Bravisimo!

Wow. I can't believe that this semester is already coming to a close. It's crazy how quickly time flies by when your not physically keeping track of it. I guess this blog could be considered a little bittersweet. Another school semester has finally come and gone and I am definitely happy to see this one come to an end because honestly, for some reason I had a horrible case of the procrastination bug. I don't think there was one assignment I didn't procrastinate on which was sort of stupid and gave me an unnecessary load of stress. I will however miss this class. It's crazy when a class comes to an end and you realize that you will never take it again and you will probably never see or hear from your classmates again. Being an online class, we never really met eye-to-eye, well most of us, but we have learned to respect each other and to build on each others knowledge. I found myself learning more and more from all of you through our blogs and our reading discussions and even our group projects. I always considered myself to be pretty open-minded, but then again I have always being extremely stubborn. When we were asked to give our opinion on controversial topics, at first my main state of mind was, well my opinion is the obvious right one because its common sense. When I started reading all of your comments and opinions on our discussion forums I was amazed to see how much I was overlooking! I had never spent time to actually think through my conclusions and I had never had that healthy debate about what was right. This is one reason why I have to say thank you to my fellow classmates because you guys taught me that there is always another side to the story and never jump to conclusions until you have weighed all the details and read all the writing in the fine lines.

Finally I need to thank our wonderful teacher Professer Gross because she has the patience to have an online class like this. It takes a skilled teacher to figure out ways for her pupils to do group projects without being face to face with each other. The way she used her creativity to put together all these different assignments for us made it easy for us to complete them and from what she writes in her announcements, it appears we have all benefitted from these interesting assignments and are all doing fairly well. I will take what I have learned from this class and apply it to the future. And with that, I hope you all find what you are looking for and I hope you all lead successful and happy lives. Remember: Every mistake is a lesson learned, and live life with spontanaeity and open arms so you can leave without regrets. Ciao.

Procrastination DOES NOT Equal Relaxation

For our blog this week, we were asked to write about what we have learned not only from our research paper topic, but also what we have learned through the process of writing it. The biggest lesson learned for me would definitely be DON'T PROCRASTINATE. I waited till 2 days before the paper to actually start writing it which was not a very smart idea. I was a lot more stressed out than I should have been and I did not get very much sleep. Also, if I had written it ahead of time I would have had time to look at it and revise it before the peer draft reviews so that I could have submitted my best work. Instead I just submitted the first very rough draft, which may not have been the smartest idea. I was in such a rush that I did not even write an outline which I usually HAVE to do in order to keep my thoughts organized. Once I was done with my introduction and I had no idea where to go or what to say I had to put the paper aside and write an outline. I just could not do it freestyle. I also am happy to say that the research paper helped me learn how to use ebsohost. I had never used it for any other project, but when I realized that the majority of my classmates were using it for the research project, I figured there MUST be something special about it and it must be useful somehow because of all the hullaballoo I was hearing about it. I found out I could have definitely saved myself a trip to the library I had just resorted to ebscohost before.

On another note, my topic was about how the Islamic law which was being used as a foundation for the Iranian law, appeared to be very anti-feministic and dangerous to women. I never knew how hard women had it in Iran. I never felt so privileged and lucky to be American and to have the freedom to be my own person. The part of my project that truly made me the most upset to write was when I started listing out laws that definitely portray not-so-subtle hints of anti-feminism. They had harsher punishments for women than males such as if they were sentenced to get stoned, men would only have to sit in the pit up to their waist, but for women it was up to their neck. If they were caught fornicating they got whipped and if they were caught wearing the wrong kind of attire they were whipped. There was one part in the actual Iranian constitution that stated that a woman's life is valued only HALF as much as a man's. I was outraged when I wrote this portion so the people that had to review my paper probably saw how strongly I felt about this portion of my paper. Although these laws are bad enough, the last one that I learned about is the absolute worst. If a woman is murdered by a man, the victims family has to pay money to the murderers family for any injuries procured on the man by the victim. Then, and only then, will the murderer or abuser be taken into jail. It is crazy learning that there are countries that have these brutal rules and subject women to so much physical abuse. Thank God I'm an American.

"Paper Paper Go Away, Come Again Another Day"

So I have a little problem. It is called the research paper and its supposed to be about a topic that we were supposed to pick and relate to Iran. I also have another little problem I sort of contracted that procrastination disease that seems to come from time to time where you say your going to work on it and then you don't over and over and over again. It seems to infect most college students and high school students because for some reason we seem a little more susceptible to it than the average person. Okay Okay I admit it I have not gotten very far on my paper at all. I am working on it more today so it will still be done earlier than the due date, but I know that I should have done more on it sooner. This morning I was dreading the fact that I still have so much to do on the paper and wishing I had been one of the smarter people that had finished the draft a while back.

