final blog

Dear incoming college freshmen’s,

Here are some suggestions for you to become a better student in college.  One important suggestion is that you should take responsibility in learning course material, because it only affects you and nobody else if you don’t.  What this means is that you cannot expect your professor’s to make sure you understand everything and have everything completed in a timely manner.  This is your responsibility.  If you get confused or don’t understand the course material, it is your task to get help.  You can go to your professor and ask questions, or you can go to the ARC center and request for a tutor for that specific class.  Teachers are not baby sitters, so it is not their responsibility to remind you when things are due.  They will give you a due date, but then it is up to you to remember to get it completed and turned in on time.

You are the one who will be utilizing what you have learned and no body else.  If you do not try to understand your material or cheat just to get through the classes, it will not help you in the future.  One example is your composition courses, it is easy to ask someone else to write your papers for you or even copy and paste from the Internet, but doing this will cause many problems for you in the future.  If you do not understand the principles in writing essays or papers, it will cause you problems when you go on to others courses or even when it is time to look for a job.  Your resume probably would be badly written, which in turn leads you to not getting hired.  You would be filled with regret, because you paid thousands of dollars and spends many years in school to learn and accomplish nothing. Don’t let your future go down the drain; start off the new semester with the determination to do well in college.  This will lead to great opportunities and a successful future.

Last but not least, here are some ways to getting better grades in your college courses.

1.  Always ask questions and get help when you do not understand something.  Professors and the ARC center are always there to help students when they are in need of help. 

2. Take really good notes in class.  Do not just sit there and listen, because you will eventually forget what was said and not have anything written down to remind you.

3. Flash cards are good to help test yourself before an exam.  Memorizing the information when it is in front of you does not mean you actually can answer it during an exam.  The only way you will really know if you understand the information for the test is to put the question on a flash card with the answer on the back.  Then answer the question before you flip the flash card to see if you got it right.

4. Always read what you are required to read and not just the summary of the chapter or book, because it will affect your grade on a test.  If the professor goes into detail about something that was not in the summary, you would not know how to answer the question.

In conclusion, it is best to take responsibility and do your own work.  Learn as much as you can, and get help when you don’t understand.  

12th blog

Summary chapter 1: In The Screwtape Letters, written by C.S. Lewis, Screwtape, who is a higher authority working for the devil, writes a letter to his nephew Wormwood giving him suggestions on how to better convince people to go down the path of the devil’s world.  Screwtape tells his nephew not to use argument as a tool of persuasion but to keep them busy, so they would not have time to think about the enemy.  He warns him that with argument it might lead them to think about god; which can trigger their mind’s to think about the possibilities.  Screwtape says, “ Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head” (Lewis 1).  What this passage is trying to say is children are told many theories of what they should or shouldn’t believe in, but they are young and confused so they can be persuaded.  He tells his nephew that humans are easily pressured into going down the wrong path, and that he should take that to his advantage.  Screwtape was telling his nephew that there was a person in his time of persuading people that began to go the wrong way (God’s path), but he quickly brought him back to reality and the person thought that there couldn’t be truth in something he could not see (Lewis 1-4).

            According to C.S. Lewis, the two mistaken beliefs about devils that human beings hold are the beliefs and the disbeliefs.  The dangers in believing in the devil are endless.  They will have an unstable life and make lots of bad choices.  There is nothing bad to me in believing in God.  I believe the devil does exist, because in life there are so many good and bad temptations, the good comes from God, and the bad comes from the devil.  I don’t think that just because you believe in God that you have to believe in the devil, because everyone’s faith is different.  I think the reason I think the way I do about God and the devil, is from what I grew up hearing and what I came to believe as I grew up.

            Screwtape sees argument as problematic because it provokes thinking, which makes him unconfident because he cannot tell which way the mind will go.  I think the rational argument contradicts the thought of someone taking the “leap of faith”, because when someone takes a leap of faith it does not matter what the other person says or thinks.  Virtues are less formidable to devils when patients know them, because when the patients become humble they think of others and not just themselves.  The devil tries to twist this by telling his nephew to make them proud of themselves for being humble then it will eventually make them not humble anymore.  The true nature of humility is being modest.  Virtue relates to the meaning of life because people who have morals in their lives try not to deceive people and try to live an honest lifestyle. 

