Tuesday, November 25, 2008

In the news...

We don't realize how much poverty there is all over the world. Just because we feel we are comfortable the way we are right now it doesn't mean everybody it is like this. It is not the people's fault to be in these conditions. When they were born, they were born like this and it was because the country where they were born it was under this conditions, and it is really hard to stand out from the others when you don't have the opportunities and the ways to do it. People spend money in things that they don't need. For example, do you think it is necessary to buy a $15,000 dress or a $200.000 sport car? They are not a need. People are in need, they have no water, food and are dying with deceases and we are not conscious about it. Everybody should be born equally and should have the opportunity to do something different in life, to be able to stand for his family and give them a comfortable life. There is still time to do something about it, and fight against the poverty all over the world. If everybody contributes with a little, just a little, we can make a difference.

Facts about Poverty




1) Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
2) Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names
3) Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it did not happen.
4) 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services.
5) Around 27-28% of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted.
6) 880 million people lack access to basic health care, and 1.3 billion lack access to safe drinking water. 17 million people die each year from curable diseases, including diarrhea, malaria and tuberculosis. 5 million of these people die due to water contamination.
7) Every 3.6 seconds another person dies of starvation and the large majority is children under the age of 5.
8) Between 1970 and 2002, the poorest African countries received $294 billion in loans, paid back $298 billion in interest and principal, but still owed more than $200 billion.
9) A few hundred millionaires now own as much wealth as the world's poorest 2,500,000,000 people.
10) The poorest 40% of the world’s population accounts for 5% of the global income. The richest 20% accounts for three-quarters of world income.
11) About 1.6 billion people – a quarter of humanity – live without electricity.
12) Organizations fighting child poverty estimated that at least 100 million city children in poor countries beg, steal, sell sex, or work for drugs gang to provide income for their families.
13) According to Anti-Slavery International (ASI), as many as 200 million men, women, and children (about 3 percent of humanity) live today in conditions that amount to slavery.





- Who do do we blame? The society?
- Do you think it was the people's fault because they didn't stand out from the others all over the world? Or do you think it is the government's fault?
- Do you think by this time we can do something about it and fight against poverty? or is it too late?
- Are you willing to help?

- Do you think that there are more important things to spend in than poverty?


Thursday, November 13, 2008

In the News...

I think the government should give a little support to the company because of how huge it is and a lot of people have GM motor vehicles. If this company closes down, what will happen with the parts and the services of the vehicles which the people use? The GM is not going to provide any service and people with those vehicles need service. If they get out of the market they have to take all the vehicles out of the streets and that's impossible to make. All the other vehicle companies are not selling the same as they were 2 years ago, they are going through a difficult time, but they are not shutting down. The positive thing that they have is that the sell Small cars, which consume very low gas and that's what the people is looking for because of the gas price is unpredictable. The apple once was going bankrupt but they invented the ipod and they are actually doing perfectly fine now. They should do the same, they should launch a product which attract the public and will sell easy.

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

In the news...

Most of the people are losing their jobs and it's not the company's fault or their fault. This is happening because the country is having issues with the economy and their not handleling it like it should be. I really don't know what solutions can be made for this. I don't think that people saw this coming. The government should pay more attention to this then other things like for example the war with Iraq. The world it's going to difficult times and if the human were able to invent and create an airplane, they can be able to fix the economy.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

In the news..!

In my opinion, Obama won the election because he brought something different to the table. He talked about a change and that got the people interested and motivated. On the other hand, McCain wanted to maintain the war and people are tired about it and want it to end. This country needs change because in the past eight years their been a lot going on. People saw something new in Obama and that's why they see him different and are willing to trust him. I don't know if he is ready for the economy but he surteinly talked about a change, and if he wants to make a change for good he has to start with doing something about it. Citizens of this country have seen monotony in the past years so that kept them motivated to believe in a change. Obama target the young people and Hispanic because they are the most interested in change because they are worried about how their future it's going to be and they something in the White House who is willing to compromise himself and make USA a better country.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Journal entry # 9


1.- Driving under the alcohol influence can kill you.

