In this project I created a Rube Goldberg machine (RGM) which is where you create an over complicated series of chain reactions to accomplish a simple task, in this case my simple task was to knock an apple into a box. After I attempted to make this work out of 20 tries it finally went in my favor. The target of my piece of satire is to make fun of Obesity in America, it starts off on how I have an ape that evolves into a Neanderthal, then he evolves into Ronald McDonald, after he runs and consumes a Big Mac he then comes into the next slide as being a supersized giant fat ugly Ronald McDonald. In my piece i use Caricature which is where you over exaggerate the person or object. the second type i used is Euphemism because it not only helps get the point through but it also makes a harsh term friendly enough that your 5 year old could say it. I chose these two because I felt that it would make a good piece of Horatian Satire because it is funny and will make you giggle a little bit. One thing i learned during this was that sarcasm was a type of satire i always though that it was just a good way to mess with people but it actually has a place in the Satire category. I did not put this in my piece because I could not find a way to successfully intergrade it. but the two pieces I did use are shows heavily through out it. these things are interesting because I can go into the world knowing that satire is literally everywhere and all it takes is one little bit of observation to find it. At first I went into the project wondering what satire was because I didn't know a thing about it. I Believe that satire has a huge part in society today because it makes everyday more eventful in a little way whether your teacher is purely being sarcastic just to mess with you. Satire can make fun of things in both harsh ways and fun giggly ways. Satire can bring light to harsh things like racism or poverty so there are positives but there a re negatives because it all boils down to how a person takes it in. If I were to grade myself I would give myself a 8.5 because while I made it I could have heavily refined the last drawing on my final because I didn't make his eyes that well or blended so he just looks like he got out of a fight with Connor McGregor. I also gave myself a 8.5 because my first draft that was much better than my second I had to ask for an extension because I needed time to get the 2nd draft done. I did manage to get it done and all of that but it was a bit of a struggle. the one thing I am going to do in order to make the 2nd semester smoother is I'm going to work the moment I get an assignment.
Africa Before Imperialism Project
During this project we researched how Africa was imperialized by the Europeans. We researched how the Europeans met and held the berlin conference that was how they would split Africa into different sections that would be under rule. I researched the first Rhodesian (Zimbabwe) war which was the first act of revolutions and that they wanted independence.
Op-Ed
How the Colonist Of Rhodesia Rigged a-Bomb and Walked Into Their Own Tripwire.
On a normal day we would work the land until the sun was at the midpoint. Once our masters went inside for lunch we took down the guards and ran to the hills to wait for nightfall. While we were waiting we were making weapons, spears, and daggers, of the sticks we had found while running from the dogs. When the time was right we would start to head back to the fields. We stayed around the fields hiding within the trees. At dusk, we decided it was time to strike when we did I had cut the last point out of my spear. While the other fighters had found a tree to hide in or behind me and one other stationed behind a rock, it was a place to shoot without getting hit. As the rock would break from the bullets I could feel it cut my eyebrow. When the next battle strike would come. A white injured man was wearing a white hat when I shot the rock next to him after I hit the rock I noticed his hat had gone away, I thought I had hit him until I saw the light emerging from the barrel and heard the gunshot. After we heard them surrender we got the news that our god has been killed but that. The colonist back in the time of Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), the colonist planted a bomb and walked into the tripline. Before the colonists came there were ideas of splitting Africa into different sections and that the white man would command the native population within the piece of land they had been assigned to. This was called the Berlin Conference. When the colonists arrived they first mapped the land to see what features were there. After this, they started to force the native population into slavery. Then they continued to tear down and dissect to make a Frankenstein edition of what Africa should be dividing the sections between the Europeans. The colonists built a bomb by creating an explosive situation. By treating the native population as nothing but a servant, that if they didn’t follow their order they would get sentenced to death or a missing limb. One example of the colonists ruining the native population’s life is that they took everything they knew and tried to remodel them entirely. When the white man invaded we went through every village and separated the families, raped the native’s wife then enslaved the family and made them work. Then we made the males of the family would work in the fields. The women of the family would do housework so cleaning, laundry, cooking, minor house repair, taking care of the children. If the natives didn’t work they would severe the limbs as punishment or whip them. This violence leads to the trigger of the bomb in my metaphor. While the bomb was planted and they knew where it was. They triggered this when they killed their god, Mlimo. One reason they the native population had been enslaved for so long not only had they been enslaved for such a long time, but the white man killed their god Mlimo. When they killed Mlimo they were trying to catch him and