Technology

Online learning I feel will always be different from in person or even a hybrid class. The reason why I say this is because with an online class, there is no face to face or group talks, it’s just all through a computer. This is my third semester doing online classes and I can definitely say that I do miss doing classes in person but do like online classes as well. First thing is, online classes are convenient because you can be at home, in your pj’s just doing homework. The environment, for the most part, is quite and you don’t have to face people that may annoy you. Here’s the down side, you don’t really get the chance to become friends with anyone like you would if you lived on the campus or where just even taking classes on campus. You miss the people interaction or the funny jokes that can happen during lessons. I may be reflecting on high school too much, since it wasn’t that long ago for me graduating this year and all, but there are just some things that the online classes miss because of it not being in person.

I think that the benefits of taking an English class online is not having to listen to lectures and just starting on the assignments. I’m sure that there are teachers how make the lectures fun and such but from my past experience, most are quite boring. Sorry in advance. Also a benefit of online is not having to read the stories out loud in class with everyone else. I know someone is going to bash me for this but when the teacher decides that the whole class should read a story out loud or listen to the book on tape, it’s not fun. It’s not the fact that a person my read slower than another, that’s fine with me. It’s when you get to a person that doesn’t even care to be reading the story or when the person on the tape is just droning on and on. Who wants to be in that type of situation? I know I don’t.

I’m not sure if this is technology but I think that the website Blogger.com was very beneficial to me. I never was a person to blog before and didn’t really have an interest in them but throughout the semester, this site has been very fun. I think its way better than doing discussion boards because it’s more interactive this way. People can personal their own profiles and when you look at another person’s page, you can find out a bit about them; like you would if you were meeting them in a classroom.

I may in the future look at the websites I go onto and see if they do any blogging because it’s always fun to talk to people on a topic that you are both interested in. and why not? You may find out that the person you are talking to is a friend of yours, someone you like, and so on. (High schooly I know, but hey it can happen).

http://howtoblog.org/

Presentation

Using a blog

View more presentations from delaneya01

Reflection on the Course

My reflections of this class

Well, for one thing I can definitely say that my essay writing skills have improved. In high school I would get okay grades on my essays but even though I would work hard on them, I never felt my writing skills improve. This English 102 class has definitely made me push the boundaries and see how much further my writing could go. An assignment that really put this into light was the Essay on the book Frankenstein that included the three articles as well.

My challenges in this class would include the essays but another thing that challenged me at the beginning of the semester would have been doing the blog posts. It was a new thing for me and even though I have a facebook and used to have a myspace, this was something slightly different and I go confused on how to post links to include them in the posts or to put the links correctly when sending them in for grading. As the semester progressed though, I began to get better at them and then posting became such a breeze. I liked how you could personalize your profile and make it so people will see that the items on the page reflect who you are. Overcoming this was weird at first because of using an outside source but when each week there was a blog post that needed to be done along with comments on others, I gradually learned what the right way was and what I should not include in a post.

Yes I have met many of the learning outcomes that were posted in the syllabus which is surprising. Not that I do not like English as a class or as a whole but there are just some things that I found hard to understand and I’m a native of the language. Lol. But even still, I have learned how to phrase certain things better in sentences and how some things are necessary while other can be left out. I have the greatest understanding of how to analyze a book and give a synopsis instead of a summary.

Zombies......not a fan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie

What I think shocked me the most to learn from this article is how when during wartime, the amount of people going to see zombie movies escalates. I’m still a bit confused as to why this is. Is it because the story line is simple? Or maybe it’s because they are already seeing carnage from the TV so people want to see it in the movies as well? That last one wouldn’t really make much sense and so Kyle Bishop points out something very interesting within the first paragraph. Many movie producers and writers are influenced by what happens during wars. Such as the introduction of certain weapons in WWII, they later turn up in movies such as Godzilla and Them! What makes wars so “likable” to the movie industry? It’s a very weird and complicated question but I feel it needs to be asked. Back onto the subject of zombies, I am honestly not a fan of zombies movies or even tv shows with zombies in them. I feel that they are very cheesy and have no real story line. It’s always the same thing, infection of virus that hits almost everyone in the world and now zombies have been born and are attacking anyone that is still human. The storyline, if you can even call it that, has never been changed and thus has made any further zombies movies that have been made boring to watch and very silly. The only ones that I find tolerable are Zombieland and Shawn of the Dead. The only reason I like them is because they make fun of the other zombie movies that are trying to be serious about the subject. Which is why I think they fail in my point of view because they are trying to be too serious about it; make them a bit funny and I guarantee a better response.

Final Project Draft

Delaney Abajian
Final Project
Cline
11-4-11

Vampire’s vs. Human Emotions

Pitch black night, dark alleys with dead ends, blood splattered on cobblestone ground, and the piercing screams of the innocent. Look up to the shinning moon and see a bat hanging from a lamp post or telephone wire, its eyes staring right at the next victim. Vampires have been seen as creatures of the night for many centuries and many believe have passed themselves off as humans, never to be found out about. Vampires now seem to appear in everything, movies, books, Halloween, music videos and TV shows. Most of them come out being stereotypical but others dive into the true development and give their own spin on vampires. Using vampires and their actions is a form of personification based on the human emotions system. The emotions that we experience everyday are portrayed through vampires, the most prominent way being through words.

