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I feel that two hundred and fifty words each day for a blog is a little extensive, because I sit here like this staring at a blank screen trying to find something interesting to blog about, but I always end up just rambling like I am now. I am so glad that we only have a blog or two left, this is really getting old. I will use the rest of this blog to share with you an excerpt from my favorite book, Harry Potter.

The villagers of Little Hangleton still called it "the Riddle House," even though it had been many years since the Riddle family had lived there. It stood on a hill overlooking the village, some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. Once a fine-looking manor, and easily the largest and grandest building for miles around, the Riddle House was now damp, derelict, and unoccupied. 

The Little Hangletons all agreed that the old house was "creepy." Half a century ago, something strange and horrible had happened there, something that the older inhabitants of the village still liked to discuss when topics for gossip were scarce. The story had been picked over so many times, and had been embroidered in so many places, that nobody was quite sure what the truth was anymore. Every version of the tale, however, started in the same place: Fifty years before, at daybreak on a fine summer's morning, when theRiddle House had still been well kept and impressive, a maid had entered the drawing room to find all three Riddles dead.

This was totally one of the most interesting side stories of the book, and the introduction to this part sets up the plot so a lot of cool happens and ties a bunch of little things together.

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I am a huge Harry Potter fan, and I can’t wait until the second half of the last movie comes out. I have read all of the books through twice and loved every second of it. I want to marry Emma Watson, she’s such a babe and she models for Burberry. I think right now she goes to college at Brown University, which is why I plan to go to Graduate school there, if she still goes there. I think Harry is a badass and wish that I could be him. I would love to be a wizard, however nerdy that sounds. However I am a realist and can see that it would be impossible for me to do so, so I just watch and read the story and think about how I wish it was all real. I haven’t gone to the extent of playing Quiddich in the Oval, haha I have walked past these Quiddich games and there are kids running around with brooms in between their legs and it looks hilarious. I love that game, but they only way I would play is when the make brooms that actually fly. Believe it or not, this isn’t too far away from us with the way technology is advancing. There are already jetpacks for sale on the market, but are ridiculously expensive and huge. Soon these will become more compact and more available to the public. Once they master this flying technology, somebody they may incorporate a broomstick into one, and boom, we can play real Quiddich, without the magic balls. But still flying around would be so badass.

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A long time ago I decided to get a little go-cart and was determined to display my dominance in the sport of racing. I had a red car that went pretty fast, but I had a lot of competition. I entered a big race called the Star Cup, and it included racing on some of the most dangerous racing tracks ever known to man. I had a lot of competition behind me, including some Italian folk, a princess, a giant monkey, an evil turtle, and even a friendly dinosaur. Each lap was super intense and somewhat violent. I was hit with many turtle shells that sent my car flipping through the air, but being as determined as I was, I carried on. I slipped on some banana peels, was struck by lightning, and was put into many other life threatening situations. After racing around the rim of an active volcano, I was in first place for the Cup. For the last leg of the race, we found ourselves in space on this amazing, trippy looking track called Rainbow Road. I flew through the air, wrecked all of my opponents like a champion, I was shooting people with deadly turtle shells like it was my job, along with flattening those in front of me after I struck them with lightning. It was rough out there, but I fought through it and ended up being the first champion ever of the Star Cup. I then went home to seduce Princess Peach to celebrate my victory.

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Here I am sitting in math class, and I really wish that I could understand what my teacher is saying. He is an older Asian guy who talks with very broken English. He is a really nice guy and ridiculously smart with his math, but it is so frustrating sitting here not understanding what he is trying to say, especially because we have a final in less than a week. He says pretty funny things though, and it is somewhat entertaining to listen to his explanations. Right now we are just reviewing what is going to be on the final, and now that I am reviewing the course subjects instead of learning it for the first time, it is quite interesting, but still a mind f@#k. I can’t wait until I am done with math, because I will know so much more. I would love to be able to do multi-variable calculus with no problem, or linear algebra like it’s nothing. I have always been good at math, but learning this high level stuff makes me feel like a genius, which I enjoy very much. It feels great to get a problem right when you’ve spent the last hour trying to figure out how the hell your going to solve it. I do like math, but I hate going to class because of this guy. Are English speaking teachers too much to ask for from a super rich University that we pay so much to go to? I guess so.

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I am so pissed off at everything right now, and right before finals week I get so much more shit dumped on me, and it is completely unfair. I got a possession ticket the day after Chit-fest at 11:00 on Sunday night. Ok I can deal with this, after all it is the law. The thing that is killing me right now is that I went to court this morning at 8:30, and sat there until after noon for them to give me a continuance, and that I have to return in a week to pay my fine. This is just tedious bullshit, but it’s what I get for breaking the law. On top of this, my friends and I have to meet with the school authorities. Today my friend got back and told me how the meeting went. The guy who was supposed to discuss what happened turned out to be an interrogator. He called out my friend for being a liar and threatened him with severe consequences. He wants to find out who the dealer is, but the problem is, we don’t know him, and we’re not pulling our other friend into it. Since he didn’t give up a name, he is threatening to press distribution charges on my friend, and I don’t even know how that is legal. All we did was sit in the middle of the night, not hurting anybody, and we get all of this stress and treated like criminals when we are trying to keep focused on finals. This is so un-just, especially after 100 cops stood by Chit-fest and watched thousands of underage drinkers get annihilated and did nothing about it, but my and I just sitting smoking at the amp when nobody is around must be the real problem. F*** this country, super pissed off.

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            I cannot wait for the summer. It has been a beautiful weekend at home for Memorial Day, and it is just a taste of what life will be like in two weeks when we are all done with our finals. This weekend we cooked out and had family ad friends over, and it was a great time. I slammed on some delicious food, and it was even better because I am so sick of eating campus food. When the nights wound down and all of the old people went to bed, my friends and I went to a party at another one of my friends named Paul. His parents were gone for the whole weekend, and it was a strait banger. I saw so many people that I haven’t seen in so long, and I can’t wait until I am home for good. After partying for two nights ad having a blast with everybody, I woke up today and headed to my aunt’s new apartment complex to go swimming. I swam a bit a laid down by the pool all day, just soaking up the sun. It felt so good to relax for a few hours and lay there like a slug. In the summer I plan to do this all of the time. I will also have a job, thank god, because I spent every penny that I made over last summer, and now that the year is winding down, I am super broke. It will be nice to have my own income again, no matter how small.

