Freshman Composition
Critical and Argumentative Writing
Blogging in the Blogosphere
English 100 and 103
FORMAT:
When you blog, in the Title, write your first and last name as you would as if you are turning in a paper to me. Then you do not have to write my name because I know you are in my class. Write what English class you are in whether it is English 52, 60, 100 and what College.
For example, one would write:
Yue Hayes
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #1
Homelessness
Font size
In addition, for the title, pick the topic of discussion, grammar/organization, content, current events, pop culture or literature as a TITLE that we have discussed in class. Write the posts like this: write #1 Post or #2 Post or Post #50, so I can easily keep track of them and how many you write.
Of course, you are welcome to write more than several posts, and in doing so is another form of participation and does count in the participation grade. Perhaps, in class, you may not participate all that much but in the realm of the blogosphere, you can from the comfort of your own home,
* reflect on the day's class discussion or offer up an insight that you found particularly interesting, etc., etc.
*
* How does it change the way you think or thought before on the subject?
*
* What actions might you take in the future? Anything is open to interpretation.
Of course, I need not go on and on about being respectful towards your peers' opinions and beliefs. If you disagree with another student's views be discreet about it: Do not say so and so is completely wrong because of this and that. Instead, say, I disagree with so and so and here are the reasons why I do. Go after their evidence and support and do not, I repeat do not attack someone else personally. This is supposed to be a forum for everyone to share their ideas and views.
*I will enforce the blogosphere by either deleting your hard work, making an example out of you here in the realm of the blogosphere or in class* . . .
3,403 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 2001 – 2200 of 3403 Newer› Newest»Samantha Navarro
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# ??
Thesis do-over
When one decides to break away from any one group to gain knowledge from many different groups, the group one had previously associated with may not accept one’s choices when one challenges their values. Realizing that my Mexican family’s traditional views did not have to be mine has allowed me to be a part of a larger whole in society, and to contribute a unique and individual voice. This ability to transcend any one group, name, or label has made it possible to not be characterized by just one of the many names I may choose to accept.
Samantha Navarro
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# ??
Sunflower Sutra
To me this poem, written by Allen Ginsberg, describes that within everyone lies beauty, despite the sadness that encompasses us. The narrator describes the grayness that he is surrounded with, then another person sitting beside him takes notice of the sunflower. This to me means that when one is deep in one’s sadness one may not notice the beauty that one is surrounded with until another lets us know of it. The beauty itself may be covered in grayness, because this is what we are surrounded with, but nevertheless the beauty is there; it is harder to see the beauty within us when one is enclosed in so much darkness. Ginsberg writes, “We’re not our skin of grime, we’re not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all beautiful golden sunflowers inside, we’re blessed by our own seed & golden hairy naked accomplishment-bodies growing into mad black flormal sunflowers in the sunset” (18).
Sarika Vaswani
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# idk
The Getty Villa
Considering how up and down the weather has been lately, I think the gods were working in our favor the day of our trip because it was such a beautiful day! Unfortunately, I dressed like it was winter, so it was an adventurous, yet sweaty day for me. It was great being reunited with some of the AP Group; I was so happy to see them. Our trip began with brunch at Alondra Hot Wings. I am not a big meat eater, but I really enjoyed the platter of chicken strips I ordered. It was probably the best I have ever tasted. I really enjoyed the atmosphere as well. The bus ride was a bit bumpy to and fro, but it did not seem to bother me as much. I popped in my headphones and tuned it out. Once we arrived, the view outside the bus was captivating. I do not know how to explain it, but there is something about nature, the scenery and greenery that makes me feel so good inside. I feel free from all the static in the world. This is how I felt in the garden areas. I would find a place to sit and just stare for several minutes. I do not even recall what was going through my mind at the time, but I took in the view and sat in silence, and daydreamed. The fountains were gorgeous. My group and I just strolled about, checking out the art pieces. We saw everything from the Greek Gods, the lovely crafted jewelry, to the pottery. I would have to say, my favorite was seeing the blown glass. I watched the videos on how they did it, in awe. It truly is an amazing art craft. Last semester, when we had visited The Getty, my camera had not been working, but this time around it was; I was able to capture a lot of what I had seen and now I have my pictures to remember this trip by. Overall it was great and relaxing trip!
Sarika Vaswani
English 103
Post # idk
I Am Not the Next Anyone, I Am the First Sarika Vaswani
BP #2
As much as I love being in the classroom, I am not an avid participant in extracurricular activities. Usually I can be found in the audience supporting my friends, especially when they take part in the annual Indian culture shows. Anyone is allowed to participate, and this past spring I was approached by my group of friends to join in and do a dance with them. Despite my horrible dancing skills, I was more than glad to do it. I was in for a real treat- late night snacks, movies, bonding sessions, and our drive to get our dance moves to perfection. My friends have been dancing since they were young and their skills never seize to amaze me. I, on the other hand, have always had difficulty embracing and acquiring the art form of dance. I was not up to par with my other friends, and this made me feel like an outcast. On one occasion, one of the girls was trying to teach all of us a specific dance routine. I found it beyond difficult to have my body bend in certain ways due to my lack of flexibility. This frustrated me. Everyone seemed to have the steps down in a couple of tries, yet I continued to struggle. After several attempts, I became so overwhelmed that I had to leave the room. I began to sob. Two of my friends came and found me; they gave me disgusted looks. All they both had to say was, “Stop being such a drama queen and come back to practice.” I was shocked. I have never once before, legitimately been called a drama queen. Their words stung, more so because this was coming from my very good friends. Afterwards, I decided to confront them and ask them why they chose to call me a drama queen. Their words were, “It’s nothing new, you’ve always been a drama queen and you always get overly dramatic about little things.” I held back my tears, because I felt like if I did not, I would have proved their point. In Homonyms, Agamben states, “[…] with those in whose definition appear the “apparent variables” constituted by the terms “all,” “every,” and “any.” The classes that arise from these expressions are “illegitimate totalities,” which pretend to be part of the totality they define (4). I was blindly classified as a “drama queen” based on my one reaction to a particular situation. This can be considered an illegitimate totality, because in one instance a label was wrongly given to me to define me as a whole. I am an emotional person, and I tend to feel things a lot more deeply than the usual person. I also wear my heart on my sleeve most of the time. However, these personal traits of mine do not and should not categorize me as being a drama queen. It all bottles down to perception. A situation to one may be a big deal, whereas it is meaningless to another. My emotions and feelings are not all of me; they are a part of me.
Sarika Vaswani
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# idk
The Statue That Did Not Look Right by Malcom Gladwell
I especially liked this piece because it is more so to do with my favorite subject, psychology. When faced with decisions or judgement calls to make, it is only logical not to be hasty about it. Taking time and energy is considered the "right way" to make choices in our lives. However, this is not how many of us operate. Many of us just get "feelings" or "hunches". We can't explain them, but they are there. We tend to trust our intuition and instincts more than anything. For me personally, this is how I can be, depending on the situation. I can be very quick to judge, impulsive, and irrational. It is sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. Who is to say this is the "wrong way" to act in given circumstances? How would I know things would have turned out differently if I had approached the situation in a more "logical" manner?
Gladwell portrays this in The Statue That Did Not Look Right. Prior to purchasing a statue, The Getty did a tremendous amount of research on it for several months. After reaching the conclusion that it was legit, they gladly put it up to be displayed. It was not until it had been put on displayed, did some art experts feel like the statute simply "did not look right". Soon afterwards it's legitimacy was put into question again. More research was done, and it was concluded that it was in fact, a fake. For 14 months, so much time and effort was put into this statue to determine it's genuinity, It only took experts to have a "hunch" that it was not the real deal. Oh, the irony.
On a sidenote.. being sick sucks =(
Prof. Hsiao
English 100/ 103/ 110
Post idk
Stephanie,
The outline will be in 5 paragraph form, and it is entirely up to you how you want to organize it.
The only thing that I ask is not to write out the full sentence--make fragments instead for your points.
You may include quotes obviously in full.
Look in the book for outline instructions. . .
***
Thank you for those who attended both the Getty Villa and 25th Anniversary AIDS Walk this past weekend.
I will post a reflection soon. . .
Congrats Samantha on 2001!
Top of the blogosphere for the past two times. . .
Great!
Remember GWC morning class that I will be in class at 6:45 am Tuesday to answer any questions for the midterm starting at 7am.
Celina Rivera
English 100
Cerritos College
Post# 57
There was bit of an upset yesterday the Dodgers lost to the Phillies. I was pretty upset. When I got home from work I turned on the televiosion to the game where the Phillies were up by 6. I said what he double hockey sticks is going on. Vincent then proceed to tell me do not ask. The first inning the phillies scored 4 and the second inning the scored 2. By the end of the night the Dodgers lost 11 to 0. I could not watch once the score got that high. Come on Dodgers you guys need to win. If the win the whole thing it would be the first time since 1988 that our basketball team and baseball team win in the same year. I think that would be quite amazing. Any ways just need to write about the game.
P>S. LETS GO DODGERS and oh yeah USC beat Notre Dame. H E double hockey sticks again,but this time in a good way.
USC!!!!!!!!
Eric Contreras
Engl 103
Cerritos College
post 18
Sunflower Sutra
This poem by Allen Ginsberg is about a sunflower and his soul. He uses a lot of personification and metaphores to describe how he finds a sunflower while he is looking at the sunset under the shade of a locomotive. He describes his surroundings very well by using a lot of imagary. he finds a dead sunflower siting dry on a pile of ancient sawdust. he uses personification to describe the sunflower as a person. He says that the shadow was as big as a man, seeds falen out of his face, it was toothless, and it's leaves were like arms. He uses more personification to further describe this sunflower, and that this sun flower was his soul. So in fact he was describing his own soul by looking at this flower. It is kind of sad to figure out that everything he is saying about the sunflower, about how dead and non-existent it is, are what describing him and how he feels about his life and soul. He describes the sunflower to be a locomotive along side other bleak, dusty, and imageless locomotive and says that it is not a locomotive. He is trying to say that the sunflower is not some worthless piece of junk that can easily be thrown aside, it has a soul. It has meaning to it, so it should not have been treated as a useless forgotten thing. Everone of us, as he describes, has a beautiful sunflower inside of us with our own great quailities and talents so we should not allow people to bring us down and take us for granted because are all speacial human beings.
Belinda Reed
English 100
Cerritos College
"Sunflower Sutra"
Reminds me of a couple of retired men who don't have anything but spare time on their hands, so they sit at an old abandoned railway station and talk to pass the time. A beauiful story nevertheless. I love sunflowes as well as the wonderful seeds they produce for eating. I love the way they look like they have a face, as though they are smileing at the whole world.
Belinda Reed
English 100
Cerrritos College
My cave "For Richer or for Poorer"
Since we could only revise on one paragraph, I chose to revise my opening, or the introduction. It is too long to put the whole thing on here. So I revised, and said in fefference to Allegory of the Cave in my first Paragraph. I just hope that it helps and that I am able to take my grade up somewhat.
Dalene Kolb
English 110
Golden West Collge
Post #44
Can you say bad week? For the last 2 weeks my laptop has been getting fixed (finally getting it replaced this Thursday). Well my other computer (a Dell. BTW never get a Dell) decides it does not want the harddrive to work. So I have no computer the week before mid terms. Well it is a good thing I have a awesome friend to loan me hers. But that did not pay off either. My internet is fried for w/e reason. So no internet and 3 computers. Joys! Thankfully I signed up for the computer lab at school, so I spent all day (8am-5pm) working on homework. Was not enough. Still had to study for a Statistics Mid Term. Sunday was spent studying at Barnes and Noble (luckily they have free wi fi). I seriously despise computers so much. I just want this week to finish. Get mid terms over with, then concert on Thursday. Something to look forward to after the worst week. Not only though did I have problems with computers this week, but Angels lost two games against Yankees this weekend. We will do better today, since we are back home.
Now time to work on the outline more, as well as the resume. Will homework ever end? I think not.
BTW hope everyone had fun on the last two trips. Wish I could have went, but yeah you know.
~Dalene
Freddy Villalobos
english 103
Cerritos College
Post #??i lost count
that Did Not look rigth by Malcom Gladwell.
well the first thing i want to say about reading and completing the story.WHY DID THE GETTY MUSEUM SPENT 14 MONTHS SPENDING AN INVESTIGATION AND THEN SEND IT TO A TEAM OF SENIOR SCULPTURES.THEY SHOULD HAVE DONE THAT FROM THE BEGGINING KNOWING IT WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST ARTIST SCULPTURE.ok now that that is out of my mind i can tryly speak. the getty spen 14 months on an investigation and then rumors about it being a fake. they should have a called a team of expert sculptures. they should have done that from the beggining.i mean when a sculpture is lost to us human beings for almost 2thousand years and one happens to discover it in mint condition, then it is sometimes/always a fake model. even the sculptures today have minor problems but that is the course of history. that is my only objection i had to say in this matter. other than that i like it. i liked the investigation and on how are things true prospective. if its to ggod to be true then its to good to be true.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
CC
Post# 34
Aids Walk
Oh man the walk was more challenging than I thought. Well, I did only fall asleep for two hours and heavy drinking my night before so I should just blame that on myself. Jessica ended up calling me in the morning about three times with two text messages. I thank her for my presence at the Aids Walk. I thank her for giving me a ride. Lastly I thank her for registering me for the walk. Thanks Jessica! On the bus I ended up seeing Kara again which was nice. I gave her a hug. The bus driver was really an experienced one this time and did a great job. We ended up going to Alondra Hot Wings again but this time I did not eat for I wanted to run the Aids Walk. I was great talking to everyone around me because all I did was talk to everyone in different tables. On arriving to the Aids Walk it seemed like we had less and less people around us for everyone went their own way. At first I tried to run it but could not because of so many people walking and in my way. So, I ended up meeting with Kara and walked with her so part of my time. I came with Jessica and George but their whereabouts were unknown. So Kara and I walked together and ended up catching up with Mr. H. We talked for a moment and I lost focus watching the cheer leaders dancing and jumping up and down. We also encountered some Anti Aids Walk supporters. I felt that was the only thing negative about the walk. They had signs like “Don’t support aids”, “It is a sin to be gay”, and “Aids come from Gays.” What kind of stupid stereotypes those but it was freedom of speech so could not do anything. They were lucky there were cops around because then they would hear a piece of my mind also. Later on I ended up running for about two miles and then my knee blew out. I walked alone for a while and viewed the people around me. There were a few gay men dressed up like girls. It was funny but disturbing at the same time. After walking around for a while alone one of my class mates caught up with me which at the moment I do not remember her name but we walked and finish the walk together. Later we waited for everyone to get back and then as a class waited for the bus driver pick us up which took forever. I ended up sitting with Kara again and the ride back home I do not remember much because I went to sleep and Kara fell asleep on my shoulder.
freddy Villalobos
English 103
Cerritos College
pst part 1
Friendship is always the hardest to gain but it is easy to lose to something so trivial. After so many years of knowing one of my best friends it was over in a split second. We met in middle school in music class. We both were learning on how to play the clarinet. Grace was her name and I would see her from time to time. She was in B-track while I was in A. We became friends and that did not change until we entered high school. It was my sophomore year when we saw each other again, and we started talking. We became fast friends and I was there for her. We talked over the phone to how was your day to can it be possibly true. I did not like gossip or care for it but I only talked about it because she brought it up. I helped out on anything she asked. I was there to help go to core as well as look for a job. I tried helping her pay her fees for core but that did not turn out well. On the other hand, she just saw me as a friend, however I wanted to be more than friends but she did not see me in that way. She taught of me as a friend as just as a friend. I wanted to get out but it seem the more I tried to more it showed that I was happy as a friend. This of course did not change our friendship until after we graduated high school. It was in Gold drum and bugle corps when it affected us. It was my friend Grace and Daniel as well as myself that went there in 2008. I started to have negative thoughts about her and I even started to question if she was really my friend. The event that started was on a Thursday night right after practice when our friendship was put to the test. My dad was the person that was picking up from practice and it was Grace and I in the parking lot of the school. Normally I wait for him before I go anywhere else but instead of waiting she decided to go with another person who had a car and left me to wait for him. She knew that my parents as well as I did, that they did not own any cell phone so I did not know where he was. She left and in a couple of minutes he came. I took at this time to look for her at McDonald's next to the freeway were we agree to wait for, but when I got there she was not there. So I left assuming she found a ride. When I got home she called and told me that she was on the one down the street. I told her I did not know and therefore it was not of my concern anymore. It was her fault for giving me false location. I specifically asked her if she was going to the one next to the entrance of the I-105 freeway going to Norwalk. She said yes and nothing more. I asked the driver, (Gaby) if they were going to that one. She told me so that they were and I asked her four times repeatedly. I knew she was going to the one down the street but I got fed up with her lies and her deceiving me. But that did not stop her. Later that day during rehearsal, no better yet thru out the whole season leading up to that point, she treated me like crap. She treated me like I was anybody. When I talked to her, grace would give a bad feeling to get the hell away from her. I sense this and talked her. She would treat all other people nice and then talked to me as if she was the boss of me. After that incident she did not talked to me nor did I care for her to talk to me. I would just simply ignore her and leave it as is. When the season was over I was not content on what happen so I wanted to get it done with her. I took a step further and told her other find of she can bring her here in Cerritos and in that day at eleven is when we ended and I would never wanted to see her, and if we did I would ignore her as if she was a nobody. The last thing she said was that I was a bad friend. That’s crap because I was always there for her than she could ever imagine. In either case we left our separate paths and I have not seen her since. In the story of Homonyms by Giorgio, he says, “if any expression contains an apparent variable, it must be one of the possible values of what variable (P. 4.)”.
Freddy Villalobos
English 103
Cerritos College
post part 2
By these he states that one class might not be it at all. So if I was labels as a bad find then it was not being that caused it. That being says the variable in a given value has more than that of just one. So in any case the consonant of the being called a bad friend means there is only one possibility of the variable. By these Giorgio means that in order to put a variable in that label or class then it is not. Then that means that the variable of a bad friend is diminished and I was not one to begin with. Agamben was right when he stated the quote. I did not see myself as a bad friend, just a friend that cared too much. Since that day I was not the same or consider myself a friend to anyone. When I say I’m a friend, I only mean it half the time. However my perspective of you will not change. But in either case I was glad that the friendship was finished and I do not need to worry, or care about her.
Christina Arredondo
English 103
C.C
Post: 19?
Im going to post the conclusion from my essay. It is quite personal and only a few people know about it.
Despite my wonders of her changing her perspective, I was able to clear my name from being mention with what she thought of me. I know that things between my mother and I are not as how they were before any of this happened. Probably never will be. At times I am still able to sense it, but the good thing is that she does not disrespect me anymore. She does not bring up that subject and I believe we made some sort of peace. If you have nothing good to say then do not say anything at all.
Brittany Williams
English 110
GWC
Post 36
Can this week please just be over already?!?!
Ugh, Midterms.
Brenda Flores
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #?
Essay Revision to Intro
My Religion
Our lives are planned out before we are born, including our faith. Most people are born into a religion. Most people do not choose their faith on their own, at least not right after birth. I was one of these people. In Allegory of the Cave by Plato, he discusses the struggle of being ignorant, or having a false sense of the world, and becoming enlightened, to see which is truly better. I have struggled with this same thought myself. There was a point in my life where I was confined and led to believe that there was only one way to live life. One day I realized that one way of living life was not the only way, and I had been ignorant to all the possibilities whether right or wrong. The word allegory itself is a representation of an abstract/ spiritual meaning through concrete/ material forms. Plato tries to explain that we all have a cave within us that oppresses us until we are enlightened and find a new way of living. We were ignorant to the many possibilities and now we see the difference. It is then up to us to make a change if we seek to do so. Not everyone will choose the enlightened path. This is their choice. In this essay I will write about my ignorance throughout grade school, my struggle to find my own way, and my attempt at spiritual happiness.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
CC
Post#35
The Statue That Did not look Right
Its start by an art dealer named Gianfranco Becchina taking a Kouros statue which is “a sculpture of a nude male youth standing with his left leg forward and his arms at his sides.”(1) To the Getty Museum of California and wanted only ten million for the piece. Getty starts a Investigation of where and when it was found. Becchina acquired it from a Greek art dealer named Roussos and he acquired from a Swiss physician named Lauffenberger. Stanley Margolis was the geologist that examined the piece and said it was made out of dolomite marble with the outer surface being of thin calcite which happens only over hundreds or thousands of years. He stated that it was not contemporary or fake. Fourteen months later after the investigation it was displayed for the first time in Getty. 1986 is the year I was born pretty cool to me. A few months later Getty’s curator of antiquities, Marion True wrote “The Burlington Magazine”. Later on a few people started to question the art work. An Italian art historian named Federico Zeri on December of 1983 stated it “Didn’t look right”. Then Evelyn Harrison a world’s foremost expert on Greek sculpture. Arthur Houghton was the curator back then. They only had a hunch with just one look, were enough to let them it was fake. Same thing with Thomas Hoving a former director of the Metropolitan Museum of art in New York, he stated, “it was fresh” (6) for a 200 thousand year old statue. The funny statement he compared it to was the one he used about Starbucks. Getty got worried and sends it to a special symposium on the Kouros in Greece and shipped it to Athens. A county of senior sculpture experts named George Despinis, Georgios Donta, and Angelos Delivorrias look at it and said it was fake using intvitive repulsion. Getty’s case fell apart by proof of some letters lawyers used to trace Kouros of the Swiss physician was due to a 1952 postal code that was made 20 years later and on 1955 a bank account opened till 1963. Another geologist said that the surface of dolomite can be aged in months by potato mold. It is funny how it took the seniors two seconds and 14 month for the lawyer and scientists. In the end of the story Sigmund Freud talks about adaptive unconscious and how everyone has it. He said that adaptive and unconscious should not be confused. Adaptive is like a giant computer that warns people of danger, setting goals and reacting to certain actions in a sophisticated and efficient manner.
I think the thesis of these story is “Snap judgments and first impressions can be educated and controlled.” (9)
Giorgio Agamben argues that as human nature we tend to classify all objects, ideas and even people. “When we say that certain objects all have a certain property, we suppose that this property is a definite object, that it can be distinct from that belong to it: we further suppose the objects that have the property in question form a class, and that this class is, in some way, a new entity distinct from each of its elements” explains Agamben. However, as he teaches this is a false reality: there are no classes. No object or idea can be put into a class because individual perceptions vary from person to person. The term “shoe” to me may mean a pair of high heels, where as to someone else it is a pair of Nikes. Also though an object or idea may fit into one category does not mean it cannot fit into hundreds other categories as well. This theory applies to people as well. We classify our peers, put them into categories or groups, such as cheerleaders, nerds, jocks, emo kids, and so on. However, Agambens main point is that the deeper one looks into an individual the more one sees they do not belong to this class. More aspects from different classes begin to appear. For example, a cheerleader who is popular but also a straight “A” student, class president, and listens to punk rock…..what class does she fit in? It is wrong to stereotype or classify each other. We are all individuals, complex individuals, unique in our own way. I have often been placed into the class of an “attractive girl”. This class is often stereotyped as air headed or dumb. They are also considered lazy, and known to get by in life by using their appearance. I do not think this category describes me at all. I am smart and I love to learn. I am also very hard working. I work hard for everything I have. I think my personality is more important than my appearance. I hate that I have to constantly prove that I am not this stereotypical girl. I do not intentionally use my looks to get anything easy in life. Being placed into this category has always been a annoyance for me and for the most part it has made my life more difficult and I will not being placed in this class anymore. Everyone from my family, to my relationships, to my work has categorized me and I will prove it is not my only quality.
Chase, Talia
Professor Hsaio
English 103
17 October 2009
Getty Villa
The getty Villa was so beautiful. The artwork was amazing. I had only seen art like that in pictures, never in person. I loved the marble statues. They were so detailed and life like. I couldn’t believe it there was one statue where the man even had carved in mustache hairs. It looked so real. I also liked the mummy. I found that really interesting. I learned a lot exploring on my own. I saw how art varied from country and era, like how art from Greece and Rome were so different. I also learned about animals and their influence in art and culture. For the Greek animals were a big part because it was said that the Gods were always with an animal such as an eagle. Each animal represents something for example lions represent courage where as eagles represent wisdom. I was just walking through the whole museum with my jaw down, in complete awe. My favorite by far was the garden. It was the prettiest thing I have ever seen. It was so peaceful, as soon as you walk in there you feel at ease and relaxed. The whole set up of the museum was beautiful. The theatre was cool, and I was told that they actually do plays there for an audience. Also the fountains everywhere. It just gave the place a very tranquil atmosphere. It was a really nice experience.
Ray Ray J.
English 103
CC
Post- x
i slipped, had a frag...
