Working on my Goal: No Procrastination.

I cannot believe this is my last blog I will ever have to write for this class. I do not think I have ever been so excited. I am not excited that the class will be over, wait who am I kidding I am SO ready for my Christmas vacation. I did enjoy this class, I am not happy it is over because I hated, but because I just do not want to ever right another paper in my life, well at least a month. Haha.
I am really looking to the fact that the next time I read a book I can read it to enjoy it and not worry about catching small quotes that have a larger than life meanings. I can take it in for what it means to me and not have anyone tell me I am right or wrong or tell me I did not support my statements with facts.
I enjoyed having you all in the class with me and we should all be proud of ourselves for completing this class. Think how many people were in our class when it first started out and how many people are in the class now. We did amazing and should be proud of ourselves for maning up and doing our job as students.
I wish you all the best of luck in all your future classes and jobs. I thank the people in my group for always being prompt and on time with assignments. I must say I was usually the last one to turn in my papers, but it was on time though, haha. Damn procrastination… You made my life less stressful when we had a group assignment I did not have that fear that someone would not do their part. We communicated and did not care if someone added to what someone else said because we were a team and did the work as a team, we could not have succeeded if we had tried to do it all on our own. Out of all my experiences with groups this was my favorite group because I knew that the other members were responsible and did not rely on the others do the work then ride in on the other’s hard work coat tails.
In high school I had this teacher who dared us to think and challenged us to become better than we ever thought we possibly could be. I want to share with you a speech he shared with us,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5NAPZp2w-o
I feel this is one of the most inspiring things a teacher had said to me when I was growing up. Growing in the small town and going to a small high school gave me an experience that many high school students do not have, a teacher who actually cares. At Antelope Valley College we have teachers that actually care if their students pass because they want their students to succeed not just so they look good, but to give that person a fighting chance in the world we are all trying to survive.

Me? Learn?

I know I am starting off topic, but does anyone else’s Microsoft word automatically start off with the font “Calibri”. Mine does and I have no idea why, one would think since it is in MLA format it would automatically do “Times New Roman”, but no not mine. Now time to start the real point of all this.
I have learned a great deal from the RPs that we have throughout this semester. At first when I would read them I would be bored and would put them off until the day it was due or the day before it was due. I started enjoying some of the articles that we read and I would end up doing the assignments the way that was suggested to us so we did not feel overwhelmed.
Through the readings and having to answer the questions, I know my writing has gotten stronger and that I am better at supporting my answer with facts from the article.
I have not learned anything that I did not know already about myself. I know that I procrastinate too long. I even do this with going to bed, which is why I am still up, with writing papers, I even procrastinate with waking up. I will set my alarm for a normal time then I will hit snooze about six times, and on my clock that is 54 minutes that I could have just set my alarm to in the first place. But then I would have probably hit snooze again anyways out of habit.
I learned that I am definitely a creature of habit, I did all my assignments in the same order. The one I was most comfortable with first and then they rest I put off until I could not put it off any longer.
This class has taught me to set myself goals because when I make goals for myself to have work done at a certain time I usually have it done by then. The goal that I am giving myself is tomorrow when my alarm goes off I will only hit my snooze three maybe four times. It is a slow process, I just cannot all the sudden be a morning person especially at six in the morning. It really is wrong, by the way, for Antelope Valley College to start a class before eight in the morning, what were they thinking?! More like what was I thinking for taking a class that early?
I know that I ramble a lot, but I noticed because of this class the more I ramble the more likely I am to stumble upon something good in my writing, but then again sometimes when I read over it, I find myself asking “what the hell were you thinking, Cherstin?”
This class taught me that I should stick to my science classes because I know the information like the back of my hand, but it also taught me that I know how to rise to the challenge and for me at some points this class was a challenge.

Papers come and go.

how is it coming along? What do you need to do to complete it? How do you plan to accomplish this? What areas of difficulty are you encountering? How might you overcome these obstacles?

