Conclusion

Well the time has come. It is the fourteenth week of the Spring 2009 semester and this will more than likely be my last blog entry ever. Although I’m happy that I have one less homework assignment to do every week, it’s a little disappointing seeing as for the most part I didn’t really mind writing down some of my random thoughts, stories, beliefs, likes, and dislikes. I wasn’t really a fan of writing some of the assignments but I liked writing the “free entries” every once in awhile. Since I am not one for giving long, emotional speeches, or writing it in this case, I will answer a few of the questions given on the blog information sheet. The first question is, “what have I learned from keeping a blog?” This question isn’t the easiest one to answer but I guess I learned that some parts of my life could be considered interesting to others. Before starting this last entry, I looked through a few of my old entries and some of them actually were quite interesting and humorous, usually at my own expense. The next question asked was whether or not I’d advise other students to keep a blog. I think that if you enjoy writing and/or letting people hear about yourself, then keeping a blog seems like a good idea. Finally, it asks what advice I’d give to others on keeping a blog. My advice would just be try to talk about things that others would find interesting. For free entries, I tried to tell stories that readers would actually enjoy or talk about things that others in the audience could relate to or find funny. I’m sorry that I had to end my blog with a boring, plain entry with random questions that no one at all cares about. I’m sure for the most part though that my only audience is probably the students in my English 101 class. The only reason they’re probably reading is because we have to comment on everyone’s blog at least two times. Well, to anyone reading, goodbye and good luck with whatever you end up doing.

A Fun Visit to Normal, IL...

For this week’s blog, I’m supposed to give suggestions to my friends on what I would tell them to do if they came to Normal and I was unable to show them around. I think this may be the hardest blog of the year for me. I grew up in Oak Lawn, which is one train or bus ride away from the city of Chicago. In Chicago, the possibilities were endless. You could see a Bulls, Bears, Hawks, or Cubs game, go to the zoo, see some of the biggest skyscrapers in the world, or just walk around and enjoy the scenery of downtown. So to decide what I would tell my friends to do for fun in the city of Normal is not an effortless task. Personally, without a car or any mode of transportation, I know very little about the city itself. I guess the first thing I would tell them to do would be to take a walk around the Illinois State campus. I could have someone give them a tour of the different parts of the school such as the quad, dorm buildings, and other buildings. This isn’t necessarily the most exciting campus so I would hope they scheduled a visit on the day of a sporting event. With all of the different sports, I’d hope at least one had a game that day. They could see a basketball game, a football game, a baseball game, or even a rare track meet. Hopefully the teams could keep it close and then it could prove to be very entertaining. Next, I would hope they chose a day when a concert was playing either at the Brayden Auditorium or at the concert hall in downtown Normal. There have actually been a few popular bands such as T.I. and Red Jumpsuit Apparatus who’ve recently put on concerts here. Any concert would most likely prove to be a fun time. Finally, to the end the night I would make sure they got a sample of one of my favorite places in Normal, Gumby’s Pizza. I would make sure they tried the Pokey Stix and hopefully, if all went right, they would have a fun visit to Normal, IL.

My Unlucky Trip Back Home...

Last weekend, two friends of mine, Joe Ward and Brendan Namoff, who go to the University of Illinois and live in my hometown decided to visit here on Friday night and leave Saturday morning. We decided that it would be fun for them to come even if they were only going to be here for a small amount of time. After finding out that they were leaving on Saturday morning, I thought it’d be nice to go home for a night to get a few things done and then come back here on Sunday night. Saturday morning came along and it was pouring rain. I knew the ride might take a little longer than usual, especially in my friend Joe’s 1998 Saturn, but decided that it couldn’t be much longer than the usual one and a half to two hour drive back home. It was not long after we got onto the highway that the driver’s side windshield wiper started to malfunction. Eventually, while only about twenty miles out of Bloomington, the windshield wiper went completely off track and was as far right as possible. We could only see out of the passenger’s side window and ended up going about 45 mph until we got to the first exit. We went to a car dealership and a gas station, both of which told us that the nearest mechanic was 20 miles down the highway. Thinking creatively, we bought 2 rolls of duck tape and tried making a barrier so the wiper could no longer go off track. We got back onto the highway and within ten miles the duck tape started unpeeling so we got right back off into another small town. After going to another car dealership and two gas stations, both said there wasn’t much we could do but wait. We sat in McDonalds until my older brother called and I told him what had happened. He immediately said, “Why don’t you try Rain X?” I didn’t know what Rain X was but I guess it’s something you put on your windshield which deflects rain so you don’t have to use your wipers. We put it on and it worked perfectly. We ended up driving an hour and a half with no windshield wipers on the highway. I got home completely soaked and miserable after a two hour trip had turned into a five hour trip. I don’t think I will ever forget this horrible experience.

