Course Goals Final

The goals that I feel I benefited from the most this semester are understand how persuasive visual and verbal texts are composed for different audiences and different purposes, and take responsibility for your own progress. I learned that persuasive visual and verbal text are composed for different audiences from our multi-modal project and our public writing essay. The public writing essay proved this point by showing me that certain people aren't interested in all topics, and that if you want someone to read something that they aren't interested in, then you need to write it in a way that holds their attention long enough for them to read what you wanted them to read.

Another example of this would be the video that Mr. McArdle posted on his blog from the Daily Show, where John Stewart was calling out Fox News for using a video that put footage from two different places together and pretending that they didn't. However, the reason that Fox did this was so that their story was more appealing to their viewers, which is important.

I've also learned not to procastinate as much as I have in the past. With all the essay that we had to write this semester, and constant revisions that we had to make, I made sure that I didn't wait until the last minute to do everything. This has also helped me in some of my other classes too. In my art classes when a huge project was assigned I made sure that I went in to the studio during weekends to work on it, so that I would get it done in plenty of time before it was due. Also, for psychology I made sure I studied for test more than just the night before, which I think helped a lot because it allowed me to go to bed early the night before the test and be well rested.

Another thing that helps me get work done is listening to music. For some reason when I listen to music it helps me think better and I can get more stuff done. It especially helps me on my art projects because music helps me be more creative. My favorite band to listen to is Alice In Chains because they are my favorite band of all time and when I listen to them while doing my homework I just feel as if I do a lot better. I have posted the music video for Check My Brain, which is from their new album.

Finals...FML

Cuz baby its cold outside

Christmas is just around the corner, and there is no snow on the ground yet. This just makes me soo mad because to me cold weather just isn't worth it...unless there is so much snow on the ground that schools are getting cancelled. I mean even with snow cold weather sucks, but without snow the cold weather is just annoying. So I really hope that by at least the time Christmas gets here there is a little bit of snow on the ground.

Where's all the stuffing

I had 3 thanksgiving meals this past holiday weekend and not one of them had stuffing. This greatly upset me because stuffing is one of my favorite thanksgiving foods. I just didn't know what to think about this blasphemous break of tradition. Plus I only had green bean casserole during one of the meals and none of them had any gravy. I don't know what this world is coming to but no stuffing or gravy is a sure sign of the apocalypse in my book.

Flava in ya ear

During my boredom this holiday weekend I found myself downloading waaaay to much music. One good thing that came from this is that I found my new favorite song. My new favorite song is flava in ya ear by Craig Mack. It was released in like 97 or something like that so its not a new song, but i love old school rap and this song is a prime example of old school flow. The remix is the best though cuz it features the Notorious B.I.G., busta rhymes, Puff Daddy, and LL Cool J. So if you guys like old school rap or any of the above rappers check it out, cuz its definitely the best song ever!!!(sry for the generalization)

Blog assignment

yesterday I went to my girlfriend's house to eat thanksgiving dinner with her family. After we ate dinner, all the kids went downstairs and took turns playing call of duty. But her cousin had no interest in playing so she just sat and watched and talked to people with the headset. Since you can't hear what the other people are saying when someone has the headset on it was like listening to a one sided conversation, and you had to guess what the other person was saying by looking at her facial expressions and what she responded with. Since gamers don't like to listen to college girls cocking off to them with the headset they were being really rude to her, I could tell because she kept laughing really hard and saying "don't say that" and putting her hands over her mouth. Eventually the other people just stopped talking to her because she was annoying them soo much, but it was fun while it lasted.

You Might be a Redneck if....

You eat Thanksgiving Dinner off of paper plates. Haha just kidding my family eats off paper plates for every single meal in the world (even thanksgiving) and I'm pretty proud of it. It means no washing dishes. But thats not the point of this post. I'm just simply writing about Thanksgiving in general and the holiday season. Its definitely my favorite time of the year. And honestly how can anyone not like it, I can understand not liking Christmas music because I'm not a huge fan myself. But every other aspect of the holiday season is awesome. For Thanksgiving most families have at least two HUGE meals, one with each side of the family. Some families even have more, and those are the families that I'm seriously jealous of. Then when Christmas comes around most families once again get together to have a huge supper and then afterwards its time for presents. And everyone loves getting new things that they can play with. Then like 6 days after Christmas its New Years Eve, one of the biggest party nights of the year next to Halloween and someone's 21st birthday. I can't wait, I can already taste all of the good food and feel myself getting full. It's gonna be awesome. Happy Holidays.

