Oct 14th-Changing the Unchangeable

So far my college experience has been a crazy roller coaster ride. I would have to say the only dips and drops have been things that aren't directly related to college itself. I like my classes, my professors, my roommate, and my friends I have made. As for things not directly related to work or classes I would change a couple things that have happened. I would be more careful not to put myself in situations to get in trouble. Even though everything came out fine I wish I hadn't even been in a scenario to get arrested. I also wish I would have taken care of myself better and not allowed me to get as sick as I have with mono. Sharing drinks and kissing soooo many girls (just kidding) probably isn't a great idea. I think one thing I also need to change is time management. I try to utilize the time between class too much and not my several hours I have at night because I feel like nightly t.v. is so important. I need to really get my night time activity priorities straight. Other than a couple study habit changes and the things that really weren't in to much of my control I am content with my college experience up to this point. That being said I hope it just continues to get better and better each and every semester. 

Nov 7th-Communities and Schools :-(

As I sit here about to write this blog...I take a pause just to think

I think I will make this blog a poem, but I ain't a poet so I hope it don't stink

I have seven minutes to turn this in so maybe this isn't such a good plan

Forget it... I have made up my mind to do this if I can pull it off I must be the man

Communities and schools, such a disappointment, its what I call weak sauce

I was really looking forward to mentoring a student being looked up to like a boss

I have done it in the past and have always enjoyed it

I was really upset when our schedules just didn't fit

Even though I have a flurry of negative emotions not completing that goal

It didn't change my attitude or views of community service as a whole

When you are trying to make a big difference your going to have road blocks

You have to move on and find somewhere else to help out in the town of the gamecocks

I look forward to helping out the community in several other ways

And maybe I can get back to mentoring one of these days

Its 5 o clock and I hope I don't get graded down for being late

I had fun writing this even if it isn't so great

So look forward to you reading this melissa and jimmie

And ill see you on monday.....................................................

I can't think of anything that rhymes with jimmie

Nov 7th-Some things don't change...

Well, I don't know how I am going to muster up a 150 word blog entry here that is interesting to read. This is because what I wanted to be when I was young is the same thing as now so its hard to write about how or why that has changed. Also I have already written on this subject earlier about poker. Therefore I will just recap what I have said before. At four years old I was taught the game of texas hold em and ever since then I have wanted to master it and become a champion. To this day I still have goals set to follow this dream. I can give you an update since something happened recently that affects my path to the poker world. I took a huge hit (loss) to my poker bank account. I was only 500 dollars away from having the 10000 needed to enter the main event of the world series of poker until I had a bad night. I won't say exactly how much I lost but it is a significant amount that I will have to take time to win back. I have begun to win some of it back but im not back to 9500 yet. It was disappointing but I know that it is going to happen more than often in the poker career and is nothing to really sweat about. If poker doesn't work out or if it doesn't provide a full time job I want to go to law school following USC to become a sport agent. That has been a dream of mine for some time as well and I really believe I possess the skills needed to be a successful sports agent. I wouldn't mind being the next Drew Rosenhaus minus the stuck up attitude! 

Capstone Conversation 1-2008 Election

I went to the capstone conversation on thursday october 23rd. It was a guest speaker talking about the impact of the 2008 election. He also discussed his predictions and support for those predictions. The speaker actually took a while to arrive and delayed the start by about twenty minutes but in that time Dr. Spurrier held a discussion mostly towards the audiences participation in the election. As to no surprise to me the room was very seperated as to who was supporting and ultimately voting for who. That wasn't surprising for a couple reasons. For one people at USC come from all over so you can expect different views and sides but at the same time it shows how close and seperated this election will be. Once the speaker arrived he gave background information about how the election works in terms of the electoral college, voting methods and times, and significant past elections. He then discussed some of the main views for each Obama and McCain and discussed how each could win. Up until this point I thought it was impressive how he was only informational and didn't take any sides or biased towards either candidate. But once he expressed his prediction that changed. He was in support of Obama and believed Obama would win the electoral vote in a landslide of 340-169 which I thought was highly unlikely. I believe even if Obama won most of the independent votes that the traditional republican-democrat state vote would make it closer than that. However, he supported his prediction and it possibly could happen but I still disagree that that will happen. Coming out of this conversation I can say my information about the set up of the election was refreshed and I got a very good perspective of each candidate. I enjoyed this conversation even though I generally don't like the topic of politics and elections. But I do recognize this year is incredibly important and is the first election I can vote in so I decided to attend this conversation for those reasons.

