Reflections

The blog assignments this semester were definitely something I was not used to. I had to think outside the box to complete many of the assignments because instead of writing for an audience of one, I was writing for an audience of many. My writing structure had to change and I watched how my writing style changed. I am a very formal writer that prefers the structure of the old fashioned ways, but with the blogs I learned that using other methods to present material can be just as effective as the traditional structures of writing I prefer.

I noticed from my first post to other posts I have written that I had learned to condense points and ideas. I discovered that sometimes writing less will sound better and keep the reader from losing interest. I also found out that I tend to like to write about things that are passionate to me instead of mundane ideas and concepts. The assignments for us to write for the blog entries I felt had a purpose behind all all of them. I enjoyed the blog posts that made us draw knowledge and feelings from our innerselves and then had to express those feelings in writing. I personally enjoyed the food blog post and the Enneagram post.

Overall I am completely happy with writing blogs instead of hard copy assignments. I found it convenient and very user friendly when writing the blogs. The experience I had was good and I believe it was a positive experience for me to have in my writing career because it was something new and I believe all experiences build a persons character and allows us to draw strength and knowledge from it. I would be an advocate for blog writing instead of hard copy assignments. I enjoyed this class very much and the blog assignments complimented the teaching styles presented.

Plans for summer

My plans this summer are going to consist of working and enjoying the activities that Missoula has to offer. I am going to hike and swim and try to take advantage of all the down activities as well. I will also travel alot if possible and would like to travel to Boise and Spokane. I have family in both those towns and I have not been able to visit them in years.

I will also visit my grandparents frequently this summer. They have a house on Flathead lake. I like boating with them and doing outdoor things there in general. Also the town of Bigfork is such a nice town, sometimes there is more things to do there than Missoula. After Bigfork I will travel home to my hometown of Havre and visit my family. I have many people there I need to see and then after visiting everyone I know this summer I will just have to come back to Missoula and settle in for the Fall school year to begin.

Oh Buffy

Many Years ago I enjoyed the television show that involved young women fighting off demons, monsters and especially vampires. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was about a young girl who was granted a gift of being the slayer. A slayer only happens every generation and grants the young female the ability of extreme strength and resistances to certain magics. The television show is centered around a young girl named Buffy who is a slayer in the town of Sunnydale. She encounters many obstacles in making her life complete as well as saving the world every episode.
I chose to write about this television series because it is an example of feminism and promoting women as equals. In the seven seasons that were created by Joss Whedon he made Buffy the main character with the extraordinary powers to save the day. In the episodes all the primary main characters that were male(except vampires)were always being saved by her and had to call on her for protection every time something went wrong. Another example of how this series promotes feminism is that a side character named Willow eventually becomes the worlds most powerful witch and with Buffy's help saves the world on the season finale. These two women had more power combined than any single character that was a friend or foe on the show.
Although the male counterparts of the show were usually vampires and in general treated women poorly they still lost to the overbearing strength of a young women who find it usually relatively easy to stake them.
If you were to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer you would definitely notice that women are the main characters and are always given more power than the male figures in the show. When the show was being produced in the mid 1990's times still had not changed enough to allow a television program to fully accept the reality that women would be superior to men. But it was created and made roots in promoting women as equals or better than men. Besides taking root to a feminist approach the creator also chose to display a lesbian and her girlfriend in the series. This was highly unusual since homosexuals were rarely displayed in the mid 1990's(especially lesbians). Overall from the watching the show the audience will feel excitement,suspense, and the understanding that women can do anything in this world too and they are especially good at killing vampires.

3 op-eds I enjoyed

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/03/23/eat-meat-reduce-global-warming/
I enjoyed reading this article because it talked about how eating meat will not affect the environment or global warming. An individual scientist presented his idea and evidence. I did not like at the end of the article how global warming was suggested to not have been happening for the last 15 years. Evidence suggests otherwise and the UK scientists emails that leaked out are open for interpretation on what was released to the general public.

http://www.thefoxnation.com/business/2010/03/23/fox-news-poll-79-say-us-economy-could-collapse
Another opinion based article supported with evidence is how a survey for done and evidently 79% of Americans are sure that we are all going to suffer the same fate as the USSR and have our government and economy collaspe. I enjoyed this small little article that discussed the opinon polls or Americans. They are always so accurate and such a detailed way to interpret data.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20100323/cm_uc_crmchx/op_513348
I like this article about the recent healthcare reform because it talks about all te negative traits that will follow because of this healthcare law. It tells about debt and collaspe of the economy. The reason I like this article is because it is sometimes fun to read the exact opposite of what you believe in.

