Tuesday, May 10, 2011

THE LAST BLOG... Formally known as "Course Reflection"

It is that time of the year. If you do not know what I am referencing, then I got 4 words for you: LAST DAY OF CLASS!

Overall, I really enjoyed ENGL101s. From learning different forms of rhetoric to mastering the stases, I genuinely believe that I have become a better writer. I thought that the class was successful because:

  1. Friendly environment
  2. Different peer edit workshops
  3. Interesting lectures; never bland
  4. Awesome teacher (that means you, Carolyn!)
There were two flaws with the course that I wanted to point out also. For one, I thought that "Considering Another Side" should have been done earlier in the semester. Thus, students would have been required to choose final paper topics earlier in order to write a paper that counters their beliefs.  The biggest problem, though, was that we did not have enough class time to work on our final papers. Honestly, we should have had at least two weeks to work on the paper. In those two + weeks, we could have had 3 full draft workshops, and we could have devoted 2 classes towards personal conferences with Carolyn to make sure that our final paper was following the guidelines.

Overall, I was happy with my experience in ENGL101s.

Thanks for taking the time to read my final blog!

-Mark B.

p.s. I only had wonderful things to say about you in the course eval Carolyn. Thank you for being a great mentor and person. You made the experience!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

"The Pura Principle" Thoughts

I thought that "The Pura Principle" views illness in a very interesting way. A short story, "The Pura Principle" documents the life of Rafa, who is the the main character's brother. Rafa, a Hispanic man in his early twenties, suffers from cancer. Instead of letting this illness get in his way, Rafa tries to persevere through it because in simple words, he does not want to look like a bitch.  Consequently, Rafa gets a part time job but loses it due to his illness, marries a girl named Pura who steals from him and Rafa's mom, and leaves multiple days at a time with no warning. Yunior, the main character, also mentions that though he is much stronger than the now weak Rafa, he stills fears Rafa because Rafa keeps the attitude that he is going to live forever and retain his strength.

In my opinion, the main message of the story is that illness cannot keep some people down.  I think that this message is actually buttressed by the genre of this article: a short story. All of the anecdotes that Yunior reminisces about his brother shows that Rafa did not let cancer get in his way.  Rafa did whatever he wanted (i.e. get a job though he couldn't leave the couch half the time), and did not really care about the consequences. Thus, he proved that illness did not control or really influence his life.  In my opinion, only a short story could portray this message. Due to the fact that the short story actually gave real scenarios about how Rafa's illness through debilitating did not get in his way, I think that the short story genre was the best way to express the message. I do not think that fiction would be able to express this message as well because though it may have examples, they may not necessarily be true or realistic. Thus, the fiction article would detract from the main message of persevering through illness.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Waltz With Bashir Prompt

In my opinion, one of the most memorable scenes of the movie is when the main character, Ari, talks to the female psychologist.  During their conversation, the psychiatrist mentions a patient that she had years back who also participated in the 1982 Lebanon war.  She describes this man as having said that he was able to fight during the war because he imagined that he viewed all of the carnage through a video camera.  Thus, he tried to convince himself that everything he experienced was made up.  One day, though, this man experienced horses dying. The man realizes that though he was immune to the image of people dying, he could not tolerate watching the defenseless horses die for no apparent reason.  At this point, this man's video camera stopped, and he became cognizant of the terror of war all around him.

This part of the movie stood out to me because it shows how soldiers are adversely affected by war. Though they try to pretend that everything around them is pretend at times, a traumatic event usually occurs which makes the soldiers comprehend the terrors of war.  I like this scene because it also reminds me of the book All Quiet on the Western Front, where the main character also describes that he could not stand the horses made when they died although he was immune to the sounds that humans made when they were killed.

The main goal of this movie was to illustrate the horrors of the 1982 Lebanon war.  Through the various soldier's stories, the audience could deduce how awful the war really was, and how it was very traumatic for some of the combatants. Though this film was animated, I still think it got the main message out.  The whole point was to listen to the soldiers stories and see a pictorial representation to understand what the war was like. Also, the real images of the dead bodies in the end was effective in portraying the main message of how bad the war really was.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Research Log for Evidence Paper #2

1. "Heart Disease Facts." Cdc.gov. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 Jan. 2011. Web. 3   Apr. 2011. 1-2. <http://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/facts.htm>.
I choose this article because it gives statistics about the amount of Americans who have heart disease and the amount of Americans who die from heart attacks annually.

