freewrite 4/3/2013

already into april... thats crazy. i hope i did decent on all those tests the other day. at least good enough to keep a b average so i can get cheap insurance. they were nice enough to go ahead and give it to me but i still have to provide proof which i havent done yet. ive started saving hard for the next time i have to pay my insurance so that i can put it in my savings account and start saving over again for other things. it will be close though... my grades that is. as long as im passing algebra and have as good of a grade as i think i do in business i may barely make 80 percent. neither one of those teachers post anything to blackboard so im kind of in the dark as far as what my grades are. i need to pick it up in sociology. theres not a whole lot of points to earn in that class so every point counts. im just not much of a sociological thinker i guess. i thought i was until i took the class. as i sit there and listen to each concept i find myself applying business theories to each situation.

freewrite 3/31/2013

OOOOHHHHHklahoma where the winds blow sweeping down the plains... thats how tired i am today. i have succumbed to search overload (remember those commercials?) found some change in my pocket today, like two dollars. i was pretty stoked. i hyad to pay rent today. that sucked.surely not as much as making my new car payment every month will. i hate bills. i wish someone would leave me a ton of money. or just give me an awesome job. i could go for an awesome job. im completely willing to work. i have 3 tests today. one of which i havent begun studying for yet and two of which i still have homework to complete thats due before the test. my life is great. is anyone else tired of hearing about gay marriage?

video response

Ethan Knapp

Mr. Neuburger

English Comp 101

20 March 2013

            Video Response

            In the world we live in today, we wake up and we turn on the news to hear about shootings, natural disasters, war and famine. It has become such a natural occurrence we have become somewhat desensitized to it. That is at least until detrimental disaster strikes close to us or effects us directly. We buy our coffee, we eat our cheap take out, and we become completely complacent and satisfied in our daily “struggles.”  Which is not harmful to certain extent. Of course our capitalist way of life depends on trade and flow of currency. When we buy our coffee and our food we perpetuate our monotonous lifestyles. It is not until an urgency sweeps our sleeping hearts that we even think about changing anything.

            When the Germans first began their assault on the Jewish people it was subtle. They began with infringements on their rights such as when they were allowed to shop and various daily routines. Naturally, like any other people, they became uneasy when their monotony was interrupted. Though uneasy, no one had ever expected in a relatively short period of time their lives as they knew it would be over.

            The germans were intriguingly clever in their ability with words and propaganda. It is my idea that Hitler, having done so much for Germany by the way of mechanization and industrialization, was believed by all to be trustworthy and intelligent in his methods.

            The germans were obsessed with technology. The camera at the time was still a rarity to see, so people would do things they would not normally do to be in front of one. The Germans used this to their advantage when they were filming in the ghetto. This is one thing that I thought peculiar about the film. Even though conditions were extreme for most people, the sight of the camera and the possibility to be on it, brought a smile to some faces.

            Watching a once proud people be reduced to such standards is so difficult to watch and impossible to un-see. As I stated in the beginning, we go untouched by tragedy for the majority of our day to day lives and until it strikes us or someone close its no more than a picture on television. This was different.

            I could not help but try to imagine my life upturned the same way the Jews’ lives were. Seeing the anguish the film brought to the faces of the people who had lived through the conditions absolutely breaks a normal human being’s heart. To see my family and the people I know reduced to such indignity just seems so surreal. Our traditions and norms completely disregarded and things like hygiene and human interaction coming second to the need to find food and survive. It seems impossible. Which I am sure the Jewish people thought as well at the time.

            I fear we inch a little closer every day to another situation such as the holocaust. More people should see this film. We hear about it and read about it growing up. We spend a chapter or two learning about World War Two in general where we read thing like “America defeated the Nazis! Oh yeah hitler killed millions of Jewish people and put them in unbelievable conditions.” you are never given the chance to get so close to it when you learn about it in junior high. More people need to understand how small the holocaust started. Never take your most basic freedoms for granted.

freewrite 3/20/2013

seems like im behind on everything today. i still need to wrap up my response to the video we watched in class. i had such a hard time focussing on it last night i feel like its just rambling. i also didnt get my math done becase i was at my moms doing laundry last night and she doesnt have internet. thats the downside of having classes that are more or less online. on the up side im still loving my new car. its fun to drive, has lots of power and gets way better fuel mileage than my 94 does. im keeping the old one around until the weather decides to stay nice, and then ill probably take it back to cabool and park it at the house.its been a pretty good ole car for all the headaches its caused. at least it just about always starts. it sure leaks though. i think thats what i was most tired of. im never buying another convertible.

freewrite 3/6/2013

whatta wednesday. im not quite as tired as i have been. im finally catching up on my sleep. im still in the process of getting a new car. hopefuly ill know today if my loan goes through. i dont know why it wouldnt. hopefully i can be driving it by friday. i met the guy yesterday and he let me drive it. the clutch felt tight and the whole car felt pretty solid. depending on the interest rate i should be able to get payments down to 200-225 a month which i thought was pretty manageable. first thing i want to do to it is put some louder mufflers on it. a magnaflow axle back setup would do it quite nicely. then maybe a cold air kit and a tune but then ill probably leave it alone. ill save all my hot rodding money for my old one which im still in the process of building a new engine for. im super stoked to get this new car but not to have a car payment again. its been nice driving the one i have thats paid for. theres a few people that think i should sell it but i just have way too much money in it to sell it. i would only get around 2500 bucks for it and that would be lucky.

