Final...wow that time already

In picking a topic for this final assignment was a difficult one for me at least, I through a few ideas around in my head. One being a research paper about something to do with horses, and then I remembered I probably include my hobby of horses into too much of my academic life. So this time I am going to try something different. I am planning on taking a more creative approach to this assignment rather than an academic approach. This meaning I have decided to create an English syllabus for a high school class. I am going to use the handbook from the high school I attended(Hartland High School) in part because I have access to a paper copy of the handbook, along with an electronic copy available on their website. I chose this because I am thinking of becoming an English teacher, and most likely in the high school age range, I have been told I am crazy. (I have no idea what their talking about)

Professional...hmmm

For this blog post I got the email with the attachments and the two posted websites as assigned readings I attempted to open the attachments but with no luck. I tried and tried to unzip the files that were attached to the email, just the zippers were stuck, I am so punny when I want to be.

So for the first reading, I chose “How to write a cover letter” naturally because it was the first article listed.(I apologize for the sarcasm, had a moment from when my internet was not working, then just not being able to open the attachments kind of ran into one another). Also when I was reading this I was thinking to myself, a cover letter is not always for a resume, it can be for many other things in the professional world like a fax, a change to a manual, anything could involve a cover letter. I for one have created many cover letters. I work at a company, in the trade compliance dept., inside this company we deal with many of these cover letters in the context of the working world they do not have to be as formal, but close I usually will state at the top of a fax cover letter for example the ATTN: line and from, to, date, a brief paragraph stating why the fax is being sent and then usually conclude with a thank you and nine times out of ten I print it off on company letterhead. This is just one instance in how I use letterheads in my work as an trade compliance. But it was a really good basic outline for a cover letter for a resume.

First of all for the second reading “Writing the Personal Statement”, I have to mention I love owl, such a good website. I did not know that they had a guide to writing a resume…. I will probably look at this and recommend it to individuals that I know who would utilize it to its full potential. I always knew they had something for APA and MLA, now I am going to have to do some snooping around. I also like how owl just makes things seem so much simpler for whatever reason, this is how you should do it, and this is why, sometimes cut and dry, if life was like that, we would be having no fun. Fun should always be included in everything you do.

About the bringing in of something professional writing, yes so had something printed out at work, from work, but went to a five hour meeting and sort of forgot it on my desk. But the important thing in my eyes is remembered.

Equestrians

For this particular assignment entitled “Pop –UP-Scholarship” I had a hard time choosing a topic, I originally wanted to do a few chapters from a book about no other topic then horses what a surprise. Well I realized this was not on the versions of composing we could choose from on the assignment sheet. So I went then went to Google and when my friend Google could not help I went elsewhere. I was perusing all my usual cites before beginning the homework process, facebook, yahoo mail, um-flint mail, and while checking my yahoo mail I realized that there was an email from myself at work reminding myself that Rolex tickets have gone on sale and that I need to purchase them for 2010. So I open the site and I realize this would be the perfect idea for this pop up assignment. I then went to back to my old friend Google and searched the deaths at Rolex. Because as some, take that back most of the people did not know that the equestrian world of eventing lost another star this year. The star that only shines up in the sky now is Kingpin. Kingpin was one of the equines competitors in this year’s Rolex. I chose this because there have been deaths of not just horses but riders alike. Through Google I found a post, believed to be a blog, but I am not sure at this point, the post was entitled “Is Eventing Too Dangerous” and mentioned in this was an article from The New York Times “Equestrians’ Deaths Spread Unease in Sport” this was a really good article that really focused on the riders while they are important I want to know more about the horses that are no longer on this earth because of the famous event.

To answer the question of who’s horses and why and where they died, I cannot locate a list. So I had to settle with the most recent Kingpin. Kingpin’s story is an unusual one because this horse did not die from any injuries he acquired from missing a jump, stepping wrong, misjudging distances etc. this horse died from a rare but natural cause. (a hemorrhage of the large vessels in the abdomen). Also after reading the assignment more clearly I probably should have not chosen this topic but too late for that now.

