Food Inc

I went to the Hippodrome; Friday night to see Food Inc. I must say I walked out of the theater and down the steps with irritation. I was really irritated about a statement that was made about the feedlots cows are kept in. Food Inc. said that the cows were packed in a pen with mud and manure on them and that cows are not designed to eat corn. First, you have to know that my dad owns cattle. Because he has been to a feedlot I asked him if the statement was true. He showed me a picture of our cows in the feedlot. They were not packed together in one pen nor were they standing in mud. He then told me that the cows get washed off from dirt and manure before they are butchered. Cows are kept outside and yes pastures can get muddy from a hurricane, but it will dry up eventually. The second irritation I had was about feeding corn to the cows. Cracked corn is fed to our cattle, not whole corn for many reasonable reasons such as protein. While grass fed cattle have a fat color of yellow, cows who are fed corn have a fat color of white which is more appealing to costumers. If you are concerned with where your meat comes from, I believe you should ask the cattle owners they know more about it than anyone.

-Jenny

Breaking News: Extreme Reality

So while I was reading Extreme Reality, I started thinking about the news and what the new hot topic is right now and the first thing that came to mind was the Swine Flu epidemic. Personally I think the news is trying to scare the public. I don’t know. But maybe this flu is more contagious and extremely worse than the other flu’s that go around. I have never seen Santa Fe or UF put our Purell for the winter flu or those warning sign that are placed in front of the bathroom doors to describe the H1M1 virus; I find if horrible yet funny that on those signs list the symptoms then gradually gets worse and worse as you read, and finally the last sentence you read says, "Stay well." I don’t know why I find that funny; I think it just sounds so ironic to me.
One thing I’m glad to see is that now more and more people are covering their cough and or sneeze along with washing their hands with soap and warm water.

Stay well, fellow classmates! :)

-Sarah

Writer's block

The papers are coming pretty fast now after we've completed the narrative. Although that one seemed like a piece of cake when I started writing and getting it corrected at the writing lab I found that my paper was missing a lot of things such as the points that Kate typed on the assignment sheet. Did it challenge your beliefs or feelings about something? or Did you discover something about yourslef or others? So, now we are on comparion and contrast and I have NO IDEA what ad I am going to write about let alone get a minimum of 750 words out on paper. I am not saying that it is impossible BUT I do know that it is pretty hard for me to get started on papers because of how scary the word "essay" is :) but, if push comes to shove....she said we can rewrite one paper in the semmester....depending on how this turns out: THIS MAY BE THE ONE THAT I WILL HAVE TO RE-DO!!!!!!

Brittany

Rules, Rules, and More Rules

It is true that you can make your writings smoother using Transitions, Cordoning Conjunctions, and my personal favorite the Compound Complex sentence. A transition is “Therefore, however, moreover,...” and list keeps going. Coordinating Conjunctions also know as FANBOYS: “For, and, nor, but, yet, so.” These are great when you have a sentence, and you want to join it with another sentence. So in stead of putting a period, you can easily put a comma FANBOY. Now to my favorite! Compound Complex is when you start your sentence with a fragment. What starts a fragment? “When, since, because, if, while...” of course the list keeps going. So with a Compound Complex sentence you have a sentence that starts with a fragment you will need a comma somewhere before your Coordinating Conjunction (FANBOY). Once you have found where the comma goes, next add a Coordinating Conjunction comma, and then another sentence. Here is the formula this really helps me to see the pattern.

Fragment,(comma) sentence,(comma) coordinating conjunction sentence.

This may sound confusing but once you know the rules it can benefit your writing a lot!
-Sarah

Who is your audience?

Today I learned the importance of how you address to your audience, in which you are writing, really does matter. Even if I am posting something on facebook I still have my “friends” or what I like to call “people I’ve met” as my audience. This is crucial so that what you write does not offend anyone. I’ve had people tag me in notes before on Facebook and explain their incredibly dramatic breakup with their boy/girl friend. Sometimes I wonder if the person writing the note thinks about how he or she will feel in the future about this rash decision to post details about their private life all over the internet. What my friend posted not only affected me but also affected my friends and their friends and the chain never stops. The problem with the internet is that what you send through email cannot be removed or deleted by you. In a way it is permanent.
-Jenny

Compclass

I must say, I just got compclass the day we need to hand in the rough draft and I find it to be a very helpful for this class. There is a lot of work in this class and when you add the rest of your classes to the mix, it becomes a little difficult to keep up. Now that I have compclass I have a complete view of what is expected of me in the class and a overall look at were I stand academicly. There is really no excuse now to not have any work done or to even be lost since we can log in at any time in, any place. I really do believe that compclass will help us be on top of things and make this class a sweeter ride.



-Alejandro Perez

Narritave Peer Review

I have never really ever peer reviewed someone eles's work but i really enjoyed it. I usally never want someone eles to read what i write because i don't think i write that well but it actually wasn't that bad. The reason i chose a surfer as my picture is because the essay i reviewed was a about how someone had to overcome there fear of sharks and get in the ocean to surf. This was appealing to me because i grew up in cocoa beach and thats what we did for fun and i always remembered that first time i went out i was so scared but i finally made it and loved it ever since. I wish gainesville had a beach!!!

