Saving A Book

If I were told I could save just one book for future generations I would choose the book Designed by God, So I Must Be Special. This book was written by Bonnie L. Sose and illustrated by Holly Sose. This book was intended for Christian's, but all people read it. It is a kids book, published in June of 1988. This very unique book is very colorful and the drawings are very simple. The author and illustrator most likely decided to make this so simple because it is easier for young children to understand what it means. This book is mainly about how God made everyone and that everyone is special in their own way. It teaches the younger kids about God in a very simplistic way before they are able to understand what is said at church.

I received this book from my grandma the day I was born. When my brothers, my sister and I were very young we used to trace the pictures in the book and pretend like we did it freehand. It was very important to me because it was my first “bible- like” book I ever got. My mom would always read this to us as a bed time story and we would always pray after that.

I think that Designed by God, So I Must Be Special would be a good book to save because children are the future. And the book could help many parents explain the world to their kids at a young age, if that is what they wanted their kids to study.

Halloween!

When I was younger, my two brothers, my sister and I would have my mom and dad help us get ready and we would all go out trick or treating. We have a clown costume that each one of us wore when we turned a certain age. My sister and I are close in age so we would share costumes a lot. We have been gypsies, big fluffy pumpkins, Cleopatra, and princesses. My older brother was once jailbird, a gorilla and a hobo, while my little brother was a kangaroo for about four years straight. Every year we would walk around that same neighborhood to all the familiar houses. I used to love when it got really cold, it felt so festive. One of my neighbors used to have a special box of the big candy bars for the kids he was close to. I remember disliking when my mom had to put the make up on me and I always had to sit so still, me being so young, that was difficult. 

Last year my family moved to a house that is on a very busy street and not in a neighborhood. We quickly learned that nobody comes to our house. My parents decided that we would take my little brother to the old neighborhood every year to see old friends and go trick or treating. Last weekend was trick or treat night and my boyfriend and I decided to take my little brother. He sprayed his hair red (although its already naturally red?) and my mom put some of her darker colored eye shadow on his face. We decided to tell people that he caught on fire. I loved seeing everyone, especially the adults, because I babysat for most of them. They we shocked that I was already in college and how tall we got. I think I will always take my little brother out trick or treating, until he thinks he's too old, and then I'll just go visit my old friends

WSU change?

If there was something about Wright State University I could change, it would be the scheduling process. For me, scheduling is very difficult. My older brother also goes to Wright State and he is a year older than me and we are both commuters. In my family of six, we only have two cars with five people having their license. Meaning, before my brother and I leave for school, we have to drop my mom of at work and my dad takes the other car to work. For this quarter, I have classes that end in the early afternoon. This means, I have to wait around for my brother on campus until four. Before school started, I thought this was going to be horrible, but then I realized it was not when I found out what there was to do on campus.

My brother has already scheduled his classes for next quarter and I have not. He scheduled them on some days to end at nine at night. So I guess this means that I have to tell my advisor that my classes have to be scheduled on only Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and all before three in the afternoon. I have been told that this might be difficult because of how late I am doing it.

If I could change one thing about the scheduling process, I would make it so that there was some sort of program, while scheduling, for commuter siblings who drive to school together. There needs to be a simpler way to schedule for people like us. 

Revision?

The revision process when writing anything is very important. Some people think that after not even an hour of work a good paper can be written. That is not always true because it can always use some sort of improving. My first drafts were nowhere near where they should be. After I revised them through peer editing and using the remarks from the instructor, I felt a lot better about my writing. It is sometimes difficult for me to self-evaluate my paper because I do not usually see the errors. I think this might be because of how many times I read and re read the paper as I am writing it. I enjoy having a peer edit my paper because they can catch the silly mistakes I made. I like when the instructor edits my paper because then I know I can see all the really big mistakes I made. On some of my papers, the instructor writes about how my sentences were structured awkwardly. At times it is difficult for me to change this because I had trouble figuring out how to word it in the first place. But I do think that the revision process is making a huge difference when I write. Now when I write something I will walk away or something and then come back and re read it to find my own mistakes. The revision process also made me realize that I make some of the same mistakes when I write. I have recognized that I have trouble with verb tense and I usually used the wrong tense. Overall, I love the revision process because even though it may take longer I always end up with a much better paper in the long run.

Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec

The painting I chose is of a women sitting at a table. She looks like she is currently in some sort of restaurant. The woman looks like she works somewhere that sells food because of what she is wearing. She is wearing a white blouse that reminds me of the shirts the people who work for a catering business would wear. By the expression on her face and the squinting of her eyes, she looks very angry or really tired. This could possibly be from working so much. There is also a wine glass and a bottle wine on the table that is in front of her. Wine is alcoholic so she might be stressed and wanting to get drunk.

I think when Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec painted this he was targeting mainly older people, over the age of at least sixteen. Many younger people would not even understand what this is about. I feel that Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec’s purpose in making this painting was to show how he felt about this certain subject. He may have done this painting to inform someone of what he was thinking about one day. Or it may have been something he saw or was watching and decided to paint it. I think that Henri de Toulouse- Lautrec did not have a stance on this painting. I feel this way because when I do paintings I paint something that is important to me. The genre of this is a painting and the media he used is a portrait.

Television?

I disagree with the statement that if we unplug all the TV sets in America, our children would grow up to be healthier, better educated, and more independent human beings. I do not agree with this because television can be very informative depending on what is being watched. Children can watch intellectual television channels like the Discovery Channel or anything else made for children to learn something from. Sometimes, the things they learn on TV may not be taught in schools. Some of the television shows that are out now teach children what not to do and how to act in certain social situations.

