Blog post #15

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Found this helpful with citations!

1.How is online learning different than in person learning?
I think that online learning is different in the sense that you really don’t have much interaction with other students other than the discussion board. I think that it has its pros and cons as to being able to easily ask a question. For instance online you have to email and wait for a response, where as in the classroom setting you can just walk up to the instructor and ask your question then and there.

2.What are the particular challenges or benefits to taking and English class (in particular) in an online environment?
There are a few challenges with doing an online class. I think the biggest challenge of all is actually being motivated to get assignments done and submitted on time. An online student has to stay very focused and schedule their study time around there work or free time. A student who attends a class has somewhat more of a commitment to the class due to the fact that you must go to class to submit assignments. I don’t feel one is better than the other, just that they are two completely different things all together. The other challenge is not getting that one on one interaction with your instructor. I know they are there to help answer questions and problems but it’s not as immediate like it would be to talk in person in a classroom setting.

3. Which of the technologies that we used this semester was most beneficial to you?
I liked the grading system; I have never done a class at the college that was with an instructor. So I like the fact that test scores were almost immediate. I also liked the whole blackboard back office. It made it very easy to look at assignments, grades, emails etc. I think it is a great system.

4. Which did you like the most?
The technology I liked the best was by far the Blackboard system. I think it is very well organized and thought out.

5. Which will you use in the future and how will you use them?
I will continue using the blackboard technology seeing that I plan on doing my two year degree online through Yavapai.

Final Presentation!

Blog Post #14

Zombie Article

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Michael Jackson "Thriller"

The article talked about how the word “Zombies” has become a feature in the American culture. In one part of the article it talked about how it can be used in many different forms, from voodoo magic to hypnosis. It then says that in narrative form it means more unnatural creatures, raised from the dead. The article also shared that Zombies were the only American creation that went from folklore to the movie screen. It continued to say that zombie cinema has been around for 70 years in one form or another. Night of the living dead movie was the next big thing to feature zombies in it, with each zombie being more independent more like vampires unlike Invisible Invaders, Night of the living dead made over $30 million worldwide. The article continued to say that because of the success with Night of the living dead, producers went on to make more movies similar to that. Some is including Garden of the dead, and Dawn of the dead. These movies led to the very popular Michael Jackson song, Thriller where the video involved zombies dancing down the street. But unlike the movies where they were supposed to be scary throughout, the producers of the music video Thriller they started out somewhat scary, but when they started dancing it was looked at as more of a joke. Shortly after this phase of the American culture loving Zombies it began to die off in 1985 when The Return of the living Dead came out, many people did not see the need to watch movies of that value and the young adult crowds became more interested in comedic films like Dan O’ Bannon’s The Return of the living Dead. The article goes onto talk about the Twenty-First Century Zombie and how they sell and how the demand for them is an increasing supply. Later the movie 28 Days came out, in this film it shows that a virus could possibly wipe out all United Kingdom and they referred the viral plague almost as bad as AIDS. The article goes on to talk about more movies and the affects they had on the culture.

