#4 Open Topic (freewrite, 10 minutes)

Yet another freewrite. I really like these because it gives me a chance to rant and rave, whereas the ones with topics really aren't freewrites at all. Since this morning I have been closely watching my camera to no avail. Apparently it had to stay in Pennsylvania since 1pm and never made it near here at all. Hopefully it will come tomorrow so I will have a chance to use it once I get done with school at 7. I was really taken back by the length of my English Research Prospectus that is due on Sunday. Originally I didn't think it would be very long, so when I learned that it had to be upwards of 10 pages for the introduction I was thoroughly astounded. I think I'm going to really try and drill out a rough rough draft tonight so that I will be able to truly appreciate my camera when it arrives tomorrow.


Recently I have started watching Hockey during the Olympics, and have rieally started to like it a lot. I seem to support many of the teams so it makes it that much more fun to see them duke it out until the very end.


i dont know what to write about I dont know what to write about


So I really do like the snow, at least when it gets us out of school. Right now I've come to the conclusion that there aren't going to be anymore huge snows this semester, so I'm pretty much just looking forward to Spring at this point. I haven't been on my motorcycle since last August, so I'm really looking forward to getting it out and riding it around a little bit. Hopefully it warms up soon so I will have time to ride it around before we move out of this townhouse and move back to my fiancées parents house in Broadway, Virginia (our hometown).


I have also recently been thinking a little about my mother. I haven't talked to her since October because she does nothing but badmouth both my fiancée, and her parents. I told her clearly that I wasn't going to have anything to do with her as long as she was doing this, and I have certainly stuck to my word. I'm going to have to see her over Spring Break, during my bridal shower, so I was really thinking about emailing her soon if i ever get a chance to from school work.

Observation and Description Exercise: One Hour of Uninterrupted Listening (250-500 words)

For this assignment I made my way to the Reston Regional Library in Reston, Virginia.  It was just after lunch time when the library opened for the day.  I looked around for a good spot for quite some time, but in the end I settled for one of the larger tables that was near the entrance of the library.  This allowed me to hear so many sounds that I doubt I would've heard if I would have hunched up in the corner or somewhere secluded.

It was almost too riveting to step back away from the liveliness of humankind in order to focus on the sounds that we mostly disregard.  The majority of the sounds were typical technological sounds consisting of the annoying book scanners and over-sized jalopy copier.  Although all of the other sounds were emanating from people, these sounds seemed to press my patience the most and even began to give me a short-felt throbbing headache halfway through the process. Just the constant chatter and walking of most passerbys was enough to drive me completely insane in this small time frame.  I never completely realized how horrible people sound while they're walking until this point.  The constant shuffling of atrocious jackets, worn pants, and sky-rise heels over that cheap government carpet drove me crazy, and I doubt I'll ever be able to stand that noise ever again.

As if these annoyances weren't enough, it seemed like every parent in the immediate Herndon/Reston area decided to bring their children to the library for "I can read" day, which unfortunately caused a horrible ruckus.  I didn't quite realize how young they start out kids on computers these days.  There had to be a couple three or four year olds that just drove me nuts for the majority of the time.  As if the dreadful screams for their parents weren't enough, they just had to sit at the computers for what seemed like an eternity just complacently pecking at the keys and sliding their petite hands across the keyboard.

By doing this experience I learned that I get rather annoyed at many things that people do, but most of the time I just shrug it off to the point where it doesn't even bother me anymore. An example of a small thing that really irritated me was an older lady that took well over half of an hour of just cold-hearted pecking at the keys in order to accomplish her task.  Another noise that really annoys me, but wasn't so evident from this experience, was the unbearable swooshing noise that copiers make when scanning a document.  Luckily only two people came through to use this new-age piece of equipment, but it was still more than enough to poke and prod at my patience.

#1 Recent Dream (freewrite, 10 minutes)

The majority of my really vivid dreams happen at my mothers house, in Timberville, Virginia. It is in a beautifully wooded area off the beaten path, so it definitely allows my imagination to wander where ever I please. The most recent memory was actually last night, making it a really conveinent experience. I remember setting out in the rolling wooded hills with my fiancées father. We were hunting for deer, and my fiancées father had the gun. All that I remember from my dream is that we were watching hundreds, if not thousands of wandering deer pass by, moving on to a different plot of land. This normally wouldn't be a problem when we are hunting, but my fiancées father really likes to kill bucks and the deer that were passing us all happened to be does. The majority of my dream encompassed us standing in the frigid snowy woods watching the deer, it seemed like it must have spanned the entire day. When the day was coming to a close the large herd of female deer final came to a halt. A little while after this, we knew the big bucks were getting ready to come out. A moment later I looked up to the small hill across from us to see a small group of bucks running. This also wouldn't be much of a problem, but the bucks were being chased by a wolf, which happened to look like my fiancées fathers Siberian husky. My fiancées father has a strict policy against anything that hunts animals like that, so he seeks out to kill the predatory animals. The rest of my dream consisted of him shooting and killing the wolf-husky looking animal that was chasing the deer before I finally awoke just after 8 a.m this morning. The ironic thing about this entire thing is that the predatory animal really did look like my fiancées fathers husky, but it was just that his love for deer in general just took over. It almost seemed like a fight against his views, on one end he wanted to save the deer that he seeks to shoot, but then again he really wouldn't want to kill his Siberian husky who is his pride and joy. Another ironic part about this dream is that wolves are not found around here, but the closest thing to that animal in those woods would be a coyote. I have actually been hunting with him on that land, and I specifically remember him saying that he would should predatory animals if he saw them, anything from coyotes to foxes.

#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.

#1 Earliest Memory (freewrite, 10 minutes)

The oldest memory that I can recall is when I got in an accident over 12 years ago.  It happened on a normal day, normal at least for a 8 year old kid.  Days started with me playing around, just seeing what all I can get into.  I happened to be galloping around the house, seemingly just running around without purpose when all of a sudden I slipped on a cheap worn out rug that was laying in the kitchen.  This all wouldn't have been to bad if I wouldn't have ran into the corner of a rugged microwave cabinet stationed right beside the rug that I had slipped on.  From this point I remember yelling for my mother, and she of course came to my aid in astonishment at what I had managed to do to myself.  After the partial lapse of amazement she rushed me into the car with a cold, dripping wet wash cloth placed over my head to cover the gushing gash that I created by slipping, face first into the cabinet.  My father drove the car as fast as he could to the local clinic, and I remember the old, but energetic doctor coming to check me out.  His name was Dr. Glick, and he assured me that everything would be fine.  The only thing I remember after this is an image of Dr. Glick working overtop of me, and with this in mind I can almost feel the small sharp pricks of the needle that he was using to sew up the wound on my forehead.  After this point in time I don't really remember much.  I'm sure that I continued to romp around the house even after this accident, but I'm fairly certain that my parents started to keep a closer eye on me after this fiasco.  To this day I still have this scar on my forehead, although it is almost unoticable at this point.

Another memory has popped up in my mind, and it took place at Kings Dominion, in the southern part of Virginia.  I only remember running up to hug Yogi the Bear, and I can remember seeing all of the other usual characters running about around us.