Revision

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     The pros of stem cell research far outweigh the cons. The pros that come out from stem cell research are possibly curing many rare diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, and many others (White 2). Stem cell research has already been used to generate a few different types of organs. Scientists have used lab mice to generate ears and noses. Although small and simple, the progress scientists are making is huge. With public funding scientists will be able to make the discoveries of how to generate nervous tissue and other vital organs such as hearts, livers, kidneys, and lungs. However, there are people in the United States that think stem cell research should be banned as a whole.
Revised Paragraph
     The pros of stem cell research far outweigh the cons. The pros that come out from stem cell research are possibly curing many rare diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, and many others (White 2).  Stem cells will be able to be used to cure these diseases. Cells that stop dementia and the deteriorating muscle cells will be generated from research. Cells that attack cancer cells or prevent cancer from spreading will also be generated from research. Organs can also be generated from these stem cells. These organs can then be used for patients in need of a transplant. There are a couple of organs that the human body needs to survive; if a patient cannot receive this organ, and then unfortunately he/she will not survive. Stem cell research has already been used to generate a few different types of organs. Scientists have used lab mice to generate ears and noses. Although small and simple, the progress scientists are making is huge. With public funding scientists will be able to make the discoveries of how to generate nervous tissue and other vital organs such as hearts, livers, kidneys, and lungs. The potential for stem cell research is massive; why not do what we can to reach that full potential? However, there are people in the United States that think stem cell research should be banned as a whole.

Joe Pa

Extra Credit

            The whole scandal involving Jerry Sandusky is very disturbing. No one in his right mind should ever even consider raping and molesting younger boys, never mind ten of them; that’s completely messed up. Sandusky should be put away for the rest of his life. For all the people involved, they should be fired immediately and investigated for not stopping Sandusky. You can’t turn a blind eye to an issue this huge. These victims are psychologically and physically damaged. Some of the victims may never be able to function normally again because of the atrocious actions of Sandusky.

Gram Spanier definitely should’ve been fired. Although he wasn’t here during the time that the raping’s took place, he still knew about them and did absolutely nothing to bring Jerry Sandusky to justice. Instead, he just swept it under the rug not wanting to give Penn State a bad reputation. How’s the reputation of Penn State looking right now GSPAN?

And why didn’t they bring Sandusky down in 1998, when he was still coaching here at Penn State and was still raping the boys? Why didn’t they bring him down in 2005, when word of the raping’s leaked? And now why do they decide to bring Sandusky down now, right after Joe Pa is having an amazing season: 8-1, first in the Big 10 Conference, and most importantly, receiving win number 409?

Joe Pa did go to the Athletic Director; Joe Pa supposedly also went to the chief of police. Both of these men, who are superiors to Joe Pa, covered the story up. Legally and morally Joe Pa did the correct thing. There is no one higher in the police than the chief. Everyone is bitching at him for not going to the police. If he did actually go to the police, then Joe Pa did everything correctly and was wrongfully fired. The head of the board of trustees even stated that all of the facts are unknown. How the hell can you make such brash and harsh decisions without knowing all of the facts? What happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” There are going to be many investigations into this scandal. So why not be patient and wait for the truth to be discovered and then make your decision. Even with the allegations and pending investigations, they should’ve let Joe Pa finish out the last year on his contract. He had three games left and one more home game which is this weekend against a top contender Nebraska.

I also think the media is blowing this whole issue up. Yes, it’s a large issue but let the university deal with it first. On ESPN footage was put into different order to make it look like the riots started before the police got there. I was there, that’s complete bullshit. Everyone was downtown and at Old Main chanting but peacefully. It wasn’t until the police and riot squad came that things started getting out of hand. The police instigated much of the rioting by taking down students, beating them, and pepper-spraying them. It could’ve remained a peaceful protest.

Regardless of what has been said in the grand jury report and regardless of what may come of the pending investigations, Joe Pa will still go down in history as the greatest football coach the game has ever seen. We’ll all remember all of the amazing things he has done for this university and surrounding community. Let’s sweep under the rug the whole scandal and his “involvement” just like all of his peers did with the raping’s and remember Joe Pa as a legend. WE ARE… still in love with Joe Pa; WE ARE… still bleeding blue and white; WE ARE… PENN STATE.

Iphone vs. Droid

Apple iPhone- The iPhone, sleek in its new design and new color. The iPhone stands above all other smart phones, being the most popular smart phone on the market. It's iPod capabilities along with internet, online gaming, and app store make it the most versatile phone. Face-to-face, or facetime, is unique to this phone and isn't offered by any other phone.






