Blog 10: “Hunting Teaches Young People to be Responsible and Environmentally Aware”.

 

I truly believe that hunting teaches young people to be responsible and environmentally aware.  Young people who hunt learn safe gun use and handling, learn to use all of their meat, learn when you can hunt certain animals and when their breeding season is. It is a great bonding time between children and parents/ guardians, and between friends. It teaches young people to be environmentally alert of the number of animals in an area, aware of signs of healthy and sick animals, and more aware of animal habitats and protecting them. I think that young people who learn to hunt appreciate nature more and to care for it more than someone their age who doesn’t hunt.

Young people who learn to hunt learn safe gun use and handling through going to a weekend course, and then continuing on with their knowledge throughout life. They learn how important it is to use all of their meat from their animals hunted, rather than wasting it and throwing it out. They learn when certain animals are breeding and unable to be hunted and when the allowed hunting season is for each animal. Teaching young people to hunt is also a great bonding time between child and parent and/or family. It is a time where the older generation can pass on their knowledge for hunting and the environment on to the new generation, to keep the tradition going and to recruit new people to provide for their families.

Learning to hunt at a young age also helps to teach you people to be environmentally aware. People who hunt are more likely to be more alert with the number of animals in the area and can spot out signs of sick and healthy animals. I also believe that young people who learn to hunt also learn to appreciate nature more and to care for it more than someone who doesn’t hunt, because they want to be able to pass their knowledge on to the next generation and want to make sure that there are still animals for the next generation to see and hunt.

I truly believe that hunting teaches young people to be responsible and environmentally aware. They learn safe gun use and handling, learn more about animals and their natural habitats and life styles, it is a great way for generations to bond and pass on knowledge, and is an excellent way for young people to learn to be environmentally aware.

 

Word count (408)

Blog 9: Love Conquers All”

Anyone who actually believes that money is more important than love needs a reality check. Yes, money can buy you all kinds of things and can make you very happy, but it can’t love you unconditionally and it isn’t there to comfort you after having a terrible day.

Money is nice to have, so you can buy anything you want, but we could survive without it. You don’t need money to eat. You can grow your own food and water is free. Yes, you do need money to live in a house and have heat and hydro, but you don’t need it to survive. You can live in a handmade shack somewhere and build fires to keep you warm. People survived many years ago before money. Back then you could trade just about anything else for something you needed, rather than paying for it with money. Money may bring you temporary happiness, but love brings you ever-lasting happiness. What would happen if you lost all of your money suddenly? What would you have then?

Love is one of the most important things in life in my eyes. I know I wouldn’t be the person I am today without the love from my friends and family. Just think of how lonely and hard this world would be without the love and comfort from your friends and family. Money isn’t going to wipe away your tears after a hard day, or celebrate with you on your best days. It’s the people around you that matter the most in life. It’s love that truly brings you the most happiness.

At the end of the day, I would much rather be poor, with good health and surrounded by loving friends and family, than rich with no one to share it with. Money is a wonderful thing to have, but love is more important than money in my eyes.

 

Word Count: (322)

Blog 7: “True Writing is Rewriting”

 

For my blog, the secret that I feel is the most important to me in my own writing experience is number 1: Once is Not Enough. I feel that this is the most important to me out of the three secrets that Beth Shope has given us.

When I write something, whether it be a blog, an essay, or a story, I am constantly going back and rereading it, changing things and adding on to it slowly, rather than doing it all at once. I think that I have wrote something amazing out, but when I reread it the next day it doesn’t make any sense and isn’t nearly as good as I originally thought it was. I find myself staring at what I had just wrote, trying to decide whether or not to keep it or add on to it.

I like how she compared “writing to building and furbishing a house” (Shope). I never really thought of it this way before, but it makes total sense. You’re not just going to build your dream home over night, it takes time and patience, same concept goes to perfecting a piece of writing.

She mentions that “the first draft is the equivalent of laying the foundation, or perhaps laying the foundation plus raising and support beams and a roof” (Shope). I agree with her that the first draft is the foundation of your writing. You need to pour it down before you can build up your house. The same goes for a piece of writing. You can’t have a great piece of writing without establishing a solid base to grow from.

These are just a few reasons why I decided to choose the third secret: Once is Not Enough that Beth Shope discussed in her blog.

 Word Count: 291

 

 

Reference:

Shope, B. Writing is Rewriting

Blog 6: “A Profile Reading”

For this week’s blog, I decided to choose “The Last Stop” as the profile reading that I would be focusing on. The brief passage that I found to be very vivid and detailed was located in paragraph three.

