Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Poetry : )
In my English Cornerstone class, we are studying different kinds of poetry and how they interact with one another. I've really enjoyed studying up more on what open poetry is versus closed poetry. A quick tutorial to the two kinds of poetry would be that Open Form has not set rules to rhyme, rhythme or stanza rules...etc. Sounds easy, right? It's actually really hard because Open Form is all about conveying a message in how you present the information, whether it be by word choices, line spacing, punctuation (or lack thereof) or even the title of the work. It's very much of a thought process in open form poetry. Closed Form is based on rules that have been around for awhile. Such a couplets, two rhyming lines (aa) or Quatrains in different rhyming sets (abab, abac, aabb). There is not only the aspect of rhyming that must make sense in closed form but it also must have a steady beat and rhythm. Closed form poetry gives a beat to poems that can't be found in other forms of poetry, which is very difficult to master.
How is that for a quick poem lesson?
Thus, in the attempt of learning to understand open form versus closed form...I have attempted to write two poem! One poem is about Open Form Poetry and the other poem is about Closed Form Poetry. Perhaps after my tutorial you can figure out which is which?
Don't expect poetry of genuis on my part, expect ingenuity in all of its immature forms...
---
Open –close,
close – Open.
The door keeps swinging back and forth, back and forth
and I wonder why the door can’t just stay Open.
Please say you're Open for business.
I don’t like closed doors or closed vents or "closed for construction" signs or closed-toe-shoes or closed people.
Especially closed people.
But closed poetry?
… don’t even get me started to Open up on that subject…
close – Open.
The door keeps swinging back and forth, back and forth
and I wonder why the door can’t just stay Open.
Please say you're Open for business.
I don’t like closed doors or closed vents or "closed for construction" signs or closed-toe-shoes or closed people.
Especially closed people.
But closed poetry?
… don’t even get me started to Open up on that subject…
---
Follow me here and watch your young steps,
This is to guide you to not be inept.
Closer and closer to closing the door,
I have a secret you can not ignore.
The door is, yes, closed, “You’re mine,” I say,
“Be wary the open, it changes your way.
For closed doors remind me of that secret garden
Where children do play and nothing does harden.
Dear one, close the door and please watch your form
For nothing is worse than a verse badly born.
This is to guide you to not be inept.
Closer and closer to closing the door,
I have a secret you can not ignore.
The door is, yes, closed, “You’re mine,” I say,
“Be wary the open, it changes your way.
For closed doors remind me of that secret garden
Where children do play and nothing does harden.
Dear one, close the door and please watch your form
For nothing is worse than a verse badly born.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Research Paper Cont.
Once again, I am back to the drawing board.
And I'm trying to work, yet again, on another 10-page research paper.
10 PAGES!!!!!!!!
---
Yes, that number makes me very nervous and I am sitting here thinking how does one actually fill in 10 pages worth of a topic? Thankfully, the class I am doing this research paper for has a narrow topic of something that we want changed in the community. It allows for our opinion to be brought forth, which is nice and allows for alot more freedom in the writing process.
So, how do you fill in 10 pages worth of information?
#1 - FIND A TOPIC! That should be priority and will be the base frame for the whole paper. It drives the paper. It makes or brakes the paper.
#2 - THESIS! In a research paper, and since this one is opinion based, you need to give the reader a reason as to why you are writing the paper. Give them a guiding point. I have always seen the thesis to be like a compass to a great adventure that one is about to embark on.
#3 - SOURCES, SOURCES, SOURCES!!! In journalism you learn that there are different kinds of sources: High Sources, Middle Sources and Low Sources. Each pertaining to a certain level of expertise in the subject matter and ability to express their opinion. High Sources would be the academic world, an top authority, statistics. Middle Sources would be those directly affected, people who know from first hand account. Low Sources would be like a great-great-second-cousin on your brother in-laws side. Basicly saying that they are people who aren't that important but do have an opinion to some extent. All sources, though, are important because they give flavor(!),variety, different ideas and, once again, a good guiding point on how to support the thesis.
