Author: taishaff

Becoming Ms.Marvel

A press conference is being held in honor of Ms.Marvel’s recent achievement, rescuing the mayor of Jersey City from a flaming building.Then, one interviewer asks Kama- I mean Ms.Marvel a interesting question. How did you become the person you are today?

Kamala Khan- Wow! Thats actually a great question. Well, to begin answering this question I just want to say that I had a rough start. You all are probably thinking “how could she have a rough start? She’s a super hero. She has powers.”I gotta tell ya, it wasn’t easy peasy lemon squeezy like most of you think being a super hero is. These powers were just given to me as if I was the chosen one; the chosen one to make things right again. And I was in a stage in my life where I was still figuring out who I am and who Im becoming. Yes , by the looks of it I am a Pakistani girl and I’m young too. When I first gained my powers, I was having some difficulties controlling them. For example, I would try to embiggen myself, but instead I would turn small. Or even when I wasn’t trying to do a super power, my body and apperance would tweak out of control. Do any of you know why it was so hard to control my powers in the beginning? NO YOU DON’T AND YOU KNOW WHY YOU DON’T KNOW? BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW ME AND GUESS WHAT? At that time I didn’t know myself either. When I started gaining control over my powers, it wasn’t because of practice or a super hero mentor. My dad and the Quran are the main reasons I was brought to my senses. My father told me that my real name means perfection and that I don’t have to be anyone but myself. and everytime I thought of my father’s words, I stopped overthinking and had confidence and I would be able to complete my missions or rescues. THIS IS WHAT HELPED ME CONTROL MY POWERS. I would turn small by accident because thats how I was feeling…. small. Remembering quotes that my dad would say when he saw carnage on tv such as, “Whoever kills one person, its as if he has killed mankind…. And whoever saves one person, its as if they saved MANKIND.” This made me feel better and made me want to help and save people. I would like to thank all of you for honoring me but really you all should be honoring yourselves for always being yourself. Don’t ever think that you have to impersonate someone else or another lifestyle to impress anyone. BEING YOURSELF IMPRESSES EVERYONE THANK YOU HAVE A NICE DAY EVERYONE.

Ms.Marvel! Ms.Marvel!

I will not be taking no further questions.

1. How do you feel about this monologue?
2. Should I add or get rid of some details?
3. does my monologue fully correspond with the comic and Kampala’s character? if not tell me what needs to get fixed.
4. is there any writing decisions I could’ve made? for example pauses, punctuation, or add movement as if you can visualize it.

Even though, I haven’t completed the book yet, some ideas I have for this assignment is to either do a drawing again but this time as a comic or maybe a reaction video to the book. Or maybe a monologue for one of the characters. My expectations for this assignment is to complete it, unlike the last assignment and to get an A. I also feel that from this assignment that I will get something out of it; such as comic art, learning how to do a reaction video, or enhance my monologue writing skills.

This is a quote from the creator of my favorite anime Naruto & Naruto Shippuden. The Japanese symbol means fire. In the show, The Will Of Fire is something that all the shinobi of the hidden leaf village are suppose to have in order to never give up on their dreams and goals. I love this quote because I feel like its really positive and that everyone should possess the will of fire. If you never watched Naruto I suggest everyone watches it because I feel like this show has its incognito way of connecting to regular people through a ninja lifestyle.

Research Question: How does marijuana affect the brain when making decisions?

Marijuana is a very controversial drug in the United States. Its illegal in majority of America and people feel that marijuana should be legal based on its medicinal use. Marijuana is said to cure some cancers, relax people with anxiety, and is known for being a stress reliever. People who smoke weed heavily, choose to spend their cash on weed majority of the time. Mike’s character, in “Intersections”, is a stressed writer, who works part time at the Gap to earn some type of cash to keep his apartment while trying to find a better job. When Mike felt like there was too much weight on his shoulders, he would turn to pot to make himself feel better. In one scene, Mike and his girlfriend Bethany go out for dinner. The bill comes and Mike cannot afford to pay for it due to the fact that he had already spent his money on weed. After reading this scene and getting into depth with Mike it made me wonder. How does marijuana affect people’s decisions? This question stuck with me because Mike’s character and real people make many risky decisions when under the influence of weed. So what does weed exactly do to one’s brain when a decision has to be made?

