Mitch Albom Explains How OJ Simpson Changed the World (Blog 17)

     When I first saw the article Saga of OJ Still Alters Our Lives by Mitch Albom, I did not buy into the arguement Albom makes that the OJ Simpson trial was the most important event of the 1990s. While other events of the '90s also influence the world today, reading Albom's article convinced me that the trial should be counted with them.
     Saga of OJ cites short term effects of the trial like Americans glued to their televisions and the world slowing down to watch OJ's trial. Many major news events cause this type of reaction, like the death of a well-known celebrity. But Albom also digs deeper into the long lasting social effects of the 1994 trial.
     Albom makes a claim that the OJ Simpson trial caused Americans to mistrust the cops, the legal system, and different races. The judiciary and law enforcement systems were both accused of racial profiling toward Simpson's alleged murder of his caucasian ex-wife. Once the jury decided in favor of Simpson, "whites and blacks moved to opposite sides of the room". With this observation, Albom proves that, even if just for a while, the trial separated American whites and blacks socially. Albom's thorough research and analysis of the effect of the trial proves it was a major, if not the most important, event of the 1990s.

Not a "Cowboy" Tone (Blog 16)

     They love their job. They come to know more animals than people. They do not complain. Traits descibed by Gretchen Ehrlich in her essay About Men don't exactly sound like cowboy traits, but, according to her, they are; and more accurate than the stereotypical cowboy traits at that.
     At times Ehrlich describes the stereotypical cowboy. She uses examples such as the Marlboro Man and describes men who have calloused hands and a sun-baked face. However, she does this with a sarcastic tone that creates a feeling that see doesn't believe the stereotypes. She shares experiences with actually cowboys using a different tone. Her tone is warm and respecting as she tells the stories of Wyoming cowboys. The tone change helps the reader to believe in her actual cowboys above the stereotypes seen in movies because it is straightfoward and not sacastic.

Breakdown of Secrecy (Blog 15)

According to Sante, secrecy is a thing of the past. In his essay, Secrets We Tell, he discusses three reasons for the breakdown of secrecy: The Soviet Union/KGB, media, and the internet. He cites the Soviet Union as a breakdown of secrecy because of they way they used information sharing and secrets to help their society. The media and the internet are certainly also enemies of secrecy. Gossip has become a huge public industry, creating a need for all kinds of tabloids, gossip television shows, and blogging. With the help of this network of information sharing, secrecy is not an option. Secrets, especially those concerning public figures, are constantly shared via the internet and media, most often without the secretholder's consent.

Teaching Values (Blog 14)

     On a school day, a student spends about half of their waking hours at school. Since so much time is spent at school, some schools have taken it upon themselves to teach their students values and morals, to "raise" them. Yet, with such a range of values different families and groups believe in, what morals need to be taught? Should a child recieve a good citizenship award for standing up to a bully when his or her family may not believe in being assertive with abusers?
     These personal values should not be taught in schools, but rather, at home. Topics such as how to treat a friend, how to solve conflict, and how to conduct oneself in public are, for the most part, a matter of opinion. With the exception of extreme or violent behavior, most ways to deal with these situations are viable and a matter of opinion.
     Of course, schools should back up common sense values. These include things like don't come to school with weapons or no clothing on, things that can cause legitimate trouble in the outside world. Still, as far as opinion values go, they should be taught at home.

