The Three Essays

I believe I have a good start on all three essays. Each seems to cover the points laid out in the outline in a clear well-written way. However, the main problem I am having right now with the essays is introductory and concluding statements, as well as transition statements between paragraphs. While, individual paragraphs may read well on their own, the essays as a whole seem a little choppy. The main reason for the rough nature is probably because I am having a hard time deciding what I want my purpose for the portfolio to be. Obviously, the point of my research this semester was to learn more about the Virginia Tech Community, but as I was writing the essays I started to grasp the deeper purpose for myself.
I have always been a descent writer, but even so, I have struggled with English and writing all of my life. It took me a longer time than a lot of my other friends in primary school to develop good writing habits, and to this day I still have doubts about the strength of my writing. The main things this writing and research class has shown me is that great literature does not happen in the blink of an eye and does not involve the use of magic. It takes shitty rough drafts, lots of editing, lots of time, and most importantly, patience. What I have gained from this class is confidence in my writing and in myself. This is the main point I want the reader to ultimately leave with.

We're the Coastal Champions?!?

It doesn't really seem possible that Virginia Tech won the ACC Coastal Division Title. Let's face it, we haven't been at the top of our game this season, mainly because our football program is in a rebuilding year. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and find out that our winning was all a dream, and that Georgia Tech or Florida State had clenched the Coastal. But until then I'm going to bask in the glow of victory and brag to all of my University of Virginia friends.
This year the ACC Football Championship will be played in Tampa, Florida between my Virginia Tech Hokies and the Boston College Eagles. Although we lost to BC during regular season play, I have full confidence that we will emerge victorious in the championship game. In fact, if I remember correctly, that EXACTLY what we pulled off last year. GO HOKIES! GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!

WHAT THE...!?!

MOTHER BLEEPING BLEEPER BLEEP BLEEP HIM IN THE BLEEP I CAN'T BELIEVE WE BLEEPED THAT ONE UP A BLEEPING GAIN! I SWEAR I'M GOING TO HAVE A BLEEPING STROKE! BLEEP MIAMI! BLEEP THE REFS! AND MOST OF ALL...BLEEP OUR BLEEPING OFFENSE! WHAT THE BLEEP IS WRONG WITH US! BLEEP!!!
With a final score of 16 to 14, the Miami Hurricanes beat out my Virginia Tech Hokies, pretty much ending our chances at a Coastal Division Title. I can't even begin to express my anger right now. Lets just say I am surprised that I have not caused any property damage as of yet. Me and my friends and fellow football fans agree that there is really nothing to say. Not only can our Hokies not seem to convert on key plays, but we also seem to create big plays for the opposing team. What's more is that the referees seem to always be against us. There was yet another bogus ruffing the passer call that eventually led to Miami's first touchdown and switched the momentum in their favor. It's just so AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! Well, hopefully we'll have better luck next season.

BLEEP!

Feedback on my Feedback

I used to use Yahoo mailing all the time but now I have been primarily using VT's WebMail. Just like Yahoo, the university only allots each person 10 MB. Right now, not even after a full semester, I have a quota of over 404 percent. What's more, I have over 150 unread messages. As I found out while trying to sort through my inbox, one of those messages was the feedback on my essay. As I read over Mrs. Scott's comments, I was pleased to find out that she liked the tone and the structure. In addition, she also got the fact that I was letting out my frustrations at Tech through their idiotic policies.
However, I agree with her that the essay ends too arbitrarily and needs some work. I plan to include another section where I go through the outcome of my judicial review trial. What is also comforting to know is that I don't need to have some big revelation at the end of the essay. I am considering ending things on a more abstract note, such as my view of Virginia Tech after the trial. I have good expectations for my final draft.

Initiating Action on my Initiating Action Project

I have made some great progress on my website and I encourage everybody to check it out if they get a chance. The url is http//sites.google.com/site/righteoushokietickets/

The Power of Petition

In order to convince Virginia Tech's President Steger of the need to change the student season ticket packages, I am going to use a petition. A petition is a document addressed to some official and signed by numerous individuals. The compilation of signatures is used to give a sense of moral authority. Petition's are most commonly made to government officials and public entities. For instance, in the U.S., a candidate for public office who wants their name to appear on the ballot must gather a certain number of signatures from registered voters. Other examples where petitions are used include court proceedings. The initial pleading for a writ of habeas corpus is a petition.
What's really interesting and intriguing about petitions is that in this day and age they can be transmitted via the Internet. This Internet petition can be posted on a website whereby visitors to the website may add their email address or names. While this makes it easy for people to make and take petitions at any time, it also calls into question the legitimacy of the petition. The ease of the process may attract joke petitions, and even false names and e-mails of petitioners.
I am considering either doing a written petition, or perhaps creating a petition on Facebook. While Facebook would allow me to reach out to more of the Virginia Tech community, because I am considering implementing my initiating action project I want it to be as legitimate as possible.

An Unusually Amazing Morning

An early morning breeze sweeps through the three ajar windows directly facing me, cooling the sweat on my arms and forehead. At the same time, the clouds begin to part and the sun emerges. Its rays pierce through the windows’ glass without breaking it and scatter all across the room, causing the off-white paint job to seemingly glow. You can hear the trickle of water droplets as they jump from trees and roofs onto the ground. There is the shuffle of feet as an early morning tour passes through the adjacent courtyard. I can scarcely hear what the student guide is talking about. However, I am bewildered when he tells the prospective students and their parents that the residence hall they are looking at is called Brown. It’s Pritchard Hall I think to myself. I am half ready to yell out the window and set the record straight, but I catch myself. As I look directly up at the ceiling, there is no ventilation pipe right in front of me but an expansive space. I sit straight up and take in everything around me. Instead of the Star Wars and NASA posters that normally greet me, there are magazine cut outs of Daniel Radcliffe and Keira Knightly and other actors, actresses, and models whose names I don’t know; instead of the normal gray carpeting there are wooden floors; instead of seeing my roommate Dave passed out below me on his bed, his legs dangling off the side, there are two other lofts, both occupied, neither of them with Dave; and, instead of my Yankee paraphernalia, there is a dreaded Boston Red Sox flag overhanging one of the lofts. This is definitely not my room. I lie back down in a daze, trying to reason where I may be, when I feel a warm breath upon my neck. I turn on my side, and there next to me is the most beautiful sight in the world; it’s my baby, Louisa. She is still curled up underneath the bedcovers, fast asleep. Her hair is in a ruffle, but still looks extremely cute, and while there is no expression on her face, her cheeks give it a wonderful radiance. It begins to hit me that I am indeed no longer at Tech, and no longer even in the state of Virginia. I’m at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I had been planning a trip up to see Louisa for some time, and I was finally there and we were together again. Things were like old times, and as Forrest Gump would say, Louisa and I were like peas and carrots again. As I sat there, watching her sleep, her eyes began to flutter until she finally opened them wide and stared right back at me. She gave me a big smile and from that moment on I knew it was going to be a great day.

