grim bothers

the grim brothers wrote many stories and changed the story telling game forever. One day when i visited home i was watching tv with my friend and see put on a show. Sh heard about it because he room mates unle is  the guy from Will and Grace and produced the show. The show is not that popular because it has a bad time slot. She told me the show was based of the grim brothers stories and it turned them in a supernatural cop show. I was surpised how much I liked the show. One episode was like little red ridding hood and another was the three bears story. It was intresting and made me compare it to the ones we read in class

repley to Rachel p. christmass

It wouldnt let me post a comment. I also love christmas time, something about it is just so magical. All the pretty lights, the snow making everything pretty, and the warm indoors. I also cant wait to see my friends fromother schools. I feel lik its been forever sense I saw them. The time between the breaks is way to long! It is so nice to be sourroundded by family and see some family you havent seen in a very long time for the holidays. I am so jeleous that you got all your presents, I am going to be the one running around like a crazy preson. By the way you chocalte covered pretzels sound awesome, chocalate covered pretzels are the best!

the perfect snow day

When I was little there was nothing more that I wanted besides a snow day. They were like a little kids superbowl, there time to shine. I remember one of the greastest snowdays i had when i was little. My block was filled with kids and most of us went to different schools so we didnt ge to see each other alot. I woke up praying hoping that it was, yes it was a snowday. My mom's best friend droped her two kids off and we could not wait. We started off with saved by the bell and one episode of texas ranger. Then  my bestfriends came over and we mad the most awesome fort and hill. Then we had the greatest snowball fight of all time. It is a day i will remember forever.

winter break

I am really looking forward to winter break. In these dorm rooms at western i feel like I am getting cabin fever. I have nothing do if I am not doing homework, laundry, eating, and watchin televison. The dorm has something about it that makes kids want to sleep all day. I feel like i have never gotten enough sleep. this week is finals,so one more camped week. I will spend  it studying, eating, sleeping, and maybe watch a couple movies for a break.  Thursday is my last class and i am really excited to my train home. I want to get hot chacolate and go downtown to see the window displays. I cant wait to go home

assaignment 4

For the other part of my paper for assaignment for I want to focus on how it is not only right for the people but it is not right for the animals. The pointless killing and cruel treatment of these animals should not be allowed. Here in the united states we have many laws to stop cruel treatment of animals and regulate hunting of the animals. Through the world there are simlar laws and groups of nations to come up with international laws to stop this treatment of animals. However it seems the dolphin in Japan have fallen through the cracks. Hundreds of dolphins a day a killed pointless infront of their mothers and childre. Dolphins are extremly intelligent animals and just by the sound of the communication while held it can be determined that they scared or stressed. The fisherman only sell the baby dolphins that they need then kills hundreds of the other dolphins. The killing is senseless they hide and everything from the public. They treat the cove like a military base instead of a fishing dock. It is cruel and wrong even for the fact it is hidden from the public. When countless japanese peopl were interviewed about the killings they thought it was wrong and it should be stopped. While most peopl who argue that it is right is because of the Japanese culture

assaignment 4

I want to do assignment 4 on the pointless killings of dolphins in japan by japan fisherman. The japanese law allows this senseless killings of these dolphins and the meat to be put in Japanese food. Dolphins are high on the food chain. Which means the dolphins are on a higher level, which means the consume the level below which consumed the levels below them. Mercury increase with each level, mecury can be dangerours in high amount. Dolphins have a dangerours amounts of mercury which is extremly unheatly for peopl especially young childre. Yet the children are being feed dolphin meat even one time at thier school. Japanese law allows and even supports the dolphin meat being mixed in with other meat. It can cause severe problems especially over time. It is not moraly right to make your own country especially the children to eat these high levels of mercury. Most of the people eating this dont even realize that what thier eating can be dangerous

movie posterd

Learning about movie posters I thought i knew almost everything there was to know about movie posters. I have seen movie posters all the time going to the movies I even had poster in my posters in my room. I was surpised to learn how much goes into making a movie poster. It is all about getting peoples attention fast, telling the plot, set a tone of the movie, getting people to go to the movie, while keeping it simple. It is alot to do to get people to want to go see a movie in one simple page. In each genre has its own techniques and each posters differ alot bit from the other. It has endless possiblities and really have to focus on who the audience and what you want to convey to them. In class I also learned this is true of many other genre that my classmates talked about in class.

for colored girls

I went to to the poem/show for colored girl. It was nothing I aspect I thought it was one person in a dark room reading a poem they wrote about what is like for african american girl and some of the hardships. I found that I was very surprised that i really liked. It had many different races and told many stories about not only what its like to be an african american women or girl but some of the hardships that all girls go through. I thought everyone could relate to this play because it showed some different hardships that everyone can imagine how hard it would be to go throught them and it was easy to out yourself in thier shoes. It was about strength and overcoming hardships and surving through them more then the hardships themselves. It showed that no matter what you go through you can be strong and overcome them you just need to find  the strength in yourself.

thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is this coming week and Western gets out wednesday for thanksgiving break at 12. I wish the school got out before wednesday because all I want to do is go home and see all my friends. I feel like its been forever sense i have been home. Most of my friends from Illinois schools have already got out last friday. I havent seen my friends sense school started and i cant wait to do the little things with them like drive around aimlessly or go to the mall and walk around. I used to think those things were so boring but now I think that would be the funniest things to do. Thursday I am going to Texas to visit my family in dallas and have thanksgiving with them. I am also very excited for that because I havent seen me family sensealmost the begining of the summer. Were going to a bull riding redo and there is a pool and a hot tub. I am excited to eat, sleep, and swim. I just wish this break could start sooner.

movie poster

I am learning how to make a movie poster, for the genre project. When I picked it i thought it would be easy enough but I never realized how much went to the movie poster. First you have to pick something tht discribes the plot in one image. Have to get people attention, really quickly. Some movie poster companies hire psychology to get the most attention grabbing techqunies. How most poster are of peoples face and shoulders instead of peoples whole body because it grabs peoples attention. Then there is some much that can be added credits, rating, title, realse date, and line from a credic. Each poster has to grab attention of the adudience it wants for the movie and also grab attention of others that the movie might have not entitional wanted to see. The movie poster has a big job to do in just one image.

majors

This past week was registration for next semester. I am only a freshman and have no idea what i want to do with the rest of my life. I want to go see my counsler and she asked if i had decided a major yet. This is the question I get asked atleast 3 times a month. If there is a family function i will be asked atleast 15 times. My answer is always no, no idea. I feel like everyone else already has their college and their rest of their lives figured out. I know alot of people will chang their major several times. I jusst find it extremly hard to commit to one thing the rest of my life on something a sorta like when Im 18. So next semester I am still going to  be undecided. Maybe I will find something I really like but I  know I still wont be comfortable making the decision that will affect everything about my life. Everyone says you can always change it and go back. That is extremly difficult do and something I really don't want to do.

In class we did a fairy tale for homework with all the things that make a fairytale a fairy tale. Mine was aboout girl who had magical powers so sshe was banished out of the kingdom by the evil witch that ruled the kingdom. The evantually takes down the witch and everyone lives happily ever after. Now i must turn my story into a comic or a vampire love story. I have never been into comics and dont understand them so I think I am going to change my story into a vampire love story. I think this will be a little difficult because i have never changed one genre of wwritting into another one. I have not yet dicided how I am going to do it. I think alot of people change genres from one genre to another but keeping the same plot like the loin king. It was a play, animated cartoon, tv show, a musical, and I am pretty sure a book. The plot is the same for all but the genre is different. It is important for genres to be change to have the story reach more people.

Twilight

Last class, the class anaylazied teen vampire love story craze that has recentently popped up in pop culture. I have read the twilight books and seen the movies. When asked if I liked twilight, I never really knew what to say. Its not that I don't want to admit that I read the books or saw the movie. I wasnt a big fan of twilight and when I watched the movie or even read the book I got annoyed easiler with it. I hate how the plot get dragged on and hate almost everything Bella says. It is so slow and emontional, I just wanted to tell her to get over it and stop being so emontional and live her life. I couldnt even finish the forth book. So maybe it was the plot a normal girl falls in love and finds her purpose and becomes alot more then what other people expected from her. Maybe it was excited to read about vampires and warewolfs because before that it out of pop culture for awhile. Maybe because i read the first one and i just really needed to find out what happens. I dont know how i can hate twilight and like it at the same time, but oh well for now its my guilty pleasure.

We read fairy tales for homework last class. Then in class we discribed the common themes of fairy tales. I can remember was I was little and got read all these fairy tales. Fairy tales are spouse to teach kids lessons but the lesson is not the only thing the kids get out of it. The magical or supernatural aspect of the fairy tale sparks kids imagination. It teaches kids about friendship, I can still remember the the many friendships in fairy tales. I wanted a friendship like that were we would always help each other out, and it taught me to be a good friend. There are negative aspects of fairy tales to like the main character being weak and needs to be saved like cinderella. It teaches young girls to wait for thier princes charming to save them and help them. Girls can become very dependent on the guy or need a guy to be fullfilled. Fariy tales give different messaages to everyone.

class

In class we had to do a review of class. I realized i really I am glad I took this class because it is preparing for writting in my other classes and in my future classes. It is a lot of work at times but I need to take it the first semester. It improved my critical thinking skills. In class this last project I learned how to anaylaze one specific aspect of the piece of literacy and think about why it was done and the little things that support it. I missed alot of those small details in movies and stories i watched and read. It made me understand the piece of work and explore what it means other then the main plot of the story. I think I am improving at writting and like literacy alittle more. Being able to compare the lesoons with actually things that are intresting to me makes me enjoy learning about literacy alot more, and makes me want to learn. It makes me think about literacy in my everday life,. I found myself looking at facebook and comparing it to the lessons we learned in class. I think this course really helped me grow with my understanding of literacy.

