West Virginia...

For 147 years there has been a huge challenge facing the residents of Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio (But Ohio sucks too, so I won't talk about it).  This challenge is West Virginia.  The state itself is not really the issue, it's avoiding it that is the problem.  Especially when you're trying to get to some of the southern states like Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Since 1863 people of Western Pennsylvania have been asking themselves "Why is this annoying mass of land in my way?" when travelling south.  But have no fear! I have devised a clever route to follow when travelling to the South (Specifically Florida and South Carolina) Below are maps instructing wary drivers on how to avoid travel in the worst place in the world

Notice how you never have to enter West Virginia! It's marvelous!

Blog #4: Party State (Just a Little Late)

            In the beginning of the podcast I sort of felt like the reporters were being unfairly biased against Penn State and its students, but that opinion soon changed.  After a while I began to realize that they were actually being pretty neutral in the whole thing.  Once I got passed my initial skepticism I began to look at the piece through as neutral a view as I could.  Afterwards I could sympathize with the residents of State College who don’t like it when people steal things from or urinate on their lawns.  College students are a destructive impulsive lot that live for the moment and if that moment involves stealing a street sign and throwing a garbage can, then it’s going to happen, unfortunately.  Luckily, I have yet to find myself responsible for anything like that. 

            The most startling realization that I came to toward the end was of how normal this all is at Penn State.  Just about any given Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night, I could walk down town and see more than half of the things described by the reporter.  Even more startling are the alcohol related death statistics from an “average” night or weekend in State College.  It’s really weird to think that an “average” weekend at Penn State might be one of the most dangerous things I’ve ever experienced. 

            In the end I was at a cross roads because I could see from both points of view.  The student who just wants to get out and have fun after a week of classes and studying and the native who just wants to have a quiet evening at home.  But the podcast did a pretty good job of presenting the facts from a neutral view point from various sources.  Hopefully the next time they come to Happy Valley they will report on how much it has improved since their last visit.

Self Evaluation

This is the last Sunday of my freshman year at Penn State and what can I say?  This year has been the most fun I have ever had in my life!  But it has also been the year that I have learned the most.  The obvious things that I learned were those things that were covered in my classes but I also learned some pretty valuable lessons about myself in the process.  This year has been an excellent time of self-discovery for me.  By far the most important thing that I have learned about myself is that I am an awful procrastinator.  It didn’t take me long to figure that out in the first semester but luckily I caught it.  Breaking my lazy, work dodging ways has been a challenge but I think that I’ve succeeded.

As for my writing, I still feel like I have a lot of room to improve.  I still feel really awkward writing anything and I often find myself second guessing my writing and thinking it sounds silly.  But that might be normal, who knows?  Anyway, I do feel like I have improved a little bit, specifically with regard to inclusion of sensory detail.  Writing the memoir really helped me there.  Also, the revision of the same memoir later in the semester was kind of a cool experience.  That was the first time where I actually got to learn from my mistakes from one draft to another.  I know that sounds funny because you’re supposed to write a rough draft before and then revise, but I never revised.  I would just correct the grammatical errors from the rough draft and then turn it in.  I think that the revision was my favorite part of this course. 

Now for blogging.  At first I was very, very skeptical of this blogging project.  I thought it was just going to be a waste of time.  But it wasn’t.  It is actually pretty fun.  And I’m sure that it would be even more fun if I had one specific topic that I could blog about nonstop.  I also really liked reading other people’s blogs.  It gave me a really good insight into other people’s perspectives.  


Also, I completed the SRTEs!




URL Blog responses

http://mariahcarey1216.blogspot.com/2012/04/eval.html#comment-form

http://georgenelson11.blogspot.com/2012/02/journal-one.html?showComment=1335730783461#c1689147303438897610

http://thebigpengtheory.blogspot.com/2012/04/kite-runner-when-most-people-here-word.html?showComment=1335731065063#c5415884932003577650

Cultural Event Number 2

This post might sound similar to the last cultural event that I went to because they are both about music.  I love music.  I’m just not the kind of guy that is into poetry and book readings and art exhibits.  But anyway, the Movin’ On Music Festival!  A free to the public music festival sponsored by the SPA, Movin’ On has been a tradition at Penn State since 1974 as a celebration of those Nittany Lions that will be graduating at the end of the semester. It is a kind of last hurrah! for the graduating seniors.

This year the lineup included Young the Giant, the Avett Brothers, the David Mayfield Parade, and Ludacris among others.  I was only interested in one of the bands there, Young the Giant.  The Irvine, CA native band is an alternative rock and indie rock band that I had heard of quite a while ago because of their song “My Body,” but recently, because of Spotify, I have been listening to their other, lesser known works.  I didn’t know what to expect from this band because they are not a hugely known band and I myself don’t know much about them.  But they were very good.  They really knew how to appeal to the crowd and they played really well. 

