TheDrizzleDefinitionPaper

TheDrizzleEvaluation

TheDrizzleCausal

TheDrizzleProposal

TheDrizzleFinal

1/12/06 Personal Narrative

Hi my name is Steven Walsh and I am from Audubon, PA which is a small town half an hour outside of Philadelphia. I am majoring in Computer Science, but may end up switching to another major inside the College of Engineering. Being from Philly, I am a huge Eagles and Flyers fan, but don’t really follow the sixers or phillies. I enjoy listening to a wide variety of music, with the exception of country.

1/17/06 Letter from Birmingham Jail

After reading "A Letter from Birmingham Jail," I was left in awe of Dr. King's ability to give an argument. He does so very politically with very little that people could contest. Backing up each part of the argument with fact after fact or with past precedence ranging from the holocaust to the death of Jesus; Dr. King is able to invoke sympathy from the readers by giving them relatable problems. Also, Dr. King’s words are non-threatening, but at the same time are very firm. Appealing to people’s compassion instead of being aggressive, there is very little of the argument that people could ignore. Since he never apologizes for his actions, he doesn’t show weakness and shows that he is entirely behind the cause. In addition, he is able to suppress his anger, and instead just give a well thought out argument that is hard to refute.

1/19/06 USA TODAY Snapshot Claims

This is based on the USA Today snapshot about workers missing work during the flu season. 29% missed no work, 32% missed 1-2 days, 27% missed 3-5, and 11% missed 6 or more days.

Claim 1: Illness did not cause a large problem during the flu season since more than half of workers missed an insignificant amount of time (2 days or less) or missed no work at all due to illness.

Claim 2: Illness did cause a large problem during the flu season with 6 out of every 10 workers missing time at work.

Claim 3: Illness during the flu season is damaging to productivity with 1 out of every 10 workers missing at least a week of work during the season.

1/22/06 Response to “The Four Freedoms”

“The Four Freedoms” was very patriotic and would make anyone proud to be an American. The four fundamental human freedoms he speaks of are still the freedoms we would enjoy in a perfect world. Although, we do have most of the freedoms, we still don’t have total freedom with respect to those he listed. We do have freedom of speech and expression, and also freedom of religion. Freedom of want is arguable since human nature tends to be somewhat selfish, and because of that there will always be some sense of want for the average person. Freedom from fear is the one I don’t think we enjoy. He speaks of having all countries mutually disarm and that will bring freedom from fear, however, although that would eliminate a lot of fear, it wouldn’t remove it all. Governments would be free from fear with regards to other countries invading, but beyond that, it wouldn’t eliminate fear. There is still crime all over the world, and also, as we have seen in recent years, terrorist groups that are not affiliated with any country strike fear in many Americans.

1/24/06 Response to Declaration of Human Rights

The UN creating the declaration of human rights was a good step for countries that currently belong to the UN or were willing to recognize their declaration. However, it doesn’t help the countries who choose not to recognize it, or don’t have the capability to recognize it due to poverty or other issues. You can’t fault the UN for that though; they’ve made the declaration and tried to influence countries into adopting it. The rights contained in the declaration encompass all the basic rights humans should be given, and it is a very comprehensive list. In that sense the UN really did a good job. Now they just need to pressure non-accepting countries into adopting the declaration and giving all their citizens the rights they deserve.

1/26/06 Response to President Bush's Address to Congress

This, I feel, was the best speech president Bush has given during his presidency. Americans were filled with uncertainty and needed a strong voice to help them through the time of crisis. This address gave them that help. The speech was very confident, and succeeded in giving the country the certainty that they needed that they would be safe. Although, Bush also did a good job of rallying the country behind his upcoming campaign against terrorism using their fear and anger from the attacks. He did this by saying how this was the first time that American civilians had been attacked on our own soil in our country's history. Stating how America feels about Islam and also about arabs, Bush showed the rest of the world that the war was, in fact, against terrorism, and not against Islam or any middle eastern country. Which gave the world no reason to question our motives, and made our allies more likely to support our action.

1/29/06 Response to Defining Terrorism

Although there are many definitions for terrorism on this page, they all generally say the same thing. Terrorism is an act which is performed to force change in government or to hurt the everyday lives of the citizens of a country. However, the definitions ranged from violent or nonviolent acts, and being acted upon soldiers or civilians. This shows how hard it is to come up with a perfect definition for terrorism, because everyone has their own opinions on what is and isn't terrorism.

