My choice for the review

I'm probably going to do my review on Pi's Thai, a small restaurant nearby just off of Metro Parkway.

As the title suggests, the food there is all thai and chinese. The reason why I go there? For the spice! I must admit, I do like hot food. Thai and indian spices are the best out there for me. My oldest brother is similar to me when it comes to food, so we always end up going there and getting something there. I usually go every week or every other week.

I decided to choose this place to give myself as an excuse to go eat there again.

No not really. It's just that when we were given the instructions on how to write our paper, I thought of this place because it just popped into my mind. The thought of the inside of the restaurant and how it looks just seemed right to comment about. Also, I remember reading other articles about the restaurant and how some people disagreed with the food. I might use that in my paper as a rebuttle.

It's the truth, though. Everytime I start thinking or working on this paper, I get hungry.

Break so far

Enjoying the time off no doubt.

I have to admit, after the way everything turned out Sunday, I'm glad there was no school for the week.

I woke up to find my entire driveway, along with the small stretch of road in my subdivision, covered completely in ice. I didn't even want to drive up to a fast food place to get something for lunch because it looked so crappy. I could just imagine driving for 45 minutes out to Dearborn in that kind of condition.

Someone I knew had tickets to the Pistons game that day and ended up giving them away because they didn't feel like risking the drive out to the Palace.

I suppose I should have stocked up on food supplies before all this happened so I could become a hermit until the rest of this passes by. At least I'm getting a lot of house projects done.

metrotimes restaurant review

Some of the key points that I am seeing in Jane Slaughter's review seem to be difficult to replicate in a short amount of time.

One thing that really boosts her article is that she provides a great variety of what's available at the restaurant. She not only talks about the beef, but goes in detail about some of the chicken dishes available, as well as the fact that she was able to compensate for her vegetarian friend. She is all over the board between the salads, meats, and side dishes. When I look at our reviews, I consider trying out new dishes to be able to provide better insight, but some places just have too much for us to try everything and grade accurately.

Another evident feature she provides would be her vivid detail of most of the dishes she describes. She certainly uses good word choice to let the reader know what to expect when ordering a certain meal. Whether something is salty, soft and tender, spicy or bland, she lets you know how it will be. Choosing your words wisely when it comes to describing the restaurant of choice can be very helpful for the reader to imagine themselves there and what the food just might be like. It may even be helpful to warn them so stay away from it, if that type of food just isn't what they are looking for.

Final revisions for my profile paper

• The first thing I need to do, as evident from most of the responses I receive, is to remove a lot of wordy expressions that I use. I don't know where it comes from, but usually when I'm typing my paper, I always type out what's on my brain, which is usually an elaborated sentence, where half of it probably isn't necessary. Even now, I guess my typing is probably similar, but for formal writing, I believe it is something that I should work on.
• A few of my statistics I received from my interviewee were not properly cited in my paper, only because I was on the fence when I was typing the draft about how to go about it. I just figured the information she provided to me could just be used without saying that I got it from her. I have to go back and cite her as a source for some of the more specific things that she told me. There ARE some things in there that may seem like factual information from a source, but some of it is information that I know personally from working with the organization a few times.
• Some of my transition sentences from paragraph to paragraph were to out of place and forced. They really serve no purpose to the paragraph that they're in, but are just there to try and lead into the next one. I'm probably going to eliminate them altoghether or try to incorportate them into the next paragraph so it will make a little bit more sense.

I Just Wanna Be Average

This reading was pretty mundane for me.

The entire selection is a recollection of memories for the author on how he viewed things and what he saw when he was growing up. To me, there was nothing amazing about it. He described everyone he met, everyone who might have been interesting, but there really wasn't much depth. I suppose this is what we should expect from an exerpt from an autobiography.

One thing I can say about it though, is the connection between what he presented and the titled of the piece. Obviously, he was trying to prove his point. Point being? He desired to be average, but everything around him prevented him from doing so.

He provides many examples of events and people from his neighborhood, all which made it so unusual. He seems to have been through a lot, more than someone his age should have. He observed many criminals, weirdos, and the like. It seemed like everyone he described had something peculiar about them. Everyone but himself. I wonder if this is something that one portrays about themself, or if he actually was just a regular kid. Maybe he was timid, as well as other things. He even described his best friend as a chunky loud-mouthed kid.

Hopefully the next reading will be a bit more entertaining. Although, this was good because it's about midnight and it's putting me to sleep.

Delayed responses

Well, I guess I should get around to explaining a few things that happened earlier in the week.

As Prof DeGenaro said in class, I liked the papers this time around. It was a lot more interesting to read about someone. Overall, I thought the papers were written better as well. Maybe once everyone got the jitters out of the first paper and knew what was expected of them, they were able to create something that much more.

My experiences with the interview were not really what I expected. Meaning, I actually enjoyed it. I figured I'd get in there, bang it out, thank my interviewee, and head on home to start up the project. However, I ended up staying at the food pantry offices for about 2 and a half hours. Sue seemed to enjoy talking about what she does, what the pantry stands for, and what she wants to have done. Even after we were done with all of my questions pertaining to the essay, she started asking me questions about school and my major. Apparently she's really interested in Psychology, so she wanted to hear everything that I knew since I've been going to U of M. Like I said earlier, I didn't expect to go there and end up talking about myself.

