Blog 75

Dear New English 110 Student,
               If you are a freshman, welcome to Ohio State.  If you are a returning student, I hope everything in school has been going well for you thus far.  Everything you have heard about this class is probably true.  You write a pretty decent amount and the work that you actually turn in to be graded counts for a lot.  The class is very laid back, easy going, and nowhere near as difficult as a lot of your other classes will be for many of you.  That being said, you shouldn't take this class too light hearted.  It is an easy way to boost your GPA if you put the time and energy into earning your grade.  The class is also a great way to improve your writing.  It doesn't matter what major or profession you plan on pursuing, writing in the english language is extremely important, and every one has room to improve.  This class has improved my writing a great deal.  It has also made me extremely conscious of my writing at all points in time.  Even as I am writing on facebook or even in a text or email to a friend, I am constantly watching myself to make sure  my writing is correct.  All in all this class is great for a lot of reasons.  It boosts the GPA, isn't any work that is too strenuous, but it does help you out in many ways that are important.

Sincerely,
Former English 110 Student

Blog 74

So before this class I have always enjoyed Science Fiction for the most part.  I was never into anything really hardcore.  I know some people are obsessed with Star Trek or something like that, but I just enjoyed things every once in a while.  I do, however, really like Star Wars.  Its awesome, as I am sure most of you will probably agree with me on when I say that.   I don't really know if Star Wars would be considered Science Fiction.  I think it would be though.  I have really enjoyed the Science Fiction shows we have watched for this class though.  I really enjoyed watching the episodes of Firefly.  That show was surprisingly good and I am pretty sure I eventually ended up watching all of the episodes and the movie.  The movie was very good I thought.  I didn't expect it to be as good as it was or to play exactly on the television show so well.  Another thing I really liked was the BattleStar Galactica movie that we watched in class.  I found that really interesting and I was really entertained for those two class periods.  I was also interested in the first part of Caprica that we watched.  I was kind of bummed we didn't get to finish it in class, it seemed like it was going to be pretty good.  Overall, I have become even more open-minded and more willing to watch Science Fiction than I was before I started this class this quarter.

Blog 73

So I am writing this blog a little bit late as well.  So I caught a mouse in my house today.  It was pretty nasty.  I caught it in this little gel trap so it didn't die.  I really wish I would have used a trap that would have killed it because then I wouldn't have had to deal with it.  I ended up just setting it free out in the yard and I made sure that it went over into the neighbor's yard so I was pretty sure it wouldn't come back into my house.  Other than that I have had a terrible day.  I have done countless hours of math studying for my exam tomorrow.  After that I have a chemistry final on Tuesday and then I am done with my finals.  I didn't have a final in my Engineering Ethics class and obviously we didn't have a final in our English class.  I suppose only having two finals out of four classes is nice.  However, I still do have to finish my revision for my Analytical Research Paper after my final on Tuesday.  I don't know when I am going to be going home for Christmas Break.  I think I am going to be staying up here for the majority of this weekend and then maybe going back home Sunday morning.  Well, this is the last blog that we have for this class that has the topic where we can blog about anything, that is kind of a bummer.  Oh well, that is all for tonight, only two more blogs left.

Blog 72

So I am writing this blog pretty late.  Oh well.  To be honest I am really running out of things to write about.  I have spent like fifteen hours studying today and my brain is fried.  Today I have done about eighteen sections of math and then I have about eight more to do when I wake up.  I have my final exam at eleven-thirty so its going to be a night with very little sleep.  Right now I am just watching television and writing my blogs.  So it is pretty cool that Ohio State is going to be playing Arkansas in the BCS Sugar Bowl.  That should be a really good game.  Arkansas is a very good team with a pretty explosive offense.  If I had to pick right now I would say Ohio State has a slight edge in that game.  The only team that I would definitely pick to beat Ohio State would be Oregon.  In my opinion, Oregon's offense is unstoppable.  Its absolutely amazing the way they are able to score.  A lot of people would say that Auburn is the number one team in the nation, even the polls say that, but I just don't think so.  Auburn's defense is not very good at all and I think Oregon's offense will rip it apart in the national championship game.  I have watched Auburn play in about five or six games and they really just don't look like they are the number one team in the nation.  Don't get me wrong, Cameron Newton is amazing when he isn't stealing laptops but that is about it.

Blog 71

So today was our last day of English class.  I was surprised by how interesting Caprica turned out to be today in class.  It was a really interesting topic.  I especially didn't see it coming when the girls friend (can't remember her name) blew up the subway train out of nowhere.  It definitely caught me off guard.  I thought it was awesome that the girl who died was some kind of genius though too.  Her dad is also a genius and has spent years developing this advanced robot system, but couldn't develop the technology to make it think and act for itself.  Little did he know, his recently dead daughter developed the technology on her own, using her dad's invention nonetheless, and was able to clone herself within a holographic virtual reality.  This part of the show was a little unsettling.  It was pretty messed up how these teenagers acted when they had no rules, no parents, just their own little world to act however they pleased.  I couldn't believe that they would just shoot their friends hologram for fun, or make human sacrifices to Gods of the underworld.  This was all pretty twisted.  Anyways, I thought the Science Fiction topic that we had for this quarter turned out to be quite interesting.  I really liked Firefly and really liked BattleStar Galactica.  I enjoyed what part of Caprica we watched in class today too.  Thats all for tonight.

Blog 70

Well, today was good day. Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Found my way downstairs and had a cup. And looking up, I noticed I was late. Found my coat and grabbed my hat. Made the bus in seconds flat. Well, actually most of that didn't happen. Those are lyrics from the Beatles song "A Day In The Life". It's a pretty good song and I didn't know what to write about, but I'm pretty sure it's about drugs. Although I like the Beatles, I'd rather wake up and play Journey. Anyway, class today was alright. Fell asleep a couple of times, but what can you expect. I'm excited for the weekend. Even though we have finals next week, I'm still going to make sure to have some fun this weekend. I'm thinking of relaxing and watching some Friends while eating good Chinese food or Wings Over Columbus will do the trick. Plus, if there's enough snow, maybe my friends and I can play some snow football. The thing about football is that when it snows, everyone comes down to the same playing level since they become slower. As my friend always says, "snow is the great equalizer". These words are coming from very wise friends. Oh boy, what a day it has been. I think I'm going to finish up some chemistry and then hit the sack. Hope everyone had as good a day as I did. See you all in class.

Blog 69

So today was a pretty good day.  It was my birthday.  It sucked that I still had to go to class and stuff but oh well it was still cool.  The weather sucked pretty bad as well. Although tomorrow will be pretty cold, I'll take some sunshine. I'll probably also need some coffee in the morning because I've just been dead tired. Overall though, it was a good birthday. I got a lot of good presents from my family when I was home for Thanksgiving. This includes my Droid. I love this thing. It does pretty much everything. I know I'll probably be bored with it in two weeks, but oh well. I had a good jank going on in the shower today. Listened to some Young Forever and Be Good To Yourself to start the day right. That combination of music is probably my favorite ever. I mean, you go from one of the best modern day hip hop artists in Jay-Z to the soothing, sweet vocals of Steve Perry with the rest of Journey jamming in the background. Another good thing that happened was that I got a chance to kick back and read up on some Potter this afternoon. Harry Potter that is. I'm about halfway through the Order of the Phoenix on my re-reading of the classics. Hopefully today I get to read some more. Well, I hope everyone else had as good a birthday as I did. Ciao y'all!

Blog 68

So today has been a pretty busy day.  I woke up pretty early and had to do two chemistry lab reports so I finally got myself caught up.  Then I went to my math lecture.  It was pretty boring again as usual.  Then I came back to my house and had some more Thanksgiving leftovers for lunch.  After that I had my last chemistry lab of the quarter.  It was a good feeling to finally have all of those over and done with for at least a few weeks until the start of next quarter.  Then I came home and had some more leftover Thanksgiving food for dinner.  I finally finished it all.  I then just hung out in my house for a little while and then watched some Monday night football.  Now I am starting to get down to some homework.  I have two sections of math homework that need to be done.  I also have two little short papers to write for my Engineering Ethics class.  I might also do some commenting tonight.  I also need to comment on my group member's memos that they wrote for our class tomorrow.  After that I should be done for the night.  It might be a long night with all that stuff to do.  Alright, I probably should start getting down to my work.  Probably will drink a cup of coffee to be able to stay up later.  That's all for my blog tonight.  Only 7 more I think!

