Now with 200 channels!

About two weeks ago, we had DirectTV (or whatever it's called) installed at our house. At Thanksgiving lunch with my dad's family, one of my uncles asked about it. Apparently, he had been thinking about getting it as well. My dad then constructed his opinion as to why he should cancel Comcast (our cable provider) and switch to DirectTV. My dad gave his story about his last encounter with the Comcast workers. Apparently, we had been unable to receive our basic channels, such as ABC, and my dad called them. They told my dad they could reset his cable box. We don't have cable boxes because our TVs can support it without the box, and the boxes cost extra. My dad informed them of this, and they told him that there was nothing they could do about it. My dad calmly stated "alright." and hung up. *Note: My dad has a short temper, so the fact that he didn't blow up on the phone is a surprise to me.* He then got online and started comparing prices for satellite tv companies, such as Dish Network and DirectTV. After some calculations, he discovered that after getting the 200 channels package and getting satellite boxes in all 4 of the rooms with TVs in them, he would only be paying $2 extra a month than what we are paying for 50something channels with Comcast. He then called DirectTV, ordered it to be installed at the house, and as soon as it was installed, he cancelled Comcast. My uncle then decided that next time Comcast gives him trouble (which will most likely be very soon), then he will be doing the same thing.
Here is what I observed:
-My dad used a personal story to tell his point, which gives him credibility, since we have Direct TV at home.
-My dad used the appeal of cost. He showed that, while Direct TV is slightly more expensive, you get more for your dollar.

What I'm Thankful For

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so I thought I would list all the things I am thankful for. :]

My amazing boyfriend, Cale. He has put up with me for almost 2 1/2 years now. Someone that can put up with me on a daily basis must REALLY care about me.
My friends back home, who are always anxious to see me when I come back to Lafayette for a visit.
My family, who is always excited to have me home and are always looking out for my well-being.
Being invited and able to go to two different Thanksgivings, one not even being your own family. Lunch with my own family, then dinner with Cale's family made it a beautiful day.
Having a roof over my head and knowing I have somewhere to go to eat, sleep, and shower every day. There are many people that don't have anything, and I am truly blessed to have these amenities.
The acceptance and warm welcoming of Cale's family towards me. It's great to know his family truly cares for me and basically treat me like one of their own.
Being able to go to Ball State on a scholarship. This time last year, my parents were still going to make me go to Purdue whether I wanted to or not, and the fact they let me go here is a blessing in itself.
The technological advances that have been made that makes living the way it is today, such as cars, television and movies, music listening devices, cell phones, etc.
Everyone in my life so far, past and present, that has influenced me to become what I am today. You guys are the best <3

At the place where I belong...

As a few of you already know, I left for Thanksgiving break on Friday. I've been spending a lot of time with my family and my boyfriend. On Saturday, I was a part of an event from my old high school called bowl-a-palooza, where we bowl to raise money for various charitable causes. We didn't have as good as a turnout as we did last year, but there were still quite a few people. It was really fun getting to see all my friends that I hadn't seen in a while.
I hope you all are having fun still in school! xD



Yeah, I know, this picture doesn't have to do with anything. I just like it. :]

Best.Monday.EVERR!

Ohh, Mondays. Not many people like them. They're just like the Bangles song, "Manic Monday."



Strangely enough, my Monday has been anything but manic. First, a girl from my COMM 210 class randomly ate breakfast with me at the Atrium. She saw me eating by myself and asked to join me. I said yes and we talked for a good 40 minutes. It was really nice.
The day only progressed from there. Today was the canned food drive for COMM 210, and we could donate 10 cans for 10 extra credit points. Never passing up an opportunity to get extra credit OR help those in need, I bought ten cans of fruits and vegetables and donated them to Muncie Mission.
During COMM lecture, we went over next week's schedule. We were told that if we did not have any speeches to make up, we did not have to come to class that week. It made me really happy, since I don't have to make up any speeches. I had heard that she was thinking of canceling class, and I told my mom. She said if I didn't have that class next week, then she would let me skip next week. I'm super pumped to go home early. My best friend Abbie is going to adopt me on Sunday night/Monday and let me be a boilermaker! Well, kind of. I'm stalking...er...I mean following her to her classes. It'll be fun. :]
When I got back from my classes, I got an email from my Ross Tutoring coordinator, saying that she is sick and that we will not be tutoring today. This made me happy because my day is officially done!
What am I doing tonight?
Here is my plan: Work on English papers and my EDEL reflection.
What is more likely to happen? Watch TV, surf the internet, and talk to people online...you know, putting everything off.
We'll see what happens.
Have a good week everyone!
-Emily

Is the grass greener on the other side?

As a blog assignment, Professor McArdle told us to propose a contradicting argument to the one that we wrote about in our public writing pieces. Here is mine:

Getting rid of half days was the best thing this state has ever done. Children out and about on regular school hours causes much havoc to local businesses that do not normally deal with them during the day. During these half days, students are more liable to get into fights and make bad decisions, because they have so much extra time.
More importantly, students are now getting more classroom time. In many school districts, a half day would be seen as an "easy day" and students would not learn anything. Elementary students would just goof off while middle school and high schoolers would have shortened periods, which would barely give the teachers enough time to get started on a lesson before it was time to go to another class. Although teacher inservice is now virtually impossible, many teachers would complain about them anyway. They seem to find them boring and pointless. Getting rid of the half days now gives the teachers more time for instruction instead of wasting their time in a place they would rather not be.

