Classification Intro 1

Hi Mr. Goldfine,

As usual, I read too much into the assignment and can't figure out how to delete my 2nd Intro that I posted. I did classification Intro's on two different subjects. 

Please take Intro 1 about snowmobiling and I will await your comment--and then proceed.

Thanks!
Lisa

Classification Intro 1 & 2

Classification Intro 1:

I’m relaxing in the recliner, sipping on my hazelnut coffee, listening to the morning news.   Kevin Mannix is reporting sunny and in the thirties for Monday, occasional snow showers for Tuesday, cold and in the low teens for Wednesday. My husband and I have planned on taking off on our snowsleds one day this week leaving from Millinocket going to Kokadjo.  This is typically a six hour round trip drive and I’m debating on which day will be ideal for snowmobiling.  The conditions have to be right if I’m going to be out on a busy trail for six hours.  I take another sip of coffee and ponder over which day would be the best for snowsledding that distance.

Classification Intro 2:

My husband, my two children and I are at one of most favorite restaurants.  This restaurant is located in Linneus and we usually eat there two to three times a year.  The restaurant is simply called “Grandmas”.    It’s a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant in the middle of nowhere that attracts patrons from miles around because of the huge portions that they serve.  The waitress comes to our table to take our order.  “Would you like baked, mashed or fries with your broiled scallops?”    “Baked, mashed, or fries…..baked, mashed, or fries”, I ask myself.   This is a popular question at most restaurants that I’ve frequented over the years.  I’ve heard it at “Bugaboo”, “Texas Roadhouse”, “Governors”,  “DiMillos”, etc.   I wonder which option is the healthiest for a middle-aged woman like me. 

Meta Graf Essay

My meta graph took me about one hour to write from start to finish.  I thought that I had to sit down and type up the entire 5 graf essay all in one evening; so I poured myself a glass of Diet Coke, made sure my kiddos were all set with their homework, the dogs were fed, and made sure that the laundry machine was working, and settled into my office to ponder about what I was going to use for a 5 graf essay topic.   

I stared out my back window at the huge pine that I have on my back lawn.  The pine is actually two trees that converge into one massive trunk.  The way that the tree separates into two is goregous and I often find myself staring at that tree whenever I'm working in the office. 

I tried to think of a situation that arose in my teenage years that would require three paragraphs explaining an incident that I could write about.  I immediately thought of the Mustang that my sister had and how I ended up driving it home on a camp road in the summertime, lost control of the car as my sister and I were laughing while watching through the rearview mirror at the dust we was making,  hitting a mailbox; thus, causing a dent in the fender of the car.  

The second intro essay that I did which talked about taking my son into the old barn where the Mustang was stored never actually happened.   I thought of an old barn that is in a huge field about 5 miles from my house and visualized myself walking through that field towards that old barn with my son when I wrote the intro.   

I put a lot of thought into the essay after quickly finding a topic. I particularly didn't care about the description of the dent and scratch in the fender that I had put in Intro #2; and probably would leave that out if I were to redo it.  

You had stated that you would take that essay as my first Graf 5 assignment; as I jumped ahead and read more into the assignment than what was required.

Thanks!

Week 5 Freestyle "Boston Celtics"

My two kids love basketball!  My son plays on the fifth/sixth grade travel team and my daughter is on the third/fourth Rec. team. My son is a die-hard Celtic fan; and my daughter is a Laker fan.  We have watched almost all of the Celtic games on TV this year.   I received a flyer back in October for a day trip to see the “Celtics vs. Miami Heat” on February 13.  So, I purchased four tickets for my family as a Christmas present—to sort of “top off” the basketball season.  

I have never been to an NBA game before; so I had no idea what to expect. We walked into TD Banknorth and took the kids into the “NBA Store” to get a game jersey, foam finger, and a Celtic hat. My daughter even got a Paul Pierce jersey despite being a Kobe Bryant fan!    We went up the escalator to the second floor.  There it was!  I looked down a short corridor and there was the court!  My two kids and husband went down courtside and got some pictures of the players as they warmed up.   The atmosphere was electrifying!

It was absolutely breathtaking to see Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, and, of course, the newly crowned three point champion Ray Allen out on the court warming up!

The game against the “Heat” was very heated to say the least.  Rajon Rondo was guarding LeBron James.  It seemed like an uneven match but Rondo “held his own” against him.  The crowd went crazy every time Ray Allen fired up a three pointer!   The last ten seconds of the game was a “nailbiter”.  Boston was ahead by three points.  Miami had possession and shot up for a three point shot….and missed!  The crowd was on their feet screaming!! 

It sure was a moment that I know I’ll never forget!  It’s nice living in the country; but it sure would be awesome to live closer to TD Banknorth!

Graf 8 Reaction to Cause Essays

I particularly liked the essay titled "Bread Making".  The first paragraph is supposed to "hook" the reader and my mouth was watering and I could actually smell bread baking! I felt as if I was in the writers kitchen with her baking bread.   She had a great introduction, lots of supporting details, and had a great summary in final paragraph.