These three items are important in my opinion. They help me construct the beginning of my research paper and fill in my 10 pages worth of information. This is definitly not the right way of constructing a research paper, but it helps me and gets me started on my research process.
As for the actual topic and ideas concerning my own paper - I, at first, was going to write about Brain Tumors (since my brother has one) and the many things the community doesn't provide but would be helpful to people with brain-type problems. But, I have switched (like all people do) to a topic that interests me because I think it affects the UCO community directly. It's about bike lanes on roads. That we need to incorporate them and since we are doing all of this construction in Edmond on the roads, we should consider adding in 2 feet extra for a bike lane on the road. It definitly is safer, important and allows bikers (bicyclers, that is) the freedom to ride anywhere without being fearful of a car running into them. In my opinion, Edmond is the perfect town to have Bicycle lanes - tons of people ride their bikes and more people would ride their bikes if room was made for them. It would be free from gas, would clean up the environment, everyone would get exercise and people enjoy the outdoors more. Since Oklahoma is a warmer state, it seems ideal for us to cater toward crowds of people that use vehicles such as bicycles for transportion.
Here are a few websites I have found that I like and am excited about the ideas/solutions they have for bicyclers on the road and how communities can help them out.
There are many many more website that pertain to this website and hundreds of articles at the library that pertain to this topic of bicycle lanes. It's so interesting and would be a neat addition to Edmond's community.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
The Good 'Ole Research Paper
One of the topics this week on our forums was Research Papers - and let me tell you, research papers are no fun. But everything we must do in this world doesn't mean "fun."
We discussed if research papers are becoming obsolete. And if they are, how so? And if not, why not? It has been very interesting to listen to people's thoughts, but everyone pretty much agrees that research papers will not be leaving the classroom for quite some time. Research papers make people dig for information like no other school project. Just this evening, and throughout this past week, I have been working on finding 15 sources for an annotated bibliography of Langston Hughes. I'm not writing a paper on him, but I sure do feel like it! The thing is this: I wouldn't trade this searching and re-searching for anything - I have learned so much about Langston Hughes that I am excited to tell others what I have learned and am excited about sharing all the information I've gathered about him to my classmates this Thursday during World Literature II.
Here are some of the things I have learned:
1. He is one of the most prolific African-American writers for the Modernist movement and during the Harlem Renaissance
2. He created a poem titled the "Montage of a Dream Deferred" that was 72 pages long!!! It also was inspired by the be-bop movement which was an improvisational/modernist approach to Jazz music
3. Hughes wrote dozens of children's books that worked on getting rid of African-American stereotypes and shedding light, instead, on their art, culture and folk-lore.
4. He is best known for his "Simple" stories which are based on James B. Semple - an African-American man who is typical of the Harlem Renaissance. All of the stories were written to immitate different characters one might come across in the Harlem district. This style of writing made him famous because he was real and down-to-earth with his characters.
5. Check out here Denzel Washington quoting Langston Hughes's poem "I, Too" on YouTube in the movie "The Great Debators."
These are just a few of the MANY things one can find while doing research...yes, it is time consuming (has taken me 6-8 hours to compile everything) and hard on the eyes (since most of the research is done on the internet) but it is rewarding, gives the researcher a sense of accomplishment, and helps one understand the richness and beauty of a topic.
We discussed if research papers are becoming obsolete. And if they are, how so? And if not, why not? It has been very interesting to listen to people's thoughts, but everyone pretty much agrees that research papers will not be leaving the classroom for quite some time. Research papers make people dig for information like no other school project. Just this evening, and throughout this past week, I have been working on finding 15 sources for an annotated bibliography of Langston Hughes. I'm not writing a paper on him, but I sure do feel like it! The thing is this: I wouldn't trade this searching and re-searching for anything - I have learned so much about Langston Hughes that I am excited to tell others what I have learned and am excited about sharing all the information I've gathered about him to my classmates this Thursday during World Literature II.
