What makes one college course more enjoyable than another? Explain

Things that make one college class more enjoyable than other are the teacher themself, their personality, and the way the class is taught. I can say from a hands-on experience that the amount of enjoyment I get out of class is mostly due to the teacher's personality. I have a teacher this semester who only teaches us from a powerpoint slide, usually 4-6 pages of notes every two days, and then draws random pictures on the board, trying to describe them. He is very monotoned, and never smiles unless he's laughing at his own jokes. Then on the other hand, I have two teachers who make us do group projects and make the class fun by their personality. Granted in the one we take notes more than in the other one, but I still have fun in both of them. I'm sure there's other reasons that one class is more enjoyable than the other, but for me it's definitely the teacher. I really have to say, I usually didn't like my English classes, but I always loved my teachers because they kept my attention and never did the same thing over and over again.

The Great Cricket Attack of '08

Oh my god, I feel the same exact way but with spiders. I scream for my dad whenever there's a spider in my room or anywhere else in the house. It's useless for me to call my mom because she's worse than I am. But yeah, the way you feel about crickets is the way I feel about public speaking. Whenever I have to read in front of the class, I turn like beat red in the face and my ears turn like fire engine red and get really hot. When I have to read something in front of the class the paper also shakes because my hands are shaking. I also have a fear of bugs like spiders (major!!), crickets (only when they jump at me), and bees. And then for some reason I have a fear of clowns. I really don't know why but one day I was watching a movie and there was a clown in the movie (and no its wasn't IT) and from then on out I've been afraid of clowns. Like I'm fine to go to the circus but I avoid them at all costs while I'm there. Also one of my biggest fears is of death, like I mean I know we are all going to die in the end, but I'm just afraid of how I'm going to die and when. I honestly have no idea how to make me less afraid of public speaking, if you can break me of it in your class then you are a miracle worker.

Should prison inmates be allowed to take college courses? Explain why or why not.

No, I don't believe that prison inmates should be allowed to take college courses. They were put away for a reason and to grant them access to a college where there could be a trigger that makes them "lose it" again. If the prison gave them a couple classes then that might be a different story, but to pay for a professor that would feel safe enough to teach in a prison would prove difficult. It's bad enough that we pay for them to be in prison, but now we have to pay for their education too?! Our tax dollars go to fixing up the prisons and paying for the guards salaries, now we have to pay for their education and books like we have normally at a college. Inmates should definitely not be allowed to come to a college though, because of the high risk of danger to the rest of the students.

When we return to places we knew as children, we are often surprised at how different these places seem.

I was born and raised up in Kearny, which is in north Jersey, about an hour and a half from where I live now. I lived in Kearny for twelve years of my life and when I was there, I thought it was the best thing ever. My grandmother and I would walk around town and go to the library and the Dunkin' Donuts all the time. Now whenever I go up there to visit my family, I see how much the town changed. When we first lived there, the town majority was Italian, now it's the minority. The park that I used to go to by my house isn't safe anymore, there are constant drug deals and (this is going to sound very racist) but there is never any Caucasian in the park anymore. The town used to be so clean and now there's garbage on the streets and so many places have either gone out of business or have moved out of town. I hate going up there because it changed so much. I was so used to the town and how it used to be that now I really can't stand taking that drive up there.

If you could live in some other historical period, which would you choose, and why?

If I had to choose and historical period to live in I would definitely pick to be in America during the 1920's. I absolutely adore the age of the "flappers" and how women rebelled against what they were supposed to wear and how they were supposed to act. The 20's was when women cut their hair really short and began to smoke out in public and wore "revealing" dresses that didn't go below the knee and revealed shoulder. The music from the time is amazing. This was the time period where jazz was created and was extremely popular to dance to. Some dance moves that we see today were created during the 20's. I know most people usually pick time periods that were pre- or post-war but I just love the 20's.

Should sex education be taught in public schools? Why or why not?

