Thanksgiving break went extremely well. My extended family did not get together, but my immediate family did get together. My brother and I have both moved out and ventured to college, so it was really nice to be together with just my mom, dad and brother. It was nice to just have multiple days away from school and be able to relax (and completely forget about that 7 page final I have to write for this class).
My girlfriend is taking an AP Literature course offered at our local high school, and they recently read As I Lay Dying by William Faukner. After reading it and really enjoying it, she passed it on to me to read over Thanksgiving Break. It was really good. Faukner uses multiple narrators to illustrate certain situations, adding a very dynamic twist on the findamentally boring situation of treking across the country side to bury their dead, and later rotting, body. I would recommend it. Is this 40 words?
Registration is pretty annoying. They give you access to classes two weeks in advance so you can set up your schedule, but then when it comes to sign up as a lowly freshmen all of the classes you intended to sign up- for are already full. I don’t know exactly ehat should be done about this, but I just know that it is annoying. But, luckily everything worked out and my schedule isn’t too complicated, although CHEM is a monopolizer of all my time.
On the front page of the October 31st publication of the Loyola Phoenix, my article boasted to answer the question of “How to make ‘cents’ of Loyola’s finances”. The article was informative and answered that question, in my opinion, quite well. But the composition of that article was quite aggravating. I found out the difference of an essay and a newspaper article. I found out that my style of writing is quite opinionated and that as one of the editors told me, “You have a strong voice.” The problem is that opinions cannot be in articles. After revising the article and taking out my “strong voice” the article appeared worthless to me. It was a fun experience, and I may pursue it again, but journalism probably is not the route for me.
Prof. Vorhes,
Last week, with the inevitable 4pm turn in time of our second essay looming over my head, I struggled to compose a paper within the length requirement and with some composition that would actually have a point. So, the point of this tumblr is to formally apologize for the let down my paper probably is to you. The Thursday the paper was due, I composed three different essays, each with their own community centric topics, each faltering at the three and a half page mark. Now, I do not want you to believe that I put off your paper, actually I mulled over the topic for almost a week. My discussion with you seemed to aleviate some of my inquiries, but after sketching an outline, all of my thoughts played hide and go seek with me, and I’m still seeking. So, with this Tumblr as my interpreter, I hope you accept my apology for my first draft.
-Jake Nalley
Community-a group of people living in a particular local area or ecologically, a group of interdependent organisms inhabiting the same region and interacting with each other. Scientifically, I would agree that there are communities that conform to this definition, but science also shows us that we are a supreme being to other organisms. I find it rather hard to form a definition of community based on a personal experience. I lived in a neighborhood and we had a “Community Day” where everyone was suppose to meet at the park/lake and clean the area up and have a pot luck and mingle. Usually, numbers were limited to the houses that surrounded the park and also those lonely old folk that meandered that way for a sense of belonging. I don’t know what my neighbors names are or what they do for fun. All I know about our stag Westerly neighbor is that he mows his yard extremely slow and that it took him over a week to paint a barn that should have taken a few hours. Not much camaraderie. I had my own niche in my “community”. I had friends that lived across the street and one that was just down the way. We would wander around the woods and play pick-up tackle football games in the open lot across from my house. My niche within my community was intimate, but as a whole my “community”, my neighborhood is nothing more than Caucasian, SUV driving, child bearing, anti-social families that will whip up dinner for a family that has had a family member die or had surgery, but otherwise could care less and wouldn’t mind if they dodged that phone call.
Wow! Totally forgot about you, wonderful Tumblr. To make up for my terrible negligence, I will compose several entries for your fancy tonight. I know, I am suppose to touch base with you at least weekly, but I am sorry to tell you, but Mr. Tumblr you are not very high on my to-do list. Sorry. Then again, I thank you for your help conquering my writers block a couple of weeks ago when I was attempting to construct my first college essay. So for that, thank you and maybe next time I will attempt to remember you and how lonely you will be if I neglect you once again. Good night Tumblr, I’ll see you next week.
For my Ethics midterm we were required to compose a five to seven page paper answering the question of whether to purchase an iPod or not with only the advise and guidance of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, and Plato’s dialogues “Apology” and “Euthyphro”. Not only was this topic ridiculously hard to compile evidence to support our conclusion, but also I kept wondering how these works of ancient literature could possibly pertain to the modern iPod. Come to find out, after several pleasant hours spent in the library, I deduced that surprisingly Aristotle ambiguously cited some information that discouraged the purchase of the iPod. Ironically, while traveling home on the Amtrak, to drone out all of the wonderful patient Amtrak customers awaiting the stalled train to start moving again, I was listening to my own “bodily pleasure” (Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics).
This last weekend I ventured home to see my family but most of all my quest should be credited to the desire to see my girlfriend, Marissa, who is still in her senior year at the high school I attended last year. Before I arrived home, she had to leave to cheer, for she is a cheerleader, for the football game. So my best bet to see her that night before eleven was to trek across unlined country roads to Colfax Illinois. This entire rant has no substantial influence on the subject of this entry. So I attended the game and came to realize that most everything I did in high school was so unnecessary. I freaked about grades and studied to the point of perfection. I stressed so much about high school baseball that I abandoned my physics class that was going to Six Flags for a field trip just to play a non-conference baseball game that we later lost anyway. This epiphany at the game was terrible. I don’t understand how I could be so naive. Now I’m at college and again am getting wrapped up in menial things, like the honors program, and when I was put on the waiting list and never heard back, I was completely devestated. It is a vicious meaningless circle that consumes my waking hours for the brief snippet of satisfaction. Now I just wonder and question every move I make in my life and analyze it to the atoms that create the thought.
I am using this log as my warm-up before writing my essay due tomorrow in less than twenty one hours. That’s right, I am a procrastinator, but I am also an analyzer. I think I have read Gopnik’s essay 5 times and still doubt my own choice for the topic. Is it too interesting? If it is too interesting, will anyone even take the three excruciating minutes to even scan the paper? The topic allowed too much room for thought. I hate ambiguity.
