PlanetUSF

DSC_1027, originally uploaded by walter_april_haynes.

Here is Tadpole sporting his new USF cap at Busch Gardens Tampa.

DSC_1027, originally uploaded by walter_april_haynes.

Here is Tadpole sporting his new USF cap at Busch Gardens Tampa.

Another day anoher entry.

Sitting on the floor, playing with his pirate lego, was Spencer but he no longer had the long, flippy hair that they had all coveted at different points of time, it was now kind of short and sticking out in all odd directions.

“Oh Spence!” Ryan sighed as he knelt down in front of Spencer. “What did you do?”

“I cut it!” Spencer exclaimed with a bright smile on his face. “Isn’t the bomb diggity?” Spencer had taken a liking to the movie Bring It On Again.

Spencer was incredibly proud of himself but Ryan managed to convince him that it needed a little bit of trimming. Spencer consented to Ryan fixing and they both went down into the kitchen where Ryan located the stool and proceeded to drape a towel over Spencer’s shoulders.

Just as Ryan was about to make the first snip Brendon came bounding through the door screaming “OH MY GOD! I THINK SPENCER CUT HIS HAIR!”

Brendon’s jaw immediately dropped when he saw Spencer sitting on the stool and Ryan looked at him with an expression that said “Ya think?” as Spencer exclaimed “I know! Isn’t it awesome?”

“Actually, I think it looks kinda….” Brendon began and Ryan started mouthing to him “Shut up shut up shut up.”

“….like it needs a little work.” Brendon finished his sentence. “Sit still while Ryan fixes it for ya.”

It’s these moments that make Ryan happy that he is the head of the household. He can completely get his way with everyone even though Spencer’s been slowly trying to steal his reign.

Spencer and Brendon returned home four hours later with a costume and a new tricycle. The purpose of their trip was not to get Spencer a tricycle but once he saw it had to have it and Brendon couldn’t say now to his pleading eyes and putting lips.

In order to find a costume that would both fit Dylan and that Spencer approved of they had to go to Target , Wal-mart, K-mart and finally Pets-mart. The costume that they decided upon was of Sherlock Holmes costume that was meant for a terrier but once Brendon explained who Sherlock Holmes was Spencer said Dylan had to be him because then it would be like he was from the game clue.

Brendon and Ryan were both told to keep it a secret from Jon because Spencer wanted to surprise him and he ran up to his room to hide the costume under his bed. Fifteen minutes later Spencer still hadn’t returned downstairs so Ryan went up to check on him. As he walked down the hallway he saw that the bathroom light was on so he went in to shut it off. As he was just about to flick the light switch he noticed something brown and fluffy on the floor. He opened the door wider and turned to see numerous tiny piles of brown hair surrounding and inside of the sink.

“Uh oh!” he exclaimed as he turned to walk into Spencer’s room.

After Spencer had had his bath and Brendon had taken a shower Jon left the house to go run some errands and Ryan was in the kitchen cleaning up the mess. Brendon therefore took it upon himself to help Spencer pick out his clothes and get dressed. As he pulled Spencer’s hoodie over his head Spencer exclaimed sharply “Oh no! Dylan doesn’t have a halloweeeeeeeen costume!”

“Oh, well. Dylan’s a cat and ya know, they don’t really make Halloween costumes for cats. Brendon replied as he struggled to get Spencer’s arms through the sleeves.

Spencer just stood there with his body completely lax staring and Brendon with a frustrated expression. “But you have a costume and I have a costume and Wyan has a costume and Jon has a costume but Dylan doesn’t have one. Andifdogscanhavecostumes thenithinkthatDylanshouldgetonetoo! He might feel left out.”

Brendon leaned back and let out a sigh which caused Spencer to cross his arms over his chest and furrow his eyebrow.

“Okay. Lemme brush your hair and then we can go to target to look for something.”

As they rode in the car to target the music playing over the radio was muffled out by Spencer’s excited ramblings about how awesome his costume was, how much candy they were going to get and listing off all the different costumes he thought Dylan. Amongst them were Superman and of course Spencer’s favorite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Donatello. Brendon couldn’t help but get excited himself and joined in on Spencer’s rambling including suggestions of scaring Ryan in his sleep with masks.

Jon’s assumptions were confirmed after Spencer pulled him through the swinging door into the kitchen. The room was almost completely covered in flour, eggs and chocolate chips.

“What happened Brendon? Did you get confused with the directions that Aunt Jemima gave you?” Jon asked raising his eyebrows.

“No.” Brendon replied curtly looking up from the waffle iron. “We decided to make them from scratch and honestly the flour sifter didn’t want to cooperate.”

