The Things They Carried=The Most Well Written Book In the World

As many of the females in this class, I was a bit skeptical when I heard we would be reading a book about the Vietnam war. Yes, I do fit into the sexist stereotype that women hate violence. Anyhow, I sat down that first night with my book and figured I'd give it a shot. The first ten pages seemed to be just lists and lists of items that the soldiers carried with them, as well as their specific weights. The entire time I was annotating "Really? TMI. I DONT CARE." However, as the book progressed, these objects they carried started to be more than just things. He started to write about the emotions the men carried with them, and the kind of weight that was to "hump" around with them. I found this gradual segway to be absolutely brilliant. From that point on, this book hooked me.

The stories are random, yet meaningful. Predictable, yet completely suprizing. Filled with literary devices, life lessons, and ironic humor, this book exceeded my expectations by miles. The story that stood out to me the most was the one from our most recent reading assignment. The story of the village that got destroyed. When the soldiers saw a house that was destroyed, they found a girl dancing outside, in silence, with a peaceful smile on her face. It was as if she was finally content. Later on, when the soldiers were heading back, one of them decided to mimic her dancing in a way that made a joke out of it. None of them had understood why she would dance when her family, house, everything was in ruins around her. A ritual they figured. But as he pretended to be this girl, one of the other soldiers picked him up and threatened him that if he was going to do the dance she was doing, he better do it right. Obviously, this story is random, but I believe there's also a underlying meaning. Through this story, he's trying to demonstrate that even if everythinga round you has fallen to pieces, mourning and feeling sorry for yourself is no solution. People need to move on and be happy with what they have no matter what, especially these men who are fighting in Vietnam. This story was eloquent, beautiful, and very creative. I absolutely love it.

The Timed Writing

Money, money, money. All we ever want is money. Want to know why? Because people are greedy. It's in our nature. But is that a statement that can be generalized for every single person on this earth? Is that the sole motivation for what we do and how we do it every single day of our lives? I think not. Hazliff, you're about to be proven wrong.

In his essay, he started out by saying, "Literally and truly, one cannot get on well in the world without money." Well isn't that a mouth-full. What an ignorant statement. How could he possibly apply this to every single person on this earth? First off, some of the happiest people in the world are poor (and yes, this is a fact. I researched it for my definintion essay on happiness). Secondly, people get by everyday without any kind of money. The fact is, when you don't have money, you get creative. People, in general, have the inner motivation to do whatever it takes to survive. Believe it or not, money is not a necessity for everybody--food, water, and a roof over your head? Yes. Money? Definately not.

This essay was quite ironic as well, because second hour Mr. Genova had just been talking to our class (in spanish of course :) ) that the people who live in Denmark are some of the happiest in the world. Why is this? Because there are not extremely rich people, or are there any poor people. Everybody is able to live comfortably, have a steady job, and be equal with eachother. It's not called communism...what they call it is a form of socialism they call "humanism". They love thy neighbor and think of eachother as equals. I think that's what really matters. Not who has the most money and "prestige" because of that money.

The other thing that made me mad about his essay was that it was hard to follow. In the second sentence he said, "to be in want to it (money), is to..." and then the entire rest of the essay was examples of this. Not once did he repeat this, or phrase it a different way. It was just statement after statement! It got so confusing, because every time you read a sentence you would have to think to youself, "to be in want of money is to..." and then you could actually read the sentence to make sense of it. Overall, I think that was a very boring, repetitive way to form an argument.


Overall, I give this essay a thumbs down. Not only is it overgeneralized, but it's poorly written. I have to give him credit for accepting the belief that humans are all selfish and greedy, which without a doubt true for most, but definately not for all people.

Karin's Birthday and The Party that Needs to Occur Tomorrow in AP Composition

As everbody heard today on the announcements about ten thousand times...IT'S KARIN'S BIRTHDAY! Yes, phenomenal :) And It was very sad to see that she DID NOT bring in treats like she said she would. So...in the spirit of her birthday/AP Composition Friday Food Day, and Discussion on the Floor Day, we should all have a "party" for Karin's birthday! Everybody bring in food and hopefully we can have our discussion about the book on the floor/eat yummy food :)

Yay!

