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Proposing my idea:
My idea should be accepted because stress is something that overcomes everybody at some point in their life. Though everyone may not be into nerdy games like D&D and WOW, everybody has the game or activity that helps them unwind when in distress. Though I'm tailoring the idea to my personal experience, the main message is universal.
Great Idea characteristics:
My idea is a new way to solve an old problem because it's seldom recommended that you take a break when you have a lot of deadlines to meet and because video games are villainized for supposedly making people lazy. I'm arguing that the best way to fight stress when you have too much to do is to put all of your responsibilities away and do something you enjoy for a while. It clears your mind and will make you more focused and productive when you return to whatever it is that's weighing you down. Here's the bottom line; stress is going to sink its teeth in deeper the more your try to push it out of the way. If you take a step back and deny the stress that attention, it becomes much more fluid and moveable. Leisure time is most effective when you least have time for it.

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How will I compose my idea?
In keeping with the fantasy theme, my presentation is going to look like a story book in a way. I'll be using darker greens and forest paths for any in between slides, and images of popular fantasy tropes scattered throughout. My hope is to give off the vibe of being led through an enchanted forest. Music will stay on this same path. I actually listen to "fantasy music" when I do homework and such so I'll be pulling from my library on that as well. If all goes well, the voice over will in the third person, guiding my listener through my topic.
To present my idea I think I'm going to use either Loom or Vidyard. Both are video creating services that will allow me to narrate and stitch together the right images and clips to create my storybook-esque finished product.
I'll structure my presentation by beginning with an anecdote. That anecdote will ask you to imagine yourself as a traveler in a fantasy realm, you're in an enchanted forest, etc. From there the presentation will play like a story as if I'm reading a story to the listener. To submerge my listener in a fantasy realm, I'll use images depicting common fantasy tropes such as wizards and fantastic creatures and I'll keep folksy fantasy-esque music at a low volume to maintain atmosphere. The "bad guy" in my story will be Stress, and the way to defeat it will be by playing the game.

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1.A throughline is the unifying thread that connects all the different elements and ideas within a TedTalk.
2.One step to finding your throughline is to fit it into 15 words or less.
3. A throughline needs to unify the talk as a whole and it needs to be an original thought. It cant be some generic tagline you'd find on a coffee mug. Find the overall theme of your talk then mold it to be more specified to your talk.
4."But if you, the speaker, want the audience to come with you, you probably need to give them a hint of where you're going." (Anderson, pp 33).
"Whether your time limit is 2 minutes, 18 minutes, or an hour, let's agree to this as a starting point: you will only cover as much ground as you can dive into in sufficient depth to be compelling." (Anderson, pp 39).
5.According to Anderson, your throughline should have its own angle and be concise, yet effective.
6.The topic is what your talk is about; the throughline is the main idea that you are trying to communicate.
7.A thesis statement is a list of what you're going to talk about in your talk, paper, etc. A throughline on the other hand is the big idea you want your audience to take away, the point of your talk so to speak.
8.The right was to write a TedTalk is to cut out the pretty extra bits that are decorating your talk so that you're left with what really matters: the main idea. Cutting out the more loosely related points allows your idea to blossom fully without having to compete for resources, which in this case is time.
9. Speaking in the same terms as Sir Ken Robinson, the issue is the what whereas the idea is the now what. An issue is something that is happening or a thought a speaker may be wrestling with. An idea is how that speaker solves or reinvents the issue.
10. After you have your throughline it's time to connect your examples, ideas, etc. to it. Since the throughline is that unifying thread within a talk, every point you make must be anchored to it. Cut everything that is not anchored and strengthen what is.
Works Cited
Anderson, Chris. TED Talks: The Official TED Guide to Public Speaking.  First Mariner, 2017.

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The class padlet wouldn't let me add an posts or anything like that so I'm putting my post here for the time being.
In Kate Cook's TedTalk, "Mental Illness is Not a Failure," the presenter shares a vulnerable story of her battle with her own mental health, and urges her audience to reject the stigma around it. The entire presentation was constructed and delivered quite well, but these are the things that stood out:
1. She used music to set the mood in a very effective way. The somber mood of the piano piece she used in the background was an effective cue to let the audience know the subject matter was going to be on the sadder side of things.
2. She opened with an anecdote. Those made her talk feel more personal, as well as offering the listener some assurance that she's well versed with the subject matter and has acquired merit through her own experiences.
3. She uses meme-like images to help communicate her points. While infographics and charts and the like can be helpful when presenting quantitative information, memes can help the audience relate to and better understand the emotions behind what she is saying.

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APA
Preston, R.(2008, Feb.) The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees  [Video File]Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks /richard_preston_the_mysterious_lives_of_giant_trees#t-2025
CMA
Preston, Richard. 2008."The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees." Filmed February 2008 in Monterey, California. TED Video, 18:47, https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_preston_the_ mysterious_lives_of_giant_trees#t-2025

I'm unable to indent on Padlet but each line after the top line is indented for both citations.

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This video gives an overview of how RPG gaming has evolved since the release of Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s. It touches on a variety games and how they changed the industry, and how the industry has changed as a whole over the years. This uses the history trick because it gives a timeline for how the gaming that I am focusing on started vs. where it is now. I could use this as an overview of RPG gaming before leading into why it is a great way to escape in a healthy and productive way.

