Response to Classmate's Journal Entry 2 (Week 1)

This is an entry that I read today in April's journal today:

"I wanted to do another take on show and tell, but with a different twist. Can you "show" without describing anything?
Tell:
The girl was bored.
Show:
Sigh. Open book. Read.
Close book. Get up. Go to the computer.
Sit. Check email. Stand.
Nothing new.
Stretch. Yawn. Walk to the kitchen.
Open the fridge. Grab nothing. Back to the couch. "

I really liked what she did with the showing twist so this is what I commented:

"It is so typical of descriptions of boredom to be just that...descriptions. We create a scene by showing what is happening in the typical way "Maddie opened her book and desperately tried to read. Anxious, she walked to the computer and logged on..."but here you paint the same picture without doing that. The short, sharp, choppy, one-to-two-word sentences characterize the speaker as bored because the collection of sentences show how quickly the character moves from one activity to the other, trying to stay busy but failing. I think this is more effective than the typical description because it makes the boredom seem more "real" in a sense."

Junkyard Quotes Entry 4 (Week 1)

"Its like having the Great Wall of China in my pants..."
-my sister on wearing a too bulky pad in her pants while on her period

"I remember your name perfectly but I cant think of your face."
-Oxford professor W. A. Spooner: famous for linguistic flip flops

"I see depression as the plague of the modern era."
-Lewis Judd: former Chief of the National Institute of Mental Health

Improv/ Imitation Entry 1 (Week 1)

I really cannot stop thinking about this poem that we read during the first week of class...it was "A Martian Sends A Postcard Home." I keep thinking about how creative it was of Craig Raine to take the everyday and make it so unique and I really wanted to take a stab at it myself...so here it goes...I would love to see if someone would guess what they are, but I am gonna tell you anyway...

Legs in motion.
Moving so fast-

so high off the ground
that I wonder why they don't fall backward.

Arms moving
with bars in them-

but the bars have round pieces
attached to the ends.

Some are bigger than others-
size does matter I assume.


The ones that are bigger
make the peoples faces writhe

In what looks like pain-
all bunched up and pout-like.

But they slap hands
and start again.


This short little poem was just me trying to capture what it is like at...THE GYM! I am not sure if it is the best, but its my first crack at defamiliarization.

Free Entry 1 (Week 1)

I feel like there are so many things people nowadays do not pay attention to. Including myself. I hardly ever read the news...much less watch it. If there is something better on, like Criminal Minds, or CSI or even Modern Family, you bet your bippy (as my grandmother loves to say) I am watching that before I watch Amanda Davis on Fox Five or Jovita Moore on WSB-TV...I didn't even know these people. I had to Google them. How sad is that? What is our society coming to? Or at least our generation...who would rather play a video game or watch a funny comedy show...wait! scratch funny...that is the whole adjective thing that Professor Davidson talked about...funny comedy show...as opposed to a depressing comedy show? Let me try again: a whimsical comedy show? an Emmy winning comedy show? whatever...the point is: our generation is slowly killing our brain cells and we all are offenders. I go back to the phrase that Davidson wrote on the board after the quiz on tuesday "You are writers. WRITE!" He even underlined "write" twice!! I laughed to myself because even though I call myself a writer, I have trained myself to not write in situations where is isn't "appropriate." Society, I feel, is flawed in their sense of what is appropriate and what is not. I feel kids think it isn't appropriate for them to be worried about what is happening in society, because they are just kids! It isn't their responsibility to worry about the Occupy Wallstreet, or the SOPA thing that is going on...again I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THAT IS! That is actually what prompted me to write this entry. The whole "Wikipedia goes black for a day" and all my friends on Facebook posting articles and statuses about "you need to worry about these bills because it will censor your words!" I feel so out of the loop because I don't pay attention to what is going on in the world these days.
The point of this entry, after all the tangents and all the ranting, was basically to show that, to me, society has always tried to keep kids from worrying about adult things until they have to...but for me, I feel like when we HAVE to start worrying about adult things is when it has become too late and we will never get caught up with all the stuff that is occurring and we will never fully understand. This could be just me. But I worry about society and all the future generations who may just be getting lazier and lazier...we need to start focusing on what is really going on in the world, because, as I have recently come to understand, it is our generation who will have to deal with it all and end up making a change. So that is another one of my goals for myself- FOCUS ON WHAT IS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD SO I CAN UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON...because I am not a kid anymore. I have to start becoming more of an adult...just add it to my list of things to do...

Response to Classmate's Journal Entry 1 (Week 1)

I read this Entry that Drika posted on her journal today:

"I recently attended a screening of The Help here on campus, and as I watched the reactions of my fellow students I had an epiphany of sorts. I realized that we as a society take many things for granted. Simple everyday moments and privileges, such as choosing our professions, sitting where we want on the bus, eating and socializing with whomever we choose, and being protected by the law are often overlooked. That is until an incident comes along, or a movie such as The Help shows us what could have been. Once this happens, for a brief moment in time we are grateful for everything we have, but this truly grateful nature dissipates in a day’s time, and is replaced by an almost oblivious contentment with our current situation. I myself am guilty of this as well. Often I am so caught up with my laptop, iPod, and other technological devices that I fail to remember the struggles of those that allow me to enjoy such privileges. It is my goal for this week to focus on remembering and realization. I intend to focus on remembering the raw determination of the trailblazers of the past, and realizing the efforts of those today that are diligently shaping the future."

I couldn't help but just shake my head because I felt the EXACT same way...so I posted this comment:

"I love this because I feel the exact same way. I saw The Help over the summer with my mother and just cried when I thought about all the things we take for granted and all the relationships with people that we take for granted for that matter. I thought about all the people that I know that just complain complain complain about everything that "isn't fair" about life, and even though I find myself saying the same thing sometimes, I try to catch myself and remember that it is because of people like the women in The Help, or appropriately, Martin Luther King Jr., that we are able to be the society we are today...even though I think they would be shocked of some of the things that we have let happen."

I am so glad that other people have the same thoughts that I do...

Junkyard Quotes Entry 3 (Week 1)

"Its not like I'm taking Ibuprofen like Skittles...I take it only when I need it."
--Conversation with my friend Lennox

"If you were going on a long journey, you could do worse than bring Ed McMahon along."
--Tobias Wolff in "Next Door"

"I smell like elephants."
--Another conversation with my friend Lennox

Junkyard Quotes Entry 2 (Week 1)

"Memories consume
Like opening the wound
I'm picking me apart again..."
--Linkin Park Breaking The Habit

"To read is to empower,
To empower is to write,
To write is to influence,
To influence is to change,
To change is to live."
--Jane Evershed