Issues Paper Reflection...HALLELUJAH I'M DONE!

This paper was by far the most painful thing I have ever written. Like, holy moly, who knew 8 pages about one single topic could be such a burdening, exhausting process (granted, 8 pages might not seem like that big of a deal, but it sure was to me!). Some things that did help with the whole writing process were the deadlines. I probably would have procrastinated until the night before. I didn't think the MLA was too bad. Overall, I'm just glad it's over with and I feel quite accomplished for completing the assignment. 

Dust by Cara Salimando

This song helped me focus--and refocus--on this paper. Super calm, and relaxing, and just plain good. Enjoy. Maybe it'll help you with your next paper.  :]

Issues Paper Background Sources/Day 17

1) History of the Olympics

Creating the Modern Olympic Games

http://history1900s.about.com/od/fadsfashion/a/olympicshistory.htm

2) POLITICAL INFLUENCE AND THE OLYMPIC FLAME

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JOH/JOHv7n1/JOHv7n1f.pdf

3) Estimating the Cost and Benefit of Hosting Olympic Games: What Can Beijing Expect from Its 2008 Games?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4127/is_200510/ai_n15705690/

4) The true success of nations at recent Olympic Games: comparing actual versus expected medal success.

Works Cited

Halsey, Lewis G. "The true success of nations at recent Olympic Games: comparing actual versus expected medal success." Sport in Society 12.10 (2009): 1353-1368. SPORTDiscus. EBSCO. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.

5) North American Superiority

Works Cited

Vicki, Michaelis. "North American superiority." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 10 Mar. 2011.

For some reason, none of the sites wanted to get into the same font/size/color, so enjoy the chaos. Here are my five background sources for my paper. :]


Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why...who would I want to switch lives with? I've never really thought about this...maybe, "oh, they have such cool lives" or "oh, they do such cool things" but never "I want to switch lives with that person for one day!"...but here we go. Eh, heck, I'll just do a couple.

• Emma Watson/Hermione Granger--She's gorgeous and she plays a witch (wizard? I'm not obsessed like some people). That'd be pretty cool. And she's super smart, so if I was her, I could pretty much do ANYTHING I wanted to do...hehehe
• Sister Julie B. Beck--I'd just want to see a day in her everyday life. Seems super hectic and crazy, but fulfilling.
• Ryan Reynolds future girlfriend--Because I love Ryan Reynolds...well...maybe I wouldn't want to switch for just a day...okay never mind, scratch that one.
• Michelle Obama--Not because I love Obama, but just to be the First Lady. I'd totally abuse that title.
• Helen Keller--I want to know how the heck she did it all...
• The person who dresses up as Belle in Disney Land--Because everyone knows Belle is the best/smartest/selfless/coolest Disney princess ever created...and she's my favorite. Let's face it, who wouldn't want to be a Disney princess?
• A person with a photographic memory--I'd only want to be this if all the knowledge I learned that day stuck with me when I became "myself" again. I would spend the whole day just reading books/confidential documents/super-smart people only documents/the scriptures...I think I'd be set for LIFE then. 

NEXT STOP: Day 18 - Plans/Dreams/Goals you have.


PS: I don't know how to get rid of that GIANT red line...blast copy and paste. 

Issues Paper Thesis/Day 11

Although international sports competitions cause a strong sense of national pride for the winners, the events are "preranked" or "predetermined" because of the country's political status, economic status and location. 

Day 11 - Another picture of you and your friends.

Really? I basically said anything and everything about my friends. Would any of you hate that I'm not going to do this? Too bad, cuz I'm not going to rewrite about this...haha. But I am having a GNO with Corinne and Alison...fun, funnn!

Here's something I'm obsessing over. JUSTIN BIEBER. His music makes me so happy. Enjoy him. Love him. 