Blog 67

So today was pretty lame and cool at the same time.  It was cool in the fact that we didn't have classes, it was still technically Thanksgiving break, and there were a lot of good football games to watch on television.  It was lame in the sense that we do have more classes tomorrow and this week is extremely busy because everything is trying to be crammed in before finals start.  I haven't started my individual memo yet, but I am going to start it as soon as I finish writing this blog, then I will email it to my other group members.  These blogs are finally starting to come to an end.  We only have eight more blogs after this one that I am typing right now.  Then its over.  Writing these blogs hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it would be for the entire quarter.  At first I thought it was going to be terrible, but now it has almost become a routine for me every night.  Its also really nice to be able to get about a percentage point of extra credit.  I really need to get down to business on commenting though.  I am running behind on that. I don't think it should be too hard to catch up on though.  I really want to get all one hundred and sixty comments.  Those three percentage points should really help my grade.  Also, revising my ARP should hopefully help my grade in the end as well.

Blog 66

Well, today was pretty good.  I woke up and got ready for the Big Game. The Big Kahuna. The Big Cheese. Ohio State vs. Michigan. As you can expect, I got very little sleep last night since I was so excited for this rare opportunity to see the most historic rivalry in the country. To get myself ready I played Journey 's Lights and Foreigner's I Wanna Know Where Love Is. This was after I played some REO Speedwagon's I Can't Fight This Feeling Anymore in the shower. Just kidding.  After listening to this inspired music, it was time to enjoy the awesome game. It was great to see Ohio State just destroy Michigan. I was so happy for my Buckeyes and their triumphant victory. This was part of the reason I came to this awesome school so I could be there for the Big Game. Afterwards I came back to the house and took a nap. Then I watched Friends and had a delicious Chinese dinner. Those people make a damn good meal. Then we had people over for the night and had an unbelievable time. Although, it's back to school Monday, I'm just happy that the weekend has been a success so far. Well, it's time to read Harry Potter and drift off to sleep of sweet dreams of Cho Chang and Hermione. God, what a great day. I'm so glad I go to this school. Goodnight to all and Merry Christmans season!!!

Blog 65

Well, today was a good day. It's Friday and we didn't have class due to the holiday so that's always a plus. I wasn't too hungry today because yesterday I probably consumed in the neighborhood of 5,000 calories in less than an hour. It was good though. As usual, I had a great time with the relatives. There were many laughs and stories to be told. Also, the football was entertaining, except for the Bengals. It breaks my heart to see my favorite team go from division winners to hardly winners from one season to the next. But that's neither here or there because tomorrow is the Big Game. The Big Kahuna. The Big Cheese. It's an event that I am paying $30 to see because I bought the student package over the summer. It's Ohio State vs. Michigan from the Shoe. It's very exciting and I can already tell that there is going to be a lack of sleep in the mind of me because I'm just going to be so excited. I'm thinking that I'll get my day started tomorrow with some Any Way You Want It followed by some Be Good To Yourself to combine with a couple cups of coffee to get the blood pumping so I can be super pumped as well as warm because it is going to be a chiller tomorrow. I'm thinking I'll go with some of the thermal underwear my great aunt bought me for Christmas last year to prevent getting pneumonia as she always says. Well anyway, goodnight to all.

Blog 64

So today was Thanksgiving as I am sure you all know.  It was an awesome day.  I got two Thanksgiving meals, one for lunch and one for dinner, from both sides of my family.  Its also been nice to just relax with the family, not have to worry about school, eat a ton of food, and watch some good football.  Well, good football besides whatever you call this that the Bengals are playing.  Anyways, I can't wait to go back to school tomorrow and then go to the Michigan game on saturday.  I have already been to some pretty big Ohio State football games since I have been at school.  I have been to the USC and Iowa games last year.  Also, the Penn State game was pretty big this year.  None of those games even compare to the one on Saturday though.  It should be awesome.  I wish Michigan was actually a very good team though.  They are alright this year don't get me wrong, but they are nothing like what Michigan used to be.  The rivalry used to be heated and a battle, but the past few years haven't been anything exciting.  After kick off the game turns into a domination and its just a normal game once again.  On saturday I think it will be better than it has been for the past few years, but Michigan is still on the rise again and will be getting better in the years to come, making the rivalry that much more awesome once again.

Blog 63

So I am writing this blog a day late because I forgot to last night because I was coming home for Thanksgiving and really busy celebrating my birthday with my family (which isn't until November 30th).  Anyways, yesterday I woke up and went to my math lecture.  It was quite boring once again.  After that, I went back to my house and got all my stuff ready and then came home!  When I got home, I went over to my Grandma's house with my family for dinner and to celebrate mine and my cousins birthday.  It was a ton of fun and awesome to see everyone even though I see them all the time and I saw them again tonight for Thanksgiving dinner.  Anyways, last night for my birthday I got some money, some clothes, a portable hard drive, (1.5 TB if you know what that means) and a TomTom gps system.  I was pretty pumped.  It was a pretty good haul this year.  Right now I am watching the Bengals play the Jets on television.  It has been pretty disappointing so far.  The Bengals have had their chances and have played well at a very few points in the game but overall its just sad the things that are happening to them and what they are doing.  Oh well, after this game is over I will probably watch some television and then go to bed.  I am going to hang out at home in the morning and then come back to school late tomorrow night to get ready for the game!

Blog 62

So today in class we finished Battlestar Galactica.  To be honest, I like it a lot better than I thought I would.  The characters were all pretty cool and the plot was awesome.  The special effects were better than you would expect from only a miniseries.  I didn't really get the ending though.  Captain Adamo (I think thats how you would say it) says there are more humans on this thirteenth planet called Earth.  Funny how it would be called that right?  Anyways, so at the end it turns out he just made all that up?  Or there actually was an "Earth" for them to go to?  I was really confused by that ending because it seems a little weird that he would make up this new planet for them to take refuge when there is no planet and the people that are about to start a new colony of humans together would eventually find out that he was lying to them.  You really don't see very many movies like that where humankind actually ends up losing though.  Its kind of unbelievable to think about that scenario where there would only be 50,000 humans left.  Pretty crazy.  Anyways, I really did enjoy Battlestar Galactica way more than I thought I would.  It was definitely entertaining.  How about Mirror Lake tonight though?  I didn't feel like jumping, but I did go and watch a little bit and I jumped last year.  It is an awesome tradition and a ton of fun.

Blog 61

So today was a pretty stereotypical day.  I woke up and finished up writing a lab report for chemistry.  It sucked and took a little bit longer than expected.  After that, I had some breakfast and hung out and watched some television.  I then took a shower, got dressed, and went to my first class.  It was surprisingly warm outside today.  I couldn't believe it.  Anyways, my first class was my math lecture.  It was quite boring again today and I felt myself drifting off about halfway through the class.  I just couldn't focus.  I hate when teachers go over the proofs of problems and the theories but neglect to show you any actual examples of problems.  Its like telling me what needs to be done, but not telling me how to do it.  Oh well.  After that I went to my meeting for my analytical research paper revision.  I figured out what I need to have done for my paper to be much better.  After my meeting, I went to my chemistry lab.  I really can't stand those labs.  They are two hours and forty eight minutes long.  I can't believe I still have at least five more chemistry classes left before I am done.  It really could suck.  After my chemistry lab, I came back home and made myself some dinner.  I made scrambled eggs and three pancakes.  It was quite good I must say.  After that I just watched some Monday Night Football and did some homework and now I am about to go to bed.

Blog 60

Hey everyone.  So today was a pretty boring day.  I woke up pretty late and decided to go ahead and get some school work done.  I did a lot of chemistry and math.  I had some chemistry homework and a chemistry lab report to do that took a pretty long time.  For math, I had three sections of math homework to get done that also took a pretty long time.  I ended up being done with all my work around about four-thirty.  By that time, the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots were playing.  That game had been pretty hyped up all week and the fact that one of my housemates is a die hard Colts fan made it that much more interesting.  The Patriots ended up winning thirty-one to twenty-eight.  The Colts were down by seventeen points going into the fourth quarter though, so they made it a good game.  After that, I watched some more football.  The Sunday night game was between the Eagles and the Giants.  The Eagles are really impressive so far this year.  With Michael Vick at quarterback they are pretty tough to beat.  It seems he has really turned his life around after all the problems he got into a few years ago with the dog fighting charges he had that put him in jail for like eighteen months I think?  Now he is a star quarterback in the NFL again.  Pretty cool story I think, minus the part where he killed innocent dogs.  Anyways, thats enough for tonight.  Goodnight.

Blog 59

Well, today was a good day. The Buckeyes won in a barnburner so that was awesome. It was great to see them hold on at the end. I'm hoping that they make the Rose Bowl next week by beating Michigan and Northwestern beating Wisconsin. Anyway, today was awesome. I had so much fun. I woke up, watched Friends again, and listened to Escape, Journey's 1981 album that shook the world man. It is so good man. Then, I played Call of Duty with my friend Bob and we had a great time. We had a great time. After the Ohio State game, we ordered Wings Over Columbus. It was very good. I got my usual, honey barbeque wings from the Wings Over Company. They were really good. Now, I'm watching SNL with my best friends in the world. Except my friend Jeff. He brought a girl over and now they are watching Role Models in his room. It is bothering me because he doesn't deserve that lol. Anyway, I hate the Steelers. The NFL sucks. College football all the way. Anne Hathaway is pretty hot man. She is marriage material as my friend would say. Well tomorrow/right now (since it is so late) is my best friend's birthday. He will be 20 years old. That is so cool because he is cool Well, I hope everyone had as great as a day as I did. Ciao.

