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Saturday, December 10th, 2005
Advice to Future Students taking this class
Advice on the general class (with any teacher, not just andrew)
Get your assignments done, I know you hear this all the time, however it is by far the most important advice that you will hear. This is because if you get your assignments done early, then you will have a decent view to them, and still have time to proofread them.
Go to class, I only missed a couple of classes, however, the classes I attended I had so much fun, and learned at the same time.
All the other stuff you hear from every other penn state student... listen, meet your teacher, all that extranneous stuff, and now for the good stuff
Also, make sure to meet your classmates, they could be connections later in life, or even lifelong friends, you never know untill you meet them.
Be creative, I cannot express this enough. You are not at college to rehash old ideas and to write to a perfect format. Experiment, and find out what works
Advice for students that have Andrew Pilsch
Don't worry, the first few weeks will be awkward, and then everything will get much better, because you will realize that yes, that is actually the way he is, and that he will always be that way (no offense andrew).
Go to office hours if you want your paper to be adequately reviewed, your classmates are probably horrible critiquers and one of the only true ways to find out what is good and bad is to go to office hours.
Write the blogs, every day, if you're still doing that. Because this teaches you how to write about nothing, and in some careers, this is what you do, miscelleneous reports, letters, memo's, etc... your blogs will help you later.
Finally, allow yourself to enjoy the class. I know, I know, this sounds like, "be yourself," but this is good advice because if you get into the class and to what is going on, then you will learn much more.
Friday, December 9th, 2005
I was going to skip this blog to be a rebel, but I guess that I'm not that much of a rebel, and this being our last day of class, I felt kind of obligated to do this one final blog post. I really enjoyed the class and everything that it involved. It mainly taught me how to write halfway decent, however I believe that i need to get this out of the way. I will miss the good times that I had in the class, yes, I did have good times. This class was an enjoyable way to learn about arguing.
Thursday, December 8th, 2005
I just finished eating one of those breakfast sandwiches... not the type that you get from mcdonalds, i got this one from Moxie, the coffee shop downstairs in Waring Commons. And I realized how healthy these breakfast sandwiches really are. When you think about it, its got four food groups contained in that tiny little bundel of taste. I have to get two of them every morning, simply because I usually am starving in the morning. But think about it, there is your eggs, your cheese(dairy), your meat(sausage in my case), and then the english muffin or croissant that makes the bread... four food groups... you find me something else that can encompass that many food groups in one tiny little package, and is still somewhat healthy.
Wednesday, December 7th, 2005
There is one that that I am not going to miss about this class, and that is definitely the blogging... I never really got into blogging all that much because my school missed out on the fad. This was probably because I went to an all guys highschool. I'm not saying that blogging is an exclusively girls thing, however, I can say that girls may have spread the fad of blogging and got guys interested. Maybe if i got started into blogging earlier and I had some interesting stuff to talk about on here, I would probably enjoy it... but I don't, and it really seems more of a pain to me... no offense to those who enjoy it!!
Tuesday, December 6th, 2005
Tomorrow, I have a spanish oral exam today, and for lack of better words, I am figuratively shitting my pants. I havent had a solid oral exam in at least two years, from when I finished highschool spanish and didn't have to deal with spanish anymore. I guess I'm doing allright in my spanish class, because I have an A- and maybe an A if i do well on this exam and then the final. I believe that I could pull off an A. However, I am still rather nervous for the oral exam and what sucks even more is that I can't really study for it all that much. There are about 20 possible scenarios that we could act out and we are going to choose out of a hat. This is a good way to make sure that we know our stuff, however it probably freaks most of the students out. I mean yes, we do do this in class, however, usually we have time to prepare our answers and something to write down ideas on.
Monday, December 5th, 2005
Right now, I'm listening to the soundtrack from the movie Rent. This was one of the best conversions from musical to film that I have ever seen. All but two of the characters from the opening broadway musical agreed to come back to do the movie. Chicago was also another very well done conversion, however the vocals did not hold up as well as rent's does. I believe that the director's use of the scenery in the movie gives the movie the flair that it needed to be a success. On stage there were almost no scene changes and it mostly took place in the main character's apartment, or what looked like the apartment. The first scene, with the song 'rent' is so electrical, and so well done, showing an entire New York City block burning their eviction notices, i believe this set the tone for the entire movie.
Friday, December 2nd, 2005
Today I am going to go back home to go deer hunting with my dad and male relatives. I don't love deer hunting, but I am good at it so I guess that I do enjoy it a little bit. It is almost amazing how the majority of highschools have the first day of deer season off in Pennsylvania. I think this is because the majority of the students would skip the first day reguardless. Even many of the colleges in Pennsylvania have the first day off. The first day was this past Monday, and as you all know, we were in session. I have no idea why PSU would want to stop their students from either spending some time with their parents or even enjoying one of Pennsylvania's favorite pastimes.
