jensblog

!!!!!!!

2010-10-30T10:39:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!Party at my place

summer

2009-05-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

I love summer except for allergies i get every year!

Identity Crisis

2008-10-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

I Don't know what to do with myself now that I am not blond. I've been blond for a long time and it's a whole different world being brunette.

writing space

2007-12-06T11:42:00.001-08:00

My writing space is a computer at work. For some reason I can think better when I am typing as opposed to handwriting something. There is a lot of stuff in the office, but i try to keep it neat so that I can concentrate. The computers is behind a desk so that no one else can see the screen unless they are behind the desk too. I like it this way because I don't really like for people to be able to see my papers, it makes me self concious.

2007-12-06T09:09:00.002-08:00

Ad comparison paper
There are many truck ads that show extraordinary tricks that can be performed by the vehicles and by the people who drive them. The rhetorical appeal in truck ads is similar in that they show that each truck can go anywhere, do anything, and there are no boundaries.
The first ad I saw was during the super bowl, where it showed the truck being tossed around in the ocean. The vehicle was turned from side to side and hit against rocks. When the truck was washed on to shore and the tide pulled away someone started it and drove away. The truck did not have a scratch on it and there was nothing at all wrong with it. The message I got from this commercial was that their cars can go anywhere.
In another ad, a man came out of his house dressed for work and because he had no boundaries he jumped off of a cliff outside of his house. He landed with the help of a parachute in a canyon bottom. His black truck was waiting for him at the bottom without an ounce of dirt. He got in and drove away and I got the message that the truck had no boundaries.
The last commercial of this nature I saw showed that their trucks can do anything. The commercial was with two trucks coming face to face as if in battle. When the weaker truck saw the other, the one being advertised, it emitted a stream of yellow onto the ground. It was saying that it was so intimidating that it was urinating. This ad said that their trucks can do anything.
Because all the ads were sending close to the same message, that trucks are indestructible, I cannot differentiate between the different truck companies.

grades

2007-12-06T09:09:00.001-08:00

Jennifer Cooper ENGL 1010
Today’s school grading system can be an effective means of motivating some students to do their best work.
Grades can be a good motivator in that they reward students for working hard and doing homework, create organized tracking of accomplishment, and are based on all around performance at school.
The grading system used in most schools is good because it is not based solely on how smart a person naturally is. Instead there are other factors involved such as showing up to class every day possible and participating in class discussion. While this is true, for the most part grades are mostly consistent of homework and test scores.
Without being given work to bring home that is graded, average test scores would go down. Homework goes over things that are discussed in class and gives students the opportunity to practice material so they will feel confident when taking tests. So test scores are a result of taking extra time to do homework and therefore the test score is a reward for working hard.
If we had not the organized system of tracking accomplishment that we have our school system in general really would not work. By grading papers and everything that is done in school students and teachers can see exactly what the persons strong and weak points are. Some individuals need extra help and cannot be compared to other people in school. Either someone has a learning disability or has not had the same educational opportunities as another person. So in this way our grading system may not work equally for everybody.
I think the way that the grades work is the best method that anybody has thought of so far.

Moolaade

2007-12-06T09:06:00.000-08:00

Moolaadé

The film, Moolaadé is based in a small town in Africa. The central theme of the movie is female circumcision. One of the main characters in the movie, Collé offers her home as a place of refuge for the young girls that do not want to get their genitals mutilated by the older men in the community. As a result, the men take away the radios of all the women and girls in the community which is their only link to the outside world. As a result of the circumcision quite a few of the young girls have died and so most of the African women decide to stand up against it. The movie is not only about the negative things going on, but it also shows the culture and daily lives of the people in the town. In the end the women achieve their goal and the circumcisions are put to an end.
This movie relates a lot to developmental psychology. Culture is defined as a “design for living,” the people in that culture had been doing female circumcision for centuries and didn’t know any differently. In the book it says that people do not begin to question their own culture until it seems harmful or they realize that members of another culture do things differently. The reason it took so long to put an end to it might have been because in the old days there were no radios, or TVs to find out about things going on in the outside world. The women now had different information about what is right and wrong not just what they have known all of their lives. Also mothers were losing their children because of this dangerous practice.

