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For this weeks Journal entry I would like to talk about the 7th chapter of “Why White Rice?” This chapter is titled “Mash It Up… GRACEFULLY Using Sources”. What I thought about right away while reading this chapter was that I never really knew how to properly source things until this semester. This is mainly because I sat down with Professor McGuire and he should me how to properly site things. In the past I always thought that if you just move words around and rephrase what is being said that it isn’t plagiarizing. I was never really sure about it till this semester. The next part of the chapter talks about words and origins, I sort of understand where the writer is coming from but not 100%. I think he is saying just try to know words and remember phrases etc… on our own terms. Like the Thyroid and shield example. I knew what a thyroid is but had no idea it’s origins was from the word shield. So we sort of take in ideas and rethink them, then we interpret them in are own way. That’s what I think anyway. Regarding the response to other authors, I think that whether you agree or disagree try and go into full detail and get the reader to understand where your at with the idea. Later in the chapter talking about sources being a way for readers to track down the ideas and learn more. To be honest, I have never thought about that before, but it makes perfect sense to me now. Then the talk about Obama’s speech was interesting and when I get time later this week I will be viewing the youtube video’s as mentioned in the chapter. In conclusion, I will have to take citations more seriously and give credit where credit is due. The last couple paragraphs are right and I don’t want to look like a Jackbut, trying to post out information that is to technical that there is no way that it came from me. After reading this chapter I truly will take more precaution when writing future essays/papers with a lot of information from sources.
Swanson, Troy. “Mash It Up…Gracefully Using Sources”, (Why White Rice?) Thinking through writing,Dubuque, IA, Kendall Hunt, pages 163-173, Print
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Nick Kleopa
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Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal entry I wanted to talk about the 6th chapter of “Why White Rice” titled(Existential Angst, Orgasm(s), and Jazz) Recognizing that All Writing Is Creative Writing. I really enjoyed the beginning story about the play house and how the writer was hesitant on how he wanted to start building one for his son. I couldn’t agree more with the writer saying that people are sum what afraid or uncomfortable with certain problems and look for the quick fix instead of trying to figure out the problem on their own. I myself are far from being a carpenter as well but I try to fix things around the house when they break. My only problem is I think I know everything and consider myself to be weak if I ask for help. I almost always don’t ask for help because in my mind set( which is a habit I need to break) I try my best on my own. Back to the moral of the first story is I think that most people would be surprised what they can accomplish if they just take the time to read, brainstorm, figure out ways on trying to hit the problem, they can achieve anything. The “I can’t do it” mind set shouldn’t even be on option. Everyone has mad potential, they can’t be afraid to try. What is in the later sections talks about the rules of writing. How one should phrase words so that they make sense and so on. Another sections talks about Invented Rules in which I couldn’t agree more with. A writer should just write, how they feel and what they want as long as it makes sense. The reader will not get the full effects from the piece if all the writer is worried about to abuy by the rules set forth. Going back to previous chapters, basically saying just write how you want and how you feel, don’t try and write something a certain way to be under the guidelines or write in a way you think the reader wants to hear. As long as the piece makes sense, It’ll be fine
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Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal entry I want to talk about the 5th chapter of “Why White Rice”. From the beginning of the chapter, I really didn’t know where the point was going about the wet hair and the cold weather but by reading on I understood that many take in information about certain things and basically trust the source of where they got it without doing any actual research on it. When I was younger I always thought I would get sick if I went outside without a hat in the cold weather after taking a shower. Its what my grandma said, my mom said and people around me. Up until I actually did a little snooping around and found out that its not the cold itself that causes people to get sick, but the viruses that are roaming around. Like the old wives tale that I swore by, all the heat escapes from your head has been proven to be inadequate information. Heat can escape from any uncovered body part. Anyway the first part of this chapter is basically about, don’t always believe what you hear. With the talk about football, I think the writer is trying to say that most people do what other people do. They tend to trust the decisions of others and not do their own research and or go against the majority. I think this is a valid point because I would say that most don’t like going against the word of many even if they feel the single person believes that he or she is correct. Next section talks about trust, I honestly couldn’t help but laugh when the writer said that his old 7th grade friend promised not to tell anyone of his secret crush. Then when they were in school, everyone knew. What this is about is you can’t always expect someone to keep their mouths closed. People lie and you can’t always believe what another person tells you. This ties in to the earlier part of the chapter as well. Basically what I think the whole chapter is about is that one has to look into his or her information before posting it. They need to make sure the information is accurate and came from a reputable source. They cannot just trust what one says without going into some sort of research for themselves. If that were to happen we would just all be passing out inaccurate information.
Swanson, Troy. “Dry Your Hair and Don’t Lick the Frozen Flag Pole”, Why White Rice? Thinking through writing. Kendall hunt, pages 101-132, Print -
Nick Kleopa
Action Project #5 1/2. A Shared Story of Service
Service to a community or to help out others is extremely important. To be honest up until this class started back in January I really didn’t think much about service and how even one person can make such a huge impact for someone else. Now I can honestly say that I think about much more often and try and think of new ways to possibly help out or make some push to doing some good in our communities. Hearing the many stories about the food depository and how most of the students who were their had an excellent time, I figured that the Food Depository was our best bet. After 2 meetings with my group lasting about an hour and a half each time we scouted the GCFD website in search of a date that even one of us could attend. I found it extremely difficult to find even 1 day that wasn’t already filled or a day that I could actually make. With an extremely busy schedule and jobs that do not allow me to take any days off or personal days It was extremely hard to fit something in. The only day that would allow me to attend was one of the only days that no events took place. After figuring we would more than likely not be attending the Greater Chicago Food Depository we set out to find something else. My group while working together in the library found 13 possible service opportunity. The services ranged from health care facilities, to nursing homes for the senior citizens, to land and wildlife preservation. As much as I’d like to say it was easy, it wasn’t at all. We tried to get in touch with all of the services with most needed to file applications which would more than likely take longer than we have left in the semester. Others did not return calls or emails which for some is completely understandable. Some services are run by volunteers and with things going the way they are these days, it might not leave ample time for these directors to get back to every email or every phone call inquiring about community service times, dates etc… In my own opinion I think it would benefit every service organization to really concentrate on making it easier for people to inquire or volunteer for these opportunities. I feel that it being so difficult is one of the main reasons why not to many people volunteer. It is extremely time consuming trying to even find an organization to devote some time to. After several days of playing the waiting game with my group members, an organization finally contacted one of my group members with some information on how we could help. The group that contacted us was a lady from a retirement home in a near by suburb that could use some help from us. This made me feel like a big rock was lifted off my shoulders. As we have put forth a lot of effort in finding something that would allow us to attend with our busy school and or work schedule’s. As much as it was a load off my back, we still needed to fill out an application which made me sort of worried as I don’t know how long they take and if we would be able to help out before our service-learning/volunteer fair on April 30th and May 1st. My group member has the applications with him, so once we come to school, meet up and fill them out, hopefully they wont take to long to get processed and we should be on our way to the retirement home to help out some people. Another issue that we found out only after we formed our groups for the service/volunteer activities was that my group members and I live so far away from each other. While 2 of us live within 10 or so miles away, the third lives about 20 which was somewhat of an obstetrical to try and get around. That and one of my group members has a hard time getting where he needs to go because he is limited to public transportation and can only rely on certain days and times that the bus’s and so on run on. This however, I feel is not to bad because I know that we can agree on pick up point or meeting spot to maybe drive all together or something along those lines. I think it would benefit us a lot to continue holding our group meetings so that we can iron out these small problems.