Technology and Protests

Okay, am I the only person who read this and said "WHAT?" Honestly, what was this man thinking? How can his argument possibly make sense in his mind, because I'm pretty positive that technology doesn't decrease student's ability to organize a protest...it actually improves it. Kids today are nothing like what they were back then, and although protests don't happen as often as they did back then, they still happen--just in different ways. Kids can get the word out about what they feel, and to more people, any day of the week anytime (just update your facebook status!) I don't think this author had any idea what they were talking about, personally. It made me really mad...

Martin Luther King Essay

All I have to say is--WOW! I thought this was one of the most powerful persuasive essays I've ever read. When we did the assignment in class today trying to find the different rhetorical/literary strategies he used, I found so many on just one page it was insane! All of his points were strong and backed up, and his explanation on just and unjust laws (definition essay anyone?!) was brilliant. My only complaint about this would be that he really lost it at the end. I can't stand it when people conclude an essay by talking about writing the essay itself. LAME/VERY FIRST GRADE HELLOOO? I mean, I don't think he needed the whole "I meant to write a letter but this is more like a book" pun. Really? I think we can see that MLK, you don't really need to point that one out...But anyways, I thought this essay was the most enjoyable to read, the easiest to annotate and get greater ideas about, and was very quick to get through considering the length.

So note to anybody who pretended to read this but didn't actually--READ IT. It's phenomenal. :)

What Is Poverty?

When we were assigned both of the readings on Poverty, I figured they would be really boring and repetitive to read--I was wrong. They both were completely unique in their own ways and really were quite enjoyable to read. The first article assigned was slightly longer but went much more into why the word "poverty" is overused and, frankly, oversympathized. The writer used healthcare as an example that they later branched off from and expanded past just that, but mostly it was based off that. They said that the people who are considered "poor" or "in poverty" were really not suffering, they were just not as rich as the upper class. They still had food, water, nice homes, and even entertainment. The sad thing was that they were completely ungrateful for all the government was doing to make sure they had all of these luxuries they hadn't even worked for. I was shocked to hear that when they couldn't afford a good house or entertainment that the government would literally just had them those things without any reimbersement required. Why? Because they wanted their society to be considered the "wealthiest".

The second article, writen by Parker, was literally the complete opposite argument. She described exactly what poverty meant (sometimes a little too much information and detail was shared). It was descriptive, and quite disturbing to read exactly what poor people deal with on a daily basis. Whether or not it is representative of everyone considered "poor" is uncertain, however. Parker started it out by saying the reader should not make this article into a giant pity party, and that it was just meant to show the truth. I found it hard as I was reading it to believe some of the things said (such as the whole sour milk bit..eew!), and I found myself thinking overexagerations were being made. It did seem like Parker was trying to get the reader to feel bad for the poor, and it worked.

Overall I really enjoyed reading both articles views on what poverty is, and I feel like I have much more of an understanding of what goes on than I had previously.

"Sound and Fury"

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but I found that movie extremely fascinating! It's wierd because I've almost forgotten there are so many deaf people out there because going to McFarland High School, we have one deaf girl in the entire school (hows that for diversity eh?). The struggles they face on a day to day basis is just so saddening. I can't imagine not being able to hear music, nature, words... any of that. I feel like there would be no point in living--which is interesting because during the movie the father of the deaf girl said that he was overjoyed when he found out his daughter was born deaf. I was shocked to say the least. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that he would wish that kind of difficultly upon his own daughter!!

There were a lot of intense arguments, and I tried to put myself in the deaf family's shoes to see where they were coming from, but I just couldn't. It was too extreme for me to try to reason with the fact that they don't want to provide their daughter with the best, most fair shot at life as the rest of the world has. How could you sit by and watch your child go through the struggles you yourself went through being a deaf child, and still reject the most phenomenal gift any person could give to a deaf person--a cocliar implant.

I was really relieved to hear; however, that a couple years later the entire family besides the father decided to get cocliar implants. Though it took them a long time, they finally saw that that's what's best for everybody.

Growing Fear

As I have previously written about, the car accident my sister and I got into this summer is a tender, scary subject for me to write about. When Mr. Kunkle described what a personal narrative should be, I couldn't stop thinking about how great it would be for me to write about that experience in much greater detail than I ever could in 30 min. on a blog post like I demonstrated yesterday.

