My blogosphere

In my blog, I have written in a sporadic format by writing whatever is on my mind. And for the first few posts I was writing about my family, because Christmas Break had just ended and I had been missing the quality time spent with them. As I went along I started with each sibling and having a family of five it made my family a large part of my blog entries. In each entry about my family I described what they meant to me and how they have influenced my life. With my brother, he housed me last summer so we spent a lot of quality time just talking. With my sister Vanessa, she gave me a second mom someone who I could always come to if I had a problem. With my other sister Keeley, she gave me someone I could goof off with because of her crazy personality. Also, with my sister Ashley, she gave me somebody to turn to or I gave her someone to talk to if she was having a hard time. And finally my mother gave me not only life but a friend. She was and still is the only person who would do absolutely anything for me. Throughout all the crap I have put her through she is still putting up with me and is right by my side.

And after I finished writing about my family I went onto writing about my hobbies and new hobbies I had picked up in college. For instance, I had always been a huge card guy, and until the beginning of this semester I had not learned the Hoosier card game. And of course that is euchre. And from learning about euchre I went onto talk about my favorite sport to watch, basketball. Every year I spend hours upon hours watching the national collegiate athletic association tournament otherwise known as the big dance. So, in my post over the NCAA tournament I described my bracketology, or in other words my reasoning on how I choose a team to win it all. In another post I talked about who I went to listen to speak in Pruis. I had went to listen to Gary Brackett talk about his struggles on getting to where he is in life.

From my blog the audience can get inside my head and learn about who and what I really care about in life. My writings on my family show the pure love I have for my family and the concern I have for their well being. In my blog I really don't try to worry about the grammar and English composition of it, but focus on letting my audience hear my voice. So, finally throughout my blog I showed you the things I love combined with a couple of random posts where I was able to let loose.

Annotated Blogroll

http://deadspin.com/

The above blog is a sports blog. In the blog are several different sports which helps appeal to all different kinds of sports fans. Also, they use sexual advertisement to grab the attention of the average man running by this site. There are several pictures throughout the page for the lazy sports fan looking at the site, and by using many pictures it keeps the attention of the user. Also, with the picture they throw in a few videos which brings a different aspect to the site. My site and the one are similar with the exception that this one is much more professional looking with better layouts.

http://www.sneakerobsession.com/

This blog is trying to sell basketball shoes. In this blog is an animated show which grabs my attention and leads me to want to see the next new shoe being advertised. Also, in this site is a description of what each shoe is. It gives a good description describing what each shoe looks like and what the shoe can do to increase your ability. Down farther in the site it gives you a still picture to let you see the featured shoes, and from these pictures it allows you to comment on them to give your personal opinion on the shoe. Compared to my blog it eerily similar with some upgrades, and it has a different theme.

http://www.ncaagridirongab.com/

This blog is an update line for college football prospects going into the national football league. The blog is well used and gives you great stories on the top national football league, and where they are at with their progress into the league. On the side of the blog it gives you an option of many college teams that you can get personal updates coming from those teams. The blog is great advertisement for these young players keeping the fans informed, and it can also lead to fans that really like them following them to whatever team they are drafted.

http://www.thesports-guy.com/blog/

Now this blog is what mine would look if I took the time to do it the way I want it. One it is very simple, and it gives you the latest big thing that happened in all of sports. So, this way you know what to pay attention to if your not in the know. The site also gives you a links, so you can go to other great sports sites to get the maximum. It also gives you a the guys personal opinion on the sports, so if I created a blog like this one I could be very honest with my viewers on how I feel and not have to worry about other people that don't agree with what i have to say. It also gives you some options on readings if you want to learn more about another topic in sports that is going on right now.

http://www.the700level.com/

This site is pretty simple considering it is a story site. By that I mean that the blog does nothing but tell simple stories and focuses them on certain people. For instance the story that is currently up is over a broadcaster for a major league baseball team. His name is Harry Callas and this guy died just recently and had been a philedelphia philly broadcaster for many decades. This would also be familar to my blog in that I would not always be talking about the same topic, but would be talking about the most current news. I would love to make a site like this, because I enjoy all sports and am familar with all of them. This site also seems to focus on one city which would also be cool because you could be like that local guy who everyone would know and listen to. This blog could use some more appeal than just simply text down the middle to get the viewer to read more.