Public Writing Reverse Argument

I agree with the Fort Wayne smoking ban because it has gotten rid of smoke from public places. Now when everyone goes out they can breathe clean air and not have to worry about damaging their lungs from second hand smoke. Bar owners may fear that this is gonna hurt business but I think it will help because now the people who didn't want to come to the bars before because of the smoke will finally come and have a good time. If the smokers want to continue smoking then they can go outside and smoke and the then come back inside. Its everyone's right to be able to breathe clean air and they shouldn't have to put up with smokers polluting the air in the places they go to have a good time. So way to go Fort Wayne City Council, keep up the good work.

blog assignment

· English 103 introduces students to the fundamentals of rhetoric; to the elements, strategies, and conventions common to persuasion; to the use of those elements, strategies, and conventions in the construction of their own persuasive visual and verbal texts. Upon completion of English 103 students will:

• We found out that this is important by analyzing our own works and other works that we've read.
• We did this by doing intensive reviews of other people's works and telling them how to fix things
• We did this by constantly revising what we've written and never turning them in to be graded.
• We did this by writing in many different styles such as our opinions, information thats been gathered online, and multimodal projects
• I have used this when I write my papers by using the internet to get information and then sometimes asking someone who might know a little bit about what I'm writing about.
• I've done this by making notes while I read so that I can understand what I read later on
• I have done this by making sure that before I write that my paper is formatted correctly
• I work on revising all of my works a little bit at a time so that by the end of the semester when its time for portfolios I'll have them all ready.
• I do this everytime we get into our peer review groups. We all work together on making each others papers better.

Course content & format

· The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:

• We did this with our peer review groups and when we do our intensive reviews
• As a class we have looked at many different videos or commercials and analyzed the meaning behind them
• We do this in our peer review groups or when we ask a classmate for help.
• We make multiple revisions to each essay and usually we have our classmates review them for us.
• Each time we make a revision we show how we improved on understanding the concepts
• I use information from the internet to back up my ideas as I'm writing
• I have done this with each essay that we have been assigned to write

University Core Curriculum Goals

The central purpose of University Core Curriculum is to enable men and women to live rich and satisfying lives and to undertake the broad responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. Although The University Core Curriculum seeks to discover and nurture individual talents, its primary emphasis is preparation for roles people share as human

• We have learned how to properly back up our information that we are writing about so that it is taken seriously by the people who read it
• By communicating with others in class during our discussions this helps us with our everyday communication skills
• I never tell people that their opinion is wrong because I realize that they have a right to think what they want
• I learned how to do this in each of our essays that we had to write
• Each time we have to get into our peer review groups we are working together to come up with the best final draft possible
• I have done this by using what I already knew when I wrote my essays

Undefeated

The Colts are now 8-0!!! This is how they started off their season the year that they won the Super Bowl. I'm so pumped for the rest of the season, and I would be sooo happy if they went again this year. I'm just kind of disappointed that I haven't been able to to watch as many games as I've wanted to. So I hope that for the rest of the season I can find time to watch some more games.

Oops

Today, I set my alarm for P.M. instead of A.M. causing me to miss english, FML

So can someone please let me know what we did, thanks.

Public Writing Proposal: Smoking Ban

On June 1, 2007 Fort Wayne had a law take affect that prevented people from smoking in almost any public indoor place. The law prevents people from smoking in public places including restaurants, bars, and bowling alleys. However, it does not apply to 20% of hotel rooms, private nursing home rooms, and retail tobacco stores. The ban also strengthened smoking laws passed back in the 90s, by allowing smoking in restaurants as long as their is a separate room that is sealed from the non-smoking section.

