Risk

In order to get anywhere successful in life I believe one should take risks. There are times, of course, when one should not take risks, but for the most part a person is always risking something. They could be risking judgement, penalty, criticism, etc. Not all of the outcomes are bad though, there is the desired chance of success, persuasion, or change. People need to take risks in order to make a change in the world, or in order to be successful. This does not mean that one should risk not doing their homework for a week hoping that teachers will stop assigning it, that's not going to happen. The reasoning behind the risk has to be somewhat...reasonable. A good example is investing in a business that you are not positive will take off. But along with these extremes comes every day risks. We make risks like driving every day, or going on an airplane, or talking to a new person you've never met. These are all risks, but you wouldn't really be able to live if you didn't take them.

Powerful Images

I was reading my blog for the project and she linked the most powerful images of the year. I just had to share! Some of these are actually insane, I love them. My dad and I looked at them together and some of them are extremely sad, funny, interesting, or just completely insane!
Some of my favorites are number 7, I think it is honestly hilarious. She's getting sprayed in the face with pepper sprain, just look at it! How could you not chuckle a little bit when you see this?
I just started at number 8 for like 3 minutes straight. Can you even imagine? I can't even say anything about it, i'm just shocked every time I see it.
Oh my! I can't even believe number 10! I didn't even know that was possible!
My dad got a huge kick out of number 16, serves them right huh?
Number 18 is my favorite. It makes me think of the end of the world, I am speechless when I see it. IT'S INSANE!!
Okay the rest are pretty great too but number 18 is my favorite beyond favorite. I made it my desktop background.

The Lady With the Stroller

"Two more blocks. Two more, two more, two moooore. Two more blocks and we will be opening the doors to cushioned chairs surrounding a blazing fire that will thaw out the tips of my toes." This runs through my head as I wait for the symbol to change from a big orange hand signaling me to stay on my current side of the road, to the skinny, white man informing me that it might be safe to walk. "Now if only she doesn't wake up, then I'd call this a pretty successful trip to the coffee shop."

Why I looked to my right, I don't know, but maybe if I hadn't the man would have spotted a different victim to stare down until they forged over some cash. He had long, greasy hair that I assume used to be dreadlocks, and ragged clothes. Either he had a very rough night, or he was homeless. As I tried to ignore him, I felt his stare pierce through me and my baby. "Please stop looking at her!" I thought, but didn't dare say incase he took it as a challenge. I wondered why all of the others waiting to cross the street were looking away, very obviously pretending to be oblivious to the current situation. Thanks my fellow citizens.

I quickly grabbed my purse and searched for the one thing I hoped would stop making him look at my baby that way. Lipstick tossed to the right, address book to the left, handkerchief...I was wondering where that went, ah. My wallet. The color of the pink roses would usually remind me of the purchases I make on the objects that make me happy. Instead I was grabbing it in hopes of ridding of the man who was as still as a statue, piercing my child with his gaze. I frantically pulled the thin piece of paper and held it out for the man to take.

When he snached it from my hand and went on his way, my heartbeat slowed and my grip released it deathly hold on the stroller. For what seemed like an hour, the symbol changed and I quickly went on my way to the coffee shop, frazzled from the rush of adrenaline.

Revealed!

1. Definition
2. Compare/Contrast
3. Narration
4. Process Analysis
5. Cause and Effect
6. Argument

Happiness

Happiness is one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. It is what someone feels at the highest moments of his or her lives. Even if something horrible is happening, happiness makes one forget the trouble and feel joy for that moment. It can be the result of one of your actions, or the actions of another. Happiness is being pleased with something, someone, or some event. It is a feeling that people need in their lives, at least at some point, to make them have a joyful life, or even a livable life really. Everyone needs happiness, and everyone is able to feel happiness if they want it. 

Happiness is like the feeling one gets on Christmas morning if they celebrate Christmas. Or when one meets someone they love, like a family member, after an extended period of time. Happiness is like being a little kid and having no worries. It's like traveling to a place you have been waiting to visit all of your life. It's like being with the one's you love, doing the things you enjoy. Happiness can be found in great things, as well as small. Happiness is being as far away from sadness, even for a moment.