There are many novels that have vampires being the main character or in some cases all the characters entirely. A book that not only has the stereotypes but puts a different spin from the others is Vampire Kisses. This is a book series that surrounds the life of a teenage girl named Raven and her town of “Dullsville”. Being surrounded by people that constantly made fun or ridiculed the way she looked; she was made to have a thick, closed in shell until one Alexander Sterling moves into the mansion on top of Benson Hill. “His long black hair lay heavy on his shoulders. His eyes were dark, deep, lovely, lonely, adoringly intelligent, dreamy. A gateway into his dark soul. He, too, stood motionless, breathing me in. his face was pale like mine and his tight black t-shirt was tucked into his black jeans, which were tucked into monster-chic punk-rock combat boots” (Schreiber, 55). Raven is meeting Alexander formally for the first time, and from seeing the title of the book, the reader assumes that Alexander is the vampire and that Raven will find out eventually but the descriptive words that Schreiber uses, such as “dark” “deep” “lonely” “intelligent” and so on, the readers for now only see him as a Goth boy. This fits in with vampires taking on the form of humans and blending in. The character of Alexander represents the human emotions of sadness and longing. The wanting of human beings; how we are always trying to find that one thing that will complete our souls and make us whole.

To go into more depth with the common knowledge that humans have of vampires, the next quote explains something that Raven finds when searching the mansion basement, “I found a dusty rolled parchment with a faded family tree. There were long unpronounceable names of duchesses and barons going back centuries. And then at the bottom-Alexander. But no dates of births-or deaths!” (Schreiber, 96). Vampires are most commonly associated with having aristocratic family backgrounds where the family trees would have usually only dates of birth and not of deaths but Schreiber has it so this parchment has neither. This piece of information was to strike the reader with a bit of confusion because it is something they are not used to seeing when they think of what knowledge they have about vampires. This human emotion would be confusion and doubt, with a slight bit of anger at not knowing the answer to something. Humans are quite competitive, so when something does not go their way, they tend to become confused and angry and then start to doubt their intelligence. This is something that a vampire would never do and thus, they use this as a power against their human prey. Portraying this form of emotions through a vampire shows that humans have many forms of weakness and are not perfect.

Towards the end of the story though, Raven makes this startling realization, “As I turned to leave, I noticed Ruby’s monogrammed compact on the doorstep and picked it up. I opened it to smooth my lipstick. I saw the Mansion’s open door reflected in its glass. “Sweet dreams,” I heard Alexander say. But he didn’t appear in the mirror. I turned around. Alexander was clearly standing in the doorway. But when I checked the mirror again, he was gone!” (Schreiber, 193). Fantasy is powerful and in many ways can be used in forms of manipulation to get what is desired. In this case, they desire was that Raven wanted Alexander to be a vampire and just as she was settling into the fact that he wasn’t one, finds out that he actually is one. Vampires in books and movies have been shown using fantasy, usually against female victims, as a tool in getting what they desire which is the blood. Luring the girls into thinking that they are something wonderful and that the sweet sugar of words pouring from the vampires lips is only for them, and then are under the vampires spell in which their blood is then taken from them, leaving the girls for dead.

There are catch phrases that are used when people talk about relationships. Such as, “I just want them to love me for who I am” or “You are the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The following is one that can only be used in describing a vampire, “I want a relationship I can finally sink my teeth into” (Schreiber, 120). As cliché as it may sound, it gives the most obvious but funny hint that Alexander is indeed a vampire but it also eludes to something else as well. How Alexander wants a true relationship, for someone to see him for who he is and not what he is. This is so similarly related to humans and their wants for a relationship, that there truly is no difference. This is pure and comes from the heart. This is where both humans and vampires can be seen as the same, both want to be seen for who they are, not what they are.

Fleur Adcock’s poem, Instructions to Vampires, brings out the old fashion side to the vampire and how humans visualized them. The last two lines of the poem are as follows: “and on the soft globes of his mortal eyes/etch my name” (Adcock, lines 11-12). The poem as a whole is about a vampire drinking the blood out of its victim be seeing that there is more to the victim than the vampire saw before. So the vampire decides to make him either his underling or a vampire like himself. Using words like “desiccation” and “cauterize”, shows where she wanted the time period to be, maybe 17th or 18th century; possibly even earlier.

Though not many human emotions are present, the only one that can be seen on the surface is a small amount of compassion. Though this poem can be taken in one of two ways; one could be that the compassion is for the fact that the vampire is letting the human victim just die and not have to live an undead life. The following quote explains this, “I would not have you drain/with your sodden lips the flesh that has fed mine, /and leech his bubbling blood to a decline” (Adcock, lines 1-3). This could be the compassion of either wanting to give the victim eternal life or letting them die in peace.

