The purpose of my paper is the growing awareness to concussions in contacts sports and how it affects teenagers and families as a whole. I chose to write about this because I and many of my friends have been greatly affected by concussions through sports. I am going to have two different interviews with friends of mine that have been affected by concussions. Mackenzie Degelder is one of them. She obtained her concussions through taekwondo and now cannot participate in a sport that she could have went to the olympics for and loved so much. The other person I chose to interview was Katie Pogue. I have played with Katie since I started hockey and she was recently diagnosed with POTS syndrome so now she cannot play hockey anymore either, you can get POTS from having too many concussions and it affects you for the rest of your life. With myself having two concussions, possibly more depending on what doctor you ask and the effects it has had on me and the people I chose to interview thought it would be a good topic to write about since it hits so close to home and is such an up and coming controversy these days with contact sports such as hockey and football. I want to describe in detail what a concussion is. The symptoms it has with it and how it is treated. I also wanted to relate it to the interviewers and explain more about POTS syndrome and what that is as well. I’m not sure if I’m covering too many topics within this.. but, this is what I have right now.

I recently decided to change my research paper topic from my previous post. I now plan to talk about youth/teen concussions from sports. I plan to talk about the symptoms and how it effects the development of the brain. Also maybe why they are becoming so much more common than in years past. I'm not sure if i should narrow it down to concussions within a specific sport or just talk about all of the sports in general. I also plan on talking about POTS syndrome (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) If you get too many concussions some teens develop this which is like having a concussion for an extended time including symptoms. This is causing some teens and youth to not be able to be as physically active as they should be able to otherwise. For my research paper I plan to interview Katie Pogue who recently got POTS this last year from too many concussions in hockey. I could also possibly talk to Trainer John (Claire's dad) as he deals with most of the primary concussions in our school. I was interested in this because I myself have had at least two concussions in my hockey career and I am certain it has affected me and my ability to learn. If you could help with what direction to go in with all of this that would help greatly. Thanks!

HOD and Research Paper Idea

In my Heart of Darkness essay I plan to write about how Conrad and Marlow take on a racist view point throughout the story by identifying different cultures and races and making them appear lesser by comparing them to animals and making them seem incompetent compared to Marlow in the story. I plan on talking about the African Slaves, the Cannibals and the Pilgrims in the story and how the words Conrad uses to describe them personify them as animals or non-human like beings instead of these different races and cultures being equal to Marlow. From the book I found three quotes that prove this point:

1.) "Black rags were wound round their loins and the short ends behind waggled to and fro like tails...; each had an iron collar on his neck..." (pg.81)
   In this paragraph I plan to talk about how Conrad compared them to dogs. The way he calls the compares the rags they were given to tails and calls the shackles collars make the Africans appear to be more animal-like than human.

2.) "I don't think a single one of them had any clear idea of time...Certainly they had brought with them rotten hippo-meat, which couldn't have lasted very long anyway..." (pg.115)
   Here Conrad makes the Cannibals seem incompetent. What person has no idea of time? By mentioning the fact that all they had to eat was rotten hippo-meat shows that they aren't intelligent enough to find anything else. They just eat what is placed in front of them like animals at a zoo.

3.) "His hand roamed feebly amongst these papers. I was struck by the fire of his eyes and the composed languor of his expression." (pg.141)
   This quote is about a pilgrim. By using the word roamed Conrad made even the pilgrims appear to be like animals. He could have easily used walked or jogged or numerous words but he chose to use roamed which means he saw this man as a wild eyed and untamed beast, not a human. "The fire of his eyes" proves this point.

A topic I was thinking about doing for my research paper was smoking and specifically second hand smoke and the effect it has on people around you.For this I would interview my grandma who has smoked since she was 12, maybe I could talk about how back in her day it was considered a good thing to smoke. I'm not quite sure how I could write 15 pages about this though. Another idea I had was to talk about tanning and skin cancer although it was just a thought and I do not have an interviewer for this. I was considering elaborating on my effects of tanning paper I did earlier on in the year.

In Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" one can make many inferences about the main character and the author, looking at it through a Post-Colonial lens. One aspect that stuck out to me was the racism that the main character, Marlow and Conrad portray through the story. At one point Marlow goes to a village on his journey. While there he sees starving African American workers almost on their death bed. "Black shapes crouched, lay, sat between the trees leaning against the trunks, clinging to the earth, half coming out,half effaced with the dim light, in all the attitudes of pain, abandonment, and despair." (pg. 83) When he first saw these bodies he doesn't even describe them as people. The way that they are described you aren't sure what they are. They seem to be figures or lifeless animals. He takes his time describing their every flaw and weakness, defacing them and making them seem pitiful and helpless. Showing that he has no respect for these people. It takes the author almost a page until he finally comes to tell you that they are the workers. By doing this it shows that him, nor his character have any compassion for these black people. The author carries this thought throughout the book that Marlow is better because he is a white Polish man, than any other colored person. By doing this you can see how you could conclude that the author and the main character, Marlow have racist view points throughout the book.

