Final Blog.

I feel like this course has helped me develop different skills in writing that will help me prepare for future writing classes, and other writing in my lifetime. This class has taught me a lot using the grammar tutorials and fun ways to find creative writing through stumble upon and blogger. I think That using blogger was a great way to develop these new writing tactics, from being a part of the 21st century. I think that if this class was an actual writing class with pen and paper writing assignments that it wouldn't have been as beneficial to myself. I like the way that this class has adapted to our generation and used technology to develop skills while we could have fun doing so.

One specific thing that I have never been the best at in writing is probably spelling, and proper grammar. Thanks to spell check I didn't have this problem with this course because it was on a computer. In this class the grammar lessons we had to complete were an easy way to quickly understand and be able to apply it in our next blogs. Using blogs that we previously created we were able to correct them seeing where we made mistakes and be prepared to apply it to our future blogs. I liked being able to complete these grammar blogs, because we could pick and choose what lessons we thought we needed help with. I chose lessons that I wasn't familiar with and learned different ways to make my writing better. Although sometimes I completed the lessons I found that I didn't make the mistake in my blogs that I needed to correct.

The thing that I'm most proud of creating in intro to writing is my mid term Prezi project. I liked this project because It gave me the opportunity to tell someone my story that i've struggled with for a short, but devastating time of my life. Although I had some technical difficulties in the Prezi software, I had the chance to do a lengthy and full process of me writing "The Blessing in Disguise. This project was a lot of work for me, but I didn't have a shorter version that could cover everything that I have been through. One thing I could have done better in is rereading my blogs. After rereading some of them I saw that I made some mistakes that I shouldn't have made. I think that most of these mistakes were made by distractions in class, or typing errors because I'm always too focused on typing fast and not efficiently. 

As a whole I think that this class has been very beneficial to me. I enjoyed the way that the class is very laid back and we are giving assignments with a specific due dates. This class may not have been teacher instructive, but the way that it was set up using blogger and Saki I found was perfect. This class can either be a pass fail course, I found that some of my class mates got distracted with other internet sites and social networks.   

My final thoughts of this class is that it was a great learning process and I liked the way it was set up. The only thing that I was confused about was the way things were graded. Other than that I am glad to be a part of Intro to writing.

 

Parallel Structure!

I COMPLETED ANOTHER GRAMMAR BLOG! This parallel structure tutorial was something that I've never heard of also, but once I read through the examples I knew what it was. I've never heard it called a "parallel structure". After I completed reading the definition and reading their given examples I figured out why it was called a "parallel structure" I don't think that I make this mistake to commonly in my writing, but I think it helped me develop a new smooth way of writing. This tutorial was very helpful, because not only did it show me how to find the errors in the sentence, but it showed me how to correct it. This tutorial is great and got to the point very quickly and easily. Using the red corrections I think was beneficial for someone to visually see where are how they made the changes in the sentences. 


After completing all six of my grammar blogs I think I've become a better writer and more self conscious about the skills of my writing. Knowing about this website produced by Bedford/ St. Martin's is very helpful to anyone that would need hep with any specific skill in writing. I think that the way they created their website and tutorials is a fast way of helping someone, or clarifying a confusion someone would have while writing. If I have any questions on how to form a sentence while I'm writing, I will definitely come back to this website as a helpful source. 

Comma splice!

After completing another grammar blog, this one one was one that I've never heard of through out completing middle school and high school. After I completed reading the definitions and examining a few of the given examples I figured out what a "comma splice" was. Comma splices are probably something I'm not the strongest in and I could use some work on in this skill of writing. The use of commas can be tricky to some people if you don't know where to put them or if it should be a period or not. The majority of the time I have a good Idea where to put them, but sometimes I put them in unnecessary places. This tutorial I think has been a lot more helpful than the other grammar blogs I have completed. In this grammar blog there were different examples to use and compare that clarified what a comma splice was in an easy short way. I think that this website is useful for myself and any others wanting to check up on how to perfect their writing.

PHOTOBLOG!