Blog 58

Alright so today was a pretty awesome day.  It started off with me waking up and realizing that I had about three hours before I had class.  I didn't have class today until twelve-thirty.  So I wake up, more myself a bowl of cereal, make myself a cup of coffee, and then turn on the television.  The first thing I see on t.v. is James Bond Goldeneye.  It's one of my all time favorite bond movies.  I have seen pretty much all of them. So after that I went to my math lecture which was pretty boring once again.  Then I had a nice little break of about an hour.  Then I went to my chemistry recitation.  That was boring also.  All we did was some stupid work sheet that was pretty easy to say the least.  Those were my only two classes of the day.  Fridays are pretty laid back for me this quarter.  Once my classes were over, I came back to my house and just relaxed for a little while.  I played some video games with the guys in my house and I watched parts of different movies that were on television.   We walked a decent way down high street to get dinner tonight.  We went to Number 1 Chinese food again.  I love that place.  Other than that it was just your pretty typical night in college.  I really don't know what else to say about it.  Right now it is getting kind of late though.  I think I am going to watch some sportcenter and then hit the sack.  Goodbye

Blog 57

So BattleStar Galactica was surprisingly good today in class.  I really didn't know what to expect when I first heard we were going to watch it.  I really didn't know what to expect after I read that pretty terrible commonplace sample paper that was based on the show.  However, the show has definitely exceeded my expectations thus far.  The show started out pretty slow.  It was kind of boring watching them turn the Galactica space ship into some kind of museum.  Things got amped up pretty quickly though.  The Cylons began nuking a lot of the human planets.  It was pretty cool to see how much more advanced the Cylon technology was compared to the humans.  Obviously, I think the humans will eventually win this war, or else it wouldn't be considered a very good show.  It will be interesting to see how it will play out.  Obviously it will involve the really old fighter jets the humans begin flying because the Cylons didn't plan on the humans using such old technology so it appeared as if their electric pulse technology that disabled all the newer human technology doesn't work on the old human fighter jets.  Overall I am really interested to see how the whole war plays out overall.  I also find it really weird that the Cylons have the technology to impersonate human bodies, yet when the body is killed, the Cylons still exist.  Anyways, thats all for tonight.

Blog 56

So today has been a good day so far.  I only had one class today.  Math lecture.  It was extremely boring and I lost focus after about twenty minutes.  Afterwards, I went over to my cousin's house in Gahanna where my Aunt and Uncle were checking up on her house for her.  My uncle and I watched US Marshals. It is a really good movie with Tommy Lee Jones, Wesley Snipes, and Robery Downey Jr.   Then, we ordered some pizza from this really good place by my cousins house.  I got to bring the leftovers back home.  My Aunt and Uncle also gave me some burgers and sandwiches to bring back home.  On top of all this, my Aunt did all of my laundry for me.  I am pretty much set up until we go home for Thanksgiving break.  I am pretty pumped about that.  After that, I drove back home and I watched Super Troopers with my housemates.  I had a cup and a half of coffee and I am wired right now.  I have to admit, I had never drank coffee up until these past few weeks, but now I am addicted.  My day isn't complete unless I have at least one cup of coffee to get my day going.  It is probably just a mental thing, but it makes me feel likes it easier to get things done and get focused.  I don't think it is probably the most healthy thing for my body.  It has a ton of caffeine obviously.  My heart rate gets going.  Oh well.  Thats all for tonight.

Blog 55

Well, today I got to watch one of my favorite movies ever, Remember the Titans. It is the story of the 1971 T.C. Williams High School football team in Alexandria, Virginia and the overcoming of racial tension on their way to a state championship. Coach Herman Boone takes over for Coach Bill Yost after the school integrates, but keeps Coach Yost on his staff as a sign of respect. Coach Boone does an excellent job of bringing the team together at a camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He unites two leaders of the opposite race in Gary Bertier and Julius Campbell at camp who assist in bringing a team of half black and half white players into one. Although the team unites at camp, they struggle to keep their momentum when they are thrust back into the real world with all the real world racial problems at the time. Julius and Gary make even more of an effort to unite the team as one and this time do so successfully. The Titans reel off win after win and finish the regular season with a perfect record. Their successes as a team on and off the field continue in the playoffs and clinch a spot in the State Championship. While celebrating the clinch, Gary is severely injured and paralyzed in a car wreck. This traumatic experience hurts the team altogether, but they unite for one more night and win the state championship.

Blog 54

So today wasn't very fun.  I woke up this morning and had to write and entire lab report for chemistry and also do the prelab for my lab later in the day.  At two thirty I went to my lab.  I had to miss a lab earlier in the quarter for important circumstances.  Needless to say, it has been really hard to catch up when I missed a two hour and forty-eight minute lab class.  Anyways, I have been trying to catch up for a few weeks now and I think that I finally have.  I finished the lab that I was behind on today and then I also came very close to finishing the lab that was assigned to today as well.  I should be all caught up after next Monday's lab.  After my lab, I came home and ate some dinner.  I play some Nazi zombies on Call of Duty with my housemates and then I had a lot of math homework to do.  After I did my two sections of math homework, I began to study for my chemistry midterm that I have tomorrow.  I hate how the chemistry department has their midterms at seven-thirty at night.  Its really a pain to be honest.  Oh well.  After I take the midterm tomorrow all I have left for this week is a math quiz on Thursday.  So it is a pretty easy week in general I suppose.  Not too much extra work to do on the side.  Anyways, I am about to watch some television before I go to bed.  I have to wake up early and start studying for chemistry again.  Good night.

Blog 53

I have to day that this was a pretty good weekend. Yesterday was so awesome. I got to be on College Gameday and got to see the Buckeyes 2nd half comeback in person. Not only that, but the band played like 3 of my favorite songs ever in Don't Stop Believin', Sweet Caroline, and Livin' On A Prayer. In my opinion, I think that's what got the team to rally was that halftime show. This morning, I got to sleep in and watch a little Friends to start my day. It was a very relaxing morning. Later, I toured an apartment that I might live in next year and I was pretty impressed. I spent my afternoon following the Cincinnati Bengals game online and eating over a pound of wings from Wings Over Columbus. Now that was a meal. I was so stuffed that I didn't even need to eat dinner. I got a good amount of chemistry work taken care of and then I even got a chance to play a few video games and watch more football. Overall, it was a great weekend. I can't wait for Thursday night because that's when Harry Potter comes out and it's going to be awesome. I've read all the books multiple times and Harry Potter has become somewhat of a religion of mine. I'm just counting down the minutes until the midnight showing. Well, it's about time to get some sleep so I can have a good week and keep my grades up.

Blog 52

So today was another awesome day.  I woke up really early to go to College Gameday.  It was an awesome experience.  We ended up standing only about 20 feet away from Kirk Herbstreit, Des Shepherd, Lee Corso, and Chris Fowler.  For those of you who don't know what this is, first of all, shame on you.  It is the biggest college football pregame show watched by millions of people around the country.  It has been around for years and is greatly respected.  I personally think it is pretty cool to be able to watch something and be there when I grew up watching the show.  Not to mention I was on espn for approximately a combined one minute of air time.  Not too bad for a days work I don't think.  After College Gameday was over at twelve, we came back to our house to hang out and eat before the game.  Then...it was game time.  For those of you who were at the game, you know how exciting it was.  Probably the second most exciting Ohio State game I have been to in my two years here at this school so far.  The only game better than it was the Iowa game last year.  The Miami game from earlier this year was almost as good as this Penn State game, but the Miami game wasn't really close after about the first quarter.  The game that was earlier today was awesome though.  The Buckeyes really did know how to make it interesting, but finally showed up to play for the second half and pretty much destroyed Penn State after the first half.

Blog 51

So today is a good day so far.  I had a chemistry quiz this morning that I am pretty sure I got a 100% on.  After that I didn't have any classes so I have just been at my house working on some homework earlier.  Since then I have just been relaxing and watching television and playing video games.  I really don't plan on going out tonight.  I am getting up early to go to college gameday, which is something that I have been excited to do ever since I got to school here.  I didn't get to go to college gameday last year because they came to the USC game and I wasn't at school yet to be able to go to that.  I am just now putting on some finishing touches to my commonplace paper.  I think it should be pretty good.  Probably a lot better than my Analytical Research Paper.  Anyways, the Buckeyes play Penn State tomorrow.  I think Ohio State will handle them quite easily and I don't really expect it to be much of a game.  The Bengals also play the Colts this Sunday.  I don't know how I feel about the Bengals chances.  The Colts have a ton of injuries to their defense and especially to their offense.  Their first, second, and third string running backs are all hurt so they are starting a fourth string running back against the Bengals.  It should be interesting and  I guess we will just have to wait and find out how the game plays out.  Oh well, thats it for tonight.  Until tomorrow.

