A Review of English Composition II

The end of my first college semester is coming to a close, and to say that I'm thrilled would be an understatement. I cannot wait until I get to spend a month home for the holidays with my family and friends! However, there are a still a few matters of business that I need to finish. As I finish up my capstone project for English Composition II, I am finally able to reflect on the class as a whole. Did I enjoy it? Did I learn from it? How could it have been better? These are all questions I asked myself.

First off, I can honestly say that I have not really enjoyed english classes since they started moving away from the elementary creative writing. English and writing have always been one of my weak points, and I have never really had the desire to work that hard when it comes to my writing. With that being said, I cannot say that I dreaded English Composition II. The class focused on an interesting and modern topic—social media. This made the class more intriguing than just an average language arts class, but it wasn't nearly enough to make me love the class. There were days I would ask myself, "Why did I come to class?" Then I would remember that attendance was often took, so I guess it's best that I always showed up.

When I came to this class, I was hoping to improve my rating to the quality it once had. I truly believe that I did my best writing as a junior in high school, and then my writing skills decreased as a senior. This was due to a change in teacher from my junior to senior year, but I won't get into that. I was hoping this class would get my writing back up to its old standard, but that just did not happen. An activity that may have helped my writing would be in class writing activities or journals. I realize that blogging is a form of journaling, but I believe that just sitting down with a pen and paper and writing for forty minutes really helps improve anyone's writing. I would have liked to see more of that in this class—especially on days where we hardly did anything.

Overall, this was a slightly above average class. I would not say it was spectacular, but at the same time, it wasn't horrible. My professor was definitely an interesting woman who is knowledgable in many areas. She wasn't one of the greatest language arts teachers I've ever hard, but she wasn't bad. I learned a few tricks from her and this class, so I guess it was a success. It wasn't as good as I was hoping for, but not bad.

The Blog of a Classmate

While looking through all of my fellow classmates' blogs, I found that I have spent the past semester in my English Composition II class with excellent writers. With that being said, I had no problem finding an interesting article written by a fellow classmate. Ryan Gopp wrote about how Disney bought out Lucasfilm. Both these companies are extremely popular, so their partnership should be interesting.

According to Ryan's blogpost "Disney," Lucasfilm and Disney plan to make another Star Wars movie in 2015. Both Ryan and I are skeptical about this. For me, Star Wars already has a great plot, and I feel like if they make another movie, it would just be beating a dead horse. Episode I and Episode II already received plenty harsh reviews, but Episode III was a great way to end the series. I just do not believe it is necessary to tinker with the story anymore. I guess it is not up to me though. If they do make another movie, I will be sure to see, and I will try to keep an open mind and hope for the best. Disney and Lucasfilm have both made great movies, so another Star Wars could actually turn out well! I guess only time will tell.

Ryan gave interesting information on the joining of Disney and Lucasfilm. He also let his own voice shine through throughout his whole blog, which makes it more interesting. If you are bored and want an interesting read, check out Ryan Gopp's blog!—or anyone else in my English Composition II class.

A New Force in the NBA: LA Clippers

In Los Angeles, the Lakers are known as the most prominent and superior basketball team, but over the past two seasons, evidence shows that may be changing. The Los Angeles Clippers have been making ginormous steps in the right direction, and they are starting to shake up the way Los Angeles basketball is viewed. Not only are the Lakers a dominant team in LA, but the Clippers have been even more dominating this season by already notching a few key victories against the Heat, the Spurs, and the Lakers. Clearly, the Clippers are the real deal.

This improvement all started when the Clippers received the first draft pick in the 2009 NBA draft. With their pick, they drafted the athletic and explosive power forward Blake Griffin. Unfortunately, Griffin suffered from a devastating knee injury that caused him to miss his whole rookie season. However, the following year, Griffin made a complete recovery and became the unanimous decision for the 2010-2011 rookie of the year. His winning of the rookie of the year showed the potential this Clippers team had if they were given the proper pieces. Right before the shortened 2011-2012 season, they were given that piece. The LA Clippers received superstar point guard Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets while they gave up multiple players like center Chris Kaman and shooting guard Eric Gordon. Thus far, this trade has seemed to be extremely beneficial to the Clippers as they made it to the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-2006 season, and if all goes as planned, they will surely make it to the playoffs again this season. 

