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Decent. That's the kind of writer I am. Not excellent, but not piss poor. Reflective writing is probably my strength. A notable flaw that my writing contains, but can be useful at times, is that there is the potential for myself to be overly descriptive and wordy. This can be seen here when I did a content and form writing for the Paramore - Pressure music video. Work-shopping, or peer reviewing, is really useful to writing. To me it is valuable for me to get outside input and possible ideas that I may have not have even thought about. Another viewpoint, especially when trying to decifer visual rhetoric, helps me to come up with other ideas to write about. While writing about the rhetoric of Picasso's Guernica it did not even occur to me at first to try to incorporate the ideas of cubism into my writing until after I had met with you (J.Ware) for the first draft. Discussing my ideas with others also helps me to figure out how to implement them into my writing. I find that personally it can be hard for me to start writing. But once I get an idea to write about the writing often comes fast and I end up going over the required word count. I think "good writing" really depends on what you are writing for. If you are writing for a scientific project or assignment you would probably not want to use witty comments and would probably more want to keep the excess to a minimum. However I do think that a good piece of writing should keep the interest of the reader. If the writing is dull and uninteresting to a potential reader than no one will want to read it and thus the ideas of the writer will not be conveyed and it will be in my opinion a poor piece of writing.

O_O #3

Above is my trusty tool for daily communication, the Samsung SCH-R500, or the Hue. I have had a cell phone since probably sometime in middle school when my mom realized it was easier to keep tabs on me if I had my own phone. My first phone was just an old black Nokia that was analog. The Hue is basically the equivalent of the Motorola Razr, except it's better. I opted for the blue front and back trim pieces but they are easily switched out for the red variant within seconds. I'm pretty hard on phones but the Hue has probably been the longest lasting most reliable phone I have owned. My phone proudly wears the battle scars of heavy usage. The cover over the charger inlet is broke off. Scrapes and gashes mark the corners of my phone from repeated drops. Sometimes numbering in the double digits per day (I'm clumsy). The front trim piece has a melted spot that I'm not quite sure where it came from. There is a scar across the front screen which currently sports a lighter shade of blue which is changeable via the options menu. On the back trim peice some of the blue has been worn away in the center of the phone reveiling the black plastic. The current wallpaper is a pic taken with the phone's fairly decent camera. The image is of an encroaching storm cloud one day while I was driving into Lincoln. I spend more time texting, something my first phone didn't have the capability of, than I do talking. I regularly hit my inbox limit of 80msgs but thanks to the auto delete feature I don't have to bother doing it manually. Despite lacking a full qwerty keyboard like some of the newer phones texting is accomplished efficiently with the mastery of T9word. The 1gb micro SD card has saved me from boredom many times heading home from work. My Subaru which lacks a radio was my main mode of transportation to and from my old job at Kawasaki. Thanks to the micro SD card and the mp3 player of the phone I was able to rock out to songs such as Ian Van Dahl - Castles in the Sky and Nightwish - Nemo. My Hue is my main way of communicating with the people I don't necessarily see everyday.

O_O #2

My computer, well not originally mine, has been a trusty tool in the battle against noobs. Nestled deep within it's clear green case at the heart of the machine is its AMD 2.1Ghz Dual Core processor. While not the fastest processor on the planet it does the job adequately and allows me to multitask efficiently. Right now I have 3 tabs open on Firefox, an AIM conversation going on, and I'm playing WoW without any noticeable strain being placed on the computer. This is partially thanks to its fast OCZ Reaper RAM. Currently storage is provided via a 36gb 10k rpm Raptor HDD used for the things that require a little more speed such as Call of Duty 4. The bulk of my storage is handled thanks to a 250gb external HDD. A simple 17in flat screen LCD monitor displays everything. Speed and accuracy are crucial when fragging noobs during an intense round of CoD4. This is handled via the combination of a Logitech G11 keyboard and a G9 mouse. The keyboard provides extra keys to set up as hot keys. The mouse is perfect for a finger person especially with the textured casing on it. It is a 5 button mouse that has the ability to free wheel the scroll button. You can adjust the sensitivity of the mouse on the fly by simply clicking a button. Most of the time I have it set to 3200dpi for maximum pwnage. Additionally you can change the weight of the mouse my adding or subtracting weights. Of course such a mouse can't have just any old mouse pad. The mouse pad of choice is a one specially for a laser mouse and depicts the classic FPS game Counter Strike. Addorning the case of this mighty machine are various automotive stickers applied by the previous owner, my friend Ryan. There is a Mopar performance parts sticker on the front right below the DVD drive. On the side is a sticker for the Holley Avenger series carbs and ARP fasteners.

