My Last Day of ENG. 101

Well today is a kind of sad day because ENG. 101 has been fun for me. From my late teen years I took an interest in writing. I used to write poetry and stories of my surroundings of where I was sitting and what I saw. This was a lot of fun and comforting to my mind. I once wrote a poem about what I thought love was and what it meant to me. This was a very well written poem and probally could have been published. My feeling is that it may very well have been published with someone else getting the credit. I can live with that, but a dispise the thought that it may have been lost. When I discovered that I no longer was in possetion of it and went asking questions of where it was alls I got was so and so must have it. I would have rewritten it but I would not have been able to rewrite it word for word and therefore it would not have been the same. I've enjoyed the time writing and wish I'd had more time to do so but here at school has been my only chance to use a computer so writing time has had its limitations. I agree whith you John on the fact that I do do a better job when I feel I can just write freely and I don't feel I'm under the gun. Well hopefully I will continue to write in my spare time because it is an excellent way to release your feelings and if there written down then you always have a way to recall if it needs to be. I only wish that years ago I had made a duplicate copy of that poem I do believe it was that good and so did my English teacher at the time. The English teacher may have been the one that ended up with it anyway. John I've sincerely enjoyed the class and the help that you've given me. From my personal experience if students don't make it in this class they have no one to blame but themselves. Your style of teaching is fantastic and you show great concern for your students success in class. If a student fails its because the student isn't concerned enough to want to succeed. I only wish that when I was young I had been pushed in the education field rather then pushed to the work force. Young people don't seem to understand that their parents have a very good knowledge of how important it is to educate yourself as much as you can. Perhaps this is so because a lot of parents of today want to give as much to their childen as possible with out teaching them that in the adult years comes responsibility and respect. If one doesn't respect themselves it is very difficult to respect others. I feel that children of today are given things that are material because of the fast pace of life and the children yearn for attention and affection not so much the material things that are bought. To me the family life has broken down because of the pressures of money and materialism. All should remember that personal love is the greatest gift you can give a child and it is a far greater gift then anything material.Well John the pleasure has been all mine and I will miss this class. Best wishes to you and thank-you again for all your help and support or I may have failed the class. HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!

Course Evaluation

I've certainly enjoyed this course. The only regrets I have are, I couldn't spend more time writing, that I'm not that good on the keyboard, and that class time is short. I've learned about intro and outtro and the structure of a five paragrgh essay and enjoyed emencilly the times I've been able to write. As you know John I'm not that good under pressure. When I'm just laid back is when my mind is free and I'm able to really think is when I'm best able to write. I've enjoyed your teaching style a lot and not only have I learned about writing but the help you've given me on this modern invention called a computer has been greatly appreciated. The blog at times has damn near sent me over the edge a few times but with your understanding everything has seemed to work out just fine. I'm not trying to be a suckass here I'm just telling you how I truely feel. Who knows maybe if I'd taken school more seriously when I was young I may have been a writer. When I was in the fifth grade I had a small story I'd written about Super Chicken publised in the Bucksport Free Press because my teacher thought that it was so good.

Prompt # 61 Week 14

For many years I've heard it and said it myself so many times the words sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Now I hear it and cringe because of what I see happening to our young people. Yes I've done my share of endulging in drugs but you would never hear me telling a young person that I think that it's a good thing. I've gotten into arguments when I've heard a friend or anyone else say that smoking pot doesn't harm you. My first thought is that for a person to think that way the drug has already effected their ability to have a little common sense. All a person has to do is clean a pipe that has had pot smoked in it or look at the end of a joint being smoked and can anyone with a reasonable ability to think say that the resin you see doesn't hurt the lungs. I'm sure as hell no geneious but I certainly wouldn't dare tell anyone that that shit isn't harmful. The drug culture of today is alot worse then when I was young. This oxy-cotin shit is bad and anyone caught selling it to our youth should be put away for sometime. I've also learned that sex should not be an experience with just anyone for the sake of having sex. Sex should be with someone that you love and are willing to spend the rest of your life with.
As for rock and roll I like it but alot of the music that is out there today I think is detramentel to our youth and anyone else who listens to us. As I write this I'm wondering if I had known of how the drug culture of today would be would I have gotten involved with drugs when I was young. And I get pissed off that there isn't a whole lot said about alcohol and seems to be an accepted thing. My personal oppinion on that is that alcohol is just as bad if not worse then pot. I would much rather be around an individual that has a buzz on from weed than be around an inebriated individule making an ass of themselves. I'm talking from personal experience here.

