7/25 Readings

I thought that these two articles about media and risky behaviors were very interesting. The scholarly journal entitled "media and risky behaviors" explored different risky behaviors and compared how the media, movies, music and TV influence them. Some of the statistics presented in these articles were very shocking to me. One of the most shocking pieces of information i found was "in 2000, youth between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four accounted for 9.1 million (48 percent) of all new STI cases." I believe that the age that youth engage in sexual activities has decreased. I also think that this data presented in this journal should be presented more to parents. Often when watching the news, there is usually a story on childhood obesity. Kids in today's society spend more time inside playing video games than playing outside and exercising. This is contributing to the morbidity and mortality of youth. Other factors contributing to the morbidity and mortality of youh are smoking, underage drinking, early sexual initiation and violent behavior. As i stated earlier, I believe that this information should be passed around. Parents need to be aware of the possibilities that media can have on health behavior. I believe that if parents were to be more informed, crime and obesity rates could decrease.

7/20 Readings

This graphic narrative, “New Orleans After the Deluge”, tells the story of hurricane Katrina feature different peoples reaction and plans. After reading this narrative, it made me just sit back for a moment and just think about how much these people of New Orleans went through. Not just New Orleans natives, but surrounding cities also suffered from the hurricane. I really enjoyed this graphic narrative because it was just like a movie watching events happen in chronological order.

My dad owns his own hurricane website and tracks them. So when hurricane Katrina was approaching, I was very involved and knew what was going on. In the months following after Katrina, many shocking pictures and video clips were surfacing around America. I saw many of those clips and pictures and in the past few years, I have sort of forgotten how much damage Katrina actually did cause. Living in Florida, hurricanes can be a great danger. Luckily we haven’t had one hit the Tampa bay area in a while [KNOCK ON WOOODDD!] but in the past few weeks, through watching “when the levees broke” and reading “New Orleans After the Deluge” has really made me think. How lucky we are to have dodged so many bullets. But it wont last forever. We cant dodge EVERY bullet. Eventually a hurricane WILL hit. What will the residents of Florida do…? Stay…? Evacuate…? Will we be hit with one as worse as Katrina…? Has FEMA learned what to do…? Only God knows. So for now, its pretty much a waiting game….

7/13 Readings

Persepolis is a graphic narrative written by Marjane Satrapi. She uses pictures and writing to portray her childhood and the struggle in Iran. Satrapi talks about many terrifying experiences that took place during her childhood. Some of those include mass murders, bombing and executions. After reading this, I can’t even begin to imagine being a child having to see all of this take place. In "The Texture of Retracing In Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis" by Hilary Chute, she not only analyzes Persepolis’ text but also the pictures and layout of the graphic narrative. I never really realized how the layout and spacing can impact the interpretation of a graphic narrative until reading Chute’s article. I thought it was very interesting how even though Marjane was a child she wanted to fight for what was right and wanted to participate in the demonstrations even though there was a chance of getting shot. I also thought that it was very motivating that through such a hard time, Marjane was able to make light of the situation somewhat. I especially enjoyed the part where Marjane was being stopped by the Guardians of the Revolution and they were asking her about her pin with Michael Jackson on it and she included that the bottom, “back then Michael Jackson was still black.” :)
If i could ask three questions, I would ask Marjane...
if her parents got a chance to read the narrative?
how her childhood has affected her life today?
how did she feel when her parents went off to the demostration?

Katrina

After watching another section of "when the levees broke" I have a better understanding on how to write my own memoir. I need to write my memoir with a lot of emotion and detail. So that the person reading my memoir could create a picture as if they were there looking onto the situation.

7/2 Readings

In writing a memoir, by Frank Mathias, he uses a memoir to capture details from the war. He looks at writing a memoir as an art. I find it very interesting how Frank uses the letters from the war to recapture many details and to realize the boy who he once was. He also makes the point that you must be a historian to write a memoir, a historian on your life. I also enjoyed “Knocked Up” by Nicole Filmore. I thought this memoir was very interesting and comical. Nicole Filmore used a memoir to express her feelings that she couldn’t to her family. Many feelings of anger, happiness, and abandonment. I also thought the use of profanity allowed her to actually show those feelings of anger more.

I personally thought the readings for this week were very interesting. From Frank Mathais’s war memories to Nicole Filmore’s pregnant sister, I can see how writing a memoir can be truly therapeutic. I think it would be very interesting for Nicole’s sister to read Nicole’s memoir after her pregnancy to help her understand how Nicole was feeling and how her pregnancy was through another view other than her own.

If I could ask the authors questions…
I would ask Frank what if I can’t recall many memories from a specific event. How do I go about doing that?
I would ask Nicole how the baby made such an impact on her life?

6/30 Readings

Summary
In Jerry Waxler’s, “Is writing a memoir therapeutic”, he states that memoirs can be very therapeutic. He observes that writing a memoir is not always going to be easy because recalling past memories might require some thought, but once those thoughts, feelings, and experiences are expressed onto paper, many lessons can be learned. Waxler has came to learn how past experiences and hopes have helped him to arrive where he is today through writing memoirs. He also turns to other books to try to understand how a memoir can heal ones past regrets and feelings. In the NPR listening, Iriel Franklin and her aunt Antoinette Franklin talk about their experiences through and after hurricane Katrina. They talk about their hardest times after the hurricane. Antoinette expresses that her hardest day after the hurricane was seeing her mother and aunt, the strongest women in the family, break down. Iriel than states that her hardest time was not being able to know where her loved ones are. After hearing Iriel almost break down in tears talking about her hardest times. Antoinette says that she needs to stay strong during this whole ordeal.

Reaction
After reading Waxler’s story, I have been giving thought to what I’m going to write my own memoir on. I have started to think about whom and what has given me inspiration to get where I am today. I think this reading has really helped me to somewhat understand more how to write a memoir and how memoirs can help. After listening to NPR, my heart really goes out to the people who had to experience that. I have lived in Florida all my life and have yet to experience a hurricane. I cannot imagine losing everything and having to be relocated from somewhere I have called home for the past eighteen years.

Questions
1. How did Walxer let his feelings “bubble up deep from within”?
2. Will Antoinette and Iriel ever move back to New Orleans?
3. How did Antoinette and Iriel cope with the fact that they got displaced from their home?