Extra Credit - Timothy Liu

In one of his poem's, Timothy Liu spoke of butchering animals, cattle in particular. This poem inspired me to do some research on slaughterhouse and find more information about them. According to Erin Williams's book Why Animals Matter,there are around ten billion animals that are slaughtered every year in 5,700 slaughterhouses and processing plants employing 527,000 workers in the United States. Also, 28.1 billion pounds of beef were consumed in the U.S. alone in the year 2007. The largest slaughterhouse in the world is operated by the Smithfield Packing Company in Tar Heel, North Carolina. It is capable of butchering over 32,000 pigs a day. After looking into the topic of slaughterhouse and butchering animals, these numbers seem astounding and very shocking to me. I personally eat meat everyday and it is something that I take for granted too much. When stopping and thinking about what is truly going on in the world, it makes me question if what society is doing is truly right. Are slaughterhouse nescessary? Do we really need them? Is it appropriate? There are many questions that can be regarded to the subject that all relate back to "animal's rights". Should animals be treated in the same ways that humans are and receive the same rights? It is an issue that is becoming more and more popular in society today, even Wesleyan has an Liberal Arts Seminar class that is about animal cruely and animal rights. Even if people think that slaughterhouse are necessary, I think they should be dealt with in the appropriate manner. For example, the animals should be treated a "humane" way with the least amount of cruely possible. Additionally, I feel that if people do choose to eat meat, they need to be thankful and recognize what they have been blessed with. I completely agree with Timothy Liu when he noted that every animal shoud be blessed right before they are killed and processed. I think everyone should become more aware of slaughterhouse and what is truly occuring whether they agree with them concept or not.

Extra Credit - Joanna Klink

While attending Joanna Klink's poetry reading, several lines from her poem "My Enemy" stood out and were significant to me. Even though the poem had a negative sense or feeling to it, I was able to relate to a few of the lines in a postive way. One line read, "No talent is able to thrive without humanity." The definition of humanity is the quality of being human or having human nature. We all know that no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes. This line shows that without being able to make mistakes and learning from those mistakes, you won't be able to thrive in any aspect. Many times throughout our lives we learn a lesson the hard way. Even though these struggles may be difficult at the time, we learn from our mistakes and human nature and those mistakes eventually help out our futures in the long run for being more prepared. Another line from the poem "My Enemy" was very simliar to this previous one and can be easily related. The line from the poem noted, "If you're lucky, your life will be free of grief." This is a statement that almost anyone can relate to, for life is not easy. Sometimes life is not fair and that is just the way it is. Even though there may be grief or disappointment in your life, those struggles sometimes end up making you stronger as a person. They may make you a more powerful or capable person if you are able to learn from your mistakes and apply that knowledge to the future. Though her poem may have had a completely different purpose, these lines really stood out to me because I could easily relate to them and apply them as learning opportunities to my everyday life.

21st Century Art Image

This mural of Barack Obama was painted by an artist named Koolhats and is located at the Sante Fe Art District in Denver, Colorado. The artwork is untitled. The art district features more than 40 galleries and also has shops and restaurants. There is everything from traditional art to contemporary and emerging art, including painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, graphic art, and textiles.

This piece of artwork displays the now elected President of the United states of America, Barack Obama. It is a contemporary piece of artwork that highlights a quote that directly relates back to the people. "I'm asking you not to believe in my ability to bring out the real change in Washington. I'm asking you to believe in yours." Notice certain words of the quote are highlighted to exaggerate or stress a certain point. The cultural context in this image is very important, for during the time of the election, everyone is directly involved in a type of way. By making this statement that the people have the ability to makes those changes happen, it encourages people to become more active and participate in voting. By voting as Americans, people can fulfill their most upright duty as an American citizen and vote and put forth their beliefs. As the statment by Barack explains, the people have the "ability" to make those "changes" happen. This proves that the changes that do not occur through politics or government, but rather by the deomcratic government and the power of the people.

As you analyze the actual image of the mural rather than the quote, much can be taken from the physical gesture of Obama. He possesses a very serious, determined and focused facial expression. His chin is significantly raised, showing there is hope for the future. There is a contrast of colors in this artwork that symbolize what American is going through. The diverse colors prove that people of all kinds of racism can now be united as one. Being elected as the first African-American President is a very significant even in our country's history. Using many colors especially in the facial region is an effective strategy to prove that racism can be resolved.

Post #14 - Free Write - My Dogs

Above is a picture of my younger sister Jenna, who is a freshman, and my three dogs. I love them all to death and miss them like crazy now that I'm at college. Above in the front left my english bulldog named Baxter. In the middle is our boxer named Zavier. And on the right is our american bulldog named Nellie. Even though she is the female, she is definetely the dominant dog which has created some heated and intersting dogs fights in our house. I am definetely a dog lover and prefer dogs over cats anyday. I have a strong passion for dogs because they are great companions who are always there for you. They're always there waiting to greet you at the door and willing to do anything for you. They will play all day and go on a jog with you no matter how tired they may be. They're always loving and can provide attention to you if you're having a bad day. I think everyone should have a dog of some kind, for they can be very enjoyable. One of my favorite things to do to my bulldog is actually pretty mean but he loves it and it's absolutely hilarious. I will occassionally take a slice of bread and smear peanut butter all over it. After I have the peanut butter on the bread, I press it up onto the top of the inside part of my bulldog's mouth so it sticks to the upper part of his mouth. He will lick and lick the peanut butter off the roof of his mouth for a very long time and it's one the funniest things I've ever witnessed. All in all, dogs can be very enjoyable pets and very fun to be around.

Post #13 - Free Write - Halloween

For this free write, I chose the topic of Halloween because it's tomorrow!!! I'm very excited about it because it's one of my favorite holidays and it worked out perfect this year because it's on a Friday. That could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it because Halloween is often one of those nights where kids are always up to no good and looking for trouble. It's easy to get involved into mischief because it's easy to just put on a costume and get away with stuff at night when it's dark out, not that I've done that before but you get the point. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays because you can always be someone or something else besides yourself. I think it's fun to pretend to be a superhero or monster or whatever people choose to be. If you use your imagination, anything can be fun. As a child, my most favorite part about Halloween was definetely the candy part. Getting as much candy as possible was always a challenge and competition between my friends and I. Now, Halloween is more about enjoying the holiday and dressing up and just enjoying yourself, and staying out of trouble of course. This year I have no clue what I'm going to dress up as, but I need to figure it out soon. Above is a picture of my little brother Sutton who is now 17 months old. He dressed up a little early this year and chose to be a cat I guess, haha. Hopefully this year's Halloween will be a very fun and safe time for everyone.