Lack of sleep

So today was the last day of school for the first semester, the very first semester in college for freshmen. The past week was a rough one and I had to find a way to grind it out. Of course, all of you are aware that our rough draft for our final position paper and our final revised copy of fourth and final position paper was due today in class. I am not the type of person who can complete an essay in parts or on different occasions. I am also not the type of person who can complete an entire essay two, or even a week early. As I see it, I am a pressure writer because I almost always end up writing a great majority of my paper. So it is now Sunday night, 12:04 am to be exact, and all I have is the audience analysis. To make a long story short it took me about six hours to complete the first rough draft of my final position paper and then i save it onto my computer and went to sleep at approximately 6:24 am. I say first rough draft because that morning I woke up to revise it one more time before class. However, when I went to go save it onto my flash drive in order to print it from another laptop it did not show up. I went back and fourth from my computer to the other checking to see if I was missing it, but I wasn't. After failing to find my essay on the the flash drive I went back to my saved documents on my hard drive to look for it. But it was not there either, at this point I am starting to get angry because my flash drive and computer failed me, plus the fact that class was beginning in seven minutes. I continued to look for my essay, however, for another twenty minutes. Finally, I left my stuff and ran to class to explain my situation to Natalie. Of course, she was understanding and she let me leave from class to go to OIT across campus in the computer and space building. When I got there they did a recovery search on both my flash drive and on my computer with no positive results, meaning that I would have to retype the entire nine page essay over again. From the moment I found out that I would have to redo it I tried to keep it positive telling myself that God stole my essay from me so that I could produce one many time better. And I do believe that I did, since the second version of my rough draft was much more well written and fluid than the previous one. I was able to e-mail the new essay to Natalie by the next day after spending another six hours retyping it. Now, moving onto the final essay, again I was up into the wee hours of the morning revising and rechecking all the little nuances in the essay and finally decided to go to bed around five in the morning because my friend did not have any ink and neither did her roommate. I figured that when I woke up I would just go back and ask her other roommates if I could use their printer. It turned out this morning that everyone in the suite had run out of ink and at 9:00 in the morning there were not many people I would try calling and risk waking them up. At this point it is now 9:20 and I am a little angry, I rush over to Susquehanna thinking "It's the English building, they must have a printer so I can print this essay out." I was sadly mistaken, however, when I got there a man in the main office told me that I could not print anything in the building and that I would have to go all the way over to McKeldin to print out my essay. It now about 9:30 am or so, and I am running over to McKeldin to print out my essay along with my sources unknown to me that you have to have a terrapin express account in order to print, if not you have to purchase a print card. Furiously I purchase one with just enough money on it to print out everything I need. So now I am ready to print and insert my flash drive into the computer and I can not open my document. Again, I feel the wrath of God crushing me. Knowing that I have limited time to print out my essay I storm over to the front desk and inquire as to why I am unable to open up my documents on the computer. He explains that, the one's I was using were not as "advanced" as the ones behind the desk and allows me to use one. And so finally i am able to open and print out of my documents and have just enough time to sprint back over to my friends house gather my things and run back to class where I handed in my fourth and final English 101 paper. With such a trying ordeal, i would like to think that God had a plan for me and hopefully i can receive a big fat A on my final essay, I think I deserve it.

Team meeting

Time is running out for students here at the University of Maryland. Finals are rapidly approaching and fall sports are coming to an end and winter sports have already become. We are all on the ball trying to fit in study time with practice time, and preparing ourselves for competition. Just today after practice the men's track team had a group meeting at the Comcast Center in Heritage Hall to discuss plans for our upcoming season and the expectations that the school had for us both as a team and individually. My coach Andrew Valmon, spoke mainly about the men's scholarship situation and a new campaign for more scholarships. then he spot about roster spots and the travel team, meaning who would be competeing in meets where we have to travel to place like New York and Miami to run. I think this made a few of us, especially the freshmen like myself, a little bit nervous because this was our first time going through everything, and even though we were performing well on the track there are still sophomore's, juniors and seniors who have spots already. I find a little bit of comfort knowing that as a hurdler as well as a sprinter, he needs me to do my job than the six or seven people trying to run for a spot in the 400 dash. We all have to perform now. Our sport advisor Antwon Goff spoke to us briefly about what he expected to us and was very blunt and to the point, he wanted us to win and perform at the level that we were recruited at and better. I thought hard about something that was in a packet that he had handed out prior to the beginning of the meeting and it dawned on me that, I really needed to take advantage of this entire opportunity presented to me, despite whether I am going to travel as a hurdler or not I need to perform for this team. I am a sprinter and of the teams main sprinters at that. I know what is in me, i know that I am well adjusted and ready to finally take this all on and prove to myself and my coach that I can be counted on to provide a solid source of points for my team. This is what I love to do and I will continue to work hard at achieving the goals I set forth for myself. It is just in my nature to do so, I just needed to see it in a different light.