Classification of Movies (Blog 13)

     Every average movie, and some great, can be categorized. I categorize a movie by its purpose. The five purposes I chose to classify movies are:

Made for the Effects:
Examples- X-men, Ironman

Made to Create Good Feelings:
Examples- Hairspray, Lion King

Made to Give Hope to Romantics:
Examples- Music and Lyrics, 27 Dresses

Made for Laughs:
Examples- Wild Hogs, Cheaper by the Dozen

Made to Make People Think:
Examples- Inconvinient Truth, Precious

     Judgement of a movie is, of course, a matter a preference and opinion. Some of these movies, like Music and Lyrics, I consider wonderful. Others I feel are just average. Despite the obvious place of personal preference in the judgement of movies, some movies are accepted, in general, as being monumental. The trait that causes such acclaim has to do with where it is categorized, in a way. Truly fantastic movies cannot be classified by one purpose. An example of a universally loved movie is Shrek. The animated movie used the lastest and greatest animation had to offer, employed some of the best actors in comedy, and followed a simple, yet meaningful, plotline about love and judging people for who they are, not what they look like. By these merits, it fits in every category. This trait creates great movies. They have something for everyone and cannot be categorized by stereotypes of any kind.

Pink Flamingo Reflection (Blog 12)

Self-Check:
1) Yes, I think I answered the prompt well. I adressed the main arguements the author made concerning idolization and culture.
2) My thesis could have been a bit clearer and more direct to the prompt.
3) My essay focuses on two main points but they come together pretty well to answer the prompt.
4) Though the timed situation restricted me from covering my topics as thoroughly as they should have been, I did focus on two main arguments and develop them.
5) I should have used more direct quotes rather than just alluding to the text.

Reflection:
1) I got to learn about an interesting subject while writing this essay and my interest in the subject made writing it easier.
2) I didn't go into the flamingo in other cultures due to a lack of time despite its importance to the original text.
3) If given more time I would add more supporting evidence from the text and expand on the other culture idea.
4) Because I outlined as soon as I read the prompt, my structure remained consistent with just a few bumps where I couldn't get my thoughts together about certain parts of the text I planned to talk about.
5) As I wrote I saw that the essay moves its perspective of the flamingo from a front lawn to a global perspective, an interesting way to organize the essay.
6) For the next timed write, I need to support my claims with more quotes and focus only on concepts I know I can support.

Definition Essay Reflection (Blog 11)

Culminating Writers Profile:
1) Since I started AP Language I have come to expect my essays to go through many phases before the final copy. I've been trying to get more in the habit of outlining and preplanning to better structure my essays.
2) My strengths lie in the creative parts of forming an essay and in tying things up well. I'm learning to reinforce these by strengthening body paragraphs.
3) My weakness is getting off track when dealing with a confusing prompt. I'm trying to get in the habit of really clarifing what I'm being asked by the prompt before I start writing.

Evaluating My Writing Process:
1) If I had time to write another draft I would be more sure to show my views that are different from the already accepted views more prominently.
2) The easiest things to change were simple things like sentence structure and wording.
3) I struggled to work my example story into the main essay better.

Evaluating My Sucesses:
1) My most successful large scale revision was restructuring my essay to make my point and purpose flow better.
2) According to those who reviewed my essay, my strongest use of language was in the concluding paragraph where I listed the decending nouns relating to overachieving.
3) I'm not sure on this one, maybe when I gave the specific stories of students...

Being Honest With Self:
1) I was intimidated by selecting a topic because I was afraid I'd pick a cliche one. I combated this fear by selecting something I'm used to talking about that I've developed unique ideas about over the years.
2) The texts we used in preparation for this essay, like those about connotation, helped me understand what I was supposed to accomplish.
3) Through other students I was able to become comfortable using myself as an example. (I always thought that was the worst thing you could do in an essay.)
4) Soiyer helped me word my introduction better.
5) This essay developed me into a better writer because it indroduced me to a new genre I can now use to express different ideas I have.

To Be Nobody (Blog 10)

     No one is truly a nobody. Every person living is a person, and therefore, somebody. However, some use the term to describe a certain type of somebody. Someone who is called a "nobody" is generally someone reclusive, without devotion to something or someone, someone with nothing to associate themself with.
     It's highly unlikely that someone is born a nobody. When children are born, they are hopefully associated with their family, and taken in as a somebody. What causes nobodiness comes later. When someone is either unwilling or uninvited to "get in there" and make a name for themself, they may end up later as a "nobody". Not necessarily defining oneself, but finding something that makes them who they are is a cure for the feeling of nobodiness.