Blank Dialogue

2007-12-06T09:04:00.001-08:00

Jennifer Cooper
English 2010
Blank Dialogue
As the clock struck 1A.M. and her son Anthony still wasn’t home, Gina began pacing nervously. Where could he be? She had an idea, but she didn’t want it to be true. What if he is out doing drugs and he did something he would regret later. He could be out doing something that would ruin the rest of his life. Just then the door cracked open as if someone were trying to sneak in unnoticed. Anthony came all the way and flipped on the light switch. He thought he was home free until he saw his mother sitting on the couch with a panicked look on her face.
“Where have you been?” she asked her voice sharp like the edge of a knife.
“Out,” he replied simply. “Out,” she exclaimed. “That’s right,” he said calmly
“Anthony, I thought we talked about this kind of thing,” she said with tears in her voice.
“We have?” he asked with a puzzled look. And you didn’t think it was important? She prodded. “I am not sure what you are getting at here.
I’m just trying to figure out where you were,” She said.
Anthony could see that his mom was no longer in her right mind again for he had told her clearly that he worked late tonight so he decided to humor her. “Go ahead,” He said. “That doesn’t help you said you would help at least,” she rambled.
“Sure Mom,” he replied.
“Okay that’s what I am talking about.” She said her voice raised and strained.
“What’s what you are talking about?” He asked growing somewhat impatient with this game.
“I just can’t deal with this kind of treatment!” She yelled.
“Forget it,” he replied nonchalantly. What? She said in shock. “Forget it, I’m leaving.”
“Don’t,” she cried out. “Well can I get some sleep then?” he asked.
“Just don’t leave,” she said calming down considerably.
“No?” “No.”
He left her on the living room couch and headed upstairs for bed. He was determined that he would get as much as much sleep as he could for he didn’t know what tomorrow would bring with her. He wondered if she would even remember what had just happened tonight.

Poetry Round up

2007-12-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Cooper
190 North 200 West
Cedar City, UT 84720
(801)706-8712
Jcoope33@mymail.slcc.edu

Deep Sleep
At night I dream of a place
The dreams are in the day
In an old house where I used to live
More in a valley than a town
A few cars go down the dirt road
There are dwellings in the trees unseen
I am on someone’s land where I shouldn’t be
I’m with somebody else
Who tells me we should leave
I’m searching for an adventure
I never seem to find
Before I wake up in the morning

NON-fiction roundup

2007-12-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

Jennifer Cooper
English 2020
“The Drama Bug”
Sedaris treats himself as If he is a great, but misunderstood actor.
My senior year in high school I got really into running. I didn’t have a full class schedule so in the time when I didn’t have class I would change in the locker room and go run on the track. I toned my body up from doing it and I thought that I was getting good or at least better than the people who didn’t exercise regularly. So when I would go running occasionally with friends who never went out and went running on their own I thought I would kick their butts at it. There were times that I was better and other times when people who came with me had no problem keeping up and doing everything I was doing, it was very frustrating.
“Shooting Dad”
My mom used to charm warts off of her by talking to them or singing to them and she would go out and tell people about it as if it were fact. It was funnier than mortifying really.
When I was younger, I tried to rebel against everything that my dad said or did no matter what it was. At times it would be country music which was the only kind of music he listens to, John Wayne movies, or even food that he liked. I would hate it just because he liked it. Even if secretly I was into the same stuff. Now that I am older I like to agree with my dad and be able to share common interests.

Rosa Parks, C’est moi
She throws in her opinion by saying that she doesn’t think that you can compare all the things that the people were fighting for to a black woman in the fifties who stood up to a white man on a bus.
The people in this essay such as the mime, the smoker, the adult dancer, and the dairy farmer could be compared to the girl and the dad in the essay “shooting dad.” The dad in that essay was a guy who was a gunsmith. As the writer of the essay, the daughter said, he had a sarcastic view of history. He seemed to think that wars and things that had happened back in the day applied to him now. Like the people in the other story that compared themselves to Rosa Parks.
Something that outrages me is people who do drugs around their young kids. I don’t know that I could necessarily turn it into an essay like this one, but I couldn’t definitely write something about how harmful and wrong I think it is.
The Village Watchman
It sounds like the writer holds nothing back that the story is completely true and all of what is in it really happened.
There was a young man at Salt Lake Community College who was mentally challenged like Alan in this story. He looked pretty normal in appearance, you couldn’t tell by looking at him that anything was off except he did walk a little funny. He was very friendly though and he would always come up and say hi to you. He remembered nearly everybody’s name that he talked to.

