Blog Reflection

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

INGL 3103-128

13 February 2018

Blog Reflection

The process of creating a blog was very outgoing for me because I had done blogs and web developments before, it’s a topic I truly enjoy. I really liked the opportunity of making a blog for a class assignment. I consider it a very modern tool for education. These tools are available today to everybody but not many people take advantage of these. I was surprised of this being part of the class projects because it’s not a common assignment.

After making a journal, a blog is great. I truly like the way I’ve been writing after the journal. My writings are more direct and “to the jugular”. I enjoy writing a lot and having a place to publish what to you write is awesome because other people can see your works and comment. The main difference between the journal and the blog is that the blog is public and journal was from yourself to yourself. When writing to post publicly, I watched a little bit more what I was writing but after the journal experience I don't even mind much.

My favorite blog post is “Waiting for my Acai” which was not a class assignment but the reason I made it was because of this class. Not being a class assignment is the reason I like it so much because it is a clear example of the change this class had in my writing. While writing it, I applied the journal’s rules regarding my “first thoughts” and I made it with the objective of publishing it in my blog.

I personalized my blog with a background of waves which is a theme I like a lot because I find the beach as a great place for many things. I applied it the color blue which has been my favorite since my childhood, although since I’ve been studying at the Iupi I like red a lot. My design is a simple one which is great for me and for the readers because it’s easier to understand.

This blog is a clear example of the quality of class this is. One were technology is applied at its fullest so students obtain a great education and a great experience. My plans are to continue writing. I liked writing before taking this class but after making the journals I like it even more because of my style. I identify with the style of direct, to the jugular and first thoughts of the journal and I plan on keeping this as part of my style.

Waiting for my Acai

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

31 January 2018

So, waiting for my açai has become something very cool. Here I have met and seen different personalities like comedians and politicians. Also a controversial one, Oscar Lopez Rivera. So there I was eating my açai, and I feel somebody sit down in the table next to me. The tables are connected, so it’s one long table. Normal. So, I look to my side and see a man that seems very familiar to me but I don’t know who the person is. Many times I feel that I know certain people because they seem familiar but in reality I have no past connection with them. I continue eating, I was half bowl. Then I remember and in my mind I say “hey, that looks like Oscar Lopez Rivera” but I was like naa, he’s just sitting there eating a pizza that his apparent son brings him. So I look again and both times that I looked, he was also looking. I realize it is very probable to be him so in my mind is like “if you se O.L.R. next to you like you NEED to take at least a picture” so I closed my açai and put it in a bag and I stand up and go talk to him. When I was in the process of asking him, before I finished my question he was replying “yes” because he knew what I was going to ask. When going to take the picture I ask a random person to take it and when I was going to pose, my napkin fell, I confess I was kind ve nervous, rare thing for me. So I realize and notice that many people around where thinking of asking if taking a picture with him but nobody dared to ask. But there I was hahaha. I send it to a family group chat and the rest is history.

I was inspired to write this because of my my English class at my university. #SeeTheChange

Works Cited

Ruiz Ruperto, Diego E. “Waiting for my açai.” DiegoRuRu, 31 Jan. 2018,      

        www.diegoruru.com/2018/01/31/waiting-for-my-acai/.

