The end is near

I hate pirates. I cannot stress it enough how much I hate pirates now. I want this thing to be over. I am tired of googling the word pirates. I am tired of going on academic search premiere. Its like have we not done this? Have we not gone over this? I understand the work in the library because that is a new research technique but honestly googling and creating bibliographies is getting on my nerves. I want to learn something that I was not taught in grade 12 English and I feel like we are going in circles. It is so frustrating. I do not know how to make this clearer that I am tired of doing this research. So I am glad I got that out of the way so moving on. THIS WEEK we looked out what we summed up and how it could be clearer and what questions would be asked from a academics perspective. It was important to have our bibliographies clear, our names, the authors name, the publisher, and the title extremely clear. The summary has to be summed up in a fashion that things are stated clearly that people who have not read the article can understand FULLY what was written. The citations are so important because through comparisons with others you can see which one among authors is most useful. I really hope this week we move in a further direction.

Pirate Research and Questions

Pirates are enemy number 1. I am glad that we are actually doing some work on it that seems grown up because as soon as we picked this topic I was like if this becomes which pirate movie is our favourite, I debated hanging myself from a sturdy beam. Kidding but not really. I never knew how much citations were important and from deciding which websites were usable I truly based most of my research on citations and specific ideas. It is such a frustrating task though that what I think the profs forgot to remember was that we were not use to doing research like this and we needed more guidance or we were going to slack off and not do what was expected. I am getting more and more frustrated with this class because I feel like we were not taught the same in high school and to be specific instead of assuming we all know what the hell the profs are talking about. I knew that they wanted citations and specifics and then I did that and some how it was wrong but it was never explained what was wrong considering I did exactlywhat was asked. Anyways on a side note, can we please stop talking about the marks? The profs have explained this is just the way it is, whether we like it or not, and we are not going to be able to change it. I come to class to learn and not to be overly concerned with marks. The profs are too set in their ways for us to change anything. I have enough motivation for me to write something good whether or not its a tick and i take pride in my work and I think that is what is important, me learning not being obsessed with whether I got an A minus or a B plus. I look back on the last week's class and all I can think about is how much my frustration is consuming me. The research is fine but if i have a question I am too scared to ask questions, i am too afraid to bring anything up in class incase everyone goes off on each other. I am not in high school anymore.

Pirate Research

So I came back from a short hiatus with the "flu" and we dove right into researching five main writers of pirate information on academic search premier. To find legitimate pieces of work to use proved to be more complicated that I assumed. Certain writers only have reviews written about their work rather than their work itself so some of the citations would have to be looked up in a library of some sort or the book bought online. It was interesting to find in the reviews that what the authors being written about write mainly about was in the review like what the author specialized in. Some writers looked at the more economic views for pirates while some looked at hierarchy.
Then in groups when we decided on topics to look further into we kind of all got chastized because the topics were not of specific incidents, people or dates therefore making the topics way too broad but it was good to know that for the upcoming proposal.
For the pirate proposals coming up I wanted to remember "specific incidents, people or dates" from a broad topic but I am worried that my topic could be falling into two categories rather than one. Black pirates, their actual popularity and why they are not portrayed in movies or books is the broader idea but I am looking specifically looking into Blackbeard and his heavily black crew as a specific incident. I am worried about this getting out of hand but we will have to wait and see.

