Imagine

This was probably the hardest blog for me yet. I'm not the best in analyzing songs, and I hate politics so finding a song that goes along with the issues of today's society hasn't been something that seemed to catch my total interest. Once I got started on it tonight, I realized that it wasn't so bad.

 Being included in one of the world's most famous bands at one point, the Beatles, John Lennon continues to create inspirational music, and I believe that "Imagine" is one song that can connect to the world today.

A lot of people live life in their straight-forward lifestyle. They are used to having food on the table, living the perfect life not realizing that there are people out there who don't get the things we all get, who don't live the life we do. And when Lennon's says:

"Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world..."

This made me realize that the world is pretty greedy, maybe not the world, but America. He said it perfectly, "Imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can." There are so many people who believe that they can't live without any of their possessions and that those are what life is about, and that's what the world has come to. All we care about the things, the money, and that makes us greedy. If we were a world of "brotherhood" and honestly "sharing all the world.." think of how much we could provide for one another and how many people would be better off in the world. That's not the case though, and it won't ever be.

Another verse that really stood out to me was that I believed really stood out to me was when he sang the lines:

"Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace..."

The world is so caught up in fighting. There have been wars that go on for so long, and no to mention pointless wars. If we truly did imagine a world without countries, everything would be as one, which is what he says in his main lyrics--" I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will be as one." We don't think that way, we think of ourselves as seperate, each out country, each fighting for ourselves. Then where does the peace come in? It doesn't. We fight because of religion too, constantly. There have been so many problems because of the fact that some people didn't think that others should follow a faith, which in return created fights. We have to work together and find peace.

I just believe that Lennon is an amazing musician. The songs that he writes are so moving, and I just found this one to fit this blog post perfectly. The world would be a better place if we had the lives he mentioned, and didn't only fight for our own individual selves all the time. The world can be selfish, whether its the country itself or a person. It doesn't matter, but we could have the potential to "be as one".

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one
Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Needles

Long, pointy, silver—needle; everyone has to experience them at some point, even if they cause fear. The doctors don't let you get away with it; they just stick that sharp point into your skin and cause deliberate pain.

Growing up I would get shots all the time and be fine with them, it wasn’t until one day when I had a thick, four-inch long needle jabbed into my knee. I had continuous knee pain and we couldn’t figure it out. My mom took me to a variety of doctors, but they just couldn’t come up with any results. One day I went to a sports medicine doctor who worked specifically with knee issues. He didn't say much. He was in the room and then out, the next thing I know he's injecting me with some dye to see how my knee will react in the MRI. I had no idea this was coming, because he didn't warn me. I was scared out of my mind, but there was no way of getting out of it now. He claimed that it wouldn't only take two seconds and then my knee would go numb. The only thing I can remember is the needle.

To this day I am extremely afrain of needles. It's gotten to the point where I have to have doctors hold me down when I get shots. Each time I go in and see the needle, I instantly remember the pain and then it freaks me out. I have no pain tolerance at all! I hate anything that hurts me, and just looking at a needle can actually make my arm sting. It's horrible, I hate it, and I hate needles. They are pointy, and they hurt! Not to mention that whatever they put in your arm doesn't feel good either, it hurts too.

It's crazy to think that a needle in my knee caused my fear, but it was honestly the largest needle I have ever seen in my life. I don't remember the amount of pain it created, but it's made me afraid of any sort of shot that I have to get now and needles. I hate them! They are scary!

Benedict Carey's Op-ed

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/health/19babies.html?src=me&ref=general

This article is about the fact that children under the age of two are learning nothing from sitting in front of a TV. Instead, children under the age of two learn in an environment where they can interact with objects or people. Since these children are still developing, they have a harder time understanding what they are watching. In fact, they don't necessarily understand much of anything they are watching. Parents argue that it is an escape for them, because they sometimes need that time for themselves to deal with work, shower, or other quick tasks at home. Unfortunately the best way to get these tasks done is by placing the children in front of a TV screen to keep them occupied. This is the cause of children not being taught to their fullest potential, and because of that parents are being advised to limit the amount of time they put their children in front of a TV.

This article is very well-written. It provides a variety of different statistics which helps their opinion become more plausible. Along with that, the article isn't too pushy, it advises, but doesn't say that this is something that you have to do. As a reader, I felt that the approach of Carey's opinion made his point come off in a more appreciated tone. He wasn't yelling at parents for what they were doing, or bashing them, instead he was bringing to attention the downfalls of children under the age of two watching TV. If he would have been criticizing what other parents were doing, then this essay would have been a harder read for parents because they could become really defensive, but he didn't do that. Therefore he made his opinion clear and positive, which provided a great op-ed.

