Arguing for My Grade

Although I do not feel that I learned a great deal in my English 111 class, I feel that the grade I deserve is an A. Any professor would feel comfortable passing me with the knowledge that I have on speaking and “building my ethos” daily. Compared to many students, I can compose comprehensive (and even witty) sentences. I stepped out of the box with the class assignments by writing them in blogs, which I would have never thought I would do for a class. I did (regrettably) purchase the books, and I showed up to mostly all of the classes. Thus, the shell of an enriching learning experience was present; however, I felt that there should have been more information to base the class upon.
One thing I did benefit from by taking English 111 is making a conscious effort to spend less money. This is not something that I would have expected to learn from an English class, and I still can’t figure out if that’s a good or bad thing. Why would English have anything to do with making a budget? It seems more like an enrichment class’ subject, but I suppose there is nothing to complain about really. A minimum wage income does not go far at all, which I knew before; however, my eyes were opened to the severity of that situation by this class. I make close to no money and need to learn how to save, even if it is by simply turning off the lights in my house.
In this class, the writing process was discussed numerous times. Though it is important, I resent learning about the writing process year after year. Yes, we have all seen this before and it is just as obnoxious as it was in fifth grade. I could recite to someone a million times “pre-writing, drafting, revision, proofreading/editing, publishing, and review” and it would not mean a thing. First of all, I do not abide by the writing process…ever. Not when I won a savings bond in eighth grade for my writing SOL, not when I annoyed my high school teachers with my clever remarks, not when I passed my eleventh grade writing SOL with an advanced score and hung-over, and not now. Does that mean that I’m a bad student? Does it mean that my writing isn’t compelling to my audience? That’s for you to decide. Second of all, (besides this assignment) there was barely anything with which to practice the tedious arts of pre-writing and proofreading. The actual assignments we had were few and far between, to the point where I could not even begin to guess what my grade is right now. Though, again, I am certainly shooting for that A.
I cannot say that I am particularly disappointed that the text books were not used, but I am annoyed that I had to buy them in the first place. I believe it is the professor’s duty to include the book in the curriculum (in some way). This isn’t high school, where the forgotten books stay in a locker for months until they are turned back in. I must add that my mother was not pleased when I asked to borrow all that money for my books. Allow me to revisit the minimum wage bit: I’m poor, so at least make me use the money in a way that makes sense (because I know you are required to make us get the damn things). To be fair, I believe we began a chapter but none of that ever really followed through so I just stopped bringing my books (or even looking at them) altogether. Though, if the books were going to demonstrate to me the writing process and what a sentence fragment is, I would rather just not bother.
I did learn a few things (mostly new terms) this semester. By attending English 111, I can now use the word “Kaizen” in a sentence. Kaizen is actually something that everyone should appreciate and live by. We must all “pick the lowest hanging fruit”. Every journey begins with a single step, no matter if you are going to the bathroom or going to the moon. It just makes sense for human beings to take everything one day at a time, rather than attacking something all at once. By using Kaizen, we make the small, manageable changes that get us where we need to be. The small change I decided to make was to have all of my school-related websites more accessible to me on my computer. That way, I would not forget to do things when my professors do not feel the need to use Blackboard.
“Rhetoric” is another interesting word I learned about. In my notes, I have written “The art or craft of effective communication”. I think that just by being a woman, I can understand what this means. After all, in a woman’s brain, the corpus callosum is thicker, thus allowing a better flow of understanding between the left and right hemispheres (Does that sentence make my ethos look big?). Rhetoric is being able to convey exactly what you want to say, and anything that prevents the audience from understanding the message is called “noise”. With rhetoric, the author crafts a message by using their goals, and the message must meet the audience’s expectations. By the end of this paper, I hope that my audience has a strong understanding of what I was meaning to tell them. The art of rhetoric should be strived for in everyday communication, whether one is arguing with a spouse or arguing for a grade.
In the class, I wrote notes on verbs and nouns. Besides the writing process, this is one of the most tedious subjects one can discuss in an English class. I remember being in third grade and reciting “a noun is a person, place, or thing” and even back then it was forced. To be fair though, verbs were more exciting. If someone does not understand what a verb or a noun is, they should not be enrolled in English 111. A way to avoid disgruntled and bored students in this matter may be to post a few notes online and have a quick introduction quiz within the first week or two of classes. That way, there is a definite starting point to the class and it may efficiently get the ball rolling, since no one actually had to learn what nouns and verbs are.
Genres were briefly discussed at the beginning of the semester, which is something I do not mind revisiting and going more in-depth with. However, the only type of genre I actually can recall talking about was a review. The blog assignment that the class had was to write a review on either a restaurant or a movie, which I actually enjoyed because it gave me a chance to be creative. That was the only assignment I felt that way about. Clearly, I am not going to be like every student in a sense that I genuinely enjoy expressing myself through writing, but it is English class after all.
Among other things, I am disappointed that we did not read anything in this class. I suppose that English 111 is not really the place for much literature. It is rather a starting point and a guide for the rest of college. However, there are some very good, shorter reads that have simple messages which could easily be discussed. I’m not asking for Mark Twain, but please no Twilight either. It just would have been nice to revisit the days where one could read something such as The Giver and finish with a better understanding of oneself. I feel that figuring out oneself is exactly what many college students must do, and I do not think I conquered any step in that journey by taking English 111.
I did not have any expectations or pre-conceived notions upon taking this class, and I’m glad. I am not sure what every other English 111 class is like, and I do not care to find out. I am just ready to move on to the next semester and hopefully be prepared for it.

