Tag Archives: engl 1101

The Beginning

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Today was the last day of ENGL 1101 class. Yesterday was the last official day of learning new material in MATH 1502 (Calculus II and Linear Algebra). It is “dead week” here at Georgia Tech and finals are next week. My first semester here at Georgia Tech as a Freshman is almost over. Though I am no longer technically classified as a Freshman after this semester is over.

Now, I can think what you are thinking. Why is my post titled “The Beginning” if all I’m talking about the end being near. Now that does not make much sense does it?

In a way, saying it is the beginning does make sense. At the end of my ENGL 1101 class today, my professor made a little speech about how she would miss us, find it interesting to see how would progress in the future, and how her previous students contact her now and then about essay proofreading along with other questions from the class. I can’t quite quote what she said due to my memory, but I think her tweet from earlier today sums it up.

Last day of class is always bittersweet. Always wonder what amazing things these students will do in the future. Now to #grading…

Now I know that most if not all of my teachers from high school and the various others level of education I attended said something similar, but for some reason having my ENGL 1101 professor saying such a thing is different. I’m not sure why. Perhaps because there has been a serious difference in the amount of work required for this English class than the ones in high school. Perhaps because we spent 1.5 hours every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:00 AM for the past few months. Whatever the reason is, I think she is right. Students at Tech will do amazing things.

But how is this the beginning? Well, in order to do amazing things, one must subject themselves to training. The classes. The lectures. The “easy stuff”. Only when these various requirements are met can one take major steps to becoming amazing. Everyone is amazing.

So, by the end of things coming, it really is the beginning. I kind of have to say that for myself it seems more the beginning now of a lot things than it seemed when I first arrived at college. Now things are just so much more… [insert word here]. I can’t think of what it is. Tech is amazing. I knew that before I came to college, but now I feel how it is amazing. That kind of is hard to explain. I have visited the Emory library for an exhibit on the world’s first great digital writer. I have met several amazing people. I have made 60 new friends according to my Facebook “College” list and many more who are not on Facebook. I have done a lot.

What does this bring me to? I am not sure. This is my last official required ENGL 1101 weekly post, though I never really had trouble with writing a post for the class. I will continue to blog here after next week, the official end of my first semester at Georgia Tech, is over.

I cannot think of any quotes that I know of off the top of my head to close this post. Well, that is not entirely true. I can think of one…

“Carpe, carpe diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.” – John Keating, Dead Poets Society

Blog Self-Audit

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The following post is for my English 1101 class at Georgia Tech.

[insert different "24"-esque intro]
The following took place between August 26th at 2:09 PM and October 31th at 9:45 AM.

Looking back through my blog posts I find that I have not really changed too much. Well, maybe a bit more than I say. From the beginning I have always written about technological topics with the occasional aviation related topic or topic that just straight out interests me in some way or form. Since then I have stayed with that theme. In my mind, if it is interesting and I have some reason to share or comment about it, I will blog it.

Over the weeks that I have gotten back into blogging, I would have to say that my blogging style has changed a little bit. When I was out of it and just started blogging again, my posts were still kind of bland and written like an essay. In other words, they were not too personal and did not particularly sound like me. I’m not exactly sure what to account for the changes, but I guess one could say my writing changed just due to me getting back into blogging. I had done blogging before, but I could never sustain the blog for too long, so I suppose the more I blog now the more I shall get back into the idea of blogging and writing more often.

I am not particularly surprised as I go back and reread my work, though I can attribute that to blogging back in the day where I learned what is the best way to write and such. Now if we look at blog posts from my old, old blog many moons ago, I am surprised at how much I’ve changed since then. Well, not completely surprised, but it is interesting to see the changes I have made in writing style.

There exist a few ideas/topics/threads in my posts that I would like to revisit one day. One would have to be the topic of modernization of transportation as my Student Alumni Association mentor, Steve Dickerson, had something to do with the transportation tracking system here at Georgia Tech. I would really like to continue the idea of being a digital native (i.e. being born digital) even after my ENGL 1101 is over as my generation is starting to be completely different from my parents’ generation and helping document it and examine it is probably one of the most interesting things now in the world.

I value a lot out of blogging throughout the week. I like to get my thoughts out and have the possibility of people listen. If anything it is more of a way just to write about what I like. It matters not to me whether I have people reading, but whether I get something out of blogging that I enjoy. I believe that if I continue to write about technology, aviation, and other things I love then I shall be happy with blogging. I’m not sure how it shows up in my posts – perhaps the depth, length, and quantity of such posts? I do not know.

After writing this blog self-audit, I kind of like the idea that is promotes – reviewing my blog and looking at what was good and bad. Perhaps I shall do it bi-monthly in the future even after my ENGL 1101 class is over. It’s good to look back on what we have done and review what we could do better.

Dragon*Con

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Yesterday I bought a Dragon*Con badge/pass/ticket thing. Not exactly sure on the terminology. I’ve never been to a convention unless you can count Oshkosh AirVenture.

So, yep, there it is. I will be attending Dragon*Con this weekend. Not exactly sure what I’m going to do there as I have never been to one, but there seems to be quite a bit of Doctor Who, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Steampunk and a few other things to interest me. Oh! Adam Savage will be there so I’ll definitely have to check that out. He’s hilarious and a great guy.

As I got at one of the large hotels to get my badge/pass/ticket there were volunteers yelling out “Pre-Paid” and “On-Site” and motioning which way you had to go depending on whether you ordered your badge/pass/ticket online or was like me and had to get it on-site. The line for the pre-payers was quite long which is ironic as it was supposed to be short as only the die-hards would register online. Guess the organizers thought wrong. The line for the on-site registration was about five people long inside a giant open room where they had lines that mazed around like the lines at Six Flags. Seriously took about five minutes to get from the beginning of the line to the people waiting in line.

Anywho, I might drop by today just to check out what is going on and how to not get lost at the five or so hotels that “the con” is made up of. I’ve got the “pocket program” (which is as large as a paperback book) all highlighted with the stuff I wish to see. I’ll be posting a picture or two on here of interesting things I find.

Oh yes – one more thing. I am attending the Georgia Tech and South Carolina State game tomorrow, thus making it the first large football game and second football game ever that I’ve ever attended.