Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 12/11

Last night, I worked tireless on my paper and am completely done with the citations! I am very proud of myself, because I was more worried about my citations than anything else. However, I would still like to find some more sources just for the sake of thoroughness.

Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 12/9

Today, I did absolutely nothing related to my affirmative action paper. I have quite a bit of Organic Chemistry to study and I am much more worried about that class than my paper. I still feel fairly confident in my paper and am not too worried about completing the paper on time. I hope you all feel updated.

Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 12/7

Today, I finished my introduction and my conclusion for the first draft of my affirmative action expository paper. I felt like completing these two things would not require me to be 100% finished with my research, but still allow me to get some good work done. This is huge because in all honesty, I would much rather spend the next few weeks on preparation for finals than this paper. I had relatively little trouble writing my introduction because affirmative action tends to be a topic that can write its own story. There is such a deep history of America associated with affirmative action and its precursors that there is really no lack of information to use. This makes me even happier with my choice of topic for my paper, and I continue to feel confident that I can complete this paper on time more than adequately.

Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 12/4

Thursday evening, I spent most of my time attempting to amass more information and sources on affirmative action associated with colleges. At this point in my research I'm just shooting out googles fishing for good info wherever it may be. I also started working on the bibliographies of these sources. The purpose of this is to just save time for me in the future so I won't have to deal with citations and such while cram editing my paper at the last minute. I feel fairly confident about the direction in which my paper is going and hope to have continued success in finding information.

Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 12/1

I'm done with my paper proposal! I made sure to incorporate the merits of researching an argument about affirmative action in college acceptance, how it relates to me, and where I could go to look for information on my topic. I feel pretty darn good about it being accepted, so on Wednesday I'm probably going to begin doing research for the next piece of our paper we have due, which requires us to research the opinions of both sides of our issue and explain what they believe and why. I've got my mojo going and I'm ready to knock this paper out!

Uhphermuhtivv Akshun Update 11/30

Today I found a great resource that I think is going to prove key for both sides of my affirmative action in college acceptance debate. Grutter v. Bollinger (2003) was a Supreme court case that directly confronted the issue, asking whether or not the judgment based on race that may have kept Barbara Grutter from being accepted into the University of Michigan Law School. The Court majority voted in favor of the law school stating that such judgment was constitutional, with Sandra Day O'Connor writing the majority opinion and Ruth Bader Ginsburg writing a concurrence. Justices Thomas, Kennedy, and Scalia and Chief Justice Rehnquist all wrote dissenting opinions. This case, filled with important statistics and educated opinions, is a vast wealth of information for my paper that may single-handedly take me where I need to go!

Just in case you're curious:

The Oyez Project, Grutter v. Bollinger , 539 U.S. 306 (2003)
available at: (http://oyez.org/cases/2000-2009/2002/2002_02_241)
(last visited Sunday, November 29, 2009).

Layeramee Prahgekkt

Watching the Laramie Project gave me incredibly mixed emotions about the inspiration of the film itself. Throughout the entire film, I felt great sympathy for Matthew Sheppard, his family and friends, and the entire Laramie community, and I wish there was some way such a catastrophe could have been avoided. However, the movie itself seemed to push the support of hate crime legislation that I just do not know enough about to feel comfortable to accept at this point. I was somewhat disappointed in the fact that a movie that could have been incredibly powerful without the ending political message had to add that piece in. The story of Sheppard on its own raises a great deal of important awareness of social injustice within our country. However, the political aspect of the piece with hate crime legislation left me fairly upset.

Yoshino Rhetorical Triangle

Purpose- To inform the societal dominant groups of the covering plight of minority groups

Exigence- Yoshino has been forced to cover during much of his adult life due to his sexuality not neccesarily being accepted by the mainstream

Audience- Although Yoshino does not necessarily believe in a mainstream, he believes that the group of people that would most likely represent the mainstream of society

Credibility- His experiences as a gay man covering in society as well as the accounts of real people that he has interviewed

Logic- His belief that there is a consistent pressure of minority groups to conform to the social norms within our society.

