200th Win

     Today was a very big day at the Defiance softball field. My head coach got her 200th win in her eleven years here at Defiance College. The team was able to beat Mount St. Joseph in both of the softball games. Being able to see my coaches reaction was a very great feeling. Along with getting her the 200th win, by winning these two games we are sitting pretty good to get a shot in the conference tournament. I am very happy to be a part of my coaches great accomplishment.

Northern Ohio Weather

     So these past few weeks the weather here has been pretty insane. One day it will be in the fourties and the next day it will be twenty degrees and snowing. The other day me and a teammate were walking in to Biggby and it was nice, sunny and warm. Then in the ten minutes it took us to get our coffee, we walked out in to the freezing cold blizzard. Even though I do live in Ohio, I am still not used to all this random weather. Hopefully it will figure itself out this week.

My Biggest Worry

     This summer my sister will be graduating from The Ohio State University with a degree in Journalism and Linguistics. I am very happy and excited for her as she continues on her journey in life. However, I am still very worried that she will not be able to find a job. Recently she found out that there are no current jobs in the United States for the field she is qualified for. This means she would have to go to another country, like England or Germany. Even though she has always wanted to live in both of those places, I still worry about her leaving. All I want is for my sister to be successful. Thinking about her leaving has made me grow stronger. I know that letting her leave will be hard, but it will also be a big step for her to become successful.

Increasing my Skills

     Coming in to college, I lacked a few skills that I needed to be completely successful. I hope to learn these skills by the end of my college career. I hope to gain better study habits, greatly improve my writing skills, decrease my procrastination, and become a better content reader.
   
     I have improved on my study habits already this year but still would like to find more helpful ways to study. I want to be able to increase my test scores and have better ways to remember important information. I always seem to forget the information I am studying once the test comes. I wish to find ways to help me memorize and implant information in my head in order to achieve better test scores.

     Writing has not always been my strong suit. Throughout high school I was not really required to write a lot. We barely wrote and papers or essays, the extent of our writing was short answer test questions. I do think that not having a lot of experience with writing has made me struggle some when it comes to writing essays in college. I have always had a hard time putting things I am thinking on to paper. I can say things in my head but as soon as I need to say them out loud or in a paper, I complete blank. I hope during my college career that I can increase my writing skills so that I can receive better grades.

     I tend to procrastinate a lot on my homework assignments and do not get them done to the best of my ability some times. One major thing that I seem to procrastinate on is reading assignments. I love to read but not when it is stuff that is assigned to me. I will leave my reading until the last possible day and then will not get a complete understanding of it. I would like to gain better procrastination methods so that I will complete all of my assignments with my best effort.

Individual Hitchcock Assignment

     After analyzing what other groups found with Hitchcock's films, I notice that there is a large scientific and psychological basis. Hitchcock uses his science knowledge to play with camera angles and points of perspective for the audience. During his films, he also plays into the psychological mind. His characters are being tricked, underminded and controlled by things that may or may not be real. This is scene specifically in Notorious, when Alicia is being poisoned with the uranium. She becomes loopy and grogy which shows the psychological aspect. At the same time, the effects of the uranium shows the scientific basis.

Animal Lover

     All throughout my childhood, my sister and I always had some sort of pet in the house that we took care of. We have had dogs, hamsters, rats, and many fish. We both love animals and having the responsibility of taking care of them. Right now we currently have a 16 year-old dog named Cinnamon, a pond full of ten fish and a guinea pig named Finch. I got Finch about three years ago. I had asked if I could have a different type of animal. My parents agreed as long as I paid for it myself. Since I have had Finch I have definitely learned more responsibility. For such a small animal, she takes a lot of hard work. I am very thankful to have animals in my life, and I hope to have a rabbit later this year.

Summer Project

     Most people that I know do not enjoy cleaning very much. It isn't what they want to take time out of their schedules to do, For my sister and I, however, we love to clean. In fact every summer we go over to my grandmother's house to clean and organize for her. We both look forward to this every summer. It is something that my grandmother, whether she wants to admit it or not, appreciates us doing each year. This year we have a little bit more on our plate. My grandmother is in the process of moving out of her home, so we are remodeling and selling a lot of her things. This will be a very big challenge for my family and I, but I know that we can get it all done for my grandmother.