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If I were to be born in a different time period, my first choice would be the mid 1950’s. The main reason for this is because of the music that was made in that time period. I would love more than anything to be able to see Led Zeppelin play live at the age that I am at now, along with Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd. I hate the concerts that I have to settle for today. I like to go to tribute bands like Zoso and Wish You Were Here, but watching some of the legends play live in their prime would be so amazing. I would love to live in a time that didn’t revolve around technology so much, and everything was more personal. I hate what social networking has done to actual socializing, and I wish I lived in a time where that wasn’t the case. I would like to live in a time when there wasn’t surveillance cameras filming you everywhere you go, a time when the government couldn’t track your exact location because of a cell phone, and a time when people had actual privacy. Most of all I want to live in this era because of the crazy partying that went on, I mean we party today, but I would like to party how they did in the 80s, I’ve heard some awesome stories. I really hate the time period that we live in now. It has some great aspects about it,  but I wish life was more simple like it used to be.

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            I know I already blogged about Hawaii for a vacation that meant a lot for us, but besides the best vacation, it is by far my favorite place to be. I only spent two short weeks there, but I am already ready to move out there as soon as I can. I haven’t ever been somewhere that comes close to Hawaii. I have never enjoyed myself somewhere more than I did in Hawaii. The place is absolutely breathtaking. Everywhere we went there was something amazing to look at. So much jaw dropping scenery surrounded us wherever we were. I can’t decide what my favorite part about Hawaii is, because there is too much to love. I hope one day when I move out there, I can see all of the islands, since I have only been to Oahu. The mountains were so awesome and they were filled with the craziest looking plants. I want to go hiking even deeper into the mountains, and possibly see some of the inactive volcanoes. I would also like to see some of the wildlife in the mountains. One place that I didn’t get to go to that I really wanted to see was the Black Sand Beach. It is just a beach with volcano ash instead of sand. I have heard that it is a great sight to see. I could spend the rest of my life exploring all the Hawaii has to offer, and I would never get sick of it. 

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            I am enrolled in the College of Engineering here at The Ohio State University, but my major is technically undecided. Currently I am pursuing an Electrical and Computer Engineering degree, and I plan to apply for that major in the winter quarter of next year. I have not always wanted to be an engineer, but since I have been here that has been by far my most appealing option, mainly due to the fact that it is such a lucrative field. The main reason why I chose engineering is because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I have always been very good at math. I can’t wait until I am done with all my prerequisites so I can get into some real engineering classes. I have always been curious to how people can do so many things on a computer, such as hack the Playstation network and steal information. It is amazing the capability of a computer, and even more impressive what people can use them to create. I am very excited to learn how to command programs to do what I want, to learn how to build electrical circuits, and everything else that I don’t know about engineering. I really want to specialize in electrical engineering and learn how to build my own amps and guitars. I like the idea of working with speakers and engineering sounds systems to my personal preferences. I plan on making this a hobby of mine once I learn how to do it. 

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            If I could meet any famous person in the work, it would definitely be Jimmy Page, the lead guitarist for Led Zeppelin, debatably the most genius song-writer and guitar player of all time. The amount that that man has accomplished is unbelievable. I aspire to do everything that he has already done; besides become a heroin addict. The reason I would choose to meet him over anybody else is because I just want to talk to somebody who had been where I am trying to go. I have thousands of questions for that man. I would ask him how he got so good at guitar, how he went about writing music, what tools he used, why he did the things he did, and the list could go on forever. My dream is to become a famous songwriter and musician, and there is nobody better to talk to about this than Jimmy Page. I would also like to meet the rest of the members of Led Zeppelin, including John Bonham, who is passed away. There are so many things that I want to know about the art of music, and especially about their music. They are obviously my favorite band, and I just want to know how they accomplished all that they did. I can’t think of something that would be more awesome than being able to meet Led Zeppelin and jam with them. In my eyes, they are music gods. 

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            When I was younger, I used to have the weirdest reoccurring nightmare. Now that I look back on it, it isn’t quite a nightmare, but when I was little it was pretty scary. It was always the Forth of July, and I was wondering around the neighborhood where they blow of fireworks every year. Everything seemed so smoky from the fireworks. I always end up at the same house, where there is a big party going on. It was so weird because there were kids lined up in the second story rooms, just being thrown out of the windows and to huge mattresses, which looked like a lot of fun. I then proceed to the backyard where the was a big golden slide leading down somewhere underground, and I am tempted to go on the slide every time I had this dream, it was inevitable. So I hop up and ride down the slide, and it spirals down into an underground room, I can’t really describe what it looked like though, almost as if it was made out of clay. Well anyways I would look around and find all seven of Snow White’s dwarfs doing random things around the room. The reason I was always so scared when I woke up is because there was no leaving the room. Once I was in, I would look for a way out, but never found one. I tried so hard to climb back up the slide, but it was way to slick. I would always panic and try to get out to meet my family, but I was stuck until I woke up.

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            If there is one thing in nature that fascinates me, it has to be marine life. The fact that there is an entire world of animals that we don’t know much about is mind-boggling. We have ventured underwater to see much that there is to see, but we have not come close to exploring all that goes on down there, nor will we ever see it. There are so many species that cam live under the water, and even more extreme conditions when you get to the very deep parts of the oceans. We now have high definition cameras to obtain good footage of some of these deep blue environments, but we will never know the whole story. I think it is amazing how a completely different society of animals live under what we see as just a big body of water. I wonder all of the time about the underwater places on this earth that we haven’t discovered yet. There has to be insane caves, beautiful unknown reefs, and crazy looking species of animals that would blow our minds. Underwater creatures are so interesting because of how different they are. Sharks, dolphins, millions of different kinds of fish, eels, and so many more kinds of animals are so unique and interesting. When I went to Hawaii, I went snorkeling and saw some amazing looking creatures. In just the small bay that we were in, I could spend all day swimming around and seeing what is really under the water. I think marine life is the coolest part about nature, mostly because of it’s mysteries.