3 stories through a gender lens

Looking at it it through a gender lens, the three characters in the stories "Rufus at the Door", "Agatha McGee and the St. Isidore Seven", and "Dodger" take on different gender roles than are expected. In the two stories Rufus and Agatha McGee, the women take on more masculine characteristics. Both taking control of their situations and holding power over male figures with their bold and confident attitudes. In the story Dodger, the man in the story takes on feminine characteristics, almost appearing gay at some points with the way he acts and what he says about the other boy in the story named Dodger. All of these characters portray traits that aren't usually played by their typical gender, making them different and dynamic in the stories.

Rufus At The Door:

I chose to write about "Rufus at the Door" looking at it through a gender lens and how Miss Sylvestri takes on masculine features through the story. I changed my paragraph so that it talks about just one character in the story instead of two, and added in a quote with analysis on it so that it proves my gender thesis point better. I also added to the conclusion and changed some sentence structure around.

In the story “Rufus at the Door” The narrator plays the part of a 16 year old boy who goes on to talk about a moron named Rufus who is incompetent to the real world. Looking at it through a gender lense; all of the people in the story are either male or take on a masculine role.

The women in the story pose to have very masculine features. Miss Silvestri is a teacher whose name shows her independence. Since she isn’t a Mrs. This shows she isn’t married so she takes care of herself and most likely lives on her own. She is controlling and has order over the students. “...But Miss Silvestri begged to differ. She said nobody was having lunch until somebody came up with a moron.”(pg. 23, Rufus at the Door, Jon Hassler) She does not allow them to leave the bus until they answer the question she has asked overpowering Mr. Lance who said the children could go eat. Wanting to get her point across Miss Silvestri forced the students to puke out what she wanted to hear before they could engorge themselves at the cafe. The fact that she also finds it acceptable to talk to students about who in the town is an imbecile or a moron gives you the feeling she is a bit heartless or close minded which are also quite masculine features for a woman of her stature to possess. Especially a teacher who should be open to learning and accepting new and different things or people. Aside from Miss Silvestri, almost all of the characters in the story are men, which shows the authors point of view on the world and foreshadows how he sees his own authority as a male figure. The fact that he chose to do this makes the world he has created seem like a colder and rougher place to live compared to the real world.

How is Evil Shown Throughout the Movie Using the Gender Lens?

In the movie “The 3rd Man” Harry Lime’s ways toy with evil through the whole movie. Looking at it through a gender lens his heartless and damaging ways show masculinity in him as a character. In the scene where Lime and Martins meet on the ferris wheel, Lime enters the frame from the right giving you the feeling something isn’t right with him. Whereas Martins appears from the left showing he is good and just. Lime is seen coming in from a long angle shot making him appear mysterious and smaller which shows him having less power than Martins who is shot almost fully in the frame. While talking on the ferris wheel. Martins and Lime are eye to eye. Lime is shot with the camera tilted at a slight angle making him appear a little sideways compared to Martins who is shot straight on and in the middle of the shot showing how Lime is a perhaps a little twisted. They both take up almost the whole frame showing they posse power in the moment. While chatting they both appear relaxed and calm even though the situation is quite suspenseful. As the ferris wheel climbs to its peak so does the conversation. It escalates until they reach the top and look out at the small people below them. Showing they think of themselves as a higher power than the small dots below. When the ferris wheel makes its descent the conversation comes to a close and turns a little darker. Threats are given and bargains are made. Symbolizing how they are now in a more evil place. The non-diegetic sounds playing when the men speak create suspense and horror, making you feel as if all of your questions throughout the movie will be revealed. The framing, scene setting, and the sound of this movie all make Harry Lime appear to be the evil figure.

Hanna Olson's TED Talk review

I really like Hanna's Big Sister TED talk. Being the youngest in the family I don't really know what's it's like to be an older sibling. She gave me a good aspect of what its like. At least for her, and helped me better understand how my older brother feels. Knowing Hanna and her family for a long time I know how fun they are and I'm sure she could of had some fun stories to tell. I wish she would have at least shared one just so everyone else could see how her and her family interact together. Overall, I really enjoyed her speech and learned a lot from it. The words she used and pictures helped to relate to the audience. It was good as always!

TED Talk Outline

Thesis & Goal- I want to talk about the importance of Physical Education in schools. With more and more schools cutting spending on activities and arts, I want to identify the importance of Physical Education and how it effects them positively and how it's important to keep this in the school system.