I have never been to a retirement home and don’t really know what to expect. I haven’t talked to my group members about their experiences with retirement home’s but I’ll assume that they’ve never been to one to help out before. I’m pretty sure that we will be nervous while entering feeling that we will be really bored and or not feeling so great about it the whole thing. But I know as soon as our service is done for that day we will feel good about ourselves and or what we did. We would more than likely put a couple smiles on some faces as well. From seeing the retirement home’s in movies and TV shows it seems one expects to see a bunch of angry and grumpy old people but I know that this is only the perception that people take in from what they hear and see on TV and not what they actually experience in real life. I don’t know exactly what we will have to do but I think it won’t be so bad. We’ll probably have to talk to people, maybe pass out some food and or beverages and something that I think would be a good experience for me personally is I would like to play a game of Chess with one of the retirees there and see how I do. I will more than likely get my but handed to me but I think it will all be fun just to see what happens. I am also very interested to see how my group mates feel about going to the retirement home. Hopefully in our next meeting together we will discuss what we think before we go and could gauge our differences and thoughts before and after we return. A huge plus to about the retirement home is that it is pretty local to me and one other group member. We have not yet talked about how our third member will attend alongside us but I know that we will come up with something and that it will not remain an issue. We would more than likely pick up the third member from a possible bus close or near the actual retirement home which is in bridge view. Weird thing about that is that I have passed that building up about a hundred times and had absolutely no idea that it was a nursing/retirement home. I always assumed it was some sort of hotel because that is exactly what it appears to be on the outside. The building itself is about 4-5 stories high if I remember correctly and sites on about an acre of land not counting the parking lot. From what I can remember, the building is sort of a tan/grey color with windows almost resembling a hospital or holiday in even. I remember this building because right across the street from it is Dukes. Dukes is a drive in fast food joint that would hold big car shows during the summer months. I would attend these on a sum what regular basis. I always kind of thought it was odd to have such a big building, many stories across the street from a drive in and next to a Chevrolet dealer. I always thought it was odd but never really did any follow up on it. I would also like to hear what my group mates thought about this as I am confident that they passed by this building several times as well. I would be surprised if one of them knew that it was a retirement home before learning of it’s location through this service opportunity.
Last but not least, a date to attend was not discussed yet but my group members and I will hopefully come to an agreement and figure out a day which we can all attend. I think it is a good idea for all of us to attend at the same time so we can differentiate the experience that we all received doing the same type of service. I think that would be really interesting to find out what everyone thoughts are and how they are feeling at the end when we are about to make our way back home. I am looking forward to taking care of the application process and to talk to my group members on some times and dates that we can expect to attend. All in all I think this service opportunity will be pretty fun and I’m looking forward to attending with my group members. -
Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal Entry I would like to talk about the 4th chapter of “Why White Rice” titled “You Can Do It in the Garden or in an Elevator. The picture on the bottom of the page titled “the thinker” grabbed my attention right away as I have seen that statue before. Not in real life but in several of my art/humanities classes. I honestly couldn’t help but think about when the writer had down that its not like he was propped down going to the wash room. For that reason I thought about the many great ideas people think about and come up with just doing their business. Anyway, think one of the main points of this chapter is to just sit back and think. Brainstorming is a very important aspect of writing an essay or even posting another type of piece. I feel when I have a scratch sheet and put down my ideas before I start conducting an essay it more than usually turns out a lot better. I am able to construct the sentences more effectively and just write a better all around piece. The chapter also talks about thesis statements and some of the things people do. The most common problem in my opinion is people write something as if they fthink that their is some type of a guidline or word/sentence count that they have to write. I know that was my problem and that I went by writing what I thought was supposed to be posted and not by how the actuall thesis flowed. It would have been fine with just a couple of sentences but I kept adding more and more. There is also talk about revision, in that fact that it truely isn’t just making spelling corrections and gramatical errors. Its making sure your sentences actually make sence too you and whoever will read you essay/paper. Going over and over it to see if your also truly happy with what you have read. All in all the chapter was intersting but I would have liked more of a story aproach as I pay more attention to those and was getting caught off topic many times while reading this one.
DeVillez, Eric. ” You Can Do It in the Garden or in an Elevator” (Why White Rice?) Kendal Hunt.Dubuque, IA pg -
Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal entry I would like to talk about the third chapter of “Why White Rice” titled (How I Took on Beatrice and Won), Finding Your Focus. This chapter is pretty interesting considering it talks about a situation in which I have personally went through at the start of my college career. I started college, didn’t know what I wanted to do, didn’t know what classes to take, had no drive and no passion to do anything that had to do with school. After completely making a 180 turn and figuring out I wanted to help people and have an important job, I decided to get into law enforcement. Ever since I have so called “kicked it in high gear’ which was something posted in chapter 3. I think as long as you have a passion or drive for something, nothing will slow you down. The only problem in my own case as well as others is finding that passion. The lottery part made me think as well. The husband saying that he wanted to go back to school, get a PHD+ and start teaching is wonderful pre-story so to speak. I know If I personally came across a lump some of money like that, I would definitely quit my jobs and focus 100% of my time to my education. I enjoyed reading the main story about getting the teaching degree/phd etc.. But I find myself wondering how the author paid for school, especially graduate school only working 2 days a week. I find it extremely hard to pay for community college with 2 part time jobs. With gas,food and other things obviously adding on top but it still leaves me wondering. The style of this chapter was a plus to read, I tend to pay much more attention to first person style work for some reason than just general information. I guess I just try to picture myslef in that situation or example and it just works out. All in all a good chapter just wished it was a little more detailed. I also kind of wanted to know how much the narrator was being paid working part time.
Dow,Thomas. “How I Took on Beatrice and Won” Finding Your Focus. Why White Rice? Kendall Hunt, Dubuque, IA, Pages 61-75 Print -
Nick Kleopa
For this weeks, reading journal entry, I would like to talk about the second chapter of “Why White Rice”. This chapter contains a lot of useful information about how a student reacts to learning. Whether it is too hard, or to easy and how most students don’t really give 100% writing from there heart. Almost as though they are just writing something to get by or writing what they think the instructor wants them to write. I thought the skydiving story was very appropriate in the beginning of the story because as professor McGuire stated all you do is jump or get pushed out. In writing you have to dig deep inside, find and write about your own ideas in your own words which can be complicating. I personally have encountered this problem last semester in communications 101. I would often write papers with topics that were something I came up with, but I would type it in a way I thought that my teacher would approve and not in my own way. I have learned in this class though that my papers have gotten more in depth and deeper in the subject when I type exactly what I am feeling and what I want to say in my own words. Fast forwarding a little and I understand the concept of skinner and wanted to shed my own opinion. I feel the problem these days is when students are taking tests or resiting things that they have learned, they are only reciting the so called “text book definition” and might not even know the true meaning of the word or understanding of the concept. I remember taking tests that I got the answers correct only because I memorized some words or phrases and not because I understood the question at all. All in all in my opinion, the chapter is trying to make students a better writer. Telling them not to worry about what someone might think of their work and not write it in a way to please others. But in a way to bring about their own ideas. And also to never give up and be persistent, to look and, revise, change and reread your essays multiple times till you truly feel that the essay or paper is the absolute best work you can give.
