Sound and Fury

The documentary Sound and Fury jumped right into the main plot from the beginning.  It began with Peter and Nita wanted the implant because they want Heather to be able to live in both the speaking and sign language world and then it changed rather quickly that she herself wouldn't benefit from the cochlear implant, so her opinion for Heather changes.  This then leads to the grandmother voicing her opinion on why they are making a poor decision and this is the beginning of my frustrations.  The arguments that took place during this film allowed me to gain my own opinion as well, so it was frustrating when the people within the film thought differently than I, like Nita and Peter.  Due to the individuals being interviewed separately, I was able to understand where they were coming from, even if I didn't agree with what they were saying.

In my opinion, I think that Peter and Nita should have gotten the cochlear implant for Heather because she would be able to have a chance at more opportunities if she were able to hear.  I'm sure if she put her mind to it she could do anything a hearing person could do, but it would be more difficult and take more of an effort.  The opportunity presented itself to better their daughter's life, and they didn't take it.  She still would have been a part of both worlds, just not as directly.  As you can see, I believe in the cochlear implant, so I am happy that Chris and Mari decided to get one for their son, especially considering he is a twin.  If Chloe were to hearing and I were to be deaf, I would always feel as if she was better than I.  I would be jealous that she had something I didn't and it would always be a constant struggle to come in second compared to Chloe.  Whether the children were to get the implant or not, I feel like there would always be that wondering of whether or not it was the right choice.  What would Heather be like if she would have received the cochlear implant?  What would Mari and Chris's son be like if he didn't get the implant?

When it comes to the main Discourses, I would say that they are the connections between the hearing people and the connections between the deaf people.  Hearing people don't know what it is like to be deaf and deaf people don't know what it is like to be able to hear, but that doesn't make one necessarily better than the other.  Within the deaf community, I was able to see that they did not view their differences as a handicap and saw that they were happy with who they were.  The people within the deaf community that could hear, like Mary for example, found it hard to fit into this Discourse.  She didn't necessarily want to use sign all the time and this made for an interesting family dynamic.  

(Fear Of) Dirty Laundry

Some people may just call this OCD, but in my mind, it is so much more than that.  Having a stain on my clothes and not having clean clothes is an irrational, yet legitimate, fear of mine.  I may not even be wearing an item of clothing for long and I still throw it in the dirty laundry because you never know.  I can just imagine sitting at lunch during school and spilling on myself, which would then lead to me getting called out to go home and change.  My friends would then laugh and question why I was making such a small thing a big deal, but I don’t succumb to peer pressure.  Nope, not me.   

I’ve always been an extremely neat and tidy person, so if my clothes were to be dirty, it would throw everything off.  Why?  It just would.  I have learned to accept this.  I first realized that this was a fear of mine as a child when my grandma was babysitting my siblings and I.  I don’t remember what spilled on my shirt; however, I remember that it was smack dap right in the middle for everyone to stare at.  I asked my grandma if I could go change my shirt and she said no because we weren’t going anywhere and she didn’t want me to get another shirt dirty.  I guess she did not know how much stress this stain was causing me.  After being told no, I then proceeded to get a wet wash cloth, hid behind a chair, and starting scrubbing furiously, hoping that it would magically disappear.  My grandma found me soon enough and said I could go change, which I immediately did.  Why didn’t I just go change in the first place?  Why did I have to ask for my grandma’s permission? I don’t know.

Today, I would simply go change without asking anyone.  That would just be silly.  My family may make fun of me for how much laundry I have, but that is fine by me.  I’ll fold all the clean laundry my mom dumps on the couch, even if it were to be a mountainous pile, which it normally is considering we have seven people in my house.  I know those clothes are clean, and believe it or not, that makes me happy.

An Analysis: Blurred Lines

This song came out during the summer of 2013, so whenever I hear it, it always takes me back to that time and those memories and I end up finding myself singing along to it in the car.  I like the song and never really thought too much about what the actual meaning of the song was, so personally, I had no idea that this song sparked up so much controversy until I read the articles discussing the lyrics of the song and the music video.  Since reading the articles and watching the video, my opinion hasn't really changed- I still like the song- but I can understand both sides of the argument.

I have to agree with Jennifer Lai when it comes to whether or not the song "reeks of rape."  Yes, the lyrics are not the most appropriate, but that is the same for thousands of other songs out there.  I wouldn't say that our culture revolves around sexual innuendos today, but it is definitely apart of our everyday life, whether we want to admit it or not.  His lyrics are no different than any other song.  If you take apart the lyrics and analyze them, you can come up with a lot of different conclusions as to what they could be referring too.  In the end, whether there was a deeper meaning to the song or not, I think it is very catchy and that is what got him to the top of the charts.

