Final Blog

It's weird that this is our final blog, this semester has gone by so quick. I really enjoyed Comp this year. I was a little worried that this could end up being a hard class with all of the writing assignments. It ended up being quite the opposite. The papers all went smoothly. I enjoyed the short stories we read as a class. It was fun debating them as a group. I feel the class, as well as my self, benifited from our discussions. I also enjoyed blogging this semester. It is a good way to get assignment points and it is way better than keeping a journal like we did in high school. Comp was great, and now we get to move on to Lit...hope it goes well.

Free Blog

I wasn't sure what to write about so I think I will just voice my anger with USD about having school on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I didn't think any college in the nation had school on the day before Thanksgiving. Apparently USD is the only one. All of my friends who go to other schools had Wednesday and even Monday off. This is because in collge people come from all over and need more time for the holidays. This makes sense. It was pointless to even have class on wednesday anyway because most people I know, including myself, said screw it and went home anyways. Even the professors were getting ready to be done. I had a combined total of twenty minutes of class on Tuesday because all of my professors let us leave. I can't imagine how dead Wednesday must have been. My business professor says it is rediculus that we have class on that Wednesday, and acording to him we will have it off next year. I, and evenone, else will appreciaten that a lot!

Question #3 page 244 "The Most Dangerous Game"

The Most Dangerous Game has a lot of details which hint at the plot of the story. The island setting right away makes you think of a dangerous lawless land. Islands are often portrayed as such. You start to get a hint at General Zaroff's character when he deflects Rainsfords questions about the animal he hunts. Zaroffs demeanor lets the reader know that there is something strange about him and it give the sense of him being a bad person. One object of significance in this story is the .22 cal. pistol Zaroff uses to hunt his prey. It has significance because he uses a gun with the least amount of power and range to go after his prey. He is trying to make it more of a challenge. This shows how sadistic Zaroff has become. The fact that Zaroff has to resort to using his dogs when his victim gets closer to wining is also interesting. Zaroff acts like he wants a challenge and tries to make it as fair as possible. When he is in danger of losing however he does whatever it takes to win. He wants a challenge but he has a fear of failure.

Young Goodman Brown

This story was a very good story to analyze. It left a lot of unanswered questions about the story. It also showed a lot of symbolisms. Most of the things in the story symbolized something else. The story also had a good moral. Goodman Brown has a realization that everyone in his “perfect town” sins. I don’t think that Goodman Brown’s experience was real. In my opinion it was most likely a dream. Whether it was real or not or makes no difference though because the moral of the story is the same. No one is perfect and everyone sins. Sadly after realizing this Goodman Brown is suspicious of everyone, even his wife. This makes him lead a lonely life.

A Rose For Emily

I found this book interesting. I liked how the writing style opened the story up for a lot of questions. There were things in the book that the author didn't explain. He did this on purpose, which made it a great book to discuss. The book was told from the point of view of the towns people which is why every little detail wasn't given because obviously the town only knew what they could see from the out side. I liked the fact that this story can be debated over. I like the fact that the butler was hardly mentioned even though he must have played a pretty large role in the story. After all he was in the house with this crazy old lady and a dead body. I really enjoyed reading and debating this story.

The Most Dangerous Game

I really liked this short story. It did a good job of capturing my attention. The book started off with Rainsford falling off of a boat in the middle of the night. This was a great way to gain the readers attention right away. I liked how the general wouldn't answer Rainsford's question about what he hunted. It made me think that something was up. I also really enjoyed the battle of wills between Rainsford and the General. I am a big hunter so this really got my attention. I did find the generals mad tracking skills a little bit far fetched. I liked how Rainsford set all of those traps but the General avoided all of them. His dog and servant weren't so lucky. It was interesting how the General showed no emotion toward losing his those two. He was more worried about how it was a burden to himself. I found the ending very fitting. I thought the General got what he deserved. I don't think the fact that Rainsford killed the General makes him equal in badness to the General. I think Rainsford did what he had to do.

Sleepy Hollow

I think The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow would be a lot different if it was told from the point of view of one of the main characters. If it was told by Ichabod he would have never explained his appearance in such great detail. He probably wouldn't have described himself as an unattractive dork like the narrator did. He would have probably described Brom Bones and his friends as huge jerks. He would make them out as very bad people. Ichabod would have probably gone more in-depth than even the narrator in the supernatural things that went on there. He was really interested and believed in that stuff. Ichabod also most likely wouldn't have made it so clear that the reason he was going after his student was because of her family wealth. Another interesting part would have been the end of the story. If it were told from Ichabod’s point of view we would better understand what happened to him and where he ran off to. It would also be obvious that he didn’t die because he told the story. The story could have been a lot different if it were ichabod telling it.

