Article Analysis

In the article "Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?", written by Ben Makuch and published on September 11, 2012 on the website Vice, Makuch tries to answer the question whether we could be living in a computer simulation or not. For his arguments, he mainly uses ethos and logos. Especially in the first part, where he introduces Rich Terrile, he informs the reader about Terrile's achievements. Makuch states that Terrile is a "well regarded scientist, the director of the Center for Evolutionary Computation and Automated Design at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory". Furthermore, he ends his second paragraph by saying "so we‘re going to go ahead and take him seriously". In the second part of the text logos becomes more important. Terrile gives examples supporting the computer simulation theory. For instance, he argues that "the universe is pixelated" which means everything can not be broken down further than into a fundamental unit. He also mentions that by the rate our technology improves very soon, in 30 years, we will have computers strong enough to simulate our world. These logical arguments as well as the Ethos used in the beginning of the text make it highly credible and convincing.

PSA - After Death Avatar

She‘s gone. My little sister. She took her life and I don‘t know why. I didn‘t even know she had serious problems until now. She always seemed so happy, so perfect. I want to ask her, talk to her and not being able to breaks, even kills me.

DON‘T do that to your loved ones. Get an after death avatar NOW!

A day in the life of a guardian angel!

She stirs. I know her daily routine by heart now. Her struggle to get out of bed. At last, she manages, sits up and rubs the sleep out of her eyes. I have not slept for a minute. My sleep could mean her harm. She loves to toss and turn and she could easily bump against a shelf or a wall or fall of her bed. I‘m telling you, this human is unbelievable. I once fell asleep during a night shift, just for a second, and she almost fell of a bumper bed. The top, not the bottom one.

I never leave her side. I spent my mornings watching over her very closely. While she eats, walks her dogs, goes to uni and to work. Those mornings are always stressful for me. There are so many dangers. Wether it is bumping against something or slipping and falling. The afternoons are usually more relaxed. My human loves to read and listen to music. These activities usually hold little risk for her to accidentally hurt herself. Even IF she‘s horribly clumsy.

Soon afterwards, another day ends. And although it‘s a never ending story, protecting her every second, I can‘t really complain. After all, I do love my job and my clumsy human.

Group paragraph

http://daweiss.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/group-paragraph.html

Sweden

http://daweiss.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/essay-versions-textkompetenz.html

PK

How do you torture your students without having to do too much yourself?
Surprise exam? Nah, too much work correcting that.
Extra homework? Ugh, again, who on earth wants to correct that?
Forcing them to write blog posts? Hm... Sounds promising. Definitely keep that in mind for later, but it's not enough for now.
Make them give presentations? Ah, now we're getting somewhere. But simply let them present stuff? Boooooring. Let's make it worse. Somehow. If that's even possible.
Maybe a Pecha Kucha? Yes! That's it. The answer to THE question! The ultimate torture device for students. Make them present something in a way they have neither heard of before, nor know how to pronounce correctly.

That is how I imagine our teachers reached the decision of us having to give Pecha Kuchas. For those of you who have absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, good for you. But I'm not gonna explain it here, so fgi.

Did I like it? Hm... Not particularly. The presenting part itself was fine and I think the others did a wonderful job presenting it. However, the creating process was bad. Not only did we have to find a topic; no, we also had to find enough information for the six minutes 40 ahead of us. Plus, we had to time everything perfectly, find pictures and practise, practise and once again practise. Unfortunately, my PK's "we" turned into an "I" quite fast, which made the experience even more tempting and fun.

All in all, I have to admit, it was a pretty nice way to torture us. My respects. I'll keep that in mind should I ever become a teacher. So, future students of mine: be prepared. ;)

The horror of vocabulary learning! (And how to fight it.)

New exam, new words to learn. Having to remember about 300 words in a couple of days because you didn't have time to do it before. Or, let's face it, because you just didn't want to think about it before. Now doesn't that just sound lovely?^^
That's the situation I, and several of my fellow students, found myself in last week. Fortunately, not everyone was as lazy and procrastinating as me. Someone actually sat down and set up a list of all these words on vocabulary.com. Now, I know her name, but I don't know her in person. However, I really want to thank her. To share the list with all of us was really a thoughtful and nice thing to do and it saved me, and I can imagine many others, quite a lot of time and trouble. THANK YOU! :)
Doing the quiz on vocabulary.com is a different, but very nice way to remember the words. I used it on my phone and was able to use ever free minute, on for instance busses or trams, to go over them. However, sometimes I found myself ruling out the unlikely meanings and simply guessing the meaning instead of actually remembering it. That's why I printed out all the words, read through them once or twice and added my own meaning. With those two things combined, I was able to remember all these words in no time. So, hurray to my brain and the girl. :)