Blogging First Year Composition

It is now the end of the semester and this blog is almost done. I hope that everyone has read and enjoyed one article at least. Blogging is a fun experience that has a lot of variance as you go from one to another. I personally like to write my blogs with a tone of levity and include entertaining pictures to help keep the read from becoming monotonous; others enjoy being much more direct and serious or have humor as a centerpiece. What I am getting at is blogs are not uniform. When writing one you have to write how you would write, forgetting learned writing habits. If you write it this way it will be much more enjoyable. Blogging was awesome. To think, that writing without any restrictions and very little direction would be enjoyable beyond the standard essay that focuses on writing in a way that forces a reader to find something. With blogging, it is completely different. There is no writing to convince someone of something. Writing is done by the individual in their style and this...

As most of you know, it is approaching the time of year where tests and essays disappear and beach towels and lemonade replace them. The worst part about this special time is finishing off those essay and tests. I can honestly say that I am having a lot of trouble trying to maintain a 4.0 this semester, after all why bother if a "B" gets me just as far as an "A" in the long run. This, in my position as a Senior, is referred to as Senioritis. Senioritis, defined by the well recommended Urban Dictionary , is "A crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms include: laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Also features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude. The only known cure is a phenomenon known as graduation". Like Urban Dictionary says, it is serious. A single semester can ruin a GPA in high school, and Seniori...

After the media discussion that was conducted in class it has become easy to see the effect it has on the world around us. Driving down the street a person is assaulted by media of every type: billboards, T-shirts, signs, other vehicles, the stickers on those other vehicles, and so many others. It is abhorrent how much media is found by going a block down the street. It seems that if you were deaf and blind you would still know that Nike is the premier shoe brand. Media is everywhere and influences every aspect of life. I drive daily to school with the radio on, dropping of my two siblings at their school and continue on my way. The day after the social media discussion I paid attention to the ads that were harassing me in their frequency from all around. My younger brother, for example, was decked out in his favorite pair of Nike slides and socks with his Under Armor sweatshirt and hat that flashed his support for the Colorado Rockies. All forms of media. Advertisement unwitting...

For those of you that have read my first blog post, it's right here if you want to check it out, I am the standard introvert that enjoys reading, browsing through the rigorous and mean media jungle, and logging on to the game of choice daily. For me to function, I need the basic necessities of a human as well as a way to continue my introverted existence. With that being said, I need three things: books, a special line of clothing that proclaims my introvertedness, and games. Sadly, I have limited funds, and so must make do, trying to find the best deals and such. My personality and willingness to read has taken me to perhaps the best website ever created by mankind, Thriftbooks . This website allows a person to buy books for close to nothing. It promotes the buying and selling of used books so as to reduce the amount of paper consumed a year, meet demands of people who are not millionaires and yearn for that familiar flip of the page, as well as keeping everything stocked ...

After looking about many different opinions across the web, I have come to the conclusion that hashtags have been corrupted. As can be found across multiple articles but specifically Muriel McDonalds found by way of https://www.tintup.com/blog/how-hashtags-changed-the-way-we-talk/ , hash tagging began in the mid to late 2000's and has blown up in usage. This blow up has created an easier way to find information so long as the hashtag is attached, and has allowed easy organization for groups of people both large and small. It has further allowed us to connect and show topics that speak to the masses more easily than ever before. In fact, hashtags have become so fundamental to all media sites that hash tagging is now simply done in real life. This escalation of the importance of hash tagging is not unprecedented as it has been building up over a number of years; however, I believe that hash tagging has a more evil side than most of social medias' devices. Hash tags...

Driving can be leisurely at the best of times and terrifying at the worst. Driving is now a daily part of peoples' lives. Since it is such a large part of daily life, there are a lot of people who drive. More people on the road make it more dangerous, especially when the laws are only loosely obeyed. I personally drive daily, and due to that I witness scary situations daily. Today, my terrifying experience took form in two grown men on bicycles who enjoyed weaving in and out of traffic laughing. Why were they not scared of a car going 40 mph or more? Who can say? All that I can say is that it was a dangerous situation in which I felt unsafe, as they should have as well. This is only one situation within the week. This is nothing to say of the things that have come to be accepted while driving. Who needs crosswalks when you can save a precious thirty seconds by running across four lanes of traffic? Why do cars have turn signals when you can just weave between lanes? Why h...

After watching Michael Moore's documentary focusing on the failures of capitalism, Capitalism: A Love Story, I can honestly say that Michael Moore is a genius when playing off of a person's or a group of peoples' reactions without venturing further into what he shows to be the truth. The film had my jaw repeatedly dropping from each and every shift to a new point of capitalism. Starting with this his intro, Moore compares the fall of the Roman Empire with the United States, siting specifically the "behind the scenes" of the Roman Empire's downfall. This is where my irritation with Moore began. Moore's analogy between the Roman Empire and the United States was not totally unfounded. After all, America's political system, a republic, is based off the one that was found in Rome. Where Moore completely lost me with his analogy was comparing the fall of the Roman Empire with United States in its current condition. Rome fell for many reasons. A weakened Emp...