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The first girl that I ever had a crush on was a little blonde girl with bushy hair and glasses named Julianne Janasko. She was in my first grade class, and as soon as I saw her I immediately liked her. She was the cutest girl I had ever seen my age. I probably had a crush on her until the forth grade, when I “dated” one of her friends. We went to school together all throughout high school, and even though I didn’t still like her, we were pretty good friends. She is super smart and very pretty. I’m not sure why, but she chose to go to Kent State University. I feel like she could have gone to any school that she wanted too, she was very involved in extracurricular activities, had great greats, and just a great attitude towards life. I have never seen that girl without a smile on her face, and every time that I see her, I can’t help but smile also. She is a very strait-edge girl; she doesn’t drink or smoke, but that doesn’t matter to me. She also plays the acoustic guitar and sings like an angel, and it’s really sexy, she reminds me of Taylor Swift. I know someday that girl is going to change the world and do great things. She has a huge heart and is probably one of the sweetest and nicest girls that I will ever meet. I wish there were more people in this world like her.

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             Not a lot of things people do in this world bother me, I can normally tolerate anything, or I just don’t let it get to me. The one thing that really does get to me is ignorance. I absolutely hate when people try to make a point about something that they have no clue about. I also hate when people won’t take no for an answer. For example, I have a friend that I met this year from St. Xavier who likes to go out and party a lot, and I used to go with him a good amount. When we would go to a pre-game at a frat, I would join him, and it was pretty fun. When it came time to go downtown on the buses, I would always call it quits and go home. I don’t want to pay ten dollars to get into a bar, and then pay 10 more for 2 drinks; I just can’t afford it. Each time this happened he would not stop pestering me on going. He would insist that I go over and over, tell me all the reasons why I should go. This would go on for 15 minutes, and I just don’t understand why he wouldn’t let up. This was extremely annoying every time. He also sets a good example for my other pet peeve. Today, when we were playing Fifa 11, he told me that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player of all time. His reasoning was that Ronaldo scored like 51 goals in 50 games, and that is the best stat he had ever seen. I obviously shook my head and told him that he was crazy, but he asked me to show him a better stat. The reason this was so infuriating, was because I have played soccer my entire life, and know everything there is to know about the game. I am almost sure the kid has never seen a live soccer game, or even kicked a ball in his life. There is so much more to being a good soccer player than scoring goals, but since he doesn’t know that, he thinks his claim is perfectly logical. Because he is ignorant of this fact, he argues with me and tells me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Cristiano Ronaldo is really good, don’t get me wrong, but there are so many other players that he can’t touch. Things like that just drive me crazy.

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            Last summer, my family and some of my sister’s friends took a trip to Hawaii to visit my sister’s family. I was born there, but don’t remember anything because we moved to Cleveland when I was like 15 months. I had hands down the best time of my entire life. We flew into Oahu, and it was the most beautiful place I had ever seen, and from the moment we got there, I knew I would one day retire there. For the first half of our trip, we stayed with my Uncle Ceasar and his family. The weather, the scenery, and everything about it was amazing. We got to experience the local life and see some unforgettable places. We went hiking on a trail into the mountains, which was pretty rough. It took us about an hour and a half to finally get where we were going, but when we reached our destination we knew it was worth it. Deep into the forest, with some crazy looking trees and plants, we arrived at a 30-foot waterfall pouring into a small lake. We all climbed up the side and sat on a ledge as the waterfall splashed on our backs, then we chilled there for a while and took turns jumping off. One of the most awesome things I have ever done in my life. We also went camping for the 4^th of July, in a private beach on the east side of the mountains. The water was strait aqua, the sand was so smooth, and the sun felt so good. We stayed the weekend there and I got to sleep on the beach, and I was woken up by the amazing sunrise over the beach. We camped and partied with my sister’s huge extended Philippine family all weekend, and cooked some amazing food on the beach. One of my cousins caught a baby shark in the water! It was pretty sweet. We also hit some other amazing sights, like Hanauma Bay and the North Shore, where we jumped off of this huge 30-foot rock into the ocean, so bomb. After experiencing the local life for a week, we got a hotel in Waikiki and partied it up for five days. This was the first time I had been back since I was born, and the first time I met my sister’s family, and it was by far the best two weeks of my life. I can’t wait to go back there the summer after next, I’ve been looking forward to it since I got on the plane ride home.

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            The best present that I ever received has to be my Fender Stratocaster. For my 19^th birthday, I wanted a new electric guitar, since my old one is a piece. I got to pick it out, which probably explains why it was my favorite present. I have always wanted a Fender Stratocaster since I learned that it was the guitar that Jimi Hendrix played one. My parents took me to Guitar Center, and I was like a kid in a candy store. I played so many different guitars, including some awesome models that were way out of my price range. I really liked the Epiphone Les Paul, but someday when I have a career I am going to buy an actual Gibson Les Paul, the guitar that Jimmy Page played. After playing a ton of guitars I went to try out the Fender that I really wanted. As soon as I picked it up it was bliss. It plays so smooth and sound amazing. For the first week that I had it, I didn’t set it down, and I still rarely do. I picked a model with a maple neck and a turquoise finish. It came with three different pickups, and the last one is a double humbucker that sounds so sweet while giving it a thicker, more defined sound. This guitar definitely takes the cake when it comes to presents that I have been given; I am absolutely in love with it. I used to play a good amount, but when I got this new one I pick it up every spare minute I get. Thank you parents for my lovely guitar!

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            My favorite job that I have ever had has to be when I worked for a burrito shop called Moe’s Southwest Grill. Some of you may have heard of it, but it isn’t the most popular place to eat. I worked there for the better half of two years, and started during my junior year in high school. The main reason that I loved this job was because I had the absolute sweetest boss in the world, her name was Big Mama, and she was a large black woman. She is still a close family friend, and probably one of the funniest people that I have ever met. At this place I didn’t have to do much working, because we were so slow, but it was an awesome job. Most of the time I spent eating free food, or fooling around with the other two workers who were there. All we really did was keep the place clean and roll burritos for people, when we actually had business. Since I was close with my boss Mama, I got to pick my hours for the most part, which was very nice. I also became a shift manager towards the end of my job, which was sweet because I was 18 years old in charge of a food shop, with no supervision above me. My close friend worked with me, and sometimes it was just us two in the store, so we got to do whatever we pleased whenever we wanted. The reason we could do this is again because nobody actually came to eat, since there was a chipotle right down the street. The food wasn’t very good, but I had a lot of good times and made some good money working there. The reason I still don’t work there in the summer is because we went out of business. The owners got into a fight and stopped paying the lease on the establishment, since neither of them cared about it anymore (They are really old). Just recently the store opened back up, but I didn’t apply because my boss Mama found another job, and it just wouldn’t be the same.