The Crapshoot that is the Student Lottery

I just came back from the Virginia Tech, University of Maryland game, and the first thing I have to say is great job Hokies! What's even more astounding is that Darren Evans ran for 253 yards, breaking the record of 243 yards set by Mike Imoh in 2004. I'd also like to thank my friend Ana Snelling for giving me a ticket to the game. Without her, I was sure to have paid 50 dollars for a ticket or perhaps even been forced to watch the game in the confines of the 4th floor Pritchard lounge, alone. I definitely owe Ana a favor, if not multiple favors, because this is not the first time she has come through for me. Thanks again Ana!
The uncertainty of me attending tonight's game brings me to the topic I've chosen for the initiating action project. As a freshman at Tech, you cannot sign up for a student season ticket package. Instead, individual game student tickets are issued by means of an online electronic lottery. The first frustration I have with the student lottery is that most of the time you never know when a game has opened up. Because there is no listserv or email notification, you have to constantly be checking the Hokie Tickets site. If it wasn't for reminders from my friends, I would have surely missed the deadline for signing up. Secondly, the lottery is open to all Tech students, not just freshmen. Even though an upperclassman may have a ticket to a game through their student season ticket package, they can still sign up for a chance to win another free ticket through the lottery. This definitely seems unfair to us freshmen. Thirdly, even though Tech has a whopping 30,000 students, Lane Stadium has a capacity of over 66,000. Why can't the university guarantee tickets for all students.
I am planning on writing a letter to Dr. Steger asking for a change to the student lottery. I will propose a new system where each student has the ability to go to each game so long as they pick up their ticket some time in advance. If their tickets have not been redeemed after that time they will be put up for sale. Included with this letter will be a petition signed by current Tech students calling for this initiative. I know I speak for all my fellow freshmen when I say that we are fed up with the current lottery system. It's time for change.

Change At Last

As we sat there watching the returns, we did so in disbelief. Obama had not only secured the Northeastern states that the Democratics usually won uncontested, but he also had gotten New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and the battleground state of Ohio. It was nearing the 11 o'clock hour and the closing of the polls on the West Coast. At that time, Obama was up in Florida by a difference of 2 to 3 percent, and had pulled ahead in Virginia by 10 or so thousand votes, which continued to climb with each minute. We were all glued to the television and our computer screens as we crosschecked information from all the various news organizations. All of a sudden, Pete tells me that according to Yahoo the AP declared Obama the winner of Virginia. Although nobody else could verify this, in my state of utmost excitement I texted everyone I knew to give them the news. For the first time since Lyndon B. Johnson, Virginia had gone blue. It was astonishing, and exciting to say the least. What had happened, though, was to pale in comparison with the news that was only seconds away. We watched as CNN finally broke the news about Virginia. Right on the heels of that they declared the battleground state of Florida to be awarded to Obama. I was in a hysteria of happiness as I grabbed my phone ready to call my girlfriend Louisa to tell her that he had this, that we had this. However, in the time it took me to grab my phone adjacent to me, the clock struck 11, and, although expected, the AP declared Obama the winner of the state of California and its 55 electoral votes. On the screen, a set of new words rang out. Obama is the 44th President Elect of the United States. It all seemed to hit me like a pile of bricks. I dropped the phone I had just picked up and fell to my knees on the verge of crying tears of sweet sweet happiness. I grasped my friend Ana and embraced her in a hug that I'm sure couldn't have been too comfortable for her. It had happened! The once improbable, unthinkable dream had culminated in the now famous chant of Obama and his entire campaign: Yes We Can!

Trick or Treat: A Halloween Away from Home...Part 1

The span of time between late October and late December is one of my favorite times of the year. There are so many holidays, including Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, et cetera. The first of these holidays, Halloween, is in fact not a holiday at all. It is the evening before All Hollows Day, also known as All Saints' Day. Nowadays, it is celebrated with activities such as trick-or-treating, costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. This year was my first Halloween away from home. For a time, I didn't know exactly what to do. Was I supposed to go trick-or-treating in the dorm? I hadn't gone trick-or-treating in years, even before heading off to college. Did people still dress up? Perhaps it was considered too childish at our age? I guess in the end, I knew in my heart of hearts that the one thing we would be doing, like most all other college students, was partying.
My friends and I were going to head to the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity in Christiansburg. They were hosting a Halloween party that was going to last from 10:00pm to 3:00am the next day. We all coordinated our outfits. Instead of having a bunch of disjointed costumes we all decided to dress up as one of the parts of the Pacman game. We had four ghosts, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Pete, and the honor of Pacman was bestowed upon yours truly. For the ghosts we bought solid-colored t-shirts from Michaels and then cut out a series of triangles all the way along the bottom to make a zigzag pattern. We also stuck two googly eyes nipples length apart on the chest. For my Pacman costume I had a yellow solid-colored t-shirt, but instead of doing any cutting or embroidery, I simply stuffed two massive pillows between the shirt and myself creating the roundish plump physique I was trying to portray.
When it was getting to be that time, we headed to the cage and loaded into my car. We drove from 460, got off the for downtown Christiansburg, took a left on Yellow Sulfur Road, took a right onto Janelle, and then, I missed the last turn onto Cinnabar. I drove a little further, until we came to a somewhat abandoned looking warehouse, where I thereby proceeded to make a uey. As I did this, there was a loud explosion, and the car was rocked and keeled over to its right side. The car resisted moving forward and gave a loud screech as if in agony. It was at this point that I realized we had a flat tire. To be continued...

