blog 74

Dear Future Students,

I don’t know if any of you will be reading this because I was never showed any letters from past students but I will write this to you anyways. The theme of the course was science fiction, now I’m not a big sci-fi guy so when I first found this out I was a little unsure of whether or not I would like the course. I have learned that sci-fi isn’t what I imagined it to be and if you keep an open mind it won’t be that hard for you either. I have become a much better writer as a result of this course but it has come at a price. Although nothing in this course is especially difficult it is extremely labor intensive. We have to do one hundred comments on each other’s blogs and we are required to write a blog every single night, including the weekends. This is a huge pain in the ass. Because of these blog posts (including this one) I have had to go out of my way and take time from studying and other things to complete these assignments. Although it is hard to keep up with these blogs I think that they have definitely improved my quality of writing. You know how they say practice makes perfect? Well they’re correct! The more you write the better you get at it so keep up with these blogs. They’re a pain in the ass but they will improve your writing. I’m not sure what else to say so I’ll leave you with this, this class isn’t very difficult but its easy to fall behind so don’t, the best thing you can do is just keep up wit your work and do assignment on time.

Good Luck,

Harris

blog 73

A while ago I bought a knockoff Rolex and it seemed to be made really well and it ran almost perfectly since I bought it. Earlier today I noticed a piece from the bezel was missing and it’s a really small piece so it could have fallen out anytime and anywhere and because of its size it would be impossible to find especially because I have no clue where I lost it. I remembered the guy who I bought it from telling me to call him if I had any problems with it and luckily I still had his number so I gave him a call and he agreed to replace it. He didn’t have that particular watch at the moment but he said he was going over to Vietnam within the next few weeks which is where he buys the watches so he said he would buy me another one there. He said he would do it for free which I thought was really nice but I don’t think he’s loosing too much, if any, money by replacing it because, I don’t know what he pays for them but I’m almost certain that he’s making at least 500% profit on them. That would be really cool to go over there to Vietnam or China or somewhere where knockoff watches were relatively cheap and plentiful. I wonder how much they cost over there? I got mine for $100 but that’s pretty cheap for a knockoff of this quality. I’ve never found anyone else locally who sells them and I’ve never been in a store that carries knockoffs but at least online they normally cost well over $200.

blog 72

Blog about anything time. So recently I’ve been doing these blogs while watching TV and I think its effecting the quality of the blog postings and also what I remember from the TV episode. I like it thought because sometimes when I watch a TV episode and I blog at the same time I hardly remember watching the TV episode so I can go back and watch it again later and I’m still entertained so right now I’m watching this episode of Burn Notice but I’m probably going to watch it again later. When I rewatch episodes after blogging while watching them the first time I always pick up more things when I rewatch it that I didn’t notice the first time. Maybe the reason I didn’t notice these things the first time is because I was blogging while I watched them or maybe I just see more things the second time because I’m watching it again. Lately my TV’s really been pissing me off. When I watch something on demand or something that’s been recorded it repeat freezes and its only fixed when I restart the cable box and even then the problems start back up after a little while. Its doing it right now and its frustrating me because its hard to get into an episode or a movie when it keeps pausing and u have to pause the TV then sit there for a few minutes then pressing play. Then after a few more minutes the TV stalls again and you have to do the same thing over again.

blog 71

Where we supposed to watch this in classSo we never watched this episode in class so I’m just going to assume that this is supposed to be another blog about anything blog. I’m working on my common place revision and I think its going pretty well. I had a conference with the professor and she had some really good ideas for my paper that I’m trying to implement. My topic is obesity so I’m writing a satire about it but in my first one the tone wasn’t extremist enough so the other day I went to the library for a couple hours and just tried to get mad at fat people. I have a pretty mild personality so this wasn’t that easy to do but after thinking about it for a while I got in the mood and I just started ranting. When I finally stopped I looked back at it and I was a little surprised at what I had written but it wasn’t written very well in terms of grammar. But there were a lot of good parts so I guess I can take my old paper which had a lot of logical arguments and this paper which had a lot of angry extremist ideas and stuff and mash the two papers together to make something that makes sense but also has that extremist satirical feel to it. I though it would be easy to write a satire but its turning out to be a lot harder than I thought it would be. Well, that’s two hundred and fifty words, bye for now!

blog 70

This blog is supposed to be about the relationship between the cylons androids and dolls but I don’t remember what the androids or dolls are and I didn’t see enough of Caprica to really understand what the cylons are so I’ll just keep typing whatever pops into my head because I don’t know what else to write. As I’m typing this I’m sitting on the couch under a blanked watching boardwalk empire. Its cold in here and I was looking for a sweater to put on but I couldn’t find a clean one so I started looking for my snuggie which I couldn’t find so I just grabbed a blanked. This Boardwalk Empire show is really good, its like the sopranos but from the prohibition era. Its super violent and the effects are really good. The plot is alse excellent and since this is the first season there’s been a lot of plot development. Its been really interesting to see how this show has progressed since the beginning. The main character is named Nucky and he’s a corrupt politician who somehow always seems to get laid even though he’s pretty ugly. He does have a lot of money though and he has a lot of power from his political position. I’m on the ninth episode and I’m still not really sure how Nucky gets his money, actually never mind I do. This is during the prohibition era and Nucky takes bribes to look the other way while people import liquor. Nucky also buys whisky and waters it down and resells it.

blog 69

What we were able to watch of the episode was pretty good. I had extremely low expectations for the show but it was much easier to watch than I expected. The special effects were really good and the plot was exciting and not too science fictiony. We didn’t get to finish the episode because it was longer than the teacher thought it was so I don’t know what happened in the end but I don’t expect that it was anything too dramatic because it was only one episode out of the entire series. I think that’s what she said about caprica. Was it a miniseries like the other show we watched where there were only a few episodes or was it a real series with a few seasons and a lot of episodes per season. Now that I’m thinking about I I don’t actually know which one it is. I think it was a real series but I’m not sure. I’ll google it. Actually, I wont, I don’t really care enough to do that. Plus I don’t want to stop typing because right now I have a really good stream going and I’m afraid that if I stop it’ll be hard to start back up again. For the last few sentences I’ve pretty much been just typing whatever comes into my head. I’m trying to keep it relevant to our blog topic and I think I’m going a pretty good job. Well I’m at tow hundred and fifty words now so I’ll see you all next time!

blog 68

Over the break I went to this flea market and while I was there I bought these cool looking padlocks, they looked pretty old and they were cheap so I bough all four of them for $10. When I got home I looked at them more carefully and I noticed that two of them had “Made for O.S.U.” engraved on them and both of those locks also had two key holes. I did some research and I found out that people collect padlocks and stuff like that and after looking at a few collectors websites I saw the exact same padlocks that I had. I found out that the two non OSU ones weren’t really worth anything but an O.S.U. lock that looked exactly the same except for the serial numbers sold last year on ebay for $85. I was pretty excited when I saw that so now I have to decide what I want to do. They’re cool locks but I’d rather have $170 than two padlocks. The two that I have might actually be worth more money because the one that sold on ebay came with a new key that was made by a locksmith rather than the original key and both of mine have what I believe are the original keys. I know I want to sell them but the question is, how? I’m going to sell them on ebay but I don’t know if I should sell them together or separately. They may be worth more as a set but I might get more money if I sell them one at a time. Any suggestions?

blog 67

Continuation of blog 66… I put on my coat, grabbed my duffle bag, got directions to where the bus was from my iPhone, said goodbye to a few people, then ran for it. I ran 2 miles uphill in 15 minutes with a hangover while wearing a coat, jeans, and carrying a duffle. I was pretty impressed with myself. I got to the bus just in time and I slept the whole way back to Columbus. As soon as I got home I went to bed because I hadn’t gotten much sleep that weekend. From Friday night when I got there to Sunday morning when I woke up I had probably only gotten four hours of sleep total and out of all the time I was awake I think less than five hours were spent sober. It was a pretty intense weekend. When I woke up Monday morning I felt like shit. I was still a little hung-over and my entire body was sore. I think my right ankle is sprained which is probably from running to the bus, my back and neck hurt from sleeping/passing out in random locations and positions, my arms hurt for some random reason and I couldn’t stop coughing. To make matters worse classes started again on Monday so I had to deal with that. Overall it was a pretty successful weekend. I got to hang out with a lot of my friends who I don’t see too often and I partied harder than I have in a while. Monday sucked but it was definitely worth it.