Of course sex education should be taught in public schools. It should be taught in every school for that matter. Granted we are constantly exposed to sex on the television and in books and always hear about ways to practice safe-sex and abstinence. Students should have to go through at least one or two years of a health class that covers sex education. The topic gets boring after a while but it does help because we don't know everything and sometimes you can actually learn from a sex education class. Apparently Sarah Palin's daughter didn't learn much from her sex education class since Palin wants to get rid of sex education in public schools in her school district.

Sick Days

Oh geez, the last time I took a sick day was about two weeks ago, over the weekend. I had wound up getting sick at work thursday night so by friday I was feeling like complete and utter crap. I went to class on friday (it's the one that most amuses me) and then hung out with some friends in the cafeteria for a little bit before I had to go home and get ready for work. Needless to say that after a coupld hours at work, I felt like I wanted to die and that my head was going to explode. On top of feeling like death, I couldn't stop sniffling and was in constant need of tissues. Everyone at work made fun of me because I sounded like a nasally man and my nose made me look like Rudolph. It was just a horrible weekend that I spent between work and my bed.

"Eight boxes of tissues later"

I'm not exactly into the whole politics thing but if I had to choose I'm pretty sure I'm gonna vote for Obama or write down Mickey Mouse's name just because I can. If it were up to me, I would get rid of everyone and just take normal everyday people and put them in. Having the candidates going on television and cooking or going on SNL (favorite show of all time!!!) would persuade me a little bit more to vote only because it gives us a chance to see them as real people goofing off and having fun instead of being these totally serious and boring political robots. It's easier to for me to make a decision because I can't stand people who are serious all the time and don't know how to have a little fun now and then. I mean yeah, granted their job calls for it, but I'm sure there are things they can do and fundraisers they could attend or something that gives us a chance to see the real person. Personally I would love to see more politics on television, then maybe I would take more interest in them.

Ugh..Birthdays

So today is my eighteenth birthday and I have one thing to say...it pretty much sucks. I mean I know everyone is pretty excited when they turn legal age. You are finally considered an adult, you can buy rub-offs (addictive), you can vote, no more driving restrictions, go to clubs, and a bunch of other things. I was all excited like pretty much all week about it and then when the day actually came, I was dead tired from the night before and had an exam that I'm pretty sure I bombed because I guessed on half of the questions. Then in Biology we were going over stuff for our exam on Thursday and I fell asleep (not sure out of boredom or exhaustion). I had to go home and work a couple hours which totally sucked, I stood at register and did pretty much nothing. Then I went out to dinner with the parental units and one of my closest friends. Dinner was hilarious since I haven't seen her all summer and my little brother was the loudest and funniest person in the restaurant. All in all I guess it was okay.

Yankees Rule!!

So yesterday my dad, cousin, and I went to a Yankees game and it was absolutely amazing! They won during the bottom of the ninth inning with bases loaded and two outs. The batter up was Robinson Cano, and he amazingly hit a fielder that the Baltimore Orioles wouldn't catch in time for Giambi to make it to home plate. The score had been 0-0 all night and until that moment I had never screamed so loud at a baseball game. When they got that one run I was jumping out of my seat. Now today my dad and I got tickets to the final game at the old stadium and are leaving around 4 because we figured we would hit a lot of traffic, it being the last game of the regular season at the old stadium. I'm so excited for the game and I really hope they win. The game starts at 8:30 so we probably won't get home until around 2 in the morning but it's all good because I am absolutely in love with the Yankees!!!

Major Accident at Shoprite

This past Monday, I was working when all of sudden some guy came in and asked if I had heard about the accident that happened at Shoprite. Of course, since I was working, I had no idea what was going on in the outside world because it's WaWa, I mean, come on. Then a lot more people kept coming in and telling me different versions of what had happened. The shoprite plaza was closed from about 4:30 in the afternoon until the next day, with cops all over the place because someone was killed in the accident. I was reading the Lacey Beacon at work and there was an article about the whole thing. Turns out there was a lady who was driving while talking on her cell phone and would up swerving into a bus. The bus then smashed into the cement columns and rebounded into other cars. The woman who caused the accident wound up dying, and when the bus rebounded and hit other cars, one of my friend's sister was hit and is in critical condition at the hospital.

