TU Tuesday Guest Speaker

Poise- The speaker was very comprehensible while speaking, but had a sense of wavering to his tone throughout the talk. He had a very clear set of ideals, but was not particularly adept at dealing with audience members whom held strong and controversial opinions, such as with Andrew Fedorov's argument for the two extremes of twitter and books as opposed to newspapers. The speaker did try to engage the audience, but was somewhat limited to a straightforward set of thoughts such as reading books and being against internet anonymity. He did not bend to incorporate the audience's thoughts into his discussion afterwards, but on the other hand, the audience was not really motivated to push forward a novel idea to examine.

Clarity- As far as clarity was concerned, the speaker did a great job, as he was a journalist. His words were concise, although his tone was unsure, which still got his message across. He acknowledged that journalism wasn't always objective, and thus was very talented at using modifiers to convey a feeling across to reinforce his rhetoric on reading lots of books instead of browsing the web and facebook and twitter.

Volume- His voice was audible, but it was slightly quieter than some speakers. Throughout the whole speaking, however, there was not much inflection, and so it became a narrow discussion. There were some parts where he was telling stories, and perhaps it was because of the task of multitasking between recollection and speaking, but he sometimes became too quiet.

Information- He gave a lot of information, but arguably it was subjective. His speaking was centered around key principles that were information about his views and about facts that supported them, but there came a time when there could have been considerably too much redundant support for the point of reading lots of books and not enough reasons as to an in-depth why.

Organization- For an audience driven speaking, and with a fairly unmotivated audience as well, the organization was very good. His points were conveyed neatly, and had facts surrounding them. It was not creatively organized, but that's hard to do with such an audience. He put his views first and foremost, and gave many supporting reasons and stories capturing his points perfectly, albeit redundantly.

I did not participate as much as I had hoped to, because there was not much that interested me as far as the field of journalism went, and because I am not an active participant in general. Some other classmates were like me as well, and did a very poor job of participating. Some, such as the regular people whom consistently asked questions did keep the discussion going well, and I've observed those people to have been active in the field of literature in general.
For next year, I would recommend someone way more radical, such as the author of a book, or a columnist. Someone working in a field that requires opinions as opposed to facts is much more likely to have a broader range of categories that he/she can and will be willing to debate and discuss in. Also, people whom travel the world have a very large outlook and lots of experience.

Thankful Four

Opinion Prompt #13

I believe that number grades are better than letter grades, because they encourage improvement. While an "A" can span multiple different number grades, number grades can pinpoint a more specific level of achievement, which encourages students to continue improving. An A sounds great compared to a 95. When students see their specific grades, they are more competitive, and have less of an illusion as to where they stand. Letters cannot be compared to anything, while a number out of 100 shows ability. Not only are they more precise for gauging oneself, but they are also better for gauging others and motivating Americans to have a competitive mindset.

I Want To Write About #96

An important lesson that everyone learns early on in life is that dying is bad. I, for one, learned this fairly quickly, and I'm sure that others have too, because it is a vital piece of knowledge that is very much so important to living a life filled with life. Some people have not learned this yet, and these people are insane people. They like to play violent video-games and punch walls and play football. I'm sure that it is very tough for them to stay alive sometimes, but this is okay because they have adapted to their lack of vitality by having more vitality than that which they lack. Cats, on the other hand, have nine lives, so I'm fairly sure dying is more fun for them. It makes me wonder if they have seen the other side. Maybe I can ask them.

Magnetic Poetry- Blind Color Picture

http://play.magpogames.com/create.cfm?k=1

Q=Quebec

I've been to Quebec once, and it certainly is not France, but it is still a very comfortable place and the hotel was really nice. It is obviously modeled after France, from its roads to its buildings, but it still has a distinct American influence about it. There are also many Chinese communities around Canada, which is awesome.

Seven things I want to do there are:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g155033-Activities-Quebec_City_Quebec.html

1. Visit Old Quebec, "[a] Historic part of Quebec City, which was founded in 1608"


2. Visit Morrin Centre, the city's first jail, which now "houses one of the world's most beautiful [Victorian] libraries"


3. See the "higher than even the legendary Niagara Falls" Montmorency falls.


4. Visit the Musee de la Civilisation, a museum "characterized by its innovative and daring outlook" and supposedly very intellectual, but hopefully not boring. kind of like jaundice, but hopefully not quite jaundice.ref catch-22.


5. Climb to Citadel, located on the highest point in Old Quebec. It has an interesting name and the description is written in all capital letters, making it accentuated.


6. Visit the Basilique Cathedrale, the "Notre Dame of Quebec"


8. Ride the Levis Ferry for a tour of Quebec "along the St. Lawrence"

There is more than one way to skin a cat

There is always more than one way to get somewhere in life. Life is kind of like math, as there are many times where there can be many options that lead to one place. To achieve one's goal, one must find the best way for oneself. I know that if I ever get stuck, I will usually go around the problem, because I am lazy, and that is my way of doing things. For others, everybody has had many goals throughout life, and I believe that if anyone puts their mind to it, they can find some way to reach the end. And then they can have skinned cats, or whatever other reward their accomplishments bring.

Sparrows Poetry Prompt- Air

There are sparrows in the open fields
somewhere over there, and
they glide gracefully over the hills of
flowers and leaves and fresh green grass
saturated with soft, blurring mildew
with the scent of melons. They whisper
through the air with their wings
of paper feathers and songs of crystal clear
tunes. They are free, soft, and delicate things
that serve no purpose, but they are welcome,
because to me they are like decorations in my
peripheral vision, which is to say that they
are awe-inspiring and remind me of
if I could be free.