Blog # 8 The Art of Faliure

I don't like the idea of failure. It really just bothers me. So honestly, I did not want to read this article. I assumed that it was going to just sad and depressing. But I was pleasantly surprised with it. In the article, "The Art of Failure", it talked about the differences between choking and panicking in situations. It also gave some great examples of these.
A time in my life when I have where I have choked and panicked is when I took the ACT my junior year. I had taken a prep class that year, and had material I could study from. I felt like I was as prepared as I could be for this awful test. That day came, and now seems like a blur to me. I didn't totally bomb the test, but I definitely didn't do as well as I could have. I remember getting to questions and thinking, " You know how to do this! Just relax!" But noting came to my mind, I just had to guess, which put me in more of a panic.
Although no one likes to fail, it was nice to read this article and be able to totally relate to it. 

#7 Paying to Play

In the article, it talked about how payola works in the music world. I'm not 100% sure if  I clearly understand that concept, and the whole thing. But from what I did understand it seems like the whole "paying to play" idea is really strange and almost selfish. They don't play songs to have the listener enjoy them, they play certain songs to get them bumped up. I think they should just play songs that are new and good for the listeners benefit. Not play a new song over and over for the artist's benefit. 

Diane Cole's Essay

One time I was sitting in a class in high school when a group of kids near me started making racist jokes. This isn't an unusual situation in high school. I didn't say anything because I wasn't apart of the conversation, and I didn't want to get in their business and tell them what to do. After reading Cole's essay, I know I should have said something to them then, or privately after class. If more people would actually speak up, these kind of situations wouldn't have to be a common thing.

My Narrative Essay...

I'm thinking that my narrative essay will be about me being very cautious in life. I chose this because the experience that goes along with that was one of the first to pop in my mind. I feel as if I could write the best essay with that experience. In my essay, I'm most likely going to talk about how I fell off a horse as a child, and so now in my life I tend to be pretty cautious about almost everything. I think this essay will be a fun and fairly easy one for me to write.

Chapters 4 and 5

   While reading chapters 4 and 5 in Patterns for a Purpose, I found a couple things to be quite helpful. In chapter 4, what mainly stood out to me was the section about personal response. I try to use this technique, but I regularly forget to do it. I don't write it down necessarily though. I usually just think about it in my head. So I thought it was helpful to remind me to actually write it down. 

    In chapter 5, I thought it was all very helpful and that the information in it was useful. I really liked the section about description. Marissa and I had a discussion about description. It seems that we both tend to use the same old words and phrases, and just get in the habit of using the same things. So I really enjoyed this section to help me out with my bad habit of being boring and plain in my word choice.

How do I feel about reading and writing?

     My personal experience with reading and writing has its ups and downs. I don't hate to read but it's never been a regular habit of mine. When I do find a book that info like, I can't put it down. I just rarely give myself the opportunity to read. With writing, I could take it or leave it. If it's on something I know a lot about or something I like I can write about it without much hesitation. With reading and writing, they're not my most favorite things ever, but I don't hate them either. I'm right in the middle.