Rcygan's Blog

Coming Home Again and Tracks and Ties

rcygan — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:04:09 +0000

“Coming Home Again”

Action- A young man comes back home to live with his mother who is sick from stomach cancer. He realizes that after being sent to boarding school, his biggest connection to her is food.

Speech- The narrator knows Korean and is spoken to by his mother in Korean however he wishes to stick to English.

Thought- The narrator is upset that his mother is suffering from stomach cancer and tries to cook for her to make things better. He knows that his mother regrets sending him off to boarding school and he regrets not spending those valuable years with her.

Physical description- “I dribbled clumsily around the key, on the verge of losing control of the ball, and flung a flat shot that caromed wildly off the rim.”

“Tracks and Ties”

Action- A man starts off by telling a story of his past. When he was young he had a friend who he would cause ruckus with. He talks about how they went separate ways and his friend ended up beating his wife and being stabbed by her.

Speech- The author points out different points in the story where his friend had a southern accent and they use to talk like teenagers would versus adults.

Thought- The narrator has reasoning behind why his friend turned out to be bad. He says that he had a rough life growing up and sympathizes with him for how his life turned out.

Physical description-” For a while I looked out the window at all the red brick factory buildings, the storefronts with their dusty windows, bright neon price deals taped to the bottom and top. “

Coming Home Again and Tracks and Ties

rcygan — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:49:59 +0000

Coming home again is about a Korean boy whose relationship with his mother changes until the time of her death. His mother has stomach cancer and regrets sending him off to boarding school because she feels as if those are years that she did not get to have with him. The symbolic thing that they have between each other is the food that she made for him and how it connected them together. The narrator wants his mother to have peace with him and wants his mother to understand him. The narrator regrets being mean to his mother at times and not paying as close attention as he could have.

Tracks and Ties

This story is about young teenagers who had an extremely rough patch of trouble. The narrator got out of that life but his friend did not and ended up a druggie whose life was taken by his girlfriend. The narrator wants for his friend to eventually in life get what he deserves but in the end realizes the reason why his life was so messed up. In the end I think that the narrator regrets that he got out and his friend didn’t live to have a better life than they were used to.

“Somehow Form a Family”

rcygan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:22:38 +0000

In the beginning of the short story Tony Early describes his childhood and names all of his surrounding neighbors. He then goes on explaining how different and very critical parts of his life have revolved around his television set. His family went from poor (because they had a black and white television) to rich and as soon as they bought a nice TV it was like his outside world had stopped and his new world was the television world. Throughout his life it seems as if he related took the problems that were going on in his life and coped with them by watching TV and almost becoming a part of the shows that he watched. He imagined himself as the characters in the television and wished that he lived the perfect lives that they did. For Tony, he hid from his pain behind the television set. Throughout this story the concrete sensation could definitely be identified as the television set. As a young boy his family had a black and white broken set which related him to being poor. His father bought them a new television set that was in color and then all of a sudden the world had become perfect. The abstract reasoning in this story would be the different obstacles and events that took place during his life. He related the concrete sensations, the specific television shows, events on TV, and characters to vi vital points in his life. For instance, in the end when he sees the actress who plays Alice on the Brady Bunch, he expects her to be the person she is on TV because his life had evolved around and worshiped those characters for so long.

Spelling Bee

rcygan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:35:05 +0000

The first competitor that I chose was Ashley. She is a young with from Washington, D.C. who is raised by her mother who is very proud of Ashley for what she has accomplished. Her mother has very high expectations for Ashley, wanting her to graduate school with Honors. Ashley seems almost bored with life and does not really fit along with the other kids so the spelling bee was sort of her own outlet. Some socioeconomic struggles that could keep Ashley from winning would be that like her mother says, she is African American, and unfortunately people still have some beliefs that she may not succeed as a white student would. Also, being a single parent, her mother does not have enough money to afford tutors or coaches for Ashley like the other competitors. I chose Ashley because I believe that she is the underdog of the competition with a fighting heart and the will to succeed.

