It’s been awhile.

I just thought I’d come along and post something, since it has been a few months since my last post. The summer is going good so far and I’ve finally got around to starting a hockey blog (and a NASCAR blog). However, my hockey blog has seen more action, because the story lines seem a little easier and more structured to follow and write. It’s mostly just a recap and analysis type of deal, whereas the NASCAR blog requires a little more thinking- not that thinking ever hurt anyone. Being creative can be a good thing, you know.

Well anyway, I’ve got to get back to reporting about hockey and NASCAR. Happy Canada Day, Canada! And Happy (Almost) Independence Day, America. Go take a look at my hockey blog and my NASCAR blog! Thanks for reading.

COMM 202 4/14/14 Final Blog: What makes a good blog?

Q: What makes a good blog? What did you like about this style of writing and/or dislike? Will you blog again?

What makes a good blog, you ask? Well, it depends on what you are trying to convey. If you are writing a blog about life at home and fun things to do with your kids on a rainy day, then your audience will expect a certain level of personality and personal testimony- or at the very least, a look into the blog writer’s life, thoughts, or point of view. If you are writing a sports blog, then readers are looking for something factual, or opinionated with plenty of support- not based on speculation. At the end of the day, when one blogs, one must  know what they are blogging about and know what their audience might like to see, already knows, or wants to find out.

When I craft blogs I sometimes, intentionally, leave out some personal elements out of my own wishes to remain somewhat mysterious and objective to my audience. Only those that really know me, actually know me. It’s like when I tweet. I never have tweeted a picture of me, otherwise referred to as a “selfie”, nor do I even go by my name like most people on Twitter- I just have my initials. My Twitter handle happens to fall in line with my nickname, so I assume my friends would know who I am if I happened to follow them one day or write to them. This of course, has some issues. If a potential employer were to try to find me, they wouldn’t be able to. I don’t have anything that associates with my likeness on Twitter or my blog(s). It’s not like I have anything to hide from any potential employers as I am not into the mainstream.

But this, by some manner, leads me to addressing the second question of what I liked or disliked about this writing style. Well, I like how some days if I don’t have much to say, I don’t have to force myself to say anything beyond what I have said. In general, I never get flustered about anything, writing wise; so I never see blogging as a burden. Is it time consuming? Yes, but then again, what isn’t? Do I enjoy it? Yes, most days. I don’t hate writing, but when it comes to writing about writing, I must sound like I have something against it. This likely correlates with my opinions towards writing. I don’t mind it. I like to write. I love to write, because I am not better at anything else and I like piecing together words and I’ve been told I love language. Well, what I am told and what I think are two different things.

In all things artistic that I have ever done I have never liked it when someone says that everything has a meaning; that something symbolizes something else, that everything is a symbol for something. Then again, communications, words, and whatnot are all symbols for the intangible, so am I just a hypocrite? I digress. But when I am told that “I must love language” I must disagree. I just do what I do simply because I do. I write what I write because I write. I don’t know how else to try to explain it, other than I just do things the way I do them, because that’s how I do things. Unless I say I am alluding to something, or implementing symbolism, I am leaving everything else to the interpretation of the reader, visual onlooker, or whomever.

Of course, in conversation one might hear me agree with a statement made, but am I really agreeing? The world may never know. I may never know myself, but what else are such thinkers supposed to think anyway. I guess now would be a seemingly random time to make a plug for my favorite writer- besides Robert Frost, Henry David Thoreau, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rick Riordan, among others. I am talking about Jon Foreman. He is the lead singer in a band called Switchfoot. They, along with Coldplay, happen to be tied for my favorite band. Jon Foreman is their head man and head song writer, although he occasionally receives help from his younger brother, and bassist, Tim. Jon Foreman’s lyrics speak to me, to a generation, to a world, and to this universe. I don’t care what anyone says unless they’ve listened to enough of Switchfoot or Jon Foreman’s solo work. His lyrics, to my interpretation, are meant to be thought about.