McGuire, Michael. ” Risky Business Indeed Writing Outside Your Comfort Zone”(.Why White Rice? Thinking through writing) Kendal Hunt, Print -
Nick Kleopa
For my Journal Entry I would like to some up some things that I have gotten from the Book “A Child Called It”. First and foremost I want to say if you’ve never read this book, pick it up. It will make you think twice about badmouthing your parents. The entire book is based off of a true story of a child abuse case from the early 70′s in which a child named David Pelzer was beaten, abused, and scard on the inside as well as the outside. Child abuse is a serious issue and after reading this book, I think of this topic much more seriously than I had before. The story all starts out near San Fransisco California, where a loving mother and father were raising 3 boys with David being the middle child. With no signs in site, the great times turned bad and David was in for it. Throughout the course of 5 to 12 years of age, David went to hell and back. It is truly amazing that he had the courage to take all of this torture from his mother. Not wanting to get to technical because I feel that everyone should read this amazing story. I have learned to pay attention to the smallest of details in which child abuse and child neglect can be present. Even in a case like David’s in which he was stealing food from other student. Teachers and other faculty just thought he was a horrible kid and nobody knew that he wasn’t able to eat any food because of the leash his mother had on him. Last but not least I just want to say that we need to pay attention to these things because child abuse and child neglect is a growing issue.
Pelzer, David. “A Child Called It” Deerfield beach, Florida. Health Communications, Inc.1995. Print-
Kristina Marynczak
I loved this story and completely agree with you. Have you had to read the other books that he wrote going threw his life as he got older? SEcond one is just as good and I haven’t read the last one.
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Nick Kleopa
I have not read the other books but I plan to. It is a sad beginning but I want to see David get back on his feet. I will more than likely get the other books soon.
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Nick Kleopa
The story by Bobbie Harro, titled the cycle of socialization was pretty interesting. I did however think that the first story concerning Rodney King should have been left out. Why cant we all get along was the saying. Being a law enforcement student and seeing the video several times and talking about the case several times tells me two things. The police shouldn’t have been so physical however, if your getting tazed and maced and told to stay on the ground, why would you keep getting back up. The whole case stinks, and was extremely sketchy. Anyways the story by Harro. I agree and disagree with his point about growing up in different backgrounds. I hope I didn’t interpret it the wrong way but in my opinion some people follow the footsteps that they are given but some are born into crap and rise to be the power elite of the world. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter where you grow up, you still have a brain and a heart to tell you what is right and wrong. In regarding the part about how groups are being frowned upon and in trouble for thinking or doing things in a certain way that is outside the norm. I think no matter what you do as long as it doesn’t hurt or cause injury to people, animals, the environment or harm to anything why can’t these groups just be who they want to be. People just need to appreciate what others are into, and just because its not the norm or not what they think is “COOL” it shouldn’t be looked down upon like those individuals have done something wrong. I think people need to clean their own closet before they try and clean someone else’s. I wish everyone could just get along but that will more than likely never happen.
Harro, Bobbi. “The Cycle Of Socialization”. 2012; splatter.writing101.net Web, 23 March 2012 -
Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal entry I am going to talk about chapter 1 of why white rice titled “Myth Busting Overcoming Your Misconceptions of Writing”. As I started reading this chapter I remember the part about the boy trying to catch the ball in the pool. Then after missing it he talks down on himself. As I think back to things that came up in other classes saying if you tell yourself something often enough, your gonna believe it. Seems like even people in genereal these days just get discouraged when things don’t work out the way they thought they would. I remember when I had no ambition to go to school at all, I wasn’t doing good, because I wasn’t trying. After taking a couple years off of school and tearing up the mentality that I had saying that school wasn’t for me, I registered again and have been doing great ever since. Once thing about this chapter that I thought was funny was the fact that professor McGuire’s way of teaching was sum what mentioned in the site, I had absolutely no clue that he had taken part in the book Why White Rice. What was also mentioned was something that I have done personally. Trying to write and essay or piece a certain way because I thought that was the way the teacher needed to hear it and not in my own words my own way. This was a big mistake that I have done for the longest time. Another thing is I myself try and be super safe with what I am putting down and after reading what was said in the book, it makes perfect sense. Another thing that I find funny is that I do everything the way I did it in junior high school. 5 paragraphs, the classic way, the boring way and the way that I will more than likely deserve a meteocure grade for. One thing that I am sum what happy about is the fact that I do post my own thoughts in my own words most of the time.
DeVillez, Eric R, Michael McGuire, Thomas P. Dow, Troy A. Swanson. “Why White Rice? Thinking Through Writing”. Kendall Hunt. 2010. Print -
Nick Kleopa
A Critical Reflection of Service
My essay is probably unlike any of the other essays in that it is service to better the community by helping other people that help. Sound confusing? Let me explain, what I did was I devoted 4hours to a group called the SSERT or the South Suburban Emergency Response Team. Most people are more familiar with the term S.W.A.T which is virtually what this group is. After being a former police cadet with community service(unpaid) being the number one thing involved. I found a way to better help the community by serving as a role player for the SSERT. A role player is someone who plays a part or a specific role, can be in a play, can be in real life scenarios. What I was virtually doing there was I was helping train the people involved in emergency calls involving an active shooter, gangs, explosions, acts of terrorism and other acts of dangerous activity. I was there to help those people better their skills so that they can provide better service in completing their tasks for the community and to make sure that the number one thing stays in check. The number one thing is human life. On to my goals of the essay. I want this essay to show that you can still have fun and volunteer at the same time. I know it is not your average area of devoting your time but as with other topic of hunger, shoe drives and other types of area’s, this is solely devoted to saving life’s from destruction.
