End of the Year

Last week I had a ton of tests, and the marathon oftests concluded with a multivariable test today, along with a draft for english. I got 3 hours of sleep last night and I'm shocked I am not yet tired. I don't know if its the sip of coffee I took this morning, or the beautiful day that is keeping me so awake. Or, maybe I've just become accustomed to not sleeping that much. I kindof like the idea of the later. If I didn't have to sleep I wouldn't have to. Think of all the things you could do if you didn't need to sleep. It would be so easy to get all the hw done, studying, and still have an awesome social life, and do any activity outside of school work. There's so much stuff I'd liketo do if I had the time to. Like play the violin more/ join theVirginia Tech orchestra, draw/water color, do numerous arts and crafts, hang out with friends, do two-a-day work outs every day, volunteer, the possibilities are limitless. But, since I kind of half to sleep, I have to choose to only do the activies that are most important to me. I've even tried to not sleep, or at least sleep as less as possible, but I found that my body forces me to sleep eve if I don't want to. I can fall asleep anywhere if I'm tired and especially if theres a monotone voice. I'm typically always tired too, because I don't sleep in, the latest ever I'd sleep is 9 (unless I didn't go to be till 6 or 7) and so I never catch up on sleep because I stay up late too.
In all honesty though I think the reason why I'm really not tired today is because this weekend and monday I kept falling asleep a lot due to the exhaustion of lack of sleep from the previous week. Monday I wasn't really all that tired but I fell asleep doing work, and went to bed relatively early around midnight, and actually got almost 8 hrs of sleep. This weekend my high school friends came to visit too, and I felt bad for falling a sleep on them around 2 on Friday night. After they left Saturday, I practically collapsed on my bed from walking around all day/sleep deprivation, and with out intending to, slept for 2 hours. That nap though was really beneficial because I didn't really go to bed till 3 that night and got up before 9. Monday, I didn't have too much homework so I went to bed around midnight then as well. Anyways, those are my thoughts on sleep.

This past Tuesday I was doing my multi-variable homework, counting down the minutes till my favorite show NCIS would come on, when I got a text message from my sister. As I read the message I was filled with joy, she had informed me that she was coming to Tech this weekend to visit!! I was so excited. My sister was suppose to come down lst semester as soon as her high school varsity sport of field hockey was over (she couldn't miss Saturday practices, even for college visits). The winter passes, her off season from sports and she still had not made it down to visit. Although, can't say I blame her for not trying too hard during the winter; I'm pretty sure between the cold and the wind she wouldn't want to come back after that experience. Then, spring rolled around and my sister tried out for the varsity soccer team at my high school. She did't think she would mae it o wewere already planning weekends that would be good for her and her best friend to come visit on. But, to everyone's surprise and my sister's delight, she made the varsity soccer team. I was very happy for her but also dissapointed because I really wanted to share that passion that I have for tech with my sister. The weekend began Thursday at 5pm for me, but my sister didn't come till 1am Saturday morning. I decided to celebrate the three day weekend by going camping with some friends. We went about 45 min away because that was the only state campground open nearby, and the drive was breath taking. We drove through a picture book of the country side, it was so picturesque. We didn't even know if we'd be able to camp or not because there were no reservations, just first come first serve, but we decided that even if we couldn't camp the drive was worth all the effort, it was that beautiful. We had no problems with a crowded campsite, we were the only onese taht and it was really creepy, like out of a horror film creepy. My friends and I survived though, and packed up first thing in the morning so as to participate in the rest of the 4/16 events. I went to the picnic and the vidual, which was incredibly moving. I almost cried even though I knew know one who had been affected, it was that touching. The next day my sister came, but unfortuantely it was the Big Event and Icouldn't see her off the back. I usually love doing service, but saturday it was painful mulching a frisbee golf course on mountain sides, not only because of the physical work but because it was taking up the precious time I wanted to spend with my sister. Fortunately, we ended early; I was not the only one who realized that if we worked faster then we could leave sooner. When I got back to campus I really wanted to impress my sister and her best friend, as well has her best friends parents who had brought them down. So, naturally I took the to West End. We had a two hour long lunch it seemed. My sister Chrissie, and her friend Lisa are like dumb and dumber, and take FOREVER to make decisions. They are the definition of dilly dalining (however you spell it). Later, we took their stuff to my room (they spent sat night in my room) and they each had a huge duffle, comforter, and a pilllow. Basically, they had more stuff than I did camping, with all my camping gear including the tent. I love them very much though, both Chrissie and Lisa (Lisa is practically my sister she spends so much time at our house and with our family), and I was very happy the came to visit.