Crossroad Story

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

Intermediate English 3103 -134

21 December 2017

Crossroad Story

A couple summers ago, 2014 to be exact, I went to a coding summer camp at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. This wasn't the first time that I would be some time staying at another place, with other people. One summer before, in 2012, I went to St. Petersburg, Florida with my brother to another camp. There we flew to the camp by ourselves from San Juan, Puerto Rico. This time we planned a trip for before the beginning of the camp with my family. But since I was by myself, I would be flying back to Puerto Rico by myself for the first time. The weeks of the camp passed and I had all the details in place regarding the flight. The last day of the camp there was a closing event so the relatives of the students could see the works, projects and what we learned in the camp and also fraternize. I was with the friends I made at the camp, and everything like it was supposed to be. A big surprise for me was to see my parents, brothers and paternal grandparents arriving there, completely unexpected! After the “shock” I went on to show them the works I made and all that I learned, something I didn't expect to be doing since I had no idea whatsoever of this. The day after this event, I left the camp (because it was over). After leaving, I didn't have much of an idea of what we would be doing next since I knew nothing about this. We went on to visit different places with a car we rented. We planned to visit different places and cities we had not been before and in the route we would see my cousin at Daytona, Florida. We were seven in the car, plus the luggage. So the ones who went on the back seat had to find a way to get comfy or something (haha). During the trip we moved a lot on the vehicle, we crossed from one state to another and doing that takes a couple of hours. At some point of our traveling time we decide to put our luggage in the racks of the car so we could be comfier inside.We stopped at some place, took out the luggage and put them in the racks. This was it, it was like going in a different car (haha), so we went on with the trip, now the car was more comfortable and the ride was even more pleasurable. This was like a “golden age”. After this time of glory, we encountered rain on our way to some place. Our luggage was getting wet and would get wetter if we didn't do something. We had to do something. We began to think on different ideas and it “hit”. We stopped by a store to buy some bags and we would put the luggage inside the bags. We prepared everything, put them back on the racks and continued our trip. During our traveling time, we suddenly feel a movement on the car. This was the moment. Our luggage flew from our car and into the street, we stopped by the highway to try and get them back for security and of course because our thing were there. My father and grandfather went back to look at where the luggage was and what was its status. Almost immediately a BIG truck hit the luggage and that was the last time we saw our luggage. After this, we had to add some stops to the trip like to a mall and different stores so we could buy clothes and other essentials that were inside the luggage. This changed our plans entirely since everybody needs certain things. After, we continued our trip and arrived to our final destination, the airport. And there I was, flying back to Puerto Rico, not with one of my brothers or my parents but with my parents, both brothers and my paternal grandparents. What was supposed to be a flight by myself was the most accompanied way it could be.

Works Cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Narrative Essay on a crossroad experience. Class assignment UPRRP 29

December 2017.

Life Compass Reflection

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

INGL 3103-128

13 February 2018

Life Compass Reflection

The life compass has a structure that functions like a “snapshot” of how you are in the moment, a great practice for writers because you have an idea of how you were feeling when you were writing. The four components, physical, emotional, mental and awareness are what make up who you are in the day and in life. An advantage of the compass is that you define how you're feeling which is great because you know yourself better than anyone. While doing the compass, you have to remain true to your numbers and not change them for convenience, fear or feeling bad about your numbers. The results of your life compass, affect directly the way you write.

The worst day of my compass, I got a 5 out of 12. That day I received terrible news. The difference in my writing and in my attitude were clear. When making the spiral to make the compass, I made it smaller and with less lines. In my journal, I wrote in a different tone and visibly different, with more spaces between lines and bigger words. In regards to the visual difference, my belief is that I had no regards whatsoever with the structure and I just wanted to express myself writing. Since the situation wasn't temporary, the following day I continued affected but I was getting better and I’d notice because of the increasing numbers in the compass. A couple days later I got a 12 out of 12. The change in my writing was evident. This day I was writing in a happy and positive mood. I believe the life compass helped me surpass the situation out of which I got a 5 out of 12. By seeing the difference of how you were doing before that day to after that day you realize there is something you need to change so you can continue with your good life. Before that day, I got a 9.64 out of 12 average which is a better punctuation, meaning that I feel better.

In my overall results, I got a 9.8 out of 12. My strongest component was the emotional one, which I consider is true. The lowest punctuating one was the physical component. The major reason for the physical component being lower is for all the days that I didn't exercise, practice tennis and/or sleeps as much as I’d want to. The Mental and awareness component ended even which I consider has a relationship because depending on how you are, you can be aware of your surroundings and spiritually. With this life compass, I have my “snapshot” of how I felt during this period of time.

Group Project Reflection

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

INGL 3013-128

13 February 2018

Group Project Reflection

Group projects can be great successes or great failures, it all depends on its parts and their efforts to achieve their goal. Division of roles is essential so each member knows their function in the group. In our group we needed to work together to make summaries, analysis and presentations. Communication between all members is key for the overall success of the group. Every member should feel responsible for the well being of the group. I worked well with my group, The Knights of Literature.

The first day working as a group, we divided our roles in the group. I accepted the role of communicator. In a group project, communication between members and with externals is essential. To begin communicating effectively, we created a group in Whatsapp so we could all be “on the same page” at the moment of working on assignments and taking decisions. The benefit of this group chat was great because the information flowed to everyone and we could tackle assignments directly and faster. The other roles consisted of an administrator, a task manager, and two researchers.

In the group we created a good bonding which leads to a great synergy. A mix between good communication and good bonding makes discussions better and more interesting. A good environment foments all members to participate and express their sincerest opinion. At the moment of presentations based on our summaries and analysis we would be “on the same page” and mostly in accordance and our receptors would get a clear message of what we stood for. Our climax would be when discussing overarching themes. By being five members who didn't know each other before this class and from different places in Puerto Rico, we could all have different anecdotes from different perspectives that help understand these themes based on real life examples. When discussing “About Men”,  Hanexi gave real life examples that one can relate better to and understand fully.

