Gina+Smith

INTRODUCTION
Hi, I am Gina Smith and Im 23 years old. I am having my first child, who I am naming Aiden! I live in Ridge, Md and have lived there my whole life. I drive a Ford Taurus and have had that car for almost three years. This semester is my first semester back after four years of not being in school. I graduated in 2005 and did two semesters here at CSM before I stopped going to school. I like this English class because it helps with my grammar and my commas and I feel that it would help later on down the road.

POEM
Gina Loving, caring, procrastinating, determined Niece of Tubby Smith basketball Coach Who is known for always being late to everything Who loves my family more than anything Who feels very strongly about family sticking together Who needs friends, family, and great food Who fears spiders, dying, and losing somebody close Who gives her all to something I strongly believe in Who would like to see Puerto Rico, Africa, and Europe Resident of Ridge, MD Smith

FORMAL ESSAY
I chose this essay because it was easy for me to write about how techno

Technology at Its Best In Robert J. Samuelson’s “Technology in Reverse”, Samuelson talks about how, in his opinion, technology has become retarded. The article does in some ways talk about how useful technology can be, but it is mostly telling how much of a waste of time technology can be. It states that technology can be used for adult play, and for the idea that people use it just because it is there. I do not agree with this because I feel as though technology has become quite useful, helpful, and has made our lives a lot easier. Case in point, cell phones, computers, and books have all upgraded from what they use to be, and it has helped our people and economy in many ways. The first piece of technology that I think has helped in many ways is the cellular phone. When the cell phone first came out back in 1946, the Swedish police used the very first mobile phone. It only worked through the car battery and made only six phone calls before the car battery died. From 1982-1990 cell phones were operated through analog service before going digital. In 1983, Motorola came out with their first portable phone which was almost two pounds and was thirteen inches long. It only allowed one hour of talk time and only stored thirty numbers. Samuelson said that technology is retarded, but I differ with that because look how far we have come with cell phones. I now own a Droid 2 Global, which in itself is just like a computer. I have everything on my phone that includes, email, camera, video camera, text messaging, picture messaging, voice mail, internet, Wi-Fi, music player and many, many more applications. Just imagine if we still had “brick” phones and could only make six phone calls. I couldn’t. The second piece of technology that I think has helped in many ways is the computer. In Samuelson’s article, he states, “entire areas of academic life (political science, economics and even history) are now increasingly given over to number crunching”. Computers allow numbers to be easily crunched. I do not agree with this, because if anything computers have helped with political science, economics, and history. It has helped in ways of doing research in many different aspects. The internet on the computer today wasn’t available in the first years. Some things that have changed on a computer over the years that have changed on a computer are size, interface, speed, external storage, and media. The size of the computer has changed drastically. Some monitors are flat screen now, and even the bulky computers are easier to handle. The speed has defiantly become a lot faster. Loading pages, opening programs and anything else you want to do takes no time and is lightning speed. External storage is very helpful also because you can load any data from your computer to any CD, DVD, flash drive or your mobile phone. I’d rather have an up to date computer, that can do all of these things, then have a computer that is slow and little information on it. The third piece of technology that I think has helped in many ways is books. Even though I do not read a lot of books, and when I do, it’s just a regular book, there are many other technical ways to read books. One way is the computer. The computer now has millions of books online that you can read in it entirety. The computer holds books from all different genres and goes back many years. Another way is on your cell phone. Some cell phones (including my cell phone) come equipped with Kindle. Even though the Kindle Store on mobile devices only hold 230,000 e-books, that is still a lot of books in the palm of your hand. Another way is the actual Kindle, Nook or and Audio Books. The Kindle and Nook are electronic devices used to hold books. They also hold thousands to millions of different books that also range from different genres and also go back many of years. Audio Books are a little different. Audio Books are a sound recording of a book and may not be an exact recording of the book. Even though the Kindle, Nook and Audio Books can be somewhat expensive, they are a lot easier to carry around and to able to manage than a big bulky book would be. So I again disagree with what Samuelson stated in is article because books, even from back then, are a lot more to manage and keep up with than the technology that has become with books even in the past ten years. In conclusion, I feel in my opinion, that we need technology in this day in time. I do not believe technology is retarded because it has helped society become a little hectic, but a more available and upgraded version than what it used to be even fifty years ago. Cell phones, computers and books have come a long way and it is still going. I’d rather have it this way than the way it use to be.