“It wasn’t at all what I had expected. I thought it would be more like Forest Lawn, serene with lush green lawns and meticulously groomed gardens, a place set apart from the hustle of day-day life. Here instead was an odd pink structure set in the middle of a business district. On top of the Goodbody Mortuaries sign was a large electrical clock”. (Cable, 2002)

I found this passage very detailed. I could picture it perfectly as he spoke about what he thought Goodbody Mortuaries would look like. I had a beautiful picture painted in my head. He made it out to sound like it was going to be such a peaceful, delightful place. He spoke of it having “lush green lawns and meticulously groomed gardens, a place set apart from the hustle of day-day life”. (Cable,2002) This gave me a very vivid picture in my head. It made me think of my house. My step dad stays busy throughout the summer making sure the yard is perfectly cut and the flower beds are exquisite. (Somewhat like what Brian said).

The peaceful image quickly got destroyed by what the place actually looked like. I could picture what it just as well as I could with his thoughts on the place previous to going, but it wasn’t nearly as nice sounding and peaceful to me.

This is just one example of a vivid and detailed passage throughout the reading. There are several very detailed passages throughout it, this one just stood out the most to me.

Word count (297)

Reference:

Cable, B. (2002). The Last Stop. In R. B. Axelrod, & C. R. Cooper, The Concise Guide To Writing (3^rd ed., pp.57-60). New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Blog 5: “What The Best Interviewers Get Right”

After reading “What The Best Interviewers Get Right”, by Brian Casel, there are two pieces of advice that I think would be the hardest to follow. The first one being having “Prepared questions & unprepared followup questions. The second one being “Not afraid to interrupt”.

            I personally don’t think I would struggle with making up some prepared questions. I think that would be easy. You just have to sit down and write out a bunch of different questions that you want to know about the person you’re interviewing. Where I think it would get hard, is the unprepared followup questions. You could try and prepare yourself for this by maybe making up other questions that kind of go with your prepared questions to help you, but I think that you would have to be a quick thinker in order to come up with good un-prepared questions to ask. He says that the interviewer must “be attentive enough to latch onto the guest’s answers, and dig in with followup questions based on what they’ve just said”. (Casel, n.d.) I think this would be really hard, because not only are you thinking of a followup question, but you’re also trying to listen and absorb absolutely everything they’re saying.

            I also think that not being afraid to interrupt would also be difficult for me. I was raised to listen to what others have to say, without interrupting. Once they’re done, then I can put my two cents in. It’s rude to interrupt. (I know to be a good interviewing it’s important to be able to do this). I just don’t think I would be able to do it confidently without feeling bad. I understand that if you only had a certain amount of time to do an interview, you don’t want someone rambling on off topic the whole time. But, I probably would sit there and just let them talk.

            I don’t think that I would be very successful interviewing people for a living, unless I had a limitless amount of time to listen to people.  But hey, that’s just me

Word count: 298

Reference

Source: http://casjam.com/what-the-best-interviewers-get-right/

Blog 4: “The Last Stop”

In the article, I read about a funeral director named Howard Deaver, the three questions that I thought of that I would ask him about his profession are;

Did you always want to run your family’s business? Or did you just feel obligated/ pressured to take it over from your parents? I’m wondering this because I know that a lot of kids feel like they have to take over their family business. Like they’re going to be letting their parents down in a way if they don’t. Especially when it has been in the family’s name for so long.

If you parents hadn’t of owned the business, do you think you would have gotten into that profession? Or is there something else that you might have enjoyed doing? I’m asking this because I feel like it’s not a profession that many people would ever consider. I feel like you’d defiantly have to be the right kind of person to do this. I know I couldn’t because I suck at funerals. I bawl my eyes out, even when I barely know the person, because I feel for their loved ones. I’m a very happy person, but when I am around sad people, it tends to bring my mood down (as I would expect it would with most people.)

Do you think that working in your profession has somehow made it easier on you when you lose a loved one/ attend their funerals? Growing up, you probably spent a lot of time here with your family, and around dead people. Has seeing so many funerals, dead people, and sad mourners somehow made attending the funerals of your loved ones a little easier? I know it would still obviously hurt you a lot to lose a loved one, but maybe you have a different look on things after being in your profession for so long/ growing up with your profession.