2.none.


3. Driving under the alcohol influence can kill you because it doesn't make you act with sanity.







1.- Women are obsess with their bodies.




2.-Women are obsess with their bodies because they always want to be skinny.




3.-Women are obsess with their bodies because they care about their appearance and
































Journal entry # 8



What I see in this image are two people (male to be more specific) drawn in sketch. Where one of them is making laughing or making fun of the other one. The man in the left seems upset. Maybe one of the reasons he is upset could be the other guy making fun of him.

Journal # 7

“Politics and the English Language”

1. In this essay, Orwell suggests that the English language is on the decline because the people who use English are misusing the language. What sort of things does he mention as proof that the English language is in trouble?
- "Modern English, especially written English, is full of bad habits which spread by imitation and which can be avoided if one is willing to take the necessary trouble". He also gives examples of bad writing and what can be avoid.

2. Orwell wrote this essay almost 60 years ago. Do you think the English language is in a better or worse condition than when Orwell wrote his essay? Can you think of modern examples of how people misuse language?
- If he wrote this essay almost 60 years ago and he considered that the English language was in trouble, imagine how can it be now. It's getting worst everyday. People are becoming lazy in speaking and writing. People cut the words in order to speak and talk less. For example, if you want to say: Do you want to go?, now you can say: wanna come?. You see how short the words and sentences are becoming and maybe in the future they'll approve it.

3. What do you think of Orwell’s list of rules to improve your writing?
-That people are using them but in a exaggerated way. Like I said before people cut too much the words.
He also tries to say to be straight forward with your point view and that could be help full.

4. Orwell wrote the following in the provided excerpt:

Probably it is better to put off using words as long as possible and get one's meaning as clear as one can through pictures and sensations. Afterward one can choose -- not simply accept -- the phrases that will best cover the meaning, and then switch round and decide what impressions one's words are likely to make on another person.

What do you think he means when he suggests that one should focus on “pictures and sensations” before one sits down to put words on the page? Have you ever done this? Does it help you write better?

I think what he means is that it's better to see the image first in your head, organize your ideas and then put it in a paper.
What I usually do is that I picture everything that I want to write n my head but sometimes they are many and I can't organize them, so I grab a paper and write them before I forget them and then organize them all together in order to make sense. It helps me the way I do it.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

"Evolution as Fact and Theory"

Questions for Active Reading page 385



1.- "Perfection covers the tracks of past history, and past history the evidence of descent- is our mark of evolution, evolution. lies exposed in the imperfections that record a history of descent."

"Fossils that are not common, and shouldn't be. but not because of our understanding of evolution."



3.- That it's wrong from a writer to expect hat the reader will know everything that you are talking about or knowing about an event. Writer have to expect every tipe of reader and explain every content about their argues. I didn't know about the Scope trial and I still don't know.

"Is the Earth Round or Flat?"

Question fo Active Reading page 371



1.- I would say yes. In the beginning it tells me what I'm going to read or what to expect in the essay. It has good connections and interpretations.

2.- Because he wants to tell the people that he has knowledge about this subject and that he is able to write about different scientist because he knows about this area because he is a scientist. He has to tell the audience that he is one because he writes about a subject that can be missunderstud or not taken seriously. In order for him to make people knoe he is serious he has to tell that he is a science so the audience will have more interest in about reading this essay.

3.- Paragraph 6: "For at least 600 years educated people have believed the earth is round". He is being lighthearted because there is no need to say "educated people", he could just say people in general. For me it is not a good way to do a reference.
In paragraph 5, he talks about Aritotle's proof. That makes him a little bit more serious because he is talking about somebody important and him being a scientist makes people think that he knows what he is talking about.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

"The Maker's Eye: Revising Your own Manuscripts"

Questions for Active Reading page 158

1.- I'm part of the majority of students that don't revise their paper before giving it out. Rereading my project 1 makes me realize that I would change the structure to better. I think I listen to much to my voice that I write what i think and I have to develop it better.

