Final Blog!

This semester has been a tough one. With organic chemistry, biology and English, my least favorite subject, staying up all night studying became normal. Although a lot of memorizing was crucial in organic chemistry, English was much harder solely on the fact that i don't like writing or reading, depending on the piece. This semester in English however was quite interesting because we were given almost two readings every week and were expected to come to class with a brief summary of what we read and understanding the main point of the article. Although the readings were dull, the topic of health in all of them kept me somewhat interested a d allowed me to read them fully. For me, this helped because I despise reading long useless articles but reading these articles helped me in increasing my vocabulary as well as my ability to understand difficult readings. Writing in this class for me improved a little bit as well. Although i didn't dramatically become a better writer, my essays slightly improved over time and I now feel quite confident in my writing. Although there is a lot of rooom for improvement, I feel as if this class has helped me start my way on being able to write without difficulty, or staying up all night.

The Pura Principle

Overall, I thought that it was an interesting read. It was a short story based on a family who's father was gone and out of two sons, the older one was diagnosed with leukemia. It opens up by describing the hardships thee family already goes through and then how it changes as the son is taken out of chemo therapy. The main point of the story was about how the son had met a woman who didn't have any papers and how a relationship formed that was extremely harmful to the whole family. The couple ended up having a baby but had to continuously steal money from the mother because they had no jobs. Although they split up, the relationship costed everlasting damage on the entire family. The genre kept it interesting in that they were able to share an entire story in only a few pages. Also, the bits of Spanish and dialogue throughout the story really helped to connect you to the situation that was at hand.

Waltz with Bashir

One scene that stood out to me in the movie was when Folman went and was visiting Roni Dayag and he was recalling events from his past. The scene started out with his group of men in the tank riding along the countryside and having a good time. They were listening and singing along to music, eating and having a good look around while there was no action. Then all of a sudden, things went from good to horrible. One of his friends had gotten shot and died instantly and they were stunned. And then they started getting fired upon and had to leave their tank and run. Evveryone had dided except for him and he felt alone. This scene stood out because you can never imagine having such a great time and then all of a sudden that mood can be completely changed.

5 New Annotations

1. Ruiter, Robert A.C. "The Role of Coping Appraisal in Reactions to Fear Appeals: Do We Need Threat Ionformation?" Journal of Health Psychology. July 2003. Vol. 8 No. 4. 3 April 2011. <http://hpq.sagepub.com/content/8/4/465.short#cited-by>

This article is important because it talks about how the threat of fear has no relation to coping appraisals on controlling fear.

2. Davis, Michael. "The Role of the Amygdala in Fear and Anxiety." Annual Reviews Inc. 1992, Vol. 15: 353-75. 3 April 2011. <http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.ne.15.030192.002033>

This article is important because it discusses how the amygdala is related in the functioning of fear and anxiety.

3. Job, Soames R F. "Effective and ineffective use of fear in health promotion campaigns." American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 78 Issue 2. 1988. 3 April 2011. <http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/content/abstract/78/2/163>

This article is important because it talks about the different methods in which fear can be used to promote certain things such as health campaigns. 

4. Harpur, Timothy J. "Two-Factor Conceptualization of Psychopathy: Construct Validity and Assessment Implications." Psychological Assessment. Vol. 1 Issue 1. 1989. 3 April 2011. <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WYX-46X49P9-1N&_user=961305&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F1989&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=gateway&_origin=gateway&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1704014296&_rerunOrigin=scholar.google&_acct=C000049425&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=961305&md5=6a621ddb211118949de05322431fb84f&searchtype=a>

This article is important because it discusses a mental disorder known as Psychopathy from ASPD and how individuals with this illness suffer from fearlessness.

5. Cox, D. "An experimental analysis of fearlessness and courage." British Journal of Psychology. Vol. 74 Issue 1. Feb. 1983. 3 April 2011. <http://psycnet.apa.org/?fa=main.doiLanding&uid=1983-32210-001>

This article is important because it is an experiment done that involves to groups and measures their fearlessness and courage based on how they were conditioned before.

John Q

One scene that stood out to me in the movie was when the parents met with the doctors to discuss what Mike Archibald had in terms of choices to save his life. The rhetorical term that was used in this scene was logos. This was because Rebecca Payne was discussing how Mike needed a heart transplant and needed another heart because his was too weak. Logos was used because she constantly used facts and statistics on how much it costs, the likelihood of getting an organ, and the large amount of individuals that were ahead of them on the organ receiver list. She was not emotional at all and didn't realize that the parents were suffering and she was simply throwing out facts.

MLA citations

1. Kreiner, David. "The Illusion of Control in a Virtual Reality Settting." North AMerican Journal of Psychology. 12.3 (2010) n.pag. EBSCO. Web. 1 March, 2011.

2. Depla, Marja, Have, Margreet, Balkom, Anton and Ron Graaf. "Specific fears and phobias in the general population: Results from the Netherlands Mental Health Survey and Incidence Study." Soc. Pssychiatry Epidemiol. 43: 200-208. EBSCO. Web. 1 March, 2011.

Philadelphia Scene

One scene from the movie that stood out to me was when Denzel Washington was questioning the head of the law firm, Charles Wheeler. The questioning started out with Denzel asking simple questions about Andrew's performance and then suddenly changed his tone and became extremely aggressive asking Charles if he was straight or gay. After being stopped by the judge to cease questioning, he was forced to approach the bench, where he was  forced to explain himself. This was when he explained how this case was not simply about whether or not Charles was fired because he had AIDS but because of the possibility that the law firm was afraid of him being a homosexual. This was the first time in the movie that it was openly admitted that the issue at hand was not because of the disease but the hatred that people had towards homosexuals.

