Extra Credit Blog Post

This quarter when we watched Food, Inc I learned a lot about our food industry that I did not know before. I learned a lot of things that made an impact for me and made me want to make a conscious effort to change the way I eat.

Before Food, Inc, I never really paid much attention to the food I ate or especially to the food I bought. Up until college, I gave literally zero consideration to the food I ate, I simply ate whatever my parents had in the refrigerator. At college, my food purchases are motivated largely by price and I tend to buy whatever is the cheapest. I've been working to change that since I've been educated by the film and book Food, Inc.

I've always been a big meat fan. Meat has been a staple in my diet for my entire life, that's 21 years, and I never knew half of the information that Food Inc talked about. I remember this past summer, my mom made a big deal about buying "grass fed" beef. Honestly, at the time I thought it was stupid, and I thought to myself "Why dont you just go to the grocery store and get meat there....it looks better there anyways." But my mom insisted on going to the farmers market to get her meat there. After the movie, I can understand why my mom did what she did. Food Inc taught me that grass fed beef is the natural way cows ought to be raised. Grass provides them with more vital nutrition than corn feed does. On some levels, corn actually physically hurts the cows and makes them sick because they cant digest it properly. The whole system of meat production in our food industry is pretty shady if you ask me.

On another note, I've always known a few vegetarians who take their stand against the meat industry for one reason or another. Most of the time it's either that they say vegetables are more healthy or that their standing against animal cruelty. I never thought I would agree with these people, I always have thought they were being dramatic when it came to the treatment of animals. But after what I saw in Food Inc, I cant help but feel obligated to agree to some extent that the way we treat our animals, the way we farm our meat seems inhumane to me.

Because of this, I've decided to change the way that I eat. I'll never be able to be a vegetarian - meat is too much a part of my diet and I like it too much to give it up. But what I can do is try to get my meat from a farmers market instead of at wal-mart. Every saturday there is a farmers market in Athens, and I've been trying to get my produce there instead of at Wal-Mart. Even when I have to go to Krogers or Wal-Mart, I'm a much more conscious consumer. I pay attention to the nutritional value of the food Im looking at. Also, I've always eaten mostly red meat. I figured for my first goal in the process of changing the way I eat could be to cut down on my red meat consumption and eat more turkey and chicken. I also like fish a lot, so I want to probably try to eat more fish instead of burgers and steaks.