thanksgiving food

For the past month I have been talking about how excited and ready I was for Thanksgiving to finally be here. I was looking forward to the feast that usually takes place either at my house or a relatives and whenever the topic of Thanksgiving came up I let everyone know exactly what I wanted to eat. "First I want to have main plate, more like a platter filled within a little bit of turkey, rice, macaroni and cheese, string beans, collard greens, stuffing, sweet potatoes, tomato collard greens, yams, and of course the staple of my meal some honey glazed ham, as well as some cornbread slices." After that, if I had any room left I would help myself to a second plate filled with all of the same ingredients and then just relax and watch some television, probably some basketball and then later on that night I would gear up for some desert which would simply be some warm apple pie with ice cream on top. That to me would be a complete meal and a traditional Thanksgiving. However, Thanksgiving did not happy according to the way I had envisioned it. I do not really want to say that it was lame, but it was not what I had expected at all after coming home from college. Of course we had the traditional turkey, all though not my favorite thing to eat, it is an important part of my family's Thanksgiving tradition. We had stuffing, some good stuffing, some collard greens, string beans, sweet potatoes, macaroni and cheese and biscuits with cranberry sauce. There were no collard greens slowly simmered in tomato sauce, and that got me down a little bit. But I have to say I was most upset that I did not have any honey glazed ham, or any ham at all. I had been talking about it with my mother for over two weeks and she did not get any ham for us to eat. All in all I guess the Thanksgiving feast was good, I mean the food that was on the table was on point I was just looking for more. On a good note however, I did end up enjoying some hot apple pie with some vanilla ice cream melting on top of it while I watched a basketball game. I am Thankful however for the food that I was able to receive and I can't thank my mother enough for all the cooking that she did. I am now looking forward to Christmas and all the good food that will be on the table there. I am not about getting presents, I do not ask for much if anything at all in recent years because times have been tough but I do want some good soulfully cooked to perfection food.

thanksgiving

So last Wednesday I went back home to New York for my favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving. I left the school at around twelve with my teammate who took me into D.C where my bus stop was at G and 11th street. From my bus top you can see the capitol, it was kind of cool and unfortunately I did not have enough time to see it up close. I grabbed something to eat real quick and then I was on the bus and on my way home. I was unaware that it would take over eight hours to get home, almost double the amount of time that it took to get home the last time it took for me to get home. The trip started out well as we left the nations capitol, but after only an hour we hit a wall of traffic that held all way until I got into New York entering the Holland Tunnel. Finally, I got into the city and caught my train, I was home in 20 minutes. When I got home to my family I got some hugs and kisses from my two main ladies, my mother and my sister and we talked for a little before I decided to see some of my friends from high school. After almost four months I finally got to see my best friend, Eric. When he found out that I had finally gotten home he scooped me up within a hour of me being home and drove me to meet up with some of my other friends. In the car with him when I got in was my other good friend Steve, he now goes to Maritime and I could tell how much his demeanor changed. He used to be a constant joker, always playing around being sarcastic, now he was exuding a more reserved manner and a seriousness that caught me off guard and surprised me. Thankfully, by being back home with his boys, he lightened up and fell back into his old clowning self. However, being back home did not necessarily mean that there was going to be that many things for us to do- at least not for us. We just ended up chilling and riding around and then going to get some Checkers. Throughout the rest of the break I saw most of my other friends at some point, and over Christmas break I expect to see a lot more of them.

hills

It is 7:24 am and I have just arrived back in my room after running 12 hills at the Comcast center. For any one who has ever been to the Comcast Center or is wondering what hill I am talking about, it is directly to the left of the main staircase entrance. It is a double hill rolled into one, we start off in flat ground and then begin to stride over the first hill which is some what gentle compared to the second one. After that first hill I maintain my stride, which has been improving since I got here, and then gradually begin to accelerate as I reach the bottom of the second hill. There is a rapid acceleration needed in order to successfully advance this second hill because after the first hill there is somewhat of a slight downward slope that turns back into flat grass. If you can picture this: it is like running a 110 degree angle. That is how steep the hill is. The first four were fairly regular as we started and ended at the points we normally start and finish at. However, after the fourth hill my coach began to move the cones further and further back with each hill until by the ninth hill we stopping right before the entrance to the garage. And once we hit the tenth hill my coach basically threw a cone into the garage and told us to go and find it. It was funny because he hid it all the way in the back of the garage, I might as well had gone back to my dorm, that is how far we had to go. The final two hills my coach put on us, he gave one person the opportunity to decide where we would stop, being that we are all a bunch of competitive jerks it really did not matter who he gave the responsibility to, I knew immediately that we were headed all the way back to the end of the garage because that is what I would have done. That is exactly what we did too, unlike the girls who stopped right as they got to the top of the hill, we pushed ourselves all the way to the end of the garage-three times we did this. I must say though that it was one of the best workouts I have completed since I have been here, I felt light one my feet and I seemed to just roll up the hill and cruise past upperclassmen boys and even some of the girls who start before us. I am beginning to feel like I did when ran all the times that got me here. I am beginning to become me again, the sprinter that never quits. After being disappointed in myself so many times after workouts I am now leading. It is a place that I like to be and a place I see myself staying at now that I have fully adjusted to the intensity of practice. I am happy to be back.