I visited a very interesting photography blog. This blog didn't have the normal entries, but to a photographer the blog was full of great information. The blog had many pictures that you could scroll through and when you clicked on the photographs it gives you the whole run down on how the photo was created. When you clicked on each of the photos that jumped out to you, it would show- captured, camera, lens, focal length, aperture, shutter speed, shooting mode, exposure bias, metering mode, IOS, flash, image quality, raw converter, or if it was cropped. Not only did this blog show exactly how the pictures were taken, the blog also had tutorials on how they edited the photo in photoshop. I found that the most helpful too see what type of tules artists use in photoshop, because there is so much that it's hard to discover with just ones self. I also enjoyed that there were free downloads of trial software that you could test and apply to your photos to see how each artist used the software to apply them to their plain photographs. Another feature I liked about this blog was it showed the original photo before the editing and the comments were supportive and helpful to the artist. The only thing that I didn't enjoy about this blog was that it was based of the artist's website, and it was hard to find. It was a little confusing to me when I first visited the website, but once I figured it out I kept coming back to see different techniques of photographs, digital imaging, and digital editing. 

Tutorial for Word Choice

I just completed the tutorial for word choice. This advanced tutorial I think was better than the other ones I've completed this far. The examples that were given were really good. The way they showed the incorrect, and correct ways were very helpful and clear, using almost the same sentence. When I went to my google recorded blog, I listened to it again and I didn't think that the word choice was in effect during my blog as it was in the examples given in the tutorial. I also think that the examples of the formal writing doesn't exactly apply to the type of blogs we've been writing so far. In this class for future thoughts an idea to practice formal writing would be to write a letter to someone famous, or to a teacher that you've had in the past telling them how your college experience has been for the first semester.

Fragments.

After scrolling through the intermediate Fragment PowerPoint, I found that I didn't have any of these errors in my google recorded blog. I think that if anyone had confusion on sentences the fragment PowerPoint would help clarify their confusion. This PowerPoint wasn't in the best form of helping someone that is very confused, but to me it got the point across fast. The PowerPoint was supportive, but it could have used some more examples and answers that were't immediately there.

Run on sentence.

After completing the intermediate run on sentence PowerPoint, I came to conclusion that I've made a mistake like this in my recorded blog. My mistake wasn't as bad as the examples in the PowerPoint, but I found myself correcting the sentence anyway. I found it harder reading the blog in my head and finding the run on sentences. Recording the blog and hearing myself speak really helped deciphering the run on sentences. This PowerPoint has helped me developed a self conscious tactic of rereading my sentences more as I go to see if I have created a run on sentence.

As part of an intermediate level of learning run on sentences I don't think that it was at the level intermediate, or I'm confused on what the diffuclity level they are based on. I think that that PowerPoint was helpful, but it wasn't very clear on explaining how or why they were run on sentences. The PowerPoint just pointed with an arrow where the mistake was.

BLINK 182!

BLINK 182 is my favorite band. I've been listening to their music for as long as I can remember, and I still love their older music. Their album they currently just released "Neighborhoods" is what I've been currently been listening to the most. The Majority of their songs I can relate to myself, or they are just really good and funny. The band consists of three members, Travis Barker (drummer), Tom DeLong (vocalist/guitarist), and Mark Hoppis (vocalist/bass guitarist). Travis Barker is my favorite in the band because I love percussion, and Travis is the best drummer in the world. Although these three musicians are very talented the bad started in 1992 and broke up in 2005 from not getting along. All three of them separated creating their own bands such as "+44+, "Angles & Airwaves", and "Box Car Racer." I was very upset when the band broke up, because it was all I would ever listen to. Eventually the bad got back together by fate. In 2008 Travis barker was on a plane when it all of a sudden crashed in South Carolina due to technical difficulties. Mark and Tom heard about the awful news and decided to visit Travis in the hospital. When Travis recovered the visit at the hospital turned into a reunion. Things fell into place and the band eventually got back together. After they got back together they started to collaborate and develop new music and planed world tours. This September I was given the chance to see them in concert in Charlotte, North Carolina. Not only did I just see them in concert, I was in the front row right against the stage. It was one of the best concerts I've ever been to and it was the most fun I've had in a while. At the concert they played songs that were off there new album that wasn't released at the time. It was great to see my favorite bad in concert and so up close. I cried a little and sang my guts out at the concert!

