Last Blog

This is probably going to be my last blog because the semester is almost over and I have done all the previous blogs before this one. I am kind of glad that I am going to be done with blogs…I am also going to be done with English forever too! English is not my subject…I am more of a math and science kind of girl. I know, I know you will never escape English because it is all around you and you still have to write papers, emails, letters, etc. in the work force. I am studying to be an engineer and I know you will need English to be an engineer too. I am not really sure why I am not a fan of English, maybe it is because I am not a fan of analyzing literature because every time I was sure I was right the teacher would always say I was wrong. I just told the teacher how it affected me, how could that be wrong? I also never liked that the grading was/is subjective and there is not really any clear right or wrong answer like in math and science. Poetry, I dreaded that the worst. It was not that I hated poems, it was that every time I told the message I got out of the poem, or how the poem affected me it was wrong. It was wrong because that is not what the author intended. I did not live in the 1400s; I feel some things differently than they did back them especially when I was only thirteen years old. It is not my fault I could not feel what I grown man felt in the 1400s, when I was only a thirteen year old girl (not mature enough yet). I think a lot of it had to do with the lifestyle is different, the worries are different, and innocence’s is different. A thirteen year old girl still innocent but lives completely different than the poets back then did.


I really do enjoy English in college, it is completely different than in high school and I think that is what I liked the most. My teacher in college showed me that English is not as bad as it once was. This could be because I matured more and have experienced more.


If you are not a fan of English like me do not give up, you could meet a teacher than might change that opinion a little.

Virginia Tech

One of the big reasons I fell in love with Virginia Tech was the sense of community. The sense of community is always there, all throughout the year. I first noticed it when I attended Hokie Focus in April, right after I was accepted, to make sure this is the college I wanted to spend my next four years. When I was here everyone was so welcoming and friendly. At the time, I thought part of it was so I would come here and the college would get my money. Then, when I announced that I was going to attend Virginia Tech to my church this older man…he had to be at least 60 years old…told me that Virginia Tech was the best four years of his life. He said this with a big, warm welcoming smile. It made me feel as a part of the community already. All I could do in return was give a genuine smile and say I can’t wait. It did not stop there. Every time I ran into someone going to Virginia Tech in the fall, an alumni, or a student they would say or do something similar to the man at church. Orientation rolled around and those people were more pumped than I could believe. I thought people only got that spirited at sporting events. That showed me how much school pride everyone here has. My first semester at Virginia Tech everyone I meant was so friendly and inviting, even though everyone came from different backgrounds. Now April 16th is tomorrow, which is the day 32 Virginia Tech students were killed by another Virginia Tech student. The spirit for Virginia Tech does not stop it only grows. As I look on Facebook, almost all my Virginia Tech friends have changed their profile picture to the Virginia Tech logo with the ribbon in the background or some picture that has to deal with April 16th. The majority of the people I see are freshman or sophomores and they were not here for the tragic day yet we are all united because we are all Hokies. There are tons of memorials planned, a marathon, candle lighting, etc. April 16th has affected everyone directly or indirectly. We will prevail and neVer forgeT.

Origin

Because April is poetry month every day in English class we are reading a new poem. Last class we read Deaf Girl Playing by James Tate. The purpose of that poem was to explain the origin of the sign deaf girl playing. After reading that poem the teacher assigned everyone in the class to write a poem explaining how something/anything was invented. Here is mine. There was only ten minutes left in class when she assigned it.


One day Emma decided that being a stay at home wife could become boring when her four kids were in school and her husband was at work. One morning when she was standing at the bus stop with her children she started to talk to a neighbor about the new invention called the internet. The internet fascinated Emma so much that she decided to go down to the local library and do some research on it. She got to thinking about it…maybe she could do something on the internet to keep her entertained in the daytime when her children were in school. After a couple weeks of thinking she remembered that her favorite subject in high school and college was English. Her favorite part of English was writing. Instead of keeping a journal every night before she went to bed she would do it on the internet. She made a website where she could write down her thoughts, what she did that day, her opinions about the news, topics that interested her, etc. This way everyone could see what she was thinking/ feeling and have people comment saying their thoughts and words of wisdom. This later evolved into blogs.


This weekend is Relay for Life! I cannot believe that the WBC is coming the same day as Relay for Life. That makes me upset! I cannot wait for Relay for Life…Virginia Tech is the only college that hosts Relay for Life and raises the most money. So far Virginia Tech has raised more than $450,000. Cancer has affected everyone’s life directly and indirectly and I really hope one day there will be a cure.