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The one thing about grammar that I don’ think I will ever be good at is knowing when to use a comma, a semicolon, or a colon. I have heard the rules from so many different English teachers, but when I am writing a sentence or a paper, I always seem to screw it up. I feel that there is always multiple ways to write a sentence, and you can manipulate the structure to however you please. I always try to make it the most simple sentence in order to get my grammar right, but this leads to a lot of boring sentences. When I try to switch up the sentence structure, I always make some sort of error with my commas, and word tells me to use semi-colons. When I use semi-colons word tells me to use commas. I really hate using colons, because it seems as if they stop the flow of the reading. I use commas all of the time, and I think that I use them too much. I know you are supposed to use a semi-colon to connect two closely related independent clauses; I know I could have used a comma and a conjunction previously instead of a semi-colon, but each time I go to write, Microsoft Word likes to underline my sentence with a squiggly green line to tell me that I wrote my sentence wrong. This has to be the most frustrating thing in the world for me when it comes to writing.

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There are many hypothetical situations that are relevant to my topic of legalizing marijuana. Imagine that you just got off of a hard day of work or class, and to unwind and relax, you want to smoke some weed. You go to your dealer’s house to buy some pot, then get in your car and head home. Maybe you are slightly flustered and anxious, and the only thing on your mind is getting home to relax. You drive like every other driver in the world, and maybe forget to turn on your blinker as you make a turn. A policeman sees you and immediately moves to pull you over. Now the stuff that you bought is really good and smells up the car, and when they cop walks up, he obviously can smell it. He decides to search your car and finds the pot, takes it and gives you a possession ticket, at the very least. Now you are stuck with a nice fat fine, court fees, and a dreadful day at court where they make you feel like you killed somebody.

            Now imagine somebody getting off work, and stopping straight at the bar before even going home. Some days can be stressful enough to make people do this all of the time. After a couple drinks, he or she is having a good time, and decide to stay. Before you know it, that person is hammered, and has to drive home. Swerving like crazy, speeding, and not paying attention at all, they arrive safely at home and go to bed.

            There is a major problem with this picture. How unsafe is it for somebody to possess marijuana? How unsafe is it for them to drive home hammered? Both of these scenarios happen all of the time, but instead of trying to bust people who want to smoke their pot, the police force should concentrate of keeping drunk drivers off of the road, and countless other dangerous crimes that happen. Giving out pot tickets is such a waste of time and money, and takes a load of attention away from real crimes.

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Legalizing marijuana I feel is extremely relevant for us today, and cannot keep being ignored as an issue of our government. I am not expecting it to be legalized within then next year. Hopefully our government will realize the countless benefits of doing so, and finally make one thing wrong with our country right. I want everybody to be aware of the situation. Think about the rights that you enjoy daily, whether or not they are healthy for you, bad for you, or if they don’t really affect you so much, the bottom line is that they are your rights. You get to choose what you want to do with your life, and unless you are obviously putting somebody in danger, you should have the right to do as you please, being a citizen of this country. I don’t expect you all to smoke pot, or support pot smokers, or even condone what they do. I would just like you all to think about a valid reason for marijuana being illegal. Think about why you are able to drink a beer at the bar, but not smoke a blunt even in the privacy of your own house.
            I would also like everybody to sit and think about what other rights you feel you deserve but do not have. Is there anything else that you wish you could do, but can’t because of the law? Anything harmless that you might enjoy doing like having a fire, or blowing up fireworks? We need open our eyes and ask why things are they way they are, maybe that would be the first step for some positive change.

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How many times have you saw a tragic car accident resulting in a loss of life due to a drunk driver? How many times are the police called to the scene of a domestic violence crime, to find the aggressor is drunk? How many college students are rushed to the hospital because they drank too much and got alcohol poisoning? All of your answers to these questions most likely share a common theme. Think of all of the news stories that you have heard when somebody has died or been injured because of an overdose of drugs. Were any of them because of an overdose on marijuana? It is a god given right to each person in the country to drink when they please, and it should also be a person’s right to smoke if they want. Just because it may have a bad image doesn’t mean it should be illegal. Laws are made to protect the citizens who live in a common place, and outlawing pot hardly protects anybody. I wish that I could find a way that just may justify keeping the substance illegal, but I simply can’t. Legalizing the plant itself would do so much good. The United States spends a ridiculous amount of money on petty marijuana crimes, instead of trying to stop actually crime. So many people are imprisoned each year because of a marijuana crime, and we are paying the government out taxes to keep them in jail, paying for them to live, all because of some weed charges. 

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Legalizing pot is also very relevant to college students like you and me. I know, and you probably do to, know loads of people who smoke pot. Most of us use it as a recreational drug, but I don’t think it should be illegal to do that either. It is legal to drink, and every frat on campus takes in underage kids to get drunk, and in some cases to a dangerous level. This slides by as the normal thing to do, which I don’t have a problem with, I actually condone it. What I do have a problem with is the fact that if I have a rough day (and every day is rough in college) and feel like relaxing how I choose by smoking a blunt while harming no others, I am all of the sudden considered a criminal. Some underage kid can join a frat, learn about greek life, and get hammered 5 days a week. I have absolutely no objections. But that kid graduates with being in a fraternity, which looks very prestigious on a resume. The person, who likes to smoke 5 nights a week instead of drink, could build up a criminal record and keep them from finding a good job. Both of these activities are mirror images, two people doing what they like to do to “get away” or to party, or whatever the reason for it. This all seems so crazy and unjust to me. There are a very small percentage of people who experience negative effects, and those negative effects disappear overtime if a user stops. 

