blog!

I have really liked doing the blog this semester! I think that it is a lot more fun than having to write a journal. I also like it because you can see what other people have to say about the things we have to blog about which I think is interesting just to see what other people think about things. I also think that it is easier than having to turn in a journal.

11/30/10 class

I did not think that the workshop stuff that we did today helped me very much, the group that I was in for the literary narrative was not much help, and I also think that reading them out loud is difficult to do because it is hard to remember certain things that I thought might have needed to be fixed on the other persons paper, but if I would write them down then I would have missed some other stuff because I would be thinking about what I was writing down not what they were saying. I also thought that when we passed the papers around in the happy rectangle that it was the same as what we have done before, and I did not really get much feedback on my paper, but on the persons paper that I read I tried to give a lot of feedback because I do not think that it is helpful when some one just puts a few little comments on my paper.

thanksgiving

I love thanksgiving! my family on thanksgiving is normally just my mom, dad, and my younger sisters, my extended family never comes down to Omaha for thanksgiving because it is to far of a drive, but oh well we have a great time just the five of us. I really like thanksgiving because it is a great day to just hang out with my family. My mom and I always make everything in the morning while we watch the Macy's parade and then after we make all of the food my sisters and i help my dad put the christmas lights up on the house and then we usually eat late in the afternoon. Then after we eat we go down to downtown Omaha where they have this huge lighting ceremony where they light up an outdoor mall. They put up thousands of strings of lights each year and it is such a cool thing to see. Usually the day after thanksgiving we put our chrisrmas tree up. It is such a fun time to spend time together and be thankful for all of the things that my family has been blessed with over the years.

literary analysis outline

I am working on my paper right now and I am finding that this outline is really helping me. I tried to make the outline as detailed as I could and I really think that it is helping me, because I have everything that i need to write my paper I just need to add a little bit of stuff. I did not have two of my points written on the outline and I wanted to try and write it and I found it was much harder so I decided that I need to fill in the outline and I will be able to finish the paper a lot easier. Usually I have a hard time keeping my papers organized but I think that the outline has helped me to keep this paper much more organized.

revised thesis

While I was looking for articles I found this very interesting article about how women without children can become very ill so I have decided to write paper about this.
Thesis: The narrator in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wall-Paper" shows many signs of how women in the early 1900's were affected when their husbands would not allow them to bear a child.

thesis

In the early 1900's men looked at women as more of a possession than a human. Men did not care how they treated women all men were worried about was there job, they told women to stay home and did not allow them to do anything else, this is shown in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story, "The Yellow Wall-Paper".

reading critically

Reading these stories critically was really difficult for me.... I never see many of the symbols, I can understand them once they are explained to me or someone says something about them but I can never find them on my own. I spent a lot of time on the stories and trying to pick them apart and look for things that I didn't see before but I still only noticed a few things that were new to me. I think that reading critically did help me though to notice little details that I did not notice before. Reading critically also brought up many questions that I was not able to find the answers to.

symbolism

A White Heron
-milk- they use the milk from their own cow, it does not go through all of the processing, so therefore the milk is very pure, it is showing how pure of a life they are living
-mans gun- shows that men think that they have all of the power
-man- shows temptation because the man tells her that he will pay her to show him where the heron is, if she tells him where the bird is she will get money to help them out a lot
-color white- shows peace because the girl and her grandma are very peaceful and have a very peaceful life
clean house- shows that women are the ones that have to clean, and that they keep their house very clean
-tree- she climbs the trees and just keeps climbing higher and higher into the tree which is showing how she is never done with anything that she does
Yellow Wall-Paper
-man being a physician- shows that men have the jobs that are higher paying
-the woman staying home- women were the ones that often stayed home to take care of the house
-color yellow- considered an optimistic color, "people loose their tempers more often in yellow rooms", it also symbolizes sickness
                                 "Color Psychology". Pearson Education. Infoplease. 2006. Web. 3 Nov 2010.
                                              <www.infoplease.com>.
-illness- shows that men tell women that they need to just take it easy and to not worry about things so that they can work and have the best jobs
-lady living in the wallpaper- explains how women can go insane without a career
-I think that the whole story explains how women struggle in a male dominated society