As a lover of wisdom of wisdom I find that it is important to question the nature of everything. During this endeavor, I have come to realize that there were certain things that I did not agree with. One such topic was the subject of religion. After my parents found out that I no longer saw the point in attending church, I was immediately classified as a sinner and a fool. In Giorgio Agamben’s Homonyms, he states that, “…One can say that all words can be presented as classes that, according to the formulation of the paradox, both are and are not members themselves” (5). Though according to judeo-catholic doctrine, one who does not believe in the faith and take it to be less than the truth are heretics, I certainly did not go about committing malevolent deeds. I did not burn crosses in front of my neighbor’s lawns. I did not go about telling people to convert or burn in hell for all of eternity. I did not go about trying to remove the heads of “infidels”. Certainly, I did not agree with religion, but I found it rather amusing that just because of that fact, I was classified along the likes of Pol Pot, Hitler, or Slobodan Milosevic. The second classification was much more amusing than the first. I found it funny that a “fool” such as me happens to know more about religion and the Bible than most self proclaimed righteous and God-fearing men. Furthermore, I found that my mind was not bound by the parameters of tall tales told by men long ago to keep his fellow brothers in check. I find it funny that whenever someone tries to “enlighten” me about God that it is often I that winds up doing the “enlightenment”. It is certainly very ironic that though I despise religion, I find that learning about it something that I enjoy. This is ironic because when compared to other people who claim to show tolerance and knowledge towards other religions and creeds, most know little about about how the fundamentals of thelology work. Often such people are quick to chastise others and classify them as heretics and condemn them to an eternity of fire and sulfur. Furthermore, it is also ironic that a sinner and a fool such as me is more morally sound than your average church going man. It is very sobering that people only see what the want to see and fail to grasp things that conflicts with their views and opinions.
Yi-Hui Chiang
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #18
Revision of 3rd Body Paragraph
Sometimes I think my personality is somehow made up of too many elements contradicting with each other. For example, I am lazy, but I am also hard-working. I am weak, but I am also strong. I am smart, but I am also silly. There seems to be too many contradictions inside of me. It must be one of the reason that people always classified me as the opposite of the real me. I can see that in the near future, there is going to be more conflicts sparked off because of my different sides of personality. I have planned to major in accounting, and hopefully I will pass the CPA examination. My ideal future plan is to enter a big company where I can choose to work individually or as a group. When I work individually, I can sit at my desk and finish the work in my own pace; it is the best way for me since it is my nature that I do not like to follow rules. No matter what people expect from me, I will find my own way to work things out and still finish my job well. When I need to work as a group, I think that is when I need to face the reality and to meet different people. Since I have so many sides of personality, so many conflicting ideas, people who work with me may get confused for various reasons. I have a feeling that I will be labeled as a person whom is not easy to go along with. It will seem that I do not listen to people and do not easily compromise; it will seem as if I am always changing my mind when my different personalities come up. Besides all the possible negative outcomes, I will try to integrate all my characteristics and make it an advantage as I work in different environments. While I meet different types of people and deal with different situations, I will be able to adjust myself and act accordingly, which I would say a plus of my complicated personality. People often have the wrong impression that I look like the kind who will flow with other people, but actually I have my own opinions and aggressiveness. If there is any conflict, my bad-tempered side, defensive side, or even bitterness will probably show at the first place. Especially if people or troubles oppress me, my reaction will be big to show that I am stronger than I look. But at the same time, the other side of me will have a desire of seeking for peacefulness and righteousness in order to solve problems. My boldness will help me to speak up with truthfulness. To sum up, I may be classified as mostly negative, but it is significant for me to stay real and follow my true will. "The idea of a thing is the thing itself," said Giorgio Agamben in Homonyms (2). The essence of an idea does not have and does not need a proper name; it can only be expressed by the being-named itself. The value of a person does not have and does not need any language, any linguistic forms to represent it; only the person himself can determine his own value. For the same reason, even though most of the time I will be identified as a person that is not easy to get along with, people who know me will see my true personality. The idea of positive or negative is constructed and legitimatized by people; however, we cannot conclude what is positive or negative based on external behavior. The idea itself, myself, is the innate value beyond all things. All those fancy titles and labels will never make me a better person; only things from inside out will make a real difference. Therefore, my performance should never be negatively affected by the stereotype I am ever given. I need to have faith in myself, and I should care more about how I look at myself more than how people look at me.
Sunflower Sutra
Well this is an interesting story/poem. I read the story thinking it was a simple little poem, boy was I wrong. To me this story is about how we let ourselves go in every sense of the word. These two old timer workers are just working with a hangover and thinking how their life got to this sad state. It feels like they never get to see the beauty of nature. Their grease covered bodies are reminder of this state. People see flowers all day and night, but who sees a Sunflower everyday? (Unless one has a garden full of sunflowers.) Even these dirty old men hung over and battered by their work can see the beauty of the sunflower.
The way the author writes this story is very interesting as well. He talks how the men are their jobs. They are the locomotives they care for. The locomotives are old, battered and still able to run. He compares everything to a car or a type of machinery, even parts of ones antimony. I thought that was pretty funny. I highlighted to show my fiancé later.
They only thing in the story that is its true form are the sunflower. He says you were a never a locomotive but a sunflower. Even when the sunflower was dead or dying he thought the sunflower might be a locomotive, but the sunflower stayed a Sunflower.
The statue that didn't look right:
I was shcoked to read that people can make statues as fakes and even age them with patato mold so it even fools scientist who investigate it. It is also so true about our first judgements we make. Sometimes first judgements we amke are wrong but sometimes we have to follow our intuition or our gut feelings.
(Andy) Nam Pham
English 110
GWC
Post #19
Alondra Hot Wings is even more delicious the second time around. I felt like I gained ten pounds almost immediately. Unfortunately, gorging myself until the point where my belt could not hold its own any further was a mistake I regrettably made throughout the entire bus ride. During the long trip to the Getty Villa in Malibu, there was awful traffic and constant “jerking” stops and goes. At first, I thought the jerking motion was just a onetime thing. Eventually it became a nuisance and occurred more and more. I often found myself “waking” up from my food coma with extreme frustration and curses streaming under my breath. And worst of all, I really had to use the restroom. Fortunately, there was a bathroom in the back of the bus, which was the only good thing I have to say about the transportation trip. When we arrived, I was a little dizzy and nauseous.
At the first sign of arrival at the Getty Villa, I was in shock. The whole entrance and setting was just magnificently beautiful. The entire museum was looking down towards the beach from such an incredible view. When we were traveling upstairs, I looked back and I realized we were very high up in the hills. It felt as if we reached an entire new platform of living. The view was incredible and the landscape existed as if it were only in dreams. If we took a snapshot of where we were at the moment, it was as if we were only characters in a beautiful painting. When we stepped in the house, it only got better from there. We first saw a fountain with an open window shining natural light into the small pool of water with coins littered on the bottom. There were rooms with historical figurines with Gods and life depicted on vases, plates, rings, etc. We walked onwards and we approached an even bigger fountain, with six life sized statues surrounding the pool, all in a beautifully constructed garden. Even further down was the humungous pool that might have actually been a swimming pool, which was just unbelievable, even looking at it. Gorgeous tiles aligned the walk way, along with a garden of beautiful flowers and bushes, with benches and decorative pieces. “This would be such an awesome party house,” I thought. The whole place was wonderful, and I would enjoy dying there. I am definitely going back. Traffic is a pain in the ass though.
Kevin Santamaria
English 110
GWC
post #15
Aids Walk
The Aids Walk, what a walk it was. I thinks it funny how they make it sound easier buy calling it a walk and putting the distance in kilometers. Never the less it was a good morning. We stopped at Alondra's Wings, for a big meal in the early morning; I havent eaten a meal that big in the morning since elementary, if I eat at all. I am glad though that we had a big morning meal, it was neccessary for the long walk ahead. Our bus driver was pretty awsome, speeding on ramp curves and tailgaiting little cars haha. The walk itself seemed never ending, every half hour of so we would ask how far we are, only to be answered by the volunteers, I dont know; they were there just for moral support. It wasnt all bad, we were walking down the most famous strips in Hollywood so it was pretty awsome. It was like we were window shopping all day. We got some water and juice, then cookies and snacks at the next stop. The last pit stop was ice cream, but we were too much in constant motion to actually physically stop. The majority of the walk was all down hill so it made it that much easier to just keep going. My legs and feet actually began to become tired at the 1 mile mark, where we were finally told how close we were to the finish. We didnt want to wait in line just to use the porter potties so we went into the Beverly Center to use the bathrooms were we sort of got lost. Then we headed back down to the walk from the 8th floor of the mall and joined the rest of the croud on the final stretch. It was quite interesting to say the least. I got home, ate, fell asleep, and woke up tired this morning too. It was worth it; it was a good morning, a good cause, and an accomplished day.
Alyssa Wall
English 103
Cerritos
Post ?
Here is my revised paragraph. I am not sure what we were supposed to do, so I just fixed the run-on's that I had in the paragraph.
As a college student, there are a lot of expenses, and most of them are large ones. It is hard to have a job that pays enough for everything, and to have time to go to school. My parents value education. They want me to have all of the job opportunities that I want in the future, so they pay for my schooling. They pay for the classes, and the books. I realize that I am a lucky person because I have parents who care about my education, but this care is often misinterpreted. I have heard many times that I am “so lucky to be rich” because I have parents that want me to go to school, and they pay for it to happen. It is not true, and I am not rich, and I work thirty hours a week, and attend school as a full time student. I have to work because school is the only thing that is paid for by my parents, and everything else is taken care of by no one but me. I have a car I have to pay for, insurance, gas, clothes, and any other expense one can think of. I am lucky, and I will not deny that, but I do not take these things for granted. I know I am looked at as the girl who does not appreciate what she has, and as the girl who does not realize how good she has it. I do realize how good I have it, and my parents are well aware that I am more than grateful for everything they have done for me. Many people have put me in this class of people who do not care about education, and do not take it seriously because they do not have to pay for it, just because they hear that I do not pay for my education. What they do not know is that I value my schoolwork just as much as I value anything else in life. I am very serious about it, and I want more than anything to graduate from college. I work my hardest to earn good grades, and to get all the credits I need to become what I want for myself. In Homonyms, Agamben says this: “‘if any expression contains an apparent variable, it must not be one of the possible values of that variable.’” (4). This to me means that if one has a part of them that disagrees with what they are being classified as, they cannot be apart of the group, and everyone’s personalities disagree in someway with the stereotype they are given. This is so true because we, as human beings, are all different, and therefore no one classification can fit everyone, or even a large group of people for that matter. It is not possible to put even a group of twenty people into the same classification because no matter how similar they are, they have differences. I cannot be classified as “a rich girl” because I have qualities that disagree with that standing.
Romero, George
English 103
CC
Post #....
The Statue That did Not Look Right by Malcom Gladwell
I really enjoyed this peice considering the fact that i have always had an interest in this kind of things. Introducing ones theory with a story was interesting because ones mind would be in a certain state of concentration only to be thrown in the other direction. To be able to see a statue and automatically know that it was a fake must be a matter of instincts that only a select few in the field have learned to achieve through years of training. This theory alone is an amazing feat, but to be able to begin to grasp the thought with words and explanation is was interests me. I myself have done things in certain fields that i have begun to master that i cannot begin to explain, yet i know it exists purely on feeling. These instinct that one may achieve are not mere little habits that one can be taught or told, but rather atained through love and dedication for the field. This story and explanation are very well put for one to understand and connect to ones own world.
Janice Silva
English 103
Cerritos College
Post#15
3rd Paragraph revised
I am what I am. I do not like to be upfront about who I am to others when first meeting, but it changes. I like to feel comfortable enough with another to show a glimpse of who I am. I experiment with many things; many things that people would not expect me to do because I do not “appear” to be that way. As I got older I have been able to show what I am like more quickly, instead of playing the guessing game. Innocence and anything that is considered “good” is thrown my way. Do not get me wrong, I am a good person, but the general idea of “good” and what other’s connotation of it has been given a bad name in modern day society. During lab for biology, one of my lab partners invited me to go with him to Bolsa Chica for an extra credit opportunity. I accepted the invitation, because I did not do as well on the exam as I though I did. During the drive to the place, we asked general questions of each other; in which, made our minds curious for more new information. I felt comfortable enough with him to tell him something very important to me, something that I only tell people that I am comfortable around, and he fit that category even though we started to get to know each other better. I took a deep breath and gave him another him a puzzle question, I said “I bet there is something that you would never guess about me? Then he gave a question such as “are you married?” I laughed, then he came across another question, “is it your orientation?” and I stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, then answered, “I go both ways” He was shocked by my answer because he never would of guessed. This is a part of me that holds me, scares me; scared for the fact I might get disowned because others do not accept the choice that I and other’s make. I am still the same person, nothing different, I am not a monster, but a girl that has feelings, and apparently does not abide with everybody’s standards. I am pulled in so many directions, directions that pull me so far that all I want to do is cry. I have cried and still cry because I am not “allowed” to be who I am in this society. My parents do not know of this part of me, and I know they will not accept me at first, but I pray everyday that one day they will. My girl friend’s parents say they accept her, but she is not allowed to see me. Before the incident of how her parents found out, her mother loved me, saying I was very polite and kept asking me to come over, because I was a good influence. Now, it is the opposite. It’s not fair, sneaking around to see the person I love, it is so painful and I have never cried so much because I can not be around the person I love and yet I have an
Janice Silva
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# part 2 of 15
..image to uphold at home. I am pulled: school, parents, family, and friends. My girlfriend and some of my friends are my support system, but still, everything is weighing down my chest, loosing oxygen in my lungs until one day I loose it. Hopefully one day I will be free, free enough not to get tortured by my family and others for the choice I have made. Maybe one day I can sit down and truly say, “I am free, but unfortunately that statement is no where near my life. He was surprised about the experiences that I have gone through, because he thought of me as a girl that does nothing of the sort. In “Homonyms”, the word “shoe” can have different meanings, from what is heard, or seen, and putting those perspectives to our own thoughts, “What is in question is not the word “shoe” in its acoustic graphic or form (the supposition materialis of the medieval logicians), but the word ‘shoe’ precisely in its signifying the shoe (or, a parte objecti, the shoe in its being signified by the term ‘shoe’). Even if we can completely distinguish a shoe from the term ‘shoe,’ its being-called-(shoe), from its being-in-language” (p6). We are used to seeing people the way they are. I am seen as being nice, concerned, and the “good girl” stereotype, because I do not show other immediate characteristics that people can react on; for the viewer to pick up on, the characteristics that are shown up first.
Samantha Shepherd
English 103
CC
Post..
Sunflower Sultra
...Wow. I don't even know where to begin. It started out with its beautiful vocabulary and diction. I think that is what entranced me the most. Just the flow of the words that was written down on that paper and the tone that went from such a low to a high was amazing. I think that the themes of beauty and filth run so rampant nowadays especially in the state of our country and the secular world. We feel like we've dug ourselves into such a ditch with the economic crisis and the wars going on and even something such as global warming that many of us forget that we are a beautiful people of all kinds, such as the sunflower and we refuse to look past the dirt and grime that encompasses many of us. I think the filth that the narrator speaks of can be related to the choices that we make and the preconceptions that we have towards other people of whom we think are lesser than ourselves. This can be due to lifestyles and differences in cultures and just the history of resistance and rebellion countries have had with one another. We mustn't forget, however, that we are all like the sunflower and that we are all alike and beautiful inside no matter what may cover us.
Gabriela Tovar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #22
AIDS walk
I liked the aids walk... It was my very first time walking non-stop six miles... I feel very proud of myself i walked to make a satement, i realized i am not a walk person, i am not even a runner... But waht i did learned was that when it comes to America and do walks, marathons, causes, we all come together and make a statement... The beauty of America... I do wish i could have seen more black people in the walk because, do not get me wrong, they are the ones that aids are "attracted" to... right???
Anyways, i had fun at the walk, a little too sweaty and stinky but worth it... When i got home, i was too lazy to make any food so i waited for my boyfriend to pick me and go eat after his soccer game... If i had known he was going to pick me up forty minutes later after i had gotten home, i would have taken a shower... I went stinky and dirty to his game (thank god he does not care much about hygene)... Over all, i liked the walk and i cannot wait for next year for the next AIDS walk...
Samantha Shepherd
English 103
CC
1st body paragraph revised:
The numbers on the clock went from 7:36 to 7:37. It was a Monday and once again we both overslept. Our usual time to leave to walk, but probably now run, to school was 7:35 otherwise we would not make the first tardy bell. I glanced over at my best friend from high school, Nadia Chavez, and noticed she was still applying make-up. I was still trying to tame my fly-away hairs using the (what seemed to be useless) tools of a hair brush, straightener and hair spray. This was how every morning went. My best friend lived right across from me in the apartment buildings that were just a couple blocks from our high school. Every morning, as usual, I would wake up, get dressed, and brush my teeth- basically all the essentials before I went and did my hair and make-up at her house. Then after we were primped and primed we would rush our way to school to barely make it in our seats. This time before we left the house, like many others, I grabbed her cell phone and make sure any lights in her room and heated stylers were turned off to save electricity and the house from burning down. We were briskly walking through the fresh, morning air and she started frantically searching through her denim pockets. “If you’re looking for your cell phone, I have it right here,” I told her. The worry from her face completely transformed into relief. She smiled and sarcastically replied, “Thanks, Mom.” Now, I was not really a mother then, nor had I been at any time prior to this experience, but I possessed many motherly qualities. In Homonyms, Giorgio Agamben explains in his essay, “…since every term refers by definition to every and any member of its extension, and can, furthermore, refer to itself, one can say that all (or almost all) words can be presented as classes that, according to the formulation of the paradox, both are and are not members themselves.” This idea demonstrates that one can belong to a class, but not really fit the categorical definition of it. I physically was not a mother, I had no children, but I often took care of my friends in a motherly way, almost the same way a mother would do with her children. I was Nadia’s mother figure by making sure that she had whatever it was necessary to stay safe and to succeed in class. I made sure the lights were off so the electric bill would not be higher than necessary and to conserve energy. I grabbed her cell phone so that, while she may be able to text me during class, more importantly she could have it in case of any emergencies walking to and from school. I turned off any heated hair styling applications so that there would be no accidental fires when the house was empty while everyone left for work or to run errands. While being able to place one foot into this classification, I could not place both feet in it and say that I really was a mother because I was not; I only possessed the qualities which made me a member and not a member of the classification of a mother.
In case my last post didnt show up (net problems)
RayRay J.
Eng 103
Cerritos
post- x
Mahabharata: Bhagavadgita-
Human nature vs human nature vs the search for divinity
To say quite interesting is an understatement.
I suppose the first thing I should say is the peculiar way in which krishna calls for action.
Action first cos action is the quintessential starting point; no action no outcome
Right action: without attatchment, passionlessly, for duty, instead of love/hate/gain
Vain action (which all men pusuit i might add) sense of self, satisfies desires, passionate
The difference between the two is the ultimate conflict between man and his search for divinity. Vain action defines all of the things that bind men to an earthly prison.
I suppose this is why the search for divinity (in this case however) is an ill fated venture. I highlight that vain actioni s human nature. this is in itself is a paradox since the pursuit or divinity requires passion and sense of self, without which, men might simply be reduced to animals.
Taken into consideration, knowledge, which is stated to be in knowing of the "one" which is in all, inseperable, changless and present in everything (Agamben anyone?), should be the cheif motivator of men to do action. It is knowledge that Arjun pursuits. This action in itself is already contradictory of Krishna's call for action: without any gain for one self, to act just to act as if an apple was to drop from the tree.
Knoweldge knows which knows the known by the knower :]
Lets discuss this piece in class !!!
Ibeth Rodriguez
English 100
Cerritos college
Post #26?
The Statue that did not look right
by: Malcolm Gladwell
Why was the statue able to fool such great historians? Men and women with many years of experience did not realized that the statue was not real because they were so excited about the purchase of the kourous because they wanted the Getty Museum to have it on dispaly. They were not being consious when they purchased the statue because they were only thinking about bulding up a world-class collection once they had the kurous in the meuseum. Many get so overwhelm about things that they do not think or simply do not care about what the consequences can be. When purchasing the Kurous the historians did not wanted to belive that the statue was not real because they were only thinking of how great it would be to have a kurous statue in thier collection.
Gabriela Tovar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #23
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
by Malcom Gladwell
Part I was very easy for me to understand about the "kouroi"...
I know that there has to be different people to look and analysed the statue if there is something wrong or to see if it is a fake... The statue went all over the world... It is such a shame that the statue was a fake...
What i did not understood a lot was Part II... What was it all about... How the consios works? When we use it? I do not know but I am lost... What did stood out to me was paragraph 6 in the second part saying "I am also interested in those moments when our instincts betray us". I liked that because i hate it too... I have my insticts to guide me when i am confused and lost, and for my insticts to betray me, shame on my insticts... I think many people go with their gut feeling and end up doing something wrong... That has happened to me so many times... How about you, how many times have your insticts betray you?
Gabriela Tovar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #24
Paper Uno
I decided to do my body paragraph number three of paper one... I am not really an imaginative person, so for me to think into the future and imagine myself years from now; is very hard... Hopefully i extended my paragraph to understand the imaginary and my grade... Of course i corrected my quotes and paragraphs... I had to think a little outside the box and it hurt my brain... I am not used to that...
My body paragraph was about me in the year 2026 as an obstetrician and how i have patients from all kinds of ethnicities... I cannot be selfish and disgusted and not treat black people because of what had happened to me in January 2009... So, i have put that all behind me and work to bring life to the world...
Jonathan Aguilar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #24
Past Body Paragraph (Revised)
A name that I have been given ever since I was a kid is that I am a “push-over.” When I was a kid and as I got older, the people around me have taken advantage of my inability to say no. I was raised in a rough neighborhood in East Los Angeles. A “push-over” is not easy to find in rough settings, but of course there are always exceptions, for example, me. Whether it was agreeing to join a fight to help out buddies; or simply saying yes when people asked me to loan them money, saying no has been extremely hard for me. I am one of those people who you would call a “giver.” The only thing is that I do not know when to stop giving. It is a sickness that I have gotten and cannot get rid of. I have tried to change, but this thing inside me that made me this way was instilled by my two aunts and mother. These three women have all had their hearts broken, and looked to me to be the kind of man they think every man should be. They have had the biggest influence on me and are the ones that I could never say no to. I feel as if they have been through enough pain in their lives; and if I can make their lives better I will. My mother and her family did not get the kind of kindness they needed when they came to the U.S. from Mexico. So, I took it upon myself to make sure to carry out this act of kindness. In Homonyms Giorgio Agamben says, “Actually, since every term refers by definition to ever and any member of its extension, and can, furthermore, refer to itself, one can say that all (or almost all) words can be presented as classes that, according to the formulation of the paradox, both are and are not members of themselves.”(5) Agamben has a significant point when he bolds the last of part of this sentence. He shows the reader in this sentence that just because we have tried different things or have been a part of different communities does not mean we are those things or part of those communities. I have experience of this first hand. This label that I have been given as a “push-over” is not me either. Sometimes I wonder if I can ever get away from this image, but as I have gotten older I now know that I cannot. This is because growing up I have always wanted to please those around me. I was always taught to do everything in my power to help or give to someone who needed it. Growing up with all women has also made me into quite the gentleman. I am not proud of being a “push-over,” but I am not ashamed of it either. Even though, I do agree that I am part of this category this is not all I am. I am and am not part of this category. Doing the things I have done growing up has made me into the gullible person that I am today. And as I got older today I have another label that I must deal with.
Andy Tran
English 100
Cerritos
Post #
Sunflower Sutra
The poem Sunflower Sutra by Allen Ginsberg was to convey a message. The poem is not about a sunflower but rather mankind. The dead sunflower shows the loss of the inner soul and hope. The sunflower, once a bright and tall standing yellow flower, now droops over with a battered crown in some junkyard. Losing all of its inner beauty to the tragedy of mankind's doings. The dead sunflower covered with dust and grime represents the problems of human technology and industry. All the machines and busted scraps of metal show that us humans no longer care about ourselves and nature as much as we care about technology. Each of us is a sunflower in this harsh world and we must stay standing and bright as a sunflower to rise above the problems of the world. We must not be the sunflower that has lost its shine lying around in some dump.
Romero, George
English 103
CC
Post #....
My revised paragraph
Now i know that i have gone through many forms of perdition whether it be through my family or complete strangers and now i realize that no matter what i do or become i will always be judged. This fact does not change me what so ever, because now i know that i am ready for the horde. If there in one thing that i feel that i will forever be judged upon it would have to be the fact that i will never truly "Grow Up". I mean i know what it is to take responsibility and look after oneself along with the ones around you, but to go about thinking that one has paid ones dues, and by that justifying ones actions when looking down upon the next generation. to go about believing that one has the right to demand respect form the younger solely based on the fact that one is born before another is ridiculous. if one is to look down upon the youth as nothing more than a nuisance that has yet to earn ones respect that I not wish to become an "Adult". I wish to forever be the one that looks at the youth with the potential to achieve more that any adult if givin the opportunity. This ideology of rankings by age is a flawed system that reqires a child to struggle for equality amongst ones elders and peers. All of this can mentaly damage a child with periods pain and questioning of ones worth when fighting for meaning in life. I would personally know about this with myself never being givin the time of day to just be told that i was growing up just fine. These things alone have made me want to become a teacher so that young minds may have someone that wants to help unlock their full potential rather than trying to make one learn what the "Adults" think is best for them. This will allow more leaders that wish to embrace and fight for knowledge rather than followers that will just swallow what is thrown in their face. With this more teachers that will grow and spread ones knowlegde in ones own field will spread upon those individuals aswell. If one does not wish to follow and conform to the typical ideology of Adulthood than why not change it? I know that with idea of changing the world through teaching may seem ignorant and childish, but i am tired of children with bright futures having it all stolen away because someone felt that they know knew what was the best future for them. In the end I know that I may not become the most succesful individual within my family with my reletives going off to different universities but in the end I choose to be rich in soul rather than rich period. I may fall victom to those that may state what it is to be an adult or rather a "man" in my case, but in the end even if I do not meet any of those titles I may still wish to be a good teacher. With one to put in such a prestiges position comes to a lot of expectation, but these expectations are what other individuals curricular that has been placed as law. With that I will not only be a teacher but take up the title as philosopher aswell. Although many may still look at my ideals and morals as idiotic I still insist on living my life as George rather than whatever one may believe i amm. In Giorgio Agambes, Homonyms, he states, "What remains without name here is the Being-named, and name itself"(5). I realy admire this quote among all the other because it basically says that no name or title can ever trully capture who you trully are other than you name. with that I am relieved to know that now matter what i will always just be George in the end.