Here are some of the things I have learned:
1. He is one of the most prolific African-American writers for the Modernist movement and during the Harlem Renaissance
2. He created a poem titled the "Montage of a Dream Deferred" that was 72 pages long!!! It also was inspired by the be-bop movement which was an improvisational/modernist approach to Jazz music
3. Hughes wrote dozens of children's books that worked on getting rid of African-American stereotypes and shedding light, instead, on their art, culture and folk-lore.
4. He is best known for his "Simple" stories which are based on James B. Semple - an African-American man who is typical of the Harlem Renaissance. All of the stories were written to immitate different characters one might come across in the Harlem district. This style of writing made him famous because he was real and down-to-earth with his characters.
5. Check out here Denzel Washington quoting Langston Hughes's poem "I, Too" on YouTube in the movie "The Great Debators."
These are just a few of the MANY things one can find while doing research...yes, it is time consuming (has taken me 6-8 hours to compile everything) and hard on the eyes (since most of the research is done on the internet) but it is rewarding, gives the researcher a sense of accomplishment, and helps one understand the richness and beauty of a topic.
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Texting
One of the discussions this week was how huge a phenomenon texting has become. It's everywhere! From cell phones, to billboards, to internet lingo and now even to speech! What makes everyone so enamored about texting? Will the future change in regards to the importance of speech and proper spelling? Are you going downhill in our verbal skills because of texting?
These are some great questions and I do think that texting is affecting everyone in some way or another in these days. There are some great internet sites that explain the impact of texting on this world community, Wikipedia has some really neat information on how texting got started and who actually sent the first text messagee. It also explains how different countries have responded to the usage of text messaging in their countries. Webopedia not only has a guide to understanding texting abbreviations, but it also explains what almost every kind of abbreviations means in the texting world. Very helpful and informational, especially for the parent who doesn't know what PIR means (i.e. Parent In Room). One website I came across on the internet wrote a great article about the influence of text messaging/instant messaging in children's school work. It talks of how teachers have seen that many children who frequently use text messaging tend to have bad grammer and reading skills. Other teachers are responding to this new form of lingo with a positive spin, saying it allows children to express their thoughts better and anything allowing children with the ability to write is a good thing. Certainly, texting needs to be recognized by teachers everywhere as something many teens use to communicate but I don't think we should use texting as a way to communicate on a day-to-day basis. It's vague, coded and very informal...not something, I think that, that we should be training our children to communicate in the future. We should want them to understand all forms of writing but know that there must be a differentiation between formal and informal English and make sure everyone is aware of what type of language needs to be used on a daily basis.
These are some great questions and I do think that texting is affecting everyone in some way or another in these days. There are some great internet sites that explain the impact of texting on this world community, Wikipedia has some really neat information on how texting got started and who actually sent the first text messagee. It also explains how different countries have responded to the usage of text messaging in their countries. Webopedia not only has a guide to understanding texting abbreviations, but it also explains what almost every kind of abbreviations means in the texting world. Very helpful and informational, especially for the parent who doesn't know what PIR means (i.e. Parent In Room). One website I came across on the internet wrote a great article about the influence of text messaging/instant messaging in children's school work. It talks of how teachers have seen that many children who frequently use text messaging tend to have bad grammer and reading skills. Other teachers are responding to this new form of lingo with a positive spin, saying it allows children to express their thoughts better and anything allowing children with the ability to write is a good thing. Certainly, texting needs to be recognized by teachers everywhere as something many teens use to communicate but I don't think we should use texting as a way to communicate on a day-to-day basis. It's vague, coded and very informal...not something, I think that, that we should be training our children to communicate in the future. We should want them to understand all forms of writing but know that there must be a differentiation between formal and informal English and make sure everyone is aware of what type of language needs to be used on a daily basis.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
E-verything
Everything today has an E- in front of it, so it seems. Whether it's e-music, e-mail, e-malls, or even e-books...most everything we have is now becoming apart of the e-world around us. This past week, in class, we were discussing if hard-cover books will eventually go away and everything go to e-books. Certainly, I don't think hard-cover books will go away for quite a long time - it's hard to even imagine! Books are so essential to all aspects of culture, the idea of throwing away a form of it would be difficult to fathom. Though we did do away with stone writing and eventually scrolls. So perhaps we will, in about 100 more years, be done with hard-cover books down the road. Just because we are keeping hard-cover for awhile, doesn't mean we can't slowly embrace the e-world of books. Amazon has an e-reader titled the Kindle (and Kindle 2 has recently come out) that is quite a genius way of reading books. The idea of having text books in such a small device is neat and extremely handy for college students. This device is about as thin as a magazine (imagine!) and is the weight of a typical paperback book. The benefits with this is how you can enlarge text, highlight items, search word definitions and the option of having the text read out loud is even available! For $359, this is quite an item...it would seem that the price would go down throughout the year, especially if more and more companies invest in researching this piece of technology, then competition would go up. Sony has also come out with an e-reader for only $299, that they call the Reader Digital Book ... it has many of the features of the Kindle from Amazon - and even had an event at one point where around several hundred thousand Reader Digital Books were distributed to schools throughout the U.S.