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Legalizing marijuana is an extremely timely topic in today’s world. Many citizens and politicians are pushing for the medical use of marijuana, and some even for recreational use. I support this movement, and I’m sure that many of the students on this campus would agree with me. Studies have been being done since the 1990s on the medical benefits of marijuana. It is known to help cancer patients with pain, nausea and appetite, and help fight the symptoms of patients with horrible diseases such as Glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and even AIDS. With the medical field growing fast, patients don’t know what they are getting when their doctor prescribes them medicine. You don’t even know what is in the dangerous over the counter meds that are very easily abused. It would be nice to have a safe option for small problems and symptoms rather than putting new, manmade drugs into your body when we may not know what the result could be. I read an article about a lady who had been taking Percocet safely for ten years for chronic pain and arthritis. After discovering that she could crush them up and get a faster, better high. She soon after became addicted to abusing it this way. "I wasn't trying to abuse it," says Jones, from Holly Springs, N.C., who has since recovered from her battle with addiction. "But after 10 years, I couldn't help what it did to my body or my brain. It was hard to work without it." Pot isn’t the safest thing in the world, but definitely much safer than a lot of legal drugs available. This is a very timely issue right now, especially with how fast technology is growing, you never know what crazy drug they can try to give us next. Some states like California have already made it legal, and I hope the rest follow the same path.

Blog_31

In the episode that I used for my ARP, the whole reason that Echo went to the Rossum building and discovered her past and how she got there, was a news story that she saw while with a client. A student on the campus where Rossum is located killed himself due to an untested drug that was released into the air. The airborne drug affected a lot of students, but not all of them were fatal. The drug makes you feel giddy and high, like any typical narcotic. Upon further ingestion of the drug, the students felt a loss of control of impulse, experiencing huge manic episodes.

            Drugs can be very dangerous, and they affect every person a little different. It is impossible to predict how your body will react with a new drug, and some cases can be fatal. Despite this proposed danger, drug companies work each day to develop new and better drugs. So many prescriptions each year are given to patients who may not even need them. Some are then sold and abused, and can result in fatal situations. All of these drugs can kill you in high enough doses. Large amounts of people die each year from them. So is there possibly a safer alternative to vicodin? Xanex? These drugs are necessary for some cases, but are prescribed way too easily for symptoms that another, less harmful drug. Of course, I am referring to marijuana.

            While thousands of people each year die from accidental overdose of these manmade chemically engineered prescription drugs, millions of people in the United States alone smoke pot, and there has never been a recorded overdose of marijuana. Marijuana can help satisfy so many of the mild symptoms that other, more dangerous drugs are prescribed for. Why? I do not know, I see absolutely no reason in this. 

Blog_29

 I read an article titled “Taylor Swift: Combating Typical, Scandalous, Celebrity Behavior.” The article talks about how Taylor Swift, despite the celebrity spotlight, has managed to keep her peaceful life, unlike that of today’s typical, scandalous celebrities. She uses her music to try and reach out to the youth of America by setting a good personal example, which no other modern celebrities do. Swift sends a positive message to her audience with her lyrics in her songs as well. In her song Fifteen, she expresses her own good values being in the difficult position off a new high school girl. Most high school students are driven by relationships and sex, which plays a big role when in comes to establishing values and making decisions. Because humans learn about the world and establish their own set of values by watching and observing others, these kids probably aren’t making the best decisions. This is good new to all of her fans, because studies show that the effects that celebrities have on teens’ behavior, choices, and even morals have to do with who they look up to. With how available the media is today, kids are growing up idolizing celebrities rather than their own parents and family. This is very bad because of the obvious, immoral act that goes with being a celebrity (In most cases). I think it is great that there are still some sane, positive role models in the spotlight today. I love Taylor Swift and she is super Sexy.

Blog_28

My CP link isn’t working and I can’t log on, so I’m just going to blog about some more “Dollhouse.“ Well this show has literally got me hooked. I am well into the second season, and crazier stuff keeps happening. Right now, the active Alpha is on the loose, but Ecko is back safe in the Dollhouse. Alpha wants revenge from all of the clients who used Ecko, because he is in love with Ecko himself. He starts making arrangements with these old clients, and kills them before Ecko even arrives, so by the time that they get to the scene, the client is already dead. Alpha is a strait mad man.  He strapped a bunch of explosives to a man’s body on tope of a roof, and blasted him into nothingness. Personally, I think that is pretty sick. Well, he ends up breaking into the Dollhouse, and being the genius he is, used a device he created that imprinted something onto all of the Actives’ brains that tells them to kill each other. Now all of these Dolls are fighting to the death, and it’s very chaotic. Alpha goes strait for Paul, Ecko’s new handler, because he thinks that Ecko loves him. I did not see the rest of this episode, because I passed out while watching it last night. But the show is getting pretty sweet, and it is cool that Ecko now can remember all of her personalities. I think I can see how this is going to end up in the situation that the season finales are in, now that the imprints are so easy to tamper with and to do it remotely. 

Blog 24

            I do not yet have to scene that I am doing written out, but I am using a scene in this first season of Dollhouse. The scene is a flashback into Caroline’s life before she was put into the Dollhouse. She found out that the major drug company, Rossum, was using animals and possibly even humans to test out new drugs. When she breaks in, she is caught, and that it the reason she is sent into the Dollhouse. This scene has real world value, but I have not yet decided exactly what I want my real world example to be. There are too many examples of corrupt practices, and I still haven’t been able to choose the one that fits this scene the best. I suppose I will use the corruption of Tammy Hall in New York City. This relates quite well because they were a powerful, rich, political machine. When people, detectives, or cops tried to bring them down, they could not, for the machine was too powerful. They instead only had a choice of accepting bribes, which was they bet they could get out of the situation. Power such as the Tammy Hall political machine, and the Rossum corporation in Dollhouse, is very difficult to penetrate. Sometimes, there is nothing that you can do to stop these powers, which is displayed in Dollhouse, and many other corrupt political machines. Both of these situations are linked by one’s desire to do better, and the powerful barrier they need to overcome in order to gets what they want. Too bad that in most cases, as these two, the powerful political machine wins.

Blog_21

David Brin, an American science fiction writer, once said, “It is said that power corrupts, but actually it’s more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.” Everybody may not believe this quote, but I see truth in it. Each corrupt politician, CEO, or anybody who has power uses their position for personal gain. The reason that they strived to be in the position that they hold is their desire for power and wealth. Not everybody who gets in a position of power is corrupt though. Many people obtain these powerful positions because they love what they do, they are qualified for what they are to do, and to help make things better for the people whom they govern. The reason there is so much corruption is because many of the people who would do good things with power, the right things, don’t want the power. There are so many others things to gain and to want in this world, and unfortunately for us, the corruptible want power, and most of the sane don’t. This is very applicable to my paper, because the Rossum Corporation is involved in this corrupt business for absolute power (we find this out in the second season). Examples of the sane people are the people who run the Dollhouse. This may seem funny, but they want what is best for the actives, and they turn out to be good people. The Rossum Corporation plans to bring down the Dollhouse, after getting what they needed from it, to try an achieve power in the government. They do this by using the technology developed by the tech-guy to imprint a perfect senator who can get into a position of power. When this happens, the Rossum Corporation would have power in the government.

