Hey! So this is my third blog post. We were assigned another reading. This one is "A Fable for Living" by Kevin Brockmeier. This story was quite hard for me to grasp at first. I couldn't tell if the woman was basically delusional and just writing to herself after she had lost her fiance, or if this is just a totally fictional story and there really was a whole other world living underneath of them. Either way, it was a great story and I had to use a decent amount of my imagination. I feel as though her writing those letters helped herself and find happiness again, and that is what this blog post will be about. Me writing a letter to my author self in order to connect with myself better.
A Fable for Living Disclaimer: A little background information before you read on, I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder not too long ago, so this is basically me having a conversation with my "normal" self and my "Bipolar" self. Dear Self, There's a number of things I want to apologize for. I know I'm not the most understanding when it comes to much of anything or anyone, but I really feel the need to get this off of my chest. I've put you through some tough times from being stubborn, mean, resentful, and just flat out crazy at times. You always came out ahead with the strength I didn't have and you have kept us together. It feels like I am this terrible storm with rain and lightening, destroying every town it hits, and you come around the next day with beautiful, sunny, 75 degree weather. So, this is me apologizing for how hectic my behavior can be, and used to be, for it was much worse before. Our entire life has been this way, and I'm not sure how I could ever show you how sorry I really am. I didn't know any better. They say it's not completely all my fault, but for some reason it just feels like it is. I have been doing my best not to feel so guilty, so we can hopefully move past this. I know I have held you back all of these years, but I also want you to know that it's okay to not be where you want to be at. You have been working so hard since the moment you had to. Always having multiple jobs, trying to figure out what you wanted to do with your career, trying out college- although you flunked out of Algebra several frustrating times. All of that on top of having me crashing down on you so many times. You have to give yourself a break and learn how to breathe, just like I am learning that not every moment needs a reaction. You are worthy of love and you will find that someday. Anyone who couldn't handle both of us, probably was not right for you anyway, and you need to understand that. From this moment on, I promise we will work together to get through this life. Although it may seem that I have all of the bad qualities, I do think I have some fortunate ones too. For example, my aggressiveness. If it wasn't for that, you would've let even more people walk all over you, and even more men treat you like crap in your relationships. Another one, is how I will make you speak your opinion openly and confidently. You never used to do that as a teenager, you were shy and afraid to speak up about anything. Now, you love being the center of attention, most of the time that is, and I think I have a ton do to with that, too. We have to be able to come together and work together. The first step we have to make is you forgiving me. If you're able to do so, we have to work things out together for the rest of this time. Any time one of us feels down about something, the other side has to pick it up. After we can establish this relationship, I hope we can always guide each other to accomplish anything that comes our way. Thank you for listening to me, as this was not very easy to do, for I know I am your dark side of the moon. I hope we can make this work. Love, Self
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Greetings! This is my second blog post. My professor had made up a number of questions that we had to answer for these readings. The first reading is teaching us how to create and assess our Weebly website, which I am surprisingly adapting to fairly quickly. The second reading is about Multimodal writing and how it’s technically "all the same," an article by Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton. The third reading is about C.R.A.P- the principles of designing, which is a short article and video composed by Greg and Mark, aka two geeks thinking. Lastly, the fourth reading is about assessing Multimodal student work. I enjoyed these readings. They were very informal. I'm not the best with technology, so a lot of this information they provided helped me a lot. How to Create a Weebly Website (Video Tutorial) All Writing is Multimodal (Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton) It's All C.R.A.P: Four Principles of Design (Think Around Corners) Assessing Multimodal Student Work (Kent State University) The reason we are creating a website for our English Composition class is because my professor seems to want this class to be different than your average English class, which was music to my ears. I haven’t had the best experiences with english classes in high school and in college, and I know I’m one of many. We are taking a different approach to writing and focusing more on finding out our own individual style with it.
