Done!

I just sent in my final ePortfolio and with that, I'm done for this semester of college.  I had a few bumps in the road this semester, but I believe that God has a plan for me and I'm going to end up doing what I'm supposed to be.  It's my first day of winter break and, thanks to me ugly crying over grades last night, I have no voice. I'm meeting my boyfriend's aunt, uncle, and two cousins tomorrow when we go to Seattle and they're going to think that my voice sounds like a dying pig.  What an awesome first impression. 
I hope everyone has an amazing winter break! Who knows, you might get to see more of what I'm doing if I keep blogging on here.

-Geena

Eight Days.

Eight days and then I'm done with this semester.  It's crazy how fast these years are going by.  This year I don't feel as stressed as last year.  I want to be sure that I do well on all of my finals and I'm sure I can do it.  The only test I'm worried about is my Ethics class because I don't understand anything in that class.  I'm looking forward to making out e-folios tomorrow during class.  I might include the Informative/Surprising paper in it because I'm in love with how it turned out. It isn't my longest paper that I've written, but I feel like my voice is in it.  Papers where I can really show my voice are ones I love to write. I really enjoyed this paper because I was able to pick the entirety of the topic and what went into it.  Finding the sources, even the surprising ones, wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  I definitely thought that I wasn't going to be able to find sources on my opposing views, but I'm really glad that I did.

(insert clever title here)

As you can tell by my fantastic post title, my brain is working super well today... Only not really. I feel that whenever we're on break, something bad happens.  Over fall break, I got a sinus infection and was out of class for an entire week and now, over Thanksgiving break, one of my wisdom teeth is coming in and is giving me the worst headache ever.  The pain is almost unbearable.  I was hurting so much last night that I almost asked my mom to call an oral surgeon right then and there to get my wisdom teeth pulled.  I'm one person who cannot stand taking medicine, but I've been religiously taking it for the past week to try and reduce the pain. It hasn't been helping.
On a brighter note, I really like how my informative essay is coming along.  I have seven sources so far and I have roughly two more paragraphs to clean up and expand on.  I'm not too sure how long it will end up being when all is said and done, but I don't think this will be one of my longer papers. I'm definitely in love with this paper more than I was with a lot of my other papers.  I feel like that might be because I was able to pick this topic and I was able to find all of my sources.  Usually I don't like finding sources, but this was super easy to find sources for that I liked and that went well with y theme.
I have so much to do today and all I want to do is sleep.

Reflection

To say that this week has been stressful would be an understatement.  I was so busy this week that I didn't have time to send in my work from Friday that I was supposed to have for my conference until last night.  Honestly, I don't have a draft done, but what I have in my ideas paper on Google Drive is the start of an amazing paper.  I had two ideas, but I know which one I am going to do now.  I still need to add a conclusion, references, and more information on my topic.  When all is said and done, I feel like I'm going to love this paper.  It's going to be on role models for young girls and how their self esteem is effected when they see photoshopped/unrealistic ads and toys (such as Barbies).  I'm hoping to do this paper correctly and get a good grade on it.
If this paper was due after Thanksgiving, I would really appreciate it.  I feel like the long weekend will be a good time for me to get my paper the way I want it to be.  If the paper was due on Monday, I wouldn't be satisfied with my work and would feel uneasy about my grade for it.

Papers on Papers on Papers

I feel like this is the time of year where all of the professors give papers that are due.  This two week period before Thanksgiving is crazy with papers.  I'm happy it's now rather than at the last two weeks of the semester, but still.  I feel like my brain can't think about papers anymore.  I'm lucky because I can write the new paper in college writing and my paper in cultural diversity on the same topic, but I don't think I want to.  I already started my cultural diversity paper (it's due on Wednesday), so I know my topic for that, but I have a few different ideas for the surprising paper.  I'm going to write down a few notes on each topic for college writing and then I'm going to talk them over with Dr. Kyburz on Tuesday at my appointment with her.  I'm leaning towards one topic, but I don't know if I'd be able to find information on it.  I have a few ideas as to what I'd do on that subject, but I think they'd take a while to come together... I don't know... My brain hurts...


If you couldn't tell, I'm bored and at work.  Seven minutes until I get to go home and nap!

Summary and Analysis Again...

