The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser

This story by Tim Kasser was extremely psychologically related. We have yet to have a reading where it is all about psychology. This story was about the psychological effects of materialism. Kasser and Ryan performed an experiment where the people were tested to see just how materialism ran their lives. I think this experiment should be done more often because people are too materialistic. This experiment was pretty extensive and really specific. Psychology subjects are pretty interesting and this reading was quite informational. I found it to be an easy read since I love psychology so very much. Ti surprised me when the test revealed that people who are focused primarily on financial problems are going to be unhappy, stressed, and not fit in well with society. This experiment proved to me that being materialistic can be extremely self-destructive. The America dream is all about financial success, so the American Dream could be ruining people without any of their conscious awareness to doing so. The most surprising thing of this blog was the bit about illegal substance, alcohol, etc. I had no idea that materialism had to do with a persons want to do drugs and continuance with the drug. This story opened up a lot for me to understand the materialistic views of society. I will concentrate more on when I am thinking materialistic than unmaterialistic. 

Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About By Anna Quindlen

      Anna Quindlen and I can definitely agree that you cannot just think about abortion in one way. Abortion is a very complex subject and once brought up in a conversation among friends, it can ruin it. I can say that I am 75% Pro-choice when it comes to abortion. Sometimes it is just the right thing to do. Yes, you are “killing” an un-born little person but what would happen if that child was unwanted. Honestly, I would rather get an abortion myself than allow my child to be unhappy. Getting an abortion is a big thing and even if you are for it, you will feel terrible for the rest of your life. Even so, I still would do it for the sake of the child. What if that child was a product of rape, incest, unplanned pregnancy etc? Do you think that child will be brought up in a wonderful household? Maybe in some cases but in most cases, a child being born to family that does not want and is not ready will most likely lead an unhappy life. I feel as Anna does on the case of abortion. The other 25% of the time when I doubt that abortion is an okay thing to do is when I see happy couples do it just because they can. They could have put the child up for adoption. Yes, there are many other way to deal with an unwanted child other than abortion. If a mother gave birth to her child that was conceived through rape, she will see the eyes of that person who did that too her. She will relive her experience and she will doubt the life of the child. This may not happen in every case but it does for most of them. Abortion is a tough subject and that’s that. 

The Dog Ate My Disk and Other Tales of Woe

     Carolyn Foster Segal’s essay was extremely funny. I loved this story. The excuses that some of her students made up in order to get of an assignment were really funny. I am pretty sure that it would have been easier for them to just do the work that was assigned to them. Her students became pretty clever when it came to their excuses. The funny part about this is that I have heard students use almost every one of these excuses before. Most students use the death of a family member excuse more than any other one because what teacher would be so rude as to make the student do school work when one of their precious family members has died. Maybe, just maybe, some of the excuses told by the students were true but most of the time, they probably were not. Student will do almost anything and think of almost anything to get out of writing a paper. I think that the students who think of the excuses spend more time working on the excuse than it would have taken them to write their paper. I love to hear a student babble out an excuse to a teacher when you can tell that they are obviously lying. I am sure that teachers get a good laugh out of hearing their students make up the wildest excuses. 

Food Product Design by Eric Schlosser

        This story by Eric Schlosser makes me not want to eat anything. When he started listing g the items that are in my favorite processed foods, I could not imagine what sort of things were going into body as I ate that item. I always knew that McDonald’s is a gross place to eat but I did not know they were that bad. Why do they have to put meat flavoring into their French Fries? Is that really necessary? Eric Schlosser has definitely got me thinking about what I should and should not eat from now on. Maybe I should eat fruits and vegetables rather than something that has to have flavor put into it. I want to eat stuff with really natural flavor, not chemically altered natural flavor. Mr. Schlosser has changed my opinion on fast food joints forever. I may think twice from now on when I go out to eat or even when I am cooking my own food in my own kitchen. Eric Schlosser is an expert on food and he knows what he is talking about. I never knew that all of my favorite foods had these chemicals in them. I do not even know how to pronounce half of the names that he listed. I don’t think that I am going to eat fast food nearly as much anymore. 

