Writing is not a McDonald’s Hamburger

Adrian Perez When you write you are supposed to let everything go and not hold anything back. The author uses an example of a student that can talk about anything, but when he writes, he can’t transmit those emotions. In writing you have to let every emotion you have to take place in that writing and feel what you’re writing. After reading this I started to write because it reminded me of the journal that we use in class for free writing and we are supposed to let everything go and write everything that’s in our thoughts. I started to write whatever I was feeling without holding back anything. It was a very calm experience. I wrote whatever popped in my head and it felt good while doing it because I forgot all of my worries.

Baking A Cake- Beatriz Cruz

Baking A Cake explains the process of baking a cake. You have different ingredients to bake a cake: sugar, flour, butter, baking soda, eggs, milk. You mix the ingredients, but you don't get a cake, you get goop. When you put the goop in the oven, when it heats up is when you get the cake. When you get the cake it does not look like the original ingredients. Writing is like baking a cake. The ingredients are the details of your life. You must add the heat of your heart to those ingredients to organize your writing with details. You can't think as you write, you accept what is put down its truth. Timing your writing will help heat things up. If you look at the clock too much as you write, you have to say to yourself that you will keep writing until you have from three to five pages filled, both sides, until the cake is baked. You have to use details to bake the cake. I did this activity two times and it worked, I didn't look at the clock, so I finished really easy, with details and without stoping the pen.

I Dont Want to Die - Luis Bevilacqua

I Dont Want to Die talked about an old man that was dying and before he died he told his friend he didn't want to die. It talks about living the moment and accepting what you really want to do in the moment. Not hiding behind feelings and just coming out with what is on your mind. For this story I did an activity where I closed my eyes and thought as if I was going to die and I tried to think that way to see the way I would feel in that very moment and embrace it. I closed my eyes and thought about all the happy moments in my life and how they would never come again. I saw the faces of all my loved ones smiling at me and slowly fading away like I would never get to appreciate those smiles in my life again. I lived the moment and accepted my feeling and it really felt awful and I wouldnt like to do it again.

A Big Topic Eroticism

A Big Topic: Eroticism

When I think about eroticism I think of many different types of emotions. My initial thoughts are love, passion, scandal, prohibition, taboo, pornography and ultimately sex. On a more serious level eroticism to me is something very intimate. To be erotic you have to be in a state of mind where nothing around you exists except you and your mind, body, and soul. You have to manipulate your mind for it to pleasure your body. Anything can be erotic like the way you touch someone you have feelings for or the way you look at someone when you sleep with them or desire them. Eroticism is never real when it is forced or tried to act upon. It is something that has to flow, something that has to be real from your heart. Eroticism for many is a kind of taboo, something that porn stars do.  In some way this might be true but when they do their job I suppose that they have to be in touch with their body, mind and soul to portray the eroticism which is seen. It is surely not easy for a person to display eroticism and expose it to the world. Examples of eroticism for me are to receive a phone call from a person you like or love and for them to speak of things they wish to do with you. It is when they touch you in a way that makes you feel as if you and that person are the only ones in this world. It’s a deep, emotive passion where you give yourself to the person 100% with no boundaries or exceptions.

In this reflection I want to include some of my friends and their opinions on this topic. I will ask them what they think on eroticism to be as serious as possible. With these interviews I can evaluate the knowledge and connection people have with their bodies and even see how society might affect how they answer these questions. There is no doubt that some people are very conservative and do not like to bash with their intimate details but since I am trying to be as objective as possible to the topic and exposing what I really think about eroticism  I want to see how objective others may be to the topic. I am hoping that the people I interview might be up for giving me clear answers. Let’s see what happens!

Question:  The topic is on eroticism. I want you to tell me what eroticism is for you. If you cannot tell me in the moment try to tell me a moment in which you felt erotic or things that make you feel erotic or maybe even imagine something that can lead you into making sense of the word. It could be anything as simple as taking a shower or something related to this.

1.      1.“Erotic is something my partner does for me instead of something I do myself. It is movements in the bed. It’s the tension between me and my partner in which we touch ourselves… you don’t have to think in sex but it might lead him to think in sex.”

2.      2. “Intimate touching, kisses in the neck and shoulder. It involves feeling and emotions. It would be with a partner not with anyone I am not in a relationship in.”

