Sunday, September 30, 2007

Chronic Boredom

So it's sunday and I have absolutely nothing to do. I've been sitting in my room just doing random things for about three hours now. My roommate has been furiously studying since about 9 am...I don't know for sure because I got up at 12:30. We both just stayed in last night and watched Romeo+Juliet (the good one with Leo DiCaprio) and ate chocolate and just acted like girls. It was quit refreshing from the usual frat party and such. This weekend my boyfriend came in town so that was kind of exciting. We didn't get to hang out a lot because he was here with his soccer team and they mostyl had to stay with the team. But it was nice to see him. I woke up yesterday morning at 6 after getting in at 4:30 to go to his house and help his mom set up a brunch for his soccer team. It was the most amazing brunch. There were about 75 people there and there was tons of food. So that was fun. And now I won't see him for about 2 weeks, until fall break.

So I don't really have anything at all to write about. I was just bored and realized I'm about 4 blogs behind and I figured I would write something. I've got a little bit of homework I could be doing but I'll get around to it later. Oh I forgot my clothes downstairs...I should go get those so somebody doesn't steal them.

Ok I'm back. I think my roommate is becoming delirious by now. She's been studying for like 6 hours or something. I'm glad I finished all my homework Thursday. So do you like my purple font? I decided to mix things up. I have like chronic boredness right now. I'm so ADD but I have like nothing to do until 7 o'clock when I go to work. So Angie (my roommate) made this birthday cake for her friend who's birthday was Friday. Well they didn't even try to hang out with her on Friday so she hasn't given them the cake yet. I think we should eat it but she says no. I mean it's two days after the fact and her friend hasn't even tried to come over or hang out with her at all...not even to get their presents. So I say they don't deserve it and we should just eat it. Am I right?

So tomorrow is October. I like October. So many good things happen in October. It finally starts to get cooler for one. Fall is my favorite season because it's not too cold but it's not hot anymore. And living in Memphis we only have about one day of fall becauswe it goes directly from sweltering hot to freezing cold. But October normally changes into fallish weather and I'm excited for that. Then we have fall break in October and that's pretty exciting. Except for the fact that it's really lame and we only get two days out of school because they placed it on the weekend. But that is about 4 and a half days with no school. Then the best part of October is Halloween for sure. I think halloween is my favorite holiday (besides my birthday) because I love to dress up in costumes. I don't know what it is about getting to be something that you're not, but I find it exhilerating. Meg said in class one day that she has never been trick-or-treating. I almost fell out of my chair when she said that. How can you be 18 years old and never have been trick-or-treating. That almost makes me want to cry for her. She said her parents wouldn't let her. Well now you're in college Meg so fuck your parents and go trick-or-treating! So needless to say I'm pretty excited about it being October. Plus it's another month closer to being my birthday...just two more to go.

I guess that's about it. I really have absolutely nothing to say. I might go do my Italian homework now. Or not. Who knows. See you Tuesday.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Self-Eval

The process I used to write my textual analysis paper was not complicated. I read the article first and made some small notes. Then I procrastinated for about a day. When I was finally ready to write my paper, I read the article again to refresh my memory. Then I thought about what the paper’s requirements were and wrote s thesis. From there I just wrote the paper. I thought about all the tools that the author used to write her essay and I found them in the story and wrote about them. It wasn’t too bad from there, just staying on the topic.
I did progress as a writer. It was much easier for me to not think about technical rules like “don’t use ‘I’ in your paper.” That helped me a lot. It made me focus on what the paper was supposed to be about. I think I did a good job writing about what we were assigned to focus on. I changed as a reader because now I know how important an author’s words can be. Now I’ll pay more attention to the little details. I don’t know that I changed so much as a person. Maybe just that it made me think of things differently.
Next time I write a paper I’ll first try not to procrastinate so long. Other than that I just want to focus on writing the paper to the appropriate length without repeating myself or going off subject.

You're black, I'm white. So what?

When I writing my paper about Audre Lorde's essay "The Fourth of July", I started talking to my roommate Angie. I really got into the story and started thinking about it. As you know if you've read my previous blogs, my boyfriend is black. I told Angie that I couldn't imagine not being able to go out to eat with my boyfriend because of the color of his skin. I probably wouldn't have been able to even date my boyfriend back then, much less go out in public with him.
My roommate Angie has dated black guys before too so we were both kind of on the same page. I think that if I had grown up back in the 40s and 50s when blacks were not accepted, I would've been a rebel. I would've had black friends and I would have dated black guys. I'd like to think I would have done that. Then I started to think that it really wasn't that long ago. My own mom grew up in segregated schools. It's just so hard for me to fathom. I can't imagine all the things that went on during the civil rights movement. We've never had anything like that happen close to us during our lifetime. The biggest thing we'll remember when we're older is September 11 and that wasn't even here at home.
I don't really have a point to this blog entry, it's just something that I couldn't stop thinking about. It's one of those things where you can learn everything about it but never know what it really felt like. I know things aren't perfect now, but I'm glad I grew up in a time where it was more acceptable to date people of a different race. I don't see skin color and I hope one day everyone can feel like that.