My ISU Football Game Experience

For this blog we’re supposed to talk about an event which we’ve attended at ISU this semester. To be completely honest, I’m not very involved in the school at all. During high school, I used to be on different sports teams and a few different clubs. I didn’t mind it at first but by senior year I was so sick of being involved and decided that in college I wouldn’t get very involved at all. I wish I could say I attended at least one basketball game because that’s what I’d like to write about but the only thing I’ve really gone to was one football game at the beginning of the year. The game was towards the end of September and it was the homecoming game against Eastern. I really only attended it because pretty much all of my friends were going to it and someone I knew from Eastern had driven two hours to see the game. So game day came and my friends from all the different dorms (excluding Tri-Towers) met in my dorm room in Atkin-Colby. We walked to the football stadium and ended up getting there early in the second quarter. To my surprise, the game wasn’t all that bad. For the most part it was pretty fun and I got to see a wide range of people from classes, my floor, my home town who I hadn’t seen in a while. The atmosphere was a very fun one. Everyone was getting pretty into it and ISU had a lead for a good part of the game. It was actually a really close game but ISU ended up losing just at the very end. Overall, it was a pretty good experience. For the last part of the blog we’re supposed to say what we learned from it. It’s really hard to say that I learned anything while attending an ISU football game on a Saturday night. I guess I could say that I learned that maybe getting a little involved, just going to sporting events and such at ISU would make the experience better.

Horrible Luck

For this blog we’re supposed to write about any topic we’d like. I was originally going to write about my picks for the coming up March Madness Tournament. But I figured that’d be a little boring so I decided I would tell a story about an event that happened to me the first Sunday of break. It all started a few weeks ago. I found out that during an ISU radio show on a Saturday night they would be giving out tickets to T.I. at U of I. Knowing that there probably would be no one listening to the ISU radio on channel 5 at 8-10 pm on a Saturday night, I stayed in until about 9:30 and the giveaway finally started. I immediately called in and ended up winning the tickets. Even though I’m not a huge rap fan, I was excited because I usually don’t win things and have horrible luck. I decided to take my girlfriend who goes to DePaul and knew I would have to drive her back early on Monday morning. When Sunday came along (the day of the concert), the weather was very bad. But despite this, we drove from my hometown of Oak Lawn (south side of Chicago) all the way to Champaign. The wind and weather was bad the whole drive there but I figured it’d be worth it to see the concert. When I got off at the Champaign exit after 2 and a half hours of driving, I got a call from a friend of mine who said the concert was canceled because the power was out. After this, I stayed at U of I for about an hour and decided that I would go to ISU to pick up my power cord for my laptop which I had forgotten. With the horrible weather I spent the night at ISU. When I got here the whole campus was dead and no one was in site. I asked the guy at the front desk and he said “free parking”. The next day I woke up to leave at 10 in the morning to find out I got a parking ticket. After that, I drove from ISU to DePaul then back to my house. Four and a half hours later, I was home. With a canceled concert, 7 hours of driving, a parking ticket later, I’d consider it one of the worst experiences of my life.

What I'd do with $80,000...

