Observation Proposal

My observation will be of my dogs in my backyard. There are two birdfeeders and a hummingbird feeder, so there might be birds that I can observe and write how they react with my dogs in the backyard. There is a pool, so I can write about how the pool reacts with the environment and what my dogs do around it. There is a garden and flower area in my backyard that contain wildlife such as bees and butterflies. There should be plenty to write about. Since it is my property, I do not have to worry about time constraint. As long as my dogs stay active outside I will have plenty to observe.

Music in Iraq

I listened to the podcast on our main blog and found the facts very interesting. Music has become a bigger part of our world than we may realize. Soldiers in Iraq listen to hard rock, rap, and metal, to get psyched up for combat. Combat is very stressful and it helps the soldiers to be emotionally and physically unattached from themselves. They no longer worry about themselves as they step outside of their normal mindset, this helps keep soldiers working. As combat gets more intense, the troops get more stressed, and listening to music prepares them for the intensity of the combat. Music can also be used to calm somebody after a stressful time. I just thought this was very interesting because I see athletes getting pumped for games by listening to loud music, and I have done this myself before soccer games. It all helps prepare you for what is coming up.

Mold

Today I had the awesome priviledge of cleaning the forest hill malco's chairs from mold in one of it's theaters. One thing I learned is not to procrastinate because they told me I could come in to clean around 6 o'clock. I made the mistake of waiting until 7 to show up. The work sucked, it was tiring and disgusting, but I was being paid well for doing it. It also shows that I am willing to go the extra mile to my boss. I had to show up on a day I was not supposed to work, and I believe I did a good job. So I am hoping it helps go towards my promotion at work.

Conversation observation

The conversation was a little different from my point of view because I was not observing but participating. From my view, it seemed more like a interrogation, no offense to Elliot, but he didn't really ask that many questions, mostly he just answered my questions. The free discussion session was very interesting because we both seemed very timid and our body language showed that we did not wish to be there. As the exercise continued, we both became a little less reserved and more open to the conversation. We both found common ground or made observations to start a topic. My example of observation was that he was wearing a Volcom shirt and hat, and from my prior knowledge of the company Volcom, I knew he must either just like the brand or he skated. My deductions were correct when he answered that he had skated until they shut down the Skate Park of Memphis, or SPoM as he referred to it. Then I found out that he had recently played paintball, which was the topic of my autobiographical essay, so I talked about my paintball gun for a few sentences. A while later, Wendy Sumner-Winter started giving us topics to converse about. I did not mind the first topic, which was: "What is your favorite song?" Me being an avid music listener, I countered by saying that I could not answer with one single song, it really depends what mood you are in. Right then, the conversation took a turn for the worst, Mrs. Sumner-Winter started giving us very annoyingly wierd topics of which to speak about. Puppies were apparently a funny topic to talk about since she burst out laughing when I mentioned that my family owns two Pomeranians. The topics started to get very wierd as it went from donuts, Ireland, and then to llamas. It became a struggle just to find what to say about these awkward subjects, and the body language from the beginning of the conversation resumed as we sort of tried to shut ourselves out of the situation by shutting down, but that would not work. My main observation of the whole thing had to be that it was really awkward throughout the whole thong due to all the silent listeners who just happened to be taking notes on the whole conversation. Overall it was a great learning opportunity to tell about body language an how it coincides with how one feels.

The first time I listened and watched the video, I saw all the basic things that anyone would look for: he was hanging out with his mom in the kitchen, the mother was very stubborn, the guy did not want the fish, she tried to put facts into his head. She then began to doubt herself in a way as she remembered mercury poisoning. I thought it was funny that she wanted to go to a seafood restaurant after they found the other restaurant was full. When I watched with just the sound, I noticed that the guy had a northern accent and spoke fairly quickly. It was almost as if he had already had this conversation once before. I found that he did not use many pronouns, instead he just kept repeating everything he said. After I watched without the sound, it seemed as if the mom did not even pay attention to what he said. He also kept reading a piece of paper for a while before actually dropping to talk to his mom.
The second time I did the exercise, I found that I noticed deeper meaning within the drawings and words. An example would be the fact that the mother tries to appeal to her son's intellect, showing that he may be a grad student, or just very smart. The addition of the celery shows that she has already tried to make her son eat tuna fish, and he may of complained about it being too chewy, which accounts for her hinting that the celery adds more crunch to the tuna. I also found that the mother may be extremely stubborn, as she requests to go to a seafood restaurant even after his conversation to her about hating fish earlier that evening.

Time

I was just wondering how in the world I am going to keep up with all the homework when exams start coming up. Does anybody else have the same worries? Does anybody know how to look up Dr. Grubaugh's syllabus? What are we supposed to write about for next Tuesday? Anyway, I was just sitting at home wondering how I could blog from my iPhone, well I found a neat application that allows me to do just that. So here I am blogging while listening to Pink Floyd. Craziness... Well I guess that is all for now, until next time when I have to blog and can't think of anything to blog about.

