Bye Blog!

I really liked blogging! It is much better than writing in a journal.  I'm just not a fan of journals because I feel like they shouldn't take a long time and they always do because of the handwriting.  Blogging I think is just an easier and quicker way of getting feedback rather than writing down in a journal and turning it in.  Also, conserves trees! That's a plus! So blogging was a success and since this is my last blog I feel it is appropriate to put....the end!

Revision Workshops

The revisions today in class helped me a lot on my literary paper.  I know we were supposed to read them out loud, but it was too loud so Libby and I decided to read them to ourselves.  It helped much more because when reading out loud I always space out and forget certain things the reader is saying.  One thing that was difficult was my computer didn't save my changes on my literary paper so I had some of the same mistakes which was frustrating.  Overall, I like doing revision workshops because it helps improve my papers.  I also like having different people revise so there are different corrections on each revision.

Thanksgiving!!!

I.love.Thanksgiving.  I have an obsession with pumpkin pie! Last year I ate an entire pie. I was pretty proud of myself :) I also lalalove mash potatoes and green bean casserole!! I don't really like turkey... I would rather eat my pumpkin pie than eat turkey.  I'm really excited for Thanksgiving because my family and I always watch Elf and Home Alone: Lost in New York.  My all time two favorite Christmas movies.  I also am very excited because thats when Christmas songs start to play on the radio.  I mean I already started listening to Christmas music after Hallowwen but whatever.  One thing I'm not so pumped about... snow.  I mean Omaha gets plenty of snow but Verm takes it to another level. 

Literary Outline

I really liked this outline.  It helped me lay out all my information.  One thing I had a problem with was fitting everything on it.  But most of it was quotes, so I would just go back and find the page number.  This outline really helped me understand the organization of a literary analysis.  One thing I am struggling with in my paper is putting the cultural, and my story, and quotes altogether so it flows easily. 

Thesis Statement

"The Yellow-Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a short story that takes place during the 1900's.  During this time, women were inferior to men.  The narrator portrays herself as an ill, unhappy housewife.  This represents women's fear towards men.

Reading Critically

I like the reading critically a lot. It helps me understand the story much better.  I actually like doing it first instead of going back and reading it because then it gives me a chance to stop reading and really comprehend what is going on in the story.  For "The Yellow Wallpaper", I found a lot more symbols in the stories but it also made me question certain things too.  Like throughout the story I think her husband was cheating on her with Jennie, but I'm not sure.  I have several questions for this story.  One thing I struggle with is highlighting everything because then highlighting looses its significance.  So I really try not to highlight everything I see and only highlight certain items that stand out to me.  It takes a much longer time doing this, but I think in the end it really doesn't because you don't have to go back as much in the story to find what you are looking for, and overall you get a much better understanding of the story.

Symbols

A White Heron
-Cow: Milk
-White: Peace, shows the importance of the bird, makes Syllvia realize how beautiful the bird is
-Red: Syllvia is scared of this color, describes a boy with red on his face chasing her and how it scared her
-Tree: Symbolizes life, when Syllvia keeps climbing the tree she keeps having to go farther and farther up because she still isn't done. Just like in life when you think you are done there is still something left to do.
-Hunter: Syllvia hides from him like he wants to kill her, also symbolizes hope because if she tells him where the bird is, she wouldn't have to worry about money
-When the tree splits into 2: its the two decision Syllvia can take, tell the hunter where the bird is, or not.
The Yellow Wall-Paper
-Yellow: symbolizes how the narrator is sick
-Windows: trapped, as much as she wants to be apart of the world her husband won't let her
-Wallpaper:how men tortured women, made them do things they didn't want to do, showing unequaliness between men and women
-Sickness: how men ignored women when trying to search for equality, she would tell her husband something was wrong with her and he would tell her she was fine
-I found when reading this story, almost all symbols have to relate to how limited women were during this time period.  All of the symbols have to do with how men didn't care what women thought and basically brainwashed their wives so the husbands could feel powerful.

Women in the 1900's

Women in the 1900's did not have many rights.  Women were thought of doing chores around the house and taking care of the children.  They were looked down upon compared to men.  They also did not do any hard labor that required muscular work because they were "weaker".  Later on in the 1900's women started going to school and to college.  It is amazing to compare that to today.  Now, women can do almost anything. Women still might not be able to do everything, but compared to the 1900's it has improved tremendously.  I am very thankful today is not like how it was in the 1900's because first of all I can't cook and I hate cleaning!

"Women's History in America." Wic.org.Women's International Center, 1994. Web.29 October 2010.