thanksgiving

The countdown to thanksgiving break has begun, at least for me it has. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday point blank. For me it is all about the delicious food that my mother makes and just me being back with my family, just the three of us. I've been home once already but that did not afford me nearly enough time to really get the feeling of being back home. I mean I did not really even get an actual home cooked meal because I was not there long enough. But this time around, Thanksgiving, I am not only guaranteed a home cooked meal, but a bountiful feast. I believe that nobody does a better job at preparing a Thanksgiving dinner than my mother. Over the years whether we have stayed home or gone to a relatives house my mother has always managed to provide a part of the meal where people say "MMMM, who made this?!?" Besides that my mother also picks up recipes and ideas from other people and adds that to her repertoire. I really just can not wait to be sitting at the table over some egg nog and the feast before me. However, I know that the week ahead, the last full week before Thanksgiving break, is going to be slow and rough. Aside from the papers and test that I may have, practice this week is going to be a killer because it is right before we go home. It starts early tomorrow morning waking up at 5:30 in the morning for twelve hills at Comcast and then continues throughout the week with other workouts, not to mention weight room sessions where we will be tested to find out what our maxes are. Because I am a hurdler/sprinter I am not afforded as many days rest as some of my other teammates are. This week in particular is going to be a challenge because it looks as though I have workouts almost everyday. By the time Thanksgiving comes I may be to tired to eat. It is not that I will not get through the week, I will, it is just that I know the toll it is going to take on me when the week is done. Right now I am trying to maintain a positive outlook, and I am using Thanksgiving as factor in my motivation for this week. I am really looking forward to going home not only to see my sister and mother but some of my friends who I have not seen since we left for college. Two of my best friends were supposed to come visit, but the plans always fell through so now being home for a few days provides with ample time to see all my friends. It is going to be like a big reunion when all my friends get together during the break just to chill and hang out without the stresses of school and practice at the front of our brains. At least for some people, I know that there is studying to be done at home as well as workouts that I have to do on my own at home. This is all apart of the job I have at accomplishing my goals, and of course I will do what it takes to get there. But above all Thanksgiving is the greatest holiday given to man, we should all be grateful because I know I am.

weekend

This weekend was pretty eventful and a little different from a normal weekend. I attended my first Maryland basketball game against Bucknell, the first of many. Anyway I met up with two of my friends and one of their friends from out of town and we arrived at the Comcast Center, where all the home basketball games are played, just as halftime was beginning. Just as a side note I would like to add that the cheerleaders at both the football games and basketball games lack that necessary skill called dancing. OK, anyhow my friends and I, despite arriving at halftime, got seats that were only five rows above the court level and directly to the right of the hoop, we were basically on top of the players when they flew out of bounds for a loose ball. I would guess that the reason we got such good seats is because we were playing Bucknell. I mean when we got to the game at the half we were already up by more than twenty points and when the second half began the Maryland men continued to dominate them. I know many of the basketball players because we all have to go to study table together. I had not really seen any of the them play though and it was special, the team does not have just a few good players, every person that came off the bench and into the game was able to contribute something either offensively or defensively. I was impressed by how much quicker they were than even I had expected, some of the players just blew past their defenders and finished acrobatic layups at the rim. Even the new Korean player, Kim, impressed me because even at his height he had enough speed to run with the guards of the other team. I can not even explain how crazy the crowd went when Kim stepped behind the three-point line and made it look easy. We ended up winning the game by thirty points. After the game and went back to my dorm and took a nap until about 12o'clock and then went back out to meet back up with my friends who went to the game with me. They had gone to Bentley's and had thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the bar. I had to guide them back to my friends apartment in the commons where they ate the Hawaiian pizza they had gotten from domino's and then we watched family guy, one of my favorite television shows until about 4am. I was pretty much spent from the day and passed out next to my friend on her bed.
On Saturday I woke up just early enough to run home and change my cloths to go the football game. Again I met up with my friend and a teammate of mine and together we enjoyed the football game in the rain. Even though the game was good we only stayed until halftime because we were all both hungry and freezing. I just want to say that Panda Express is the most delicious fast food place that we have in Stamp and it really hit the spot after being out in the rain for so long. After we dried off my friend Ashley and I went to the mall to pick up some things and then we headed to Bentley's. Despite having to wait on the line longer than usual in the freezing cold in just a button down shirt it turned out to be one of my better Bentley experiences. At the end of the night I was exhausted from all the dancing and pushing so I headed back home all the way across campus and passed out. All in all, it was a pretty good weekend, and I can not complain.

