Blog 70

Dear future English 110 students,

Some advice that I would like to give you for when you take this class is to stay on top of your blogs.  Do not skip any of them.  They are super easy completion points I recommend to spend about an hour on Sundays and write the week’s blogs out so you do not have to worry about it.  Trust me it is a great strategy, and it is the one that I started using about halfway through.  Another piece of advice that I would like to leave you with is to get your comments done early.  When I mean early I mean about halfway through the quarter you should be done.  There is then no stress on you for when finals week comes around.  The comments are super easy to get done.  About a week or two into the quarter go to one person’s blog and comment on each blog.  It doesn’t matter if you do not have anything smart to say just say what you feel about it.  Comment on each blog of theirs then go to a new person and do that.  In all I think I only commented on about four peoples blogs because when I would comment I would just destroy their blog.  It was easy, fast, and efficient.  Trust me you want to do this.  The last piece of advice I want to leave you with is to go to the writing center as soon as you can.  You get one point of extra credit to go get help on anything concerning writing for twenty minutes.  

Blog 69

So I am writing my fifth blog of the day today, and I am very bored of it.  Do you like how I write out The Ohio University in my blog instead of just saying OSU?  It is because I am trying to add as many unnecessary words into my blog so I can get to the two hundred and fifty word requirement as quick as I can.  Well anyway today was the day that Jim Tressel resigned and I have to say I am not surprised.  It was bound to happen even though we all love him so much.  Ill be hopefully looking forward to a great season with Urban Meyer as our new head coach.  On another side not I just found out today that Tottenham’s manager Harry Redknapp might be the new manager of Chelsea because of how well he has been doing with a team that isn’t exactly star studded.  Also Berbatov is rumored to transfer to Tottneham because he isn’t getting any playing time with Manchester United and I really hope he does.  Manchester United is also rumored to get Luka Modric from Tottenham.  He is a really skilled and fast central midfielder and that is the place that Manchester United is lacking in the most.  Michael Carrick just inst fast enough for the spot and Modric is a lot better.  I only need about thirty more words I am so excited.  Then I can start on my last blog, the one that is directed towards the future student for what they should do.

Blog 68

When I was home for Memorial Day Weekend it has become official that my brother is going backpacking through Europe with his girlfriend before he goes to medical school.  He is leaving tomorrow morning at two am and I have no clue where he plans on going.  Apparently his plan is to stay until he runs out of money and I don’t really know how long that will take considering after the plane ticket he has rough two grand to spend there.  He could last quite a bit on that.  Also my roommate has fallen asleep in the back seat and I thought it was rather humorous so I decided to put it in this blog.  On a side note I think I have decided to get in shape for this summer and try out for The Ohio State University’s club soccer.  I played soccer in high school for William Mason High School and one of my team mate’s from high school plays so I think I can make it.  Also I played that same team mate in my club league, I played for Cincinnati United and he played for Thunder United and it was for the winner of our division (premier division) and we won three to zero.  So hopefully from this year with out playing consistent soccer I will still have a lot of my touch.  I played a few times at the cage near JO south and I was on a intramural team for winter and this quarter.  Right now my team is in the playoffs.

Blog 67

For when my first year in college is over I have been trying to find a summer job.  For the past two years I have worked a variety of jobs for The Beach Waterpark, and I have been recommended for a supervisor position but I turned it down because they have to work every single day which is something im not trying to do because I want to have something of a social life during the summer.  So naturally I went back The Beach looking for a job and they gave me one on the spot but then I realized that I could not attend the mandatory Orientation and Dry Run days so I told them and they said that in order for them to officially give me a job that I had to attend both.  But on both days I had either my brother college graduation or a wedding for my dad’s very close friend.  So I told them this and they still responded with the same bullshit answer and expected me to come.  I didn’t go to the stupid Beach mandatory days and I emailed them back just to make sure I don’t have a job, but those immature bosses didn’t even email me back.  So now im looking for a new job I have applied to: Kitchen collection, Nike Outlet, Crocs, jockey, Spaulding, Sperrys, Mason Community Center, Marvin Gardens, Crooked Tree Golf Course, and Sketchers.  The only company to call me back was Sketchers and that was for a full time job so I did not qualify for the job.

Blog 66

Yesterday I watched the movie Bridesmaids, it was very very very hilarious.  I almost cried during the movie because of how funny it was.  My favorite part was after they were eating at the really shady Brazilian restaurant and they all got food poisoning in the extremely fancy wedding dress store.  When Megan, Doug’s sister,  really needed to poop but one of the other bridesmaids was already puking in the toilet so she took a dump in the sink of the fancy store.  Then when another one of the bridesmaids puked on top of the girl who was puking in the toilet it was just so funny.  Then to top it all off on top of all that the bride to be was in this very expensive and one of a kind wedding dress and she needed to crap.  But the only bathroom was full so she sprinted across the street in the wedding dress but only made it about half way before she started to poop in her pants…. On the street in the wedding dress.  It was so hilarious and disgusting I loved it.  The movie was in generally very funny and you couldn’t help but feel bad for the main character that was going through a very rough time in her life, but even during this she made it hilarious.  There weren’t really any famous actors or actresses in the movie and I think that because they were all rather unknown it made it a little more funnier.  Overall, I would highly recommend it.

Blog: 65

Today is May 30, 2011 and it is really hot outside.  It is unbelievably hot out, I am sweating while on my way back to The Ohio State University and yes I am blogging while I take this one and a half our trip.  Oh look!  A semi truck just passed us and we are going seventy miles per hour!  That is soooo crazy I can not believe it.  This ride is really boring; I think I will count the number of Volkswagen Beetles that I see.  I am taking my roommate up to OSU as well and we play a game where if you see a bunch buggy then you get to punch the other guy.  A stupid guy in a neon green Camry just cut us off that asshole. There are so many bad drivers out on the streets.  I read an article that if every driver were to take the written test again seven out of ten would fail.  That is so horrible!  But I have to say I would probably be one of those seven because although I am an angry driver I am not a good driver.  I once crashed my car into my friends car when we were playing Nerf Wars for our school.  Some of you might know this as dart wars or nerf tag or whatever but it was a fun game to play when I was a senior.  Anyway I rammed into the back of his car and caused five thousand dollars worth of damage to my car and only seven hundred and fifty dollars to my friends.

Blog 64: Dimitar Berbatov

Well since I can blog about anything I will blog about what I can most easily talk about and that is soccer.  I will be specifically blogging about my favorite soccer player Dimitar Berbatov.  He is my favorite soccer player be he has this way of looking like he is not trying at all while he is out on the field.  He has been called out about this multiple times but when statistics are shown how much he runs in a game it completely destroys this perception.  He has said in interviews that when he does tricks or tries to get around players or tries to trap a ball that if it looks natural and if it looks “lazy” then that he has been doing his job outside of the game.  Meaning he has been practicing it long and hard enough that it comes natural to him.  He gets a lot of rap about being lazy and not of being Manchester United quality, but everyone that thinks that are complete idiots.  If he was so lazy how could he have won the golden boot award when he only played half the number of games?  Also, after he was left out of the bench for the Champions League Final I hope he transfers to another team in the EPL.  Manchester United will still be my favorite team but I will always be a fan of Berbatov.  I hope that he either goes to Totenham Hot Spurs, Everton, Fulham, or Aston Villa.  At all those teams he will be the star.

