Revising Projects

It was good to learn what we each needed to fix in order to get a better grade on our projects. It helped when we each wrote a couple paragraphs to get us started on the right path to revising them. I had a tough time writing some of these papers but it was good to gain feedback on what we need to fix. It will be a lot of time and effort but I think I will be able to increase my grade drastically if I get them fixed right. I have learned a lot with writing all these papers and now have a better understanding as to what teachers expect.

Western Wins

I had a great weekend up at my buddies place in Mount Pleasant. Going to the game was awesome, especially watching Western beat up on the Chips. It was good getting to see a lot of people that I do not get to see that often. They all gave me a lot of crap for going to Western, but at the end of the day I got the last laugh because we beat them. They had excuses after excuses, they just did not want to admit that my school is better and that we eat Chips for breakfast. I am glad we still all got along though, we had a great time tailgating and watching the game.

Research Paper

Even though I was not in class on friday, I got a good review on my research paper so far. Jake gave me some good tips on what to fix and how to make my argument even stronger. I think it is always good to have someone else read your paper and give their opinion on what they thought was really good and what you need to fix. It makes writing papers a lot easier, and also helps to improve your grade with the final draft. I think that when I make the revisions and focus on the parts I could make stronger, my paper will be far better than it is now.

Western VS Central

I am excited for this coming weekend when Western plays at Central. I am going up to Central with a few of my buddies to hangout and go to the game. A lot of people from my home town go to Central so it will be nice to get together with a few of them since I haven't seen them in a long time. It is always good to get together with some friends and bond. There will be a lot of talking going back and forth about the game though so hopefully no one decides to start fighting about it haha. I have never been to a Western VS Central game so it should be fun and interesting to say the least!

Plays

Learning about the different kind of plays and there means was very interesting to me. We all seemed to find the meaning of each one that we looked at besides one. Sometimes they have a message hidden deep inside of what is really going on. Also, learning about how to write our research papers is going to help me out a lot. It makes it easier to write when we know what the format should be and what to include in it. I need to work on making sure that I include all the information in my annotated bibliography so that I have a good argument to put up for my case.

Thanksgiving

I am excited to finally get a break here in the next couple of weeks. School has been stressful this whole time and it will be such a relief to be able to kick back and relax with family for a few days. Not having to worry about homework is the best feeling. I am excited to see some family that I haven't seen in a few months. Thanksgiving at my grandparents is always the best because they have so much food and we all get to spend time together and bond for a little while. It will also be nice to get a few home cooked meals, the cafe food is starting to wear on me so I need a change from that. And the fact that when we come back we only have a couple weeks until winter break that is getting me through these last weeks of school.

Class Activity

The class activity of deciding what people to keep and what people not to keep was pretty interesting. We had to look at each person and identify if they had any strengths and if they would be a good person to keep. It was tough on some of them and pretty easy on the others. Coming together as a class and picking the 7 to keep and the 5 to get rid of made me realize that we had a lot of similar picks. We disagreed on a few but for the most part we all had the same people to keep. We analyzed each person and as a group finally agreed as a group.

Stress

This week has been by far the most stressful week of school. I have had way more to do then I could have ever imagined. It put me in a bad mood for most of the week but I found a way to get through it and get all of it done. So far in college I have learned to manage my time wisely in able to get everything done that needs to be. No one said college was going to be easy and if someone did they would be lying. I am hoping the next couple weeks slow down a little bit but I am not going to get my hopes up because I already know that I have two exams next week. I will find a way to get through it all though, I have done a pretty good job so far.

Going Home

This weekend I am going home to see some friends and family that I haven't seen in a while. It has me pretty excited right now because I need a get away from school and everything. It will be a nice relaxing weekend, in which I need for sure. Saturday is going to be surprise birthday party for my older brother which should be a lot of fun. I will see a lot of people there to that I haven't seen in a while. And the fact that it is like the best time of the year to hunt will be nice too. I haven't been in the woods in a while so that will be a good way to relieve some stress and be able to get some alone time. So this weekend should be a lot of fun and well worth going home, even though all my friends are giving my crap for leaving halloween weekend.

Analytical Papers

I thought that it was interesting how we broke up into small groups and each came up with themes for each others papers. I think this helped me realize that I did not need to be so broad when trying to talk about a topic. It helped me narrow it down to a couple themes that I can talk about in my paper and analyze it. Some of us had the problem with being to broad and we usually ended up just summarizing the whole story, movie, or song. This activity helped me to better understand the point of what a analytical paper is supposed to be about and what it contains.

Fall Ball Is Over

Now that fall ball is over, I finally have some extra time on my hands to do whatever I want. It is so nice knowing that I can relax after class. I am not struggling to get all of my assignments done on time, I can take some time to myself now. We still have four player workouts but they are usually only for about a half hour so that isn't to bad. At first I did not know what to do with my time because I was so used to being rushed and making sure that I was doing all my school work and making it to practice on time. Now I have more time to study, take more time on my homework, and I think that this will improve my grades as well.

A Rose For Emily

This was my favorite read for the past week. I was very engaged in the story the whole time. I have always liked creepy stories, thats about the only kinds of stories that I really like to read. I really liked the way the author described how that Emily was this normal woman at first but then she becomes crazy and turns out to be a freak, and the fact that her family has a history of becoming crazy in life. I thought it was kind of an open ended ending because you could interpret the story in different ways depending on the person. I personally thought she killed the man because she was annoying with him trying to start a business around her house but thats just my opinion.