Drafts Are Back: Back Again!

I'm actually writing this blog post in my English class right now, which is a first for me. We just exchanged our feedback on each others essays and read over them. First off, I thought it was mere coincidence when I learned that the person's essay I responded to was the same one that responded to my essay. However, as I soon found out, Professor Scott had done the same thing with everybody else in the class. As far as the response goes, it was more or less what I expected.
For my research this semester I have been looking at the Virginia Tech Community and what sets it apart from other college communities. However, one of the things I learned long ago was that it always important to know both sides of what you are trying to argue. I saw the essay as my ability to do just that. The main idea of my essay was to present my frustrations at Tech in order to show the school in a less than pleasing light. I weaved my thoughts into my own personal story of how I got a judicial review (J.R.).
I believe Emily did a great job analyzing my essay seeing that it wasn't completed. She described my larger theme as "something like getting in trouble for something, while in the act, you would have never expected to get in trouble for, but when thinking back realizing it was technically breaking rules". While I definitely can agree with that statement, it ultimately wasn't what I was trying to say. In all fairness to Emily, though, the main reason she wasn't able to pick up my message was because I hadn't yet fit my story into the larger context of Virginia Tech. I had talked a little about my successful moments in my first months at Tech but I hadn't yet contrasted it with the frustrations that overwhelmed me after getting the J.R. What was really great about Emily's feedback was that she seemed to enjoy the personal story setting and the "coffee shop conversation" feel, which was exactly what I was aiming for. It makes me more confident that I will be able to draw in and maintain the attention of my readers.

Bubba is finally carved!

It's Halloween this Friday and I have really been working hard to get ready for the big day. Not only have I purchased a blue 36B sports bra, a pair of blue valor sweatpants, and a black wig for my Sporty Spice outfit, but my hallmates and I bought a giant pumpkin. We named him Bubba (although others have referred to him as The Great Pumpkin) and we got the whole hall to carve him up this evening. Let's just say it is much harder to carve a pumpkin when all you have is a pocket knife and a cereal spoon. It took us a while to gut it out and make sure it was clean and ready for carving. As far as the actual carving went, we made four designs. The centerpiece was the mudflap girl, with a big four to its left, as well as two VT's in the upper right and left hand corners. We plan on entering Bubba into the pumpkin carving contest held on Wednesday, and we believe he should win hands down.

My Roommate

What's great about my roommate, Dave Wessner? Well, thankfully he's fun to hang around with. He may not be the most organized and he definitely isn't the most considerate individual, but I know that I got the pick of the litter compared to many people. What's really funny about the boy though is that he is incredibly smart. However, he is probably the worst procrastinator I have ever had the pleasure to meet. This morning when I got up at eight o clock he was still asleep. When I left for English he was still asleep. When I cam back from English he was still asleep. When I left for Theatre he was still asleep. And when I got back from Theatre he was still asleep. He not only slept through his classes but he slept straight through the day. I finally took the liberty of waking him up by throwing my friends stuffed lion, named Sasha, on top of him. Now that he has finally gotten moving, he is preparing himself a bowl of easy mac and has started playing his new video game, Far Cry 2. Let's just say I have my doubts that he will be passing by the end of the semester.

Make a Wish on the Meteor Shower

Although I am a huge aerospace and space geek, until yesterday I had never personally witnessed a meteor shower. A bunch of my hallmates and I, after completing, or in some cases putting off our homework, bundled up and trekked out to the field between Pritchard and Ambler Johnston. We all took a space in the wet dewy grass and laid down to get a better view of the night sky. We eagerly watched, and watched, and watched, waiting for a shimmer of light to streak from one end of the blackness to the other. But nothing came. It was frigid and we were all beginning to feel the ache of the cold in our bones. We were about to call it quits when suddenly Sam and Eddie jumped up in a frenzy, hooting and hollering and exchanging exclamations. Although everyone else had lost focus, they had apparently caught a glimpse of one of the falling meteors. I was supremely jealous and I vowed to myself that I would not leave the plot I lay on until I had personally witnessed one of the falling meteors. As we waited anxiously onward, time seemed to pass more and more slowly. We passed the time joking, making up our own constellations, and talking about nostalgic things such as Pokemon. During all of this I got very excited when I saw something fast streak into and out of my sight. Sadly, though very funny, it turned out not to be a meteor but a bat. However, I did manage to eventually catch a glimpse of a falling meteor. It was the same size as the stars that dotted the sky, yet it was there and gone in a split second. It was as if a person was drawing a line across the sky, one that while not forever written overhead was forever to be written in my head.

What?!? We're Not Done With Our Shitty First Drafts

When reading Encountering the Essay and Essayists on Essays, one of the tidbits about essays that was especially interesting to me was that they can have hidden overtones of disguise. What does this mean? While an essay is usually a piece of nonfiction, the author can manipulate incidents and moods in the interest of creating a story or backing a position.
Now looking at my Shitty First Draft, I realize it is too much just a series of my frustrations laid out on paper. While it does deal personally with me, it has no inherent structure and few personal examples. While it still may be in my best interest to look at why Tech is not unlike other college communities, I should focus it on some event or series of events. One of the ideas I'm considering when reworking my Shitty First Draft for the second draft is to base my frustrations at Tech around the story about how I got my first, and what I would consider pointless, judicial review. It would not only make my essay less incoherent and hideous, but it would give it more drama and thereby create more interest in reading it.

Oh Well, There's Always Next Season Red Sox (Suckers!)

