my birthday weekend and this week

My birthday weekend was a lot of fun this year because I was turning 21! It was soo much fun to go out with my friends and go to a bar and actually be able to get in. There is this one bar that I like a lot where I had my party on Sunday. This bar is called Gatsby's and it's close by in Boca. Not many of my friends go there because they would rather go to a club but I like bars much more than clubs. Gatsby's is a lot of fun and knowing the manager (he's my neighbor and I babysit his kids) has got me getting to know the other bartenders and it is fun because they are all about my age and they are really nice people. I think I like this bar a little too much now because I have been going there everyday since Sunday, but I can't help it...like I said it is a lot more fun than clubs and also a lot more fun than Duffy's and a lot of my friends like to go to Duffy's but considering that I live about 2 minutes from it I go there sometimes and I would rather go to Gatsby's since I had never been there and just started going there. I am really glad that I know Greg (the manager, my neighbor) because on Sunday night he gave my family, friends, and I all free drinks since it was my birthday then a few nites ago I made friends with one of the other bartenders, Christie, and she introduced me to Buddy, one of the other bartenders...very cute and he also bought my drinks for me. It was really cute because when I was getting ready to leave he told Greg, "put that on my tab", I was shocked because I didn't expect him to do that because I just met him that nite and have known him for only about 3 days now. The only problem now is that I am starting to like him a little bit and he told me that he just wants to be friends because he doesn't wnat to get into a relationship right now, but at first I thought it was just because he didn't want a girlfriend but I found out later that day that it was because he was still in love with his ex. That totally ruined it for me because now when I see him I know that we can only ever be friends....unless he doesn't want to get back together with her anymore or if they break up again or something. But as it looks right now the odds are not in my favor. I will just have to keep hanging out with him and see how things go. I will be really happy if things would work out though because then I wouldn't be single anymore and that would make me very happy!

my weekend

I have gotten a little behind on my blogs lately because I work soooo much. Last year I had 2 jobs and straight A's and I really don't know how I did it because this year I have 3 jobs and I have A's and B's. This year, as expected, was a little bit more challenging than last year but I know I can handle it because I had gotten this far already and the semester is almost over. I am so excited! I only have 1 more semester and then I can transfer! I am just so worried about my credits not transfering though. I am also looking forward to the end of the semester because then it will be Christmas break and I can enjoy a nice month off from school work, however, on the flip side, I will still have to work my other 2 jobs, maybe all of them, I'm not really sure yet. I really hope I wont have to work all 3 jobs because then I wont get a chance to enjoy my Christmas break because I will be working the entire time.

vocab and about Sunday!

This is one of those words that I don't think I will be using except maybe for a geography class or something like that...confluence is the flowing of two rivers like the Mississippi and Missouri rivers (I got that from dictionary.com) . To me there are just some words I don't think I will ever use except when I want to sound sophisticated in a paper or something like that. I do like using those kinds of words, it's just that sometimes I really don't think they are needed and also if I were to use them, some other people might not know what they mean either.

I really don't like doing these vocab blogs and the only thing that I can think about right now is Sunday. Well this is the last vocab blog that I have to do so I guess I can say what I told you I was going to tell you before. This is something that Professor Drew probably won't be interested in but I know some of my friends (the girls anyway) will like this. I met a really nice, funny, charming, and not to mention really hot guy last Sunday while I was watching the Steeler's game at this bar in West Palm Beach called Rooney's. I only got to talk to him for about 10 mins but it was a good 10 mins cuz I found out how old he was, where he lived, his name, and some other things about him that were really interesting because by finding these little things out about him, not only did I get to know him but I also found out that we have a lot in common. He asked me how old I was too and I told him that I'm going to be 21 in a month so he said he would buy me a drink on my birthday. I really hope things work out between us because I know I only met his guy once, but I found out some things about him that I really like and he's single and so am I so we'll see what happens...I will tell you more about him when I hang out with him more and more.