Before wondering what marijuana does to the brain, my first thought was to research how the brain makes decisions on its own. Based on the specific situations and decisions that have to be made, there are specific regions of the brain that are used to gather information to decide what type of decision to make.”Researchers found that different parts of the frontal lobe, an area involved in planning and reasoning, are important in abstract and concrete decisions”(Decision-Making). An abstract decision would be like deciding whether or not to take out the trash or whether to do your homework or not. A concrete decision would be like deciding how would you take out the trash or how would you do your homework. If one’s frontal lobe region is damaged in the front, then that person will have an hard time with abstract decisions. If the frontal lobe is damaged in the back, then that person will have trouble making concrete decisions.Another part of the brain that takes place in decision making is the parietal lobe. “Other researchers studying monkeys found that decisions based on visual information rely on the parietal lobe, which integrates evidence supplied by the senses”(Decision-Making). The parietal lobe uses vision and other senses to determine an outcome and choose things wisely. The brain uses a specific order of procedures in decision making.

“As a rule, decision-making involves a multi-part process. Specific steps in this process include such things as:

• Recognizing the need for action
• Acquiring information to fuel the problem-solving
• Identifying the potential choices
• Calculating the pros and cons
• Selecting a plan of attack
• Acting, and then reflecting on the outcome later”(addiction.com staff).

If any of these specific brain regions and procedures are tampered with, thats when the brain begins to make risky decisions.  information will be gathered differently which can lead to the wrong or dangerous decision.

Now that we know what the brain does by itself, lets see what it does under the influence of marijuana. “In the study, researchers observed that marijuana users performed poorly on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which is a complex decision-making task in which participants make choices under ambiguous conditions and win or lose money based on their choices”(Decision-making Processes Blunted in Chronic Marijuana Smokers). This information shows that while having to make difficult decisions heavy marijuana smokers made poor choices rather than the non-smokers. “The marijuana users appear to have a blunted response to losing. They don’t figure out a strategy to avoid monetary losses and this is associated with a decreased functional brain response to the early, negative information that guides the other group to safer choices,” Wesley said. “The bottom line is that it looks like they don’t care as much if they lose”(Decision-making Processes Blunted in Chronic Marijuana Smokers). The results of heavy marijuana smokers during a complex decision-making challenge is that basically after losing or making bad choices their minds still chooses the wrong or bad path. Due to the fact that our brains gather information to figure out the negatives and positives of a specific decision, under the influence of marijuana, our brains look pass the negatives and it is harder for the brain to make the right decision. Leading to constantly making the wrong and or risky decisions, which, in this case, losing money while gambling. Also, there is this risky nonchalant attitude that marijuana smokers have that leads them to not caring about anything. An average legal pot smoker spends $647 a year on weed.”The median spend by this customer was $647 annually”(Bloomberg.com). Imagine what illegal heavy weed smokers.One more thing was found in another study about marijuana smokers. It is found that poorer people smoke more weed than people who can afford to smoke. “A massive study published this month in the Journal of Drug Issues found that the proportion of marijuana users who smoke daily has rapidly grown, and that many of those frequent users are poor and lack a high-school diploma”(Poorer marijuana users smoke the most).

 

 

 

 

 

Im stuck between making a research question that has to do with the side effects of marijuana on the brain and how it affects decision making or motivation vs. obligation. the first idea ties with Mike’s character and the motivation vs. obligation ties with Janelle’s character.

For this assignment, I expect to get a B- or higher. I’m not too good with research projects where I have the choice of what I want to research. I feel like this will be the assignment that kind of breaks me because I always take so long to come up with a topic. Even though its kind of limited because the topic has to tie with the play, I still feel like I won’t have a topic until the last minute. The only reason I have confidence that I’m going do well is because I always get good advice from in class experiences. hopefully, this assignment will also make me better at research assignments.

Expectations http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/03/19/assignment-1-expectation/

Pre Draft http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/03/19/assignment-1-pre-draft-5/

Rough Draft

http://archive.cunyhumanitiesalliance.org/breathingthroughwriting/2017/03/21/rough-draft-assignment-1-6/

 

Artist Statement

I had to draw the classroom in two perspectives. One from the teachers POV and the other from the students POV. There are pictures added that I couldn’t draw from the aid of Snapchat you may notice.

Who is your audience for this project? What do you want them to know before reading your piece?

