Your so Fresh Emily Dickinson

I find Dickinsons writing as being fresh through her word choice.  She uses words that show a great sense of imagery such as "bright" "light" "dazzle".  I think many do not write in the way that she did and it needed a lot of thinking to piece together her own thoughts.  I find her writing exciting, which conclusively makes her writing fresh.

Is Technology Corrupting our Future Youth?

Without computers, phones, internet, and iPods. One could only wonder how we lived before our technological revolution.  Just thirty to forty years ago, only black and white television graced American living rooms.  On a sunny day, the neighborhood would be outside: kids playing tag, games of kickball and parents grilling outside and watching their kids, grateful for the beautiful day.  In the twenty-first century, rain or shine kids are playing video games inside and not socially interacting with their peers. They’re not worried about the activities that they could be enjoying outside, their worried about the big game of football going on on their plasma flat screen 52’ T.V.  Are we hurting future generations because of this technological exposure?

            In “he Information: How the Internet Gets Inside Us” Adam Gopnik, relays how the Internet is diminishing our own personal thoughts and ways of communication.  Gopnik categorizes our technological shift into many different kinds of thinkers and their personal feelings on technology.  The two main titles for these thinkers are the Never-Betters who fully support the technological advancement and think that our society has never been better than it is today.  In opposition there is the Better-Nevers who have the same mindset as Gopnik.  He supports unquestionably that technology helps our everyday lives, but that such progress is rapidly changing and he even suggests that the advancement of technology will soon be taking over our minds and our future generations will not be self-sufficent.  Therefore, they will rely predominantly on technology then on their own intellect.

The excerpt from “The New and Improved” Brain by Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan has almost a similar notion as Gopnik, but they focus on our minds biological adaptation to the technology shifts our generation is experiencing, rather than how we are socially adapting to the progression in technology.  This article is directed towards our forthcoming generations, which answers our question, if we are hurting the future because of technology.  Our impending generations will have an advantage in the work force in comparison to past or present age groups, because of their rapid knowledge and skills obtained from our digital progression.  “Digital Natives” as Vorgan and Small call those who are again, technologically savvy, will have the ability to better sift through large amounts of information rapidly.  Along with our digital cultures advancement through video games, our ability to multi task without error is steadily increasing.  Alternatively, we will become more socially isolated with our decrease in personal interaction due to our heightened attention toward video games and the Internet.  Small and Vorgan conclude that we are not only becoming more technologically savvy, but it is also improving our intelligence through our digital advancement, although forms of social communication and interaction will slowly diminish if technology keeps progressing. 

            “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, is also an explanation on how the Internet is slowly deteriorating our own self-thoughts.  Carr mainly focuses on how the Internet is weakening our ability to focus and stick to one single thought and or task while surfing through articles on the Web.  While reading articles online, we are now skimming through them instead of reading all the materials that are available to us.  This is affecting our thinking process and shortening our attention spans.  In Carr’s article another writer claims he cannot sit down and read a book the way he used to because of the creation of the Internet.  Many people are expressing the same issue in the article, that their attention is also now wondering when they are reading and they are just trying to obtain the information needed.  Carr concludes that we rely on the Internet for just about anything and everything in our day-to-day lives, but he believes that the internet is not assisting us, it is just a distraction.

            A short film by Michael Wesch tells us how the Internet figures out our interests and our likes, to slowly take over our minds when we are on the Internet.  On the side of our screens are always advertisements or items we may be fascinated with.  Although, it is not just the Internet that memorizes our interests, but also almost all applications know what our likes, from our fonts to colors to size to webpage’s, and even finishes our sentences.  “The machine” as Wesch refers the computer, knows us more than we know ourselves in a sense.  That the machine is slowly taking over our intellect and we do not even know that it is occuring.  But who is the machine? The machine is us evidently.  We control what is put into it, we control how we use it, we control when we use it.  If we do not use the machine, the machine does not use us.  Wesch’s ending statement is that we humans are the machines.

            All authors had the same ideology on our centuries technological revolution.   All our progress in technology is assisting our everyday living patterns.  It has brought a new insight into our future and has broadened our intelligence and the way we think.  On the contrary, many thinkers have a negative connotation towards our societies progress.  They believe that technology is diminishing our own thinking patterns and our own self-thought.  This may be true, but only time and the more our technology evolves will tell.

