Choose Your Own Topic

So right now, I am in this tutoring thing that I have to do through my Math 223 class.  For it, I need 20 hours of some teaching stuff so we took a field trip to Chicago Public Schools and that was 8 hours and then tutoring is 12 hours.  I have had to go every Wednesday for basically the whole semester from 4 – 6.  It is really not that bad, just time consuming because I always procrastinate my homework so Wednesdays are typically the best days for me to do homework but tutoring sometimes puts a damper on it.  I always bring homework with me to do, like this blog assignment.  I go with a group from my class and there is also another group that tutored last semester but they are overachievers and continued tutoring this semester also.  The most annoying thing is that kids never come in.  I have been here for 30 minutes already and no one has come in yet.  There are 8 people here and no kids.  I think this whole semester I have helped 2 kids; one with English and one with telling time. When kids actually come in to get tutored, they typically go to the other group because the kids knew them better. So for the majority of the time, I attempt to do homework but I really only accomplish the blogs.  I normally forget my computer so I hand write it out and to waste time, I actually count out how many words I have to make sure I get the minimum of 300 words.  Then when I get back to my room, I type it all out and upload it.  Overall I like tutoring when I get to tutor children but otherwise, it is pretty boring.  On the plus side, since it is our last day of tutoring, we get ice cream. Day will equal made after that.

Word Count: 319

Cinematic Adventures

So it’s another choose you own topic again. I'm going to talk about randomness that has happened to me over the weekend.  Last Friday I went with my roommate and our 2 friends, Luke and Jeremy, to see “The Cabin in the Woods”.  I thought it was really good. I went in thinking that it was going to be this super scary movie and it was at first but then it took kind of a sci-fi twist, which was really cool. I don’t want to spoil too much of the movie but what was really interesting was that the twist was never fully explained.  It could be taken as good or bad. I personally liked it because it allowed me to come up with my own idea and explanation. After that we went to Steak and Shake.  It was very delicious. I got a peanut butter shake and split a turkey club with my roommate.  It was a fun little outing because we did perhaps the funnest game invented, people watching.  At the theater, these dumb giggling, high school girls sat right in front of us. They were so annoying because 2 of them got up literally 30 seconds after they sat down to get popcorn and then when they came back, they were giggling once again and they spilt some popcorn which apparently deserves more giggling. The most annoying girl sat directly in front of me and she thought she was the only one in the theater because she reclined her seat all the way back and was on her phone almost the whole movie. Halfway through, though, an employee came down and said that she needed to turn her phone off.  My friends and I started to applaud the theater man.  It was quite funny. Then at Steak and Shake, there were these 2 way old ladies with blinding white hair poofed out like a whole foot.  The really funny part was they saw us laughing at them and they walked past our table on the way to their table and did the condescending old person look at us.  Overall, that night was pretty entertaining and filled with delicious food.

Word Count: 362

Writing Style

Writing for each class is different for me.  For English papers, I typically just start writing, no planning.  It’s probably not the best idea but it gets the job done.  When writing for English, I always jump around or add new ideas so frequently so I have found that creating an outline is not really helpful.  As for research, I took the easy way out in high school and googled all my sources because the library was such a hassle to get to.  Now since it’s on campus, I've been trying to be more academic and use books.  For other subjects, like history, I typically write out little sections outlining everything I know and then I free write and reference the notes I wrote down earlier every so often.  I've noticed that if I try to write a legit outline, like capital letters and Roman numerals, I end up writing basically an essay because I don’t really know when to stop writing the basic information.  I've found that what works best for me is to write down general information about each part of the paper and sometimes order them into paragraphs with like the subject part name in my outline (like for history, Civil War in p1) and then free write the rest with the information I know.

I think overall each course needs to receive different forms of research.  English requires much more support because it’s such a broad subject so it requires more searching to find someone who has the same opinion as you.  Whereas subjects like history or science, the information is standard.  It’s always the same and the only challenge is finding enough detail on the subject matter.  Actually writing for each class is also different.  In high school, my AP Lit and AP Gov essays were written entirely different.  English requires explanation and analysis whereas history just needs the straight answer.

In regards to the article we read, I definitely used the pens, highlighters and post it notes.  While I used them to draw all over the pages, I also used them to annotate the passages like she did.  I really like her method of “brainstorming” in which she creates a web of post it notes.  It seems like it would be beneficial for me because I tend to switch my thoughts around a lot.

Word Count: 390

Close Readings

A lot of the stuff we have learned about close reading, I knew before.  I took AP Lit junior year in high school and literally every single class period we did close readings of like every type of genre.  It was awful after the first quarter of school.  But on the bright side, I did learn a lot about close reading passages and how the author puts in hidden connections throughout the text.  I always went into my English classes with the notion that the author does not plan out every single detail like whether to put a comma there or to use a certain adjective.  After spending so many hours analyzing literature, I have come to understand that authors do in fact tie everything together when they write.  They chose certain words to evict a specific emotion or response from the reader.  Phrases that seem odd or out of place are that way for a reason and it is up to the reader to interpret all the other clues the author has left to get the hidden message.  I have learned to not dismiss any random part of the story because it all makes sense and most of all I have learned that nothing I think could be considered wrong.  That is the thing I love and hate about English; there are no wrong answers. As for continuing close reading everything, I still do, even with like TV commercials. It’s bad.  I feel like I can't even read something without thinking about why the author chose to use this word instead of another word but I think it actually helps me to understand what the author is trying to tell the reader.  If I pick up on these small clues, I can have somewhat of a foreshadowing to what will happen later on in the story and then comprehend the story a little bit better.

