My view on blogging

Pros of having blogging as a part of this class:

It's good to have practice writing, and not necessarily in a formal way. Blogging allows people to basically word vomit onto their keyboard creating a blog. Having assigned topics is also good because it causes the person to expand their mind a little bit to think about other topics. The practice of writing in blogs is good because it also makes the writer work on punctuation more. They can read through the sentences they write and see if they are making sense or not. Blogging is also a release. If someone is angry and they word vomit it into a blog it's as if it's off of their shoulders and is now the papers, computers, problem.

The cons of blogging:

It's boring to just write in paragraphs for every blog. It would make the blogs way more interesting if we had to write a poem or even do a blog and show our view or what we want to say through pictures. It's not interesting when we have to write about stuff from the book, or even stuff I don't care about too. If it's something that I have no interest in, then it's hard for me to spit out a few paragraphs about it. The book was generally boring, and most of the essays we read were far from interesting, and then having to write about them was painful.

I think that overall blogging is a good idea for this class, however I think there should be more freedom allowed with them. I know that we were allowed to write about what we wanted most of the time, however, I think it would have made it more pleasurable if it was required that we do paragraphs and instead were able to use pictures, poems, or whatever we want to show how we feel. Maybe just a little more freedom on the style and a little less on the book.

Technology"

Technology is all over the place. Whether it's at school, work, or even walking down a street, it occupies our lives. Computers rule our world, and in High School, I learned a very valuable lesson from my junior and senior year english teacher. He told me that when I get to college, computers don't really exist. Just like paper, they are just there. Going up to one of my professors and attempting to use an excuse related to my computer such as "my computer crashed," or "my printer ran out of ink" just wasn't going to fly because computers are everwhere. There are libraries I could go to, friends houses, or even work places in the school. It really helped me to realize it's my fault, not the computers, if I wait until the last minute to do my work and something doesn't work. It's my job to get it done.

I'm pretty sure without the internet right around me I just wouldn't be able to function. I use online banking because I have no idea how to balance my checkbook. I am pretty aweful with math, and I don't care enough to keep track of it. Some people may call this lazy, but I call it safe. It's better in my opinion to have accurate numbers for the amount of money I have, rather than the wrong ones that I added wrong or forgot to take something away.

Also, I am obsessed with music. As I already wrote in a previous blog about music, it helps me get through my life, and is one of the most interesting forms of technology to me. It's crazy how they came up with the recording part of music and it transformed into now a tiny 1 inch IPOD. Technology is a rapidly growing field, and it's facination that once one new product comes out, in just a few months there will be something newer and better.

Argument

My Claim: Doctor assisted suicide should be legal for terminally ill patients.

Text Message: If you know you're going to die, would you want to live through the pain? Assisted suicide should be allowed in severe cases. Put yourself in that situation.

Billboard:

image taken from:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/05/22/movies/23grac600.jpg

Blog:

All over the world, people have been diagnosed with terminal illnesses. Some don't feel it, yet some do. Imagine excruciating pain, or losing control of simple bodily functions such as the movement of our joins as MS does. If these people are going through this and don't want to bear it anymore, why force them. Terminally ill patients should have the right to choose whether or not they want to end their lives rather than suffer through the last few, painful moments of their lives. If I were watching my mom deteriorate before my eyes, I wouldn't want her to only have the choice to suffer.

Terminally ill patients shouldn't have to live through the last moments of their lives miserably. If they would rather not suffer, doctors should be allowed to assist in the suicide, helping the patients to die quick and peaceful, rather than slow, painful, and miserable. Some of these people resort to killing themselves, which is a bigger mess, and worse for the family, so why not allow them to seek help in doing so.

What I'm trying to say is there should be a choice that people can make. The choice between suffering and living, or ending it and dying.

Choke

I am currently in the process of reading Choke. It is one of the greatest books I have ever read. With my kind of humor, it keeps me laughing. It's about a sex addict trying to slow down on sex, which is where no comedic book has gone before. Going through life events, it creates a great story line and I just love it so far.
There is a part in the book where it goes through a checklist to see if you are a sex addict.
The list goes as follows:

Do you cut the lining out of your bathing suit so your genitals show through?