ended up just shooting him. This is important because they thought that it would suppress the revolt and it would cause them to step back into their place. This is important because the white man killed someone they valued and praised. (NYT,1) The explosion was that the natives eventually had a big enough army they had smuggled enough weapons to arm everybody. While the white man had the best of the best, weapon wise. The native population had the support of the Soviet Union for Zimbabwe’s Peoples Revolutionary Army(ZIPRA) and China supported the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army(ZANLA) they all fought different sections of the war getting help with donations of weapons, getting taught how to use explosives, they were offered military help from Cuba and Mozambique. Mugabe and Nkomo respectfully declined to continue on until they had them fended off enough for Mugabe to go into the fight for the independence of their state. (Wkp, section 3) The white man did not take into consideration that the native population are human. They thought that just because someone is of a different race or color they should be put into labor. This arrogance that they are superior is wrong because they later realized that their destruction is the loss of many lives and aspects of culture. While they were destroying the native population’s natural order they left aspects of a government for them to build on and to reshape. But to counterfeit that the white man left them with a government they brought the police into action because they needed people to watch and keep the others in the line of order. What we can learn from this today is that just because someone is of a different race we shouldn’t have the thought of walls and unnecessary fire. We shouldn’t assume that we can rule anyone by using others to control we should be controlling people with kindness by asking for help or giving help when needed. Works cited: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1896/06/25/108240032.pdf ttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/20/zimbabwe.features11 https://archive.org/details/sunshinestorminr00selouoft/page/n9/mode/2up http://zimfieldguide.com/mashonaland-central/june-1896-mazoe-patrol-skirmish-detailed-accounts-those-besieged-and-their For references: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Zimbabwe
Project Reflection
I take the most pride in my Op-Ed because I worked hard making sure I didn’t have any errors. My evidence for this is my Op-Ed because it is well written and factual. When it comes to my Visual piece I don’t take much pride in it because I didn’t find the balance between working on it and working on my Op-Ed. I know that finding the balance between them would have helped the quality between them both by taking a day to work on the Op-Ed and then taking a day to work on the visual piece. My op-ed is the area where I show the most pride because I have made sure that it was well written and there aren’t any grammatical errors. I made sure that there weren’t any repetitions. I managed to integrate a metaphor as my thesis, integrated evidence with my thesis and took feedback as something to fabulize my work. Now that I have told you about my pride areas let’s talk about my areas of struggle. I struggled first with finding the topic I wanted to research, I then just went with the first thing I saw. After I found that I then struggled with getting sources my solution to this was to ask Lori for help. When I asked her for help I got my sources and I got new terms to get specific searches. I was doing well until I needed feedback from Lori and Harper then I took that feedback and tried to follow and understand what they were saying about it. I could have asked for better ways to state things help on sentence structure. I could have come in with a plan going into the project and then started to work on the visual piece so I wouldn’t be behind or anything like that. The most important thing I learned was the fact that the white man is cruel and they have no end to attempt to rule the world. They start by finding the ones who are different and then they put them under their command to do their bidding. I also learned that the Africans despite being ignored as an individual but when they are fighting as a whole there point gets through. This is important because if a group needs to be helped or in a worst-case scenario they need to pursue combat and fight for the treatment they need. Work-wise I learned that if I need a certain amount of words I need to just write to get the rough sketch done so I can go through and make it into a masterpiece.I have grown as a writer because I can have evidence that can be backed up. I can have points that are written in a way that you will think about how our past was affected by this. I can write something that isn’t that good but I can make it sound convincing. I can make a story feel as if you were fighting with the native population for freedom and you are taking shots and establishing dominance. My evidence of this is within my Op-Ed as for how I have grown in citing evidence I have that all around my Op-Ed for revision if you look at the history you will see that I was constantly changing and refining my work weather that was working on one paragraph a day or working on the project as a whole. For finding the story part that would be in my introduction paragraph because it explains what it was like being at war at the time. I gave myself a 7.5 because I would mess around for a minute unless I really wanted to get the project done then I would continue working on it. I would do my best to make sure that it was all done so I wouldn’t fall behind and I would make sure that if I could work on my project I would prioritize it over other classes and then I would end up working harder on those classes because I didn't get the work done. I will start working before I get told to in order to maintain a good work habit to get other classes work done and get the work for the project done.