Map Map Map!

                This map, A New Description of Carolina, is really not that interesting mainly because it just focuses on Carolina. Some things that I do find to be particularly fascinating could include the pictures and detail imbedded within it. I noticed that this map has a huge symbol off to the left and this may be a focus point. I also noticed that there is a crest in the middling of Carolina that is inscribed in a different language. On top of the crest is a crown symbolizing that this land hopes to be prosperous and maybe taken over or owned by a wealthy person or persons. I believe that this land is unsettled due to the number of trees and land that is open. The names of the areas around the crest are American, but the names of the villages or towns toward the north of this map seem to appear to be Indian based. This intrigued me because I realized that maybe the wealthy, royal, or prosperous people are going to take over this land and basically boot the Indian tribes out. I get the feeling that we do not care about the Indians and our goal is to push them out, change their names, and gradually take over. This is basically what seems to happen in the future as well.

 Something I noticed from Babb’s piece that I believe relates to my map is a blurb from page 47. “American whiteness is essentially an English creation, arising in response to migration, encounter, and a need to sustain established social structures in new environment. This quote really focused on how essential it is to migrate and establish new social structures in new environments and this is exactly what I thought was taking place in this map. The “whiteness” or the rich, white Americans were slowly taking over the land, migrating, and establishing their territories in new areas towards the north of the map.

http://www.libs.uga.edu/darchive/hargrett/maps/1676s6.jpg

Sound and Fury

I really enjoyed watching this film and it really made me realize how little I am exposed to the deaf world. It is kind of sad to think about actually. I am privileged with being slightly more exposed than others because I have a deaf neighbor. He is a great guy and has a great family. His wife and two children can hear so I can imagine the frustration he has at times, but his wife teaches sign language and is exposed to the deaf almost everyday. Their kids are still pretty young and don't understand the whole situation, but they already know more sign language than most of us do. He is a normal guy and should be treated that way. He can easily understand what I am saying by reading my lips and he is very good at speaking; it's not hard to understand at all. Sound and Fury did an excellent job with touching both sides of the story and incorporating both of the discourses. I don't fully understand the difficulty there is with deciding to obtain a cochlear implant, however, based on the film and talking with my neighbor, I can assume it is one of the hardest decisions a person may have to make.

This is why I don't really know whether I support the cochlear implant or whether I think it is a bad decision. My first assumption before even watching the film was to get the implant. I couldn't even understand why someone would not want to get it. Hearing is such a beautiful thing. But once I watched the film, I realized how proud the deaf are of their culture. They have never known of anything different and they are perfectly fine without hearing. However, their is a lot of difficulties they may run into in life that will cause them to struggle more than others. Communicating with family members and friends or getting a decent paying job could be a challenge in some cases. I can understand if the entire family is deaf why you would not support the implant. If a child did decide to get the implant, they would not lose their deaf culture because they still need to communicate with their family , but they would probably have a difficult time learning how to speak due to the fact that their parents are deaf.

I have finally made up my decision and I support the cochlear implant. I think allowing the child to decide on their own could be beneficial or at least not implant a small baby. I also think both the family and the child needs to learn sign language. They are still deaf when the implant is taken out, and they need to be able to communicate and understand the culture. It is important that the family members learn the language as well. The implant does not need to take away their deaf culture if they don't allow it to, and in the end it will probably make their life much easier. They can communicate with the deaf and the hearing and hopefully have to deal with less stress. With being able to hear, they can work in any field and do just as much as any one of us could.

I know the cochlear implant is a very diverse topic and obviously deaf families or family members might have different views. I can see both sides of the story and I really do not know what the better decision would be. But does anyone really?  However, in the long run I really do think that this new technology could change a persons life forever and it should be something parents take into consideration.

My fear...of Mice!!

I'm not one to be afraid of many things, in fact, the only thing I could really think of being afraid of would be being trapped under water and not being able to reach the surface for a nice breath of air...but isn't that something everyone would fear? I mean who really wants to be trapped under water? Soo after ruling that out, along with clowns, the dark, snakes, and heights, I decided that the only thing left to fear was simply...mice! You know, the little creatures that squeak, run a million times faster than you ever could, and are basically..well..ugly!! This is how my fear of mice began, now don't get too excited, this story really is not that great.