vocab: affect

I never really knew the difference between affect and effect but here goes. Affect is... that was something in my life that really affected me a great deal because of the events that took place, and effect is like a cause and effect thing... the cause is the internet is down and the effect would be that if the internet is down then I can't use it, I really don't know if what I said is right but I don't think you are grading us on correct information, I sure hope not...anyway, I am in the library right now for another day of work study...I like this because it gives me a chance to get a lot of homework done. I like when I work here for 2-3 hours because not only can I get homework asssignments done, but I can also study for some tests if it isn't too busy and the hours that I have there usually aren't too many people here, especially at around 9am! I really like doing these blogs like I have said before, but I really don't like when I can't think of anything to write. This is something that really bothers me because I am a writer. Sometimes I need to just sit and think before I can write stuff because sometimes I just run out of ideas and things to talk about. However, I don't let it get to me because I really enjoy writing.

vocab: ergonomic

Ergonomic is another word that I have never heard of before. Ergonomic is something that makes life easier for everyone. For example, a grip on scissors or a pencil or something like that. The words that I have never heard of are going to be the more shorter blogs because as you as probably see not many of my blogs are short because I love writing so the majority of them are rather long, but I really really enjoy writing because it gives me something to do and I think I am really good at it because it has been something that I have enjoyed for most of my life. When doing the blogs about words that I know, it's easier because then I know the blogs are going to be easier and much longer because I usually have more to say on the blogs that I know or at least have heard the word before. I am also glad that it's Wednesday because I have youth group tonight and that is something that I really enjoy doing because I don't have many friends other than in the youth group. Today is an easy day for me too because I only have 2 classes. Ok, well I'm going to continue on with the blogs.

voca: pontificate

This next word on the list of vocab that we have to do every week is pontificate. I have never heard this word before in my life and I don't think that I will ever use it except for right now. Pontificate is the office of a pontiff which is a high priest or chief. That is really wierd but I guess there are people that use this word especially people in a church or something related to that. I don't like doing the blogs with vocab words, I like the ones where we can just write watever, but I guess this is good because it helps us become more famililar with words that we don't know. This is one of the few blogs that I have that is going to be short because I really don't know what else to talk about with this word. I am just glad that it is Wednesday because that means that is the middle of the week and it's almost Friday. I can't wait until Sunday...but I will tell you why in another blog after I finish the vocab ones. This weekend is going to be great! I have plans all weekend and I have been waiting for this weekend for about a month now!

vocab: assiduous

I have not been one to always to do every single homework assignment that is given to me but for the most part I think I am assiduous with doing the work that is assigned. For example, I have these news write up things that I have to do for my news broadcast class and we have done soo many that there are some that I haven't done, but not because I don't want to do the work but because there have been so many that they are becoming very boring and I am getting so sick of doing them. I would like to just go to that class and have something else to do besides the same things all the time, and he doesn't even take a grade for them! As you can probably tell this is something that is very irritating to me. Last year when I took this other class that this professor was teaching, I loved it! Then he told us about one that he would be offering in the fall and I thought that if he did such a great job with this class that the other class he was talking about would be a great class as well, but it's not, I wish it was a little more fun especially since it's a class that is required for my major. Anyways I am getting kind of bored talking about this since I don't like this class, so I will move on to my next blog.

This weekend was very uneventful for me. I usually go babysitting on Friday nights but the parents took the children to Port St. Lucie to see their grandparents. The one thing that really bothered me about that was that I would have no cash again until they either asked me to watch the kids again or until I would get paid at Sears or work study!! This made my weekend very boring because I knew that with no money there was no way that I could go out. My weekend included the following: Friday night I stayed home and talked to some friends on the fone and some friends that used to go to Lynn but went back home for school, then on Saturday and Sunday I stayed home with my puppy and did some homework and I also went to my grandparents house that evening; also on Saturday night my friend Laura from my youth group called me and told me that we finally have a place for youth group because we were having some problems over the summer trying to find a place to have these group meetings because where we were before didn't want us there anymore because of the sports we did. Everyone played basketball and went skateboarding and they were afraid that if someone would get hurt that our church would sue them so they told us that we could no longer gather there for our meetings. Then what she told me next was the best news and the only happy part of my weekend. She said that Logger's Run Middle School is allowing us to come back to have our church services there in their cafeteria. She also told me that we will be having our Wednesday night meetings at this new park called Logger's Run Palk on Palmetto. I was very excited about that and she also expressed to me that she really missed seeing me there and that I really need to start coming there again. I am so glad she said that because it is something that really brightened up my weekend after Friday night and Saturday afternoon were very dull and boring. On Sunday night my grandparents came over to watch the Steelers game and they won! Go Steelers!! Hey, what can I say, I am a Pittsburgh fan, I used to live there.

