You Can't Fight Mother Nature! Media Project Synopsis

Nancy Radecker WSC 002 011 Final Essay/Media Project May 2, 2010
You Can’t Fight Mother Nature

My media project entitled You Can’t Fight Mother Nature is based on connections I established while reading Michael Specter’s essay entitled Bigfoot and viewing the YouTube video of George Carlin’s stand-up routine entitled “Saving the Planet” as well as watching the Hollywood movie entitled “Just Add Water”. All three works involved the planet, the environment, and its issues regarding climate change and global warming, which I believe for the most part is happening naturally to our planet earth without the intrusion of mankind.
I started my presentation with a photo from the movie 2001 Space Odyssey where an ape is smashing the bones of an animal to signify the beginning of the so-called carbon footprint on our environment. I then included various photos of natural occurrences that have impacted our planet, without any human interaction in order to demonstrate that long before man, the earth was taking care of its self and impacting it’s self and its future. I depicted the Ice age with a photo of the earth incased into an ice cube and then went into a written slide explaining that all the systems on the planet are evolving and changing since as well as competing since its creation. I then inserted a slide of an hourglass with the sand and trees falling out because the glass was broken and included a quote from George Carlin’s stand-up routine where he says “The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worst then us”. (Carlin) Mr. Carlin makes such an amazing point about the mere fact that the planet has been through the ice age and volcanoes, meteors, what harm could the humans possibly create to beat those acts of nature.
My video presentation furthers progresses into a quote from Michael Specter’s essay entitled “Bigfoot” where the author talks about the fact that the energy expelled to make potatoes at home is far more than if you drove your car to McDonald’s and purchased fries. (Specter) I believe most readers would find that not to be true since traveling to McDonalds in a car you would think would create a larger carbon footprint, but in fact does not. I included a slide where I state that all life needs to evolve and become larger in order to live, that is the whole point of life. Immediately following I again use one of Specter’s quotes that pose the question “How do we alter human behavior significantly to limit global warming? (Specter) The question will remain unanswered in this presentation but does make you think, can you get humans to change all that they have become accustomed to for years and years? A black and white photo depicting just a few of life’s tasty beverages interesting enough was just photographed with the humans feet and legs for a very dramatic effect, of what we would have to sacrifice or think about the packaging. The presentation includes other photos depicting our carbon foot printing as well as a slide containing the following quote; “People on the earth cannot exist without using the resources of the earth. When using these resources waste is always produced.” (University of Portsmouth Dept,. of Electronic & Computer Engineeering) We cannot live without producing some sort of waste, even if you just built a campfire you leave behind ashes, which is a carbon footprint. We think of the bigger things but we must also think of the small things as well.
A photo from the movie Just Add Water (Walsh, Middendorf and Hill) is shown and then a cartoon of a dam and it depicts it that it is man’s Global warming problem. Immediately following a cartoon of gentlemen with their heads buried in the sand exemplifies the town of Trona in their water diversion plight. The fact that the corporations created the problem for the town of Trona’s environment, but yet at the end of the movie it works out that nature comes through and it begins to rain once again and all is well. (Walsh, Middendorf and Hill) George Carlin feels that the environmentalists don’t care really care about the environment they just want to look after themselves and their surroundings (Carlin) in a text slide, following by a advertising photo .of a man with a fish head, with the sort of same angle of Carlin’s head the ad tells the reader to Stop Climate change before it changes you.
Various slides continue, including the famous ending photo from Planet of the Apes where the main character realizes that humankind blew themselves up, and the Apes take over the planet a sort of full circle. I added a photo with a goldfish advising us to save the water and a photo of a toilet with a roll of money as the toilet paper, thus leading up to our own greed and culminating with a photo of a “green” bulb signifying our attempt to change our habits however the bulb creates another environmental problem. The bulb is supposed to use less energy, but in fact contain Mercury and must be disposed properly something I find people don’t realize. This will eventually become an environmental nightmare with the mercury leaching into the ground water. Dams were built to help conserve and make energy but in fact create more carbon and Methane, as the algae rots at bottom.
I took a jab at Former Vice President Al Gore and his huge undertaking of the so-called global warming situation as well as some funny photos and their depiction of carbon footprints and environmental impact. I included a text slide, where George Carlin blasts the people who complain and wonder about their property becoming damaged when there are so close to the danger and yet are worried that they are impacting the earth in a harmful way because of a plastic bag. I include some photos supporting my argument that nature itself is at fault for Global warming as well as the humans carbon footprints. Towards the end of my presentation I make points that mankind is not the only one responsible for the changing planet. In the movie Just Add Water, the townspeople of Trona were victims to the corporation’s greed, but yet it is Mother Nature who controls the rain that finally falls and replenishes the lake. Nature takes care of itself.
In conclusion, the movie, essay, and comedy routine all talk about and show how our environment molds humanity and examples of what we should do and not to do to help, as well as what will happen no matter what, with regards to climate change and global warming. Carlin they way I also do and that is that the planet will continue to take care of itself it has been for billions of years. Specter believes we leave behind our carbon footprint, which seriously affects our future, but does it really? Just Add Water depicts what humans can do if they really they are really pushed into corner and how their environment impacted the community. George Carlin’s routine is right on target, and although Specter blames most of the global warming on humanity, it really is just the planet evolving, and changing all according to its own plan and agenda. Yes, we do contribute to the climate change; we should make changes that reduce greenhouse gases, and be environmental friendly, but we shouldn’t feel too bad that we are causing the earth to become sick and the polar bears to lose their icebergs, it would all be happening anyway, it is Mother Nature and all her glory and wonders.

Works Cited
Just Add Water. Dir. Hart Bocher. Perf. Dylan Walsh, et al. 2008.
Saving the Planet. By George Carlin. Perf. George Carlin. Parmount HBO Live. 27 April 1992.
Specter, Michael. "Bigfoot." Colbert, Elizabeth. The Best American Science and Nature Writing. New York,NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , 2009. 273 - 292.
University of Portsmouth Dept,. of Electronic & Computer Engineeering. http://mosaic.cnfolio.com/B101CourseworkIndex2007. 25 11 2007. 3 May 2010 .

You Can't Fight Mother Nature! Writing Class Media Project

Connection between Twelfth Night and Just Add Water

The connection between Twelth Night and Just Add Water is that they are both comedy's that involve characters that seem to have a certain personality and then suddenly their other side is shown.  Everything seems to be normal sort of in the begining until you realize that things are not what the seem.  The town of Trona although was not really that normal when compared to other towns, but it was normal for the townspeople for so many years and the characters all were set in their ways.  Characters changing direction is what causes both storys to make huge impact on their endings.

The wee ones...

While reading Mark Smith's “Animacules and Other Little Subjects” the words "wee ones" popped into my mind.  I also thought about Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and the characters called the Oompa Loompas.  The animalcules as were named in 1674 are the little living things that are seen while looking under the microscope.  Animalcules may be microsopic but their size can be disceiving, most are little powerhouses and truly hold there own.  Compared to the Oompa Loompas which were also small in size but very important and vital to Mr. Wonka's chocolate factory.  The Animacules are important to the natural course of life, they serve an important role in the food chain.  I believe what attracts Smith to observe them in his spare time is the absolutely amazing way the smallest of organisms can play should important roles and simply exist and thrive.  I have looked at pond water under a microscope and it truly is a small universe living in just one drop of water, which reminds me of Orions Belt in the movie Men In Black.  A cat in the movie wore a collar and hanging on the collar was a small glass sphere that contain an entire galaxy, with all it's living organisms and creatures.

Smith uses many metaphors and very descriptive words to help the reader truly  visualize the actual organisms he sees in the microscope. Smith finds the smallest of objects to be as interesting to study as a scientist who may study any of animals on this planet.  I believe that the author's fascination with the microscope as a kid was the catalyst for his eventually fascination with the orgranisms that he could seeing while using one.  It truly is remarkable that the tiniest of living organisms can have the same systems that humans have such as a heart, and brain.  Smith sums up the one thing all the animalcules have in common is that they all eat, they eat all the time. I laughed at that, because even though they are the tiniest of organisms they can still woof it and chow down. 

Trip to Citifield...reflections of Shea Stadium...crack of the bats...