The Affect of Tuesdays with Morrie (Blog 9)

     Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie uses the story of Albom, his professor, and their last "class" together to teach a variety of life lessons, from money to how love goes on. What I most took from the book was the idea that when humans approach the time when they will die, their priorites change dramatically and they learn to appriciate things. The book taught me also how younger people can apply this to their own lives.
     At one point, Albom notes that Morrie has not bought anything new, except medical equipment and other necessities, since he was diagnosed with ALS. However, Morrie invites dear friends and family to his residence everyday. As soon as he knows he's dying, the most important aspects of his life are his lifelong passion of teaching, and his personal relationships. Constantly he tells Albom, "Love each other or die". Morrie's example of what becomes important close to death applies to the younger generation because Morrie teaches that we should all live in a loving way throughout our lives.
     Tuesdays with Morrie made me think as I read it. After reading the story of an old, dying, professor, who wants nothing more than to teach and develop relationships with loved ones, it became hard to not appriciate those I love and how I'm still able to fully enjoy their company. This insight along with many others is what made the book the world-wide inspiration it is.

How I Define Cocky (Blog 8)

     When some amount of people go into a competetive situation in which they'd all like to succeed, three stereotypes come out. First, those who feel down on theirselves. In their mind, they can't be great; they can't win. Second, there are those who enter into the situation cautiously confident, hoping for success, and trying dilligently to achieve it. Then there's that type that drives the other two types off the wall. The cocky ones.
     Cockiness is one quality, perceived as negative, that can be developed through a very positive quality, confidence. I once read that psychologists believe every person is born shy and through their experiences learn to grow confident. If this is true, it is also through experience the confident grow cocky. The negative trait, born from good, can be defined most simply as the opposite of humility. The cocky are those who are so overly confident, they have put themselves on a different level than their peers, or competition. Cocky people feel as though they have nothing to learn from the less confident, nothing truly friendly to say to them. I have seen this many times in my life, so constantly surrounded by overacheivers. Be it running, or dancing, or writing an essay, there will always be those who feel they are on a different level, and to those perceived as being below them, it hurts.
     Just as we've all been to the shy and uncomforable end of the scale, most of us have been cocky. When I moved to Vacaville and found myself in a ninth grade English class with a curriculum strikingly similar to the one my Fairfield school used in eighth grade, I was probably the cockiest I've been in my life, for awhile. Such a mindset made it harder to meet people, because I ranked myself above them, and harder to stay alert to what was happening in class. In short, it hurt my English grade, and, as a bonus, my brand new Vacan  relationships. Perhaps the key to being successful really is to, as they say, "not get cocky". There is always something one person can bring another, in spite of "ranking" that doesn't actually exsist.

An Argument Against the Common Perception of War (Blog 7)

     War is percieved in a certain way by many. Most visualize war as strong young men, with thorough integrity when it comes to their cause, fighting day and night for what they believe in. However, in Stephen Crane's classic novel The Red Badge of Courage, Crane gives war a whole new face. His main character, Henry, spends most of his time sitting around with his regiment as they bet amongst themselves when the army will move next. When they finally do fight, it's very spread out and anticlimatic.
     There is also a certain perception that once a soldier's duty is done, they return home to a loving wife and two kids with a giant flag hanging over their doorway. Henry's story simply doesn't end this way. He just marches off.
     Crane argues that society needs to change their perceptions of war. He shows how it isn't pretty, it isn't exciting, and too often it ends in a quiet, anticlimatic way, rather than the big, fantastic way some would like to think. I agree with his arguement. In school we learn from nonfiction autobiographies and memoirs about real war, how it really is. Through these books I've learned to see war in this new light and have developed an opinion similar to the one Crane portrays in Red Badge of Courage.

