FINAL BLOG POST (If I said Hooray would that be going too far?)
Three Best Posts This Semester Are……….
What is a Hipster?
This was my first blog posting (ever). I was defining what hip meant to me at the beginning of the semester. It hasn’t changed much since.
Cartoons and Race in America
As a class we were asked to watch cartoons that have since been banned from television. I’m not one to be on the side of censorship, but racism sucks. I was clearly having an issue with understanding how racism and hip went hand in hand.
The Feminine Mistake
This posting was supposed to be about how Leland only gives girl power a one chapter shout out. In this post I realized throughout this semester I was arguing against one man’s opinion, it didn’t have to be my own, and I didn’t have to agree with Leland at all.
Why These Three?
I selected these three posts as my best because they are the ones that best represent me as an individual. So many of the blog postings this semester, I dwelled on, pondered about, and found that I didn’t have much of an opinion about the topic that week. I only wanted to get the assignment completed. I fully commented myself to each posting, but when you are not feeling it; your writing will show it. After reading back through them all I can see passion in these three. I had a strong idea on how I felt about hip and how hip related to the subject matter.
Have My Ideas Changed and What Have I Learned?
After reading my first post, and doing more of that pondering thing, no I don’t think my ideas have changed about popular culture. I still believe it is “An attitude and a way of speaking, it’s a style, it’s commercialism, and most of all it is personal.” Hip won’t achieve world peace or cure cancer, even if tries hard to do something. Hip may make those living under a rock or in a van down by the river aware of challenges in their lives, but pop culture will always be about entertainment, fashion, and escapism. What have I learned from this class? That one is easy, to critical think. In most classes we are given a book, an essay, or some poetry of some dead person and asked to do what millions of people before us have already done. There was no way to Google yourself an opinion or an answer for this class. I had to find that answer within myself. I had to think about it, then think about it some more. When I was done thinking about it, I had to think about how I thought about it, and so on. The most interesting thing I learned from Leland, hip starts where there is tension in our country….hmmm. I’m still working my mind around that one. This idea will take place in essay #3.
Strengths and Weaknesses as a Writer and a Thinker:
A friend who has been reading my post said this blog, “Is like having a conversation with you.” That is my strength when it comes to writing, it is all me. What I write is honest and of course my silly sense of humor helps at times too (at least I think I’m funny). My strength as a thinker is that I’m not afraid to do it, I relish it, it’s what keeps my noisy mind from driving me crazy, thinking about other things than myself. My weakness as a writer and a thinker go hand in hand. I have these great thoughts of what I want to write, but I struggle getting everything down, articulately. I suck at grammar, and have no idea what I’m doing with punctuation (I keep hoping that one of these days it will come to me). Unlike some writers I know, I have to try. I can’t just sit down and write something amazing, I have to work at it. Also, I need to get out of my own head, quit thinking so hard, and just write.
Performance in Class and What Should Be My Grade?
An A, I’ve earned it. I don’t just show up to class each week, I participate. I had all the material read before class and I looked forward to hearing others opinions on the subject matter. My blogs were written only after I read, listened, and thought out all of the class material. Even if I didn’t understand something, I tried, and I wasn’t afraid to ask questions. My papers were written the same. I did not enter into them lightly. I really wanted to understand how one man could take a simple word like hip and complicate it the way Leland did. As everything else I do in my life, I put forth my best effort, I don’t do just what is expected, I try to always do a little more, even if it creates more stress than one person needs.
To my fellow classmates, GOOD LUCK to you and everything you are trying to achieve (and thank you for putting up with my silly sense of humor, I do realize I’m not as funny as I would like to think).
Scott, thank you! You have helped me become a better writer and I appreciate it. Good luck to you too, and I hope someday when I am standing in the Poetry section of a book store (why am always the only one in this section? Come on people its good stuff) I hope to see a Selection of Poems (I know you will pick a better title than this) by Scott Weaver.