For the pop up part of the assignment I mainly just gave my opinion of the readings I chose. The reason why I did this is because no one wants to joke about the serious aspect of losing a partner. Some of my comments seemed sarcastic in some of the articles I chose, only because it was a duh moment in my opinion. I dread the day when I have to lose my partner, hopefully it won’t be due to something we do together. There is another reason why I chose this it is because I was down in Kentucky, and at this very particular event when this horse lost his life. I thank goodness did not witness it myself but I did witness some pretty scary falls of riders and horses alike.

I did little correcting of the articles but I still attempted, the ones from the Rolex site were the ones that needed the most editing because the paragraphs were not even paragraphs and some of the way they even cut their “enters” of the lines was not the way the rules that I was taught by. The other article that was written for the New York times is well written and just flows, but then again those articles are suppose to.

In comparison the articles that I ended up choosing were not all the most “creditable” ones but they all had the same important message, when you point a finger to whose fault it is you always have three point right back at you. The New York Times article and “Is Eventing Too Dangerous?” are similar in tone and subject matter, what I liked better about the “Is Eventing Too Dangerous?” was that there was a part in the essay where the author mentions a way that the eventing committee are proposing a way to change the way the jumps are built. On the other hand I liked The New York Times article because it has good solid quotes and that does a lot for the reader.

All in all I ended up “editing” more than one article because I felt that it was necessary to understand why I chose this particular aspect of the equestrian world. It is truly sad that the USA has to be the “big man on campus” at everything we do, and to no one’s surprise someone ends up getting hurt in the end. I wish this would not happen this way but accidents happen and there are not much one can do once the star finally takes its trip to heaven and then to shine down on the rest of us.

Late night opinions

In reading the article “Film of the book: top 50 adaptations revealed” right off the bat I agreed with the author that a great book almost always does not make a good film all the time, sometimes but not all the time. Also I was surprised to see that there were no JK Rowling books on the list and Lord of the Rings either. These are good movies in my opinion. What I am not surprised that is on the list is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (I like the original), Fight Club, The Godfather, and Alice in Wonderland.
“Novel Adaptations: How Close Should They be?” I attempted to read the Harry Potter books and literally got lost a few pages into the book and never picked up one of those since, but I do like the movies. So my opinion is if you are going to see the movies do not read the books and if you are going to read the books don’t go see the movie plain and simple. But we have to have people that want exact copies and it just does not work. I love the movie “The Devil Wears Prada” and I had no idea that there was a book, I do now, but I’m not going to go read the book because it just would ruin either or the book or the movie but I will never know.
Reading “Adapting a Novel Into a Screenplay” I totally get step number one because when reading a book you create this character in your mind and then when you see the movie its so not what you had pictured the whole time reading the book. when reading the book you are left to make your own screenplay if you will rather than if you see the movie and then read the book ( I don’t recommend ) then it just ruins the book, because things are there that are supposed to be and things that are not.
“True Blood Book Adaptation Sucks” I never even watched one part of that show so I have no way to relate to the article.
“A Clockwork Orange By Anthony Burgess” This article I do agree that the imagery could be powerful. I find it weird that the 21st chapter was not included but included everywhere else. I still agree that you should read the book or see the movie not do both it just ruins one or the other.

Comics

In reading “Writing Comics: A Guide” I thought to myself about the topic for a second, when reading comics one does not think of what exactly goes into making this a piece of art in the Sunday paper, the reader just enjoys the little blip of work and goes about their day. For some this is something they do not do, they actually think about what goes into writing a comic. The word that cracked me up that I came by that was in a sentence all by its self was, Practice. I love that this was mentioned because it is the root to everybody’s problem in sports, writing, composing, in almost everything a person is involved in. Also some of the steps can be used for “normal” writing for example, check for spelling grammar etc. and format, all the basics that every writer of all kinds should be doing with every piece they compose. Something else that was interesting that I thought was something people knew and would not do was submitting an original art work. That is a no no, and if you actually become big someday that can be worth a lot of money.

While reading “VISUAL LANGUAGE: WRITING FOR COMICS” I do fall under the stereotype of thinking comic books are bout heroes and villains and this is where the good always triumphs comes from. I also thought they were always classified under the “art” category. But when reading this article I realized that it is a “medium of expression”, I stand corrected. I liked how when I was reading this article I really got the idea of what’s involved in making a comic and the legality side, also the writing, and art side. It really got me thinking of what actually goes into my favorite comic “MUTTS”. I realize now it is a lot more then I originally thought.