Word Count: 316

Paper Proposals

I have two ideas for my paper.  One is how Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon in terms of how much merchandise it has and how there are conventions for it.  I like this idea because it is something that I have a lot of first-hand experience with.  In my last blog, I talked about how my mother collects a lot of the merchandise so I, in turn, got quite a few items myself.  I even got a Darth Vader balloon shape made, it was awesome.  But what I really want to address in this topic is how much more Star Wars is than just a film.  Most movies just come out with posters of the main characters face that no one really cares about or a book adaptation of the movie but Star Wars gives people something tangible to have that represents the movie to them.  For instance, there are literally thousands of action figures that you could buy and then recreate different scenes from the movie or come up with a whole new sequence of events, like maybe Anakin didn’t become Darth Vader.  So much merchandise and memorabilia allows people to create their own little Star Wars world.  My second idea was more general about the film industry and its impact on life.  It is also a little far-fetched in terms of making it into an 8-10 page paper but I wanted to possibly focus on the use of dialogue and how some lines become so iconic, like “Luke, I am your father.” That particular one is quite amusing because it’s not even the actual line but anyways, I would not only focus on Star Wars but also on movies like Scarface and the quote “say hello to my little friend” and so forth.  Research for the first topic was relatively easy because there’s quite a bit about how Star Wars has affected lives, one guy creates a one-man-show about the original trilogy but I need to find more about how the products themselves affect people.  If I were to choose the second topic, I might have more difficulty with research because I wouldn’t even know where to begin so most likely I will choose the first topic.

Word Count: 371

Star Wars Review

The story of Star Wars is well known by all, even those who have not even seen it.  It follows the basic plot of good guy turned evil who tries to take over the galaxy but is defeated by who else but his own son.  The story does have a typical ending in which the good guys win.  Whether that is a happy ending depends on if you are an Empire or Alliance fan.  Of course, the story involves more plot details and twists and, in my opinion, is still unlike any movie or series out now.  The sci-fi genre is very popular and it seems to develop more and more stunning graphics and story lines. Look at Avatar, for example.  Say what you want about it, but while the graphics are clearly amazing, the story line leaves a lot to be desired, like cutting out an hour of it to make it bearable to sit through.  Star Wars excels in both visual (for the time) and plot aspects.  The first trilogy released starts off in the middle of the story, which can cause some confusion, but creates an interesting way of telling a story that has not been done before.  Star Wars also set off the prominent use of computer generated graphics. The whole series is set in this alternate galaxy full of exotic planets and spaceships.  That alone means that the movies must be on their A-game in terms of graphics. Since the first trilogy came out between ’77 and ’83, I never had any interactions with those films but the second trilogy, which came out between ’99 and ’05, I saw each movie in theaters more times than I would care to admit.  My mother is a huge Star Wars fan and so that means, as a child, I was forced to become one too.  There are pictures of me when I was younger of having Darth Vader shoes and a balloon of Darth Vader.  The second movie, Attack of the Clones, I saw eight times in theaters because there were free tickets on the back of cereal boxes and all had different designs so mother had to retrieve all of them.  Even to this day, I can still quote many parts of the first three movies.  Even during watching the movie for the ethnography portion, I was quoting parts of the movie and probably annoyed my roommate.  Not only does Star Wars advertisement reach to cereal boxes, but they also have conventions, comic books, action figures, birthday party themed stuff, you name it.  Even now, 7 years after the last movie was released, there are still new collectible items coming out.  Star Wars also released an animated TV series about the Clone Wars, which branches off from the main story line.  The Star Wars franchise still produces new books also, which appeals to all the age groups, like those who grew up with the original Star Wars movies or those who grew up with the newer movies.  After seeing all the films multiple times, I feel that each one still is timeless and you cannot really tell that three of them were made 35 years ago because the graphics are still believable and the plot line is still unique.

Word Count: 543

Spring Break!

Once again, I am going to have a very boring spring break.  I think the last time I went anywhere for break was in 2^nd grade when I went on a cruise to the Bahamas with my parents.  As for this spring break, I am going back home to St. Louis and am going to be working basically every day.  My train gets in at 3 on Friday and then I have to go into work at 4 and work til 9.  I’m actually really excited because like I said in a previous blog, I really like my job.  Plus we got the Thai Chicken pizza back which is my absolute favorite so I will probably bring one of those home and eat that.  The only other thing I have planned is driving school.  Over Thanksgiving break I was really stupid and was speeding so I got a ticket and I had to go to court and everything over winter break.  So to not get any points on my license or insurance to go up, I can take driving school.  I thought it would be something quick, maybe like 5 hours or something but when I called to schedule my appointment, she said it would be from like 8-430. I am not looking forward to that at all.  Other than that, my break should be pretty fun. I have about 35 hours scheduled at work so that will be a nice paycheck and I will be able to see all my work friends plus my other friends who are coming home for break too.  My one friend who is still in high school, gets her child development baby this weekend so I am going to hang out with her and the baby a lot.  I also wanted to take that class in high school but I never wanted the kid so hanging out with her and the baby will probably reinforce my decision not to take the class.  Other than that, my break will be very boring.

Word Count: 337