Didn’t sleep to good the night before because I guess I was just so excited to go help with the training. The training took place at the old xxxxxx in xxxxxx xxx off of xxxxxx ave and xxxxth. The training started at 8am and I was about 20 min early when I showed up. This was the first time I attended any of these training sessions. This one was one of the most important because we had a true celebrity helping out. (xxxxx xxxxxxxxx) was there from Texas. This person basically goes around the country to help improve S.W.A.T teams and their training protocols. Anyway, back to the story, I pull up in front of the big old gates aligned with barbed wire, pull through and not really surprising me at all there are dozens of squad cars and dept. crown victoria’s, impalas, chargers, expeditions, explorers and tahoe’s in the parking lot. This team is comprised of about 2-3 Police officers/detectives/SGT. so on and so forth from each and every dept on the south side. I walk inside and I see probably upwards of 30 officers in military type body armor with AR-15′s in their hands(a type of machine gun with banana clip for those that don’t know). In other words the AR-15′s are serious business. The role players were to use the glock 9mm handguns. These firearms were made not to shoot traditional rounds but blanks. The blanks are made up of orange paint and rubber almost like a paintball but in my opinion hurt 5 times worse. We sat around for a couple then got suited up with face masks and are blank round shooting Glocks(which were painted blue and orange by the way) One to the first round of active shooter. The shooter was being played by a senior officer from the south side with years of experience. I was the hostage along with about 4 other people held hostage in a room in the middle of the building. After getting into the room and being quiet for over 20 mins the door busted open and 8 members of group 1 stormed in to save us. They open fired on the so called (shooter) and basically did an excellent job. No hostages were shot, the shooter shot one officer in the leg while the shooter was fired upon in the chest about with about 10 rounds. Round two was made up of 4-5 wounded hostages throughout the first floor west part of the building. In an area that was comprised of about 20 rooms. I was inside a room on the floor and had to stay lying down as if my leg was shot. Laying down for about 15 minutes and them boom, the door opens swiftly and 2 members of team 2 enter, ask me who I was, if I knew where the shooter was, and they literally carried me to the safety of the main building. The efforts of this team was outstanding. They got all the wounded hostages and other wounded team members to safety in record time. Scenario 3 was extremely difficult for the hostages and the team members. This scenario was comprised of about 15 officers and all of the role players which was about 10. This time there was 2 active shooters. I didn’t really have adequate body armor and didn’t want to get shot, so I was worrying the whole time. I was a hostage in one of the rooms which was pitch dark, and had the shooter holding me hostage in front of them. Funny thing was this particular shooter was about a foot shorter than me and much smaller so I gave them perfect cover. After about 10 minutes there was banging on the door. This particular door was pretty sturdy already but was now reinforced by 4 pieces of 2×4′s that would not be opened even with a battering ram. After a few attempt with the ram they left the door and came in from the other side. Once in I can see their shadows coming passed the doorway. After a few seconds a pair of round shaped flashlights in ball form were thrown in which instantly lit up the whole room. 4 team members stormed in and fired 4 times. At the time I was thinking that I was surely hit but just didn’t feel anything for some reason. The only thing I felt was the shooter behind me let go of my hoodie and fall to the floor. They recovered me and took me by all of the others that were saved. The shooter was shot in the hand with the gun, the leg, the other leg and the chest. It was amazing that I didn’t have a scratch on me. I thought to my self that is crazy. After all was set and done, we had stopped to talk about all of the things that the team members could have done differently. After that it was time to go, the officer in charge took down my information and said that he’ll let me know when another training session was going to be coming up. He said that I was welcome to come back anytime to help out. I thanked everyone there and was on my my.
Like I said before, this was not your typical volunteering opportunity. I honestly had no other idea of what I was going to do for my service opportunity. I was lost until this came up and I said yeah why not. My overall opinion of this service experience is that I know for sure that I will be doing this again. I am trying to get into a police dept and in my opinion this helps out the community. Although it is not a world wide issue like hunger and other types of topics, it is still important because someone has to preserve life in area’s caused by criminals and stop the bad people. I would recommend doing this for anyone who wants to get involved with law enforcement or just in community service for you town. As to answer the questions in the binocular section. I was able to identify issues, in that the issue of bad acts in the world are inevitable and there going to happen sooner or later, why not be prepared. This particular issue cannot really be changed in my opinion because it is an issue that people bring upon themselves and not an issue of an object or substance that is needed for survival. This has altered my future career as now as soon as I am able to join a team for a local/county/state police force, I would like to be involved in special teams such as this one. I don’t really think this particular topic is really impacted by politics or social sphere. The future holds better forms of training with more lives saved. And also those of you who were lost, just to clarify, this was just a training day and none of these scenarios were real.-
Kevin Flores
First off Nick I am going to say that sounds like it must have been a pretty cool experience I can’t imagine how cool it must have been to meet people who are on the swat team. It’s like something I think just about every guy dreams about doing as a career then they realizes how hard it is to get into the swat team or decide to do a more boring job. I think it was very interesting that you told the reader about the different scenarios and what they consisted of. I think it also attracts the reader that you talked about the kind of guns that they have because as a guy I can speak for most guys they are interested in that kind of stuff because we just are. I think that it was very good that you also talked about the different things that when on. It really makes the reader want to go out and volunteer for the swat training.
The only real issue I found with your paper is how someone can get involved in this kind of community service. I think a lot of people would want to do this just for fun or like you mentioned if someone is thinking about a career in criminal justice. I agree with you based on what you wrote that this would be great for anyone who is thinking about a career in criminal justice to see whether they like it or not and if that is something they would want to do as a career. What confused me little was the part that you had XD out like the address of the place I think that you should explain to the reader that you cannot disclose the location or the names of the people which I am guessing is the reason why you didn’t disclose that information. Another thing you should do is tell the reader how you got into it and how someone can get involved in this kind of community service if you are able to. If you were to make these changes in your paper it would definitely make it better and get more people interested in trying this out for themselves because it sounds super fun and interesting, if you would add the information on how regular people can get involved I think it would really help out people because I am sure there are students who are considering criminal justice as a career.
Again your paper was very interesting it definitely attracts the reader and it helped out a lot that you talked about what you did in detail. I also liked how you brought up that is important because a lot of people myself included think about community service as packing food, shoes, ECT and don’t really realize that there are opportunities like this out there. I think it is important for people to know about jobs like the swat team because many people have vague knowledge about jobs in criminal justice and don’t know exactly what it is or what they do -
Killian Noonan
Nick, I must say this experience sounded incredible. I’ve never heard of things like this being done before to be honest. You explain this story very well in detail. I could actually envision the location you described. However, had the actual address not been censored I’m sure it would have helped a lot more. Although you respected my privacy, and even though I’d love to know I respect yours. This rally got me interested off the get go as i am a gun guy. (Shocking i know!). Even where I speculated where there would not have been as such detail or elaboration you certainly delivered. Such example of the discussion of the AR-15′s. Quick fact about the AR-15, when a shipment of them was sent to Ireland for the IRA in the 70s and 80s, it was actually nick named “The Widow Maker.” It was quickly attributed to the IRA during the Troubles. Obviously for it deadly accuracy. Even an Irish song called “My Little Armalite,” was made to pay homage to such a deadly piece of weaponry. The whole scenario you described was excellent. I have no other way of expressing how well you did in describing the whole experience. In the beginning you also told of how you were a police cadet. Which was really good personal information to receive. I just hope one day you don’t find yourself moving to Ireland to join the police force! One quarrel I do have and this is nothing major just me being picky, is that in the future post it to Splatter, maybe space out the paragraphs. There were a couple moments when I had to re read sentences because I had jumped to the wrong sentence. Like me and my political aspirations, it was good to hear of your aspirations. This was a rather unorthodox active of service like mine. Although it is good to hear that what you took away will benefit these men into making our communities safer.
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Killian Noonan
Hi Nick, just elaborating more on my peer review. I have been having a lot of slips with my failing to do over five hundred words. Like I said to Klem, it is a curse of being able to tell it like it is and not beat around the bush. I’m afraid I really can sum things up. I can just boom get it done. I don’t agree one hundred percent with the word amount. And i don’t agree even more with the grading contract. I have a number of slips which are innocent enough. I think the highest I can get is a C, even my writing won’t save me know. But thats life I suppose. I have a number of Cook County sheriffs in the family. Many interesting ideas and opinions are discussed at family events. unfortunately the only stereotype my family does follow is the one about police and firemen. Even a few others working in the Cook county circuit courthouse. If only the police in Northern Ireland had such Irish pride as the police do here. Though the police there take pride in being the enemy. I am always a fan of the work you do. Your papers never let me down. By the way do you know an Anthony Rosa? I know him from a tobacco shop i go to. he’s some guy. Ricky Race car is what I prefer to call him! Speak soon! Slan go foill!