Picture this..its the time of year for the family festival, except this is actually when the family festival is fun to go to. It was the five aside soccer tournament (the tournament where like everyone got a trophy..i swear 10th place might have gotten one) and  oh yeah it was at the ice arena or the soccer fields if that is what you would rather like to call it. So I was in the five-aside tournament, I don't know exactly how old I was, maybe 3rd or 4th grade. But alls I do know is that my team was stacked! I was a thirsty girl, I mean it takes a lot of water to chase around a ball all day. Okay getting to the point...I had to pee! I decided to take the lazy way out and skip the actual semi-nice bathrooms in the ice arena and go for the quality porta potties! (I'm not that type of girl that really cares where she goes to the bathroom, a forest would be sufficient) The line was actually pretty backed up so I was eying the first one to free up. I waited patiently doing that little "I have to pee dance" the one where you jump back and forth on your tip toes, the one that doesn't actually help at all. When the first door opened, I ran right up to it and switched the little handle thinger to "occupied." I sat down to begin my pee, when all of a sudden a mouse crawled out of this hole located in the bottom right corner. I'm sitting on the seat (feet in the air) and this nasty little thing is spastically and frantically circling the floor of my porta potty. Screaming, I  hop up, try to pull my shorts up and do that "I have to pee dance" all over again. Except this time it was the "Eww I don't want that thing to touch me dance." Keep in mind this is all  happening in like the course of 5 seconds! Finally the mouse crawled back into his hiding space and I sprinted out of there. I mean it's one thing to have to pee in a porta potty, but another to have to be trapped with a mouse.

Ever sense I really have not been too found of mice. Porta potties on the other hand...I could care less about! But mice...eww! Not to mention they also seem to find my garage a nice little place to call home. Soooo...mice...you can go somewhere else to live, somewhere far far far away! That's my story of why I don't really like mice! I told you it really wasn't that exciting!

Semiotic Analysis: Cultural Trends

For my semiotic analysis I chose to look at and analyse my cell phone. After looking at my cell phone from a varitey of angles and answering the questions, I learned and discovered many things. I think a cell phone and other types of electronics sums up what our culture has turned into. Cell phones are small, easy to carry around, handle, and use. This small device seems to be attached at our hips and ready whenever we need to whip out a quick text, change our facebook status, or call a freind. Cell phones are basically everything we need--they can hold and take our pictures, email friends, look up and search the internet, direct us when we are loss, and now even purchase thing buy swipping your credit card. Don't get me wrong, not all cell phones are this heavily equipped, but in only a matter of time they probably will be. This small, portable, and durable little device says that our world is lazy and we expect so many things to come to us in two seconds. We have taken advantage of electronics and especially cell phones and expect things to be at the tips of our fingers. We don't know what we would do with out them and sometimes I wonder that we value them too much. Yes they are a great thing to have and have advanced the world we live in, but to a certain extent. I think that cell phones really do say a lot about our world and the things we value.

Political Dimensions of Language..the words presidents use!!

After reading and scanning through many of the presidents we have had throughout the numerous amount of years, I came to the conclusion that many of the presidents used and still use many of the same words. President Obama still uses the most popular word  "Nation" in many of his speeches. Following right behind are the words "Government", "World", "People", and "Peace". In my opinion, most of these presidents chose these words because several of them mean or refere to the same thing. For example, Nation and World are very similar, they may not mean the exact same thing, but they both have a big picture in mind. Maybe this is trying to say that America really has not changed that much over time, we happen to be fighting for the same things just in much different ways. One thing I did seem to notice was the word "Government" was almost always the most popular word used all the way from Washington to Hoover. "Nation" was used, but rarely ever the most popular amoungst them all. It was not until Franklin D. Roosevelt when "Nation" started being the most popular word used (including Obama). This is something that caught my attention and I wonder why this was the case. Overall, this was a very interesting activity to do; I had no idea that these were the words that happened to be used the most in presidential speeches.

How Do I Write!!

