Ben Weiss's Blog

Dec 6-Dec 13 extra credit blog #3

bnwj89 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:27:14 +0000

For this blog, I think I will compare two residence halls on the campus of the University of South Dakota. The two i will compare are Mickelson Hall and Julian Hall. I know alot about these two halls because my girlfriend lives in Julian, so I stay there often, and I lived in Mickelson last year. The first thing I have to say is that at first glance, Mickelson is much nicer. It is more well lit, and just looks alot nicer and newer. Another advantage of Mickelson is that it has computer lounges on each floor, as opposed to Julian which only has one lounge, in the basement. Mickelson also requires you to have an ID to enter the building, then a key to get onto the specific floor you want to go to. This is opposed to Julian, where all you need is an ID to get into the building; you dont need a key to get onto each floor. One advantage to living in Julian is that the rooms are much larger than the rooms in Mickelson. However, the beds are not movable, so you have less freedom as to how your room is set up. Also, the commons, one of the two eatery choices for dorm residents, is in the North Complex which is connected to Mickelson Hall. So, in the winter while a Julian Hall resident must endure the cold bitch that is mother nature, a Mickelson Hall resident doesnt. Also, Mickelson Hall is connected to 3 other large resident halls, so a Mickelson Hall resident also is less likely to have to go outside to go to a friend’s dorm to hang out.

Dec 6-Dec 13 extra credit blog #2

bnwj89 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:09:50 +0000

For this blog, I am just going to write about my day today. I woke up next to my beautiful girlfriend Erryn. It was Wednesday, which is my easy day for classes. To make it even better, my early class was cancelled, leaving me with only one class at 1pm. Erryn didnt have a class til 12pm. My roommate was also gone staying at his girlfriends house. So, we just laid around all morning drifting in and out of sleep. It was extremely comfortable under my blankets, especially since it was kind of cold in my room, and all of the snow outside. At about 11am we got up. Erryn went to her class, and I went down to the kitchen to get some lunch. Today was the day of the Phi Delta Theta philanthropy Chislic Feed, so I ate and helped peel some potatoes for the charity dinner that I was to help out with later that day. At 1pm I went to my German 101 class, which was expectedly pretty dull. I enjoy German, but all we are currently doing is grammar, which is painfully boring. However, my sister is also in that class with me, so that always makes it a little better. After German I went back to the house and read a little bit from the novel I am currently reading, which is The Lie by Chad Kultgen. After that I just kept getting stuff ready for the Chislic Feed, then at 4:30 I went down to the Eagles Club, which was where the Chislic Feed was being held. We had a great turnout, and collected alot of money that we were going to donate to the Liz Lias Scholarship Foundation. I have to mention that I didnt know what Chislic was until today. It is just fried deer meat, and it actually pretty good tasting.

Dec 6-Dec 13 extra credit blog

bnwj89 — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:01:58 +0000

For this blog I am going to write about my first kiss. This is was the memoir prompt from last week, but it was my girlfriends birthday Sunday and I completely forgot to blog that day. So, since I was excited to write about this topic, I might as well still use it. It was in seventh grade. The girl’s name was Jade Thoemke. We were very young and silly, but I liked her very much and she liked me very much. Since we were so young, her parents didn’t allow her to have a boyfriend yet. We talked online and on the phone all the time, and although neither of our parents knew about it, we considered ourselves to be dating. Finally, we set up an elaborate plan to see a movie together. Both of our parents thought we were meeting friends at the theater. We both arrived, and went into the theater by ourselves. The movie was Shanghai Knights with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan. We took seats in the back, where no one could see us. There were only probably about six other people in the theater. We started watching the movie, and didnt even look at each other for probably the first 30 minutes. Then, I looked over at her. She looked back. We looked at each other for a second, and she waited for me to move in for the kiss. But I couldnt. I froze, and then just went back to watching the movie. About 15 minutes later, I got my courage up, and looked at her. She looked back. This time, even though i was insanely nervous, I moved in. What followed was everything I hoped it would be. Looking back at it, it was very messy and if I was able to see it happen now I am sure I would laugh uncontrollably. Neither of us had any idea what we were doing. But, at the time it was very passionate. We spent the rest of the movie sort of cuddling and kissing every now and then. My 7th grade self thought it was absolutely fantastic.