Lupe fiasco

I love music. Most people do, at least those who I've met in my life do. It may come as a surprise to many, and even to myself, that I have never had the opportunity to go to a concert. It is surprising to me because there are so many places in New York where concerts are held, I can not count how many Kanye West and Lil' Wayne concerts have been held at Nassau Coliseum or Madison Square Garden. I can not explain it I just never got the chance. However, that is all about to change now, of course it would now that I am in college and it is the perfect time to go see my first concert. To add to the excitement, I am going to see one of my favorite artist. . .Lupe Fiasco! Many of you know that on December 5Th he is coming to College Park, Maryland to perform at Richie Coliseum. I was so hyped to get a ticket to see him that me and a few of my teammates actually left one of our lifting sessions at the Varsity Team House in order to rush up the two hills to get to the booth in Stamp in order to get the tickets before the line started to form. It was a funny sight to see because some of my teammates have scooters (many of the athletes get them, I do not of course). Those of us who did not have scooters, such as myself hoped on the back of on of our teammates and about six scooters sped away from the Team House towards Stamp. Most of us were screaming because we were excited to get our tickets before the crowd. I know I was excited, as soon as we arrived at Stamp I hopped off of my teammates scooter and raced my other teammates to the entrance. Naturally I got there first, my desire was just too strong and I would not be the one who did not get a ticket. Fortunately that was not even an issue and all of my teammate got their tickets after they recited the password "richie rich" (do not ask me who came up with that password or why it was required, I just said it so I could get my ticket.) I got my ticket and I have locked it away in a safe until December 5Th arrives. It is that important to me.

THE PRESIDENT-ELECT IS. . .

BARACK OBAMA, the forty-fourth president of the United States of America and the VERY first African-American president in our countries history. This, as many can imagine, has a special significance to African-Americans because this is not just another run of the mill white president. For a change he is one of us, a black man. I will never forget the feelings that ran through me when I found out. I had fallen asleep waiting for the next president of the United States be announced and of course I turned off the television but that did not matter. I remember waking up and rushing to turn the television on for no reason in particular and Comedy Central was on broadcasting the John Stewart and Stephen Colbert special of the 2008 election. It was only 11:00pm at this point and did not think they had even counted all the votes. But just as I was about to turn off the television John Stewart stopped Stephen Colbert as he was in the middle of a sentence and told him and his audience that Barack Obama was elected president. At first I was ready to celebrate but then I sat back down on my bed and told myself that I was watching Comedy Central, how could this be true at all? I quickly changed the channel to Fox, nothing, then to C-Span, nothing again, and then finally to CNN where they displaying the electoral college votes in the lower right-hand corner. For anyone who knows about the presidential elections the person who reaches 270 electoral votes first is usually elected president. When I looked at CNN's display of Barack Obama's electoral votes I really was besides myself. He had two-hundred and something, I do not remember the exact number because I ran out of my room and down the hallway in joy and pride. I was screaming in celebration and running with my hands above my head. I was just proud that he had done it. I called my mother and we congratulated each other, I could tell she was smiling over the phone because of the way she was speaking. Soon after the riots and celebrations that ensued could be heard from my window, and of course I had to add to the chaos by yelling from the window. If I were to regret anything about that night it would be that I did not leave my building and join the celebrations. Nevertheless, I feel a great deal of pride and actually feel like I made a difference, especially being that it was my first time voting. This is still hard to believe and it is a dream come true. Again Barack Obama is the next president of the United States!!!!!

So this past weekend I went back home to the NY, it took two cars, a bus and a train but I got there. I had to wake up at 5:20 in the morning in order to get ready so that we could be on the road to DC by 6:00am at the latest but my roommate/teammate was procrastinating and taking his time getting ready so we left out a little bit after 6:00am and were rushing when we should not have been. We were to catch a 6:30am Bolt Bus from DC to New York's Penn Station. Rushing and already behind schedule, my roommate then had us driving in circles because he was looking at the GPS upside down and by the time he realized it was past 6:30am. We got the the street where the bus was supposed to be departing from and got worried that it was not there. Fortunately for us the bus was just leaving and we were able to stop the bus before it made its turn towards the highway to New York. The bus ride was exactly four hours long from DC to New York, just as Bolt Bus advertised online. I then took the train onto Long Island where my sister was racing and thoroughly surprised my sister because she was not aware that I was coming to see her. Although she did not race particularly well I think my being there at her race eased the disappointment and she seemed happier than she usually is after she runs bad. After we left the race course we went home went out to eat and just enjoyed each others company, after all we had not seen each other in over three months. After the race and eating I was too tired to do anything else so I sleep in my own bed for the first time since leaving for school, and slept like a baby. The next morning I was back on my way to the University of Maryland, I said my goodbyes and gave hugs and kisses and was back out the door. It was almost as if I had not spent any time with my mother and sister but all in all it was a good trip home.

Time to Elect

Finally the day has come; tomorrow is Election Day and what will be on of the most historic events in United States history. We will either have our first black president or our first female vice president. John McCain/Sarah Palin and Barack Obama/Joe Biden have been putting each other through the grinder and are fighting each other to the bitter end of their campaigns. Even today, the very day before the election, both John McCain and Barack Obama are on the campaign trail traveling from state to state trying to spread their last words of change upon us. Apparently neither of them can afford to take a break. I guess it is just as the old saying goes, "when you are not working someone else is." With the race as close it is neither of the them can afford to sit back and watch the other continue to press forward, working hard for every last vote that they can get. With all the drama surrounding the two serious presidential candidates, a third party visited the University of Maryland campus yesterday. The Independent party candidate, Ralph Nader, spoke in the Colony Ballroom in Stamp where he attempted to denounce the two-party system, but more importantly he heavily criticized Barack Obama while barely addressing John McCain. My question is why would he wait until two days before the election, knowing that he does not even remotely stand a chance against either Barack Obama or John McCain? After running as many times as Ralph Nader has for president, at some point he should have learned that the two-party system is dominant in this country, and that his campaigning two days before one of the most historic elections in history is useless.

