Pure Gangsta Stylins On Why I Write The Way I Write Thursday, Dec 6 2007

Once again I am faced with another dilemma. This class, for the third time today, has forced me to restate why I really find little benefit in completing assignments like this one. I am fucking tired of writing about this particular topic but I will reiterate all I have said already for the benefit of blog readers worldwide.

I have never had trouble with writing, which is not to say that my writing is perfect by any means. I think it started when I learned how to read. Rather than using Hooked on Phonics or some other program designed to encourage me to read, I just did it. The same can be said of my writing. I just wrote one day and I never really thought about it. On one hand, this is great because I find no problems in writing nowadays but on the other, I suffer when it comes to introspective assignments like this one. I really don’t know what makes me the writer I am. Obviously, I can pick my writing out of a group because I am familiar with my own style so I can tell you what tendencies I have when writing. For example, my writing is often disgustingly florid and often filled with unnecessary remarks that often lead to my downfall because I over-exaggerate.

I can tell you that I really am not that attached to what I am writing either. For example, if my teacher tells me that something I am saying really doesn’t work or that I really am not clear  enough, I just go ahead and change it until I get it right. Usually the problem doesn’t occur again. You’d think that I’d be thinking about whatever changes I make to my writing but the truth is that I just do it.  That’s how I’ve always been as well. I just do writing and that’s all.

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Israel and Palestine: Friends? Tuesday, Dec 4 2007

The situation in the Middle East is incredibly complex and deeply rooted in both Islamic and Jewish tradition and faith. People feel very strongly about the situation on a whole and it seems to me that the more I hear about it, the less I hear about the middle-of-the-road stances that will most likely provide the longest lasting solution to this problem.

It is nice to read (http://www.reflexivity.us/blog/archives/2007/11/go-ahead-and-se.html) that there are places in the world where a middle ground is being taken. Even in the supposed heart of the conflict, two opposing sides are coming together to discuss an end solution. I think people are ultimately tired of war. The idea of war is something that no one truly enjoys thinking about especially when the process that leads to the end solution involves the killing of another human being. We are all the same on the most base level possible and despite our ideological differences, everyone can come together and meet on some common ground. It is the realization of this simple fact that prevents conflicts from occurring in the first place.

From a personal standpoint, I don’t really agree with the Israeli cause a whole lot. I think that they have basically taken over a land which was Muslim dominated for a very long time and used historical precedence arguments which were weak at best. Israel as a country is much stronger than that of Palestine yet Israel acts as though it has something to prove in the utter destruction and removal of the Palestinian state. On the flip side, I do not agree with the Palestinian cause either. The land in question has ties to Islam, Judaism and Christianity yet the Muslims wish to have sole control over it all. This simply cannot occur and holding onto this idea will only further the destruction of the Palestinian state. I do not think that either party in this situation is correct. I think that ultimately, some sort of one state solution is going to be the answer to the problem. At any rate, a solution has to be found and implemented very soon because this conflict is ruining two societies that both have amazing things to show to the world. Nothing good can come of this battle for territory.

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Because The Wall Didn’t Work, We Have To Write This… Great. Tuesday, Nov 13 2007

So apparently the movie didn’t particularly work at all because of a “system failure”. Anyways, Shakuntala decided that we should analyze the actual song and the accompanying  music video from the amazing YouTube.

What does that particular song mean to me? This: It means that the world is shit and that no one is special. This is evidenced by the fact that the monotonous droning of the children’s chorus cries, “All in all, you’re just another brick in the wall.” Additionally, the song speaks strongly to the destruction of the supposed “wall” which holds back the general populace. To put the idea into a more relevant context, Shakuntala in this particular classroom is the wall while the students in the classroom are those being held back (this is not to say that Shakuntala is repressive, it’s just her position in this particular metaphor).

Frankly, I don’t know why Steph would encourage us to watch this particular movie yet again. I don’t see a correlation between this movie and the papers we have just written and the paper we are going to rewrite in just a brief period of time.  Again, this is not to say that there isn’t one because Steph always has something up her sleeve. Incredibly, there will be some sort of relevance to this particular assignment once Steph comes back and reveals it to me.

