Presentation of The Asian Pacific Culture 6/11/2008

I think the presentation of the drums for the Asian Pacific Culture was a wonderful experience for me and the school. It gave us a feel of the Asian culture and things that I didn't know that the Asian cultre had, such as drums. I really liked this experience because it was presented by people from Florida who present in the Asian culture for drum presentations in South Miami. Not only did it provide music, but it also provided Asian food and give aways provided by the school government. I think it is necessary for people to not just find out about their culture, but study other cultures and learn how to respect them as well.

"Slice of Life" Russel Baker

This essay is about the process of carving a turkey. The author first starts by explaining the tools that are being needed to carve a turkey. The tools that are needed are the carving knife, wash cloth, soap. After the turkey is being set in the table, the person is ready to carve and cut the turkey. After the turkey is being cut, the process is finished with being carved. A person can enjoy the turkey slice that was carved. I enjoyed this essay because it showed that in life there is always going to be a certain process with what you, regardless with what it is in life.

Suzanne Britt " Neat vs. Sloppy People"

In this story, the author is contrasting the characteristics of how sloppy and neat people are. For example, the author describes the messy people as people that are carrying a heavy vision in their minds and are more friendly than people that are neat. However, this essay gives the negative sides of both people. For neat people, it describes that neat people are less sympathetic and they like to throw away everything after they are done with using it. On the other hand, messy people tend to be more attached to certain things like family letters and cards. Messy people tend to get attached with things in their life and prefer process instead of results, like how neat people like to do. I do think this is true because both messy and neat people have a certain reflection on how they see their lives. By knowing how other people view their reflections in life, then we can understand people better one step at a time.

Virginia Woolf " The Death of the Moth"

This essay is about the life and death of a moth. I liked this essay because it has two morals: everything in life must come to an end and you should never give up in life.She talks about the way in life, everything must start and everything in life must end. She found this moth inside her house. As she found it in her house, she wanted to watch the process of the life of the moth. She describes that the moth looks like a butterfly because it is free, yet doesn't because of how it looks like physically. When she followed the moth, she found out that she hurt the moth and the moth stopped to fly around. After it stopped to fly around, she poked it with a pencil. She started to poke the pencil and she noticed that he was still alive. She was in shock in how a small animal can bring itself back to balance. After the animal stood up, she realized that he was strong and that life has a process of metamorphosis.

Brent Staples " Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space"

In this essay, Brent Staples talks about the difficulties of being an African- American in urban Chicago. He talks about being discriminated by being his race during the 1960s. The person who was looking at the author was a young white woman who was around twenty years old or more of age. As soon as she looked at him, the young woman was in the lookout that he could have been someone bad like a rapist, a mugger or a assasin. As the author got older, he moved to New York and was still careful of the violence that can happen in the streets of New York as well as Chicago. He explains in this essay a mixture of narration and descreptive to explain the image of the violence that happens in the urban ghetto with the difficulties of seeing death in front of his face.

Deborah Tannen " How to Give Orders Like a Man"

In this essay, it is about the process of working at a office. It talks about the process of people communicating in the workforce of the office and talks about the different process of communicating with co -workers. and other people. In order to commnunicate correctly with a person, the communicator must give the message in the correct process, which is the indirect process. For example, if a person receives a phone call asking for a person and the receptionist answers " yes", then that would be indirect style of commnunication process. Another problem in communication is the intercultural commnunication process. By being able to understand the process of other cultures in how their talking straegies are, then we are able to talk better with our communications. When we are talking to others, we should used the indirectness strategy because it gives the listener a better strategy of what the speaker is saying.

Jessica Mitford " Enbalming in The U.S.A."

In Jessica Mitford's story, it is talking about the process of how morticians work in the enbalming business and the comfort ability of Americans and how they are comfortable watching surgery shows in their family living rooms. Unfortunately, the author is in shocked in how Americans feel comfortable with this subject since she is British. In her story, she describes the process that people that work in funerals do. First, the mortician takes the body and it is laid out in the preparation room. The preparation room is a room that is filled with equipments that are used for the "patient". This "patient" is called Mr. Jones. This room is filled with scissors, scalpels and forceps. After the " surgery" is over, the mortician applies special makeup on the "patient" to make the "patient "better physically before he is cremated or buried.After that process is done, Mr. Jone's veins are being drained out and are being replaced by enbalming fluid. After that step is done, Mr. Jones goes through a device called a trocar which is being attached through his stomach. After he is having makeup check on the face, he is going to be located inside a casket. I think this story was very realistic yet graphic.