It Never Ends

The depths of humans imagination will never end. This short story is not one unfamiliar to me, but I did enjoy reading it again. The most dangerous game? We as humans would be egotistical enough to proclaim this. Throughout this story I felt a sense of amusement and astonishment. First, it is a rather interesting thought to hunt another human being. I've hunted pheasants and deer, but the diference is that humans can put fort opposition whereas animals can only run and evade. Secondly, it is rather immorale, or at least against social etiquette, to 'hunt' another human. Sure, murders occur daily, but that is very different from hunting. To hunt is to stalk, close with, and destroy a prey. As far as my knowledge extends only serial killers come close to that description. Although, even a serial killers prey doesn't know it's being hunted. The thought of private hunting reserves for the human hunt will always boggle my mind.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

This story took me by surprise. By the end of it I was honestly hoping Farquhar had made it home to his family. In my mind, he was doing what was necessary and important for the perseverance of his livelihood and country. Farquhar stepped out into a vulnerable position; into which others would not travel. I find that his actions are patriotic and should not be in vain. Farquhar stood for something more than himself, in fact, he stood for the very idea of heroism and virtue. With the knowledge of facing a force greater than himself he stood for a idea greater than himself. The fact that he died in attempt of his deed does not make him less of man, or a revolutionist. To stand before an enemy whose strength greatly outmans your own is all the more honorable. America is founded on the ideal of patriotism and this story adds to our great heritage. Be it misplaced or not that is but an opinion. Through the eloquent words of this story I believe everyone can draw a sense belief and higher purpose. I applaud Farquhar and his courage.

The Pain of a Child

I actually missed class due to a fall time bug that has been passed around, but from reading my classmates blogs I think I understand the story. A town's happiness is dependent on the mistreatment of a child. This is disgusting... on many levels. For one, a child cannot defend itself. For a whole town to mistreat one innocent adolescent is beyond me. Another thought to dwell upon; does not our misery make us human? It has been said that the gods are jealous of us because our existence is temporary and due to that fact we get to experience life in a much larger sense. How does one know what happiness is without misery to contradict it? This story seems far-fetched and illogical. From a moral standpoint the people in the town are wrong and from a philosophical standpoint it is against nature to not feel misery. Although this sort of thought is a testament to peoples greed and willingness to harm others for their own self fulfillment.

RBAA Process

I had the amazing idea to do the research early and wait until the night before to write the paper. While doing the research beforehand made this process easier, procrastinating the actual writing was not a good idea. My paper is about the negative effects of standardized testing and how it restricts teachers. I'm going to school for second education so this topic interests me and doing research on it was intriguing. That's about all I have to say on this topic... I know it isn't much but writing a paper doesn't involve much more than some time and concentration. 

Evaluating this English class is tricky. I think that our participation in the mornings could be better but at the same time I'm right there with everyone; it's early and stuff just isn't clicking yet. On the bright side, we work really well in our group projects and as a whole I feel the class is  becoming better. Now as for our teacher... I have to give her props. I'm sure teaching an age group close her own has to be difficult and brings forward its own challenges. Lindsey does  well by keeping a straight line between being professional and relating with our class. Sometimes it feels as though she assigns extra homework just to watch us squirm, but in honesty I can see that she wants to push us to succeed. Another positive that I would give our teacher is concerning her emphasis towards writing. Never before has an English teacher concentrated on just the writing as much as Lindsey and I feel this is helping us all grow into better scholars. If I had to give her any constructive criticism then it would be this; remember that we are freshmen students and from time to time we will make those seemingly "dumb" mistakes. This isn't a huge issue by any means, but from time to time our teacher can perhaps set the bar too high? 

All in all, I truly enjoy our English class. If it could be moved to say 9:00am that would be more preferable!  

Not Another Test

A. B. C. or D.? Standardized testing limits a teachers ability to educate students specific to their needs. I've had this view towards standardized testing since it first came into my life and I think writing my RBAA paper on this topic will help me understand more on the subject. Some opinions I hold right now are the fact that students in different geological areas require diverse education, every teacher has their own way of teaching, and the fact that by standardizing tests we are lowering the bar. While these points are just opinion at the moment I'm looking forward to finding the evidence to support my thoughts. However, I'm not hoping to only feel justified. Through this assignment I know there will be evidence in support of standardized testing and gaining some broader knowledge as to why will be very helpful. I'm a second education major and doing this research will be very helpful in my upcoming career. 

"Work it, make it, do it, makes us Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," Kanye West

This is the phrase I need right now. I've noticed that these last two weeks I've been procrastinating more and more, which is very problematic. Sometimes we get caught up in the strides of life and forget to appreciate where we are at. I caught myself doing this just the other day; I was sitting at the kitchen table looking out the window thinking of the future. Sometimes I just want to get done with this part of life and move on to the wife and kids, house and vacations part. But wait! I'm young and in college. At this time in my life I have the least amount of responsibility I will ever have. So why am I being so lazy and day dreaming of the future? I guess it's easy to get complacent. When the road becomes challenging it's easy to slow down the pace. Is that the right thing to do though? No. Right now is when we get to lay our foundations. Within these next few years I will be building my groundworks for a career, discovering who I am, and building friendships that can last forever. So in the words of Mr. West, "Now that that dont kill me can only make me stronger." It's time to do the work, put in the time and effort. The more I can do today the better tomorrow will be. That is all.

Group Hug

I really enjoyed working as a group for the revision strategies. For one thing, getting to know my class mates was a fun experience and for another, going through that boring book was much easier this way. I feel as though I retained more through this exercise concerning the revision strategies than I would have if I read it on my own. Everyone did a great job presenting their topics and there wasn't any one group that stood out above the rest. I feel as though we all put in a good amount of work and wanted to help each other understand the different strategies. My group had an awesome powerpoint put together so not having the projector running was definitely a bummer. One last thing I want to mention was how convenient the handouts were. I actually went back and used though while I was revising my proposal document. So, here's a high five to our class for rocking out the presentations and having fun while doing it!