Jonathan Aguilar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #25
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
This an unbelievable sotry. This man who was trying to get rich off of this fake sculpture almost fooled everyone. But he could not fool the people who have a passion for art. The ones who study every curve and who know the style of sculptures. They could not exactly pinpoint what was wrong with the sculpture but they knew in their gut that something was wrong. Their instincts are what got them the truth. Sometimes when we want something really bad we will do anything to get it. Sometimes we want a dream to be a reality so bad that we ignore the truth.
Michelle Pachas
English 103
Cerritos College
Sunflower Sultra
In this poem Allen Ginsberg writes about the beauties we overlook and have lost because of the industrialized lifestyle we live. Many of us live life with internal sorrow day by day without appreciating the simple things surrounding us. We’ve exaggerated the importance of the material things in life and have even turned nature into a “locomotive.” He uses vivid imagery describing San Francisco to send across the passion he has for this. I have family in “Frisco” and my family and I would visit them every so often. We haven’t gone in over 4 years but as I read this poem I began to distinctly remember images of San Francisco. Although I have to say I absolutely love it over there, I can relate to that sense of being inside one huge factory. Even the air feels thicker. It saddens me that beautiful places like this can be turned into a mechanical toy.
Jenny Guzman
Professor Hsiao
English 100
19 October 2009
Reflection on the Getty Villa.
Not to quote Ice Cube but Friday was a good day. Like always John and I were in a hurry to get to school for our trip. I have been bugging him if he really wanted to go. Some boys are just to cool for artsy fartsy stuff. (Quoted from Professor Hsiao) He assured me he wanted to go to the Getty Villa. When we arrived I had to change Janelle diaper because I did not know when I was going to be able to again. When one has a kid and they go somewhere they always bring too much crap. John and I were not any different. While I was changing her John took out the stroller and her bag. He was even holding my purse. We finally went to go meet the class and of course Janelle was the center of attention. She was a little shy but soon opened up. I was trying to get her to waive, but Janelle does stuff on her on time.
Soon we were on our way to go eat at Alondra Hot wings. I am glad I did not eat anything before we got on the bus because I do not think it would have lasted to much in my stomach. I have been on better bus rides. Well anyways we get to Alondra’s hot wings and now I know what Lulu was talking about. It was good. I just wished I could have has some of these ranch fries she was talking about. Next time though. When we were done we set off to the Getty Villa. My baby is flirt, she keep trying to play with Brian. He was really good with her. Sam was just as fun. She made noises and funny faces that Janelle just love. Jean Carlo was a little shy with the baby but quickly warmed up.
When we arrived to the Getty Villa we were the last ones off the bus. Thankfully to Celina she was holding Janelle, so we can get out all of our stuff. We missed whatever was said from the lady of the Getty. We got in our group which was John, Janelle, Celina and I (Jenny). If I did not like Celina before, I sure did now. She was a great help. She was great with Janelle. Janelle seems to like her a lot too. We set off looking at all the statues and glassworks. It was crazy how all these things are here after all theses years. My favorite was the Flasks. I felt that is I lived in that time it would always be filled with liquor. The flasks were used for many things, like perfume and make-up holders. This guy that took our class picture kept taking some of me and Janelle. He was nice; I hope he will send them to me. He also took our first family picture.
We went to the family room and fun with the coloring and the movie screen. There was like a peep hole to see the pots. Janelle looked really cute looking through that. I felt like she understood what she was looking at. Then John wanted to make a movie, so he went behind the screen and gave Janelle a sword. He looked really funny. He looked like a warrior with a baby Bjorn in the front. The day was perfect. When we saw the fountain, I thought to myself, “Dang I wish I had money to get married here.” It was so beautiful. Celina was carrying Janelle, so John and I snuck a kiss. We walked back so we can see the movie, but a stern older lady did not allow us too because it was full. I wish we knew that movie rolled every 15 minutes. We head back to the bus in order not to be late. As we waited some other girls admired Janelle and she loved it. All in all it was a good day. Dodgers won, and I got to know Celina.
The funniest part of the trip was on the way back. I was explaining how John reacted when the Dodgers won against the Cardinals. Well I let out an F Bomb and a girl in one of the other classes just gave this look of utter shock. I started to laugh because to me it is no big deal. I did apologize, but still it was really funny. Friday was a good day.
Jasmine Cano
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #idk
Revised Homonyms Essay Paragraph#2
In this moment in my life thankfully I have my parents behind me. Although I still hear things about me how I am, and always will be just the other pregnant cousin does not do much damage to my spirit. It does not make me want to give up in life. I will not let them classify me. All I hear from them is words because I knew that would come with their stereotype of the pregnant girl. Funny how everyone just sees one thing pregnancy. It is like in Homonyms by Giorgio Agamben when he states, “What does it mean to say that the concept ‘red’ designates red objects?” (paragraph 2) Agamben is just trying to say how just because you say red is red as in a red fire truck does not mean that is the only thing it is. He is just trying to explain how ones perspective a word or object could be a completely different thing. It does not just have one definition. Literally it may have one meaning, but figuratively it has so many that one cannot say this is what it is and that is that. Just like pregnant does not mean only pregnant. It does not mean one has no other meaning just pregnant at 19. Some people see just what something is while others see deeper into the word.
Andy Tran
English 100
Cerritos
Post #22
BP 2 - Sunshine in a Bag
As my life continues to thrive in this world, I have developed a great sense of what is best and bad for me. It usually takes a very long time to finally understand and grasp the concept of what is best for one self. In my case it took me a couple of years to finally notice and place myself onto the right path. I am a type of person who learns from making mistakes. I am not perfect or else I would have never put myself in this situation. Now looking back, I feel as if I have not only wasted time but, most importantly knowledge. Plato states that, “The truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” (13) When I smoked marijuana, it felt as if everything was fine and problem free. Ignoring the most important aspects of life and clouding my mind with a false sense of security. That was one of the main reasons why I continued to smoke marijuana on a regular basis. I could not cope with the large amounts of stress on a daily basis. Whether it was family, friends or school, I just could not handle the stress. And so I turned to marijuana as my emergency button to escape from life. Reflecting back, I could have used all those years to learn and develop into a stronger person physically and mentally. Instead, I smoked my life away all those years. The only right thing to do now is to reflect on my past and not to make the same bad judgments. Rather, continue to move forward while maintaining a strong and clear state of mind; drug free. I have considerably noticed that my life has been somewhat more stressful now that I no longer have an easy way out. However, I no longer run away from my problems but rather confront my problems. From the time I smoked marijuana on a regular basis till now, I have learned to cope with the stress by enjoying activities that benefit my mind and body. Activities such as reading, running, or watching a great movie, all aid and contribute to keeping my mind off the stress without the need of drugs. I have come a long way from where I once started. I no longer have the desire for drugs as I have now developed a strong and confident mind. As long as I continue being human, I will always make mistakes. As long as I make mistakes, I will always change for the better and not for the worse.
Michael Swisher
English 100
Cerritos College
Post#33
Mahabharata: Bhagavadgita
Hinduism is a strange faith to me, yet it always has the most fluid and perfect descriptions of reality and spiritualism. This epic poem that encompasses all of the basic teachings, and all of the fundamental instructions for the religion being discussed, is a wonder of words when read in the context that is intended. “And worship, penance, alms not to be stayed; Nay to be gladly done!” (4) This quote is symbolic of the determination for generosity, and faithfulness that the founders of Hindu attempted to pass. I cannot really get on board with a lot of the “explanation” of existence, or the “science” (or lack of) of Hinduism, but the message of a peaceful nature, a giving heart, and an open mind are homonymous with my faith. (Although it is a common message in world religion) This poem was new literature to me, most likely purposefully ignored due to the connotation that is implied with its reading, and I am glad I was introduced to it.
Martha Vazquez
English 100
CC
Post 22
Sunflower Sutra
This seemed to me like it was coming from a father figure. The way he was describing the flowers beauty amidst the horrible grayness around her was said with such love. It kind of reminds me of the story of the prodigal son, but with a twist. Instead of the son returning home, with weary defeat in his eyes, the father stumbles upon his son in the midst of his troubles. He gets to see the destruction and depravity surrounding his son, but still looks upon his boy with a love only a father could have. He still sees the young man that he once was. The way the sunflower is described is in such a way that feels horrible, desolate and bleak, but in a strange way is easy to relate to. How many times have we forgotten the beauty that lies within us, and given in to the darkness of this world? How many times have we felt that we are alone in a field of dust and smoke? Fighting to have our colors shine through sometimes seems worthless. It seems easier to try to become whats around us.
"When did you forget you were a flower? When did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent locomotive?...You were never no Locomotive, Sunflower, you were a sunflower!" (14, 15)
We are not what surrounds us, but what lies within us. Sometimes it takes realizing anothers beauty, to see our own.
janelle rodriguez
english 100
cerritos college
SUNFLOWER SUTRA
this poem written by Allen Ginsberg he describes how even though we might be sad at sometimes and things are not going so well, there is always that spark in someone no matter how down they can be. when i look at a sunflower i see, excitedment,joy,happyness, anything other then sad. i feel that he describes us as a sunflower we are anything but sad. soeven though one might be having a hard day or we are covered in sadness deep down we need to notice the excitement with in us.
Jessica Vasquez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post: Paragraph correction
Paragraph #: 1
A very wise person once told me “The choices you make today are the choices that are going to follow you in the future.” Being young and ignorant, many teenagers do not take into consideration or understand the message that is being passed on to them. Throughout my teenage years, I went through so many phases and made so many mistakes that now like many, I pay the consequences for. By breaking up this quote, we can get a clearer view of what the message being sent out is. “The choices you make today” whether one is stuck in a difficult situation or a straightforward one, each one of us has to think of what is going to benefit us in our future. Like for example, as teenagers, peer pressure plays a massive role in our life. Many times we are pressured by our own friends and peers into trying drugs and alcohol. But really when one thinks about it, there is no benefit out of getting drunk or high, and in the long run not only are we hurting ourselves, but we are hurting the people who love us. As for the second part of the quote “The choices that are going to follow you in the future,” either we are going to benefit in the long run from the hard work we achieved, or live in regret for the dumb choices we chose. Why let peer pressure get the best of us when we clearly know what is the best thing for us? Like in the story Allegory of The Cave by Plato, Socrates explains to Glaucon of how many people live with their eyes closed, only seeing what they want to see. Using the prisoners as and example of a human being and the cave as a hiding place from the real world. Once released, the prisoners see the realities in life and what is really out there. Like many, peer pressure was my cave; I lived a life full of negative influences and bad decisions that today day by day I slowly start to correct.
Adrian Moreira
Cerritos College
English 100
Post # 24 (I think)
Of course, my "free" wifi is not working when I need to post on the blogosphere, so I'm going to attempt to write a decent post on my phone.
I read all three essays.
Mahabharata (why did my iPhone know the correct spelling of that?): Bhagavadgita
This was as confusing to me as Homonyms was the first time I read that. Of course some parts were a little easier to comprehend as others. Paragraph 4 of "Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit" seemed to me to be a list of things that were true wisdom. "Humbleness, truthfulness, and harmlessness, patience, and honour, reverence for the wise, purity, constancy, control of self...." all words that describe what one should be hoping to achieve to be. The paragraph ends with, "And what is otherwise is ignorance!". Basically, Anything other than what is listed on paragraph 4 should be seen as ignorance.
It seemed to me that the "Religion by Deliverance and Renunciation" part was a little easier to understand and more self explanitory. At least the middle portion of it. Paragraph 10 talks about right, vain, and dark actions and 11 of rightful doers and evil doers. Another lesson on good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark.
Sunflower Sutra - Allen Ginsberg
This was an excellent depiction of looking past our rough, scuffed, and beaten down exteriors to one's inner self. To look past the past to see the beauty within. The way Ginsberg describes everything that's beaten and covered the sunflower is out of hand. "And the gray sunflower poised against the sunset, crackly bleak and dusty with the smut and smog of olden locomotives in it's eye - corolla of bleary spikes pushed down and broken like a battered crown, seeds fallen out of it's face, soon-to-be-toothless mouth of sunny air, sunrays obliterated on it's hairy head like a dried wire spiderweb...". I can clearly see this sunflower. And wonder what it's seen in it's short lifetime.
Martha Vazquez
English 100
CC
Post 23
AOTC Revision
Darkness is everywhere. Chains will not let you turn your head. All you can see is shadows. Is that reality? Is that what is truth? That is what the prisoners of Plato’s cave asked themselves everyday. They were bound to this prison, and all they were allowed to see were only shadows on a wall. They interpreted different shadows and could not see the true objects which were being cast on the wall. The fire behind them made these objects dance around and turn into new objects. It was a constant game, and struggle, to decipher the shadows on the wall. Their world, or their truth, was reduced to whatever was being shown to them. One day, one of the prisoners became freed, and he started seeing the world for what it was. He stumbled out of the cave at first and didn’t know what to make of this new reality. He saw the moon and the stars at first, then saw the sun, and everything it illuminated. It took him some time to be able to truly see things in this new, outside world. He returns to the cave only to be looked upon as a fool. He could no longer make sense of the shadows. Everyone thought the sun had blinded him and made him lose the only thing that the prisoners had to hold on to: the shadows. We all have a cave and shadows that we hold as truths. I, for the better part of my life, was in an intellectual darkness, bound by chains of ignorance and only saw shadows of reality
cathrina afusia
cerritos college
english 100
3rd body paragraph
I Am Who I Say I Am
Being more aware of the way others think, I am no longer naïve to what is actually going on around me. Sometimes I question if that is a good thing or not? When I was younger I chose friends who enjoyed the same activities as me. Never once did I pick one friend over another because of the color of their skin. I am guessing as kids we are expected to only worry about the little things in life, like what cartoons came on at what specific time. What I would do to go back to those days, but hey life goes on. Time has passed, and I have matured over time. Though being stereotyped as the “white girl” who thinks she is black has overpowered me at some points in my life, I have not let it change who I am. I still choose my friends not by the shade of color they are, but because we can laugh over the same things. I have also found love using my same technique. I am sure I have overcome the obstacle of being stereotyped because I am no longer sensitive over the issue. I can speak, relate, and even openly write about the issue without feeling any animosity to those who disagree with my feelings. I now realize that I can loose so much of my inner self by taking in the hatred of others. I can remember the time I put on my running shoes and escaped the issue of being stereotyped. It was right around the time my father had passed, and I had decided to take a break from my interracial relationship. The break to me was long over due. Everyday we would take the deceiving looks from people who thought us being together was a disgrace. I would even hear his family refer to me as “the white girlfriend.” This time in my life was hard especially because the hatred came from our own families, including our church going mothers. I now regret ever giving others the satisfaction of thinking they could make me see the world through their eyes. When my father passed I had no one to console me in my time of need. To add to my situation, my boyfriend at the time was enduring in a vigorous training for a position with Los Angeles County Fire Department. These were both sensitive times in our lives, and because we let others keep us separated neither of us had the support we needed. This did not last long, and the distance had taken its toll on both of us. I then realized love will always find a way. We ended up rekindling our relationship and have not left each others sides since. We no longer deal with the concerns of others but instead our own personal issues. Through it all, we ended up on top. Others look at us and are only seeing the colors of black and white, while we are looking back and seeing a world full of color. I know we have the better picture, and in return my obstacles are defeated. Giorgio Agamben once said in his writing called Homonyms, “if any expression contains an apparent variable, it must not be one of the possible values of that variable.” I feel strongly about this quote because it gives me the power to decide who I am. I am the one who chooses whether or not I am classified as white or black, even though I choose neither side. I am a human being, and not a crayon placed in a box. I share the best of both worlds, and that is what makes me a better person. I am a better person because the negativity of others no longer affects me. I do not take personal what others have to say about me, because to me it does not matter. I had to understand that majority of the comments are usually not true. Why get mad over something that holds no truth? I have built a circle around myself and I decide who I allow in it. With me being in charge I am a better person for myself to depend on.
cathrina afusia
cerritos college
english 100
Reflection on The Statue That Did Not Look Right
This was an interesting reading. At first I thought it was going to be entirely about the statue and the Getty museum. I thought this because I know how much Mr. H loves the Getty! In the beginning I was happy for the Getty to be getting a statue that meant so much to them. I really admire the museum for the message it projects to its visitors. I must admit, I did think it was too good to be true. I never once doubted that the statue looked remarkable. I just thought it was wrong to use it for the particular reason of trying to pull the wool over someone’s eyes. I was also amazed with how much work goes into creating a museum or any other exhibit. There were so many people involved with analyzing the statues. The names kept being introduced.
I then got to the end of the reading, and instantly I thought about falling in love. I thought thinking of the concept was kind of off topic, but that is my opinion. There were just so many examples used that I could relate to. In the reading it discussed that at times we go back and forth between our conscious and unconscious modes of thinking. When we meet someone we are attracted to, we usually fall into that stage I call infatuation. I believe that is when we believe this particular person could carry no flaws. This is just how the Getty viewed the statue. We then spend time with this particular person, and we start to see things that we would be in question about. We ask ourselves, “Can I deal with this?” We then do our background check. That same check that should have been done in the beginning of the relationship! We as humans will go back and forth fighting ourselves, making this person who we want them to be in our minds. This is the point in time when we use our unconscious mode of thinking. After some time we eventually snap into reality, and realize that particular person was just not the one. This is when we start to use our conscious mode of thinking to protect ourselves. Maybe I went a little off, but the ending of this reading reminded me of the stages we go through when meeting someone.
The Dew of Fall
Falling away, sailing softly so
Only today the dew may know
Ripples upon a cheeky sorrow
Yellow slate, loosens it’s grip
On forever’s fate, a pale perfect lip
Undone till the weakened morrow
Always the fall now
No one knows it seems
Deaf to the bawl, how
Often the dew gleams
Never the frost shall assuage
Love’s passion lost from this author’s last page
Yellow the slate, missing the ‘morn
Yearning peaces that wait, met by a power to scorn
Only today the tear may know
Unfinished love from so long ago
Tess Elizondo
English 100
CC
Post 15
Sunflower Sutra
In my opinion this poem reminded me of the movie Forrest Gump. I thought of the big tree Jenny and Forrest went to, to get away from her fears of being at home. In Sunflower Sutra Allen Ginsberg says, " I walked...sat down under the huge shade of a Southern Pacific locomotive to look at the sunset over the box house hill and cry"(1). It is like the poet is remembering her past, and all the dark gloomy things about it. The sunflower was gave her life and faith that there are beautiful things out in the world. This sunflower also had a past, and has witnessed its fair share of uglyness. I think in a way the sunflower represented a person or also a memory. This sunflower gave the character hope for a new beginning.
Jean Carlo Morales
English 100
Cerritos College
Post 13
The Statue That Did Not Look Right.
The first part of the story was used as a lesson so the reader can understand the second part of the story better. A man by the name of Gianfranco Becchina claimed to have in his possession a kouros. Kouroi are very ancient greek sculptures of young males. There is said that only about two hundred kouroi are in existance so one can imagine why the people at The Getty were so stoked in acquiring the statue. It was a remarkable find. A geologist by the name of Stanley Margolis examined the sculputre and gave the conclusion that it was not a fake. The statue contained calcite. Dolomite is a mineral that turns into calcite after a couple hundred years, so the statue could not have been a fake. Because of an intuitive feeling that Federico Zeri had the statue did turn out to be a fake. It was because of this snap judgment that other geologist were able to determine whether the statue was a fake or not. Sometimes when one knows a subject to well they can instictively judge things in a matter of seconds and be right about it. I believe that this was the case in this story. There will be times when our instincts betry us but it can be controlled. We can teach oursleves to make better snap judgments that can be effective.
"So, when should we trust our instincts, and when should we be wary of them? When our powers of rapid cognition go awry, they go awry for a very specific and consistent set of reasons, and those reasons can be identified and understood."(8)
Sarai Vazquez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post ????
Paragraph 1 revised
Have you ever found yourself feeling isolated from the world? There was a time in my life when I personally experienced such a feeling. Looking back, I realized that I was in a state of depression. I felt lonely at times when I had many people with me; I felt neglected at times, but never realized that my family and friends had never left me. I struggled with feelings of suicide and came very close to ending it all. It all started in winter 2002, I had just started the 8th grade and was looking forward to what was in store as I finished the year and began high school. As the school year went on, I began to distance myself from friends. They never noticed anything was wrong because I would always have a big smile on my face or would be making jokes and being my normal self. I remember one day sitting during lunch time eating my ham sandwich, and joking around, when one of my friends noticed something was unusual about me that certain day. I was not being my normal self and she asked if there was anything wrong, but I just said everything was alright, I was just tired from going to sleep too late the night before, she believed me and did not mention it again. On the outside everything looked fine and dandy. One day I began to think of my life and how I was living it. I had this feeling that the life I was living was pointless, and I felt that nobody really cared whether I lived or died. Everyone was out living their own lives and I was all alone on the outside looking in on their good times. Like Socrates in Allegory of the Cave, says, “…they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?” (5) While I was in my depression, I felt alone, like I was in my own little world with no one there for me to help me through my feelings of sadness and loneliness. I saw everyone on the outside of my world. We would all be together as a family eating dinner or watching television, and as soon as I was done eating or the show was over, I would go to my room and sit all alone. I never tried to interact with my family and always kept to myself thinking that they did not care. Everyone was in my life, but I did not feel like they were a part of my life.
Esmeralda Orozco
english 100
CC
post???
The statue that did not look right
When i saw reading this story i was shocked to know how much they paid the man for a fake statue. it was sad to know that there are people who dedicate their lives to doing things like the man who faked the statue. i enjoyed this story more then the poems because to tell you the truth this is the only story that i really understood. one of the things that really catched me was the way the specolist on ststues saw this particular one they all had the sence that something was not right. every single one of them knew the statue was a fake even though it took the getty 14 months of investigation they could not tell it was a fake. i liked this story beacuse although it was tragic it was real and it caught my eye beaucse of that. i thing the getty learned alot form there mistake and hopfuly they were able to catch the person who fooled them. if the person got away them wow he was a very clever person but sooner of later he will be caught and his punishment will be greater
esmeralda Orozco
English 100
CC
post???
Inexperience
Sex can be a very difficult subject to talk about, especially when you have to explain what AIDS are. Coming from a religious family, sex was something a twelve year old did not have to know about. Therefore sex along with the terrible disease known as AIDS had no meaning to me. Everything changed when I discovered AIDS was more closer then I thought. I soon had to face the real world and be exposed to sex and the affects that come with it. In my case sex did not bring a new member to the family, but instead it took one of my uncle’s away from me. He was diagnosed with AIDS when he was 34. At the time of his death I was unaware or even ignorant about sex and even more AIDS. My parents believed sex was something I would learn at school and because of that I was never introduced to the flowers and the bees. School taught me about the reproductive system and all the disease that came with sexual relationships. Through videos from school, I began to understand the great suffering and agony people with AIDS suffer. The video introduced us to the terrible live with AIDS. People with the disease lived their lives on pills and pain. There was a guy who caught my eye in the movie. The had a long square container in which he kept all of his medication. This man was very skinny, he could be described as just bones. His appearance reminded me of my uncle Asuncion. My uncle was also very skinny and always carried a huge backpack. At one point I recall my uncle having the same long square container the guy in the movie had. Little by little I began to put all the puzzles in my head together, and attached them to the memory I had of my uncle. I then discovered my uncle was diagnosed with a deadly and fatal disease known as AIDS. Throughout my life I was unaware of my families lives. Two small packets opened up my eyes to discover the sad reality my uncles life was like. At the time of his death I was very young and naive of the world around me. As in the story The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, tells of prisoners who are blinded from the truth by society. Human beings grow up in a false imitation of the world. Through “shadows” of society they are given false images of how the world is being portrayed in the outside. They look at the images and believe that what they are looking at is reality. Having the prisoners isolated from one another keeps them unenlightened of the real world. Once they are released into the real world, it only brings confusion to the prisoners. For so long they were forced to look at false imitations of the world, then later discovered it was fake. The “sun” in the story represented enlightenment or understanding for the prisoners. The “cave” represents ignorance and a lack of knowledge. Coming out of the cave and looking into the sun, the prisoners are introduced to a new view of life. Being ignorant myself, I did not pay much attention to my family members. I always thought they would be in my life forever. As children we trust our parents in the decision they make for us, until we grow up and grasp the truth. Just like children, adults will always dodge a child's question such as, “Where do babies come from?” Trying to protect their children from the unpleasant world, adults keep there children ignorant and inexperienced in the real world. Thanks to my uncle I do not mistreat others. As one continues to read how I discovered my uncles illness, the secrets my family keeps and how I am learning to deal with everything. Place oneself in a child’s world. The problems that are now clear to us such as family problems and sex, once were difficult to understand as children.