Blog 50

So today was a pretty good day so far.   I woke up kind of late and went to a engineering group meeting for a little while.  After that I came back here and played some new Call of Duty: Black Ops.  Its a pretty sweet game so far I must say.  Then I went and got some chinese food and ate it.  It was pretty filling.  I had to take a little time out but then went shopping to Giant Eagle.  I got some pretty good food.  Right now I am just writing my blog while I watch the Karate Kid with my housemates.  If you haven't ever seen that movie, shame on you.  It really one of the best movies of all time in my opinion.  An great classic.  The world would be a better place with more Mr. Miagis around.  Seriously though, if you haven't seen it, you really should, everyone should see it in their lifetime.  After we finish the movie I plan on studying some chemistry.  I have another quiz tomorrow, it should be pretty easy so I am not worried about it.  I need to get to work on my Commonplace Paper.  So far I think it is pretty decent, but it has a lot of room for improvement and editing.  It was good to have a day off of school today.  A nice mental health day if you will.  I am also excited about the game coming up this saturday.  I am planning to go to college gameday saturday morning.  I have always grown up watching the college gameday pregame show every saturday morning.

Blog 49

Well, today was a great day. Woke up, ate some real good breakfast, blasted some old school Journey albums, and did my math homework. It was a glorious morning so I opened my window to let the warm breeze in. Then I went to class and mostly just played solitaire on my laptop while my TA talked about liquid helium and magnets. I came back, ate a Lean Cuisine for lunch and took much needed nap. When I woke up around 4 o'clock, my housemates came back and we all watched Friends. I think it is the best show ever! Today was the episode where Chandler proposed to Monica. I have to admit, I shed a tear or two everytime.  For real.  But that's not that the only reason why today was awesome. Today was awesome because there's no school tomorrow! That means I had a chance to kick back and relax and enjoy a malt beverage or two. Now I'm just chilling in my room after walking my friend Alan to his friend's Samira's. I did this because I love my friend Alan and I would never want anything bad to happen to him if he was walking alone. Tomorrow, I'm going to sleep in and maybe get some groceries at the Giant Eagle. Well, I think it's time to play some Top Gun Anthem and drift off into a pleasant nights sleep. I hope everyone's day was as great as mine!

Blog 48

Hello again.  So today was one of the better days that I have had in a while.  For some reason I was just in a generally good mood.  English class definitely wasn't very bad at all today.  I kind of enjoyed getting to read many of your papers.  It was interesting and not typically something that I would enjoy, but I did.  After all my classes today, I went over to my cousin's house to see my Aunt and Uncle.  They live by me in West Chester (suburb of Cincinnati) but they are up here to do some work on my cousin's house that she recently bought up here in Columbus.  Anyways, they took me out to dinner to this one diner type place by the house.  It was very good food.  It is always nice to get away from campus every once in a while.  It is a refreshing change of pace.  So after dinner my aunt did my laundry because I was too lazy to do it myself.  That was really nice of her.  While she was doing laundry, my uncle and I watched a movie.  After I left my cousin's house, I came back to my house here at campus and just hung out.  I watched two episodes of the HBO series The Pacific that just came out on dvd.  So far it is not nearly as good as the previous HBO series Band Of Brothers.  Band Of Brothers is the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Those of you that have seen it probably agree with me.  Those of you that haven't, you should!  I am a history and war enthusiast though, so that stuff interests me.  Anyways, thats all for tonight.

Blog 47

Okay so today was a pretty hectic day.  I woke up at seven thirty and had to study a lot of math for my math midterm at twelve thirty.  The math midterm was a lot more difficult than I expected.  I think I still did alright and was above the average, but didn't do nearly as well as I expected to on the midterm.  After I finished my midterm I had my ridiculously long chemistry lab.  The freaking thing lasts for two hours and forty eight minutes.  Anyways, after I finished my lab, I came back to my house and hung out for a little while.  The largely anticipated Monday Night Football game between the shitty Pittsburgh Steelers and the World class Cincinnati Bengals is on television right now.  The Bengals started out really crappy but have since recovered from a very early ten to nothing deficit.  Right now the score is ten to seven with the Bengals playing much better football and are threatening to score again.  As many of you might know, the Steelers aren't actually bad as I said, they are actually a very good football team.  The Bengals, on the other hand, have been seriously under achieving for the majority of this season.  It really is quite a disappointment.  All we can do though is just sit back and enjoy watching them try to pull out a few victories for the rest of the season, and beating the Steelers would definitely make that more enjoyable.

Blog 46

Hello there.  So today we get to blog about anything again.  To be honest, I am really starting to run out of ideas to blog about.  It has became a habit of mine to just list everything that I did during the day.  I haven't really done much yet today.  I woke up pretty early.  About eight thirty I guess it was.  I had two bowls of frosted flakes.  I usually eat frosted flakes every morning.  I watched some television while I worked on some chemistry homework.   Then I took a shower and shaved and brushed my teeth.  I then watched some more sportscenter and then I watched NFL live to see what they had to say about the football games today.  Right now I am watching the Browns vs. the Patriots.  I am a Bengals fan so I am kind of bummed, but also excited because the Bengals don't play until tomorrow.  The Bengals have the monday night football game against the Steelers tomorrow.  I am pretty upset with how the season has turned out so far.  I really don't like the Steelers and they weren't supposed to be as good as they are this year.  The Bengals, on the other hand, have really under achieved.  A lot of analysts had the Bengals going to the Super Bowl, but for some reason they just haven't been able to pull it together yet this year.  It looks like the Steelers or the Ravens are going to win that division again this year.  Oh well, at least Ohio State can hopefully make a good run at the Rose Bowl.

Blog 45

So today was a pretty uneventful day.  First, I woke up kind of late because we had a party at our house on Friday night.  It was pretty fun.  Then, I had a meeting with my Engineering group to go over some things. After that I did a lot of work for my classes and what not.  It wasn't very much fun.  Then my sister came and visited me for a while!  Right now she is visiting some of her friends that go here to Ohio State as well.   Then my housemates and I went to this Chinese take out place on high street.  You guys may have never heard of it before but it is called No. 1 Chinese takeout.  It was really, really good.  It looks like some little hole in the wall, but you get so much food for so little money.  I received about a pound and a half of food for five dollars.  I can eat quite a bit of food if I want to, but I couldn't finish all the chicken and rice.  Once I had all of that digested, we have been watching the newer HBO series called The Pacific.  It is really good so far.  We are 3 episodes into the series.  Now after we watched those episodes we are watching Remember The Titans for the second time in three days!  I just want to reiterate this again.  Remember The Titans is one of the best fricken movies of all time.  We are just now starting to get to the good parts in the movie so I'm going to get off here.  Until tomorrow, good bye.

Blog 44

My new title is:  Discrimination: With or Without Malice

At first I really couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  There was a large, simultaneous intake of air as my family around me all suddenly drew in a breath.  Looking around I saw a very large myriad of emotions in the range of shock, bewilderment, indifference, and even disgust.   Questions began flying about the room such as: “How long have you known” and my personal favorite: “Are you sure?”  This large array of emotions was released at the same point in time when my twenty-four year old male cousin stated one simple fact about himself: that he was gay.

Blog 43

So I had a pretty successful day today.  I had an Engineering and Math quiz and I am pretty sure that I aced both of them.  Also, I did about 20 or 30 comments in our English class today.  That was good.  It ended up being a very nice day out today.  It got a little chilly when the wind was blowing but when there was no breeze and the sun was out it was very calm and relaxing.  After I got done with classes, I came home and ordered some Wings Over Columbus with my housemates.  If you have never had it I strongly recommend it.  It is amazing food and you get so much food for how much money it costs.  After I ordered dinner I got down to business on some homework.  Got that out of the way for the night and at about eleven o' clock I decided to watch Remember the Titans with my housemates.  If you are in college and you have never seen this movie, shame on you.  I have seen it at least thirty times and can quote the entire movie.  Easily one of the best sports movies of all time and definitely in my top five or ten movies of all time.  Every time I watch it though I keep thinking that Gary Bertier really needs to not get into that car.  If you haven't seen it, I won't ruin that part for you.  But it is definitely one of the most inspirational movies out there that someone can watch.  It really makes a person want to do great things with their lives.  Anyways, thats about it for tonight.  Until next time....

