Dinner This Friday

This Friday my grandfather is taking me out to a sushi restaurant in DC and I cannot wait. This will be the fifth time he has taken me out to eat so far this fall semester and I love these outings. It’s a great break from school, always a fun adventure and of course a great meal. He always finds the greatest places based on what type of food I am in the mood for. For example this time when I said I was in the mood for sushi he actually got in touch with the Japanese embassy in DC and asked them where the best place for sushi was in DC. My Grandfather has all these really strange connections and gets invited to different dinners at a number of different embassies all the time. He told me that a few weeks ago he had dinner at the French embassy and it was an elaborate 8 course meal where you couldn’t even let your wine glass get half empty before someone was there to fill it up again. Yes my grandfather is always involved in something within Washington, he goes to see speakers at the Smithsonian and the National Galleries almost every week. I think its his way to escape from my grandmother who is unfortunately dying and is hurting many people around her physically and emotionally. She barks at my grandfather for most of the day because she refuses any outside help and refuses to move into a nursing home. Yet many of the things she demands my grandfather is too old to complete. I really feel bad for him.

This week

So I am officially here for one more week yet it is going to be a brutal week. I am trying to knock things on my ‘to-do” list off one by one but it is going extremely slow. One of my top priorities is finishing my English paper. I am slightly disappointed that it ‘has’ to be 8-10 pages because I feel that I have proven my argument in seven pages. Always in high school when someone asked the teacher how long a paper should be, the teacher would always respond with “however long it takes you to prove your point”. There was hardly ever a ‘set’ number of pages that a paper had to be. My Physics professor once told us that many times you an write a more compelling argument in 500 words not fives pages. He said that often times you try to over prove your point and do not get to your point in a decisive manor. I would have to agree with this, if I was given a choice whether to read a fifty page book or a page article on a certain subject I will almost always go for the page article. They will get to the point in a more concise manor and will not ramble for pages and pages. I wish the University of Maryland would reconsider putting page restraints on papers in the English 101 program and teach us how to write great papers in however long it takes.

Registered

I finally got to register for classes and I am pleased to say that I managed to get out of Friday classes next semester. I am taking a bunch of different classes which all count for a different number of credits. I am taking a one credit class which is a follow up class to this semesters intro to business management. The one credit class is on business ethics, which should be interesting. I am also taking a 4 credit economics class, which should be my only ‘bear’ of a subject. I am taking a 3 credit science class on oceanic weather patterns and finally I am taking an intro geography class. My Wednesdays and Thursdays are pretty rough with 4 classes each day but it is worth it because I am off on Fridays now. It will be so nice to have a three-day weekend every weekend. If I want to go home, I can leave on Thursday afternoon and spend 4 full nights at home, which I love. It is interesting though because my brother scheduled for no classes on Mondays for 4 semesters in a row now. He says that he doesn’t mind Friday classes because everyone is ready for the weekend but he HATES Mondays. I would rather have my reward at the end of a hard week, not the beginning of one. But that is my brother for you, something’s I will just never understand.

Schedule

I still don’t get to register for spring classes for another eight days and I am very worried that nothing will be open. I am one of the last people to register because I only came into the university with three credits which puts me almost dead last. I have to take this follow up course for my business management class next semester and they told me that I have to make sure I am with the same group of students. Well I was checking online and my current business management class has 39 people and next semester the follow up class only has 37 seats. I hope I am not dead last and can get into this follow up class because it is a vital course for the core classes in the business school. Yet anyway I am looking at taking a business calculus class, a economics class, a class on weather for my lab science requirement and finally a geography class. Should be interesting if I can get into all of them. Ideally I would love to schedule them so I don’t have class on Friday but it is not looking good at this point in time. I might have to wait until I get an earlier registration time for me to plan my schedule around not having classes on Fridays. I think tomorrow I will look on Testudo and see how I can puzzle my schedule together for next semester and who knows? Maybe ill luck out and be able to fit together a schedule with no classes on Fridays.

My Grandmother

So on Thanksgiving Day I went to see my grandparents. All was going well until my Grandmother mentally collapsed an hour in. It was quite sad to see someone who once had so much energy fall apart after one hour out of bed. Her downfall only started about a year and a half ago and now she has lost the motivation to do almost everything. The worst thing about it is she refuses to go into a nursing home and she refuses to receive any help. Most days she sits on her bed and watches history channel without even eating a single meals all day. And it is not like she is a baby and you can tell her when she needs to eat and when she needs to move into a nursing home. Unless we can declare her incapable of caring for herself in front of a judge we cannot do anything about it. At least about five months ago she gave up driving on her own free will. It was a hard step for her because she loved to drive but in her condition she was going to kill herself or someone else. It is very sad that this thanksgiving might be the last time I ever get to see my grandmother, must be even harder on my mother because that is her mother who is about to pass away.

Turkey

Thanksgiving break was great, just what I needed. I loved seeing my brother and my parents and best of all I got to cook my own meals. I didn’t have to deal with diner food for a whole week, it was great. Thanksgiving day we cooked a great turkey and I made my famous mashed potatoes, people that eat them don’t want to know what exactly I put in them. Usually I use a quarter pint of heavy cream and a stick of butter and then use the electric mixer to blend it all together. They are so delicious. My brother makes some crazy sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving with all the leftovers. Usually he takes three pieces of bread and between the first two he puts turkey and stuffing and between the second and third piece of bread he puts mashed potatoes and gravy and then toasts the whole sandwich in the oven. It is quite a sight to see him devour this sandwich. I have to admit though by this point I am sick of turkey and will be glad not to see it again for another year. Some families eat turkey again for Christmas dinner; I could not imagine doing that. My family usually gets a nice piece of tenderloin for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately we usually have Christmas dinner at my Aunt and Uncle’s house and my Uncle usually overcooks the meats and then butchers it when it comes time to serve. Oh well, you can’t win in every circumstance.

