Blog Design

First off, I would just like to state that before we had to make this blog I considered myself pretty smart as far as  technology was concerned. Now, I am not so sure. Just creating this blog was a struggle because this whole part of Google is wholly unfamiliar to me to begin with. Would anyone believe that this is my fifth time writing this post? Well, believe it.


Anyway, just as I am having problems writing the post, I am also having problems designing it. Is each blog design separate from the one before it? If so, then I suppose I understand this more that I thought I did. I can appreciate individual designs for individual posts because I know that some posts are meant to draw different kinds of attention. On the other hand, if there is an overall design for the entire blogger then that would make a lot of sense as well. Most website profiles allow for this type of decorating standard. For me, I really appreciate art and so any type of abstract background allows me to express myself fully and makes any message I am trying to create more clear.


Blogger is a very interesting website and I hope that it will become easier to use as me and my writing course continue to use it. I view this experience as an attempt by my instructor to allow her students to practice their writing style and to learn about something that has become more and more popular throughout the years. With time I may even decide to start my own blog on something I find interest in --- other than my great writing course, that is.

Microtheme Project

The Microtheme Project is something new and interesting that I have never had the opportunity to learn about in my previous writing courses. I can see myself using it as a brainstorming method and a “prestart” to an analysis draft. I believe that it allows the writer to concentrate most of the substance of a paper virtually omitting the literary fluff that goes into writing a piece of literary art. All writing should have purpose and the Microtheme bluntly states this purpose and reveals the focus of the paper. After seeing some of the samples provided by the professor, I realize that a good Microtheme involves topics that the reader can relate to. Once the writer provides points of analysis, the reader follows by applying this new perception to their own. The analysis provided must be varied and reasonable enough so that the reader will not dismiss it. It must also be objective but still relative to the writer’s life in order to increase the level of credibility. In my own Microtheme, I explored the topic of aggressive driving which is something that I believe most people living in or near metropolitan areas can relate to. However, in hindsight, I realize that I analyzed the subject in a general sense, not truly inserting myself into a particular situation where the subject becomes an issue. Of course, aggressive driving is an issue that one can determine problematic without the help of an anecdote but the final product ultimately seems less rounded. In order to make my Microtheme better, I need to connect it to myself personally which will be easy enough to do (I hope).

Documentary Project SOS

           I did my paper on Tobias Schneebaum, the anthropologist who lived with cannibals in the Peruvian Amazon. I have always loved documentaries and so I found the whole thing very interesting. He was seventy-eight at the time of the filming and was still very open and unreserved --- especially as far as his sexual activity went! He even confessed to everyone when he came back to the States that he did participate in cannibalism while he was there. It was interesting that while he didn't find that disturbing, he found the actual killing of the enemy tribe unsettling. So you don't mind eating deep-fried human but actually killing the human is worse? I suppose that makes some sliver of sense, but most people would have had problems with the cannibalism more. Besides, everyone dies and people are murdered every day. That doesn't make it okay but it kind of makes it "less abnormal". However, eating other people is usually considered taboo and inhumane --- not to mention completely rude. Everything about this documentary was enlightening and I am grateful for this project. I learned lots of new things about tribal culture and would not have a problem learning more. I am not sure but I hope that I was successful in creating an acceptable text. Usually I am very confident about my writing but I also believe that grading is particular according to each individual teacher so only time will tell whether or not my summary was good.
           


           For any of you who have ever been in other writing classes, writing a summary is a standard assignment. However, I feel as though there have been some mistakes made (by me) due to the excessive amount of information I was given during the documentary. Trying to squeeze over an hour of data into a small, comparatively ambiguous summary paper is no easy feat. From last year's writing class, I know that most writing should be objective and that summaries are to be written without superfluous detail. I tried to avoid analyzing the documentary as well which was difficult considering the fact that most writing involves some form of analysis in order to help the reader understand your thoughts. Thankfully, I remembered that summaries are dry and basic and that no one really cares about my opinions on the documentary. I am not sure but I hope that I was successful in creating an acceptable text. Usually I am very confident about my writing but I also believe that grading is particular according to each individual teacher so only time will tell whether or not my summary was good.