The Android- The Android, a very popular smart phone on the market. Like the iPhone, it is sleek; but the Android lacks many capabilities that the iPhone has. To upload music to the Android, the music must be converted to an mp3 file. Music can be downloaded right to the iPhone and ready to be listened to instantaneously. The apps, although free, are limited to owners of the Android. The app store for the Android offers a few thousand apps while the Apple app store offers over a million different apps.

Overall the iPhone is the more popular phone having better music capabilities and apps available 24/7.

Football

1.      The object I plan on evaluating is a football. Some people look at a football and just see it as a football. There are many deeper meanings that can be derived from a football.

2.      I believe that a football is a symbol for good things in life

3.      It’s a game every Sunday to get together with friends and family, it’s a game of backyard football instead of being inside playing video games, it allows for college scholarships, and it provides jobs.

4.      A football meets all of the criteria because every Sunday football brings friends and families together, kids are outside playing sports and being active rather than being inside not being productive, many students can go to college and play a sport when they maybe couldn’t have afforded that particular college, players can become professionals in football and play in the NFL, but also all of the people who work at the concession stands have jobs because of a football.

5.      My intended audience is geared towards sports fans. This article would probably be in Sports Illustrated or ESPN The Magazine. I’d like to make my piece both entertaining and informative.

6.      The criteria fit for the subject. They are all relevant and are supportive.

To Greek, or not to Greek

1.      The place of the issue I’m investigating if where all of the fraternities are located. The streets walking away from Penn State past downtown are flooded with these gorgeous mansions. Stain-glass windows, stone or brick fronts, stone porches, and flush green yards are the layout for all fifty-three fraternities here at Penn State. One specific fraternity I’m investigating is Kappa Delta Rho or KDR for short. Standing in front of the house one can see the massive front lawn studded with bushes and an apple tree off to the left. The house itself is stone on the outside with a wrap-around porch starting at the front door going to the left where there is a cabana. Above the front door are three massive stain-glass windows; the center window has the crest on it. The whole house stands three stories tall and then a basement underneath. Walking into the house there is the main hallway which has white tile floors, off to the left is the empty party/dance room with hardwood floors, past that is the champagne room which is carpeted and has a few couches and chairs, off to the right is another hardwood floor room which has many different uses, and past that to the right is the kitchen which has massive refrigerators and other kitchen apparatus. Then straight back is the library of the house, filled with books and the most recent house chapter profile. The overall inside of the house looks like it’d belong along the shores of California.

2.      “Your GPA will not go down. In fact, it’ll probably go up. We have mandatory study hours every day so you’re forced to do your homework.” –Rob Dion, junior, president.

“I’m a double major in kinesiology and psychology, have a 3.8, and I’m the president of a very social fraternity; it is damn easy to have a high GPA. I’m pretty sure the house GPA is around a 3.5 or 3.6; we’re not stupid like some people think.

“All of the upperclassmen know which classes to take and have all of the answers to the assessments so those classes allow you to boost your overall GPA.”-Alex Dachille, sophomore, rush chair.

3.      The overall GPA of the Penn State fraternity system is a 3.41-IFC (http://pennstateifc.org/)

“We hold the members of fraternities to high academic standards and want to ensure every brother is pursuing academic excellence.” -Ryan Fitzpatrick, VP at IFC

KDR’s house has an average GPA of 3.5 or 3.6

I myself have seen me be more attentive in class and doing homework better because I know I have to dedicate a large amount of time each day to being a fraternity member.

4.      As of right now I’ve only talked with the members of KDR. I feel like interviewing brothers from other fraternities with equivalent time commitments as KDR will make a stronger paper.

I haven’t interviewed any girls who are pledging sororities or current sisters. There could be a contrast between the grades between fraternities and sororities.

WE ARE!!!