2.- I see Lot's of mistakes like misspelling or in punctuations that at that moment when I wrote it, sounded alright.

3.- Yes, because if you quote somebody some people will not find the connection with what you are writing and the quote because everybody thinks different, but if you explain the quote with your words and the connection you feel it has with the subject it will make more sense.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

"Bad habits are impossible to break"

Wether it’s biting your fingernails, gossiping about coworkers or eating an entire tub of ice cream whenever you’re angry, everyone has bad habits. Some are harmless (procrastination isn’t a quality many people take pride in, but it’s unlikely to kill anyone) while others, such as smoking, can cause serious problems for you and your family. People say that " bad habits are impossible to break". But what are habits? A habit is any action that we have performed so often that it becomes almost an involuntary response. It's something that we habituate in our daily lives and becomes repetitive. There are two types of habits: the good ones and the bad ones. The good habits are processes that are done in a regular manner that promote positivity in life. For example brushing your teeth three times a day or doing exercise. The bad habits are the totally opposite. These are the ones that are done on a regular basis that do not improve upon or prove to be detrimental to forward movement in life. Can be called the "undesiables". For example, a bad habit can be smoking or drinking too much.
The bad ones are the ones that are given more importance. This is because they can cause an illness or death. They are causing a controversy in the world. People are becoming more worried about them. People spend countless hours and dollars each year attempting to break these bad habits and often do not have any success. Why? Because there is no magic bullet. Change is hard work and there is no short cut to achieving it. But it's certainly not impossible.
How do habits form? Are we the ones thhat make them habits or they become habits by themselfs? The whole reason you formed your habits in the first place is that they filled a need. You had tension that needed relief or you had a desire to surf the net. As you break the old patterns you still need a way to fulfill these needs. You will be not only making an active choice to not do the old action you will also be making a choice to perform a better, alternative action in its place.
Are you agreedable to stop a bad habit? Doctors say that is all in people's mind. They will stop when they are actually willing to do it. There are so many ways to stop a bad habit these days. There are organizations that can help, or even your family well be eager to help you.
Breaking bad habits is like breaking up with a girlfriend; you'll be bored and lonely at first but you'll cherish the long-term benefits. Will it bring you more benefits or it will cause you more stress? People have different points of view. Some think that ending a bad habit will make their life miserable are more stressfull and some others think that ending it will be the best thing that could ever happen to them. Habits make you who you are. People also say that breaking bad habits is like breaking up with a relationship; you'll be bored and lonely at first but you'll cherish the long-term benefits.
People can say things but they will first have to live the moment in order to talk with expirience.
So do you think that it is impossible to break a habit?







How can you define a bad habit?
Do you think everybody has a bad habit?
-Think at least one bad habit that you have (it could be eating too much, smoking, drinking, driving too fast, etc.). Now respond:
-Do you think that bad habit will bring you something positive in the future?
-Are you willing to break that habit?
-Would you try to quit by yourself or would you want to get some help? (it could be organizations, friend, family, etc.)

Thursday, October 2, 2008

In the news..!

It is hard to determine if the accident was with purpose or not. Sometimes the police officers could be more dangerous than the robbers themselves because they feel they have a a lot of power and they can do whatever they want. That is very common to see in some countries. I don;t think it was a racist act. The judge had to make justice and when it comes to justice the colors should not matter.
If all the evidence point him guilty then he should pay for it even though he is saying he is innocent. People lie and the judges should not believe in their word. They have to believe in the evidence and it shouldn't matter if he is a police officer or the city major.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Splenda