Love Me by Justin Bieber

Issue Essay Possibility/Day 8

Considering the fact that this essay will be 8-10 pages and needs 8-15 sources, I need to come up with something I'll find interesting...otherwise, this essay will NOT get done or at least done well. So what do I like? Sports. I'm not the biggest sports guru, where I know every player, every rule, or every statistic in every sport...but I do love to play and watch them. So I figured, why not write about them?
jkhkj
I'm thinking about writing about international sport competitions (perhaps the Olympics or World Cup) and whether or not their economic status, political status, or location "predetermine" their ranking or outcome. Yes, some of it does depend on the actual athlete, but does more money make it easier for them to get better equipment or fulfill their needs? Does a prospering, or at least functioning, government provide a better atmosphere for their athletes? Does location matter depending on the sport or can there be other alternatives (ex: Jamaican bobsled team)?
kjsd
That's the only thing I could come up with. I hope it works, sounds interesting or at least is doable. Thoughts? 

Short term goals for this month and why.
klj
Let's see...short term goals for the month of March (and it's the first day for that matter--how appropriate to write down all my goals!).

1. Read the Book of Mormon every day--I've always struggled reading the BOM every day and it'll help me stay on top of my BOM reading for class. 
2. Exercise at least 3 days a week--has to happen anyway, for the sake of overall fitness health, stress-level, and family pictures in July. 
3. Get passing grades on my tests/quizzes--who likes failing grades?
4. Study at least 2 hours per class per week (except for PDBio...time doubled)--gotta study hard to get the good scores.
5. Keep my room clean...or at least presentable--yeah, that's been a struggle ever since Alison N. moved out. It's gotta stop, that's for sure. 

NEXT STOP: Day 9 - Something you're proud of in the past few days.


PS: It's Justin Bieber's birthday today. 

Rhetorical Analysis Reflection/Day 4/Beautiful Boy #1

"This should be a reflection on the RA process.  How did it go? Good/bad?  What worked well, what didn't?  More or less difficult than the OpEd?  What could you have done better?  What could I have done better, or the department, or whatever?  What would you change about it?  And so forth."--from my professor's blog AKA the homework assignment.


The RA process went well as far as getting things done. What didn't work well with me is that we had to analyse--yes, I know that's the whole point of the assignment. But I'm more of a...free writer (?) I guess, so I really did not like the whole assignment. Aside from that, I liked how we had the same process of completing the essay (with the two rough drafts, conference with Chris, peer reviews--I actually liked the groups better, etc). I think it was more difficult than the OpEd simply because I dislike straight analyzing. But I survived and I did learn a lot from it. 

Addiction by Ryan Leslie feat. Cassie and Fabolous

Now for the non-homework aspect. Day 4 = A habit that you wish you didn't have. There aren't many things I would change about myself. But if I had to choose, it'd be my love of food. I wish I didn't love it so much haha. I am "addicted" to food (hey, there's the connection to the music video! haha). Now don't get me wrong, food is wonderful...but too much of a good thing turns bad. I'm slowly falling into the "bad" side. Darn.


Okay, so story time! You know how you see someone (in my case, a boy--er, man) in your class and you're like, 'dang, I really want to talk to him/her'. Well...I'll admit it, that was me with one of the "Beautiful Boys" in my weight training class. But I really hated that I wanted to because they would always stare at themselves in the mirror when they lifted...I also called them the "Obnoxious Boys" (some of you might remember them from my other posts about them, where I basically make fun of them haha). Anyway! So yesterday was the last weight training class (which is really sad, because I LOVE WEIGHT TRAINING CLASS! I honestly wanted to cry haha). So my partner, Chelsea, and I go over to do lat-pull-downs and this is how our conversation went:
Chelsea: So did you do anything fun this weekend (we didn't have class on Tuesday, so we had a lot to catch up on...)
Me: Well I went to the Ke$ha concert on Friday (cue Beautiful Boy!)
BB: You went to the Ke$ha concert???
Me: Yeah, did you?
BB: No, I was going to go, but my friend asked me if I wanted to go to Idaho, so I did that instead. 
Me: You didn't go to the Ke$ha concert and went to Idaho instead? What's in Idaho besides potatoes?
BB (he totally laughed btw haha): There's more when you served your mission there...
Me: Oh okay, well that's an acceptable reason.
Chelsea: Yeah, meeting your missionary people over a satanic concert...so how was it?


