PlanetUSF

Holiday Break

Wooh! Zoom! Splash! These are the sounds I hear when I am driving in my new car flying by the earth and its many ingredients! My holiday break was invigorating because of the fun adventurous ways I live. My holiday break, which I like to label it college break, was time away from hard work and studying. Holiday break was fun time for me as I got a new car, hung out with friends, spent time with my girlfriend, and just took it easy.

Racing through the streets in my new car equipped with a 12 cylinder engine was quite eccentric. I was without a car for almost 2 weeks and out of nowhere my father drops a red hot car in my driveway and claims it’s mine, it was an McLaren F1. My first drive in the car was exhilarating! When I started the car the engine it growled like a bear. There was one feature that my dad didn’t tell me about was that it was a jet also. The doors would turn into the wings and the mufflers would be the jet burners. I was one of the first to have that luxury and possibility I flew around the U.S. The best part was it ran on diesel. That was one of the loves of my life as soon as I stepped inside of it. I had a huge load of fun going over to friends’ houses, playing sports with them, and just goofing off. Football was our number one activity followed by watching it on TV. We would cook some burgers and sit down watch a good game of football. My friends and I won a trip to the Bahamas. I spent a lot of time with my girlfriend. Our activities included: watching movies, going shopping, going to the beach, going to dinner, and just hugging each other very closely. All of this I did was a way for me to relax and take things easy.

My break was fantastic because of the activities I enjoyed with my friends. I have a new car to share with my friends and girl friend. One thing I got to do was flying in a car which many people can’t do. The Bahamas was a fun adventure to experience with a bunch of friends. I got good exercise during the break from all the sports I played. So are you ready to make your holiday break nearly as exciting and attention drawing as mine?!

The internet community can be a very dangerous place but also very beneficial. Websites like myspace connect you with your friends, family and even your favorite bands and offer protection against undesirable acquaintances. You can set your profile to be private so that only your friends can view it and so that only they can communicate with you. The only thing to be wary of is your own level of maturity. Some people do not know how to protect themselves against online stalkers and can be very naive.

I think that today’s generation has grown out of internet chat rooms and is more focused now on myspace, facebook and AIM. Chat rooms first became popular when I was in middle school. One would log into a room from their town or that included their interests. I very quickly realized that chat rooms were not the place for me. The first thing that a person asked you was “asl?” (age, sex, location). Which quickly evolved to “asl pic?” and then simply “pic?”. If one wants to make friends and online chat community is not the place.

In terms of the internet affecting our personal communication skills I don’t think that it has. In everyday conversation I never hear anyone say “lol” or “brb”. Also many people don’t only speak online, we still talk on the phone and in person and rarely ever comment on each other’s webpage.

The internet can actually be a way to make new friends. Blogging sites like livejournal have specific communities that relate to one’s topics and the people most often share interests. The internet is not necessarily harmful as long as one knows how to properly participate.

This holiday was absolutely nothing eventful. I couldn’t travel anywhere because no one would go with me and because I had no money. Considering that I had no money I decided to get a second job. Where did I decide to work? FYE. I had always wanted to work at a record store but for some reason when I was looking for places to work FYE just did not occur to me. At the mall I went to buy my tickets for Buzz Bakesale and without even realizing I asked if they were hiring. They were. “Want kind of a position?” they asked. “Seasonal.” I suddenly had an interview and a telephone questionnaire that asked me if I ALWAYS tell the truth.

This was a very bad idea. The uniform was all black pants, shoes and socks. Considering that I owned none of these I immediately went to Rack Room Shoes and then Old Navy. Upon opening the door to Old Navy I saw a sign that said “Now Hiring Seasonal Employees.” I probably kicked myself three times because Old Navy is one of my favorite stores.

Working at a record store was not the experience that I expected. The only people that needed help finding anything were those that were looking for a rare artist and because they were rare there was usually only one in stock. That one C.D was impossible to find. I would spend fifteen minutes looking in the stock room only to go back to the customer saying that it could not be found. Then within another five minutes I would be back there again looking for a different C.D.

The worst part was that I ended up missing out entirely on Christmas Eve. For five days in a row I had been working 14 to 16 hour days opening at one job and closing at another. Both required me to be on my feet at all times and one required me to deal with both crazy customers and employees. At my first job, which was a chocolate and ice cream shop, I ended up burning my hands and having to go to the emergency room and deal with an employee who was doing heroine in the bathroom. What got me the most was standing on my feet at all times. I spent the entire night Christmas Eve sleeping and asking everyone for foot massages. Fortunately I made a lot of money but it is now all spent.