Swine Flu and Pirates

Sooooo at the start of the week I was like stoked because we were getting back together as one big group class and not our individual classes. I was curious to what we would be learning now. Was expecting pirates? No. Am I disappointed? Far from it. I was sooo pumped but with our first inkshed the Profs (the fab three as I hope to call you) proved the point that we really know jack-squat about real pirates. Nearly ALL of our ideas of pirates come from Jack Sparrow and Keira Knightly in a corset. As much I think Johnny Depp is a beautiful specimen he is not a real pirate. This then led me into a serious interest of what of the stereotypes of pirates is true and what are solid facts on pirates. When we read that piece on articles written on pirates and who the authors were I wanted to know who the hell these authors were? Wikipedia searchers? People who knew real pirates? Who gave them the right to be reading worthy? Russ has me paranoid about who are these writers, thanks Russ. And then here comes the clincher.
I was supposed to write a piece on William Snelgrave and I truly intended to get to it but then came the marvelous flu. Not only did I miss class, I missed the rest of the week, I missed an occasion I could have attended, I threw up everything I could have eaten in the year of 2009, I couldn't move from my bed. The energy I am using to type this is really all I have to muster. I am not trying to slack off but God said Lauren Cook shall catch the flu and it was done. So hope we are talking about pirates when I get back, hopefully soon. And yes. That is it.

End of Doubt?

I am saying this in the nicest way I can considering I already typed this and deleted it by accident. If I have to listen or discuss any relation to the play Doubt, I will get up, leave the room or probably have a hissy fit. Mentally, I cannot deal with one more class on it. It is just not going to happen.
Movie wise, I thought both times I watched it that it was lack luster and stuck to close to the play itself. It is a movie and therefore should break the boundries more than it did. I still see the characters the same and still would rather not talk about it anymore.
Moving on from Doubt is journalism. I thought this week's classes were brilliant. Some of my preconcieved notions on people or some judgments that I had made (yes I judge, i am human) were maybe not changed but I see people in different lights. Do I think they were all amazingly written? No. Do I think that they all had a point that was valid and were all great attempts? yes.
I think the general task of it was accomplished. I thoroughly enjoyed that class.
Then religious studies. Thom, the candy was much appreciated and very generous. The questions were indepth but hard for any of us to answer without proper detail but I understand the idea that we have to look it from the inside of the religion. It is difficult to do but it is the only way to really look at it.

Nacirema and Turning Points

One, after the English class with the Nacirema society, I felt like a total idiot for not cluing in. I am not sure if I was not reading attentively enough or if it was just totally over my head. I understand that the article was a mockery of the extremities of the American society and ridiculing what they hold dear NOW and I was getting the hints that yes it was familiar to some of the North American values but I was either too tired or too stupid to entirely understand the concept that it was the american society. Plus never in my life have I ever read things backwards in hoping that it would reveal something. I am sorry that I do not look at an article and grab a mirror and see how it looks backwards. How others came across that so easily made me wonder why in elementary school my teachers felt the need to forget that little detail. I did not understand how the article related to Religious Studies but I understand the purpose of looking closely at a text. Journalism was important this week because with the journalism task I was worried on how to write a great piece without putting in too many quotes. I am glad that Michael Camp decided that he would explain to the class which details he would find important. The story is clearly more important that each little quote that the person I was interviewing, even though i am now finding it difficult to determine which quotes are the most important due to the fact that looking at all the quotes seem meaninful to me.

Documentaries and Paden

Over the Thanksgiving weekend we were asked to read an article called "Interpretating the Sacred." Paden explains how views, especially religious ones, come into light differently for each person. Some people see their beliefs as views and some see it as the solid truth. It made looking at Sister Aloysius a more challenging tasks even though some people said "oh now I completely see her in a different light" but for me it was like now I have to evaluate both her beliefs and mine and what type of person she is and whether or not she is mature enough to understand what her belief is in comparison to everyone else. There was so much more that you have to look at in applying it to the text and to the characters. It made life a little more difficult. Then in religious studies on Thursday, Michael Higgins came to our class. Going to be perfectly honest here. Did not understand much of what he said due to his complicated vocabulary and his sophisticated ways. I mean nothing mean out of this but it is hard to listen to someone talk when they seem to only be talking to impress others. I did learn a little bit about the Irish Catholic hierarchy though and how it applies to Doubt, but seriously, Doubt is a dead horse and we need to stop kicking it. If I analyze it anymore then we have I am going to mentally collapse. People are discussing their valued opinions on what they believed happened in the play and everytime someone disagrees with it, people feel once again the need to talk about their side. Okay everyone has their view, leave it at the fact that people have their views too.
In Journalism, i loved the documentary because of how hilarious it was. It was funny to see the different characters in University and how you can take a camera and look into peoples lives and see how people vary. The idea that in journalism you have to have a story to catch people's attention was well proved.
I enjoyed this week because I feel as if we broke off into some new directions.

