5 Topic Ideas:
Folklife
Victoria Band Trip
Neptune Open Mic Night
Seattle Art Museum
Pike Place Market
Wednesday
profile prospectus
For my profile essay I will write about my dad, Richard Colleen, and what he did when he was younger. In specific he spent several months backpacking around Africa with his friend who was raised their and could speak the native languages. I will write about the different adventures he had, such as driving up to Alaska with his friend for a job, to find out when they got their that the job was given away to other people.
Cause and Effect
For my cause and effect essay I will be focusing on the effect that television/movies have had on society. I will be talk about how the gender roles in movies/ the appearance of actors have an affect on peoples image, and how it has changed what is acceptable in our everyday life.
Monday
Reading Quote Blog
The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo
"When someone sees the same people every day, they wind up becoming part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."
I think there is a lot of truth to this quote. After we get to know people we start to realize what we like and what we don't like about them. We have very high expectations on how we want other people to act. A lot of time is spent focused on what others could do better, when we don't even take our own faults into account. If we want other people to be so perfect, we should first figure out how to better our ownselves.
"When someone sees the same people every day, they wind up becoming part of that person's life. And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."
I think there is a lot of truth to this quote. After we get to know people we start to realize what we like and what we don't like about them. We have very high expectations on how we want other people to act. A lot of time is spent focused on what others could do better, when we don't even take our own faults into account. If we want other people to be so perfect, we should first figure out how to better our ownselves.
Review Essay Prospectus
For my review essay I will be reviewing Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day. I have yet to see this sequel to the original Boondock Saints, and will be reviewing it to see if it lives up to my standards that the first movie so highly set. I will research about what else the director has done, and about the actors and other films that came out around the same time. I will be looking at whether there is a substantial plot, the quality of acting, the story line in relation to the first movie, and the quality of the action in the movie.
Quote Reaction - On Morality
On Morality from Sloaching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
"Whether of not a corpse is torn apart by coyotes may seem only a sentimental consideration, but of course it is more: one of the promises we make to one another is that we will try to retrieve our casualties, try not to abandon our dead to the coyotes. If we have been taught to keep our promise-if, in the simplest terms, our upbringing is good enough-we stay with the body, of have bad dreams" (Didion 158)
I really enjoyed the way that the author wrote, it inspires me to want to write a definition essay of similar caliber. The stories/examples that were used in the essay to reinforce the authors definition of morality were surprising, the kind of examples that come to mind are the engrained rules about not murdering people, being nice, not stealing candy from children and those sort of things. I really liked this little example about not leaving a corpse and the way the morality about it was approached. When it first talked about how the man stayed with the body all night I assumed it would go on talking like 'it's a human life blah blah' and describe it in superfluous way. But I was shown wrong, the author instead used the argument of not wanting to leave our casualties to be a feast for the coyotes, which essentially has the same message of the importance of human life and our duty to other humans, but this uses a much more real approach. I think that is what I liked about this essay, the whole thing feels really real.
"Whether of not a corpse is torn apart by coyotes may seem only a sentimental consideration, but of course it is more: one of the promises we make to one another is that we will try to retrieve our casualties, try not to abandon our dead to the coyotes. If we have been taught to keep our promise-if, in the simplest terms, our upbringing is good enough-we stay with the body, of have bad dreams" (Didion 158)
I really enjoyed the way that the author wrote, it inspires me to want to write a definition essay of similar caliber. The stories/examples that were used in the essay to reinforce the authors definition of morality were surprising, the kind of examples that come to mind are the engrained rules about not murdering people, being nice, not stealing candy from children and those sort of things. I really liked this little example about not leaving a corpse and the way the morality about it was approached. When it first talked about how the man stayed with the body all night I assumed it would go on talking like 'it's a human life blah blah' and describe it in superfluous way. But I was shown wrong, the author instead used the argument of not wanting to leave our casualties to be a feast for the coyotes, which essentially has the same message of the importance of human life and our duty to other humans, but this uses a much more real approach. I think that is what I liked about this essay, the whole thing feels really real.
Wednesday
Definition Essay: What is silence?
Silence stretches across a wide a spectrum of concepts. Two people who are yet to be at ease with one another fill the silence with words, fearful of an awkward moment. But on the other hand it can be the most intimate moment between two people in a relationship. Silence can also be a mood. In the middle of the night it can fuel fear, silence creating the feeling of being alone and vulnerable. On a sunny day it can create peace, sunbathing with nothing but a slight breeze blowing across your face can be relaxing. Silence has many different functions and possibilities, creating different situations and feelings.
Definition Essay
A definition essay is meant to define something in a way that it has a life implication. Rather than being the dictionary definition, the term/idea is defined by how we interpret it and what it means to us.
ten ideas:
ten ideas:
what is education?
what is a hero/villain?
what is silence?
what is a disaster?
what is modesty?
what is trust?
what is respect?
what is integrity?
what is optimism?
what is nature?
Monday
Reading Quote
I can't sleep. There's always somebody not getting treatment. (Paul Farmer, 24).
