Overall Blogging Experience

This blog was for ENGL 1030 section 012 at Clemson University. It was a little helpful in that it allowed me to write and somewhat improve my writing skills and perhaps my analysis skills; however, I do believe that a majority of these blogs were unnecessary. The blogs on the assignment sheet were helpful in that they allowed me to assess my writing as well as to analyze the media and its effects on society. Other than that, it was just a bunch of annoying busy work. Nevertheless, I still somewhat enjoyed it. I got to talk, or type rather, about things that interest me, usually soccer, and about activities that I did and adventures that I took! This was great because it allowed for the creative aspect of my writing to take control and I finally (even though it may not be apparent through the reading of my blogs) mastered voice. If I could do my blogs over again, I would do all of the assigned ones and then make each individual blog a chapter in a story that I would write. This would have allowed my imagination to run wild rather than to vent about things that happened to me before I wrote the blog. Also, this would have helped me to be creative and stick to a strict blogging schedule (instead of doing all of them on the last day even though I didn't) because I would actually look forward to blogging each day. Summarily, my blogging experience was not too bad; it had its ups and downs because there were a lot of moments where I did not want to write because it seemed boring and I was only inches from my Xbox, but I do wish that I could have written an adventure story instead of boring you with needless out-of-context stories about nothing. Technically I still could, but it would not count toward a grade and I wouldn't get as much satisfaction out of it since no one would read it; what's the fun in that?

Last Assigned Blog

Reflecting on my composition process from how it was at the end of high school to where it is now, I do not see that much of a change. I definitely put more work into writing this year than I have in the past, but the reward seems the same as I am receiving the same grades on the same types of assignments. This is probably due to the fact that I have taken this class before in high school I just did not pass the exam, not because of my lack of writing ability, but because of my over confidence in my ability to write (I didn't write my last essay and that gave me a 2). Since I already learned the stuff that I learned in this class it did not cause my writing to get better, but any improvement of writing was due to personal work ethic in that I wanted to write better and longer so I did. My view on composition has changed because I realize that I do still need it for the future to write reports and such. Project 5 is definitely my best composition of the semester and I am most proud of it because I did a full analysis, I did not take any shortcuts, and I did all of the research required in order to get an A (in my opinion). Also, I wrote my 5th argumentative essay and this was the only one that was not a cliche argument. It was also the longest paper that I have ever written on my own as the longest one I ever wrote was with a partner and was a 15 page research paper about a project we were doing involving hydroelectric systems. Overall, I believe that the class was a great refresher course, but I think that it was unnecessary in that I did not learn many new things.

World Cup Draw Part 2

In continuation, Group D is my next favorite that will be good to watch. Uruguay has Luiz Suarez  who is a great striker who has had a great impact both for his club team Liverpool and for Uruguay in the past. In the last World Cup, while Uruguay was in the quarter-finals, Suarez had a goal saving handball in the box that saved an equalizing goal, however it resulted in a PK. The penalty taker hit the crossbar on his shot and thus the red card that Suarez received was clinical in Uruguay's path to the semi-finals. They went on to be the second runners up in the Cup, although the absence of Suarez in the games following his red card was crucial in the following loss. Costa Rica beat USA I believe in the CONCACAF Gold Cup, so they are no joke either. Also, England and Italy have been soccer powerhouses since the sports invention. This may supply even more interesting games than the group of death and I'm sure that there was an argument over whether Group G or D should have received the title of Group of Death, but since Christiano Ronaldo is in Group G that is why it won the title. Group B will also provide great games to watch as Spain, who is the best team in the world, has several World Class players (Xavi, Iniesta, Casillas, Pique, David Villa, Pedro, Cesc Fabregas, and the list goes on). The Netherlands is no joke either. They have Arjen Robben, a member of Bayern Munchen (pronounced Bayern Munich) who is considered to be a top 5 player in the world after the two previous Champions League seasons and finals that he performed top notch in. Also, Robben van Persey (or RVP) plays for the Netherlands. Last year, he received the Golden Boot in England for scoring over 30 goals in the season. RVP and Arjen both performed extremely well in the last World Cup as well. These two teams are the only ones to watch for in Group B, however overall this World Cup may be one of the best ever, and it only begins in six months! I can't wait!

World Cup Draw Part 1

I am sooo looking forward to the World Cup of 2014 in Brazil next summer!! The draw for the group stages of the Cup happened yesterday, Friday the 6th of December, and from the looks of them it will be a very interesting summer of soccer. The way that the draw works is that all of the countries' names are placed into separate balls. These balls are all put into a bin that mixes the balls and then the balls are drawn and opened, placing each country in order of drawing. In other words, the first four drawn are placed in Group A, the second four Group B and on and on until all 8 groups (up to Group H) are filled. The groups drawn are as follows:

Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon

Group B: Spain, the Netherlands, Chile, Australia

Group C: Colombia, Greece, Cote D'Ivoire, Japan

Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy

Group E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras

Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iran, Nigeria

Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA (Group of Death)

Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, Korea Republic

The best groups to watch for are Group G, obviously, Group B, and Group D. Group G is the titled the Group of Death. This is because it is a group of very good teams, mainly Germany and Portugal, that in history do not perform poorly in World Cup fixtures. It is unfortunate that USA is in this group because our history of playing Ghana in the World Cup is not good, Germany is one of the best teams in the world, and Portugal has Christiano Ronaldo, the best player in the world right now. Even though the USA may not make it past the group stage and into the knockout round, this will still be a great group to watch out for.