Yesterday, I wrote an application that targets compliance for FEC campaign finance digital disclosure. More accurately, I’ve written it over about 4 months now, but the disclosure part is being written this week.

Yesterday, the USHoR voted 425-0 to congratulate Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy. Apparently the 10 members who didn’t vote were asleep.

Zain Nensey
Week 4, Blog Entry #1

1. Both official history AND the history reflected in art are important. Official history is the statement of cold, hard, facts, the story as the story is supposed to go. The official history is intended to give us an idea of the situation and how it happened. Yet there is a flaw with official history- it itself is a form of art that is influenced by the people who wrote it. The cliché goes that the victors write the history, which is true. I recently read a book in which a great hero is transported to another dimension, a dimension where he is one of the greatest of villains, a man so evil that only his master can outdo him in cruelty. He defects to the other side, which slowly falls apart after its leader is captured, and the villains of the story take control of the government. The moment they do, the side of good is immediately relegated to being considered a terrorist organization. They are continually lambasted in public, especially our dimensional traveler, who is seen as a traitor by the government. In the end, our hero is forced to turn to strike down his former master because the man was about to take the role of the head of government and chief of state, becoming all-powerful in essence. Although not alone, he has very few people on his side, and they are the last people he would choose to send out on combat missions. Only his win allows the dimensional traveler have the story go his way once again. The story, however, does not show the form of history as art. History as art revolves mainly around a commentary of the social life of an entire country at the time. Stories can be great commentaries about our society. One of my personal favorite examples of this is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. When I read it, it seemed that the Ministry of Magic was an awful lot like our own government here in the United States- it had a leader who refused to believe there was a problem, a defamation or outright indifference towards those who were willing to point out the problem, and a problem that the current people in power are completely unable to solve, or are unwilling to solve it, though the real world trends towards the former, whereas the book trended towards the latter. Official history has it’s uses, but it can not always be relied on.

The USF Bulls trip to Birmingham, Alabama was something I will never forget. I wanted to go to the PapaJohns.Com Bowl so bad, but at first the travel plans were too expense. So I got one of the free student tickets just in case something came up. I spoke to one of my friends who knows the President of Student Government and told me that they had a plan coming out that no one yet knew about that was for $75. That included your bus ride up there and back, one dinner meal, and your hotel room. I jumped on that right away. So we had to be at USF at like 6:00am. So we left around 6:30am with a USF police officer following us the whole way there. We started out on I-275 and we were only there for about maybe 10 minutes when the bus driver pulls over to the side of the road and the bus just died. No wonder the trip was so cheap! We everyone got off of the bus and waited for another one to arrive, which took a little while. Once we got there, after the twelve hour ride up there, we checked into our hotel room and went out to dinner. On the way to dinner, we had to drive up a very steep hill to get to it. So as we were pulling up to the hill, our bus bottoms out! It was so funny! Our bus was almost like a see-saw. So the USF police officer put on its lights and they worked on the bus while we ate dinner. The food was absolutely terrible. Most people got a steak that tasted like some kind of dried up beef jerky. Plus the serve was horrible. Once the great game was over we headed back to Tampa where we arrived around 3:00am. After all that had happened, it made sense why the trip was so cheap compared to all of the other ones. At least the Bulls won!

Our methods of communication are nothing like they used to be. Nowadays we use short hand. For example we write w/ instead of with, b/c instead of because, and so on. There are tons of these little short hand words that make life online so much easier. If gets a little confusing though when you go from writing in the “online” way to writing in the “appropriate” way. Even when writing my first blog for this class, I started writing short hand and I had to catch myself a couple of times and correct it. I remember one day in class that we were talking about the English language and how it has changed so drastically over the years. I jokingly brought up the point that in maybe twenty years or so that we might all talk like how we write online. That would be a crazy world to live in! People going around and laughing the letters l - o - l. I joke about that now, but that might happen one day. Some day in the future, whether it is in the near or far, society might write English papers in short hand and that might be what is considered “appropriate”. Maybe not. Who knows? In today’s world, people go online and look for companion to spend their rest of there lives with. There are supposedly surveys that you can fill out and that survey tells you what kind of person you are looking for and in some cases, it actually gives you the person. The English language is changing everyday. Now we have the word “google” as a part of our dictionary. We use that word so much; they had to put it in the dictionary. As the English language changes, so does they way people communicate. What will come of this? I don’t know. All I know is that Shakespeare definitely didn’t see this coming.