Owl Creek Bridge & The Most Dangerous Game

I loved reading Owl Creek Bridge.  Throughout the entire story I was pissed because I thought that Peyton Farquhar made it back home until I read the last sentence saying his body was swaying gently from side to side beneath the times of the Owl Creek bridge, and then realized he imagined it all.  This story is kinda crazy because his imagination took over his reality.  But I understand why he went psycho he was about to be hung.  At least his last thought was seeing his wife.  However, the Most Dangerous Game it is just mind boggling to me. Killing humans...weird. I remember reading this story in high school.  I think Rainsford is kinda dumb.  As soon as Zaroff told him he hunts humans it all falls into place.  No wonder Zaroff is being so nice and providing him with everything.. he wants to kill him! I just think it took Rainsford a little too long for him to realize he is being hunted by Zaroff.  But I was glad that Rainsford won in the end because Zaroff just sounded creepy.  When they talked about Zaroff smiling I just pictured the joker.

Thoughts on the Le Guin Piece

I thought the Le Guin piece was very sad, and interesting at the same time.  It also made me realize that this happens today in society.  Many times people see things that are wrong, but they don't care because it doesn't hurt them in anyway.  This short story showed when sacrifcing someone or something, beneficial or not, it sometimes has an effect on people.  People will do anything to get what they want.

Research Paper

So researching has been very tiring for me.  But I like it at the same time.. its kinda hard to explain.  I love H.J. Roberts.  He wrote one of the books my topic is on, and he puts the FDA to shame :) My topic also really grosses me out.  Aspartame I know is in diet drinks and the Splenda products but it is in so much more than that. Also, they used it back in the day as rat poision.. absolutely disgusting!!! I am in the process of writing my paper.. it's taking forever and I have to do it for an hour and take a break because I get too frustrated soo hopefully all is well!

So far this semester...

I have learned a lot this year already.  I like learning different ways to write your paper to make it sound more interesting.  In class, I enjoy group presentations and discussing certain topics.  I also like to write them down to make sure I remember certain points because I forget things very easily.  The only problem I have is switching my topic when I am writing my papers.  Like, I now am writing my topic on aspartame.  My thesis statement is Aspartame is a harmful, toxic sweetening agent that is very harmful to the human body.

Topic

My topic is going to be about are doctor's really doing their job.  Many times I find myself going to the doctor and they tell me to take medicine but I feel it doesn't work.  Or other times I have gotten a reaction from a medicine.  I really am just antidoctor because I am partially deef in my left ear because a doctor perscribed me the wrong eye drops.  Or I feel like they are just telling me something to take because really when everyone leaves the doctor they expect they need to take a certain medication for this.  So I am going to do a study on the effects medicine has because everybody has a different body type and everyone handles certain medications differently.  I hope this topic works as planned because it is really what I want to research.

essay topics

In class today I came up with three topics for my essay and I still have no idea which one I want to write about.  The three ideas that just popped into my head were.... how it irritates me when hispanic people come into the United States and don't know how to speak English.  That bothers me so much I can't even describe it. Another topic I have is why certain people are so wealthy when I feel they don't deserve the money when other jobs they get nothing.  For instance, Snooki, she is trash. I don't care what anybody says. I wish someone would pay me millions of dollars to get trashed, wear a bump it in my hair, cake on my make up, and wear skanky clothes.  My last topic was about cops but I want to change it to the adoption process.  I know it takes forever, but I want to know why and the exact process and how certain people get picked.  So... I still have some thinking to do about which topic I would like, before I make my choice :)

Group Presentations

I really enjoyed doing the group presentations.  My favorite strategy I learned about was the frankenstein strategy.  I thought it was unique to take sentences out of your paragraph and see if it still went together.  I also found it really interesting about the three most important sentences.  I liked this advice because it showed where people pay the most attention during your paper.  This also helps so you know where to put good points in your paper so you can grab the readers attention.

Proposal Essay

The peer review in class went pretty good.  I liked the input I got on my paper.  Some of the information was useful! I don't know how I feel about my paper though.  It's just not my kind of writing.  I don't really have a lot of voice in it which I think I could improve because it sounds like a robot in some parts.  I do like the topic I picked though! I also went to the extra credit workshop last Wednesday, and I think it helped because it showed when you are citing a source there are different ways in arranging them in your sentence.  For instance, according to The Media Affects by so and so blahblahblah. So it made my paper less boring :)

thesis

My thesis is about how I personally think the crime rate has gone up due to the violence in the media.  I always wondered why there has been so much violent lately and it occured to me that the media is open everywhere.  I think it has the biggest effect on children.  When children see things they assume they have the right to do it.  I think children have a hard time understanding what is reality and what is fake.  Many things we see today in the media is not realistic.  The media I feel has shaped our society too much.  This is why I chose to write this subject.