Starting Over (Blog 6)

     Read any teen magazine and you'll find countless "Ask Ali" or "Dear Carol" letters concerning one topic. "I'm moving and starting at a new school and I don't know anyone. Help me!" It's every fourteen-year-old kid's nightmare, and it's one that, at age fourteen, I lived.
     From the moment I first stepped on the Vaca High Campus, I was sure the change from Fairfield to Vaca High would be a nightmare. I didn't see anyone I even remotely recognized, I didn't know where anything was, and the tardy bell sounded to me like four obnoxious, short-lived intruder alarms. The first week I sat at random tables during lunch and when these random groups didn't immediatly accept me as one of them, I became upset.
     The next week, I tried to end the nightmare. Some schedule changes I'd made finished processing and I was switched to three different classes. In these classes I tried to get involved in what was going on, rather than just randomly intrude on coversations. I found that as I acted more like myself and less like a wandering puppy, fitting in to Vaca High came naturally. The move became a positive thing because of the great things that happened and awesome people I met at my new school. I wouldn't have gone back to Fairfield if I could have.
     When I first came to Vaca High, starting over seemed worse than "bad"; it seemed like a nightmare. However, once I learned to act like myself, coming to Vacaville became something very positive. Not only did I meet great people and do great things, but I also learned how to adjust to changes, and how to get involved in an unfamilar place. The experience was unforgettable, and irreplaceable.
    

"He is not to be confused with the lonely ones" (Blog 5)

     The short story entitled The Box Man juxtaposed two types of people: the alone, and the lonely. When one first starts to read The Box Man, they likely don't differentiate between these two types of people. However, as they continue to read, the differences become vast and obvious. The main difference is the way the alone and the lonely people feel about their situations. The author chooses two old ladies with no one around, and presumably no family nearby to care about them, as her examples of loneliness. She describes them as slow-moving, slightly mopey, and generally upset about the hand life has dealt them. The ladies are labeled as "lonely". However,when she compares them to her example of satisfied aloneness, a homeless man she refers to as "The Box Man", she says "He is not to be confused with the lonely ones". She does not consider The Box Man "lonely" because he is satisfied with his life. He searches around town all day for boxes to fashion into a home. He does this alone. Still, he is not lonely. He has found a friend in his boxes and himself. They keep him satisfied and he seems as though he has no other desires in his life, beyond collecting more boxes. The idea that being alone doesn't necessarily point to being lonely is the idea which the author of The Box Man hoped her readers would understand after reading the story.

A Fleeting Moment (Blog 4)

In The Box Man the author compares two kinds of people, a homeless man (The Box Man), and two lonely old ladies. The old ladies have everything they need. The Box Man has nothing but boxes. However, they are similar in the sense that in one way or another, they have become alone.

I see this kind of ironic similarity when comparing two kinds of moments, a moment in which one sees a shooting star, and the moment in which one knows they've finally reached a long term aspiration. At first they seem very different, after all, one is a simple moment, and the other could be monumentous. However, they truly are quite similar.

When one, perhaps a hiker, happens to look up one night, and lays eyes on a shooting star midflight, it is a small moment of wonder and simple joy. In the more grand situation, where one is acheiving something big, it is also a moment of wonder, of "Gosh, I can't believe I did it", and, obviously one of joy. But the two events are most similar after the fact. Once the star has burned out and is no longer visible, the hiker returns to looking right in front of them and they continue on their way. The same is true once the celebration of a great achievement has past. The achiever, figuratively, looks straight ahead, deciding where to focus their ambition next. Both moments can fleet so very quickly. But when they do, both reach their point of most similarity. As the hiker continues down their literal path, and the achiever down their figurative one, both can look back at their forementioned moments. Even in hard times they can look back into their moment of wonder and joy; they can carry it with them. In this respect, the two moments seem almost identical.

