Miss Raquel's 2nd Novel- Part 5

[samurai_sarah]

Continue from here:

 

[kupcake]

I was just in Portland and was also very surprised... it was very white, and the non-white population was segregated to some specific areas. I expected a lot of hipsters and coffee shops (which there definitely were), but boyfriend-Kupcake and I were approached multiple times by Scientologists as well as other Christians trying to convert. 

Voodoo doughnuts and phenomenal food, but definitely not shocked that Raquel would want to be there all the time. I saw 1983012983301958 Raquels in the five days I spent there. 

[Terrie]

She tweeted about how she hates when people read her texts and don't reply. This from the girl who wrote an entire blog entry on why she might not reply to someone's messages. I may have rolled my eyes so hard they fell out. 

[clueliss]

Because it is okay for her to not reply but not okay for anyone she is texting to not reply to her.  That is, of course, the Raquel way.

[Anonymousguest]

On 12/6/2016 at 9:09 AM, kupcake said:

I was just in Portland and was also very surprised... it was very white, and the non-white population was segregated to some specific areas. I expected a lot of hipsters and coffee shops (which there definitely were), but boyfriend-Kupcake and I were approached multiple times by Scientologists as well as other Christians trying to convert. 

Voodoo doughnuts and phenomenal food, but definitely not shocked that Raquel would want to be there all the time. I saw 1983012983301958 Raquels in the five days I spent there. 

I've lived in Portland for 15 yrs and can't think of a single time I was approached by anyone of any religion trying to convert me, just an occasional Jehovah's Witness to the door, you must be especially approachable. I'm not sure what you mean by seeing that many Raquels. Pretty Hispanic girls in trendy clothes?  Portland as a city is very white, but there are large populations of Hispanic and Asian people's in the out lying areas, but still the area is about 75% white. 

[kupcake]

16 hours ago, Anonymousguest said:

Pretty Hispanic girls in trendy clothes?

Wow. 

My experience was different, my apologies. I was approached, I'm not lying, by many young people who were Christians and also hipsters. The same happened with Scientologists. I didn't mean they were all terrible, Hispanic, or pretty, which is why I never said any of those things. 

I also enjoyed the breweries, the excellent bike tour, a wonderful lunch with an amazing view of the city, and Voodoo Doughnuts. None of those had anything to do with race, either. 

 

[Anonymousguest]

2 hours ago, kupcake said:

Wow. 

My experience was different, my apologies. I was approached, I'm not lying, by many young people who were Christians and also hipsters. The same happened with Scientologists. I didn't mean they were all terrible, Hispanic, or pretty, which is why I never said any of those things. 

I also enjoyed the breweries, the excellent bike tour, a wonderful lunch with an amazing view of the city, and Voodoo Doughnuts. None of those had anything to do with race, either. 

 

What did you mean? What do you see in a person that makes you think they are just like Raquel Duarte? You mentioned the lack of diversity and the apparent cultural separation, then said you saw millions of people just like a girl who is a first generation American, so I am confused. I'm not trying to be snarky or obtuse, just trying to figure out what you meant by the comment. 

[kupcake]

1 minute ago, Anonymousguest said:

What did you mean? What do you see in a person that makes you think they are just like Raquel Duarte? You mentioned the lack of diversity and the apparent cultural separation, then said you saw millions of people just like a girl who is a first generation American, so I am confused. I'm not trying to be snarky or obtuse, just trying to figure out what you meant by the comment. 

Well sorry. I guess I should take it back. I didn't interact with millions of people. Exaggeration is obviously a problem of mine, so let me clarify. 

I met some people who looked like hipsters, tattooed and pierced, wearing plaid and generally looking like my art school friends, who happened to end up being Christians who are little too fundie for my taste. There were more white people than anything else, which is not to say I met no one of any other race, ethnicity, culture, religion, etc. 

I also stated that I was there for less than a week. I guess I should've specified that I'm not an expert on the city. My apologies and I will keep my comments about the PNW to a minimum.

 

[refugee]

13 hours ago, kupcake said:

I also enjoyed the breweries, the excellent bike tour, a wonderful lunch with an amazing view of the city, and Voodoo Doughnuts. None of those had anything to do with race, either. 

If you go back, I recommend Salt 'n' Straw ice cream. Amazing flavors.

[Terrie]

THAT's her 97 points essay? Curious as to what the professor's grading rubric was, because there's a lot of clunky writing there.

[Feministe9000]

9 minutes ago, Terrie said:

THAT's her 97 points essay? Curious as to what the professor's grading rubric was, because there's a lot of clunky writing there.