Buffy Reflection

I liked the Buffy TV show we watched in class today. It was easy to follow even though I have never seen an episode of Buffy before. It was kind of cheesy and the fighting scenes and the special effects were pretty bad. The plot was really good though. The plot really developed the characters. I liked how the costumes showed the personalities of each character. I also liked how Buffy went from an ass-kicking vampire slayer to 18^th century royalty. These two characters were polar opposites. I also liked it when the soldier kicked the crap out  of the pirate. The irony in that was funny. The show of course had a happy ending when Buffy saves the day and she gets the guy. It did leave off with a cliff hanger though. The teacher has a dark past from what I gathered. All in all it was a good show and It was cool to see a show from the 90's because TV has changed a lot since then.

Favorite Book

One of my favorite books I have read is Beowulf. I had to read it for honors English last year. I thought it was a really cool book. It was very interesting because it is such an old story. I liked the story line about how Beowulf is an epic hero and is pretty much unstoppable. One of the best parts about reading it for class was that we got into some pretty heated debates about it. There was only nine students in that class and we would spend whole class periods arguing about the book. The biggest argument was about whether or not Beowulf was a hero. Half of the class thought he was and the other half didn't. We all had to write a paper after reading the book and most of us wrote on that topic. After reading Beowulf we read the Canterbury Tales. I really liked these stories as well. It is a cool book because it is composed of a lot of short stories. These stories were often times not very appropriate. In fact some of the stories were pretty raunchy. This book was really funny because it used a lot of old time ways to say bad stuff. This book also started some interesting debates in our class.  Beowulf and Canterbury Tales would probably have to be my two favorite books.

Reflection on the Vikings Season

I am a huge Vikings fan, therefore I am use to disappointment. Last year was the dream season for the Vikings. Brett Favre came in to save the team and they had a roster full of pro-bowlers. Sadly they came up a field goal short of the Super Bowl.

This year was suppose to be revenge for the Vikings. The first few weeks looked pretty bad though. They have had a lot of injuries on both sides of the ball. Sydney rice, Favre's favorite target, is out for most of the season. He led the team in receptions and went to the probowl last year. They also lost their two starting corner backs to injuries. All of these things hurt the Vikings the first few weeks of the season. Their record is 2-3, which isn't very good but thankfully the rest of the NFC isn't much better. The best record in the NFC is 4-2, so the vikings aren't out of the running yet.

With the addition of Randy Moss, and a healthy Percy Harvin, the Vikings are coming back. Last week they beat the Dallas Cowboys, and with a win Monday night against the Packers they will be in second place in the division and just a game back from the Bears. The Vikings will also get Rice back and hopefully both of their cornerbacks soon. It looks like their season is turning around. Some ESPN analysts even have them winning the division. I will wait and see, hopefully this is the year!

Cellphones distracting our society

My argument is that cell phones can have a negative effect on our society because of the distraction they cause. For the ethos I will use for this paper will be pretty easy. There are tons and tons of statics that show cell phones distract people who are driving, as well as students in the class room. For pathos I will make an appeal to people’s emotions by showing the dangers of cell phone distraction. Dangers like car accidents as well as educational dangers. Cell phones are distracting kids in school and taking away from their education. For logos I will reason that I don't believe that cell phones are a bad thing I just think they do have some negative effects. I think statistics and first hand experiences will be a good way to reason with my audience.

3 Paper topics

One topic I thought about writing about is gun rights. For this topic I could use the second amendment, the right to bear arms, to support topics. I could also go with the fact that criminals don't go to Scheels and buy their guns they get them from the black market or a shady dealer, so gun control will only make citizens defenseless against those who get their guns in other places.

Another topic I could write about is cell phone usage. I would mainly focus on how distracting it can be while driving. There are many studies proving cell phones distract the driver causing injuries and deaths. I could also point out that there are states that have banned either all cell phone use or some specific use while behind the wheel.

I could also write a paper on ghosts and spirits. I would write about how it is completely bogus. It is a fad brought on by too much TV publicity. Just because the history channel has a show called "Ghost Hunters" doesn't mean they exist. People tend to believe anything they see on TV; they don't often realize they edit everything for ratings. Those shows are there to be entertainment and get ratings.