Battlefield 4

Battlefield 4 is the best first person shooter I have ever played. Many people say that Call of Duty has the best online shooting games, which I used to agree with, and some would say that Halo was the best in that category because of its shields and vehicles. Battlefield in general combines these two games with vehicles and great shooting experience (not to mention way more realistic) and puts them all on huge maps with teams amounting to 32 players on each side with awesome vehicles, a completely destructible environment, and overall epic warfare! The vehicles in the game are pretty difficult to maneuver because I am not used to the controls and they do not make much sense to me. However, with time I will become a master of the sky. Usually, when picking a "kit" including all of my weapons, gadgets, and field upgrades, I choose to be an Engineer because the Engineer Kit has a rocket launcher called the Stinger that can be used to take out enemy aircraft by locking on and firing. This gets me a lot of points even though I am not killing many people. Also, I use the recon class which allows me to use a sniper rifle in order to take out enemies from range. The sniper, when shot, will show the path of the bullet after shot (which is really helpful since the shot is affected by gravity, wind, and weather) and then I will adjust the scope in order to get a headshot (hopefully the target has not moved before the bolt action rifle is, well, bolted). The maps can stretch for a scale mile or so, as each game can take up to an hour depending on the game mode, and the teams always seem huge. Despite this, my favorite addition to Battlefield is the destructible environment. If you are driving a tank and you shoot a building at its supports, the building will come crashing down as if it had happened in real life, killing anyone in it or below it that it falls on. Overall, Battlefield 4 is freaking awesome.

Hiking Fail

Yesterday, Saturday, November 23, 2013, at 11:30, two friends and I ventured out toward Seneca out towards Yellow Branch Falls to hike a trail that was leisurely in order to get a nice view and take a few good pictures. When we first got there, we parked at the Ranger's Office, thinking that the trail would begin there as the address, which we found on the internet, we typed in to the GPS brought us to it. We attempted to find the hiking trail ourselves at first by taking a picture of a map at the information station outside of the office and then proceeding to walk down the winding road. In hindsight, that was probably a bad idea since there were at least 3 blind curves that we were walking on and one speeding car could have done us in. We walked down the road and got to a curve that by observing the map looked like we had passed the start of the trail. Rather than continuing on, we turned back to go to the Ranger's office to see if we could ask him where the trail was. Before we got to the office, a DNR State Trooper truck pulled up next to us. The trooper asked us if we were alright, and one of my friends quickly said yes, and as I said "um" to ask him where the trail was, he said,"Okay then, take care," and darted off. We were very confused at that point and figured if we continued back to the office that the Ranger could help us out. When we got back to the office, we were met with the unfortunate discovery that the office was only open Monday through Friday. Well then... Our brilliant idea was if we go to where it looks like the trail starts on the map and go into the woods there, maybe we will stumble onto the picnic area or part of the trail. We then proceeded to wander through the woods for two hours. We pulled down trees, climbed them, crossed creeks climbed steep sloped, and ran in to God knows how many spider webs. Eventually, we ran into a creek that looked wide enough to be marked on a map, as there was a creek that ran along the trail to Yellow Branch Falls. So, we took off our shoes and began to wade through the shallow, cold-as-f*** creek. At one point in the creek, we decided that we could not go any further so we simply darted out towards the road bare footed. This was also a bad idea as we walked on thorny leaves and one of my friends was stung by a yellow jacket or something on the way out. After all of that traveling in the woods, for two-ish hours, we came out only twenty yards to the south of where we went in. Quite a distance... So, even though it was still fun, we did not find the trail before we left and we were a little disappointed at that. However, on our way out., we passed a sign for a picnic area and across the street from it was a sign labeled, "Yellow Branch Falls Park." We realized that when walking on the road earlier, we only had about twenty more feet until we would have seen the sign. Needless to say, it was a messed up trip.

Memories

My memory (and this may sound arrogant) is one of the best I've ever known. I certainly do not have an identic memory, but it may be partially photographic as I seem to remember images the best of all, the faint image of the periodic table in the back of my mind has even saved me on a few exams. The memories I have are usually all happy ones because as a human I tend to block out the bad things that happen in my life (unless an extremely important life lesson is involved). Some of the things I remember include vivid dreams from when I was four years old, what I wore and what I did on my third birthday, and other trivial details about events and details about my old house that I moved out of in the second grade. There are two dreams that I distinctly remember, and am willing to share, from my childhood, forgive me of their weirdness. The first dream involved me and my friend who was babysat by the same woman at the same time as me, Karen, walking down an aisle at Lowe's. While we were walking, she turned to me and asked, "I wonder if there are any dinosaurs in here?" Just after she said this dinosaurs, at least 20, popped out of nowhere and began chasing us. Karen got eaten and then I remember jumping into a pile of pine-straw inside of the hardware store to hide from the dinosaurs. Just as I hit the pine-straw, I woke up and landed on my bed, as if I had actually been running around my room. The second dream is a little bit weirder, although I remember less of it. The only thing that I do remember from this dream was that I was kidnapped by a Rumpelstiltskin looking animated Christmas Elf. He then proceeded to take me to an alligator infested dark swamp and run away in slow motion while laughing. Crazy right? On my third birthday, I remember that I wore a shirt that was divided into horizontal thirds, the top was red, middle green, and bottom blue. I also remember jumping off of the counter next to the coffee maker and proceeding to open my presents (I got a Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and a fake campfire (its hard to explain that last one)). I also remember the entire layout of my old house that I moved out of 10 years ago and that while in it I remember I was so proud of myself one time for wearing my Lion King onesy pajamas all day one day. I certainly do not have he best memory ever, but I do have a good memory, although it is very strange.