This quote shows how strongly Paul Farmer is passionate about helping people in need. Although the rest of us fail to even think about these people most of the time, he is constantly fighting the help them. This relates back to the last quote I posted, about how people just ignore what is happening in other parts of the world. Our way of dealing with the issues is to send some money to help, and then continue on with out normal lives without trying to actively help. Paul Farmer knew the truth of the situation, and he decided to make things happen to fix it. He is the kind of person that keeps the world going, these kind of leaders take initiative to make the world a better place when everyone else ignores it.
Friday
Reflection
I like the process of writing groups and feel that it is very helpful in the progress of my essay. Not only do I receive good feedback from my group which I hadn't considered before, but I also learn from giving advice to the other people. When I give suggestions I can take those and remember them so I can apply it to my ow essay to help improve it.
Draft
Loud thuds echoed through the home as Carlo stomped up the stairs to his room, screaming as he slammed the door behind him. I chuckled along with the rest of his family as his father, yelled after him in his Italian accent, "Carlo, your dramatics are perfect, you should be an actor!" The few Italian lessons I had taken allowed me to make out the just of what Carlo was yelling about. That night we were going to the disco with his friends, arriving at midnight and returning to their town home around seven in the morning. Being accustomed to the laws and culture in the USA, I was shocked that his parents would allow us to be dancing and drinking all night at the disco in the first place, but Carlo had a different idea.
It was not enough for us to just to go to the disco. He had decided that he wanted to drive us there on his motorcycle, and then drive us home after our night out. In my mind I immediately saw this as a horrible plan. I thought it was common sense, motorcycle+drinking+disco for seven hours=bad. His parents even took it upon themselves to set up a ride to and from the disco with his friends. But Carlo wanted us to ride his motorcycle. He was set on this idea, it did not matter what I or anyone else said; after he decided what he wanted, all hell broke loose when anyone tried to convince him otherwise.
I watched as his father calmly tried to explain the logic behind the planned out ride to the disco, and the lack of safety relating to his motorcycle idea. The more his father explained, the more Carlo yelled. Silently, I observed the scene, and thought about how much Carlo was reminding me of a young child. His tantrum of yelling and screaming was something that I would have never seen happen in my household, so it caught me completely off guard.
Wednesday
Draft
Loud thuds echoed through the home as Carlo stomped up the stairs to his room, screaming as he slammed the door behind him. I chuckled along with the rest of his family as his father yelled after him in his Italian accent, “Carlo, you could be an actor!”. Carlo and I were going to the disco that night. The place was that we would arrive there at midnight, and return around seven in the morning. His parents had arranged a ride for us, but Carlo desperately wanted to drive me their on his motorcycle. Being an outside perspective I could clearly see the flaws in Carlo’s plans of transportation, especially since there would be drinking at the disco. But he was blinded by his emotions, only seeing what he wanted and shutting out any outside logic or reasoning.
Monday
Quote Blog
"The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money" (Kidder 16).
I feel that this quote applies to our world today. There are all these disasters and tragedies happening around the world that we easily ignore and push out of our mind. When the problems are not present in our own lives, it is hard for us to realize the truth about what is happening. Since we can't see it and we don't experience these problems, we do not do as much as much as we should. The closest thing that we have to seeing the problems are in the news and in ads on the television. We are separated and so the situation seems surreal, and maybe we will send money to help the problem, but most of us don't do anything at all.
I feel that this quote applies to our world today. There are all these disasters and tragedies happening around the world that we easily ignore and push out of our mind. When the problems are not present in our own lives, it is hard for us to realize the truth about what is happening. Since we can't see it and we don't experience these problems, we do not do as much as much as we should. The closest thing that we have to seeing the problems are in the news and in ads on the television. We are separated and so the situation seems surreal, and maybe we will send money to help the problem, but most of us don't do anything at all.
Wednesday
Non-Fiction Reading Book
"Six years after the fact, Dr. Paul Edward Farmer reminded me, "We met because of a beheading, of all things." " (Kidder 13).
I'm reading the book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Doctor Paul Farmer, which is a biographical non-fiction by Tracy Kidder. Paul is a physician and an anthropologist, with a goal to transform health care on a large scale level to help the poor. They were in Haiti during a time of turmoil, and while most of the 'aid' was being misused, Dr. Farmer was determined to help. This quote relates to the fact that although there were many issues going on at the time, Farmer found a way to create a positive impact on the situation. Even though there are many gruesome, horrible events, it can bring people together to make a change for the better. A beheading was how these two people met, and they went on make gigantic changes and advancements in health care for people in need. I was surprised by how interesting the reading actually was, because when I think of non-fiction I think of a boring, dry spewing of facts.
Friday
Why Freewrite
Reading this article helps me to see how helpful freewriting really is in the development of ideas. A lot of the time I find myself stuck, not knowing how to go forward and successfully get my point across in a paper. Freewriting is crucial in developing different ideas freely without distraction from the worry about organization and correct grammar. The writer can discover his feelings and questions on a topic that can later be used as the basis for writing pieces. By writing freely the raw thoughts and reactions of the writer are recorded, and the thought process can be seen. When the freewrite is analyzed and looked over we can gather critical points and substantial ideas that delve much deeper than surface thinking, this could be extremely helpful to my writing. The effectiveness of freewriting is shown through all the teachers and professors who found it to be useful and helpful to their students. Although some critics believe that freewriting causes students to become "suckers and powerless ", most people find that it helps far beyond relieving writer's block.
Wednesday
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