English blog...England blog!

I am living in London! This place is amazing. One of the classes that I am taking is a one credit “London Walks” class. For this class we have a series of walks to go on, and then create a visual journal for each walk. For the first week (the afternoon of the 9th to the 12th) we went on the first 8 walks listen in our books in different groups or on our own if needs be. We walked through the city and visited many of the sites. We walked the walls of Londinium—the route of the ancient wall, which laid out the perimeter of the Roman town, a walk through the city, a walk along the stretch of the Thames—mostly the south side, a walk past Westminster and Lambeth, a walk about “the temple” or “Legal London”—the western half of the city, a walk westward from the city—along the theatre route, and a walk dealing with London’s seats of power and government. We visited many statues, buildings, and landmarks during these walks, but I don’t think I’m going to list them out right now. It’s been amazing! The first night we got here we saw “Les Miserables,” and on our day trip last Wednesday we visited Canterbury, Rye, and Beachyhead. This week we are seeing “The importance of being Earnest.” A couple of us have also gone to “Woman in Black” and “History Boys.” I’ve gone to the Portrait Gallery, the London Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the V and A Museum, but I’m going to have to go back and go through them all again. I’m studying British crime, Religion, Studio art, Conceptual art, and London Walks. The building we are in is beautiful! Maybe, as soon as I’m done typing this, I’ll give a little tour with my camera. The ward I got assigned to is great—they are so kind! Right now I’m in the Young Women’s; I’ll be teaching next week on “Preparing to become an eternal companion.” Ha ha, I know, kind of funny. A couple of us go to institute; it’s a chance to get to know even more people. We get around by tube and coach. The tube is the underground train station—like the subway or the metro. The coach is the bus we hire when we go on trips outside of London. Well, I’ll sign off for now. Cheers!

Review for unit 2

Note: you can use this if you want if it aids your study. As a disclaimer: There may be things on here not on the test, or things on the test not in here. These are just things that might be important.
Chapter 10 Waves
-Types: Longitudinal/compression, shear/transverse (what can they travel through?)
-Properties: Wavelength, frequency, crest, trough, amplitude
-What is the relationship between frequency and wavelength?
-Behaviors: reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference (destructive and constructive)
-Standing waves
-Doppler effect
-Sound and light; frequency and amplitude
Chapter 11 The Properties of Light
-Wave nature of light (reflection, refraction, diffraction, and interference) (double slit)javascript:void(0)
-Be acquainted with figure 11.8 (electromagnetic spectrum)
-Particle nature of light (photoelectric effect)
-Wave energy is amplitude; particle energy is frequency
-Is light a wave or particle? Neither; exhibits properties of both.
-Figure 11.17 (wave-particle duality)
Chapter 12 Physical Properties of Matter and the Continuous Model
-States of matter
- Physical properties of states of matter
-Melting and Boiling Points (figure 13.9)
-conductors/insulators
-Density=mass/volume
-Color; Discrete spectra (Absorption and Emission spectra)
Chapter 13 The Molecular Model of Matter
-4 assumptions
-Physical states of matter (figure 13.5)
-Maybe figures 13.6 and 13.7
-Temperature is the average kinetic energy of the molecules
-What is happening at molecular level with conduction, gas pressure, mixing substances?
Chapter 14 The Nuclear Atom
-Continuous model (previous chapter)
-Brownian motion
-Molecular model (previous chapter)
-Discharge tubes
-Thomson plum pudding model (figure 14.1)
-Rutherford’s gold foil experiment (14.2)
-Rutherford Solar System model (figure 14.3)
-Couldn’t explain discrete spectra
-Bohr Model
-if electrons were orbiting, they’d be radiating energy and falling into the nucleus
-also, why were they in specific orbits?
-Quantum Model
Chapter 15 Duality of Matter
-wavelength=Planck’s constant/momentum (momentum=mass x velocity)
-acts like wave when observed (sure of motion)
-acts like particle when unobserved (sure of position)
-Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Chapter 16 Quantum Model of the Atom
-Orbital: standing waves of probability
-Exclusion principle: Shell (1,2,3,etc) , Orbital (s,p,d,f) , Spin (up or down)
-Energy wells
Chapter 17 The Periodic Table
-Atomic theory (pg 200)
- families (columns), periods (rows)
-Periodic Trends (Atomic Size (figure 17.7), Ionization Energy (figure 17.8), Chemical Properties (valence electrons, etc))

Rhetorical Analysis

Argument of a friend: "You shouldn't do so much homework"
Why? "Because you should spend some time doing other things"
Like what? "Like playing in the snow, meditating, talking, making gingerbread houses, getting to know new people..." ok get the point. But I can't just not finish homework. "Why not?" I don't know. i just can't. "Well, why do you have so much?" I take too long. I have a lot of credits. And also, even my jobs have homework. "Well, why the heck did you choose to do all this stuff? Is it that important?" I don't know. Hey, when did this turn into an interrogation anyway? "Sorry." meh. "So, you ready to take a break?" I am taking a break; i'm talking to you. "really?" Ok, so maybe as I'm talking to you I'm recording it as a rhetorical analysis for an English blog entry even though we don't necessarily have to have one today, but my teacher said we might be able to have this one make up for one we've missed previously. "ha ha. you're lame"

...
I can't really argue with this. I guess his argument is affective.