Fast Food Nation Review (Blog 3)

    In his nonfiction essay-type book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser tells the behind-the-scenes story of the fast food industry in America. He begins by describing top secret American military base, Cheyenne Mountain, and tells of a Dominoes pizza being delivered to it. As the chapters go on, Schlosser describes not only the health side of the fast food issue, but the sides of ethics, publicity, and buisness.
     The book surprises right from the start. One might expect that ia book of its title and theme would focus on nutrition, spewing facts and demanding its readers eat healthier. Fast Food Nation does very little of this. Rather, it focuses on how fast food became an industry and how its nutrition and young marketing targets are more buisness moves than anything. Schlosser compares childhood friends Ray Kroc and Walt Disney and how they developed their family friendly buisnesses similarly. He tells how early developers of fast food worked earnestly to make a buisness. Such explanations are dual-purpose; they tell the backstory of fast food and create a well-rounded tone for the book.
     I would recommend this book for anyone curious about the way the fast food industry is run and what makes it something considered so bad for the consumer. The book has its gross-out moments, (Example: Chapter 10 regarding the inner workings of an American slaughterhouse) but if one can stomach through it, they will be graced with a great, eye-opening read.

Non-Fiction History (Blog 2)

Autobiograpy: All But My Life- Gerda Weissman Klein

Diary: Diary of a Young Girl- Anne Frank

Biography: All Quiet on the Western Front (Story of Paul Baumer)- Erich Maria Remarque

History: All Quiet could count under history as well.

Criticism: .....

Personal Essay Collection: Tuesdays with Morrie might count under this category as a stretch. I've started reading it and it's by Mitch Albom.

Journalists: ......

Politcal Commentary: Get of the Shovel: Why Everything You Know is Wrong- John Stosell

Scientific Topics: .....

Nature Topics: Extreme Weather (Can't remember who it's by)

Humor: Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader- Bathroom Readers' Institute

All But My Life is the story of Gerda Weissmann Klein during the entirety of World War II. It tells of how the events of the world affected her and how she dealt with daily life after her home country, Poland,  is taken over by Nazi invaders. Her personal story brings about themes of the importance of friends and family and the personal side of war.

Diary of a Young Girl tells the story of Anne Frank, who is living in World War II at a young age as well. Anne is living in an annex, hiding from the Nazis who want nothing more than to send her to a concentration camp. This book has similar themes to All But My Life and tells another personal story of war.

All Quiet on the Western Front was a different kind of war book. It told the story of Paul Baumer, who thought it would be cool to go to war. He and his classmates learn the lesson and the theme of the book: war is fought because it is necessary, not to make boys into men.

I guess this is an opportunity to say what I've thought about Tuesdays with Morrie thusfar. So far I'm seeing themes of unembarrased love, regret for being to busy for a friend, and gaining a different perspective on life. The professor and his story are an inspiration; I couldn't believe this book is a true story.

Get out the Shovel is a cycnical-type themed political commentary about some of the myths about government, public schooling, and consumerism that Americans commonly believe. One of the stories I found most interesting was one about pediatric chiropractice. Stosell did some experimentation and found that though pediatic chiropractors could agree that a particular child needed a lifetime of expensive treatment, none could agree what was wrong with him. Sure made me skeptical of the chiropractor!

Extreme Weather tells some of the stories behind extreme weather records, like highest rainfall in 24 hours or hottest day on record in the US. It was pretty interesting learning about what drives extreme weather.

Laugh if you must, but I did read Uncle John's Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader. In this particular bathroom reader there is some interesting advice, like that on how to live to 100, and some funny articles like the one comparing the histories of Boxers vs. Breifs.

I learned a bit of philosophy from All But My Life. It was one of the first war books I had to read that told a really personal story of surviving a war. Gerda's constant looking towards the future and her dedication to those she loved was an inspiration to me.

Creative Introduction (Blog 1)

I don't fear the unfamiliar. Some kids spend their young lives being committed to one thing, and that's awesome. However, my path twists through activities and opportunities of all kinds. Trying and improving at many things while I'm young gratifies me more than being the best at one thing.