Thoughts!

I have two things to write about this week. My first thing is I cannot wait until Easter because I can have ICE-CREAM!!!! I gave up ice-cream for Lent because I did not think it would be THAT hard and I really like it. I was wrong, when I went home for Spring Break ice-cream was everywhere I turned.


My second thing is I really have nothing to write about so I am going to write about what I am thinking. Someone mentioned to me once why do people only care about their self and not a group as a whole? I started to think about it and I have no idea. Maybe it is because people are self-centered. People only think about their self because when we are little we are taught that we should stick up for our self, do not tell on others, and learn how to be independent. Because of that people are more worried about their self and not the well being of others. I think it is also part of our society. In the media, specially on TV, all the stars really do it worry about who they are going to date, what other people think about them, their status, etc. Maybe media portrays that because that is what people really think. Think about it, when we are little all we see on TV and movies are super heroes and when we are little we want to group up and be a power ranger or Superman or Wonder Woman or Batman. Society is influenced by what they see. I think that is part of what is wrong with the world today.


It is hard to find people who will give without wanting anything in return. All people care about is what can you do for me. Think about it, that is how President’s campaign, companies advertise, people pick who their friends are, etc. I just hope that one day people will see that it is more important to give and not expect anything in return because that is Love! People need to learn how to love one another. Love is more than just how you feel towards a boyfriend/girlfriend is it respect, kindness, civility, humility, and forgiveness towards each other. This can mean towards other countries too. I think people have a hard time letting all their feelings go toward something not stable (such as a person) because they are afraid of getting hurt. Letting feelings go is the same as placing trust. People have a hard time trusting and believing something that is not proven. Trust and belief go hand in hand. I think people care about their self and not a group as a whole because people are brought up that way and are scared to let go and get hurt, but if they can be tough and not put anything in to lose, then no problem.

April Fool's Day!

April Fool’s Day has a very interesting history. According to http://www.april-fools.us/history-april-fools.htm, April Fool’s Day started in about 1582 in France under Charles IX. New Year’s Week used to be March 25 to April 1; however, it was changed to January 1. Since communication traveled slowly only some people were informed and some refused to acknowledge the change. Those people were labeled “fools.” The harassing continued and evolved into pranks. Some good pranks according to the internet:

• There is the classic, draw eyebrows and moustache on their face when the person is asleep.
• Freeze water in a cereal bowl, then put cereal on top and serve.
• Put baby powder in the hair dryer, their head will be pure white.
• Place a life saver under the shower head, when they start drying off the towel will stick to them.
• Place a small alarm clock set for 4am under their bed.
• Take 20 or more disposable cups and fill them with water stapled together and put them on their desk or floor.
• There is the classic, post it note under the mouse so the cursor won’t move.
• Pop off a few keys on the keyboard and switch them around. (Only if the person is a “hunt and peck” typist)
• Place a small water balloon in the toe of the person’s shoe.
• Ask them if they can balance a drink on their hand. Place your hand palm down on the table and balance a drink. Bet the other person they cannot do the same thing on both hands at once then leave. They will be stuck.
• Go into Microsoft Word and change the auto-correct so it misspells common words. Replace with words like “a” and “however” with “dog” and “moon”.
• Turn the brightness control all the way up and the contrast all the way down. The screen should appear blank.
• Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel to find the option for mouse. On the buttons tab, change the buttons configuration to switch the primary and secondary buttons of the mouse. Now when they click nothing will work as expected.
• Change the person’s homepage to www.welcometonternet.org.

I hope everyone has a wonderful April 1st!

Spring is Here!

Well, we are half way through the second semester of freshman and all of a sudden my semester picked up drastically. The first half (the half before spring break) I was ahead on all my work and did not stay up late to do homework. After 10pm, I was normally not doing any homework…maybe a couple days I was getting ahead or reviewing but nothing intense. The week after I got back from spring break I was up until about 2:30am studying or doing homework or something. Then that Friday, we had a physics test from 5:30pm to 7:30pm and it was also Women’s Preview Weekend. Women’s Preview Weekend is when the first year girls in Hypatia host a senior in high who has been accepted into the engineering program at Virginia Tech. This way they will be able to get a feel for the engineering program here at Virginia Tech. I did not have to pick up my girl before the test because she had a soccer game and so she did not get here until about 11:30pm.