Blog 63: Manchester United vs. Barcelona

Saturday May 28, 2011 was the Champions League Final.  For all of you that do not follow soccer regularly , this is the game that is supposed to determine the best team in all of Europe.  The top four teams of every premier league division in every country in Europe play each other to determine this.  The final consisted of a dominant Barcelona FC team from the La Liga Premier and my favorite team Manchester United FC from the English Premier League.  Barcelona has a very stacked team with Lionel Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, and David Villa.  They rarely lose and everyone on the team is just oozing with talent, but not only do they have the stars they work together as a team.  There is no one on the team that thinks or acts better than the rest which is also credited for their dominance.  However, Manchester United has talent too.  With Wayne Rooney, Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Michael Carrick, Chichirito, and Ryan Giggs.  They are all talented and they are all very physical players which is something the Spanish leagues are not accustomed to.  Another player Manchester United has is the Golden Boot winner, their striker Dimitar Berbatov.  He had twenty goals from the season this year while only playing half the games.  Even with his tremendous amount of goals he is still not picked over Chichiritto which is complete bullshit.  Berbatov, even though considered the best striker in the EPL due to the Golden Boot award was not even on the bench for the Barcelona Man U. game, I was pissed.

Blog 62: Quick Sand

There are many things that scare me and most of these fears are very irrational and rather stupid.  I feel that even though they are so improbable to occur they scare the crap out of me.  The fears I am referring to are dying by quick-sand and being buried alive. I feel that dying by quicksand would be one of my greatest fears because you are completely helpless when it is happening.  While you are “drowning” you can not do anything, you are completely at the whim of the quick sand hole and that scares the crap out of me.  When you are frozen in fear and completely helpless at the mercy of your surroundings and unable to change the situation in any way; it is just really horrifying.  Another thing that completely terrifies me is being buried alive.  If I was to be buried alive like in the Crime Scene Investigation episode or the movie where Ryan Reynolds is in a coffin buried alive I would completely panic and freak out.  I would not be able to control my breathing or conserve my energy.  If the same thing happened to me that happened to the guy in Crime Scene Investigation where bugs would eat through the coffin and then you would be surrounded by fire ants and nasty biting bugs like that it would be a living Hell for me.  That whole situation would be so agonizing, it would be horrible.

Blog 61: Global Warming

Something that is happening in the world that scares me today is the ongoing effects of global warming.  I feel that we cannot keep on living this way and not take into account the facts that we are abusing our planet.  I know so people do not believe in global warming I think they are very retarded.  It is very real and it eventually as we are producing more and more greenhouse gases we are all going to suffer.  We are going to suffer from not only sunburns but lost of coastline and eventually Louisiana will be engulfed.  Which I think it was stupid in the first place to build a giant city on the moving sediment of the Mississippi river, especially when the sediment is below sea level.  Katrina was a preventable disaster if we had used common sense in building planning.  On another note another thing that scares me is the number of people who don’t recycle.  It doesn’t make any sense to me.  It isn’t hard and it helps our environment.  There is no excuse to refrain from recycling.  My family is very pro-recycling and a family of five only had one trash can because we could recycle everything else.  Other families had three to five trashcans and they would only have families of four or three.  It boggles my mind how people can produce that much trash and not have a guilty conscious.  Go green you assholes.

Blog 60: Time Shift

If I was to be born in a different time period I would for sure want to be born in the distant future.  Not so much the distant future where global warming happened and we are doomed but either just before that stage or way past it if we survived it.  It would be awesome to see how technology has changed and all the awesome the gadgets everyone would have.  I am imagining hovercrafts like the Jetsons, jetpacks, robots, and space.  Hopefully there will be a space military like in Star Trek the movie.  Al the cool things they have in the movie look so cool and I would love to see it.  Hopefully in the future a lot of diseases that are prevalent in today will be eradicated.  Some diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s.  I really hope that all cancer will be cured because of how bad of a disease it is and same goes to Alzheimer’s.  My grandma has Alzheimer’s and she forgot who I was and my family is prone to it so hopefully it will be cured.  In the future hopefully we will be able to get rid of world hunger due to some crazy technique of chemical engineering.  I also wonder what the world will be like if I was to live a hundred more years, I’d like to see how different the world will have changed from today.  I just keep on thinking on how cool it would be to wake up and be on a Star Trek ship with Captain Pike.

Blog 59: Biggest Mistake

So I am sitting here trying to think of my greatest mistake I have ever made in my life and I am having a great amount of difficulty trying to think of one.  I am not saying I am perfect because I can tell you for sure I am not, but I don’t think I have a greatest mistake.  I am crashed my car one time and ran into a mailbox but in those situations I have neither hurt anyone nor caused anyone real pain except maybe our insurance company.  I have not killed a person or have stolen anything of great value except maybe candy when I was young at Kings Island.  I have learned from my mistakes for the most part so all I can think of is that my greatest mistake was not taking my fall quarter classes seriously because I had already taken most of them in high school.  Not taking them seriously kind of bit me in the butt at the end but it has made me try harder and the only negative outcome that has come from that is a less than my standard GPA that I can hopefully get back up in the near future.  I have not seriously injured another person; except maybe that time I caused my brother to get stitches in his arm but that was mostly his fault because he was trying to rat tail me.  So I guess my greatest mistake is not trying my hardest in class when I first got me.

Blog 56: Scott O’Lone

I moved around a lot as a kid so I had multiple best friends, but I have to say my best friend was from Mason Ohio.  I first met him in the sixth grade and we weren’t really the best of friends.  We were friends but not great friends.  It wasn’t until around the eighth grade that we actually considered one another best friends.  He introduced me to being a movie buff.  Every weekend from eighth grade on to sophomore year the both of us, along with our other friends would go see a movie in theaters.  Then also we would watch maybe three more movies during the weekend.  It was some great quality time.  Then also this spring break since I wasn’t allowed to go to Daytona this year (sad face), I spent almost all of it with him and my other friends that attend Ohio University and The University of Cincinnati.  We watched a lot of movies and he had the first season of Glee…  I hated Glee.  But that was strictly because I never gave it a chance and then I finally started watching it and I have to admit that it really isn’t that bad.  I cant really believe that I just said that.  A lot of my friends go to Ohio University, Miami University, and The University of Cincinnati.  But not too many come here, even though it is only about an hour and a half away from me.

Blog 55: Mountains

My favorite place ever is probably Brian Head in Utah.  The reason why this is my favorite place because it is in the mountains where you can ski, or in my case snowboard.  When I went there it was unlike every other ski resort I have ever been too.  There wasn’t an atrocious amount of people instead it was actually quite deserted and there was great snow.  There was no annoying ski schools that take up the entire mountain, no ski lift lines, and no slush.  It felt like I had the whole mountain to myself.  I spent a total of a week in Brian Head but I would not mind moving there and living a majority of my life there.  I am a person that much rather prefers snow and mountains to sand and beach.  All the back trails and all the powder put the icing on the cake for me there.  It just completely blew every other place out of the water, the weather was perfect and it was just a great vacation with no small petty complaints at all.  I know that most of you will have a place that has some deep down meaning which is why it is your favorite place, but for me a great week of snowboarding is more than enough to make my favorite place.  I can’t wait till this coming winter because I get to go to the mountains again for ski club and with my family.