Deaf vs. Hearing

Sound and Fury was a very unique movie that allowed for its viewers to really think about culture and what it means to live in a world that is so different from someone else’s. The main issue that was brought up in the movie was a cochlear implant. This is something that is implanted in your head and can make someone deaf have the ability to hear. Heather, a four-year-old girl, was debating getting a cochlear implant. She wanted to hear, talk on the phone, and communicate with her hearing friends and extended family. The problem that arose from Heather's idea of a cochlear implant was the fact that her entire family is deaf. Even with her family being deaf, I believe that Heather should have gotten the cochlear implant.

Growing up in today's society isn't always easy for people who can hear, let alone someone who is deaf. Heather wants to hear the sounds around her, and the cochlear implant would allow her to experience those sounds. It would be a little more difficult for Heather to learn English or any language, but she could still do it and perfect it with time. When you are a baby and get this implant, you have a much easier time learning to speak because you are learning the language just like all other babies. Heather could is still young enough that she could still learn the language, but she would just have a harder time because she would be less developed compared to other of her age.

Although this could benefit Heather, her family completely disagrees with her idea. They think that it's completely against their culture. She is born deaf, her family is deaf, why not stay deaf? That all makes sense, but if Heather has this opportunity, her parents should take into account the benefits that could come from a cochlear implant

Heather would have the chance to live the best of both worlds. She could use speech and along with that her native language, sign language. She would be able to have professions that aren't necessarily available to people who are deaf. It's sad to think that way, but the hearing world isn't forced to learn sign language so the majority doesn’t necessarily know how to sign. That means at malls, restaurants, gas stations, libraries, schools, and other public places, they won't always know how to sign and there would be a lack of communication.

Heather wouldn't be giving up her culture; she would just be gaining hearing. She would still need to use sign language at home, and therefore she is still staying actively involved in the "deaf world". It's similar in the way that sometimes people, who speak Spanish as their native language, learn how to speak English fluently, but at home still use Spanish whenever they speak. Heather would become bilingual and what a neat thing for her. She would have many more opportunities in the world because she can speak English and sign. Her parents might not agree with it, but if they set aside their feelings and think of Heather, maybe they would realize that this would be the best thing for Heather. It might make them upset, but she is still deaf, she just can speak too.

Even as the mother of Heather, she considered getting a cochlear implant but when she heard that it’s much harder for an adult she reconsidered. Not only did she reconsider for herself, but for Heather too. Parents can affect their kids a lot and that’s what I believe happened. They made it seem like it was such a bad idea and then they began to involve Heather in a world of all deaf people. Of course taking Heather to a school where the children can hear wouldn’t be a good idea, because she can’t communicate with them at this moment. She still can’t hear because she doesn’t have the implant, so she is deaf. I just feel like what they did to her was unfair, they made her believe it was bad. The grandma was right; they are taking away so much from this little girl. I understand that growing up Heather’s parents didn’t have it easy, but they know what it was like. I feel that Heather’s parents took away a great opportunity for her, and she should have gotten the cochlear implant. Put all negative feelings aside and think of the little girl, not yourselves.

The Words of the Wise

As I found myself browsing over all the different words that the president's have used since 1789, I found myself to be rather surprised at how much certain words were used and at how little words were used.

When I think of a new president, I think of improvement. For some reason it has always seemed to me that when a new president takes office, he is going to work on something and make our nation a better place. Looking through the words used by the presidents, I realized my assumption was way off. There were only two presidents who even had that word listed. I guess it's not as popularly used as I thought. Although there were some words that didn't surprise me all that much.

During the time I was looking for improvement, I seemed to notice how often nation and government were used. It seemed to me that those two words were very common in almost all of the president's speeches. Sometimes, through the early years, these words weren't as common, but as the years turned towards being more current the usage of those words were very high.

Through this activity, I was able to really think about the words that presidents commonly use in their speech, and I thought that was really neat. It got me to be creative in the ways in which some of the presidents used so many of the unpopular words that were so frequently used by them as an individual. Hopefully throughout the course we will have more opportunities to do more activities like this.

The View Point of Writing in My World

Writing can be interpreted in a number of ways. There are people who write every single day of their life and love it, people who write because they are forced to, and people who write because it just keeps them busy. Well for me, I write because I have to. But that doesn’t meant that I can’t find joy in it or have an opinion on the way I write.