I did it, I signed up and got one of the lucky 23 tickets that Hofstra was giving away for all Undergraduate students to attend a NY Mets game at Citifield for FREE!  It was going to be a game against the Atlanta Braves the team that Chipper Jones butters his bread for. Not a fan of Chipper Jones so I wanted to see the NY Mets sweep them under the rug.  I was really excited I got one, thought it would be a mad house and I will admit I was a bit nervous as I didn't want anyone to think that I was going to be a chaperone. I hurried from my class that day to get across campus to get on line as early as possible. I wondered it I wouldn't be able to go well, honestly because I am as old as Shea Stadium was I thought they may want me to give it up to a younger student.  Alas none of the fears nor concerns came to be, I was third online and the students in front of me actually didn't give me the stare down and I actually had a great conversation with some male students about the manager Jerry Mannual and his lack of energy!  Funny, that when I mentioned that I would like to have seen Bud Harrelson as the manager of the team, the three of them looked completely puzzled and perplexed.  Oh yeah, that is because I am over twice their age and they would have no idea who Bud Harrelson was even though he was the LI Ducks manager for a few years! Oh yeah again, some of them are not from Long Island, oh this was all going to be quite interesting to say the least.  I would have to curb the old timer stuff and stick to the more current past and present players, ha, ha this will be fun!  I realized that morning on my way to Hofstra to meet the other lucky students, that it is hard to talk about the newer players without bringing back the past. The "great ones" as I call them, I was looking forward to seeing the Hall of Fame Museum for sure and for once would have to miss an inning to go and view it. I am the type of fan that gets to the game early, makes sure all the necessites are taken care before finding my seats, tips the seat checker guy/gal if you get one and then sits back enjoys the game and waits for the hot dogs, peanuts, soda, pretzels sellers to come to me. Unless you were at Shea and had the nose bleed seats up in the upper atomsphere where they never sold anything, I don't wander around, or even go to get refreshments, I don't like to miss a thing! 

The new Citifield does make it easier to not miss anything if you should decide to get up and get that tap beer you see everyone carrying and don't want to pay the extra money for the beer guy to come around, crack a cold one open pour it into that squishy plastic cup.  I am not a beer drinker but I have past a few beers in my life time down the row of fans without spilling a drop! I always found that truly neighborly, the only place you can pass someone food and then their payment and everyone has a good time doing it, so why do people get so quick to not to lend a hand to their fellow neighbor outside the stadium?  It must be something about the atomsphere or maybe it is the aroma of hotdogs and pretzels that makes people love one another even when your team is losing. I was looking forward to going back to Citifield for my 6th time, first one this year though. I got to see 4 NY Met games and the highlight of the agnauratly year was seeing Paul McCartney from the top center row for Citifields first ever concert.  That concert is another blog for sure, I had goosebumps for a record 5 hours, it was amazing!

Thinking back I remember at Shea Stadium if you were on line waiting and you heard the crowd cheering you would run off the line and to the nearest exit down the long narrow lanes that would lead you out to the seats, they were like entrances to the Roman Coliseum, very high walls on either side and slightly sloped upward so you couldn't just look down to see the field, you would be looking at the sky.  They were now flat panel plasma screens back then in the consention areas, the crowd was your sound byte.  Citifield is far more open and I would love to see the budget for the amount of screens/monitors that were purchased and installed around the entire stadium.  I can't say for sure, but they may even be one in the bathroom, but I didn't look around as I just want to get in and get out and not waste a second.  I remember watching Citifield being built behind Shea Stadium 2 years ago, thinking to myself it is so small and how will ever get everyone in there?  Well it is better than I thought but it is lower than Shea Stadium, the nose bleed section is really not bad, in fact it is really good, you don't get that feeling that you are going to fall flat on your face if you stand up and a slight wind blows behind you.  I remember the last game at Shea that I took my two year old granddaughter Isabelle to the last season until it would be ripped down and sold off, we got seats up in the nosebleed section, well let me tell you, that kid sat on my lap the whole time and I didn't let her out of my grip, I didn't even let her stand up behind the seats in front of us, it was so steep I feared she would fly across the stadium, walking up those stairs and then back down with her, was the scariest moment I ever had with her...I don't miss those seats, Citifield doesn't go as high it is so much better.

To be continued....

Shakespeare's Fools?

As suggested by my English professor I am posting my second essay from her class. Thanks Professor Lay!

Shakespeare’s Fools?


Shakespeare’s Sonnet XV could have been said by the fool Feste, who is witty and seems to have a funny insight to all of the characters in Shakespeare’s play Twelfth Night. Feste is a representative of the theme of the play and adds the comedy and humor to help understand the dynamics of Shakespeare’s characters. Shakespeare wants the reader to seem that the characters are pure and have virtue, but during the story the other side of the characters comes forward. Feste is a fool but has extraordinary cleverness and intellect and he conveys that situations are not what there are portrayed to be. One of Shakespeare’s themes throughout the play is a tangling of pure, fair, honest characters with their alter egos, tainted, vulgar and dirty. Feste himself a jester but yet talented and knowledgeable, actually does not come across a fool or jester, whereas Sir Andrew who is a noble and should act gallant turns out to be the foolish one. Shakespeare tricks the reader into thinking one way about a character, but actually sneaks up and grabs the reader into the opposite direction. Feste also splits himself between Olivia’s and Orsino houses so it is interesting to see him play both sides and use the knowledge while in the other’s house. Feste the fool himself is pure but circumstances cause him to be sarcastic playing both sides and cunning among the characters. Feste has a good heart and means well but playing the role of the fool becomes an actor with a mission and it is by this role that he makes his living.

The Sonnet XV begins “When I consider everything that grows…” (Shakespeare, Sonnet XV), because this speaker attempts to address all creation, he is much like Feste in The Twelfth Night. Feste is an overseer in the play and crosses paths with all the characters thus giving him special insight and in turn helps him to consider all that surrounds him: “That this huge stage presenteth nought but shows; whereon the stars in secret influence comment” (Sonnet XV) meaning that the huge stage that in front of you, this earth, will show the stars through their hidden power and thus show their illusions. Feste again watches all the scenes and the characters that show their true colors through their veils. The speaker of Sonnet XV reacts to this sort of disguise, commenting: “Sets you most rich in youth before my sight” (Sonnet XV) Feste sees the characters in their youth and at their peak in time: Likewise “As he takes from you, I engraft you new” (Sonnet XV) as the time takes it all away, Feste will make it new again, by song and humor. Feste, the fool, can give all the advice he wishes to and get away with it, whereas other characters would not be given the freedom and flexibility to convey it in such a way. In Twelfth Night Viola realizes how astute Feste is: “This fellow’s wise enough to play the fool” (III.i.61). Her recognition suggests he is not as pure as she thought.

In Twelfth Night Shakespeare threads the strand of purity and fairness in the characters but when push comes to shove they begin to stretch their wings and the true colors of their feathers come out. Viola from the first few lines of the play seems to be a pure innocent lady that is now lost and helpless, but immediately she comes up with a plan to conceal herself as a woman and go to Orsino as a man and ask her hero to keep it a secret “Conceal me what I am, and be my aid for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.” (I.ii.56). In my visual media project I used the photo of the sink facet with clear, pure water pouring forth from it and in the next slide used a photo of a pipe coming out of the earth and flowing from it, dirty, nasty tainted water. This shows that what appeared to be pure at one end was transformed into just the opposite on the other side or end when situations and reasons are added.

Similarly, Olivia mourns the loss of her brother and vows to see no one but ends up quickly falling in love completely going opposite of what the audience was just meant to believe was her will. Olivia reveals: “Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections with an invisible and subtle stealth to creep in at mine eyes. Well, let it be.-“(I.v.302-305). Olivia is thinking that she is falling in love with Cesario and makes up a story that Orsino leaves behind a ring only to use as a pawn to bring Cesario back to her house. She has Malvolio go and bring it back to Cesario: “Run after that same peevish messenger…” (I.v.307). This act misleads Malvolio into thinking she doesn’t think much of Cesario, but the readers know that Olivia is concealing her lust for Cesario. A photo of a fair maiden most likely virtuous and then transitioned into a photo of a sexy Snow White wearing a leather garter was used during my Visual project to help depict this transformation. How quickly Olivia goes from a mourning fair lady to vixen looking for love in all the wrong places.

Aside from Olivia, Malvolio is character that Shakespeare uses as the character you love to hate. Malvolio is full of his own love and thinks himself above everyone and treats everyone with contempt. After the trick is played on him and he is led to believe that Olivia loves him secretly and is forced to be treated as if he is insane Malvolio transforms into a guiltless character and you feel sorry for him. In my visual project again using a photograph I choose a single white rose in its fair form. I chose a rose not only for its purity, and beauty but also because of its thorns. I had the photo transpose into a floral arrangement set upon a coffin to depict the fact that so quickly can a rose in its own beauty along with thorns can then be displayed with other flowers and be used for something so poignant and humbled, Olivia reveals to Malvolio “Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite…Nor no railing in a known discreet man, though the do nothing but reprove.” (I.v.87-88). Shakespeare uses Malvolio as the hated character only to have him turn him inside out and in the end show his humbleness and weakness. Malvolio perceives himself to be a puritan, pure, one to be admired and looked up to above his contemporaries, he is perceived by the reader to be snobbish, obnoxious and haughty. After the deceitful trick played upon him by Maria, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Feste, the reader then feels sorry and gives pity to Malvolio as well as a change of heart and empathy as he falls victim to his own perception and gets a taste of his own medicine.

