Opinion on Peer Reviews

I really think the peer reviews are helpful. Not only is it interesting being able to read another person's work, but it's beneficial. By looking at ways to improve the person's paper, you also have your own paper in the back of your head, making mental notes of what to change when it comes to your own paper. I'm really glad we get to do this, although sometimes I feel embaressed to let someone read and critize my own work. But I guess that's the way it goes.

So Cold, Freezing Cold

This weather really is playing tricks with my head. One week it's warm and the next it's cold. And when it does get cold, it's not like a 'nice' cold, it's like Antartica cold. I don't know how much more of living in Michigan I can take! I miss this nice, warm beaches in Australia, surfing with my mates, being able to walk around without a jacket. It's like summer all year round. I don't mind the cold, but when it gets so cold that you don't even want to go outside, that's when it bothers me!

Like driving home from school with the ice and snow on the roads was terrible. It's so stressful because at any point your car can skid out of control. I don't even know how many cars I saw in the ditch or how many cars (on the freeway) moving all over the place. Hopefully everyone got home safe!

A Look at the Past

Progress on the analyzing of the Victorian house is going quite good. I'm learning so many new things that I didn't even know about my best friend's house, even though I've probably slept at her house 3 times a month since the 8th grade. I always knew about her house harbouring runaway slaves but I had never gone too much into detail with her. It's so interesting seeing where they used to hide them, except now it's patched up being that it's dangerous with her younger siblings.

Also, when I sat down with her mum and dad and talked to them about the history of the house, the brought out pamphlets and books written on the house and gave me dates of thse house (it was built in 1837). 1837! And I have slept there so many times and never actually thought about it. I feel guilty that I never considered it as a historical structure. Lastly, I was informed that Henry Ford used to stay at her house on his way up to his cottage. Henry Ford! I really do look at her house differently now. All this new information is so bizarre!

Disagreements on Coffeehouses

It seemed to me that a lot of people had different perceptions on coffeehouses in their own communities. I really didn't want to speak up so I figured I would go home tonight and write down my thoughts.

A lot of people thought that coffeehouses are just a social place to do unsociable things [going on the computer, reading, but I kind of disagree! Yes, it's okay to go to a coffeehouse to read or to be on your laptop, but there's more to it than just that! I've been to many coffeehouses around the world and I'm starting to think that maybe it depends on your culture or environment. To the coffeehouses that I have been to in different parts of the world, I have seen that it is a place for socializing. It is a place for sitting down, relaxing, and talking!

Take Australia's coffeehouses scenario: Gloria Jeans Coffeehouse on the strip, half a miles walk from the beach, in the heart of Cronulla (a hip beach town filled with surfers, surfer-bums, and professionals). Any time of the day (6 am - 10 pm) you will see the Coffeehouse filled with people! People sitting down, talking, drinking coffee, and in no rush to continue on with their day. Friends would sit outside with their pets, giving it a sense of a relaxed environment. It's not just Australia; New Orleans, Germany, and Chile are the same, just to name a few.

I guess all in all it depends on the culture and the environment, but for the most part coffeehouses are a socializing place, not JUST for unsociable things. Last but not least, coffeehouses aren't just a fad, they're here to stay!

A Coffeehouse Conversation

Marriott's article "Jiving with Java" was closely accurate to the coffeehouses in present-day, considering it was written in '95. Coffeehouses truly appeal to everyone who has taste buds! Even that, apart from the addiction to the caffeine, there's an addiction to the socialization. People get a kick out of going to a coffeehouse, not knowing what will happen during that visit. They go to coffeehouses to get a drink, to study, to read, to chat with a friend, to relax, or to just simply meet someone.

Coffeehouses, at least in my community, are the place to go when you want to meet up with a friend and talk or to do some homework. As lame as it sounds, most people probably see a coffeehouse "cooler than a library" but you can also get work done. I, personally don't go to a coffeehouse for homework because I get really distracted. But I do go if I want to read a magazine or a book, or simply to just meet up with friends and have a nice chat. It's such a relaxed atmosphere. I completely agreed with everything that Marriott said about coffeehouses.

COLORS of the world

A few months ago when I was in Australia, my cousin introduced me to a magazine. Not just any magazine though, but a "quarterly magazine that focuses on cultural topics from around the world." COLORS. Hands down, it's [my opinion] the best magazine! The second I picked them up I was taken over by interest; I read all three of them in a short matter of time. Every article in COLORS presents information to the reader and makes them think. It provides the reader with a look at the world, through different cultures, tackling one topic for each quartly magazine in different manners. Featured topics include Drugs (Iss. 62), Lust (Iss. 67), HIV/AIDS (Iss. 64), Photostudios (Iss. 58), Violence (Iss. 56), and Fat (Iss. 25), to name a few. Every topic provides an entire magazine worth of articles, each intriguing, each unique, set with vivid, colorful images that captivates the reader!

Issue 62, "Drugs," contained stories of "Coffee, A Social History," "Sacred Plants," "Body-Enhancing Drugs," "Fighting AIDS in Brazil," "Kicking the Habit on Mount Purgatory," and "Your Brain on Love" [just to show you how they tackle drugs as a broad subject, and not just as a recreational drug that we all would think of it as -- precisely why this magazine is so fascinating]. Although all the articles intrigue me, there was one that has stuck to me like glue. It's the shortest of the rest of the articles and it was found on the last page of this issue, Your Brain on Love.