Thursday, December 1st, 2005
These blogs have really taught me how to b/s for a good extended period of time without thinking about what I'm really saying. I wonder if that is a good thing. I wonder if that's what blogs are really about. I always thought that blogs were about what someone did during the day, instead of just random topics that I can squeeze a bunch of lines out of. I don't know about everyone elses resolution, but I try to squeeze at least 3 lines out on my computer, I know I have a really high resolution, and that this may be much more on everyone elses computers, and I'm curious to see how long my blogs are on everyones computers, leave me comments.
Wednesday, November 30th, 2005
Time seems to be going so slow now that the end is in sight. I have no idea what I'm going to do for the 14 days remaining in my first semester at PSU. I believe that I should buckle down and work hard, but I really don't see why I should. I have only one class that I'm not doing so hott, and all the other ones, I know the material pretty well, and the tests aren't cumulative, so I think that I'll have no real problems. Everyone else is freaking over the prospect of finals, and I guess they can't see that they are just another series of tests that we will have to go through over and over again, much like the rest of our education career. I think that we all should be used to it by now and that it should be no big thing.
Tuesday, November 29th, 2005
Where did the rest of the semester go? In highschool it was always that Thanksgiving marked the middle of the semester, and there were many class days left to go. However, today, I learned that i have this week, next week, and finals week, which I'm done by wednesday, and then I am done... from now, that is only what? eleven days of work left, and thats including the testing days!! I don't have any idea what I am going to do when I go home and there is almost nothing to do on the weekends, and I'm going to be ridiculously bored. But, i absolutely cannot wait for christmas to come, it is by far my favorite holiday of the year, and it is such a merry season. Yeah, I'm done now, I sound like an elf or something
Monday, November 28th, 2005
Hmm, this is wierd, I'm not too sure why, maybe it's just as I feared, I can touch the sky... Not really, but anyways, I have mixed feelings being back in dear old state, I'm not too sure that I'm happy to be here. Sure, this is an amazing place that is close to my heart (yes, even after only one semester) however, I got attached to being home and not having work to do. It's quite possible that it's only my laziness speaking, but I can't wait for christmas break, when I can go back to work, and not worry about any real homework. I have got to finish this final project by friday, and even though I have started it, I'm kind of daunted. Also, I was with a bunch of my friends over the break, and I really miss how much fun we all have together.
http://www-scf.usc.edu/~lindseyc/censorship2.jpg∞
Friday, November 18th, 2005
Holy shit, there are only... what? six or seven months until my birthday! I always get confused when counting months, and days, do we include the one we are currently in? or do we just exclude that because its half over anyway? Who knows. I can't wait for thanks giving, I love food and my family is all going to be there and it's just a great holiday. However, it may not be nearly as great as Christmas, which is by far, one of the best holidays of the year, I love giving people stuff and getting stuff that I need. Thanksgiving is great because it is the last holiday before christmas, and everyone gets the holiday cheer. Also, the best shopping holiday of the year is black firday, and you always get the greatest deals on the most expensive stuff. Also, yes I know I'm posting this blog a day early, I just want to get it out of the way for the weekend.
Thursday, November 17th, 2005
Wow, I just realized that in English, after tomorrows class, there will be only 8 classes left, and two are this monday and tuesday, and then there will be 6 classes left. OH NO!!! whatever will I do without blog posts to fill up my days? or maybe its to describe my days? I have no idea. What a wonderfully cold day outside! I love the cold, when your cold, you can always get warm, however if your hot, you can't always get cold, unless of course you live somewhere there is air conditioning, and at State College there isn't many buildings with it. I think I should go study for economics, however I don't have another class untill after thanksgiving, so nah, who needs to study?
Wednesday, November 16th, 2005
I think that its ironic that when my math grade decides to go down, all of my other grades decide to go up. For instance, now my lowest grade in any of my classes is a B+, excluding math. Oh well, I guess thats the way things work up here at Penn State. Next semester I chose to kill myself with 17 credits. I have a forboding feeling about this, and I'm not too sure what to do. Oh well! I think that everything should be alright, but having 6 classes does seem to be a little much. I enjoy the days where I'm done by noon, and I can sit and read or finish up any miscellaneous homework and what not.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2005
GOD DAMN. I got my test grade back today, and I got a freaking 70. How is this possible if I understand the material, have done the majority of the homework, and have attended all but one class. Shouldn't more classes be focused on more than just test taking? I believe this because for my Spanish class, I got an 80% on the exam, and I dont care, whatever, but with my participation and homework grades, I have a 92% in the class. I believe that this is how it should be done.
Monday, November 14th, 2005
Today I've got my math exam, I really really dislike my math class, if i could just do without calculus, I would be having roughly a 3.8, buuuut noooo ive gotta take it, and its bringing my grade down to a freaking 3.3. Im rather disappointed in myself because I've always been pretty good in math, and I thank god that I won't have to take ANY math classes EVER again. I love Penn State because they believe that you really dont need to know calculus farther than a really basic understanding of it. I cant wait till this semester is over and my grades go back up.