blog 66

Every summer for the past eleven years I’ve gone to Emma Kaufmann Camp, which is a Jewish overnight camp in West Virginia. This weekend there was a camp reunion in Pittsburgh, which is where most of the campers and staff that go to the camp are from but there are also a lot of campers and staff from Columbus so there was a bus from Columbus to Pittsburgh on Friday that I was on. At the end of the weekend on Sunday there was a bus back to Columbus that was scheduled to leave at 9:30 that I was supposed to be on. At 9:35 Sunday morning I woke up to my phone ringing and it was the director of the camp wondering why I wasn’t on the bus, I told him I overslept and he informed me that the bus had to leave by 10:00 with, or without me. I had originally planned on staying with my friend Wyatt whose parents were going to take me to the bus Sunday morning but Wyatt and I went to this party and never made it back to his house. The good thing was that the place the bus was leaving from was only two miles away from the house we stayed at, the bad thing was that everyone who had a car had already left so I had to get myself to the bus before it left. What I did next was something I hope I never have to do again… to be continued

blog 65

Over the break I went with a few friends to a flea market and I saw a cool watch there. If you have been following my blogs you should know that I’m really into watches so it should come as no surprise that I immediately went over and checked it out. It was in a locked case and the price tag on it was $250 so I asked the guy if I could see it. I picked up the watch and the first thing I noticed was the name on it. Towards the top of the watch it said Patek Philippe and had the logo underneath the name. My first thought was holy shit, this can’t be true. I was surprised because Patek Philippe is one of the most prestigious watch companies and their watches typically range from $10,000 - $30,000 so you can understand my surprise at finding one at a flea market. My next though was, this can’t be real. Unfortunately, I was right. Upon closer inspection I noticed that some of the marking were wrong and the engravings on the movement were machined rather than hand carved. The watch also felt light and the metal seemed cheap. Although I was disappointed that it wasn’t a real Patek I still wanted it because it was a decent looking watch but it wasn’t worth $250. I asked they guy if he knew that it was fake and he swore to me it was authentic but he had to have known that it was fake because this particular watch would have cost right around $32,000 if it was authentic, not $250. I offered him $60 for it which is closer to what the watch is actually worth and he told me he couldn’t come close to that. After a few more minutes of attempting to haggle the price down I got it to $150 but it was still too much for me so I had to walk away.

blog 64

Thanksgiving was awesome. This year thanksgiving dinner was at my parents house and a family that we’re good friends with came over and my grandma was supposed to drive in but she didn’t feel well so she just stayed at home. It was nice to see the other family though because we used to do a lot of things with them but I haven’t seen them in a while. For dinner we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, creamed corn, and some other things that I can’t remember. Then for desert we had pumpkin pie, chocolate pie, apple pie, and black cherry pie. We didn’t have the black cherry pie but I got that at the store right before dinner. So once the other family got to our house we realized that we didn’t have any whipped cream for the pumpkin pie and so me and my friend Nikki hopped in the car and drove to Kroger’s to pick some up. We went to the store and we got the whipped cream but when we were walking towards the register Nikki saw the black cherry pie and we both agreed it looked really good so we bought it in addition to the whipped cream. When we got home our parents were kind of annoyed that we bough the pie because we already had three others but we ended up eating most of the pie so it was OK. After dinner we just hung out and watched a movie, then the other family went home and we cleaned up.

blog 63

So I ordered these UGG moccasins a week ago and they just got here yesterday. One of my friends had a pair of similar UGGs and we have the same shoe size so I tried them on and I really liked them. I never really thought about UGG as a mens shoe brand but those shoes are damn comfy and they look pretty good too. I wanted a pair so I went to Nordstroms in Easton to get them but they didn’t have them in my size but while I was there I saw a different style of them that I really liked but they didn’t have those in my size so I just ordered them off of the UGG website. I love these shoes. They’re moccasins so they’re kinda like slippers but they have a rubber bottom so you can wear them outside which is nice and the outside is this really soft leather and the inside is that soft fluffy material like you find in all of the UGG boots or shoes. Not only are they really comfortable but they’re also extremely warm. My only complaint would be that they’re too warm to wear sometimes. It was really cold this morning when I walked my dog so they kept my feet nice and warm but it got warmer later on in the day and now it feels like my feet are on fire. I guess from now on I’ll have to check the weather to make sure its going to stay cold before I wear them.

blog 62

Battle Star Galactica was a lot different than I thought it would be. I was expecting some weird geeky show with aliens and spaceships and stuff and there was a little bit of that but the majority of it wasn’t too bad. The whole alien sex thing kinda weirded me out though. How could that dude not have known he was boning an alien? Its been like a week since we’ve watched it so I don’t remember the entire thing but I remember that it wasn’t that bad compared to what I thought it would be like. Now I want to know what happens in the next part of the episode. Didn’t this one end with the world being blown up or something? Ok so I just looked at a few other peoples blogs about the show and now I’m starting to remember more about it. So the world got blown up of something and the robots are back and trying to kill all of the humans but there’s some sort of spaceship that’s intact with a bunch of people on it so not all of the humans are dead but I’m pretty sure the earth just got blown up so I don’t know where the people are going to go. So when are we going to finish this episode? Now that I remember where we left off I want to know what happens next. I don’t really want to know that bad though so if we don’t watch it in class I guess I’ll just never get to find out. Unless its on TV on day and I’m just randomly flipping channels and I land on it. I think I’d watch it if that happened.

blog 61

Okay I’m bored about talking about watch bands and clasps so this blog is going to be about the basic anatomy of a watch. The watch bezel is the circular piece that secures the crystal to the case. Some watch have rotating bezels that can be either multi, or uni-directional. These rotating bezels are generally used to time things such as lap times, or for divers, elapsed time submerged. Some bezels are smooth where others are engraved with numbers. The next part of the watch it’s the crystal. The crystal is the transparent piece that protects the face of the watch. Crystals are generally made up of plastic, sometimes called acrylic glass, mineral glass, or sapphire crystal. Plastic is the least expensive and scratches easily but generally does not crack or shatter which makes plastic a good choice for cheap, or children’s watches. Mineral glass starts out as normal glass but is then treated with either chemicals or heat. This hardens the mineral glass, which makes it more scratch resistant, but this also makes the glass more brittle and prone to chipping and cracking. Sapphire crystals are the most expensive type of crystal but they are extremely durable. Sapphire crystals are made of a synthetic compound with identical properties to natural sapphire. These crystals are so hard that they can only be scratched by diamonds and are more crack resistant than plastic crystals and more scratch resistant than mineral glass which makes it the perfect material for a watch crystal. Because sapphire crystals are more expensive than mineral glass or plastic they are generally not found on less expensive watches.

blog 60

In the previous blog I began talking about different types of clasps found on watch bands. For this post I will expand on what I talked about in that posting so if you have not read that post or the three previous ones this post may be a little confusing. So buckles are found on watch straps and can only be used on watch straps but deployment clasps, which are found on bracelets, can also be used on straps. Deployment clasps on leather straps aren’t that uncommon but they are generally found on more expensive upscale watches. Although deployment clasps cost more than a buckle they can be worth it, especially if your watch has an expensive leather strap. Using a deployment clasp on a leather strap, or any strap for that matter, can improve the straps longevity because rather than pulling the strap tight every time you put it on or take it off you only do this once when you first put the deployment clasp on because, where as with a buckle you pull the strap so that you can insert the pin in the right hole on the strap every time you put it on, you only have to do this once when you put the deployment clasp on the strap. After this initial time you just use the deployment clasp as you would on a bracelet. With watch straps you can generally remove the deployment clasps or buckles when you move to a new strap so you only have to purchase a clasp/buckle once.

blog 59

Sorry if you’ve been following my blogs and your getting tired of all of this watch talk but for the moment it’s all I can come up with to write about. The past two blog posts have been about different types of materials used in watch bands and a little bit of terminology relevant to the topic. This blog post will be about types of watch clasps on bands. For watch straps (non-metal bands) the most common type of clasp is a buckle clasp. Buckle clasps are simple clasps extremely similar to, if not identical to, the clasps used on most men’s belts. These buckles are simple and secure but because you have to bend the watch band and stretch it to use buckle clasps they shorten the lifespan of a strap, especially leather straps. The other main type of clasp is a folding clasp which is found on the majority of metal bracelets. Folding clasps are, as you may have guessed from the name, clasps that fold onto themselves and snap into place. Folding clasps are more complicated than buckles so they are typically more expensive and there are many different forms of folding clasps. On men’s watches the most common clasp is a deployment clasp which is made of three pieces that fold onto each other and lock into place using a small latch or hook. On women’s watches with metal bracelets you will typically find pushbutton deployment clasps which, like standard deployment clasps, folds into thirds but instead of simply pulling up on the clasp to open it, push button clasps open by, you guessed it, pushing a button, or more typically, two buttons on opposite sides of the clasp.

