Alex+Segulin

//10/7/10// Of the six news flashes, the one about the student's "shooting spree" in Austin brought out the biggest reaction from me. The student fired six random shots at nobody, hit nobody, then commited suicide. I at first thought, "well, what was the point in that?" Then I thought about it more. Now I am imagining a darker picture. Perhaps this is the method in the dead gunner's madness: he was depressed, so depressed that he wanted to commit suicide. Maybe he was about to, or maybe he went right to his list of things to do before I die. One of the things on the list inspired him to attempt Colombine. He prepared and was ready to do it. He was about to, then decided against it. He fired off the six shots half-heartedly, then commited suicide, which was the original plan. This scary image could be spreading slowly across the minds of people. The "awesome" (not really) image of be an evil bad*, then commit suicide to avoid getting caught could be hovering over our heads, slowly consuming us all, just waiting for the final devastating blow. This death cloud must be located, targeted, and destroyed quickly. Many lives might be at stake.


 * P= You did a nice job of commanding the language**
 * C= You could organize your paragraph a little better. The ideas and details seem a little scattered.**

//9/23/10// The biggest reaction I had was from the snippet about the Indian protests. Though I disagree with the lethal violence, the people should have the right to protest. The stupid racist Americans thought it would be funny to destroy the holy book of a religion that that irrationally blamed for all terrorist attacks. Again and again, I push the point that the terrorist's religion just happened to Islam. Defiling a holy relic is one of the ultimate insults known to mankind, and should not be done. Punishing an entire population because of the actions of a select few is terrible. The offended people would be livid, and this anger needs to be released. The protests have started for a good reason, but perhaps the lethality of it (20 plus dead) and the broad anger is slightly frightful. The protester should not punish all of America for the actions of a few stupid racist Americans.

//9/20/10// Dear Diary, Ever since World War II started life for me and other women changed drastically. We flooded to all sorts of jobs. The "woman's" jobs, like being a waitress, filled up quickly. With many men off to war, jobs held by only men had opened up to us. Many women took jobs as "government girls," taking jobs in the federal government. Like many women, I took a job at a munitions factory. I have been told that the machine jobs have been retooled to allow unskilled workers to handle them. Some women have taken that as an insult, but I don't mind. Fortunately, the unions havenot changed the pay much, but that might be because they expect men to take the jobs back after the war. Community service roles, such as USO and Red Cross, also filled up quickly. I've been told that some women joined the airforce as various professions. Two groups I know of are the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. (WAFS) Though we can't be combat pilots, we can be transport pilots. Some of my coworkers have been talking about a rumor that those two organizations will be combinded, but I am somewhat skeptical. Many of the women I know have talked about their newborn or their upcoming child. The pictures I have seen are so cute! They kind of make me wish I had a newborn of my own. My husband went off to war before we could do anything except talk and make plans. Although, housework has been made a little difficult with the various rationing and cuts made because of the war. Another child would be nice, but the new picky mouth might be a bit much. There has also been talk about divorce at the factory, but nothing has been done yet. Most likely that is because of a federal law put in place to make divorcing absent soldiers difficult. I can't imagine divorcing my husband, but I'm sure the other women have their reasons. It is reaching about the time I normally leave for the factory. I will write again soon.

//9/15/10// Each of the six snippets pulled a reaction from me. The first one about the resigning mayor made me question if there was somethingmore sinister about it. The one about the Muslim Center made me wonder if we could get any dumber. Specific terrorists caused 9/11, and that doesn't make all Muslims evil. The one about the jumper made me mad at the car owner, wonder if she could get less thoughtful. Her car saved a life, and she wanted him to hit the pavement to avoid sctraching her car. The one on BP made me bored, for we dragged out the blame-game too far, and now we should worry about the actual clean up. The one about the Koran burning really got on my nerves. Again 9/11 was caused by specific idiots, not all Muslims, and one should never burn any holy relic. Period. The last one made me want to stare are the Pentagon angrily until they got extremely uncomfortable and confused. How much further must you dig into the Pit of Idiocracy, government?


 * Good job on your writing, Alex. What I want you to work on for next week is to differentiate the start of your sentences. Much of the time you said "the one" which can get repetitive after awhile. Pick one or two ideas for a paragraph and then support those ideas with details from the article. Why shouldn't anyone burn a holy relic? Those are the ideas that need to be explained a little further to make a better paragraph. Keep working!****