Future Students

Dear future English 110 students,

You may (understandably) have pretty low expectations coming into this class. Ugh, a freshman composition class that everyone has to take..... I'm sure that'll be really great........That may be the case, depending on the instructor you're assigned. Or it may not. You might be surprised at what the class can become if you give it a chance.

Assuming the instructor holds up their end of the deal, you should too. The standard guidelines all apply - actually think a little about the assignments, complete them, and turn them in on time. Your instructor should provide feedback on your writing assignments. Take this to heart, learn from it, and incorporate the suggestions in your future work.

The course seems aimed to improve many types of writing skills. You'll focus on academic writing with your research paper and related assignments, and you'll focus on more casual writing aimed at the public with your commonplace assignments. The commonplace editing that you'll do is designed to let you view the writing process from another angle, providing feedback on a piece written by your peers. The blogs, like this one, will give you even more experience writing for a public audience, and let you express yourself creatively in ways beyond standard writing.

Overall, just relax, don't be afraid to think a little bit, and have fun with the assignments. If you find that you like the course and the writing it involves, really get into it. If not, just endure it and it'll be over before you know it.

Good Luck,

-Jake

Hmmmm

Made with Photoshop by combining various stock photos.

Burritos? What?

Let's see.... an important food way in my community......

Maybe a dish which represents the culture of a college student?

Let's try Burrito Noches.

You know a place that opens at 6pm every day is going to be interesting....

The burrito you get from Burrito Noches is the prime example of the college food ways.

Too busy to eat dinner? Oh, man... It's 11pm and I haven't eaten yet.... Lets go get burritos.

The burrito itself is nothing special, really. It's just the thing to get after other places close.

It's close, convenient, quick, they take swipes, and it's not half-bad.

This is the symbol of the overworked, scatter-brained, hungry, night-dwelling college kid.

PSA Sources

First Possible Source:

In this clip, an excerpt from one of his performances at Carnegie Hall, George Carlin touches on a few important food-related points. Most revealing is the relationship between a person's visual impression of food and their eating habits, how a person can choose not to eat a food based simply on its appearance. Also, he brings up an interesting point about the stereotypes people create with regards to the eating habits of others.

Second Possible Source:

In this embarrassing "music video" for the song "Healthy Food", the Cookie Monster raps about the virtues of eating healthy foods in addition to cookies. It's most likely that this video and the "Veggie Monster" idea were brought about by concerned parents, worried that witnessing a blue puppet eating cookies would influence their children's food choices. This video is ripe with arguments about today's society and today's parenting concerning kids, their education about food, and their eating habits.

Simple Things

Probably not what you'd picture as the typical college student's food shelf. Before you file me under the "picky-health-nut-celery-eater" category, let me explain myself. My philosophy about food is pretty simple: If you're going to bother eating at all, why not eat something that tastes good and is "good for you" at the same time?

The olive oil and balsamic vinegar are for the salads I usually get for lunch; the almonds and dried blueberries are for a snack anytime. The oatmeal and cinnamon are for breakfast, the green tea is for whenever. Will you be able to deduce something truly meaningful about me from these few things? Doubt it, but let's try...

Alarm goes off, fall out of the top bunk, stumble out into the common room. I'm hungry. I haven't slept long enough. I don't want some nasty artificial sugar coated cereal that tastes like sickeningly-sweet cotton candy, just something simple, down-to-earth, subtle, to gently wake me up. Cook up some oatmeal in the microwave. Too boring? Throw some cinnamon in to spice it up a bit.

Back from morning classes. Usually brought a salad for lunch, sometimes a sandwich; skipped the gross soybean oil and corn syrup mixture most places call salad dressing. Go back to the basics - some simple olive oil and vinegar. Tastes great, adds some good fats, nothing artificial. Once in a while my mom bakes me some homemade cookies, which I happily accept. Sure, they're not nutritionally ideal, but they're made with real ingredients and not a bunch of overly-processed stuff. Plus, they taste awesome. Back from afternoon classes. It's not quite time for dinner, but I'm hungry. Grab some almonds and dried blueberries. They make a surprisingly good combination, the basic, earthy, nuttiness of the almonds mixed with the sharp, sweet blueberries.

Dinner time. Go somewhere with a group of people from the floor. Try not to get something overly-sugary or loaded with saturated fats; enjoy. Back from dinner. It's evening. Close the day with a relaxing cup of green tea. Go to bed, rinse, lather, repeat.

From these descriptions, I notice a few things. Overriding principles - natural and simple. Nothing flashy or obnoxious, just good, simple, subtle stuff with enough flavor to keep me interested. Ideas that I hope are reflected in my personality. Also, it seems that I eat very similar stuff day-to-day. Is this because I'm not adventurous enough to switch things up and try something new? I hope not. I've found a bunch of foods that I like, so I stick with them.