What I have learned in the class

Over the first half of this writing class I have learned a great deal about myself and my abilities as a writer. I am more confident in my work as a writer and some of the pressure of writing has been removed. I am more confident in what I am talking about and less insecure about my work. I feel like I can just let my writing speak for myself and not worry about it being judged. I am also less critical of myself and feel less urgency to get my work accomplished perfectly.
I used to be very afraid of writing something then having someone else read it. But with the pear revisions in class and the letters to each other has taught me that people like my ideas and that makes me less embarrassed to let other people read them. This also gives me confidence to be more creative without worrying about someone else judging it. I am usually a very shy person and like to keep things to myself because I am worried people will make fun of me but in this class it has made me a little less shy and a little more willing to let others read my work in and outside of class.
The letters that we wrote to each other in our small groups helped tremendously with revising and rewriting my paper. It also gave me a confidence boast when they liked my paper and what I chose to write about. They found it unique and comical and that helped with my assurance in my writing skills. Their pointer’s helps with tweaking my paper correctly without taking out good stuff but the miscellaneous stuff. They helped me take out things that didn’t fit and that were extraneous to the subject I chose to write about.

Advice for students next year

As many people know, there are many classes in college and school in general that are often forced to be taken against the persons will to fill their graduation requirements. And the writing class at Denver is no different. Although it is vital to growing in intelligence and preparing us for our future careers, it is so time consuming and boring to the average student. Waking up and heading to writing class for the next two hours is not fun to the average eighteen or nineteen year old. But at the end of the quarter its one of those things you’re glad you did. It’s a lot of hard work so don’t expect to get an automatic A in the class but you will learn something. You will get to learn about ethos, pathos and logos and understand how to do all kinds of paper writings. It’s pretty cool.
Some advice I would give to students next year is to just have an open mind and go into the class putting in a lot of effort. Try to do the best work you can on all of your writings and try to really do the best you can in the class. If you put in a lot of effort and try hard enough you will take a lot out of the course and learn things to help you for the rest of your life. You don’t want to go on through college and not have mastered how to write a rhetorical analysis. It’s best to get all this extra practice down so it comes as second nature in the future and can apply the techniques you learn to other class for future writing assignments. So even thought the class is tedious and unexciting, it is very necessary and you might even enjoy the class.

Flyer for life

As a change of pace for my blog I decided to write about something very dear to my heart, the Philadelphia Flyers. For as long as I can remember I have always loved this hockey team. Even though I myself have never lived in the state of Pennsylvania or anywhere near it I feel like I am a Philly native by blood and heart. My dad is a sports nut and he is from the Philadelphia area. He has spent much of my childhood making sure I carried on his team’s memories and their legacies. He has retold his stories of growing up watching the Eagles, Flyers, Seventy-Sixers and Phillies. In 2004, when the Eagles went to their first Super Bowl ever my dad immediately bought tickets and I and he went to the game. But of his favorite teams none of them had my heart more than the Flyers. Since I grew up in south Florida I never had a chance to see them play unless they came to play the Panthers. But when they did come to town my dad made sure that we would be the first ones at the games. I vividly remember being 7 years old and watching “the legion of doom” warm up before the game and my eyes just light up.
And today is no different. The players may change but my feelings never will. I feel this special bond with the team where I feel like I am on the team. When they win, I win. When they lose I lose. Last season was one of the worst years of my life. Not because of graduating and leaving California for a school 800 miles away from my family and friends soon, but because the Flyers were going through their worst season in Franchise history. Every game they lost was like a stab in the heart for me. But I would still watch. Almost every game that season, I watched because they are my team. One of the greatest things I look forward to in life is to watch my son grow up and watch the Flyers like I do. I could see no greater joy than to pass on my love of hockey and this team to my children. So that when they see them play for the first time they can light up like I did.