I went into detail, from where it was, the opening act, the crazy people I met...BB laughed but eventually left. Now fast forward to the end of class. To set the scene, I had just finished asking my professor if we could keep coming at the same time...
BB: So are you guys going to keep coming?
Chelsea: Oh yeah, we're planning on it.
BB: Oh sweet, so I guess I'll see you around. What are your names?
Chelsea: Chelsea.
Me: Megan. (BB shakes our hands)
BB: It's nice to meet you. I'm Ryan. I feel like I've seen you around on campus...(Chelsea and I give a quick look).
Both of us: Oh cool. Well we'll see you Tuesday at 5.


Then we walked out...and Chelsea just freaked out! She started rambling how he knew she was engaged and how he TOTALLYYY came over to talk to me, yada yada...haha. But honestly, I could NOT stop smiling. Beautiful Boy #1 finally talked to me. Twice. And I'll see him Tuesday. The whole thing makes me so excited, I just start rambling gibberish. And speaking of gibberish...here's another song I'm addicted to haha. Enjoy and have a fabulous weekend!

Gibberish by Ryan Leslie...it really does sound like gibberish. But it sounds so good! :]

More Rhetorical Analysis/KE$HAAA

As far as "AIDS and India" and the rhetorical devices mentioned in the book are concerned, I didn't see any that fit with the article. Her tone and diction, however, fit well with her cause. The word choice and the way they were written portrayed a certain emotion or image she wanted her audience to experience. I did not catch any analogies, allusions, imagery, overstatements, understatements, personification, rhetorical questions or ironic parts. They might have been subtle, but as far as I'm concerned I did not catch any. 

Now for KE$HAAAA. It was insanely awesome. I loved every moment, beginning, middle and end. All aspects, the good, the bad, and the ugly, made it such a memorable night. I was squished to death about 15 feet from the stage. I had glitter poured all over me (still in my hair haha). Michaela, Alison and I almost got in a fight with a group of girls (they were so trashed and Victoria was oblivious haha. Alison was like, "We're so B.A., we won't take your B.S." haha). Ke$ha was a surprisingly good performer. There were so many blazed people there, but also children and young teenagers (I was like, why did your parents even let you come?!). After the concert, people were dancing on a car--and the roof caved in. A bunch of drunk people talked to us and did insane things (like really, why be drunk when I can tell you to do the most idiotic thing and you'd say 'yeah sure!'--not that I did, but still). We also hung out with some guys from my ward which was fun.

Ke$ha...that's what's up.

Now its the next day. And honestly, I feel like my head's about to explode. It is an awesome, yet painful, feeling. After-concert feeling for sure. Yessss.

Rhetorical Analysis Thesis

AIDS and India is an effective argument to convince the average citizen to devote their time and money to spread the education and awareness of AIDS because it uses personal stories, statistics, and well organized information from experts to create an eagerness to act from the general public. 

Rhetoric Analysis/"How Old Were You?"

Honestly, I'm still a little confused about this whole assignment. Saying the homework assignment one minute before the bell rings doesn't really allow it to sink into my head, but hopefully, I'll make sense. Or at least get the right rhetoric analysis points in the right parts. Let's find out if it did...(probably not, so please bare with me).

I wrote about AIDS and India in the Globalization book. 

• Audience: seems like its everyone who's willing to educate the public in this fight to end AIDS. She seems to save her direct audience address until the very end where she throws in how the public can make a difference, by volunteering in the global AIDS programs and increasing funds. Things like that.
• Current and/or contemporary events of importance: India is currently in a state of a growing economy. The workforce has become more skilled and literacy rates are very high. 
• Profession/race/age/socioeconomic status: India is practically climbing out of poverty.
• Ideologies: There's optimism to overcome poverty. They have potential. 
• Issues of importance: The AIDS/HIV is spreading and it could lead to extremely high risks in their country's current state. 
• Opponents: There's a significant lack of education on AIDS. Because of this, more people are having sex and spreading the disease unknowingly.
• Major fears/worries: It will continue to spread and people will be completely oblivious before it's too late.

So guys, I hope I did this correctly...This wasn't initially the article I chose, but due to confusion (from the article I did choose and the assignment in general) and lack of time, I had to pick something fast. I will honestly admit that haha. 

