Hawaii is a place I would love to visit. It is around a 7-hour flight which isn’t too bad if you are able to sleep most of the flight. I have had friends who have gone to Hawaii and seeing pictures of it looks just amazing. They have amazing wildlife in Hawaii and I hear that most of the beaches there is very crystal blue. Getting around Hawaii is very easy to understand I heard. They have well transpiration to get around to different places and directions are very well navigated. But a con is that they do not have good construction to keep up with the roads so it seems that the roads can not handle a lot of traffic.

The environment would be a big problem with going to Hawaii. They have people visit a lot of years to just go and see the volcanos. They have earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. I would not like to go on vacation where I know that I am not for sure going to be safe on this island. It is also not a very big island at all so there could be a chance where a natural hazard is going to happen and I would be dead because I have nowhere to go. They have a lot of people though who just come to look at the volcano irrupt and take a bunch of pictures. I think it would be an amusing experience to watch a volcano irrupt once in your lifetime and to capture that moment.

There are a lot of adventures things to do in Hawaii as well. They have a place where can go snorkeling with sharks. They have helicopter tours which would be an amazing thing to put on your bucket list. I feel that it would be more on the expensive side but I think that would be amazing to get a tour of Hawaii in the sky. They have fun tubing to do through canals and tunnels. I think that would be a very adventures thing to do with a bunch of friends and just relax on a tube and seeing new things. There is amazing wildlife in Hawaii and that is what really attracts a lot of tourists who come out there. They have sea turtles and a bunch of different animals that would be cool to see.  I have had friends talk about this black sand beach they have in Hawaii that actually is beautiful and is very different than normal beaches we usually go to but I think a black beach would be fun to visit.  There seafood in Hawaii I hear is phenomenal. Their sushi is straight fresh from the sea and cooked well and is made differently than normal seafood that we eat in Minnesota but I think that having fresh seafood straight out of the sea all put together would be a tasty meal. I have always talked about with my parents that I want to visit Hawaii but I would rather go there with some of my friends or when I’m older just to adventure off and explore new things.

The Bahamas would be a place that I would be interested in visiting. The blog I chose  talks about 7 amazing thing to do while in the Bahamas. The Bahamas seem like a great place to go with a bunch of friends.

They do a lot of cruises out there so if you like to explore new things and new islands a cruise would be a good choice for you. Instead of staying on the same island for your whole trip you can go hop from island to island. Bahamas are known for there beaches. They have people travel around the globe to just come and be on the beach and see the clear beautiful blue water. If you enjoy wildlife then Bahamas is a great place for that. Snorkeling is very popular there because the underwater life is amazing and the water is so clear you are able to see far distance and look at all the amazing wildlife underwater. A very popular thing to do in the Bahamas is swimming with the dolphins. They tam and train there dolphins very well so that would be a good choice to do if you ever brought your kids out there. The article also talks about swimming with the pigs. They have dozens of paddling pigs in the water if you look over the side of the boat. You are able to play with them if you bring them food and I think that would be a fun experience.

The travel blog I picked doesn’t really talk about how the food is there or the service. My mom has been to the Bahamas before and she has told me that the food is amazing but one thing she hates there is the ketchup. They have amazing rice and seafood because it comes straight from the sea. There lobster is very good and crab because they make it all fresh it is straight from the sea and doesn’t just sit there for a week. Everything there is pretty much vacation worthy. They want people to come back again to visit there resort or to get a tip from the people visiting, so they are very generous and committing to putting you first to make you have a great time and love being in the Bahamas. When you go on vacation most people love to go and enjoy the weather and the beach and relax. Some other people love to just go to be adventures and see new animals or eat new food maybe to go and visit friends. I think that there are some vacationing spots where you are able to do it all. In the Bahamas you are able to enjoy the amazing beach and ocean and food, but you can also go snorkeling and look at wildlife or even get a taxi somewhere so you are able to venture out and try new spots and see new things. Bahamas sounds like a place I would love to go and the blog that I visiting for this post showed me a lot of activities to do and the pictures also made me wanna go as soon as possible. 

A state that I have been to many many times is South Carolina. I have driven the whole 20 hours there by myself. My whole family lives in South Carolina. It is about 1 hour from Myrtle Beach. My family owns facility which is called ClubMX. It is his own company that designed to help race pro riders. He has kids from New Zealand and California and Chili etc. There are kids from all over that want to go there to get trained. It is around 70 dollars for just an hour private lesson. There are pro riders that are there ages 17-30. Young ones wanting to become professional and older people who are professional riders that go there to get better. My whole family helps out at the facility and lives next to it with all the land they own. They have a lot of tracks to ride on and train all the time. They have a weight lifter, trainers, there own camper to stay in, lunch lady, etc. There are separate tracks for practicing and competing. My family is really into motor-cross. They were on t.v. for it and have always loved doing it. My family has thought about moving to SC but we have so many good memories here in Minnesota and all of my dads side of the family. South Carolina is a great place to live. The temperature is warm and can get very hot. South Carolina is a pretty place to go to. The accents they have down there are fun to hear. The palm trees are very pretty and the beaches are nice. They get a little windy close to the water but there are nice days you can spend on the beach with your family and friends. I have been there multiple times to mostly go visit my family. I have also had family members get married down there which was very fun to get married on a beach. I also went to another wedding in Jamaica with my moms friend who got married and that would be my dream place to get married at.

