FINAL!!!!!!

Course Goals:
Develop the ability to work well with others on composing tasks.
This semester of English, I have done the most group work I've ever done in my whole entire life. Now, I don't really like working in groups because I like working at my own pace. However, the intensive and peer reviews that we participated in were quite helpful. For me, it was like constructive criticism. At the time, I didn't like to think that anything was wrong with my paper. I wanted everyone to say that my paper was perfect. Therefore, I didn't take the criticism well. But now that I look back at it I know that my classmates weren't attacking me in any way. They gave me some helpful tips in how I could make my writing stronger. I really hated this class when I found out that we were going to be working in groups. And when I hate something, I don't really have an open mind about changing my ways of thinking. It wasn't until one of my papers got intensively reviewed that I was more open-minded about working in groups. I think it just really put it into perspective for me. So working in groups in this English class this semester has helped me in more ways than one; working more efficiently in groups and have more of an open mind and not think I'm so perfect all the time. Thank you English 103/my classmates/ Professor McArdle.

Develop effective strategies of invention, drafting, and revision for different audiences and different purposes.
I don't believe I have developed any strategies of invention, drafting, and revision during the course of this semester in English 103. I don't really see how we were taught any of these. I had trouble starting any of my drafts only for the reason that I didn't know how to start. And for me, getting started is the hardest part. I never knew what to write about, therefore, I just put it on the back burner thinking something will come to me later. But later always rolls around and I forget about it. Now I know I should take responsibility for my own actions, and that I am, but I think if we learned more about drafting and such this would have helped me get an earlier start and get things turned in on time!

Understand that persuasion- both visual and verbal- is integral to reading and composing.
I can be easily convinced with anything; It's the wonder of being naive. However, I can also tell when something is meant to be persuasive and when something isn't. So the understanding persuasion while I'm reading isn't really my problem. It's the composing part that gets me every time. I can be persuasive, but I don't really know when I'm doing it. This goes along with me having a hard time applying what I learn to certain assignments, such as writing. It's like I just go with it and hope for the best. I know that's not the best way to go about things, but that's the only way I know how to get through things. It's like I don't do things for a purpose and I was hoping I could learn some more about that this semester in English 103. I want to be able to apply things that I learn to real life because if I never do so then I'm going through life by just getting by without a purpose and without retaining any information. That means my whole education was a waste. Anyways, hopefully during my college career I can develop these skills and make the thousands of dollars worth it.

SNOW!!!! :]

hokay so it snowed today! woot woot! See, I hate being cold, but I don't really mind it if it's SNOWING!! Snow is quite possibly the greatest thing about winter (next to Christmas of course). There's just so much to do in snow! You can sled in the snow; ski in the snow; snowboard in the snow; make snow angels in snow; make snowmen out of snow; make a fort out of snow; have a snowball fight; catch snowflakes with your tongue; go tobogganing in the snow; eat icicles in the snow; write your name in the snow; dog sledding in the snow (mushing!); go ice skating in the snow (when the snow has frozen over); climb mountains in the snow; shovel and/or snow blow driveways to make money in the snow; play with your dogs in the snow; work out in the snow (believe me, it's one heck of a work out); and so much more!

Just imagine winter without snow. It would be miserable and just cold (depending on the state, of course). When you walk in the morning after it has snowed, it so quiet that no traffic can be heard or anything. It's so peaceful. I just can't get over how much I LOVE the snow! I can't wait until it snows a lot. It will be great fun!

p.s. if I never said "snow" again in my whole entire life, I think I would be ok with that. I've said some form of "snow" 31 times (including the one in this sentence) throughout this post.

I'm gonna tease your brain yo

Ok so I basically want to take a break from all the serious bloggness and do something more exciting-ish. So how about some BRAIN TEASERS! I totally forgot about them until now. So I figured I would share one with you guys:

(in your head!) Take 1000 and add 40 to it. Now add another 1000. Now add 30. Add another 1000. Now add 20. Now add another 1000. Now add 10. What is the total?

I will post the answer in a comment on Sunday night. Good luck!

I'm lost....

