Im still recovering (just kidding)

I believe I was discriminated against when I was younger for being fat. I am not sure this is a relevant thing or that it really even happen like I remember but oh well. When I was in fourth grade I believe that my teacher didn’t like me because I was fat. She was always sending me out of class and stuff for what it seemed like no reason. It was pretty crazy but so was my entire time at Franklin School in Prescott Valley. Lots of things happened that year and I think that most of them were because my teacher didn’t like fat kids and I knew it because it wasn’t just me. She would comment on other students after she sent them out of the room and stuff. The craziest thing is that near the end of the year I was transferred to the other fourth grade and that teacher was kind of chubby too and my grades went from Cs Ds and Fs to Bs and Cs. I also stopped getting in trouble and sent out of the class every single day. So there was a real change in the environment and almost all of the factors of my schooling changed, I guess that that was a very important time in my education and I was able to use that I had survived that experience to be able to deal with almost anything that other bad teachers dealt out. So even if a teacher is a bad teacher and she doesn’t like you due to something in your life like race, body shape, or a whole list of other lame things the best thing to do (besides making them stop) is to try to role with the punches (and it doesn’t hurt to have a great mother that sees that you are being abused and transfers you to the other fourth grade class.)

reading response

In 1987 William Manchester, a World War II veteran, wrote an essay/story about his time on Okinawa during World War II and his view that there should not be ceremonies with Japanese and Americans together. Manchester begins his essay writing about the American and Japanese veterans having only death in common. He tells of Okinawa being the bloodiest battle in the pacific theater with 200,000 people dieing just to take over an island. His argument seems to be for several things including patriotism, clear thinking, and that enemy soldiers shouldn’t have ceremonies together. This is an informative essay as well conveying to the reader some of the grotesque horrors untold by others about the truth of the wars. The author tells of the progression of battles telling about how soldiers originally used swords and lances and such to kill the enemy and how technology has made it easier and easier to kill and the atomic bomb made the fighting man a nothing. His argument progresses in the form of story telling and informing of events. He begins with facts: where Okinawa is, the fact of an upcoming memorial ceremony, and the statistics of the men who died there. Next his argument moves to the story telling. He tells of the point of the invasion and how he was involved in the beginnings of that battle and how he was involved in the capture of a strategic point called sugar loaf hill. He moves on to tell of how he was raised in such a way to eventually join the military, and his family and town’s proud parades and such. Next his argument/story moves to the time in which he is writing and tells of the Americans no longer caring about the soldier because of the power of the nuclear bomb. The next pert of his argument is about the progression of the weapons available to soldiers in a war, and how it has become easier to kill so more die in wars. In the next paragraph he moves back to his story of Okinawa and tells of how his luck had run out and how he was injured by the shrapnel from a mortar. Next he talks of the fake movies of the time that he didn’t like and how people should honor the fallen soldiers of battle. “It does not seem too much to ask that they be remembered on one day each year. After all, they sacrificed their futures that you might have yours” (Manchester). He sums up his story and argument in telling that some wounds never heal.

blog 3

Hello there if you are reading this you are probably a part of the human race. As part of the human race you may have an opinion on the subject of abortion. I know I do and I am going to tell you about it and try to get you to believe like I believe. Abortion is the intentional termination of a fetus, embryo, or baby while it is growing in the woman’s uterus. An accidental abortion due to accident or health issues is called a miscarriage. While there are several valid reasons to have an abortion including fallopian tube pregnancies or the life of the mother is gravely at risk. Abortions in the United States can be perfumed on demand. This is, I believe, a severe breach in the protection of human rights.

Should it be legal for a woman to terminate her pregnancy and in turn a potential human life simply for personal choice?

Ethical Female End person Individual option
Lawful mother destroy baby Personal decision


It should not be and never should have been legal for a woman to be able to choose to destroy a potential human life by personal choice.

