Tuesday, September 30, 2008

journal entry 5

Syfer describes that wives perform all task in the household. Women still perform these task, and sometimes even more. since then the task women perform are still the same. Syfer writes this by stating everything a woman does back to back, i think she does this to show how much a women actually does. I believe women a\have more writes now but not as much as they should. Men still benefit from women in the houshold because they get most of the things done.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

in the news

I personally do not drink splenda, or have ever even tried it. To me it has always looked like fake sugar so i never had any interest in drinking it. After reading this article i have even less interest in splenda. It is pretty hard to believe that the company would lie in there advertising about how it is better than regular sugar. Splenda is suppose to be healthier than regular sugar, but it is just as bad if it is not regulated when someone drinks it. This leaves me to question what other companies have lied in there advertising? What have they said is healthier for us and truly is not?

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

in the news

I am for the subject and against it. I feel that it is up to the parents to decide whether or not they want to test there kids. If i was a parent and my child had one of the cancers i would want to know so they could get treatment of some sort. Some parents although would not want there kids going threw all the drama and pain of doctor visits and testing and such. Theres even the chance that doctors may not find anything, and it could show up years later. But if they were to find traces of cancer or even the cancer gene, would you want your daughter going threw all that? How do you think she would feel growing up without a childhood? Not being able to go out and play with the other kids?

Monday, September 22, 2008

article questions

The six myths of creativity are that if your a creative person, then creativity comes naturally to you. People who worry about there salary tend to be more creative. When people are put on a time clock and have pressure a lot pressure they are more creative. When people are scared they somehow have a mental breakthrough. When others compete against each other they create better ideas and innovations. Last, when a company downsizes there creativity rises.

Amabile started a 12,000 daily journal entry from 238 people working on creative projects in seven different companies. She wanted to get inside of peoples heads and find out how they have creative breakthroughs. It was designed to "look at creativity in the wild".

Bill Breen's audience is mangers and leaders in the work office. This is shown when he addresses them in the beginning and end of the article.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

In the news 3

Everybody knows that cloning has been a controversial subject since it was discovered. I believe im more or less on both sides of the fence on this one. I agree with the stem cell research and usage of it on people to help save here lives. At the same time although, i appose the extraction of the cells from cloned babies. I do not believe it is right to take the like of an unborn infant. It is as if they are creating kids to then take there lives afterwards. I would feel comfortable with it if they took the cells from infants that have been born already. If they were cloning organs or skin graphs then that would be fine, but cloning babies is not something i agree with.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Champions

Athletes have always been told that champions are made when nobody is watching. As an athlete I have heard this before many times, but never really paid attention to what it really meant. I never believed this and took it as just another motivational quote the coaches would use, that was until the same belief came into play in my life.
I was going into my senior year of high school and I had just transferred into a new school. It was tough enough transferring in to a school where I did not know anyone. But I also had a lot of pressure on my back because I was projected to help the team win many games during the season.
The fall season came around and all was well, we played many games and I was pitching pretty good. We lost a few games but it didn’t really matter to us because we had yet to begin practicing and still not at our full potential. We soon began to near the end of the fall season and that was when I started to feel slight pain in my elbow. I thought nothing of the continues pain, to me it felt more like soreness and I played threw it. That was a mistake. What I should have done was report it to either the coach or the trainer.
Turns out the pain I had was due to bone spurs and inflammation. The doctor said I was not going to be able to play, at least the beginning of the season. The second half of the season although, was still questionable which kept my hopes high. So I decided right then and there to do everything in my power to recuperate and return for the second half of the season. The following week I began to wake up at five in the morning to run at school. Just because I could not throw did not mean I could not stay in shape for when I returned. It was tuff though because at that time it was still dark and there was nobody at school. It was just me and the track, nobody to watch me or accompany me. Then I would go to school and attend practice. After practices when everybody left home I did not, I stayed and worked out even longer, again with nobody else in sight.
I continued to follow that same workout for the next month. When I returned and was able to play again I was in better shape than before. I was throwing harder, and lasting longer. I even lost weight, which impressed the scouts because I was more slender. We finished all of our games and I had the greatest season of my high school career only playing half the season.
That is why my belief was changed and now I agree with what the coach has been telling us all along. I now believe that champions are made when nobody is watching. I learned from personal experiences that it is true, and if any athlete were to ask me I would tell them just as my coach told me.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Class Discussion

