Senior Comp. Photographic Essay

As the sweat dripped off his face, he faced his opponent with what could be misconstrued as a cocky smirk.  His heart was racing.  The ball went from his hand to the gym floor and back as he watched the seconds slowly dissipate.  The sound of the crowd ripped through the gym like a volley of gun shots.  Deafening.  The clock read 10 seconds.  His heartbeat pounded to the rythm of the bouncing ball now.   The opponent glanced right and then left looking for a possible screen.  No screen was needed.  The sound of the ball hitting the floor was now merely an echo of his heartbeat as it seemed to slow even more.  9.  Their season had come to this moment.  8.  The sound of the manic crowd slowly faded.  7.  He focused on the hoop over his opponent's head.  6.  He glanced into his opponent's eyes and could tell that it was his pulse that was racing now.  5.  He exploded to his right.  4.  The defender lunged after but was too slow.  3.  He rose up having taken this shot 1000's of times.  Time slowed.  2.  The ball left his fingertips in one fluid motion as the opponent looked on helplessly.  1.  The ball's rotation was perfect.   0.  As the horn sounded, the player watched knowingly as the ball fell through the net.











Emotion: Confidence

Moronic Movies Make Me Mad

Your topic this week is to talk about some of the best movies you have ever seen.  What did you like about them?  Are there any coming out soon that you are looking forward to seeing?

My English 10 classes had Mr. Miller in class last week to speak about his Classic Film Studies class.  His discussion was the inspiration for this blog.  I am an avid film lover.  If a movie is worth watching, I have probably seen it.  In fact, my English 10 classes are being introduced to a classic 80s film (Wargames) this week for our Science Fiction and Fantasy Unit.  Anyone familiar with 80s films would recognize the two headliners from this film: Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy. 

Since I have seen so many movies and have such eclectic tastes, I think the easiest way to mention some of the greatest movies I have ever seen would to be by genre. 

Disclaimer:  Many of these movies are rated R, and I am not suggesting you go see these films.  I am merely pointing out my personal preference.  These are not necessarily my picks as the greatest films in each of these genres either.  They are just the first films that came to mind.

Action:  Die Hard. 
Adventure:  Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
Comedy:  Happy Gilmore
Crime:  The Town
Drama:  A Time to Kill
Epics:  Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Fantasy:  See above...but I'll throw in The Neverending Story as a personal favorite from my childhood.
Horror:  The Shining
Musical:  The Sound of Music
Science Fiction:  Donnie Darko
War:  Enemy at the Gates
Western:  Tombstone

If Time is Relative, Can One Truly Waste Time?

For this week's topic, tell me things you like to do that might be considered a waste of time...

This is an interesting topic because it doesn't ask for what you enjoy to do in your free time.  To me, that is different.  I like to play basketball and work out in my free time.  However, I dont think people would think these activities are a waste of time.  

However, I play Angry Birds quite often and this is a waste of time.  It is even more a waste of time when you consider that I have beaten every level, and I am now going back through the game to beat each level with a three star rating.  I think video games are a waste of time.  Many would disagree and that's ok.  Trust me.  As I rotate from COD, to Assassin's Creed, to Alan Wake, I know that this is not a wise use of time.  

I'm sure many of you have watched movies multiple times.  This is one of my favorite ways to waste time!  There are some movies I could watch over and over.  When I was little, it was all the Disney movies.  I still can sing all those songs from those movies.  When the First Lord of the Rings film came out I think I saw it something like 11 times in the theatre.  Yikes.  That is nearly a day and a half of watching one movie.

Finally, I am proud to say that I read some books over and over again.  In the early 90s I discovered Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World.  It is the first book of the Wheel of Time series: a series that makes the Harry Potter books look like glorified Dr. Suess books.

The Eye of the World was actually first published in 1990.  There are now 13 books in this Fantasy series.  The 14th and final book will be released sometime this year.  Robert Jordan wrote the first 11 books, but passed away of a rare blood disease in 2007.  He selected Brandon Sanderson to finish his series using his outlines and notes.  I have been reading this series for the past 15 years of my life.  It seems like every two years I go back and reread the books form the beginning.  A waste of time?  Certainly.  Do I care?  Certainly not.   

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou Sister

Your topic this week is to talk about what it is like to grow up with a brother or sister or both.  If you don't have any brothers or sisters, what do you think it would be like?  What is it like growing up without any siblings? 

Maybe this might not be the great conversation stimulator that the cartoon prompt was; however, I grew up with an older brother, a younger brother, two younger sisters, a younger step-brother, and a younger step-sister.  This is me with my brothers in 86 or 87 I think...

For me, the question isn't will I be able to write about this topic.  The real question is how much do I really want to tell the world about this topic?  For example, do I start off by telling you how much I love my brothers and sisters?  Or instead, do I tell you about the black eye I went to school with because I got into a fist fight with my older brother?  Should I be embarassed that he punched me in the face so hard, I'm not sure which hurt more-the punch or hitting the ground after he connected?  Granted, I got up from the floor even quicker than I hit it...so should he be embarassed that he ran to his room and locked the door?  To this day, I will not forget the embarassment I felt going to school with a black eye from my brother. 

Yes, that's the older brother who gave me a black eye.  This picture, believe it or not, was taken around 98 or 99...my black eye disappeared.  This picture is a black eye that isn't going to disappear anytime soon...

Still, a black eye beats getting hit in the face with a metal bat.  That story would be about my younger brother.  We were in our neighbor's back yard playing homerun derby.  He would pitch a tennis ball to me 10 times.  Then we would switch.  The one with the most homeruns (over our other neighbor's fence) won.  I'll start off with this...he had no chance to win.  I think I had hit 8 of the 10 out.  He had missed his first three or four.  So, I started to pitch him inside.  I hit him once, and he said I'd better not throw inside again.  I said ok, and then I pitched inside again.  He charged the mound.  Now, if you've ever watched a baseball game where the batter charges the mound, you'll notice he drops the bat.  My brother isn't necessarily a baseball player.  He brought the bat.  I didn't run or dodge his swing...why would I?  What brother hits another brother with a bat...in the face?  Mine. 