Shakespeare throughout the Twelfth Night quickly transforms what you think the characters are all about into the opposite by the end of the play. Shakespeare uses what the readers believe would be pure and fair to show that even the purest and fairest has a dark side and it will come out when it presents itself. Human nature tends to want to see the good in everything first and thus Shakespeare uses our natural instincts to the fullest. Feste the fool throughout the play sees the characters both sides and loves to poke fun at them and use his insight against them even when they don’t get it. Olivia’s quick infatuation from her state of mourning and Viola’s fair innocence quickly using a disguise to manipulate as well as Malvolio’s snobby attitude and then into a begging humble person are all examples of Shakespeare’s method into what human nature wants to see, but yet what we really enjoy seeing deep down inside. Using visual photos to portrait these thematic schemes and music using violins and soft and low notes is what I wanted to convey of what our perception of what we believe we see but what is really happening in the background.



Works Cited

Shakespeare, William. "Twelfth Night." Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, n.d.

Shakespeare, William. "XV Sonnet." n.d.

George Carlin speaks for the planet...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5Miv4NHsDo

George Carlins routinue to me said it all. All the essays that I have been reading, all talk about the individual issues and the authors way of solving the problems but in the end it all doesn't matter, the earth will take care of itself.  The human race is at the mercy of the planet, the human race can not beat nature it is all too powerful.  Phelan essay was more or less about how we will kill ourselves off the planet, which inevetiably we will, the method is still the lingering question however. George Carlins idea of the planet creating a virus makes good sense however, he eluded to the AIDS virus but I am thinking that it may be something that is going to be more spreadable then AIDS, more like a super bug of sorts. 

What image did I take from "Just Add Water"

The image that I took from the film "Just Add Water" was an image of tumbleweed.  Tumblewood is a living plant, yet it looks dead.  It exemplifies the town and Ray's life.  The town as well as Ray is not dead but it appears to look that way, but yet it isn't really, it is just camoflaged. The tumbleweed rolls through the town nobody really notices it but it is there, you take it for granted.  Ray's life tumbles in the wind, he doesn't truly ever get his chance to take root and have any control until he steps up and make changes in his life.  The townpeople also never got a chance to take control and grab hold, when they come together they make the change and finally able to make a difference.  Tumbleweed itself has an important role in its enviroment, it acts like barrier and shelter for small animals, like tumblewood the town of Trona is the characters shelter, it protects them from the outside world, the town lives within itself, but as the wind grabs the tumbleweed it released and free, as the townspeople freed themselves when the wind(Ray) steps up to bat and changes take place.

Climate Change an Ethical Dilemma?

John Broome's essay entitled "The Ethics of Climate Change" was long winded essay on what how he believes we should evaluate and apply ecomomics and market values in an attempt to fix the system.  I am not one who completely believes that humans are completely responsible for the climate change, and by that I mean, it is the also the natural course of the planet itself that is also to be held accountable as well.  The earth is billions of years old and throughout that time it has gone through countless changes from the ice age to present time, to having no animals to have dinosaurs only to have them disappear, how this all plays into Broome's logic is lacking to say the least.

I challenge Broome's statement "Many people, some living, others yet to be born, will die from the effects of climate change."  Yes, people die from the heat, but how do you hold the world accountable for that because of greenhouse emissions? How do we not know that would have happened anyway?  "By emiting greenhouse gases, are the rich perpetrating an injustice on the world's poor?"  The question raised by Broome is a real stretch trying to place blame on the rich because they may use the products that emit the greenhouse gases. If the poor suddenly had the products you bet they would use them without a thought the poor still without.   

Broome goes on further and tries to come up with rates and a price tag on greenhouse gases and would have corporations and people held to a financial bill of sorts, involving the ecomonists and the market.  I found that entire section of the essay to be so confusing and completely out there, that I don't know if I can even comment on it.  Since I believe that climate change would be taking place even if we stopped all greenhouse gases emissions how would that all play in the market?, well to me it would be a waste of time since you can't fight and beat nature.

I love to blog....

I am glad that my professor had us create these blogs, firstly because I embrace the technology and love the internet forum but also because it is a user friendly and makes is easy to write whatever it is that you wish to write about. Your readers can then comment and share their thoughts, comments and opinions in a nice way in an easy way.  Blogging to me is sort of like having a conversation with a huge world wide audience.  You can write whatever you want and have people from all areas of your life comment and they can comment on the comments left by others, it is a amazing way to communicate.  I am offically adding to my list of accomplishments that I became a blogger and proud of it. 

Questions, Questions on the movie Just Add Water

1.  What is in the tin box that Ray keeps looking into?
2.  Why does Ray keep the tin box in his car?
3.  How did Nora keep her relationship with Ray's brother a secret for so long?
4. What happened to the town to cause it to go to hell?
5.  Where is Eddie's friends or does he have any?
6.  What will Ray do about Eddie now that he know he is not his son?

Me? A Writer?

What is a writer? Are you a writer? Interesting questions, it will make for an interesting answers! Anyone and everyone is a writer, whether it is a blog, a novel, a Facebook status or a shopping list.  The content is not what makes a writer, there are those of course those who write novels for a living in a professional forum and those who just jot down some words that are linked together mean something to themselves or perhaps just to make a point.  Am I a writer, well I am. Am I a good writer? I don't feel that I am, but I seem to do ok in my writing classes but then again how do you grade someone's thoughts? It is like grading a piece of artwork, I may love it and someone may hate, but is it not still art?  I don't know if I write as much I conversate on paper. I am not someone who can sit and make up a story, I am better at writing my feelings or opinions or comments!  My Facebook status's are probably my best work and has the biggest audience!! LOL

Carbon footprints, dirty feet

Michael Specter essay "Big Foot" was right on target and he used alot of data to back it all up he also had a significant number of ideas on how to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases around the world. Unfortuntely as interesting and insighful as the essay is, charging taxes, creating carbon labels, and reducing the miles in food products are great ideas that I will not see make really any sort of impact in my time. Yes, we have become aware that there is a problem, but no one is willing to scarfice their money to correct it and that is the bottom line.  It is not profiable to reduce green house gases, it not going to make me rich and afford a early retirement in a gated Florida community.  John Elkington's claim "We are in an era of creative destruction" (292)  is a very stark statement.  We are destroying ourselves but not in what you may consider the old fashion way, we have created a interesting set of ways that mask themselves in harmless way. Consider for a moment the fact that we are as a nation trying to eat healthly food but to what expense?  We have the need for apples, but yet must be forced to import them from a foreign country forcing them to arrive her by jet plane which emits carbon into the air which is slowly killing us.  It is a twisted creative way that we are actually adding to the problems but trying to live better.

You wouldn't be human if you didn't realize that we are all blame and should take responsiblity for global warming. Unless you built your house from trees, dug a well for water, grow your own food, build fires for heat and cooking and own not a single piece of electronics can you not feel some responsiblity as a consumer.  Just blogging this reaction I am responsible for global warming, as I use my laptop that is plugged into the electical outlet, I am adding to the problem.  What can I do about it? That is a question that you can answer, but it will make no difference, you won't change your behavior, you almost can't even if you wanted to. It is not possible unless we all do it at the same time and as one world. 

My Writing Center Experience

I utilized the Hofstra Writing Center two times during the course of this school year.  I was very sceptical and if it was not for the extra credit I don't know if I would have went on my own.  I found it to be indimidating to say the least, I went in as a bashful student, afraid that my work would be ripped to shreds.  I will also admit that knowing I would be tutored by students that were the same age as my daughters would be awkward at best.  With all that said, I can happily say that is was a good experience. I think the tutor that I had looked a bit nervous at first, I think she felt that she was tutoring her mom, but after a few minutes we got down to the business at hand.  The first appointment was to help me revise my first essay paper, I had ideas about how to do it and what direction to go in but I needed that support and advice to make the necessary changes. It was sort of a small pep rally for writing.  I was at that point that I felt very disappointed about my writing, not having written for over 25 years at least not formally but by the time I got to my second appointment I was in a better place about my writing.  My second session was harder as I went there to write my second essay about the Twelfth Night and thematic strands, and didn't have any ideas at all. I was really struggling with that essay, the tutor really had her work cut out for her as I could see it on her face that I wasn't getting it.  I felt bad, it wasn't her, it was me. I felt that I put up a wall and was so afraid of the subject matter that I couldn't absorb was the tutor was trying to convey.

I basically got ideas for my second essay and it was the launching platform to get me started, however in my revision for the first essay, we changed the position for some of my sentences. I was encouraged to move some of the ideas around to make the flow better and to create a more even tone throughout the essay.  I also removed a paragraph that we both felt really didn't belong, it went off topic and really didn't have anything to do with the rest of the essay.  I did correct alot of grammatical errors and the tutor helped me to better understand where to place commas and how not to make my sentences to long.

I believe that the writing center is a great resources for anyone who is any English class.  Having said that however you also get out of it, what you put into it. If you go in with a closed mind, like myself, you can not expect miracles.  I also felt that the second time I went, there were more people in the room and it was sort of distracting.  They may benefit by having some dividers to help block the tables without really closing anyone in.  Of course it could have been just me and the younger students may not be distracted by their surroundings like I was.  Overall it was a good experience and I would reccommend it to anyone that may need even just a pep talk about their writing, or any questions they may have.