Over the winter break, I had a blast! Those two to three weeks of no school was much needed. I did not travel anywhere over the break. During the break, I work for most of the time. It never hurts to get extra money when you have time to do it. I also stayed home on some nights and just relaxed and did nothing at all. That was also nice. Some people just get caught up with going out every night or having something to do every night. Sometimes it is just nice to stay home alone, all by yourself and just do nothing at all. It sounds a little weird, but it is true. The most exciting part of winter break was definitely the holiday! In being Jewish, I celebrate Hanukkah. For those who don’t know about it, Hanukkah is eight nights long celebrating the oil in the lamp that lasted eight nights long, that was only suppose to last one night. That is the jest of it. So on Hanukkah you get presents, usually one present a night, give or take. My family and I always go over my grandmas’ house for Hanukkah and exchange some gifts on the first night of Hanukkah. I got lots of money, which is always wanted and needed, baseball tickets for spring training games to see my favorite baseball team the Philadelphia Phillies, lots of clothes, and USF Bulls items. On the last night of Hanukkah I went with a bus load of people to Birmingham, Alabama to watch our USF Bulls beat the ECU Pirates! That trip was so much fun! The bus ride was so long, but I would do it again in a heart beat. On our way going there, our bus broke down. It was so funny! It was pretty cool to because we had a USF police officer follow us up there and back, which made us feel like we were special.

3. I have always been concerned about not having enough time to complete my writing before it is due. This is mainly what stresses me out about research papers and contributes to the sloppy, rushed, and not so good sounding final drafts that I sometimes am forced to turn in. It takes a good share of time to complete the research necessary to write a decent well put together research paper and when I feel that I am going to run out of time I generally start to slap sentences together just to have something down. When this is the case, I wind up lacking detail about the subjects I adress. My stressing over time constraints does not allow me to well organize and explain my thoughts, I barely get them written down. I am beginning to think that this stress is mental and not a real issue because in the past I have had up to 4 months to do a huge paper and still suffered from this. I have a job and other classes to occupy my time, so I obviously can not spend days at a time just researching then writing for one class. Even with a four month deadline I still felt stressed about not being able to finish on time. If I could find two day’s worth of time in each month for four months to spend on the assignment (which would be 192 hours) that should still be plenty of time to do a decent research paper. Maybe if I could put my efforts towards concentrating on the paper enstead of worrying about how much time I have left I could come out with a better paper next time.

In recognition of Black History Month, publisher Thomson Gale has launched a free Web site comprised of historical facts and figures, biographies, relevant Web links and lesson plans. This site is designed to help students, teachers and families celebrate the month. Access to lesson plans, biographies and quizzes are available. A list of titles that will help students gain a deeper appreciation for African-American heritage also is available, as is a timeline that takes visitors through nearly 400 years of black history.

http://www.gale.com/free_resources/bhm/

On the first day of break my girlfriend went home, which for her is five hours away from me, for the entire break. This meant that I would be pretty much alone here in Tampa as she was the only person I spent any real time with. The first week of break was spent working at Chili’s, sleeping and watching movies. By the end of this week I had exhausted my personal supply of movies and began browsing the internet for other means of entertainment. I spent a lot of time at my dad’s house in Clearwater, either hanging out with my siblings, or playing video games and stealing food. When Christmas came around I spent the night at my dad’s and went over to my mom’s for two separate, but both wonderful, Christmas mornings. We had a good number of family come over and good times were had by all. My new eyebrow piercing went over better than I had thought with my dad, and the rest of my family loved it. I got a motorcycle handed down to me and I love it oh so very much. It was nice seeing my older sister again especially because she moved to Orlando a while back. After all the festivities, I returned to my apartment in Tampa and busied myself with work and sleep mostly. On new years I worked until about midnight so I got to ring in the New Year with a big group of people. To top it all off, my girlfriend came back towards the end and we were both delighted to be together again.

5. I strongly believe that web sites with blogs (such as myspace and face book) are not helping kids, but are aiding in the dumbing down of our generation. It has caused the creation of a new language, one that only most kids my age and older people who take the time to crack the code understand. This new language that is being developed is not only simpler than plain English, but it also allows people to be lazy. Perhaps the purpose of this language was so that people could get lazier at talking. Not many people I know would rather pick up a phone to call someone than shoot a short handed instant message across the net. Typing, especially with all of the new web abbrieviations is much easier, and exerts less energy, than actually talking to someone. Instant messageing is actually my method of choice for communication. If bloging had never been invented and became a fad back in the late 90’s, maybe peoples letters to each other would have more meaningful content, like back in the old days. Email, I suppose, was the only real form of web based communication until instant messaging and then blogging came about. Emails are generally formal letters, now days people don’t even take the time to write out a nice account of their day to their friends in a wholesome email, they simply condence it down to something like: “omg I went shopping today, wth there were no good sales, gtg, ttyl, rtflol! , lylas<3” in their blog or as a post on a friends blog site. I think that the internet is a good tool if used properly. As long as people don’t adopt this blog short hand as their professional style I think it’s ok but I have a feeling that eventually it will be accepted as formal.