Narrative

Although compclass has many kinks that neeeds to be worked out I think that its pretty cool the options that are available to us. For example, the peer review option. My initial thought was that we were going to peer review the old fashioned way :) You know print the paper bring it in and make comments in the margins or whereever necessary. The feature is quite fascinating and although it has sequential numbers throughout, if you decided to add something else the numbers automatically changed so that the corrections will follow suit. I felt like a kid with a new toy lol. The information that my partner gave was helpful and allowed me to make some changes that I need to make and now I am on my way to a GREAT NARRATIVE ESSAY!!!!


Brittany Peterson

My Notes

I really enjoyed the experience of revising another student’s paper; I found it beautifully challenging and insightful. I kept in mind these main points that Kate gave us to read over. I believe that these points helped me the most while reading the essay. First, be empathetic second, be a mirror and finally, avoid judgmental reactions, and I believe that these points helped me to be more understanding and yet critical because I wanted to give him or her my best advice.

I also loved reading what my peer saw in my essay. I was glad to read that she could vividly imagine what I described in my paper on my fist day of working on my families ranch. When writing my paper, I hoped that the reader would be able to experience my feelings, smells, and thoughts as he or she reads. And based on my peer’s comments I believe that I accomplished my assignment on the Personal Narrative Essay. Also I enjoyed taking the time in describing my adventure and letting my peer experience it as well.
-Sarah Ramsey

Peer Review Draft

I’m glad I was able to have someone peer review my paper. The changes my reviewer suggested were right on target and I need to figure out how I can revise my paper. It was strange at first to analyze someone else’s writing, but it was kind of fun too. The thesis of my paper is, “if you can change something about yourself change it, if not change the way you feel about it.” I wrote about my personal experience with health care. Basically, my paper is about how and why I got braces plus 790 words. My reviewer noticed that within my paper I contradict myself. This is something I need to work on with writing and in my personal life. It was fun writing this essay, I enjoyed embellishing my plain old English sentences with analogies and I tried to flow my essay like the “The Modern Hunter-Gatherer” article.
-Jenny Ramsey

Chain Reaction of Destiny

As I was reading the article about the nike email conversation, I could'nt help seeing a chain reaction of events that led him to follow his destiny. I totally relate to this story because I believe that our destiny looks for us and is up to us to recognize it and follow it. For a long time I really didi'nt know what i wanted to study for a career in my life. It was so hard because I liked so many things and it seems like you can only choose one. I decided to go for architecture since it was very artistic and I really liked drawing and making lego cities since a little kid, but as I continued I felt as if this was not enough.One day flying from Puerto Rico back to the US, I get to sit next to this kid who had recently graduated from film school and happened to live near by. Very interested in my thinking he starts to ask me my point of view of his projects. As I gave him my points of view he was fascinated with my ideas and quickly offered me to join him on his next project.It has now been 8 projects that i have worked on with him and the experiences and connections i made during my work has really shaped the dirrection of my life today.Film is such a complete field that it involves almost all aspects of creativity to collaborate one with each other and I noticed that I felt empty with architecture because it was missing this element. It's funny how a conversation with a stranger started a chain of events that ultimately changed the dirrection in my life, kind of like that kid's life and a simple e-mail to nike.

Alejandro Perez

help!!!!!!!

OMG!!! Does anyone know what exactly we are pose to do for the homework? I know we are supposed to read the posts from last class but what are we required to turn in? Does ANYONE know what kinds of questions or comments she wants us to make. I am soooo LOST :(

The Couch Potato

Ever find yourself watching a TV commercial and you’re like haha... yea I get it. But the Commercial didn’t directly imply what you thought, you inferred the point that the commercial was trying to connect to you. Well, in paragraph 17 second to last sentence the so called "wink" technique is commonly geared towards today’s youth. The unpopular way to do ads now a days is when the view didn’t even have to think twice about what he or she saw.
Personally I find the “wink” technique a cleaver way to bring the viewer into what the merchant is trying to sell viewers in a way that they almost hypnotize the viewer so the viewer feels smart and desires to buy their product. This brings me to the science of it all. Here on this ABC show called the "Gruen Transfer" they study Advertisement all in all they also make fun of the commercials. But I think you will get the gist.