Emotion- He is exposing a major subjugation of the minority groups within our society

Imagery- Because he does not believe the mainstream exists, Yoshino is forced to paint a picture of what he believes that the mainstream would look like had it existed

Figurative Language- The language he uses is actually very literal

Syntax- His sentence structure is fairly standard, creating a simple easy-to-understand storyline

Diction- His word use is fairly simple, making it easier to understand the clear point he is attempting to get across

Presher too Sukseed

The meaning behind Kenji Yoshino's statement that "the mainstream is a myth" is that America was built to not have one type of main group or culture but rather have a constantly changing set of beliefs and customs to fit all who live in the country. Yoshino's statement is based on the fact that the United States has had many different "identities" as our country has progressed. Multiple waves of immigration put different faces on what a mainstream American was supposed to look like, so there really is no one permanent set look, act, or feeling of a person who is considered "mainstream." Also, individuals can take upon multiple personalities/identities which can add to the lack of one true identity.
Yoshino is quite credible due to the fact that his personal beliefs and actions would not be considered mainstream and he has suffered from the consequences described in his writings.

FREE PHILTHY RICH!!!!!
FREE BIG LURCH!!!!!
FREE MYSTIKAL!!!!!

Studddds

The story of C.P. Ellis is a story of reconciliation and redemption that sticks out like a sore thumb in the society from which Ellis came due to his willingness to change himself. Ellis used his natural human ability to reason in a way that none of his family or friends ever would, and even more importantly acted upon that reasoning. However, I don't believe his method of change necessarily can translate to a total overcoming of racial and other types of misunderstanding. This is because his change of heart was more of an internal decision. The vast majority of bigots and racists in America do not have or refuse to acknowledge the existence of an ethical conscience about race. Therefore an internal change would almost be impossible and outside forces would have to come into play in order to have that type of effect on the people in question. However, Ellis's story is definitely credible due to the fact that he lived through a time where he actually associated with people who hate others more than any other group in the country and experienced things with them that set his story apart from most others.

Freedumb

Linda was able to finally escape to the north through the help of her friend Peter. At first when he offered her safe passage to the North, she turned him down due to the killing of a fugitive slave in the recent past that had deeply frightened her grandmother. She instead has Peter take her fugitive friend Fanny to the boat with him. However, eventually her grandmother relented, and Linda joined Fanny on the boat to Philadelphia to begin a new life in a free northern state. This does not end her troubles with the Flint family, who continued to pursue Linda to bring her back home until well after the death of Dr. Flint, but this gave Linda her first experience working for herself and gave a glimpse of what it was like to truly be without a master. The one thing that did upset her about this freedom was the fact that she was never able to see her grandmother while they were both free women even though they both died free.

FREE PHILTHY RICH!!!!!

Ahnestee phur Kredibyllitee

"And I was so selfish. I thought more of what I had lost, than of what my brother had gained. A new anxiety began to trouble me." In this passage, Linda is referencing the escape of her brother from the friendly captivity, yet captivity nevertheless, of Mr. Sands. Linda's honesty is important in this passage due to the fact that William's escape does not necessarily please here even though he is free, because she found the relationship between her and her brother to be more important than the freedom of one party or the other. This is a fairly common notion in slave culture at the time: that the sense of community between all of the slaves on a certain plantation is more important than the rights of individual members of the group, something that would not be expected in a situation like theirs.

FREE PHILTHY RICH!!!

Innsidence in the Lyph of a Slayv Gurlll

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl has a certain raw energy to it that cannot be compared to any textbook reading I have done or any encyclopedia entry. This raw energy comes from the course, biting language used throughout the narrative. Without such verbage within the story, I think the story would be less captivating. What makes this so special is the rough texture that the dialogue creates. Slavery was not pretty, fluffy or clean, and the story comes off as a much better representation of real life slavery due to the language it uses. Also, I find this story to be more powerful because it is a true story and not a work of fiction. This is because the sheer fact that this particular story actually happened has a much stronger mental effect. Had this story been just a representation of something that may have happened on a plantation that really isn't based on an actual story, I would have taken the plot to a much less serious degree. However, because of the nature of this true story, I not only have really been absorbed into the story, but I also have taken its message much more seriously.