blog 58

So last blog I talked about different types of watchbands such as straps and bracelets and the difference between them and what they can be made of. I talked mostly about bracelets, which, as I discussed in the last blog, are made of metal, so I’ll talk about straps this blog. Incase you didn’t read my last blog straps refer to basically any watchband that isn’t made of metal. These straps are generally made of leather, rubber, or cloth, but can be made of many different materials. Generally speaking leather straps are made from cowhide but leather straps can be made from many materials. Some of the more exotic materials are crocodile, stingray, snake skin, fish leather, ostrich, and lizard. All of these different materials are used to make watch bands and although some are harder to come by almost all of them can be found online. When it comes to these different materials its hard to say which one is the best, or most expensive because you can buy watch straps made of these materials of different qualities. For instance if you could bought a genuine Jaeger-LeCoultre ostrich strap it would cost in excess of $100 with out the buckle but if you bought a generic ostrich leather strap you could easily find one for less then $20 including a buckle. The difference between these two straps is the quality. The Jaeger is most likely a softer more conditioned leather strap with more padding while the cheaper generic one is likely a stiffer band with little to no padding.

blog 57

I’ve been sick all weekend so I’ve fallen a little behind on these blogs and I’ve already missed a few so I can’t afford to miss anymore. I’m going to blog about watches again because that’s something that I know a lot about so it’s easy to write about it. I’m going to write about watch vocab and watch terms. For watches there are two types of watch bands, a bracelet and a strap. A bracelet is a metal band with links which many people prefer for their durability and aesthetic appeal. A strap refers to a band made of cloth, leather, rubber, or any nonmetal material. Although watches with bracelets are more durable and better for sports and such, most people prefer leather or crocodile straps for dress watches because they look more sophisticated and are easier to match to a suit or dress shoes. Now, back to the bracelets. With bracelets there are several materials that they can be made of. The majority of bracelets are made of stainless steel but gold is also a popular choice for more expensive watches. When it comes to gold bracelets there are a few types. There are two tone gold bracelets, which are generally yellow, 14k or 18k with stainless steel. There are also solid gold bracelets which can also be made of 14k or 18k gold but can be made with a range of different golds including rose gold, pink gold, yellow gold, and a few others. I hope you learned something about watches, read my next three or four to learn more!

blog 56

I can’t wait for next weekend. I’ve been going to the same camp every summer for the past eleven years and this passed summer I was hired to work at the camp. Next weekend there is a camp reunion is Pittsburgh and I can’t wait to see everyone. I used to live in Pittsburgh and most of the people that go to the camp are from Pittsburgh so I used to see my camp friends pretty regularly but when I moved to Columbus, when I was thirteen, the only time I would see my camp friends was over the summer and at the reunions. It changed a little bit when I got my license because there were a couple camp people that lived in Columbus so we went on a couple road trips to visit Pittsburgh and just last month I drove to Cleveland to visit someone but I’m still excited for the reunion. Also, one of my camp friends joined the Marines and he finishes basic training a week before the reunion so he’ll be there so I’m excited to see him. I still haven’t decided whose house I’m going to stay at because when I visit Pittsburgh I almost always stay with my friend Jesse who I’ve known since elementary school but this summer I became pretty good friends with a few other people who I kinda want to stay with because even though Jesse and I are really good friends I think I’ll have more fun if I stay with Caleb or David but at the same time I don’t want to hurt Jesse’s feelings. Any ideas?

blog 55

My stomach is hurting really badly and I don’t know why. I have this sharp stabbing pain on the left side of my stomach about halfway down, a little bit lower than my bottom rib. I have no clue what this could be from. I drank about two bottles of water and an apple juice and I ate two granola bars, and everything bagel, an orange, chips, two slices of pizza, some more chips, cheese, and some dried mango slices. Actually, that is probably why my stomach hurts. I usually eat a lot healthier foods but I was running behind, time wise, all day so I didn’t really have much time to get something healthier. I remember when I first started eating healthy, after about two months I had a fish sandwich from Wendy’s and I felt horrible. I had eaten the fish sandwiches before but not since I had changed my diet and I guess I just wasn’t used to greasy fast food anymore because I thought I was going to vomit. It reminds me of this episode of the Simpsons when one of the main characters, Lisa, who is a vegetarian, convinces the rest of her family to try vegetarianism and after a week of not eating any meat they become ill because of the shock to their bodies that a lack of meat has caused. But I don’t think that’s what’s going on now because I don’t feel like my body is trying to reject the food, this just kinda hurts. I’m going to take some aspirin and sleep, hopefully when I wake up this pain will be gone.

blog 54

What do write about today? I have no clue. It seems as if every day it becomes harder to pick a topic worth writing about. I don’t know what I should write about today for my blog post. There are a lot of things I could write about but I can’t thing of anything off the top of my head that would be interesting, easy to write about, and complex enough that I could write an entire two hundred and fifty words about it. The thing about choosing a topic to blog about is that it can’t just be about anything at all, it has to be about something that you can write about for two hundred and fifty words. It also has to be a topic that you will find interesting enough to write that much about it and just because it has the ability to be expanded into two hundred and fifty words doesn’t mean that you have the attention or knowledge to do that. For example, I bet that there is someone out there that could write two hundred and fifty words about stained glass windows, but that person is not I. I possess neither the knowledge, nor the enthusiasm about stained glass windows to be able to fill two hundred and fifty words with information regarding stained glass windows. I can however write two hundred and fifty words about how I don’t know what to write two hundred and fifty words about as I have just done.

blog 53

Today was really unproductive. I was out late last night with friends and I didn’t get to bed until around three so I didn’t wake up till around two today. When I woke up I just laid in bed for a while then I got up, showered, and got dressed. I was going to go to the gym and work out for a few hours but I had a really big breakfast/lunch so I didn’t feel like doing anything so I just lounged around and watched TV for a couple of hours. I was also planning on going to the zoo with a few friends but that didn’t happen either. I just remembered that our common place paper is due Thursday so I feel like I should work on that but I probably wont. Other than this blog post I have literally done nothing productive today. I feel like I just wasted twenty four hours of my life. I didn’t do any laundry either which I need to do, and I didn’t make a writing lab appointment for this Wednesday and I waited too long so now there aren’t any appointments open. I need to start making to-do lists. I think that if I realize what I need to do and I write it down so I don’t forget I’ll have a better chance at actually doing it because I’ll have the list as a constant reminder. I’m going to do that now, I think I’m going to do it on my phone because I always have my phone with me.

blog 51

I’m not really sure what to write about so I think I’ll write about food. Actually, I’m going to make a list of my favorite foods. My favorite breakfast food is egg and cheese bagels. My favorite lunch is… I’m not sure, I’ll get back to this one. My favorite dinner is steak and wild rice. My favorite flavor of chips is sour cream and onion, my favorite candy is Swedish fish, I love cheese. My favorite side dish is mashed potatoes, my favorite desert is cherries jubilee which I haven’t had in a really really long time. My favorite soda is orange crème soda, my favorite ice cream bar is orange crème, my favorite drink overall is water, my favorite flavor of ice cream is salty caramel from Jenni’s. My favorite international food is Indian, my favorite type of olive is Kalamata, my favorite pizza restaurant is Mellow Mushroom, and my favorite fast food restaurant is Subway. I realized what my favorite lunch is, my favorite lunch is Trader Joe’s frozen macaroni and cheese with some added white truffle oil. My favorite type of cookie is a three way tie between snicker doodle, shortbread, and sugar. I think sugar cookies might be my favorite cookie but it has to be a big, soft, buttery, still warm cookie. My favorite hard candy is butterscotch, my favorite fruit is watermelon, my favorite vegetable is red peppers. I hope all of you who read this feel as if you now know me better, because you most likely do.

blog 50

Today was a success for the most part. I got everything I wanted to do accomplished but it took a little longer than I thought it would. I woke up around ten like I wanted to but I turned on the TV while I was eating breakfast and I started watching Board Walk Empire because I had a few episodes DVR’ed. I was just going to watch it while I ate but I got hooked and ended up watching until the end of the episode. It wouldn’t have been that bad if I had stopped there but I proceeded to spend the next two hours watching the remaining episodes on the DVR. After that minor (three hour) speed bump everything went well. Not only did I get everything accomplished but I did some other stuff that I wasn’t counting on doing like cleaning my bathroom, going grocery shopping, and cleaning my car out. When your having one of those motivated work days like I talked about on my last blog post you just get this sort of good feeling of accomplishment every time you check something off of the to-do list and it makes you want to keep on going. I was afraid that after this mornings diversion I wouldn’t be able to get in the right mindset but after a good workout and shower I was ready to get things done. Overall I’m pretty satisfied with how the day went and now that I got all of my work done I can go out and have some fun.

