"No Place Like Home..."

Personally, I did not grow up in a gated community like David Guterson talks about. None of the houses looked the exact same, none of them were painted the same color, and none of them had security guards at the gate. However, there were a few 'developments' where the houses were the same model, but were only built that way to lower the cost for the companies who built them. I grew up on one of the main streets of my town, and I could go to and from my house as I pleased. I believe that setting regulations like they do in Green Valley, are outrageous and I'm really glad that I never had to deal with those.
Like in the communities that Guterson talks about, we did have a cerfew. Back at home, by 11pm during the summer, you had to be on your property. Althought most times they didn't exactly enforce this, it was supposed to be for the young kids of the community in order to keep them off the streets. This in my opinion was a fairly good idea, and was somewhat able to prevent minor crimes which could occur during the night.

Home

1. Having snow (sledding, snowball fights, making snowmen)
2. Raking leaves and then jumping in the pile.
3. Comfortable, homey feel.
4. Tenting out in the backyard.
5. Being able to curl up on the couch in front of the fire and watch a movie with friends.

Sledding:
When I was little my brother, my friends, and I would go sledding down the hill in my back yard. This one time, I was sitting on the sled with one of my friends, and my brother decided to give us a big push down the hill. We used to have a small pine tree at the bottom of the hill. While sledding down the hill, one of us lost control of the sled, and we ran right into the tree. All of a sudden, you hear his big "thwack," a sound you would only hear on tv. No one was hurt, but when we looked at the tree, there was a huge dent in the trunk, and it was completely bent at an angle, and we have the whole thing on video.

Palin and Clinton

First of all, in order to understand this video, you must understand who the two women in the video are. One is Hillary Clinton, a senator who ran for the Democratic nomination for president, and the other is Sarah Palin, the woman who is on the ticket for the Republicans. The two women go on in this video to talk about sexism and how it is a big issue for this election coming up, and that Clinton has been dealing this the entire election. You must understand what sexism is to laugh and realize why Clinton said something to the effect, no one has cared about it before. They go on to talk about how the media needs to stop referring to Palin as pretty, etc, and how Clinton has cankles, etc. In order to understand this you must realize that Palin was once a beauty queen, and you have to understand that cankles are ankles that are so big they run into their calves.

If I was a boy....

I guess that if I was a boy for a day I'd do all of the things that girls are not 'suppose' to do. Life would be so easy. I'd get up and take a shower. For one day, I wouldn't have to wash my hair, because no one would really be able to tell since if I was a boy I'd have short hair. I'd probably dress in the most comfortable clothes, sweatpants and such, and go out and play football or some other sport that's considered a "man's sport." I'd be able to joke around with guys and actually be considered funny, and for once I would be able to go to the bathroom standing up, or really wherever I wanted, because when you're a girl you can't do that.

Viewing UT.

Observations:
-It's a flag/banner.
-It says, "UT make orange Green"
-There is a website on the banner.
-The writing on the banner is sideways.
-It's location is on the walkway through the center of campus.
-The "UT" and "Green" are bigger than all of the other words on the banner.
-There is a big green leaf on the banner.

Inferences:
-The signs are on the main walkway in order to catch people's attention and to be seen by more people.
-The bright "UT" and "Green" are the two main words of the sign since they are the biggest.
-By displaying a website on the sign, they want you to visit it.
-By writing the words sideways it catches your attention and allows the words to be bigger on the sign.

Summary:
The point of the sign is to make students around campus more aware of the things which we can do to help the environment. The banner is strategically placed on the main walkway of campus to make sure the maximum amount of people can see it, since many of the UT students use the walkway to go to and from classes. The catchy slogan, "UT, make orange Green," actually brings a visual picture to your mind, causing you to think of all of the ways to make the campus eco-friendly. This is bringing awareness to the students of what they can do in order to make a difference. Although, compared to the rest of the world, UT is small, we, as a community, can make a positive impact in the way we handle environmental issues.

Letter to a Friend

Hey Brog!!!

So, my roommate went home to Nashville this weekend, and my cousin went out of town. So, I had the entire room to myself to do whatever I wanted. So I decided to become a hermit and get done all of the work that I had for the upcoming week. I studied my butt off. I got done all of the reading that I had to do for this week. I must say, I am amazing.. Haha. I listened to Boomsday fireworks while I was doing work, watched a few good movies, and did all of that good stuff so I could spend more time sleeping this week, more time doing other kinds of stuff this week, and less time studying; although you know me.. I'm going to study anyways.

But anyways, this was the first weekend that I actually did my laundry at the school. Let me tell you, that was an experience. Haha. I've never done laundry alone before... I've never done laundry period. So, I got on the phone with my mom and made her walk me through it. Haha. I'm in college, but I can't do my own laundry. I did it though, I'm pretty proud of myself.

Hope everything up there at Bates is going good.

Talk to you later!!!

Carly



Dear Grandma,

So this weekend was uneventful for me. My roommate went home for the weekend, so I had the dorm room all to myself. I studied the entire weekend. I managed to get all of my work done for this week, which is very good. I know I'll end up studying some more though.

Although I was studying, I also took some time out for myself. Watched a movie, called some friends, that type of stuff. All in all, it wasn't too exciting.

Talk to you soon!

Carly

This is your brain....

Video 1

Observations
-It's a close up video of a frying pan.
-There's butter/oil in the frying pan.
-An egg is put in the pan.
-The oil/butter symbolizes drugs.
-The egg symbolizes your brain.
-You see the egg fry in the pan, showing what happens to your brain if you use drugs.
-"Any Questions?"

Inferences
-The effect of using drugs is like frying an egg; you're brain is fried, and 'cooked' by the drugs. The video seems that it would reach a broader audience by just focusing on the frying pan and the egg. It's showing the effect that drugs can have on you if you start using them, and thinks that this will reach them. It is also assuming that this audience will understand the effect that drugs have better by using the metaphor of the egg and the oil.





Video 2

Observations
-There is a young actress.
-An egg symbolizes your brain.
-A frying pan symbolizes drugs, more specifically heroine.
-Other objects symbolize other parts of your life, and most of the objects are fragile: family, friends, job, self respect, future, etc.
-It's very violent.

Inferences
-By having the popular actress they are trying to reach a younger teen audience, and focusing on that audience. By trying to show the effect that heroine has on your brain, and everything else in your life, with a violent video they hope that you get the picture that heroine is bad. The smashing of everything tries to show how hard drugs effect someone's life, and shows that everything is ruined by doing drugs.


Compare and Contrast.
While the first video could be used to show a broader audience what the effect of drugs are, the other seems to focus mainly on youth. The first video also has a boarder focus on the types of drugs that you do. It says that any type of drug can harm your body, fry your brain, while the second just focuses on the drug heroine. The video with Rachael Lee Cook, shows the effect that drugs have on not only your brain, but also the rest of your life. It shows that everything, and everyone, is effected by using drugs. I think that both have the same message, "Don't do drugs," and both are effective in conveying that message. I think one of the things that make them effective is the violence, or harshness, that each egg endures in the commercial. This shows that drugs are a big deal, and do a lot of harm to the user. Both try and show how fragile your brain is by comparing it to an egg, and how we have to take care of things which are easily destroyed.