Home

I am finally going to go home, it will be the first time since I left to come to the University of Maryland that I will be able to get some of my mother's good cooking (possibly a sample of the Thanksgiving feast) and sleep in my own bed. It will be the first time that I am seeing my little sister since I left for school since she did not come down with my mother and I. And of course, I am going to have to make time for my friends at home and see what everyone is up to. Anyhow the real reason I am making the four hour trip by bus all the way back to New York is so that I can surprise my sister. Like me my sister is a runner, cross country to be exact, and she is running in the race that decides who the county champs are and who gets to run at the State Meet, both indivdually and as a team. I know she's been practicing like nobodies business and sometimes she works to the point where she is too run-down to perform the way the team expects her to, but more importantly the way she expects herself to run. That girl puts more pressure on herself than even I can imagine, sometimes all that stress and energy is misplaced and she can function the way she wants to in those big races. My reason for being there is to simply make her feel at ease, if I have learned anything since becoming apart of the Maryland track and field team it is that you will never perform well or the way that you want if you do not relax. My coach relies heavily on that phrase when we are working out on the track and are clearly tired, he just tells us to relax. Hopefully by my being there and her not seeing me in months will make her listen to what I have to say and she can just go out there in the race and do her thing. She has been patient for so long, and I know that she is ready to bust out and have the greatest race of her life. I hope that this weekend will end up being that time. Other than that, I really am just trying to get some of that good home cooking that only a mother could make and take a "break" from the campus dining food.

steam roll

So tomorrow, Thursday October 23, 2008, my teammates and I face our first competition of the long upcoming season. Even though it's just a scrimmage, it's the very first competition most of us have had since last season, and for the freshman, it is the first college competition we will have. The unfortunate victims of this scrimmage are the runners of American University. I say it like that because they don't really have many sprinters that can compete with us. They do, however, have a few decent distance runners, but from what I see from out distance runners the American runners are going to have to be on a much higher level to beat them. I am excited to finally just sprint and cut loose against other runners besides my teammates. It will do us all some good to get a taste of what it feels like to "beat up on other teams" as my coach put it in the schedule for the week. I can not say I'm not nervous at all, it is my first college competition, but my coach made it a point to let us know that it was not a real meet. That's the way I feel, it is not official and it is only against one team, but at the same time I am excited to just get out there on our track with my Maryland singlet for the VERY first time and rip apart a 300 or a 400. Now I prefer a 300 but, now that I am in better shape than I was in high school I don't mind a 400 on a relay. If nobody is doing anything, everyone should come out to the track and watch the track team put down this American team tomorrow at 2:00pm, it won't take more than an hour because we are only running about four events and like I said before it is just between American University and us.

Sugar Junkie

I have been here for a little over a month and a half now and I have gotten the chance to experience many things that I would not have, had I stayed back home in New York. Something that I will always remember about just being in Maryland is the difference in music. I guess back home I was so closed off to other types and variations to what I perferred because I liked my music so much. I am mainly an R&B guy with a specific rap selection: Lupe Fiasco, Common, Ludacris just to name a few. I was sceptacle of groups such as N.E.R.D that put a twist on the original and mundane style of hip- hop music because their sound was different from anything else I had listened to. As I listened to them more often I began to like it. When I came here I came across what Maryland people call Go-Go music, something my roommate equivilated to violent vomitting. I thought I would be turned off to Maryland music from that point on. However, a week ago from today my a senior teammate of mine told me of this band he was in called 'Sugar Junkie'. He said it was similar to N.E.R.D, which I liked but I was still unsure because he is from Maryland, home of Go-Go music. Anyway I decided to Santa Fe last Monday night where they were playing. I sat through two acts before my teammates band performed. One was almost too amateur to believe and the other was not only boring but prolonged to the extent that people bagan to 'boo'. I felt that the night would end that way and I had wasted five dollars, but the wait and the money was WELL worth it. From the moment my teammate and his band got on the stage their was a vibe of coinfidence that the other acts did not possess. They jumped on stage as if they had to rush to be somewhere else even though it was nearing two in the morning on a Monday night. From their first song to their last they had the crowds full attention, well they certainly had mine. My teammate and his band may have borrowed concepts from N.E.R.D but in essence they had their very own style. They had remixes to newly produced songs as well as original songs that were beyond what I had expected to hear after having sat through such boring acts prior to theirs. Many of my teammates and I that were in the audience were right at the base of the stage marveling at the talent of our teammate as he sang through a voice changer. His performance was simply incredible and when they finished their fifth and final song we cheered for another song along with the rest of the audience, however, they could not because the place had to close. My teammate got off the stage and we all rushed him picked him up off the ground and hailed him as the Champ. I really admire my teammate and have great respect for him because he is so versatile, he seems to be great at everything. In a way that's the type of person and leader I want to be when I am a junior/senior. Anyway the name of the group is 'Sugar Junkie', you can look him and his band up on youtube, the videos from last week are there.

