Gangsta

In Gansta Culture by bell hooks talks about how young black males feel suppressed by the white man. Hooks goes into how the black males go to criminal motives to become an individual. Because working a normal job is considered weak and doesn't get your freedom from the white corporate world. Hooks incorporates Ice T.  using him explain why they go to crime because it has no requirements and anyone can do it. This definitely gives some value to what hooks is saying about black men. Another thing she incorporates Darwinism survival of the fittest and not carrying if they end up in jail or dead as long if they get paid at the end of the day.

Pathos

For this blog I have chosen to use Dead and Gone by T.I there is a lot of pathos in this song. I won't be starting at the beginning of the song but the middle. T.I raps about how “ Niggas die everyday All over bull shit, dope money, dice game, ordinary hood shit Could this be 'cos of hip hop music? Or did the ones with the good sense not use it? Usually niggas don't know what to do when their back against the wall so they just start shootin' for red or for blue or for blow. I guess from bankhead or from your projects no more stress, now I'm straight, now I get it, now I take time to think, before I make mistakes just for my family's sake”. Seeing niggas dieing everyday over dumb stuff is can desensitize someone's feelings. But for people not living in these street conditions it can create surprise that this can be happening in our country. T.I also talks about how most niggas can't solve anything without violence creating a hostile, angry environment. Although T.I changed his ways to not act out of anger and think about what is smart for his family's sake. This show love for his family he doesn't want to be hurt by his stupid actions. This song is mostly about how his old self is dead and gone because he doesn't want to travel on the road paved for death.

Entry #1

The Ad I have chosen is of a movie cleverly titled The Comebacks. The movie is created by the producers of The Wedding Crashers. The Ad strongly objectifies women. The woman is half bent over wearing a red helmet with blond hair flowing out, a red jersey pulled up a little to show her back and tight gold football pants. In this picture she has her buttocks raised in a perky way while holding a football in between her legs. Then comes the clever movie title and catch phrase. "The Comebacks, Keep your eye on the ball." This Ad targets single straight males who like football, possibly middle class middle age men or college/high school students. I think why this is the target audience is because of the woman position with the football between the legs and the text saying keep your eye on the ball. Also by how the movie is presented by the producers from the Wedding Crashers. I don't think rich middle age men would spend time to watch this spoof genre movie. Unless the male is a college or high school student.

Self Introduction

Hola my name is Chris Reid and I am quiet person. I live in Kearney,MO and commute to Missouri Western. I have lived in Kearney for almost 3 years. I moved from Excelsior springs my junior year of high school. The move from Excelsior springs to Kearney I gained a passion for tennis. The sport has played a big part of my life. Always admiring the professionals such as Andy Roddick, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer with their amazing talent and great sportsmanship. Tennis has been a way for me to relax and have fun. Along with tennis other things I enjoy to do are play video games, watching sports and eating food. However unlike tennis English has not been a major part of my life. My experience with writing. Mainly because of taking the same English courses in high school and having no motivation to improve. Now that I have taken English-100 I feel as though I had good improvement in understanding sentence structure and hope to further my improvement overall.

Self Evaluation of Task Four

My thesis for my paper was; it seems America's society takes the gift of reading and writing for granted, including myself   with my experiences with reading and writing, and having teachers who have influenced my reading and writing skills.
The main points of my paper where the experiences I had with reading and writing, the teachers I had.
The most helpful advice was on ways to construct my thesis statement.
I had two drafts that I typed on the computer and brainstormed my ideas without writing on paper or typing them. I felt that I could have done better incorporating the story “How I Learned to Read and Write” into my task paper.

A formal review of English 100

My reading and writing has changed since I have taken this class. I have become a more confident writer and the class has got me to read more than I ever had in high school. The class was a new experience for me I did not dread each task paper, I often found myself looking forward and anticipating the next paper. As for being a better writer and reader I feel as though I have improved my writing skills tremendously, although I have much more room for improvement. My reading skills I feel as it's up to par with everything I'm able to comprehend much of material and remember what I read. English-100 has given me feeling of self accomplishment and a liking towards English I notice that it's not something terrible in high school with boring old journal writings on paper that you have to save in your bag. Being introduced to blogging has helped my writing/typing skills I try to write formally answering questions and it's very helpful with responses to readings for task papers. Overall I thought my first semester at college went very well and I hope to continue learning and becoming better at  reading, and writing.

