Category: Uncategorized

I wish that I could get Diana to express what’s on her mind…

 

I wish that I could get her to write again…

 

I wish I could get a better understanding for everything that transpired earlier this year…

 

I’m glad that it seems that things are normal…

 

I’m glad that it seems that she has lost interest in finding cheap thrills to make herself feel better…

 

…I still have some slight fear that she may lose herself again…

 

I think she’s come a long way, though…

 

Posted via LiveJournal app for Android.

An Essay on Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark” (Final Assignment for ENGL200)

An Essay on Hawthorne’s “The Birth-Mark”

Nathaniel Hawthorne has received recognition to be one of the most brilliant minds of American literature, primarily for the subject matter he tackled in his varied shorts and novels. Born into an area rich on old Puritan-Christian ideologies, Hawthorne frequently tackled matters of psychology and philosophy—challenging the basis of religious and civil morality; frequently evidence of these arguments were buried within symbolic elements, revealing themselves later toward the end of the narrative. Hawthorne’s The Birth-Mark employs these techniques, allowing the reader to sit and ponder about the tale’s moral as well as which characters might be villainous or heroic.

The Birth-Mark carries multiple symbolic elements, and leaves the reader with an array of morals to decipher—the battles of man against nature, the struggles of character in relationships, the dangers of hubris; interestingly, all of these messages are encompassed in and surrounded by the birth-mark.

Aylmer was a stereotypical man of science—knowledgeable and arrogant, carrying a number of neuroses that would have undoubtedly entertained the like of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung. In reviewing the way this character was described, we might come to the conclusion that the scientist suffered from narcissism, perfectionism, and something between megalomania and a god-complex. This man wise and worldly eventually fell for the lovely Georgiana—an idealist—whom seemed to be perfect in every way, save one small blemish on her left cheek. Described as a relatively small mark which no other would pay mind, the reddish birth-mark favoring the shape of a tiny, hand was enough to drive Aylmer mad. In Aylmer’s obsession over the imperfection he began to associate the mark with nearly every negative that humanity and the world had to offer; to him the blemish symbolized “his wife’s liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and [die].” (Hawthorne, par. 8)

Following an evening discussion about the mark, Aylmer’s hatred and obsession infected his dear wife. Georgiana—young and naïve, possessing a great love and admiration for her husband—clung to his words, and desired the mark to be removed by the wondrous magic of his science—even if it would possibly result in death. Aylmer hastily proclaimed that he had been concocting methods and formulae in his mind that should yield positive results and forever erase this fault of nature. Aylmer thusly obliged Georgiana’s wishes, disregarding a bad omen received in a dream as well as words to the wise offered by his assistant, Aminadab.

Georgiana, whilst awaiting the procedure in her husband’s laboratory, learns of Aylmer’s varied experiments, finding a journal of her husband’s. Through reviewing the numerous trials—some of which having been failures, and a number of successes that could potentially unravel the lives of many—Georgiana finds how deeply depressed her husband is. Scrawled throughout the volume Aylmer had described failures as catastrophes, successes as failures; nothing seemed to measure up to the expectations he had set. After attempts to stroke her poor husband’s ego—something which she seems to do our of sorrow and love for the down-spirited man—Aylmer confesses that he had already begun experimentation on the mark, long before she had given her consent.

Eventually, Aylmer presents Georgiana with the elixir and watches her drift into a sleep. As he keeps a watchful eye, documenting the drug’s progression, he sees the ill-fated mark slowly fade. Finally, as the mark draws to a point where it has nearly vanished, Georgiana awakens, and announces to her husband that she is dying.

The birth-mark had become another one of Aylmer’s obsessions—an experiment in manufacturing perfection. His haughtiness and belief that he possessed the ability to challenge and change Nature’s design had proven fateful time and again; this time, however, had caused him to sacrifice his wife. Symbolically, the birth-mark represented any ill-perceived notion of the world and universe that man might wish to change. Additionally, the birth-mark carried symbolic representation of the paradoxical statement that within imperfection there is perfection—sometimes what we may see as wrong is right for certain purpose.

An interesting lesson exists with the view of the birthmark as perfect imperfection that can be applied to man and his relationships. On the surface of the story, we could simply read that no good can come from attempting to change the person that is one’s partner; while this is true, further in-depth reading and psychoanalysis of the text reveals much more. Not only did Georgiana’s birth-mark become an experimental project for Aylmer to fix—Georgiana was the project. Often in relationships—especially when they are still fresh, as is depicted in this tale—a partner might see something that is in need of change; frequently this is a reflection of a terrible match of characters or some issue buried in the partner’s psyche (McKenna, 2006 ); “death” of the relationship or the partner “needing” change usually occurs.

