Quarter In Review

Blogs were a very new thing to me this quarter. I have never wrote in them before and have never really read them until this class. It was a fun and interesting experience; one that will have a long lasting effect on my writing. I think personally that my writing has gotten better with every entry along with writing our essays.

Keeping up with writing in blogs and with each draft was a major hassle. I had never really had a writing agenda until now. It seemed hard to keep up with it in the beginning but then I got into a groove for a little. I know that I had forgotten to write some things which will teach me not to get behind in things because that could mess up my groove. I thought of writing in blogs as a weekly chore to write in which I never really had an interest in doing because sometimes I would forget about it when I was busy with other things.

I think that writing these blogs will help me in the future with writing because I was never really a strong writer. Also the feedback you gave helped me figure out where I was with my writing and helped with improving my writing skills which I can notice have gotten somewhat better but I still lack some writing abilities. So all in all I really enjoyed this class and this blog writing experience and who knows maybe I will consider continuing writing in my blog!!!

New Experiences

At the beginning of this quarter when I had first heard we were going to be writing in blogs it was a shock to me because I never really have been associated with them for academic reasons. I was never really interested in them because I thought they were just about technology and politics. Also another generalization I had was that it was only really nerds who wrote in them and had no other life than that. I guess that the only blogs I was ever on was a high school sports forum that talked about all the different sports, but it was really big to me during football season to see what people would say about us. At the end of the quarter now I realize that blogs are written in by journalists who tell big news stories, along with some other big name reporters who have good knowledge about other major topics in news. So in my mind weblogs are used for news, enhancing writers’ abilities, and just chatting about certain topics.

Blogs can be great mediums between television and newspapers that you can read articles faster and they will get you to the point of the topic or story you want. “We think of a medium as the thing that delivers content. But the delivered content is a medium in itself. Content is just a medium for interaction between people” (Rushkoff, 2000). I think that Rushkoff is saying that blogs are a way for people to discuss topics and debate their sides. Like he said that “Content is King” (Rushkoff, 2000), because with no content in blogs you have no conversation and therefore you will have no blogs. Now blogs are a very important thing is peoples lives because it can provide them with the information that they want and find out new information; for example sports blogs because you never know if someone gets caught for drugs or had possession of weapons and had been suspended. So blogs are a good medium between television and news papers, but remember if there is not content then there will be no blog.

Another way blogs are useful is that they can enhance your writing and can help you with not making the same mistakes as usual. Now I am sure that there are some people who just go around on blogs just looking to correct people’s mistakes in their writing which can help a new struggling blogger/writer become better overall. Now some people think that blogs add nothing to the web, “That they contribute to the poor writing quality the internet suffers” (Talbot, 2001). Which I think is true, because people who write in blogs are like people who chat on AIM, which is AOL Instant Message, by not using grammatically correct forms of words and have many sentence problems. But on the other hand Rebecca Blood says that blogs make people better writers because in her book she says that, “It’s easy to write poorly, but it’s hard to write poorly everyday” (Blood, 2002). Now I think that if you write the same everyday I don’t see how you would get any better by writing the same way. I would have to agree with Talbot when he says that it allows shitty writers to get their bad grammar on the net. They enhance writers’ abilities by enhancing their thoughts and have them become more aware of their surroundings and what people are talking about around them.

Blogs allow you to just talk about whatever you want which is the neat thing about them. You can find blogs about any subject or topic you want. There are people out there who are experiencing some of the same things you are in which you can connect with them in that spectrum. But sometimes I think that they can be too long which can turn my attention to them off and on to something else. They can give some pointless information and will just get you lost in what it is they want to say. But overall I think that they are a cool think to get information and other helpful things done.

The blogging experience was fun. I learned many new things about the web and learned how to use blogs as a tool for information. This was definitely helpful to me so I can gather resources from other things rather than the normal search engines. My view has taken a total 360 degree turn and now I know some of the main reasons people use them and they are to receive some type of news or information, enhance people as writers, or for just an occasional chat about whatever topics are on your mind or ones that you’re interested in.