In the reading “All Writing is Multimodal”, Cheryl Ball and Colin Charlton explain when humans interact with each other, whether it’s in person or in their writing, they are using a serious of the 5 modes. The 5 modes are: Linguistic, Aural, Gestural, Spatial, and Visual. I do agree with Ball and Charlton. I think we as humans show a lot of emotions when we interact. Many of us are dramatic and like to emphasize or over exaggerate what we say when we speak, even though a text message. We hardly ever just use only one of those modes. So when we are speaking, it “isn’t just words” as they had mentioned. As a student who will be designing my own website, I feel that the importance of the five modes on a scale of 1-5 is a 5. I think using at least a couple of these modes at a time is very significant. People want to feel something when they see pictures or in what they are reading, whether it’s being able to relate to it or educate them, etc. In my opinion, the modes play a huge role in that. For Linguistic, humans need to be able to understand what language you’re trying to connect with them in. That doesn’t mean just being able to read or speak that language either. It more so means being able to communicate in a way that the person will understand and connect with. When it comes to Aural, having your writing or speech actually being listened to is extremely important. It’s so easy to listen to someone or read something and having it go in one ear and out the other. As far as Gestural, it is crucial you are thoroughly expressing yourself and what you’re trying to show or explain, in this case a website, is something you’re passionate about. It will be tough to find someone who is interested in something that has no feeling or meaning behind it. For Spatial, having the design of my website in the way it is arranged will make all the difference in the world. You want the flow of the website to be intriguing. Finally, having a Visually appealing website is very meaningful to me. I feel as though websites should be easy and appealing to the eye. Too many websites are difficult to navigate through simply because of the way they look, in my opinion anyway. In the “It’s All C.R.A.P” reading, the acronym C.R.A.P means: C- contrast, R-repetition, A-alignment, and P-proximity. I believe on a scale from 1-5 the importance of the acronym is a 5. In this article, it explains that contrast is about making things stand out. In a website setting, you want people to be interested in your website, and to do so you need to make things stand out on it in a way that it makes sense. Repetition of colors and design helps anyone looking at your website look neat and easier to use. Alignment organizes your website and keeps it organized. Proximity helps pull everything together so it all makes sense. In the reading “Assessing Multimodal Student Work”, the seven sample criteria are purpose, audience, tone, organized, transitions, synthesizes, and detailed. The Borton and Hout criteria seems different because I feel it’s more thought out and would attend to your average students more than your traditional essay. A lot of traditional essays from my experience that are given as assignments can be very draining to write because it lacks purpose. I also can relate to the fact that not everyone is as technically inclined as others. Hello! This is my very first blog post for my English Composition l class. This is The Proust Questionnaire. It is a series of 34 questions composed by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist. I have honestly never heard of this questionnaire before! Which I thought was interesting, since it seems so well known. I've read that these questions usually are used for interviews. The questions definitely made me think. It was tough to answer some of them, and very easy to answer others. I enjoy questions that make me think though!
The Proust Questionnaire _1.__What is your idea of perfect happiness? To be financially comfortable, to have a healthy family, to be doing what I love, and to be in warm weather by the beach when I finally decide to buy a house. __2.__What is your greatest fear? Losing someone I love. Or getting a disease that is not curable, like cancer. __3.__What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I can be very aggressive and I have a big ego. Sometimes, both of those can be great qualities to have, but when they come out in me, its definitely at the wrong times 99% of the time. __4.__What is the trait you most deplore in others? People who are just heartless. I just can't understand how a humans can be that way, whether it's towards each other or animals or whatever. It really gets to me. __5.__Which living person do you most admire? My Mother. She puts everyone before herself and always has. She is the most selfless person I've ever seen, and anyone who knows her would say the same. __6.__What is your greatest extravagance? Probably my apartment, and my car. They may not be the nicest but they're mine that I worked hard for and I’m proud that I have them. __7.__What is your current state of mind? Overwhelmed but happier than I used to be. I recently went though a tough time in my life. The last couple of years were very difficult, but slowly I'm getting back to myself. __8.