Final blog :(

Wow it has been 16 weeks already?! That went by so fast. This class was challenging for me and to tell you the truth, I was ready to give in half way through the semester. Now that it is said and done, I’m glad I didn’t and I really hope my grade shows it. This class, even though it was online, with the other four classes this semester did me in. I’m exhausted. If there was one thing I would have changed about this semester, it would have been to take fewer classes with this one. I really don’t think I got enough out of this class, or at least what I thought I should of. Although, I do hope I pass this class so I don’t have to take it again. This was my first online class, I think I have told you all that before, and it was definitely more challenging than I thought. I chose to take an online course because I needed to see if I would want to take any others for my masters. I had mentioned that to Jennifer and she said that you can’t really decide that based on one class because every instructor is different in the work load. I guess that makes sense because not all instructors are the same in class. I guess my logic was a little irrational. Oh well. So with that said, I am taking another online class, cognitive psychology, for CSUB in January. Wish me luck! Getting back to this class, sorry got side tracked. I did enjoy the knowledge of different styles of writing, or purposes. Even though I did enjoy it, it was a little challenging to redirect my focus then how I usually write. In writing this, I would like to thank our professor for her kind words and the ability to explain to me about certain assignments. I wouldn’t have done all my assignment if you didn’t show some faith in me. I hope all of you got the chance to see our professor this semester! I think I would have rather taken her class in class rather than online, but I think I’d rather take any class in class. I like the interaction and I think I learn better too that way. This class has definitely helped me with my time management skills, well kind of. With having so many classes I had to plan my day with what subject I needed to concentrate on. I hope everyone has had a rewarding experience with this class. I would like to thank all of you for your responses to my blog postings, they were really encouraging. My last blog is coming to a close and I am almost sad to go, yet I am so excited the end another semester! I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you all continue with your education and make lots of money in the future. And don’t forget to have lots of children so we will have social security in the future! Sorry, just took my sociology final; it’s fresh in my mind. I think Dr. Shey might have emphasized that too much…LOL.

Research project

This research assignment has been pretty interesting as far as information goes and I am glad that I wasn’t born in Iran. The struggles that women there are disturbing but I am glad that they are fighting for so rights and have made some progress with it. Researching and writing this paper is like stepping into a new world and trying to imagine yourself there. The writing process is a little hard for me because I have a bad outlook on how Iran treats their women and I am trying to be fair for the paper. I did a similar paper on Egypt and their traditions and the way they treat their women are about the same. I just can’t imagine being treated as property and having to cover myself all the time in public. The direction of my paper, of course, is about how awful women are treated in Iran at the mercy of men. I was kind of shock to hear the marrying age is 13. That is way too young; the poor girl is traumatized and repeatedly raped most of the time. It makes me sad to read the stories and statistics of teenagers killed in honor killings by their own father or grandfather. I read one story that a woman wanted a divorce from her abusive husband and her mother called her to meet her at the lawyer’s office and a male companion of the mother’s shot her. The mother’s reasoning was that her daughter brought shame to the family by wanted a divorce.  The mother and the shooter were not punished legally. Honor killings are a family issue not a judicial matter. For that reason alone, I would be scared to live there. Can you imagine how the women must feel there? I bet they are always looking behind their backs and making sure that all their family members are happy with them. Well I think the most important thing that I learned from this paper is that everyone and every place is different and moves in their own pace. Iran has moved forward and backwards in the issue of women rights. I don’t think every place should be like us in America, westernized, but I do think it is very extremely important for everyone and everyplace to have human rights, not necessarily gender based. The right to be treated fairly as a human being, the idea that human life is valued and not taken for granted or abused. Although I was late getting started on this project and I encountered a lot of headaches, I am glad it was assigned because it opened my eyes to a different kind of world, in a way put it right in my doorstep. It brought to me a new perspective on life and how sometimes I take for granted what I have and how I was raised. It is great to be living in America and cherish the ones you love. Hope you all learned something also from this project!

Project?

