I think that this is a good poem to discuss in this class because we recently have completed an analysis of the movie “Religulous”. This poem is based upon a parents experience and reaction to their child being introduced to religion. At the beginning of the poem it is somewhat unclear what the poet is trying to express. The idea that church activities are simply just for fun and entertainment is strongly hinted. The poem describes how the child seems to be so joyful about church activities. Its as if the parent realizes that there is no easy way to handle their children in this situation the way that they truly desire. I can relate this back to my own experiences with religion as a child. Its as if bible stories seem to be created especially for children. I remember thinking that Sunday school was so interesting when I was younger. I’m assuming that this is due to the fact that the majority of the time at church was spent singing songs, doing crafts, or eating food. I think that it is so much easier to convince a child of something. A parent in this situation like in the poem has merely no choice but to let their child “have fun” with it. I believe that when it comes to religion a person should be at a certain age before they truly decide on their beliefs. I can say that personally I have definitely altered in some ways my beliefs since those days in bible school.

At Wright State, our university is known for its high accessibility for those who are disabled or impaired in some way. Overtime, as a student here it is normal to see a large population of disabled people more often than anyone would probably be used to during life before college. It is true that it is probably easy for some people to feel occasionally uncomfortable about this but for the most part I had felt in the past that I had accepted that sort of thing and never have paid any more attention to them as to any one else. At my college it is normal to be surrounded by electric wheelchairs, walking sticks, and teachers with disabilities. This is just everyday life, and everyone gets used to it, as they should. I believe that diversity in education is a major necessity. Day by day as I watch the disability population I tend to notice things about their methods of getting around and their overall lifestyle. Often I see some students with guide dogs. I’m always intrigued by these animals because I would like to pet or greet them but I know that that’s probably not the most appropriate thing to do. It seems though as if these dogs really do their job. Since there are usually only a few dogs on our not so large campus it is not hard to be familiar with the person and their dog. There is this one particular blind boy who I often see a lot. I have seen him frequently since the beginning of this year usually walking with a guide stick. I consider him to be a very friendly person and he generally seems to be quite independent always taking a straight determined path to wherever he is going. Later times in this year though I have seen him with a guide dog. It seems as if when he has had a dog he never seems to be confused or uncomfortable in any way. Before this though this wasn’t exactly the case.
I have always been amazed by the heightened alternate senses of impaired people, but sometimes they are put in situations they have never experienced before. This is the same for any human but it tends to be more difficult for a blind person. One evening my friends and I were working out in the Fitness Center in the Student Union, as we are going along running on the ellipticals we suddenly hear a loud shocking noise. As we look around we seem to notice the fire alarms are going off. All of a sudden every employee of the gym is urging everyone to evacuate immediately. Everyone, confused, stops whatever he or she is doing and scrambles in different directions. My friends and I decided to take a path away from the gym that no one else really is going in. As we begin to walk towards the door we encounter and university employee telling the particular blind student that I often see that he can no longer go in that direction. Listening in, I notice that this boy begins to get a very concerned look on his face. “But…I have to go to class.”, He says. The worker tells him again that he cannot go this way as many people walk by. In pure panic he begins to say “I have to go to class though!..I don’t know any other way, I have to be to class soon”. Many people are watching, as he stands stagnant, confused, and alone. At once my friends and I all volunteer to guide him an alternate way to class. At this point I tell him to follow my voice and we will go a different route. As we lead him to class and talk to him some he seems so happy that he was able to get to class and that he was spending a short amount of time with people he had never met before. I felt as if this task of helping someone was an important moment in my life. It is evident to me that the visually impaired rely solely on memory and other sensory skills and sometimes that can be very difficult. Looking back at this experience I really felt as if blind people deserve a lot more credit.

As we watched the movie “Religulous” in class I really felt interested in the topics of the movie. This movie was strictly based upon Bill Mahers personal opinions of religion. Maher is a comedian that is particularly known for being controversial, therefore a viewer generally knows going into the movie that in some way he or she might be offended. I know it has offended many but I don’t find this film threatening. I simply think that Maher is expressing his personal questions and problems surrounding religion and the role it plays in our society. Maher, being atheist in some sense, believes that all religion is based upon ridiculous fictional propaganda.
In the film Maher travels around the world interviewing different members of particular religions asking them questions based upon the ridiculous and possibly fictional bases of their religious backgrounds. Maher frequently uses comedy to enlighten his interviews and almost always in a way make a mockery out of the people he is questioning, making it obvious that his main goal of the film is to make a joke of all religion.
I feel that Maher has done nothing wrong by creating a film based upon his own opinions. He has just simply found a way to raise awareness as to why he thinks we all should question these stories that he considers to be outrageous lies told for a false sense of hope. Maher feels that religion plays too big of a role in many people’s lives, governments, and overall psyche. I think that “Religulous” is a very interesting documentary of the current role of religion in everyday culture, and I would definitely encourage others to watch it.