Reality Tests or just too much thinking?

After reading Joshua Roebke's essay "The Reality Tests" I think I need an asprin or perhaps a very large glass of wine.  I am going to be honest and take the opportunity given to me by my English Professor and not be afraid to write "outside the box".  The essay was the most confusing piece of writing I have ever read. I say this after I reading Shakespeare's Twelfth Night only a couple of weeks ago, which at that time I thought was the roughest writing I had read up until that point, well maybe accept for Einstein's "Theory of Relativity". (no I didn't read that, I could only image and speculate. LOL)  The essay completely went on and on, and the more I went back to re-read what I read the more confusing it got. I am not the sharpest knife in the set, but really I don't think I am that stupid either. I am fustrated too, by the fact that I am an older reader and I feel that maybe I should have some magical insight, but alas it is not the case. I would sum this essay up in these words.  Roebke bascially tells you the story of a bunch of very smart and intelligent scientists who all think they have the answer to why we see things the way we see things. As very smart scientists they cannot possibly agree that maybe we see things the way we see things just because that is what see, plain and simple. They all have this passionate need and complusion to have a explanation for everything and write it down on paper. I noticed as I read that is seems that each set of scientists agrees not to agree, and then agrees partly, but then not all the way. I found it to be almost humorous, although the author of course did not write it to be humorous, but to be very stiff, cut and dry.  I must admit for the first time after reading something, it didn't make me want to think about it, the subject is just to big and overwhelming. It reminds me of the time I tried to understand what infinity looks like or heaven.  I believe that we are not meant to understand everything and everything does not need to be explained, it is, what it is, case closed.  To attempt to answer the question given to us for this blog: Do we create what we observe through the act of our obervations? Hummm it makes me reflect on the old question of: Which came first the chicken or the egg? or How much wood, could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?  Please pardon the immaturity of my observation but seriously, I don't know how to answer that without smiling and laughing.  I am trying to think of how to best explain, but I feel that I may not be understood.  How do we explain something that is so obviously over your head.  The author uses Quantum mechanics throughout this essay, I felt that I needed a PhD just to see where and why this is all tied together. I feel that I am left with a confused state of observation.

One weakness in Roebke's thesis is, what if you can't answer the question?  What if there is no way to prove or disprove his thesis.  It seems that the greatest scientists were unable to figure it out.  I think his theory and theisis will be argued until the cows come home.  I say forget it and move on...let us not have answers to everything and just believe that what you see is, what you see, and tomorrow is another day. 
I realize that some students will have amazing words of wisdom and totally get this essay.  For me, I won't and that is ok too!  People all have their strengths and weakness's and this high level thinking about ideas that are really out there is not my strength, but if I read an essay about small animals I would totally get it...

Greed/Waste - after reading Berry's "Faustian Econmics"

Greed/waste America's insatiable appetite for everything bigger, bigger at any cost, any price and a complete lack of concern for any ramifications that may ensue. If you could make an image after reading Berry's essay it would look like a you and me. Greed does not stand out, it is hidden, masked, it is in the mind, it is more like a disease or addiction not something you truly visualize. Americans overload everything, we cannot simply be happy with what we have, we have to supersize it,maximize it, and optimize everything we use. We cannot have a simple, ecomony fuel efficient car, instead we must own the huge fuel consuming 4x4 SUV esalcade although we don't live near the mountains or need to pull a trailer, it just looks hot and cool. No concern for how much fuel it uses, nor the impact it causes on our current oil resources, why do they need to worry about it, "by the time we run out of oil, I will be dead." That is the philosphy and mind set of the America consumer when making important car buying decsions, it is greed and waste pure and simple. It isn't just about car and automobiles that use fuel, but things American's tend to forget about that make a huge impact, is our greed for wasteful packaging of products. We want our products packaged in plastic, indivdualized and resealable. Americans rather then take the time to purchase storage containers, demand for plastic resealable packaging for a small individual one-time use portion. Water products are a good example of waste.  Manufacturing companies create wasteful packaging not only for consumer demand but for their own greed as well. The greed for companies to get their products seen at any cost, no concern for enviromental impact, or need for more oil in its manufactory process. Greed is seen in all levels and across the boards and in all areas, becomes the waste that will ultimetely be our dimise. It is sad that no one stops to look at the end result of greed and see the impact of our future. The "who cares it ain't my problem" attitude is extremely disturbing and selfish. We are a wasteful greed nation and if you want to see an good example just go to your local supermarket and walk down any aisle to see for yourself the number of products that are duplicated and the numbers of products that are packaged in oversized containers just to catch your attention hopefully. We as a nation need to set a new gameplan for the future and our future generations, we need to look at the BIG picture, make a commitment to using less and wanting less. Leave the big flashy gas gusseling huge SUV's and everyone use ecomomic fuel effiecent cars because they want to make a difference in the future rather than impress their neighbors. Waste and greed, what would the pilgrims think of us if they were here today, they would be disappointed in our choices for sure.

Wendell Berry, "Faustian Economics"

After reading Wendel Berry "Faustian Economics" I felt that I had just been slapped around by the author and pointed a finger at. The author's essay was a very direct, harsh critism of America's handling of greed in relation to global warming and America's incessable lust for everything bigger and better at any cost. The author pointed his finger at American's and gave them a good scolding for wanting more and more of everything and looking at things as limitless, but rather ways to use less and use what we have. The author uses a pact with the devil as his thread throughout his essay and uses the American's as the one who have made this pact. Berry believes that we will get what we asked for and we will not be able to correct the mistakes that we have made in regards to energry comsumption.

Berry uses the following data concerning our coal reserves: "The United States has 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves - enough to last 100 years even at double the current rate of consumption." to explain that it is good for only 100 years even though humans have been around for many thousands of years, he blames American greed for this. The author further uses data stating that in 1970's farmers leveraged secure acreage by buying more, it turned out not to be a good idea.

The author expresses his concerns for American's need for endless amounts of energy without limitations. Berry feels that his concerns will not be met with great euthansium and will upset people. Berry also states that "we have to give up our idea that we the right to be godlike animals, that we are potentially omniscient and omnipotent, ready to discover "the secret of the universe." We should view things as artists and of the arts that "in the art of living we can only start again with what remains". Berry understands the need to consider alternate energy sources, provided they make sense. The author wraps up with the this "Where there is not more, our one choice is to make the most and the best of what we have"' I believe that the author makes good points however really does set a strong tone in his voice.

Derrida: Fear of Writing

I interpret Derrida's fear of writing, as simply him second guessing what he has written and then coming to terms with justification and getting over it. He says that he only has fear when he is going to sleep, and it seems not to bother him while he is writing so I believe that he feels completely comfortable with his work overall.
I experience some anxiety while I am writing, but I have more while I read through it after I am done. I tend to re-write and fix things, but am not confident if I should leave it alone or if I changed it too much. I also want to make sure that I write what I mean to say and not confuse my reader.
My fear is moviated by my lack of confidence, but as I write more and more for my writing class, I am begining to feel better. I am now have a book that can help with my grammar and punctuation which will help me gain some more confidence.
I believe that Derrida is very confident in his writing and does not ever write things that he doesn't mean to write, he gives his writing a power that he feels can be hurtful if not done properly, he also completely understands and enbraces that power, he takes it very seriously.

Collaborative Learning...

After reading Kenneth Bruffee's "Collaborative Learning and the Conversation of Mankind" essay I found myself questioning what I have always fought against, classroom group work. I myself have never enjoyed group work or group projects pressed upon me by my former teachers nor do I look forward to it in my college classes. I have always enjoyed my own quiet thoughts and ideas to complete my assignments rather than listen to others and come to some sort of consensus. I find myself distracted and non focused on the task, I don't feel comfortable arguing the point, it won't change my thoughts on my writing, so why the push to work in groups? I said I found myself questioning my past experiences and thoughts because, I thought that maybe this essay may shed some new light on the topic and show me that there is a huge benefit to collaborative learning, that would not happen.

I found this essay to be to long and thus I lost interest and direction. I believe that it is all much more simplier than what was portrayed. Of course you learn more from having contact and conversation with others, it is just one of the many, many ways humans learn. Whether you talk with someone or read a book on something, watch television, listen or just sit and observe, all of what surrounds us helps to give us knowledge and in turn changes our thoughts and ideas. Imagine putting a baby in a room with no contact with anything in the world other than food and water. No conversation, no written word, no language, no communication, how would the baby learn, well it would only learn to survive but not to live or thrive. Humans are dependent on conversation and contact by nature, according to Bruffee and others that were quoted. I agree with those statements and other similiar ones in the essay, however it should be noted that it isn't the only way and isn't always the best for everyone. I believe that not all people learn the best from conversation, some may retain and learn better from written word or visual contexts. I also believe that it depends on the knowledge that you are seeking, when my professor goes through chapters in class from our text book, I find myself that when I go home and read it myself I better understand the ideas. When I read I tend to go back and forth over information until I understand it rather than if I just listened to him speak and keep going.

