English 1T and 242B Image

Personal Dictionary(Always Running)

Personal Dictionary

Crossfire

Meaning: A confrontational situation in which opposing factions, forces, views, or opinions converge:

An Example: Miguel died in the crossfire.

Quote: “Those who were in between or indifferent couldn't help but get caught in the crossfire.”

Why it matters: Luis and his friends are often caught in the crossfire of society. Things such as racism, brutality, and hostility between gangs often cause the people in the middle to get hurt and put in danger.

Questions: Would Luis’ life be different if his family had not moved into the barrios, by different i mean would he be in gangs or fall under the influence still or would the new environment change his decisions on life?

 Injustices

Meaning: lack of fairness or justice.

An Example: My mother in her broken English could remedy few of the injustices, but she tired.

Why it matters: Rodriguez and the rest of the Chicano community often face injustice from the rest of American.

Questions: Would Rodriguez have faced injustice if he was any other race?

Spanish

Meaning: of or relating to Spain, its people, or its language.

An example: If a Spanish word sneaked out in the playground, kids were often sent to the office to get swatted or to get detention

Why it matters: Spanish is the key to Chicano culture that is censored by the community.

Question: How did speaking Spanish affect the people who were against it being spoken?

Authority

Meaning: the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.

An Example: he had absolute authority over his subordinates"

Why it matters: Authority is abusive to the Chicano community, at times unjustified.

Questions: Is the abusive authority justified?

Criminal

Meaning: Of, involving, or having the nature of crime

An example: My neighbor was once a criminal

Why it matters: The Chicano community is often seen as criminals, even when most of them are not even criminals.

Questions: How are people able to label themselves as criminals?

Alone

Meaning: having no one else present; on one's own.

An example: I always felt alone even within my own family.

Why it matters: The Chicano youth always felt alone leading them to create gangs for a sense of community.

American Dream

Meaning: the ideal that every US citizen should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.

An Example: He can achieve the American dream by working hard.

Why it matters: Rodriguez and his family came to American to achieve the American dream

Google It

During this quarter I didn't really feel that i wrote anything that resembled an exemplary final essay. So instead of pulling a final essay, i decided to post my midterm paper. Although it isn't my a super major essay, i felt that it resembles my writing the most. I enjoy writing about social problems, and trying to figure out ways to solve them, and i think my midterm paper represents that the most. I wrote about Google, and how it is taking control of its home, Mountain View, ushering out small businesses and local homeowners, and in this paper I talk about how we can press on all the while coexisting and sharing Mountain View.

“How do I fix this water heater”? “Just Google it”. When Google moved to Mountain View in 1999, it had only a handful of employees and a goal, to publicize their search engine.  Now Google has over 20,000 employees and has become the biggest employer in the city. In, Days of Destruction, Days of revolts, Hedges makes an argument that big corporations slowly exploits the city it is located in and profits of the bankruptcy of the city. Although Google hasn’t entirely bankrupt Mountain View, it has definitely complicated Mountain View. Although you can argue that, Google is making Mountain View tons of money and providing lots of jobs, but in reality, Google is causing Mountain View to payloads of tax dollars, increased unemployment rate, and increased housing prices, rendering Mountain View almost unlivable to some.

Google is a search engine located right off highway 101 near Mountain View. Their original head quarters cover as much land as the Empire State Building. The employees their have a great experience, because Google treats their employees with the best quality of service. From personal experience, I toured the Mountain View headquarters when I was a freshman, and what I experienced was magical. Their food was 5-star, there were sleeping pods located, free cars to drive, free bikes, company gas, and most importantly, a food station every 40 feet from any employee. What a beautiful place to work at. But little did I truly understand the how Google was slowing bankrupting the start-up companies, and the business around it. City council member, Leonard M. Siegel said, “Our Problem is that we have too many good jobs, everyone else wishes they were in our situation, but it’s a crisis for the people here”. Because of Google employing almost everyone, the small start-up companies such as OnLive, and other small companies cannot even step foot in the Silicon Valley. Isn’t growth the most important thing for a community, and currently we aren’t growing. Out of those bankrupted start-ups, maybe one of them could have been the next Google or Apple.  Another way Google has impacted this community is that its causing living to be more expensive. When asked, Wendee Crofoot, a community activist and resident for 20 years, said her rent went up $100 recently. "I have a feeling it's going to go up by about $300. This is terrifying and I'm not sure where I'll go," she said. Right by my house, new houses were built and sold out to Google employees before they were even finished. My aunt who was interested in purchasing those houses didn’t even have a chance to put in an offer.

