Home

        Where I come from is an easy question for me to answer because the place I come from and my ancestry are mixed together to form the place I call home. My home is a family farm in northern Iowa. The farm has been in my family for over one hundred years. My great great grandparents on my dad’s side came over from Germany to buy the land and build the house. The original house burnt down in the 1920’s due to a fire that a traveling farmhand was suspected to have started. My great grandpa Ed built the house I live in today. He built the house to be one of the most modern homesteads in Iowa at the time. In fact, it was featured in an Iowa State journal because of the modern clothes chute and electrical system.

Since then, my house has been the backdrop for many family stories and events. My grandma was born and raised in my house. My dad grew up in my house. There are signs all over the farm of my relatives that lived there before I did. The initials D.H. are imprinted in the cement of the barn and a small house is carved in the doorframe of my bedroom. These artifacts remind me of all my relatives and just how many people have called my house home over the years. In fact, when I talk to me aunts and uncles, they each have a different special place in the house. For my aunt Sandy it’s the heat vent outside the kitchen that was always warm in the winter when the house became big and cold. She would put a blanket over it to trap the heat, and she would read until someone would yell at her to stop hogging the heat.

Over the years, my house has begun to take on a personality of its own. It’s a gathering place attracting people to come and stay. When my dad was growing up, his uncles would come and stay for months at a time. Now, my aunts and uncles come up and stay for the weekend or friends and family gather here for super bowl parties, birthdays, holidays and Sunday dinners. No one ever leaves hungry. The food is always tasty and abundant. A joke among my family is that the house attracts people to visit and never lets anyone leave with an empty stomach. This embodies what I love most about living where I do. There is always good company, good food, and it’s the place I call home.

               

TED Talks: Naomi Klein

I found Naomi Klein to be an effective speaker. She delivers her message in an easy to understand way, and establishes why her message is important immediately. Klein uses both emotion and logic to establish her claim. She uses emotion when she describes the effects environmental carelessness is really having on our world. She inspires feelings of helplessness and disgust when she speaks about the failure to stop the leaking oil in the Gulf of Mexico. A point that inspired the most shame was when Klein addressed the strategy of shooting old tires and golf balls into the oil well to plug the leak. Klein communicates the recklessness and irresponsibility of big business extremely effectively with this point. Another aspect of emotion that Klein uses is her word choice. She uses phrases like “watery improv act” to describe BP’s efforts to remedy the oil spill in the Gulf, and “a hole ripped in our world” to describe the leaking oil in the Gulf. Klein also uses logical appeals in making her claim. A particularly poignant logical appeal Klein made was to err on the side of caution when dealing with our one and only plant rather than pushing the limits of the earth until it becomes uninhabitable. Klein’s use of visuals was another effective way she supported her claim. Klein uses pictures to illustrate environmental damage. Her visuals act as an unavoidable example of crimes on the planet we live. The visuals she used put an image of the damage to the earth front and center.

              Although I found Klein’s presentation to be credible, she could improve her transitions between points. The second time I listened to her presentation, I could follow her outline, but the first time I watched it, I got lost at times. Klein could also integrate more facts and graphs into her presentation to better support her points.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry

      In Manifesto, Wendell Berry sends a message to return to a simpler, more consientious way of life. Modern life is described as a series of checkpoints and filled with instant gratification. "Not even your future will be a mystery anymore." Society has advanced so much that the mysteries of the future will be unraveled before they enven occur. Instead of a person, each individual is reduced to a credit card or bank account in order to buy the endless turnover of new things.
      However, Berry does offer an alternative to this lifestyle. He says "So friends, every day do something that won't compute." Instead of following the trends and acting for our own interests, Berry says to love others, work hard for no money, honor ignorance, and most or all, be a steward of the land.
     Berry's way of life he praises and describes is a backlash to the influx of technology in the past twenty years. Society has become so obsessed with technology and conveinance, that the simplicity and satisfaction of an honest life working the land has been forgotton by society. In fact, many farmers today are stereotyped as ignorant, when, in reality, those who work the land and appreciate it are wise far beyond being fluent in the latest technology. Berry sends a good, much needed message in Manifesto to forget progress and just live life with love, harmony, wonder, hope, and awe at the world around us.