In the relationship described in this tale, Aylmer saw the mark and Georgiana in need of change, because they were not “perfect”—an issue with which Aylmer struggled within himself. Aylmer pushed Georgiana into submission, and killed her—mentally, emotionally and physically. Sadly, Georgiana played into this outcome of her own will, and wasn’t completely victimized. On the other side of the relationship, a partner can be so willing and forgiving of the other that any faults that arise must be their own and not that of the other or the two. Georgiana, holding such an idealization and idolization of Aylmer led herself to believe that the words Aylmer spoke were true (McKenna, 2006); as such, she disregarded the many warning signs and allowed for her partner to destroy who she was.

Aylmer, too, represented sins and psychoses present in all man; fortunately many of these inner issues only exist in whatever degree we allow. Further symbolism and flaws in man may be seen with Aylmer’s interactions with Aminadab. Aylmer’s constant reference to him as a man of clay raises a few possible interpretations: in plain context, this may be more of a demeaning term, as it is outlined that Aminadab is more of a common man—common as dirt, and tough or stubborn as clay, perhaps? Looking religiously, however, there are references in the Bible to men being clay (Walsh, 2009). Aminadab, being a “man of clay” seemed to know better than to go against nature as Aylmer did; Aylmer thought himself to be above it.

Aylmer desired to discover all the answers to life, and wished to do so without realizing that he may not worthy of an answer, or that an answer may simply not exist. Tragically, Aylmer failed to possess concepts of patience, acceptance, and serenity. Had these elements been part of his psyche, his entire character would have been very different, and the poor Georgiana might still have life.

Works Cited

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “The Birth-Mark” ENGL200: Composition and Literature. American Public University System. 2011. McGraw-Hill. PDF/Web. Retrieved from: http://ebooks.apus.edu.ezproxy1.apus.edu/ENGL200/Perkins_2011_unit2.pdf

McKenna, John J. “Lessons About Pygmalion Projects And Temperament In Hawthorne’s “The Birthmark..” Eureka Studies In Teaching Short Fiction 7.1 (2006): 36-43. i Web. 29 July 2012.

Walsh, Conor. “Aminadab In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s THE BIRTH-MARK.” Explicator 67.4 (2009): 258-260. Academic Search Premier. Web. 29 July 2012.

Annotated Bibliography

Using the information from this week’s reading material, submit an Annotated Bibliography of five sources from your Working Bibliography. First, put the source in the correct citation format for your particular curricular division, and then write a brief annotation (summary and use) of that source. Follow the student example and indicate the name and number of the Hacker ( www.hackerhandbooks.com/resdoc) model you are following for each source. Points will be deducted if you fail to do this. Remember, your final paper must include a minimum of seven sources with at least four sources coming from peer-reviewed journals taken from the APUS library.

Jeremiah Hall Palmer
Prof. Myron
COLL300
Annotated Bibliography: APA Style
July 7, 2012

As the requirements of this assignment are to compose an annotated bibliography while making note of which resource model used, sources are categorized by model number and alphabetized by author. Annotations immediately follow the source in italics.

Hacker Social Sciences Model # 7 & # 10 – Article in a Journal with three to seven authors:

Aten, J., Leavell, K., Gonzalez, R., Luke, T., Defee, J. & Harrison, K. (2010) Everyday Technologies for Extraordinary Circumstances: Possibilities for Enhancing Disaster Communication. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(1), 16-20.

This article highlights a few of the commonly used social networks and personal communications devices that have potential for use in disaster situations. Multiple examples are given in the article to “tested” use of the technologies within the article. In addition, supporting evidence of the potential reach is given through the mention of statistical information on a few of the networking sites.

Mills, A., Rui, C., JinKyu, L., & Rao, H. (2009). Web 2.0 Emergency Applications: How Useful can Twitter be for Emergency Response? Journal of Information Privacy & Security, 5(3), 3-26.

This article speaks specifically on the use of the social-networking site, Twitter. The article gives a background on the founding of the network–including the original concept of the service surrounding SMS communication. The article highlights the benefits of Twitter’s API and SMS gateway; the article delves into discussion of how the service has been used in disaster communication, and provides statistical information.

