Sunday, February 20, 2011
Friday, April 9, 2010
In-Class Exercise
Take out out a piece of paper and finish the following:
No one on either side of the political spectrum would deny that our government is slow, ineffectual, and wasteful. Moreover,…
I have a few secrets that make my life more difficult than it needs to be. Specifically,…
Even though I value education in the utmost, I often find myself questioning the value of much that I have done in school. To put it bluntly,…
Even though they may pay lip service to it, most American youth don’t seem to live by a strong moral code. Conversely,…
We are among the wealthiest nations on the planet. Nonetheless,…
…Regardless…
There are a least two different “me”s. Consequently,…
Granted,... I still feel, however, that I need to be left to make my own decisions. about my life and my behavior.
Placing heavy restrictions on older children and teenagers backfires more often than it works. Hence,
Specify the ambiguous pronouns:
I never have much trouble making friends; nonetheless I end up feeling lonely a lot. My mother says I got this from my father, who passed away before I was born. And maybe it was that that created this condition in the first place.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Do Not Use These Topics
For our class, I want you to write about whatever *you* want to write about, whatever *you* actually care about. However, in case you get stuck, here is a list of 35 randomly selected topics you can use as jumping off points.
1. Introduce us to something. What is the website, blog, video, song, article, or game that you’re most into now, and why? Provide a link whenever possible, and write about why you like it, what you think it’s about, how you discovered it, why we should like it, etc. Or, conversely, link to a website, blog, video, song, article or game that you dislike and tell us about that.
2. What is going on in your other classes? What professor do you love or hate (if it’s hate, you might want to leave it anonymous), and why? What is blowing your mind or fun or what are you learning about that we probably don’t know about? What class or subject do you hate or are having trouble with right now and why?
3. What is going on in this class? What are you learning, or having trouble with, or what are you noticing about what we’re doing, reading, talking about? What do you want your groupmates to comment upon, either just to discuss the issue, or because you don’t understand it, etc.?
4. Apply a principle from this class or another class of yours to something outside of that field. How can you use rhetorical analysis in an argument with your parents? How do Newton’s laws apply metaphorically to relationships? Use your imagination.
5. Are you in a relationship right now, or did you just break up? Write about it.
6. What do you think about relationships in general? Monogamy? Marriage? Do you believe in true love? Do you believe in love at first sight? How did your parents’ relationship work out, and how does that affect how you see relationships?
7. What book are you reading or did you read that had an impact on you? Tell us about it.
8. What TV shows are you watching? Why do you watch them? How do you think they affect you? What do you notice about them?
9. What do you fantasize and dream about (keeping in mind, of course, the appropriateness caveat at the beginning of this list ☺).
10. Social networking. What sites are you a part of: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace?, etc. How do you use them? What’s going on for you with them right now? Who are you talking to? Do you think they have a net positive or negative effect on your life? Do you think you can use them to express creativity?
11. Celebrity scandals. It seems like there are just going to be more and more of them, so weigh in on the latest one and tell us what you think. What are people saying and do you agree? Should we care? Is it any of our business? Why or why not?
12. Religion/spirituality. What’s the state of your religious and spiritual life these days? Are you a part of a religious community? What would you like other people to know about it? Are you atheist or agnostic? How did you come to these beliefs? How big of a role does thinking about God and spiritual matters play in your life? Do you believe the exact same things your parents believed?
13. Where do you come from? Who are your people? What communities are you a part of? What is your ethnic, linguistic, cultural background? What region are you from? What is your home town like? What is your extended family like? How much are you like them? How much do you identify with your ethnic, religious, cultural heritage?
14. Do you speak more than one language, more than one dialect of English (we all do!)? How do you speak with your friends? How do you speak with your family? Do you switch the way you speak in different situations? Do you use non-English words in your daily speech? What languages and dialects do you think and dream in?
15. Politics. What do you think of the big issues that are going on today?
16. Memories. What is your earliest memory? Why do you think you remember it – were you afraid, or surprised, etc.? Or do you not know? How good is your memory?
17. Stories. What are the stories from your life that have shaped you? What are the major events? What has happened in your life that has changed you? What are the stories your family tells?
18. Your stuff. What stuff do you have that you always keep with you? What physical objects do you care about? What is the story behind them?
19. High school. What high school did you go to? Was it public or private, small or large, relatively diverse or relatively homogenous? Did you have a good experience in high school, academically, socially? Are you still in touch with the people you went to high school with?