Blog 42

So I don't know how many of you have been paying any attention to the recent election stuff that has been going on, but last night the Republicans reclaimed the House of Representatives.  I really don't identify with either Republican or Democrat, but the reason this is interesting to me is because John Boehner took over Nancy Pelosi's spot of Speaker of the House.  The reason this is cool is because John Boehner is from Ohio, and not only is he from Ohio but he lives about five minutes away from my house.  He represents my district in West Chester , Ohio.  Another cool thing is that there is a strong likelihood of him being the Republican candidate for the upcoming presidential elections in the next couple of years.  I think it is kind of cool that I live five minutes away from possibly the next president of the United States.  Besides that the rest of my past twenty four hours have been pretty lame.  A lot of school work and a lot of quizzes coming up.  Last night I watched Top Gun with my housemates.  Its probably about the 50th time I have seen that movie.  Probably my favorite movie of all time, or at least in the top three.  It has some really cheesy parts, but it exhibits everything that is awesome about the 80's also.  The real reason I love that movie is because of the fighter jets.  Yeah, every one thinks they are cool, but I have always been obsessed with them ever since I can remember.  I go to Wright Patterson Air Force Museum every winter with my Uncle for an entire day.  Its just a little obsession that I have.  Anyways, my 250 words are up so its time to get off of here.

Blog 41

So today I was supposed to have four classes, but upon looking at our English syllabus I discovered that we didn't have class today!  So I figured that with this new found time that was given to me I would take the time to write my blog, start thinking about my commonplace draft, and then actually eat lunch for once!  I never really have time to eat lunch because all my classes are back to back everyday.  It was a nice change of pace and I wasn't hungry for about five hours straight.  So what I have planned for the rest of my day is that I am going to write this commonplace draft, write two lab reports for chemistry, do my pre lab assignment for chemistry, and then maybe hang out a little bit before bed.  I don't know how much free time I will have exactly.  Oh well.  One thing that I am getting really excited about is the new Harry Potter movie that is coming out on November 19th.  I have been a huge Harry Potter fan ever since the first book came out.  I have read all seven of the books multiple times.  I mean I have read all of them at least five times.  I know its pretty insane and you would probably be justified in calling me a loser, but I can't help it. On the bright side, I don't dress up to go to the book or movie premieres.  That seems a little over the top for me, unless you are doing it as a joke.  Then it is kind of funny.  Anyways, I already have my ticket pre ordered for when the movie comes out.  Should be exciting.

Blog 40

So I am writing this blog one day late.  So yesterday I only had 2 classes.  I had my math lecture and I also had my chemistry lab.  Math lecture was the same old thing, just on a different day.  Chemistry lab was pretty hectic though.  I had to miss one day of lab due to family issues earlier in the quarter so I was a lab behind.  Also, I had to finish a lab from the week before.  By the end of the lab, I had finished three labs and was totally caught up.  It ended up working out.  Once lab was over I came back to my house and my roommates had set up a little wrestling pit in our living room.  So for about an hour we held wrestling matches in our living room, ufc style.  I had two matches, the first one I won by choking out one of my roommates, and the second match I won by an arm bar.  All in all it was a pretty successful day.  I also did three sections of math homework and also an entire chapter of engineering.  Also, the Giants ended up winning the World Series.  This wasn't the best part of my day.  The Reds didn't make the world series so I wanted either the Phillies or the Yankees to win it. However, the Rangers and the Giants made it to the World Series so I was rooting for the Rangers.  Unfortunately, the Giants won four games to one and it was a pretty uneventful series.  Oh well,  at least I only have to wait until April 2011 to watch my Reds again.

Blog 39

So today I worked on a lot of stuff.  I did some chemistry, of course as you can see I am writing this blog.  I watched the Bengals lose again today.  It was quite pathetic.  Their season has really taken a turn for the worst and it doesn't seem as if they are going to be able to recover from the damage they have already done.  On a brighter note.  I also did some math and engineering work today.  It was a pretty typical average day.  This weekend was quite great though.  Halloween weekend was a lot of fun.  Got a lot of work done then then had fun later at night.  Right now I am watching Friends.  Its a pretty good episode.  Its season five and its the episode where the friends reminisce about all the previous Thanksgivings they have had.  It is one of those typical flashback episodes.  Another thing that I did today was assemble and place some nerf basketball hoops in my house.  It provides some very good entertainment whenever we need a break.  We get a little two on two game going for a few minutes.  Its a lot of fun.  I am really looking forward to this week in school  No midterms and only 2 quizzes.  Pretty laid back week if I must say so myself.  Anyways, it is about time for this blog post to be done and over with.  Its time for bed because I need to get up relatively early tomorrow.  Goodnight everyone.

Blog 38: English Class So Far

Okay, so I am a sophomore and I am a Mechanical Engineering and pre-med major.  Pretty amazingly busy right?  My classes are very, very difficult and time consuming and most people wouldn't even attempt to try to have this type of major and then continue onto medical school.  One of my easiest classes that I am supposed to ever have to take is freshmen year english right?  Well apparently not.  Apparently I  have A's in Junior level math, Chemistry, and Engineering classes but my lowest grade is by far in English.  I just can't understand how my lowest grade is English right now.  I just received my grade my ARP grade and apparently I barely passed?  I consider myself a rather intelligent person being in the honors program for a top 20 engineering school in the country while also taking pre-med classes.  I honestly just can't believe that Freshman English is going to bring down my GPA right now.  Hell, if I get a B+ in this class it brings my GPA down.   I understand English classes and writing skills are very important, however, it really pisses me off when my friends have to write 5 blogs per quarter and then write 10 pages worth of papers and they get an automatic A because they completed the work.  The English department needs to get its shit together and decide whether they are going to grade easy or difficult because it doesn't seem fair to me that grades can be so subjective during a freshman course.  Upper level courses I can understand that, but not freshman level courses.  It doesn't make sense to me when I read one of my friends papers from his English class and it is absolute shit and he gets an 88% on it.  He was laughing about the fact that he never did anything in his class and wrote his paper in an hour and a half and then gets an A in the class.  It looks like I have to take more time out of my already packed schedule and go to the writing center every flippin' day to try to make up for this.  I really don't know what else I can do.  I felt like a made an extremely compelling argument that made perfect sense.  No, I didn't explicitly write out every single detail.  That could take 20 pages.  Oh well.  Shit happens right?  Apparently we get to do a revision? I don't know.  I hope so because this grade needs to change.  Its time for me to get off my soap box now...

Blog 37

It is good to finally have the Analytic Research Paper done with.  The paper wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be though.  I found a topic that I found really interesting and it was something that i felt pretty strongly about and thought that I was able to make a pretty good argument.  As of this morning I still had about a page and a half left so I rounded off 1 paragraph then ended with my conclusion.  It was a good feeling finally submitting the report.  The commonplace paper shouldn't be nearly as bad either.  Only three pages.  It could be pretty interesting to figure out what I am going to write about as well as see what everyone else is going to write about for their papers.  To a totally different topic, I am very disappointed with the way the baseball postseason has turned out.  The Giants have a two games to zero lead over the Rangers in the World Series.  I didn't really want either of those teams in the World Series, especially the Giants.  Oh well, hopefully the Rangers can make a stunning comeback, that would really make it a good postseason finally.  Also, I really hope the Bengals start winning some football games.  I had such high expectations with all of the offseason transactions they made and the way their defense performed last year.  However, it isn't looking very promising for them so far this year.  In theory their team should be amazing but it hasn't panned out so far.

Blog 36

Personal Anecdote:

One day my friend, who is Indian, and I were walking through the oval at Ohio State University on our way from a class.  A preacher that was there speaking while students were walking past suddenly called out to my friend.  He said things to him such as: “You! Indian! You hate America! Go back to where you came from!”  He continued to call my friend a terrorist and tell him he was going to hell.  You may think I am exaggerating or making this story up but it truly did happen.  We were completely outraged.  My friend has lived in America his entire life and doesn’t know how to speak his native language at all.  The only tie he has to India is that his parents were born there but moved to the United States shortly after they were born too. 

            The whole situation was outrageous.  People we didn’t even know instantly came to my friend’s aid as did I.  Many people began yelling at the preacher asking him how he could say such things when he doesn’t even know this person.  The preacher especially seemed surprised when my friend replied to him in perfect English, English that was much more grammatically correct than anything the preacher had to say.  This story just makes me wonder how truly ignorant people can be and how prejudice and discriminatory the world can truly be sometimes. 

Hypothetical Scenario:

            What if you had lived in a foreign country your entire life, well it wouldn’t be foreign to you exactly.  One day you were walking through a crowded area and people started yelling things at you and calling you out on the most ridiculous charges.  You couldn’t understand why these people would say these things and the only reason could possibly be because you are different.  The people clearly know nothing about you.  You have never even met them in your entire life.  How would you react?  Would you keep walking or would you stop to defend yourself?  It would bring up a very interesting thought.  The majority of us never really stop to realize what it is like to be a foreign person living in a new country.  Imagine how difficult it must be for them to start a new life.  They would have to be very courageous.  Maybe people should think of that before they start to make unfounded accusations or heckle people that are different than themselves.  