Free Big Lurch!

Let's talk about racism!

Due to my generally tranquil cheery nature, I tend to avoid confrontation of any kind, especially confrontations about something I hate talking about like race. However, I have been a witness to several different interactions involving heated discussions about whether or not someone has been acting "racist" by the way they have been talking or acting, and believe me, I'm happy I've stayed out of it up to this point. From what I have seen, really there is no winner in these kinds of discussions because the conversation eventually declines into a name-calling shouting match which is utterly useless. I find this disappointing because if there are ever true racial issues that arise in our society, they are almost impossible to discuss without America, the country that cried racist, flipping out and discrediting the real problems. I completely agree with Wachtel in that the word "racist" has totally lost its value because of its massive overuse. It is being used to describe things that should be labeled as prejudice, bias, bigotry, etc. I find it interesting how the misuse of language has actually desensitized the public to an issue that is largely important in today's society.

Free Big Lurch!

Soeshelyz8hun Prahsess

Vincent Parillo's Socialization Process is a process in which individuals acquire what they value, believe, and perceive of different groups of people, usually conforming to the beliefs of their parents or other major role models in youth. The youth in question usually has no other sources of alternatives to the beliefs of his/her parents, so their beliefs are usually accepted as the real ones from a very early age. I believe this process does instill beliefs just from looking at my childhood, and I don't think there is anything wrong with this. It is a parent's responsibility to teach their children wrong from right and how to treat other people. Had my parents been woman-hating white supremacists, I probably would have at least started out as one too! Parillo's socialization process definitely exists in our society, and a cycle of bigotry is created by parents producing hateful children, who then produce hateful children of there own and so on.

Nodes on the Stayt of Vurjinya

Many of the ideas that Thomas Jefferson pushed in the late 18th century as our fledgling country expanded tended to have a very "Do as I say, not as I do" approach. Jefferson, just like everyone else, was very human in that he knew what was best for both him and his country, but did not really want to change his actions in order to achieve these goals. Just like a vast amount of our nations' founding fathers, Jefferson at times showed a desire to end slavery, but he wanted this to take place well after he had died. Also, before declaring Jefferson a hypocrite bastard for what he wrote in the Declaration of Independence despite his slave ownership, one must remember that hindsight is 20/20 and that many things in today's society that are totally unacceptable were considered in Jefferson's time to just be "how life worked", such as challenging people to duels, wearing stupid powdered white wigs, and even owning slaves. I'm not trying to absolve Jefferson from his wrongdoings throughout his life. All I'm saying is that Jefferson was really no different as far as hypocrisy than the other prominent politicians of his era and should be looked upon as such.

Alger Cruise

In the story of Steven Cruz, we find a man who has risen through company ranking and has received high praise from his peers. However, Cruz is judged based on his accomplishments compared to other members of his race, who have been stereotyped to not be as successful or as hard working. This makes Cruz fairly unsatisfied with his situation, and even though he has achieved many things, he does not attribute them to his work, but rather to his race.
This is quite a contrast to the ideas presented in "Ragged Dick"by Horatio Alger. Alger's position is that with hard work and perseverance, anyone can achieve great things in America. However, Cruz's situation contrasts in the way that his position was not earned or judged on merit alone. Although this does not make him unworthy of his position in any way, it does present the fact that the world is not judged on an even plane and in some places, there will be biases that put some at an advantage over others.

Veejooal Arguments

Visual arguments are by far the greatest influencing form of argument in existence. Nothing gets across a message like a good, impactful picture of whatever you happen to be talking about that. I remember going through drivers ed back in the day, and the class was extremely boring. I would sleep through all the teacher's lectures. I would skim the text to see if there was anything interesting, which there never was. However, one day I came to class and a video was shown of a man my teacher called "Mr Applesauce Face." If you haven't guessed. Mr Applesauce Face was a man who was not as careful as he should have been when he was driving, and as a result was found barely alive in his wreckage with a head that looked like, well, applesauce. This alone has made me a safer driver as well as totally convincing me of the power of Visual arguments.

