Halloween

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Why? Because it give you the opportunity to be whoever, or whatever, you want to be. It’s a time for pumpkin treats, haunted houses, scary movie marathons, and last but not least, trick-or-treating! As much as I loved venturing through the neighborhood on a quest to fill my pillowcase with candy, I’ve evolved to something much more enticing than Snickers and Twizzlers. Every Halloween, Chipotle offers free burritos (or tacos) to anyone who enters the store dressed as a Burrito. Basically, if you had a shred of aluminum foil on you, you were good to go! This is one of my favorite Halloween traditions.



Another one of my favorite things about Halloween is simply seeing all of the costumes, especially the creative ones. This year, I dressed as a skunk, and was tempted to carry a can of silly string with me, but decided against it. Another friend wrapped himself in toilet paper for the classic mummy look, and another dressed as Bill Nye the Science Guy! Nothing bums me out more than the losers that show up in a t-shirt and say they’re dressed as themselves. Come on, where’s your Halloween spirit!?

Wright State Peeves

One of the first things that I would change about Wright State University is their registering schedule. I find it incredibly difficult and frustrating. Imagine my dismay when I wake up at 6:50, trek down to the1st Hawthorne Hall lounge and sleepily long onto my WINGS to register at 6:59 am, Friday morning, just to discover that every single English 102 class is packed. Not to mention that another one of my courses didn't even show up when I searched for the class, and my advisor didn't even get my cry for help until 3 days later, when there was absolutely no chance of me squeezing into either of the two. So, currently, my schedule stands at 10 credits, which isn't even enough to be a full-time student. Unless someone gets booted from an ENG 102 class because they haven't paid their dues by the 20th of December, I will have to wait another ten or eleven weeks to desperately try to get in once more. Hooray!

Another thing that I would change is something else that has personally affected me. One day, while exploring WINGS and transportation/parking passes, I discovered something startling. Apparently, I had acquired a $50 fine the day prior. I managed to park in a “handicapped” zone, in which there was one small sign in front of one specific spot. The campus police were on it in less than an hour, sticking a ticket under my windshield wiper. I feel that parking should be managed better, and by that I mean more clearly marking handicapped and commuter parking, as well as visitor/guest parking for during the week. I was told by a friend that one of her guests parked in the lot beside our dorm building for only twenty minutes and she received a ticket.

Don't get me wrong, I love you Wright State, but you're not perfect.

Reivsions Revisions

My eyes scan the page briefly. My lips pull into a smile as I admire my work. 'It's perfect.' I think as I proudly hand the paper to my instructor. Three days later, my so-called masterpiece is returned, wounded by a million marks, scratched in red ink. 'Wow, I really thought I did better on this....'

Revision is a crucially important role of academic writing, in fact, it's dire in any writing. It is incredibly important and of great value to reread your work when you feel it is complete. Revising gives you a chance to fix awkward wording, elaborate on points that were previously overlooked, and/or fix grammatical errors. I find peer editing to be especially helpful, considering I may not find fault in things that others would notice. Personally, I feel like I tear into a peer's paper when I peer edit, however, I would prefer someone mark up my paper rather than leave it unscathed. The way I approach it, the more edits, the more my paper can be improved.

Prior to English 101, I rarely revised my papers. I figured that my first effort was likely my best, and I was often too lazy to search my compositions for flaws. This may have been because I typically did not notice my errors, or realize if I had written something that did not "flow." Peer revising in this class has truly taught me to appreciate revising and editing in my academic work, and for that I am thankful.

Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris

Jane Avril at the Jardin de Paris is a painting by Toulouse Lautrec, painted in 1893. The painting portrays a can-can dancer in bright oranges and yellows, dancing against the monotoned background. Emphasis is brought to the slender, attractive woman by her vivid coloring against the brown tones behind her and the dull black foreground. Music notes and some sort of a string instrument, perhaps a cello or bass, are displayed in the foreground of the scene. The woman's name is displayed in large letters at the top of the painting: Jane Avril.