in class exercise, 12/3

bnwj89 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:48:40 +0000

Blake had been perusing the computer section for quite a while, trying to decide which laptop to take to college. His grandmother had given him 900 dollars to buy one, so he didnt really have to worry about price, he just had to pick one that would work well. Not knowing too much about computers, this was sort of tough for Blake. His brother had told him to buy a Toshiba, so he picked one out and went to find a worker to ring it up for him. “This one?” the worker said with a horrified look. “Yes.” said Blake. “Alright,” said the worker,”its your money i guess.” he started to open the locked case when Blake interjected, “Well, whats wrong with it?” “are you kiddin me? you’re goin to college right? this thing has hardly enough memory to store your first semester worth of papers in it. Not to mention the DDR is a joke. That thing will crash within the first month. Just cant trust them asians to makin your stuff, i always say.” Not sure whether the worker was actually educated about the computers or if he was just racist, blake replied that he will take the Toshiba anyways. “You sure, man? this thing was probably made by a factory of 5 year olds. you really want that on your conscience?” Blake replied that he was sure that wasnt the case, there are laws against that sort of thing. “Not in Taiwan there aint. Chinese got them all under the radar, they do whatever the hell they want and the world dont give a shit” Blake held strong, and replied that he indeed wanted to purchase the computer. at this poing he was not even caring anymore whether or not that computer was good. He just wanted to buy the thing to spite the racist worker. He didnt look it, but his grandmother was a Chinese immigrant.

extra credit blog #3- 11/29

bnwj89 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:05:32 +0000

For this free blog post I am going to do a review of the movie “Paranormal Activity.” Basically, I thought this movie kicked ass. The movie is like documentary style, with all camera shots being from a camera that the couple (who are the main characters) used to film what was happening. The couple gets a camera to record things, because there has been some paranormal activity in their house recently. One of the things they film is themselves at night while they sleep. This quickly becomes the main time of action for the paranormal activity. It starts out with small things like the door moving slightly on its own, or slight noises. Quickly though, things elevate. Soon, everytime the movie starts to show a night scene, the viewer is filled with suspense. The clock on the bottom corner ticks by, and the viewer painfully waits for something spooky to happen. It was great. I Think another reason this movie was awesome was the conflict between the couple. The woman was very scared, and the man was very “macho” about it. For example he would refuse calling an exorcist or anything like that, because “he could handle it.” Also, he would taunt the ghost, yelling out things like “is that all you got?” or other antagonizing phrases. I think another reason this movie was great is the fact that it was not totally off the wall unbelievable. Everything that happened in the movie was something that most people, even if they don’t believe ghosts or anything like that, could potentially see as something that could happen.

extra credit blog #2- 11/29

bnwj89 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:04:42 +0000

For this free blog post, I am going to do a review of Apple’s Ipod. I bought my Ipod 5 years ago. It is a 30 gig Ipod video. I believe I paid 300 dollars for it. While this may seem like a ton of money for a music player, I think it was well worth it. I say that because I still use the same Ipod today, 5 years later. It still works great. The screen is pretty scratched, but that is only due to me not taking very good care of it the first year I had it. I have dropped my iPod countless times, and it still keeps on going. One of my favorite features of the iPod is “genius.” Genius is a program that creates playlists for you based on a single song. What you do is select a song you like, then just hit the Genius button. Then, Genius compiles a playlist for you filled with songs that are similar to the one you picked. This is really cool because sometimes making playlists is very time consuming, and with Genius making one only takes a second. Another reason I really like Genius is it helps me remember songs that I haven’t listened to in a long time. I have a pretty big music library, and sometimes I will really like a band for a month or so, listen to them so much I get sick of them, then forget about them. Sometimes the playlists Genius makes for me will help to remind of songs that are awesome, and that I have just forgotten.