Rhetorical Analysis #2: “Who’s Afraid of Michelle Obama?” by K. Emily Bond

For this second rhetorical analysis we were given the option of analyzing one of the articles we selected for our “Experience and Other Evidence” papers, diving deeper into rhetorical strategies and methods. The article I have chosen to use recently appeared in Bust Magazine, and speaks directly about Michelle Obama mainly through the use of ethos, but there is also a clear and evident use of both pathos and logos due to question presented in the title that addresses a fear that the public has about Michelle becoming out first lady, as well as the statistical data found within the article. The intended audience of this article may be college educated women and older, mainly because this is a feminist magazine, however, this article is not limited to only black women by any means. In fact any person aware of the current political situation, male or female, who may have stumbled upon this article would be able to comprehend and react.

Upon my analysis of K. Emily Bond’s article it became evident that the primary rhetorical appeal that she utilizes is ethos. The plethora of sources she cites from various fields in commercial media, both negative and positive, to validate the points she makes about how Michelle Obama distorted image is powered by racial and sexist rumors and slurs. An example Bond gives her audience is the well circulated July issue of The New Yorker where the cover portrays Michelle Obama as an angry, militant black woman complete with army fatigues and an AK-47 strapped to her back. Other sources that Bond uses are address more positive views of the potential future first lady, such as Michelle Obama’s appearance on The View which was portrayed as “everyone’s best friend.” Bond also makes an appeal to our logic with statistical facts and percentages of black students in Obama’s class at Princeton. Of course, both of these appeals are tied into the pathetic appeal initiated by the question of the title, forcing us to think about what really is there for us to fear about this woman.

Stylistically, Bond elegantly intertwines the rhetorical appeals she uses into a cohesive and functional unit that easily flows from one to the other and throughout the article she injects her own commentary and thought based out the cited information she has provided her audience. Based on the intended audience that she is writing to, as well as, the topic she is discussing the structure of her arguments within in the article are strategically placed in order to most effectively drive her points home and she tends to do this more towards the end of a paragraph when all the outside information pertaining to the specific topic of argument is on the table. This approach allows the audience to weigh all the information for themselves. Bond’s style of argument is particularly effective because she shapes and molds the issue at hand so that she has the last say, and that the very last thing you recall from her article is a point that she proves.

Finally, what makes Bond’s argument so effective is that she addresses several topics of stasis theory including conjecture, because of the questions she presents within the title as well as within the article about rumors about Michelle Obama. Another topic touched upon as well is value. Bond’s reference to this topic provides the key to the effectiveness of the argument because the main issue at hand in the article is whether or not the publicity that Michelle Obama is right or wrong, good or bad. Through her rhetorical and stylistic methods K. Emily Bond has successfully argued a position efficiently.

rhetorical analysis journal

Rhetorical Analysis #1- Volkswagen Video

For my rhetorical analysis journal I choose to use the “VW Unpimp” advertisement for the humor it injected while attempting to sell a new model of a car. I think the audience is clearly directed at those who can drive and in particular the newly licensed male drivers, upperclassmen in high school and slightly older drivers looking for their first car. This commercial is effective at hitting their intended audience because those interested in their first car are looking for something that will make them seem attractive and of course will “look cool.” Something even more elementary that is evident within the commercial is the need to feel sexually attractive, what better way for a male to feel attractive to a woman than with this brand new Volkswagen. Both the “cool” factor and sexual appeal are demonstrated in this commercial presenting us with opportunities to analyze the pathetic and logical appeals, as well as the logical fallacies in the commercial.

Pathos, the primary appeal in this advertisement, employs a humorous and hip German engineer, a man who is clearly keeping pace with modern times as well as young and extremely attractive woman who seems to be his sidekick or assistant. From the manner that they dress to the way that they speak it is made evident to the viewer that they are hip and cool in the way many young people with their first car want to feel, in a funny way. Jason, the young man, portrays the image of a teenager wanting to feel “cool” by flaunting what he believes is an acceptably “cool” car. Through pathetic appeal, the ad’s employed actress makes Jason feel as though his car isn’t good enough, effectively making the viewer feel as though their idea of a “cool” car is not what they thought, and that the only car that is cool enough is the new model Volkswagen. This, I think, blends right into the logical appeals the commercial uses in that simply if you want to be socially “cool” buy this new model Volkswagen. Logically if Jason really wants to be socially acceptable then he needs to get rid of his car, The Flame, and get the car they are selling. This provides the ad’s logical fallacy.

