Thursday, December 3, 2009

Reflection letter

Andrew Morrison
Reflection Letter
111-49
Dec. 3, 2009
http://www.thefinancialblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/time-control.JPG
Reflection of the semester
Looking back over my first semester of college, and Paul Gasparo’s Eng. 111, there are certain things that I liked the best. The rhetorical analysis really got me thinking, which is rare. For the first time I managed to write an essay without using Wikipedia. One thing I did not like was the argument essay, mainly due to the fact that it was a research paper that had many strict guidelines, not all of which I followed, including the restrictions on internet websites that we could use. I was indifferent on the other assignments, I did them, but really did not think much of how I felt when I was completing them. But all in all I will always remember this class and how it changed my view of school forever.
When I walked into that classroom on the first day of school this semester, I knew a lot of hard work would be involved in passing, but exactly how much work, I had no idea. I put more work into this one class than any of the others, combined. The overall classroom feel was probably one of the best ever for me, we seemed to have a lot of fun for that hour and fifteen minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. But it was the work outside of class that really got me stressed. Not wanting to seem weak, to myself, I continued through and now have made it to the end, finally. On the upside this was the first class where listening to music was a homework assignment.
The research, and then development that I put into every paper, every sentence, is what I would have called, before the semester, “empty wasted time” but now I realize that every moment was slowly expanding my overall knowledge. I have learned many things this semester, and one of them is time management. Last year in high school, and the years before that in school, I always waited until the night before, or even just before school started, to do homework. And while I did do that in the beginning with the first diagnostic essay, and later assignments, I have realized that that approach is not the way to go. That did nothing for my sanity, so instead I decided to try the miraculous new creation (well, it was new to me) of planning for assignments ahead of time, and that has made all the difference.
This class is not for those who just want to get an easy ‘A’. Those types of people will most likely not last the entire semester. I am sure that there are teachers who do that, but Mr. Gasparo is not one of them. This class is for those who want to write grand, intelligent pieces that they can be proud of for years to come. Those certain people who actually like to write, and want to be graded for how they write.
In retrospect, I enjoyed this class. Of course if someone were to ask me that question in the midst of me writing the argument paper, I would have said, “heck no.” I am proud of myself for, a lazy slacker, for finishing up my first semester of college, and surviving Mr. Gasparo’s college composition one class. His name will forever be carved into my mind, whether for good reasons or bad, I have yet to discover.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Diagnostic Essay Revised Final

Andrew Morrison
Time and Time again
111-49
Dec. 2, 2009

As long as I live, I will always remember the day that I woke up with superpowers. It was a normal enough Monday morning, around four o’clock. When I did wake up again it was after ten and I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to set my alarm. Fearing the worst I jumped out of bed, got dressed, and ran outside in hopes to still make it to school. It took me almost ten minutes to remember that the school bus came hours earlier and my standing at the bus stop was not a good idea. I cursed my bad luck using the most hateful of swear words.
“Gosh darn it.” I repeated several times before wishing that time would just stop. And to my great surprise, it did. Nothing went black and white, the only way I was able to tell was when the wind stopped blowing and all the cars on the street suddenly stopped.
After coming to the final decision that school was not the place for someone with the ability to stop time, I unfroze time, (by simply telling it to unfreeze) and took to the streets to find bad guys. There was bound to be some somewhere. After several minutes of looking I finally found a guy who was threatening an ATM with a gun, he was clearly an evil genius. Not understanding why the ATM did not spill its contents he turned in a rage and found me standing right behind him.
“Make this here thing give up its money.” The man with the gun said to me, I noticed he had several teeth missing, his breath was horrendous.
“I am truly sorry good sir, but I cannot help you.” I said, for some reason trying to sound British.
“Then I’ll take a hostage.” The man grabbed a nearby trashcan, used primarily for people to throw their ATM receipts away.
“You’re really bad at this.” I muttered, not taking my eyes off of the gun, which looked as if it were just a toy.
He dropped the trashcan and started to make a run for it. I turned to chase him, finding the street behind us clogged with onlookers who had stopped to see the show. Cars were left empty on the street and a news crew was filming the entire thing.
“That’s why our streets never get finished.” I mumbled to myself before taking off after the running man. He ran very slowly, though nobody in the crowd stopped him, they simply moved aside to make room as he ran by.
“You will never catch me.” He screamed over his shoulder at me. He was right too, I ran out the door without eating, and I cannot catch criminals without my bran, no matter how slow they run.
The chase continued for several minutes, extending over three blocks, with the onlookers and news crew jogging right behind us. Finally I froze time, knowing I would never catch such an out of shape man. Once time was frozen and the man stopped I simply walked up to him turned him around, and went back to my original position.
It must have been strange to see for those watching. The man running away from me, then in a split second, he was turned around and running right into my arms. I caught him and walked him over to the police who had just arrived on the scene, each holding a coffee and a pair of hand cuffs.
The crowd cheered for me as the police put the cuffs on the devious criminal. “What’s your name?” some shouted to me. Not wanting to tell them my name, in fear there might be some super villain in the mix, I picked up a plastic bag that was on the ground and put it over my head, and then ran off to find the next criminal mastermind. After running head long into several trees, I took my bag off and ran into the sunset (the day was very short).
Overall, I think that this power, if used correctly, for the common good, would be very interesting to have. The possibilities are endless with what I could do, and eventually, the lasting effects on society, and my body. I could even become a superhero, saving the world every second of every day. I could be one place, then another, in only an instant. Nobody would even guess that I left where I was. The bad guys would not even want to do bad things when they know they can be stopped at any moment. I might even be able to keep it a secret from everybody, making them constantly think, wonder, if I really was a superhero.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

diagnostic essay: time freeze


Time Freeze

If I were to wake up tomorrow and have a superpower, it would be the ability to freeze time. This power would become very useful, but it would also have its drawbacks. It’s seems that most people who make up superhero’s to put into comic books or movies seem to shy away from the ability to freeze time. I think that is because it would be too convenient for the hero. They would not even need to fight the bad guy, just freeze time and carry him to jail.

The power to freeze time would have many advantages, one being that I would never again be late for class or work. All I would need to do would be to freeze time and get their right before I was late. Sleep would also become a lot more convenient, if I were to stay up too late, the next day I could just freeze time and sleep anywhere that I want to. One more advantage would be the ability to stop things from happening, while there happening. If someone were to rob a bank, I could just freeze time, stop the person, and give back all the money within the same exact moment. I could also use it as a career, making my own show of it. I could travel to different places and show people what I could do, for a charge.

As with all things, however, it would come with disadvantages. When I freeze time I might grow older while everyone else is frozen, making me slowly older than other people who are the same age. And what if my body froze when time froze? Then I, along with the entire world, and possibly the entire universe would be frozen indefinitely. This might also happen if I were to die while time was frozen, unless of course if my death were to break the “spell” over the frozen Earth and everything would go back to normal. One more disadvantage would be people who see me freeze time, and appear elsewhere, might think that I am teleporting, but that might be a good alibi so that no one ends up knowing the truth. The truth being that I can do whatever I want to while the Earth is frozen. That might make some people a little uncomfortable when they are around me.

Overall, I think that this power, if used correctly, for the common good, would be very interesting to have. The possibilities are endless with what I could do, and eventually, the lasting effects on society, and my body. I could even become a superhero, saving the world every second of every day. I could be one place, then another, in only an instant. Nobody would even guess that I left where I was. The bad guys would not even want to do bad things when they know they can be stopped at any moment. I might even be able to keep it a secret from everybody, making them constantly thinking, wondering, if I really was a superhero.