Just Add Water!

Just as the complete pancake mix, or complete Duncan Hines Chocolate German Cake mix, all we need to do to make something resourceful is add water. The cakes will give us that sweetness everybody loves, a little bit or a lot of it. Water is needed to help the plants grow; which help shelter many animals. Water quenches our thirst when we are parched after a hard day of working, or a long game of basketball. Our body is made up of around 60% water; the world 70%. Water is everywhere, but water is nowhere as well. Some people have no clean water to drink at all, while others overuse it. When you leave that shower running, or the faucet dripping. That is a waste of water. All you need to give life, is add water. Life is given to a pot of dirt that buries a seed, and a new creation is made when water is added to a concoction of sweet powders and flavors. Water is a necessity, all you need to do is add water; everything else is taken care of.

Writing Center

The writing center was a wonderful resource for me to take advantage of. My first essay grade was not as great as I expected it to be, so for the second essay I went to the writing center again. This time, I went in without starting anything; I wanted a blank tray to be filled up with ideas and all the help I could get. The tutor and I immediately started to throw ideas on the plate and I became so excited to start the essay because I had so many ideas that could be linked together to make a sensible essay that tied in with the stories. We first added the pretty, fancy details of the meal, the essay. She helped me incorporate the sonnet in the essay by comparing the speaker to Viola and she helped me by giving me a lot of information, enough to write a paper. There were so many quotes and a lot of evidence from the two sources to add to the display that when I finally had to get to the meat of the story, the thesis statement, it was well prepared and fit snugly on top of the plate on top of all of the fancy, pretty details. I highly recommend going to the writing center, maybe even before you write the paper you need to write. Then, go after with your finished product and revise. A blank plate can be easily filled when you do not know what you want to prepare. The first step is to get all of the details in, and then work on the display of the essay. My tutor helped me create a great meal, we took it a step at a time.

Do we create what we observe through the act of our observations?

Roebke wants to instill in us that what we see is not the most we are able to know. We can only see the surface, a fraction, of a whole object or subject and get a taste of what it is about; but not a full understanding of what it is about. In order to grasp what a subject is fully about, we need to look beyond the physical appearance and move past the assumptions and judgments, and know what the subject is about as a whole. What we see influences us to perceive in certain ways, but what we see, again, is not the whole story.
Roebkes' "The Reality Tests" was great at showing proof, but that proof was overwhelming! There was so much information, it was hard to take it all in and use the information to express what I feel about the article. The general statement is evident though, that there is more than the eye can see- but how do we create what we observe? I am still confused about that.

Greedy People Nowadays

What is the meaning of being greedy? How about what we Americans do everyday. Have you ever wanted a new phone; but already have a recently updated phone? Or how about a new iPod? You now want the red iPod Nano instead of the purple iPod that you have, but it is your birthday right? So it is OK. Plus, the red iPod has a larger screen, it has a video camera and oh look here, it holds more songs and videos than the recently purchased purple iPod. Whatever the splurge is, being greedy means that you want more and more non-necessities; then you make excuses about why you needed to purchase these items. It is my birthday! I worked so hard this week, I deserve a treat! and the best excuse ever...it was on sale! If it is your birthday, how about you buy a little less, or instead of buying unimportant things such as handbags and sunglasses, you buy clothes since you actually need clothes, nobody wants to see you run naked in the streets OK? Even if you do go to that $300 a month gym. A bag is a bag, they are all the same! How differently can your $500 bag hold your things compared to your $50 bag?
Then, if you believe that you deserve to buy something because you had such a difficult week; buy the things you want that will not break your bank. Do not go for the $100 shirts, look for the unique, even pretty $20 shirts. You could easily find less expensive shirts that look fit for a celebrity and will not clean out your wallet. A double-plus! Be careful with the sales, these are the tricky ones. People tend to buy more because it is not too expensive, but that is being greedy too. You are buying things just because you might like it later, or just because it is cheap and it is an offer you could not refuse. Just think, you are being greedy if you spend thousands of dollars on an outfit. You are also being greedy if you are buying things that you do not need, you are wasting money. People in third-world countries have little or nothing to wear, or cannot afford to buy little knickknacks, just because it was cheap. Save your money, but do not hoard it. Better yet, buy gifts for those you love. Your generosity would be appreciated by many, then the next time you go for that Prada bag, you will not feel that greedy because as much as you buy, you give to others as well.