roll of women

I have known that women have always had some unique rolls many years ago and I read some very interesting information about the rolls of women in the early 1900's. "Throughout most of history women generally have had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men"(McDonald 1).  Women have been seen as a source of evil and temptation (McDonald 1). Women were only supposed to be a mother and a wife, these were the only professions they were really allowed to have (McDonald 1). Now women are supposed to do these and also have a career on top of that, women have gained many more rights now, they are not only allowed to clean and cook but can vote and work and many other things (McDonald 1).

McDonald, Bridget. "Early Attitudes Toward Women." Women's International Center. 2010. Web. 31 October 2010. <http://www.wic.org>.

readings

I really liked reading the owl creek piece, the whole time I just thought that it was so cool and then I got to that last paragraph and realized that the whole piece was just his thoughts. I was kinda mad when I read that he died, I had honestly thought that he survived. I really liked how the writer of the piece made the story seem like he really did escape. The story made sense though, I can understand how his mind was going crazy like that, he was about to be hung I totally understand how he was kinda going "crazy". I did not really like the most dangerous game, I remember reading it in high school and it almost was frightening to me, I still can not figure out why he would want to kill humans..... it really did not make sense. I liked how both of the pieces left me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next.

The Ones Who Walk Away from the Omelas

I thought that this story was very sad, I thought that when all of the busy people walking around walked right past the boy that was playing the wooden flute and did not notice him that that was really sad. But it is just like today when we are all so busy that we can not slow down and enjoy life and notice things that are not a huge deal. I also thought that the part about the boy or girl in the basement of a building was very sad too, that they all knew that the child was down there but they did not care, some people would look at the child and just keep on going. I think that some of them may think that if they do something about the child that the city may be ruined or that it might be changed in a was that they do not want it to.

rbaa

The process of writing this paper is taking me forever...and the research part has been kinda difficult, there is so much information about childhood obesity I cannot find what I am looking for specifically. It has be somewhat stressful and I have spent a lot of time looking for what I need and it is getting kinda annoying. I think that writing the quotes down on the note cards has really been helpful to me and it makes me feel like I am very organized while writing this paper. I can not wait to be all the way done with it though!

class

at the beginning of the year I was really overwhelmed by the class, I thought that we had a ton of homework and it was hard for me to get it all done with all of the homework I have in my other classes. Now that we have been getting a little bit less homework I feel a lot more relaxed when it comes to this class. I like the classes where we are in the rectangle and all talk, I feel like it is a lot more laid back I guess you could say and it is not so much like you are in the spot light when you talk. I feel that I am getting a little bit better at writing but I am still not a very good writer, writing is still very hard for me.

topic

I think that I have narrowed my topic down to childhood obesity. I think that obesity is almost taking over children. There are so many kids that are in elementary school that are obese and if they are not obese they are extremely obese. One of my cousins is 11 and he has weighed more that I do for the past 3 years and I am 18, this scares me because I want everyone to live a healthy life, I also want everyone to live as long as they can. I think that part of the problem is that schools are feeding their students food that is so unhealthy and the students really do not have many other options of food. I think that schools need to try and serve food that is healthier to students and make sure that they are serving the food in portions that are healthy.

research ideas

I did not think of very many things in class today but I wrote down a few. Things that I wrote down that make me mad are how easy it is for people to get jobs if they have connections to some one that works there or something along those lines, another thing that really irritates me is when people make fun of other people or bully other people. I really can not stand when people are rude to other people just because they can.... it makes me really upset to see people being bullied or made fun of. The thing that irritates me the most is when people stand right outside the door of a building smoking. I can not stand smoke and it really irritates me, I do not want to smell like smoke and I do not want to have to smell smoke either.

group presentations

I really liked the group presentations today. I had a lot of fun putting mine together but I feel like I did a lot of the work which was totally fine with me but I felt bad for the other girls in my group. I feel like I learned a lot about different types of revising and I feel like they were explained really well which will better help me understand the styles and maybe I will be able to use them. I liked how the groups gave us handouts to help sum up what the revision type is.

