimum wage is setting in. He wants to go back...and he wants me to go back too.

Then there is Ty. If ever a person by his or her self could support a paper, it would be Ty. Since we were close friends I can safely tell you how he spent high school: fighting and doing drugs. He was asked to leave Brecksville-Broadview Heights High and was forced to get his GED elsewhere. He, too, went to Tri-C. It was perfect and manage for him, who suffers from Manic-depressive bipolar dissorder. One day he just left off going to classes and withdrew from the following semester. He stayed home, partied, tried half-heartedly to find a job, and used his disorder as an excuse.

These are two examples that came to mind during class. When I brainstorm and think over my four years in high school, I have no doubt that I will think of many more examples to support this thesis.

Color Me Butterfly: Domestic Violence

While I was abhorred by Issac and how he took out his all of his anger and frustrations on Eloise, it's really Mattie who holds my attention. I spent the better part of my childhood growing up in a home with domestic violence. Although it was never to the extreme that Isaac takes it to in Color Me Butterfly, I know it's a cycle. Mattie desperately wanted to escape from her father's clutches, she unknowingly sought out a man who had an abusive-type personality. From my perspective growing up around domestic violence, one has to be careful. You have to tell yourself, "I deserve better. I am better than that. I will not let myself be a part of this cycle." If a woman falls into the pattern of thinking that an abusive relationship is all that she deserves or will be able to obtain, that's exactly what will find her. Abusive personalities have their ways of identifying potential victims. So, my request is:

Ladies, put the thought out there for relationships (romantic and platonic) that you deserve only the good in life. And that's what's gonna come to you.

My Educational Philosophy

My educational philosophy is that receiving an education is a privilege and not a right. Many high school age teenagers do not take advantage of the wonderful educational opportunities that are available to them, especially in the United States. Spending four years in high school, I watched some of my classmates sleep through class and even exams. Naturally, many of these same people didn't walk across the stage. Others barely obrtained their diploma. The distracting obsessions with texting, videogames, and dating surprised me. I always approached my education with dedication. Even when I was younger, I worked on my homework assignments on the thirty minutes ride home on the bus. I learn best by reading and taking notes. I'm definitely a visual learner and using flashcards as an aid has seemed to work for me in the past. Charts and diagrams also help me to understand concepts and relationships. My ideal system of education would be a small classroom setting. I think group work is important because its the best way to discover new ideas and new perspectives. Projects are also a part of my ideal system of education. With projects specific to the topic, students can delve into an aspect that they enjoy to make learning more interesting and interactive.