Conference Time

I have my conference today. I think I am pretty much set with my paper. I just have to work on my presentation and I definitely think I am going to go with the magazine idea (mainly because nothing more brilliant has come to mind). Anyways, I am happy with how everything is coming together. I know he still has to read my reflective essay, but I think I am meeting all of the goals with it as well. So I am feeling good. Now if I could just feel that way about all of my other classes. I would be golden.

Where do I live again?

So all I do is go back and forth from home and the hospital. And if I had a laptop I would probably never leave the hospital.
I have my conference on Friday and I hope that I hear some good news. I think my paper is doing okay but I have no idea what to do about presentation. I cant think of anything to add into my paper that would make it sound better or be absorbed better. I found one intersting quote that I stuck in for aesthetics(?) but otherwise nothing. I was thinking of making it into a magazine because what I am writing about is something that reminds me of those articles you see in TIME magazine so I am thinkin I might do that. Format it like a TIME magazine too, with all the pictures and little block quotes in random spots so you are never truly forced to read the whole article to understand what is going on. The lazy way to gather intelligence. I love it.
Anyways, I want school to be over just like every other person on this blog. I cant wait for one less stressor. Stay positive. Just stay positive.

I think it is.

I am pretty happy with my paper. I think I need to revamp the intro because it is a little blah and there are a few more 'connections' that need to be made, but otherwise I think it is pretty much complete. The only issue I really have left to worry about is the whole presentation thing. I think I want to get some good quotes to stick in there but I don't know how I should make it look or how I should enhance it. Do I need to make specific word choices? I don't know. But what I do know is that my keyboard is acting strange and is skipping letters when I type. Oy..
We are heading back to the hospital in a few minutes but I just wanted to make sure I remembered to blog because I dont have a computer once I leave home. It is so hard having him there, but we can board there which is really wonderful and gives me comfort. I just want to have him home with us.
Everything else seems so trivial now, but I know I just have to push through the semester because now matter how I feel I still KNOW how important school is.
I love being a mommy...
and now, back to working on english. Woo.

Trying to keep up.

Finished my rough draft tonight. It has been a horrible week. But I feel better that I have completed my second draft. It is completely different from my first and it really has little to do with Bin Laden, but I think that I did a much better job of using my sources. I dont know if my paper is very good in terms of answering or resolving my question, but I think I really got some good analysis going and I think I was able to engage my sources. I will wait to hear what everyone says though. I dont feel confident, but for the moment I feel relieved. I am exhausted and it has been hard to concentrate on school with everything that has been happening. But it is pertinent that I keep my eye on the prize, regardless of what else is going on in my life. I just hope that I can continue to be sucessful. I havent been able to sleep much because these hospital beds are as comfortable as a rock and it is hard to sleep with moniters attached to you and everytime you move a nurse has to come in and find the baby again in your tummy so it has been almost impossible to get any rest. I was allowed to get wheeled outside today and it was so wonderful to get out of this room. Otherwise I just worked on my paper and tried to get a few things accomplished. I hope that my paper is closer to meeting the course goals. In fact, I am praying that it is because I could certainly use a little less stress in my life right now.

