NLC 1302; Blog 11; 12/6/2011

My water dragon ate a cricket.

NLC 1302; Blog 10; 12/2/2011

Popular mechanics is about a man, a woman, and their baby. The man and the woman have broken up, and the man is packing his things and about to leave. He has no problem with moving our of the woman's house and he appears to be fine with the break up, but he will not leave without the baby and he uses force to get what he wants.

Raymond Carver, the author of this short story, writes most of his stories about alcoholism and break ups. alcoholism is harmful to couples and it often causes break ups when one of them is an alcoholic. Knowing this, I am led to believe that the man in this story is an alcoholic. He is probably not mentally stable. His wife thinks he is crazy for wanting to take the baby. By the way she speaks to him, he seems like a monster. He probably cannot even take care of himself, much less a baby.

The man in this story probably has a huge issue with control. He seems to be very physically controlling. He puts his hands on both the woman and the baby in order to get what he wants or to make his point. He is probably a violent alcoholic. The baby is screaming, but that does not stop him. He takes the baby by force. This is probably how he usually gets his way. Because of this behavior, he is unable to carry on a healthy relationship or maintain a stable life.

NLC 1302; Blog 9; 11/18/2011

Mrs. Yu, I posted another poem earlier and it's still there, but I thought of this one and I like it better...

My mother’s father was an interesting man

Quirky, charming and mysterious

As a kid I never understood

What made my mom so furious

The man had two names

Brian, my grandpa, and George, a fugitive

His brilliance caused him fame

But he ended up in chains

For such a claustrophobic man

A prison cell is worse than death

So he made a noose out of the bed sheets

And took his final breath

NLC 1302; Blog 9; 11/18/2011

Since I was three years old

I had a shadow named Sally

She gave me a wonderful fifteen years

God bless her precious soul

I won’t forget that tragic day

My angel had to go away

She looked at me as if to say,

"Everything will be okay"

NLC 1302; Blog 8; 11/11/2011

            This poem is called "Facing It"andwaswritten byYusef Komunyakaa in 2001. He is a veteran of the Vietnam War. He is an omniscient narrator and he refers to himself in the first person. In the first two lines of the poem, he makes it clear that he is black. The memorial stone is black as well. He seems to form a connection between himself and the memorial as if his face blends in or “hides.” The poem has a very sad and somber tone. Going into the memorial, he knew it would be an emotional experience. He tried to dehumanize himself so that he would not get so emotional about it. “I said I wouldn’t dammit: No tears. I’m stone. I’m flesh.” He seems to have a blurry sense of self. He goes through all the names of the people who died. He gives the specific number, 58,022 to draw attention to the massive amount of people who died in the war. “I touch the name Andrew Johnson.” He knew many of these men on a personal level, and touching their names on the stone makes it all more real that they are gone. He sees a woman in the Memorial and says “names shimmer on a woman’s blouse but when she walks away the names stay on the wall.” What he means by this is that the woman goes and visits the memorial, but she does not take anything away, she is unaffected by it. She goes through her daily routine, not impacted by the deaths in the Vietnam war. Unlike the woman, he carries the pain of losing those men with him every day.

NLC 1302; Blog 7; 10/20/2011

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/19/attention-disorders-can-take-a-toll-on-marriage/

This is an article from the New York Times written by a woman named Tara Parker-Pope. The overall purpose of this article is to inform people about the negative effects A.D.D. can have on a marriage. She wrote the article for couples in which one or both partners has A.D.D. or A.D.H.D. Tara Parker-Pope writes many health articles for the New York Times. This particular article was published in the paper on July 20, 2010. It was published on the website on July 19, 2010. This website is uptaded regularly, so the information is current and accurate.

While there was no way to contact the writer of this article, there was a way to contact the owners of the site. The site itself is very easy to use. There is a home page with many topics to choose from. Each article provides links to similar articles. There were very few advertisements. The site posts articles daily about current events and other topics of interest. Overall, the site is unbiased. It is purely informative.

NLC 1302; Blog 6; 10/16/2011

ADD/ADHD is a very popular topic, so finding articles is not very hard. However, it is a little bit harder looking for the specific causes and effects of ADD. Many medicine and health websites offer information about the disorder, but the information is very broad. They usually discuss the signs and symptoms as well as treatment and medication. I was able to a find a few articles that discuss the long term effects of the disorder, the effects it has on one's behavior, other conditions that can coexist with it, and ways to help relieve the symptoms without medication.

I was also able to find a few good books to use for my paper. My mom, having three kids with ADD, bought some books awhile ago that are very educational. One of the books talks about the different ways ADD affects children and adults. It also explains the effect ADD has on couples and family. It shows how people with ADD can use their huge imagination to their advantage. Finding books and articles about ADD is not hard at all, but it is a little harder to find the specific causes and effects that it has on the lives of those who have it.