English Poem

2007-12-03T16:15:00.001-08:00

Jennifer Cooper
190 North 200 West
Cedar City, Utah 84720
(801) 706-8712
Jcoope33@mymail.slcc.edu

HIDEAWAY VALLEY
In a place he never thought he would return to
Down lanes lined with brush and assorted trees
The mountains outside surround; a shield from the highway
The building with cream-colored siding deceivingly shaped as a barn
A woodshed out back
On a six acre piece of land
Here years were spent in solitude
Back in the day it was a dungeon, a holding cell
For those who were persecuted
The outside world just a far away dream
Wanting to get out
They had dreamt of place where they could run freely
It was quiet now abandoned
One man had returned to receive some absolution
To believe he was truly free
He ran in the field, he climbed a mountain; he rode a motorcycle into the hills
He lay on the floor alone with himself
He tried to think of reasons not to do what he was about to and he could think of none
He cleared a path around the place
He doused it all in gasoline and then he lit a match
He drove away as it all went up in a blaze of gloryThis time he was never to return.

Barn Exercise 2

2007-10-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Perfect, I thought. The building could not have turned out more beautifully. I knew it was a good choice to paint it yellow instead of traditional red, it was just more cheerful. The paint looked flawless and it shined like a new penny. As far as barns go ours was definitely the best i'd ever seen. I swung open the hinged doors which opened into a huge open space. At the far end was a metal ladder leading up to the loft. It was the picture of good design and sturdiness. Soon I would fill the barn with piles of hay and horses, and maybe even chickens. Yes this would be perfect for starting a life out. It was a good sign, we had completed the structure even sooner than we had anticipated without leaving out any important details.

Barn Exercise

2007-10-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

I looke in on the old barn from the old window, not to make myself depressed at the old dilapidated state of it, but to remind me of a time when I had no worries, no responsibilities. I played in there as a child when it was much newer. Now the fallen rafter in the center of the dirt floor shows the buildings age. Nothing on it looks new or clean or soft. The yellow paint on the outside is almost non existent as if the walls never had any color at all. Generations have passed through its doors to swing on the tire swing in the center whose rope was connected to the now broken wood. Before the loft collapsed we would climb the metal ladder to the top and jump onto the piles of hay below. This place now abandoned of any creature except for stray cats was once a livelihood for my grandfather, chores for my father and uncles. The hay which used to be in abundance for the horses and cows is now only small specks scattered on the floor here or there. I tried to picture it as it was so I could run around and play carefree.

Lukeman Exercise Part Two] Jennifer Cooper

2007-10-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

I picked a part of a piece of work where the pace felt too slow and added commas to emphasize important details.
Misty's Wedding-
Everything was finally ready. Jarie had help Misty pick out flowers, refreshments, dinner menu, breakfast menu, table cloths, candles, a cake, music, right down to an updo for the wedding. She felt as if they had single handedly kept the Fairview, Perfect Bride, Bridal shop in business for the past few months.

Lukeman Exercise Part One] Jennifer Cooper

2007-10-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

On a Sunday afternoon when I was seventeen, I started the truck that my dad had allowed me to take my younger brother to church members houses in, in order to collect money offerings. My brother and I made it safely to everybodys residentce in the stick shift truck that i had just recently learning to drive well, only killing the engine a few times. The backroad we headed home on was one that I had never driven on previously so it took me a minute to realize that the entire dirt road was in covered in different sized potholes giving it the look of a giant washboard. At forty five miles an hour, the truck began to veer all over the road before I had even realized that I had lost control, everything became a blur, I tried to straighten us out by pulling the steering wheel from side to side. Soon we were headed to one side of the road at a high speed, my brother didn't want us to go off that side so he grabbed the steering wheel and yanked it in the other direction, we went off the bank on the other side and the vehicle turned over on the way down. We landed upside down, fortunately we were still alive.

firework story

2007-09-22T23:05:00.000-07:00

When I was seventeen I rolled my dad's truck. First I lost control on a really washboard road and then we went off of the road into a ditch and landed upside down. It all happened really fast but then we had to deal with the after effects. My dad's reaction to wrecking his work truck and getting the totalled truck out of the way.

