Risk

I decided to be original and instead of finding the dictionary/Wikipedia definition of risk, I am going to write about the board game risk. I can hear it already... "That was not what I meant when I said write about risk!" too bad, Risk is a game I know and love which actually (not very surprisingly) involves quite a bit of risk and luck to be able to win. However the reason I chose to talk about the game Risk is that succeeding at Risk not only takes luck, but also takes quite a bit of skill. You need to know where to put your pieces in the beginning of the game. You need to come up with a strategic plan to keep gaining cards to get more troops and you need to analyze the risks of attacking at certain points in the game. But lets look back at the skill involved while taking a risk. Any high school athlete who chooses to slack off in the classroom and try to get into college and make a living through the sport is taking a risk, but you have to have skill in order for you to even have a chance to make it into the pros, or even college purely off of athletic excellence. The same thing is true for most things you have to take a risk to achieve.
So I guess that is how you decided when to take the risk. Make a honest, true, assessment of your skill, and if you decide the possible outcomes are worth the risk, are worth the chance of failure, then you should take it. If you decide you don't have the skill, or the outcomes are not worth the risk, then it's time to re-evaluate the situation and choose a new course of action.
And btw Packers lost :( oh well
Superbowl XLV, here we come

Random Ramblings

I don't have much to write about right now but here goes a post anyways... I think I am going to treat this like a free write.. Just kind of ramble on until I feel like stopping. And I think I am going to write it with my eyes closed too so I don't know how long it is... Idk if this will work or not... Ill probably end up opening my eyes soon anyways... Right now my dad is talking to one of his friends about possibly going to the Super Bowl again if the Packers go! And guess what spoiled rotten 16 year old would most likely get to go given the Packers are going? yep, this one. Time to be jealous starts now! OK stop.

Just realized I've been typing with my eyes open ever sense I said I was going to close my eyes... That one lasted a while... Oh well, it was worth a try!

This winter break I get to go to Steamboat to ski! Hopefully I can sign up to have some lessons for Downhill racing! Most of you probably wont know what that meas other than skiing downhill... but there is an actual kind of race called Downhill. I've never been able to do anything but slalom and a little bit of giant slalom so it would be tons of fun to try Downhill! Not to mention going out west is really the only time possible for me to try Downhill. With the hills here in Minnesota and the sizes of the turns for downhill racing each run would be about  one turn... so obviously it really isn't worth it. That's why the only kind of racing they have in Minnesota is slalom. The other kinds need much larger mountains to ski on.

OK, I think I wrote enough for this post. Have a happy Saturday and cheer for the Packers!
Go Pack, Go!

Rhetorical Modes - Trust

1. The trust one has in a person has to grow over time. My dad did not allow me to go driving by myself far distances the first day I had my license. I had not earned his respect yet. In fact the first time I went driving by myself was following my dad home from the car dealership when he picked up his new car. I had to earn my trust before he would allow me to go driving by myself.

2. Although being a trustworthy person is almost never the easy thing to do, and it may seem that caring about yourself more than others is the only way to survive, being a trustworthy friend always has it's advantages if your friend is also trustworthy. For instance if you sacrifice yourself to help your friend out, your friend is more likely to do the same for you in the future.

3. Trust is a confidence that someone will do their job. Trust is knowing that that the person you are relying on will have your back when you need it and that you will have this persons back when he or she needs it. Trust is formed over time. Trust cannot be bought, but only developed and grown.

4. In the beginning of the season no one knows each other, no on loves each other, and no one trusts each other. The beginning of each year is spent in a grueling trek of workouts and two-a-days. During the first day there are a lot of new faces and you have your doubts about all these new teammates. But by the first game we have endured hell together. We have established the trust that is necessary to have a great season.

5. Trust is a word that is used a lot in the English language, but no matter how it is used it always, or nearly always has the same meaning. A football player has to have trust in his teammates in order to be able to do his responsibility to the fullest. This kind of trust, while very similar, is in fact different than the trust a father has in a babysitter that the kid will be safe.

6. You need to have trust in Barrack Obama. Obama is the president of America and the "leader of the free world". While you may not agree with how Obama handles certain things or what some of his beliefs are he is still the president and his intentions are the same as every president before him; to make America a better nation, a more strong nation, and a world power.

10-0

So we are officially 10 and 0 now! yep, you guessed it, I'm writing another post about the Packers! Aaron Rodgers is still shredding apart defenses week after week throwing only his fourth int all year today. James Starks was injured but hopefully he'll be fine! Not only did the Packers win again, but the Vikings lost again! This is one of the best years in history to be Wisconsin sports fan! Our football team seems like it can't be beaten!
So on a different note i'll talk about the Trojans! Prep Bowl 2011 here we come! We played Cretin yesterday and everyone expected a close game, but that's not how it turned out! We clobbered Cretin in a 42-0 win! After this landslide victory I can't help but to feel overly confident about the state final game against EP. We've already defeated them once this season, our defense is stronger and faster than it's ever been, our offense is clicking and Martin has been hitting his receivers all day long! Much like Aaron Rodgers! Overall, I am in a happy place for all my football teams!

