Blog Entry 7: Reflection and Evaluation

What this class has meant to me up to now? It has been a challenging experience since I am not a native English writer, but in my inner side, I believe that I am improving my grammar structure and my vocabulary excel as well. Therefore, I feel confident in the class with Mr. Smith as a professor. We have done 2 essays, 2 objective summaries, and the CAT-W sample test this last Tuesday.

On Hype, the article is about how advertisement is affecting our mind as the primary mental pollutant on these days. This article was very difficult for me to work out, as it was the first essay of the class and I was not ready for it. I read it more than 10 times to get a clear view of the author’s statement, then I moved on to start writing the essay and as I read some other classmates paperwork, I felt more prepared to write. I connected to the passage by reflecting the author’s point of view to my personal experience, and I remembered when I was a child all my overweight issues with candies and how it is still affecting me, that is why I totally agree to the passage and the author point of view.

On the CAT-W practice, it was a little awkward because was the same format for the actual exam, that made me nervous and I might make some mistakes on the exam. I will try to be less anxious when I face the real exam.  My Topic was; how advertisement in elementary school is affecting our under 12 children health, the consequences of junk food advertised in schools is increasing the unhealthy condition of children, as they are becoming obesity and gaining other ills as diabetes.  I am not sure if I passed the exam but I believe I did my best.

On the Allegory of the Cave, It was complicated to first summarize the passage, and then the essay format was harder, because of the philosophy content of the passage, it made me thought a lot about my own reality, and the way my life has changed since I had memories of myself and my family, all the lies told to me and their outcomes. At the end of the essay, I felt relieve in some way, I could take a bad experience out of me and project it to the essay, a deep breath continued after I was done with the essay and followed by a strong exhale. A comment about the essay was made by a classmate, more than less she likes the essay, obviously no one wants to criticize mistakes, errors, misspellings or failure in structure sentences but in my opinion, that is why we are in this class, to learn from mistakes.

                In my conclusion up to now for the class, I believe that I have improved, but I still need to develop more ideas for my paragraph sentences, and connect them to the thesis. This is where I get lost on the essay. My conclusions are not strong yet; they sound weak and out of place, as if they were not part of the essays. Overall, I need to work harder to pass the CAT-W which is the target.

Blog Entry 6: The Allegory of the Cave essay

In the allegory of the cave written by Plato, Socrates aware us to find the enlighten true of our life by learning in the process. This dialogue shows us how a prisoner of a cave found freedom to a world he never knew exists out of the cave and his reactions to the new discover. If I compare this dialogue to the process I had to live to grow up from childhood to the adulthood, I could find myself still in the cave, but about to be released out of it due to the hard times that made me grew up.

When I was a child I grew up with many family’s issues, those issues are still attached to my thoughts, and the memories I had from my past are not quite delightful. My parents were separated when I was just 5 years old; they always kept the reasons of the broke up as a secret to me. I could not understand why my father lived in another country. After I found out that he had another woman, the worst of my father being away from me was that; my classmates went to the family meetings with  both parents, but in my case, it was just me and my mother. My mother knew that I loved my father, and to protect me of any disillusion, she hid the truth, instead she made me believe that my father worked in another country. After a couple of years later, I knew the real truth of his abandon and when I realized that my mother lied to me to protect me of being damaged by my father’s behavior, I felt all the love  that I have for her and I could not blame her for anything.

In some way, growing up means to change our life and thoughts to entry in a new world,  we all have to face the new reality of our lives at some point, we cease believe that were point them from our parents and relatives. We start taking life in a more thoughtful manner and seriously worries are taken in consideration. Think about getting a job when you have never worked before, some people react to this new task with fears, some others can reflect an excited behavior and many reactions are not simple understood. Compare it to the Allegory of the Cave; we have one reaction from a prisoner that was thrown out his world to an unknown world. One possible reaction cannot describe the reactions of the other prisoners, but many of the prisoners will not change their world for a new existence unless they are obligated to do so. Some people choose never to grow up, especially if they have all the privileges in their childhood but at the end, they are forced to change and stand in their own feet.

