E - Portfolio

"Write Early, Revise Often" ..... Is it really that simple?

Throughout junior high and high school, I was placed in all honor level programs from math to history to even science. I was very lazy throughout my academic career and never took any classes too serious because I always got A's and B's even with my average work ethic. I did enjoy the classes a lot but all the homework that was piled on was so stressful. I had to force myself to do the homework and it usually took up most of my school nights because I always waited last minute. However, in writing courses I wasn't in honor level classes and it sort of made me mad because I had been in honor classes for practically every other subject (not trying to brag). This made me feel as if I was a bad writer because I couldn't get into the honors level writing course.

I accepted my role of being a sub-par writer because I didn't place in the honor program. All throughout high school I would write a 1 or 2 draft paper and turn it in as is, never really thinking to draft multiple times to perfect the paper. I would get B's and C's on almost all papers and I accepted that because I thought I wasn't smart enough to get into an honors writing course. I knew I was a bad writer and accepted it.

Fast Forward to College Writing 1. Dr. Kyburz told me, "Write Early, Revise Often". I thought at the time it wouldn't be that simple. After hearing that quote I decided to use that quote for my next paper. I wrote my rough draft the day the paper was assigned and brought it in for peer review. Not only this but Dr. Kyburz also edited for me with many constructive criticisms. I took all these revisions and drafted another copy of my paper being slightly more confident in my work. Then after being told in every class to utilize the writing center, I decided to try it out, which gave even more criticism. After about 2 more drafts I was feeling very confident when the due date came around and it was time to hand in the paper.

I now view writing papers as a process like climbing a mountain. There is a lot of difficult work to do before you finish. But, when you do finish it is extremely satisfying to see all the hard work pay off. Drafting multiple copies of my papers was difficult but it paid off in the long run.

I used to think of myself as a terrible writer and writing papers was my weakest attribute. However, after going through Dr. Kyburz class I have discovered that writing papers is about how much work you put into it, your paper will never be perfect the first go through and making many revisions and drafts is necessary. "Write Early, Revise Often". It is really that simple. The earlier you start on a paper the more drafts and edits you will get making your paper better and better each time. I now know that I wasn’t a terrible writer before I just never reached the full potential of what my papers could have been. I see writing papers as a process that could have landed me in an honor level course if I had used Dr. Kyburz advice earlier on.

Multimodal project

I did my microtheme on the effects getting spoiled has on kids in their future

https://youtu.be/mm8pCVxDSDU

Microtheme -- Spoiled Kids

 Spoiled Kids

            I have met many people in my life that were spoiled and got everything they wanted. Even throughout high school they got whatever they wanted, like their own car, expensive clothing, etc. Is spoiling your kids at a young age setting them up for failure in the future?

            Spoiling your kids at a young age and getting them whatever they ask for makes them think their life will always be that easy. Getting money and not having to work for it is something many spoiled kids I know are accustomed to. Not having to work for anything in your life may seem fine at the time but you will be in for a rude awakening in/after college. When your parents aren’t around to give you money all the time and buy everything you need, you will realize how hard life is.

Not having a job earlier in your life during the time you were spoiled can result in a lack of  job experience in which others who weren’t spoiled have a step up on you because they have been working for themselves, making you a less likely candidate for a job.

The term “spoiled brat” did not appear out of thin air and is probably a term because most spoiled kids are “brats”. When a spoiled kid finally doesn’t get what they want in the real world they will become very upset because they are not used to it. Nobody likes a spoiled brat.

Understanding that spoiling your kids at a young age will set them up for future failure by having the real world eventually crush them is something to think about when they ask you to buy them something expensive.

Cartel Land Documentary Questions

1.      The specific scene that got to me was during the documentary, Cartel Land, was during the Autodefensa campaign through Mexico’s Michoacán. The Autodefensa was a vigilante group of citizens across all cities uniting to fight against the cartels terrorizing cities. In their campaigns through the cities to tell all the locals what they were doing, one of the towns cities got very upset with the leaders of Autodefensa during the campaign. The citizens were interrupting the speech and yelling about how nobody asked for the Autodefensa’s help and they were not needed. Not only this but the citizens were accusing the Autodefensa group of raiding houses, aiming guns all over recklessly, and other harsh accusations. This upset me because the citizens are arguing with a group of people who are there to help them fight against the cartel. This is ridiculous because the vigilante group of citizens, Autodefensa, are united by heartbreak of family members getting killed or other awful things done by the cartel to them. Also, they are going into cities with people who they do not know and helping them because they don’t want those some heart-breaking actions to happen to their family members, random people.