Blog 54: Game

When I was about a freshman in college I was at my best friend’s birthday party.  His party was a lot of fun there was cornhole, volleyball, and every other activity you can associate with birthday parties.  Anyway my friend said to try and do this trick called “Thread the Needle”, if you are not familiar with this is a video of what it looks like, go to the 49 second mark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvnc5i-zv8E.  Anyways like everyone else I tried and in doing so I broke the ring finger on my right hand, but not only did I break it I fractured the growth plate as well.  I was in finger cast for about two months and it was very embarrassing telling people how I broke it.

I used to live in a Caribbean Island called Saba when I was a little kid while my dad went to medical school.  While there we would catch geckos with super long strands of weeds.  I would always hang mine over my shoulder and whenever I would look back he was moving because I was moving.  Turns out I killed a shit ton of geckos back in the day without realizing it.

One time Senior year of highschool it was very early in the morning and I was very tired, but I backed out of my driveway and what happens?  I hit the mailbox clear off the post.  I was late so I left it, but when I got back my dad had fixed it already and said he thinks someone went and batted our mailbox off.  I didn’t tell him it was me.  He never found out till a year later when my brother ratted on me.  Good thing they didn’t care anymore and they thought it was hilarious.

Blog 53: Word

So I have absolutely no idea what word I should write about.  I feel like even though there is so much freedom with this blog I still am having trouble because of just how much freedom there is.  This is so hard, I have spent the last twenty minutes just trying to think up of a word… I really can not think of one at all.  Hmm.  Maybe if I watch more southpark I will be able to steal a word from them.  Thirty minutes later… nope.  Oh great!  I thought of one.  Well anyway I will try and blog about the word fear.  The word fear is applicable to everyone and anyone.  Everyone is afraid of something, whether it is spider and bees or jail and death.  There is a great variety of fear for everyone and there is usually multiple fears per person.  Okay well I can no longer think of anything to blog about fear anymore so I shall pick a new word.  My new word is college.  When people hear the word college there is a rush of a lot of emotions that come to mind.  Some of these emotions are fear, exiting, anxiety, happiness, sadness, responsibility, and hard-working.  Some are afraid of college and all the mysteries that come with it.  Others are excited to finally be off on their own.  Nearly all have a sense of sadness from leaving all your friends and family and the comfort of your own bed.  College is great but there are definitely some drawbacks.

Blog 51: Biology

My major is biology and as of right now I despise it.  For some reason The Ohio State University requires all of general chemistry as well as all of organic chemistry.  The whole reason why I decided to major in biology is because I am not the biggest fan of chemistry.  Along with this major I am a pre-med intent.  Hopefully I will be able to get into medical school following my junior year, as of right now I am remaining hopeful.  My plan is if I can not get into medical school then pharmaceutical school followed by nursing school and then physician’s assistant school.  I know I want to do something in the medical field which is partially why I am majoring in biology.  Another reason why is because of how much anatomy and physiology you have to take with a biology major.  Anatomy and physiology is my favorite class and I can not wait till I get past all of this damn chemistry and into something im actually interested in.  Also at The Ohio State University the biology department require for you to take one year of a foreign language which is completely baffling to me.  What does a foreign language have to do with biology?  I don’t see engineers needing a foreign language.  It makes no sense to me at all, I hate Spanish and it happens to be one of my worse subjects.  All in all im glad im in a biology major.  My life will be so much easier after sophomore year.

Blog 50: Lebron James

If I could meet anyone famous or dead I would choose to meet Lebron James.  He is my role model; my greatest inspiration.  Not really, I would just want to meet him because I think it is awesome he left Cleveland.  Im from Cincinnati so I despise Cleveland and to see them all bitch and moan about him leaving leaves me with nothing but pleasure.  Sure, the way he went about leaving wasn’t the greatest idea but he didn’t owe shit to Cleveland.  He wasn’t obligated to stay there; Cleveland is like the crying bitching little girl that is whining they cant have a pony.  He left because it was obviously the smartest career choice.  Miami just killed the Celtics and are currently beating the Bulls.  So I would want to meet him and tell him good job.  I am so glad you left that shit hole and went to the beach to spend your time.  He is still the king and he is about to take over Dwade’s team.  He even apologized for the way he left but you Cleveland fans still bitch about him.  I guess I would cry too if my star basketball player left and caused a miniature recession in my city because of it.  I hope the Heat wins so Lebron can rub it in all of your faces.  He said it was the opportunity of a lifetime; Lebron for life.  He is and always will be the King.

Blog 49: The attack of the Omelets

I tend to have a variety of very crazy and weird dreams, similar to if I sleepwalk out of my bed and hit some acid because some of my dreams could resemble a trip.  Anyways one of my favorite dreams is when this giant spinach, onion, and cheese omelet fell out of the sky and ate my roommate right in front of about twenty people.  Me and all my other friends just watched my roommate get eaten by this giant omelet and we don’t do anything.  This is the kinds things that are in cartoons as well, it is crazy lol.  I woke up and told him about it the next and it is one of the funniest dreams I have ever had.  I am so happy that I remember most of my dreams.  But one kind of dream that I despise is a dream where it is like a normal school day.  And in the dream I forget to do a homework assignment so I freak out and when I wake up I actually believe that happened which confuses me even more, especially even more so in my sleep deprived state.  I love having dreams that I remember.  I just found out that apparently you dream every night you just do not always remember it.  On a side note today is very nice out but my entire body screams in pain from sun burn so I will not be outside enjoying the festivities today.

Blog 48: Nature

One thing in nature that really fascinates me are squirrels.  I have always wondered just how many acorns they remember to dig up after winter.  My roommate and I tend to have a lot of conversations on them.  For instance I wonder how hard it is for them to climb up trees or how much fun it would be just to hang around all day looking for nuts.  Their whole life seems like a game, first it’s a game for who can gather up the most nuts and acorns then it’s a finding game to see if you can find them all again.  Their life is so easy and I feel like I could be a rather good squirrel.  If I could be a squirrel id want to be a flying squirrel, it would be so much fun to “fly” from tree to tree.  Another thing in nature that fascinates me are hummingbirds.  They move their wings so fast that doesn that require a crap ton of energy which means a crap ton of food?  Is it energy efficient for them to gather the nectar from flowers with their super human flaps.  Finally the last thing that fascinate me are side-winder snakes.  They move so awesomely.  I cant even get my head around it.  Do they get headaches or dizzy from the way they move?  Or are they immune from the dizzifying (yes I did just make up that word) effects?  They world may never know.

