Op-ed

This artice talks about Steve Jobs, co-founder of the Apple company, and how our attention spans have been changed. The author wants to persue its readers that it is not Steve Jobs's fault for this. In fact, our brains naturally deteriorate before the age of 40. I think it is a good persuasion article because the author uses facts to back up her point including talking about the findings of psychologists at the University of Toronto. It seems very credible. She also relates it to her own life, which in turn the readers can relate to their own lives as well. I like how the article starts off as a personal story and progresses into her argument. It makes it very affective.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-slatalla-jobs-legacy-20111009,0,3310148.story

Sound and Fury

When watching this film, I was a little upset with the girl's parents who would not let her get a cochlear implant. The deaf parents had said that the implant was scary and invasive, and it would make their daughter become part of the cochlear implant world, no longer a part of the deaf world; they wanted her to be a part of the "deaf culture". I do see where they are coming from, but if that was my child, I would definitely let him or her get a cochlear implant. I would want the most opportunities for my child. The dad said that hearing people think the deaf world is limiting, but the thing is that if the child decided he or she did not want to hear anymore and wanted to be deaf, they just wouldn't need to wear the connection. It seems that the deaf parents chose for the daughter, rather than her thinking it over herself. Overall, I definitely agree with the non-deaf parents who decided to give their baby son a cochlear implant and ended up being extremely happy with their decision.

The Not So Funny Circus Act

There are several things I am afraid of, but my worst fear is clowns (a.k.a. Coulrophobia). I am deathly afraid of clowns; everytime I see one my heart starts racing and I feel like I can't breathe. I think my fear started when I was younger. My godfather and his family decided to take my sister and me to the circus for the day. Just before we got there, the car behind us rear-ended us, causing glass to shatter and the ambulance to come. I wasn't seriously injured enough to have to go to the hospital, but I did hurt my hip and being that young, it's a scary thing to be in an accident and not really know what's going on. Since then, all I can remember is that happening right before the circus, and when someone says circus the first thing to pop into my head is clowns. My fear grew stronger and stronger every since the accident. At first it was just scary clowns that frightened me, but now it's every clown, including even Ronald McDonald. Luckily, I do not run into clowns in my every day life; only when my guy friends or dad decide that it'd be funny to scare me.

My Writing Style

I don't really have a set writing style, except I like to write things in a simple way, none of that fancy, smart talk. When I need to write something, especially if it's a long paper, I like to listen to music. The type of music depends on my mood; sometimes it's calm music and other times I'll want to listen to hip-hop. It doesn't matter to me where I write, as long as I'm comfortable.

"Waiting on the World to Change"

The song that I feel reflects American life in 2011 is Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer. This song reflects American life in 2011 because it shows that all of us are just sitting here waiting for change. It shows how we have lack of faith in the government.
"Now we see everything that's going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it"
It reflects the opinion that we just sat back and let 9/11 happen instead of taking the action necessary to prevent it. Instead of "waiting on the world to change" we need to take action and change the world.

President Word Cloud

The words most used in inaugural speeches by the president have varied slightly depending on what was going on at the time, and what the president was most concerned with. President Obama used words like nation, people, and work because he is concerned with getting the nation as a whole in a better situation than it is now, especially economically. If you go about 150 years back to President Abraham Lincoln, different words like constitution, law, government, and slave were used. These words were used in this case because at the time the civil war was just starting and people were disagreeing over the slave problem.

In Cold Blood

The non-fiction book I chose to read for class is In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. This book is about The Clutter family living in Holcomb, Kansas, who is murdered by a shotgun on November 15, 1959. In the family there is the father Herbert , the mother Bonnie, three daughters named Eveanna, Beverly, and Nancy, and one son Kenyon.  Mr. Clutter does most of the work around the house, and so does Nancy, the youngest daughter. Mrs. Clutter suffers from postnatal depression and had had fits and seizures; she would regularly visit hospitals for periods of time and lives a private life. The older children, Eveanna and Beverly, no longer live at the house, so at the time of the shooting it was just the four of them. The Clutter family is pretty wealthy and live on a large piece of land. Before the murder, everyone kind of trusted each other in Holcomb. After the murder took place people began to mistrust each other, and the town did not know what to do because such a good family like the Clutters was murdered, and now no one feels safe anymore. The family was so well loved and known that 1,000 people had attended the service for them.

In the beginning, the book was very slow and it felt like it told more than what was necessary to find out what happened to the family. The author wrote the book in a way that goes back and forth between the victims and murderers up until the moment of the shooting. I actually enjoyed that style of writing because it's kind of like a play-by-play for the characters and shows what they were doing the last day before they were shot/killed the family. It also makes you want to keep reading because it feels like with every page you're just getting closer and closer to finding out what happened. The only bad thing about this style of writing is you know what is going to happen to the people, but they don't know. It's like when you watch a scary movie and you know something bad is going to happen so you yell at the TV for the person to run away, but they get killed anyway. That's exactly how it felt for me when I was reading this book.

The book jumps from right before the murders to the next day when family friends of the Clutters find the bodies. I thought this was very smart of Truman Capote because if I had known exactly how the murders took place in the beginning, I wouldn't have wanted to keep reading; however, he leaves that up until later in the book when the killers confess about the murders. The middle of the book to the end jumps back and forth between trying to find the killers and the killers themselves dealing with the actions that they have made. When they finally confess, they also share their motive for the killings, which turns out to not be a motive for killing at all. I don't want to give too much away though so I will not say anymore about that. The last part is all about the execution and the two killers awaiting to find out their fate. It turns out a little over five years after the murders took place, the killers were hung for their crime.