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Klem Bachleda
Wow. Reading that was intense, and I can’t imagine being there. I bet you it was a blast participating in a training session like that. Im also surprised they let civilians participate in an activity that could cause five times as much pain as a paintball gun. But I bet the adrenaline rush and pure amazement of the hostage situation and overtake was surreal and well worth it.
I like the fact that, as explained in your opening sentance, you helped a group of individuals that help others. I think this is more beneficial because these individuals help to protect us from harm and other immediate threats (niot saying that helping out at a soup kitchen is bad or anything). The details input also grabs ahold of the reader to find out more about what situations were played out and what the outcome is. I’m impressed that the accuracy, stealth and strength of individuals in our protective forces are as high as can be.
Getting to a couple of mistakes, just a couple of spelling errors, and one or two run on’s or fragments, but other than that, very detail oriented and catching story of your experience volunteering.
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Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal entry I would like…
For this weeks journal entry, I would like to talk about the 4th chapter from the book “A Child Called IT”. The title from this chapter is “the fight for food”. This chapter talks about the narrators constant struggle with finding a meal. Since his wicked mother would rarely feed him, he would try anything and everything he could to find something to eat. The beginning starts off by him stealing food from other classmates lunch boxes while everyone is outside playing, then when he got caught doing that he would run down to the grocery store during recess. When he was caught with that, he would try and dig out scraps from the families garbage after they ate dinner. One day the mother found out and put 3 weeks old pork in the garbage on purpose, knowing David would have picked it out and ate it. David got really sick after that. On top of that, the mother pored ammonia in the garbage can so David couldn’t take any more scraps from it. This chapter also introduces a lot of sick ways his mother punishes him, as far as burning him on the stove and setting up a “gas chamber” in the bathroom. He was also forced to swallow spoonfuls of dish soap and ammonia. I just cannot wait for child services or the school to finally catch on to her. The only good thing about this chapter is that David is finally learning techniques to counter act what his mother has in mind. He is learning how to act and do things to keep her from punishing him.
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Nick Kleopa
For this weeks Journal Entry I would like to talk about the 3rd Chapter of a child called it. By this particular chapter I can tell that I am hooked and do not want to put this book down. Chapter 3 was called “Bad Boy” and was everything but. The narrator David was a bad boy if you didn’t know what his whole story was. By this chapter, the mother had virtually made a complete 180 turn into a monster. David was caught steeling food from his classroom because his mother did refused to feed him dinner and even breakfast on most days. He would only receive a lunch so teachers at school wouldn’t suspect anything as they saw David eat at school. Even if his chores were completed on time at home, he wouldn’t receive anything to eat that night. I am still a little hazy on why he was treated so badly. There is a little evidence that David was a child from a different mother the father had had with someone else, but what doesn’t make sense is that he has an older Brother named Ron, and a younger brother named Stan? I found it extremely interesting to read just because I was waiting for his mother to get thrown in Jail. All of these bad things were happening to David and I wanted his mother to get in trouble by now. I figured someone would have made an attempt to rescue David by this chapter but it wasn’t even close. Davids father was spending more and more time at work and his mother had lied to the school saying David had fallen off his bunk when his arm was nearly broken by his mother. She also told the principal and the nurse that he sometimes hurt himself for attention, which so far seems as though everyone believes her. I am looking forward to child services or someone catching onto the mothers games and for someone to take David away for good. So far I truly cannot believe how much abuse David has suffered thus far. I look forward to reading the next chapter.
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Nick Kleopa
Letter to the Editor Tara Parker Pope The…
Letter to the Editor.
Tara Parker Pope
The New York Times
Teens and substance abuse.Dear Tara,
I just don’t get what has gotten into teenagers these days. They think that going out and getting completely messed up with booze/alcohol is cool. I feel like every time I go on face book, there are several comments made about getting drunk or relaxing with a drink, or something else that has to do with alcohol. It is so annoying to hear this. Do these people not know that when they are doing with their night of splurging that when they wake up the next morning that there problem will more than likely still be there along with a hangover and other negative side effects? Why would they risk giving up their control of their life and their decision’s? I just wish there would be harsher punishments and zero tolerance policies adopted by schools, colleges and the actual parents about abusing these substances. I recently did a paper on The effects of abusing alcohol and one of the statements I found on the Illinois State Police website stated that College students spend more on alcohol than on books. What are your thoughts on that? Last I checked, books are pretty darn expensive and to spend more on something that will just go through your system and does you more harm than good just doesn’t make much sense to me at all. I wanna say that I blame the parents too as sometimes it seems as though the parents don’t care about this problem one bit. Does this generation of kids and teenagers have a shot at succeeding or even making it to their 25th birthday. What would you say holds true for the future? I am just at a lost for words with this particular topic. To think that someone would give up their control for a couple drinks just sounds silly.Sincerely,
N. Kleopa-
Klem Bachleda
I like the fact that you are targeting a large issue with underage drinking. One thing that could be done to this article is to revise it with less “slang” I guess you can call it. For example, in the second sentance, instead of using the phrase “messed up with booze/alcohol” you should substitue it with “drunk.” Another thing is to re-read the article you wrote and correct the grammer mistakes. This is an issue that we should make more people aware about because of the lack of discipline teens have today. Teens now have greater access to cars then 10 or 20 years ago, and the lack of education (and discipline) not only on the teens but on the parents have decreased. One thing that might make the article more attractive is to add more emphasis on why YOU worte the article.
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Kevin Flores
I really like this article. I like that you chose a very large and a growing issue. This is a problem that needs to be fixed because it can lead to so many other problems such as violence. Because if you think about it most acts of violence usually involve teens and young adults and most of the time there is alcohol involved in some way. I do agree with you that a lot of teens and young adults are really drinking a lot and very often and are making it a part of their life style and do not realize how it can negatively affect them and think that the pleasure they get from drinking out ways the bad effects it can have on your body. What a lot of people also don’t realize is that being very drunk to the point where you do not even know what you are dong can put you in some very bad situations that you really do not want to be in and get you in trouble with the law obviously but also put your life and safety in danger. I think that a lot of young people who drink even if they are 21 don’t realize the bad stuff that can happen when you get drunk because they are just concerned with having a good time and don’t think twice about some of the stuff they do.