Sergey Brin

If you were to look something up on the internet, where is the first place you would go? It sometimes depends on what you need to find, but usually Google is the first place anyone will start. On Google, a wealth of information can be found from all over the World Wide Web. Videos, maps, articles, web pages, images, news and more are found. Any phrase or word can open up a world of knowledge with just one click. One can even have an email account through Google. This search engine will help with just about anything having to do with anything: past, present, and future. But what kind of person can make something so huge happen?

Sergey Brin is a technological pioneer of our age. Without him, there may not be one of the most widely-used websites of all time. During his stay at Stanford University, his imagination soared and he had the idea to create a search engine. With his college friend Larry Page by his side, Google was born through blood, sweat, and tears in a rented garage in California (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin).

Google is connected with so many things that help people learn about the world. Google Earth lets us see everything around us just the way it is. Google is now affiliated with Youtube, which lets us connect with others in a way much stronger than writing a letter. Even Andriod operating system which brings us several different smart phones is powered by Google. Sergey Brin and his ideas are now a part of everyone’s daily lives.

Kaizen Progress

It has helped so much to keep all of my school websites organized. It doesn't feel like a chore to simply begin my homework. I still procrastinate, but it's not as bad, and old habits die hard. Kaizen is about the small changes anyway, and I'm happy with the progress it's helped me make.

Monthly Budget: Updated

I make $2.13 an hour, plus tips, making my income very unpredictable. I also work anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week, depending on how often I'm scheduled. This would be based on an average income I may receive in a month's time.

If I work 5 days in a week (typical), and make around $40 a shift, that would mean about $800 a month.

I can guess that I spend $150 on groceries a month. Regrettably, I probably spent $50 on eating restaurant foods a month, so that's around $200 a month (if I get cheap food). We're down to $600 now.

For electricity, I usually spent around $70. Comcast is around $60. That's $130, so we're down to $470.

I probably spend $70 a month on gas, so I have $400 left. Thankfully, my mom started helping me more with rent. I used to pay $175 a month with both parents contributing, but now it's taken care of and I can focus on buying fun things... such as car repairs.

I keep having to pay for my car repairs, so I'll add it because they will never end. I've spent $130 this month, contributing to a larger cost. The money I can expect to have left is $270. (That is, if I don't choose to spend more on the repairs)

Dog's grooming: $35
My haircut: $47
There's $188 left...

I'll probably end up spending that on extras for myself, my dog, a holiday, a party, a fun weekend... Yeah, it's all gone.

_____________________________________________________________


I realize I need to change some things in order to be able to actually save money. First of all, I may need to work more (pick up shifts that other people don't want, etc.) For perspective's sake, I made $28 a couple nights ago but I made $45 last night. So yes, my income is very unpredictable.

Let's still say I have $800.

Food:
$800 - $175
I would like to spend a little more on groceries and a lot less on restaurants.

Bills:
$625 - $130
That probably won't easily change, so I'll keep that.

Gas:
$495 - $65
The price has gone down (for now), and I don't really need to go anywhere far.

Car Repairs:
$430 - $100
There will be forever something wrong with my car. I'm still paying off from last month. Thankfully, the guy who works on my car also works with me so he lets me pay him when I can. I'll ease up on that.

Miscellaneous/Fun Money:
$330 - $150
There's always going to be that late night bag of cat food I have to buy or that shirt I really want or the fair or a party... All of the social outings are so expensive, so that's why I put what I did (it's a good thing I won Howl-O-Scream tickets).