Overall, I thought the book was very interesting and I really liked how you got to see the killers perspectives up until the end of their lives as well.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

To be completely honest, I do not like the way that Mary Wollstonecraft writes. I think it is very confusing and hard to follow. I really didn't understand much of what she was saying. It was like I was just reading a bunch of random words put together; however, she does seem like a very opinionated woman on this subject. For example, when she says "husbands,..., are often only overgrown children", she is stereotyping all men, saying that they are all just like overgrown children. I do think that comment is funny though. What I can understand from this essay is that Mary Wollstonecraft is upset at the way men and women are differnent, and she is very upset at the fact that men seem "superior" to women.

The part where Mary Wollstonecraft writes, "and should they be beautiful, everything else is needless, for, at least, twenty years of their lives" is exactly how people used to think in the past. If a girl was beautiful that's all she used to need because then she would find a man and have a family, etc. I am very glad that times have changed, because if I had grown up in a time period where things were like that I would not have taken that from anyone, and it'd be very hard to deal with men thinking that way.

Since Mary Wollstonecraft wrote this essay, things for women have changed dramatically. Women are beginning to seem more equal to men and have just as much, if not more, power than men in some situations. Sure, women aren't seen perfectly as equal as men, but it's a big step from what Mary Wollstonecraft has written about. I think she would be very impressed with the women in the past who have stepped up and shown that they will not be seen as inferior to men.

About Me

My name is Kesley Peterson. I used to live in Madison until 2nd grade, when I came to McFarland. I have one sister who is going to be a sophomore this year, and even though she bugs me like no other, I wouldn't ask for anyone else. I also have a best friend who has been my friend since kindergarten. Yes I know, it's very precious. Some of my hobbies include hanging with friends, listening to music, and especially drawing. I like to draw when I get bored. I also love the packers!!! Donald Driver <3

After high school, I plan on going to college and getting my undergrad, majoring in Pre-Med (or something similar) and minoring is some kind of art. After that I plan on going to Med School to become a Pediatric Oncologist. I knew that this is what I wanted to be ever since my cousin passed away in 5th grade from a brain tumor. You could say that I'm doing this for her because I want to be able to help kids and be there for them when they are going through something like that.

Other than that there really isn't much else you need to know about me. So...yeah.

the end.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

This article was very straight forward and easy to understand. I found it interesting how brain researchers discovered that the "adult mind is very plastic". It's cool to think how the brain can alter how it works even after we are fully done growing.

I do not believe that Google is making us stupid. In fact, I think being able to find the answer to a question with a quick typing of words and an enter button makes kids able to obtain more information they want to know about faster. People have just learned how to find the information they are looking for without reading all the useless things they don't need to know. It seems like people are so busy all the time and having something like Google allows us to find the needed information and save valuable time. I also do not agree with the assumption that "we'd be better off if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence". I think we are better off the way we are now, not knowing everything and being able to think in abstract ways.

I do agree with Nicholas Carr that "deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle". It seems like when I was younger I used to enjoy reading and used to be able to sit there and read a book. Now it's a lot harder for me to concentrate on reading longer books and for longer periods of time.

So is Google making us stupid? Not necessarily. It's just changed how we receive the information we are actually interested in knowing.

Skunk Dreams

While reading this essay I just became confused because by the end I wasn't sure what her thoughts were on dreams. The one thing she was talking about that I did understand is how you experience deja vu and you think you've been somewhere before. A lot of times it turns out you've dreamt about something happening and when it does it seems like it has already happened to you. I found it weird how she dreamt about the fence with such detail and everything before she actually saw it in person. I do think, however, that  many people have dreams like this every night, they just don't always remember them when they wake up. So we all get these deja vu moments a lot, but don't always understand why.

I liked the quote she put in there from Adam Phillips, "It is impossible to imagine desire without obstacles...". I think that is so true because having obstacles in the way of something makes you want it more and more, and the less that's in the way to get something, the less you desire it. Also at the very end of the essay the author had said that if she were an animal, she would want to be a skunk. It's true that they can spray people, eat anything like out of the garbage, and not worry about too many animals bothering them, but out of all animals that's the one she would pick?  I just think that's so weird because there are so many other animals to choose from.

"Talk of the Town"

John Updike’s writing was about what people surrounding the towers felt saw and how they felt. He said, “…the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers had the false intimacy of television, on a day of perfect reception.” I take that as what happened to the World Trade Center seemed so fake and unreal, like how could something like this happen? All of his descriptions reminded me of that day, and I can clearly remember coming home from school that day and watching what had happened on the television; the images are still very clear in my head. I can’t imagine how it must have felt to be there, so close, and watch the towers fall to the ground. The one thing that bothered me in this writing was that a suspect said the United States was too lax and how he could go anywhere he wanted and couldn’t be stopped. When you think about it, that’s exactly what America is about. It’s the part about us that we are so proud of; we like having that freedom.

Susan Sontag stated “if the word ‘cowardly’ is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill from beyond the range of retaliation,…than to those willing to die themselves in order to kill others.” In this sense, Susan was calling Americans the cowards for the way they kill in war. In my opinion, the bombers were the real cowards. They think that killing many innocent people and themselves is the right thing to do for their country, while we Americans kill for purposes that are necessary. There are so many opinions on whether it was okay for the bombing, and that is because different cultures have different opinions on how to react to situations. We need to understand why there is conflict to understand why these things happen.