Hacker Social Sciences Model # 7 & # 11 – Article in a journal with eight or more authors:

McCauley-Bush, P., Mohammad, J., Gaines, S., Llewelyn, C., Armbrister, P., Watlington, A., … Cohen, S.. (2012) Assessment of Communication Needs for Emergency Management Officials in High-Consequence Emergencies. Journal of Emergency Management, 10(1), 15-25.

This article was written more as a study and report of communications technologies within a certain geographic area of Florida. The article uncovers some statistical information on what devices are currently in use by emergency managers and the comfort-level these individuals have with technology. Most useful for the purposes of this project will be the information regarding the wide-spread use of smart-phone devices amongst EM professionals; these statistics will be incorporated with information on the use of Twitter, Facebook and other services to reflect the ease of sharing disaster information with the public.

Hacker Social Sciences Model # 30 – Article in an online journal:

Underwood, S. (2010). Improving Disaster Management. Communications of the ACM, 53(2), 18-20. doi:10:1145/ssre:1646353:1646362

This article addresses some of the emerging uses of technology surrounding the use of mobile phones—specifically those being addressed by Calit2. Though the article is more on the side of discussing Calit2’s research, it contains interesting “sound-bites” discussing the importance of “citizen journalism” and “dual-use” technologies. This article pairs quite well with the one written by Aten et al, and can be used for further foundation on how monitoring and interacting with the public via social media outlets is becoming paramount in effective disaster communication.

Hacker Social Sciences Model # 31 – Article in an online magazine:

Hoover, J. (2011, January 19). FEMA To Use Social Media For Emergency Response. InformationWeek. Retrieved from: http://www.informationweek.com/

A simple article discussing the aim of FEMA in using social media for emergency response; this article is the underlying concept of the research assignment. Contained in this article are quotes from FEMA administrator, Craig Fugate—an avid Twitter user.

Paraphrasing and Direct Quotations

Forums: Week Five Paraphrases and Direct Quotations

Following the guidelines in this week’s reading, post a direct quotation from one of your sources as it would appear within the body of your research paper. Be sure that you introduce your quote with a signal phrase, provide some commentary for the quote, and include the appropriate in-text citations for your documentation style. Follow the source material with closing commentary or analysis to link it to your thesis/purpose. Next, paraphrase the same quotation and use a signal phrase and closing commentary to demonstrate how the paraphrase would appear in your research paper; include an in-text citation in the documentation style you are using for your paper. Be sure to label which documentation style you are using and include the appropriate bibliography entry as the source will appear on your works cited, reference, or bibliography page. Your initial posting is due no later than midnight Thursday and should be 250-300 words; your peer responses are due by Sunday midnight and must be at least 100 words in length and move the conversation forward.

Note: The focus on the forum posts is on quality content, not simple meeting a minimum word requirement.

In an article discussing the potential use of technologies for disaster communication, Jamie D. Aten and his peers underline the growth and importance of social media:

Social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and LinkedIn, have become an increasingly popular way for people to stay in constant communication with each other. More than four out of five adults sign access social media Web sites every month. (Aten et al., 2010)

Taking note of the importance, the authors continue to suggest that:

Social networking sites could be used in a number of ways during disaster circumstances, from posting, sharing, and downloading disaster information, to updating news and pictures of developing disasters. For example, the social networking site Flickr, could be used to post disaster pictures to inform people within their Web site community. Moreover, the disaster pictures could actually be tagged by location, so other followers can pinpoint exactly where a photo was taken. The emergence of Internet connections on cell phones will allow users to reach these Web sites without the need of a computer, enabling news to be posted and received even more quickly. Information can be posted to family, friends, pre-established groups or networks, or the general public, who can, in turn respond directly to those at the site of the disaster. (Aten et al., 2010)

If we consider the points and examples given in this article, we can easily see how integrating these tools into approaches and efforts in emergency and disaster management would be of great benefit. The emergency manager would have the ability to be a part of this information process, through dissemination of information directly from the emergency operations center to any of these media outlets, as well as monitoring the same outlets for “community reports”.

—

There have been a great number of people across the nation recognizing the importance and growth of social media in the day to day lives of the average citizen. An article in the American Psychological Association’s Psychological Trauma, Jamie Aten and a team of his peers inform us that a recent study shows that on average four out of five adults make use of social media sites every month (Aten et al., 2010). With these numbers, it becomes inherently clear how important the role of social media has become to the public for keeping in touch with news and family.

