Self Evaluation and Finishing Up

As my freshman year of college comes to a close...wait, holy shit! I am not a freshman in college anymore! I can remember visiting all the schools, filling and sending out the applications, waiting to hear back from schools, going to all the graduation parties, talking to all the parents about where I was going to school, and how I was going to have my life changed in a drastic, sudden, and abrupt way just a few 8 months ago. This semester I learned how to manage my time between fun and academics........somewhat. I certainly could have spent more time studying, but at the end of the day I got the job done, and I got the job done well most of the time. I made a lot of many diverse friends, and being at a school with almost 45,000 students I thought that it might be too big for me to handle. But that's the beauty of this school. Everyone is so happy to be a apart of the Penn State culture. I see so many familiar faces everywhere around campus, and everyone that comes here to visit recognizes someone face around campus the weekend that they come here and always say "Wow, it really isn't as big as I thought it was." I am so lucky and so blessed to have the opportunity to attend my next four years of college here, especially as  PGA Golf Management major.

As far as english goes, I feel that I couldn't have gotten luckier to have Sheila as my english teacher. I thought this class was going to be a lot of grammar, vocabulary, and paper after paper after paper, but it was much more than that. We read stories that were mature, disturbing, funny, and different. I was not thrilled about the culture events that we needed to attend to, but in the end I am happy that I was exposed to the diversity that the world has to offer. I continue to wake up every day grateful to go to such a good school, with so much spirit, and so much pride all around. My goal for next year is to not miss one class during the school year. Pray for me! Thank you Sheila for being a great person and wanting us to better our lives here at Penn State and for exposing us to everything Happy Valley has to offer.

Blog Response URL

1.  http://fedappolon.blogspot.com/2012/04/take-care.html?showComment=1335393749324#c3274830962980635771

2.  http://findyourselfthroughwriting.blogspot.com/2012/03/art-of-swagger.html?showComment=1335393891647#c2764795373568990230

3. http://voiceoflaurenrhoden.blogspot.com/2012/03/so-what-we-like-to-party.html?showComment=1335393975862#c7841960046624975550

SRTE's

I completed my SRTE's.

Cultural Event #1: Festival of Poets

On April 28th, 2012 I went to Webser’s Café to attend The Festival of Poets. The two poets that were presenting their work were Sheila Squillante and Sandra L. Faulkner.

Sheila Squillante was the first poet to share her poems. A lot of Sheila’s poems were based on the dark emotions that she had when she was going through tough relationships, breakups, and the anxiety that took place thereafter. Her voice was very soothing, and she had a very powerful way with words. Every person that was at the café seemed to be hooked and tuned in to what she was saying. I think this speaks volumes to her as a poet and writer. I respected how much courage she had to share her dark and depressing feelings that she had in a hard time of her life, but certainly does not have those feeling anymore. Her kids were there and she seemed very happy to be a mother. I was proud to say that she is my English teacher.

The second poet that shared her pieces of work was Sandra L. Faulkner. Her poems were certainly different than Sheila’s, being that they contained more feelings and thoughts of sexual acts and romance. To be quite honest, none of these pieces turned me on, and no offense to her, it was more her age and the way she looked that made me all weirded out. I don’t know about anyone else, but a woman who looks in her sixties reciting poems that had a sexual nature to them does not turn a teenager on, or want to keep listening. However, I did respect that she has the courage to recite her work to the crowd. You could say that I enjoyed Sheila’s presentation significantly more.

I am not a huge fan of listening to poetry, but I am a fan of writing poetry. It is one of the best ways to express your feelings because you can take as much time as you want to express yourself through words on paper. Although I will probably not attend another poetry reading, I can’t say that this experience was a complete waste of time.

Arts Review: In a Class of its Own.