vocab: visage

In today's society everyone is always worried about their visage. I am not going to lie, I am one of those people. I have always wanted to be the pretty one all the time or the thin one. Finally about two months ago I took matters into my own hands and decided that I wanted to lose some weight but I was too much for as short as I am. I reached success! Thus far I have lost a total of about 25 pounds and I am very happy about that. I still think I can lose a little more to be ideal but I will see when I get on the dreaded thing no one ever wants to get on: the scale! I hate the scale because it is something that has always made me feel very overweight even when I wasn't. I am always worried about how I look and how much I weigh and it gets to a point where I drive myself crazy thinking about it!! I hope that one day I will be able to just move on and not worry so much about these petty little things that millions of people around the world worry about constantly.

vocab: fortuitous

There are many things in everyone's lives that are fortuitous. Some examples would be car accidents, or something like forgetting something you need for a class or anything like that. Fortuitous things happen more often than people think and sometimes, they are things that are out of our control and happens to be just what is. Sometimes people say things when they are angry at others and sometimes that can be fortuitous as well but the one that is saying the hurtful or bad thing doesn't realize it until much later unfortuneately. I say this because of this past weekend. My mom and I just couldn't get along at all. We were constantly bickering and it was driving me crazy and I just wanted so bad to get in my car and just go but I can't do that. I will be 21 in December and my parents are still very overprotective of me and that is something that I don't think will ever go away. I mean I understand they are my parents and they care about me and all that good stuff but I wish they could understand!! I mean they were my age once so I would think that they would get it but I really don't think that they do. I think that they will finally realize this when it is time for me to move out and when I graduate, leave Florida. I will be very happy to do that. It will be a great change for me and something that will make me a lot happier.

Proposal for paper #2: Columbine

When I first heard about paper number two being a paper that we can write whatever we want, I was very happy because I knew this would be something very easy for me. I really enjoy writing and chosing to do it on Columbine was a decision that took about 2 choices before I actually chose Columbine. I oringinally chose traveling because that is something I like as well and knew a lot about because my family and I have been taking family trips since the summer of 2000. So I thought this would be something interesting to talk about because I had been to so many places and knew about the area. Then I started to think about Columbine when all the recent violence was occurring over the past week or two.
Columbine was a story that I followed very closely because I was in such shock of what happened and how two students that went to that school could do something so tragic, destructive, and most importantly, violent and permanent. Most of the students that commit such crimes as these get the ideas from violent video games. For example, as one of my sources, I chose a movie called Elephant, which was an independent film that was released in 2003 about a school that was affected by the tragedy of these shootings. Although it was a reenactment, it was still very real and actually happened at another school.
Another reason that I chose this topic was because I was very involved in the story of one of the victims--Cassie Bernall. Her story was one of the ones that were all over the news that when in detail of how she died because she was one that stood up for her beliefs and wasn't ashamed of her faith. Her story was very touching to me because I have some of the same beliefs that she does and faith is something that is very real and personal to me. These are the main reason why I am choosing to focus on her story as well as the history and aftermath seven years later from Columbine.

The steps I chose on becoming an expert was to do research on the things I knew about first then to do research on the things I wanted to know about. One of my friends also followed this story very closely so I am also becoming an expert on this topic through him and the things that he knows about Columbine.

The sources that I chose are internet articles, a movie, a few friends from the area (either affected by the tragedy or indirectly affected (the ones that just knew about it but more so than just hearing it from the news), a book that her mom wrote called She Said Yes. I might also be using a song that a Christian artist wrote about her called This Was Her Time.

