Transcendentalism to Me

I think transcendentalism means something different to every person; it is not a term that can have one concrete definition. My definition of transcendentalism is going to be unique to my beliefs and values and will differ from everyone else. To me, transcendentalism is going against the social norm, and standing up for something that is important to the individual.

I am, in a sense, envious of transcendentalists. They have the confidence and will to stand up against the masses, for what the believe. It really only takes one person to start a movement, and if no one ever stands up, then there will never be change.

I do not consider myself a transcendentalist. I am more passive and try to avoid confrontation. I think it takes a special person to stand against popular opinion, especially if they are standing alone.

I think that transcendentalism is a good thing. One person can really start a movement for change, and without people who will take those first steps, progress would never happen. They have to accept the risks of standing up for what they believe, and it can come with some very steep ones. When a population is used to something, there can be some resistance to change.

Bowling for Columbine

American values about gun control have changed in the recent years --  events such as Columbine have the power to morph and persuade opinions to wanting stricter gun control laws. Moore provides a very compelling, however one sided argument that addresses this issue with first hand examples. His documentary connects many different events together and addresses gun control as well as political corruption, and poverty. As this documentary unfolds, the viewer gets many different opinions and sees real change being made before the documentary even was released.

America is place with an ever changing system of values. America today is a different America than it was when Columbine happened, and a very different America from when the Declaration of Independence was written. When reading the article about Japanese and American gun control laws, I found it interesting that Max Fisher connected Americans need for guns roots from its violence with Britain when it was first being made. Being able to bear arms was important to Americans In today's world, that is not really a huge part of our culture anymore, making lots of gun freedom not very important. What has become more valued is safety. Events such as Columbine have been widely known as a tragedy, and there has been many steps taken to try and avoid other events like that.

I think that overall, in his documentary, Moore did create a compelling argument. He talked to people on both sides of the argument, but did tend to stay on the side of wanting more gun laws. This did make his argument seem one sided. I think the people that he interviewed did help to make his argument more convincing. What was really impressive was that while promoting his argument, he also was able to touch on concepts of poverty. When he was talking about the mom of the boy who shot the girl, he seemed to blame it on the welfare system, and was able to get people to think about that as being a problem as well. At the end of the documentary, the viewer is really left with the impression that steps need to be taken to avoid any more gun related tragedies, and they can see some of the corruption in the system.

Sound and Fury

When watching this movie, I was quick to make snap judgments especially about Peter and Nita and their decision to not implant Heather. Being from the hearing world, it was hard for me to understand where their arguments were coming from. I had to take a closer look at the Discourses at play and put myself in their shoes, and while that might not change my opinion on the topic (probably because of my own Discourse), it does broaden and blur the lines of this controversial topic.

The first, and most prominent Discourse that I noticed in this movie, was the deaf community. I hadn't known very much about how close the deaf community was before this movie. I don't think that Madison, Wisconsin has a huge deaf community which is why I haven't been exposed to it too much. What I did learn, is how close knit, and almost cult-like it is. They don't define deafness as a disability. The also take everything concerning deafness, very personally. I saw, in this particular documentary, how sensitive and defensive they were. Anyone trying to get a cochlear implant was seen as being ashamed of being deaf, and that they wanted to escape the community. People who were deaf, were proud to be deaf, and wanted to stay in the community. I'm not sure if they felt like this because they were afraid of trying to connect more with the hearing world, or if maybe it was just easier to stay around people who were like you.

Some other Discourses that were shown throughout the documentary included the hearing people with deaf kids, the medial cochlear implant doctors, and the hearing people from deaf families. One difference that I noticed, is that hearing parents with deaf kids were much more on board with getting the implants. Not being a part of the deaf community, they more thought of the benefits of their children, instead of feeling the pressures of the deaf community looking down on them. They didn't feel like they would be disgracing the deaf people by trying to escape the community, they just wanted the best opportunities for their kids. The doctors, being from the hearing world also didn't really understand why people wouldn't implant their kids.

