Freewrite 7/31

My main goal is to just make it through my classes. I hope that once everything is over and I’m moved in to my new apartment that I can just relax for two weeks. I want to go camping and to the lake—camping at a lake would be preferable—and just have time to myself without the distraction of ANYTHING but friends. Unfortunately all of my friends are either moving away to student teach or will have to work since I will be taking time off of work (most of my local friends are my co-workers) so this won’t be a possibility.

All of that being said, I’m looking forward to getting settled into my new apartment and taking advantage of the wireless internet to watch Netflix. This paired with reading a few book and taking my dog on gloriously long walks will be the extent of my worry for two weeks, until work starts to pick up again in anticipation of the new school year and sports season. I have a full bookshelf of novels awaiting my attention and several t.v. shows I want to watch/get caught up on so there will be a lot of time in those couple of weeks being spent sitting around and doing nothing. I will, however, also be spending A LOT of time outside to make-up for the lost summer rays of the past couple of months. My reading will probably take place at pool-side and, as previously stated, my dog will get much longer walks. I’m just excited to have my only responsibilities be working my two jobs, none of this stressing over homework crap that’s been ruling over my life for the past two months.

Also, I hope to do a lot of organizing within my apartment so I have an easier time moving in 7-ish months. I will be keeping my apartment up here when I do so in order to postpone the need to move EVERYTHING home and to give me a place to stay when I visit, but I’m tired of not having everything together and in its place all of the time. But overall, I just want to do nothing and have at least one day off each week with no responsibilities.

Alcohol, too… there will be several margs in my two week heaven.

Good Argument Paper Qualities

Qualities of a good argument paper:

·        Counter argument and refutation

·        Give strong evidence, not just opinions

·        Uses strong articles/resources (scholarly)

·        Stays on topic

·        Strong thesis

·        Should offer a solution/plan to fix the problem

For pre-writing between now and Monday:

--> create a list of things that I learned while writing the informative paper
--> then choose two or three to briefly expand on <mind-map, maybe?>

--> come to class with detailed outline of argument essay
--> Reflection of informative essay is due
--> response to Weaver ch 6

Freewrite 7/24

I’m not sure what I think others should know about. I’m usually “that person” who learns everything last from their friends. I’m not super involved in much of anything that doesn’t involve common sense.

After putting some thought into it, I think people should know how incredibly different peoples’ lives are from one another and that you shouldn’t expect someone to have the same life experiences as yourself. I know this is usually a common sense kind of thing, but I have come across so many people who think they’re living a “better” life just because they didn’t grow up with some of the difficulties that others have. There are many parents who can help their kids with bills and buy them things even after they’ve moved out of the house, but I know so many people who are struggling and can’t afford to ask for help because they know their parents would try to help them out, even at an expense to their own bills. The ONLY issue I have with this scenario is that those who don’t struggle on their own often wonder why their friends can’t just go ask for money of help so they can do more fun things.

Another instance this fact of different upbringing brings to light is that of people not understanding why some people act or do things in a certain way. I only know a handful of other people who have close relatives in wheelchairs and it takes a little while for my other friends who haven’t dealt with this in their upbringing to understand why I feel so strongly about the Americans with Disabilities Act and equal accessibility to those who are handicapped. It gets even more irritating when people use items meant for the disabled just because they’re lazy or goofing off.

I just wish people would get that there are reasons for diversity and different availabilities for everyone.

7/15 Free Write - If I Could Explain 1 Thing to 1 Person

I would explain to my boss—probably in not-so-nice terms—what common courtesy is and how to apply it to the workplace. Although I’ve gone off a few times and let him know when he does something rude, there have been several instances in the past year that make me wonder if he even realizes how much of a douche bag he’s being. For instance, when I was asking why he scheduled me an open-close shift yesterday instead of having our rush driver close and me work through rush, he stumbled over his words because he wasn’t sure. I then asked if we could work it that way because I had homework to do and he laughed as if it were a surprise. He knows I’m in three English classes while working two jobs, but seemed to find it laughable that I had homework again. All of this took place not even two minutes after has (also laughingly) asked how I was coming along on my Harry Potter novel for the week. He knew I had homework, yet laughed and seemed slightly surprised when I reiterated with my other school work.