Essay #4

Joe Rossi
Eng 102
Cline
November 12, 2011


Codependency and Vampires

We all may have a little vampire inside of us whether we know it or not. In Interview with a Vampire it is very obvious to see that vampires are very codependent. We can all assume that just by knowing that vampires live on human blood. And yes you can argue and say humans are codependent on food, but the point I am making is that not only are they dependent on human blood but the vampires in Interview with a Vampire also long for a relationship among others and two of the vampires actually try to change their blood sucking habits and start relationships. Vampires symbolize codependency because without the human blood they would go hungry; they can make due with animal blood but are so codependent on human blood that they can barely survive without it. A lot like humans we feel we are so dependent on having a relationship that without that significant other we feel we can barely hang on.
Codependency can be looked at both good and bad. We can say that we as humans are codependent on food which is true, without it we could not live. But there is also a codependency in many relationships that are not healthy. Having to rely on your mate or significant other is not how relationship should be. Being codependent does not just happen between couples or married couples, it also happens in any relationship. It could be found in a parents and children, or sibling to siblings. Codependency is making yourself a sacrificial lamb to the needs of other people. “They are the people whom the narcissistic emotional vampires - of both the aggressive and passive types - feed upon. They are set up to think it is normal to have someone sucking the life blood out of them - constantly draining them energetically and emotionally." (Burney) Many people will say, “Well she’s my mother” or “he’s my father” I have to take care of them. According to Burney,
“The fact that they are our parents does not mean we owe them the right to abuse us. Does not mean we have to sacrifice our lives for them. Their codependency may cause them to believe that they sacrificed their lives for us - but like all unconscious codependents they were acting out of ego selfish reasons. We do not owe them some debt we "have to" pay back to them at the expense of sacrificing our self.” (Burney)
This is the perfect example of codependency reversed on people. In this instance the codependent person is really the parent but the adult child doesn’t see it because they believe that they must care for them at every waking moment, because it’s their parent. There is nothing wrong with taking care of your parent; what’s wrong is when that individual takes advantage of you. That can happen in any relationship. In Interview with a vampire two of the vampires regret ever becoming one because they didn’t get to enjoy life like the humans; they were past the point of wanting to live off human blood, so they decided that they were going to kill their creator. They were so codependent on sucking the life out of other people and never getting satisfied. Many relationships also have that same problem Due to the way some of us were raised we become this dysfunctional self and rely on others to satisfy how we feel. “…it is vitally important to become clear in our emotional process and to change the reversed attitudes that we had to adopt to survive.” (Burney) If you were raised in household that forced or brought upon you to be codependent causing it to be in our belief system, then doing anything else would be looked down upon and cause you to feel shame, when really we should out attitude toward these different life experiences and start our own journey discovering who we are as independents. Burney goes on to share,
“…If a vampire came up to you and told you that he would die if you didn't allow him to drink your blood, most likely you wouldn't have any problem telling him no. In our codependency however, when we do not know how to say no to other people, how to have healthy boundaries, we are set up to react to - and swing between - the extremes of the black and white, 1 or 10 spectrum of codependent behavior. Those extremes are: to build huge walls against connecting with other people - which sets us up to be emotional anorexics; or to offer ourselves up as sacrificial lambs to the type of codependents that are overt emotional vampires.” (Burney)
We can look at Vampires and know that they thrive off human blood. But when we can people as vampires in relationship we can go much deeper and suggest that there are different types of Vampires among us. There are three different types of energy sucking vampires.
1. Passive-Aggressive
2. Victims
3. Drama Queens
Let’s look closer at type of energy sucking vampires in detail. Passive-aggressive people tend to come off very weak and helpless, but need to feed off you every time and may not even be aware of what they are doing. They make you feel bullied into doing stuff for them; like playing the guilt trip on you. And of course they will say “isn’t that what friends are for?” obligating you into doing something for them. These types of people are usually very lonely and so you don’t figure out what their real intentions are, they generally say what a great friend you are and will tend to get little gifts for you and special thank you cards. This keeps you around until they need something once again. (Green)
The next vampire comparisons we can look at are the “Victims”. These types of people go from one sob story about their life to another. They believe that they are the victims and it is never their fault, as though they are also dealt the bad cards. What is draining is the fact that you can’t get through to them because they won’t take your advice and to them they are the masters of the situation, not you! Victims tend to be broke and don’t want any recommendations for jobs, all they want are handouts. (Green)
“Drama Queens” are last on the list as codependent vampires. These types of people love drama and can’t go without starting drama in their own relationships and other peoples relationships. Most of them also love to talk about themselves and will go on for hours. (Green) They will make you believe that they have a problem so you are obliged as a friend to listen to them, yet the fact of the matter is they most likely have other contacts or friends to tell their drama too.
These are just three types of personalities or traits some people possess that are signs of codependency, that life sucking trait that vampires can’t live without. In conclusion we know that vampires many objective is to suck life out of humans and drink their blood. Many things that people do is that form of a vampire, the life sucking feeling we get when we are being used by other people. Just like in Interview with a Vampire the two vampires who wanted real friendships and to be like the humans wanted to eventually change their habits and traits, and most of the time we can look past a lot of our friends and family who possess these codependent traits and love them anyway, but the main objective would be to help them and show them how to be independent and start living their own journey and be self-sufficient.





















Sources Cited

Burney, Robert. Codependence, the Dance of Wounded Souls: A Cosmic Perspective Of Codependence And The Human Condition. 1995. Web. .

Green, Sonya, ed. "Reinventing Myself." Energy Vampires. N.p., Mar 2008. Web. 12 Nov 2011. .

Rice, Anne. Interview With The Vampire, Book 1 Of The Vampire Chronicles. New York: Ballantine Books, 1977. eBook.

Annotated Bibliography blog #11

Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vampire, Book 1 of the Vampire Chronicles. Ballantine Books, 1977. Print.

This book is about a vampire who is interviewed by a reporter. The reporter soon finds out that the vampire has really never been happy with his choice of becoming a vampire. So he and their vampire daughter who also is very unhappy decide to kill their creator. Both of the vampires are never satisfied with the humans they kill. I chose this book because it symbolizes codependency and I this book shows many ways why these vampires are codependent.