            Our society today would not be able to survive without technology.  That is evidently what our future generations are being born into.  Those in the future will not know what it is to cuddle up with a nice book at night; they will be cuddling up to their kindle.  The future generations will not know what it is like to run over to the neighbor’s house to see if they are home to play a game of kickball.  The future generation will not know how to have a normal face-to-face conversation without technology being a distraction.  The Internet and the advancement in technology helps define us, but we are losing our self-creativity and fulfillment.  We make the creations on this earth, the creations do not make us, that is what we are neglecting the most.  The freest mind is the most powerful one.

Your not beautiful thats why your so beautiful

Shakespeare uses the same tone as Collins "Litany" because they both degrade their loved ones.  They both say how their is more beauty out there in the world than their beloved women, but you would think to say that they don't think anything else is more beautiful.  Although, in the end they describe that their really is nothing as beautiful than the lack their of the beauty that is so superficial to the common eye.

Words with Sl

sleep
slumber
slam
sloth
sling
slut
slur
slit
slick
slum
slump
slow
sly

WTF?! Ipad

Meddy finds this video relevant to our class because of our assignments that have fallen within the structuring of our class.  We have worked many weeks as a class on how technology is a NEED in todays society, and is corrupting our future generations.  This video is extremely relevant to our thesis because this child is not finding an ordinary magazine as entertaining as the Ipad.  Just goes to show that technology is slowly taking over and is working its way to the younger generations which will be much more reliant on technology.

Is it really nothing?

Shakespeares commentary on Much Ado About Nothing does not really have to do with nothing.  Through Act 1 and parts of Act 2, it is clearly evident that Shakespeare is trying to show the love of Beatrice and Benedick to the audience.  These characters will not only bring us to the comical climax along with other primary characters, but will also bring a spin to the premise of the play.

Project video

See Nelson or Chris's Blog

The Cold Wrath of Beatrice

"I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than hear a man tell me he loves me."  The animalistic qualities of this quote supplement Beatrice's dislike of the three words I Love You.  Every woman in her life time is longing for those words to be said to her by a man.  Beatrice would rather hear a noise that is nothing but irritating to a regular person, than to hear a man say they love her because she is "disgusted" by the idea of love.  In the end, Beatrice does ultimately want love in her life and she gains it through Benedick.

Life Saver or Ruiner?

Caffeine is a commonly known “drug” in today’s society.  It gives a high and an exuberance of energy through a cup of coffee, can of soda, or even a single pill.  Without caffeine, many cannot continue through with their day, let alone start it.  It is their first go to in the morning and the rest of their day and after their simultaneous “crash” they reach out yet again for another cup of their medicine.  Coffee was all the rage years ago and to older generations, but now energy drinks are the new constant.  There were few energy drinks before Red Bull came about, but when it did it came with a bang.

Red Bull is the epitome of our society.  Although there is only one flavor of Red Bull, the drink is still making a lasting imprint on its consumers. With the cooling, refreshing colors Navy/Light Blue and Silver. Along with the red bulls to assert the vibrancy and the brands identity is a very compelling attribute to the buyers eye.  The colors red, white, and blue portrayed, are the main components to the image of the drink because they represent the colors of the United States.  Therefore, Red Bull is none other than the energy drink of America. 

Red Bull is still a high selling consumer product even through its negative media attention it is receiving. The drink contains a high amount of chemicals in which that compare to highly addictive drugs.  A study conducted in 2007 by American researchers posed that within healthy people drinking a red bull a day raised their blood pressure five to ten percent in one week.  Health restrictions are highly advised towards those with any heart defects or high blood pressure, as it will increase the risks of heart disease.  Red bull representatives stated that the experiment observed increase in cardiovascular complications was not much different than the effects associated with a regular cup of coffee.

Red bull is widely known throughout the world.  The product is sold to about one hundred countries world-wide, and banned from countries such as France, Denmark and Norway do to its high caffeine levels.  The actual caffeine level in Red Bull can vary depending on country, as some countries have legal restrictions on how much caffeine is allowed in drinks.

Red Bull was created to increase the stimulus in the brain for those who are subjected to great physical force.  The drink has become an attraction to athletes because they are attracted to the incentive it provides. Athletes that I have a personal experience with live off of the drink.  They have about four or more a day to keep their constant level of energy for their long, work enduring days.  For myself, when I know I am going to have a long study night, I will grab a Red Bull because I know in order to have a lasting attention span, I need the caffeine of the drink to keep me awake.

