End of Semester Post

This semester has been an interesting one full of new experiences. This semester I took all my classes online. I did not anticipate learning as much as I have this semester through each of my online courses. I did a year and a half of my high school schooling online and it was similar in many ways to the learning style that is incorporated in college online learning. However, the technology is now more advanced than the methods we used in high school.

In this English course in particular, we did not have a blog like this one set up. This blog I think was the best part of the course. This blog not only allowed for each of us to express ourselves individually, but it also allowed us to collaborate together with our ideas. Many times when I was struggling to understand something I was able to communicate through my blog with classmates and have a firmer grasp on the concept I was misunderstanding. Having a friendly online environment to do this is crucial.

Some of my main challenges in this course were not procrastinating and specifically focusing on what each assignment was asking. Often times I will wait until Sunday to finish up my papers. This was and still is the general trend by which I submitted my papers each week. However, this class helped point to me that this could later become a problem. Consequently I am working on no longer procrastinating and have made great improvement. Staying focused on what each particular paper was asking was another challenge I encountered in this class. The writing styles that we were required to write in were not my particular favorite. This caused me to give a little extra attention to staying on topic and in character concerning writing style.

Overall I have enjoyed this English 102 course. I have had the privilege of participating with many great classmates this semester. I have learned how to be a more effective writer as well as how to create a blog. Thank you for this course.

-Rysen Barnett

Who Am I?

Rysen Barnett

English 102

Cline

22 April 2012 

Who Am I?

The Ryan Bingham story is very unique, but yet not so rare in the hearts of many people in America today. Ryan Bingham spends his days, nights, weeks, months, and years in pursuit of what is to him and admirable achievement. In the novel the benchmark Ryan is seeking is one million frequent flyer miles and in the film it is ten million miles. His pursuit, although for the majority of the reading and film seem very lofty and important, by the end are just the opposite, irrelevant and materialistic. Though the presentation of this story is presented very differently between the novel and movie, the main idea is the same. Up in the Air is about a man who has built a false reality around himself in an effort to muse the seemingly aimless endeavor that is life. Our society has come to follow the path that Ryan Bingham first did, unfortunately many people’s lives ultimately finish on that same path.

In the film Ryan Bingham is a middle aged man who for a living flies from city to city firing people. By constantly being in the air flying, Ryan is able to accumulate an enormous amount of frequent flyer miles. His ultimate pursuit in life is to reach ten million miles. This pursuit and this life in “Airworld” as Bingham calls it, is all he knows. Back home Ryan has a small family that consists of his two sisters, one of whom is about to be married. However, his siblings feel no attachment towards Ryan because he is gone nearly the entire year. Ryan casually states, “Last year I was in the air three hundred and twenty two days, which means I spent forty three lousy days at home” (Reitman). This remark shows the nature of Ryan’s shallowness. He is a man who is undoubtedly materialistic. Although for a time this shallowness is tolerated by Ryan himself, and his goal seen as a worthy cause, eventually he realizes he has been living in a dream world rather than Airworld. The movie helps bring this revelation about through Ryan’s relationships with Alex and Natalie, the novel does it a slightly different way. Eventually Ryan comes to realization that life is better off spent enjoying it with someone and that intimate relationships are important. His internal and emotional journey are the same journeys that many people choose to avoid or ignore in the United States today.

Works Cited

       Kirn, Walter. Up in the Air. New York: Anchor Books, 2001. Print. 

Reitman, Jason, dir. Up in the Air. Dreamworks, 2009. Film.

Up In the Air Intro Paragraph

 http://storyfanatic.com/articles/story-analysis/up-in-the-air

Ryan Bingham is in a desperate pursuit of obtaining one million frequent flyer miles through his current job. His story of traveling from airport to airport, and acquaintance to acquaintance on this pursuit is depicted in both a novel and movie. In the novel, Ryan is a more self seeking, lonely. isolated individual. In the movie he is much of the same however, there is the addition of his business partner that travels with him who also happens to be somewhat of an interest to Ryan. The way Ryan is depicted in the two stories is similar yet different. In the novel Ryan appears more bitter and greedy, in the movie however, Ryan's true emotions are more adequately expressed. Our society has come to be one of tolerance and acceptance, that is why we have the difference in emotions that are presented between the novel and movie.

Click here for a great website and more information on the novel you might not have considered.

Up in the Air

http://teaser-trailer.com/movie/up-in-the-air/

Initially I found "Up in the Air" a bit hard to read. The style in which the author writes is very different from any novel that I have read before. Many times the author will have one character answer his own question, this can get a little confusing in keeping track of dialogue. As I kept reading, and eventually got past the author's style, I started to enjoy the story. It is vague, dry and seemingly pointless in its intent, at least so far. This vague reading however is turning out to be what is actually intriguing me. I find the main character's story very interesting and meaningful. There are a lot of hidden emotions behind the main character that are not completely being revealed, just yet. I enjoy trying to interpret the psychological perspective of the main character as he lives a very unique and different life than many people. This novel is definitely a contrast from "Winter's Bone," but I hope to really get something out of it by the end of the story!

Here is a link to the movie portraying this novel! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1193138/

April 1, 2012

Laura Cline, Instructor

Yavapai Community College

Prescott, AZ. 86305

Laura Cline,

     As we near the end of this English 102 course I have grown in several aspects as an online student.

I have learned better time management, improved study habits, and most importantly identified some of my weaknesses. My biggest challenge or weakness has been correcting the habit of waiting until the last minute to do assignments. Often times my schedule calls for me to do homework on Sundays, as that is a day where other than attending church, I am most available to study. This has many times taken an intense amount of dedication and sacrifice to complete assignments by the midnight deadline. At the same time however, I have found that working on this weakness has turned resulted into being my biggest success. I have a better sense of the need to periodically work on assignments rather than to let them accumulate towards the end of the week.

     The readings in this class have to my astonishment been a growing experience for me. I generally do not read literature such as Winter's Bone in my spare time, but I indeed received some positives from the novel. As any well written book immerses the reader in the author's thoughts, this book definitely placed the me in Ree's world. I better learned how people like Ree have such a different life than many of us and  in turn appreciated the novel more. I will probably not read many more novels like Winter's Bone in my life but I can honestly say I appreciated the book for what it is.

     Literary analysis is different from other types of writing I have had in college for several reasons. I feel the biggest difference with literary analysis is concentrating solely on what the author is seeking to convey. In most essays or other pieces of writing there is often some amount of opinion that goes into each essay. With literary analysis the writer is forced to first focus on what the author is conveying and then interpret the novel based on that. This is a little different from essays based on research or perhaps article response.

     My goals for the remainder of this course are to maintain my overall grade and to further improve on time management as well. I plan to improve on time management by completing my assignments a little earlier then I usually have. I also hope to have a similar experience with Up in the Air as I did with Winter's Bone. I look forward to what the remainder of this course has to offer.