The music video is a different story, however.  I have to admit, the only time I watch music videos to songs is when it is all people talk about due to something worthy of watching with in the video- Wrecking Ball, by Miley Cyrus being a prime example of that- so when I saw the video, I understood where the controversy was coming from.  It was good that the original video was banned because it is very inappropriate and I don't understand why it had to be like that.  To me, it portrayed that women are dependent on men and that having a certain figure is important.  To some extent, I have to agree with Tricia Romano on the fact that the video is degrading to women, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that it suggests women will have sex without consent.  In the end, I think that the video was unnecessary and a better one could have been made, which would have helped the song and Robin Thicke instead of hurting him as much.  There was no reason behind making that kind of video.

The Liar's Club

Over the summer I read "The Liar's Club," a memoir written by Mary Karr, and I found it to be quite intriguing and was surprised I enjoyed reading a non-fiction book so much.  I was confused as to why it was called "The Liar's Club" because it seemed as if the book was just about how she grew up with a mother that went a little crazy.  After awhile I realized why it was called that because her father would meet with his guy friends every once in awhile and Karr would often go with just to sit and listen.  She rarely spoke at the meetings and never talked about them outside of the actual event.  Karr wrote in such a random way that it made more sense than if she were to have written in chronological order.  Not only did she jump from memory to memory, she connected every memory with another.  I really enjoyed this writing style because it was refreshing and was very easy to comprehend.

Why was she writing a memoir?  From the description I would have thought it was because she was raised in such a terrible way that she had to let the world know it is possible to make it out on top, but that was not what it ended up being.  Karr grew up in Texas and was considered wealth off compared to the other people in her town.  Her father worked very hard; yet, always had time for his two daughters, whom he treated like princesses.  Their mother was always home and also spoiled them; however, she had her ups and downs with drinking and acting what they called "Nervous."  Karr was a very stubborn child, but free-spirited and very dedicated.  She had a tough skin and wouldn't let many people in.   Overall, this was a very good book and made me realize that I should be thankful for the life I have because some people don't have it as great, no matter what it may look like from the outside.

Regards to Women

Gentleman, take your hats off for the women around you and thank them for all they put up with.  Margaret Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit" and Gloria Steinem's "If Men Could Menstruate" opened my eyes to the fact that women are oppressed and most people don't even realize it.  Many of the points brought up in both essays were thoughts that anyone could think of, but most people wouldn't realize that they were points made to let people know that women are treated differently than men.  Both articles compared black people being treated differently to white people to women being treated differently than men.  This comparison made a lot of sense in my mind because there was such an uproar regarding segregation and society was able to change that, so why can't society change the way people regard women as well?  People are people.  Race, religion, gender, and anything else that should put them apart from others shouldn't have anything to do with the way they are treated.

The first essay I read was an excerpt from "The Great Lawsuit" and I found that it was difficult to understand because it was written in 1843 and the way Fuller wrote was hard to comprehend; yet, the message was very clear.  One statement I found interesting in this essay was, "All men are privately influenced by women."  This statement reigns true in my mind because men have to be influenced by some woman in their life, whether it be a sister, mother, wife, or friend, but they just won't admit it.  Why not acknowledge how important those women in your life are to you?  Would that show signs of weakness?  Women know what they do for men; yet, they don't ask for anything in return.  That in itself takes a great deal of strength.

The second essay I read was "If Men Could Menstruate" and it made me chuckle to myself multiple different times not only because the entire idea of men menstruating is funny, but because everything that was mentioned could easily be true.  Knowing that women menstruate seemingly does nothing to how they are treated, but if roles were reversed, men would be treated like kings.  Men would spin what is happening with them around and make it seem like it is an unnatural phenomenon and women don't do that at all.  Girls don't brag about getting their period, but would men?  Although this essay took a serious topic and turned it into something funny, it still made me realize that women go through a lot for society as a whole and they don't particularly request any special treatment in return.  Women deserve a great round of applause for all that they do and that should only be the beginning of the gracious thank yous that are owed to them.