3:21 (The "Walking" Essay)

I don’t know what to write. This is weird. I’m sitting on a bench by that big clock next to Wilder Tower. The clock that is eternally stuck on 3:21. It’s kind of cold, but it’s that cold where you aren’t cold enough for a jacket but cold enough to make you uncomfortable. The bench is wet. I’ll probably have a wet spot on the back of my pants when I get up.
The only thing that’s really on my mind right now is my boyfriend coming in town tonight. I don’t know if I’ll get to see him until tomorrow though, but I’m still excited. We’ve been dating for a year and two months and it’s so weird to be apart for so long when the whole time we’ve been dating, we saw each other every day.
The train just interrupted my train of thought. LOL-train of thought.
Now there’s a girl sitting on the bench next to me. She’s talking really loudly on the phone and she’s rather obnoxious. I don’t think I’m really affecting the environment much…but she sure is. I’m just sitting here, being quiet, minding my own business. The most I could be doing is occupying this bench therefore keeping someone else from sitting down. But this girl on her phone…she’s affecting the environment. I’m trying to sit here and think and the only thing I can hear is “ugh she so damn nasty” and things of the sort.
She left. Now it’s just me again. Well, and that guy with the long hair (I forgot his name) is sitting on a bench across from me. Well damn it now he left. So now I’m really by myself again.
I kind of feel like I’m always by myself. I have friends, I have a boyfriend, I have a family; but I still feel by myself. My friends are al from different walks of life and I don’t fit in to any of them. My boyfriend doesn’t always appreciate me. I don’t like all of my family and I don’t feel close to them. So I don’t know. I’m alone in the world. I’m sitting here with tons of people walking around me, but I’m just here, not making any difference.
I’ve still got twenty minutes and I’ve already written more than a page. My friend Alysia just came over and is now sitting with me. Her response when I told her what I was doing was “that’s weird.” Oh and here’s Daniel and Jenn. I see Monique sitting over on a bench too.
I’ve gotten so off the subject now. I don’t know if I said anything related to the topic we were to write about. But now I’ve run out of time so I’m going to leave my bench and the clock that still says 3:21 and go back to class.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

My Paper!

Audre Lorde uses text, tone, and symbolism to describe her first experience of injustice as a child in her essay “The Fourth of July.” Lorde develops the theme of her ignorance of injustice throughout the essay which turns to anger in the end. Lorde uses so many descriptive words in her writing to pull the theme together. You may not realize what she’s trying to get at but in the end you understand. Another thing that helps in reading this essay is knowing the background of the author and the time period of which the story takes place. Lorde doesn’t just come right out and tell you things so it’s helpful to know ahead of time. The article is about a childhood memory of Lorde’s where her family goes on vacation. You find out as you read that it is 1947 and Audre Lorde and her family are black. This plays a very important role in analyzing Lorde’s theme. Other than Lorde’s word choice, her tone factors into the theme as well. Reading the essay, you get the impression that Lorde’s family is very happy and content because of the tone Lorde uses. But as she learns more about the truths of the world, you can see her tone change throughout the story.
As I was reading this essay, a few things stood out to me. First, Lorde’s choice of words. In the beginning of the essay her family was taking a train to Washington, D.C. She describes in detail all the food that her mother has packed for them to eat. At this point in the story we don’t know what year it is or that her family is black. So when she described the food with such vivid colors: “brown bread”, “green pepper”, “violently yellow iced cakes” (Lorde 1), we don’t think anything of it. We then learn the truth of her heritage and the year and now we know what kind of things are happening to them in that time. Towards the end of her essay, Lorde recalls her family going into an ice cream shop and being refused service because they were black. You can tell that she hasn’t really been exposed to injustice that much because of the way she reacts. After this you can tell something has changed by Lorde’s word choice. Whereas in the beginning she used lots of colors to describe things, now she refers to everything as “white”. Everything she describes in the last paragraph of the essay is white. These words play an important part in interpreting the theme. When Lorde uses colors in her descriptions she is still naïve about the injustices that exist in the world. She is happy and expresses that through cheerful, colorful words. However, once she experiences injustice firsthand for the first time, she really gets an understanding of how the world works and is no longer naïve. It is then that she refers to everything as white. She is no longer happy or cheerful. It makes it seem like white is evil; it’s a bad color associated with the bad memory.
Another tool that Lorde uses to make us understand her theme is her tone. The tone throughout this essay changes and that’s how we know what the theme is. The tone that Lorde uses is very similar to the way she uses the colors in her word choice. In the beginning of the essay her tone starts out innocent and somewhat care-free. She is happy and young and ignorant to the world around her. The reason Lorde is so care-free and naïve is because her parents have sheltered her and her sisters all their lives. They don’t want them to know that people treat them differently because they are black. When they are on the way to Washington, D.C., they do not stop at the Liberty Bell. I think it’s because her parents don’t view the monument as a sign of liberty and freedom. After all, people didn’t treat them equally and that is what that monument was supposed to stand for. But Lorde didn’t know that. Her parents hid it from them. Another example is when Audre wants to eat in the dining car but her mother’s reply is that “the dining car food always cost too much money and besides, you never could tell whose hands had been playing all over the food, nor where those same hands had been just before” (Lorde 2). But what her mother really wasn’t saying was that blacks were not allowed on dining cars in 1947. Lorde and her sisters didn’t know that though, so they were still content and happy in their world. The tone of the essay changes, however, at the end of the essay. The incident at the ice cream shop opened Lorde’s eyes to a cruel world she had never seen before because of her parents. After leaving the ice cream shop, Lorde is filled with rage and doesn’t understand why her parents aren’t doing anything. Little did she know this was something her parents had been hiding from them their whole lives. Up until this moment the tone of the essay is so light and happy. After this incident though, the tone changes to one of anger. Lorde’s eyes had finally been opened to the unfair world around her. This sets the tone for the rest of the essay.
Not only do tone and word choice play a part in understanding the theme, but symbolism is also an important tool used. There are a lot of instances in the essay where Lorde uses symbolism to help us understand the situation, instead of just coming right out and saying so. When Lorde says “my parents did not approve of sunglasses” (Lorde 3); it opens up for something deeper than just the simple statement it seems like. By not allowing sunglasses, the girls had to squint because of the bright sun to see things. Her parents were keeping them from seeing things as fully as they would have been seen.
Looking at the monuments in such light and heat, Lorde said “I spent the afternoon squinting up at monuments to freedom and past presidencies and democracy, wondering
why the light and heat were both so much stronger in Washington, D.C., than back home in New York City” (Lorde3). This is such a strong example of symbolism. It’s like Lorde knows or senses that the injustice was more prevalent in the South. That’s why she had never witnessed it back home in New York City. It also symbolized that everything there was lighter or “whiter” than at home. At the end of the essay, Lorde says how she remembered everything about Washington, D.C. as being white. That is how he would always remember Washington, D.C. and that vacation. Symbols are such a clever way to express what she meant without just saying it.
I really enjoyed Lorde’s essay. The way she used word choice, tone, and symbolism made the story come alive to the reader. I really like the way that Lorde really never says anything straight up; you kind of have to read between the lines to get the symbolism. For those of us who didn’t grow up in that time period, or have never dealt with racial injustice, it might be hard for us to understand what Lorde went through. But through her words, her text, we feel what she felt. We understand the anger she felt when she discovered things weren’t as they seemed. I also like the abrupt change in the tone of the essay. All of a sudden the story had a whole new meaning. I really enjoyed analyzing this text because it was written so well with really interesting choice of words and other tools that Lorde used.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Little Things