 

We all familiar with everyday challenges that make us change from one point of view to the other, revealing a new true every step of this journey called, “life”. I have been exposed to this processed. As an example, I considered all the ESL students to be in a new reality, as a new comer, you are forced to integrate to a new society which can be quite different from your own society. We need to adjust many aspects of our regular life, such as; our habits, what we wear, and even our pronunciation. In addition to all these changes, we must learn a new language, which is not easy at all. If we want to be part of that reality, we would have to obligate ourselves to become part of the American system, and that is a new reality all people from any part of the world have to face.

  Overall, The Allegory of the Cave is a meaningful dialogue that awake us of the reality around us, when I compare it to my own life, I found myself in a constant development of my true, since I consider that in everyday life, we are in the process of learning new realities from people or situations that were never shown to us.

Blog entry 5, "The Allegory Of The Cave"

The Allegory of the Cave, written by, “Plato” is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon. The story illustrates whether the human being knows the truth or not, and why it is so hurtful to know it. As they are in a cave, livings like animals without freedom of thought or movement. They only see the wall ahead of them. Behind the prisoners, people and objects are crossing the way, and prisoners are only able to see the reflections of the shadows. As the dialogue goes on; one of them escapes from the cave, and he finds the light and follows it, he opens his mind to a new world of subjects, feelings and odors. His fist reaction to this whole world never showing to his eyes before is painful, and then he starts to realize the world was so much more than the deep and darkness cave where he had lived for many years. He returns to the cave and tries to convince his fellow friends of the wonderful world outside of the cave, but they cannot listen to him and neither recognizes him, all they can see is his grotesque shadow and its interrupt echo. He would not want to feel the pain of living in the darkness again. As Socrates told Gloucon; to picture the prisoner back to the cave and to imagine a competition in which he has to show the prisoners the reality of the world, but his conscious about the real world is not quite strong yet, that the prisoners would laugh at him and they would try to kill him. This explains the discussion as; the travel of the individual to find the rational world of philosophy, based on Socrates system of belief, the true always comes out and it will be clarified by determination. As God will illuminate us to find the truth and the man will be cured of his unacknowledged.

"Blog Entry 4: Hype Workshop".

Advertisements have become part of our daily view from one side to the other of our heads, it is all about advertisement. As stated by, “Kalle Lasn”, on the passage, “Hype”. "Advertisement is the most prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants". Definitely, I strongly agree to this opinion; since every day I see all the ads post them over the street, technology devices, and in any unimaginable location.

Summarize; In Hype, written by"Kalle Lasn", states that advertisement is the most often toxic to our mind. All the advertised floods into our brain as we have tremendous amount of ads hitting our brain. advertisement goes up so quickly that we have not realized its proportions. Every where we look, there is an ad or a message that illustrate the idea of the corporate America's view. we can not escape from the advertised career, as they are all over the place, now we have changed our old traditions to the ones influenced by the advertisement . 

From the moment we wake up in the morning to the end of the day, our routine is influenced by; “12 billion ads, 3 million radio commercials and more than 200,000 TV commercials”. These statistics are shown on the passage, and it demonstrates that we actually are intoxicated by the corporate America's view. We, "the society" suffer the consequences of this absurdity career. For instances, all the high advertised demand can be found in any place, at the bus station, on magazines, stadiums. Even on private areas such bathrooms; I have seen posters of local bands that are about to play, or the poster for the new circus performing in the city. Even our privacy has been affected by the crazy career of advertisement. No one is exempt for this stressful and addicted persecution of ads everywhere.

One of the most important details that state this article is that, “Kids watch Pepsi and snickers ads in the classroom and they become addicted to those advertised”. Indeed, this advertised career is hitting our society; as kids are bombarded with tremendous amount of of daily ads. We can see the high statistics shown on the news for kids overweight whose are affected by these ads. There is no way we can escape from this advertise, even our kids have been corrupted with this obsessive consumerism. In addition to this advertise in the school, they are exposed to more ads all over the places. Even on TV, that plays a high role over the kid’s education.

