What is a Blog? Part Two

I feel that this semester my idea of what a blog is has changed into a broad view of the uses. Before, I thought blogs were taken over by immature people as a way to vent their rage and to talk about every little thing in their lives. After three months of working with blogs, I realize that blogs are more of a way to have a private forum, you can state something and have someone reply to you in an open environment. Still, many people do use blogs to vent their rage and gossip about anything and everything, which is something that I get annoyed at hearing about all the time. I still feel that blogs need to be censored, as anyone, for the most part, can view a blog and then if someone stated that they wanted this person dead, someone may take that as an offer. I also still feel that blogs are currently a fad, but as with cell phones, some people will become addicted to them and be unable to exist without their blogs should they ever go away.

This semester has been a fun and educational experience, for the most part. I really did not like the blogging aspect of the class, as it is harder for me to concentrate and type something out at the computer, unless it is a paper or something that I am interested in. To have to read something and then figure out a way to explain what you read, I find, is more difficult for some than for others. I, myself, have trouble with this at times, especially if I did not understand the reading that well. This class has also helped me expand my writing skills out to different genre than I am used to. I generally write fiction and argument papers, so having to shift into a paper that I have no stance or opinion of my own into was rather difficult.

One thing I did find rather annoying was the Writer’s Resource we had to buy at the beginning of the semester. The citation section didn’t have some of the MLA citation formats I needed, and some I used were marked as incorrect, even though I modeled after the books examples, such as with T.V. interviews. It also lacked several citation formats such as those for government documents and laws. I didn’t enjoy the scavenger hunt assignment that much because the Cline Library’s website was very difficult to navigate through.

I really did like the fact that for both of the argument papers, WE chose the topics rather than being assigned them. This made it much easier to write the paper since we actually had a stance on the topic, and, in my case, can be very passionate about it. The problem I ran into with both papers is that some of the necessary information I need come from indirect sources, I have seen them cited dozens of times but have not been able to actually find the information, and internet websites. I do look forward to the group presentation. Even though there will only be two people in my group, we are both very knowledgeable with the topic, and thus understand both sides even though we are on the same one.

Overall this was a very enjoyable semester and I have learned some skills that I will be able to use in the future.

Discrimination is a Virtue

While I tune out when ever the Democratic nominees show up on the TV with their speeches due to being tired of their attacking each other and then acting as friends, I feel that discrimination has been something that has shown up over and over between the two. Clinton knocked Obama for missing the State of the Black Union because he is black. Both have tried to play the discrimination card by trying to appeal to “their groups” and have ended up skipping over other groups that they don’t “relate to”.

Visual

This cartoon was found on the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus Facebook website. It shows the mentality that many anti-gun activists have when it comes to gun-free zones and criminals. While this is a sarcastic cartoon, it shows the fallacy of gun-free zones against criminals.

Prospectus

Negative: Will be hard to keep audience interested.

Question: How will the information be collected?

Question: how will the audience keep interest in the paper?

Black Language

I was confused at times during the reading as to what the author was trying to say. I understood the point about language versus the dialect. The language is unique for the area, but overall is a dialect of the same language for others in a different area. I felt that the author started to preach against the “rich whites” for only educating blacks when it was of benefit to them, and then only to teach that “the child can never be white”. I felt that this last bit was unnecessary and injured the author’s words. The author makes references on how words and phrases have been changed to be less crude with their meaning for whites versus blacks, such as “jazz” and “sock it to me”. For blacks they mean one thing but for whites they mean another. I do think though that some of the things stated have changed since the 1970’s and that the situation is a little better in some areas. Sure some regions things haven’t changed due to prejudice and poverty, but overall in the country things have changed since that time period.

Annotation

Arizona Department of Public Safety-Licensing Unit. 7 February 2008. Arizona Department of Public Safety. 25 March 2008. <http://www.azdps.gov/ccw/procedures/obtainpermit.asp>.
This website contains information regarding the requirements and procedures for obtaining a concealed weapons permit in the state of Arizona. There are several specific details on who can have a license, and who cannot.
This was written by the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s Concealed Weapons Permit Unit.
The purpose is to provide information those wishing to know how to obtain a concealed weapons permit.
While this page has a lot of good information for me, I do need to go and pick up a paper copy so that I do not lose a web source.

The right to fail?

The Right to Fail….yeah right. It doesn’t matter what right we have when we are pretty much forced into succeeding as defined by society. Success is defined, today, completing college with a four year degree, anything less and you are a failure and won’t amount to anything in your life. Or at least that’s what I was told. What is the problem with someone getting a lower degree and pursuing a higher one later? What if someone wants to actually LEARN what they are going to be dealing with in their career? I find that it is sad, how you basically have to buy our right to succeed in this world, and anything less is failing. I have had goals in my life that I have failed to achieve, but not through any fault of my own. It is hard to get over your desires when they can not be obtained no matter what you do in your lifetime.