Blog 33

Another day, another new blog post that needs to be written.  So once again, with nothing new to write about, I am deciding to write about my day today.  So this morning I woke up and took a shower.  I then brushed my teeth and got dressed.  After that, I ate a bowl of frosted flakes with two percent milk, the usual.  I then worked on some math homework and chemistry.  Then I went to my chemistry lab.  There I did this really stupid lab.  It wasn't very much fun and it took up a crap ton of time.  After that I came back and ate dinner.  I had a cheeseburger and some oreos and milk.  It was quite good and nutritious.  After dinner I worked on philosophy and even more chemistry.  I did all this because I have two midterms tomorrow in philosophy and chemistry.  They should both be pretty easy so I am not really worried about them that much.  Also tomorrow we have English class and we were supposed to have read something in commonplace.  I haven't done that yet so I should probably get on that.  Anyways, I am about to fall asleep after this monday night football game.  Right now the Giants are beating the Cowboys.  I am glad because I hate the Cowboys and I am especially glad that they are sucking it up this year and totally underachieving so it is good to watch this game.  Alright I am about to fall asleep.  Good night

Blog 32

So yet another day of writing my blog where I really don't know what to write about on this blog.  I think I will continue the pattern of writing about what I did today.  So, today I woke up and ate some honey nut cheerios.  I had them with two percent milk, in a bowl.  After that I worked on some chemistry.  It was a ton of fun.  After that I went over to my grandparents house because I was still at my house for the weekend.  There I watched the first half of the Bengal's game and worked on more chemistry.  From there I went to my Aunt and Uncle's house where I watched the second half of the Bengal's game.  Well, the Bengals lost.  Carson Palmer did quite well though, contrary to what he has been doing previously this season.  Today, it was the defense that lost the game against the Falcons.  Anyways, after the football game was over I had dinner.  I had grilled chicken, green beans, potatoes, and a butter roll.  It was quite good, and healthy.  After dinner I said goodbye to my family and made the strenuous hour and a half drive back to Columbus from Cincinnati.  Once I got back to my house here at college I did more chemistry work.  Once I finally finished my chemistry I put away my clean laundry and watched some Friends episodes before writing this blog and finally about to go to bed.

Blog 31

Alright, so tonight I just got done watching the Giants and Phillies game 6 of the baseball postseason.  This was for the NLCS or the National League Pennant if you will.  Yesterday, the Rangers clinched against the Yankees to go to the World Series.  Having gone to Yankee Stadium this past summer and having always been a moderate Yankees fan (I'm a die hard Reds fan no matter what) I was slightly disappointed to see the Yankees lose and not make it to the World Series.  Anyways, the Giants also clinched a trip to the World Series against the Phillies tonight in six games.  I was disappointed about this too.  I predicted in a previous blog that both the Yankees and the Phillies would make it to the World Series with the Phillies winning.  However, upsets do happen in sports and both the Rangers and Giants winning were upsets.  Oh well, I was looking forward to a rematch of last year's World Series against the Phillies and Yankees but its not going to happen.  My new prediction would have to be the Rangers over the Giants simply because of Cliff Lee.  He is the Rangers ace starting pitcher who has been lights out this postseason.  You could make an argument that he has been lights out his whole life, literally, his whole life, he is that good.  Also the Rangers have Josh Hamilton ( an ex Cincinnati Red and an ex cocaine addict).  He has been amazing too this entire season and has been great after returning to baseball about four years ago after his many addiction problems.

Blog 30

So I really don't know what to write about for this blog so I think I am just going to give a little summary of what I did for the day.  Today I woke up, had a glass of chocolate milk and 2 waffles, with syrup of course.  This is all after I came home for the weekend 2 days ago.  So after I ate breakfast, I cut the grass and then raked up all the remaining leaves that I didn't catch with the lawn mower.  After that I went to my two cousin's soccer game.  They played a very good team apparently and got beat seven to zero.  After that I went back to my Grandma's house with my entire family where we had dinner.  There I had fried chicken (from kroger, not homemade) and with the fried chicken I had cole slaw and a roll, with butter.   After that I had some carrot cake and a cookie for desert.  It was a sugar cookie.  After that I played this game with my family called "catch phrase."  It was fun.  We did guys vs. girls and the guys still won even though there were eight girls to only five guys, pretty typical.  After we got bored of that game we got some really sick games of uno going.  Pretty crazy right?  I won 2 of the 4 games, pretty proud of myself.  Anyways, I thought it would be good to share with all you guys what I did on my saturday night.  And oh yeah how could I forget, before I went to my cousins soccer game I watched the Buckeyes kill purdue 49-0.  Terrelle Pryor could have made a few less stupid passes, but oh well it can be expected of him on few occasions.  

Blog 29

So this is the section of my paper that is describing the scene of the episode and then leading into my argument.  I know I need to rewrite my argument to fit the the episode a little better, but this is what I have so far.  Let me know what else I need to work on.

In the 5^th episode of Firefly, titled “Safe,” a doctor and his sister are taken captive by a very remote and impoverished community of people.  It is a very desolate and barren area on this planet.  The people live in houses made of a type of stick and mud.  Their clothes are raggedy and every one walks around very downtrodden.  Some of the citizen’s spirits seem to rise when they discover they now have a doctor.  Simon, the doctor, had been looking over his mentally ill sister, River, until he and River were abducted by the people of this community.  River has previously had her mind tampered with by people with intentions of turning her into a psychic/assassin, which is why she has required extensive medical attending.  While being held hostage in this community, one of the citizens notices Rivers rare powers of deduction and mind-reading.  This community happens to be an extremely fundamentalist society, meaning, that they follow the very, very strict guidelines of their religion, Christianity.  The citizens of this town recognize River as a witch, and as the bible states: witches are meant to be terminated, usually by a burning at the cross. 

In today’s society, this would be viewed as a very irrational claim for two reasons: first, witches are not really thought to exist in this world, at least in Christian views, and second, even if someone was thought to be a witch, they wouldn’t automatically be burned on the spot.  Over the years Religion has morphed to keep up with this postmodern day and age.  You wouldn’t see a witch burning, per say, but you do see people of followings constantly arguing over which religion is right or better.  People of different faiths are constantly being hounded or attacked by others because of their beliefs; is it rational or ethical for these people to act in this way towards River because it is what they believe is right?  Is it right for someone to impose their beliefs on another human being, even if they believe this act will help this person?

blog 28

As a follow up for my previous blog.  Blog 26 I think.  For any of you people following the baseball postseason it isn't looking very good for the Phillies.  I picked them to win the world series but right now they are in a 3 games to 1 deficit in a series against the Giants just to make the world series.  Luckily for the Phillies, the have their 3 best pitchers coming back to the mound in Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt, and Cole Hamels (if you have ever heard of them).  These are the 3 pitchers that beat my beloved Reds in three straight games.  They could very well be the best pitching trio that I have ever seen and maybe of all time, its hard to say.  Anyways, chances aren't looking good for the Phillies, however, my other world series pick, the Yankees, won their game today against the Rangers which brought them only down 3 games to 2 against the Rangers.  Chances don't really look very good for the Yankees either.  In my opinion a world series against the Rangers and Giants would be kind of boring.  It would be much more exciting if it were between the Yankees and the Phillies in a rematch of last years world series.  Anyways, i haven't been as excited for the playoffs this year with a lot of things going on with school and other stuff.  That is about all for this blog post, but I will be back soon...don't worry.  Very soon actually, like tomorrow.

Blog 27

So lately I have been watching two shows on television.  I have been watching House and Friends.  I have watched Friends pretty much for forever.  I have always enjoyed that show and I am sure that I have seen every episode of all 10 seasons.  My family and I have always watched it together whenever it is on television.  I have also watched House ever since it came onto television in 2004.  I have always loved that show.  Dr. House is pretty freakin hilarious all the time.  He is very arrogant and quite a jerk to his coworkers and employees which adds a lot to the show.  He is also a genius doctor.  Obviously it isn't very realistic some of the things he does, but it is still quite cool the way some things turn out on his shows.  I have always been fascinated with anything to do with medicine.  That is one of the main reasons that I am pre-med right now.  My undergrad major is mechanical engineering and after I get my undergrad degree I want to go to medical school.  Medical school requires a lot of classes on top of already being in the strenuous honors engineering program.  Needless to say it gets quite stressful at points but it should be worth it in the end.  Its going to be a lot of crazy hard work and medical school is very, very hard to get into but its something I really want to do and always have wanted to do so I am sure I will be able to make it work out in the end.