Foreman himself has mentioned that he is a thinking person, and he writes songs for thinking people. His lyrics also start a conversation about whatever they happen to be about, or seem to imply. People may challenge his knowledge, but intellect is not measured in means of a degree necessarily. Foreman is a college dropout who has read his books, making allusions to T.S. Eliot, Soren Kierkegaard, John M. Perkins, among many others. Foreman is in his thirties and been around the world to have learned a thing or two by now, otherwise there would have been no inspiration for Switchfoot’s latest album (and documentary), Fading West, the journey of which is encapsulated in the documentary, while the album was being written during the course of a tour around the world, with stops in all corners of the globe. It is also a surfing film, as alas, the band is from San Diego and Foreman was born in Encinitas, California.

So why do I mention all of this? Well, this is the kind of effect a blog can have; specifically a somewhat reflective blog. Now, will I blog again? Certainly. When the time calls, when I’m tweeting (after all, Twitter is essentially a microblog- and I do respond to random people occasionally), or when I am working on finding the perfect time and opportunity to get a sports blog going, with maybe a few friends so as to lessen the burden of the mighty keyboard and laptop. I will blog again, but as for right now, I’m going to go eat dinner. It’s six o’clock and I am hungry. A thinking person has to eat too, you know.

COMM 202 4/11/14 What did you gain from working with your group?

Q: What did you gain from working with your group? Any lessons learned?

          I continued to improve my coordination and collaboration skills within a group. I further learned that not all groups are exactly like the horror show that previous groups I have worked in turned out to be. In the past, groups I have worked in have been cohesive, but sometimes with some encouragement, or previous groups I have worked in have shown unequal distribution of the workload- usually resulting in me doing all of the work. I think that by having determined group leaders that selected their groups based on individual memos further helped alleviate good working climates. I would like to see other classes try that in combination with the usual “pick who you want to work with”. At the end of the day, it was a very positive experience working on this semester long group project. 

COMM 202 4/7/14 What is your view on revising your work?

Q: What is your view on revising your work? Has it changed during this course?

          My view on revising my work is that it is not a problem at all and can be fun to do. Unless, of course, I become the perfectionist that I am and I become extremely detail oriented about the syntax of anything, such that I go through ten drafts of a sentence within four or five rough drafts of an entire paper. I must say that I am constantly improving with commas, although there is always room to improve. I guess I just hate the question, “what annoys you the most about writing or revising”, because it seems as though if there is something I keep repetitively doing wrong, I clearly must not recognize the error I have committed. Therefore, someone must point it out to me, and hence why I truly cannot say “I always do this”, but rather “people always tell me I have, or I do”. It seems like the only thing I could possibly own up to- outright on my own- is my terrible handwriting. 

          As for if my revising has changed during this course, I am not entirely sure. When I physically revise I still go through the same exact motions. I sit in the same spot, I listen to the same music, I read my paper aloud, and whatnot. Everything is the same, but then again is nothing the same? Am I, quite possibly, looking at things from a different lens perhaps? I would not know until I compare something from years ago with something from now. At the end of the day, I guess I don’t like reflective questions about my writing over the course of the semester. Writing is something I have been doing all my life- why not reflect on that entire timespan? I am bound to see more growth in that aspect; outside of the obvious of course. I am more likely to see myself grow as a person and the way I communicate my growth as a person, learner, and/or self-claimed expert. Alas, who knows! As I have run out of time for this blog today.

ENGL 120 Blog #4 Due 4/7/14 Potential Other Topic for Paper #4; The Votes Aren’t In

          Take a moment and give yourself what you think would be your participation grade. What did you give yourself? Do you even know what I am talking about and can you therefore give yourself a grade at all? Right now I’d give myself a zero. Alas I am talking about voter participation. I’ll be upfront and say that there have been no elections that I could have participated in since turning the voting age, however how many people have actually voted in some election in recent years? For one thing, there is always the dilemma of the local government position that sees little to no voter turn out.

          How come we are so quick to protest and speculate instead of advocate or initiate? I know I for one, am not much of a political person. In fact on one the shortest quizzes I ever took concerning politics, it determined that yes indeed, I am at the exact middle of everything. I am a centrist. I’m not sure how I really feel about that term, but perhaps that fits the description, that I don’t really like to belong to one side or the other, let alone have one label or another.

