Progress journal 2

Well tonight i worked with my group from 8-8:30 in our 6th floor lounge working on the proposal that is due tomorrow. We finalized what each of us will do. John and I will be taking interviews and editing the videos while Elizabeth creates the website and gather photography while Jessica finds articles and quotes that will help support our thesis. We finished the proposal saying that our website will work the best because of the videos and photography being able to relate to people easier and people will understand the information.

HILLARIOUS!!!

So simple, yet so funny!!

A new english project

Today we decided for out English project to make a website that will be called Association for true Voice(ATV). we are hoping to talk about freedom of speech and how even in america we don't have the complete freedom of our speech. We found the website that we are going to use to construct our own website. We spent about twenty minutes just brianstorming today about what we need to have and we came up with John and I interviewing people on campus about what they think about our idea. And jessica and Elizabeth are going to be working on the photography of the website and putting the photos up.

A L.A columnist writes his opinion of the comedic WBC

This article is an opinion article from James Kirchick from a magazine called “Advocate,” published in Los Angeles California. His idea is that people are making way to big a deal over the Phelps family and the WBC. With England barring them from the country it takes away from their freedom of speech and that is against social liberties. He basically thinks people should let Phelps speak, but just don’t listen to him because he is a crazed man. The audience is people who believe that people who have opinions that are extremely radical should not speak, and to the English government who deny Phelps and his family freedom of speech. The evidence he gives is that of quotes from the English government and from the Phelps family themselves. It is composed as an opinion article but it still informs of what happened between England and the WBC.

More on WBC

This article is about the banning of the Westboro Baptist Church from England. It is an article that comes from the Times Educational Supplement in England itself. The article describes a school that teaches about homosexuality to hopefully prevent the bullying of homosexuals in schools. The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) saw this school as ‘fag-infested,’ which shows how much hate the WBC has. The writer of the article was trying to show how much of a difference the program was making in the children of the school and they used examples from the teachers, students, and parents of the school. With these examples they want to show their audience, people who are in schools or possibly principals and headmasters of schools around the world, what is happening. The author Kerra Maddern gives the readers quotes from the WBC such as, “God hates the UK and the Tomlinson School fag tyranny, where conscientious parents face religious persecution for withdrawing their children from lessons on lying fag so-called history” to give a true perspective on what the WBC believes. The composure of this article is a simple and well worded article that is made easy to read and understand exactly what is happening.

http://sb6nw2tx4e.search.serialssolutions.com/?genre=article&issn=00407887&title=Times+Educational+Supplement&volume=&issue=4831&date=20090320&atitle=%27Most+hated%27+US+fundamentalists+to+picket+primary.&spage=3&pages=3-3&sid=EBSCO:Academic+Search+Premier&aulast=Maddern%2c+Kerra

Everyone's favorite acronym!...not

Recently many people have been hearing of this organization known as the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). They were founded back in 1967 and based themselves as an "old school (primitive)" Baptist church. They have no true affiliation with and organized Baptist church, and gratefully so for the Baptists of America. In an article I found on a website that is against defamation, which is defined by the dictionary as "false or unjustified injury of the good reputation of another." This article is to inform people of religious ties that there are people in America who will take religion so far as to say that God hates fags, and Jews. The writer sees that the WBC uses God for all of their excuses of hate and they have outlandish arguments that contradict themselves. Too look up more information you just have to go to their website "Godhatesfags.com" which in itself is something to behold. The article is not one of hate but one of information so that people can see what is going on in this country. Mentioned in the article is WBC attempting to protest at funerals and vigils for victims of 9-11 and the Iraq war, because anything having to do with American politics is "sinful." This article is something for people to read if they want to learn what is happening some people in this world.

Here is the link:
http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/WBC/default.asp?LEARN_Cat=Extremism&LEARN_SubCat=Extremism_in_America&xpicked=3&item=WBC

Off The Dock

How long will i be here testing the water? You all are ones to jump right in but I'm still standing on the dock. I need to dive right in and keep on swimming to stay afloat then go under and come back up. But I seem too timid and not wanting to take that chance to get up and dance with her. I need to just dive right in and jump out of my skin. So no I know what i have to do, it means I have to take the plunge. I hold my breath and close my eyes, wish me luck.

The idea of having distance

So since may of this year I have been in a relationship and interestingly enough it is still going on even though I am an hour and a half away at college. The thoughts that first ran through my mind when August rolled around and I was about to leave was that "what if i loose interest and i find out that I don't really love her." Though it has been hard ironically I've learned more of how in love i am with my girlfriend, even though it will be only five months his friday it seems like it's been twice as long. Many people think that long distance relationships cannot work, i personally am one of them, funny I know, but for me i know i get to see my girlfriend at least once a month and every time i see her I make sure that I make the best of it. Leaving each time is hard though, anybody that is in my same situation knows that each time you have to walk away from her and the car back into your dorm alone is probably some of the hardest steps you have to take the entire time till you see her again. Here I am rambling but rambling words that I need to say to show to myself who I am in a relationship and how much I truly want this to last.

Surviving the Zombie Horde!!