My personal opinion about the Artinian family, is still that they are afraid. I understand the Discourses that they are apart of, and that only strengthens my belief in this. Because both of the parents are deaf, they don't want to be left behind if their kids go join the hearing world. This was really proven to me when, Nita was looking into getting implants herself. If she could have gotten implants, and hearing, then she would have gotten them for Heather too. She was pro-implants until she found out that the surgery wouldn't work on her. When the Grandma called her out on it, she got defensive again and started crying. I think that the parents knew that they were limiting Heathers potential and instead of staying and being around people who would point that out, they moved to a community that they could hide in, and try and convince themselves that they made the right decisions. They were thinking about themselves, and not heather. The world is a different place now than it was when they were little, and life is going to be even harder for heather as a deaf person now than it was before

Garden Snakes

Garden Snakes

not just your ordinary shoelace

Rattle snakes, cobras, and vipers: It’s easy to be afraid of these deadly crawlers, but I would take any of those snakes any day over the common garden snake. This fear of mine is not the fear of death, but the result of a horrible, traumatic event in my past.

One fall evening when I was about 10 years old, I was taking a walk with my family. I remember that we were talking about shoes, and how I obviously needed a new pair. Walking by, something caught my eye. It was a light brownish color of an old worn shoelace-- one that seemed like it belonged exactly where it was, not in a shoe. “What a coincidence!” I thought. I picked it up to show my parents. On any other day I would have left it alone, but since we were talking about shoes, it was just too fitting to leave it be.

I held the “shoelace” for a solid five seconds before I felt it move. Startled, it took me but an instant to see the eyes. Every single person in the neighborhood probably thought I had been stabbed by the sound of my shriek after that. Dropping the spider, I did what any rational 10 year old would do: I cried. I straight up bawled my eyes out because I was so traumatized by what just happened.

Since that day, I have learned my lesson, and NEVER picked up anything off the sidewalk again, especially anything long and slimy.

Blurred Lines Controversy Creates Sucess

On July 28, 2013 Robin Thicke's controversial hit Blurred Lines hit 242.65 million listeners breaking the record for biggest radio audience. This is but one of the many awards that this song has won in the past year. The success of this song has not come without a great deal of criticism, but with the music industry in the state it is today, are the critics the reason for the success?

Their is no denying the nature of the lyrics and music video for this song are pushing the boundary. When you think about it, what popular pop or rap song isn't? The lyrics leave room for interpretation as to weather the song supports rape as Mrs. Lai pointed out; however I have to agree with Tricia Romano under the fact that the video clearly points to a male supremacy role. At the end of the day, I think it is personal values and beliefs that will decide weather females dancing naked around clothed men is appropriate. I will stick by my opinion however, that this song would not be half as popular without the raciness that promoted arguments.

Making it in the music industry is one of the hardest careers to start. It is clear that fame can take a harmful toll on a person. It can drive people crazy trying to get noticed and get their songs played. In todays world, songs that push the boundaries get talked about and in turn the buzz gets the songs popular. Before this song, everyone was chattering about Miley Cyrus's Wreaking Ball. Pop culture saw her career take off again after all of the controversy of that song.

Coming from Robin Thicke's perspective, can you blame him for trying to push the limit? This controversy makes me think of rhetoric and about arguments. While Thicke is getting a lot of criticism for this song, at the end of the day, he "won" because his song is super popular and listened to. Critics might think that they are beating Thicke by butchering his motives and lyrics  but in the end they are only helping to boost Thickes career.

Ebola and the Fiction of Quarantine

Every couple years there is a disease that comes around that brings up the debate about the ethics of quarantine. a few years ago it was the H1N1 virus and now it is Ebola. In this essay that I read, Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley bring some interesting new arguments to the table regarding violation of rights regarding quarantine.

In the beginning of this essay when the authors were giving some background about containment systems, I was very curious about what they actually looked like. because of the article I understand all of the components of it but I wanted to have a picture to compare it to. I found this picture online of what a containment system would look like.




after seeing a picture I can understand the author's comparison of it to an "amateur greenhouse" or "a children's fort."

The article went on to go in depth on some examples and arguments of where attempted quarantines went wrong and how dangerous that can be.  it really made me think about my stand on the issue. I would have to agree with the authors on the account that not quarantining people can have monstrous effects on everybody not just the infected one. It's easy for people who are uninfected to agree with quarantining infected people for the greater good but its not easy to be quarantined when you are the sick one.