2/5/06 Definition Paper Proposal

Many people believe that freedom of speech gives them the right to say anything they want any time they want. That is not what free speech means, and it is possible to get in trouble with the law for saying certain things. Freedom of speech gives you the right to voice your opinions and speak up against others opinions. There are many things not covered by freedom of speech that some people think are.

People need to learn what constitutes free speech to protect them from finding out later by getting in trouble. This will be aimed at everyone, although more specifically to those who are uncertain the true meaning of the freedom of speech that we are given as Americans. Key challenges in preparing my argument are finding specific events that showcase people being tried for something they said.

In researching this paper I will use websites that overview freedom of speech, and also articles that give examples of precedence of when freedom of speech does not apply to a crime. Also, I will use arguments made by other people to have an understanding for both sides of the argument.

To write this argument, I will use a conventional research essay so that it is open for everyone to read, and also because there is not any one group that this is geared towards, but more the American people in general.

Sources

2/7/06

Responded to ErockBlog definition proposal.

2/12/06 TheDrizzleDefinitionPaper

2/16/06 Evaluation Paper Proposal

This year, Penn State has one of the best recruitment classes in the country. There are two things that make up a good recruiting class, and those are getting high quality players, but more importantly getting them at needed position. Our recruits from top the bottom this year fit into those categories, and it leaves a lot of excitement for the future. Six of our incoming freshmen for next year at in the top 10 for their respected positions, and three of this six are in the top five. PSU Commits The nittany lions had a lot of holes to fill this year with the excessive number of players graduating. There was a glaring need for defensive linemen, and we pulled a good haul, with five top 30 linemen, including both a top 10 defensive end, and a top 10 defensive tackle. Also, with the departure of Michael Robinson we had room for another quarterback, and we got a very good prospect at that position. Although we already have three young, stud wide receivers, we are getting another in this class, however, Chris Bell will be helpful to our offense because he is a strong, tall, possession receiver, who we didn’t really have.

Penn State has a very historical program when it comes to college football. However, the last decade we have fallen off the map when it comes to the top teams in the nation. Finally returning to recruiting prominence in the northeast, this class, along with our young wide receivers, will help return Penn State to its past level of success.

2006 Signing Class. Rivals.com. http://bwi.rivals.com/commitlist.asp?year=2006&school=61

Commits. Scout.com. http://scout.scout.com/a.z?s=157&p=9&c=8&yr=2006

“Recruiting Rankings don’t Mean Much.” Msnbc.com. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11030262/

“Signing Report: Class of 2006.” Scout.com. http://pennstate.scout.com/2/495736.html.

2/17/06 Response to the Declaration of Independence

The declaration of independence was written with a lot of feeling. The second paragraph really makes the declaration, and it does so well. It has of course the quote that almost all americans are familar with, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I appreciate that the founding fathers based our country around this ideal because it really should be universal rights for everyone in the world. I also liked how they listed the wrongs that England had done the colonies over the years. I really liked how they worded them for some reason.

2/19/06 Free Response

It is surprising to me how much attention recruits out of high school can get. These are 18 year old kids, and people wonder why some of them take the spotlight and run with it. What's even worse than that, is the reaction of some people when a recruit doesn't decide to go to their school. Hearing people wish injury on a teenager because he decided he liked another school better is downright ridiculous. It isn't just fans either, hearing people involved in the athletic departments at a major university bad mouthing a kid for selecting another school is pathetic, and there is a major problem if these acts continue.

2/21/06 Response to My America

I liked how this gave the perspective of someone who came to the US from Europe late enough in life to really see the subtleties of americans. He talks about a few of the things that many europeans don't like about americans, including our tendencies to be somewhat arrogant and how we contradict ourselves a lot. However, he says these with an understanding, he has lived her long enough that he is starting to see where americans are coming from in how they act. I like how it showed that although he was used to the ways of England, he was able to adjust and come to enjoy the ways of Americans.