            He can twist his patient’s faith by making him think that his faith is not as a whole but just among a  small group of people.  He can use confusion  to his advantage because when someone is confused, they start to question a lot of things that are unanswered.  Peer pressure can be positive in spiritual growth and one’s meaning of life because one can persuade you to seeing the more positive side of things. Which in turn, makes you want to live a more honest life.  On the other hand, it can also be negative because when someone pressures you into something you don’t want to do or believe in, it can make you resent those things, and hate how you think life should be.  My family is a big influence in what my meaning of life is.  They have taught me many things, but the one big thing I have always remembered is that your family will always be there for you no matter what.  Good or bad, my family just wants me to live a happy life.  They encourage me to do the things I love to do and treat people how I want to be treated.  My meaning of life is to helps others and live a happy life.  The negative pressure of others could influence the meaning of life because people might tell you that your goals are ridiculous.  I say, if you are determined and hard working, you can accomplish and do anything you would like to do in life.

11th blog

To me Thoreau's Walden Where I Lived, and What I lived for and Conclusion, falls in both the categories of the naturalist, objectivist and subjectivist.  In his writing Conclusion, it leans toward subjectivists.  He suggests that we should open our eyes through our minds.  What we see is not how it is always in our thoughts. How not only the things we know or the thing we are told to follow should stop us from viewing the world as a bigger whole.  He tells us to express ourselves by saying, “ Say what you have to say, not what you ought.”  Follow society and you will live a dull life; do what you have always dreamed of will open your eyes to new perspectives.  Some things are meant to be unseen from one person to another like our interpretations of things, for example the expensive wine and food.  How one might view it as delightful and satisfying, but as Thoreau puts it unsatisfying.  He suggests that a person should follow his or her dreams, and not just be satisfied with just normal, because everyone is unique in their own way.  Let them live life to the fullest and enjoy every moment of it, good or bad, and not just to rush through life.  How if you don’t live life to the fullest you are not really living life, or as he puts it, “… we are not where we are, but in a false position.”  Thoreau suggests living a simple life to discover whom you actually are within.  He suggests getting out of your routine and thinking for yourself, not what you were told.  Thoreau passage says, “ Direct your eye right inward, and you’ll find A thousand regions in your mind yet undiscovered.  Travel them, and be expert in home-cosmography.”  What he is trying to tell us is that we should look within our souls to find out who we are, then, can we understand what the universe is really like around us.  In his quote, “the universe is wider than our view of it” I agree with Thoreau, because we may see with our eyes and hear with our ears, but our minds can take us to infinite places if we wanted it to.

             In the chapter, Where I Lived, and What I lived for,  on the other hand, is considered an objectivists perspective to me.  He describes many types of scenery that he has seen, but the main point is what he learned through his experiences living in a more simplified life.  He realized that poverty could be virtuous because he had experienced it himself.  For a while, he lived the less fortunate life and still showed high moral standards. I agree that poverty can be virtuous, because some people who are poor have better morals than some wealthy people that I have seen.

  http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/where.htm 

 http://www.kenkifer.com/Thoreau/conclus.htm

Tenth blog

Nihilists believe that their existence on earth has no purpose.  They see themselves as meaningless human beings who just accept what comes to them good or bad.  Franz Kafka’s story of Josef K. in the book called The Trial, had a Nihilistic type of narrative.  Josef K. was a thirty-year-old man who was on trail for reasons only god would know.  He worked as a chief clerk in a bank.  On his thirtieth birthday he was arrested for no apparent reason. The officials told him that he could go about his daily business, but had to come to court when they told him he had to be there.  Josef K. did not know why he was being prosecuted because they never gave him any information about his case. 

