Blog entry 10

Powell, Corey. "Black Cloud." New York Times 26 June 2006: F7. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The Article Black cloud is about the dangers of coal mining, and the dangers of burning coal. It gives examples of coal mine accidents, such as an accident that happened in Kentucky that killed five miners. He goes on to give similar examples of other mine accidents and tells about how the fines that are put on mines for these types of accidents are very low. He gives an example of a mine accident where a mine flooded and only nine of the workers survived, the company was only fined 14,000 dollars and received about 500,000 dollars from the state to help rescue the miners that were trapped inside. He also goes on to talk about Coals impact on the environment such as global warming and pollution. He advocates for awareness and a shift away from coal to other types of power such as wind and solar. I agree with him that coal can be very dangerous but I still think it is a huge part of our economy and something that we can't transition away from in the near future. Coal mining is a huge job creator and provides much of our nations energy. I think that we need to make the process safer for the miners but we can not transition away from coal right away. Rimer, Sara.

"College Panel Urges Shift Away From SATs." New York Times 22 Sept. 2008: A14. ProQuest Historical Newspapers. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The article College Panel Urges Shift Away From SATs talks about how a panel of college admissions officers led by William Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid ad Harvard, are advocating for college to stop relying so heavily on ACT, and SAT scores of high school students. They say that the current tests show difference in scores based on social class, race, and the level of education achieved by someones parents. They also say that students are spending a large amount of time trying to "Game the SATs" and this is causing disparities in the scores. They advise focusing on the grades of a student an the courses they are taking in high school to determine entrance into a university. I however disagree with this view. I think that the standardized test is a good measure of a students ability. If they base there admissions solely on grades then there could be some major differences that are not accounted for. First of all how could they account for individual teachers. Someone could have a much easier teacher than someone else in the same class, the student in the harder class would actually learn more and be more and be more prepared for college than the student in an easy class but their grades would not reflect that. Also the standardized test is fair, it is the same test for every person and does not deviate in difficulty

Douthat, Ross. "Abortion Politics Didn't Doom the G.O.P." New York Times 7 Dec. 2008: WK10. Web. 28 Oct. 2011.

The article Abortion Politics Didn't Doom the G.O.P. talks about how may people view the republicans loss as having to do with abortion when that is actually not the case. Douthat says that the pro-lifers are actually more uncompromising than you might think. He states that our perception might be mislead by the media because they only show the extreme of an issue, they show people protesting outside an abortion clinic when that is only a very small percentage of pro-life supporters and a very small minority of them. He gives examples of how the pro life campaign is starting to trend towards changing peoples views on abortion rather than changing the laws. He also says how they are willing to compromise and are adapting the pro life movement to the 21st century. I believe that abortion should only be used in the case of rape. If it was not your choice to have sex then you should not have to go through the challenges and pains of a pregnancy, but if it was your choice to have sex you should be prepared to deal with the consequences of your actions, whatever they may be.

A toothbrush is something that we all have, but have you ever stopped to compare them. The Oral-B 3D White Advanced Vivid Toothbrush looks like a toothbrush that you could take to space. It had a very large handle with various grips for your fingers and thumbs. the handle looks big and sturdy and has many things used to grip the brush so it wont fall out of your hands when you brush your teeth. It has a slender neck so it can fit easily in between your teeth so that you can get the whole way to the back of your mouth. the last part of this brush is the bristles. The bristles of this brush are grouped into many cylinders on the brush so that they can easily fit in between your teeth and clean your gums. Overall this brush is very ascetically pleasing it has a nice color scheme, good lines, and a colorful appealing head with colored bristles. It is in the higher end of non electric toothbrushes and is made by crest so It is a name everyone knows. The name suggests that that it is a very good toothbrush they use words such as vivid and and advanced to describe their space age product.

The second toothbrush I will be looking at will be the pre-pasted TB-43 with Dentifrice by Venture six. I'm sure that you can see that this toothbrush looks very different than the Oral-B brush. this brush is a solid color with no added grip. It does however have raised pieces of plastic where the thumb goes for added grip. these brushes are much more colorful however and that serves its purpose because these brushes were built for children. Both brushes have a slender neck and a head that contains the bristles but the bristles of the two brushes are very different. The bristles of the TB-43 are very standard compared to the oral b brush. How ever they are pre-pasted. which means that all you need to do it put water on them and brush. The top bristles are colored to make them more appealing to children. These brushes are also disposable so they do not need to be as nice or as long lasting as the oral b brush that can be used for a long time before it has to be replaced. these brushes are also much cheaper than the oral b brush which costs three dollars while the pre-paste brush costs only 18 cents each. Both of these brushes serve the same purpose and are interchangeable but they are very different especially in their design and appearance.