Friday, November 11th, 2005
I have a feeling that this weekend is going to be pretty lame. With all the fraternaties out canning or supposedly canning for THON, and many more of my friends out canning for thon, the party spirit has seemed to go out of Penn State. I believe that this is because there is no longer as many here to party with. Also, This could be because we feel that we have to act nice because theres no football game to rile us up and get us ready to rip each others limbs off. I wish Penn State wasnt going to be so boring this weekend.
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
Today, our R.A.'s alarm clock was ringing nonstop for about an hour. I broke out the old lock picking set and got to work. By the time that I got the door open (roughly 5-10 mins) the alarm stopped. Everyone was amazed that I could pick a lock, much less do it while an alarm was incessantly ringing in my ears. Lockpicking isn't the hardest thing in the world, it only takes practice, and living in the dorms, ive got as much practice as I could want. All lock picking is is trying to get the tumblers to the shear line, however, it is an unpracticed art.
Wednesday, November 9th, 2005
I was talking to someone in our class the other day, yesterday to be precise, and he told me how extremely embarrassed he was, but explained his predicament. He did not realize that andrew had been posting comments to our essays, and in turn, this unfortunate fellow realized that he was making the same mistakes over and over again in his essays. In class one time, he told me, that he almost asked when we were getting our papers back, but successfully restrained himself because he realized nobody else had the same question. Eventually, everything worked out for the better when he looked at his paper on this wiki, and realized that there were comments made on it.
Oh lord ... -EschaTon
Tuesday, November 8th, 2005
Today, its a little colder than it has been lately, and when I worked out today, it seemed to be much harder than it was in the past. I think that now that its getting colder, everything else is going to become harder. My tough workout can be blamed on me doing harder weights, or something else, however I don't think that this is the case because I do hard weights every time I work out, so I don't think it was that. Whatever the cause, either I'm getting sick, or the cold weather is getting to me, or I just am not working out as hard as i have been, and I finally stepped it up a notch.
Just wait till you hit that 30+ age . . . not only does lifting become more strenuous, but gaining weight around the belly will become second nature. Just think LOW CARB and Lovin it. -Squad514
Monday, November 7th, 2005
My proposal today is on censorship. I think that I came to the idea of using this is because I am reading Farenheit 451. Its a pretty good book so far, and yes, I am reading it just for fun. I also plan on reading 1984 after I'm done reading farenheit 451. I think its really close minded that there were actually people who didnt question the government and all the ridiculous rules, like in communist russia and places like that. In Farenheit 451 the main character burns books, hes a fireman, but he doesnt put fires out, he starts them. He burns the great authors like Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, and Faulkner on different days of the week! They had a set schedule which books were to be burnt on each day, ridiculous.
As for 1984, just remember that the root of all freedom is the ability for someone to be able to say “2 + 2 = 4” - Squad514
Friday, November 4th, 2005
Man, I think I really need to catch up on my sleep today, because I really really feel like crap. I usually dont feel this way, but I guess 6 hours of sleep a night really doesnt cut it, and then, you cant recover by sleeping 8 or 9 hours, of course, youve gotta sleep something like 14 or 15 hours to make up for lost time. However, don't you just love when you can sleep that long and theres nothing to worry about? Then you wake up, and realize its all a dream. I really wish there could be something like a pill you could take that allows you to be awake, yet you get your sleep, somehow. I know its unfeasible, but it would make everything easier and people more productive if we didn't have to sleep.
Thursday, November 3rd, 2005
I downloaded this program today, its called market browser, and you can store up to about 20 stocks on it and when you bring it up it shows all of these stocks, the graph for the past 52 days, their lows and highs for those days, and also the opening and closing prices. This technology is ridiculous, and it is only delayed 10 minutes from the actual prices on wall street, whereas it is usually delayed at least 20 or 25 minutes just because the program is free. Its amazing because I've got all of the stocks that are in my portfolio in there, and I know if they go up or down.
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2005
I just watched the clip from the Ohio State vs. Penn State game where the one Game Day announcer says that we have the best student section in the country, and then showed the clip from that section, I realized the enormity of how many students there were there. 20,000 students, that population alone is bigger than the all but the biggest towns in Pennsylvania. Thats not just one or two thousand, thats twenty thousand. Also, our fan base is amazing, we have 109,000 people show up for almost every game! Think about it, in professional football, there are not any stadiums that eclipse that number. Is it something that's in the water? or is it something that we teach here at Penn State? United we stand, through the thick and thin. Only two stadiums I know of eclipse Beaver Stadium, the rose bowl and the orange bowl, however im sure there are others.
