Monday, November 30, 2009

“College Pressures” by William Zinsser

In the essay “College Pressures” by William Zinsser is very true because college can be very stressful. Some of the pressures that people go through are financial aid, getting good grades to have a good GPA, and making time to finish all the homework from all your classes. Also a lot of people are shy and have a lot of stress making new friends, presenting a project in front of the class, keeping up with due dates, and taking tests.

I think this essay is a little off from today because this essay talks about stresses from parents making their child study something they don’t want to. Nowadays most parents are happy that one goes to college, so for them it doesn’t really matter what career one study. The other pressure mention in the essay such as peer pressure is very common in college, but in a weird way it can be good. For example, bad peer pressure can be students telling you to leave class early to go out with them and to not study and etc, but good peer pressure can be your friend saying they are smarter than you because that will make you want to study and do good in class.

In my opinion I think that sometimes professors don’t realize how much work he gives us and that we got to deal with other classes and sometimes we just don’t have enough time to do everything. Some professors expect us to be the best and do everything perfect but we can’t with the time limit and other things we got to do. I think this essay was good, but college pressure is a lot more than what the essay mentioned because the author left a lot of things unsaid. I think there should be a class or a lesson for freshmen, so new students in college can learn how to be able to control or lower their college pressure because if you have to much stress or something you wont do as well in college; therefore, its important to be able to control one self better. Also, I believe that they should put more people in financial aid, so student won’t have to waste like 3 hours waiting in line to talk to someone for help. In addition, I think that professor should be more understanding and give us a few tries or getaway if they notice that the student really put effort in the class. Finally, I think professor should make their test less definitions and more about the overall meaning of the chapter, such as make sure we understand what we read, but not expert us to memorize every single word and definition because in my opinion it is dumb and once we take the test we will forget while knowing the overall plot will stay with us for a longer time and sometimes even forever; plus, is not like we are majoring in that field or something that we need to know everything about the chapter. College pressures is a big thing in college students and something should be done to make students relax and enjoy college more and not have to worry about GPA or school worries.

“Cinematypes” by Susan Allen Toth

In the essay “Cinematypes” by Susan Allen Toth I believe it is very true and interesting because you got to date a lot of people to find the right guy to be with. For me, the right guy has to accept me for whom I am and has to like my flaws and make me feel like I am myself all the time. Also, he got to be unique and make me feel special; therefore to find a guy who has all these qualities is hard work and it is even harder to maintain the relationship stable and still keep the love and respect between the couple after many years. In my opinion finding the right guy takes a lot of time; therefore, that’s why you should date and meet new guys and if you don’t feel good with them then move on and find another guy who helps make you feel like you deserve. In the essay the author mention three different dates with completely different guys. Aaron takes her to art films, they meet at the movies, and they have no contact with each other. Pete take her to redeeming social value movies, they take turn driving, and when scared he hold her hand and if not there is always no contact. Her last date mention in the essay is Sam he seems like the perfect guy because he plays around with her hands and shows emotion toward her, but he is the worse because he is cheating on his girlfriend with the author. At this point, I could tell that the author has not found the right person and you can tell she didn’t feel yourself with any of this guys and indeed all her dates was kind of awkward.

I think the author was trying to tell us that it is hard to find someone who you can be yourself, share all your problems, feel comfortable, and enjoy his company accepting each other defects. I think to be able to carry a conversation both of you have to have some type of common interest, want the relationship to work, and understand each other. I think the author is telling us that we got to go out and meet new people to be able to find the one we like and not stay stuck with one because there are many.

“The Lie Detector” by Lewis Thomas

In the essay “The Lie Detector” by Lewis Thomas there are things that I disagree with the author; for example, the lie detector doesn’t work all the time, so it’s not very accurate. Most of the time the Lie detectors are used in courts and for important reasons such as dealing with guilty people; If a people is being look at for guiltiness this mean that we can be dealing with people who are dangerous and know how to get around the law and is good at lying and controlling their guiltiness; therefore, they can prepare for the test and pass it. In my opinion, if you are strong enough to commit murder and not feel guilt or deny what you have done; therefore, you are strong enough to lie to a machine and control your heart beat and emotions. I think that we should not make our final decision weather a person is guilty by a lie detector because a murder can control his emotions and be let out while an innocent people can get so nervous and be found guilty and spent unfair years in jail; therefore, lie detectors shouldn’t be the final evidence to find someone guilty.

Also, I believe that lying is not always the wrong thing to do. Since I was a child people always told me that lying no matter what is wrong, but I don’t think that is true. I think that lying could be wrong if you lie about something you did wrong or taking credit for things you don’t deserve, or lying to fake who you are. For instance, my boyfriend telling me his going to his uncle house when he is going to the movies. For me, those lies are horrible even if they are small because you get use to lying and also the other person loses trust for you. Trust is one the hardest thing to gain from someone and as easily as one tiny lie could change it all. Now I think that sometimes people should lie about silly things because if you don’t you could hurt someone feelings, and sometimes you need to lie to protect someone. An example of how I think lying should be right is if my grandmother ask me if I like her food and I don’t I am not going to hurt her feeling telling her the food is horrible, so I lie and tell her that I loved it. I mean those lies won’t hurt anyone and even make people feel better, so I think that lies that have no hurtful are good lies and should be use every now and then.