I. human rights
a. reproductive rights
b. what makes humans special
c. antithesis: when human personhood starts
II. personhood
a. fetuses
b. children
c. life
d. antithesis: when life starts
III. women health
a. Ectopic pregnancies
b. diseases
c. antithesis: psychological health
IV. ethics
a. image of god
b. we hold these truths inalienable rights creator
c. antithesis: no god, evolution
V. emotional appeal
a. human nature baby joy euphoria
b. cold blooded murder of the innocent
c. antithesis: the child is violating the woman’s rights to her bod
VI. logic
a. population
b. potential
c. advancements
VII. examples
a. star trek geordy visor
b. tuberculosis woman lived because of pregnancy
c. dr. suess a person is a person no matter how small
d. regret stories on abortion no.org

E.C.

On Wednesday a few of the people in our class took advantage of the extra credit opportunity and went to see the screening of the move called “Paper or Plastic.” We watched a short film before the main movie called “Zombie Prom” it was about half an hour or so and it was pretty funny. I found it extremely disturbing that one of the women in the movie was a man. There is a quaint little school next to a nuclear power plant in which every one acts the same and goodie-two-shoe-ish and then a boy comes along that mixes everything up because he is different. The schools principal I think “I missed part of the movie” is named Ms. Strict and she doesn’t like Jonny. He spells his name “Jonny” without the traditional “h” so everybody thinks he is a trouble maker. He and the nice girl in the school fall in love and her parents and Mrs. Strict stop them because they think he is a bad boy. The girl tells Jonny that they have to break up and he gets mad and jumps into the cooling tower for the nuclear power plant and dies. This is the part I missed because I wasn’t sure I was watching the right movie and I went out to make sure. When I came back Jonny had comeback to life as a nasty zombie and he still loves he and tries to get her to come to the prom. He goes and then she goes and they all live happily ever after. Any-who then the Paper or plastic thing showed and it was about a bunch of grocery baggers that go to a competition in Las Vegas and hey can win I think 2000 dollars it was actually pretty cool. It was an excellence in grocery bagging documentary and I actually liked it.

reading response 4

The article I chose is “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. The author of this piece is Martin Luther King Jr., and he was a Christian reverend in the 1960’s. There are several aspects of the writer’s life that affect the writing in this letter. First the writer is a Christian reverend and he writes to and about the church of the time. Next the author is black and at the time segregation was a major problem and that is the whole reason that he is writing this letter. Another aspect that affects the writer’s writing is the time that he was writing in, black people had been freed but the white people of the time still practiced segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. is addressing a lot of people in this letter though he is primarily writing to the clergymen that have written a letter against his non-violent protests. He is also is writing to “white moderates” who he says are worse than the people that are outright against non-segregation. This has a major effect on the writing because he is writing. The author is trying to convey many things to the reader. He is writing to inform of the conditions that the black community of the time were living in. He is arguing that now is the time to act for racial equality. He is also writing to persuade people that would be fine leaving the situation alone to act for the greater good of the society. King uses several strategies to reach his intended audience. For the white moderates he uses gilt and comparison to greater evil. For the church goers and clergymen he uses a spiritual and moral appeal and to complacent blacks he uses a life can be better appeal. The time and place of the writing of this masterpiece is the major reason for the writing, the voice, the arguments, and everything else in this letter from a man in jail for doing the right thing.

contextualizing

i chose to look up the Vietnam war for my contextualizing of O'Brien's story.
i looked at the Vietnam war on Wikipedia and i think it it the most cited article i have ever read on Wikipedia with over 214 sources. i also looked up draft dodgers on Wikipedia and read about the things that people did to avoid the draft. there were a few places in each article that had citation needed and i skipped over those parts. i thought that because the wiki articles were so well cited and i was able to go to the places that the article cited. this information really helped enhance my primary understanding of the text because it lays a foundation of the history of the period and the attitudes of the time.

blog 2 part 3

http://www.cpcprescott.org/
is a local organization in my community i was not able to get a hold of anybody yet

blog 2 part 2

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/2562
this article i found on world magazine's website. i think this is a is reliable based on the things we went over in class. the author is clearly defined and writes a lot of articles for world. the web site is updated constantly although that does not matter for this article. the information is supported with sources and i don't see any disclaimers.

blog 2

after about a day i was able to find an organization, not just a website, that i think is the best to use for information on my topic, abortion.
http://www.abortionno.org/abortion_no.html
CAUTION GRAPHIC IMAGES OF ABORTED FETUSES
this organization is actively involved in promoting awareness of the graphic reality of abortions and establishing justice for the unborn. the organization was formed in 1990. their website provides information on their activities campaigning for bio-ethical reform, as well as information for people considering an abortion.

reading response 2

Thesis:
In his story “The Son of The Wolfman,” Michael Chabon tells the story of a woman and her husband’s struggle with barrenness and the process of bearing the child of a rapist.