“Faustian Economics" by Wendell Berry

Berry says that we Americans are greedy and wasteful because we believe that everything we have or acquire, is limitless. We do not think about the consequences of overusing resources that are very quickly diminishing, instead- we think of ways to circumvent the problems instead of deal with them. Let us talk about the problem of fuel for our cars and homes, not only is gas almost all gone; but it also destroys the environment and the atmosphere. Instead of fixing the problem of overusing the resource, people come up with the idea of using corn to produce the fuel needed to start our cars. I believe that Americans think that they have so many resources and possibilities to use things to their advantage, that if there is not...there are other resources to take its place. So when corn is finally too expensive to grow and use, as that effects what some animals eat, to what we eat, then what will be used when corn can not be used anymore? We Americans with our smart intellects will think of something, they really are using their resources to the max if I may say so.
Berry also uses many other writers data to support his theory that we are greedy. He talks about Marlowe's "Tragical History of Doctor Faustus" and the Declaration of Independence about how it says that humans are monstrous because it is innate; it is a trait needed to allow us to live in this dog-eat-dog world. Berry uses a lot of information he learned from other people to prove that Americans truly are wasteful and greedy. He uses data from writers, from an artistic standpoint, the Declaration of Independence, old folklore and from historical research. The point he is trying to make is backed by a lot of evidence from a broad spectrum of resources, not just from what he sees himself. The evidence validates what he says more than what he may have said on his own with no other data.

Writing With or Without Fear

What I think of Jacques Derrida is that he is an intense writer. I mean, if he fears that what he writes is blasphemous and "inadmissible" then by God, I think he is taking his work real seriously! Yes, yes, he is a writer...but I do not believe he should really care about what others think of his work and who he criticizes and what he opposes. Look, there will always be people who do not agree with everything you say, but that is what communication does- it allows everybody's thoughts to pool together so everybody learns. If we did not know what Derrida thought about a certain subject, then we would only know what we know. That does not teach us anything, we are not pushing ourselves to learn, even though what Derrida says might not be what we would like to hear. I never had anxiety about what I wrote, I want to hear the constructive criticism and want to know how others feel about a certain topic themselves. It is boring just to know how I feel, what kind of conversation can start if I reject everybody's ideas? Or if they reject mine? There would be no agreement or disagreement, there would be no talking it through. No learning. This is why I do not get nervous about what I write, if you want to talk about what I wrote- talk to me. If you do not like it, that is OK. I will not have the same thing to say as you, but hey you never know. Writing is a powerful thing that can initiate many conversations, but also problems. Derrida knows that; that is why he gets nervous when he writes what he thinks.

Language is a Slippery Vehicle

Language is a slippery vehicle that moves every which way with the turn of a wheel, or in language; the change of a word. Language has a lot of fluidity and can be used to steer a conversation anyway the driver wishes to go; it is never constant and in any moment it can change direction so fast nobody would even know. Language, like a vehicle though, can only go so far as a vehicle can only go so far until it hits a dead end. Robert Haas describes the limit of language in his poem "The Problem of Describing Trees." There are many ways to describe a beautiful tree that "glistens like aspen" but then when you stretch out all of the words that you could possibly use, how much more can you say? There is a lot you can say then about all those traits, and you can come up with even more things! Rodney Jones in "Hubris at Zunzal" describes how saying something without thinking is similar to dumping sweet coconut milk into a large ocean, then thinking of the mistake and trying to scoop it back up, or trying to retract your words. Language is useful for conversation and human development, but it can also cause problems between people when to hurt others. To both of these poets; language is a powerful thing that can describe so many images.