Blog 47: The First Girl I Have Ever Liked

I can’t really remember much from before the third grade, so the first girl that I can remember I liked was named Victoria.  We were in the same third, fourth, and fifth grade class.  I guess you can say is was the closest thing to a relationship back in the day, we basically hung out every now and then nothing special.  I feel like it is kind of weird talking about this in our blog, I can’t really describe her or anything considering I barely remember her since it was so long ago.  I think she might have been one of my sisters friends and I know we are friends on facebook now and I think she has become a lot different.  In the early days she was pretty open and fun to be around but just based on the slight facebook creep I think she became a little more introvert which is not bad or anything I was just not expecting it at all.  Anyways she goes to Michigan University now and I go to The Ohio State University so it was never ment to be obviously.  The last time I saw her was in the fifth grade because that is when I moved from Sterling Heights Michigan to Cincinnati.  It would be nice to catch up with her though we were rather good friends back in the day.  Well this is my blog on the first girl I have ever liked.

Blog 46: Pet Peeve

One of my biggest pet peeves is when one of my friends jumps in my bed.  For some reason that really gets me.  I am the type of person that showers every night before they go to bed.  I like to feel clean in my bed, and I like to think my bed is squeaky clean as well.  But when people lay in it after being in the broval all day or after soccer it gets me.  Another thing that bothers me is when my friends will eat food up in my bed, I don’t want to see crumbs where my head is supposed to go.  I used to sleep on the bottom bunk but I switched with my roommate when I noticed a lot of people sit on the bottom bunk.  But it hasn’t changed anything; I’m actually thinking that more people are on my top bunk now.  Another pet peeve of mine is when people eat in my room and leave their trash.  I have never eaten in someone’s room and not thrown away my shit.  These are very small and little pet peeves I realize but they do really get me some times.  Finally another thing I hate is when people touch my face, I don’t even like it when I touch my face so when someone slaps my face I usually punch them back pretty hard so they never do it again.  That pisses me off more than anything.

Blog 45: Wonderland

I have been to a numerous amounts of places in my time; but those that were most memorable was either when I went to Las Vegas in the fourth grade, Hawaii in the third grade, or Lake Tahoe in Nevada.  All three were great experiences and weeks of some of the most fun in my life.  First there was Las Vegas, we stayed in the MGM Grand hotel and at that time i couldn’t gamble.  But I remember seeing a red Viper sports car in the middle of the slot machines and ill never forget how shiny and awesome it was.  At Las Vegas I saw Circe Du Sole which is an amazing show, it was absolutely incredible and blew my mind.  But the most amazing part of about Las Vegas besides all the neon lights was this one show at the Excalibur Casino.  It was a reenactment of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.  During he show we were given our own personal chicken and it was amazing; such a fun experience.  In third grade I went to Hawaii for my Uncle Harris’s Wedding, it was so exciting and amazing.  I learned how to boogie board, body board, and attempted to pick up surfing but realized I have this tendency to chafe.  Finally, probably the most important to me was going to Lake Tahoe to snowboard.  This is where I first learned to snowboard and where it becomes one of my favorite activities to do.  Lake Tahoe got me to love it.

Blog 43: Kettle Cart

When I was a wee lad in the Bronx of Detroit City (I used to live eight miles away from 8 mile, Big Beaver Road), my mom got me and my twin sister two Kettle Carts.  Kettle carts are like mini go karts but you pedal to move them.  They were awesome and so much fun we loved them.  Nearly every day you could see the two of us out in the street pedaling our little hearts out.  It was so hard to pedal them, by the end of a twenty minute session we both would be dead exhausted.  Ill never forget those carts, they helped make my sister my best friend back in the day.  Now since we are both way too big for the carts we passed them down to our devil neighbors, I never really saw them use the carts instead I would see them on the carts that had a battery in them and would drive around.  Its kind of sad that the carts aren’t being used since they promoted exercise and you would never have to wait to charge the battery.  That to this day was the best present I have ever had.  But I know this year for my birthday ill either be getting a new snowboard or a plane ticket to Canada.  Either one would be great and ill appreciate what ever gets opened on July second.  There is nothing better than your own little self propelled go kart!

Blog 42:Life at The Beach Waterpark

For the past two years I have been employed at The Beach Waterpark in Mason Ohio.  The reasoning for my choice of working there mainly depended on the fact that it is five minutes away from my house and the great customer reviews.  Anyway the first summer I worked there I was employed at Tradewinds which is the gift shop at the park.  This was a great summer experience, i got training in customer service and working on retail.  The job basically included handeling money, security of the items in the store, providing friendly customer service and being the best employee i can. My second year working at The Beach Waterpark I was transferred to Season Pass.  Season Pass is also part Customer Relations, this is a great resource to put on job applications and for experience.  My job responsibilities included processing season passes and general guest service responsibilities.  It was a great job, i loved it.  I was inside a air conditioned room and i loved the responsibility that came with the job.  A lot of my friends worked at The Beach Waterpark and that made my experience there even more enjoyable, plus all the supervisors and higher up managers were really nice and understanding.  Also nearly all the people that come are very kind and friendly; which in turn made me like my job even more.  All in all it was a rather good first and second job seasonal experience.  On a second note the weather today was pretty shitty and i was not a big fan.  It was raining and storming which made it a rather gloomy day. 

Blog 41: Custom

This one time I was watching the television show Taboo, in the show they showed a native African culture that has their very strange custom of stretching their necks.  So at an early age the mothers but these brass spring around their daughters heads that stretches the neck.  In the culture a stretched neck is very prestigious and highly regarded but to me it is hideous.  I am curious as to how this custom was started and why it is still practiced.  On another episode of Taboo there was another custom in which it was called the Alligator People.  For a boy to become a man in the culture they had to have every inch of their skin sliced with a razor blade, in doing this the scars that form resembles that of alligator skin.  However, due to infection a large percentage of “boys” that undergoe this process end up dying and are considered weak.  These customs are crazy to me and quite stupid.  I do not see why you would want to send your child through these processes.  I would not want my child to die from this ritual that to me does not say anything about how the kid is.  Although I think these customs are kinda retarded I am also very interested in them.  They provide a diversity to the world that I am not used to which probably accounts for my closed view point on it.  But… I still think it is crazy.

Blog 40: Rachel Mann

I have a twin sister and her name is Rachel Mann.  She just finished her first year at Miami University at Oxford and is the laziest person I have ever met.  To be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if at one point she starves to death because she is too lazy to make food for herself.  I know that at Miami at some points she was so lazy that she wouldn’t go to the food court to eat because she didn’t want to walk there, so she just stayed hungry.  She is definitely a character; she is majoring in zoology and is going to apply to vet school.  She is really funny and she is an asshole.  For real she is super mean and im only saying this because she is right behind as I am typing this blog.  She would be the best sister in the world if she would go to the grocery store and buy something my mom needs for dinner.  But at the moment a giant butthead; she made me go to the grocery instead of her lazy ass.  So instead of finishing my blog I went and got the stupid onions and she sat in the same place using stumble upon.  She is the queen of being a dick, no joke.  Right now she is watching Psych I really love this show it is hilarious.  I wish I was watching House right now though.