AMAZING PUMPKIN CARVING ARTIST

About a week ago in New York Botanical Garden, an amazing pumpkin artist, Ray Villafane presented his carving out of a huge pumpkin. Ray used two pumpkins in the process of building this magnificent pumpkin creation. The first pumpkin was 1,683 pounds based on top of of a 1,815.5 pound pumpkin. Ray used his first large pumpkin to carve a large zombies. The detail of the zombies were how I would vision  zombies, and the use of the guts of the pumpkin on their head and hands I think is a great way to add detail. The zombie crawling theme of the pumpkin carving was perfect for Halloween, many zombie lovers thought the theme was very appropriate. I wish I could have gotten the chance to visit Botanical Garden to see the worlds biggest pumpkin carved. I enjoyed stumbling upon this because I'm an artist myself, with the specialty in sculpture. I liked to see what different types of material artist create their final pieces out of, wether it be out of clay, steel, or a rare short lasting pumpkin. Spending hours on this giant pumpkin zombie carving I would really be upset when the pumpkin started to rot. Hard work like this is only going to last in a photograph and just visited in a park. As the pumpkin rots, however I think the zombie would look more dead and have more death zombie characteristics. Maybe next Halloween instead of just carving faces, and designs into my pumpkin I'll take more time and create something like this. Seeing more artistic subject matter like this opens my mind to make my own creations.

CONFUSED WORDS!

After playing the "Confused Words" game I realized that some of the words in the English language are kind of hard to decipher without being in context. Having to choose a homonym under a time circumstance with letters all over the place is kind of tricky. I scored just under a perfect score the first time I played, but after playing it again with practice I got a perfect score. I would recommend this game to anyone that has trouble with words that sound the same, but have different meanings, and spelling. This game doesn't tell you in context what word to use, but I think it will help you be more self conscious on what words to use when you're writing. The purpose of this game is to find the words that you confuse, such as words most commonly confused such as their, there, and they're. After playing this game, in the index it gives you the words that you commonly have a miss understanding.

NCTE Defines Writing

After reading "NCTE Defines Writing for the Twenty-First Century" I thought they made some very good points about our generations' style of writing, mixing it up between social medias, and formal writing. They had great suggestions on how to better our generations poor writing skills and ways to improve upcoming generations. I found this article to be very repetitive and high hoped. After reading many blogs and articles with the same topic including how our generation's writing is poor I didn't find this article very entertaining. I believe that our generation is part of the future and technology can only improve from here. The article mentions that we need to develop a more public style of writing, but I personally thing that the authors writing articles and books on this topic are out dated. Our generation, I see as "short minded." We use different acronyms to shorten sentences to get our points across. We are already used to this style of writing and we are using it everywhere, why change it? Everything is going digital, so instead of changing our styles lets change/ improve our writing software. We use spellcheck "red underline", and suggested changes "green underline." My biggest question to this author is why this topic? Although we may not be using the "old writing style." Time has changed and I think that these authors need to get out of the past of what writing styles used to be and what they're evolving to.

The Dumbest Generation

"The Dumbest Generation" was based on different results on their generation explaining on how this generation is the "dumbest." Our generation isn't spending enough time reading per day according to critics   and studies. Instead, we're wasting our time on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. I find this story to be true, but I also don't agree that everything that was said. It mentions IQ of what we would be in the past, but I don't think they took into consideration of the technology that was available for them, and us. We may be reading digital, but that's just a part of our society. The main point of this article was to prove that our generation is the dumbest taking into facts that we're not reading enough during a day and basing each tests upon IQ measurements. They claim we're too busy juggling different email accounts, listening to music, watching T.V., and having two different virtual identities and not knowing enough about the wider world including civics, history, math, sciences, and foreign affairs. When the author of this article states that if someone from our generation takes an IQ test from a later year we would score lower, but if someone from a previous generation were to talk a IQ test for this generation they would score higher. I personally believe that if someone from the previous generation were to grow up with the amount of technology we have and take the same test what their score results would be. I also believe that it's not our generation that's the "dumb" ones. If anyone were to grow up with the amount of opportunities we are given, I think they would test around the same as us. I would like to ask the author if he ever took my statement into perspective. Also if when we are older would they still consider us to be the "dumbest".

