Can I get a visual?

In the beginning of class we discussed what it meant to be a female and a male. Some words associated with female are beauty, makeup, and model. Some words associated with male are strong, fitness, and muscles.


We read Bridget Jones's Diary and discussed the differences between public and private writing. As a class we generally agreed that a diary was a private form of writing.


We read Kinky which was a book of poems all about Barbie. We talked about our own experiences with Barbies and I thought that was a lot of fun. It made me want to play Barbies again. I liked the poems because they made me think how complex Barbie can be.

I'm a Barbie girl!

As a kid I loved playing with Barbies. I had many different ones, not just the bleached blond Barbie. I liked how the author mentioned the other Barbies and also her friends. She mentioned in "Hippie Barbie" Midge and her boyfriend Alan who looked like a dark haired Ken. I remember going to my cousin's house and playing with Midge and Alan. That poem brought back fond memories. The most intriguing poem for me was "Antichrist Barbie". It was kind of creepy but the poem is very true. It mentions how Barbie "could turn her head all the way around like Linda Blair in The Exorcist." The poem also mentions how little girls would do what ever Barbie asks. I could actually believe this would happen and probably has.

Cover songs

I chose the song Live and Let Die. It was originally done by Wings, a band Paul McCartney of the Beatles formed. A cover of this song was done by Guns N Roses. The original version starts off quietly and calmly and then breaks out into a fast tempo and loud music eventually growing quiet again. It however ends in the fast tempo. Guns N Roses version seems to start loud and just gets louder. There is also more guitar work then the original. The original seemed to experiment with different synthesizer sounds, which I liked. The singer in Guns N Roses, Axel Rose, has a very distinctive voice which comes out in this song and sounds very different from Paul McCartney's soft British accent.

BJD movie and book

I noticed that the main characters and only a few major plot points made it into the movie. The mother and Bridget didn't seem as neurotic in the movie as they did in the book. Much was changed with Bridget's relationships with Daniel and Mark. Mark never confronted Daniel. Bridget didn't seem to be with Daniel for as long in the movie as she was in the book. On a side note I found something very interesting and kind of funny with the book and movie. The book mentions both Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, the actors who played Daniel and Mark. The book talked about how Colin Firth was Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice. I wonder if they purposefully casted him as Mark Darcy?

Comparing Articles

I got my articles from Glamour and Men's Health magazine.  They really aren't related in topic though.  The article in Glamour is about health and the article in Men's Health was about questions that lead to intimacy.  It seems like the articles should be in the other magazine and not the one I actually found them in.  Both articles though had three key steps.  The health article was pretty straight forward; exercise, don't smoke, and get your cholesterol checked.  Not exactly a revolutionary article.  Just the basic knowledge which seems to be all you get from magazines like Glamour. 

The questions that lead to intimacy article was just ridiculous.  The questions were "what's something crazy you can see yourself doing", "what's something your parents didn't get about you", and "what are your recurring dreams."  If someone asked me these questions my first thoughts wouldn't be I want to be intimate with you.  I would probably stare at them like they were nuts.  It was interesting that two of contributors were women but the third was a man.

What I imagine a writer looks like

I don't really have a set idea of what I think a writer looks like.  I always image them sitting at a computer or a typewriter.  I sometimes think a writer would be eccentric in the way the looked and dressed.  The writer in Stranger Than Fiction had a somewhat unusual haircut.  The writer in Wonder Boys wears large glasses and always seems to be wearing a scarf.  Oh course a writer can look like anything they want.  They can be well dressed, sloppy, conservative, or flamboyant; it doesn't matter.  A good writer isn't defined by how they look but how and what they write. 

Private and Public Writing

When I think of public writing I think of this in the newspaper, magazines, and books.  Public seems more formal but doesn't always have to be.  Usually though it follows the rules of grammar and spelling and would be edited by someone else.  Private writing to me is more like something written that maybe only one other person would see.  A diary, letter, or journal would fit into this.  Now Bridget Jones's Diary was written to be read by lots of people so it is public.  However it was written in a style that is private.  It is very informal by using abbreviations, swear words, and incomplete sentences.  The readers get a glimpse into a private life filled with neurotic thoughts and behaviors that one would never reveal to the public.