About Easter Blog

So i just wrote a blog about Easter, but it is titled Milkshake. haha. Quick explanation about that. I was drinking a milkshake that my mom had just made me for breakfast/lunch. and i was like i should write a blog and she said write about the milkshake. so i had put that as a title and decided there was not mucht o write about, when i decided to write about Easter instead and forgot to change the title. So that is why it is titled Milkshake. And yes it was a very yummy milkshake.

The Milkshake

So I came up for the weekend holiday. Easter. (one of my favorite holidays). It is one holiday that i feel is the most important other than Christmas. Growing up as a kid, I regularly went to church every sunday. We belonged to the Deforest Evangelical Free Church. There I along with my family was very knowledgeable about the bible, and the church. Now you are probably thinking that my family and I are the "curchy" type who have to be perfect. We are no where near perfect, but yet we still feel that it is very important to have this part of our lives. My family is super fun and crazy to be around. We know how to have fun, and still have God in our lives. We pray before every meal, and i also say the prayer i have said all my life before i go to sleep every night, even when i am away at school.

Some people do not get why people take the time to be religous. They feel that people who are religous are wasting thier time. By growing up in a family who went to church, you learn to form your own beliefs. Not once was i ever told that i HAD to go to church or that i was going to think a certain way. That was the great thing about going to church with my family and the people around me. They were always very open with different thoughts and beliefs. I feel that there will never be one belief that is right or wrong. That is why there are so many different religions. Each religion has their own beliefs and feelings about certaing things.

A good example of this is a conversation i just recently had with my boyfriend Kyle. We have been together a little over four years now, and have always been open with discussing anything. We were on our way back to the dorms from bayshore mall, when we got talking about the topic of communion. I had gone down to Illinois with him to visit his family, who to is very religous. They are Catholic, and i am not. With that said, Catholics take communion every sunday. They have their own beliefs about the reasoning behind it and why it is done. Well with my church background, we only take communion once a month, but we feel that any one is allowed to take communion. god excepts anyone. Little did i know, Kyle had told me that techinically i should not have taken communion in his families church because i was not catholic and did not share the same beliefs. I was shocked when he told me this because i was raised and taught that anyone who believes in God, can take communion where ever.

Now the point of my venting is that everyone is taught differently. Whether that means educationally or religously. Everyone grows up to have there own thoughts and feelings about different topics. No matter what though, we are going to be supportive of other people. Even if we dont believe the same things. That is the great thing about being able to think in your own way. Even if that means learning the ways of others.

Awww dammit!

So it's time for me to bitch some more about how life seems to love kicking me in the fucking sack on a daily/hourly basis. so go ahead and skip reading if you don't want to hear a bitchfest. So my buddy and I got together and decided to hit up Poto again in hopes of a repeat of two weeks prior. I blew through twenty bucks in about 45 minutes, so we decided that it was time to move on. Our options from there were go to a bar, drink, hit on some dude's girlfriend and end up in a fight, or go to highway cruise around, hit on some dude's girlfriend and get in a fight. Since the weather was so nice, and I fucking DESPISE most bars around here, we went with the natural and more fun option of hitting up highway.

I knew it was going to be a madhouse out there because of the weather, so we were both getting giddy on our 15 minute drive out there. We got off at Greenfield and pull up to the light and it's just solid walls of ricers, with the occasional dude in the Grand Prix that thinks he's quick but in reality is just a fucking moron, going north and south. I knew it was going to be a good night. So we start our little run, Civics trying to intimidate me with their cute fart cannons filling my car with that "I don't know shit about tuning" scent, so a quick demonstration of the beauty of my car's raw sexiness and my impeccable driving skills seemed to ward most of them away. At this point, I have a massive grin.

A little later some cats in an Escalade pull up next to us and start screaming "JESUS! JESUS!" So I deliver a few quips and one liners about how HILARIOUS(/sarcasm) I find it still that I look like Jesus, we become fast friends and they play me Phil Collins over their speakers and dedicate it to me....I don't know why, but it was.....cute? I let them have their fun and returned Cannibal Corpse's "I Cum Blood" back at them, I'm just so Christ-like :-D.

So the night went on, destroyed one tool in his ricemobile after another, some other cuntflap in his mom's Beemer here and there, ate several Mustangs and Camaros for dinner(they give you horrible gas though be careful <_<) and in all honesty the pissed off looks I get everytime they realize that I was just toying with them for the first 400 feet giving them that false hope that they would pull out ahead as my car suddenly takes off leaving them only with the wonderful rumble of my baby blue to shatter their hopes. So as I said until this point that night's going wonderful, added with the fact that I have near immunity with the authorities as my car is still registered to Elmendorf AFB, and most cops seem to have a soft side when it comes to veterans, so even better. So we're heading south down highway when we come up to this Beetle convertible with its top down, and I catch sight of some long billowing hair coming from the driver and passenger seat. Still not expecting much I pull up a bit further to find that there is two of the most wonderful looking females inside. I make my presence known, they look over with that "Oh yeah" look and suddenly this cockbag in an Audi A4 shoots up in between us, blocking me from my goal. I was ready to call it quits when he began trying to show off for them, I mean how many people actually know cars and easily fall for those four silver rings instead of the unassuming and intense blue on gold of my Subie? Suddenly, the A4 tries to show of his "speed" and the Beetle hits the brakes and slides on in between them and pull up right next my passenger seat. Holy anal fissure, these girls actually know cars! I was quite excited at this point, only one more step to know if they're truly awesome, I lean forward and begin talking to them, they both make eye contact with me, and give me full and open smiles. Fucking killer! My long hair and beardage didn't scare them off! So we talk for a few minutes, exchanging flirtatious looks and such, when they tell us that we should meet them at Burger King. Confused I tell them the BK is the opposite direction, they acknowledge this simple fact and again tell us to head to BK. So I assumed they meant then and there and I flip a bitch at the next available spot and head to BK assuming these beauties in the bug were following along. We get to BK and we seem to have lost them, I realized then that I made a U-turn at an illegal spot and realized that they probably headed down to the first legal spot to turn. So we wait a few, and as always, where I park draws unwanted eyes and some dude who appeared to really enjoy rubber fists in his ass pull into the BK parking lot in his stupid ass Saaaaaab and gets out and opens his hood....why? Then more people begin filing into the parking lot....I don't want to start a convention godammit! I want to talk to these cute girls and see if they're actually cool shit or just whores. So now our sight is blocked from down the road, and a few seconds later there go the cuties in the bug, with the passenger pointing back at us. Now we were in a dilemma, do I shoot out of the parking lot and catch up with them to arrange another meeting place or do I sit and wait and hope they come back. We decided that chasing them down would be a creeper move but that waiting would be too, so we get back on the road assuming we'd run into them again at some point. Over the next couple of hours we raced and cruised and drowned out the "Kids in the sandbox" loving Kiss FM listeners with the gospel of heavy metal. So we were making God happy at least. We kept hitting the strip though trying to find some females that didn't look like their brother was their father or that didn't have 16 year old boys crammed into the back of their Neon, really your choices are limited in Milwaukee I guess, we talked to a few more girls, most of them were stupid or just interested in the car, oh well, they can go give some dude in his mom's Cobalt road head, they're not for me. We stop and jump some guy's car at a Speedway since most people out their are "too cool" to be seen helping someone who's in need out. Now I got karma on my side, should totally be able to run into them again. Well we didn't, shit started clearing out at one, leaving only drunks and Acuras out on the street, so we head back. I can't go out tomorrow since I have to work all fucking day and night, so next week we'll hopefully find them again, if not, then it proves that karma is just saving up some shit for me or something, and I got a week to detail my car and give it a proper washing with showroom wax and get my rims back to their shiny gold color in hopes of really turning every eye out on highway green. In the meantime, if any of you know two extremely pretty females that drive a gold/beige/silver(I'm not quite sure) convertible bug let them know the blue on gold Subie with Alaska plates says hi :-p