Closing In

One of my professors said in class today that we only have 3 weeks left in the semester. I have never really thought about it until now but wow…that’s not much time. It seems like I have so much to do in these last three weeks. It is amazing that my first semester freshman year is coming to a close. This new chapter of my life can almost be put a rest. I remember how nervous I was before I came here in the summer and even dating back to the spring 2008. I was nervous about a whole range of things including moving and living with a roommate, finding classrooms, dealing with the workload, and not being around friends of 14 years. You should have seen me before I went to the Freshman first program, I was a nervous wreck and I probably got a total of two hours of sleep that night. Yet as everything seems to smooth out in my life this transition did as well. I learned how to deal with not only one roommate but two. I started talking to my long term friends by downloading a video chat program called Skype. And finally it only took me around two weeks to get a full feel of this campus and I quickly learned where the buildings were how to get around.

Focus Dates...Oh Boy

It is amazing how in class the other day we were talking about how it is impossible for anyone to be over the focus date in reality. Well., I have been over twice now. I just like to eat at the dining hall. It is so hard because right next to my dorm I have a Chipotle, Boston Market, Noodles and Company, Quizinos, Subway, South Street Steaks and countless other places to grab food. My parents told me that because my education is so cheap in state here at Maryland that I could eat where ever I wanted to. So I have taken advantage of that and in the end I have been over for two focus dates. I tried to let my roommates use my meal points the other day but they got rejected because they don’t look like me on my I.D. Above all I wish I had a kitchen in my suite so that I could have the best of all three situations. I would much rather cook my own meals than eat in the dining hall or eat at all these eateries on route 1. This reminds me that I only have one week until I get to go home and cook with my dad who inspired me to cook in the first place. It is kind of interesting because he didn’t always know how to cook. His food friend Ted taught him how to cook and now my dad is passing on his abilities to me.

Wrath of the Lich King

I was so excited last Thursday because the expansion of world of warcraft came out which I had been waiting for, for over two years. I know, I know call me a nerd but this game has truly grasped me by the collar for the last few years. The thing that I love most about this game is the fact that I can play with my brother (who lives in Boston), my tennis coach (who still teaches in Baltimore) and my good friend who goes to Penn State. It is great to be able to interact with these people and not just talk with them on Facebook like many of my friends do to keep in touch with their friends. I love getting on, grouping with my brother and questing with him for hours. So last Thursday Blizzard entertainment finally released its much anticipated Wrath of the Lich King expansion for World of Warcraft and from what I can see it was a huge success. Initial reports show that over 5 million copies have already been sold to the over 11 million subscribers. That is almost half of the warcraft population purchasing this expansion only 5 days after the release. It is amazing that blizzard entertainment can come up with a game that has lasted this long and has intrigued the lives of millions. I hope blizzard continues to do great work in creating video games and I look forward to seeing their new Starcraft and Diablo 3.

My Roomate and His Living Style

One of my roommates has not slept for 3 days straight and is extremely cranky! Well I would guess so, your body needs sleep. I think I have only pulled an all nighter once in my life and I was a wreck the next day. He says that he has all this work to do but I tend to disagree. He has work to do but he is always on Facebook. In between classes when he has an hour or two to get a load of work done he decides to get on Facebook and talk (I guess). He does this all the way up until a TV program comes on at night that he wants to watch, then he watches TV until the time when I go to sleep. When I wake up he is still in the same spot out in the common room and when I ask him why he didn’t sleep he says he had too much work even though I am starring at his laptop and he is on Facebook once again. I don’t think he even eats anymore; I have seen him eat food twice in the last week. When I woke up this morning he was out in the common room on the phone (with I guess) his mother who he was complaining to about how he has not slept in 3 days because of all this ‘work’. I didn’t say anything but I was thinking about how much of a lie that was. His living habits are extremely unhealthy but meh, its not my life, its his own and his own body that he is ruining.

Living in a Dorm Room Close to the Equator

It is boiling in my suite right now; I don’t think I have ever been this hot when it is 40 degrees outside. For some reason my suite mates turn up the heat to 85 degrees which is insane! Not only is it an extreme waste of energy and terrible for the environment, it is the best way for us all to get sick. It is so warm in here that we think it will be warm outside and under dress while going out with the result of getting sick. And that is exactly the case, everyone in my suite is always sick for this exact reason. Most nights I sleep with my window fully open and my fan blowing on full speed. I have never been so hot at night before. I think one morning I woke up sweating, went outside my room to the thermostat and it read 91 degrees. That is just appalling…I come from a household where the temperature was always 65 degrees and it was your own job to regulate your own temperature by wearing more or less cloths. It is a lot easier to warm up by putting on more cloths than it is to cool down. When I attempt to go talk to them about it they say that they like it warm because, and I quote, “they are from Africa”. That comment kind of disturbs me because they are not from Africa. I know for a fact that they were born in PG County. The university should not trust us with a thermostat because we cannot control it and it is a extreme waste of energy, especially with my window open every night trying to cool off.

So Dark

I hate the fact that on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays when I walk back from math class it is already getting dark outside. This daylight savings time screws me up every year and I hate it. I do not need more light in the morning because I am hardly ever up to see the sun rise! I need more daylight later in the day. I hate walking to the dining hall for dinner and it being pitch black outside, it kind of gives the campus an awry feel at night. I also hate day light savings time because when it gets dark outside I find it hard to continue to do work. I like getting my work done with and out of the way during the day so that I can relax at night. It does not always work out perfectly but for the most part that is what I try to do. It makes it especially hard when it is dark by 5:30 to stick to this plan. I am sitting here at 5:05 typing this because I am tired of studying accounting terms yet I feel that I should be doing something productive. It also makes me so tired, maybe I should just go into hibernation until we regain the hour lost in March or whenever it is. If it were up to me I would get rid of day light savings in the first place so that I could enjoy more of the day and get more work done. I guess I will have to change my work habits and learn how to get more work done when it is dark outside.