This weekend has been one of the best weekends of my life, one where I have been happy with my life and my family and friends. I went up to my cabin with my two brother, mom, dad, and dog. We left on Wednesday and arrived back home only a couple minutes ago. My grandma and her husband, who are from North Dakota, came on Thursday and left this morning as well. We did absolutely nothing except watch movies, play games, and sit by the fire. We talked and laughed and everyone was simply happy. 

It doesn't take a winning ticket to the lottery, or a big promotion at a job, happiness can be found in the simple things in life. Although these things would just as well make a person happy, sitting with family and enjoying dinner can cause happiness easily. As long as a person allows for himself to have a good time, and enjoys the company around him, he will feel happiness. It is really easy if you surround yourself with others who are happy, it's like something contagious, if one person is happy, others will be too. 

If one surrounds himself with people who are very happy with their lives and express it in a pleasing, or not annoying way, then he will eventually find himself just as happy. If he surrounds himself with people who see the glass half empty, then he will also see the glass half empty, and therefore will most likely not feel happiness, or at least not as much as in the other scenario.

When someone feels happiness, they live a better life. This is because they enjoy the things they do and people they are surrounded by, and as a result simply enjoy living more. If you enjoy living, then life is better. If you are not happy, people will not want to be around you, there won't be things in life to live for really, and your life will not be even close to as pleasurable as one who is happy. It's a fact, you can't live a good life without being happy.

Holiday Season

The traditions assignment really got me thinking about the holiday season, and to be completely honest, I was about to jump out of my chair I was so excited. And NOW it's snowing. I can't even believe that it's almost Christmas time again! For me, it is absolutely the most wonderful time of the year. I would take the snowy, snowmobiling weather over any 80 degree beach. But not just the weather, because believe me, I am not one of those people who actually like the freezing wind that nearly slashes your face open when it hits you, but only because it means that Christmas is almost here. And even if you don't celebrate Christmas, the entire season is the most wonderful experience. Everyone is happy. Everyone is helping, and giving, and receiving, and it is just the best time ever. I love Christmas. I love the season of Christmas. And I love being able to snowmobile, sled, four-wheel, and so on during this time. I AM SO EXCITED!

.....I wrote this on Saturday night, I know I have no life, but I realized I didn't post it until right now. Great.

The Rhetoric of Communication

The different messages people send out may not be recognized by the person, but when looking at the situation from a different perspective, a message can be perceived as very rude even though it may not have been meant to be rude. A couple examples include:

• When a businessperson leaves a restaurant table to answer a page, he may think that he is doing his work and it's okay, but really the message is that work is more important than the person you are at the restaurant with, and that means that the person is not very important at all.
• A doctor leaving the table to answer a page is an excusable act, but it also puts a damper on the night considering the doctor now has to leave and the dinner is ruined. 
• An answering machine that cuts off after 30 seconds is basically saying, say something quickly because by the time you hit 30 seconds, I probably will be tuned out anyways. It gives off a message that you have better things to be doing than hearing from the person leaving the message.
• When a telephone solicitor mispronounces my name I instantly know that what they are about to talk about in completely unimportant, and usually I'll just hang up. But the message they are portraying is that they don't care enough to figure out how to pronounce your name, they don't even know you at all, and they really don't give a crap but only want slash need to get paid.
• When a fax is marked "Urgent", a person instantly feels a rush of most likely dread, anxiety, and anticipation.  At the same time, the situation is probably not as urgent as one may think, otherwise the sender of the message would say what happened straight up.

These are some examples of what your message can give off, even if you don't mean to. This is how technology has changed us and how a message is perceived.

Babysitting Horrors

Babysitting is the easiest way to make money. And if you agree with this statement then I am very sorry to be the one to tell you that you are completely wrong. Actually I take that back, you are completely wrong and I really don't mind shoving it down your throat, so you know get to enjoy as I enlighten you about my night last night. 

I get inside and I am welcomed by their stupid, loud dog trying to bite my hand off. This dog is pretty small, but if I had the choice, I would throw it out the back window. Then the parents come downstairs and the seven year old Adam, who is too cute for words but is a little devil, informs me that his dad was naked upstairs and he saw his "pee-pee". He used a couple of other words I won't share, but you can imagine the awkward silence that followed that comment. They were out the door within the minute. 