Weekend

Plans for the weekend anyone?!

My plans are PASSION PIT SATURDAY NIGHT. I bought tickets the day they went on sale, like 3 months ago. I have been patiently awaiting this day for too long, and its finally here. Oh and i just found out, its not going to rain tomorrow. This weekend will be excellent.

Happy Holiday everyone :)

Thursday Nights

Hey so I've reread our group comments for like the 5th time, and I'm just know understanding it, I think Wednesday class helped. I think most of it all applied to me and my paper, which I've been working on and I hope I'm getting everything.
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My Thursday night was fun I went to dinner with my roommates, and afterwards we stopped to get pretzels and I got the cinnamon stixs and the guy was like you should try the honey glaze sauce its really good and I was like no thanks but he gave it to me anyway. We get all the way home and I'm looking for my keys, I stick my hand in my purse and its full of honey glaze sauce. I so want to kill that guy, because now my purse is ruined freaking French toast. So I spent two hours cleaning everything in my purse off and trying to get all the dried sugar and honey out of my bag. But the worse thing was that my ipod touch was in there and my button is now sugared down. Good thing I fixed that with q-tips, water and a bottle of dust remover yay me!!!!
This was an great Thursday Night

Presentation of Punk

The presentation of "punk is passe" has character. I definitely form an image of the writer behind the scenes. Just as most novels, the authors writing style is consistent throughout. To me this style is similar to Hunter S Thompson's often swearing and over emphasizing criticizing metaphors. "I have even taken a liking to fucking with the Mohawk types..." Hunter wrote, "In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile—and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. We owe that to ourselves and our crippled self-image as something better than a nation of panicked sheep." Hunter was highly politically driven and was constantly angry with the ways of the world, which compares not only to punk is passe and its rebel style, but also punk as a lifestyle.

Brutal Dildos...

In the Punk Passe essay it talked about a band called "The Brutal Dildos" and and guy wearing "Brew City Street Punk" on his leather jacket. I found this humorous because I grew up 10 minutes north of campus and thats where those guys are from. The band consists of about 3 guys about the age of 24 who are the opitomy of punk. They are my brother's best friends and my best friends brother is the leader of the band and makes all the crazy ass custom punk clothes they wear. Funny the essay was talking about them and i can just picture Max sitting at my friend's kitchen table sewing clothing.... not very punk like.... haha but he's amazing at what he does. Also their logo for "The Brutal Dildos" is a penis raising a hand to a scared girl who apparently is supposed to represent my friend... Max's sister.

Blah Blah

1. In the revision process I’m working on elaborating more on my works and trying to get it all “together.” It’s all really hard to work over a project that I don’t even know if I’m doing it write so its all really confusing.
2. When I think of presentation, business meetings and personal appearance and power points all come to mind, none of which matter in this instance. I think when I present my paper I’ll probably be pretty generic but maybe spice it up a little bit by adding color or something.

GRRR!

I HATE THIS PAPERRRRR!!!!! I used to actually enjoy writing...

Maybe it's just me struggling this much :p

Punk is Passe

After reading this paper for our assignment I actually felt releaved about the possible freedoms and opportunities we can use in our own papers. The language spoken was what mostly got me and made me want to keep reading, it was true with virtually no distraction and didn't seem as if anything was being forced on the reader so I was more able to connect and understand him because of his use of language so similiar to mine; he displayed lots of confidence to his personality and emotion towards his subject which got me thinking about revisions I would like to make on my rough draft now and how I might improve in these areas. This essay gave some ideas and directions to go so I feel a little at ease about my revision process now

Presentation

After taking a good look at the course goals that deal with presentation, I think one of the main factors is that we need to stick to the idea of our controlling purpose. When writing a paper this length I feel it can be very easy to vere off in directions that one did not intend to. Our papers need to be presented in a clear and understandable manner and needs to stick to the point. One of the course goals states it very clearly, "reader's needs for coherence, clarity, and a thoughtful response to what matters." I think that we as the authors really need to focus and stick to these ideas. AS far as the "packaging" goes, I do not feel it is necessary to go over the top. You want to make sure it is neat, proffessional and presentable but adding color and those sort of things, I feel can really take away from the actual script.

Revision

Am having a hard time in it because I should make it a good one so I can be able to pass the portfolio.Being critical meaning to add value to show something important that one can trust and also analyze it using my thinking and ideas that’s what means to be critical. In some of my quotes I needed to explain them more in detail and analyze them "If parents smoke, teens have more access to cigarettes than teens who have non-smoking parents” (Science Daily) this one for example , in my paper I didn’t go through it very well even though this quote is easy to understand but I need to link it with the way I think.Between Sunday and Tuesday I kept revising it to make changes to It because I need many changes in my parts , the ideas and the sequence of them are good in my opinion but I need more of a push so I can be confident that am able to pass the portfolio.The word presentation means what our eyes see on the paper from the font size , color and sequence of the paragraphs , for me am trying to make it as simple as possible that doesn’t annoy who reads it.

Presentation

The first thing I think of when I see or hear the word presentation when dealing with papers is definitely the layout. How the paper looks on paper and if it is desirable to the reader. I am going to make my paragraphs "easy" on the eyes, I do not want excessively long paragraphs, however, I do not want paragraphs that are only a a few sentences. A good variety in the paper is always good for presentation. I am not sure how to answer your last question "How is the presentation or “packaging” of your research essay related to its content?" Can anyone explain to me what this means?! :]

Revision

My revision is a work in progress, I know which direction I plan I heading and have been going in that direction, but I always somehow seem to get sidetracked with new ideas and innovations. This has been a busy week so far for me so my revisions haven't progressed much since sunday; just new ideas. My main focus within my paper is the idea of obesity as a "stigma" and why certain sources seem to think it is and why others do not. I will also focus on why people are so obsessed with the "perfect" image and having the "perfect" body. Relating the two contrasts has proven to be difficult for me in that I can not find a smooth transition. I'm sure it will all come together though.