Citations for Research Project

Louv, Richard. Last Child in the Woods. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2005. Print.

Faber Taylor, Andrea, Frances E. Kuo, and William C. Sullivan. "Views of Nature and Sale-Discipline: Evidence from Inner City Children." Journal of Environmental Psychology 22 (2002):  49-63. Web. 6 April 2011.

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Photo Project

 

 

 

Photo Project Summary

                The photos I took represent a place that’s come to mean a lot to me in the past nine months, Iowa State. As a new freshman in the fall, I felt as if I would never know where my classes were or be able to call Ames home. Looking back, I realize how much has changed in the past year. I have changed. These photos represent my journey as a person through the past year.

                The pictures I took depict the places that I have come to think of my own throughout Iowa State. I included pictures of the Memorial Union and the Campanile because, while they are Iowa State icons, I have come to think of them as my own. I will always remember walking through central campus on a nice fall day and hearing the campanile play “Bad Romance”. The Memorial Union is where I have met friends for countless lunch dates.

My picture also depict where I spend most of my time academically. It seems like I lived in Hoover, Gilman, or Molecular Biology this year. The picture “Chemistry” represents the bulk of my first semester worries and concerns as many hours were spent working out problems, writing protocols, and memorizing formulas for Chem. 177. Another building I included was Mackay. Mackay is where my orientation class for Dietetics was held. The picture of the benches on the inside of Mackay is significant because that is where I met my friends Holly and Marie. I have many classes with both of them. They are part of what makes Iowa State special for me. I could not leave out a picture of Parks Library. It’s been such a good place for me to study, grab a quick lunch, read the Daily, or study some more.

                Many of the photos I took are pictures of friends because they are what make Iowa State unique to me. I have met awesome, lifelong friends here at Iowa State. I have laughed with them and figured out college and life on my own with their help. Without them I would not be the person I am now or had the awesome experiences I had my freshman year.

                Iowa State is a great university. This past year, it has become my home. The people and places are now my own. I can’t wait to continue my journey at Iowa State.

The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollen

     In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollen claims that the beef industry has industrialized and wasteful, disregarding nature. One way Pollen supports his claim is through his use of facts. Pollen uses factual information about the natural diet of cattle, how a steer's digestive system is affected by corn, and the implications of feeding corn to cattle on our natural resources and health. For example, by the time one steer has matured enough to be slaughtered, it will have taken 35 gallons of oil to support the food supply for that one steer. Pollen backs up these facts with reliable sources like a veterinarian, an economist, and a USDA microbiologist. Another method Pollen uses to support his claim is his use of personal experience and observations. Pollen goes on the journey from farm to feedlot with the calf and witnesses feedlot practices personally. Since the experiences are firsthand, Pollen's claim seems more credible. A third method Pollen uses to support his claim is word choice. To introduce the feedlot, Pollen uses the term "premodern city". He goes on to describe the feedlot like a city referring to the feed mill as a "local landmark" and the gravel roads as "streets". Through this choice of words, Pollen creates an industrialized image of the feedlot. This contributes further to his claim that the beef industry has become industrialized.
     The success of Pollen's argument is compromised by his bias in the excerpt. Throughout the piece, Pollen villianizes the beef industry. He brings up facts that have little to do with feeding corn to cattle, and only serve to create bias against the beef industry. One such fact is that farmers fed rendered bovine meat to steer until 1997 when it was banned by the FDA. Pollen never addresses the beef industry's point of view or the flaws in his own argument. Ultimately Pollen is unsuccessful in his claim.

Everday Writer Chapter 7

      One thing I learned from chapter seven was different ways to make outlines for my essay. I found the storyboard technique especially helpful. Outlining my essay in this way would allow me to move ideas and support around without having to constantly restructure my essay. Now that I can visually see the points I want to make, creating a storyboard can help me present my essay with a logical flow of ideas. A storyboard will contribute to the organization and logic of my analytical essay.