Steroids in Movies???

Are steroids in movies? I think so; after watching some movies this weekend I wonder if they use steroids in all of these war and sports movies to make these men look larger than they actually arei in real life. Movies like Troy, Rambo, Any Given Sunday, etc. are examples of movies that could easily in my eyes have steroid usage in them. Those are all great movies to me, some of which are my favorites, but taking them just to look buff in a movie just doesn't seem worth it to me. They could still have plenty of effects on them later in their life or could easily effect them right away and could potentially have heart problems while filming.

Now I know in the movie 300 they had some ridiculous workout plan where they did 300 of everything thing they did to get ripped for the movie. Now i think that if you did what they did for every movie that it would make the movie much better in my eyes.



Steroids is just a way to cheat at something so that you can get bigger than anyone else. I mean i guess in movies it is ok for them but to some people it may ruin the impact of the movie.

Essay 2

Alek Stemen
Mr. Boczkowski
Intensive Reading and Writing 109.02
6 February 2008
Essay #2

This blog I read was by Adam Newton a sports fanatic who gives his view on what he thinks on this whole steroid controversy. At the beginning he says that he had never really been part of organized athletics until he had reached high school. But throughout his younger years he watched sports with his family and friends. He talked about how he was never really the athlete who stayed out on the field after practice, or workout in the weight room for the whole day he just basically was there did what he had to and just left when everyone else did.

Now a days he watches games with his brothers, friends, and roommates where they have heated debates he says. Mainly it is how the United States Congress is not doing what it can to take care of this whole steroids situation. He states that steroids have been around sports for around these past fifteen years. Football and baseball are the two main sports that are directly involved with steroids but with the harsh punishment of football penalties players don’t get in trouble with them along with basketball too. Baseball is the main sport where steroids are the most caught. Also he states that it is basically grown men trying to get an edge on one another and must bear the consequences of their actions.

Then he goes into this metaphor where he uses an office and basically says that if someone breaks the rules and does whatever he or she wants in order to produce high-quality work that is enjoyed by your consumers and co-workers and asks if that is cheating just because you are breaking the rules. To me I think that if you break the rules to make a consumer or co-worker happy then it is okay to do.

After that he basically talks about how shitty the MLB and Bud Selig did in getting steroids out of baseball. Also says that he wants steroids out of all professional sports and that the punishments should be greater. He states that the Mitchell Report is the closest thing to intervention that we have witnessed with a public institution. He thinks that baseball should have harsher penalties for steroids. And he ends with saying that the whole sports entertainment business is all fake athletes instead of the raw natural athlete.

To me this is a good point of view from someone who came from a limited athletic background. He made a lot of good points which I agree with. With me coming from a very strong athletic background I have seen some things that this guy may not have seen. Coming from a school enriched with sports I was around them all the time whether or not participating.

Steroids in my mind is a way of cheating yourself because the results you see at first will look good but at the end the end up turning bad just from the affects it does to your mind and body. I have seen steroids around me before because they don’t normally drug test in high school and people will do whatever sometimes just to get that edge on others. I had always watched sports growing up especially with my dad and always wondered how these professional athletes got to be the size they were. I hadn’t really heard about steroids until the late 90s when they were talking about Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire and the monster seasons they had in baseball that year.

I think that sports should be all natural working out to be the better athlete. You should work to gain the edge without using roids. I know of people who use things such as like whey protein and like creatine and all those other pills and powders which to me is perfectly legal. All those do is just hydrate you and helps build muscle faster so that you get the results you want faster. I have used a protein powder before and I can see the difference after awhile. It is amazing what a little hard work can do. I mean look at UFC fighters those guys train for hours at a time and for years to get at the best physical shape possible for them and the sport that they are competing in.

Finally I think that steroids should be taken out of all sports and if caught they should have the harshest penalty there is. And if you work hard you should have the advantage over everyone so that everything is even and there are no cheaters.

