Progress Journal

12-6-09 2 hours
Progress Journal
We spent the whole day preparing our presentation. I brought all the material, and then we all did our own parts. I worked on looking up pictures, and looking of facts on what exactly could go on our game board. We all worked on separate parts and then were able to put everything together. I felt like we all contributed nicely. Of course there were so many parts of the project that went wrong, from the printer not working, to forgetting to make $20 dollar bills for our board game. Everything that could possibly go wrong did wrong. Luckily we figured everything out and are hoping that everything will run smoothly!

Buying More Supplies

12-4-09 4.5 hours
Progress Journal
This weekend, I went to the store to get some of the finishing touches for our project. Our project with these new materials I believe that it will put a good image for our project. We decided to make the game board of course, but now decided after thinking about it, that we should make a power point sideshow rather than making brochure type handouts. We think by creating a power point/ slide show it will be easier to incorporate our media, which we decided will be a commercial for a radio. We think by doing this, and incorporating the fact that November was smoking awareness month that it will be a great way of getting the parents and teachers in the community involved. By involving the parents and teachers instead of giving the children the brochure that they are more then likely going to throw away after being presented to them.I think that this is a great way to finish up our project, and I think that all the progress that has been made thus far is successful. I also think after meeting with our peers that we were given a better idea of what to expect. I'm nervous for Tuesday!

Group Project Smoking

12-3-09 2 hours
Progress Journal
Our group project is running along smoothly, we have collected the supplies that we will need to complete our game board. But still are unsure of what the game pieces will look like. We are planning on actually playing the game LIFE so we can get a better idea of how to set up our game. We think by playing the game it will refresh our memories, because sadly Ashley Brinker is the only one of us who can really remember how to play, and what the object of the game really is. We of course are making a different point or object of the game, but we are sticking to a similar layout to the game. I think that we have all been giving our ideas to the group and working well as a team. I do hope that it all pays off in the end, considering how much this will effect our grade. We still have a lot to go, but I think that it will end up being successful, if we keep putting our creative heads together.

Smoking Group Topic

12-3-09 1 hour
Progress Journal
We decided on choosing my topic, the smoking topic for our group project. We are creating a game similar to the game "life." We are targeting children from ages 9-12. We choose this audience because they aren't to young but they are old enough to understand the problem and become aware of what needs to go on to fix the problem. We are collecting all of our information and facts before beginning on how to put the game together. That way we won't have to redo the game board or pieces along the way.

Topic

11-17-09 30 minutes
I think now after some thinking that we have came up with our group project topic. We are using my smoking bans topic from my paper. I was a little nervous at first when we choose to use this topic because it truly was a hard topic for me to find enough information for such a large paper. I tried the best I could, but since the smoking ban in France had just been introduced last year there wasn't too much said about it, which I kind of thought was a surprise. I think that the plan that we have is a great one, and very easy to just run with!

Group Project

11-15-09 45 minutes
Progress Journal
For our group project we are having a hard time deciding on what the topic should be. We have two great ideas, but are unsure what or who the audiences would be for either topic, and since that is a huge part of the grade for this project it makes it a huge decision. We are planning to meet and discuss what our topic should be and prepare our proposal. After that I'm sure things will fall right into place.

Secondhand Smoking in France

Secondhand smoking is something that is killing people everyday, innocent people. France is a country who is rejecting laws that are given to them. They don't believe in taking from there culture to help the people standing by. They disregard the rules to better there culture and society. They want to help themselves before helping other citizens. Secondhand smoke is an international topic that gives you a bunch of questions. You prepare yourself for what you are facing in your country or even city. The secondhand smoke issues vary from place to place, that is why it is such an international topic. I think that with France there needs to be a compromise with smoking laws and with the culture of the country.

Position Paper

I'm a little confused about the position paper, like I'm not even sure where to start. The whole international topic idea threw me for a loop. I went to the writing center which helped me out a bit, but I'm really hoping that the peer reviews will do the trick. It seems like for me that whenever I have a peer review I always get a better idea of what the paper is actually supposed to be about. By having others look at my paper and being able to read their papers make it a lot easier for me. So I'm crossing my fingers for tomorrow!

Halloween

Unlike every other college student, I'm not a fan of Halloween. I used to love it when you could go trick or treating and get a ton of candy, but since in college I didn't like it as much. My Halloween consisted of staying in and craving pumpkins, for me it was a good way to spend Halloween, but others might call me crazy! I sometimes wish I could go back to when I was younger and certain holidays such as this one would mean more to me. I hope that everyone that did go out had a great time and stayed safe though!

Spring Semester ALREADY!