So that is the scoop on the newest in the e-book world! It's very exciting, but I am really looking forward to what will be offered about 5 years from now...who knows how much technology will have advanced by then!
So that is the scoop on the newest in the e-book world! It's very exciting, but I am really looking forward to what will be offered about 5 years from now...who knows how much technology will have advanced by then!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Consumerism
This week in our class we looked at lots of different aspects of consumerism and how they affect people today. The questions was kindof phrased as so: 'Is the need for consumerism something that is brought on by the media or is it natural for humans to want?'
My first thought? Great Question!
Basic instinct told me that the answer was completely natural. Sure, media has some influence but it all comes down to the fact that we all have an innate desire to want more than what we already have.
My second though was - sin.
Yes, I said it. S-I-N.
The sin of greed and unthankfulness and covetousness.
These three things remind me, constantly, that I am not perfect.
My first thought? Great Question!
Basic instinct told me that the answer was completely natural. Sure, media has some influence but it all comes down to the fact that we all have an innate desire to want more than what we already have.
My second though was - sin.
Yes, I said it. S-I-N.
The sin of greed and unthankfulness and covetousness.
These three things remind me, constantly, that I am not perfect.
They remind me that I am a sinner.
---
And so I came away from the many forums I had to post on and talk about with a very clear picture of how depraved we as humans are. And how hungry I am, at times, for what the world says is right and good and best. The world says that I need a new car, that I need better clothing, that I need the latest home decorations. What is wrong with this picture? I don't need a new car, I have a great car that runs smoothly...though it isn't pretty. Sure, I don't have designer clothing, but atleast I have something to wear. And yes - having nice things in a home is good but is certainly not essential for better living. None of this is what we really need. Though the world would say quite the contrary. For some reason, we esteem celebrities and wealthy people as our "status" of how to live. But there "status" is merely for instant, immediate and speedy satisfaction for hearts that ache for so much more.
Certainly, I am no wiz in psychology or philosophy or sociology or any other -ology.
But I have found satisfaction.
---
And so I came away from the many forums I had to post on and talk about with a very clear picture of how depraved we as humans are. And how hungry I am, at times, for what the world says is right and good and best. The world says that I need a new car, that I need better clothing, that I need the latest home decorations. What is wrong with this picture? I don't need a new car, I have a great car that runs smoothly...though it isn't pretty. Sure, I don't have designer clothing, but atleast I have something to wear. And yes - having nice things in a home is good but is certainly not essential for better living. None of this is what we really need. Though the world would say quite the contrary. For some reason, we esteem celebrities and wealthy people as our "status" of how to live. But there "status" is merely for instant, immediate and speedy satisfaction for hearts that ache for so much more.
Certainly, I am no wiz in psychology or philosophy or sociology or any other -ology.
But I have found satisfaction.