My point so far is not kick Google out of Mountain View, but instead of expanding here, halt expansion in Mountain View and move to someplace like Richmond and Oakland and improve the living conditions there just like it did in Mountain View. Camden was once a booming city, much like Mountain View is today. The shipping ports brought all sorts of people into the city, increasing revenue, putting money back into the city. But then the shipping ports got bankrupt, and the city slowing dwindled down to almost nothing. So this raises the question, what if Google were to move out of Mountain View? What would happen to our city? Joe Balzino, in Days of Destruction explained his perspective of the bankruptcy of the sipping ports, “I think what stands out in my mind, HOW THE MAIN Driveway in Camden-Broadway- how it changed… From American “Graffiti” to almost a bleakness. Because of how much the shipping ports were a part of Camden’s economy I fear because of Google being so much of our economy, their expansion, and it’s unlikely, but possible downfall can destroy the city of Mountain View.

Google is a great company, which treats it’s employees and the community of Mountain view well, but I just hope they don’t overrun the city of Mountain View. My parents want to retire here, and I hope they don’t have to move because the cost of living here becomes too high. And also we become to reliant on Google to solve our problems, and when one day, when technology becomes irrelevant, we won’t suffer the same fate as Camden.

Dougherty, Conor. "Google Plans New Headquarters, and a City Fears Being Overrun." The New York Times. The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

Hedges, Chris, and Joe Sacco. Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt. New York: Nation, 2012. Print.

Debolt, Daniel. "Renters Pour out Woes at Housing Event." Renters Pour out Woes at Housing Event. Mountain View Voice, 23 June 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2015.

Nestle vs Shasta

I chose this reading writing project because this was what i felt most passionate about. A place I call my second home being exploited and used by a corporation, the story of Camden or Welch doesn't really kick in until you actually face something similar in your life.

Every summer I pack my bags and tag along with my neighbors to beautiful MT. Shasta. Good friends with their family, I get to live in their huge house up north, and enjoy many fun activities that come in store with every trip to Mt. Shasta. Every year I get closer with the community there, the small private restaurants, the beautiful lakes, breathtaking hikes, but as I talked to a few of the natives, they would always display their hatred towards Nestle. What is Nestle? Nestle is a liquid company that has their sights set on using the snow-capped mountains of Mt. Shasta to create a profitable water company for themselves. The freshness of the water that comes from Mt. Shasta is top tier, and Nestle is attempting to build factories on the mountains hoping to get a share of the Shasta water. With the deal Nestle makes with the city officials, Nestle will receive: “right to take 1,250 gallons per minute of spring water, the right to take qualified water on an interim basis from district's springs for bulk delivery to other bottling facilities located in Northern California, the right to construct pipelines and a loading facility, use of an unknown quantity of well water for production purposes, exclusive rights to one of the town's three springs, one hundred years of exclusivity, during which time no other beverage business of any type may exist in McCloud, use of an undisclosed, perhaps unlimited amount of ground water, the right to require the McCloud Community Service District to dispose of process wastewater, and the right to require the McCloud Community Service District to design, construct and install one or more ground water production wells on the bottling facility site for Nestlé's use as a supply for nonspring water purposes.” Sounds like a pretty unfair contract to me. Not only is Nestle forcing small brand companies to bankruptcy, it’s also digging into the communities water reserve in order to sell it for profit. And what does the city get in return? Pretty much nothing. As Nestle slowly destroys the environment at Shasta, the fishing ecosystem, and eventually the townspeople, the only thing they can do is sue. Sue Nestle.

            In Days of Destruction, by Chris Hedges, Hedges describes Camden as a “dead city” Similar to Shasta currently, Hedges explains how Camden use to be a bustling city with its own culture and identity. “Camden was once as full of industrial promise as the nation itself… And then little by little, the city, like the nation, was strangled and slain.”(75)Although Shasta County isn’t exactly similar to the atmosphere Camden sets up, it may as well be on its way there. As more and more small companies fall victim to Nestle, sooner or later the city will find itself at the knees of the Nestle Corporation, making desperate deals to stay alive.

Week 4-It Calls You Back

My strategy rally helped me better understand Rodriguez therefore allowed me to better understand the decisions he made within the book. Before find out more about his personality I thought of him as a troubled Mexican boy joining gangs and doing drugs to be cool, and because he wanted a family. After doing some research and following my strategy, I was able to see another side of Rodriguez and truly understand the reasoning behind some of his decisions whereas before seemed ambiguous. violence and was able to move on from it, why di he allows his son to fall under the gang influence also? Also I wondered if because of his reasoning for joining a gang, he might have “turned away” when he noticed his son starting to be affiliated with gangs, knowing his son might build a sense of community within his gang? Of course it is an absurd question to ask but when I was previewing his follow up book, It Calls You Back, I noticed his son fell under the influence full knowing that his father did the same sparked the question of whether or not Luis watched form the sideline or not. I thought this assignment was very helpful because not only does it allow the user to explore more in depth but help the user better understand what he/she is reading.This assignment led me to ask an additional question. If Luis knew the hazards of gang

Week 11- My review on 242B

I think the most important ideas in this list, is the ability to ask critical questions, and introducing and explaining evidence. Critical questions are important because through out reading your mind is constantly thinking and trying to understand the idea. I think asking critical questions really covers the main part of the reading, and also allows you to cover what you don’t really understand. For example, during Days of Destruction, I was constantly asking myself, why don’t these Native Americans leave, or why is Naracross conduction these inhumane acts against Camden? These questions you are thinking of make you not only more focused on the reading, but also allows you to better understand it in the process.