I want to do my paper on women's rights in Iran because I think that it will be the easiest topic for me to relate to. At first I started writing my paper on the prompt that we were given that compared The Great Gatsby with Reading Lolita in Tehran, but then I realized that I could not find my Rlit book because it had gotten lost in the confusion when I had moved two weeks ago. I didn't notice that it was gone until I needed to find a quote and did not have the book there to look at so I was back to square one. One thing that I am not looking forward to is writing the works cited because like I've said before a number of times, MLA format is not one of my expertise. I am actually not very good at it at all even if I use the citation machine generator. The things that I type into the boxes to create the citation end up being wrong. I think I just need to practice a little more because practice makes perfect.

So far my biggest problem in writing the paper besides procrastination was creating the outline. I did something called brainstorming and wrote down everything I could possible thing of on a scratch piece of paper and just went from there. I had a hard time deciding what I was going to put where and I was and am still scared that I am not going to reach the five page minimum. I tend to write more in an essay than what is required, but I still worry about it because I don't want to sound redundant. As I sit here and sip my coffee at this very moment I am looking for even more sources to add to the paper to avoid that situation.

I think once I get started on the paper again and into the full swing than everything will come out smoothly. I think that I just have a little bit of worry wart in me, but I guess you could say it's in my genetics. Good luck to everyone on your papers! I hope we all do a great job and reach that page requirement.

Reality Check

So the blog for this week is going to be about one of the somewhat modern marvels of our generation. Something called "e-mail". It's this new way of talking accept you don't talk. You communicate through typing on the internet and you don't have to look at the person you talk to, you don't even have to know the person. You don't have to use complete sentences and you don't have to carry on conversations. If it sounds like I am against e-mailing than I can't lie, I can't lie. I think that e-mailing, even though I am a huge fan of it, is ruining the way people communicate entirely.

We no longer have to actually talk to our teachers, we can just send an e-mail and get a prompt response if we have any questions or concerns. We can get to know people and make friends from e-mailing on websites like MySpace or Facebook. Even huge purchases like buying cars or renting houses can be done entirely through e-mail. Moral of the story is, e-mailing makes life easier. BUT Do we really need life to be any easier? Whatever happened to student teacher relationships? What happened to having to make your own friends in person? Or take a look at the dating sites where people meet their soul mates through e-mailing. Whatever happened to finding that someone on your own and face to face? Because e-mailing and the computer has always been around in my life sometimes I want to know what it would be like without all these advancements in technology.

I really had a reality check a few months ago. I was watching a classic television show that I'm sure we have all watched at one time, Sesame Street, with one of the children I teach. I was very startled to see that Elmo was teaching the children how to e-mail. Last time I checked Sesame Street did a great job at teaching children their numbers, the alphabet, and how to read and it was geared more for children in lower elementary grades and under. The fact that they are introducing the children to e-mailing this young is disturbing to me and the fact that they are wasting time on this kind of stuff instead of focusing on what they have always been good at also bothers me. I think that e-mailing is definitely going to change the future generations. I think that since e-mailing has started to replace certain types of communication, it will progressively get worst. I think eventually, hopefully a loooooong time from now, e-mailing and texting will replace speaking entirely and the spoken language will cease to exist.

Patience Pays

The blog this week is supposed to be about how much I feel I've grown from this class in my writing skills from all the reading assigned and discussions that we have participated in. Before this class, I would have considered myself an extroverted kind of person that always had a strong opinion to share and was very stubborn about my ways. I find that through these discussions that we have all helped in creating my strong opinions are swayed and I am becoming more open to different thoughts. I think that the team work has also helped me through my writing. By reading the blogs and perspectives of my fellow classmates it has helped me to be a little more organized in my own writing. I think that being able to have that visual of how they organize theirs, I am able to establish a form for my own writing instead of being all over the place.
Also, my writing, although it still consists of simple informal words, I have learned to use them in a more intellectual and understandable way. By reading books like "Animal Farm" it showed me that even though they used a lot of colloquialism in the book, they were still able to make it a significant piece of literature. It helped me to understand that I am not limited just because my vocabulary is not full to the rim. I can still write well with what I already know, and keep my mind open to that which I have yet to learn. I also learned new vocabulary and different ways to express myself through "Reading Lolita in Tehran". I loved the way she was able to express herself and the beautiful metaphors she used such as comparing her own little world she created to "Wonderland". I try to use more metaphorical phrases since I have read that book because the way she is able to use that rhetorical device brings the book to life and makes it more personable to the reader and much easier to truly understand.
Although I had a tough time in our group projects because sometimes I felt bad that I could not constantly be on blackboard, we were able to compromise our parts through teamwork. It helped me realize that I can work with a team and be part of something bigger. It allowed me to see that my point of view has an impact on others thoughts as well as theirs on mine. So far this class has obviously taught me a lot and made its footprints on my writing skills, but i know I have a long way to go. My abilities to write are still growing and it will take me a long time till it is in full bloom, but with a little patience I know I will be able to reach my full potential.