Could a drug to deactivate hate be far behind? And could everyone in the world be convinced to take it simultaneously?

What do you think...

The Death of Wilbur Wright

Detroit Funk, being more interesting compared to Faded Detroit, showed unique funky pictures. One that got to me was The Death of Wilbur Wright, the Wilbur Wright School, that is. It was a mixture of the pictures and the words that moved me.

Seven pictures down, a picture of murals in what was of the school of performing arts is left, and dfunk writes:

The remaining school murals tell a sad tale of an institution that had once taught gifted children music, art and dance.

It's a pity this is what is left of the school.

The Sexist Role

Being a latin woman, the sexist role of a "woman's place" has always bothered me. From machismo to sexist domination, whatever race you are, women have always been forced into the housewife role. Bell Hooks "Homeplace: A Site of Resistance" portrays the housewife role as a place to "as a site of resistance and liberation struggle" (70). While this may be true, it seems to me that Hooks is merely covering up the sexist role with it being a sort of catharsis. She doesn't face nor mention the true explanations behind the sexist role, rather she seems to be giving excuses to make it okay. She doesn't mention the fact that most men probably beat up their wives with a bottle in their hand; she merely ignores these problems that need to be talked about when speaking of the Homeplace.

While there are a lot of things that bother me about this, I'm not entirely bashing Hooks' article. I feel as if she presented a strong story on black womens' struggle to fight racial oppression. I feel that black women bore a lot of burden in trying to maintain a homeplace that a lot of people don't give them credit for. Hooks wrote this to remind readers of the things black women had to go through, to remind readers of the struggle that occured and probably still does in some primitive countries. The role of women, in all, should be exemplified. Contemporary women don't partake in as many hardships as women from other eras had to go through, but there is a struggle nonetheless. I'm sure not a lot of men in this class actually think a womens' role is arduous. Think about pregnancy, a career, raising children after birth.

All in all I ask the question, do you consider contemporary women to have struggles in life?

The Big Yellow Victorian House

Analyzing a place or an artifact in my tiny township of Commerce seems like such an arduous task. Anyone who knows of Commerce knows it's dead-set in the middle of nowhere. A friend drives me home one day and he later explains to everyone that "it was like driving her to Egypt." I couldn't have said it better. But as much as I bash this far-away-from-civilization township, I still enjoy this place that I've been residence of for more than four years. A few years ago, Commerce was abundant with lakes, trees, wildlife (deers, squirrels, ducks, geese, skunks), but as four years has passed, a lot of the trees have turned into stores. Commerce is well on it's way to being another commercialized city, striving to live up to it's standards that lie behind it's name. While I despise the distance Commerce is to other fast-paced suburbias of Detroit, I'd take 2007 Commerce over a futuristic-materialistic Commerce.

So as I analyze an artifact in my township, I think of this township as it is now, and hopefully how it will be for a long time (preserving it's trees and animals alike). A Victorian house I've set foot in since I was an 8th grader is the first thing that pops into my head. The Victorian house owned by my best friend, a house I've grown to think of as my own. Spending many nights on the couch in the living room, often hearing creaks either from the ghosts or from the floorboards. I've never closely analyzed it's history, rather just hearing the stories of the house but never taking time to see what it's all about. So for this paper, I will take time to ask Mr. and Mrs. Baker about the runaway slave stories. I'll ask the residents of the Longs Farm, I'll research online.

But I just don't know how to make it interesting! Where do I begin? Is it even that interesting? What can be my "nikki's window"? It's the big yellow Victorian house that everyone in Commerce knows about. If you're in Commerce, you're bound to pass it, so why not know a bit more about it! Hopefully, next time I just won't dismiss it as my best friend's abode, but rather a historical monument!

A Blogger's World

I'm still getting a hang of all this blogging. It seems like everyone else is doing a really good job and inputting on the stories. So far I don't feel like I'm doing as good as everybody else; I even feel like I'm falling behind. It's too early to fall behind but I guess it isn't too early for my procrastinator side to come out. It's not hard to blog, it's just hard to get into the habit of getting on the computer 3 times a week and writing. So far though, everyone else can do it except for me.

Detroit Receives a Bash

The first read of the semester is always the hardest, at least that's how it seems to me. It's just a bore and hard for me to get into the rhythm, or get moved into the semester. "Niki's Window" by Jerry Herron really didn't do it for me. He made good points and told me things I never really knew about Detroit, but he just seemed too whiney for my taste. He puts Detroit down, making it seem like it's a worthless city that sells-out easily. I simply believe Herron complains too much. If he really held such a detestment for Detroit, he should leave or do something about it! Make a change, make a difference Mr. Herron!

The things he's arguing is, basically, that Detroit is full of fake money-making Greektowns and doesn't face it's real problems. He thinks Detroit is (like the title states) a humiliation to history. While he puts down Detroit, he states that Detroit should face and find solutions to their poverty problems instead of mask them with "Greektowns." I don't see anything wrong with cleaning up history and making it into a tourist attraction if it gets Detroit it's money! I suppose they could spend the money better than they do.

Last but not least, the terms pastness, nostalgia, and humiliation all refer eloquently to the piece. Pastness refers to something being of the past. Nostalgia refers to thinking about the past, in terms of reflection. Humiliation refers to being reduced to disgrace. I really don't care too much for this piece purely because of the fact that the author is too negative. There must be something good about Detroit, Herron!