spring

I have no idea what I wantto write about this week, so it will be a cornicopia subjects that are from the thoughts that pass through my head.
Relay for Life was this past Friday, and it was truly incredible. Even with the upper classman's descriptions of the event, it was still more incredible than I thought it would be. The atmosphere was great, and I was especially excited because I was able to camp on the drill field, another thing to cross off the bucket list! When I first came here I wanted to camp on the drill field or by the duck pond, but learned that there was a rule prohbiting it, except for relay for life. I walk for 3 hours straight. My tent was set up a little before 7 and I was walking from then to about 10 when everyone was called over for the ceremony. Walking was great. I talked to friends and said hi to many people I havn't seen in a while. There was also a lot of interesting things people were selling as fundriasers. My favorite I think was either the cotton candy or the rootbeer keg stands. The walking was a blast, the ceremony however was very moving and emmotional. People spoke of those they knew fighting or had died from cancer. The ceremony was also candle lit and all the portable field lights had been turned off for it. Despite the seriousness of the ceremony, the candles were constantly catching their wind-blocking pixie cups on fire. This caused a lot of laughter as people screamed and dropped their candle, or tried to blow it out. After a while people realized that you if you didn't tilt the candles the fires would stop. At the end of the ceremony the speaker listed off relationships of people the audience knew had cancer. As the relationship was called, one blew their candle out. So quickly did the darkness come and people began to make a lap around the track in the darkness in remeberance. By the time the ceremony was over the temperature was in the 30s and the blacksburg wind was haunting the drill field. I was so cold, and convienced my friends to come back to the dorm with me and I took a hot shower to warm up. We then went back out to the drill field and I did another hour of laps before watching my friend perform in the dance-off. It wasn't until 4:30 that I crawled into my tent to try to sleep only tobe woken up at 5:30 for the closing ceremony. The sun was starting to come up, and I had only slept 30min max. It was more of a nap than anything else. I went back to my room and slept for less than 3 hours before waking up because I didn't want to miss the beautiful spring days.
The spring is beautiful here at tech. I wish I had a sketch book that could capture the beauty, my camera does not do the beautiful scene of spring justice. As I write this blog I see the sun setting over the mountains behind Eggleston. The lime green leaves on the trees are emmerging under the golden sunlight. Next to the billiant shade of green is a lovely shad of magneta flower, the same tone as the lime green. Underneath this vibrant colors is the rich deep green of the grass an dthe soft creamy white of the volleyball courts. The sand serves as a reminder to the time where the ground was covered in snow. I actually had forgotten sand lay under the volleyball nets, becuase the whole month of Febuary the sand was not visible. I love the snow, but I'm glad its spring. The cold was lonely and this new warmth is like an old friend, hugging me as I walk about. I'm glad we missed the akward hot cold temperaures for the most part that spring usually brings. Maybe we did have the period of the 50s, but after the 20s and windchill 50 was like the new 70. Whatever it was, I'm glad its so nice out, and stays this nice until finals. Finals I want it to rain nonstop so when I have to study inside I don't get upset that I'm missing the beautiful weather.