Works Cited
TGN. "The Evolution of RPG Games."  Youtube. 23 Mar. 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYWlHIJtuOY. Accessed 28 Oct. 2020.

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Howdy! I'll link my survey to this post if any passers-by would like to take it. I'll also be posting it on my Facebook and Snapchat, I plan to leave it open for a week, but I'll post a stop 9 part 2 this weekend to document my progress thus far.

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Howdy everybody! I'm conducting some research on fantasy gaming for my English class this semester, and I'd love some feedback from you! Go ahead and type as little or as much as you feel necessary for each question. Thanks so much for your help and I look forward to collecting your response!

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1. Research involves much more than just reading sources. It is a process to find the BEST information, which comes with lots of trial and error.
2. Just because a source says what you wan to hear, that doesn't mean its true.
3. The best way to find a really strong idea is to brainstorm and explore many ideas until you land on the right one.
4. Though tedious, formatting a bibliography correctly is crucial to any paper.
5. In-text citations don't have to be parenthetical; there are a few ways we can site that are correct without the usual quotation and (Author year) or (Author page)

I also took some extra time this morning to catch up with my research team and leave some feedback.

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Stop 7b: Writing and Reading in the Zones

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Stop 7b: Writing and Reading in the Zones

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Currency: the timeliness of the information--10
• When was the information published or posted? 2017
• Has the information been revised or updated? no
• Is the information current or out-of-date for your topic? current
• Are the links functional? yes

Relevance: the importance of the information for your  needs--10
• Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? yes
• Who is the intended audience? psychologists, gamers
• Is the information at an appropriate level? yes
• Have you looked at a variety of sources before choosing this one? yes
• Would you be comfortable using this source for a research paper? yes

Authority: the source of the information-- 10
• Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Courtney N. Plante, Stephen Reyson, Christoper L. Groves, Sharon E. Roberts, and Kathleen Gerbasi
• Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? university professor
• What are the author's credentials/organizational affiliations if given? university
• What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? prior experience in psychological research
• Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? no
• Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? no

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content-- 10
• Where does the information come from? direct study conducted by the authors
• Is the information supported by evidence? yes
• Has the information been reviewed or refereed? yes
• Can you verify any of the information in another source? yes
• Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? no
• Are there spelling, grammar, or other typographical errors? no

Purpose: the reason the information exists-- 10
• What is the purpose of the information? inform
• Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? yes
• Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? fact
• Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? yes
• Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? no
Total score: 50

The CRAPP test aims to cultivate a research technique based on proven fact rather than a sensationalized or biased opinion. This is important, especially in academia, because it asks a reader to dive deeper and really examine their sources before they build an argument on unstable ground. The video we watched this week focused a lot on researching your sources and evaluating their arguments and how they came to a certain conclusion. This embodies what the CRAAP test is about.

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Summary: Co-authored by Courtney N. Plante, Stephen Reyson, Christoper L. Groves, Sharon E. Roberts, and Kathleen Gerbasi, The Fantasy Engagement Scale: A Flexible Measure of Positive and Negative Fantasy Engagement is a highly in-depth overview and study of when fantasy is and isn't appropriate in adults. The beginning of the article discusses fantasy as a whole, what it means, and how it shows up for both adults and children. The authors then distinguish negative vs. positive fantasy behaviors. There is a very clear made about the intent behind fantasy behaviors determining whether they are negative or positive. The authors state that fantasy in itself is objective and takes no side; the intention of the individual engaging in the behavior is what determines where on the spectrum that behavior will fall. The article wraps up with an overview of two studies conducted on fantasy behaviors in young adults and their results.

Response: This source is a scientific groundwork for how fantasy effects those who participate in it. Though I am going to focus mainly on video games as an escape, I must first cover what fantasy and escapism actually are and how we can use it in an effective and functional way. The definition of fantasy provided by the authors is going to be central to my argument in favor of escaping into fantasy. They write, "We define fantasy presently as a conscious and deliberate suspension of disbelief in nonreality." The following paragraphs detail how individuals engage in fantasy (watching a movie, for example) and how they chose to utilize that fantasy. A fair bit is written about Negative Fantasy Engagement (NFE) and how it shows up in the real world. This is an important element of my presentation because while I'm focusing on the benefit of escapism in fantasy gaming, I must also acknowledge how fantasy behaviors are used negatively.
Updated Thinking: This article was a little tricky to read because it was written in an academic context, but nevertheless I gained an important piece to my puzzle. I think I'll use this information towards the beginning of my topic, then relate me examples back to it. The article is very very long and not all of it relates to what I am researching, so I'll only be using certain chunks as a basis for my argument.
Bibliography: Plante, Courtney N> and Stephen Reyson, Christopher L. Groves, Sharon E. Roberts, and Kathleen Gerbasi. "The Fantasy Engagement Scale: A Flexible Measure of Positive and Negative Fantasy Engagement." Basic and Applied Social Psychology. vol 39, no. 3, May/June 2017, pp. 127-152.http://web.b.ebscohost.com.frccwc.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=6&sid=b028fad6-bb7c-4b79-86ab-e0187ee67778%40pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=123434408&db=pbh

