Artifact 2: Change the Drinking Age?

            Do you believe the drinking age should be lowered? The drinking age in America is 21 years old, and in many other countries the drinking age is about 18 or 19 years old. If the drinking age is reduced to 18 or 19 years old, then these young adults will be legal to drink in controlled environments like bars, clubs, restaurants and many other places. These places will have matured people drinking there and not people, who are illegal, binge drinking. When young adults are not taught to drink responsibly, they end up binge drinking at parties, it will be better to teach young adults to drink responsibly and hold them reliable to what they do as we do with driving. The responsible environments will help form a mature responsible young adult, who will have the choice to drink. There are many college students drinking already at these ages, who aren’t of legal age yet, who drink irresponsibly mostly because it’s thrilling, rebellious and a symbol of adulthood.

            When someone turns 18 years old, they make their own decisions and can already buy cigarettes, vote, get married, sign contracts, serve as juries and join the military. All of these acts have so many responsibilities to partake on. These 18 year old, young adults should also be trusted to make their own decisions about consuming alcohol. If an 18 year old can be mature enough to go into the military, risk their lives and hold a gun, then they should be responsible enough to consume alcohol at this age.

            Ruling out teens from drinking in responsible, supervised places such as restaurants and bars, they will turn to irresponsible, unsupervised places to drink at such as a fraternity house. When teens are at irresponsible parties and get hurt from alcohol related injuries, they are sometimes afraid to seek help because of legal consequences. By lowering the drinking age, teens will be able to drink in responsible supervised places.

            Now the question comes about driving. It is illegal already to drink and drive so why would it affect it more if the drinking age is lowered. If teens are educated about alcohol consumption and are drinking in responsible places, they would know the consequences about drinking and driving. For people to say that there will be more accidents if the drinking age were lowered, why then? If they were educated about drinking and become responsible and not drinking for the thrill of drinking and breaking the law, then they will know and make the right decision to not drink and drive.

Artifact 1: Defining Self

            Everyone has a body, but as we all know we are all different and there are two different ways we see ‘self’, the way we view our self and how society views us. ‘Self’ to me means how a person views them self in the universe, society and the way a person wants to present them self. There are many people who have low self-esteem and want to achieve self-actualization goals, where they want to be more than what they already see themselves as. For example, people who have eating have low self-esteem, and who aren’t confident with their bodies/mind set, so they do things such as not eating to try to achieve that goal. From the Ted’s Talk website; a website with videos of speeches, Eve Ensler described her own understanding of ‘self’, as she explained, “It was a lot of anger, insane humor, a lot of attention, outrage. It was energy, love and joy. It was all these things. It was all these things. It was all these things in the water, in the world, in my body”. I agree with her point of view because when you have an eating disorder you have a lot of emotions, you feel you don’t fit in and you’re angry with yourself so people with an eating disorder does bad things to themselves to make themselves happy. Like Ensler, I have experienced low self-esteem at times because I was unhappy with my body.

            Ensler stated in the text that she had low self-esteem: “My body was often in the way”. Which made her start to think that she was an object and that’s how she viewed herself; on rare days I feel the same way. She explains, “I began to see my body like an ipod or a car”. I agree with what she states because a body becomes an object that can be molded and bought and all it takes is for you to form the perfect shape or buy the perfect object (nose, face left, breast implants, etc). But every person gets spurs of appreciation for themselves and their bodies even if they are self-conscious because when people compliment each other, it makes them feel better about themselves. On some days I don’t feel confident about my self-esteem or my body, but when I eat right and receive compliments from friends, it raises my self-esteem. Ensler stated, “I was a vegetarian, I was sober, I didn’t smoke. But all that was just a more sophisticated way to manipulate my body – a further disassociation, like planting a vegetable field on a freeway”. It would be unusual and awkward to see a vegetable field on a freeway, which is a metaphor on what she is feeling; awkward. Ensler had low self-esteem and tried things like becoming a vegetarian and staying sober to try to feel confident and not have low self-esteem. Like Ensler, I don’t smoke because it makes me feel good about myself that I am not putting smoke in my body because the other bad things I do to my body replace it like eating junk food. I think she was tricking herself to like her body.

