Self Critique

I have hated blogging this semester. At first I thought it would be an easy “A” but as the semester unfolded I found it to be nothing but an annoying challenge. Upon all the other writing assignments and all the large papers I was often overwhelmed and unable to adequately write an effective blog post.  I found I did try my best and I did not hesitate to voice my opinions. I wrote with my own voice and it definitely made me more comfortable in writing. I think many of the earlier posts were my best because it was the beginning of the semester and I was giving a better effort because I was not yet behind. The later ones I find far worse because I did not have as much time to think and cleanly project my opinion. It taught me to allot my time carefully and to put forth my best effort always. It taught me to come up with an outline before starting and to stick to the guideline. I do have my own personal blog as well and this classes blog helped refine the writings in my personal blog. It helped me more effectively get across my opinions through thought out and correctly grammared writings. My relationship with writing has in no way changed because of writing publically in a blog. I still hate writing and do not wish to do it anymore.

Prelim Essay

The preliminary essay went rather smoothly although I do still need to add about a paragraph more and two more sources now that I think about it but now its time to start focusing on my response essay. The response essay will be tricky because I am not necessarily too passionate about any of my fellow students postings. I originally was going to respond to two of them but one I didn’t understand the argument and the second wasn’t finished enough to argue so I decided I would try to respond to one about divorce. Originally I was going to add on to the original argument that divorce has become “the easy way out” that was until last night when after grueling and devastating tears my mom decided she needed a divorce from my father. Now I think I will try to counter the argument and discuss why and how divorce in a lot of ways is the only way out, certainly not the easiest. I will include quotes from my mother’s recent experience and facts from sources. The three main points I will cover will be the complication of the divorce process, the necessity at times for divorce and will refute the authors original arguments using the Bible through revealing even further parts of other bible passages. I will research where America stands in line with other countries in regards to divorce rates and I will delve into why they are ranked where they are ranked. I will address the many reasons one chooses to divorce and reveal all the challenges behind the process itself including physiologically which will further my argument that divorce is never the easy way out of anything.

Challenging Media

I just watched the First Disney video. This video opened my eyes to a side of Disney I had never been quite so aware of. My gut reaction was anger when Disney’s president was quoted at the end “ its only about money”. I felt extremely upset that Disney would say something like that. They do inherently have the obligation to stand for more than just money due to their large scale of influence. It is crucial that Disney realizes their impact and takes it cautiously serious. If Disney is solely concerned about money what is that teaching all those who know Disney, that life is all about money alone? The part about how Disney has portrayed women in a certain particular way over its many years was proven shockingly true through their incriminating clips pulled from a number of Disney films spanning the years. All the clips showed women with curvy hips, which they swung around, big boobs often barely covered, and the classic damsel in distress eye bat. This image subconsciously makes girls believe that is how they should look and act. Also the example about Tarzan being in Africa yet having no Africans in the movie subtly promotes white supremacy I found a little extreme but upon further thought slightly agreed with, why aren’t there any Africans in the African movie? The clip went further into many separate interviews some even interviewed children. These children had clearly been prompted by an off-screen question but none-the-less gave similar answers: they had not seen blacks portrayed as a good character, if portrayed at all, in Disney films. Now the rationale behind that is clearly unknown but suspicions are raised and offenses are taken. If Disney is all about the money than that must be the primary role behind all these images they are deciding to portray. Maybe they think portraying women that way will get them more money or maybe they thing whites are richer and will come see a white movie. Whatever the case maybe this video brought up many valid points that has changed my view of media as a whole. Media clearly needs to be challenged so that we are not all stuck in our own little bubbles of whatever media dictators decide to expose us to. We need to be challenging where the information came from and what it is trying to say. We need to be always asking for the other side to the story and recognizing Disney’s particular power in regards to media and questioning its purity and motives. If no one challenges media then we will be controlled by it.