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Summary: In Great Escapism, writer Chris Mooney discusses the Lord of The Rings Franchise, its evolution in media, and its impact on fantasy RPGs that followed suit. Though short, he details The Lord of The Rings' far-reaching influence on fantasy as we know it today, specifically in video game media. The article itself is a bit dated, having been published in 2002, but it speaks to the way that one well-crafted fantasy series inspired entire generations to escape into worlds of fancy. Mooney does briefly touches on the allure of fantasy gaming to those overwhelmed by a struggling economy and modern industrialized society, but for the most part, the article focuses on Tolkien's impact on fantasy gaming.
Response: I found this source to be extremely helpful. Mooney addresses many of the underlying themes of what my big idea embodies when he writes that "such escapism appeals to the economically oppressed, to those working long hours, to victims of 'the machine.'" Escapism is after all the umbrella theme of my big idea, and as I do more research I'm leaning more and more towards focusing on video games specifically and how they offer a healthy escape from an overwhelming reality. Though I'd originally planned to focus on the Pokemon franchise, I'm seeing how more traditional, Lord of The Rings-esque fantasy appeals to this same idea. One thing is for sure though: RPGs (or role-playing games) have officially earned the top spot for my presentation. Mooney focuses mainly on the release of a new LOTR video game that was set to be released before the second film, The Two Towers. This is one element of the article I won't be giving much spotlight to, mainly because my focus is escapism itself, and not details of specific games.
Updated Thinking: After reading this article I realized I've been sitting on a gold mine of info and personal experience that I can pull from for my big idea going forward. In the article, Mooney briefly mentions how D&D (also known as Dungeons and Dragons)was directly inspired by Tolkien's work. I absolutely adore D&D and was apart of a weekly campaign that met every Tuesday until COVID. I think I'm going to use D&D as a main example of the benefits of escapism, as well as using testimonies from myself and my group members.
Bibliography:
Mooney, Kyle. "Great Escapism." Reason, vol.34, no. 7, December 2002, pp 47. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.frccwc.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=8&sid=44cbb8f4-4e94-4c29-be3b-a9a838697de4%40pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=8836588&db=aph

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Summary: This Wikipedia article is just a basic of what escapism actually is. It begins with a definition of escapism, citing it as a means of mental diversion, often to escape feelings of depression or sadness.
tbc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escapism

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Summary: This first source is an essay posted by The Guardian columnist and professor at the University of Leicester, Damien Walter. Walter writes about the use of media as a means of escape and how it's evolved over the past generations. He focuses on video games and cinema mainly. The creation and progression of CGI was a game-changer for fantasy on the big screen. CGI allows filmmakers to expand their fantasy beyond what they can do with special effects makeup and costuming. They are able to morph characters into out of this world creatures and fabricate entire new worlds that wouldn't be achievable when only using props and setting. Walter also discusses the ways in which video games have evolved not only in intricacy but in popularity and subject matter. Video games such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto, both of which I was playing by age 9, have soared in popularity and brought escapism to the main stage. Where playing games such as Pac-Man in an arcade was once nerdy and subject to torment, video games have grown to such great popularity that there is something for everybody, and the stigma has largely dissipated. Walter's article can be found here.
Response: Walter offers a more technical approach to what escapism looks like today, and how it has grown exponentially with the advancement of various technologies. This article is going to be a great resource for my big idea at the end of the semester. He makes a very strong case as to the role technology has played in the boom of everyday escapism. Though he doesn't offer much on why exactly we escape, which is a main focus of my big idea, he shows how escapism bled into mainstream culture by the use of technology. In film, this takes form as new worlds opening up and creatures being brought to life. One example of this that Walter provides is Jurassic Park (1993) which brought dinosaurs to life in the most realistic way ever seen on the big screen. He refers back to the evolution that fantasy films have made several times, using Star Wars (1977) as his starting point. I'm especially attracted to his thoughts on video game development and the expansive frontier of escape that it offers. As someone who's been playing video games since I was very young, this is an argument that I can personally identify with. His perspective on why escapism has become so popular is also very interesting to me. It makes total sense that the evolution of computer tech led to more accessible escapism because there really is something for everybody in both gaming and film. Walter opens his conclusion by asking his readers, "Do our fantasy worlds, then, help us to escape, not from reality, but from our own limitations?" This asks a larger question: is escapism centered around escaping the outside world, or is a highway to escaping our self-imposed realities?
Updated Thinking: This article introduced me to a subcategory of my future presentation: video games. Before reading this article I was thinking of escapism as being purely internal, characterized by daydreaming and psychological turmoil. This larger perspective on escapism and the positive impact it has on us through media has opened up my thinking. I plan to look more at what we are using to escape, as opposed to the psychological reasoning behind escapism.
Bibliography:
Walter, Damien. "The Great Escape." Aeon.com. 12 July, 2013. https://aeon.co/essays/does-fantasy-offer-mere-escapism-or-real-escape

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Carr is arguing that technology has taken over how our brains function. The internet has taken control of many basic functions that were once kept apart. by being in control of our media, what adds we see, how much information is set to a page, etc. it has programmed us to take in information in short doses and in an incomplete way. The ability to focus on an article longer than a page or two has become increasingly difficult for many in the age of the rising web. This idea is summarized in paragraph 9 when he writes, "Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged." About halfway through the article in paragraph 18, he talks about the rise of the mechanical clock in the 14th century and how it's coming into being reset a social schedule. Much like the people of the time who started basing their day around the time and not their feelings, the people of today base their knowledge on what's easy and accessible.