blog 49

Have you ever had one of those really productive days where it feels like you’re getting things done from the moment you wake up until the moment you fall asleep? I really need one of those days. I have a lot of work I need to finish that I’ve been putting off for way to long now and its all about to be due so I really need to get in that work mindset and just knock it all out. I’m going to make tomorrow that day. Its veterans day so there aren’t any classes which makes it the perfect day. I need to make a plan. I’m going to wake up at noonish then eat breakfast and walk the dog. After that I’ll work on my school stuff until I finish it. Seems pretty simple but I feel like its not going to work. I feel like I’ll wake up closer to one or two, eat, walk the dog, then piss around for a couple of hours, eat again, sit down to do homework then end up watching TV or something. Maybe if I start my day out doing something productive like running or something it will get me into that work mindset. I think that’s what I’ll do. Here’s my revised plan. Wake up at ten, eat, walk the dog, run/jog to the gym, workout for two hours, jog home, shower, then do homework. That sounds a lot better, I just hope I wake up on my own before my alarm clocks go off because whenever I wake up on my own I always feel better than when I’m woken up by that loud annoying beeping.

blog 48

For those of you who haven’t read my previous blog post (blog 47) this blog is a continuation of my list of the top five watches I would buy if money weren’t an issue. Just to recap the first three watches discussed in blog 47 were the Rolex Sea-Dweller, The Las Vegas Strip Tourbillon from Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore collection, and the Patek Philippe Nautilus 5712R. The next watch on the list is the Jules Audemars Equation of Time from Audemars Piguet. The Equation of time is made from 18k rose gold and features complications such as equation of time, and a perpetual callender which displays the day, date, and month and doesn’t have to be reset for one hundred years from the date the watch is set for the first time. Although this watch costs almost $80K it is one of the more iconic and recognizable Audemars Piguet watches on the market today. The final watch on the list is the Overseas Date Automatic from Vacheron Constantin. This watch, like all of the others, has an automatic movement. The Overseas Date is one of the more simple watches on the list with the only complication being a date window in-between the 4 and 5’oclock markers. With its stainless steel construction and simplistic face this watch can be worn for any occasion, and with a price tag of only $10,000 its pretty reasonable for a watch made by Vacheron Constantin. Although these watches vary greatly in price they all have several things in common, they are Swiss made automatic chronometers, they are truly beautiful timepieces, and they are all built to last many generations.

Blog 47

This blog is going to be about the top five watches, listed in no particular order, that I would buy if I had unlimited funds. The first watch on the list, which is the cheapest, and probably the most practical is the Rolex Sea-Dweller. The Sea-Dweller is made out of extremely tough stainless steel, features an automatic movement, is a certified chronometer, and is waterproof up to an amazing 3,900 meters. Not only is the Sea-Dweller one of the toughest watches around but it also has the same sleek easily recognizable Rolex look to it. The second watch I would buy is the Las Vegas Strip Tourbillon from Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak Offshore collection. The Vegas Strip Tourbillon is powered by an automatic movement and it’s functions include a chronograph, date, hours, minutes, seconds, and, of course, a tourbillon. This watch weighs in at a staggering $190,000 but it is more of an investment than a purchase because this watch was manufactured in a limited edition of 35 pieces so it will only appreciate in value. The watch comes with both a leather and rubber strap so it can be worn for formal dress occasions, or as an everyday watch. The third watch on my list is the $38,000 Patek Philippe Nautilus 5712R which is another self-winding dress watch. The Nautilus is made of 18k rose gold and is sold with a leather strap with a matching 18k rose gold deployment buckle. The Nautilus has several unique features in addition to hours, minutes, seconds, and date, such as a power reserve indicator and a moon phase complication. I’m at the 250 word mark now so I guess I’ll save the rest of my list for the next free blog since it’s so hard to find a good topic these days.

blog 46

My weekend was pretty chill. Friday night I hung out with a few friends at Easton and we were going to see the movie Due Date but one of my friends Kody didn’t want to see it so we ended up walking around for a while in the freezing cold and then we went to steak and shake for some food. I got the grilled cheese and cheese fries but I was still hungry afterwards so I got another order of French fries and that did the trick. Saturday I went to a rummage sale at a church with the same group of people and I bought one of those peg jump games like they have at cracker barrel. Saturday night I went to a poker game with two of my friends from eight until one in the morning and by the end of the night I was up $60, which is decent especially considering the shitty luck I was having. I didn’t see a flop for the first half hour and I pissed away over ten percent of my stack to blinds, I even had bad luck with my good hands. I was dealt pocket fives in the small blind and no one raised pre-flop so I played it and I flopped quads. This normally would have been a great hand but I was first to act and the best hand next to mine was two pair queens and fives so I didn’t get nearly enough money out of the hand because there were three cards to a flush on the board and an obvious strait draw so the dude who had the two pair was playing it conservatively.

Blog 45

There were a bunch of apples in the fridge that were about to go bad and I wanted apple sauce so today I made apple sauce. To make apple sauce you peel the apples, core them, and dice them up. Then you boil the pieces of apple until they become really soft. After the apples are softened you put them in a blender and then add sugar and cinnamon and blend it again to mix everything well. After this the apple sauce is supposed to be done but my applesauce was too watery so I poured the applesauce into a pan and boiled off some of the water until it was at a consistency that I liked. After that I ate it. It was some of the best applesauce I have ever had and it was also warm because I had just finished cooking it. I enjoy apples by them selves but I generally don't like applesauce but for some reason I was really in the mood for applesauce today. It kind of like chipotle, some times I can't stand the thought of eating it but other times that's all i want. For me it's just one of those foods that you have to be in the mood for. I just hope I'm in the mood for it later because I made a ton of applesauce. I used almost a dozen apples which, at the time, didn't seem like that many but in hindsight maybe I should have used less.

Blog 44

There were a bunch of apples in the fridge that were about to go bad and I wanted apple sauce so today I made apple sauce. To make apple sauce you peel the apples, core them, and dice them up. Then you boil the pieces of apple until they become really soft. After the apples are softened you put them in a blender and then add sugar and cinnamon and blend it again to mix everything well. After this the apple sauce is supposed to be done but my applesauce was too watery so I poured the applesauce into a pan and boiled off some of the water until it was at a consistency that I liked. After that I ate it. It was some of the best applesauce I have ever had and it was also warm because I had just finished cooking it. I enjoy apples by them selves but I generally don't like applesauce but for some reason I was really in the mood for applesauce today. It kind of like chipotle, some times I can't stand the thought of eating it but other times that's all i want. For me it's just one of those foods that you have to be in the mood for. I just hope I'm in the mood for it later because I made a ton of applesauce. I used almost a dozen apples which, at the time, didn't seem like that many but in hindsight maybe I should have used less.

blog 44 - School of Rock

What if all classes were taught through music? Would it make you want to learn more? Would it compel you to do your homework more often? We can learn a lot about history by looking at music from that time period so why can’t we teach classes using music? I think that we can. Music is an important part of society and it has been for centuries. By looking at music from the past we can learn a lot about the events that were current when the song was written. For instance if you dissect the song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” by Yip Harburg written in 1931 you can learn a lot about what was going on at the time. This song was written during the great depression era and this is apparent from the lyrics that reference things such as bread lines and the mafia. Another, more current, example of history told through music is the popular Barack Obama remix of Lil Wayne’s A Milli. This song talks about Obama’s race for presidency and discusses his political policy as well as the political policies of his opponents.

blog 43

It always bothers me when people use the word bad to many times so for this blog I’m going to list a bunch of synonyms for the word bad: evil, badness, evilness, indiscriminating, pestiferous, unfortunate, ill, unworthy, awful, mephistophelian, unfavourable, meagerly, scrimpy, wretched, tough, atrocious, inoperative, slimy, icky, inopportune, sinister, evil-minded, uncomplete, infernal, grievous, dark, satanic, unskilled, undiscriminating, sorry, swingeing, displeasing, unsound, mephistophelean, worthless, hellish, terrible, distant, fiendish, frightful, diabolical, remote, unsuitable, incompetent, severe, painful, pretty, unspeakable, imitative, rotten, flagitious, stale, hopeless, unhealthy, shitty, hard, vile, naughty, devilish, unhealthful, stingy, diabolic, monstrous, distressing, disadvantageous, meagre, perversive, ugly, fearful, deplorable, unrighteous, uncool, lamentable, no-good, meager, stinking, unfavorable, corked, demonic, corruptive, pitiful, crappy, horrid, rubber, nonintellectual, unholy, lousy, stinky, disreputable, negative, abominable, incomplete, counterfeit, poor, black, corky, dreadful, sad, mediocre, nasty, despicable, evilness, badness, evil, bad, counterfeit, infernal, dark, tough, scrimpy, imitative, atrocious, devilish, unhealthy, frightful, inopportune, diabolical, distant, unskilled, meagre, fiendish, meager, rotten, fearful, vile, remote, despicable, unfortunate, unsound, crappy, worthless, sad, mediocre, icky, satanic, stingy, severe, corky, swingeing, unworthy, lousy, pestiferous, unholy, inoperative, stinking, rubber, hard, monstrous, deplorable, no-good, unsuitable, unfavorable, displeasing, pretty, diabolic, lamentable, awful, unfavourable, negative, unhealthful, shitty, meagerly, poor, nonintellectual, black, perversive, stinky, undiscriminating, ill, dreadful, disadvantageous, distressing, ugly, flagitious, hellish, incompetent, hopeless, unrighteous, incomplete, abominable, pitiful, wretched, uncool, disreputable, stale, evil-minded, slimy, uncomplete, indiscriminating, corked, grievous, nasty, terrible, mephistophelean, demonic, unspeakable, corruptive, mephistophelian, naughty, painful, sorry, sinister, horrid, flagitious, dreadful, awful, severe, poor, infernal, imitative, unfavourable, incompetent, pitiful, unsuitable, stinking, unholy, sorry, pestiferous, dark, evil-minded, unrighteous, diabolic, unfavorable, satanic, uncool, stale, meagre, lamentable, hellish, icky, disadvantageous, sinister, inoperative, indiscriminating, meager, incomplete, demonic, inopportune, mephistophelian, tough, abominable, meagerly, unspeakable, corky, unfortunate, devilish, painful, mediocre, unhealthy, corked, nonintellectual, wretched, horrid, rotten, slimy, unhealthful, pretty, lousy, terrible.