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America

I really loved reading some of the stories.  I love hearing other peoples opinion on different sides of things.  The reason why, it makes me realize things that I never would have realized until that certain person said something.  Like, Barbara Walters, I always watch her interviews and have always found her a person I could watch on tv.  But he made a valid point, she doesn't talk about news at all.  Everything she talks about is gossip.  I relate it like catching up with someone on their life instead of their personal views on the current events that are happening in today's world.  I also really enjoyed reading about everyone's opnion on Bush.  Another story that caught my eye was about 9/11 and how certain countries think we are a horrible influence when they will have random people attach bombs to themselves and kill themselves.  This author made a great point that most critics are very opnionated about America because they want to make it a better country.  Many people don't realize it, they just think they are being too outspoken.  I think we should use freedom of speech to its full potential because other countries don't even have half of the privelages we do in the United States.

Peer Reviews

I actually liked doing the peer reviews.  It helped a lot with my paper and revising it.  I realized what I really need to work on this year in writing my papers. What I need to focus on the most is not going back to a previous topic I already talked about and jumping from topic to topic so often, and to make sure I have closure before I go to the next topic.  I thought while editting my paper it had improved greatly.

leaving the world

If I die tomorrow, I would be sad but know that I left the world with the satisfaction of my life.  I have met so many interesting and wonderful people in my life.  My family has always been there for me and supportive in whatever I do in life.  I am very blessed to have a family like mine.  This past year I have made many decisions that I don't take for granted.  All my life I have played soccer, thats what my high school years were all about.  I decided to do show choir instead and get back into choir.  I had a solo that year in our show choir ballad and was a pink lady in the Grease musical.  I would be a little disappointed about not completeing my bucket list.  But, I did however go skydiving this summer and that was absolutely fantastic! If I left the world tomorrow I'm pretty sure I would be remembered as the girl who is always laughing and doing random things and I would be completely okay with that because that is exactly how I am.  However, I don't know what my parents would do.  Especially my mom, she has texted me or called me almost everyday telling me how much she misses me lol. Part of the reason I think is I had my palm read and they told me I would die in a car accident when I was 18, which is obviously not true because those palm readers are not accurate. But as I have been thinking that is probably why my mom didn't let me take a car to college.  So, if I died I would be okay with it because I strongly believe that God has a reason for everything that happens in life.

chicas vs. chicos

First off, I love the song "If I Were A Boy". I am a huge fan of Beyonce.  I think sterotypically girls and boys were defined pretty well.  But I have come to realize that boys and girls both think a lot in the same ways.  Not, in everything of course but most things.  The huge difference between the two I think are girls handle there emotions a little differently than guys.  Really, that just depends on who you are talking to.  I don't think you can really categorize a girl or guy into one group because each person is so different. I would think it would be sweet to switch to a guy for a few days.  Taking five minutes to get ready would be pretty awesome not gonna lie.  But I don't think I would want to switch for too long because I wouldn't enjoy playing xbox or call of duty all day.

university life

I never would have expected Hillary Clinton's life to be like that.. at all.  It seemed like her parents really let her persue her dreams in life. It was really odd to me how when she went to other churches she was not really informed on Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. When now, in any History class they are very well known. I also found it interesting that she was involved in so many activities. Now I understand why she is still today involved in politics.

The Notebook

I love this book. I could read it over and over again.  I could also watch the movie over and over again :) I can't believe Noah would read the same story over and over to their loved one, in hopes that they will remember them even though they have Alzheimers.  I also love Noah in this story because he stands his own ground.  Even though nobody believes that his method will work, he doesn't care at all.  That is when you know that someone truly cares about somebody other than themselves.

About Me

Hi my name is Casey Kelly.  I am from Gretna, Nebraska.  I grew up in Nebraska my entire life.  The reason I chose to go to USD was because it was away from home but yet it was only three hours away if I needed to go home.  In high school, I was involved in soccer, show choir, one act, and in Grease.  I have no idea what I really want to do with my life so I just majored in psychology to see how it goes.  I love watching movies, listening to music (especially Lady Gaga), etc.  My family and friends mean the world to me and I don't know what I would do without them! I am very excited for my first year at USD and can't wait to see how it goes :)