"The world may bring us down to our knees, but what matters most is how well we walk through the fire"_Josh Samman Our last blog post for this class was made optional. I still wanted to write one but up until Tuesday I didn't know what should I write about. During Tuesday's class Dr. Mangini told us to break into groups, read out Life-Choice Memories out loud to each other and talk about them. He also gave us the option to go do so outside. When we read them and talked about them, everyone's Memoir had something dark in it. Suddenly our group went from reading memoirs into quickly talking about things we struggled with in life! So it kind of helped me decide what my final blog post should be about, few years back I went through the roughest year of my life, it was just a hellstorm. I went through a series of bad events at a young age and I started to question If it will ever stop! shortly after it, I saw a youtube clip of a brutal MMA knockout. Brutal enough to generate curiosity in me to look up the winner. I'm was curious because of the way he screamed celebrating his victory. So I scanned few articles that talked about him, and I picked up that he had a rough life, And he has a memoir! And it went from me watching silly sports videos on youtube, into buying the memoir that gave me motivation and purpose in life after my struggle. It showed me that no matter how bad things go for me, there are people who go through worse and still manage to turn their lives around and succeed. The book called The Housekeeper: Love, Death & Prizefighting by Journalist and Mixed Martial Artist Josh Samman, In this book we get to learn about the journey of a Teenager from Tallahassee, Florida. as he opens up about his struggles growing up with a single mom, into having to live alone at the age of 16, his struggles with addiction, suicidal thoughts, Career threatening injuries and the death of people he cares about including the love of his life, who gave him a purpose to succeed for. a great story for redemption that helped many people to get through their struggles in life, aim to succeed and believe in their ability. Sadly Josh died few months after publishing his book and didn't get to enjoy seeing how many people his book helped as much as he wanted to. I decided to make this blog about this book because it had a huge and a positive impact on me. When I read a book, I enjoy drawing shitty sketches of how I visualize things in that book and surround it with quotes that stood out for me as I read. Here's the one Sketch I still have that relates to that book (Feel free to make fun of my trash hand-drawing skills lol) Alongside of the book cover and his photos!
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It's our last week in class! been a great semester so far. Learned some great stuff from this class... probably I've gained more from it than every single other english class I've had put together. One thing I'm excited to do after an amazing semester is rereading The Watchmen Series by Alan Moore... It's one of the best graphic novels ever. There is too much to learn about life from it, Even though I read it twice, I feel after paying attention to everything Dr. Mangini taught us, I have a lot more to discover from this novel! To me, I've always found Alan Moore's perspective on life fascinating, some of his work such as The Watchmen and The Killing Joke is just on a different level. Every time I reread any of those I discover something new, a deeper meaning to a certain quote, the factors behind the action of certain characters and their perspective on life. a lot of it I can personally relate to. after getting to the end of my Comp I class, I feel like I've gained the ability to break down and analyze text better than ever. So pumped up to see what awaits for me in some of my favorite books :D Here are two of my favorite quotes by Alan... and why I like them. The first quote, By a character Named Rorschach. Its something we see almost everyday, people fail and they blame it on destiny, religion, fate or whatever they believe in so it could be an excuse for their failure, "That's my fate", "God doesn't want me to succeed at this", "I'm destined to...etc." things we hear all the time, and I find it heartbreaking that people actually rather to use those words then work hard and write their own fate and destiny because it's something we control. Personally, I love watching other people succeed, it gives me a reason to get up in the morning and chase my goals too!
The second quote, also by Rorschach, I love it because I personally relate to it, I'm always known as the kid that deals with everything by using sarcasm, I throw silly, stupid jokes all day long. it gets people laughing most of the time and I love it... However, a couple of years back I'm was going through the worst time of my life. yet when I'm was around people I kept the same personality that made a lot of people see me as a happy kid 24/7 without having any idea what I'm going through! 2018 Spring semester is about to be over, as for English class it's been an awesome time, Awesome professor and great classmates, and by far my favorite class at DCCC so far. The experience in this class was just great, it does start slow in the morning, however, as the pace goes up I think it picks up a great energy which is something missing in all my other classes. everyone is just respectful to everyone, and sometimes it doesn't feel like Prof. Mangini is our teacher, it just seems like he's another student having fun with everyone which is a great approach to getting students like me to pay attention since I'm always distracted with silly things around me. To me I think it’s been a really productive class, learning to develop and write a scene which I’m still improving into learning how to structure a good research paper and how to correct flaws I see in it. the things I mentioned were really great to learn, however, one thing I really enjoyed is the few blogs that followed the movie, especially the one where we had to analyze it, learning about Logos, Pathos and Ethos is something I’ve done few times in high school, but I never really felt like I’ve got a decent understanding of it, how it works and how is it applied on certain things, but having to breakdown a documentary and figure out how they fit in it, probably helped more than any silly assignment I had to do in High School. Everything I've learned and skills I gained from what we did in class this semester are things I'm going to definitely need and use down the line in my education, and I'm really excited to reread some of my favorite books over the summer because I feel like I could break it down and understand it a lot better than I already do. This blog post will provide information about the process of the MLA Research Paper, how did I feel about writing it, what went through my mind during the process of writing and what changes will I make to make it better.
