Monday, April 25, 2011

blog13

In this passage author Timothy Sexton is simply telling us how reality TV is developing our minds in the minds of our youth in the wrong sense of reality.

He first states “reality TV promoted the old belief that competition is the key to success” which leads our young to believe that hard work, dedication and education is not need to secede in this world. If you want to bring home the big bucks you must constantly be in competition with the next. You have to look good, no talent of any kind needed and respect for your self is definitely not an options.

Sexton finish off his passage by saying the makers of these shows want us to believe that what we see on TV is in fact what makes the world go around go old competition and making a fool of your self and why not? It what keeps us watching, it sells.

I have to agree when author Sexton says, “Probably the single most dangerous message these shows send is that education is completely unnecessary to fulfill the American dream. One need only possess the ability to humiliate oneself on national television, or have absolutely no shame whatsoever”. I watch some of these reality shows and at times say “OMG” cant believe what some people will do for a few bucks.

Take for instant a show called Maury; people come on this show to air out their family business. Most of the times it’s about mothers who don’t know who their baby fathers are. Now, I say to myself how much money can these people be making that they are willing to make fools out of their self’s, at times bodily parts are shown due to fighting and its seems as if they have no shame what so ever. Half the time these girls are not even speaking proper English, guess that says a lot about their education. Now to me I never thought not knowing whom your baby father was, was a cool thing. In my opinion I take that as foolish and a whole lot of unprotected sex. But on this particular show the girls on the show make it seem like its cool why else would they come on TV to do it, that’s just my opinion.

Sexton says “By categorizing these shows as “reality,” the makers are dangerously suggesting that they are replicating society. In fact, they aren’t replicating society as it is, but rather as those in power want people to believe it is”. If this is what they want us to believe is society young girls running around here having unprotected sex, making babies and having no education then god help us all. Reality shows to me are just hyped up forms of real situation made for TV watchers to make their big bucks and that’s all. TV programs (reality shows) should come with a warning sign strictly for entertainment propose only and should not be tried in the real world.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

blog 11

I would choice to leave in Truman’s world mainly because everything seems so calm, nice and pleasant. Everyone there seems to be so friendly. They greeted Truman every day with a good morning and with big smiles on their faces. Things seem to be in order. Nice and calm buses run on time. There was no violence and clean streets. There were also big white picket fence house. This was a place where you could leave your doors open at night without a care in the world, a place where your neighbor would probably knock on your door and tell you Sir or Madam: “your left your keys in your car door” without even a thought of stealing your car.

The world Christoff created shows me that the world we live in is very complex, in other words, difficult. We don’t live in a safe world. Everything around us is danger. Most people in our world are in danger of losing their job due to the drop in the economy. Without a job in our society you mostly likely to end up a bum on the street or very stressed out, which can led to health issues. Health is a big issue in our society. We have many people without any form of health coverage due diplomatic issues. Many people are getting sick and without the proper health coverage or medical attention they are in danger of dying. Either way you look at some of these issues it’s definitely not a good thing. We have bad air pollution among many other things. There’s a long list of things wrong with our society I could probably go on for days.

Friday, March 25, 2011

blog 10

What do you think you have learned in terms of writing skills?

Well I can honestly say the easies thing for me has been creating a summary. Within learning this I realize what I was doing wrong. I was adding my own opinions in my summary, which I clearly know now that is wrong now. Thesis statement, I kind of think I have the hang of it. I can say I do get the concept of what a thesis statement is. Now paragraphing, I now what consist of a paragraph. The topic sentence, sentences that develop the topic, sticking to one point (what the topic sentence is about) and being clear about what you write. Now rather or not I can put that all together to create a good essay is another story. I feel at times when I’m writing I tend to ramble on and lose focus of the main point.

What proves that you have learned what you say you have learned?

The practice and discussion we had in class on summarizing easily helped me to recognize what I did wrong on the CAT test and I feel when we did the practice my writing skills over all may not have been at its best but I know that I did not put my own opinion in my summary.

What of the material we have covered is still unclear or confuses you?

I don’t feel I don’t understand the material; I just feel I have a hard time developing them, writing my thoughts down in the correct format


Would you say that overall you feel more confident about your understanding of basic writing skills, less confident, or about the same as when we started class? What makes you feel this way?

