Wednesday, February 23, 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.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

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

Saturday, February 19, 2011

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.

Monday, February 14, 2011

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.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

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.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

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.