I felt like my audience for this project is everyone because everybody talks in different ways and they shouldn’t feel like their speaking only falls under “improper English”. I want my audience to know that they shouldn’t be ashamed of how they speak and should embrace their culture.

What do you want them to learn from your piece?

In my drawing, it’s a classroom setting, so I want them to learn that even if they don’t know much about their culture or native language, that they should try to learn about their background.

Do you think they’ll be able to learn that? Why? Why not?

I feel like based on my drawing, they will be able to learn that because my drawing demonstrates black people appreciating their culture and white people being interested in it. Showing that will make people want to know about their culture more and find out about it. If other races are interested, that shows them that their culture is probably really cool and amazing.

What unique perspective did you bring to your analysis that someone else might not have?

I think something unique I brought from my perspective is that I made the drawing a living classroom with white and black students learning about something everyone knows about. I feel like everyone knows about slang, but the fact that there’s a class for it, in my head, I thought that would be so cool. Imaging someone teaching me about slang and they pronounce words would be an interesting class for me, so that’s another reason way I decided to drawing the picture like that. Besides the fact that Steven Willis makes it a lesson anyway.

What is the value of this perspective?

The value of my perspective is that it is different in the sense that other people just chose to write an analysis of Ebonics 101. Rather, I saw a whole vision of real you can make Steven’s poem. I felt like showing Steven as a teacher symbolized not just a teacher but a guide of how to acknowledge one’s culture and appreciate one’s background. I feel like sometimes it’s hard to understand your culture especially if you don’t know about it. So him being the teacher in my drawing is really a significant way of saying, “Learn about your culture”.

What did you learn through this project?

During the project, something I learned about drawing is that you gotta know your limitations and timing. I thought if I started on Saturday afternoon, that I would be finished by Sunday afternoon. Also, each time I examined the poem I learned something new about like back in the days. Like for example I didn’t know about the Mason Dixon border line.

What did you not learn?

There’s nothing I didn’t learn. I actually feel that I’ve learned a lot. I learned about myself and how I draw, I learned more about timing and pacing of an assignment and I learned that I want to start drawing more to enhance my skills.

What would you still like to learn?

Something I would still like to learn about spoken word poems is the process of them rehearsing the poem. They have so much body language and different tones and inflections. I want to know who helps them practice and where do they get these specific choices from.

What, if any, role did class discussions and your peers play in your project?

The classroom discussions helped me figure out a way of analyzing the poems. At first, I was like what do I even say about this and then the class and you Jennifer would give me a sense of what to think about when watching the videos. Also, my peer evaluation really helped me develop my idea even more. When Maria gave me specific things I could add to the picture that’s what made me figure out exactly how I was gonna draw it.

How has your thinking changed about poetry (if it has) since working on this project?

I was never good at poetry since elementary school and I feel like I’m still not good at it. I feel like I’m better at analyzing poetry than actually creating it. Also, I think I love watching spoken word poetry performances too.

If you had another week to work on your project, what would you do with it? How would you change it?

I feel like I would gather more ideas from my peers and enhance it or I would’ve gotten someone who’s actually an artist to draw my ideas out for me( if that counts). Also, if I had another week instead of just a drawing I would write out a scene with dialogue to go with it or a short story too. I had so many ideas for this project I wish it was just one big project so that I can incorporate all of my ideas.

The last thing you want to tell your audience before they dive into your project is… I want you guys to know that I’m usually only use to drawing one person on a page so this was a challenge for me. I usually just draw people to draw clothes because I like fashion but doing this made me realize that I actually can draw a bit and that I will start drawing more.

Sent from my iPhone

 

 

 

 

Taisha Farrow

T.Coleman

Eng 101

01/14/16

 

The Danger of a Single Story

 

      In a Ted Talk video, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains the concept of her novel,”The Danger of a Single Story”. Overall, she argues that trying to interact with people or places knowing only one story or a single story makes it difficult to make connections, takes away one’s dignity, and creates both superiority and inferiority rather than equality. “The Danger of a Single Story” is that we begin to either feel like we’re greater,below, or extremely different from others rather than acknowledging our similarities and equality. When only going by what you see and hear, it makes us deaf and blind to different point of views.