Andy Tran
English 100
Cerritos
Post #23
Aids Walk
First off, let me say how wonderful it was to attend such an amazing event. I really enjoyed this event as I have not done an event such as this for ages. The last event I attended was about 8 or 10 years ago and was a cancer walk event. The biggest and main reason why I signed up for the Aids walk was because my friend Joy wanted to go and she also asked me to go along. But guess what!? NO JOY! and I ended up waking up early with about 3 hours of sleep, a minor hangover and somehow I managed to find the courage in myself to drive to the school parking lot and attend the walk. I was not really prepared for the walk, which was my problem because I was out late at night attending a warehouse birthday party for a close friend. When we were taken to Alondra Wings to eat, I was really unsure about it. Eating fried chicken wings and fries early in the morning??? My mother would slap me upside my head haha. When I checked out the menu, everything was $6.95 and up for a decent meal and all I had was $5 bucks... Thanks to Jessica and George for taking care of my butt and buying me a nice chicken wing meal; I really appreciate it! Once getting back onto the bus, I quickly fell asleep to catch up on a quick power nap. When arriving, I was so unsure about the walk...I was just unprepared for the 6 mile walk but somehow I did it! I remember walking with Mr. Hsiao and a few other students and then I lost the group. I thought that the group was way up in front of me but I was actually all the way up in front haha! I even walked into the huge mall and got lost trying to find a restroom for about 30 or more minutes. After finding my way out of the mall, I had about 1 more mile to complete. At this moment I was totally exhausted with a stomach cramp. I managed to complete it and find the rest of the early finishers waiting at the bus stop. Where was Mr. Hsiao? After about 45 minutes of waiting, Mr. Hsiao found his way haha. There we waited quite some time for the bus to come pick us up. Some of us were knocked out waiting for the bus haha! It was a really fun and exhausting walk! Thanks for setting up this event Mr. Hsiao!
Jean Carlo Morales
English 100
Cerritos College
Post 14
Body paragraph revision
When stereotypes come to mind, usually it is an image one gets of a race or a portrayal of a person from a distinct race that is commonly used as a reference to that person or their race. Labels can lie heavily on a person, especially when one is extremely proud of their culture, race, heritage, or whatever one may call it and it is only brought down, or looked down at. It can lead to some confusion, as it did for me, at a very young age. Growing up I would have to say I saw the world through white and black colors. I had all sorts of friends. I had black friends, white friends, Mexican friends, and even a couple of Samoan friends from what I can remember. This was due mainly to the area I grew up in mainly around the Los Angeles area. Parts of Compton, Huntington Park, and Lynwood areas I remember the best. I am sure my group of friends would have varied if I had grown up in a different part of town. Anyways, as a child I did not care for how my friends looked like. I did not care for who was better off than whom or what race they were. All I truly wanted was friends and more friends. Friends I could play pogs with or trade X-men cards as we sit on the nearby playground bench underneath the trees as the sun twinkled through as if it were calling to me. The mind of a child who’s only real objective was to figure out a way to get more trading cards and more friends as he stared in amazement at the twinkling lights. I would have to say my world of color and judgment began to settle in when I hit the 5th grade. My world was shaken and flipped upside down as I transferred from a public school where the majority of students were either black of Mexican, people I could identify with, to a Catholic private school where the majority of students were either Caucasian or “better off” Mexicans. There were hardly any African-American students, one or two at the most. This is where my feeling of not belonging started and common misconceptions of my face began to take place. I was soon to feel the fury and racism that school had to offer from students and teachers at that school. Some of the stuff that was said about me and my family was true, which made it a little more painful, but not all of them. The jokes students would make about me made me feel inferior as if they were better than I was. Sure, I was the payless-shoe wearing, always taking lunch to school because he could not afford any, never having school supplies, dirty Mexican ghetto child, the list goes on. Let me just address before I go on that I am quite proud of being a ghetto child for the reason that it has helped shape my way of thinking that I have now. Now the way I saw it was like this, there was nothing wrong with taking my own lunch to school. The food at that school tasted like it had been frozen for weeks. I was always more of a nice home cooked meal sort of person. Last of all I did wear payless shoes; only thing was that those were one of the most comfortable shoes I had ever owned. Now try making a snotty little rich kid understand that. That is like trying to fit an idea the size of an elephant into a brain the size of a shoe box. It is just not going to happen. Nothing made sense to me at that school. Still, despite what I was now facing, I was destined to ignore all the negativity. I still remember the first time I was put down by another student. This, I would have to say, was when I realized what my label was. That day I almost got run over by a car of how low I felt as I walked home from school. My house was just across the street so one can imagine the ridicule. Everyone at school can see my house, what car my parents owned, and things we possess. That day my teacher was talking about fancy cars and how he could not stand newer versions of luxury cars.
Jean Carlo Morales
English 100
Cerritos College
Post 14
(cont.)
They are like a computer which cannot be repaired by a person; instead it has to be taken to the dealership or a mechanic to fix the engine which required a lot of money. My teacher was the type that was into older more classic cars. He claimed to like having his hands dirty and repairing cars on his own. While he was explaining this to the class a girl seated in front of me got into a conversation with one of her girl friends about how her dad at that time owned two Expeditions and as soon as she graduated her dad was going to get her the car of her dreams. My first major mistake was interrupting in the middle of her emphatic conceited speech. I just wanted to mention how lucky she was to get a car and how I hoped to get one also as soon as I graduated. The consequence for my mistake cost me my feelings being hurt a great deal. All she did was look at me for I would say was three seconds and then came a laugh as she cried that I would never be able to afford a car because my parents are too poor. Those words sunk into me so deep that it pushed my heart all the way down to my feet. It was like a whiplash to my heart as it ripped my dignity and the self respect I had for myself at the time. Everybody in class soon began to follow with a little chuckle of their own. According to Giorgio Agamben in Homonyms, he says, “if we try to grasp a concept as such, it is fatally transformed into an object, and the price we pay is no longer being able to distinguish it from the conceived thing.”(Paragraph 7). As a kid in that school I was looked at differently. At times I did not know why but I grew accustomed to the remarks one made about me. I soon found myself labeling others in revenge. It is to my understanding that not everything means the same thing to everyone. For instance I was being stereotyped because I brought my own lunch to school. The kids thought it was because I was too poor to afford the lunch at school. In reality I just preferred taking my own lunch to school. See there are two meanings for why I did not take my own lunch to school. One came from the students and the other came from me.Now that I learned to stereotype and label others it keeps me from distinguishing a concept from its idea because I am making a definition of what I think about somebody. That person will have a different definition from their own understanding and not being able to distinguish it from its original context was what was at stake.
Audrey Valdivia
English 100
Cerritos
post-unknown
paragraph redo
He may look at and see my piercing and tattoos as destroying my self image. my tattoos are an emotional expression of who i am as a person. He once asked me to explain what the meaing of each meant. on my left wrist i have a crown with the lets "vz" underneath it. "V" for Valdivia and "Z" for Zermeno, my last name is Valdivia but i come from a long line of Zermeno's. the crown represents that i am Worthy of everything as long as my heart is in it. Just telling him that i am a Valdivia but i will forever and always be a Zermeno was one of the most stamch cringing times of my life.
Raul Moreno Jr.
English 103
Cerritos College
Post: ???
Intro Paragraph Pt.I]
Abandoned Arrogance
What friend does arrogance associate with but its doomed, desolate self? In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Socrates illustrates verbally a queer scene of prisoners kept since their earliest youth to his fawning partner, Glaucon. Chained tightly from head to foot, they are not afforded movement of the slightest. Their field of view allows them nothing but the dark silhouettes and small essence of true objects and people, including themselves, that the fire casts upon their make shift cinema screen of faulty perception, the cave wall before them. In this murky man-made theatre of half truths all of the prisoners’ minds are molded; their perceptions are formed and acclimated to make what little sense they can of the dark, two-dimensional images that pass across the wall with the fruitless aid of random, nonsensical discussion and verifying echoes made by a passer-by hither and thither. At some point, they are released, though not by their own efforts or awareness. It is as though they are touched by God’s grace, or perhaps even called by name by a small still voice, to come nearer the faint Light that trickles in from the cave’s threshold. Even as the prisoner merely turns his head slightly, he will find pain at the sight of this more pure light. It is then that his vision adjusts and his perception is altered as he sees objects for what they truly are. He also achieves a new vision and sense of self as the light likewise shines on him. Further, he is dragged upwards toward the light outside while achieving an even more precise, though not complete, portrait of himself and the truer world around him along the way. It is not until he arrives at his final destination, The Light, that he might see everything, including this Source of Truth, for what it all actually is. At this point, one might even argue that there is a temporary ceasing of pain, and a strangely subdued effervescent sense of peace is granted to the former captive. After his congratulations have been spent and when pity for his old neighbors befalls him, he might then find himself in the former theatre of stone and fire where a new pain replaces the former. It is here and now that his vision for brilliance and truth almost seems useless. He cannot partake in the former contemplation of false objects cast upon a wall, and although it is by enlightened choice, he is ridiculed to be without sight or sense by those he seeks to gracefully help up the same steep climb which brought him to truth. Even worse, he is deemed a director of persons towards a fate likened to death should he ever try to remove them from their hopeless solitude of familiarity. I have spoken of another cave, the misunderstanding of true love for one’s family, and my father, the keeper of that cave, and though my descent is related to the same abuse suffered as a child that pushed me into my former cave, my recently realized cave of arrogance and its death grip on my life has been self-inflicted and more importantly, self-maintained. When my life has run its course, whether long or short, I wish and pray with fervor not to be left alone with pride and arrogance, who, by that time, if left unchecked, will have chased away all others who might have offered true, substantial love and value to me. In this writing is the account of my backwards descent fueled by criticism and silly self-comfort into a state of arrogance, the reason I seek to be removed from this cave that is the desire to not be without those who I love and/or those who love me, and finally, how I plan to continually seek the humility that I once knew for a moment while I was in the presence of The Light and was so fortunate enough to meditate upon it.
Antonio Acosta
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #?
Essay 1
Revise Introduction
Long dark tunnel in a cave; I am cold and alone not able to see around my surroundings, crying out for help. In the book The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, he talks about how a person can be enlightened or unenlightened. He talks about how a person is trap in a cave but not literately. The cave represents the unlightened person and how they are trapped in ignorance. He talks about a fire in the cave that represents false reality and the sun as true realty. The sun also represents enlighten. He talks about a person thinking that in that ignorance, the fire is the right place to be but then realizes that it is not the right place, the sun. Also, a person is trap in that situation so long that they think there is no other place. They are chained and they can only see what is in front of them not around them. They see the pain suffrage ignorance, but around them there is peace, truth, freedom, enlighten. The person sees the truth and is afraid but some follow the truth and become enlightened. The people that is afraid with the truth so they rather are with false reality because they think that they are use to it. The person’s life becomes better then when they are in the cave. My mental pain experience that made me ignorant; when I was a 5 years old made me in to a stronger person. Close your eyes and take a trip through a dark cave but do not worry there is a light at the end of this trip. The flapping of a crane will show you how to reach the end of this dark cave.
audrey Valdivia
english 100
cc
post ??
sunflower sutra
its as if the author was living a dark life and thought he was the only one who was living with a bad life, and yet he saw little by little that others shared the same life. he grew to understand that with a hard life great things will happen. because with pain comes comfort. just knowing that he wasnt the only one to have a hard life doesnt mean that he can't find the greater things in life.
Edilu Medina
English 100
Cerritos
Post #29
Sunflower Sutra
I selected this reading because the title called my attention. My mom loves Sunflowers I imagined another perspective before I read it, but once I did my mind trailed into a different thought. What I gained off was that there were these two gentlemen who sat by this dirty old river bank which is trashed with all the pollution, but over all stands this sunflower. Who is still standing but in its depth has the roots of what its surrounded by such as pollution and what the world has done to it. Such as the following quote "entangled in your mummied roots--and you there standing before me in the sunset all your glory in your form!" (12).To me it defined how even one self as a human being can defy to the world that carries us away, and sometimes destroys us but in the end makes us stronger. We become sunflowers were we want to be admired of our beauty in our stem,roots, but overlook the petals that are damaged by the effects of our surroundings.
Priscilla Daza
Cerritos College
English 100
post 19-20
the statue that did not look right byu malcom gladwell
at the beginning of reading this made me wish that i can understand these greek names and pronounce them...the thing about this story revolves around a statue that was not an orignal i suppose one can say...it was a sixth century kouros...a tall man standing with one leg in front of the other with his hands by his side...it took 14 months for the getty research to conclude that the statue was real the fact that marble it was made from, dolomite, converts into calcite which they found in the gettys statue SO they kept it...BUT by the eyes of zeri, harrison, doivng and dontas had an "intuitive repulsion" at first glance of the kouros at the getty...long story short in turned out the the statue of kouros that the getty had was fake...it was scultped by this guy in 1980 that added potato mold to the sculpture to create calcite...later in the story which i thought wa the most interesting states that us as human beings have lived as long as we have the fact that we have adaptive unconsciousness...the example a truck pulling out and one being in the position would "consider the options" opn how to get away we use our adaptive unconscious...the idea of the story is that everyone can have snap judgment ...we just have to teach ourselves.
Sarai Vazquez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post ?
The Statue That Did Not Look Right By. Malcom Gladwell
It was interesting to read about what kind of research has to be done to make sure that a sculpture is authentic. This sculputre that was being sold to the Getty turned iut to be the real thing and not a fake. Thinking back on how many things and all the places it has gone too it is amazing that it still stands and has a beatiful lokok to it after all these years. If you were to examine and research a human that was that old you would not see the same beauty as you do with the sculpture. Because unlike scultures all the things that happen to a human effect them. Not only in their lives but also in there physical. You can see what a person has been through and seen by looking at their appeance and there eyes. A persons eyes say a lot about them. It says that the artists that looked at the sculpture for the first time noticed something wrong, and thats the way that some people are, they see something wrong with a person right away. Meanwhile, other people might have to know the person better and even in some instances they never know the truth.
Priscilla Daza
Cerritos College
English 100
post 20
revised paragraph 3
Being labeled as a “white girl” has not always been a pleasant thing to hear. There are times when I just shrug my shoulders and do away with it. There are other times when I feel I am not living up to my true roots. Being half Salvadorian and half Chilean, I do not have much to show for it. I do not have that rowdy, vulgar language from my mom’s side and I do not speak Spanish well enough to adopt the beautiful Chilean dialect. Giorgio Agamben wrote in Homonyms, “…if we try to grasp a concept as such, it is fatally transformed into an object, and the price we pay is no longer being able to distinguish it from the conceived thing” (8). I interpret that the concept in the quote is me seeing myself as a “white girl”. I sometimes feel that it is easier to be that label that fact that I do not represent my background well. The fact that my Spanish speaking is poor and I do not favor Salvadorian food is tough to admit. The point of the matter is that I am going to change that in the future. I plan to transfer out of Cerritos College in about two years to Cal State Long Beach. During those two years in taking general education classes, I will also be working on being a certified interpreter in American Sign Language (ASL). I will graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in two years from CSLB. From there I plan to find a position as a Theatre teacher at a middle school. At that point in my future I will also be a part of an agency that will provide me with a few jobs for interpreting in ASL locally. To save up for USC, I will keep my steady job for a while until I can afford to pay for my education. After a few years, I will go back to school and get my Major in Theatre from USC. At that time, I would like to go to a high school where they are not known for their theatre department. I will have the district upgrade the theatre class room into a real studio theatre. Complete with a stage, wings on the sides, mobile scenery, proper lights, high tech speakers and microphones for the actors, dramatic red curtains, spacious seats for the audience, and of course a separate room behind the audience for the tech crew, sound crew and myself. It will be the coziest theatre room with the maximum capacity of 150. I will have my students in several competitions such as the Thespian Festival. I will have them touch base on improvisation, mime, voice, dance, and of course have knowledge on Constantin Stanislavski. Once I have completed all of that, I will admit that not only will I be an accomplished woman, but one who learned to interject her troubled stereotype into her success. The fact that I personally deal with labels, I will teach my students to accept their labels and include it into their future as an instrument. That way they will not consider themselves as just that one label, but a label that is a part of them and help with who they will become. All in all, my students will be fully prepared for their future into theatre, if they decide to choose that as their career, and welcoming diversity as it pursues them.
Celina Rivera
English 100
Cerritos College
Post# 58
Paper revisions
That sadness of not feeling belonged lingered inside of me. My parents and my siblings all have lighter skin complexions than I do. My brother Artis constantly teases me because I am the darkest in my family. With him teasing me I always seemed to question if I was born or got mixed up with a different family. One day Artis and I went to the beach because it was a hot day. While we were at the beach Artis realized that he must put on some suntan lotion on or else he would get burned. I on the other hand had no reason to put suntan lotion on because I do not get burned. We later came back home from the beach and ironically I was not burned, but just had a darker skin complexion. My brother Artis got burned and was extremely red even after putting on coats of suntan lotion, but still according to him I was the burnt one since I was darker than him. Then once again as times in the past he told me that this was further proof that I was adopted. He would always tell me that I was adopted by a family of rats because they are dark, hairy, and small. If you look at my baby pictures, they explain exactly how I looked when I was first born. Artis story begins one day when my parents were walking down an alley in downtown Los Angeles and later that night brought me home to show my brother. My parents found me while they were walking down an alley. They had noticed something moving by a nearby trash can. When they came up to the trash can they realized what they had seen from a distance, was a family of rats. The first rat they saw was big, hairy, and really dark. This was the mother rat and to the dismay of my parents she could talk. She pleaded with my parents and begged them to take her baby and give her a better life than the life of a rat. My parents then decided to take me home and care for me as one of their own. I went home with my new parents and finally met my newfound brother Artis. They told my brother where they found me and that he now has a sister. This story that was just told would be one that I would hear almost everyday as a child growing up. His reasoning for making up this story was that rats are small, hairy, dark, and according to him that is what I represented. When I always heard this story I would cry and run to my dad and ask him if this was true. Even now when he tells me jokingly I still get upset. In my mind it seems like he did not want me to be apart of the family. I still do not understand why God made look so much different compared to the rest of my family. I grew up not fitting in and felt that there was something strange with people who dark complexions. All I wanted was to feel like I was part of my family and not an outsider. In Homonyms, Giorgio Agamben says, “Both are and are not members of themselves”. This is saying that even though I am a part of my family, I am still labeled as being different. I am not only labeled by my family, but also by complete strangers. My brother knows how to hurt me every time by saying that I was adopted. Even though I know this is not true, I still can not help but think why I was not treated as an equal part of the family. After the countless times Artis would tell this story to me, this is how I was viewed as a foreigner within my own family.
Jean Carlo Morales
English 100
Cerritos College
Post 15
Reflection on Getty Villa
The day started of in a very uncanny way for me. I was actually the very first person to get to the spot where we usually all meet up. I thought I had been too late the everybody took off on a different bus. I started to panic so I saw the bus driver impatient in his seat so I meekly went over and asked him if he knows what is going on. To my surprise he told me that I was the first one there. I looked at the time and it was around nine thirtyish and no one was still there. As I backed of from the bus I saw brian coming and from there on out others started showing up. The ride to Alondra hot wings was a little bumpy. It was noticable the the driver lacked some experience of driving the bus. I did not mind since I thought to myself, " Hey, we all start of not knowing how to do things and only learn with experience." I felt embarrased for the driver to say the truth. I sensed that he felt a little embarassed for putting us through such a bumpy ride and I am sure those were not his intentions. Plus I seen Janelle, Jenny's baby, and her head was shaking very fuctuantly and felt a little concerned for her head. As I exited the bus to Alondra Hot Wings I thanked him for the bus ride as a little condolence so he wouldn't feel so bad. At Alondra Hot Wings we split some wings between Brian, Samantha, Celina and I. Seated next to me was one of Mr. Hsiao's mentees, which I had not known Mr. Hsiao had. We all enjoyed our food and headed back towards the bus for another bumpy ride to the Getty Villa. Upon arrival we were greeted by a lady who had gathered us all up by the entrance. She told us some basic things we need to know and we were off. Something that really stuck with me was one of the videos in one of the rooms. It began to play and all I could see was the front of a old, dirty, semi-broken fuilding. It had looked similar to a couple of buildings that i see around my neighborhood. As the video played I read a small side note that explain how the facade of buildings can say a lot about a neighborhood. One can tell what type of history and type of neighborhood it is. This really impacted me because that is something that I notice everywhere I go. I like to look at the different buildings and look at there fronts. I can usually tell different types of people that might live around the neighborhood just by looking at the front of buildings. I never though anybody had noticed this before but I was glad to see that this had gone unoticed. The facades of buildings have to do alot with a neighborhood and can even be helpful. For instance, tagging on the wall can indicate if one is walking down the wrong side of a neighborhood. There was a lot that I missed at the Getty Villa that I wish I could have seen. I will definately be going back so I can take more time analyzing and admiring the works of art left behind by great gifted individuals.
Antonio Acosta
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #?
Sunflower Sutra
The poem was written by Allen Ginsberg in Berkeley, 1955. It explains how there is Beauty in every one even if people do not notice it. People are trapped in darkness that they do not see the beauty around them. The only way a person can see beauty is when someone else shows and describes it to them. “A perfect beauty of a sunflower! A perfect excellent lovely sunflower existence! A sweet natural eye to the new hip moon, woke up alive and excited grasping in the sunset shadow sunrise golden monthly breeze!”
Raul Moreno Jr.
English 103
Cerritos College
Post: ???
The Stature That Did Not Looks Rihgt [intentional]
This piece greatly interested and still interests me. It reminds me of an account I once heard of those who, for a living, inspect money for the purpose of confirming its authenticity or its being counterfeit. These people spend hours upon hours in training, not inspecting fake money, but instead they inspect real money over and over, analyzing evry little authentic line, texture, and watermark. They come to know what is true so well, that when they come across what is false it is immediately recognized. Perhaps they might not be able to immediately tell what specific detail sets it apart from the truth, but their trained eye and this subconscious analysis recognizes that the parts do not add up to the proper sum.
What makes this so interesting to me is the fact that I am one who, when faced with a terribly difficult and heavy decision, takes much time and employs very critical conscious analysis. To be able to refine such an abstract skill would save me much time and stress, so I hope to look further into this on my own time. This really is a great subject.
Angel Togafau
English 110
GWC
Post #15
Ohh goodness.. I knew this was going to happen to me. Get super sick right before mid-term week! How perfect... not! & I missed the AIDS walk because of this.
I guess it's true, when you think your going to get sick. Your going to get sick.
Angel Togafau
Englih 110
GWC
Post #16
Body Paragraph #3 OUTLINE: MLK/Obama
III. Has change happened?
A.) Some ways, change has happened.
1. First black president.
2. Voting rights for women and blacks
3. Eliminated segragation
B.) Yet, not all thing changed
1. Current major hatred toward certain minorites
2. Women deprived of equal rights to men
3. Women treated slight different from men
4. White race still superior
5. Diffeculte time in accepting one another
6. Sterotyped/ Judged based on skin color
Kayla Marley
English 110
Mr. Hsiao
October 19, 2009
Getty Villa
Having an opportunity to go to the Getty Villa in Malibu was such an awesome treat. I was expecting a lot more fellow students than there was, but at the same time I was happy the group was small. We first started the trip by going to Alondra Hot Wings. I did not eat anything there because I was not hungry, but everything looked so delicious. Instead I buried myself into my exciting book. Once we left Alondra Hot Wings I tried to read on the bus, but the views along Pacific Coast Highway were so amazing that I could not concentrate. Not to mention the rocky ride we had would have gave me a headache trying to concentrate on tiny words, Ha. Once we arrived at the Getty Villa the way up to the center was beautiful. The luscious green trees and beautiful colors put me in awe. The outside of the building was beautiful I was so excited to get going to see all the exhibits. After we had taken the pictures I was ready to go and look at anything and everything that I had time for. I had such a great time being able to look at all the various sculptures and artifacts from thousands of years ago. I could not believe that some of the artifacts were Before Christ. I thought being able to see all these sculptures with little damage done was such a privilege. I do not know why that the years shocked me but they did. I loved being able to see the sculptures and reading background information of all the Greek gods and goddesses. One of my favorite parts of the Getty Villa was seeing the gold wreath that is wrapped around ones head when winning athletic challenges. I thought that was amazing because just to think that someone was able to carve and create a wreath out of pure gold is amazing. The bus ride home was quite interesting especially leaving the villa. I felt kind of bad for the bus driver because I can only imagine how difficult it must be to get a large bus up a steep hill. My overall trip was great. I wish we had more time at the Getty Villa, so I plan on going back one day.
I'm so nervous for the midterm tomorrow. My stomach is in knots.