Central Claim for Epilogue by Terry Tempest Williams

      Terry Tempest Williams main claim is to stand against wrondoing even if it means questioning your family, religion and everything you've been taught.
     Williams' tone in this piece is defiant and angry at the government for allowing nuclear testing to go on where people were effected and at her mormon culture for failing to do anything about it. A passage that expresses her tone is, "The price of obedience has become too high. The fear and inability to question authority that ultimately killed rural communities in Utah during atmospheric testing of atomic weapons is the same fear I saw in my mother's body. Sheep. Dead sheep. The evidence is buried."
       Williams also uses metaphor in this piece. She uses the word sheep to describe the women of her culture who have died of breast cancer. Sheep has religious significance for Christians in that Jesus calls his followers sheep and he is the shepard that leads them. This describes her culture's faith and obedience toward their Savior. Williams', however, uses the term sheep in a negative way, calling them dead sheep. Sheep, the animals, have a reputation for being too trusting and stupid. They follow mindlessly anyone who leads them. Williams' uses this definition as a metaphor for her people mindlessly following the government and enduring blatant injustice. The government allowed cancerous nuclear radiation to consume the mormon communities for years without the mormon community protesting or rising up against it. Williams' is in conflict between her two defintions of sheep. One is defined as  faith and a sense of duty. Another is too trusting and blind.

Grizzly Man Questions

1. Herzog's purpose in revealing Treadwell's death early is to change the story. New questions are asked when you learn that Tim is killed by the very animals he loves so much. It almost makes his love of bears more heroic. Later in the story we learn the circumstances behind Tim's death. Tim didn't like the bear that mauled him. He was also supposed to leave the month before but didn't because there was problems with his ticket. So, after a fight with his girlfriend, they stayed. I think Herzog keeps this information until the end of the film, because it paints a more tragic picture of his death. It makes it seem like Tim wasn't supposed to die. It gives the viewer more compassion towards Tim.
2. When Herzog uses I believe, He brings his thoughts and opinions into the film. This affects his credibility because he presents the film from his own point of view and chooses material to support his own beliefs rather that presenting all evidence. Herzog enters his own film as a character because he's trying to make sense of what happened. We see in the scene where he presents the audiotape to Amy that he seems to have a personal connection to Tim's death. I think Herzog is just as confused by Tim's life as everyone else is. He's trying to reconcile Tim's passion for the bears and what Time said he was doing with what was actually taking place.
3. Herzog depicts Timothy Treadwell as a troubled, mentally unstable person. He shows clips of Tim's that no one was supposed to see. He shows footage of Tim's private thoughts. In these clips, Tim's personal demons are on display. We learn that he longs for companionship and also that he had a drinking problem until he discovered the bears. In one scene Tim is using profanity against the park rangers. He rages, swears, and says awful things about them. Then Tim turns right around and gives a pleasant conclusion to his summer with the bears. Herzog seems to say with this footage how unstable Tim really was. His friends and family depict Tim as a passionate, loving person who was very much unstable. The instability is consistent with how Herzog depicts him.
4. I think Treadwell was trying to find a purpose and escape reality. He had a life filled with highs and lows and many disappointments. I think Tim was looking for a way to escape. His life with the bears gave him a purpose. Tim ignored the reality of what he was actually doing in order to preserve this life that gave him love, and the feeling that he was helping. He says multiple times in his tapes that he feels like what he's doing is right. He also says he's the only one helping the bears when, in reality, they are protected on a reservation. He ignores the reservations rules to keep 10 feet away from the bears and camps in areas in the park for longer than allowed. We learn that these practices can habituate the bears to human presence and ultimately harm the bears. Herzog depicts Tim as accomplishing nothing but harming the bears he sought to protect. I think Herzog's purpose in making the film was to show the negative side of Tim Treadwell's life.
5. The film is arguing that there is a distinct boundary between the human world and nature. We can never truly be part of the nature because wild nature has very different rules than the human world. Only twice in the film, Tim confronts death in wild nature. One time is a bear cub that was eaten and once is a fox eaten by wolves. Tim mourns these deaths as if his own friends had died. He ignores the fact that in nature, predation is normal. Tim treats death as an isolated occurrence when it’s the rule.
6. I don't think Tim has a sentimentalized view that the universe is in harmony and balance. I think Treadwell did have a sentimentalized view of nature as a perfect world that the human world wasn't. The human world was filled with disappointment for Treadwell. He tried to make nature everything the human world wasn't for him. Herzog included the statement, "I believe the common denominator of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder because from Herzog's point of view, Tim's life was filled with chaos, hostility and murder. He was killed by the animals he was most passionate about. This supports Herzog's claim that nature is wild and fundamentally different than the human world.
7. Herzog didn't release the audio of Tim and Amy's death out of respect. Instead, Herzog films Tim's old friend listening to the tape. We see the friend's face contort in pain and see her react to the audio. This is almost more shocking to the audience. We see how terrible it is on another’s face and are left to imagine exactly how horrible it is. In depicting the details of Timothy and Amy's death, Herzog risks disrespecting Timothy and Amy. Their death was gruesome and very private.
8. Timothy Treadwell's background brings more doubts into my mind about the stability of his mental state. Herzog depicts Tim's upbringing and parents as a normal All American boy. I was not surprised by his childhood, but was very surprised by his history. I was especially surprised when I learned that Tim had tried to make it in Hollywood and changed his name and identity when he lost a part. I think Herzog waited to share this so the viewer would have an open mind to Tim's work with the bears.