3.    3.  “There is no concrete definition but I can give you examples, like foreplay, touching, neck kissing, the game between a partner, watching porn, dancing really provocatively. When two girls are dancing face to face and touching each other is a perfect example. It’s a mental or literal picture that turns you on. It is a provocative picture. It is seeing naked people in person.  It’s not intimate there is no deep emotion and love, its superficial. It leads to sex and having a good time enjoying each other’s bodies. Other examples are lap dances.”

4.      4.‘’The art of seducing and making a person feel turned on. It is making them feel pleasurable sensations, it is unplanned. Sometimes eroticism happens involuntarily. You have to feel comfortable with yourself and the things that are happening around you. You can also feel erotic on your own. You can discover yourself within eroticism you should first know yourself to be with another person. It is an adrenaline rush, sexuality and simple vision of someone naked.”

dd5.      “It is not something that makes you horny it raises your lipid. You feel love. Not necessarily sex. Hugs and cuddles lead to eroticism. “

6.      “Listening to music. An experience in which fulfills you. Something that is passionate not necessarily sexual.”

7..      “It is an orgasm (not necessarily sexual). It is going on the trip when doing something that you love to do. You involve your mind and body in this. This takes you to eroticism and it happens through full dedication. You have to be in a trance of euphoria. For me it is ballet. When you’re on stage with all the lights on and dance. You begin to feel an adrenaline rush. It is the rise of dopamine in the brain you don’t feel like you are in this world. You get goose bumps. It’s a moment of total peace with oneself.”

8.      “It is something beyond normal. It is the point of maximum exaltation in a person. It takes you high or takes you in a trance.”

9.      “It doesn’t necessarily have to be the full expression of sex. You can be fully clothed and still be erotic. Expressing your sexuality is erotic. It is an intense sexual feeling. It is an emotion. You can be erotic with yourself. You can be passionate without being erotic.”

10.      “Comes from the word eros meaning passionate love. It is the passion and fire that you give your partner. It is like wow! It is an ultimate energy exchange between two people. It’s when you’re in touch directly with that person’s body this way you get to share that person’s aura and receive a strong type of feeling. It is not all about physical exchange. I enjoy eroticism. You can tell when you touch a person if there is a connection because it has a meaning. Chocolate and body painting are very erotic. Body painting is actually one of the most erotic things I’ve seen in my life. Dancing closely with someone, starring in a person’s eyes, gazing at the naked body in its natural state just walking around the apartment, taking a shower are erotic things. Grapes, strawberries, and bananas are erotic fruits.”

After interviewing ten different types of people who all have very different personalities, I felt that my definition was very closely related to their answers except maybe in a few details. I feel some people were very open as they saw I was very serious about the topic. I felt that others, due to their personalities, really did not give me much detail and what they said was probably not even half of what they felt. I even had one case in which the person I interviewed did not know at all what eroticism was. So as you see there are social factors in expressing our sexual feelings and well as there are very open people who are willing to put themselves out there and express their feelings. It is not easy to feel confident in yourself and portray these emotions. I feel that if you can accomplish this you can reach a true, real sense of eroticism with yourself and your partner.

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Reflection: A Meal you love "Writing Down the bones"

    
    Today at class we talked about the experiences we had doing the activities in “Writing down the bones”. The title of my activity was “A meal you love” and it was about food. In the activity, the author tells you that sometimes when you don’t have any idea of what to write, you should write about food. You can write a lot of things about food, like what is your favorite meal, with whom you have eaten that meal and sometimes you can even say where you have eaten that food. When I started writing about food, I started describing what was my favorite food and the ingredients that it had. Then I got into the mood of describing in detail the ingredients and when I was writing this thing I really got hungry. After that, I stopped writing and on Monday I started writing again. This time I saw that my writing was going in another direction. It had to do with food, but I was talking more about with whom and when I enjoyed that food. Then I realized that I had written two things about food, but in different points of view. The first one was about the food and the second one was about how I enjoyed that food. When I saw this two things I thought that if I combined them, I could actually do a really good story about my favorite meal, that did not have to be boring or not interesting.
   
     I really liked this activity because it gave me an opportunity to write about different things that I never knew I could write of. It taught me that writing is a very creative activity and you should write about whatever you want. When I gave my oral presentation and heard all the others presentations, I started thinking about how sometimes when we have an assignment of free writing, we really don’t know how to start or what to write. Well for me, this can be resolve with “Writing down the bones”. This book helps you go beyond what you know and start writing different things and with a lot of creativity. In my opinion, today I learned new techniques for better writing and when I heard all the experiences that the others had, I felt that I had to do all the activities because each of them can teach me new things.