War in Afghanistan

Obama has committed to sending another 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. While acknowledging that their is still much work to be done in the country, Obama set a July 2011 deadline to begin withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Progress Journal

Spent about an hour finalizing jeapordy questions and figuring out what we are going to say as a pitch to begin our presentation.

War in Afghanistan

Afghanistan interior minister Hanif Atmar said security in Afghanistan has improved in some places but deteriorated in others. He is, however, still confident that the Taliban can be defeated. These remarks came as President Barack Obama moves closer to deciding whether or not to send as many as 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Progress Journal

We had our meetings today and got some good suggestions from Ms. Dighton about how to make our project more effective. We spent about 45 minutes outside of class discussing how to put those suggestions into reality and I then tried to find more useful information to go towards our jeapordy questions.

US military try to ban pictures of dead in Afghanistan

U.S. military commanders are trying to ban pictures of dead soldiers in Afghanistan. They are worried about the affects of showing these pictures and want them banned in order to control the message coming from the war zone. What message are we sending with war though? These pictures tell the true story of what is happening in Afghanistan and should not be banned.

Progres journal

Today we spent about 2 hours working on our proposal that is due in class tomorrow. We decided to do our project on nuclear weapons and decreasing their production.

Progress Journal

We spent an hour in class talking about our final project and I still don't know how we're going to do this. We haven't even picked a topic yet and when we do we're not going to know what to do with it.

NBA

So the NBA basketball season started last night with the Celtics beating the Cavs. Personally, I just don't think NBA basketball is what it used to be. Watch a college game and then an NBA game and notice the difference in the effort the players put forth. Too many players are too worried about how much money their making rather than the love of the game.

Obama on Afghanistan

The president is closing in on announcing a new military strategy for the war in Afghanistan. He was quoted as saying to a military audience that he would not "rush the solemn decision of sending you into harms way." He was also quoted as saying "I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary, and if it is necessary, we will back you up to the hilt." Obama made it clear that he would not be pressured into making a decision.

Why do we blog?

So I got on here after english class to do one of my two weekly blogs so I wouldn't forget, but when I logged on, I realized I had nothing to say. This led me to the question: Why do we blog? I personally do it just so I can get my points for the week.

Blogger Too?

So I just found out the other day that my mom managed to get on my blog site and read everything i've posted. Not that i've posted anything bad but I mean c'mon. First they get facebooks to check out our facebooks and now this? So mom if your reading this...this ones for you.

U.S. Mexico Border

This article is about setting up a border along the United States and Mexican border. $2.4 billion has been spent since 2005 and $6.5 billion would be needed to maintain the border over the next 20 years. Many people are against the building of the border because they beleive it is an ineffective way of taking care of the problem.


Works Cited
Wood, Daniel B. "Billions for a US-Mexico border fence, but is it doing any good?." Christian Science Monitor 19 Sept. 2009: 2. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 13 Oct. 2009.

Peer review question

I think the most helpful/useful question in our peer review assignment is the one that has to do with the thesis. The thesis is the base of any paper so a strong one usually gets you off to a good start. I was suprised, however, at how many people today had a weak thesis or didn't have one at all. I guess my senior AP english teacher taught us well.

Fantasy Football

How many of you play fantasy football? I think anyone that calls themselves a football fan should play. It gets you interested in virtually every game every week. Managing your roster and competing against your friends in a customized league is a lot of fun. I'm currently 3-1 in my 8 person heading into week 5.

Synthesis and Analysis

I just wanted to update everybody on my astonishing speed at accomplishing this paper. I've now been sitting with my laptop trying to get this paper started for 3 hours and have half a page written. An hour of that time was spent trying to find a different song to analyze but i ended up sticking with the same song. Is anybody else having trouble with this paper?

10 Interesting Facts

I stumbled upon a huge list of random interesting facts the other day and here are some I found that stood out from the others.

A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than a person.

1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire a strung across the U.S.

Bats always turn left when exiting a cave

Dogs and cats consume almost $7 billion worth of pet food a year.

Lightning strikes about 6,000 times per minute on this planet.

The average bank teller loses about $250 every year.

The highest point in Pennsylvania is lower than the lowest point in Colorado.