The work load piled up. We have an inventor test and mid-term test both in engineering on Wednesday this week but they gave us more homework this week than they have all semester. We have to do two drawings in inventor, download Matlab, do a 40min tutorial in Matlab, make a flowchart in Viso and test it in Matlab to see if it works, and do an isometric drawing free hand. To me, that is a lot of work because normally it is prepare for your quiz on Wednesday, do a chapter in inventor, and read a chapter in the engineer design book. I just do not understand because we have a test this week they pile on the homework so we cannot study for it. The homework is due Monday mornings at 9:00am. My other classes have not picked up much. For extracurricular activities, there is something going on almost every weekend until summer. This weekend was Women’s Preview Weekend; coming up there is Big Event, Relay For Life, and Easter. Maybe a couple free weekends and we are out for summer in the middle of May. This semester has just flown by because this week we are already requesting classes for next year, Fall 2010.


I cannot believe that is it spring all ready. It was nice because Ritas had free Italian Ice for the first day of spring last Saturday. Shorts, t-shirts, and flip flops have been the normal dress for everyone this weekend. I hope everyone is having a great time in this nice spring weather and not having to miss out on the nice weather because of homework.

Spring Break!

My spring break was amazing…I did not want to leave home but the funny thing is I did not want to leave Virginia Tech for spring break. I love both places so much it. The best part about break was sleeping in, hanging out, and no worries or stress; however, I wish I did a little more homework than I did but that is my fault because I had time to do the homework. I just choose not to do it. The first night I was home I slept for 13 hours it was amazing. I went to bed at 12:30 am and I woke up at 1:20 pm. The next day I was refreshed. During that night, I remember I woke up and I could not figure out where I was then I was like oh yeah I am at home and smiled. I just had not been home in about seven weeks. The first weekend I was back my cousin had come into town for the CAA tournament. She went to Old Dominion University and the tournament was in Richmond. That was nice that I was able to spend two nights in a row with her. I miss her a lot. Then I spent Monday night at my grandma’s house and stayed with her until Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday I spent with my best friend…we went to a friend house, went on a bike ride, saw Alice and Wonderland in 3D (that was a great movie), and talked. It was great to catch up and enjoy the nice weather. I remember it was 62 degrees that day. Wednesday and Thursday I spent just relaxing at home, laundry, a little homework, and chores. My other side of the family came in on Friday so I hung out with them until the left. That evening I went to a party. It was great to see all my friends that I had not seen since winter break. The only downer was not every college had the same week off. Then before I knew it I was heading back to Virginia Tech to start the busy part of this semester. I hope all of you had amazing spring break like I did.

Valentine's Day

Why does Valentine’s Day mean something different to everyone? To single guys, they could care less about Valentine’s Day. Now there are the occasional single guys that are suckers and get sad on Valentine’s Day but it is not often. To single girls, they just want to lock their self in a room, cry, watch dramatic movies, and eat ice-cream. Now there are the occasional single girls that do not care and go about the day with their everyday life. Taken guys, it is a test for the girl to see how much the guy cares or what he will do for her. Taken girls, well the day is all for her. Think about it Valentine’s Day is a girl’s day! It is full of pink and red flowers, teddy bears, chocolates, hearts, etc. All the stuff girls like.


Some people call Valentine’s Day “Happy Singles Awareness Day.” Why do people make such a big deal of a nothing holiday? It is because they are either jealous or sad, and if so then why would they draw attention to it. I personally think people make such a big deal about it because the media, stores, advertisements, etc. You cannot escape it. That is why the holiday is so popular because it is a money making holiday. Think about how expensive flowers get they go from like twenty dollars normally to about forty or fifty dollars. Chocolates go way up. Cards…I think Hallmark invented the Holiday so they could make money between the holidays. Jewelers must love this holiday and trying to help the guys out on what to get that special someone.


So how did Valentine’s Day really start? According to History.com, one legend Valentine was a priest during the third century in Rome. Emperor Claudius II said that men without children or wives made better soldiers so he got rid of marriage for young men. Valentine thought that was terrible and preformed marriages in secret to young lovers. Claudius found out and killed him. Another legend said that while Valentine was in prison he wrote a letter to the jailors daughter to whom he fell in love with. He signed the letter “From your Valentine” before he was killed. That phrase is still used today. I personally like the story about the priest performing secret marriages because that is more romantic then someone signing a letter before he died.