Whitney Young
Golden West College
English 110
Post #18
Alondra Hot Wings tasted a lot better this time then it did last time. Maybe it was because I was hungry this time. It was fun though. I spoke to people in my class that I have never gotten a chance to speak with. It was a nice bonding experience. The bus ride was not a pleasant one. I get motion sick, but not that easily. The jerking of the bus definitely got me a little nauseous. The scenery through the window right before arriving to the Getty Villa was priceless. There was beach on one side and beautiful houses on the other. The Getty Villa looked so, so pretty from a distance. When we arrived, the view looked so amazing. Walking up those stairs was a major work out and it was hot. I liked The Getty Villa a lot more than the Getty. I liked how they had more artifacts. The statues were amazing. My favorite part was probably the room with those Mummies. I am not sure if that is what you called it, but it was really neat to see their faces painted on the front. I thought it was so cool! My second favorite thing would probably be that kids room. We were allowed to draw on the pottery and play with different things. I enjoyed this field trip a lot..except for the bus driver. I was totally nauseous the rest of the day.
Stephanie Wold
English 110
GWC
Post ?
Do we have to have our outline finished for tomorrow? Isn't our essay part of the mid term on Thursday? If someone could answer me, that would be great. Thanks.
Yes Stephanie, you must email the outline and resume to Mr. Hsiao before class tomorrow
Stephanie Wold
English 110
GWC
Post ?
Thanks Thomas. Just to make sure I did this right, the first paragraph/into explains the story. The body paragraph 1 is causes, body paragraph 2 is effects and 3 is my take on the issue. Then the conclusion. Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks!
yes thats the way if format if you chose Erosion of Civilization
If you chose the compare and contrast (Obama and MLK) Paragraph 1 intro, 2 similarities, 3 differences, 4 Answers: Has MLK's dream been realized through Obama's presidency(argument) and 5 conclusion. Also Mr. Hsiao is openeing classs early, I am not sure if it is mandatory to attend early, but it could not hurt. read Mr. Hsiao's post about it
****I mean thats the format
Stephanie Wold
English 110
GWC
Post ?
Thank you! Good luck tomorrow.
Does anyone know if the midterm STARTS at 7? OR does he open the class to answer questions at 7?
Tien Tran
English 110
GWC
Post #19
Stephanie + Thomas - somehow ... i wrote down in my agenda that theyre due this Thursday ....
can someone confirm this for me please?
Thomas - he'll be there by 6:45 so we can ask questions i believe, and you do not have to be there at 7 (although it is preferred so you can have enough time).
so you can come at the regular class time at 8 if you want =]
Tien, I have written down several times that it is due Tuesday before class. Thank you for the clarification about the class time.
Zachary Duke
Eng 103
CC
Post ???
The Stature That Did Not Looks Right
This story is great.It reminds me of a guy I know. He is able to notice the exact note from the exact instrument, he has it down from the make and model. he worked for years to tune this skill.
Unlike this story, I don't think before i act. I am the kind of guy that if i like you, i will find a way to tell you. I will go wild bull riding just because it sounds fun. I am the wild child in my family.
Celina Rivera
English 100
Cerritos College
Post # 59
Well what can I say Dodgers lost. That was quite a last minute upset. I knew that I did not like Broxton. Dodgers could of had this one.
Jenny,
I have to say I am a sucker f9r kids. If I could work with kids everyday I would. Helping you with Janelle was not a chore. It was something I would do for anyone. Kids I guess you can say are my kryptonite. I am always willing to help a person with a kid or that kid itself.
Yue Hayes
English 110
Golden West College
Post #27
I don't think my body likes to sleep. Or maybe I'm just nervous for the midterm tomorrow. Either way, I'm still up!
Getty Villa
The day was a perfect way to end the week, considering I have not been able to get together with my friends for the whole semester. Since my boyfriend was not able to make the Grammy Museum, I was worried that he would not be able to make this one, either. I was wrong; both Alisa and Chase were able to come with me, and this day could not be any better. 1. The weather was nearly PERFECT. 2. The museum was BEAUTIFUL. 3. Alondra Hot Wings. Mmm. I had gotten my driver’s license on Wednesday and I was already very happy. When we had arrived at Cerritos College, it still felt like Alisa was a part of our class. I was very happy that Jon had convinced Chase to ride the bus with us. Thanks, Jon! The bus ride was very interesting. I do not know how many times I hit my head on the seats because I was sitting sideways and not with my back on the seat, but I was too excited to care. I could not stop talking. I am usually quiet, but Alisa and Chase definitely bring the louder side of me… I am still not very sure if it is a positive thing. Once we got to Alondra Hot Wings, I was very excited because I had told Alisa how great it was and she was finally able to try for herself. She and Chase both really liked the place. Yay (This means we’ll be returning there again on our own time!) Once we got to the Getty, I was in awe. The buildings were very elegant and beautiful! When we heard that we had to be grouped, we knew that the Golden West students would stick together. The group of eight, though, split up later on, when we had realized that it was too difficult to look at the art all together. My group consisted of Chase, Alisa, Andy, and I. Andy quickly became friends with both Chase and Alisa, so it was very fun to walk around together. It seemed like we had been friends for a long time. The only thing I did not like about the museum was the fact that we were so closely watched. I understand that the art pieces there are very valuable, but I felt like they were assuming that we were there to touch things, had they not watched us closely as they did. I felt very nervous, although I did not intend on touching anything anyways. I thought it was a little unfair, because it had taken away from fully enjoying some of the art. When we had gotten in to the garden, it was very fun for me. I had recognized almost all the herbs that had been planted in the garden. They were very fragrant and very beautiful. I want a garden like that at my house, because I would love to cook with fresh herbs like those! Alisa enjoyed seeing the statues of the gods and goddesses she had learned about in her mythology class, while Andy and Chase seemed to enjoy sitting in the warm sun more than the statues and paintings. The bus ride back was very fun, too. I regret not introducing myself to a friend I had made, because he was awesome. Usually I am very good with names and faces (especially those who post on the blog), but I do not think he blogs very much. He took many pictures of everyone, and was very easy to talk to. We joked about my big mouth. OH! And how could I forget! I finally got to meet Jenny and Janelle!!! Oh, how cute is Janelle?! And Jenny was so fun to talk to! I am very glad we finally got the chance to talk. Overall, it was a very fun day, although the group was much smaller than the one that had gone to the Grammy Museum. I had tons of fun and I was able to bond with the Golden West students and even Cerritos College students! It was a fantastic day. Plus on the way back home from Cerritos on the freeway, we kept passing Andy. Since we were both stuck in traffic, we kept passing each other. It was fun waving and making weird faces; it helped take away the stress from traffic a little bit.
Yi-Hui Chiang
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #19
The Statue That Did Not Look Right by Malcom Gladwell
I always believe in human instinct. We're living in the age of advanced technology, and sometimes we depend too much on scientific proof. This story just shows how we are blinded by our so-called knowledge. It is ironic that, "In the first two seconds of looking--in a single glance--they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months" (10). In this case, if we only trust our conscious decision making, we will be deceived away from truth. When we make a decision or make a choice, we have the tendency to choose things that make all sense and have no flaws. But isn't is suspicious when everything is being too perfect? There are times when our snap judgments can be as accurate or even more accurate than cautiously made decisions. Just like in the story, the statue with all the evidences and documents provided, after months of research, cannot be realized that it is fake, but it is denied by such feeling called "intuitive repulsion" by people only looking at it. Another reason of our blindness is that when we want something to happen or to be true, we will try anything possible to persuade ourselves. Our unconscious is such a powerful thing that affect the way we think, and that is what we should be aware of.
WHERE IS THE SUN?
Edilu Medina
English 100
Cerritos
Post # ARGHHHH
I LEFT MY HOUSE AT 6:55 am DIDNT GET TO WORK UNTIL 8:30! 30 MINS LATE! TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE!! THERE WAS 3 ACCIDENTS ON THE WAY, ALMOST ON EVERY FREEWAY I WENT ON..THEN MY CO WORKER GIVES ME ATTITUDE ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE, THAT WAS NOT EVEN MY FAULT! NOT A GOOD DAY... PLUS LAST NIGHT I went to alondra's it was a must after seeing the slide show in class, I caught up with my friend who went to South Carolina for a week. I was trying to keep my attention on her but my eyes kept gazing at the TV to bring tears to my eyes when Phillies struck on the bottom of the 9th, all alondras customers were screaming noooooo.. even one of the employees was cleaning up in anger throwing things in the trash harshly.. I was MAD DODGERS were sooooo closeee... grrr...
Jenny Guzman
Cerritos College
English 100
post^*(^%&
Oh, well I got yelled at yesterday. Jonathan Broxton has let me down for the last time. I will no longer wear his jersey. I need to find another Dodger to like, aaahhh sigh.
Jenny Guzman
Cerritos College
English 100
Post Question
Is a person depressed if they like depressing music??
I really like some feedback please.
ESMERALDA OROZCO
ENGLISH 100
CC
POST???
NAILS!!!!!
SO TODAY I WOKE UP AT 9AM TO GET MY NAILS DONE SO I MISSED MY CLASS
I KNO I KNO
BAD ESME
BUT COME ON NAILS WHOO HOO!!!!
WELL MY FRIEND TOOK ME TO CHINO WERE THE LADY DID THEM FOR ME CAN AND SINCE 9 I HAVE NOT ATE OMG
WELL I LOVE MY NAILS THEY WERE $30 JUST IN CASE YALL LIKE TO KNO
WELL I LOVE THEM SO SO SO MUCH HOPW U GUYS LIKE THEM TO IF NOT THEN ITS KOO LOL
OH I ALSO ALMOST CRASHED
TRAFFIC WAS SLOW AND I WAS GOING 80 SO ALL THE STUFF I HAD IN THE BACK CAME TO THE FRONT CRAZY!!!!
WELL SEE YALL TOMARROW HOPW U ALL HAVE A GEART DAY I KNO I WILL LOL
QUESTION????
WHAT ARE U GONNA BE FOR HALLOWEEN???
Gabriela Tovar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #25
I concluded that Sunflower Sutra, at some point it was refering to the love of its love... But what gets me confused is the end, do the person become at the end, a sunflower??? Still lost...
I loved the way he writes
"Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O my soul, I loved you then"... I love it, i love it...
Is he refering to the sunflower how it is just standing there and lookin beautiful or is he refering to one of his lost love one???
The way he talked about how the flies buzzed around the innocent of the grime... Beautiuly written...
I liked many of the lines he writes, BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN...
Esmeralda Orozco
English 100
CC
post???
Sunflower Sutra
i liked the poem beacuse its just sweet. when a person is in love they are trully blind. what they see as the most beautiful thing can really be something ugle. who does not want to be with a person like that? a women always wants there man to tell them they look good even when they dont unless i do. i think its kute that a person can find love in something that someone else might have not. i really really like that. when i was reading the poem i really liked it.
MIeSMERALDA oROZCO
ENGLISH 100
CC
POST???
K I KNO IM BLOGING A LOT BUT I HAVE SOOO MUCH IN MY HEAD
SO LAST NIGH MY FRIEND GOT DUMPED
I THINK ITS FOR THE BETTER THEY HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON AND OFF
I CAN SAY I REALLY HATE HIM
I WAS THINKING OF ASKING YOU GUYS IF
???
PPL REALLY CHANGE???
ME PERSONALLY DO NOT THINK SO I THINK ITS HARD FOR SOMEONE TO CHANGE.
ALTHOUGH I NOW SHE IS IN PAIN IM HAPPY HE WILL NOT HURT HER ANYMORE FOR ME WAS CONTROLLING AND A JERK
I LOVE MY GIRL AND NOW SHE CAN DO WAY BETTER THEN HIIM WAS WAS BEING LIKE A DAD RETHER THEN A BF
SO YEA LOL
XOXOX
Jessica Vasquez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #: ??
Esme
From personal experience, people do change. Well as far as love goes. My boy-fried used to be the biggest a-hole to me in high school. We weren't together at the time just dating, but I honestly have to say that I had to put up with a lot of cr@p from him. There were times he invited me out and I would get all dressed up and wait for him to pick me up and he never would come. By the time I got tired of waiting and finally called him, he was out partying with his boys. Also, He ditched me once at a party, left with his "boys" and left me there by my-self. Since he was a "jock" in the football team, other girls where after him to, which only brought more drama. Oh and he also cussed me out if front of his friends once. It sucked because I was the youngest of them all (he was a senior, I was a junior) and I was not respected by any of his friends, just another "hook-up" Any who, no matter what a big (another word for donkey) he was I was always there for him when he needed me. Finally things changed when one New Years Eve he admitted to me that basically I was wasting my time on him since he only considered me as a friend and would NEVER be anything more than that. I was heartbroken and shocked since he was the "love" of my life, oh and besides the fact that I have spent a year and a half being led onto something that was not, talk about a waste of time. Ever since that night, I gave up on him and just completely lost contact. I was so heartbroken and depressed, hey what a way to start the new year! So I stopped calling, and just moved on. To my surprise, I guess he slowly started missing me (and realized I was different) and it was now him who started calling and wanting to hang out. After that he completely changed the jerk he once was was now a complete sweetheart. Any who, long story short we have now been together for over four years, and still to this day he is the most sweetest & caring guy I know. No one has ever helped me the way he has, and also know me inside and out like he does. [Man, I sound cheesy now] Actually now that we talk about what a jerk he used to be he tells me he feels bad for acting that way. So Esme, I think people can change if there desire is strong enough, its how they say "you don't know what you have till its gone."
Arturo Lopez
English 103
CC
Post #idk
Mahabharata: Bhagavadgita
I had to pick between this story and Sunflower Sutra. It was pretty much pick your poison as far as understanding goes. What i could understand from this story is that Krishna, or God reincarnate, is talking to arjuna. He is basically telling him how to live his life. He is telling him waht is right and what is wrong and pure. I believe that the thesis of this story is those who have knowledge of the truth are good and pure, while those who are ignorant and have false knowledge are eveil and dark. Krishna mentions things such as "true" knowledge and "false" knowledge. In paragraph 13 Krishna says, "Good is the intellect which comprehends. . .what must be done,and what must not be done"(13). Its funny how every story can be applied to the allegory of the cave. They both convey the message that knowledge is power, while ignorance is evil and bad. The knowledge of what is good and what is evil and acting on the good and renouncing the bad is the way krishna wants arjuna to live his life.
my interpretation is most likely wrong but i look forward to the discussion in class.
Sandra Valadez
English 100
cerritos college
post 123456789
Ok, so I’ve been thinking about the next paper assignment. I know roughly what I want to write about but I am not sure what subject it would fall into. I want my paper to be about our/society’s image of sex. Sex sells in almost everything we see nowadays. And with the image of sex how it effects women/girls and men/boys. Women have to look a certain way to be classified as beautiful/sexy/desirable. We constantly see people changing their image to fit the mainstream bandwagon, through plastic surgeries to enhance breast, buttocks, kips, thighs, neck, cheekbones, waist, stomach, eyelids, eyebrows, jaw, chin, hairline, you name it you change it. The way we dress, the less we dress, the more we show, is better, right??? When we look to billboards, magazines, advertisements, movies, music, television, everywhere is one image, the same image. The other day in my Sociology class (Human Sexuality) there was a study where men found that women who were thin and had large breast were what is sexy and desirable v someone that was thicker and had smaller breasts. This may be true for some men not all, but this is where I feel that the image of sex/women and how it is portray everywhere we look it not only influences women to be that way but for men to want that. I totally feel it is a lose lose for both sexes. If the image of a sexy woman is thin, defined/curvey, with above average breast than women want to become what they see at all costs and if not they are unhappy with their image. The larger girl, the flat chested girl, the short girl, the very curvey girls, the extremely tall girl, the girl with short hair, the girl with freckles, the girl with large hands, the girl with large feet, the girl with small lips/extra large lips that usually does not fit the image of sex/women in society is left where; to only feel bad for what she has excess of or lacks.
No if we see it at how the image of sex/women affects men. I feel that because men are constantly viewing these “perfect” images of women that they leave out, or do not bother to see the “other” women: they want the hot number on the billboard ad. So again what happens to all the other women?? Pancho my husband says that I am a Feminist, and I don’t think he’s complementing me???Lol He jokes and says I am going to begin a Revolution from our backyard. I’m just tired of seeing sex everywhere, the competition between women to be the better looking woman, men seeing women as objects. How often have you heard that someone is one a diet??? In my experience over 90% of the time people will say “I am on a diet to be skinny/thin” I rarely hear “TO BE HEALTHY” They push this “health” number but isn’t it really pushing thin/slim and SEXY???? So going back to Shakira from a previous blog/post, she sold out!!! She started off a, in my opinion, a beautiful young girl who created great meaningful music to full on SEX symbol. She dressed I simple clothing, had dark hair that would sometime have ribbons through braids, when she would perform it was usually while holding a guitar and actually singing. If we compare salary’s from when she started (original image) to now (sex symbol) what a difference we see. You think her singing got her there, of her racy X rated videos, racy/provocative dancing, and the “sexy” outfits???
These images of women are not only in our faces but also in our young girls.
Here’s a fact: Girls self-esteem is usually at a steady increase until adolescents: from adolescents their self-esteem has a significant decrease till death. For those of you who have daughter, younger sisters, nieces, and young girl, build them up. Let them know that they are beautiful just being themselves. That intelligence/education is what attracts REAL people. Inner qualities make the difference.
I have spoken.
Monique Gutierrez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #55
Sunflower Sutra
The story starts off with two sad men staring off into the sunset. They sat there soul searching and sharing wisdom. One of the men notice a sunflower. The other man sees the sunflower and began to reminisce about his life in Harlem. I find it great how one object can symbolize a certain time in your life. Whether it be good or bad, past or present. I especially love when you hear a song on the radio and it reminds you of a special moment from your past. The sunflower was the sunshine to this mans’ darkness. It reminded him of the good old days. Even though the flower was dead, he still saw it as beautiful. Because, he knows what it looked like before it deteriorated. “When did you forget you were a flower? when did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive?” (14). I saw this as the man questioning and doubting himself. He saw himself in a negative light and reflected it through the Sunflower. The man came to the conclusion that he and Jack were special. He learned that we are all unique in our own way. I also learned that people see what they want to see and unravel things better to their understanding. Sometimes I question what people think when they see me. I am not a very open person and I choose to keep to myself. It makes me feel comfortable and safe. But, that does not mean that I am a cruel person. I am very quiet and reserved. Once you get to know me I swear you will be begging me to shut up. I only choose to reveal what I want to show. Like that sunflower dead and gray, to someone else I may seem wonderful. It really does not matter what other people think.
Veronica Vasquez
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #27
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
By Malcom Gladwell
This was a very interesting read that gave off a Mystery/CSI feel to it. The story starts off by describing the scene of the Getty Museum in California being offered a rare, and in great condition Kouros, which is a statue of a nude man. The Getty owners were so stunned, that they moved quickly to verify the statue was legitimate to buy it off the hands of this art dealer. Papers of purchase histories were handed over, and seemed legitimate after 14 weeks of microscopic testing on the statue. The owners were ready to buy the statue, and started the process as soon as possible.
When the museum presented the statue to different art experts, they began to notice the statue looked "funny". After many experts examined the statue, they all got an intuitive feeling that there was something wrong with the statue. This hypothesis was made in a matter of seconds after looking at the statue at first glance, and Getty owners began to feel nervous. After testing it again, they found that the statue was forged, and manually aged.
The story moves on to explain the topic of adaptive unconsciousness. This was the intuitive feeling these art experts were accessing when they looked at the statue. The story goes on explaining that it is not a psychic phenomena that only few possess, but something we are all capable of experiencing. I enjoyed reading the section that talks about our parents telling us as children to "Take it easy", or "Think this through first", because our intuitive quick responses can be sometimes better than our thought-through decisions.
Monique Gutierrez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #56
The movies and topic for the next paper
I just got back from the movies. My sisters took me to see "Paranormal Activity." That movie scared the living daylights out of me. It really creeped me out. I would give this movie an 8 out of 10 for creativity. I heard a lot of negativity in the audience after it was over. There was this "tough" cholo claiming the movie sucked. But, I bet if he was haunted by an evil spirit, he would be crying like a little girl. I don't know why, but I get a little upset when people don't agree with my views on movies lol! But, everyone has their own opinion I suppose. About the paper, I am clueless on what to write about. Hopefully I can come up with one for tomorrow.
Christina Arredondo
English 103
C.C
Post: 21?
Out of the 3 things we had to read, I chose to write about "The Statue That Did Not Look Right" by Malcom Gladwell because it was the easiest to understand. The story is about this one statue that was sold to the Getty under 10 million dollars. Before, the accepted the offer, it took the specialists 14 months of examining and investigating the statue to determine if it was real or fake. They were so thrilled with this new piece that they wanted it to be real. In fact, they became fully convinced that the statue was real. After the statue was displayed, other experts in its field, when they saw the statue they were able to tell just by a glimpse that the statue was fake. All they needed was one good look at it to determine the answer while with the others (involved with the getty)took 14 months. Then, because of that response, the statue was back into examination, where in the end it did result into being a fake. In the second part of the story, it is pointed out by psychologists how the mind works in some part. How a person can simply notice what they want to see as well as "don't judge a book by its cover." Also, how in many cases, one should simply trust their first instinct and go with their gut...
I think that his passage reminds me so much of "Allegory of the Cave" and "Homonyms." For example, how a person can be blind on seeing the reality and you can't classify a person.
Jaime Valadez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #20
Sunflower Sutra
This story to me is talking about two elderly people that are sitting around train tracks watching the sun go down. One of them is talking about a sunflower he sees. He says "look at the sunflower there was a dead gray shadow against the sky, big as a man". He compares the sunflower to the gray shadows around. I think he is asking himself how something so beautiful grow in some place so ugly?.
I have spoken to my husband about my views in fact earlier today I was telling him about my paper and how I want to write about Today’s Sex Image and how it affects everyone. I was a little disturbed at what he told me. He said “No puedes cambiar al mundo” Translation: you can’t change the world. WTF He also said that that is our society is and I shouldn’t get mad over it. Well maybe it was the tone of voice I may have used to describe certain things, and I may just be angry with society’s image. I/we have two daughters I don’t not want them to fell any less of themselves if they do not fit the “perfect” image. I want to them to be happy with their bodies (whatever they develop into) and not let society tell them what they should be happy with. It goes further, not only is self images categorized into what is socially sexy/desirable but also what make us sexy are the material possessions we own. Ex. A guy who drives a BMW drives a “chick magnet” (you guys know they do not use the word chick, the word they use rhymes with fussy) the car/materialist object is what make the guy desirable now, what a joke.
Whatever one decides to do with him/her self is totally fine as long as they do for him/her self. Now here is where I may seem like a hypocrite. Say a woman bears 3 children and her body looks different (breast went south without permission) if the woman decided to go and have something surgically corrected to her standards then by all means. I feel there is a huge difference in the above example v. someone going to get breast implants to have OTHERS make that person feel good. Does that make sense??
Ok I am just rambling now, but I have so much to say, I feel that we as women have fought for equal rights, to no longer be view as sex objects, to be equal, to get respect, to be view as intelligent/competent/independent beings for so long for US to let certain negative stereotypes/classifications exist. All the images of women in mainstream/society’s perfect image destroy the real woman in all her beauty.
So back to the question:
Would this be a good paper to write on??? Will I be able to stay focused on the paper without veering off track??? What would this actually fall into???
Janice Silva
English 103
Cerritos College
Post#16
Sunflower Sutra
I can tell there is so much to this, but still having trouble looking at other meanings. This story gave me a thought of we are not worthless. In today's society we are given so many standards of what we should be and how to live, where is individuality? are we covered in so much smog that we can not decipher who we are? "We're not our skin of grime, we're not our dread bleak dusty imageless locamotive, we're all beautiful golden sunflowers inside..." (18) to me this story has given me more questions to think about, and yet again the question i always raise with myself, who am I? I cannot count how many times I have brought that question to my attention. Everyone has some sort of "smog" that we have came across, as in being something we are most definitely not, and even being uncomfortable performing. The sunflower comes to mind when the author says " Poor dead flower? when did you forget you were a flower? when did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive? (15) of course the sunflower did not question if it was a flower, but how many times do we question about who we are? instead we try many things to find the right fit, but when it does, do we continue with it?
Veronica Vasquez
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #28
Meh why not
I usually don't like to post about something that I don't have to, but I am curious on that Paranormal Activity movie/reviews. I'll be honest, zombie movies scare the crap out of me (I Am Legend haunted me for a while), but movies where I can't "see" the true culprit, I "meh" at. I just recently saw The Exorcist 1970'ish one to see what all the fuss was about, and I laughed more than I blinked throughout the movie (exaggerated but yeah!). I'm not sure if it was the ancient old graphics, or the cliche dialogue, or just the fact that I don't believe in "ghosts" and possessed people, but the movie didn't really do anything for me. And I know it may seem ironic, because I know zombies don't exist (prior to the zombie apocalypse, of course), but those type of gory-faced movies scare me a lot more than a person running around with nothing chasing after them.
I guess lots of people feel the same way, and may not enjoy a movie that doesn't exactly show a physical entity hurting someone. So yeah, for those of you who have seen both Exorcist and Paranormal Activity, are they extremely similar? Will it make me dizzy like Blair Witch Project did? I'm curious on watching it as I was with The Exorcist, but $12/ticket is x_x .