Revision Process

I think the revision process is hard, I always want/expect my paper to be perfect the first time around. Then there is always so much editing and deleting that needs to happen before its a finished project. I find that to be the most frustrating, and with this paper I feel like it is harder than others I have had to revise simply because it is something that I am not familiar with so the revision process is a little more difficult. I find being "critical" somewhat harder than I thought, I want all of my sources to work and I want all of them to be useful, but I know that is not the case. I am trying to find the ideas that best support my paper and use those to better educate the reader as well as trying to sift through the bad ones that may confuse my readers and make things unclear. Since Sunday and today, I have actually added some bits about the new health care plan that Obama has passed, things like how it may affects those that are in treatment right now, and what it may be able to do for those that will need treatment in the future. Another thing I feel I have accomplished is finding more sources that better help my paper, they kind of replace the sources that I took out because like I said earlier were confusing.

Spring Break

My spring break was uneventful to say the least. I went to Appleton to go venture around the mall and shop with a friend I have not seen in a year. I also worked and started a bar tending job, which was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be, I really like it. Other than that I just spend a lot of time with my family and friends and did things that I should probably have gotten in trouble for. :]

Blogs: Part Two

I found many different kinds of blogs as I was searching. They ranged from blogs about the daily lives of ordinary people, to the latest technology, to why you fall in love to a whole blog dedicated on how to stay off Facebook. It was very interesting to blog surf, seeing as blogs are not something that I consider a part of my every day life. I have never just sat there and read the lives of people or their thoughts on certain situations. After viewing a lot of blogs I found that Michael Shanks was the most in-depth and the blog with the most substantial material. However, the blogs about technology were very detailed, they just dealt with mechanics and their opinions on the product, I felt as if they were unable to really "connect" with the topic they were writing about. Now when I read the blogs about peoples daily lives, I had a very high sense of connected with this people, I started to feel sorry for them if something did not go there way or happy if something happened that they were hoping for. Just like the technology blogs this blog lacked something, and that was the "academic inquiry" that Shanks blogs had. As I said in the Shanks blog, these blogs do have the potential to be academic inquiry, they just need to find a balance between that and blogging.

Michael Shanks

First off I believe that Shanks blog is both a blog and can be "academic inquiry". It provides a lot of information for the reader and allows them to make their own opinions on a subject. I also believe that Shanks blogs reflect him as a person. He would not be writing about these things if they did not interest him. We are able to get an insight into the things he finds most interesting about life and what he wants to learn more about and what he would like to share with his readers via the blog. I also like the way that he has the blog laid out. I think that his most important points are the things he says that are just a line long then he hits enter and write a more substantial paragraph. I use this as an example because as we are writing our papers it is not exactly "proper" to just have a "paragraph" with one short sentence in it explaining our point, that is where blogs and academic papers differ. You have more freedom when you are writing in a blog. Whereas when you are writing for academics you are expected to be professional about the way you write. It is not so free flowing so to speak.

Military Technologies and Revisions

Part 1: My initial rough draft was about a page short of the 8 page requirement. I think part of this is because I was not critical enough. I went into some detail about everything, but not enough detail where it was needed. I gave each part of my paper equal detail. In some places maybe even too much detail to non-critical parts. I need to delete some detail from places, but add much more to the sections critical to my controlling purpose. I am writing about how the new military technologies, as well as the previously held differences between each branch of the military, are "re-defining" what a soldier is, and what he does. I have not yet looked at my personal comments, but just from re-reading I can see what needs to be done, I'm not sure how to do it at the moment.

Part 2: I have not given much thought to the presentation of my paper yet. Being that it is about military technology and how it changes the soldier and combat scenarios, I think I might put a government seal and make it look almost like a presidential report. I have also added some information about how these technologies becoming more available, can save lives. So it might work to make it look like something that could be handed to the president to read as a briefing on what these technologies are doing in combat, that benefit the country, and the soldier.

Punk is Passe

I just read the example and I kind of liked it even though I really know nothing about punk. I can't really explain why I liked it, I just did. It was a lot better than some of the other things that we had to read because it wasn't using all these unnecessary six syllable words to try to make a simple idea sound intelligent. It was straight to the point and that is how papers should be.

PART 1: I have read my paper over and over again. Each time I read it, I try to look at parts where I need to be more analytical. I had thought that I had a good amount of critical questions in paper, but I need more. Another thing that's bothering me is the fact that I haven't finished my paper yet. It's basically a cliff hanger that I don't know how to finish. I'm trying to come up with an interesting conclusion, that makes my audience question, think and come up with their own perspective. It is definitely easier said than done.

PART 2: Because I haven't even finished my paper yet, thinking about the end product is really hard for me to comprehend. I am more focused now on making the substance of my paper sound the best I can. I will work on the second step accordingly.

Revision and Presentation

Part I: I have accomplished nothing. Honestly, I looked over my comments however long ago, and haven't touched my paper since, nor do I have much desire to. I'm used to and prefer editing a paper, not completely rewriting parts of it. I know going back and re-reading I'm going to find plenty of things I could change, but won't want to, hence my stalling. I'll get to it... maybe later.

Edit: reading through my paper again... It's definitely more of an essay ON marijuana. I am feeling lack of ability to make it more inquiry driven without screaming my personal opinions on the matter.

Part II: More honesty - I haven't read the course goals at all this semester whenever instructed to. Last semester in my attempts to take this class they threw me off, so I've avoided them. Now, considering that is the only way to pass, is to use these course goals... maybe I should give them a look over. With that being said, I have no "presentation" opinions at the moment. (Due to the fact that I do not have said course goals currently with me.)

During a meeting I had with the Adam after writing my paper he told me that I need to look at the sources through the mind of one of the sources I was using. And by doing that I would be able to create new ideas and not just repeat what the sources are saying. So that is what I am working on during this revision, also narrowing down my controlling purpose, was told it was too broad. Don't really know how I am presenting this paper, I guess I am just trying to make it as clear and readable as possible.

assignment for today

Today's discussion in class really helped me to understand Shanks blogs. I would say that his writing is considered academic inquiry. Writing a blog is different than writing an essay or an academic paper because in the blog you don't have to follow a specific writing style. It's basically what you want to write and how you want your writing to be expressed. I think that Shank is basically using the blog to write about his life, so it would reflect him more as a person. But some of his writings are also academic.

When I looked at the blogs on dooce.com, I didn't think that it was academic. It seems like its just about the lady who writes about her daily life. Her blogs are not academic inquiry compared to Shanks blogs. The use of images affects writing because it gives the writing more life, and makes the writing more solid.

My spring break was pretty much boring...I didn't do much...work...catch up on sleep...hang out with the family and the boyfriend...yup...I just wish it would last longer...