Blog 26

So I have been watching a lot of the baseball postseason playoffs.  Growing up I played baseball from when I was 4 all the way up through high school until I was 18.  I was actually on a state championship baseball team when I went to Lakota West High School.  But anyways, back to the major league post season.  I am a huge Reds fan.  So for anyone who has followed sports at all within the past month or so, you should know that the Reds recently made the playoffs.  Unfortunately, they were swept out of the first round by the Phillies.  I hate to admit it but the Phillies were just outright better than the Reds.  The Reds were a better hitting team, but good pitching always beats good hitting and the Phillies have an amazing pitching staff.  As of right now, the playoff picture looks like this:  the Phillies and the Giants are in a series for the National League Pennant and the Rangers and the Yankee are in a series for the American League Pennant.  My prediction is that the Phillies and Yankees will make it to the World Series and the Phillies will win it all.  Hopefully the Reds will be back to the postseason next year, which I think they will so I can't wait for April to roll around next year.  All in all it was an exciting year because the Reds made it back to the postseason for the first time since 1995.

Blog 20: Quote Integration

Religion has many great qualities that it bestows upon its followers.  It can teach morals and ethics that are socially acceptable that a person might not otherwise learn elsewhere.  However, Religion also causes many rifts between cultures.  A great many of wars within the past two thousand years may never have occurred had there not been disagreements between two differing theologies.  Mark Twain may sum it up best when he states:"Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion—several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn’t straight."(Twain).  Look no further than the Israelis and Palestinians.  The two countries have been waging an unstoppable war with each other for years, all centered around their different religions and in turn, their different cultures.  These two countries have no other reason to be fighting other than whose God is better than whose.  Also, another example, the Spanish Inquisition, how many innocent Spanish women were executed simply because they were a suspected "witch."  This would have no basis in any court of law, however, under a misguided follower of a religion, it had a disastrous effect.  So yes, while a religion gives many, many great things to this world, it can also do a lot of harm when it's acts are carried out by its misguided constituents.   

Blog 18

The article that I read for this blog discussion was "An Elephant in the Room: Historical-Critical and Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible."  This article was very interesting because it deals with the fact that nobody ever likes to talk about religion.  People are constantly worried about getting into a big argument with people they know over small issues or little interpretations over the bible.  Also, people are even more concerned about getting into an argument over an issue that is a much larger problem.  The author discusses the fact that nothing can bring problems to any type of relationship between two people, whether they are family or friends, like a disagreement in religion.  He draws comparisons between abortion and topics such as this as other things people are against ever mentioning.  Even families never discuss these types of issues.  I have never spoken about any of these topics with my family.  Throughout society in America it is kind of an unwritten law to not really talk about these types of things without a solid reason, such as a protest of some sort.  Another reason people do not like talking about it is because they like to leave it up to the government.  They know they have their own opinions but in the end the government decides controversial topics.  People also realize that they are not going to be able to convert someone's religion just by arguing which is right.  In general, people are just very uncomfortable with all these situations and in the end, like to keep their ideas to themselves.  

Blog 17: Second Article

My second article that I have read for our analytical research paper was "Resurrecting Christianities: Critical Theories and Constructive Postcolonial, Postmodern Christianities."  This article talks about bringing back the old christian values to this postmodern day and age.  It deals with the fact that christianity is in a very large transition point where a lot of the old values are not as respected or closely followed as they once were in the past.  The author understands why the transition has occurred but wishes it could get back to the strong  core values that made it so strong in previous centuries.  Another thing that the author focuses on is that there has been good come out of this transition.  More people are also being drawn into Christianity that would have not previously been attracted to what it has to offer.  The modern churches use new types of worship, such as Christian rock, to draw in a younger crowd that hasn't been exposed to the religion as much.  These churches also preach what a younger generation wants to hear, that these people can still find heaven even though it isn't like Christianity was in previous years.  Overall, the author wishes that Christianity could return to its previous "glory years" but respects the fact that as times change, people and religions change and adapt to stay current.  The author knows this new regime is obviously here to stay and is going to have to adapt to it himself, the best way he can.  

Blog 15: Paper Topic

After watching many episodes of Firefly, I have chosen to write my paper on episode 5 titled "Safe."
I found this article extremely intriguing because of what happens to the Tamms.  Simon and River are kidnapped by a small community of poverty stricken fundamentalists because they need a doctor.  Simon agrees to help these people for a short time, but doesn't like the idea of staying there at all.  What else is more, the community has recognized River as a "witch" because they misinterpret her psychic powers, and therefore plan to burn her on the cross.  This is what leads me to my topic and these for my paper.  Over the years Religion has morphed to keep up with this postmodern day and age, is it rational or ethical for these people to act in this way towards River because it is what they believe is right?  Also, how can a religion that has such strict guidelines change to seem to include/forgive morals and behaviors of its constituents in a post-modern world that would have previously been unforgivable?  


Stuvland, Aaron. "The Emerging Church and Global Civil Society: Postmodern Christianity as a Source for Global Values." Journal of Church & State 52.2 (2010): 203-31. Web.


Watkins, Derrel R. "Spiritual Formation of Older Persons in a Postmodern Context." Journal of Religion, Spirituality, & Aging 22.1/2 (2010): 1-11. Web.


Blanton, Gregg P. "Integrating Postmodern and Christian Contemplative Thought Building a Theoretical Framework." Journal of Psychology & Christianity 27.1 (2008): 73-84. Web.


Aichele, George, Peter Miscall, and Richard Walsh. "An Elephant in the Room: Historical-Critical and Postmodern Interpretations of the Bible." Journal of Biblical Literature 128.2 (2009): 383-404. Web.


Betcher, Sharon V. "Resurrecting Christianities: Critical Theories and Constructive Postcolonial, Postmodern Christianities." Anglican Theological Review 87.2 (2005): 319-28. Web.

Blog 14: Firefly Episode 14

Today I watched the 14th and final episode of Firefly.  In this episode it is easy to see that the show was cancelled since it didn't really tie up any loose ends.  The episode in general was good in itself though.  In this episode River has some hallucination type things and somehow picks up a gun.  The crew has a discussion wondering whether or not she is to dangerous to be let to run around the ship unwatched.  Little does the crew know, a bounty hunter by the name of Early is making his way onto the ship as the crew begins to go to sleep.  He is obviously very skilled seeing as how he knocks Mal and Shepherd on concious, ties Kaylee up, and has Simon as a type of hostage.  He also locks the rest of the crew in their sleeping quarters.  The bounty hunter is on the ship looking for River.  River is quite a few steps ahead of him though.  She gets onto his ship somehow and broadcasts her voice acting as if she is the ship talking to the bounty hunter.  In the end, Simon ends up shot in the leg but is alright and Mal sends the bounty hunter flying into space, literally.  It is decided that River is to stay on the ship and everyone seems to live happily ever after.  With this ending, I do plan on watching the movie Serenity with the same cast and crew who filmed Firefly.  It should be interesting.

Blog 13: Firefly episode 13

Alright, I have been saying this often but I have to say it again.  This was one of my more favorite of the Firefly episodes.  In this episode, Inara receives a distress signal from one of her old companion friends.  It turns out that her friend is the head of a whore house that is being terrorized by a local man and his men because the man has a child with one of the whores.  The man wants his child and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it.  This is where Mal and his crew come into play.  The whore house hires them to set up a defense of the house and fight off the attack.  A really large battle ensues and in the end the crew obviously saves the whore house and kills the men.  On a different plot line, Mal sleeps with Inara's friend and Mal and Inara's true feelings for each other are finally kind of revealed.  Inara is hurt that Mal slept with her but then Inara's friend dies.  In the end Mal is being truthful and confessing his feelings to Inara and it really seems like she is going to confess hers too.  Then, however, she drops a bombshell and says she is leaving the ship.  To me this is very cowardly and bitchy.  It makes me angry that a man who is as stubborn as Mal finally comes out and says what needs to be said and confesses his feelings and she automatically turns and runs away.  I am anxious to see how this turns out in the 14th and final episode.

Firefly Episode 12

This episode was alright compared to the previous episodes.  This episode shows us a little bit about what life was like for Mal and Zoe when they were fighting for the brown coats in the civil war that was held against the Alliance.  Anyways, the crew is mailed a body of a dead man named Chase who they used to fight with back during the previously mentioned war.  Chase was a private who served under Mal and Zoe and from what I could gather he wasn't a very good soldier.  Smuggling a dead corpse is a felony under the Alliance control and soon after bringing the dead body onto the ship, Federal marshals show up to take the body back and take the crew into custody.  Little does the crew know that the Federal marshals are actually crooked cops who are smuggling organs as a side job.  Also, Chase isn't actually dead.  He was given a sedative that made him sleep for over a week.  Why the crew wouldn't just check his pulse is beyond me but they didn't, and Chase decides to turn on the crew when they decide they are going to let the Feds come on board and search for the body the crew says they don't have.  Chase ends up being shot by the crew and the shepherd saves the day when he realizes the Feds are actually crooked cops and shouldn't be there in the first place.  The Feds leave and Chase dies (again) and then the crew takes his body back to his family like they were supposed to do in the first place.