The 2007 World Series Champions the Boston Red Sox lost to the Tampa Bay Rays three to one last night, knocking them out of the American League Championship Series and putting them out of contention for a consecutive World Series title. All I can say is...WOOT WOOT! First off, I'm a New York Yankees fan, and it was painful enough that my team didn't get to the playoffs. But it would have made things all the worse if our biggest rivals, the Sox, after being down three games to one, would have won in dramatic fashion. It would have been a rehashing of the 2004 playoffs, something that nobody should ever have to relive. Well, at least I can rest easily now at night.

Oh I Just Can't Wait to be Well

Everyone knows what I'm talking about when I say that being sick sucks. I started feeling sick the night Virginia Tech played and lost to Boston college--go figure. It started with a slight cough, which led to a sore throat, which led to a raging headache, which ultimately led to a feverish fever. It wasn't fun in the least. While the fever and the headache disappeared after some good sleep, the soar throat continues to persist, even as a write this blog entry. I plan on going to Schiffert Health Center within the next day or two, and hopefully they'll be able to fix me up and make me brand new again.

Not Another Loss

How is it you can lose a football game after getting up 10 to 0 in the first five minutes of play? It seems like an impossible feat. Well, our Virginia Tech Hokies sure enough managed to do just that against Boston College last night. After the kickoff to Boston College, Virginia Tech intercepted the 2nd down and returned it for a touchdown to go up 7 to 0. Then, the next kickoff, they caused a fumble, recovered, and wound up scoring a field goal to put them up 10 to 0. Needless, to say they had all the momentum on their side and looked sure to not only win, but crush Boston College. However, Boston's next possession would put a damper on those hopes. The referees called 5 penalties on Virginia Tech, many which didn't seem legitimate, that ultimately gave them over 50 yards. Boston wound up scoring a touchdown and from that point on things began a turn for the worse. Virginia Tech's offense crumbled, and the defense which had seemed impenetrable began missing tackles and gave too much room to receivers. Me and my hallmates watched in horror as our 10 point lead switched into a 10 point deficit. Even when we seemed to be on the verge of regaining the lead, we would always screw the pooch. It made me sick, both figuratively and literally. We wound up losing 28 to 23, putting us at five wins and two losses this season. Even with the loss we will still be ranked number one in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but we will surely fall out of national rankings. While there was questionable refereeing, in the end Tech had numerous opportunities and just didn't manage to convert. Lets hope for a better outcome next week when we take on Florida St.

Shitty First Draft

There is all this talk about being a Hokie, Hokies are so community oriented, there is something different about a Hokie student than other college students. But what is it? What is it that makes every other student incomparable to Hokies. It doesn’t seem to make sense. The school, while good, and still improving is a far way away from the ivies and the PAC 10. It is in the middle of Southwest Virginia, a.k.a the middle of nowhere, and hicksville. The football team can’t seem to win the easy games against East Carolina University and Boston College, but they can somehow beat Georgia Tech and Nebraska. Furthermore, while the school and the students pride themselves on the football team, they’ve only once been to a national championship, and they lost it. People make it seem like we’re all so homey and helpful, when in reality it can seem just the opposite. There are over 20,000 undergraduates. How can there be such a family atmosphere with so many people. Whenever you’re walking to class, there are always mobs of people crossing the drillfield, the vast majority of them are listenimg to their ipods and paying no attention to anyone around them. Some Virginia Tech family! In the first half of the semester here at Tech I have become good friends with my roommate, my hallmates, and a couple others. However, with so many people at the school I don’t know how I haven’t made more friends. I was very well liked in high school, and I’m the same person I was coming out of high school. It’s not like I haven’t been making the effort either. I go out and party, and I’ve been trying to get involved in the many clubs and organizations the school has to offer. The people just seem like they are from another world. Is it something wrong with me or them? I feel like the only way to fit in is to change myself, and I am in no way up for doing that. What’s even more frustrating is that, while I have been doing well in my studies, I seem to be getting less and less enjoyment from them. I have always wanted to know how things world, and I have always had an instinctive curiosity. Since early in high school I decided that I wanted to be an engineer. I concentrated all throughout high school on the math and sciences just because I was so set on the engineering career path. Now that I’m actually in an engineering program, I can’t say that I have been as enthused. I’m still doing so much math and science work and my introduction to engineering class bores the hell out me, although that might be because it is at 8 a.m. on Mondays. While I am learning, I want to be doing more, I want to be exploring. One of the main reasons I came to Virginia Tech was because they are a leader in undergraduate research. My whole thought was what’s the point of learning if you can’t apply it? I also can’t seem to figure out exactly what I want to do. When filling out college applications I told them that I was interested in aerospace and mechanical engineering. However, now that I’m actually in the process of selecting what major I will continue with for the next four years I couldn’t be more indecisive. While I still like aerospace and mechanical, the required classes I would have to take sound so monotonous and boring, and I don’t know if they’ll be worth it in the end. I have now begun considering mining and mineral, industrial and systems, and even green engineering, but none of them seem to have exactly quite what I’m looking for. The more about the programs I learn, the less sure I am of the decision at hand. I am also frustrated because I still feel like a big fish in a small pond. While there definitely is much more engineering talent at Tech than there was at my high school, I still feel like I am one of the top students, and one of the most creative with that. For a sustainable energy project we had I came up with a really good idea to use the heat generated through composting to power and transform it into electricity that can be utilized for whatever. Compare this to the ideas of some of my groupmates: a wheel located under a sink faucet, which would turn as a result of the water flow over it, producing electricity; the friction made from pressing the keys on a laptop would be converted into energy, which would recharge the laptop battery. In my opinion these ideas in particular, along with others, were just absurd. I don’t think that I’m necessarily smarter than anybody else, but I seem to be one of the few who really cares about engineering, and really puts in the time and effort it requires. Although I didn’t know about club tennis tryouts and I will definitely consider it for future years, I did join intramural tennis. I expected to have a ladder of games to play, but instead they gave us a group of 15 or 20 players or so and left it up to us to play. We only had to play three matches, but even so it was too loosy goosy for me and I could never seem to get emails back from players, nor did any of them ever seem to have time to play. I became disinterested and ultimately only played one match, and because of that haven’t been keeping up on my tennis game. The resident advisors rarely ever plan any events to bring the halls together, and one of the few ones they did was a lecture on how to not get caught when drinking alcohol. Exciting! I guess I just haven’t felt the full welcoming power of the so called Hokie Community. While I want to believe that the school is right for me, and in the end I think it will be, I just always have that unsettling feeling in my stomach that perhaps I did pick wrong. Mainly, I think I just need to give myself more time to get settled. That’s my hope.

