“Boring Things as Worthy of Study” and “A Show About Nothing”

Sorry to keep going on about this, but I started thinking and processing about Grabill’s words while watching an episode of Seinfeld last night (weird, I know).

For a refresher, or for those of you who haven’t seen Seinfeld before (gasp!), watch this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUWiv5r_CZw

As Jerry and George pitched their idea for “a show about nothing,” an obvious parody of how Seinfeld is actually written, I thought about how Grabill mentioned how he likes to study the boring or mundane things in life–things that might seem interesting to one person but insignificant to others. This notion is exactly what Seinfeld is about, “nothing,” “boring” and “mundane” things in comparison to other plot and scandal driven television shows, however, Seinfeld is still entertaining because of it’s perspective on the funny things that happen in everyday life.

 

“Boring Things as Worthy of Study”

As quoted by Grabill while he visited our class via Skype today, I found his perspective quite interesting when he explained his views of what the words “boring” and “mundane”—“things that deeply shape your life,” as he put it.

Public Writing Classrooms

“Horner’s argument is that the work of students in classrooms is real work, actually labor that produces artifacts, always in response to problems posed and audiences addressed…the writing classroom is already public.

What struck me as interesting in Chapter 6 was the notion that writing in the classroom is public.

Social Change After 9 to 5

Yesterday, Daniel, William and I went to meet the Special Olympics of Seminole County Monthly Staff meeting to talk about the collaboration of re-creating the layout for their monthly newsletter.

Something really small caught my eye during that meeting, and it didn’t happen during the meeting, it happened before the meeting even started.

A Goal without a Plan is just a Wish

(Found on @ryanplett’s Instagram Account)

What really baffled me about this chapter was the story of Dr. Tererai Trent.

Half the Sky, Chapter 11

Maybe I was naïve to think that Half the Sky would contain no more grotesque stories—I thought that we were past that point, but obviously not.

UNICEF Tap Project

UNICEFTapProject.org

If you visit this site on your smartphone, this is a really easy way to make some money for UNICEF’s Tap Project, which strives to clean water to children around the world. All you need to do is not use your smartphone, and for every 10 minutes of non-usage, UNICEF’s sponsor, Giorgio Armani, will donate a day’s worth of clean water to a child in need.
Please participate!

Half the Sky, Chapter 12

The thing that I found most interesting about this chapter was the way in which Rwanda empowers women out of necessity. It’s interesting to see how, after an intense period of genocide, that women were seen as “less inclined to savagery.”

Half the Sky, Chapter 11 , but more importantly, Who’s in favor of making a donation through Kiva?

I have always been a fan of organizations that give microloans to alleviate poverty and to empower others in foreign countries, but after reading this chapter, I am in support of it now more than ever. Many of the narratives that are written in the chapter show how microloans can not only empower women, but bring them out of poverty, earn the respect from their husbands, engage with others in the community, and most importantly, learn about business and become responsible small-business owners.

Coogan’s Article and the Concept of the Ideograph

What stood out most to me from Coogan’s article was the concept of the Ideograph, a word that is frequently “used in political discourse that uses an abstract concept to develop support for political positions” (Wikipedia).