Blog_20

            I found an article called “Shrinking Government would Diminish Politicians’ Power,” to be quite interesting. The quote this article discusses is “Protect free speech without gutting public financial law.” This quote is an attempt to get rid of the kind of government we have today, one which is powered by money. The politicians to be elected are always extremely rich and powerful. The reason they are elected is because it is so easy to get their message out to the public. If you only see one person campaigning on the television, well chances are they will be the one that you are going to vote for. Not because they claim to have the policies that will fix everything, but simply because you know more about them than a politician who does not have enough money to get public attention. This is a major problem, because with this system, money pretty much rules everything. Why do people spend so much money just to get elected? With the power that comes with a high-ranking position, you can reward yourself and punish your enemies far too easily, which is a completely corrupt system. If you can money, you have power, but that isn’t the way that the government was meant to be. The only way to end this type of corruption is to level the financial playing field for all candidates, and all who would like to run for office. However, personally I don’t think this will ever be achieved. I feel that it is part of human nature to seek power, and very few people would put the people before themselves with such power.

Blog_15 Corruption in Detroits Government.

            I found an article that discusses a specific example of somebody in power exploiting his position for personal profit; in this case, it is a simple government bribe. The article is titled “Kilpatrick is Indicted in Criminal Ring.” Kilpatrick is now imprisoned, but is a former mayor of the city of Detroit.  Kilpatrick and a couple of his close aides used their positions to rig contracts, defraud taxpayers, and collect bribes. Ultimately they became pretty rich. The date of the article is 12/16/2010, and was published in the New York Times. This is the date when Kilpatrick was charged on 38 accounts of long-term crimes within his inner circle. The reason I feel that this article is of much importance is because the investigation to catch these crooks was started in 2004. This means that this criminal ring was ongoing for at least six years before they were stopped, stealing tens of millions of dollars from the city, as well as the people who live there. 2004 was only when the investigation started, so I feel it is safe to assume that their crimes were going on long before they drew attention from the federal government. Had you been a citizen of Detroit, money was being stolen from you, which you worked hard to get, and it would hardly be noticeable. This is a major problem because many people would overlook their taxes at the end of the year, so it would slide past in a subtle manner. Also nobody was their to monitor the mayor, at least with power over him, so he could do these criminal acts with great ease, and there is nothing an individual citizen could do about it. Corruption was put to an end in this case, but only after millions of dollars was lost to the hands of these politicians. 

Blog_14 Corruption article

            I decided to change the topic of my essay, to something easier for me to understand. I chose to research corruption in business. This relates extremely well to how Ecko actually got into the Dollhouse. Ecko saw that a major drug company was using various animals for inhumane testing of newly developed drugs. When she was caught, trying to get footage for the animals in cages, to bust to big drug company, the drug company turned her over to the Dollhouse, and made her the offer. This is because the major corrupt drug company funds the illegal human trafficking that goes on in the Dollhouse, and is fully aware of it. I read an article that was very similar, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/22/national/main3533284.shtml?source=related_story, and it is quite interesting. It is about a legitimate company that is supplying an illegal company with cars, plane tickets, hotels, and other services in order to help illegal aliens across the boarder.            

            The writer of Dollhouse is trying to make a science fiction connection with the real world, by exploiting a theme that is commonly overlooked in today’s society. There are multiple businesses in this article that help these aliens, which may open our eyes because that is only for a specific field. There must be a disgusting amount of corruption that goes on in every aspect of our lives, from a Federal government scale, to a local business scale, it is all around us. I am excited to see what other forms of corruption are out there for the public to see, and I wonder how much we can’t see.

Blog_13

I read the abstract of an article called Erasing Sensorimotor Memories via PKMζ Inhibition. I did not get much useful information out of this article, but just more confusing science that leads me to no confusion. This article discusses a method used to erase a rat’s memory. The rat learns something in the lab, and then is injected with some sort of protein, which does a lot of confusing stuff to the rat’s brain. After the rat ingests this substance, it then goes through the same task that it did previously. The rat takes the same amount of time to learn how to do this task as it did the first time, which indicates no memory retention about the specified task. After all of this research, I really would like to change my topic. Does anybody have any better ideas of which aspect of “Dollhouse” I should focus on, rather than the mind erasing and memory implanting part? I feel like I will never find anything useful about this, because it is such an unknown topic, and very confusing. I have found it very hard to find an article that is actually useful for this paper, so does anybody have any suggestions for another search engine or a sight with more in depth sources? Thanks!

Blog_11 Source 1

The way our brains and memories work have been a very difficult concept to understand, and we will probably never understand all of it. In the article European Journal of Neuroscience; Mar2011, Vol. 33 Issue 6, p1101-1114, 14p, 4 Charts, ways in which memories can be impaired are discussed. A recent breakthrough in this field has led to some more understanding about the way our minds work. The discovery of the de novo hippocampal production of neurons gives us a new actor in the role of memory process. These newborn adult neurons are very important in long-term memory retention, allocentric space representation, and for flexible inferential memory expression. New studies also show that they are responsible for spatiotemporal relationships among many environmental cues for flexible use of acquired information. This basically means that they help use information stored in your brain at appropriate times. All of this leads me to believe after several more years of research, it could be possible to take these newborn neurons, reduce production, and take away one’s ability to retain information, as well as access their memory. It is very scary to think that we know so much about our brains. If a method is developed to alter these neurons, or even stop them from producing, our memories very just might be able to be wiped. I do not know how to access more than the abstract of this article, which I found on the Thompson Library search engine, so if anybody could tell me how that would be great. I would like to read more up on implanting memories into ones brain, which seems a lot less likely than wiping memories.

