Adaptation of the poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Embrace the change, and welcome

new things.  Be unique, don’t get

sucked into the downward spiral.

Launch from the conveyer belt.  Follow

in your own foot steps, learn from

your own prints. When they want

something from you they will try to

push. The influence it has will

be a complete surprise. So, shoot for no

regrets. Have them anyway. Use them.

They will just assume you have the

same beliefs. Don’t let them. Speak up.

Small minds are abundant, don’t let

your own shrivel. Focus on friendships.

Forget romance. Nothing will last.

So keep the future in mind,

the people that will be there, where

you will be then, and what you will

be doing. Never forget a single

one. Save everything. The pennies,

the dreams, the photos. Will this

come in handy one day? Hold onto

it. Hold onto yourself. The ground

is where you should plant your feet,

the sky is where you should lay your

gaze. 

English 250 Photo Project

Photo Essay: Prairie Life Fitness Nursery

 

For my photo project I did a place that means a lot to me when I go home. I work in a nursery and I have spend more time there than at home in the years before I came to college. I run the camps during the kids breaks from school, and get to spend a lot of my summers running camps for the kids. I have grown so much since I first started working at Prairie Life Fitness Club as a Nursery Worker, and don't think I would be the same person that I am today if I had never worked there. 

These photos start with the outdoor photos of the club and the surrounding buildings. It is in a perfect location, near the bank, restaurants, and places that I go on a regular basis. I can't count the many times I have picked up lunch at Legends for the staff working. I take the kids to the pool in the summer, and that is my favorite time with them. We spend at least thirty minutes slathering them with sunscreen, and going over the rules so that they don't get hurt or lost. I have had to jump in on rare occasions to save a child who misjudged their swimming abilities. 

As the pictures continue into the nursery where I spend most of my time you can see the colors get brighter, and the kids look like they are having a wonderful time. There are pictures of the different kids who all come in with the most interesting outfits, and you can tell which kids are dressed by their parents and which children are allowed to dress themselves. Some kids quietly color, some kids want you to hold them during their entire visit, and others play basketball or run in circles. One of my favorite photos is of the two kids talking to each other while sitting on the soft play. I love the way kids communicate, especially to each other, sometimes it is like a foreign language, but the staff has picked up a lot of it over the years. 

The nursery staff is a huge part of my job, and I have gained a lot of friends form working with them. There is one picture shown where the kids are playing and you can see the two employees in the back sitting next to each other not engaging in any activity with the kids. These two workers are ones that have been hired since I have been at college, and they clearly don't try to play with the kids. In the other pictures shown you can see the happiness on the workers face holding one of his favorite kids, Cali. Ever since he went to college though she has gained a new favorite worker, and gets embarrassed around the boys who work in the nursery. This was a photo taken during spring break when we were actually able to get her to smile while he held her, instead of cry. My favorite photo is of Kennedy sitting coloring at the table all by herself, and I tried to capture all the color. All of these kids are constantly surrounded by color, and the reason I wanted to represent that was to show how much they do brighten my life. 

The few pictures that I did in black and white were done that way to accentuate the faces the kids are making. I was going to take pictures of them looking at something, or playing with a toy, and they both are so interested in what I am doing that they completely lost interest in what they were doing. It is amazing how so much wonder comes form the stimulation kids are given. It makes me get in touch with my childish side, and helps me to wonder, and made scribbly drawings, but get so excited when they get put up on the board as a masterpiece. They take such pride in the small things, and I have learned a lot about this from those kids. 

Prairie Life has introduced me to my maternal side, and has made me want kids when I didn't think I would ever want them. I have grown to enjoy being silly, and this part of my personality has come out a lot more since working there. I get along with the kids because I can relate to them, and I want to see smiles on their faces. The employee's, even though I get jealous of them, have become some of the best friends that I have. I have made best friends with employees my age, as well as children at the age of six, and I can't tell you which relationships mean more to me. 

Silent Spring, The Mad Farmer Liberation Front, The Making of a Marginal Farm

Silent Spring by Rachel Carson:
I think that the facts she gives are surprising, but it is a lot of stuff we have heard before. Most of the statistics apply to years before so it hard to think of how it is effecting birds now. Are these toxins still being used? The sprays that were killing them? Are foxes still getting sick as well from eating the poisoned birds and rats? It is hard to be shocked or surprised by this information when it doesn't necessarily effect now.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front:
I got out of this a clear dislike for the lives of farmers. It references them as ignorant, and only concerned with profit. the author is daring them to keep continuing their behavior and then gives a threat for if they do.

The Making of a Marginal Farm:
Berry as a farmer tries to prove that farming can be economically sound. There has been a lot of talk of all the farm that it is doing, but he finds ways to make his farm better and more environmentally friendly. The only thing is that he is not very successful with it. His farming still causes erosion, and the land has many problems. He believes his plan would've been more successful had the land had less problems when they bought it, but in trying to prove people wrong he only proved them right.

The Omnivores Dilemma Response

This reading is definitely eye opening to me as to why people choose to be vegetarians. As years go on farmers have been trying to find the cheapest ways to feed their cattle so they can be big enough for slaughter. The most shocking thing they used to do was feed left over cow parts to the live cows. This was proven to cause mad cow disease so they outlawed it in 1997, but why would farmers think this is okay in the first place? Feeding a cow cow parts just seems unethical in itself. Another thing that the FDA cannot outlaw that still seems unethical is that they can still feed fat from cows to other cows as long as it is all compiled. This is still going on today, and I don't think animals should be forced into cannibalism! Especially since these farms are expanding into corporate farms the killing of the animals and treatment of them gets worse and worse. Corn is the cheapest way of feeding animals, but causes the animals to have many problems. This type of treatment gets worse and worse. This article is a huge inspiration to what my group should choose for our topic, and was definitely eye opening.