Beattie, Melody. Codependent No More, How To Stop Controlling Others And Start Caring For Yourself. Hazelden Publishing & Educational Services, 1992. Print.

This source talks about the issues of codependent people and how they can overcome codependency. It talks about how to discover if someone is codependent. It helps people overcome it and become healthy happy and have the feeling of freedom. I will be using this source to link different attributes the vampire does that show they are codependent.

Beattie, Melody. Beyond Codependency, And Getting Better All The Time. Hazelden Publishing & Educational Services, 1989. Print.

This source is by the same author as above but this book is specifically written to help people overcome codependency. This book is specifically a daily task book. I plan to use this book to see different types of codependency.

Final Project Proposal

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I am planning on doing Option #2. I chose that because I wanted to do something about monsters since it was Halloween season when this project was assigned.

I have no idea what texts I am going to use. I have not even started. I have a busy schedule and am trying to find time to fit it in.

I am hoping to accomplish an A paper.

I am going to use internet and yc library. 

Monsters of the past

Midterm Cover Letter

Dear, Ms. Cline

            What a semester it has been so far. Although English is not my favorite subject, your class has been fun because of the blogging. I think that is a great idea and have enjoyed doing my own blog. The biggest challenge I had so far with the class is finding the time to read the assigned books. Between work and other classes it is hard to always squeeze in reading time. But I have learned not to complain because I know there are many more people who too have jobs and can juggle school in the mix. My biggest success in the class has probably got to be Essay #2. I am not a big writer and I myself was proud of that paper regardless of what grade I receive. But an A+ would be nice. Hint, hint!

            Reading in this class has surprisingly not been too strenuous, although I have found some of the literature very hard to understand, as far as some of the poems and such.

            My goals for the second half of the semester is to make sure that I keep turning assignments in on time and that I can find time to read for the last writing assignment. I hope to improve my knowledge on more MLA formatting. A lot of the time I have to keep looking up the formatting for citing and sources. I would like to eventually just know. I think it would make finishing out my associates in business more easily having that knowledge.

Sincerely,

Joe Rossi

Essay #3

Joseph Rossi

English 102

Cline

October 12, 2011

Switching Roles

I enjoyed the whole idea of the story. I think that it had a lot of great meaning to it. When I first knew of us having to read Frankenstein I thought to myself, what does this book have to do with anything, but after knowing what it is about you find that it has many different meanings. It all depends on how you interpret it. To me some of the themes and motifs that stuck out was the fact that Victor kept running away from his problems, he never really wanted to deal with them. First off his housekeeper being framed for murder of his brother, even though the monster, Frankenstein was the one who murdered him. Victor also ran away from his female version monster he was going to make for Frankenstein to have a companion. But then Frankenstein ended up strangling Victor’s new wife on their wedding night. So as far as him ignoring his problems and not going through with what he says he is going to do. But the book can also be looked at as far as the time period of the industrial aging moving toward a new technological era, but with the belief that it will fail. Especially In the time period that it was written In. The book I’m sure has many different symbolic meaning in it other than what I described. I think that Shelley’s purpose for writing the novel was to show two different worlds from different perspectives. Victors world which started out as a thriving, young exploring of science who creates this being, turns into a dark depressed man who himself slowly becomes a monster. Victor’s creation starts out as a grotesque, ugly, 8ft tall monster that is abandoned in the world and learns how to communicate. Shelley shows that people can change for better to worse or vice versa. The monster who feels abandoned along the way does terrible acts but Victor is the one to blame for creating this being and not supporting it.

As you read Frankenstein you will see that the monster becomes unhappy with himself in the abandonment that he feels. He goes onto say,

“Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge. I could with pleasure have destroyed the cottage and its inhabitants, and have glutted myself with their shrieks and misery” (Shelley. Chapter VIII. Pg. 91-92. Lines 1-6)

The monster that was created by this young scientist was left in the world alone to die. Victor underestimated his monsters brilliance and ability to learn even though his mind was as of a child was he was given life. Shelley almost relates this story in so many ways to abortionist lifestyle. There are many instances that talk of abortion. One previously quoted by the monster, “Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence...?” (Shelley, Chapter VIII. Pg. 91.  Lines 1-2) The monster who was in the beginning looked upon as shear genius quickly became the creators worst nightmare. Percy Bysshe Shelley goes onto say in his criticism of the book,

