Journal #9

Theme: Gender Roles
Primary Text: "Modern Family"
Secondary Text: "Wally's Girl"

Intro:
-introduction and explanation of the texts
-thesis: Many would argue that gender roles have come a long way since the show Leave it to Beaver came  out, while Modern Family shows that the woman has control of the household.

Modern Family
-in all the families, at least one person stays at home
-each women has control of the household
-the male goes out and works why the women stay at home and run the household


Wally's Girl
-the mom is at home when the father comes home from work
-she is seen in the kitchen with her apron on
-gender role reversed: the girl asks Beaver's older brother to go to the dance with her

Journal #8

Unnecessary Commas:
"By using a certain point of view, addressing a particular. . . " could be "By using a certain point and addressing a particular. . . "

Apostrophes
". . . certain parts of a persons health care. . " would be " . . .certain parts of a person's health care. . ."

Commas
"Conversely if this story had been written. . ." would be "Conversely, if this story had been written. . ."

". . . want to start my own family I will follow morals my mother. . ." would be ". . . want to start my own family, I will follow morals my mother. . . "

"Also when talking about, "his mother" i guessed. . . " would be ". . . Also when talking about "his mother" I guessed. . ."

"Although I shared he was a "meth baby" very little vital details. . ." would be "Although I shared he was a "meth baby", very little vital details. . .:

"If I were to tell someone this story around the time it happened they would not have been. . . " would be "If I were to tell someone this story around the time it happened, they would not have been. . . "

Clarity: Vary sentence openings
"I am able to give background information on the story but the vital details are left out." could be "The vital details were left out, but I was still able to give some background information."

"Then after analyzing it further, I realized an angry, almost bitter tone." could be "Upon further analyzation, I realized an angry, almost bitter tone."

"The story was centered on a little boy I came into contact with during my short period there." could be "During my short period at the NICU, the boy I came into contact with inspired the story I wrote."

After doing this blog, I realized some things about my essay. The main thing I realized was the organization. Most of my sentences were repetitive in the way I wrote them. I need to change up lengths of sentences and how I start them. I also need to work on relating my paragraphs back to the thesis. I should also make sure I revise my paper closely as I had many comma errors and words that I left out.

Journal #7

The poem How to Watch Your Brother Die seemed more like a poem of coming to terms with his brother's sexuality more than his death. His brother dying was hard, but he was finally able to understand how his brother felt.
At first it seemed almost as if the narrator was unaware of his brothers sexuality. But when the narrator talked about his wife it seemed to me as if the wife didn't approve of the brother being gay or wanting their children around him. The brother was not only afraid of how his wife would react to him being with his homosexual brother and was not sure how he felt about the situation.
The first time he was able to accept his brother was when he walked into the hospital and saw the brother's lover sitting there with him. He knew that no matter what, he was there for him even if it meant being criticized by others. Once he was able to accept this, he let his prejudices go and reached out to his brother's lover. He knew that if he was lying in the hospital bed, most likely not going to make it, that someone would be there for his wife.
Even though his brother ends up dying, he accepts his brother for who he is and is able to see that his brother isn't a bad guy and was only making the decision that was right for his life.
The clip that I can relate to this poem is Glee. The show is about a bunch of outcasts in a high school coming together. Especially with the character Kurt, he wants people to know he's a normal guy and just wants to be accepted and have friends.

Journal #6

The commercial that I decided to analyze further was the Pepsi commercials that I had initially analyzed in class. After we first analyzed it we came to the conclusion that the commercials did not display logos very well. After thinking about it further, i realized that the commercial did use logos.

The thing that stood out to me the most was one of the actors in the commercials. The Pepsi vendor in the first commercial is the same guy as the waiter in the second commercial. At first I didn't think much about it much after watching it a couple more times and thinking about it it definitely stood out to me as logos. The first commercial was made in 1995 and the second made in 2010. The Pepsi vendor preferred Pepsi in the first commercial even after trying Coke. And still 15 years later, after possibly several more commercials for other types of soda besides Coke he still is a Pepsi drinker. I definitely think that this added to logos a lot. It shows that then and now Pepsi is better than Coke, and even in the future you won't change your opinion of the soda.

Another thing that seemed pretty important to me was that the format of the commercial was almost the exact same. The way the truck pulled into the diner, how the Pepsi vendor ordered what he wanted, and the way the Coke and Pepsi guy communicated. To me this showed that the commercial was effective in 1995 and that they wanted to use it to persuade soda drinkers that want a 0 calorie drink.

After this assignment I realized that commercials are a lot different than what we think of them to be. A lot of stuff goes into creating any type of advertisement and getting buyers to consume their products.