It seems to me that we have just started school, I mean I know that I have been here for awhile, but I didn't think it was too long! It's crazy for me to think that I am already scheduling for my spring semester classes. You have so much to think about such as what classes can I take, how many credit hours do I have this semester, am I going to pass all the classes this semester that I need to for the spring. I'm just hoping that for the next semester I have enough classes, but not to much that I will be too stressed out about. The adjustment to college was very difficult for me to handle, so even scheduling my classes on my own was a different experience. I'm not saying that I'm a baby or anything, I just don't know if I did all of the right steps for scheduling for next semester. I wish everyone the best of luck with finishing this semester and your scheduling for your spring semester here at Ball State.

Living Space

No one is ever excited about living in a dorm. I thought that all was going well the first few weeks, of course the bed wasn't as comfortable, and the microwave became your new best friend. But I never thought that my room would ever be messy! I have always been a neat freak, but my room mate is the exact opposite and sadly I am following in her footsteps. It's so hard to sleep, eat, study, get ready, and relax all in this tiny space. Especially when you have two people living in it. My room is a mess, and it's not that I want it to be, it's the fact that my room mate doesn't pick up and I'm beginning to not care anymore and do the exact same thing. I'm not saying our room is a disaster. It's far from that, but I'm a little nervous that it could come to a disaster soon!!

Learning Disabilites

Before entering school, it is found that you can help children with epilepsy by testing these children early before school has begun. They will benefit by this with an improvement in performance. They are trying to develop these tests so many more school districts have to abide by them. Trying to help these children succeed at an early age will help them succeed in the long run. By testing for learning problems early, they are able to manage there stresses that could lead to a unknown caused seizure. This is a problem that is become larger everyday when you aren't acting towards an answer.

Kids with epilepsy have 'window' for treating learning problems USA Today, 07347456, AUG 13, 2009

Midterms

I'm so stressed out! I didn't realize that midterms creep up on you so fast! Since we are in college a lot of the time the teacher doesn't really remind you about your midterms. How to study? How to make sure you are prepared? There are so many questions that I'm asking myself about this upcoming week. It's almost like I kept putting things off for this week, and no I'm really beginning to pay for it! Since you have all of these midterms in all of your different classes and all of your mid projects to do you, just keep putting off the study groups. Until you realize that wow this is a HUGE part of my grade I need to buckle down. I'm hoping that I will manage to do well on these midterms. I'm crossing my fingers!

Helpful Ideas

When we were assigned our latest assignment, I'm not going to lie that I was nervous! I didn't exactly understand what I was supposed to do with the paper. I wanted to do well though. Thankfully after the peer review I was so pleased with my group they gave me so many helpful hints with my paper and definitely pointed me in the right direction. I really wanted to thank my peer review group! One of the questions on the peer review sheet that helped me a lot was the question that was asking about the first paragraph and how you need to discover a hidden meaning. The question really stuck out and helped me go in the right direction. I didn't understand that you were supposed to find out a hidden meaning, so obviously this question helped me the most.

Missing Home

Lately, I think as classes get harder and the whether gets colder, I have really been missing home. When my parents will call and tell me what has been going on at home and makes me think of how much easier everything was at home. I think about my sister a freshmen in high school, and how she had supported me forever, and it breaks my heart that I can't be there for her. I know that I'm in college and I'm growing up and missing home is a part of growing up, but it's something that I'm really having a hard time coping with. Sometimes I just want to be alone, and not sleep in the same area that has my kitchen in it. I know that I'm complaining, I'm just not used to the whole college thing just yet. I hope as the year goes on I will be able to adjust and have a better time with not thinking about home as much. Any suggestions?

My Favorite Type of Music

You could say that I enjoy all music, and growing up I would tell you how I wanted to be a singer. My all time favorite type of music would have to be country though. I love it! I live out in the country and support almost everything that they have to say. My favorite would have to be Rascal Flatts. Each summer a group of friends and I go to a concert! It's honestly so much fun! I love it! I really enjoy listening to country on all days, a lot of the time when I'm having a bad day, because I know that even a simple lyric, can cheer me right up! That is why for my paper I have choose to analyze a country song! I'm really looking forward to, if I can grasp the idea of the paper to use this song and do very well with it.

Homecoming

I can't believe that it's homecoming week next week. I can remember all of high school how excited I was for homecoming, all of the spirit days, and special events to look forward too. Being at Ball State is great, but I think that I forgot what it's like to be a freshmen. I mean you feel like you belong here, but a lot of the events and stuff you feel left out. You don't know exactly where to go, or what's fun, or even where the best free food will be? I think that homecoming will be very exciting next week, but I hope to be able to feel as if I fit in.

Song Analyzing

When choosing a song to analyze, I thought that it would be tough. Then I started looking for songs, and noticed that almost every song that I looked at had a hidden meaning, that was just waiting to be brought out. I love country music and with country there is so many elements to so many different songs. It was actually really neat when printing off my lyrics for the song I decided to analyze, well I haven't yet decided, but I think that it's a great start. My song is "Already Gone" by Sugarland, trust me look up the song and you will uncover so much about it. I think that maybe I will start looking and printing off lyrics to songs more often to really understand the song, it's actually pretty neat!