Winter Break

I was just thinking about our long winter break and I realized that I need something to do to keep myself occupied. I am thinking about going back to work. Last summer I worked for a construction company working with the crew was a memorable experience. But I hear working construction during the winter is brutal, you can’t wear gloves while using most of the tools and you end up eating lunch in a car with heat blasting. I have to say it was good money though and I would not mind making another 1500$ over winter break. I also have the option of going with my friend to Deep Creak Lake for a week or two over the break. He owns a house there and is planning on taking a large crew of people there. I can only imagine how messy that house will get with six 18 year old guys living there for a week. Would be a crazy place to have a party though, its right next to the lake and we could even throw a party out on his boat one night. That would be super fun but I might get tired of being around the guys after a week. Its still open for discussion but I know I need to find something to do over that 5 week period or else I will get terribly bored. Yet again it is a while away, I have Thanksgiving to look forward to even before I start to think about winter break and oh yeah a little thing called final exams in between that I need to focus on.

We Did It!

I will always remember where I was at eleven o’clock on November 4th when our country named its first black president. This is something that I never thought would have happened or certainly not for a long time. President Elect Obama came into our homes and won over the hearts of many Americans over the last two years and now he is the president elect of the United States of America. This is monumental for our country and now we can say to any child that he can truly do anything he desires in life. Barack Obama has inspired millions of people and shown us that no goal is out of reach. I cannot wait until January 20th when Obama is sworn into office and begins to fix the shit hole that the republicans have left us in. In my opinion he needs to first and foremost fix the economy and lower the unemployment numbers. Secondly he needs to end the war in Iraq responsibly. He has said he wants to take troops out of Iraq and send them to Afghanistan to eliminate the head of Al Quada, Osoma Bin Ladin. He is the head of this terrorist organization and I do not understand why we were not always fighting in Afghanistan, it makes no sense to me. Thirdly Obama needs to fix healthcare and implement some sort of universal insurance for everyone. Those should be his top priorities and he needs to take advantage of having control of congress on his side.

On The Eve Of......

I lasted so long without getting sick but it has finally hit me. All of my roommates have been sick for almost a month and I have resisted getting sick by taking a number of different vitamins and anti-bodies but I have finally given in. I started to feel the sore throat last Friday morning and only got worse throughout the weekend. Now it has fully hit me; cough, congestion and I don’t know how else to explain it but my whole body just feels tired. At the moment I am eating soup and watching the pre-election polls as well as analysis’s on CNN. From what I hear 1/3 of Americans have already voted from early polls but the lines will still be extremely long tomorrow. I hope people do not leave the polls just because of the long lines. People should clear their schedules tomorrow and even skip work if they have to because this is an historic election. I wonder if John McCain or Barack Obama will get any sleep tonight awaiting tomorrow, I know I wouldn’t if I was in their situation. And what does the losing candidate do after tomorrow; it sure will be hard for him to go back to ‘normal’ life after this dog fight of a campaign for presidency. For John McCain I think this is the last time he will ever consider running for president if he does not win where as I think Obama has many chances in the future if this is not his time now. Whatever happens it will be extremely interesting.

Cooking

I have to say that the one thing that I miss the most while at college is not being able to cook. I love to cook and it is one of my favorite hobbies. The other weekend I went home and cooked a piece of flank steak, fried some potatoes and prepared a nice house salad. It was so much fun. My dad first taught me to cook when I was ten years old and I have loved cooking with him ever since. Yet I hate cleaning! That is the great thing about cooking with my father is that he is my sue chef and cleans up after me. For a long time I wanted to go into culinary arts until one summer when my parents got me cooking lessons from a professional chef and I realized how much prep work goes into cooking dinner for dozens of people every night and not even being able to enjoy the food you cook. From that moment I decided that I would only cook as a hobby for my own pleasure and the pleasure of friends of family. I cannot wait until I get a kitchen in an apartment. I am so jealous of my brother because he just moved into an apartment in Boston and he gets to cook all the time. Also cooking for yourself and not eating out (e.g. the dining hall) is much healthier for you. I love eating balanced meals that I prepare myself and will continue to do so.

Thanksgiving and Beyond

I cannot wait for Thanksgiving, not only to eat great food but to see my high school friends who I have not seen for four months. I am planning on throwing a thanksgiving party at my house for my friends. It will be great to catch up with them and will be a great preview for winter break. Winter break will be amazing, I just realized the other day that we have five weeks off. That is quite a jump from what I am used to. In high school we only had 2 weeks off for winter break. I was thinking that maybe I should take an online class during those five weeks and get a few credits under my belt. Tyler was telling me the other day how hard the online classes are which gave me second thoughts. I am not sure how well I would learn without having a physical teacher or professor in front of me. I have learned that I am an extremely visual learner and I am not sure how well I would do at listening to a lecture and not ‘seeing’ the lecture. I guess it is worth a shot. Either way I will probably take another class over the summer to get a few credits at the Towson University. I want to keep ahead of the credit curve so that my options are open come junior or senior year if I want to do a work project for the Business School.

Electoral College

I really wish that I could have voted in a swing state of this upcoming election. Voting in Maryland is a give away to the Democrats. As one of my friends said the other day “even if Brad Pitt ran for the democratic office he would still win Maryland. It is very true that Maryland is an extremely blue state along with New York and California but I have to keep telling myself that my vote still does count even when I vote in Maryland. I sometimes wonder how different it would be if we used the popular vote and not the electoral college to determine our president. There have been a few times where the popular vote did not result in that president winning the presidency. That seems strange to me, that you can get the majority of the vote yet you do not win. This is prominent in the 2000 Bush Gore election. Gore won the popular vote yet because of a miscount in Florida the delegates voted for Bush and Bush won the presidency. I wonder what it would take to reform the system to go by the popular vote and not by the electoral college. Some say that it would push candidates to campaign in strictly cities with a high density of voters. I think that we need to push to get rid of the electoral college and implement the popular vote.