Introduction: This blog post will provide the sources I will use for my research paper with their summary and why the reason I chose those sources to answer my research question.
Research Question: Should America follow the prison system Scandinavian countries provide for their people? Source #1 Moore, Michael, Director. Where to Invade Next IMDb, IMDb.com, 12 Feb. 2016, www.imdb.com/title/tt4897822/. Film Summary > Where to Invade Next Summary This film will be helpful for my research paper because it shows what is it like inside of the prisons of Norway, the most famous Scandinavian country when it comes to prison systems, it shows what types of prisoners are locked in there, how much freedom they are given and how it worked for the better of those prisoners and the better of the country. it also provides short interviews with some of the prisoners and guards to talk about their experience in there. Source #2 Ibsen, Alexander Z. "Ruling by Favors: Prison Guards' Informal Exercise of Institutional Control." Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 38, no. 2, Spring2013, pp. 342-363. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2012.01307.x. This source shows a study done by a substitute prison guard in Norway, the study provides how the positive interactions from the guards towards prisoners works, even when they want to punish prisoners for negative behavior it is done without violence and without taking away any of their rights yet they manage to keep them under control. The reason I picked this source to help my research paper is the study it provides, It supports the comparison between American Guards and Norwegian Guards, and why do Norwegian prison guards succeed at controlling the prisoners by treating them like actual human beings. Source #3 Barclay, Eliza. "Crime in Latin America." CQ Global Researcher, 1 Sept. 2010, pp. 211-34, library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/cqrglobal2010090000. This article called "Crime in Latin America" talks about the high crime rates in countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, what are some of the factors behind it, what pushes people towards committing that much crime, it compares Latin American countries with the highest crime rates to the countries with the lowest while comparing certain issues in those countries that could be reason the violence rate is that high. Violence behavior is something that will always be present, its in human nature since the beginning of time conquering lands, invasions, massacres and inventing more efficient ways to kill are things that we always seen and heard about throughout the all stages of history but it always had a different rate based on different geographical locations. The reason this article will support my argument because it shows that violence always varies between different regions of the world, because there are hundreds of causes behind it such as poverty, drugs, gangs and that high rate of violence will always be present regardless of how good or bad the government is treating people which takes it back to the argument of taking a prison system from a country where people tend to have more positive behavior and value life more and applying that system in a country where the rate of violence is really high in comparison to Scandinavian countries. Source #4 Zimmermann, Kim Ann. “American Culture: Traditions and Customs of the United States.” LiveScience, Purch, 13 July 2017, www.livescience.com/28945-american-culture.html. This article published by livescience.com talks about how the United States is one of most diverse countries in the world. it talks about the different types of immigrants, cultures, religions, languages and arts that helped shaping the united states and how these different cultures makes the U.S what it is today. This article is useful for my research because it's important to point out the different cultures that makes up the united states vs the low number of other cultures in Scandinavian countries which makes it harder for people in the United States to get along, understand each other and see eye to eye without having conflicts with each other, and that would make it a lot more complicated to apply a Scandinavian prison system in the U.S. Source #5 “Federal Bureau of Prisons.” BOP Statistics: Inmate Citizenship, www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_citizenship.jsp. This is a statistics website based on stats by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, it shows numbers such as different ages, races, citizenships, ethnicities and offenses for inmates in American prisons. As a follow up to my point in the last source, this source is really important to my research because it provides stats about the differences between inmates in American prisons which makes it easier to make the argument about inmates not getting along. Source #6 “American Health Care System vs Norwegian Health Care System.” Daria.no, www.daria.no/skole/?tekst=4876. This source it provides a brief comparison between the healthcare system in the United States vs. Norway. it kind of shows how really complicated the American healthcare system and how it could be improved compared to other countries, especially the european ones which most people speak highly of. The point of my research paper is far from discussing healthcare in the United States, however, it's really important to provide examples of things that causes someone to commit a crime such as unemployment rate, poverty rates and healthcare. when a prisoner is leaving prison in norway they are able to have jobs, their financial status might not get affected because of entering prison and they have a healthcare system that is more simple and fits them better which is a lot of factors of why they won't commit another crime causing their rearrests. unlike the American inmates who are most likely aren't getting jobs because of having a criminal record, going to prison could cause them a financial disaster and the U.S provides a worse healthcare system then Scandinavian countries which makes some of the causes someone might commit a crime in the U.S stronger then it used to be before they had a criminal record. In this blog post, few topics from the documentary Where to invade Next will be discussed through research question that I created about those topics, for a summary & analysis about the film use the following link > Where to invade next Summary & Analysis.