The Everyday Writer Chapter 7

After reading chapter 7 I think the main thing I got out of it was organization techniques. In our grizzly man paper, I think my main struggle was getting my ideas out well. When I had my meeting there were a lot of organizational things that I needed to work on, such as my placement of text, and not introducing new information at the end. I think that the reverse outline would be a big help when it comes to organization. I tend to misplace ideas, and this would help me to get on the right track with my writing. I also am not the best with grammar techniques, and that information from the chapter will help me polish my writing.

"Is This Kansas" by Eula Biss

The claim that Biss is trying to make is that students on college campus's have no regard for real life, and those who are supposed to enforce laws,  teach, and be role models for these students treat them differently because they are college students.

The device that Biss uses is Imagery. She gives the audience a clear picture of what the students are doing that is so surprising to her. She gives colors, descriptions, and details so that they audience can see the surrounding as well as she can.

She also has a very distinct tone that lets the audience know she is shocked by the behavior of not only the students but those who don't treat the students as adults, and are not surprised by their behavior.

The most distinct repetition she uses is giving different things that the students do to disappoint, and surprise her. One example being at the beginning of the article she states that students spend time throwing bean bags on front lawns, and goes on in the article to state, after the disaster in iowa city and devastation, that students were still sitting on lawns throwing bean bags.

Response To Grizzly Man

1.) The death of Treadwell sets the tone for the movie. This film is not a story of Treadwell's life, it is a story about whether his work was something to admire, or something that ended up harming the animals he was trying to protect. Herzog at the beginning of the film showed Treadwell's passion for his work, and I think his purpose was to give the viewer all sides of him, and show his life, but I think he skewed the film to show the side of Timothy that was ingenuine. At the start of the film he discusses the passion of Timothy, then tells about his death, and from that point on the information produced in the film makes Timothy look foolish and is not consistent with the commentary done by Herzog at the beginning or the end of the film.

2.) Herzog appears as a character to show his reaction to the audio of the death of Treadwell. His commentary I think is to show how he feels about Treadwell, because the things Herzog says about Treadwell, are not consistent with the content of his film, which I previously stated. Herzog seems to admire Treadwell, regardless of what is shown in the film. Most of the class felt that Treadwell was an actor, and throughout the film this made them believe that he was not actually passionate about his subject that he devoted his life to.

3.) I have stated this previously, but he portrays him as a very foolish character. He delves into Treadwell's struggle with multiple personalities, and how unstable he was. The way he presented information made a mockery of what Treadwell went through, especially in the case of when Treadwell is talking to the camera about how not to get eaten, and how to handle a bear and get them to back off, then the footage goes to a scene that describes his death, or shows him interacting with the bear that may have killed him. Herzog also shows more interviews of people that are against what he was doing, or interviews that denounce his character, rather than interviews that build him up. This leaves the viewer to feel this way too. The information presented gives the viewer no other option but to believe that he was just some foolish, unstable actor, who pretended to care about something to get attention.

4.) I don't think that his presence had a negative effect on the bears. I don't necessarily think that his time spent with them was noble. I don't think that the bears were in desperate need of a hero to help them, but I do that Treadwell genuinely cared for the grizzly bears. He felt a connection with them, and he would not have returned for thirteen summers if he did not think so. Yes, he may also have been looking for attention, or trying to make it seem like he was getting more attention than he was. He wanted to produce a documentary that showed his connection, and his alone with the bears. He didn't want people to see Amy's presence for that reason, and he did different takes to make the most of the time he spent. The people that were closest to him believe that he truly cared about the cause, and was passionate about it. Those who are completely on the outside had a different view of him, but they cannot argue that he indubitable passion for the cause, and truly believe he is helping. I already stated what I think Herzog's purpose of the film was, and what it accomplished, which was to destroy his credibility.

5.) I think that this film does show that Treadwell did cross a boundary. He kept pushing and pushing the boundary between being a human, and being an animal. He got to the point where he took too many risks. He places his camp, just days before his death, in a spot that was completely unseen, so that a bear could easily stumble upon it. He states that if it can be seen most animals stay away from it. The bears did not have enough food at that time, and were starving and Timothy was there for the taking. He did have a relationship with the bears, but he got to be reckless towards the end.

6.) I think that this statement delves into the deeper meaning of the film. Treadwell's beliefs and credibility are challenged in this film, and by including these two conflicting statements about nature, it helps show the theme of this movie. A lot of the film deals with whether or not Treadwell was doing good, or was he just an actor being naive. The film works to show the latter, and Herzog must have an opinion and this sole statement gives the audience the idea that he did not believe in Treadwell's view of nature.

7.) This scene in the film is to show the reaction to something that was made out to seem horrific. By showing his reaction, since the audience was not able to hear the audio, we get an idea of the effect it would have on us as listener. He gives people's opinions about the death, and makes it seem horrific, but since the audio is not released it is somewhat of a gray area on whether or not so much information should have been given about the actual death. The man he interviews, the coroner, is one of the most dramatic parts of the film. This part of the film is over-dramatic and the coroner is way too eager to give gruesome details. These parts of the film just seem out of place, but they also work to help prove that Treadwell was a fool, which was necessary to include.

8.) I think that Herzog waited towards the end of the film to show Treadwell's background, because it is information that alters your view of him as a genuine person. The main theme is the argument that he was not doing good for the animals, then the information at the end takes the viewer to a whole new level. It leaves the viewer wondering if Treadwell even believed in his cause, or if he was just trying to get famous.