Sunday, December 11, 2016

FINAL ESSAY 
For the finals on Friday, I did not feel so good about the essay. Having little time I felt that I was being pressured. Maybe I just need to practice more in writing an essay under a short time. I don't know. But I didn't like how my essay turned out so I decided to rewrite it. 

Emerson once said “Trust Thyself.” He refers to the self-motivational mindset that tells one to hearken to their instincts, mind and heart. Emerson’s ‘’Self-Reliance” portrays the qualities of a poet, to do what you want to do. The poet, Rushdie, elucidates in his quote on what portrays a poet, one who is imperil, one who points at frauds, starts feuds and one who transforms the world and stops it from being stolid.

In Rushdies quote, the main theme of it, is to be imperial, to take risks, to do the unimpossible, possible. To challenge yourself in shaping this world from being stolid. The tone of this quote is confidence. To take a challenge, risks,  takes a lot of confidence.

In addition, taking a risk takes a lot of confidence. One can either agree or disagree towards your thoughts and opinions. Which can create a backlash. But as poets we have the right to speak for ourselves. We have the right to speak out on our minds. For instance, in “The Right to you Opinion’’ it discusses how no-one has the right to stop us from thinking and saying whatever we want. As poets we have different ideas and it takes confidence to share those ideas that may lead you at risk. As poets we want to share our ideas and grab their attention to the important things. For instance, in “A Modest Proposal,” by Jonathan Swift. Swift advises that eating children and selling them in markets as food is a solution to aiding the Irish in their economic problems. Clearly, he was trying to grab the audience attention, that there is a big problem in Ireland. That there is a prodigious amount of children starving in their country and that no one is aware of this crisis.......

Friday, December 9, 2016

WOW, THAT WAS QUICK
Can't believe finals coming, really nervous about today's final. Don't know what it's going to be based on, but i'm really nervous😐

Thursday, December 8, 2016

 REVIEW/NOTES
Stuff we read:

  • "The Laughing Heart" By Charles Bukowski
  1. Be optimistic and find the good in every situation
  2. Be happy and stay positive, seeing the glass half full than half empty, to find the light in all darkness
  3. To accept the unexpected situations and use it as a learning experience.
  • "The Right To Your Opinion" By Jamie Whyte
  1. Whyte enlisted the many ways in which one misuses the phrase "the right to your opinion" this shows that a person wrongfully has believed the idea that their opinion is true. "The Right To Your Opinion" shows that when a person is told that they have a right and they try to pursue it, then get denied it has then violated their rights. "The Right To Your Opinion" is a misleading statement because you are not necessary guaranteed that you are able to do certain things.
  2. Argumentation-search for truth
  3. Euphemism- to make someone seem distasteful.
  4. Entitlement- obligation
  • "A Modest Proposal" By Jonathon Swift
  1. Meets the criteria of a satire. Swift advises that eating children and selling them in markets as food is a solution to aiding the Irish in their economic problems. He is clearly saying that people should be aware that there is a prodigious amount of children starving in their country and that no one is aware of this crisis.  
  • "Conscience Of A Hacker" AKA The Hacker's Manifesto
  1. All adults criticize us and sees us all alike.
  2. Commit errors because we are all alike.
  3. No one can stop us from being alike.
  • "Politics and The English Language" By George Orwell
  1.  language is "ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”  he is clearly trying to say that we make many awful mistakes when writing and are habits of using language is easy for us to make foolish thoughts.
  • "Self-Reliance" By Ralph Waldo Emerson
  1. Trust Thyself
  2. https://www.mindmeister.com/778560104
  • "A Sound of Thunder"
  • "Immigrants in our own land"
  1. Expectation vs Reality
  2. Prison
  3. The land of opportunity
  • Ethos, Logos and Pathos
  1. Ethos- speakers credibility, persuade audience by reason Ex: formal dress, the way one speaks, "As a doctor, I am qualified to tell you that this course of treatment will likely generate the best results."
  2. Logos - Logic, using text or rhetoric Ex:"History has shown time and again that absolute power corrupts absolutely."
  3. Pathos- an appeal to emotion, have an emotional response Ex: "You should consider another route. I heard that that street is far more dangerous and ominous at night than during the daytime."
  • Extrinsic vs Intrinsic
  1. Extrinsic- to do things you don't want to do, in which people reward you for it. Motivation from the outside. 
  2. Intrinsic- to do things you want to do. Motivation in the inside.
  • Logical Fallacies
  1. Ad Hominem- attacking a person instead of their argument Ex: how can you say you are raw vegan when your eating cooked vegetables
  2. Straw man- "misrepresents a position to make it seem weaker than it is"
  3. Red Herring- something intended to be misleading, distraction from what is truly important Ex: "When someone changes the subject in an attempt of avoiding the question."
  4. Post hoc ergo proper hoc- after this, therefore results to this...
  5. Slippery Slope- a person asserts that some event must inevitably follow from another without any argument for the inevitability of the event in question. Ex: legalizing gay marriage in California can lead to other states like Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky  to legalize gay marriage.
  • Taboo Language -  words or phrases that are to not be acceptable in society 
  1. Bad Words- F**k, B***h
  2. Catharsis- the process of releasing emotions
  3. Syllogism- A simple form of logic, finding truth or validity
  • Satire- the use of irony, humor, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices. 
  • Denotation vs Connotation
  1. Denotation- literal meaning of a word Ex: It's so fresh outside
  2. Connotation- socially popular meaning of the word

