Explanatory Synthesis Notes

My first source explains how he discovered the science of body language and the types of ideas he formed about body language. I felt that this would be considered a credible source because where do you start with something when you want to explain all of it? The beginning. His different ideas felt important to me because it is useful to know where it all began and how his ideas and conceptions changed over time as more and more people became interested in the idea of body language.

My second source was very useful because there was more information on the types of studies she held and more information on what she did and does specifically compared to the first source, who is quite a bit older than her. Her ideas were more personal because she related them back to her own life as a beginner college student who was just in a terrible car accident leaving her with severe head trauma and doctors that didn't ever think that she would be able to get to where she is now. The phrase that she lived by in her beginning years as a college student were "fake it until you make it". This quote was very important to her and it can be very relatable. It is something that many people can do. The other things that she discussed were how to make yourself more confident by making your body physically bigger (stretching out, hands on hips, not crouched). I tried doing this myself and it worked, I felt more confident and less stressed out, and it only took two minutes.

Both of my sources are very valuable to me because there are multiple spots in my essay where I can insert their information or cite them. They are very successful people who have a lot under their belt therefore I believe that their information is valid and should be taken in to consideration.

Explaining My Interests

My main interest is my Guinea Pig. I have had her since November and I love her very much. I am always finding new things for her to play with and new things to do for her. I like to take care of people and especially animals and knowing that when I go home every day she will be there for me to take care of her. Watching out for people and animals is something that I've always done, I have had a bird since I was six years old and have been taking care of him up until two years ago when I had to put him down because of an illness. Those two years that I didn't have my bird to take care of were very boring to me, I felt like I was missing something in my life and it was a pet. When I got Heidi (my guinea pig) the whole in my heart was instantly filled. I have had nothing but good experiences with her. I have never had a Guinea Pig before and knew nothing about them so when I fist got her I had a lot to learn. I love learning about things that I am interested in. I know now more about Guinea Pigs now than I ever have before. All the different types of fruits & vegetables that they can eat are something that I like to learn about, how to properly care for them, types of bedding, and so much more. There are many things that a person can learn about a subject but it is so much more interesting and fun when it is about something that you love. When I got Heidi, I started out with regular shredded wood shavings. They were relatively costly and I was determined to find a different way of bedding for her. I eventually learned about the fleece bedding method. You take a sheet of fleece, fit it to the size of their cage and then put some sort of absorbent layer under that. I purchased 3 yards of fleece for 40 cents on amazon and found old towels in my home for the absorbent lay underneath and have been using those since I've had her. I love fleece, it is very neat looking and the shredded bedding was not, it is such a money saver and I would recommend it to anyone with a Guinea Pig. 

Thoughts on Peers Reviewing our Essays

I personally didn't benefit from the peer reviews. I felt that a lot of the things the people said were things that I did right or the things that I already knew that I had to fix. I wish we would have had more time to work with the professor because he knows what to look for compared to the students that are in his class. Would have preferred to have a full day to work on our essays with the professor in the room with us able to answer any of the questions that we have but to a certain extent of course. I also think that a better example on what we should have done for a design plan should have been available considering that myself and other students I know have never done a design plan before. Overall I think that my essay is fairly good with few corrections that need to be taken care of and I think that those who looked over my essay saw the same things that I did.

Symbolism of Clothing

Clothing is symbolic for hiding who we are. When we wear clothes, we are covering ourselves so that the only people that know that we look like underneath is the ones we choose to show our body to. As people, we typically aren't ourselves when we first meet someone. We don't show our true personalities to people that we are introduced to until we feel completely comfortable with them. Slowly as the friendship/relationship progresses, we begin to let out true selves out, letting them see what type of person we really are. Clothing is the same way, when we first meet someone, you aren't going to feel comfortable with them unclothed so therefore you wear clothing. As your relationship moves on, you become more comfortable with others and aren't self conscious about your body anymore. 