Poor Raquel.
This isn't a real in-depth critical analysis paper you would be required to complete for an English class or Linguistics.

This is an intro short little assignment which professors often give out to get to know the students, and as one of the first grades entered into the system.
She boasts of her blog, how her "Momma" bought her lots of notebooks and pens.....this is like highschool level, I'm sorry, I know Warner Pacific isn't Ivy League but I'm sure they have plenty of rigorous and challenging classes and course studies.
 

You arrogant silly girl, this is an intro assignment, you got a 97 because you answered the questions it asked you. So did everyone else.
I've done these a bunch of times in college, as i'm sure alot of others have! for goodness sake....... *eye roll*

Come back and show off when you've produced a 15 page research paper, or a long critical analysis on a theory or book you are studying.

Also, i hate to break it to ya Raquel, but bragging about how your website has had 1.1 million views, and you got asked a few years ago to write for a tiny newspaper in your hometown, this isn't a job interview!
It makes you look full of yourself and if i was your professor I would know then and there exactly what kind of student you would be. A pain in the ass, and not in a good, endearing, learn something type of  way.

Honestly, what it comes down to is: this is the sort of response you would expect a freshman (18 or 19 year old) to write in their Freshman English 101 class. You really show your lack of maturity with this one Raquel. That, or you've spent your entire life with everyone in your little world of Dutch Bros beanies and worship music and desperately seeking attention from moody looking teenage boys, and you are in for a rude awakening. I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall and listen to some other students serve her up some REALNESS. I'm sure it's just a matter of time. If she was in my class I would relish the opportunity.

Like I said, this silly little assignment tells us nothing, Raquel. It is an intro to writing class and this is an intro -get-to-know-you assignment which is very common among writing/English/Gen Ed professors. You are not a special snowflake sweetheart.

 

[Kariina]

Good grief. Why is she bragging about THAT on her blog? It just looks like an introductory assignment prompted by something like "What is your writing experience? What do you hope to learn from this course?" I would comment on the quality of writing but it's not worth it, we all know it's Raquel.

I don't really believe she wants to be challenged. I mean -- real college challenges would be good for her. But I don't think she knows what kind of challenges professors, at least at higher-level classes, are actually capable of throwing at her. I wonder if her non-traditional classes will ever give her assignments like going into an archival repository to seek out primary sources, or isolating a research gap on a topic and filling it with an extensive, publishable paper. Or at least the emotional challenge of receiving harsh, repetitive critique of creative writing from fellow students.

Raquel, if you're listening, please indent your paragraphs.

[xRoo]

THE MAIN REPORTER?! I'm rolling laughing. That's just not true.

She submitted a blog as an essay. That writing is so unprofessional. I can see how if the paper was a basic "write about your life" for the teacher to get to know their writing styles it would be fine. It may also be a 100 level class.

[Feministe9000]

The sad thing is, I don't think when I was a freshman English major, I would get this excited over a 97 on what is clearly an intro assignment.

She is starving for praise, it's beyond pathetic. You are a 21 year old, grow the hell up. No wonder Ryan went to California! I bet he could run circles around you by now, you complete twit.

 

 

[Coconut Flan]

That college looks like a diploma mill.

[Feministe9000]

I'm sorry I can't stop commenting on this.

 

What does it say about a small-town newspaper's legitimacy, if they hire a teenager as their "main reporter"? I know that this isn't true, and she submitted it in a blog/essay, but her version still sounds totally ridiculous. Does she not realize how she sounds to what must be educated, experienced and capable professors? AHAHHAHAHAHAH

And her local librarian encouraging her with her writing "gift"? LOL Raquel, honey bunch, talk about your 'GIFT' for writing when you are getting close to graduation, and you've realized and accomplished some things in writing, not what your librarian told you when you were 10.
Oh wait, maybe it wasn't the librarian, it was YOU, who calls it a 'gift', reinforced i'm sure by the adults in your life. That's even worse, you now sound like a complete idiot telling this professor you basically see yourself as some kind of mysterious, thoughtful writer, but really all it reveals about you is that you are headed for a big nasty reality check, and i hope someone who is  much more inteligent and educated than you in your place about this so called gift, and knocks you on your ass.

Why don't you show your professor your amaaaazing blog, since you are so proud of it? oh right, that might be a little embarrassing, seeing as how you deflect from standard poetry structure, ignore even free verse, and write about unrequited love, Jesus loves me because i'm special, and praying for your husband.
Yeah, maybe some of the non-Kool Aid drinkers in your classes, of which i HOPE there are many, would laugh at you. And you know what?