I wouldn’t say that I don’t understand the basic writing skill but I do feel a little less confident in my writing only because I see now how many mistake I was making in my writing. But I definitely can say I don’t feel the same as when I started this class because I have learned a whole lot cant say I get it all but I know it’s a learning process.

Anything else I should know about?

No I think I pretty much covered it, but thanks for asking.

blog 9

What have you learned from the paragraphing class?
How a good essay should be developed.

How do you know that you have learned it?
No sure if I completely have it down packed but I have a pretty good ideal of what a paragraph should contain.

Can you describe how you learned it?
Practicing in class, and group

What helped your learning? What made it difficult?
A. Asking question, practicing and seeing other writings of students.
B. Over all I just think I have a problem putting my thoughts in writing, the formatting part
gets me.

How do you feel after today's class?
Writing an essay is harder then I thought but I have a good Professor that will help me to
become better at this.

blog 7

What have you learned from the thesis-based writing class?
I have learned the difference between a claim and a thesis statement and how they both structure an essay.

How do you know that you have learned it?
I’m not sure if I got the whole concept down yet.

Can you describe how you learned it?
Practice in class and asking questions.

What helped your learning?
Professor X explaining and giving examples of thesis statements.

What made it difficult?
Working in a group, to many different opinions.

How do you feel after today’s class?
Kind of confused and understanding at the same time.

blog 6

Santa Claus
I was a strong believer in this guy; use to try in stay up late to see him, always wonder why no matter how long I did I would never get the chance to meet him. One day I finally stayed up and to my surprise I saw my mom and grandma putting the gifts under the tree. I never told them I saw them I just keep the gig up until they finally gave up or just figured I was just getting to old to be a believer.

Tooth Fairy
I was always a child that didn’t mind losing a tooth, always couldn’t wait to get my dollar. Don’t know if I was more intrigued with the fact of a tooth fairy flying around in my room at night or the actual dollar, maybe it was both. One day I figure i must have fell asleep and my pillow fell of the bed. I caught my grandfather trying to put the pillow back under my head along with the tooth and dollar. He tried to act like he wasn’t doing so but I caught on and his cover was blown, i was so sad After they realize I wasn’t a believer anymore we all just did even exchange a tooth for a dollar via hand. it wasnt as exciting as the tooth fairy fantasy but the dollar was still great

blog 5

In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates tells a story to his student Glaucon to explain how the world can be such a different place when you borden your horizons. In this allegory Socrates tells a story of how humans in a cave are chained together by their feet and neck only being able to see what’s right in front of them and that shadows have been the closet think to reality they believe. What he is telling us is that the humans in the cave are being brought up to think and believe one way because they are stuck in a certain environment. Socrates goes on to say that if a prisoner were released from the caves he probably would be in great pain unable to stand, move, walk or steer at light. It would take some time for him to realize the reality of the real world from the shadows. What I think Socrates is trying to say by that’s is when the prisoner leaves the cave that harsh reality of life would probably be to difficult for him to deal with because of them being subjected to a certain type of life in the cave for so long life outside the cave would seem unreal to them at first glance, confusing even maybe. Its like teaching a baby to walk for the first time, they’ll be a little nerves and confused at first but with guidance they grow to understand stand then it becomes second nature to them, habit. But then Socrates says imagine then if the prisoner has to be replaced back in his old condition, would he not feel out of place, would he still be able to recognize shadows, how would the other prisoners feel about him? I think he is trying to say, when a person has be enlighten with a certain knowledge its not easy to see/do thing as he or she may have use to when their minds were undeveloped. Also that sometimes people are scared of change it could also be seen as a danger to them. People become a custom to a certain way of life when it’s all they know and tend to take it as a threat when people try to convince them other wise. In conclusion I feel that what Socrates is trying to say over all is you need knowledge to grow and with out it you will miss out on what the word has to offer.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

blog 4

“Hype” by Kale Lasn, in this passage Lasen is simply trying to tell us there is no escaping advertisement. From the moment you open your eyes till the time you close them. Radio and TV are not the same any more a simple song an hour show, they have all turned into more media marketing and less of what you love. Advertisements are everywhere you look. Before they were a little confined, newspaper, stores and maybe even mailed to you, not so publicize. According to Lasen a Company called VideoCart has installed interactive screens on supermarket carts “the most powerful micromarketing medium available today” they were quoted as saying. Ad’s have even taken away some of life’s beautiful scenery. There is never a peaceful moment, advertisements have taken over.