Are these posts coming from the future? I'm confused. - EschaTon
SIGH, I knew I would have to explain this sooner or later... Some days, I get ideas for blog posts, so I post more than one, and to keep up my organization, I just post them for the next day. You'll notice I only blog on monday through friday, yeah, I probably do have OCD, oh well! - HimEros
Just a note. According to the Officer in charge of Parking at last week’s game, they parked over 25,000 cars/campers and that between 10,000 and 15,000 people don’t go in to the game. They just Tailgate!!! -Squad514
Tuesday, November 1st, 2005
Yesterday we went over a few choice mistakes that were made in our papers, namely, mine having a few choice sentences that we worked on. Oddly, everybody seemed to have input, which was great, and showed me what I needed to keep focusing on, but where were you people when you read my draft? hmm? Not to sound totally pompous, and I partially am at fault here because I am guilty of moderacy, where I don't want to blast someones paper, but give them constructive criticism, and I tend to make rationalizations for other people. It seems that people are clearly adept at analyzing specific sentences, however they are totally in the dark when those sentences are surrounded by other sentences.
Monday, October 31st, 2005
Today I'm going to blog about the Simpsons movie that we watched in class. I really enjoyed it and I thought it was cleverly done, even though the prelude was rather overbearing for how satirical and comedic it was. I beleive that most of their jokes were pretty subtle, and clever, however there were a few that they just seemed to smack you in the face with. Homer's stupidity is always a recurring joke, however they have found more ways to make it comical. I believe that the Simpsons is always pretty well done, especially since they come up with new ones pretty quickly.
Friday, October 28th, 2005
I have an Economics test next thursday, and our last class that we are actually learning new material was today, and it all kinda just hit me, and how it perfectly fits together. I was so amazed at how everything depends on everything else in the past four chapters that we went through. In college it amazes me how some of these teachers teach for weeks and weeks and fail to show any connection with any of the topics that they are teaching, and then theres this one class where you arrive at the, "aha!" moment and they explain to you all the connections that you should have made while taking notes. However, I really enjoy this method of teaching because it seems to shine a bright light on everything that we were doing and clarify the purpose of everything that we have just learned.
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
This weekend we're playing Purdue. I always thought that they were pretty good... but I guess not considering that they havent won a big ten game yet. This is wierd, almost a year of opposites, except for the top teams. Penn State is winning a lot, Purdue and Syracuse are doing not so great, and it seems that the rest of the field isn't performing up to par. Before I came to Penn State I didn't expect to have a top ten football team, and a number 1 in the big ten league. It surprises me, but maybe it shouldn't. Some upperclassmen are absolutely amazed at how well behaved our class is, in and outside of football games. This is because they were complete nuisances when they were freshmen. Maybe we are the reason that we are winning. Who knows?
Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
Wow, it snowed yesterday. It was a tid bit cold, and I need to adjust. I'm not quite used to these cold temperatures just yet. Last year I was skiing in temperatures between 40 and 45 in a long sleeved t-shirt or just an under armour long sleeved top if it was windy. I think that the snow is great, it's so much better than the rain because the rain is just damp and wet and miserable. The snow looks pretty, and you can make things out of it, and you can throw it at people. What is rain good for other than keeping us wet? These are no longer prehistoric times in which we need rainwater for drinking water. I propose that we do away with rain and outlaw anything but solid outputs from the sky!
Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
The Red Wheelbarrow
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
- William Carlos Willams, 1923
This poem seems to carry a lot of weight in the authors mind. This is just my educated guess... but it seems like he is trying to set off the words that he ends each line with. This style of poetry is not very famous because most people do not even understand the weight that this carries. The author puts alot of weight into the red wheel barrow which he is probably looking at while it sits outside. I believe that this wheel barrow has some special significance to the author, maybe it even helped him build his house? Possibly it helps him get through his daily chores as a farmer, or any other job that would require the red wheel barrow. It almost seems that he is looking at the wheelbarrow with a sense of satisfaction or even camraderie. I have been interested in poetry for quite a while and I like this poem for its simplistic, rustic nature. Most modern poetry is so intricate and complex that it is almost an insurmountable task to get at what the author is saying.
Monday, October 24th, 2005
What I've noticed, which is less so in a university atmosphere, but still there, is that anyone associated with the arts (singing, dancing, what have you) are stereotyped into the, "questionable" category. Now, I'm not one to usually complain, because I knew about this ever since I was involved in musicals and plays and who knows what else. In my highschool football came first, and I can understand that, I'm a fan of that, and I understand that most people when they think of highschool or college is football. Football also brings in the most money, support, etc... But automatically if you say your interested in being involved in musicals, even behind the scenes stuff, you are looked at like your inferior. I'm used to this, but you would think that college is a place where people come to grow up. I've found that in many cases this isn't true, many people come to college to live in a fantasy and are shocked when they find themselves in the real world... yeah, thats enough ranting for now... later kids.
