Tuesday, March 24, 2009
A Proposal For A Needed Change!
Right now there are several changes that need to be made in the world. I could talk about homeless children, the school system, elderly health care, or the economy; but I will talk about global warming and recycling. People have talked about global warming for so long that most people don't care about it anymore. However, people need to be concerned because it will eventually affect them, their family, and the world. Pollution is contaminating the air, water, and soil. This has an effect on everyone because pollution is getting to the point where it is affecting the food that we eat, the water we drink, and the air that we breath. Landfills also affect the environment by contaminating the soil. Deforestation also affects the environment because a lot of animals are becoming extinct and there not just the exotic animals either. Animals like wolfs, bears, turtles, rabbits, some birds, some dear, and some other animals are on the endagered species list. If these problems continue people around the world may end up like the people on Wall-E. However, there is still time to make a change. People can recycle, only use the car when you need it and don't make wasted trips, don't waste paper, turn garbage into compost for the garden, plant flowers or a small tree, throw away trash in a trash can instead of on the side of the road, etc. There are so many things people can do to help the environment, but it has to be applied in order to work. So reduce, reuse, and recycle to help the environment and save the earth from global warming. Also, this is part of an assignment for english class and I will use a pamphlet or flyer as by public discouse.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Homework and Spring Break madness!
Well, I'm back at school. It doesn't even feel like I have had a spring break and it was not as fun as I wanted it to be. The week started off well enough. I went and visited my grandma and had one lazy Sunday on the weekend before spring break officially started. The week, on the other hand, was busy. First the washer broke, in which the blug end was smoking from the wall. It was a miracle the house did not get on fire. As if that wasn't enough, around the end of the week my bed fell through the floor. So now my bed is in the living room and everything is a mess. Also, I have so much homework that is due this week. Hopefully this weekend is ten times better than my spring break was. On a better note, my grades are good. That's it for now.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
English Autoethnography.
Jack Sparrow
English 201
March 17, 2009
The Autoethnography
Throughout my life so far, I have only participated in public discourse a few times. Nothing dramatic, like defacing property, but I did hand out flyers and have signed two petitions. The petitions were not really effective, but I wish they had been. I signed a petition in high school to get a stoplight at this one intersection near the high school because two of my classmates, during senior year, got in a car wreck. One classmate died and the other one was severely injured, but he lived and has a feeling of regret by accidently killing his friend, who was also one of his teammates on the high school football team. The other petition that I signed was when I was in grade school in which the school and the local community tried to prevent three teachers from getting fired. This teacher petition is what I will write about and I chose this as my public discourse.
For starters, I went to a catholic grade school that went through kindergarten to the eighth grade. I was in sixth or seventh grade when this ridiculous fiasco began. Anyway, a new priest had arrived to replace the other priest because the other priest was retiring. The new priest seemed nice at first, but I soon found out that he was greedy, cocky, and selfish. He wanted big changes to be made to the school and the church that were too expensive, which made the teachers, janitors, and cooks mad because they needed classroom repairs, new books, and new cleaning and cooking equipment. The community was also mad at him for going over the budget he was given for these big projects and he asked the community to give more money to the church.
The grade school and church committee finally had a meeting to discuss what changes should be made that would benefit the school and the church and how much would these changes cost. Some of the teachers were at this meeting and gave their opinions and ideas. One of the teachers was a first grade teacher, that is a nun, said that some of the big projects were too costly and that the funds should be used to repair the school, instead of adding on to it. She also suggested free tutoring, more academic programs, updated books and a few new computers in the library, etc. Several people in the committee thought this was a good idea, but the priest, who was also at this meeting, did not like these ideas. He argued a lot with the first grade teacher about similar issues and he eventually fired her. It was his way or the highway.
Soon after he fired the first grade teacher, the sixth grade teacher, who was also the math teacher, suggested a few ideas and opinions. The priest ignored her for a while, but one day they got into a big fight about a big financial issue. The priest fired her the next day, which was totally ridiculous. Then a week later the school hires a substitute teacher; she was friendly and explained the material well. It was during recess when everyone saw this car drive off like it was in the Indianapolis five hundred race. When everyone went back to class, we found out that the substitute teacher was fired because she said to the class that the eucharist, which is a small circle wafer people eat during part of the church service, was a symbol of Christ’s body. It is true that it is a symbol, but the priest argued that it was the actual body of Christ.
Personally, I thought that these two teachers and the substitute teacher should not have been fired. They were excellent teachers and explained the material well to the students. They should not have been fired for giving their opinions, stating facts, and stating their personal believes about their religion. This is why I signed the petition, but it didn’t do much of anything. The priest only thought of the petition as a piece of paper with names on it that did not have any urgent importance.
After staying four years at my community’s church, the priest moved to a higher ranking position near Washington D.C. I guess sometimes scum does float to the top. Anyway, we have a new priest who is really friendly and is an excellent gardener. The teachers have new jobs and are doing fine. Sometimes I wonder if I could have done more to have helped prevent these teachers from getting fired. If I would have had more money, made flyers, or had a protest rally then I definitely would have had a bigger impact on the situation. However, you can’t think of the what if questions all the time or you’ll drive yourself crazy. What’s done is done and I can’t change the past, but I can focus on the present and I am looking forward to the future.