As perfect a choice as that may be, I can't help but still feel aperhensive about choosing a topic such as that. I fear of writing that because I know it will bring back the memory I have tried so hard to block from my mind the past month. For weeks I woke up screeming from nighmares of reliving that crash. Why would I ever want to bring it back to surface, much more on paper, where it will forever be both in my thoughts and in words, documented for the everbody to read?! It's a question I will continue to ponder this weekend when I actually do sit down to write my pesonal narrative, and in the end I feel I will have to shove my fears out of my mind and write about it anyhow. Maybe it will be good for me, maybe it won't. All I know is that a car crash can symbolize so many other things in life, and can be written with more description than anything else I know. For this time, and this time only, I will think first about the quality of writing I will create, and second about the aftermath of my emotions.

"SKREEEEECH, CABOOM!"

SKREEEEECH, CABOOM! With the shatter of glass, bending of metal, sound of sirens blaring and shreeks of fear, my worst fear is upon me--a car crash. Driving nearly 2 hours round trip once a week, I'm well aware of hte fact that being a teenage driver, my stats for my greatest fear becoming a reality are sky high. Figures. Ever since the worst day of my life, I've been living in fear that my luck of sliding by the scariest moment of my life unparalysed and still capitated will be worn out the next time around. A car crash can be eye-opening, educational, freaky-scary, and haunting all at the same time. Proud of the fact that putting on a seat belt is never the afterthought for me, but instead instinct to do first thing when I get into a car, I am well aware that a lot of other people can't say that. That one godsent instinct was just one of the many instincts I had the day of the crash that probably saved my life.

The Day of the crash is filled with "what ifs". What if I never put my seatbelt on and got sent through the windshield? What if I hadn't put my feet down from the dashboard 5 minutes prior to the first hit? What if my step brother and sister had come with us to Iowa, meaning my step sister and I would have been in the back seat and would have been decapitated by the hatchback cover that went slamming through the back, necklength, at 60 mph? I can tell you one thing--those "what if's" have never left my being. I will NEVER get into a car without a seatbelt, NEVER put my feet up on the dashboard, I will NEVER tailgate somebody myself, and now my fear of a repeat of this horrible day has lead me to believe I NEVER want to sit in the backseat of a hatchback car, for fear of being rear-ended still haunts me.

This fear has forced me hate something I used to love...something that I do so often. This feer consumes me and has flipped my life into a spiral that's going nowhere fast. But most of all, this fear has made me more aware that life can change in an instant, and ignoring your instincts can be a deadly action.

Arguments Won and Lost

There are few arguments that I've ever won in my life, and no, that's not because I stink at forming a solid opinion and backing it up--it's because I rarely get into arguments at all (usually if I disagree about something minor I just keep it to myself.) It's all a part of my whole non-confrontation deal. However, a pretty major battle my mother and I had a couple months ago did result in my victory (yay!).

My mother seems to be very interested in living vicariously through me. I can recognize that this is quite common for mothers who have daughters in their "prime", but I swear my mother must be the queen of this. Luckily for me, my mother's parents (my grandparents) hit it pretty lucky with some stocks and set up trusts for my sister and I when we were babies for our college education. The thing is this--whatever we don't use on our education we get when we are 30. My mother thinks that I should use it all on education because that makes the most sense. I can see taht using it for a solid education is a fine idea;however, my mother has no idea what using money wisely means. She thinks that I should go to an out of state college no matter what because it's worth the money for the "cultural experience". Now hold up for a second--this is where I stepped in. I asked her, "What if I get into UW Madison and CU Boulder? Are you saying I should go to CU Boulder and pay approximately 55,000 a year to go to a school that's not even as good as UW Madison?" My mother replied yes. She thinks it will teach me to fend for myself in the real world. Sure, it would be fun, but that logically makes absolutely no sense! Madison is a much better school with a smaller price tag! After a long, long talk with her, she finally agreed with me that if that happens, Madison is where I'll go. After all, I have my whole life to have "cultural experiences". Heck, I can study abroad as an undergraduate at Madison! Very proud of winning quite a large argument, I thought I'd share this one :)

Why AP Compotition Is My Favorite Class!