Presentation

Back in high school I had a final paper due around christmas time. We were required to submit the paper in a creative, yet important fashion. I placed my plain MLA paper inside a box and finished it with fancy wrapping paper and ribbon. It was like a giving a present to my teacher. My old assignment resembles this new one. I plan on submitting it creatively, but in a more professional fashion then green and red wrapping paper.

My interesting lack of a governing structure for a week= my springbreak, and how fun it was..

Well in a summary, my break went pretty damn good..still is, as I am taking a breather in a cafe outside of chicago on my way back to school. Hopefully in time for class. I had left last week saturday for florida, and drove with a couple friends to Fort De Soto is. and went camping there from sunday through thursday. It consisted of plenty time on the beach, heineken, bonfires, uno, irish poker, hammock/lounge time in hammock, as well as little beach rugby, skim boarding, and kayaking among other things. I had a great time, and my birthday gratefully landed on thursday night, our last night, and i was able to have a great lounging, chill b-day. Then we left friday, and I was dropped off at my girlfriends mom's place in knoxville, TN. There I had another relaxing couple of days until some drama unfolded last night, resulting with us leaving a bit later than expected, and hence I am finishing up this article via my GF's iPhone en route along i 80 bound for milwaukee sometime soon hopefully.

So hopefully be there by class otherwise Adam expect a text calling out my abscense.

Scholar's blog conclusions

In Shanks blogsite, he had a variety of topics and postings that resemble academic inquiry in so many ways, however the way he had to present the material for our analysis is in a very different form to what we are used to, he has to make very basic points for our interpretation. This is a way to keep appeal by the reader online, I feel that reading line after line on the web gets really redundant and people will have an "ADHD" result of doing so, and will not be able to grasp the various framework that is produced by Shank.

The use of a blog as a medium seems to be through making multiple general posts to give an overall accumulation of material for his work, that he then represents I believe to help understand him on a personal level, in a sense of his beliefs. The site is a hybrid between the questions of it's professionalism and the lack of... It is presented in a professional manner that shows different framework to give an overall controlling purpose. I feel it keeps a generally broad spectrum of perspective that shows he is making all these posts through personal ideals, and core beliefs.

Milwaukee 911

This city is just getting crazier by the minute. Everybody is getting robbed, shot, and the worst part is that I have become use to it for years now. When I tell some people about some of the things that go on they look as if the city is a war zone. Just last week I was walking near North Division and going to the gas station and as I did, somebody had got shot and the people just sat on their porches as if nothing had happened and it took the pigs forever to get there. The things that happen near campus are bad, but they don't compare to the things that happen in the rest of the city. Its like people stop caring because they know there is nothing that they can do that will immediately stop the chaos. The people who take care of the crime scene don't even care. I was walking past a bar where somebody had got shot and there was still blood and clothes near the scene and I almost stepped in it. The thing that angers me the most is how the news presents the stories. Anybody who has ever spent any time in jail or has any type of connection is somehow labeled as having gang affiliation or a criminal record. It does not matter how small the offense is, the news presents it as they want. They present stories to make themselves look good and they do that by showing that they were the first to break the story, but what they don't do is gather all the facts and they always find a way to use the most unreliable of sources.

Somehow these geniuses always feel that what the police tell them is what really happened, but whether they realize it or not their sources are some of the perps. Milwaukee has some of the most crooked cops, even though there are plenty of good ones, who benefit from criminal activity. Back to the news: They present lies and half of a story to people who don't even live in the area and know nothing about the city, but somehow find a way to form an opinion based on dumb, preconceived ideas about a city that they might have never have stepped foot in. A lot of the people who feel that way are people who live in sheltered communities where there is very little or nothing to do and they feel that any city that is huge population wise is just as bad.

shanks

I read the article titled Archaeological project design. At first I felt that it was academic inquiry, however, as I read more Shanks says "My argument..." which then I felt it was more of an argumentative paper. Although it seemed like a argument, shanks still defined key terms, and how those terms were being used (something I need to work on with my paper.) I had some trouble with the site, I couldn't find articles with comments on them, it always said I had to be logged in to see that. By blogging I think an article is open to interpretation that can help create a final paper, whereas a physical paper is more concrete and refined. Almost as if blogging is part of the process.

Spring break...I can't say that I went anywhere warm or interesting, I was just at home this past week. It basically consisted of sleeping, eating, and hanging out. I did go golfing once and hung out with some people. It was a good week, went to fast, and I wish I went somewhere warm.

Shanks

1. Shanks did a very nice job of academic inquiry in his blogs. I like the fact that his blogs weren't solely paragraphs of just writing, but rather he put links to interesting pictures. It is a very professional blog compared to a lot of blogs found on the internet.

2. I found a second blog that really caught my attention because it is related to music. The sight is musicbyday.com. It is a bunch of entries of album reviews by people, and song reviews. It seems like a good way to find more out about an album without buying it first and finding out the hard way. This blog is definitely not as professional and academic as Shanks blog, however it is meant solely for fun, and not educational purposes.

3. My spring break was extremely boring. I worked about 8 hours per day at my landscaping job cutting down trees. If anything i was more tired after my spring break was over than before i left for spring break. I did fit some time in to hang with some buddies though, and visit their college.

Shanks

I really enjoyed reading Shanks work. This is unlike any other blog I have read in the past in that focuses on research, and blogs about relevant social issues that people care about, rather than most blogs, which simply highlight the events of a persons life.

I think he does a good job of using academic inquiry to attempt to solve his own research driven inquires and I am impressed at the sheer amount of articles on his site.

I hope to format my revised essay in a way that is more research based and focusing more on my sources than my original rough draft. I think I am on the right track.

I had fun on spring break, went to my old college, Winona State to visit some friends and some good looking females, refreshing break from Milwaukee.

SPRING BREAK PROCRASTINATION

Shanks
1. Shanks presents his material using several different types of media. For instance he incorporates images into his blogs. He incorporates quotes and several models. Shanks writing is a different style. The use of a blog, and he internet to release ideas and new knowledge allows for an alternate outlet in releasing this information. As opposed to in an academic journal. Shanks takes in different information and and questions them. This is critical and academic. Shanks also applies several different ideas from observations, and his take on culture, for example.


2. So, this spring I have been trying to accomplish being more distinctive with the idea im passing, and how exactly im connecting plants into healing, and the plane tree model. It has been an adventure. Although I did come to som pretty awesome ideas, and found new sources and stuff. I also worked on being more critical and really applying what i NEED to use, yet giving more context on each credited idea.

3. Spring Break: work, work, work, work,work work work work for over 40 hours a week.

Homework over Spring Break

Part 1: I got really interested in reading Shanks' posts. Even though some of them were somwhat over my head, I kept on reading it anyway. Shanks' blogs were different then from what I expected. I felt that Shank's blog was more academic and professional then other blogs.