Toulim

The statement on page 88 stating “real-world arguments seldom prove anything” is referring to how the basis of argument is not truly rooted in the real world. This is because, as Aristotle said, there is no real truth in our world. We have to create our own truth. Therefore, when trying to find the truth, it will not be discovered in our real world. Real world arguments are only able to find patterns and semi-truths about our world, which will never be the actual truth.
This having been said, that does not mean that real world arguments are totally useless. Strong factual reason is a very important part of how we argue, and this comes from our ability to use this factual reason in real world arguments. However, this still does not "prove" anything, rather it strengthens our ability to reason.

Soodow Arguments

A pseudo-argument actually isn't very much of an argument at all. It usually is between two parties that are either unable or unwilling to express their side of the "argument" in terms that can actually relate to anything. The parties would rather defend their arguments with quips such as "because I said so." This reminds me of my puny little second grade arguments with my friends, which would always involve one person saying one of the following: "I know you are but what am I?", "I am rubber. You are glue. Whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you!", and my personal favorite, "Oh yeah? Well.... Your Mom!!!" Obviously none of these got anybody anywhere, and as with pseudo-arguments, neither a consensus nor a resolution would ever come about, rendering the whole concept of pseudo arguments absolutely useless.

Blog Due Today

A+!

Biotech Foood

As a rabid consumer of lots and lots of food, I tend to ignore the ingredients on the package and head straight for the goodness on the inside. Because of this, I would definitely not feel comfortable with genetically modified food to only mention its genetic modification in small type near the nutrition facts and all that other crap. I need a big, fat, easy to read sticker on the front that says THIS HAS BEEN GENETICALLY MODIFIED. I don't care if this has the potential affect the sales. I just want to know whether or not someone's been screwing around with my food or not. However, I do see the point of view of the companies producing the food. If I had food that I genetically modified, I wouldn't neccesarily feel the need to boldly broadcast that kind of information. But being the consumer with the voracious appetite that I am, I would much rather have the food company take a hit in their pocketbook than have me take a hit in my genetically modified stomach.

Using Picture Stuff

An Explicit argument, unlike an implicit argument, is a direct confrontation against another argument or point of view. The person stating their view is "rearing to fight", or ready to go make their point of view known. An implicit argument is a much more understated way of proving a point. This is what is demonstrated in the picture of veterans. There is no direct confrontation attempted by the taking of this picture, however, there is a point to be made by the way this picture was taken that emphasizes the great cost of fighting war. I personally prefer to use implicit arguments, but that is just because I don't have the type of personality that typically wants to start any conflicts.

My AP English Experience

AP English has been without a doubt an incredibly unique class so far this year. My favorite aspect of the way the class works is the great amount of discussion we are able to have about the readings and writings we have worked on, with my favorite moment being our discussion of the characters of The Great Gatsby. I will not lie and say it was my favorite book of all time, and in some places the book left me scratching my head. However, after our in-class discussion of all the characters and all of their terrible dirty lives, the book became much clearer to me and it gave me much more of an appreciation for the brilliant work that Fitzgerald did on the book. It was also lighthearted and easy to understand, and I even got condemned to hell! I hope the good times keep on rolling in AP English!!!

The Evolution of Language

There is no doubt in my mind that any and ever language evolves over time. First off, obviously, is the fact that the world around us is constantly evolving, so the language has to evolve with it in order to keep up. In the time period when English was first coming into its modern form, I can say with certainty that the speakers of the time didn't go home to houses with aluminum siding filled with televisions, refrigerators, microwaves, garbage disposals, etc. Also, with every language comes the slang of that language, which is always evolving. From ain't and y'all to pwn and google, slang of the English language is constantly in use and will continue to become more mainstream. Language has always changed, is currently changing, and will always change around us.

My Epiphany!!!

