FINAL

        Sharmaine Caoile

Period 4

January 5, 2012

Fear of Writing

Prompt: · Blogging: How has blogging as a writing medium changed the way you write, think, or think about writing?
        Imagine you hate working out. Every day you drag yourself to the gym. You grumble as you hit the treadmill, you sweat your pants, your flab is jiggling and you think everyone is staring at you as you bench press 20 lbs while they all go for a hundred. That's exactly how I feel about writing! I have developed a fear of writing which I consider cancer for high school students.  Before even I start writing an essay I fear that my teacher will not like it, if I can finish it, if I can even start and more negative thoughts. Writing brings up all my issues: self doubts, criticism, and humiliation. However, blogging has helped me change the way I think about writing and it helped me overcome my fear of writing.
       At first, When Mr. Sutherland told our class we have to write 3 blog posts every week, I told myself that I am not going to do it and I thought about switching out of his class. Writing for everyone in my class to read is obviously something I don't want to do. Just the thought of how many people can read my writing makes me sick. It really takes up too much of my time because I often do not know what to write about or how to expand on the thoughts that I have already written down. Sometimes it would take me more than a day to complete a one and a half page of essay.  I also had some difficulty coming up with topics and once I do think of a topic, I don't write it right away. Instead I take a lot of time, often several days thinking and thinking about what I’m going to say which is why three blog posts a week was too difficult. I was really skeptical about blogging and I was not sure how it's going to help with English language so I ended up not doing it for a couple of weeks. Avoiding my fear of writing was my biggest problem. I would rather avoid the world than deal with the thoughts and bad feelings that drive me crazy.
        However, after a couple of weeks, I decided to give it a try. I needed to get my but in gear and just do it or else I would fail the class and I would never want that to happen. I did not even know what to write about. After few minutes of thinking and torturing my brain I realized that I was just thinking too hard. I tried not to worry that I might not have brilliant thoughts to work on and just wrote down how I feel at the moment. I wrote about how I feel about my senior year. I just basically wrote down what was on my mind and I finally started writing. Clicking the publish button for the first time was probably one of my biggest achievement throughout the semester. I mean I never thought that I would even share my writing with anyone but my teacher because I am too self conscious. Also, English is my second language and I am still learning. I just don’t have the guts to share my writing piece with anyone.
         I never thought blogging would change the way I think. Writing on the computer made it easier for me put my thoughts into better sentences that actually make sense. I can easily edit my work with the help of delete button. The fact that blogging is on the computer and everyone can read my writing piece made me really think about what I’m going to write and how am I going to write it. Getting feed backs and commenting on other people’s work also helped a lot. Sometimes it is better to see what others are writing after you.  It’s surprising how people have tons of different ideas in one subject and I can actually learn from them. Seeing others people's work helped me expand my vocabulary and structure better sentences. It is really surprising how blogging changed the way I think about sharing my writing piece with my peers and the entire world. Thanks to Mr. Sutherland!
     Now I see it as a way to improve my writing skills and a way to gain confidence in my writing ability. I learned that when you are writing you just have to be yourself and that would be hard to do if you are constantly trying to impress people. What I'm trying to say is don't be too self conscious and self critical when you are writing. I mean one bad article won’t be the end of the world.It's all about practice and gaining experience. Free yourself from the limitations of what people expect. Just because it’s difficult does not make it impossible and just because you have had trouble in the past does not guarantee that this will be a life long trend. I cannot say that I have become a good writer over the semester but I could say that I have gained confidence in writing and I overcome the fear of writing.
      
    

[RE] Blog Post

 Natalie's post about blogging caught my attention because I feel the same way about it.

For my free post im going to write about how I truly and honestly do  not like writing posts on blogger. Its not that I don’t like blogger its self, I just don’t like typing and writing. The first thing I thought of when mr. sutherland said that we have to write posts was, im not gona do them. It takes up way to much of my time I don’t like it I could be doing other things, like homework for other classes. 

        Imagine you hate working out. Every day you drag yourself  to  the gym. You grumble as you hit the treadmill, you sweat your pants, your flab is jiggling and you think everyone is staring at you as you bench press 20 lbs while they all go for a hundred! That's exactly how I feel about writing!
       Writing is something I HATE doing.It is something I feel I am not really good at and blogging for everyone in my class to read is obviously something I don't want to do. When Mr.Sutherland told us we have to write 3 post every week, I'm like "Oh shit, I don't want to do it". It really takes up too much of my time because I often do not know what to write about or how to expand on the thoughts that I have already written down. I was really skeptical about blogging so I ended up not doing it for a couple of weeks until I realized that I HAVE to do it or else I would fail a class for the first time. After few weeks of blogging and reading other student's blog, I realized that it wasn't that bad.
     Now I see it as a way to improve my writing skills and a way to gain confidence in my writing ability.I learned that when you are writing you just have to be yourself and that would be hard to do if you are constantly trying to impress people. What I'm trying to say is don't be too self conscious and self critical when you are writing. Free yourself from the limitations of what people expect.