Here we see the commercial’s abuse of the rhetorical appeal of logic, a post hoc fallacy. In the commercial we have the man dressed in all white, a relatively “cool” guy, trying to persuade Jason and viewers to get the new edition of the Volkswagen, a car he himself probably drives. Next we have the man’s beautiful assistant who is dressed identical to the man helping to persuade us in the purchase of this car. Together this forms the belief that because this man drives this new Volkswagen, he was able to attract this woman to be with him. The car being the cause and the effect being his beautiful assistant. Due to societies mentality about pretty woman and cars this commercial makes for a very effective advertisement for young drivers, males in particular, looking to get a nice car that will make them seem “cool” and attractive.

videos i watch at 5:30 in the morning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=volIlLCZ3nM- the very first one I watch


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDGKwBKnqds- no work no glory


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BirIEDYrw0Y- patience


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCRS0hQctus- work before glory



I have known about these commericials for about a year now and watched them on occasion but starting about two weeks ago I woke up and put one on because I was waiting for my roommate and it just really motivated me because I know this is what it takes to be the best. So now every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning when I wake up early to run hills or go to the weight room I watch all of these video's to motivate me but also to reflect on what I have already done, and to look forward to what I dream of in the future. The video's sum it up the best in that the early workouts are necessary, that working hard is an all day event and applies to every nuance of our lives. Patience is required throughout the struggles whether it be the workout itself of just getting up to be there on time, we all must perservere and continue to reach for whatever it is we want; that there is no glory to those who only dream and wish, you must get up and earn your keep because champions are defined by what they do when nobody is around to see them. Finally, if this is what you love to do, if this is what you were born to do- then you will become what you already know you are. Endurance and faith in myself, as well as knowing what is within me allows me to do what is I am doing, what I was made to do.

some good news

Some good news, as you all should know next weekend is parent weekend. I don't know about all of y'all but my mother is coming down and my mother and I are tight close. I'm just excited because I feel like I have not seen her in months even though it has only been a little over one month. I know that when she comes down all the stressors that I felt during the course of the week or from Saturday workout on the track will dissolve when she gets her. I know we are going to go out to eat somewhere and I love eating, I want to show her some of the spots I know of so she can enjoy a good meal away from home. I did want her to meet my teammates and friends but a lot of people are also going home for the weekend. It'll have to wait for another occasion unfortunately. The only thing I'm worried about really is that she is going to see my roommate and I room and ask first what happened and then ask me to clean it up to her satisfaction trying to be hardcore mother. But I really don't mind a little bit of instruction from her, I am just glad that she will be around for a portion of the weekend and I can show here how I am living here. I know she will enjoy it if she knows I am having fun.

this is going to be a rough week

Since school started I have been steadily getting acclimated to my daily run-around with classes and practice. Waking up in the mornings earlyfor practice and then heading to class and then back to practice after is starting to feel normal. Now I am coming to end of my first practice cycle and I am looking at one of the toughest weeks ever. I have got the normal hills at 5:30 on Monday morning, which we are up to 11. Then on Tuesday morning we have lifting at 6:30, but not just any normal lifting session, we have got maxes where we must lift the max amount of weight that we can is all area specified as many times as we can. Tuesday, as the Lord would have it, is also always the toughest day of the week for me because my classes from the time I end lifting until practice starts in the afternoon at 2:00, a workout practice which if I have not died from the days activities yet will most definetly kill me. Wednesday, a generally gracious day only requires me to go to two classes and pool run for two about two hours. But I am back to the grind on Thursday in the weight room and another workout at practice in the afternoon.
Friday should be a shakeout for Saturday's workout at 9:00 am SHARP workout on the track, those are always fun.

sickness

For the past week I been dealing with this sickness that just keeps lingering. It started last Sunday night when I slept over my friends house and woke up sweating as if I had just ran practice. I flet like my temperature was defineitly around 1000 degrees even though the air conditioner was on blasting that night. So I got up and went to go lower the temperature even further to around 55 thinking that everyone must have been hot in my daze. . .wrong. Now come to think about it I was definetly hallucinating that night because I couldn' fall asleep and kept thnking about weird things, my brain must have been boiling at that point so I splashed some water on my face and body and went back to bed. About and hour later I woke up again chilly and cold but not in the way that I would normally feel from the air conditioner because I had blankets wrapped around me. I thought then that I might have a fever so I woke up my friend and asked for some advil, that helped out alot for the rest of the night and day until I got to practice and just wanted to sleep, then the headaches started coming back while I was doing bounding drills with the jumpers. I felt so drained and while drilling in the longjump pit I had to watch ever out jump me, people who normally wouldn't and that bugs me. That night though I just went home without doing any treatment after practice or going to study table and slept. Later on my friend brought me some Orange Juice and Swedish fish and that helped some more but its been lingering on since.