After watching the Clippers multiple times this season, a few things have been made clear. First off, this team is much improved from last year. Most notably, athletic big men, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan, have greatly improved their defense, and they are working on their foul shots as well. Griffin is also developing his mid range jump shot, which is monumental for the Clippers. Although his jump shot is nothing better than average, just the fact that he is working on it and improving it has caused talk around the league. Click here for an article about Griffin's jumper and its importance. These are not the only two players who have caused improvement for the Clippers. The young, quick, and athletic point guard, Eric Bledsoe, has provided the Clippers with much spark off the bench as well as the newly added guard, Jamal Crawford. Currently, Crawford is leading the team in scoring although he is only the sixth man. This just shows how much depth the Clippers have. This season, the Clippers have proven that they have one of the best benches in the league. So far, their bench has averaged over forty points—that is definitely a benching doing its job! For all these reasons, the Clippers should be a serious concern to other teams around the league.

In the NBA, it takes several key components to win a championship. Superstars, team chemistry, and role players all going into making a championship team. Well, guess what—the Clippers have all these components. After watching videos of the Clippers off the court, it is clear that this team truly enjoys each others' presence, and it shows on the court. The Clippers have been given the nickname "Lob City" because of the constant alley oops delivered to Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan from point guard Chris Paul. These lobs would not be as likely without team chemistry. Due to all these components, the Clippers are a young, powerful team, and the rest of the league should take notice. This Clippers are here to stay as one of the best teams for several years to come. 

WordPress

Over the past week, I have been experimenting with WordPress for my English Composition course. At first, I was a little confused on how the site worked, but after a little practice, I found WordPress to be quite simple. I do believe it is a site for adult internet users, which is a benefit. It gets a little old seeing middle schoolers run your newsfeed on Facebook and high schoolers run it on Twitter. My WordPress site showcases my most recent language composition essay, which examines the effect Twitter had on the most recent presidential election. My site can be found here.

The most intriguing aspect of WordPress is that I have the ability to customize almost any component of my site. If I were able to write in html, I could customize even more! It reminds me a little bit of my Xanga days, but far more professional than that. One of the best customization tools is being able to add  pages to my home page. In my WordPress, I added an about page, a literature review page, and a page for my essay. This way, my site's layout is much cleaner and less cluttered. Using WordPress makes me feel like a professional webpage designer because it is so easy to make legitimate looking webpage.

For anyone who wants to use a website to advance a career or just gain publicity, I recommend making a WordPress. It's easy to use, and it looks professional. Other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube can be used to get your url out to the public, and then your site can soar from there. So far, I can say that I've had a positive good with WordPress.

The Election

Normally, I am not too interested in politics or elections, but thanks to Twitter, I have found myself paying more attention to politics. Because both of the presidential candidates have Twitter accounts, I find myself reading more about the election than ever before. Also, many fellow tweeters tweet their opinions on the upcoming election, which also grabs my attention. I find it interesting that so many young people are taking an interest in politics, and even though I question their logic, I think it's good for society that more people are expressing their political opinions. Twitter has caused me to think about politics more than ever before. Over the next few weeks, I am writing a research paper over Twitter's affect on politics and the presidential election. I am actually excited to dig deeper in to this topic, which surprises me. If you told my younger self that I would some day be interested in politics on a social media site, I'd think you were crazy. I like this new interest though. I've always liked to be aware and to know what people are talking about, so I really encourage using Twitter to learn more about each candidate. However, the Twitter accounts of each candidate are extremely bias, so in order to get more accurate information, I would suggest digging little deeper. In order to find out more, I have watched the two debates between the candidates, and I have also watched some of the post debate commentary, which I have never done before. At some point, all this presidential election stuff will probably start to annoy me, but as for now, I am interested in all the festivities surrounding the election—thanks to Twitter.