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From a quick run through of my annotations, he used around 17 different sources. These sources include Clive Thompson from Wired, Maryanne Wolfe o Tufts University, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and mathematician Alan Turing. Not only does the author use plenty of sources, he uses sources from all walks of media and academia. He used this abundance of sources to strengthen his argument through several different perspectives, drawing on psychologists, professors, sociologists, and business men, as well as IT gurus. Seeing the range and amount of sources he used encouraged me to hunt for sources from anywhere that applies to my topic, not just the obvious supports.

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This is an image of pages 4 and 5 of our article this week. Though not super close up, you can see the use of highlighters, sectioning, notes in the margin, and summarization. I used pink highlighters and underlining with my black pen to mark points that I felt were generally important. The purple highlighting was reserved for the important figures and their contribution the the author's argument. I used the blue pen to summarize on the left hand side of certain paragraphs, and red pen to mark words I didn't know or points the author was making that I didn't quite understand. Numbering the paragraphs helped me reading piece by piece and not get overwhelmed by the chunk of text.

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The first article I found talks about whether or not the outdoors actually decrease symptoms of mental illness. The study the article reported on concluded that in 80% of activities mental health was positively impacted and there was no negative correlation. That article can be found here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cravings/201909/nature-s-role-in-mental-illness-prevention-or-treatment .
My second article has nothing to do with my origin stories because I was struggling to get into any of those topics. This article is about trauma bonding between siblings who suffer some form of trauma from one or both of their parents. The article about trauma bonds is located here: https://blogs.psychcentral.com/childhood-behavioral/2019/04/what-is-trauma-bonding/#:~:text=When%20siblings%20endure%20physical%20or,confiding%20in%2C%20and%20for%20peace.
Lastly, I did some research on escapism, which is the tendency to escape in nostalgic or fictional ways to cope with a negative or mundane situation. This also got me thinking a lot about daydreaming, something I do constantly. More on escapism can be found here: https://www.theemotionmachine.com/healthy-escapism-the-emotional-intelligence-behind-fantasy-and-distraction/

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I'm still teetering between what I want to focus on for this semesters project. The Origin story which I presented was all about a hike I took with my boyfriend, but the larger message is how far can we push ourselves to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I love being in nature, especially more untamed areas, and environmentalism is something I feel very strongly about. The issue with that is I'm not sure what subcategory of environmentalism I'd focus on for the project, and with winter approaching it would be tricky to do anything first hand. Another topic I'd touched on was tattoos and their meaning to the wearer and their greater cultural meaning. Both of these ideas have lots of potential but I'm still struggling to pin down a position to take to base my project on.

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I was unsure about whether or not we were supposed to post our draft on padlet so I did just to be safe.

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Academic Summary Draft- Morgan Lough- ENG 121 500

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Active Reading- The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees: Reviewing

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Active Reading- The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees: Reviewing

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In retelling the TedTalk to my boyfriend I noticed I had still had some questions myself about Redwood trees and exactly the types of ecosystems they support; Michael asked some questions that I couldn't answer. I didn't actually review much before I retold it the first go-round which likely contributed to me not being able to answer his questions. I looked back on my notes before retelling to my mom. I was definitely more sure of myself when I told her because I'd reviewed the material and I had already run a trial on my boyfriend. The more I spoke about it and drew from my notes, the better I understood the content.

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Active Reading- The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees: Reading with Purpose

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Active Reading- The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees: Reading with Purpose

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Richard Preston speaks with conviction as he presents and explains his information on Redwood trees and the hidden ecosystems they hold. He reports data surrounding the exploration and deforestation of these trees and draws on personal experiences he'd had climbing them. One flaw to the talk is that he uses jargon heavy-handedly. An example of this is when he explains, "There are epiphytes, plants that grow on trees." In this case however he did provide a definition to his audience. Another instance of Preston clarifying the features of this organisms is, "They also have the ability to put roots anywhere in the tree itself. If a portion of a Redwood is rotting, the Redwood will send roots into its own form and draw nutrients out of itself as it falls apart." He sites trips he's taken with his wife and children consistently through the presentation.

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Active Reading- The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees: Activating Schema

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Active Reading- The Mysterious Lives of Giant Trees: Activating Schema

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1. To activate my schema for this assignment i started under a broad topic umbrella and worked my way to a more specific idea.
2. I activate schema when reading by marking any connections I may have to the piece. This can help me understand and contextualize the content. The technique that works best for me is to ask questions and answer them in the margin.
My TedTalk is called The mysterious lives of giant trees and can be found at https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_preston_the_mysterious_lives_of_giant_trees#t-39025