I definitely need to change and add some things into my paper.  I'm regretting not changing my paper sooner, but I know that I needed to start new.  Hopefully everything turns out in the end.  As of right now, I feel good about how my paper is turning out.  I've been super busy and haven't gotten as much homework/essay time as I wish I could have, so it's almost 10:00 at night and I'm still working on fine tuning this to make it the best that I know it can be.  My brain is shutting off and I need to push through until the end.  I don't have that much left to work on and fix, which is a good thing.

I hate being allergic to caffeine.  I need something to keep me awake at times like this.

Summary and Analysis

At the last minute I decided to change my entire paper.  I didn't like how my first one was turning out, so I scrapped the old one and started writing a new one. I honestly don't think i'm going to have four to six pages done by tomorrow, but I'll have three.  I wish I had realized how much I didn't like my paper earlier, but I honestly think I'll like my paper more when Wednesday comes and I need to turn it in.

How I feel about sweating the small stuff

I first want to say that the fact that Mark Bittman wrote this while he was in Seattle makes me super happy because I'm going there in 49 days.  I love that he's on book tour and he writes about how it is to be on book tour.  I often go to see author Ellen Hopkins when she's in town and this made me realize how she must feel while on tour.  While Mrs. Hopkins was in town last year, I went to her book signing and she answered the questions almost exactly to how Bittman answers them in this article.  The harder questions she answered shorter, while the simpler ones she had more fun with.  I believe this is because, as authors with a wide fan-base, they don't want to offend anyone with their opinions.
Mark Bittman talks about how we should worry about changing the smaller things, rather than the larger ones like war, poverty, and other things of that nature.  While reading this, I thought about how girls in schools are being given harsher and harsher dress codes because they're being "distracting" to the boys in the classrooms.  With the fashion industry basically forcing girls to wear tighter shirts, shorter skirts, and tops that show their shoulders, girls don't have several options of clothes that are "dress code friendly."  In order to change girls getting called down to the dean's office to change every day because of the clothes that they're being forced to buy (let's be honest, a LOT of girls would rather have shorts that cover their butts, rather than the ones companies are selling now), the clothing companies would need to change their clothes.  Instead of making thousand of companies change, why don't schools who feel like this is an issue enact a program that teaches boys and girls about things like sexual harassment and rape.  I've heard people say boys should be taught those things, but girls need to be taught as well.  It's a small thing, compared to boycotting companies that sell "inappropriate" clothing, that can change a lot.
I really enjoyed this article and completely agree that we shouldn't focus on changing the big things, but rather the small ones.  With little changes, our lives can change drastically.

Looking back...

I really enjoyed this multimodal project.  The fact that I was able to work on several different things and put them into one project made it more interesting to me than just writing an essay.  Not being in class last week because I was sick definitely made this project a little more difficult.  I wish I had been able to be in class and get more feedback on some of the things I had in my project.  I also wish I had more time to work on the project, there are things I would have liked to add.  Overall, though, I'm very proud of my project and how it turned out.  I worked with a new movie editor, but I loved it way more than Window's Movie Maker.  I had to buy a one year subscription, but I think I'm going to use it a lot, so it's worth the twenty dollars.

One thing that was brought up after I presented was the last text slide: "One things for sure, though, kids aren't going out and playing hide and seek like they used to."  This was one of my ways to connect the video with the song I used.  The song title is "Hide and Seek" and those were also the first lyrics that were sung in my project.  I picked this song because I found it almost ironic with the theme of my project: technology and kids.  After being a nanny, babysitting, and watching my several younger cousins play, I've seen that kids are still playing outside, but, in my experience, they spend more time showing each other things on their electronics, playing games on their electronics, or doing other things with their electronics.  Two weeks ago while I was watching twins, the daughter wanted to go outside and the son wanted to stay inside and play video games.  This was something that was strange to me because the son usually always wants to go outside, while the daughter usually wants to go watch television or play on their parent's iPad.  I often ask them if they want to go outside, play tag, or play hide and seek and they often tell me no and that they want to play with their Wii.  This is one of the main reasons that I chose this song and theme.

Oh hi, multimodal project

This multimodal project is really interesting to me, but I'm not a hundred percent sure of how I'm going to make my final product.  I guess I'll just need to go with my gut and hope it turns out the way I'm imagining it to in my head.  I have a feeling it could go exactly as I plan and be amazing or it could go the complete opposite way and be horrendous.  In my own opinion, I felt that the project where the people were interviewed was awkward.  Interviewing people was my first idea, though after seeing how I didn't like that one project, I decided to go a different route. Hopefully it turns out how I've been planning it and I might need to redo my entire plan if it doesn't turn out how I want it to.