The way I write isn't unique in anyway, I just sit on my laptop and type. I allow for the words to flow out and that's what ends up on my computer, even my final draft. Then again after I ramble a lot, it leaves me with a lot of corrections to be made. 

I always follow a typical paper format, with an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusions, but sometimes it doesn't always end up being read the same way I thought I wrote it. I overthink my writing a lot and want to add in a bunch of fancy words so that I sound more sophisticated because to me, if teachers don't feel like you are using good word choice, then your paper "sucks". That's why I find myself being forced to write rather that actually writing for fun.

Although there are quite a few times when I will find myself writing for fun and that's when I enjoy it the most. I just say what I want, without worries or critiscm. My ideas flow from my head and through my fingers, onto the keyboard and once I'm done it turns out to be decent. It's when pressure is put on me that I feel my writing turns terrible.

It doesn't help that I can become easily distracted with texting and facebook. Therefore I find majority of my time where I could be working on a paper, and instead I'm getting side-tracked by little things other than the paper itself. I have to be completely focused if I ever want to sit down and write a decent paper. 

Writing can mean a lot to all sorts of people, but to me it's mainly something I am forced to do. I don't find myself as a brilliant writer by any means, just someone who writes because of instruction and therefore not ending with the best papers out there, but at times I can find joy from writing, it just has to be on my own time.  

"Remember the Sweet Things"

Over the summer, well for me over the past week, I decided to read a book about the life of Ellen Greene. I usually am not one to sit down and find enjoyment out of a non-fiction book, but as I read her book "Remember the Sweet Things", it seemed just like a fiction book. I fell in love with her style of writing, the joy she found in her life, and everything she did to fulfill her life and live on edge.

Growing up in a small town in the northern part of Wisconsin, Ellen set out for Costa Rica to work on her Spanish degree. Since she was young, wild, and free from her christian home life, Ellen was ready to just have fun and part of that started at a club where she met her first husband, Carlos. She learns that she could do so much better and after a three-year's length of marriage she is back in the states. That is just her first stepping stone in life. Going through numerous men, moving her children, and losing jobs, Ellen finally finds happiness.

Back in the United States Ellen found a man that ended up being everything she ever needed. She found optimism and joy out of everything in her life. That's where her list of "Remember the Sweet Things" came from. Every time Marsh would do something nice, or she found something he did to be caring whether with her, family, or friends, she sould write it down. She figured that if you look at the negatives, you can never find the positives, and so from then on she would write down every positive thing about Marsh and when the time was appropriate she would share those memories.

Ellen had a certain edge to her. Marsh and her would just decide to travel, and so they'd pack some bags and hit the road. Sometimes with a plan, sometimes with nothing planned, just a drive and some stops. They lived in China for three years, traveled the world (well almost the whole world) in a boat, and made their life worth living. Ellen would switch up jobs and help teach English in different countries, and Marsh would work or do things at home.

If anyone were to ask me how I would want to live my life, it would be how Ellen had. She had a husband who adored her and shared the same interests as she did. They loved doing things together and had the "ideal" life. Financially they were always doing fine, but never were huge spenders. When complications came, they didn't fret, just went straight to a solution that they compromised on.

This book was a phenomenol read. Sometimes I had to stop and ask myself, "is this honestly a true story?" All the adventures and stories of what they went through seemed unreal. Along with that I couldn't believe how optimistic and up to anything these two people were. They pleased so many people, and gave so much of themselves, but didn't hesitate to meet their own needs as well. Everything they wanted accomplished was done. It was just incredible to see how she can come from having a life of disaster and pulling herself around and finding the best in everything. It's how everyone should find life, because as Ellen later found out you never know how long you'll have with someone.

The Extremely Long, Confusing Reading by Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft states her opinion in a very peculiar way. I have never read anything like it, maybe because if this weren't assigned I would have never picked it up, or even made it past the first sentence. I hardly understood anything she was talking about. Everything she wrote consisted of words that were far beyond my vocabulary and that created for my understanding to be slim to none, not to mention the style of her writing, it was absurd. I felt that she was just rambling on in a seventeenth century tone, and obviously I couldn't quite figure that out either. Though what I did get out of it was a lot of inequality and the superiority of men over women.