Prompt # 60 Week 13

I remember the first time I heard we are gathered here today to remember. I was around fourteen years old and one of my best friends got killed in a car accident in Searsport. Randy had gone to Portland to spend sometime with his dad. Randy's mom and dad had been divorced for years and both had remarried. Randy never excepted either step parent. Randy grew up in Bucksport living with his mom and stepdad. During school vacations and summer breaks he would go and spend time with his father.
This summer his dad and stepmom were going to take a trip and go to the World's Fair that was in Canada that year and wanted him to go but Randy declinde and elected to stay at home with bad intentions that had only death as the final outcome. One late evening or early morning Randy hotwired one of his father's cars and decided he would come back to Bucksport. A cop in Searsport noticed a car that was swerving in the road and decided to pull it over and check the driver out. I guess Randy saw the blues flashing and panicked and made a decission to try and out run the cop. This decission cost Randy his life as he wound up crashing the car and ending his life on earth. His death was most difficult for me to handle and I was quite upset from the tradgedy of losing someone that your close to.

Prompt # 55 Week 12

Love at first sight is a very interesting thought. Is it love at first sight or actually infactuation. I question the love at first sight bit. How can you really love someone just by sight. For myself I may be attracted to the beauty of the outter being but if I haven't met their inner being how can it be love. I think that is why marrigages fail early on because people fall for the outter apearence and haven't got to know the inner being of a person to really know rather or not that true love really is possible with that person. To me love is a very special feeling and I don't take love litely. Love is having a special feeling for someone of the opposite gender and a willingness to be with that person no matter what. As the vows go for better or worst, richer or poorer, and in sickness and good health till death do us part. This is what love truely is meant to be between a man and a woman. So I ask is there really love at first sight? I conclude by saying that it is not an impossibility if two people really have an understanding of what love consist of.

Spring Freestyle # 10

It is spring time and it's a good sign. I wake in the morning to the sound and song of the singing birds. This is truely the way to wake up because for me I love to here the different songs that each variety of bird has. My favorite though is that of the cardinal. Their song is so unquie and you certainly know that it is a cardinal when you here it. My thought is are they singing or communicating to each other or even communicating with the other speicies of birds? From my personal observation each speicies lets the other know of any possible danger that may be near. I'll hear them and then all of a sudden a silence will come about and then when they feel the danger has passed I hear them start their singing again.
I've noticed that some varieties of flowers are bursting through the soil to open up and reach out to the warming sun above. For myself this truely is the sign of spring. From here on more and more beauty will follow as each variety of flower yearns to show off thier pedals and take their place in the garden or the wild in which they grow to bloom. When I was young I never gave a whole lot of thought or attention to flowers except to rob someone elses labor and give them to a teacher, my mom, or my aunt. I have known for years that women love flowers and that they seem to make them very happy when they receive them as a gift. It seems to me that to a woman's heart you use flowers. I've heard the way to the man's heart is with good food and I disagree with this sonopsis. Any man I've known and listened to the way to the male heart is thruogh the act of sex with a woman. I find nothing wrong and love good food myself but there is no comparison when it comes to good sex with someone that you love.
The trees are starting to bud and it won't be long before the trees have their leaves for another season. The poor trees look like hell all bare in the late fall and winter months but are still able to have a bit of beauty to them against the back drop of a snow covered landscape. When there is no snow I think that they are pretty damn drab looking myself.
Yes spring is definetly the start of new life for so many things that mother nature offers. It also has a way of bringing a briter out look and a change of mood for the human soul that has endured the long hard winter that Maine has for those of us that live here year round.