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I've wanted tattoos since middle school. Back then I was never able to stick with any ideas, and the ones I did have were god awful. As a child it was purely aesthetic; tattoos were a way to stand out, to be different. The prospect of a meaningful tattoo didn't really mean anything to me.
Mental illness took over my life when I was entering high school, and I had the scars to show for it.
On the worst Wednesday of my life my best friend and I were summoned to the counselor's office to be informed that a dear friend of our had committed suicide that morning. At 16 years old I'd never known pain in such a violent and penetrative way, pain that drenched your clothes and skin and bones so deep it felt like it would weigh you down forever. It was that September morning that everything I did started to have meaning.
I continue to fight that grief to this day as the 4 year anniversary approaches, but I'm no longer fighting with anger and fear. I'm fighting with spite in my veins that courses like white water, ripping away at the sandstone to carve canyons. The only way to fight grief is with love and hope, healing and vulnerability, and the knowledge that you'll fall 500 times as long as you can wipe the dirt from your knees and get up to brave fight 501. I found my fight in tattoos.
Art has a way of healing for me that surpasses any dosage of any medicine a doctor could prescribe me. Whether it be music parading through amphitheater speakers at a packed concert venue, intricately laid oil on a canvas, or ink becoming one with the skin at a speed equivalent to lightning, art has always held it's hand out no matter how shark infested the waters. Feeling so connected to the art I have on my body has sparked a curiosity in me. I want to know what inspires to turn themselves into art.

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We Wouldn't Have Seen the Blue Jay- Origin Story 2

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We Wouldn't Have Seen the Blue Jay- Origin Story 2

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The sun beat down on the manila gravel of the trail we'd taken so far. On the left was the quiet, lazy trail that led us to where we stood then, and on the right a steep curve that would take us over the mighty peak that bordered the dam. His hand perched on his browbone like a visor, Michael turned towards us, "I think we can do it." My face lit up to welcome the challenging hike ahead, while my brother and father both shook their heads.
"Feel free." my brother Nathan stated, "But I'm not losing a lung."
Needless to say, the party split in two. Nathan and my dad went back the way we'd came, while Michael and I followed adventures call.
Within 5 minutes my regret emptied my lungs and left a fire that shot from heel to hip with each grueling step. We had severely underestimated how close that peak came to the clouds, and how quickly it did so. I could tell you about the frequent stops we made the breathe and complain about our decision, or about how ferocious the sun decided to shine that late May day, but this isn't a story about two underprepared hikers taking on a difficult trail. This is a story about every beautiful gift we received in exchange for our perseverance.
Upon our arrival at the peak of the mountain, a tidal wave a sparkling sapphire lay before us and stretched it's bank as far as we could see. Pine needles evaporated into the air and followed us down into a great valley. Grass as green as mint chocolate chip ice cream inhaled with each breeze that blew by and exhaled in the wind's absence. In the middle of the enchanted valley grew a tangled shrub, and on its uppermost branch was perched a blue jay with tail feathers painted by the angels themselves. She was so deeply blue she put the sky in a shameful second place. Had Michael and I not suffered the vertical hike, the sweat, the throbbing muscles and the flame in our throats, we never would've had the privilege of meeting such an elegant bird.  Everything in life comes with its price tag, but if you're willing to try until you can't try anymore, you will always find the blazing blue jay

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My eyes creep open. It's 9:30, and the snowflakes are floating to the ground to be reunited with the rest. I sit up and stretch, feeling my shoulder finally crack as I pull my arm that final inch. The room is cold so I pull my black and white checker-boarded blanket over my shoulders. With my cape tightly fitted and my deer slippers on my feet, it's time to tackle breakfast.
He beat me to the kitchen, and breakfast is already on the stove. Bacon was popping against the skillet with the ferocity of a runaway firecracker. Upon my arrival he perked up, "Good morning, sleepy. Coffee?" He tilted his head to the table where a to go cup was waiting for me. I hid my smile behind the blanket and approached the cup.
Hot coffee with a kiss of whipped cream met my tongue and I sat at the table, "You remembered my order." I cooed.
He met me with a plate of egg whites, golden toast with a buttery shimmer, and bacon waves, with a bowl of ripe red strawberries to share. Sitting across the table he asked the big question, "So, what're we doing today?"
I reflected on the past week and groaned, "Absolutely nothing." The adult in me knew I HAD to do something productive.  Not doing anything productive on your day off wasn't the responsible things to do and with 6 straight shifts ahead of me I knew I had to jump start the weekly chores.
"Movie day then?" He looked up over his glasses knowing he'd already won me for the day. As necessary as the not fun parts of life are, we all need a break here and there, especially when we're overloaded as is. Everybody needs a mental health day but the question is, what constitutes a mental health day?