Class Reflection

Today in class we learned about commas, semicolons, and colons. The lesson and handouts were both helpful. It is good to have examples to look at because it can be hard to know whether to us a comma or a semicolon. We spend the rest of class doing an exercise to generate paper topics. It was fun and helpful. We had to come up with a bunch of stuff that either annoyed us or we felt passionate about. I think it was really helpful because everyone came up with ideas and there were a lot of topics that I would never have thought of. It was also interesting hearing other student’s opinions on topics. Over all class was good today.

What I've gained from comp english

I have gained a lot of knowledge from this English class. First off all I have become a better writer. I have also become more efficient at writing, this is probably because in high school we didn't write this many papers in this short of a time for one class. This has helped me become able to sit down and write a paper when it is assigned rather than putting it off.

Another thing that I will take away from this class is research skills. In high school we never learned anything about scholarly articles, we just took stuff we found off the internet and put it in our papers. It is a good thing to know how to find scholarly articles because using them makes your paper look more professional and it also makes it more convincing. I think knowing where to find scholarly articles will be a big help in the future.

Learning about MLA was also something very helpful. We learned about MLA in high school but I better understand it now. MLA is one of those things that you can't learn without doing it. Using MLA format for our papers was a good refresher. I think its good that we are learning about it because it will definitely help all of us in our future class and careers.

How my literacy narrative changed

My literacy narrative changed quite a bit before I arrived at the final draft. I tend to write fast and get a whole paper written before I look back on it. So I always have to read over my first draft to make sure everything that sounded good in my head sounds good out loud. I picked out a lot of mistakes in this process. We peer edited in class. This was a big help. It is always good to get a fresh pair of eyes to go over you paper. Having other students look at my paper was really nice because they found a lot of things that I had looked over. Most of what I changed from the peer edit was grammar and sentence flow. I changed a few parts of my paper so they would sound better. I also changed a lot of repetitive words to avoid using that same word multiple times. Next we did the teacher edit. This was also very helpful. Most of what my paper needed was some more grammatical changes. I also took out a few things within my paper that were unnecessary. I rephrased some sentences so they made more sense as well. After all of this I think my paper has turned out very well.

Texting While Driving

I am going to write my essay on makeing texting while driving illegal. I think its important that people don't text and drive. I don't think it will be hard to find information on this topic. There is a ton of information and statistics proving how dangerous texing while driving can be. I have also checked out USD's data base and there is very good information there as well. This should be a very interesting topic to write about.

Colbert Report

I watched the Colbert Report on migrant workers. In this episode Stephen went to a migrant worker farm to "win back farming jobs for american citizens." It was very funny. Stephen tried to prove that he had what it takes to be a migrant worker. He worked building boxes, packing corn, and picking beans. He failed misserably at all three. At one time he even stopped working to play Farmville on his ipod. He managed to pick a handful of beans in the same time the mexican workers picked a bushel basket full. At the end of the episode he asked his boss if he had what it takes to be a migrant worker. He boss told him no. Stephen was very thankful for that and quicky asked for his driver, pablo, to drive him home. The whole episode was very funny but it did have a valid point behind all of the humor. The point was that these migrant workers aren't takeing jobs from americans. They are the only peole who are willing to do this kind of work because the vast majority of americans wouldn't do it. His show is out there for entertainment, but it does a very good job getting his point across. I think it even does a better job than the actual news does at times. I think satire is a really good way to voice your opinion.

Texting While Driving

I found this article on texting while driving on the New York Times website.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/technology/28texting.html

The article I found focused on the dangers of texting while driving. I agree that texting while driving should be banned. I can fairly say that most all high school and college age students which I know text while driving. If you have ever road with someone who is texting while driving you know how dangerous it can be. I will admit that I have done it before but I also think it is incredibly dangerous and shouldn't be done. If you text while driving you don't only take your eyes off the road, you divert your attention from your driving to your phone.14 states have bans on texting while driving. I think all states should ban texting while driving. There is no reason why you have to be texting while driving your car. There are multiple studies around that prove texting while driving slows reaction time significantly. There are also studies showing how accidents increase if a person is texting while driving. There is no text that is worth the safety of yourself and the safety of others on the road. The university of Utah did research showing that texing while driving impaires a person as much as driving drunk does. If texting is as bad as drunk driving then why is it still legal? I think banning texting while driving would make our roads safer, and be a good thing.