     Ruth’s Chris Steak House is nothing short of spectacular. I have been there on numerous occasions, but my most recent visit there was for my birthday. Ruth’s Chris Steak House is not a typical meal, nor does it have a typical price for a steak dinner. It is very expensive, but my family and I only dine there on special occasions, my birthday serving as the special occasion. The food alone is enough to make someone recall their experience at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse because of how unique and special a meal there really is. As the consumer in my experience I could not have been happier. I liked the upscale, classy scenery and dress code. The servers seemed like they really cared about my family and I having a good experience as well as an enjoyable meal. I liked how they gave their opinions, and whenever they were asked a question they gave an honest answer. They were not just trying to make money for them or the restaurant, but rather cared about my dining experience and satisfaction. I thought the food was phenomenal. My salad was perfect size for an appetizer, and was brought to me with great efficiency. The steak is second to none. I liked that the plates are extremely hot when your steak is served, so that the butter can sizzle while you cut your meat. The sweet potato casserole is more like apple pie than potato. The flavor of the food is unlike any other restaurant of its kind.

      In my opinion, Ruth’s Chris Steak House offered a great product. One thing that could be changed about their product or service would be to cut into, or ask the consumer to cut into their steak to see if it was cooked right. This would improve the efficiency of the service. The Ruth’s Chris Steak House restaurant that I went to on my visit there was located in Providence, Rhode Island. This location is a prime spot for dining. It is not too far from the highway, and it includes outside dining for warm evenings. Another suggestion that I would make is asking the chef to leave the kitchen for a few moments to see how people like their steaks. This also makes the consumer feel like each steak cooked is specially cooked for them. As a prospective business owner or manager I would adopt Ruth’s Chris Steak House’s business model as my own. Every employee, from the valet parker to the manager treated each guest with the utmost respect. The manager asked our family what the occasion was for our visit to Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The manager told the hostess and the server. The hostess decorated our table with “happy birthday” confetti. The server wished me a happy birthday when he introduced himself. Every employee really cared, and as a consumer I could not ask for anything more. Ruth's Chris Steak House is a restaurant that is in its own category of class.

Penn State Party School

I think the podcast about Penn State as a party school was a very accurate portrayal of what Penn State's party life is like. On any given night monday or tuesday night you can hear an ambulance rushing a student to the hospital for their stomach to be pumped because of how much alcohol they consumed. College is a crazy place. Our parents are paying for us to receive a degree from one of the most well respected universities throughout the entire United States. We are ranked #1 when it comes to corporate recruitment (Wall Street Journal). However, we are also #1 in drinking our faces off. Two things that are on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. I thought, is this a bad thing? Should I be proud of this? What should I say to other adults about this? To be quite honest, I don't really care what people think about the partying situation at our school is. Kids are still going to drink, smoke, and do drugs. That's life, it is inevitable. Whether laws or regulations are put into place, kids are still going to find a way to get around it and break the law. We're lucky to be young, and part of being young is making stupid decisions and learning from them, but hopefully the stupid decisions we make will not be too stupid to the point where our life is altered forever. I think the most memorable image from the podcast was when the 50 year old was drinking with the 21 year old. That is a perfect image of what the culture here is like. People like to pre-game, get buzzed, and get weird with one another because it helps people come out of their shell and interact with one another. A few beers is not going to kill anyone. I think the party scene here at Penn State is nothing short of spectacular. My older sister attended Penn State and graduation in 2010. I saw her in her natural habitat. I saw her smile, laugh, and cry. Crying because her four years at this university were over. I had never seen her cry so much, and I know she partied hard, trust me she partied wicked hard, but to see the tears roll down her face because she was no longer going to spend her days with her best friends in the world sealed the deal for me to come here. Relationships like hers last a lifetime, and drinking certainly contributed to that one way or another. We might be the #1 party school, but we also have the #1 student run philanthropy in the entire world, THON. We can be described as drunk stupid idiot, but that would just be a complete lie. We are caring, hard working, and fun. What else could you want in a college? We don't have the #1 alumni association for a college for nothing. This place is magical, and I would never want anything to change because of a statistic that shows we party hard. That is not what we are ALL about, and anyone who thinks that is an ignorant, internet reading loser. They should come here and see what it's all about, and I guarantee their opinion would be changed forever.

What IS Art?