Just the title of the next one made me wonder “Women in Refrigerators” what is this going to be about. I was kind of weirded out by the first paragraph for a while then I realized it was part of someone’s weird comic. But also the character list and the alarming amount of characters that have (dead) next to the name, little strange. But on the other hand I liked how the author had the respondents and the reactions posted in links right there on their page.

“Not Just a Comic Book, Graphic Novels Teach us History”, I have no idea what to think on this one, I hope it is as interesting as the rest. I am more confused than anything I thought we were discussing comic books, but maybe there is a correlation I am missing here ,between graphic novels and comic books, I’m not so sure.

Composing with a twist

There are many types of composing that exist in on this planet we inhabit and to some individuals it can be considered writing and to others it can be considered whatever the common name that is given to that particular activity. For example composing could be considered writing, poetry, painting, drawing, dancing, music, texting, twittering, facebook comments, post etc. and so many more. What people might not consider composing is a anything to do with horses. But what non equestrian individuals consider composing us equestrians consider boring, we take the composing aspect and give it a twist.
Equestrians have many types of composing, reining, dressage, jumping (cross country and stadium), cow penning, horse vaulting, and carriage driving just to name a few. Almost every aspect of the mentioned equestrian involved activities involves some sort of pattern that is executed by the team of rider and horse. Reining, jumping (cross country and stadium) and dressage involves a specific pattern that is judged on the riders use of leg aids, memory to remember the pattern, posture, seat, and overall appearance and execution of the pattern. Dressage is one of the sports that can qualify under many categories I believe that the horse is absolutely dancing when executing a correct dressage pattern. Cow penning and horse vaulting are the dancing type of the equestrian world I am sure many equestrians could argue with me but, for cow penning the cow and the horse are basically dancing with each other, and in vaulting there are many humans involved doing the “dancing”.
As an equestrian myself there are certain things that are involved in creating any pattern that involves the equine counterpart. The amount of space the rider has to work with, agility of the equine, and in the case of dressage where the letters on the rail are placed. Being so involved in the equestrian world for many years of my life the things that I do while in the saddle I do not even begin to realize I do automatically until someone asks for a pattern of some sort. Now all these normal functions that take no thought what so ever now have to be brought into the conscious part of the brain to be put to work. For some this takes a pen an paper and for others this just takes a few minutes to think up a pattern in their head and then perform it with the upmost accurate precision possible.
I submitted two pieces of composing; they were both videos of me and my equine counterpart My Spartans Heir, Sparky for all intense purposes. As a team we go about six or so years back. This is one of the benefits and being able to make up a pattern on the spot knowing the ins and outs of your partner. But as any equestrian should know that they are animals and are unpredictable as seen in the video he does break the canter in a few instances, this I was not expecting, it was the last class of the day a long one in his defense. In video one, this is the real class that I was actually judged on, one important aspect of the class that is not videoed was the courtesy circle, this is something I was taught to do before beginning a jumping course. It is like a nod in a dressage test or a bow in dancing, it is just polite. This also helps with the straight in the middle approach to jump one. My jump one was very well executed due to this technique, now because of the size of the heated indoor arena there was no way that if I took jump two in the middle I would have been able to make the turn, so I chose to take the jump way to the left to avoid the issue of a hoof slipping. Jumps three and four is a very easy four stride line combination along the long side, to finish up with jump five is jump one only coming from the opposite side. I would have attempted a courtesy circle at a canter but again the space was small so I opted to bring Sparky down to a trot and then a flat footed walk to complete my circle.
I also submitted a second piece of composing; this was one that was written by me in my head, in all of a few minutes. I walked around the course thinking of how I could make the transitions smoother and not so choppy. My answer came by approaching jump one from the other way just like jump five on the previous course. The video starts in the middle or tail end of my courtesy circle and then my jump one to two goes a lot smoother than before. I decide to take the outer jumps one time around; the X jump’s and then taking jump one again to make it jump three. I decide to change it up a few and take the first of the X combination and then go to the other rail and do lead change take the diagonal vertical in the middle, then do the X combination again to end the course. Also I did not do a courtesy circle to end my course because I was not being judged, lazy out I know.
But all in my entire composed jumping course and my jumping class are just one of the many types of equestrian composing out there. I personally think that one could gather much inspiration from just watching any of the listed equestrian sports, reining, dressage, jumping (cross country and stadium), cow penning, horse vaulting, and carriage driving. I hope everyone enjoyed the rendition of composing by a equestrian with a twist.

