Blogs - Signing Off

Blogging in general seems pretty cool; it provides a good way to keep people posted with what's happening in your life or in the realm of your interests or whatever. For this class, however, I have mixed feelings about using blogs. At first I thought the blogging idea was great, an easy grade. As the semester wore on, I found that it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. Coming up with things to blog about was occasionally challenging, but what was really a challenge was finding some way to comment (it took quite a lot of time reading all the blogs too). Many times I would want to comment, but would either not really know what to write, or decided I didn't want to point out the errors in word choice, punctuation, capitalization, or any other various issues, not wanting to be "that guy". I think the blogs would have been more beneficial if some of the errors were addressed instead of being repeated throughout the semester.
Blogging was an interesting way to share writings with the class though. Unlike a more traditional English class with nothing more than essay after essay, it provided a little variety to keep things interesting. Almost every week there was at least one blog that was fun to read (no, I’m not saying it was my blogs), and it was cool to see the different views people had on the Monday blogs when we all wrote about the same thing (more or less).

English Style

The language styles of the past and of the present are dramatically different. Compare today’s language with its various slang words with that of the 1600’s (Shakespeare’s’ time) and English is almost a completely different language. Even comparing the present “English’s” from England and the US, you can find some stark differences. A “subway” in England is an underpass, and “the tube” is a subway (if I am remembering it right). A “lift” and an “elevator” would be another example. Going back to Shakespeare’s time, one only needs to think of his plays. Thou’s and hath’s and thine’s; not words that you hear to often anymore, other than in the plays.

Die Dell, Die

I never really liked Dell, but I don't think I had an excuse before. I was convinced to get Dell's to replace both my lap top and my desktop, and now I have many reasons. First my desk top; it sarted out great, then it started to run slow and the mouse stopped working, then the keyboard. So I call Dell and manage to get it working again, but now once or wice a week the keyboard and mouse stop working (and always when I am in the middle of something). My laptop was crap from the get-go. I admit it might just be that it has Windows Vista (which is another story), but it is the slowest computer I have ever seen. I don't mean that in a comparison to other current day computers either. The first computer I ever had which took the big 5.25 inch disks ran better than my new laptop.
So far I have spent about 2.5 hours on the phone wih Dell and now I have to add to that time... again. If you have had good experience with Dell, I don't want to hear it. As far as I am concerned, Dell is evil, and probably funds terrorism.*

*There is no known actual data or investigation into ties between the Dell Corporation and terrorism to this writers knowledge.

Way To Go

I just read a short news article about a pilot from the Thai Air Force. He went out flying is helicopter and decided to land in the jungle, leave his aircraft, and go collect some mushrooms for his mother ( I suspect the food kind of mushrooms not the hallucinogenic kind). He probably would have got away with it too had some pesky villagers not came to see what was going on, and when they found no pilot called the police. The article said he was on suspension, but I can only imagine what would have happened had a member of the US forces done such a thing. It would probably start with a suspension and end the career. It is impressive how dumb people can be sometimes… it is even more amazing how dumb people can be all the time.

What A Dick

I recall what a great man once said; and by great I mean moron; and by man I mean politician (which is far less than man (usually)). It went something like this “you can go to college and get an education, or you can get sent to Iraq”*. I’m sure you all remember this, and as far as what I am writing about, I think it qualifies for many of the various fallacies. It is both a hasty and an unsupported generalization; there are a lot of people that are in the services that do not have any college education, but there are many (myself included) that were/are pulled from their education when their nation calls. There are also plenty that have Associates, Bachelors, Masters, and even Doctorate degrees, and they all volunteered (more or less). False Dichotomy comes into play as well; the previously mentioned rings true for this as well, as does the fact that some take online classes while they are deployed. I guess they aren’t literally GOING to college, but they are working their way toward a degree. Or, maybe they are just trying to keep their brain running smooth, let’s not create any more fallacies by saying anyone taking college courses must be after a degree.
You may say that I have committed a fallacy by the things I have said about this politician; but I assure you I have not, because time after time he has reinforced what I have said. Fallacy or not, what he said was just outright insulting, and if you ask me, un-American.

* I didn't qoute precisely and I should have checked and been accurate. Here is the qoute, as far as I can tell it is exact:
"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Let It Snow

There are a lot of things that I like about the winter season. First and foremost, as I am sure a lot of others would say, is snowboarding. There are very few things in the world that can make me feel so great and hurt me. Given, I haven’t been too seriously hurt yet, but falling rarely doesn’t hurt at all, especially when you’re going fast. The quiet and feeling of solitude is nice also, and the snow doesn’t do that in just the mountains; the mountains are often times quiet like that. I like when there is enough snow and it is soft enough that it absorbs nearly all the sound. Around here you have to get away from any major road, but in the smaller towns, where the speed limit is lower and there isn’t much traffic or other things making loud noises, the soft dull silence is bliss.

Winter also brings the cold weather and stabbing winds. When it is warm out you generally don’t feel like lying on the couch under blankets and watching a movie or reading a book, but the winter affords that opportunity.

Christmas and Thanksgiving are also in the season, and although it doesn’t happen much anymore, I like getting together with family.

However, I am not a fan of having to fly during the winter, and I don’t mean commercial airlines. When its 20 degrees or less out and I have to stand under the rotor wash of a helicopter, with winds that probably reach about 60 miles an hour, it just isn’t real comfortable. I can’t say that I care for the small chips of ice that pelt my already sensitive cold skin when I have to be near a hovering aircraft either. But, all in all, winter is a good season, and a trip south can get me away from the cold if I feel the need.

I Like It, Wait, No I Don't

I thought it was an interesting video. The main point, from what I can tell, is that the education system or the process used in the education system is out of date. I think it also shows that technology has changed the way students spend their time. Forty years ago a video like this could have been made and a lot of what they wrote on their notes would be different, but it would still include the same basic message. Books are expensive and not even used much, time spent doing other things outweighs time spent with school things, and so on and so forth. What I think should have been included was the fact the universities/colleges are businesses and businesses focus on making money. What you do after you spend your money is not usually a big concern of any business, as long as there will be more that spend money in the same way.
I really didn’t like the break down and add up of the hours used through a day. I am sure that all those people didn’t do only one task at a time. I know the next person said that they were a “multi-tasker”, but it is still retarded. Listening to music while doing homework is not multi-tasking; eating while you watch TV is not multi tasking; spending time on the internet while in class… maybe that is actually multi-tasking.
In the long run, though, you get out of school what you put in. If you don’t read the assignments, that’s a little less that you are learning. College classes aren’t really meant to educate you for the real world; some are general education, others are specific to an area.
The more I think about this video, the more I dislike it; it seems like nothing but complaints from a bunch of slackers.