EVER SO STRANGE!

After reading "Ever so Strange" I thought the blog was interesting. In this blog there were many videos with minimum writing. This blog is quite unique, however I was not impressed with most of the videos. After watching each video I thought to myself "What was the point of this." I didn't like that they didn't post why, or what they thought of the video after watching it. I did find interesting the post of the "Time-lapse  underneath a glacier" it was a rather boring video, but the facts that were given and the fast forward feature in this video was what I think made the video to be interesting. 


After watching several of the videos posted on this blog I'd like to ask the blogger why so many videos with no discussion. I think that if this blogger would like to improve this blog he/she could describe and reflect their views after watching each video. It would give the viewer a purpose of watching the video and find the reason and purpose of why they chose those videos to post. 


I personally think that the audience for this blog is anyone that is bored and wants to watch YouTube videos with no purpose. Or anyone that is interested in their categories listed at the bottom of the page. 

DON'T EAT IT....Or eat it, you MIGHT survive.

After enjoying reading "Steve, Don't Eat It." I've come to conclusion that Steve's style of writing is humorous and unique. While reading many different post I visualized the blog as a T.V. show just missing the body language of him gaging on his food, or even a radio talk show. I liked that Steve uses capital letters and underlines parts that he wanted to emphasize to his readers. I'd like to ask Steve what motivates him to try and eat disgusting food and if he's ever worried of eating something that could damage his body. I think it's great that he does it for a funny blog topic to show people that there is actually food out there that people, or animals enjoy eating. I think the audience are people that are curious to see what Steve will eat next just for the humor of his style of writing and how describes in major detail of the food in his mouth. What I liked most of Steve's blogging is that he would describe the food such as texture, color, smell and substances in the food, then describing the experience of tasting the awful sounding and looking food.   

What I found most alarming on "Steve, Don't Eat It." was Volume 8 Prison wine. The recipe to create wine, I found really disgusting and non sanitary. Straining the ingredients through a dirty sock and having moldy bread. It's called prisoner wine, because the prisoners are desperate enough to make watery flavored wine to get their "alcohol fix." It was how ever kind of cool how you can make alcohol with fruit snacks, moldy bread, and a dirty snack... and some other key ingredients!

Attendance

Throughout my life I have attended everything and anything possible. I guess I could thank

my parents for that because, well I didn’t have much of a choice of where we were going or what we were going to do. My parents want me to experience the most I can in life. If I say “no” they will say “yes let’s go”, so I go. If it was up to me I most likely wouldn’t have experienced half of the things I have done in my life thus far.

In elementary and middle school I used to brag to everyone that I’ve been from Hawaii, to Alaska twice, I’ve visited the entire east coast, Canada, and even had my birthday in Price Edward Island, and at a luau in Muai. Everyone would be so amazed. I also could tell many people that I’ve done various different types of sports and courageous events. I’ve done anything from gymnastics to parasailing and triathlons. If it wasn’t for my parents I wouldn’t be where I am today. The break of my leg set me back to zero. If all I experienced or knew hot to do was play soccer. Then I wouldn’t be playing any sports. In facet I don’t know what I would be doing with my life!

If I never competed and attended in the triathlons I did on a mountain bike I would never have known that I really wanted a road bike. In my sophomore year of high school I would have never had a conversation with my biology teacher of how I really wanted a road bike. My teacher told me that her husband was a domestic professional and he might have a bike just laying around for me. Without this talk I would not have found my loving passion for cycling. 