9/28/10

I thought class today was fun! I really liked having a different teacher I think it is fun to see how different teachers teach. I also really liked the peer reviewing that we did today I liked the paper we had to fill out better I feel like it was kinda more helpful but why I am not sure, and I feel like I am becoming more comfortable with the peer reviewing thing which I really like!

thesis

I know that recently many school districts have been cutting back the funds toward each school, I know that in the school district that i have been in since kindergarten they have but back the funds. To me this does not make sense cause the schools have only gotten bigger, so to me this would mean that the schools should be getting more money. I know that many of the departments in the high school specifically have not been able to get all of the equipment that they need to properly educate the students. I have not yet written my thesis because i usually write my thesis when i am done with my paper. I know that my paper is going to be about the schools getting less funds but i have not yet narrowed it down all of the way.

100 people who are screwing up ameica

I did not like this excerpt... I thought that a lot of the stuff that was said was almost ridiculous. It was so opinionated that it made it almost hard to read. I did not agree with so much of the stuff that was written, although there was stuff that I did agree with though like the section about the My Lai Massacre, I do agree that it was ridiculous that so many innocent women and children were murdered just like in 9/11, it is the same thing all of those people that lost there lives were totally innocent people. I also liked the part about how ridiculous some of the tv shows that we watch are just so ridiculous, I liked how he said "first I need to find an open sewer pipe and wallow in the sludge" he said this when he was talking about how ridiculous the tv shows were. Those few things were really the only statements that I agreed with the rest of it to me was almost ridiculous.

peer review

I really liked peer reviewing in class today, I thought that it really helped with making my paper be the best it can be. I was able to get help on how to organize my paper and how I can make my thesis be better. My group was great and we all helped each other a lot and we were honest and told each other what we thought. I liked being able to help other people and just give them an idea or two to maybe help improve their paper.

if I die tomorrow

If today were my last day I would know that god has a purpose in everything he does and i know that there would be a reason for me leaving. I know that i have made an impact on peoples lives and that is all I care, I want to live my life knowing that I have changed someones life in any way and i feel like I have done that. I know that I have not completed that one thing i my life that I need to do for my life complete and now I do not even know what that thing is I know that there will be a day that that thing will come though. I know that if today was my last day the world would keep on spinning but my family and friends lives would be changed, I may seem shy when first meeting any one but once I know you I can be totally crazy I have a wild side to me that only the people who know me best see. I speak what is on my heart and I am always ready to help give advice about anything and everything to those that I love the most.

guys and girls

I love this song!! I think that it has an interesting view about girls and boys and how different we are. I think that in class we did a good job of creating a list of the different characteristics but I think that both lists can definitely go for both guys and girls. Girls are not the only emotional ones and guys are not the only athletic ones. I have done sports my whole life and I am a very competitive person. I have never really thought about being a guy but I think that it would be so different that I do not think that I would like it.

university of life

I think that this article is very interesting. i like to learn about people and about their life and how they grew up and to me it is interesting to learn about the time period that they grew up and to see how different things were then from what they are now.

"Me Talk Pretty"

I do not understand the point of this expert. . . . is it trying to explain how hard it can be to go to college as an adult? or how confusing it is to be in a country that you have very little understanding of the language? or how if you give something time you will eventually get the hang of it? or to prepare you for some of the crazy professors that you may possibly have? I can not figure it out

bio

I am Nicole! I am from Omaha NE and I have lived there my whole life and I love it! in high school I was involved in band, track and golf all four years and loved it all! I had busy days and that is just what I like. Here at the U. I was in band but I quit on Monday because I did not like it! so now I am ready for all my classes! I have two younger sisters that are both my best friends and I love them to death and I will miss them a lot! I love to ran and I ran every day of the summer and most of my time was spent outside or out of town. My family loves to travel but I have yet to be any where out of the states. I am very excited to start this new chapter in my life and meet tons of new people!