Blog 70

Dear Future English Students,

Like most English classes, English 110 is a writing class where you will focus on two papers.  You are writing an analytical research paper and then you are creating a commonplace paper based on a topic from your research paper.  Although this may not seem like much, you will be doing other writing and you will be doing a lot of revising throughout the quarter.  For some teachers, like Leslie Chambers, you will also be creating a blog and writing posts on it every day.  I wrote more for this class then I have written for any other class in this amount of time.  Although I did a lot of writing in high school, it was spread out throughout an entire year rather than just 10 weeks.  You need to learn to balance your time and not fall behind.  If you fall behind, you will miss a lot of assignments and it will be hard to make them up.  Honestly, the research paper was not too hard since our class wrote blogs every day.  For the first half of the quarter, our blogs would be about some segment of the paper 

and this made writing the actual paper easier.

I would also recommend going to the writing center.  If you go to the walk in hours, its only 15 to 20 minutes, and it can be very helpful.  Teachers are a lot harder at grading and they will make a lot of corrections on your paper.  The writing center allows you to talk to people who will help you improve your writing.  I did not think I would ever go, but it was very beneficial for me.

Sincerely,

Will

Blog 69

There are some statistics or facts that are amazing to hear and are interesting to think about.  There are so many random things that you may do without realizing it.  For example you blink on average about 24,000 times a day.  That means that you blink about 10,000,000 times a year.  That may seem like a dumb fact, but I think it’s interesting to think about.  I have always been a fan of interesting facts.  I got this app for my iPod that has a bunch of useless facts and it is hard to stop looking at them.  Other useless facts are; an elephant is the only mammal that cannot jump, the cruise liner, Queen Elizabeth II, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns, or only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.  It is weird to put things in perspective and see things from a different point of view.  It’s hard to believe that a ship would take that much fuel just to move a few inches or that it’s almost impossible to live to be 116.  Since I was bored one day, I decided to figure out my own little dumb fact.  Since we have been writing this blog every day, I decided to see how much we have actually written.  If you put all 70 blogs together, it is the equivalent of writing a 27 page, single space paper.  So if you ever have to write a really long paper, just write 250 words a day for 70 days.

Blog 68

So as it gets closer and closer to the end of the year, I am trying to find different food to eat on campus.  I have reached the point where I am tired of dining hall food and I want some home cooked meals again.  I mean, not all of it is bad, but I think I have eaten the same thing throughout the whole year.  Almost every day I get lunch at Fresh Express since I live in Morrill Tower, and then I try to go about anywhere else for dinner.  I think my favorite place to eat would be Sloopy’s at the Union.  This is the one place on campus that reminds me of some of the restaurants we have back in my hometown and it is different from most other places on campus.  I always have a craving for breakfast food, so it is usually a good choice.  I think my least favorite place would have to be PAD pizza or Fresh Express at Morrill Tower.  It’s not that bad, but if you live in the tower you eat there all the time.  It’s just the most convenient thing to do since it is the closest thing to your room.  You don’t want to walk ten minutes just to go somewhere to eat.  It is also convenient since PAD is open till 1 am.  If you ever get hungry late at night, you go there. I would say that the first quarter I ate at the PAD an average of about 3 or 4 times a week.  But now I hardly ever go there.  Does anyone else have a favorite spot or some place that they would recommend?  

Blog 67

So today I saw the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.   I heard a lot of mixed reviews about it and several of my friends who saw it said that it wasn’t very good.  But my roommate and I had free movie passes, and he already saw the Hangover Part Two, so we figured that we would go see it.  But after hearing these mixed reviews, I went to the movie with rather low expectations.  I didn’t know what the movie would be like and if it would be any good.  But after watching it, I actually thoroughly enjoyed it. It may have been a combination of the fact I saw it for free, or the fact that I like Pirates of the Caribbean, but I thought it was enjoyable.  It wasn’t great and it definitely was not better than the first movie of the series, but it was at least entertaining.  I did think it was better than the third one though.  I didn’t really like the third movie and I felt like the movies were getting worse and worse.  That is the main thing that I think is wrong with movies that just keep going on.  The first movie is always the best and they can rarely make them all as good.  Unless there needs to be multiple movies to complete a story, like the Batman series or Harry Potter series, I don’t think it really works.  The only thing I wish they would have included in the movie is the Jack Sparrow song by Lonely Island.  I think that would have been a good addition.

Blog 66

I think one of my favorite hobbies has been playing disc golf.  I guess you can call it a sport, but I would just call it a hobby.  It doesn’t require that much physically activity, but it is a good way to spend some time.  For those of you who have no idea what disc golf is, it is basically just golf with Frisbees.  So, you start at the starting pad, you throw the disc and you try to make it in a basket that is about 100 yards away.  This may seem pretty simple but there is actually more to it than you would think.  They have all kinds of different Frisbees ranging from drivers to putters.  I didn’t really know the difference at first, but I have started to learn about the different types and how to play the game.  The first time I played, I was absolutely horrible.  I went to a place in Iowa when I was visiting my brother at college and we went to a course that was actually like a legitimate fancy course.  Overall, it was fun to walk around in the woods and everything, but it was not that good of an experience.  But sometime later, they built a course in our city park.  After they built this, Frisbee golf became more popular at our school and it was a popular thing to do.  Since it was right next to our school, I played there a lot and I started to get pretty good.  I’m not really an expert, but I enjoy playing whenever I get some free time.

Blog 65

As a college football fan, it is a little disappointing to see Jim Tressel resign as the head coach.  I remember back in the fifth grade when I saw Ohio State win the national championship game.  Before this year, I did not care for college football and I didn’t care about Ohio State football that much.  I guess I was too young and I didn’t pay that much attention to it.  But after that year, I was hooked on football and I look forward to seeing Ohio State play every year.  My parents took me to my first game in 2006 and this experience made me appreciate football even more.  I am also disappointed by all of the alleged crimes committed by the players.  I only hope that after all of these allegations that Ohio State will still be good and people will still be excited for football.  I know I am still looking forward to next year’s season.  It is disappointing to see Tressel resign.  I have always been a fan of his and I wish he was able to leave under different situations.  I know what he did was wrong, but people should remember him as a good coach and not for the penalties he has been accused of.  I think players should be more conscience of their decisions and try to not give in to bribes or offers.  I realize that it is hard to say no if someone is offering you something for free.  But if you know that your actions will affect your entire school and team, you should think twice before accepting gifts illegally.

Blog 64

For whatever reason, I have gotten into a habit of playing basketball or video games instead of homework.  I think since I live in Morrill Tower and there are so many other people around me at all times, I get distracted and sidetracked easily.  For example, today I have been playing horse on a mini basketball hoop inside our dorm room instead of writing this blog or doing my math homework.  I think next year will be better though.  I only have one roommate next year, so I hope I will be more focused and determined to finish my work.  It is a lot easier to get work done when you do not have a bunch of people around you wanting to do things.  I am also living on north campus, so hopefully I will enjoy it and I hope I still have a good time even though I will not be living with all my friends.  But even though I say this, one of my greatest accomplishments this year was beating my roommate, David, at a legitimate game of horse outside our room.  This may seem stupid, but he played high school basketball and I haven’t played basketball since sixth grade.  Also, I beat him by making a behind the back shot, so it was really lucky.  I’m not trying to say that I am better than him, believe me it took me several games to finally beat him, but it was at least an accomplishment.  These little things are what you remember the most and it makes college more interesting.