Lots of people consume splenda as a supplement of sugar. I am a consumer myself. I try to replace sugar with splenda. I've been tell that this product can cause cancer. The research with the rats proved that can cause a bacteria in your organism but I question myself. There hasn't been any news that somebody has been taken to the hospital because of this bacteria. We don't know if in the future this will get worst or maybe they will create a better supplement for it. But for now I don't think people will stop consuming splenda because of this research. In the market there are companies that are selling their product using splenda instead of sugar.
One of the solutions of it should be using the right natural product which is sugar but in a limited amount.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

"The Inheritance of Tools"

Questions for Active reading

1.- Sanders is extremely descriptive. He describes every step at some point that you loose the verb and the subject of the sentence. Maybe he wanted to describe clearly each step because he remembers everything about that day like it was yesterday because he felt this awful feeling, that he didn't know what to do, because of his father's death.

2.- He first started talking about the hammer. Saying all the history of the hammer and explaining it. After that he explained a little bit of his past of how he learned about construction. He starts talking about something and he jumps into another subject and after that he comes again to the subject he was talking at first. he really doesn't have an organized essay. It seems that he wanted to say so many things at the same time that he joint everything.

3.- A "down stone" is a unworked stone that people used to use in the past as a hammer. He said that it hasn't change that much since then.

Journal Entry #5

"Why I Want a Wife"

-This essay was written in 1971. What types of duties does Syfers describe as being performed by wives? To what degree do you believe these are still done primarily by women? Have these or other things about the husband/wife relationship changed in the last 37 years?
Syfers describes home duties which are called housewives, like cleaning the house and taking care of the kids, but at the same she needs to have a job. Years ago women were supposed to stay at home and take care of this needs and not work. Now these days women are more independent. They have jobs and take care of the duties at home. Before the husband didn't give a hand to their wife because they had to be this masculinity figure but now you see them helping their wives with the kids or the cooking. It is more common now and people don't see it wrong like they used to.

- How would you describe Syfers’ writing style? Does she do things you would typically avoid in your own writing?
Her writing style is descriptive. It looks like she is complaining of all the things she needs to get done as a wife. She tries to describe every single duty.
I don't know if I would avoid something that she did in my own writing because if you took the sense of her essay. It wouldn't make sense because all that she does is describe a wife's duties.

-Syfers was reacting to a social structure that she felt at the time was unfair. What types of injustice or unfairness do you see in the world nowadays that you think should be addressed? Syfers implies that men benefit from the servile position of women in the family. Who benefits from the injustices you see active in the world today?
Women are still seen as the housewives. The ones that have to stay at home and take care of the children. Or even worst, have a job and still have to do the house duties. Men are the stereotypes that they go to work and bring the money. Their wives are the ones that have to do everything else, and they expect them to wait for them with the food ready. All this has to change. It should be equal. Both should work and take care of the house and kids. Doing the house work is a hard as having a job. There are so many things to take care of like Syfers described that at the end of the day you feel more tired than having a regularly job. Men and women are both humanly equal and they have the same needs. Why do they have to have different tasks on life? It is unfair. Just because it was socioaly implanted that way years ago it doesn't mean we can't change it to make it better.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

In the News #4

Yes, I do think that parents should test their children early. But I certainly do not agree with testing their children at the age of 4. They should be testated at certain age where their hormones and neurons start to develop. That is when they are teenagers. It is good to go to the doctor once a year and do a general check. Now this days cancer is something that can be cured if it is treated on time. So why not go and get checked onced a year just to prevent?

"The 6 Mythis of Creativity"

Questions for Active Readers page 108

- Describe the "6 Myths of Creativity"

1. Creativity comes from Creative Styles
It is not true that some people are creative and some aren't. Everybody is capable of being creative at some point. It also relies in a certain kind of things like experience, talent and the capacity to put through uncreative dry spells. You have to like what you are doing, your job in order to be creative.