As a side note: Shakuntala is really good at making up bullshit because she is standing up at the front of the classroom and really going at it. It’s almost as if she completely planned for this breakdown even though she did not. Her particular lesson right now really has no relevance but she’s sure making a amazing attempt at it.  She’s now talking about how the Web has become the new place for conformity. Everyone is attempting to write their posts and get out because this assignment has somewhat fallen part and Shakuntala is running of the words that people are randomly (and sleepily) throwing out to keep her somewhat satisfied. She’s now talking about how the body (the human body) has become a place of repression and she’s becoming very impassioned about it. From a political sense, if I could cover  and bullshit like she effortlessly can, I would be dictator of the world by the end of next week.

Ok back to the quasi-assignment. Upon precursory glance, “Another Brick In The Wall” is a lot more indicative of the 1960′s than it is of the modern day and age. But upon a second glance, I’ve come across the fact that it is a lot more relevant to today. There is a significant amount more repression today than there was back in the 1960′s where everything was either free or carefree.  However, this song is sung from the perspectives of the 1960′s so while the ideas behind the song are very much applicable to today, the song itself is not.

Now, I’m done. Awesome.

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Once Again, I am Reduced to Thievery Thursday, Nov 1 2007

This end of the assignment is sort of redundant and a little harder because the juniors all seemed to have something positive to say about the Wiki and the idea of the blog despite their obvious dislike. So right now, I’m attempting to pick the least agreeable of all of the highly agreeable posts. As I said, it’s a little redundant.

I suppose that if I have to pick (I’m absolutely forced to pick) I pick the ideas behind the posting of Aligirl22. While she states the blog and the Wiki are good resources for commentary and whatnot, she feels that writing on anything personal on the internet is a little scary. I disagree for a number of reasons. Firstly, I really don’t care if people find out about me on the internet. If they are that interested in my life, then they can keep reading. My personal views, while somewhat different from the 10 million or so other liberally-minded college students around the country, are really not radical enough to merit any special attention. Additionally, the likelihood of someone stumbling across my blog on the internet is about as low as being struck by lightning.

I would also like to disagree with the thoughts behind Shorty763. Keep in mind that in reality, I agree with Shorty763 on several accounts so this is sort of nit picking. She/he/it/whatever describes blogging as an important tool for use in the future. I would have to disagree. Blogging, while nice, is really not critical for anything. I have survived well into my late teens without ever blogging anything and while some people find it to be highly relevant, I simply do not see the blogging as a tool of dire importance and consequence. 

Balderdash1 is also someone I would like to disagree with because he/she/it/whatever again references the fact that blogging on the internet is a little scary much like the ideas of Aligirl22. I will not delve into my ideas regarding his or her ideas yet again.

While I agree with El R6 on several accounts, I disagree completely on the fact that blogging and Wiki’ing teach valuable life skills. Neither are critical to any function of life, and I believe that the age of the Wiki is coming to a close. While the format of the Wiki is progressive, it is clunky regardless of what it is used for and it will be replaced by something much more intuitive. 

Aligirl22. “FEED BACK.” Weblog posting. Aligirl22’s Weblog: Just another WordPress.com Weblog. 25 Oct 2007. 1 Nov 2007. http://aligirl22.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/feed-back/

Balderdash1. “Responding to the Response on my Response.” Weblog posting. Balderdash1’s Weblog. 18 Oct 2007. 1 Nov 2007. http://balderdash1.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/responding-to-the-response-on-my-response/ 

El R6. “Skillz.” Weblog posting. El R6. 25 Oct 2007. 1 Nov 2007. http://elr6.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/skillz/

Shorty763. “I love the smell of critiquing in the morning.” Weblog posting. Shorty763’s Weblog: Just another WordPress.com Weblog. 25 Oct 2007. 1 Nov 2007. http://shorty763.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/i-love-the-smell-of-critiquing-in-the-morning/

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Taking Other People’s Ideas and Making Them Seem Like My Own Tuesday, Oct 30 2007

Personally, I felt the most mentally aligned with the ideas of Likeboldcolors. I’m going to refer to Likeboldcolors as LBC from now on because his/her full username is a pain to type out over and over again. I felt the most affinity for LBC’s ideas because LBC recognized the importance of the Wiki but also realizes that learning about writing “could be achieved with or without the internet wiki aspect of class.” (“Let’s Hear that Feedback!”) I also agree with LBC because he/she/it/whatever knows that the “publicity of the wiki does give our writing another layer of consequence.” (“Let’s Hear that Feedback!” ) I believe it is very important that our writing be as visible as possible because while writing of any sort is deeply personal and highly self-aware, it becomes much more interesting when other people read what has been written.