Dictator Nutritionist? I Think Not.

I found this comic when I was online researching for my Nutrition class. I could not help but feel angry when I saw this. For one, I don't see how it is funny I guess maybe I have a different perspective on humor, and secondly, The artist is trying to use the image of a government nutritionist in form of a dictator to provoke the people of America.

I do not think the government nutritionist is someone that should be the target of humor. I understand that given the recent circumstances it might seem that way, but the nutritionists are just trying to do their job and make America a healthier place. I heard on the radio just yesterday, that they are going to cut back on salt in different foods at the market to hopefully cut back on the sodium intake in America's diet. One of the radio hosts made a valid point that I agree with. It does not matter if we take the salt out of the food because the reason we have salt at home is to make our foods as salty as we like it. Even though I agree with this I still think it is worth a try, maybe we can figure out another way, with less expense, to make it taste as good as we like it. Even if it doesn't, hey you never know, maybe it will be better for the economy because we won't have to pay for the extra salt in the food.

The purpose of stating the above is to point out that nutritionist are doing their best to make America healthier. They are not trying to be something they are not ( like a dictator lol), they are just trying to do their job just as we are. I went to Canada in January to see my sister get her master's and I was in for a huge culture shock. It was crazy to see that everyone around me was in the best shape and the only overweight people around were tourists from other countries. The reason for their healthiness was because having a car was really inconvenient in Vancouver, and having to walk all over instead of drive benefited their health. They cooked a lot at home also instead of going to fast food restaurants. It could have just been the farmer's market with a great selection of produce that motivated them to do so, but I think that we need to take some advice from the Canadians.

It took this to really help me see what is happening to America. When I came back I faced the fact and completely understood that we are an overweight country. Sometimes people can't help it, but most of us can we just choose not to and honestly, I hate to admit it, but we are lazy. So let's not bash on someone that is trying to extend our lifetimes and get us to the peak of our health. The only way we can be healthy is if we take things step by step. Instead of taking out our frustration with our poor health on innocent government nutritionist, why don't we take that first step, get out of our cars and walk to places close enough, and start making more home cooked meals.

Fat Chance or Fair Chance?

So this week's blog subject is a little different and requires a different sort of introduction. The prompt is to write about how I would feel if a leader of a known hate group were invited to speak at my school. That is kind of a strange thought to me. My first thought that came to my mind was fat chance! That's the last thing I want to do! Then I thought I have always frowned against hate groups and gangs of all types, but then again if I were to stop this man from voicing his thoughts I would be forcing him to give up his freedom of speech and I am a huge believer in freedom of speech..most of the time.

I think it would be interesting to hear the viewpoints of a person with that kind of social status. I have never been subjected to anything related to that because I was raised in fairly safe family neighborhoods and I was always forced to endure the uniformity (including those awful uniforms) and strict teachings that private schools have to offer lucky students. I've been told more than once, actually more than I can count that I was raised in a very sheltered and protected atmosphere. When I think about it even though these men belong to hate groups and live very different lives they are still people and are worth giving a chance..unless they've committed some unforgivable inhumane act. It might have been something that happened in there lives that left them in such an emotional wreck that motivated them to join a hate group in the first place.

What is freedom of speech exactly? It's the ability and privilege to say what you want when you want. When you were younger whenever you were caught doing something wrong that broke the house rules what happened? Most people are grounded meaning that their privileges are taken away like watching tv, going out, or using the phone. When you were in high school and texted people out of control how did your parents feel about that? They probably punished you by taking away texting..that is if you did not have unlimited texting in the first place ;). The point of my ranting is to prove that when a privilege is abused it is taken away. We may have freedom of speech, but censorship is what is helping us keep it. If this leader were to speak at school I think I would welcome him as I would any other speaker because he deserves that chance to say what he has to say, as long as he doesn't abuse that privilege. Idon't think of the freedoms we are given as freedom I think of them as privileges because America's special in that way. We are offered these wonderful things that other countries have not even considered making legal.

Also, I find it wrong to make assumptions. It is actually one of my biggest pet peeves. To assume is to prove yourself naive and to know is to prove yourself wise. okay okay so I made that up, but sounds like something I could find in a fortune cookie and it sounded good to me. If I was to assume that this leader were automatically a horrible person with no family and no friends and not even give him a chance I might be missing out on an opportunity that I might never have the chance to get back. I hate it when people make assumptions about me so why do it to this person? I know what your thinking, this guy basically builds his hate group off of assumptions of a specific group of people. Have you ever heard of the saying two wrongs don't make a right? I'm sure you have because that one I didn't make up. I'm sure everyone's been told that once or twice by their loving grandmothers. I think maybe we need to heed their words a little more often. I would give him a chance and let him speak his mind because this country is all about giving people the fair chance.