2. Money is a Creativity Motivator
When people are more worried about their paid or their compensation they are less creative. They put their minds and effort in how much and when they are going to get paid then their creation. People are creative when they put all of their interest in their work. If the task is beyond their skill levels, they can get frustrated; if its below their skill level, they can get bored. It just has to be a balance.

3. Time Pressure Fuels Creativity
It has been shown that working under pressure cuts creativity. People need to focus on their work with time and tranquility. Creativity takes time, so they can organize all their ideas and put them all together. It's also been shown that when there is pressure involved their creativity not only goes away for a days but it takes the next two days to come again.

4. Fear Forces Breakthroughs
People tend to be more creative when they are happy about something or are in a good mood. Creativity is correlated with joy and love and it doesn't work with anger, fear, and anxiety. When you have a good day, the next day will be better. This is because your creativity mood has a better chance to be creative the next day. The environment also influences in your creativeness.

5. Competition beats Collaboration
When there is competition involved there is no collaboration. They stop sharing their ideas. This could be a problem because no one it is able to pull all the ideas together. It takes more than one person to do it.

6. A Streamlined Organization is a Creative Organization
Downsizing is a reason for creativity to suffer. It takes the stimulant for creativeness, even five months after it.

-How did Teresa Amabile, the Harvard Business School professor who studies creativity in the workplace, design her research? What kinds of information was she looking for? What seems especially surprising or interesting about her approach to research?
She design her research in a ways of contradicting all the myths that exist for creativity. She explain all the factors that could interfere with creativity. It was interest to know that there are some myths that are not true and she prove them with studies and souvenirs that she made to an audience

-Who is the audience?
For those that think that not everybody has creativity. I was one of those who thought that creativity was not on me. But now i can realize that it depend on your mood and environment and how you handle it.

Journal #4

- What does Bartholomae mean when he says that students must "invent the university" when they write in college?
He means that you have to think, speak, and learn in order to write in their language. In the way of how do they what you to write.

-What Bartolomae suggest is a way for students to become "insiders" within academic discourse?
To become "insiders" within academic discourse you have to write and speak with imagination but at a certain point were they use a conventional language.

-Summarize
The first example expresses a natural writing were the writer intended to write everything that it cross on his mind. It wasn't elegant like Bartholomae said. It was simple and he didn't use a conventional language.
The second example explained more what creativity means in a way that it gets the reader's attention. The style is more difficult, highly qualified like Bartholomae said. It doesn't only relies on creativity but he also defines it in other words like "imitation" or "original creation".

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Cloning

This cloning controversy can create positive things for the human beings. The technology is innovating different procedures they can update a new cure for diseases, like cancer for example. In my opinion, I see cloning like a proof that the technology is going forward and there will be a time were the scientists can discover thecure for different diseases. All this is new therefore the scientifics still have to improve this embryonic stem cells. This will take a few year so they can ameliorate it. We can't put barriers to new dicoveries, we have to be positive to it.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Project 1

The decision that would change my life

Everything happens for a reason. I must have heard this like a hundred times but never realize and thought the actual meaning of it. Now that I did, it is true. My parents got divorce when I was about two years old. I grew up in Venezuela with my mom. Sometime I would spend the weekends with my dad. He was still a little bit immature for his age. He wasn’t ready for all the responsibilities, but for me he was the best dad in the whole world, no matter if he told he was going to pick me up to go out and he didn’t or he didn’t go to my birthday parties. I loved the times we spend together, just the two of us. But all of the sudden he met this woman and got married. I didn’t like that woman at all. We didn’t get along well and we still don’t. 

When I was nine years old, my dad came to the United States only to visit my little cousin in the hospital because she was being treated for cancer. Days later he called and said he was going to stay and look for a job because he thought he was going to have more opportunities over there. For me, this was the worst thing he could have ever done to me. I thought it was the worst decision he would ever made.  I cried almost every night for about 6 years. I missed him so much. We have so much in common. Seeing my friends calling their dads or playing with them was so devastating and made me so sad.