Do Steroids effect length of play?

The other day Brett Favre had retired from seventeen years in the National Football League. He will go down as one of the best quarterbacks in NFL history. He went out on a record breaking season and will most likely make it into the Hall of Fame his first year on the ballot.

Along with Brett retiring, Sam Cassell signed with the Boston Celtics basketball team the other day. He will be ending his fourteenth season with the National Basketball Association this year. Throughout these years he has been with multiple teams along the way.

Barry Bonds will be entering his twenty second season in Major League Baseball. He currently holds the home run record* and is now a free agent in the MLB. He has only been with two teams in his career and who knows if anyone will sign him now because of the whole steroids controversy.

What do all these people have to do with exactly? Well steroids can have the effect of players lasting longer in athletics becasue they will always have energy to perform every game. Now I am not saying that all these players had used steroids or HGH but it could be a possibility just because of the length. There are many other players the I could have pointed out but there are to many of them to name. It is just remarkable how they can stay in the game this long and still perform at their best.

The Guest Blogging Experiment

I felt like my guest blogger did a good job on acting as me for this guest blog. The length like Derek said was basically the same as my usual post but he also noticed that the style was different. I can see some similarities to the guest post and mine but there were some differences in this too.

His style was much more grammatical than mine I feel. Also his had a better flow to it and sounded smoother when you read it. Unlike me he used the press conference as a tool to write this post because of the press conference with Andy Pettitte to tie in with this whole Roger Clemens steroids case. Another difference I had noticed was he had done more research than I usually do with reading up on this article. He did a good job with research and if anything the guest blogger may have done a better job writing and planning out this post than I normally do. Well done guest blogger.

Having this guest blog gave me some more ideas on where to take my blog. I should follow his ways in writing these because I think that this was a great post. Overall with all these guest blogs and all I could tell some similarities and differences in the actual posts and guest posts. I think that we all did good jobs on guest blogging. We all have come a long way with these blogs like Derek said.

Guest Blog by: SSR

Andy Pettitte, pitcher for the New York Yankees and long time friend of Roger Clemens, provided a deposition before Congress last week on the use of performance enhancing drugs - steroids. Pettitte admitted to using human growth hormone (HGH) between 2002-2004. Pettitte also provided information that Roger Clemens had talked about steroid use in the past. There were a lot of reports that Andy Pettitte's father received the human growth hormone from a guy Andy Pettitte went to high school with. More and more people keep getting drawn into the steroid controversy.

I think if Roger Clemens were to come clean and admit that he used steroids, everyone could move on. His wife was accused and has since admitted using human growth hormone to look good before posing in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue 4 years ago. Pettitte was forced to betray his friend and now Roger's wife has been linked. The longer this goes on, the more people won't believe a word Roger says and more people will be hurt. All he has to say is; it was 10 years ago, it was a mistake and I regret doing it. His character has already been questioned and not many people seem to believe him so I think he is better off just admitting it.

What are they??

This week I think that I am going to take a different approach to my blog and tell you about steroids and what they are actually. I think this is good because some people are not well informed about them and some of the damage that they can do to you, so that you don't get caught up in them so that your life could potentially be messed up.

Anabolic Steroids are a synthetic version of testosterone which is the male horomone. They are drugs which have very many side effects that cause psychological and physical effects. The psychological effects are edginess, impatience, "roid rage" which is basically violent outbursts. Also can cause severe mood swings towards depression.



General physical effects are liver and kidney damage, increased blood pressure and cholesterol, a higher risk of infections, nosebleeds, headaches and stomachaches, etc. Those are just general for anyone one who takes them, but for women, men, and teens they are much different. Men suffer from enlarged breasts, shrinkage of the testicles, low sperm count, increased sex drive but a decrease in erectile function. For women they receive growth of facial hair, deepend voice, male pattern baldness, enlargement of clitoris, infertility, and abnormail menstrual period. And in teens they have stunted growth and severe acne.