Getting Down To the Wire

My freshmen year has had many ups and downs. From struggling to make grades in the first semestar from where I usually am to working my ass off to get a 3.0. Even though college is supposely the best time in your life during the week it is the worst time for me. I feel as if i do nothing, but go from one assignment to the other all day long. But what keeps me going is one i pay thousands of dollars straight from my wallet to be here. And two I know it will pay off in the long run when I am going be making that dough. Here are a few sites to help students who are having a hard time in college and don't know what to do about it:

www.prweb.com/releases/2008/12/prweb1681124.htm
www.thesisexpert.co.uk/links/student-help-sites.asp

and here is a site that can help anyone with organization:
www.time-management-for-students.com/Organization_Skills_3.php


keeping up the tradition here is a funny little clip I found on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsLqKAvKiQM

Bracketology

March Madness is my favorite time of the year. And this time I started a league in yahoo for this years NCAA tournament. Here is my bracket so far....


http://98.136.70.92/t1/viewprintbracket?tid=2020265&c=1&ts=1238212111&sig=sxvku9d1KYxAqK.pB8iTFWAlBYw-&uy=cale_l44%23bu

This has been a tradition for me my whole life, and I enjoy it every single year.

The unique thing about the tournament is that there was over a million brackets filled out and after the first two rounds there was not one perfect bracket.

Speaker Critique

On Monday the twenty third of February Gary Brackett, an Indianapolis Colts Linebacker, came to Pruis Hall to talk about leadership and overcoming adversity. He spoke for nearly an hour at Pruis Hall, and then opened it to question and answer time where students asked questions. Questions varied from what is your greatest accomplishment in life to what are your favorite memories of Tony Dungy. Gary Brackett showed us how life isn’t going to be handed to us on a silver platter and gave us many examples in his life where this was true. He spoke in a relaxed tone to the crowd as if he was trying to be our friend, and giving everyone hopes that they can do anything in life.
There were many points throughout the speech, but the main idea was that you can’t let things hold you back from your dreams. In his speech he used a chronological order to tell his life story and about his football career. In his life, he had his father, mother, and brother all die in an eighteen months. But before this, he trusted others to get him into a college on a full ride scholarship, and he found out that you can’t always rely on others to get things done. He ended up not getting on the team he wanted, and Gary Brackett walked onto Rutgers University football team. And from there it was not going to be easy, he eventually led the team his junior year as the defensive captain. After his career at Rutgers, he was drafted by the Colt in one of the very last rounds of the draft. From that point in his life he went up the ladder again and became the Colts defensive captain. And that is when tragic deaths hit his life, but that didn’t stop him. While telling his story I could tell that it was still hard to discuss it, and he showed this by loosely describing what would had been a tragedy in the strongest man’s life.
The conclusion of Gary Brackett’s speech in my opinion was not well done. He finished his speech and I didn’t even realize he was getting to the end of it. Then he opened up for question and answering which is one way you can finish a speech must I don’t think his ending was efficient enough. He could have easily went back and highlighted his main points and then left us with his motto or a moving one line statement to solidify the ending but instead it ended abruptly and left me wondering other questions. A conclusion needs to bring a sense of finality to the speech leaving you with no questions of what he was trying teach his audience. This speech gave me some guidelines on what I could correct in my future speeches
From this speech, I discovered some tips that will help me for the rest of my speeches in my life. The first tip that I learned is that to keep the audience’s attention a little more it helps to fluctuate your voice. The next tip is to call upon the audience as much as possible not only does this get the audience to interact, but it gives you time to collect yourself. He also made sure to look throughout the whole audience recognizing there were more people in the hall then just the people in the front row. It was a little inappropriate but he continuously did shout outs to certain people in the audience showing that he cared. The most important thing I learned was that the introduction is the most important part of your speech, because it sets the tone of the speech. And in Gary Brackett’s speech he smoothly went from topic to topic giving you an easy story to follow. This would help me in my speeches and give me a way to help the audience follow my speech. In conclusion, the speech was well done, and Gary Brackett made it very entertaining and humorous.