After reading the proper interview etiquette thing recently posted, I'll probably go back and thank Sue again and show her the paper once we're finished. I haven't had too many opportunities to go to the pantry to work recently, due to school. I'll probably go there over Spring Break to let them know I haven't been slacking off...

Songs reflecting my attitude

So, most of my songs are rock/metal. I usually don't listen to rap or country, and I really couldn't come up with anything that really resembled my neighborhood. So, these songs that I chose bare some signifance to how I feel about it.

Tool - Sober: This just reminds me of a lot of the drinking that my friends from this neighborhood do. Even throughout high school, getting drunk was sort of a pasttime for our area since there wasn't much to do. Why couldn't we be sober?

Nirvana - Sliver: My grandparents lived about three streets away from where I grew up. I always enjoyed going over there as a kid, but I think I was a bit difficult when it came to staying there for extended amounts of time. I always wanted to go home and do something that was a bit more entertaining.

Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun: This reminds me of the scorching days we always have around here. It's not exactly a Clinton Township only thing, more like a Michigan requirement. I actually enjoyed the rainy days, as opposed to how the lyrics sound.

Audioslave - Getaway Car: This song makes me think of how we have to drive anywhere to get some sort of entertainment. Around here, nothing is focused for a younger crowd, so we're usually prepared to have to drive quite a ways to see or do what we want. Usually we'd drive out to Rochester or Mt. Clemens, nothing that really stayed in the community. Even Freedom Hill is a part of St. Clair Shores.

Rob Zombie - Two Lane Blacktop: Basically the same as the above, although this one deals with the craziness that I believe is a part of our streets. Around my area, roads like Garfield and Hayes become a nightmare with the different drivers going around to the strip malls and restaurants. This is always one of my favorites to play to prevent myself from going crazy with all of the idiots on the road.

Seether - Fine Again: This one draws out the repetidiveness of our community. Not much is different from the other. Basically suburbs, some stores, and some more suburbs. New construction here and there. Growing up in this environment was fairly boring, but like the song suggests, we'll be fine again.

Research Progress

It didn't take me too long to come up with who I wanted to profile for the next paper. I chose Sue Figurski, the Macomb County Food Pantry coordinator.

The food pantry program is basically a state government run organization that provides canned / boxed food to the poor and homeless, mainly via churches. Churches come to the county pantry and receive the food to distribute.

I've been involved with helping this program a few times in the past, usually when they need help. My mom is the one who is active in the program, so I managed to set things up with Sue through her. Whenever I went, it was on packing day where all 50 some churches arrive with trucks and we have to load 30,000-50,000 pounds of food for them to take out and deliver.

I've already interviewed her Friday afternoon, so now I just need to begin typing...

Live From Death Row

The style that Abu-Jamal uses is what made me interested in reading this.

At the start of the selection, he begins to repeat himself about how he has faith in the justice system of the United States. Soon, he describes that feeling in the past tense. He no longer has the faith, but it was something he once had. He still hopes that it will pull through, but his doubts keep from overindulging in that hope. Then, nearing the end, his last reference to the courts describes his view well. "...the mentality of the criminal system of injustice". After so much time, his view slowly began to change.

I can only assume that through all of this writing, much time had passed. The paragraphs seem to skip a lot to tell a story about different events. The one thing that I was curious about was how much time HAD passed and seeing the effects it had on him.

The best part about this stor definately was the end. Even through the stories of men going crazy from the isolation, Abu-Jamal tells about the visiting of his daughter. Even though he could not interact with her as he would want, he still maintained a positive father figure by making his daughter laugh and look at the good things in their lives. I was curious how long he had been in there at that point, because I would have figured a death row inmate would be a little bit more bitter about his situation than being so upbeat to his family. It definately was a good way to close the reading.

02/06 Discussion

"I just want to punch winter in the face"

I believe Nadia said this when she was reading her response to the poem. Why do I remember it? I have no idea, although, it was one of the few things that I wrote down that stood out to me.

Often, I find that I like statements or lines that are something that I don't think of myself. When I was doing the free-writing during class, I never really stopped to possibly put a concrete image to some of the things he was saying. I think the word is personification.

1. the attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, esp. as a rhetorical figure.
2. the representation of a thing or abstraction in the form of a person, as in art.
3. the person or thing embodying a quality or the like; an embodiment or incarnation: He is the personification of tact.

Why do I like this statement so much? Probably because I too would like to make a person out of winter and punch him in the face.

The "D"

Well, I had a feeling I'd be hearing about this sometime in Comp 106 after seeing news reports about it last night.

I think the campaign is a good step in the right direction, I'm just not sure how it will turn out in the end. I'd hope that it succeeds and creates some sort of spur for any age group to make their way into the city.

One of the big things that the news coverage tried to say helped with the creation of this program was the Tigers playoff run last season. Now, honestly, I don't believe that. Right now I still consider the Pistons the only real sports entertainment we have in this city. If the Tigers can manage to keep up a decent team and record, then maybe I'd include it. I didn't exactly understand their emphasis.

The visual, to me at least, was expected. The D. What else has become a symbol of the city other than that one letter. People all around the country wear Detroit Tigers clothing and caps just for that signature D. I think it's a good move to try and relate to the targeted younger crowd because I have a feeling that if you were to ask them, "Where is the D?", they'd more than likely respond Detroit. Taking this image and working with it to create a positive side of Detroit was a well-thought strategy.

You can look at the article here.