So me and my friend are going through this thing where we feel as if we need to "find ourselves." I mean we are at a point in our lives where we should feel like we serve a purpose or we know where we stand as a person. I guess we don't know exactly where it is that we stand. For me, I feel that I don't know anything. That can sound vague so some explanation is needed. For instance, when someone asks me what I want to do after I graduate I have no idea how to answer that because I have no idea what I want to do after I graduate. Another example would be if someone would ask me if you could ask God any question what would it be? I couldn't come up with an answer. My mind seems to become blank all of the sudden. I mean it's not like I'm an idiot (at least I hope not). But sometimes I feel as if I don't have an opinion on important issues. So I guess ignorant would be the right word to describe what I've been experiencing. I HATE not knowing things like this. It scares the crap out of me. I guess college would be a good place to start looking for yourself. But then again I feel like I'm easily influenced by people. So I don't have my own opinion about things.

I know all of this may sound extremely confusing to some of you because believe me it's confusing to me too. But I guess in a sense, that's what life is all about. Just figuring life out is exhausting.

It's good and good for you...

Recently, I have been wanting to be more health conscious because I'm slowly on my way to gaining that freshmen fifteen. Yikes! To accomplish this, I've been watching what I've been eating (somewhat) and working out (not a lot, but more than I have been). I heard if you totally eliminate sweets and junk food from your diet that it helps out A LOT. I'm trying to do that, but my sweet tooth is more like a sweet grill (you know like the rappers wear) except that it's permanently stuck in my mouth, so I guess that would be called sweet teeth. Whatever I think you get the point. ANYWAYS...

I'm also sort of stressed out with school. And thinking about working out and eating right stresses me out too because when I'm stressed, all I want to do is eat junk food. So I was hoping I could find a solution to my stress/working out/eating problem. I was thinking maybe pilates or yoga. I mean the the breathing exercises that go along with these workouts seem to be rather relaxing. Even the music is soothing. And while you're "relaxing", you're also getting fit. I never understood how yoga or pilates could be such a good work out, but people say it works. So I figure I may give it a try. My only concern is that I don't think I will have the patience for it. Hopefully by relaxing, it will give me patience for everything, including eating right! Everything comes together now! woot! anyways I was just wondering if any of you have tried yoga or pilates and if it has worked for you.

Long Time Gone

It's been forever since I've written one of these. No worries because I am baaaaaack! :] But not much in my life has changed except for the fact that I'm an aunt again to a beautiful baby girl! Her delicate hands, her raspy whimpers, and her dark head of locks; everything about her is simply sensational. Oh yea I forgot to mention her name, Ava Grace! The beautiful name surely compliments her beauty alone.

Since I'm a fashion major, I can't wait to dress her up in fashionable baby clothes and do her hair all cute! My niece will be a diva. I will make sure of it!

I'm so happy for my sister and my brother-in-law! It's their first child. I can honestly say, I didn't think I would ever see the day my sister would be a mother. As a kid, she would always pick on me. Not a very motherly thing to do, but she has grown and adapted maternally. I'm very excited for the both of them and for the growth of their family!

where has the semester gone?

Is it just me or has the semester flown by? It seems like the weeks keep going by faster and faster. Just in a couple weeks, everyone will be packing up for the weekend to go home for Thanksgiving break. It's crazy I tell you! I'm not complaining by any means. It's just that it's going by so fast that I hardly remember what my freshmen year has been like so far. For me, this week is a short one so there goes another week that has flown by. I only have three days of classes because on Thursday and Friday I'm going to Chicago with my fashion class! :] It will be way fun because we leave Thursday morning and get to shop all day! Then Friday we have to get up way early to participate in our fashion workshop that we signed up for. Each of us going on the trip signed up for four classes of interest, that are fashion related of course. So basically we spend all day learning about fashion stuff! How exciting is that? Super exciting!