Quotes:
1. “Her doctor, whose efforts over the past five years had all been directed toward the opposite end, told her he understood” (Chabon 174).
This quote is from the beginning of the story when the main character Cara initially went to her doctor to have the rapist’s baby aborted. It shows the part of my thesis about the struggle with barrenness because her doctor had for the past few years working with her and her husband to get pregnant.

2. “the faint pink proof of a cross… informed the Reservoir Rapist’s second victim, Cara Glanzman, that she was pregnant” (Chabon 174). This quote is also from the beginning of the story right when Cara found out that she was pregnant. It shows the part of my thesis of her carrying the child of a rapist.

3. “They studied the wolfman’s boy, and he regarded them” (Chabon 201).
This quote is from the end of the story and is right after Cara delivers the son of the rapist and they are looking at him. The quote here also shows the part of the of my thesis about her bearing and delivering the child of the rapist which is more of a joy than a burden because Cara desperately wanted a child.

controversy

Xbox
Star wars movies – han shot first
Lego
Halo sequels
Myspace
American voter
Prescott valley
Male
Under 21
Heterosexual
White
Windows – vista
Human race – abortion

I looked for the underlined things above and found some interesting stuff. There is a huge controversy in the star wars world about a scene in the original star wars movie. In the scene Han solo (one of the main characters in the movie) shoots a bounty hunter trying to collect on him before he can shoot Han and in the remade version the bounty hunter shoots first. There is another controversy in the world of personal computer operating systems. There are a lot of people that hate windows vista and some who don’t think it’s bad at all. Last is a controversy in the human race whether the fetus inside a pregnant woman is a person or not and if it is ok to kill it. I found and downloaded an article about each one of the controversy.

I think that the abortion controversy is the best for this assignment. I think it is the best because there is a lot of information about it and because it is a subject that interests and puzzles me. I will be writing about the abortion controversy in the world and I came to that decision after looking up some articles about it and realizing it was one of the biggest controversies I had seen.