While reading, I became quite intrigued about how Wollstonecraft mentioned her views on how women were set about this earth to "please" men. I'm not exactly positive if that was what she was getting to, but from an early quote in the reading, she wrote "Women are told from their infancy, and taught by the example of their mothers, that a little knowledge of human weakness, justly termed cunning, softness of temper, outward obedience, and a scrupulous attention to a puerile kind of propriety, will obtain for them the protection of man; and should they be beautiful, every thing else is needles, for, at least, twenty years of their lives." What I got out of this is that if women are beautiful and just act the way they have been taught, then they will "earn" the man's protection. To me, I find that ridiculous. I feel that men and women should work together, even if she doesn't act perfectly. Most importantly, a woman should not have to gain a man's protection or knowledge, she should just have it from the start and they should work together. I guess from my perspective, especially being a female, that's the way I'm going to feel.

Wollstonecraft made it a point to acknowledge her views on the inequality of education. In her article she wrote that "man may only have to proceed, not to begin, the important task of learning to think and reason." Where is the idea that women should recieve a good education too? According to her, women only recieve a "disorderly kind of education." They felt that men needed the education and from that, they decided to educate men from infancy. I'm not exactly sure if that's even right, because like I mentioned before I was completely lost in this reading and had no idea what was being said.

From my understanding, Wollstonecraft had numerous points she was stating, maybe could have been stated in less words, but unfortunately she felt what she had wrote was much needed. I thought it was quite repetitive and wordy. Sometimes it's wise to use large words to make your writing seem more sophisticated, but in her case, I personally believe she went over the top. I know that this is probably one of the worst blogs i've written, but it was too much for me. I thought she made some really good points, and obviously had a strong opinion. I'm sure people back in the day, especially women, got a lot out of this article and maybe even used her for inspiration. She seemed to tell people the straight up truth. I'm sure if I were around back then I would have looked up to her for taking this step and speaking her mind. If Mary were still around today, she would be much happier, but i'm sure she would still have some personal opinions she could shout out to the people.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

On any given day if we want to figure out a quick piece of information, it's easy. All most people do is either reach for their laptop or pick up their phones and "Google". We don't use our own knowledge to figure anything out, we rely on the simplest thing, the internet.

Though the internet is very accessible and quick, Carr points out that because of the internet, "our own intelligence flattens into artificial intelligence." I believe that with our society and the new advances, people aren't as willing to dig deep and think hard for their own answers. What we want is for all the answers to be handed to us, and that is what the internet is giving us. A couple of quick clicks with the mouse, thirty seconds of skimming, and the answer is found. Does that mean we are becoming stupid?

I personally don't believe that it is making us stupid. There are still thousands of people out there who are very intelligent and can create things that people from the past never would have come across.Although that is kind of beyond the point, because as I sit here and think about all the small observations Carr has made about people today, I figured out that I am that person. I found myself going back and forth between facebook, itunes, and blogger. Along with that I can't stay focused on long articles or any type of readings. But is that a direct result from google or the internet? I still can't figure that out.

As our society keeps growing and keeps on modernizing, we aren't ever going to reach back to the traditional ways of life. Almost every household will have a computer, a cell phone, or some sort of electronic device that provides us with quick access to information. We may not be as critical of thinkers, because we aren't forced to use our brains as much as people had to in the past. Carr grew up in a unique time because he was able to watch technology advance the way we live our lives. It's so similar to the ways in which the clock changed the world. No one had set times for anything before the clock came around and now it's what we rely on, and that is what the interenet has become, and as Carr puts it perfectly, "it's becoming our map and our clock, our printing press and our typewriter, our calculator and our telephone, and our radio and TV".

People have become accustomed to the way the internet has provided us with so much, it might not make us any smarter, but along with that I feel it doesn't make us stupid either. It just is a lazy way for anyone to get out of really using their mind. To some people that might mean that we are becoming stupid, but then again it just depends on the way you interpret it. Google is going to be around for a long time, it's not going away and that might just be the problem, but we won't ever know because the way we live is what we have all become accustomed to.

Skunk Dreams

As I took my first glance at the title of this article, I was so confused at what I was about to read. I didn't know if somehow Erdrich was going to enlighten me on the possible dreams skunks could have, or even how she was going to relate her story to the title.

After I got used to the title, I dug in. The first few pages were such a difficult read, nothing could catch my interest. It wasn't until Erdrich started to compare the dreams and the stories in the article to obstacles in life that I started to zone into the reading.

The character in the story always wanted to get past the fence. It was her "obstacle". At the time it seemed nearly impossible to her because according to Erdrich the fence was, "chain-link in places, chicken wire, sagging X wire, barbed wire on top, jerry-built with tipped-out poles and uncertain corners nailed to log posts...". It seemed too difficult to get through, but she wanted to see the other side, and find the animals that are behind the fence.