At the end of the day, I think forcing people to be quarantined is violating your rights and you can't do that. I think that there is many other ways that the CDC can try and control disease without forcing people to be quarantined such as making vaccinations more easily available or even mandatory or offering incentives for infected people to become voluntarily quarantined.

Lost Girls

For my choice nonfiction book, I chose to read Lost Girls an Unsolved American Mystery by Robert Kolker. Kolker, an investigative reporter, shares the facts of a search for a serial killer in Long Island. The book is written in short segments about each of the victims, who were all young girls working as escorts using Craigslist. In the end, the individual stories all piece together to make one big story. If I am being honest, when I was assigned this project, I was not looking forward to it on the account of the requirement that the book be nonfiction. I cant say that I usually browse the nonfiction shelf for a fun book to read. I am very happy to say that this project and book have changed my view on nonfiction dramatically. In this particular instance, the fact that this book is entirely true makes it that much more powerful. it is not "based on a true story" it is one hundred percent true.

Thinking back to the story and the victims of this serial killer, all of the victims have several traits in common: young girls using Craigslist to further their business as escorts. While some might see the girls' chose profession and think things like "well they had it coming" or "its just because of the profession that they chose". I would have to disagree with that, I think that the bigger link between the girls and being discovered by the serial killer is their connection to Craigslist. I find this very funny because until I read this book, I did not know that you could even use Craigslist for that type of business. Its a very commonly used website, used for everything from buying and selling cars to apparently prostitution. I don't think that people are as cautious using Craigslist as they should be; I think that people can be too trusting when in reality you are most likely meeting a complete stranger to make a purchase. I think to when my family has used Craigslist to sell some of our things, and we have had strangers come to our house to look at them. We know nothing about the person but we gave them our address. That is probably not the smartest idea.


With just a quick Google search, if found thousands of other cases of Craigslist purchases and meetings going wrong. One of the many lessons that I took away from reading this book is a reminder to be careful on the internet and what information you are giving out. The internet is only growing and I think that internet safety has to be something that is taught and enforced at home as well as in school. No one is invincible, I was reminded of this reading Kolker's book.

Ape-Woman, Artist

This article, written by Adam Gopnik, was very interesting to me in the fact that he attributed evolution of man kind to social tolerance and explained that how we act is interconnected to our survival as a species. Overall, I would say that I agree with Gopnik's argument; however, I think that at times Gopnik is overestimating the amount of control that one has in specifically explaining evolution.

The section of the article that really helped me to best understand the main point is when the author uses examples from an experiment with Siberian foxes. In this experiment, when geneticists selected and breeded only foxes showing traits of tameness, they found that the newer generations also showed many other changes. The bred foxes showed floppy ears and soft muzzles and were much like dogs. Gopink then said that selecting the trait of social tolerance as an evolutionary benefit, lead to many other changes including tone of voice and organization of our brain. I think that this is really important because it shows that selecting one trait affects many things and that you can't control or predict what trait caused another from an evolutionary standpoint.

There were several points throughout the article when Gopnik referenced specific scientists along with their perspectives and theories. Having taken AP psychology I am familiar with some of the work of these scientists such as Pavlov and Freud. I thought that contrasting some of views of Pavlov's classical conditioning to this new theory of evolution showed again how unpredictable and uncontrollable this topic is. Also, Gopnik talked about Freud and how he explained civilization as the denial of unconscious wishes and desires. I think that this point helps to tie in the authors new theory. Overall, I would say that not only did Gopnik make an interesting , new argument regarding the topic of evolution but he also backed up his argument very well.

If Men Could Menstruate/ The Great Lawsuit

While these articles had very different styles of writing, they were written around the same basic idea: inequality and women. It is amazing to me how these articles can be written over 150 years apart and be written more or less about the same thing. In my opinion it is a perfect example of how this is an ongoing struggle that hasn't been solved.


