Grammar Post #13

Trying to figure out whether to use who or whom may sometimes be a bit confusing. The only time I've used whom was to say: To whom it may concern. Are there other times when whom is correct over who? An easy way to decide which is correct is to use the he/him method. If the sencetnce sounds better saying he then use who, if him is more appropriate whom is correct. Just remember:
He=who
Him=whom
Who/Whom wrote the letter?
He wrote the letter. OR Him wrote the letter.
Obviously, He wrote the letter is correct. Therefore, Who is the correct term. By knowing this easy method, you can now eliminate some confusion when writing. Look at this website for more examples.

THE CRUCIBLE

I went to The Crucible on Thursday night. At first I was very excited to see it. I read the play in school and saw a high school preformance and really enjoyed them both. I was eager to see how Dixie would compare. The stage was set up into a more intimate setting. The bleachers were in a half circle enclosing the actors. It was neat to watch them so close. All the actors did an amazing job. Do you have to go to Dixie to be in the plays? A lot of them looked like they were to old. As the play progressed, it seemed like all they were doing was yelling every line. For me, it made it hard to understand what they were saying. Also there were times where the actors had their back turned towards you, again making it hard to understand. By intermission I had become restless. I loss my intereset in this THREE hour play.

Art Gallery Extra Credit

While walking around the Art Gallery a certain painting caught my eye. The painting "Cowgirls Dusk" by Rod Peterson is beautiful because of the colors, details, and it is inspiring. The colors in the sky are powerful and bold. The pink and purple mixed make a mesmerizing sunset. Every color captures the moment. You can see the passion Rod put into it. The classic blue car is detailed with care. Even though it takes up almost the whole picture, it does not take away from other focal points. To me this painting symbolizes inspiration and hope. Looking out over the falling night sky, this girl has time to reflect. Maybe feeling a lone she drives into isolation to find herself. Sometimes when I feel all alone or had a bad day, I like to look over the mountains or city lights. It gives me a chance to relax, think, and hope. I think that is what she is doing. Over coming a difficult time, trying to feel better and become stronger. She may be alone now, but she has hope for tomorrow.

Group Plan

As a group we discussed many topics that interested all of us about psychology. We looked at mental illnesses that effect the brain, how to evaluate if someone was mentally unstable, what drives a person to kill or commit crimes, symptoms that psychologist see most often like anger and depression, and many others. In the end we decided our research question would be, what are the different types of schizophrenia and their affects on the human brain. Promising sources that we are going to look at are the library academic databases, Encyclopedias, and school textbooks. We are setting multiple group meetings to work on the presentation as a team.

Psychology Topics

-Schooling: How much and where?
-How do they determine the mental stability of someone?
-Training: Learning to do racial profiling or body language?
-When are psychologist most needed?
-What is the average time length that most patients see a psychologist?
- What is the most common symptom that psychologists treat? Anger, depression....
-How does someone become mentally unstable? Brain malfunction or dramatic experiences?

Grammar Post #12

Sentences and Fragments

Alot of the time I write short sentences, thinking that I can state an idea faster. These sentences may not be complete sentences, only fragments. So what's the difference? Fragments do not contain a main clause. There are three essential parts to a sentence: subject, verb, and complete thought. They are pieces of a puzzle. Examples of fragments are:

And yawned loudly enough to make everyone in class turn around.

Subject = Ø ; verb = yawned; complete thought = Ø.

The boy sitting on the fire escape dropping water balloons on the pedestrians below.

Subject = boy; verb = Ø; complete thought = Ø.

After Gabriel ate half a box of Devil Dogs.

Subject = Gabriel; verb = ate; complete thought = Ø.

A way to fix fragments is to add more information or connect with another sentence. Knowing what kind of fragment you are dealing with will help as well. Subordinate clause, participle phrase, infinitive phrase, afterthought, lonely verb phrase, or appositive are all types of sentence fragments. Subordinate clauses can start with words like: because, since, unless, provided that, if, before, as, who, where, when, and many more.

Participle phrases start with a word ending in ing or ed. Infinitive phrases begin with to followed by a base verb: to watch, to catch. Words like especially, except, excluding, for example, for instance, including and like usually begin an afterthought. Lonely verbs are usually missing the subject and begin sentences with and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so. An appositive starts with a noun and has many clarifying phrase or subordinate clauses following. A slacker wastes his afternoon in front of the television is an example of an appositive.

Check out this website for more knowledge.

