May 2009 Archives

This is my second blogging portfolio. I feel that it is not quite as strong as the first. However, considering to course work load that I have with all of my classes, I feel that I managed my blogging to the best of my ability. I really feel that to the feedback on my blogs helped me to understand the novels and plays in a broader way. I did not only have my opinion to reflect back on, I have my peer's views as well. I believe their ideas have made all the difference. 
Coverage
I did nearly all the blogs. I have one that is missing out of all that were assigned. I unfortunately do not remember enough now to go back and finish it. However, here is a list of the blogs that I do have.
 Disease for emotion
 Evil or just a threat?
 Throw away everything you learned.
 With out Manners
Will the real Roethke please stand up!
Child innocence
Primal Instincts
Cleansing?
Thank you for Confiding in me.
Choosing your own path
"Wacko" is your diagnoses
Art and Fruedian Sexual Ideals
Vein, Greed and "Perfection"
 Timeliness

 Most of the blogs that I did were on time. However, some were not. I have realized that I am a slow reader and sometimes I could not find something that I wanted to blog on until after the due date. These are the blogs that did get turned in on time.

Throw Away Everything You Learned

With out Manners

Will the real Roethke please stand up!
Child innocence
Primal Instincts
Cleansing?
"Wacko" is your diagnoses
Art and Fruedian Sexual Ideals
Vein, Greed and "Perfection"
Interaction
  Interaction is lacking in my blogs for this portfolio. I unfortunately did not have as much time for the second half of this semester. However, I did find one blog that I did comment back to Carlos, but he never responded back.
 "Wacko" is your diagnoses
Depth
 As with the interaction, my in depth blogs are minimal. There is one that I feel that I took a great deal of time writing a thorough point of view about.
 "Wacko" is your diagnoses
Discussion
 I commented on many blogs throughout the second half of the semester. I feel that I honestly gave better comments than I did in the first half. Most of my earlier comments would mostly say "I agree". Later I began giving more in depth responses in hope of a reply back. Most did not reply back however. Here are the ones that I feel capture the best of my comments for the second half of this semester:
 Aja Hannah: Mullments with Jesus
 Matthew Henderson: Sex Isn't Sexy
 `Jen Prex: The Blind Shall See
Other
I also wrote a blog about the interpretation project that we had to do on one of the works of literature we read this semester. In the blog I discuss how I and my partner, Jen Prex, came up with an interesting idea for the skin of our teeth . It discusses the equipment that we used and where to find the video on that we made on You Tube:

Tea Time with Mrs. Antrobus

Although my portfolio is missing one or two blogs, I feel that I did put my best effort into it with the time that I had. I enjoyed the blogging experience. It is something I probably would have never gotten into had it not been for American Literature. I actually own a live journal now which works a lot like these blogs, and I am looking into signing up for other blogging types of websites as well. 
Over all, I enjoyed the class. It was hard work and it challenged me beyond belief, but in the end, that is always a good thing. It is an experience that I will never forget.  
Back to class site.

For an Interpretation project, the class was supposed to choose one of the books, plays, or poems that we had read this semester and come up with a creative interpretation of it or add on to the story somehow. We could either work in groups or individually. I worked with Jen Prex on the project and we decided to use the play  The Skin of Our Teeth  by Thornton Wilder. 
In the play, Mammoth and Dinosaur come in to the house and Mrs. Antrobus says to them "Hm!... Will you be quite?  They nod.  Have you had your supper?  They nod. Are you ready to come in?  They nod. " The Mammoth and Dinosaur do not have much of a part other than that. We decided to make the Dinosaur and Mammoth come in covered in mud and track it through the house. Mrs. Antrobus becomes angry and tells them to leave the house. The children (Gladys and Henry), however, change Mrs. Antrobus' mind. The children love their two pets and cannot bare to see them go. Therefore, Mrs. Antrobus decides that as long as Mammoth and Dinosaur can learn proper etiquette, they can stay. She begins with lesson one: the proper way to have tea. Unfortunately, Dinosaur and Mammoth are unable to successfully learn how to have tea and Mrs. Antrobus tells them to leave and never return. 

For this project, I did all of the art work and scanned it into my computer to put into a PowerPoint slide show. Jen did the music using a program called Finale. It is a program that allows you to place note on sheet music. You become a creator of an orginal piece that is copied down. It also allows you to play it back and make it into an mp3. We then had our friend Christine be Mrs. Antrobus and read the lines through a microphone that recorded onto my computer using a program called Audacity, a recording and editing software. It allowed us to put both Jen's music and Christine's voice together. We had to cut parts and slow down some of the music to allow Christine's timing to work with the music. When both tracks (Jen's music and Christine's voicing) were in sync, Audacity allows you to make it into a WAV or mp3 file. We then attached that file onto our PowerPoint. Using the rehearse feature, we synced the music with the slides. The end result was a creative story that is now on You Tube. I recorded my screen using a CamStudio 2.0 . This program allows you to make a video of anything that is going on directly on your computer. You canwe then upload it to You Tube or such websites.

Jen's Blog on our project.

Click HERE to watch the video.