Bush's Border Fence Faces More Trouble

By EILEEN SULLIVAN
,
AP
posted: 11 HOURS 37 MINUTES AGO
comments: 528

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration needs an extra $400 million to complete its fence along the country's southwestern border, and government investigators say that may not even be enough to finish construction by the end of this year.
To complete the 670-mile fence — already half built — the administration has asked Congress to approve the use of $400 million set aside for other programs, mostly surveillance technology projects along the U.S.-Mexico border, Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told The Associated Press Tuesday. Higher costs of fuel, steel and labor have led to the $400 million shortfall, Ahern said. "If we run out of money, unfortunately the construction will have to stop," Ahern said. He said it is not known exactly how much extra it will cost to build each mile of the fence, because the costs differ due to varying terrain and environmental issues.
Ahern is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill Wednesday about the fence's funding shortfalls. At the same hearing, Congress' investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, will also tell lawmakers that the administration risks not meeting its deadline to complete the fence by the end of the year because of staffing shortages and complications with acquiring the land necessary to build the fence.
The concept of a border fence took on new life after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which revived the heated immigration debate. Intelligence officials have said the gaps along the southwestern border could provide opportunities for terrorists to enter the country.
Critics have said the fence presents an inconsistent message about a country founded by immigrants and priding itself on opportunity.
The fence is not intended to stop illegal immigration altogether, but rather make it more difficult for people to enter the country illegally, administration officials say..
The entire plan for security on the southwestern border includes additional Border Patrol agents, more enforcement of immigration laws, a physical fence and a high-tech "virtual fence" with surveillance technology.
The administration learned the high-tech portion of the fence is more difficult than anticipated after its 28-mile test of a virtual fence in Arizona. Lawmakers have hammered the administration for what they consider a failed virtual fence plan, but Ahern and other officials have said that criticism is not fair.
While there are still plans to install virtual fencing along other parts of the border, the administration thinks it's more important to use the money set aside for technology in order to complete the physical fence, Ahern said.
As for completing the fence by end of the administration, Ahern said, "We still have many challenges that remain to be overcome." Among those challenges are getting court orders to build on certain lands. "And that's out of our control," he said. He said staffing shortages, however, are not a problem.
The fencing plan affects about 480 landowners who live along or near the southwestern border. Some citizens are faced with moving out of their homes and selling their property to the government because the placement of the fence would significantly affect the value of their property. Others could accept a government payment as compensation for reduced value. As of August 26, the administration had 269 pieces of property it still needed to acquire from landowners, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Since 2006, Congress has appropriated $2.7 billion for the fence. But there's no estimate how much the entire system — the physical fence and technology — will cost to build, let alone maintain.
Border fences have been sprouting across California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas for decades — dating to the 1940s, when the International Boundary and Water Commission, an agency that deals with border issues, built 234 miles of fence to keep out foot-and-mouth disease.
As a result, the U.S. fence is a patchwork of old and new construction and in varying states of repair; the only consistency is a uniform ugliness. Over the years surveillance cameras, ground sensors and unmanned aerial drones have been used in spots along the border. But the current building spree is the first comprehensive federal push to seal the entire stretch with either physical fencing or detection and surveillance technology.
If Congress does not approve the use of an additional $400 million to build the physical fence, Ahern said, "We will exhaust our moneys and go as far as we can."













Journal Entry #2

A DIFFERENT KIND OF HERO

This essay is compelling in my eyes because it seems to be straight from the heart and completely honest. The story this writer used was when hurricane Katrina rampaged threw her home town, New Orleans. The tone she uses is serious mixed with some reflection type of tone. She achieves this by dueling on her past experiences and how they affected and changed her life.

LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST

To me this essay is compelling because going threw a tornado is a scary situation. Something like that will definitely be a life changing experience. She already has an idea about how life is not based on property or objects, but uses the tornado to emphasize how it made her realize it even more. The tone used in this essay is also some what serious.


The two essays are similar because they both use past experiences to show how it has changed their future. Both the authors also use the similar tones in their writings. They are different although because in A Different Kind Of Hero she realizes that she is a hero after the fact that Hurricane Katrina hit. In Living Life To The Fullest she knew what she believed before the tornado hit. Both essays follow the guidelines described in the instructions.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

journal entry 1

I felt the need to respond because i received a note from my girlfriend who had recently moved back to Brazil for the summer.

in this letter to her i used a poetic type of genre.

I chose to write to her because i could not travel over and speak in person.

My purpose in writing this letter to her was to let her know that i still have feelings for and think about her all the time. I feel as if i did accomplish my goal of informing her.

I have been in a relationship with her for 2 years, and she would be the only audience to read the letter.

Thinking of this letter i wrote is different from others because this letter was a love letter. This was not an essay or a response to a prompt. I wrote my true feelings on that note that would be sent hundreds of miles away. Although one of the rhetorical situation i faced was that she might not have the same feelings as me, or if there is a greater audience than just her.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

in the news 1

I feel that there should be a limit on how much technology is used to enhance an athletes performance. Specialized clothing is not a big deal when compared to performance enhancing drugs. Although those countries that do not have as great technology as others would probably disagree. An athlete still has to perform in order to win, specialized swimsuit or not. Performance enhancing drugs though would help even those are not as good of an athlete. I think all sides would agree thats the same as cheating. Its different when something affects your body internally, than affecting it externally.