Why I Write: Expression, Comfort, Possibilities, Imagination, and Freedom

Writing is for expression,
An art that is seen, heard,
And felt by the readers
In their hearts and souls.

Writing comforts everyone
with meanings, truths, and
Untruths that simplify the
World in which we suffer.

Writing shows the possibilities
Of everything in the world,
From the reality of our lives,
To the fiction within our souls.

Writing escapes normality,
and from outside its throughs,
dances into the dawn of creation
To enhance dreams of imagination.

Writing becomes the palladin,
Knight, rogue, hero, or villain
In the effort to touch the sky,
To gain freedom from worries.

Article Response: Plagarism

I can't help but to agree with many students that the old way of citing is too much work. I feel that if it is a book that is being cited people should have to write the title of the book and the author. If  it is a website, we should just have to copy the website, and maybe the article title as well if it is a database that will not let you see it if you are not logged on. I just don't see the importance of giving the date you accessed the article, the year it was published, or anything else that must be written.

Reading Response 7: Clone Codes

Clone Codes is about Leanna, an average girl in 2070. Her world is tilted upside down when she finds out her mother is part of a rebel movement called, "The Liberty Bell". She is forced to run as that is what her mother taught her to do, but as she runs, she will find out many secrets about herself and her world.

Leanna is so confused. She believed she was a First, a person naturally born, yet she finds out that she is actually a Second, a clone of another person. She was raised from the moment she was created as her original's twin. Only three people knew that she was a Second, at least, that she, specifically, was the clone. This off balanced her so much that she trusted a veritable stranger. She plays a sport called swift, and won against Houston, a guy she met on her escape route. She finds out that Houston is a cyborg, and she just tells him all that she recently learned. She foolishly believed he would help her, yet she was so prejudice against what she is, and cyborgs as well, that she made flimsy connections with Houston.
I picture cyborgs as this picture, which lets me understand why she might be so cautious and prejudiced against them. She later goes on to regret her actions thinking, "I should have known Houston couldn't be trusted." This shows that she is learning that she won't get help from just anyone. I believe she will develop into a less bratty and entitled person as the book continues.

I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to anyone because I haven't come to like the protagonist yet. I can't encourage a book that has a story line that will make you hate it due to the main characters actions. I believe she will change at the end of the book, though, so I will hold back on my rant of displeasure.

Reading Response 6: The Clone Codes

In the futuristic world of 2070, clones are a common sight. Clones, much like slaves in the past, are believed to be sub-human and are servants. Leanna is thrust into a battle between freedom fighters and the government due to her mother being a freedom fighter. Leanna doesn't know what to think, but she has to make a choice since the government is soon to be after her when her mom is arrested.

Leanna is a normal girl, at least she thinks she is. Sandra, her best friend, and herself spend most of their time on what is frisk. What I find interesting is that Leanna isn't so normal. There are foreshadowing hints from what I have read so far that Leanna is important to the freedom fighters that call themselves The Liberty Bell. Leanna used to have a twin, but when they were in an accident, her twin died. I have the feeling that Leanna's mother broke the law by cloning a child, and that Leanna is the clone. I figure if this is true, then they were probably cloned as children. That's what made me choose this picture to represent this response, a baby and the clones of it!
Double the duty, the horror! I get this feeling due to Annette, Leanna's mother, saying, ""Clones are human beings. We have proof of this,"" I just have that feeling, but it could be my suspicious or paranoid nature to jump to that type of conclusion, though.

I can't help but think of that sheep, Dolly, that people cloned in the past, the poor thing. I just can't think of humans being cloned as the book has talked about. It just feels wrong to clone a person, let alone multiple times! I hope we don't ever really go down this route, even if we get the technology.

My research project

My project is about video game addiction. I will be going into the positive and negative effects of this addiction, as well as some symptoms. I will also go into treatment options since this is actually a pretty serious topic for the twenty-first century. I will be using articles from these sites: scienceblog.com, webmd.com, today.colostate.edu, addictions.com, huffingtonpost.com, tellinitlikeitis.net, livestrong.com, symptomfnd.com, and bada.hb.se. Another resource that I will be using will be my family, as my parents are definite video game addicts. My brother might be one, but the only reason I don’t believe my sister and I are addicts is because we use the computer to read more often than not. If you find any other sites that aren’t blocked at school to use, then I would be happy to take a look at them!

Reading Response 5: A Sword In Her Hand

This book is a book about Marguerite, a countess in the 1300s. She defies tradition throughout the book from sword fighting to writing left handed. All of these things were frowned upon by the general populace during these times, which occur before and after the second attack of the Great Plague.

Marguerite is comparable to the tomboys of the modern world. She refuses to just sit idly and participate in what she deems as a boring waste of time. These wastes happen to be embroidery, art, and a few other lessons she has to take as a countess. I knew for sure she would be a tomboy during this little exchange when she was a child, ""Quiet," says Willem, trying to calm things down. "It's just something we have to do on our own, Marguerite."
"Yes, this is men's work," boasts Hendrik. "Unless you're a man and can pee against a tree standing up, we don't want you."
"So if I can pee against a tree standing up, I can come?" I ask.
"Yes, if you can do that, you can come," Hendrik blusters, far too confidently.
Willem looks at Hendrik angrily, as if to say, "Did you really have to promise that?"
"What?" Hendrik asks, his hands spread in certainty that I won't be able to perform his task in a hundred years.
But I've already turned around. Standing in front of a tree, I use one hand to hoist up my skirts, while with my right hand I do something the boys can't see. And in a beautifully curved stream, I pee against the tree." This excerpt from the book is a fairly comical and lighthearted example of how she shows that she is a tomboy. Later on, Marguerite also gains a rapier with her namesake on the hilt. Her namesake is the flower shown below.

This book is a beautiful and creative rendition of how Marguerite of Male's life might have been. This is a historical fiction that has the main character as a real person instead of them being fictional. I wish I could know whether she actually acted the way she was portrayed, or if she was like most other women of the time. I recommend this book to people who enjoy extrapolations about largely mysterious historical people's lives.

Article 1 Response

The idea that how a person gathers information will affect how they think is a valid theory. This article was based on the traits that seem to change in a person's reading style and writing style when they use computers rather than books. This is surprising, but I don't believe that the medium people use to read with changes a person's reading style. It is more of the fact that people want to finish reading quickly and make a habit of doing so by skimming the information they read on the web. I believe this because most of my reading is done online, but for pleasure rather than for researching using articles. That may be pleasurable for some, but most people do not read information from historical articles for fun, they do so for work, school, or to find proof of an idea.
"As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in the 1960s, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought." This may be true in the aspect of if the media is visual, auditory  or physical, but not in whether it is technological or not. I only am taking this stance because I read novels easily, and yet most of my time is spent reading online. How a person chooses to read, and whether their method of learning is one of the previous aspects, is what truly shapes a person's brain.