After the English lab was over I went home to see my puppy and have fun with my mom then I came back to have class, and we all waited there for 20 mins and the teacher never showed up! The best part about that is he didnt even tell us that class was canceled, so I came here for nothing because I dont have another class now until 2 but I dont want to waste gas again to go back home then come here again at 2, because after my English class I have one more class then I can go hang out and relax til I have to babysit at 6:30. Most of my friends think I'm crazy to give up my Friday nights to babysit, but I dont really care because I'm getting paid, and getting paid in cash the same night so its not like I'm workin on a Friday then I gotta wait to get paid, so its not really a big deal and the 2 kids I watch are usually really good. I only have trouble with the 2-year-old sometimes. The girl is good and she enjoy when I come to her house to watch her. Well, I dont know what else to say, I guess this is good.

This weekend I will have a lot more free time and time to hang out with my friends because I am babysitting tonight then I dont have to work the rest of the weekend. It will be so nice to relax and just enjoy the weekend. I like being busy because it makes the time go by faster but I also dont like it because since I'm so busy with school and work, I dont have much time for anything else. I dont really have any plans yet, but my friends usually call me and make plans when they call so I usually dont know what I'm doing in advance. I really want to go up to see my best friend one weekend because I havent seen her since August because shes up at FSU. This is her freshman year and its really wierd for both of us becuase we have known eachother our whole lives and now I dont get to see her that much so it is really boring because her and I used to hang out all the time before she went away to school. She really wants me to transfer up there because she thinks it will be good for me to get out of boca for a while since I have bneen here my whole life and I can only take so much of it. I agree with her 100%. i really think taht going away for school would be better for me because it will give me a chance to be on my own and that is something that I really want to do especially since I will be 21 very soon...2 months! I have been up there before and I like Tallahassee and FSU is a nice school. It will be a big change for me because I'm uised to small schools, but I think I would be ok. Well, class is almost over so I'm going to stop writing for now.

My blogging experience so far has actually been fun because I like writing and thats why I'm majoring in journalism. Writing has always been something I have enjoyed...I mean, I have been witing short stories since I was 10. It gives me a chance to write about whatever I weant without someone grading it or anything. I haven't really written anything lately because I've been so busy, but doing these blogs is give me a chance to write a little bit since I havent written any stories in a while. Before this class I never did any blogging but I like it. I think it's like keeping an online journal and besides short stories I also like writing journals every once in a while. This kind of writing is good because it gives me a chance to say whatever I want without it being checked for errors. It is good because it's just freewriting, and that is really fun to do. Ok well the other day I already did this blog about blogging but I lost it so this is as much as I could remember.

Tonight was a much calmer night for Gregory. I am really glad because I didnt have to deal with him like he was last night. He played for a little bit after his dad left for work then he went to sleep and he has been sleeping ever since. I am so happy because now I can relax and have some time for myself. So, when I get home I have to go to sleep because I'm already tired and I have a 3-hour work meeting to go to at 9am...that is going to be AWFUL!!!! ok, well, thats it for now!

Well since it's Saturday I was planning on sleeping in but that didnt work out because my mom was getting ready to go to garage sales with her friend and she was up at 7:30am! So, since she was getting ready really loudly in the room right next to me, of course, it woke me up and I've been up ever since. I went out to breakfast with my dad since my mom wasn't here then I went back home for a little while then I went to the Women's Soccer game because I had to get some pictures taken for my photojournalism class. That was cool because while I was doing work for that class I got to watch some of the game too. I am home again for a little while relaxing and trying to get some of my blogs done. Well, another nite of babysitting. I really really hope it wont be a replay of last nite since Gregory wasn't being good. Well since I was out in the really hot sun for a while I need to go get something really really cold to drink, maybe some Gatorade. I love Gatorade! That's it for this post!