Part 2: I also liked Dooce's blog. I felt like I understood it more because it wasn't over my head and it was easy to understand. I also felt that the stories and pictures made me like his blogs more.

Part 3: My spring break was good, very mellow. The trip home sucked because I'm from the St. Paul, MN, so the bus ride took FOREVER! I liked seeing all my friends and family that I am so far away from. Many people don't like going back to work on breaks but I do. I love my job, working with kids, and getting to see how they're doing in school and working with all the co-workers I have missed. Overall break was good but I do wish I went somewhere on vacation like Mexico, that would have been awesome!

Assignment

part 1. After taking a look through shanks' blog, i can understand how it is like academic inquiry, all of his links and posts kind of comment to one another and allow you to use it to build your own opinion. its a very interesting blog, i liked his post "haunted media", that photographer that combined old pictures and new pictures of the same place was really cool and actually kind of interested me. after checking out other posts i kind of understand it a bit more than when i initially scanned the site.

part 2. I tried searching to find some interesting blogs, nothing really caught my attention, then i remembered a blog that a friend of mine told me to check out a year or so ago. its just a regular normal guy, that blogs about his everyday experiences and stuff that happens to him and whatever is on his mind that day. the url is http://fuckyocouch.wordpress.com/ it hasnt been updated in about a year but the material on there is pretty tight. hes a funny dude. but it is in a whole different ballpark when being compared to shanks' blog. this blog is just one guy trying to make peoples days with funny posts, shanks had material to get you inquiring and digging deeper into a topic, but i suppose that on the other blog when reading about a topic it could interest you to research that as well but on a different level.

part 3. spring break was real chill, kicked it with my friends and my girl. spent some quality time with the fam, relaxed as much as possible cuz now its back to the daily grind. all in all i enjoyed the break, wish it was longer but what can you do right?

Spring Break and Blogs

My spring break was nice but it went by wayyyy tooo fasstt!! I filmed Saturday and today alll dayy so I'm exhausted. I didn't do much for break but I went to go see two movies, Remember Me and Hot Tub Time Machine. Remember Me is a cute and pretty decent movie, if you're a fan of Rob you'd most likely like this movie. Hot Tub Time Machine is perfect for anyone who enjoyed The Hangover.

Reading Michael Shanks blogs I realized he pretty much analyzes topics within one blog. Although his blogs are very short, he still introduces his sources, summarizes quotes, pretty much everything that 102 students are suppose to be doing in their papers. The way he connects to his reader is on a professional level but also non professional because of the layout (being a blog). He pretty much writes to inform. One of his blogs that I found interesting is called Behind the Locked Door. This is all about the pieces of art or items that are not displayed in Museums. It interesting how he was able to go to a museum and have access to all of the art in the storage room He even watched students try to figure out information about some of the art in the storage rooms.

A blog I found is called Hot Air, which had a lot of information about what's happening today like Palin or Obama. They pick certain topics and put them up on their website. This website has topics to click one, what's most talked about, and their actual blog which is titled "Quotes of the day". This blogger or these bloggers bring up topics but their tops are much less informative compared to Shanks. They mention their topics and pretty much present one side. I don't feel as connected as a reader reading their topics. It's very caught up in what's going on with Obama's Health Care package and Palin appears a couple of times.

After reading many blogs, its like reading every other thing that gets published; books, magazines, newspapers, articles, etc. The title gives an idea of what the following will be talked about. Something I found in common with many of the blogs are they are speaking out to an audience. Reading them makes it seem like they know they have readers and its a conversation from the blogger to whoever looks at their page. I prefer Michael Shank's writing than Hot Air. Shank's writing is easy and it flows very well. Hot Air's is sort of choppy and almost opinionated. Either way finding blogs that are very interesting to me personally is hard to find.

homeworkkk

PART I - - After going to Shank's blog and looking at it and trying to analyze it, I realized that it is very similar to what we have to do for our research paper. At first i didn't understand what the purpose was of his blog, but after reading it for a good while and exploring the blog I got a better understanding. His blog is very professional and serious. I think that the blog is educational if you are able to read every single entry of it and understand it, and it does reach academic inquiry which is our main goal.

PART II - - Dooce's blog is more fun, it talks more about stories and every day things instead of being educational like Shank's blog. All of those other blogs are normal blogs where there are lots of pictures and different ways to express their ideas. They don't necessarily keep the same formality or professionality Shank's does.

PART III - - Spring break was good. I saw some friends i hadn't seen in a while, worked, went shopping and partieed :) I celebrated two of my friends' birthdayys and had a greatt time! I definately don't feel like going back to school and I procrastinated doing all my homework until tonight. The worse part is that i went out last night, went to bed 'til 5 am.. had work 10-6 and I'm still trying to do homeworkk.. ew! Spring break should def. be extended like another week or twoo.. im pretty sure everyone would agree with me :)

spring break

For this spring break I did leave a day early causing me to miss class on friday and I went off to Florida in Marco Island. I had a good time, a little boring on the account that 90% of the people that live or visit are all over the age of 80 so it makes it a little interesting. Everyone however was really nice being retired i don't think many had anything to worry about. I went with my family and a friend from high school family, and we actually stayed in an old presidents beach house so that was pretty nice. I could go into detail about everything we did but there was pretty much just three main things being, Swimming, Drinking, and Running on the beach. It was pretty fun though and I didn't want to come back to school after that nice long break.

shanks and spring break

For my spring break i spent most of it working on my online psychology class, getting that done and over with for the semester and then the rest of that working! It was a lot of work but i need the money so i do not really mind, plus i do love my job (for the most part). I did have some fun taking a trip down to purdue university to see my best friend for a day! it was great... other than that not much happend.
As for the shanks blog i did find it a bit confusing as it did appear more like a website type thing rather than a blog... after reading many of the posts i did get the point of what he was doing... he seems to have a lot of character in each of his posts and he is in fact quite unique and interesting.. he also goes give good insight. compared to some of the other blogs that i have read his was designed very well and i was very impressed.

Just recently my boyfriend told me that there was a young boy who had shot himself in the face because he was depressed. He told me that at the young boy's funeral, his face had to be remodeled with clay. My boyfriend didn't know this boy personally, but they went to middle school together. This got me thinking...how could you ever have the guts to put a gun in your OWN face and PULL the trigger? I know that I'm writing my paper on suicide and shiizz, but I just can't imagine what it would be like to kill myself. I understand what it's like to go through real bad things, but I always think about what there is left to live for. I wonder, what could that boy be thinking? Right at the moment that he told his finger to pull the trigger on the gun, what are the thoughts that are running through his mind? Did he think about his mother? His father? His future? Wasn't he scared? Wasn't he afraid of what would happen when he died? Did he think that everything was going to be better after he commited suicide? I dunno...but sometimes I think about what happens when after you die? Where do you go? Or do you even go anywhere? I dunno...sometimes I think so much that it scares me...so I just stop thinking about it....so I dunno really...just something to blog about...