Right now, I have my outline fully completed. I have my introduction completed finished. Tonight and tomorrow, I will be mapping out where I want to take my essay. By Thursday I plan on having more than half of it done and Saturday I will finish it up. Then Sunday I will look over it again then post it for everyone’s viewing pleasure.
I am happy with my progress because of how much I usually procrastinate. I am shocked that I have been able to focus on it all with what is going on in my life, but it in a way has let me bury myself in it and let me escape from my problems for a little while until I hit a writer’s block.
I already said what I plan on doing to get my paper done, but what I have total to do is: finish my body paragraphs and then my conclusion paragraph.
I found the most difficult areas to be finding quotes from my sources that all support each other and help me develop a stronger paper. It was also a pain to find sources to include because I honestly do not like hunting for sources, but once I find a source and see something I can use I get so excited. I know I will overcome any problems that I will face because I have to and because I know that I have the intelligence to do it, I just need to find the patience for it. When I get impatient, I give up and come back later unless I have no time to come back later.
I would rather not have to write the paper, but I know I have to. It is just human nature to not want to do something they are not too excited about. I am just happy that this paper is due this week and not last week because I know I more than likely would not have been able to finish it. I am definitely going to take full advantage of my Thursday being completely empty and use it to my full advantage. I plan on using Thursday to finish my paper and doing my laundry. Just a side note, it is amazing how much clothing you were in one week and how much laundry you have to do. Also a lesson I have learned is always put your clothes away after drying them because if you leave them in a hamper, you will soon forget if the clothes are dirty or not and probably end up washing your clean clothes again.
I am very happy that our paper is not too long. I might have cried if it was supposed to be ten pages, maybe an exaggeration but I would have felt like crying.

Communication

My style of online communication style varies on what I am trying to do. If I am trying to persuade someone to believe something I am very detailed with what I have to say. I give examples and definitions. When I am answering a question I am short and to the point. I am this way because that is how I am in person.

I do not feel the need to talk to people when there is real no point. If they are my friends I talk to them a lot and joke around with them, but I notice my responses in our conversation are usually one to two sentences long, while their responses can be a paragraph or two long.

I notice that I may be this way because of my dad. He is always straight to the point and I spent most of my childhood with my dad because he worked out of the house. If he asked me something I was expected to give him an answer and not beat around the bush and I have always been that way because of him.

I am like that on the phone as well. I do not call someone just to talk, unless I miss them and I do not text someone just to talk, unless for the same reason I miss them.

I feel the way I communicate to people shows them that I am straight forward. I tell the truth. I also have noticed many people who are short and direct are more likely to use sarcasm and there for can be funny which at times I am, but I also think people may think I just do not know what to say when in reality I know what I want to say, but what is not acceptable to say in certain situations. Like I always want to say "That's what she said!" when someone says something that can be taken with a different meaning, but I know I cannot all the time because it would be inappropriate.
I have noticed that my online communication is very different than my communication with someone when I am face to face. In person I am very open person to be people that are my friends, but on the computer I am not because I do not know if I can trust a person because I cannot guarantee the person on the other end is the person I think it is.

The fact that I can communicate freely with many of my friends makes my life freer and easier to live because I do not have to bottle my emotions even if I do not say a lot I am able to say what I need to say and I do not feel like I am being suffocated by my emotions because I am able to express myself even if it is not in many words.

The Sinking of Feminism.

I have seen a couple cartoons that I thought were offensive, but at the same time I see the humor in them. The most recent one that I saw when I was cruising around the internet was a woman who is clearly on a sinking ship and is complaining about the sexism about women and children being told to board the safety boats first. The reason this is funny is because she wants to lecture the man about being sexist instead of getting off the boat and saving her own life. The reason to me that it is offensive because it makes the woman look too stupid and too proud to save her own life. I know that I hate sexism, but if it is going to save my life I am going to live with it and take it like an adult.

I do not like the way it makes a woman who is a feminist look too proud to save her own life. It makes it seem that she does not care that it is her life on the line. She basically sounds unintelligent because she goes on a tangent when all was said to her was probably get on the boat.

In the cartoon, you see a shocked old man that looks so confused about how she reacts to everything that was said.

The nature of the cartoon is to make fun of feminist women. They are making fun of the fact that they are trying so hard not to conform really to the way people expect a woman to be, the house wife, the stay at home and other stereotypes like that. They make fun of it even more by putting the woman in old fashioned clothing and you see that the boat is the Titanic. The boat being Titanic shows you that this is a very old fashioned period during time. There were few feminist, but they would have gotten in the safety boat with the Titanic sinking because it is human nature to want to save your own life.