The question which I am supposed to answer for this week’s blog is what would I do if I were to get all the money that I’d spend during my four years at ISU and had to go out into the real world and “spend” it how I’d like. Having no money in my wallet and less than $200 in my bank account, it’s difficult to imagine how I’d spend $80,000. I think the first thing I’d do with the money would be buy a car. I wouldn’t go out and buy an $80,000 car but I’d just get one that’s somewhat new and that could last longer than the long line of beat up cars that I’ve driven since I got my license. Then after that I think I would buy some things that I’ve really wanted over the last few years and just haven’t had the money to buy. It’d just be small things such as a nice phone, a new iPod, tickets to a few Bulls, Bears, and Sox games. After that I think I would spend a little bit of time on vacation outside of the United States. Besides two short trips to Canada, I’ve never left the US. I would probably go to Mexico where my $80,000 would seem like so much more. After buying a new car, buying a few small things that I’ve wanted for awhile, and going to Mexico I’m not sure exactly how much money I’d have left but I’m sure it’d still be a good amount. I think after all that I would get a job that requires very little effort and has really flexible hours. It probably wouldn’t pay much but I’d try to go as long as I could living off of the money I received for not going to ISU and my money from my job before I had to enter back into the real world. There are probably so many better ways to spend $80,000 but I think this would probably be exactly what I would do with it.

Tips For Incoming Freshmen

For our seventh blog assignment of the year, we’re supposed to give helpful hints to students who will be attending ISU next year. After getting through my first few months at ISU, I think there are a few tips that I could give to an incoming freshman that might help them get through their first semester.
My first tip to incoming freshmen sounds pretty nerdy but you should probably try to actually go to most of your classes. It’s a lot different than high school because most of your classes it is optional to attend and there is no punishment for ditching classes. I usually missed about a class a week, which isn’t good, but I still went to almost all of them. I had a lot of friends who would randomly decide not to attend classes for really stupid reasons, especially on Fridays. I always hated going to class while they got to sit around, but in the end, two of my good friends that I hang out with almost daily ended up on academic probation and I didn’t, so make sure to go to class.
My second tip is to mix up what you eat in the cafeteria and try to eat somewhat healthy. I started out last semester with eating pizza, hamburgers, and chicken sandwiches with just about every meal. Not only did I put on a few pounds, but I’m so sick of the greasy food. Try only getting the greasy foods occasionally and instead getting salad, cereal, fruit, and sandwiches from the deli. That’ll keep you from putting on the pounds and from getting sick of the eating the same foods.
My final tip involves a problem that happened for me but probably wouldn’t for many other people. Make sure to get an “XL Twin” sheet set when buying sheets your dorm bed. I got a letter about buying them through the school but I didn’t want to spend the $20 so I just took the sheets off my twin size bed at home. This was a mistake. For the first half of the semester, I dealt with the problem of my sheets constantly coming off. If you don’t want to wake up every morning on a bare, dirty dorm mattress, just spend the extra money and buy the XL twin size sheet set beforehand.

Seinfeld-Best Show Ever

For my sixth blog of the year, I am being asked to write about my favorite TV show. I watch a good amount of TV but it’s mostly sports and random shows. After thinking about a few shows which I definitely prefer to watch such as Seinfeld, King of the Hill, the Simpsons, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, I realized that there wasn’t even a contest for my favorite show. The best show ever is easily Seinfeld. I wouldn’t be the only one to say that as it is considered to be one of the best shows ever on just about every “Top Television Shows” list. Most shows deal with big issues and have touching plots that leave you thinking. Seinfeld is nothing like that, it constantly deals with small issues and problems that people have in everyday life such as dealing with strangers, dating, and riding the el. The show is about a comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, who lives in New York and spends a lot of time with his three good friends George, Kramer, and Elaine. Jerry Seinfeld plays himself in the show and seems to point out every small flaw with everything. A lot of the plots revolve around the women he dates and every girl seems to have one small flaw. A few examples of why he couldn’t date different women would be a girl having man hands, a girl who eats peas individually, a girl who is naked “too often”, a girl who used a toothbrush that fell in the toilet, and that‘s just the beginning. He is considered by many, including myself, to be the funniest character just with his perfectionism and hilarious responses. George is a stocky, bald man who seems to have bad luck with just about everything. He lives with his parents during one season and just deals with being unemployed, bald, and cheap. Kramer is definitely the strangest character in the show, and one of the strangest in any show I’ve ever seen. He does everything from punching Mickey Mantle in the face to tanning with butter. Elaine isn’t that great of a character in the show. A lot of the funny parts of her have to do with her reactions to different things and the men she dates.
After writing this paragraph I realized it would be hard to understand how funny the show is without actually watching it. I’m sure anyone who likes Seinfeld who is reading this would like all the funny moments mentioned in this blog.