blogs

I feel so special now I have 4 followers!! I 'm glad you guys figured out how to become a follower, and I'm sorry I couldn't remeber to tell you. Speaking of blogs though today when I went to go sign into my blog, I realized it wasn't mine! The blog turned out to be my boyfriends blog, even though, according to him, he didn't even have a blog. I realized that because his email is with gmail that blogger opens up with whichever email was lasted used. This weekend I had gone home and was hanging out with my boyfriend; at one point he used my computer to check his email and thats how his email was the last used with gmail. After I had opened his blog I decided to look around it especially since Myron (my boyfriend) said he didn't even have a blog, I was wondering whose blog it really was. Inside the blog there was only one post and I realized that it was from 2007, and that was probably why my boyfriend didn't even remeber having one. I then discovered that there was a picture link on the blog post, and I opened it up to discover the most goffiest picture I have yet to have seen my boyfriend in yet! He had a ridiculous coustume on that was a cross between a super hero outfit and the giant hat napoleon wears. Myron's pose was that of the famous greek "thinker" statue, with an expression on his face that displayed the contemplation of epistemology and other philisophical matters. I immediately sent this picture back to Myron asking if this picutre was him, with the statement that if its not, then he has either an identical twin with the same name as him. A few hours later I received his response. It had all come back to him and he remebered he created a blog page for extra credit in English one year. I was surpised to hear that the picture was from 2007 because Myron pretty much looked the same in that picture as he does not. Although that doesn't really seem like something I should be surpised by, my boyfriend looked completely different in the begining of high school than he did a the end, when we started dating. He was actually in one of my classes freshman year, and I barely remeber him in it becuase he just looks so different from how he looks not that I have trouble picturing him. As a freshman he was skinny asian boy with long hair, relatively tall for a freshman boy. Now, he is very muscular with a buzzed haircut.

tests

The summer is almost here and I can not wiat. These last two weeks since break have been quite a challenge with physics test fri and then for me 2 engineering tests and a chemistry test. Yesterday, I spent 5 hrs doing my airs assignmnet for chemistry, only to realize that the reason why I was having difficulty is because information was actually missing from the problem statement. But, what I didn't realize was that you had to look that information, the Ka or Kb values up in the chemistry textbook. When I found this out I couldn't decided if I was furiated with myself for being so stupid, or if I was just relieved that after 6-7 hours I was finally able to get a hundred on the assignment. I don't even know how the aris assignments plays into my grade. They are not on the gradebook for that class, but I'm hoping they will get added on at the end and that it those hours yesterday were not a complete waste of time. The homework for the class is worth 10%, and the actual homeworks for my chemistry class can be quite challenging at times because my professor's goal in life is to trick us. He says he's preparing us for mcats, but I what I want to know is why I'm preparing for mcats in this class when I don't plan on even taking them. Thats the one downside about professor Trivedi. I love his teaching style, but I wish he would stop being so tricky, in hopes to prepare people for mcats when less than half the class would be taking them. Right now, I don't even need the second half of chemistry, the class I am in now, for my major. I only took it because I might have done biosystems engineering. But, now that I'm not, I really don't know why I'm still in it. I enjoy the class and understand the material, but even if you understand the material chances are your going to fall for a few of trivedi's traps, and thats what your graded on. I hate tests. I'm such a bad test taker, I always fall for the tricks. I would much much much rather just do some huge project of 20page paper than study for a test. Becuase when you write a paper or do a project there are no tarps that you can fall into.

mound bayou more

Mound Bayou

Never mind about the last blogg being for 3/3. My blogg is getting all mixed up and confusing, I guess thats what one gets for trying to do it ahead of time. Well, to make sure I'm on top of the number of blogs I need here is another. GROUP MEMBERS: skip the following parenthesis its a question for Julia. (Julia, if Iwrote 2 blogs one week because I didn't think I'd have time following week would you count the 2nd blog as the blog for the week with out? I hope so because that is what I have done. I have also written mulitple blogs for a week, but they do not amount to 500 words at one time, but overall there is way more than 500 words, is that ok?)