Blog_10

            I would like to focus on the unethical doings that are practiced inside of the Dollhouse for my Analytical Research Paper. To do these I am going to concentrate most of my research on the type of practice that goes one to manipulate the clients into “Dolls.” The mind and body are two completely different things, and I would like to know if there is any kind of technology out there that can manipulate the mind as they do in the show. I am also going to do a lot of research on the history of tyrants, dictators, and kings in order to provide plenty of real world examples about what motivates people to put others in such situations. If I research the reasons why these people did what they did, I am very sure it will all come down to greed and personal gain. As for the technology itself, I believe it is quite possible to manipulate somebody’s mind, but not to the extent that they do in the show. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to say that this kind of technology could be part of our actual future. As for the Doll’s, I still believe that they have souls and are actual people, just with no memory; they still do have hearts.

Work Cited

1.     Julie Koenig, Psychopharmacology; Mar2011, Vol. 214 Issue 2, p437-454, 18

2.     Richard Hoffman, Journal of Ethnopharmacology; Dec2010, Vol. 132 Issue 3, p554-563, 10p

3.     Mel Slater, PLoS ONE; 2010, Vol. 5 Issue 5, p1-9, 9p, 12 Color Photographs, 5 Charts, 2 Graphs

4.     Aaron Stebner, Acta Materialia; Apr2011, Vol. 59 Issue 7, p2841-2849, 9p

5.     Muriel Koehl, European Journal of Neuroscience; Mar2011, Vol. 33 Issue 6, p1101-1114, 14p, 4 Charts

Blog_9 ARP

For my Analytical Research paper, I want to focus on the moral issues of the entire series of “Dollhouse.” There are many things that go on in the show “Dollhouse” that could be considered unethical and against principle morals. The whole idea of the Dollhouse can be closely related to past events in our history including slavery, genocide, and the oppression of less powerful people. The story of the Dollhouse is a rich, underground company who take peoples lives, and sell them for lots of money; making them into super-humans by inserting select personality traits into them. The business is powered by one thing and one thing only, greed. Since the beginning of time people have been enslaved and used, for the profit of some greedy king, or dictator. We obviously see that these are major issues, and the show illustrates these reoccurring problems in a very interesting way. There is a powerful company, who uses animals and even humans for unethical testing of drugs, which I’m sure still happens somewhere in today’s world. They fund the Dollhouse, bribes the new clients with a lot of money, in order to agree to the terms. Ironically, these people sometimes agree because of their own greed, but others have no choice. People will do anything to get one up on each other, and anything for their own personal gain. I am not sure if I want to concentrate on the entire series, because it is such a general topic, but the show has a lot of meaning behind everything that goes on, I would like to watch a few more episodes to see if I can find anything specific that I would like to write about.

Blog_7 Highschool is Hell

“High School is Hell” is quite an interesting article. It’s main point is that as cultures change over time, so does the way in which we deal with fears, and express what is going on in our culture. In “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” metaphors such as vampires and monsters are used to represent actual problems and things that happen in a real high-school environment, obviously in a non-fiction way. Rather than having a show that shows directly what goes on in reality, this science fiction series mixes those actual problems and events with a fantasy story line, creating an entertaining program that demonstrates real problems of typical high school kids, in a subtle way. I think this is a very genius and creative how writers do these types of things, but it seems that there is always a message behind the plot, given that it is a good show. As times change, so does modern culture, and to be able to adapt to these changes and keep up with the demand of entertainment is very impressive. There are so many things to say about high school, and too many possible stories to tell. The writer generalizes the important aspects of life through a high school student, while adding in supposedly interesting science fiction, as a metaphor for the morals expressed in the show. Metaphors are sometimes more real than reality, for in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” Buffy is the slayer and slays all of the vampires, but does so in context of a troubled high school girl with common everyday problems, like the rest of us.

Blog_6 Dollhouse

I watched the third episode in the first season of “Dollhouse,” but it wasn’t as good as the other episodes I have seen. Ecko this time is hired as a backup dancer, and her main job is to protect the lead singer, who is supposedly a target of a hit. The tour group hires a bunch of security guards and goes through a lot to keep the lead singer safe. Another person from the Dollhouse was hired as the lead singer, Rita’s, number one fan, who gets to hang out with her, as well as appear on stage. While this is going on, the Dollhouse is getting worried about exposing themselves to the public; what they are doing is extremely illegal. One private investigator isn’t making a lot of progress, but is determined to bring down the Dollhouse. He knows it exists, but nobody believes him and they think he is wasting his time. The owners of the Dollhouse (I still don’t know any of their names, or what they call themselves) are becoming aware of this investigator. The Boss-lady is extremely worried when she says, “Even a dumb dog can find a bone if it digs enough holes,” or something like that. Later in the episode, before Rita’s big concert, her and Ecko get into a fight, because Echo found out that somebody is trying to kill her onstage and Rita won’t have any of it. She thinks Echo is just trying to move her big moment. So sure enough they get on stage, and there is a sniper up above the audience. Right before he shoots, Ecko runs on stage and tackles Rita out of they way, just missing the shot. Everybody runs and panics out. The sniper got away, and took the Dollhouse girl, Rita’s number one fan, as a hostage. Well getting to the point, Ecko saves Rita’s life as well as the number one fan’s life by acting in a way that was not programmed into her. She acted to save the girls life, and she was only supposed to save Rita’s life, ironically by putting her in loads of danger. The Dollhouse people notice this, and the Boss-lady does not see it as a problem, but a positive part about their products. At the end, the other girl who was in on the job came over to greet her in the dollhouse, and Ecko nodded her off. They both know each other, but know it isn’t safe to act as friends, for that would be noticeable. 