extra credit blog #1- 11/29

bnwj89 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:03:51 +0000

For this free post, I am going to write about my Thanksgiving. It was great to be home, I had not been home in about a month and a half. One thing that I always notice when I got back home to rapid city is that it is way bigger than vermillion. Another thing I always notice is how nice the bathrooms in my house are, and how clean it always seems. Anyways, Thursday night I got home and hung out with my family a little, then we all went to the airport to pick up my sister Ane. She was visiting from Phoenix, Arizona, where she is doing a program called Teach for America. After picking up my sister, we all went home. A few of her friends came over and everyone just sort of took it easy and went to bed somewhat early. The next morning I woke up and played Wii with my brothers until it was time for Thanksgiving Dinner. We usually eat at around 3 in the afternoon on Thanksgiving. I proceeded to eat way too much turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and all the other delicious stuff my mom makes on Thanksgiving. After dinner we all watched the movie “Talladega Nights.” By the end of the movie, only 3 out of the 7 of us that were the movie were still awake. I guess eating all that food really can make you very sleepy. After that I just hung out in my room, while some of the family watched another movie. I fell asleep early. Overall a great Thanksgiving.

nov 16-nov 22 Process post

bnwj89 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:53:36 +0000

One thing I liked about Chapter 8, “Call Me Ishmael,” from Writing Fiction is how they talked about the difference between opinion and point of view. The two are very different, but in common conversation they are used interchangeably. In writing I definitely understand how the difference between opinion and point of view needs to be understood. I also enjoyed reading about the different points of view, which clarified a couple things for me as its been awhile since I have read the differences between each one. In my story that I am writing, I am using Limited Omniscience. My story will be narrated, but with insight into the main character’s mind. I think this will be the best choice because I want my story to have lots of dialog but I also what to relay the thoughts that my main character will be thinking. I want the story to mostly be from his point of view. Part of the reason that I want to do this is because my main character is a child, so by telling the story mostly from his point of view, I can hopefully capture that sense of immaturity and creativity that a child feels. I think this will make my story very interesting. I will be trying to capture feelings of being a child that hopefully just about everyone will be able to relate to.

Nov 16-Nov 22 memoir prompt

bnwj89 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:18:13 +0000

When I was very young, we always went to church every sunday. I also went to sunday school. My mom would always talk about God and other spiritual things. So, it was very safe to say that I was extremely religious when I was younger. So was everyone in my family, or so i thought. My older brother Jon, who was back from college for the summer, was staying in my room. One night while we were both lying in our beds talking, our topic stumbled onto religion. It was then that he told me that he did not believe in God. This really shocked me, because he was pretty much my idol. He was a genius, and always succeeded in everything he ever did. The fact that he did not believe in God, and thought that the idea of believing was stupid, really made me think about why I believed. Since then, my religiousness has been in decline. Today, I am not sure what I believe. Logically, I dont think that there is a God. But deep inside I feel like there could be some reason that we are here. I want to believe that there is something, because if there isn’t, it makes life seem very purposeless. When I think that there is no God then I feel like I dont really have anything to live for. This is probably because before, I believed so strongly that it was the basis for everything in my life. Now that that belief is gone, I need to find something else to fill that void.

Nov 16- Nov 22 In class exercise

bnwj89 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:59:34 +0000

My sisters are 1 and 2 years older than me, so I often hung out with them when I was very young. However, since I was younger, they would tease me for knowing less about the world. One particular example of this is when they broke the news to me that Santa Claus does not exist. It was late at night, and us 3 were the only ones in the living room, which was where our tree was. They started doing their usual “we know something you dont know” routine, and I would try to tease them back, claiming to know more than them about anything. They then asked if I belive in Santa Claus. I quickly replied that I do, becaue my parents had always told me that some of the presents under the tree and the stockings full of candy were infact from Santa Claus, and I had always seen the moves and tv shows that involved Santa. Then they said that he doesnt exist, that my parents simply put the extra presents under the tree and fill my stocking with candy. It didnt make sense to me at the time, but after talking with several friends, I accepted this fact. I wasnt too bummed out about it. In fact, I was pretty proud to have this new knowledge, as it gave me an intellectual edge over some of my peers who still believed a fat man wiggled down ever chimney in the year once a year to deliever presents and candy to them.