[F]Midlife Crisis

        I will start off saying that I do not know what I want to do with my life. When I was a kid I wanted to do something medically related but few years later I realized that it is not what I want anymore.I realized that it is what my parents want! Yesterday my brother asked me what I want to be. I told him I want to be a Physical Therapist. He said " Is that something you want to do for the rest of your life?"It made me think for a minute. I've also always wanted to be a fashion model; I want to do runways or pose for a magazine. However,being a fashion model is something I know I can never be. This dream will remain a dream forever. I do not know what is worse than wanting something you can never be.
       My current plan is to join the Air Force after high school and take advantage of the GI Bill, which covers up to 4 years of college after serving a minimum of 2 years or 3 years for full monetary benefits.With the benefits I can get from joining the military, I can get a Bachelor's Degree which is my end-game goal. But other than that, I do not really have an overall goal for my life.
      People say that if you do not know where you are going, you are doomed to go nowhere. I wish I can be the owner of the process of my life.I wish I can just pick a career out of the blue(without considering my strengths and weaknesses) and be successful. There is a lot of information out there about creating the life you want to live but it just does not work for me.  I am at level zero as far as life goes, well maybe not but it's where I would put myself. The bottom line is I am going to have 3 years to figure out what I want to be.
     But Mr. Sutherland told me that I shouldn't be too hard on myself. Maybe he is right. Maybe I am just being too hard on myself and maybe I do not really have to pick a career right now. Maybe I do not have to plan that far and the opportunity will just come later.Who knows what the future holds?

[CE] China Hit and Run Ignites Global Anger

          Yue Yue, 2, had wandered away from her mother in a busy Foshan market.In the footage, a white van is seen knocking her over. The driver stops before fleeing the scene, leaving Yue Yue injured and bleeding on
 the road.Following the incident, a man walks by, ignoring the two-year-old lying on the ground.No less than 
18 people walk, ride or drive past the injured girl.A rubbish collector finally raised the alarm several minutes later.Yue Yue was taken for emergency surgery but was later pronounced brain dead.Millions have left 
comments on blogs in China, with one user saying it was the day the superpower lost its humanity.Some however say it is evidence of a society too poor to help, frightened of what it would cost should they be blamed.Police have detained the two drivers involved.
           Hit and run happens everyday all over the world. But I can not believe what I just saw!  It is shocking how people did not even bother to help the poor toddler bleeding on the road.One person walking by doing nothing would be bad enough but 18?!?Where is the respect for human life? Where is the humanity?  UGHHHHHHH COLD BLOODED PEOPLE shame on you!!! I guess these people are too afraid to get involved but do we really want to live in fear that helping others will lead disaster for ourselves? TOO SELFISH! Well bless the woman who finally bothered to help the little girl. 
            I am sad not only because of what happened to the little girl. But it is really disturbing that a lot of people are posting such rude and ignorant comments about all Chinese people.

 "let's kill all the chinese, Nuke them, you chinese should all go die"

 "china people are cruel n no civilization..stupid Chinese!!!! i cant watch the video coz its unbelievable. stupid chinese....CHINESE PEOPL ARE JUST AS FAKE AS THEIR PRODUCTS ARE!!!!!!!! they ate pig a lot n that is why....what a shame about chinese people!!"

           This tragic event happened in China but people should stop the ignorant comments about all Chinese people without thinking that this happens all over the world.  Just stop making generalizations!

[ME]Going for the Look

     Marshal Cohen, a senior industry analyst, argues that hiring based on looks is understandable and necessary in terms of business. Retailers seek out for people whose image THEY THINK will sell the clothes.

"Being able to find a brand enhancer ,or what I call a walking billboard, is critical. It is really important to create an environment that's enticing to the community, particularly with the younger, fashionable market. A guy wants to go hangout in a store where he can see a good-looking gals"

     What Marshall Cohen is saying in this article is that it is important for retailers to hire people that would promote the product they are selling.When the company is promoting a certain image, American look for example, they would hire someone who portrays the American image. Cohen is right in many ways in terms of business and marketing.Advertisement is a significant way to reach out to consumers.


UNFINISHED =__=

[F]Abolish the Penny

   Inflation has eaten the value of the penny. The fact that the penny is still in circulation does not mean that it is useful. If the half penny were minted then it too would be in circulation, even though it would be nothing but a nuisance. The penny is now worth so little that nobody even picks it up off the ground.

  Making a single penny costs more than its own value which means that every time a penny is produced, the government loses money! According to the ABC news article, the US Mint makes 8 billion pennies each year and this costs them $130 million. Since they are only worth a total of $80 million the taxpayers are losing $50 million each year on the production of pennies. It gets even worse. The US mint has acknowledge that the metal in both pennies and nickels are worth more than the value of the currency. A few years ago, there was a law enacted that severely limits both the melting and exportation of these coins. Apparently, the mint had been contacted by many people looking to melt down these coins in order to harvest the metals used to make them. They are now worried that people could sell the coins as scrap and remove them from circulation.

[F] "WINDOWS" Phone Scam

        Today I got a phone call from someone claiming that my computer contracted a virus and it is at risk. To the untrained ear the alarming news is too frightening to ignore. But when the caller said they would remove the entire virus for a small fee I started to get suspicious.Who the hell are these people? How would they know something happened to my computer? So I asked what company she was calling from. She claimed to be from Windows XP service center. Okay but I was still not convinced so I asked if they know what my IP address is but she could not say anything.I said if they could tell  what happened to my computer they must know my IP address. I asked for more information but she wouldn't tell me. My suspicion is confirmed. Obviously, I am being targeted by a fake virus phone scam.(Why didn't I realized that beforehand?)I screamed at her and slammed the phone down.
         After a few milliseconds she called me again. It took about 6 good SCREAMS and SLAMS to get rid of this stupid person. :/ The whole situation really pissed me off especially since the stupid phone call woke me up from a nap.
        I heard these people would also ask if they can connect to your PC and might also plant other stuff on your computer and steal some information. Well the basic guidance is to be suspicious when people call you from put of the blue.Why would Windows be calling you directly anyway?o_O 

         “Out of the 7,000 people contacted, more than 1,500 had been tricked into following the caller’s instructions. Worse than that, the average damage to a victim’s bank account was $875 — which amounts to just over $1.3 million hoisted from Microsoft’s small sampling alone. 19% of users also had passwords compromised and 17% reported identity theft."

WOW.. O__O