My outlook on the readings

In reading “Getting Started Writing Science Fiction” I was a little confused and I had and still have no idea who James Gunn is. I even Goggled him, I don’t relate to him and I don’t know how to really interoperate his work. Still after reading it I still am getting out of it that it was about writing fiction and how the authors point of view and what or who motivates them. And about where the author mentioned “Still with me?” I am so not and I am still lost.
While I read the second article “Descriptive Writing” it sort of tied in the first piece but did not fill in all the blanks I still have. But I did like the way the writer mentioned that one must not over do the descriptiveness of their writing. I for one can sometimes get lost if there is too much description going on where the audience/reader cannot imagine or figure out things for themselves. I being a horse person could think of so many other words to use instead of horse. Yes when a reader uses something I can relate to I usually remember it more and it clicks. Now the article clicked in my head of what everything is suppose to be about. I think??
The piece “How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method” was really long but interesting to me I enjoyed how the author compared writing a novel to a snowflake. Also I liked how right off the bat the author mentioned that writing a novel is easy but a good one, well that’s a another story (no pun intended). I also enjoyed reading the authors perspective on how to write a novel as I have never written one myself I leave that to the more eccentric and creative people. Not saying that I am not creative it is just my creative writing skills are not up to par as compared to others. I liked (for a lack of a better word) that the author gave tips at the end of how to use the snowflake method if need be.
Just the title of the next piece of writing intrigued me “Secrets of book publishing I wish I had known” this would not only draw my attention but probably keep me reading just to see what the secrets are. The first secret I read about was that the publishers do not do what they do for the sheer love of books. I personally know this and I am not a writer, it is silly to think so, but that’s just my opinion. Also the other secret I found interesting is that if you write a book for money then you have no business writing a book because then you are writing for other reasons then yourself and in writing I have been told that you always should write for yourself and yourself only.

oopsi :/

First of I completely forgot that I had to do a blog about my groups reading choices. Well that’s my fault, so here it goes.
In reading “Writing for Children” I liked the way that it was set up into a 1,2,3 steps, for example this is what it is, this is how you can write it towards children, and this is why it works. Also the way the author describes word choice, point of view and weeding wordy words just made sense. The reason is that one that is not writing for children can also take what they read and adapt that to their writing in moderation. In writing for children the weeding of wordy words makes a lot of sense because the attention span of children is minimal.
When reading “knowing your Audience” I really do agree with the author that the writer must determine many things about the audience. This is also one of the most important steps a writer can take. Also I was taught this in one way or another amongst my years of high school, it might not have been directly called audience but it was more or less referred to as “think about who you are writing to”. Also the article made a good point in the end “don’t dumb down your paper” and always gives the reader the benefit of the doubt. There are many reasons why audience is chosen but one always needs to choose wisely otherwise there is a chance of offending a particular group of individuals.
As for the article “Responding to content” I thought it was an interesting because it gave a teachers point of view. Also the using questions is one of the parts of the article that I can see myself using in my most of my papers, blog post, and many more forms of writing. I think more of teachers should follow the first bullet “always say something positive” of the talking to students about their writing because some of my teachers/professors absolutely tore up my writing and sometimes students need this and sometimes they don’t. Teachers should really learn to take this into account.
In reading the “Audience” article I realized that you do have to keep your professor as well as your intended audience in mind when writing a paper. In reading these articles I am hoping that I can use it to improve my writing skills. Over all most of these articles helped me out in understanding more about my audience and how to write towards them.