“ Unh huh. I see.” Jon answered then pointed at the chocolate surrounding Brendon’s mouth. “I also see that you felt the need to sample while you were cooking.”

“Shut up man! You know I can’t resist chocolate chips!”

Jon then turned to go sit at the kitchen table where Spencer had already positioned himself atop three pillows in order to reach the table. At the same moment Ryan walked through the door now with his hair neatly combed in his way that made it look not so neat and proceeded to move his eyes about the room. He then looked at Brendon from top to bottom also noting his chocolate stained face then shifted his attention to Spencer and was equally not as pleased.

“Ok. After we eat you are taking a bath and getting dressed for the day.” He said to Spencer and then turned to Brendon “You too.”

Fortunately for Ryan there was no objection on either of their parts and all four of them sat down to eat their waffles.

The next morning Jon awoke to the sound of rumbling slowly fading away. He knew the noise was Spencer running scurrying out of his room and down the hall so he just rolled over and pulled a pillow over his head to block out the light. Only moments after falling asleep he was awoken again by a light poking on his exposed shoulder and he rolled over to see Spencer looking down at him, Teddy still clutched to his chest thumb right back in his mouth.

“You didn’t sleep with that in your mouth all night did you?” Jon asked him skeptically.

“No. I did good last night.” Spencer replied with a grin spreading across his face.

“You did well last night.” corrected Ryan as he stood in Jon’s door drying his hair with his towel.

Spencer turned to look at Ryan at gave him look that said “That’s what I just said.” And turned back to Jon.

“ It’s time for bweakfast. Me an Bwendon made waffles with chocolate chips. You want some?”

“Brendon and I.” Ryan corrected Spencer again still standing in the door way but now with the towel slung over his shoulder.

Spencer didn’t even turn around this time he just looked down at Jon with this extremely hopeful and proud expression and just nodded his head as if to say “Yeah. It’s totally worth getting out of bed.”

“I suppose I could go for some waffles.” Jon moaned as he sat up and stretched his arms over his head yawning simultaneously.

‘Gweat!” Spencer squealed and he grabbed onto Jon’s hand and pulled him of bed and through the door, rushing past Ryan.

Now that Jon was awake he couldn’t help but notice that Spencer was completely covered in flour and was even trading it on the carpet through the hallway. He knew the kitchen must look like a disaster.

Jon had just begun to feel the weightlessness of sleep take over his mind when he felt the edge of the bed depress with the weight of his cat. Jon slept with his door open since Dylan normally liked to join him in his sleep and he wouldn’t have let this disturb him except that Dylan didn’t move from the end of the bed at all and seemed slightly heavier than normal. Jon opened his eyes and rolled onto his back lifting his head to see Spencer kneeling at his feet wearing his favorite Spiderman footie pajamas. Spencer had one arm clutching his teddy close to his chest and the other was occupied with his thumb in his mouth (a habit that he was trying to help Spencer get over even though Brendon seemed to think it was incredibly adorable).

“What’s up, Spence?” Jon asked, only moderately groggy since he hadn’t fallen completely asleep yet.

“I had a nightmare.” Spencer replied removing his thumb from between his teeth only to get those few words out then it went directly back into his mouth.

“I told you that you shouldn’t have watched that scary movie.” Jon said to him with an authoritative tone which he always tries so hard not to use. “Those kinds of things are even too scary for Dylan.”

“I know. But I wanted to stay up with Bwendon.” Spencer countered. Then he looked at Jon with his pleading eyes and asked “Can I sleep with you?”

“Only if you promise to keep your thumb out of your mouth.”

With that Spencer’s hand slowly crept away from his face and Jon pulled down the blankets to let Spencer climb underneath. Once they were both securely under the sheets Jon turned onto his side and wrapped his arm around both Spencer and teddy and just before falling asleep Jon felt the familiar presence of Dylan hop up onto the foot of the bed and curl himself up into a ball next to Spencer.

Project Four for ENC 1102 will be to write a satire based upon the same outline of Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”. Jonathan Swift was an Irish writer who never revealed his real name in any of his publications and in 1729 he released a satirical pamphlet that proposed a solution to the national hunger that Ireland was being faced with at the time. The pamphlet proposed that to deal with the overpopulation people should eat their babies. This would solve problems with the starvation as well. He proposed that certain women be meant for breeding only and that even the skin could be used to make handbags and gloves. At the end of his pamphlet he made it known that he does not even live in Ireland and that this would have no affect on him whatsoever. For project four you should research an issue that is prevalent in the world today and propose a completely ridiculous solution to it that reveals a fault within the society. At the very end you must also include why this would not have any affect on you and you are simply an observant bystander. Your essay should be a persuasive piece and be between 1000 and 1500 words. It should be double spaced in 12 font times new roman and the pages should be numbered. You should include a works cited page and have at least three sources from the news. These can be either from a newspaper, radio show or television show.