Savings:
$180
It will add up over time.

Kaizen

Something that really frazzles me when it comes to school is all of the websites I have to keep up with in order to simply get started on my work. Only one of my professors uses Blackboard, so I have several other "class websites" to keep up with. It contributes to my already bad procrastinating habits. I don't even know where to begin with homework sometimes; I feel like a hoarder trying to clean up. Something I can do to fix that, I suppose, is to bookmark all of the websites so that they're staring me in the face (not just hidden away in my notebook).

Monthly Budget

I make $2.13 an hour, plus tips, making my income very unpredictable. I also work anywhere from 3 to 6 days a week, depending on how often I'm scheduled. This would be based on an average income I may receive in a month's time.

If I work 5 days in a week (typical), and make around $40 a shift, that would mean about $800 a month.

I can guess that I spend $150 on groceries a month. Regrettably, I probably spent $50 on eating restaurant foods a month, so that's around $200 a month (if I get cheap food). We're down to $600 now.

For electricity, I usually spent around $70. Comcast is around $60. That's $130, so we're down to $470.

I probably spend $70 a month on gas, so I have $400 left. Thankfully, my mom started helping me more with rent. I used to pay $175 a month with both parents contributing, but now it's taken care of and I can focus on buying fun things... such as car repairs.

I keep having to pay for my car repairs, so I'll add it because they will never end. I've spent $130 this month, contributing to a larger cost. The money I can expect to have left is $270. (That is, if I don't choose to spend more on the repairs)

Dog's grooming: $35
My haircut: $47
There's $188 left...

I'll probably end up spending that on extras for myself, my dog, a holiday, a party, a fun weekend... Yeah, it's all gone.

Bottoms Up Pizza

If there's one essential food for a college kid, it has to be pizza (nevermind ramen noodles). It's fast, filling, and you can pile on whatever you want. One place in particular knows the idea and executes it flawlessly: Bottoms Up Pizza in Richmond. Located in the heart of Shockoe Bottom, the atmosphere is almost like that of an old tavern near the railroad tracks, but with modern flair. They proudly serve local beer and cater to the unique personality of RVA. Upon walking in, you may be greeted by a tattoo-clad VCU student who will walk you to a table next to the exposed brick wall across from the live band. The vintage black and white photographs hang on the walls to remind you what this building has seen. Once you look around at the other diners laughing, boozing, and having a good time, you know it will be a great meal.

The menu does not boast to be anything more than it is. It will impress you without trying. Crab meat on a pizza? They have it. Artichoke hearts, spinach, feta, sun-dried tomatoes, chicken, white sauce, red sauce, olives, mozzarella, sausage… All somewhat ordinary ingredients, but created perfectly. One should not go without having a taste of my favorite appetizer: the mozzarella tracks. Fondly named after the characteristic railroad tracks, these warm cheesy breadsticks are to die for, paired with the sweet and savory marinara sauce. Be sure to leave room for the main course and dessert!

The pizza slice size in and of itself is truly something to behold. I usually have leftovers just from one slice. It’s the size of their large dinner plates, so you might want to dig in with a knife and fork first. My personal favorite is the Mediterranean, but no matter which specialty blend of toppings you choose, it is far different from any chain delivery service. The ingredients are fresh and stand out from one another, yet blend perfectly. Even the crust is a unique, fluffy yet crunchy texture and is just buttery enough to keep any Paula Dean happy. The melted cheese fights to stay intact, making glorious mozzarella locks on your plate. As you cut away at the monstrous slice, and the gauged-earlobe server asks you if you would like a refill, you realize that this place is one of a kind.

Even though at this point, any sane person would stop eating, there are still the epic dessert pizzas. Especially if this is a first time experience, you have to try one. Now, usually I’m not too fond of dessert pizzas (places like CiCi’s give them a bad reputation). I don’t even really like s’mores too much. But at Bottoms Up, the s’mores dessert pizza is a must. The crust is a bit sweeter than it usually would be for the regular pizzas. The “sauce” (you may want to sit down) is peanut butter. No, that is not a traditional s’mores ingredient, but at this point, I think it should be. The “cheese” (hold onto your seat) is gooey chocolate. Last but not least (you guessed it), the whole thing is smothered in warm, sticky marshmallows. This concept may seem strange at first, but it will surely wrap up an excellent dining experience for anyone willing to have their mind blown.