"The Rich"

Where I come from there isn't much diversity between wealth classes. Southern California has 3 of the top 5 richest counties in the United States and Orange County, where I'm from, has the most millionaires in the country. There are 2 extremes though. There are the super elite in the hills and the immigrants in the trailer parks and slums. Most of these people cross the border illegally and have no residency in the United States yet they are still employed. They are hard working people that don't think of the American dream as working 40 hours a week and having everything you want. To them, they are living the American dream with their 60 hour work weeks and less than minimum wage jobs. They have no hopes of climbing the later of a corporation and becoming millionaires or running their own store. The only dreams they have are for their children. Their children do not grow up knowing the slums of Mexico like their parents where everyone is poor. They grow up in an almost worse environment Where not only are they poor in money but are constantly reminded of their lack of money as they cut the grass of a multimillion dollar house or while the women clean the inside of these homes they can never afford everyday. I think they grow up with this resentment towards the rich white Americans. And that’s how all these gangs start in these areas because they feel like it is them against us and have a need to unite or they will never succeed. For them college isn’t a possibility. Most Hispanics barely pass high school because they have to work to help support their family or get involved in other more illegal things. And that’s life for them but over the generations there is an increase in success. With the increase of population on Latinos in southern orange county they are now the majority and don’t feel as threatened.

Romney Defender

When I was last in writing class we talked about a woman defending Mitt Romney and his religion as a Mormon. She was quick to defend Romney and Mormonism because she is also a Mormon. Based on this I can’t take her seriously as a nonbiased person in her argument. She gives a brief explanation as to why she thinks Mormonism is a Christian religion and then goes further to saw Romney is like Jesus. This is one thing a Christian knows is that Jesus is perfect so to compare a politician, no matter what message he brings, to Jesus is a mortal sin. But even if I did not know anything about Jesus, Christian religions or Mormonism, I would still be skeptical because she doesn’t give much reason for me to believe her.
Just because she considers her religion to be one thing does not mean that they should be associated as such. If I say that Denver is a European city that doesn’t make it such and even if I say I’m from Denver and that the mayor of Denver reminds me of the mayor of London doesn’t make it true. Mormons are already known for their “out their” ideas and beliefs and I think that is the only thing hurting Romney at this point in the election. That is the reason people are making a big deal out of him being Mormon. Not because they are trying to attack his good beliefs but because of his bad beliefs that are questionable.

Barack Obama

Barack Obama Speech
Barack Obama is looking to make history in the upcoming presidential primary by becoming the first African-American who is on one of the two major parties presidential ticket. He is the first African-American with a legitimate chance of winning his parties ticket and the presidency in general. He is qualified, charismatic, intelligent, personable, strong minded and most importantly of all he is willing to take on the pressure and responsibility of being not only the leader of the free world but the added pressure of being the first African-American President of the United States.
Obama’s speech starts off with the roar of thousands of people piled into a very large arena all eager to see the man that looks to fix the flaws of the country and change it for the better. He smiles and seems so happy to be where he is and see all the warm welcomes he is receiving. He starts his speech off with a little humor and ice breakers. He is very confident up on the stage. He stands poised and firm the way you would imagine a leader would look. He quickly and swiftly transitions his connection to the crowd from flattery and humor to courage as a leader and promises of change if elected into the White House. He promises better health care and benefits for the middle class and elderly. He insures that if elected he will pull out of Iraq and fix the failing economy.
As great as Obama’s promises sound, how much can he guarantee and how much can we expect from him? Politicians don’t have the best reputation of telling the truth and he is basically saying everything we want to hear. There is not anything he says that is borderline bad or could be seen as negative. Honestly, who wouldn’t want to see a stronger economy, a better healthcare system, better education ratings and an end to the war in Iraq? These things sound great in theory but it will be interesting to see how he intends to accomplish these things.
Another thing I noticed while at the speech was that he was very charming up on stage. He was very charismatic and made everyone feel like he was addressing their specific needs. He was serious when he talked about something important and laid back when he was trying to gain the crowds trust. He reminded me of a Bill Clinton type person. Very personable and charming with people and in crowds he commands attention and respect at the podium. I went there with my own impression of Obama as someone who goes with the flow and is very reserved in what he says but this speech blew me away. I had no idea he was so confident when he spoke or that he was that fascinating when he spoke.
I was very impressed with Obama and proposal on how he would change the country. I am a registered republican and I would not mind seeing this man in the White House. I would be honored for him to be the first African-American President. He is everything a president should be; strong, open to change, good specking ability and a good person. I hope he wins the ticket and runs against a republican for the United States Presidency. That would be the final step for the long journey Africans-Americans have taken in attaining equality in this world and I think Barack Obama would serve that role well.