blog 42

I think I might finally be up to date on my comments or at the very least, less behind on them. At the beginning of this class I tried to make intelligent comments on other’s blogs but then when I realized how difficult it would be to do that for all one hundred of them my comments devolved into short sentences or just a couple of words strung together. Now that we have gotten some grades back I’m realizing that I really need all the extra credit that I can get so my comments are starting to improve in quality once again. The only thing is that for some of these write about anything blogs its not that easy to make intelligent comments. I think I may just go back to my old form of commenting and try to do as many as possible so I can get extra credit by doing extra comments. Does anyone know how that works? How many points do we get per extra comment? Is there a limit to how many we can receive extra credit for? Did the teacher say any of this when I wasn’t paying attention (very likely) or were these parameters never set? I guess I’ll have to ask tomorrow. Or if you know the answer you could save me the trouble and just tell me. That would really be a win-win situation for both of us because I would get my answer and you would be one comment closer to the one hundred mark.

blog 41

I am not a fan of this cold weather, I miss the summer. The only good thing about colder weather is that I can switch to my comfy sweat pants without getting too hot but I would gladly trade that for some nice warm weather. The worst part of this weather is waking up cold. I’ve never been a morning person but when I wake up cold its even harder for me to get out of bed. I always just want to go back to sleep and burrow further under my large warm comforter. I used to put a space heater in my room and put one of those lamp timers on it so that it would turn on 15 minutes before my alarm clock would go off so that when I woke up it would be nice and toasty in my room. I think I might have to do that again. I also need to get some warmer shoes before it gets any colder because the warmest shoes I have right now are my running shoes and those aren’t exactly winter shoes. One of my friends had these really comfortable slippers and it turns out that they were ugg slippers for men. After finding out that ugg made shoes for men I went on their website and browsed around a bit, I found this pair of moccasin type shoe slipper thingies that look really warm and comfortable, the only thing is that they’re $100 which is a little (a lot) out of my price range. Maybe I’ll ask for these for a Hanukah present…

blog 40

I’m sick and it sucks. I definitely should have taken better care of myself this weekend. I drank way to much… water… and I had the worst headache yesterday and I’m still not feeling too great today. I normally don’t get too hung over but yesterday was the exception. I woke up with a splitting headache and after taking five ibuprofen it still felt like I had been bicycle kicked in the head by David Beckham. On top of that I felt nauseous and tired and just overall not well. I thought that I would be fine today but that was not the case. I feel a lot better than I did yesterday but still not one hundred percent. When I finished classes today I took a five hour nap and then woke up to do some work. I really want to just go back to sleep so that I can wake up tomorrow all better but I still have more work to do. I really wish we didn’t have these blog assignments. It seems kind of ridiculous that we have to do these ever day on top of the analytical research paper and common place paper which I should probably start working on. I also want to try to stay awake a little bit longer so that I sleep well because I already took that five hour nap and I don’t want to be waking up in the middle of the night. I need to eat too. All I’ve had to eat so far is a granola bar and some toast with cheese. I’m going to go eat and then sleep.

blog 39

Halloween is also a big holiday for my dad. My dad’s always been into Halloween and every year we accumulate more decorations. We have 5 blow up thingies, several dozen strings of orange lights, and countless smaller decorations. Ever since I can remember Halloween has been a big holiday for my dad. I don’t know why he likes it so much but he loves buying new decorations. There’s one rule for his decorations though, they have to be orange. The lights are orange, the blowups are orange, the fake zombies and bats are orange, the fog machine is orange, everything is orange. We have so many decorations that we normally have to designate an entire weekend to set everything up. Before we start putting any of the decorations up we have to bring up the umpteen boxes from the basement that contain the decorations that my dad has amassed over the past twenty years. The hardest part of setting up the decorations is the lights. We put the lights in the bushes in front of our house, we go up on the roof and drape the lights down the side and front of the house and we wrap the lights around the porch railings and the railings leading up to our house. After the lights are set up we open the boxes containing the blow up things. Each blow up thing is around six by six by six feet and is lit up by a bulb inside of the blow up.

blog 38

Halloween weekend was awesome but I fell way behind on my blogs so I’m about to do a few. For Halloween I dressed up as Waldo but apparently my costume wasn’t that good because I was the only one who knew who I was supposed to be. For my costume I wore brown dress shoes, blue jeans, a red and white striped collared shirt, and 3D glasses without the lenses. The only thing that the real Waldo wore that I didn’t have was the hat. Waldo normally wears a red and white striped beanie but I looked online and they were about $20 so decided to forgo the hat. I thought that it wouldn’t make that big of a difference but I may have been wrong. I’m not sure if more people would’ve known who I was if I had worn the hat but I can’t imagine that less people would’ve been able to tell who I was. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays and I’m sad that it’s over now. I miss being a kid and trick or treating. Me and my friends would always go trick or treating for the whole time and we would normally start in my neighborhood, make our way to my friends neighborhood then drop off a full load of candy and head back out again. After trick or treating was over we would head back to my friends house where we would sleep over and eat a lot of candy. I miss those days.

blog 37

I have no clue how well I did on my analytical research paper. I feel pretty good about it but I also felt pretty good about my first and second drafts and I did not get the grades that I was hoping for on those assignments. My introduction and supporting paragraphs were pretty strong and I think I had a good amount of evidence but I’m worried about my conclusion, as well as the solidity of my real world connection and my thesis statement. The final copy of my analytical research paper doesn’t look anything like my first two drafts, I completely changed the direction of my paper and because of that I don’t really know how good my argument is. The first two drafts were helpful in the sense that they improved my writing ability but it was my understanding that the purpose of those drafts was to help get feedback from the teacher on our argument, real world connection and other key pieces of our paper but that feedback isn’t relevant if you don’t use the same argument in the final paper and I think that was the case for a lot of people, myself included. Wow that was a long sentence. I do feel a little better knowing that we can revise the paper if we aren’t satisfied with our grade but I really don’t want to have to work on this more. Especially because I’m going to be a lot busier in the coming weeks and I don’t want to have to add this to my list of things I need to accomplish.

blog 36

This blog is about a hypothetical situation as well as a personal anecdote relative to our commonplace paper. My commonplace paper is about history told through music. For my personal connection I think I’m going to talk about how the song We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel. The song quickly rattles off important events in chronological order that took place from the 40’s, when Joel was born, to 1989, the time when Joel wrote the song. This song contains 119 references to events that were current during those years and by dissecting the lyrics you can easily see America’s history during that time period. As for my hypothetical situation I may compare learning with music to learning through a textbook. Numerous studies suggest that when subjects such as English are taught through song they are not only easier to learn but they are retained better than things learned the traditional way. Hypothetical situation idea number one: What if, instead of having traditional worksheets for homework, students were required to listen to certain songs that taught the students about history. This would take less time for students to complete and there would be less work on the teacher’s part. Also because of the simplicity of the assignment more students may do the work and in theory would learn more from the songs than they would from completing worksheets. I don’t really like that hypothetical situation and I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have on either how to improve my current one or ideas for a new hypothetical situation.

blog 35

One of the articles I read was called Coke Zero, the Deadliest Beverage…or So They Say, and it was about how Coke Zero isn’t as bad for you as the media makes it out to be. In the article the author discussed the main ingredients and revealed that although some of the ingredients can in fact be deadly, the amounts found in Coke Zero aren’t nearly enough to have any adverse effects on the human body. The article was very well written from a style and voice standpoint and based on the sources referenced throughout the article it is easy to see that this author did his research. Furthermore, the findings from the research were presented in a manner that was easy to read and not too confusing for those of us who are not familiar with the specific chemical compounds discussed within the article. The article started out by discussing how Coca-Cola advertises the drink as a healthy alternative to the real Coke because it contains no calories and no fat. The author also discusses how the drink has been portrayed by the media as a deadly drink that is one of the least healthy things that a person can consume. The author then goes on to state the most prominent ingredients in the drink and how they can be considered deadly and also why they are not deadly in the concentration that is found within the drink, Coke Zero. Overall the article was well written and easy to both read and comprehend.