I didn’t spend my time playing useless video games, I spent it training and thinking of how someday I wish to be the best cyclist of my time. I think that if I want it bad enough that I can achieve my dream. This all can’t have happen though if I didn’t have parents that made me attend everything I could in my life.

Fall Break!

Fall break for me was kicked off by a 13 hour drive! My friend Iggy and I left Banner Elk, NC around 12:30. Having a friend in the car helped pass time better because It's a lot different than riding with your parents with them wanting them to talk to you for the whole time, instead of rocking out to music and making the car ride more enjoyable. Iggy was headed to Pennsylvania to his girlfriends house, and I was headed to exit 85B to Annesville, where I would meet my parents to take me the rest of my way home to Mexico, Ny. When we were almost to our exit I called my parents to ask them how far away they were, they said they are about an hour behind due to traffic. Iggy dropped me off at this restaurant called "Funks Restaurant". I ate dinner there and waited for about an hour and a half for my parents. After meeting my parents we took off and had another five hours to go until we got home.

While I was home I got to meet up with some of my close friends that go to Oswego State College, which is a college close to my home. They showed me their dorm and we ate at Fajita Grill which is my favorite  mexican restaurant ever. I also met this girl Tess, she's a pretty cool girl and we hung out a little bit through out break. We went to a hockey game, which is my second favorite sport. One of my best friends Brian Smith was also on fall break, so we hung out a lot and did the normal best friends type of things, such as walking the break wall on lake Ontario and eating at Cold Stone Creamery at one in the morning.
Being with my parents was entertaining, because I haven't seen them in a while. Normally my parents and I are close, but I got annoyed with them after a while. Now that I've been away for a while I find that it's harder to get annoyed with them and instead we had more fun.
The only bad part about my fall break, was that I had many doctor appointments because I haven't been feeling too well for about a month. After many tests the doctors figured out what was wrong and I'm feeling much better now.

After a short week of being home it was time to leave back to school again. I said goodbye to my friends, and I had another long ride ahead of me. I met Iggy at the same place and took off back to Banner Elk. This time we were driving in the dark and I think it made it seem like a much longer ride. We returned back to school around 9:30 and it felt great to get out of the car and stretch my legs. It also felt nice to unpack my stuff into my new single. Hopefully now with out a dirty roommate I can stay more healthy and not have to worry about getting sick again.

Over all I'd say that my small "vacation" back home was great, but I don't think I'm excited to go back in December because there will be a lot of snow! And maybe next year I'll plan a head so I can be back in time for the Wooly Worm Festival!

The Blogs I've corrected!

Uncle Buck (1989).

The next perfect 10 years.

Video Games!

Prezi

After watching the different "what you will learn" videos on Prezi I got an idea of what these projects will look like. I think that using Prezi rather than PowerPoint, Prezi allows you to put a more personal touch to your work with more technical ways of presenting it rather than just slide after slide with mediocre transitions and effects in PowerPoint. After reviewing the project instructions writing about who I have been, who I am, and who I hope to become I have many ideas about talking about my past about breaking my leg and how it changed my looks on life and how it made me a better person. Telling someone that you just broke your leg they think "oh that sucks", but given this opportunity to share my story It will give my readers the thought that everything happens for a reason and how much good it has brought to my life. 

Video Games!

Although I'm not a big video game person, I did spend time at home with one of my friends playing Mario Kart Wii. Mario Kart Wii is a fun family racing game that everyone at any age can enjoy. This is a four player game and has multiple different characters, cars, and tracks you can choose from. You can even play online against everyone across the world playing live on many different courses. While playing the game you are given the opportunity to unlock different tracks and courses. Another fun feature on Mario Kart Wii is you can play with your friends on the same team. The higher you rank the more points you're rewarded. I think that playing on the team is a lot of fun, because while you're racing you're also battling the other team! According to Nintendo "it has been more than 15 years since the dawn of Mario Kart on Super Nintendo and the series is still going strong." Mario Kart comes with three Grand Prix speed Classes, the 50cc, 100cc, and the 150cc. With this game it also comes with a steering wheel the game and a guaranteed good time! Knowing that it's a Wii holding the steering wheel is like you are actually behind the wheel of Mario or Peach. Leaning with every turn and watching friends and family getting into the game is truly what makes this game the best for everyone.