20. Lists. List of things that make you mad. Lists of things you couldn’t live without. Lists of things you want to do before you die. Lists of the top x number of songs. Lists of the biggest problems.
21. Problems. What’s your biggest problem right now?
22. If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?
23. How do we know that the color I see when I say “red” is the same one you see?
24. Free-will or Determinism? How do you know? If determinism, who determines it? If you believe in God, did he give us free-will? If so, why? How does this belief impact your life?
25. Nature or nurture?
26. Is hip hop dead?
27. Are men and women essentially, basically, at core different from each other, or is it society that makes us different?
28. Can men and women be true friends without it being a sexual thing?
29. What needs to change – in your life, at Virginia Tech, in this country, in the world?
30. What do you want to be when you grow up?
31. Who are your heroes and role models? What do you get from their example?
32. Where do you live now? Who are your roommates/housemates, and how well do you get along with them? Why?
33. Teach us how to do something.
34. Write about any random experience you had with a stranger or in nature today. What weird, awkward, moving, beautiful or funny moment did you have?
35. Write about a misunderstanding.
1. Introduce us to something. What is the website, blog, video, song, article, or game that you’re most into now, and why? Provide a link whenever possible, and write about why you like it, what you think it’s about, how you discovered it, why we should like it, etc. Or, conversely, link to a website, blog, video, song, article or game that you dislike and tell us about that.
2. What is going on in your other classes? What professor do you love or hate (if it’s hate, you might want to leave it anonymous), and why? What is blowing your mind or fun or what are you learning about that we probably don’t know about? What class or subject do you hate or are having trouble with right now and why?
3. What is going on in this class? What are you learning, or having trouble with, or what are you noticing about what we’re doing, reading, talking about? What do you want your groupmates to comment upon, either just to discuss the issue, or because you don’t understand it, etc.?
4. Apply a principle from this class or another class of yours to something outside of that field. How can you use rhetorical analysis in an argument with your parents? How do Newton’s laws apply metaphorically to relationships? Use your imagination.
5. Are you in a relationship right now, or did you just break up? Write about it.
6. What do you think about relationships in general? Monogamy? Marriage? Do you believe in true love? Do you believe in love at first sight? How did your parents’ relationship work out, and how does that affect how you see relationships?
7. What book are you reading or did you read that had an impact on you? Tell us about it.
8. What TV shows are you watching? Why do you watch them? How do you think they affect you? What do you notice about them?
9. What do you fantasize and dream about (keeping in mind, of course, the appropriateness caveat at the beginning of this list ☺).
10. Social networking. What sites are you a part of: Facebook, Twitter, Myspace?, etc. How do you use them? What’s going on for you with them right now? Who are you talking to? Do you think they have a net positive or negative effect on your life? Do you think you can use them to express creativity?
11. Celebrity scandals. It seems like there are just going to be more and more of them, so weigh in on the latest one and tell us what you think. What are people saying and do you agree? Should we care? Is it any of our business? Why or why not?
12. Religion/spirituality. What’s the state of your religious and spiritual life these days? Are you a part of a religious community? What would you like other people to know about it? Are you atheist or agnostic? How did you come to these beliefs? How big of a role does thinking about God and spiritual matters play in your life? Do you believe the exact same things your parents believed?
13. Where do you come from? Who are your people? What communities are you a part of? What is your ethnic, linguistic, cultural background? What region are you from? What is your home town like? What is your extended family like? How much are you like them? How much do you identify with your ethnic, religious, cultural heritage?
14. Do you speak more than one language, more than one dialect of English (we all do!)? How do you speak with your friends? How do you speak with your family? Do you switch the way you speak in different situations? Do you use non-English words in your daily speech? What languages and dialects do you think and dream in?
15. Politics. What do you think of the big issues that are going on today?
16. Memories. What is your earliest memory? Why do you think you remember it – were you afraid, or surprised, etc.? Or do you not know? How good is your memory?
17. Stories. What are the stories from your life that have shaped you? What are the major events? What has happened in your life that has changed you? What are the stories your family tells?
18. Your stuff. What stuff do you have that you always keep with you? What physical objects do you care about? What is the story behind them?
19. High school. What high school did you go to? Was it public or private, small or large, relatively diverse or relatively homogenous? Did you have a good experience in high school, academically, socially? Are you still in touch with the people you went to high school with?