Syllabus post

English 103 Course Goals:

• English 103 introduces students to the fundamentals of rhetoric; to the elements, strategies, and conventions common to persuasion; to the use of those elements, strategies, and conventions in the construction of their own persuasive visual and verbal texts. Upon completion of English 103 students will:

1. To understand persuasion, we have participated in intensive reviews, watched video clips during class, and read other material.
2. I think by doing these different writing assignments, we have learned to write for different audiences while writing about different things each time.
3. I normally just start writing. I don't really have a brainstorming method I follow. But for revision I have learned to look at different elements of a paper by doing the intensive and peer reviews.
4. We have done different types of papers. For instance, our multimodal assignment was different from any kind of paper I have ever written. But for these types of assignments we learned to get credible evidence.
5. We learned how to do research correctly by going to library one day for class. A guy named Jeremy or something like that gave us some helpful tips on how to research.
6. We have done this by doing our intensive and peer reviews. By having others read our papers has really allowed me to open up my perspective on my writing to both good and bad things.
7. I don't really know if we have learned anything about this unless we have done it on our own or through peer reviews.
8. I haven't really been taking responsibility at all for my progress. All I'm going to say is that I am a big-time procrastinator.
9. I naturally work well with others. But I definitely think this class has helped me enhance this skill.

Course Content and Format

• The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:

1. Our intensive and peer reviews have helped a lot out with this.
2. Again, this is what we do with our intensive and peer reviews.
3. This is the basically what the reviews consist of.
4. When we write papers, we are required to compose at least 2 drafts to help revise and make our paper as best as possible. Somewhere between the writing of all these drafts we incorporate intensive and peer reviews in there to get the feedback of our fellow classmates.
5. Again, peer and intensive reviews.
6. peer and intensive reviews
7. We have done this by writing several papers keeping a different audience in mind for each. Even for some, we have used a different form of media. For example, our multimodal project.

University Core Curriculum Goals

• The central purpose of University Core Curriculum is to enable men and women to live rich and satisfying lives to undertake the broad responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. Although the University Core Curriculum seeks to discover and nurture individual talents, its primary emphasis is preparation for roles people share as human beings and as members of family and community groups. Thus, students will be able to:

1. I think we have learned a lot just within a semester about life, the real world, and "the man."
2. I'm still working on that part. Hopefully when I take speech, it will help me out a little.
3. I'm only a freshmen. I still have so much to learn about these types of things.
4. Growing up to me is a long process. I haven't crossed roads with these things quite yet.
5. I have worked with others, but to solve common problems? not so much, according to the core curriculum anyways.
6. I have chosen a major and so far I am very satisfied with it.

1. 
   

domestic policy proposal: immigration

Illegal aliens crossing the border of the United States have been a source to much of the controversy relating to job advancement, economic welfare, religion, and several more elements in which America runs. "According to the Census Bureau, there were an estimated 8.7 million illegal aliens living in the United States in 2000" (fairus.org). One could only assume in today's day in age that that number has only sky-rocketed. Because these immigrants are living under undocumented conditions in the United States, they don't have the residential duties of paying taxes, which is a large basis in which our country runs. With these millions of immigrants living in our country illegally, not only is the government losing money, but we as legal American citizens are as well. They tend to work for less money, therefore making them a cheap benefit to employers. Legal citizens demand more money per say, consequently putting them at the end of the list of the call-backs for employment. In a sense, these illegal aliens have been a justification for much of the unemployed America.

Public Writing definition

To me, the definition of public writing is what it sounds like; writing for the public. So that could be anything from an advertisement to a public speech. A speech that the President delivers could be public writing. An advertisement for Colgate could be public writing. Public writing is a message that someone expresses through writing and is revealed publicly. It's writing that the author wants the public to see or hear so it's done on purpose. It's writing that's done for a reason. In order to gain a large public audience (which is probably ideal for the public writing author), the message may have to appeal to large amount races, religions, ethnic groups, and both genders. Public writing must be clear, concise, and simple to a certain degree.

Log: October 20th and 22nd

Tuesday October, 20

We began class with Danielle King's and Alyssa Kizer's logs. After they were done, we promptly began the intensive reviews. Since this was a different kind of assignment, we had to go about reviewing it in a different manner. Professor McArdle pulled the author's project up on the projector screen as the author went up in front of the class to briefly explain the overview of their website or video. After they explained their projects, the intensive review began as we went around the classroom offering our critique. Taylor Adams was the first to go through this process. Then Shalaei Benjamin was next. To finish off, Casey Roehm was last. However, we ran out of time to finish Casey's critique so Professor McArdle asked us to sit in the same seats next time so we could finish at the beginning of class on Thursday.

