Little Brother 3

Overall Thoughts Of Little Brother

• I thought a lot of it shadowed 1984, I know this we also said in class, however I seemed to find myself thinking about it a  lot.
• A lot of the actions the DHS took were extreme, yet they aren't too far off of what is going on today
• I thought Mr. Bevill made a really great correlation with the current airport security threats and the book.  Personally, I don't think that the airport security has gone to far.  The pictures are private, and if you chose to not go through normal regulations then they have to check you some way so the pat down is necessary.
• I thought a lot of the technology explanations and the DHS punishments seem pretty realistic, yet I did find the fact that Marcus was in high school and so were his friends slightly detracting.  To me there might be a high school student who could pull these types of things off but the chances are slim to none.   

Little Brother 2

I'll admit, I'm not to the point in the book that I need to be at, I am only at chapter 9 though we need to be at 17.  I plan on reading during the many hours I will be spending in airports as well as on the plane this break. 

So as of Chapter nine this is what I think.  What happend to Darrel?!?! They mention him every once in a while, but really what happend?  Are we soupose to assume that he is dead?  Is he going to re appear later in the book?  Is he still detained?  Are they taking care of him at the DHS since he was stabbed?  This little fact that I would like to know distractes me from the rest of the book the entire time I am reading. 

I'm starting to be able to follow the Tech stuff alittle more but not much.  I really think that Cory over played that aspect of the book.  I feel that he probably looses a lot of his audience during these points in his book.

Another aspect that I would like to see, Marcus's dad acctually get mad at the DHS!  I can't help but feel bad for Marcus.  His dad has no idea what has happend to him, and he's not allowed to tell him.  Marcus tries things to show his dad his point, he blows up for a brife second and then hes fine again!

Well that's it so far.

Little Brother

So, Supposedly we are all supposed to be thru 2/3's of Litter Brother by now.  I'm just now at chapter nine, which is sad because I haven't been neglecting the reading, I just read really slow.  Anyways What do you all think of the book so far? I found myself only liking the parts where the DHS was present.  Any other time I thought the whole Technology part was way over done, and I find myself lost.  Over all It's pretty good, but it get dry in areas.

My Research Proposal

-My Ted Talk, and basis for my paper

 When following the bible is it impossible not to pick and chose what rules you follow, therefore how can anyone call themselves a good Christian if they have to break some rules?

 Why I choose this topic.

-Started looking for polygamy

-Then I looked for Cults & Religions

-Saw Jacob's talks

-Agreed with many of the points

Why is this a good argument?

(Can you pick and chose what you follow in the Bible?)

-Highly Controversial

-Many sides to the argument

1.      No, you must follow everything

2.      Yes, but only the rules that are out dated

3.      Yes, as long as you follow the major ones like Thou shall not steal or Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s wife, then your fine

4.      No, You do not have to follow any of Gods rules to be a good Christian

iHate iSources

Since the lecture on how to Research for the iSearch project I have been meaning to to actually start the searching.  Though the steps are seemingly simple, I still feel like starting this research is this a task all in its self.  Therefore today I am going to sit my self down at my desk and I am not going to get up until I have made progress in the research portion of this project.  Any body have another suggestions in how to start the research any differently than Mr. Bevill did?

Where to begin?!

In Class when Mr. Bevill laid out the assignment for us I thought, "That's not that bad, It's in so many parts."  I went home and did part one and my blog post.  Now I'm starting to worry a bit.  Where do I go from here?  I started part two and I guess I can finish that.  However, I feel like I really need to dig into the Research part of it but i don't really know where to begin, and/or if what I am thinking about researching is appropriate for this paper.  Hopefully class tomorrow will bring some insight to when I am suppose to be heading with my research...

100% Bibical

http://www.ted.com/talks/a_j_jacobs_year_of_living_biblically.html

I started off on TED looking for some type of video clip on polygamy. Though that would have been interesting, I didn't find anything. So then I just typed in religion hoping to find some sort of Video clip dealing with cults. When I did this I stumbled upon A.J Jacob's year of living biblically. I was sure it was going to be some guy preaching about what is right and wrong according to him and the bible. However, A.J turned turned out to be a writer from esquire magazine that who never really had a religion and wanted to live out the bible, following EVERY rule, for a year! To me, this story sounded extremely interesting. Therefore I am going to do my persuasive paper/ project on weather or not we can or should follow all the bibles rules.

Let me know what you think?!

♥ Fall Break

My fall break could  not have been any nicer!  I got to see my parents, and my brother who I haven't scene since they dropped me off at school.  I also got to see my puppy, who I was so glad to see didn't forget me!  I drove to Adrian college to spend a few days with my boyfriend and I went to see him play football against Olivet.... & they won so that was nice!  Overall, I was a really fast, high  paced weekend but that's exactly the way I wanted it to be!  However its nice to be back in K Town : )

Fying North?

I finally get to go back to Michigan for the first time this school year!  I plan on eatting some home cooked food, watching the big Michigan Michigan State game with friends, and finally getting to one of my boyfriends football games at Adrian College.  The only down side is I plan on writing the contextual anaylasis over break... What are your plans for the break?  Are you going home or staying at school?  And what are your plans?