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"Controversial killing of wolves continues in Washington state" by Josh Adler of National Geographic, published August 17, 2020
1. Purpose
Adler's purpose in this article is to inform others of the debate occurring in Washington state about how to best deal with conflict between endangered grey wolves and ranchers. I know his sole purpose is to inform because no where does he sympathize with one viewpoint or the other, and he uses both pathos and logos to support the claims of all parties involved. In doing this he provides an emotional appeal for both sides while granting them credibility in the form of statistics and facts surrounding this topic. Adler want the audience to look at the situation and decide for themselves whether or not lethal force is more effective in reducing loss of livestock than the non-lethal alternatives.
2: Audience
Adler is writing to ranchers and conservationists alike, namely those in states like Washington that may b suffering a similar struggle with the reintroduction of grey wolves throughout the Northern Rocky Mountains.
3. Rhetorical appeals
Ethos: The main source of ethos comes in his interviews with the parties involved in eastern Washington. He speaks with Len McIrvin about how the loss of cattle effects his ranch and who claims that the non-lethal ranch riders don't work to build a credible reason to use lethal force in dealing with the wolf packs. Likewise he speaks with state officials who claim that ranch riders and other methods are working for other ranchers and that McIrvin isn't monitoring his cattle like he's supposed to.
Pathos: The only strong piece of pathos I found i this article comes from an interview with Montana rancher Hilary Zarenek who talks about coming across a field of dead wolves and just crying, while on the same token loading dead calves onto her four-wheeler and wanting to quit ranching all together.
Logos: Logos was used most heavily in this article. He provides evidence of grey wolf killings, the effectiveness of ranch riders and other non-lethal method, as well as statistic from Washington Fish and Wildlife about confirmed wolf killings in certain years. These pieces of data surround both arguments to lend them both some factual credibility.
4.Design
The article is divided into 3 sections to introduce each new view or perspective surrounding this issue. There is an image at the top of the article (seen below) of a grey wolf sitting in the forest as well as a map of Washington that highlights the area where McIrvin's ranch is to give the reader an idea of where this battle is occurring.
5. Sources
Adler uses interviews with officials from the state as well as ranchers in the area to support both arguments. He also uses statistics from Washington Fish and Wildlife.
6. Style
The article is written in third person omniscient in a formal tone. Adler uses simple language and didn't include any jargon that an everyday reader may not be familiar with.
7. Elements of the genre
This article is written in the same fashion as most informative articles are. There are so anecdotes or sensory detail to paint a picture and there is no dialog, just quotes from the parties involved. Aside from the sectioning of the three main elements to the argument there is no notable structure in the writing.
8. Apply
The lesson I learned is to know when and how to use the rhetorical appeals. Whether I'm making an argument or just stating facts purely depends on how effectively I use pathos, logos, and ethos in my writing. Adler could have very well played into pathos and gone into potential financial strain for Len McIrvin and talked more about the pain Hilary Zarenek felt upon finding the dead wolves but he didn't. His purpose was not to persuade, it was to inform. Writing is by no means one size fits all. Every author has a unique approach to using their knowledge.

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State wildlife officials have killed the remainder of a wolf pack in eastern Washington and authorized the killing of one to two members of a nearby pack, reaffirming the state's controversial policy of using lethal means to deal with the predators when they attack cattle.

The announcement comes after the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife shot a female wolf on July 27 in Colville National Forest, in the state's northeast corner. She and two other wolves made up the Wedge pack, which had killed four cattle and injured 12 in the area since April. The nearby Leadpoint pack is suspected of killing or injuring six livestock in the past 30 days.

The same day as the female's death, the department released a statement saying it would aim to limit use of lethal controls against its state's wolves.

After the Wedge pack's female was killed, the pack's two remaining wolves killed two more cattle. Not long after, the department's director, Kelley Susewind announced the state would take lethal action against them, and on August 17, the department announced they'd been killed.

The state has now killed 34 wolves in eastern Washington in the past eight years for livestock attacks.

"We would love not to kill wolves," says Staci Lehman, a spokesperson for the Department of Fish and Wildlife. "But there are also people whose livelihoods are impacted."

Rancher Len McIrvin, owner of Diamond M Ranch, which lost cattle to the Wedge pack, says that "problem wolves need to be removed." He says his business has lost more than 70 head of cattle per year since 2008 because of wolf attacks, though the state hasn't confirmed more than 30 wolf-caused livestock mortalities a year in all of Washington during that time.

The female's death is the latest flashpoint in the state's fierce debate over wolf conservation. While the state wildlife agency says it's doing what's necessary to protect ranchers, some scientists, environmentalists, and politicians- including Governor Jay Inslee -have decried the killing on humane and ecological grounds, arguing it's not a scientifically valid approach.

Many of those opposed to the state's actions point to recent research suggesting non-lethal methods, such as guardian dog teams and protected livestock enclosures, which tend to be more successful at preventing future attacks than simply killing predators, says University of Wisconsin-Madison biologist, Adrian Treves. Such killings can actually lead to more livestock losses because it disrupts the pack's social networks, leading surviving wolves to turn easier prey such as domestic animals, says Treves, who founded Carnivore Coexistence Lab, which conducts research worldwide on conflict between predators and livestock.

Some ranchers argue that using non-lethal techniques doubles their workload, adds operational costs, and only works on occasion. Still, a number of eastern Washington ranchers work proactively with the state to keep their herds safe using the non-lethal methods and rarely lose livestock, the agency says.

While gray wolves were once found throughout Washington-and most of the United States-settlers exterminated them from the state by the 1930s. Since 1995, wolves have been reintroduced throughout most of the northern Rocky Mountains and southwestern states, yet they remain under federal protection in many areas. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, however, has proposed removing gray wolves from the federal Endangered Species List, sparking fierce debate.

In the past 12 years, some have dispersed from populations in Canada and Idaho to return to Washington. Today, most of the state's estimated 145 wolves live in eastern Washington, where they're classified as endangered under state law. More breeding pairs need to become established in western Washington before their classification can be downgraded.

Wolves prefer to prey on wild elk or deer, but they'll hunt young calves or cattle separated from their herd because they're easy prey. In Washington, if a rancher suspects a cow's death was caused by wolves, state officials conduct a forensic investigation. If a wolf kill is confirmed, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife pays the rancher up to $10,000 per incident and helps fund non-lethal conflict prevention tailored to the rancher's operation. Lethal action should only be considered as a last resort after repeated attacks on cattle, according to department policy.