The next couple of hours went pretty well, I got yelled at for making PB&J's on wheat bread, and for making them turn off the TV and play with me, but other than those few things, it went pretty well. That is, until bedtime started.

Every single babysitter knows the difficulty of putting little kids to sleep because you really aren't allowed to yell at them or spank them or argue other threats that the parents of the children can, so we have to resort to the significantly less effective threats like calling their parents or not coming back again. Those are the best i've come up with, and they usually do squat. 

So last night Adam and Annie (the two seven year old twins), started out the night by fighting over who gets the iPad in bed. They are supposed to switch every night, but it seems that every single time I go over there, they simply can't remember who had it the night before. Right. So we all agreed to flip a coin. Annie won. That meant hell for the next hour and ten minutes. I knew that if Adam didn't get the iPad then he would make a much bigger fuss, but I didn't predict this big.

Let's recap:

He started by running for the iPad, punching and kicking Annie on the way. As she was sitting on the ground crying as I pried the little devil off her, Jacob (the third kid who's older and can put himself to sleep, thank God), sat on the stairs and cheered them on. Adam had the iPad so I had to get that from him, Annie was still crying. Adam was screaming at me how it wasn't fair at all, when really, it was pretty fair. I sent Annie up with the iPad and Adam to bed, which I knew was not going to happen. After a whole lot of yelling and threatening, I read him a book and he was in bed. Finally. But when I got downstairs and just unloaded my backpack, Adam comes down the stairs. You have GOT to be kidding me. Long story short, he had a headache, so I went upstairs and rubbed his back, he argued with me about sleep until two minutes later he couldn't even get out another word, and soon enough he was snoring. Oh happy day. 

The parents came home and of coursed asked, "How were the kids?"....I said good. That's the lie of the year.

How I Write...

Every time I write I write in the same spot, on the same computer, with the same pair of knit socks. If you know I am writing and you need to find me, I will be sitting in my bed on the third floor of my house looking over a big swamp, half blocked by a tree that envelopes the lower half of my window. I am always under the comforter, but never under the sheet...it's just too much. Actually, to be honest, I have no idea why I don't go under the sheets, but they just bother me and by the end are usually at the bottom of my bed anyways. I always wear my favorite pair of socks that i'm not really sure can be considered socks. More like knit slippers that go up to my mid-calf. I got them from my Auntie Cindy as a gift a while ago and I remember thinking, wow socks? Cool auntie...but look at it now, they are my favorite pair! Anyways, enough with the socks, I also write on my laptop and only on my laptop. There are actually many reasons for this, mainly because I can't take our desktop computer to my bed, but also because I know my laptop. I know how hard I have to press down to type out a word. I know that when the computer gets so hot that I can feel it on my legs that it's time to give it a rest. And I know the size of the screen and how the words fit to it, I just know my computer and how I want whatever i'm writing to look when I finish.
Unlike most people, I don't exactly need complete silence. I assume this is because I have two brothers and my parents are really loud and obnoxious usually, so I don't really have the option of quiet. BUT when I start my paper or whatever i'm writing, I try to get things as quiet as possible. It's just the beginning that always throws me off. There I need quiet. Oddly, I can never write with music playing. If it's classical with no words and I don't know the song, then I can. But if it's a song that I know, has lyrics, or a melody that is repeating slash I recognize it, then no way jose am I going to be able to concentrate long enough to write even half of a sentence.
So basically I followed every single one of these  to get ready for writing my paper. I started with writing out a rough draft that basically sucked. As I went through my paper writing draft after draft I had different people proof read it and give me corrections. I always have my mom be the first to proof read, then I don't let her see it until the very last proof read. By the end she said it turned into a completely different paper. Success. I love proof reading my papers and thinking about one thing, then reading through the entire paper and changing everything that has to do with that rule. I loved it! Am I a nerd that way? yes. Do I care? nope.

How Safe is Downtown?

