Paragraph from Research Paper

When the attacks of September 11th occurred, every avenue of how to intercept communications were discussed. The fear of another attack was running rampant throughout Washington and the rest of the country. Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) recommended an addendum to a routine spending bill that would greatly expand the federal government's power to intercept oral and electronic communications.(ACLU p.3) This lead to the warrantless wire tapping the USA Patriot Act is known for. In later years the news media would report on these illegal activities run by the National Security Agency or more commonly referred to as the NSA. The program of eavesdropping and data collection was authorized by President Bush to identify terrorists communicating within the borders of the United States. The usual mission of the NSA is to protect the United States by investigating threats from outside our nation, not from within. The data collected by the NSA was and still is being compiled to find trends in the calling habits of customers of AT&T, BellSouth, SBC, and Verizon. The analysts that work for the NSA are hoping to relate specific usage trends with known terrorist activity. All this was done behind closed doors and without the courts being involved. The only company to hold out in the big telecommunication circle was the Denver, Colorado based Qwest Communications. Qwest did not see how the NSA or other federal agencies could take their customers information without the courts being involved. It violated section 222 of the Communications act passed in 1934 protecting the customer's call records and habits with stiff financial repercussions against the company that let the persons personal information out without a legal warrant.(Cauley)

Boston Photo #3

The building is on fire behind this epic tragedy. 9 The fire that has ripped through this old brick building loosened the bolts holding the only escape from the conflagration only feet away. 23 Gravity took hold of the small child and his mother as they plummeted from their perch atop the blaze toward the street; a mix of bewilderment terror and happiness in the child's face. 33 There are a few things falling around the pair. 9

Gravity seems to be a main theme in this picture. 10 The flower pots and remnants of the fire escape are falling around the mother and child. 16 The mothers face is obscured by her arm as she falls to what must be a frightening end, but we can only imagine the horror she is experiencing in the photo. 31 This picture shows how one moment in time can affect the rest of one's life. 15

How can one describe the terror of near death? 9 If there was ever a way to show the fear and sheer terror of meeting one's end this photograph may well be the definition. 24 Although we may not be able to see the poor mothers face, most people understand her fear and know that something very bad is going to happen to this mother and her son. 33

47 word sentence

The quote above says educational institutions aren't putting out well rounded individuals that can imagine many different outcomes to a problem because they weren't able to develop those skills through taking unsafe or risky classes with no "real" benefit or clear goal in mind after the class.

College Pressures

I chose to read College Pressures written by William Zinsser. The pressures of the college lifestyle have made the institution into a grind instead of a place of expression and learning. The essay made a distinction between learning and education. Zinsser expresses this throughout the piece, but it is most exemplified on page 483, paragraph 11 with;
"long gone are the days of the 'gentleman's C,' when students journeyed through college with certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses- music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion- that would send them out as liberally educated men and women."
The quote above says educational institutions aren't putting out well rounded individuals that can imagine many different outcomes to a problem because they weren't able to develop those skills through taking unsafe or risky classes with no "real" benefit or clear goal in mind after the class.
The pressures to succeed have become so great that one is not able to enjoy their time and figure out what they want to do. The modern student has become so focused on the end goal they forget the present. no time for fun and just need to mindlessly grind away at studying instead of exploring what they want to do in their life. Parents and society do not help in this regard because the student feels compelled to do whatever it takes to succeed and not fail. As Zinsser explains on page 482 that the media is just as responsible for the idea that a person doesn't have a right to fail. I agree with this whole heartedly. One grows from failure much more than success. We can take the case of Thomas Edison as an example of this. After finally succeeding with his invention of the light bulb, he is quoted as saying, "I haven't failed, I found 10,000 ways that didn't work".
If Edison decided to stop and accept his defeat he would not have become one of the most brilliant inventors of the 20th century. Also since he did not give up he became successful. Things that come easy usually aren't worth very much. Yet again, I digress.
I think the moral of the essay is that we need to fail in order to truly succeed. We, as students, have lost our ability to navigate through tough choices and situations that involve critical thinking and risk. Zinsser talks about how the students he encounters are only looking for the straightest road to follow in order to be the most successful instead of enjoying the journey to the destination. so in reality the journey is the destination according to Zinsser. This is actually the first reading out of the Norton reader I have enjoyed.