I personally disagree with this law because in some cases it has caused some businesses to lose money. People who smoke, smoke all the time anywhere and everywhere. This means that when they go out to eat or go drink at bars then they are gonna want to smoke. But this law prevents them from doing that, which means that they aren't going to want to go out to these places and spend money where they can drink or eat and not smoke when they can stay home and do all that for free and have just as much fun. This law has really hurt most bars and has even caused some of them to go out of business. There is an unwritten rule for smokers that says when you drink you have to smoke, you can smoke and not drink but never the other way around. This of course has really hurt bars as well as bowling allies because when was the last time you went to a bowling alley and didn't smell cigarette smoke.

So I think that in these places smoking should be allowed because they are just a smoker's environment. If people don't like second hand smoke then they can not go to these places or they can just put up with it for the short amount of time that they are there. It's really not the big of a deal and if someone is going to go out and drink a ton of alcohol then thats not good for their body either so second hand smoking shouldn't matter to them.

Public Writing?

I think that public writing is a type of writing that is used to communicate to a large audience. Some examples of this would be like a flyer/ poster that would be hung up where a lot of people could see it during a certain period of time or handed to people. It could also be like an article in a magazine or an editorial in a newspaper that is written with the goal of lots of people reading it.

FAIL!!

So yesterday in drawing class we were working with India Ink. For those of you that don't know what that is, it is a very permanent substance that when comes in contact with clothes is impossible to get off. Well anyway I had just finished my drawing and was two seconds from putting the lid on my bottle of ink when all of a sudden my leg felt wet and I heard a crash on the floor. Apparently somewhere between my thinking about putting my lid on and actually doing it my FULL bottle fell off of my desk and landed on my jeans, producing a large stain and then proceeded to fall to the floor and splatter all over the wall and cabinets beside me. Luckily it didn't get on my shoes at all, but it did create quite a scene because our drawing class is a very quiet environment so that everyone can concentrate on their drawings. So I then had to clean up the mess while everyone watched me and continued to draw. I love college....:)

Parents Weekend Failure

Today was parents day at BSU. The football team played Bowling Green University. Bowling Green's record was terrible, unfortunately ours was worse. During the game we played sooo bad that we made the other team look like an NFL team. Bowling Green scored within the first two minutes of the game and we didn't even score till like the third quarter. I don't exactly remember exactly how it went because I was to busy being distracted by the FREEZING cold weather. That game was the single most miserable thing that I have had to sit through in my life because it was so cold, but at least I got to spend my day with my girlfriend and her family. The cold would not have been so bad if we had played a good game or even if we had scored more. I don't even know what the final score was because we left at the end of the third score, but I think I heard it was like 36-17. But anyway the point I'm trying to make is that I hate cold weather and I will spend the rest of the winter months trying as hard as I can to be in the cold the least amount possible.

Fall cleaning

I am currently seated on the futon in my girlfriend's room watching her and her roommate clean every possible surface in their room. The reason that they are cleaning their room is because they are terrified of the H1N1 virus. They think that if they don't clean the bacteria off of everything in their room then they will become infected with this horrible disease. But in reality the H1N1 virus acts just like a normal flu in young healthy people like ourselves. Only if it is left untreated for a long amount of time will it kill someone younger than 50 or older than 13. So don't worry everybody, its not that big of a deal.

Stressful

So I'm definitely feeling a lot of stress lately. I've been getting a lot of homework and I feel like I don't have any time to do any of it. I still want to be able to go out and party and have fun with my friends, but if I do all that then I'll definitely not have any time for homework at all. I just don't know what to do, even though I'll obviously do the homework.

On monday I have a test in art history that I have to study for, and this test is over like 4 chapters so thats a lot of information that I have to cover. Then for my foundations class I have to get two major projects ready to start, but my teacher is very strict about the way we go about doing that and there is a very tedious process that we have to go through. Then of course I have to do the multimodal project for this class, and I'm still extremely confused about it. Although, McArdle helped me a little bit today during our conference, but I would still appreciate some help from my peers because sometimes you guys can explain it better. I hope you guys decide to help me out. Thanks!!!