2. Asgary, Sedigheh. "Effect of Immunization against Ox-LDL with Two Different Antigens on Formation and Development of Atherosclerosis." Lipidworld.com. 24 Nov. 2007. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. <http://www.lipidworld.com/content/6/1/32>.
I choose this article because it describes how LDL becomes plague, which forms atherosclerosis.

3. Gostin, Lawrence. "Law as a Tool to Facilitate Healthier Lifestyles and Prevent Obesity." Journal of the American Medical Association. PubMed.gov, 3 Jan. 2007. Web. 3 Apr. 2011.                    <http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/297/1/87.short>.
I choose this article because it relates to the action stases; the disclosure section lists problems and article later discusses solutions.

4. Crawford, David. "Population Strategies to Prevent Obesity." BMJ. PubMed.gov, 5 Oct. 2002. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. <http://www.bmj.com/content/325/7367/728.full>.
I choose this article because it proposes environmental factors on how to prevent obesity and cites some studies.

5. Thomas, Helen. "Obesity Prevention Programs for Children and Youth: Why Are Their Results so Modest?" Oxford Journals. PubMed.gov, 27 Sept. 2006. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. <http://her.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/6/783.short>.
I choose this article because outlines failed programs to prevent obesity in kids.


Sunday, March 6, 2011

John Q Scene

In my opinion, the most important scene -- or at least the one that stood out the most to me -- occurred at the end of the film. During this pivotal scene, John's son says goodbye to his father because John was sentenced to serve jail time. Without pausing, John corrects his son's malapropism and says "See you later" to indicate that he will see his son in due time.

This scene was embellished with pathos and logos. The fact that a son has to say goodbye to his father because his father broke the law in order to save his son's life is very emotional. This scene makes the audience regret the fact that John had to break the law because now he has to be separated from his son; at the same time, the audience is also thankful that John broke the law in order to save his son from dying. This scene also evokes some ethos because though John is paying the consequences for committing a crime, he proved that he loved his son and that he was a devoted father by doing whatever it took to make sure that his son survived. This alone proves that John is a great father with a lot of character, and it exemplifies that John is the protagonist of the story.

This scene was also important because it works off a previous scene. In the beginning when John's son told John to say "see you later" instead of goodbye (good bye means possibly wont see again), John chuckled because he knew he was going to see his son after school. After the whole hospital incident though (most of the movie), John's attitude about being and seeing his son changed. Due to the sentence John has to face, his son is unsure if or when he will see his dad again. By reversing the roles this time, John is letting his son know that he will get out of jail as soon as possible, and that he longs for the day that they will be reunited again.

Research Log for Evidence Paper

1. Abel Romero-Corral, et al. "Body Composition and Heart Failure Prevalence and Prognosis: Getting  to the Fat of the Matter in the "Obesity Paradox." Mayo Clinic Proceedings 85.7 (2010): 605-608. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 2 Mar. 2011.

-This article explains some complications of heart failure related with obesity. It also gives an aspect of how a larger BMI can be sometimes healthier (a point I will most likely refute).

2. Srivastava, Tarak. "Nondiabetic Consequences of Obesity on Kidney". Pediatric Nephrology 21.4 (2006): 463-470. Springerlink.com. Web. 6. Mar. 2011.

-This article looks at the adverse side effects that obesity has on kidneys.  Though written about children, I think that it is applicable to adults also.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Blogging Extra Credit 1

Hey everyone,

I thoroughly enjoyed our English classes this week!

In particular, I thought that the class discussions that we had on Philadelphia were really engaging. By examining the different appeals of the film (logos, pathos, and ethos), I thought that are class uncovered the hidden messages enveloped in the film.  I also thought that most students were engaged in the conversations.  Instead of reading monotonous passages from different novels (sorry, Carolyn!), everyone got to watch a very interesting movie.  Thus, they actually wanted to comment and contribute to the class discussion.

Overall, I really enjoyed our classes this week, and I hope to have great English classes in the future!

-Mark