That's the younger brother around 98 or 99...true, he doesn't inspire fear.  Put a bat in his hands though...

I don't have many memories of my sisters when I was younger.  Not that they weren't there.  I remember eating dinner with them...but I didn't get into fights with them, and they weren't playing homerun derby with me.  They were probably off playing with their Cabbage Patch doll or whatever it is girls do when they are young.  Now that I think about it...it's kind of strange that I don't remember hanging out with my sisters at all.  Oh well, I'm over it. 

That's my youngest sister...I think we were dancing at a wedding.

That's my sister who is finishing up college right now.  I'm pretty sure that's not her normal face.

I love my siblings, brothers and sisters alike, and I would do anything for them.  However, we had wars and we used weapons.  Now my older brother is married with a few kids and running a business.  My younger brother is teaching philosophy at Notre Dame.  What am I doing?  I am blogging about them...apparently I took one too many blows to the head growing up.

P.S. You like that title?  In the business we refer to that as an allusion to a great movie!  Sounds like an upcoming blog topic...

Senior Composition 2nd Semester

Please type your name as a response.

Do you like driving and listening to music? Then you must love Car-toons! HAHA.

Your choice topic this week is to discuss some of the greatest cartoons of all time. 


Personally, I think with the downfall of quality cartoons, we have seen the downfall of a quality society.  It used to be you could flip on the television Saturday morning and go through a ridiculous lineup.  At 8:00 A.M. I might start my morning off with a little Berenstain Bears.  Never heard of it?  This is a crime I say.  Then you better believe I was going to watch Disney's Adventures of the Gummy Bears at 8:30.  That's right.  It's not just a candy.  I wasn't allowed to watch Smurfs, but that's not a problem when you can choose between watching Jim Henson's Muppet Babies or Slimer! and the Real Ghostbusters.  These are cartoons you can hang your hat on (I don't even know what that means, but it sounded pretty good).  What happened to Voltron?  He-man and the Masters of the Universe?  Even Fraggle Rock.  Gone, gone, gone. 

Remember Thundercats?

No mas.
These cartoons were killed off by the 90s leaving few survivors. 

That's not to say the 90s assassinated the best without giving in return.  The 90s brought about some classics: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Darkwing Duck, Talespin, Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers, and Ducktales.  But I remember the bad too: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Eek! The Cat, and The Tick.  It was the beginning of the end. 

Needless to say, I miss Saturday mornings.  Give me the Tupperware bowl of cinnamon toast crunch and 2% milk.  Give me that one time where I could actually eat in the living room (on the floor) and watch cartoons for about three hours straight and know that all was right in the world.  Yes, I know.  What do I know?  I know on some deeper level what I really miss is that innocence.  I know I miss that freedom from responsibility.  But, as I learned one Saturday morning, "Knowing is half the battle. G.I. Joe."

P.S.   What about the great songs that went with all the best cartoons?  You can probably still sing some of them.  Test yourself:

Teachers will stop the flood after a broken Levy

It's Thursday.  I've been reading things online about the failed levy from Tuesday.  It's pretty sad.  There was an article about how we will be "restructuring" next year.  There is no definitive answer as to how we are going to cut the six million needed to operate next year.  I'm kind of scared...I read another website that was put up in opposition of the levy.  Again, it was pretty sad.

The majority of the website was aimed at showing how schools, Gahanna specifically, spend irresponsibly.  It explained how teachers were paid entirely too much--especially when comparing the amount paid to the hours worked.  You know the person who wrote/developed that website was not a teacher.  This person never graded one research paper that took 45 minutes to get through.  He or she never spent time creating new units to motivate and interest students.  This Gahanna resident never created the study guides, quizzes, and tests to go with those newly developed units.  This community member never spent the time emailing and calling parents to talk about progress students were making in class.  Furthermore, the creator of this website never thought about the fact that all of this is done after the forty hour work week for which I am overpaid.

It would be interesting to see what a school looked like that this person described.  Thankfully, we won't ever have to see that.  The teachers I know will continue to show up an hour early every morning at the high school to allow students access to computers so that they can work.  They will continue to grade and lesson plan after the school work day is over.  That's the reality. A teacher's work day ends most days when they go to bed.

Those summers?  When those summers are not spent revamping units, or taking more professional development courses, teachers need those summers to recharge a battery that has been drained.  A school year can burn teachers out.  Without the summer, teachers wouldn't survive.  It must look nice from the outside, but join this profession if you dare.  Check the statistics of teachers who leave the profession within the first five years...it's not for the weak, nor is it for the clueless individuals who think teaching is an occupation that allows for a forty hour work week with summers off.

So, form your groups of opposition.  Create your websites.  Distribute your pamphlets.  Pronounce that we are overpaid and underworked.  The levy failed.  It was a blow to the school and the community.  You were able to keep a few more hundred dollars in your pockets each year.  At what cost?  Will it be worth it?

They refer to us as fiscally irresponsible--as overpaid.  When the budget is cut by six million and the dust has settled, will the sacrifices made be overlooked once again?  I hope not.  Like I said at the beginning, I'm kind of scared.

We showed up on Wednesday.  We showed up on Thursday.  We will show up tomorrow.  We will work even harder despite being attacked.  We will attempt to minimize the damage done by those in the community who didn't understand the implications of their vote.  We will continue because too much is at stake: the students' education and our nation's future.