Mclovin123's Weblog

What I’ve learned in English

mclovin123 — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 15:35:59 +0000

This class was actually more beneficial to me then any other English class that I have ever taken, because of the variety of things we did and accomplished in this class. Not only did we cover grammer, we talked about social networking, read stories about networking and corporations, we talked about fallacies and the different types. This class really helped me brush up on a lot of things in writing. Now I am able to do MLA format effectively, do an annotated bibliography, extended definitions, use bias or persuasiveness in my paper or in any sort of way. Another great thing we did was blogging. I honestly never really blogged before I got to this class, and it really helped me to reflect on things and get ideas out of my head. Blogging is such a great tool for future English class, because you do so many things in one. Using twitter, delicious, bloglines, etc were also beneficial tools that I can n0w use for future classes for research papers. Another great thing that I got from this class, is how easy it is now do narrow down and find things on the internet, and how you can find different people that are connected on the interenet. I had no idea that this world was so unified technologically, like the story of the blackberry in the first chapter of Shirky. It is absolutely amazing. There is basically no privacy anymore. The last thing was about The Corporation the Documentary. I learned a lot about how corporations function and how powerful and sometimes harmful they can be to our society. I didnt realize how many bad CEO’s were out there and how they can destroy a corporation because of fraud. It was a great class that I thoroughly enjoyed. And the teacher made it a lot of fun!!!!!

My Final Blog Post

mclovin123 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:58:46 +0000

I am happy to say that this is my final blog post in English, at least for now, until further instruction. I am pretty sure though that this is the last one. I actually have really enjoyed blogging about all sorts of topics, issues, current events, sports, etc. Our third assignment was to blog everyday for the whole month of November. If you blogged anywhere from twenty to twenty-five times, you received an A for the assignment. Not only was it easy, it was a lot of fun. You were suppose to blog about almost anything you wanted to, and it had to be at least two-hundred words. Blogging is a really good way to get you thinking about what is going on in your life, your interests, your feelings, etc. A lot of the times, I blogged about sports because that is one of my interests, and a lot of the times, I just blogged about what was on my mind. Blogging is just like writing in a journal everyday, its pretty simple, you just have to be disciplined about it, and not forget. Our teacher made this assignment pretty easy for us, but if you aren’t disciplined, it could be pretty rough. I think this was definetly my favorite assingment we have had this semester, not because it was easy, but because the way I was able to express my feelings and emotions, and just talk about whatever I wanted to. When I was writing these blogs, I tried to imagine myself as a writer for a magazine or newspaper. When I wrote about sports, I pretended I was writing for SportsIllustrated. When I wrote about other topics, I pretended I wrote for The Dallas Morning News, and that my ultimate goal was to intrigue the reader as much as possible. I wasn’t just doing this assignment to get the A, I actually used this assignment to help me down the road for future assignments, like papers, essays, etc. Blogging is a great exercise for anything that has to do with writing. I think everyone should do it. You would really enjoy it!! I know I did.

The new car that I am getting

mclovin123 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 01:10:27 +0000

For about the last three years, I have been driving a 2002 Midnight blue Audi A4. The first year that I started driving, which was sixteen, I drove a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee, then upgraded to an Audi. I was really excited to get that car. It was pretty much brand new at the time, it had really nice leather interior, and was a lot faster than the Jeep. The first couple months that I had it, I would drive it around all the time, whether or not I needed to go somewhere, just because I loved the car so much. After about a year and a half or two, I started getting sick of the car, and asking my parents all the time if I could get a new one, begging them that I should be allowed to because of my good grades at TCU, etc., just a bunch of BS to try to convince them to let me, but it didn’t work at all. I was really sick of the car, it just had problems all of the time. Some sort of light would always be on in the car, whether it was the brake pad, a light that was broken, engine check, etc. It was always something. I havent really had the best luck with that car either. It broke down on me twice, I have had several flat tires, been in two wrecks, and had a few speeding tickets haha. I guess the last two are my fault, but maybe the car is just bad luck, and is a sign that I need to get a new one. So anyways, about a month ago, I talked to my Mom again about getting a new car, and I was shocked at her response. “Yeah, maybe it is a good idea, but lets wait a few months and research before we jump in and buy a car.” I was really happy to hear that, because all of my other responses were, “Don’t even mention a car right now.” For the last month, I have been researching cars and prices and found the car that I want. It is a 2006 Black S4 Audi, which is similar to mine, but a lot faster and a lot nicer. And I mean way faster. It has about 450 horsepower. I found one with about 25,000 miles for about 32,000, which is an amazing deal because they are usually about 55,000 brand new. I am going to put black racing rims on it and I am also going to put a stereo system in the back. If all goes well, I will get the car in the next month or two. The purchasing of the car has also slightly been put on hold because of the Stock Market and the financial crisis that we are in. I am paying for half of the car with the money I recieved from the Budweiser stock that I have, and my mother is paying for the other half plus the rims and the stereo. I cant wait to get this car. I just got to keep my fingers crossed.