I had an AMAZING Valentine’s Day!! I hope you did too!!

Haunted House

My English teacher told us to write a fictional story with three details: character, a woman with a secret who wants to tell someone; setting, a closet; and detail, a record player with no record. This is where my imagination took me.


In an old abandoned house, that has been on the market for at least ten years, there many stories about why this house is haunted. Some say a husband killed his wife with the record playing, left her in a closet and ran away to married another girl. The scary part is there is no body in the closet and no record on the record player. People think she still lives there and hides the record hoping he will come back looking for the record, the song that was played at their wedding, so she can have her revenge. Others think that she just wants someone to talk to because having a story like that stay on your chest that long can make you go crazy, or she might just want to go out on dates but is scared that guys won’t like her because of all the scars on her face. Others say that a long time ago there were little teenagers playing seven minutes in heaven. There was one girl that had a major crush on this one boy and she got seven minutes in heaven with him. They made out in the coat closet down stairs. After the seven minutes he left the coat closet first; leaving her awe struck. She was so excited that she really wanted to tell her best friend but before she could he had asked her best friend on a date. Meanwhile there is a record playing during the whole scene. She gets really mad (more hurt) and takes the record so she can burn it and try to forget about the boy who broke her heart. Rumor has it her best friend and the boy go back to that house to remember the first time they got together. When people try to come in they scare them away so they can have the house all to their self. No one really knows why the house is haunted…it is all up to your imagination.

Web Laundry

I really like this idea about Web Laundry that Virginia Tech just started. Web Laundry lets the residents check to see if any washers are available before they carry all their laundry down two flights of stairs to find out that all washers are taken. If there are certain hours in the day where I can do laundry I will be able to reserve a machine during that time; however, you only have five minutes to use it once you reserve it. When I go back upstairs and wait forty minutes sometimes I forget what time I put my laundry in so I end up going down stairs ten minutes before it is over. The flaw is the text message tells you it is almost done twenty minutes before and it is complete ten minutes before. I guess they do that to get you down stairs by the time it is actually done. The bonus to the ten minute waiting period is that I get to meet the other people who are also waiting for their laundry to finish. It is nice to meet new people that live in my same dorm. The ten minute heads up is also nice because sometimes I get carried away with my homework or a TV show and I end up going down to get my laundry ten minutes after it is done. This is very scary because I do not want my nice clean clothes to end up on the floor because some greedy person wants my washer or drier and is not patient enough to wait fifteen minutes. I understand after thirty minutes if the person does not come pick up their clothes then it is fair to move it. But honestly I do not particularly want to move boy’s underwear so I can get the drier. This text message idea will remind people of their clothes so others are not put in awkward situations. There are weekends when I decide to do laundry at one am because no one else is and people have clothes in the drier when I start my laundry to when I finish my laundry. This new service will make the chore of doing laundry run more smoothly and efficient. I am so glad they installed this new system.

Computers with Food for Thought

Has anyone ever thought about how much time they spend in front of the computer? Has anyone wondered how did they do and submit homework in college before scholar and blackboard? How did they take math quizzes and tests before the Math Emporium? How many hours a day are we checking email, Facebook, scholar, blackboard or even chatting on Skype? What happened to MySpace or AIM I hardly hear of people saying MySpace me or IM me, now it is Facebook me or Skype me. Why do we take nouns and turn them into verbs?


I do it too. I spend all day on the computer from doing homework, taking notes in class, skyping people, checking email, listening to Pandora or iTunes, checking Facebook, replying to emails, uploading pictures, submitting class work, taking quizzes, checking grades, etc. Do you think this is making us more self oriented and making words not as personal because there is no more interaction between people, the interaction is through a computer? For example, in you college used to have to write papers on paper and the students would have to go pick up their grades. Now, we submit papers, quizzes, everything online and get them back graded online. We do go to class and listen to a lecture but you are able to take classes online and do the work at your own pace as long as the quiz is submitted by the deadline. Last semester, when I took Linear Algebra I meant and saw my professor once in person and that was the first day of class when we had to go see her. I did not need to go see her so I never did, because of that I lost the interaction between student and teacher.


Students rather play video games on the computer than go outside and play soccer. Typing is not proper exercise. Every college student knows when a new game comes out because the internet slows down dramatically, it is crazy.


