Blog 9:Analysis of your writting

         My experience with English 101 was a great experience as I enjoyed meeting and talking to new people and my hilarious teacher.  I did my best to keep up with the class and understand the lessons and tried to incorporate them into my writing skills. To be honest I think I may have underestimated the class as I felt confidence in my writing skills especially after my first in class essay where I got a “B”. Once I started working on out of class essays is when things kind of went downhill as I struggled to create a good thesis for my essays or even a good introduction sentence. I went to the writing center to seek aid in writing a good essay and it helped me a little bit.

      Overall I think I need a lot of improvement  in my essay writing skills but feel  I’m making progress as I do my best to rewrite my mistakes each time I make them. I guess this class helped me a little as I now understand the seriousness of college level writing and understand I need to take things more seriously and try harder than what I have. I had no idea how my writing skills were lacking and was surprised when I saw the grades for my out of class essays as they were not what I had expected. On the other hand I still have some problems writing a good thesis that keeps the readers interested.

       I would say the second out of class essay helped me out the most as once this essay was assigned I went to the writing center where they helped me understand the thesis thing by a little. The lease helpful would be the first out of class essay as It was difficult for me to create a good thesis for discrimination. I didn’t understand how to create and opened argument that discrimination can be both good and bad as discrimination has more cons than pros. Eve the movies we watched provided some help as they were both incorporated in our essays. I enjoyed when the play Oedipus the king as that is my favorite play read and I knew so well as I read it once is 12^th grade.

    Before I head into English 102 I want to perfect my essay writing skills as I probably won’t receive as much mercy as I received in English 101. I plan to have my friend help me out as he always gets “A’s” On his essays. I also plan to make more visits to the writing center especially since they were so nice to me and were very patient with my questions.

                Don’t get me wrong I had an awesome time in English 101 despite my troubles. From the beginning of the semester to now I feel my writing skills have changed by only a little but not enough to get the grade I wanted. I believe that if I work just a little bit harder I can achieve the writing skills and the grades I want.

Blog 8: Thematic Connections

In my English class we have discussed a number of different thematic connections but the one theme that caught my attention most was the idea of free will. Both the movie The Minority Report and the book Oedipus the king has helped me understand the idea of free will. After being exposed to both the book and the movie I know how free will works and how more control we have in life than we think we do.

     In Oedipus the king, Oedipus makes a various amount of choices to avoid having a horrible prophecy for told to him by the gods. Oedipus uses free will as he tries to change his fate. Although at the end of Oedipus’s attempts to alter his fate had failed he still made choices that led him to the fate that he ended up suffering.

     In the Movie the minority report a crime relief system called pre-crime was created in attempts to slow down the crime rate in Washington D.C. Free will was notput into concideration in this movie as people were imprisoned becase of crimes they were supossed to commit and not what they committed. The people never got the chance to chose to commit the crime. 

   

Blog 7: Reflection on blogging

       When college classes offer students to type out their work rather than to have them write them in journals it becomes a convince for the students as they do not have to keep up with paper that they could lose. Another benefit is how easy it is for the professor to read your hand writing. In many cases the professor may encounter a paper that looks like it was written in another language do to sloppy hand writing thus effecting the student's grade. Blogging your assignments is a faster easier way to stay organized.
       In my english 101 class the professor requires that students post up blogs on a website known as www.blogspot.com. rather than have use journals for him to collect and read. I personally found this method easier on my pockets as i don't need to buy a separate notebook. All I have to do is type my essay on my blogspot account and publish it. The professor can easily read the post immediately after its been posted and i get my grade faster.My hand writing isn't the greatest as sometimes it can appear as sloppy but with blogspot i have fewer grammar errors and my hand writing is legible.
     Although this is a good site to do the assignments i would say the only drawback i had with this site is the misplacement of my blogs. For example when i posted a blog on the wrong page the teacher never got it. It took alot of trial and error to get this right and almost risked my grade.

       

Blog 6: Free will and determinism

      When people hear the words "free will" people often think of the word choice and the ability to change fate for better or worse. People who believe in free will usually go against the idea that everything that happens is meant to happen that way and inevitability isn't an option.Free will means that anything is possible and you have controll and power over your own fate. People who believe in determinism believe that everything happens due to the nature of law and nothing can sway it.
       In the movie"The Minority Report" a system  Known as pre-crime is created to stop future criminals from committing crimes before they comit them. the potential criminal is caught just at the right time before the crime is committed.In the movie it is argued that this system violates human rights has none of the captured people have actually committed the crimes they were said to commit.Free will plays in important role in this argument as the in the movie some people argued that nothing is inevitable until it happens as none of the captured people committed crimes. In the end the idea of free will triumphs as it gets proven that people do have a choice with their actions leading to the downfall of the pre-crime system.
       In the play "Oedipus the king" a man named Oedipus hears of his terrible fate to kill his father and sleep with his mother at Delphi by the gods. Oedipus attempts to escape his fate by running away from home and finds himself in the city of Thebes. On his way there he unknowingly confronts the king of Thebes, his father. Oedipus kills the king and his men out of rage due to an argument that took place between them. After being crowned the new king he meets a woman named Jocasta, his mother. He then marries her and has children with her as well. Oedipus denied what the gods told him yet still ended up following his destiny anyway. This is an example of determinism as in the play Oedipus's fate appeared as inevitable.
             Free will is believed to be the ability to change the outcome of the situation.Free will can gives people the abiltiy to decide their own fates through their actions.Determinism is the opposite of free will and means that the inevitable must and will happen. In the movie "The Minority Report" Freewill was the main point and even though something is predicted it doesn't have to happen. In the play "Oedipus the king" Oedipus's fate was undodgeable and ment to happen as his prophosey was fortold him by the gods and even though he did all in his power to dodge fate he ended up playing in the hands of it. 