Spring Course Request Already!?!

I'm getting quite nervous in the service because starting next Tuesday there will be a mad dash to apply for spring courses. Being an engineer, I have my schedule mostly planned out for my next semester, yet, I am eligible to drop out of both Physics 2305 and 2306 and I will also need to start my sophomore level mathematics. I am meeting with my advisor for the first time next Monday to hopefully clear all my questions and my worries up. I also plan to pay more attention to course time slots so as not to give myself five classes on Monday in the future.

Fall Break a.k.a Time Travelling

It's very surreal to come home after two months of being away at college. In some ways it is like you never left. You hang out with your high school friends and do the same things you used to do day in and day out before college life. It lets you toss nostalgia to the wind. It's hard being away from friends, family, and other loved ones, and going home allows you to see them personally and catch up with all of them. The only downside is that it is at the same time too long and too short a stay. In the words of someone very close to my heart, fall break is like a 100 calorie pack; it gives you just enough to make you want more. While I miss my friends, family, and especially my girlfriend dearly, I remind myself everyday that I will see them all very soon.

What's in an Essay?

First off, I do acknowledge that I am a bit late in posting my thoughts about the three essays we were asked to read. I went home over fall break, and because I was visiting with family, friends, and especially my girlfriend Louisa, I didn't get any work done. Although I planned to catch up the Sunday night I arrived back at Tech, I got in near midnight due to roadwork and backup on route 81 South. I also don't know if we were supposed to skim or fully read each of the articles, but as far as reading the whole articles went, it took quite some time.
I'm a getting very off topic though. According to the definition of an essay it is usually a short literary composition on a single subject that presents the personal view of the author. As we can see this definition is very vague. However, it is this ambiguity that allows us to write just about anything and everything on anything.
After reading “Silent Dancing,” “The Stunt Pilot,” and “Ali in Havana,” the main commonality between the three is that they all have observations, recollections, and reflections of the author.
"Silent Dancing" is a story about the author Judith Ortiz Cofer, and the hardships she and her family encountered after emigrating to America. The story takes place in the 1950s, a time of extreme racism and discrimination, especially towards Latinos. We see this animosity through Judith's eyes. Her father forbade her and her family from associating with their Latino neighbors, or any other people associated with the Latino community, and they could only go to certain stores and other places for fear of being victimized.
"The Stunt Pilot" is written by Annie Dillard and is about the stunt pilot Dave Rahm. Dillard talks about a Sunday trip she took to the Bellingham Air Show out of curiosity's sake. While being open to the experience, she became mesmerized by the beauty in the lines and spirals that were carved into the air by one of the pilots in particular, a geologist by the name of Dave Rahm. The piece goes on to talk about how Dave Rahm, while very taciturn in nature, was able to express himself as he flew upside down, did barrel rolls, and pounded out numerous dives and spins all while trailing a stream of beauty in his wake. Dillard also talks about a personal flight she got from Rahm as well as her sentiments after learning about his unfortunate death.
Finally, "Ali in Havana" talks about the meeting between the retired American boxer and three-time World Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali and the former President of Cuba Fidel Castro. The author, Gay Talese, traveled with Ali on his humanitarian-aid visit to the small communist nation back in 1998 and acted somewhat more like a copyist than a journalist, depicting everything that occurred. The focus is not just on the two famed men, but also on Muhammad's wife Yolanda, and the rest of his entourage, including long time friend Howard Bingham, Cuban heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson and his wife, and even film make Greg Howard. The focus is on the event and all the emotions, both good and bad, solemn and lighthearted, graceful and awkward.
So what ultimately "makes" these essays? Each author presents an argument and adds something to that argument through a perspective, whether it be first person, third person, or something different entirely. For instance, in "Silent Dancing," Judith Ortiz Cofer focuses on the clash of cultures and in doing so makes the point that no one should renounce his or her culture in order to fit in. She doesn't just want to become another Gringa, another American girl who shuns her parents and her heritage for an American boyfriend, American clothes, and an American rebellious spirit. She doesn't want her life to be different for the sake of being different. She wants to be a part of her family, she wants to go to their parties, wear their dresses, and speak Spanish. She wants to maintain tradition while at the same time fitting in so as not to be discriminated against.

A Concert with The Guy Whose Third Eye is Blind

It was amazing when I found out from my friend Ana Snelling that her brother Trevor, and his two friends Patrick Jaffke and Nathan Scott had given up their tickets to the Third Eye Blind Concert because things had come up at the last minute. I'm sure it was disappointing for them, but as far as I was concerned it was a Godsend. For, you see, Ana and I had not been proactive in getting tickets, and by the time we finally felt inclined to ask, the concert was already sold out.
This past Wednesday Ana, myself, and another friend of ours, Christin Roberts, were among around 3,000 others packed into the Burruss auditorium to witness what really was a revival of a band that had faded some time ago. From the moment they made their entrance to the moment they made their exit, everyone was on their feet, jumping, cheering, clapping, chanting; all of it in good fun. It was quite a treat listening to some old classics, including "How's It Going to Be", "Jumper", "Never Let You Go", and "Semi-Charmed Life". I couldn't even begin to contemplate how long it had been since I'd last heard the songs, nor could I any more remember the lyrics to said songs. Still, I had a great time, and it was a great new experience.
I am now contemplating attending a Weezer concert on the 26th of this month. The only potential problem is that it is in Atlanta, Georgia, so we'll have to wait and see, but I'm keeping the fingers crossed.

