Miscellaneous

Is it just me, or am I the only one who likes soccer now-a-days? It seems like there is no one out there who appreciates or even enjoys the game. I was talking to some people today and they played soccer in high school but had no real interest in the sport. They just complained about how they wanted to stay in shape and soccer was the easiest sport. It kind of upsets me because it's those people who ruin it for everyone else. The players who care about it put their all into it and the rest half ass it which ruins the whole experience. Soccer is a team sport and one, or in this case many, weak links ruin it all. I know it happens in every other sport, but it seems like soccer has more than any other. I know it's simple enough for anyone to play and that's why those people play it. But it just ruins the experience. I guess I'm just venting because my high school experience was tainted because of players like that. I played club and that was the most fun I've ever had because everyone cared about it. But the more and more people I meet, no one has an interest in it. I feel as though I'm the only person in a hundred mile radius who knows all about the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, and La Liga. That's gibberish to the vast majority out there. I guess I'm a loner on that topic. It forces me to catch up on the NFL, MLB, and NBA just so I have some knowledge about other sports when sports becomes the main topic of conversation with people. Oh well. Life sucks lol.

In Class Writing

So I sat there in grief. Four years of a relationship all down the drain. Life just didn't make sense anymore. It was as if I had no purpose any more. The worst part about it was that my parents were especially focused on me after receiving the news. I am an only child. In most cases, that meant that the parents were solely focused on their one and only child. But not in this case. My parents wouldn't give a rat's ass about what happened in my life. I was top of my class, in numerous after-school activities, and was basically a perfect child for them. Up until now, my parents wouldn't have acted any different if I didn't even exist. I never told my parents because they wouldn't have cared anyhow. That was when I came home that Friday night. Jamie had just broken up with me and I was devastated. I walked into the living room and my parents were both sitting on the couch. The called me over to them and they began consoling me. It was the weirdest thing. My mom gave me a big hug and my dad said it was going to be alright. I was so confused. My girlfriend had just broken up with me and my parents somehow found out and seemed to care. My dad started giving me a speech about how great Jamie is and my mom told me that she was going to fix things for me. I was sad, but this was a little much for me. After a few minutes my mom went over to the phone and started to call someone. Then I realized what she was doing, she was calling Jamie. I immediately jumped over the couch and ran to stop her. It was too late. Jamie picked up. "Hi Jamie, this is Mrs. Anderson. I was just calling to see what the reason may be as to why you broke up with Chris. Chris is a great guy and he loves you dearly. Maybe there's something I don't know about, but I feel like you two should be together." Oh no. She was embarrassing me. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to talk to Jamie. It was too soon. But I couldn't just stand there watching my mom do this. Then it hit me. I yanked the cord out of the wall. Disconnected. Whew. I looked around...uh oh. Where did Dad go?

Other Classes

I'm currently taking 17 credit hours this semester. The classes are generally easy compared to the classes I took last year. The only issue is figuring out the "system." Every teacher wants something different and that's the most frustrating thing about classes. Pleasing people is what it takes. It's absolutely impossible to please everyone. In one class, I'm required to take notes on every single thing no matter if I know the material or not. We spend so much time focusing on stuff that is irrelevant to the subject or things we should've learned by this time. The teacher will go off on tangents and talk about things that I'll never need to know in my major or things that I learned in the two previous course requirements. It feels as a waste of time when I could be advancing more to where I need to be as a student in my major. It's especially frustrating when I can show in my final work that I do in fact know the material but then get penalized that I don't show the notes from the previous meetings. In another class, the teacher says that no one has to show up for class except the days we have exams or quizzes and showing up to classes directly influences our grades on the tests and quizzes. Ironically enough, I'm passing with flying colors in that class. Yet, I'm getting a solid C in the other class that has been penalizing me for my notes and organization which is not what the course is about. It's finding the right mix for each class that makes you successful in college. The simple solution is to just stop complaining and do what they want no matter if I like it or not. It's giving people exactly what they want, not what you learn and do as an individual. It's hurting me as a student who wants to learn and become more knowledgeable in a subject. Maybe sacrificing knowledge is what I need to do. Or maybe it's just the teachers/college. I don't know. Hopefully I find out before I spend too much money.

