Today is April 19, 2008 and I've been married for one week! Last Saturday at 10:30 a.m. I was wed to Darnell M. Herbert after six months of being engaged and one year of dating. We had a beautiful ceremony and an even better reception. In the past two months so much has taken place in my life that it feels I'm floating. Not only has my name changed but so did my address and my family. Life is going well and even though I'm afraid of change it's still good to accept change so move t a better part of life. Anyway, here are a few pictures of our happy day and also a few pictures of our honeymoon in Cancun Mexico. ENJOY!

What Should I Write About? Arrghh!

AHA! I finally have something to write about. It is simply that fact that I am not sure what I should write about. The thought of writing on the blog seems simply at first, but when I got to write on it. I can't think of anything. I have many interests but I often find it hard to articulate, or in this case write, these these ideas down. For the most part I think the ideas that I have are interesting, but I am not sure what I should write about the subjects. (As a side note, I am aware that I have so far this blog has made more than sufficient use of the words but and about...and it will continue) Sometimes I want to write about the fact that I do not have as much time as I would like to read novels, but I am not sure which aspect to write about. The fact that dealing with the stress that accompanies the Resident Assistant position keeps me from reading or the fact that I'm concerned with ideas for blog posts. I then become overwhelmed and usually resort to sleep as a refuge. Maybe I have some undiagnosed problem with lack of structure, which is odd because I am an artist by trade. Or maybe if I were to see this blog as a form of art it would be easir for me to paint with the brush that is my keyboard. Nevertheless, would someone please provide me with something interesting to blog about.
A thousand thanks,
Fred

Technology Drives me Crazy

This years more than any other year at LaSalle, so many of my teachers have required extensive work using technology. For my main education class I have had to make a virtual museum, a detailed web quest, a interactive game using PowerPoint, create a movie from my teaching experience using movie maker, and submit almost everything using blackboard, which I can't stand using! Trust me when I tell you these projects were not easy at ALL. In addition to that class I have this class....which requires me to blog....and I'll be honest I don't do much of it. I just get very frustrated with all this computer work on top of other class work. Especially when this added feature of technology is NO WHERE TO BE FOUND in the course description book.

However, I think what bugs me the most is when teachers state, well "you should know how to do this because you are young and grew up with computers." or "as a freshman you had a take a computer science class so I don't know why this is hard now." First off just cuz I'm in my 20's does NOT in any sense make me computer literate. Second my computer science class was a joke. I learned how to use different font and space in word. I personally hate using computers and since the start of this semester my computer has spent a lot of time sitting in St. Katherine's IT department.

I guess the point of all of this is.....such large emphasis is going to be place on technology and the use of it, then it needs to be stated in course description, before a student takes the class. Many times having the option to drop the class once registered is impossible!

Rant

Now I am even angrier because blogger deleted my first rant, so here goes again, hopefully I will leave the profanity out…

As I have mention before, I am a grad student. I will leave La Salle with my Master’s in Education and a teaching certificate in secondary English. In addition to my graduate work, the education department compared my undergrad transcripts to the English program here and decided there were some Undergrad class I still needed to take. One of them is this class.

It has come to my attention that I’ve ALREADY taken this class. At Mary Washington it is called Newsgathering – it is the introductory writing course you have to take before you can take any higher level writing class. This class is Advanced Composition, judging by the way it is taught by our prof as well as the other professors – it acts in the same manner.

I would like to take the time now to thank La Salle for wasting 1,620 of my precious dollars. I would also like to thank La Salle for wasting my precious time. Instead of sitting in a classroom where my classmates rarely participate in class discussion once a week for three hours I could have been at the library researching for my other class, I could have been taking a different class, I could have taken one night out of the week for myself.

That isn’t the most aggravating part. This all came about because I am one of those students, maybe the only one, who wrote “too academically” for their Philadelphia piece. First of all, I am a grad student so I have a really hard time believe a “too academically” exists. Secondly, this class is called ADVANCED COMPOSITION, not ADVANCED JOURNALISM.

I realize that Prof has decided to teach this class as though he was the editor of a paper and not our teacher. However, I NEED GRADES. Was does graded on effort really mean? I’ve put a lot of effort into learning about some arbitrary aspect of a city I loathe, yes loathe – more than hate – but I get the feeling that isn’t going to count for effort at all.

I could have been more successful writing a “Fredericksburg Piece” a town I have an unnatural love for rather than Philadelphia – a town Prof has an unnatural love for.

So here I am at the end of the semester, in a class I don’t need (and if I need work as a writer that will be covered in the “Grammars” class La Salle is requiring me to take this summer), unable to drop and get my money back, attempting to judge just how much effort I need to put forth to get an A. Because an A will satisfy me knowing that I have wasted either 5.4 rent payments, 6 car payments, 8 car insurance payments, or 10 months worth of food.

Here's some poetry for ya

In class this past Monday, Professor Pettit brought up the speaker we had in the previous Monday class. To my recollection, he only asked if anyone disliked the speaker and not if anyone enjoyed him (I'm referring to him as "speaker" because I do not remember his name). I must admit I really enjoyed the speaker and his method of teaching poetry or creative writing. It made me want to attempt to write poetry even if it sucked. In this class, I did not share my pieces because I knew they were not as detailed or profound as others. After consideration, I decided to post them on this blog regardless if they suck or not and my purpose for doing this is to show my appreciation for the speaker and Professor Pettit's choice of speakers. Often, instructors bring in speakers who barks at us for an hour or two but they really do not promote involvement from students. I appreciate the speaker because he gave his history, barked, and allowed for involvement from the students. In retrospect, I should have shared my poems to show support for his method of teaching but I guess the old say would apply here: better late then never. Enjoy!

Sense Poem
Right now I see people, colors, shapes, hands
Right now I feel my fingers, my notebook, my clothes, the table, the floor
Right now I hear fingers striking the keyboard, whispers, movement
Right now I taste nothing
Right now I smell the thick hot moist air

"The Road not Taken" by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

My version
Dual paths merged in a yellow wood
And sadly I could not venture down both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And peeked below one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Philadelphia-Turning Around?

I just saw a report on the news the other day, and it said that so far this year we only have 71 homicides to date. Up to this point last year, we had 101 murders. That is a 31 percent decline from last year. So far, so good, and hopefully this brings us a sense of optimism to the city that the murders are going to improve. We need less slayings across the city for the welfare of our police, our children, and us as students. Hopefully, these numbers keep improving and the city is a great place to live once again. I think it will get better, but I do not see it improving that much. One can only hope.

Cats

Has anyone heard anything about the dead cats in the Kennsington area? If anyone has not heard, there has been a person, or group of people who have been torturing cats. I know one was found with a branch shoved down its throat, and there have been others with their eyes gauged out.
I am definately not a fan of cats but who would do this. It takes a twisted person to do this to an animal. Actually, it reminds me of the Michael Vick case with the dog fighting. Not so much the fighting but the execution through drowning, hanging, and electricution. I think that if they find this person, or group of people they should definately get prison time and be forced to seek help.