1. What is the issue of the piece? The issue that the piece addresses is being the #1 party school and the amount of drinking Penn State students do and the results of the amount of alcoholic beverages they consume. Many arrests have been made due to alcohol consumption and so has vandalism, public urination, theft, and even death have occurred due to an excess amount of drinking.
2. What reasons are given for why the issue needs to be investigated? The reasons why the drinking issue needs to be investigated are that there are mayn alcholo related incidences occurring in the State College community. In the beginning of the report, when they were sitting on the front porch the reporters witnessed many things directly related to alcohol consumption and partying. They saw girls peeing in her yard, kids dragging a stop sign down the street, kids drop-kicking a trash bin in an alley, and many other things. Then they go onto talk about deaths that have occurred as a result of drinking at apartments and/or fraternities.
3. Who is the intended audience? I think the intended audience is everybody in the State College community. I think they want to address the student body, faculty, and police officers. They want to address the student body by pointing out all of the negative consequences that come from drinking too much or underage drinking. They talk about all of the arrests that have been made, the sexual assualts, and even deaths. They want to scare the kids into not drinking, or at least not drinking as much. They're also addressing the faculty because the reporters think that the faculty members should be taking action against all of these problems. They also want to reach out to the police officers because they're the ones enforcing the laws. They want the UP police and State College police to collaborate as one, more efficient unit to crack down on the drinking issues here in State College.
4. What facts and details are given to explain how the issue affects different groups that might have an interest in or connection to the issue? The reporters use many facts and details to explain how the issue affects different groups. One group of people the reporters interviewed was the people who distribute and sell alcohol. One of the dance club owners said that they used to sell 80%-90% beer, and now its the exact opposite with liquor being the top-selling type of alcohol. They also shadowed a police officer for one night. The reporters saw many different cases of how people can be arrested due to drinking alcohol.
5. What conclusion is drawn by the end of the report? The conclusion that the reporters came to after their investigation was that no matter what actions are taken against drinking and partying, they will still occur. The Penn State community has twice tried to curve back the partying and nothing seemed to have worked. Now, police officers just hope to contain the parties and make sure they don't become out of control.
6. What research and interviews were included in this report? A lot of research and many interviews were conducted in this investigative report. Multiple students, fraternity members, alumni, police officers, local residents, and many local business owners were all interviewed for this report.
7. What narrative techniques were used in this report? The narrative techniques used in this report were the use of interviews, a good use of imagery, side and back-stories, and direct quotes.

I really liked this investigative report. I think they did an amazing job getting a lot of behind-the-scenes information on the issue of being the #1 party school in America. They used a lot of interviews with a variety of different groups of people to get all points of view on the issue.

Birds Flyin' Away

Anne Lamott's book Bird by Bird definitely taught me some very useful writing tools that I plan to utilize every time I sit down to write a paper for a class. The techniques I plan on utilizing the most are the use of dialogue, page breaks, flashbacks, deep descriptions, free writing, looping, and clustering.

All of the narrative techniques and writing techniques in general are very helpful. They allow the reader to become immersed in the story they’re reading. It doesn’t even have to be a story; it could be an argumentative paper or something like that. For my personal narrative I used a multitude of the techniques she said were helpful. At first I started by thinking about all of the things I could possibly write about for my piece. Then I used her advice about free writing and looping for all of the topics I could’ve written about. From there I started the drafting process, which I learned doesn’t have to be perfect the first, or even second time; but with each time I revised my paper I knew it was getting better and better.

I think the point she made about not having to have a perfect first draft was the lesson that moved me the most. I’ve always tried to have great first drafts; I’d write a paragraph and then go back to make sure I used the correct diction and that it was grammatically correct. I’d be so hung up in correcting the small stuff that I’d forget about the big picture. My grammar would be fine, but the content wouldn’t be at its full potential. Now after reading Bird by Bird I know that it’s fine to have “shitty first drafts” as she said. The whole paper together will get better and better as revisions are made.

Another lesson that I learned was about getting rid of the voices in my head when I’m writing. She said that to get rid of the voices, you first have to acknowledge their presence. From there you’ll be able to get rid of the voices and have a clear head. Along with stepping back from everything just to take a few deep breaths was very good advice.

I also like how she talks about having a friend or two read your first draft. I think this is a great idea because it’s an extra set of eyes that can analyze your paper and look it over. I have done this for many papers that I’ve written, even my college and scholarship essays. I also had a few friends look over my personal narrative. In all instances, my friends were able to pick out grammar mistakes or find ways of rewording things to make them less awkward. I credit all of the grades I’ve received to this extra step in the writing process. Without it, I don’t think my papers would’ve have received as high of grades.

Overall, I think that Anne Lamott did an amazing job with Bird by Bird. She talks about writing the whole time yet she keeps the reader entertained with personal anecdotes. All of her techniques and approaches to writing are very useful and I plan on utilizing them at every moment I can.

