Semester Reflection Blog/Final Review

One thing that I have learned over the course of the semester that I have gotten significantly better at is eliminating clutter. For example, if you were to compare my first day of school blog to the writing I did on Walkabout you would see substantial improvement. And if you were to compare those two to the Paul R. letter you would again see significant improvement and what is, what I think is, a fine piece of writing.

Before I came to Mr. Fielder's English class I didn't even know what margin notes were! But now I can take a chunky, chewy article and break it down into something readable and understandable. This way I can not only read the article, but write an intelligent response to it. Another thing that makes margin noting so handy is that, in the article responses, I often use the thoughts I wrote down during margin noting! I did this in the China article. As I was reading the article I wrote down the thoughts that came into my head. This made it easy when it came time to write the response to organize my thoughts and create a structured article response.

The Rwandan genocide debate was extremely fun. We were the Red Cross so basically we got to blame and point fingers on whoever we want and did nothing wrong at all. Because of the fact that we were the Red Cross, however, we did not get to know much about the other groups in depth prior to the debate. This made the debate a great learning experience as well, as we were able to find out things about other groups that we wouldn't have known, of course, because we didn't study the other groups that well. One really interesting thing that I found out was that Romeo Dellaire actually wanted to fight and end the genocide, but he just didn’t have the support of his country’s leaders or the UN.

We also had to research our group for the debate. We had to choose articles about the Red Cross that would let us know what exactly the Red Cross was doing in Rwanda so we could prepare our opening statement. I found some really significant things, including an actual diary of a Red Cross doctor and an Interview with the leader of the Red Cross at the time, who is now the head of PBS. In the article, he discussed how he had spoken with the Hutu leader in person, and then he continued to describe the hate he had towards them because of what he saw being done to Tutsi’s.

The Rwandan genocide debate also gave me tremendous experience with finding a credible source. Finding a credible source for the Rwandan genocide was also a struggle. My group first had to represent a leader by the name of Greg Kayibanda whose name I cannot remember. He was pretty much a nobody in terms of the genocide. Or, at least, that’s what the lack of information showed. We searched left and right, up and down, north and south for some information on this guy but it was nowhere to be found. We searched BBC and InfoTrak and anything else we could think of, but had no luck. We were able to find only one article, so finally we were able to switch our group to the Red Cross. Finding Red Cross info was easy after I had spent so much time looking for the other guy. It now only takes me a minute or two to find articles regarding a certain topic via a credible source.

College Football

It’s that time of year again, when good food is in the oven, family is over, presents are opened, and, in my house, the TV flips over to college football. Forget the holiday season, in my family, this is bowl season. Two west coast teams who barely managed to get six wins playing in the International Bowl in Canada? …Doesn’t matter, everyone can find a reason to vote for a team. Oh, you like how Southern South Dakota Tech’s jeseys look? Perfect! Now lets get ready to fight each other about it for the next 4 hours.

The biggest fans in the house in December are my uncle, my cousin and I. they will normally come over Christmas Eve and stay until New Year’s Day, when the most important games are played. We have a lot of fun discussing the games, a ton of pizzas are usually ordered, several trips to Sam’s Club for Tostitos and Salsa, and there are occasional small bets on the game if say, a Michigan team plays another Michigan team or a team from Ohio. And its then when you realize why sports are so popular, because it brings people together, they may not agree on who they want to win, but they all gather around the TV, and we all talk about the game.

Oh, gotta go, the games on….

5 TV Shows You'll Always Find on my DVR

1.The Office is a great show. It has a lot of haters but if you take the time to actually watch it and try to enjoy it, you'll laugh your pants off. The characters are absolutely hysterical, especially Dwight (my favorite). It has a plot, but its not a very strict plot and some shows don't really advance the storyline, but they will make the show absolutely hysterical. So next time, give it a shot and watch the entire thing. It's worth it.

2. CSI: Miami is another great one. I lost interest in the original CSI and had stopped watching the CSI's all together, until a marathon was on one night this summer. I was hooked. A lot of people say they don't like the main character and his corny lines that the show always starts with. Just because they're corny doesn't mean there not funny!

3. Flash Forward is a brand new show in its debut season but boy, is it a beauty. It follows a CIA agent after the ENTIRE WORLD blacks out for over two minutes and get a glipse of what they will be doing 6 months in the future. As you can imagine, things are crazy and the agent is trying to figure out what caused the blackout and prevent it from happen again.

4. Sportscenter The only reason this show isn't number 1 on the list is because I normally watch it and there's no need for me to record it!

5. Planet Earth We have HDTV and I really like seeing whale and sharks attack and demolish other animals in high definition.