Anyone know the secret to not going crazy this week?

Spam Link

I am trying a new service called Project HoneyPot, they claim by linking a particular link on my websites, I will be able to collect data on bots. I get about 30 spam comments a day, I figure it would be a good test. If it doesn’t work then I know its not worth my time.

My major that I have chosen is something that I have completely stumbled upon. In my senior year of high school I chose to take a course at the community college called “Introduction to Business”. At the time I had wanted to be a business major and study international business. This course was simply an easy A that would teach me basic terminology. In this course two of the terms that we studied were “arbitration” and “mediation” and the context that we learned these terms in were related to labor union disputes. If a labor union cannot come to a reconciliation with the company then a mediator is called in, hears both sides, and then gives a suggestion as to what should be done. If the two parties can still not come to a consensus then an arbitrator is called in, does the same thing as the mediator except they declare a final decision that must be carried out as opposed to a suggestion. This really resonated in me and since then I have wanted to be a mediator or arbitrator working with labor unions. I still chose to be a business major, but now I wanted to study Human Resources. As an undergrad I would complete the General Business requirements but then for Graduate school I wanted to attend a school that had an Industrial Labor Relations (ILR) program. The ILR is a school that teaches business but also looks at it from a perspective of history, sociology and psychology. These are all subjects that I have always been interested in but have never really wanted to make a career out of. The fact that I could incorporate these things into my major was really appealing to me, but then I took accounting. I’m really not very good at accounting and it was not interesting to me at all either. Therefore I have chosen to be a pre-law student. I’ve chosen Economics as my major because through that I can learn a lot about the economy and in turn the employment society. This I could then apply to law and work with labor unions or businesses.

The film that I am discussing for my project three is A.I. Artificial Intelligence and it was directed by Steven Spielberg. Like all Steven Spielberg films it is pretty much amazing. The film is set in a post apocalyptic era where there has been a shift in the poles and many major coastal cities have flooded, including New York City, forcing people to move further into the country. With this technology has improved and people have invented robots (known as mecha) to help them with daily tasks. The purpose of each mecha can range from that of a nanny to a prostitute; however each mecha is programmed for specific tasks. The film opens with a group of scientists (who build robots) where one man wants to create a mecha that will truly love; he wants to create a child. A family then, whose son is terminally ill and being kept alive only with the hope of a cure being found, adopts the first child mecha, as a trial. This mecha is called David and is modeled after his creators own deceased son. Once David is programmed he loves his mother, Monica, unconditionally and strives to gain her love. The family then sees the return of their biological son and David begins to feud with him and vie for Monica’s attention. Though not purposefully he puts both Monica and her real son in danger and the family is forced to abandon David. Monica knows that if David is returned to the center where he was created, he will be destroyed because once a child mecha loves its parent the programming can never be removed. She then chooses to leave David in a forest with his robot teddy and warns him of “flesh fairs” where anti- robot people destroy Mecha for entertainment. David is captured by them and there he meets the lover mecha, Gigolo Joe. David is released from the fair because he pleads for his life and as this is a new concept for people they believe he is a real child. David takes Gigolo Joe with him to find the “Blue Fairy” whom as he read in a fairytale (Pinocchio) can make him into a real boy. His quest ends with him traveling to New York and finding a replica of the “Blue Fairy” under water in Coney Island. He them spends millenniums frozen in this position gazing at the “Blue Fairy” with his one wish in mind. The future mechas, who have replaced humans on the planet earth, find David and give him one last day with his mother.

A few weeks or so a tragic event occurred at Virginia Tech wish caused the lives of many students lives. The occurrence was a horrific shooting that took place on Virginia Techs campus. The media immediately jumped at the story and took it to themselves to let the American public aware of went on at the University. Their approach was rather direct and revealing. The shooter has left material to explain his ambitions and as to the reasons why he committed such a violent act. I find this to be misleading. It seems like the media wanted us to for sorry for the shooter. Though many found it repulsive they still continued since tv ratings is all that really matter to these individuals. We can’t blame them entirely though. What they did was an act of human nature. They saw a gain and took advantage to gain ratings. We can also its our own faults for giving in to our human nature as well. The media know of the powers of understanding the psychological impact that people get when they see something and how they react. So in other words the media knew that we would as the public will keep on watching. They totally avoided the immoral ethics in the situation. What they presented could be very influential to some individuals and yet sparks up a new mad man. The showing of those videos was a great mistake on the media’s part.