A new outlook an different blogs

For me, this is the first time I've ever had to blog and so it's kind of new to me because I don't really know what to write about sometimes. Looking at those other blogs on Michael Shanks website I could see that they put a little more time and effort into certain topics and his categories in which were discussed. What I mean by putting more effort into it was the fact that he covered many different discussions and they were relatively shorter. What I liked the best about his blogs was that they were short and to the point. I hate reading long blogs that get to one point and keep going on about a pointless story when a topic could be covered in a short paragraph. I hate readings those long stories trying to cover certain topic, and then it goes into different points of views, and different sides, when it's not even needed. I looked at some other "amateur" blogs that I just found on Google ( not the website provided in the e-mail) and after trying to read through some I ended up just skimming because they were just boring. To me, I relate a blog to a newspaper because looking at a newspaper I feel that I only read some of the articles that are short and to the point, and also the ones with a "catchy" title or a title that seems interesting to me. I feel a blog is similar to that because it seems looking at everyone's post I only read the short ones that look interesting to me. Anyone else? I bet not a lot of people are going to comment on my post because I'm sure not a lot of people are going to take the time to read through the whole thing, if at all. I have a hard time just coming up with something to say on this blog even though we can write about anything. I do enjoy reading some of the little jokes and everything everyone includes though.

Next I would like to explain in a little post about what I'm trying to improve with my essay. I missed class on friday so I didn't get my essay back yet with some feedback, but I feel that I already know what I need to do. Academic Inquiry in my opinion is blatantly giving your opinion. That is what I need to work on! Pretty simple but we will see I guess when I get it back.

Other blogs to blog about

Okay! The website that Andrew gave his really hit me for Assignment II! I'm thinking, is this what blogging should be about or should I ask, if this is what we should call, "academic inquiry"??

I mean, there's definitely visual in this blogger's writings (dooce), yet there's somewhat a sense of connection that I made with her daily life. Her questions makes me wonder and somehow, some of the things that she say can relate to what I would also say. She also include examples to assure her readers what she really means when she say something in particular. It sort of makes me think why I understand her so much. Is it because she is a female, or is it because I live under a roof where I must meet specific standards as a Asian girl (meaning, housewife, although I'm not one).

But I must say that her bloggings compare to Shanks are very similar in the cases of trying to make the reader know and understand what the author is doing. Yet, they are different, not just because they have different stories to share, but that I feel closer to the housewife blogs then Shanks. Maybe it's because of her visual writings, but I do see a little bit of academic inquiry when it comes to asking questions or relating her knowledge to something else in order for her readers to understand. But then again, I'm still confuse about "academic inquiry." I'm not quite sure exactly what it is because to me, I feel like no one has answer the question of what it really is.

Spring Break and Assignment

I'll begin with my spring break. I turned 21 on Tuesday, I will assume those who read this will immediately understand how I spent my time. Therefore, enough said for most of the days, for the other days I enjoyed the mildly decent weather and worked on some schoolwork that I was behind in and I knew I was not going to complete after Tuesday came around.

Now for the the blogs. My general thought of blogs is that they heavily rely on the fact of people caring. I'm probably not the first nor will I be the last to say I don't really give two pennies worth on what you deem necessarily to alert the public to. I am sure there is acedemic inquiry in Shank's blog, althought desecretly hidden for only the trained eye to find. In the housewives, blog, I don't care. I have a general hatred for most of humanity therefore I can say I'm not a racist; I don't hate a particular group, I just hate everyone equally. I don't care about your children, your husband, your parents, or whatever the hell you did for the past few days in which you weren't blogging. Blogging is just another way for the world to fulfill their daily needs of drama and noncultured information. We don't feel the need to understand how our lives or going or try to figure out the problems that are occuring between our relationships on a daily basis but instead we hide our thoughts and perservernce in continually visiting blogging pages of other individuals that we have never met before in our lives.

This all ties to my friend, for the sake of keeping the miniscul dignity he already has, I'll only use his first name; Joey. My friend, or better yet associate, Joey is what some could call a facebook stalker. He's 20, lives at home with his father, doesn't have a job, neither does he even have a driver's license. However, daily he logs onto facebook and searches through the millions of people to find girls between the age of 14 and 26 to friend request in hopes to create a fake online relationship boosted by his immature lies. Now as you all find this pathetic, he has over 2500 friends on facebook, I must say to know 2500 people individually is impossible but I guess because of the internet it is allowable. Out of these 2500 people, he talks to only the ones he deems attractive to exert his attention on. This goes on all day until he can pry one of his local friends to hang out with him. As this all sounds sad, but people love it. Girls visit and comment on his page daily, leaving flirty messages and admiring his horrible "modeling" pictures. (I forgot to mention, he lies to everyone saying he is a model, in reality he is building his portfolio to try to get picked up by an agency; hes still working on getting signed.) The sad fact about people is that they love, and I mean love to dwell in the absolute pointless of all things. People visit my friend Joey's page daily because they want to see what he posts, what other people say to him, and to see what he will do next. Some visit to see how young the girls are so that they can make fun of him for hiting on high schoolers, usually the age of 16 or 17. Some visit to see what ugly pathetic trash cares about what he says. Some visit to just see if he has attempted to put an ounce of energy into something more productive for the world other than facebook.

The pathetic part about people, is that they care too much about other individuals and not about the community as a whole. Whether it be facebook or a blog, people put too much comfort in the opinions and lives of others around them, even if they have never met them before in person. Until individual people can see the bigger picture around us, we will continue to devolve as a society.

michael shanks....

i thought his site was quite interesting i mean by no means am i going to go back and look at it ever again but when i was it was rather interesting i read alot of his "categories" i thought it was really cool how he hit a lot of different things and was short and sweet about it and did not drag it on so thinking about academic inquiry im not sure how it hits that but im sure it does else we would have not been sent to the site to look at it i mean yes i can see how some are when he gets in depth with them but some are just sentences but his pictures corresponding with the topics i found very interesting as well and in regards to my spring break it was very uneventful but that was alright because it was a good time to relax/work which my work i had to travel wisconsin alot so that was pretty cool i have to deliver kringles and other goodies for my job so i mean it was pretty fun and that is all and in regards to the dooce blog i find that absolutely ridiculous that she can support a family on that crap some people work their butts off and probably dont get anywhere the pay that she gets i just find it stupid she just writes about her day and the events of it i just find it stupid

Shanks Blogs

This was an interesting site to look at. I WAS confuse a little bit because I wasn't even sure what his blogs were. Part of me was thinking that this was just a regular website, but spending time on it helped me understand. Reading his blogs showed character. Shanks talked about the main ideas of what he does, and he shows his process of thinking, meaning that he was patient with his works. His blogs were definitely different from what I expected, but to my understanding, it was academic inquiry because his blogs were like his thoughts. He asked questions and accordingly answer them, but telling what he thinks and what he should do.