Dissenting Voices

I recently read a blog post online that opposed listening to Christian music on the radio. The author liked the idea of listening to the Christian radio but also found it to go in boring cycles of predictable styles. I enjoyed the blog itself and all it had to say but did disagree with it on a few points. I did agree that the music did seem to go in cycles but I also find the Christian radio is somewhat keeping up with its time. The Christian radio often chooses the less edgy songs that we are more used to listening to on mainstream radio, but I do not hesitate to point out the mainstreams radio similar cycle of music styles. If you listen to the Michael Jackson mix of the yesteryear it sounds oddly similar to the pop mixes of today. Radio itself, Christian or not, does tend to find a certain “sound” for their station and stick to it. The author said that listening to Christian music was a good reminder on reflecting on God but she said she listens to it for the creativity because it is hugely lacking in that area. I disagree; I find a lot of creativity amongst Christian artist maybe the station she chose to listen to stick with a certain “sound” but that does not reflect all that is available in the Christian realm of music. She then goes on to say that the radio often takes a great song originally and plays myriads of varying versions of it which in turn takes away from the overall effect and beauty of the original song. In fact, I find quite the opposite to be true, I find different versions of the same song only enhances the original, its quality and effectiveness to reach new audiences in different ways. I do agree a song can get overplayed which is a danger many radios face. Her argument about the varying versions suggests that it sends the message that people worship better to a certain group or musicians voice and misses the whole message of the song itself. Just because there are many artists doing the same song by no means that it sends the message one is better or more worshipful. She said this also indicates artist’s lack of ability to write new songs when really it reflects the artistic-ness in the original song. Although I do somewhat agree that it does show a bit of lack of originality it certainly does not make the song or artist useless or pointless. I also agree that from a musician’s standpoint most Christian radio songs do follow the same note and rhythmic pattern. But in all honesty so do all the modern day pop songs on any mainstream radio station so if you find yourself so opposed to the monotony of radio then pop a CD in or become an artist!

Online Interaction

Interaction with classmates always has a certain dynamic. The level of camaraderie and common knowledge amongst members of the same class elevate the interaction to an exclusive and sharp discussion. I have enjoyed getting to know the variety of powerful members in my class through their styles and topics of writing. The freedom of reading their writings through an open blog gave me the time and comfort to read and reply whenever and however if so felt. I do not however feel that a lot of them were effective extensions of class. More often than not I found the blog topics extremely random and off topic and not of any further benefit or help to the classes conversations. Inside the physical classrooms I felt we had very little or limited interaction with fellow piers often we had to spend the time allowing the teacher to teach us the newest concept or explain the newest assignment. The comments are absolutely pointless, not only does no one truly want to take the time to read anyone else’s responses but they end up leaving comments that are of no benefit to anyone, not intentionally but often because the subject is hard to really respond to and because, as stated originally the topics do not feel like a useful extension of class so it just feels like pointless busy-work. On top of making the comments alone you also had to fill out weekly forms explaining all the comments you made and all the comments that were made on yours, which was again just an addition to the stress of it all. You would loose track of whose you commented on and which ones, you would receive no helpful comments of your own and once you fell behind you were hopelessly stuck behind. Not to mention the extreme and frustrating ambiguity of grading. Are we even getting graded for our comments? If so, How? If we fell behind is it of any benefit to our grade to go back and fill out allllll those forms? Or was the whole point of the comments and the forms just to push students to interact? Online discussions are honestly hard to stir up and maintain because for the most part one comments then another an hour later than a day later another comment and its just too disconnected and impersonal to actually have a discussion. But I by no means prefer the forum discussions, if we are going to have a discussion it should be in class, face to face. If I could change the blogs I would maybe change the comment requirement down to one comment but that is only if they will actually count for credit. I would also either give blogs that go directly along with the stuff we learn in class and cut down the overall number, it got overwhelming with all the other writing assignments assigned. I liked how a lot of them were personal opinion and only graded for length and appropriateness but maybe adding a free blog in would give students freedom to express themselves in whatever way and on whatever subject they want to! Lastly I would make the word requirement more like 350ish.