Thursday October, 22

Thursday was another intensive review day. Because we ran out of time to finish Casey's review the class before, we were going to begin class by completing his critique. So Professor McArdle asked us to sit in the same seats we sat in last class. Casey didn't show up to class, so we continued on with the original Thursday schedule of intensively reviewing three more student's multimodal projects. The process was the same as the class before. The first to be reviewed was Alyssa Kizer; she went to the front of class and briefly explained her website. When she was through, the evaluation of her website began around the classroom. The same was for Kaylee Willis and Ryan Mantel. Professor McArdle ended class by telling us that our blog postings are getting weak. Therefore, he assigned that we post the definition of public writing in our blog.

I less than three my family! :]

I went home today to celebrate my nephew's second birthday! He's getting so big, but this is where the terrible two's begin. He's adorable, but he also has his moments when he can be a little jerk. I almost left home today without a hug goodbye.

My mom was making his cake and she decided to let him put on the candles. My mom put on the candle"2" and he put on some stick candles; some upside down and some right side up. According to the cake, he turned 10. They grow up so fast. But it was so cute! He put them all in a nice little row.

We sang "Happy Birthday" to him and then it was time to blow out the candles. I lost my appetite for my favorite Funfetti cake. He spit ALL over the cake when he was blowing each candle out, one by one. Five minutes later, he finally blew out all the candles. Now it was time to take all the candles off. He started to take off the candles and some of the icing happened to come off the cake as well. Before you knew it, half of the icing was off the cake because he had scraped it off with his 10 candles. Good thing he had slobbered all over it so he didn't have to save any for me.

All and all, it was a good trip home to see my whole family together!

SCARY!

I saw THE scariest movie of my life this weekend! ahhhhh Paranormal Activity. I didn't really want to see it but I was drug there by friends.

I was freaking out before the movie even started because I had heard it was really scary from some friends that had already seen it. The movie finally started and my friend, who was sitting on the right side of me, and I were squeezing each other's hands. We both weren't fans of scary movies. And I was clutching my other friend's wrist, who was sitting to the left of me. I'm surprised his hand didn't fall off from me cutting off the circulation to his hand.

Anyways the movie had no music, no special effects, or anything; it was really low budget. I think that made it even scarier. It was also filmed like a documentary, which made it really realistic. I definitely think by making it more realistic added more of a in-your-face scariness.

So yea I'm not going to say too much else about the movie because I want you to see it for yourself. I'll just leave you with that me and my friend didn't sleep at all that night.

multimodal argument

I really don't know what my argument is going to be, but I think I might either present it via video or website. Those seem to be the simplest ways to construct my ideas. I'm more a visual person so I think I will enjoy this "paper-ish" thing more than an actual paper. I feel I can generate and communicate my ideas more sufficiently.

According to my understanding, we are basically creating a more persuasive version of our "This I Believe Essays." We are being more argumentative.

"I got chills, they're multiplyin.."

It's fah-reezing today! The wind is ridiculously strong which makes for an attractive hair style walking into class. On the plus side, I got to whip out my super cute winter coats! So I guess it wasn't that painful walking to class. I was stylin and profilin'! However, on the down side, I hardly got any sleep last night because of the storms and the roaring wind! You could only imagine how loud it was if it was waking me up; I'm a pretty heavy sleeper. And the wind is so strong that it keeps moving my door as if someone is trying to get in. It's kind of creepy.

Oh yea and I looked at my Google Analytics website thingy and it said that people from Brazil have looked at my blog. It's crazy!

Best news of all! I deleted my facebook!! It's a huge step for me! My friend and I have a bet going on. He thinks that I cant last 2 days without activating it again. But I have strong will power! Hopefully it lasts past two days! I want to be more productive with my time and as time goes on, maybe I won't be as tempted to activate my account again.

GLEE!!!