Research Paper Sources

http://umclimateactionnow.blogspot.com/

http://www.montpirg.org/

http://life.umt.edu/asum/awma/

http://life.umt.edu/asum/asum%5Fagencies/Sustainability

http://www.350.org/

I also have several student newspapers that contain lots of information of sustainability on campus as well. The umt.edu website has lots of links to the local environmental polices and procedures of the university. I have an extremely large amount of data and I just need to sift through them all and figure out what is important.

Research paper topic

I would like to write my paper on the impacts that sustainability has on campus and the efforts that it does to reach its goal. I would report the positive and negative aspects of what the campus is doing to promote sustainability. I would get information from school internet sites as well as campus newspapers. I think I would use information from the internet to give data about certain sustainability issues that are important in todays society. I might even interview someone to get more information on the local procedures on campus. I will write in a professional manner and try to report just the facts and try not to be onesided. I will not emulate FOX NEWS.

What to do with vegans?

What is a vegan? Well a clear definition of one is someone who, for various reasons, chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products. While vegetarians choose not to use flesh foods, vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals. Out of the various components of what makes a vegan I find the ethical one most fascinating. It is to not consume animal products or any animal produced products that caused the animal pain. Wow!! That is very admirable to try to make a difference in the world by proving eating animals is not necessary. What a world we could have knowing that if everyone rebelled and didn't eat animal products or support in any processes that gave them pain. Ahhh, what a world. Actually there would not be a world. Damn.

Vegans idealistic ways the world should be are unrealistic and also would result in the end of life. An example would be how humans evolved. Human beings evolved so rapidly and their brains grew so fast because the early humans were increasing meat in their diets. It is proven that brains can evolve faster over time by eating meat and this gives certain vital proteins and fats in abundance to the body which makes it easier to develop over time. The early humans used animal furs and hides as clothing from the elements as well. It probably wouldn't have been such a good idea to try to migrate North just being naked. To add to the list most of the reliable and continuing medical procedures and medications are tested on animals as well. Its a shame we don't have more vegans to volunteer for medical experiments. We could have saved so many animals lives. I could go on forever about the the hypocrisy of vegans and how their individualism is just a cover for pure ignorance but I have a life that has a reachable goal and the tools to get their. I am just happy now that vegans didn't rule the world because man might not have evolved into the complex organisms we are today and we might not have colonized the globe without protection from the elements. People that I care about might not be alive right now if their was no animal testing. So I thank all animals for creating what we have today and I know that today is not the time to create a world without animal products or animal procedures.

http://www.vegan.org/
Fall 09- Anthro 101

Bullet to the brain

After reading "Bullet in the Brain" by Tobias Wolff I determined this short story was extremely lacking of a traditional structure. It was unique the way it started and ended. I thought this story showed an interesting way of the interpretation of time and how it can be displayed in the mind. This unusual method made me finish reading even though I did not like the structure of the story at all. Some of the stories strengths were the use of imaginary. Great details were expressed and did well in showing past parts of Anders life. This enhanced the mood for Anders as well as developed his character into a positive attitude toward the end. A general idea from this short story depicts what happens to people who just can't shut there mouth and be happy with what they have. Ultimately his behavior of criticizing people is what destroyed him in the end.