blog 34

Today we spend twenty minutes coming up with possible topics for our common place essay and out of the 50 sum things I wrote down I had to choose one. The topic I chose was, history through music. This relates to the Jaynestown episode of Firefly when the crew is in the bar and they hear the man singing the ballad about Jayne. Much like music was used in that scene to tell a story of the history of how Jayne came to be a hero I want to write about how music is used all over the world to tell stories. These stories told through song are called ballads. There are many popular songs that most people don’t know are considered ballads such as: Hey There Delilah, Stairway to Heaven, Bohemian Rhapsody, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, 21 Guns, and many other popular songs. I’m not really sure what type of ballad I want to write about but we still have a lot of time to work out the details. Another idea that I thought about writing my common place paper on is dictatorship. Dictatorship is a pretty common topic so it wouldn’t be hard to find supporting information to help my paper and it relates to the Jaynestown episode because the government in the town that they land in is communistic in many ways. Communism is my backup plan incase the whole ballad thing doesn’t work out but I want to write about ballads rather than communism because I fell that communism is just to broad of a topic.

blog 33

I have a really bad headache today. I don’t know what caused it or why it hasn’t gone away despite the many Advils and Tylenols I’ve taken thus far but the fact of the mater is that my head hurts. This sucks. Every now and then I get these headaches that start out pretty mild and progressively get worse, this is now of those headaches and the worst part is that I know its just going to get worse. I normally just take some medicine that sleep for the rest of the day but unfortunately I have a couple of assignments that I’ve put off for a while that I now need to do so I can’t go to bed now. I should really start doing my work ahead of time but normally I just think, hey, its not due for a while longer so I don’t need to start on it yet and I just keep putting it off until it becomes like this where I can no longer put my assignments off anymore and it sucks because I really don’t want to do work right now. I might just end up sleeping anyways and put off this work for one more day. I’ll probably end up doing that because I don’t want to be awake when this headache gets worse. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do, one more day can’t make that big of a difference and I wont be able to work well with this headache anyways.

blog 32

I took piano lessons for about six years but when my family moved from Pittsburgh to New Albany I stopped taking lessons. When I stopped taking lessons I was pretty good but now, not so much. I still play from time to time but now when I want to learn to play a song it takes much longer than it used to and I normally don’t end up learning the whole song. Looking back I wish I had continued taking piano lessons when my family moved but now its too late for that. I would kill to be able to play as well as Billy Joel, or Elton John. It always relaxes me to sit down at a nice piano and just start playing but there are only a few songs that I can play perfectly just from memory, and those songs aren’t too complicated but they sound pretty good. I want to learn how to play jazz piano someday. It would be cool to be able to just sit down at a piano and start laying down jazz chords. My biggest problem with learning how to play different songs is that I often want to learn songs that are beyond my skill level and I don’t have the patience to really learn to play them well. I want to be able to play the songs but I don’t want to put the required amount of energy into learning how. I guess that’s true for a lot of things in life, you want the reward but you don’t really want to work for it.

blog 31

I love driving. A little while before I turned 16 my parents bought a new car and they decided to keep the old one (a 2001 Acura MDX) so that I would have a car to drive. I love that car. Its kind of big but its really comfortable and pretty fast for a car its size. Since I got the car I’ve made a few adjustments to it. I put a new stereo in it with an iPod hookup and I installed some subwoofers in the trunk. Subwoofers are those giant speakers that make the booming noises and if you ever pull up to a car and can hear the trunk rattling hard, its safe to assume that person has subs. One of my friends had some subs in his car and after hearing what they did I knew I wanted them. I bought two twelve inch subs and an amp for a little under $100 on craigslist but when I went to get them installed the cheapest place that I could find wanted $300 for installation so I decided it was something I could do myself. It was a huge pain in the ass. Installing those subs was probably one of the top five hardest and most frustrating things I’ve ever had to do in my life but it was well worth it. After driving with subs for a long time I’ve become accustomed to the loud booming base and to listen to music without it just seems weird.

blog 30

I found my favorite watch today. It was missing for about three weeks and I looked everywhere for it. Except my backpack. I’m not sure why it was in there or how it happened but I was looking for a pen today and I unzipped the little pocket on the right side that I never go into and as I was reaching around to see if there was something to write with in it I found my watch. It’s a pretty cool watch I bought a while ago for myself. Its silver with a leather band and it has an automatic movement. What that means is that it never needs a battery, its powered by gravity. In the watch world there are two main types of movements (btw the movement is the thing that makes the watch run, its behind the dial) there are quartz movements, which are powered by a battery, and there are mechanical movements, which are powered when the mainspring is wound up. Within mechanical movements there are two main types, hand wound, which means you have to manually turn the crown (the thing you set the time with) and self winding, or automatic. The way automatic movements work is that there is a small weight on a rotor in the back of the movement and whenever the watch moves the weight moves due to the gravitational force and when the weight moves it winds the mainspring. I’m a big fan of watches and I’m really glad I found mine.

blog 29

Do I clearly explain this scene?


In episode seven of he series Firefly the crew travels to Canton to complete a job. Jayne, a mercenary who is part of the crew, seems apprehensive about traveling to Canton and reveals that several years ago he robbed the magistrate of the town. Four years prior, Jayne and an accomplice robbed the magistrate; while they were attempting to escape their aircraft was attacked and Jayne was forced to dump the stolen money, along with several other things including his accomplice, in order to make the aircraft lighter. When the crew arrives in Canton they find a statue of Jayne and later overhear people singing a song about him. After much discussion it is discovered that the money that Jayne dumped landed in the middle of Canton and the impoverished population, mostly made up of indentured slaves owned by the magistrate, grew to view Jayne as a Robin Hood like hero whom they now worship. After the magistrate realizes that Jayne is back in town he summons Stitch, Jayne’s former partner whom Jayne left for dead. The magistrate arms Stitch with a shotgun and sends him to kill Jayne who is nearby at a ceremony thrown by the community in his honor. Stitch arrives at the ceremony and after discharging his weapon into the air in order to silence the crowd and gain their attention he informs everyone that Jayne is no hero. Stitch explains that Jayne never intended to give the money to the people, he only dumped the money in order to get away and he didn’t dump the money until after he had dumped everything else from the ship, including other cargo, chairs, and Stitch himself. After making his speech Stitch aims and fires at Jayne but despite what was said about him moments earlier one of the community members jumps in front of Jayne and blocks the shot. The enraged Jayne draws a knife from his belt and after attacking and killing Stitch he returns to the lifeless body of the boy who saved him and yells at the crowd, unable to fathom why they still revere him after hearing what actually happened. The still emotional Jayne knocks over the statue of him and the crew of Serenity proceeds to board the ship and leave Canton.

blog 28

The sushi at the Ohio Union kinda sucks, I got the spicy tuna rolls today and I was extremely disappointed. I’m no sushi connoisseur or food snob but what I ate from that plastic container didn’t deserve to be called sushi. First of all the tuna was bland and pale in color and the only thing that made this spicy was the wasabi that I had to add so that there was at least some flavor to the food. Also the rice had started to dry out which gave the tuna an unpleasant crunchy consistency similar to that of Doritos, good when you are expecting it, not so much when you aren’t. To add to the general bad quality of this sushi it cost $8. If I pay $8 for sushi I expect a little more than tuna even a cat would refuse and rice that felt as if it hadn’t been cooked at all. As you can probably tell by now this sushi pissed me off. I like sushi, I like sushi a lot and when I saw that the union had sushi I got excited because everything else I’ve had there was delicious and so I guess I just expected the same of the sushi. Never again. Next time I’m there I’ll stick to something I know is good like the salmon burger, the French fries, or my current favorite, the grilled cheese Panini with 4 cheese and tomato. I love the grilled cheese. The first time I ordered it I didn’t realize it had tomato, which is probably a good thing considering I don’t like tomato and had I known it was there I might not have ordered it. Now I’m hungry so I’m gonna go eat. Bye.

