Empathy? Is that a kind of sandwich?

First off, I'm sorry if the title sounds like this is going to be a mean post, but I had literally nothing to write other than that or "Empathy in Writing", and we all know how boring those post names are getting. Anyway, I like to think that I already put a good amount of empathy in my writing, but I know that in some things that I write I don't even think about the reader, I'll just throw in whatever sounds good. I think that if I think of the reader before anything else when writing I can provide that proper line between the reader and I. Thinking over what the reader finds interesting or what they would like to hear is a good way to start, but I guess it all depends on who you are writing for/to.

'MERICA

I'm pretty sick of all of the controversy over guns in America. There's all of these people saying "I need a gun to protect my family," or "guns kill people". Most of the people that take the arguments to extreme levels are the ignorant ones that believe their opinion is the only opinion. I honestly could care less whether I was able to carry a firearm or not. I'm more of in the middle of everything where I think that it's okay to have a gun, if you have proper training and know what you're doing, but if you just want a gun to have one and don't even know the proper way to handle it, then no, you definitely don't need one. Every argument in the world is a matter of perspective. Everyone expresses their own opinion, but seriously, if you don't even know how to use one what's the point? I especially don't approve of firearms if the person has children and they don't know how to keep it somewhere safe. I've heard about three stories on the new already about a kid grabbing their dad's gun and shooting either them self or someone else. On the other hand though, the disagreement that guns kill people is probably the dumbest rebuttal in the universe. Yeah, sure guns kill, but it can't really go around killing by it's self can it? There has to be someone behind that gun to pull the trigger. Therefore, people kill people. It's plain and simple. If you don't want "guns to kill people" do a freaking background search on whoever wants one or owns one, or possibly just restrict them to certain groups of people. Sure, you can't round up all the crazy murderers or people that could mentally snap out of no where, but it's a start.

Conflict With The Fam

I've actually had a lot of conflicts with different family members. Of course everyone has had an argument with their parents or siblings, but a lot of the arguments with my mother were legitimate conflicts that got in the way of "family bonding". My mom and I never really saw eye-to-eye. We always got into fights over our fair share of stupid or more serious topics. Majority of the time was because our opinions were complete polar opposites. One really big thing was over gay marriage (yes, the most controversial topic in the universe). My mom believed that it was okay to be homosexual, but they had no right to be legally married because it was a sacred bond between man and woman. To add onto the ignorance, my mother is a Christian, so of course she threw in the whole "The Bible says"( not saying all Christians are like this). If you're like me, you know that continuing an argument after someone says this is an argument that shouldn't be acknowledged anymore, but seeing as I wasn't having a particularly good day, I did what no one should do. I continued to prove points that The Bible had so many things wrong with it, like little holes in the story. I can't really remember if this was the point where I finally admitted I wasn't Christian, but somewhere along the way my mom completely ignored me for a few days. She also seemed to completely ignore the fact that I openly admitted to being Atheist. All in all, family sucks but you have to love them. Unless they're like my cousin, a back-stabbing you-know-what.

Best Information...So Far

I haven't really gone over as much information as I should have within the time we've had this assignment, but I still managed to learn some new things about German Literature. The one bit of information that interested me the most was where it all started. Their literature isn't really dated back until the tenth century because "the earliest written record in any Germanic language, the Gothic translation of the Bible by Bishop Ulfilas, in the forth century, does not belong to German literature". It was understood that instead of writing, early German cultures relied primarily on verbal hymns that they passed down to later generations. Whenever I come to something like this I get the urge to just try and research as much as possible where it all began. I've always been really interested in the origins of anything and could see myself walking through an extremely old library looking for anything that could tell me about what I was researching. I guess I have an adventurous streak.

Too Many Feels

Since we are required to use quotes from Manning's story, and I couldn't really find anything that had to do with a family member other than a father, this post is going to get a little personal. I'm just going to be pretty blunt about this whole father thing and give you the quote I picked. 

"I discovered that I was feeling sorry for my father."

This pretty much sums up what I was feeling/thinking when my dad came home drunk one day (he was an alcoholic). He started yelling at my mom about something I can't remember. I was kind of too young to remember all of the details, but I still remember when he was about to hit my mom with some huge container and my brother basically tackled him to the ground. At this point I'm crying and my dad and brother are wresting each other. Eventually they're both up and my dad has him by the throat literally holding him off the ground. My mom eventually steps in and yanks my dad's ponytail (yes, he had a ponytail lol) making him let go and screams at him to never touch her kids again. She forces him to leave and go to his friend's house. Over time my mom and dad had arguments over his alcoholism and let him know that he either kept drinking or kept us as a family. I actually wasn't aware that they were about to divorce until after his death which was a huge surprise to me. I always saw my parents as the two happiest people together. I never really thought that his drinking was a huge problem since he never really hit us or anything too serious. Over all, I started feeling sorry for him that he had this really bad habit that could have torn our family apart, which it probably was going to if he was still here.