Yes, collaborative learning has its place in education, I have seen group work among elementary school students work and times not work. It is worth it to try and see if it does, but it should not be the bulk of the way the teacher teaches her class. I found that during group work, louder more dynmatic personalities prevail and the sometimes the quieter ones sat on the outside without ever having any input into the group. In those cases it would have served the student better had they did there own independent research and utlized there time reading at their own pace than the time spent hearing someone elses opinions and ideas. I also feel that the individual will have more to bring to the table if they do their own research and take the opportunity to study independently. The ideas and arguments that Bruffee conveyed in his essay are good and important but not the only way we learn, however it can be a good tool if used at the right time with the right task.

Language is a slippery vehicle...

Both of the poems "The Problem of Describing Trees" and "Hubris at Zunzal" both make meaning by using metaphors and use objects that a reader can relate to, even though you may not completely understand. I found that both poems used language that made a picture in your mind while you were reading them. Language can be slippery vehicle because even though you may understand the meaning of a word, puting them together can be hard to naviagate. You have to make the reader understand what you want to convey and just because you may have words the order and organization can make the difference in the interputation.

Twelfth Night Performance at Hofstra, a review

I attended the stage performance of Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night with my daughter. I have to honestly admit I may have not gone had it not been for my writing Professor giving us extra credit if we went and blogged about it. Sometimes you just have to give credit where credit is due and I thank Professor Lay for that chance. I completely enjoyed their production as well as my daughter, who had not read this play before that night. The cast did a wonderful job of interpreting Shakespeare's comedy and giving it their own spin. Firstly the play was set in Southern USA shortly after the civil war, the stage was a simple white porch with a curved staircase and balcony and branches hung with moss draped on them for a simple feeling of being in a southern plantation. The actors southern accents added some additional laughs as Shakespeare's old English words were spoken, you waited for a "y'all" to be said but it would never come. True to the original lines and words the actors instead relied on the speech dynamics, as well as facial, and body language to create characters that were more approachable and comfortable. The characters become a "Dukes of Hazard" sitcom and suddenly you didn't realize that they were talking in the Old English language anymore, you suddenly had a translator next to you. The character Feste strumming on his guitar and wearing tattered overalls reminded me of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and Olivia the Southern Belle. The director did an excellent job with balancing the pomp and prim and proper Victorian comedy play into a play for our time.

Working with data from the Shakespeare Concordance Assignment

1. What thematic strands have you located?

Pure…virtuous…fair…guiltless…honest…transparent…tainted…vulgar…dirty



2. Where is the data you retrieved found? What is happening in context when Shakespeare employs this particular theme or image?

Pure found only in Act 5, scene 1 Antonio is speaking to Orsino he is telling Orsino about how much he looks up to him and loves him Antonio says…”Did I expose myself, pure for his love, into danger of this adverse town…” Antonio uses pure to describe that his feelings are not tainted but are true.

Virtuous first found in Act 1, Scene 2 and the Captain describes Olivia as “…a virtuous maid, a daughter of a count…” a flattering description and also found in Act 1, Scene 5 line 260 Olivia is talking to Viola who has come on behalf of Orsino to woo her. She says that “Your lord does know my mind; I cannot love him: Yet I suppose him virtuous, know him noble, of great estate, of fresh and stainless,…” Olivia sees him as good person, of good stature a good man to be acquainted with. And lastly Act 2 Scene 3 Sir Toby Belch says to Malvolio “Out o’ tune, sir: ye lie. Art any more a steward? Dost thou thin, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes ale? Sir Toby is telling Malvolio that he is out of tune he lie and he is only a servant here and that no one can have a good time because he is so stuck up and high and mighty for that kind of behavior?

Fair The captain first uses the fair to describe Olivia in Act 1, Scene 2. Later in the same act and scene Viola says to the Captain that there is “…a fair behavior in thee” and in the same set of lines says “…With this thy fair and outward character...” Viola is truly thinking that the Captain is a honest and trustworthy person so she can trust him with her plan. Act 1 Scene 3, Sir Andrew says “Bless you, fair shrew” and again calling Olivia a “Fair lady…” Act 1 Scene 5 the word fair is used as Maria says to Olivia describing Caesario “I know not, madam: ‘tis a fair young and well attended.” And Viola uses to describe Olivia “But, if you were the devil, you are fair”. Viola is trying to woo Olivia for her master Orsino so that by saying that she would be a fair devil is really funny because Viola actually loves Orsino and doesn’t truly want Olivia to marry him, Viola sort of mocks her with that line. Also in the same scene Viola says to Olivia again while she is leaving and not having won her over for her master “…be placed, in contempt! Farewell, fair cruelty.” Act 2 scene 1, Sebastian describes his long lost sister Viola by saying “…she bore a mind that envy could not but call fair.” Act 2, Scene 4 Orsino describes women “For women are as roses, whose fair flower being once display’d, doth fall that very hour.

Transparent Act 4, Scene 2 The fool digused as Sir Topas says to the imprisoned Malvolio ”Why it hath bay windows transparent as barricades,…” The fool is making fun of him that it isn’t dark at all

Guiltless Act 1, Scene 5 Olivia talking to Malvolio say to him “To be generous, guiltless and of free disposition… Olivia is telling Malvolio that he would be getting bothered by what the fool was saying if he weren’t so full of himself.

Honest Act 4, Scene 2 the fool is talking to Maria about that he is going to pretend and dress up like a priest to fool Malvolio “…but to be said an honest man and a good housekeeper…” meaning that if he is honest and a good host you can have good morals and can be taken seriously.

Tainted Act 3, Scene 4 “…if he come; for, sure, the man is tainted in’s wits.” Maria is talking to Olivia about Malvolio’s behavior and by using tainted to mean that he out of his mind, I find that by using the word tainted funny because is actually Maria who taints Malvolios mind with the letter and fooling him into believing that Olivia loves him.

Vulgar Act 3, Scene 1 Viola speaking with Olivia says “No, not a grize; for ‘tis a vulgar proof, that very oft we pity enemies.” Viola sort of jabs Olivia because Olivia is sort an enemy of hers because she loves Orsino and doesn’t want her to get together with him. Viola saying to Olivia, is it harsh proof that we feel sorry for our enemies.

Dirty Act 2, Scene 4 Orsino is telling Cesario to go and talk to Olivia on his behalf and that it isn’t the land that she inherited or her riches that he wants from her. “…Prizes not quantity of dirty lands;” meaning that her property is dirty because she inherited it.

3. How does the data you retrieved support your first thoughts on Shakespeare’s obsessive use of a particular image? What can you argue about Shakespeare’s figuration?

The data I retrieved does support my first thoughts on Shakespeare’s obsessive use of a particular image because Shakepeare tends to use an image but then in the backround or behind the scenes or theme he really means the opposite he enjoys keeping the reader guessing. My argument about Shakepeare’s use of figuration is that he tends to create the sense of pure and virtue but the characters evolve into the opposite of what you believe by having the characters play on each other and their true colors come out. Shakespeare likes the reader to see the characters in a certain light only to then add the other side into the picture using humor and visual ways.

Twelfth Night Thematic Strand Project

"I am the man." FFW (II.ii.25)

Viola is speaking to herself after her encounter with Malvolio and him returning the ring to him that Orsino had not given Olivia. Viola says "I am the man." meaning that she is the man that Olivia loves not Orsino. Orsino never gave her a ring, she set this all up just for me to come back to her. If this is true which she says it is, it is going to be sad for her since, she is not a he. It will be sad for her. Olivia has no interest in Orsino at all Viola is the man of Olivia's desires!!!!

"...and yet to crush it a little,..." FFW (II.v.143-145)

Malvolio says "...yet to crush it a little, it would bow to me..." he is reading the note that he believes is written by Olivia and he thinks that it is telling him that she loves him. A secret note for him to decipher. As he reads some random alphabet letters he wishes them to mean a code that refers to himself. Malvolio will twist anything into them to make it fit into his puzzle. Malvolio sees what he wants to see even if it doesn't make sense.

"Then Think you right" FFW (III.i.148-9)

Viola says "Then think you right." "I am not what I am." which we know to mean that she is a woman and not a man so she is hinting to Olivia. Olivia's response is interesting "I would you were as I would have you be" because Olivia wants him to be what she wants him to be, she is falling in love with him but she would like him to be what she is dreaming of. Olivia wants a man who is more of nobility not someone who works for someone else. In the next line Viola says that right now he is a big fool. He feels that it would be better to be what Olivia wants him to be rather then what he is. They are both playing off of each other but Viola knows that it can never be what Olivia is dreaming of, Olivia is not aware of the deception before her.

Focused Free Write "Sport Royal"

In Act II scene 3 line 179 Maria calls her scheme to manipulate and embarass Malvolio "Sport Royal..." What I make of this is that Maria is going to use the upperclass, the royal postition to use as a pawn in a sort of sporting game against Mavolio. Maria plans on using Olivia's status to tease and make fool of him but dangling her royal status in front of him as a something he wants to grab and uptain to, and since others are involved and are sort of acting like spectators it has become a game or sport.