Thursday, October 20th, 2005
I was listening to music today, classic rock to be presice, and I noticed something. I noticed that in the past, like, pretty far back, billy joel, beatles, bob dylan style, the majority of music was the same. Sure, there was a few different genres of music, but not too many. Today there is a ridiculous amount of different types of music. Anything ranging to what most people would consider noice, to something like the beach boys, to people screaming. It causes you to think about how this has come about. It could be by the availability of music, because that has only come about in the past six or seven years. Anyone have any ideas other than that? post yr comments!!! (im drawing a blank)
Wednesday, October 19th, 2005
What I think is amusing, is that I brought at least two copies of my essay to class, and I had no less than four people read it. Overall, they found ONE gramatical error. I stuck around to have Andrew read my paper, and he showed me that my first two paragraphs did not flow at all. I am silently kicking myself for not asking his opinion on my previous papers. I just rewrote almost all of the first two paragraphs of my essay. The idea of peer evaluation is almost laughable. I tried to be extremely critical of writing style, however, I kept thinking that the papers I was reading were something I might have written. It's hard to criticize someone if you don't know its wrong.
Tuesday, October 18th, 2005
I just took my first spanish test of the year, and I am pretty sure that I did well on it. I was so surprised. After my math exam, I was expecting the worst, however, it all seemed to come to me. Maybe it was the ridiculous amount of studying i did, but actually, I think it is because when I learned spanish, I learned it to take a test. I'm much much better at test taking than speaking or other class related stuff. Sadly, I'm hoping for the best, that was one of the classes that I expected to get a B in. If i get an A, that doesnt make the B- ive got in Math sound that bad, because it averages out, well, at least a little.
Monday, October 17th, 2005
Man, I really missed Penn State over the weekend. I even missed the dining commons, having food at whatever time you want it is really a nice thing. I had to make myself breakfast yesterday, and not that I'm a bad cook, or that I don't know how, but it was just really a pain to go through the motions of everything. Anyway, today I really wanted to talk about alliances and treaties and my take on them. I believe that treaties and alliances are a good thing, but they should be started with an end in mind. For instance, when going to war, the treaty that is agreed on, should have a clause that says something like, if our ally does things that we do not like, we are free to break the treaty. However, I believe that the world should be governed by superpowers. I believe that this is so because if the world was split up mainly into continents, or hemispheres, then we could allocate the third world countries to different alliances. For instance, the European Union, the United States, Russia, and China are, for the most part, all of the superpowers. I believe that if we divvied up the third world according to proximity and wealth, we could start on a pathway to solving many problems like hunger, the spread of AIDS, and even help to recognize outbreaks before they become too serious. However, I do not believe that the superpowers should have complete sovreinty. I believe that these superpowers should only control the money making facets of the country, but I believe that the residents of the country should decide how much they want help, or influence from their superpower. This is sort of like a big brother little brother program that we have today in some areas.
Thursday, October 13th, 2005
I'm going home today, this is the first time that I will be going home since i got up here. I have a feeling that I am going to miss it. Penn State, that is. I have a feeling that my friends arent going to be home and that I may miss out on tons of fun up at State College. Oh well, thats life. However, I guess I can't wait to go home because I really miss my bed.... and my shower... i think thats pretty much all that I miss besides my family. I really don't miss my family all that much, well, maybe my little brother, but my mom and dad seem to stop up at State College every other weekend or so. I think they do that because they dont want me to get used to college dorm food. Whatever, its fun stuff. I guess I haven't written much today, but oh well, its a long weekend, and I'm very content.
Wednesday, October 12th, 2005
I have my second big exam for college today. Its for calc. I dont understand why I have to take it again. I am a Finance major, and I really dont need to use calculus for anything that I do. I only take this one single class, and then I am done with it. I guess I do understand the University wanting us to be well rounded students, hence the GenEd classes we all have to take in addition to all of our major courses. I really want to become a lawyer, so i have been thinking about minoring in political science or something along those lines. Politics has always interested me as you can see from some of my previous blogs. However, I feel that I am almost too moderate to make much of a splash. I love to argue, and I love the musical arts, so I believe that I will settle for being a lawyer, and if I can pick up some musical experiences along the way, even better. I think I would really enjoy criminal law. Right now, I think I want to go to the District Attorney's office of a somewhat major city, possibly Philadelphia, (ironic, me being from pittsburgh) and then I would like to go into private practice either for myself, or with a partner or two. I would not like to be in those high power slam bam thank you ma'am style law firms that seem to rake in the cash. And if I really enjoy it, I may stay at the District Attorney's office.