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Out of the essays I have read so far, I would have to say that this one wasn't very interesting and dragged on for longer than it should have.  Yes, I found that it had some very good points that opened my eyes to what our society is getting used too, but I disagreed with the assumption that the internet is making us stupid.  Towards the end of the essay, Nicholas Carr stated, "So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism."  Meaning that the reader should most likely be questioning the points he is bringing up and I found myself doing that throughout the entire essay.  One comment that I disagreed with was, "deep reading is indistinguishable from deep thinking."  In my opinion, I think that the ability to take an idea or thought and manipulate it in your mind takes a lot more effort than deep reading.  Anyone can get lost in a book, fiction or nonfiction, but not everyone has the ability to take something and create some sort of wisdom out of it.

One point that I did agree with was the fact that society's concentration often starts to drift during reading and it is becoming more and more of a struggle to get into that deep reading that used to come so naturally to us.  People no longer have the patience to sit and struggle through research when they could simply skim or go on to the internet and find their answer within minutes.  Is that a bad thing though?  Is doing that making us stupid?  Throughout this essay, Carr was giving the reader examples as to how the internet is so easily shaping the human mind, but isn't that what is supposed to happen?  The human mind is what has allowed us to come up with so many different inventions.  Those inventions then shape what life is going to be like from here on out and shouldn't that be considered the way of life by now?  Using your resources is recommended by everyone.  Schools encourage students to go on the internet.  That doesn't mean that we rely on the internet so much that we can't find other ways to get what we need.

One last thing I noticed about this essay was that it didn't mention Google until the fifth page and the essay barely had seven pages.  I found it interesting that the essay was named, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and Google was barely even mentioned and when it was, it wasn't even talked that badly about.  Larry Page stated, "Google is the ultimate search engine and is something as smart as people-- of smarter."  Which is true, but who created Google in the first place?  People.  People have created Google and the internet to help others.  There is nothing wrong with taking a shortcut when doing some research and going on the internet.  That is what it is there for anyways, right?   The internet isn't making us stupid, it is simply allowing us to become more efficient.

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

"The Ethics of Living Jim Crow" was written by Richard Wright and spoke of the lessons that most African Americans learned while growing up in times of oppression.  Not only was essay surprisingly interesting, I felt that it described what life was like for African Americans so very truthfully.  Wright didn't seem to have a problem talking about how certain situations in his life played out.  Not only was he extremely detailed, his words were very powerful.  Some of the most powerful parts of the essay were when he would say, "My Jim Crow education continued," "I was learning fast, but not quite fast enough," or "My Jim Crow education broadened and deepened."  If everyone, white or black, were living by certain ethics or morals, then there shouldn't have been any reason for African Americans to have to learn how to treat white people.

The idea of ethics came up so many times during this essay that I was able to understand that the ethics wright was discussing were nothing like the ethics society should live by today.  The essay was set up in a way that demonstrated different ways that Wright learned about how to act around white people by the many different jobs he had.  One situation Wright spoke about was when he was working in a clothing store and was polishing brass out front.  He watched his boss and his boss's son drag a woman into the store and saw that a police officer was watching the entire scene as well.  When the woman came out, she was bleeding and crying and the officer stopped her, not to ask if she was okay, but to accuse her of being drunk, when, in reality, he knew exactly what has just occurred behind closed doors.  What the police was doing was very unethical; yet, Wright couldn't say anything because he would be out of his place.  This was one of the tougher "lessons" he had to learn, but that doesn't mean that it should be considered the most unethical.

Every memory that Wright chose to write about spoke so powerfully that any reader would be astounded.  The amount of things that a white person could get away with was unbelievable.  People would twist a situation or story around in order to get an African American in trouble.  Others knew what that person was doing, but no one stopped them.  That is considered unethical in itself.  I knew African Americans were treated badly during the Jim Crow period, but I had no idea that they felt responsible for learning how to act.  They took it upon themselves to be the best they could be in the white man's eye; yet, they still couldn't get it right.  Wright was able to open my eyes to what life was actually like and he made me realize that their lives' back then were a lot more complicated than they were made out to be.

Talk of the Town

On September 11th, 2001, I was a mere 5 years old and knew nothing about what the world entails.  I can say that I was and still am tucked away into my own little world, away from a lot of the world's heartbreak. Looking back on that horrific day, I only know of what people tell me simply because of the safe life I have been so blessed to live.  Not everyone can say that though.  "Talk of the Town" is and essay written by two authors, John Updike and Susan Sontag.  Both speak of their experience with 9/11 and both have expressed their very different opinions, but who is to say which one is right or not?