A long time ago, on a baseball diamond far, far, away, there was a 7 year old boy named Brian Gramman up to bat. He was sweating his ass off because he was afraid he was going to get hit by the ball. He held the bat in tight, close to his chest, as if he were going to hide behind the bat before the ball ever left the pitcher's hand. The pitcher wound up and fired as hard as he could. "STRIKE ONE!" yelled the umpire, but not because the pitch was over the plate. In fact, the pitch didn't even reach home plate. But that didn't stop Brian from swinging. He had shut his eyes as tight as he could, trying to pretend that a baseball wasnt really being thrown in his direction. When he thought the ball had left the pitcher's hand, he immediately swung as hard as his meek little body could, only to emphatically whiff. The other team laughed at him. He mumbled to himself, "Theres no way things could get any worse." But he was wrong. On the next pitch, the ball once again didn't even get to the plate, but Brian took a mighty swing anyway. And if things weren't already humiliating enough, on the third pitch, the exact same thing happened again. Three pitches. Three strikes. Brian was beet red from embarrassment, which soon boiled into anger, and he lost his temper. He charged at the baseball on the ground, took a gigantic swing, and put everything he had into whacking that poor baseball. It felt good to finally make contact with the ball. "If only I could do that more often," he muttered to himself. As he trudged back to the dugout in disgust, his manager pulled him aside and said, "Brian, if you're going to try to do that all the time, why don't you just go to the golf course and save us all a lot of trouble." The manager's harsh words fell upon deaf ears, for at the mere suggestion of playing golf, a ray of light shone down upon Brian, and he beamed with excitement. He had found his true calling. Golf!

Hamlet Interpretation That Will Get Me Into AP English

In lines 81-119 of Hamlet's first scene, Marcellus states that he wants to sit down and discuss the reasoning behind some of the things being done in the kingdom. The questions he poses are:
Why has a strict guard schedule been put in place?
Why are so many bronze cannons currently being manufactured in Denmark?
Why are weapons from foreign lands being bought?
Why do the shipbuilders seem so busy?
He wonders if there is some upcoming event that warrants all this work, and wants someone to explain all of this to him. Horatio then says that he can describe some of the rumors that have come up in the recent past. He then recalls the time where King Fortinbras of Norway challenged the late King Hamlet to a battle. King Hamlet slew Fortinbras, who lost all of his territories as the result of the loss of his life, as was the agreement. But recently, Fortinbras' son, also named Fortinbras, has gathered together a rough group of warriors together who are willing to regain control over the elder King Fortinbras' lost territories and will take food as payment. This is why, Horatio says, that there is such a commotion in Denmark.

Feed Blog

Of all the books I have read in my experience in high school English courses, I have found Feed to be the least helpful in expanding my vocabulary and mind. Although through class discussions I see that some students in the class are intrigued by the question that this book brings up, whether or not technology is a good thing, I do not find the subject mildly interesting at all. Also, the obvious leftist-leaning writing of M.T. Anderson bothered me. He painted a picture of corporations that were greedy and buying things such as clouds and even school itself. They then used what they owned to manipulate the minds of the people to sell more of their product and ultimately take control over so much that it turned into a Big Brother type novel. I am a strong supporter of the rights of corporations to do, within reason, what they can to make money. After all, corporations provide for people in many ways. They create products for people to use, they stimulate the economy, and they hire workers, which helps even more to stimulate the economy. It may sound radical to say, but I think Mr. Anderson’s views come from him working all his life through colleges and other schools and having no idea what a corporation actually does for the community it’s in and the state and national economy. Also, the style of writing that he used did not work with me at all. The choppy way the kids talked, although it may have been part of the way the story was supposed to be, was really distracting to me and annoyed me throughout the book. The feed notices at the end of each chapter were really tacky in my opinion. I just thought it was a stupid waste of a few pages.
And then there’s the plot, which I thought was one of the worst I have ever read. The book seemed to me like it was trying to be a romance novel, yet at the same time be a futuristic 1984 style novel. Neither of these things worked, and the novel collapsed all over itself. Anderson tried to take a concept which was barely interesting to start with, the feeds in peoples heads, and made it even worse by creating lame characters, a very uninteresting plot line, and overall a pretty bad book.