Last night i took part in a training mission for the Humans VS. Zombies which is a live action game in which the humans have nerf guns and try not to get tagged by the Zombies. Last night our mission was to escort a scientist to different generators around campus, the generators were of course the stands around campus that have flyers all over them. It was a lot of fun trying to "survive" and make sure that the "scientist" wasn't killed and that you did not get tagged and became a zombie. There were many rushes by the zombies, which were about 10 at the start and I think we had about 15 humans, one rush in particular that took about 5 humans out. We were across the street from the Cooper science building and leaving one of the "generators" to reach our final destination, which of course was on the other side of campus. We saw the zombies forming up in attempt for a rush and we formed up prepared for the inevitable rush. Slowly the zombies began to creep towards us just waiting for someone to fire and miss so that they could rush easier. There was a quick silence, and from one of the zombies cam "now!". All hell was broken loose as the zombies charged in one massive swarm, we frantically fired our guns and slowly took down zombies but of course there were some casualties caused by the quicker zombies. The surviving humans retreated after all the zombies had been stunned and quickly regrouped, re-supplied, and reloaded our weapons. Winded we made our way to the north bus stop which is past lafolette. As we made our way around the entire campus we planned on what to do when we got to our final stand. As we approached the final point we came into contact with the entire horde beginning to circle us up. As we waited for another rush we all cocked our weapons and chose our target. As the zombies charged one made a beeline for me and i took aim, my heart pounding in my ears and sweat on my brow, i pulled the trigger, nothing. My gun had jammed and before i could reach into my pocket and pull out a dart to throw I had been tagged. Aggravated i threw my gun to the ground and turned to the zombie side. That rush had left only 4 humans standing. The humans reached the last point, but it was a futile effort because of the overwhelming odds and a simple rush by the twenty-some zombies and the humans were turned and the mission failed.

Sleep

I decided for this post that I'm going to post some lyrics I've been working on and see what people think.

Tired but you just can't sleep
tossing and turning
these things flash through my mind
iomages of those around my life
these moments seen day by day
makes me feel like I'm sleeping with my eyes open

So now i'll try
just to get by
find that peace
that comes with sleep
fall down deep where they weep
for those fallen

the folded flag upon her doorstep
seeing faces that won't smile again
they all stare blankly up at their flag over them
and on the other side their mothers missing them so

as dirt falls in i cough and sputter
i try to close my eyese and make it go away
but all i see
is the world on fire

Beah, once a boy soldier

Last night I attended the freshman connections presentation of the other of the book "A Long way gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier." For me it was a first to see the author of a book I have read. The experience let me feel a bit closer to the book just to see the person who wrote it, and also tell his own story again but hearing it from his mouth. Hearing an author tell their story again may sound boring since you've already read it, but truly it opened my eyes to the depth of the story. As I sat amongst the crowd Ishmael's story also made me understand the book better. When I read the book I was not horribly confused but there were just some things that I could not understand the nature of, and when he explained points in his book I understood the whole picture. So hearing from authors can help you truly understand the story they meant for you to interpret it.

Wired in the Living Room

So yesterday I had an adventure with a board member from UPB (university programs board) named Nick Hewitt. He is in charge of the "Wired" music events that will be happening every other thursday at "The Tally" in the student center here at Ball State. Also he will soon be reopening the music venue "The Living Room" and be doing concerts for local and maybe even national artists out of the second floor of a building in downtown Muncie. I was extremely excited to go along with him to The Living Room to see what it was like, and to my great surprise it was massive with at least enough room to fit three hundred comfortably. With him being in charge of it and me feeling like I am directly under him with UPB I'm hoping that I will be able to have influence on concerts that get booked there and maybe even my own band will be able to play there. I will probably post about some up coming shows at later dates so as to keep everyone in the loop.

Forget what?

For college it seems I have been forgetting things... In particular I've been forgetting about posting twice a week on this infernal blog and commenting on two other people's blogs. This event always seems to slip my mind because it is just so far down on the totem pole that is college work. I've resorted to having a sticky note on my computer constantly that says "blogs!!!" and I hope that will work and I will be able to take the time to sit an write these.

My generation a bit late

This song by The Last Domino I think symbolizes the Generation Y pretty well. It's all about making sure you don't let life go past you and you live in the now, the song is called Let's try this again.

When life throws things

It turns out that life becomes complicated when you want things the most. My past weekend consisted of concerts being moved, forgetting of homework, and having to say good bye to someone I love. My music career with my band The Day After!!! is something that I have been working with for about a little over a year now and this past weekend we had our first show in over a month with a good friend of mine, Josh Lamore. Late Saturday night, which the show was the next day, I was informed that the venue we were to perform at was shut down. The issue was described to me that a noise complaint had been filed and the owners had a court date, mind you the venue was right next door to a much larger venue that has more concerts and louder equipment. With this new development I began to worry that the show would not happen, luckly the guy who booked the show, Stephen Zumbrun, told me that he had found a new place and that it was only five minutes from the original venue. The Murphy building would now be the location for our show with the same time and same price, my only concern was that no one would show up due to the abrupt change in place, luckily I was wrong. About twenty people eventually arrived to the concert and that meant that we recieved one hundred dollars for the show, and we only had to give fifty to the venue, so my band recieved fifty dollars which was then split between The Day After!!! and Josh's band Goodbyefate. In the end I was finally relieved and able to be happy about the show. Life throws you those things that feel like bricks through your window but sometimes it hires a worker to fix the window.