Blog 39: Grammar Rule

Basically like everyone else the problems with grammar that I struggle with the most are the usage of commas, semicolons, and colons.  If word didn’t have the green squiggly underlining id be a goner when it comes to papers.  Sometimes I feel like I get the use of a comma but I have to say usually it is a guess and when it comes to colons I am done for.  I am very glad that we are finally changing subjects for our blogs.  Although I have to say grammar is not something I want to blog about, ever.  I know to use commas whenever you want the reader to take a breath or pause and when there is an introductory phrase or word.  I also know that when there is a series of three items you use commas and besides this basic information there isn’t much else I know.  I really, really, really dislike grammar and I know  that it is useful and important to life today but I really can not get past the fact that I despise it.  I feel like grammar is a little stupid in everyday life, I feel like if you can get your point across then it doesn’t matter how you say it.  Basically grammar is the biggest waste of time to me; but I may just think that because I hate enlgish and almost everything that applies to it.  I like to read but I really do not like to write.  Yay I got 250 words!

Blog 38: Holy Bologna

My title as you can guess was Holy Bologna and as a side not I had to sing the Oscar Meyer Bologna jingle to be able to spell it.  Some other titles I am currently thinking to change it to are, “Thou shall steal, Thou shall kill, Thou shall commit adultery” [Religion10:13].  Or another one would be “Holy” Shit.  The general topic of my paper is the generalized perception of religion and how it is all wrong according to recent studies.  I’m not really sure which to pick; to me all seem appropriate and get the same point across.  Although the Holy Bologna is good in my opinion it some people didn’t get it and gave me a bad grade while others loved it saying it was unique and creative so I guess it depends if you get it or not.  For my intro I had some difficulty selecting an opening line, I was debating between “Though shall not sin; oh wait…”, “Jesus Christ, fuck the deadly sins.”, and “Ever see someone holding the bible to their chest and watching as it stabs them in the back?  America has.”  I think the best combination is the Thou shall title with the Jesus Christ opener.  However, I feel like the Jesus Christ comment could be rather offensive which could turn people off from reading my paper which is not something I want to do.  So I am not entirely sure what I want to do with it at the moment, hopefully it comes to me soon.

Blog 37: Hypothetical Scenario

A hypothetical scenario for my commonplace paper would involve a very religious follower that performs a variety of illegal and very immoral actions in the name of his religion.  This could basically be any terrorist act or a jihad/crusade.  For instance the person would internally believe that when he kills someone because a higher being “instructed” him/her to perform it that it is morally okay.  Then the same individual also performs a large amount of petty theft crimes and what not but to him it is also justified by his religion.  He will use religion as a scapegoat for every action that is deemed immoral in normal society.  Also tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo!  I cant wait, it is going to be so awesome.  English class will not go by fast enough to be honest.  This weekend is my brother’s graduation.  He will be graduating from The University of Miami and it is extremely exciting.  Also he just got accepted in the New York Medical College which is very exciting.  ALSO his birthday is on May eight which is also the same day as mother’s day and I’ll be home.  So this weekend is going to be awesome!  Getting two hundred and fifty words is rather difficult to be honest; I have to struggle to get the requirement almost every time now.  Before when we would blog about our series it was so much easier; there was so much to talk about.

Blog 36: Personal Anecdote

I think that with all this freedom in college that it is inevitable to change through these experiences on your own.  For example on multiple occasions college student’s return to their once high school best friends over the summer and notice there is a change.  This change could be so great that you may never get along again.  With college there are the known changes or experiments.  For example everyone knows about the college experimentation when concerning girls; this “college experimentation” has been derived from the use in so many comedy movies.  But other changes include ones faith.  Although The Ohio State University is not affiliated with any church there are still influences all around.  This includes all the flyers, street preachers, emails, and organizations.  Back in high school we were never exposed to this sort of propaganda, instead we used our parents email, know almost everyone in the school, and have never seen a street preacher.  The only common ground are churches.  I think that with these influences there is a common misperception of what exactly some of the religion entails.  In my paper ill be exploring these stereotypes.  Today was a rather miserable day, it was cold and it was very windy.  I hope that tomorrow there it will finally be sunny, but according to the damned weather man it is once again supposed to be rainy.  It is may for christs sake, you would think we would get some warmth.

Blog 34: Compelling

I am going to make my common place paper compelling my imploring the use of specific ethos that will compliment my topic of religion and how the general view of it is actually false.  They kind of ethos or writing style I will incorporate into my paper will be one of my own voice.  I will use logic and reasoning to get my point across with maybe a dabble of satire or sarcasim in the mix.  It will make my paper very compelling and will entice readers to read on and be very convincing to the point where most will see and consider my point of view.  My paper will mostly be without the use of slang or humor and it will be rather serious with a little swearing hopefully.  I will try to be blunt and get to the point because I find if you make outlandish statements then although you audience might get mad they will continue to read because it is interesting to see how dumb the author is.  On a side note as I am sitting in the study room studying for my chemistry midterm and loving America because we rock, I think to myself and say, “I’m proud to be an American for at least I know I’m free, and I won’t forget the men who died and gave their life for me, and ill proudly stand up next to you…”  Also today was rather nice; not only killing Osama but in terms of the weather.  Yay!

Blog 33: Relevancy

My topic is relevant to college student audience because in college it is the time of defining oneself and a time of being influenced by others.  Religion is a huge influence and helps define oneself so naturally college students may have a tendency to accept it or reject it.  Also college students tend to live in small place and are constantly surrounded by peers so this creates an environment where they are always subjected to the subject of religion.  Having been subject to religion all the time makes this topic very relevant to college students.  Also everyone has their own way of thinking which makes them unique.  This is the same with religion; everyone has their own beliefs which also increase the diversity of the nature.  Finally with religion and a college community you have a greater number of experiences that can increase the influence on you.  Today is a great day and it is very nice outside and I really want to play volleyball or lacrosse.  My friends are up here from OU and I am stuck here writing a blog.  I missed my blog last night I totally forgot about it and that really sucks.  Oh well I guess it isn’t a big deal since is technically only one third of a point.  Yesterday was a pretty good day as well, I think finally the temperatures are starting to level and be normal and hopefully no more rain!

Blog 31: General Perception of Religion

Today is so windy but it is still so nice out!  I am really liking the fact that it is not raining today!  Today in class we talked about our common place papers and the topic that I have come up with is the public’s general view on religion.  The general perception of religion is that those that embrace it have strong basis of morality and ethics.  However, according to a recent study, that is strictly a stereotype, the New York Times states that, “belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for health society but may actually contribute to social problems” (Gledhill).  This not a well known viewpoint on religion; instead most Americans relate the world Christian with “good person”.  Even in politics this is a common practice.  In most campaigns you’ll see that the politician running puts a strong emphasis on his or her religion.  Where in fact if people actually knew, they should be associating religion with increased, “…rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies” (Gledhill).  Also when concerning religion not many people associate it with the scandals that are happening all around the world.  There has been problems and speculations of cardinals touching little boys at the Vatican.  Also the controversy  in the Texas where a priest is accused of molesting boys.  There has been many cases with this kind of controversy. 