From Last to First

I was so glad that the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series because as I have stated before, I hate the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays lead off this year with change. They first changed their uniforms from lime green to dark blue and changed their names from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to the Tampa Bay Rays. This leads me to my next point which is that the Orioles are getting new uniforms next season! Maybe this will change our luck and maybe the Orioles can follow in the Rays footsteps of last to first in one season. Yet I highly doubt this because in reality it takes more than just a new set of uniforms to change around the abilities of a team. The Rays reformatted their entire pitching staff along with new hitting prospects who turned out to be magnificent. The funny thing is that the entire Rays team’s salary was just over that of a single Yankees player. Just goes to show that money cannot buy everything in life. Yet this Rays team will probably sell most of their players over the upcoming years because now all of the major league baseball has seen their talent and will pay much higher salaries for these once underrated players. Who knows, maybe the Orioles will pick up a few of these Tampa Bay Rays, we sure have enough money for them, its just a question of whether or not our idiot owner is willing to put some cash aside for them.

Rays v Red Sox

I was extremely disappointed that the Red Sox lost the pennant to the Tampa Bay Rays. Just a year ago the Rays were the laughing joke of baseball giving up the most runs out of their bullpen and having the worst record in baseball. I have two reasons that I hate the Rays. First is that even when the Rays were bad, they still would always beat the Orioles. The Orioles could sweep the Yankees and then get swept by the devil rays the next week. They had our number always and anytime the Orioles were doing well the Rays would knock them back down. The second reason why I hate the Rays is that they have the ugliest stadiums in baseball and before this postseason is made watching baseball against the Rays boring. I don’t understand how you can have a stadium in St. Petersburg Florida and have a closed in dome. Some domes I don’t even mind but this one has to be the ugliest one of them all. The lighting is terrible and dim and the astro-turf is a puke green color. The crowd before this post season would show up 5 thousand strong and it would be silent in that stadium. I really thought that the Rays would fall apart this year and when they made it to the ACLS I was sure the Boston Red Sox would win the pennant. Yet the Rays won it in game 7 of the ALCS and now I refuse to watch the world series. I am sure the sponsors are now dropping out because not many people will watch this boring world series.

21 isn't cutting it

I am running out of this to write about so I thought I would write about the ridiculous drinking age in the United States. 21 is an absurd drinking age and the U.S. has the highest drinking age in the world. It amazes me that you can go off to war at the age of 18, and have the responsibility of holding weapons that take other peoples lives yet you cannot have a drink. You can fire a weapon and take other people’s lives as well as risk your own life at war, yet some young soldiers will never legally be able to have a drink. Another thing that you can do at the age of 16 is driving a car. We a trusted driving a two ton car that can induce mass damage yet we are not socially responsible enough to drink alcohol.
Equally as industrialized nations in Europe all have drinking ages of 16. Some of these nations include France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and Sweden. In my opinion by setting the drinking age so high in the United States it causes the opposite effect in that there is more under age binge drinking than any other nation in the world. If so many other nations have showed us that minors can be socially responsible with alcohol, why can’t Americans? Our government needs to lower the drinking age to atleast 18 and I truly believe that it will reduce binge drinking and fewer Americans will die of alcohol intoxication and learn how to be socially responsible with alcohol.

Vacation

Phew, done with my exams but I can’t relax yet! I still have a math test and an English paper to worry about. I want to get my entire English paper done before this homecoming weekend. This weekend I am driving home to get my best friend who is meeting me in Baltimore from Penn State and then we are coming back to Maryland for the football game. My brother is also flying down from Boston for homecoming here at Maryland and I cannot wait to see him either. My brother and I have already been extremely close yet last summer is the last summer he will spend at home. Next summer he will get an internship up in Boston and will only come home for a possible vacation.
Speaking of vacations, my parents left for Italy yesterday and I am so jealous. Italy is my favorite European country. I have been to Italy five times, France twice, Switzerland twice and Germany once. I am actually a French citizen and have a French passport and I.D card. My grandfather tried to leave the country on a U.S. passport and enter France on a French passport once and he was snagged by the French intelligence agency. They thought he was a Jason Bourne and kept him in an interrogation room for hours on end. He has many good traveling stories.

Rhetorical Journal # 2

The article entitled Illegal Immigration written by Peter Katel focuses on the number and history of illegal immigrants flooding into this country and the issue of reforming the current immigration policies. In this article they are trying to lay down the facts using the Ethos and the Logos. There is little Pathos involved because they are not trying to sway your opinion one way of the other.
The author builds up his credibility or ethos by stating facts that cannot be disputed. They are numbers such as “more than 10 million illegal live in the United States and 1,400 more arrive every day”. By starting out with this fact it builds up the authors creditability. He does tend to make claims after his facts that might or might not be actually true. For example he says “While illegal immigrants make up only about 5 percent of the U.S. work force, they are rapidly making their presence known in non-traditional areas such as the Midwest and South”. He starts the sentence off with a fact about the exact percentage of illegal workers in this country and follows it up with a point that they are rapidly making their presence known. That might or might not be true but by building up his credibility he is able to make these claims.
There is little to no pathos is this article. The only possible pathos is when the author talks about Maria and Juan Gomez’s journey and illegal status in the U.S. He remotely tries to play on the audiences that they get up everyday and are extremely hard workers in this country and that if the audience continues to want cheap labor from Maria and Juan they have to accept illegal immigration in this country. There is little pathos in this article because once again, the author is not trying to sway your opinion one way or the other, he is just trying to present the argument. That is why logos is the dominant rhetorical appeal in this article.
Logos is all over this article, stating facts and numbers about illegal immigrants in this country. He is able to back up his facts by stating that they are from bureau censuses and government data. For example he says “About 96 percent of the 4.5 million illegal immigrant men now in the country are working, concludes Jeffrey Passel, a former U.S. Census Bureau demographer who is now senior research associate at the Pew Hispanic Center”. This article is driven by facts and that is why I would say that dominant appeal of this article is logos. There are a few logical fallacies. He time after time states that illegal immigrants are taking jobs away from residents in the United States. This is confusing cause and effect. The jobs are still out there, the immigrants are the ones who are willing to work for less though. Americans still have the opportunities to obtain these jobs but chose not to work for such little pay. Yet overall I would say that this is an extremely valuable source to obtain facts about immigrants coming into the country.