Color

Today in class, we discussed colors and their multiple shades and names. Because it is my favorite color, blue stuck out to me, but there are other reasons why the color is so appealing. For all the colors we discussed, blue was one of the easiest colors to name. Here are some of the terms we used.

• Aquamarine
• Navy Blue
• Royal Blue
• Teal
• Turquoise
• Saphire
• Baby Blue
• Sky Blue

And, the list could go on and on. When we think of all these shades of blue, we tend to be calmed because blue is considered a cool color. With this, comes multiple sayings associated with blue. Negative sayings that come from blue are saying someone is "black and blue" or saying that someone is "feeling blue." Obviously, most of you are familiar with both these sayings and their negative meanings, but there are still plenty people who know this and love the color blue. I am one of them. For me, the color blue represents beauty. People believe that "blond hair and blue eyes" are attractive traits, which shows how blue displays beauty. Another phrase where blue represents beauty is "roses are red, violets are blue..."Because flowers are generally viewed as beautiful, their association with blue creates a pleasant combination. Although there aren't any specific phrases that comment on the blue sky and blue ocean, these two shades of blue also bring relaxation to humans. Blue is a diverse and interesting color that carries multiple meanings and emotions.

Mark Zuckerberg

In English Composition, we are currently watching The Social Network, which is a film about how Facebook came to be. Although we are only halfway through the film, there are aspects of it I find rather interesting. The story line is eventful and moves at a quick pace while the protagonist, Mark Zuckerberg, dishes witty remarks to whoever steps in his path. As for the setting, the movie takes place at Harvard University and takes advantage of a beautiful college setting. These components are what I find most interesting throughout the film. If you want to find out more about the film click here.

To me, Mark Zuckerberg is by far the most interesting aspect of the movie. I am constantly trying to figure out how his mind works and understand his motives. After seeing how Zuckerberg treats people in this film, I am curious to know if he actually acts like this in person. One thing I do know is that the real Mark Zuckerberg and the actor who plays him, Jesse Eisenberg, do resemble one each other.

The real Mark Zuckerberg is the one on the left. In the movie, Mark Zuckerberg comes off as having poor social skills and constantly makes condescending remarks to others. He expresses his intellectual superiority over the common person, which adds tons of humor to the movie. It's easy to say that the movie would be far less interesting if Zuckerberg were a nicer guy. Hopefully, the real Mark Zuckerberg is friendlier than his cinematic counterpart, but if not, then he surely is an intriguing man.

There are tons of interesting components to the move The Social Network, but if I took the time to explain them, this would be one long blog post. For now, I will continue to take interest in the character or Mark Zuckerberg and analyze him throughout the rest of the film. As of now, the movie has my attention, so hopefully, the ending has the same effect on me.

Skull in a Stomach?

While surfing the web, I came across a video that immediately grabbed my attention. This video's title mentions half of a woman's skull being stored in her stomach, which intrigued me to say the least. The story is of a woman named Jamie Hilton who was in a tragic fishing accident where she fell backwards off the pier and damaged her brain. Due to much swelling in her skull, surgeons removed half of it and placed it in her stomach! This was crazy to me, but after hearing some explanation, it actually seems like a good idea. After watching this video, I realized that medical technology and knowledge is still advancing far past anything I could ever imagine. It leaves me wondering what's next? The video is also a reminder of how precious life is and how it can change in an instant. To see the video, click here.

Sometimes, it feels as if the only medical miracles can be found on a television sitcom or in our dreams, but this video shows that these miracles are possible. Several times this past month, I have heard of teenagers from my local area who are suffering brain trauma from automobile accidents, and after watching this video, I realize that there is hope for these teens. It's hard to realize that accidents like this can happen to anyone, but when it does, people momentarily appreciate the little things a little more. Jamie Hilton was brought to tears when she said how thankful she was to be able to live a life at the quality she does after her accident. She no longer takes things for granted, which is what everyone should do. Unfortunately, it takes a tragic accident for people to realize this.