Blog 30: Comfort Food

Today I read the common place article titled, “Comfort Food” by Morgan Glaze in the article Glaze’s main point is the plastic surgery is the new ice cream and she says that all the people are flocking towards it.  Her statements are that given our society how a person looks is judged and very high on the priority list.  I agree that in our society to much importance is placed on looks and physical appearance and not enough is placed on really matters; personality.  Glaze says that although plastic surgery used to be popular mainly in Hollywood it has spread like a malignant virus to even here; The Ohio State University’s campus.  The author makes claims that when you undergo cosmetic surgery, unless justified by health concerns, you are changing for not yourself but someone else.  I agree when you change your appearance not like changing your hair color or your style of clothes you are permanently changing your image, and that image is only for the world to see, not for yourself.  The plastic surgery doesn’t change your internal flaws of your image; they in a way enhance them and can eventually lead to Body Dimorphic Disorder (BDD).   There is no reason as to why people should feel the constant pressure to change their appearance, if our society wasn’t mainly based on looks and instead placed an emphasis on internal appearance our world would be much uglier on the outside, but flourish on the inside. 

Blog 29: Coke Zero, the Deadliest Beverage…or So They Say

Today, which was a nice but shitty day at the same time, I read the article “Coke Zero, the Deadliest Beverage…or So They Say” from Commonplace by Ted Elliot.  The author says that although coke zero has no calories, fat, or sugar it is still much worse for your body then coke is if you actually read the ingredient list.  Also in the drink is phosphoric acid which is a rather dangerous acid if there is a high molarity.  I wonder why phosphoric acid is added to the drink, I wonder why coke decided to keep/put it in the drink.  The next ingredient is aspartame which is common in a lot of diet drink and according to the author’s source has been shown to cancer in rats.  What I want to know is if there has been a link between this ingredient and cancer then why has the FDA approved it and allowed it in soft drinks that people may drink multiple daily.  Of course though the author is preaching that moderation is the key to healthy life style, and if you are downing more than four coke zeroes a day then your obviously not practicing a healthy life style and probably have body problems that may take your life faster than cancer caused from the five parts  per billion benzene and aspartame.  Basically we all should know exactly what we are placing in our bodies and how much of it.  It is our bodies there for it is our responsibility.

Blog 28: Fat and Happy

The article I read was Fat and Happy? By Jennifer Gallat, in this article the author says that those who think that the obesity problem does not pertain to those who do not have fat children and are not fat themselves are still responsible for the growing obesity problem.  Also the author informs us that even if you are not obese the problem still affects us all; she states that the United States of America spends roughly one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year to battle obesity, and where is this money coming from?  Us, the taxpayers.  This whole obesity problem is mainly our own faults; starting with schooling.  In the article it says that once again recess is trying to be cut from school schedules even though recess lasts for approximately twenty minutes.  Also the food and beverage items that schools offer are not up to the standards of “healthy”.  The author says that only small changes have to be made for eradicating starting with better role models.  But I ask how can obese be good role models for their young?  It starts to grow into a problem of do what I say not what I do and it is not effective at all.  The obesity problem is perpetual in terms that obese people can’t be role models for the children.  Kids see and follow and no matter what the situation.  

Blog 27: Introduction

                In today’s world the opposition of religion is often met with widening glares and hushed words.  Denouncing religion is not something taken lightly; now a day’s atheism in the United States has become a subject affiliated with taboo.  To some religion becomes a life saver, providing a basis of morals that all men should follow or it holds as an obsession; to others it stands as a burden to the advancement of society.  When concerning specific topics such as homosexuality, stem cell research, abortion, and terrorism (etc… add more or change depending), the world of religion has adopted a trend of restricting these issues, thus hampering the growth of men.

                At one point religion imparted answers to the unknown, providing a sense of security and a will to live in a time much more confusing than ours today.  It was used as a scapegoat, a way of getting past their fears, but in doing so bestowing a foundation of morals with false reasoning.  However, religion, unlike ourselves, is not capable of evolving.  Having being forged long ago; there is an installation of the stone ages in all those that truly accept it.  Religion, once considered an essential to the lives of humans, has been devolving ever more rapidly with the advancement of science and has become more of a resemblance as a bane then a fundamental.  

Blog 26

Today, I came home from OSU and I was extremely happy.  The campus was almost deserted, resembling a old western movie.  When I first started watching the series Dollhouse I never thought that it would eventually lead to my topic of religion.  In Dollhouse it is very technology oriented and religion was one of the last subjects I expected to see.  The implications of my episode, “True Believer” and my real world phenomenon is that the episode allows me to see another side of religion.  Usually my viewpoint of religion is very skewed and biased and having spent very little time in church I have another perspective to consider.  It has allowed me to see all the positive aspects when concerning religion as opposed to only the negative aspects (in my opinion and view).  From my research and from analyzing my episode I see that not everyone perceives information the same.  Upbringing greatly defines you like; in no ways can some ideas change how you think.  I think that although some actions and implications may be deemed immoral by some religious communities; that it is only some.  In no way can you truly generalize religion and get the right point across.  You will not give the topic justice.  One can try; but although most religions are founded on the same beliefs there is still a vast difference in almost all.

Blog 25: Real World Connection

First off I would like to say that today is super depressing.  Nothing but rain and almost everyone has left campus.  It is terrible.  My real world connection is Religion’s views on homosexuality, abortion, stem cell research, evolution, and terrorism.  When concerning stem cells most religions deem it immoral even though the research has the potential to save an innumerable amount of lives; even with this potential though most religions oppose.  In a recent PBS article on Religion and Ethics, the article “Religious Views on Stem Cell Research” states that, “The U.S. Roman Catholic Bishops oppose the research as “immoral, illegal, and unnecessary.”  They say life is sacred from the moment of conception”.  What is unnecessary is the comment that stem cell research wouldn’t benefit all the people and the people’s family would deem that comment as false and superfluous.  As for the immoral comment that strictly depends on when life is created, as stated above they believe it is immoral for “…life … is from the moment of conception” however this is not a definition more like a perception of the point of life.  There has been great debate among scientist as to when there is the moment of life.  Just as the Union of Othodox Jewish Congregations states, “an isolated fertilized egg does not enjoy the full status of personhood.”  Even among religions everywhere there is great debate amongst the moment of life.

Blog 24

The episode i choose was "True Bleiever" form the series dollhouse, it was a reallly good episode.  Relating to the religion world and all sects that comply.  The real world phenomenon i have is the West Borrow Baptsit Church which are known for their crazy tactis like picketing hte funerals and not havinf any fun at all.  They are like a cult where ther eis a close knit of people thatr beilve im the same beleifs/  The coll thing is they like to ghang out as a family. wwhich is awesome to think about but in reality is it bad.  The church imprints the minds of th elittl e ones with nothing but hate for everone else which is why they preach hatw to everyone else.  I ike blogging,m hahaha just kidding.  ummm i think this is enough but im not sure.  if not then ill take the half credit.