blog 27

I need to start my paper. Today when we did that outline activity at the end of class I realized how far behind I was on my paper. Neither my first nor second draft was very good so I don’t really know what I’m going to do for my paper. I’m pretty sure that my second draft will be able to serve as a skeleton that I can build my paper around but I might just have to completely start writing a new paper. How far are you guys on your papers? I feel like I should have started working on the paper by now, or at least figured out what were supposed to do for it. Also I have no clue what I’m going to talk about tomorrow during that meeting. I have some ideas for my paper but I feel like twenty minutes isn’t going to be enough time to discuss them. It also seems like I should have more done for my paper than what I have complete at the moment. I don’t really have anything left to talk about and my last several sentences were kind of redundant but I still need to write another fifty words or so, so I guess I’ll just talk about how I need to write more until I have reached the two hundred and fifty mark. Wow that was a long sentence… too long of a sentence. Well it looks like I’m almost done writing so now I’ll say goodbye.

blog 26

For now I’m all caught up on blog posts (I just posted three of them to cover this past weekend) but I decided why stop now, I’m on a roll so I’m about to do something that I’ve never done before. Turn in work early. Is that even allowed? I’m pretty sure it is. I hope it is. I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be allowed to post early so I’m just going to go ahead and do it. My last three posts were about my Halloween plans but I’m going to switch it up a bit for this post because no progress has been made on my costume/housing issue since the last post. Yesterday I saw Jackass 3D with a few friends and it was fuggin hilarious! The movie was awesome but it seemed really short. Although I laughed so hard I almost started crying there were some stunts that they preformed that I could never see myself doing, no matter how much I was paid. Every single thing they did resulted in at least one of the participants lying on the ground writhing in pain/crying and more than a few of the stunts ended up with either a broken bone, stitches, or loss of consciousness. That being said, the movie was awesome. I saw the last two movies and this one was easily the best. With many movies the sequels are never as good as the originals but that was not the case with Jackass 3D.

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So still no word on whom I’m going to be staying with for Halloween but there’s still plenty of time. I figure worst case Alex will just sneak me in through a side door or something. As for my costume I’ve made some progress. At the moment I have three out of five of the components for my costume. I have jeans, brown dress shoes, and the glasses. I still need to find a red and white striped shirt, and a red and white hat. Later on today I’m going to try to make a trip to the thrift store an hopefully I will find at least one, if not both of my missing pieces. As far as the shirt goes, all I need is something with large horizontal red and white stripes. A long-sleeved t-shirt would be ideal but I would be willing to settle for a normal t-shirt, a sweater, a polo, or maybe a jacket. I thought about a button down but that just wouldn’t look rite, especially if I can’t find a hat. I figure that if I can find a shirt that looks really good it will be pretty obvious who I am supposed to be but if I can’t then I might have to go with the hat. I don’t have anything against hats but I just feel like its not going to be very easy to find one that looks rite. It needs to be a white beanie with a red pompom on the top and the bottom of the hat has to be red.

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After a lot of consideration and some helpful comments I decided I’m going with the Waldo costume. I looked online at actual premade costumes you can buy and I found that most of them were just a red and white striped shirt, glasses, and the hat. I also looked at the real Waldo and it looks like he wears the white and red striped shirt, glasses, the beanie, jeans, and brown loafers or some kind of dress shoe and sometimes he has a cane. For my rendition of the Waldo costume I’m going to wear a red and white striped polo, or possibly a sweater, a pair of blue jeans, brown dress shoes, the hat (I don’t really care about the hat that much but if I can find one cheap I’ll buy it) and for the glasses I’m going with my idea from yesterdays blog and I’m removing the lenses from 3D glasses but I decided to forgo the cane. I know Halloween is still almost two weeks away but I want to get this out of the way while I have to so I can get back to school and stuff. This year for Halloween I’m driving up to OU with my friend Josh. The only problem is at the moment I don’t have anyone to stay with. I was originally going to stay with my friend Alex but he and his roommate are already hosting people and so is my other friend Aaron. Luckily Halloween is still a couple of weeks away and both of them are looking for people for me to stay with.

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So this is my first blog about anything blog. I’m trying to write this but I’m kind of distracted with picking out a Halloween costume at the moment. Right now my top choices are hotdog suit, Waldo, or possibly a pimp. The hotdog suit is pretty easy but its about $50 with shipping and that’s $50 that I don’t really have. For the Waldo costume I was thinking I could go to the thrift store and just find a red and white striped polo and then wear a pair of jeans and pop the lenses out of a pair of 3D glasses for the glasses. I don’t know what I would do for that hat. I might just not wear a hat if I decide to be Waldo. For the pimp costume I think I have a purple fuzzy hat somewhere (don’t ask why) and I could once again make a visit to the thrift store to try to find a purple suit. I could also get a cane or something from the Halloween store. I think I’ll probably just end up doing the Waldo costume because it’s the easiest and most likely going to be the cheapest. It also is probably going to turn out the best because it’s a pretty simple look; just the striped shirt, jeans, glasses, and a red and white beanie if I can find one. I’ll have to put some more thought into this and I’ll get back to you tomorrow. So many choices…

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Background:In episode seven of he series Firefly the crew travels to Canton to complete a job. Jayne, a mercenary who is part of the crew, seems apprehensive about traveling to Canton and reveals that several years ago he robbed the magistrate of the town. Four years prior, Jayne and an accomplice robbed the magistrate; while they were attempting to escape their aircraft was attacked and Jayne was forced to dump the stolen money, along with several other things including his accomplice, in order to make the aircraft lighter. When the crew arrives in Canton they find a statue of Jayne and later overhear people singing a song about him. After much discussion it is discovered that the money that Jayne dumped landed in the middle of Canton and the impoverished population, mostly made up of indentured slaves owned by the magistrate, grew to view Jayne as a Robin Hood like hero whom they now worship. After the magistrate realizes that Jayne is back in town he summons Stitch, Jayne’s former partner whom Jayne left for dead. The magistrate arms Stitch with a shotgun and sends him to kill Jayne who is nearby at a ceremony thrown by the community in his honor. Stitch arrives at the ceremony and after discharging his weapon into the air in order to silence the crowd and gain their attention he informs everyone that Jayne is no hero. Stitch explains that Jayne never intended to give the money to the people, he only dumped the money in order to get away and he didn’t dump the money until after he had dumped everything else from the ship, including other cargo, chairs, and Stitch himself.
My thesis is that people practice religion not because it makes sense but because it gives them hope.

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“In one of the experiments, volunteers were told to bring a lucky charm with them. Then the researchers took it away to take a picture. People brought in all kinds of items, from old stuffed animals to wedding rings to lucky stones. Half of the volunteers were given their charm back before the test started; the other half were told there was a problem with the camera equipment and they would get it back later. Volunteers who had their lucky charm did better at a memory game on the computer, and other tests showed that this difference was because they felt more confident. They also set higher goals for themselves.” (Damisch, 1). I want to integrate this quote into my paper because it discusses how people’s beliefs effect what they do. My thesis deals with how people need their beliefs and having something to believe in helps them so this quote could work will if integrated properly into my paper. Another quote that I was looking at incorporating into my paper is: “The fact that gay and lesbian individuals have been discriminated against by society, particularly by traditional religions, may have challenged them to look beyond the tenets of organized religions and to seek more intensely for answers to the meaning of existence and of faith.” This quote would also work with my thesis because it deals with homosexuals and how religion helps them. This relates to my thesis because my thesis deals with how religion and beliefs help people which links to the scene in my episode in which the mudders rely on their faith in Jayne. Homosexuals and mudders relate because both of them are suppressed peoples.

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In the episode Jaynestown in the series Firefly the scene in which the boy sacrifices himself for Jayne supports my argument that even though things may not be what they seem, everyone needs something to believe in. Before Stitch revealed what actually happened on that day Jayne was viewed as a hero and it gave the people of Canton hope that there were good people out there and someone cared about them. Even after the truth was revealed people still viewed Jayne as a hero because they needed something to believe in. My thesis is that even when presented with evidence that disproves a religion or belief, the majority of people will choose to remain faithful to those beliefs because having something to believe in gives people hope and people can’t survive without hope. I read an article on cults and one of the reasons people join cults is because they feel that their lives are empty and they are depressed. People join cults in order to gain some sort of feeling of fulfillment in their lives. People also join cults in order to give their lives a sense of purpose and to give them something to believe in. This relates to the episode I watched and my thesis because Jayne gave the people of Canton something to believe in much the same way cults give people something to believe in. The article also talks about how it is extremely difficult to convince people to leave cults because the teachings of the cults become engrained in their minds. This is similar to how when Jayne tried to tell them that he wasn’t a hero the people didn’t listen and continued worshiping him.

High School is Hell

This article really gave me a better understanding for what the show was about. I remember watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it first came out, but to be honest I don’t really remember it at all. I haven’t watched the show recently, but now I am interested to watch it. I am excited to see how the writers incorporate both the supernatural and natural into a show that it seems is mostly just about high school life. I like how the article talked about the use of metaphors and how by making metaphors real, the writers hoped to accurately capture high school life. I also found it interesting that not only did the show include metaphors in each episode but also that there were also extended metaphors that spanned entire seasons. Also I like how the article discussed the use of irony in the story and the use of irony along side the metaphors makes for a show with many levels of depth that is entertaining and mentally stimulating. However, one of the things about the article that I did not like is that it contained some spoilers. If you have not watched the entire series up until the third season this article may spoil some of the episodes for you. The article contained many references to episodes in order to support what it was saying about metaphors and irony but the details contained in the references could serve to spoil episodes for those who had not already watched the episodes.