Everyone is different!

Looking through my classmates blogs I saw that everyone has their own styles. Some are funny, some are serious, Some are just plain old LAZY! Most of the blogs that I've come across shows different styles in their background color, writing styles, and their interest. I really liked the Stumble upon assignment to see the variations of the interests some of my classmates stumble upon. I personally stumble all the time even before I was in this class and I always wondered what other people stumbled upon!

A day to remember.

Although mostly everyone couldn't tell you what they did last Tuesday, they could tell you what they did ten years ago on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Yesterday our country celebrated the ten year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Centers. It is hard to believe that only ten years ago I was sitting behind a desk as a little third grader in elementary school taking a spelling test when my teacher was handed a stack of papers that we had to bring home to our parents. I remember other kids in my class being picked up early by their parents and being one of the only kids left in the class. When I got home I remember repetitively watching the horrific film over, and over for no reason with my parents. After stumbling upon Pictures of 9-11 I thought this was a perfect opportunity to share the 10 year anniversary with my classmates. Do you remember exactly what you did on September 11th, 2001? I sure do.

Reading other blogs

After reading other fellow classmates blogs I realized that the use of proper grammar was not very well. Lot's of blogs didn't use capitalization, commas, periods, or contractions. I personally think that growing up in our generation communicating through computers are primarily made for informal chatting. Talking through AIM, Facebook chat, twitter, and also texting on mobile devices the users aren't focused on proper grammar. We have developed bad habits of wanting to get things sent as soon as possible using abbreviations. While viewing these blogs I witnessed the bad habits. I also noticed that some of the blogs the students didn't spend as much time and effort that other users such as myself did. I think that taking the time and reading over the blogs correcting small things like capitalizations can help improve their blogs and  make it look more professional. Also putting pictures with their blogs can help spark the interests of other readers. I am fairly happy with my blogs I can see that I have progressed from my first blog until my most recent posts. I have noticed that some of the topics are a little hard to write about. The topic of writing a story about one of our top three hero results was changeling for me so I tried to make a small funny poem because my top result was 85% Fool. I believe the more I blog the better I will become resulting in better posts and any advice from other classmates to help make my blog better are greatly appreciated.

Personality Archetype Quiz I'm 85% FOOL!

Once upon a time there was a little man named Dan.

He used to drink soda from a can.

He soon realized that Dan the man was a complete fool.

Drinking out of that made him look like a tool.

To solve the problem he changed his ways.

So he had no more tooth decays.

He had to go the extra mile.

So he could have that Holly Wood smile.

All it took was a little a little less drool.

But he was still a fool.

Then one day he met a girl named Fey.

And they rolled in hay all day. 

Uncle Buck (1989)

After a close family makes a decision to move away from family due to job issues the grandfather has a heart attack. The parents are left in a sticky situation on what to do with their three kids Tia, Miles, and Maszy. After moving away they don't have any one to watch their kids and their last resort is the husband's brother Buck. Uncle Buck is an overweight, out of work clumsy man that is very loving and now left to baby sit these three children. Throughout the movie Tia, a socially confused teenager faces problems with her family and sets away with her personal life making it hard to socialize with her very caring uncle. By the end of the movie Tia and Buck come together after a Buck does a favor for Tia. This movie is filled with adventure, love and many comedy events.

The movie Uncle Buck is one of my family's most favorite movies. Uncle Buck Is very quotable and will always keep you laughing and keeping you on your toes. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for an older fun movie with the class A actor John Candy.

The next perfect 10 years.