The drink is consumed casually as well in social settings.  Many mix the drink with alcohol related substances commonly because of the taste, but there are greater affects than what reach the surface.  Because alcohol is a depressant, the caffeine mixture in Red Bull negates it. When the drink is mixed with alcohol the feeling of being more awake and alert arises which may cause you to drink more than one normally would, resulting in a possible overdose of alcohol.  It is highly prohibited to mix any variety of alcohol with Red Bull because of the lasting negative affects it puts on the body.

Through Red Bulls positive and negative feedback, our society still feens off of its energy rush.  No matter what is said or found within the drink unbelievably, the products value is not decreasing as expected.  The producers of the product anticipate on Americas growing society to accept the health hazards of the drink and for the popularity of the drink to keep increasing.  Red Bull has resulted in many different health related damages and even deaths.  This will not stop the consumers of America until it happens to them.  Until now, The Red Bull company can count on the ever-expanding status of the energy drink.

The Betrayal

When Hero, a sweet young girl in the play Much Ado About Nothing is belied by her love Claudio for allegedly sleeping with another man, anyone with the utmost authority had belittled her.  Starting with her father who degraded her, beat her, and pronounced his child dead when he belied she acted shamefully. Another male authoritive figure, Don John who committed the wrongful crime of untruthfulness, by hiring Borrachio to tell Claudio that Hero was being unfaithful.  Hero might speak to the character Don John through Shakespeare’s Sonnet number XCIX.

            “Thus forward violet thus did I chide: sweet thief, whence didst though steal thy sweet that smells” (XCIX 1&2).  These lines resemble Hero telling Don John that she once had the love of Claudio in which they were supposed to marry. Don John was a thief and took that love away from her, by creating that fictional story of her.  This is a critical scene in Much Ado About Nothing because this is when Hero’s affection for Claudio is being taken away when he leaves her at the alter after a public scene of humility, by revealing to friends and family that Hero was disloyal to him when they reached the point of saying their “I do’s”.

            “In my loves veins though hast too grossly dyed”(XCIX 5). Hero is relaying this loss about Claudio.  That Claudio no longer has love for Hero.  When he heard from Borrachio that Hero was being unfaithful and sleeping with another man, Claudio was heart broken and lost all respect for Hero.  Therefore, she says that the love that they once had is no longer running through his veins.  His affection for her has died, and this is Don Johns fault.  Although, we all know even when Claudio goes to Hero’s grave, that he is still deeply in love with her and his affection for her had never gone away because when he finds out that Hero was wrongfully accused, he is overwhelmed with happiness and his love for her becomes more clearly evident.

            Don John successfully takes everything away from Hero that she prided herself over.  How she was sweet and loyal and found love just from her compelling eyes. “And to his robbery anne’xd thy breath; But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth.  A vengeful canker eat him up to death.”(XCIX 11-13). This is Hero saying to Don John that he conquered the air and breaths she once breathed, he took the floor from beneath her feet.  Now, Don John believes he has grown from his disloyal acts and has pride in what he has done by ruining the lives of such a fortunate couple, even though he cowered away from everyone, he still felt a sense of accomplishment in is actions.  He put Hero to shame by mortifying her at her own wedding, ending with her supposed death.  But with vengeance, may something get to the death of him.  Karma will turn around and bite him and everything he stood for will turn on him despite the reasoning for his actions.

            Hero’s emotions were once enlightened when Claudio was in her life.  She used to see love and color surrounding her, reds were redder, blues were bluer and now she sees shades of grey because her love has been stolen from her.  She used to see flowers appearing out of thin air and now they are slowly dying around her.  For a girl that once had it all, just like that it was taken away from her.  “More flowers I noted, yet I none could see. But sweet or colour it had stol’n from thee” (XCIX 14& 15).  Hero tells Don John that he has taken all the color and scenery out of her life, and that is what most people live for, for that imagery.  She tells him that that imagery is now deceased from her mind because he took the only person from her that created that image for her.

            Hero’s speech reflects the feelings that she did not reveal to anyone around her.  She solemnly keeps her emotions hidden and does not try to publicize her innocence.  In this situation, I would not have done what Hero did in the film or in the play, I would explain to those who matter the truth and say it in the way that I related her true feelings to the sonnet. 