Anyways, over spring break I was down at Mississippi, and the area was so much different to what I was use to . We'd be driving along the rural highway through fields of flat farmland and see a random abandon home. Actually, we thought it was abandoned because no one could possibly live in such a structure that was on the brink of collapsing! Seriously, most of the home had caved in roofs or slanted porches. Then, someone would walk out of this home, a home we thought had been abandoned!! This totally shocked me, especially being an engineer I have a pretty good idea of what is structually sound and what isn't. The people of this are would live in homes that didn't just look bad in appearance, but the stabilty of the sturcture was bad. Even in the best kept home there'd be chipped paint or an over grown yard, but down there that was normal. In the town where we worked at, Mound Bayou, was even more worse than the rest of the area. 85% of the town lived off welfare, and most of the citizens were unempolyed because they could not afford a car or gas to get to work in the next town over. Because everyone in the town was so poor, all of the home were run down. Closed buisness would remain there, the skeleton of the buildings are shadows of the once thriving town. This town was the first town to be established by free slaves in Mississippi after the civil war. It was and still is mainly an African American community, that back in its hay day served as refuge from the Ku Klux Klan. After a couple of bad farming years and depressions and recession the town turned into the very poor area that it currently is. If something happens to a building, abandoned, burned down, storm damages, its just left there. There were more than a handful of lots of where a fire had taken place. Nothing had been done, the building burned down entirely and was left there to look like the fire had just happened only yesterday. This blew my mind away, that these people could just let the remains sit. A hotel had burned down many, many years ago, and the pipes were still in the air, twisted up! Some buildings were boarded up and some weren't. The ones that werent boarded up are now frames with half the walls down and the roof caved in. I had done a service project in New Orleans summer after my sophmore year, and some of these lots looked as though they too had been attacked by hurricane Katrina. (they had not; although Mississippi did received a lot of damages Mound Bayou is located closer to Arkansa than the Gulf of Mexico so the destruction of the buildings was not caused by the hurricane)
As we drove through this town, I wanted nothing more than to just get out of the van and start fixing up the lots. It bothered me so much to just see burned down lots sit there. The whole town was like an archeological site of ruins. But, actually the whole town is an archeological site in the sense that there is a lot of history (the town shouldn't be in ruins though equivalent to that of settlements form the 1600s and 1700s though). I want to go back next year, and hopefully be able to work on those lots. Unfortunately though, not to many people repeat trips, so I do not know if that is because they want to try somehting new or because you have to. By other trips I mean that my trip was one of several Alternative Spring Break Trips. There were also trips to Chicago, Memphis, Flint, and Mexico. There was one to Hadi as well, but it was canceled/postponed due to the earthquake. I want to go to Mexico one year, but I think that will be for junior or senior year. If I can't go to Mexico I think my second choice would be Chicago, but I leave that decision to next year.

Ok, so my blog website has been having some issues; the blog below is from the week before spring break, 3/1. Instead of publishing my blog websited decided this blog was not good enough to become a post and so it became a draft even though I posted it.

Ok, So I'm not sure whether or not we had a blogg due last week or not. Since we didn't have class Monday I couldn't get clarification and assumed that the hw assignment for a blogg was to just have one by tomorrow, hopefully that is correct.
Since this is the first blogg since spring break then (or at least I hope it is) then I will share a little about what I did for break. While the campus because a ghost town Friday night, I was one of the very few people who stayed until Saturday morning, where I left for Mound Bayou, Mississippi at 6am. Why Mound Bayou or all places? I was going there on a service project with the Newman Community Catholic Campus Ministries, and in two 12 passenger vans 14 other Hokies and myself traveled for 14 hours to Mississippi.
Now to tell you everything that happened on this trip would be quite a lot for one blogg, so I'm going to share some stories for the trip, particularily ghost stories. Now, to set the stage, Friday I was deeply regretting not going home for break. I wanted to see my high school friends and family, and I hated the fact that I was all alone Friday night. I didn't know anyone on my trip, and was apprehensive about that. Well, we hadn't even pulled out of the driveway and I new this was going to be a fantastic experience with a bunch of funny and amazing people. My group was the epitome of the perfect team. Everyone got along and was friends with one another, there was no clicks only massive amounts of fun.
It was when we were having an episode of fun that my ghost story arises. Me and 4 other people decided it would be a good idea to sit in the church pews (of where we were staying for the week) in the dark. An even better idea was that my friends wanted me to tell my own personal ghost experience story. Once the story ended things got creepy in the dark as we started talking about demons and exocersims, and personal experiences we've each had with things from "beyond". Well, it didnt take long before we freaked ourselves out and ran back into the light. Once we were in the light though one of my friends Christian, realized his rosary bead bracelet was gone! (for those of you who might not know a rosary is special for prayer and his bracelet was a miniature version, with religous sentimental value) This was the definition of freaky. His bracelet was a clasp that fit tightly around his hand and wouldn't just fall off. No one was playing a joke, everyone one was completely shocked this had happened, especially in light of the fact that we had been talking about demons and this was a religious bracelet, an also a bracelet of great sentiment to Christian that he would never use in a joke. Luckily, we found the bracelet in a pew but the fact it had been off at all was incredibly weird.

