It Changed the Way I Think.

This class was one of the few classes that taught me things that I will always use for the remainder of my life -- the ability to think critically.

This class helped me shape a better understanding of the world around me.
This class made me a better writer.
This class made me a better thinker.
This class helped me appreciate great literature.
This class helped me create a new part of myself.

I enjoy writing and reading, but I didn’t expect this class to change me so much.. I don’t write that much but after taking this class I've considered making my own personal blog to reflect on my experiences in life. I found that blogging is a great way to share opinions on issues that is important to you. I have always considered myself as a young-philosopher. I am an active thinker. I think the great thing about blogging is that everything is anonymous. Writing anonymously gives me the freedom to share anything that is on my mind at the moment and not be pre-judged by age,class, ethnicity and religion -- it’s really reassuring to know that your audience is liking you for your mind, not the extraneous things that may alter their likings or dislikes based on these things.. I plan on creating a blog that reflects my current thoughts, it’ll be a great way to learn about myself.

I found that this class has improved my way of thinking, thus creating a big chunk of me that wont’ be replaced. After taking this class, I’ve had questions -- I'm an active thinker, and I always ask questions about anything. I usually analyze everything I read, and everything I watch on television. I found a greater appreciation of documentaries and activists. I'm more curious with the world around me, and I’m even more involved with the planet. I recently took a stand, that helps the world, even if it’s a contribution to a whole, it may just make a difference. I’m talking about my small contribution on my refusal to contribute to the mega corporate organizations such as buying water bottles. If you're interested, you should check out the current issues on water bottles -- it’s a long and disastrous chain of events that leads to destruction of our planet. Our lives are endanger, our planet, and our rights to know (the government is concealing information on where are water is coming from, and what’s actually in it).

As someone that follows Buddhist philosophies, it’s a great tool to have the ability to critically think, it has really helped me walk on the dharma path (the teachings of the buddha). I have used this quote over and over again; it’s my favorite quote, and I think its relevant to this week’s topic, it correlates to what we learned in this English 103 class.

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it,

no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own

reason and your own common sense" -Siddhartha 

balance

Balance. Balance is the key word for the upcoming challenges I must overcome during these final two weeks. It’s pretty challenging, the things I have on my plate -- glucose tolerance report (physiology; 7 pages), study for physiology final (physiology; 8 lectures), Synthesis essay (English, 3 pages), Essay 3 (5 pages). And mixed in with all my school work, I also have personal things; the most bothersome at the moment, I have to take care of four dogs that do not play well together and clean their mess. Two big dogs (my brothers) and two small dogs (my other brother’s and his girlfriend’s). Everything seems to be happening at the worse possible time, but I manage to keep it all together with proper management of stress. I believe that stress is all in the mind (or most of it), and these final two weeks is a test of how really strong my head is. My secret to balancing everything out is to plan everything and don’t let anything stress you out. For example, when you plan things and things do not go as planned, it’s best just to accept it as it is and let it go -- since we have no control over most of the things that affects us -- don’t add more stress to your already stressed out situation. In other words, don’t be stressed out that you’re stressed. Duh.

Sometimes, I’d like to pretend I have the killer instinct of my favorite athlete, Kobe Bryant, or the calm and controlled manner of Phil Jackson (Laker’s hall-of-fame coach) . At times that requires your 100% focus, you just need to think of yourself as the greatest human being that ever walked on this planet (Kobe), or the Zen Master (Phil Jackson). Don’t let anything move you, just let it go any distortions and focus at the task at hand. Confidence and  Inner peace.

My difficulties: I haven’t read the books I have to read for the prompts (BIG disadvantage), and I haven’t started on any of the essays due to personal responsibilities. I can either: Flip-out and panic and work with an anxious mood, or work calmly. The latter of course is the best state to study (for me at least). A few semesters ago I used to drink excessive amounts of caffeine and pull off all-nighters; sometimes I would stay up for two days trying to get everything done. But I realized that I don’t function that well without any sleep. What works for me is to take breaks, eat, and sleep. The obvious things, everyone knows this, but sometimes people forget to do these things because they’re so panicked. I was sort of like Boxer from Animal Farm, I overworked out of sheer will, and amazing work-ethic -- but at the end, hard work doesn’t amount to anything if you don’t work smartly

Good luck to everyone; and work hard, efficiently, and most importantly, work smart!  Manage your time and don’t indulge too much on stress. I hope I helped..