Twenty-nine of the 34 wolves the state has killed were exterminated because they had attacked livestock owned by Diamond M Ranch, which owns a herd of about 1,600 cattle. The establishment is run by McIrvin, whose family pays a fee to the U.S. Forest Service to graze their cattle in the 810,000 acres designated for that purpose by the federal government's management plan for Colville National Forest.

"If wolves habituate to killing cattle, you remove the pack, pure and simple," McIrvin says in a phone interview. His main complaint is that state regulations keep him from doing the job himself. "All they've got to do is say, 'Take care of your problem,' and everything will be OK. But they won't do that."

The Colville National Forest encompasses the Kettle River Range, and cows can easily get separated from the herd in the rugged mountain terrain. Range riding is the best way to prevent wolves from hunting cattle on this kind of landscape, says Chris Bachman, wildlife director for the Spokane-based conservation group, the Lands Council. Range riders are specially trained horseback riders who roam the grasslands and forests where cattle graze to keep them safe from wolves and other predators. He's working with the state and local ranchers to standardize best practices for how range riders operate.

"If you don't have a range rider keeping the cattle bunched up, they go everywhere. Then it's only a matter of time before they're preyed upon," Bachman says.

If range riders encounter wolves nearby, they may use deterrents such as flashing lights, loud music, or gunshots to scare them away. They're primarily trained and contracted by the state, which offers their services to ranchers at little-to-no cost. Some ranchers, however, including McIrvin, prefer to hire crews of their own.

Range riders are also tasked with finding cattle carcasses and reporting them to ranch management for removal. Removing the bodies of dead livestock-as well as injured animals- are key to reducing attacks because they can attract more wolves, experts say.

Before the Wedge pack female was shot on July 27, state wildlife agents reported injured calves from Diamond M were not found until days after they were attacked. This would suggest the non-lethal deterrents were improperly employed, or that the herd had been left unmonitored when the conflicts occurred, says Amaroq Weiss, the senior West Coast wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. McIrvin says his range riders were on site, but state records show range riders were working only six full days and eight partial days out of the 26 days leading up to the most recent conflicts.

"There's not one single non-lethal [method] that works," McIrvin says. "The best that a range rider could do is chase wolves onto my neighbors' property."

Not all ranchers are as strident as McIrvin, and many struggle over what to do.

"It's hard out there," says Montana rancher Hilary Zaranek, who runs an operation with her husband and three kids in the Tom Miner Basin, their state's most densely packed wolf territory. "I've sat in a field of dead wolves and just cried. And I've piled up four-wheelers with dead calves, then gone home and wanted to quit ranching. Even people who want to go out there and do something different aren't always clear on what to do."

Killing breeds killing

Research shows that killing individual members of a wolf pack can cause it to splinter, making wolves more desperate and likely to attack cattle, according to Weiss.

"It leads to more conflicts. Having stable packs that have families in multiple generations is going to lead to more stable situations. One or two adults on their own go for easier prey. Livestock is easier to hunt than wild elk or deer. So you're creating that scenario," Weiss says.

The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has acknowledged this behavior in the past. In documents released in an August 2018 court case, Benjamin Maletzke, the department statewide wolf specialist, wrote that injuring a male wolf during breeding season may increase the likelihood he and his partner attack livestock. If one of the pair is injured, he wrote, it compromises their ability to take down wild prey to feed their family. The same is true if he's killed, Weiss says. If an entire pack is killed, livestock attacks may stop temporarily, but soon a new pack will likely move in. The Wedge pack, for example, moved in after the previous pack was killed by the state.

Other scientific research supports this view. Treves and colleagues reviewed 40 years of research on lethal and non-lethal methods for reducing predation on livestock and reached a "striking conclusion," according to the 2018 paper publishing their findings: "Lethal methods have shown recurrent counterproductive effects leading to more livestock losses," Treves says.

But Trent Roussin, a Washington Fish and Wildlife field biologist who monitors packs in the northeastern region, argues the debate about destabilized pack behavior causing more depredations isn't settled. And he says that the need to reduce attacks right away often is the primary consideration. "On the ground, the reason we're removing wolves is to stop depredations this year, now," he says.

Roussin says that by removing the non-breeding Wedge pack female, "We're hoping that we've reduced the caloric demands," thus lowering the need for killing more prey. Perhaps she was also the one responsible for the cattle-slaying, Roussin says, but that's unclear. "We never really know until afterwards if killing a certain wolf will be effective," he says.

In this case, the pack has attacked more cattle since July 27th, Lehman says.

It's not just environmentalists who have protested the killings. On September 30, 2019, Governor Jay Inslee sent a letter to the wildlife agency requesting that they "significantly reduce the need for lethal removal" of gray wolves.

On July 27-the same day the Wedge pack wolf was shot- the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department responded to Inslee's request, announcing that it will offer more range riding support in "chronic conflict zones," including the Kettle River Range. They will also test new methods for locating livestock over large areas, including reflective collars and bells for cattle, and radio-transmitting ear tags.