While on the topic of vampires in poetry, there is another one by Hermine Pinson named All-Around Vampires. This brings up vampires and shows that they are a problem but then show that they are nearly impossible to find, “Vampires come out in the daylight now and shop at Bergdorf's or the flea market or that greasy barbecue place. They hold down nine-to-fives, three-to-elevens, eleven-to-sevens at Exxon, Penney's, City Hall…” (Pinson, lines 18-22). Vampires integrating into the human world and society but still deep down inside true to the beast that lies within; this is what the rest of the poem gives the reader but it leaves it void of one thing, emotions. What are the emotions of the humans; of the vampires? If it went in deeper to see that vampires show many forms of human emotion, just in a different way, then there would be more feeling than just hard, cold facts. But maybe, that is the emotion; being hard skinned and cold toward others. These are not very likable human emotions but emotions nonetheless. Vampires will do what humans cannot, “Vampires face up to actual ugliness” (Pinson, line 31). Strength, is not a human emotion but an action that humans possess and many times, they do not want to face something that they will not like or are too afraid to do so. Vampires though have the will to do so, since they live for centuries on end and have seen many a bloody thing, so not only do they have the stomach for it but the strength in order to get through the “ugliness”.

Vampires portraying humans are not only in writing but on the screen as well. There are many movies that show vampires where the emotions of greed, anger, and lust play a dominate role but somewhere love and the want to belong also come out in the open and probably more openly than a human being would do so because they don’t want it to be known, where a vampire is going to come right out and show it. Books and poetry are going to be the most dominate places where the reader will have to see the situations of vampires vs. human emotions; then see what is real and what is being personified to portray what humans won’t show.




Works Cited
Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

Adcock, Fleur. Instructions to Vampires. The Eye of the Hurricane. Bloodaxe Books Ltd. 2000.

Pinson, Hermine. All-Around Vampires. Callaloo. The John Hopkins University Press. 1988.

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Schreiber, Ellen. Vampire Kisses. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.

Vampire Kisses is the story about a Goth girl named Raven that lives in a suburbia hell hole, where no one understands her. One day, a boy named Alexander Sterling moves into the old mansion. He’s tall, dark, handsome and understands Raven for who she is. Though the people in Dullsville have a different opinion which causes wild accusations and leaving Raven’s world upside down. This story represents how vampires translate into current day novels. Ellen Schreiber turns the typical stereotype into a form of fantasy that many vampire loving girls could ever hope for.

Adcock, Fleur. Instructions to Vampires. The Eye of the Hurricane. Bloodaxe Books

Ltd. 2000.

This poem describes a vampire taking the blood from his victim but killing the victim completely. Leaving just enough life for the victim to become his slave or a vampire like himself. I saw him because the voice of the poem seemed very much like a males even if the poem itself was written by a female. This will be very helpful to my project because it explains first-hand what the victim experiences and how sometimes, they don’t always die. It is something known that a person in high power can make anyone their slave, this is nothing different except for the fact that their lives are taken and replace with immortality. This short poem portrays how vampires symbolizes the hidden emotions and desires a human can have.

Pinson, Hermine. All-Around Vampires. Callaloo. The John Hopkins University Press.

1988.

This is another poem but it shows how vampires can be just like humans. Going to work, getting a cup of coffee and so on. People get biased opinions on subjects and sometimes will never change their minds or admit to the fact. Whereas the first poem can represent that vampires are the hidden emotions and sometimes desires of humans, this portrays vampire as being nothing different but the same. The only difference being that vampires are immortal and humans are not.

Final Project IDEA!!!!!!!

http://www.squidoo.com/real-history-of-vampires

I plan on doing Option #2 for my final project. The reason why I chose this option was because in the beginning of the semester, I was told that we would be doing things about monsters and that it would be the surrounding theme. So when option 2 gives me the choice of what kind of monster I want to do research on, how could I refuse? Though the monsters that I am generally interested in are vampires, werewolves, fairies, witches, warlocks, and etc. But being the total nerd that I am, I will be doing my research on vampires. Yes, I know that it has been done before but that’s just it. So much research has been done on vampires that the materials for it are limitless. I’ll just make sure that my paper is different than all the rest and won’t put anyone to sleep (hopefully. Lol). The primary texts that I will be using is the novel series Vampire Kisses by Ellen Shreiber. She brings a different spin to the vampire stories that we all know so well and makes it her own. She does include the stereotypical things that most of us are accustom to seeing in vampire novels but includes other things that have not been brought out into the open. The in-text citations from these books will help me give the readers a better understanding of what I mean. What I hope to accomplish with this project, is to give people a better understanding of vampires as a whole. I don’t want the reader to be thinking about the things they have seen in movies or have read in books but I want them to be thinking back in time, we’re talking about centuries of time here. Where a form or breed of vampires may have existed and are unfortunately misportrayed in many ways, movies being the prime suspect. The type of research I will do is through the databases at our school, Yavapai Community College. Already I have found great information to support my paper. Most common terms to search with would be “history of vampires” or “vampires” just by itself and also one more being “vampires and movies” to so how far south the movie industry has taken the history behind vampires and made them stereotypical.