Freestyle # 9

Life is such a puzzeling path with so many twist and turns. As I walk the path of life I'm always wondering what is next. Life is full of ups and downs and we must do our best when each occurs. The ups are usally easy to handle but the downs aren't usually so easy to deal with. In life there is a lot of thought. I couldn't image what life would be like if we had no train of thought and all the thinking was done for us. We do have the ability to think and make choices how ever right or wrong they may be. In life we are accountable for what ever we do in decission or our actions. When we make mistakes hopefully a learning experience comes from it. As an adult making the same mistake can be costly. A second chance is a very good thing but it isn't always a gim-me. I recall as a young lad I was a little clepto mainiac. I never stole from friends but the stores took hell. At such a young age I just thought that if you owned a store you must be rich. With this thought I figured that what I took wouldn't be any big deal and it wouldn't be missed any way. I'm very fortunate that I was young when the law finally caught up to me and my light fingers. I was made to give what I could back and that was about the size of it and I felt very lucky that I didn't get probation or even worse reformatory school. For sometime my friends parents didn't want the children hanging out with me. I had no hard feelings because I understood the circumstance and had nobody to blame but myself. When I did get that second chance I would thank the parents for giving it to me. I learned at a young age not to take what doesn't belong to you.

Accessories

For me the most important accessory as a boy was the old pocket knife. I always made sure that I had it with me where ever I went. I always thought that I would need it for one thing or another. Today I find my most important accessory is my wallet. If I realize I've left home with out it I'm suddenly panic stricken and set back for a moment. I also enjoy carrying my leatherman once in a while. The leatherman is something though that isn't always on my belt and I don't get to excited if it's not on my belt.
As a child I had a pocket knife. I always made sure that I had it with me where ever I went. I really didn't use it all that much but it was important to me to always have it with me. My pocket knife and I were like one unit and I would feel as though this thing was like a friend to me. I use to take it out and make an attempt to widdle me things even though I usally couldn't get the things to come out as nice as I would have liked. Even though my widdlings never seemed to turn out the way I wished that they would I still enjoyed sitting down and taking out the ole knife and try to create something.
I find that the wallet is an accessory that I must have on me at all times when I leave the house.In the wallet is where my I.D.is kept and where my money is kept also. It is very embarrasing to go into a store to buy something and at the check-out reach for the old wallet and find that I don't have it with me for whatever reason. I feel like a fool and wonder what kind of a person the cashier and the people in line think I am. This has got to be what I consider one of my most humiliating times for me to face in life. Oh no I've forgotten my wallet! I could just crawl under something for feeling so damn stupid when I do it. I remember when I first turned eighteen I lost my wallet and never did have it turn up and I found this to be quite depressing. I didn't have much money in it but my draft card and pictures were in it. I learned to keep better track of my wallet and have been very fortunate to this day that I haven't lost it again.
I have a couple of leathermans. I have the big one and then I also have the smaller one. This tool is one of the most handy tools a man could ask for. This little tool has so many handy tools at your side. It has screw drivers, pliers, punches, and more. This little tool can make a bleak looking situation look a lot better if I run into a minor problem. The big problem I have is remembering to put it on my belt most of the time since I've been out of work. I'm sure that other men feel the same as I do about having a leatherman and the help that they can be in certain situations. This was a very handy invention indeed.
For myself these days the most important thing to have on me is my wallet. If I forget my knife or my leatherman it's not that big of a deal. Now if I forget my wallet that's a whole different ball game. When I realize I don't have my wallet with me I start to wonder where it is and even the dreadful thought of maybe I've lost it. Yes without my wallet I don't feel like I'm complete person. The biggest fear I have is being pulled over by the police. Like they haven't herd sorry officer I left my wallet at home.