Speaker Critique

On Monday the twenty third of February Gary Brackett, an Indianapolis Colts Linebacker, came to Pruis Hall to talk about leadership and overcoming adversity. He spoke for nearly an hour at Pruis Hall, and then opened it to question and answer time where students asked questions. Questions varied from what is your greatest accomplishment in life to what are your favorite memories of Tony Dungy. Gary Brackett showed us how life isn’t going to be handed to us on a silver platter and gave us many examples in his life where this was true. He spoke in a relaxed tone to the crowd as if he was trying to be our friend, and giving everyone hopes that they can do anything in life.
There were many points throughout the speech, but the main idea was that you can’t let things hold you back from your dreams. In his speech he used a chronological order to tell his life story and about his football career. In his life, he had his father, mother, and brother all die in an eighteen months. But before this, he trusted others to get him into a college on a full ride scholarship, and he found out that you can’t always rely on others to get things done. He ended up not getting on the team he wanted, and Gary Brackett walked onto Rutgers University football team. And from there it was not going to be easy, he eventually led the team his junior year as the defensive captain. After his career at Rutgers, he was drafted by the Colt in one of the very last rounds of the draft. From that point in his life he went up the ladder again and became the Colts defensive captain. And that is when tragic deaths hit his life, but that didn’t stop him. While telling his story I could tell that it was still hard to discuss it, and he showed this by loosely describing what would had been a tragedy in the strongest man’s life.
The conclusion of Gary Brackett’s speech in my opinion was not well done. He finished his speech and I didn’t even realize he was getting to the end of it. Then he opened up for question and answering which is one way you can finish a speech must I don’t think his ending was efficient enough. He could have easily went back and highlighted his main points and then left us with his motto or a moving one line statement to solidify the ending but instead it ended abruptly and left me wondering other questions. A conclusion needs to bring a sense of finality to the speech leaving you with no questions of what he was trying teach his audience. This speech gave me some guidelines on what I could correct in my future speeches
From this speech, I discovered some tips that will help me for the rest of my speeches in my life. The first tip that I learned is that to keep the audience’s attention a little more it helps to fluctuate your voice. The next tip is to call upon the audience as much as possible not only does this get the audience to interact, but it gives you time to collect yourself. He also made sure to look throughout the whole audience recognizing there were more people in the hall then just the people in the front row. It was a little inappropriate but he continuously did shout outs to certain people in the audience showing that he cared. The most important thing I learned was that the introduction is the most important part of your speech, because it sets the tone of the speech. And in Gary Brackett’s speech he smoothly went from topic to topic giving you an easy story to follow. This would help me in my speeches and give me a way to help the audience follow my speech. In conclusion, the speech was well done, and Gary Brackett made it very entertaining and humorous.

Euchre

The famous Indiana game of Euchre was always a mystery to me. And living in Indiana all my whole life I felt like I have been missing out on something huge. I know how to play any poker game you could imagine, but the simpliest game like euchre I was clueless.
Until Monday, I learned how to play and have been trying to perfect my game ever since by playing online and with friends from Lafollette. I love to play even though I still don't know all the tricks and keys on to what to do. But I plan to practice until I am a pro at the game.

So, for you out there that dont know how to play, I am going to give you the main points.


http://www.euchrelinks.com/learn.html