I also enjoyed reading the cause and effect essay entitled "Flooded Basement".  The first paragraph hooked
the reader on the tragedy of having severe rains and the result of having water damage to your basement and all of the loopholes that you have to jump through with insurance companies, etc to get the damage fixed and reimbursement for the damages. 

These essays gave me a good idea of what is required to write an outstanding essay. 

Mr. Goldfine,

I think I jumped ahead a little.  I was confused about the assignment/due dates.  So, I went ahead and did a 5 graf essay.  Then I rewrote paragraph one about the car in the barn as a 2nd introduction to the essay.  I guess the total 5 graf essay isn't due until next week.  Correct me if I'm wrong....but I think I'm "ahead of the game".

It appears that you wanted this done in segments . Oops.

Thanks,
Lisa

Week 4 2nd Introduction

Week #4
Intro #2:
　
The old barn is over seventy years old and is leaning to the left. One of the old six pane windows is smashed out from an apple branch that hit it in the last hale storm. My son and I made our way through the field. Tyler slid the plank out of the holder and pulled the two rickity doors open. I took one side of the tarp while he took the other. The dust started to fly and I started to sneeze. Suddenly, time stood still and the memories came back to life. Tyler’s jaw hit the floor and his eyes were gleaming. He dropped his Ipod. It was my old Mustang that I drove around in when I was sixteen. The left fender had a dent in it and the left bumper had a scratch across it. The car had seen better days; that’s for sure! Tyler said, “Mom, what’s the story behind the dent?” Surely, I had to tell him.

Week 4 5 Graf essay

“It’s your car…you have to tell him!” “No, you were driving it…you have to tell him”. The conversation went back and forth for about fifteen miles until we got back into town. Regardless, Dad would see the dent in my sisters Mustang the minute that we pulled in the driveway; so one of us had to tell him about the “incident”. We both had our licenses and were allowed to drive with passengers in the vehicle. Did we have to report it to the police? Were we supposed to call the insurance company? What about the mailbox that we ran over? Was that considered to be “leaving the scene of an accident?” Did we break federal violations? It all happened so fast that I’m really not sure what caused me to lose control of the car. It certainly was not going to be because I was driving carelessly.

We had spent the whole day at the beach. I always get light-headed if I spend the entire day out in the hot summer sun. Could the reason for the crash be that I had sun stroke, got disoriented and lost control of the car?

The road was privately maintained and was full of potholes the size of craters. I just remember my sister and I laughing while looking through the rearview mirror at all of the dust we were making. We sure thought we were on the “Dukes of Hazzard” blazing our way down over the steep gravel hill. Perhaps I struck a pothole which caused the car to spiral out of control down the hill. Sure…that was it!

I had a tendency to drive fast, do doughnuts and squeal my brakes and act inappropriately with my defensive driving skills. “No..this isn’t what happened”--I told myself. I had to convince myself and my sister that this “episode” was not based on my reckless actions because if Dad found out the truth he would be very disappointed.

The old saying “the truth hurts“ is so very true. My father stared at the car for a minute and looked at us with that paternal “I know you’re telling me stories” look on his face. I almost thought that I would be able to convince him that the cause for the car veering off the road was because of something else--not from driver inattention. How could he possibly know what I was doing in another town fifteen miles away? He looked at me and said “I know exactly what happened. You were going twenty miles faster than you should have been and you got over in the loose dirt and lost control of the car--that‘s what happened.” The truth sure hurt at that moment. That was the end of the discussion and I never drove recklessly on a dirt road ever again!
　

I search rough ideas week 4

This is just a rough draft of what I've sketched down about my Isearch topic:


I want to focus on symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment options, fertility issues and screening tools associated with women age 40 and below that are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Risk factors:  obesity, alcohol consumption, family history, environmental/chemical, estrogen

Screening: breast self exam
Further tests if lump is felt:  ultrasound/mammogram
What if there is no lump but symptoms?  Drainage from nipple, nipple pain, redness, orange peel appearance

Diagnosis:  tumor, grade, size, location, lymph node status, Her2Neu, estrogen receptor status

Various types of Breast Ca

Treatment:  mastectomy, lumpectomy...chemo/radiation.    ?radiation prior to surgery for some patients
?Do I need a mastectomy?

Physical and emotional issues surrounding being diagnosed at early age. 
Survival rates

Do I need to have radiation if I have lumpectomy only?  Do I need radiation if i've had mastectomy

Awareness:  research stats if women under 40 living with breast Ca

Maine Breast and Cervical Foundation:  free or low cost mammograms

I search topic follow up

Hey Mr. Goldfine,

I will promote public advocacy with my breast cancer topic. I will keep my personal
experiences with the disease out of the topic of discussion.

I just realized that I didn't respond to this post.