I have visited some colleges out in South Carolina. There is this college called Coastal Carolina and it is located about 20 minutes from Myrtle Beach and is about the size of the u of m. It has palm trees and has a turtle pond with about 100 turtles in it. It is a very nice college I was thinking about going to. I would also be close to my family if I ever needed to stay with them or go visit. I love being on the beach. I have grown up going boating with my family and camping. I love traveling as well. It just feels so relaxing when you are on the warm sand with the sun shining on you and swimming in the ocean. I feel after I am done with RCTC I would love to move to a  college where I am close to the ocean. South Carolina is a good place to visit and spend on the beach in the warm weather.

The vacation spot where I have always wanted to go was Conrad Bora Bora. Looking at this personal blog was very catchy. The pictures she posted caught my eye right away. When I was a little girl I have always seen pictures on the interest of Bora Bora and have always thought that the water was so bright and clear. I always thought that it was one edited picture but from people posts, it looks so beautiful.

This blog talks about how her experience was when she was there. She talks about how it was amazing sleeping under the stars and laying in the hammock outside made the perfect bed. The rooms have to surround sound speakers inside and outside the walls which would be amazing for when you are hanging with friends or even going for a swim or tanning. Bora Bora may be a very expensive place to stay at, especially wanting to be in the villages. I personally think that the cost would be worth it. There are so many things you are able to do there. You can go paddle boarding, snorkeling, kayaking, bicycle boat, etc. You are always being occupied and spending it at a beautiful resort. The blog states that the food is pricey but think that you are not near any shopping mall so no spending money on clothes all goes to an amazing relaxing day on the water. Bora Bora is on a lot of people bucket lists. It is a great place for you and your husband. I would say it isn’t the best place to bring kids. Kids do love paddle boarding and snorkeling and swimming but the resort I would say it a place to be more alone and relaxed. It is also crazy to think that everything you are doing is over the water. When you get off the plane it is a 20 minute boat ride to Conrad. Which a boat ride would be so much more better than a car ride.

When you want to go on land there is tennis court, volleyball, ping pong, mini golf. There are so many activities on land for more young ages but the best part of being on vacation is to lay next to the ocean and bath in the sun. So most adults would want to spend most there time over the water relaxing which is hard if you are having to bring your kids over to land to do activities and can’t enjoy laying in the water. Most vacations being spend with family are on a beach or at a resort. I think Bora Bora would unique with the villages and just the water and view would be amazing to wake up to. Sleeping on top of water and waking up to waves and a sunset/sunrise. So many pros to picking this as a vacation spot and reading The Blonde Abroad helped me understand more about the place. The visual pictures helped me get more of a feel of a resort I would be interested in.

This article I was reading by Kyle D. Stedman was an article that just focused more on how to fix paragraphs and wrong ways people are doing it. It is good to understand what you are reading. I thought this article was very helpful. I don’t think it was just daily notes and reflection post, it taught me ideas I can use while writing a paper in class or even writing my blogs. It shows the right way to add a quotation and how to introduce it and how to give page number/author. I was taught a lot in high school how to intrude a quote and reflect on why I chose it for my paper. Writing a paper is difficult for me. I have always thought that writing a thesis was the most difficult thing to do. Every time I did write a thesis and showed my teacher they always said that isn’t exactly what I was looking for. I never had it perfect and I struggled a lot with that in my English classes in high school. I did get a lot of help and became better at it but it was frustrating for me at times. Some people are very good at writing thesis statements and not good with citing a quote. One thing I was good at in high school was where to put in a quote and how to do it thoroughly . The article we had to read talked a lot about ways people use there quotes and ways you should not include a quote. One thing I picked out from the article was when I read “Did you notice how the quotation is dropped in without any kind of warning?” (Stedman, 245)  For example I didn’t just drop that quote in there without any giving information. I told my readers that there are ways you should use a quote and then I added the quote from the text. You always want to warm your readers about what you found from a magazine, article, book, etc and then add the quote in. Give them a heads up of what you found an then put your quote in. It may even be better to conclude your quote as well. You want your audience to always be on topic and never be confused where they are reading or if they read it wrong. This article did come in handy and even helped me with knowing my right from wrong. It can be annoying when you read someone and you don’t understand what you just read I have that happen to me all at the time. Just make sure that your writing is laid out correctly and you are not just throwing random junk into your papers. Make sure that you are telling your reader every little information you know to keep them on track and to explain things that may be confusing at times to get them back on track with what you want to teach them about.