Tuesday, October 11th, 2005
Today I would like to talk about bi-partisan politics. First of all, bi-partisan politics are what we have in the United States. It is where there are two dominant parties that take up the majority of the population. This bureaucracy has its strengths and weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses is the fact that it allows people to be lazy. This is shown in how our presidential election is held. Many people do not care to research the nominees and find out which suits their beliefs, but they simply choose based on the type of party that the nominees are. For instance, I have a friend, whos parents are staunchly catholic. In this past election, they voted for Bush simply because he is a republican and opposes abortion. They failed to see that John Kerry would have been the better choice for them because of many of his stances on working, blue collar people. One of the arguments for a bi-partisan government is that it is impossible for the candidates to go around to every city in every state, to allow the populous to get to know them. Also, that most people do not have time in their busy lives to research something that they may not have time for. I believe that only one of these has a kernel of truth. I agree with the former argument simply because it is not humanly possible to get around to the whole of the United States to expose yourself to everyone. However, this should not be the case. I was not of age to vote in the last election, but I had definitely found out the stances and the opinions of the candidates, and made a decision. I am somewhat moderate, more Democrat then Republican, I would have chosen Kerry. This may have been because he was focused on getting the troops out of Iraq, even though he made a few political mistakes by over emphasizing his military experience. Although I am not satisfied with the bi-partisan system, I have not come across another system that would work as well as this one does in the United States. I have a feeling that if we took away the parties, most people would choose a candidate at random, or not vote at all. At least with the bi-partisan system, the majority of people have some kind of idea of who they are voting for, and why.
Monday, October 10th, 2005
Cambodia∞
The reason that I chose this link was that it has a very detailed timeline about Cambodia and it clearly shows how everything happened. It shows how the leader of Cambodia took a page out of Mao Se Dung's "Great Leap Forward" and made his own "Super Great Leap Forward." In this, he wanted to remove all class oppression and any outside influence. He did this by removing much of the freedom that his people had and he also killed many of the people that he deemed "lost causes." I believe that this may not have been the right way to go about doing what he wanted. He could have chosen much milder ways of going about what he wanted to accomplish. However, he had to choose genocide as what he wanted to do, and he wasn't looked about too favorably by the world community. He took away many of the basic human civil rights and freedoms from his citizens and basically degraded them. I believe that his strategy was to put all his people into the lowest possible class and then there would be no need for capatilist influences and social problems.
Friday, October 7th, 2005
You know what really really REALLY gets on my nerves? Rain. Whatever diety dreamed up this 'great' phenomanon is apparently not very great. Or if its true that it is a god crying over how horrible the human race has become, I would say, buck up, you teary mo-fo. I really believe that whenever it rains, that we should be able to control the temp, like a giant thermostat, and at least, at least make it snow. Snow is amazing. It is many many times better than rain, and does not soak you, unless you lay in it while its melting. Lastly, I would like to say that whenever its so cold, that you know all the humidity in the air is gone and everything feels so brisk, life is great. I cannot wait for winter.
Thursday, October 6th, 2005
Today I was thinking about cell phones and how lost the majority of us would be without them. Also, how we look at the people who do not have cell phones and stare at them as if they are some neandrethal and just shake our heads. Yes we may be dependant on technology, however, this type of technology is turning out to be reliable. Other than the service (if you have something other than Cingular in State College) being bad, I have not really heard of a tower going out or an extended periods of time, or even service cutting out of a cell phone when the power goes out. I was thinking about cell phones mainly because of the article in the Daily Collegian, the New York Times, and the USA Today that stated that terrorists could jam cellular service by just sending a shitload of texts (625 every second for a city and around 500,000 per second for the entire United States). But think about it, can they really jam cellular traffic for all of these different brands of cell phone? Are they really going to send 625 texts a second through cellular service provider? NO! I say no because there are only a few plans that allow text sending for free, and these are only in Cingular and Verizon Wireless. The terrorists would be spending more than they could afford if they sent 2,250,000 texts in an hour to one cellular service provider.
We are going to be talking about that article tomorrow in class. I'm glad it caught your eye too - EschaTon
I know what you mean when you say people just shake their heads like "tsk tsk." Whenever I tell people that I don't have a mobile they just think I'm weird. What can I say I'm a big fan of the neandrethals. SheElff
Wednesday, October 5th, 2005
One thing that I do not understand is how stupid movies sell ridiculous amounts of tickets and videos. Movies such as Napolean Dynamite or Harold and Kumar's trip to White Castle (however, I must admit the latter is quite amusing). However, these movies that have no plot, and it seems like they take no effort to film, are making records on the amount that is made by movies. I think that today's society begs for the type of stupid movie that caters to the nonintelligent kind of person that society tends to say that teenagers are. The United States is full of stupid movies that just seem to take the intelligence out of the industry anymore. What bothers me is that these movies seem to have little or no cost to make the movie, only to reproduce it, and must be making millions of dollars in overhead because they spent little to know on simply making the movie. Napolean Dynamite was filmed in about two months, with a director, and maybe 7 actors, none of which pulled a huge salary.
