Blog 8: Thematic Connections

                An overall occurring theme in most of the seven contexts we read in class is the truth, films such as the matrix, Gattaca, and Minority report, and texts such as Oedipus the King and the Allegory of the Cave. This theme has grown apparent throughout the semester and has caught my attention personally as an issue with nearly everything we do.

                In The Matrix, Oedipus the King, The Allegory of the Cave and Minority Report, the Protagonist is always searching for the truth, whether it is about the past, their future or even the truth about themselves or what they know or once knew.  A Major theme also in these 4 contexts is how the truth may or not be about dandelions, roses and pretty colors. The truth could very well be far worse than anything you could have imagined. But, in many cases as human beings, they strive to search for the truth regardless of what it may be.

                Personally the truth is a very important thematic tool used in many contexts, and plays a very important part in everyone’s life.  Throughout the semester I realized just how important this connection is to me as well as everything else in the world and universe. As an example I was at dinner with my mother this Sunday, discussing the implication of a divine creator and why people need something to believe in whether it was true or not. We came to the fair conclusion that people don’t need it, and in fact leave many people in “Plato’s cave,” and that the day humans band together and search for the actual truth is the day the human race evolves a step further.  But without knowing the truth we are still left in the cave, thus creating an artificial truth provides a temporary relief for many.

Blog 7: Reflection on blogging

So far this semester for my English Composition course, our instructor decided to use Blogs as a form of out-of-class communication and created assignments. My experience so far with the blogging is impassive; however it has its pros and its cons. I would rather use journals as a form of grading and communication; even then that has its pros and cons.

            Some of the Pros about using a blog is the exposure you have to other classmates blogs. This helped me shape my own blogs and gave me more of a sense on what to write about or how to write a particular assignment. Another Pro about blogging is that it is more professional to utilize in terms of spelling errors, and grammatical errors, and that by typing up papers makes it somewhat easier to explain the concept you try to explain through more professional writing.

            A big con about blogging however, is my personal inability to stay focused on doing my blogs. Since Blogging can only be done on the internet/computer, I tend to procrastinate, and end up on Facebook, or a different program when I get stuck in the middle of writing, due to the fact that its more readily at my fingertips. Another Con about blogging is the reliance on having a computer to do the work. Some people don’t readily have computers at hand, and at the moment, my computer is in for repairs, which effects when, where and how I do my assignments.

            I personally favor doing journals, because a big plus for me is that you can make a journal whenever and wherever you want, as long as you have your journal book with you. This makes doing assignments more time-efficient, being able to do blogs when you’re on the train or while you’re on vacation.  Another plus about journals, is that there is a certain feeling of expression you can write in a journal then you can on a computer. For instance, my true grammar mistakes and spelling errors are not auto-fixed by a machine, and thus gives me an opportunity to look and see what words I have trouble with and phrases I may need to brush up upon. Not only that but hand written things don’t have to go through setting up accounts, and internet problems and all other sorts of technical difficulties that can hinder your ability to complete a blog assignment.

            Some negatives of keeping journals are unfortunately the understandability and more personal aspects of hand writing. The difficulty to read someone’s journal based on handwriting is a hindrance, and the fact that it’s not available to the public limits how many people can evaluate and improve upon your writings.