Spring Break and Homework

They should never mix, by the way.
To be completely honest, I have not spent much time thinking about english. I had homework in all of my classes and those assignments seemed more entertaining than this one, so here I am, attempting to finish this one over the weekend, before I head off to work and deal with whatever crap awaits me there.
4 aids on the floor last night. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS.
Not only that, but because I work full time and go to school full time, I have neglected a lot of things over the past few months and so I had to take time this week to get things organized. The baby is going to be here in two months. I am on my countdown. And I dont like feeling unprepared.
And I do.
My mind is in total baby mode. Not to mention that I have this horrible pain in my side that wont go away and I dont know if it is baby kicking me or if it is my gallbladder, which apparently can become quite abnoxious with women in their third trimester, and I itch all over. And when I say all over, I mean even my fingers itch. And that is really unpleasant. And when you are feeling overweight and overworked and overtired and overstressed, it is hard to focus on school.
Where was I? Oh yes...
BABY!
But I am incredibly excited. I tried to get his room together, but its hard because I know that I am going to be having a baby shower when his family gets back from Mexico. That's right. We were supposed to go to Mexico for his sister's wedding, but Mexico and 7 months pregnant just did not seem to mix. So here we are. At home. Grr.
So, about this who paper thing...
I re read what I wrote from my first draft. Finally. I never like reading my drafts because I am always afraid that I am going to look at them and go "UGH" and then feel like a huge failure and have to start all over. I dont know if I was critical and I still dont exactly get what it means. I think I came up with some new ideas, but what do I know. I do know, however, that I need to take a good long look at the course goals and really focus on them, because I didnt give two craps about them the first time. I just started writing. There was so much in my brain that I just had to get it out on paper. It felt good, but now I feel overwhelmed again because I sort of feel like I am back at square one.
I dont know if I am on the right track or not.
I think a good start for tomorrow would be to do an outline and try to figure out what I am trying to do with my essay. What I got out of it in the end was that America needs to work with the Arab world, not focus on taking down Bin Laden, because bringing them up and raising their confidence will take away his power. Therefore destroying his following, at least to a greater extent. But I dont know if that is critical or if that is just me spouting off my opinions. I think I might try to incorporate what I wrote last Friday into my paper, becaue I think that what I came up with then was more critical, per say, but it needs refinement. Do I have to come up with new terms? Random generalizations about what I think are not going to help me now. I need to dig deep.
This is frustrating. Thinking is difficult.
On the topic of these blogs...
Shank's blog was really interesting. When I first opened up his page, I thought his layout was awesome. I loved the pictures and the even the style of text he used. It looked academic (can somehting look that way?). But I really dont think it was. I think it was a man at him computer reflecting on his thoughts and the thoughts of his community and really isnt that all a blog is? It wasnt academic inquiry he was engaging in. I think it was just him trying to make sense of a lot of different ideas and concepts. It was interesting (though I was lost reading some of the post, I admit) but he didnt say anything new or do anything or change anything. He had some unique thoughts, but everyone has those. Are there any stakeholders in his blogging? Yes. I think people who are a part of his community care about what his ideas and thoughts and reflections are. He is an important member of their society and when he talks (or blogs), people tend to listen. Perhaps someone is taking his ideas and actually using them to perform academic inquiry. I dont know. Do I think he was critical? Perhaps. I think at times he started going somewhere, but it never went far enough. And it didnt have to. This blog appears more professional on the surface, when you look at the structure of the opening page and its layout. It looks professional. But I dont think it is entirely. He is not opening up about his personal life, this is true, but he is not attempting to address anyone specifically. I dont believe that he sits down at the computer and considers what he going to say and who he is going to address before beginning his writing. I think that he just begins to write. He is writing about a profession and about academic topics and therefore his work may seem more professional, but I think it is more personal. I think he is really just trying to write what he thinks and feels, about what his opinions are and what he believes is important and interesting and unique.
I absolutely loved Dooce's blog. It had me laughing. I read her three part labor story (seeing as I thought it would be relavent) and I really enjoyed her writing style. She made me feel as though I was experiencing things with her. I have a lifestyle that is similar to hers. I have my home, with my fiancee and our cats and our soon to be new edition. And all those mundain aspects of life really dont seem that mundain when you are happy with your life. Her talking about her morning routine or her children or something funny her dogs did are all part of what makes life great. It is what your life is made off. And so I could really relate. I think though that she is playing to an audience. She writes like she is speaking to a crowd. She knows how to keep you engaged and she writed with a purpose. There is a topic and there is an ending. It is not purely random. But that is ok. She makes her living this way. She is good at what she is trying to sell, and that is her life and her experiences. Is she critical. In her own way. In her labor story she has some moments of thought provoking change and some interesting things to say about the birthing process. But I dont think what she has to say is extra ordinary. Would the world go on without her blog? Of course. She has not contributed anything of great importance. Her blogs are merely reiterations of her daily life. There is nothing that shows to me that she is on a quest to answer questions or understand her ideas any further. She is just writing about what she is experiencing. And she is good at it. And that is what brings people back to read more of her work. She has a huge stage to work with. The internet has given her the chance to share her life with people all over the world and that is the amazing thing about the internet. It connects people and life experiences and you realize that we are not so very different from one another. One thing bothered me. All the advertisements on her page. When I first opened it, I thought I had gone to the wrong site. It made everything at first seem really impersonal. But it is a business. It just gave it a feeling of being disconnected. I didnt like that.
I may go back and read more about both blogs.
But for now, I am just glad that I can go and do something else. I think I will go read over my A and P notes for my test coming up next week. That sounds exilerating.