During my TED Talk I want to use narration and cause and effect to identify the importance of Physical Education. Wanting to go into this as my profession and having some experience through interning it is something I am interested in and I also have a few short stories to tell. I wanted to talk about how you have to do certain things to get the students to listen and how each one is different and how excited they are to come to the gym every day and play and participate. But, I'm not quite sure how to incorporate that into my thesis. I have also talked to my mom from an elementary teachers point of view of how important it is in the classroom to incorporate gym class into the day and I am planning on trying to talking to a gym teacher to find out more about the importance of gym in a school day, maybe some students if I have time.

I'm not quite sure if my thought is complete or not, or if my thesis fits everything I want to talk about. Any comments, questions or suggestions would be wonderful at this point.
Thanks

Money Makes You Mean Journal Analysis

We watched a TED talk by Paul Piff called "Money Makes You Mean" during the talk he talked about how people who have money are more self conceited and view themselves as "above the law" and more likely to flaunt their money and things such as this. With all of his examples he came to one quote that really stuck with me, it read; "The American dream is we all have an equal opportunity to succeed and do well." His point to saying this was that the American dream has diminished and turned into the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. But I really analyzed it and thought. What exactly is the American dream? I think everyone has a different opinion on what their dream is as an American. Maybe its to go to college or to start a family or just get a job. Any way you put it its defined as being successful. But it's not always money related. So if you put it that way. Does everyone get an equal opportunity? I think it's what you make of it. Obviously some will be more privileged and it will be easier for others, but over all everyone does have the opportunity to be what they want and become successful. It just matters how hard you are willing to try and what lengths you are willing to go to get what you want. That's the American dream. Its working hard to become successful. Not getting it handed to you because you live in this country.

Analysis on Shaena's Journal

Shaena chose to do a journal on a quote from Mike Rowe. She chose the quote "I remember how utterly wrong I had been...so much of the time." She viewed the quote as Mike Rowe seeing that the "acceptable way" may not be the best way, and that the "humane" way by society isn't always true. I agree with her analysis on the quote. Sometimes life isn't always always as it seems. Just because someone who is "credible" says its right doesn't mean that its the only way to do something or the correct way. Such as PETA. They claim to have animal rights and belief in the protection of animals. Yet they kill millions of stray animals each year. We just don't hear about it. Which in my opinion proves the main point of this quote. That just because something is presented to us a certain way doesn't mean that its the only way or the right/humane way. America needs to wake up and realize that we need to think for ourselves and realize what's going on all around us. Not be so blind to everything that happens and think for ourselves.

TED talk

TED talk ideas.... still working on them.

- Hockey, Its been my life growing up. Not quite sure what specifically I would talk about with it but you could talk about anything with a sport.

-Interning, I want to be a physical education teacher when I grow up so I could talk about the importance of physical education in a school system.

-Being a leader, and what it means to be looked up to and looked to always do the right thing. The pressure and stress of it and how it makes you a better person.

I'm still working on finding the right one. but let me know what you like or don't like or if my ideas give you a different view point you think I could go at.
Thanks.

-The difference between a team sport and an individual sport. Having played both there are lots of difference and advantages and dis-advantages.

-I also thought about talking about the difference in society even with kids now versus when I, or any of my other classmates were children or even before that. How important technology is to kids now and how its going to effect them in the future.

Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police Fallacies

In the essay "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" By Martin Gansberg many fallacies can be found. One fallacies was in the first paragraph on page 120, "For more than half an hour thirty-eight respectable law abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens." There are a couple different forms of Hasty or Sweeping Generalization fallacies just in this one quote. The writer assumes that all of the citizens are law abiding which could very well not be true. They don't know everything that all thirty-eight citizens have been up to, or have done. Also the writer mentions them being respectable. That is his own opinion. Many other people could disagree that they aren't respectable human beings. Starting out the essay with a big fallacy such as this takes away the credibility of the rest of his writing and makes you question what he is saying more throughout the text.

Another fallacy identified in this essay was on page 122, "Today witnesses from the neighborhood, which is made up of family homes in the $35,000-$60,000 range with the exception of the two apartment houses near the railroad station, find it difficult to explain why they didn't call the police." This fallacy is a Misleading Statistic. The price of the families homes should not in any way be related to them explaining why they didn't call the police. A person's income or place of living doesn't correlate directly with their actions or decisions. This is a misleading opinion and tries to direct the readers attention away from the subject.

The author also wrote at the end of page 123, ""Then", a solemn police detective said, "the people came out." This is relating the people coming out of their houses to the ambulance picking up the body. this form of fallacy is called a Post Hoc, Ergo Proper Hoc. The writer is assuming that the people "finally" came out of their homes to look because the crime they were avoiding was over. Not for some other unrelated reason other than this. His assumption is trying to make the people look guilty as if they all had seen what happened.