My assumption about the legal system is that it is sometimes illegitimate.  Like in the book The Trial in chapter 5.  How Josef found the two police officials, Franz and Willem in the junk room in this building getting ready to be beaten by a whip-man because of his complaint to the examining judge.  Willem said to Josef, “ If you knew how badly we get paid you wouldn’t think so badly of us.  I’ve got a family to feed, and Franz here wanted to get married, you just have to get more money where you can, you can’t do it just by working hard, not however hard you try” (Kafka 52). They were telling Josef K. that police officials take peoples things all the time, and that they would not be punished if he did not complain.  They told him how other officials would look the other way if no one would find out about it.  Josef felt bad for them because he did not request for them to be punished, so he offered to pay the whip-man off.  The whip-man suggested that there was no way he could be bribed, but the true meaning to that was he wanted Josef to offer him more money than he did.   Eventually, Josef left the junk room and thought about retuning but was scared he might get caught bribing the other official that he never went back in.

In chapter nine of the book, Josef goes to a cathedral to meet with a businessman to show him art pieces because his director at his job asked him to.  The business never shows up and as Josef heads out to leave, he hears the priest call out his name.  Josef comes close to him as the priest asked him, “ You have been accused,” so Josef replies, “Yes”  (Kafka 127).  The priest tells him a story about a man wanting to get through the gates of the law.  He says there is a gatekeeper there that tells the man he cannot pass but someday he will be able too.  In addition, the doorkeeper tells the man this that this door is only for him. Later on in the story there was this parable, “But he seems now to see an inextinguishable light begin to shine from the darkness behind the door” (Kafka 129).  What this parable is trying to say is that at the end of a person’s life, everything starts to become clear to them that were once a blur.  For Josef K., this was when he was about to die that he realized that if the judges find you guilty, there is nothing you can do about it but just accept the penalty. Which, for Josef, was death.  To Josef K., life had no value so he did not even try to fight for his life.

Kafka, Franz. The Trial. Teddington: The Echo Library, 2006. Print.

Keynote speaker Lee Strang

   First of all I would like to say, this man talked like Speedy Gonzales. I did not understand everything he said or catch some off the things he was talking about. What I did understand was that he was making an argument that Originalism of the constitution was much more preferred than the living constitution. That the originalism of the constitution protects our natural rights. Other than that I was really confused. I got bits and pieces of the parts when he was trying to give examples for the meaning, but he spoke too fast and it was confusing. I hope I am not the only one that felt that way. At the end he did ask if people had any questions, and the three people that had questions, I felt was not satisfied with his answers. Obviously, I can't answer any of the questions if I did not understand the information he was trying to give.

Ghana Learning Community Presentations

    Ghana Learning Community. Ghana is on the coast of Africa. The official language there is english. When you are born you get two names, one from your parents and one from the day of the week you are born named by the gods. The exportation of slaves was going on for there for around 350 years. 30% of the community is below poverty lines. The majority of the people stop getting educated at the age of 12 and only 5% of the population goes to college. Diarrhea is the most common cause of death there. Ghana has open sewers on the street. Access of clean water is a problem in Ghana, which is probably the main  cause of the most commons deaths (diarrhea). One of the projects the students are doing is testing the water with biological chemicals. They are also trying to get some ceramic filters for the villages to help filter out some of the particles and germs out of their drinking water.
    This relates to the question: Are we free or is our lives determined? I would say these peoples lives are determined, because of bad drinking water, most end up with diarrhea and eventually die. It relates to the question: What is knowledge and how do we really know something? Knowledge for this learning experience is a presenter sharing their experience and pictures about what is going on there. We now really know that it is going on because we see it through pictures with our own eyes. It relates to the question: What is the meaning of life, because it makes you realize that no matter how hard you think your life is, there is someone out there that there life is extremely worse off than yours. It makes you treasure what you have even more.

can't wait

   I can't wait until summer gets here. This semester has been killing me with school work. My gen. eds. haven't been bad, but my major classes have been horrible in how much stuff they give you to do.