War Stories - Firefly

The episode I watched today was titled “War Stories” and was the tenth episode in the Firefly series. The episode begins with Wash and Zoe arguing about Zoe’s relationship with Mal. Wash is jealous because of all of the memories Mal has with his wife and he sometimes feels as if Zoe is closer to Mal than she is with him. This causes Wash to request that he accompany Mal on a mission rather than Zoe. After arguing for a short period of time Mal finally allows Wash to accompany him on the mission. During this mission Mal and Wash are kidnapped and tortured by Niska as retribution for the events that took place during the episode titled “Train Job”. After learning of Mal and Wash’s kidnapping Zoe pools all of the crews money together and attempts to buy them from Niska. Niska says that he will only let one go and Zoe chooses Wash because she knows that Mal stands a better chance at surviving longer. After Wash and Zoe return to Serenity they come up with a plan to get Mal back and all aboard Serenity arm themselves and prepare to storm Niska’s ship. The underlying theme in this episode is trust, and loyalty. Wash is questioning Zoe’s loyalty to him because of how he perceives that Zoe blindly follows Mal’s commands. Also, the people aboard Serenity show their loyalty to Mal by attempting to recapture him from Niska even though they now that it is dangerous and Niska’s ship is full of well armed men.

Train Job Revisited

During this episode of Firefly Mal and his crew are contracted by a ruthless crime boss to steal cargo from a train. After stealing the cargo Mal and his crew realize that what they have stolen is medicine meant to cure a planet full of diseased people. After discovering that the medicine was stolen the local sheriff asks for help from the Alliance and even though Alliance agents were on the train that the cargo was stolen from, and are currently in Pandiso, which is the planet from which the medicine was stolen, the Alliance refuses to help the local authorities with the recovery of the medicine. Although governments are supposed to uphold the law and protect their citizens, the Alliance was clearly indifferent to the plight of Pandiso. Even though Alliance agents were already on Pandiso when it became evident that the medicine was stolen they did not help the local sheriff recover the medicine. Why could this be? Is it possible that the Alliance is only concerned about larger communities, or was there a legitimate reason for them not wanting to help Pandiso? Based on the information from this episode, as well as information gleaned from other episodes regarding the Alliance and their treatment of smaller planets/moons, I believe that it is the former of the two theories. Because the medicine that was stolen was not Alliance property, nor were the soldier aboard the train directly responsible for protecting the medicine the Alliance viewed the theft as not their problem.

Angel

For today’s bog I watched the fourth episode from season one of Angel titled “I Fall to Pieces”. This episode was about a woman who was being stalked by a doctor that had the ability to detach and reattach certain body parts while still maintaining in full control over these body parts. This is first seen when Dr. Ronald Meltzer detaches one of his eyeballs so that he can watch Melissa, the woman who he is stalking, while she is in her home. I found this aspect of the episode extremely intriguing, not only because Dr. Meltzer could detach body parts without any visible damage done to him or the body part, but also because he was able to reattach the body part without any tools, and he was able to control the body part while it was separated from his body. One part of he episode that did not seem consistent, was that although Dr. Meltzer could detach his hands, when the hands were detached they would crawl around to get from place to place, and to reattach the hands he would either pick them up and reattach them, or they would crawl up his body to his arm. This was attributed to his psychic skills, which allowed him to control his nerve endings, as well as perform psychic surgery. However, when his eyeball was detached it floated around the room on its own. Also, during the episode the hands are seen climbing over obstacles and navigating through air ducts to gain entry into Melissa’s apartment, it would seem that if Dr. Meltzer could levitate his eyeball he would do the same with his hands. Overall though the episode was intriguing as it was entertaining and I look forward to watching more of this show.

Firefly Again

Based on the title of this blog post it is probably clear that I chose to watch another episode of Firefly. The episode that I watched was titled “Bushwhacked” and was the third episode in the series. Much like the last episode I watched, “Out of Gas” , this one took place solely in space. During this episode Serenity comes in to contact with another ship, aboard this ship they find that all but one of the ships passengers were killed by Reavers which are kind of like space zombies. Reavers are said to have be men who traveled to the ends of the galaxy only to be driven mad by the vastness of space and far removal from any civilization. The appearance of the Reavers is similar to that of normal humans with the exception of tattered clothing and scars. Revears are similar to zombies in the sense that they used to be humans and feed off of flesh but they differ from zombies because Revears are not dead, nor can they transform humans into Revears by biting them. The Reavers do however appear to have some form of intelligence because of the tactics that they use. When Serenity attempts to disengage from the other ship the crew finds that the Revears have booby-trapped the other ship so that when they disengage, the other ship will blow up. This will serve to damage Serenity so that when the Revears return Serenity will not be able to flee, making the crew easy targets. This was by far the scariest and most exciting episode yet, I cant wait to see what they next one will be like!

Out of Gas

For this assignment I decided to watch episode eight of Firefly titled “Out of Gas”. This episode was a lot different than “The Train Job” because all of this episode took place aboard the ship and therefore had extremely little of the Western theme incorporated into it. Although the episode was almost entirely science fiction rather than a hybrid of sci-fi and Western I still enjoyed it very much. The episode is mainly comprised of flashbacks from the captain’s point of view. These flashbacks show how many of the crew members, including Hoban “Wash” Washburne, the pilot, and Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye, the mechanic, came to be living and working aboard the ship Serenity. The flashbacks take place while the captain, Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds, is stumbling around Serenity trying to fix the engine while bleeding out from a gunshot wound inflicted by attempted hijackers. I found it very interesting that the director chose to wait so long into the series before going back to reveal how some of the crew members came to be on the ship. Not only did the flashbacks provide insight into some of the characters pasts but it also served to make the view more curious about the characters whose origins on the ship were not revealed. Even though, as I previously stated, the episode was primarily science fiction it still touched on many universal themes such as trust, camaraderie, and guilt. This made the episode easy to relate to, and even easier to watch and enjoy.

The Train Job

That show was a lot better than I had expected! I’ve had mixed experiences with science fiction in the past. Although Dr. Who is one of my favorite shows I’ve seen Star Trek and Stargate and I can honestly say that those shows are not for me. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the episode of Firefly. My favorite facet of the show was how the western theme was mixed within the Sci-Fi genre. Its similar to what I imagine it would be like if someone combined Bonanza with a show like Star Trek. Although the two themes, Western and Sci-Fi, seem incompatible the show does an amazing job at combing them both to make a show that would be easy to follow for both Western and science-fiction fans. The one part of the show that I found a little bit corny was the weaponry. It looked like they had regular handguns but during the gun battle aboard Serenity it sounded as if they were using laser guns. Other than that one minor detail I really enjoyed the show. The train robbery was the perfect plot to incorporate the two themes. The train seemed futuristic and the ship that was used to transport the stolen cargo was definitely not akin to the ‘Wild West’, but train robberies are a staple of the Western genre. I thought the show was well made overall and the actors seemed pretty good. I can’t wait to watch the next episode.

Who am I?

Hi everyone!

My name is Harris Cohn and I’m Jewish. I grew up in Mt. Lebanon, a suburb of Pittsburgh PA, and when I was 13 my family moved to Columbus where I have lived ever since. I enjoy playing poker, fishing, soccer, hanging out with friends, swimming, working out, watching movies, and listening to music. My top ten favorite bands/singers/artists are: Billy Joel, Mac Miller, Slightly Stoopid, Wiz Khalifa, Aerosmith, Bare Naked Ladies, Blind Melon, Elton John, Franz Liszt, and Sam Adams. My top ten favorite movies are: Boondock Saints, Forgetting Sarah Marshal, I Love You Man, The Shawshank Redemption, Goodfellas, Fight Club, The Usual Suspects, A Clockwork Orange, The Big Lebowski, and A Beautiful Mind. I’m not a big fan of science fiction except for Doctor Who, which is one of my favorite TV shows along with Weeds and Desperate Housewives. I used to be extremely interested in photography but not so much anymore, although I do still enjoy it. I really like international foods, especially Indian and Sushi, but I don’t really care for Mexican food with the exception of Chipotle and occasionally Taco Bell. I generally try to avoid fast food because I feel gross after eating it but sometimes it’s the only thing that I have time to get. During the school year I work at a cell phone recycling company, and in the summer I work at an overnight camp that I’ve been going to for over a decade. If there is anything else that you would like to know about me feel free to ask!

Thanks for reading,

Harris Cohn