Walden by Henry DAvid Thoreau

Henry David Thoreau has both abstract and concrete language. Thoreau's abstract language talks about living simply and meaningfully. He believes one should not just go through the motions of life and stand on the sidelines but honestly live it. An example of this language is when Thoreau talks about students. he says, “I mean that they should not play life, or study it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end." Thoreau's concrete language discusses his surroundings and home at Walden Pond. Thoreau describes his house and the process of building it. He describes the nature around Walden Pond. An example of this is when he begins to build his house, Thoreau describes the surroundings. "It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up." Thoreau mixes abstract and concrete language in order to paint a picture of a life lived to the fullest.

Poem

She comes downstairs with a smile dancing on her lips.

She is happier these days, more likely to laugh than yell.

His black car speeds around the curve of the driveway trailing gravel dust in its path.

Her smile grows wider.

She kisses him hello. He holds her hand.

 They say goodbye to my mom and tease my sister.

He climbs back into the car, only letting go of her hand for just a minute before touching again.

Always  touching.

The call comes later that night.

I tell myself it isn't true and pretend life's was normal.

Quietly coloring a picture for a person who isn't there, I deny what I know.

He's gone.

She looks at me with steely eyes and a hardened expression.

A quiver in her chin was all that betrays the hurt that mars her petite body.

The quiver overtakes her.  Sobs like screaming. My mother rushes over. Hugs her, rocks her, comforts her.

Suddenly she’s a child.

Fall comes all too quickly bringing college.

My mom is busy with extra long sheets and towels. She sits, blank.

Moving day's here. Through the chaos of boxes, parents, and new freshman, a heart-shaped leaf lands in her path.

A sad smile crosses her lips.

Blood Dazzler by Patricia Smith

  In Blood Dazzler Patricia Smith describes New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina through poetry. In the prologue, she describes the city itself. She personifies New Orleans as a prostitute, a woman normal, upstanding people are strangely attracted to. She describes New Orleans as seducing the average person. I think she does this so the reader will get a sense of the relationship of New Orleans to the rest of America. New Orleans is known as "The Big Easy". It's a place people flock to in order to enjoy its pleasures and escape their lives. Another reason the author establishes this relationship early on is so the reader will be fully aware of the difference in America's attitude toward New Orleans before Katrina and after.
    Another element Patricia Smith weaves into the story of New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina is the contrast between the poor's experience during Katrina and the affluent’s experience. This contrast is most evident in the poem in Only Everything I Own and Inconvenient. In Only Everything I Own Smith describes someone who lives modestly. Their one room house was their grandfathers. They eat food from their own garden. Their house is the most important and most expensive thing they own. This person has no choice but to stay in New Orleans because they have nowhere else to go. At the end of the poem it says, "That blistered sky has learned my days and hates me for everything I have." This person has had to work for everything they have. They have had a hard life. In contrast, in Inconvenient Smith describes an affluent family. The first line of the poem says, "Go. What, again? What nuisance, this back and forth." It goes on to say, "Best to consider this whole mess a holiday, a simple trade one home for its vacation version." The affluent family views Katrina as a mere nuisance, an inconvenience. They have the money and resources necessary to escape. In fact, they consider Katrina a chance to vacation. They are not worried about losing everything they have or preserving their life. The biggest thing they have to worry about is missed garden parties. The affluent family is even bored. This provides a stark contrast to the poor who are concerned with losing everything they have.

