What Is A Blog?

Since I have developed more of an understanding from using a blog for this whole semester, I now have a general idea of the functions of a blog. A blog is like a journal where you can pretty much write whatever you want and display whatever you want. You can choose to make it public or private. Blogs have been used for different purposes, from business, to school, or just for people to write whatever is on their mind. I have seen a lot of blogs where the person posts an issue or just a general problem and many people have responded with their opinions, giving possible solutions. From using a blog this semester, I thought the positive thing about it was that more people in the class participated. Whenever the class was assigned a reading and was to post a reflection on their understanding of what was read, you would be able to look at other peoples' blogs and read their interpretation of the reading. It relates to a discussion, and makes the discussion better when more people put their ideas out there. I've noticed that in class, whenever we have a discussion about what we've read, not a lot of people give feedback. Another good thing about blogging is that you also get quick feedback from your teacher and your classmates. It is also another way to comment to your classmates about their ideas and for them to comment on your ideas. It also lets your classmates and your teachers get to know you better and how you think. When Nick introduced us to blogging, I thought it was a different way of interacting in the classroom and doing our assignments. What I didn't like about blogging was that sometimes it would get a bit time consuming for some of the blog assignments because I have a hard time getting my thoughts down in writing, having to find the right words to say to make sense, to get my idea out to where when other people are reading my post, they can understand what I'm trying to say. Whereas in the class, I can break down certain elements from the idea that I'm trying to get across and other people can jump in, kind of helping to get out what I'm trying to say. I also think that sometimes with blog discussions, the person doesn't really get a full understanding of what they've read, whereas having a live discussion in class, people put their ideas out and the teacher kind of guides the students to think further outside the box. Besides using blogs in a school setting, I don't really use blogs outside of school for my own personal use. From using a blog for the first time in this class, I felt that it was a good experience, sharing ideas and being able to think critically to find a deeper meaning in the readings, but in the future, I will probably not continue to use blogs unless another class that I am taking is using blogs.

An Imperial Message

In Kafka's text "An Imperial Message", Kafka introduces the text talking about how an emperor is on his death bed and he wants a messenger to spread his message throughout the entire Empire. After the messenger has confirmed that he has understood the message, he begans on his venture to spread the message throughout the entire land. While on his venture, he has to step through obstacles that hold him back from spreading the message. While reading the preface, it makes it better to understand the text. The preface tells us through Kafka's text, the Emperor stands for God, and because God is dying, or becoming nonexistent, God wants to spread his message throughout the village but "the villagers are not close to god." Therefore, the messenger pushes and pushes through obstacles, though never arriving at the destination. The pretext also tells us that the people don't understand the situation and that couriers are shouting messages that are meaningless. I think this relates to the ways of how we come across signs in our life. When Kafka states that God, as an emperor, is trying to deliver to the people his message and that people come to misunderstand it, I think it relates to how God sends us signs in our life, whether it is good or bad. We have to look at each sign that God gives us and put the pieces together in order to better interpret the message that God is trying to tell us.

Discrimination is a Virtue

In "Discrimination is a Virtue", author Robert Keith Miller talks about how society has misused the word "discriminate" and how as time goes by that society has related the word with racism. Miller provides us with the dictionary definition of "discrimination" meaning "the ability to tell differences". He also provides many examples of how we discriminate such as the ways we choose which kind of foods to eat, and that discrimination doesn't always have to do with racism and prejudice. Another very effective example that relates to the presidential election is the example that Miller provides about King Lear and his daughters. King Lear tests each daughters' love for him, asking them "How much do you love me?" and listening to each of their responses. Because King Lear did not diffrentiate what was true love and what was false from his daughters' responses, he had "lost his kingdom and eventually his life". Therefore, when we listen to each presidential candidate and the issues they are presenting on their platforms, we need to diffrentiate between what each candidate is saying, not to just vote for a candidate because they are saying something that we want to hear. In today's society, many feel there is discrimination towards the two Democratic candidates, Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, because one is female and the other is an African American. Many people are associating discrimination with gender and race. Although those candidates posses those traits, we can't go pretending "that there are no distinctions to be made". But if people can look past the biases and listen to these candidates' words, it will be to the benefit of society, voting for who they think is the best qualified. As Miller states at the end of his essay: "The ability to make intelligent judgements is essential both for the success of one's personal life and for the functioning of society as a whole."

Visual for argument

The image shows an example of someone who has been stripped away of their medals because they have used performance-enhancing drugs to improve their performance in the professional sport. This image of Kelli White, an American sprinter, was stripped away of her medals and had lost her chance of competing at the Athens Olympics in 2004. This image will be useful for my paper because it shows someone who was successful in her professional career, and by her decision to use performance-enhancing drugs, that has lead to a downfall in her career. It supports my argument, showing that there are consequences to using performance-enhancing drugs, whether it be the effects it has on a person's body, or the effects it has on a professional athlete in their career. It also lets teenagers who look up to these athletes see that if they too want to have a career as a professional athlete, that they should steer away from using performance-enhancing drugs because, like the example of Kelli White, they could lose it all. Not only is it cheating the sport, but the person is also cheating themselves by using performance-enhancing drugs.