Thesis/ sentence outline

Intro/thesis statement:
Autism is neurodiversity and shouldn't be seen as a disease. There's no need to find a cure. It's a difference in a human that should be embraced and something be should learn to adapt too.

Support #1:
Explain what neurodiversity is. My thought on how Autism should be percieved. Compare it to for example being handicapped and how people learned to adapt to that around their environment by building ramps and creating special parking spots.

Support #2:
Discuss the new elected nominee by Obama to serve on the disability committee. His name is Ali ne'uman. He's the first person to serve that is diagnosed with a autistic disability (aspergers). Discuss Aspergers signs and symptoms and how its not a deformation that would make someone stand out from a crowd.

Support #3:
Discuss treatments that aren't medications. Diseases lead to cures. Cures are medications. Autism can function and live a healthy life without medications.

Support #4: Mentions my brothers diagnosis of aspergers. Talk about his talents. Discuss the topic of self determination with these kinds of kids and how it only makes them want to work harder to prove to everyone else that they're just as qualified. Ambition.

Conclusion: Wrap up all the supporting information. Discuss the idea of neurodiversity. And gather up what autism is.

Nickel and Dimed

As i began reading the description about the author that comes before the story, it somehow brought me back to what i'm currently learning in my intro to social work class. Currently we're learning about the welfare system and what you must lack to be able to receive any kind of government help. Also, we're discussing how hard it would be to survive living in Hunterdon or somerset county when categorized under welfare; you just couldn't do it because of how high finances are in the area. I don't think that Barbara Ehrenreich knew what she was getting herself into.

The adventure she decided to take, is not something many of us would ever think about doing. She literally gave herself the chance to walk in someone else's shoes, and in this instance, it would be a single mother on welfare trying to survive by working on low minimum wage, and high rental costs for living.

Barbara is a middle class journalist who wanted to explore living under welfare in America. She found it very hard for anyone to survive in these kind of conditions. The only way out of these horrible livings would be to have somewhat of a high education degree. Without that, hopes of moving higher up, aren't too strong.

I liked reading her story and the experience that she underwent. She helped me see how tough some people's lives can be. We all are human, and no matter how hard we try not to, we all judge. But after reading this story, it made me sit back and think; Don't judge a book by its cover because you really don't know how hard they can have it. Just because we're living comfortable, doesn't mean that everyone else around us it too.

Soilders' Stories

I really enjoyed reading this story. This isn't a typical story with main characters, a plot, a climax, and a resolution. It's a real life situation thats ongoing and consists of all the soldiers that are protecting our country. Not only was it interesting to read but it was also upsetting. It's hard to put yourself in these hero's shoes because to me, i could never picture going through what they are. Living in tents with over 70 people and just trying to find a clean place to go to the bathroom. After i read that, it made me appreciate all that i have. It made me appreciate the simple little things such as my bed and having a bathroom right down the hall that only i use.

I liked the fact that this story consisted of more than one letter written to another person. It gave me more opportunities to look into someone else perspectives. For example, the first story written by captain Ryan Kelly is completely different than the story written about the clinical psychologist. Ryan Kelly writes about his experiences currently as a solider and how hard it is to just have a second of privacy and he also describes people who he fights with. As the clinical psychologist has used her educational background to discuss what she has seen, as the outsider looking in, and discusses how plenty of soldiers often undergo guilt for actions that may have happened to their men and not them.

I think its important for people to read these kind of stories. I myself never really thought of war this kind of way. Obviously i didn't think of war as anything luxurious but just to hear what soldiers sent to their loved ones has put more of an impact on me than just hearing things on the news. They're normal people just like us who have normal feelings of loneliness when they're away from the most important people in their lives. This story has really touched me to view these hero's in a different way because now i realize that just because they're brave enough to risk their lives for this country, doesn't mean that at times they can't break.

Thinking in Pictures

"Thinking in Pictures" by Temple Grandin is about a woman who has used her differences to look at life, in a more creative interesting way. Autism is a disorder that affects 2 out of 1,000 people nationwide and can be diagnosed before the age of 3. As i began reading this story, i realized how much in common she has with my brother. My brother's never really been professionally diagnosed by a psychiatrist or anything, but I've pretty much raised him and diagnosed him myself as so have other people that I've spoken too and introduced him too. They have a way of thinking in which i wish i could evolve. They both think in pictures and design anything that comes to mind. Temple constructs things graphically as my brothers draws it all out in his portfolios. Before they perform any of their talents, they use their imagination and test run any kind of idea in their own imagination.

Towards the middle of this story, Temple writes about Abstract Thought. She states how autistic people have a problem coping with change. I liked hearing about what was going though her mind when graduating high school and entering college but at the same time, i think about my brother. i read ow she was bullied a lot in school and i begin to hope that, that doesn't happen to brother. I see how they already have much in common and i hope that he can learn how to cope with his differences better than she did. And if not, i hope that i in some way can help him realize that he's just as good as everyone around him, and that he's perfectly normal the way he is.

