my thoughts ???

It is better to attend college rather than university for a variety of reasons. Many will agree that there is much benefit attending college courses versus university studies. The pros of hands on learning through college educational experience seem to out weigh the pros of just attending university to obtain a degree. College education seems to deliver mainstream skill sets  needed in today’s fast pace workforce. Universities on the other hand focus on study skills were the student is pretty much left to determine theories and draw upon reliable authoritative to back a thesis. This is my point of view on the subject and my understanding of the difference between  the educational systems.

Attending college through lectures similarly to university, I find the in class seminars are quite more beneficial in retention of information. University based curriculum is done through theories and the student is left to determine concepts without any real support from the professor. Were as college programming curriculum the instructor is engaged with the students.

Personally, attending college has given me great information on today’s concepts in the workforce environment. Knowledge of the various programs developed curriculum prepares the student for continued success with spooling the courses so that the learning experience sets the individual to obtain a university degree. My partner obtained a couple of university degrees and we are in agreement  that college courses and curriculum were both hands on and instructor supportive throughout our experiences. Were as university focused learning was on development of thesis papers and research. Research in developing thesis in university courses is the mainstay for that particular educational system. College the student seems to be more freely opinionated but with keeping to factual information.

The significance of retaining a college diploma versus a university degree in retention of a career placement should be considered equal in today’s workforce environment. University and colleges have made great progress in equalization accreditation.

A local self-employment long standing systematic racial issue which has been on-going for many years. Joe Whetung of Curve Lake First Nation seeds and harvests wild rice for cultural restoration and a livelihood, as he runs a business for product sale. Local municipal residents have concerns about the waste from air-boat harvesting devaluing their land and homes on the west side of Pigeon Lake. Many Indigenous people in Canada believe that colonial violence similarly has contributed in the division between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in Canada. This concept lingers in the background and surfaces from time to time. Mostly brought on by 2 sides being misinformed and lack of education / understanding. Interestingly, the fact that Indigenous Treaty rights supersede any provincial and or federally recognized territorial law was never mentioned. Joe Whetung and or any member of Curve Lake responding to the situation was admirable.

Most First Nation people look to resources at hand for sustenance or employment. From experience I understand the frustrations and concerns on both sides of the issue. In my younger years I use to harvest wild rice for sale traditionally. In my area, air-boats were utilized and this kills the rice as it decapitates the stocks and leaves waste behind. To date, year after year, our past bountiful wild rice fields on Lake of the Woods decline as the Ontario Power Generation Authority floods the lake every fall, drowning the bays of wild rice.

The second topic will be on systematic racism. The Star did an editorial on the recent school brawl at Manitoulin Island in Ontario. Quite a bit of education and misinformation fueled this racially charged violence among the secondary school students both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. The articles contents shed light on how Indigenous people are targeted in the justice system with over-representation. Another attribute to the systemic racial issue was the inability of the upper management and board within the education system to engage to subside racial tensions. Similarly, I found the stereotypical adaptation to sexually transmitted diseases targeting Indigenous people primarily a fundamental post to this systematic racially charged issue. Knowingly, that the on-set of disagreements had nothing to do with Indigenous students to begin with.

https://www.mykawartha.com/news-story/9018797-no-sign-of-an-end-to-pigeon-lake-wild-rice-dispute/

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2018/10/12/how-a-high-school-brawl-exposed-an-ugly-divide-on-manitoulin-island.html

I improved my referencing skill on the second draft of the profile assignment. The seminars and lectures has given guidance on proper referencing. I wanted to incorporate at least two directed questions on the person I profile for quoting within my profile assignment. Blend the personal quotes within the narrative so the information flows. Have at least 3 good references to the content in the profile assignment as well.

The profile subject has requested a complete copy of the profile. She was very appreciative of the interview questionsp. How I approached her in a good way, asking her before I started if she trusted me. I had given her a pouch of tobacco as an offering of my gratitude. The profile assignment was much more than just writings making a profile for me. Now I have made a friend through this assignment. An emotional bond was made from the issues she shared wholeheartedly.

My greatest strength in my writings is my life experiences being put forth. This maybe the only positive I could say I have a head start with from my peers. My life stories seem to capture the interest and I get great feedback through the commentary and word of mouth. These personal attributes made the profile assignment much easier to interview the subject and retain in-depth personal information. Issues that people don’t generally share openly.

I always re-read my writings now and check for spelling errors and punctuation. My writings come together in pieces now as I gather information. Earlier on I would just write out an entire blog at one sitting. The skill to back up my writings through reference is coming along nicely. In my profile second draft I believe I utilized good referencing sources for relevant information. One major thing I have improved is shortening my sentences, I was pretty bad with run along sentence structure.

