A Make-up Routine

My wonderful husband has asked me to write another blog.  Of course I said yes.  (Well…after he asked me a few times….)  At first I didn’t know what to write about.  Then it hit me.  I remember last week when I took my daughter into college with us.  I sat on the front row and my daughter, C.J. sat in the seat next to me.  A lady a few seats over said, “So, you brought you’re little sister to class with you?”

Of course I smiled while my daughter looked at her like she just hit her and said, “No, she’s my mom!”

The lady’s mouth opened and she said, “Are you kidding me?”

Common Core for Dummies

For my English Comp 2 class, I chose Common Core for one of the two major research papers.  This paper was actually pretty fun to research, because it was about education in Oklahoma.  I already knew, after moving here and seeing the step-daughter's school system is one of the worst school systems I have ever personally seen....

The fact is, Oklahoma ranks extremely low in its education and it shows.  If something isn't done to fix this runaway state government, we'll find that Oklahoma will be dragging the entire state down into the abyss of uneducation....  Anyways, here's the research paper, hope you enjoy it!

Net Neutrality and Academia

There's no ifs-ans-or butts about it, Net Neutrality is a huge issue that changes weekly.  For my English 2 class, I wrote this paper as the first of two major Research Papers due over the Semester.  Honestly, it was probably the most fun research paper I've ever done.

Why?  Mainly because I didn't honestly know that much about Net Neutrality and I've found that most people don't.  Over the course of the research, I found many amazing websites that broke it down in amazing ways.  I found writing this paper the most informative thing I've ever done about any form of issue.  I hope you enjoy it!

After a Year of College

College life, when pushing forty, is something quite amazing.  Especially going into it married while taking all your classes with your spouse.  I have to admit, my situation is quite a bit more unique than I had planned for.  There are obvious upsides, always having a study partner, getting to spend time with my wife, knowing all the same people….  But the other things, are quite amazing.

First off, my wife and I almost have a cult following at school.  From out councilor holding our relationship as a model for what she wants her future to be, to those that just think we are entirely too cute to being doing it all together.  I mean, sure, it’s one thing to be a cute couple, but we’ve even joke about starting up a Facebook page for those who are fans….  After our first year, we get noticed all over campus, and even off campus.  When we went to the Muskogee Ren Faire, we got noticed more than once out in public.  It was a bit crazy.

The Absense of Creativity in the Classroom is Killing the Future

After interviewing my teacher friend from North Carolina, I realized that most of the data I was writing my research paper on was almost null and void.  Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, there has been a new curriculum introduced, but again, it is being hamstrung by the politicians.  Only time will tell how much has actually changed, but honestly, I doubt much will.

My final paper was turned in on 12/8/14.  Its pretty long, but everyone that read it liked it, and some people who only read part of it wanted to read all of it....  As of right now (as I write this) I honestly don't know what grade I got, or the comments on it.  Hopefully I'll get it back from my teacher when I see her in the hallways.

Anyways, I hope you enjoy my final paper in English 1113.

Proposal for Research Paper

For my third and final major essay, the research paper, I had to write a proposal to write about what I wanted to write about.  The umbrella topic was education, and my first thoughts went to how education is broken in the USA.  From the concept that you cannot have imagination and grow up, to the leeching of fun out of it, to the idea that the entire high school system is based on trying to get people into an industrial plant, its all broken.

So, I thought and thought about how to write this short little thing, hoping it would end up being okay, and apparently it was.  So here it is, the proposal for my research paper:

Go See a Play at the Local Playhouse

My second major essay for English Composition I was the Community Observation paper.  which was turned in on Halloween of 2014.  In this one, we had to go around the local community of Tahlequah, OK and find something to write about.  I chose the NSU Theatre Company, which is the college's theatrical company which has a Playhouse just off campus in downtown Tahlequah.

Even if you are not living in that area, I still suggest you go check out your local theatrical company, they work very hard to put on a great show, and many times raise money for local charities.

I ended up getting a 97 on this one.  I had a few run on sentences.  I actually went back and edited this one a bit after her comments, because I gave it to the NSUTC's coordinator, Dr. Robyn Pursley, whom I interviewed for the paper.  My teacher's comment at the end was, "Good work!  You present engaging material supported with evidence."

How Reading and Writing Showed Me How to Live

As part of my time in college, I took English Composition I and had to write a few essays.  Three of them were a major part of my grade.  The first essay was the Personal Narrative Essay which was turned in on Sept. 10th. 2014.

I ended up getting a 98 out of 100 on it.  The final comment said, "Your essay provides ample everyday imagery and detail to fully address the prompt.  Your ideas are complete and engaging.  Watch out for sentence fragments and grammar."

Anyways, many people wanted to read it for themselves, so here it is, I hope you enjoy it!