Listening to someone who has a specific kind of disorder and how they've learned to cope with it, really makes me see how someone out there, can be battling something that we would have never thought. We these days, have become so greedy and never think that maybe someone out there isn't like us. That maybe someone has a different way of thinking, an even better one. And that from us all excepting one another equally, we can learn new things, and appreciate everyone's differences and ideas that get brought to the table.

Ways of Seeing

After reading this story, Berger has changed my mind on how i will now look at art. He began his career as a painter and drawing instructor, and through that, is when i believe he realized that there was more to art than just a picture. He learned how to analyze the painting and think outside the box.

"The way we see things is affected by what we know or what we believe." I think he's trying to prove here that everyone will have a different perspective when looking at a painting. We will imagine in our heads, what we think the picture is about by what we know from past experience and knowledge.

I like how on pg. 726, he gives an example of two pictures with the same concept, but painted differently. That was a great way of proving a point to a reader without stating what he's trying to show. It also keeps a reader occupied and lets them think.

Overall, i think it was interesting how Berger set up this story. I like the fact that he had pictures to show for what he was telling the reader. Per picture he showed, he had a caption on it and explained his views on them. Even though they are pictures that were painted from a long time ago, it's interesting to read about our history, and what is trying to be told throughout the painting. Every painter in trying to tell a story behind their picture, and i enjoyed to read about Berger's perceptions on them.

Setting the Record Straight

The story "Setting the record Straight", is actually the first comic I've ever read. I was never really into comics when i was younger, nor do i find any need to try to get into them now when i barely read normal books, but i thought it was kind of interesting to read something that actually had pictures on the pages. Usually when I'm assigned to read a story, i flip through the paragraphed full pages and i dread knowing that it'll take me a while to get through it. But reading this story wasn't as bad.
Just as if i was reading a non-comic story, i usually create pictures in my head with the details given to me. Well, reading this story was a lot easier considering all the pictures were drawn out for me. I really enjoyed looking at pictures that aren't technology created. Looking at something that a human being actually drew, helps show how much of an artistic side they have.
I like how Mcloud started the story out about himself when he was a kid and how he got into writing and drawing comics. A story becomes more personal when it includes the author's own experiences.
The only thing that i thought was odd was that this whole story was about what Comics are. I mean, it was cool to read something that had pictures, but it wasn't a normal story that I'm used to reading. When i think of a comic book i think of colorful pictures with cartoons flying in the sky and characters trying to capture the bad guy. This wasn't that kind of story.
I have to say that it was overall interesting to read something out of my norm. I believe that everyone should try different things out to see what they enjoy reading. I wouldn't choose a comic strip story as my number one choice, but i also wouldn't deny reading one because just like some books aren't well written, there are some that are amazing. And i believe that, that can happen with comic books too.

Shooting an Elephant

This story is pretty short but surprisingly it offers a lot of descriptive detail and has a well developed plot. "Shooting an Elephant", is about a man named Geroge who lives in an imperialistic country where he's aware he doesn't fit in. In many instances, people have made fun of him, such as when a player on the opposite team tripped him on the football field, as the referee looked away right after. He was being treated unfairly and when this happens, it tends to lead people to do something they know they shouldn't do, just to fit in, and that's what happened at the end.

He serves as a sub divisional police officer in India, and usually you think of an officer as someone of higher power who has the right to tell you what to do, at least legally. Int his case, he was the laughing stock of the town. "As a police officer i was a obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so." Even though he was always bothered, i don't really think he would have ever had the guts to stand up for himself and put a stop to it. Until he found an opportunity to end it all and be looked at, in a completely different way.

The title of this story seems very uncommon, but it actually serves the biggest purpose of all. In the town, George was called in to a scene of an elephant that was on the loose. The whole town was going crazy running back and forth. When he got the call, he didn't know what he could do about it but yet he just went because he wanted to laugh as little and see what was going on. When he got there, the elephant had killed a person and that's when he knew that somehow, someway, he had to stop this all until it went farther. He called for backup, and everyone then began looking at him as a hero. He could tell how everyone had changed with him because they wanted him to kill it, and he was the only one with the weapon.

"But i did not want to shoot the elephant." But he did. And it was just so he could be excepted. And to me, i think that was wrong. It would have been a different story if he wanted to kill the elephant for the sake of everyone's safety, and yes, that was part of it, but a hero, never asks for the title. I think this is why our society in some way is dysfunctional today. Because everyone does what they think people want to see. Everyone wants to fit in, whether its with a bad crowd or not, just to feel wanted. No one thinks for themselves these days. Sometimes it's better to be alone, then to be surrounded by fake people. And then at the very end, he proves exactly what i just stated, "I often wonder whether any of the others grasped that i had done it solely to avoid looking a fool."