Ohio Inmate Claiming Obesity

I didn't know that there was a "weight limit" for lethal injections, if that is your given death sentence. There is a man in the Ohio State Prison who is claiming that he is too obese and that his veins are too hard to find because of his size. He says that it will be too hard to put the intravenous into his arm. To me that seems ridiculous and that he's just trying to find a way to prolong his death sentence. I've never heard of someone not being able to serve their death sentence because of their weight. He was placed in jail for raping and killing two college girls over 22 years ago, while he was on leave from the military. He and an accomplice also carved an 'x' into their abdomens after they killed the two girls.

Rock the Vote!

So today on campus was a Rock the Vote! registration and I definitely didn't go. I signed up online but I still have yet to print out my information and send the paperwork to Trenton or wherever it has to go so I can be a fully registered voter. I know that it's important to become a registered voter but I'm not really sure that I want to because I know that when my mom re-registered when we moved down the shore, she got called to jury duty a whole bunch of times and I really don't want to be bothered with that. My friends, well those who are registered, are closely split about who they are voting for. Then I have the friends who don't really care and don't want and aren't going to vote. It would be so much simpler if we were told that we have to vote, not given the option, because then you have people who register like right away and then you have those who are wishy-washy about it, like me, and then those who just won't vote for anything. I wasn't sure that I could register yet because my birthday isn't until Monday but then my dad told me that by the time the paperwork was processed and everything, I would already be eighteen.

Bowling and Presidents

Last night I went out with a bunch of friends for a night out since we haven't seen each other since graduation. We decided to go bowling for a couple hours. When we got there, at first we started off with our names, and then we went to nicknames, and then somehow we got onto the topic of the election and the candidates. Since there were six of us, we were divided into two teams, and one team wound up being McCain and the other, which I was on, was Obama. We did this because this was probably who we are going to vote for, even though I tried to argue that I wasn't going to vote for the name of the team I was on, I still haven't finished registering to vote for that matter. All six of us got into a huge debate over the election and who we were going to vote for because of the fact that one of the candidates is of African American descent, and the other candidate has a woman as a Vice-President. I really hadn't paid attention to how controversial this election has become just because of those to factors.

Gas Prices at Work

So I was at work this weekend and since I work at a WaWa with fuel pumps outside, we have to have our prices done by 4 every afternoon. This past weekend, we went up 15 cents for each type of gas we sell all because of Hurricane Ike. There were so many people that were fuming into the store and yelling at us because we had to raise the prices. It's insane how much the gas prices rose just because of Hurricane Ike. It stinks driving a truck and having to deal with gas prices as it is, but now we have to deal with the aftermath of the hurricane and all the damage it's caused. There are rumors saying that gas prices are supposed to go back up to almost five dollars a gallon because of the oil reserves we have in Texas. I really hope that with the new presidency coming up, they can figure out a way to lower the prices and keep them down. Over the summer, I read in the newspaper that the prices this summer were double the prices from last summer. I think that's ridiculous that the price was more than double the price we were paying last summer.

One week down

My first week at OCC wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Granted I was hoping that I would have more people from my high school in some of my classes but it's cool. My classes are pretty fun, I guess. I expected them to be really boring classes where the time just seems to drag on forever, but time actually kind of flies while I'm in some of them. My most challenging class this semester is probably going to be my Chemistry class because its four hours long and at night. I get bored pretty easily and I can't stand in one spot for almost two hours during the lab we have. Thankfully I have one of my best friends in that class and we are lab partners so we sit there poking each other to keep ourselves awake. It's so weird walking around campus and seeing so many people that I graduated with because I figured most of them would have gone away to college, like I was going to do until last minute, when I decided to do Stars. I don't mind it though, I mean of course there's times where I wish I had gone away to college, but I like being home and still being with some of my friends. I think the class that I laugh the most in is my English class. Between the cursing and random comments, the classroom is always laughing even though it's 8 in the morning, it's great.