               Another instance I’ve had problems with him was after we closed a couple weeks ago. He has this giant cup he has us refill for him when we’re out on deliveries with 12 squirts of cherry syrup and filling the rest of the way with Diet Mt. Dew. Well, a couple of weeks ago, while I was cleaning the store ad trying to get out of there at a reasonable time, he left to fill the cup instead of staying to finish his work or help me with the last of the closing duties. He has shown to be a very selfish person in the past and doesn’t use his common sense very often. He also takes several personal calls on his cell phone during business hours that requires us drivers to pick up his slack and make all of the food. Overall, he just seems to lack common courtesy when it comes to us employees.

6/26 Free Write - When I had Super Powers

When I was 13 years old, I realized I had some interesting witch-like abilities. However, I hadn’t gotten my letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when I was 11 due to the fact that I was a slow learner and my magic came in such spurts that I thought I was a squib. I also came to find out that my magic was only specialized in one area: cooking. I came to realize my magical powers as I was sleep cooking—as I often did when I had to volunteer in my orphanage until late hours of the night—and I woke up to see all of the ingredients mixing themselves! It was a wonderful array of spices on the left, noodles on the right, and some sauce and milk flowing mixed between.
Once I realize I was not, in fact, a squib, I began reaching out to my wizard friends who had spent some time at Hogwarts and tried to hone in on my powers. It wasn’t until a month after this first incident that I came to understand the specialization of my field. I knew I enjoyed cooking and baking, but I never imagined I’d be able to make a magical career out of it. I began looking up magical recipes and practicing several times a week.
By the time my 14th birthday rolled around I could make the most complicated dishes known to muggles. I, myself, was still considered a muggle by many pure-blood magic families, but I enjoyed knowing that I could do some form of magic whereas everyone else I knew in the orphanage could not. I spent so much of my time cooking and making elaborate dishes for everyone that I didn’t even notice when paperwork had been drawn up for my adoption.
One morning I arrived in the common room to hang out with some of my friends when the headmaster of the orphanage came and told me that my cooking abilities had attracted the attention of the one and only Paula Dean! I, however, had a feeling there would be controversy in m life later on if I accepted her as my mother, so I gracefully told her I was not interested in becoming part of her family and stayed at the orphanage to further my cooking practices.

Older Stuff I Forgot to Post

I hadn't posted these up yet! It was saved in my drafts in my email and I decided to clean that part of my mailbox out. So there are going to be a few older things popping up.

-D

Popcorn Writing Entry Task 7/17

I wish they would have listened. Staring into the blackness of that alley caused me to look back on all of the times I tried warning them to be cautious. Warning them that we needed to fortify the cabin. But no. Nobody listened. Now we’re all separated and being hunted down. I knew they already got Elenor. Who knows where Thane went off to; he was the first one to leave. Wherever the others went off to, I hope they’re remembering what we learned. All of those hours put into our defense and survival should not be going to waste like this.

I was the one who they were hunting the most. I am obviously the one who doesn’t know how to strategically hide. How many times have I played this game? We only have a few more minutes to go until the bell rings. The bell would signal the end of the first round and the conclusion of the first night. But the completion of a round meant nothing to these savages. It was a game that they played with their kidnapped customers from their convenience store out that quiet highway. They were three big burly men (probably products of incest, but that’s beside the point) with thick, bushy beards that had grown up in the backwoods of Arkansas hunting anything that they could track down. They had grown tired and bored of hunting animals, so now they hunted the most challenging game of all: humans. I was crouched in a low undergrowth, trying to make my breathing as quiet as possible, when I saw one. He was stalking through the trees, impossibly quiet for his huge size. He seemed to be searching for something on the ground, probably tracks on the ground to give away my position. Suddenly he stopped. I saw him close his eyes. He seemed to be concentrating very hard. Then I realized what he was doing, sniffing, trying to smell me out. Was this man human at all?  To my horror, I realized that he was not. He was some kind of hellish creature that would continually haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.  It was a Manbearpig.  Or was it a Pigbearman?  Or perhaps even a Bearpigman?