Brown and Gold Games

This weekend wraps up the end of our fall ball season for baseball. It has been something that I will remember for a very long time. It has been stressful and amazing all at the same time. I'm excited to end this fall playing two more games and showing what we have accomplished as a team. These a legit 9 inning games, we broke up the whole team and made two teams to compete against each other. We play a three game series, which we have already played one but the final two are this weekend. All of our parents and family are invited to come watch and there will be a dinner after the game on Saturday. I couldn't think of a better way to end this with having our parents get to come see how we have grown and matured as a team thus far.

Blurred Lines

On Friday we learned more on how to analyze songs and other works. We broke down the song "Blurred Lines" and found the real meaning of it. I found it interesting the way that the artist described a situation without having to say a whole lot. I finally understood the meaning once we broke down the lyrics and analyzed important parts of the song. I still need to take more time breaking down writings and songs to get the full meaning of them. I tend to overlook a lot of important information and thats why I get different interpretations of what the true meaning or message is of the work.

Looking deeper into Carrie and Music

This week we learned how to look deeper into the movie Carrie. We learned about the themes and the how the movie presented them and what the point of them were. Example: My group talked about the theme of innocence vs sin, and how the movie presented that. We learned how both of them can relate to each other, like Carrie was an innocent girl for the most part but her mother though she was a sinner. It was interesting to see how they intertwine with one another. I also found that dissecting the songs was interesting, it made me see the meaning on the lyrics and the messages that were coming across to me. For next week, I need to learn how to analyze information a little better to understand the main points/messages a movie or song is trying to present.

Bow Season

Wednesday was the first day of deer season here in Michigan. I have always been big into deer hunting from the first time my dad took me out into the woods. He never was really big into bow hunting though, I picked up on that myself. There is no greater challenge then getting a mature deer close enough to kill with a bow. It is an indescribable feeling I get when I have a big buck standing at thirty yards. My adrenaline is going crazy and it is the best feeling. Bow hunting takes so much practice, you have to spend hours going out and sightting it in. Now a days you need to have a newer bow to increase your chances of having a successful hunt. But this weekend is the first time I will be able to go out and hunt. Its been in my head all week and I'm very anxious to get out in the stand. I have always been an addict when it comes to hunting, it's a passion that I will always have and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Carrie Movie/ Paper

What I found interesting in the movie was all of the themes the movie had. Taking notes made me look deeper into the movie and see what different themes occurred. It also made me realize how often they would reoccur. I think taking notes on a movie gives you a better outlook on the movie as a whole. Trading papers and reading "unknown" ones was fun because we got to try and figure out who the person was by the way they would write. It was difficult for me because my person didn't really reveal themselves that much. But it made you go deeper into the paper and look for the little things to figure out who the writer was. This was fun because it really does show you what kind of a writer you are and how they explain themselves throughout a paper even when they don't come out and say who they are.

My Journey

My journey here so far at Western has had it's ups and downs. Having to get up early for class almost every morning is really tough do to the fact that I love sleeping, but having practice at 1:30 everyday forces me to have this schedule. The first week of classes was a tough adjustment, I felt so lost with where my classes were going to be and was overwhelmed thinking about getting all my homework done on time. I have begun to figure out a system of good time management, as that is going to be a huge key for me to be successful this year and keep my eligible to play baseball in the spring. It is also a little different and time consuming making sure I spend extra time reviewing the things that I have learned and developing a system of good study habits. College is far different from high school, you don't have the teachers there to ask if you understanding the material, if you have a problem I have to take the time to go to them and ask questions as to how I need to do something. It's starting to be routine now and it will only get easier as the year goes on. I'm excited to see how I grow as a student and a person throughout my freshman year of college.

Cultural Baggage and Pet Milk

Cultural Baggage was easy to relate to because my family is the same way. We don't really have any traditions that we passed down, we are just our own people. I liked the way it was expressed that it is okay to have "none" as a culture, this world keeps advancing so some are moving away from the traditions their families started a long time ago.
Pet Milk's setting set the whole mood of the poem. It connected the past (his grandmas era) to the way they did things and it got me to picture what life was like in Europe at that time. The romantic date they go on relates back to the older days and but still in the present time. If the setting were different in this story, it would have a completely different view and meaning to me. I could really picture what this story was trying to represent and show.

WMU Baseball

College baseball is far different then what high school baseball was. Having only practiced for two weeks, I have learned so much. The coaching at this level is more intense and you have less room for error. I have enjoyed the first two weeks of baseball so far! It is tough though going from classes in the morning then to a 3-4 hour practice, and on top of all that we are required to go to study table for at least 250 minutes a week. The expectations in college are far greater than they were in high school. It takes a little bit of an adjustment but it will become routine here very soon. I'm excited to get into spring when we actually start the regular season games and bring a trophy back to WMU!!!

Revealing the Speaker

This week I learned how to establish who the speakers were in the two poems that we read together in class. Breaking down each sentence and what was said helped to figure out who the speaker was and who he/she was talking too. It doesn't come right out and say who the speaker was, you had to look deeper into the text to figure out who it was. I need to work on taking the time to look at each sentence and being able to find points that reveal who the speaker is. Some of my classmates pointed out some good sentences that helped reveal who the speaker was, and I completely missed those when I was looking through the poems.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Tanner Allison. I am a freshman here at Western Michigan, and I plan to major in Business Management and minor in Marketing. I am from a very small town about an hour and a half from here named Portland. I have always been really big into sports, I guess you could say that they are a passion of mine. I was lucky enough to play at Comerica Park and Ford Field in high school. I got to play in the high school all-star game for baseball and I won a state championship in football my junior year. I came to Western on a baseball scholarship. To be honest it wasn't my first choice but after all the research and visits I went to, this felt like home to me. My hobbies/interest are hunting, fishing, playing sports, and hanging with friends.