article 1: http://www.slate.com/id/2173911/fr/flyout
article 2: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119012955962931134.html?mod=health_home_stories

These two articles both deal with health issues. The second article is about a recall done on Dole salad mix. There have been so many recalls on food lately. Last year with the big spinach scare, the whole Taco Bell thing, now salad mix has been found with E. coli. It's hard to know when food is safe to eat. It's really a scary thing if you think about it. You go to the grocery store and buy produce which you would think would be healthy and turns out it has E. coli and you die from it or get extremely sick. How scary is that?

Article 1 isn't about a recall or food tainted with bacteria. It's actually talking about a study that scientists have done to prove that foods and drinks with additives are causing children to have symptoms similar to those of ADHD. The study tested 300 children and gave them two drinks: one with additives and one without. The study showed that when the children drank the juice with additives, they had more hyperactivity. I'm thinking duh! the juice with the additives has sugar whereas the other one does not. Hello! obviously if a kid has a lot of sugar they are going to be more hyper than if they didn't. I don't think that is rocket science.

The two articles really don't have much in common. But then again when you look at it, it shows how important little things can be. Little decisions affect your daily life. A small bag of salad mix, a little bottle of juice...They all have major affects on your life. It's important to think about what you are consuming and what you are putting into your body.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Sex Day!

article 1: http://www.slate.com/id/2173643/fr/flyout
article 2: http://www.slate.com/id/2173458/fr/flyout

So how I came about these two articles I don't know but they seem to go hand in hand.

Let's start with article two this time. Article two is entitled Global Swarming: Is it time for American's to start cutting our baby emissions? It's refering to the issue of global warming. The article's solution to global warming is to just have less kids. It suggests that they make a limit of one child per couple. The article mentions how this isn't a very prasctical solution. Look at China: they once had a law to limit the amount of children a family had to control their population. Did it work? Maybe...but it's more than just a global warming issue. It's a moral issue.

Moving on to article two. The title is Fuck Off: Skip work and make love for your country. I found myself laughing throughout this article. It seems ridiculous. The basis for this article is Russia's decling population. They have instituted a day for employers to give their employees a day off from work to have sex. President Putin has expressed their desperate need to have more people because there has been a steady decline in the country's population because of diseases such as TB and AIDS, alcoholism/smoking/drug abuse, and many other things. The government has institued a day for workers to have sex and anyone who delivers a baby exactly nine months after the day receives prizes that include money. Their government is paying them to have sex! That seems nice right? Well not so much. This puts many women and babies at risk because they are trying to induce labor purposefully to receive the prizes.

My solution? I say since there are too many babies in America why don't we just send them to Russia? That would solve everyone's problem right?