Air jam

Last night I went to air jam with a bunch of my friends. I didn't think it was gonna be very fun and I wasn't to happy about spending the $5 for the ticket but all my friends were going so I had to buy one too or I would've been bored for 2 hours. But to my surprise it was a lot more entertaining then I thought it was going to be. Some of the groups were actually really good. I'll most likely try to go the next 3 years if at all possible because it was that much fun, and if you didn't get a chance to go this year then I highly recommend going next year. It is really fun and you won't be disappointed.

Brainstorming

I am trying to decide how exactly to go about doing my multi model project. Some of the details are a bit fuzzy to me. I'm not completely sure how to make an arguement with an essay, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon. As of now I'm thinking about doing a video like what we saw in class as an example. However if that fails then I will just write an essay with lots of pictures. If anyone is feeling sympathetic towards my predicament then please feel free to explain it a little bit and give me some more ideas...It would be greatly appreciated.

Victory

Last night I came back to my home town to watch the football game of our high school, South Adams, against our rival, Adams Central. Long story short we won 21-7. It was a very good game.

Writer's Block

So our next writing assignment for Mr. McArdle is a rhetorical analysis. We are supposed to pick something that can be broken down (which is anything) and then analyze it. What it means, whats its purpose, things like that. My only problem right now is I can't decide what to write about. I'm kinda leaning towards a song cuz that seems like it would be decently easy, but I don't know. Do any of you have any ideas as to what might be easy to write about, like a movie or book or song?

Team Kimbo

Tonight was the season premiere for the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter" on Spike TV. For those of you who don't know what the show is about, it's basically like American Idol for UFC fighters. Mixed Martial Artists from around the country are selected to come be on the show and participate in challenges from week to week and the winner gets to be an actual UFC fighter, and fight against the big dogs in Vegas hotels and crap like that. Each week one coach picks a fighter from each team to fight at the end of the week, whoever loses that fight goes home, and the team of the winner gets to keep control for the next week. Which means that the coach gets to pick who fights. The coaches for this season are Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and "Suga" Rashad Evans, who has only been beaten once in his entire career. The fact that these two absolute males are coaching is a reason to watch the show in its own. Both Rampage and Suga are both major UFC fighters themselves and they hate each other, so I'm predicting that at some point during the season they are gonna end up getting pissed at each other and getting in a fight.  If you have never seen this show then I urge to start watching this season because it will definitely be one of the most exciting seasons in the history of the show. The reason this season is gonna be so exciting is because one of the contestants is the one and only Kimbo Slice. If you don't know who Kimbo Slice is then go to Youtube and type in his name and prepare to be amazed. But he is an underground street fighter who started out as a bodyguard for porn stars and then earned a name for himself by beating the crap out of ppl in backyard fights that were then posted on the internet. Last year he tried to make it in the big leagues in the Elite X championship or whatever its called but he got his salad tossed in the first few seconds, which led people to believe that big bad Kimbo couldn't handle the MMA world. But after a few months off of training I think he's ready to make his big comeback and become a real UFC fighter. 

Rock the Vote

Tonight my floor had the third meeting for voting on floor rules. The first two times there weren't enough people to vote and tonight we had the exact amount of people needed to vote.  However when the meeting was supposed to start we were 7 people short. So everyone in the meeting started calling their roommates and finally we got enough people to vote. So then we proceeded to pass out the ballots and we all filled them out together to make sure that we all had the same thing. So hopefully no one decided to be smart and fill it out differently then everyone. If this happens then no one on my floor will be happy.

Fun weekends!!

So I haven't slept in my dorm the past 3 nights. Thats how you know that you've had a fun weekend. On Thursday I went to my friends house with my friends and listened to some music and watched some T.V. Some people were even playing some ping pong. I had so much fun that night that I just slept in his spare bedroom. Unfortunately I overslept the next morning and missed my first class. Then on friday night my fellow friends and I ventured to an exotic location here in muncie, but I didn't know who owned this house. This house had a small dance club going on in the basement complete with huge speakers, strobe lights and a neon light. They also had some really good home made lemonade for those brave people who got became parched while dancing. That night I got to sleep on the futon in my girlfriends room. That was pretty fun because I got to sleep in until almost 12. Then last night I finally got to the go to that Alice in Chains concert that I have been ranting about in my past blogs. Yes, it was the coolest thing I have ever experienced. But then when I got back one of my friends from high school was visiting all of us down here at Ball State. So me and him went out with our girlfriends, who are roommates, and we went to another house that had a lot of dancing and ping pong. However this house didn't have any homemade lemonade, they just decided to go out and buy a bunch of fruit punch and soda. Then we went on to sleep in the girls room again.

