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.