Paper Reflection

I think the biggest strength of my paper is the information about the different energy sources.  I had the best AP Enviro teacher in the county, probably even the state so I was able to utilize what I learned in that class on this paper.

The formatting got messed up when I opened my .odt document on Dirac's computers, so that could definitely use some fixing.  I could have focused more on the anti-advertisement, but I think my paper is more effective the way it is.

Keep in mind that a lot of the information in this essay is stuff that I've learned in my Enviro class.

Class Blogger Reflection

I tried to focus on what we did in class that day and to further what we were talking about, images.  I included images in my post because that's what we talked about in class.  Being class blogger did nothing to change my perspective of the classroom.

post secret thing

1.  I knew exactly what I wanted my secret to be so I opened up the first magazine I took and looked for an ad that was appropriate.  I found the perfect one.

2.  I guess my audience is the class.  Part of the reason I shared this secret is so that everyone can have a good laugh.

3.  My secret directly affected my choices in finding an ad.  I knew exactly what I was looking for.

Peer Review Review

I definitely like the way peer review went today.  It helps to be critiqued on stuff that you've already written to see how well you're presenting your ideas, but it also helps a lot to have your ideas/draft critiqued as a whole.  Sometimes you can get lost while trying to put words down on a rough draft, it's nice to have it critiqued by an outsider who has no involvement in the draft.

Surfing wipeout

I began surfing about six years ago.  Almost every year since then has involved a trip to Nicaragua with my dad and brother.  As we progressed in surfing we moved further up the coast of Nicaragua; the further North you go the less people there are, but the quality of the waves increase.  About two years ago we were staying at a prime surf spot in Nicaragua.  We were also staying there at the prime time, a huge swell was moving in and the waves were getting big.  The waves were so big one afternoon that the normal crowd of about 30 or 40 had gone in and the only people in the water were two older surfers on semi-guns(longer boards used to surf bigger waves).  I was on the fence about going in as I was hungry and tired, but a seemingly perfect wave rolled through so I got out there.  The paddle out was surprisingly easy as I completely avoided most of the waves.  As I sat in the lineup I realized why nobody was surfing.  The waves were significantly bigger and gnarlier than they appeared, there was also so much water moving around it was impossible to sit in one spot for more than five seconds.  By the time I realized this I was already about 50 yards out to sea.  I paddled against the rip current to get back into the lineup and was motivated by the excitement of an outside set(bigger set of waves that breaks farther out then normal).  I was able to get into the first wave, but there was so much water moving out to sea and so much wind that I got held up at the top and had no other choice but to airdrop down to the bottom.  This wave was definitely the heaviest wave that I've been on, it was about two to two and a half times the height of this classroom and had a barrel(hollow portion of a wave) big enough to hide a truck.  I was in the lip of the wave when I realized I had only one choice.  When I hit the bottom my knees buckled and I made a last ditch effort to dive to a safer place, there was none.  I got ragdolled around in complete darkness for about 40 seconds, holding your breath during a wipeout is much harder than holding your breath while calm, this 40 seconds would be about 2 and half minutes if calm.  The chaos finally stopped so I began to swim to where I thought the surface was.  I was just about out of breath when I finally reached the surface where I was met with a wave breaking on my head, three more seconds and I would've been dead.  Anyway, I made it safely to shore and promptly called it quits for the day.

Response to review

I'm going to change the way my paper reads.  Right now it's almost entirely a biography, but it will become an analysis.  I will argue why Feynman is an icon, at least in the science world.  I don't think any of the suggestions weren't helpful, but some are hard to follow.  I'm not sure if I like this response technique.  I think it helps more with a discovery style draft, which I consider mine to be.  I think it can serve as a guideline or even a separate prompt focused at your essay. 

Peer Review

The peer review really helped.  I was given a really good idea of where to go with my paper that I will definitely use.  I asked how Max would tie the image and the book together if he was writing my paper.  He gave me really good input that I'll use.  He had a really good idea to move parts of my paper around to make it focus more on the assignment.  I had never even thought of this before, but I'm going to do it because I think it will completely change my paper. 

Tupac's poem tries to explain Van Gogh's interaction with the world.  While Van Gogh pours his heart and emotion into his paintings in an attempt to satisfy the world, Tupac explains that people appreciated his work, but not him as a person.  Van Gogh's sole goal was to satisfy his audience, but he didn't receive this kind of attention back.  His audience appreciated his work, but not his life or what he had been through.  While Van Gogh sought to satisfy the people, the people didn't appreciate him, only his art. 

peer review

I'm not quite sure what my paper is analyzing.  It's probably going to be about Richard Feynman.  I might write about him and a book that he wrote, I don't know.  I chose Feynman because I thought he was a pretty famous physicist, but apparently not too many people know about him.  I'm familiar with him and he's very interesting so I figured I would write about him.  My partner asked "Who's Richard Feynman?"  She actually gave me the idea to write about him and his book so that worked out well.  It definitely helped to give me a new outlook on the paper.

I'm not sure how I'm going to approach the paper yet.  I think I'm going to argue why he is the most influential physicist of our time and how he played a critical role in most of the developments and research of the time.

Class Blog

Today's class started off really well.  The stress that our first essay brought was about to be relieved, there was nice music playing, and all we had to do was reflect on our finished essays. 