From an emergency/disaster management viewpoint, the potential of use of these online services is intriguing. In the same article, Aten offers example of how one service, Flickr—a photograph sharing service—could be used for the posting and sharing of disaster photography in near real-time (Aten et al., 2010). Additionally, such a photograph could come directly from the scene via cell-phone, and be geo-tagged by the device’s GPS, giving a specific location of the hazard being photographed.

By being an active participant in these social media outlets, the emergency manager can get up to the minute reports from the public; the emergency manager can also publish reports and information—as well as selected materials from individuals in the public—back into these social media news feeds.

—

Works Cited:

Aten, J., Leavell, K., Gonzalez, R., Luke, T., Defee, J. & Harrison, K. (2010) Everyday Technologies for Extraordinary Circumstances: Possibilities for Enhancing Disaster Communication. Psycological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 3(1), 16-20.

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This post received the following comments:

Joseph Bailey (July 4, 2012 at 4:43 PM):

Hi Jeremiah,

I read your forum and thought it was interesting, informative and enlightening the way you brought out we all use social media like face book to keep in constant communication with each other such as friends, family and even business. I think what you wrote was great and the way you Incorporated the direct quote into your work was good but what I don’t understand is your not using quotation marks when quoting a source. You are the second person in this class that did not use quotation marks when quoting a source I am not trying to get you in trouble I just want to learn and I am a little confused on using quotation marks while quoting a source. I believe we are suppose to every time we quote any source in our work using what they say to back us up. I looked over your work and thought other than not using quotation marks you wrote a good forum.

Jeremiah Palmer (July 7, 2012 at 11:36 AM):

In APA formatted documents long quotations do not require quotation marks, as the quoted material is blocked and indented–the fact that it is a quote is understood. Parenthetical notation immediately follows the final line of the quoted content.

For paraphrasing, quotation marks aren’t necessary either, unless there is an exact quote contained somewhere within the summarized content. Parenthetical notation follows the end–but before the end punctuation–of the precise sentence which makes reference to the original/sourced idea; if the entire paragraph is a summary of one source–without any additional thoughts added–then notation can follow the end of the paragraph, signifying that the entire paragraph is a summary.

…also, I’m used to formatting documents in HTML and placing long quotes between <blockquote> tags–which tell the browser to format the text that way; I likely would have forgotten the quotation marks for my direct quotes if I weren’t using APA, because I type things up here using the “source view” instead of the WYSIWYG tools most of the time!

…for reference, my favorite tool on decoding the mysteries of documenting sources: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ –of all the material I’ve been given or assigned over the years, Purdue’s OWL has helped me the most.

Governing Local Land Use

In a 2-3 paragraph statement, discuss whether or not the federal or state government should govern local land use in disaster mitigation. Be sure to provide evidence that supports your response and cite any references you use. Respond to a classmate’s post with a 2-3 paragraph statement on why you agree or disagree with the others’ post.

Please start a new thread when creating your initial post and write any responses to others within their existing discussion threads. To receive full credit, be sure to respond to at least one of your classmates’ postings.

In my opinion, the current and founding concepts of land ownership/use—being at the discretion of the individual with guidance from the local and escalating governing bodies—is functional and provides the best methods for establishing plans, legislation, or “taking” land with disaster mitigation as the concern.

As a general “rule”, the federal government has no interest in land, aside from federally recognized areas of concern—such as large wildlife preserves/national parks; military installations and points concerning national security; borders/ports/transportation systems affecting commerce; and widely recognized ecological/environmental concerns. Further regulation of land falls to the responsibility of the state, as the governing body of the state should better represent the needs of that specific area/region/community of people (Schwab, et al; 147-8).

State level governance of land recognizes the concerns of the federal government, while applying, recognizing and regulating concerns within the political and/or natural borders of the state. State governance—while establishing stronger regulation—also provides guidance for local governmental bodies.

Ultimately, it is the responsibility of the local governments to enforce and police very specific needs of land and people—unless this power has not been delegated by or inherited from the state (Schwab, et al; 150) ; it is not uncommon, however, for the local governing bodies to be ill-equipped or incapable of enforcing regulations, conducting feasibility studies, or making purchases of land for mitigation efforts. As such, aid in the form of grants or state/federal recovery and mitigation projects are applied for by the local community (FEMA, 2010).

References

FEMA. (2010). Grants and Assistance Programs for Governments. Retrieved July 4, 2012, from: https://web.archive.org/web/20120322123227/http://www.fema.gov:80/government/grant/government.shtm

Schwab, A., Eschelbach, K., & Brower, D. (2007.) Hazard Mitigation and Preparedness. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.