Additionally, the ideas of El R6 resonated with me. El R6 points out that “one of the most exciting aspects is that it better resembles “real life” (post-college), from what I can tell.” (“Skillz”). The internet as a whole adds a whole new level of accountability that is unheard of in a non-digital format.

Similarly, Aisforastronaut speaks of how feedback is especially important in this class. Aisforastronaut believes that more often than not, people are afraid to write their true feelings on paper because they have their name attached to their work. With the relative anonymity of the weblog, this no longer becomes a problem and feedback is thusly given with little care for personal embarrassment (“Feedback for Freshman”).

                Finally,  Keithjagger points out what I think the Wiki has the greatest potential for and is evidenced by this very assignment. Keithjagger states that the Wiki is an amazing place for collaboration of all sorts between all sorts of people (“The Wonderful World of Wiki”). Without the use of the internet and the Wiki, this collaboration would simply not be possible.

 

My thoughts and sentences were all stolen from:

 

Aisforastronaut. “Feedback for Freshman”.

Weblog posting. Aisforastronaut’s Weblog: Just another WordPress.com weblog. 24 Oct 2007.

30 Oct 2007. http://aisforastronaut.wordpress.com/2007/10/24/feedback-for-freshman

 

El R6. “Skillz”.

Weblog posting. El R6. 25 Oct 2007.

30 Oct 2007 http://elr6.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/skillz/

 

Keithjagger.  “The Wonderful World of Wiki”.

Weblog posting. Keithjagger’s Weblog: Just another WordPress.com weblog.  25 Oct 2007.

30 Oct 2007. http://keithjagger.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/the-wonderful-world-of-wiki/

 

Likeboldcolors. “Let’s Hear that Feedback!”

Weblog posting. Likeboldcolors’s Weblog: We learn as we go. 25 Oct 2007.

30 Oct 2007. http://likeboldcolors.wordpress.com/2007/10/25/can-you-hear-that-feedback

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My Day in a Sentence, Plus a Whole Bunch of Other Sentences About My Sentence Thursday, Oct 25 2007

My day has been uneventful thus far. Apparently, this morning held an entirely odd and somewhat scary event in one of the academic buildings on campus as there was a bomb scare. Some whack job decided to call in a bomb threat. Campus police dealt with the threat accordingly and the responsiveness of the police makes me feel a whole lot safer. By the by, this all happened ridiculously early in the morning so I completely missed out on the early morning emails and learned about this event after the fact as I WAS SLEEPING! Unrelated side note: The Sox killed last night. It was awesome.

On to the sentence thought

My sentence should convey the slow paced day I’ve had. It hasn’t really been all that boring, it just hasn’t been a happening kind of day. I really don’t and can’t think of anything worth specfically mentioning in this sentence. My life hasn’t been all that out of the ordinary for a college student (at least today) and that’s about it. I did however finish writing my paper for English today and I am rather pleased with the process of writing it so maybe I’ll mention something about that in my sentence. I think my sentence should also be somewhat catchy. I don’t really understand people who write non-catchy sentences because they are boring to read. Especially in the format of the one sentence thought-summation dealie, I don’t see how you can’t have a catchy sentence because if you don’t, people will just forget about whatever it is that you initially wrote.

Ahh whatever. This is my sentence:

Moments of placidity are frequently punctuated by moments of…. more placidity.

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Getcha art on. Tuesday, Oct 16 2007

Jeanette Winterson had some trouble with art. What struck me the most about her trouble was the fact that she feels that she lacks the vocabulary and linguistic prowess to fully convey the full impact that art has on her. This seems to be an apparent contradiction because it is quite obvious, as evidenced by her writing, that she possesses a fine mastery of language. It seems as though she underestimates her own potential as a writer and that she neglects her own mental capacity.