So yeah, just curious on some more opinions on those movies. Oh, and also I'm bored and The Office just finished, and I have nothing else to watch. :[
Janice Silva
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #17
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
When first reading this story, my father was the first person that came to mind. My father has this instinct where when he meets a person he can tell whether we should not know them or be friendly. I have only heard a couple of times where my father has told someone in are family not to speak a certain person because he has a bad feeling about that person. I remember when my mom came across this action he performed at a get together with their friends. My father met this man that seemed very nice-what my mother thinks about him- and decided right away they were leaving, very weird but true. In the story the author wrote "Why did he think it was fake? because when he first laid eyes on it, he said, he felt a wave of intuitive repulsion" (8). We do base a lot on very little information, an intuitive first response. But yet, it contradicts with the fact we should not base little information on a for sure truth, for instance, first impressions. Feelings and what are you see are different though. What we feel about someone is a gut reaction and our conscious talking; what we see, looking if we like the person or not. Both are different.
Christina Arredondo
English 103
C.C
Post: Not sure
In the poem Sunflower Sutra, by Allen Ginsberg, is amazing. He is very descriptive and uses a lot of personification, metaphor, and imagery. It is about two individuals who are sitting down viewing the sunset. They come across a dead sunflower where the author begings to describe it a human being. The first thing that a reader can notice is that the scenery is so lifeless, sad, and full of sorrow. The tone is smooth and peaceful yet, as the reading progresses it becomes very intense. In my opinion, the sunflower symbolizes his life and/or any other human being. Also, that all the negativity on the flower are the problems/issues. Overall, I believe the meaning of this story is about inner beauty. How one basically forgets about one's soul and it becomes death of the innerself due to the outer destruction. However, it is never too late to come into a realization and restore that inner beauty.
Tess Elizondo
English 100
CC
Post 16
Statue That Did Not Look Right
Reading this story took me back to the time where I was there with the class last semester. I tried visualizing this statue in my mind, but so many popped in my head. What I found so interesting is that some of the visualizers glanced at the statue and new right away that it was fake. How could they have this ability? In my opinion when I went to museums I always thought all the statues and paintings were fake. Im sure the Getty was very disappointed in all that time they spent running test on the statue. I was shocked on the price... 10 million dollars!! I wish I had that kind of money to spend.
Sarika Vaswani
English 103
CC
Post# idk
Sandra,
I am pretty much in the same boat. I am still toying around with ideas for this paper. I am leaning towards something more to do with the impact of the media, because we all know how it plays such a big role in today's day n' age. As the media manipulates society, it takes its toll on us as individuals. The first thing I thought about was how it affects women specifically and how it portrays this perfect idea of how we all should be.. as in our whole image, how we should be/act/look (image & appearance). I also want to tie into sex, love, and romance. But the thing is, males are also a victim and problem at the same time to this media stereotyping. Also, it relates to male dominating female. I guess I don't know how to really narrow it down, because there IS a lot worth mentioning, and they all intertwine with one another.
Sunflower Sutra
The language of this piece is quite intense, to say the least. It was a bit difficult to understand with all the colorful personifications, similes and imagery, but what I got out of it is that inner beauty is what truly matters. Two men are sitting watching a sunset and they see a dead sunflower. The tone transitions from dark and murky to alive and excited, like a discovery has been made. I believe the sunflower is to represent a human being. The sunflower is surrounded by pollution and darkness causing it to suffer, the same way humans are faced with harsh obstacles and issues that are "dark" causing us to suffer as well. This can kill one's inner soul/spirit if one allows that to happen. It is never too late rekindle that light we all have inside us.
This actually reminds me of a quote my friend had once given me (not a Harry Potter fanatic though) - "Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light." :)
Oh, sleepness nights.. =l
Edilu Medina
English 100
Cerritos
Post: ESME & YESSICA
Hi ex front neighborino and neighborino. I was reading your post and I'm with you I always thought in some way people never change.
Reading your story Yessica wow! It reminds me of one of my favorite movies "hes just not that into you" (I hope you seen it so I can refer to it) but you were your bf's exception (which is adorable you should have filmed it lol ).
I just seen so many relationships that the guy NEVER changes, even when the girl has dumped him the guy proposes a new change and goes back to the way he is. I had a friend the same as yours she was dating this JERK, was EXTREMELY possessive, any who he broke up with her, he tried getting back with her but she said no and moved on. Its been 6 years and he IS still the SAME with a different girl. Its hard to tell because every person is different and sometimes they carry that characteristic; such as being possessive but it can contradict like Yessica said its true it is up to the own persons desire to change
Moral of the story : I'm positive your friend can do WAY better, their is good guys out there just taken lol
As far as people changing I'm still iffy about it I need to see more exceptions lol.
Priscilla Daza
Cerritos College
English 100
post #21
its finally happened
i just want to say...out of the few times mister hsiao has called me out in class i have never been embarressed as i was on monday...the entire thing came out of left field...mister hsiao's loading up his computer right all of the sudden this guy says "im sorry priscilla" and i was like wtf? it cant be from the halloween party hes talking about...right before i cn finsih my thought BAM! there it was...a group picture of my friends and i in our rugrats costume...man...i am now looking down and just nodding my head in shame...
Belinda Reed
English 100
Cerritos College
The Statue That did Not Look right by Malocm Gladwell
Wow! When asked to post on a story that has been assigned for homework, Whats to say. I'm not an crittic on these kinds of writtings I did however enjoy it very much. I like reading period. I once was given some china vases that I thought were authentic china vases from china. But they were not. So I sat them out by the trash to be carried off by anyone who wanted them. They were indeed beautiful. But I had no place for them where I'm currently living. I was once asked what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said that maybe I wanted to be an Archaeologist. I enjoy doing yard work and that is the extent of getting my hands dirty that I care to go.
Andy Tran
English 100
Cerritos
Post #24
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
The story by Malcom Gladwell was written to show how our human minds react to certain problems and situations. As the story goes, it talks about the story of a rare statue known as a kourous being attained by the J. Paul Getty Museum. At the time, the Getty Museum was still a fairly new museum making a name for itself. What better way to be known by being able to get your hands on all the most rarest and finest artifacts? In the Getty Museum's case, the kourous offered by Becchina, was supposedly authentic. While some specialists found it to be authentic, others have found it to be an absolute knock off. The point is that the kourous was thought to be real because the human mind wanted it to be real. The Getty Museum wanted it to be real to gain some recognition as a big name museum but was unlucky with this kourous.
Arcelia Swarr
English 100
Cerritos
Post: catch up #1
Though I have dealt with labels all throughout my past, there will always be new labels to live up to in my future. In a few years from now, I will be an elementary school teacher. I know once I have completed all of my education, I will have to prove myself as a competent teacher. I will have the challenge of making myself stand out from every other teacher instead of blending in. I believe in learning being something fun not just something one has to do. I believe that the earliest years of a child’s education can change their life so drastically, and it can be sent in either a positive or a negative direction. I do not want to become just another elementary school teacher. I want to be known as that one teacher who can connect learning with fun and still achieve all that is required of the students. I want to be the type of teacher who can inspire all my students to be the best they can possibly be. I want to encourage them to push themselves for the personal satisfaction that comes from conquering a task set out before them. I will not have any formal experience as a teacher, though I will have years as a volunteer religious education teacher for my church as well as all my time as a student teacher. I will not be as young as those who will go straight from high school into college. I will have to work hard to distinguish myself from a sea of teacher candidates. One of the greatest challenges I will be faced with is showcasing my unique style of teaching in a way that will be understood, accepted, and still easy to relate to. I do not want to be looked at as a “wild card” teacher. I do not want parents to be afraid of having their child in my classroom. I want parents to feel confident in having their children in my class from the moment they walk their child into my classroom on the first day.
Arcelia Swarr
English 100
Cerritos
Post: Catch up #1 (cont.)
As Giorgio Agamben states in Homonyms, “every term refers by definition to every and any member of its extension, and can, furthermore, refer to itself, one can say that all (or almost all) words can be presented as classes that, according to the formulation of the paradox, both are and are not members themselves.”(5) which, to me, means that anyone can choose how they want to be labeled. I may be looking for a position as an elementary school teacher, but I will not let myself be limited by the label of elementary school teacher. I want to stand out from the crowd in a positive way, for that is the only way I can see to achieve all of the goals I have set for myself. I will not just blend in with the crowd of potential teachers. I will not drown in a sea of educators just going through the motions day by day. I want my students to get the most out of their 9 months with me. I want them to get more than just 9 months of an education; I want them to realize their potential and work toward achieving their goals. I want my students to have a new level of confidence, understanding, and appreciation for themselves and what they can achieve as individuals.
Arcelia Swarr
English 100
CC
Post # Catch up #2
I really like Sunflower Sutra, though I can't pinpoint exactly why. I did have to read it a couple times, and from what I understand, this poem talks about life in general. It uses something as simple and as a sunflower and an abandoned train yard. To me, the way he talks about the sunflower it feels like he is comparing the sunflower to humans. The sunflower through the course of the poem, forgets what it truly is and forgets about its beauty, just like we get so caught up in life that we forget who we truly are. Everyone gets so caught up in what they are doing or going to do day to day that we forget that we have something special within that makes us who we are. In one part of the poem, it says, "Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O my soul, I loved you then!"(8). In my opinion this shows how the writer is comparing himself to the sunflower. Through the day to day life, his soul has been worn down. A soul that once was a man's most prized possession has become a tattered object, a remnant of what used to be.
Maria Ascencio
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #18
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
Malcom Gladwell shows how our minds react to certain problems. The fact that the people from the Getty Museum were satified with the results they got after studying the "sixth century BC" kouros and getting results that it was preatty ancient, they decided to leave it as is. Although people argued that there was something wrong with it, others thought it was fine. When we have sufficient information and proof about anything, we tend to believe that what we see or what we know is right. For all we know though, all the evidence we received can be false and we believe it is true. The people at the Getty wanted to believe that the kouros was actually ancient since at the time, it was first starting out.
Arcelia Swarr
English 100
CC
Post# current homework
Ok, now I think I am back on track, somewhat. I read The Statue That Did Not Look Right, and I got a few things out of it. The main point of this story is that not everything is as it seems. Sometimes things can be presented as something that they are not, and an objects true meaning and importnace get lost. The second thing I got from this story was from the last couple paragraphs where it talks about the minds different reasoning capabilitis. When you're young, you tend to make decisions that are not always the right decisions. You may not know at the time whether a decision is right or wrong, that is something that comes with age and experience. Everyone has probably made a decision in their life that they write off as a "mistake of youth" or a very uneducated decision. For me, that decision was getting married. Though I would not change the 3 wonderful things I got from that time in my life, there are times when I wish I had not jumped into a marriage so quickly. If I did not have my kids, I would definitely want to go back and do things differently, but those are things I have learned through time and experience. The last thing I got from the story was that sometimes initial instincts are not right. There are times when they can be, but initial instincts can also b influenced by other emotions and thoughts.
Ray Ray J.
English 103
Cerritos
Post -x
Sunflower Sutra
This piece is jamp packed with imagery. Such scenes i can not even begin to describe since they paint such vivid pictures in the mind.
Furthermore, I would just have to point out the brilliant way he orders his words as to emphasize a point.
That said, i believe that the message this poem conveys is that inside of us is a soul and no matter what it is composed of it is still what makes us the 'sunflower'. Furthermore, this soul is what binds everyone together.
Shepherd, Samantha
English 103
CC
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
I liked this story because it pertains to psychology which is something that I'm extremely interested in. To be able to say that someone's unconscience was able to say more truth about the statue than what a lot of the scientists at the Getty had to say is quite remarkable. I also think that it has to do with a lot of the misconceptions that we have about everyday life and people. I think that it can definitely relate to the apathy that many people endure during this age and the whole "I'm fine" (which doesn't really mean "fine") phenomenon. Nothing is ever really what it seems and sometimes things aren't as great as they seem to be. I know I have found myself at both ends of that spectrum. There have definitely been times where I have told others that I was alright and smiled through the sadness and others have done it to me. However, that is a part of life and we only open up to certain people. I think though that we should just be more aware of the clues that our intuition likes to share with us and deal with them in a logical/safe way so that we don't run into any problems like those at the Getty did.
Romero, George
English 103
CC
Post#....
Mahabhrarata: Bhagavadgita
Even though i may not comprehend the whole story i still cannot help but really enjoy it. from what i got i guess one can safely say that what the man speaking to the prince is saying is to seperate one from all worldly desires to focus becomeing one with ones own soul. to choose the path of indifference rather than "picking a side". in choosing the princes path the man would describe what was also dark and evil. following the god that has been layed before him without listening or following the blind corrupt souls. i also kinda got the vibe that he was trying to get the prince to a certain point where he was almost a god, but would still fall under one for knowledge and wisdom. over all i really like the words used to describe what was right and waht was dark and wrong, so i really enjoyed the tale.
Samantha Navarro
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #who knows!
Mahabharata: Bhagavadgita
Hindu poem
It seems that this conversation that takes places between Arjuna and Krishna talks about the right way to live according to Hinduism, and how one's bodily desires may hinder one's ability to live a fulfilling life. This teaching of Hinduism is in correlation of Buddhism and what we read by The Dalai Lama; not letting our desire for matter things (for one) get in the way in our spiritual journey. Abstaining from actions that may harm us and others spiritually is almost like if one lives and does right, then the concience, as we tend to call it, is clear.
Jonathan Aguilar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #26
Sunflower Sutra
I did not get the entire story or poem the first time i read it. But as i read it again and again i think i got most of it. I think this story was about still being ones self. No matter how tough times get we do not have to change. We do not have fall into peer pressure or conform to what everyone wants. Just because surroundings are tough does not mean we lose who we are. We are beautiful by just being us. And that is what the sunflower represented. It represented the truth of itself.
Sarai Vazquez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post i really have no idea
Sunflower Sutra
I really liked this piece because it related it to your life. Like it says "Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O my soul, I loved you then!"(8). It talks about how life can put you down and yougo through so many things but you pick yourself up. No matter what you have done or what has happened to you, you should still love yourself and not beat yourself down! In the whole poem I felt that the way he talked about the sunflower was how we sees himself and people around him. All through the poem he compares the sunflower to humans in how the sunflower puts its head down when something bad happens to it or something does not go the way that they planned. That is the same way humans are. We beat ourselves up at the smallest things and let them ruin things for us, but it is those things that help us grow as a person and helps us become who we are destined to be
Michelle Pachas
English 103
Cerritos College
The Statue that did not look right by Malcom Gladwell
I never really put into perspective what intuition is. All I know is that I tend to ignore mine most of the time. I then analyze everything only to come up with the same conclusion. The Getty villa’s purchase of a kouros sculpture is a prime example of how many times a person’s gut-feeling maybe the right one. Although science can be very clarifying evidence to an event such as validating the originality of an ancient artwork, sometimes believing your instincts can help determine the same thing. After the sculpture was examined by, x-rays, high resolution microscopes, microphobe, etc… The Getty had believed it to be a true kouros. Despite so much evidence, many skilled archeologists questioned its authenticity. Perhaps it was the immense amount of work in the field that caused this uncertainty, or maybe it was purely intuition. I believe that both play a hug role in this “adaptive conscious” Gladwell writes about. Based on our knowledge and past experiences each of us have created a subconscious cloud of information that we unknowingly make presumptions with. “…but mostly it is because the Getty desperately wanted the statue to be real” (6) Because not everything goes the way we would like it to, we tend to question the feelings we have towards something in hopes of finding the answer we want to hear.
cathrina afusia
cerritos college
english 100
Sunflower Sutra
This reading was beautiful. My boyfriend use to work for Union Pacific Railroad, and I have seen my share of train yards with locomotives. Those yards are nothing pretty, and they smell terrible! I honestly could not imagine a sunflower wanting to grow in such a place! On the other hand, I believe I understood the poem. As humans we are tricked by society to believe that we are expected to look a certain way in order to be considered “beautiful”. We can become our biggest competition. I feel no matter what flaws or imperfections you feel you have on the outside, this should never make you feel any less than what you are. We are all dealt different hands in life, and some are more fortunate than others. We can not let someone else decide what type of life we have in our futures. If you need to work harder to shine, then by all means do it. We then had a discussion in class, and one of our classmates (I forgot his name sorry!) mentioned the sunflower being nature itself. He also described us as a society being the grime that covered the sunflower. That was a perfect analysis, and could not have been any truer. We already see it all over the news about water shortages, and pollution. Majority of society does not do its part.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
Cc
Post#36 I think
It seems that Jack Kerouac and the unknown girl both share the same thoughts of their soul. There are on a banana dock with not much to look at around them but a destroyed area. They were hung-over and feel like bums for some odd reason which maybe they drown in the alcohol to rid of certain pain memories their feel inside of themselves. One of them begins to explain how the sunflower looks and what it was representing to them, for they share the same thoughts so I think, and talks about how a man once was powerful until the machines took the labor of men. Ancient sawdust is what I felt he was trying to compare in with and give in or symbolized something to him. In Sunflower Sutra by Allen Ginsberg, he states, “Unholy battered old thing you were, my sunflower O my soul, I loved you then!” (8). Not sure but it seems as if the person was in pain and compared her pain to the sunflower which was an unholy battered old thing. She also states that her very soul is the same which I think she loved how her old soul used to be. The girl in the story also uttered about the poor dead flower? She speaks about how the flower forgot to be a flower. Maybe she said that because she is taking about her self. Like how did I go wrong in my life or maybe how did I forget to be myself.In the end she said that we are all beautiful golden sunflowers inside regardless of the outside image we attain and blessed by our own accomplishments.
Janelle Rodriguez
English 100
Cerritos College
post #????
THE STATUE THAT DID NOT LOOK RIGHT
After reading this piece the first time all i can say was confusing. i had no idea what it was talking about all i knew that it was talking about a statue that did not look right...hint the title. after class how no one even wrote about it only one person. i kind of got the feeling that this story was gonna be hard and no one could actually tell the meaning of the story. after discussing it in class i came to say that i feel that this story means how we can look at something right away and know right off the bat that it is fake. we have an instinct to know when something does not look right.
Michael Swisher
English 100
Cerritos College
Post#35
Sunflower Sutra
I enjoyed this “poem” to an extent, but I am not accustomed to that style of writing. The use of non-rhyming 2-3 (somewhat) theme was slightly arrhythmic to me. I did like the use of the Sunflower as the virgin nature of all that surrounds us, the locomotive as the driving force of industry, but I did not like the switch to vulgar terminology as if it were substantial emphasis to the point. The sunflower, being all of the beautiful summation of wonders we have passed by with our machinery, and our “work”, was illustrated quite nicely using metaphor and symbolism in a non-obvious way. The use of the term “sutra” (a doctrine of Hindu) was a unique and appealing addition to the sense of the literature. Hindu is a practice of peace, simplicity, and does not emphasize economical or industrial growth whatsoever. To use that terminology in a piece that is telling of how humanity chooses to ignore, and trample the very power of peace surrounding us, was a refreshing to this reader. I personally have written about this issue before, and I often find myself ignoring the basic rules of balance, and will litter and trample from time to time. Being dedicated to the preservation of the world as she remains is a difficult proposition, but it is a truth that should not be ignored.
Brenda Flores
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #?
Sunflower Sutra
So this story was a little easier for me to understand the second time around with Andy's help. The first time I was kind of lost and wasn't clear on the topic. I think I get it now. I was mostly confused with the guys talking in the begining. This story/poem is about a guy who see the sunflower through a dark time and see the beauty it brings. He focuses on that instead of the misery of everything else around him. It's like the silver lining in the rain. There is always a good side to evrything. The world may bring out bad things but there always good things to make up for it.
Ibeth Rodriguez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #27
Sunflower Sutra
When we discussed what the conflict of the story was I became confuses. I thought the poem was how in life we all go through many different things and that sometimes during those dark occasions our soul becomes gray and dead, but soon realize that life goes on and we should keep going. But when discussing the poem in class the conflict of the story was how technology is becoming more important to our society than the beauty of nature. Yes the story talks about how technology killed the flower and how technology revolves all around us that we do not appreciate the beauty of nature. I thought this poem focused more on how we should not let certain times in our lives to change the beauty of our soul. We are all born with a pure soul and throughout time our soul becomes dark and gray because of everything around us. So we should not let all the negative things around us affect our soul. After all we are all born with a pure soul and that is the way it should be, so basically regardless of all the negative things that go around us we should stay strong just like the sunflower did. Even though the sunflower was around all the technological objects that killed its beauty, it still kept standing high and representing its beauty.
Dalene Kolb
English 110
Golden West College
Post #45
Just thought I would share with people about Paranormal Activity. Horrible movie! It was not scary at all, it was very slow, and it looked fake anyways. But hey that is just my opinion. Just thought I would share though.
Second part of Mid-Term tomorrow...then Owl City! Can't wait!
~Dalene
Jenny Guzman
English 100
Cerritos College
Post HW
The Statute that Did Not Look Right By Malcom Gladwell
This story to me is about how people get swindle. We get swindle every day, what makes the Getty different. I have been reading some of the post about boyfriends and how girl (including me) feel the guy are great, yet they treat the girl like crap. There is always a friend that sees through the all the Bull and know that guy/ person is bad news. Just like in the story one of the curators notice there was something wrong with the Kouros, and felt a wave of “intuitive repulsion.” He is so used to see precious artifacts, so when a fake comes along he knows something wrong. I am person that read people, I can tell when a when someone has bad indentions towards one of my friends. Like the curators I also get a wave of intuitive repulsion. Of course I did not get like this overnight. I have experienced everything first hand.
The moral of the story, people get deceived all the time, but thankfully they have people to help them and make sure everything is ok.
Jessica Vasquez
English 100
CC
Post #: ???
The Statue That Did Not Look Right by Malcom Gladwell
After reading this story, I was amazed to see how far someone would go when believing something that they clearly knew was not true. Like how the beauty of the statue mesmerized the buyers in the museum and since they wanted to grow, they refused to believe it was a fake. Only seeing the outside and ignoring to see even the littlest of things. I was not surprised to see that the art experts right away spotted the fake, since art is their passion so their intelligence in art and experience clearly proved it was a fake. This story in a way reminded me of AOTC, on how it talks about we only see what we want to see, like the cave that keeps us away from reality. In this case we can say the buyers cave was the beauty of the statue and the desire to make his museum grow. That kept him away from seeing what the statue really was (a fake). And like the prisoners, he was let out from his cave once art experts convinced him it was a fake. [I'm probably just talking gibberish again.. lol..]
Priscilla Daza
Cerritos College
English 100
post #22
sunflower sutra
at the beginnging there are two people that seem to be morose around the frigid location that they are in...mentioning locomotives and rusty poles etc...they're by this river that describes it to be empty of fish and hermits yet filled with ugliness like oil...all of the sudden her companion speaks...bringning attention to this lone sunflower...immediately she is drawn to the sunflower reminding her of what i guess to be her past life...recalling the sandwich place and the carriages or what not...now im guessing the sunflower is mirror of her...poisoned with sin if i may like the sunflower is poisoned with smoke and smog...the seeds that fell off can represent her crying...ultimatly i think that the girl is drawn to the sunflower because it reminds her of herself
Brittany Williams
English 110
GWC
Post #37
Dalene - I like Owl City! Where are you going to see them?
Jean Carlo Morales
English 100
Cerritos College
Post 16
Sunflower Sutra
As I was reading this story I couldn't help but to picture a sunflower growing from it's seed to a full grown sunflower in fast motion. The sunflower remains attatched to the floor. Deep in the ground are it's roots and no matter how it's surrounding change the sunflower does not change. It sort of reminded me of how sometimes we forget about our roots because of impact society has on us. Some of us forget who we truly are and do not ever noticed how we go with the flow, whether by the media or friends. The sunflower remained its beautiful self even whens surrounded by an ugly enviroment.
Edilu Medina
English 100
Cerritos
Post #30?
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
After reading this story, we encounter or can reflect on how our practice for what we known for so long, can be applied as a true statement. Gianfranco approached the J.Paul Getty with a statue who stated to be authentic as they took upon his word was correct. On part 2 "Decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.(5)"
It is not about being right or wrong it is your knowledge of how well you know something and can make a decision based upon your own will..
Martha Vazquez
English 100
CC
Post 24
The Statue That Did Not Look Right
Selling a forged statue to a museum, seems close to impossible. They have experts examine the work, they have high-powered microscopes to detect any inconsistencies, and they spend months looking for any sign of the piece being a fake. How did a man, not only accomplish this? The more important question: how did nobdy catch this?
In 1983, a kouros (which is an extreme rarity) in relatively good shape, was presented to the Getty museum. The asking price was just under 10 million. They had it examined for 14 months by experts in geology. Those experts were convinced that this kouros was the real deal. So the statue was bought and put on display.
Many people began noticing that something seemed wrong with the statue. They couldn't pinpoint it, but they had a hunch that it was not right. It was taken to Greece, where others felt the same way: a hunch about the wrongness of this statue.
They began a more thorough investigation about the origins of this statue. It was becoming clear, they had been duped. The people whoi with one glance could tell that this kouros was a forgery were right. How could experts study a statue for 14 months not catch a thing, but people who looked at it for a few seconds were able to sense something was wrong?
When we make snap decisions like that it is called the adaptive unconscious. We process so many things in a matter of seconds, and sometimes that is what keeps us alive. That sort of thinking is what made these people react negatively to the forged statue. It was almost an instant dislike. We are taught that this is wrong, but it is being proven that our snap judgments can be right on target.
