For your final blog entry, I would like you to discuss one thing you think I should change about the course and why, and one thing you think I should keep from the course.

I guess for this class the one thing I would like to be changed is how the grading was. In English I with Mrs. Hall. I liked how we had until she had graded all the assignments to get our papers in. I think I only used that to my advantage once, but I knew it was always there if I needed it. That made my nerves not so bad when comes to deadlines. I know we have to have deadlines but this was at least an extra day or two if needed. As far as the one thing she should keep from the course, I would have to say the literary analysis!!! I know that this is probably not possible, but it was by far the hardest of them all for me. For one I didn’t really even understand how to do it. That is probably my fault. If I would have started on it in time to send it to the smart thinking then I would’ve done better on it.  I don’t know why it seemed so hard to analyze literature. Overall I enjoyed the class and I am glad that I survived it. I don’t really think I am looking forward to world lit next semester, but hopefully Mrs. Hall has prepared me enough to tackle it too.  Thank you Mrs. Hall for two great semesters! I have truly learned a lot and I am sure I will need it in my future!!

OK wow! So we get to write about whatever we want this week. That means this week’s blog entries should be interesting right? I guess I am going to write about what’s on my mind. This week I have been faced with the fact that I will have to hire a sitter for my children. I have four wonderful kids that range from 1 year old to 11 years old. They are my life, as I am sure you guys have heard at some point in this class. I have not had to have a babysitter for the past 4 years because I have always had my mom or my sister in law watch them for me. Well now that I am coaching my daughters softball team and traveling with my other daughters cheer squad, I need a sitter. I plan on taking more school hours on campus next fall and will need a sitter for those hours too. I know some people are thinking I am crazy, why don’t I just find a sitter and hire one? Right? Well it isn’t that easy for me. I am really stressed out over it. I want the right person for this job. I can’t make up my mind if I want a college kid or an older lady. I can’t make up my mind if I want a nanny or just a babysitter. I can’t even decide how much I am willing to pay. I know It sounds like I am very indecisive, and I am. I guess I will start my search and hope that the right person just stands out to me. As any parent knows, the wellbeing of your children comes before anything else in this world. I just hope I can let down my guard enough to hire the right person.

For my annotated bibliography and the argumentative paper I am writing about human cloning. To me this is a very good topic to write about because there are several people on both sides of the fence. Some people say it is a way of doing God’s work and should only be done by him, not us humans. Other people argue that it is simply a way to recreate a human for those that cannot reproduce on their own. I will be weighing the good against the bad and stating many facts in my paper. Arguments are backed by facts and I have found plenty to support my argument. I do not feel that human cloning should be done at all. There have been several types of cloning since around 1970 which includes animals, but none of humans. The risk of developing abnormal humans as a result is very high. To me there is no since in created something that God has already done. If we are meant to bear children, we do. If we want to have a child there are plenty of children already born who need homes and loving parents, why not adopt? Just because a child didn’t come from your genes it doesn’t mean you are not their parents. If human cloning were successful it’s not a guarantee for that person to be what you expected in the first place.

I am kind of in the middle on this subject. I understand that the list of banned topics are sensitive subjects to some and therefore may not need to be expressed in a classroom setting. However I also feel that it should be ok to talk about these things in a paper simply because we are on an online class and the teacher is the only person seeing it. I guess you could say that the teacher who reads it could be more judgmental toward that student if she did or did not agree with what they wrote. So as you can see I don’t really know how I stand on this. I personally would not want to wrote about any of those topics simply because I would be expressing my own opinion and don’t want to offend anyone else or their beliefs. We live in a free country and we should be able to talk about whatever we want but while in this class the teacher has the overall say on what can and can’t be discussed. It’s like religion and politics, you can’t openly talk about either one of them without someone around you stepping up and putting their opinions out there and disagreeing with you. Very rarely people talk about these subjects and someone does not get upset or their feelings hurt. I guess it would be better off just being safe than sorry and not allow the class to write about gun control, abortion, or any other banned topic.

There are several schools that are promoting the idea of "cash for grades." In this system, children who get good grades will be given money from the school. Discuss what you believe to be some of the negative and positive aspects of this policy.