2/24/06 Free Response

The entire Vidal Hazelton saga was a circus when it comes down to it. The kid never really wanted to go here, he chose USC in december, chose USC again on national signing day, and even though his dad did his best to get his son to come here, the kid never wanted to. However, that is not my complaint. Through this whole thing Vidal's father has seemed to cherish the limelight, and when signing day came, he embraced it more by refusing to sign his son's letter of intent drawing out the whole saga another two weeks.

2/26/06 Response to Rwanda and Sudan Articles

After reading these articles I'm starting to wonder what the UN is useful for anymore. It seems that whenever they try to do anything, they don't have the power to succeed in their goals. They couldn't stop the fighting in Rwanda, got turned away whenever a team went to Iraq to look for weapons, and are failing to do much about the Sudan conflict. The UN is made up of the most powerful countries in the world, they should be able to protect citizens of any country when genocide is happening, this isn't the case. I think the UN either needs to get more power, or needs to be abolished in favor of the creation of something that has the power to actually protect citizens that need it.

2/27/06 TheDrizzleEvaluation

3/1/06 Response to Political Leanings in Politics

Last year in high school we did a political spectrum worksheet and I ended up just left of straight moderate. That may be more because of my lack of passion for anything specific and not that I truly have both liberal and conservative ideals. As for leanings in the media, I remember the day we invaded Iraq a few years ago. I was home sick with the flu with little to do, so I watched the news all day through "shock and awe" and really noticed a big difference between stations. CNN, although seemingly supporting our action, definitely had some doubts and were being kind of critical of it. Meanwhile fox news was going crazy with the bombings and i remember them getting all worked up when finding out that we were dropping up to 10 bombs per minute.

3/16/06

Earlier today I was watching the World Baseball Classic, where there was yet another bad call by the umpires that benefitted team USA. This is getting ridiculous. So far team USA has been a big disappointment, and now other people have grounds to start inquiries into whether or not games are being called in favor of the americans. Also, the classic should have tried harder to get MLB umps to take care of the games, the currently employed umps have little professional baseball umpiring experience, and have so far not done a good job officiating the games. I hope the US gets eliminated at some point, because otherwise there will be a great deal of controversy surrounding the outcome of the tournament.

3/20/06 TheDrizzleCausal

3/22/06 Proposal Paper

Developed in 1998, the Bowl Championship Series was intended to be the last system needed for college football. However, the BCS has proved to not be the perfect system that it was made out to be when first introduced. This is because no poll system will ever be able to choose undisputed champions all the time. The press look for ways to disagree with the current BCS, and in the past went as far as to crown a second national champion in 2003 making the USC Trojans and LSU Tigers co champions.

The only way to achieve an undisputed champion is to institute a playoff system. This would eliminate the majority of the argued flaws with the current system. Having a playoff would eliminate the chance of a very deserving team being left out of the championship game. The chances of more than a few teams going undefeated is very small, but three teams being undefeated is a lot more likely and has caused controversy in the past. The currently BCS will only work without controversy when the top two teams in the standings have a better record than the third team due to analysts enjoying the controversy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowl_Championship_Series

http://www.sportsfansofamerica.com/FansInAction/Football/playoffs1.htm

3/26/06 Definition of Stigmergy

Introduced by Pierre-Paul Grasse, stigmergy is a term for the cooperation of insects. Grasse discovered that the insects didn't communicate to one another to coordinate building, instead the insects work due to changes in the environment. Grasse studied termites and found that when building a nest, the nest dictated actions of each individual termite instead of communication between the individual builders.

4/2/06 Response to A Modest Proposal

I enjoyed reading a modest proposal due to the outrageous solution it proposed. However, being satire it’s not meant to be taken in a literal way but the Swift’s point is still obvious. At first it may seem like Swift doesn’t like Irish Catholics, however, the opposite is true. He recognizes the extreme poverty that is affecting many people in Ireland, and he makes a ridiculous proposal on how to fix things. His argument is finally realized at the end of the proposal, where he says his proposal may not be the best solution, but there has yet to be a better one and new solutions need to be thought up.