And that satisfaction is found in nothing of this world.
But is found in a personal relationship Jesus Christ, God's own Son.
It's no joke.
I have no fear of death, no earthly want - because I know that my life is hidden in Christ and only He can satisfy the deepest longings, needs and wants of my heart and soul.
Cars will die. Clothing will wear and tear. Homes will be destroyed.
But Christ still remains and His love will never fade away.
---
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ... for I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to seperate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:35,38-39
"But God demonstrated His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
---
And in the end, the end is
Oceans and oceans
Of love and love again
We'll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms
Of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we'll look back on these tears as old tales'
Cause after the last tear falls
There is love
-Andrew Peterson
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Linking
This past week in my Advanced Composition class - I have been introduced to a whole new was of looking at blogs and posting blogs.
Linking.
Have any of you heard what this is?
According to Dictionary.com a link in Computer Science is "a segment of text or a graphical item that serves as a cross-reference between parts of a hypertext document or between files or hypertext documents." Sounds easy enough, right?
From what I have been learning this week - linking is a great way to advertise other websites, connect blog readers to the information being used in the post and builds credibility of the blogger page. I find this all interesting, because I have never used blogging except to portray my opinion. And that is fine. But not everyone wants to see just my opinion, web users want to see if others agree with my point of view and even see if people disagree. From now on I am making a firm decisions to link atleast once in every blog - it will give more visual play to my page and help readers see how my thoughts are played out in other websites across the internet.
A question I have had since I have been introduced to linking is: What is the benefit of linking? What are its pro's and con's? There are two places that gave solid reasoning behind the need to link and the first one gave a Top 10 list of reasons to link. The most interesting reason to me was how it would build search engine trust in your site. I didn't even know that it was possible to build the trust of a universal search engine - there are probably alot of benefits! And I am curious to see what it could do for a website. As for the second one, it goes through different words and describes the benefits of marketing on the Internet and how linking really helps. There webpage goal says "Internet Marketing Search Engine Optimization." That is exactly what it is doing, helping web users optimize the search engine the best for their business and/or blog.
Hope this is helpful and am looking forward to utilizing my new "linking skills" throughout both of my blogs.
Linking.
Have any of you heard what this is?
According to Dictionary.com a link in Computer Science is "a segment of text or a graphical item that serves as a cross-reference between parts of a hypertext document or between files or hypertext documents." Sounds easy enough, right?
From what I have been learning this week - linking is a great way to advertise other websites, connect blog readers to the information being used in the post and builds credibility of the blogger page. I find this all interesting, because I have never used blogging except to portray my opinion. And that is fine. But not everyone wants to see just my opinion, web users want to see if others agree with my point of view and even see if people disagree. From now on I am making a firm decisions to link atleast once in every blog - it will give more visual play to my page and help readers see how my thoughts are played out in other websites across the internet.
A question I have had since I have been introduced to linking is: What is the benefit of linking? What are its pro's and con's? There are two places that gave solid reasoning behind the need to link and the first one gave a Top 10 list of reasons to link. The most interesting reason to me was how it would build search engine trust in your site. I didn't even know that it was possible to build the trust of a universal search engine - there are probably alot of benefits! And I am curious to see what it could do for a website. As for the second one, it goes through different words and describes the benefits of marketing on the Internet and how linking really helps. There webpage goal says "Internet Marketing Search Engine Optimization." That is exactly what it is doing, helping web users optimize the search engine the best for their business and/or blog.
Hope this is helpful and am looking forward to utilizing my new "linking skills" throughout both of my blogs.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
What Makes a Good Blog?
This question was posed to us this week and here was some of my answer:
"In many aspects, blogs are a place where people can share about what they love. Whether it be their family, their work, their academic career, political issues, poetry...the list can go on and on. But when someone can write about what they love in a way that grabs the reader - I think that makes a good blog. And a good blogger has to be a journalist in some apsects, they have to have interesting sentences, facts and information that keep the reader wanting more.