Free Write 05

Now that I've gone and aced my English Composition I class I've decided to share some of the selections of writing that I had to do in it.  Every Monday morning we had to pull out a sheet of paper and free write an essay over some subject or another for part of the participation grade.  Of course I didn't put dates on any of them so I don't know in what order they are, or when some of them were, but here is the last one I'm sharing.

Not sure exactly what we were asked to write about on this one, but I obviously wrote about how high school kills the joy of reading and writing, along with a great number of other things.  It was one of the basis's of my final paper.

Free Write 04

Now that I've gone and aced my English Composition I class I've decided to share some of the selections of writing that I had to do in it.  Every Monday morning we had to pull out a sheet of paper and free write an essay over some subject or another for part of the participation grade.  Of course I didn't put dates on any of them so I don't know in what order they are, or when some of them were, but here is the fourth one I'm sharing.

Apparently this particular one was about argumentation.  Every time I think about the word argumentation, this is the gist of what I think about:

Free Write 03

Now that I've gone and aced my English Composition I class I've decided to share some of the selections of writing that I had to do in it.  Every Monday morning we had to pull out a sheet of paper and free write an essay over some subject or another for part of the participation grade.  Here is another one with a date, amazingly enough.  12/1/14.

In this third free write I'm sharing, we were to write about our Thanksgiving.  Man, thanksgiving 2014 was a rough one....  Unfortunately I didn't really have time to make it as long as I wanted to, as so much went crazy...but I did the best I could.  I hope you enjoy this one!

Free Write 02: The Best Place in the World

Now that I've gone and aced my English Composition I class I've decided to share some of the selections of writing that I had to do in it.  Every Monday morning we had to pull out a sheet of paper and free write an essay over some subject or another for part of the participation grade.  This one, I actually had a date on, which I'm surprised by.  10/1/14.  Anyways, here's the second Free Write I'm sharing.

We were asked to write an essay about the best place in the world, more or less.  So here it is, free write number 2.

Free Write 01

Now that I've gone and aced my English Composition I class I've decided to share some of the selections of writing that I had to do in it.  Every Monday morning we had to pull out a sheet of paper and free write an essay over some subject or another for part of the participation grade.  Of course I didn't put dates on any of them so I don't know in what order they are, or when some of them were, but here is the first one I'm sharing.

If I remember correctly, the subject we were writing about was about visual rhetoric and when a picture spoke to you in a certain way...or something like that....  Anyways, the first free write.

The end of 2014, and the beginning of 2015

Another year, come and gone.  Doesn’t seem like its been so many, but I’ve almost witness forty of them.  So many ups and downs; rights, lefts, and wrongs; and everything in between.  The year of 2014 is hard to sum up in words.  It was a roller coaster to say the least.  I took a break from the blog, landed a job, and Lisa and I started working.

But the job never truly panned out.  We could never get enough hours to truly make it worth it, and when we did work, it was completely nuts.  We had a horrible boss and iffy coworkers.  There were many times we both almost quit, but we stuck through it.  Sometime towards summer though, two things changed....

A 38 Year Old College Student

I’m shocked at how much college has changed since I last when to it.  Of course, 1994 was 20 years ago, but still, I never thought it would change so much.  Part of me wonders if I just didn’t notice the things I love about school now because I was so blinded by trying to survive, but after talking to my friends, I don’t think that is the case….

It seems a million years ago when I stepped on the Austin campus of the University of Texas.  A million years and a day.  I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but I was giving some things a shot, and it just didn’t work out.  I was naïve.  I picked something and just decided to go with it, truly the wrong decision.  To this day I do not regret my decision to walk away from college, in fact it was one of the best decisions I have ever made. 

A Return to College

For those of you who don't know, Lisa and I have returned to college.  Its one of the main reasons her and I vanished for so long with the blog, as we've been trying everything we could to stay afloat financially, while trying to decide what our future will hold.  Anyways, periodically I'm gonna through my essays and work online onto the blog just for the fun of it.

Our first assignment in English Comp 1, was to write an essay over our first day/week of college, picking an event and showing what it meant to you.  It was more of a participation grade, as we had to read other people's papers in class and tell the class what we got out of it.  Here is my essay, entitled A Return to College.

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When College Comes a Knockin'

I wish I remembered the point in which colleges started scouting me and my fellow highschool friends.  I know they did, just a little bit, but yeah, I’m sure its nothing like what going on in our house now.  Part of me fully understand what exactly is going on.  But lets start somewhere else.

C.J. is getting college letters from all over the US.  Reading these turns out to be quite interesting.  About half of the colleges that have seen packets have truly interesting financial aid statements.  Obviously I need to do more research, but they all read in such a way that make me believe that the tuition/room/board free.  Part of me obviously doesn’t believe this, but yeah, its an interesting read, none-the-less.