For my evaluation I would like to evaluate the movie "The Soloist." This is a drama that is set in los Angeles in the late 1990's about a down on his luck journalist who finds an unlikely story in a homeless man who is an extremely talented Musician. The movie starts out with the journalist just trying to write a story but it develops into much more than that The movie follows them through their trying friendship and gives us insight not only into the soloist (Nathaniel Ayers) but also into the journalist (Steve Lopez) This movies is about much more than journalism or music. It is about tragedy and friendship and finding hope in something that looks hopeless. This movie is acutely based on a true story and in my opinion is a drama. This film is worthy of evaluation because it can show us a lot about ourselves and what is possible if we try and make a difference. It also shows us how big of a difference one person can make in the life of another. I think that this movie is classified as a drama. It deals with the development of the characters and the issues that they are facing, It lets those things shape the story and move the plot forward. Other items I would compare it too would be movies like "Pay It Forward", and "The Shawshank Redemption." These movies are in the same category as the soloist and display many of the similar traits that make them all dramas. There are many criteria used to evaluate dramas but the ones I will use are:

• Well developed and compelling characters,
• a climactic emotional story,
• a good plot,
• the believe ability of the story,
• how well made the actual movie is.

The characters need to be well developed because in a drama the story is focused around the characters and what they are like and if you cant connect with them or feel for them the movie loses its power. There needs to be a climactic and emotional story because if there is no emotion or conflict the movie will not be classified as a drama. You need to feel something when watching a drama you need to care about the characters and how everything will turn out or it is not worth watching. The plot also needs to be good because the events that make up the story need to be relevant and fit together very well or the movie does not make sense. If the movie is not believable then you will not feel attached to the characters or find the movie very interesting in the terms of a drama. It also needs to be will made. A movie can have all of the four things mentioned above but if it is not made or put together well theatricality then the movie will not be any good. In my opinion if a drama has all five criteria listed above then it fits the genera and is very well done.

Redesign

Overall my blog is not very appealing. It is fairly easy to read because of the simple color scheme but sometimes the text gets highlighted and I can’t read the quotes. At times the white text can be distracting and difficult to read. There is also a lot of white space that can distract readers from the text. The blog is not inappropriate but its design does not focus on the English class or academics it focus on Frisbee which does not make scene with the props of the blog. If I was writing about sports or Frisbee it would make sense but it does not work very well with the purpose of the blog.

I think that it does represent me well as a student and as a writer. It is very simple and not flashy. In my writing I try to be descriptive but it is difficult for me to make long showy descriptions and have descriptive flowery writing. I think that the theme represents me well as a person also. It is a Frisbee player and since I play Frisbee I think it represents me well. It is not very focused though and the design is a little confusing. I only uploaded one picture and it looped it and copied it down the page. It was very distracting and took away from the overall look of the blog. It also showed all the posts on the main page which made it very long and hard to navigate. I also did not title my posts so it was hard to figure out what they were about.

To improve my blog the first thing I tried to do was making it more professional. I started with the theme. I changed my theme from plain black and white with a distracting picture behind it. I used a picture template from the blogger website and put my pictures on the side rather than the background. I also chose new pictures and tried to change the theme of my blog and make it more visually appealing. I used a picture of hiking and then one of the Arizona desert. They are related and work very well with the background which is a blurry mountain scene. It looks really cool and makes the blog look more professional and represents me more as a writer and student because it is still simple but it is more polished and descriptive. Another thing I did was added a news feed at the top this was inspired by the Yahoo home page which shows you news and alerts on the homepage. I also fixed all of my blog posts. They did not have titles and all of them were on the home page which made them very confusing. I gave all the blogs titles and limited it to only the most recent blog on the main page which makes it much less confusing. Another blog that inspired my layout was a blog called “The Good, the Bad, and the Outdoors the layout was very simple but it was very appealing and easy to follow and I tried to incorporate that into my blog.