I'm sure the majority of this class will look at this post title and immeditately think "BROWN NOSER," but I promise it's the truth! There are a lot of things about this class that make me excited to walk into Kunkle's room everyday at 11:15. For one, everyone in this class is very open and layed back. Nobody judges other people's viewpoints, and I think that's a rarity in classrooms at this school. Also, there is so much active discussion going on everyday that it broadens my understanding of the text assigned the night before by miles. After hearing others thoughts, just as I did with the blog over the summer, I have a much easier time finding ways to analyse it in a more in depth way, and ultimately getting much more out of my homework experience. I'm also a pretty avid writer, and having the opportunity to write essays is really fun for me. I may not be the greatest writer yet, but that's exactly why I'm taking this class--to get better. Overal, I love this class and can't wait to learn a lot more about writing and reading :) yay!

I Write Not Only With My Head, But With My Heart As Well

I find it's never good to start out a piece of writing with the world "I"; however, in this case, I'll put that rule on hold. It seems to me that it's always easier to look at other's writings and point out their writing style. When asked how I write, quite frankly, I didn't have a clue. After thinking hard about all of the feedback I've ever gotten, and taking myself back to imagining myself writing an essay or a letter, this is what I came up with:

When I sit down at the computer to write something, or take my pensil in my hand, the first thing I want to do is just start. It doesn't matter if It's the worst intro in the world, or if I still don't even have a clue what I'm going to say about my topic. I just write. I find that this way what I'm thinking at that exact moment appears right in front of me, for me to look at in a much more caustic way when I'm finished.

Planning has never worked for me. In 5th grade when we had to learn about a "hamburger style" 5 paragraph essay I wanted to barf. The idea of having everybodys writing formated the same way seemed ludicrus. How boring to read one essay after another, neatly formatted into an intro, 3 body paragraphs (don't forget transitions!), and a conclusion in which we need to restate everything we said in our three body paragraphs. I almost fell asleep everytime I read one of my classmates neat essays. The thing is, I never followed this rule. I would get awful grades on my essays in middle school just because I refused to follow this humdrum method. Writing is such a phenomenal thing, and above all, it's a way to express yourself. There should be no rules when you want to express yourself. If it's clear, if it's captivating, if it's well written, that should be what matters.

With that said, I'm what many would call a "rebel" when it comes to writing organization and mechanics. I like to break the rules when it seems appropriate, and I love to stylize my writings to get the point across on a higher level. One thing I thrive for is becoming vocabulary in my writings (yes I just looked up a better word for good :). ) That's exactly what I do--I'll pick random words in my essays and I'll try to find a more suitable one by thesaurus. It's a phenomenal way to learn new words, and it improves my writing exponentially.

Writing is both a right and a privilege, and I plan on taking full advantage of that.

:)

The Prevailing Opinion of a Sexual Character Discussed

This essay was not only long, but difficult as well with lengthy sentences and words far beyond my vocabulary. With a dictionary in hand and my dad by my side; however, I dug in and ended up getting a lot out of this slightly offensive, yet eye-opening piece of work.

In general, I agree with Wollstonecraft whole-heartedly. I look up to her, in fact, because in a time where women were discriminated against, she stood up for her rights, got a phenomenal education (just read this essay, she didnt learn all that vocabulary doing the laundry!), and published a great work of art defending all women. One of the biggest points she tries to get across, as she mentions it numerous times, is her belief in the importance of character. With a solid knowledge of your own personal morals and virtues, she believes women can go anywhere in life. In fact, her goal of perfect education is the pursuit of human virtues and knowledge. Genius, to say the least.

As soon as Rousseau popped into the essay, I immediately put my guard up. He has the courage to say that men are the only worthy people of the pursuit of good virtues such as truth and fortitude. Ridiculous! He believes women should just let the men make all the decisions and be obedient to them. Honestly, he makes me sick. And, the fact that Wollstonecraft still admires him for his writings about truth and fortitude also disappoints me. I'm aware of the fact that she disagrees with him on the "men only" aspect of his writings, but give me a break! Admiring a man like him is something I cannot even fathom.

The paragraphs comparing the education of women to that of military men is truly brilliant. Both are taught only the pieces of information they need to know to perform their duty. Not once are they asked why? Why are you doing this? And even if they were, they most likely wouldn't have an answer. It's the whole idea of giving women only satellites of information. As long as they know the things that will make them "sofisticated", that's all they need to know. No need to dig deeper into more powerful issues of that time. Give them lessons on manners and cleaning and they're good to go!