            In the Sonnet, Hero is trying to change Don John.  She is trying to make it knows that he is an impostor and a thief.  She is trying to relay the actuality of the predicament that she is in and trying to show Don Johns true colors.  Luckily for her, his true colors are shown.  Through her forceful perseverance, she let it be known that she did not commit the falsified act of deceitfulness to her lover Claudio.

            This Sonnet directly coincides with the scene when Claudio disowns his potential wife and how she reacts to the humility.  The sonnet explains her emotional spiral from ecstatic happiness to a form of agony.  The same emotions apply to Claudio as well.  He never wanted to lose is his love for Hero and he never did.  Her innocence just needed to be proven in order for them to prolong their eternal love.

Red Bull taking over America?

Caffeine is a commonly known “drug” in today’s society.  It gives a high and an exuberance of energy through a cup of coffee, can of soda, or even a single pill.  Without caffeine, many cannot continue through with their day, let alone start it.  It is their first go to in the morning and the rest of their day and after their simultaneous “crash” they reach out yet again for another cup of their medicine.  Coffee was all the rage years ago and to older generations, but now energy drinks are the new constant.  There were few energy drinks before Red Bull came about, but when it did it came with a bang.

Red Bull is the epitome of our society.  With the cooling, refreshing colors Navy/Light Blue and Silver. Along with the red bulls to assert the vibrancy and the brands identity is a very compelling attribute to the buyers eye.  The colors red, white, and blue portrayed, are the main components to the image of the drink because they represent the colors of the United States.  Therefore, Red Bull is none other than the energy drink of America. 

Red Bull is still a high selling consumer product even through its negative media attention it is receiving. The drink contains a high amount of chemicals in which that compare to highly addictive drugs.  Athletes that I have a personal experience with live off of the drink.  They have about ten a day to keep their constant level of energy for their long, work enduring days.  For myself, when I know I am going to have a long study night, I will grab a Red Bull because I know in order to have a lasting attention span, I need the caffeine of the drink to keep me awake.

Through Red Bulls positive and negative feedback, our society still feens off of its energy rush.  No matter what is said or found within the drink unbelievably, the products value is not decreasing as expected.  The producers of the product anticipate on Americas growing society to accept the health hazards of the drink and for the popularity of the drink to keep increasing.  Red Bull has resulted in many different health related damages and even deaths.  This will not stop the consumers of America until it happens to them.  Until now, The Red Bull company can count on the ever-expanding status of the energy drink.

Imaged Words

Images are words.  They explain feelings and emotions that words cannot.  You cannot see sadness when you just simply write the word out of a piece of paper.  You cannot see happiness either.  You can affiliate those words in your head with a picture, but you can not physically see the happiness or sadness on their faces.  Images can tell a whole story and along with the images you can make up your own meaning and own thoughts about what that image can possibly mean.  Words and images I believe are equivalent, can both tell stories in the same exact way, but also different.

Essay Number 2

I felt as if I could not write my essay about Shakespears sonnet to the best of my ability because I was not comfortable with the task.  I wanted to formulate was the sonnet said to perfectly describe what Heros thoughts and feelings were along with the people around her.  Although I felt that it was a bit choppy and my ideas needed to be drawn out because it is too short and too the point.

Leonato against Hero

Leonato rejects his daughter because he is overwhelmed by the claim that Hero is being unfaithful.  He is outnumbered by Claudio and his followers, therefore he sided with the majority.  Claudio was much in love with Hero and had granted proof along with the rest of his followers.  Leonato could not disagree with these claims because they were very prominent claims.  It is not normal that Leonato rejected his child because no matter what a child does, majority of the time the father is supposed to always support you in your choices even if they are wrong.  Leonato should not have disowned his daughter in the manor that he did.

Sonnet Number II

Quadrant 1:  As years pass and your body is being aged, your youth is soon to be tattered and withered.
Quadrant 2:  When asked about where all the beauty one once had, it is now gone and thrown away
Quadrant 3:  Reached full beauty and now they want to procreate and give that beauty to a new life

Claudio and Hero Fall in Love?

Claudio and Hero fell in love when Claudio is amazed by the beauty of Hero.  When they first gazed into each others eyes, Claudio says it was like "Cupid hit me in the eye" when he first saw Hero.  When they kissed the stars aligned in the sky because of the love they just found in one another.