Oct 24th-Keeping Busy

Besides my schoolwork and classes I stay busy. For a lot of it it is dealing with getting in trouble. I know it is repetitive but I have a lot of work to do for my lawyer and preparing for my November 4th court date. I take time going to and from my lawyers office as well as getting documents completed for court. Not only the law trouble but housing trouble. As I mentioned in my previous post I am a most wanted of Capstone as I am now being written up for anything and everything. If something bad happens in Capstone my name is thrown in with it. I have already had judicial twice and just got another letter for a third judicial meeting and a notice that I will be placed on housing probation and I honestly could not tell you what for. So I take time doing that. But besides all that time I stay busy doing positive things as well. I am capstone student government. This means I have an hour meeting every monday night and then give that information to my floor in hour meetings on the floor wenesday nights. I also am apart of the recreation team in capstone which has meetings wenesday nights as well. This team is responsible for setting up events such as the capstone bowl and managing recreational equipment kept in the basement of capstone. I do also have my fun on the weekends. I generally go out thursday and friday nights either into five points or the vista. Whether its going to the bars or clubs downtown is always alot of fun. I also go to the strom and play pickup basketball almost every night I don't have meetings or too much work. I love the strom I could move in and just live out of the locker room there. School and classwork takes up majority of the time but between my legal issues, capstone meetings, playing basketball, and just taking time to hang out on weekends I stay pretty busy and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oct 24th-Faculty at USC

I have to say I have mixed emotions towards faculty I have met at USC so far. When I say faculty I am talking about everyone that works at USC including professors, building managers, and even the cafeteria ladies. Starting off with the good, I like all my professors. I am closer with some more than others as is probably everyone but even the ones I am not close with I still enjoy there classes and feel comfortable in the learning enviornment they provide. I would have to say that my U101 professors (which are probably reading this ;-)) I am most comfortable with and feel the ability to open up to and discuss with whether in an in class situation or out of class conversation. I believe this is because of the content of the class as well as its a tight group with small number of students but a close group of students as well. As for some other faculty I can't say the same. I don't like a few of the leaders of my dorm building. I understand when someone is just doing their job and they have to take certain actions. But when those people go out of the way and out of their job description to target a specific person I can't say I have good thoughts about them. I am not the type who is paranoid and would say I am being targeted but I have been told I am being targeted which I don't think is fair. I guess you can say the I don't like some of the leaders of my dorm because they don't like me. Then there are all the other staff such as cafeteria ladies and janitors. I love stopping and having conversation with all of them and I know almost all of them by name as they do me. They are wonderful people who do a great job and I have to say spending a minute to hang out or talk with them makes the day better. Overall I like a majority of the faculty at USC there are just a few exceptions to that but I hope over time I can work out my differences with those who I don't care for so much as of right now.

Oct 3rd- Stress and Me

Up until about two to three weeks ago I always thought I was a very low stress person. I have never felt nervous, anxious, or overwhelmed in any subject. Whether it was school work in high school or pressure sports situations or public speaking I never was the type to feel stress. When I was put into what typical people would call a stressful situation I always dealt with it very well. However, a few weeks ago my world got rocked. After being arrested and spending a weekend in jail I haven't felt no stress ever since. Between the constant memories of that weekend as well as having the possible consequences on my mind I constantly nervous and stressed. When I thought it would be difficult to deal with classes and homework and extra curricular activities in college I never thought about dealing with the law as well. Going to class to my lawyers office to a drug test to a lie detector test to having a paper due the next day I feel rushed and overloaded every single day. I want to think that once I go to court and get over my charge I will be back to how I normally feel but my mind is telling me that won't happen. Although I have all this stress I feel like I am handling it the best I can. I write everything down, I have a handy calendar, I check off a to do list, and I still am getting my meals, exercize, and sleep in. I really hope I get through this court date and come out the low stressed relaxed person I always was prior to my arrest.

Oct 3rd-Diversity at USC

I have to say since I have been to USC I have experienced a very different style and levels of diversity from where I came from. I went to high school about five minutes outside of DC. Therefore when it comes to diversity I have to say where I lived is far more diverse just because DC is one of the most diverse places in the world. Just because USC isn't as diverse as DC doesn't mean it isn't diverse. I still have experienced a lot of diversity. One area of diversity I have found most prevalent is religion. The city I live in is about 99.9% jewish. There were no churches in my area and there was never discussion of religion. Here I have already been approached by several different religion groups or clubs. I have heard of more different religions in the month I have been here than I have my entire life prior to coming here. Also the diverse areas people come from have been interesting. In DC people come from all over the world but in my particular HS everyone was from Maryland. It is so interesting making friends with people from all over the country. I have made friends with everyone from places such as upstate new york, ohio, arizona, california, colorado, etc. You can really see how where the people came from influence them as a person. The kids from new york have significant differences than those that are here from south carolina. So although I came from somewhere I experienced a lot of diversity I have to say I have experienced a significant amount of diversity since I have come to USC as well.

