The Yellow Brick Road

One of the multigenre papers I read was the one about The Wizard of Oz.  I thought this particular project was interesting because it included details of the making of the movie that are usually overlooked.  Specifically, it cited medical reports showing that many of the actors and actresses issues caused by the production including Dorthy's drug use and the tin man's problems caused by his aluminum paint.  It did this through records, first person narratives and pictures.

Ensuring Enviromental Sustainibility

The United Nation Millennium Development Goal that stood out to me was ensuring environmental sustainability.  I think this is an extremely important issue that is often overlooked because the impacts of ignoring the issue, while catastrophic, would be far into the future.  This goal actually encompasses many substantial goals within itself such as: improving fresh water accessibility and sanitation, decreasing biodiversity loss, and improving quality of life for those living in slums. 

While sanitation and fresh water are readily available in our community, there are still many things we can do to help our environment in virtually every other way outlined in this millennium goal.  There are the more obvious options of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by using hybrid cars, moving to biofuels, and generally just not using cars by riding bikes, walking, etc. 

Something equally important as these direct impacts on the environment is thinking about the indirect consequences of our actions.  Perhaps some of the most frightening situations are the deforestation in the amazon and the biodiversity loss associated with and without deforestation.  The world's growing demands is consequently putting pressure to clear more rainforest which houses some of the world's most important keystone species.  The world's growing demands have also caused overfishing and loss of biodiversity in the world's oceans.

Reading Response 2

The three stories that stuck out to me were the Handprinter, TOHL, and Hungry Planet Farms.  I thought each addressed a problem in a way that hasn’t been tried before.  The first one that interested me was handprinter.org.  I had heard of your “footprint” before, but the concept of an environmental “handprint” was new to me.  This website addresses the problem of mankind’s negative affect on our ecosystem by creating, essentially, a social media website that encourages and creates a net positive impact on our ecosystem.

The second idea that caught my attention was the TOHL, or mobile infrastructure.  While the actual build wasn’t complicated at all, the idea was revolutionary.  What makes this idea so unique is that all other means of emergency water supplies require either multiple truck loads whereas this new system requires only one trip for a reliable water source that is available for as long as needed. 

The last innovation that impressed me was the Hungry Planet Farms.  The cool thing about this idea was that it combined the sustainability of a farm with the easy transportation of cargo containers.  It is the combination of these two previously uncorrelated aspects of emergency response that makes this idea great.  All three of these stories interest me because of their unique innovation.

Although I am not certain about my passion, I want to go into engineering.  If I didn’t have to worry about money I would spend my time tinkering with electronics.  The only work I would want to do is creating miscellaneous gadgets

Article 1 Response

After reading these grammar rules I realize that I have made several of these mistakes.  I have definitely made mistakes when it comes to parallelism, but I believe I have gotten better about using it correctly.  I also can remember frequent situations when I can’t remember if I am supposed to use sank or sunk, and miscellaneous other past and participle verb confusion.  In general, I have made mistakes when it came to each of Yogoda’s tips except for maybe the dangling modifiers.

I thought his last two tips were very interesting.  I think the author makes a good point that semicolons should be used sparingly because they are commonly misused.  I also was never taught the second correct use for the semicolon.  I also have noticed how the meaning of words is constantly changing, and I believe it is something I should take into consideration when writing; however, I though some of his examples were more acceptable then he lets on.  For example, he says: “Don't use begs the question. Instead use raises the question.”  This is a expression I commonly use, but perhaps I should consider his alternative.

My Pecha Kucha

 

My presentation focuses on the customs and traditions of the Chinese minorities the She and Uygur.  It shows their celebrations, languages, and beliefs through pictures of traditional foods, dress, and various other objects such as the She's phoenix totem.  Unfortunately, it will not upload because it is too big.  Here are some of the pictures it included. 

PechaKucha: Superior Skydiving

This PechaKucha is about a woman's experiences with skydiving.  She does a very good job of showing each of her important moments with a single picture.  The presentation was effective because each slide had a single picture, with no text, that both inspired curiosity and sufficiently depicted a moment that had significant value.  For example, the presenter's first slide was her in a graduation gown; she then explains that her first jump was a graduation present to herself.

There are a couple of ways this presentation could have been improved.  The most important thing that could be improved is that the presenter wasn't always aware of what slide she was on.  She would sometimes be talking about a slide before it appeared, or she would still be talking about the previous slide.  Sometimes the presenter would not be talking at all which significantly took away from the presentation.  In contrast, the visuals were fantastic: she included pictures of her bruised foot, her first jump, and many other pictures that clearly showed her experiences.

I think that PechaKucha can be a very effective method of presentation, however, as it is with any presentation, the subject has to interesting.  I think this particular presentation was somewhat not up to par because the topic wasn't something that has a lot to present about from this person's experiences and its presentation was weak because the speaking was off.  When the topic and speaker are on point I believe the PuchaKucha  is a very effective presentation method that will be appropriate to present my topic in ten slides.

Who is She?

The She's phoenix totem

I was more than a little confused by both the essays I received; however, they both turned out to be very interesting.  The second one of the two described her minority’s customs and traditions.   I thought something was lost in translation when my correspondent, Evelyn, referred to her minority as feminine calling it “She”.  Regardless, I thought it was intriguing the way she referred to her culture as a minority as well as by the culture itself.

As I started to research a number of things came to my attention.  First of all, when I think of minorities I think typically of percents of population based on skin color; in China the government has recognized 55 official ethnic minorities.  Evelyn’s minority is She Zu, they are sometimes referred to as the she people.  Suddenly it made sense why Evelyn referred to her minority as she. 

The She have a number of interesting beliefs and customs.  “The She people believe in the power of ancestors and totems. “(China She Ethnic Minority: Life Style, Economy, Crafts).  Evelyn also mentioned totems in her paper saying “Our totem is a phoenix which stands for the beautiful women.”  Singing is also prevalent in the She culture and is used to find life partners.

After reading Evelyn’s essay I was confused but very curious; after researching her minority I even more curious about her minority as well as China’s 54 others.  I don’t know what my opinion is of their culture is other than it is very interesting.  I think it is slightly strange that the She choose who marry by their singing voice, but it is just a different way of living: not better or worse, just different. 

Evelyn. “My minority – “she zu”. 2014. TS. Qingdao University, n.p.

"China She Ethnic Minority: Life Style, Economy, Crafts." China She Ethnic Minority: Life Style, Economy, Crafts. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2014. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/nationality/she/