Conflict Analysis Thoughts

The Book of Eli - Street Shootout

When thinking about what I wanted to do my paper on, I decided to go with a video clip because I wanted something that had alot of components to write about.  After reading the guidelines of the paper the first movie that popped into my head was The Book of Eli.  There are so many factors present in this flim that really seem to fit the premise of this paper.  First off you have the main point in the story, Eli (Denzel Washingtion) is on a mission with the last copy of the bible.  As well, you can add in the fact that Eli is blind, the world as everyone once new it is slowly ending, and there are fights breaking out because of it everywhere.  Therefore I believe that this sort clip would probably be a good choice for our next paper.  What do you think?

I'm Just a Little Confused

Alright, Can anyone explain to me why the people were being deported in the movie we have been watching in class this week?  And who were the people that attacked the car when the lead FISH women died.  Other than that I pretty much understood the movie.  For an in class movie it was pretty good.  I do think that the movie could have explained more, instead of leaving you to wonder through out the whole movie.  I am intrested to find out how Mr.Bevill is going to relate that movie to the class?!  Anyways I someone could explain that to me it would be great!

Preaching to the Choir

Is it just me, or did every high school English teacher tell you that in college writing papers was going to be sooo much harder, and that professors were going to tear apart your paper way worse than your current teacher would?  I well I feel that it is quite the opposite!  My teachers in high school tore apart my papers!  I always left my conference feeling like they took way too much joy getting out a brand new red pen and letting it bleed globs or ink all over my paper.  Yet after my conference this week I felt calm, and for a pleasant change, I felt like I actually did something right.  Even though we haven't even turned in the paper yet, and everything could still go south, I have a feeling that the intensity to write the paper in the correct format is lessened.  At college you get this freedom to write how you want, thus giving less room for error.  So far I have enjoyed this, but one will be able to see my true reaction in my later blogs after receiving my paper. 

Does High School English Now Seem Like a Waste?

I left class yesterday kind of mad.  Why would you learn to write one style of paper for seven years and then all of the sudden when it counts the format changes?!  Sure I learned to write other kinds of papers, but for the most part 90% of the were in the five paragraph essay form.  So out of this a bigger question is proposed, is high school really preparing you for college?  I would say in some aspects yes, but in others absolutely not.  The paper formatting is just one example.  Did you get by in high school with out reading a single page out of your text book?  Well the days of that are over!  Did you teachers let you turn in your papers late...Even sometimes a whole quarter late?  You can kiss that goodbye as well!  I think your school systems really need to keep the ultimate goal in focus.  Now that we have the no child left behind program and everyone is on the college bound track, our teaching styles and formats should comply.  Don't you think?

To Add Ethos or Not?

So as I posted in my last blog, I am going with a political cartoon that tries to make light of the ever rising tuition bills that students have to deal with.  To refresh your memory this is what it looked like:

In preparation of this paper I was thinking of some different directions I could take my paper in.  I want to write about how the tuition here at UT affects me, as well as, I would like to write about how it affects college students everywhere as a whole.  I was thinking about also adding my own ethos.  I found some posted information about this years tuition increase UT's website:

-"UT Knoxville students will pay 9 percent more tuition in the 2010-2011 academic year."

-"The Board of Trustees last week approved the increase—which was .5 percent more than the 8.5 increase we had requested."

-"A 9 percent tuition increase equates to $534 per year—or $267 per semester—taking it from $5,918 to $6,452 per year for in-state undergraduates."

-"UT Knoxville’s out-of-state students also will see tuition increase by 9 percent, or by $1,775, a year for undergraduates and $1,857 a year for graduate students. Their annual tuition will increase from $19,714 to $21,489 and from $20,622 to $22,479, respectively. "

I feel like these are some good jumping off points for my paper.  Let me know if you have any good ideas to go along with the quotes & or anything else you think might be a good idea for me to look into for my paper.

Works Cited

The university of Tennessee Knoxville. Tuition Increase to Help Offset Loses. The University of Tennessee, ND. web. 2 September 2010.

Which Works Best?

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#2

#3

#4

I am having trouble picking from these four political cartoons for my paper.  I believe that you can elaborate on three and four the most because you can bring in all of the issues related to the cartoon.  Yet I would probably end up having to do some research for my paper.  Is that allowed?  The second one I am also leaning toward because I am living the consequences of  the issue in the cartoon first hand.  Therefore my paper might turn out with a better tone.  Although my only concern with this one is, will there be enough to write about? Help!

 I guess, after writing this blog, I realized that I automatically eliminated that first choice.  However, I will leave the picture up because I believe it to be pretty funny.

The Golden Rule

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     On the first day of English my class was presented with three images based on the "Golden Rule."  I am only showing you two of the three images because I believe it most interesting to compare the the two diagrams that are visual persuasion.  To start off with the comparison, there are a few things you notice right off the bat.  In both of these posters there are globes, as well as different religions and there version of the golden rule.  though they are each artfully designed in there own way those two elements are about the same.  However if you take a closer look as of how they are laid out you get two very different messages.  The first post has all of the religions spokes outwards from the globe, giving a sense of coming together for one common moral.  Yet if you look at post two you see that the globe is simply behind the sayings and the religions seem to be listed based on popularity.  To me that is almost like canceling out the symbolic globe.  Therefore leaving no unification, and and showing how the rules are followed even by the religions that live by them.  To me the second post shows how even in trying to create a picture that all religions have some commonality, there still always has to be a top dog.  As well as, someone who is always picking a fight.