Literary Review

When searching Virginia Tech’s Addison and the online databases I found a wealth of material on Virginia Tech. However, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for or expecting to find. I tried all possible combinations of key words: “Virginia Tech”, “Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University”, “Virginia Tech Hokies”, “Hokies”, “Hokie Community”, “Hokie Nation”, “Hokie Effect”, “What’s a Hokie”, “I am a Hokie”… You name it, I tried it! All the searches returned either a history of Virginia Tech, information on many of the Hokies sports teams (primarily Frank Beamer and the Hokie football team), and most often, it returned articles concerning the recent Virginia Tech massacre. On the one hand, I was disappointed to find out that people primarily associated Virginia Tech with the recent campus shooting and its collegiate sports program, but on the other hand, I felt even more empowered to find out what set Virginia Tech apart from all other schools.
Although I believe a lot of my findings will come from personal interviews of Virginia Tech students and faculty, I did attempt to sort through a lot of the jumble during my search, and here are some of the materials I found.
Bertholf, Aaron. "The Hokie Nation Will Prevail." The Florida Times-Union 22 Apr. 2007. Factiva. ProQuest.
This article is a compilation of two essays written by Virginia Tech students. Each describes what it was like to live through the week that saw the deadliest school shooting in history. In the first essay, Aaron Bertholf, a member of The Marching Virginian’s, Virginia Tech’s marching band, talks about the loss of a fellow bandmate and the impact it had on him and the band. In the second essay, Allison Kassel talks about the pride instilled in her by the Virginia Tech Community and Blacksburg area, and her belief that the bonds that tie Hokies together will only grow stronger in the face of the catastrophe.
From the beginning, I planned on looking at the Virginia Tech massacre as a testament to the dedication and perseverance of the Hokie Community. The question was, however, what personal account or accounts did I want to use. One of the things about this article that I found intriguing was that both students used the words of Nikki Giovanni, poet and Virginia Tech faculty member, to end their essays. Aaron Bertholf ends his with the words…
“We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, We are brave enough to bend to cry, And we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again…We are Virginia Tech.”
Allison Kassel concludes with…
“We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through our sadness. …We are the Hokies. …”
I hope to incorporate both their stories as well as both pieces of poetry to show the spirit of the Hokie Community in the face of adversity.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Virginia Tech Dreams. [Blacksburg, Va.]: Virginia Tech, 2004.
Virginia Tech Dreams, if anyone might recall, was one of the promotional videos that was shown during orientation. Its overarching message, “Their dreams will transform our world”, is one of the main reasons I chose this piece. It talks about the idea of outreach and highlights the school’s motto, ut prosism, “so that I may serve”. It also points out how this community outreach allows for the education of the whole student. While it doesn’t elaborate significantly on these topics, it has given me an idea to work with while examining other research and conducting interviews.
Wallenstein, Peter. Virginia Tech, Land-Grant University, 1872-1997: History of a School, a State, a Nation. Blacksburg, Va: Pocahontas Press, 1997.
This book in the simplest sense is a history of Virginia Tech. It covers the first 125 years after the schools establishment in 1872. The main advantage and disadvantage of the book is that it tends to be more of a social and political history of higher education both in the United State and in the state of Virginia. While there is still a focus on Virginia Tech, the book does come off as somewhat encyclopedic. However, being written in this broad context, the author compares the happenings of Virginia Tech to those of the University of Virginia, Virginia Military Institute, William and Mary, et cetera. What made Virginia Tech what it is today and why is it different from the other Virginia schools? And furthermore, who was/were the major figure(s)?

The Office: NEW SEASON!

Thursday, September 25, 2008. A day that will forever be marked in history as the day of the beginning of Season 5 of The Office. Anyone who does not recognize the magnitude of what this means should definitely listen to what I have to say. In preparation for this event, my whole hall decided to rearrange the layout of the lounge. Instead of having the chairs and couches arranged randomly with some backwards and others tipped over, we put them all into a giant semicircle around the big screen television and moved two tables in front of the grouping as a place for food, drink, and feet. We had chips, cookies, popcorn, soda, EasyMac, peanut butter...you name it we had it. By the time the show started at nine, we had accumulated a good 30 people. It was a great hour to say the least...AND JIM AND PAM ARE ENGAGED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Unconventional Trip to Richmond

I am a member of Virginia Tech's Design Build Fly Team, a volunteer aircraft design organization, and this week I got a chance to represent them at the Virginia State Fair. Technically speaking, I went to the fair to set up an exhibit for the team, but it still was a unique and fulfilling experience. I went with a bunch of others who work on many numerous projects in the Ware Lab, from hybrid electric vehicles to human powered submarines. The fair this year was at the Richmond Raceway Complex right outside the city. When we got there, we had a little bit of time to squander, so we decided to hit the race track. We were very disheartened though when we got to the main entrance and all the gates were locked. As we walked around the fair area that was still void of people, sulking, we happened upon a gate that was just slightly ajar. We all managed to slip through and thereby we proceeded to move from underneath the bleacher seats to right up in front of the fence. What happened next was absolutely amazing! Firestone was there testing some of their new treads, and they weren't using any regular old race cars, but indie cars. The group of us got to watch as two indie cars sped around the one mile long track going in excess of 200 mile per hour. Not only was the sound of the cars deafening as they passed by that everyone held their hands to their ears, but being so close to the retaining wall, the amount of wind that the cars pushed in front of them was enough to knock you off your feet. I did manage to take a video as I watched and I hope to get it uploaded as soon as possible.