The Super Bowl overall was a good exciting game to watch. It was an action packed game and kept me on the edge of my seat especially in the fourth quarter. The Giants were the underdogs and came out on top of the favored patriots who previosly were undfeated and trying to be the second team to go undefeated ever. While watching it i realized how athletic and muscular the two teams were.

Looking at the size of the players it just amazes me the size of the linemen and the masculinity of the major athletes that make the big plays in the games. Somehow i don't see how some of these older players can stay in this game because of how fast paced the games are now. I'm not saying that they are taking steroids but there has to be some question of whether or not they are taking something to still be as fit as they are. The celebration after Michael Strahan sacked Tom Brady made me realize how jacked he still was. He was contemplating retiring this season because of his age. Still though he was very impressive.

Still sometimes I think that these athletes as they get older I wonder that they are using the performance enhancing drugs to keep them in the game and keep them up with all the new athletes as they get faster the game will be getting faster.

This weekend I will be the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championships)80 pay per view on tv and noticed one fighter in particular by the name of Brock Lesnar who was formerly part of the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). While I was watching his training videos I realized how much bigger and more muscular than the other fighters he was facing. Now from what we know abbout the WWF there is steroids all involved in that scene and I don't see how anyone could be that big and get away with it. I know that all UFC fighters train so hard to get to where they are but that is tottally opposite to the WWF. I know that they do drug tests but you can't tell me he didn't take them while he was in the WWF. After seeing him in the WWF I can tell that he has gotten bigger. I think that it is from his training which is very rigorous and long. They say that he is country strong because he grew up on a farm and just worked hard in what he did.

Final Draft

States

Coming into my senior season of football nobody expected us to be any good. Not even our coaches thought we could do anything. But did we show them. About halfway through our season the coaches started to believe in us. They started to think that we were the real deal here. At the beginning of the season they told us that it would take hard work and determination to rise to the top of the pedestal.

So there we were at the Division 1 State Championship game. Everyone was wondering who this team from Hilliard was. We were getting heckled by from the fans during our warm ups. Our coach always told us not to say anything back and just let the pads do the talking. And that’s what we did that night; we let our pads do the talking. It was a cold night in Canton. All the fans were bundled up, and our student section was rocking like always at every game, every week they had a new chant that put fear in the other teams eyes. Knowing that we had the best students in the land gave us a better feeling that we knew they were behind us. Once the first kickoff started it was game time. This was one of the most amazing feelings of my life. With all of our fans watching us and others watching state wide made this experience the best it could have been.

I was only the long snapper because our whole offensive line was made up of all seniors who were superior to me. But I still had a very important role on the team, as my head coach would say. As the game went on, the night got colder, and everyone got more hostile. There were two extremely different offenses at the game tonight, one involved the spread offense and the other was the ground attack. We were the ground attack; it was our strategy to make them stop us down in the trenches. The game was a hard fought battle no team could stop each other. Turnovers played a huge part in this game because it could cost you dearly. Our running back set a state record for most points in a state championship game with thirty-two points. He also set the rushing record at the time over two-hundred yards rushing. Also their quarterback set a record to but I don’t recall on the record. The whole night was record breaking. This was easily the biggest crowd we had ever played in front of. It totaled over 13,000 fans combined.

Whenever we had to kick a field goal or punt it away I was always a little nervous because people don’t forget those kinds of events. If you mess up a snap in a big game because it could be a game changer, and being in this capacity crowd made it all the worse. Each time I had butterflies in my stomach and was worried I would make a bad snap. Usually teams were bigger than us, that don’t mean they were all on steroids which aren’t really involved much in high school sports. I have only heard of one case where steroids were involved and the team had to forfeit their season. So we were usually the smaller team but we did have some big boys but that’s because they had just worked harder in the weight room and all.