Wow I wish they would’ve done this when I was a child in school! That would have been the best thing ever to receive money just for good grades. I was an A and B student until around the 8^th grade and then a few C’s every now and then. So I probably would’ve received some cash. I believe this could really help some kids now days. I have seen kids that slack at school work just simply because they are lazy. My daughter is one of them. She is in the 5^th grade and she is very smart, however sometimes she just doesn’t do her work because she doesn’t want to. If there were money involved I would bet she would never slack. Kids like to be rewarded for good behavior so I don’t see any difference when it comes to school work. The incentives are great to some people that don’t have a lot of money and that child might seek additional help from a teacher or a friend just so they could get paid. This in return will help them in the long run. Potientally help them make it to college. I have my thoughts about paying for good grades but I’m sure some people think it could be harmful. We can’t monitor the kids and what they do with the money, but I would still rather see good grades and an effort to try. We would rather see the kids with good grades than bad, so we should pay them to reward them.

Discuss whether or not you believe the use of medical marijuana is justified or should be legalized.

                I am against the legalization of medical marijuana for several reasons. I know a lot of people are for it for many reasons as well, however I just don’t think it is the best option. I believe that smoking marijuana may be beneficial to those who have medical conditions but if we make it legal more than just those people will be using it. I know there are a lot of people out there who use it now and don’t have a prescription for it but making it legal will only increase these numbers dramatically. If it is legal it would probably more likely to get in the hands of younger kids and be available to almost anyone, anywhere. It is a mind altering drug and can affect people around you in a number of ways. Marijuana causes people to react slower than they normally do and this isn’t always a good thing. While driving for instance, if you had just smoked marijuana and started driving, I wouldn’t want you to be on the same road as me and my children. I’m not saying that just because it is illegal now that we don’t have any users, I’m just saying it would increase the numbers if were legal. Sounds very dangerous to me.

                                                     Biography

I had the option of picking Harry Houdini, Elizabeth Taylor, or Malcolm X. I think all three of these are excellent people to write about. I am not all that familiar with Elizabeth Taylor’s movies mainly because they are a bit before my time. She is still an excellent actress with lots of interesting things to write about. While going over a few websites I realized I didn’t know as much as I thought I did about Malcolm X. He had quite a rough childhood. However I chose to write about Harry Houdini simply because it is awesome the things he can do! If you just watch any of his acts you will be left in awe with your jaw wide open. It amazes me how someone can do all those escape tricks. I wish I could do things like that, but I would probably just panic while trying to get out. I recently was in Florida and went to a festival on a pier one night. There was a young man doing Harry Houdini’s famous escape from the straight jacket. He was trying to beat Harry’s time and also do the trick with not only a straight jacket on but a 6 foot chain wrapped around him too. He did get loose from both and he did this in less than 3 minutes, I think. He was sweating a looked very nervous, so I can only imagine what Houdini was doing and thinking the first time he attempted all of his tricks and escapes. 

Banned Books

Since we are discussing/writing about literature, this week's topic is about banned books. Should we attempt to protect our children from "adult" subjects, or should we allow children the intellectual freedom to read whatever they choose?

 Wow what a topic to write a blog on this week! I am mother of four children and I am a firm believer in protecting the innocent as long as possible. There is no need in giving them information that they don’t need at such an early age. I am very strict on what my children watch and read as well as who they can be around. People, books, and movies are a big influence in children these days. I believe there is a certain time in a person life that they mature and actually become ready for this type of material. My children are all under the age of 11 and they never watch anything over PG13 and the movies or shows that are rated PG13 have to be screened by me. I just don’t want my children to learn about "adult" things from somewhere else other than mom or dad. We can explain things in a way that the kids will understand, while books and movies are more for a general audience that isn’t age specific. However, they do learn a lot from kids at school who don’t have parents that follow the same route as us. When they do hear things, our children always come to us and that’s when we sit down and explain in detail. These details are still geared toward their age.

  

                                                          Literary Analysis      

I plan to write my Literary analysis on the story by Ernest Hemmingway called “The short happy life of Francis Macomber.” This was a very interesting story to me. I liked all the stories except “The Yellow Wallpaper.” That one was so boring to me and I could hardly keep up with the information. So the question I am choosing to use is number 7 in our assignment. In Ernest Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," does Margot intentionally murder Francis? Does it matter? My husband read this story in this very same class and while I was reading it, he sat next to me. I kept looking over at him about to ask him questions and I think I even asked one or two. He would not respond except to tell me to keep reading. When I was finished reading it, I immediately looked at him and said “She shot that man on purpose!” My husband responded “did she, or didn’t she?” So ever since then I have wondered about that story. We have even referenced this story a few times since I read it.  In my eyes, she did kill him on purpose and I think my husband believes that as well. I am not absolutely certain this is what I plan to write this assignment on, but I probably will since I already understand it a little better now.