DONE.

Now an update for the past few days. 

• Studied for Human Anatomy. During that time a super annoying girl had control of the arm and was going through the names (but most of them were wrong...) and she basically had no consideration towards others. And I had an intense migraine from being in the room too long haha. But I was trying to suck it up. What set me over the edge was when her hand slipped and the deltoid muscle on the shoulder just landed on my lab manual. I wanted to gag. I wanted to tell the girl to get lost. But I didn't. I quietly left the room and studied outside haha.
• This is a conversation I had with my weight training professor:
• "How old were you?"--WT Prof.
• "Um...I'm sorry?"--Me (seriously, I was so confused)
• "How old were you?"
• "...When I came to college? Eighteen..."
• (He had a big smile on his face) "...when you fell out of the pretty pool"
• The above conversation made me smile so hard and laugh...out of happiness and embarrassment (it was when we were taking role call and half the class was standing around). But he's such a sweet (and old) man. Made my day.
• Got to see my Aunt Karen's family
• Oh and in weight training class (another moment), these two obnoxious (and unfortunately cute) boys were just standing in front of the mirrors, watching themselves lift weights...and then watching themselves just because. My partner, Chelsea, and I saw that and busted out laughing...
• Again, in weight training, we did this rank thing (like we had to take our weight and use this certain resistance stuff) but anyway, for bench press I had to lift 80 pounds. NO WAY. I tried. It did not work. But Chelsea and I laughed so hard because it was that ridiculous. 

Anyway, thats really it...I'm so glad it's almost Friday! Happy early weekend everyone!

OpEd Blog Post--Afterthoughts

Write a blog post reflecting on the OpEd process.  How did it go?  What went well?  What didn't go well?  How do you think it could have gone better?  What could you/I have done differently to make it easier?  How did this compare to other papers you've written?  And so forth . . .


The OpEd process seemed to be fine. It seemed a lot smoother in comparison to my AmHtg essays or high school essays. I thought the process of making multiple drafts and meeting with Prof. Husberg and a Writing Lab TA really helped. The peer reviews were also useful. I thought the individual segments of the process in the present moment I had to work on them didn't go so well...if that makes sense. Like at the time, I hated the drafts and going to the Writing Lab TA (she was a some piece of work). I think it could have gone better if I met up with the TA earlier, so I would have had more opportunities to have someone look over my revisions. I think I could have made it easier if I didn't wait until a day or two before the actual assignment segment was due. Compared to my other papers, I feel like this one has a better stand on the issue, simply because the drafts and reviewing helped organize my thoughts. Overall, I enjoyed the process. 

As far as my day's concerned...its too late to tell any of it. I'm too tired. Tomorrow's another day and I'll tell it then. 

Peer Reviews (WRTG HW) and More

What are your first impressions of the peer review process?  Was it useful to you?  If so, how?  In what ways do you think it could be better?


My first impressions of the peer review process were...hesitant. I've never been a fan of strangers reading my work (silly, I know), but it really wasn't that bad! It definitely was useful for me to get positive feedback/constructive criticism. It set my mind at ease on some of my concerned and made me feel more confident about my essays potential. I think it could have been better if we had more time...I felt very rushed trying to be a good "reviewer". But other than that, I thought the whole process was great.

(Semi-funny story that ties along with this picture/my homework response--I typed up "peer reviews for essays" under the Creative Commons Search website and came up with this picture...I was like, wow, that really has nothing to do with peer reviews or essays in general. So I came up with this--this picture is "symbolic" because it demonstrates how sometimes when we're doing our own thing we can cause problems and chaos in our work. Paying attention to others (and what they have to say) helps guide our course...which we can see, the drivers were doing their own thing. I think this analogy is a win.) :]


Now for my non-homework related portion. This weekend was so much fun! I watched Grey's Anatomy (seriously, I'm hooked), went to a swim meet, went to open lab for PDBio, and hung out with the gang as we played pool/watched the basketball game (can I just say, I'm in love with Jimmer?). Really, it doesn't seem like much, but it was actually a lot of fun. 