The game ended up being a double overtime thriller. We won on a two point conversion which had haunted our coach going for two, because two years earlier we got stopped on the one yard line. After we got the two point conversion our running back spiked the ball in glory. Our student section mobbed the field in joy and everyone was just so happy just hugging each other. We were one big family of brothers and didn’t let anything come between us. A perfect season is what everyone strives for and that’s what we had earned. We came out on top thirty-six to thirty-five.

That next week the school had a parade down one of the main roads in Hilliard for us. Almost the whole city was there; all the little elementary children lined the streets waiting for us to give them high fives as we were led by a police officer. In a way we were looked up as heroes that day because of all the kids cheering for us, and this brought joy to everyone. This was one of the best moments in my life, seeing everyone just cheering for us, even the other high school in Hilliard was cheering for us at the game. We set the stage for central Ohio football which had been long forgotten because of the powers in Cincinnati and Cleveland. Those two major cities are known for their dominance in the state of Ohio and nationally as well.

This story will always be remembered in my life because of everything that went on during it and all the drama of the games and in school. It was like our coaches said that it will take hard work and determination. That’s what we did that cold night in December in Canton, Ohio. I will always have this story to tell my kids along with a nice little ring to go with that. Hopefully I can someday see my son win a championship like me and can talk about him and how great he was.

I was reading on ESPN and reading through some of the stuff about the steroids controversy and how Roger Clemens has stated his case again that he did not get injected with the human growth hormone (HGH) and was only injected with painkillers and vitamin B-12. In the article it had said that his trainer said he injected him 21 times to be exact with steroids, which to me is ridiculous. And then it just goes on and on about how he has denied all of his allegations towards taking steroids and all that same old stuff.

I personally think that they talk about this way to much. I don't see why they haven't investigated football more ofter and sometimes maybe basketball. Heck even body builders, how can you get that huge so fast. It is disgusting how fast they get huge, I don't see how anyone could live their life like that. Maybe some people just work to get that but I don't see why, if it is legal, that they can take steroids and other athletes that maybe worked hard to get where they were rather than cheat themselfs. Next time I will continue my talk about how other sports are not being as heavily inspected.

Since all of this Roger Clemens steroids controversy it has caused many players not to get into the Hall-of-Fame just because of the suspicion of them using it. Dearthvader has a good point because records have been dropping like flies since all of this talk of steroids. It's basically like nothing to them because it is easier for them to break them because of the drugs they are using. But also I agree with Anthony Mason that Roger Clemens is one of if not the best pitchers that baseball has ever seen. I know that it seems fishy that he has been this good for so long but you never know what happens if you just work hard at what you do. Also his trainer could have just done this so he could make some money off Clemens. I agree with KOE had a good point also saying that they should have more serious penalties for either being dishonest of use or being caught using them so that it shows the upcoming star athletes how to perform the proper way so that it doesn't effect their future Hall-of-Fame possibility. In my next blog I will mostly talk about football and why they are not tested more often and why there isn't as much controversy as baseball.

New Blog Possibilities

I think that i might take a new direction towards this blog topic. I'm thinking along the lines of sports and the whole steroid controversy. I think that this will attract more people than my other topic was going to discuss. I am very interested in sports and everything so I will be able to keep this updated and keep new discusions going. I am looking forward to see and hear what everyone has to say about this whole Roger Clemens issue that is taking up all the recent sporting news. Alright I am going to end this and I am pretty sure that my blog is going to head in this direction.

Blog Possibilities

Here are some things you might see me talk about stories about parties you have been to and your experiences with alcohol or anything else, cops etc. I will tell you about some of my stories and would like to here some of your reactions and stories. I am writing about this because I think that I could get a lot of feedback and other stories about this topic. Basically it's just stories about crazy times you have had at parties or any other places. People will always have stories to talk about because it's easy to relate with others. I will not give any specific names of persons in my stories neither should you unless you really want the information to get out. I think readers will be interested just because you always have a good time hearing about other stories and giving feedback. I just think people will get a good time out of these as well as myself.