I thought for writing strategies, using evidence correctly was the most important takeaway from this class. In future English classes, knowing to use your evidence correctly ultimately makes your writing a better piece. All the other parts are easier to understand in my opinion but to be able to fully incorporate your evidence into the writing is the most difficult because people can just insert evidence here and there but never really introducing it or explaining it, leaving the reader confused at how the evidence is applying to the writing.

Week 5-Sucesses in Learning and Life

Success in Learning and Life

1. I am good at customer service related things. My job requires me to constantly be friendly to customers and answer to their needs. I know I am good at it because occasionally there would be secret shoppers that come in and test whether you are showing 100% customer service, and I have was able to show that on 4 occasions already.
2. In order for me to have a good learning environment, the room I am working in must be a good 60 degrees and extremely quiet.

From the focus walk, I heard from others that Yash’s ideal learning environment has to have lots of resources because resources are the key ingredients to a kid’s success.

3. In order for me to be successful and implement these keys to success, I can start off by being energized. Studying or doing homework on an empty stomach will only lead you to think about food instead of actually working. Also if it is super cold, or super hot, my focus will waver and an uncomfortable feeling will start to sink in, hindering my focus and attention span. To solve this I crack open a window so fresh air can cloud the atmosphere of my parking area. 

Chicken Sandwiches-Reflection week 6

My current, main goal is to eventually transfer out of community college in two years, into a state school, or a UC. I plan on majoring in criminology/law/sociology. After two year in the 4year university system, graduate with a bachelor’s degree. Out of college, work for a year, and then travel for another year. After two years out of college, with the money I have saved up, apply for law school, hopefully an Ivy League Law school, or any Law school in the west Coast. In order to measure such a big goal for myself, I must be willing to work hard, and after I completed the tasks at hand, that is when I cam see whether or not this goal has been achieved. Another goal I made is, to save up 20,000 dollars by age 30.  I want to achieve this goal not because I want to buy a fancy car, but knowing that you have saved up 20,000 dollars though work, really tell you how far you have come and how hard you have worked to get to that moment. When I reach the 20,000 mark, I will truly understand the meaning of a dollar. Finally, my 3rd and final goal is to open a chick fil-a or a fast-food American franchise in Taiwan, when I reach the age of 40 or 50. I know this dream sounds crazy, but the market for American fast food in Asia is booming, and seems to be on the rise for a long time. I first noticed this when I went back to find that a dairy queen had opened across from my mom’s business. The line was at least 1 mile long and apparently has been like that for 2 years. TWO WHOLE YEARS! Also a Krispy Kreme, which is always empty I’m America, had a 6-hour wait line. We have people standing out in the rain, for 6 hours attempting to buy a dozen doughnuts. I thought then, what would the community love that isn’t McDonalds? The line her for chick-fil-a is huge as is, but imagine the crowds it would draw in Asia. Yes this is a dream, not a goal just yet, but everyday the idea of opening this franchise in Asia motivates me to work harder on my other goals, so this dream can turn into a goal.

Introduction+242

HELLO, my name is Brian Lee, currently a English student at Foothill. This blog consists of some of the works that I have orchestrated in my college career. But first, a little about myself. I consider myself a hard working student with a growth mindset. Throughout my life I have always been put in a growth mindset environment. I always believed I could learn anything I want as long as I put my effort into it. Then around high school I started my transition towards a fixed minds-set. I believe that a fixed mind set of knowing that your extremely smart and intelligent is better than a growth mind set, because not only do you suddenly feel more confident in class but you are also motivated to work harder to not only prove that you are smart you others, but also to yourself. It may sound kind of arrogant but what is really hiding behind that arrogance is a surge of motivation that cannot be achieved in the growth mindset.
 Over all I think I have grown a lot in this class. During the beginning, I thought my writing was good not perfect but good enough to earn A's, consisting of little to no mistakes. What I didn't realize was that my writing had many flaws. Evidence was inserted with no background info or explanation, and reading long writings only ended with me understanding 50% of it, but trying to convince myself I understood 100% of it. As the course progressed, so did my reading and writing skills. We tackled all aspects of reading and writing in order to improve ourselves and become better English students.