#24 Reflection

I am so glad this is my last post.  The one thing that I did enjoy about this project was reading some of my classmates blogs.  They were a bit funny sometimes.  I personally hate telling my feeling and expressing certain parts of my life for a class assignment.  I do not think I will continue blogging because I am not that interested in telling everyone what I think or what I am doing.  If you care what I am doing chances are you have my phone number and will call me.  This class has just been a lot of writing and feeling expression.  I am glad that it is over.  I hate trying to convey my vocabulary into written word because of many reasons.  I felt this way at the beginning of class and still feel the same way now.  I type like I talk.  It does not translate well as far as grammatically correctness.  There is a prime example of that, I figure there is probably a better way to describe what I just said but since this is the last blog I am going to let it slide.
I am grateful that I did get to learn about prezy, that is a cool program.  Also the time with the writing center I think will prove to be valuable in my college career.  So there are some positives that I will take away with me.  Anyway all the best to those that read this.

#23 List

Car Salesman - I have learned to be paitent and a better listener.
Asset Protection - Through with your work, detail oriented
Finance Manager - Enthusiastic and energetic.  Details are must but more important is having a great attitude.
Loan Officer - Goal Driven and self motivated.  I learned you can not expect someone else to do it for you.

Camping - No better skills then that of being prepared.
Rock Climbing - Confidence in your own abilities
Watching Football - Being able to turn your mind off and just enjoy an event, that is hard for me to do.
Building - Developing and idea and making it come to life

#21 April fools

April Fools was boring at my house.  My little girl had made a list of different things that she wanted to do to fool the rest of the family.  My wife found the list early in the morning and had expressed her unhappiness to me upon learning her name was mentioned a few times on the list.  A plan was made to give the children five dollars each if they played no April fool’s jokes.  The kids thought it was great and followed the rules until it was nine o’clock at night.  Needless to say they did not find it so funny when they found out the five dollar deal was an April fool’s joke played on them.

We did not do much for April fool’s this year.  My little girl had written a list where she was planning on playing jokes on everyone in the family.  She had them labeled: Mom, Dad, Hayden and family.  My wife found the paper and brought it to me with great concern.  I told her to not worry about it and told the kids that if they did not play any April fool’s jokes I would give them each 5 bucks.  They went all day without any jokes.  At night they asked for their five bucks and I told them April Fools.  After a lot of crying and tears I gave them the five bucks.

Writing with the “I” is obviously a lot easier.  I did not have to think of how to structure my sentences without using the letter.  When I did use the letter I found the writing to be more personable and easy flowing.  Although not using was not hard I just didn’t like having to think so much on how to say it correctly.  I am writing the research paper so why wouldn’t I use the word I.  That’s my opinion. (313)

#20 Public Speaking

I really do not have any strong feelings towards public speaking in general.  I have done it a few times and I am sure it was a little unsettling at first but overall it is nothing to be stressed out about.  The last time I remember speaking publicly was at my cousin’s funeral.  The preparation is the hard part.  As long as I have my talk down, I feel pretty good about it.  My last talk (the funeral) did not go as good as I was hoping I always try to open with a little bit of a funny and my funny at his funeral I do not know if everyone got it.  There was a bit of an awkward silence.  What do you do though?  Close your eyes and just keep going.  Luckily in today’s society I have not met anyone that is willing to go up to the person after wards and say “Your talk sucked, I mean I would rather be beat to death with a spoon then listen to you speak again.”  I have not met that guy luckily.  Sure they might think your presentation skills and material was weak but you never hear about it, so what is the harm?  I always giggle at the phrase just image the people in the audience naked, heck I do that with the girls when I am in the audience J.  Overall I try not to be too critical with anyone on the stage or in front of the group unless it is their profession.   I think it is one of those things that unless you get paid to do it then you should just shut up and try to be as understanding and polite as you can be because next time it could be you up there.  (300)

