Old Friends

Alright, so this weekend I am finally going to go and see two of my best friends from high school. They go to WMU and so this weekend I'm going to spend the night over in Kalamazoo for a few days. I've texted them a few times but haven't actually seen them or hung out at all so it should be pretty fun. I haven't had too much to do lately so it will be good to get away from the house for a while.

The Four Freedoms

"I have called for personal sacrifice, and I am assured of the willingness of almost all Americans to respond to that call." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Roosevelt's "Four Freedoms" speech in 1941 was a very powerful speech with a dominant message of the freedoms that we have and that the rest of the people in the world deserve to have. I hold this to be one of the greatest speeches in the history of this country, right up there with Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” and Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address”. Why do I think that it is so great? The ideas presented in the speech are the principles on which our whole nation was founded upon and stand for. He uses articulate language to increase the patriotism in the hearts of the listeners. At its root, the speech is a call for all Americans to give all that they have in order to make our society and the entire world a better place for all. However, if you look past the first layer and delve deeper into the speech, it is easy to see that Roosevelt is trying to join the whole country together as they head into a brand new war. He realizes the importance of unity as a nation. People of all races, from all different backgrounds, and from all different lifestyles are required to come together at a time of war. Only then will our efforts not be in vain. Only then can we succeed to spread peace throughout the world.

Mid-term Evaluation

Comp 105 has been going pretty good so far. I feel that it has helped to transition me from a high school mind set to more of a college thinker and writer. I had no idea coming into college that the style of writing required and expected would be so different. It hasn't been that hard to change, however, thanks to comp. I have really learned a lot about how to not just summarize but actually analyze and express my opinions about the things that I read. I have also learned that it is better to read with a pencil rather than just read page after page. Marking things as I read has helped me to get more out of the material and it also helps when analyzing and writing papers. This is something that will continue to help me for the rest of my college years and beyond.
I think moving forward in the class we should continue to work on adapting to the kind of assignments that we will need throughout college. So far the class has been really helpful and has been pretty interesting to go to every day.

RRRRRRoll...

Alright, if you have ever had practically any foreign language class you are aware of the fact that rolling your r's is a very crucial part of pronouncing things accurately. Yeah, I know, it doesn't make a difference at Taco Bell, but in the real world it might. Well, anyway, after having three years of high school Spanish, I could never figure out the correct way to roll my r's. It always ended up sounding like I was hacking something up. Today, my sister came home and guess what she was doing... rrrrrrrrolling her r's! Needless to say I was not happy.

Technology

I was thinking today about how many amazing pieces of technology have arisen in the last twenty years. The average American home looks extremely different than it did not too long ago. In living rooms, televisions keep getting bigger and bigger. The term DVD was non- existent, and these days, Blu-ray is starting to push DVDs from the shelves of stores. Perhaps the biggest invention of modern days is, of course, the internet. Today, nearly anyone can get information about anything with the few clicks of some buttons. Hybrid cars are beginning to gain prominence, and plug in electric cars are coming in a year or two. Music used to be bought on audio cassettes, but today mp3s are the main way people get their music. Everyone has a cell phone in their hands today and can talk to anyone anywhere in the world at anytime. There are thousands of more inventions of recent years that are everywhere today. This makes me wonder, how different will the world be in twenty more years? Will all of these inventions seem old and outdated?
I think that that is inevitable. Day to day new technologies are being invented all around the world. Stuff from science fiction movies seem to becoming realities right before our eyes. A few months ago I read a story about a cloaking device on the internet. Thirty years ago, people would have said that that would be impossible. You can't make something just disappear. Well, newsflash, apparently you can.
It amazes me all of the time how far we have come in the technological world. It really makes me wonder how we can advance beyond what we already have. Of course, I'm sure that the people living in the stone age thought that when the wheel was invented too. It just goes to show, the human mind has been graciously blessed by God. How else can you explain the amazing things that we have accomplished?

Noise

I just recieved news a few days ago that my sister is going to try and learn how to play the flute. Well, she had her first lesson today and was told to practice at home tonight. In case you don't know, a first time flute player is a terrible noise to hear. It sounds kind of like a wounded animal, and maybe not even an animal from this planet. The fact that she doesn't know any real notes yet doesn't help matters at all either. She was told to just practice lip positioning and actually getting a sound. There is definitely a sound coming out of her room, but it's one that is making my whole family cringe.

Come Together...

For some reason, for the past two days I've had "Come Together" by the Beatles stuck in my head. I don't know where exactly I picked it up, but I must have sung it in my head like a hundred times over the past couple days. Hopefully since I wrote it here I'll stop.

Ugh...

What are the Tigers doing?!