Now back to writing my Essays....lol

lolololololololololololo

Online communication is different from personal face-to-face communication; the main difference is that one is personal and one is impersonal. I never really gave my writing style any thought until now. The difference in occasion has to do with everything, whatever the situation may be, my writing style differs from one thing to another. First of all, I am a computer gamer, and I spend quite a lot on the computer; yeah I’m sort of a nerd. I noticed that online communication has a lot of different sub-cultures. Depending on what you spend most of your time on the Internet, you’ll encounter many different styles. If you’re into online gaming you’re familiar with gaming terms such as -- noob, 1337, pwned ,etc. And if you’re into forums you’ll be susceptible to flaming if you type in a way that shows little pronunciations or little grammar at all; well, at least the ones I visit.

When I communicate online, I usually do not worry about grammar. I think, it also depends where you communicate online, sometimes the “grammar nazi’s” are looked down upon for trying too hard to pick on people that don’t bother spelling correctly or using correct grammar. When I communicate, I try to construct my sentences that are straight to the point, even if I have to break a few rules of grammar. I don’t necessarily compose with more detail because the Internet has the luxury of using emoticons. Emoticons is a luxury because it could express moods that are simple, and straight to the point. For example, adding -- lol, :D, :P, XD; is a great way to end a sentence to express emotions. Instead of saying, “Yeah I thought that was funny”; you could simply express that by saying “lol”. Or if you thought something was really funny, you could say, “LOL, LOLOL, or rofl, lmao.”

Generally, I am casual when it comes to online communication, unless of course I have to talk to professors or my older relatives via emails. I try to be more formal, and limit my use of emoticons, because normally my relatives do not understand the normal Internet fads, or emoticons. I think there is a communication barrier present even in the online community, the Internet has many sub-cultures -- gaming, forums, chat-rooms, video blogs. There will always be a separation of people and this will create certain language barriers, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that one can not understand each other, it’s just a matter of taking the extra effort into making clearer and not so exotic terms for each other. For example, I won’t be using phrases like, “lol noob l2cook grandma. olive oil > vegetable oil :P.” when I send emails to my grandma, it’ll probably just confuse her.

I think your style in online communication can say a lot about your character, and people can label others just by seeing his or her style when typing online. A lot of people I talk to will probably know a little about my background, they’ll probably figure out I play video games and spend a great deal online because I use and understand a lot of Internet terms and phrases.

Political Cartoons, a Reflection of our American Attitude.

I never really paid that much attention to political cartoons. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going instinct. Just a few google searches and a few minutes of newspaper surfing; I managed to discover this awesome way of getting political laughs. Some, I did not understand, mainly because I haven’t been keeping up with political issues, and some strips did inform me. I believe however, that to really understand some of these political cartoonists, you must really be up to date in your political issues. Anyway, as I discovered this week, the comical subculture of politics, I realized that political cartoonists are one of a kind -- their means of delivering information is new and refreshing to me and should be honored because it is a great reflection of our American culture.

I think it’s a great way to lighten up some of the news, but at the same time, political cartoons may demonize or make-fun of politicians or the general attitude of America toward an issue. In this week’s current events; the killing of Osama Bin Laden has created a flood of political comics. These comics either praises that Osama is dead or it is a conspiracy. A lot of haters have evolved throughout Obama’s administration and claims that he cannot do anything right, it seems to me that these haters are very hard to please. These haters discredit anything they can and try to tie anything with something then create conspiracy theories. For example, Obama announcing Osamas death MUST be a campaigning stunt to get re-elected for a second time. There are many political cartoons that make fun of this “hater” attitude, and personally I thought it was pretty funny. 

These political comics reflects our American culture, it reflects the American issues, attitudes, and ideology. I think these comics are a great way to create a light-hearted comment or opinion on a particular issue. Because sometimes in politics things are too serious -- and a great way to side-step from the seriousness is to put it into cartoons! These cartoons presents freedom; I realized that a lot of the cartoons usually make-fun of issues, and sometimes even present conspiracies. This flexibility presented in these political cartoons really reflects our American attitude, and shows our freedom of thought.

Freedom of thought is something that is intangible and is one of our rights as being American but sometimes Cartoons are limited too. Cartoons are censored and when cartoons get out of hand, people will complain; the cartoon of Obama holding Osamas head comes into mind. 

This cartoon imitates the famous scene in Lion King when the baboon holds up Simba to represent new life -- the African-American community was offended by this and was quickly justified. You see, American Culture has evolved in such a way that anything offensive is flitered, and this is done by the community as a whole -- anyone that offends is usually frowned upon by society. I think this is a great notion, the American people have developed, we have freedom of speech and thought but we do not tolerate hate speech.

Personally, I interpreted this cartoon offensive also, but not in the same reason as above, but I dislike the idea of celebrating someone's death. whether evil or not, a persons death should not be enforced as a celebration -- you cannot eliminate evil from violence, only compassion.