Monday, December 5, 2016

SOMETHING INTERESTING
There was three minutes until the final bell rings. As I rushed to class, and as I passed by the 600s, you know how there's a fence behind the 600s. Well, I saw two teens who were dressed with a long white tee, probably an XL and really baggy shorts that look like pants, with long socks and converse. They were probably gangsters or as I like to call them the wanna be gangsters. I saw them jump the fence. One of them almost got their  shorts stuck, it was kinda funny. Well, as I was rushing to class I wondered, how would it be to not care about school? How does it not hurt them to miss school? ...

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Who Understands Me But Me By Jimmy Santiago Baca 

They turn the water off, so I live without water,
they build walls higher, so I live without treetops,
they paint the windows black, so I live without sunshine,
they lock my cage, so I live without going anywhere,
they take each last tear I have, I live without tears,
they take my heart and rip it open, I live without heart,
they take my life and crush it, so I live without a future,
they say I am beastly and fiendish, so I have no friends,
they stop up each hope, so I have no passage out of hell,
they give me pain, so I live with pain,
they give me hate, so I live with my hate,
they have changed me, and I am not the same man,
they give me no shower, so I live with my smell,
they separate me from my brothers, so I live without brothers,
who understands me when I say this is beautiful?
who understands me when I say I have found other freedoms?

I cannot fly or make something appear in my hand,
I cannot make the heavens open or the earth tremble,
I can live with myself, and I am amazed at myself, my love,
my beauty,
I am taken by my failures, astounded by my fears,
I am stubborn and childish,
in the midst of this wreckage of life they incurred,
I practice being myself,
and I have found parts of myself never dreamed of by me,
they were goaded out from under rocks in my heart
when the walls were built higher,
when the water was turned off and the windows painted black.
I followed these signs
like an old tracker and followed the tracks deep into myself,
followed the blood-spotted path,
deeper into dangerous regions, and found so many parts of myself,
who taught me water is not everything,
and gave me new eyes to see through walls,
and when they spoke, sunlight came out of their mouths,
and I was laughing at me with them,
we laughed like children and made pacts to always be loyal,
who understands me when I say this is beautiful?

After reading "Immigrants in our own land," another poem that I found interesting by Jimmy Santiago Baca is "Who understands me but me. " I found this poem interesting because he is sending us a message to the readers, that you should not let others judge you but to look inside and judge yourself. 

Thursday, December 1, 2016

IMMIGRANTS IN OUR OWN LAND

Impression: My overall impression of this poem is that immigrants seek for a better life, for the land of opportunity but in the end those dreams that they seeked for it just turns out to nothing.

Theme: I agree with Jessica Parra that the theme of this poem is expectation vs reality. Immigrants believe that America is the land of opportunity. The land where their dreams will be fulfilled. A place for a better life. But in reality, once they arrive to this new world their expectation turns out to nothing.

Tone: Jimmy Santiago Baca sets the tone in a depressing way. How immigrants carry on a dream at first but in the end their dreams crush.

MY MAD DREAM OF AN ESSAY
Remember that time you ate that spicy chicken just before you went to bed on the night before the big wedding? Oh, that weird dream you had about the 2016 presidential election. When you woke up you couldn't quite remember the frightening details, but after reading 'Self-Reliance" and "A Sound of Thunder"it's all coming back to you now.

The dream started badly.You were in line with your family at a zoo waiting to be sent to jail. Everywhere you looked there were posters of president-elect yo-mama, looking like a crazy monkey who could eat a whole man. Suddenly, there was Ralph Waldo Emerson telling you, "Nothing can bring you peace but yourself." You realized that you have something to contribute to the world so you decided to stroll. But it wasn't easy. First you had to put on a fancy dress and shoes and then you had to make a bike to back in time to the time square so you could convince people to learn about the candidates and the social issues.

But right there in the times square there was a giant gorilla and it started screaming at everyone. People started to run. You grabbed a car from a nearby light post and yelled "Do what you want, not what others want." Everyone stopped and listened, so you kept going.
VIGNETTE 
Music is a feeling you can't see it but you can hear it. There are different types of music jazz, rap, rock, indie etc. Just the feeling of music sets your mood . It sets you to a different world. Music is vocal and instruments or just both, are combined in such a way that produces beauty in such a form. It brings harmony and expresses emotion.