spring break

i went to california and oregon ..enjoyed my time for sure...the weather was great in both of them

shanks

I Have used blogging before and I have a sense of whats blogging , shanks blog site was one of the best website for me for many reasons.The presentation of the material shank had is considered to be easy but to much meaning it needs someone who should read through all of what he is written because of the valuable detailed information that’s is contained there , for me as a reader in some points I felt bored but I learned something for sure.The academic inquiry here was satifisfied but its different than an essay or paper because when we write a paper we follow a strict sequence but I think here there is more of a flexibility in presenting the material through words, pictures and colors.This website is obvious to be professional because of the wide information that contains and how its arranged.For the other website dooce.com I think this one differs a lot from shanks , shank was more academic than dooce I felt like dooce is a blog that was a blog that’s who any one wants to read stories go there! So a huge difference between the 2 websites.

other blogs

I thought it was nice to see the other blogs and I was surprised by how interested I was in the blogs actually, I have never posted a blog or anything of the sort before, and that includes facebook. Even though both blogs were very different I liked how each website was set up because I felt it helped explain what type of blog each site is.

I would say that Shanks blog is more academic based and has some connection to what we are doing now in the fact that it is more academic inquiry blog. Shanks process of finding academic inquiry was very similar to what we have been talking about and i think reading some one else's process helped me with figuring out my own process of inquiry. Also the back groud of the blog looked very professional and you got the feeling that the blog was more serious and academic based.

Though the Dooce blog was very opposite of Shanks blog more in the fact that it was just some one writing about there happy life. It was still helpful though because seeing a different type of blog because it could help me write mine and possibly make them more enjoyable to read. Again here i felt like the back ground set the mood for the blog, the white back ground was more uplifting and lighter.

Spring break

Dotn know why we have to blogg about ti but i quess I might as well. Really my break was all abotu relaxing and trying to take that week off to forget all the work from college. I used my time to pretty much just meet friends and plan on hanging out finding things to do around the town. Only regret was i really wish i could have gone to Florida for my break and see two of my good friends who are down there. lucky bastards. Yeah now im back and time to flip the switch to turn my brain on and make it start to work again luckily it just the last 2 months left

revisions

So i have started my revisions after getting away from my paper for a few days and I felt like those few days helped me greatly in figuring out what I want to change and know how i want to change it. Fridays assignment also helped me because in writing down why I was comparing this and that and how i wanted the comparison to show i came to a conclusion helped me with figuring out all my other ideas. anyway so I am continuing to have trouble with summaries instead of framing. Well thats all I have to say about the revisions

Shanks

Shanks blogg was not what I expected but bloggs are never really the same. He clear seemed to know what he was talkign abotu and how he was approaching it. Like we did for our previouse homework about askign a question and continueing off of it to find an answer was pretty much simular to what shanks himself did. Honestly thought that this would have been past my thought processinng and understanding but i seemed to have the basic of understanding of what and how he was doing it in his blogg. Comparing it too www.dooce.com though really seemed to differ on the approach of it for shanks seemed to be more of a formal approach and abotu academic inquiry where as the other website seemed to have an informal feel to it and not a formal approach to or even actually being academic inquiry.

Shanks

When I first went to the site I was really impressed with the whole presentation of the site. It looked like it had been designed by a professional designer. Besides this blog I have never really had much experience with blogs. I always thought of blogs as very informal and non academic but this was the exact opposite. His postings all had to do with things that he was involved in academically. It seems that this blog was created so he could let other people read his ideas and comment on them without having to go the library or look in a journal for them. The blog is very formal and written in a very academic style. dooce.com also seems to be well written. Much better than what I expected. I felt that Shanks blog was much more formal than dooce.com. It seemed to be looking at things academically, while dooce was more of a informal approach to things.

Shank's Blog

Shank's presentation of his blog was great. His blog's layout, font, style and pictures is what drives you to how interesting his blog is. I think that because Shank is writing in a blog(internet), that his writing is more casual and is written more so for everyday people it's not meant to be formal. I don't think his writing is academic inquiry I thinks it's more of a man giving his thoughts and ideas on life and it's concept. I think the stakeholders of Shank's blog are the people who read his blog,the ones who care about his thoughts and ideas. I think that his blog isn't as critical as an academic paper or essay, at times Shank might have been critical, because he went there, but not far enough to make his points critical or academic inquiry. I think Shank's blog can be professional because he writes about his profession and academic writing, but he seems to write about a more personal life and thats blogging.

Shanks

After never haing blooged before we started for this class, I must say that I was extrememly impressed by that of Shanks Blog site. You could almost loose yourself within the site there was so much to look at. I think he does define the idea of using academic inquiry throughout his site. He does not seem to be takin sides with any particular thing but rather telling us how other feel and what they say. Also, like everyone else said, the pictures throughout were amazing and really helped you get a good sense on how "proffessional" this site actually is. I took a look at that www.dooce.com sit and a few others such as kiwiblog where there was an issue with the war on Afghanistan and the these sites did not compare. It is hard to say exactly which part I enjoyed most within shanks blog, because there was so much interesting information throughout. The way he words things really gave me an idea on what the intention for this paper really is.

Revision

I have started my revisions, but have not accomplished much as of yet. I know exactly which direction I want to head with my paper, but unfortuanately that means changing most of my paper. I am not too worried though, because I know where I want to go with it.

struggling revision process

This whole revision process is really frustrating because after taking so long to write the paper, there are changes that need to be made. I have a huge part explaining how college students spend their money, and I am trying to be more critical of what is being said because I have two sources that do not agree with each other but I am using my own personal beliefs to establish reasoning.

I think the main point of presentation is the front cover/title page because that is the first thing the portfolio committee will see before they even read your paper. Since my topic is regarding the new credit card act, specifically involving young adults, I need to think of a cleaver way to present this. any ideas?

spring break

I went to Panama..it was too cold :(

shanks

First of all, I was amazed by this blog because the images were inspiring and unique. This approach was drastically different than the previous academic work that I have read, so I was very hesitant but he pulled through. He seemed very educated and displayed academic inquiry throughout his site as he questioned other writers and incorporated his interpretation. My initial impression was very inaccurate because I primarily view blogs as a means to say whats on your mind (most of the time foolish and useless information), but this blog was much different because it is academic work, it is just displayed differently than the traditional ways.

An extremely familiar blog known as twitter is a way to "follow" celebrity "tweets", which are essentially posts. Blogging this way is the reason why I questioned the legitimacy of Shanks, but his posts are useful and insightful, rather than posting exactly what one is doing at a specific time.