Another blog...

Watching the Packer game right now and it's been exactly like I expected. Rodgers has been throwing the ball as accurately as ever and our defense has pretty much been shutting down the Charger pass game. Both Tramon Williams and Charlie Peprah have a pic six and there have also been a couple more close interceptions. Another thing I noticed is that why the heck is it raining in San Diego. Shouldn't it be about 70 and sunny every day? What the heck is up with that? Rodgers is having a pretty good game as well. He only has about 100 yards but that is because we have barely had the ball! Our defense has two touchdowns and the Chargers have had a couple long drives that have wasted a long time. Right now the Packers are up by seven with the ball half way through the third quarter so I am pretty confident we will win! Another victory in Packer nation! 8-0!

writing...

It took a long time to decide to realize what my habits are when I have to write. I thought about it for quite a while and for most of that time I figured I didn't have any habits. After thinking about it for awhile I realized I do have some habits. They probably aren't good habits but they are habits. I usually turn on my computer and before I even click on word I usually have iTunes and Facebook open. Computer and Facebook always go hand in hand for me and even if I have a big paper to write I feel the necessity to take a minute out of my work time and check any new updates or messages. I also need music to be able to stay focused on my writing. Like right now my dad is forcing me to stop iTunes so I'm having trouble writing this blog... This may all seem backwards to you... music and Facebook is distracting isn't it? Shouldn't it have an opposite effect? well, for Facebook I'm pretty good about closing out of Facebook as soon as I finish checking all the necessities. And for music if I don't have something constant going on in my head I lose focus before I even start writing.

C'mon Wisconsin!

Last time we had could choose what to post about I talked about how well things were going in Wisconsin sports and I am sad to say well things are not going bad by any means they are not as good as a couple weeks ago. The Badgers are no longer undefeated and the Brewers season was cut short when they were defeated in the MLB playoffs. However the Packers are still undefeated and even though they are losing right now they are going to get the ball back after half time and they should take the lead.
The Badgers lost last night in a horrible game for the Badgers. We were behind the whole game and our senior QB Russel Wilson threw three bad interceptions. We did tie it up with less than a minute left in the game but MSU threw a last second hail marry which was caught and wrestled into the end zone with no time left in the clock.
The Brewers also lost their run for the world series in a 2-4 series loss.For some reason we just couldn't stop the Cardinals bat. They scored four runs in the first inning before the Brewers even had a chance to hit and just kept on scoring.
Lastly the Packers. Yes, they are losing at half time right now but they are about to get the ball back in just a few seconds. I'm not too worried. The Packers never give up and the Vikings have been iffy in the second half losing three games in the second half.

Weekend blog post...

I know, the title is boring. Get over it. I have two assignments today, the first being to create a list of of pet peeves, and the second to respond to a couple things we did during class... so instead of doing two posts in the same day (which would be ridiculous) I'm just going to do both of them in this one blog.

I'm going to start with a list of pet peeves... Why? because it is easier and I am lazy.
1. People who can ace everything they do without trying at all. Example, the American guy in two million minutes who gets a full rid to Purdue for doing well on the PSAT... a test which he said he didn't study for, didn't try that hard on, and was pretty easy...
2. People who are impossible to argue with... Can't stand them
3. Country music... sorry, but the world would be better without another song about tractors.
4. Freakish athletes... they don't actually annoy me... i just get annoyed that I can't be one of them...
5. Museums... Another old thing? cool. I can learn all about it on the internet... now lets do something fun.
6. Viking fans. Vikings suck, just accept that the Packers are and forever will be much, much better.
7. When my projected 20 point WR has 0 points at half time.
I think that's good for now... so now on to responding to the stuff we did in class the last couple days...

First of all, in my opinion, the movie Two Million Minutes is one of the most biased movies ever created. It makes American students seem lazy, dumb, and that every student is living a dream life. I wish. Just because American students are expected to have at least minimal amounts of social skill does not mean we do not work. While Asian students spend a solid 168 hours a week buried in piles of the latest engineering textbooks, they are melting all social skills necessary to succeed in ACTUAL LIFE. Meanwhile, a American student has, in my opinion, a much more balanced schedule. Just for ease I'll share my schedule on an average day. I wake up at 6:30, go to school until 2:20, have football practice until 5:30, eat dinner, do home work until around midnight, then go to bed.
I am not saying the American educational system is perfect. I know first hand it has plenty of flaws. We have a surplus of bad teachers looking for jobs and not enough good teachers who would actually be able to stimulate the educational system.
However poor our educational system may be it angers me to watch such a blatant attack on American students. I think about how much I work and to think that the modern conception of the American student is a lazy, student who does not work hard is very frustrating.

