#1 Researching/Writing Goals and Aspirations (freewrite, 10 minutes)

My goals as a writer and researcher in ENGL 302 this term is to be sufficient enough to do well in the class. I really don't mind writing, or researching for that matter, but with this class it seems that the items that we have to do are not spelled out very clearly. I have really tried to email the professor about this and it seems that they take days to answer, most of the time meaning that wastes the time that I actually do have to do an assignment. It hasn't been bad so far, but recently we have had to do a project introduction and this coming week we have a literature review. This, unfortunately, is all that I know about the assignment, neither of them come with any description or instruction as to what I should actually be doing with the graded work. Like I said, I don't mind writing, and I'm sure that I'll have to do it much more over the next year and a half until I graduate. Hopefully the assignments that I have them will be much more precise than these, but I should be able to work my way around it either way. For my future career goals I am completely positive that I will have to write at least a little bit. Working as a programmer I am almost assured to have to do documentation for customers regarding products that I will be working on or plan to work on. Although this isn't like the normal college essay, we have already been taught how to do this in one of the earlier Computer Science classes, and it logically comes fairly easy to me. For myself personally, I really wouldn't mind to take up a blog in my free time. I doubt I would ever get anyone to follow it, but it still is pretty fun to free your mind of all of those thoughts that were holding you back. Other than that, I think that I would really enjoy research topics at the graduate level, once I actually have enough knowledge to do them. At the moment it feels like most people do not have enough information in their major to actually divulge those deep research topics that have yet to be uncovered. Hopefully after graduating and finishing up the required classes I will have a firmer grip on those topics and be able to uncover topics that lead to unchartered research topics. I know that most research work is done with one or more people as well, and think that I would actually flourish in this environment as everyone would be able to bounce ideas against each other. It seems to me that the topic of research on its own requires some sort of building and experimentation, and that sort of goes back to the topic of students not having enough experience to complete a well thought out uncovered research essay. I feel that the topics would be much better if the students were able to actually construct, design, and implement some of the things that their research has to offer.

#2A Three Significant People (freewrite, 10 minutes)

The most influential person in my life, not just with my career goals, would be Mr. Bange, a teacher at Broadway High School in Broadway, Virginia.  I have known his son for all of my life, and met Mr. Bange at a fairly young age.  Ever since meeting him I admired the way he handled life, and just the general vibe that I received from him each time I was around him.  When moving into high school I had the chance to take a class with him, just basic Earth Science, but that class was one of the best classes that I have ever had the chance to take.  Not only did I learn the material, but I learn so much more from the genius mentality of Mr. Bange.  Each day you walked into the class you would see the room light up with his enormous smile, and his attitude just made you completely content and happy to be in the class.  From this class I learned that I should be more open-minded about life, and not to worry about those small things which other people mind so much.  I attribute my leaving the area to Mr. Bange as I felt an urge to broaden my horizons in order to try and fulfill my life goals and make the most out of my time here on earth.

Mrs. Morris, also a high school teacher, really broke me into the Computer Science category with her seemingly simply class on HTML and C++.  After this class I was completely set on the major I wanted in college, and without this class I probably would have been wandering around for many semesters just trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.  Not only did she set me on the correct career path, but she also pushed me to get the most out of the class.  In this case it consisted of attaining the basic Microsoft Office 2003 master certification, but that was better than nothing at that age.  If nothing else I feel that this certification is something to thank her for, because I certainly wouldn't have been able to do it on my own.

Dr. Heishman is currently a Computer Science professor at George Mason University.  He is the complete teacher in my mind, no one can be more ideal than him.  He has such a calm, relaxing attitude that made his classes very easy going which made in turn made the class much easier.  I remember him having only a few gestures, but with his level of teacher I would expect that he would just want to get the information across to the students without worrying about gestures which add no support to powerpoint presentations.  One environment that I vividly remember him in is the path both outside of the Fenwick Library.  It seemed that almost daily I would run into him perched calmly and quiety on one of those benches enjoying a cigarette.