Jane Avril was a can-can dancer who was made famous by Toulouse Lautrec, who used her as the subject of numerous paintings. Lautrec is also well known for promoting the famous burlesque club, the "Moulin Rouge" in Paris. It is quite possible that promoting the club with this painting was intended. The audience intended or this poster is presumably men, attracted to the colorful, beautiful woman enjoying her self to the music showing off her shapely legs. This painting was distributed as a poster. This poster is cleverly designed, with the attention drawn to the dancer, and the musical instrument portrayed in the foreground, promising elegant music with the show.

Unplugging the Nation

Unplugged tvs do not equal better health, education and independence in society. Being healthy consists of more components than exercise alone; eating right, getting proper amounts of sleep, and so forth. Education is not influenced by television- it is our job to be focused on material and knowledge, our job to resist the sweet temptation to pick up the remote and indulge in some Family Guy or the latest episode of The Simpsons, to instead put your nose in a book or that pen to paper. Independence is learned from our experiences on our own- so how does television affect independence?

If you want to unplug all televisions to promote good health, why don't we remove all other sources of bad health? Let's get rid of McDonald's, alcohol, cigarettes. DIspose of butter, all fatty foods. Might as well rule out computers as well, laptops, Gameboys, and other handheld games. Education depends on us- it's called prioritizing. TV isn't to blame for these issues the parents who allow television to take over a kid's life are to blame.

Advertising.

Advertising: it's inescapable. We see brands and products being promoted everywhere we turn. Advertisements are plastered on our television sets, our buildings, our literature, our clothe. "Spend your money on this!!!" the ad is telling us, but perhaps through a different yet more appealing message; "Wear this. It will make you sexy!", "Eat this and lose weight fast!", "Drive this and you'll save so much money on gas!" A good deal of the time, the actual quality of the product has little to do with its success, and more to do with how it is promoted. A crappy product with excellent advertising will create profit, but an excellent product with mediocre advertising will be easily overlooked. It takes a careful balance of quality goods and eye-catching promotion for a product to be successful.

Earlier this week, my father showed e a magazine article titled, "Top 100 Most Successful Businesspeople". Want to try and guess who snagged that number one spot? I'll tell you- Lady Gaga was number one.



The article explained how she had built her empire strategically at the young age of twenty-four. The magazine article also went on to say that her name is something that catches people's attention. SHE catches peoples attention, through her sophisticated, unique lyrics and different style. Her uniqueness, her charm maybe why her products are so successful. She is a spokesperson for MAC makeup company (notice her makeup is always very bright and stands out), has her own branch of headphones ("Heartbeats" by Monster), and in her popular music video for her hit "Bad Romance", she promotes the HP Envy 15 Beats Limited Edition Laptop. As stated in the article, "When she promotes something, it's a million eyes on her."

WSU

After months of procrastinating, my parents were ready to explode when November of my senior year in high school was rolling around. “You need to apply for school!” “You just don’t care, do you?!” were just a few phrases that I began to hear daily. Yes, I did need to begin applying, but yes, I did care- but I was nervous! In my eyes, college was such a big, scary step that I was not ready to take. I wasn’t excited, I wasn’t motivated. I was terrified at the thought of leaving life as I knew it in my house in Galloway, Ohio.
So one night, I sat down at the computer and applied to four Ohio colleges: Ohio University, Urbana University, Wright State University, and Bowling Green State University. OU because my brother is currently a Senior and loves it in Athens, Urbana because a close friend was considering, and the latter two because I had heard about them in a “College Fair” at school and didn’t know where else to apply. I was easily accepted to all four schools, and even managed scholarships to a few.
Bowling Green University was ruled out immediately after I visited, as it was too far away and in the middle of farmland. However, OU and WSU caught my interest- both in college towns.
When I visited WSU campus, my thoughts about college changed. I loved the Woods dorms, the tunnels, the Hanger, the compact campus, the fact that I could have my car there as a freshman, and that I was only an hour from home. WSU was the only school to really excite me and make me eager for my college experience like no other college could!


I’m positive I made a great decision in where to spend my 4 years of college. I’ve already made friendships that I feel will last for a long, long time, and I have had a great time even in my first three weeks and I look forward to the rest of my time here at WSU.