After reading a certain article written to drum up support for higher education my opinion about such things remains the same, there is more than one pathway to a good life. The article in question was written by Gov. Doug Ducey and is titled Why Arizona needs more college grads . The focus is to highlight the new program that Governor Ducey is proudly supporting. The focus of the program: More people with more degrees.  College is seen nowadays as a necessity. It is the beginning of adult life. It is what gets you a happy life. That is what Ducey would have you believe, and it is true that college is certainly not bad and usually helps in life after high school as it focuses certain feelings and ideas about what you want. This new program that is being unveiled aims to have everyone "working together and taking a fresh look at how we can bridge education and the economy". This article overall is very good. It offers data and other groups that have credibility. Cited easily ...

When I have time, I enjoying watching shows like Bizarre Foods and Booze Traveler , shows that involve experiencing the culture of other places. There are an uncountable amount of cultures and each culture has its own variances that branch out into areas that we, as Americans, would find odd. Andrew Zimmerman and Jack Maxwell, respective hosts of the shows mentioned beforehand, go through the these cultures and try to experience it in the fullest fashion, whether that means dancing at a local shindig or freshly defanged cobra, that is for their hosts to decide. These shows take them all over the world. The episode I watched recently of Bizarre Foods featured Andrew Zimmerman hunting boar in Hawaii, and, after the skinning of the animal, proceeding to eat it among expert boar hunters that have been doing it for generations. In Booze Traveler, Jack Maxwell had just tried spit beer while in the Amazon. For those who have not seen the episode, spit beer is literally spit that is flavored...

After trying to write an informative essay about polyester, it has occurred to me that the argument has two side, and so long as my audience feels as though I am knowledgeable the side that I talk about more becomes the right side. This can often occurs in various arguments as only one side is highlighted in order to procure a specific effect from the audience. Today, what has become largely a joke with the now classic "fake news" is actually an issue as research, experience, and data is twisted to arrive at a specific conclusion. This is not altogether wrong, as there is and always will be two sides, at least, to an argument. It has simply made it important to know your topic. A hot topic now a days is the wage gap discrepancy between males and females. The common idea is that woman make less per the dollar than a man for the same work. This is usually advocated by radical feminists, and is usually shouted loudest in rallies. The data that shows that women are...

After browsing the internet for seemingly minutes but what turns out to be hours, a person can find themselves in something that is totally unrelated to what was originally searched for. This recently happened to me as I tried to find a documentary that was recommended to me; however, I arrived at Steve Mould's youtube . His channel features many science experiments that he conducts on his show Festival Of The Spoken Nerd. Even if you aren't into science his experiments feature stunning visuals and a thorough description of what is going on that will allow a viewer to recount their amazement to anyone they need to. My favorite experiment deals with one of the original videos posted to the channel. The video, titled " Self siphoning beads ", showed metal beads initially being pulled out of a glass beaker, but the video does not end there as the beads then proceed to rise variably up and down from the point at which they started spooling out, contracting a fair a...

Blogs can serve many different purposes online. For example, they can provide information upon the political situation in America or the various goings on in the life of a suburban family. Depending on the type of blog, the information can be delivered differently. Upon looking at a multitude of blogs from " The Top 50 Blogger Blogs " I have developed my own opinion on what is to be desired in a blog to accomplish its specific purpose. The first blog that I came to and felt that it accomplished its purpose in a way that was tasteful was BLDGBLOG . The blog's primary purpose is to provide information on architecture. That may not seem specific, but that is because it seems they provide information, links, and reference all things architecture. For instance, this first article, "Many Norths", focuses on infrastructure in Northern Canada and the geopolitical landscape surrounding the progressively changing landscape and the challenges that can arise from trying to...

Hey fellow students and bloggers. For those of you that have yet to peruse the online introductions, I am Dylan Haftings. I am seventeen and from Manhattan, Kansas. Here at GCC, I am duo enrolled, so I spend most of my time at the college but a portion of the day must be spent at my high school. Overall, I am a pretty laid-back person who usually does all the work and has no problem helping other people out. My attitude is a reflection of my hobbies and what I enjoy doing. My favorite past time is reading, especially science fiction. Currently, I am reading the Malazan Empire series by Steven Erikson, and it is one of the better series that I have read. I am also an avid gamer, specifically RPG's; I think they're grand. Free time to do either of those things will probably be disappearing with the addition of this class to my schedule as I am sure some of you can concur with. I am taking this class and, by extension, writing this blog so I can get an English class out of the w...