The next participant that I chose is Neil. Neil is from San Cleminte, California and comes from an Indian background. His parents are both from India and place a very strong and forceful importance on education. Like Neil said himself, in India you are only given one chance unlike America where you are given the chance for redemption. Neil’s parents enjoy that this spelling bee has made the family closer and they spend many hours learning and studying with Neil. I would say that Neil wants to win not only because his family wants him to win but because this is his first and last chance to win the spelling be because of his advancement in academics. I do not believe that there are any obstacles in the way of Neil winning expect the fact that he is new to the competition. Also, Neil may be placed under too much pressure form his parents. I chose Neil because I think he is an extremely intelligent young man who is very lucky to have the amazing support that he has of his parents and family members.

I think that the winner of the spelling bee will be Emily. She has a very supportive family and she has coaches to help her win. She has been preparing for a very long time ans seems to be very focused.

Omnivore’s Dilemma Chapters 12,13,14

rcygan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:55:37 +0000

In chapter 12, we go through the complete process of slaughtering. In the earlier chapters we saw the process of life with the beauty of the chain of all the different processes. In chapter 12, we view the ugly part of of this process where eventually our animals become meat. Unlike most farmers, Joel slaughters his animals on his farm because he believes it to be economic, ecological, political, ethical, and even spiritual. Pollan describes physically taking the chickens be their legs as they violently thrash around as he tries to catch three hundred of them. My particularly least favorite part about this chapter was reading about how they broke the necks of the chickens and then sliced them off with a knife.

After Pollan visits the farm, he takes a few products with him from the farm and makes a couple of friends dinner. Pollans reasoning for traveling to these farms was simply to gather information to write a book. Along the way I believe he learned so much more with such an abstract farming view such as Joel’s. Joel thinks of his farming as a ministry as he warns the people of the government as industrial fecal factory concentration camp farms. The consumers would pa premium price for the real organic foods which Joel produced.

Omnivore’s Dilemma Chapters 9&11

rcygan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:26:57 +0000

In this selection of the Omnivore’s Dilemma, we travel to the Whole Foods store in Pollans own city. He notices the curious labels of all the organic foods and comes across the fact that these labels are incorrect substitues for how the food is actually produced and infact exaggerations. We come across the term “Supermarket Pastoral” in this chapter which is the literary genre we see at the organic supermarkets. This is the wording in which the supermarkets use inorder for the consumer to buy their products. We started off with such great ideals for the organic market with extremely strict rules and regulations and of course, the organic industry has subcomed to the market industry.

To me, I believe the need to buy food that is produced miles and miles away is the American consumer being lazy at its best. Instead of traveling to local organic food farms such of the grassland farms of Polyface, we simply go to the nearest grocery store and read the most appealing labels. Now if we want to go organic, we will travel to the nearest Whole Foods store, now converted into an industrial empire, and choose the best story we see on the label. We will pick the milk with the most interesting story and which story has the happiest cows.

Therefore, we are left with no option. Once again, Pollan has found a way to make the reader see the only positive option in a bad way. After reading about the Polyface farm, I had an urge to find an organic foods store that sold these types of products, only to soon learn that this type of Supermarket does not exist. There are synthetics and pesticides on everything.

Story Board

rcygan — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:08:28 +0000

Commercial #1

Demographic: Young, age 21-29, men.

Advertising: Vodka-Invincible

Setting: in a general hangout/drinking area

Our commercial will start off with a guy sitting down drinking our drink and then another guy sitting down drinking another drink. Guy number 1 will start off by talking about our product and the features, no bad taste, no detectable smell, and no hang-over. He will also suggest that this drink helps him with the ladies and he will present him self as classy and well-mannered. Then we will show guy number 2 drinking the other drink and basically making a mess of himself. Guy number 1 will look at the other guy and say that if you do not want to be the guy than drink invisible. Then we will have the general warning information at the end of the commercial.

Commercial#2

demographic: young women ages 21-29

advertising: Invincible

setting:feminine room

This commercial will have a woman sitting in a room getting ready to go out for the night. She will be dressed classy and be doing her hair and make-up and be putting on jewelry etc. She will then describe the vodka and how it tastes delicious with no bad taste of alcohol and no detection of alcohol. She will talk about how it is a turn off to come up to someone with alcohol breathe but sometimes it’s good to have a little fun out on the town with your friends. She will add that she can also get up in the morning and go workout because she does not get a hangover from this product. Then at the end of the commercial there will be the general warning statement.