BK Commercial

Every day I see so many ads in so many different forms that I just don’t pay attention to a lot of them. When watching TV, I almost always change the channel when the commercials start but I still end up seeing them in other forms. One advertisement is one that I saw years ago but I still haven’t forgotten. It was a Burger King commercial which featured the main singer from Hootie and the Blowfish singing a jingle about the Tender Crisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch, a new sandwich at Burger King. The thing that sticks out in the commercial most for me is the jingle. Even though the ad came out like three years ago when I was only a sophomore, I still remember a lot of the words because it was very catchy. The commercial is also pretty easy to remember too. I remember it showed the main singer from Hootie and the Blowfish in a cowboy costume walking around with a guitar. It also showed girls dancing, Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and the King from the other Burger King ads. I think the advertisement was very memorable but I’m not sure if it was an effective one. I did remember the ad but it took me a little while to remember if it was a Burger King ad or a McDonald’s ad. I actually did end up trying this sandwich once after I saw these ads but it was only because I was at Burger King and didn’t know what else to get. I guess you could say that because I remember that commercial over millions of other ones that I’ve seen in my life, it was memorable.
After writing the first part of this blog I typed in Tender Crisp Bacon in You Tube and there were 24 videos of the commercial that I was just talking about. There were just under 50,000 views for the video. I definitely think this commercial was memorable and persuasive if so many people have watched the video and people have commented on it within the last week after it stopped airing years ago.
Here’s a link to the video to watch it yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cffi7vkQZcI

Some More Random Thoughts

As interesting of a person as I am, I once again could not decide what exactly I would write about for this week’s blog. I was going to write about the Super Bowl last Sunday, which by the way was a very good game and just slightly disappointing in the end, but I used Kurt Warner and the Arizona Cardinals as the topic for last week’s blog. I still feel obliged to give my thoughts on the game so I will say that both teams played great games. Both quarterbacks had good games and Larry Fitzgerald played even better than everyone thought he would, which was very hard to do. So for all of you Steeler fans out there, congratulations on another Super Bowl Championship.
Moving on to my next topic, this week I decided to bring up something new by talking about a show which I somewhat liked when I was younger but now like even more as I’ve become older. That show is Arrested Development. For those who don’t remember, Arrested Development was that Fox sitcom that only aired for about three years. It received Emmy’s, Golden Globes, and even was named to the Top 100 TV shows of all time but despite all of this it didn’t become that popular. The show is most known for one of the main actors and that is Michael Cera. I just started watching this show on the website Hulu and it is hilarious. It really is a great show and I can’t believe it was canceled. After bringing this show up to a friend, I was told that they are more than likely going to make a motion picture. It’s going to be directed by Ron Howard and right now the only problem seems to be that Michael Cera is unsure if he wants to be in the movie because he feels it is regressive in his career. As a new fan, I’m really hoping they make the movie and I just thought I’d let everyone know what a great show it is and to give it a chance.

