Week of Twitter: Tweetastic or just plain Twitiful?

When asked to create a twitter account, I was unsure how to feel. I have always had a deep hidden fear of birds. A social networking site that has a blue bird as a mascot and whose name resembles the sound birds make did not seem appealing to me. I eventually faced my inner terror and joined twitter. After a week on twitter, I realized that twitter may not be a bird at all but really a place where friends, colleagues and strangers can share ideas, quotes, and updates with eachother. Once I distinguished twitter from the disgusting, disease-infected, soul less animal know as the bird, I grew to like it.

I liked having a creative outlet that not only my friends would see but also others that are well respected in their fields. Take for example Conan O'Brien. Each day I could count on getting at least one good laugh from a Conan tweet such as this classic, "I was carving pumpkins with my five year old son when I swear I heard him say, That's what happens to snitches."

After this experience, I plan to continue using twitter to follow my favorite celebrities and to tweet funny ideas myself. Yes it is much easier for people to stalk you on twitter but that is not a problem for me as I am the least interesting man in the world. I don't always share pointless information with strangers online, but when I do I use twitter.

NWC Diversity Event

I went to the Diversity Event called NWC. It focused on racial discrimination. The actors used humor and music to convey a message of unity. The main point of the presentation was to show that there is only one race, the human race. I really enjoyed this event because it was edutaining. Not only was it informative, but you were also entertained. I have always felt like this is the best way to teach a large group of people new things. Like most people, I usually feel uncomfortable when discussing these kind of issues but the actors in this event made the atmosphere relaxed and fun. Honestly, I was dreading going to a diversity event but NWC really surprised me. I am looking forward to another event like that in the future.

Me at my best

I have been very fortunate to have been a part of so many successful teams during high school. My football team and jazz band each won two state championships while I was a member. However, speech contest was where I really shined. Speech gave even a weird misfit kid like myself a chance to succeed.

It was my junior year in high school when I was truly at my best. My friend and I performed a short play for speech contest. The play was called World Wide Fans, and was about two sports anchors reporting news about outrageous events such as the World Toe Wrestling Championships and the finals of the worst things to say on a first date contest. We took the script and made it our own. We inserted new lines, gestures, and even choreographed a dramatic fight scene at the end that involved me flipping my friend over a table.

When it came to the state contest, we performed perfectly. We knew we had performed well when the entire room erupted into applause as we finished. I will never forget the feeling of standing in front of that room and looking at everyone laughing and clapping and thinking to myself, "We made them feel this way!" My friend and I were selected to the All-State speech contest which was a huge honor for us.

After this experience, I learned many things that I still incorporate into my life today. I learned to enjoy all of the little things in life and to never be too serious to laugh. I also learned to be creative and think outside of the box. These skills will help me in college and perhaps in my future career.

Assignment #1: Beloit College Mindset

After reading over this list of assumptions concerning my generation, I couldn't help but feel insulted by most of this list. It is as if the people that created the list forgot about our ability to gain information in many different ways. I knew nearly every topic discussed on this list because of either television, the internet, or oral communication. For instance, one of my favorite bands in Nirvana. If something is as timeless as Nirvana, your generation does not influence whether or not you enjoy it.

Number thirty-two on the list, "Czechoslovakia has never existed," angered me quite a bit. Apparently they forgot that history is still taught in high school. They also believe that we have never heard the stories of Galileo and Mechelangelo. We haven't been living under a rock for eighteen years. Our generation probably knows more about past popular culture and events than any other generation before. We have the technology to research just about anything at anytime.

I do understand how they developed this list. I would agree that without our access to technology, many of the statements on this list would be correct. With that being said, society should start to acknowledge that my generation understands the world around us and will be the driving force behind improving it in the future.