Thursday, January 19, 2012

Choices

Everyone, makes good and bad choices. I have made the equal amount of both good and bad choices. The process I go through when having to make choices is different every time depending on the subject on what I need to be making choices. Even though I've made just as many bad choices as I have good in my life I wouldn't change any of them. Yes I am happy with my choices because all of my choices have made me who I am today.

In the Poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost the woods where the roads diverged were yellow. One of the roads bent to the undergrowth. He took the other road because  it was full of life and it welcomed him in. Even though both roads were equal in some way. The wanderer of roads probably wouldn't go back to travel the other road because once he went down one road, going back isn't easy. He will tell his tale after he already went down the road he picked. The tone of the poem is sad. I know this because the word "sigh" was used, which can be an expression of sadness. He took the road less travled on. His choice was important because it changed his life. This poem says that choice is a very important because it can make all the difference in our lives.


In "Dead End" by Rudolfo Anaya Marias two choices are to stay out with Frankie and fool around or to have him take her back home. She had to make the choice whether to be different and say no or just go with the flow and be like the other girls at her school. My reaction of her choice at first, I was shocked the proud of her. Not many girls can be in that kind of situation and walk away. I agree with her, I think she made the right choice. I haven't been in the same type of problem as Maria but I have been put in situation where I had to choose to be different or just respond like everyone else and I chose to be different and walk away. The words "empathy" and "envy" are important because when making choices we will always have that person or group of people who understand why making the choice we are and they will support our (empathy) and we will also have the people on the opposite side of us with that feeling of discontent towards us because we didn't make the choice they wanted us to make. This makes it hard to make choices for certain people because there are a lot of people who make their choice to please other people.

The Tyranny of Choice by Barry Schwartz talks about how our choice's can be connected to our happiness. There is a connection with our chocie's and our happiness. Yes we are happy with having choices. It's good to have options. We are happy with our chocie's but there is also choices we aren't happy with. I am a satisficer because once I've done something I'll be happy with it. I don't go out of my way to explore what my other options are but, I'm happy with the knowing that i do have more choices if i want them. Regret can hurt our choices. "Adapting" to our choice means that when we make a choice we have to get used to what ever the outcome is. Making certant choices may call for certain change in our life. We may have to start doing things different then we used to, that's adapting. We don't always have high expectations when we make choices but we can. Some people don't like to keep high expectations because they have the fear that they won't get the outcome they wanted. It can be disappointing. The effect of our high expectations can lead to good things. If you expect high expectations from our self then we can achieve great things and make good choices in our life.

In this cartoon the meaning behind it is picking a life style. Would we rather be rich or famous. This relates to choices because we have to pick a road to drive on. We have to pick whether we want to have lots and lots of money or would we rather just have it where people know our name. 

Everyone, makes good and bad choices. I have made the equal amount of both good and bad choices.  In this essay I've written about many different times where people have needed to make a choice. I've also written how our choices can be the cause of our happiness most of the time.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Satire

Satire is a word used to make fun of someone's sins or their weaknesses, often used to correct someone.

In the reading, "The the impotence of proofreading" by Taylor Mali spell check is being satirized by saying it can spell the words right but it doesn't tell us if the word we are trying to use is correct. The change expected is for him to not use spell check anymore and for him to learn how to spell on his own. "So i got myself a spell checker and figured I was on Sleazy Street." "But there are several missed aches that a spell chukker can't can't catch catch." are two examples of satire in the reading. My reaction is "this Taylor kid really can't spell" but as I read on I realized half of his problem was his spell check that was having him use the wrong words where they weren't needed.

"Has this ever happened to you? You work very hard on a paper for English class and then get a very low grade (like a D or even a D-) all because you are the world's worse speller. Proofreading your paper is a matter of the the utmost importance."

In the Article, "Area Man Carefully Weighs One Side Of Argument" the fact that he is only listening to one side of the argument makes it satire. it is expected that he change the way he handles conflict in the work place. "As a supervisor, I need to give equal consideration to the person telling me what I want to hear before I side with him,"and "On the one hand, Tom presents a very compelling case, but on the same hand, Tom is the only person I'm willing to listen to." are two examples of satire in the article. My reaction is that I think the boss is being unfair, and he's coming off sexist. Both sides of any problem should be listened to and handled equally or handled accordingly, depending on the problem and its outcome.

"Advice to Youth" written in 1882 by Mark Twain satires adults giving advice to youth. It's being satired because he's trying to give advice to the youth, who normally don't listen to advice on how to live their lives and how to handle things from adults. The change that is expected is for him to give better advice and not teach the youth how to lie or misbehave when their parents aren't around. A few examples of this satire is "Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you." and "Now as to the matter of lying. You want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be in the eyes to the good and the pure, what you were before."

The Storyteller by H. H. Munro satires the thought that if you are a good person, you will live a great life. It's being satired because when the strange man tells the story about a "horribly good" girl who has all these awards you would think the story could only end one way, good. But at the end of the story, she dies by being ripped apart by a wolf. The change expected is for the story, especially since it was told to younger kids, to end a little more happy instead of so hurtful and shocking. "The first thing that it saw in the park was Bertha; her pinafore was so spotlessly white and clean that it could be seen from a great distance. Bertha saw the wolf and saw that it was stealing towards her, and she began to wish that she had never been allowed to come into the park." and "He dashed into the bush, his pale grey eyes gleaming with ferocity and triumph, and dragged Bertha out and devoured her to the last morsel. All that was left of her were her shoes, bits of clothing, and the three medals for goodness." are two examples of it. My reaction is i was kind of shocked on how the story ended. I would have expected it to end as little more like a fairy tale because the story was being told to little kids.

"Reading Satirical Articles Can Get You Tortured, Sent to Gitmo" By Cernig sarires the CIA and how they are overreacting with the whole situation. The change expected is the CIA should find out more about whats really going on before they react. "Binyam Mohamed, a former UK asylum seeker, admitted to having read the ‘instructions’ after allegedly being beaten, hung up by his wrists for a week and having a gun held to his head in a Pakistani jail. It was this confession that apparently convinced the CIA that they were holding a top Al Qaeda terrorist." and "‘I am speculating but I think this news was sent up the line to the White House, which is when the paranoia kicked in. They authorised the “enhanced interrogation techniques” against Binyam, including the rendition. This is how they made their huge mistake, thinking he was a major terrorist as opposed to a London janitor." are examples of this satire.

 In the cartoon satire is being used by saying smoking will keep breast cancer away. Even thought it may not affect breast cancer, smoking can going you lung cancer instead. So Cancer will be in our body either way."A pack A Day keeps the Cancer away" and "We're saving our breast" are two quotes from the cartoon that help convey with my reasoning for why the cartoon its self is being satired.

Satire is a word used to make fun of someone's sins or their weaknesses, often used to correct someone. In this essay iv given many examples from different readings to how satire is being used is different situations. Such as how spell check was being satired in the first story and how a grown man makes his living on giving advice to teens who normally don't listen to adults anyway.