Silencing science won't prevent global warming

This story seemed outrageous to me. The article in The Post talks about how the superintendent of a High School in southeast Montana stopped the speech of a man who was a large advocate and teacher of global warming. The superintendent felt that the speaker was going to get the community that was mostly farming business angry that he was allow to talk to the students about this issue. The superintendent was being pressured by the school board not to let him speak and he did something. Unfortunately it was a move out of ignorance and fear about nothing and it called much more attention and controversy to the situation then that he was trying to avoid. The speaker wasn’t even going to talk about global warming in his speech. He said he was going to talk about the positivity of science and the benefits of the scientific field.
I think this is a ridiculous story and that theories are nothing to fear. The superintendent was just worried that because global warming is making it harder for farmers and farming is one of the major causes of global warming so he thought it would get people upset. He thought someone in the community allowed to speak out against what the community thrives on to survive would cause uproar and angry at the school in the community. But as the writer pointed out in his article, there would probably be no outrage from the public, in fact many farmers are in support of wind energy and other techniques to become more economic and be more environmentally friendly. So by doing this, the superintendent only made them look like they are reject the possibility of global warming and ignorant. People like the superintendent and the school board of Montana only look in the short term and won’t allow change to occur in their community. This is not the message that should be sent to the youth. They should not be so close minded and afraid of a speech. People like him need to learn to be more willing to change and be more open minded.

"Meet Joe Blog" response

In response to Lev Grossman's "Meet Joe Blog" and its message that the internet can be used by anyone is a far assessment in that anyway can say whatever they want on a blog and use the internet to have their voice heard. But the average person trying to get their blog read by someone across the county isn't realistic. They might have a better chance of sticking their head out the window and yelling to them. The internet is just too big for people to pick up everyday chatter from people that are not on respectable websites. There are cases however that someone could stumble upon your topic and have interest in what you’re talking about but again these days the internet is down on for its wide verity of opinions and the negativity they have. For the most part people like to complain about something rather than speak highly of what they are arguing about. For example MySpace is one of the largest forums for teenagers complaining about their lives and how they have it so hard. It's these types of blogs that make the ability to blog seem not as important with the amount of people that complain. But it's still their right to do so so they can. But this example doesn’t make blogs useless, it just decreases their value as more and more people use this just as a medium to complain and hope someone will read this and agree with them. But for the people who actually enjoying talking about how this sports team is doing on a road trip or someone on the presidential campaign blogging about how the campaign is going there is still value to blogging. People will read them to see what these people have to say to either agree with them or to argue with them. And I guess that’s democracy.

"Life an't the movies"

When Allison writes about once talking to her mother about how she should be a movie star she says her mother responded saying “Life an’t the movies.” I think when Allison tells her mom, the waitress, that she should have been a Hollywood star that in a way she was being ironic or maybe even a little sarcastic because the stereotype of waitresses are that they are all aspiring actresses, almost like she is asking her mother why she is a waitress and not even trying to be a movie star. I had to think about this part after I read it because I was trying to get a deeper understanding of what this could mean. And her mother’s response was simple but it was also very tragic because it showed how her mother gave up on any kind of dreams and how she say the happy endings in the movies as something that can’t be attained in life. By saying this she is sending a message to her young daughter life isn’t happy and doesn’t go the way you want it to, that you are what you and there is no changing it. It is also ironic that her mother said life isn’t like the movies but Allison wrote a novel about her own life that could very well be a movie. Also Allison didn’t get down on herself like some might have but she became somebody important.

This story makes me a lot more humble and thankful for my background and for the resources I have. Unlike Allison I never was discouraged growing up about what I could be or told that life is as good as it seems. I’m proud of who I am and who I am being raised to be.