On my second semester as a student I have taken ENC 1102 which required a portfolio assignment to exit the course instead of the usual final exam that most college classes require to complete the course. As a prelude to this portfolio’s cover letter I will state what I enjoyed about the course, what was helpful, and how it can be improved.
First of all the most enjoyable thing about this course are the required weekly blog topics. The instructor did a good job at presenting the students with a chance to express their selves with the blog of your choice for the week. The mandatory topics did a good job in opening the student’s minds into relevant material and express their view on the topic. The in class discussions also sparked much needed interest in the course. As for improvements there not much to say but perhaps some peer reviews would have been nice in order to see in a larger scale what people think of your writing. The penguin handbook was a very helpful quick source for writing the required essay assignments. The little handbook went through citation which was really helpful. It also had good tips on research and structure for composing your essay as well as possible. Overall ENC 1102 was an enjoyable experience as far as college courses go.

In the DuMont ad for televisions found in the November 25, 1944 edition of The New Yorker, the writers of the ad try to appeal to the pathos of the audience. They talk about television bringing families new hope and information and of connecting them with the outside world. They say that television will bring “tomorrow” into the living room and can even bring “…new products into millions of homes.” The advertisement does this not only through its words but also through the picture that accompanies it. The illustration that accompanies the ad is of a world shining a light down upon a family sitting in their living room. Through this the writers of the ad are portraying a television illuminating its viewers and giving them the knowledge of the world right in their living room. This can be somewhat ironic of the future because today some people’s worlds do revolve around their television and this has become something negative in our society. The writers then go into the technological advancement and the precision of the manufacturing of their product. They use terms like “pioneering” to emphasize how new and great an invention the television is. They then finish by saying that their company is prepared for the great and advantageous future and question whether the readers will be as to insinuate that in order to be prepared for the future one must possess a television.

The Virginia Tech sports teams are known as the Hokies (except for the swim team who are the H2Okies), but not many people actually know what a Hokie is. The Hokie (or Hokie Bird) is an imaginary bird that was created from a cheer by the alumnus but was not created the mascot until the 1970’s. The original teams were called the “fighting gobblers”. The rumor was that because the food on campus was so horrible both students and athletes would “gobble” down good food any opportunity they had. The mascot was of course a turkey and for an extended period of time they even had a live turkey parade around games. This turkey had a trainer and was taught how to gobble on command. This live turkey was used until the 1960s when the first costumed mascot was introduced. However, during the 1970s a new football coach disliked the fact that the team mascot was based on the fact that the players “gobbled” down their food so he began to circulate the term “Hokies” that the alumnus’ cheered. The coin was eventually picked up and the mascot was changed to a turkey with the colors maroon and gold. The Hokie Bird (who is a costumed mascot) has held many traditions throughout the years of its first appearance. He always leads the charge onto the field as students cheer and jump to Metallica’s “Enter Sandman”, he also does bench presses for every point that the team scores and he has crowd surfed through the stadium. The person who portrays the Hokie Bird is not supposed to reveal his identity to anyone until graduation, at which point he wears the gold shoes to the ceremony.

My opinion of the airing of Seung-Hui Cho’s multimedia package is that it was a poor and selfish decision on the part of the news station. One can argue that the media had every right to air it considering that it was their property and since it was mailed directly to them from Cho. In defense of my argument I think that the media should practice some discretion of what they air on television. Many people were most likely very hurt by what they saw, those that knew the victims and those that knew Cho. Though this tragedy is known nationally, not everyone wants to see into the head of a murderer. Cho was the one who wanted this broadcast for the entire world to see, he also killed more than thirty people. The school itself chose not to release Cho’s creative writings that he had done as assignments even though they went deep into what Cho was potentially feeling and thinking. This tragedy has been turned into a spectacle because of the media. There have been many photographs and videos taken of very personal moments of those grieving for the victims. There should be a level of privacy when people’s personal lives are brought to attention, especially those of the Cho family. They already had to cope with what their son did in his last hours, but to see his brutally on a television screen must have been torturous to them. I am sure that they feel extreme guilt because of what happened and the media should take into consideration who they are affecting not only what rights they have.