Miscellaneous

So I started a new job about a week ago. It's a lot different than my old job. I used to work in an insurance agency where I dealt with claims and policies and all of that jazz. Now I'm working at the movie theater in Lima. I kind of like it. It's possibly the easiest job I've ever had. The only cons are the pay and having to deal with the general public. I never knew how arrogant and rude some people really could be. But I don't let things like that get to me which is perfect for the job. "The customer is always right" they say. I beg to differ. It just makes me wonder about the future and how it's people like this who are in charge and helping run this country. It scares me. But it also makes me feel a little bit better about the future. If people can be this stupid and make it this far in life, then I think I'll be alright. It's still kind of scary knowing that I'm an adult. I don't want to grow up and deal with all the adult things. I just want to go back to the days where I could play with my toys and the hardest decision was who to pick for my recess kickball team. Now I'm working two jobs, going to school, and am still supposed to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life. It's just a lot of things I don't want to worry about. I know I'm most definitely not the only one dealing with this sort of thing and it could be a hell of a lot worse. But it's still tough. I like to live my life believing that everything will be okay in the end. I just wish I didn't have to wait til the end for it to be alright. I'm still waiting for that thing to happen that makes everything worth it. I'm caught up in the choice of just trudging through all of this and hoping it gets better or making risky decisions in the hope that something good comes from it. It's just too many decisions.

In Class Writing

I completely agree with the "Everything is a Remix" videos. I think it is something that the public does not think about very often. We are often telling each other not to copy or use someone else's work but then are told to be creative and original. As we grow up, teachers often mislead students to associate copying with cheating. If we copy, we cheat. That was the rule. But these videos show that there is almost no such thing as an original idea. Everything is adapted from something else. Without copying, we cannot grow or learn. We learned to speak a language from copying our parents or other influences. Without mimicking them, we could not learn to do those things. The videos also make a clear boundary between using copying to grow and using copying to cheat or gain an advantage. By using the work of others, we can adapt and create our own works to help us grow as an individual or a society. Another thing I liked about the videos was that the narrator pointed our that copying the works of others is okay as long as we aren't the ones being copied. Our species is very territorial. We naturally do not like to share things. But we learn to do so. Other times we still chose not to share. When someone does something successful and then someone else uses that idea to gain their own success, we feel as though our success was stolen from us. That leads to all the lawsuits on copyright infringement. If we were to never use someone else's idea to create our own, creativity would be at an all-time low and making any sort of advancement would be difficult. The human species has grown by using the ideas of others to create new and better things.

In Class Writing

     I arrived at the scene at 0800 hours. The place had been shut down 15 minutes before I got there. The victim was Suzy Homes. She was 12 years old with golden pigtails. It looked as though she was wondering around Wal-Mart with her mom when things suddenly got sour. She had a hole right through the middle of her body. Not an instant kill shot so there was some suffering involved. As I gazed through the other investigators, I noticed a woman with tears rushing down her eyes. I presumed it was the mother, aunt, or some other close relation to Suzy.
     When I arrived at the Wal-Mart early that morning, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The authorities took me to young Suzy's body where she laid in a giant pool of her own blood. She was covered in it. As I stood there watching, I realized she was shot in the stomach which answered my question as to why there was so much blood. I had dealt with other messy cases before but this was extreme for such a young girl.
     When Mrs. Homes came to me asking for me to help her, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. She needed my help to defend her because she was being charged with the death of her own 12 year old daughter. I asked her for all the details and she told me a very believable story about her trip to Wal-Mart with her daughter. She said it was like any other day to go grocery shopping. Her story was so detailed leading up to her daughter's death. Mrs. Homes then said something I will never forget. She said, "My daughter asked for some skittles and I said no. She yelled at me so I shot her."

In Class Writing

Why did I follow Steven and Rachel? Why did I have to be a follower and not a leader? Look where it got me. On a calm Friday night I'm stuck in this creepy wooden shed hiding for my life. I don't even know who the dude in the white hockey mask was. He was huge though. I hope Steven and Rachel are alright in the beach house. As soon as that masked guy sliced Mr. Paterson open with that machete, we ran. We just thought it was some older guy dressed up for Halloween. Mr. Paterson was being a pain in the ass acting like he owned the neighborhood. Considering on one liked him, I guess he had it coming. But never have I ever seen anything like that. The masked guy had such immense  power. He cut through Mr. Paterson like a hot knife through butter. Steven and Rachel saw the very end result but that was enough to spook all of us.