You should be laughed at, because this image you have created for yourself in your delusional little mind, is laughable. Also because it will probably be the first time in your life. And it will be good for you, remember God loves HUMILITY, and you dear girl could learn some!

 

[formergothardite]

That was painful. It sounds like an intro paper. Very telling that all she discusses is that little essay, no other papers that she is bound to have had to turn in. I'm guessing that her other papers have not received such high marks. 

So she is planning on taking blog posts and turning them into a book. 

[Palimpsest]

1 hour ago, formergothardite said:

So she is planning on taking blog posts and turning them into a book.

Why not?  Lori Alexander did.

Is she seriously claiming to have got 97 for that piece of pretentious bloviation.  It adds new meaning to her admission that she writes pleonastic prose.

[formergothardite]

Quote

At the time, I was particularly fascinated by the Native American culture and the early pioneering days of America.  So I wrote a story of a young girl who grew up in an English settlement, only to discover, as a young adult, that she had actually been born as the daughter of a chieftain in a nearby Indian village.

Of course she wrote an Indian Princess story. 

Quote

 It has since grown in a domain-based website called It’s Just Raquel, with over 1.1 million views and has won three international blog awards. 

How many of those views are from us? I'm betting a lot, especially since her comments are way down. Didn't she win like a teen homeschooling blog award three times, once when she already admitted she was done homeschooling? 

[Lurky]

20 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

How many of those views are from us? I'm betting a lot, especially since her comments are way down. Didn't she win like a teen homeschooling blog award three times, once when she already admitted she was done homeschooling? 

I am always fascinated by the bloggers who claim to have nothing but disdain for us, but love our hits.  I bet Lori does, and I did laugh at Gabe telling us off for our Boyer-snark, when out hits help their advertising!  It's a symbiotic relationship, innit - we help them while we snark, they reward us with more to snark about, while laughing at us for giving them more ad revenue etc!

[snarkykitty]

She forgot one of the primary rules of writing well: show, don't tell.

For example, she wrote: "Scribbling words here and there, at any chance I could, has been a lifelong habit of mine." 

This is how I would have written it: 

"I carried a notebook wherever I went as a child, scribbling out my thoughts in crayon, as I used my Snoopy toothbrush, or sitting in my mom's station wagon's back seat, waiting for her to stop at a stoplight so I could write legibly with the stubby pencil I had worn to a nub." (-Snarkykitty)

What do you learn about the writer in the first one? 

- she wrote words on random surfaces and in odd places?
- "scribbling...at any chance I could" indicates more of a manic, quick action, versus a thoughtful process, which actually contradicts the latter part of her sentence which points to a "lifelong habit". The very sentence contradicts itself.

What do you learn about the writer in the second one? 

- she's young (3-8 years old?) and uses crayons probably because they are prevalent throughout her bedroom
- she focuses so much effort on writing  that she doesn't stop for basic activities, such as brushing her teeth
- she's young and grew up in the 1970s because everyone seemed to have Snoopy toothbrushes during that time
- she wrote so frequently that she wore her pencils down to a very tiny size
- she brought her notebook with her "everywhere" - even on car rides (again, a time reference that puts her in the 1970s/early 80s) and had to wait for the car to stop so that her writing was neat enough to read back (insinuates a penchant for perfection, or perhaps takes pride in her penmanship, or intends for others to read it, and therefore it needs to be "neat")

Such is an example of the differences between "showing" and "telling"?

[Kariina]

*eye roll* I'm going to admit I skimmed the first time around. I don't want to give her one more hit. Did she seriously mention her blog has won "international blog awards"? Oy. I'm embarrassed for her.

[clueliss]

That is something that would have been given as an assignment in my Composition I class (taught by a graduate teaching assistant) and we would have had the front and back of one of the really large index cards to complete said assignment on (which was brilliant - it taught you to get to the point and not use excess wording - which Raquel really could stand to learn).

[dianapavelovna]

On 12/9/2016 at 0:13 PM, formergothardite said:

That was painful. It sounds like an intro paper. Very telling that all she discusses is that little essay, no other papers that she is bound to have had to turn in. I'm guessing that her other papers have not received such high marks. 

So she is planning on taking blog posts and turning them into a book. 

Not a book, @formergothardite, a NON-FICTIONAL. I nearly died 

I want to take a red pen to that essay so badly. 

[formergothardite]

She is now filling her Twitter with her own quotes. Her quotes sound like various things you find on PInterest, where is probably where she found them.