I am confused

I finished my paper. 15 pages.
And I have no idea if I did it correctly. But now I cant upload my paper onto google docs. I made a new account with my UWM ID, but it doesnt show me any sharred files. I am confused. And that pisses me off because I just want to be done with this paper for right now. I just got home from work and I am tired and I want to go to bed. I am going to upload it anyways and if it doesnt work then I will have to try again tomorrow. Some things should just go my way.
But I am proud of myself for writing this paper and I actually do feel like I accomplished something, however, I think that has yet to be determined.

Done!

Just finished my paper, finally! It is defiantly a ROUGH draft. Also as a big Badger basketball fan I defiantly think we got a good deal with the seedings and possible match ups. I thought we could get a 4 but I was expecting a 5 seed possibly even a 6.

Research Paper

So I finished my paper Friday ended with about 10 pages, I didn't like it I didn't think there was a purpose so I took all Saturday to rewrite the whole thing, I did so now I have about 10 again but I'm just confused about which paper is better. I feel that no matter which one I turn in they're both going to need work.

Research Question

I'm still having trouble figuring out my research question. My topic is censorship and how it has changed over time. I'm thinking of incorporating the Internet somehow, but I still can't get a question that I am satisfied with.

Reading and reading...

Well I am continuing to read my sources with new vigor. I am glad we have a week to work on this rough draft but I am still nervous about the fact that I am going to do this completely wrong. I think I may have my controlling purpose down, but I am not sure. I dont have much else to write about. I am sure once I start writing, however, I will have plenty to say. :D

I'm tired of being informed

I have read I think like twenty sources. Each source saying something or another about foreign policy, and that is great, it means that there are a ton of sources to read from. At the same time all of these sources happen to be either very ambiguous, in what they are trying to actually contribute to the conversation on foreign policy, or they just give a crap load of information telling me about how they came to their conclusions about Foreign policy.

For all of those who like to talk a little about politics, here is some stuff to chew on.

Every country that the U.S. is involved with regarding trade, politics, and the like. All of these nations have some kind of treaty signed with the U.S. The U.S. has lobbyist that come to the terms of what that agreement should look like, and then send that to the nation that we want a treaty with, and they add or take away what they think should or should not be on the treaty.

If we are to trade with only certain countries which I understand, because there are just nations that the United States cannot support in good conciouss. If we are to trade with these nations then shouldn't all these countries get the same treatment? for instance instead of saying, hey we are going to trade this with this country, and this with another country, couldn't we just make it easy and make a broad statement saying yes we will trade what you are willing to trade, just don't send anything that you know is illegal in our freaking country. If this option was given to every country it would be easier. Another scenario, instead of saying to only Russia that we want them to lower the amount of nuclear arms that we have in their country, we talk to all of the nations and come up with a satisfiable agreement for everyone, and if any one nation doesn't want to comply, then they simply won't be apart of our treaty? If we listened to other countries demands and at the same time took our own security, and our own well being into account then everyone would be playing on a relatively level playing field.

There will always be conflict, because I believe that people in power will want more power, but as I have said before, the power lies in the people, and if you have nine countries saying, sorry charlie, but you broke the rules, that would be a troublesome state of affairs.

I wanna hear some people views on unilateralism ( the idea that the United States should work alone independant and sovereign of all nations), and their views on multilateralism ( the idea that the United States would interact with and be subject to the discressions of the nations in which it interacts with.)

Personally I believe in Multilateralism- I don't think that america can operate independently anymore, only because of the fact that we rely on so much of other peoples resources. If we were to cut our revenue from some countries, their lives would become chaos, and in turn our lives would hurt from the lack of their contributions. It only makes sense that if we are going to wheel and deal with other nations, give and take, then we should give and take equally, not distribute it to people we like better, just because they are nicer, but we should give the same advantages to everyone... I mean isn't that what capitalism is, everyone starts on a level playing field, and the dogs fight it out to see whos on top in the end...