And yet thought provoking movies usually drop out of theatres after a week and get cancelled from teevee without a full series. The same argument you make about movies like Napoleon Dynamite (which I'd never thought about (and really like)) is true of reality teevee. -EschaTon
Tuesday, October 4th, 2005
Today I was thinking about the Beatles and how they were one of the greatest bands in history. However, I read in Rolling Stone the other day that they weren't very good at live performances. I can see how this was so because back then it was mostly decided on records and how well you made a record. This reminds me of the song "TV killed the radio star" because the Beatles were in a record making decade and did not have to make too many tours, and when they did, the sound equipment wasn't nearly as high quality as today's is, and I doubt that anyone could have really heard them over the noise of the crowd, unless everyone got quiet every time, which I doubt. However, if the Beatles were around today I believe that they would not make much headway in today's music market. With cover bands that are as good, if not better than they were back when they were in style, barely making headway, then how do they think they will fit in? I have no idea.
It's "Video Killed the Radio Star" (and it's by the Buggles (and it's awesome!)). Also, the Beatles didn't tour because they were making too much money selling albums (as you say) and because the songs they were writing would have been impossible to do live in the mid/late-60s. That said, the most important moment in rock history was the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. Although, no one will ever be as popular as the Beatles ... mostly because the Beatles were so successful. Now, there are just too many interesting bands doing very different things. Everything is a subculture (even large, popular bands). For whatever reason, in the 1960s, the (white, middle class) United States was ready for a change and the Beatles stepped up to the plate. That and they wrote really amazing songs. - EschaTon
“Video killed the Radio Star” was the FIRST video ever played on M-TV. That was before there was an mtv.com and the TV channel actually played music videos (call me crazy). I remember before my home cable system got M-TV, I would stay up late to watch “Friday Night Videos” on NBC. I think it cam on at midnight or a little latter and it always ended with the National anthem and my mom yelling from upstairs, “Haven’t you gone to bed yet?”
NO! I wont my M-TV even though it killed my favorite band, JOURNEY∞. - Squad514
Monday, October 3rd, 2005
Wow, its October already? Where did September go? Supposedly, the infamous "they" say that the older you get, the faster time seems to go. So in reality, it seems that you spend more time being young, than you do being old. Seriously, if you follow this train of thought, and you label "young" and "old" to have equal years, like say youre young until you hit 30-35, then your just old. That would almost be equal parts young and old, unless you're a freak and you live to 100, but on that line, if your 100, wouldn't time pass really fast and make up for spending more time being older? Thats an interesting thought. I remember back in elementary school when it seemed like a year was so freaking long, and the years I go through now seem to be quarters of the years then. Someone could hypothesize that every 20 years or so, your percieved year decreases by half, or three quarters. Everybody reading this knows exactly what I'm talking about. However, I also have an explanation for something like this. As we get older, we have more things to do, get more involved, and more of our time is spent doing "stuff." This would make it seem that the time is, in actuality, going faster because more of our time is taken up. Moreover, when you get out of college, grad school, law school, med school, what have you, you tend to bust your ass so that you can make a name for yourself in the first few years, so that you will be quickly promoted, and "make the big bucks." The reason that time flies, is not because we are having fun, but because we have less fun.
I agree, September did fly. As I look back at high school, it seems like it is all a big blur now. This teaches me that I have to enjoy college at every instant because I know the time will fly.--MichaelNiffeneggerTestUser
Friday, September 30th, 2005
Today, I would like to make a useless blog on superstitions. One of the things that made me decide to blog today was the superstition that if the last word you say before the end of the month is "rabbit" then you will have good luck for the rest of the month. Another day that is pretty keen for superstitions is Friday the 13th. I guess that the only way this came about was the fact that 13 is a very "unlucky" number. Superstitions are looked as weak and simple minded by scientists, however scientists are looked at as stodgy and stoic by the normal person. In today's world, it seems that we are run by stereotypes and prejudices in a world that has proclaimed that "those" days are forever over. In something as simple as choosing a math class, I have seen stereotype, if you choose 110, you're stupid, but if you choose 140, you are crazy. Now, I don't know how I went from superstitions to stereotypes, but it probably makes good reading. Or maybe it doesn't.
Thursday, September 29th, 2005
Today is my first college exam of my ENTIRE life. I hope I do well. It is kind of wierd being in college almost a full month and not taking an honest-to-god exam. When I got up here, as in Penn State, and read my syllabi, I realized that I did not have any kind of exam for almost a month, and I was elated. However, now, I am not too happy about my entire grade resting on the shoulders of one or two tests a semester, and maybe a final. That is three chances to make or break my grade. Furthermore, I believe that these exams cover way too much material, and that they should be spaced out so they can cover less material, and give us, the students, more chances to study. I believe this is better than letting most of the students forget about working until a few days before the exam. I think that four or five exams a semester would be better. However, in my smaller classes, just the opposite is true, there are ten or twelve short quizes... a week! I really do believe that there should be some sort of happy medium here.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2005
How-To Hang a Poster/Picture/Painting
First, you will need a few things
1. Either Hooks, screws and eyeholes if it is a heavy poster/picture/painting, or just some duct tape if it is not
2. For the heavy poster, you are going to want to measure out, and mark where you want the hooks, and then put corresponding marks on the back of the poster/
3. In each of the marks on the wall, or just one if there is already a string on the back of your Poster/Picture/Painting.