Dixie State and Cambridge Lecture

Professors Paul and Nancy started the lecture of with two beautiful music numbers on the piano and violin. The first song they played was Beethoven. It was amazing, makes me want to play an instrument. After they finished, a slide show was presented. Picture after picture of Europe was shown. My favorite was the one of McDonald's! Professor Mosley finally took the podium. He is a white haired English man who had been teaching at Cambridge University for nearly forty years. Many professors had left Oxford because of conflict and built Cambridge in 1209. Celebrating it's 800 year this year (2009). To this day Oxford is still their rivals. Cambridge has produced many Noble Prize winners, more than France. Pro. Mosley is a very entertaining lecturer. Even with his accent, his personality was humorous. Definitely someone I'd go listen to again.

Opposition Revision

New techniques are being developed. Skin cells are being turned into Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) that mimic embryonic cells. In addition, Adult, neonatal, cord blood or placental human stem cells, and animal stem cells are other sources that are not involved in the ethical debate. The use of embryonic stem cells may over shadow these alternative methods, resulting in the loss of research that may be as valuable. Why not use these methods? Government funding for alternative research on embryonic stem cells would be beneficial in the long run. By protecting Human Rights, these methods could be more ethical.

Proposition Revision

The potential knowledge hidden in stem cells could have an explosion of health benefits. Imagine returning memory to an Alzheimer's patient, restore skin that was lost during a dreadful accident, or enable a wheelchair-bound person to walk. Obtaining this information could help scientist perform more tasks like regenerating nerve cells and creating new cartilage and bone, which will help with stroke, spinal cord injuries, arthritis, and osteoporosis. Many diseases, like cancer or sickle cell anemia, are created by deformed cells. Other diseases that may be treated are Parkinson’s disease, Diabetes, and vision loss.

Grammar Post #11

Parentheses, very mysterious. When do you use them? I don't know the last time I used them. I can't even remember when to use them or why you use them. There are probably many places where I should use them, but instead substitute a comma. One rule for using parentheses is to enclose words, phrases, numbers that are clarify another part of the sentence.

Example: He owes me a dollar ($1).

You also use parentheses when you are listing items. If the phrase inside the parentheses is a complete sentence then you use a period. Better examples were found at this website.

Grammar Post #10

Capitalizing is a pretty simple rule that most of us either forget or are just to lazy to do. Many are obvious like the first word in the sentence or proper nouns. Most of us capitalize a person's title, but if it is following the name the only time you do is if it is in an address or signature line. There are more rules for capitalizing then I thought. Other places where capitalization is important are:
-The first word is a quote. "To be or not to be."
-Signature line: Mr. Barns, President
Something I found interesting was you capitalize government officials only if it comes with a name before or after.
-The president will address Congress.
- All senators are expected to attend.
Some of these rules we do subconsciously. At this website I found 17 different rules for capitalizing.

Complications

So far this book has kept me entertained. Some of the doctor terms were a little confusing and I didn't really understand some parts. I like that he's telling stories that happened to him. Stories that he learned from. The first part makes me more cautious to go to the doctors. It's scary to know that they doubt themselves or may not be educated enough to fix you. There was a part in the book where his child was sick and he wanted a specialist to be the doctor. That does make it harder for newer doctors to learn, but I agree with him. If I was sick or my child I wouldn't want to turn our case into a learning experience. I'd feel safer with someone that is an expert in that area and does that everyday. I know that if i ever get a hernia I'm going to the Shouldice Hospital. You always assume that doctors know everything but with technology growing they are continually learning and growing to help save our lives.

110 Degrees Under the Sun

I enjoyed watching 110 Degrees Under the Sun. I was surprised at how good the actors are. Their voices were amazing and they all brought a unique personality to their characters. By the end you were into it. I enjoyed the part where Starbucks comes into town and claims he can bring rain. He starts singing a song and by the end they're all singing and convinced that he really can. It's entertaining. I don't know who plays the lead girl, Lizzie, but her voice is very pretty. I can't just give credit to the actors. The behind-the-scene guys did amazing. Although their props were simple I'm sure it took time to create. You can see their talent explodes in the hand painted mountains. I wish I was artsy like that.

David Lee

I have never been to a poetry reading before so I wasn't quiet sure what to expect. I know there are different ways to write a poem but for some reason I thought that every word was going to be ryhming. His poems told stories and had meaning. I really liked that. David kept you entertained the entire hour through his sense of humor and and hand gestures. Sometimes it was hard for me to follow the poems. This experience has helped me become a little more cultured and I would like to attend more in the future. I hope that I can gain a better appreciation for the poety world and start to undersatnd them easier. Also, i think it is great that his was the first white guy to play in the minor baseball Nigro league. It was either in Texas or Flordia. I can't remember that part.

