Home:
Today is the day after my Thanksgiving feast. I was able to take off Wednesday 11/25/15 and my son Anthony and I did all the baking. We made chocolate chip cookies, two pumpkin pies, monkey bread, sweet corn bread, and a carrot cake. The next morning, Thanksgiving Day, my feet hit the floor a little later then I liked, but I was headed towards the kitchen to get the coffee started. I pulled out my 22lb turkey for 30 minutes or so. My mother woke up and started her stuffing. She had to get the neck bone, heart, and liver out. I am in the medical field, but sticking my hand up a turkey’s ass just isn’t for me. As she did that I started the prep on the sweet potatoes. Peeled, boiled, and put them into a pan with light brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and syrup. Covered them with aluminum foil and into the fridge for later they went. After, I started the green beans. I pulled out the two huge ham hocks and put them into my soup pot, poured the beans, special seasons and chicken broth, and then they were left to simmer for the duration of the day. The turkey was finally stuffed, put some season on the big bird, and into the oven at 325 degrees for the next 6 hours. I took a coffee break. It may not sound extensive, but it was early and my head hurt already. Coffee break was over and back to the kitchen I went. My daughter and husband were too busy watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade to miss me. I started peeling the potatoes for mashed potatoes. My mother states you cannot have instant potatoes on Thanksgiving. Put the potatoes into a boiling pot of water and let them cook. As that was finished, I pulled out my ham and put it in the convection oven. I saturated the already marinated ham in brown sugar and syrup. It was already cooked so just needed a heat to help the seasons infiltrate the pig. The potatoes were finished so I dumped milk, salt, butter and chives and hit them with the blender. At that time, my husband made an observation that my mac and cheese with bacon is not in the crock yet. I told him that was not on the menu, so he took it upon himself to do his own mac and cheese. It was fabulous. I started the cheese tray cutting up cheddar, sharp cheddar, and jack. I aligned them perfectly next to 3 rows of regular town house crackers, parmesan cheese pretzel crackers, and plain pretzel crackers. As I put them on the coffee table our first guests arrived. My daughter greeted my aunt and uncle with
“Come on in the party is started.” She cracks me up. One by one our guests arrived and we had a total of 15. My father in-law started getting grumpy so we feed him some bourbon and he seemed to simmer down. All in all two families came together and no one fought…too bad.
In a previous post reflection week 4, I used the following telling language to explain a moment from my life:
A friend of our family has a property that has a huge pond. In that pond lives the biggest, most beautifully colored coy fish I have ever seen. Some with black and white markings, others with the brightest orange and white, one even looks like a tiger with his stripes. There are also two pre-historic large turtles.
Here, I will revise this telling language into a scene that shows readers this same moment from my life:
Among the murky green pond, live two turtles so large they are almost prehistoric. Sharing the residence of the algae ridden water is coy fish, around 10 of them, with the most interesting colors ever visualized on an aquatic animal.
Class:
Well this past week I had my first anxiety attack that did not affect the others around me. I was actually quite happy that I did not go into a full freak out. The amount of work assigned was overwhelming to say the least, but I get why. We were assigned to do the first draft of the one-semester memoir, blogs #20-23, revise both our adaptive mindset papers, and room for debate. AHHHHHHHHH!!!! We went more in-depth with logical fallacies, and thanks to the Purdue Owl website I have a better idea and was actually able to identify some that my partners and I had used. I believe we used some slippery slopes, and post hoc ergo propter hoc. Professor M. was able to provide some help in avoiding using logical fallacies. For example, he kept repeating to stay specific, stick to issues and use precise wording, do the research to back the claims. I guess I did not realize how many times in our paper we state If ….happens, then …will happen. I see it better now. However, my grasp is not 100% as I continue to educate myself, so Ben your my contact! We discussed in class showing and telling writing, as you can see from my previous version of correction I still have some issues identifying the two. As I understand it to be, showing writing is writing that is detailed enough the readers imagination can read between the lines of what is being said, vs the telling writing that gives the vivid details outlining what you want the reader to see. I know in my writing I am very descriptive and in just a few sentences I can show and tell. A good narrative, as explained by Professor M. is 80% showing and 20% telling. Showing consists of strong details, setting a scene, providing action and thinking in terms of images. Telling is providing information, context, and background. Giving the reader what they are unable to discover from showing sentences. We watched a few movies to drive the concept home; Jerry Maguire, Ferris Buhler’s Day Off, and Good Fellas. I love all of these movies, but have never analyzed the scenes using a writer’s lens. Professor M. had us identify showing and telling in the scenes and I got 1 out of 3 correct. I can see both in most writing and visuals. I feel I may struggle with this as sometimes my writing is so descriptive, and through my descriptions I feel like I am showing. I don’t know, but hopefully once I start my rough draft of my one semester memoir I can nail it down. We did discuss the key points to the paper of sorting through our blog posts, picking one event, and developing that moment. Well as he told me in our mid-term conversation I have a lot of material. I have printed my blogs, as I used them for my found poetry assignment, and as I was sorting through I have chosen a few moments that I could very well expand on and easily create a 1000 word essay. The showing and telling part might be a little more of a battle. I have not done the necessary readings for this assignment to date, but plan to read all of them and possibly re-read. I need to be as true to the story as I remember. To create my paper I need to give information with creative writing and keep the reader interested in a moment from my little boring life. At least this is what I think at this point, my writing always seems to change as I start. I will have my little plan and next thing I know I am out in left field. Fortunately, I will be able to re-visit this blog to see where my thoughts were when I was still on the outside of the paper.
