Poem

                Michael Lassell’s poem, “How to Watch Your Brother Die” displays a man who somewhat changes his feelings about homosexuality. The poem makes it evident that the man has never liked gay people and even cut his brother out of his life when his brother became gay. When the man realizes his brother is dying he sees that his sexuality does not define who he is; he sees the dying man as his brother, not just a gay man. I think that dying makes everything different, as shown in this poem. The poem states, “Realize the scar will be all that’s left of him.” The man tries to hold on to his brother with any string possible. He sees how he lost time with his brother through arbitrating him.

The man is able to forget how he judged his brother and focus on what is at hand. He realizes that love can be found between anyone, not just a man and woman. The poem does a good job explaining that the brother’s lover really loved him. The poem says, “Watch the tears well up in his eyes.” The poem showed that no one loved the gay brother as much as his lover did. The poem also says that same sex love can be stronger than the traditional type of love by stating, “It’s just like a wife, only the commitment is deeper because the odds against you are so much greater.” This quote makes a lot of sense. The adversity that gay people go through is unmatched and must really bring them closer because in many situations, like the one in the poem, everyone abandons you, even your family.

This poem relates to the homosexual boy in “Glee” named Kurt. I am not familiar with the show at all, but from the episode we saw in class it seems like Kurt’s relationship with his dad is a bit distanced due to his sexuality. His dad does seem to support him, but he tells his son not to do his duet with Sam because it will ruin Sam’s reputation. Just by saying this I feel like Kurt is being unfairly treated by his dad, and therefore their connection is not as good as it could be.

                I actually really liked this poem. I have trouble understanding a lot of poems, but this one kept a clear and distinct message and allowed the reader to comprehend everything.

Journal 6

The Humane Society is very smart in their techniques to get animals adopted. People (with souls) cannot bear seeing animals in pain. Pathos is obviously the main technique used in the Humane Society commercials. Many people cannot even watch the Humane Society commercials because they are so sad, but even the viewers who cannot watch the commercials get the point. The commercial stirs up feelings inside of us and makes people feel the need and duty to help animals. The commercial also uses logos. The commercial expresses how you only need to pay $19 a month in order to save lives. When given in that context, it entices the viewer to help out. It is a small price to pay in order to help for the helpless animals, which will otherwise be put to sleep. The music in the background of the commercial also brings about a very sad and depressing tone, grabbing the viewer’s interest. The commercial also uses a fair amount of ethos. The Humane Society intelligently put a celebrity in the commercial, providing credibility. Putting the celebrity in the commercial lets everyone know that anyone and everyone should help. Celebrities are not too good to help starving animals, so neither are you. Also just seeing the hurting animals provides credibility because you can see the animal’s pain first hand. The Humane Society commercial uses logic, credibility, and emotions to effectively persuade the audience.

Book vs Hypertext

                After doing the WR reading and reading the hypertext I think that I prefer reading straight from the book. I feel like reading books is something parents have their kids do to keep them off the computer and away from the TV, the hypertext combines technology with reading and takes away from what reading is all about. I felt the hypertext left out a lot of things that were in the book. Although the pictures in the hypertext were very cool and unique, I feel like they take away from your imagination. When reading about architecture I feel like we should create crazy exaggerated pictures in our mind, but with the hypertext you can’t really do that. For example, I read the WR version first and had pictures of what things looked like in my head, but then when I read the hypertext all of my imaginations got kind of shattered.

                The online text also makes it hard for me to stay focused. The links were distracting and I felt like I needed to read them all in order to get the full story. Reading the links made this assignment really drag itself out and made it a bit miserable because there was so much to read. Also, when doing any type of work online I have trouble staying focused on my task. I find myself going onto other sites like Facebook or Youtube constantly and my assignments take forever. I would definitely prefer just reading out of the book so I can stay on task and get my work done.

                I do not think that Miller and Broumas writing would be as effective in a hypertext version. They give a lot of description and I think that pictures and links about other things would really take away from their work.

CESL

                My experience in the CESL was very enticing. I met a student from Korea named MJ. MJ majored in computer sciences in Korea and has received both a Master’s and Bachelor’s Degree, and is in America going for his PhD and perfecting his English. MJ is now 29, and is living in the Sahara apartments. I found out that MJ really likes working out, and I could tell because he was pretty buff. He explained to me how in his country he was a personal trainer, and knows a lot about working out. He told me how he likes staying very healthy and only eating and drinking things that will help keep him fit. It didn’t surprise me when he said that the beverage he would compare himself to is water. He likes staying pure and clean. He seemed like a very kind and down to earth person and lives by the motto, “Honesty, endurance, until the end.”