Topic One: Education System America Vs. Other Countries? Research Question: Should America change their education system and adapt one similar to Finland and other countries ranked higher than the U.S in education? Argument: Yes, There are way too many loopholes in the American education system where students could capitalize on to get through high school education and they move on to find themselves helpless in college or work after it! I think a more effective way of having students pass classes should be used! getting the minimum passing grade without understanding the topic is a really easy thing to do for a lot of students which is why I think adapting the testing style used in Finland would be great because you will have to rely on your understanding of the subject in order to get through it. meanwhile barley need any understanding for a lot of topics to pass tests and courses in the U.S. Topic Two: Prisoners Treatment Research Question: Should prisoners in America get the same treatment as Norwegian prisoners? Argument: I believe that the treatment of Prisoners in Norway should be applied in the U.S to an extent, depending on what type of prisoners are they, there are people in prison who are there for using drugs or simply because corrupt cops want them there although they didn't commit anything harmful, those are the type of people who should be treated like humans in prison so once they leave they still behave like humans, however, when it comes to people who commit domestic violence, rapists, child molesters and killers I don't think they should get a decent treatment, why should they be treated like humans after they decided to step outside the boundaries of humanity? instead of giving that type of prisoners good treatment it should be given to people who deserves it way more such as homeless veterans and homeless kids. Topic Three: Women getting into higher and more important positions in America Research Question: Should women be in charge of bigger roles such as high positions in big companies, higher positions in politics and maybe one day presidency? Argument: Yes, as a person who comes from a culture where women are treated badly and unfairly I would love to see them play a bigger role because it creates more balance in the country, another reason I support that argument is because by getting educated, smart and well spoken women into those roles they could have a great influence on the younger generation who believes they could bring equality for women by complaining on social media, calling people who they disagree with terrible names and ask the community to apply all kinds of nonesens into actually working hard, learn to speak well and respect others and that's how they could achieve their goals and gain the equality they want. This blog post will provide a summary of Michael Moore's film Where to Invade Next, also it will provide a rhetorical analysis of the film.
Throughout the two hours journey of Michael Moore, he "Invades" different countries across the world, mostly Europe with the goal of "Stealing" their best ideas and applying it in the united states so they could benefit from it. Michael Moore starts the movie by claiming that the united states was built on invading other nations to steal their resources to get stronger, and that it should be getting better by applying great ideas from other countries instead of invading them with military forces. Moore collects ideas and stats such as paid vacations in italy and its positive impact on workers, the impact of legalizing drugs and how it decreased drug related deaths in Portugal, the violence percentages by former prisoners in Norway and he moves on towards showing one of the top education systems in the world as well as showing countries where women could have more power and how is that affecting the country in a positive way. Michael Moore compares every idea he "Steals" into what is in place in the united states leaving the judgment to the audience after presenting those ideas in a very persuasive way. Michael Moore establishes ethos in the movie by interviewing people who have an authority or a good knowledge on the topic he's presenting, for example when he talked about the decriminalization of drugs in Portugal he gave people the information through interviewing two officers and a drug user who presents us with the statistics that nobody was arrested in portugal in the past 15 years for the position of drugs and how it helped lowering the drug related deaths with the support of their rehab system and health care. The use of logos was there to persuade people throughout showing stats that would have the audience lean towards agreeing with the idea he is presenting, such as the tax statistics in france, the 8 week paid vacation in italy, the numbers of re-arrests happening in Norway and or the change of the education system rank between the United States and Finland how the U.S went from topping Finland into falling behind them 28 places. Michael Moore perfectly uses pathos to pull the emotional strings of the audience, an example of it would be the use of police brutality clips, the dramatic music, relating most issues to racism, showing american food pictures to french kids and showing the happiness of prisoners in Norway. Where to Invade Next Is an example of perfection when it comes to executing the use of pathos correctly. people who watches it for the first time are most likely going to get overwhelmed by their emotions and view America as a terrible place to live in which makes Michael Moore successful at gaining the audience on his side. Michael Moore's telos is to collect ideas he chosen and he believes it could make America better a place and present it to the audience in the most effective way possible to gain their support towards applying those ideas or getting as close to it as possible to it. I think the Kairos for Moore's film was a very controversial and sensitive time in politics, a time where the country was preparing for the election year and people needed were having really heated arguments about it. so Moore chose to release that film earlier that year to capitalize on those arguments by throwing different ideas that people could talk about and perhaps it would get big enough to get the attention of one of the running parties pushing them into making a decent change. This blog post is a similar reflection to the previous blog, Difference this one will be focused on the course so far instead of the Life-Choice Memoir Process Reflection. I'll write about what I expected from the course, how it turned out to be and my thoughts on if my writing improved.