That’s right.

There’s already a company that exists only to make fun of Ted Stevens.

It was the year 3033 in the aftermath of a massive nuclear war. What caused this war? The answer lies in a coup de tat that took place in 3030 when the General of the American Armed Forces, Raikus Black, gathered followers and sacked the capital, taking complete control within days. He quickly gained popularity and, by popular vote, waged war on the world.

The world was already chaotic…the war on the world was just a fancy way of saying that America would get involved. America would go directly into the fighting, decimating all that opposed them. By this time, their numbers and morale far exceeded everyone else’s, whose numbers and morale were relatively low in comparison. It was almost no contest. In three short years, America would sweep the world, removing all aggressive powers and restoring peace.

The people saw this as a good thing. In the day and age, peace was the only thing they desired. But they were deceived. Raikus Black desired complete and total power…unopposed by anyone. Eliminating the aggressive powers was only the first step. Dominating the people afterwards would be easily established. Thus, in the year 3033, Raikus Black became the first dictator of America, his power unopposed.

Thus, our story brings us to the year 3040, where Raikus’ dictator ways has long been unopposed. That is all about to change, however. Our setting takes place in Chicago, Illinois. Not much has changed in the bustling metropolis since the earlier days of the years of 2000. The governor of Illinois resides here, who goes by the name of Rue Sconivia.

His secretary, a small woman with raven black hair, green eyes, and a fair complexion, was in his office filing papers for him. He was not in today, so it was up to her to make sure he was organized for when he returned. She could run this state by herself, were that her position.

It was late…much later than anyone would think about staying. She, however, wanted to get the work done so that she could take it easy the next day. She kept the lights out, working only by desk-lamp light. She would not hear the ever so light footsteps getting closer and closer behind her. She would not hear the slender blade slide from its scabbard. She would, however, feel the blade against her throat.

“Don’t move…don’t scream…” the figure holding the blade whispered to her. “….unless you value your life.”

She wanted to weep…she was going to die. She just knew it.

As with most writers in this day and age, I have my own particular style that best fits my strengths and diminishes my weaknesses. When taking this Composition course, I have to sit and wonder…why are there so many rules? So many guidelines to how things should be done…it makes writing an absolute chore as opposed to the joy of setting one’s work out into the world…making the writer worry about how the paper will be graded or the book will be published…as opposed to being proud over how it was written.

I must say…when taking this course, I find myself a bit discouraged. Will I be up to snuff? Can I really follow the guidelines and pull off something “acceptable”? In answer to my own question, I will try my best….though my best may not be enough.

I suppose that, in spite of all of these rules, I have taken a liking to fictional writing. I know that there are rules here as well, but…I am more free to do as I wish. The rules are far fewer and much easier, in my opinion. You don’t have to worry about citations, which are by FAR my biggest pet peeve. Your ideas are your own…to do with as you wish.

I see that citations are necessary for…plagiarism or whatever. But…all these rules seem to be taking it a bit far. At least….that’s what I think.

I suppose one could say that my holiday break was….hectic. A lot went on, to say the least, but I will begin as most stories do: from the beginning.

When school let out, I got to go home for a few days. That’s always a nice little deviation for me. No matter how bad the week prior to the weekend is, going home always makes me feel a bit better about myself. I knew, however, that I had to enjoy the quiet time while it lasted, for I had duties to uphold. Much to my dismay, I had to perform at the bowl game with the USF Herd of Thunder. Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t mind doing that. The problem I had with this was the fact that the game would be held on the 23rd of December. And, seeing as how we were in Birmingham, Alabama at the time, I would be getting home early Christmas Eve.

The bowl game aside, I still spent Christmas as I always do; with my Dad and his side of the family. We would always go to my Aunt’s house, where we would proceed to do a number of Christmas activities such as going to church, singing Christmas carols, and eating Christmas dinner. In all honesty, I do not see the point in all of the activity…Christmas should be….more family oriented as opposed to religously. I guess that is simply sentiments of the elderly.

