Blog #6 Planning interview for personal profile

1. What do you do? (occupation)
2. What are your hobbies?
3. Where were you when Hurricane Sandy hit?
4. What did you do to get through the power outage during the aftermath of Sandy?

The person I am interviewing is Dave. I chose this person because I thought he would be a good candidate of choice for this paper.
Dave is a firefighter of Long Branch Fire Dept in New Jersey, and he is also a landscaper. Dave loves his job, and he risks his own life for others. I hope to find out what other preparations he did to survive disaster Sandy.

Blog #5 Responding to a Personal Memoir

Abracadabra by Sharon Solwitz

"First round of chemo, topo-cycle, two weeks. Hair intact the first week/ We think, He's lucky. One of the lucky ones. It starts to fal lbut leaves a thin layer, ;ank and fine, pale brown all over his head. I touch it gently so as not to dislodge".

"Round two: Adriamycin in hospital, forty eight-hour drip. Hes bald unto the eyebrows and eyelashes. EVen the nose hairs are gone. Nose continually runs. I love his bare scalp, warm to my cheek and lips. Alive and warm".

"I'm not afraid. Abracadabra. open sesame. I want him back in my house in his room, at the table eating food I've cooked, fighting with his brother, talking on the phone drawing his teddy pictures, doing his homework or not doing it, even playing video games, which I discouraged, or upstairs asleep behind the protective wall of his stuffed animals."

The writer's writing style is very experimental and I've noticed it is similar to free writing.The author develops a sense of character of herself missing her own son whom she lost to a cancer battle. Even though she knows her son is dead she cant help but miss him and wanting to bring him back like magic in an instant. She keeps talking about how she wishes she could say the simple word "Abracadabra" (words that magicians mostly use) and her son would pop back in her life. What made the author interesting or sympathetic to me was that her writing style and her expressing of her emotions towards how much she missed her son and also with the reminiscing. What grabbed me the most on Sharon Solwitz story was everything that was incorporated about her life on her own son, from telling the story on when he was born until the day he died, and the struggles she went through his cancer battle and accepting the fact that her loved one was deceased.
I think this memoir was published because it was based on a real story on her life and it was successful with other readers because maybe they could relate to it.  

Blog #4 Writing on a Historical photo

"A boy leans on wooden gatepost in 1910"

In this picture it looks like it shows a young boy leaning against a gatepost in a large farmland area. The area has trees, bushes and gateposts in the background of the picture. The young boy has blue eyes, a mix of light brown and blonde hair. The young boy looks like he is wearing a old beanie hat, a robe that looks dirty, and old cargo pants. From the picture it looks as if the young boy is from a low class on the poor side. It looks like the boy is sad and tired in the photo because he is probably tired of working in the factory. I think the young boy  is trying to express himself though the photo because it shows him in a state of being sad and tired, he looks like he has been working long hours and just wanted a break and wandered outside to look at  the scenery for his relaxation. I think the relationship with the photographer and the person is maybe a friend or a complete stranger trying to take a photo and capture a picture that focused on a young boy. 

Blog #3 Reading description

"The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them" (15)

"Blue-furred,orange-eye, a tiger snarled upon his left biceps a spitting snake, coiled around a dagger, slithered down his arm; and elsewhere skulls gleamed, a tombstone loomed, a chrysantheumum" (28)

"How two individuals could reach the same degree of rage, the kind of  psychopathic rage it took to commit a crime" (38)

These phrases from Truman Capote's In Cold Blood" are effective to me because it is very descriptive and it gives you a sense what he experienced. The first phrase develops a sense of place by painting a good descriptive picture on the scenery of the location he was in. The second phrase was appealing and interesting on how he described the tattoos on a man's body with his detailed description of the character. The third phrase develops a sense of personality.
Truman Capote's writing is effective to me because it is very interesting and detailed on his experience there. I chose this because Capote's details of the locations, people and the storyline overall is just very real, you feel as if you can experience for yourself.

Blog Post#2 Author's Note on my Vignette

       There was an hour introduction to rifle safety that we had to take before actually having the experience of shooting a rifle. I learned the safety precautions and shooting techniques of the Ruger rifle that we would be using and the terminology of that .22 caliber rifle. I also learned that the .22 caliber Ruger rifle is a good for beginner shooters. The excitement begins as we enter the indoor shooting range and finally get to shoot a rifle! Even learning to load the ammunition into the rifle magazine was very exciting. I remember our instructor Tom saying: Everyone have their eyes and ears?” and we all responded Yes and then one person in the class says “We don’t have goggles or ear protection”. We all thought he meant do we have our eyes and ears with us, we all laughed and joked about it while getting our protection gear. I had to put on safety goggles and ear protection that they had provided.  