So the only television series that I follow is The Hills (I know it's lame and fake, but I still love it!), until Glee came along. It's not like any other television series I've ever heard of. The transition music is an eccentric a capella group. I love it because it's so untraditional! The story line is just as good as the music. The characters really pull the whole show together by adding the quirky twist that makes it different from any show I've ever followed.

There's not a week where I don't miss it! It's absolutely wonderful! If you don't watch, you should start. It will complete you

vote for facebook 2012

Facebook is overtaking my life, much like myspace was so long ago; that's the reason why I deleted my myspace in the first place. Almost every time I get on the internet, facebook is sure enough the first website I type in. I just hope my little red speech bubble in the bottom right hand corner says at I at least I have one new notification. So that's what keeps me coming back; the anticipation of being "well-liked" per say. But in reality, it has nothing to do with being well-liked. It's about other people having no lives just like yourself. And when the red speech bubble has let you down, you have other people's new posts of pictures, statuses, and what not to distract you for hours or in other words deem you as a class A creeper.

I think they create these types of networking websites so you do get addicted to them. I think they like to rub it in your face that your life is so pathetic that you have to creep on other people to make it seem a little less pitiful. And when you want to stop the madness of being a creeper, you can delete your account easily, however, it's just as easy to get it back.

oh facebook. you're not even that great to begin with. and if I really want to stay in contact with people, that's what my wonderful cellular device is for.

blank page

I never have anything to write about for these blogs. My life is pretty uneventful to write two of these things a week. So I guess that's it

Home!

I now just realized that I've been home almost every weekend since I've been here. I live about an hour away so really it's a lot of gas to drive here and back every weekend! And on some weekends I don't even need to go home. I guess I just miss my family. That would make sense, seeing as I'm extremely close with them.

If I cut down on the trips back home, I think I would get more serious about school. For instance, I would actually study on the weekends. And I need all the study time I can get.

I actually don't think I'm going to go home this weekend. Hopefully, I can get somewhere with my homework.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WpkTI_a5cA

FOOTBALL

So I went to my first Ball State football game last night. I'm not a huge football fan so I wasn't that excited to go. My friend had to drag me there because she didn't want to go by herself.

I woke up at 1 in the afternoon so I was feeling a little sluggish already. My friend wanted to go tailgating, but I was still in my pajamas at 5 when the tailgate party started. I eventually got the energy to shower and get ready. I told her we would walk to the football game when I was finished getting ready. Well I take forever to get ready so she came to room to try to motivate me to get ready faster. It was about 7 when I was done getting ready and I hadn't eaten all day. So we stopped by to get some food. My dinner consisted of an uncrustable pbj, doritos, a cookie, and skittles. Finally, we started walking to the game with my dinner in hand. We arrived at the gate and found out that no food was allowed inside. I was so mad! I really wanted my skittles so I smuggled my skittles in. haha I'm so sneaky!

The game was boring to say the least so we left at half time after we watched the marching band perform their Michael Jackson show! It was amazing! They danced to "Thriller." Hands down, it was the best part of the football game.

CHICAGO!!

I'm super excited! My fashion class is taking a trip to Chicago for a fashion workshop and I get to go! I've only been there once and it was only for about an hour. I loved it for the hour I was there so I really excited to go back.

We're going November 12th and 13th, which is a Thursday and Friday. So that means I get to miss classes! Although I can't really afford to miss any classes, I'm still thrilled that I get a break. I know that I'm going to have to kick it in gear when I get back though because I'm missing two major classes, the one's I'm struggling in the most.