Inkshedding on Twelfth Night Act II

"Nay, by my troth, I know not. But I know to be up late is to be up late" Act 2 Scene 3 line 4-5 from the Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, what does Sir Andrew mean by it? As a personal reflection and taking into account the comments of my fellow students in the inkshedding exercise, I feel that we all agree that Sir Andrew does seem to have his own logic and it is not agreeable with Sir Toby Belch's logic or what the doctors say is healthy about getting up early in the morning. To Sir Andrew he believes that staying up late is just that, staying up late, whereas Sir Toby Belch believes that is early morning. Sir Andrew does not care nor does he pay any attention to what the conquences may be, he only wishes to be drink booze and eat food, going to bed late, is simply going to bed late, he knows not of its health benefit.

Metacommentary on Writing Paper 1

For me, writing the small object/large subject essay was a test of my confidence in my writing and I felt slightly nervous. In my previous writing class, we were given different direction and the content was worded differently so I was unsure if I met all the requirements. I find my writing to be a dialoque but in class we learned that it really shouldn't so I hope I that I hit the target. I am working on my inner self as a older freshman re-entering the college campus trying to catch-up on years gone by, whereas I have more experience in life and it does reflect in my writing. I found that the fact that we got to choose what we wanted to write about was comforting for me and also the fact that I got to choose technology, which I have experience and passion within. The subject made it easier to write about, however the details and the flow made me a bit nervous. I also never had to write a cite page before so I had to research how to do it, plus how to insert them into the essay. I feel that I understand what to do, I am just taking baby steps to get there. I am enjoying my new found love for writing and I am hoping that it comes across in my writing.

After reading Act 1 of Twelfth Night...

I can't stop thinking about how the language used by Shakespeare is so confusing. I feel like I should understand it better, but still find myself looking to the notes to help me along with it. The characters themselves and the plot could be a modern soap opera or a reality show in the making. I feel that it has been a rough start and I am hoping that from all the jumping around and difficult language it gets clearer and more interesting. I am also wondering about how the title will fit into the play, what is the going to happen on the Twelfth Night? I am sure that one of the characters may meet with a most certain and untimely death as in most of Shakespeare's writing, I am thinking could it be the fool? Ah the fool, why do we not have fools of our own, walking around with us during the course of a day, making merriment and tom foolery, that would be really funny.

Twelfth Night- Questions

1. How does Orsino come to know of the Lady Olivia?

2. How Viola come to hear about Orsino and Olivia?

3. Why does Olivia choose not to see people for seven years, because of her brother's death?

4. How does Viola fall in love with Orsino so quickly?

5. Why does Olivia have a fool?

6. How does Olivia fall so quickly in love with Viola(Cesario)?

Revise or not revise or maybe over revise?

When I approach the end of my writing piece, I look at it as a rough draft, my thoughts written down the way I was thinking about it at the time. I tend to think faster than the fingers type so I check to make sure that it isn't a typo disaster. I re-read my writing out loud which helps me to hear what the piece sounds like, the pace the tone. While I write I tend to be speaking to someone in the room a conversation of sorts. I then go back and make the writing more colorful, adding flair and fun. I want to make sure it all makes sense and is interesting. I check to make sure that my sentence doesn't run on forever and I take a breath. I also tend to make sure that all the content is included, did the point or thesis make sense, will the professor think it is good. I do tend to over revise, I sometimes need to just walk away and come back to it so that I don't change it so much that it becomes overdone.

It snowed last night and...

It snowed last night and as I looked out the window this morning, I was gleefully excited that it wasn’t enough that we had to shovel. I do love the way the snow makes the ground and objects appear clean, crisp and new, I love to take photos of this wonderful act of nature and all its beauty splendor. Snow makes the world quiet, calm and still, until…you have to work or travel in it! The act and sheer work of cleaning off my car becomes just that, work. Shoveling the sidewalk only to have the snow plows drive by and push back all the snow you just shoveled, becomes a tug of war, ultimately I always win, however at my back’s expense. Driving in it doesn't scare me, I personally can handle it, it is the other drivers who can't. Drivers behind the wheel as if they were in a metor shower, and the the ground is on fire. It isn't that difficult, take easy, pay attention, give your self extra time and space, but don't freak out about it and drive so slow that the car is about to stall or put your flashers on, while on the parkway in the right hand lane as if your tires were flat. If you don't feel comfortable about driving, stay home, but don't make it dangerous for others to manuver around you! Oh yes, but it looks so pretty on the tree tops, did I mention that?

I never enjoyed the snow much as a kid, except for the snow days from school and getting the day off. A bad experience with a sled led me to quickly end my career in the winter Olympics. As I hit the tree, due to lack experience with the steering mechanism, the tears flowing, I looked to my father to carry my sled back up the hill and to the trunk of the car. Ahhh snowball fights were fun, but only when I got to do the throwing and not the receiving. I hated it when you would get hit in the head, the snow crystals falling into you shirt, melting and running down your neck, yuck!! Worst than that was getting hit in the face, I wore glasses and when I would get hit, it would go into the lenses and make a ice wall between my eye and the lens, quite visible to the enemy. I hated when your gloves and mittens got wet and then your fingers would begin to freeze into fingerpops, if you didn’t have dry ones you were a goner for sure. Icicles are pretty, seeing the sun glistening, and a drop of water dripping from the tip is quite fun, but… I hate falling or slipping on ice, scraping ice, not a fan of ice skating (except I have always wanted to skate in Rockfeller Center and in Central Park). Sprinkling rock salt in hopes of ending the nightmarish frozen trap is somewhat like sprinkling salt on a slug, you hear the salt cracking and holes begin to melt through…just as the slug, attempts to squirm and shed the nasty chemical before he succumbs to its fate.

to be continued...

Battling against the nature of nature?

Michelle Nijhuis writes a thought provoking essay titled "To Take Wildness in Hand" to bring about the plight and story of the Torreya taxifolia or better known as Stinking cedar tree, found mostly in Florida, it's future unknown. The author tells the tale of a ancient tree, an ice-age relic possibly "left behind" after the last glacial retreat and very possibly better suited for cooler climates. Why is it's future unknown you may ask? experts are not exactly sure, possibly due to a mysterious disease, animals, drought,or stressful climate or perhaps maybe a combination of everything. Their numbers have been reduced to just a handful of rotting moss covered trunks, in riverside ravines it once had been so plentiful it could have been cut for Christmas trees.

Connie Barlow, a writer and naturalist takes on a personal mission to save the trees and move them north, to a cooler, less diseased climate and "since it couldn't move fast enough alone, she would move it herself". Her journey from when she first visited the Torreya State Park in 1999, taking a look at its hiddened treasure, the Torreya taxifolia up to the present, has been an uphill battle not only for the trees survival, but for other species of plants and animals as well. Discussion arose among scientists about the future of simply moving a species to a different climate for its survival, could it work? A graduate student would eventually coin a term for the idea in 2004 and assisted migration it would come to be known as. As you read about some of the other solutions conservationists have suggested, rather than move the trees north and the reasons why they will or won't work is interesting. The author also gives background information about the secluded area that has been ignored by chainsaws and hidden from time where the tree is slowly disappearing into extinction.

Activists of moving the tree up north are the same ones who believe it will work with other plant and species. Those who believe that it is a bad idea, calling it tinkering recalls one case in point, a case where Kudzu a vine like plant from China was planted by farmers in the 1950's. Suggested by the soil conversation in order to help with the irrigation of the soil down in the south of the US, the plant would eventually take over and was then listed as a pest weed in 1953. When speaking about the suggestion of assisted migration of the tree the manager of the perserves where the tree is barely holding on to it's existence, says "such efforts threaten to take attention and funding away from the work in the preserve and make an already bad situtation even worse".

I believe what the essay informs the reader about is yes, the future of an ancient tree and its road to extinction and those who wish to save it, but it tells of a much bigger and more important story between the lines. The story in my opinion is that the earth is changing, the climate is changing, species are created and species become extinct everyday. The world is not a perfect place, it makes mistakes, it re-invents itself and no matter what we attempt to do as humans, you can make matters worst or just spin in circles and do nothing and let nature take its course. The earth knows what it is doing, it is still evolving, growing, no matter how many scientists, naturalists, conservationist whatever "ists" you get in a room, you will not change what may not be changeable. When you sit and contemiplate the solutions, you come up with more questions, it is the nature of the beast. Perhaps the tiny tree has lived its life here on this planet and it just is its time...perhaps there is another tiny tree somewhere just born and not yet discovered. I say yes, try and help nature along, study it, marvel at it and be in awe, but don't be too disappointed if you can't change it, the zebras can't change his stripes nor the leopard it's spots even if you move them to a different place.