And so the weekend begins...after my class was over I went home for a little while then I went out shopping with a friend, then at 6:30 I had to go babysit. Everything started out fine then Gregory, the 2-year-old decides to be a difficult with me and starts throwing things and spilling everything and just making a complete mess. Guess who has to clean up this big mess...that's right, I do! It took me forever to clean up the spilled milk because he spilled it on a coffee table that had like a million little crevaces it. Once I clean that up I had to wash a blanket because he spilled the milk on that as well. Then I heard a voice outside, and it sounded like one I knew so then the 7-year old, Keala, said, "It's your mom." I checked just to make sure then I opened the door and she asked how things were going and I said, oh things are great...YA RIGHT! NO WAY! THINGS WERE NOT SO GREAT! Once my mom came in and calmed him down a bit, things started to finally settle down and about an hour after she left both Gregory and Keala fell asleep. Now that they are sleeping I can finally get a chance to relax and get some work done. Well, I'm going to get going for now, I have a lot to do before I go back home and watch the movie I rented!

Well the weekend is here and I have another busy one ahead of me with babysitting on Friday and Saturday night and also I have a three-hour meeting at work that is mandatory for all cashiers to attend. I am really really NOT looking forward to this at all. I don't want Sunday to come any time soon. Other than the babysitting and work meeting, my weekend is free. This will give me a chance to relax since my schedule with school and all my jobs is so hectic. I am excited though because today is pay day so I get two checks today plus the money from babysitting...but the excitement won't last for that long because I won't see a penny of it because all the money from each of the checks will be out toward paying off my bills. Once I pay all of them off it I have any extra money, I will just save the cash because I will probably need it for whatever. At least we have a three-day weekend since we get Monday off. That will also give me another day to relax because I am off that day. The only way I will go into Sears on Monday is if I go buy something with my employee discount. Well, that's it for now, class is almost over so I can go home for a little while.

The article that I read was about this 53-year old man that went into a Colorado high school and took four girls hostage and where one was left dead. In the article it states about this school isn't too far from Columbine and that it brings back so many memories of that school shooting. I think this article was very interesting and it is also shocking as well because so many of these school shooting happened all the time and it makes students have to question their safety at school. In your opinions, do you think there will ever be an end to these kinds of tragedies in schools all across the country? This is the link to the article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060929/ap_on_re_us/school_standoff

The search for a puppy was over the second I saw him. He was a ball of fur. When I first looked at him he had so much fur that he didn't even look like a puppy. Out of all the yorkies that I looked at, he was the cutest. We stayed at the pet shop for a while because my dad and I were hooked- we just need to convince my mom into getting him. The first night we were there, my mom still couldn't decide yet so I had to leave him there for one night :( but the next day we went there and got him. Ever since that day I have had so much fun with him. He is a really good dog and he is very smart too. He learns all of his tricks really quickly and they are really fun to watch. I love when I come home from my classes or a really long day at work and he is at the door waiting for me, waging his tail with excitment. It makes me soo happy knowing that he is really happy to see me. I also like bringing him to one of my classes because everyone there likes him. He is the most friendliest puppy your probably ever going to meet. I like when my mom does some of the tricks with him that he learned because they are just really funny to watch. There is this one trick where she goes up to him reall;y slowly and he starts to lift his paw up then he runs really fast toward my mom and he goes so fast that he look like he's hoping like a bunny. Sometimes he even runs toward her so fast that he slides on the tile florr and trips over himself. It took me seven years to get a puppy and I finally got one...thanks to my ex-boyfriend. My mom felt so bad that he dumped me that I finally got a puppy. That is the one good thing about the break-up bcause if he would not have dumped me I would have never gotten Toby!

All I can think about right now is that I wish it wasn't Monday. Starting tonight the only good thing about Monday's is going to be that 7th heaven came back! I was really happy and shocked to because not many shows that are canceled, return again in the Fall. It's going to be on the new CW network, which is the WB and UPN merged. I like this network because it still has a lot of the shows that I like on it. CW needed to pick one more show for the Monday night and the two choices were between two recently canceled shows: 7th heaven and Everwood...well...I'm very happy that 7th heaven won, but the Everwood fans are very angry. I was also reading some message boards about 7th heaven and some people think that once the show was canceled they should have left it that way and not brought it back, what I was surprised about was the fact that some of the people saying this were actually fans of the show! I have been watching this show since I was nice years old so I practically grew up with this show, I am a huge fan and I always will be, even though this season isn't going to be like the rest because not everyone wanted to come back and do the show again. That's okay though, I will still enjoy it!

