English 101, blog #1

1) How do you think about writing? –Writing is something that has been pounded into my mind for a long time. It’s a way of telling stories, formulating ideas, a way to persuade a reader, and simply a way of informing people. When it comes to writing for a requirement, it is then a process of coming up with a thesis and good content used to fill up however much space is required. In other words it’s a chore for me. However, when it comes to writing in my own free time, I do it and enjoy the use of written word every day. I have a blog, but I haven’t been as up to date with it as I like. I’m on Facebook and even more on twitter narrating my life, fiction or non-fiction, for the world to see. Writing is the easiest way for me to express myself in a way that I would like to be seen.

2) What has your experience with writing been like up until now? (Personal or with school) –Most of my writing has throughout my school career has been focused on grammar. Writing responses to scientific articles, or about how I felt about a particular passage from a novel. All done to see if I have comprehended what was presented, and to see if my nouns, pronouns, and adjectives were being used correctly along with my punctuation. I feel it to be monotonous, and that teachers don’t really pay attention to the diction, but more so to the students actually formulating sentences that are legible, readable, and pertaining to the subject at hand. No extra credit for sounding more intellectual. Personally, I have never kept a journal, but I have always found myself writing about my day or specific people and things in my life on the empty pages of left over notebooks from previous classes. I feel more liberated writing how I’d like, when I’d like, and for that matter, where I’d like to write. I’m not one to sit down and “study” over things for hours, but if I handwrite what I need to know I remember. When I talk about something that really excites me I tend to talk extremely fast and apparently only a small percentage of the world can keep up with the words flying out of my mouth. So I do feel better about being able to type it out so everyone can understand my opinion. Truthfully, I haven’t been required to write as much for scholastic means, so I do feel that my writing as a whole is lacking.

3) What people, events, or experiences have shaped your writing? – My parents are definitely a huge factor to both my reading and writing. They were sticklers on me expressing myself properly and having me expand my vocabulary, so I found myself being forced to read a few books every summer. I have never really enjoyed an English class, but I always performed well. Reading all those books made me realize, that it was not the subject/class of English that I did not enjoy, but the content. Seventy-five percent of the things I had to read and write about would have bored me to sleep had I not been on a permanent sugar high. So I started reading more books that got my imagination going. Books that dealt with subjects, like history, so that I could enjoy reading more and then take pleasure in what I was writing about. More recently, texting and twitter have taken over my life. I do it in my sleep! Even though both forms require a lot of shorthand, (especially twitter) I find myself writing much more than I would have been five years ago. Writing seems to be more important now, than ever before. Especially writing in the most proper way possible. So when we see people shortening a four letter word, such as some down to sum, and there is clearly still space left for more characters (twitter), we cringe.

Fear and Liberation - English blog #2

Can one not go through life ignorant to actual reality, and subconsciously in fear of exploring the world around them, actively engaging their minds to absorb and contain which frees oneself from being stuck in the habit of just accepting something they’ll mostly forget when the subject is no longer in questioning. Sadly, many people do and they’re so set in those ways they probably don’t realize or know how to escape from it. Both Krishnamurti and Paulo Freire talk about how when we are being “educated” we are not truly learning and becoming more intelligent. In actuality we are being told what we need to know and how we are supposed to fit into society, without in fact being tested on what we have learned and without having to use it in our real life. We are more like those tipping bucket fountains, being filled up with a certain amount, and then dumping it once we’ve “fulfilled” what’s needed. Of course the same water comes back around in the fountain, just like how information will once again be presented to us, but we’ll only have some, if any, stored in our minds.
Fear/ignorance, living life/liberation are two main topics that Krishnamurti and Freire touch upon. Krishnamurti insists that fear prevents us from experiencing life which holds one back from learning and being educated. The fear seems to be in teachers deviating from the monotonous ways of teaching to something that relates to our lives. It is also fear from the students to go out and explore everything that surrounds them, ask more questions about how things relate, and of letting things that interest them take over their lives to fill them with passion and substance.
Freire calls it ignorance saying, “The students, alienated like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher’s existence—but, unlike the slave, they never discover that they educate the teacher”. According to him, it needs to be acknowledged that the students teach the teacher just as much, if not more, as the teacher teaches the students. In talking about the educator Freire says, “his efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization”, which then creates a learning environment for both the educator and student, freeing them of ignorance.
Both Krishnamurti and Freire clearly state that people must be freed/liberated from this ineffective educational system.

Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, through the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry men pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other. – Freire
Attention come when you are deeply interested in something, for then you love to find out all about it; then your whole mind, your whole being it there. – Krishnamurti

Both are showing that when one is interested in something, they do whatever they can to learn more about that particular subject, and everything that could possibly relate to that subject. If you like something, you concentrate on it wholly, and formulate new ideas about it. You try to better it, and the things around it.

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blahhh

i havent blogged in a hot minute
ummm what is newww????

i'm having a mid mid life crisis. not sure what to pursue with school, which is terrible because i've run out of time and i must choose.
do i go with:
communications
graphic arts/photography
sports marketing
photo journalism

why am I torn... well even though i love the lavish lifestyle of the modern day hippie, i grew up with a yuppie ass family, and that has left me with quite expensive taste... my first car being a BMW i CANNOT downgrade! my shopping addiction has diminished to almost nothing now. However, i'd like a decent sized house and quite a large range of toys, from ATVS to snowboards, to skiidoos, to 2 cars and 1 suv. i'd also like a nice sized yard and garage to house these "toys"

hmmm oh and my phone doesnt work... dropped an all touch screen phone on its face... so um yea... cant unlock my shit

ttyl tweeple

First blog of the new year

A lot has happened in my life and the worlds... so i'll have to save what happened with me for a later post

right now i want all to focus on Haiti!!!

I wish I could be there, and in time i hope that I will be to aide them get back into life

It's very tragic that they were hit with such a catastrophic earthquake, and between seeing the sorrow in my friends who are Haitians eyes and just seeing things on cnn and the news really makes me wish I could be there to help everyone I come across.


go to redcross.com to find links on how to help haiti
text HAITI to 90999 to send $10 for relief

and show your support with