-Sarah Ramsey

Link: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/gruentransfer/latestshow.htm#hate

Nike

When reading the Nike article I thought to myself, When i was a child i needed the top brands in everything. My mom and i would go shopping and i was the most pickiest shopper, she would just pick out anything and i would have to get the very best. I remember have a few Nike clothes in my earlier years. Did i contribute to the sweatshops? But then again doesn't almost all producers make there apparel in foreign countries? So whats the difference in Nike? I have now grown out of that stage in life thinking i needed the coolest clothes to be the coolest. Now a wake up and whatever is clean and fits me, well that's what I'm wearing. -Ryan Adair

Fashionably Late

As I was reading the assignments for this week, I pondered the thought, “Does fashion really matter?” What a person chooses to wear does not give a stranger any preconceived notions. Or does it? I was reminded of my mother’s favorite movie “The Devil Wears Prada” In this chick flick Andy Sachs, the main character, applies for a job at Runway Magazine. In the beginning of the movie, she is getting dressed giving the main focus of the entire movie on clothes. During the first half of the movie Andy is often criticized for her lack of fashion sense. In the second part, she is transformed into a fashionista. As a result, she is welcomed at her job and gets promoted. I believe what I wear, or do not wear for that matter, silently states something about myself, and what I choose to wear will affect how others see me in the long run. As stated in the movie trailer, “It’s not just about what you wear, it’s about who you are.”

-Jenny Ramsey

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2600403737/

Brand Names

I dont ever recall having to "HAVE" the latest brand name clothing or shoes. When I was younger and attending grade school I did own a few pairs of Nike and K Swiss but as I got older I began to be interested in sandals and high heels. My closet is FULL of shoes of all colors. Of the 70 plus pairs of shoes that I do own I have approximately 4 pair of tennis shoes (including my work shoes) that are in boxes and occassionally worn. Now, when it comes to clothing I buy what is cute and inexpensive which comes out of girly stores such as: dots, rainbow, and simply fashion. I am a bargain shopper all the way around! Clothes, shoes, accessories, groceries (coupon clipper) and etc :)!!! So my clothes do have a brand name but they are not usually the well known brands such as: nike, hollister, puma, reebok, pastry, lot29, ed hardy and the list goes on.

So my point is the passage "A Brand by Another Name" was interesting and I do know people who do spend their money on brand name clothes either because they want to be like their friends, want to imitate the "star" who created the brand or because of the advertisment hype that the media and stores display. However, I am one of those types of people because I like being my own person buying what I want and dressing how I want and still having money left over :). The author also made a good point about Pokemon teaching children to buy things they don't even want: buying a whole package of cards for just a few out of the pack with the contents not being revealed. It makes me think of the packs of candy I buy but pick through the package all because I dont like some flavors that are in it. Moreover, I still buy the same candy. But the candy that does show whats inside I spend more minutes than needed to pick through and see if the colors that I like are dominant in one bag than the others :)

Brittany Peterson

sending the link

Hello guys its sunday and I am not sure if anyone has sent our blog link to Kate so I am going to send it now just so you know and if someone has already done it I guess we will just be dedicated to getting it done because as it says, "WE CAN DO IT" lol...they may have been lame but: O WELL :)

Meat Lover or Not?

From the article Modern-Hunter Gatherer by Michael Pollan in the section "making meat" paragraph number four this sentence stuck out a lot to me: "Then he reached in and pulled gently and the rest of the organs tumbled out onto the ground in a heap, up from which rose a stench so awful it made me gag." It made me cringe when I read the sentence above and at that moment it crossed my mind...."am I really a lover of meat?" I mean I know that I love a good steak, some spaghetti with ground chuck in it, sausage, bacon, bacon burgers and I can eat chicken everyday all day in every way :). But, why is it that when people bring to my attention the details of the torture of an animal, which eventually became my lunch or dinner, I begin to feel sick and visualize the scene in which the animal died so that I and many others can eat happily. I dont think that I can live on veggies for the rest of my life and I dont like the idea od eating "fake meat." So, shouldnt I be a PROUD MEAT EATER at all times even when I hear the disgusting details of how my lunch eventually became my lunch?

Brittany Peterson

Wake me up when September ends

Wake me up when September ends. That is the answer to my “what’s on your mind” question. Faceless on Facebook got me thinking about cyber profiles. I think it’s sad that you have the ability to remove tags of yourself in pictures and allow only certain photos of you to be published online. This is almost like disowning yourself. Not many cyber profiles are the true people they claim to be. The fact that half of my friends profile pictures are photoshopped could be considered a form of personal rejection. Throughout previous wall posts and photo comments I’ve learned that people are essentially lying. I’m not so sure that even half of the people who commented me on my birthday even cared, if they really did they would have said happy birthday to me before I had an online account. What does that tell you? It tells you that online social networking has not much to do with how people interact in the normal everyday life it is more about popularity.
-Jenny Ramsey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOmctLACYM

Game: Battlefield

A Walk in the Woods, paragraph 1, reminds me of when me and my friends would have a LAN party at their house most of which were guys and we would get together and play battlefield, and each of us had our own computer with mad graphics. And in the game you had a choice to either be a sniper or a machine gunner. All of us would sneak around in the games' foggy settings made that easy. One could be walking around trying to hide, but someone else always beat you to your destination. I would get into the game so much that I would scream whenever someone ran in-front of me, or my friends would come up behind me and over the speakers I could hear their footsteps getting closer and just as I turned around to see them they would shoot! And I would jump in my seat every time! I seriously felt as if I was there, walking around only I had endless lives.

-Sarah Ramsey