Do you leave your fly or blouse open and pretend to hold conversations in glass telephone booths, standing so your clothes gap open with no underwear inside?

Do you jog without a bra or athletic supporter in order to attract sexual partners?

Then the main character replies:

My answer to all the above is, Well, I do now!

My friend read me this passage from the book and it is what made me want to read it. Seriously, this guy is hilarious. It's funny to think about someone being a sex addict though because how does one overcome that? It would suck completely to have to give it up, and is nearly impossible. It's just a funny concept, that of being a sex addict. Great book though, and I recommend anyone with a sense of humor, and that isn't prude, read it!

Music is Life!

Basically, if I didn't have music in my life, there's a good chance I wouldn't survive! Think about how boring being stuck in traffic would be, or even working out. I'm pretty sure I would never be able to work out without music, so it's a good thing it exists or the obiesity epidemic would be worse.
When it comes to taste in music, I'm all over the place. I listen to everything from folk to rap. Some of my favorite artists include Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Neil Young, and Jack Johnson. The music I listen to at one moment depends on the mood I'm in at the time. When I'm feeling down, I like to throw on "Here comes the Sun" or anything by Neil Young because it reminds me of my dad. When I'm feeling a little bit goofy, it's Katy Perry, Metro Station, or 3OH!3.
Certain bands remind me of people I'm close to as well. If I'm missing someone, I can throw a song on by that band and it will feel as if they are there with me. As I've said before, it's Neil Young for my dad. For my mom, it's Nickelback because I grew up jamming to them on the way to school in her car. With my sister, a little Aerosmith will do the trick because we love to kareoke to "I don't wanna miss a thing!" My best friend Rachel and I love listening to "Crazy Bitch" or "Not if you were the last junkie on!" Those songs remind me of us being crazy on our drives up to snowboard.
Basically, music rules my life. I can't live without it and it helps me get through my days, whether good or bad. It makes me see the other side of things and can always make me feel better.

Election Calls

In the past 2 weeks, I have recieved at least 5 calls a day from people saying "Vote for me because I'm better!" Lets do the math: 5x14=70. Seriously? Does anyone else agree that 70 phone calls is completely rediculous! I honestly can't handle it anymore. After about the 3rd phone call, I began not being so nice anymore. All I can say to these people now is stop f$%#ing calling me! It's so bad that I don't want to vote for those ones that have been calling me just because they have annoyed me so bad! I can't wait for the election to be over!
Along the lines of the election, I have finally started on my ballet. I have had the mail-in ballet for about 2 weeks now, and since it's the night before I've decided it's definately a good time to start on it. Reading over the amendments, I have realized that I barely understand half of them. They are worded so strangely it makes me wonder how the average, or even below average, American understands what they are voting for. I honestly don't even know who those judges are so I just skipped over that entire section. Seriously though, our government should strongly reconsider how they write amendments so that every citizen understands what is going on.

This I Believe

I think the "This I Believe" essay is one of the coolest ways for people to learn about other people. They way the writers convey their messages are clever, and even sometime humorous with how accurately they compare things using similes or metaphors. An essay written by a man named John who is in prison is titled "The Fear That I Don't Matter." John grew up in a household where his father beat him down repeatedly, whether through words or extension cords. After being told time after time that he is basically worthless, John chose to believe it and eventually that choice made him end up in prison. He soon discovered that he was far from being worthless and that he actually liked who he was, really was, when he chose to be a good person. He began to help children with special needs from prison by making him toys, coming up with projects to help more people, and even sponsoring a child from Kenya so that he could continue attending school.
John, through his experiences of helping people from inside of prison, learned that he believed in life, and that all forms of life are important, no matter what people say about them. His tone through the essay is positive in a way that no matter where a person is in life, or what they did, they can change who they are and do good things. His voice shows through with how he talks about him realizing that he is important. His essay is inspiring in a way, coming from a child who was beat down to the size of a dime, believing it, and then turning it all around while still paying for whatever mistakes were made.