Reflections

The blog assignments this semester were definitely something I was not used to. I had to think outside the box to complete many of the assignments because instead of writing for an audience of one, I was writing for an audience of many. My writing structure had to change and I watched how my writing style changed. I am a very formal writer that prefers the structure of the old fashioned ways, but with the blogs I learned that using other methods to present material can be just as effective as the traditional structures of writing I prefer.

I noticed from my first post to other posts I have written that I had learned to condense points and ideas. I discovered that sometimes writing less will sound better and keep the reader from losing interest. I also found out that I tend to like to write about things that are passionate to me instead of mundane ideas and concepts. The assignments for us to write for the blog entries I felt had a purpose behind all all of them. I enjoyed the blog posts that made us draw knowledge and feelings from our innerselves and then had to express those feelings in writing. I personally enjoyed the food blog post and the Enneagram post.

Overall I am completely happy with writing blogs instead of hard copy assignments. I found it convenient and very user friendly when writing the blogs. The experience I had was good and I believe it was a positive experience for me to have in my writing career because it was something new and I believe all experiences build a persons character and allows us to draw strength and knowledge from it. I would be an advocate for blog writing instead of hard copy assignments. I enjoyed this class very much and the blog assignments complimented the teaching styles presented.

Plans for summer

My plans this summer are going to consist of working and enjoying the activities that Missoula has to offer. I am going to hike and swim and try to take advantage of all the down activities as well. I will also travel alot if possible and would like to travel to Boise and Spokane. I have family in both those towns and I have not been able to visit them in years.

I will also visit my grandparents frequently this summer. They have a house on Flathead lake. I like boating with them and doing outdoor things there in general. Also the town of Bigfork is such a nice town, sometimes there is more things to do there than Missoula. After Bigfork I will travel home to my hometown of Havre and visit my family. I have many people there I need to see and then after visiting everyone I know this summer I will just have to come back to Missoula and settle in for the Fall school year to begin.

Oh Buffy

Many Years ago I enjoyed the television show that involved young women fighting off demons, monsters and especially vampires. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was about a young girl who was granted a gift of being the slayer. A slayer only happens every generation and grants the young female the ability of extreme strength and resistances to certain magics. The television show is centered around a young girl named Buffy who is a slayer in the town of Sunnydale. She encounters many obstacles in making her life complete as well as saving the world every episode.
I chose to write about this television series because it is an example of feminism and promoting women as equals. In the seven seasons that were created by Joss Whedon he made Buffy the main character with the extraordinary powers to save the day. In the episodes all the primary main characters that were male(except vampires)were always being saved by her and had to call on her for protection every time something went wrong. Another example of how this series promotes feminism is that a side character named Willow eventually becomes the worlds most powerful witch and with Buffy's help saves the world on the season finale. These two women had more power combined than any single character that was a friend or foe on the show.
Although the male counterparts of the show were usually vampires and in general treated women poorly they still lost to the overbearing strength of a young women who find it usually relatively easy to stake them.
If you were to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer you would definitely notice that women are the main characters and are always given more power than the male figures in the show. When the show was being produced in the mid 1990's times still had not changed enough to allow a television program to fully accept the reality that women would be superior to men. But it was created and made roots in promoting women as equals or better than men. Besides taking root to a feminist approach the creator also chose to display a lesbian and her girlfriend in the series. This was highly unusual since homosexuals were rarely displayed in the mid 1990's(especially lesbians). Overall from the watching the show the audience will feel excitement,suspense, and the understanding that women can do anything in this world too and they are especially good at killing vampires.

3 op-eds I enjoyed

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/23/eat-meat-reduce-global-warming/
I enjoyed reading this article because it talked about how eating meat will not affect the environment or global warming. An individual scientist presented his idea and evidence. I did not like at the end of the article how global warming was suggested to not have been happening for the last 15 years. Evidence suggests otherwise and the UK scientists emails that leaked out are open for interpretation on what was released to the general public.

http://www.thefoxnation.com/business/2010/03/23/fox-news-poll-79-say-us-economy-could-collapse
Another opinion based article supported with evidence is how a survey for done and evidently 79% of Americans are sure that we are all going to suffer the same fate as the USSR and have our government and economy collaspe. I enjoyed this small little article that discussed the opinon polls or Americans. They are always so accurate and such a detailed way to interpret data.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20100323/cm_uc_crmchx/op_513348
I like this article about the recent healthcare reform because it talks about all te negative traits that will follow because of this healthcare law. It tells about debt and collaspe of the economy. The reason I like this article is because it is sometimes fun to read the exact opposite of what you believe in.

Research Paper Sources

http://umclimateactionnow.blogspot.com/

http://www.montpirg.org/

http://life.umt.edu/asum/awma/

http://life.umt.edu/asum/asum%5Fagencies/Sustainability

http://www.350.org/

I also have several student newspapers that contain lots of information of sustainability on campus as well. The umt.edu website has lots of links to the local environmental polices and procedures of the university. I have an extremely large amount of data and I just need to sift through them all and figure out what is important.

Research paper topic

I would like to write my paper on the impacts that sustainability has on campus and the efforts that it does to reach its goal. I would report the positive and negative aspects of what the campus is doing to promote sustainability. I would get information from school internet sites as well as campus newspapers. I think I would use information from the internet to give data about certain sustainability issues that are important in todays society. I might even interview someone to get more information on the local procedures on campus. I will write in a professional manner and try to report just the facts and try not to be onesided. I will not emulate FOX NEWS.

What to do with vegans?

What is a vegan? Well a clear definition of one is someone who, for various reasons, chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products. While vegetarians choose not to use flesh foods, vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals. Out of the various components of what makes a vegan I find the ethical one most fascinating. It is to not consume animal products or any animal produced products that caused the animal pain. Wow!! That is very admirable to try to make a difference in the world by proving eating animals is not necessary. What a world we could have knowing that if everyone rebelled and didn't eat animal products or support in any processes that gave them pain. Ahhh, what a world. Actually there would not be a world. Damn.

Vegans idealistic ways the world should be are unrealistic and also would result in the end of life. An example would be how humans evolved. Human beings evolved so rapidly and their brains grew so fast because the early humans were increasing meat in their diets. It is proven that brains can evolve faster over time by eating meat and this gives certain vital proteins and fats in abundance to the body which makes it easier to develop over time. The early humans used animal furs and hides as clothing from the elements as well. It probably wouldn't have been such a good idea to try to migrate North just being naked. To add to the list most of the reliable and continuing medical procedures and medications are tested on animals as well. Its a shame we don't have more vegans to volunteer for medical experiments. We could have saved so many animals lives. I could go on forever about the the hypocrisy of vegans and how their individualism is just a cover for pure ignorance but I have a life that has a reachable goal and the tools to get their. I am just happy now that vegans didn't rule the world because man might not have evolved into the complex organisms we are today and we might not have colonized the globe without protection from the elements. People that I care about might not be alive right now if their was no animal testing. So I thank all animals for creating what we have today and I know that today is not the time to create a world without animal products or animal procedures.

http://www.vegan.org/
Fall 09- Anthro 101