Creating this blog was an assignment by my English 1050 Professor. We are required to post twice each week but one post must be about the class; the other can be about anything. I haven't yet decided if this is going to be a post about the class, but from the looks of it it will be. [insert 10 minute pause for thinking here]

Ok, I've decided: it shall be about the classes recent events.

Last class we broke down and analyzed each of our blogs and one from our blog list 

     A lot of the time I find that online/ internet culture is taken completely wrong by the rest of the world and pop culture. A prime example of this is Gangnam Style, a korean song by PSY. It became popular on the internet and it's music video went viral because of how ridiculous the dance is and how little sense the music video made. People were watching the video and showing all their friends because it was hilariously stupid. Pop culture however, like the media, took the instant popularity of the video as an indication that everyone actually really likes it. Now I'm not saying it's a bad song, or that I or the internet community do not like it...I'm just saying that it was not made popular because we like it. It was made popular because it is ridiculous.
     The media took it so far as to think that having the hosts of the Country Music Awards, Carrie Underwood and Brad Paisley, do the Gangnam Style dance AT the CMA awards this year. They did it to be funny, and although the crowd cheered, there were a lot of looks given to the camera that said "this is weird," and in my opinion it was. Why would dancing to a Korean pop song be an appropriate thing for the hosts to do at an American country music venue? I just don't understand.

    In an earlier post I talked about my thoughts on the "purpose" of Twilight and the Vampire Diaries. I have to admit that I didn't really understand what our professor was really asking for when she told us to think about the purpose behind the film. Today in class, she explained that she really wanted to know our thoughts on HOW the film was able to entertain it's audience. We talked about how the story (Twilight) revolves around a type of forbidden love;one purpose of the film is to root for love despite difficulty.
     We also talked about how it aims to scare and thrill the audience, but I think that is less important than the forbidden love theme. Forbidden love seems to be a popular topic among authors throughout history. Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet being the first story to come to my mind. I think it's an important theme to people because it teaches, or tries to teach, that no matter how large the hurdles, love CAN always triumph. Now obviously it didn't work out for Romeo...but that's because he was an idiot. I mean if he'd wait like....twenty minutes to carry out such a rash decision as taking his own life, the story would have had a happy ending.

Thesis (Project 2)

My thesis for project 2 is that Freddie Mercury wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody" as a metaphor for him breaking up with Mary Austin and coming out of the closet in the mid 1970's.

     Last night we made snow cones in my dorm. I have a snow cone machine and I highly recommend you all to obtain one by any means necessary. Snow cones are awesome and snow cone machines are even more awesome. That's because a snow cone machine can lead to more than just any single snow cone could.
     There is one problem with it though... snow cones will make a hall full of college guys flock like birds to a feeder. At first it was just my room mate and I, but stupidly  we left the door open. The first guy that walked by flipped a shit and begged for a snow cone, which of course we gave him; mistake numero dos. Within 10 minutes I was trying to shuffle a herd of people out of my room so they didn't make a giant mess with the red flavoring (or as I like to think of it...dye).
     That was just a minor set back though. I'll keep my door closed next time and it'll be fine.

     About a week or two ago we had a class about internet memes. To further teach us to think about WHY authors write the way the do, we analyzed certain memes in hopes of extracting some background information. For example, there is meme out there which has a picture of Boromir (Lord of the Rings) and the image is captions above with "One does not simply" and bellow with... well... basically a line which will make someone laugh or provoke thought. While many people may read the a variation of the meme and find a joke funny, only people who have seen the movie Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring will understand where the meme comes from, and thus fully understand the joke.
     I find most memes, while funny, are often overlooked because only a small group of people will ever really understand WHY it ( a meme variation) is so funny.

     I've stopped using the scooter for the most part. It's getting really cold out and the aluminum seems to be making an attempt at giving me frost bite on my hands. All and all I'm kind of enjoying walking to class now. I've had a lot on my mind and it's the only time I really get to be lost in my thoughts. Looks like it's going to sit in my closet all winter; there is no way I'm scooting when the ice and snow comes in.

     I feel like we have been given a lot of work in this class recently. It''s nothing I can't handle, I'm just kind of annoyed because I've been really busy in Calculus 2 and Calc Physics recently.
     The other day we watched a few sections of the movie Twilight in class. I hadn't seen it before but I'd  heard the stories of how bad the acting is;  nothing could have prepared me. It was actually a lot worse than I thought it would be. Still not the worst I've seen though.
     We had to identify parts of the movie (and Vampire Diaries) which pointed to who the target audience is, how the movie appeals to the audience, and the purpose of the movie. In my opinion, I don't think movies and TV shows like that have any purpose other than entertainment and money. I always thought the reason the "Teen Vampire Genre" has popped up is because of the capital gain from Twilight; the series came out and girls flocked, so in turn entertainment studios started pumping out more of the same stuff.
     That's just my two cents though.