Writting is something that people either chose to do or find themselves having to do. Some people find writing to be a chore, while others find the joy in sitting back, taking the time to relax, flipping open a notebook, grabbing and pen, and writing! Some people write a lot, and some people barely write at all. Filling out their name on a piece of paper and answering a few questions could even be a stretch. With all of this in consideration, many people like you and me seem to find ourselves stuck exactly in the middle, not knowing which way we lean towards more.

Writing when not asked, not when the grade depends on it at least, is always much more enjoyable. The stress and preasure to write a flawless paper is no longer and we are now able to sit back, take a breather, and relax. Writing on my own time, at my own pace is something that I love to do; however, when it comes to something that is demanded of, I do not always enjoy it. I feel the preasure  to whip out something marvelous..something that may not even sound like me. Don't get me wrong, I really do love writing, but it seems to me when I am trying to write something to maybe "impress" everyone..it ends up worse!

I write much differntly for different types of work. When I am writing to myself, I do not care what I say or how I sound, I simply just write. Whatever comes to mind and whatever I am thinking, I write it down. I wish when it came to writing formally, a paper for example, that I could do the same. I over think everything and find myself running in cricles, round and round. I type something, delete it, type it agian, and stare at the screen. It is an overwhelming process that I wish I did not have to go through. I wish I could sit back, relax and act like I am writing to myself. I constantly hit dead end after dead end, and right when I get going, I stop.

Taking the pressure off of me while writing might be something good for me to do, I need to stop caring soooo much about what I am saying and how I am saying it and just write. I think the more I write the better I will get at this. And until that day comes, I will continue to stare blankly at the screen wondering what word I should type next!!

Secret Girl By Molly Bruce Jacobs

For my non-fiction book I strolled into the public library and stood infront of the non-fiction books, deciding which one I wanted to read. After staring at them for over ten minutes, I chose Secret Girl, a heart clenching story of mistory child, written by Molly Bruce Jacobs.

Anne, part of the Jacobs family, was born a twin. Anne, however, was born with hydrocephalus (water on the brain) and automatically sent to assisted living houses, hospitals, and specail treatment facilities. Her sisters Molly (Brucie) and Laura (her twin) did not even know she exsisted until they were much older. Anne was abandoned by her family and rarely even visited. She recieved occasional gifts for christmas and her birthday, but Anne had no idea what a true family even was. Her parents failed to even accept her as a child, the most they did for her was pay her monthly fees and make sure she had a place to live. After years and year of passing, Brucie is struggling with her life as well. Never getting along with her mother and suffering from depressing and alcohol abuse, she was at a huge loss in her point of life. Overcoing treament facilites, attending AA meetings, and trying to prove to everyone that she could take control of her life agian, Bruice, saught out to meet and truly learn who her long lost sister Anne is.

After months of visiting, taking Anne out to lunch, and eventually letting her come to the house, Brucie and Anne's relationship grew and grew. The Jacobs family did not necessarily aprove of what Bruice was doing, for the biggest excuse they could come up with was.."it is too hard to see Anne and know what we had to do." This did not stop Brucie, she continued to seek out and learn more about Anne. With time Anne was spending nights over at her house and learning what a real family is actually like.

Now this is a very short and brief summary of the book! There is a ton of bits and pieces that are missing that really help throw this book together. I really liked how the author was speaking from her own expeirences and memories for everything she was staring and explainging were things she encounterd. Molly Bruce Jacobs really intigued me throughout the whole book. There really was not a moment where I was bored and found myself wonderig off into another world. She explained everything in great depth and I really could imagine and picture most everything that was happening.

The was she described Anne put a smile across my face. There was never a dull moment in Anne's life, she looked at everything in such a positive manner. Anne thought her family was "on vacation" basically her whole life. Everytime she was visited by Bruice or her family she would ask how the vacation was. This made me sad because her parents did not even have the decency to visit their own daughter. In fact, many parts of this book made me sad. I did not like the way Anne was treated and how she was deglected by her family.

I could go on and on about this book. There is so much that I am leaving out, but it truely was a great story about two girls that really have much more in common then one would think. It was a fast pace read and I really never set it down. I would difintily recommend anyone to read Secret Girl.