Just Calm Down Prompt 51 Week # 11

I remember when I was a teenager my aunt and uncle whom I lived with had this wild money cat. No one was able to touch this cat becausae it had a fear of humans for what ever reason. I was always trying to catch this elosive feline and finally one day I was able to coaks it close enough to grab it. I decided to take the cat into the house and I did. The damn thing leaped from my arms and then preceeded to climb my aunts beatiful kitchen curtains while I tried to catch it and throw it back out side in the only element that it seemed to find comfort in. The curtains had the cat's claw marks deeply enbedded in them and I was certainly fearful that my ass was in trouble when my aunt came back from town. I was out on the entry porch crying when she got home. Aunt Ruth asked me why I was crying and I preceeded to tell her what I had done. I was blobbering as I tried to explain what I had done and she said Kevin calm down and begin at the beginning so I can understand what your trying to tell me. I finally got it out and aunt Ruth told me not to worry and I was relieved that she was'nt that upset or pissed off at me for her favorite curtains.

The Divinchi Code Freestyle # 8

I've seen on TV a thing called the Divinchi Code and I personally think it is nothing more then fiction and a way to distract people from the word of God. It talks about how Jesus had an affair with Mary Magdeline and she had a child to him and so his lineage is carried on. It also talks about the words of Christ in the New Testament not being his and that he wasn't the son of God. From what I know and accept these things aren't true. First of all the family is set up as Christ to the church. How the Bible tells us how we should choose a mate contadicts the code so I can'nt except Jesus had an affair.Mary M. was said to be a harlet and for Jesus to have an affair with her would contradict how the Bible tells us to choose that significant other.How ever this does seem to go with today's mentality that if a woman and a man are friends they must be sleeping with one another. It is very unfortunate but that's what has happened to the minds of so many in the world in which we live. Almost everything around us is sex driven or a sexual conotaion to it. Jesus as a human being found it important to be friends with those that others either cast away or thought they were better than. He has taught me to look up rather then down on people. I have also learned to be greatful for each individual personality because to me this is what makes the world such an interesting place in which to live. Wouldn't it be so very boring if everyone was a clone to ourselves? Diversity of the human mind is a great thing although at times I get very upset with people with how they think or what they do, but after all they are human.
The other issue would be that he had no sin although he did have a struggle and was tempted by Lucifer while doing his earthly ministry. Jesus Christ is in the Old Testament and is revealed in spirit form and there are scriptures that tell of his coming to walk amoung us as a human being.Jesus Christ is the only human being ever born without an old sin nature. This is why he had to be born of a virgin. Remember that Adam was created and given a mind with free volition that he could make decissions on his own regardless of rather they were right or wrong and every humanbeing today still has that right. Material things like money and power can be taken from you and your left with nothing, but only you can let go of the things that has been excepted into your mind such as morals or rather or not you except or reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the way God intended it to be and the only way I feel it can be. God is grace and grace is a representation of love and freedom.Therefore my personal opinion of the Divinchi code is that it is an absract for people and nothing more than bullshit!