Magic Thesis Sentence

By looking at why people are often scared of heights and thrill rides, we can see that many of them are simply afraid of not being in control, which most readers don't see; this is important because it shows a person's true character

Final Topic

For the Experience and Other Evidence final paper topic, I chose to write about the first time I began to ride roller coasters. For me, this was an exhilarating experience because it allowed me to open up about heights and not being in control all of the time. My paper will focus on how people who are scared of heights and/or not being in control, for example not being able to stop a roller coaster when you get scared, overcome these fears and how my experience can support it. In this paper, I will disccuss what the issue was, how I was able to overcome my fear, who/what caused me to go on my first coaster, and the lasting effects that that one day had on me.

3 Topics for Paper

1.       First sleep over – The first sleep over that I ever had was when I was in sixth grade. Now although most of you would think that having a first sleep over at the age of 12 is late, you don’t know my parents. My parents, from the moment I could walk, were always very protective of me and limited the things that I could do for that reason. But for some odd reason, they let me go to a sleep over one night and that made me so happy. One question that could be asked is so what? What made this night so special for me that made it a memorable experience? One academic audience that                would be interested in this piece could be young adults that were also deprived of such activities as children.

2.       First roller coaster ride – My first roller coaster ride ever was actually just about a year ago during a field trip for AP Language. My teacher always took all of her students to Hershey Park for a day as a treat for being able to withstand the class for an entire semester. I remember clearly how everyone was pushing me to get on the first, wooden roller coaster that had no flips or barrel rolls and yet I was afraid to death. But after I rode one, I just couldn’t; stop. I ended up riding ever single roller coaster there at least 3 times considering there was no wait. A question that could be asked from this is why was this important to me? What difference did it make that I was now able to ride roller coasters compared to before the trip? An academic audience suitable for this piece would be individuals afraid of thrills and people who feel as if they need control of everything to be safe.

3.       Angry bees – I remember one time when I was about 7 and living in Pittsburgh. Outside of my door, there was a bush and for some reason there was a bee’s nest in it. So every summer, there would always be bees flying around, and my family would have to maneuver around them to get inside. But one time, me and some friends were being dumb and decided to piss the bees off my throwing things into the bush. Little did we know that bees had stingers and we soon found out a couple of times in a short amount of time. The only other thing I remember from that was not to ever mess with animals that could hurt you. One question that ca be asked is why I did what I did with my friends? And what resulted after my actions? AN academic audience for this topic could be animal advocates who would agree not to mess with animals, especially bees.

Susan Sontag's Illness as a Metaphor/AIDS and its Metaphors

After reading Susan Sontag’s piece Illness as Metaphor/AIDS and its Metaphors I was both confused and interested in what she had to say. The information I got after reading the selection was that at first when diseases like TB and cancer were first introduced into the human system, people thought that it was infectious and the person was considered evil because they was no cure for the disease people didn’t know what the exact effects of the illness really was. I liked how the author went into detail about how people were legitimately scared of getting cancer and how people with cancer ended up having horrible lives. I was however confused with the whole introduction on AIDS and the description of metaphors. I thought that the author could have elaborated more clearly and wrote on a level that was understandable to a more broader crowd.

Blogging Prompt #2

Confession is defined as the “acknowledgment of guilt,” whereas an apology is simply someone apologizing for doing something wrong against someone else or just something in general. IN my opinion, confession seems more like what is necessary when someone does something that is wrong on a moral or ethical level. For example, in context with the readings, if a doctor was to lie to a patient ffor some reason, he/she would probably go confess to either a close coworker or relative. An apology on the other hand usually happens only if someone does something that they regret or if they hurt someone. For example, if a child was to break an expensive or valuable item, the owner of that item would require an apology from that child as to why he might have done it or to explain that it was just an accident.

                It is important that we make the distinction that both confession and apology are similar and different. Both of the terms mean expressing guilt of doing something wrong but for different reasons. Making a simple mistake in life does not require a confession but a simple way of saying sorry. The distinction itself is important because that way we can tell ourselves what we have done and how serious it was. Confession can be appropriate in a lot of situations that usually require a serious action done that the person thought was for the better rather than what was right. However, confessing can also be inappropriate in situations in where, for example, someone was to make fun of someone. In my experience, I feel as if a person will know that they will have to confess what they do before it even plays out.

Autobiography

Hi guys! My name is Adil and I am from Hagerstown, MD. The reason I came to the University of Maryland was because it was close to home and relatively less expensive than other schools. I am currently a biology major but may be switching to psychology in the next year depending on how I feel about all of these biology classes. I plan on going to medical school and eventually, and hopefully, becoming a doctor.

I personally dislike writing with a passion. Ever since I was little, my favorite subjects have been math and science, mostly because I was competent in them. English however was never my thing. Writing papers and essays used to be difficult because I would always get writers block and wouldn’t know what to say. I could never be able to write continuously without taking breaks to think of what I was going to say next. However, that changed when I took AP Language because our teacher constantly made us write timed essays and journals everyday in class and by the end of the year, I was able to not only complete them but have enough time to go back and make them better. I personally like writing argumentative essays more than anything else. In this class, I hope I will be able to perfect my english skills and be able to write professionally if I ever needed to.