Analyzing Research Proposals

©Background
-For people who don't have preconceived notions on the topic
Abstract
Research Theme
©Purpose
©Introduction
Background/Problem
Proposed Research Topic
Objectives
Summary

Objectives
-Purpose statement of sorts
Justification
Topic, Questions, Themes
Method
Audience-geographically/type of people affected by the study
Relevance
Lit Review*/Previous Research
Vocabulary/Terms

*Grouping previous studies into "this is the view they took on it"

Research Plan (Participant-Observation, Interview)/Methodology
-How to go about doing unbiased research
Research Focus
Project Design
Method
○ Participants
○ Apparatus
○ Procedures
Scope
○ Time
○ People
○ Quantity
Cost
Timetable/Frame/Schedule
Methods of Collecting the Data/Analysis

Expected outcomes
Results
Risks and Benefits
Limitations
Discussion

References
Dissemination of Research
Waiver/Consent Form
Future Directions
Conclusion
Deliminations/Exclusions
Author Resume/Acknowledgments

Visiting Virginia Tech?

Seeing that I am a resident at Virginia Tech, I thought it would be a breeze to conduct my site visit, especially since it didn't facilitate any traveling. However, I soon found out that it wasn't as simplified as I originally thought. How exactly do you conduct a site visit when the site encompasses an area over four square miles. More to the point, since my real intention is to observe the students and faculty at Virginia Tech, how exactly do you observe the activities of over 30,000 people when they all have such busy schedules that require them to be at different places at the same time. It seemed quite daunting.
What I decided I would do besides simply picking a time and location in which to observe a minute group of Hokies was to document my observations as I went through a normal week at school. I believed this would not only give me a general idea of what I'll call "Hokie habits" but would also uncover more specific insights into their behavior.
I don't want to give everything away quite yet, but I can wet people's appetites.
On Saturday, before the Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech football game I was commissioned by the Design Build Fly (DBF) to sell roster cards in order to raise bank for later use. With cards in hand I went around to the multiple tailgating lots. Although I was a little uneasy at first I soon got into the swing of things. I had a whole spiel for every person I talked to. I would tell them that I was a member of Virginia Tech's DBF and that it was a local engineering group on campus made up of engineers from all different disciplines. I would tell them about our goal to engineer an electrically powered radio controlled plane and thereby send it to competition. Finally, I would encourage them to buy roster cards for five dollars apiece in order to support our efforts. Believe me, it was a mouthful, especially since I said the darn thing who knows how many times. Besides the fact that I raised about 250 dollars, it was a great opportunity to meet past and present Hokies. First off, let me say that Hokies know how to tailgate. Everywhere you looked, there were Hokie tents, and underneath them were Hokie students and alums all decked out in Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange clothing, barbecuing with their Hokie aprons and lounging around in their Hokie chairs. People had VT Fan Zone stands, VT ladder golf and VT bag toss games, VT table cloths, utensil sets, and cups, and just VT everything. It was absolutely astounding. Some die hard fans even set up temporary flag poles on which to raise the school's logo. As I talked with people I was also astounded by their hospitality. Perhaps it's just a southern thing, but people really seemed to take an interest in what I had to say. Sometimes they wanted more than just my pitch and actually cared to hear about the team's history and the mission profile for the coming year. Many of them even invited me to join in their festivities. I was offered a lot of food, and even more beers. Although I didn't take any of their offerings, I did get to talk to some interesting people...to be continued.

Interview Questions

Although I have chosen to study the Virginia Tech Community for my research project, I have not narrowed down exactly what research questions I want to answer. For that reason, I have decided to conduct a variety of informal interviews with fellow Tech students using a series of closed and open ended questions. I hope after gathering their general opinions I will be able to identify a recurring theme if not a range of recurring themes. From that, assuming I have time, I would develop a further list of questions to conduct follow up interviews.

Here are some of my preliminary questions.

Closed questions:
Where do you hail from?
What is your graduating class?
What is your major/intended major?
Are you living on or off campus? Where?
What is your favorite part of campus?
What clubs and organizations, if any, are you involved in?
What is your favorite dining hall?
What is your favorite sport at Virginia Tech?

Open questions:
Why did you decide to come to Virginia Tech?
What is your favorite thing about Virginia Tech?
What makes you proud to be a Hokie?
Do you believe in the thing people refer to as the Hokie Nation?
What makes Virginia Tech different from every other school in the nation and even the world?
What has being a Hokie taught you?
What does ut prosim mean to you?
How do you feel about Virginia Tech being a military college?
If you could change anything about Virginia Tech what would it be?
Knowing what you know now, if you could make the same choice over, would you still choose Virginia Tech?

Course Goals

I hope to learn how to get out of my own skin and enter the mindset of another person in order to fully experience their situation, as opposed to writing about someone from an outside perspective.

I hope to learn how to better edit my own work. When it comes to spelling, grammar, and other mechanics problems I, more or less, have things under control. However, when it comes to more substantive aspects such as style, prose, and dialogue I am not overly critical of myself.

I hope to learn how to be concise. My writing often seems to loose its message due to long and drawn out sentences, witty non-substantive phrases, et cetera. The amount of padding I use makes it seem that I have little understanding of my topic, when really it is quite the contrary. More over, I don't want people to feel frustrated when reading my work.

Knowledge or Opinion?

How do we know what is fact and what is fiction? Is there always a "right" answer, especially when we consider that much of what we know may be constantly changing? Is there more room to question the liberal arts than there is to question the maths and sciences? Is everything we know subject to discretion?
After reading the section "How Do You Know?" in our course packet and discussing questions similar to the above within our groups, we came up with a couple of observations.
First off, we all believe that while it is hard to define universal truths, all of us have personal truths that we develop overtime through our experiences. In this context, truth becomes something we can see, feel, hear, taste, or anything that deals with our senses. It is hard to dissuade someone from their personal truths because they have "proof" of its existence.
Second, although to a lesser extent now, we are still studying, absorbing, and utilizing the knowledge and truths of other learned persons before us. From my personal experience, I know I would be unable to last a day in my engineering classes without having previously learned Newton's calculus.
Third, although this might sound somewhat indecisive, we all agreed that some topics such as economics, religion, politics, et cetera have a lot of gray areas. Therefore, things that deal exclusively with these topics should not be labeled as either right or wrong, seeing that there may be many possible solutions and truths.
Finally, one of the remarks I made that we all seemed to have an understanding for was that facts change with evidence and evidence changes with time. Nothing these days seems set in stone. We've learned that we can't live forever on fossil fuel energy and that the burning of these fuels is destroying our environment. We've learned that there are such things as black holes, extra dimensions, and time travel. And we've even learned that Saddam wasn't housing any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as we previously "thought". In my belief though, this uncertainty to truth is actually a good thing. It encourages us to to be inquisitive, to be creative, to never think something complete, and, more than ever, it pushes us to be lifelong learners.
Seeing that I am conducting a research project this semester on the Virginia Tech community, the purpose of reading this article was because it stresses the need to keep an open mind. Any notions, stereotypes, or prejudices I might have coming into this project I should be open to changing as I get to know more about the members of my community and the community as a whole.