Blog 23

In this scene of Eli from the episode “True Believer” in the series Dollhouse, Whedon is trying to make a bold statement.  The bold statement he is pursuing is that following anything or anyone completely without your own questions or you own inputs make you just like a doll.  This is shown in the scene because the leader of the cult group is a crazed criminal, a crazed criminal that everyone in the group has complete trust for a no one ever defies his word.  He wants people to never becomes a sheep and be herded into their stable; he wants people to live.  In the show he has shown this with the evolution of Echo, instead of just being the normal doll that listens and follows commands she has started to question her surroundings and in doing she has become a better doll.  In the series he has placed a reward with not being a sheep, he has in a way denounced religion.  What is the one thing that followers refuse to ask questions about and scrutinize?  The answer is religion.  Followers refuse to ask and inspect the religion they follow, even when the evidence is right in front of them they are still acting like sheep and go with it.  In this episode Whedon is trying to convey an image where religion is a hamper to the growth of the human race. 

Blog 22: Render a Scene

The general background information of my series so that you all can fully understand my quote is that Echo, a doll that can be replaced with different memories to change how she thinks, acts, feels, etc. is implanted with a memory of a blind extremely religious member.  She is being used by the ATF to get into a very secretive and protective cult society because the leader of the cult is said to have a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition.  This turns out to be a true fact and there is quite a large amount of weapons.

When the compound is surrounded by hundreds of ATF officials; the cult leader and a ruthless weapons criminal, Jonas Sparrow; sees no way out.

As the trampling booms of the hundreds of ATF  officials resonates within all the ears of the compound; fear casts a blanket spell on all.  Confused and uninformed all the members reveal faces similar to frightened little children.  To induce faith in his “children”, Sparrow reads the passage of a great fire not harming those true believers and sets the building to ferocious flames.  In this ordeal Eli, a very confused young man, does not flee with everyone else.  Instead he stays while breathing in the deadly smoke and continues to pray; asking god to provide protection from him from the flames that he can so easily avoid.    

Blog 21: Societies worse off ‘when they have God on their side’

Today I read an article that was in The Times magazine.  In this article the author says that a study was conducted to see how religion affects a nation.  The results of the study show that, “In general, higher rates of belief in and worship of a creator correlate with higher rates of homicide, juvenile and early adult mortality, STD infection rates, teen pregnancy and abortion in the prosperous democracies” (Gledhill 1).  From the article this is proven from the rates of these said subjects compared to how “religious” a nation describes itself.  America is described as a very religious country and from the study is shown to have a all of the said above.  This is very different from what most people usually think when concerning religion; the general view is that religion is necessary to provide a foundation of moral and ethical standards in society.  Although this may be shocking to some its, is most certainly not surprising to me.  If you are subject to what is right and wrong from a book or just from a church session you are not truly learning it; instead if you actually experience what is right and wrong I do believe there is a more lasting impression.  Just like learning; studies have shown that a more hands on approach is better absorbed than their lecturing counterparts.

Blog 20: Integrate a Quote

Darwinism and the Elimination of God?

In the article, Has Science Eliminated God?, the author Mcgrath brings up a point from one of Dawkins books.  In River out of Eden by Richard Dawkins, the professor of Oxford uses the following quote to get his point across, 'The universe we observe had precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good, nothing but blind pitiless indifference” (Darwin 133).

To sum up this article, the author brings up the apparent design of certain intricate structures within the human body, such as the human eye, to say that some things cannot be explained by natural forces, “which obliges us to invoke a divine creator” (McGrath 118).  However, Dawkins makes the point that complex things have changed over an extremely large amount of time. Dawkins brings up the point in his book, Climbing Mountain Possible, that from one point may seem impossible but from another is completely attainable by a simple step by step process. Dawkins argues that through the theory of evolution, there is no space or reason for God. The argument of very complex mechanisms having to be derived from a supernatural source is offset completely by the works of Darwin. Dawkins shows his very anti-religious ideas and often has no problem voicing a better world without it.    

Blog 19

Today i will blog about a quote that i read that is very interesting.  The quote is from Emboided Science verse religion and science.  it is very informative and i like it very much.  It will provide much information for my paper. by the way it was very not nice out, it rained a lot and i didnt like it.  I can believe that this article is so informative. The quote is "The chief focus of religion-and-science consequently takes into account five basic issues: (1) the kind of world we want, (2) liberating science, (3) human action and ethics, (4) religion and the world's possibilities, and (5) recovering myth. " It basically says that exactly whjat it says.  Right now i cam wearing a snap back.  I love the hats that are snapbacks.  They are really cool and Mac Miller a famousish rapper wears them.  He is also Jewish which is also coolsih.  Mac Miller has some famous sonfs that everyone shoulf know, they include The spins, donald trump, Senior skip[ day, and forezen pizza & kpool aid.  There are a lot of people in my room.  There are 11 total, it is fun.  I dont like the fact that i have to blog on a saturday.  Last night my room mate puked in my room, it was very disgusting.  I dont know why i am blogging about this.  I hope this is 250 words becasue i relaly want to get the points and it is very hard for me to concentrate on this while it is a saturday.  Nastyness is in the cup that is going around.  We are plaing bet your liver.  Bad idea have fiun everyone.  It should be 250 but i reall ydont know.  

Blog 18: Dawkins’ Religion

Today I re-read the article “Dawkin’s Religion” by Vincent Brummer.  In this article the author tries to pick apart the arguments Dawkins makes in his books that in essence denounce religion.  The article is very much pro-religion and often calls on misinterpretations of Dawkin’s take of the biblical writing to make its main arguments.  This seems to be a common theme from all the authors that denounced Dawkin’s views; often calling upon Dawkin’s definition of faith which is belief without evidence.  To me that is the whole foundation of faith but this is not the same for most of the authors.  In Brummer’s writings he quotes one of Dawkins’s arguments in Dawkins’s book he states that religious beleivers, “hold beliefs

that flatly contradict demonstrable scientific facts as well as rival religions

followed by others. People not only hold these beliefs with passionate certitude, but devote time and resources to costly activities that flow from holding them. They die for them, or kill for them” (Dawkins 178).  Religion is to some extent an unnecessary waste of materials and time, to some religion has provided a new sense of being while to others it is just an activity that has to be done to please the peers.  To both groups, how is it plausible to believe something and live your life by something that has constantly been disproved?  Yet some people still hold the disproven. Which is why Dawkins holds religion as a malignant virus that turns sane people to become irrational.

Blog 17: Integrate a Quote 1

Today was a beautiful day, I tossed the lacrosse ball and the baseball in the oval and it seemed that everyone was having a great time.  It was the perfect weather for waffle ball but sadly I could not play, maybe next time!  Too bad the sun went away and it dark out, oh well.  I enjoyed it while it lasted.

Richard Dawkins, a renowned professor at the University of Oxford for Public Understanding of Science, states in his writings of A Survival Machine that, “The universe presented by organized religion is a poky little medieval universe, and extremely limited” (Dawkins, 117).  With religion you get a restricted viewpoint that is resistant to the ever changing ideas and morals of men.  The ancient doctrines that are the base for religion and govern it with an iron fist are resistant to changes.  In the past the governing words of religion may have been eye opening and awe inspiring for those that embrace them, but in today’s world those non-evolving words are what are making the human species limited.  These limitations that religion places on the species can be seen in the resistance of churches everywhere to accept the ideas of homosexuality, stem-cell research, and cloning.  The world is constantly changing; but the doctrines are not; never being revised to be more accustomed to today’s generation, it induces a state of hampering for the prospecting human race.