The Lonely, Good Company of Books

My relationship with books are not the greatest. I don't find many books that attract my attention. But when I do I become infatuated with the book, I did this with Lord of the Rings I found it was not a story about the ring and Frodo. But it was also about Aragorn and his fear being consumed by the power of being king. My experience on becoming a reader started with Narnia and Harry Potter. These books gave me interest into books, history to gain a personal understanding. Also these books made me realize I never read to just read like Rodriguez did, I try to gain some type of knowledge or personal gain from a book. If I were to read Plato's "The Republic" I would not just read it to say that I read it. Instead I would read it understand it and remember some philosophies Plato and maybe have a conversation or explain "The Republic" to someone. Comprehension to me is the key thing I aim for when reading if I were not to understand the book or text I may not read it or research it in depth. I am currently doing this with Norse/Pagan mythology for a research paper most of the books are older than dirt so it take allot of analyzing and comprehension to explain what the Norse faith was like.

Experience with reading and writing

Reading and writing have no played a very important role in my life. I normally read for enjoyment and never write unless it has to deal with some class. I know grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation is a big problem of mine. Before I took this course I was worried. I expected a bunch of research papers and super complicated journals like my College-Prep English class.But this class did not turn out the way I thought with blogger, writer's workshop, and more personal papers.I think I'm more confident in writing than ever. Although I still have problems with sentence structure hopefully that will buff out through each paper I write. I am starting to look at writing and reading as positive instead of a negative viewpoint. With that being said my goal is to do better on task four than my last paper and ending my first semester with good grades.

"America Needs Its Nerds" By Leonid Fridman

The word "Nerd" brings the thought of the kid who reads his textbook or answer's the question the teacher asks. America does not cherish this geek instead it's the athlete playing football or basketball. Later on they become millionaire's while teacher's or police officer's, firemen help people while the entertainer is the one paid more. Nerds become something important behind the scene of the town star football player.

Reflection of Task Three and Contemplating

I'm having some trouble starting on task three. I'm not sure why maybe I'm not motivated, stressed and I seem to can't make any connections with anything. "America needs Its Nerds" by Leonid Fridman seems like something I could write about. I think it's interesting how he talks about American society and it's problems. How sport professional's are paid more than teachers,scientist's etc. I might be able to relate to this when I was in high school "jock's" looked to me for answers in class. Although I was never called Nerd or Geek I do play lots of video games and I'm very good at them. Also the term geek and nerd has expanded to people who play video games like World of Warcraft, but if you play a game like Halo you're not considered much of a nerd unless you are ranked Lt. Colonel. This is my way of having fun and not going to parties with alcohol, sex, and drugs. Video games, and board games are being annexed by society also how it's a bad influence. Kids become obsessed with the game's but is it really because of video games or something more like social life?

Analysis of Kozol

A better analysis will be posted later, when I have received money to buy the book. But so far, in class his aspect on inner city school's sound's very terrifying with teachers who don't care about teaching making a connection with their student's. There is the exception of the one choir teacher who sings gospel songs with them. She gives them a sense of values, god's helping hand, and hope. I had a teacher similar like this Terry Miller. He was a interesting character very religious and science teacher. My class had no values or hope in life, most of the kids took the class thinking it would be easy it didn't turn out that way. Mr. Miller asked the class why we came to school, what we wanted to find out from our high school career. We did allot of critical thinking in the astronomy class we had most students still slept in class or didn't show up to class. Mr. Miller did change some students but not all it was nice to see a teacher trying to reach out to make a difference. That's what the school Kozol talked about was missing they needed more teacher's like the choir teacher. I'm more privileged to have many teacher's that helped their students giving hope you can do anything you set your mind to and pushing you to exceeded the thought of your best. It may be because I didn't live in a inner city school were violence happens daily and having a school with poor conditions.

Task Three Question: Would you like to explore the problems in our educational system and provide your own opinions and solutions?

I would like to find out problems in our educational system. I think there are many problems such as funding for schools why do suburban school's recieve more money than inner city school's or school's that do poorly on standardized tests, or maybe the importance of adminstation and board of education to school's. I would like to see equal distrubtion of funds towards school's, also why school's spend more on sport's such as football, basketball, baseball etc. instead of computers and books and school renovations.

