Last Day of Regular Classes

Finally "the last day of school". I still do not know what to think about this until next Friday when I am actually driving home and not coming back. Its to bad that our ENG final is on Friday because I would be leaving Wed. morning, but oh well. I think being home will be enjoyable at first but then when I land a job it wont be as fun. Also found out the will be no 1st responder classes this summer, but I may be cleared to drive a couple of our apparatuses this summer. I hope everyone is ready for next Friday and is then ready to say goodbye to Ball State and more enthusiastically saying goodbye to Muncie until August.

In the Delaware County Jail This Past Sunday

I was in the Delaware County Jail this past Sunday, on a tour of course. This past weekend the Citizen's Police went to the Delaware County Jail. Now this is my second correctional institutional tour i have been on this year, the 1st being Pendleton Juvenile Correctional Facility. The tour and the individuals living there were quite interesting. I know the men and women there try to intimidate visitors but we all seem to make ourselves comfortable. So my biggest question is what is worse to the jail birds? Looking at them through a cage like animals at the zoo or coming into their domain and making yourself at home. It was a great learning experience and the tour itself was enjoyable.

4/20/12

4/20 is today and who cares, in my book it is just another day in the year. I know the day has certain meaning(s), but In my opinion there is nothing significant about today. On another note, the website project has been very enjoyable up to this point, and I have learned a lot of valuable information, and will be looking forward to what the other groups will be presenting two weeks from now. I hope everyone is enjoying Weebly as much as the next guy, unless it is our professor, and will be glad when May 4th comes and goes.

Summer Vacation Arriving Soon

Soon we will all be leaving Ball State, unless your doing summer courses, and will be enjoying the fact that ENG will not be a priority on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, Summer Vacation will only be a break from the work load that college deals to me. This summer will be a very busy one, but I believe I will still enjoy it. So far I am aware I will be finishing my final test to complete the state standard to be a firefighter, and I will be enrolled into a first responder class in May. Along with that, I will need to find a job to make some dough, I had quit my previous job after 2 years and 8 months during Christmas break and now I need to get a new job. I do not believe it will be too hard of a task because where I am from there are a lot of businesses that hire seasonal help during the summer. Finally, the week before we all return to the great city of Muncie, Pyrotechnics Guild International (PGI) will be in LaPorte. The location will be at the county's fair grounds which is under my twp's jurisdiction. We will be there for fire coverage for the shows, and will receive free admission to all the shows for the fire coverage. Rumor is, the will be launching 16 in. mortars, which will be amazing. http://www.pgi.org/

4/13/12

This week we worked on our group projects and discussed how to do in text citations. We also received our papers back, and I was happy with the grade I got. Now it is time to finish this group project and get ready to go home in a few weeks.

Shooting with Ball State's Finest Part 2

Then after non lethal weapons were displayed and we were able to shoot them, our group moved to the area where lethal weapons were viewed and demonstrated. The lethal weapons were: 45m.m glock handgun, AR-15 assault rifle, and a 12 gauge shotgun.
Our group did not have enough time to handle the AR-15 or the shotgun. We were able to fire off 24 rounds (bullets) out of the glock, and that was fun. Overall the activity was very fun and the Citizens Police Academy graduation is in a few weeks so I have that to look forward too.
45mm Glock Handgun

AR-15 Assault Rifle

12 Gauge Shotgun

Group Websites

This is my second time doing this type of group project, and making websites is probably the best group project to do. You get to see that you are really capable of making a website, which some people think is impossible, and a chance to make full use of technology to produce an assignment like no other. It is also a great chance to interact with your group members and simply have a good time while making a website. Finally, next week will be Part II: lethal weapons.