            Everyone has moments on where they hate their bodies. On some days when I eat a lot or I don’t work out for a while, I don’t like how little things on my body look like, like my stomach. People can be affected about the way they look like at any age; young or old. Ensler stated, “In the middle of my traveling, I turned 40 and I began to hate my body, which was actually progress, because at least my body existed enough to hate it. Well my stomach – it was my stomach that I hated”. Many younger boys and girls are starting to get more effected by their appearances and how they look because of magazines and what is “socially acceptable”. All of the models shown today are all skinny and pretty and when little kids/teens see them on TV’s, billboards, magazines and many other places it effects how they view themselves because if they aren’t as skinny as a model, they feel they need to change themselves so others think they are pretty too. People shouldn’t try to be ‘skinny’ they should aim for being healthy. I agree with Ensler that it doesn’t matter how old or young someone is, they can still hate their bodies at any age.

            I think Ensler is getting to the point that many people take things for granted and don’t always see the good in themselves but also the bad and insecurities. She also gets to the point that “self” doesn’t only mean just you alone, she puts the whole world into the meaning of “self” and that everything connects together in the universe. Although I have not had cancer, like Ensler has, I agree with her about people having low self-esteem problems and how she explains how the whole world is involved in ones body. As she stated, “And the fire that burns in me on day three through six of chemo is the fire that is burning in the forests of the world. I know that the abscess that grew around my wound after the operation, the 16 oz of puss, is the contaminated Gulf of Mexico, and there were oil-drenched pelicans inside me and dead floating fish”. This means that everything is connected in some way and where every action has a reaction. By me being self conscious, my friends try to reassure me that I look beautiful because they hear me complaining about the way I look.

            I like how Ensler used the whole world to explain how she felt, so we can all relate to her. Ensler relates to more than one body, or one gender, she connects everybody with the universe. She connected self with the universe and chemotherapy with forest fires and how she connects her scar on her torso with earthquakes. She did a good job connecting things together so we can all get a feel or an understanding of what she felt. She not only explained herself, but how she thought of self through her own experiences. Ensler gave examples on where she respected ‘self’ and where she had hated ‘self’. When I think of the word ‘self’ I think of how my actions affect those around me and how everything I do has a consequence. I agree when Ensler says, the body connects with the whole world because we are not one person in the universe, but one person apart of the universe.

Reflection: English 104 Writing Process

            Practice makes perfect, and from writing multiple drafts were very helpful to me because, I got feedback that helped me re-write a better essay. It was helpful, to not only the essay I was working on, but for my future essays because I would remember the feedback I got on the previous essay and would remember those comments for my other essays. By writing multiple drafts, I felt like my final essays were good because I did a lot of re-writes to make it as perfect as I could get it to be. The teacher feedbacks, I found were more helpful to me because it was written down on specific part of the paper, rather than online on Gateways.

            When I wrote article one’s conclusion on my first draft, it wasn’t strong enough, as I wrote, “Also, I have never thought of viewing myself and body as connecting it with the whole world, but I like how Ensler did that because it was very touching and motivating.” The teacher comment stated, “So what does such a comparison appeal? How does it motivate?” I thought a lot about this conclusion and changed it to this; “When I think of the word ‘self’ I think of how my actions affect those around me and how everything I do has a consequence. I agree when Ensler says, the body connects with the whole world because we are not one person in the universe, but one person apart of the universe.” I felt like this ending was much stronger and motivational than my previous ending. Another useful comment my teacher gave me was on my first blog encounter, I had wrote this encounter on proactive, she stated, “By the end of this paragraph, I should have a feel for what your post is about… so far it seems merely like a summary.” When I write I tend to summarize everything, she helped me in the right direction on where I was supposed to be at the end of that paragraph.

            As a member of WordPress, we posted our essays online, so the whole class can read what we wrote and comment on them. I felt that WordPress helped save paper and made it easy for everyone to look at. We were able to help each other out and aim eachother in the right direction by giving people feedback on their essays. Not only did it help them, by giving them feedback, it also helped me. I feel that giving feedback to other people helped me re-think about my papers and wonder if I made the same mistakes and to fix them. We also had assigned readings we had to read, some of them made me wonder and analyze things in different ways.