JOURNAL ENTRY #1
I chose to do this journal because I approve of Gay Marriges and i dont think that it threatens the institute of marriage.

In Katha Pollitt’s “Adam and Steve- Together at last”, Pollitt states that gay marriages should not be any means threaten the institute of marriage. The first claim that Pollitt addresses is marriage is all about procreation. She states that when that the law allows marriage to have or be infertile, elderly, or even to be celibate. If the law allows all of these in a marriage, why shouldn’t gay marriages be permitted? The second claim is marriage is the way women domesticate men. She states that married men are much likely than singles to crash a car, take drugs or even commit suicide. It does not explain marriage should be restricted to heterosexual couples if they chose to be in a heterosexual relationship. The third claim is history coming into play. Marriage as we know it started out being arranged and polygyny was the rule. She makes a good case on why gay marriages should not be a threaten to the institute of marriage, in more ways than one.
 * Gay Marriage**

JOURNAL ENTRY #2
I chose to do this journal because I understand where she is coming from dealing with the talk shows and how they differ from right and wrong.

Defense of Talk Shows
In the reading “In Defense of Talk Shows” by Barbara Ehrenreich, she goes to defend talk shows such as, Montel Williams and Sally Raphael on how they have disturbing and sometimes disgusting shows. But she goes on to say that there business is to preach to the middle class virtues of responsibility, reason and self control. Even though most of the people on the talk shows are low class, welfare citizens, they still need therapy and are educated just like a millionaire or somebody with class would need. She states that at least the talk shows morals are always loud and clear. Respect yourself, listen to others and stop beating on your wife. Most of the people that come on the shows are looking for social support, education, material resources and self- esteem. All in all, her point is, that no matter what kind of show it is or becomes, it still has a point to get people to understand what is wrong and what is right.

JOURNAL ENTRY # 3
I chose this journal because I do agree that rap is sexist and puts women down and has an effect on young teens.

Gangsta� Rap
In Michael Eric Dyson Gangsta Rap and American Culture” Dyson tells how he believes that rap has crudely exposed harmful beliefs and practices that are often maintained with deceptive civility. He also goes on to say that “Gangsta” rap is sexist and takes heat for a range of social maladies, from urban violence to sexual misconduct. I believe he argues his point very effectively because he shows how the music has troubled young teens. As well as how it surrounds itself with violence, materialism and sexual transgression. It’s stated that rap draws its attention on complex dimensions of ghetto life and black women. I agree with what Dyson stated because “Gangsta” rap is sometimes crude and to o sexual for most including me to listen to. I also believe that it does have an effect on young people back when it first started to today. If artist can learn that not all music has to be violent and sexual, young kids can be able to listen and relate.

Teen Pregnancy
I wrote my reseach paper on Teen Pregnancy, and wrote on how Teen Pregnancy is a problem in todays society and how it not only effects the teens themselfs, but also the parents of the teens, and our society itself. Teen Pregnancy is on a rise and there has to be a way to discourage teens from having babies at such a young age. I decided to do this paper because I want all teens to know that even though it may seem easy to raise a baby, its not. When wriiting this paper, I realized that complications results to death in developing countries with over 70,000 teens each year. I also learned that fewer than 2% of teens earn a college degree by the age of 30 and 50% of teens repeat a grade. With numbers like these, teens need to know what the risk are and how to discourage themselves from getting pregnant at sch a young age. I decided to write this paper because each year 3 in 10 teen girls get pregnant each year just in the US alone. That adds up to 745,000 teen pregnancies each year. I also think that it is important for teens to get sex ed in schools and at home because it would show them that using condoms and being on birth control will prevent getting pregnant.

FINAL REFLECTION
In English 1010, I have learned alot and I have came a long way from the beginning of class. I havent taken a English class since i graduated and coming into a college english was pretty hard. I still have a hard time repeating some of my sentences, but I have gotten alot better at writing my paragraphs as a whole.

I have learned alot of workshop assignments that include comma workshop, sentence structure workshop, juicy quote sandwiches, and comma splice. All of these have helped me alot in ways that I understand how to write better and how to make my paper longer.

I also like the style of teaching that my teacher has. That also helped me alot because I need a teacher to help me through things that I dont really understand. I also like everybody in the class cause we all keep it entertaining and we help each other learn.

I would change how we have the journals when we are doing our big papers. I did like the whats the problems and the comma workshops. I will take all of the things that I have learned and use them when I need to in my next English class.