     A couple weeks ago my room mate went home and brought his stereo system when he came back. I'm not sure how expensive it was but it really nice. The PROBLEM is that apparently the only way to turn the bass down is through the remote and he doesn't have that. Now normally I would agree with most teenage guys in  that you can never have too much bass. However, I don't like blasting the bass too loud in our room because it shakes the entire room and I'm conscious about disturbing our neighbors. The other thing is that the bass is so loud that you can't hear the treble over it...

Meme

My meme

     When I was younger, especially in middle school but well into high school, I really hated peer editing other people's paper. I've never felt terribly comfortable in my ability to actually give good advice and/or be at all competent when correcting grammatical errors. Late into High school though, I think I started to develop my own writing voice more and also (largely because I felt self conscious that my grammar was bad) I forced myself to get better at speaking and writing correctly.
     It really surprised me yesterday that I was confident and detailed when we peer edited each others literacy narratives. In my opinion, the thing I'm best at when writing is balancing description with progressive information and supporting my thesis (if there is one). Starting when I went through Mrs. Adams 7th grade English class, I've noticed my ability to write complex yet readable sentences has improved greatly. I actually kind of pride myself in it. Hopefully other people read my writing and feel the same?

     I enjoy playing music in my dorm but I always feel self conscious that my room mate, Alex for future reference, will judge me for it. He says he doesn't mind it but sometimes he gives me looks...especially when I play anything from the pop genre. He seems to like the classic rock and a little Eminem and Katy Perry though. I'll continue  experimenting on him and publish my research notes in the coming months...
...
(just kidding)
...
But...maybe I could just make this blog into a study of how my roommate reacts to different music.

     A lot of people have been saying that our book assignment "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," is a terrible read. I've been hearing that the author, Rebecca Skloot, jumps around chapter to chapter from describing Henrietta's Life then to the life of her children and how she obtained the information for the biography. The consensus (that I have heard) is that the way it's written is really boring, hard to read, and annoying even though the actual story of Henrietta is interesting. I on the other hand think that both stories are fascinating. I'm learning a lot about cancer actually and while I enjoy reading stories like that of her life, I also enjoy learning factual information (such as cancer info). Anyways...we have to be at page 86 by 6:00 today. I have four more pages to go so.....adios!

     So this is approximately my thirty four thousand eight hundred twenty first minute of college (you do the math) and I'm staring my 3rd blog post. One thing I knew I would have to deal with once I was on my own is time management, and wow was I right..... I have a physics lab at 3:00 which goes until 5:00 but then I have Thought and Writing at 6:00. SO, essentially that means that I need to have both my thought and writing homework and my pre-lab work done before I go to the physics lab.

Seeing as I have a bit of work to do....I'll have to cut this post short and end it on my  thirty four thousand eight hundred twenty ninth minute of college.

     Creating this blog was an assignment by my English 1050 Professor. We are required to post twice each week but one post must be about the class; the other can be about anything. I haven't yet decided if this is going to be a post about the class, but from the looks of it it will be. [insert 10 minute pause for thinking here]

Ok, I've decided: it shall be about the class's recent events.

Last class we broke down one blog from our blog list  in order to better understand what they were all about and be able to convey that to other people. For example, we had to break it into things like target audience, purpose, voice, tone, mood, and design. The blog I broke down was the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip blog I posted under "Worth of a Jungle Cat." I think the process could have been much more useful to ME if perhaps I had chosen a blog more centered around writing rather than laughs. 

Getting Things Straightened Out.

In case of confusion, let me start by saying that I am not a tiger. Although I occasionally wear stripes, I am a teenage human from the small and peculiarly jungle like town of Tecumseh. Fun fact: Some day I want to be an Aerospace Engineer. I'm enrolled at Western Michigan University in the study of Aeronautical Engineering, however, I would eventually like to transfer to U of M due to the fact that (if you didn't catch it) western doesn't offer the degree I'm looking for. Close, but no cigar.

I'm willing to bet you just re-read my third and forth sentences... In the event that you are now wondering about the difference between aerospace and aeronautic, It's actually quick simple and you may have even guessed it: Rockets vs Airplanes. 

More about me:

DOB: 09-06-1994
Sex: M

Hgt: 508

Eyes: BLU

^Yes. I  just read that off my license.