Hitchcock Group Assignment

During the 1940s, morals and ethics played a large role in motion pictures. Hitchcock portrayed ethics in some very interesting ways in his films. In many scenes, he also found ways around being completely ethical, but still staying within the guidelines. Some specific parts where this can be seen in Notorious are in some of the women’s clothing, the kissing, alcohol and drunk driving, women being a part of an undercover job, and women participating in adultery. 

The clothing that women wore throughout the 1940s was meant to form a sort of silhouette. Woman wore dresses with broad, wide shoulders and tight waist bands to form an hourglass shape. In Notorious, you can see that Alicia wears long, tight waisted dresses with square shoulders. This gives her an hourglass shaping to her body and makes her look professional. You can even see when she wears the suit on the airplane that it still follows these ideal aspects.

Throughout Notorious Alicia (Ingrid Bergman) and Devlin (Cary Grant) begin to become closer as they work together undercover. Eventually, the two find themselves in love. Of course being in love requires some kissing scenes, though this was difficult in the 1940s. The Production Code of 1930 was created to set some moral guidelines for motion pictures in the United States. This occurred during the period of Silent Movies switching to Sound. Due to the code, “Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures and gestures, were not to be shown.” This meant that even though they were in love, Ingrid and Cary could not show their characters’ true emotions. Hitchcock’s way around this was to have the couple do multiple short kisses, rather than one long kiss. Though it may look odd if you were to watch Notorious today, it was a very clever way around the rule then to be able to still show passion in his movies. 

One scene portrayed in Notorious showed Alicia driving a car with Devlin after a party. The scene clearly shows Alicia is under the influence of alcohol as she is swerving all over the road and she cannot see straight. After World War II, the car market was on a rise. Everyone was buying cars and most drivers were uneducated. Laws prohibiting drunk driving began in 1910 but intoxication was not clearly defined at this point. In the 1930s lawmakers stated that a driver with a BAC of 0.15 percent or higher is inebriated. By the 1970s DUI laws become more strict and the legal drinking age was raised to 21. Today, drunk driving is an incredibly unethical action and a driver with a BAC of 0.08 percent is considered inebriated. In 2014, 9,967 people died and 290,000 people were injured in accidents due to drunk driving. In the 1940s, drunk driving may not have been seen as unethical as it is today because the laws that were placed then were not as strict as today. Also, less accidents had been reported then versus today.

            In Notorious, we see one of the main characters, Alicia Huberman played by Ingrid Bergman, get thrown into the world of covert intelligence and spy business. What many don't know is that if this was actually set in the late 1940’s, Alicia might not be there. Women were not a big part of federal intelligence agencies during that time period, as far as field agents. Now during WWII, there was a substantial increase in women police officers, but even they were put on leash for what they could do while in the law enforcement. Indeed there were women in agencies, but they were doing desk work. Field agents were seen as a “thing only for boys”. It wasn't until 1972, that women were allowed to join FBI training. This goes to show that Alfred Hitchcock wanted to make his film stand out, and probably got heads to turn when they saw what a woman was doing in the film.

During the movie Notorious, after Alicia and Alex get married, Alex keeps suspecting her of having an affair with Devlin. Back in this time period, there was a different belief about marriages. They encouraged women to think of marriages as a successful career. They believed that it was the women's job to make sure the marriage was happy, his career was successful and that it didn’t end in divorce. Even if the problem in the marriage was alcohol or an affair from the men, it was the wife's job to change something to bring him back home. There was a thought back then that the wife was supposed to make the marriage work and nothing was her fault even if the man was having an affair. If a woman had an affair in the time period, it was much more taboo and less common than a man. If the woman had an affair it looked bad on the husband and not her.

Differences Between High School and College Writing

Dear Seniors,

     Two of the five basic categorial differences that really stuck out to me were, the variation is most dramatic during the first year and college work requires new kinds of motivation and self-discipline. I chose these two because I can relate to each one in different ways. In the section about the variation being dramatic in the first year, Hjortshoj explains that in just one day you can go from having a small class size, to then having a large lecture. There are many different variations of different courses throughout college. I experienced this with my College Engagement class, We would have class twice a week in a small room of maybe twenty freshman, to having all the freshman in a large lecture hall at the end of the week. You had to adjust to having one on one time with your professor, to being around a much larger group.