What a great day!!!!

mclovin123 — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 06:06:54 +0000

This Thanksgiving was by far the best Thanksgiving I have ever had. The weather was great, the food was amazing, my whole family was in town, and pretty much for the first time, I wasnt sick during Thanksgiving. I somehow always either get the flu, a cold, or something during this holiday, which is so unlucky, but not this year!! This is the first Thanksgiving in about five or six years where I wasn’t traveling for tennis. I was usually at a national tennis tournament, which was awful. Anyways, this morning, I was able to sleep in until about 11, then I went to my grandparents house in Tyler, Texas, which is about an hour and a half drive from Dallas. We had Thanksgiving lunch at about 2 pm. I saw a ton of my relatives from my mothers side that I hadnt seen in forever. I catched up with them, ate a lot of food, watched the Cowboys win again, and then took a little nap before driving back to Dallas at about 6 pm. As soon as I got back, I went to another Thanksgiving feast. This one was on my Dads side of the family. I was pretty full from earlier, but I still managed to eat a full plate of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans and two slices of pie. I definetly gained like 10 pounds today, but trust me, it was worth it. I just had such a great time with my family and friends today, and I am really fortunate to have such a great family and food on my plate. A lot of families out there arent as lucky as I am, which is really unfortunate. I want to wish everyone out there a Happy Thanksgiving. What a great holiday. I wish everyday was Thanksgiving!!!

Debutante Ball

mclovin123 — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:59:41 +0000

So tonight, which is Wednesday, the eve before Thanksgiving Day, which is one of my favorite holidays, I was invited by one of my dads friends to a Debutante Party with my dads girlfriend and her daughter who was about my age. It was held at The Meyerson Symphony Hall in downtown Dallas. We drove from Highland Park in my car, and we were basically escorted inside where we got our name tags and recieved a welcoming gift. The place was extremely well decorated with flowers and paintings, and the great thing about the ball was that I knew so many people from my highschool at Highland Park that were there. About 100 girls from my highschool were hostesses as well as several guys. The guys wore a coat and tie, and the girls just wore formal dresses. When we got there, my date and I socialized with a bunch of people, some that I knew, and some that I didnt know at all, but pretended that I did hahah. After that, we got a few drinks at the bar and then we ate dinner. They had an amazing buffett. After the dinner, they announced the debutante class of 09 and they were escorted by the men who were in the Honor Guard for the Deb Ball. It was really interesting seeing what all the girls were wearing, and seeing some of the guys, if they were going to trip or not. Anyways, it was a really fun experience and I would definetly do it again. My date was great!

Thanksgiving Break

mclovin123 — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 22:45:28 +0000

I am extremely excited and anxious for Thanksgiving break. Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite holidays because you get to be with your family, have an amazing meal with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, etc, oh and you cant forget the best part of the meal, the pies. Pecan pie, peach cobbler, and apple pie. Yummy!!! My family and relatives from around the area usually convene at my house for a mid afternoon lunch. We are moving the dinner back a little bit because some of my family and I are going to the Cowboys game at 3 p.m. It is a tradition for the Cowboys to play on Thanksgiving and this will be my first cowboys game on Thanksgiving. We usually watch football all day and throw the football around, but this year we are going to the game. It should be pretty fun. After the dinner, we all usually go to a night movie, so we can just relax and digest the plethora of food we just ate. I usually fall asleep in the movie because supposedly, there is a chemical in the turkey that makes you sleepy. Im not sure if that is a myth, but I am pretty sure its true. Anyways, I am just really happy to get to see my family and just be home for a few days to relax and see some of my friends from college as well. It will be a well deserved and needed break from school and tennis, however, I am going to workout and probably play tennis everyday except for Thanksgiving Day to stay in shape because I will definitely gain several pounds over this holiday if I don’t.