__What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Having to show off if you’re wealthy. I admire people who are humble. __9.__On what occasion do you lie? Personally I do to not hurt someone’s feelings, unless it is a serious matter. For example a "white lie" I'll do once in a while. But I usually don't lie about things. I've learned that the hard way. __10.__What do you most dislike about your appearance? My face. I wish I had more unique features. I wish I looked exotic or something. __11.__Which living person do you most despise? I honestly do not have anyone in particular that I despise. But I despise anyone who harms animals. __12.__What is the quality you most like in a man? Honesty and Patience. Sense of humor is huge too. It's hard to just pick one quality. I need a few of them in a man in order to be satisfied with them. __13.__What is the quality you most like in a woman? Their motherly instincts and how they care for the people they love. __14.__Which words or phrases do you most overuse? The word “Like." I've been trying not to say it as much when I talk. It just flows right out sometimes though. __15.__What or who is the greatest love of your life? Maybe my Grandmother or my Mom. My grandmother on my stepfathers side has been here for me since day 1. She helped me through my childhood and understood that I just needed someone to be there for me when my family was going through tough times. __16.__When and where were you happiest? When I was a kid. I had a whacky childhood but I didn’t stress about the things I stress about now. __17.__Which talent would you most like to have? I’d love to be able to sing. I love music and I sing all of the time.. It just doesn't always sound the best. __18.__If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? My brain. I do wish I was smarter. It takes me a minute to comprehend things sometimes. __19.__What do you consider your greatest achievement? Starting college again to become a nurse. I'm very determined to do this. I was a personal trainer for years and I've had some great achievements doing that, but this is what I want as my career and I'm proud of myself for going after it. __20.__If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be? A Lion. It's my zodiac sign, but I also love Lions because they're powerful creatures that every other animal looks up to but is also pretty afraid of. __21.__Where would you most like to live? Hawaii. I visited there a couple of years ago. I never really had traveled before so it was a whole new experience for me. I felt like I really found myself. __22.__What is your most treasured possession? I have ashes from my childhood cat that I loved dearly. I've moved 3 times out on my own so far in my adult life and they are the one possession that I always have to have with me. __23.__What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? Not finding any joy in life. If someone can’t laugh at least once a day, I feel as thought they've hit that lowest depth. __24.__What is your favorite occupation? I’d love to be a nurse. I recently just started college again in hopes to become one. I love taking care of people and making them feel good. I want to be needed and being a nurse if such a rewarding job. __25.__What is your most marked characteristic? My personality and sense of humor. As I grow and get older, I'm learning not to take things so seriously and to laugh at my mistakes instead of stress about every little thing. __26.__What do you most value in your friends? The fact that I don’t have to talk to them all of the time and we are still close. Since we've gotten older, it's tough to keep in touch everyday or even every other day. Sometimes that can really effect friendships. Luckily the couple of friends I have, we can live our own lives and when I do see them or even talk to them, it's like we just pick right back up where we left off. __27.__Who are your favorite writers? Maya Angelou. I always loved her poems since I was a little girl. __28.__Who is your hero of fiction? Wonder Woman. She's a bad mama gamma! __29.__Which historical figure do you most identify with? This is a tough one. I honestly don't know! I don't really feel like I identify with anyone. I thought about it and nobody really caught my mind. __30.__Who are your heroes in real life? My Mom. I hope to be even half the mom she is one day. She can be a big ball of stress sometimes, but she's loving and caring. __31.__What are your favorite names? I love Charlotte or Blake for a girl and Anthony for a boy. My brothers name is Anthony. __32.__What is it that you most dislike? People who harm animals. Nothing upsets me more than animal abuse. __33.__What is your greatest regret? I try not to regret anything, but I do regret giving my dog to my ex-boyfriend when we broke up. __34.__How would you like to die? In my sleep, I don’t want to feel pain if I can help it. I try to keep myself healthy so I can prevent certain health problems in the future. I work in the medical field now and it's very eye opening how you can get sick in the blink of an eye. |
Kellie KalbachThis is my blog page. I'm using this page to experience the beautiful yet messy process of writing. Enjoy! Archives
May 2020
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