NARRATIVE

For my paper on Experience is Evidence, I will be referring to a past experience that many of you may relate to now and may not later on. This is for anyone whose ever been told that you can't do or have something; that no mater what you did, how ever way you perservered to get where you were at, you would ultimately fail because you weren't cut out for. I've experienced this on a number of occasions, but I guess it all begins when I was in third grade and my old dusty teacher told my parents that she thought I had ADHD. She stated that I would never be able to become a successful student without medication or at least the assistance of a doctor’s advice. That old lady didn't have a clue about what she thought she knew; I never went to the doctor, my parents never even called they just enrolled me in karate- another tall task to ask of me because kids used to say I would never be any good at sports. I admit I was a little bit like Steve Urkel when I was younger, but not by choice and really wasn't interested with baseball or soccer so during game time I did what I wanted. The main reason I joined a karate school was to learn how to focus and channel all the energy I had into a task-it served me well.

Here I am years later, I've accomplished so much in academics and athletically when a lot of people say that I couldn’t. I’ve matured and progressed, I’ve put in the work, and I’ve sweat and bleed for what I needed and wanted just like anyone else who wants something does. But if so, then why does the color of my skin still pose a problem in some circumstances?

my aching in class

This is a request by one of my classmates who frequently witnesses me agonizing in pain early in the morning during English 101.  It goes like this, I run track and to be good at anything you have to go above and beyond whatever you've done in the past.  I'm trying to be real real good, so the rest of my teammates and I all train hard, extremely hard.  In fact, my frequent moaning that many of you have probably witnessed during class can be attributed to early morning workouts that began normally around 5:30 in the morning and last until about 6:30.  The workouts usually consist of running numerous hills, no less than eight of the double hill that can be found on the side of the Comcast Center, or awaking for a nice jog over to the Varsity Team House for early morning weight training (just because I'm a freshman[crap].)  But these workouts are different from anything I have ever done or even thought about doing in high school, I mean once we begin we don't stop for ANYTHING, it truly is continuous motion over the course of a 45 to 60 minute period.  Back in high school it took my teammates and I almost triple the about of time that it takes to complete something half as complex, we were clowns.  Here they don't mess around, if my coach says practice starts promptly at 5:31 am then we WILL be running at 5:31 am.  But I'm not complaining, in the past two weeks I've really come to admire and even enjoy the practices, because what starts on time usually ends on time!  And of course I've been putting my all and everything into running, that's what I do best, but it has been taking its toll on me and I thought it would only be fair to give everyone a fair heads up for what to expect the rest of the year because my moaning will be consistent with ridiculously early and rough morning workouts.  The Moaning is for the best.   

engl101 first assignment

1. My name is Chris Parker and I'm from New York, proud of it, and I went to Mepham High School on Long Island. I came to the University of Maryland to study Cognitive Neuropsychology because I am interested in becoming a psychiatrist one day.

2. In high school I did a lot of writing for most of my classes, DBQ's for social studies, research papers for science and psychology, and of course writing in English. The only real structured writing I've done at the University of Maryland so far was the essay we had gotten on the first day of English class. Outside of school I did not write very much.

3. When writing a paper I usually brain storm about it first then outline my thoughts and then streamline it to fit the theme of the paper. I find that the easiest part of writing a paper is writing the body paragraphs where all the information is, but find that the hardest part for me is jsut getting the whole thing started.

4. The type of writing that has given me the most satisfaction is free response, or broader topics of discussion to start that may widdle down something very specific.

5. The longest and most challenging paper I have ever had to write was probably at DBQ in social studies that had about 10 or 11 documents on it and I had to use all of them. I did my usual outline and streamline but I learned that it takes me a long. . .long time to write papers like that and I have to give myself plenty of time to write them.

6. If I remember learning anything about writing from other courses that I found useful it was defineitly outlining.

7. As a writer I feel as though I have a lot of ideas that could be written about but I have a severe weakness when it comes to applying them to a task or a prompt. What I am most dissatisfed with in terms of my writing is my inability to effectively refer to a specific task, or bring and essay back to what a topic means as a whole.

8. I think that the part of the writing process that I will need the most help with will be just getting started.

9. If I had a choice of topics for a research project, the issues I would liek to write about would most likely relate to race and how society has viewed it over time; something of that nature.

10. When I think of the term argument I think of verbal fighting and trying to make my voice heard over another. I think that taking a course that focuses on argumentation will help me get my voice heard more frequently and in a more intelligent manner.

maryland life

I miss New York. How come it seems like everything down here moves slower, just at like a leisurely pace; the way people drive, walk to class, and even talk. I'm not hating on Maryland people at all because I have a few people from here on my track team and i love them all but it just seems like compared to every where else New York life seems kind of rushed. I mean i thought i had patience until i met some of these people but they put me to shame. Being from such a fast-paced New York lifestyle I guess I don't take advantage of taking in what surrounds me, instead i just settle for being aware of it. i must say i admire the lax life people enjoy down here and i'm trying to adapt to it the best that i can. On a real note though if anybody drives i'm sorry this may not be you but please step on the gas when your driving, really route 1 is not so breathe taking that someone would have to drive 16 mph to take in the view. Speaking of route 1 though, I think that chipotle (especially Chipotle), Noodles and company, potbelly's, domino's and all the other restaurants around there should all start accepting terp bucks. I feel like the terp bucks don't cover anything accept hidden places in the University such as the common shop and the union shop. If anybody knows another place that accepts terp bucks let me know.