 

       As a child, Adichie read books that only consist of “characters that were white and blue eyed”. For her, this created a single story of books because before she found out about African literature, she believed that books could only be about foreigners. However she realized that books can actually contain “girls with skin the color of chocolate, whose kinky hair could not form ponytails”; characters just like her nature. This demonstrates the idea that people go by what they see or hear and not realizing there’s more around them to see and hear about.

 

         Another thing Adichie mentioned in her experience with “the danger of a single story” was that her American roommate was shocked of how Adichie, as an African, really acted. She assumed based off of the catastrophe stories she hears about Africa, that “there was no possibility of Africans being similar to her in any way, no possibility of feelings more complex than pity, no possibility of a connection as human equals”. She thought that Adichie was completely different from her, that in which, the music she listened to, how well she can speak in English, and her capabilities was not to be even compared to an American. The roommate, having only the knowledge of a single story, thought that Adichie only listened to and only knows of African tribal music, she was shocked at how well she can speak English, and thought she didn’t know how to use a stove. This experience shows that by going by one story or one point of view that people can either think highly of you or poorly of you, which is dehumanizing one another and makes people feel that they are superior to each other.

 

      I’ve never been through an experience where people have thought less of me based off of only one thing they knew about me, but I have made my assumptions sometimes just based off of what I’ve seen or from history. I remember when I went through a phase in my life where I just thought that I can never make friends with a white person because they can’t relate to anything about me. So, initially I’ve just never tried making Caucasian friends and to be honest, I wasn’t really surrounded by them to try anyway. I always felt that if I had a white friend that they would take advantage of me or feel like they’re better or higher than me. However, in my junior year of high school I met a Swedish female named Nova. She was a grade below me, so I automatically didn’t want to make friends with her. Me, personally, I like to stick to my own age group and higher, but that’s another story. Anyway, while sitting at a table with her in earth science for the whole school year, I really got to know her as a person and not as someone who is a different race from me. She’s really sweet, funny, smart,friendly, and we actually did have a lot in common. She never judges nobody and nobody judges her. So because of me making friends with her, I’ve open myself up more to different races and cultures. By the way, Swedish chocolate is delicious. In this experience, I realized that I had a single story of Caucasians, in which, I assumed that all of them think that they’re better than any minority and that we can’t connect at all. After becoming friends with a white person for the first time, it opened my eyes to the fact that not every white person is the same and that you have to give people a chance and understand them; judging them off of the past history of white people being superior to minorities. Not all of them are like this and being friends with one has no harm at all.
       The danger of a single story makes us immune to trying to get to know or understand one another. It makes it hard to find connections within, when we only go by what we see and hear. Also, because of the things we see and hear it could either make us feel superior or inferior to others when really we are all equal. Getting more in depth with our interactions with people and places could help us easily get rid of The Single Story.

 

 

This is something I wrote for my English 101 class I had last semester. I picked this piece of writing out because I feel that it is really relate-able to the poems/spoken words we have been analyzing. A single story is what is described as only knowing one side to someone or something’s culture, background, life story etc. In this piece I had to explain the danger of a single story. It was based off of a Ted-talk video with an African author explaining how people only knew one side of something in her life and used assumptions to pre-judge her.

So I have chosen to create a drawing that describes my take away from Steven Willis’ poem “Ebonics 101”. In the drawing, the setting will be a classroom. Steven or a black man in general will be a teacher, suit and tie on with a pointy stick pointing towards the chalkboard/blackboard. The blackboard will say “Ebonics 101 Chapters/lessons 1-3”. He will be facing a classroom with majority of white people at the desks to symbolize him teaching the man what they do call call Ebonics. There will be black people as well in the classroom to symbolize Stevens actual audience. The white people in the classroom, maybe two or three of them will be raising their hand to show that even though they judge us for our slang they’re actually lowkey interested and want to learn and understand “Ebonics”. Also to symbolize some of his references I will try to show some of them around the classroom. For example there would be a area in the classroom that has stuff that’s been confiscated from students such as a Arizona bottle, skittles, and a hoodie to signify travon Martin. The others I will try to figure out but that’s how the drawing will be set up.

1. Do you think I need to add anything to the drawing? Comment what and where
2.How do you feel about the idea for the drawing? Do you think it’s an effective way of symbolizing what I took from it?
3. Do you have any questions about how and why I’m drawing this?
4.Should I need to take away some details? If so comment where