Fooled Me!

I have to say that the Ravens fooled me at the beginning of the season. Their 2-0 start gave the city of Baltimore hope that this would be a redefining year with this new Quarterback and head coach. Yet after the last three weeks of losses I can officially say ‘yep, they are still the Ravens of old”. After this weekends loss they looked exactly like the Ravens of previous years. They turned the ball over 5 times, had a terrible offense and finally couldn’t defend against the pass. Their 31-3 loss on Sunday was an exact mirror of the previous few years.
If it were up to me I would make some vital changes. First I would get rid of Chris McAllister because he continues to fail at defending against the deep pass without the help of Ed Reed. Secondly I would get rid of Todd Heap who continues to struggle this year with a total of four catches all year long. For those two players I would pick up two wide receivers such as Chad Johnson. We need a big name receiver on our offense that can really lead it. We used to have this in Todd Heap but since he got injured in 2006 he has been a lot more cautious on the field and has failed to pick up that leadership roll on the field. The worst thing about the Ravens losing is that I am surrounded by Redskins fans and they are having an extremely successful year and are rubbing it in our faces.

Officially Voted

I officially sent in my absentee ballot today and it feels so great that I am taking part in this historic election. I have wanted to vote for my entire life and especially in the last few years. The one thing for certain is that no matter who wins we will have a new president in around 5 months and we will be able to get our current idiot out of the white house. I have no clue how he got elected for not one but two terms. He has the lowest approval rating of any president in history and that is hard to come by because Nixon had a pretty dam low approval rating after Watergate. Bush had more than doubled our entire nations debt in only 8 years. Something that President Clinton took great measures to actually decrease.
I think I wanted to cry the other day when I watched him give a speech about the current bailout plan. Millions of people have lost their life savings in this crisis and he gets up there, leaning on the podium with that smirk on his face and give some bull speech about Americans need to wait for this bailout to hopefully work. We need a president that reinsures the people that the bailout will work not ‘hopefully will work’. I have hated Bush every since he stepped into the white house and will after he leaves.

rough week

This week is going to be extremely tough, well actually the next two weeks. I have 3 midterms and two essays to complete. Over the next two weeks I have midterms in my Business Management class, my math class and finally my History class. I am most worried about my History exam because we have covered extensive material. Also this exam counts for a large sum of my final grade so if I do not prepare for it extremely well it will severely impact my final grade. I feel prepared on most terms but dates are going to kill me. My TA told me to define the term as who what where when and most importantly why. I will have to go back and review the why part for each of the terms.
In terms of my essays I hope that I do not push them off due to these midterms. They are equally as important. Luckily the experience with other evidence essay is only a rough draft so it does not have to be perfect. Unfortunately my history essay has to be perfect or else I will not receive credit for it. My history essay is about this movie that I went to see concerning the semesters theme on war. I am already half done but it seems choppy and I don’t think I will get around to turning it in for another two weeks. I hope I can make it through these two weeks alright, I will be ready for a break after them.

Joe and the Yankees

I really hope that the dodgers make it to the world series for two main reasons. First is because I want to see Manny Ramirez face his old Boston team (also saying they make it to the world series). Manny left Boston earlier this season leaving much bad blood and it will be interesting how he handles coming back there. The second and more important reason I was the Dodgers to make it to the World Series is because I love Joe Torres and I hate how New York treated him. He made the playoffs 15 straight years and won 4 titles yet that was not good enough for George Steinbrenner and the stuck up Yankees. It gave me great satisfaction that the year after they fired Joe Torres the Yankees did not make the playoffs and Joe was able to make the playoffs with an entirely new team that in the past few years have struggled. It shows Joe’s great character, that he leave New York after 15 years with no bad blood and go to another team and make them great. I think that the Yankees made the worst mistake of possibly their lifetime by firing Joe Torres and I don’t think that it will go un noticed. I think it will be decades maybe even centuries before they get a coach back that had as much talent as Joe Torres. I will always be a fan of Joe Torres no matter where he goes. The Yankees screwed up badly on that deal.

Ronald Jenkees

It is amazing what you can find on Youtube and what amazing stars can be born on Youtube. For example just a few weeks ago I ran across this guy who creates his own beats and jams to them on the keyboard and he has gotten national attention through Youtube. He is now selling albums like none other and he has blown my mind. He has convinced me to buy his first album and I am eagerly waiting for his second. His name is Ronald Jenkees and he taught himself how to play the piano at the age of four. He now produces his own music.
It is amazing that just two years ago he was in some completely other field of work to make money and through youtube he has been able to focus strickly on music and make a decent living so far. I am just waiting for a big time label to sign him, he is that good. I listen to his music everyday. He said that he will have his next album out by December and I cannot wait. Who knows, without youtube he still may have been sitting in his room producing insanely good beats without anyone every knowing. Thank god for the age of technology and the age of youtube.
Here is one of my favorites

