Reflections on Week 1

1. There aren't really that many factors I can say will affect my participation in this class. The only thing that should slow me down is my own laziness. I'm not proud to admit that I am a very lazy person, and it should show in the quantity of my work. If I were less lazy, then I would be doing every single assignment no matter how small and seemingly insignificant, or, as Mr. Krabs from Spongebob Squarepants would say, "even the most rediculous request." I have access to a computor and the internet, so I can check that off the list. The only other thing that can set me off is cross country. That will only last until early November, so after that, I should have an empty schedule to devote to class.

2. Ugh, number two... I really don't like this question, because it makes the person answering feel like they have to remember a cool story that lead to their own decision making, when the reality of it is that how you learned whatever it was you learned does not matter. What does matter is what you do with it. If you can apply your knowledge to a real situation, then you know that you have succeeded in education. Better yet, if you can teach more people to apply these same skills and apply them to a real situation, THEN you have succeeded. I realized that I kinda dodged the question, but the truth is, I can't really remember any expeiences in my education I would give the title of "awesome" to. To clairify, I am not just thinking of only those times sitting in a class waiting to leave, although those can be important too. I just can't think of anything right now.

3. My concerns will be getting over my laziness, as stated earlier. I am excited to finally have a class that should hold excitement for me almost every day. I heard that a lot of people had problems handling the class, as I'm sure I will. If I can start using all these online tools to make my life easier, then I'll know this class was successful for me.

"Essayus Interruptus"

This essay was very challenging to write to. In my opinion, I was more worried about my grade than actually forming a full arguement. I think I should have calmed down a little bit, and shortened my intro paragraph. I was very frustrated with trying to figure out what the prompt ment, and ended up rambling on about how boring it is when authors ramble on. I never did a pre-write because I don't usually do one, because I have never found basic essay constructing that difficult, but perhaps for this one I really should have. I never even finished my first body paragraph, because I simply did not know when to stop.



I never really thought about my essay since I started writing this, and since my mind was wandering even as I was writing it, I cant remember very much of it. That is making this assignment that much harder. Not only was my essay physically interrupted by the fact that we had to go get our textbooks from the library, but also mentally distracted by a thousand other things buzzing through my mind. I usually am able to focus for my essays, but this was just one of my bad days I guess.


Enough with these crappy complaints, on to the actual details of the essay. One of the things I should have mentioned if I didn't was that all essay authors' goal is to provide the window to thought mentioned in the prompt. Montaigne's style helps him with this by including a large body of evidence from everywhere. He uses the beliefs of actual philosophers and cultures in order to compare those beliefs to his own. Pride and Prejudice on the other hand uses much more emotion than Montaigne. mainly because of the different subject matter. Although, there were some subjects that were comparable. I can't remember any off the top of my head, but the stylistic difference was that montaigne took a much more nuetral stance on most things, and lets his sources do the arguing for him.