Questions in relation to Halpern's Essay

1. a) Data drawn from Sue Halpern's essay "Virtual Iraq":
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder was officially recognized as a medical condition since 1980 when it entered the American Psychiatric Associations' Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
-Thirty-five active-duty and former members of the military in the spring of 2007 were part of the clinical trials to treat their psychological wounds using Virtual Iraq.
-According to a recent study by the RAND Corp., nearly 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are suffering from PTSD or major depression.
-In 1997 researchers in Atlanta unveiled Virtual Vietnam.
-Ten combat veterans with long-term PTSD participated in a clinical trial of Virtual Iraq that had not responded to multiple interventions.
-JoAnn Difede began using virtual-reality exposure therapy with patients from the hospital's burn unit in the 1990's.
-February 2004 a prototype of Virtual Iraq was built on a laptop by Albert Rizzo and Jarrell Pair.

b) No, I did not access any of the data derived from this essay.


2. Yes, Halpern uses active verbs in her essay "Virtual Iraq" and in the following places:
-"...Boyd paused", pg 116 2nd para.
-"Instead he was haunted...", pg 117 2nd para
-"..."encouraged him to seek out pg 117 4th para
-"When Travis Boyd agreed to..." pg 117 5th para
-"...was over the reasearchers moved on." pg 119 1st para
-"...cruel to immerse a patient..." pg 119 4th para
-"...encountering it in three dimensions..." pg 125 3rd para

3. Yes,Halpern uses figuration in her essay Virtual Iraq and in the following places:
-"rooting out insurgents" pg. 116 1st para.
-"the enemy cut loose at us with everything they had," pg 116, 2nd para.
-"Bullets were exploding like firecrackers all around us" pg 116, 2nd para.
-"we'd have to light them up" pg 117, 1st para.
-"haunted by memories of Iraq" pg 117, 2nd para.
-"ground pounders" pg 118, 1st para.
-"drowning pool of painful memories" pg 119 4th para.
-"extinguishing the cues" pg 119 4th para.

4. Examples of portable wisdom from Sue Halpern's essay "Virtual Iraq" are
-"If you suddenly become afraid of the staircsae becauee you had to walk down twent-five flights of stairs to get out of the World Trade Center, the stairs went from being neutral to being negative," pg 119 4th para
-"I thought we should be on this so we don't have another Vietnam, with all these guys suffering from PTSD". pg 121 last line on bottom
-"The last one hundred years, we've studied psychology in the real world", "In the next hundred, we're going to study it in the virtual world". pg 125 2nd para
-"You never really get rid of PTSD, but you learn to live with it." pg 128 last para

Video Game Therapy?

"Virtual Iraq" the title led me to believe it was an essay on a travel cyber tour website of Iraq. Author Sue Halpern writes a totally different story of Iraq, one that I am grateful for its invention and those it helps. The use of Iraq War Veteran Travis Boyd(not his real name)and his battle with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder grabs your attention and you gain a personal interest immediately in her essay. "Virtual Iraq" is a kind of cognitive-behavioral therapy consisting of a virtual computer-simulated three dimensional environment without using the traditional paper and pencil,sitting and talking. It brings the patient suffering from PTSD front to front with his fears, but in a controlled environment.

Not necessarily a new treatment, as it was used in 1997 20 years after Vietnam with 10 combat veterans with long-term PTSD, who didn't respond to traditional interventions as a clinical trial. It was called virtual Vietnam and all of the veterans showed significant signs of improvement, but it didn't catch on. Albert Rizzo a clinical psychologist had a hunch that if the Iraq war went on, veterans would come home with serious emotional problems. His affiliation with an Institute, designing virtual-reality systems to diagnose attention deficits in children and memory problems with adults led him to find a game called Full Spectrum Warrior. He would then find and call the programmer of Virtual Vietnam and ultimately together created a prototype and set up "Virtual Iraq" as a demo. They applied for money and got rejected, until an article written by Charles Hoge and his colleagues was published as a first assessment of mental-health problems emerging from service in Irag and Afghanistan. Catching the public and military by surprised Rizzo got a call, received the funds needed and the first patients were recruited to try it out.
Travis Boyd, a Iraq War veteran that the author interviews for her essay was a part of the Virtual Iraq clinical trial was hesitant at first, he did not want to talk to therapist's because he feared it would go on his record nor did he want to be considered weak and looked down upon. The feelings were echoed by other veterans and the mere fact that it was like a video game made it more appealing, which I believe is helpful for getting other veterans like Boyd, the help they need. The virtual world has it advantages for sure, the trained therapist can control the environment and add scenarios, effects when the patient is ready and at their pace. What they are doing is structured and systematic, treating the core fear, the avoidance and the anxiety augments the therapeutic process.

The patients work with the therapist in a very collaborative way, they are not overwhelmed. Together they can both set up a time frame to work through therapy, if something becomes to overwhelming the patient can stay in that area for any length of time they feel the need. The smells, sounds and visual effects are something I believe is important to re-visit in order to move past something as well as giving the therapists a bird's eye view of what their patient is actual seeing, hearing, and smelling for an intense insight.

Although this therapy may not work for everyone, the results for Travis Boyd was amazing. Boyd was able to sleep again without medications, was more relaxed, could joke around as well as talk about what happened to him, whereas he struggled desperately with these things before treatment. I feel that if this therapy helps at least half of the patients, it is a successful therapy tool that could one day be used with other mental disorders as an alternative for those who do not respond to traditional treatments.While I read this essay, I could not stop thinking about the movie "Tron" and how that movie sort of started this virtual world idea, did the producers ever think that it would help Travis Boyd and his battle with PTSD? In his words Travis says "You never really get rid of PTSD, but you learn to live with it". It is good to know that there is this amazing technology driven tool that helps him with that, he deserves to be happy and we are indebted to him for his sacrifice.

High-Tech Trash by Chris Carroll

After reading the essay High-Tech Trash by Chris Carroll from National Geographic, I thought about all the tech devices that I have discarded in my lifetime and thought to myself, could one of the millions of old monitors, cell phones, CPU's the author saw on muddy track in Ghana be one of mine? I am guilty of adding to the High-Tech Trash the author writes about and saw with his own eyes. I really never thought much about where all the old tech stuff goes after it's short life in the consumers hands. I can remember one day at my old job when a company donated their old monitors to the school. We went through the building and replaced so many of the really old monitors with the newer ones we received. The old monitors were to be picked up and discarded, there must have been over 25 at least. I really didn't give much thought to how they would be recycled, I wished I would have asked. I hope that they went to the Creative Recycling Systems company mentioned in the essay that recycles High-Tech trash safely here in America but I fear that they could have ended up in Carroll's trash in Ghana.

The author writes that we ship off most of our tech trash in America overseas to save money as it is too costly to recycle here. The buck is most certainly passed out of here, but at what cost to the environment, to the thousands of people that have been exposed to very serious toxins, to our "Go Green" pride? Why is that we need to save a dollar on something so serious? I am surprised that the government hasn't imposed a "Tech" tax where you have to pay an extra tax for the purchase of a high tech gadget or even have the manufacturers pay a tax to off set the extra money it would cost to safety dispose of the products and stop shipping them off. We have to pay a fee for the recycling of rubber tires why not a tech fee?
Why did we not see this coming? Why is Microsoft, Google, IBM, all the tech companies who make trillions of dollars on the backbone of the High-Tech trash not coming up with solutions. Why do we not create more of the recycling companies Carroll writes about in his essay and give Americans jobs and at the same time safety dispose of the trash? I feel that I have so many more questions than answers.

Carroll's essay is eye opening and informative, I am unsure of how many people have read this, but I would like to see it on the front page of the newspaper and have our current Presidential Administration take a hard stand on this problem. Perhaps dumping a days worth of "High-Tech Trash" on the floor of the Capital would make a point. I see it only getting worse by the second, as technology advances at lightening speed. Just recently in the news, the iPad was launched and after reading the reviews, they very well may end up in the trash before we know it and tomorrow yet again another high-tech device will be launched and so on and so on...I will end this post by saying...I have to go and take out the trash!

Small object, large subject- The laptop tops the world!

If we are what we consume, then what claim does the availability and widespread popularity of the laptop computer make about contemporary American society? Ah, the laptop computer as my choice from the list of products for this assignment was a no brainer for me as it is one of my favorite pieces of technology, next to my iPod.
As a Baby Boomer I can speak to this question and topic from a unique insight. The "laptop" as society has nicknamed the computer, has brought information, communication,and generations together into a neat & tidy package and placed in all into our "laps".

I saw laptops at their newborn stage and watched them grow into what I consider to be young adults at this point in time as they still have some growing to do. In their early years, the laptop would only be used in big business and by what we might consider "geeks" or the really wealthy. Even though it was a personal computer,the laptop was not accessibly to the the average Joe, but the average Joe did know of their existence and was intrigued by the possibilities. Over time they crept into education, small business, as the companies looked at the consumers they could target the product changed to fit that need. The heavy, bulky, laptop with no battery, no flip screen, and high price tag was transformed into a thin, sleek, lightweight, extremely portable, battery driven tool and would become a true personal computer and sort of a second brain in the human body. Laptops can be now found in the average Joe's home and then taking it with him to his school and business!