Black in america blog

The documentary Black in America gave me an interesting perspective on the issue of how race is dealt with in America. Although we have made good progress from the time of slavery, things are still not quite equal in this country. Before watching this video, not only had I never been a minority, but also I have also rarely been exposed to anyone in a situation of oppression or someone who has been stereotyped. In the past, because of the school system I have been in, I have had little experience interacting with racial minorities and hearing their side of issues. This video gave me more insight to how black men feel like the system works against them and that they are bound to go to jail. Overwhelming statistics support this idea, with one third of all black men eventually having a criminal record. African Americans for many years have suffered social injustices that they never deserved. And the vast majority of African Americans battle against these injustices to succeed in their lives. However, this is not always the case. As shown by the documentary, a great percentage of African Americans fall into a life of crack dealing, jail time, and a lack of responsibility as a father of children. There are always those who fought against this and did everything they could to stay out of this situation, but there is no question that there are plenty of them that don’t. I find it hard to feel sympathy for those people that resign themselves to failure. Everyone has disadvantages. Some people are born with less money than others. Some people are disabled, either physically or mentally. Some people have little or no support from their parents and other family members. The ability to persevere and overcome great obstacles is a measure of a great person. Are all races treated equally? No. But some things can’t ever be changed. You can’t change a racist person’s attitude towards another culture unless they truly want to change, which is rarely the case. If a policeman is more likely to arrest you than another person because you’re skin color, gender, religion, etc., you have every right to complain. But the more important thing is to not let it affect you to the point where you become a statistic like so many other black men in this era. Am I saying that black men should just shut up and take it? No. I definitely agree that something should be done to further break racial barriers between African-Americans and the rest of America. But my point is that some people think that when odds are against them, they just give up and don’t attempt to fight at all. These are the type of people that I have no desire to help. America was founded upon a spirit of striving to be the best version of yourself. Working with what you have to be as good as you can be is the American way, and I think that is the best way to combat any discrimination against you. Once again, I am not saying that black men give up easier than white men or that black men are lazy and lawbreakers. What I am trying to say is that you can’t blame all your troubles on race to avert blaming the one who really deserves it, you.

blog for last days of summer

Brian Gramman
In Last Days of Summer, the story of Joey Margolis and his friend Charlie Banks is told through an epistolary style. We find out about the two characters and their friends and family through letters between the two, press clippings of Charlie’s baseball games, Joey’s report cards, and other media. This creates a whole different feel from other books that I have read because of the indirect access to the information presented. The usual format of a book would give me the information through a narrator telling me a straight story through his perspective. That’s what makes this book so special is the delivery of the information. I feel like I’m eavesdropping on Charlie and Joey’s conversations, almost like a Facebook creeper. This has drawn me deeper into the story and has made me read deeper into what each character is discussing in their letters. For example, in every report card Joey receives, we can find out a lot of information about several characters. We find out what Joey is like at school, we find out how Mrs. Hicks, Joey’s teacher, feels about her most troublesome pupil, and we find out a lot about Joey’s mom and aunt and that they are a lot like him. For each report card response, they make a snarky comment about how his grades are good and not to worry about his issues with obedience. This series of events would have taken much longer to explain using the standard format of book writing and it would have been a much less effective message. Another example of letters communicating a more effective message is the letter that Steven Early, the Press Secretary of the White House. The way Early talks to Joey, wishing his mother and aunt well, proves that he and Joey have had quite a bit of previous communication in the same manner of Joey giving advice to FDR on pressing current events issues. This sheds light on the interest in current affairs that Joey ahs without going into a long drawn-out story that is a strong possibility in any other format of a book. Because of this special style of writing, my understanding of these characters has been enhanced dramatically as well as my interest in the rest of the novel. The huge amount of dialogue in this book draws the reader in more than a straight explanation of what is going on, and thus pushes more readers to finish the entire book and find out what happens at the end. This makes this book a perfect read for high schools looking to show their students the advantages of reading and writing books in multiple styles.