As the semester comes to a close I really have my hands full with homework and studying. Unfortunately this research project hasn’t taken priority too much over my Statistics, Philosophy, or Sociology but I’m thankful that I have done my readings over the last couple of weeks. Not to mention the revision I need to do on essay three on Doublespeak and Bullshit. This was a very hard paper for me to write. Now I just need to sit a write, hopefully. I have chosen to do research on women rights in Iran since it is an interest to me. I did a similar project on Egypt’s women rights and found it very interesting. Yet it was very sad to learn of how mistreated and abused women were and still is in Egypt. Women first need to learn that not all women are treated badly and from there on it continues in battle. This is what I appreciate in the topic of women right’s; it is a sense of empowerment and that women have it. I don’t think it is just a story of women power but of humanity itself. Stories of people defending what they believe are right, even if it is going against the cultural norm that makes it intriguing. It makes me very proud to live in America. So this project on Iran and women rights is not only an assignment but an passion for me to write, even though I haven’t started yet, but I feel like it will flow out of  me when I get some time to just sit and write. I really hope that is soon. I think it is very fascinating that with all the forwards and backwardness in the rights of women, they still continued to fight in some way. I have printed article spread all over my desk with highlighted sentences and paragraphs so I will once again be pulling all nighters this weekend after work. There seems to not be enough time in the day for everything I need to do. Therefore, I am very thankful that this semester is ending. It has been a long treacherous semester for me and I don’t feel like I am doing all that well in this class but that was my mistake in trying to cram fourteen units of hard classes into one semester. My hopes are that it will pay off and I will attend CSUB in January with my AA and continue with my education. I sit here and think of all the assignments I need to conquer. I almost feel like I need a list to make sure they all get done. This is really depressing me but in the same instance it is motivating me. I have a shorten amount of time but tons of things to do…….hmmm? 5 hour energy here I come!  The wonders of college life! Good luck to everyone with their papers and the rest of your classes. Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with family and friends!

Communication Style?

Evaluate your own communication style. Umm? I haven’t really thought about having a writing style at all online. But I guess I do. I am a very personable person so I would assume that that comes out in my writing, especially towards close friends. I like to use a lot of smiley and exclamation marks! My texts always have smiley’s somewhere in them. Online messages are usually somewhat personal, depends who I’m typing to. I am not up to date on all the abbreviations and lingo of texting so I am sure that is seen in my writing, and I also prefer to get the correct meaning out of my words so I don’t think I’d use it even if I did know it.  Younger people that I text, like my cousins, probably realize that. My youngest sister is 18 so she uses more lingo then I, and I learn most of it from her and my younger cousins. When writing, I feel like I can write a story and I do, so it is never to just get the point across. Writing for me is much more, it’s an expression itself and it is free. My online writing, emails, texting, this blog, is just random thoughts yet somehow organized. I try not to write when I am mad, well online anyways. If I do my word choice is very blunt and I seem to cause more problems for myself then my original anger. My closest friends have found this out and notices when my communication changes. It is almost like putting my foot in my mouth when I read my messages after I have cooled down. That is one of the reasons I avoid typing when I’m mad, it gets me into trouble. There is a sense of freedom to express ANYTHING and everything through my computer, it doesn’t talk back to tell me that I’m overreacting. The power of words!

My different styles of writing depend on the mood I’m in at the moment I am writing and to whom I’m writing to. My writing style is pretty much the same I think even when I’m mad. A lot of the reading material in chapter four is new to me. I never realized how many words are shortened. I just spell them out. In some of the messages I have read, I remember thinking, “they are being lazy today not spelling the word out.” I never realized that it had its own language. I know the basics like, LOL, TTYL, LMAO, L8R, and btw (which took me awhile to figure out). I’m just not into shortening words I guess. I rather write it out then use symbolisms. I do, however, catch myself writing papers for class and write “u” instead of “you.” I do catch myself though, that’s the important thing. It is the only word I shortening a lot. There might be more but I can’t think of any now.  Hopefully my style of writing is interesting and not boring, that’s all I can hope for!

Cartoons

Editorial cartoon are a way to lighten the subjects of America and make issues more tolerable. I do not read comics very much so I don’t get a lot from them but humor always makes things less complicated in our minds, I think. Cartoons are entertaining but they are only that way because we can relate and understand from experiences that make it funny. Comics joke about their wives, which is mean, yet the joke is stereotypical of women so we laugh. Jokes are based on what we know; blonde jokes, for instance, are funny but why? Stereotypically blonde women are dumb so when a blonde joke is told and it is funny, we can draw from this reasoning to make sense of it. All blonde women aren’t dumb and biologically it has no connection so we logically know it is not true. Of course, funny might be going out of style now that we seem to take everything so literally. People can’t voice their own opinion about an issue without the fear of being sued or jumped. Being “politically correct” to some extent I think is good but the concept of it cannot include humor and that is a huge problem in we interpret the world around us.  People are critical and offended easily so the cartoons may be helpful or cause more retaliation on a subject. Comics also help display what is going on in the world. The issues that are drawn in some cartoons are the latest on ongoing problem in America. Captain America is a comic book that portrays America pride through issues that America is dealing with, such as, drugs, war, and crime. Through this comic book people can get an idea of what issues the country is facing. Not everyone likes the newspapers or television, especially nowadays, so this comedy alternative is a great way to still be informed with the world. Comedy has a way to communicate in a more casual and informal way which is more comfortable to do about tough issues such as race, segregation, and disabilities. Comics have to be careful though in today’s society. Cartoonist, John Callahan, writes cartoons in a reflection of his reality of being handicapped and he does this to open people’s eyes to his reality. Callahan is trying to show people acceptance to what is real in the world. I’m looking at Callahan’s cartoon in the EL on page 364, the posse and the empty wheelchair. The text says, “Don’t worry. He won’t get far on foot.” The posse is evidentially looking for the guy in the wheelchair, no doubt. Who is the posse? Society, maybe? Cartoons are perceived from your point of view so it can easily be said that every cartoon you read is to your liking but it also can make your beliefs stronger in disagreeing. Editorial cartoonists are the same as any other media, if you don’t like what they are saying then read or watch something else; this is what we call freedom of speech.

