Semestre Dos: Blog #13

http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/durango.html http://www.mongabay.com/history/mexico/mexico-postwar_economic_growth_the_great_depression.html Las Cruzes, Durango was an uncommunicative little town that my grandparents lived. It had no governor, no mayor or anything, instead they had a commander who was lead of police and took care of problems that might have been going on around with the community. There were no telephones, no light, and they did everything by hand. Everyone knew each other and helped one another with whatever they needed. They had no idea what was happening around the world becasue they had no newspapers and tv to inform themselves but other than that people who lived in small towns around Mexico like this were happy and often had big groups of families. The most fun and biggest thing that they had every year was a four day party during April where they would celebrate Jesus with the cross and have religious traditions that made small towns gather and celebrate altogether. What stands out to you about the historical or cultural context of your family story? What stands out to me is the way that they managed to live, and the many things my grandparents had to do to provide food for their family. The only jobs at the time were chopping off pine trees and selling them which everyone depended on because those were resources for them to make fire and cook food, or even heat up the small houses that were hand built by themselves. What stands out to you about the setting of the story?What about the historical or cultural setting seems most relevant to your story? The setting is very different then what I expected. When my grandma was telling me the stories she described her home very out in the open with many nature around her. And she even mentioned times where people would go to take a bath in the rivers where there were waterfalls, and this to me is crazy to imagine because the rivers and lakes were about walking distance from their houses. Another thing that stood out to me was how poor my grandparents started out and progressed later on when the moved into the big city, it was a big change.

Quote: “One may smile, and smile, and be a villain. ” Source: The Great Gatsby

This photo represents a quote that I read in "The Great Gatsby" This quote is really powerful and can be seen in many different ways. The way I saw it was making an approach of something meant to be good with another side to it that changes its positive side. I feel like this image makes it even the more grateful beside the quote, it compliments the strength of what the quote means and what it's making you see which is how even the "bad" can be disguised as the "good"

Semestre Dos: Blog #12

Ampersand: Internships is coming!

As you write your article, what is your engine?
My engine is catching the readers attention and keep it that way by having a central theme that catches my personal emotions and is a way to get up close and personal. This then develops into the expansion of how I felt during my internship experience and why I started thinking about reconsidering my career choice in the future.
What are the key questions that you are answering for your readers?
Some key questions that I will be answering for the readers who read my essay will be, the overall experience that I had during internship and what I took from it, for example how it taught me to be more independent and do stuff for myself instead of depending on someone else. Another thing would be the realizations that I had during some moments where I sometimes didn't like the idea of what I was doing and wasn't so sure about what I wanted to be. And the most important question that I think I answered in my essay was the way I felt while I was surrounded by young kids who saw me as a role model.
What are the key questions that you are answering for yourself as you write?
My self questions that I am answering are, for example how I self reflected in my overall experience and thinking back on how I did during my internship. At times I think I talked about why I wanted to re think my decision on what I wanted to do as a career in the future.
If this were a more "standardized" writing assignment, what would the prompt be?
I think that the prompt would be, "A reflection about your experience during internship and how it affected you afterwards"

Semestre Dos: Blog #11

Quote: "She has tried. Just as she has tried to be more easygoing, but when push comes to shove, as it always will, she is not easygoing."

Source: The New Yorker, M&M World by Kate Walbert

Original Context: "All right," She found herself saying."Just once. Today. Just once. This is it. "Breaking her resolution to stop qualifying, five or more minutes, this last page, one more bite, and wishing, mid speech, she would stop. She has tried. Just as she has tried to be more easygoing, but when push comes to shove, as it always will, she is not easygoing."

My artistic idea:
My idea is to play around with this image and see what I can make out of it considering that it was a powerful poster back then in the 1940's and has had a deep meaning to it even now it is present all over the place.

Semestre Dos: Blog Numero Diez

Choose an article to read from my twitter feed: twitter.com/rlsclass

"Should College Be For Everyone?"

1. Your personal response, which should include the thoughtful selection of direct evidence from the article itself.
This article has been really helpful and understanding such in a way that I have created my own opinion about what I think college is referred to as necessary for success or not. This article was intended to persuade people into debating their opinion on what college is going to be worth for in the future and what might the outcomes of it all going to be. I think this was a really concerned point that many of us students from high school are prepared to face and choose weather or not to go to college right after graduating from high school. I believe that high school is the basic preparation that you get before you are ready to go into college which is going to define what you are good at or something you would want to persuade in a future to come. The skills that you might acquire in college are all based on yourself, this depends on you only if you choose to stay in college and get your certificate or drop out in the process of it all. To me reading this article has made me see all the things college is going to get you prepared for, but it has also made me look at the bad outcomes of going into college which for one part is a money based problem that most students have. Which was argued by someone who left a comment sharing her experience in college with a debt that she is still paying today. "I graduated from a four year private university in 2003 and worked in an on campus office during that time. It helped with bus and train fare and living in my parents’ middle class home. I’ve racked up 60k in debt and have not been able to make over 30k a year. I’m 33 and will never be able to pay this debt off. I now know that I never should have borrowed any student loans in the the first. I pay my rent, make my car payments and utility bills. I work at a place three miles away from my apartment on purpose. I can barely and sometimes simply cannot make my income based student repayment bill every month. If you have to ask how much it costs then you can’t afford it. Darn foolish of me to have never asked. The university industry sure wasn’t going to tell me outright. Thank god the debt won’t be passed on to a relative when I die." Many students deal with the same problem and I agree in favor of supporting students who would like an opportunity to have a high education in life if that means going to college, I mean there also has to be a variety of students who are committed to this and won;t drop out, but I'm sure the financial support is going to be well received and used. As well as this, people don't actually have to go to college to have a high education, others prefer to do their own thing and go for other programs that help fulfill their career choice. For example, in the article it stated "And, I have heard many conservative and liberal educational policy experts demean destinations other than college. We need a nation that has and values all sorts of work and skills, which means providing decent pay and benefits for many types of jobs." This really impacted me because I actually saw the reason for many people to not want to go to college. It says so in the quote, many people don't care for having someone presenting a certificate for college proving nothing other than a piece of paper. They want proof of their skills put into action, and not only that but how prepared they really are for the job they are intended work in.