my first draft

2007-09-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Jennifer Cooper
190 North 200 West
Cedar City, Utah 84720
Jcoope33@mymail.slcc.edu
(801)706-8712
THE HOLE
Other sounds of the night were drowned out by the sound of his shovel hitting the dirt. He’d dug holes before but never with the intent or purpose that he did now. He’d been drinking a lot and now even the sight in his good eye was blurred. He was truly alone now. He'd been divorced for over a year. But had his best friend around to keep him company and now he was gone.
Allie loved nights like this one when the sky was completely clear of clouds and you could see billions of stars. Her dog Duke had gotten loose from his chain in the backyard and she was just waiting on her front porch for him to return so she could go to bed. A few minutes later she heard the familiar sound of panting, but could see that something was wrong by the way the yellow lab limped toward her. He approached her happily licking her face as if nothing were wrong. At closer glance she could see that his fur was stained with blood.
Page 2 "THE HOLE"
A lot of the blood seemed to be coming from the dog's ear where a chunk the size of a golf ball was missing.
With morning came a pounding headache and crusty eyes that come from a night with too much alcohol. He glanced at the clock, it was one in the afternoon. He felt sluggish but he dragged himself to the shower. He watched the filthy water run off of his body and into the drain. some of the nights' events came rushing back to him. He remembered being on the phone with his ex-wife Rita and hearing his dog yelping in the backyard. He'd ran outside to find out what was going on leaving Rita hanging on the phone. His black lab, O.J. was fighting with another dog and the dog had him by the neck. He could see the other dog was bleeding from his ear but now had the advantage. He grabbed the first item in sight which turned out to be a shovel and took a good swing at the Yellow dog's head. Snap! It was too late the yellow dog had broken O.J.'s neck. He was very angry now and he began swinging blindly at the other dog. Suddenly someone else appeared out of the darkness. She ran up to him quickly but he didn't see her and hit her with the shovel accidentally when trying to hit the yellow lab. There was no sound from her as she fell to the ground.
page3 "THE HOLE"
"Looks like the other dog got the worse end of the deal."
The vet explained to Allie. "How do you know?" Allie asked.
"The blood all over Duke is from the other dog he was fighting with." The vet explained to Allie that Duke would recover fully possibly with a small limp,but she didn't think the fate of the other dog was so good. Allie took Duke home and chained him up in the backyard. She felt terrible, Her dog had gotten off with minor injuries while he may have killed somebody else's pet. She decided that she would need to get a dog run for Duke so that the chances of him escaping would be a lot less likely.
He ran to the woman he had hit with the metal end of the shovel. He knew immediately it was Rita. She had run over there when she heard the commotion on the phone to see if everything was okay. Now she was on the ground in a heap as the yellow dog got away. SHe wasn't breathing. He had heard about people who had gotten punched or had something else hit them in the face and their nose had been shoved into their brain killing some of them instantly. He figured that is what had happened to her. His first thought had been to take her to the hospital.
page four "THE HOLE"
He knew she was dead and he got scared about what would happen to him. So he'd began digging and he dug until four in the morning. He dug until the hole that was ten feet deep. First he threw Rita's body in it. Then he threw four feet of dirt on top of her. Next he put O.J.'s body on top of that four feet. Then he covered him with five feet of dirt. That way if any of the neighbors had heard him and there was an investigation, they would find the dog's body buried in the hole.
TWO MONTHS LATER
Allie returned from the work to find her little brother,Daniel sitting on her living room couch. "I got locked out of Mom and Dad's house so I decided to come over here for a while, I hope you don't mind," Daniel explained.
"No I'm glad you are here, Do you mind taking Duke for a walk?" Allie asked him.
"Oh I already did but when I was trying to put him back in his kennel he ran off. I'm sorry, don't worry I'll go out and try to find him or wait until he gets back whatever you want me to do." Daniel replied nonchalantly. "No you have to go look for him I don't want him to hurt anything", she explained frantically.Daniel left to go find Duke and Allie waited on the front porch for him to return yet again.
Page 5 "THE HOLE"
He returned home from work with the same paranoia he did everyday. His ex-wife hadn't worked because her last husband who had died of cancer had left her a large amount of money and she lived off of that. So she didn't have a job where people would miss her or try to find out where she was. He had been questioned about her missing about a month ago and had told the cops that he no longer communicated with Rita since their divorce had become final. He didn't go out at all anymore except to work and buy groceries.
He took up residence on his usual place on the couch when he saw something run by the front window that caught his eye. He stood up to see if it could really be the black lab that had killed O.J. It was the dog had returned. He grabbed his truck keys and headed outside. The lab was half a mile down the road but he could see where he was headed. He got in the truck and began to follow the dog. The dog ran between buildings and so he lost him for a few minutes. As he was headed up one of the busier streets in town, he saw a blonde woman of about 21 years old calling to something from her front lawn. Distracted by her he turned to see what it was, but it was too late he smacked right into the dog.
Page six "THE HOLE"
He didn't stop but he could see from the distressed look on the blond ladies face and the way the dog slid limply across the road that he was completely dead. He drove up the road about a couple of blocks where he made a right turn and parked on the curb.
He walked back to the scene of the accident where he found the blonde lady hysterically crying. "I saw the accident and I want to help you get the dog out of the road." The man said to her." "What's your name?" He asked. "Allie she replied."