There was some stuff that I noticed in your letter that caught my attention and you might want to fix. Like at the end of your letter when you brought up that this generation doesn’t have a shot to make it to their 25th birthday I like that statement but I think you could have ended your letter with a better ending when you ended the letter with a statement you could have switched them I think it would have helped. Another thing that I would change is when you said messed up with booze you really could have just said drunk that kind of confused me a bit. If you were to just put getting drunk it would definitely clear it up because it throws the reader off. I also think it would have helped if you would explain some the statistics a bit more. I also think it would have been better if you explain a bit more about your zero tolerance policy more because I really didn’t get what you meant by that I only got an idea. If you were to make these changes I think it would help out your letter and clear up some question that the reader might have. But overall this was a good letter great topic to choose from because it is one that affects us young adults on the daily basis. I agree with you that this issue definitely needs to get fixed because like you said at the rate this generation is going some people might not live to see 25 and it ridiculus to see young people die when there is liquor involved because it for a dumb reason -
Killian Noonan
Very good letter Nick. Very well formed. Unlike me you took your time with this assignment. Im must say you also understood the parameters of the assignment better than me. You mentioned a statement in the paper, wondering if the next generation would make it to when they are 25. That was very compelling. I don’t know if I fall under that category being a bit younger, however when I look at those behind me I wonder the same question. What kids are doing these days that I hear about is appalling. One of problems is this drinking situation. There is a statistic, which would have been great if you included, that over 50% of kids who drink before age of 15 have a greater chance of alcoholism. Very scary indeed. Do not quote me on the statistic, I am sure it is around that same figure though, bit shocking nonetheless. I read your paper and liked it tremendously. Everyone likes to pretend to know or care about alcoholism and how serious it is but shrugs it off. Something needs to change drastically. One thing I am wondering seeing as I read your paper on service before this one, is if you had followed through and been a police officer you would have seen alcohol at its worst. I am glad I got that bit of personal info from you first. It made me have a whole new outlook on this paper. If I were you, i would definitely consider sending this paper out. Very formal and well formed. I am seldom disappointed in the writing you do Nick keep up the writing mo chara. I always look forward to your writing. Likewise I will do the same not to let you down like I did on my letter assignment.
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Killian Noonan
Hello again, this is also a follow up to my lack of five hundred words. I am very fortunate to have been paired with such greater writers. I feel like you and the others have really helped me advance. Likewise, I hope I have helped you in the same way. I see a lot of the people who post on here, and none are in our group and I wont name names but it is sad. I understand writing is not everyone’s cup of tea, but things I have seen people post are shocking. One thing that I do not like about Splatter, is it takes away that formal writing element. I like the old fashioned typing it out the best way you can, and then having someone read it and critique it. Though thats just me, I’m an old soul I suppose. I just feel that people do not take it as seriously, and will post any sort of junk they want. However, it is probably suggested by the actual college and their whole “going green campaign.” A clever scheme by the administration in showing the sustainability of their school. I always enjoy reading your work like I said. What I gauge from your interaction on here and your writing that you are a very intelligent person. You can tell a lot by someones writing interestingly enough. Just by their word choice etc. Well until next time, slan go foill
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Nick Kleopa
This weeks journal entry id like to comment on the second chapter of a Child Called It. In this chapter the author is talking about how life was in his early years before the abuse started. At this point, not much is said about what the narrator has suffered as far as physical abuse is concerned. No good communicating and malnourishment being the biggest forms of abuse discussed thus far. The narrator is talking about how perfect his family was. At that point in time he was around 5-6 years old. His father was a firefighter and would work long hours but his mother was always taking him and his brothers to play at parks or to the town. His favorite place to go was the cities aquarium. They had several tanks in their home that they would take great care of and spend a lot of time maintaining. He talks about how his family would make the most out of every meal with lots of talking and communication during dinner time. Lots of sit down during holidays. There was also a lot of life skills and life choices that their mother presented to the 3 boys throughout the chapter. The narrator and his family would decorate the home together during the holidays. From the way he made it sound was that their home was the most well taken care off and decorated home on their street and in their subdivision. It is unclear to me so far whether the mother from the first chapter is the same person the narrator is talking about in this second chapter. In conclusion, the second chapter is pretty interesting and the 3rd chapters title of bad boy sounds like things are just about to start falling. Good read so far.
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Nick Kleopa
Elevator speech
The issue.
- Alcohol abuse is talking our lives away
- It is a growing problem
- many good and innocent people will suffer in regards to car accidents and other violent that is caused by alcohol
- This problem is growing larger and larger in the youth department.
What can be done to help.
- Stay aware of the risks.
- Take the extra steps to be safe.
- Talk to your children, talk to your friends.
- To not think that your indestructible and that bad things can’t happen to you
- Family and parents will have the strongest influence.
- Schools should also make students aware with weekly announcements and in numbers/facts/statistic’s to get people to realized the threats and or after effects.
If you’d like a little more on this please visit http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001940/
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Nick Kleopa
Alcohol is more powerfull than we think it is.
Alcohol is more powerful than we perceive it to be. Has it ever done any good at all since being legalized?
Alcohol takes its toll with those that abuse its power. People in general don’t really understand the effects of it and what it can do when you abuse it. From Automobile accidents to taking away the hormones that separate a man from a woman to health
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Klem Bachleda
I like he overall message of the paper. I can relate to what you say about drinking and the affects. I can also relate to you staying sober and not drinking any. Before I was 22 years old, I never drank any forms of alcohol. The main reason was that I wanted to be an automotive technician and having a DUI or DWI would deplete any chance I have of getting a job in that field. Now of course i’m not saying I turned into an alcoholic after 22, I just didn’t drink anything, and now am conservative with alcohol.
I like the fact that you did put in numbers/facts into your essay to show how significant alcohol abuse is. Another strong point was the fact that you wrote about a personal life experience instead of just “he said / she said” stories.
The fact that you mentioned alcohol decreases testosterone and increases estrogen levels is interesting. I don’t think i’ve ever heard or seen any man growing “breasts” like a woman (i’d say they grow a belly and look like their pregnant if anything).
A couple of ideas that might help your paper out is not using jargon like “bashing” and “one-up”. Some people might not understand those terms. It also makes the paper seem less mature.
Another thing is that when reading the experience you personally had in Oak Forest, I could decipher if you were the driver involved in the accident at first. I think there were words missing in that part.
Other than that, I like the message in your essay and hopefully you can get me out of speeding tickets later in life… -
Kevin Flores
I think that this is a very important issue to bring up because alot of teens obviously drink and donto know how to control it. When people dont know how to control their alcohol it can pose many problems for them besides health problems they can be put in vey bad situations that they really dont want to be in such as confontations and in trouble with the law, which as we all know can open up a huge can of worms and branch out to other issues. I think that it was good that you brought up your personal experience in the paper because it shows the reader that you have a first hand experience with teen drinking and the negative affects that it can have. I also like how you brought up the stories about the other people who were driving under the influence, esspecially when you talked about the man that was killed an how he left his family behind. This attracts readers because it gives them something to think about and remindes them that when people decide to drive drunk that they not only can kill them selves but also can kill someone who is totally innocent for no reason other than they decided to have drinks and get behind the wheel. This is a great topic because alot of young adults and teens can relate to this and it is a hot topic. I also found it super interesting that you found that alcohol can decrease testosteronee and increase estrogen. I wounldnt have thought that because alot of people get agressive when they drink but then I can understand it because many people get emotional when they drink and I think that might have something to do with the increased estrogen. Over all I liked you paper and topic and you had some very intoresting information that might make people stop drinking
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Killian Noonan
First off, the title really caught my eye. Which I think did that for a lot of people. I will be completely honest in saying I am a man who can never refuse a drink. Although my Lent promise has made me refuse many a drink and I had to sit back and watch friends enjoy a night of drunken debauchery. However, this was a very good topic to write an essay on. This is a topic that we all brush off with ignorance and state that it is one of those things that is common sense. Which is completely untrue, we really do not know how alcohol effects us. I like the personal story you told regarding the user of the car forum you are a part of. It is stories like those that make people especially myself think twice about drinking and driving. Too many close calls have happened to me when there has been alcohol involved. One such incident leading to my permanent ban from St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Indeed a story for another time. Very little good things happen whilst abusing alcohol. I’ve had past experiences and know that I will never do things like driving under the influence of alcohol. Thank God it happened while I’m still young and I learned my lesson with many close calls. Though I think everyone can relate to this paper. Good work. There was great use of facts and statistics in the paper. I look forward to more of your work mo chara.