    How safe do you think downtown really is? The question could be answered in so many different ways depending on the circumstances of course, but in this post I am going to be talking about my circumstances and my experience from last night. Trust me, they are worth talking about.
    Let me give you a small recap of my night. My friend Shannon and I went to see the Scottish Ballet at the Orpheum by ourselves and it ended at 10:40 PM. The Orpheum is located on Hennepin and 9th street, unfortunately we parked on Marquette and 6th. So we were dressed up in high heels that were way to high, skirts, and I personally think we looked pretty good. So did many men on the streets on our walk home.
    Everybody knows who I'm talking about when I talk about these guys right? The ones that come out of the alleys (we looked in one and I almost screamed), the ones that wear their pants to the ground, the ones that have never taken a grammar class in their lives, and of course the ones that make rude and inappropriate comments to young girls in skirts. These are the kind of people I am wondering about. I kept wondering to myself last night if these guys were just talking the talk or if they would actually try to touch me. I'm sure in the end it's probably all harassment, but at the time there was no way I was about to risk it.
   Shannon told me that she heard from someone that you should walk with your head down when you pass those people. So we did that, and I just looked up what you should do if something happens. If they speak to you, walk away and ignore them. Did that. If they follow, get into an entrance of a building that looks safe. The problem with this is that we were looking for entrances and there were very few, or they were closed buildings. Also, always try to find a group of people to walk with. We definitely did that and got some very strange looks and comments, but we felt much safer. If they try to grab you run, point a gun at you run, chase after you...run faster. But remember, high heels. There was no running for us. We could do this sort of gallopy looking thing, but if we were being chased, it would be a good night to be the bad guy.
   In the end we got to the car safely, and to be honest the comments did boost our egos a bit, but for future reference I just won't be wearing the clothing I was in downtown Minneapolis at 10:40 PM with my tall, blonde, sixteen year old best friend anymore, because we are bound to get captured and raped. I just know it.  And also, every single one of the solutions I looked up are common sense. So if you are put in this situation, keep your head down, don't talk to strangers, and if anything happens, by all means run your little heart out! Swell travels to you all.

If everyone stopped, life would be great

If everyone could simply do as I say, the world would be a much better place. I wouldn't get annoyed and want to smack some people across the face, and I know I am not the only one who agrees with some of these. Follow these easy steps, and make my life happier:

1. Stop apologizing for every single thing you do. You ask what the homework is? "Ok i'm sorry!!"...why? It literally took me 5 seconds to tell you what it was.
2. If you raise your hand in class to correct the teacher if he/she says something is due the next day and it's Friday...everyone knows what they mean. Don't be annoying.
3. Ew. Please don't suck up your snot. Walk the 10 steps to get a tissue. It's gross.
4. You can stop taking pictures of yourselves in the school bathrooms...is that even sanitary? The lighting sucks, so it's not a good picture anyways. So you can go ahead and stop at anytime now.
5. If you don't make words that you mean to be adjectives not into them. It's two little letters guys. L and Y.
6. PDA in school...you know what I am talking about.
7. If you smoke, well just don't. But if you do, don't walk with a cigarette in your hand, because every single person behind you gets to suck in your smoke. It's disgusting!

If you follow these 7 steps, life will already be a little better. Anything else, I can basically laugh about, but these really bother me. So let's have a good day and not be annoying!

Structure and Sadness

I went to a show tonight at the Walker Art Center. I just crawled in bed and decided that I needed to write a blog...now. I can't get it off my mind, it was wonderful!

Basically, the story is about the bridge in West Gate that collapsed in 1970. I didn't know this before the show, which I'm pretty glad about because it slowly came together throughout the show. For the record, it's  choreographed by Lucy Guerin, so snaps for Lucy!...excuse my Legally Blonde reference.

When thStructure and Sadnesse show started, the first thing I thought was, "oh great, I bet it's going to be as sucky as that last show"...not that i'm going to name names or anything, that'd be plain cruel. The whole show started with a man who danced with a piece of ply wood basically... it sounds as dumb as it was, excuse my criticizing. BUT in the shows defense, it got much better and is definitely top of my list.