“Treat a person ill, and he will become wicked. Requite affection with scorn; - let one being selected, for whatever cause, as the refuse of his kind – divide him, a social being, from society, and you impose upon him the irresistible obligations – malevolence and selfishness. It is thus that, too often in society, those who are best qualified to be its benefactors and its ornament, branded by some accident with scorn, and changed, by neglect and solitude of heart, into a scourge and a curse.” (P, Shelley. Pg. 186 Lines 3-10)

When you look at this scenario and compare the monster to a young child who has no clue as to what the next steps are in life, the young child will look to his parents for guidance. The monster in sense was in the same boat. Victor his guidance deserted him and he had to figure out things for himself. Along the way the monsters anger got the best of him at times and he lashed out and murdered Victor’s brother and his soon to be wife. Both Percy and Mary Shelley both lean towards the idea that the path you choose in life can either lead to success or destruction and the monster and Victor both start on opposite ends of the spectrum but each do a complete turn around and almost switch roles. Just by listening the monster gets a very good education, this shows that he was taking his first steps to survival, since his creator, Victor abandoned him. Croker summarizes,

“Here the monster, by the easy process of listening at the window of a cottage, acquires a complete education: he learns to think, to talk, and to read prose and verse; he becomes acquainted with geography, history, and natural philosophy, in short, ‘a most delicate monster.’” (Croker. Pg. 187-188. Paragraph 3, Lines 14-17)

Victor tried creating what he thought was going to be a beautiful creations by mixing different body parts and was it was going to be his prize possession, his first creations. But thing went wrong and his creations turned out to be hideous and one of ugliest creations on the earth. This caused Victor to immediately become his own worst nightmare and became the monster himself. At the very moment the ugliness of the monster and the brilliance of the creator switched roles. Croker explained,

“…But by some little mistake in the artists calculation, the intended beauty turned out the ugliest monster that ever deformed the day. The creator, terrified at his own work, flies into one wood, and the work terrified at itself flies into another.” (Croker. Pg. 187. Paragraph 3, Lines 10-14.)

Victor became an animalist and ran into the wilderness to hide. The monster also runs off but in time forces himself to learn. If you relate this story to life there are many times that parents are not happy with their children and put them up for adoption, or even sometimes will have abortions before the child is born. Mary Shelley does a very good job at making this close to the same scenario. As stated previously the monster was at a point where he didn’t even want to live anymore and Victor was so ashamed of his creation he literally keep running away. Later on he told the monster that he was going to create a partner for him but ended up destroying her before finishing. This made the monster really upset and because of it he ended up murdering Victors new wife on their wedding night, like he said he would if he didn’t follow through with his creation.

The monster and Victor show what it is like to have problems within a relationship not matter what kind it is and Mary does a great job at portraying what happens when you run away from your problems. I am a firm believer at solving your issues and dealing with them at that moment. Victor and the monster needed to resolve their problems; if they did circumstances would have definitely been different.

Sources Cited

Croker, John “From the quarterly Review” January 1818

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1196.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “On Frankenstein”

Summary of a Critical Response (#7)

picture link (Percy Shelley)

I chose the one by Percy Bysshe Shelley written in 1817. He starts out by asking questions like "what could have been the series of thoughts?" or "What could have been the peculiar experiences that awakened them?" He later goes on to say that the novel has powerful and profound emotion. In the short essay Shelley briefly goes over how feelings of the human mind are exposed to view. 


I think he responded to it differently than I did. He found many different things then I did not find or understand. I learned a little from the article. I didn't fully understand everything the author was talking about, but I got the main idea. I don't think this would make for a good article for me to use in Essay  #3.


Article on Percy Shelley

Reflections on Revision #6

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When it comes to my writing process I would say that I don’t really know if I have one. I just tend to sit at the computer and let my mind begin to wonder on different avenues. I will just start writing random things as they come. I try to finish a paragraph at a time and then I will go back and reread it, fix mistakes and rearrange things if I feel they need to be moved. Very seldom will I do any sort of outline for my paper unless it is required of me. I would have to be honest and say that, yes they make it easier to keep your paper organized and on the right track, but I guess laziness gets the best of me. I have not written too many papers since high school about 6 years ago. So if I had a style back then, I sure don’t remember what it was. As far as revising a paper, I definitely take into considerations the critiquing I received from it and I will try to fix every piece of input I received. I realize that revision is completely different that just fixing the punctuation, etc. It about moving sentences around, making paragraphs flow consistently and keeping everything organized. I will normally revise a paper, especially if I think it can get better. I think revising is a very good thing to do because you can reorganize paragraphs or specific sentences to make the paper flow better, making it more enjoyable for the reader. In my essay I am definitely going to remove as the first person writing. Then I will move around certain sentences to make it flow better. And remove some that are not necessary. 

Revsion Checklist