Another weekend gone by too quickly again. We really need three day weekends, I'm sure everyone would want to not have classes on Fridays! My weekend started off really good...on Friday I hung out with one of my friends and then I had to go babysit. Normally that job isn't so hard because I usually watch two kids, the girl is seven and the boy is two, but the girl wasn't there to help me this time, so, that was a little bit different and quite a challenge. Saturday I went out again with some friends and we had a great time until my stupid engine light came on in my car. My friend panicked so I had to call my parents and tell them so now Monday morning I am stuck without a car. Hopefully it will get fixed really soon because it still drives good so I don't think it is anything too serious. Sunday was a normal day. I slept in and then went out with my mom for a little bit then I hung out with my friend in her dorm to watch a movie she wanted me to rent for her. So, now it's Monday morning and I am working in the library and wishing that it was still the weekend, so hopefully this week will go by fast.

I think the Goldblatt article summarizes very well the struggles that college students have when writing papers. He explains that writing essays and taking tests in college is the productivity of the institution. To me this means that colleges depend on the students writing of papers for the colleges to be more productive because after all when you go to college, writing papers is something that you will be doing a lot of for a very long time to come. He also says that if you take away the buildings, you have a univesity in search of a home, and he also says that if you take away the writing, the university is unimaginable.

My weekend was one that was very relaxed juxtaposed to all the past weekends because I wasn't working as much as I usually do. Since I wasn't working so much I really had a chance to relax and enjoy some of things I like doing which are writing and watching movies. I like all different kinds of movies like comedies and dramas. One of my favorite movie channels to watch is Lifetime because they have a lot of movies that people, mostly girls, like to watch because it is about a lot of the things that youth deal with in everyday life. For example, one of the movies that I really enjoyed was called Odd Girl Out starring Alexa Vega. This movie was basically about friends that she had that turned on her and spread all kinds of rumors about her that weren't true and this started to effect a lot of her life with school and everything else. I really enjoyed this movie because I think that it conveyed the message very clearly. Until next time...see ya later!

I was reading everyone's blogs and I found a bunch that I liked but two really stood out to me, Natalie's and Shirly's. I liked Natalie's because I enjoyed reading what she had to say about Goldblatt and about the critical thinking information from Chapter 2. I also liked Shirly's because she wasn't afraid to express her beliefs and I think that is really amazing because I know some people that are afraid because they don't want people to judge them, I am one of those people. Good job Shirly! I think everyone should check out both of Natalie's and Shirly's posts. This is Natalie's Blog: http://ncapiro-blogentry.blogspot.com/ and this is Shirly's: http://dorilas06.blogspot.com/ See ya later!

In my first blog I would just like to tell you about myself so everyone can get to know me better. My name is Amanda, I am 20 years old and I was born in Pittsburgh, PA and then my family decided to move to Florida. I was only 3 at the time of the move so I had no choice one way or the other to say if I wanted to stay or not because think about it, I was only 3 so there wasn't much I could do. As you can probably tell I'm not to crazy about living in Florida because I have been here so long, I am ready for a change. I think that in this situation the change would be a positive thing for me in my life right now. I really enjoy writing and that is one of the reason why I chose to major in journalism. I really like writing stort stories the best but I have written some poems also. I graduated from Pope John Paul II High School in 2005 and I am now a sophomore at Lynn. Lynn is ok I would just rather be away at school, but for now this is ok because I am getting used to the way things are with smaller classes and knowing people when you see them around campus. My favorite things to do are to watch movies, write, and hang out with my friends. My favorite movie is A Walk to Remember. I could never really figure out why I like it so much, all I know is that, I do and thats why one summer I was bored so I watched it about 2-3 times in one day! Ok, well I don't really know what else to talk about, and like I said, I really enjoy writing and once I start talking about stuff I can't stop but I will now.