Also, as we are now in a very electronic based era, many things that are talked about nowadays have to do with television. Things that happen in the world may only be seen on the television in the world news. Current events can, at times, only be heard or seen in the news on TV. And children would never know about anything happening in the world if they were not allowed to watch TV. An example of this is when the September 11^th terrorist attacks happened. I, myself, found out what was going on through the television. There, I got to see what was really happening and not only hear through people’s opinions of what they thought was going on.

On television, children can also watch several important things, such as the presidential speeches. In doing so it gives kids a chance to form their own opinions of the different candidates. Without TV none of this would be possible and children would be lacking some very important knowledge they can find out from the television.

Power of Advertising

I think that advertisements have a huge power over everyone. Whether we realize it or not, we are always influenced by what we see. Advertisements can be hurtful, informational or just for entertainment, but there always used to get a point across to the audience.

I feel that advertisements can sometimes be hurtful. This can be seen in advertisements about the perfect body. Mainly geared towards women, the makers of advertisements make it so that to have the perfect body you have to be extremely thin. When, honestly, that is not the case for everyone. For some people it is very difficult to get the so called perfect body. To me, the perfect body is looking how you want to look, not someone else. And advertisements never show that.

Celebrities can also have a large effect on how we view advertisements, especially if it is about buying a product. The makers of advertisements use celebrities in advertisements to sell products because people want to be like them and they think if they use that product they will be like that person. Celebrities can also be portrayed hurtfully in advertisements. This happens when they do not look their best one day and the media uses that to say, “You do not want to look like this do you?” This does not make any sense because if that was a non-celebrity, no one would care if he or she looked bad one day because everyone does. Although advertisements are just trying to send a powerful message they can sometimes be hurtful, too.

Why I Chose Wright State

During my senior year of high school, I went to many different colleges to see what they were like. I never once even thought of going to Wright State. My dad asked me to apply to a couple of colleges and luckily I got accepted to ones such as, Sinclair, the University of Louisville, the University of Cincinnati, and, obviously Wright State. I wanted to go to the University of Louisville more than anything. I soon realized that was not possible. UofL is very expensive and a very long drive if I ever wanted to come home over the weekend. After talking to my dad, he told me that Wright State is actually a very good school. My older brother, everyone calls him Joe, I call him Joey, had just finished his first year there. He talked to me and told me that Wright State was one of the best things that ever happened to him. Joey is not very social at all, but he is extremely smart, and I knew I could trust him. He told me that he made so many friends over the year and learned so much more. After talking to my dad some more, he told me that Wright state is a good choice and I would benefit greatly from it. My dad also helped me decide whether or not it would be a good idea to live at home for the first year. Although I was skeptical at first, once I was at Wright State for a while, I knew Joey was right. It is a good school and I am glad that I chose Wright State. 

That's How Much I Love You

One song that means a lot to me is, That’s How Much I Love You, by Frank Sinatra. Honestly, I never knew this was a real song until just a few days ago. My grandmother, who I have always called Grammy, used to sing the words, “If I had a nickel, I’d tell you what I’d do, I’d spend it all on candy, and give it all to you,” to my siblings and me when we were younger. My cousins and I added the word “baby” on the end to those lyrics when we were able to talk and understand it. We used to sing this phrase over and over again on long car rides back to her house, always having a good time and laughing uncontrollably at our horrible voices. Until now, I had always thought she just made those words up. Then, realizing it was actually Frank Sinatra, I understood that my Grammy just shortened it for us to learn to sing.

This song was written in 1946, and was on one of Sinatra’s many albums. I believe that Sinatra is targeting someone he loves, but I think his purpose for writing this song is for others to feel the same ways as him. I also think that Sinatra would want the audience to be able to dedicate this song to someone they love. Through researching Sinatra, I have learned that he takes a strong stance on love. Many of his other songs are about love, so it must be very important to him or it is possible that he struggled with it. Either way, this song will always be very special to me.

Lane Frost

If I could have the chance to meet anyone in the world, I would choose bull riding icon, Lane Frost. Frost was born in 1963 and began participating in rodeos at a very young age. He was the National High School Bull Riding Champion in 1981 and he was the Bull Riding Champion of the first Youth National Finals in 1982. Soon after that, in 1984, he married a barrel racer named Kellie Kyle. Right after high school, he joined the PRCA and became the PRCA World Champion Bull Rider only at the age of 24.

Sadly, on July 30, 1989 at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo, after riding a bull called “Taking Care of Business” he dismounted, and fell to the mud. The bull then turned around and hit Frost in the side with his horn which broke several of his ribs. He then stood up and tried to run back to the chutes, but fell. The fall caused his broken ribs to puncture his left lung and his heart. Frost was rushed to the hospital, but his heart could not be repaired and he was pronounced dead.

After his death, changes were made to rodeos in his honor. For instance, from now on, all bull riders must wear a protective when on a bull. This vest was invented by Frost’s touring partner and good friend, Cody Lambert. A plethora of songs were written by famous singers, such as George Strait, in Frost’s honor. And in 1994, a movie, 8 seconds, was released.

Even though I have never ridden a bull, I am very close to some people who do and they say Frost is truly an inspiration.  I would love to meet Frost because of the things I have read about him being such a good man. In the movie, 8 seconds, Frost’s character is seen helping a young boy better his riding methods. I have come to find that back then this was never seen, but yet Frost did it. From reading about him and his life, it makes me want to keep striving and never give up.