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Nick Kleopa
For this weeks journal entry I choose to review the first chapter from a child called it by David Pelzer. The first chapter is basically telling the audience about how the narrator was treated and how he managed to survive. He had to learn how to play his mothers games in order to eat that day. He would explain that the food that he was given were mostly just leftovers his siblings didn’t finish. The child(David) learned how to conteract what his mother would do or say. The first chapter also takes a look at his school and classroom relationship with his classmates, the teachers, nurse and the principal. He was always in big trouble for stealing other students food but it wasn’t until the nurse called in the principal to view the bruises on his body that he was significanty malnurished and thats why he stole food. The nurse half way through this chapter conducted a visual inspection of Davids arms, face, and body. He had a big bruise on his face and he gave the same exuse that he had the week before. The nurse called the pricipal and the principal called the police. The police came and basically got david to confess everything that his mother did to him from beating him to not feeding him. Throughout this entire chapter the narrarator(David) was terrified that his mother would find out what he told everyone. After all was said and done, the police took him to child services and assured David that his mother would never harm him again. My opinion so far of the book is that he paints an excellent picture for the reader and it is really interesting the the whole first chapter was told in first person which made it easy to follow for me personally. All in all I look foreward to reading into this book because I heard it was excellent.
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Nick Kleopa
I am choosing your mother and I for my weekly journal entry. I want to start of by saying that this story was extremely difficult to understand because it seemed as though everything that was being said was all over the place. Throughout the story assuming the father is the narrator, was talking about how the boy’s mother and himself were doing so much good in the world. Allot of the things were a little over proportioned but for the most part were interesting. The whole story also included them making some kind of dip with cheese, salsa, and some other ingredients which I felt was kind of weird to include in the story. Along with all the questions directed to the son/daughter of the couple was sort of confusing. In my opinion, I think the moral of this story is somewhat talking about love and sticking together and that together we can achieve anything. The narrator talks about helping people, saving lives, decreasing pollution, saving electricity and preventing or helping out sicknesses such as aids etc.. The whole part about uncle frank was a little weird also, I have no clue why he was in the story or mentioned at certain times. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Also what was kind of odd was the talk about the Kofi walking in on them in the bathroom while they were at it. All in all my impression of the story is I sort of understand the points but feel there is a lot of weird information being presented as well.
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Nick Kleopa
Activism and service. Activism in my opinion is doing something for the love of doing it. Activism in my mind is almost like being a volenteer, but volenteering on a subject that you care about. Something along the lines of going to a soup kitchen and working for the poor because you feel strongly that the poor need your help. You are not paid money but what you get in return is a feeling of a mission accomplished so to speak. Service in my opinion is doing something for money or some sort of material good in exchange for your work. Something along the lines of a job or something that you help out but still recieve something back.
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Nick Kleopa
As I was reading the Village Voice, by Peter Hessler, I couldn’t help but think of the question on the board in class that asked ” can one person
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Nick Kleopa
“Who should survive” in my opinion was a great project. I find it very interesting that virtually everyone had a different opinion on who should stay and who should leave the bomb shelter. In our group within the first half of the time limit, we had run into nothing but disagreements on who we felt was more suitable to keep the group safe as a whole. We took in the qualifications of all 11 of the people involved and began to add up what they knew and what they could do for the group. In the end after countless problems everyone had initially wanted to discard Dr. Garcia because of his 2 heart attack and the fact that he was the most unhealthy out of the group. What happened after we decided that we cannot leave the decisions entirely up to ourselves is we took it over to chance and saw what it could do for us. What we did was as a list, give each person three coin toss’s and work off of a plus or minus system. The purpose of the three is it would determine the overall end result. With two plus’s, the person would be saved or two minus’s and the person would have to leave the shelter. It wasn’t the best idea for determining the results but everyone on the list got a fair chance and the end result’s turned out equal with everyone having exactly three toss’s. I didn’t think that it would have worked out so perfectly but I guess you could say that it worked out by chance. Funny thing is the only person that everyone had agreed earlier to leave the shelter “Dr. Garcia” turned out to be saved by the coin in the end.
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Nick Kleopa
Vehicle and then Mutilates Him in the Dust” by Dave Edgar in my opinion means that the guy who is in his home, he doesn’t know why he is safe, comfortable, warm, clean and alive. He assosiates his life with that of the soldiers and does’t undestand why he is where he is and the soldier is dragging from the end of a truck. Giving the examples of other types of tragedies and catastrophies, this subject conserning the soldier did not sit well with him because he might have been a soldier himself. He might have done his time and felt almost quilty as to why he is still alive and his fellow soldier got the short deal. In a way he could feel guilty but I think he also feels like he has a new found respect for being alive. That the soldier being pulled by the truck in the dirt could have very well been him. I think he feels guilty, affraid, alone but also thankfull at the same time. He also states that he think’s he needs to make a phone call or go for a quick run to releive some stress. He has built up anger inside of himslef and he dosn’t know exactly why. The man has virtually no reason to feel guilty about the situation. In my opinion the soldier chose a route and the man in the story chose a route what happends to them both is entirely left up to fate to determine.
Dave. “What It Means When A Crowd In A Faraway Nation Takes A Soldier Representing Your Own Nation, Drags Him From His Vehicle and Then Mutilates Him In The Dust.” How We Are Hungry. McSweeney’s 2002: 17-18. “Splatter: The Messy Art of Writing.” Web. 02, Eggers, Feb. 2012 -
Nick Kleopa
Three questions of value that I feel the deep down inside determines the type of person a human being is. What I would live for, what I would kill
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Klem Bachleda
Nick, while reading this essay, I got lost a couple times. I had to re-read the sentence I just read, or go back a couple sentences to understand what you were trying to say. Another reason it was hard to read or follow is because there are fragments. It’s hard to flow through the paper without stopping. There’s also a lot of repetitiveness.
As to what you live for, I would agree that I live for my family also. But to live
I agree with some of the statements you make about killing and dieing for your family, but dieing for friends and the “greater good”, but dieing to save the life of a stranger would be something hard to argue. A question to think about after you answer the main question “What would I die for?” is why you would die for that reason? How would it benefit you? How would it benefit your family? Would you really risk dieing and leaving your wife and kids behind? How would they react? How would they react to the family of the victim you died for? Even if you died, did you really save the other person, or did they die with you? Just things to consider.
Also, to the things I live for would also be my family. But to say that money has taken lives can be somewhat incorrect. With money, we have saved a lot of people in different countries. -
Killian Noonan
Nice paper! Although somewhat conventional you looked to the future for these questions. You said in the future if in the situation, you would of course live or kill for them. I also liked your analysis of material objects and money. I couldn’t agree more how families are being torn apart all for things such as that. Just like your family, my family broke up as well because of money problems. To make a long story short it was money that led to my ultimate estrangement from one side of my “family.” I was able to related very well to this paper. Which as a reader makes it a huge plus for the writer. You had many good strong points in this paper that you were able to back up with strong opinions. Also I noted how you back tracked to the material objects at the end of your paper. I found this interesting, as it really shows me how strongly you are against the use of material objects and money take over our day to day lives, and our lives as families. All in all great paper my friend.
