Last semester at IPFW

I remember in August of 2003 coming to orientation at IPFW. I really had no idea what was going on, I just remember that I had scheduled the last OASIS session before school started and then skipped out on the majority of it except for the class scheduling part. Now a mere five years later I am all set to graduate in May with my BA. I never really thought much about the fact that I was graduating, because it never seemed to be that important of an accomplishment. I had merely reached another milestone in the road of life. But it has been quite an interesting journey for me at IPFW and I find myself lamenting from time to time, as this semester continues, knowing that I am almost done.

However, I can't complain too much because I was actually all set to graduate last year. Unfortunately, I did not know what I wanted to do afterwards, so I added English as a major. So as an English major, with a concentration in writing, I am more or less completing the entire major in one year. That means I have the privilege of taking my sophomore writing class in my last semester at college (since for some odd reason my history writing class counts for my sophomore literature interpretation class, but does not count for my sophomore English writing class). Better yet though, the only W200 class that fit in with my schedule was a Technical writing class. Technical writing classes are usually filled up with all engineering majors, but I now have the pleasure of sharing a class with them.

Well one of my assignments today, in my sophomore writing class, was to write a brief introduction about myself for my fellow classmates. I had to tell them that I was a fifth year student at IPFW. I had to tell them that I was an English major. I had to tell them that as a fifth year English major I am just now getting around to fulfilling my sophomore English writing requirement. Further, I am taking a technical writing class, designed for engineers to fulfill that requirement. My classmates are probably going to think that I am the stupidest English major at IPFW. I could have told them more about myself, you know, to explain my situation- I didn’t.

To be honest does anybody really care about first day introductions? Now I understand, in our class, with our small size and constant interaction it might be important, but what about in a class where all we do is listen to lectures? I met 100 people in my first week of the semester and I don’t remember any of them. I might recognize there face, but I couldn’t tell you the major or high school they attended. Yet every class I seem to take I have to give an obligatory first day introduction of myself. And the thing is, I am never really being myself when I have to give an introduction. I don’t want to say too little, but I certainly don’t want to say too much. I think everybody is kind of like that. So in the end, it becomes more like a roll call. But instead of saying here or present we have to say our name, major, and “an interesting fact” about ourselves. I guess it is just one of those funny little nuisances of university education these days that all students have to go through. Yet, in a funny way, I will probably miss giving those silly little introductions after I’m gone from IPFW.

election day

In less than 9 months, this country will once again, watch democracy in action as we elect a new president of the United States. As the Democratic Primaries and Caucuses continue it is becoming apparent that Hillary Clinton has regained the front runner position for the Democrats in 2008. This is so horrible. It is not that I am against a woman president by any means. I'm all for what Sally Field said (kind of) when she got cut off at the Emmys. It’s just nobody is more ideologically in sync than a husband and wife except perhaps a father and son. This is why it is so horrible. The last time I was alive and either a Clinton or a Bush was not in office was when I was just three years old. While every Republican tells me how great Regan was, at the time, I was more focused on the basics of walking and spitting out short sentences to impress relatives. If Hillary Clinton does get elected, and possibly re-elected, I could be thirty-one before a Bush or Clinton is not in office. I could potentially have grownup, began my career and have a child of my own before I have a chance to have a little variety in the executive office of the United States. And who knows, by then Jeb Bush will probably be gearing up to make run at the Oval Office.

First Day of Class

On the first day of class, while I enjoyed meeting everyone, one thing that continually came up during our class discussion, which confused me, is on how "language limited us" as well as it enabled us to communicate with others. Now I certainly do now want to criticize any individual for the statement, because there were certainly enough people that either said it or agreed with it. However, I would merely like to touch on the fact that language is not what limits an individual's ability to communicate with other humans. Language is a tool (according to Thomas in The Lives of a Cell we use it to build metaphorical nests). What limits our usage of a tool is not the tool but our ability to wield that tool effectively. An artist who used a chisel to create a sculpture would not blame the chisel if the final sculpture did not represent the vision imagined by the artist in his or her mind. The artist would blame his ability to use that chisel and would then attempt to wield it more effectively to create his or her vision. We should not blame language for our inability to communicate effectively, but only ourselves. If we did, I bet we would attempt to better our usage of language, which would allow us to become more efficient at communicating in a hurry.

blog for creativity and community

Well,

My name is Conor and this is my blog for W462. I am a senior at IPFW and this, barring any horrible setbacks, will be my final semester at the university. Afterwards, hopefully, I will become a fully functioning member of society as a college graduate.

The first two questions someone might have about my blog are first, how was my blog created before the first day of class? The second question someone might have about my blog is, why the name of my blog would be blogsandnews? Well the reason I was able to have the blog sent to the professor before class started was because I stumbled into elearning and saw that we were suppose to create a blog through blogger as part of the class requirements. Luckily for me, I had already created the blog several months ago for another class. I do not know if I am for the idea, but it seems that making students keep a blog is the way of the future for many English writing classes. However, I am not a blogger and did not like the idea of my personal thoughts being left on the internet so I deleted the entire blog after the class ended in December. However, the two things I could not figure out were how to (a) get rid of the blog entirely or (b) change the name of the blog. That is why I had a blog before class started and why my blog is called blogsandnews.