Not sure if my answer it the right one, but I think blogs are good when people write about what they love and the reader is able to gather that."
Not sure if my answer it the right one, but I think blogs are good when people write about what they love and the reader is able to gather that."
A motto from my Economics Class in highschool was
Do what you LOVE
and you'll never feel like
you're working.
That is how it should be with blogs! We should enjoy writing about a topic that inspires us and causes us to keep writing/blogging about other items that make us passionate. I am passionate about my Lord and Savior - that is why I have a whole other blog dedicated to my thoughts from the Bible and my personal time with Him. It's so much fun and uplifting in many ways!
While I am still thinking about the topic "What Makes a Good Blog,"
here are some sites that might answer that question better than I did!
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Another Semester of Blogging!!!
Hello Blog World : )
Looks like I will have the wonderful priviledge of blogging my thoughts once again as I enter into this Spring Semester. My Advanced Composition class is a 9-week intensive course of working online and one of my class assignments is to build a blog (which I already had for my previous semester) and write something on it every week about things I am discussing/learning in my class.
This week, we have talked abit about T.V. and viewing habits we had as a kid and how they have or have not impacted us. Overall, television has not impacted my life because my parents never wanted it too...praise the Lord! Here is my response on my class forum...
---
Growing up, I was homeschooled. And for some people that may seem like easy access to T.V. whenever I wanted.
-
Um - not quite!
-
There were 5 of us kids in my family and my Mom saw it as a great joy and honor to teach us kids at home until we entered college. We had one television in our home and an old 50's black and white television set in a mustard yellow that was hardly ever used. Watching the television was never permitted until everypiece of homework and school was done -typically around 3pm. After that we were only allowed to watch 2 episodes of a show Mom and Dad approved of - this made it quite difficult with 5 kids! But it worked and it made us take turns watching our favorite shows. The television was used for movies at times, mostly educational movies and the occasional Disney Classic movies.
-
Honestly, the television isn't really big in my memory as a child...most of my time was spent sewing with my Mom, cooking dinner with my sisters or playing games at night. We did alot of activities with other homeschool families throughout the day - which limited our time infront of the television. And this is exactly how my life is today. Most of my time is spent doing things for others, working on projects and spending time with friends/family...television is mainly used when a big event is going to be televised or a movie is being shown that everyone in the family will enjoy. I'm thankful for parents who kept me active physically and intellectually and didn't make the television a top priority.
Looks like I will have the wonderful priviledge of blogging my thoughts once again as I enter into this Spring Semester. My Advanced Composition class is a 9-week intensive course of working online and one of my class assignments is to build a blog (which I already had for my previous semester) and write something on it every week about things I am discussing/learning in my class.
This week, we have talked abit about T.V. and viewing habits we had as a kid and how they have or have not impacted us. Overall, television has not impacted my life because my parents never wanted it too...praise the Lord! Here is my response on my class forum...
---
Growing up, I was homeschooled. And for some people that may seem like easy access to T.V. whenever I wanted.
-
Um - not quite!
-
There were 5 of us kids in my family and my Mom saw it as a great joy and honor to teach us kids at home until we entered college. We had one television in our home and an old 50's black and white television set in a mustard yellow that was hardly ever used. Watching the television was never permitted until everypiece of homework and school was done -typically around 3pm. After that we were only allowed to watch 2 episodes of a show Mom and Dad approved of - this made it quite difficult with 5 kids! But it worked and it made us take turns watching our favorite shows. The television was used for movies at times, mostly educational movies and the occasional Disney Classic movies.
-
Honestly, the television isn't really big in my memory as a child...most of my time was spent sewing with my Mom, cooking dinner with my sisters or playing games at night. We did alot of activities with other homeschool families throughout the day - which limited our time infront of the television. And this is exactly how my life is today. Most of my time is spent doing things for others, working on projects and spending time with friends/family...television is mainly used when a big event is going to be televised or a movie is being shown that everyone in the family will enjoy. I'm thankful for parents who kept me active physically and intellectually and didn't make the television a top priority.
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