Journal Entry #5: Hypertext vs. Original Text

When looking at Sloan's original text compared to the hypertext, it was hard to even relate the two versions of the text.  I felt as though the original text was much more straight forward and got the point across in a lot clearer of a way than the hypertext.  Although the pictures in the hypertext allowed us to develop a connection to the events and really be able to see what was being discussed, it almost added too many images without really putting any description by the image so you were slightly forced to guess what part of the reading the image really connected to.  I found the links very distracting because, by going off on a deeper explanation of that part of the text, I tended to forget what exactly I was reading and its purpose.  So therefore I believe that the original text was more efficient at getting the point across, although I believe if they included the pictures in the original text along with a description then the combination of both the hypertext and the original text. 
When looking at the Miller and Brouma's text I believe a hypertext would be useful to an extent at describing the meaning of the poetry/word usage involved because it can get slightly confusing, but too many links would again cause the same problem as that which occured in the hypertexting of Sloan's text.

Journal Entry #4- Cultural diversity

My experience at the CESL today was a very enlightening and enjoyable.  I met two people who have just recently moved here from China and Dubai.  It was very interesting talking to them and sharing their life experiences as well as mine and finding out what they have planned for their futures.  The thing that interested me most about their culture is that they both had very tight and close family relations as opposed to the general American culture in which many parents allow their kids to be independent sooner and even kick their kids out of the house at 18.  My family, also raised with a different culture, has very similar closeness within the family and always having a place at home for their children.  It was interesting to hear how in China the parents rarely let their children do anything unsupervised and are raised so strictly.  In Dubai, I learned that the families tend to live together with multiple generations in one house.  For instance, if a son gets married, he can live in his father's house as long as he wants. I believe that our interactions today related to the reading Letter to Mexico because there were alot of new ideas and culture shocks in both situations.  For instance, in Letters to Mexico, Biss realizes how disgraceful many people of the American culture are when she is around Mexican citizens and how they view her negatively because of stereotypical judgements.  SImilarly, I had some preconceived notions of some of the Chinese and Arab cultures that were proved wrong by meeting with these people that I met today.  Also, in the story, Biss helps out the Mexican American in the factory with her English and vice versa with Biss' spanish.  They developed a friendship and mutual understanding of each others' cultures and accepted and appreciated each other.  Today was similar as we had conversations that extended beyond the given question sets and were facinated to learn about the others' cultures.  By learning about other cultures and how it shapes the identities of the people that are part of that society, we realize that we are able to shift our culture slightly by learning from the positive identifiers of other cultures.  Overall this experience definitely made a positive impact on me.

Journal Entry #2

The persona text I have chosen for my essay is a poem I wrote, The Long Road Ahead, on a long car ride home from San Diego knowing that I was going to fly to New York after I got back home to go visit my boyfriend who I hadn't seen in about 2 months.  This poem expresses alot about how I was beginning to learn to not make comments when it would just make a situation worse as well as learning to go in to my own world and think about the best situations and moments, which was a new trait for me after generally being pessimistic.  I also picked this poem because I liked the language I used and how I used literal occurrences and combined them with symbolism and rhyming to turn my feelings into a more "graceful" story.   I have written up the poem here in order to show what exactly I am basing my opinions and analysis on.

The Long Road Ahead

There's a long road ahead seemingly straight,

but causes my mind to wander in twists and turns, thoughts of fate.

Daydreaming, fantasizing, thinking of the best.

Times in the past and those to come in the future better than the rest.
Sometimes I'm jolted back to the moment with other's voiced frustrations,

keeping my mouth shut and not making suggestions.

As the car calms down I drift back to the thoughts of the near future,

happily in New York not concentrating on juicy couture;
Rather far from it the thing that really matters,

seeing the one that I love not having to hide behind my shutters.
As the car ride continues, I switch between the thoughts of the future and the now,

feelings of excitement and content, ignoring the stiffness of the drive that would make me think oww.

So the straight road goes on and my mind travels on the one that bends

with thoughts of fun in the future until the drive ends.

I believe that my poem is similar to Hampl's text about memories because in both situations, the real occurrence has been taken and slightly altered, whether consciously or subconsciously, to the desired situation.  For instance, in Hampl's text, she discusses the piano teacher and the girl she meets, changing the situation slightly to how she would have wanted the story to occur.  In my poem, I take the current situation I am in, as well as the future, and I begin to picture how I would like the situation to occur and thinking of the best possible moments.  For instance, when I allow myself to forget that I am in a stuffy car and begin to think about how amazing the experience will be when I would be reunited with my boyfriend, being able to act like myself and not use a "put on" persona for that whole week.  The main difference between these two texts is that I am considering the alterations I have made to my current and future situations, while Hampl is subconsciously adjusting her memories.

Journal #1

The experience that changed my identity most as a friend/person in general was joining a zionist leadership youth group when I was 16 years old.  Before this experience, I was a generally shy young women who was in a transitional period of my life lacking close friends and self confidence.  I had been a gymnast for eleven years before, which, along with schoolwork, had taken up all my time.  My only friends had been my teammates, we did everything together.  We all quit around the same time and our friendships gradually disappeared as we moved our separate ways.  So I was in that transitional period when I decided to go to the youth group's camp as well as get involved with their year round program that my cousin was already very active in.  I started off joining this youth group completed intimidated, like a dear in headlights, by how outgoing everyone was and close they became within minutes.  After a short while, I realized that this was actually the perfect situation to make real friends. So I started putting myself out there, a blooming social butterfly, and realized that this group of people did not judge you or critize you for your imperfections, but rather appreciated you and became my friends based off of our common interests in leadership and Zionism.  After this first experience with the Youth Group I took an active role in setting up a section of the group here in town, and ran for and was elected as the programmer for the younger kids' events on the regional board.  Having this position made me realize how respected and well liked I really was and caused me to let go of my social insecurities and allow me to make friends in and out of the youth group that will last a lifetime.

Writing down this identity-altering senario was an experience that I enjoyed alot.  It was really nice to be able to think back an choose just one moment/experience that affected my life and make me realize how great of an effect the experience had on me because it was the one that I thought about most readily when reading this journal prompt.  I believe my experience in writing this memory was definitely similar to Hampl's because, although the story is generally a factual representation of what happened, there are parts that I added in emotions that may have not been evident at the time, but come out when I think back on the situation.  Adding these emotions that are part of looking back at the situation filled in empty spots of the memory and completed what the memory should be presented as as a whole.  It was easy to come up with the experience because, although I have many different identity changing experiences, this one is the most definitive as well as being the first large altering experience I remember having.  The language I expressed this story in was more of a descriptive and insight from inside my mind's view as opposed to writing the experience as a viewer of the situation.  By narrating my own feelings I believe I provided a deeper insight in to the situation as well as adding comparisons/similes to make the feelings seem more relateable to the reader.