The reason this upset me is because the Autodefensa are only there to help. The houses that they were raiding belong to the cartels. Not only this but the Autodefensa were accused of using their guns recklessly and aiming everywhere. This is the only criticism that is somewhat of a fair thing to say because a stray bullet could hurt a citizen. However, the citizens should be glad that the Autodefensa are there to help fight off cartels and not upset. The Autodefensa are helping voluntarily and most are men with families. Being angry with these men is completely absurd because they are putting their lives on the line to protect citizens they do not know.

2.      The thing that most surprised me was how the two main groups  of vigilantes in the documentary were. The Autodefensa in Mexico fighting off the cartel and vigilante border defenders in Arizona. Both grouped up with others that had similar views to each other. Both groups were very determined to what cause they were fighting against and went to great extents to do their vigilante "job". Another similar thing is that both groups had strong opposition from citizens, calling the Autodefensa dangerous and calling the Arizona border team racist.

However, there were also many differences between the two groups that surprised me as well. For one, the Autodefensa went town to town recruiting people in person, meanwhile the Arizona border team began to recruit people online. I felt like the Autodefensa strategy was more effective because they could talk face to face with the people to recruit meanwhile the border team had to leave limited information up online that could be interpreted different than intended.

3.      A question I have after watching Cartel Land would be, why didn’t more people agree with the main leader of the Autodefensa, Dr. Mireles, that he wouldn’t join with the government instead of being a vigilante group? He was the original founder of the group and had a natural talent to lead, yet practically nobody joined with him in his rebel against the government when the government wanted the Autodefensa so disarm and join the government as a federal group. He thought the government was corrupt and wanted to keep the cartels safe. Dr. Mireles was arrested and held in solitary confinement for standing up for his beliefs against the government. 

Some problematic concepts I saw in the film included how the camera crew was available to get an interview with the drug makers for the cartels. I find that strange that the cooks weren’t bothered by being filmed, although they had masks. Also, they are willing to risk their location of their lab just for being in the film. It is understandable that they have no choice to make drugs and want to get their word out but why jeopardize being exposed and possibly arrested? Another problematic concept I had was that the documentary did not tell much about the cartels and if their activity was lowered since the Autodefensa joining the government. Not only this but if I was wondering if any of the any cities that were taken back from the cartels by the Autodefensa had problems with the cartels again. That was only mentioned briefly and not too much in detail. One more problematic concept was that the border team in Arizona did not have much story about them after they got the new recruits. Other than 1 mission where they found people trying to cross the border, there was not much story on them. I am curious if American citizens still hated them and called them racists. Last problematic concept I had was if anybody was outraged that Dr. Mireles was jailed. After all he was the original leader of the Autodefensa.

Newcomer on Lewis Food

Having been here for a full week, I have found and tried all of the food here at Lewis. Throughout all of the options on campus, I have narrowed down the best fine dining you can eat. Also owning a car on campus I can say there are a lot of good restaurants around the area but I am going to focus on only the food on campus. From my experience, I have declared that the Courtyard Café is the best place to eat on campus. 

Courtyard Café is located in De La Salle on the first floor and this is their menu: Menu

Courtyard reminds me of a Panera style restaurant which I enjoy. They mostly sell sandwiches  but they also sell pizzas, which I have yet to try. My favorite sandwich is the #3 which is roasted chicken, fresh mozzarella on focaccia bread. Focaccia is a round bun with tomatoes on the inside of it which I like.

Another thing I enjoy about Courtyard is that you can order your sandwich or pizza to-go. When you order you ask for it to-go and they rap it up for you to carry back to your dorm or your next class, which is convenient.

I am open to other suggestions on where to eat because I only tried the other food places on campus once or twice. Thanks for taking your time to hear me out on my food expertise.