Fall

This weekend I embraced all fall had to offer. I love fall the leaves changing different colors makes everywhere buetiful. Then raking up leaves into a big pile to jump in them for hours. The chilly weather that is pefersct to wrap up in a sweater and sweatpants and drink warm apple cider. I always know when fall is here because there is just a certin small in the air and it doesnt smell like anything else. Going to pick out pumkins, and craving them keeping the pumkin seeds to eat later. The most imporant part of fall and my favorite is halloween. I went to go get my custom this weekend I dicided to be a nerd. I cant explain it but there is something special about fall. Just the smell of the air makes me happier.

My research paper is on the movie Mean Girls directed by Tina Faye. I am excited to write the research paper because i really enjoy the movie mean girls. I think it had many acspects of the film that are compltely true in real life. The sneaky ways of bullying people to feel better about yourself or making others like you more, and become more popular. The different cliques can be seen in all high schools. There is girls like Regina George that try to be the leader of the group and control others while still acting as if she is completely nice and does it in a way where people cant tell she is a bully. The movie brought light to the way girls bully that people different even know about because it is very sneaky. I am nervous to get my main idea clear in the paper without overcrowding it with things that are not supporting my thesis. I am having trouble organizing my ideas into seperate paragraphs that all support the thesis but are seperate from one another. With different ideas in each paragraph and not mixing the ideas confussingley through out the paper.

Anaylizing a show

Today I was watching the show Forty Eight Hours Hard Invegitagation on tlc. It was about a man who killed his wife and  tried to cover it up by staging her drowning. I found myself anaylizing the show and realizing the fliming techiniques they used. They made all the pictures of the victim either black and white or with a very dark backround. When i think of black and white I think of old times or something in the past which i believe why they did it the show. The wife died in a pool and they took things like her cell phone or piece of evidence and made it look as if it was under water. I think the producers did this to make the veiwer feel that fear of drowneding themseleves. I also believe the put the evidence and the picture of the victim underneath the water to show that the evidence put her there. They had a blury backround when it was a new break in the case and cleared it up through the scence as they discribed the importance and cleared up the meaning of the evidence. When the showed the court room it was all dark with a couple spot lights it showed the darkness of the story that was told there. Some of the scence were at different angels i believe it was to make the scene more inteanse.

Creative work

This week in class we turned in our frist writting assaignment. I belive i did good on the narrative and was happy with what I did with the paper. The next assaignment is a research paper on anyalizing a creative work. This makes me nervous because I am not that good with formating research papers. Also I dont think I will be good at anaylizing a creative work. I can not do a play because I know i will not be able to anaylaze its different meanings because I am also more focused on the entertanment like the jokes in the play rather then the themes or underline meanings. I can try to do a song but i dont know how or which song will give me enough to write about for four pages. I can not anaylize a art work because I am not good at understanding the meaning of almost all art work. I can anaylize a movie but I have no idea what movie I should anaylize. It is hard to choose what to do and what art work will I be able to anaylize and long enough. I want what i saw to make sense and be meaningful.

Getting more involved in Western

At western this weekend was homecoming weekend. This year I wasnt invovled much in the activities they had at western so far. I havent joined any clubs and only went to one football game. I know I might grow to regret this discesion by next year. Joining clubs and going to school function is a great way to meet people and become part of your school more. I have been hanging out with kids that live in kalamzoo that dont even go to Western Michigan. Therefore this weekend, homecoming weekend, would be the perfect time to start changing that. I went to the hockey game friday with my suitmates. I always enjoyed hockey and it was fun to cheer on Western. I also meet kids from the swim team here (which i joined but never went to). I got to hang out with a little bit and realized swiming is something i should really do. Now that i know a few kids in the club it will be less nerve racking going. Saturday i went out with a bunch of girls that live on my floor. It was fun to meet more girls and become friends. My friend is on the hockey team so we went to go hang out with them and it was probly one of the funniest nights i had here. In the morning on Sunday I made plans with some of the girls to get coffe and work on homework togther. So in conculsion i learned an important lesson this weekend, that it is important to be involved with the school.