4/3/06 TheDrizzleProposal

4/4/06

I was watching 24 last night when my roommate came in and started talking about how some kids set fire to newspapers in pinchot hall and threw it in the elevator and hit all the buttons. My first though of it was how ridiculously stupid can people be. Even if the fire was contained in the elevator and had no chance of spreading, there was the chance that it could set off the sprinkler system causing a ton of damage. However the story wasn't the worst part of the conversation. After my roommate said that he thought it was "sweet" and that "we should do that too." Now, that was the dumbest thing I had heard in a while. He stated his reason being that now pinchot was getting a new elevator. Thats all fine and dandy but for now they don't have an elevator and being a tower with 10 floors, not having an elevator can really be annoying. He then said that we could do it during finals, that way we don't have to be without an elevator for a while. Awesome, that would mean I could move out all my stuff, from the 9th floor, down the stairs? Sign me up! Pinchot may be getting a new elevator, but an elevator is an elevator. It wont be some super cool high tech elevator that is 10 times as fast, it will be for all intents and purposes the same as the elevator that was just destroyed so doing something as stupid as setting a fire in an elevator to get a new one, is just a horrible horrible idea. All this even ignores the fact that you are committing a crime by doing so and there will be legal ramifications.

4/9/06 Final Paper Proposal

The BCS is the latest in a line of systems to attempt to crown a national champion in college football. The original system was intended to allow for a single champion, however, the underlying make up of the system was flawed. Since then, there have been multiple reforms, sometimes changing the name, and others just tweaking minor logistics of the selection criteria. The lack of success of such changes has been very evident in the last few years. Over ten years after the system was first introduced in 1992, the multitude of changes still left co-champions in both 2003 and 2004. Although 2005 had the system work as intended, the circumstance needed to do so could have played out different. What if Penn State didn’t lose to Michigan? Or else, what if Southern Cal did lose to Notre Dame? Both scenarios would have caused a big problem yet again for the ever controversial BCS. The BCS will work under one condition, two teams, and only two teams, need to have a record better than that of the rest of the teams in division I-A. Such a circumstance has proven rare for the BCS, and in turn has made evident the major flaw of the system. For this reason, there needs to be a playoff instituted. Currently, playoffs are run in all divisions in college football besides division I-A, and such systems have not been harmful to those divisions. Such a playoff would only need 8 teams to prove successful in its goal, and because of that would not cause a large strain on the current system.

4/22/06

After the blue and white game today I watched "Wolf Creek". I really didn't like the movie at all. The first 50 minutes we were sitting there asking "whens it going to get scary?" After about an hour the real "horror" started, but even then it was pretty predictable and bland. Kids travelling, run into car trouble, guy offers to help if they'll go back to his farm, same guy turns out to have a fetish for killing people. It wasn't too surprising. Also, the end was very anti-climactic. There were 3 kids who were kidnapped and tied up, one of the girls escapes and finds the murderer messing with her friend (another girl). She then saves her friend and they steal the car and drive off. He follows, and they run back to try to find their other friend. The whole time you see the two girls, and their attempts to escape. Finally with 5 minutes left you see their friend wake up, see where he is, get himself free, and walk away and have people on the road drive him to the hospital. That was all you saw the guy after they were kidnapped.. kind of sucked.

4/24/06

Today I started to study for my MATH 220 final (matrices) and I've reminded myself of my dislike for this class. I was usually the kid defending math and saying it had more uses than most people would realize, but with matrices, I fail to see its use really anywhere. So far the extent of what we did that seemed useful was solving systems of equations, and then some vector stuff commonly used for physics. All this other stuff just seems pointless, eigenvalues, nul and column space, orthogonal vectors? Where will this ever come in handy? Granted I've never been a fan of matrices, I'm more of a calculus person, but this class is just ridiculously annoying and pointless in my mind.

4/24/06

24 resumed their killing off of main characters today with having secretary of defense Heller drive off a cliff. This season has been insane with the number of past main characters they killed off. Heller may not have been integral into this seasons plot, he played a huge role last year, and I was surprised that they had him killed. Between him, president Palmer, Edgar, Tony and Michelle, they've really been cutting out past important people. Hopefully the killing is almost done because I don't think theres a whole lot of other people that they can kill off and still have the show be as good as it is.