            When I first heard the assigned video from Ensler about self, I thought it was a little weird at first but by the end of her speech I felt like she had me thinking in a different way. After we all watched it and talked about it, I saw she used metaphors a lot in her speech and how motivating it was to me. Not only did it help me as a writer inside the classroom, it helped me outside the classroom, in my other classes and just looking at things in other perspectives.

 

            What really helped me become a better writer was getting back useful feedback and re-writing my papers. I used all of the comments and feedback I received, if the teacher wrote down comments I would go through my essay and check off every comment that I fixed. On one encounter I wrote, “The website gives us different opportunities to recycle and shows what the outcome is when we do recycle or unplug outlets.” The comment I got back from this sentence was, “How can an article give you an opportunity to recycle?” I have to be careful with the words I choose and re-write it by wording it differently.

            I struggled with wordings and I tended to summarize my papers that I wrote. I have noticed improvement with wording and with summarizing my papers. I noticed that not all of the papers I write have to be summarized and to follow the prompt exactly. I have gone to the writing center to help push me in the right direction for my paper that I had summarized on. The writing center also helped me think of new ideas that I used. The teacher had me digging deeper in writing and commented on my Article one’s introduction. I had stated, “’Self’ to me means how a person views them self in the universe, society and the way a person wants to present them self.” The teacher commented “Can you define the term without using the definition?” Also, at the end of the essay she stated, “Though not quite as thorough as they needed to be to reinforce your essay on your definition rather than on your explanation of Ensler’s article.” I had stated before that I had problems writing by summarizing other peoples’ opinions more so of mine.

            My strengths as a writer would be to stay in past or present tense. Grammar is also a strength I have in writing papers. Many people write essays and would repeat themselves, I used to do that, but not that much anymore. I am good at sticking to the point and making catchy introductions to get the reader hooked. I used my strengths in writing my essays for English 104 because it helped me get better grades. I would remember what my strengths are and concentrate more on my weaknesses.

            From other English classes, I used to summarize and put my opinion. This English 104 class has pushed me in another direction of writing; I feel that my writing skills have improved because I know how to think about two different kinds of writing. I was used to summarizing and explaining things in my previous essays, English 104 has helped me connect things that I think to things different authors think. English 104 is going to help me in my future because I am going to be writing essays that have different instructions.

Skin Clearing Proactive

The nature of the conversation is about Proactive acne treatment. It is said to help clear skin from acne and keep your skin clear. There were twenty-four comments and the author of the blog posted two comments of some questions people had asked on the blog. Most of the comments are statements from people who have used proactive and how it has helped them and how it has made their skin feel dry and how it smells like a swimming pool. The author did say if a person skips days from using proactive then their acne would come back because they are not keeping it continuous. Using proactive or any other acne medication has to be used continuously like working out, when people work out they have to do it continuously and if a person stops working out they gain their pounds that they have been trying to loose.

To comment of the bloggers site, a person doesn’t have to register before posting. All a person has to do is enter their name, e-mail, and comment.

In this particular blog, the blogger, Dr. Benabio states the pros and the cons of proactive. The pros is that it attacks two main causes of ance, the one that blocks pores and the build up of bacteria. Also he states that it is effective when a person uses it continuously and doesn’t stop. He also mentioned some cons such as, it can cause redness, peeling and stinging. It takes about eight weeks to see results of proactive. Also, there is a chemical in proactive that bleaches clothes, pillows, and hair. He states that proactive doesn’t cure acne but it helps control it. Many people don’t understand that nothing cures acne things just help control acne.

The blog is very open and some people left comments saying that it did dry their skin out. Everyone has different skin types, so some people may feel like it is burning their skin and others may feel like it is helping their skin and not burning them. It depends on the person.

I think the ultimate guideline for effective web commenting is that people should be nice, but honest and state what had happened to them and how it didn’t work for them. They should also state what they think is better for their skin type but mainly be honest and polite when commenting.

Cinnamon Bun Fiesta

The smell of cinnamon buns fills up my four-bedroom house. I let them cool before me and my family enjoys half of them for breakfast because the dog knocked down the other half on the floor. After breakfast, I drop my children off at school and go to work. After I go to work I pick up my children and drop them off at their after school activities in my chargeable car. I go home and cook dinner for everyone and plan a surprise birthday party for my husband that following week. I call all of our friends and family to tell them to “save the date for his surprise party!”