Shooting with Ball State's Finest Part 1

As a member of the Ball State Police Department Citizen's Police Academy, we had the opportunity this past Sunday to view different weapons and use them. There were two groups and my group viewed and handled non-lethal weapons first. We were able to see how a stun gun works, a high powered paint ball gun is used, and a single shot "defensive" weapon. The target was a normal cut out of a person's top half stapled onto 3/4 quarter inch plywood. The stun gun's prongs did penetrate through the wood. The high powered paint ball gun is twice as strong as a standard paint ball gun and they use this for subjects to may be suicidal or may have a hostage and they use this weapon to make non lethal shots at the suspect. They use capsules that have baby powder and one with pepper power, which is the extract from a pepper. The last non-lethal weapon was the single shot weapon. Its design looks like a M79 grenade launcher http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/M79_afmil.jpg. It can be used in riot situations or like the last example a person that is suicidal or has a hostage. The round in about 1 inch in diameter but left a hole in the plywood about 3 inches, very strong. I did have the opportunity to fire this weapon and the amount of force that just left your hand is amazing, and one of your ears may not be hearing much for a few seconds later. Part 2 will discuss the lethal side of the weapons that were demonstrated this past Sunday.

Birthday Weekend

This Saturday will mark my 19th birthday, and it is too the same day I have to get the research paper done and turned in. My question is, besides the fact that it is your birthday is there anything special when you turn 19? For example, in the Jewish world they have the Bar Mitzvah when a child becomes a man, then in Latin American tradition there is the Quinceanera for when a female turns 15. Then when someone turns 16, traditionally, one can get their license, when turning 17 one can get a fishing license in Indiana. Finally when you turn 18 and 21 all the doors are opened up for you, well except AARP. Anyways, its still going to be a good birthday as they all do.

Muncie Fire Department

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx8-8tG56ek
I encourage everyone to watch this video. I think that it was very weird that the Muncie Fire Department (MFD) acted the way they did. I know one thing that my department does is try to get into the public's eye, and show them what we do. I have no clue why the did not want to have a documentary made about the department, but I do have one idea. Last year, Firefighter Scott Davis passed away in a fire on the South East side of the city. Maybe the rejected the documentary because of this incident, and they do not feel like discussing what or maybe they can't because the NIOSH report has not been released. I have seen the media coverage of that fire when they located the body, it was a very tragic event for the MFD and the community. This would be my only idea for why the declined the documentary, but if it wasn't I have no idea why they did and it seems like a ridiculous decison. My department suffered a lost when two firefighters passed away after a horrific emergency vehicle accident and that has not stopped us from getting out in the community and getting our image out there. Maybe they just do not like the Ball State students?

3/23/12

This week has been pretty productive for me when it comes to ENG. Each day I am taking an hour or more revising and working on my RP. So far I believe this has been the easiest paper to write due to the fact we had pretty much wrote it when we made out ABs. The outline, which I didn't think would help that much, actually came into play a lot, and has helped me a lot. This weekend I am going to try to sit down, once or twice, and just finish the paper and start the last revisions next week. Also I am looking forward to this group project because the one I did last semester was really fun to do, and I really like this type of project. I think doing this is ten times better than writing a paper, and even building a website sounds hard, but its not and its an enjoyable task.

3/20/12

Today we did our peer reviews, and it was the 1st time with our new groups. The group I am in is a great group of people and there was a lot of beneficial feedback given today. I think once this paper is finished and we start on the last project I think the semester will begin to feel like the end is near and no more papers for two months, at the least.

3/16/2012

I thought yesterday's session was very informative. I am glad we are getting the opportunity to witness everything Bracken has to offer. Until these last to sessions I did not know that our library had all the services. I also think that with all these services anyone can write a length research paper.

3/12/2012

Tuesday's class was very useful. I think that making an outline will help me write this paper in no time. I mean we already have gotten the information we needed and now all we need to do is put it in an essay form. It sound easy to me and I hope it is.

Spring Break Coming to an end.

Well its finally Saturday which means tomorrow I will be come to the city that awaits us all, Muncie. It was a nice break from the work, especially ENG 104, but I am ready to come back and finish this year up. Hope everyone's break was nice and have a good successful semester.

3/7/2012

Spring Break has been pretty good so far. I have found out that this year that I account for 11% of the calls my fire department goes on. The funny thing is that there are people who have less than I do and I have only been home for six days, excluding the break. Other than that I will be getting a flasher system for my headlights which will make them alternate back and fourth when responding to a call. Finally the sleeping in and relaxing has been the best part of the whole break and now I really can't wait for summer to come.