Grammar Post #9

I guess I have a problem with nonrestrictive clauses, since that's what my grammer presentation is on. Anything that I feel is not a necessity to a sentence a surround in commas. Nonrestrictive clauses are a group of words, set of by commas, that are not essentail to the sentence. With or without that clause the meaning of the sentence remains the same. Nonrestrictive clauses can be at the end of the sentence or in the middle. You use commas when you are talking about one specific object that everyone knows about. If you are describing someone in a crowd, for instance, then you do not use commas.

The man in the black hat is 102 years old. Here you can assume that there are many more peolpe around the man. You describe him so others will know who you are talking about. That makes "in the black hat" essential, so no commas are needed.
But if you say it The man, in the black hat, is 102 years old. This could tell you that there is only one man and you wouldn't need to describe him for other to know who you were talking about.
For more examples go HERE!

Grammar Post #8

Ending your sentences with a preposition isn't always necessary. I always say, out of habit, "Where are they at?". The meaning of the sentence is clear just by saying, "where are they?" so I shouldn't add the at. Some sentences you need to have a preposition at the end or it wouldn't make any sense. Like "How many of you can I count on?" without on the sentence would not be complete. The on helps you realize that this person is depending on these people to show up somewhere, not just counting them for fun. Here's a link where I found the information.

Review research

What was the rating for The Emperor's New Groove?

The comedic styling of The Emperor's New Groove was entertaining for both children and adults. It took the producer, Randy Fullmer, and many more talented people six years to develop. Even with the significant alterations from the original concept, The Emperor's New Clothes, the movie fell just short of a blockbuster. The film did receive a nomination for Best Song, "My Funny Friend and Me". The movie received just enough success to release a straight to DVD sequel, Kronk's New Groove, and an animated television show, The Emperor's New School. The Emperor's New Groove is a hilarious movie that you could watch over and over again.

Art Gallery

The sculpture, Grace, by Joshua Spendlove is captivating because of the intense detail, the 3D image, and the nostalgics. All of the aspects draw you into the piece.

The precise detailing of Grace is so compelling. Everything from the eyebrows and lips to the detail on her dress was sketched with great care. You can see the passion from the artist because of the time and effort put into it. Every little detail brings the ballerina to life. Just looking at her fingertips you can see emotion emanating from them.

I really liked that this piece was three dimensional. I feel it made it more complex. You can't stop with one side, you have to go all the way around. You get to see it from different angles. Even though it's miniaturized it seems more realistic to me.

Looking at this piece made me wish that I was a dancer. I played lots of sports and was kind of a tomboy. Dancers are graceful, girlie, and get to dress up all the time. Every little girl should get to dance. They have a certain glow of confidence radiating all around them. They know what they want and they take it. I felt inspired when I saw Grace.

Grammar Post #7

Comma splices are hard for me because I think every sentence needs to be long. I want to put all the information into one sentence. I forget that It's OK to have short sentences to make your thought sound better. A comma splice happens when you conjoin two independent clauses with a comma. You could easily make them two sentences with a period or use a semi-colon instead.
Example:
Incorrect: I like chocolate ice cream, it tastes so delicious.
Correct: I like chocolate ice cream. It tastes so delicious.
Correct: I like chocolate ice cream; it tastes so delicious.
More examples are located at this website.

Best/Worst Movie

I would give The Emperors New Groove an Oscar because of the actors, the animation, and the story line. This movie pulls you in, releasing information at just the right time. You want to finish the movie just to find out if Cuzco stays a llama forever. I love the part when Cuzco dresses up as a women so him and Pancha can eat at the dinner. When Ezma and Kronk stumble upon the same dinner and Kronk ends up cooking. Even sitting at tables next to each other, they are so oblivious that Kusco and Pancha can barely escape.
Who ever picked the actors got it dead on. Just by using their voices they bring the characters to life. You find yourself having favorites and rooting them on. Patrick Warburton brings a slower side out of Kronk. I mean who else would have their own theme song music. With his dumb humor and meat head personality you can't help but fall in love with him. The voice of Ezma is vindictive. She wants the power. You get the feeling of spite from her voice.
If you pay attention, you can pick out little thing in the animation that make the movie even funnier. At dinner Kronk and Ezma try to kill Cuzco. After Ezma throws her drink onto a plant and the plant turns into a llama. Another example of the animation is when Cuzco gives a description of Ezma. You can see all her wrinkles, crooked teeth, and even food particles in her teeth.