English 201
March 17, 2009
The Autoethnography
Throughout my life so far, I have only participated in public discourse a few times. Nothing dramatic, like defacing property, but I did hand out flyers and have signed two petitions. The petitions were not really effective, but I wish they had been. I signed a petition in high school to get a stoplight at this one intersection near the high school because two of my classmates, during senior year, got in a car wreck. One classmate died and the other one was severely injured, but he lived and has a feeling of regret by accidently killing his friend, who was also one of his teammates on the high school football team. The other petition that I signed was when I was in grade school in which the school and the local community tried to prevent three teachers from getting fired. This teacher petition is what I will write about and I chose this as my public discourse.
For starters, I went to a catholic grade school that went through kindergarten to the eighth grade. I was in sixth or seventh grade when this ridiculous fiasco began. Anyway, a new priest had arrived to replace the other priest because the other priest was retiring. The new priest seemed nice at first, but I soon found out that he was greedy, cocky, and selfish. He wanted big changes to be made to the school and the church that were too expensive, which made the teachers, janitors, and cooks mad because they needed classroom repairs, new books, and new cleaning and cooking equipment. The community was also mad at him for going over the budget he was given for these big projects and he asked the community to give more money to the church.
The grade school and church committee finally had a meeting to discuss what changes should be made that would benefit the school and the church and how much would these changes cost. Some of the teachers were at this meeting and gave their opinions and ideas. One of the teachers was a first grade teacher, that is a nun, said that some of the big projects were too costly and that the funds should be used to repair the school, instead of adding on to it. She also suggested free tutoring, more academic programs, updated books and a few new computers in the library, etc. Several people in the committee thought this was a good idea, but the priest, who was also at this meeting, did not like these ideas. He argued a lot with the first grade teacher about similar issues and he eventually fired her. It was his way or the highway.
Soon after he fired the first grade teacher, the sixth grade teacher, who was also the math teacher, suggested a few ideas and opinions. The priest ignored her for a while, but one day they got into a big fight about a big financial issue. The priest fired her the next day, which was totally ridiculous. Then a week later the school hires a substitute teacher; she was friendly and explained the material well. It was during recess when everyone saw this car drive off like it was in the Indianapolis five hundred race. When everyone went back to class, we found out that the substitute teacher was fired because she said to the class that the eucharist, which is a small circle wafer people eat during part of the church service, was a symbol of Christ’s body. It is true that it is a symbol, but the priest argued that it was the actual body of Christ.
Personally, I thought that these two teachers and the substitute teacher should not have been fired. They were excellent teachers and explained the material well to the students. They should not have been fired for giving their opinions, stating facts, and stating their personal believes about their religion. This is why I signed the petition, but it didn’t do much of anything. The priest only thought of the petition as a piece of paper with names on it that did not have any urgent importance.
After staying four years at my community’s church, the priest moved to a higher ranking position near Washington D.C. I guess sometimes scum does float to the top. Anyway, we have a new priest who is really friendly and is an excellent gardener. The teachers have new jobs and are doing fine. Sometimes I wonder if I could have done more to have helped prevent these teachers from getting fired. If I would have had more money, made flyers, or had a protest rally then I definitely would have had a bigger impact on the situation. However, you can’t think of the what if questions all the time or you’ll drive yourself crazy. What’s done is done and I can’t change the past, but I can focus on the present and I am looking forward to the future.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Spring Break and Homework!
I'm so excited because this is my last day in class before spring break. I still have homework and a midterm to study for over spring break, but I got so much time to get it done which is great. The weather today is great, except that might storm later on in the day. I love spring with the birds chirping and the flowers blooming. The only thing I don't like about spring is the rainy weather and the bugs and insects come out. I don't mind insects as long as they stay out of the house, but they get in anyway and I get my flyswatter and bug spray out. Anyway, spring break is great. I probably will go and visit my cousins and my grandma during spring break. I can't wait to see them.
I think today is going to be great, but I was having a real bad day Wednesday. I got to college on time and my first class was going well, until the end of class. I was a took out my flash drive/usb card and it seemed fine. I had to restart the computer because it was frozen up. After the computer had rebooted I wanted to see if my flash drive was working properly; that is when I found out the flash drive had crashed. I had a lot of important files on my flash drive and could not retrieve them. Luckily my art teacher suggested going to the computer center, which is in this one building in the basement, and I went there and the computer technician guy said that my flash drive had crashed. I was so mad, but he was able to retrieve most of my files. He put my old files on a CD-ROM disk. He said that he likes using flash drives, but don't depend on them so much. The technician guy said people should us CD-ROM disks as a backup, just in case your flash drive would crash, and make several copies on your computer. He said that all flash drives should have backup files and that you should copy the backup files onto the computer, so that if the flash drive crashes you can take the computer and the flash drive to the computer center and he will try to fix it and you might be able to still use it. The college that I go to should advertise the computer center more because it is very helpful.
I have improved on my blogging techniques and I kind of like doing a blog. My classes are going well and I have great grades. I wish my English teacher would post/e-mail students grades because I have no idea what grade I'm getting in English. I can't wait to the end of the day to relax, but then I have to get started cleaning my house so that an electrician can fix the wall plug in. Our washer cable was smoking one day when my mom got home and burnt the plastic washer cord, that is why we need the electrician. I also want to clean out my closet, which has been messy for a long time. I gotta go, I'll write again soon.
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