Old People Getting Married??

So my grandma just recently got married after almost 15 years of being a widow. She met her new husband at like a 50 year class reunion or something like that, and they knew each other for about 2 months before they got married. However, that is not the only weird thing about this old fashion hitchin. I only just met her "friend" about 3 weeks before they decided to tie the knot, and I only found out about their plans when I overheard my mom talking about it on the phone. Yet another bizarre thing about this situation is that they decided to elope, which means that no one in the family got to meet our new "grandpa". Their wedding took place at the beginning of July sometime, so this weekend they had a party so that the family could come meet her new husband. They called it a reception but due to the fact that there was no music and there was only a table with snacks, it was more of just an open house. 

Will the Real Layne Staley Please Stand Up

Today Prof. McArdle took us to see the writing center. It was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen...but I digress, class ended up going five minutes long, which I wasn't very happy about because I had an appointment to give blood at 11. Thats right, I saved up to 3 lives today. But trust me the only reason I gave blood was because I received a free ticket to go see Alice In Chains in concert, along with a few other bands you may have heard of like, Hollywood Undead, Hurt, Red, Cavo, Framing Hanley, Sick Puppies, and Cage the Elephant. Its gonna be wicked cool, but I'm the most pumped about Alice In Chains because they are like my favorite band in the entire world. It has literally been my life dream to see them in concert and now it is finally coming true. Even though Layne Staley died way back in like the 90s or something I still think this concert is gonna be wicked awesome because the new guy that they got to replace Mr. Staley sounds just as good, which makes me just as excited for their new album, Black Gives Way to Blue, which is dropping on September 29. If you have never experienced the sounds of Alice In Chains, then I strongly urge you to start now.

Why No Music??

So I really like music and I spend most of my free time constantly downloading music. In fact ever since I purchased my Mac Attack Book Pro I have spent the whole summer building my iTunes library with my favorite tunes. Most people use limewire, some people use blubster, and some people actually buy their music (HA!), but I use Frostwire. But apparently here at Ball State they frown upon the "illegal" transaction of music, because everywhere I freaking go I can't download any music. And this fact pisses me off more than country music, because I NEED in my life. Aside from the fact that I do have over 2000 songs in my iTunes library I love to search the iTunes Store for new songs from artists that I'm already familiar with and discover new artists. But now I can't do that because BSU blocks all file sharing programs. So if any of you know of a program that still works or of a site that you can get music from (for free) then please let me know. It would be greatly appreciated.

Captain's Blog; Star Date 08-26-09

Today I was sitting in my room and I noticed that my walls were pathetically plain. After making this unique and groundbreaking discovery I decided to do something about it. So I sat down at my desk and started brainstorming ways I could give my eyes an excite-full orgasm every time I catch a glimpse of my wall. Long story short I decided to purchase some posters so I grabbed my cash money and headed on down to the big discount tent sale located by the immensely handy scramble light. No more than 5 minutes of browsing the incredible collection of of eye candy I found the perfect poster and at once I knew that I must have it. The image was that of the one and only Megan Fox. But this wasn't just any ordinary picture of Megan Fox, it was delightfully tacky yet unrefined at the same time. In this poster Megan is wearing high leather (possibly latex I can't tell but who cares really) a red mini (and I mean MINI) skirt, and a blue skin TIGHT super man shirt. After instantly purchasing this masterpiece I hurried back to my dorm room and hung it directly beside my bed. I believe this is one of the best if not the best investments that I have ever mad. So make sure that when you read this that you become terribly jealous. Stay tuned for Thursday night supper.