I knew I would have to be very quiet in getting slingshot ready. One false move and he would hear me. It happened so fast. I grabbed a twig, whipped up, somehow managed to point it in just the right way, and BAM!

… Mom wasn’t too happy about the cut that resulted in my using my brother’s slingshot and the piece of my dad’s drill that I imagined was a twig. She had to clean it up and prevent any of the blood from dripping on the new carpet inside. She also wasn’t too fond of the new name I paraded around calling my brother. Apparently, Bearpigmanasaurex isn’t a very nice term. I got grounded from tv for a week because she felt as though it was giving me too many ideas on how to irritate my older brother during our games. Charlie, Elenor, and Thane didn’t mind, though. We always had the most fun when we were playing while mom didn’t want us to.

Weaver Ch 2 Response

I realize I'm a few days late in posting this, but I've been sick and kept forgetting to log on here and pop it up.

Honestly, I got kind of bored while reading this. Actually, very bored. Reading about the back-and-forth arguments about whether or not we should teach grammar to students or if it benefits them, it all reminded me of other classes I've taken where people put up pros and cons in good argumentative forms. I understand both sides of the arguments presented, but I also know which side I'd choose if it were up to me; I would say that we should teach our students grammar.

Maybe it's because I get easily irritated by improper usage, but I believe that our students should learn what is proper and improper when it comes to the words they write down on paper. Now, I'm not saying that I know it all or even most of it, but the basics have gotten me a long way. It is also evident that grammar is an important function in education because we have standards that point us toward incorporating it into our teaching.

I've looked at why we teach it in other classes before, too. And although I've looked at it before, this is the one thing I was glad this chapter covered. I tend to get too focused on certain things and gloss over others while reading for classes, but I tried to look at the big picture of this chapter. Even with getting annoyed with all of the research and studies, I was glad that they were included in the text because it did give me something to think about. I need to focus on the why just as much as the what when it comes to grammar.

Necessary Evil

My necessary evil is how full of a schedule I have to keep. Due to paying for my own bills, tuition, taking care of a dog, paying two rents through the summer, and a car that likes to be needy with her service and upkeep, my life can get a little bothersome at times. For instance, this week I’m working 43 hours between my two jobs, taking my 17 hours of class, have a required read of one Harry Potter novel a week, have two essays to write, and the project for this class—the homework aspect of my week usually takes at least 15 hours if I’m putting true effort into it. So, as I do rough math, that’s about 75 hours dedicated to non-recreational activities.

            Sunday’s aren’t too bad, I just work between 4 and 8 hours at Domino’s. Mondays and beyond get a little tougher. I have class from 9-4 on Monday, then go into Domino’s from 4:30-8:30. Tuesday is spent at the ticket office on campus from 8am-5pm, then it’s off to Domino’s from 5:30-10. Wednesday is tough. I’m in class from 9am until 10pm, with two, one hour breaks. Thursday isn’t too bad because I’m just at the ticket office from 8am-5pm, then have time for homework. Friday is spent picking up my last possible 3 hours for the week at the ticket office (students are only aloud 19 hours if they’re currently enrolled in classes and work an on-campus job) followed by a 6:30-9 shift at Domino’s. Saturday get’s a good chunk of relaxation until going in to work at Domino’s, yet again, from 6-10.

            Due to this schedule, my stress has been getting a bit higher as the summer goes on. However, I have been able to still get my homework done (even if it means working until 2 or 3 in the morning the night before class) and haven’t run into any exhausting days... yet. I know that doing so much can wear me down and will get annoying, but I need both jobs and all 15 summer credits in order to graduate on time within five years. The couple extra hours I pick up by switching from a rush or pre-close driver to the closing driver helps give me a little bit of extra money that I can spend to get a little pick-me-up or “spoil” myself with a coffee or other treat amidst all the chaos.