Another Blog

After being assigned to write about anything we wanted for our third blog, I really couldn’t think of anything. It’s almost better when I’m just given something to write about because it involves less creativity on my part. At first, I was going to write about the Dark Night because I just saw that movie not too long ago and it really was the best action movie I’ve ever seen. I decided that instead, I would use this blog to talk about the upcoming Super Bowl. Sunday at 7:30, nearly all of America will be tuned in to watch one of the biggest events in sports. I can’t say that I was interested in either team that much this year. As a matter of fact, I haven’t been very interested in this year’s NFL playoffs, even though there have been some very good games. One player has interested me for years and that player is Kurt Warner. When I was only 10 or 11 years old, in addition to being a huge Bears fan, I also was a big fan of the St. Louis Rams. To this day, I still think that team was one of the most exciting to watch. I remember I liked almost every player on their offense such as Isaac Bruce and Marshall Faulk. My favorite player was quarter back Kurt Warner. I loved, and still do, the fact that Kurt Warner went to a small school in Iowa and he was the third string until his senior year season. He did really good that season but still wasn’t drafted. He got signed by the Packers but was cut before the beginning of the season. He ended up playing for years in the Arena League and NFL Europe. Even after so many great seasons, he was benched and put as the second string during his time with the New York Giants. No one thought he could ever do better than being the second or third string quarterback but he proved them all wrong. Now, he is remembered as a great NFL quarterback. He owns so many different records and is one of the most exciting players I’ve ever seen. This Sunday, I’m really hoping to see the Cardinals and Kurt Warner pull off the victory. He won it when I was 11 and I’m hoping he can do it again 8 years later.

OBAMA (1-20-09)

While I used my first blog entry to let my audience know more about myself and my interests, I will be using my second entry to talk about a very important event that occurred yesterday. Yesterday, or January 20, 2009, is a day that I will truly never forget. I may forget the actual date itself but I will remember the actual events that occurred that day regarding the inauguration of Barack Obama. Being a democrat and a supporter of Barack Obama, I was really anticipating seeing him actually get sworn in as president. I believe that he is going to make a big difference for the United States and will hopefully solve some of the problems we have been experiencing. But now I will get back to my actual day yesterday. At about 8:45 in the morning, my roommate woke up and turned on the coverage of the inauguration. I was really surprised about this because he did not have class until 11:00 and I didn’t have class until 10:00. Both of us had talked about waking up early to watch some of the coverage but I was surprised when we actually did, considering we are a pair known for sleeping as late as possible. Although I woke up and technically watched it, I was very out of it so therefore there are very few details that I would be able to give regarding that part of my day. After that I had class from 10 to noon. I came back at around noon and it was pretty disappointing to see that I missed the inaugural speeches. After getting to my dorm, I watched the video of the speech on YouTube. In my eyes, this speech was not as good as the one he gave in Chicago directly after being elected in November. However, that does not necessarily mean it was a bad speech. The speech really reached out to all different types of people. It reached out to the black community, the poor and struggling, the middle class, as well as many other types of people. After watching the speech on You Tube and going to class, I felt that I had watched enough on the election. After 5:00, it was much less interesting anyways. At that point they were showing coverage of the Inaugural parade and showing the family in the White House. To conclude my entry, I’d like to say I’m happy to see Barack in the White House and I’m looking forward to seeing the change he will bring.

Introduction

Hey everyone, my name is Mike Roos and I will be updating this blog periodically for my English 101 class during the spring semester of 2009. I’ve never used a blog so it will be interesting to see how that goes. I’m supposed to use this introduction to let my audience know who I am and what I am interested in. To start, I’m a freshman from Oak Lawn, IL. I grew up in Tinley Park, which is about 15 minutes from Oak Lawn and moved when I was a junior. I’m a business major right now but I am considering changing my major, I’m just not sure to what yet. I attended Marist High School for all four years of high school and attended St. Damian Elementary School for grade school. Throughout high school I ran four years of cross country and two years of track. I really dislike running and did it for the sole purpose of staying in shape. I also played 3 years of rec basketball and in those 3 years me, along with a few of my friends, went undefeated in all 3 regular seasons and won 2 championships. I’m a big fan of the White Sox, Bears, Bulls, and University of Memphis Tigers. My family has season tickets to the Bears and we used to have season tickets to the White Sox. I’m a huge Derick Rose fan. He graduated from my favorite college, which I was very close to attending, and now plays for the Bulls. This is about all I have to say about myself and I’ll update it again later.