It makes me wonder, how did people keep in touch with each other before Facebook and emails? I know there were phones and hand written letters, but hand written letters have the potential of getting lost in the mail and phone calls used to be so expensive. Now people send thousands of text messages a month and do not even own a house phone just a cell.


How did people find jobs and apply to jobs before the internet? Fliers and newspaper. Maybe the internet is away for the world to “go green.” We submit all our work on the internet, we apply to jobs and activities on the internet, receive grades on the internet, and we keep in touch with each other on the internet; maybe this is away for us to reduce the use of paper.


Well I hope all of you are having a great week.

Snow Day!

I really want snow. It looks like we might get it this weekend. I have had the weirdest snow days in high school. For Senior year, the day of the Presidential Inauguration there were calling for a 100% chance of snow. Every household received a phone call at 5:45am to tell us that school was canceled for the day. I was so excited. As I sat on the couch watching the inauguration I kept looking out the window for a flake of snow. There were times when my eyes and mind were playing tricks on me because for a second I thought I saw ONE snow flake. On the evening news the weathermen insisted that it did actually snow in the atmosphere but it evaporated before it made it down to where we could see it. That made me so upset. A couple weeks later, there was actually a dusting of snow and I was excited. The only problem was they did not cancel school. Because I drive to school I had to drive with the black ice all over the road. Get this! Half of Chesapeake had a snow day because the buses could not drive on the bridges. AND only half the people actually showed up to school so the teachers could not teach anything anyway. Both times Senior year, snow days were a bust. I got out of school for no snow and had to go to school for snow.


I live in Chesapeake so the first sign of snow everybody flips out. No one knows how to drive in the snow, VDOT (Virginia Department of Transportation) does not put salt on the roads early enough, I don’t even know if there are a snow plows on that side of the state. The last day I got out of school for snow that I remember was 7th grade (2004). That snow day was nice because it lasted a week :)


I remember my mommy making soup, me setting out a bucket to catch snow in to make snow cones with evaporated milk and vanilla extract, getting pulled down the street on a trash can lid, and drinking hot coco and cuddling on the couch watching a movie and looking out the window at the winter wonderland. I also remember that my mommy used to come in my room and pull up the blinds so when I woke up I would see all the snow outside.


I miss the few snow days I got; however, I am grateful for every minute. I hope your snow days were as memorable as mine were.

Winter Break

Since we just got done with winter break I thought I would tell you all why mine was amazing. Well, it did not start amazing. The day I was packing to come home I called my mom to ask her if there were anything else I should bring or anything I might be forgetting. She said in a soft tone you need to bring your suit home. At that time I was very puzzled but decided not to ask any questions so I could have a nice ride home. When I got home my mom told me that my great aunt died and her funeral was the following week. I still hung out with all my friends that I have not seen and for some it had been four months. See in high school, there was a group of us that were always hanging out and we were all really close friends. If I were not spending time with my friends I was with my family. The first two weeks my cousin was in town and so I hung out with her as much as I could. When she left I was either hanging out with my friends or hanging out with my family or doing chores. My friends and I went ice skating, out to lunch, played monopoly, watch the comedian Jim Gaffigan, went to see Sherlock Holmes (great movie I cannot wait for the next one), had a girl’s night sleepover, went bowling, celebrated New Years, etc. My family and I went to the Virginia Dinner, to see Blind Side (great movie made me cry), to see Avatar (IMAX and 3d was amazing), to Christmas Town at Busch Gardens, to dinner, to church, shopping, celebrated Christmas, etc.

Christmas Town in Busch Gardens Williamsburg, VA was amazing. It was at maximum capacity when I went. Busch Gardens is set up with a theme, Europe and each place inside is a different European country. It is very family oriented so there may be a pub in Ireland but there are little kid rides in England or Germany, etc. The shows during Christmas Town were spectacular just like they are all year round, except in Christmas Town they were Christmas theme and not country themed. The reason the park was at capacity was they did not have all the countries open and only one rollercoaster running. This was their first year so they probably did not know how many to expect plus it had been raining for about a week before. The place was full of lights, had penguins from Sea World in Florida and California (that was a bust though because I stood in line for 30min to see 5 tired penguins), a tall Christmas tree whose lights blinks to the rhythm of the music, tons of Christmas shows, and more.

Well, I hope all of you had an amazing break like I did. I was not bored once.