Sept 19th-Sex in College

I have to say I really enjoyed the sex and the college student presentation. It was very informative but it wasn't dry and boring like previous education about sex. In high school and earlier they would tell you about abstinence and preach all other ways were wrong. As expected this presentation recognized exactly what they were teaching...sex in college. It is going to happen and they taught us what we truly need to know. We got to see exactly how to protect ourselves and even how effective each method of protection is. I liked how they showed us that it is okay to engage in sexual activity but you need to be careful and informed as well. At the same time they utilized the use of pictures of the diseases in order to kind of put a sense of fear into us so we always will remember to practice safe sex. The presentation was interactive and even had some funny moments in it. I couldn't ever say this about a previous sex education presentation. Another thing that was awesome about the presentation was the end. Not in the sense that it was over but FREE CONDOMS!! Does it get any better? I submit that it cannot. And even better, they were colored!!! But all jokes aside it was very informative and even though I went in assuming another pointless sex ed presentation I have to say I did learn new things and came out enjoying what I had just seen.

Sept 19th- WSOP Here I come

When I was four years old my grandpa started teaching me the game of poker. He himself was a professional poker player so I was learning from an experienced player. I didn't know that this game I learned fourteen years ago would be the career I still to this day want to pursue. I started kindergarden early because of my knowledge of poker. The teacher asked my mom why she thinks I have the ability to start earlier than normal. My mom said I am really good at math except I have trouble identifying the different pot odds of an inside straight versus an open ended straight draw. The teacher immediately said she thinks I was ready to start school. My poker is what allowed me to start school early and its what could be the factor that makes me end school early. If I succeed in poker I could seriously consider dropping out to pursue the professional poker career as did my grandfather. I have been saving up my poker winnings money to buy into the main event when I turn 21. It is a 10,000 dollar buy in and there about a couple thousand entries each year. First place generally wins seven-twelve million dollars and usually the top five hundred place in the money. I have always done exceptionally well in live poker games and I have won several live tournaments. Most of my saved money has come from my online play. Online play is what will get me my buy in but it doesn't prepare me for the main event because it is a completely different game and strategy. I can fluctuate in online poker way more than live poker. I have had days where I go from up five thousand dollars to down two thousand and vice versa. Live poker it is a lot harder to go back and forth like that. I always say I want to have a real career and be a professional poker player on the side. However, if I was to win the first place prize in the main event I could serious see myself just sticking to what I am good at...poker.

Sept 12th-I Love College

"College will be the best four years of your life." 

I heard this line a thousand times this past summer. I truly didn't believe it. I had just finished senior year of high school and I didn't think it could get better. I was big man on campus. I felt like I ran the city. I had an awesome group of friends. I knew everyone in the school district. There is no way going to a place where you don't know anyone and being a little fish in a sea of thirty some thousand it could be anywhere near the life of high school. So far I couldn't have been any more wrong. The only negative part of the first two weeks of college has been not getting a ticket to the first football game which I still ended up going to. I've met so many people, I love all my teachers, I love the campus, I love the freedom...I LOVE COLLEGE! At this pace one week of college is better than the entire eighteen years of living. Between interesting classes throughout the week, pick up basketball at night, fun friday nights, football games on saturday, and getting ready to do it all again sunday, it literally is living the life. I feel like I have smoothly transitioned to the lifestyle in terms of the work loads and managing all my time. I am comfortable living in the dorms and not being the center of attention even though I thought both would be difficult for me. As cliche as it sounds I love life right now and it would take a lot to change that status. There is nothing I would change in the first two weeks of school so far.

Sept 5th Blog 2-Mr. Experience

Starting my sophomore year in high school I began tutoring and mentoring a middle school student. It started out as any typical service experience. I was doing it for community service hours and didn't even know the kid until the first time I was to mentor him. He was a rising 6th grader. It was only supposed to last until the end of his 6th grade year. However the relationship that developed made it hard to just end it. I continued mentoring him until I saw him graduate from middle school at the same time I was graduating from high school. It ended up being a mutual relationship as both of us benefitted from each other. Although we were still a mentor status we became friends as well. I still talk to him and he still looks up to me even though we are hundreds of miles apart. One of the reasons I believe we became so close is that his family also grew to liking me. We met a few times as expected but they began to treat me as almost one of there own. They had me over for dinner, treated me to sporting tickets, and even got me a special christmas present. Although this kind of mentor relationship won't develop this far in just a semester I think that this experience will help me with this service experience in the sense of  getting to know the kid and how talk to them at first.