Technical Assignment: audience awareness--those who have trouble relaxing

There was a study done for sleep help. The study was to find some of the best ways to relax. I can't remember number two and three, but number one (for this study anyway) was listening to relaxing music. Sometimes when I have a busy day it is hard for me to relax I can't even bring myself to sit down to listen to music. I try. I sit down to listen and it is just hard for to be able to sit there. I've come up with something different. I've started playing the guitar. It makes me sit there. In order for the music to come I actually have to sit there and play it. My fingers have to find the chords and I have to strum the rhythm. Then I feel the rhythm, strum the rhythm, and I start to slow down. To wind down. Maybe each has their own way to wind down. Everyone is different and so everyone should figure out the best way to do their own thing.

Free Write

I'm going to start typing and I'll try not to stop until I have a sufficient enough entry. I think it is probably a good idea; it gets you into the flow of writing. Sometimes it is difficult to begin. There is a blank screen in front of you with a cursor just blinking and blinking. Expecting you to do something with it. It kind of reminds me when I have a blank canvas in front of me. Every mark you put down will be judged or evaluated. It is hard to start. For canvas it is even harder because it costs so much. But even words. Once it is out. Once it is on paper. It is written down. People can look at you. People can examine you. It is a record that you are accountable for. Maybe that is why it is a little foreboding. I wish we could communicate clearly. Words are so muddled anyway. We don't think in words. We think in thoughts. If we thought in words then we would never have those times where we "can't think of the right word." In those instances we know the concept we are trying to find the right word to link to the meshy concept in our mind. Some people paint or sing or move or talk or write to try to communicate the concepts and the stuff that is going inside our minds, but it doesn't seem to ever be clear enough. It never seems to be completely accurate. One day perhaps. Maybe that's what "Adamic" language is. We'll all have to learn it, but it is just universally understood. Anyone can understand it. One person can speak it, and no matter what language you speak you'd be able to understand. Maybe that's what is happening in the scriptures when they hear things that couldn't be written down. It is this language that is universally understood and communicated, but they didn't know how to speak it yet. And maybe eventually we'll all be able to learn it. Things would get done so much more efficiently, and I can't imagine any arguments because people would understand where other people were coming from. A universal language. Where everything is clear.

FW: tonight

I am so tired of being on campus. One of the jobs I have is being an RA/TA for the Sociology department. The students in Soc 300 are required to give phone interviews for one of the professor's research projects. They get research gathering experience and he gets free labor. Well, almost free. A TA has to be in the phone lab with the students when they are calling people (from 7 to 9:45), and so we each take our night. Tonight is my night. Good joy. I've been patrolling half the time and going through a semester's worth of physical science homework (another glamorous job--Physical Science TA). You ever have those days when it just seems to be really really long? I do too.
Oh, my word. The best thing just happened. Three of my students just came and gave me some food. Bless their souls. I love them. It looks like onion rings, fries, and some kind of burger. Some kind of barbecue burger. It looks good. Happy day. (P.S. they aren't bribing me; they can't bribe me because I can't change their grades.) This tastes really good. I've been living of apples and soup for the last week because that's all I've had and I haven't had time to go to the store. I really hope that this is 200 words because this entry is getting ridiculous.

TA: Audience; a book club that is discussing Wright's poem

There are a few precious moments marked in a person’s life that are just as important as the epic milestones or the monuments of accomplishments. They are the moments of a deep self-contentment—a realization that everything has its place. James Wright’s “A Blessing” tells about a moment when he had such an experience. Wright finds himself in a condition of pure unfettered happiness, where he was able to undergo the awe inspired by an experience with two Indian ponies at twilight.
This poem serves as a reminder for those who get too tied up with the business and strain of the social world, a world whose social strains are often self-created. The reminder shows that sometimes it is necessary to slow down. The poem illustrates that occasionally moments are just captured, that time can hold its breath and allow a few minutes for someone to breathe in deeply and truly appreciate the glory of the simple and the overlooked.
I think that these types of experiences happen at different times to everyone. It doesn’t happen so much when a person’s physical surroundings change, but when the person changes a little in how they perceive their physical surroundings. Their senses become more acute and intensified with the wonders that encircle them. When reading this poem I couldn’t visualize exactly the grass and the ponies that Wright spoke of, but I could feel how they made him feel. It moved me to instances were I felt the vividness that he described. He writes, “Suddenly I realize that if I stepped out of my body I would break into blossom.” Reading his poem made me recall those instances when I felt in the same condition.