Summary: While reading “Annoying Ways People Use Resources” by Kyle D. Stedman, I was mostly seeing paragraphs and then ways to fix the paragraph to make it right. Instead of just writing a paper and then randomly introducing a quote out of nowhere. Without even giving a page number to it or the authors last name, or even explaining why you picked that quote and why it stuck out to you with what you are writing about. It is good to introduce your quote for an example you could say “Robert talks a lot about ways to prepare for when a tornado comes, one main point he suggests is….” and then after that you could put your quote in and then end it with the authors last name following with the page number. It is good to just make the readers phone what is going on and not be confused with what the quote meant or why you chose that for your paper.

Commentary: Kyle D. Stedman talks a lot about ways to do correct citations and make your papers perfect. She talks about where you should and shouldn’t put a quote and how to sort it. I think that it is really annoying when there is a paper you are reading and they add a quote in there out of no where and it may confuse you while reading the paper. You should always have your reader engaged in what you are writing about. Instead of putting a citation in your paper, it would be best for you to tell the reader where you got that quote, why you chose that quote and reflect on it. Make the reader want to read further into your paper and not get caught at any part where they are confused. In high school we did a lot of quotes and how to intrude/finish a quote. It has helped me a lot in college as well. I also notice when I am reading someone else blog or revising a paper, I see them just throwing in a quote. It does frustrate me because it can throw me off in a paper and I was taught how to do it all throughout high school.

Key terms:

Classification- the action or process of classifying something according to shared qualities or characteristics

Interpret- explain the meaning of

Authoritative- able to be trusted as being accurate or true

Modify- make partial or minor changes to something

Ethical- relating to moral principles

Summary: While reading “How to Read Like a Writer” the article mentions how to read like a writer and explains what it means to read like a writer or why learn to read like a writer. It says to dig deep into what you are reading, examine it and look for techniques. Read to learn about writing and to future out how the piece was put together and not just read to better understand the piece and what it is about. Try to figure out the over all structure that little by little. When you get further into the text try to find out if the author did anything different or changed up something in the text.

Commentary:  “..and by islands, I mean paragraphs” was an article that was very complicated to follow and understand. I feel if you took like to really figure out why is was laid out in that format and why the author wanted it to change paragraphs every time you click on a different island. It talks about various different islands but the thing that suck out to me more was how to figure out which pharaoh went to which island when they are changing all the time. To be able to read like a writer you need to pick little pieces of what you are reading and try to figure out how it was put together. In class when we bring rough drafts in to have other classmates look over them we pick little parts of our essay and critique it. Pick out little sentences and make them better. I feel that is a way to read like a writer, take your time and think outside the box.

Connections: The article stated “Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing (which you will automatically do to some degree anyway), you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together” (Rettberg, 72). When we were looking at “..and by islands, I mean paragraphs” it was a very thoughtful post and made us readers think about it a lot. Think about how it was put together and the paragraphs can change and it makes us think more about where to go after you read one paragraph. It was a very unique article. I wouldn’t really know what to call it kinda like a post with someone pictures and writing but the author who made it put a lot of time into it and thought about how they wanted to have it lay out. It also makes us think more about a writer rather than just reading a normal article, we are thinking differently than any other article being read. In the article “How to Read Like a Writer” it talks about how you get caught reading the same thing over and over and that relates to the other article when the paragraphs change you do get stuck re-reading the same paragraph and you may not even realize that you have already read that.

Summary: Overall reading Chapter 3 I thought that everything that goes on in our life is being put out in the internet for people to find. The article talks about on Facebook if we put our age over 40 that ads for wrinkle cream will show up. If we go to jail and get a mugshot that mugshot might show up on the internet or in the newspaper for someone to see. These days nothing is private. “You don’t even have to be online to have your data tracked.” (Rettberg, 82) You could be in a store and buy something and it will show up on your account saying what store you were at and the store number and companies can track you that way as well. There is just always ways to find people and I feel Chapter 3’s main points had something that was tied into being tracked.

Analysis: The author talks about a reason we enjoy taking selfies is because we get to pick the angle we take it at, how we want the lighting, when our smile is perfect, how we want our hair to be, etc. Rather than being in a mugshot where they take it without you picking how you want the photo to look like. A Photo Booth can also do that as well when you are in a Photo Booth the picture is being taken repeatedly and you can’t control when  it is being taken. The article states “A nude photograph taken consensually during a love affair may be used for revenge after a breakup or for blackmail if it falls into the wrong hands.” (Rettberg, 81) Photographs can be used against us. Sending the wrong photo to someone could maybe put you in a bad situation or if you are in a crime scene they may have footage of you but it doesn’t look like what was actually happening but that is the only proof they have. We worry to much about how we look. Instead of going into the mirror and looking at ourselves we use our phones. We try to get a good angle and use a snap filter instead of just looking in the mirror.

Main Ideas: One main idea that popped out to me is that we are now being followed and tracked. Companies are offering discounts on health insurance for people who agree to wear a Fitbit and have trackers in there car for 30 days. It can be an advantage to know where someone is if they went missing you would be able to find them in just a couple minutes. In todays society there is a lot of sex trafficking going on and kid-napping that being tracked would be good to the Police Department or any type of Law Enforcements. It also can seem creepy having someone know where you are all the time but there are a lot of pros to it as well.