What is Masquerade?

The word masquerade means to me, the symbol of secrecy. One can become anyone they want to be when they are hiding behind a mask.  There is dishonesty, denial, and mystery.  Although, one can only be this unknown character for that one night.  Soon as they take off that mask they are still themselves, either a better or worse person than they portrayed to be.

Speaking With Intelligence and Power

I think their was a major difference between viewing the video of Taylor Mali speak, and reading what he was saying on the screen.  When you visualize what he is saying, you can see the sarcasm and the wittiness  of his sentences.  When you read the words it is much more powerful.  Some were capitalized, some words were bigger than others, it gave a different feel.


I think what "flash" even means is the power and knowledge your words contain when you speak.  How you cant be afraid to speak with authority and intelligence.  In the end, those words will always teach you who you are and you cant question who you present yourself to be.


I think Dickinson's poem is "fresh" because it made the poem sound in a sense, creepy.  How the words slant, lies, and man be blind make the pitch of your voice different, it really gets into your head.


In "Litany" Billy Collins impacted me because he makes something about love and beautiful imagery into a comical reign of uncertainty.  By uncertainty I mean that he turned a beautiful poem into anything he wanted just by the choice of words.


Billy Collins's poem and Shakespears "My misstress eyes" both show sarcasm, but they speak beautifully of their love in a round about way.  They did not speak in an appealing fashion towards the women, and no woman wished to be talked about in that way either, but in the end they still talked about their love and that is the soul of both poems.

The Reader in the Text

The reader owns a text he/she is reading by the way they personally react to the piece.  If the writing is relatable to their own lives, or if they could visually see themselves writing the same way or saying the same thing.

In my opinion, a way a reader participates in a text is again through their reaction to the piece.  If they feel they can correlate their writing with the author.  Their response to a question the author is posing(if their is one).  Even grammar corrections or sentence structure.  Maybe how the reader would have composed the sentence instead of how the writer did.


The reader surely belongs in the text.  The main reason for the composition of an article, essay, story, book etc, is for an individual to read it.  The writer writes for the reaction of the reader, and how others will read he/she's writing.

Rhetoric vs. Argument

Rhetoric is the art of speaking to others through the language of persuasion along with convincing.  Rhetoric can be looked at negatively because it can be an exaggeration from the truth.  Although, it could have a positive outlook.  Through literature and stories, rhetoric is what opens ones mind into the illusions and imagery one can not physically visualize.

An argument is a dispute between two or more parties where they are verbalizing their opinions on a subject.  A reasoning for an argument is to defend and support ones opinion on the matter.

Materialities of Writing

1.  What felt different to me while writing this assignment in crayon was that I really had to collect my thoughts and figure out what format or how I was going to write my response before I relayed it on the page.  I first thought that writing with crayon might be a bit juvenile, but it was fun! Although you have to be very careful because their is no delete button.  Therefore, most of my thoughts were compressed because I didn't want to write them all out.

2. Activity

3.The culture that only wrote in crayon would be very vibrant.  Colors would be your main focus instead of the material that is trying to be portrayed to the reader.  I also think that that culture would be very straightforward.  It is much harder to elaborate your ideas on piece of paper with a crayon writing everything out as opposed to typing on the computer.  I think the culture would be proud of the work they have accomplished in the writing field.  It would be difficult to write a prolonged story, essay, poem etc, so when they do write something in general I think its a very good accomplishment for them.

4.  I would like to venture into more creative writing.  I enjoyed dissecting the Emily Dickinson essay and writing my thoughts and feelings about the piece.  And try to experience writing that is much different then the general graded essay.

 

The Butterfly and the Ca Coon

      In the commercial, when the butterfly breaks out of the ca coon, it symbolizes the deaf girl breaking out of her shell and for her to stop being wrapped up in the rejection she faces from her peers. She is breaking away from those who told her that she could and should not play the violin even though she is deaf.   Also, releasing herself from the suffocating feeling that a ca coon presents itself as.
      When the butterfly flies away, it is the deaf girl not only breaking out of her discomfort, but fleeing away from the rejection she experienced.  It symbolizes that she is taking her own path and she is going to do the things that she aspires to do in her life and not what others tell her she cannot do.