almost forgot :/

Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices
As I was reading this essay I am thinking to myself that, plagiarism is so easy to do, and everyone tries not to do so, but unfortunately its not always the case. There are so many reasons to not plagiarize anything, there are legal, career, school consequences as well as many more I can not think of off the top of my head. I believe this topic will conjure up some very interesting conversations in any discussion. The breakdown of how not to plagiarize and advice for when you do and what to expect from some individuals, I thought this portion was mostly geared toward faculty for example teachers of the age group of children that are of age to do a research project. This was ok I would rather had it be more towards students.
What plagiarism looks like
All that needs to be said here is that it is not just students that need to be watched like a hawk. This to me is like “pot meet kettle” or “do as I say not as I do”.
Scientist explain why they plagiarize
Also like mentioned in this piece of writing now a days its too easy for someone that is writing anything and use the copy and paste future that is becoming so popular and especially in this business of plagiarizing things. This is why you should try so hard not to plagiarize, no excuse of but even the scientist do it, who cares it’s about you the writer not them.
The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism
Reading this particular piece of writing I noticed that there were a lot of random thoughts and things that did not really belong but the subject matter flowed and so did the paragraphs so I went with it. Then I remembered James saying something about a particular piece that was written totally from someone else’s work. It all made sense in the end, actually this was never plagiarism because in the end the author told the readers where the author got the information. All in all this was the best to read and it kept my interest.
For me personally I don’t believe I have ever plagiarized because as a child that was programmed/drilled into our heads that it was wrong and not ok to do so. This is correct it is wrong, and not ok to plagiarize in my standards. So whoever does this intentionally should know what they have coming to them and don not play dumb, but I guess it all depends on how you were taught as a child.

Stranger Than Fiction

What I have seen so far in the movie is that the writer has come so far with a good book and she is having the worst time creating a dramatic ending that it is done nothing but overcome her. When an assistant was hired to help her meet her deadline she just gets more stressed. The writer’s block is totally overcoming her every action. I am never a person who would attempt to write a book but if I was her I would not let something like that bother me. But I guess I have never been under that much pressure before. What she could do is write something and then you can always go back and change it. The plot of her book has been interesting so far. What I found annoying was the white description things that appeared in the first part of the movie, but I got use to them and even enjoyed reading them as the movie progressed. Have never seen the movie before and I am looking forward to what tomorrow brings and hopefully I will enjoy it.

Wednesday Night Thoughts

“Writing in the Age of Distraction”
I agree with the author about the distraction of the internet. With other things that are on your computer it is hard to focus on just your writing, now there are all the social networking sites along with games, or just something new drawing you away from writing. The author’s dos and don’ts for writing are really interesting. Some I can see myself doing like when a fact needs to be added insert “TK” and then keep going, because personally I have done just what the author describes googleing to find a fact for my paper and get lost in Google land. I keep thinking about the rough edges, this is a really good way to think about any paper, essay, book, short story etcetera. Take it slow and if you are done mid sentence leave it that way and return to it at a later time or date. This I think will help me because it is ok to leave something half way done just not if its due soon.

“How the E-Book Will Change the Way We Read and Write”
When reading this piece of writing I found the introduction to be a little strange and not really doing its job. I do understand how the Google search goes and what goes on to make it work and connect to the right words and what not. But what I do not understand is what it has to do with books or how we as writers compose our pieces of writing. What I do understand is that the e-book contraptions, I personally don not really care for because if I am taking the time to read a book I want to be able to do the un heard of and curl up in a blanket and it and read. I do not want to curl up with a mini laptop thingy. I also can see the other side of it as well; it is good for the avid reader who does not mind reading a book from a tiny computer screen. This is my opinion on the whole e-book, a book is a book and it should stay that way.

“On the changing roles of authors and readers”
So in reading this I was enjoying it and in the back of my mind I am thinking to myself what the heck is a “unbook”?? I do not know if anyone else was thinking this while reading. I feel kind of silly admitting this but I finally had to Google it because I got nowhere with clicking at the top where the tabs are on the webpage to find out what an “unbook” was. I did find out what an “unbook” is and the reading made alto more sense to me after I found out what I was reading about. The author made a good comparison about writers and magicians. The author described writers as magicians because in a way writers do create a “place” for the readers. If a writer cannot create a way for me to imagine a place in my head then I am most likely not going to read any more of the piece or just grumble about having to read it.

texting...

I just thought this was cute and it sort of goes along with the discussion we had in class on Tuesday.
http://www.muttscomics.com/strip.aspx its the 9-2-09 strip.