The lighthearted mood turned very somber with the announcement of a second essay.  The 7-8 page requirement was a real downer, thinking of the effort and time needed to write about twice what we just wrote was very saddening.  To be fair though, if I would ever consider a writing assignment enjoyable or fun, it would probably be this paper.  Arguing for something is always the most fun way to write and arguing about an image or collection of images shouldn't be too hard.

With talk of image analysis and then the Middle East I thought this picture would be shown.  I was a little disappointed as this picture is very controversial and has two very different sides to it.  If you're curious, the story according to the Wall Street Journal "A Palestinian woman whose house has been occupied by Jewish settlers argued with Israelis who came to celebrate Jerusalem Day in the mainly Arab neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem."  And the story according to one of the guys in the photo, "This is false propaganda. This is a case of a good photographer who documented our faces, mostly mine, at the right second. As we sang and celebrated in Sheikh Jarrah, the Arab woman came out of a house, banging on a pan, and tried to disturb our celebrations, so we raised our voices and sang louder as she came nearer. We did not yell at her or mock her. We simply tried to keep on celebrating and she tried to disturb us. The picture does not show several other women who banged on pots and tried to interfere with our celebrations."

I figured, since we were on the topic of images and sometimes needing captions sometimes not, I would post some powerful pictures that I find interesting.

  

Ok, those are enough depressing pictures.  Since we also talked about space, I figure I'll move the focus there.  Most of the cool space images you see are taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.  To see how powerful the telescope really was, astronomers pointed it into seemingly empty space.  This was the result.

 

The image is far too small here to really do it justice, but every little tiny blur of light you see is a galaxy.  To put that in perspective, the Milky Way galaxy (that's where we are) is so large, if you were to fly from one end to the other in a 747(assuming you could) it would take around 12.5 billion years, by that time there would be no Milky Way galaxy.

If you want to see more cool space pictures go here.  http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

Also, if you were interested in today's discussion on the representation of color in these images go here. http://hubblesite.org/gallery/behind_the_pictures/meaning_of_color/
If you weren't interested, then this is probably a good site for you. http://justinbieberphotos.com/
 

These are three martial arts rednecks with very interesting hair styles.  I don't think there are many words to describe this photo.
It's composed in a portrait style to focus on these outstanding men.  The lack of shirts, ridiculous hair, yin-yang tattoos, and the expressions on their faces all draw attention.
I think the photo is about the awesomeness of these three martial arts masters.
I don't think too highly of martial arts so that just adds to the ridiculous nature of this photo. I also find it funny that they think they look really intimidating, they really do think they look cool.

pillars of creation

intro/conclusion

I don't think there is anything too special about my introduction.  I kind of just went over what I was going to talk about and threw in a few little extras like statements about technology and how it affected me.  I revised my conclusion yesterday and I feel like it is much better now.  Before it was a bit formulaic and boring, a revision was much needed.  I think it now it's a much better summary and analysis of what I was writing about in my essay.  I feel like it added significance to what was being talked about during the essay.  With this added significance it answers any "so what?" question a reader may have.

Peer Review

I liked the peer review because it gave me an outsider's perspective on my essay.  I was able to see and understand how it appeared to other people.  It also pointed out things that I knew needed to be changed, that definitely helps to know that something isn't working.  I will definitely be changing my conclusion and adding a few more examples to support my essay.  I'm definitely going to keep my reddit paragraph(and my love for reddit) the same despite my peer being a 4chan fan.

Workshop

The workshop actually helped a lot.  While I was writing my discovery draft I was having trouble tying everything together, I found it hard to focus in and stay on topic.  My group was able to give me really good advice, to tie everything together I need to relate it back to myself and write about how the different forms of media affected me.  As the draft sits now, it's more about how the different forms of media affect people in general.  I found it really helpful to get an outside perspective on my idea, it definitely helped me narrow in on a topic.  My next draft will be filled with more details and will develop a topic and main idea a little bit better. 

Didion's love for John Wayne teaches her a lot about being a woman.  She makes an effort to please him by being womanly.  Wayne is the stereotypical manly man, he's a tough guy who grew up in a tough place.  He embodies everything that women, or at least Didion, look for in a man.  The gender roles follow the stereotypes of both men and women.

I would say that the internet had the most significant impact on my life, mostly the website Reddit.  Reddit has helped me discover my love for science and math.  I've learned many life lessons through the stories of other people's experiences.

Shitty First Draft

Anne Lamott's "Shitty First Drafts" gives an in-depth look at the writing process.  A quick look past the humor reveals the work, effort, and time that goes into composing an essay.  Each additional step makes you realize how much actually goes into writing a good essay. 


My writing consists of a single draft.  This draft does not under-go any revision or even any rereading.  The first time it will ever be read in its entirety is when it is sitting in the hands of the grader.  Despite the lack of multiple drafts, I've always found my writing to be pretty decent as long as I have an understanding of the topic.  The reason I write only one draft is because I can't stand to work on the same thing over and over, I hate repetition.  Once I finish an essay, I never want to look at it again.

My writing is a comedic act.  It is critical and sarcastic and will only be gone through once.  It is free to take any direction it pleases, although sometimes it might follow a path too long.  I will criticize anything I feel can be made fun of to make a point, despite any controversy it may be bring.  My way is the highway, if you don't like it you can leave.  Don't find it funny?  That's your problem.