I agree with the author “lying is stressful, even when we do it for protection, or relief, or escape, or profit, or just for pure pleasure of lying and getting away from it”. If you don’t lie a lot then it can be very stress because your heart will start beating faster and your hand will start to sweat because you wouldn’t know what to say and then you might also feel guilty. In the other hand, if you lie a lot then you can get so use to your lies that you will start to believe them yourself.

Overall, lie detectors work most of the time but nothing is for sure. If they discover you are lying they are going to know you lied but they won’t know the reasons or how you feel; therefore, in my opinion it could be really useless. The best way to know the truth is by trust and being honest.

“Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King

In the essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King the first sentence is the best in the whole essay which is “I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better and maybe not all that much better, after all”. I think the author is correct because we all like some sort of thing that is sick if it is not a horror movie than it is something else that can be as bad as a horror movie. I believe that everyone has a part in ourselves that need an amount of horror to be happy; for example, like the author mention we all go through happiness, sadness, loyalty, friendship, love and the only one that we don’t dare let out in the evilness or killing and torturing people; therefore, we go to movies to see it and feel better. One of the main reasons that many people go to watch horror movies is because we are always trying to prove to others and ourselves that we are strong and can handle it. Another reason is to have fun which we will also release our angry and our need to be evil. If you are not a horror movie fan than you enjoy other evil things such as dark jokes, stories, video games or etc.

Personally, I am a horror movie fan, but nowadays horror movies are predicable, boring, always have to do with kids, and are just disgusting not scary at all. For example, the hills has eyes, bloody valentine, and etc are bloody movies in where you can see guts flying out, heads ripped out and dead bodies but where are the jumpy unexpected parts. Old movies were so much better and even scarier; for instance, for me a scary movie is where you are wondering what is going on and every now and then there a part in which you jump; therefore, they have to be unexpected and very different from the rest. I don’t find movies in which there blood everywhere and people are constantly dying to be scary, but rather disgusting and pointless. For me, I like feeling scared or watching the movie with a friend and seeing the way they react to the movie; I think it is fun and love how unique everyone is. I think guys sometimes try to act strong and watch a scary movie with their girlfriend to seem manly, but really nowadays there is no pressure which means that you can either like them or not and no one would really care. I like this essay and especially the first line; I think the first line said everything that needed to be said which is that we are all mental ill and there is always something that will make each of us unique in a strange way. In the other hand, I think that you should be a age to be able to watch scary movie because some people cannot handle it well and will let their angry copy movies and be killer by angry moments or even on purpose. I think they are a lot of violent and it is thanks to video games and movies in which people get so use to killing in a game or by seeing it that it become so familiar that they will be killer themselves and act aggravates for every small problem; therefore, scary movies can be good but people should be careful.

“My Wood” by E. M. Forster

In the essay “My Wood” by E. M. Forster is trying to tell us that we got to be careful because humans are selfish and once we got something we want, we will want more and more until we have lost full control; for example, in the essay they talk about the author buying a small piece of land. At first that small piece of land had an open road that the public can pass by and for the author that was enough and felt like home, but after a while the author kept looking right and left and realized that his land was the smallest land there and everyone else had gigantic lands with a lot of beautiful things. The author is trying to let us know that owning a piece of land makes the owner feel heavy and important; therefore, they start to wish for a larger piece of land. It also make the owner feel that he got to do something to it, and lastly he wants it all for him selves, so he wants to block the public path.

Once we got something we are going to want more until we have better things than anyone near us; therefore, the author toward the end wanted to build a tall fence to block the public from going inside his land. Also, once the author looks at his neighbors and sees something nice he will want something way better than what they have to show off. Owning a piece of land or something of your own can make you change completely who you are; therefore, I believe that I prefer to have nothing but people I love around me. For instance, the author is a perfect example of how people can let their ownership controls everything in their life such as his own family, and life. A person can become so obsesses with making their land unique, huge, and pretty that can totally forget about the few things that are important to him such as family, friends, and himself. When a people gets power they put it over everything such as creating debits to fix up the place or even risking their own home and children’s future for a simple obsession that is not worth it. A few of those people end up with nothing because their family will leave for his obsession, and lose the land that changed him because of the debits.

In my opinion like I mention above is that I prefer to have nothing but a family and friends who are willing to love me like I am willing to love them. I believe that in this life all we need is love to be able to survive; with love, we can overcome everything. A piece of land will not give me the love and happiness I need it will only give me a headache and end up alone and with no one in my side; therefore, I prefer to have nothing but a family who shares love with me.