Monday night opinion

“Words for Print VS Words for Web”
While reading this piece of writing, I was not following it very well. I did not get the connections right away. It took me a while I actually read it tow times before I sort of came to an understanding with the writing. I do not know if it is me or what. What did find interesting that even thou having a printed version of a magazine or newspaper is becoming obsolete, there is always hope according to this writing. Also that professional bloggers are veterans of the magazine industry, this makes sense to me because of the way that the blogs and the magazine articles are the same. They are the same in my opinion because of the word choice, style and content. On the other hand they can be very different, by one has to be polished and an editor sees it while the other one has the option of being edited. It’s a choice.
“Traditional Writing Skills Don’t Work on the Web”
This reading was better in terms of easiness to follow and kept my interest throughout. I enjoyed the analogy of web content to an elevator ride to the next stop. This was a good way to do this, it painted a specific situation into my head, very relatable scenario. I also enjoyed the authors description of the business website, “anything that is on your website that strokes your ego, makes you smile, whatever you think is cool remove immediately”. This summarized statement does speak the truth, when working in a professional setting there should not be a link to the companies twitter account, first of all a company should not have a twitter account in the first place, come on it’s a place of business not pleasure. This coming from firsthand experience searching for a company finding one and seeing the link to their twitter account, not a good idea in my opinion. And if it is a good idea and I am proven wrong, what is this world coming to.
“We Are All Writers Now”
In the middle of reading this article I needed to stop and write down my thoughts before they escaped my brain. I see the authors point on how people view the social networking sites as something that sucks the time right out of our lives. With a wonderful rebuttal so far of one teachers account that her students do the twenty fife things about me on a daily basis and or for fun. So in her lesson plans she can “skip over” or just cover it briefly. This makes a lot of sense, people are not afraid to put anything in their status updates on any of the sites. There are always two sides to the story; I need to read on to find out more. The author backs this up by making a statement along the lines of whether you like it or not we are all writers. This refers to all forms whether it be on facebook or twitter to a lab report or a essay, they are all forms of writing now take it or leave it.

about readings

If I remember correctly Mr. Schirmer said something in class along the lines of people reading something from the computer or on line only have the attention span or memory span to hold information in-between four hundred and six hundred words but not more than six hundred on average. In reading most of the required readings while on my computer I realized that there is some truth to this. I found myself losing my place in the longer paragraphs. It is sad but true. I enjoyed reading “Internet-Age Writing Syllabus and Course Overview” by Robert Lanham I chuckled to myself a little while reading it and it was the most entertaining one for me to read, the information given about is something almost everyone is including in their daily routine like curling up with paper books is unheard of, now it’s just reading a virtual book on your palm-pilot or blackberry. It does a good job of opening our eyes to what we have come to, no more classic books we can hold and let get dusty or dog-eared because of being read so much. Where is the fun it that. Also when words are printed on paper they die, this was interesting to me but somewhat the truth.
In reading “Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004” by Paul Boutin, was an ok read, it was a little demanding when you first get into it, did not like that very much but it pulled you in to want to know the authors opinion on why you should not have a blog. Boutin does have some good points but he is just one opinion among many on both sides weather you should have a blog or stick to the more modern alternatives like facebook or twitter. While reading about the Stanford Study of Writing, research overview I found it interesting that the study came up with so much diversity, but I believe that was expected due to the study spanning over five years. What jumped right out at me by reading “blogging essential for a good career” is that a company will often Google future employees, yes this is true but what is said on all the social networking sites can hinder or help you on their decision to hire you or not. Placing your thoughts on a blog and not on a facebook page does not “hide” you from your future employer. I tend to live in reality where being hired for your personal blog only happens to a few people. Don’t get me wrong I do believe it happens but not as often as the author wants us to think it does. “On Blogging and Becoming a Better Writer” reading this one was I have a different opinion with almost everything the author says. Also what is with the analogy to the time spent at the gym stretching and the blogs of how it’s a way to try new things, im not clearly understanding that, I don’t know if it is because I am not that passionate about writing or what?? Reading “How the other half writes: in defense of twitter” the comparisons are have a strange truth about them. From “There’s an Art to Writing on facebook and twitter—really” the only one that stood out to me was this one and it got me thinking "Great blogging is great writing, and it turns out great Twittering is great writing — it's the haiku form of blogging," says Debbie Weil, a consultant on social media and author of The Corporate Blogging Book. Interesting comparisons used in article.

Day 1...

I hope this works. Also I am hoping this is what we need to do instaed of putting all of the four to six hundred words all on here now?? right?? My first blog...the world might come to a screeching halt.