In this semester’s English Comp. 1102 class there were several things I would have changed, and several things that I thought were great. Firstly, several of the books we were required to buy for the class were rarely used. Although this was mostly due to time constraints, alternatives such as online sources could save students time and money. In addition, peer evaluation was not used enough in the essays for class. I’m not sure what the policy on that process is, but I find it particularly useful when refining my writing. The teacher, on the other hand, Mrs. Shannon Tivnan, was a terrific professor with a great personality. Although the task of stimulating interest in English can be challenging, she managed to connect with students and was very helpful on each of the assignments. Some of the assignments themselves were fun, such as Project 3, due to their unusual nature. Style presentations, or anything having to do with the Style handbook were tedious and unhelpful. Many of the lessons within the book are available online, or can easily be taught in class. To streamline the class, the topics for each paper should be given to students the first day of class. Each individual project could still be given its deadline, but at least then, the students can start the next project immediately after the first, or even in another order. In this way, when the student’s have time to do their projects they can work on them, as opposed to a set amount of time to start and finish.

For the final draft of the Reubanstein Affair series, please go to http://reubansteinaffair1.blogspot.com

When the massacre at Virginia Tech occurred, many people were scared for their lives. To this day, stories about the survivors and victims of that tragic day are still being aired on the news. Knowing as much as we possibly can about the events that unfolded that morning can only be a good thing. The thought that airing the media that the killer made could, in some way, honor his actions is absurd. Many people do not understand why he did it, or who did it. The media gives precious insight into both of these, but still does not answer them fully. If we do not know every angle of this devastating incident, how can we, as a society learn from it, or at least prepare for it? Yes, he know has more publicity than he ever would have gotten before, but he is dead, so what does it matter. In no way are we condoning his actions, but merely examining the information we have been provided. We may not like the information we receive, but it’s all we have for now. I, personally, would be angered if they received some evidence and did not share it with the public; as would many others I assume. It is a balance of ethics when something like this occurs. We need to be able to view the evidence available, but also refrain from strengthening or encouraging this kind of behavior by indulging in the delusions of an unwell person. Careful and objective presentation should be key. Finding the right means of presentation should be the primary concern, because the presentation itself should be a given.

Your son? – Officer Clayton asked the man in front of him. He had never seen this man before now, and knew nothing of his son.
Yes, my son Jason. Where are they taking him? Can I see him? – The man asked calmly.
Jason is your son? The Jason that just shot that man over there? – Clayton asked pointedly.
Yes, he was only trying to protect me. As you can see, I was abiding your instructions, and that man over there, was capitalizing on the situation. Because he had just been shot, he missed me, but only by a few inches – the man explained.
Who are you? And who is that? – Officer Clayton asked, rather annoyed at this man’s matter-of-fact tone.
I am Zach Reubanstein. That is my brother Samuel Reubanstein, also known as Sucicide Sammy, a prominent member of the Ramone Crime Syndicate of Boston – the man responded, almost sounding amused by his own response. Officer Clayton was not amused. He was more confused than he was before talking to this man.
And who is Max Reubanstein? – Clayton asked, notably angered by the last few answers to his questions.
He is also my brother. He and Samuel were twins. Max went by Manic Maxie of the same crime family – Zach said as to the point as he could as to not further the young officer’s rage.
So you killed this “Manic Max”? – Clayton asked.
No, that would have been Samuel there. I suppose I should start from the beginning. I have known for quite some time that my brothers were up to something, but I never knew exactly what until just a few days ago. When I found out, I tried to reason with Max, he was always the more rational one, to try to talk him down from being part of the mob. At first he wanted me to join as well, but as we talked, I think I convinced him that crime was not the right way. I assume he went and tried to convince Samuel much the same way I had convinced him, but I’m afraid that according to the rules of the Ramone Crime Sydicate, if any member attempts to form dissent among other members he must be killed. I told him not to talk to Samuel about it, he was always so thick headed. After I found out about Max’s death, I rushed off to find Samuel before he caused any more harm to my son or my town. When I found him, he accused me of making him kill Max, and came after me. I managed to get back to my house and get my gun, but even as I did so, he met me with his, and that’s when you came in – Zach finished and looked up toward the police officer’s bewildered face. As it turns out, there was a warrant for Suicide Sammy’s capture, dead or alive, and therefore Jason had committed no crime. Zach Reubanstein’s story checked out and soon they were reunited once again. They both had to be put into the FBI’s witness protection program to keep them from the Ramone family’s retribution and were moved to another small town three states over. The warehouse where Officer Clayton’s car lay sideways was discovered to be Samuel’s makeshift headquarters while he was in town, and after killing Max Reubanstein he had posted a picture of him on the wall as a sort of memorial in his honor. Officer Clayton was awarded an order not to carry a gun at any time until his firearm training had been completed at least three more times and a bill for the damages to his squad car. Thus The Reubanstein Affair, as it came to be known, was finally resolved.