Swimmers warming up...

As far as this week is concerned...it has been ridiculously long. Holy cow. And it's only Tuesday...these 7 AM classes are making my days really rough. But other than that, life is good! Peace out, boy scouts.

OpEd Purpose Statement

As I explained in an earlier blog post, my topic is on Facebook and Facebook friendships. I, the speaker, think that BYU students (or students in general--the audience) should reevaluate their perception on friendship and delete unnecessary Facebook friends. This problem of friending everyone and anyone we associate with needs to stop--Facebook has promoted stalking and unmeaningful relationships. As far as the rhetoric cycle is concerned, I think it is still in an origin stage--it has never been talked about amongst people our age (more of older people and our use of technology). But I do feel that if it is addressed, people will reevaluate their idea of "friendship" and "Facebook" and the correlation between the two. It has the potential to be kairotic. Counterarguments may be that you need to communicate with someone you aren't friends with--that is fine. Its when you don't associate with the person for pleasure or a specific purpose and yet find the need to know things about their life that's the problem. 

OpEd Brainstorm/Gratitude

Writing and Rhetoric Homework:

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is exactly what I want to talk about. I'm still debating between different topics, but I firmly believe that Facebook has perverted our sense of "friendship" with our peers. Before I got a Facebook, I made friends the "old-fashion" way, meaning starting off as acquaintances, getting to know their likes and dislikes and hanging out with them. But now, with Facebook, it seems like if you're simply suggested to be someone's friend, then you must, even if you met the person once or have over 20 mutual friends. I've had a personal experience where I deleted the people I hadn't talked to in ages or had to talk to through clubs in high school, but never outside of the club. After that, I got so many friend requests from the same people I deleted and really wasn't friends with in high school. I thought, "Really, people? High school is over! You weren't a big part of my life in high school and you most certainly aren't now that I'm thousands of miles away from home". So I deleted the request again. Turns out it upset some people more than others and they got mad, swear words and all, simply saying they wanted to be my friend. Well in my book, "being friends" doesn't mean stalking my life through a social network. It means talking to me, seeing how I'm doing, wanting to spend genuine time together...unfortunately some of my almost 500 people I deleted awhile ago didn't think so. So, class, what do you think? Good topic? Or should I change my topic?

DONE.

Now for my day! Today was actually a really good day. I had one class, I got to take a nap, I got to workout. I talked to my mom and dad for over two hours. I'm (slowly) cleaning my room.

I also feel a lot happier too...the past few days were really hard for me. I got some news that I really was struggling to accept. I knew I couldn't change things, so I had no choice but to accept it, but getting to that point was hard. But now, after a lot of tears, prayer, and supportive family and friends, I know I'll be able to get through it. My mom told me, "God brought us to it and He'll help us through it". I know this is true and I can only trust in His will. But this new experience has helped strengthen my testimony and gratitude for many things, like:

• The Atonement--Its not solely for the purpose of repentance. Christ felt every pain we have felt, are feeling and will feel. He knows every sadness, every unhappiness and every form of hurt we will feel in this life. Maybe no one on the earth knows our exact pain we are in, but Christ does. I felt so much comfort from this, knowing that I am not alone.
• Temple Marriages--No matter what, I will be sealed to the people I love most in this world. I can be with them forever, and not just until death. We will always be a family.
• My health/body--Before this life, every soul on earth fought to receive a body, because we wanted to be just like God and become like Him and we knew that bodies were necessary to achieve that. We knew just how special and precious they were and I'm so grateful for the body I've been given. It isn't perfect, but I'm so blessed with what I do have. I can walk. I can move my arms. I can jump. I can climb. I can think. I can speak. I can do anything I set my mind to. I'm healthy.
• Trials--Of course I'm grateful for my blessings, but if anything, I'm more grateful for my trials (which sometimes I like to call "blessings in disguise"). I'm given them because God has faith in me and knows I can overcome them. He wants me to be just like Him and He's giving me the necessary experiences to grow into the person I'm striving to be. As long as I remain faithful, I can accomplish anything.

Well that's really it. My day wasn't eventful physically in my outside world...but it was on the inside. :]