Writer's Block

There's literally nothing more frustrating to someone that loves to write than writer's block. I absolutely hate when I have an assignment such as this one and can't even think of what to write. Luckily, this unfortunate "disease" actually does give me something to write, or complain, about. I'm not sure what it is in the brain that causes this, but anytime that I think of something awesome to write then go to type it up the whole idea just disappears. On the other hand though, I'm currently stuck in my Astronomy class which basically consists of our teacher lecturing over slides the whole time while half of the class is sleeping. I guess I'm just too tired to even think because he has that put-you-to-sleep voice that makes you want to pass out on the spot. He's a great teacher though. He just needs to get the students to interact to keep them awake. Well, since I've already gotten sidetracked and am likely to do it again at this moment, I'll sign off with a goodnight.

MLA and APAyeeeeeeee

Both MLA and APA are used for academic writing. MLA is the one used the most and known the most. Just about everyone knows the basics to MLA such as double spacing, size twelve font, and Times New Roman. APA on the other hand isn't used much by younger academic writers like in high school, but once you've reached college level classes APA tends to show up now and then. The importance of these two in writing is pretty simple. They give a basic set of, I guess you could say, rules to write by. They make sure that whoever is writing correctly states their point through professional or academic means. Without MLA and APA, essays and papers wouldn't have the right amount of authority that is required for academic writing. They'd merely express an opinion rather than strongly stating facts.

What Wiki Has Taught Me

I've learned a lot more from my research than I originally thought I would have. I definitely didn't learn any of it from my Wikipedia article though because it's pretty awful. Most of the new information I've found came from different sources such as books, websites, and sometimes newspaper articles. German Literature is actually a more broad topic than one would imagine. You'd never really think about it in different forms of writing. Some writings are actually in English, French, or other languages other than just German. There's just as many genres as there are in English Literature too. There isn't much difference in Literature except the ideas that author's put out. You also have to think about different time periods in which Germany and other German speaking countries went through tough times. A country's current living conditions or political standing could greatly affect how an author portrays their opinions. It's merely a matter of when and where.

Wikipedia Introduction

To me, a good introduction for something like a Wikipedia article should cover the basics of the topic but not reveal too much. The introduction usually has the definition or basic explanation of the overall topic too. There isn't really much to say about an introduction. As long as it has proper grammar and contains the right information there shouldn't be any major problems. It's a plus too if the writer makes it more interesting by adding information that no one would really think of or find anywhere else.

More Wikipedia Related Things

The organization of the new Wikipedia article that I chose is so terrible that I can't wait to edit it. There's barely enough information to understand the general study of German Literature. The only things that I could see were lists of authors and dates. There might have been at least 2 full paragraphs throughout the entire thing. Not to mention there were only 2 references. The only organized parts were the time periods that they used. It really frustrated me too that they completely failed to include German poets.. in a German Literature article.

Humor is A Funny Thing

My life basically consists of strange situations, but the one I have to deal with the most is people talking about their fathers or when teachers ask questions about family. Over the many years I have lived, I've learned to tie humor into practically everything from awkward situations to sad situations. A lot of people actually think that my humor is more dark than other's, but that's only because it's my way of coping. It's been a little over 7 years since my dad died from a motorcycle accident, but I still have problems actually opening up about it to this day. The only way I can talk about it is when it's in a humorous form. For example, my friends were having a conversation about their fathers and the funny things that they did, and I would suddenly say "well, my dad was stupid enough to fall asleep on a motorcycle. He definitely won't be able to talk to trees anymore". (The tree part is usually after the fact that I've already told them about this time he got so drunk that my mom found him outside talking to a tree.) The point is that anything involving fathers is strange to me since I've been without one for a while now, so anytime someone brings it up, I instantly make some really weird and dark joke. Let's just say my friends don't bring it up anymore because I basically make them feel bad. I've kind of learned to hold it in though unless I'm with really close friends because the only thing I hate more than liers is pity.

"Video Killed The Stereotypes"

To me, there isn't really a worst case when it comes between men and women stereotyping each other. They both are equally offensive. I guess it would all depend on the situation, like if a male and female are really good friends and the guy makes joke saying "go make me a sandwich woman", it'd be alright as long as the female is comfortable with it. I have plenty of those occasions with my brother or a really good friend. If it's with a stranger though and they are obviously uncomfortable with the phrase, it's not acceptable. The same goes for female to male conversations. Some stereotypes associated with men are they all cheat, they are all slobs, they all love sports, and so on, but I can list at least ten people that I know that don't like sports or have never cheated in their life. It's just a matter of individualized people instead of identifying all men/women in one group.

Readings for Language Interpretation

Finding references and articles to help me start off my reading list is a lot harder than I expected to be. I guess the main reason is because I chose such a widespread topic and didn't really narrow it down enough. Apparently it's rather difficult to find books over basic language interpretation. I've only really found specific language books for interpretation like German, French, and Spanish instead of a more generalized book. I'm also having trouble looking for credible websites that don't end with ".com", but I think that maybe I'll have to make a few exceptions. I'm just really, really, really hoping that I won't completely fail this assignment and will actually get some great things done.