This video was an eye-opener in two ways. It provided hope by explaining the success of Hitlon's almost unheard of surgery to the common people, but it also reminded me that we take the small things for granted. It is hard to picture a world without all our daily tasks, but we should realize that in an instant, everything could change, even if our medical technologies are advancing.

Fixed Versus Growth

For a Student Success Seminar, I am currently reading a book entitled Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. At first, I thought the book would be dull explanation of how students need to have a positive attitude to succeed, but the book offers so much more than that. It closely examines two mindsets--the fixed mindset and the growth mindset. From these mindsets, people develop their skills, relationships, and futures. Basically, these mindsets affect your whole life! To see a brief description of these mindsets, click here. While reading this book, I am constantly finding myself trying to decide whether or not I have a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. I am starting to come to a conclusion.

Because of my upbringing in school and the home, I believed that intelligence was a fixed attribute. One could not change his or her intelligence, but only gain knowledge. In the book, the author believes that intelligence can grow as long as the individual puts forth the effort to do it. I am a little skeptical about this, even after seeing a few examples; however, this does encourage me that I could possibly get "smarter." When people with the fixed mindset are given academic gifts, they feel they have to prove their gift while giving minimal effort, and when they fail, their self confidence plummets. In a way, I am somewhat guilty of this. I was considered gifted in the science and math departments, so whenever it came to those subjects in high school, I liked to try to see how little I could do and still get an "A."This was probably not a good idea, but it made life less challenging and made me feel smart. Fortunately, there have been a few times where I have been humbled and received poor grades for my lackluster effort. Because of these failures, I was able to break away from having a completely fixed mindset. People with the growth mindset are able to recover and learn from failures, and I was able to do the same from my failures. Also, I have realized that just trying to slide by will not cut it in college. I know in order to succeed I am going to have to give effort, even if it means life will be a little more challenging.  Due to these statements, I have realized that I possess both mindsets.

Reading this book has caused me to endure self analysis. I have been aware of many of my flaws, but this book has showed me how negatively these flaws can affect my life. I do not know if I will ever completely get away from the fixed mindset, but knowing that I have a little growth mindset in me too is reassuring.

Prison Life

Today, I took an unexpected trip to the Center of the History of Psychology. A friend of mine who is a student in another language composition class had to visit the museum, so I tagged along. Many of the experiments and illusions I was familiar with because of past psychology classes, but there was one experiment that really stuck out to me. It was the Stanford Prison Experiment. To learn more about the experiment, click here.

Imagine being in a prison--as either a guard or a prisoner--just for two short weeks. Sounds pretty doable, huh? Well, to the college students at Stanford, this experiment seriously affected their emotions, which caused the experiment to end eight days short. Apparently, the students who were playing the roles of guards became cruel and began to believe they were actual guards. Those who portrayed the prisoners became depressed and were struggling on the prison-like conditions. After visiting this museum stand, I was curious to how I would fare in this experiment.

I have always joked that if I were to ever go to prison, I would not be able to handle it, but after thinking about it, I know that really is not a joke! If college students became depressed after running an experiment for six days, I cannot fathom what actual prison would be like. Part of me would like to take part in that experiment just to see what it would be like, but I would not want it to last over two days! Reading about this experiment has given me a sudden interest in prison life, so maybe watching a documentary about it would be much more beneficial than actually going to prison!

I learned several things from my adventures today. First, it is always a good idea to check out events and places at campus because I never know what I could find. I also learned that prison is not a joke, so I better never end up there!

Snopes on Twitter

Recently, I was given an assignment to evaluate a case on either Factcheck or Snopes. For me, this assignment was no big deal because I already followed Snopes on Twitter--how convenient. On the Twitter page, Snopes posts random facts and declares whether or not they are true. Over the summer, I found myself rather entertained by this. Unfortunately, Snopes has not made any recent tweets, but nonetheless, there are still plenty tweets to keep one entertained for an hour or so!