A Debate for the Ages

Our debate on the Rwandan denocide was awesome!! It was probably one of the most excting classes we've had all year and I'm so glad I got to participate in it. I think the best part about it for me was that my group was the Red Cross! The Red Cross was the only group at the debate that wasn't at fault for anything, which meant that we basically got to lay the blame on whoever we wanted. We decided, however, that the group "worthy" of the blame was Belgium. So, we informed the rest of the organizations of this in our opening statemnent. Mr. Fielder said that we should really lay the blame on the other groups to start stirring the pot. This was fairly easy, and judging by the looks on "Belgium's" faces we had done just that. What was even funny was that half the time, groups wouldn't call on us to let it talk because we did B
nothing wrong and they were all probably just scared or our straightforwardness and they knew we were going to take it to em.

I hope we get to do this again. Next time I think it would be more interesting if my group was one of the groups at fault. It would be more difficult though, I can imagine. But I think I could handle it beacause I'm very comforthale in these type of debate type situations.

Now that I’ve had a chance to go through this process of researching the genocide and participating in the debate, I can say that, beyond a doubt, if anyone was at fault for the genocide, it was Belgium. Belgium not only “set up” the genocide, but they didn’t even send any troops back in to help end the genocide! But, they had absolutely no problem in calling on the U.S. for help!

I will say, however, that just because Belgium started this whole mess doesn't mean it was destined to happen from the beginning. For example, without the Exodus of the Tutsi's, this may not have happened. Without the murder of a Hutu extremist leader, this may not have happened. About 15 things had to go horribly wrong for this tradegy to happen, and they all did.

No matter how "unfortunate" or "bad" or "sad" this may be, we learn about these things because history repeats itself. We need to learn from this time in history and make sure it doesnt happen again.

"The American Scholar"

Emerson's argument in "The American Scholar" holds true for only some people in our country; however, the bottom line is that America gives people the choice to be either a specialist or to have a larger pallet of interests.

One reason Emerson's argument still holds true today is the example of my mom's husband, Kevin. He used to own a Hungry Howies Pizza in Monroe. One day he decided to move me, my mom and my brother out to Brooklyn, MI. Here he started a horse and cattle ranch. His pizza business was very successful, despite a poor location, which was proven when the next owner took over and went bankrupt. His ranch is also fairly successful, and it is a very good addition to my mom, who works as a nurse anesthetist.

One prime example of why Emerson may have a valid point, is the production line worker. A phenomenal way of producing goods, but i almost EXACTLY what Emerson argues against. The production line worker does his one part, time after time, he becomes a machine, almost like a work horse. And, I agree with Emerson that it, without a doubt, it eats away at the man.

Top Things Associated with Halloween

Top 5 Halloween Costumes:
Teenagers who go around in blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a mask are a pet peeve of mine, and a disgrace to dedicated trick-or-treaters such as myself. To crack my top ten, you have to have a good idea, creativity and innovative designing.

1. The Tin Man. (My costume as a 7- y/o). Okay folks, this wasn't a half done, $15 costume bought at Halloween USA. This was a design worked on for weeks. I spent 25 minutes just getting the thing on. It had an opening door that revealed a heart inside it. I also had silver body paint and hair dye, complete with a silver funnel on my head. Till this day, I cannot find on that tops this.
2. Harold Helicopter Rescue. (Thomas the Train character) When you can get a cute kid into a cardboard box that resembles a helicopter with revolving wooden spoons on top of his head, its an all around victory.
3. Super Sperm. Not a lot of explanation is necessary, but it was a unique idea and finally a teenager that did a little more that buying a scary mask.
4.Chucky (Child's Play) This did involve a mask, of course but the wearer did do a fantastic job of replicating the real Chucky, with the overalls, striped shirt, and of course, the infamous Chucky voice.
5. Now, this one is different because it involves a dog. However, putting a weiner dog in a hot dog costume is just adorable. I could cry.

Top 5 Halloween Candies:
When I think of Halloween I think of candy So here's my fab 5:

1. Snickers. The Snickers theme song is my ringtone. You know, the, "Over Chocolate Covered Mountain Tops And Waterfalls of Caramel..." It's pretty flippin' sweet if you ask me...
2. Candy Corn. I absolutely HATE candy corn, but it is probably the candy most associated with candy corn. All other candy is enjoyed year round, but candy corn is normally only ate on October 31st.
3. Kit Kat. My personal second favorite, I love the King-Size, because I can sit there and eat them all night.
4. Any white chocolate. My mom always joked that I inherited this "white-chocolate gene" from her. I normally don't eat nuts, but if there colored in white chocolate I will. I'd eat pretty much anything, as long as its covered in white chocolate.
5. M&M's. I guess, like the Kit Kat's, I can just sit there and enjoy them for hours. I think maybe I'm just more of a slow-candy eater.