My social life

Just kidding, I barely have a social life because I go to school and work, then when I'm not at school or work, I'm studying for school or doing something else for school.  I'm lucky because I get to do homework and study at work, but I don't talk to people unless it's saying "hi, how are you?" to the men and women who come in.  I've always been one of those kids who barely needs to study for things in order to get good grades, but I've learned that that isn't the case anymore.  With anatomy last year, I had to teach myself how to study, which sounds silly.  This year, I'm doing much better than I did last year and I'm so grateful for that.  I've been procrastinating things a lot less than I used to.  I realized this tonight when I started looking up information for our multimodal project.  I had a few different topics in my head, but I picked one that I think will be something that can be debated.  I'm actually really looking forward to doing the rest of this project and seeing my final product.

Documentary summary

For my documentary paper, I chose to watch After Innocence. This documentary follows several wrongly imprisoned men on their journey of gaining freedom through DNA testing.  I, personally, loved this movie.  Movies that can make you laugh at one point, cry at another, and make you want to punch the screen a second later are movies that I really enjoy and this had all three of those plus some.
While watching this documentary, I tried to put myself in the prisoner's shoes as well as those of them who accused them.  The descriptions that the men made of when they were in prison were so vivid to me, but I still don't think I fully understand how they felt when they were in there. I'm not sure if I ever will.  Stepping into the shoes of the people who accused them, mostly those who picked their faces out from a line-up of people, was easy for me.  When I was in seventh grade one of my cousins was killed in the Tinley Park Lane Bryant murders.  The man who killed her and the other women was never caught, but I would do everything in my power to find him and put him behind bars.  I can easily see how a witness or victim could pick someone who looks similar to the actual person who did something to them, thinking it was the real person.  Sometimes you make rash decisions because you try to make yourself feel better or, in these cases, safe.  If a man was put behind bars for my cousin's death, I would want DNA testing done to make sure it's the man.  I think a big part of the reason I want this done is because of watching After Innocence.  I don't think anyone should go through what those men and so many other have gone through.

You learn something new every day.

So, the past week I've discovered something new about myself: I don't like summary writing.  I usually love writing, but I don't know why I don't like this particular form of writing. I think it might be because I feel as if I can't use my own voice in it, I can't state my thoughts about what is happening in the movie, book, song, whatever it may be that I'm writing about. I love writing that is free, without limits, and that I can just talk about. That's why I enjoy blogging on here so much.  I write about what's happening in class, but I also write about things that are on my mind.  Due to not really liking summary writing, I questioned my essay a lot, which made me create several different drafts.  I, honestly, don't even feel like my final draft was my best.  I know I could do so much better and I'm looking forward to other essays where I have the opportunity to do so.  
I also learned that food labels lie when they say "Wait 1-2 minutes for food to cool." I waited 10 minutes and still managed to burn my tongue on soup while at work.

Assignment for 9/17

Rhetorical Knowledge:

I felt like the Cristo Summary really helped me figure out what things are important and which things can be left out. For example, I don’t think that every time the video switched to when Cristo was drawing is too important for what happened in the video, it doesn’t help move the summary along. It does, however, create good visual transitions while you’re watching the movie, ones that would be difficult to describe in words.

This assignment also made me think about what tense I use when I’m writing.  Looking back at my past writing assignments, I switched between tenses a lot.  I feel like that’s something writers shouldn’t do and I’ m glad that I realized that I was doing it and that I can switch it.  I’ll admit, it took a few drafts to get all of the words to be in the present tense, but I got it at the end.

Critical and Creative Thinking:

I’m a writer that almost always puts my own bias in my writing and this assignment forced me to make a conscious effort to not do that.  It was really difficult for me at first and I still prefer writing where I can use my own voice, compared to when I cannot.

Genre Knowledge:

Summarization papers were new to me until I wrote this paper.  I definitely didn’t expect it to be as difficult for me to write as it was.  Up until this paper, I would’ve used things that weren’t in the actual video.  I probably would’ve done extra research on the topic and would’ve added what I researched into my paper, but that isn’t what summarization papers are.