Daytona 500 Excitment

This year's Daytona 500 was unlike any other Daytona 500. First, the race was pushed backed this year to avoid any conflict with the Superbowl. Second, for the last 53 races that have happen, all of them have started on a Sunday and ended on a Sunday. This year's race was rained out, finally started at 7p.m. on Monday and was finished at 1a.m. Tuesday morning. The race officially was the longest Daytona there has been lasting 36 hours, clock started at the original starting time for Sunday. The reason why it lasted so long, beside the rain, was that during a caution lap Juan Pablo Montoya was traveling pretty fast around the track, to catch up, and when we was close to one of the jet drying trucks something happened to his car which made him slide in to truck and causing and explosion and a massive fire that involved diesel and jet fuel. Talk about a hot race. Everyone was medically okay both vehicle were destroyed. The fire did however ruin the racing surface so the track crew had to pretty much reconstruct that part of the track which was another reason for taking so long. In the end, Matt Kenseth won his second race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1iHU6TfMfs

Final week before spring break

I hope this week goes by fast. I have a three midterms before Friday, one page paper to write for another class, and finish Annotated Bibliography. I hope everyone's week go by as fast as they would like and have a great spring break.

Heorin a huge problem where I come from

http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2012-02-23/news/31093668_1_heroin-overdose-heroin-death-laporte-circuit-court
I am from LaPorte Indiana which is located in Northwest Indiana by Lake Michigan. For the past few years heroin has becoming a bigger and bigger problem in the community. Just alone in the last year there have been two individuals, that I know of, who have died due to a drug overdose. Their choice of drug, heroin. The most recently one was earlier this week and the other a few weeks before graduation. Also in October of last year, a man killed another man just to obtain the heroin. Besides these three incidents there have been much more overdoses then just the high school individuals, and it is now a larger problem then unemployment in LaPorte. Finally, turns out most of the overdoses are not due to overuse but these people buy it from dealers from Chicago, and the dealers are lacing the drug with rat poison. I knew one of the high school students really well and it is a very weird feeling to know that someone who interacted with everyday at school is now gone forever, and the only thing harder than having that feeling is getting on Facebook and seeing other friend just break down about what has taken place. People are pleading on Facebook for everyone to stop using heroin and praying the drug dealers just stop.
This is exactly one of the reasons why after college I want to pursue a job at South Bend Police Department and then reach my ultimate goal of having a career in the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). I am tired of hearing about my hometown being a terrible place to live, and its time for a major change in LaPorte and I want to be a part of that change.

Citizen Police Academy

I have been attending the Ball State Police Department's Citizen Police Academy for three weeks now. Every week has been some thing new and exciting. The first week was just an introduction and history to policing and since it was on Super Bowl Sunday we rushed through the material so we could all go home and watch the Patriots lose. Last week we discussed the hiring process for the campus police department, and then discussed the details about the Indiana Police Academy, which was cool. To end the night the K-9 officer and his dog came in to do a demonstration and talk about K-9 policing at Ball State. The dog was surprisingly nice and friendly which one does not normally see when they see a K-9 unit.

 -One of the K-9s on the department. Tara.


Then last night we discussed traffic enforcement and patrol among officers. It was interesting to learn more about how the everyday cop works and how he or she goes about working. Then for our activity for this class was demonstrating field sobriety test using fatal vision, drunk goggles. Since it is Ball State, the police here to deal with a lot of this behavior and it was quite humorous to see some of the other classmates attempt a test.
Dr. Phil Demonstrating Fatal Vision Goggles

2/17/12

Yesterday we started our second session of intensive reviews. I hope the were beneficial to those who papers were up for discussion, as it helped me. I think the peer review groups and the intensive reviews does help because it can help you look at it from another angle that a class mate can see, and from that other angle can really help your paper.

2/15/12

I thought yesterdays group review session was very beneficial. After that I thought the highlight activity really help me reflect on my work when it came to see if I had a voice in my writing. Also I do not believe that this assignment will be as hard I as initially thought it would, and I think it will really strengthen by ability to write. Finally tomorrow is the second session of intensive reviews, so time to review eight other pieces of work.