The sad thing about this is that it didn't just happen back then. This problem, yes, has been fixed to a point, but that's only from the perspective of a citizen in a first world country such as myself. Today on the news there was a story about a woman in Malasia who was to be hung for drinking beer in public. According to Muslim law, women aren't allowed to drink in public. Just women though. There still is so much discrimination in countrys like this. Women needing to cover their faces, not being able to get an education. It's just plain sad, and something needs to be done about it. And soon.

Dr. Gregory is another man in this essay that really grinds my gears (Family guy anyone? ;) lol ). He believes that women should only have a fondness for dress. Meaning the only thing they should worry their pretty litte heads about is what they're wearing. No need to challenge themselves to think about the real world, as long as they dress to impress men will want them and take care of all the "thinking" for the both of them. Obviously, Wollstonecraft disagrees with this immensly, saying women care more about just that. I believe Dr. Gregory is the most ignorant person in the world. Women have more than just empty space in their heads!!!

The basic opinion of people in this time was that men want women to be obedioent and uneducated. Essentially, "in the dark". If women are innocent of the world, they won't be knowledgeable enough to realize something's wrong. Wollstonecraft, as demonstrated in this essay, has a very different life and opinion of many women of her time.

Yes, this essay was very difficult to get through (about three weeks actually), but once I broke it down there was a lot of very interesting, valuable information to be found. Overall, I think Wollstonecraft is a brilliant woman and I admire her greatly for her courage to stand up for all women and their rights.

Autobiography of a Face

When I went to pick up my book from our very own McFarland Public Library, I'll admit I was a bit skeptical of what this book would be. When I read the brief description provided by Mr. Kunkle; however, i'd thought it sounded interesting and something I could relate to. In that description it talked about a girl who lost half of her jaw and was struggling to not only find herself but also to fit in throughout her young adulthood. As I soon found out, the book was about so much more than just that.

Just to help out all you non-Mr. Kunkles out there ;) , heres a brief overview of what happened in this phenomenal autobiography:
It opens with a normal young girl with a normal young child's life. She hangs out with her friends, goes to school, and loves horses. Her family, not the most warming group of people, is her one flaw. During school one day, though, she gets hit in the side of the jaw by another child at recess, though she thinks nothing of it at the time. After some time goes by a bump begins to appear ont he side of her face that the doctors continue to push away as nothing to worry about (despite her parents relentless phone calls and visits reguarding it). After about a year their family doctor finally agreed to do some tests on it, and the results were her parents worst nightmare : a tumor. This marks the beginning of a whirlwind of ups and downs with treatments and surgeries for Lucy. At first, Lucy was thrilled to find out she'd be staying at the hospital for a few weeks (that meant missing school and nothing could be better, right?!) Unfortunately this didn't solve the problem, and at one point their only option was to remove over a third of her jaw to get the tumor out. After this surgery, this isn't so much a game for Lucy anymore. She looked different. Very, very different. The remainder of the book follows her throughout her young adulthood as she tries to cope with this deformity while undergoing numerous surgeries to try to reconstruct her jaw. Overall, its a fabulous read with a lot of interesting information about what cancer can really be like.

One of the greatest themes in this autobiography was the power of beauty, both inside and out. Without her beauty to rely on, Lucy begins to think she doesn't deserve to be loved by anybody, because nobody could love somebody as hideous as her. Throughout the book she discovers external beauty isn't the only thing that's important. Though its the first thing people notice, what's inside is what really matters.

This book opened my eyes to the harsh realities of our world. Good health isn't a right, it's a privilege. Most people don't stop to think about how lucky they are on a day to day basis. Being able to walk, talk, see, feel, and just about everything else are all great gifts that shouldn't be taken for granted. After reading this book, I'm sure to be thankful every day.

Overall, I'd recommend anybody and everybody to read this book; it's phenomenal!

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

I loved this essay! It made me think so much about how technology today is doing more to our lives than just making the "that was easy" button a click away at all times. Carr spoke of many topics dealing with how the internet has changed the way we think about things. I believe that it has made it much easier for us to do things the old fashioned way. Everything now must be the quick and easy version. As this essay went on and on about what negative effects this is going to have on mankind, I couldn't help but wonder if some good could actually come of it. Although we miss out on being able to focus for long periods of time, doing things quickly (like skimming the page or speed reading) can be good for us. We, as a whole, become much more efficient people. If we have the ability to take a large essay and skim it to get the main ideas, we can do so much more with our time! Don't get me wrong, though, I'm not saying its not a shame our ability to focus has been replaced with fidgety minds that lack concentration almost completely. It's a give and take I believe.