To date writing  reflection from; This I Believe assignment, to date has mostly been favorable.  I generally need to shorten my sentences as both instructor and peers view my sentences are lengthy. Hard to understand from paragraph to paragraph is needed to be broken up to focus on a topic. Both peers and Instructor had reviews saying pretty much the same issues: (Kaitlyn Blondin Fri 9/28, 3:35PM) “This is an awesome topic for the theme “This I Believe”, thank you for allowing me to read it! That being said I feel like the introductory paragraph needs to be clearer what your belief is. Also I feel as though some of your sentences could be separated into two and there is a couple grammatical errors that make it a little hard to read through”. The general information given on the cultural topic was good but the need from peers was they wanted to know more on Indigenous culture. So I took the review constructively and analyzed the pros and cons.

In my reviews more referencing would of shed more information gathering by readers and given a overall better understanding of the material portrayed: (George Sowchuck Sat 10/6, 11:24 AM) “some background information is required if you are going to keep Treaty #3 in your work (i.e., few non-First Nations students at Fleming College will know what Treaty #3, signed in 1873”. I was able to adjust in This I believe assignment and add a good reference to incorporate a better understanding of the writings and content.

I want to focus on improving my referencing skills on the profile assignment. The seminars and lectures has given guidance on proper referencing. I want to incorporate at least two directed questions on the person I profile for quoting within my profile assignment.  Have at least 3 good references to the content in the profile assignment as well.

My greatest strength in my writings is my life experiences being put forth. This maybe the only positive I could say I have a head start with from my peers. My life stories seem to capture the interest and I get great feedback through the commentary and word of mouth.

Writing and rewriting personally is something done almost instinctively. I will make spelling, grammar, and information errors. Usually my writings contain a broken story or have much misinformation. Nothing is perfected ever the first time drafting up my writings. Even my hand written drafts are incoherent or just poor handwriting that I can’t even decipher. I have been told that my hand written ability is very bad but on occasion my handwritten ability was beautiful. I try to incorporate personal life knowledge in any writings that I engage with but if I am expected to be un-bias in my viewpoints I will incorporate purely true informative dialogue with quotes to back what I am portraying to the audience.

I find that reading has helped me dramatically in determining styles of writing. Getting the big picture to the audience and information across. Story telling in writings be it fictional or non-fictional has always been a favorite. The writing attributes that I seem to follow is it does not matter how I do it as shown in: ” Secret # 3: Rewriting Takes Time (and it doesn’t matter how or when you do it). For most people, a first draft implies a complete draft, from prologue to epilogue. But not everyone writes that way. Diana Gabaldon, author of the best-selling Outlander series, says, “I get asked, ‘How many drafts do you go through?’ all the time. The answer is either ‘one’ or ‘infinity,’ but I don’t know how to tell the difference. I don’t write, leave, come back later and revise.  I work slow and fiddle constantly, so the revision is pretty much done as part of the original writing.  By the time I’m done with a scene, I’m done with it.”    Usually my style is to build a topic in my mind and jot information down like note taking to gather information. The compilation is than written down in an entire sitting from beginning to finish similarly what I am doing within this blog. At other times it can be broken up into different times a number of sittings with numerous revisions.

Shope, B. (2002). True writing is rewriting. In G. Lazette, (Ed.) Vision: A Resource for Writers. Retrieved from Vision@sff.net

Dirty jobs was an interesting theme that I can relate to. Many people in my area rely on fisheries as a livelihood and sustenance. Specifically, the commercial fishing industry that employs many seasonal First Nation people year to year. There is a high demand for fresh water fish to go to market from the Canadian and American side of the border. I have had experience as a young man in this industry and it was brutal day in and day out work but smelling like fish all the time was unpleasant.

The fishing industry is very robust in the Lake of the Woods area in Northwestern Ontario. The entire lake is huge spanning from the west of the Manitoba border to the southern American border, easterly following the highway 17 from Fort Frances to Kenora in Northwestern Ontario.

The Alaska king crab fishery is not only a dirty job but dangerous. Statistically, fisheries has the second highest fatality rate. Many times on the deadliest catch series crab boats are in peril or fisherman become sick or terribly hurt at sea. Recently, a pair of fisherman were stranded on an island on Lake of the Woods for a few days. Kenora on-line reported: “On Wednesday, police in Kenora and Fort Frances were dispatched to the report of the two missing men, from the Buena Vista resort on the southern end of the Lake of the Woods. It was reported that the boat was last seen near Fadden’s Island on October 9. ”Helicopters, police, and search teams dispatched but mostly area fisherman guides and commercial fisherman were most concerned and on the lookout for the pair that went missing.