Please remember

When I was younger the primary person who would always watch me after school was my Nana(great grandmother). After I would get out of elementary school I would take the bus to see her until my parents were able to pick me up. This was a routine that I had done since I was 5. She would always spoil me and give me every snack I could imagine. She also helped me with my homework and became a very special person in my life. A few years later when I was 9 my mom gets a call and they tell her that my Nana is in the hospital and has broken a hip. My mom was upset because actually my Nana raised her instead of her own mother. We rush down to the the hospital and find that she is in a lot of pain but she is ok and that comforts us that nothing else had happened.
Over time it was practical to have my Nana live in a nursing home since she had not done well with rehabilitation. I eventually was able to ride my bike to go visit her everyday in the summer. We would enjoy popcorn and diet Shasta lime soda. Then my Nana started to get sick and my mom kept me from going to see here by myself for quite awhile. I didn't know what was going on but I understood that it wasn't good because it was making my mom upset everyday. When I did visit my Nana with my mom it was apparent that some of her skills were declining such as mobility and energy levels. I then turned 10 and continued to visit my Nana with my mom off and on. Then on a nice summer day in June my grandma and my mom went to visit her and took me with them. I remember that day very well. We had to take the elevator to get to her room and upon getting out an overpowering stench of disinfectant hit me in the face and made me squeeze my eyes tightly shut. I opened them to only find the smell was not as bad but was still overpowering. We walked down the narrow hallway to get to her room and the smell of disinfectant had worn off and the smell of urine and feces flooded my senses. I had smelled this before but never so strong. We arrived to her room and had brought her a few newspapers and magazines to read. Two nurses were just leaving and grabbed my mom in private to talk to her leaving me with my grandma. At this point most visits to my Nana had lost there purpose to me and the excitement of life as a 10 year old began to take precedence over visiting her. After the nurses were through talking to my mom we all went in and began to visit and chat about normal things. We handed her the magazines and my Nana asks my mom "What are these?" My mom simple says "There for you to read." My Nana stared at my mom for a sec and then began to talk about something else. Something is wrong here, I could feel it in my gut and wanted to figure it out. So, being a 10 year old boy I did what I knew best. I spoke without thinking. "Nana you know who I am , right?" My eyes then scanned her eyes and found nothing. They were void of any thought or feeling. I stared at the floor, trying to process everything that was happening. I could feel all my feelings of good or bad or happy or sad starting to pull out of me. I hurried to prevent that and repeated my question in a different manner. "Nana, you remember me, don't you?" I watched her eyes again for a spark, or even a glimmer, or anything that would tell me that my Nana was in that body. I stared for a few seconds and saw nothing but emptiness. Then she nodded her head side to side very softly. It was almost like slow motion to me when I watched her. Instantly every feeling I had in my body came trying to get out of me all at once. I tried to keep them in and push them back further and further but it was a losing battle. My feelings found an exit and it was my eyes. I began crying so hard and so strong I couldn't see. I moved over to my mom and held her while I cried. I could hear my mother trying to manipulate a correct answer out of my Nana to make me feel better, but I wasn't going to buy it. After I calmed down I gave my Nana a big hug and told her I loved her. I am not sure if she knew what was going on at all. I hoped and secretly prayed that when I saw her next she would know who I was.
I never got the chance to find out if she would ever know who I was. She passed away 2 weeks after that. It was traumatic for my family and I am sure those situations are traumatic for everybody. I have regrets that maybe if only I would have spent more time with her that maybe she would not have forgotten me so easily. Whats done is done and even though she may have forgotten me, I made sure back then that I would never forget her.

Enneagram Results

Main Type	Overall Self

Take Free Enneagram Personality Test

Today I took the Enneagram Test. After completing all of the questions the results showed that I was a type 3. A type 3 has a few common traits such as the Performer, the Motivator, the Achiever, the Producer and the Status Seeker. All of this types of people have common traits. A type 3 generally tries to be competitive, productive, and accomplished. They also like to look good while doing those things. Also a type 3 is always seeking attention and admiration. Also the need to be the best and to avoid failure stems from what might be presented if those do not occur. Some famous type 3's are Tom Cruise, Tiger Woods, Dick Clark, and O.J. Simpson.

After thinking about the results of the Enneagram I found that most of the character references for type 3 fit me very well. I do live my life everyday with the understanding that the better I look or more successful I become will ultimately determine my place in this world. I truly wish to look good and have people think highly of me because that is an almost certain way to have people remember you. Also first impressions are very important and that can dictate how people interact with you from the start. Also I always feel the need to be impressive with my merits. Hard work does not always equally success, but if the work I do is genuine and the people I influence is always positive in my life than I have a great chance of achieving my goals. This Enneagram did not necessarily tell me any sub-varieties, but it did dictate that I have an assertive side to everything I primarily do and that is true in general as well. Assertiveness is the fastest way I achieve what I want because I do not have time to wait for things to happen on their own. So with all of this said, the Enneagram was a very useful tool for me in finding my characteristics that I just couldn't see. Knowing more about myself and how I work can also help me fine tune some characteristics of myself and also jettison some that are not needed if I can. Hopefully if I can continue to do well in life and look good while I am doing it then I hope this will cause people to remember me. One only truly dies when no one remembers them anymore.

Introduction

My name is Adam Landgraf and I am from Havre Montana. I am currently a Sophmore and participating in the nursing program. Attending school in Missoula is very nice for me considering it is so much warmer here than Havre and not as windy. My family consists of my parents and two brothers and a sister. There is nothing special about them unlike me so I will skip the details about them.
I have worked in many different fields over the last ten years but mostly I have worked in the healthcare professions. I have worked with developmentally disabled individuals for seven years and I am happy I do this type of work compared to the various others that exist. In my leisure time I enjoy watching TV and going to karaoke. Other than that I just enjoy any activity that makes me have to move. I enjoy the company of active people far more than sedentary people. I usually am always wanting to get up and do something wheither it be sports, games, shopping, or anything I can get my friends to do(most of them are lazy). I am looking forward to moving my life foward and enjoying everything along the way(even writ101).