Carrie

In class this week we watched the movie Carrie and asked to anaylaze it. The movie Carrie is about a girl in high school that doesn't fit in and is considered creepy in most part due to her mother. Carrie's mother was upsets with religon, taken it to a whole new level thinging almost everything was a sin. Carrie is tourmented in school by her classmates and through her angry figures out she has telepathic. I was confussed about Carrie as a character if she was a victim or the villian. There were almost two sides of carrie shown in the movie by music and the lighting on Carrie's face. When carrie was more like the villian then the victim her face gott darker and there was a dramitic meledy playing. The director made it intresting with the many different camera angels. The movie also had alot of small symbolizim that was difficult to always see. An example was the ending of the movie when she nailed when of the men against a plank of wood and he was like Jesus on the cross. Carrie at the end of the movie looked like the devil with flames everywhere, which her mother had already compared her too. This movie was full of symbolizm and minor details and effects that really pulled the movie togther.

back home

These past couple of weeks of school I have been feeling home sick. So i was very excited when my roommate and best friend Katie asked me if i wanted to go back home to chicago with her. My home sickness seemed to get worse by the time thursday before i left came around all i could thing about is being home. I just wanted to sleep in my own bed, drive my car, see my mom, eat at superdawg, and hang out with my friends. As rushed through my week I didnt focus on anything but going home, which was a bad descion. When We approached the city skyline, i was extremly happy to be home. Seeing my home and my mom gave me a whole new approciation for it. I already knew how badly I missed my friend and it was great to hangout with them( I haven't laughed so in a long time.) It was sad to have to leave I never realized how much where I am from was a part of me and how much i missed it.

Learning English

In our last class assaignment we read a story, where the main character never looked english. She had been living in Canada for 30 years and only knew resturant words. I personally did not know how she did it. When living in any country it is important to learn the language that is spoken there. How did she communicate all the years she lived here. Language is extrmley important in any country and it allows people to communicate, its very hard to avoid learning a language of a country you have been living in for the last 30 years. She wouldnt have to depend on her husband or men to speak and communicate for her, that is no way to live. everyone has there own ideas and needs to be able to communicate with others for themselves. The women in the story was afraid of losing her culture but she should have also looked as it as gaining the culture that she was living in.

We read Elaine Richardson's piece "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing up Black, Po and A Girl in the Hood." for homework. In these stories Elaine explains through her own life experience that there is not just one side or contex to words or events. She explains that her brother calling a girl pretty right infront of her meant that he was calling her ugly, and when he said you cant be the man she took it as boys were dominant over girls. I think we have all had expirence like that being on both sides, telling your mom you want pizza for dinner she takes it as shes not good at cooking. Boys will think them hitting on you is nice but a girl will take it as mean or degrating and the boy only got that he was hitting on her. I have had many of these moments where words can have double meanings, in each instints it was because of a lack of expirence by one person or another. Each person has different expirence and thats why words have different meanings to every person.

I am from writtings

In class our last two assiagnments, consist of writing about where we were from. The first way was writing a poem like the poem "Where I am From" and the second approach was writting a story about where we were from like Jay Z did in Decoded. I found it much easier to tell where i was from in a story then writting a poem. I didnt fully understand the poem "where I am From", it was confussing to me because she used one word to describe a whole memorey or event that was important to where she was from. I didnt not understand the importance of these words or get why the described where she was from. On the other hand the way Jay Z described where he was from through detailed experience in his life made me realize why they were important and described where he came from as well as capurting my attention more then the poem. I liked describing my stories to explain what was important to me and why it discribed where i was from through my story because it gave a whole picture. My poem was confussing because puting a whole memory into one word was hard for me. Writing the story allowed me to look back at that park and explain why it was important and why it was where i was from.

I am From..

I am from driving around blasting music.
I am from laughing with friends so hard my stomach hurts.
I am from the beach, staying up all night with the lifeguards and waking up early for work.
I am from Olympia Park, where everyone meets up and I played little league.
I am from the alley behind my house, where the neighborhood kids would play basketball and soccer.
I am from Taft pool, where i joined swim team for the first time and pretended i was an mermaid with my friends during free swim.
I am am from the corner ice cream store, where my dad would take me after i lost a game.

introduction

 My name is Lauren, i was born and raised in chicago. I am currently going to school at Western Michigan University. I  have been working as a lifeguard at lake Michigan for Chicago Park District for three years. I love swimming,basically any water sport, snowboarding, and soccer. I have one brother Brendan, who goes to University of Iowa going into prelaw. My brother is my role model and someone i really look up too. I am undecided, but i might want to do something with psychology because it is my favorite class.