By far the most well-known artist there was Ludacris.  I am personally not a fan of Mr. Ludacris mainly because I can’t understand his lyrics and his beats make me angry, but I was convinced to go anyway.  When Ludacris took the stage the crowd let loose a deafening cheer!  Along with him there was another rapper and a DJ whose name I can’t remember.  But the crowd seemed to love them too because the kept cheering.  At any rate, the show began.  Almost as soon as the show began, numerous female fans began to crowd surf.  This turned out to be a horrible idea because no one in the crowd seemed to want to hold them up and kept dropping them on the ground!  My friends and I thought this was immensely hilarious each time.  But I digress, his music was as I expected, hard to understand and ridiculous.  But I couldn’t help but try to sing along and jump around; the energy from the crowd was astonishing!  Because people around me were jumping and dancing, I began jumping and dancing, it was absurd!  I never thought in a hundred years I would find myself having a good time at a hip hop/rap concert!

All in all, I enjoyed the Young the Giant show because it was a genre that I liked and some songs that I was familiar with.  Ludacris, on the other hand, I really enjoyed, not because of the music but because of the crowd.  The energy from the crowd was, like I said, immensely powerful!  It was an truly excellent experience and I can’t wait for next year’s festival.

Cultural Event Number One

On the night of January 29^th 2012, the Bryce Jordan Center filled itself with hundreds of fans.  Why this night?  Because this was the night that Rise Against and A Day To Remember would play for the students of Penn State.  I was lucky enough to be in attedence for this jaw dropping spectacle.

The Menzingers kicked off the show with an unexpectedly good performance.  Being a small relatively unknown band, I expected them to be mediocre at best, if not completely terrible.  But they surprised me with their rock/punk rock style and lyrics.  Overall, they were an excellent choice to open.

A Day To Remember came next in the lineup and played a bunch of their songs.  Before this concert I was not a big fan of ADTR mainly because I thought they were just a screamo, angry band, but some of their songs struck a chord with me and since I have listened to them a little more.  For one of their songs the lead singer climbed into a giant, clear plastic ball and rolled around on top of the crowd!  It was definitely not something that I was used to but it was incredible nonetheless.

Rise Against was my main motivation for going to this concert.  I have been a fan of them for a couple years now and I know most of their songs by heart.  Anyway, their performance was definitely the highlight of the evening.  They were able to read the crowd perfectly and interact accordingly.  Everything that they did seemed to get the crowd going more and more. 

During all three bands’ performances mosh pits were opening like vortexes all around the floor and pulling people in by the dozens.  On a couple of occasions I was pulled in and pushed around.  It was incredible.  A rock concert like that is definitely an experience.  

Wild Target in Review

This captivating British action/comedy is certainly a film you will not regret watching.  Starring Martin Freeman, Rupert Everett, Rupert Grint, Bill Nighy, and Emily Blunt this unique film follows the exploits of a world class con artist, played by Emily Blunt, who cons a very wealthy art coinsurer, played by Rupert Everett, out of 900,000 British Pounds.  Everett’s character, furious about being conned, hires a hit man, played by Nighy, to kill Blunt’s con artist character which ends badly for Nighy’s employer.  After several attempts to kill Blunt’s character fail, Nighy and Grint’s character accidently save her from another hit man, hired by the same man, in a parking garage.  Grint gets involved purely by chance.  His character, a seemingly unreliable pothead teen, just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time  In short, Nighy and Grint end up protecting the person Nighy was supposed to kill from someone who was also hired to kill her.  After this fiasco the group escapes the parking garage and the would be assassin in an ancient Mini Cooper which we later learn was stolen earlier that day by Blunt’s character

            The film’s excellent use of dry wit humor mixed with high tension action scenes makes for a brilliant show.  The three main characters personalities create a hilariously ironic crew of outlaws that, over time, bond and form a tight group of friends.  Nighy’s serious, dry, and all business attitude clashed humorously with Blunt’s reckless and carefree personality and Grint’s laid back stoner outlook.  Nighy’s character even falls in love with Blunt’s character and they end up together in the end.  All in all, this film combines classic British dry wit with modern action and adventure and an endlessly witty and entertaining plot to create a truly excellent movie, it is definitely worth watching.  

What is art?

     When I think of art the first thing that comes into my head, not surprisingly, is a painting, a sculpture, or even a piece of architecture.  But then, if I think about it a little deeper I try to draw parallels between the things I've thought of.  I suppose in my mind art is anything that expresses creativity or passion.  Paintings, sculptures, and architecture are obviously all very good examples of creativity, but what else falls under that category? Music? Cooking? Science, maybe?  All of these things require at least a small amount of creativity and a huge amount of passion for someone to master and  to excel.  Anything that someone is passionate about and expresses creativity is, to me, considered art, but what is good art and what is bad art?  That is a bit more complicated.  I suppose as far as visual art, such as paintings, sculptures, and architecture, good is anything that is pleasing to my eye and that evokes some kind of emotion within me.  Written art is the same way, except for the "pleasing to the eye" part.  Like they say, don't judge a book by its cover, literally.
     One piece of art that is both visually interesting and musically pleasing is a song by Gotye.  It's called "Somebody That I Used to Know" and the musicians, or whomever directed the video, found a way to incorporate the painting process, the human body, and music into one video that is pretty dang good, for lack of better words.

Somebody That I Used to Know