20. Lists. List of things that make you mad. Lists of things you couldn’t live without. Lists of things you want to do before you die. Lists of the top x number of songs. Lists of the biggest problems.
21. Problems. What’s your biggest problem right now?
22. If a tree falls in a forest, and there’s no one around to hear it, does it make a sound?
23. How do we know that the color I see when I say “red” is the same one you see?
24. Free-will or Determinism? How do you know? If determinism, who determines it? If you believe in God, did he give us free-will? If so, why? How does this belief impact your life?
25. Nature or nurture?
26. Is hip hop dead?
27. Are men and women essentially, basically, at core different from each other, or is it society that makes us different?
28. Can men and women be true friends without it being a sexual thing?
29. What needs to change – in your life, at Virginia Tech, in this country, in the world?
30. What do you want to be when you grow up?
31. Who are your heroes and role models? What do you get from their example?
32. Where do you live now? Who are your roommates/housemates, and how well do you get along with them? Why?
33. Teach us how to do something.
34. Write about any random experience you had with a stranger or in nature today. What weird, awkward, moving, beautiful or funny moment did you have?
35. Write about a misunderstanding.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Welcome
Hello and welcome to the main blog for Julia's English 1106 class at Virginia Tech for Spring, 2010. Here, you will be able to access the blogs of all the students in both sections of this course. I will also post relevant links here and try blogging myself from time to time.
As we get started creating our blogs, we'll also be exploring other people's blogs. In order to help get that done, here are some links to blogs or blog-like creatures that I enjoy reading.
Firmuhment.
This is my new favorite blog. It's all hand-written/painted/collaged and scanned in. I have no idea who writes it but s/he is an incredible writer and uses visuals very powerfully. http://firmuhment.tumblr.com
The Awl.
An awl is apparently some kind of universal tool.From their "about": "What if there were a website that zippily surveyed a wealth of resonant, weird, important, frightening, amusing bits of news and ideas? ...It would be a website which wasn't so invested in giving you the "counterintuitive take" that it actually stopped making sense." www.theawl.com
Life Hacker.
A blog that tries to help you live better, organize your life/time, be efficient, etc. www.lifehacker.com
The Assimilated Negro.
This guy offers brilliant and funny commentary on race/"post-racial" America, the media, hip hop, and sometimes philosophy and relationship stuff. He hasn't been posting much lately, though. www.theassimilatednegro.com
Stuff White People Like.
Funny satire on [middle-class] whiteness in America.
www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
Life With Jeannie
The blog of New York rapper Jean Grae... But this blog is not about hip hop -- it's her own personal stories, mostly of dating, which are moving, unique, and funny. www.jeangraesblog.blogspot.com
Post Secret.
Every Sunday, they publish anonymous postcards sent in by people with their deepest, darkest secrets written and illustrated on them. www.postsecret.com
However, there are many, many, awesome blogs of different types out there. These are just some that I like. Please find your own!
As we get started creating our blogs, we'll also be exploring other people's blogs. In order to help get that done, here are some links to blogs or blog-like creatures that I enjoy reading.
Firmuhment.
This is my new favorite blog. It's all hand-written/painted/collaged and scanned in. I have no idea who writes it but s/he is an incredible writer and uses visuals very powerfully. http://firmuhment.tumblr.com
The Awl.
An awl is apparently some kind of universal tool.From their "about": "What if there were a website that zippily surveyed a wealth of resonant, weird, important, frightening, amusing bits of news and ideas? ...It would be a website which wasn't so invested in giving you the "counterintuitive take" that it actually stopped making sense." www.theawl.com
Life Hacker.
A blog that tries to help you live better, organize your life/time, be efficient, etc. www.lifehacker.com
The Assimilated Negro.
This guy offers brilliant and funny commentary on race/"post-racial" America, the media, hip hop, and sometimes philosophy and relationship stuff. He hasn't been posting much lately, though. www.theassimilatednegro.com
Stuff White People Like.
Funny satire on [middle-class] whiteness in America.
www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com
Life With Jeannie
The blog of New York rapper Jean Grae... But this blog is not about hip hop -- it's her own personal stories, mostly of dating, which are moving, unique, and funny. www.jeangraesblog.blogspot.com
Post Secret.
Every Sunday, they publish anonymous postcards sent in by people with their deepest, darkest secrets written and illustrated on them. www.postsecret.com
However, there are many, many, awesome blogs of different types out there. These are just some that I like. Please find your own!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