Mrs. Fuller's article had a much more serious tone than Mrs. Steinem's. Being written in 1843, she lived in a society when "woman was made for man" and that women were viewed as "not having souls." I find this article really inspiring because even when they were being denied rights, women like Mrs. Fuller still stood up against it and made their voice heard. The fact that women fought for their rights just shows how much we deserve them. If they didn't then we would probably live in a much different society right now.


Mrs. Steinem's article on the other hand, had a much lighter and comical tone. It was particularly intriguing to me when she shared with the readers an alternate universe and how she thinks society would look if men were the ones menstruating. This article made me think about society today and it left me with one big question. Why is menstruating looked at as something embarrassing and to be hidden? Its obviously something natural that happens to every girl so why does it have to be some big secret? Some parts of the alternate universe made sense to me like treating the subject more openly, but why is it that men would have to menstruate for this to happen?

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

             As a Google user and supporter, I found the title of this article a little bit hypercritical; however, after reading Mr. Carters opinion about the web and society, I did see a lot of truth of what he had to say. There is no argument in the fact that the internet has made information much more readily available, but thinking deeper, one can see how this is both a good thing and a bad thing. As a society I think that we are sacrificing personal insight and contemplation for productivity.

            How many times have you been on the computer trying to do one thing, but end up 20 minutes later, doing something completely else? For me, this is a very common occurrence. Even going online to blog quickly gets turned into checking my email or shopping online. All of the ads on websites are there to distract us and they break our concentration. My point with this is that when reading a book, there is little to be distracted from, but when online there is a plethora of distractions pulling at your focus. The insight and deep thinking is much easier to obtain when completely focused, and it is much harder to get to that state online.

           One of the biggest things that I have taken away from this article is that there is good and bad to everything. Mr. Carr touched on this when he gave examples of similar situations in history regarding the printing press and writing. Squarciafico worried that the printing press would lead to intellectual laziness and while he was right, because of the amount of good that came out of it, nobody regards the printing press as a harmful invention. I think the same thing is happening with the internet. While people like Mr. Carr are correct in saying that the internet is stifling creativity and insight, the benefits that we receive from the web seem to outweigh that cost.

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow

No matter how much we study and learn about racism in school, I still get angry and dismayed when I read stories such as this one. I think that in today’s society it can be easy to generalize racism and say that “it was a bad part of American history”. I think that it is when we hear specific, first person stories such as Mr. Right’s that we can more easily grasp how racism was an all consuming and uncontrollable thing that ruled over every aspect of people lives.  In Mr. Right’s case specifically, it affected everything from his neighborhood to his job. Above all, this affected his safety and it is a challenge that he had to face throughout his entire life.

One of the common themes that I noticed throughout this article is that during that time period, colored people had to be in control at all times. To them, there is no such thing as slipping up and snapping at a white person. They could never show any angry or frustrated emotions because it could have fatal repercussions. This fact forced Mr. Right to ingenuinely do things such as laugh at white people’s racist jokes and sexual harassment. There was no circumstance in which a black person could forget a simple thing such as saying “yessir” or “nosir”. Right learned this lesson on his ride to town with his broken bicycle. The uncommon nice gesture from white people quickly turned condescending and violent when Right declined a drink in an impolite way. With time Mr. Right learned how to correctly navigate these situations and learned how to be in control at all times. An example of this would be when he was in the elevator and conveniently dropped the packages to avoid being impolite to a white person.

This article not only taught me more about racism in the past but also made me think about racism today. I believe that racism still exists today and that denying it won’t solve anything. Just a quick internet search can find thousands of examples of racism in today’s society. An article that I found written by Jamelle Bouie (link below) gave various specific examples that showed that America has not made as much progress on the subject of racism as we might think. I’m not denying the progress that we have made; I just think that this is still an issue that needs more attention.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/03/racism-not-a-problem-anymore-don-t-be-ridiculous-it-s-still-a-big-issue.html

 

Talk of the Town

Talk of the Town

 

The two different authors who contributed to this article, John Updike and Susan Sontag, took vastly different approaches to discussing the horrific event that plagued our country on September 11. I was only four years old when this destruction happened. I personally don’t remember the event but since then I have visited ground zero several times as well as learned about the event in school. After gaining more knowledge, I can only imagine how horrific it must have been to live through this.