Journal #5

I found Sloan's hypertext to be much more effective than the text from the book. The text in the book was easy to understand and I was able to come up with a picture in my head about what she was describing. The only difference was that what I was imaging was somewhat different than what she was actually describing. Also when looking at the images from the hypertext not only was I able to visualize what she was talking about better but I was also able to understand the picture she was trying to get us to paint in our heads. I could imagine where particular parts of the story took place. Although the pictures showed almost exactly what she was describing, I was still about to make up certain parts of the story in my head.
Another thing that I enjoyed about the images in the hypertext was the photography. The photographer gave great insight as to what the rundown city looked like. I also liked how the photos were taken in black and white. It added to the feeling of the story being taken place a while ago.

Journal #4

I enjoyed being able to spend time and interview the international students at the CESL. I liked being able to learn about their culture and what it is like to live there and not just reading about it in books. The first person I interviewed was a girl from China. She was very friendly and liked to talk about what her life was like in China. She like many things about America,  such as being able to dress however she liked and getting to know more people that weren't Chinese. The second person I talked with was a girl from Saudi Arabia. She was very shy and even told me she did not like to talk about herself and her culture. Things were very different there. Males and females were separate at all times and it was very weird to her to be mixed and in classes with males. I realized not only how different their culture was but how different there lives were on a day to day basis.

I definitely found out that the two girls I was able to talk with were somewhat similar to the author of the text Letter to Mexico. Although I am not for sure about their exact feelings it seemed to me as if either they didn't feel like they belonged in their country or wanted to get away from their daily lives. They wanted something different and wanted to be able to see what it was like so far from home. One thing that I found very interesting was the fact that they weren't studying classes for their intended major. They were learning English and would eventually be able to apply to the University.

All of these people were very brave. It couldn't be easy to leave your family to travel to another continent in a language that they barely knew. The only barrier to our communication was the fact that their English was very raw. They knew English and could speak it, but there were some words they were unfamiliar with. It made me realize that even though our cultures are different the only obstacle we had was not speaking the language.

Journal #2

The text I chose for my persona essay is the essay I used for admission into the U of A. My essay was about an incident that happened to me and one of my best friends during our freshman year in high school. This experience changed who I was as a person and a friend and helped shape the person that I am today. I rarely share this story with anyone as it is something a close friend confided in me and asked me not to tell anyone. Also looking back at it I feel like there were certain things I should have done to help out my friend.

I would compare my text to Hampl's text because of the fact that I changed certain things about the story and left certain parts out. Also similar to Hampl's text there are certain parts of our friendship that stick out the most to me, mostly being how our friendship ended. I wish I could remember our good memories together a little better but the way our friendship ended will definitely be something I'll never forget. At least at the current time I am able to say that we have recently become friends again but that certain occurrence will always be something that hindered our friendship.

Journal #1 Continued

After reading the prompts I had no idea what I wanted to write about. I couldn't think of a specific time or event that changed me or had a great impact on my life. Then I came to all the experiences I had my last semester in high school spent in the nursing home and at the hospital. There were several events that impacted me but I believe this one was the most important. This event changed me and will help me establish morals and how I will act as a parent one day.

Journal #1

In my senior year of high school I decided to take a class that would allow me to get my CNA (certified nursing assistant) license. I had finally made the choice that I wanted to study nursing in college and get my BSN. After a month or so of class work and a couple weeks in the nursing home it was time for our class to do our clinical’s at Thunderbird Hospital. The first week I worked in the Pediatrics unit, taking temperatures and measuring the intake and output of the children. But it was the next week that affected me the most.

The second week I was in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit). After looking around at all the babies on the floor one little boy caught my eye. At birth he had weighed slightly over one pound and I also saw that he had been in the hospital for about four months. The nurse in the pod then explained to me that he was a meth baby. His mother of just barely seventeen had used meth all throughout the pregnancy. This little boy of only four months has gone through so much in his life.  The nurse also told me that the reason he was still in the hospital was because the state still had not assigned him a foster home to be sent to. She also told me that he rarely got any visitors so he spent most of the day just laying in his bassinet. I spent the next two hours of the class holding and feeding the baby, giving him the love he was deprived of. 
         This experience really made me appreciate my parents and all that they have done for me throughout my life. Especially all the sacrifices they have made for me. My mom gave up several things while she was pregnant with me and could have easily gave in. But she made healthy choices which helped me become the healthy person that I am today. This experience also helped me decide which field of nursing I would like to specialize in. I want to be able to help baby’s in the fight for their life so they can grow up and live a normal life.