Word Count: 297

 

Reference:

Cable, B. (2002). The Last Stop. In R. B. Axelrod, & C. R. Cooper, The Concise Guide to Writing (3rd ed., pp. 57-60). New York, NY: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Blog 3: “Wikipedians Do It for Love. Really”

I think that Wikipedia plays a big role in everyone’s digital life, including mine. Throughout high school I used Wikipedia a lot while writing bibliographies. I used this site to find out important information on the subject or person(s) I was researching.

Although, Wikipedia doesn’t always have the right facts. Olivia Stren wrote that “One Wikipedian delete’s another article and an Edit War is declared.” Why are other Wikipedian’s fixing fellow Wikipedian’s work I found myself wondering. It’s because the original copy might not have the right facts, or maybe they have outdated facts.  I am more likely to choose a different source of information if I am writing an essay, especially if the information from Wikipedia has me questioning what it says.  Also, the fact that anyone can write an article on Wikipedia is also a little sketchy. I could write an article on Triceratops. In reality, I know practically nothing about them.

My teachers throughout high school told me that Wikipedia isn’t always a good source to use, because anyone can write an article on Wikipedia. The fact that there are several different articles to choose from on Wikipedia on one subject makes it a little more difficult. The articles could contradict each other or articles from other sites. So how do we know which article is the correct one? We end up having to look at a different site for the correct information, just to be able to tell which Wikipedia article is best to use.

I agree that Wikipedia might not be the best choice in getting information due to all my facts listed above, but I don’t think that it is completely useless either. I still use it, mainly due to the fact that it’s one of the top websites to pop up when I google something. As long as you know a little about the subject that you are researching, and trust your red flags enough to tell what’s correct and fake, then I think that Wikipedia is an alright website.

Word count (297)

Reference

Stren, O. (2012, August 23). Wikipedians do it for love. Really. Retrieved February 16, 2017, from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/wikipedians-do-it-for-love-really/article1389532/

Blog 2: “Shitty First Drafts”

“Shitty First Drafts” by Anne Lammot reflects my anxieties as a writer very well. When I sit down and write something, I find myself re-writing it over and over again until I think it is good enough for someone else to read. I close my page if one of my friends come over to sit with me in case they read it before I am done. I am constantly changing what I write until I think it is good enough for someone else to read. I try to write points and facts down as quickly as possible and then go back and write it out in sentences, in hopes to make sense out of whatever my brain is thinking.  I’ll then add or take things away, depending on what I think of it after reading it for the second or third time.

Anne Lamott from Bird by Bird mentions she’d “start writing without reining myself in. It was almost just typing, just making my fingers move.” I often find myself doing this, I just seem to type without thinking, just moving my fingers along as I type. Anne also mentions; “I’d write a lead paragraph that was a whole page, even though the entire review could only be three pages long.” I type run on sentences about whatever I think is some-what relevant to the topic that I am discussing all the time. I remember in public school we had to write a short story that had to be two pages long and somehow, I ended up with a ten-page story.   When I get going, there’s no stopping me until I finish what I have to say I guess.

These are just a few things that I have in common with Anne Lamott that reflect our anxieties as writers.

 

(Word count 298)

 

reference

 

Lamott, Anne. “Shitty First Drafts.” Language Awareness: Readings for College Writers. Ed. by Paul Eschholz, Alfred Rosa, and Virginia Clark. 9th ed.Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005: 93-96.

Blog 1: “15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog”

I’ve never really considered blogging before I read the article “15 Reasons I Think You Should Blog” by Joshua Becker. He makes some really interesting points on how blogging can change your life in a positive way. All of his reasons are wonderful, from meeting new people, to making money from blogging. The point that intrigued me the most was point number 2 though.

The second point he made throughout his blog was how you’ll become a better thinker. He talks about the process of how writing encourages you to “stop and think deeper, and how “you will delve deeper into the matters of your life and the wordview that shapes them”. I found this to be a really interesting point. It has encouraged me to stop and think about things differently. I’m lying in bed writing this right now. My window is open. It’s raining outside. I laid still and listened a little closer, thought a little deeper. The rain is pattering gently on the metal roof, I can hear the frogs croaking beautiful love songs off in the distance. The wind chimes are dancing playfully with the wind outside my bedroom window.

Like I said above, I’ve never really considered blogging before reading Joshua’s blog. I’m not much of a writer. I used to keep journals when I was younger about the latest gossip, who I was crushing on back in grade one and what not, but nothing I really felt worth sharing with the world. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy writing every now and then. Blogging just hasn’t ever crossed my mind before. After reading Joshua’s blog, I can honestly say I have an open mind about starting to blog in my spare time.

Word count (289)

 

Reference

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/15-reasons-i-think-you-should-blog/