So for spring break rather than going home to northern Virginia, I decided to go on a service project with the Newman Community Catholic Campus

Poems

So yet again I find myself bored in my engineering workshop so I'm going to write farf, or hwoever you spell it. Last night, when I was at ski practice I was walking in my ski boots in the lodge and completely wiped out and landed straight on my knee. It was incredible painful because underneath the thind carpet was concrete. I still skied on my let but I did not have as much control/ force on it, so when I was skiing slauom my ski hit the pole and the bindings came out. The result was landing on my knee, yet again. So, the term I will google will be pain. (my leg is fine now, but it hurt a lot last night)

A feeling triggered
Sensations known
Suffering
Distress
Sharp.

I don't feel the way I've ever felt
Sensations known
Without Love
Get worried.

Reliever
Super Power
Feeling triggered
Smile; not worried
Feeling sensations of love

Study Abroad

Yesterday afternoon I found myself in the study abroad expo. It was so excitng looking at all the pictures that represent the places I could be going. My ideal trip: summer 2011, begining late june early july, lasting 4-5 weeks, through Virginia tech and the summer program that is led by a Virginia Tech professor, traveling to different countries as opposed to staying in just one place. I do however have many options as far as where I am going incase a traveling program is not accessile. To stay in one place I would go to Italy, and in Italy, Florence. I have been looking at summer programs that involve going only one place, and I have found several good programs in Florence where I'd be travelinga round Italy, and taking classes. The Engineering that I am looking to go into is Ocean Engineering, and there are not many programs for Aerospace, let alone ocean engineering. So, the coures that I wold take would be liberal studie programs. That is perfect because I do not believe I would focus on engineering if I was in another country. That is a big part of the reason that I am not doing a semester program. Even if I found an engineering program that matches up, I would not focus well on it at all, or if I did I would miss out on Europe.

Classes

So, I'm really glad we have this blogg to write in today. I am currently in my engineering workshop, and this class could not be more boring today. Usually work shop isn't bad; we do a lot of activites in the class, and because I'm an engineer, I tend to like a lot of the dorky activies. However, today is a lesson on design, and how to decide which solution to your problem is the best solution. I'm bored out of my mind!!! I've spent 7am till now studying for a chemistry test, so I'm dying for some entertainment or human interaction. I thought I might have gotten it in this class, but that is not the case. So, I ame up with the great idea to write in the blogg. This is what I like about writing. You can talk to someone, even if you aren't exactly talking to someone. With writing, you can escape, enter into a different world. Its just like reading and dipping int a subconscious where you've entered inside the plot of the book (for a good book). And whats so great about writing is that you not only escape, but you can create the world at which you wish to escape to.
Right now, I picture myself at the beach: The sun is warm, I feel the rays being soaked up by my body, and my core temperature warms up from the cold temperatures of Blacksburg it left behind. I'm on a towel, lying in the sun and I can feel the sand molding against my body, as though I were laying on a cloud. All the soreness from working out and hauling textbooks and my lap top around campus is suddenly gone, and I feel so relaxed. As I breath in the fresh salty air I feel a slight breeze against my skin, but I do not feel cold. The suns rays are a blanket over my body, so the breeze delights me, passing the smel lof the sea under my nose. I open my eyes and view the magnificent color display across the sand. I am at a beach called Emerald Isle, and it is know for the fantastic sunrises and sunsets. The ocean is a light shade of emerald in the shallow water then grows to a strong green blue. The crash of the wave is innocently white, calling me to run into the ocean and become a part of the sea. I turn around, and the seen behind me is almost as beautiful as the one in front. Many sand dunes cover the beach, with sea grasses sprouting up from their tops. The grasses dance in the breeze and the colors of light are reflected in the sand, a work of art. The sky is a brillant display of colors. The sun is setting and there are brillant tones of pink orang yellow and blue. I wish I could just take those colors from teh sky and turn them to paint because I know these schemes can never be replicated.