2/11/12

Time to get started on the next paper, whose with me? I think tat this paper is going to be a much more difficult paper, but I could be wrong. I know in 103 we had to use the same subject on htree paper, so this concept of using the same subject for two papers is not new to me. Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

2/9/12

Wow, I can finally say that my National Gaze paper is finished and I am happy and relived. Overall it was a good writing and earning experience for myself. Now I am waiting to see how this next paper is going to be. I am sure that I am not the only one looking forward to the weekend, as I will be returning home since January 8, and I'm ready for a short break from campus.

Weird Start to the Weekend

Wow, a shooting right off campus to start the weekend off. Glad it was not on Ball State’s property. A little confused on why the alert email we received stated that the suspect was alive and under custody of the police while The Daily News, The Muncie Star Press, Wish TV, Fox 59, WTHR, and WSBT had confirmed that the suspect was dead. I think Ball State should have the facts straight if they are going to send an alert email out dealing with a shooting that happened very close to the campus. What do you think?

 http://www.wishtv.com/dpp/news/local/east_central/police-reportedly-involved-in-muncie-shooting

2/1/12

Wow, the first month of 2012 is over. I know it is only February but the year is going by at a good pace. I hope this will seem to make the semester flyby. Although it a tough semester I am gaining a lot of knowledge and resources from all of my classes and I do like being here at college instead of at home, which some people do not understand. So far it has been a good first year.

1/27/2012

I thought yesterday’s class was very beneficial to me. The intensive reviews were very good, and will help me further the quality of my paper. Thank you to everyone.

Blog 1/24/12

Today was a very helpful class. I was able to get some good feedback on my paper, and was also able to give some feedback to the other members of my group. Looking forward to seeing what is going to happen on Thursday with the intensive reviews.

Blog 1/19/12

The other day I finally decided to look into the cruise ship that crashed on the island of Giglio. The reason why it spikes my interest was that I heard that he got off the boat before everyone else was off. When I heard that I thought that he was a coward. Then when I looked into a news article my opinion changed. The captain told reporters he fell off the edge of the boat when it tilted, and he fell into one of the life boats. If that statement is true the man should see no punishment, except causing a shipwreck. He had absolutely no control over the boat’s weight. If it turns out that he purposely left the boat then he should be charged to the fullest extent of the law when it comes to his charges.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087704/Costa-Concordia-Captain-Francesco-Schettino-I-left-I-FELL-lifeboat.html 

Wikipedia

I never realized how mow much I used Wikipedia until today. I would have to agree with what Twitter says about the strike, that going black is "foolish" and "silly". I understand that their striking for what they believe in but what about the consumers of Wikipedia. Why should we have to suffer? Wikipedia is a free product that seems to care more about themselves then they people they serve. They should not of went black, like twitter, and keep the returning consumers happy. http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/twitter-will-not-join-jan-18-sopapipa-blackout-good/

Log 1

January 10, 2012

On Tuesday, the first day of class, I ventured into the wrong class. Then when I found the right class room I wondered if getting up for another 8a.m. would be worth it. Turns out it is not going to be half bad. The first day consisted of the class going over the syllabus, which normally is unbearable, but Professor McArdle made it more enjoyable than any other previous professor I’ve ever had. We also went around the classroom informing our class mates what our favorite books and movies are. I said the glass Castle because it was the most recent book I have read and choose Stepbrothers for my movie choice because it is very funny and the actors did a great job playing their roles.

January 12, 2012

On Thursday the class went over Ball Point. Discussing Ball Point, like reading it, sucks the life out of me. Just like the discussion over the syllabus our Professor made it less boring. After that discussion, we started talking about our first writing project, which seems like it is going to be a very informing assignment. Then we all got on our computers and brainstormed ideas for what we would like to write about. It was a very enjoyable first week of class and getting up at eight in the morning has not been a torture as previously thought.

Blog 1/12/12

I am actually looking forward to our first assignment. I do not know that much about third world countries and I am looking forward to doing some research and learning new information about them.

January 10, 2012

I have always been a little nervous when it comes to new classes and the first day always seems boring to me no matter what the class is. This class is an exception. Our professor did a great job not making the first day boring and I have not seen that so far in my college life. Also at the end of the day I felt comfortable and confident with the class and the material we will cover this semester and looking forward to learning new information.