          America as it is right now appears to be a land of extremes. You are either one side or the other. And then there’s me, right in the middle, unsure of where to “fit”. Of course, that is not the reason for this blog post. The reason, in fact being to talk about low voter participation. However, could there be any correlation between low voter participation and the disgruntled Common Man? Does the Common Man feel let out? Of course, this notion extends further than just man- when I refer to the Common Man, I mean man or woman. But why are we still turning up low voter turnout in such a time where change is so easy at our reach, why do we persist to not vote and thus not see any action change its course, thereby continuing to complain about things not getting done. What have we gotten done? The very least in our political voice, is our vote. Thus if you have a say, which everyone does, why not vote? 

          Could it be the platform we are voting on? Technology is our best friend at making things convenient, yet everyone gripes about technology in government for some reason. I mean are we really going to go as far as to say that there should exist a separation between Technology and State? Are my numerous questions getting annoying? You see, the thing is, there are ways and means of bringing the polling places to the palm of your hands. I’m not saying we get rid of them entirely, as there ail still be those we must grandfather in (incidental pun not intended). But there are ways of creating a more efficient means of determining our government and whatnot. Perhaps everything can be done from an app? Perhaps everything can come with some form of reward system like in Citizenville, by California’s Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsome. 

          Perhaps this might be a topic I will explore, the roots of low voter turnout and participation. Or perhaps I will simply be drawn back to the crowds of short track racing. Either way, I have reach the conclusion of my thoughts for this blog. Until next time.

ENGL 120 009 Blog #3 Due 4/2/14 Restart: Drop the Green Flag Again

          One is a lonely number, just ask Seekonk Speedway. At one point in time there were sixty- one racetracks in Massachusetts. Throughout New England alone, there used to be many. Now only names like Thompson International Speedway, Stafford Motor Speedway, Waterford Speedbowl, Oxford Plains Speedway, and Seekonk exist in the “popular” realm of New England racing fans minds. These are still the tracks that make up the Common Man’s racing. Some of these tracks made up the early days of NASCAR itself or NASCAR stars themselves. Names like, Ron and Ken Bouchard, Geoff Bodine, and even Richie Evans have graced some of these tracks that still remain. But there is still an annual decline in the overall health of the sport, once made extremely popular between the years of 1995- 2005. 

          Maybe it is due to increase prices on tickets, or something else, but one thing is certain and that is that the racing has never changed. Perhaps that is an issue in itself? Well, no, the racing is still just as exciting as ever. Maybe people just need to know more often that their friend is racing that weekend or perhaps it is just a matter of other forms of entertainment attracting families. But what better deal is there on a summer night than to go to the local short track for ten, maybe fifteen, bucks and get a water and a hot dog that doesn’t cost the price of a grandstand seat at Fenway Park? 

          If the only larger track in New England, New Hampshire Motor Speedway, is able to install lights for a night race in 2015, then maybe the popularity will soar again. Night races in the summer have a feeling unlike any other, especially when the fans still get to have had all day to do things. What could be more relaxing than the sound of horsepower flowing from engines that roar off into the turns, only to hit the brakes hard? You see, I myself have never been to one of these short tracks for a race- other than a brief stop at Stafford Motor Speedway on a drive through Connecticut, but again, it wasn’t on a race day. But I can’t easily get to these places without having to drive a bit of a distance. At one point, I would have been able to though. 

          There used to be a quarter mile, asphalt, eighteen degree banking, track in my town. It opened in 1947 and closed in 1985, and was sadly demolished in 1986. There are no remnants on site that show that a speedway once existed there, other than the shopping mall’s name “Speedway Plaza” and the sheets of paper inside Stop and Shop that describe where everything is in every aisle. Yet, because of this track that once existed, I long to go on an adventure around the region and visit the tracks that still exist- in plain sight and tucked away within society, the woods, or an open field. Heck, I want to do that with a few around here in North Carolina, but I never seem to have time or anyone that wants to accompany me on my journey. 

          So what can be done to prevent more American classics from falling by the wayside into disrepair, abandonment, nonexistence? For starters, a migration needs to be made back to the tracks that still exist. People need to flock back to the social events and “cheap”  entertainment surrounding the world of motorsports. And perhaps someone needs to build another track or two. Which is exactly what I am going to do someday before I die.

COMM 202 3/31/14 What makes effective peer review?

Q: What makes effective peer review?