My new blog post will be about my new season as a soccer referee at Germantown Baptist Church. Today I got the privilege to referee three Kindergarten through First Grade Co Ed games. It's really nice when you can make $60 from three games in about 4 hours, but it is also enjoyable to watch the young kids run after the ball and even kick it into their own goal. The latter actual happened today to a young boy who became confused during the excitement near his goal area and kicked the ball into his own goal. I felt very sorry for him, but I had to give the goal to the other team. Anyway, I enjoy reffing these and will continue to do so as long as I am paid.

Autobiographies are important because it allows you to tell your own story. Only you know what you are thinking, so by writing your own story, you can include thoughts that you did not say out loud.
Biographies are told by a limited point of view, the person who is writing about you cannot tell the audience what you are thinking at the deepest points unless he asks, and even then, he cannot always present your thoughts the way you would like them to be presented.
This distinction can make all the difference in the world. Writing an autobiography allows you to tell a story within a story by showing your deepest emotions.
I would prefer to read an autobiography because you can learn more about someone by reading their own thoughts and not words written by someone else about that person. It seems more personal, like you are in a conversation in which the writer is telling you something.

HW 9/9/09

My first experience with paintball was a mix of many emotions for me. I had no idea how much it would hurt, or how much fun it would be to win (survive) a round. I started off my first game at the top of a hill and... long story short, I ended up being shot in the back of the head by my friend, who was on my team... at the time.
I like to get my adrenaline umping and enjoy putting myself in what may seem as danger, as long as it doesn't border on stupidity.
I would like to be perceived as someone who doesn't feel the fear of new experiences.
People feel anxious when they go into new experiences, but then they enjoy themselves after they get over the fear of what may happen. Part of the enjoyment is the unknown that you are approaching that really gets the adrenaline pumping.

English HW 9/8

Thinking about your past writing experience.
1. My last fairly complicated writing assignment was given to me in high school during my senior year by my English teacher Mrs. Hendrix. It was a research paper to be written about John Milton's Paradise Lost. This paper took almost a full month to prepare, edit, and get my final draft.
2. The steps I went through to prepare my paper were to research about John Milton's life and research about the book itself. Many famous writers have written books dedicated to explaining the meaning of Paradise Lost, so it was not too difficult to find plenty of quotes for the required amount we had to find that was relevant to our material. My purpose for writing the essay was that it was assigned to me and I assumed that the teacher knew much about John Milton and Paradise Lost as she had been giving out this assignment and teaching on his material for some years before I came to be in her class.
Analyze
1. split, lose, paused, considered, vanished, rounding, trailed, picked, follow, chased, smashed, entered, ran, coming, ran, wound, chased, chased, glanced, choking, strained, trained, fling, point, aim, dive, forget, go, chasing, impelled, compelled, follow, tore, running, improvising, running, choosing, failing, slow, discovering, exhilarated, dismayed, save, losing, chased, caught, caught, stopped.
2. paused, considered, vanished, rounding, trailed, picked, chased, smashed, entered, coming, chased, chased, glanced, choking, strained, trained, chasing, impelled, compelled, running, improvising, running, choosing, failing, discovering, exhilarated, dismayed, losing, chased, stopped.
3. We smashed through a gap in another hedge, entered a scruffy backyard and ran around its back porch and tight between houses to Edgerton Avenue; we ran across Edgerton to an alley and up our own sliding woodpile to the Hall's front yard; he kept coming.
Mikey and I had nowhere to go, in our own neighborhood or out of it, but away from this man who was chasing us.
pg. 24
1. city clothes, suit and tie, street shoes, thin man, all action, twenties, sainted, skinny, furious, red head.
2. perfunctorily, ordinary Pittsburgh accent, normal righteous anger, usual common sense.
3. A tired, thin, red headed man in his twenties running through back yards in his street shoes to catch two young kids. He was the driving force of the plot.
pg. 25
1. She used perfect snow and made into a perfect sphere so that no snow remained but it was all ice.
2. The cars are compared to targets wrapped in red ribbons. I think this shows how easy it was to hit their targets, which were the cars. It also shows experience, they all had the experience of throwing snow balls and were all good enough at it that they could not miss.
1. perfunctorily, chewing out, redundant, mere-formality, beside the point, glory, prolong the drama, cap its glory, brooded, dismembered, staked, spirit of fun, chew us out, exalting pursuit, righteous anger, usual common sense, sainted.
2. passionately, trapped, brooded, drama, spirit of fun, her describing of his accent shows that she can remember the event very well.