The Hokie Spirit

I am going on my third week as a freshman at Virginia Tech and things, more or less, are settling down and taking on a normalcy. I wake up every morning with half an hour until my first class, get dressed, grab my computer and a granola bar, put my headphones on and walk out the door half asleep with the Goo Goo Dolls blasting in my ears. If I have any spare time between classes I will usually catch some extra shut eye; otherwise, I will begrudgingly put my headphones back on and trudge on over to my next class, the Goo Goo Dolls still playing. After classes, I will usually get a bite to eat from either Dietrich or Owens Dining Hall, or more often than not just head on back to the dorm and whip up some EasyMac. Seeing that I am majoring in engineering, I find I have little time to hang out on weeknights due to the enormous amount of coursework I have to keep up on. My studies have in a sense become my life.
However, while I may be preoccupied during the week, the weekend is a whole different story. While I, like many others came to Virginia Tech for the great educational opportunities, I can say without a doubt that we all came in part for the athletic events. When it comes to Saturdays in the fall at Virginia Tech, football is the order of the day, the main activity on everybody's calendar. And for the first time this past Saturday, I got to attend my first Hokie football game.

It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon, and a beautiful day for football for the Virginia Tech Hokies. As game goers begin to assemble as kickoff time draws nearer, one would expect to see them adorned in the school colors of maroon and orange. However, today it is quite the contrary. Spring Road is not visible as a sea of people all decked out in white apparel weave their way ever closer to Lane Stadium. It's Tech's "White Out" game and also their home opener. The team has just come off a hard loss to East Carolina University in the previous week and the Hokie Nation is looking for redemption. The air is abuzz with thousands of conversations making things so deafening that you can barely hear your own thoughts. My friends and I jostle with others as we make our way through the crowd, as the Stadium, enveloped in glorious Hokie Stone, begins to take precedence over the scene in front of us. The two tiers of the West stands seem to climb taller as we approach our gate until finally we are so close their tops disappear and they are seemingly endless. As we proceed up the Southgate entrance and get our tickets scanned we are blasted and nearly knocked unbalanced by the wind channeling itself through the South and West sides of the stadium. Then, we climb our way to our seats. We climb, and climb, and climb, and climb, climbing so far that I wouldn't have been surprised to find myself on the moon. When we finally got to our seats, I laughed because we were in section HH and the seats ended after section II; it was the nosebleed section to say the least. Yet, the spectacle before us was fantastic. Not only could you see the whole stadium and everybody in it, but you could see the entire Virginia Tech campus and the Blue Ridge Mountains in the backdrop. As things got underway, you could feel the weight of what was about to happen. The Virginia Tech Corpse of Cadets freshman march into the stadium by platoons, filling the sidelines, as the cheerleaders start a back and forth call of "Lets Go" and "Hokies" between the East and West stands that makes the air reverberate with the voices of 60,000 people. After the National Anthem and Rendering of the Colors, Skipper, the game cannon, fired letting out a billow of smoke and sending an eruption through the crowd signaling the coming of the Hokies. Metallica's Enter Sandman begins playing as the Highty-Tighties and freshman cadets form two phalanxes around the Northwest tunnel entrance. VT's Marching Virginians lead the crowd in the "Blacksburg Bounce," and as the name suggests, everyone and everything begins bouncing with it. The Hokies finally run out of the tunnel and the place becomes a madhouse of whopping and hollering with chants here and there of "Lets Go Hokies" clap clap clap clap clap. As I cheered along with the rest of my fellow Hokies I couldn't help but think about the enormity of what I had experienced and that what happened in the game really didn't matter anymore.

Communities I'm Interested In

As a homework exercise, we were told to brainstorm communities we would be interested in either joining or learning more about. Here are some of the things I came up with:

• Smart Car
• Facial Hair
• Spanish
• G5
• Peace Corps
• Stanford
• Homeowner
• Married
• NASA
• Musically Inclined
• Green
• Dancing (both the classical and contemporary)
• Ware Lab
• Mentoring
• Fraternity (or Sorority)
  

Although I found this to be a great way to get my ideas (if not my humor) out on paper, my ideas seemed to particular. I wanted to learn about something much broader, I wanted to learn about my newest home as a whole, Virginia Tech. Although I have been told that researching an on campus community such as the many clubs and organizations (not to mention the community in a broad sense) is much more difficult than researching a community off campus, I am intrigued to take the challenge. What makes Virginia Tech so big and diverse, while at the same time so intimate? What is a Hokie, and while on that topic, what is the Hokie Nation? What really brought all of us to this sleepy little town of Blacksburg? And, ultimately, what sets Virginia Tech apart from all other schools around the country and even around the world? These are just some of the major questions I hope to answer in my exploration. Until then, Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Hola Bitacoreros!!!

First off, let's start with introductions. My name is Benjamin Michael Giobbi and I am a freshman engineering student at Virginia Tech. Besides my new residence in Blacksburg, I formerly hail from Arlington, Virginia, and before that Easton, Pennsylvania. To answer your first itching question, yes, I did cry this past Saturday when my Hokies tragically lost to Eastern Carolina University. But, I can confidently say that as last year's ACC Champions, we will not only come back, but we will do so with a vengeance.
Anyway, I have created this blog as part of my research and writing class. The primary focus of the course will be writing about and within our communities. With that note in mind, I would like to formally say hello to my newest community, the Blogger community.