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Nick Kleopa
I feel that Ecological literacy is the key to keeping the world working as it should. It is the main reason why everything in life continues in a never ending cycle. One thing overlaps another and keeps everyone happy. The main point of the story is that we need to stop, really look around and see what we are doing. Our actions have a huge effect on the world and most of us don’t even know it. Whether the effects be small now, they will grow and grow and become much bigger issues later on down the road. We need to think about our families, the people of the future and how they will have to deal with this issue if we don’t make a stand and help clean up this environment. As most things do fall into one another and the cycle continues, if we continue not to care the never ending cycle will eventually break and a lot of bad things good potentially happen. Everything has it’s place in the world and if one thing doesn’t go according to plan or act as it usually acts it could bring on a chain reaction. Ecological Literacy in my opinion can also mean that in regards to people in general that some know about how the ecosystem works and what we can do to help preserve the planet. Where as being Ecological E literate so to speak is the complete opposite meaning that the people have no idea about what they are putting the ecosystem through or they do know but continue to live life the way that they have been and not do anything to change their ways. All in all I think that the majority of people just don’t have a great understanding about how our every move may effect someone or something. From picking up and recycling as much as possible to just avoiding things like littering or telling everyone you know and making them understand that every move they make can have negative effects. People need to become more aware of this issue and I feel that if they involve themselves a little more in their communities or even their world in general, they can save the future.
1996. Print., Capra, Fritjof. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. New York: Anchor
Killian Noonan, 
Klem Bachleda, and 
Kevin Flores are discussing. 
Nick Kleopa, and 
Kristina Marynczak are discussing. 
Kevin Flores 5:02 pm on April 22, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey Nick, I agree with you that before this class I really didn’t realize what one person could do to help out society. When we had to do the first service learning project I decided to do it at the greater Chicago food depository which was set up by Mr. McGuire but by what he told us it seemed pretty hard to reserve spots so that we could volunteer and needed exact numbers of how many people were going to be helping out that specific day. So I am guessing that it would be very hard to schedule a time for people to go especially because you guys are just a group of students what helped me out when we went was that the date and time was all set up by the professor and all we had to do was show up and work basically. It was a great learning experience for me but unfortunately you won’t be able to do it at least for this project but maybe you might want to do it again if you ever need to do service for another class or something like that.
I like how you talked about the steps you and your group took in order to find the place where you are going to do your project. I also agree with you that it is very hard to find a place to do community service at because I think a lot of people think it is easy. Before taking this class I had never done any community service and I always used to think that it was very easy to just go find an organization or a group and just help them out but this project has made me realize that there is a lot more that goes into it and that a lot of other people also do community service and therefore many organizations are booked and it also didn’t help that we had a very short time period to get all of this together but like your group we were also able to find an organization and get our volunteer day set up.
The retirement home seems like it will be an interesting experience it will be an opportunity to meet new people and it will give you a lot that you will be able to write your paper on and a lot of information that you can put in it. I like how you described the location of this place to the reader and said about where it is by telling us the restaurant that it is near because the reader might know the restaurant and next time they’re by there they will know that across the street that there is a retirement home there. I am probably going to go back in my paper and in the final draft put the location of where I went to do my community service so that the reader will know where it is at in case they want to go volunteer or just so that they know where it is at.
Klem Bachleda 1:31 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Nick, while reading your paper, I noticed that you experienced the same problem as my group had when starting this service activity. During the whole semester, it was alot easier getting to the volunteering that was already set up by Mr. McGuire. It’s always easier when things are handed to an individual with instructions to follow and time schedule set up, but when it comes to an idea with a blank sheet of paper to write the instructions yourself, things get complicated. We also experienced a hard time setting up a time where we could all go. We just ended up all going separately. The details and concerns you input into your paper so far shows the reader that it is not easy setting up an event where others can volunteer. It also shows how getting the actual time to volunteer isn’t necessarily the lack of action of the volunteer, but, as you stated, the lack of communication between the volunteer and the organization. This tends to happen when the organization has volunteers that don’t necessarily make the work of the organization a priority, but rather a chore. In your case, judging by the description you gave of the location and the condition of the place from the outside, seems like it would fall into that category.
I like the fact that you included the setting of the location where you want to volunteer. It is located in a busy area, from what I understand, on Harlem in Bridgeview (I sometimes attend the shows at Duke’s), and just by thinking it through, doesn’t seem to be in the best of places. Even though it is in a busy area, it is hard to pull into their parking lot, or pull out during rush hour, or any time of day. It would seem to me that it is always loud due to the semi trucks driving by. The description you give of the building also sets the mood to the beginning of a psych ward type movie. It’s a little creepy.
The best bet is to get the volunteering done so you can finish the paper. You started out strong in giving great detail to some of the issues you and your group came across, and don’t forget to add the same amount of detail into your experience when volunteering. It’s a good thing you are doing something different than a food drive or pantry since that’s what most individuals (at least I think most individuals) normally do. I don;t know if it’s the fear of socializing with others, but getting to know the childhood of somebody that lived in some of the documented times in history is sometimes very exciting.
Killian Noonan 9:50 am on April 24, 2012 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Very good writing Nick. Of course I never have to speculate with you. All your writing is very good. One thing that I really enjoy is the amount of detail you put in it. It helps me visualize what exactly you are trying to explain. Reading your paper it seems you had some of the same challenges just like my group. This project was not as easy as I thought! We had to take a complete turn around from our initial goal of covering underage drinking. Seeing as we had to be certified it was out of the question. We had to shift our goal to this organization that deals with bikes. They give bikes to those in need of them. It’s ands on and is mostly assembling and disassembling them. You did a good job in taking me through the whole process your group took. Which is good, it helps people realize that this is not so simple. I was under the impression that this would be no big deal for an experienced volunteer such as myself. I had been so used to being heavily involved with organizations and groups dealing with the Irish Republican Movement, that I did not know how difficult this would be! I don’t think I’ve heard anybody at least in my class say this was easy. Your paper shows that too. Another great part of the paper is that you gave your thoughts before volunteering and after volunteering. In regards to the retirement home. You had initial ideas however you reassured yourself that it might not be so bad and that when it’s over the day will be all good. You do a good job of really highlighting your experiences. Which is why I enjoy reviewing your work. I too an in anticipation for the service fair we are going to have. It will be interesting to see all the organizations people chose to work with. Out of all the things we have done the thing I enjoyed most in COM102 was the volunteering McGuire makes us do. Now calk it up to me being old fashioned, but I’m glad he did that. I feel that enough youth do not volunteer in the community and help out. Hopefully, many of the kids in McGuires COM102 sections will continue to volunteer. Maybe our generation isn’t so doomed after all! I’ve said this to all the people I’ve reviewed and that is that I wish you good luck and solidarity. As people on a common group in doing work we all share a camaraderie. This assignment was not easy, however as people who are all on the same level we all know the trials and tribulations that each other have to go through. Once again Nick this was a fine piece of writing. I’m deeply saddened that our time is coming to end. Though we have never met face to face, what I gauge from this website is we would get along fine. Slan go foill mo chara.