continuation of the olympics

So, evidently my blog didnt mannage to get posted and became a draft and cut off at the end so here is the rest of it:
My friends and I had a great time using the opening ceremony as a geography lesson as we waited for the USA to come out. The camera man zoomed out right before the USA came out (because its such a huge team) and I noticed that the Canadian dancers/performers in the tribal outfits were still dancing! I was so impressed because at least an hour had gone by. Not only was the audience of athletes but the performers were too in the sense that they must have been in good shape to keep dancing for that long.

Olympics!!

In honor of this past Friday's festivites, I felt it necessary to write about the winter Olympics. But before I begin to describe Friday evening, let me set the stage for what my friday was. Before our class, I had 8am multi-variable calculus, not a pleasant way to begin the day when the class is accompanied by a quiz. Then off to English, a break in the day of math and science, where we all listened to presentations, until 9:50am, and that is when I began to sutdy for my physics test. All day I study so hard for that test and was completely drained and bored out of my mind when I got back from the test at 7:30. It was after I had put down my book bag that I realized that this was not just any ordinary Friday; no, tonight would mark the begining of the 2010 winter Olympics! My day of hard work and boring physics problems was instantly evened by the excitment I had for the start of the Olympics. I am a huge fan of all the winter sports and in aw each time I watch an event. I of course had known that tonight was the night the excitement would begin, but in the blur of math and physics, I had completely forgotten.

The opening ceremony was well done, but the best part about the ceremony was watching it in the company of my friends, and creating a geography lesson out of the annouciation of the countries. I personally learned of several countries I had no prior knowledge of, and on top of that, learned a rough idea of there locations. Finally, USA came out, last but not least. It is amazing how manymore people we bring to the olympics compared to all the other counties.

As the USA came out I was also brought to a memory of the last time I saw the USA come out for the winter olympics. I have been a girl scout since daisy's and in 5th grade I was a junior, and for Valentines day there was a girl scout father daughter sweet heart dance. My friends and I were pleasantly surprised that night to find that our dads (or parents in general) had gotten a limo to take us to the dance. The dance itself was not all that great; it was disco themed and all of the dads in our group were rather miserable because that was not there thing at all. So, we left early and took advantage of the limo and drove around. There was a small tv in the limo so, naturally, we turned on the opening ceremony that was happening that night. The next thing I know, we're

Continuation of the Irony

So, to make up for hte loss of skiing this weekend, my friends and I decided to build and iglou. (I do not know how to spell it) Like many people, we took the recycling bins to the snow and made blocks that came together to form a huge fortress. Unlike most of the structures however, our iglou has a roof, and was built mainly by 2 girls. the iglou is so big that my friend, who is rather short, can stand up completely in it.
Do you ever get inspired to just do something, mainly to have the experience and the story to say you did it? Well, Saturday night, after the iglou was completed, me and my friends slept in the iglou. I know it sounds crazy, but my friends and I figured this is college, its the time to do something crazy, to collect the stories, so create a memory that one day you can say to those younger than you, "One time in college...". I feel that since you only have one time to live your life, you might as well make it the best book you can full of experiences and stories good and bad, because lets face it, no one wants to read a book of a perfect life, thats just plain boring. No, a good novel consists of good and bad parts, because with out the bad one can not fully experience the good. Think about it. If all one knew there whole life was good events they would only ever be content because they have nothing to compare it to, to know that it is good. Every bad experience makes the good so much better. Now, I'm not saying I'm about to go out and ruin my life just so down the road I can experience the good, I'm just going to experience things, like sleeping in an iglou because its a story to tell. It is an experience to share, even if it is a cold and dumb idea, I can now share that experience with others, and now I appreciate my dorm room a Whole lot more. :)