          Feedback. Anything. People typically are good with constructive criticism, but they do not tend to go into depth on much, if anything at all. Also, a slight pet peeve of mine is if I give someone a hard copy of a rough draft and tell them that they can go ahead and write on it and then they don’t. How am I supposed to know what is confusing? What is unclear? What is a grammatical error? Yes, I welcome people obsessed with grammar to look at my paper(s). Arguably the worst of all is when you hand a person a draft and tell them to write on it or say something about it and the peer reviewer says absolutely nothing and made no marks whatsoever on the copy of the draft. I’d find that annoys me more than anything. 

          So what makes a peer review effective? Tell me what you think about my paper. Either write it right on the hardcopy of the draft, on a separate piece of paper, or tell me in a means of verbal communication (face to face, by word of mouth). If I don’t get valuable feedback I will ask pointless questions, such as, “what did you think of my intro?” or “what do you like most about it?” Trust me, nobody wants to bring out worthless questions to then fall back on when reviewing their paper. It is a waste of everyone’s time. And speaking of time; don’t set time limits on peer reviews, because some papers are longer than others or some papers have more to be said about them than others, etc. Thus ends this transmission, alas I cannot think of anything else that banes my existence.

COMM 202 3/26/14 What have you learned so far this semester…

Q: What have you learned so far this semester in terms of how to write less badly? What tip would you offer another writer?

          I would not fully say I have learned this, however I have definitely worked tremendously on this; I have followed in the footsteps of Thoreau and simplified. Granted, I still have my long, wordy, sentence structure, but I have become more conscientious of it and better at editing it. It is not that I have never been able to do this, rather, it is that I have further developed this skill. I can easily write forever and I can easily reach a page range by cutting down, yet this semester I have learned how to do so in a more complete manner. Take for instance, the papers I finished working on last night. There were a couple of paragraphs that just went on and on, with lots of clutter, but I was able formulate something concise and spot on what I had intended to say. 

          As for a tip I would offer another writer, am I allowed to say just write? The best thing anyone can do to get better at writing is to write more. But not just write more, however, write more about subjects you as a writer want to write about or like to write about. Other than that, I’d probably settle with the usual, always have some aspect of clarity, a clear focus, organization- the basics, et cetera. I guess the only other thing might be that a writer should not fear having to write papers. Simply break things up and find what works best for you, but procrastination is typically a bad idea. If perfection is your aim, always remember that practice makes better, as perfection does not exist. Writing one draft the night before the paper is due will only diminish full comprehension. The more drafts, the better- the more improved and polished one becomes as a writer.

COMM 202 3/24/14 What is something you are or can imagine being or becoming an authority on?

Q: What is something you are or can imagine being or becoming an authority on? How will you get there?

          I can see myself becoming some type of sports writer on either NASCAR or hockey, as well as holding some other position related to either one of those sports. I am contemplating starting a blog and writing about hockey; not only for the fun of it, but for the practice. The way I see it, I would not mind writing a weekly blog about either NASCAR or hockey to try to help promote my skill sets. As for how I will actually get into the field, well, the first part of the plan starts here- yay college. The second part of the plan is to find internships in NASCAR, with a team, a track, or NASCAR itself (et cetera). After all, if I found out I really do not feel like working in NASCAR, or failed to surface anything- job wise- in my four years here, I can always go back home and cover some form of hockey. It helps living where I do, as anything can be at my reach, only I must first decide what and how to get there. Eventually I would like to own a team in NASCAR, but until then I have to start from the bottom and work my way up. 

COMM 202 3/21/14 If you could review anything in the world…

Q: If you could review anything in the world (books, movies, music, food, dance, bikes, trips, clothes….) who or what would you want to review and why?

          If I could review anything I would most likely review sports and/or music. I would choose sports because that is something that I actually want to do (and might end up doing) in real life, as part of my dream job. However, in the hypothetical world I wouldn’t mind reviewing music, anything from new album’s to live concerts- I think that would be rather awesome. I have often tried to start some type of review that I will stick to, but usually I never have the time to squeeze it in, or I grow bored of the pain staking process of generating thoughts, which is ironic for a thinking person. I love to think and I love to analyze; I’m always looking for a way to improve things. My dream job of reviewing sports would be related to either NASCAR or hockey, meanwhile if I were a music reviewer I would try to keep my reviewing aspect a bit more broad, but I would definitely have to cover my favorite bands, Switchfoot and Coldplay.