freewrite 3/4/2013

super tired today. i spent the whole weekend moving and im still trying to catch up on sleep. i checked my grades when i got to class and a page that im sure i turned in last week for sociology is missing in the grad book so ill hajve to get that figured out later. hopefully she may let me just print it off becasue i have it in my email here at school. i found a new car i want to buy. its an 06 mustang gt. just a plain black five speed with five spoke wheels. i like it a lot. its only got 94,000 miles on it and it looks brand new. i like my old 94 but its becoming more of a project car all the time. a couple buddies of mine from work replaced the heater core in it last saturday and it was an all night job. we started at 8pm and finished at 4 in the morning. which by mechanical standards is right on time becasue it calls for 8 hours of labor. we had to pull the whole dash out. it was something ill never do in a daily driver again. it did need to get done though. my heater core wasw leaking so bad that when i turned the heat on steam would come out of the vents. i like my new place. stefanie likes it too i think. still trying to get everything organized and put away.i took her to texas roadhouse last night. spent 56 bucks but i also have lunch for the next two days. i need to buy a new tv, but id also like to put as much money down on a new car as i could. decisions, decisions. i still have yet to cash my 580 dollar check from the federal government so that will be helpful.

The Big Understanding

Narrative Essay

The Big Understanding

From the time we are born we are engraved with this sense of size. That is to say that everything we do is big and it makes an impact, or growing up you hear ‘’Oh wow, you are getting so big.’’ When you get a good grade in elementary school it is a big deal. When your parents take you to Mcdonald’s you want a mighty kids meal rather than a happy meal because that’s what the big kids get. We want to be big and everything we do to be a bid deal because we are taught that bigger is better.

When I was in elementary school, I knew this family of kids one of who was in my class. Everyday, these kids walked to and from school whether it was raining, snowing, or 120 degrees out. Everyone knewt they were not very well off compared to most of the other kids. They often wore the same clothes at least a couple times a week and looked as though they rarely showered. None of these children were bad kids by any means, albeit the older boy was in the principal’s office from time to time for common shenanigans, but he was not a bad kid. They all had an uncanny disposition given their circumstances.

When I was in second grade, my friend Alex’s mom Carla, along with my own mother a and a couple others of friends, were organizing this absolutely massive yard sale. It wouldn’t even fit in the yard, and in fact, it had to be put in this giant garage/shed kind of thing that was bigger than any of our houses. I told my mom I thought we needed to go through and get some of the better clothes they had all gathered up and send them to these children because they were so lacking in proper clothing. Mom agreed and when the children received the clothes I was praised up and down from my mother, my teachers, the principal, and even the superintendent. What I had done was a big deal to all of which my response was, “It just needed to be done.” We had tons of people standing around to talk about how rough these kids had it, but that’s all anyone ever wanted to do about it. It was not a big deal. It was simply one human being seeing a need in another’s life and making a conscious decision to try to help improve their condition knowing  he had the ability to do so. I couldn’t grasp why everyone thought this was a big deal.

I have some family that live in Arizona. My cousin Kerry, his wife Kyla, and their son Reizo all live in Flagstaff. Every summer and some springs, they fly to Missouri to come spend some time on the family farm, and it’s always a good time. We get a lot of fishing done and eat a lot of good food and play lots of music.

There was one summer, the summer before I went into sixth grade that I was able to fly out to Flagstaff to see them. It was the first time I had ever flown on a plane or had the chance to go anywhere farther than Arkansas. I thought it was a big deal. We were able to do lots of things there in Flagstaff. We went to an indoor rock climbing gym, we went to some of the local shops downtown, and ate at lots of great restaurants.

The second day I was there we took a trip to the San Francisco Peaks which are about 45 minutes outside of Flagstaff. Normally, it’s a very popular spot for skiers in the area. However in the summer it gets warm enough that all the snow is gone save for some that is in the shade most of the time. The owners still leave the lifts and the little restaurant inside open just to make a little money in the off season. They take anyone up on the lift that wants to go up the mountain just to check it out which I thought was pretty cool. After about a ten minute ride up the peak and being forced to let go of my fear of heights, we arrived at the top. Above tree line I could see Flagstaff miles and miles away where the air was crisp and clear. At the very top of the mountain were some small trees that looked more like bushes called bristlecone pines which a guide told us were like 1400 years old. All of this was so fascinating to me and beautiful as well. I wanted to see more of this beautiful part of the country.

The next day we took a trip to the Grand Canyon. We drove about an hour to a railway station that the Grand Canyon Tour Company owns. It’s merely an old fashioned train to ride to the Grand Canyon. It was really cool I thought, and after watching the scenery go by and seeing herds of rancher’s cattle, we arrived at the Grand Canyon. We had to go through the process of tickets and getting through the gift shop, but finally I could see a great viewing area just up a small incline, and I immediately went this direction. Along the way the first thing I noticed were squirrels everywhere coming right up to people. I saw a sign that said, “Please do not feed the squirrels,’’ and I realized why they were so friendly. Finally, I reached the top of this small hill and began to see one of God’s greatest creations. It was incredibly huge. The river running through it was the brightest blue. Although it was disappointing at first, after about five minutes I could not figure out what was so great about this place until I saw about halfway down  a person riding an animal. Even though they were only about halfway down I could just barely make out what this little speck was. That’s when I realized that this place, this thing, this hole in the ground was so immense my eyes could not even perceive its depth. I said to myself under my breath, “This is a big deal.” All my life I had been told how big and great I was and finally, I had proof of otherwise. I had verification I was so small and so insignificant I couldn’t even realize it without the aid of someone almost a mile away  I could barely see. Even though that person will never know what they did for me in helping me see what I do now, it just goes to show that every little piece plays a part in something much bigger