Raiders and People

My faith in the Raiders Football team is similar to my faith in people, no matter how bad they are, they can only get better. The Raiders have been totally unreliable for a long time. The same goes for many people I know and my friends know. Here is my opinion on "faith." I'm not talking about faith in religion because I am not religious. I'm using the word "faith" in a more general aspect. As time goes by people can learn from their mistakes. The Raiders always lead the league in penalties. That flaw always keeps them from progressing. People's flaws also keep them from progressing. All it takes is a little effort to minimize these problems. I don't think people realize just how easy it is to make a huge change. Pay attention to what people are trying to teach you, be open-minded, and don't take a stubborn approach towards accepting advice.

Working in Groups

Not only does working in groups help educate each other, it also enables classmates to get to know one another. Some people are more apprehensive than others because of the simple fact that they are shy. Working in groups more often helps those people rid themselves of that particular anxiety. I enjoyed how in this class we all think. Depending on the task at hand, things we have learned from group to group can be applied. Even if we never got to work with everybody while changing groups, we all learn from what the ideas that the other groups come up with. In my opinion it is always a win, win situation.

Reflections

The whole blog experience was really interesting. The fact that I didn't know what the hell I was doing, which was exactly the case, I had a lot of fun learning how to blog and learning about my classmates points of view, humor, input, etc. I like how you can insert pictures, videos, comments, whatever you want. In my opinion, blogging is very educational. A person can learn a lot from other people's input. I know that I did. I especially like to give people positive input on their blogs. That part is really easy for me because being derogatory is not me. I can only hope that everyone else gets as much out of it as I do.

My Oregon Trip Photo Collage

There are pictures from my trip to Oregon on spring break.

Movie Blog - Saving Private Ryan

The movie I chose was Saving Private Ryan, directed by Steven Spielberg and the main characters were Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Tom Sizemore, Edward Burns, Barry Pepper, Vin Diesal, Giovanni Ribisi, Adam Goldberg, and Jeremy Davies, ( a great cast ). This movie was done absolutly realistically. It is so intersesting because it is part of one of our previous wars and in fact a true story. The movie depicts how hard war is on our troops and how they can bond together and at times have conflicts with each other. The movie shows that no matter what the obstacles are, our troops will stick together and accomplish the mission. The mission is basically to find Private Ryan, the only Ryan brother who has not yet been killed. It was written and filmed as well as any I have seen. It was probably the most realistic movie I have ever seen. The movie was so intense, thrilling, dramatic, and sad all at the same time. It is by far the best movie that I have seen. I enjoyed the scene where they find a Private Ryan to tell him that his brothers died in the war. He freaks out until the soldiers realize that they have the wrong Private Ryan. The look on his face when he realizes that his brothers are still alive is unforgettable.

                                                                     

Dream Jobs

I have two dream jobs. The first one is more like a fantasy but I guess that could be considered to be a dream. I think about being so rich that I could open homeless shelters all over the state. If I was a multimillionaire that would be my dream job. Everywhere I go there are homeless people. I realize that some of them have only themselves to blame, others have mental issues, and some that are normal, for the most part, have just had bad luck. I don’t care what their issues are. It would be really nice to be able to help.

                The more realistic dream job I’ve had is to be an EMT. I know CPR and get a lot out of the fact that I can save people’s lives. Over the last fifteen years I was fortunate enough to save the lives of three people, two of which were my friends. I can’t begin to explain how extremely great it feels to bring a person back to life. Helping people is in my nature. That is the way I have always been and that is how I will always be. I decided to be a radiology technician instead of an EMT because I don’t think I could handle seeing all the carnage day after day. By being a rad. Tech. I can still help people and that is what I’m going to do.

Out West Novel Blog

                I read the novel, Out West, written by Fred G. Leebron. It was published by Doubleday in 1996. It is a story about new beginnings for the two main characters that meet by chance in San Francisco and get entangled in a murder when their pasts come back. The first main character is named Benjamin West. He is traveling west to San Francisco for a fresh start after being released from prison in Pennsylvania. He already has a job line up along with a place to live. The other main character is named Amber Keenan. She has moved to San Francisco after ending a relationship with a cheating man whom she tried to kill before the move. To make a long story short, they get romantically involved. Amber’s x shows up, beats her, and rapes her. Benjamin later on swings a crow bar, the ex is dead. Neither one wanted to call the police so the remainder of the book ends up being them trying to hide the body and get away with murder.

            Suspense was a big element in this book. You never knew if each of their plans were going to work. If it was going to end badly, if they were going to be caught. It seemed as if someone was just a step away from catching them. From finding out about the murder, the body. There was one point in the story that you really got the feeling that it was all over for them, when they were driving around with the body in the trunk and a police car was following them. “‘What?’ the beer had spilled in her lap. ‘What is it?’ He nodded at the rearview mirror. She leaned into him and looked. She could see the wide square headlights set in a shadowy oversized grill, the black shining hood and the encased blank siren of a police cruiser, tailing them at twenty yards.”

            I didn’t like this book. The rape and beating women got to me. It seemed as if the story should have been over a long time before it actually was – like it was dragging on unnecessarily. I wouldn’t recommend it because of these things. It was a thumbs down book for me.