The study done at George Mason University really got me interested in this essay. It showed that the brain has the ability to reprogram itself on cue by changing the way it functions. That study alone shows why the web has truly changed us. Also, it's much easier to go from having the ability to concentrate to not having it. If this situation were flip-flopped, I'm sure it wouldn't have as great of an impact as it has now.

Another interesting part of this essay was when he spoke of time. This made me think that our ability to feel what time it is is almost like our 6th sense. We follow time now more than we do our own body's internal clock. It's very true that we eat more by what time it is than whether or not we are actually hungry. And the same goes for sleeping, etc...

Once Taylor was brought up, I was immediately reminded of AP US History. We learned about how he broke down all of workers tasks into different moves so that they could get their work done as efficiently as possible. This is in direct comparison to this entire essay. The internet does the exact same thing as Taylor did. It is broken down so much all searches and websites are extremely efficient. It makes it very easy for people to feel ADD while they're online as well. With so many different things popping out at us, we can just click and click and click to all different kinds of things. When our minds are constantly being switched to new topics, how's anybody supposed to focus?

The founders of Google have a very interesting view of what they would like the internet to be like. They said they are trying to build an artificial intelligence and make it on a large scale. This seems odd to me, because not everybody, in my opinion, should know all the same information. We were made to have different talents and knowledge, but with the internet growing as it is, pretty soon everybody will have access to all the same information, and our individuality will soon be gone. Back in the day, people worked to acquire knowledge about a wide variety of things. When the internet tries to pool everyone's information together, we loose the self satisfaction of learning things on our own, and knowing things other people may never be able to know or understand. Yes, it's good that we all can grow intellectually, but to what extent are we willing to go to to get this knowledge? It seems sacrificing good old hard work is the price we pay.

Skunk Dreams

I found this essay to be very well written for the most part. It was slightly difficult to follow what was going on, and when she was talking about a dream or real life. Looking past that; however, Erdrich seems to have a way with words. The way she describes the scenes of the dream were phenomenal. For example, at the beginning of the essay she describes what it was like to be on the football field sleeping with a skunk. "I smelled the newness beneath the rank tone of my bag-mate--the stiff fragrance of damp earth and the thick pungency of newly manured fields of a mile or two away--along with my sleeping bag's smell, slightly mildewed, forever smoky." It makes one feel as though they were there as well... that's a writing gift I admire greatly.

The theory brought up from Lund about what dreams really are made me think a great deal. He proposed that dreams are not just a theoretical situation created by the mind at rest. One's dreams are the activities of an disembodied person who we take to be ourselves when we dream. If this is true, then I start to ask myself who is this other person? And how is it that while I dream I think it really is myself and that the scene in which I am a part of is real? I find it a fascinating theory at the least.

I also noticed there was a lot of subtle humor in this essay. For instance, when Erdrich states that some of her best dreams come to her in cheap motels. Hilarious! And that she dreams best when she's cold... that's the complete opposite of myself. I can't even sleep when I'm freezing! Then when she began describing the Northeast and how crowded and unpeaceful it can get, not ever being able to see the clean straight, line of the horizon, I completely understood. There's something serene about being in an uninhabited area, feeling like it's just you and nature. The sound of trees blowing in the wind is so calming to listen to like she describes. An great descriptive part of this sense was when she said, "on days of high wind they move so freely it must give them a cellular pleasure close to terror".

The fenced off area Erdrich spoke of confused me, though. What I got out of it was that it was an area for animals to live "freely", and a great area for men to go an hunt the enclosed animals. That seems very unfair to me. I'm not a huge animal rights activist or anything, but having them in an area like that where they have no chance of escaping seemed unfair. I'm glad that in her dream she finally found a way to get inside the fence and be with the animals. Besides the initial fear of being mistaken for a deer and being shot, playing with animals there would be just like hopping over the fence at the local zoo. :) At least that's how I pictured it!