In a perfect world the next ten years for everyone is exactly what they think it's going to be. For me, the next ten years I can see myself already have gone through my four years at Lees-McRae college and graduated from college and a masters degree in communication arts. With this Major I'd be working for my own business creating webpages and logos for many different companies. Throughout these ten years I'd be training hard in cycling. With in these next ten years I wish to be a professional cyclist that has won many team and individual collegiate races. I also wish to have been on a elite youth 23 pro team racing in Europe and traveling around the world racing with my team. With all my training and accomplishments from graduating college winning national titles, being on a youth 23 team. The next perfect thing would to become a UCI professional cyclist riding with the most elite riders in the world. As a professional cyclist I can see myself winning many stages and Grand Tours bringing pride to my country. I've always had the vision of myself on top of the podium with the American flag on my back waving in the wind while our National Anthem is playing. Even though the next ten years isn't always about me I'd like to see my parents be very proud and supportive of my sister and I. My sister has already kicked off her dreams of competing in the Olympics and winning Gold. My sister Annie is on the USA shooting team and over the summer has competed in many Grad Prix and won many international titles. Over the next ten years I can see her achieving her dream of becoming the first American woman to go back to back Gold medal winner in International trap shooting. Everyone from our home town always says "You and your sister both will be the next best things." We both hope to live up to that. I always see my sister and I on the front of a magazine standing back to back looking down on the camera. Annie with her gun and me with my bike.

Why I'm at LMC

First Track Cycling Expierence.

Last Wednesday the Lees-McRae track cycling team traveled to Asheville North Carolina for our first practice on a track. This was my first time ever riding a fixed gear bike and the first time on a track. Riding a fixed gear took some getting used to and the fact of not having any breaks on the bike took some getting used to as well. The practice was intense doing intervals of sprinting around the track and long efforts riding close to my teammates. After learning the tactics about the track and tips and courtesy to other track riders I'm looking forward to traveling to Atlanta Georgia for a three day track camp where we will race and discover who will be on the 2011 track national team. My goal as a freshman is to do well in Atlanta and hopefully make the 2011 National team.  

Pirates? or Terrorists?

Pirates. Although we think of Black Beard, or Captain Jack Sparrow navigating through the great oceans by compass in the 1600s, Pirates are still in effect today. Throughout the years pirating has changed drastically. No longer are pirates searching for gold and gems, today they're looking to steal importing and exporting goods and hijacking ships.  Pirates interest me because of their rebellious lifestyles. As a child I would dress up as a pirate and take boat rides with my friends and family on lake Ontario. It's interesting to watch things like pirates evolve. Most people today think pirating is extinct, but it's actually happening not on the seas anymore. Musicians music and works are being pirated and leaked on illegal websites for free downloading. In this article it says "Somali pirates are becoming the masters of the Ocean". A further question I have about this article is how about do these pirates get away with most of their crimes. I would also recommend this article to anyone who is interested in modern day pirates. I find this article to be very trustworthy because the picture was leaked by U.S Navy.

Amazing new luxury submarine

This new interesting half boat, half submarine unit sparked my interest, because I live on lake Ontario and I think it would be very cool to have this new invention. Living on lake Ontario I am involved with many water sports and I own many boats. Having this new invention I would defiantly be the first one to have it on the lake. Although the view in the cabinet of this wouldn't be as interesting as launching it into the ocean I still would enjoy taking it out and hanging with friends. I would personally recommend this to anyone that is interested in new technology and marine life. This article shows fantastic pictures of this new invention, but what it doesn't state is if it's available for consumers. I believe this this article is trustworthy because many people have great inventions with great intentions. 

Why I'm at Lees-McRae college.

In my Junior year of high school I was recruited to Lees-McRae College to to ride for their cycling team. I've been racing bicycles for 3 years. I'm a road, and cyclocross rider. At Lees-McRae college I wish to get involved with track racing too. I got involved with cycling after a severe break to my leg in March 2009. I was originally a soccer player, but after breaking my leg during a soccer game I was given a road bike to help me recover. After I was fully recovered from the break I continued riding and started racing developing my love for cycling. Although I'm from Mexico New York, Banner Elk is the perfect place for me to train, dream, and achieve.