Irony

So this weekend was unfortunately, suppose to be the last race of the season for ski team. It was going to be held at Snowshoe, and due to all the mountains that the team would be crossing to get there, our method of transportation was changed. Usually the team rents vans from the school, but the vans are quite old and are on the junky side as far as cars go, so the team decided on account of where we would be driving, and driving through, that we would simply cram into cars and caravan there together. Well the arrangements were finally made, and we were going to leave Friday, today, to try to beat out the storm when the president of the team recieves an email from the director of racing at Snowshoe, which said that the race was canceled "due to the impending doom expected for this weekend". The director was of course refering to the snow storm that is suppose to take place during the weekend, (and has already started since I am writing this Friday morning in place of English class) So, this is extreme irony, not being able to go skiing, and having the race cancelled because of snow. I was first sad when I read this information, but since the race is only being postponed for another weekend, I am deligthted because I still get to race. Now, I have more time to practice and improve before the last race since it isn't until the last weekend in Febuary. Also, I have a physics test next week, and I would have gotten no homework done, let alone studying done if I had gone away this weekend.
I'm so excited about the snow in general. As read in other blogs, I love the snow and am planning to spend a good bit of time playing and sledding in it this weekend. In fact me and one of my friends are planning on building an iglou, so I'm especially excited to get started on that.

snow day

I love the snow, and maybe that's because I only experience it in small quantities, but so far I am still in love with it. Here is a poem that came to mind yesterday while walking through the snow. It has nothing to do with a rhetoric situation, it just seemed like a fun thing to write. I feel like it is apporpriate since the purpose of the blog is creative writing. As far as creative writing goes, I really enjoy writing poems, however reading of them is a different story. Whenever I read a poem I always get a different message out of the poem that what is expected to receive from it. In high school this made getting a good grade difficult because I received the "correct" message. But, if the point of literature is for the piece of writing to make an impact on you, to simply "get something out of it" (or at least that's my opinon of what it does) then why should it matter if I get the correct theme or simply my own, so long as I got something out of it?

walking
through the wonderland
of a chilled purity
wanting
to be a part of it
to be frozen
in the painting
the crunch of the snow
the kiss
of the chilled wind
snowy pieces
floating down
into place
and I walk
absorb it all
I feel the desire
to capture it all
but still
that would not
be enough
I need to become
the winter wonderland

Reading of the two websites I learned a lot more about the rhetoric situation from these articles than from the essay because the artlicles are written to be a lot more appealing and are easier to be read. From the website I learned there are 4 key components of the rhetoric situation. The components are an author, an audience, a text of some sort, and a context. The author is anyone who can use communication, meaning I could be the author of a rhetoric situation. The audience is anyone who cares, or more importantly can do something about the problem at hand. The text of some sort I can imagine can be as speech as well as an essay, and the context that is being used is necessary for completion of the rhetoric situation. In all the purpose of the rhetoric situation is how a work of writing expresses its meanings.