Paper Topic

Topic: Hunting With My Dad


I am writing my paper on my hunting experiences with my dad. I chose this topic because it definitely shaped me into the person I am today. I plan to start my paper by showing how every since I was a little kid I have been hunting with my dad. I will then work my way up to showing how I still do that today. I will include the story of when I shot my first deer. I think that story represents why hunting is so important to me. I think the main focus of the paper will be how a father son bond shapes a person.

Memory Brain Storm

This first story of my life I would like to title "The Curse of the Free Class Ring." During my freshmen year of high school my school had a Jostens’ representative come and sell class rings. The day the rep came my class had a meeting in the auditorium. In this meeting the rep. gave everyone his sales pitch on how important it was to buy a ring. At the end of the meeting there was a drawing; one lucky student would get the ring of their choice for free. As luck would have it, I was that student. Fast-forward to my sophomore year. Our schools Jazz band went to a jazz competition in Brookings. My friends and I were passing the time in SDSU's parking lot playing baseball with a wadded up piece of duct tape as the ball and a text book as the bat. I was playing out field at the time. One of my friends hit one towards an open school bus window. I jumped to catch the ball but instead my ring finger caught the buss window. My ring cut open the bottom half of my finger. I had to go to the hospital and get the ring cut off by a doctor because my finger had swollen up to much for the ring to come off. I later got the ring fixed, but i never wore it while doing sports again.




Ever since the seventh grade my grades football team has been undefeated. Going into my senior year everyone in our community expected great things from our team. During the regular season we went from game to game destroying our opponents. We won most of our games by thirty or more points. When the post season came around we were undefeated. We went into the playoffs very confident. We continued to win games by double digit numbers. As time passed our team grew very close, we referred to each other as brothers rather than teammates. We made it to the Iowa class 2A state championship game with a record of 13-0. The only team in the state we were left to face was the Solon Spartans. They had won the championship the previous two years. We fought a hard game, but in the end we lost. We ended the season 13-1, State Runner-ups. After the game there was complete silence. We were in for a long 4 hour bus ride home. The first half of the trip was dead silent. We stopped at Hardies for supper. As everyone started to eat we started talking. People started joking around and having fun just as if the game never happened. The last half of that bus ride was probably the most fun part of the whole season. I didn't realize it at the time but the old saying is true, winning isn't everything.



Some of my earliest childhood memories are of me sitting in my dad’s truck with my toy binoculars. My dad was there on the other side with the real thing. Hunting is my dad’s passion. That passion has been passed down through me. Hunting gave me a chance to connect with my dad. I have many great memories of hunting trips with my father, probably none more special than my first deer. When I was twelve years old I went deer hunting for the first time. I used my dad’s Remington Wingmaster shotgun. I had a thirty inch barrel, which is quite a bit larger than your average shotgun. The gun was much too big for any twelve year old, but it was spot on accurate. After a few days of hunting with no luck we decided to try a new place. My dad and I walked a grassy waterway a few miles from our home. We no more than stepped into the grass when a deer bolted out in front of me. I vividly remember my dad yelling "Shoot it" to me. I lifted the gun and pulled the trigger. The deer rolled head over heels and didn't move. I was ecstatic. I asked my dad if it was a doe, he told me that it was a buck. It happened so fast I had no idea what it was. My dad and I walked up to it and sure enough, it was a buck. It was a buck, a very, very small buck. It had two spikes, maybe six inches in length, but to my twelve year old self it was the best deer in the county. My dad and I hauled the deer back to our truck. We loaded up the deer and got in the cab to leave. Before my dad started the truck he turned to me and put out his hand for me to shake. I remember it like it was yesterday, he said "good job Jordan." That moment was the proudest moment of my life.

What defines me?

There is no one thing in my life that defines me. There are however many small things that add together to make me who I am. One thing that defines me is my friends. They almost all have the same traits as me. I am smart, but not a genius. I love sports, but I am not a jock. I am funny, but I am no comedian. These traits all define me and the friends I chose. I am probably best defined by my family. As hard as it may be to admit sometimes I see a lot of my parents in myself. I have many of the same beliefs, morals, attitudes, strengths, and weaknesses of my parents. I am not only defined by others however. I define myself by my actions. I am an easy going, down to earth person. I can get along with most anyone. I am caring and respectful of others as well. All of that said, I am no saint. I have my faults as well, but I wish just as everyone else does, to be defined by the positive things in life.