While reading Updike’s portion of the article, I immediately felt like he had some sort legitimacy because he witnessed the event first hand. I think that people who saw the destruction can have a better understanding and view of the event. They were able to see and live through things that were not aired on TV and that the viewers didn’t get to see.  I found it very interesting when Updike talked about “risk being a price of freedom.” I think this idea hold’s very much truth in our society. When we give people freedom to do, say, and believe what they want, we give up the ability to control what happens all the time. With everyone having freedom, the rest of the world has to deal with the risk that one person will use the freedom to harm others. At the end of the day, I think that the risk is worth the freedom. I think Updike put it very well when he said “freedom is mankind’s elixir, even if a few turn it to poison”

Susan Sontag took a different approach to the dealing with the event. I found her part of the article very political and accusatory compared to Updike’s portion. While I think that Sontag makes some very interesting and legitimate arguments, she is taking a very cynical and distrustful view on the situation. One of the arguments Sontag brought up that I found especially intriguing is when she touched on America always putting on a front that it is “strong” and “unbreakable” even when it appears to be quite the opposite. I am in New York right now and just today I visited ground zero, now called the Freedom Tower. I have to disagree with Sontag’s view about how bad it is for America to put on a strong face in times of adversity. In this case, I think that building the Freedom Tower in the place of the twin towers is a great thing. I think it symbolizes that America does recognize and grieve for the loss on 9-11 but that we have used it to learn from and to better our country. Sontag also made some comments about our “robotic president” and compliant public figures. I don’t think that when 9-11 occurred that there was time for the government to show weakness. In order to protect our country and our safety, the government had to put on a united front and a brave face. While I give much respect for Sontag for questioning the nature of our beliefs, in this particular case I think that America’s perseverance and unity in handling the events of 9-11 is the reason that we are still a strong and powerful country to this day.

Nice to Meet you

 

Hello all! My name is Sam Schaller. I’m a senior at McFarland High School. Let me start with a big welcome to my blog. I’m here just making the most of life, and looking forward to the future.  I’m sure we will all get to know each other very well within the next year in AP comp, but just to give you a head start, here is a sneak peek into the inner workings of the one and only Sam Schaller.

 

1.      I love to travel. The beauty and simplicity of other cultures never fails to amaze me. I think it’s so easy to get caught up in the here and now that we simply forget the bigger picture and that there is more going on that what happens in McFarland Wisconsin. It is one of my top priorities to study abroad in college and to find a career that allows me to travel. Being able to experience the food and clothes and hospitality of the rest of the world is something that I want to be able to do for the rest of my life.

 

2.      I stay pretty busy during the school year. I play volleyball in the fall and winter and I run track in the spring. I am also involved in several clubs around the school including DECA, NHS, art mentors, and link crew. I also babysit, mostly for family friends or for the neighborhood kids. I spend whatever free time I have with my friends and family.

 

3.      My plans after high school, like I said before, mainly focus on getting out of McFarland.  I want to go to college somewhere fairly far away from home. I look forward to becoming independent and making a life for myself away from my parents. At the moment, I do not know what area of study I would like to go into, nor which college I would like to attend; however, being that I gag at the sight of blood, I think I can count out a career in the medical field.

 

4.      A few last quirky things that you show know about me are that I am super suspicious. I believe in karma and lucky objects and crossing your fingers.  I never fail to make a wish at 11:11. I also am terrified of spiders or pretty much any creepy crawly creature. I am a terrible speller. As I look back on my rough draft of this paper, it is a rainbow of red and green squiggles. For the most part, grammar and reading are not my thing so fingers crossed that this class helps me improve on those skills.

 

I’d like to leave my fellow compquistadors with my favorite quote: “Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon.” I truly believe that nothing is impossible and that we are the only thing standing in our way to greatness. Nothing great was ever done by being safe and I intend to live my life in pursuit of greatness. Putting it plain and simple: I don’t intend to be forgotten.

 

If you have made it to the end of this blog post, I would like to welcome you again to my blog. I'm looking forward to a successful year and AP comp class!