Flying

On I find that flying is enjoyable and exciting and I get goose bumps every time I get to take to the air. I've had the experience to fly in three different types of air craft and I was in my glory with each one. Yes there is a little fear before hand but once aboard the plane curiosity takes over and the fear subsides. I've had the oppertunity to fly in a passenger jet, a small plane, and a glider plane. The experience of all three were fantastic and memerable.
When I was fifteen years old I got to fly for my first time and this was on a passenger jet and I was so excited and had very little fear if any to taking this first flight into the sky above. I recall my aunt telling me not to look down as the plane was taking off because I'd get sick. Well I could not resist doing what I was told not to do and during take off I looked down and man this was the most enjoyable part of the flight for me. As the plane accellerates to reach the desired alttituude all things below as I'm looking out the window that I'm seated next to just becomes smaller and smaller to the point I was unable to make any thing out. Oh, I didn't get sick either. Last May I had the chance to ride in a passenger jet again. I was returning from North Carolina. This was a late night flight due to a long delay out of Cinncinatti. I was quite pissed off and getting more so with every passing minute over the delay but on the way home all was forgotten when I had the experience of viewing thunderstorms in the distant sky. Seeing the shooting lightening bolts in the distant sky made the delay seem well worth it because this event will be etched in my memory for ever. In the other two planes I've flown in this would not have been possible. The differences are altitude, speed, and how each one reacts to air turbulance. The passenger jet has the ability to fly above the clouds and I would picture a big fluffy pillow as I would look down into them. I was quite impressed with the speed of the passenger jet and how quick you can reach a far away destination. In this plane you experience air turbulance but it is alot smoother then if it was a smaller plane.
Some years back I recall my first flight in a small sight seeing plane. When I arrived at the ticket booth everyone was at lunch. Well the wait gave me time to question myself and rather or not I really wanted to do it. I decided that this was something I've always wanted to do so I better follow through and just do it. The pilots came back from their lunch and asked if anyone was interested in a sightseeing flight and I spoke up that I was. A pilot steped forward and said he'd be my pilot on the flight. Then he preceeded to tell me that I was going to be his first passenger on his first solo flight. I thought he was joking and said that was fine. Like in the jet plane as the small plane climbed to alttitude I was looking out the window watching things get smaller. Of course we weren't climbing to the alttitude as the jet and I still could make things out below. I realized that this small air craft was a lot more noisier than the jet and it was a little difficult understanding the pilot at times. As we were flying he wuold point out different places and at one point as we were flying along the Bar Harbor coast line he told me that on a clear day you could see Boston. After pointing out a few more sights we were headed back to the airport and the plane hit an air pocket that was quite rough and from that point until we landed the pilot never said another word. I think that this was his first flight alone.
My next experience taking to the air was in what is called a glider. This aircraft has no engine. To get it off the ground and has to be towed into the air by an aircraft that does. The day I decided that I would take a ride in this unquie aircraft that had just finished rebuilding one of the engines in the tow plane and were testing it when I arrived. You talk about second thoughts I was definately continplating whether this was for me or not. My mind came to the conclusion as it usually does in these situation and reasoned that if this is the time for me to go so be it. I would die doing something that I enjoy. Could there actually be a better way to die? As the tow plane started to ascend from the ground I was all eyeballs watching as the things below got a little smaller. When we got to a certain alttitude the pilot asked me to reach behind my seat and pull the leaver that would open the latch and release us from the tow plane and I did. Now it was the plane, the pilot, and myself soaring through the air depending on the air currents to keep us airborne. This pilot made me feel very at ease as he told me that there was only one other pilot in the United States that had more glider time then he did. The pilot had noticed that I had showed up on a motorcycle and said you like to ride bikes do you and of course my reply was a yes. He made the plane do some sharp curves and what I'd call some loopty loops and I got quite a rush from that. It was fantastic! In this aircraft all you can hear for noise is the air breaking against the plane. I thought to myself that this is the closest type of flying like a bird as I'd ever experience. Nothing I'd ever done could compare to this excitement and adrenilen rush.
Flying is the ultimate experience and it is most differcult for me to understand why so many people are apprehencive or scared to fly. I'm scared of heigth myself but I don't allow that to bother me when I really want to do something like riding a rollercoaster or take to the air. Curiousity is the ruling factor and usually wins out. The ultimate ride for this cat would to have the oppertunity to fly in a fighter jet. My dreams would be answered. I love it when the Air Force puts on an air show. To watch how skillful the pilots are is so fasinating. As I watch the jets fly over I have nothing but envy in my heart. I also have a lot of respect for the knowledge and teamwork these pilots have.