4. Also, if your item that needs hanging does not have a hanging mechanism on the back of it, you should put the eyeholes on the back of this, where you made the marks.
5. Screw in the hooks, and attach the eyeholes. Hang.
6. For those of you hanging something light like a poster, attach duct tape to the four corners, and the middle, so that it is double sided, and position on the wall in the place most desired.
Monday, September 26th, 2005
Every week, I will blog about something of importance on Monday, starting from now on. Last week I blogged on something important on Friday, but I believe that I should start the week out right with an intellectual blog on Monday. Today's topic will be Stem Cell Research. I believe that most of you have heard about Stem Cell Research, however, let me clarify a little. Stem Cell Research is research that is conducted on stem cells. Stem cells are the building blocks of the human body. When we are concieved, we are basically a ball of these stem cells, just waiting to be differentiated. There are also stem cells found in our bone marrow. These help us heal and help us to grow. If scientists could figure out how to manipulate these stem cells, they believe that they could produce cures for many many illustrious diseases. The way they would do this is by manipulating the stem cells into brain tissue, or a new organ such as a heart, liver, or even a pancreas. This would bring about cures to diseases such as Parkinson's, Heart Disease, Diabetes, and many others. Now how can you argue with saving a person who has Diabetes, or even someone who's brain matter is dissolving with Parkinson's? You really cannot argue that well with that kind of argument. However, the other side of the argument states that Stem Cell Research is killing babies. This is said because many people believe that the only way to obtain stem cells are through premature babies, like I mentioned before. However, there are many other ways of getting these illustrious stem cells. Such as obtaining adult stem cells through bone marrow, or even extracting them from blood (I participated in a debate on this very topic in High School). Also, there are many, many cryogenically frozen embryo's that are past their "expiration date" we shall call it. These embryo's have been made for couples who are infertile. President Bush has allowed testing all of these forms of stem cells. I believe this is a good thing. The only thing that is illegal is thus: Scientists cannot manipulate an egg, with sperm, to turn it into an embryo for testing. This states that we cannot make babies for the purpose of research. I believe that other countries will allow this in the future, however we can do nothing but take the higher moral ground.
- The source of stem cells isn't premature babies, it's fetises (aborted and frozen). The problem is that this country has decided that life begins with conception (which is counter to the standard Western (pre-abortion) model that it begins with birth (the difference is subtle, but consider that, traditionally, a person is viewed as being nine months old when born in China)). Therefore, they reason, that frozen embryoes are human beings and killing them is murder. - EschaTon
http://www.last-minute-skiing-holidays.co.uk/gfx/image2.jpg∞
http://cif.rochester.edu/~paris/r6_blackflames.jpg∞
Friday, September 23rd, 2005
In today's post I have two things that I would like to discuss. The first is stupid people that don't know how to write their blogs in order, from bottom to top, and how to properly format their page. The second is conservatives. I do not think it is terribly hard to put the date, day of the week, and possibly embolden it at the beginning of each blog. Also, something that I think is very neat are these little dividers that divide up all of your blogs into seperate entrys, instead of making it seem like one long essay with many paragraphs. That's all I have to say about people who cannot format their pages correctly. Now, for conservatives, there are many types of conservatives, first, the sunshine conservative, which we see alot of on this page, the hardcore conservative, and the conservatives that talk your ear off without actually saying anything. Conservatives, in general, find it disturbing that most people dont see things their way. After arguing with you, and you don't agree with them, they (conservatives) look at you as if you are a lower life form, and just shake their head. We saw an example of a conservative argument today in class in RyanDeWeese's blog entry. I would just like to call to evidence my opinion that the democrats could have put forth a better candidate than Kerry, however, the republicans could have done much worse than Bush. This past election came down to a choice between the 'lesser of two evils' personally, I would not have voted, becuase both candidates were equally bad. Also, I would like to ask Ryan what he means by 'liberal'. This is because there are many types of liberals, liberal is only saying your views tend to shift to the left. There are liberal republicans and conservative democrats. I believe that this country has categorized conservatives as republicans and liberals as democrats. Personally, I am something of a republican, however I have sympathies for democrats. Therefore, I believe that you would term me a liberal republican, because I am more or less a moderate.
To see skipped blog entries see HimErosBlogArchive
Check out my page for other facts about me (HimEros)
Thursday, September 1st, 2005
The reason I chose the Creative Commons Liscense was because I would like to believe that what I create and write, is my property, because it came straight from my brain. I wouldn't mind if someone else used it, however, I would mind if they used it without giving me credit. Not to sound like an arrogant kind of person that everyone would want to use my work, I believe that it's just the principle of the thing. I've had works of mine published and then found them circulating in e-mail years after I'd written them, someone else purporting to be the author.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.