Firefly Episode 11

In this episode of Firefly Mal and the crew again have the fortune of meeting Mals "Wife" from a previous episode.  This time, however, the crew is brought in on her plan to swindle and old husband of hers.  There is this really rare artifact, an antique laser where there are only two in the world, that the crew and their new partner in crime are going to try to steal.  At first it seems that the wife is going to be trustworthy somewhat,  but it becomes apparent that she is still the untrustworthy, scheming lady that tried to kill the whole crew in the first place.  However, this is the first episode where everything seems to go to plan for the crew.  The crew seemed to be ready for her trickery and sent Inara ahead to catch her in the act.  All in all the plan worked perfectly for the crew.  Also, not on the main plot line of the episode, Simon discovers that Jayne is the one that betrayed him and River by selling them out to the Feds.  River did some crazy thing where she was able to read Jayne and how he was acting towards them and said that Jayne didn't want her and Simon to find out what he did.  Its quite bizarre.  One thing I do have a problem with in this series is the weird languages they speak in whenever they want to cuss.  It didn't bother me at first but now it is to the point where it seems really corny and it really hasn't ever been funny.  I guess if that it my only complaint that it must be a good series then....

Firefly Episode 10

So I have to admit that I am starting to like this series more and more.  This was probably the best episode that I have seen so far.  It starts out by seeing the crew after their previous job where Jayne betrayed them and they made a lot of money.  However, in this episode it appears as though Jayne bought a full crate of apples for the crew (a delicacy it seems) and it doesn't seem as though the crew ever even found out about Jayne stabbing them in the back, except for Mal.  Then, Wash has a bit of a breakdown because he is tired of Zoe constantly obeying Mal no matter what he tells her to do.  Wash thinks that there is maybe something going on between the captain and Zoe or that there was in the past.  In the end it turns out he was just being paranoid.  After Zoe and Wash have a shouting match, Nishka has found the Firefly and captures Mal and Wash.  Contradicting Wash's beliefs, Zoe buys Wash back from Nishka.  At this point the whole crew becomes involved and decides to take on Nishka's entire space station by themselves.  This is the really exciting part just because of the way the whole crew fights together as one.  Also, we see what the Alliance may have been doing with River, turning her into some kind of ultimate killing machine.  She takes out 3 men with 3 shots not even looking at them, it was quite impressive.  In the end, as you probably could have predicted, the crew rescues Mal and all is well back on the ship.

Firefly Episode 9

In this episode Jayne turns on the crew.  It could be argued that this was foreseeable when thinking about the types of things Jayne has already done.  He always has these comments that make it seem like he is untrustworthy.  Anyways, in this episode, Jayne discovers that the Alliance has a bounty out for Simon and River.  Obviously, the rest of the crew doesn't even think twice about the bounty, however, Jayne decides to turn them over to the Alliance.  His plan goes wrong when he is also captured by the Alliance and he along with Simon and River are taken prisoner.  Mal and Zoe have a plan to get them back but the plan goes wrong.  In the end Mal is the only one who knows what Jane does and keeps him trapped.  He then has this meeting with the crew in front of Jayne where he forces Jayne to tell the rest of the crew what he said.  All in all this event really shows just how much Mal cares for his crew.  It seems that he and Jayne have been through a lot but what Jayne has done is almost unforgivable for putting the rest of his crew in danger.  Mal once again shows just how high his moral is when its not related to stealing or thieving.  I am anxious to see, however, what ends up playing out with Jayne and what the crew decides to end up doing with him in terms of him staying or going.

High School is Hell

Okay, so I think its pretty easy to see that the author of this article clearly had a terrible high school experience.  I understand that the things that happen in the show and relate to high school experiences actually do happen, however, they happen on very rare occurrences.  Yes, high school shootings do happen, and tragedies occur, but this article makes it sound like every teenager is going to come out of high school with no friends, a broken heart, and at least one school shooting or bomb threat at their school.  Thats not the case at all.  I understand that some people will have more friends than others and there are some awkward times in high school where you might not feel like you fit in with the crowd, but for the most part high school is a very laid back time in life where you can hang out with the people who are your friends whether its 1 or 100.  This is not to take away from the fact that the article was very well written.  Yes, the author drew sources perfectly and related them to the reader to get her point across.  I just think her point was extremely misguided and very sullen.  That article would scare the crap out of any junior high student who is slightly nervous about the unknowns of high school when they really have no reason to be scared.  All in all it was a very well written article, just a very misguided thesis.

Firefly Episode 8

This episode was interesting and boring at the same time if that makes any sense.  It starts off with the crew enjoying a nice meal and everyone getting along but then the ship malfunctions.  At this point the engine is no longer running and this poses a problem because the engine is what controls the life support system.  This means that no heat and no new oxygen is getting into the ship and the members of the crew will either suffocate or freeze to death within a few hours.  Once again, Mal rises to the occasion and seems to do what is best for everyone else besides himself.  He sends everyone else on the ship out in the shuttles to give them a few more hours of life all the while he waits for someone to answer the ships distress beacon.  A ship does indeed show up, however, they seem to be nice at first but that quickly changes.  Once Mal lets them onto the ship with the spare part for the engine, they decide to shoot Mal and take over the ship.  Mal is shot in the stomach but somehow pulls himself together and manages to get the crew of the other ship off of the Serenity by threatening to shoot them all.  Mal manages to fix the ship and save the day once again.  I did see some foreshadowing for the next episode or two, I am excited to see what comes of that and how the rest of the series plays out.  

Simon

For my blog post of the day I decided to write about Simon.  In class previously today, I linked the ideas of Simon being a brilliant doctor and also his protection of his sister.  I found it very courageous and sincere what he has done for his sister.  As we learn in later episodes, all Simon wanted to be growing up was a doctor.  He quickly became a high ranking doctor at one of the Alliance's top hospitals.  He was destined to become the chief of this hospital.  Then, however, he discovered that his parents were going to send his sister, River, off to the Academy.  Simon read what the academy was about and what they would be putting his sister through and he did not agree with his parents decision.  He then took it upon himself to break his sister out of the Academy and give up his amazing job as a high ranking doctor.  I posed these questions to myself.  How far can one person go to protect the ones they love?  For Simon it seems as though he will stop at nothing to protect River and keep her well being as his number one priority.  He was a devout member of the Alliance and saved many lives for them.  He gave it all up in an instant to protect his sister and do the right thing for someone he loves. Now they are destined to spend the rest of their lives as outlaws running away from the Alliance.

Firefly Episode 7

Today I watched the seventh episode of Firefly.  In this episode a lot of insight is given into the character Jayne.  The crew lands on a tiny moon planet where they have business to attend.  Jayne gives a little foreshadowing by saying that he isn't very liked on the planet and has had bad dealings with people on the planet in the past.  Upon arriving, however, things couldn't be more different.  He is a hero because the money he stole from the planet fell out of his ship as he was trying to escape and fell down to the poor.  A modern day "Robin Hood" if you will.  Many other story lines follow this main plot line.  The mechanic and Simon, the doctor, further their relationship by discovering that they are attracted to one another.  We also get a first glimpse of the dealings of a companion (prostitute.)  A companion is not made out to be nearly as bad as we would think of it as today.  It has a sensual side, however still not very morally correct by our standards.  Another little story line is River, the genius sister of the doctor, going through the bible of the shepherd's and picking out everything that is wrong with the bible.  She picks out many things that are known to be incorrect and can't physically be possible to have happened.  All in all it wasn't my favorite episode of "Firefly" but was good nonetheless.  I plan on watching episode 8 for tomorrow's assignment.

Firefly Episode 6

So today I watched episode six of firefly, my 3rd episode overall.  Every time I watch it I become more and more hooked.  Yes, the plot line is very strange and it looks like it is an old country western movie with bad special effects for the outer space aspects, but it still somehow hooks me.  I am not sure if it is just the humor or the chemistry between the crew of the firefly, or maybe it is the girl who plays the very attractive "companion."  Anyways, for some reason I really do enjoy the show and don't really see it as homework when I have to watch it.  For this episode though, Mal is tricked into getting married because he had a little too much mulled wine.  Been there done that right? However, his wife is not at all who she seems to be.  She appears to be a very shy girl who is willing to do anything and everything to please her husband because that is the way that she is raised.  Once again, she is not at all as she appeared.  She then drugs Mal when he kisses her with some narcotics she put on her lips and proceeds to take out half the crew and then send the firefly on course to be turned into scrap.  Once again though, we see strong morals and character from the crew of the Firefly, especially Mal, who has this beautiful girl throwing herself at him yet he won't take the bait because it is wrong of him when he didn't want to be married to her in the first place.  All in all this was a good episode and I'm looking forward to watching episode 7 tomorrow.