Overall this was a relatively quick read with some great descriptors of some pretty interesting dreams. Not bad! :)

Talk of the Town

I found these essays to be quite interesting to my surprise. I was a little wary at the beginning, because it started out very depressing with the part about the students' parents calling their cell phones and how the students wouldn't answer because they were dead. After getting over that speed-bump; however, I found Gopnik's viewpoint intriguing. Gun control is such a huge political topic today. Although the introduction was depressing, it hit the topic hard and effectively. I don't know about anybody else, but that brought me back to when I was watching the news about Virginia Tech the day it happened.

I enjoyed the part where Gopnik talked about the Governor's believe that "healing" can take place magically without "treating" as well. That takes place all the time today. It's important to make sure the correct precautions are taken after an incident like this occurs... gun control being a very big part of this all. Yes, healing needs to take place, but that can't be done completely until the government finds a way to make it harder for people to get their hands on the kind of power that lies within a handgun. Until then, the same types of tragic events will occur and the hurt will never end.

I agree and disagree with Gopnik when he talks about the aftermath of a tragic event being the wrong time to fix it. Yes, this is true in that the effects of the event will still lie heavy on the shoulders of those who were involved, but to not do anything to prevent the next event would be a mistake. This confused me though when he then went on to talk about how gun control needed to be tightened after this event.

I loved that this article was filled with cold hard facts. I feel that in any type of opinion essay, facts are what drive people to agree with your point of view. When he went on about the gunman in Scotland and the shooting in Canada, I was practically sold right there. I believe America needs to step back and follow in the footsteps of other nations for a change by starting to make some real progress on gun control. Background checks need to be thorough and accurate. If not, we put ourselves in danger once again.

My favorite part about this article was the quote "exceptions are just that." I couldn't agree more with that. Sure, if there were more regulations on who could obtain guns, there would still be shootings, but those would be the exception. It's frustrating when politicians try to use those exceptions in order to argue that restrictions aren't helping. There truly is no reason why a person would need a handgun. If you don't feel safe at home, get a security system. Not a .22.

I found the essay by Sontag to be much more difficult to piece together. I was confused by her thesis from the very beginning. What I did seem to catch off this article was that her view of the American government is less than flattering. It's offensive to me that she would feel the need to bash the government that has done many great things for this country. Yes, it has flaws, but the vocabulary she uses is inappropriate. I'm also very offended by the fact that she refers to soldiers as "cowardly". It's true that some of them do not put their lives in danger like the gunman at Virginia Tech did, but even so that doesn't make them cowardly... it just makes them smart.

Overall I got a very bad vibe off of Sontag's article, but I would really appreciate some feedback if you have any other opinions about it.

About Me

Although this is quite late, I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce myself to the rest of my fellow classmates. I'm from what many would call the most complicated family on the planet. With two divorced parents which have both remarried, you could say I need to use both hands and maybe even a few toes to count my siblings/step siblings/half siblings. Due to my parents divorce, I travel to my dad's house a couple times a week to visit. He lives near Milwaukee so it's quite a drive--but well worth it in the end.

As far as my personal traits go, I'm one who stands up for what I think is right. I stand my ground on things that I feel strongly about. Though my opinions may be strong, confrontation is something I absolutely shy away from. It's not that I don't know how to confront people, it's just the fact that I'm undoubtedly a "people pleaser". Though I consider myself a very outgoing person, some might think differently. It's true that people change their personalities depending on whom they're with. I can talk somebody's ear off if I feel like I'm comfortable with them. On the other hand, if I'm in an uncomfortable situation, for instance, if I were around many other people who I had never met, I would most likely shy away from conversation and keep to myself. Once the guard is down; however, I wont put it back up.

I have a variety of interest, all of which are a little piece of who I am. My greatest passion is dancing. Though I had never danced before high school (with the exception of my Jungle tap dance when I was five) I tried out for the dance team and made the cut. From that moment on I focused all of my energy into being the best dancer I could be. Another passion I have is singing. I've been doing it ever since I was in the womb (or something close to that). That's why musicals are such the perfect fit for me. I can sing and dance at the same time--imagine that! Overall, anything that challenges me is something I thrive on. I pride myself in proving other people wrong. Whether that be going above and beyond academically and getting into my dream school (Syracuse University), or learning how perform one of the most difficult turns in the dance world (fouettes), I'm constantly testing myself; but that's just what makes me me! :)