2. A link to an article that you recommend from a reputable, or academic, or professional, source that either supports the points made in the article you originally picked, or argues with it in some way. Include a brief piece of writing in which you explain your recommendation.

This is a link to an article that states that college is a really important factor for jobs that anyone can do, but are payed better when people are college graduates. I think this a really good article supporting its statement because not only is it giving evidence of how high school and college graduates compare or contrast to each other, but it also gives real statistics that everyone cares for or relates to when they are looking for a job. Jobs now are getting hard to find but we need to look into the future and see the skills that we need to have in order to make more jobs work for us as well.


3. Questions for discussion, things to think about, ways to move forward, etc.
How can we meet the standards for us to get a good education?
What is a good example of a well payed job that doesn't require college graduates?
Is it fair to spend money on college when some decide to not go to college?
Is college worth paying for?
Do we really need college for a high education?

Semestre Dos: Blog Numero Nueve

What makes a great forum post? What makes a great conversation online?
What makes a great forum post is having what you might have questions about in the book, and the reasons why you don't get the point. And for commenting on other posts, there should be clear explanations of why your reasons are for your answer because the whole class is going to refer back to this question being answered right and understand it for the test on Friday. And, so having a good conversation online is explaining different reasons why you think that your answer is correct with backing up your statement with evidence given in the book.

What have you contributed to the forums that leads to a positive, productive, helpful way to understand and enjoy the book?
What I have contributed to the forums are questions that introduce another meaning to they way Gatsby is trying to gain Daisy's house even though he lies, cheats, and is very vulgar in the way that he does it. I also post answers that show my thinking in a positive way that answers the questions that other people might not understand thoroughly. I guess that people will read what I have to say and my interpretations of The Great Gatsby, so that way maybe people will understand the book a little better.

What can you do to improve your posts as you go?
Well, to improve my posts I think I could try to use more evidence straight from the book, so that way I could support my perspective and answer. I could also try to explain my opinion with logical reasoning having explains that could help explain it more thoroughly and precise, so that way it could actually be like arguing for a point of simply agreeing with it.

Semestre Dos: Blog Numero Ocho

"Their house was even more elaborate than I expected, a cheerful red-and-white Georgian Colonial mansion, overlooking the bay. The lawn started at the beach and ran forward the front door for a quarter of a mile, jumping over sun-dials and brick walks and burning gardens-finally when it reached the house drifting up the side in bright vines as though from the momentum of it's run. The front was broken by a line of French windows, glowing now with reflected gold and wide open to the warm windy afternoon." This quote, is the description of Tom and Daisy's house, because Materialism in the 1920's materialism was born, it was a time when people looked beyond daily chores and family. They started to focus on material things and who had more possesions than others. This was a time where social status was all people cared about, and Nick might have given a lot of detail to the house because he looked at all the material things that they had.


Mrs. McKees said, "Chester, I think you could do something with her," she broke out, but Mr. McKee only nodded in a bored way, and turned his attention to Tom. "I'd like to do more work on Long Island, if I could get the entry. All I ask is that they should give me a start." "Ask Myrtle," said Tom, breaking in to a short shout of laughter as Mrs. Wilson entered with a tray. "She'll give you a letter of introduction, won't you, Myrtle?" "Do what?" she asked, startled. "You'll give McKee a letter of introduction to your husband, so he can do some studies of him." His lips moved silently for a moment as he invented. "George B. Wilson at the Gasoline Pump, or something like that." During these times people were somewhat religious and maybe they didn't want to get a divorce because they didn't believe in divorces.



"I have gotten drunk just twice in my life, and the second time was that afternoon; so everything that happened has a dim, hazy cast over it, although until after eight o'clock the apartment was full of cheerful sun." Everyone gets very drunk, including Nick. He says the party is only the second time he’s been drunk. In 1920 alcohol was prohibited in the United States. Every saloon and bar ran dry immediately. Although the supply took a hit, the demand was still there, and was growing. This gave birth to the moonshine and bootlegging era. The moonshine was a very raw and potent form of alcohol. It was made in the deep woods in order to mask the smell and the noisy contraption that made it. Most Bootleggers of the time were poor farmers and saw this as a way to make quick money. While the elder supervised the youngsters did the dirty work and delivered the potent substance. Because the law was after these bootleggers their cars had to be fast. So they “souped” up their cars and couldn’t be stopped. Because this was a weekday job the Bootleggers often sat around and boasted about who's car was fastest. And of course this led to the Sunday races, which would son bring crowds of over 5,000. These races led to the forming Nascar. As Nascar’s popularity rose quickly, so did the funding, this led many Bootleggers to abandon the outlaw life and become a race car driver.