Working in this group was great, not only for the group projects but it also helped me on individual assignments, in the case of me having a doubt regarding the class. I believe in working in groups, if it is necessary, because having lots of people to do a simple task, results ineffective. The size of my group resulted good for the tasks presented through the semester. The skills learned through group projects is a great quality for my future. As communicator, the skills practiced are useful in every career because good communication is the base to everything. I am studying accountancy and in my future jobs I will most probably work with a group of people to achieve a common goal, from making an audit to a company or preparing their financial statements.

Opposite Sex

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

English Intermediate 3103 - 134

8 February 2018

Opposite Sex

The reading’s content has a message beyond barriers. It demonstrates how people put themselves standards and restrictions that don't allow them to be how they want to be and how some people “view the grass greener at the other side of the fence”. A major thing stopping women from doing what they considered men could do was themselves. Nothing can truly stop them from going out on dates, putting on colognes and doing other activities that they considered for “men”.  The major change from their life to the essay they were writing was the feeling of being normal, accepted and wanting to please how many people would want them to be, which are reasons to why they may not try to do these things in their real lives. Something I’ve heard is women say that if a man goes out with different women it’s considered “ok” but if a woman does it, it’s not. That is incorrect to me. First, I see it as something natural that some people do and I don't consider it my business but if I were to immerse myself in cases like these, I would treat men and women equally but “the grass may seem greener at the other side of the fence” and some may say differently. Besides this, I consider that there are some real differences when it comes to dating because of natural things but these are not the ones that come to the case when people touch this topic.

Work cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Class Assignment. Opposite Sex Reflection. UPRRP February 2018

Letter from Birmingham Jail

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

INGL 3103

6 February 2018

Briningham

• Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice anywhere. If you lived in Atlanta, you couldn't ignore what was happening in Briningham because sooner or later, those situations would affect you. If somebody's rights were being violated in a town next yours, that affects you directly because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice where you live.
• Outsiders coming in. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider. Some people viewed Martin Luther King as an outsider coming from another town to theirs to make changes but that freedom is essential to the wellbeing of the states.
• Just and unjust laws. Remembering that everything that Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal”. It was illegal to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. A law can be just in its face and unjust in its application. This was the case with the african-american community in the United States when they were given the “right to vote”. The law said that they could vote like any other white citizen but when the african-american people went to vote, they were required many more requirements than those that were asked to white people.

Work cited

Pittmann, Cynthia. Class Assignment. Martin Luther King Jr: Letter from Birmingham Jail.

UPRRP January 2018

Hurricane Maria

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

Intermediate English 3103 -134

30 November 2017

Hurricane Maria

Hurricane Maria brought things that neither me, my parents nor my grandparents had seen before. The island was completely paralyzed, finding potable water and food were a struggle, and dozens of people lost their lives due to the effects and damages caused by the hurricane. At the same time, I experienced a reality that gave me lessons for a lifetime. We had to go “old fashion” with communication since nobody had cellular signal or Internet. We learned to be in “survival mode” and live with less. We saw the power of nature on us, it took trees, houses, bridges and structures.  It made us realize that you have to live life at its fullest everyday. Hurricane Maria brought a new reality to my life. Decisions that impact my future greatly had to be taken in moments. The stress over when we would recover consumed my daily thoughts and energies. We were all exposed to things that we have to live to believe and I lived this one from the beginning.

The day after Hurricane Maria many were stuck in their houses and/or communities. I was no exception. On the way to my house there were a lot of large old trees that fell on the road. Since many people were blocked from the road, we had to make a way to get out in case of any emergency. The weeks after Maria were tough. Nobody had electricity unless they had a power generator. Still, people and even businesses did not turn them on because they couldn't find gasoline or diesel to run them. Gasoline for cars was also scarce, which affected our transportation. Since we weren't able to watch the news because of the problems with telecommunications, people didn't know what was happening outside so they prefered to avoid going into the unknown. All these factors were the perfect combination to make people stay inside their house because of fear of what could be in the outside. Around two or three weeks after Maria, my family and I encountered a senior woman and her husband whom we know from a long time ago. She said to us, “This is the first time I come out of my house since the hurricane, everything seems so different, the destruction is incredible.” I also prefered to stay at home because rumors were that thieves were assaulting a lot and since the police couldn't do anything, everybody was more precautious.