Rhetorical Journal Assignment

I chose the Volkswagen GTI car commercial for my rhetorical analysis. This commercial is set in a warehouse and there are two actors who play host to this game show and one contestant. The contestant’s old car is destroyed and replaced by a new Volkswagen GTI. This commercial emphasizes pathos with little to none emphasis on ethos and logos. This car commercial is targeted towards the younger crowd and tries to toy with their emotion. There is no emphasis on exact facts or reasoning.
This ad is targets a younger crowd, doing so by advertising a car for a younger generation. The first technique used in this advertisement would be the snappy techno beat in the background. This is normally not the music that an advertising agency would use to target an older crowd. The second technique that Volkswagen does to characterize the ad towards the younger crowd are the short sayings. Sayings such as “representing Deutschland”, “dropped it like its hot” and “we are going to un-pimp it” plays towards communicating to a younger crowd.
This advertisement loves to play with the viewer’s emotions. The first technique that this ad uses is the writing on the back of the old car. It says “The Flame” and within seconds this somewhat ‘sexy’ blonde woman takes off the F on the car so it says “The Lame” and she sticks the F on the cars owner. The viewer’s first feeling is that maybe their own car that they once thought was the ‘hot’ thing is no longer. Also the fact that the ‘sexy’ lady slapped an F on your clothing symbolizes that your care fails her tests and you will not get the women in your old car. The next theme is the idea of having a ‘pimped’ car. The main character in this commercial says they are going to ‘un-pimp’ his car and quickly a new Volkswagen with no after-market products replaces his old car. This plays on the emotion that you do not need after market products such as this guy had before to have approval from this ‘hip’ guy and ‘sexy’ blonde. By far the focus of this advertisement is for the pathos. There is only one time where exact fact or logos is used in this commercial. The only direct fact that they state is that the car is pre-tuned by German Engineers.
The only possible fallacy in commercial is the miss-conception that you must upgrade your car to upgrade your status. This is a post hoc fallacy where there is a confusing cause and effect. There are a couple of examples of exaggerated uses of pathos though. The first is the false need, this commercial expresses to the viewer that you need this new GTI in order to maintain your cultural status with friends and family. This leads to the next exaggeration that is the slippery slope. They are trying to make the viewer feel that without this new car they will lose their status as “The Flame” and their social status will collapse. In the end, this commercial is trying to toy with ones emotions while advertising this car. They have little to no credibility and fail to even mention a starting price. It is simply a fun way for consumers to look at replacing their own car based strictly on their own social standing.

Cubs

Part of me has to just sit back and laugh at what is going on with the Chicago Cubs. Everyone denies that the cubs are cursed but I am not going to lie, I am starting to believe in it. The Cubs were the best team in baseball this season yet as soon as they step foot on field in the post season they fall apart. Last night they had four errors and the first night walked seven guys. Those statistics were unheard of during the regular season. Also the Cubs scored more runs than another other team in the league this season yet over the last two nights have a combined four runs. It is normal to see a team struggle in one aspect of the game during the post season, but not totally fall apart. The Cubs offense, defense and pitching has completely collapsed over the last two games and I have to ask myself, why does this happen season after season? A few years ago I found have said that they have too much pressure on themselves to win a world series but I just don’t see how that can happen year after year. If they get swept this year, the Cubs will truly be the laugh of major league baseball and I think that more and more Chicago Cubs fans will turn to the ‘dark side’ and start cheering for the White Sox.

War

Last night I went to view the movie All Quiet on the Western Front for part of my history grade and I was surprised at how well it conveyed some of the images of World War I. I wouldn’t say this is the best movie for demonstrating war though which I believe is what they were going for. I think that series like Band of Brothers or movies like Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse now really demonstrate the hardship of war. Yet this movie got me thinking about what it is really like to fight in a war. This movie shows a clear enemy charging towards Paul (the main character) while he is firing within the fortifications of a trench. Is there a clear enemy charging at our soldiers in Iraq? Who exactly is the enemy in Iraq? I wonder what is more terrifying, having a clear enemy charging towards you giving you a clear target at who to shoot at or walking down the street of an Iraqi town and not knowing weather the civilian standing next to you is friend or an enemy. I guess this tactic is why we lost in Vietnam and we will lose in Iraq. Guerilla warfare is far superior to fighting against another known army in uniform. I wonder when we will finally admit to our defeat in Iraq though, how many more lives and how many more billions of dollars do we have to spend before we can admit that they are victorious.

Ravens

I was so disappointed with the Ravens on Monday Night Football. It seemed to me that we controlled that entire game offensively and defensively yet it one was stupid player that made us lose the game. Jared Johnson should be suspended for the rest of the season for what he did. Jared Johnson’s anger got a hold of him and he lashed out on a Pittsburgh player and cost the Ravens a 15 yard penalty which set up for the next play which was a 40 yard touchdown for Pittsburgh. Of course after that the mentality of the Ravens was wavering and on the next play Joe Flacco fumbled the ball and Pittsburgh ran it back for another touchdown. Two touchdowns in 15 seconds that most likely could have been avoided without the Jared Johnson 15 yard penalty. We would have easily won the game if not for Jared Johnson, which is why, I would take serious action against him.
If I were coach of the Ravens I would make sure the team knows that stupid penalties such as unnecessary roughness will not be tolerated. For every unnecessary roughness penalty I would fine the entire team fifteen thousand dollars and suspend the player for the next two games without pay. I would make sure that the player knows that he is hurting the entire team when he decides to lash out on the field and maybe that player will think twice before doing it again in the future.