In Class Writing

Santa screams "Ho Ho Hold up a minute." The witch and the Easter bunny were on a mission and they weren't stopping for anyone. The trio came together after realizing they were no even represented in a single museum throughout the country. They set on a mission to change that. "Hurry up, fatty! We don't need for you and your jolly gut to be slowing us down." said the witch. The Easter bunny was a speedy little hare as he destroyed and moved all of the antiques and pieces of history around. The witch rode her broom around the premises conducting spells to help set up their display. Jolly old St. Nick saw the plate of food sitting from the holiday work party the employees had earlier. He started chowing down the first moment he got. The Easter bunny and the witch worked end to end as Santa "supervised." Then a noise came from the back door. Santa, the witch, and the Easter bunny froze in their place.

In Class Writing

The object I brought to class is a mechanical pencil. It is long, slim, and approximately six inches in length. The pencil is made up of many individual parts brought together to make a usable writing utensil. Plastic is the main component of the pencil. It has grooves that allow the user to grip and properly hold the pencil. The difference between this pencil and any wooden pencil is the way the pencil sounds when in use. A wooden pencil must be sharpened periodically in order to stop it from running out of graphite. When a wooden pencil is newly sharpened the words written from it are crisp and gives off a smooth sound that is easy on the ears. Once the pencil becomes dull, there is no longer a soothing sound but a screechy noise. This problem never occurs with my mechanical pencil. The sound and strokes are always smooth. This mechanical pencil is like always having the perfect piece of toast.

In Class Writing

How I Met Your Mother is my favorite TV show of all-time. This particular episode was the Star Wars Trilogy episode. The episode started and ended with a guy in his window making assumptions about why Barney would come outside and smile. The guy let his assumptions consume him even though his assumptions could'n't have been more wrong. One thing about How I Met Your Mother is that each episode has a life lesson. This episode's lesson was that you can't predict the future and don't run your present by worrying about the future. Barney was having troubles with his girlfriend and he went to seek some advice from his friends. Other factors came into play that diverted from the main plot. The guys talked about the Star Wars Trilogy and how every time they watched it,they tried to predict the future. By the time they got back to the present, they each realized that life is full of surprises. While there were some true parts they predicted...

In-Class Prompt #4

The hall was quiet until she heard the fatal crash. Screams erupted from all the rooms. The ground started to shake. She started to panic. All of the rooms started to empty as every one in the building ran for their lives. Alicia was just finishing up the Peterson report as she heard the crash. The loud noise came from above. Alicia thought maybe someone had dropped a large piece of equipment upstairs. As she sat there at her desk wondering what was going on, she started to realize that maybe this was something bigger. She went down the hall as quickly as she could in hopes of finding an answer. Everyone was crowding the elevators and stairwell. Alicia tried asking one of the women who worked in the room next to her what was going on. No reply. As she looked across the hallway she then realized the reality of the situation. A man jumped through the window at the end of the hall. People had tears rolling down their eyes. One man screamed "We're going to die!" Panic surged through Alicia's body. She then ran to the older stairwell that no one used anymore. She rushed down the stairs as fast as she could. Her office was on the eighth floor. She wished she had not ate those 3 donuts for breakfast as she continued downwards. On and on she went. Alicia tried to figure out what might have happened. She reached the bottom floor and made her way outside. Ambulances and firetrucks surrounded the premises. 

In-Class Prompt #1

Writing has always been intimidating to me. It has never been something I have enjoyed. Writing scares me because I have very little self confidence. When I was younger, I expressed myself through artwork. I have always been creative when it came to telling oral stories or making art. When it came to writing, I was anything but. As I grew older, writing became more prominent. I was expected to do so much with something I had little practice with. During my eighth grade year, I had a moment that changed my life from then on. I was chosen in my class as one of the top 3 students to go to a writing competition. After that competition, I realized that I underestimated my abilities. I basically sold myself short. I believe that there are no fears, but just self doubt. Growing up, I was afraid to write. Later on, I realized that I just doubted myself that I could do it. Everyone wants to achieve success but not everyone is willing to go the distance. Whether it be laziness or just self doubt, people refuse to push themselves to the limit. I believe that in order to be all that one can be, one must push themselves past these obstacles in one's way. These obstacles are all around us. They can either make us or break us. I believe self-efficacy is important because it brings us to our full potential. With self-efficacy, all of us can be the best we can be.