4/26/06

Last night Brett Favre decided to return for another season. Although a lot of people think that it was a bad idea and that he may continue to tarnish his career, I disagree. Last year he was a victim of circumstance. At the beginning of the season he looked sharp, probably the best he had looked in years. The problem is when you've lost half your offensive line, you lose 2 of your top 3 receivers, and all your top running backs, the offense will struggle. Considering the hardship the packers went through, Favre did a good job of keeping them in a lot of games. For a team that had a very poor defense, and a decimated offense, losing 5 games by 3 points or less, and winning 4 games, means that they were real close to having a winning record. Couple that with the fact that the nfc north is a very weak conference and Favre may be in the playoffs this season.

4/27/06

With the NFL draft coming up this weekend the theories and rumors are running wild. Word has it that the texans may be passing on Reggie Bush in favor of Mario Williams (a defensive end from NC state). I would honestly be surprised if that happened though. Although I didn't see many USC games last year, I did watch the Fresno State game where bush had 400 some yards. Thats an insane number and Bush was the reason they won that game. I know that may not extend into the NFL and theres no guarantee that he will be able to do much with the huge jump in level of talent between college and the pros. Guess we will find out saturday.

4/28/06

While taking a break from studying and writing my final essay, I decided to watch Hostel. I saw it in theaters so I knew what I was getting into, but I am still astonished with what can be put into a movie with an R rating nowadays. The first 40 minutes or so has more nudity than most movies I have seen in a while, but then after that it gets even worse. The extent of the gruesome acts depicted in this movie is crazy. You see a toe get cut off, an eye ball get pulled out and it hanging out of the eye socket, holes drilled into people, and it continues from there. I admit that i like that ratings are getting more relaxed over the years, because it allows more movies to hit theaters with less changes due to them having to meet a certain spec given to them by the ratings board. Although really creepy I did really enjoy the movie, but it certainly isn't for the faint of heart.

4/29/06 12:54pm

The draft started a little under an hour ago, but the first pick had been known since late last night. The texans passed on Bush and took Williams instead, I am still amazed they did that. You can't guarantee either player will be great in the NFL, but I still think Bush is the better of tbe two. A defensive end going to the nfl is tough, because they go from rushing against lighter freshmen/sophomore offensive tackle to rushing against really strong 350 lb offensive tackles who are stronger and have seen all the fakes and tricks that williams could use. Guess we will just have to wait a few years and see how it turns out. Back later to rant about or applaud the Eagles pick.

4/29/06 1:37pm

With the 14th selection of the 2006 NFL draft the Philadelphia Eagles select Brodrick Bunkley, DT, Florida State

I was very surprised that Bunkley fell to us at 14. Had things fallen different he easily could have gone in the top 10. I am real excited though, 44 reps in benchpress of 225 pounds is insane, this guy is a beast. Heres to hoping that the eagles can keep making good picks (and of course getting lucky) for the rest of the draft. Oh and if Tamba happens to fall into the second round I really hope that we are able to draft him, cause if so I will buy that jersey instantly.

4/29/06 8:52pm

The eagles just made their final pick of the day getting Cris Gocong out of Cal-poly who is a defensive end, but apparently they may be trying to put him at linebacker. Kind of a reach and a huge waste considering that we traded up to get him. However our 2nd pick of the draft, Winston Justice out of USC was projected in the top 20 overall, and we got him at 37 due to him having some legal troubles. Legal troubles or not, we got 2 top 15 talent players in the first 2 rounds so for the draft I am happy, and regardless of what they do with the rest of the draft, this will be their best draft since 2002. And Kem in case you're wondering why I started blogging so much its because I realized that I was probably a little short in the number of blogs I had.

4/30/06

The draft is finally completely over and the eagles had an amazing draft. I was somewhat surprised that tamba was the only penn state player to go in the first day, but round 4 had both robinson and lowry going in the early round. Anwar didn't even get drafted which surprised me. He had a really good senior both with an interception and a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown, but i guess thats life. At least now he will be able to go try to join a team that is in a big need for a corner back and hopefully make the team. Also, finally finsihing up my final essay which i will probably be posting later.

4/30/06

TheDrizzleFinal

There you go, the final essay has been posted. Meaning that I think this will be my last blog also (hopefully I have enough). Good luck with the move Kem and have a great summer. Oh and Kem I just thought of this, since you seem to like using tabs, if you middle click on a link (click the mousewheel) it opens the page in a new tab. also middle clicking on a tab will close that tab.