Improvement?

Writing has always been an issue for me, especially organized essays. Blogs and responses to other blogs are decently easy for me and I would guess they would be easy for everyone. I really enjoy writing what is on my mind on an issue and then reading the comments from others. It gives me confidence that somebody finds my writing interesting or debatable. Blogs are a great way to exercise your mind and even create better writing skills. My mom even created her own blog after I told her about my assignment in this class. She has been out of school for a couple of years and she sometimes forgets how to spell certain words, so I suggested to her to set up a writing blog. She now writes about her adventures in the desert with her horse, Cheyenne. Writing her blogs is helping her a lot, plus she shares her accomplishments with other horse friends so it’s rewarding for her.

Critical reading I am still having issues with so trying to write based on information in the text is really hard for me and takes a lot of my time. Those Critically Thinking questions have helped me the most in trying to understand what I read. I didn’t do so great on my second essay so I really don’t think I am really doing that well in this class and the timed writing essay confirmed it. My writing skills I don’t think have changed that much except now I get a lot more practice with it. I think I might have done better in an actual class rather than online.

My reading skills have changed a little; I now can read more effectively and know what I am reading for the most part. Frankfurt’s, “On Bullshit” confused me a lot and I had to read the book three times to get the just of he was saying absolutely nothing, which was my first impression about his book. I guess that I came to this conclusion tells me something, but is that something correct is my question? I guess that may be another issue I have in this class, self doubt!

I have had a lot of practice with my writing so far and I guess that helps me organize my thoughts better. Practice makes perfect, right? If I have to take this class over again I would definitely take it in a class, like I said above, and I would also take less classes with it so I would be able to concentrate on improving my skills more. These weeks have gone so quickly and I really not have a clue on how my writing and reading skills have improved at all. The best I could say is that is has been a challenge and there are a couple things I would have liked to feel more confident in by now. Let’s hope that I am able to gain better skills in these last couple weeks and am able to write a killer research paper!

News?

You can count on the media to find the depressing occurring events within our society; the shootings, who is on death row, the corrupt politicians, the high speed chases. Is there so much negatives that it no longer compares with what good people are doing for our humanity? You can’t turn on the news channels without hearing how bad our society is getting. Heck, you can’t even turn on the television right now without hearing politicians bash the integrities of another politician. Today I received a postcard in the mail regarding not to vote for Jerry Brown. I didn’t live in California when Brown was in office before so I had no idea of his previous actions, but the endorsers made sure I knew. It’s the same with media, television airs these hideous campaign ads degrading their opponents, and they expect us to vote for them by doing since a childish thing? The sad thing is that we fall right into their trap, they tell us what to believe and what not to. The even sadder thing is that we take this for the truth. Shows like CNN, Hannity, and The O’Reilly Factor debate and share one sided arguments or news. I am very guilty for watching this kind of news and most of my political ideas or opinion comes greatly from this source. I am not a very political person, and honestly it frustrates me the more I learn how corrupt politicians are. Seriously, why do we feel the need to bash each? What happen to doing what we promised to do? What happened to morals? Do we really need to know that a politician is having an affair with his secretary? I feel for the wife for having all that publicity. Will she stay, will she go? It’s like a soap opera. It is pure nonsense but that is what we want to hear as a whole, so the dirt will be laundered. So some of my knowledge comes from news shows but I would have to say most of my information about what is going on around the world comes for discussions with others and school.

Being in college has opened my eyes, and has made me get involved in current issues by projects and/or assignments, plus my major in sociology so I do need a little bit of curiosity, right?

I was actually at work when 9-11 happened. The residents at work had the news on and it was definitely the talk of the day. I believed we were all glued to the television sets that day. When big events happen there really is no getting away from hearing something about it. It’s always the top story no matter what you do; front page news, news break bulletin during your favorite television shows, top story on Yahoo, etc., etc.. The media I think does a pretty good job of informing us of the BIG stuff, don’t you think? The internet has a lot to offer too but I am cautious about what is true or not.