Throughout the years I have watched the show deadliest catch with amazement. The relation I can a test to what those Alaska king crab fisherman endure. Knowingly, pulling a dozen fishnets in blustering snow cold fall weather, fingers freezing, face numb. In late fall was surreal. Alaska weather would be quite different from Northwestern Ontario, what was the topic of discussion on Wikipedia: according to University of Alaska economist Gunnar Knapp. “The environment in which the crabbing is done, in the Bering Sea, in winter, has to be some of the worst conditions on Earth. You’re hundreds of miles from port, in stormy seas, with ice forming all over, sometimes so thick it capsizes the boat.” Similarities, vary quite dramatically though from Lake of the Woods commercial fishing and Alaska king crab fisheries.

https://kenoraonline.com/local/missing-fishermen-found

2.71.1 http://www.menatrisk.org/health/dangerousjobs.html

A recent acquaintance of mine; John Thompson, is a gentlemen whom is a journalist for TVO northwestern Ontario region. I was intimately impressed on his reporting strategy, in his use of compiling research information on the topic before engaging in building a story. Open minded going in builds a truthfulness that gives the reporter that definable respect when producing articles with significance to the general public audience. The reporter is most particular in responding to any media from the public; in that, he keeps to the topic of the article. I could only hope to be on that level of journalism.

My profile behaviour is creativity, many cases throughout my career portfolio I have gotten spectacular projects initiated just from asking the proper questions. Similar to what the Apple company lead said: Steve Jobs so eloquently phrased it: “When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” It amazes myself how little communication can move people in the right direction. Many times it was for myself just to sit back after some engagement and watch great things occur.

Presently, I am interviewing college services and use my creative behavior to form my questions so I can receive truthful and informed responses. I look forward to engagement from college service departments and their responses to my geared questioning.

I am represented as an Ojibway in English terminology, this is my lineage. I have a belief that has been passed on through the generations of the original peoples on these lands. My family comes from a man named Piitong whom settled on Lake of the Woods in what is now Northwestern Ontario.  Piitong my 7th  generation grandfather  had 7 wives that had children these people branched off in the Treaty #3 area over time. My understanding I have many many relatives in quite a large land mass area.

The Anishnabeg people of Turtle Island through teachings passed down through the generations really mostly was done orally, they practiced some pinto graphs early on but syllabic writings are more recent. I believe in what the seven grandfathers passed on the basis of traditional spirituality.

The first teachings is of utmost importance that is respect, to hon-our all of creation. I believe everything is in-animate meaning alive the rocks, the water, the air we breathe. The second teaching to cherish knowledge is to know wisdom, so I have lived my life knowingly learning something new everyday.   To know love is to know peace as I have been with one sacred woman for the last 28 years I have come to know comfort and tranquility. Bravery the 4th teaching is to face the foe with integrity, I take this teaching to heart be able to beat cancer the biggest challenge in my life a relentless foe. Honesty in facing the situation is to be brave, I usually take things with a grain of salt so to speak but I have gained respect being an honest person through the years of my life. Humility is to know yourself as a sacred part of creation in this teaching I have come to know personally my own sacredness in keeping myself whole mind, body, and spirit. The last teaching is the truth of it all, to know all of these things.

Brian Cable profiles the Goodbody Mortuary. Do you think it is a well-written profile of this building/business? If so, what makes it strong? If not, how could it be improved?

Brian Cable’s profile and description of Goodbody Mortuary was well written with an in-depth look into the building and business venture. His visualization of the building was super descriptive and had direct contact and communication to portray the content aspect of the business from the mortuary director. The topic of death alone makes for a strong topic with every human being and the end of life issue grabs the individual reader cause it is a universal part of life.

I was impressed with Brian Cable’s visualization of detail on the mortuary, his expectations and the setting the building was placed. The importance of the business in today’s world that it was a necessity and how the mortuary director deemed it as a growing productive business that had inflation aspects to it over the years, the cost of funerals and items have gone up in price exponentially.

Mind you this rendition of a mortuary and death in general is an individuals point of view. In some instances I have known mortuaries were not even involved. First Nation people in the far Northern Ontario at times will bury their own without the assistance of a mortuary em-bombing the body and or casket, even providing any service. All is done locally, handcrafted caskets, local church service, and community support for the burial itself.

In my First Nation community when an individual passes on the service is held at our community gymnasium so the entire community can visit and pay respects to the loved one that had passed and family members. The mortuary is only involved with body prep and casket purchase / delivery, rarely a service is done by way of western religions it is usually traditional native spirituality funeral services  delivered. Death in my culture is a time of celebration as the person starts on a new journey to the after life and the creator is welcoming.