     The second section talked about having different motivation throughout your college journey. Your structure disappears, you have free range to skip class when you want to and you have more free time than ever before. I definitely have had to learn some new ways to manage my time between homework and softball. You need to be self disciplined in college when it comes to your homework. If you do not prioritize and get your work done, it will show in the long run.

Sincerely,
A College Freshman

My Career Outlook

     I am currently majoring in Athletic Training here at Defiance College. I love anything that has a medical aspect. Most of my family is in the medical field, so I feel like I most likely have gotten that trait from them. I would like to continue on and become a high school or college Athletic Trainer, but also I would like to attend medical school to possibly become an orthopedic surgeon. It will definitely be a lot of hard work and a huge amount of debt, but any career goal can be achieved as long as you have passion and dedication for your field of study.

My Extraordinary Hobby

     Sure I am an athlete and play softball, but do you wanna know a secret hobby that I have? I love to draw, paint, and sculpt. I do anything from drawing portraits of people and animals, to watercolor painting, to even sculpting various types of pottery and figures. I love to release all of my emotions in to my art. Whether I am angry or sad, if you give me a pencil and paper or a paint brush, I can create an image of my emotions.

Childhood Memory

     My sister's name is Ashton and she is now twenty-one years old. Since she is three and a half years older than me, she was always the first one to try something new. We both grew up dancing and playing multiple sports like volleyball, soccer, baseball, basketball and inline skating. Our parents always liked to put us in the same sports and extracirricualer activities even though most of the time my sister and I hated being the same. When she turned thirteen she asked our dad if she could compete in inline skating competitions. He was hesitant at first but soon decided it could be a nice change for her. Little did he know that it would involve a traumatic experience for our whole family.

     It was my sister's first skating meet and our whole family was anxious. My sister was racing five other girls her age in a four lap race. The whole time before the race, all my sister talked about was how amazing and cool the track looked. It was light blue with a smooth, glossy coating over top. It looked as if it had just been cleaned the night before. My families excitement flourished as my sister's race grew near. Finally, her race was called and she glided across the floor toward the start line.

     My sister readied herself and took a deep breath. I could see the nervous look in her eyes. Then, the buzzer sounded and off they went. She started off at the front of the pack, but when lap three hit she started to slow. I thought she was going to stop and give up, however she started to speed up. She was going so fast I was excited she was going to catch back up. She did finally catch back up, but when she turned the last time on lap four, the nightmare began. Her front wheel caught the back of another racers skate and they both went down. My sister spun around and slid across the floor, head first in to the cement wall.

     My sister suffered a minor concussion and some pretty intense scraps and bruises. She was in so much pain for two weeks after the accident. It was so terrifying for my sister, as well as, my family. We are all so thankful that she was wearing a helmet and is perfectly fine today. This memory will always be in the back of my mind, as it was a very life changing experience. Be as safe as you possibly can, you never know what will happen.

My Biggest, Truest Regret

     I have many smalls regrets that I could own up to through out my life, however there is really only one large, substantial regret that I have. I wish, that back in elementary school I would have stood up for myself and confronted my attackers (bullies). I have been constantly attacked and ridiculed ever since the first grade. I would be verbally and physically harmed by other students in my school. You're probably wondering why I never stood up for myself, why I didn't fight back. The truth is, I still really don't know why.

     My regret falls in to the "not" pattern. I did not do anything to help myself, or stand up for who I was as a person. I deeply regret not standing up for myself. To this day I really do feel that maybe if I did fight for myself, maybe things would have gone differently for me. Maybe I would be in a better place emotionally today if I had done this. I was effected by this in a very harmful and negative way. Some people may look at me and see that I seem alright. But some people just don't know the effect that bullying can have on a person.

     I think that even if I had stood up for myself, the ridiculed would have still occurred. It may not have been as bad, but I still believe that it would have happened.