This is a big debate in foreign policy it is important because some people view the U.S. as a superpower that can't be touched, and that we are the good guys, but look at it from other peoples point of view and most often we are the people to pick a fight, to say no, or to stick our nose where it doesn't belong.

lol comments are appreciated, tell me what you think

Looking for Sources

I am working on my annotated bibliography. I want to find good sources to use for my paper because I feel like the more unique sources I can find, the better my paper will turn out. For example, Rickert included a source who originally talked about movies but was still able to use that information to create a conclusion. In the student sample essay, the student included a source about cyborgs and in a very interesting way linked that to their topic. I'm being picky at finding what kind of source to use which is making this much harder. I also found out that I have more homework so now I know that I'll be staying up even later for sure. How exciting!

...

I am so done with this project.
With that being said, I should at least attempt to be more positive. I thought I knew what I wanted to write about, but now I find myself unable to even understand what I am trying to work on. I found some books and a few online sources, but I am so unsure as to how to piece them together. I am over tired and cranky. Boo.
It is hard for me to try and write this bibliography because I really do not know what sources I want to use. I am trying to read the books that I found, but I become distracted and unmotivated easily. I have a lot else going on in my life which consumes my time and I sometimes think that this english project can wait, until I find myself up at 2 in the morning because I was busy doing other things. I think I may be over thinking all of this, but I really would like to finish developing my question before I start writing paragraphs and committing myself to sources I am not sure I will even be using. At first I thought Kant would help me understand religion, but he seems to be confusing me more than anything else. I am trying very hard and I just feel as though I am getting absolutely no where. I need help, desperately.

Pondering...

So I think I am getting somewhere...maybe. Writing his ideas down and then trying to understand what they are saying is a bit easier, but interpretting them is not. I am not sure if I did the assignment for today correctly, but I tried to draw my own conclusions. I really did. No mere spewing of information for this lady.
This is becoming increasingly difficult....
I thought I had an idea as to where I wanted to go with this paper, but as a proceed, I am becoming more and more lost. Perhaps it is because I am focusing too much on Kant, however, he is supposed to be the basis for my own frame of reference, so arent I supposed to pick him apart.
He needs to speak in plain English (German). This would make things so much easier.
I need to step up on my reading. I have no time. I dont want to fall behind and be scrambling at the end. I think I need more help then I initially thought I did.
Oh well...so much for success.

Assignment Recursivity

Well I procrastinated on my assignment and now it's 1:11 in the morning. I also did my last assignment wrong, I used both of my sources to create a inquiry paper. Although I did my last assignment wrong, I still learned from it that it's very hard to come up with a clear conclusion that makes sense when I only have two sources to back me up.

Tip: Many sources combined together really help create a good conclusion.

5 o'clock AM

So right now I can honestly say that I am writing in this blog because we have to. I was working on my assignment for this morning when my computer spontaneously shut down and word refust to let me open the autosave copy. This was at 3:30 this morning.
It is re-written and I think that I am starting to have some progress with my understanding of Kant (thanks to the help of sparknotes) but also to having to use quotes because if forced me to really try to understand what he was saying. It helped me to absorb some of his ideas which I am greatful for. With that being said, I think we should have no homework for Friday, because I am exhausted and could use an actual night of sleep.
But this was a good assignment, despite my issues writing it. Kant is getting a little bit easier to understand, but I am still not sure how I am going to piece everything together. Oy....

I'm thinking of doing a research project on the Powers of Fish... i know it sounds weird but i was reading this article about a northwest african tribe (orango island) that the women always propose to the men. they do this by offering the man a plate of fish. orango island has low divorce rates.....i dont know where i should go with this one? please help and any suggestions????????????

ideas?.... eskimos low heart rate....people eat fish on fridays.... idk! HELP!

-MACY

Research topic

So I've been doing a lot of research into my topic but now I've become a little weary about writing on stereotypes in Disney, because I found two great books that I was reading through and they discuss the portrayal of females in Disney eyes. I think that would be interesting and a lot of fun but I need some input... So comment your inputs they will be greatly appreciated!!!!

Does anyone have any good ideas on what I could narrow my research down to. I want to focus on obesity but not sure if I want to focus on "in America" or "Childhood?"

so i've been researching...

and all of my sources seem to say that marijuana has little to no harmful side effects. How can something so safe be illegal? cigarettes cause 443600 deaths every year. you know how many deaths have occurred from smoking marijuana? zero. Yet its legal to buy something thats worse for you? that seems to make no sense at all.