          MJ said that the transition to America has had its pros and cons. He told me that in America people are much nicer and considerate than in Korea. For example, he said in Korea if you want to cross the street and there is traffic, you’re basically on your own and cars do not stop for you. On the contrary, in our country you can walk around campus without even having to stop and watch for cars because everyone is kind enough to allow pedestrians to cross the road. One of the troubles he has had is communication. He said that it is hard talking to the other students at CESL because they are mainly from China and he does not speak Chinese. He also said he feels his English has not improved that much because he lives in an apartment alone so he is not practicing his English too often.

          The story Letter to Mexico explained the author’s hatred of her own society which points to hatred of herself because she is a product of her own society. When American’s venture into other countries I am sure there is some sort of resentment. My guess is that people in other countries feel that American’s think they are better than everyone else…

          Meeting MJ was definitely a cool experience.

Journal 2

The persona text I have chosen to analyze is an email that I wrote to my supervisor at work. The email expressed why I would not be in for work that day . I made up the lie that I had rearranged some classes so I couldn’t show up, but the real reason was I felt terrible from the night before and had loads of homework to catch up. I have chosen to analyze this email because it hides the true meaning for missing work, so it will be somewhat easy to analyze, answering how and why I composed this email. I feel that many college kids form lies such as I did, whether it is for good or bad, it happens often. People may be able to relate to my email if they think of a time they lied for their own selfish desires. I feel that my text is much different than the text we saw of Lindsay Lohan. In the video of Lindsay Lohan she came straight out and said all of her problems, and was making jokes of them and acting sarcastically. In my email to my supervisor, I hid things, like Tapahanso. Tapahonso refused to speak her native language, and really acted much different than other people in her culture. She doesn’t let everything out due to the fear of being judged. I also did not let everything out in my email. In my email I said how I was so sorry that I had rearranged my schedule, yet I actually just felt too tired to work. If I were to be completely honest and straight forward in my email I would have most likely lost my job. Hiding things is sometimes necessary in order to get what you want. So, in this way I am much different than Lindsay Lohan. If I acted like her I would have said, “Yeah I had a wild night and just want to sleep, I’ll be in Friday.” People create different texts depending on their audience and situation, my text happened to form a lie. Analyzing my text will make me truly look at the motives I had while writing the email, and analyze the consequences.

Here's my email I am analyzing:

I am scheduled to work today from 11-2:15 as a front cashier. I needed to switch around some classes so this morning I changed into a 12:30-1:45 class, so I will not be able to come into work today. I will be in Friday, as scheduled, and would like to be considered for a permanent position. Sorry about this inconvenience.

Sincerely,
Kyle Hadinger

Journal 1

My brother and I always got along, I guess you could say we were friends, and everything was fine between us. We didn’t fight, or really even argue for that matter, but we were never all that close… Two years ago he moved out of my family’s house and lived in a dorm at the U of A. During the past two years we saw each other occasionally, maybe once every other week, but we weren’t like the story book brothers who are always there for each other and are the best of friends. We weren’t close, and we didn’t care.


At the beginning of July things changed between my brother and I. I had just finished high school and wanted to move out and have some fun. I wasn’t too interested in a dorm for several reasons, but that’s beside the point. Most of my friends were just going to live at home for a year, so I sort of had nowhere to go if I wanted to move out. My brother invited me to live at his house. I instantly accepted the invitation, not really thinking. I didn’t think it would be weird living with him since I had done it previously for 16 years. While moving into his house it hit me that my brother and I were strangers to one another. All I could think of was how awkward it was going to be between us, and it would be even more awkward since we are brothers and we should be completely comfortable around each other. I must admit I was a bit worried… So I was all moved in and my parents finally left, and surprisingly things were not awkward at all. I learned that the tension between my brother and I was coming from the supervision and discipline of our parents. Living on our own we were/are able to say and do whatever we pleased. Moving in with my brother found me my new best friend, and a new life. Living together has 100% changed our identities toward one another as siblings.



This experience went well for me. It was a very broad topic so it wasn’t too hard for me thinking of an idea to write about, especially with the topic “An experience that changed you,” I’m sure we all have tons of those. I didn’t really fictionalize any of my experience, but it was hard for me deciding what to write and what to leave out. I really crammed a huge experience of my life into two short paragraphs. I think it’s a little difficult talking about an experience that changed your identity in two paragraphs, because whatever your experience may be, if you’re trying to describe an identity changing experience, it’s a huge deal (yes I know this is a bit repetitive).

I’m a bit disappointed about how utterly boring my first journal/blog is. It was hard for me to make moving out and becoming closer to my brother interesting to anyone else. But on a final note, I think this was a good experience for our first journal.