Tonight

mclovin123 — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:37:42 +0000

So tonight is going to be a really fun night at TCU. Even though I am not in a fraternity, I am going to at least two fraternity parties. I am extremely excited. The first one is a neon lights party where everyone wears bright colors and when you get there they have crazy colored painted and they spray it on you and you spray it on everyone else until you are completely covered and then you start dancing with girls!!!!! Trust me, I am a huge ladies man. After I have fun there, all of my friends and I are going to downtown Fort Worth to another fraternity party at a bar called Aqua Lounge. This party should be a lot more fun because the girls that are hosting the party are a lot hotter and crazier, supposedly. Any rate, I am just looking to have a lot of fun because lately, actually the last two months I have been trying to study really hard in school and buckle down so I can make really good grades this semester. This will be a really good break for me, and a chance to let loose for once this year. I mean, I really havent gone out a lot this year, and I am really excited to me new girls and dance like I rockstar baby!!!!! Talk to you tommorow!!!!

My Math Class

mclovin123 — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 03:54:49 +0000

As you probably know already, this year academically has been a struggle, because I fell behind the 8-Ball when my mono lingered over the summer and spilled into the school year. I missed off and on about the first two weeks of school and a couple of days here and there, bascially in bed still with mono, possibly a relapse. I am taking some really hard business classes, because I am applying to the business school in the spring, but the kinds of classes I am taking, you cant afford to get behind in them, or you are absolutely screwed, and I am a prime example of that. I am able to do fine in two of my classes and I am probably getting an incomplete or a Q grade for my other class, which is Financial Accounting, but my Calculus class is a different story. I missed a lot of that class because I was sick and have been trying to catch up all semester. My teacher was letting me take my test a couple of days later, and I still didnt do very well on them. Math is definetly not my strong suit. We have our last test tommorow before the final, and since I was still behind on this unit, I went to talk to the teacher to see if he would let me take it late again, but he didnt, so I have had to cram the last few days to get ready for this test, and it will determine if I make a C or an F in the class. I am going to take it again in summer school no matter what, but if I somehow didnt pass the class, this would be the first F in a class I have ever made in my life. Hopefully that wont happen. I feel like I know the material pretty well, I am just really anxious about it. Anyways, I got to go study now all night so I can ace this thing tommorow!!! Peace

The Rec

mclovin123 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:03:27 +0000

The Rec is a workout spot in the middle of Campus at TCU. You can play basketball, swim, rock climb, indoor soccer, raquetball, ping pong, etc. The only thing that I do now when I go into the rec, which I didn’t do in the past is workout. I have made an early new years resolution to work out at least four to five times a week, which includes both running on a treadmill or track for at least 30 mins non-stop at a pretty good speed, and when I am on the treadmill, I try to run at least 3 miles and each mile at about 7 minutes. The tennis team has been lifting weights every morning at 6 am with a trainer Monday and Wednesday, and I have been working out the other days, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturdays on my own. Actually I go with two or three of the guys on the tennis team, two of which are in this English class. Paul Chappell and Cameron Nash. I have just started this routine about two weeks ago and I have already started seeing and feeling the difference strength wise and endurance wise. I think this program will be very beneficial to me for the spring season, where we will be playing lots of tennis matches back to back with little time to rest. If I can be in the best physical shape possible, I think I will have a much better chance to win matches, because I will already have an advantage over my opponents before the match even starts. I am going to work as hard as I can the next couple months before we start traveling. I wish I had started this program sooner, but I cant look back on the past now. I got to get jacked baby!!!

My Financial Accounting Class

mclovin123 — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:00:23 +0000

So here is the scoop. Right before school started this year, I found out I had mono, actually is was at the beginning of the summer that I found out I had mono, but it didn’t get bad until about mid July when I was in London studying abroad through TCU. It gradually got better, and when I started feeling better again, I tried to start getting back into shape, and that is when I started feeling the effects of that and felt like I had when it was the worst. Unfortunately, that carried over into the start of this fall term of school for about two months. Not only did I have mono, but I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression as a result of mono, or at least a part of the mono. I was able to go to most of my classes, which I am only taking 12 hours this semester, except for one, in which I was really behind in, Financial Accounting. That is one class you cant afford to be behind in. I decided it was too late to even make a C so I just decided I was either going to take an F or try to get an incomplete. I just recently had been waiting for the response of my teacher to see if that was possible, and in the mean time, while I was waiting, I went to the Dean of Campus Life, explaining my situation. Today, I just received and email from my teacher saying I could not have in imcomplete because I was too far behind in the class. She said I could try to get an Q grade, which means it doesnt effect my GPA. Hopefully I will be able to do that, because it has been a really rough semester for me, and this would alleviate things at least a little bit. I have my fingers crossed. I really think if they will let me because of my situation and because I made really good grades last year.