Erdrich makes it clear that obstacles aren't ever easy to overcome. You are always going to desire something and it's in that desire where you find your obstacle. If you have a strong goal then you will push for it, but along those lines is another cliche that I found in Erdrich's article, you always want what you can't have.

In the article she wanted to see that horizon that she missed so much. She liked where she was living, but she didn't get the pleasure of seeing that horizon that she used to see everyday and because of that she had to settle for less than what she wanted.

I believe that Erdrich had some good points in her article, but I believe that she could have made the story a lot less confusing. It felt very scattered at first, and that made me lose a lot of my interest really fast. If I wasn't forced to read it, I don't think she would have sold me on the first page, and I would have given up. To add onto that  I think that it was quite strange that she had the skunk part in the story. I mean to a point I believe that it added good detail and she made use of it toward the end, but depending on how you took the reading I think you could have ended with different thoughts.

For the future, I think that this story could create a good class discussion. It has a lot of peculiar parts to it that could spark up a great conversation, or even allow other classmates to see something from the story that they might have missed.

The Different Views From "Talk of the Town"

As we all know, 9/11 was an extremely tragic event that the United States faced. Through the eyes of John Updike, the reader can feel as if they are re-experiencing this horrendous event. He has a natural way of showing throughout his essay, which really allows for the true connections to be formed from his writing, whereas Susan Sontag comes out very strong with her own personal opinions of the event that tend to be quite negative.

"...smoke speckled with bits of paper curled into the cloudless sky, and strange inky rivulets ran down the giant structure's vertically corrugated surface." Only a few sentences in and Updike already had me zoned into his experience. The style and word choice he posessed throughout his entire essay created vivid images that stuck to my mind. Even though this event occured ten years ago,  it felt like I could actually see what happened all over again. However, it wasn't just his writing style that really caught my glimpse, but more so the positive flow he created about the tragedy. In the end it was made clear to me that he was trying to get across that, yes, we aren't always going to have the perfect society, but "risk is a price of freedom", and that's what our country is about.

On the other side of this there was Sontag, who really put forth her own opinions, which were not the most positive opinions. "Everything is not O.K." is one direct quote on Sontag's opinion of America. She believed that America was being run by a "robotic President" and that there should be a lot more thinking going on because in her thoughts the country is not doing well, and that we should be afraid. I found this read to be quite strong as she shared her opinions. Sharp comments aren't the easiest to take, and although she makes good points and states what it looks like from a brutally honest state of my mind, I believe that there could have been a much more pleasing approach to her writing. It also wasn't as personal about the experience of 9/11, instead it focused more on the issues that 9/11 sparked.

Every single one of us has our own opinions, our own experiences, and our own visuals, and it's these events that bring out the different sides in all of us. Whether we witness the tragedy from our back porch, or the television, it's still happening and everyone is going through it. Updike and Sontag are great examples of the different ways people can interpret a tragedy and describe it in their own unique ways.

My Life

When I found out that I had to write about myself, I was stuck. I'm always lost on where to start, or even on what I should write. In that case I guess the best way to start out is by saying that my name is Amanda Sonday, and I will be a senior in the upcoming school year. I can honestly say I'm already excited about getting this year over with, but along with that I figured I would challenge myself, which is why I'm taking this course. Writing is by far my worst quality and I believe with the help of composition, which I took last year, I can do well in this class too. Anyway, enough with the boring information!

McFarland hasn't been my hometown all my life. Until I was six, I had lived in Monona. As my family grew with the addition of my twin brothers, my parents decided it would be best if we moved to a house with a little more space. From that point on I have remained in the same house.

Living in this town has helped me create two of my biggest passions, soccer and volleyball. I started playing club volleyball when I was in seventh grade, and unfortunately my junior year was my final year of playing. I never really played with a very competitive club because I just never cared enough, but I loved getting the extra practice and meeting new people. As far as soccer goes, I just play the sport for fun. I began playing the year I moved to McFarland, but didn't find much interest in it, until I filled in for a player who quit during fifth grade. Ever since then I have loved the game. I never have gotten too serious with soccer because to me it's just a sport I play to have fun. Although these sports don't make up my life, I also enjoy hanging out with my friends, sleeping, and (the common female answer) shopping.

As far as reading goes, it's kind of up there with my writing quality. I will read if I find a good book, but if i'm faced with a non-fiction book, I usually have a hard time zoning in. Obviously this class contains a lot of that type of stuff, and I'm ready for it!

Well there's not much more that can really be said about who I am. I'm sure that I have left a lot out, but for the most part you kind of get what I'm interested in and where i've grown up. Hopefully throughout this course you will learn a little bit more about me.