After the man did a cool trick and left, the show began. bum bum buuum....picture this: three guys, three girls, surrounded my piles of different sized ply wood. Choreographically they are grabbing stacks and setting them up to stand like dominoes sort of. It took me a while to figure out what they were doing, but it was truly amazing. They were doing this for a good 15 minutes, but my mind never wandered. Emotional music was play (can I get some Pathos please?), and in pairs, the dancers would come out and do a contemporary phrase.

At this point, I still had no idea what this piece was really about, and the set up was getting so high on one side that they brought in a15 ft ladder to keep on stacking. Everything was choreographed so beautifully!  Then the story started to come together. A long metal board and a small object holding the middle were assembled as the dancers teeter-tottered on either side. Four of them were on it, and at one point a guy goes under it and it collapses.

Let me quickly recap the rest: They tipped on bored over, the smallest which was like a half a foot big, while the largest was like 4 feet big. Then they just crashed down. It was breathtaking. Next there's a woman who sets up a table with the ply wood and is singing along to a new, upbeat music. In the background the two girls are on another bridge made of the metal and two small latters, Then a news  report goes over the speakers about the bridge collapse. They do a little dance, they make it as the guys are "ghosts", and the ending left me speechless.

All of the dancers were laying on the ground in a straight line and a metal board is placed over them, and the woman who was singing before, walks across it as the lights go out. This portrays the death of these people by the bridge, and the lights go out before we see if the woman made it across the "bridge".

Or at least that's what I thought about. Sorry for the never ending post, but I recommend this show, it's wonderful and makes you think. You get to see the emotions one may feel when they come across a situation like this. People's husbands and brothers die, but no one can ever know the deep pain endless you were put in the position of someone who lost a loved one. This piece makes you think about these things with a new mind, by not only hearing, but seeing the emotions that are connected to these words.

Think about it for a while.

P.S. if this link works, it's not the same people I saw, and it's much better in person.  www.youtube.com

Speech

I am in the middle of watching the Obama back-to-school speech, I wanted to write as I was watching so the I could catch the little details in his speech.

Before Obama even came out on stage, the scene is set. There are rows and rows of students in the background of all ethnicities, the entire place is decorated blue (symbolizing leadership I believe?), and a student opens the entire speech.

I was a little surprised that Obama came out saying "Heeeey!" it caught me off guard a bit. I kind of felt like I was at a concert, but I think his point was to bring himself down to a more informal state. This is because his audience here is students, who would better understand someone who spoke like them, or rather us. So I understand his reason behind an introduction like this, but it still caught me off guard...pleasantly I might add.

At the very beginning, he sets the stage by saying that he does not want to be just another adult standing before us kids, talking to us as minority. By this, he gives us a feeling of having a larger purpose, which personally makes me want to listen to him more because I feel like he is not about to just tell me that I have to work harder or stop acting like a child. Rather I'm ready for him to speak to me as if I am an adult and I have responsibilities that will actually matter.

He used the metaphor, "sometimes you need to color outside of the lines." I thought this was really cute, and a little inspiring because everybody can relate to this idea and paint a picture in their mind.

He doesn't have any visuals, but he paints a lot of pictures by using personal examples. Personally I would say make the speech a little shorter, because I am getting really bored and tuning out a little bit, but summing it up, it's a good speech. He's his hands well and seems very comfortable at giving speeches which is very helpful in watching him and feeling comfortable listening.

He doesn't say anything significantly powerful by using repetition or anything, he is simply stating the facts. It is effective,but a little lecture-ish and to be honest, kind of boring. If I had a choice, I would turn it off right now.

His ending was good and straight to the point which I liked. The last thing I want to say before I finish up is that I definitely noticed that every single person in the background was either African American or Indian, except for one boy in the front left corner. I have a feeling that they did this on purpose too to make it seem like America is very ethnically accepting and diverse. Which I guess is true to a point, but I found it a little bit obnoxious.

That is all I have to say :)

Can you imagine?

Can you even imagine?


Education The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately. Florida
The Blind The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race. Louisiana




How could there be such a world as this? When I read these laws, all I can do is ask question. How could people be so cruel? How could a white person look at another human being in their different colored face with disgust? How could they not look at the mirror at themselves and realize something is wrong? How? The word repeats itself ever time I read a new law. How.