#19 Who do I Admire

This blog would have been a lot easier to write twenty years ago.  I have thought for an entire day trying to figure out who I admire.  I think the older I get it is harder for me to admire someone as a whole package.  Now there is a lot people that have individual traits that I admire quite highly but trying to think of one that I would give them the title of I admire them in full even with all their faults is rough.  Ultimately I came up with my son.  He is five and he is everything I would hope he could be.  He has unconditional for all of his family.  He is loyal and honest.  He has a great attitude towards life and has nothing bad to say about anything.  We recently got a puppy due to my daughter’s persistent nature.  Nobody in my family wanted the dog except my little girl.  If were going to get a dog it had to be small and of the nonshedding variety.  Well those kind of dogs are expensive.  My daughter had saved up $291 for Disneyland and decided she would use that money towards a new puppy.  Well puppies are running for $500.  With my daughter getting more and more discouraged my boy comes to me one night and says “Dad I will give you my money for Paige to get a dog.”  I asked him if he wanted a dog.  He said “I don’t care if we get a dog but I know Paige really wants one so I will help.”  For a five year old to have that much compassion for his sister nearly made me cry.  Needless to say we went and got a dog and yes I ended up paying for most of it, I just made them pay 100 bucks each. (310)

#18 my Hobby

It seems like the older I get the less time I have to do my hobbies.  In my youth I loved rock climbing, water skiing, and mountain biking.  These days all I have time for is work, homework, and take care of the children.  I would not say my children are a hobby so I really have to think about what I have time to do.  What I have found of late is that I enjoy a nice ride on my motorcycle.  I by no means am a hardcore bike rider.  I have a 2005 Yamaha V-Star 650 Classic, I have changed the pipes and bars to exactly what I want.  It is classic red and silver.  I love it.  My bike only has 1800 miles on it because I do not like to be on it for a long time.  What I enjoy is getting out on the road and run at about 40 mph and just go for a half hour cruise.  Helmet wears get mad at me because I like just the feel of the wind in my face and my iPod beating in my ear.  It is nice and relaxing.  It strikes me a little odd that the more I ride the more I just want to keep it simple.  The idea of going on trip to Jackson Hole or riding with a bunch of guys down the freeway or anything like that just does not appeal to me.  Rarely does my wife even go for rides with me.  Its not that she is not welcomed but I don’t mind if she doesn’t.  I think it’s a chance for me to feel young again without really worrying about my responsibilities (other then not wrecking or getting hit by another car).  I think those that ride know what I mean. (303)

#17 Fear is not a Factor

Chris Joosse writes a very informative piece about fear and the different aspects of it.  He goes over the different phases, the meaning of and even some speculative beliefs about fear.  What is fear?  What endorphins are produced from fear?  Does is help you focus?  Is there good fear or bad?  He goes in detail about how fear affects your body and ultimately how you can learn to control your fear to where you could use it as an advantage.  Ultimately fear can be controlled and he lays out the steps to accomplishing it. 

Considering Chris Joosse is an avid kayak enthusiast his opinion is very helpful and what I feel very credible.  Chris is college educated and lists his personal activities as activities that I consider to be high in adrenaline and fear.  Considering his education is in English and theater I tend to think he can explain the emotions that are consistent with fear.  Chris works for one of the most successful companies in the world (Microsoft) so that, to me, adds even more credibility.  The way he talks about stepping back into a situation and realizing it is what it is that type of logic is the same type of logic I use when faced with a problem that I am not sure of.  Chris has run a webpage for over 14 years called Boatertalk.com.  My personal feeling considering how much devotion he has put into the sport that he loves (whitewater kayaking) which to me is a high fear sport and to analyze the way fear affects him, which is a side affect of whitewater kayaking makes me think in no other words then there’s no flies on this guy.  He knows his stuff.  I found his article educational and informative; I will have my wife read it because I believe it could be a huge benefit to her. (313)

Works Cited
 Joosse, Chris. "Fear and Focus." Chris J's Big Page O'Stuff. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Mar. 2012