      My experience with shooting a rifle for the first time at the shooting range recently inspired me to write this non-fiction story. I think people need to know the basics of handling a rifle to have a better understanding this vignette. No, I did not have a writer or reading from class in mind while writing the non-fiction vignette story. I will be revising this piece for our final portfolio by looking it over and going to the writing center for help on revising it. I will also give it to a friend for another opinion to see if there is more revising that is necessary. I actually have written short stories before when I was younger. I learned from writing this vignette that I used my personal thoughts, learning experience, my actions and some dialogue from the shooting range that day. I found out that not only can you use your personal thoughts but you can include personal experiences and even learning experiences. I wrote my piece on paper first and I revised and looked it over on word processor. 

Blog Post #1

My name is Joyce Mau and I am studying Criminal Justice at LaGuardia Community College. I am 21 years old, and I will be 22 this November. I am Chinese and Malaysian, my father is from Hong Kong and my mom is from Malaysia. I went to Hong Kong and Malaysia for the first time in the summer of 2010 and had such a wonderful time. I have a great amount of respect for firefighters, Marines, Navy Seals and all other military servicemen and service woman. I have an amazing boyfriend, he is a firefighter in Long Branch, New Jersey and his name is Dave. I've been to Maine recently and I absolutely loved it, and I would definitely move there one day in the future. I wanted to take English 274 as an elective because I have always enjoyed and loved English courses. I also wanted to take this class because it seems like a interesting and fun class. I have done fiction writing in a writing workshop I went to a year or two ago and I used to keep a journal that I would write in daily. I used to blog about fiction stories that were inspired about some events that have happened in my life. The kinds of writing that I am interested in is fiction and non-fiction but I am usually open to the different kinds of writings out there. Yes I have recently read a biography about a Navy Seal and that really made me want to interview a group of Navy Seals and hear their story.

"Life"(one of journals for class)

Life can be full of surprises sometimes. You can never expect a lot to happen in one single day or even a week. For me, theres has been many unexpected moments in my life, and some are good some are not so great. A day ago I was walking to the Westport building to meet up with my friend and I saw a good buddy of mine from one of my previous classes two semesters ago. It was really good to see him and catch up a little because we were both in a hurry to get somewhere. Even if it was for a little while, it was still good to see him considering I don't see him that often as I see my other friends. This is what I mean when I say that life can be full of surprises sometimes, even the little things in life can make an impact on your life and surprise you. In a sport, whether its basketball, cheerleading, or tennis the effort you put into it can even exceed your expectations and even shock yourself. For example, when basketball teams practice each day and a few people make 30 shots in a row that just might be shocking but also a great feeling of a step towards a great goal. Another example, cheerleaders practice almost everyday to get their routines right and everything perfect for games and competitions. When they get everything on point and perfect after so many times of practice they have a great feeling and exceed their expectations. My motto is always life life with no regrets because you only live once. I can say proudly that I've done many things in my life that I thought I would never do because either I was scared or afraid. One of the many things that I've done would be riding Nitro (rollercoaster in six flags). It was the most scariest feeling ever I closed my eyes throughout half of the ride, but I have to admit it was kind of fun. I remember when I was in Malaysia, I spent an hour walking up many narrow steps of a temple, I never thought in my life I would do that, but I did and I conquered my fear of heights. I almost suffered from dehydration afterwards because Malaysia is very humid since its right near the equator and walking up those narrow steps that aren't even isn't exactly easy at all. Last thurday September 16, 2010, we had two tornadoes that hit us, it was the worst disaster ever. My hometown Flushing, Queens got hit the hardest I was in shock when I saw the pictures in the chinese newspaper and the stories I heard. I saw pictures of trees fallen down, roots pulled out with the trees, cars damaged, the whole street of main street flushing with trees and a piece of the church that was taken apart by the tornado. Main Street, Flushing was closed down because a lot of damaged happened and police were investigatin on what occured. My best friend didn't get home until midnight that day because her dad was stuck in traffic for an hour. I was completely worried because I knew that I wasn't going to be calm until I know that she was home and fine from all this mess. I guess that's how I am because I care a lot about my best friends/friends and family. I'm glad she didn't take have to take the LIRR or the 7 train because the 7 train wasn't running at the time due to the incident of trees on the tracks. I texted my best friend the whole time until she got home since it was late and it's also dangerous at night. I also called my relatives in Fushing and made sure they were okay and safe at home. This whole tornado situation that I just explained about is also an unexpected occurance in life that surprises us to no end. It is crazy how something can destroy a part of New York in such a small amount of time. I live in Staten Island, and I'm just glad I survived this thing and I'm greatful that we didn't get hit with it badly. Live life to the fullest and don't regret it because you have a lot to live for and you only have one life..