Is This Kansas by Eula Bliss

    In Is This Kansas by Eula Bliss the midwest, specifically college in the midwest, is viewed in a different light. The author examines the midwest from the standpoint of a visitor who had not lived in the midwest for very long. A major theme woven thoughout the story was that the midwest is not as wholesome as once thought. This theme is illustrated in the piled couches on streetcorners on move out day in Iowa City, the midwest city she highlights. The couches reflect people from all over the midwest. All of the couches, however, are cigarette burned and reek of vomit. Another major theme is the ungraduates in the midwest's naivete. This is illustrated in the undergraduate's view of racism and sexism. The students insist that racism and sexism are obsolete, but some students feel that we should send all homosexuals to one state in America so they can be seperate but equal. A minor theme in this story is the author's feeling that the university system does not have undergraduate's best interest in mind. In Bliss's words, " The philosophy of education that dominated the University of Iowa, an ideology not unlike the thinking that dominates many other many other universities, seemed not only to encourage but to depend on the quiet resignaion of the students." A second minor theme in the essay is that racism is still alive in America. This is illustrated by the reaction to the looting during Hurricane Katrina compared to the looting during the floods in Iowa City. The looting in Iowa City was downplayed compared to the looting in New Orleans because the people living in Iowa City are mainly white, midwestern students who are percieved to be wholesome compared to poor, black citizens who were some of the most effected people during Hurricane Katrina. An undertone of this story is that all people are essenially the same regardless of location or color of their skin. This understone is supported by the fact that looting took place in both primarily white, midwestern Iowa City as New Orleans.

Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams

    In Refuge, Terry Tempest Williams strives to tell her story through her homeland, Utah. She begins with the landscape of the land, the Great Salt Lake. From there she describes her relationship with the the birds of the land and the role they play in her life. She moves to her family. She describes their history, ways of life as mormon people and how their history and the history of the land are a part of the other. She ends the story with hope. She chooses to focus on the goodness of the earth rather than others' destruction of it.
    Terry Tempest Williams begins with the Great Salt Lake in Utah. I think she begins this way because the Great Salt Lake is such an integral part of her history. It has become a character in her life, rising and falling with each season of her existence. As it rises and falls, the landscape of her home is changed and the things she loves are endangered.
    One of these things are the burrowing owls by the Bear River Migratory Bird refuge. Terry describes these owls as "Sentries" guarding the cycles of the land. These owls are almost spiritual to her. They represent regularity, dependability, and hope. I think this is why she is so passionate about preserving their life in Utah. Each spring they nest and bring new life to a desert next to a lake that she calls "the liquid lie of the West". They are the epitome of grace. The burrowing owls are a shining light of renewal in a barren land. When her owls' nest is destroyed for a gun club to be built Terry is furious. The nest, a source of life and hope, is to be replaced with a building dedicated to ending life. This represents a defeat to Terry. She was not able to save one of the most important things to her.
  Next, Terry tells the history of her family. She tells of the deep beliefs of her heritage. One of these beliefs is that the history of her family is connected to the land. She says, "I was raised to believe in a spirit world, that life exists before the earth and will continue to exist afterward, that each human being, bird, and bulrush, along with all other life forms had a spirit life before it came to dwell physically on the earth. Each occupied an assigned sphere of influence, each has a place and a purpose." These beliefs influenced her and her family in their treatment of the environment around them.
    Terry ends the story telling of a trip to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge with her gramdmother. On this trip they see ibises. Her grandmother tells her that black ibis symbolize death and white ibis symbolize life. Black ibises fill the field that the tour group is observing. Her grandmother points out that an ibis looks like a heart when it tucks its head under its wing, symbolizing its empathy. Terry then writes in her observation journal, "one-hundred white-faced glossy ibises". In the end, Terry chooses to believe in life and hope in spite of the other's destruction of the environment around her.