Crossroads

When asked what was the first thing that came to mind when you here crossroads. I'm not going to lie I thought of Brittney Spears movie and how terrible it was, but then I thought about that movie and it totally made sense why it was called "crossroads." When trying to think of a song that symbolizes many different crossroads, I'm having trouble finding one that has more then one big decision to make. I think that many country songs have crossroads in life and the different crossroads make sense. So for right now I think that I'm going to try and focus on country songs, and take those songs apart before picking one exact song to elaborate on.

Ishmael Beah

I was shocked after experiencing the author speaking the other night. I was moved by the words that he said and the way that he said them. I could not believe where he had been and how he was able to talk about what he had done without being chocked up. It had to have taken him so much and he had to give all that he had to the support groups that he had after experiencing the war. My favorite part though of the presentation was when he was saying in almost a joking matter about how when he wanted to leave the country, and the people wouldn't let him because he was missing two documents that they needed. I also thought it was funny how when he did come to America and the school he was going to attend asked for a report card after knowing what he had been through. It really shows growth as a person to be able to look back at those type of situations and find something out of them, that won't depress you as much as you already are. I think that I could honestly listen to that man speak forever

The Helpful Peer Review

I have never had a peeer review, such as the ones that I did in class. I think that knowing all of everyones responses will make me a all around better writter. I have always struggled with writing, and editing my own papers, so having someone or mulitple people help me was a very new, but great experience for me. I think that I will maybe always use the guidelines that were given for this paper to edit, because it was a review sheet that you could use for many diffrerent papers. I'm excited to use it again!

An All Nighter

I never really believed people when they would complain about pulling an "all nighter" because they had so much homework. Well since being in college I have only experienced this once, I highly doubt that I will ever do this again. I realized around 4:00 in the morning that "Gosh college is a lot harder then high school." I wasn't expecting such a work load, I mean I knew that college wasn't easy, but I didn't think that it would come down to this. I think that from now on I have to get ahead and stay ahead, because it seems like with college classes your really "right on track" but if you are at that point your actually behind. There is no right on track method, I already tried. So the next thing on my to do list, is make a schedule and stick to it!

A Lasting Frighting Memory

It was a few days before Christmas, I was ten years old and I loved Christmas so much. I woke up one morning rather early feeling a little sick, I figured it was because I was outside the day before in the soft powder like snow. I went and told my mother that I wasn't feeling very well, and she saw my calmly looking face and she felt my forehead. Sure enough a fever, and not just any fever, a fever that my mom though we should go to the hospital. I wasn't worried, not because I was going to the hospital, but that fact that I would miss our Christmas dinner and events at my grandparents house. My parents rushed me to the hospital, it seemed as if this was going to take forever and all I wanted to do was go home so I could get ready to go to grandma and grandpa's. We waited back in the office waiting to see the doctor, I never really liked being in any type of hospital of any kind, except when class was to boring and I would go to the nurses office, but that's beside the point. The doctor finally came in to check on me, and what do you know. I have scarlet fever, luckily at the technology level that we are at now and that we were then, I was able to recover. That day I was hot, then cold, and repeated tha process to feel that way for a long time. That day I was told that I couldn't go to my family Christmas that night, that I was very ill. Hearing this of course made me in rage, happily my grandparents had me over earlier that day to have my very own Christmas. I was so sad that day, but then when I think back on it, it makes me realize that it's not only a holiday, that you should always appreciate your health and the love that you are given.

college life

It's been two weeks, that I have been living and attending Ball State University. Up until the football game tonight, the reality of college didn't sink in exactly, but then at the game with all of the screaming red wearing fans I felt a part of it. I felt apart of the University and was at a football game, which makes me feel at home because I'm familiar with it. It was also nice to get out, a little even it really was on campus. I have been so mentally and physically exhausted that I haven't done much, I'm just trying to adjust to all of the new experiences and new ways of living my life. I think that it will only get easier as time goes on, and I will adapt more. Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying Ball State, it's just a different chapter in your life that you need to learn how to handle and take care of on your own. I know that I'm capable of become a successful student, make some friends, and make many memories that I will carry with me for my entire life.

My top ten favorite movies!

1. Big Daddy

2. The Little Mermaid

3. 13 Going on 30

4. Love and Basketball

5. The Titanic

6. Braveheart ( I know hard to believe)

7. The Notebook (typical)

8. The Parent Trap

9. Sweet Home Alabama

10. Remember The Titans

I know they are all really random, but I'm honestly a very random girl:) They are all so great though! I hope that some of you enjoy them!

How I'm feeling today

Well it's near the end of my first week in college. It's been really different, meeting so many new people in such a short amount of time, eating so much food that it makes your stomach hurt, and rushing to all of your classes even though you know that you are going to be super early to each one. It's sad to say that I'm already getting a little home sick, so I'm going home Labor Day to see the family, and take a shower without my shower shoes on:) Anyway, I'm looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life, I can't see what's going to happen next!