How to say nothing in 500 words By: Paul Roberts

     This story by Paul Roberts allowed me to obtain new information on how I should write. This story let me gain the knowledge on how to write proactively and not go off subject about what I am writing. I did not really care for the subject since it was about football. He gave me some ideas on how to write about anything and now I can do just that. The story was not boring but it wasn’t a lot of fun either. He got his point across and that is about it. Although I did gain some knowledge, the football topic was getting boring. I could care less about that. Paul Roberts really knows what he is talking about when it comes to proactive ways to write and now I can look back at this story if I get writer’s block or if I have just lost my way. Mr. Roberts wrote about some useful stuff, such as what words to use, what sides to take, and what to say to get your point across. This story will help me with persuasive papers on the long road and I am glad that I have some material that I can go to when I am stuck on a persuasive writing. 

"Serving in Florida" from Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

     This story by Barbara Ehrenreich has allowed me to look at waiters and waitresses in a whole other perspective. I had no idea that what she wrote about happened in a restaurant. The life of someone in poverty seems quite hard. Barbara has a Ph.D. and she did this as an experiment. She learned a lot from this little journey and she wrote a best seller. I really liked this story although a lot of it was really sad. These people live in hotels, cars and terrible environments. They work so hard but they do not get what they deserve. The managers get everything and they do not do half as much as a typical waiter does. Waiters always seem so happy but that is because they have no choice, we have no idea what is really happening in their life and we (the customers) are not always very nice to them. I do not like to send back my food or drink if I am not fond of it because I feel so bad for all the work they put in. Restaurant workers are brave souls because they have to put up with so many stressful things. This was a well written story and although it was a little long, it did not seem that long because I could not stop reading. I really liked this story. I feel bad for waitresses because they usually are not happy and a customer that actually cares can tell.  Waiting on people all day and not really earning much from it can be quite stressful and I can understand why a waiter looks disheveled or just tired. 

Size 6: The Western Women's Harem By Fatema Mernissi

      “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” by Fatema Mernissi, a Moroccan feminist, is about a very strong woman who goes into a department store in America and becomes insulted by what the salesladies have to say about her size. Fatema comes from a place where the size of the woman is not judged, but it is worshipped, not everyone has to be a size six in order to fit in. in America, a woman has to fit the norm or she is going to be made fun of and frowned upon when trying to do much of anything. When a woman is fat, she is judged rather than praised but when a woman looks as if she has not eaten in three years, she is found to be beautiful or sexy. It should not be this way; everyone should be appreciated as they are, not by their size or their looks but by their personality. A good personality takes a lifetime to develop so it should be praised. Fatema wrote this story in a feminist way but there was not too much feminism in the words that she used. It was not an overpowering feminist story like most other. I really liked this story because it is all true. Women should be excepted as they are, not what they are not. Do not find faults in things that are not there. 

A Man Who Was Mean to His Dog by: Anne Lamott

     This story by Anne Lamott was quite touching because it was about a man who beat his dog in front of everyone and acted as if nothing even happened. In the story, the mother related what had happened with the dog to what happened when she accidentally hurt her son, Sam. I dislike people that hurt their animals. You could say that I hate and despise them. These people have problems with them. I could not stop reading this story because it drew me in. I really liked it even though it was about a man beating his dog. Sam’s mom drew something from this experience but before she got something out of it she became very vulnerable and she hated it because she did not want her son to see her like that. She wanted to be strong but she was physically afraid of the man who had beaten his dog with a stick in front the whole beach. Who could possibly do this? That is so mean. That dog did not do anything and this man is messed up. I like the way that Anne Lamott writes. She knows how to draw her audience in with the words she uses and the little bit of description in the text. I liked this story a lot. 

The Price We Pay by Adam Mayblum

The Price We Pay by Adam Mayblum is a heartbreaking story. This man was in the twin towers as they collapsed and luckily they survived. In this story we get to read about a man’s journey to the bottom of the towers but what makes it so good is that this man actually went through. He uses very short sentences which make the story easier to read and it is not too descriptive. It has just enough descriptions to allow me to visualize it. Mayblum wrote this story nicely. There was the perfect amount of emotion placed in the text that it made me feel for him and relive it as if I were there. September 11^th 2001 was a tragic day for everyone. Everyone was impacted in some way on that day. The videos of the plans were played over and over again on the news and we would just sit and gasp. This man was in the tower as the planes struck. He is an inspiration. I liked this story even though it was incredibly heartbreaking. It is written very well and I could not stop reading.  It was a very good story and I am sorry that he lost a close friend. 