Omnivore’s Dilemma Chapters 8 & 10

rcygan — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:42:00 +0000

I noticed something particularly different than the other chapters. In this chapter, instead of ridiculing the farmers for using excessive amounts of energy and for changing the life cycle, the author shines new light on a different kind of farming that we have not gone through yet. In this chapter we learn about the classic type of farming at the Polyface farm. Joel Salatin described himself as a “Christian-conservative-libertarian-environmentalist-lunatic farmer” who uses the pastoral type of farming rather than industrial. There are many pros about this type of farming with one of them simyple being the fact that this is the actual organic type of famring. Joel considers himself a grass farmer rather than any other type of farmer simply due to the fact that he takes such a great deal of his time and effort and places it into the grasses of his farm. The grass is everything to the Polyface farm and we see that there is a cycle between the grass, the cow, and the earth in which the three co-exist without producing any form of waste, but instead produce a positive enrichment to the soil.

After reading most of the passage I thought to myself, why don’t all farmers use this type of farming? Well, the end of chapter ten answers my question extremely vividly. The answer is simple. Corn is quicker and cheaper. Also, corn gave the farmers a break for the winter, therefore not making them work so hard. It sounds to me like corn is the easy American way to farm and be lazy.

rcygan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:15:33 +0000

Peer Reviewed

“Food, Nutrition, and Health Overview”

The American Government is committing to an increase in the amount of money that is spent to create healthier food. The money will also go to help control the effects of things such as unhealthy lifestyles and food borne illnesses. The American food supply is by far the safest in the world, but there are still millions of food borne illnesses each year.

Website: http://www.csrees.usda.gov/nea/food/food_all.html

“Dietary Intervention Shows Neuroprotection”

One can improve their health by adding a moderate amount of walnuts to their daily diet. Adding walnuts to a healthy diet has been proven to greatly increase the performance level on task that requires basic motor and behavioral skills. As we get older, our brains slowly undergo changes that may impair these skills. When someone has walnuts in their daily diet, as they get older they tend to have better motor and behavioral skills than people who do not.

Website: http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/090331.htm

Opinionated

“Dietary Fiber: An essential part of a healthy diet”

Dietary fiber is essentially all of the parts of a plant foods that a human body can not digest normally. These fibers pass through your system virtually unchanged. This keeps everything clean in your digestive system and running normal.

Website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/fiber/NU00033

“General Mills takes leadership step in switching to whole grain breakfast cereals” The company General Mills has decided to switch all of their cereal products to be whole-grain breakfast products. These new cereals and cereal bars will be a lot more healthy for the consumer rather than the refined grains.

Website: http://www.NaturalNews.com/007572_General_Mills_whole_grain_sugar.html

Variable

“I drink diet soda everyday. Could this be harmful?” Drinking a reasonable amount of diet soda per day will not hurt you. A reasonable amount of soda is approximately one or two cans per day. At this rate of consumption, there is no evidence that the chemicals in the soda will harm you.

Website: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/diet-soda/AN01732

“Health Minded Consumers are Tricked into eating More Processed Sugar”

Producers of products are now calling sugar and fructose by different names so that consumers do not know the actual amount of sugar in them and they are more likely to buy the product. They are calling sugar things like evaporated cane juice.

Website: http://www.NaturalNews.com/026425_sugar_health_food.html

Sentences

rcygan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:17:50 +0000

Once upon a time there was a man that loved a woman. The man loved the woman so much that he cried. Then the woman thought he was a baby so she slapped him across the face. It took place in Starbucks when her best friend showed up. She also slapped him in the face numerous times. The next thing you know, every single person in Starbucks slapped the man in the face at the same time.

Then suddenly Starbucks caught on fire. Nobody knew what to do so they ran around frantically searching for a solution. The man who got slapped in the face realized he had a couple of gallons in his bag. He saw that the woman who slapped him in the face was on fire so he looked at her as he took big quenching gulps of his water and smiled.