Other new efforts include more funding for range riders and providing community stockpiles of resources for ranchers to use, such as flashlights, flags to establish perimeters, and airhorns. Riders will also have to use handheld GPS devices and keep daily logs for greater transparency and accountability.

These additional resources will be of little use, Weiss points out, if ranchers like McIrvin don't fully commit to using them. He says his resistance is rooted in a distrust of "bureaucracy," even though the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife considers ranchers akin to "clients."

But for many, the agency's continued killing of wolves overshadows any current plans for reform. Treves says he's frustrated because he and other scientists have communicated for years with the state about "internationally-recognized, best available science on methods to protect livestock from predators. Yet they seem to rely on irreproducible science in weak journals to justify killing wolves."

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Controversial killing of wolves continues in Washington State

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State wildlife officials have killed the remainder of a wolf pack in eastern Washington and authorized the killing of one to two members of a nearby pack, reaffirming the state's controversial policy of using lethal means to deal with the predators when they attack cattle.

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This article shows how descriptive writing can bring a place or experience to life for a reader using the senses and drawing on what we already know. I recommend thesaurus.com because it enhances my own writing so much. Thesaurus.com is a site that generates more descriptive and potentially more accurate words for a mundane or simple word your already using. I use it to make an email or an essay sound more professional and to make my creative writing more lively and bright.
Here's the link for the word "heavenly" as an example.

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Another word for heavenly. Find more ways to say heavenly, along with related words, antonyms and example phrases at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus.

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3 sensory details: "...we heard the dull and deathly reverb."  "It was a blue of bright cloths and shiny sneaker..."  "...A land frozen in an innocent time..."
A visual detail: "My mind did not go back to when I stood on

the roof of my dormitory in Karachi as the streets were overrun with burning buses and angry  protesters after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto."
An auditory detail: "I was in the middle of having Chinese food with my wife and friends yesterday afternoon when we heard the dull and deadly reverb."
A specific name: "Instantly, images of the shootings in Aurora, Colo., Newtown, Conn., and Tucson came to mind."
Where does Warriach use self talk or monologue: The whole article, or at least our snippet, is monologue.
2 analogies: "People gushed across the hallway like fish in white water rapids."  "What was left of the food court was a land frozen

in an innocent time, forks still stuck in half eaten pieces of steak, belongings littered unattended."
Sensory details stood out the most.

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Noticing Descriptive Writing Part II: Comprehend the Details and the Main Idea

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Noticing Descriptive Writing Part II: Comprehend the Details and the Main Idea

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The Boston Marathon bombing happened the day before this article was posted. It happened in Boston, and I have a map in part I of this activity. At the beginning he describes feeling the shock wave of that first bomb going off. He is afraid because he experience this sort of violence as a child in Pakistan, and because he fears he'll be detained as a suspect based on how he looks. I think he is trying to make the point that Muslims in America face this racial prejudice and this fear of being blamed for any act of terrorism that is in their area based on the actions of a handful of awful people back in 2001.
Can you think of a situation where you'd face this fear of being arrested for "fitting a description" based on your race? Which other groups face this fear? What are some examples of this that are happening today?

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Noticing Descriptive Writing Part I: Activating Schema

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Noticing Descriptive Writing Part I: Activating Schema

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With the help of the word Boston at the top of the page, I knew by the end of the second sentence the writer was talking about the Boston Marathon bombing. The author is a Pakistani doctor. In his writing he goes into detail on his fear of being detained as a suspect being a young Middle Eastern man. This is something I will almost certainly never have to worry about as a white woman. My senior year we had a lock-down exactly a week after the Marjorie Stoneman Douglass shooting because admin and people in the neighborhood saw a young man walking around the building with a gun. Though it turned out to be a marching band kid with their wooden rifle out of its bag, we were all prepared to face a situation school had trained us for since the elementary years.

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Great Ideas come from the Need for Change

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Great Ideas come from the Need for Change

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In 1999 a group of fisherman in Mexico encountered a problem that is not so foreign to us today; they're fishing grounds had become barren from over fishing. Instead of pushing out further to find more fish they turned the area into a nature preserve and stopped all fishing. By 2009 the area was flush with life, and the fisherman were making more on tourism than they did fishing. The speaker, Eric Sala, then quit his job as a professor and began working to do this with the High Seas. The ocean has been in grave danger for some time now but by halting fishing in the High Seas  it will not only bring the ecosystem back to life but it will help bring the ocean back from the edge and bolster the economy by creating an abundance of fish in all waters, and cut costs of High Seas fishing. It is time to close off the High Seas from fishing in order to save our planet and boost the world economy.

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Enric Sala: Let's turn the high seas into the world's largest nature reserve

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What if we could save the fishing industry and protect the ocean at the same time? Marine ecologist Enric Sala shares his bold plan to safeguard the high seas -- some of the last wild places on earth, which fall outside the jurisdiction of any single country -- by creating a giant marine reserve that covers two-thirds of the world's ocean.

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A great idea is one that can be debated and expanded on. Great ideas can be opened up explored past the surface; they have depth and require deeper thinking from the reader.

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My little brother and I

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1. Learning looks different for everybody
2. There are 9 different intelligences
3. Writing takes practice; it can't be picked u in one night
4. Grades don't measure intelligence
5. Students can excel in some areas and struggle in others

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What is the hardest part of learning something new?

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What is the hardest part of learning something new?