Let Teen-Agers Try Adulthood

4.) He makes assumptions about adulthood being simple for a 16 year old teen to handle.  I don't agree with his thoughts at all. Because they are outlandish putting kids in what sounds like a super intensive education. At sixteen kids act independent, but they just want to have fun hanging out with friends go to party's. I know in my town most kids don't pay for their gas, cars, or even have a job. Considering 16 year old's are not capable to make a smart decision. Botstein's proposal doesn't offer them to try adulthood it pushes them out into the real world with not experience. There would be many things that would need to change such as child labor laws. Most kids dont even get a job till 16 those few years in highschool having a job gets the teen an experience of the world. We have classes now were you can get highschool credits working a job that is trying adulthood working in the middle of the day not going to school. If you try something you don't throw yourself into something you don't know. You would want to take a small sample of it. Just like trying food it's like if you take a nibble of some strange new food and before you know it you've ate everything on the plate. I would like to know more about this man, it seems to me if he had a troubled past in high school  if he wasn't in the clique.
    

Where College Fails Us

My experiences of college have been slim and great so far. I like it because it's not like highschool and I seem to be learning more easily. I'm in college to gain some type of advantage over other people in the working world. College to me is worth the time, hardwork, and the money. Because its furthering your education and you get to become something that desire to be and help people.

Task Two Evaluation

I felt that this paper was good. I did not get to correct my final draft as much as I would had liked, because of microsoft word not working. I think that there was great detail and support. I hope people that read it realize what my father went through and providing for us in this difficult world with no GED

Interview Process

I conducted my interview in my kitchen, overall my interview went well I still have some questions not pertaining to paper like how some family is doing and who is still alive. I learned how my father lived and now understand things that happened in California.

Becoming Educated

What does education mean to me ? Education means the opprutinty to better your life. Becoming that teacher, lawyer, scientist, doctor, or politician. As Americans we are given the opprutinty to go to school become something great. It's whether you as a person decides to act on this gift of education. You may get your highschool diploma, but education doesn't end there. You may choose to go to college get your doctors or may have found a good paying job. You are always learning gaining knowledge and striving to be the top in the world's marketplace. Education is the step to success and learning to become a life long learner.

Casa: A Partail Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood

These cuentos in Cofer’s memoir are about women. Mainly because she is a female and she spent time with the older women who gossiped and told cuentos. An example would be how her grandmother talked about men how they could leave someone at the altar and have different families on the island and no one would know. Also her Mama’s view on men’s view of marriage was the price to pay to have children. They talked about how a man whose name would practically change every time the story. The important thing was that she Maria let love get the best of her.

I think the equivalent to these cuentos might be a man marries a woman Maria. Rafael loses all his possessions and his children. Maybe even Jose became a slave to the woman he married to scare men into believing that woman are after valuables. A grandfather would probably tell this or some younger men who are married. They probably would be playing cards around a table or dominos, drinking, and smoking being men. Young boys would be influenced by cuentos. Like Cofer she listened to her Mama, because she idolized her as a child and soaked up the main information about the stories.

Sister Flowers

A memorable childhood memory I have is during a summer when I was in the third grade. My friends and I were very bored and wanted money to buy these toys called bionicles. We decided to make a lemonade/ kool-aid stand.  So my friend Blake took a table from his house. I gathered cups and ingredients. We made a huge poster with seventy five cent lemonade and several other posters to lead to the lemonade stand. A post lady always stopped by and bought lemonade. Some days she gave us ten dollars.  We added two more people to our small business, David and Jason. This way we had a longer time to make money and we ran shifts.  But we raised the price to a dollar twenty five, since we had four peopleWe did this for several weeks making tons of money to a kid’s eye.

 When we bought the toys we were so happy Blake bought the red Bionicle, I bought the white Bionicle it had a snowboard thing. These toys had a turning knob to move the arms. They made comics and video’s of these toys, Blake and I became more consumed in this Lego toy for a long time they created monsters and mini Bionicles have battles against. Blake and I were excited when Bionicle monsters came out during the fall because we always argued who would win against whom. When leaves started to fall we created a yard care work to raise more money. Blake and I were hooked on making money. We always thought of ideas to make more money like selling gum or pencils. It makes me laugh to think what we did to get money scam kids or create a business.

Task Two Subjects

What makes him/her interesting and unique? He's my father and what he sacrificed to raise me.

What sort of questions would you ask and why? If he wished he would had completed highschool or would like to get his GED or maybe go to college

What sort of problems do you think may arise for Task Two?  I think creating a conclusion and Thesis

What do you anticipate? Why?  I anticipate to find out what my father's view on education.