Qualitative stiiiiinnnkksss

Clearly I am writing this blog post later than the due date and because of my timing it is after the last class session where I think I asked all my questions. I cannot remember all the questions I asked and because I do feel that they were adequately answered I do not feel it quite necessary to re-ask them on this blog post. But since I want a good grade on my blogs I will attempt to remember what I was feeling before our last class session where we discussed the paper in great detail. I remember struggling with not fully wrapping my head around what this paper really wanted. It is not quite an opinion paper, it is not a research paper and it is not a comparative paper. Meaning it is not a paper of what I personally feel about two different mediums of one story, it is not a paper where I gather all this hard research found all over the internet and it is not a paper simply comparing the similarities or differences between the two. So what is it?? It is very tricky. You have to pick a two types of mediums with which one common story is told, then you must somehow form some kind of a thesis between the two, then form open ended questions related to your thesis to retrieve qualitative data on what other people think then you have to someone form a 6 page paper about what you people said and how it relates to your thesis and sum it all up by saying what the point of the paper even is to begin with. It is just way too confusing. Then not to mention the fact it was told to us that you may not even be able to form a thesis or clear aim for the paper until after the interviews or after a lot of the writing is done. I thought I did not like quantitative writing but it has hit me that I like it a lot better. It is clear and easy to understand and write a paper on. I am just extremely confused and overwhelmed by this paper. I do not know how I will use the people’s answers to back up my original claim or if that’s what I am even supposed to be doing. I think because feelings are so ambiguous, qualitative research and writing based on what other people think not personal opinion is difficult. At this point, in my frustration I am sorry to say I cannot give a “best” aspect. But once I have the paper done, ill let you know. All these above concerns are challenges I am currently facing and I will overcome them somehow by simply trying to get the paper done, I feel like all these concerns are ones that can only be done away with a completed paper. So at this point whatever confusion I still hold needs to just be put aside and I need to concoct a qualitative paper out of it. So here I go…

experience learning

Learning is something I find you cannot escape. It is all around you and in every experience.  I have learned a lot from many different experiences. I feel like that is how a majority of your learning is gained and maintained, through experiences. You can sit in a class and be taught something over and over again but until you actually experience it for yourself to you fully grasp, appreciate and exemplify whatever is being taught and that is true learning.

To answer that question I simply reflected upon my own life. On a lighter level I reflected upon when a teacher may tell me something in class, for example, don not put a comma there but until I actually had to type the paper on my own, determine if a comma went somewhere and then got a poor grade back for misplacing commas I would learn from that experience to first to take heed to the words my teacher says and second to place the commas where they rightly belong.

But on a more personal level I looked back upon the time in my life where I did not to what I was taught because I had yet to learn it. For years I had been taught through teachers, relatives’ even books that lying only makes things more complicated. That one lie only leads to another and another until your stuck in a mess of lies. This being taught to me was put to test when one day I said one lie. The days proceeding I was forced into conjuring up further lies to mask to first lie until months later I was in a web of lies and had no other choice but to finally tell the truth. Although all those years prior to this messy little lie I was taught not to do that even shown examples of why and what it would cause, it was not until I actually experienced it all for myself that I truly learned what lying is and why we should not do it. I experienced the true fatality of a lie first hand and had to forge my way through the lies all by myself. This experience not only taught me not to lie but I in turn learned why not to, what is does, how horrible it is and it developed me into the honest and transparent person I am today.

I do find that things learned through experience change your worldview. If you are made to live in a slum in Africa suddenly, I am sure; your worldview on poverty would change.  I do confess that everyone’s experiences are different, they have different affects, play different roles and for different results. Learning is not restricted to a certain classroom or certain class of people every single human being has the ability to always be changing and learning and through experiences day in and day out oftentimes cannot escape this learning experience called life.