2- I want to have things somehow connected together so at the end of the course, I can see how all the things I wrote somehow defines me as a person. 3- Keep focused on every detail the professor teach, I might not get lucky enough to get into another English course where I'll learn just as much, So I want to Improve throughout this course as much as possible. This blog post will be focused on writing a reflection about my life choice memoir, how did I feel about writing it, what went through my mind during the process of writing and what changes will I make to make it better. Getting to watch this Reflective Writing definitely changed the way I planned to write this blog post
This blog post will be focused about the short story Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway, and my response to the question about her decision, whether I think decided to leave or not and why I think that.
Jig did leave him at the end, not yet physically, but her decision was made. throughout the text we see the man telling her things such as "I know you wouldn't mind it" which seemed like the man was speaking for himself and for her instead of asking for her thoughts about it yet she was reacting in a very classy and smart way every time he would say something similar. throughout the story the man keeps saying things that makes such a dangerous operation at the time sounds like a very simple thing to get through "if you don't want to you don't have to. I wouldn't have you do it if you didn't want to. But I know it's perfectly simple" and "I think it's the best thing to do. But I don't want you to do it if you really don't want to". reading lines like these it shows that he's only trying to make her feel like she have a choice meanwhile he clearly wants her to do one thing without showing that he cares about her healthy and safety more than anything. It's kind of felt like when you apologize to someone by saying "I'm sorry, BUT..." It's not until the end of the story when it kind of becomes a lot easier to see that Jig made up her mind about leaving him. towards the end whenever the man wants to say something or arguing to convince her with his point we see Jig just interrupting him by saying that she doesn't want to talk about it, or when she says that she agrees with him before he makes a point which felt like the nice way to say "yeah...whatever you're right I don't care about this argument anymore". So again, the ending makes it kind of clear that her decision was made, but regardless of the ending, no girl with any sense in her head would stay in a relationship where she is disrespected to a level where her opinion doesn't really matter in important argument regarding a choice that could hurt her mentally and physically for the rest of her life.
Few years ago, during lunch break in school one of my good friends walked to me and said "Once you go back to class he will ask you about this kid" referring to one of our mutual friends who didn't attend the same school, for this story I'll call him Jake, and for the school bully I'll call him Max. what she said to me didn't make any sense, It confused me because she seemed rattled, so I asked "Who will ask me", she sat down, took a deep breath and started to explain the situation to me "The other day Jake walked me home from school, However Max spotted us that day and you know how things work here" by saying that she meant that most people who see a girl they know walking with a strange boy, they would gossip about the story and make a huge deal of it calling that girl all types of disgusting things, It's the way most people think in a mid eastern culture. She keeps going "He said few words to me today about spotting me with Jake, I don't want him spreading words around the school so I told him that Jake is my cousin, when he said I'm lying I told him to ask you because you know Jake as well", I said "Sure, I'll say that" I told Max what she wanted me to say, and everything went as perfect as she wanted, nobody talked about it. about a week after that, I remember that I asked her to do something for me, I don't remember what it was exactly, but I do remember it was a very silly thing, might have been giving me some homework answers or helping me cheat on a test, and she said no, because if things went south it gets her in trouble too. But as I mentioned earlier the only person I used to think about is me, so the argument started to go back and forth between me asking for help and her refusing, I don't know what popped in my head and I say in a silly way "Hey, I'd tell Max that Jake isn't your cousin" I didn't mean to say it, and I'm wasn't serious at that moment. But I'm was a very stubborn person at the time, so as soon as I told her that she responded with a smile on "Go ahead, I don't care" She said that because she knew It was me being silly, "You know I'll do it" I said but I heard the same response "Go ahead, I told you I don't really care" and that was when I understood it as if she was provoking me which she clearly wasn't, and I turned it into a serious thing, it hit a point when she realized i'm wasn't joking anymore, I walked away looking for the kid, I ran into him and I told him, as soon as she knew I did, she talked about it to one of the counselors that was close to the female students, and that counselor called me in to ask me why I did that, and tell me that it was wrong...etc. as soon as I walked to her office, I remember seeing my friend sitting there crying, because she knew what's coming. that moment alongside the next few days of hearing kids talking about her in negative ways made me realize how much of an idiot I used to be. It's a situation that I didn't attempt to fix and contain, instead I chose to walk away and that's something I'll always regret but It's also an experience that helped shaping me in a way where I'd never let down someone who trusts me, or break a promise I make no matter at what cost, as well as teaching me a lot about how forgiving some people could be since we are currently friends again, far from being close friends, but the type of friend that you'd have a talk with once in a while. |
Majd LabbadMy name is Majd, Welcome to my blog page, this blog section will be a mix between my class assignments and a peak into my personal life :) Archives
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