With the help of this beast of technology I am able to satisfy my latest gaming addiction, WoW. WoW is a MMORPG which allows me to interact with people all over the world while sitting in my comfy chair at home in the boring town of Seward. While I was typing this I ran through an instance with my friend Ben who lives in Lincoln. Obviously my computer is able to multitask my game and having this window open, unfortunately I do not possess a dual core processor and can't type and play my game at the same time.

O_O #1

Above is a picture of wonderful Nissan engineering from the late 1980 to early 1990's. The Nissan 240SX. I personally have owned 3 of these cars but the one that left the biggest impact was my 1991 SE (the trim level) Fastback. It was far from being pretty like the one above. Mine was white and had what seemed to be the standard for a high mileage 240sx; a dent in the passenger side fender and a worn driver's seat. The worn section, which is worn enough that the metal skeleton of the seat is showing, is on the outside lumbar support of the seat. A seat which caused your back to hurt for an entire day after just 10 minutes of sitting in it. Soon after owning it the cup-holder mod was preformed so I would have a cupholder. The previous owner, a friend of mine from high school, had switched exhausts and then switched again to put the stock one back on before he sold it. Unfortunately he just used some u-bolt clamps to put the muffler back on and it fell off driving it one day. Then later on the rest of the piping from the catalytic converter back to where the muffler should have been came off while driving over a speed bump. The resulting lack of exhaust provided for a nice deep, throaty sound emanating from the heart of the car under the hood. The engine to these works of engineering art was a truck motor. Or at least that is the joke about it. The Nissan 240SX exists in Japan as the Nissan Silvia. The Silvia, 1991 on up, is powered by a 2.0L all aluminum dual overhead cam inline four cylinder that was either naturally aspirated or turbocharged. The turbo version, the SR20DET, pumped out a fairly decent 215hp. The previous 1989-1990 Silvia had a CA18DET which is an 1.8L iron block, aluminum head, dual overhead cam inline four cylinder that produced around 185hp. However those crazy Japanese engineers figured that Americans would rather have a big torquey naturally aspirated four cylinder engine and the North American version of the car, the 240SX, came equipped with the KA24E/DE. The KA series of motors were 2.4L iron block, aluminum head that depending on the years either had a single overhead cam, 1989-1990, or a dual overhead cam, 1991-98, design producing 133hp and 155hp respectively. With 175k on the clock the KA24DE in my Fastback produced 129rwhp and 131rwtq which is really not bad considering the mileage and that it was running at 11:1 AFR (air to fuel ratio). Eventually throughout the year that I owned the car I put 30k hard miles on it delivering pizza for Valentino's at their 27th and Superior store. At 205k on the clock the clutch slave cylinder went out of the car and it ended up getting towed. The engine still ran but the car was unable to move under its own power. It ended up like the other 2 Nissan 240sx's that I have owned, not running. One of these was my first 240sx, my 1991 Fastback Super-HICAS with a lsd and four wheel steering and the other was my 1992 SE Coupe that I just sold to my friend Ryan. Ryan, who I met while getting involved in the local car scene, has ended up being one of my best friends. We had spents countless nights cruising around in my beat up Fastback or drifting in empty parking lots after it rained. That's what 240sx's are good for, drifting. They lack the power to really do anything impressive in the 1/4 mile but they handle like a dream. I don't know what happened to my Fastback that got towed, I ended up selling it to the company because I was broke at the time, but my Coupe is still in the hands of my friend Ryan who is currently in the process of rebuilding the engine with higher compression pistons from the KA24E (sohc version) for a little more performance. Once its done I can't wait for my back to start hurting again.

Judith Reflection

A Perfect Circle along with Maynard James Keenan's other band Tool were played quite heavily during my high school years. During those high school years I was beginning to develop my own personal ideas on various topics like many other youths. One such topic was religion.
Seward, my hometown, is like many small towns in the Midwest. It is predominately made up of Christian middle-class families. Now I was confirmed a Methodist but it was during my High School years when I began to ask questions about what I was supposed to believe in. My pension for rock music and black clothes along being the child of a single parent and my association to peoples that were closer in my economic bracket cast a shadow on me. Wearing black and associating with the "poor kids" was just not something you did if you wanted to be popular. Wearing black and listening to rock music was almost like participating in Satanic rituals I think to some people. The ironic aspect of it all was that the people who were active church members and considered themselves Christians were often the first to exclude or pass judgment on people solely because looks or who somebody associated with. I'm not going to lie. I'm not innocent of passing judgment on people, I am making a judgment right now in fact. But things such as clothes, taste in music, hobbies, and economic class have not discouraged me from trying to befriend people. I don't refuse to be friends with someone just because they are poor.
I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that many of the people who claim to be religious and standing on the moral/ethical high ground are in fact on the same level as everyone else. Just because you believe (or don't) in something does not automatically make you a good or bad person. Actions speak louder than words, and they also speak louder than beliefs.