Blog_5 Dollhouse

          I watched the second episode in the first season of Dollhouse, and I have to say it was very interesting. The main character, Ecko, is sold to this some man who wants to take her on an extreme day in the wilderness. Ecko was programmed to be very athletic, and was outdoing the guy in most everything they were doing. They went white water rafting, climbed gigantic rocks, and camped out in the forests. While hunting deer with a hooked up cross-bow, he told Ecko that his father used to pat his shoulder and say “Shoulder to the wheel,” and that he was a firm believer in survival of the fittest. If you can’t hunt down your pray and kill it, then you don’t deserve to eat it, and it deserves to live. If it cannot escape, then it doesn’t deserve to live. This was ironic because after he slept with her, things got intense. He gave her a twenty-minute head start, too run as far as she can, and he was going to hunt her with his bow. I have no clue why anybody in the world is that sick in the head, its disgusting to think about, but makes for an entertaining show. She finds a house in the middle of nowhere, and goes inside for refuge. She drinks a canteen of what she thinks is water, but it is actually some kind of poison that makes her trip out. She ends up surviving because then man who is supposed to be watching over her comes with two guns to save her. They kill the crazy outdoorsman, and finally Ecko goes back to her treatment. There is a private investigator who is getting more and more clues about the dollhouse, and the strange, dangerous things that are happening around Ecko are not helping out with keeping the Dollhouse quiet. The crazy part about this episode is that at the end, she said that she remembered the guy she was watching over her, and well as bits and pieces of other things. She was hallucinating about old memories of herself that were supposedly whipped away, and she is starting to get a feel for what’s going on

Blog_4 Dollhouse S1E1

            The Dollhouse is a place where they wipe away your memories and use you for special jobs, which seems pretty crazy. After watching the first episode of the first season, now I actually understand the concept of the show, and I think it’s a very good show. The main character’s name is Ecko, and the episode started with her having a great time with the man she with who I made out to be her significant other. She willingly goes to her what she thinks is some sort of treatment, and her memory is wiped away. I would like to know what kind of treatment she thinks she is going to receive each time before she goes through with it, because she is never skeptical about it. Ecko wonders off to the room where they admit new people, and witnesses them “working” on a woman, who appears to be in pain. They talk to her like she is a five year old, and everybody else too. Each person in the Dollhouse is extremely spaced out, listening to everything the workers say without questioning. The purpose of this house is to use people’s personalities and put them all together on hard drives, then to upload these super personalities into the people. They then sell these people to do crazy jobs for a lot of money. Some rich guy, whose daughter had been kidnapped, hires Ecko to serve as a special negotiator. The Dollhouse downloaded all of the necessary traits to be the best person for the job into her mind, so she is essentially a puppet. The kidnappers want 10 million dollars, and upon the transaction to return the little girl, she knows that he won’t give the girl back. The kidnappers fled, but Ecko knew where too. The Dollhouse figures that Ecko failed, so she is sent for her treatment.  Surprisingly after the treatment, Ecko remembers everything and is still able to save the girl; which introduces the concept that she may have some sort of ability to retain her memory. Rather she can retain her actual life or just the ones that had recently been loaded into her brain, I don’t know. But I will definitely continue watching this show, quite enjoyable.

Blog_3 Dollhouse

      So I feel like an idiot now that I just finished watching Dollhouse, for the first time before I realized that I had clicked on the season finale, no wonder I was so lost. Anyways, the episode that I watched was pretty cool, much better than Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There were a few main characters from what I could gather, but it was extremely confusing because none of them were in their original bodies, so I didn’t get a good feel for any of the characters, except for possibly Ecko. Her and some other guy seemed the only people to retain their memories without hard drives. The show itself is pretty good, and the acting wasn’t bad either. The fact that a little girl was shooting butchers (savage people who I guess got their minds erased) was a bit much at first, but once I got used to it I found it quite comical. The action scenes weren’t as corny as I thought that they would be, it all seemed relatively realistic, besides the whole science fiction aspect of the show. The characters are really hard to discuss, because I have no idea who is who or what they do, although I am curious to know the actual story, it’s just unfortunate that I mistakenly watched the ending already. They end up finding one of their old friends in the headquarters of the dollhouse after they are captured, and end up escaping with him. He was working on building a device that would restore everyone’s memory, but he needed some substance from the dollhouse. At the end of the episode, they broke into the dollhouse to steal this substance, which seemed way too easy. I don’t even get who the bad guys are who run the Dollhouse or how it all started. Anyways, he builds the device, and everybody returns above ground and is zapped to get their memories back. Ecko and a few others remain underground, but I’m not sure why they had to.

Blog 2_Buffy

Upon many failed attempts to find dollhouse episodes online, I ended up watching season 3, episode 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I can’t say that it was the most interesting show, but it was actually not as bad as I thought it would be. The episode is about Buffy and one of her classmates who are competing against each other for Homecoming Queen, meanwhile some vampires, Germans, and weird people are all hired to kill Buffy and her friend during what they called “Slayerfest”. This was a very interesting concept, and I don’t quite understand why anything was happening. Some important vampire hired various creatures/people to try and kill Buffy and her friend, but it was never clear who these people were and why they wanted Buffy dead. I don’t know who Buffy is and why she has beef with a bunch of vampires, and also why these vampires are so easy to kill. There were Germans with grenade launchers, a funky looking yellow dude, and some vampires, all whom were armed with guns or other weapons. A high school girl in heals took down all of them no problem, but once you get passed the fact that it is quite ridiculous, it is somewhat entertaining. I think the acting could be better, or maybe they just all play characters that have awkward personalities, who knows? This is supposed to be a sci-fi show, but it seemed like any other high school show with an added fight scene at the end. I will most likely try to find another show for my primary source, I don’t know if I could write much more than this about that show.

Blog 1_Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Thomas Abraham Lyons, but everybody has been calling me Abe since the forth grade. I was born in Honolulu Hawaii and unfortunately moved to Cleveland Ohio when I was about fifteen months old. I grew up in a suburb called Parma and it is still my home today. My whole life I spent on the soccer field and the baseball diamond, and then in high school I chose to focus on soccer. I played for a club team called the Cleveland Whitecaps for 7 years.  I went to Valley Forge High School and became the MVP and team captain of the team my senior year, while winning two conference championships junior and senior year. Now I am a freshman here at Ohio State and I am a pre-electrical engineering major. I am 19 years old and very outgoing. I love to meet new people, party it up, and kick it with my friends. Although soccer is by far my favorite sport, I enjoy all sports, watching and playing. Currently my main hobbies are playing guitar and trying to make the most out of each day. In the summer I like to play tennis, basketball, and pickup games of football. In the winter most of my time is spent snowboarding, although this year most of my winter consisted of my favorite Xbox video game, Fifa 11. I am twenty five percent Korean, mostly Irish, and a mixture of some other things that I’m not even sure of. My favorite foods are the Asian foods that my mother cooks like eggrolls, fried rice, gyoza, and tempura. Well that about sums me up really quick, thanks for reading!