The Love of My Life by T.C. Boyle

the beginning is a summary the end is the reading response


On our first day of class in Eng 140 we were assigned two stories to read for the next class; “Mercy” by Pinckney Benedict and “The Love of My Life” by T.C. Boyle. I will be writing about “The Love of My Life” by T.C. Boyle because while the story “Mercy” is fun and enjoyable it did not affect me as much as “The Love of My Life.” The main characters are a girl named China and a boy named Jeremy. The story begins disarmingly pleasant the main character China is in love with Jeremy and he with her. They go on romantic walks, drink together, and watch horror movies together. The story continues to be pleasant and tells of the spring and how everything was green and then the two went on a trip to a lake together for spring break and having sex. This is where the story gets suspiciously darker in the condescending thoughts that China and Jeremy have toward the people who had children while still going to school and they called them “breeders overpopulating an overpopulated world and ruining their lives in the process.” The next part of the story is the fall when the two left for college and China found out that she was pregnant. This is where the story coasts along the edge of total darkness telling the progression of her self deception and denial wearing baggy clothes to hid the physical signs of her pregnancy, not talking to anyone but Jeremy about it, and telling herself that is was just her putting on weight like everyone else. Jeremy and China rented a hotel and she proceeded to deliver her baby girl and then the story falls into utter darkness in the blackest, vilest, most terrible thing that I have ever read in any story ever. She says “‘Get rid of it. Just get rid of it’” and he does not giving a thought to the dead child wrapped in plastic which he can call meat. I had to stop reading this story here and I want away for a while in a blind almost trancelike state trying and quelling attempts to comprehend what could possibly be the motivation to murder a new-born child or any person new-born, PRE-BORN, or any age for any reason. I could not stop thinking about the story and desperately hopeful I knew that I had to finish the story to see if anything could possibly even marginally rectify the pain inside me for being mentally and emotionally violated by the information in the story I just read. Even now when I am writing this reading response I am fighting back the tears that threaten to over flow down my face. The rest of the story I read an emotional stupor trying to finish so I could put the story down and get as far away from the book and the situation described in the book as possible. The rest of the story is the two of them being arrested and tried for first-degree murder and murder by abuse and neglect. The story ends with China reliving the time when the two of them were first in love.
At first I did not like this story because of the powerful emotional effect it had on me. After calming down (which took about eight hours, a ten minute cry with my mom, and a night of fitful sleep) I finally started to realize the point of this masterpiece of a catastrophe. I see now the elements of this story that are useful for teaching a lesson. China’s name may be an attack on the Chinese government’s policy of only allowing the people in cities to have only one girl or two boys and killing the extras. The child that was discarded by China and Jeremy was a girl. They both watched horror movies that desensitized them to the sanctity of human life as well as letting China live in a fantasy world of her own making. Their parents while not necessarily allowing them to, did not stop them from consuming alcoholic beverages. Jeremy’s mother was having sexual relations with a man she was not married to and all three of Jeremy and China’s parents allowed them to spend time together unsupervised for extended periods of time. The main characters have a condescending view of the people that have children calling them breeders as I mentioned earlier. If the point of this story was to criticize these traits of our culture than I applaud the author on creating a powerful masterpiece of the state of our decaying culture; But if he is not and just added those details for no reason than this vile piece of refuse that dares to call itself literature should be violently disposed of. My immediate emotional reaction to this piece was anger at the characters for their actions and the author for showing them to me. Later my reaction was extreme heartache and sorrow for the girl that did not have the chance to live her life and that sorrow was quickly joined by the sorrow for the multitudes of children who have been aborted and have not been able to like their individual lives. There was but one specific place in the story that provoked the strongest emotions and that place is where there is confirmation of the horrible deed committed by the two “He never gave a thought to what lay discarded in the Dumpster out back, itself wrapped in plastic, so much meat, so much cold meat” (Boyle).

Boyle, T.C. The Love of My Life. The ECCO Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction Ed. Joyce Carol Oates, Christopher R. Beha 1st Ed. New York: Harper Perennial, 2008. 133-152.

halo odst and reach

wow i never thought i would be just writing random stuff on the interweb but here i am
i just found out the other day that halo odst is releasing on September 22 and i am so excited. i watched the gameplay video and even though it will be different from the other halo games it looks like it will be a lot of fun
http://www.bungie.net/Projects/ODST/default.aspx
i really like the silenced smg
http://www.bungie.net/projects/odst/asset_popup_viewer.aspx?at=53&cc=29&item=6
and the sweet pistol
http://www.bungie.net/projects/odst/asset_popup_viewer.aspx?at=53&cc=29&item=8
the other game they announced for next year is halo reach
http://www.bungie.net/Projects/Reach/default.aspx
looks like it will be about the fall of reach and the things that happened in the fall of reach and first strike books
halo wars and halogen posts will be next

reading diagnostic

This is a response to a passage we read in class from Samuel Johnson's The History of Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia

This story about a prince and his friend, the old sage, discuss the reason why the prince is not happy being in a place that his every desire is satisfied. It seems as though the old man is a servant to the prince’s father the king and the king has tasked him with finding out why the prince is so depressed. “The old man, thus encouraged, began to lament the change … in the prince.” After being asked why he is unhappy the prince says that pleasure is no longer pleasurable to him. The prince does show an air of maturity in that he does not wish spoil others happiness with his unhappiness. The old man tells the prince that he has everything he could ever want and that he should be happy. The prince finally tells his true complaint by saying that in having everything he wants, he has nothing to want. He also tells of longing to feel like he did when he was young and the world was new to him. The old sage not knowing what to say but not being content with being quiet says that if the prince had seen the miseries of life outside the palace he would appreciate the comforts that he has. At this suggestion the prince is overjoyed because he finally has something to want. The young man is saying that desire is having something to want and the old man is saying that if desire is fulfilled happiness will be achieved. If I were a part of this conversation I would not take a position and I would just sit quietly and add an agreement every so often. I am pretty sure the prince will now do the whole “sneaking out into the world disguised as a commoner” thing to experience the miseries of the world.

welcome to vince's blog

hi i am Vince and this is a blog