Yea, I'm a Wisconsiner

I'm not actually a Wisconsiner... meaning I never truly lived in Wisconsin except for a month or so right after I was born. However, both my parents grew up in Wisconsin therefore I was raised to be a die hard Wisconsin fan. And, I don't know if you've heard lately, but these past couple weeks have been the best weeks in Wisconsin nation history! I'm talking about sports of course! Every where we turn right now Wisconsin sports teams are tearing it up! 

Off the heals of last years Superbowl XLV victory the Packers are on their way to a repeat. The record 5-0 speaks for it'e self. Unfortunately I haven't been able to go to a Packers game yet but hopefully in the next couple months I'll be able to go watch the wonders of Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the Packers unstoppable offense!

While we're talking about football I might as well talk about the Wisconsin Badgers, also 5-0 heading to a Rose Bowl or hopefully better! Russel Wilson, the senior quarterback in his first year at Wisconsin, is having an insane season so far, and if he keeps playing this way, is definitely heading towards the NFL. Again I haven't been able to say the Badgers play yet but I know for a fact that I'll be able to see them play at least once, and twice if they make the Rose Bowl. 

The icing on the cake in Wisconsin are the Milwaukee Brewers. With an unbelievable line up at the plate, a group of pitchers any team would die for, a bullpen to finish the game off when the pitchers get tired, and a defense that can stop almost everything the pitchers give up, this team is on its way to the world series without a doubt. I have luckily been able to see this dream team in work a couple times already this postseason. Last week in a win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, and yesterday in the win over the St. Louis Cardinals, and from what I've seen, there is no doubt that the Brewers are the best team in the league right now.

Yea, Jealous aren't you. We've got more (good) football than Minnesota could ever dream of, and we've got a world series contending baseball team to top it off. When all of y'all feel like converting just let me know. The Wisconsin nation accepts new fans with open arms!

Obama's Back to School Address

President Barrack Obama's Back to School Address given a couple days ago used many different techniques to help gain and maintain the attention and support of his audience. The first thing Obama did was, as an introduction, have a student from the local high school where the address was given introduce Obama. This is a good use of ethos, even before Obama said a single word. He does this to show to his audience that he really cares and has trust in our generation. Obama also uses a little comedy when he gets on stage by calling the girl who gave the speech, the student government president of the school which hosted Obama's address, Ms. President. This helps lighten the atmosphere before Obama dives into the main content of his speech.

During the address Obama speaks directly to all the students watching him which makes the content of his speech seem more real to us, and not a long boring talk about education. Obama uses mostly short, easy-to-understand syntax which is particularly important in speaking to teenagers. Obama also uses a little repetition and parallelism in a few places, however it is not near as powerful as other speeches including MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech which used repetition, parallelism, and climatic order to a very large extent, and used it well to pump up his crowd.

Jim Crow Laws

These laws are an example of the embarrassing but very true history of America. These laws, nowadays, disgust me, however I realize at the time they were the social norm.  People of this time period had a legitimate fear (disgust) of the black race. It is truly sad the way our ancestors treated blacks during this time period.

late...

And please forgive me for being a minute late... As you will soon realize (if you haven't already) is that I am the definition of procrastination.

Other stories... and mine?

I didn't realize until after I started reading this collection of essays that they are stories of different writers and there adventures learning to read and write. This is a coincidence because, as you know, I have an essay I have to write about my experiences learning to write and read... hmmm.. now that i think about it probably not a coincidence... 

The first thing that I noticed was that almost all of these authors first memories were about writing, not reading... which is what mine is. The second thing I noticed was that a couple of the stories were very traumatic or depressing which is also different than mine. and the last thing I noticed was that in almost all of these stories the author mentioned some sort of inner gut feeling that they wanted to be a writer, and in one case made up their mind to be a writer because he was so bad at math (and he needed math to become his second career of choice, an architect).

When I reflect on my self and my memories of writing I do not share any of these characteristics. This does not mean however that I consider my self a failure at writing and think that I will never be able to put out a decent piece of literature. This just means that i will have to work harder than some other natural born writers to create a well written essay.

Why I write...

I have never really thought about why I write... and I have never really just sat down to just write... It's never really interested me.  But now that i have time to think about this I start to realize that i do write more than I think. I write a facebook update every couple of days, or during the packers game three times in two and a half hours. Every once in a while when something exciting of fun happens to me I will send out a tweet. So now that I realize I do write fairly often I start to think why I write. Why do I update my facebook account three times during the Packers game on Thursday? Or why do I tweet when I am about to get onto the plain heading to China? And I realize I write because I want to share the things in my life that define me. I want to yell to the world that I am an avid Packers fan. I want to to tell everyone that I love traveling and visiting new places. That is why I write.

helloo

Hi. I am Eric. This is my blog.