She does relate that she also lacked the base knowledge about art that she feels is so critical in speaking of and writing of her personal experiences with art. In this regard, she did have to gain a degree of knowledge in order to portray her situation to the fullest extent, but that is to be expected with any novel idea.

Her work was stimulating to me because it was a personal experience in her life that she chooses to relate forevermore in the form of immortal text. Her willingness to elaborate upon an apparent lack of capability or her apparent shortcoming is definitely something that is very brave of her.  On top of that, her idea that she lacks the full ability to maintain some sort of dialogue regarding art is a feeling that I personally am familiar with to an extent. I have never felt myself at a loss for words regarding an art piece and I have always had the ability to discuss an art piece, but at times I have felt my words were not polished enough or that my ideas were not refined enough for art.

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Feedback To The Power of 15 Tuesday, Oct 2 2007

Her almighty teachness Steph feedbackified my essay and basically tore it up. She’s an incredibly thorough grammarian and she ripped my paper (which I thought was at least somewhat sound) into incredibly tiny pieces, pointing out my mistakes and and methods for improvement. I am grateful that she did that because it is important for me to become as much of a grammar nazi as I can be but some of the comments that she made I really did not agree with. I understand that I am the writer of my own paper, and thusly, I am a little bit biased towards my own writing. I also understand that some ideas that I put forth are a little hazy and some ideas can exist in a more clarified state in a future draft of my paper.

She made reference to the fact that I had a free form style going on that seemed to be almost free flowing and sort of almost train of thought. I didn’t really intentionally write in that manner, but I really do believe that I would write the paper again in the same free form style if given the chance. I sort of wrote the paper in the order that I received the information in the interview and I included myself in the paper a lot more than most people did. I described the interview with my interviewee as more of a personal journey that I recounted than a straight up narrative solely about my interviewee. I suppose it would follow that my writing style style follows this chronological style.

However, I also wrote a lot of the things that I did for a reason. Some of the sentences that she calls choppy or awkward are choppy or awkward but they are what they are because I wrote them in this manner. Some of my metaphors are intentionally vague or kind of more difficult to comprehend.

Again I say however. However, I do agree with most of what she feedbackificated and it mostly makes sense. I agree with about 93% of what she said.

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Public Implications Tuesday, Oct 2 2007

I’m sitting and thinking right now and to be honest, I’ve come across a rather profound topic. I was asked to blog about the public implications of asking two of my classmates and myself to be used as examples in class. Well here goes.

Obviously, it sucks if your paper isn’t very good and then you get called out on it. It’s not very pleasant to be made an example of when your example isn’t good to begin with. Conversely, if your paper is particularly good, it could be very intimidating to whomever is listening in to the presentation of your particular paper. Personally, I had no problem with having my paper used for anything in class because I stand by my writing 175% but I know some might.

Within the context of the class, it opens the papers to criticism and critique. If these papers had been reviewed in a much more public setting (which in essence they were because the comments and the papers are all posted on the Internet) the papers would be open to complete and total public response.

Overall, I’m appreciative of the feedback that I received from my classmates because it only makes me a better writer. And while it may initially be a little awkward because everyone may be tearing up your paper (or not) I truly feel that the benefit outweighs the burden.

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I’ve Been Introduced. Apparently. Tuesday, Sep 18 2007

Well, I got my personal narrative back and I was just OK with it. I don’t know, I sort of felt like it was much too short to be a good essay. I really don’t care about the page length assignment and the 3-5 page requirement is not really a big deal at all but I feel like this essay is just bare bones. Basically, everything I told my narrator is completely and perfectly listed onto the paper that I was handed. It definitely describes who I am and what I like in a very concise manner but it makes no attempt to delve any further than precisely what I revealed to my peer.

A kind of stupid side note: The person who wrote about me completely dropped the last part of my real name as he was writing through the paper.

I guess I’m very forgiving of grammar and crap like that so long as the main idea is there and it makes sense. But I guess it just bothers me that my peer just buzzed this out and added no substance to it. I can’t tell anything about the writer from what he wrote. It feels like I told a computer what to say in an essay and the computer pumped the data through an algorithm and VOILA!: the assignment for ENG112 was born. Oh well.

Overall, a weak attempt, but an attempt none the less. Even though it is an assignment, it was cool to be interviewed and written about.

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