I feel advertisements have good advantages and bad ones; for the most part Ads are very help full to me. In my daily life I am always on the move so whatever quick information I can take in is always good for me. Shopping ad's are great, I love the flyer's you get under you doors, and they keep me aware of all the good deals of the week. Late night TV commercials always seem to get me too. I'm always looking for a quick fix way to lose weight and late night infomercials always intrigue me. Sometimes I feel like a kid in a candy store with all the gadgets they have to sell, always claiming that one product is better than the other. Most of the time it’s a good way of me putting myself to sleep, leaves my brain boggled so confused and dazed can almost do nothing else but rest my eyes to relieve my brain. Now on the down side sometimes it gets a little annoying and troublesome. Watch TV for instant, seems at times you may be getting less of the actual program you turned in to watch and more of nonsense ad's that at the time you really care nothing about and don’t want to see. Sexy ads really get me. For instant me and my younger daughter are walking down the street, she ask me mom why is the lady on the bus has no clothes on and she’s outside? Why are they kissing? I look up to see an ad posted big on the side of the bus. Not knowing what to say I just rushed her along, without even an answer. Sexy ads are the ones I feel should be more confined to certain places of where they can advertise them for that particular reason. I don’t know maybe it’s just me, but I worry about the kind of things that are projected into my daughters mind. Advertisements have a good and bad place in my world; it’s really up to you to decide where it falls in yours.

blog 3

What have you learned from the summarizing class?
I pretty much learned that I have been summarizing wrong, have been putting my own ideals in the summaries when a summary is suppose to be me using my own words to give a brief description of the main ideal of the reading.

How do you know that you have learned it?
Well… we did a practice in class and I don’t believe I made the same mistakes as I use to summarizing a reading probably not as great as it should be but definitely not as bad as before.

Can you describe how you learned it?
Again by practice, asking question, and getting examples from the professor.

What helped you learning?
Practicing I will say definitely.

What made it difficult?
I wouldn’t say this made it difficult, me thinking that my opinion was how a summary was done all this time but maybe the fact that I have been doing it for so long that way it’s kind of hard changing it up.

How do you feel after today’s class?
I feel like now I’m one step ahead at passing this CAT test.

Blog 2

 What did you get from thinking about annotations with class?

I think it will help me with the process of writing a good eassy/paper

What did you get from writing annotations for "is google making us stupid?" with my partmer?

It really help me to understand more about what i was reading and its key points.

What did you learn about the reading by annotating it?

Again i will say it help me to understand what i was reading. Take notice of key words that i didn't know the exact meaning of to better understand what i was reading.

How may annotating make you a better writer?

Im hoping that it will make me a better writer, doing annotating today really showed me that at times just reading a text is not just about reading a text. Its about analyzing and taking notes on what your reading to better understand what your reading

What did i learn from my exchange with my partner?

Great minds think a like, me and my partner pretty much shared the same views on the text. We both underlined most of the same lines, key points and words that a reader may not have understood to get the full effect of the text.

blog 1

What I get from reading "hype" is that the writer is trying to tell us is there is no getting around some of the good or negative pollution our brains take in on a daily bases. Advertisements are everywhere you look. Before they were a little confined, newspaper, stores and maybe even mailed to you, not so publicize. You may find this to be funny but come near future you may even see advertisements on public toilets we use. Why you may ask? Why not would be a better question, you can’t get around using them they are always in demand a part of our every day function.

Late night TV commercials always seem to get me. I'm always looking for a quick fix way to lose weight and late night infomercials always seem to get me. Sometimes I feel like a kid in a candy store with all the gadgets they have to sell, they're always claiming that one product is better than the other. Most of the time it’s a good way of me putting myself to sleep, leaves my brain boggled.

These advertisements everywhere also have its downfall. Advertisement sexy ads really get me. Sometimes I’m places with my young child and she’s asking me mom why doesn’t the lady have clothes on and she’s outside, why are they kissing. Again my brain is boggled, not knowing what to say that would make her understand. Sexy ads are the ones I feel should be more confined to certain places of where they can advertise them for that particular reason. I don’t know maybe it’s just me, but I worry about the kind of things my young one is subjected to see. How about you?

Monday, March 7, 2011

What I am expecting to get out of ENA 5500

I am so much hoping to pass the CAT-W test and improve my writing skills. I am also hoping to breeze right  thru ENG 101 with flying colors.