The Hemmingway hero code is a little weird to me. I believe Hero’s come in all forms and fashions. Just because a writer has a style of writing or a so called type of person they always write about, doesn’t mean they should be portrayed as that kind of person in their own life. Hemmingway may just like to write with this kind of code in mind, doesn’t necessarily mean he lives by them. I, as a female don’t agree with some of the laws of the code. For instance, the law that says never show emotion, that would be something hard for anyone person to go through life without doing. Even heroes, people of all types show emotion at some point in time in their life. This doesn’t make you any less of a person; it makes you look like you have a heart and soul. Also the one that states never allow commitment to a single woman! That is absurd! I believe you should have a commitment to a single woman and a single woman only. Who wants to go through life never being able to trust that one person you love and them not be able to commit to you? That is a great feeling to know you are the one person whom they devote their heart to.  However I do agree with some of the code. The part that talks about keeping your word is something I like. I believe anyone who tells you something should stick to it and keep their word. No one likes to be lied to.

                                  Unit 2

I have learned quite a bit in this unit of English 2. One of the things I learned is that I have a ton of resources to use for papers. All of these resources are provided by Black River Tech. It is really nice to know that I don’t have to always go to the library or Google everything when I need information. Another thing I learned is actually how to use Google. For years I have always turned to Google when I need answers. I usually just type in a couple of words relevant to what I’m looking for. Now I find myself using quotation marks and the word NOT, along with other things from page 338 in the Writer’s Reference book when I am using a search engine.  One of the things I am still uncertain of in this unit is the way to summarize without plagiarizing. This seems simple to understand yet I guess I just need a little more practice writing to get good at it. I don’t consider myself very good at citing sources either so that’s something I should study. Paraphrasing is a little difficult for me too. I know it is taking information and putting it in your own words and should be about the same length as the original, but I just get stumped sometimes trying to figure out which one of my own words I want to use. Over all I have learned a lot in this unit and look forward to getting better in the areas in which I struggle.

Digital Life

Today's world is advancing dramatically before our eyes. We went from writing on stone tablets years ago, to almost everything being digital. When writings are digital, we have easier access to them. We don’t have to worry about anything damaging our prints. Not very many people actually read books or magazines these days. Books can now be read on readers and most magazines can be read on online. Even the newspapers are published on websites. This makes everything more convenient for the readers with just a click of a button. If you go to the library you can still find a lot of books and material to read but you can also find almost all of it on digital copy as well. I like the fact that articles and archives are this way because I take online classes. I don’t always have the ability to go into the school or the library to do research but I know I can find what I need right here on my computer in the comfort of my home. On the other hand, my children haven’t learned the way I did as a child. I have made a point to take my kids to the public library quite a bit, so they can learn the proper way of locating a specific book or topic. If you think about it, the digital copy is a backup to the original. This is a way to be assured you won’t lose the information.  Today’s society has even begun to make and keep personal pictures on digital records. I have realized that this is something I do too. Ten years ago I would take a roll of film to get it developed. Today, all I do is send Walgreens my digital copy from my computer and have them print out one or two pictures at a time. I have tons and tons of actual pictures in my closet, but they are not recent ones. I like having pictures of all my loved ones to look back at years later. In my opinion, this is one downfall to digitalizing everything.

                                                 Family

Amber



My husband and the baby



Me and John Hayden @ a class party



James



John Hayden



Amber & Abby



My Kids @ Dixie Stampede



Abby's Birthday Party!



Amber & James outside





ASU Game



Abby @ Softball Tournament



On the Lake





My Bestie!





My nephew and I



My name is Jenny Sims and I am 30 years old. I am married to a wonderful man, John Sims. He is my best friend and I cannot imagine my life without him. We have been married for twelve years on Feb.16, 2013. John and I have four kids who we absolutely adore! My oldest is Abby and she just turned 11 years old. She is a softball player and she keeps us busy with games and practices at least 3 days a week. People call Abby my "mini me". She looks a lot like me and some say she has the same attitude. My other daughter is Amber; she will be 9 years old on Jan. 26 2013. She is my little dainty cheerleader. Amber is very outgoing and smart! My oldest son is John Hayden. He is 7 years old and just played football for the first time last season. John Hayden is very energetic and loving! My youngest son is James who is 9 months old now. He is the best baby you could ask for. He loves Mickey Mouse and Elmo and is starting to pull up on everything in the house, so he keeps me on my toes! My family is my life, as you can see. I devote almost every waking moment to someone in my family. I am the vice president of the PTA at my sons school, I'm a Girl Scout leader for my daughters troop, I was the cheer mom last season for Ambers squad, and I am a full time student. We love to travel together and we all love the river in the summer. I think we are all water babies! I love ASU football games and Birthday parties too! My favorite color is Blue.