An Animals Place

I know this entry is a day late, but I decided to do it just to keep up. The arguments that stuck out to me the most in the essay were the arguments about how we, as people, don't realize where our food comes from. When I was a kid I was at first horrified the first time I saw the cattle pins out by Modesto, CA. I didn't know or care about how the meat appeared in the store. I saw all the cows in the feed lot and asked my grandfather while driving by, "What kind of animals are those and why are they all in that big pin?" I was told a short (when I say short, I mean a story that will last the remainder of the trip) story about how the food we get from the store actually comes from places like that and how when he was a boy on the farm in Iowa they had to do the slaughtering themselves. I was awe-struck. I feel this back story is relevant because I had never known there were people that actually had to carve out their own meat from the cow, goat, or what have you. People have lost the connection between using the animal for food and made that need into yet another part of our consumer culture. If we don't have to look at the animal before consuming it's flesh, then we can remain in the bliss of ignorance while devouring that delicious steak.
Something else that wasn't mentioned in the essay, but mentioned in class that I already had thought about was the poor treatment of the animals could lead to more health concerns for people. The stress the animals are under by living in too tight of areas and could raise heart rates and just make the animal fear which in turn allows for more adrenaline to flow through the animals muscles and other organs. From what I know the adrenaline can make the meat taste tough and might even be bad for one to consume. This would be my argument for making the slaughter house more calm and less stressful for the animal. What if we could make all slaughterhouses and kill floors more like the Polyface farm? It seemed the only thing Joel Salatin was missing from his outdoor chicken slaughter was classical music to keep the chickens at ease until the time of their demise. Maybe that is the trick to making everyone happier; just play some Beethoven.

The Trouble with Wilderness part duex

When I read the assignment, I misunderstood it, so I will finish it now...
Cronon's explanation of his concept of nature is explained thoroughly. His theory that nature would be more natural with people in it, not lacking people makes sense to a point, but not all natural places had people to begin with. Where he loses me is when he says that "we" enjoy nature because it shows a simpler time. I don't agree. Who are "we"? Cronon does not specify who is who in his essay. I had a hard time deciding if he was telling us that if we are part of the problem or part of the solution. Does the problem have something to do with more people than ever live in cities and use the faux-wilderness as a release for stress and make themselves feel better? Conversely, do country folk not need to relieve stress and enjoy the wild because they work the land and that is their reality?
This essay did make me think a little more about how I view wilderness areas. I have hiked through Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe and worked in the forest during the summers. It never really dawned on me that there were people that lived there hundreds of years prior. We also couldn't wait to see wildlife, but when it got up close we would curse it and run away (i.e. a bear or mountain lion). So would going green help us realize nature is around us? Maybe it is one of many solutions we can find.

The Trouble with Wilderness

William Cronon brings up a few good points in his essay, "The Trouble with Wilderness" but it is extremely opinion based and not much solid fact. In my opinion he went from a radical anti-establishment, "Screw the man!!" type to a confused hippy trying to make sense of the world he just seemingly came out of Acoma into. While some of his some of his evidence is true, such as on page 652, paragraph 7, when he describes how the rich wanted to have retreats and estates in the wilderness. What Cronon leaves out is that these estates, or retreats were eventually turned into conservatories by these evil rich people and given back to the people. Also, Cronon leaves out the fact that when many of these national parks were set aside and created it benefited Americans by creating work during the great depression through the Conservation Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and The WPA projects here in California. Overall, the article's tone just seemed angry to me. The author just had a lot of distaste for anything that was "natural". I understood what he was trying to explain, but he really look it to the edge of the concept.

What is a Homosexual?