A tweet that interested me dates back to July 30, 2012, which was during the Chik-fil-A  same-sex marriage controversy. A few days prior to reading this tweet, I attended a Chik-fil-A for lunch, and it was filled with customers. It is not uncommon for a large amount of people to attend Chik-fil-A, but many of them were talking about the same-sex marriage issue and how they supported the company. Personally, I was not surprised by the comments made, and I did not understand how others were due to the fact Chik-fil-A is clearly a Christian restaurant. It closes on Sundays, so I don't understand how people would be surprised that Chik-fil-A's president made a comment reflecting Christian values. Anyway, shortly after my Chik-fil-A visit, I received a text from a friend showing the following picture. 

Right away, I assumed the picture was photoshopped, but I did find it amusing that I had just visited Chik-fil-A that day.  As I read tweets surrounding the day of my visit to Chik-fil-A, I was also entertained by everyone's views and reactions to the situation. To me, the issue was blown a tad out of proportion, but it still made for a few interesting days on Twitter. My favorite tweet came from Snopes' Twitter page. They tweeted this link http://www.snopes.com/photos/signs/chickfila.asp, which led to the image I received a few days ago. How coincidental! Like I thought, the image was fake, but the tweet still amused me.

For anyone who has a Twitter, follow Snopes' Twitter page, and hope they start tweeting again! When they do, it is an easy way to see interesting tweets and discover random facts. Here's the link: https://twitter.com/snopes. Even if a Twitter account is not owned, I highly suggest checking out Snopes website anyway--it's surprising what can be discovered.

From Myspace to Facebook to Twitter

Ever since I reached middle school, I had been fascinated by the idea of social media. I believed that if I was not up to date with the hippest form of social media, I would be considered "uncool." Looking back, I realize I was rather foolish for believing that, but I do like to be up to date on my social media. This way, I can communicate with the optimal amount of people during any time of the day. In order to do this, I have changed my preferred social media site multiple times.

For me, it all started with Myspace. When I was in middle school, everyone had a myspace, and I thought I needed one too. While using Myspace, I would spend time obsessing over top friends, taking pictures, and doing an excessive amount of quizzes--even though nobody cared about those. From 7th grade to my sophomore year, I thought I was living the high life on Myspace, and that would NEVER change; however, Facebook came around.

At first, I did not like that everyone was shifting to Facebook, but as more people began the shift, Myspace progressed to becoming boring. Hardly anyone was using Myspace, and I began to feel like I was talking to myself. Due to this, I joined the craze and shifted to Facebook. Sure, it took time for me to adapt to the new social media site, but in little time, I found myself loving Facebook. I enjoyed "Facebook creeping" on everyone's pictures and statuses, and I also spent much time starting random conversations on my friends walls. The only activity I did not enjoy on Facebook was making statuses, which I find rather ironic due to my new Twitter fascination. Just like Myspace, I thought Facebook would always be my favorite social media site, but again, I was wrong.

Following the Facebook craze, Twitter came along. I created a Twitter acout about a year and a half ago, and at first, I took little interest in the site. Its emphasis was an activity I did not enjoy on Facebook, so I never thought Twitter would ever take off. However, I was clearly wrong. About four or five months ago, I began to notice the drastic decrease in Facebook activity. Just like Myspace, Facebook was starting to bore me due to the lack of friends using their accounts. I knew where everyone was taking their social media activities, but I already did not like Twitter. I was disappointed that the Facebook era was ending while Twitter's was beginning. In order to keep up with my social circle, I started investing more time into my Twitter account by tweeting, retweeting, posting pictures, and chatting with my friends. It took a couple months, but after awhile, Twitter really started to grow on me. I was pleasantly surprised, and now, I truly enjoy twitter and spend my nights reading everyone's tweets. Now, I expect this Twitter craze to last a few years--just like every other site--but  I am curious to what's next. Whatever it is, I know now to embrace it with open arms. Due to my social media experience, I have learned that it's not the site that makes a good experience, but it's the people on the site who create the experience.