Shirt-Worthy

     For this blog entry I read "Shirt-Worthy" by David Giffels which was featured in the New York Times. The story is about the author's struggle to purchase a Ramones t-shirt; but not simply purchase, purchase a shirt with a process that made him really work for it and earn it. A process that he "sweated, bled, transcended and then purchased."  At first I thought the conflict of the story was that he did not own a Ramones t-shirt, but as I read I felt that the conflict of the story was that he could not find an obstacle to break through in the process of buying the shirt. He easily could have boughten a shirt. Giffels stated that he went to numerous Ramones concerts but never bought a t-shirt. What I think Giffels was trying to say is that you have to earn something to get it; you cannot just simply obtain what you want. Like he said, at all of the concerts he easily could have boughten a Ramones t-shirt; but he said he had to earn it; he had to break through some obstacle in order to buy the Ramones t-shirt. This story is relevant because Giffels had always wanted a Ramones t-shirt but never had the opportune moment to buy his. However, when his son ask for a Ramones t-shirt for his 10th birthday, without hesitation he went to Hot Topic and bought the shirt. When it was ripped and he bought his son a new shirt, he was left with his own shirt. He finally had his own Ramones t-shirt.
     I think the author's intended audience is people who take things for granted. If they see something they want, they will go get it. They won't hesitate and ask themselves, "Do I really need this? or Do I deserve this?" "Shirt-Worthy" embodies the message that you have to earn what is yours. I liked how Giffels was very descriptive in some parts of his personal narrative. For example, when he described the t-shirt wall when he first entered Hot Topic. He also used dialogue towards the end of his writing. I kind of feel like some of his transitions are a little choppy, but for the most part the transitions for paragraph to paragraph were pretty good. I was always aware of the setting in the story.
    Overall I thought it was a strong personal narrative and enjoyed reading it.

First-Time Buyer

The first day of seventh grade: three towns coming together as one to form the King Philip community. Stepping off that bus my heart was beating a million times a minute. I thought to myself, "What if I get lost? or what if I don't make any friends?" Remembering my locker combination was a daunting task to me. That three number combination felt like trying to remember the first fifteen perfect squares. A few bells ring, and finally it was lunch time. Now usually every kid was happy and excited to go eat some food and meet new people; this wasn't the case with me. I was scared; I had never bought my lunch before. My mom would always make my lunch for me in elementary school. The cafeteria was this large, white rectangular room with large glass windows on the right side. Blue rectangular and circle tables flooded the floor of the cafeteria. Then, there it was, the lunch line. Winding its way out through the door like a snake, and here I was about to face this monstrous snake. The people I walked by were all dressed up in their first day outfits: button-downs, polos, dresses, and skirts seemed to be the main fashion fad of that day. As I get closer and closer to the door that would lead me to what seemed to be my worst nightmare my heart began to beat again. I even thought of pretending to go to the bathroom to avoid it, but it was too late. I reached the archway of the door, and it was too late to turn back now. As I walked in the lunch trays were to my left in stacks, the registers were in the middle, and the food was all the way in the back. The room’s aroma was amazing; the fresh smell of chicken, pasta, and fruit filled the air. The lunch ladies weren’t like the lunch ladies that were featured in the movies. The lunch ladies were kind and always smiling. Once I saw them smiling I began to be at ease. I picked out my lunch: a chicken burger, french fries, milk, and an apple, and then I made my way to the registers. I had never really purchased anything on my own before so I was timid about the process. I carefully examined the kids in front of me and around me as they preceded me in buying their lunches. I put my tray on the shelf, pulled out my wallet and got the two dollars needed to buy my lunch. As I did this, George Washington stared me in the eyes and then were gone and into the register. I walked out feeling like I had just climbed Mount Everest. The cafeteria was a sea of heads, but I found my friends and enjoyed my lunch, the first school lunch I had ever bought. The bell rang and it was back off to class, but I felt like I was on top of the world.

Penn Stater

     I've always thoroughly enjoyed writing. For me it's a way of being able to express feelings, emotions, ideas, opinions, etc. and share them with other people. My strengthes as a writer are definitely coming up with good ideas to write about and having a strong ending to solidify my argument. Like I said before, I like writing so ideas just come to me; and I'm easily able to transfer those thoughts and ideas into words and put them on paper. Ending an argument or your side of a debate with a strong ending is definitely affective in swaying the audience. The last sentence or two of my papers always make very strong points supporting my side and negating the other argument. One of my weaknesses as a writer are transitioning between paragraphs. I feel like I can improve at this by better ordering my paragraphs to create the best fluidity. I think that this class will improve my writing skills in many ways. Not only will it improve the areas that I'm weak in, but it'll also improve the areas that I'm strong in. Taking a college English class will definitely present more learning opportunities for me to become a better writer than a high school English class.
     Other than writing papers for school, I also write my own songs for the guitar. My inspiration for songs come from the everyday world around me. Singer/songwriter John Reznik of the Goo Goo Dolls has been one of my idols for a long time. The song "Iris" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdYWuo9OFAw&ob=av3e is my favorite song by them and has given me many ideas for songs. The song "Heaven (Little by Little)" by Theory of a Deadman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpPSRoNGGxM gave me the inspiration for my first song. Two of my best friends had recently passed away due to Cystic Fibrosis, and I heard this song on my ipod when I was playing the guitar. The idea came to me to write a song for them, and I kept writing songs from there on.