Music

I have to say, I am not a fan of many American musical artists. Everything that I listen to is usually foreign. I find that foreign performers are much more enriching in musical style. The last American rapper that I enjoyed was Dr. Dre in 2001 and of course before that Tupac and Biggie. I really don’t enjoy much rap these days. In terms of American ‘rock’ bands I find that they all sound the same. The last American ‘rock’ band that I truly enjoyed were the infamous Blink 182. These days I am a huge fan of European techno, French rap and Australian rock. My favorite Australian rock band at the moment would have to be Powderfinger. My favorite trance performer would be Armin Van Buuren and closely related, my favorite techno performer would have to be Benny Benassi who is from Milan. Over the summer I met this girl from Sweden and she keeps linking me these great beats from her home country. They are truly amazing even though I don’t understand a word of them. She has introduced me to Basshunter, Elefant & Ph, and finally DJ Tune who came out with the hottest single in Sweden right now called “Bag in da Box”. I really just love being multi-cultural with everything that I do in my life. Whether its what I eat, what I listen to or even what I watch. I love enjoying the cultural aspects from all over the world.

Maryland Sports

It was a great weekend for Maryland sports. First I went to the Maryland football game and I could tell by halftime that it was going to be a great weekend. Maryland was up by 3 scores by halftime and the lead kept getting bigger and bigger. By the end we demolished East Michigan and I was ready to see the Ravens the next day. The Ravens started off slow but were able to pick it up in the third quarter scoring 21 points and beating the Cleveland Browns 28-10. The Ravens are now number one in the division and I am pumped to see them next Monday night against the Steelers. Well at least I hope to ‘see ‘ them. For the last two games they have not been shown on regular TV here in College Park. The only ‘local’ game that is played is the Redskins who I am neither familiar with nor a fan of. Both weeks I have had to go to the bar across route one. Its kind of annoying that they don’t play the Baltimore games here in college park because I know many people are from Baltimore and love the Ravens. Instead of playing the Ravens on Sunday, CBS decided to play Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia. Are we located in Pennsylvania? I don’t think so.

Foam Trays

I was thinking back on my post about recycling and trash on campus and realized that I must have thrown away at least 30 of those ‘to-go’ boxes already and its not even the end of September. The cafeteria really needs to do something about this because I (and im sure others) don’t want to eat in the cafeteria for every meal. The first solution that came to mind is I know the cafeteria puts a charge on using these ‘to-go’ boxes so what if they reduced the cost of your meal if you cleaned your previous box and came back to the cafeteria with it. But how would they know that the box that you are standing in line with is truly a ‘old’ box? This brought me to my next solution which was for the university to give every on campus student a metal container of their own at the beginning of the school year and let the student bring the metal container to the dining hall when he knows he is going to eat out. This way the people at the registers would actually know if you are using one of their foam boxes or your own box and could reduce the price of your meal accordingly. Of course this brings of the problem that not everyone wants to walk back to their dorm just to obtain their metal box to get reduced price. There really is not a good solution for this problem, and I sit here wondering how many foam boxes I will go through during the course of the year.

In Class Writing

The two stories that I will use for my first paper will be my first job working with immigrants and my second job working construction. Working with immigrants changed my opinions about illegal workers in America in a good way. I have never seen any group of people work as hard and as long as these immigrants do. I learned how to deal with the public and deal with complaining customers. I also learned a great deal of Spanish and also made good money working at this corporation. My second job was for a construction company where I learned some great life lessons. I learned how to use all of the power tools, build walls, and install appliances. I will take these skills with me for the rest of my life.

Getting from place to place

I think that scooters and mopeds are great, they get great gas mileage and go wonders for the environment. That being said, I don’t think its necessary to have one on a college campus. It actually has quite the opposite roll when used on a college campus. I think that anyone on a motorized vehicle is actually too lazy to walk the relatively short distance to class. Even if it’s a “long” walk it would be reachable on bike which is a healthy fast way to get around this campus. I think that everyone should either walk or ride a bike, seriously, why do you need a moped to get from one class to another. I also hate dodging and weaving people riding on the sidewalks with the mopeds. Sidewalks are for…walking and nothing else. I even have a problem with bikes being on them. The university should create separate bike lanes so that I don’t have to end up dodging bikes either. I have a bad feeling that one of these days I wont get so lucky with dodging either a bike or a moped and it will be lights out for me. So if it was up to me I would ban mopeds or any type of motorized vehicle on the sidewalks and create separate bike lanes for those that chose to bike around campus.

Recyling

It amazes me that this campus is supposedly ‘working for the environment’. What I mean is that I find it impossible to find a garbage can around south campus where I live and furthermore I find it even harder to recycle even that that’s one of the campuses main goals. To throw away trash I have to walk to around Annapolis Hall where there is one dumpster for trash and it is hardly accessible. It is sitting up on a platform so that you have to basically hurl your trash up and hope that it goes in. Yet there are like three dumpsters for recycles but you can’t even but all your recycling in one place. One dumpster says “cardboard products only” while the next says “glass (not plastic” materials only. The university could get many more people to actually throw away their trash and to actually recycle if there were recycling bins around ever corner where you could put any type of recycles and furthermore a trash can around every corner so that people don’t litter.

Traffic

I recently purchased a Garmin GPS system to navigate around traffic when I go home for weekends form College Park. Yet this past Friday I was in stop and go traffic the whole way back and the entire trip took around two and a half hours to get home. On a normal day with no traffic I can get home in forty minutes to Baltimore. I was disappointed that my plan of buying a GPS to navigate through traffic had failed. I guess I need to do more research about how to use this unit.
Furthermore I was mad that there was a single accident on the way back. It was stop and go traffic all because of a little rain. People see rain and flip out and for some reason forget how to drive. Its like coloring, you just stay in the lines and you are golden. I wish more people would understand this. Yet the most amazing thing to me was the backup for almost twenty miles was all due to people getting onto the Baltimore Beltway. I hate the Baltimore Beltway and if it was up to me I would get rid of it. In fact all beltways are bad.