Advertisement is the primary source of sales that push our society to buy without limits. It penetrates our mind every counting minute with a new or an existence ad, which promotes a variety of thought to buy more. The more logos and products messages that we see, the more we are willing to acquire. As it is informed on the passage, “VideosCarte installs interactive screens on supermarket carts so you can see add while you shop”. The interactions of the video screen will considerate people to buy products that they did not have in mind before they see the publicity, and this at the end, affect their budget, as they increase their expenses and spend more money on items they do not really need.


My solution will be, to regulate all of these advertises to a certain number of ads per day, on the street, TV, radio, schools or any other place where advertise is an important product of sales. The government needs to control this crazy career of advertisement to promote healthy kids on schools, to prevent the society of spending their money, especially on this tough economy situation. Meantime, I am sure that will be hearing, watching, and consuming more and more ads in our already intoxicated minds.

Blog Entry 3: Summarizing "Hype"

In Hype, written by"Kalle Lasn", states that advertisement is the most often toxic to our mind. All the advertised floods into our brain as we have tremendous amount of ads hitting our brain. advertisement goes up so quickly that we have not realized its proportions. Every where we look, there is an ad or a message that illustrate the idea of the corporate America's view. we can not escape from the advertised career, as they are all over the place, now we have changed our old traditions to the ones influenced by the advertisement .

Blog entry 2: Reflecting on Annotation

What did you get from thinking about annotations with the class?
i got different reactions to the same passages, but we all were in the same page.

What did you get from writing annotations for "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" with your partner?
we got the same idea from the article, we all agree with the author's point of view, when we are multitasking, we are distracted, we understand less, remember less and learn less.

What did you learn about the reading by annotating it?
i learned that it is a good way of connecting to the author point of view.

How may annotating make you a better writer
by annotating we can better understand what we had read and this will lead to better writing skills.

Blog entry 1 "hype "

Advertisements have become part of our daily view from one side to the other of our heads, it is all about advertisement. As stated by, “Kalle Lasn”, on the passage, “Hype”. "Advertisement is the most prevalent and toxic of the mental pollutants". Definitely, I strongly agree to this opinion; since every day I see all the ads post them over the street, technology devices, and in any unimaginable location.

From the moment we wake up in the morning to the end of the day, our routine is influenced by; “12 billion ads, 3 million radio commercials and more than 200,000 TV commercials”. These statistics are shown on the passage, and it demonstrates that we actually are intoxicated by the corporate America's view. We, "the society" suffer the consequences of this absurdity career. For instances, all the high advertised demand can be found in any place, at the bus station, on magazines, stadiums. Even on private areas such bathrooms; I have seen posters of local bands that are about to play, or the poster for the new circus performing in the city. Even our privacy has been affected by the crazy career of advertisement. No one is exempt for this stressful and addicted persecution of ads everywhere.

One of the most important details that state this article is that, “Kids watch Pepsi and snickers ads in the classroom and they become addicted to those advertised”. Indeed, this needs to be controlled by the government, since; we can see the high statistics shown on the news for kids overweight whose are affected by these ads. There is no way we can escape from this advertise, even our kids have been corrupted with this obsessive consumerism. In addition to this advertise in the school, they are exposed to more ads all over the places. Even on TV, that plays a high role over the kid’s education.  

Advertisement is the primary source of sales that push our society to buy without limits. It penetrates our mind every counting minute with a new or an existence ad, which promotes a variety of thought to buy more. The more logos and products messages that we see, the more we are willing to acquire. As it is informed on the passage, “VideosCarte installs interactive screens on supermarket carts so you can see add while you shop”. The interactions of the video screen will considerate people to buy products that they did not have in mind before they see the publicity, and this at the end, affect their budget, as they increase their expenses and spend more money on items they do not really need.  

My solution will be, to regulate all of these advertises to a certain number of ads per day, on the street, TV, radio, schools or any other place where advertise is an important product of sales. The government needs to control this crazy career of advertisement to promote healthy kids on schools, to prevent the society of spending their money, especially on this tough economy situation. Meantime, I am sure that will be hearing, watching, and consuming more and more ads in our already intoxicated minds.