Blog Entry #1

In this writing, Turgenev portrays capital punishment as unnecessary and completely wrong. He shows the readers how dramatic the viewing of the execution was in full detail. Once Turgenev received the invitation to the execution, he had no idea what was in store for him and didn't want to seem like a coward. Throughout the entire execution, Turgenev felt remorse toward Tropmann, who was "guilty" of murder and sentenced to execution. Turgenev is stunned to see how many people came to view the execution and how much entertainment the community got out of the young man being killed. Turgenev is disgusted by seeing how a community could get so much joy out of another person's death. Turgenev wrote this to show how much of an emotional journey this was for him and to show others how shocked he was at others for getting joy out of the horrific thing that was taking place. Turgenev goes into so much detail of what being there felt like to him, and comparing the sound of the execution itself to the sound of "crashing waves". By doing so, it gives the reader a sense of almost being there and experiencing exactly what he experienced. Turgenev did this in order to spare readers the experience of actually going to watch one of these terrible things. He basically scares readers and shows them that you get nothing out of experiencing a man be killed, unless you're sick in the head. At the end of the piece, Turgenev asks, "capital punishment itself -- could it possibly be justified?" By asking this, readers see that he is against capital punishment. By asking if capital punishment could be justified, it shows that his position is that it can't be justified at all, and if so, he doesn't see how. Some may disagree and say that capital punishment is completely justified and feel that people that commit crimes, such as murder, should go through exactly what they put others through. My question is, how would this teach someone a lesson? By killing someone for killing someone else, this basically shows that the government feels that it's alright to commit murder because that's exactly what they're doing by sentencing someone to execution. If killing someone is illegal, then why can the government kill someone for doing something illegal? Execution is extremely barbaric and disgusting to me. I feel that being sentenced to "life in prison" is way more humane than sentencing someone to execution. Life in prison keeps the people the government wants away from society, away from society, without killing them or anything crazy. Execution is an extremely touchy subject and could be argued for years because everyone has their own opinion and in the end, everyone has a different opinion on these kinds of things.

Blog Entry #15

Ehrilch describes the cowboys as being tough and rugged on the outside, and for the most part, on the inside. She talks about how they don't really connect towards women, and that they need the women to cook and clean for them. When the cowboys are in a more intimate setting with their wives, they open up more and are more able to connect with the women on a personal level. Ehrilch uses a tone that is informative, but also emotional, which she is basically stating that you can't judge a book by it's cover.

Blog Entry #14

Sante breaks down secrecy and how much it effects our society. Most teenagers and some adults have MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, ect., but what some don't realize is that once it's out there, it's everywhere. A quote I once saw stated, "Once it's on MySpace, it's international," which is extremely true. Anyone around the world can see that you're on MySpace. Even if your profile is set to private, people can still see your profile picture. In this day and age, there is very little secrecy anymore.

Blog Entry #13

Public schools should not teach ethics and personal values. I think that is something that should be taught at home by your parents or family members. However, the staff should inforce honesty and politeness around the school's campus.   

Blog Entry #12

To categorize movies, they're usually put into different genres. Some genres include horror, comedy, and fantasy. Some movies tend to have more than one genre incorporated into them. This keeps the viewer guessing what comes next. The movie, Jennifer's Body, is a Horror/Comedy. By adding more elements to a movie, you're keep the viewer more engaged in what's going on.

HORROR
*Saw 1-7
*Hostel 1&2
*The Last Exorcism

COMEDY
*White Chicks
*Shallow Hal
*The Hangover

FANTASY
*Avatar
*Harry Potter Series
*Lord of the Ring Series

Blog Entry #11

Culminating Writers Profile
1. My expectations about my writing style have increased since class has started because I want to become a better writer, but I don't feel I've made a significant improvement in my writing since this year has begun.
2. As a writer, I believe my strengths are giving examples to get my point across to the reader.
3. I still see a weakness in my thesis statements. I need to work on making them stronger and tying my essay towards the thesis.

Evaluating Your Writing Process
1. To improve my essay I would put more examples and make it deeper.
2. It was easiest to revise my meaning because I knew about my topic, and had personal example to back it up.
3. The biggest problem in writing and revising my essay was making it deeper and more meaningful to society.

Evaluating Your Successes
1. The most successful large scale revision in my essay would be the audience. By reading my essay, you would see who the essay was referring to.
2. I was very descriptive when using my examples about how certain words are used out of context and in schools, but I need work on using other literary elements.
3. I think the audience of my essay understands my point that I was trying to get across because of the examples I gave.

Being Honest With Self
1. The most intimidating part about this essay was how many points it was worth and that it was the first big essay of the school year. I worked hard on the essay and wanted to get my point across .
2. Tuesday's with Morrie influenced my writing a lot because it had meaning and purpose to it and that made me want to have my essay meaninful and have purpose.
3. I tried using a more appropriate vocabulary and used "slang" terms, to describe examples.
4. My peer said that I needed to work on my thesis and tying my whole essay together.
5. I have not seen a significant improvement in my writing yet but throughout this year I hope to see a big improvement.

Blog Entry #10

The feeling of being a "nobody" can be caused by a number of different things. You can feel that you're being ignored by people, unable to relate to people, or have low self esteem. To me, I think being ignored would be the worst thing possible. No one is listening to you or even giving you the time to tell them how you feel. Just by writing this, I feel terrible for people who feel, as if they're a nobody, 'cause you're definitely somebody.