The first part of the essay was written by John Updike and he spoke about the actual occurrence and what it was like to be a bystander during the entire attack.  What were people thinking when they witnessed this attack?  He stated, "It seemed, at the first glance, more curious than horrendous," then later wrote, "We knew we had just witnessed thousands of deaths; we clung to each other as if we ourselves were falling."  Although the attack couldn't have taken that long, Updike wrote with such a passion that included impeccable descriptions that allowed the reader to feel as if the attack was going on forever.

The attack may not have lasted long, but the aftermath would last forever.  Updike touched base on the aftermath of what the attacks did to the United States by saying that all Americans would mourn this tragic event, but that they shouldn't let that stop them from maintaining their freedom.  He stated that the survivors had to "pick up the pieces, bury the dead, take more precautions, and go on living."  He then ended the essay by saying that New York was still glorious the day after the attacks.  After the initial shock of the attack, Updike then appeared to be more positive about what it did America as a whole, unlike Susan Sontag, who wrote about 9/11 in the second part of the essay.

Compared to the first part of the essay, Susan Sontag appeared to take a more opinionated route about 9/11 and questioned whether or not America should be O.K. with what actually happened.  Within the second paragraph, she stated, "Our leaders are bent on convincing us that everything is O.K... But everything is not O.K.  And this is not Pearl Harbor."  She believes that Americans are not facing the reality due to the burden that comes along with it.  Although she believes our country to be strong, she also thinks that America has to be more than just that.  But what would that be exactly?  What does the public need to do in order to keep from doing something that could be considered idiotic or stupid?  Sontag, I believe, leaves the reader questioning how America should continue on as a country, while Updike states that everything will eventually fall into place.

The Life of Lydia Howery

Welcome everyone! How fun blogging is going to be! I would like to start off by welcoming anyone and everyone to my blog, "Blogging for AP Composition-- How fun!!" I hope everyone has a great experience with their owns blogs as well as with reading and commenting on mine as well.

My name is Lydia Howery and I will be a senior for the 2014-2015 school year.  High school has really flown by hasn't it?  So far, I have enjoyed my high school experience, both academically and socially.  Academic wise, I have learned many things that I will carry on with me through college and my later careers.  I am a very dedicated, hard-working person when it comes to my schoolwork; yet, I still like to have fun.  I have made so many new friends the past three years and I hope to make more this coming school year.  I feel that I can manage my time very wisely, which, in my opinion, has made me so successful in my high school career.  As for college, I hope to stay close to home.  My ideal college would be Edgewood, but if that doesn't work out Whitewater, Parkside, and Winona have also caught my attention.  As of right now, I plan on going into business or accounting, but that could change very easily/  Now that you have learned what I would like to do with my future, how about some some fun, simple facts to know what I am all about?!

1.  I come from a family of six.  My twin sister Chloe and myself are the oldest, Seth, my brother, will be a sophomore this upcoming school year, and my littlest brother Eli will be turning four in October.  My family gets along extremely well, which I am very grateful for.

2. I am a very active person, and wish to stay active throughout my life.  I play softball in the spring and summer as well as go to Anytime Fitness many days out the week for the entire year.  I have played volleyball and basketball in high school as well, but no longer play competitively.  

3.  I love reality T.V..  The Real Housewives of _______ (fill in the blank, every "city" is good) and Keeping up with the Kardashians is the way to go.  Nothing can beat laying down after a long day and turning on the T.V. and watching some DVR episodes of the Kardashians.

4.  My family has a cabin located about twenty minutes outside of Richland Center.  It is about a mile up hill and sits on about 120 acres of land, so I enjoy going up there with my family and friends to relax, hike, and four-wheel.  Even though I like spending time there, I am not a very outdoorsy person and do not like get dirty.  The bugs are not my favorite either.

5.  Shopping is probably one of my favorite things to do.  I would not consider myself a shopaholic, but I have no problem with shopping for a couple hours and buying a few new clothes.  I think I got this trait from my mom because she shops more than I do.

6.  Reading is also something I enjoy doing in my downtime.  If I find a good book, I can usually finish it in four days, no matter the length.  I like a lot of different genres and if I find a good author, I will stick with them and read a number of their books until I find another series worth reading.  One year for Christmas I received a series called "Vampire Academy" and I was not to thrilled because it just wasn't my style, but I read the first one anyways and loved it.  There are seven total in the series and they are hands down my favorite books.

Now that you know a little about me, I am excited to read what my fellow bloggers are all about.  I believe this is going to be a great experience for all of us and I am anxious to continue on with my next blogs.  Thank you for reading my first-ever blog and please, stay tuned because there is more to come.   :)