My dad has had many jobs since he moved. He has been climbing to the top. Every new job he had  was better than the other one. He started lifting boxes at a company and now he is a loan officer at Bank of America. He has received several recognitions from the bank. He is good at was he does. Because he moved here and got a good job, now I have better opportunities. I am studying in a very good university and I will have an international degree.

I would have never thought that the decision that my dad made, which was moving to the U.S.A., was going to open me so many doors for my future. And I used to think that that was the worst decision of his life.

Now seeing my own experience I can say that everything happens for a reason. What you see that is bad now, will end up being good for you in the future. 

Thursday, September 11, 2008

In the news #2: The U-S American Border

The country, or actually the whole world, is going through a rough time with the economy. There are lot of things to be done and less money to spend. Seeing how the economy is they should limit they budget to what is really important and needed. I think that this fence that United States it's trying to build It something that they could have had waited and put it as a future plan when everything comes to normal. They are not going to stop the immigrants from entering the United States, they will find their way. They should have had worked out and organized better, so they wouldn't be going through this. It makes no sense now that they already started it and not finishing it. They have to finish what they started. But I think this was a really bad decision because now it's causing a lot of trouble.

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Journal Entry #3

"The case Against Chores" by Jane Smiley (b. 1949)

Questions for Active Readers.

1.- The experience that Smiley had that changed her beliefs about chores was working at the stable. She described her experience almost at the end of the essay. If she would had put it in the beginning I would had thought different about her opinion about chores.

2.- She supported her opinion with a lot of examples. One of them was that making the children do the work teaches them the alienated labor: no to love the work but to get it over with. Another example she gave was her husband. He has work hard since a child, but he feels that he has to get the job done first before going to have fun. Although she is giving a lot of examples, I think she is generalizing. Some other people's experience might not be the same and they could say something different about chores. Another thing is that she is not supporting it with scientific proves. The audience she is trying to reach are the parents who are forcing their kids to the chores and the children who are being forced to do it.

3.- She used rhetorical questions to make the readers have thoughts about and make them feel related to it or reflect to it. For children, chores are annoying and at that point they don't see the advantages they could get about doing them. They are learning certain thing that maybe in the future will be helpful. I think that if you don't make your kids help you at home your are making them dependent. I can give my own example. When I was I kid I had everything done for me, like the food, laundry, cleaning and fixing my room, almost everything. But when I moved to college I had to do everything by myself and I didn't nothing about cooking or doing the laundry. My mom had to teach me over the phone. I thought in that moment that I wished that I could have done some of does stuff at home so I didn't have to be in this position. That's why I say it's good teach your children how to do the housework.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Journal Entry #2


- What makes the essays you chose compelling?
The first essay I read it's called A Life with no Exceptions, and it makes it compelling beacuse it is a pretty story with lots of truth in it because it makes you think that you don't know what you have until you loose it and makes you appreciate what you have in life. It was a big leason for her and we should learn from it too. The second essays i read it's called a New Work Ethic and it also makes it compellling because it has to do a lot with the first essays I read. Something had to happend to them so they could open their eyes and realize what they have in life.

- What kinds of stories do they use to showcase their belief?
They used their own personal story. A situation that they went thru and made them realize certain things that they didn't before.

- What is the tone of each essay and how is it achieved? (funny, serious, reflective, sarcastic, etc.)
Both essays are reflective. The writers achieved it because they actually tell in the stories that what happened to them was a changing in their lives.

- How are the essays similar? How do they differ?
They are both similar because as I said before it was a situation for both writers in which made them realize what it's life about and what they are missing. In the firts essay it was her brother who died and that made her realize a lot of things. For the second essay it was a guy who thought he knew everything in life and he thought he could give some people a lesson but they were the ones who gave him a lesson.

- Do they follow the writing guidelines provided by the This I Believe organization on their website at
http://www.thisibelieve.org/essaywritingtips.html?
Yes, they followed the writing guidelines. They said what they wanted to say in their own words. They were positive about their stories. They were brief and they named their belief.