Lunch Lines

It amazes me that every time I go into the south campus diner for lunch the line for the deli counter is outrageous. Yet once I have waited my through the line and gotten my sandwich, I turn around and the line has dissipated to two or three people. It doesn’t matter whether I go at 12 or at 1 o'clock, this always happens to me. The deli is defiantly the hot spot for lunch, which begs the question of why they don’t have more people working there. I don’t really want a greasy lunch from the burger or pizza place and I consider pasta to be more of a dinner food.
While standing in line (for what seems like an eternity) I have noticed that most people either go for the roast beef sandwich or the friend chicken wrap. So I raise this question…why don’t they have pre-made sandwiches that you can grab and then a separate condiments bar where you can put mayonnaise, tomato and lettuce on your sandwich. This would cut down on lines and save my precious time that I could spend doing other things. Just my two cents.

U.S Open

After following the men’s bracket in the U.S. Open for nearly 3 weeks I was extremely disappointed that I missed the final. The original final between Roger Federer and either Andy Murray or Rafael Nadal was supposed to occur last Sunday yet due to rain on Saturday everything was pushed back one day. I watched the women’s final on Sunday night and was told that the men’s final was the following day. I figured that the men’s final would be played during primetime just like the women’s final the night before. I was anxiously awaiting the match all day Monday and wanted to see an epic final.
Yet as I was sitting in the south campus-dining hall I saw a few people starring at the T.V. I turned to look at it and saw tennis; I was quite far from the T.V. so I figured it was highlights of another previous match. I didn’t make much of it after that until I got back to my dorm room. I turned on my T.V. to see the announcers talking about Pete Sampras and his 14 carrier wins, I immediately felt relieved for this must be the pre game show talking about what Roger Federer is up again. Yet I was stunned to find out that this was the post match show and that Roger Federer had just won. Three weeks of watching this tennis tournament to miss the finale, I was pissed.

My Roommate

I am not sure why, but for some reason my roommate chose to have class every morning at eight A.M. If he was quiet it would not be a big deal, but he isn’t. Starting at seven A.M. his extremely loud alarm goes off and the worst part about it is it takes him around 15 seconds to turn it off. Well not even ‘off’ he hits snooze so that ten minutes later it does the exact same thing. He repeats this from seven to around seven-forty. When he finally does get up, nothing he does is considered quiet in my book. Whether is the rustling of papers or the opening of his squeaky closet, it is almost impossible to fall back asleep.
I now ask myself why he picked eight A.M classes and furthermore why he is so loud in the morning. Maybe he can function on little to no sleep and lies to get his classes over with early. Or maybe he attended a late orientation and that was the only slot open. I am not totally sure. I think I can pinpoint why he is so loud though. In my opinion this stems from the fact that he is an only child. He has never had to truly share anything in his household with another sibling. Furthermore I shared a room with my brother for many years and learned to respect what my brother was doing at all times and he would do the same for me. I can respect my roommate’s need for sleep late and night, I hope he can do the same for me in the morning.

About Me

1. Introduce yourself briefly. Where are you from? Where have you gone to school? What educational plans brought you to the University of Maryland, and what fields of learning or potential majors interest you at this stage in your academic career?
I am from Baltimore Maryland and attended the Friends School of Baltimore for my entire life. I am currently enrolled in the Smith school of Business here at the university of Maryland and look to pursue in a field of finance.

2. What kinds of writing have you done in high school? At UMD? At another college? Outside of a school setting?
I took many high school english classes where you would write strictly on the books you read and how the pertain to the overall meaning of the course. For example last year i took a course on why the caged bird sings and i read a few books about characters who overcame their obstacles and broke free from their "cage" in order to be successful. English 101 is my first english class here at the University of Maryland.

3. What steps do you usually follow when you write a paper? Do you outline? Revise? Compose on a word processor? What part of the writing process do you find easiest? What part do you find hardest?
When i am writing a paper i usually try to outline what i am going to talk about in the opening paragraph, have 4 of 5 body paragraphs relaying to the thesis and what i have already outlined and then i finish with a closing paragraph that emphasizes the "so what". I find that the opening sentence is also the hardest part of the paper. I can never find the right words to open with and therefore i usually go straight for the body paragraphs before i finish the introduction.

4. What kind of writing has given you the most satisfaction?
I enjoy writing on subjects that i extensively know the subject matter. I hate running out of ideas half way through a paper, therefore leading me to repeat and overemphasize points.

5. What is the longest or most challenging paper you have ever had to write? How did you go about preparing and writing it? What did you learn about writing from that experience?
During my junior year of high school i had to write an eight page paper on nuclear weapons and whether or not the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and then Nagasaki was actually plausible. It took emense amounts of research and i found it hard to come to a conclusion.

6. What do you remember learning about writing from other courses or other writing experiences that you found useful?
Never start or end your paper with a quote. Also try to end each body paragraph with a "so what" line, what makes your ideas important to your audience.

7. Assess your strengths and weaknesses as a writer. What are you good at? What aspects of your writing are you dissatisfied with?
My weaknesses are a writing are coming through with strong direct evidence. I have trouble finding quotes and ideas from outside sources and placing them in my paper at the right moment. I would say my strongest aspects of my writing are my closing paragraphs. I feel that i can bring papers to a close easily and strongly.

8. What part of the writing process do you think you will need the most support with?
Making my sentences flow smoothly, a lot of the time i end up having run on sentences that are hard to depict. Also as stated above i want to learn how to place strong evidence into my paper at the right time.

9. If you had your choice of subjects for a research project, what issues or topics would you like to write about?
My research paper would be on something that i have immense knowledge for. A topic that i would not run out of ideas half way through. Topics that interest me are cooking, baseball, computers and tennis. Anyone of these subjects i could write freely about.

10. What do you associate with the term argument? How do you feel about taking a course that focuses on argumentation?
The term argument to me in a paper refers to how well you can convince your audience that your side of the issue is correct. It will be interesting coming up with knew ways to make your audience truly believe that you are correct and when you can do that, you have written a unique paper.