To hide your true personality when you meet someone new or someone that you are not fully comfortable with is natural. It would seem that not being yourself is like a defense mechanism. You are still in the process of figuring out if the person you just met is worth putting your best face on for, leading to not being your true self. How does one know who exactly they truly? We are around other people for such a large part of our day, how do we really know who we are if we're constantly hiding ourselves from the world? When are we really ourselves? Getting to know who you are is a big part of how your life goes, and I think that it is important to know who you really are before you make a life commitment to someone. Knowing who you are helps shape your life, and if you're just pretending to act like someone that you're not in order to impress someone, what is the point?

What does it mean when I say that you are the key to your own success?

Success is earned by you. When it comes to your own success, you are the key. There is no one in this world who wants to be successful at the goal that you are aiming at as much as you, there is no one in this world that will be as upset as you when you don't hit your goal. If you feel like nobody is there for you, or you don't have anybody to guide you in your decision making or the things that you do in life, that you don't have any support to help you get through the day, good. Because the people that are most successful in this world are the ones that realize that their fate sits on THEIR shoulders, not anyone else's. When you come to this conclusion, you are going to be way more successful than you ever would have thought. That cliche phrase "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" in all of life seems to be true, especially when you're in it alone. Realizing that nobody is going to help you and that you have to figure out out by yourself is the best thing, because once this thought hits you, you open up your mind to so many different ideas. You can do anything, you don't need someone sitting behind you to catch you if you fall. And if you do fall, you get back up, shake it off and keep going. It is only going to make you want it more. 

Success is like running a marathon. You start out by the idea of what you want to be successful at, forming your plans around that idea, trying to jump start a plan to get yourself moving towards that goal. So you prepare for it, you run every day before the marathon, every day adding one more mile to your run so by the time the race rolls around, you are running an average of 25.2 miles a day, and that very next day you will hit your goal of being able to run 26.2 miles. You are the one that pushes yourself to get up every day, and run. You are the one that keeps nagging yourself to never give up, that soon enough, that day will come that you will finally reach your goal. Just like a marathon, success isn't something that you can jump into unprepared. Preparation and acting on that preparation is 100% of the battle. 

What I learned today

Today, I learned that when writing something, you have to figure out your audience first before you decide what type of writing style you are going to use. If you are writing about how you're mad about something, you have to figure out what you mad about and who is going to fix this problem that you have. One of the examples that was in the book was cigarette companies targeting teens and the poor. You can't write to them because that isn't going to make much of a difference, you have to write to somebody who is going to do something about it, like advertisement companies. The genre for that would be argumentative, if you were to write to teens and the poor, it would be informative because you are trying to help them see what is going on around them specifically. I also learned that after you figured out who you are writing to and your genre, you have to consider your voice. Your attitude and tone of the essay play a big role on whether or not you want people to be persuaded by what you're writing about.

What are our responsibilities to each other when we blog?

Our responsibilities to each other when we blog are to respond and communicate back with each other. Someone posts something on a blog because it is something they care about or are interested in, it is our responsibility as the viewer to respond to the blogger. Tell them what you think about what they said, how you feel, etc. They are putting their opinion out there not because a blog is a diary, but a way to voice your opinion through the cyber-world. To put your opinion out there is something that takes guts, you speak about your opinion knowing that there is someone out there that will disagree with you, be 100% on your side, and other views on the subject.

Blogging is something that is also very useful to viewers. Whether it's on how to train a puppy to how to do a smokey eye with eye shadow, its something out there to view and learn from. The internet isn't and shouldn't be just used for Facebook or Twitter, it's something that stores so much information that you don't know who will find it useful.

Blogging is something that I personally have never really cared for or payed much attention to, just because if I have a question or a concern on something there are a million other resources that you could use before you go to a blog, which is what  I typically do. Now that I am being introduced to it, I am starting to see the usefulness of it and how the viewers are all affected differently. If I wanted to share my feelings or views on something, I would just talk to someone about it, I would never write it down because I feel best way to express your emotion is to say it to someone else in person. You really can't tell how much emotion a person is putting into words typed on a computer.