To me this essay is sort of odd. I think that it takes an everyday general object and creates a sense of meaning associated with the significance of that object. The essay is focused upon a broomstick. The author describes this broomstick as a something that used to posses life as a tree. He elaborates by explaining its vibrancy and how it used filled with sap. He compares this with the current state of the broomstick, which is lifeless. He explains that the broomsticks “life” is completely turned because now it is standing on its head. The broomstick is completely innocent and is out of its natural habitat. The broomstick is now merely a tool that is at the use of any “wench”.
I see this essay as a comparison to the life of a man. I believe that it signifies that men are taken out of their natural habitat and turned into tools that have no comfort. As a youth they are thriving in nature and in adulthood they are simply to do the dirty work.
Although this is my interpretation on the essay I do believe the authors is somewhat different. It sounds like throughout the text there is a hint of satire. It seems to me as if the author wrote this essay to mock the type of way people create meanings out of pointless things.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1137662-1,00.html
All my life I have had a passionate love for dogs. This has made me very interested in the well being of animals. The article “Curbing the puppy trade” in Time magazine focuses upon the negative industry of puppy mill trading. Puppy mills are something that a lot of people don’t really know much about. I am very strongly against them and I feel that this article briefly touches upon how horrible they are. To me this article educates readers of the many puppy mills throughout the Midwest and how puppy mills provide a large percentage of dogs being bought. The dogs from these puppy mills are treated very badly and are kept in inhumane conditions. Many animal advocates are attempting to reduce the number of dogs being produced by these puppy mills. I say produced because to the mill owners the animals are nothing but a product that produces profits. The solution to reducing these puppy mills is to stop buying animals from places like pet stores and online sellers. This is easier said than done though when attempting to convince consumers to take the time to research dog breeds, shelters, and breeder. Animal activists are attempting to promote the adoption of the many homeless pets in shelters and pounds around the United States. Many people believe that they cannot adopt purebred animals but this article points out that a quarter of all animals in shelters are pure bred. This article makes me very interested in educating people of the puppy mills and their horrible qualities. I feel very obligated to help animals and be a part of reducing the number of puppy mill produced dogs that is in the high hundreds of thousands. Puppy mill trade is hurting our animals and should be an issue that concerns people everywhere.

This is a really interesting short story that really gives great imagery. I can relate to this story in a lot of ways. It reminds me of my own experiences at work and the thoughts that have gone through my mind. When I think about this story I image my job at McDonalds. The A & P is a lot like McDonalds because it seems like another one of those minimum wage jobs that are created especially just for teenagers. At these kinds of jobs day in and day out you seem to be faced with the same monotonous routine. As you get used to this routine you find your mind going off into the strangest paths. It is as if the simplest things can be analyzed and drawn out. The routine becomes so much of a pattern and habit that you can do your job when your mind is somewhere else. In this short story this exact thing is taking place. The girls are a very interesting occurrence in the A&P because they are so out of the ordinary.
I feel as if I have had experiences like this particular one at McDonalds. Being a teenager it is so very easy to be distracted, especially by the opposite sex. I can think of many instances where people from just a combination of attraction, curiosity, and boredom have intrigued me. In a job like that a thing like a group of girls can be such an amazing escape for someone.
As much anyone can relate to that kind of job, they can definitely relate to when they are done with it. Don’t get me wrong I truly have value for the opportunity of a job, but I think that sometimes these jobs due more harm for a person than good. At the end of this story I can relate to the sadness of losing a job but in the same way the satisfaction of being able to dismiss something that has caused you a lot of frustration.

Poetry is often very confusing to me. I don’t know, it has always frustrated me how poetry can be interpreted in so many different ways. All poetry is very unique though and I guess that the intrigues me. A writer that I have always enjoyed is Shakespeare. Throughout high school I found it difficult to completely grasp his meanings, but as I grew as a reader and was more familiar with the form of English his words really began to really jump out at me. Shakespeare wrote many poems that are in the form of a sonnet. In Shakespeare’s Sonnet CXXX I feel that a true sense of Shakespeare’s words and personality are evident.
In Sonnet CXXX Shakespeare speaks about his mistress in a generally unflattering way. To a literal reader it may seem that Shakespeare is completely tearing down this women although this is generally not the case. In this writing Shakespeare is basically mocking how all poems say the same things about a women. The point of this sonnet is that women must not be compared to so many “beautiful” objects to be considered a beautiful lover. The impression that Shakespeare seems to be a somewhat cynical and humorous person really comes out in his writings.
Although I think that I understand the actual meaning of this poem, to me it takes on another meaning. In my interpretation I feel that this sonnet should represent the idea that each and every person considers different things to be beautiful. When dealing with love it seems as if there are people out there made for each other and therefore Shakespeare’s mockery of these traditional love comparisons emphasize personal love. Shakespeare is a very expressive writer and it is easy very easy for me to be interested in his work.

..college..that is..
This is often a question that I have a hard time answering. Most of my life I haven’t really felt that intense instinct that I’m supposed to be a certain profession when I get older. When someone is growing up it is often depicted in movies and television that people have this cosmic plan of their life. I don’t necessarily think that it is that easy.  I have been thinking about college since I was a sophomore in high school, and I still haven’t figured it out. Throughout my teenage years I have considered so many different things I wanted to do with my life and I just can’t settle.
Right now, I think that I am at one of the most pivotal times in my life.  When I came to Wright State this past fall I found myself choosing my major as Art because I thought that it might be what I wanted to do.  Although, I knew deep down that the major I had chosen I would have maybe liked to pursue, but not at Wright State. So as I went along with this major but I now know that it was more of a tactic of eliminating the option. At the end of the fall quarter it turned out that my instinct was right, and that I didn’t want to pursue Art here. I really like Wright State, but I just haven’t found my place yet.
In this winter quarter there are many things that I would like to figure out. I tend to think that I know myself very well as a person, I just haven’t really figured out how to apply that. It seems as if that I have so many interests, I just don’t really know what to do with them though. I think that I definitely have the ability to succeed academically; I just still don’t think I can pick a major quite yet. This winter I would like to find my place. I want to make the goal to strive harder and really be passionate about learning. I need to find the major that is perfect for me. A college education is a great thing and I hope that in these next ten weeks I can get moving on to my own path.

Nicolle Haggerty
Major: Undecided
Hometown: Lima, OH