Road rage at it's best

So I just got home for Labor Day weekend. Since my sister goes to Ball State too, we figured we would ride back home together to save on gas. Well she didn't get out of class until 3 so I had to wait around for 5 hours. Anyways we're supposed to go camping this weekend with the whole family. I was excited about going until I had to sit in 45 MINUTES OF TRAFFIC!! So I have enough road rage as it is, not to mention impatience. ALL THE IDIOTS!!! Traffic was bumper to bumper and I was in the fast lane thinking it would be the fastest lane (hence the name "fast" lane). Yeah it was fastest lane up until this "older" guy cuts in front of me..I guess he wanted to go faster than the other lanes too, at least that's what I thought. No no, he didn't want to go fast AT ALL! He was going slower than the other two lanes that weren't up to speed with the fast lane. I was livid!! Some words probably came out of my mouth that my grandma might not be so proud of. So there was this huge gap in the fast lane just calling my name. I so badly wanted to pass him on the left side, but let's not be silly, my road rage isn't that bad. At this point, the other two lanes were going faster than him so I got over and finally passed him. I was completely relieved. I actually got to speed up to 20 mph for .87 seconds. Then I was back to bumper to bumper traffic. So what normally would take me an hour-ish to get home, took me about an hour and a half.

My family was waiting on us to get home. They were all packed up and ready to leave when we finally got there. I was NOT in any mood to jump back in a car again. I told them I would drive separately when I cooled off.

Anyways just a note to self: NEVER DRIVE HOME ON FRIDAY DURING RUSH HOUR!!

Andrea

The magical fist of fury

Homework with some stress on the side

So me being a procrastinator and all, I put a TON of stress on myself. I always tell myself, "oh it's not due until next week I'll have time to work on it then." Then next week rolls around, and here I am stressing myself out at 11:00 p.m., the night before my homework is due. It's because I'm lazy! I HATE being lazy! but I don't know how to not be lazy because that's how I've been since I can remember. I think college would be a GREAT opportunity for me to change my lazy ways, however. I mean college is a life-changing experience after all.

Right now, I feel like I'm just going through the motions. (going to class and working on a homework assignment here and there) In other words, I'm going to class and taking notes and stuff, but I'm not really retaining any of the information outside of class. It's as if I have a learning switch (I wouldn't even call it learning) and I turn it off as soon as I step outside the classroom. Just another thing that stresses me out. I really want to succeed, but my stupid laziness!!!

So I let all this homework pile up, and before I know it I just want to explode!!!!!! I do it to myself too. It's crazy I tell you...and it just gets worse every time a new school year rolls around, especially with college. Hopefully I can buckle down and get serious! fer rill!

I'm gonna go try to de-stress myself with a walk or something.

Andrea

Amazingness!

So is it bad that I sometimes (key word SOMETIMES) miss my dog more than my mom while I'm away at college? I absolutely adore him! He is seriously the cutest dog that EVER walked this planet. Scooter is his name, and cuteness is his game. Some people like to call dogs such as himself an "ankle biter," but I beg to differ. I like to call him a schnoodle, a schnauzer-poodle mix. Now don't let the "poodle" part throw you off. Believe me when I say he's cute.

So yea this whole college thing is pretty legit. I'm not going to lie, the first night I was here, I cried myself to sleep. I have a pretty big family, four sisters to be exact, so I'm used to being around a lot of people I know very well. But, no tears after the that night. I have met SO many wonderful people here that I don't think it will be half bad. Aside from the social aspect of college, the homework is outrageously more intense than high school. But I like the challenge, sometimes.

So, if it's not obvious already, I've never written a blog before. I hope this is right. Until we meet again, au revoir!

Andi

"That's Not My Name"

So I definitely think that my name is wrong on my birth certificate because "Lynn" is without a doubt not a suitable middle for someone like me. I think "Procrastinator" flows a little better. Then my initials would be APL which is awesome because it almost sounds like ATL which happens to coincide with my thug status I like to adopt on the weekends. Or if I wanted to change my first name to say..."Irene" then my initials could be IPL which happens to be compatible with my electric personality. ANYWAYS I promise this has a point.

The point is I've been a procrastinator all throughout high school and I absolutely hated it because I stressed myself out big time. I promised myself that I would change this in college, but here I am at 11:00 (an hour before this is due) procrastinating my life away. Actually I've written my best papers by procrastinating. It's still bad though. I need to quit talking myself into thinking that it actually helps me! AHH! In relation to completing my assignments late, I am always late for appointments, work, sometimes class, dates, etc. Yea I'm late for everything. So if anyone has any advice on how to stop this madness that would be wonderful if you let me know. So I guess this is where I need to stop because I still have to write a second one of these. Catch you on the flip side.

Andrizzle