I read a quote about feminism and this is what it said, “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed.  If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes."  They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."  ~Clare Boothe Luce


I thought this quote was perfect for the situation in the cartoon, I could twist to the fact that may be she was not stupid, but trying to show that she could survive with out the safety boat because she wanted to prove to the world that not just she, but all women were stronger enough to survive something that many people did not survive.

There is also another quote that said, “I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want.  If that makes me a bitch, okay.” ~Madonna Ciccone. This woman was exactly that, she seems like a bitch, but she perfectly okay with seeming like a complete bitch. You see that she does not care what someone thinks about her because she has a smug smile on her face.

Improvised Writing, I Mean Improved Writing.

I joined this class really having no idea what the class was all about. My counselor told me that I should take it, so I took it. I did not have any idea that there would be so much writing involved! I am not particularly fond of writing and when I discovered how much writing there was involved in this class I was a little put back, but I do not let a lot stop me from taking a class. I know that when I am finished with this class I will be definitely excited about not needing to write a paper for a while I hope at least.

I feel my writing has improved in some ways. I feel more confident when I am writing an essay that is in my comfort zone, but not so much when I am out of my comfort zone. I have gained a better way at looking and gathering my information that I want to include in my paper, but I know I need to work on how I put it into words in my paper for other people to understand.

I really am going to work on improving my writing by making sure I do not stray too far from the topic. I need to focus on writing more about the facts than throwing some of my opinions in. I have included both, but I need to stop straying over to the opinion side of a paper, but it is just so easy because I can talk forever about my own opinion about a topic.

I also need to make sure that I do not make too many grammatical mistakes, I would definitely be a believer about not worrying so much about it, like that one article we read towards the beginning of this class that said many colleges do not care about it so much, but I know to be a better writer I need to worry about it. I have just, to be honest, never cared too much to really work on it.

I know my writing needs to improve in the fact that I bounce around when I talk. My writing seems to have ADHD in a way. Like I'll begin on one train of thought then all the sudden in the same paragraph I begin on something new. You can take notice of it in my second paragraph, whoops.

I also need to focus on my introductions and conclusions. I need to be more straight with my conclusion. I need to focus on restating my thesis in my conclusion and in my introduction I need to make a stronger thesis statement. I know that my writing has improved because before this I would not know where to begin to admit that I need improvement in my writing. I know where my weaknesses are and know how to begin to at least try and fix my mistakes. A writer only gets better by having someone tear their writing to pieces and breaking bad habits and that is what this class is trying to do for me. My papers,though, are not so much torn apart, but more constructively criticized.  

Are your Soap Operas real enough?

Our language values have changed so much in the past fifty years. I think that we should be able to use because in reality the words do come up. When the characters in television shows do not speak the way we know they would it makes it seem less likely to happen. For instance, it would be really awkward to watch a The Sopranos and not see someone get killed or hear someone utter a single profanity.

Shows like The Sopranos and Sex and the City are not based on true events, but the way the characters are described and the situations you find the characters in it would be less likely to believe that a mobster does not use profanity or someone who can have multiple one stands cannot say “Fuck.” It is not believable and it takes away from the story line because now you know its not real and instead of pulling you in you get pushed away. Its like the show The L Word. It was in your face, nothing held back. You saw and heard everything as if you were right there, nothing was sugar coated. It made the series better and if it had not been in my face with everything I do not think I would have watched the show.

I think it is not the government's job to monitor what our children watch. It is a parent's job and if they want to censor them that is their right, but to do it for everyone is just ridiculous because in reality we are going to hear and see horrible things. I think it is better to know that horrible things are out in the world instead of living in a world that does not even realize that people use profanities and others kill would make me feel like an idiot and I would be in for a major awakening which is something that could have been avoided. My mom let me watch whatever I wanted as a child because she wanted me to develop my own opinion on things. I grew to be a strong independent woman. My mom let me watch Sex and the City and from watching that I grew up knowing that women can be successful and do not need a man to be happy, I did not think I had to go out and have multiple one night stands because my mom had taught me to have a strong mind, which some parents are not doing for their children these days. For people who easily offended, I just like for them to just stop nagging all the time. If they do not want to see it, why do they even have it on to begin with when they know it will only offend them.

I think that people are also too worried about being politically correct so they do not offend any one, but even when they are politically correct there is so much that can still offend someone. Sometimes I want to point that they say “African-American” in some things, but for a Caucasian they will say white person.