Children were brought up to believe that being different is a bad thing. But not only this, white children were taught that black people were different from them. They were taught that as being different is bad, then black children therefore must be bad.    


In one way of thinking, it wasn't necessarily these people's faults for believing this, considering this is the way they were brought up and the things they were taught.  On the other hand, there is a point when a person should understand the circumstances and realize that they have been taught wrongly.


On the third hand, what if it was one of those things that people just don't pay as much attention to? For example, animal right currently could in the future be related to jim crow laws. If animals end up gaining more rights in the future, then those in the future could look at us currently and think of us as cruel. So in a sense, we could be just as cruel as humans were in the past...when you think of it in that sense.


All in all though, I believe that regardless, Jim Crow Laws are horrible, inhumane, and break my heart to even imagine a reality where they existed. 

Enough

     After reading each and every short story, I realized that even though they were obviously short (hence the "short stories" title), each writing is full of enough depth that by the end of it, I felt like I knew each author. I felt like I could understand their problems or dilemmas, but more specifically their emotions about each subject.  After attempting at writing, I realize the difficulty in putting so much emotion into a piece that the reader actually feels the emotions along with the author.  But even though each of these stories were less than two pages, all of them succeeded with this aspect....only making me feel even worse about my literary narrative. yay.
     Another thing I noted while reading through the short stories was that all of the authors knew that they wanted to be writers at a very young age.  Brendan Gill said that he knew about what he wanted to be when he was four.  I don't even remember being four! The first time I remember ever knowing what I wanted to be when I grew up was in 5th grade, I wanted to be a lawyer.  Who always dressed in pink.  And incase you didn't make the connection, I wanted to be the girl from Legally Blonde.  The only differences were that one) I wasn't blonde. and two) I also wanted to be a ballerina on the side.  There is a nice realistic dream for you.
     In Brendan Gill's short story i noticed some very grammatically incorrect sentences, and I wondered why he would write the story like that.  I enjoy reading it, because it is simple to read, and easy.  But I know he must have had a better reason in doing so.  Why would he write out dialog without using quotation marks?  I sure hope that this is grammatically incorrect and I am not just making a bigger fool out of myself then I already am...
     Before I complete my rambling on about parts and pieces that ran through my mind as I read each piece, I would love to ask one question.  Was anyone else gap-mouthed (that's a word right?) at the end of Pat Conroy's short story??  Because the second I finished that story, I went online to see if I could find any books by him online...is it bad that I found his story thrilling?  I would a story like that in a heartbeat!

Why I Write....??

       Let's start with some honesty here... I write because I am told to.  I don't mean to say that I don't enjoy writing... I wouldn't take this class if I didn't enjoy writing. I write for essays, for classes, basically anything but for fun. I'd like to blame it on not having enough time, but to stay with the honesty role I'm on, if I really wanted to write, I would make time.

       I love writing, I really do. So far, I know I'm making it sound like its a task, a chore.  But I will say that I don't exactly know how to write for fun.  Ever since I was little, I always dreamt about being that girl who wrote in her journal every night.  I could go upstairs and find 10 journals stuffed under my bed, in the back of my closet, or hidden between other books in my shelf.  But if I opened any one of those journals, I bet you could guess what would be in there.    Right, nothing! How do I start a journal? "Dear journal...How ya doin' today journal?....Why am I talking to inanimate objects journal?..." That's not how I role.

       However, I have written just to write before.  Only a couple times, but looking back on them is pretty funny.  There you go, we've stumbled upon another reason I write.  I love looking at my writings, reading about my "troubles", and laughing to myself. I love the thought of being able to read what was going through my head, bringing my memories to the surface, watching how my penmanship changed as    I get older.  

       As soon as I started this class, my dream has been rapidly returning.  Can I please be that girl who writes in a journal?  I feel like it would be a good way of un-cluttering my mind a bit.  There is SO much going on up there, it would do me good to get some of it out.  Plus, in twenty years when I look back on it, I can laugh at myself and remember my "troubles" once again.  

       Here's my last bit of honesty to leave you with.  I started a journal on Thursday that I write in every night....I love it.