Response to Obama's Decision

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7758673.stm
Today Big news which was kind of old new became official. Presidential elect Barack Obama chose his past competitor Hilary Clinton as his Secretary of State. This was a wise decision as she has experience and his biggest chance of losing this last election was that when he was elected he lost much of the support from Clinton supporters. Hilary Clinton has more experience than him and has connections all around the world. This is exciting as I went to her speech when she campaigned in Spokane and actually was asked to sit behind her at the speech, I respectively declined as I knew I was only being chosen because I was one of the few young men there and felt it wrong since I knew I did not fully respect her and would not enjoy the experience as much as someone else there. So I kind of met a celerity I guess. But also Obama made some other smart decisions such as keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Gates has been credited with much of the success of the surge. Bush made a good decision switching to Gates in my opinion and I believe so is Obama. So Obama has made some good decisions so far in this candidacy, lets all hope for more.

Since your research paper was peer reviewed on Monday, what have you identified as priorities for revision? How do you rank the priorities? Why?

My main priority is to make my whole paper flow better. To make my transitions flow better. Then I would like to use as much evidence as I can to make sure all my points are strong. I need to make sure I properly cite all my sources as they were not cited well in my first draft. All my priorities are important to change I am not sure if I would rank them.

Before your research paper was peer reviewed today, what did you view as strengths and weaknesses in your essay?

I thought my paper flowed better than it actually did, I knew I had much information and it was all backed up well. This allowed me to have strong points and I feel that I strongly emphasized my opinion and was convincing. A weakness I started with was for my topic I found many opinions for and against my topic but very little supported information. After searching a lot online and at the library I found a few good books and some scholarly recourse. Another difficulty I had was supporting my paper in the limited amount of space which will be nice for the portfolio.

Being Thankful!!!

This thanksgiving I am thankful that my whole family was able to have thanksgiving together since arguments have made this not possible lately.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because I feel the traditions, the family connection, the great food, and the time to rest and be thankful. First of all thanksgiving has a lot of tradition behind it both as being America’s first holiday and it is a holiday that is celebrated by families and people all over America. The food itself is traditional in that usually Turkey is serves often with mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and vegetables, and then finished with pie. Just that in itself is great. Also the symbolic tradition that the holiday is started from is that the Native Americans shared growing methods and food with the new settlers of America and is said that without their help the settlers would not have survived the first winter. Surviving a winter is something to be thankful with along with new friends. Another great thing about thanksgiving is the family connection usually involved in it. Families often travel long distances to see each other at times, or people try to spend Thanksgiving with close friends or immediate family. This family connection can also make this holiday very sad for those who have no one or place to spend it with. I know this cause I often had to travel on Thanksgiving and it is not fun. The final great thing to me about Thanksgiving is a nice time to take a break. Especially this year when college has been stressful it is nice to finally get to go home and just relax. This is why I love thanksgiving.

Film

A film I recently watched was the Lord of the Rings. These Movies were on T.V. and it reminded me how truly great these movies are since I have not watched them in a really long time. These movies are recreations of J.R. Tolkien’s books. These books show a lot of themes of good vs. evil, friendship, betrayal, courage, and fighting for what’s right. This movie was excellent just like the books were. There is so much detail in the story’s and even in the movies being about 3 hours each there is just too much. Yet the storyline and characters are easy to follow as some are very simple and some are very complex. The main character Frodo is the Protagonist and his antagonist is an evil ring he carries. This is an internal struggle he faces and the pain it creates is shown well in the movies and how it progresses until it beats him. Through his friends however he was able to get rid of his burden. Courage, good vs. evil, and betrayal are all shown by the other characters who are constantly fighting and becoming friends over time. This movie has a good story line, characters that are easy to relate to and idolize, along with tons of action and revolutionary graphics, this movie was able to win many awards and be viewed as a great movie. While also keeping Tolkien’s stories alive even after his death and the slow decline of people reading books, especially when they are as long as his.