After some much needed rest and relaxation, New Year’s Eve finally rolled around. I would be going to my dad’s house to celebrate…by myself, unfortunately. My%2

I am maintaining what I hope will be an official USF Jazz Blog at Blogspot. I am planning on cajoling more USF jazzers into contributing. Keep your eyes peeled.

I achieved one goal for this year already: I am principal bass of the University of South Florida Symphony Orchestra. This is an absolutely excellent large ensemble under the direction of Dr. William Wiedrich.

The ensemble’s next concert is February 15 at the Palladium Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida at 7:30 pm. The program is:
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Schoenberg|Fanfare on Motifs of “Die Gurrelieder”
Chausson|Poeme, Op. 25|Carolyn Stuart, violin
Helps|Gossamer Noons|Joanna Curtis, soprano
Rorem| Symphony No. 3

With the exception of Chausson, all od these were written in the last Century. Though not necessarily revolutionary, it is exciting to see an educational ensemble programming post-Classical/Romantic music.

My view from the front desk:

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Topic #5

Online communication has brought on a whole new perspective to how people meet new people. When you are out in the open it is hard to go up to someone and strike a conversation, but when you’re on the computer no one can see you. You have a bigger sense of comfort. A couple of years ago meeting people online was not accepted as it is today. Now the internet is a way for busy people who don’t have time to go through the whole dating scene and going out, they can easily put in their information and will be paired up with a like individual. But this all has drawbacks, when you are talking to someone online how do you know you are talking to the person they say they are? It is so easy for people to become a victim of identity theft online or even become a target for a stalker. Many internet blog sites like Myspace.com are a huge “breeding ground” for child predators. But there are initiatives that people need to take advantage of if you are going to interact on a site like that; for example, privacy settings and not exploiting yourself or others on your page.
With internet communication becoming so popular typing out every little word and grammatical sign gets time consuming. This is where the internet lingo happens. New styles of abbreviating words and phrases have become so popular that I do believe it is affecting the way students are writing in school. When writing a paper I try hard not to use any of that language, but in my class notes it is full of just letters instead of writing “why” I put “y” and so on. With the internet becoming so popular I think that soon everything is going to be done in the comfort of your home sitting at a computer desk. The best way for me to keep in touch with my friends is to chat with them on facebook.com or email. My mom even tells me to email her when I need something.

I edited this post if you hadn’t noticed. Here, I will post about pregiven topics and things that generally intrigue or irritate me. This “blog” site was created for Enc 1102, but if I like it I may continue.

When writing a paper, the writer must be cautious of two things. Their sentence must always contain both a subject and a complete verb. Also, the writer must keep in mind the a subordinate clause is incomplete and cannot stand on its own. Neglecting either of these two rules leads to sentence fragments. Sentence fragments are incomplete sentences. Though is our daily lives, we use sentence fragments all the time, we must be cautious when writing, for a fragment disrupts the reader from the flow of the work, however they are sometimes acceptable

One must also be cautious of run on sentences. Run on sentences are too many sentences crammed in together, in one large and inappropriate sentence. Run on sentences are never acceptable. One could fix a run on sentence by adding a period or semicolon wherever necessary. One could even, after identifying the clauses, make one subordinate, and therefore having a complete and readable sentence.

Comma splices are like an ill attempt to fix a run on sentence. An example would be to place a comma where a period deserves to stand. This can be corrected by changing the comma to a period, or to a semicolon.

For example:
I went to school today for my first day of school, I was suprised at how nice the teachers were.
Here, it is obvious that there are two main ideas, and that they should be divided by something stronger than a commo.
There are many ways to edit this.
First, could insert a semicolon where the comma is.
- I went to school today for my first day of school; I was suprised at how nice the teachers were.
Though this is acceptable, it is still under construction. It would be more appropriate to write:
- I went to school today for my first day of school. I was suprised at how nice the teachers were,
This is perfect. Two ideas in two seperate sentences is the goal we a shooting for. However, we could also replace the comma with a coordinating conjunction, such as and or but. This serves to combine two differnt ideas.
- I went to school today for my first day of school, and I was suprised at how nice the teachers were.

THough writing seems easy, it is easier to make simple mistakes. We should write like we talk. We should be more cautious, and double check for sentence fragments, run on sentences, or comma splices.

Feel free to comment on any articles you found of interest here…

Boy, where do I start? After reading the McGuinness chapter, it looks like Florida takes the cake as an excellent example of what not to do in the policy making/governance process.