Thanks for your thoughts.  They were helpful!
:)

Graf 6 Follow up

Oops....that didn't sound good!   What I meant to say is that I like to have a subject given to me to just take off and run with.   Those papers seem to work well with my imagination.   I guess I'd better "buckle down" on this one!!

Graf 7 follow up

Mr. Goldfine,

I think that my closing paragraph could have been better.  I'm going with that as being my weakest paragraph of the three. 

Graf #6

Graf #6
　
I can already tell that my Isearch paper is going to be a challenge for me. I like to write without having to give my writing style/content much thought. I like my writing to be free-flowing; whereas, the Isearch paper is going to take research to pull together. It’s “cookbook”. It already took me two days just to figure out what my topic is going to be; and I’m still not very convinced that this is the topic “for me”--even though I have a personal connection to the topic that I chose.

I read the Isearch papers that were on the course blog. I read about “how to shingle a roof” and “should my family get a dog?” None of the topics particularly interested me but I at least have an idea of the format/layout of how the paper is supposed to be typed.

I don’t think this is going to be one of my most favorite assignments. I hope I can “pull it off” and will give it 100% effort.
　

Person Graf #7

　
In your lifetime you will meet lots of people. Some that you wish you hadn’t of met and others that you are glad that you had. I’m not talking about family members. I’m talking about the people that leave a lifetime impression in your soul. People that you look back onto as the years go by and you find yourself smiling while thinking about the memories that you shared with that person. His name was Keith “Red” Hale.

“Red” appeared to be old-looking when I was just a child. He had red hair that was sort of spiky in appearance, hazel eyes with gold wire rim glasses, and a weathered face. He was in his forties when I was about five years old. “Red” drove an old green Jeep with a white hard top. You could usually find him parked beside the post office talking to friends or napping as traffic went by. He wore old blue jeans that were always high watered; thus, showing his cream colored wool socks and his brown workboots with the cream colored sole. His boots had duct tape wrapped around the toes. Some people used to make fun of the way that he looked--a lot of people said that he was “loaded--and didn’t need to dress the way that he did.” He couldn’t read or write. One day when I was six I ran up to him and said…”Red, will you read this book to me?” He just smiled and couldn’t tell me why he couldn’t read to me. I remember thinking that it was odd that he didn’t read the book to me. Although he could not read or write, “Red” was the historian of the town. Oh, the stories that he could tell. He talked about the trains that used to come through town, the sawmill that got burned by the Indians up on the Mattawamkeag River, how there is a person in the cemetery that died when the Titanic went down, he would go around with a stick to guide new homeowners to where the vein of water was on their property so they could drill a well--and the list goes on and on.

“Red” helped my Dad when they built their house back in the 1970’s. He came around and watched as my house was being built--and seeded down my lawn. “Red” was in his seventies and still came around my husbands truck garage and went for rides with my dad in his pulp truck. My two children got to know “Red” and we would ride our bikes downtown and sit with him on the post office steps. My kids would listen to old stories that “Red” would tell them about me growing up-- and stories about our town. My kids have heard more knowledge about our town through the words of Keith “Red” Hale than they will ever hear from any textbook. “Red” passed away two years ago at the age of 76.

ISearch Topic

Isearch topic: Breast Cancer in Young Women

What do you want to find out about your topic:

a: risk factors associated with early breast cancer
b: what causes breast cancer
c: is there earlier detection other than breast self exam in women under 40
d: why is breast cancer more aggressive/invasive in younger women
e: why is breast cancer in young women not “publicized” as much as it is with women over the age of 40?
f: screening tools for family members that have a family member with breast cancer

Questions about the topic:a: does every patient need a mastectomy?
b: does every patient need to undergo chemotherapy and radiation?
c: what are the chances of recurrence of the disease and what are the symptoms?
　
How does the topic connect to your life:-I had an aunt who passed away from breast cancer and I was diagnosed at thirty-two years of age

3 reasons why you like the topic:a: I have some knowledge about the topic based on my own personal experiences
b: the disease affects so many young women nationally but I was “hard pressed” to find a woman my age who was undergoing the same treatment/issues that I was facing at an early age. I wanted to meet people that had survived the disease for thirty years and that was hard to come by.
c: awareness: the more that I talk to people about the disease not just being a disease for “people forty years and older”--the more I’m heightening awareness and possibly am saving someones life.

3 Reasons why your life may change if you answer your questions:a: feel better knowing that I’ve done all that I can do for myself as well as for my young daughter to research all of the current medical protocols/facts about the disease.
b: allows me to move on and put the “nightmare” behind me--but also provides awareness to someone who may be hesitating seeking medical consultation.
c: I would be very happy to someday see insurance companies lower the mammography screening guidelines to women age thirty instead of forty.

Graf 6 question

Hello!  I'm confused with Graf 6 assignment.  When I click on it nothing opens up.  It just talks about our Isearch paper.   Mayday....mayday!!!!