Blog 15: Richard Dawkins and the God Controversy

Today I read the article, “Richard Dawkins and the God Controversy”, in this article the author attacks Dawkin’s beliefs and his book, The God Delusion.  The author states that, “Dawkins invents his own definitions of faith in order to attack and demolish them.  Faith it “blind trust, in the absence of evidence…””  The author states that his definition of faith does not concern Christianity, more so it concerns religions of the Islamic culture.  How can that be?  Faith is exactly that; that is the point of faith, I is to trust and believe in something that isn’t certain, which is exactly what religion is.  The author is showing a state of something similar to patriotism to his faith, Christianity, saying that the ideas and statements that Dawksin brings up in his book may concern other religions but definitely not his.  The author asks, “Can Dawkins be deliberately ignorant that Jesus taught us to love even our enemies?”  Now I ask can the author be so ignorant to state such a statement when he completely disregards all other religions.  If Dawkins was ignorant to this wouldn’t it mean that all other religious followers that don’t follow Jesus (Jewish people, Musims, etc.) are ignorant as well?  The author says that one of the reasons Dawkins is incredible is because when asked the question why are we here, Dawkins states “… to be here, there is not higher purpose…” The author is disgusted by this answer, but I don’t see the problem with it.

Blog 14: Dawkins vs. Voegelin

Today I read the article “Between Realities: Dawkins vs. Voegelin” which poses one of the post modern problems as “god confusion” which is basically the variety of personal experiences and understandings that has created a religious tension in today’s world.  Dawkins “… maintains that religion closes people’s minds to scientific truth, oppresses women, and psychologically abuses children.”  Now although this may have been taken out of context from Dawkin’s book, The God Delusion; it brings up a point.  In my opinion I agree that religion can close your mind to scientific truth just as religion can give credit to God for something that happens when it n fact has nothing to do with a superior being.  In certain religions there is an oppression of women’s rights so that to me is also a negative effect of religion.  However, in no way do I believe that there is psychological abuse to children that happens due to practicing religion; unless you are part of the West Borrow Baptist Church, but they are an extremist group with less than one hundred members (mostly family).  Dawkin’s believes that morality does not rely on belief in God; and I for one am I huge supporter of that.  I do not people the human kind as a race needed the ten commandments to understand good from evil.  To know that it is wrong to kill, steal, or commit adultery.  I think the human race deserves at least a little credit, or perhaps the mammals we evolved from.

Blog 13: Science and Religion An Inevitable Clash?

Today was a beautiful day, I got to go outside and even blog outside.  It was the perfect temperature and while I was blogging I saw a lot of different things in the oval.  I read the article Science and Religion: An Inevitable Clash?, it asks the question if it is impossible to be religious and be a scientist.  The author believes that it isn’t impossible and all that oppose this idea like Dawkins are ignorant.  The author very greatly despises Dawkins and it can be easily read in the article.  Which to me, I personally think you can not really be a true scientist and be religious at the same time.  Science has been ever more disproving the works of religion and to be a religious scientist to me is kind of an oxymoron.    The inevitable clash that arises from religion and science is that were made by two different procedures.  In religion you have all the answer or conclusion and you try to make those answers plausible; whereas with science you perform the procedure to are left with the answers.  I really don’t know what else to put into this blog, so ill end it with you all should watch the movie Religuous.  It is very funny and brings up a lot of very good talking points.

Blog 12: Dawkins’ Religion

Today I read the writings of Vincent Brummer, who attempts to explain why Dawkins thinks the way he does.  However, I feel like only Dawkins can really explain his atheist beliefs.  In the article Brummer states that Dawkins beliefs are based, “… on the assumption that religion is an explanatory theory that has been made obsolete by the results of scientific enquiry.”  I fully agree.  It baffles me when people reject the theory of evolution even with this gigantic amount of evidence that supports it due to faith.  Otherwise completely sane and level minded individuals believe in events and actions that are strictly un-plausible and accept it, but these same people do not believe in magic or completely insane ideas, that when examined deeply are on the same level of bologna as religion.  To Dawkins, religion was a way of understanding the world when there were no answers; in this article Dawkin’s attacks all religion calling it “…intolerant, blind faith, cruel, extreme, and having prejudice.”  The author states that Dawkins clearly has a loathing for religion and he is often saying the world would be a better place without religion.  In this article they say faith is hermeneutical (which is the study of interpretation theory, and can be either the art of interpretation, or the theory and practice of interpretation from Wikipedia) rather than epistemic (concerned with reasoning about knowledge).  Basically, faith is not taken the route of using reason to prove it.

Blog 11: Richard Dawkins

The article that I read for this blog has to do with the beliefs and ideology of Richard Dawkins.  Dawkins is an evolutionary biologist that is a professor at the esteemed University of Oxford.  He has created a name for himself by criticizing the works of Creationism and his thoughts of intelligent design.  In the article Has Science eliminated God? – Richard Dawkins and the Meaning of Life. he states that “Science has swept God from the public arena, and relegated him to the margins of our culture.”  The whole idea of religion is just a giant scapegoat, back in the day when the first works of the bible were created; there was specific reasoning behind it.  It was necessary to have religion in order for all the followers and peoples to have a reason for living.  Back then, there were no answers for almost anything, so religion was used to give us these unknown answers.  Although, not correct (science can almost disprove all religious stories and thoughts) back then it was used to get by the unknown, to make the world a little more friendly in the eyes of the uneducated.  Over time these thoughts have been constantly pounded in peoples head’s making it extremely hard for science to get through.  Brought up as a practicing Presbyterian, I have come to accept the conclusion that God is a illusion made to cope with everyday life back in the stone ages.

Blog 10: Research

I will still be focusing my research on the clash between science and religion.  On how, although they are polar opposites, one still can not disprove the other and the fact that not one is completely correct when dealing with the meaning of life.  After reading some of the comments made on my prospectus (which i didnt do correctly in the first place), i have decided although some may disagree, that the clash between these two subject is still very much timely.  Also i realized that i never provided a realworld example in my prospectus, so my real world example will be the clash of the supporters of The Big Bang Theory and that god had created everything.  My research is mainly composed of the highly regarded Richard Dawkins who is a well known atheist that has been trying to convey his message for quite a while.  One of the books he has written and that would very much help me is called, The God Delusion.

1.  Fehige, Yiftach J. "EBSCOhost." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Dec. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=11225bb2-437b-4ab8-b491-08c675787cad@sessionmgr15>.

2.  Hefner, Philip. "Recentering Religion-And-Science." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Mar. 2010. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=4>.

3.  Monroe, John J. "Science and Religion: An Inevitable Clash?" EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Mar. 2011. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6>.

4.  Brummer, Vincent. "Dawkins' Religion." EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. July 2010. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6>.

5.  McGrath, Alister. "Has Science Eliminated God? -- Richard Dawkins and the Meaning of Life."EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Oct. 2005. Web. 08 Apr. 2011. <http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6>.