Shanks

First off I have to say that I thought Shanks website was very well put together and presented. It was appealing to the eye which I think is very important in engaging the audience into the website. The next thing I really noticed was all the photos he used in his blog. They were amazing and he incorporated them well into his blog. I didn't get a very academic feel when I initially started reading, but once I started exploring his website more, the way he asked questions and then used other sources and reasoning to explain his thinking I thought fit with academic inquiry quite well. Obviously depending on who you ask, I think some people wouldn't find Skanks blog/website as academic even though he clearly knows a great deal on what he his talking about. I think this would be based on simply the layout being a blog on the internet instead of being a formal academic paper.

I must say that I loved the photographs that Russian photographer Sergey Larenkov (Shanks-Haunted Media) did when he combined old photos of a place with current photos. They were amazing!

Reading Dooce.com I felt wasn't really academic inquiry. Granted I thought a lot of her blogs were very interesting. Her blog isn't as formal as Skanks and I think that is the main difference between the blogs. I would consider Skanks blog as more academic based on the presentation and facts and research. Now Im not saying that Heather didn't do any research for her blog, but her's is a lot more of a personal blog. It has a lot more personal stories then anything else and I feel a lot of blogs are more closely related to her blog then Skanks. Don't get me wrong though, the woman knows a lot and I think you can learn from her blog posts!

shanks

I really did expect to comprehend shanks work throughout the blog. It was a different viewpoint and format for my interpretation. I liked how he used an entire thought process to achieve his main goals and finding out a conclusion to his questions that he asked of himself. This variety of uses and ideas go me to think of new purposes and ideas to furthur my progression into my research paper and how to institute blogging into a new light so that I can focus my paper on it theme more.

Shanks

The first thing I noticed when I went to Shanks blog was the layout. I thought it was very pleasant on the eyes, and the horizontal scrollbar was a nice touch. I thought that the things he was talking about were very interesting and the pictures where phenomenal. Most of the things he is talking about on his blog I didnt understand, but he clearly knows what he is talking about. He used academic inquiry to tell how archeology is a creative field. He is doing what we have to do for our portfolio. He is taking his blog to another level by using other sources, and pictures, to make his own opinion.

Blogs and Spring Break

Michael Shanks
At first I didn't see Shanks' writing as a full on "academic inquiry" type, but as I continued to read through and click on links, I saw it more and more. Although the information and thoughts are presented in a way that is user friendly, more than in a essay sort of form, it still seems to have the same characteristics as a academic inquiry paper would contain. Shanks is constantly asking questions throughout each post - and answering them. I don't think there is a huge use of sources, but enough to have an academic feel, and Shanks goes off of them. I also noticed in multiple posts that he clearly defines what he's talking about often, of which I see as an aspect of academic inquiry. It seems as though you can place a fine line between "professional" and "personal" writing. Shanks doesn't seem to cross over to either side in any obvious way that I would classify it as one or the other. He writes in a way that we can understand and like he's talking to us in person maybe, but it still seems "professional" enough to be more than just that. I suppose my favorite part was where I started (granted I honestly didn't go much further) a sort of concept of design. Clicking through the links throughout that led to interesting ideas on design, in my opinion anyways.

Dooce.com
In reading Dooce.com's "Indecipherable Rant" you definitely notice the difference in writing styles in comparison to something like Shanks. This blog is a lot more... internet friendly (?), I guess. I feel like that's more so how popular/regular basis bloggers blog. I think in reading things over the internet there is a lot less of a formal feel for it, for the reader and the writer. I personally wouldn't consider this "academic inquiry" writing, because it's much more personal without things like a controlling purpose, etc. Especially because it is a personal blog, it's extremely opinionated and contains personal pictures and the like.

Spring Break
Because I only have classes on campus on Mondays and Wednesdays you could say my spring break started a day or two early, which was beneficial to me because one of my good friends had her spring break that week, which meant we could spend the weekend without any worries. With that being said, we went to our cabin up north (3.5 hours to Dunbar) with the parentals. Having been there only one other time in the summer, it was a completely different experience. In summer it was more about pumping water and hiking around waterfalls, this time was more walking around the property and keeping warm with a fire inside. On a crappier day we headed up to Michigan to do some gambling (since 18 year olds are allowed to do so at that specific casino) -definitely didn't win any money, but was a good time. Other than that weekend, I've spent most of my break at work and very chill hanging with friends, nothing too crazy exciting. HOWEVER, I do not feel like going back to classes tomorrow :

Spring Break

Well spring break is coming to a close and we must unfortunatally return to the grind of school on monday. Although my spring wasnt spent anywhere warm or exotic I had fun and enjoyed my time off of school. I spent much of the time with my boyfriend, working, or working on homework, which was gross but it had to get done.

however on the bright side....

ONLY 8 MORE WEEKS TILL SUMMER BREAK!

Thoughts on Shanks

Shanks' ideas on the article, Globalization by Mike Moore very non committal, and still interesting. I like how he hinted at his own opinion, but still left you guessing. I think I should strive to do this within my own paper, as my opinion, while still valid, does not bring anything to the paper. Shanks writing is clear, concise, and interesting. I would classify most of this as "academic", but insight on daily things he feels are relevant. Some of it is, some not.. I will post my thoughts on some of the other blogs I read on a daily basis later on!

Spring Break

Well, break is finally over.. Not really looking forward to getting back into the swing of things, but? Had a lot of rehearsals, lot of travel. Not really a "break" per say, but work! The tour starts soon, and we will be in Milwaukee on April 22nd at the Riverside! How ironic is it that on Earth Day, the band will be shooting fireworks and other fun stuff into the air...

Shank

Shanks is a very in depth writer who seems to in all his blogs write about every detail trying to make the reader more aware about what he is talking about. His websites and his blogs are both designed to match his personality. His website is where he displays his real life examples to his students, in a sense to give them a close up image of things that are going on, rather than just in a regular old classroom, lecturing about pictures or theories to hundreds of students. His blogs start with a question to make you think, and then he will get into his answer portion of his lectures. Every little detail is not left out of his lectures. He uses a lot of imagery as well as different links to videos and pictures, to help get across his points and also help the readers better understand what he is talking about. He posts a picture or a link for the readers to discuss and interpret, and then he writes his own interpretation on it. Shank offers many different views on how to look at a subject and is a "Picture Perfect" example of how a picture can be worth a thousand words. Shank's writing is illustrated in a form of academic inquiry. He analyzes and discusses his findings and he shows that he knows what he's talking about; but rather then having it all academic based, and having it all be professional, his writings are more friendly and easier to understand because they are blogs. He writings would probably be displayed different if he was writing a paper instead, but because this is a blog, it is meant for just brief explanations of opinions, information or arguments.

Spring break in DC

My sister and brother in law decided to take a trip to Washington D.C. to rally against the Healthcare bill. It was an awesome experience and we got to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the changing of the guard, the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, and a lot of other cool sites. It was a short trip, so we could only see a few of the places that we wanted, so we will be going back soon! :)