Personally I'm not sure if I will ever be using the a rhetorical situation. If I ever say a rhetorical situation I'm pretty sure it would be an accident, and this is because English is not really where my intrest lies. I enjoy reading a lot, as well as creative writing but all of the "English" stuff that falls in between, such as this, really just goes over my head because it does not affect my every day life. I value reading a lot though, especially literature. Or even broader than literature, any book one "gets something out of it". I read a lot of books that may not be literature persay, but I get a lot out of the book, and I walk away pondering life. My English class last year read 1984 and Brave New World (just to name a few) and those books really open up one to thought over how much power a government should have and if a utopia is really possible.

rhetorical situation

In the article the rehtorical situation there is a discussion of how embarassing and dangerous situations are characteristics and questioning the context for creating the rehtorical. Some important terms are audience, speaker, subject, speech and ocacasion. One particular part of the essay that I enjoyed was the comparision of the rhetoric situation through the metaphor of the tree and the rehtoric situation, and then states of the analogy of moral action being a better metaphor next to a tree, however the tree was rather a descriptive and reminded me of nature. I enjoy nature quite a bit, and reading that section of the essay would remind me of hiking and skiing, as well of other nature activities, even more so coming across the the descriptive paragraph of the Trobiand Islands. The description of the canoe reminded me of the yearly canoe and camping trips I take with my family friends. We would go to the Shennendoah, and camp next to the river bank, then get dropped off 11 miles up stream and canoe all the way back to the camp ground. But anyways, back to the rhetorical situation essay I took away what rhetoric means. I learned that it means that it comes into exsistence like an answer is a response to a question, that there must be a need for it before it can exist. This need is called exigence, or the problem the rhetoric needs. Exigence is very important to the rhetoric situation as well as the audience. The audience is key but the key to the audience is the need to know who the audience is before an arguement is made so the speaker can apeal to the audience. The next key term is the speech, and over all the situation controls the rhetorical response.

manatees

So, I guess I should first explain the title of this blogg. I did not know what I was writing about, so how could you title the unknown? I decided to pick the first word that popped into my head, which was convient because it is also the word I choose when playing the name-ball game in class. Manatees are my favorite animal, and have been since I first laid eyes upon the creature at Sea World when I was 6. At the exhibit there was this video of manatees and how they are endangered. I distinctly remeber in the video, a painting of a man who was about to stab a beached manatee with a spear. I immediately felt extremely compassionate toward manatees, and on that day they became my favorite animal. In general, I love marine mammals. Manatees and dolphins especially, but also seals, orcas, and whales in general. Right now my major is engineering, but I would like to work at an aquarium at some point in my life, most likely right after I graduate. My love for marine mammals has always been a characteristic about me, but as far as how I go about creating a carreer that includes has been hard to find/pick. Now the obvious answer would be to be a marine biologist, and at one point that was the plan but then from talking to one of my biology teachers, (who had a degree in it) I found out it was mostly about the dichotmey of fish, which really is not something I want to be spending the time on to learn. And then there was the fact I love to build and create or should I say "engineer" things, and ultimately I decided to apply to Tech as an engineer. I am currently trying to decide whether to be a bioloical systems or an ocean engineer, both would fulfill the degree I need to have to work in most aquariums.

hw?

ok so I'm kind of confused as to when the blog homework starts and how I find my group (especially not knowing first names) so I'm going to focus on my own blog for right now in hopes that the homework will be completed in the proces.
Since we can write about anything I feel I should talk about the most recent thing on my mind, which is today. Today was my first English class, it was rather exciting especially in light of the ball that was thrown around the room. I played softball all through out high school so I'm rather fond of throwing. As a tangent, my softball team was quite good we won the district championship all 3 years I was apart of the team, finishing my senior year with regional championships and making it to state semi-finals. What makes this even more impressive is that the school is currently 5 years old, my class built the program from the bottom.
But, back to today, it is time trials for the ski team at tech, which I am currently on. I love skiing but I'm rather nervous about the time trial due to the fact that the conditions as of Monday night were absolutely terrible. I'm a pretty confident skier, but with the conditions I faced Monday, that confidence went out the window especially since I wiped out while skiing. Hopefully the conditions will be better and I will be able to recover my confidence by tonight, but due to the warm weather that has not yet left us, I am not so sure that the conditions will get better. It might even rain tonight, which may or may not improve the existing conditions.
Lastly, today is my birthday, and I turned 19. Nothing special since its in between 18 and 21, two big birthdays. Fortunately though, my parents bought me a cookie cake for my birthday, which makes me especially happy because cookie cakes are finominal.