Never in my life had I imagined that finding food or potable water would be a problem even if you had money. In my house, we had supplies for a couple of days and when a market opened we went and bought a lot of food. Another problem with buying was that people were used to the modern ways of paying with credit or debit cards and with no Internet those machines didn't work. Since the ATM ‘s weren't open, people had to make more with less. The lines for food places, to find water and to withdraw money from a bank account lasted for hours, worsening even more the situation because these lines caused panic on the people.

There isn't one material thing that can even compare to a loss of a life, this is actually the part I consider the worst of the hurricane. Many people who depended on specific medicines like oxygen tanks or insulin injection had a VERY hard time and many also died. I can number with first and last name at least ten people who died in this period of time.

The hurricane brought hard times but we have power and are recovering in a way that will make us stronger than ever before. We are now simpler and more humanitarian people because we have lived with our own eyes, minds and bodies the hit of a catastrophic event like a category 4 or 5 (personal category doubt) hurricane. I think most people saw how fragile life can be, and we know better than ever to live life at its fullest because what was a very planned and organized year was completely changed by something not one of us can control. For this reason, we have to be happy, thankful and work our hardest for every day of life that we get. I am more than ever motivated to study and make a better Puerto Rico with the knowledge that I now have and the learning I will go in the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras Campus.  

Works Cited

Amador, Raul. Personal Interview. 29 Sept 2017

Gonzalez, Carmen. Personal Interview. 6 Oct 2017

Ruiz, Diego Narrative essay on Hurricane Maria Class Assignment UPRRP 28 Nov 2017

Salvation

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

Intermediate English 3103 -134

21 December 2017

Salvation

In the story Langston Hughes relates how in Church he wanted to see Jesus to be in Salvation but he never got to see Jesus. As a result of not being able to see him and finish the ceremony, all eyes were centered on him. At the beginning all the kids that were to be saved sat on the same bench, and after the preacher called them, some went to him and after that more people began to pray around them and the Church began to sing songs for them to be saved. Langston was left with another youngster who said he was tired of waiting there in the bench, so he said that he had seen Jesus and went to the preacher as if he had been saved. Langston was still on the bench and everybody had their attentions on him, and he was frustrated because he hadnt seen Jesus. So he emulated the other youngsters false decision and said that he had seen Jesus. The actions taken by Langston were clearly because of peer pressure and emulation of bad behavior. Everybody had their eyes on him, even his aunt was surprised of what was happening so to end this pressure on him to see something, he lied about it and ended the problem for them. After doing this, everybody was fine but him because when he was in his bedroom at night, he began to cry because of his lie. The result of making a bad decision under peer pressure.

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

Intermediate English 3103 -134

21 December 2017

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

In the story the girl is set with very strict rules put by society. The person who is inculcating these norms on the girl does it for what the person considers good but it’s not necessarily the best for the girl. The person is not taking into consideration the girl’s opinion or what she likes and doesn't like. Human beings aren't robots that live within guidelines without an opinion or a special way of being. The story is written in a tone in which she is expressing a type of rejection for the strictness mentioned in the “guidelines”. Every case is special and one can't compare one person’s life to another person's life because it is impossible for them to have passed through the same situations. There is an absence of personal likeness in these “guidelines” although I recognize that the person who said them, said them for what the person believes is the best for the girl but there is no common solution for a problem because each one is unique.

Black Men in Public Space Reflection

Diego E. Ruiz Ruperto

Professor Cynthia Pittmann

Intermediate English 3103 -134

30 January 2018

Black Men in Public Space Reflection

Brent Staples’ essay, Black Men in Public Space makes reference to a race gap that has been present for hundreds of years in history and today. I believe race gaps are caused by generalization. As Brent Staples said, he grew up in a small town full of gang warfare, street knifings and murders. He had a half-dozen fist fights and he was considered a “good boy”. These communities create cycles that are hard to get out of, which is what he did. Brent Staples went on to become a better person by continuing his studies to a university level. While studying, he felt the race gap when being in a public space. People would confuse him with burglars or think he was going to attack somebody. That perception of people doesn't happen from one day to another, for hundreds of years black people were held back with slavery and segregation which blocked and denied opportunities to their communities. These factors are the one that add up to them living in towns like the one Brent Staples was raised in, one where half a dozen fist fights, gang warfares, street knifings, and murders are a normal. Truth is that many people could be afraid of seeing a big person walking behind you on a dark path with their hands in their pockets, regardless of their color. In the story he narrates, his “first victim” did not run because she saw a black man, she ran because she was alone, on a dark trail, defenseless against anything. I don't blame her, one has to expect the best but plan for the worst and the worst doesn't have to do anything with color. In a case like this one, many people could see an animal and start running.