Mechanical Knowledge:

This was one of the first papers I have written where I did multiple drafts without my professor asking me to do so.  I revised this paper more than I had ever done before, which is weird for me.  I usually feel really confident in my first draft and I can’t think that there are things I can revise to make my paper even better.  With this paper, though, I felt like there was always something that could be switched or reworded or something of that nature. I believe I revised this paper five to six times total.

What Makes a Good Question?

Today in class we were asked "what makes a good question?" This made me think a lot.  There are a lot of different types of questions: true or false, multiple choice, thought provoking, and one worded answer questions are only a few.  I don't think any question is a "bad" question, but I believe that one worded questions are the worst.  I believe this because they usually don't require any thought when answering them.  I believe that a "good" question needs to make one think while they're answering it.  I also believe that a "good" question should be one that's able to talk to others about and one that can have differing view points.
Today we were also asked to describe our history with writing.  I haven't always enjoyed writing, but I became super fond of it when I got into writing, sophomore year of high school.  All four years of high school I was on the speech team, but sophomore year I was in a category that required me to write my speech.  I wrote about dreams and how different dreams have different meanings, something that I'm extremely interested in.  I enjoy writing when it's about something that I find interesting.  When I'm forced to write on something that I find boring, like most of the college and high school classes I've taken, I have a hard time focusing on the topic at hand and find myself drifting from the topic. Overall, though, I really enjoy writing.

This has nothing to do with class, but I needed to get it off my chest.

I know this blog is supposed to be for my college writing two class, but I'm going to take a second to rant about the new book I'm reading: Rumble by Ellen Hopkins.  Honestly, I think that Ellen Hopkins is an amazing writer and story teller, I highly recommend her books to all genders and age groups (they're more for mature audiences, though) if you haven't read any of her books. I have all of the books she has written (thirteen in all) and when a new one comes out, I pre-order it months in advance.  All of the books that Ms. Hopkins writes about are ones that are very controversial, so much that some people want her books to be banned. Rumble, her newest book that came out two days ago on August 26th, is from the perspective of a boy named Matt whose younger brother took his life because of bullying.  His parents have a very toxic and unhealthy relationship and Matt, himself, is in a relationship with a Catholic girl named Hayden.  Matt is very anti-religion and Ellen Hopkins has a way of pushing my buttons with this character.  I was in a similar situation when my boyfriend and I first started dating, but I was Matt and he was Hayden (he's also Methodist, but that doesn't really matter). I had several things happen in my life that made me question God and His existence, while my boyfriend had several things happen in his life that made him turn to God.  This is what happened to Matt and Hayden.  I feel like Ms. Hopkins could have made Matt try and find his faith again, but I guess that would ruin most of the book, since their differing viewpoints is a huge part of the book.  Some of the choices that Matt makes in the book made me want to go into the book and slap him.  A little bit into the book, you find out about something Hayden did that makes you question the entirety of their relationship and her religion.
Sorry for the long post about something that's meaningless to you.

Also, Ellen Hopkins made a book trailer for Rumble, so it's here as well if you want to check it out.

This is water

I found the "This is water"  video to be very interesting.  I adored how the video had specific words pop up onto the screen when he felt he needed to put emphasis on certain things that he was saying.  From the very beginning, I felt that David Foster grabbed your attention with his fish story. I think that we go through our days doing the same thing over and over and we forget to step back every so often and slow down or actually look at a situation differently than we have been our whole lives.  David Foster made this point one that I really thought over.

One other section of the video that really caught my eye was when they were in the supermarket and the woman yelled at her child.  I nanny for three families and I also work at the Romeoville Rec Center and I could almost feel what that mother was feeling.  One of the children I watch isn't the most behaved child and my initial reaction when we're out somewhere and he's acting up is to do what I do when we're not in public, give him three warnings and then send him to his room.  Since we weren't at his house or anywhere that I could seclude him, I was confused on what to do in this situation.  I ended up only giving him one warning and after that I told him he couldn't go play at the park when we went there (he had been acting like this all day and I had previously warned him while we were at his house). This caused him to throw a huge tantrum while we were eating lunch at McDonald's.  I was so embarrassed that I ended up driving home, luckily it was close to his nap time, and made him go into his room for a nap. I know when I eventually have kids I'll probably have times like the mom in the video, but I hope to think about it more than she did. I don't feel like parents should go off on their kids like that, even if they are super stressed out.

Overall, I found the video really interesting and I'd love to hear his full speech one day.