The experts from the Getty missed clues about this statue because thier judgement was clouded. They wanted so bad to be an established museum, and this kouros seemed to be thier ticket there. We can learn to educate this adaptive unconscious. If things are looked at with little emotion and with logic, we will be able to make better judgments. The instant reaction is right a lot of the time, we just have to be willing to listen to it.
Edilu Medina
English 100
Cerritos
Post# ARRGHHH! PART 2
TRAFFIC AGAIN ITS LIKE I HAVE TO LEAVE MY HOUSE AT 5 AM TO BE HERE AT 8!THEY CLOSED VENICE BLVD AND I WAS STUCK IN IT FROM 8-840 I WAS SO LATE! I called my manager and she understood. I dislike being late. Its my pet peeve! Any who I just thought I let my emotion out ok wussa* now back to work!Wish everyone a good day!
Oh by the way I cant wait to do poems!! I loveeeee poems, I have to admit I got teary eyed with the peanut butter to jelly poem lol It was beautiful, passionate, just genius.. well that's my thought for the day..
Esmeralda orozco
english 100
CC
post ???
OMG TODAY IMA GO SEE THAT "SCARY MOVIE" I HOPE ITS ATS BAD AS PPL ARE SAYIN IF NOT IMA BE SO BUMBED OUT
WELL HOPE U GUYS HAVE A GREAT DAY TODAY OH AND DID U GUYS KNO COCAINE IS REALLY BAD FOR U LOL LIKE ITS EXPENSIVE LIKE $500 FOR HAVE A PINKI WOW HUH WELL THATS WAT I LEARNED TODAY I DIDNT THINK IT WAS SO MUCH
esmeralda orozco
english100
cc
post??
LULU & JESS
ITS TRU SOME PPL DO CHANGE BUT MANY DO NOT I WAS THINKING MY EX WOULD MISS ME AND WANT TO WORK THINGS OUT ONCE I (ME!!!!!!) LEFT HIM BUT NO!!!! HE THOUGHT THINGS WERE BETTER AND ALTHOUGGH I DID TO IT HURT ME BEACUSE I WANTED HIM TO MISS ME I WANTED HIM TO KNO HE WAS NOTHIN WITH OUT ME AND I KNO IT MIGHT SOUND A LOT TO ASK FOR BUT I GAVE HIM EVERYTHING HE WAS MY FIRST LOVE( ALTHOUGH I HAVE HAD MANY BF) HE WAS THE ONE WHO I FIRST SAID I LOVE U AND CALL BABE AND STUFF I WANTED HIM TO LOVE ME AS MUCH AS I LOVED HIM I HAD CHANGED SO MUCH WITH HIM AND HE COULD NOT CHANGE FOR ME AND THAT WAS ONE OF OUR BIGEST FIGHTS HE WANTED ME TO DO THIS NOT SAY THAT BLAH BLAH BLAH BUT WHEN I ASKED HIM SOMETHING HE IGNORED ME AND RATHER NOT TALK ABOUT IT
TILL THIS DAY (WELL WE USE TO TALK UNTIL TUE) HE STILL HAD A HUGE PART OF MY HEART I STILL LOVE HIM SINCE WE WERE TOGETHER FOR 1YEAR AND SIX MONTHS BUT I KNO WE ARE BETTER OF APART MY PAST WAS SOMETHING HE WOULD ALWAYS THROW N MY FACE JESS I KNO HOW IT IS TO BE CURSED AT MY THE ONE U LOVE ITS A PAIN THAT HAS NO WORDS NOT EVEN MY MOTHER WOULD MAKE ME CRY LIKE HE MADE ME CRY
BUT IN THE END I WOULD NOT CHANGE ANYTHING HE REALLY MADE ME SEE THINGS IN A DIFFERENT LIGHT AND I THANK HIM FOR THAT ALTHOUGH WE HAVE HAD OUR TROUBLES I KNO HE WILL BE THERE FOR ME CUZ HE A GOOD GUY AT HEART HE JUST ALWAYS WANTS HIM WAY AND THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT I COULD NOT TAKE ANYMORE
LOL WELL I HAD WROTE THE QUESTION ABOUT MY FRIENDS BIPOLAR FRIEND AND SOME HOW BEGAIN TO TALK ABOUT ME LOL WELL THATS LOVE FOLKS IT BITES U IN THE A%$!!!!
Jessica Vasquez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #: ??
blogspot a place to vent.. lol..
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Good morning Fellow Classmates!
I must of had two espresso shots in my dreams, I'm on a coffee high this morning (and I haven't even drank coffee yet!) Wow!
Any who, part of my high this morning is realizing how slowly things are falling into place. Which gives me a little hope and reminds me, god did not forget about me! (man, I feel like crying, of happiness of course) See, these last couple of months have really been a struggle for us. Business was really slow & our search for our own home turned into a downward spiral. Now, recently everything is slowly getting back on track, business is picking up (for both of us) and since George just graduated from Cal State LA an amazing job opportunity just came up (were crossing our fingers on this one). And finally, we found out we can qualify after all to buy a home (more like condo lol). Since were both self-employed it is soo hard for us to get a loan, but now were looking at things from a different point of view now. Hopefully everything turns out for the best, were keeping our fingers crossed and our faith up high <3
On another note, I'm still working on my AIDS Walk reflection. It's turned out to be a little longer than what I expected. Oh & also, High point of my day yesterday being told by a friend - I am not dumb & not letting anyone make you feel or telling you your dumb, because in the long run that negativity will only lower your self-esteem. I deeply & truly THANK YOU for those words, because honestly I have been dealing with this for a wile. I was getting to a point were I felt dumb & low because of all of the negativity coming my way, So that little talk made me feel a whole lot different & better about my self. I honestly don’t know why certain individuals take it upon them-self’s to make you feel low. Could it be because they them-self’s feel low and the only way to feel better is by putting someone down?!?!?
-[ Wow! Talk about venting & TMI.. lol.. ]-
Any who, Power & Positive Vibes to everyone!!
Hope you all have a fun and great weekend... [I'm hoping Mr. Sun will come out on Sat & Sun We're thinking about taking the Jet skies out to the beach one last time before the cold hits us.. Anyone wants to join us?!?!]
What I’m mostly looking forward to is taking my nephews (there not MY nephews, but George's, But I love them as if they were mine) & my little sisters to the pumpkin patch!! Carving pumpkins should be fun & messy!! Man, I love October!
*Anyone with little kids interested in the pumpkin patch, there’s a great one in Long Beach called Pa's Pumpkin Patch!!
Well, see you all in class on Monday!
Taa taa!!
Alonso Llamas
Cerritos College
English 103
What is Poverty
After reading this story more than once, it still gets to me. Everytime I read it, it shows me the reality that has long been forgotten in our society. People complain on a regular basis on how bad their day, or thier life, has been. However one does not think about others and the situations they are going through. Jo Goodwin Parker uses excelent illustrations of how bad some people have their lifes. Yet, she does not want any of us to feel pitty for her; on the contrary, she wants us to treat her the same and even be angry her. she shows how hard it is to live in this type of poverty. This is the type of poverty that is an ongoing problem in our society, but it is always sadly overlooked. She fully demonstrates how hard it is to come out of their decreapet state, and it is not as easy as many of us would like to think. Since the poor are always silent she wants to let everyone know exactly how bad other peoples situations are. In the end of the article she states, "Can you be silent too?" Here is where Parkers call to action comes in, and the reason for this whole article. As she had previously stated that the poor are always silent, it is not mby choice that they are silent but by force. The poor have no means out outreach and the one they do have do not do enough. She is asking not for pitty from the people, but just to inspire and give a thought of the outter world. She would like to make her voice heard, and maybe someone out there would be able to pick up this cause and do something for all the people living in poverty.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
CC
Post#37
Random Post
So my coach made everyone do this grappling touranment this week on Sunday.....Now I find myself cutting weight which is tough......well good luck to myself........hopefully everyone is having to good weekend.....I will be back later.....
Stephanie Farano
GWC
English 110
post ?
Trapped in a Cave of Ignorance
Surrounding yourself with amazing people and the company of friends and family is a great treasure but can also overshadow your true sense of being. In Allegory of the Cave by Plato, the significance of light and dark plays a role in the acceptance of one’s ignorance in life. The cave acts as a dark uneducated place, where the shadows shield us from the light of knowledge. Within that cave there is a sense of security and familiarity, it is often this comfort that can stop you from venturing out. All entrapment in the cave is in most cases self-inflicted, and is only escaped when an individual makes the decision to do so. It is not until a person is aware of their ignorance, that they can conquer their fear of the unknown. Until recently, I had a hard time pin pointing my cave of choice, but after much thought and enlightenment, found that one of my biggest gifts is also a fault. For as long as I can remember, I have been addicted to the comfort of another individual by my side. It is the extended reassurance that I crave. Growing up as an only child I have never lacked confidence or support from family members, but in this attachment, I created a crutch for dependence. I needed someone to constantly reassure me of my actions. As vain as it may sound, everyone needs a form of encouragement. I just depended on it. In the statement, “here they have been since their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move,” (1) Plato explains the restraints of the cave and the exact position that one hopes to escape from. The feeling of being bound and trapped can compare to the restraints of the cave. In my case I was naive, and unaware that I was holding myself back. The desperate dependence I had on others hindered my ability to solely strive on my own. Trapped in a cave of social dependencies, I was unable to see my own weaknesses, as well as strive to accomplish my own personal goals. When one is able to remove themselves from their own cave of choice, they are able to step back and look at the big picture of life. It was not until my unique experience abroad that I realized how out of touch I was with myself. Moving to Chile was an intense change of location that showed to be a great personal challenge. Every aspect of my life changed, from the foods that I ate, to the friends I had, to where I lived, down to the shampoo I used. These were all large adjustments that are hard to handle. In the short nine months I struggled with the scary reality of solitude, and my desperate dependence on others. After returning home the realization of my own ambitions became apparent. Determined to succeed I took all of my lessons to move forward in my new state of independence.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
CC
Post#38
Random Post part 2
Ok so I am cutting weight and I need 7 more pounds left....I weight in 2morrow morning at 8am.....I am at work so I will finish this later.......was just bored.....peace
Stephanie Farano
GWC
English 110
Post #?
That Statue That Did Not Look Right
I found this piece very interesting, and quickly related it to a story that I saw on Oprah. I know this is random, but it was a story about intuition. There was a girl who was living by herself in a one bedroom apartment. Completely confident with her surrounding for the first couple of months living alone, she suddenly felt an overwhelming sense invasion. After mentioning it to friends, they began telling her she was crazy. Knowing that something was not right, she began leaving lights on before work. When she came home the lights would be turned off. Feeling that this was enough proof that she was not imagining these events, she set up cameras. The next day after she returned from work, she watched the videos. What she found was soooo disturbing. A 40ish year old man was sneaking into her house and trying on her clothes/ lingerie. It was all her intuition and she was right!!! We are the only animals on the plant, who ignore our intuition and walk right into danger. This story is very much like the statue at the Getty. Even with months of testing and analyzing, they were still ignoring there first instincts. The specialist were actually convincing themselves, that they wrong. When we don't want to go with our guts, we tend to try and convince ourselves otherwise. The Getty did not rush to by the piece probably for the same reason, they were not automatically sure that it was real. The girl in the story first ignored her intuition and then after testing it found out that she was right....lesson to all go with your gut feeling.
Jon Croft
English 110
Golden West College
Post #25
Bhagavadgita
First off, as a wild guess, this may have been translated by a historian from ages past, or a modern day scholar absolutely obsessed with Old English.
Maybe.
I have no idea what the Salmon of the Mount is, but if it has something to do with the bible being told in a manner akin to this poem, it would make plenty of sense to reference it. Bhagavadgita, in brief, is the values and qualities that practitioners of Hinduism aspire to fulfill. That is to say, those who hold true to the ascetic teachings of Hinduism deny themselves worldly pleasures and temper their desires for the material.
This is referenced numerous times throughout the poem itself, most notably on the third page of the printout. The entire page
is dedicated to pointing out to the good little Hindu boy or girl that they must be completely disjoint from worldly actions, and free themselves of the desire for personal gain. Only through their rigorous self-denial will they obtain that "enlightenment", so to speak, that is so cherished by ascetics of Hinduism.
Archie Kaaua
Professor Hsiao
English 110
Golden West College
23 October 2009
Post27
The Statue That Did Not Look Right by Malcolm Gladwell
The story is a bout a statue that was bought for 10 million dollars that turned out to be a fake. The underlying main idea is that we have an “intuitive repulsion” that warns us of something that will bring us misfortune. This inner mechanism is said to be like a fight or flight decision tool. It is said that we all possess this gift and that it is somehow more reliable than deep concentration and valid research. The author illustrates that this statue in question was researched for 14 months before it was ultimately purchased. It was documented by experts who were lacking in their field and the buyer had fallen prey to the appeal to authority fallacy. I do not know about these people. If it were me, I would ask for an unconditional guarantee of authenticity if I were spending 10 million dollars of my money or anyone else’s. The story goes on to tell us that all of the evidence that went with the statue was also falsified with intent to deceive. The main idea suggests that we should rely on our “intuitive repulsion” to save us in these times of indecision. I could not help but wonder if this gambler’s fallacy would prove to be profitable at an Indian casino. Maybe I should look into this further. Although this time most of the experts from where the statue was supposed to have come from disagreed intuitively, it is still a good idea do one’s own homework. I guess if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Cathrina Afusia
Cerritos College
English 100
I remember this reading, and it was just as sad from the first time I read it. I commend her for starting off by not asking for pity. She clearly is just stating facts, and wants her reader to be more aware of the conditions that are going on in today’s society. This reading really made me want to cry. I felt as if she was never given a break. She states “It is the smell of the milk which has gone sour because the refrigerator long has not worked, and it cost money to get fixed. It is the smell of rotting garbage. I could bury it, but where is the shovel? Shovels cost money.” (p3) I just felt like one problem lead to another for her. The word “problem” to me is a huge understatement now that I think about it. When she described her baby’s flesh coming off with the diaper, oh my god, I could not grasp such a tragedy. I also could not believe her husband left her with three babies to raise. I know they were doing badly, but I think he made the situation tougher on the kids. It could have been a little easier to overcome their downfall with two adults. A call to action needs to be made in this society. She described how her mother pulled her out of school in hopes to bring in more income. She then described how she sees her children following a similar path like her own. It falls into a chain reaction. This reading really makes you grateful for the simple things in life. I have a full sewing kit in my closet, but will still take my clothes to the cleaners to get a button put on. Something so simple and I take it for granted. I believe if everyone just did a little more, we could start to rectify the issue of homelessness.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
CC
Post#39
Random Post part three
Ugh so sleepy and tired...I ended up waking up today around six in the morning to run and jump rope for a while for I still needed to cut one more pound and my weightin that are at eight in the moring today which is one hour from now......that would be the moment of truth lol.....I cant believe that I cut down from 168 pounds to 155 pounds in two an a half days for my grappling tournament this sunday......It was not easy....I had to stop eatting thursday at three pm....then I did not drink or eat all day friday.....and today I found myself workingout the last pound.....How I will perform on the day of the tournament? Only God knows thats......but I should be ok for I got some Pedialyte which quikly replaces my fluids and electrolytes.....because at this moment I feel dehydrated.....after weighins I will drink my Pedialyte and eat like a fat guy and attain my energy back........well peace out....goodmorning to all........
Jon Croft
English 110
Golden West College
Post #26
Essay #1 Revision: Introduction
Wrongfully Accused
A long long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, my good friends in Slayer once said, “In the depths of a mind insane, fantasy and reality are the same” (Slayer, “Dead Skin Mask”. 1990). The song doth speaketh the truth. To those who have traversed the deep end of the mind and returned unsound, what they think is happening and what truly is are so convoluted that they consider them one in the same. These unrealities are not solely delusions or hallucinations, but also incorrect notions about how to properly name an object. Due to those select few, who are incapable of even imagining a knot being tied in their heads, untruths about objects that need true truths are spread. The skewed viewpoints they have (due to their psychosis, stupidity, or both) cause them to annotate what they encounter without fully understanding what they are seeing. More specifically, people assign properties to objects that are not fully associated with them. In Homonyms, by Giorgio Agamben, he raises similar concerns in regards to the classification of objects and the issues that arise from doing so. If one improperly assigns a property to a phenomena, by the nature of synonyms and homonyms, that classification extends throughout that phenomena. The relations extending from said phenomena are then contaminated through their unifying aspect, whatever that may be. Not that the contamination is by nature good or evil, but nonetheless permeates throughout the possible extensions of said phenomena. He repeatedly repeats this warning using different language all throughout the text. He is always warning about (or citing) instances of classifications being placed upon objects that result in a butchering of the true nature of the phenomena. People, and the labels assigned to them, are no different. People can indiscriminately assign other people to certain classes, and these classes may not be the whole truth. Some people, due to either their haste or their inability to see reality, assign labels and notations to individuals that are both permanent and unwarranted. These labels are carried by said person as veritable luggage on their journey through the world of life. Each new group said person encounters will see those tags, and automatically associate said person with the respective classes. This be why humans would be better off discarding the notions of classes, or do their best to be able to easily transition from one group to another. If they do be attempting this, those labels will hold no truth, and thus be invalid. Once those labels are removed, being judgmental of others becomes moot, and champagne and fish eggs rain from the skies. My own issues with erroneous labels came to a head in high school, what with being called a jock (much to my dismay) by a sinister group of fiends. My troubles did not cease there, and now my hair is the rallying point for those who seek a label for me. If the future turns out as disastrous as I imagine it, the act of labeling others will be the least of our worries.
Andrew Murphy
CC
Eng103
Post #19
What is Poverty?
How can the land of freedom, where dreams come true, there be people starving, homeless, in need of help with noone there to oblige them? It is sad to know how close we are to one of the poorest ares in the nation, Skid Row, and it hasn't had much tending to by our leaders.
The last line in this where Jo Goodwin Parker calls the reader to action being saying "Look at us... the poor are silent..." really stuck out at me.
How many of you see homeless people with friends and make jokes about them? of their pain?
Now when by yourself face to face with an impoverished person tend to look away when they make eye contact with you?
They are humans as you and I, but why do we treat them as something completely different?
Many of people in need are in dire need of assitance with medical/psychological problems. With a health care reform many would be able to get help. However, the people we elect continue the vicious cycle that stuck most of them in poverty in the first place by holding off on health care while they make money from health provider lobbyists. This in turn keeps our free capitalist nation thriving on each end, whether being good and bad. I'm reffering to the rich getting richer (<1% pop.) while the poor get poorer (about 20%). It is truly heartbreaking to know that the few rich people out there in our nation capitalize on the poor. I guess our free enterprise economy is to blame. But the poverty need a voice as Parker said. Without an address that means they are not allowed to vote in city elections being as they are not a part of any given city. To get an apartment they need a job. But wait, you need to apply an address to your application for a job. So how is it possible to overcome poverty? Almost impossible.
Maria Ascencio
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #18
What is Povery
To begin with, Parker asks one to not pity her, that it will do her no good. She has been used to people pitying her, but yet do nothing about he situation. It's sad having to go from a life where she had what she needed, to hardly having anything to survive. As she tells the story, every paragraph begins with what poverty is.
Poverty is: getting up every morning from a dirt-and illness-stained matress.
being tired.
dirt.
Staying up all night on cold nights to watch the fire knowing one spark on the newspaper covering the walls means your child dies in flames.
asking for help.
remembering.
looking into a black future.
an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away.
The couple parts that stood out to me were when she mentions leaving her children with "Granny" when she had a job, and came to find that the baby was covred in fly specks and had the same diaper since she left. When she tried taking off the dried diaper, some of the baby's flesh came off with it.
When we see poor people, we think that they might have chosen to go into poverty themselves. What we dont know is what they go through or how much they suffer. Parker was lucky enough to even have an apartment. Most of the people we wee are on the street. We see them sleeping in places they can get shelter in.
Zachary Duke
Eng 103
CC
Post ???
What is Poverty
This is a very touching story. I love reading it. It is about a girl that lives in a bad part of town and doesn't have enough money to survive by. she tells us pretty much step by step how she lives.She is trying to make a good life for her family and doesn't think she will.
Adrian Moreira
Cerritos College
English 100
Post #25
What is Poverty - Jo Goodwin Parker
This might be one of the saddest and most powerful reads I have read in a long while. The way Parker describes poverty is shockingly poetic. Parker's descriptions of how she has survived years of poverty are downright unjust yet inspiring. She writes, "Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away" (12). Parker uses such great and vivid metaphors.
I am sure that a lot of us have had our fair share of bad service at government facilities like the DMV or the Unemployment Office (for those of us who are part of the 12%). Now take that bad experience and multiply it by 100 and you get what Parker went through or goes through in paragraph 6. She describes to us how flawed the "system" is.
We are all very fortunate to be where we are now.
Veronica Vasquez
English 103
Cerritos College
Post #29
What is Poverty?
Jo Goodwin Parker
This story also shares a lot of extreme imagery, and unravels the cause of this person's poverty as the story progresses.
It starts off with describing the author's surroundings, including their soiled mattress, and insect-infested children. It is heart-breaking to hear all the things this person does not have, which are necessities, not luxuries, even though they see it as luxuries. She mentions at one point that -she- broke off her marriage, and I believe it was because she could not bring anymore children into the horrid world she was living in.
It was sad to know she could already imagine her children being in either jail, succumb to the ecstasy of drugs/alcohol, or wind up just like herself.
The descriptions of warm water, vaccinations, vitamin supplements, and soap being luxuries reminds me of the stories my own mother use to tell me when she lived in Mexico. Education wasn't promoted much back in her days, and she had to work since the age of 6 doing hard labor. Her parents had rich relatives, but even they wouldn't give much but food on holidays. Although the author in "What is Poverty?" said the only thing they did not suffer from was hunger, my mom would tell me of weeks where she'd only have a couple meals. Obviously the circumstances of both my mother's story and Jo Parker are completely different, I see how they both see these important necessities as "luxuries". Very sad story altogether, and makes me angry at the same time.
Tess Elizondo
English 100
CC
Post 17
What Is Povery?
While reading this story, it hurt me just to imagine this persons life. I could never imagine my life as this person has lived theirs. The life that this woman has lived is imbareble. This woman is right. Money is staying alive. This woman comes from experience. This mother quit her job to watch over her children, but now who would take care of her and her children. This woman and her children have been without soap, fuel, electricity, and hot water. These are things that every one takes advantage of everyday. After listening to her story I am so greatful to have a roof over my head. I am so greatful to have a toothbrush and toothpaste. I am going crazy because I do not have health insurance, but that is nothing compared to this lady.
Edilu Medina
English 100
Cerritos
Post #32
What is Poverty? By Jo Goodwin Parker
This story is very heartbreaking, it reminds me when I used to work at Taco Bell. There was this older lady who used to come in with the same clothing and always had an odor as she would come up to the counter. I treated her equally as other customers, but sometimes she would be rude. She would mention she was angry at the world for putting her where she was at. I never quite understood her as my co workers would label her as the "crazy homeless lady." Reading this story traced me back to her (the lady from Taco Bell) Like Jo Parker says "Poverty is living a smell that never leaves. This is a smell of urine, sour milk, and spoiling food sometimes joined with the strong smelled of long-cooked onions. Onions are cheap." She states how even a scent implies the status of living that she is in. Indicating Onion that is bought at the grocery store for a very "cheap" price calls who she is. In reality she had so much going on raising 3 kids on a 78 dollar budget a month. Its admirable, how she did it and how other people have done so. We just don't know their stories and how they got there such as Jo or the lady from taco bell.
Celina Rivera
English 100
Cerritos College
Post# 58
This weekend has been a good one. The only thing that was wrong was that the Dodgers lost. That sucks!!!!
Then USC played yesterday and they WON. The Cowboys played and guess what?, they won tooo.
Then there is Fantasy Football, I am not to good at. My time is 3-3 right now. I would love it if I won this game.
Taking a break from typing a paper about Jackie Robinson. I think that so far it sounds good, but I will have someone proof read it before I turn it in. I am still going to do a power point.
I still need to study for my psychology test.
Back to reality...I will take a break after that is all done to post on the story.
Arcelia Swarr
English 100
Cerritos
Post #no clue
This has been a weekend! It hasn't been bad, but it's been a weekend! On Friday night I found out that apparently my sister's pregnant. I'm not totally shocked, and it's not quite a bad thing either, I think.... I'm just not sure how I feel about it! My sister has been with her boyfriend for about 3 years now, and they do live together, and they both have jobs, but they have had their share of dramas, mostly self created, and it has all played out for all the family to see. Because of their past, not many in my family actually truly like the guy. I hope that my sister having a baby will help her mature a little more, and hopefully motivate her to get her learn to drive and get her driver's license, I mean, she is 22 now! Finding out my sister is pregnant is news that is still settling in, but the biggest thing on my mind is my dad and step mom. My step mom says they are looking at possibly legally separating, or even divorce. This has created a lot of tension and stress within the house, and it is effecting everyone. My step mom is moodier than ever before as is my dad. I hope that whatever they decide in the end, that they don't turn it into a big fight. They adopted 2 little girls about 3 years ago and those girls do not need to go through what I went through when my parents divorced. Anyways, the future is looking like anything goes! Who knows what the future holds! All I truly know is that in December my 3 kids and I will FINALLY be moving out of my dad's house and into an apartment where we will be living with my fiance, and I cannot wait!! I am so excited! My fiance, Jeremy, won't be home for good at that point, not until April, but he will be here to spend the holidays with the kids and I, and I am so looking forward to that!! So much to look forward to, it helps to have school, homework and 3 kids to keep me busy, and positively distracted!! Bring it on!!!