Once More to the Lake by: E.B. White

                This short story by E.B White is a very subjective story I can see, hear and feel everything the author describes because he goes into such depth with every sentence. I can see the lake as him and his father were there and as him and his son was there. He knows how to describe everything so that his audience can feel the emotions that he is feeling as writes his story. He made me feel the happiness he felt as he pulled up to lake again. He made me want to go to this fantastic lake and do exactly as he did. I could not stop imagining the lake, food, people, and everything else that he described so vividly. There was so much emotion in this story and I could tell that he enjoyed writing every last sentence. Some of his descriptions made think about when I was little and I would go on a vacation to a little country town in Michigan or North Carolina and how these places made me think pretty much the same thing he did as he saw the lake. I would like to do the same thing he is doing with his but with my children sometime in the future. I want them to experience as I have and see what I have seen. 

Shitty First Drafts By Anne Lamott

       This essay by Anne Lamott has opened my eyes a little bit wider when it comes to writing. I always worry that my first draft is terrible but I never think to myself that this is only my first draft and there are more to come. I always just type and fix while I type rather than type it all and take out what is disgusting in the draft. My stories tend to be okay the first time around but most of the time they are absolutely terrible so this essay helped me sort through that. I never thought that a good author actually wrote a decent story on the first try because that cannot be possible. They struggle just as much as anyone else does. I worry just like Anne does about my first draft and that someone somewhere is going to see it before I am done and they will think that there is something wrong with me but nobody is going to see that draft and I just have to remind myself of that. The thing the hypnotist said to Anne will help me with the voices that only start when I am trying to write. From now on, I just have to think of them as mice and put them all in their own little noise proof jar. 

Propaganda Techniques in Today's Advertising by Ann McClintock

Before reading this writing by Ann McClintock, I was not aware of how many advertising claims I was exposed to throughout the day but now that I think of it, it is very true. I could relate to having seen all seven of the basic types or propaganda. I see these types of propaganda the second that I turn on the television or go onto the internet. Propaganda is everywhere. Corporations are always trying to get you to buy their product by relating to you in some way, shape, or form. Propaganda plays a huge part in Americans’ everyday lives; we cannot go one day or one hour without being bombarded by advertisements on television, radio, billboards, magazines, newspapers etc. I hate when I am watching television for one minute and then it goes right back to commercial. There is no reason why there should be more commercials than the television show itself. I do not even listen to the radio anymore because of the commercials in between one or two songs. I cannot stand it when all I am listening to is propaganda being shoved down my throat. I agree with all that Ann McClintock has to say about propaganda and how bad it is becoming.


Kathleen Flynn 

Freewriting by Peter Elbow

After reading this short story by Peter Elbow, I have developed a new way to keep myself from coming down with writer’s block in the middle of an essay. Although I will still edit my essay as I go, I can now write a little more freely. I wouldn’t be able to free write as Elbow says to because I like to keep my essays clean and I have to edit them as I go. The ‘automatic writing,” “babbling,” or “jabbering” exercises will used on a regular basis by me now that I know they will help me in my writing process. Writer’s block always happens to me but I now I have a way to escape it. Peter Elbow is a very smart man and his free writing idea will be used by me from now on. It will make me a better writer and it will allow me to be a little more creative each and every time I do the little exercises. He also states that most people edit away their written unacceptable thoughts and feelings, we don’t do that when we speak, so why do it when we write? Yes, editing is easier when there isn’t someone right there waiting for an answer but that editing may inhibit what we really want to say. Elbow has not got me thinking about the editing process in writing and his free writing tips will be on my mind when I write my next paper. 

How to Mark a Book by Mortimer Adler

                In my opinion, Mortimer Adler is an extremely intelligent man in every sentence that he wrote in his essay. In my past experiences, I have had a lot of trouble marking in my beloved books because I have so very many of them and I love them all so much. After reading what Adler had to say, my habit of not writing in the book will change. I have learned that writing, scribbling, or highlighting in the book will allow me to grasp the story or essay that I am reading more than I ever would have without writing in it. i agree with everything that Mortimer Adler had to say about marking in a book and I have learned a great deal about how to do it. I was never quite sure what phrases or sentences I should highlight but not I am confident that what I do highlight will be useful in the future. What I mark now will be seen in the future and it will be quite amusing to look back and see what I was thinking at the time the material was presented. Adler has also allowed me to realize that I am the third type of book owner. My books may not be dilapidated but one can defiantly tell that they have been read multiple times and that I have enjoyed my time reading. I have and always will enjoy reading, it allows the imagination to run wild and can make a person the happiest they will ever be.