Taliban Still Major Threat

Its been nearly 8 years since since our troops in Afghanistan overthrew the Taliban leaders but the war against the Taliban is bloodier than ever. The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan informed the Wall Street Journal that "the U.S. death toll will remain high for some time as the Taliban have gained the upper hand." My dad is scheduled to come back from Afghanistan October 15th. He'll be here for two weeks but goes back for another 6 months after that to try and get the situation under control.

Ping Pong

I would just like to throw this out here as an extension of Brodie's completely false ping pong post. My roomate and I are keeping a running total of our ping pong outcomes as well and I am beating cory 29-6 at the moment. Now he's not bad don't get me wrong. But if i beat Cory 29-6 and Cory can handle Joe pretty easily, where does that leave Brodie?

John Lennon- "Imagine"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GAHFrLAxzM

Imagine there's no heaven

It's easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people

Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people

Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people

Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer

But I'm not the only one

I hope someday you'll join us

And the world will live as one

Ishmael Beah

I walked into Emens thinking that Ishmael's speech was going to be just another mandatory thing i had to attend. I walked out with a completely different feeling. Not only did I learn more about his personal memoir and memoirs in general, I found much of what he said to be very compelling, humorous, and highly interesting. I thought it was pretty cool how he said he used to cope with his war memories and other hardships by playing soccer for hours on end. Many kids today cope with their problems by escaping them through means of their respective sports or just exercise in general. I also found it interesting that he is still dealing with what he went through by bringing humor to many of the situations he spoke about. Many times throughout his presentation he would poke fun at the people he knew or make a joke about a certain situation he was in. All in all, I think his material was presented very effectively and was supported with many details.

War in Afghanistan

What are your thoughts on the war in Afghanistan? Are we winning? Losing? Should we even be there? In a recent poll taken by CNN, only 31% of Americans beleive the U.S. is winning the war in Afghanistan. 47% of Americans are in favor of the war. The recession, war fatigue, and frustration are all reasons for Americans to be wary about the war. Do you support it? I guess it just depends on close to home it hits for you.

Suspension

The university of Oregon suspended it's star senior running back, LaGarrette Blount for the rest of the season after punching one of Boise State's defensive ends in the jaw following their loss to the Broncos. I beleive that the punishment in this case was fitting seeing as how the university has given him numerous chances to clean up his act. As an NCAA player on a premier team it is the player's responsibility to keep a cool head and set a good example. If a player does anything short of this, I don't think they deserve to represent their team or their school.

Letters From Afar

It is getting harder and harder for troops in Afghanistan to stay in contact with their family back at home. The infrastructure in Afghanistan makes it nearly impossible for troops to e-mail or even make phone calls home. They are having to resort to tactics used before the advancement of technology allowed for e-mail and phone calls: snail mail. I can relate to this topic first hand since my dad is currently deployed in Afghanistan. I often go weeks at a time before I get a phone call from him and it is hard telling when and if he'll get access to e-mail. Letters have been our most reliable means of communication however. I've written him 4 or 5 times and recieved 4 or 5 responses. They are trying to expand internet access in the area but with the recent setbacks in the war it is hard telling how effective that will be.

Cooperstown

Home to baseball's hall of fame, Doubleday Field, and the most exciting baseball experience a 12 year old kid can ever dream of, Cooperstown, New York is a baseball haven. With rolling green mountains in the background, fields in pristine condition and enthusiastic parents and fans, this was the the perfect baseball atmosphere. With 64 teams from all around the country competing in a week-long tournament, you could feel the excitement and enthusiasm in the air. Cooperstown Dreams Park only further established the love i've had for the game of baseball since starting as a five year old at Southport Little League in Indianapolis.

Generation Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP6gXv4O7_8

The song Girls and Boys written by Good Charlotte, although after our proposed generation, is a good overall representation of the "trophy kids" as a whole. The opening line of the chorus, "girls don't like boys girls like cars and money," shows how highly our generation values money. The mention of getting vacations and shopping sprees at will demonstrate our generations unwillingness to work hard but still get what we want. Finally, the last portion of the song reading, "losing their souls in a material world," shows how advanced our technology has become and how engrossed we have become with it.