Today is the day after my Thanksgiving feast. I was able to take off Wednesday 11/25/15 and my son Anthony and I did all the baking. We made chocolate chip cookies, two pumpkin pies, monkey bread, sweet corn bread, and a carrot cake. The next morning, Thanksgiving Day, my feet hit the floor a little later then I liked, but I was headed towards the kitchen to get the coffee started. I pulled out my 22lb turkey for 30 minutes or so. My mother woke up and started her stuffing. She had to get the neck bone, heart, and liver out. I am in the medical field, but sticking my hand up a turkey’s ass just isn’t for me. As she did that I started the prep on the sweet potatoes. Peeled, boiled, and put them into a pan with light brown sugar, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and syrup. Covered them with aluminum foil and into the fridge for later they went. After, I started the green beans. I pulled out the two huge ham hocks and put them into my soup pot, poured the beans, special seasons and chicken broth, and then they were left to simmer for the duration of the day. The turkey was finally stuffed, put some season on the big bird, and into the oven at 325 degrees for the next 6 hours. I took a coffee break. It may not sound extensive, but it was early and my head hurt already. Coffee break was over and back to the kitchen I went. My daughter and husband were too busy watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade to miss me. I started peeling the potatoes for mashed potatoes. My mother states you cannot have instant potatoes on Thanksgiving. Put the potatoes into a boiling pot of water and let them cook. As that was finished, I pulled out my ham and put it in the convection oven. I saturated the already marinated ham in brown sugar and syrup. It was already cooked so just needed a heat to help the seasons infiltrate the pig. The potatoes were finished so I dumped milk, salt, butter and chives and hit them with the blender. At that time, my husband made an observation that my mac and cheese with bacon is not in the crock yet. I told him that was not on the menu, so he took it upon himself to do his own mac and cheese. It was fabulous. I started the cheese tray cutting up cheddar, sharp cheddar, and jack. I aligned them perfectly next to 3 rows of regular town house crackers, parmesan cheese pretzel crackers, and plain pretzel crackers. As I put them on the coffee table our first guests arrived. My daughter greeted my aunt and uncle with
“Come on in the party is started.” She cracks me up. One by one our guests arrived and we had a total of 15. My father in-law started getting grumpy so we feed him some bourbon and he seemed to simmer down. All in all two families came together and no one fought…too bad.
In a previous post reflection week 4, I used the following telling language to explain a moment from my life:
A friend of our family has a property that has a huge pond. In that pond lives the biggest, most beautifully colored coy fish I have ever seen. Some with black and white markings, others with the brightest orange and white, one even looks like a tiger with his stripes. There are also two pre-historic large turtles.
Here, I will revise this telling language into a scene that shows readers this same moment from my life:
Among the murky green pond, live two turtles so large they are almost prehistoric. Sharing the residence of the algae ridden water is coy fish, around 10 of them, with the most interesting colors ever visualized on an aquatic animal.
Class:
Well this past week I had my first anxiety attack that did not affect the others around me. I was actually quite happy that I did not go into a full freak out. The amount of work assigned was overwhelming to say the least, but I get why. We were assigned to do the first draft of the one-semester memoir, blogs #20-23, revise both our adaptive mindset papers, and room for debate. AHHHHHHHHH!!!! We went more in-depth with logical fallacies, and thanks to the Purdue Owl website I have a better idea and was actually able to identify some that my partners and I had used. I believe we used some slippery slopes, and post hoc ergo propter hoc. Professor M. was able to provide some help in avoiding using logical fallacies. For example, he kept repeating to stay specific, stick to issues and use precise wording, do the research to back the claims. I guess I did not realize how many times in our paper we state If ….happens, then …will happen. I see it better now. However, my grasp is not 100% as I continue to educate myself, so Ben your my contact! We discussed in class showing and telling writing, as you can see from my previous version of correction I still have some issues identifying the two. As I understand it to be, showing writing is writing that is detailed enough the readers imagination can read between the lines of what is being said, vs the telling writing that gives the vivid details outlining what you want the reader to see. I know in my writing I am very descriptive and in just a few sentences I can show and tell. A good narrative, as explained by Professor M. is 80% showing and 20% telling. Showing consists of strong details, setting a scene, providing action and thinking in terms of images. Telling is providing information, context, and background. Giving the reader what they are unable to discover from showing sentences. We watched a few movies to drive the concept home; Jerry Maguire, Ferris Buhler’s Day Off, and Good Fellas. I love all of these movies, but have never analyzed the scenes using a writer’s lens. Professor M. had us identify showing and telling in the scenes and I got 1 out of 3 correct. I can see both in most writing and visuals. I feel I may struggle with this as sometimes my writing is so descriptive, and through my descriptions I feel like I am showing. I don’t know, but hopefully once I start my rough draft of my one semester memoir I can nail it down. We did discuss the key points to the paper of sorting through our blog posts, picking one event, and developing that moment. Well as he told me in our mid-term conversation I have a lot of material. I have printed my blogs, as I used them for my found poetry assignment, and as I was sorting through I have chosen a few moments that I could very well expand on and easily create a 1000 word essay. The showing and telling part might be a little more of a battle. I have not done the necessary readings for this assignment to date, but plan to read all of them and possibly re-read. I need to be as true to the story as I remember. To create my paper I need to give information with creative writing and keep the reader interested in a moment from my little boring life. At least this is what I think at this point, my writing always seems to change as I start. I will have my little plan and next thing I know I am out in left field. Fortunately, I will be able to re-visit this blog to see where my thoughts were when I was still on the outside of the paper.