Separate Classes Review

Hmmm what have I learned this week? Well, it was nice to have a piece of writing that the classes could all evaluate in their own ways. I was worried we would get back into the routine we did with the "Rwanda war criminal" article and talk about the same ideas (no offence) to death. I did not want to sit around and just butcher the piece until there was nothing left of it so to be able to go to two different classes and discuss the same piece but with two different teaching styles was intriguing. There were much more questions from the religious perspective then I had originally come up with in my head as I was only looking at it from the most obvious standpoint and not looking at the little details that were quietly written in. It was refreshing to have a time for everyone to inform one another and talk about something so important in today's society. In journalism, I was bored with the class because it was just the most basic points of journalism and it was hard to be involved but once everyone was included and we had that discussion about which headlines were more important, then my attention was caught. Looking forward to the interview.

End of Rwanda

With the large discussions we have been having on the Rwandan war criminal it was really intriguing to listen to people and there views on the whole topic. Everyone's answers were so broad and people were really passionate and defensive about their ideas. I was hoping since day one that people would want to discuss and want to debate and challenge each other and I thought the topic was a decent dicussion idea because it had the touchy subject about immigration, death penalty and justice. It also gave everyone a great chance to see what experiences some of us had and what high school taught us. Some of us were taught in very different ways with very different topics. As cheesey as it sounds, it feels like we are little closer for finding all this out about each other and some of us, this sounds mean, some of us know where we stand with others. I am more intrigued than ever.

Since the first Aquinas class, I have wondered if this was going to be a class where I was going to have to bite my tongue; rework my phrasing; or just say nothing in response sometimes. Typically my first weeks of school are bland and by this time, I have already conjured up an idea how to skip some class or where in the class is the best place to take a nap. This is not high school though. Not even close. My mum has always tried to instill the idea that everyone is different and my idea was not always going to be everyoneelse's ideas. However, it was not until I moved to Fredericton where I kind of thought to myself "not everyone is not un-opinionated and boring anymore. Refreshing." I would not go off without saying that I would have also put myself in that category at times and I tried to be as open-minded as a could have been but during this class I finally thought, "wow... I have a lot to learn". This class quite possibly could be a little life changing if I am lucky and not in the way where all my thoughts are changed and I am this better and new found person. It is more in the way where I see the multiple ways of seeing things and explore ideas in new lights. Without getting gushy and gross, in past classes, I felt out of place because people never questioned me or said anything about my ideas and I felt as if I said too much but now, people are interested in what I am going to say and I HOPE, people are going to question me and when I am wrong, tell me I am wrong (but you better be able to prove it.) When thinking about what I learned in this class, it was not like do remember what I did in my homework but it was triggered by something new. When, I think it was in the second class, we had that discussion about raising children after I brought up my fearing of ruining my children with my beliefs and them just accepting it, everyone had something to say. Whether I agreed with what they had to say or not was far from the point. The point was they had an opinion, something they held dear in believing, like I did, and I wanted to hear what it was. There was a point when it all clicked when someone said something that made me mad. Not a little flustered but a little furious. What they said really made no sense to me and it really put me in this position where I creatively imagined jumping down their throat and telling them how ignorant they are. That lasted only two seconds because immediately after that I thought "they are entitled to feel that way. I wonder why they think that?" I had a lot of questions after that and that is what made feel like this class is the right choice for me. I have not learned anything text book style but I am slowly learning patience and that is more than anything I have ever taken away from any other class.