Sullivan actually put a clear thesis at the end of his story. I understood what he was trying to explain throughout his piece, but it never quite jumped out at me what the purpose was. I grasped the story was about his personal challenges growing up as a Homosexual male in a crowd he never completely fit into. He tied the essay together with a thought provoking thesis that has the power to make one think about the world around them and the people that are surrounding that person.
The story also made me think that sometimes what you see is not what you get. Is anyone really an open book or are we all trying to hide something from others? Maybe we are even hiding things from ourselves that, we ourselves, are offended by. I would argue that Sullivan is not just saying that Homosexual youth have an extremely hard time in their adolescent years, but rather that he is singling out that particular group for a few reasons. The first being very obvious; He is a Gay man and had to put up those facades to survive those tumultuous years. The second reason being there is more ridicule and torment used against young men that are openly gay in our schools than those that put up their walls and act like nothing is happening.
I started thinking back to when I was in high school. I found out years later that a friend of mine was "in the closet" so to speak. He went through these phases of trying to fit in. He played football, did the weight lifting classes, and also took girls to the school dances and bragged about how much tail he chased. What we had all found out about him was that he was taking girls out and all that, but was not trying to do the same things the rest of us guys were trying to do with the girls. They were going to the movies or gossiping or doing girl things. The girls I knew that were "seeing" him all kept his secret far from the rest of us in the group. I don't know if it really would have bothered me then, but now the only thing that unnerves me is that he couldn't be himself around his friends. He is still keeping his act up for his family. He was married to his best girl friend and they have an open relation to fool his mother. It really in a sad story.

Consider the Lobster

David Foster Wallace was an amazing writer. That's about all I can say for him. he can clearly make you think about points that no one really thinks about and he gets his message across, sometimes with a bit more information than is needed. After reading the assigned editorial, "Consider the Lobster", I researched more of Wallace's writings to see for myself if these type of editorials are commonplace for this talented writer.

In doing a bit of research, I found an excerpt from his first book, Girl With Curious Hair, "Everything is Green". In this short story he tells of an older man with a younger woman. The younger woman is full of hope and optimism that the older man just doesn't have any more. The story suggests that the older man wants to let the younger woman go and live her life and he doesn't want to be selfish by keeping her and holding her back any longer. The story was published by Harpers Magazine and can be found here.

So what caused this writer to become depressed and ultimately take his own life? He had a great career and was a well respected person in his field. If one reads Wallace's first published work and Consider the Lobster, there is a notable difference in the tone of the writer. In the short story I mentioned above there isn't confusion. The older character knows that he is holding the younger woman back and is ready to let her go to be who she and wants to be; even if she does not think it is the best idea for her. The older man uses his wisdom that can only come from age over his feelings. Although Consider the Lobster is a factual review and not a work of fiction, one can tell the difference in Wallace's writing style and tone. The editorial for Gourmet Magazine was confused and completely off topic. Wallace started at the class differences in this area of Maine and ended his piece in an existential rut. Just from reading two stories from the author that are published 15 years apart I can see the confusion in Wallace's life. Maybe he thought of himself as the Lobster that was almost in that boiling pot of water. Was there some unknown force that was closing the lid on him?

Unfortunately, we will never know. With suicide comes many more questions than answers. I was going to write this journal entry mush differently today, but after doing a little homework on the man I am sorry that he won't be able to confuse us any longer.

Buzzell v. Didion

Both readings were great. Both were very informative and gave a picture of what it was like to be sitting next to the authors as they, themselves experienced what they wrote. Where the authors differ, however is that one is explaining if he really sees what he is writing or is it a complete work of fiction? I thought Buzzell's entries were much more life like and most definitely had a concrete feel to it. The reader knew the story was not made up, and one could almost feel like he is almost sitting next to the ant infested hill as Colby lays down on top of it.

The Didion reading was well written and gave me amazing images as I read the five or so pages. What ruined the read for me was how the author jumped from topic to topic with Little connection. It honestly started to confuse me, albeit not hard to do, but made it more difficult for me to follow his point. After I reread the essay I thought about the meaning of this short story. To me, the meaning is that most things you have to learn on your own. Through the good times and the bad, through happiness and sadness, and sometime through just sheer stupidity. No one can teach you life lessons, except life itself.

The means of conveying one's feelings may have changed, but the purpose has not. Even though these two authors were born and lived at least 40 years apart, both needed an outlet for the things they witnessed and felt. A blog is just a journal or diary with more equipment.