     My regret ties in to the class theme of lies in deception, in that my mind deceived me. It told me that I deserved what was happening and that nothing could be done to help me. That was a huge lie, maybe even the biggest lie I have encountered in my life,

Something Interesting

     Want to know something interesting and unique about me? I am actually half British on my mom's side of the family. My mother was born in Essex, England along with my Grandmother. My Grandmother lived in England for about thirty-five years, my mother only three years. When my mom moved here, along with her two brothers, a lot of the family traditions stayed the same. We still celebrate Boxing Day, a British holiday, as well as drink tea whenever my sister and I are at my Grandmother's house. Since one side of my family is from another country, I definitely learned some different family values. Growing up my Grandmother always had my sister and I set the table for lunch and dinner, we always had to clean our own dishes and offer to take an adults dish as well. This showed us a lot of responsibility in a lot stronger way. The house was strict but in a good, impactful way. I carry out these same responsibilities even to this day.

Softball is my Outlet

     Growing up as a shy, timid young tomboy, I didn't really make friends to easily. I was always the odd one out at sleepovers because everyone else wanted to play dolls, but all I wanted to do was throw a ball around. You never really saw me around the house without some sort of ball in my hand. My parents noticed this and soon placed me in some different sports. I played soccer, football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, and even did some gymnastics. My favorite sport that I played was softball. Through softball I made new friends, learned discipline and respect, and most of all learned to love the game. Every day after school I would rush home so that I could get my cleats on to go and practice. Softball was my outlet from all the bullying and tormenting I went through during school. I went through some really tough stages growing up, like most kids do. I am very happy to have found my outlet through softball. Softball still to this day is my outlet from all my stressful obstacles.

Advertisement

     For the first ad, I believe the audience is all non- iphone users. At the end of this ad they say if it's not an iphone, it's not an iphone. They are telling anyone without an iphone that having an iphone is a lot better and that anyone with an iphone loves it. In the second ad, the audience is men ages 20 to around 40 years old. The men are chasing after the woman but in the end she was using a smart TV. So using the woman to advertise the TV will attract more men to buy the smart TV's. The third ad I think is aiming toward the audience of parents. They use the little boy running away so that he can ride in the Subaru to show that children will love the new car. This will move parents to look into buying the new Subaru.

Truth or Dare?

                        Jail is a cold, dark place where prisoners just sit in a cell, day in and day out. Some of them know why they are there, others do not have any remembrance. I know these things because it is currently happening to me.

                       I peeled my tired, achey body off of my coffin like bed and placed my head in my hands. How did I get here? The last thing I remember was being at my friend's house playing cards. I was not drinking, or smoking. I did not do any type of drug. Then how was I here? I stood and began to pace the length of my tight, cold cell. I felt something moving up and down in my jean pockets as I walked. I stopped and emptied the contents out onto the floor.

                       I had five items placed on the floor. There was a dark, knit hat, a long, purple leash, twenty dollars in cash, a miniature, clear water gun, and what looked like a small, brown Milk bone dog treat. What in the world did I do last night? I looked like I had just come back from a pet store. Oh no I started to remember what had happened.

                       My friends and I were playing truth or dare, I was dared to do something utterly stupid as a prank. But it did not go as planned. I was pressured to run in to a pet store with a hat on and a fake gun and demand to have all of the money from the register. We said this would be a prank because one of our friends was working that night at the store and we thought it would be funny to scare the pants off of her, Little did I know how she would react.

                       I ran in to the store with my knit hat on and pointed my gun at my friend and yelled for all the money that she had. I could barely keep from laughing as I stood and watched my friend freak out. I should have just stopped right then, but I did not. How much farther could I take this? My friend tossed through the cash register to pull out all of the money. She handed me over a twenty dollar bill. I looked at her and asked if this was all that she had. She replied that they had taken most of the money to the bank already, but that I could have anything else I liked from the store. What the heck did I want from a pet store? I had to keep this going it was way to humorous. So I walked around the store quickly to find something else to take with me. But when I looked back and saw how terrified my friend was I realized I no longer wanted this to go on, So I turned around and stuffed the first thing that I saw in to my pocket. I think that was the purple leash. I turned to start bolting out the door, but before I could get out I was hit it the head with something. All I saw were fuzzy, stars and I tall Sheriff standing over me.

                       Did she really call the cops on me? Of course she did, she had no idea that it was me. How could I be so stupid? I thought this would be funny, but now I am sitting on the floor of a jail cell unaware of what will happen next. All of this happened over one, single, silly little dare.