Blog #5: The “Other” and Gattaca

       Genetic engineering is used to enhance or change ones genetic traits to create a better vision of what is being genetically changed. This practice of trying to perfect one’s genes can be both good and bad since a person that is born and has undergone genetic engineering before birth is likely to perform better life’s task but can be overly perfected to the point whereas they may feel like they may see themselves as better than everyone else.

       In the movie Gattica a boy named Anton was genetically enhanced before birth due to the imperfect birth of Vincent who had a life expectancy of about age 30. Due to Anton’ perfections Vincent was looked as weak by his entire family including genetically enhanced Anton. The boys liked to have swimming competitions to test each other’s stamina. At first Anton won every race until Vincent one day became suicidal because he realized his limitations in life and he felt he didn’t deserve to live and Anton and Vincent had another race and since Vincent secretly gave up on life he decided to go past his limit not thinking of his disabilities and with intentions of killing himself. Anton however noticed his limit and decided not to push himself further and almost drowned until Vincent saved his life. In doing so Vincent discovered and realized his hidden potential.

         According to George j. Annas genetic engineering can be both good and bad he believes that either humans will try to over throw the new and improved humans or the new human will try to eliminate the regular humans to create a new civilization for themselves. This may be true since According to George people believe that genetic engineering being done on people violates people’s rights as human beings. According to George in 1946-1947 the Nazis doctors conducted experiments so painful that death was inevitable if you were a test subject. After World War 1the Nazis were put to trail for their war crimes. Some were sentenced to death some received life in prison for their crimes. The Nazis ran concentration camps full of mostly Jews and tortured and experimented on them. The Nazis viewed the Jews as a sub human race and tried to commit genocide to extinguish them all.

       Genetic engineering would not only be used for the better but was also used to torture. The person who is genetically enhanced like in “Gattica” Anton feels as if he is better than Vincent so he shows off his strength. In the man on the moon genetic engineering is not very liked by the people and they feel it violates human rights.   

Blog 4: Ignorance, Bliss, and Knowledge in Oedipus the King and The Matrix.

It is important to seek the unknown   but Sometimes asking questions about what should be hidden can lead a person to answers they don’t want to know. When people ask questions about the unknown they are not always prepared for the truth. For example when Oedipus discovers the truth about his identity and is past. Another example is “The Matrix” when Neo meets Morpheus after longing to find the truth about reality.

       In the play “Oedipus the king” Oedipus was born in the city of Thebes but his father tries to murder him due to a prophecy foretold to him by the gods. Oedipus was saved by a merchant who found him and he was brought to Corinth a new kingdom where he had been raised. During Oedipus’s teenage years he attended a party where a drunken man told him he was adopted. Out of curiosity Oedipus went to Delphi where he learned of his terrible destiny of killing his father and sleeping with his mother. Oedipus tries to escape this misfortune by running away from Corinth and blindly returning to his old home town where he was born Thebes. On his was there he blindly kills king Laius king of Thebes and the true father of Oedipus. Once he became the new king of Thebes he met a woman named Jocasta who was his mother who he married and had children with. Once Jocasta realized that Oedipus was her son she tried to keep Oedipus from the truth. Due to Oedipus’s curiosity he persued the truth anyway.Once he found out about the truth he could not believe what he discovered.As a result he stabbed his eyes and banished himself from Thebes. Since Oedipus asked the gods who his parents were he learned about his terrible fate. Had he ignored the prophecy and lived his life in Corinth he may have dodged the prophecy.
      
         In the movie "The Matrix" man named Neo questioned his current reality but is not prepared to meet with the actual reality that is actually a destroyed wasteland. Neo meets a man named Morpheus who teaches Neo about the real world.Morpheus and Neo must Fight against Machines and end slavery by the machines.Neo meet the real world and is given the option to stay is reality or return to the matrix. After seeing what reality truly is he decided he wants to return to the matrix since its what he was used to. When Neo saw what reality truly was he was surprised. since Neo constantly asked about the distant reality he eventually got what he wished for only to want to return to the matrix.
     
           "Curiosity killed the cat" When you ask a question about something it is important to be prepared for the results. Sometimes it is better to not know and easier to deal with rather than hear the truth and not understand it like in Oedipus or the Matrix. Some information is better hidden than shared "Ignorance is bliss".


     




  

Blog 2: The Allegory of The Cave through History

The Allegory of the cave is about how we have to use our senses to keep in touch with our reality in whats in it.
we use our senses to create beliefs.An example of this belief would be religion. The Christianity belief is believed to be somewhat one tracked. People who follow into this belief to the fullest often tend to live their lives as if they were robots and the bible is their manual. Religious believers tend to think religion is the answer to all their problems and that just praying will help elevate some of their issue. Some religious believers take high offense to some telling them that their is more to life than religion. Due to religious beliefs people are trapped in a world where religion is everything and nothing else seems makes sense to them. Just like in Allegory of the cave christianity belief in itself is a cave in which reality is viewed from one point of view and if you tried to change their point of view they would deny it because they are set in their ways and will always believe their way is the best way of living.