In reality, anything could be considered a piece of art. After visiting the Palmer Museum and seeing numerous paintings throughout my education, there are many works of art that are published that just don't seem to be deserving. One painting in the Palmer that I saw was a canvas with lines of paint. That was it. Just lines of paint from a brush. How is that art? Art is interpreted by the artist. No one knows the mood or feeling going into a piece of art except for the person making it, so no one can really say that something is not art. I am not an artsy person whatsoever, nor will I ever be, but I consider anything to be art. Any piece created by someone can be considered art.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=fenway+park+art&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1136&bih=684&tbm=isch&tbnid=9Hc8IPm69L_EUM:&imgrefurl=http://www.bostonspastime.com/fenwaypainting.html&docid=K68DRhaZRe96nM&imgurl=http://www.bostonspastime.com/shop/fenwayshea.jpg&w=365&h=266&ei=V2tfT9C_OMjx0gGu1-TJBw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=264&vpy=285&dur=7190&hovh=192&hovw=263&tx=136&ty=114&sig=106681146352279900270&page=1&tbnh=116&tbnw=155&start=0&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0

This painting of Fenway Park is a piece of art I enjoy. I found it on google images. What strikes me about this piece if how well the artist drew the landscape of Fenway Park. Every structure in the stadium is drawn with great proportion. It evokes happiness, pride, and good vibes when I see it. I think it merits the term art because it was drawn by somebody else, pretty simple.

Benny Andrews' Cotton Choppers - 1965

The piece of art I selected to blog about after visiting the Palmer Art Museum was Cotton Choppers(1965). It was created by the artist of Benny Andrews. Andrews used oil pastels to create the drawing. There are three people in the painting, a man in the front center, a woman located on the right side of the painting, and another humanlike figure towards the back of the canvas, but is too small and undetailed to be determined as a man or woman. The man is wearing overalls, and the identifiable woman appears to be wearing something that looks like a purple dress or blouse. All the persons drawn in the painting are holding a device that chops cotton. The setting is in a cotton field. The ground is desert sand or dust, and there are rows of cotton plants. It is during the day time. There seems to be no historical significance at the time of when the painting was drawn that connects to what is drawn in the painting, but the time period that reflects the painting is most likely around the time of slavery. There is no conversation going on in the picture. The piece of art has credibility because the artist, Benny Andrews, was an African American who was one of 10 children of sharecroppers raised in Georgia while it was still segregated. He experienced first hand what sharecropping was like. Andrews made collages, paintings, and print makings. I think the claim that the artist is making is that sharecropping was very tiring, but needed to be done during the time period in which sharecropping took place. The man in the center of the painting seems to be taking a break from doing his job. He looks very physically and mentally drained. My overall experience at the time Palmer Museum of Art was alright. I do not like art very much, probably because I am not a good artist myself. There were some things that looked interesting, but no offense to the people who really enjoy art, I just don't get any satisfaction with staring at pictures that had impact on my life. I will probably not return to the Palmer by choice, but I'm happy I got to see the inside of the museum at least one during my time here at Penn State.

1st Career Blog

This is the first blog I've ever made. I don't really like blogging myself, but I will read barstoolsports.com frequently. I can read someone else's blog because I like to see how they think and interpret certain situations, but I don't really feel the need to express my opinions and thought processes over the internet. I have far more important things to do with my time that I don't feel the need to publicly express my feelings for people to read, but I'm not bummed out about having to keep my own personal blog because now I have an obligation to say express how I feel to people. I customized my blog in terms of Boston professional sports teams. I am a diehard fan of every team; Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Bruins. I am really lucky to have grown up and lived in Boston my whole life. It's the greatest city in the world. My title is in Old English font because The Boston Globe newspaper title is in Old English, so I figured that went with the Boston theme. I did not add too much information about me because I prefer for someone to have a conversation with me and get to know me rather than looking at my profile and judging where I went to school or what my favorite movies are. I added golf, basketball, and lacrosse to my about me section because those are the sports I played in high school. I added my major, PGA Golf Management because it is uncommon major, and I'm proud to be part of it. Other than that, I designed my blog to be easy to read, nothing flashy. That's it for now. I'll post again soon.