Monique Gutierrez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #57
Margarita's & Reggae
I just had me a strawberry margarita and I feel great. I wish I can feel this way all the time! I am listening to that song "Walk Away From Love," by Bitty Mclean. Has anyone ever heard of that song? It is a pretty good song. This weekend went by so fast. I did not do anything exciting but work. Oh joy, oh bliss. I find it hard to smile at customers, especially when they're being jerks. I am still sleeping with the night light on after seeing Paranormal Activity last Tuesday. And even though it was scary, I'd see it again! I love the thrill of horror movies. It excites me. I can't wait to go to the horse ranch. From the looks of the photos, it looks wonderful.
Macey Lindsay-Clinton
English 110
Golden West College
Post #16-ish
I think I will go out on a whim and post on the longest and certainly most complicated of the readings. If I am completely wrong.. don't judge! Here we go...
Mahabharata: Bhagavadgita
As a major religious document for the Hindu religion, the poem talks mainly on the qualities and practices of a good, average, and bad person. The First part, Religion by Separation of Matter and Spirit, says that knowledge is extremely important because knowledge is what gives God his power. As well, it gives a brief list of the qualities a good person should have. Lastly, the first part says that trying to gain knowledge gives you wisdom; wisdom is also an important thing to attain throughout life. The second and more heavy of the two sections, Religion by Deliverance and Renunciation, more clearly maps out an compares the qualities of good, average, and bad people. In paragraph six, the "fruit of labours" is compared, and it is found to be desirable, undesirable, or a mix of both. Paragraph nine describes "true" knowledge, "imperfect" knowledge, and false knowledge. Paragraph ten describes "right" action, "vain" action, and "dark" action. Paragraph eleven describes a "rightful" doer, "impassioned" doer, and an "evil" doer. The poem goes on to describe good, marred, and evil intellect, and good, painful, and foul or dark pleasure. All of these comparisons come together to outline the perfect, alright, and bad person. As a religious document it is seen as a guideline for Hindu worshipers to follow. Human perfection is the goal of all religions and thus it is no different from the bible or the koran. I think that it is very important for people to read such works because we can see how much everyones paths cross. No matter our differences in beliefs, the human race can generally agree that people should be good. Though sin is looked at differently in every religion and none can agree upon the punishments for sin, there is still a general understanding of what is right and wrong.
Monique Gutierrez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #58
What is Poverty? By Jo Goodwin Parker
What do you do when you pass a poor person on the street? A kind person would feel sorry for him/her and give them their loose change or whatever they could spare. A non-caring person will just keep walking and ignore them. What I noticed from this writing is that Parker was full of pride. She did not want to ask for help. “Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away,” (Parker 12). Living in distress can leave you feeling worthless and you will lose hope for the future. Jo had to beg for help for the sake of her family. She was left alone with her children and had no one to turn to. In the beginning of her story she clearly states that she does not want pity from anyone. Jo just wants her voice to be heard and make it known that there are poor people out there who are not asking for help. These people may not be asking for help, but they sure need it. Poverty is not something one can ignore. We see it everyday. Parker wants us to see things through her perspective. To take a walk in her shoes, instead of jumping to conclusions. Asking for help was hard for Parker. I can relate to this experience. I am a very stubborn girl. When I need help, I neglect asking for it because I feel better when I find things on own. But, sometimes it is okay to ask for help. In Parker’s case, this was her time. It is sad that she was left abandoned with her children. Her husband seemed like a real coward. He gave up too easily. Living in Poverty can lead to thinking negatively. Parker thought the worst regarding the futures of her children. She then emerges from her despair to make it known that there are people in this world who are not willing to ask for help. Poverty is all over the world and we too can lend a helping hand.
Celina Rivera
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #59
Lets see divorce is something that is a difficult subject. I think that there really are parents that should not be together. When my parents got divorced I could say I was happy.I was so tired of all the yelling and the the promises that were not kept. I think it was time for them to both go their separate ways. There is and was still a lot of bad talking between my parents,but I just learn to ignore it. The way I feel is obviously there was a reason why they loved one another at one point in time. I think that love and feeling was lost because of many issues. Some people ask me if I wish my parent were still together. I can honestly say no, I do not. I know that if they would have stayed together they would be hurting themselves, my brother and I. The one thing I want is my mother to find a boyfriend that could possibly lead to a husband. I want her to still be able to grow old with someone. I also wish that she can one day find a companion for life. My dad has a girl friend and she makes him happy. I still love my parents.
Jaime Valadez
English 100
Cerritos College
Post#21
What is poverty? By Jo Goodwin Parker
This story is written by a person who is suffering of poverty. She talks about how life is being poor and how hard is has been for her. at one time she was married had everything we have. As time went on she had her third child and her husband lost his job. This is what she believes caused her marriage to fall apart and her husband to leave. She talks about how we might things for granted but in reality everything costs money. i believe we live in a society that cares more about money or material things than the poor or needy. After reading the entire story the point she is trying to make is as she states in the end "the poor are always silent. Can you be silent too". So if you do not have anything good to say do not say anything at all because you do not know what that person has gone through.
Ana Cervantes
English 100
Cerritos College
Post3???
What is Poverty - Jo Goodwin Parker
Hmmm i dont know how to start, if i should say i enjoy reading this story or not??. I say this beacuse it feels horrible to read what this woman has gone through. That sometimes us humans that have not gone through that kind of situation take things for granted and don't value more the things we have. How we think that sometimes when little problems come our way, one feels that the world is unfair. But we should stop to think and thank that we have food, are healthy, and have people that actually care for us. Going back to the story I like the type of diction that is being used. What i mean by this is that the wording is in the level of a lot of readers, is clear, which makes the message sink in more to the readers. The use of an anophora is being used which makes it more emitional because of that repetion. I loved the ending those last lines are breath taking. Beacuse is calling out to the reader to take action, knowing that after reading this the reader's first emotion would be anger, is just perfect.
Sarika Vaswani
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# idk
What is Poverty? by Jo Goodwin Parker
I totally remember reading this piece last semester. It is so direct and simple to understand, yet its message is so strong and it speaks volumes. Jo Goodwin Parker tells us her story in depth graphic detail. Living in poverty as a single mom who had to care for three child was a battle like none other. Everything from exhaustion, sickness, disease, money to food, not being able to afford soap, lack of hot water, and electricity was what she and her children struggled with almost every moment of their lives. Simply asking for help was not an easy task for her. At some point in her life, she did lead a normal life with a husband and had money to spend. One thing led to another and their lives fell apart.. not by choice, it just happened. She had the courage to let her husband go because she knew she did not want him to live the life she was headed for. Living in poverty gave her a "black future" and she had predicted how her children's lives would play out. Parker had helped herself and her family as much as she could, but there was only so much she could do. However, there was a lot others could do to help her and those in the same situation. However, getting this type of help is a mission. With her words, Parker wants to give a voice to the poor. The truth is, poverty is everywhere around us but if we personally are not suffering from it, the majority of us tend to ignore it. She wrote this piece in hopes of getting us to do otherwise... to bring awareness and understanding of all those who live in poverty.. to make us angry enough not to be silent anymore.coodis
Celina Rivera
English 100
Cerritos College
Post #60
What is Poverty?
Jo Goodwin Parker
When I read this I was amazed by all the hardships that the mother went to keep her family alive. I could not fathom living a life like that. I would not want my children to go through those horrible conditions daily. All the mother could strive for was for her kids to live on. Goodwin say, "you don't have to prove your poverty" (p13) I could not imagine explaining my story of what my conditions are daily. When you explain it over and to different people it makes you lose a sense of pride. You go and talk to the government to help you and all the care about is that you are not at the right window. It is like going to a court and you explain your situation to one person and they send you to the next window. The way it makes you feel is like there is never any hope. Everyone needs a sense a hope because with out the can not continue in life. This mother would wash her children's clothes any way possible even though she was hurting herself. The living conditions of hygiene his horrible for them. I wonder when is it enough? when the government can actually help people without anything in return? I wonder when the government is believe that the family is in poverty without having to fill out a multitude of paper work.
Janice Silva
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# 18?
What is Poverty? by Jo Goodwin Parker
I cannot say i understand poverty because i do not. I have been given whatever i need, clothes, food(specific kinds), toys, and as i got older different variations of new electronics. At times i was very spoiled because we had the money, and even though there is 7 of us with a father that works constantly with a good paying job, there was money to burn. When i became a certain age i noticed that the money was not as easy to come by as it used to be; there were siblings in college and the others were in different activities at school, and i was one of those. Spending money was harder to come by, but it was still there. When I read this story i thought how horrible it must be to live in those conditions, to have nothing, and when something of use came in contact it was not in good condition. Yes we sit here and think "oh how unfortunate, we should do something to help?", we might have the good "intentions" but do we have the actions to go along with it? There are little things we can do to help, it does not have to be massive or to be publicized for everyone to see, it could be anything. Anything from donating money to charity, helping out at a shelter, giving things we do not use anymore to be at use for another in need for it, just something to help. Just reading this story gives me an image that i do not want to be in, but unfortunately for others this story is reality. "The poor are always silent. Can you be silent too?" (14). Indeed there are silent, but we should do something, anything for their voice to be heard.
Beatrice Fisher
English 110
GWC
Post 15?
Homonyms Paragraph Revision
I am in disbelief. Can it actually be? All that I have believed to be true is not. My dad is not right. I sit on a grassy hill in La Jolla; I am nineteen and journaling. I have just decided to trade my eye shadow and nail polish for some Carmex and dreads. I am in love and it is with another girl. Before this year, I have lived a sheltered life. I have lived a naïve life. I was ignorant to what the world held and hesitant to search it through for myself. I was satisfied with the truths my parents had found about it. They were older, wiser, and had searched for themselves. They taught me their findings, and I believed them. That is until now. This morning I woke up with an apprehensive absoluteness. I decided that today I would tell my parents about Lovisa. I have been hiding our relationship from them for months. Lovisa is Swedish, and moved to America to study abroad. She went home for the summer and is returning back to California tonight. Since we are moving in together, I knew it was time to tell my parents about her. This was not going to be easy. I know how my dad feels about “gay” people. I have been raised in a strict “Christian” home. My dad is a pastor at his church and he has been attending there since I was a newborn. Church is the place where I learned about the love of Jesus and the peace of God. It is also the place where I learned that there was such a label as gay people, that girls who has sex before marriage were bad and promiscuous, and that drug addicts were usually losers. Keeping this in mind, I decided to tell my mom first. My parents divorced when I was three. My mom was the more open-minded of the two. As I thought, she took it easily. Over a cup of coffee, she looked at me, smiled, and reassured me that all she wanted was for me to be happy. She hugged me like she had when I was a child. I left my mom’s smiling a sweet relief. It did not last long. Next, I went to tell my dad. Not knowing where to begin and after much small talk, I took one last deep breath and told him I had something important to tell him. He immediately asked if I was pregnant. I wished badly that I could say yes that would have been far easier than what I was about to tell him. “No dad, I’m not pregnant. I like a girl.” There was a deafening silence. His stare hardened. I could not resist looking away. “So, you’re gay?” he asked. “Well, no. I’m me. I just like a girl. I’m not saying I only like girls. I just like her.” At that point, he asked if I was bisexual. It was so irritating. “What difference does it make, dad?” I did not understand why it was necessary for him to label for me. In Giorgio Agamben’s Homoynms, he writes, “The concept ‘horse’ is not a concept…if we try to grasp a concept as such, it is fatally transformed into an object, and the price we pay is no longer being able to distinguish it from the conceived thing” (8). By labeling me gay, my dad placed me into the gay group. He no longer saw me as his sweet daughter. He looked at me with a blank stare. All he could see was a homosexual. I now belonged to a group that signified confusion. But for the first time in my life, I felt free. I was not confused about my feelings. I was myself, a young free-spirited woman who was not afraid to explore what the world had to offer. If there was something I did not understand it was why in one moment my dads’ thoughts of me were transformed. It was in that moment, sitting on that grassy hill with the smell of the sea nearby, that I realized my dad did not know everything. Though my love for Lovisa felt no different than the love I had felt for my previous boyfriend, it classified me as homosexual. By labeling me gay I was placed in a class that my dad could not see outside of. Just as Agamben described, I was being fatally transformed into an object, one that for my dad, represented confusion, sin, and hell.
Beatrice Fisher
English 110
GWC
Random Post
I had the very best weekend. My husband and I celebrated our one year anniversary yesterday! We actually celebrated the entire weekend, but yesterday I had finally got to reveal my big surprise gift for him. This had been in the planning since July when I bought plan tickets to Oakland and game tickets to see the Raiders play the Jets. Yes, I know what all you football fans are thinking...the Raiders??? My husband, Josh, is the hugest Raiders fan. They have been "his" team since he was a kid. I think it has something to do with those great childhood memories, a bit of nostalgia. Anyway, we thought it would be fun and creative to follow the traditional anniversary gifts. Year one is paper or clocks. So my options were either a watch or somethings paper...tickets! I suggested that we celebrate on Saturday instead of Sunday because Sunday is church and I like to do groceries and get ready for the week on Sunday. He agreed so he planned out Saturday for us. It was great by the way, but I won't go into that.
This whole time he had kept asking where his gift was. I told him a friend of mine was storing it for me. Sunday morning came. I told him it would be nice to go out to breakfast before church so that I had an excuse to wake him up early. He got up and was super tired. He was taking forever in the bathroom and here I was thinking oh gosh, we have to leave the house by eight to be at the airport on time. Finally he got out and though there are many more details, I will get to the reveal. We prayed together, then shared our cards. Reading them had us both in tears. :) Then I brought over a big box and told him he couldn't lift it but to just open it. He opened it and inside I had rolled tons of paper into scrolls and taped them shut. He looked at me strange. I told him that his gift was in one of the scrolls and that he had to find it. He began. This was the best part. One by one, he opened the scrolls and threw it down. We both laughed hysterically. "How will I know?" he asked. I told him to just keep looking and that he would know. Meanwhile, I'm thinking he needed to find it quick because we were behind time and our airport ride was already outside waiting for us. And then came the moment...he opened the paper up, looked at me, burst into tears, jumped up and down with both arms raised, and yelled..."WOOO...THE RAIDERS!!!!" It was awesome. I then told him to hurry up and put his jersey on because we needed to leave in the next 5 minutes. He looked at me again, tears rolling down his face, and said, "what, we are going to a game today?" "YES," I said, "go put your jersey on. We need to go now." He burst out in tears again.
All day he thanked me. The Raiders lost by the way, 38-0, but it was the best day ever for both of us. Seeing his reaction was the greatest gift of all.
Belinda Reed
English 100
Cerritos College
What is Poverty
This reminds me a little bit of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. A sad story nevertheless. It makes all of us stop and think about how truly blessed we are. In stead of looking at what we do not have. Be thankful for we do have. People who live in this manner, do so out of ignorance, thay are afraid if they reach out for some help that they will be frownded upon. This is what all of the out-reach programs through various churces are all about. There is help for them. They have got reach out for it. Above all learn to trust someone.
Brian Jimenez
English 100
CC
Post#40
What is Poverty? by Jo Goodwin Parker
How bad is it to live in poverty? Dirty, smelly, and she did not have proper underwear and a stench of rotting teeth around everyone (1). It is crazy to what she compares her everyday life to foods. For example the smell of urine, sour milk and spoiled food mixed with cooked onions. Each food represented how the living conditions were in her home. She had chronic anemia from poor diet which she must have never really ate. She had three children which added more problems to the mix. The baby was under the care of the granny which had negative outcomes. “When the dried diaper came off, bits of my baby’s flesh came with it (3). Not just her life was bad but her children as well. I think she is trying to say that the poor are silent but those others should not. After reading this story it made me thinking about how the little things in life are taken for granted. For instance, light, good housing, hot water, etc. nevertheless there are people always complain about what they do not have but compared to the woman in the story we have everything. Luxuries she what she called it and not nice cars, big houses but hot water, health, and light which are needs and not wants. Poverty is a consistent battle to live and fight through countless struggles in life. Poverty is asking for help. Poverty is always being careful. Poverty is always sleepy and tired. Poverty is remembering how they treated you because of your smell and look. Poverty is looking into a black future and she does not even mention everything about hope. Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away. How awful a life but seems like she has a lot of wisdom. Many pains that do not stop and continue throughout her life and she talks about in the end of the story that she is not from another place or another time. I feel she said this because people view her differently like not being alive and making her feels like less of a human being. For example, people never talk to bums in the streets nor say hi or make them feel like them exist. So how can you feel human if the same human being do not treat you like one but treat you like you were never alive?
Christina Arredondo
English 103
Cerritos College
Post:?
Umm,is today's special event still happening?
Arcelia Swarr
English 100
CC
Post #homework
Reading Jo Goodwin Parker's story What Is Poverty reminded me of the first time I read it last semester, and how it made me think about life. Sometimes I complain about the fact that I have to sleep on an uncomfortable futon in my dad's living room and that my kids are left with little space of their own, but after reading this story, I am even more appreciative of what I do have. I can at least say I have a roof over my head, food to eat, healthcare, and that my kids are well taken care of all around. As a mother I cannot imagine living the way Parker does. I cannot imagine watching my kids be constantly sick and knowing that I can do nothing to help them. As a mother, reading this story was hard. I would not want my kids to go without even the most basic needs, the basic necessities I take for granted. I do not have a lot of money myself, and I do receive a lot of help from those around me as well as from local programs, but when I see someone who truly has nothing I feel like I should be able to do something to help them, and most of the time I cannot. I wish I could reach out to those who have less than I do and help them, in any way, but I do not have the means to do so. I am grateful for all that I do have in my life, and though I do tend to forget how furtunate I am, I always try to remember others have it worse than I do, and life is really not that bad.
Freddy Villalobos
Cerritos College
English 103
post #20??(lost count!)
"what is poverty?" by Jo Goodwin Parker
As well as parkercan describe it, it is hell on earth. poverty is trying to survivve in a world were money is the center of the world. with out money,you my friend is screw. with out it there is no food, water (which is suppose 2 be free), rent, poor housing and eqipment, fuel for fire and other house hold nessecity. it also means to depride one self in pride and honour if it cannot meat the demands of others. with three childern, no husband and hardlyu any money to buy medication, the life spam in that person drops dramaticaly. in either case poverty is the ruin of this country. if we support we free housing and medication, tjhe country caouild prosper more as a group instead if an individual,corruption is another key factor in this. sonce we human beings want everythin, we need money to obtain those materealistic objects. and so we hesitate when it involve money if it cost them to loose. the woman in this story has no name, but even so she has her pride and little by little that pride is withering away by people not listening to her, and it cost money to support her.
Freddy Villalobos
Cerritos College
English 103
post #20??(lost count!)
"what is poverty?" by Jo Goodwin Parker
As well as parkercan describe it, it is hell on earth. poverty is trying to survivve in a world were money is the center of the world. with out money,you my friend is screw. with out it there is no food, water (which is suppose 2 be free), rent, poor housing and eqipment, fuel for fire and other house hold nessecity. it also means to depride one self in pride and honour if it cannot meat the demands of others. with three childern, no husband and hardlyu any money to buy medication, the life spam in that person drops dramaticaly. in either case poverty is the ruin of this country. if we support we free housing and medication, tjhe country caouild prosper more as a group instead if an individual,corruption is another key factor in this. sonce we human beings want everythin, we need money to obtain those materealistic objects. and so we hesitate when it involve money if it cost them to loose. the woman in this story has no name, but even so she has her pride and little by little that pride is withering away by people not listening to her, and it cost money to support her.
Tien Tran
English 110
GWC
Post #20
Sunflower Sutra
I think, and I can possible be wrong, that one of the themes of this poem is the clash between modernity and nature’s holistic form. Allen Ginsberg poetically illustrates the pollution of the natural sunflower through the “locomotive” machinery. He ties this with present day 21st century and its evolutionary movement toward a more robotic, computerized, and machinerized form of communications and livelihood. As a society, we are more geared toward a technological form of anything and everything, while at the same time; we stray away from what is the purest and truest form, nature. We begin to neglect the natural form, and that can vary from recreational activities to communicating through a pen and paper. This new livelihood taints our natural self and distorts us to become someone dependent upon a life revolved around non-existent beings, or more so, “things”. It takes away the beauty that is natural and so pure in nature such as a sunflower. We begin to see, and only see, what is created by man and neglect what is created naturally by Mother Nature. Our vision is blurred by the technical clash between two existing worlds: technology and Mother Nature.
Samantha Navarro
English 103
Cerritos College
Post# idk..!!
What is Poverty?
Right now people all around us, including myself, have complained that we don't have enough because of the economy. We can't make the rent, or car payment, or pay for the cable. But reading this story has opened my eyes; as bad as I may think it is now, it can always get worse. No one "plans" to live in the situation that this writer was in, but it can happen to any of us. I can somewhat relate to the author, by not having enough for food or rent, but I have not experienced poverty to the extent that she has. Somehow we have pulled through, and we are still healthy and can afford little things like medicine and diapers. I now have a greater appreciation for what I do have, instead of complaints of what I can't afford.
Christina Arredondo
English 103
C.C
Post: ?
What is Poverty? by Jo Goodwin Parker is a very touching story. It is very descriptive and she puts all of her senses into this passage. It's very sad and depressing to read something like this. I love reading this story because it is a remembrance of how there are others in worse situations and we should not take our stuff nor our life for granted. It is very heartbreaking to see the conditions and and suffering that people go through. This passage gives the perfect concept of what poverty is. Nevertheless, she gives a visual of what her daily life routine is and the difficulties she faces step by step. She knows how to counter attack the questions that others might have. However, despite the fact that she is poor, she does not want people to feel pity for her nor other individuals that are in poverty. She wants to treated as a regular person. Nothing more and nothing less.
Brittany Williams
English 110
GWC
Post 38 (I think)
Ahhh... what a crazy week this has been! There are a lot of changes going on in my life at the moment. Prayer would be appreciated from anyone feels it appropriate to do so. Thanks guys!
Anyway, on to the assignment...
Sunflower Sutra
I was immediately drawn to this poem when I saw Jack Kerouac's name in the second paragraph. I am a fan of Kerouac's work and instantly noticed the similar writing style between Kerouac and Ginsberg. Both use such great imagery to portray the setting in which they are describing. In this particular poem, an old, industrialized junk yard is revealed through Ginsberg's grey imagery. In this industrialized yard in which he finds himself, he notices a Sunflower covered in grime and dust and wilting away within it’s surroundings. The Sunflower, a stark contrast of life and color to the dull environment in which Ginsberg portrays, is symbolic to the inner beauty that we all possess. With the outside influences dictating the flower’s current condition, Ginsberg asks, “Poor dead sunflower? When did you forget you were a flower?” (15). Similar to our own condition, we often allow the outside “grime” to interfere with our inner “sunflower.” Let us always remember that “we’re not our skin of grime, we’re not our dread bleak dusty imageless locomotive, we’re all beautiful golden sunflowers inside…” (18).
P.S. I loved this poem! I can't wait to go over it in class and listen to what everyone else thought about it!
janelle rodriguez
english 100
cerritos college
post #??
what is poverty??
well this story we read it last semester i had mr hsioa and i can say again woow. this story since last time i read it always grabs my attention. from the very beggin of the story i already understand every word that is being said. in this story i am understanding the fact that there are different types of being poor wether it is not having enough money to feed your children or if it is living on the street. there is more to being poor and i think that not alot of people take that time to cherish what they have. most of us just take for granted and laugh at those who are living on the street or we look at them with disgust andnot talk to them because we know that they are in a lower level than us. just because they are in a duifferent level does not mean that they deserve less respect than what we get.
Romero, George
English 103
Professor Hsiao
CC
Post #....
What is Poverty
A very tough story to read due to all the descriptive forms of sadness and hardship. This story is just soaked with troubles in which she is basically trapped in a hell hole that she can not escape. she has to deal with the fact that the phrase "every penny counts" literally plays a role in her already hard life. her children are the ones she worries for though since it seems they are doomed to reap what she has shown. although in all of this mess she still insists on not begging for others pity, because pity will not save her. it is the strength of of the individusls that will drive her to one day escaping this whole that robs her of almost everything that she holds dear.
Jonathan Aguilar
English 103
Cerritos College
Post#27
What is Poverty?
This was a very sad reading. It is a story about this woman who can't get herself out of this big black hole! And if it is not hard enough to live on $78 dollars a month; there are three children thrown into the equation. This story really touched to heart with me because i have family in Mexico who i thought lived pretty rough. They live on a hill with dirt roads that you can hardly drive on. Their house is made of stone and they hardly have any electricity. But comparing the two families show just how lucky my family in Mexico are. And then comparing both families situations to the way i live made me think how lucky i was. The luxury of having my own room and being able to go to school like everyone else. The simple fact of being able to bathe is luxury that the family in the story do not have. It sucks that people cannot help other people out. Some people struggle and not by choice. Other people have everything they need and more; and still dare to complain.
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