Last Blog

I have found the blogs to be an interesting addition to our curriculum. I had never used blogs before this semester. I am glad that I do now know how to use a blog. I think the blogs were very effective in improving our writing skills. Often times we were required to analyze readings and then blog about it. These assignments not only helped our writing skills but also helped us develop our skills of analyzing and synthesizing our readings. Often times when we were required to analyze our readings I did not look forward to it because it took a lot of time. I often had to re-read the material a few times to grasp the message and to effectively analyze what was being said. Then I had to figure out what I was going to say and make sense of it all.

Using our blogs was a great way practice writing skills that we learned in class. After writing papers and reading the remarks left on my paper gave me things to improve on in my writing. Using the blog was an extra excerise to improve upon the things that I needed to work on. Being able to read other classmate's blogs allowed me to see how other people wrote and provided examples on how to improve my writing style. I think being required a word count was often a hassle but I think it was a good thing. Being required a certain amount of words kept us from slacking off and just writing two sentences. Having a set amount of words made us think more in order to come up with enough valid points to meet the word requirement.

I think being required to comment on other peoples blogs was a good thing. Reading what other people had to say in their blogs gave me a new perspective on many things. Blogging was a good way of communication between classmates. Reading what other people had to say about my posts also gave me things to think about and a new perspective. Being able to voice your opinion about things was another great thing about the blog. I think sometimes it easier to write out your opinion rather than speak it. Commenting on blogs also lead to some in depth conversations about the topics discussed.

I found the post where we were required to include a picture to be fun. I was not aware how to even insert a picture into my blog, but was I figured it out it was very easy. I think including images in blogs are very effective. I am a very visual person and incorporating pictures often helps me retain information better.

I think having to reflect on how we did on our papers was a good thing too! This made us go through our papers and think of what we could do for our next paper to make it better. In the long run this was very beneficial because it made us realize what mistakes we made on our last papers so we would not make them again.

While I did not always enjoy writing blogs I think it was an effective learning tool. And using blogs was a great way to save paper!

An Imperial Message

An emperor has sent a message to the messenger from his deathbed. In this message the messenger is ordered to kneel by the emperor’s bed as the emperor whispers words referring to a task of an important journey into his ear. The messenger is described as losing his strength quickly in his journey which seems to be within in courts and palaces. If he is to break open the outer gates the “imperial capital” or the center of the world will be before him, something that he cannot conquer. Kafka describes the messenger as setting out on his journey full of confidence and “indefatigable”. His ego and over self-confidence is what wears him down. The messenger is described as he is losing his strength: “still he is only making his way through the chambers of the innermost palace; never will he get to the end of them; and if he succeeded in that nothing would be gained.” The messenger’s mission is described as if it is impossible for him to finish due to his cocky attitude and that he can only dream of defeating this mission. I believe Kafka is trying to say that if you go through life with an attitude that exudes that you are better than everyone you are not going to get very far. If the messenger had a more humble attitude or asked for help in his mission he may have been able to accomplish it.

Discrimination is a Virtue

This article discusses the misuse of the word discrimination. Our society, including myself commonly uses the word when referring to racism. Miller makes an argument that Americans do not understand thetrue meaning of discrimination and that we need to use discrimination in our country’s politics more wisely. Miller says: “But to use the word in this sense, as so many people do, is to destroy its true meaning. If you discriminate against something because of general preconceptions rather than particular insights, then you are not discriminating—bias has clouded the clarity of vision which discrimination demands.” In our current presidential election we have a woman and a black man. Our country has yet to see a woman or a black in the position of president. Our country has faced issues of discrimination against both women and black people in our history. American citizens should not let preconceived notions about women or black people make a difference in whether or not they decide to vote for Obama, Hillary or any of the other candidates. Voters should focus more on the qualities of the candidates and what their plan for our country entails. Miller makes a good argument when he talks about how we as Americans need to discriminate more when it comes to politics. He makes the point that we spend more time discriminating in our decisions for buying cars or choosing what kind of foods we eat than we do in decisions concerning politics. Choosing someone hold the position of president of our country is a big decision that affects ourselves, our family, future generations and other countries. In making such a big decision we as citizens should be more concerned and we should make “intelligent judgments” in deciding things such as who should be the president of our country.

Visual

Heart machines, such as the one pictured on the left were created and tested on animals. Many people have been positivley impacted by the use of heart machines, and has even helped save lives. The heart machine is one of the most well known treatments that was tested effective through animal experimentation. This is a demonstration of just one of the many treatments that is very important to advancements in medical technology and encourages the use of animals in proper medical testing.