Apparently, I don't exist?

Over the weekend, Cale and I went to one of his school dances, called the Sunshine dance. While we were there, we ran into his friend Seth and his girlfriend Hannah. I had met Hannah once or twice before, but I had never met Seth. They went on to do something and we went into our group of dance friends and stuff and the dance carried on as normal. However, yesterday Cale talked to Seth. Apparently, Seth thought I didn't exist. Hello?!?!?!?! We have been dating for almost 2 1/2 YEARS! He seriously thought that Cale had made my myspace and facebook accounts to make himself look good. How can this kid be so naive? Cale has pictures of me in his wallet, on his phone, and there are a bunch of pictures of us together on both of our myspaces and facebooks. Hannah has even told him that she has met me before. But whatever, I guess. It's his loss. I also feel pretty good about myself to prove him wrong, even if it was just showing up to a dance.



It just blows my mind to how oblivious some people can be...

Syllabus Assignment.

English 103 Course Goals:
English 103 introduces students to the fundamentals of rhetoric; to the elements, strategies, and conventions common to persuasion; to the use of those elements, strategies, and conventions in the construction of their own persuasive visual and verbal texts. Upon completion of English 103 students will:
1: I think we have shown this in our multimodal projects, as we introduced placing pictures with text in order to persuade people of our belief.
2: We learned how to arrange our writing to fit the audience we are aiming for.
3: We learn, through different types of papers we have done, that we all have effective and ineffective writing techniques.
4: We form our own opinions on our papers, and we gradually add more support to our writing as to what we believe, such as in our This I Believe paper.
5: We do this through researching and backing up our ideas, such as we do in our multimodal and public writing papers. We have learned about the beautiful invention that is the library and its lovely database.
6: We have learned through peer and intensive reviews to think about what they are rhetorically trying to say and help think of ideas they might not have thought of before.
7: We have written many drafts and had many other people read our drafts and help us with our errors.
8: We will not blame others for our bad grades (if we get any) and we will learn to manage how much we want to work on a certain assignment.
9: We have our peer review groups that we work with on a routine basis and help each other with our writing skills.

Course Content and Format:
The content and format of English 103 are designed to enable students to achieve the course goals; specifically, students in English 103 will:
1: We did this with our rhetorical analysis paper. We responded to various songs and commercials and broke them down to find out what they really mean.
2: We give critiques on peer's papers and how they do or do not achieve what they are trying to say.
3: We fully analyze papers constantly, such as in intensive reviews. When someone gives a very good observation/idea, we expand on it during class time to help the student.
4: We implement everyone's critiques in our various drafts of our papers. We each get at least 3 student reviews and Professor McArdle's review each time.
5: We tweak the way we write a paper in order to fit our audiences.
6: Through our rhetorical analysis paper, we were able to make sense of other people's writing and what they were saying to us.
7: With each paper and blog we write, we are using different modes of media and research to tell our point.

University Core Curriculum Goals:
The central purpose of University Core Curriculum is to enable men and women to live rich and satisfying lives and to undertake the broad responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. Although The University Core Curriculum seeks to discover and nurture individual talents, its primary emphasis is preparation for roles people share as human beings and as members of family and community groups. Thus, students will be able to:
1: We have learned not to be intimidated by the man :]
2: We have learned to compose various writing that lets us speak at a more mature level. We have learned to communicate with our classmates and Professor McArdle though reviews and conferences.
3: We have learned not to sound offensive in our papers.
4: We do this in our public writing paper by coming up with solutions to ideas we think are not good.
5: We have worked with other students on a small-group basis and are able to bounce ideas off each other in order for them to solve questions within their paper.
6: We have learned how to utilize our strengths and how to make our weaknesses stronger.

Happy Belated Halloween!

Ahh, halloween... the time of year where little kids go around in some random costume and knock on stranger's doors and ask for candy. As we grow older, we tend to find halloween a little bit... different...as shown in this Mean Girls clip:



I will never understand why girls will dress like that. It's so demeaning... anyway...

Last Wednesday, Noyer had an event where little kids could come around the dorm rooms and trick-or-treat. I went to my friend's dorm in my costume (I was a ladybug!) and we handed out trick-or-treat goodie bags that I made. I made 60, but they were gone within the first half hour. My friend went and spent some dining plus to get a bunch of little debbie snack, and they were gone in another half hour. We finally gave up and closed the door, but we ended up giving out treats to over 120 kids! It was really fun to see all the costumes the little kids came dressed in.
This year, my boyfriend actually still wanted to go trick-or-treating (he's having issues with letting that part of his childhood go.) We ended up driving back to Lafayette for the evening and stopped by his house to get dressed. We showed his parents and his mother started smiling really big at my outfit (she had a brain aneurysm last year and still has not gotten all of her functions back,) and his dad told me I looked really pretty. Afterwards, he wasn't sure if he wanted to go trick-or-treating anymore. We called up a friend of mine and we sat at her house and helped pass out halloween candy. We then stopped by my parent's house and visited my neighbors. Around 9:30, we headed back to school. We were going to go to late nite and get candy there, but we decided to go to ihop instead...it was totally worth it.
Overall, I'm really glad my halloween turned out the way it did. I hope everyone else had a great halloween!