- What beliefs might you want to write about for project 1? (looking at the categorized list of beliefs at
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_Browse.php may help you)
I might write about immigrants but I'm not sure.



First Essay:
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=8103&age=Under+18&yval=1&start=0
Second Essay:
http://www.thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?uid=8637&age=Under+18&yval=1&start=10

Journal Entry #1

Once I had a multi-cultural English class where the teacher made us write about the culture of our country. I am from Venezuela therefore I had to write the culture of my country. The reason he made us write an essays was because English is not our main language so he wanted us to practice writing. I think the essay is consider documentary because it's based on a country's culture. The audience was the teacher and the other students because when the teacher graded it and hand it out to us again, he would give us another sheet with some of my own and others student's mistakes. For that reason the students get to know a little bit of what you wrote. When the teacher read my paper I wanted him to feel full knowledge about my country's culture and I didn't want to miss I thing about it so I wanted to cover everything. I feel I accomplish my purpose because I got an A on the essay and the teacher was actually interested about it and he later asked questions about my country. I wrote what I've lived and all my experiences I've had in my country. I wrote what I learned at school and what I've seen of the culture. Thinking about my writing is a respond to a "rhetorical situation" because I brought together all my ideas and knowledge about my country's culture and it makes it even special to me because it is from where I grew and what I saw all my life.

Questions for Active Reading






My American by Colin Powell

1.- What Powell wanted to let people know is that no matter how many barriers he had in life, he would always look up front and he would not let that interfere with achieving his goals and priorities in life. For example:
- "I began by identifying my priorities"
- "If I was to be confined to one end of the playing field, then I was going to be a star on that part of the field"
By this he meant that he was going to be the best at what he does, no matter what. And that's how he tries to achieve his purpose.

2.- I think not only for the black people who are nobody in life because they think that life is full of racism only, but for the ones that give up easily. The ones that have barriers and they don't do an effort to pass it, they remain stagnant and never move on. In my opinion, everybody should read this because it gives you knowledge of how black people used to be treated and how this person in specific responded to that.

3.- He always looked forward in order to achieved his goals. He had a disadvantage which was being black, but that didn't stop him from being part of the Army and succeed in his career.
I think he was a person with a lot of knowledge and the black people should see him as a stereotype.

"Writing Is Not a Mcdonald's Hamburger" by Natalie Goldberg

1.- Goldberg's purpose is to tell people that you should take writing as an adventure. We all start weak when we want to write and we always have this ideas in our head but when it comes to put in a paper we get held back. we start writing all the ideas at the same time but when we go back and read it, it doesn't meant sense at all. This is all OK because writing takes its time and in the way you'll have time to improve it.
"Let go of everything when you write, and try at a simple beginning with simple words to express what you have inside. It won't begin smoothly. Allow yourself to be awkward. You are stripping yourself"

2.- Probably her audience will be the people who have struggles in writing. Perhaps because she was a teacher her audience will be her students too. The audience that might benefit form reading this are the ones that think that are not good writers because they can't write all their ideas in a paper.

3.- Her subject is writing. The writing skills. She used her students as an example. She has a positive attitude, and she wants to motivate people to write.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

1st Blog

I believe that technologies are an advantage for human beings because it makes us go forward and do better, but sometimes we use this advantages for bad. We turn everything around, like good to bad and light to dark because that's what people tend to do. With this I mean that with the technology people use it to create new innovations and sometimes are bad ones. I think that the drugs that the swimmers use are a bad innovation because creates something in your body that is not natural, that not comes with you. The people that go to the Olympics are because they have something different from the other people, they have something special. They are good at one specific sport and that's why it makes them special. Therefore I think it's not fair that they start taking this drugs because now everybody can drink it and do the same thing that they are doing and everybody can start going to the Olympics.