John Brown-The Ecstasy of Influence: Learning Letter

I believe that Jonathan Lethems argument in this article is that plagiarism is something that is abundant in our society today and has helped shaped American culture throughout history. I feel that his motive for writing this stems from his own experiences with plagiarism and his time of being a writer where plagiarism is a major topic discussed amongst writers.

The Lottery-Brown

I'd say that i make a lot of sacrifices in hopes of finding good luck on a pretty regular basis. It's hard for me to think about why I may do this, because I don't see myself as a person with an external locus of control, but maybe I am. For example, when I'm snowboarding and I land a trick, I sacrifice trying a new trick because I feel like sticking to that same newly learned trick in hopes of it keeping me from falling for the rest of the day. But it's not only when i am snowboarding, if i go to the mac lab here at school, and find a computer that works good for me one time; I'll try my best to go and use that same computer every time I'm down there. I'm aware that most likely that computer isn't the best, in fact it may even be the farthest away from the printer, but since it worked good for me once, i sacrifice being close to the printer in order to use that computer. I think that even if you don't believe in external forces having control over your actions, you still are willing to make sacrifices in hopes of finding good luck.

Contact Zone

I believe that there are many contact zones that we can find ourselves in throughout the day, but one of the most unpredictable contact zones i can think of is on the city bus. I know there was already a previous post about the bus station being a contact zone, but i feel like the bus just takes that contact zone to the next level. I have never really rode a city bus until i came up here to college. I've only really rode the bus several times, but out of those several times each time I have came into contact with some pretty diverse people. As said before, Burlington is a sort of "melting pot" of people, so you can imagine being on the bus theres a good chance your going to encounter some different people than you are used to. Bus's are especially intense contact zones because they are so close quartered, and you cant really choose who sits next to you. A good example of this is a time when i was on the bus in the fall. There were several college girls sitting down, and a homeless man came onto the bus and sat right across from them facing them. I had my headphones on during this time, but i was sitting in a place where i could see both the homeless man and group of girls. The man was making some kind of loud remarks, which in return made the group of girls laugh and giggle. This whole situation within the contact zone made the girls uncomfortable, and the only way for them to get over that was by laughing. To me this was just a great example of how much of a contact zone a bus can really be.

Online gaming article

I recently stumbled upon this article that is related to the essay "Entangling roots" and I thought it was pretty interesting. Check it out!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090116-online-gamers-in-china-must-soon-register-with-real-names.html

on "Letter from Birmingham Jail"...

After reading Martin Luther King Jr.'s, Letter from Birmingham Jail, I believe that King made his point very clear and did it in a very organized and thought out manor.  I feel that King's main purpose in this letter is to disprove these clergymens biased thoughts and get them to look at these issues through the eyes of a negro. King states some of these issues on page 182, " when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger" and your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are)." These statements are there to get the clergymen to realize what a negro has to go through on a daily basis living in the segregated and prejudice south. As you can see in the clergymens statement, they are looking at these issues with only themselves in mind, not thinking about how a negro may feel about these issues. King takes every one of the issues the clergymen speak of and break them down so they can understand the issue through the eyes of a negro. With such intellectual and comprehensive writing, I would have found it very difficult to disagree with the ideas that King brought up throughout this letter.

John Brown's response to "Entangling Roots"

The essay I chose to read was “Entangling Roots: Online Gaming and the Effects On Their Players”. The first thing that drew me to this essay was that the author was from Champlain College, so why not read it? As a student at a college with a large game design program I am very glad to say that I am not addicted to video games. I found this to be such an interesting essay because this is an issue that is not so well known but now more than ever needs to be talked about on college campuses in the United States. Colleges spend so much time and money educating kids on the problems of drugs and alcohol in college but are the only addictive objects that are endangering they’re students? I’m not saying education on the dangers of drugs and alcohol isn’t important, but in this day and age gaming seems to be taking over the lives of children and adults all over the world more and more every year. Jeff Lessard made great points about the addictive traits of online gaming and his in-text quotations give his essay a lot of credibility. His opening sentences really helped grab my attention and introduced me to the problems he talks about later in his essay. Jeff took a subject that any college student can relate to and used great rhetorical techniques to engage the reader and persuade them to accept his point.