The laptop allows it's user to sit on their couch, ride a train, bus, or airplane, drink coffee at a cybercafe, all the while traveling the world in a blink of eye, googling a topic of interest, re-connecting with family members across the globe, continue or even start their secondary education via online college, listen to music, watch a movie, create a blog, upload photos and even pay their bills in just one tap on a touchpad. The laptop has consumed the American consumers way of life, just as the introduction of Television has. I believe almost every house in America must have some sort of a TV. Laptops are everywhere, and like TV, cross generational.

I come from a 3 generation laptop user family. I helped my dad purchase one, and I giggled when he went out and bought a wireless mouse to use as the touchpad was tough for him to learn to use! LOL We use them all differently but yet, we do come together for communication on a regular basis. I find it funny when my daughter is in her room,myself plopped on the couch, but yet I am compelled to instant message her to ask her a question, rather than get up and walk 2 feet into the room, a extreme sign that we have become reliant on "instant" everything! Children have them at a younger and younger age, even targeted at the toddler age! I am guilty of purchasing one for my granddaughter who is only two years old, of course it not connected to the internet, but yet a self-contained bundle of picture cards,keys, and sounds and she knows exactly how to use it.

The laptop is the tool by which we do it all instantly, quickly, efficiently, but yet at what price? In my first blog I wrote about this instant information and what it is doing to society as far as our reading habits or the lack thereof. Yes, it most certainly has changed American society in a big way, yes the PC tower type computer began the change, but the laptop is pushing it forward and upward, the tower PC will become a thing of the past and everyone will have a laptop completely personalized to their personality. On the HP website you will find the following advertisement: "Mobilize Productivity. Get performance that never lets you down, no matter where you are" This is a how I feel what encompasses a true laptop, it is the tool that increases what you do and does it no matter where you are. It is one tool that will be in every American home sitting right next to TV remote and then brought outside into the world and used on the go, bringing some of our home with us along the way.

Abstract Following Toulmin's Model: On Carr's Essay

In Nicholas Carr's essay titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" the author writes "what the Net seems to be doing is chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation." Carr is making his claim that he is feeling the loss of what he had by using the Internet for most of his reading rather than his past ways. The author is disturbed by the impact of the information superhighway on himself, and found that there were others that were feeling the same way.

Carr's uses the example in which the supercomputer HAL in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey memory circuits are coldly disconnected, HAL begins pleading "Dave, my mind is going," and forlornly says "I can feel it, I can feel it". Carr then writes, he is "not thinking the way I used to think" he can feel it too. "The Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind". He feels that utilizing the net so much, he is losing his understanding of what he reads and his level of absorbing it all has diminished.

"I'm not the only one." in addition to "...literary types, most saying they're having similar experiences seem to back up his theory that this phenomena is actually taking place in society, it is not just him. Types of experiences stated in Carr's essay include, "the more they use the Web, the more they have to fight to stay focused on long pieces of writing." Bruce Friedman, a blogger "described how the Internet has altered his mental habits." and further states that he now has "...almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print". Futhermore "They found that people using the sites exhibited "a form of skimming activity," hopping from one source to another and rarely retuning to any source they'd already visited" as part of a five-year research program. Skimming, hopping, from source to source seems to diminish what we are actually absorbing. Maryanne Wolf a developmental psychologist explains "We can expect as well that the circuits woven by our use of the Net will be different from those woven by our reading of books and other printed works." Carr writes " If we lost those quiet spaces or fill them up with "content," we will sacrifice something important, not only in ourselves, but in our culture" furthermore writing "That's the essence of Kubrick's dark prophecy: as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence." Playwright Richard Foreman's states "I see within us all (myself included) the replacement of complex inner density with a new kind of self-evolving under the pressure of information overload and the technology of the "instantly available." The instantly available is the what the author is most concerned about, perhaps need to search and be a detective while reading, makes us remember and retain more of what we are actually reading.

In Carr's essay he makes good arguments for his title but, I feel that it isn't just google, but all of the instant reading and shortcuts we do in our society from a ton of different sources. Examples being text messages, news feeds along the bottom of our TVs, electronic billboards, twitter, even blogs! Is it really making us stupid or really just so overwhelmed to the point where our minds need more RAM or a faster processor? Since there isn't chance of that happening, perhaps we should find the time to pick up a good book once in awhile, so we don't get to stooopid.

Is Google Making Us Stupid? A Response

I find that for my first blog, this to be a most timely subject matter as I started the first of the classes towards my degree in Information Technology at the same time I started this class. I love that technology will be used for an entirely different class and it was so unexpected. My assignment is to respond to the essay titled "Is Google Making Us Stupid" written by Nicholas Carr. The author writes that he is not alone in his thinking that all of the information we receive via technology is actually "reprograming us" and "The Net's intellectual ethic remains obscure". There is no research really being conducted on the impact of the internet and how it affects cognitive thinking.

I will find it interesting to see how this essay is viewed by the other students in my class as I know that I am the oldest by far, my views and opinion has been 45 years in the making, so I feel that I am truly prepared to blog on this with a sort of interesting insight. I remember seeing the first computer while I was in 3rd grade. It was a huge thing and all we did was make pictures with it, that all looked like LiteBrite artwork. Everything was what I would call "boxy", you couldn't make circles. When I graduated high school we were not even on the internet yet. It was also around the time that I was introduced "dittos" as we called them, today they are called photocopies and done in less than a second. Usually the teacher would hand the dittos out just after they ran them off, the purple ink would still be damp so you could press your finger down on the paper and get a word tatoo! Of course the letters were ususally created from a typewriter only later in high school from a word processor and then only one type of font! I remember the first calculator, fax machine(with the rolled shiny paper), push button telephone, answering machine, word processors and then into computers etc. I bring my past technology memories into this to help explain where I am coming from. I believe that I am from the generation that saw the technology born and watched it mature into what it is now. You would think that I was around since the stone age, but no, I am 45 and a baby boomer. Most of the people who will read this and respond will be classmates and were born into the technology of today, they will be from a different perspective then of mine for sure. I used encyclopedias, and newspapers, had to take hand written notes,complete written book reports along with artwork done by hand, never printed. It wasn't until late in high school when they had highlighters and white-out yes, you would hate it when you would have to rewrite it all over again! When I did research, it was work for sure, you would really have to dig in and buckle down. I would go to the library if I didn't have enough information in the World Book Enclopedia set my parents bought. Sometimes still not find the right book there or low and behold, someone took the book out before me, argh the work. You may say that it sounds like I am complaining about it, but that would not be correct, I am thankful for it. I can still remember some of the book reports that I created in years of schooling. One that comes to mind is one that I did on Oceanography, I can remember having to create a menu for a seafood resturant and the funny menu items I created but yet true to life. If you ask my 2 daughters ages 22 and almost 20 about any of their reports I doubt they would remember any of them in the short time they have been out of elementary school. I learned and retained the information and have carried it into my adulthood. I have a favorite saying that I created and it is perfect for this topic, I call this society that we live in now, "a cut-n-paste society". People will just cut and paste information and plug it into whatever it is that they are doing at the time, no thought behind it, probably not even checking to see if it all spelled correctly. How can anyone remember and retain informtion if you are not taking it all in and working with it in your mind and hands, it must somestimes be tangible. Yes, you can argue that there are times that you don't need to retain information for life as for examples past baseball scores, movie stars and the movies they were in, I am guilty of settling many an argument by running to the laptop typing in my question and asking Jeeves, but what I am talking about is really geared towards other types of situtations where you need to learn and grasp the material that you are reading about. We are suffering from "information overload" as quoted by Playwright Richard Foremen in a recent essay and therefore losing complex thinking. It is all at our fingertips instantly rather than taking the time to read, and research, which I believe helps us retain the subject matter by the steps we take to get the information. We need to think for ourselves, rather then have it all done for us, which is how one learns to be self sufficient and be your own thinker. When surfing the web you do just that, surf. You ride the top of wave and then into the center, but you never really get into all of it and you are going to fast. Hyperlinking to the middle of an article rather then reading through the entire article, you could miss really important information that you didn't even realize you needed.

While reading this you may believe that I am not a fan of all the technology available to us while googling, not the case at all, I have a passion for it and embrace it whole heartily. I owned a computer that had floppy discs and a green screen and thought it was just the cats meow, I own an iPod, a digital camera, a laptop and a cell phone. I just believe that you have take it for what it is worth and use it to the total potential. For example try and google information and find out if the book is available in your local library or try and not focus on the ads along the sides while you are looking up a subject. Don't click all the hyperlinks and get off topic. Stay on a page and look around, scroll to the bottom, you never know what you will find. Print out pages and re-read, rather than save a copy on your computer. Take hand written notes rather than cut and paste the information, write down the website for future reference. The world wide web is just mind boggling, but don't let it boggle you stupid, boggle you smart. LOL