Reflection Essay: Blogging and Me

Blogging and Me
Throughout the quarter, we were asked to regularly contribute to our own blogs. Our blog posts often covered an array of topics from deforestation to ethanol and corn production. For me, though, it is not so much the content of the numerous blog posts I’ve made over the course of this quarter; it is more about the experience. This was the first interaction I’ve had with blogging and I’ll admit that at first I was a bit intimidated by the whole idea. I know that in today’s age almost everybody has a blog about one thing or another, but I have not been one of those people (bloggers) until I took this class.
The first blog post I made was titled “about the author,” and I’ll admit, this being my first time ever blogging, I was at a bit of a loss for what to say. Even though the content was only about myself, I remember thinking about how this post would be immediately public to anyone who might stumble across it. I recall thinking a lot about HOW I wrote about myself and less about the content itself. I’ve read blogs before and I feel like it’s not always the content that makes a blog good, sometimes it is more about the way that content is presented. My favorite blogs all allow a good amount of personality to come through their writing so I knew I sort of wanted to emulate that style. Especially with my first post, I wanted people to understand who I was not just from the content I chose to include, but also from the personality that I hope came through in the ways I presented it.
After that first post, nearly all of the content I posted was a required post outlining some required content that we went over in class. I have a couple of thoughts about this. First, I feel like being assigned subjects to post about almost takes away from the authentic blog experience. Blogging, to me, is sharing your personal thoughts, opinions, and insights with anyone willing to read, and I feel like posting on assigned things sort of detracts from the overall aesthetic of blogging. We could just as easily have turned in those assignments. That said, though the content was assigned, the responses are very much individualized and genuine. In that way, I feel like this was a good exercise in blogging because it exposed us to this media form. Another thing I quite liked about this blogging adventure was that it became extremely easy and convenient to navigate to and from various classmates work. It is almost like we had a personal forum for our class and it was a cool way to share thoughts and ideas.
Blogs are also much different than writing a paper to turn in. For one thing, I felt like there was much more freedom in the writing I submitted. When I write for a paper, my insights and opinions are always well thought out, well organized, and hopefully well articulated. When writing for the blog, I pretty much became accustomed to writing exactly what was on my mind and it became much more of a free-flowing experience than a structured paper. Also, blogs are handy because they allow you to instantly ad to the content of your post. For instance, in my second blog about clean coal, I experimented with including links to the two websites directly pertaining to my post. To me, this is one of the best features of a good blog. When an author can include relevant links, it really does contribute a quality to the reader’s experience that can’t occur in traditional writing.
Another important element of the blogosphere is the ability of readers to comment on posts. This is something that, as a class, we had a lot of interaction with. We were constantly commenting on each other’s blogs and I feel like this really added to the blog experience. A lot of times in my personal experience, I was able to generate a sort of conversation either with the author or another commenter. Sometimes comments would highlight something found directly in the blog and others, conversation would come that had no obvious connection to the topics discussed in the blog. Comments and commenting has an ability to cover a vast variation of content and it all depends on the reader and what he or she got out of the post. It’s that range that really makes commenting special and unique in my opinion.
Now that the quarter has come to an end, I look back and consider this experience with blogging to be a valuable one. I learned first-hand a lot of blogging skills that, otherwise, I may never have encountered. I became familiar with a truly unique form of media that had often times intimidated me in the past. I can say with sincerity that I have a new appreciation for blogs and the elements that they bring to the table; an appreciation that I’ll take with me on the rest of my ventures through the blogosphere.

Argument thesis & Outline

Introduction

Thesis: The power of environmental themes in film often goes unrecognized. The feelings and attitudes expressed through cinematic themes have measurable effects on society, and in-turn, the environment.

(Intro to Section 1)

Section One: The Films we watch

1)Environmental Themes in the Film Bambi

Children are brought up on Disney Movies - it is impossible to ignore the effect of Disney on the early perceptions and beliefs of young children. So, What is Bambi saying to our youth?

What affects do these themes have on the environment?

2)Environmental Themes in the film Erin Brokovich

What does the true story of Erin Brokovich tell us about society at the time of it's release?

What are the moral messages behind the film?

3)Environmental Themes in Avatar

What does a science fiction film say about the environment?

Are the messages blunt or subtle? Are they concrete or open for interpretation?

Section Two: Why does it all matter?

Examine the number of viewers that films reach. Objective is to highlight the power and reach of the motion picture industry

Film contributes to changes in opinion and thus changes in society and therefore indirectly has an impact on how we look at and treat our environment

Is this all a form of greenwashing, or do films mean what they say?

Conclusion.

Bibliography:

Grant, Charles. "Winner Takes it All." Sight & Sound 20.2 (2010): 13-13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Grover, Ronald. "Box Office Supercharger." Businessweek 4163 (2010): 30-31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Hattam, Jennifer. "Pop Corner." Sierra 92.2 (2007): 30-30. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Holman, Curt. "Environmental Films: It's Not Easy Being Green." Creative Loafing. 16 Apr. 2008. Web. 11 Feb. 2010. .

James, Nick. "Come the Revolutions." Sight & Sound 20.2 (2010): 5-5. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Lutts, Ralph H. "The Trouble with Bambi: Walt Disney's Bambi and the American Vision of Nature." Forest and Conservation History Oct. 1992: 160-71. Print.

Meisner, Mark. "Filmography of Nature and Environmental Movies." Environmental Communication Network. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

Schueller, Gretel. "Can Hollywood Save the World?" Sierra 86.4 (2001): 68-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Schultz, Karen B. "Jack Johnson's Low Impact Tour." Scientific American 18.4 (2009): 14-15. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Svetkey, Benjamin. "New Face of Movies." Entertainment Weekly 1086 (2010): 26-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Yuankai, Tang. "Cinema's Golden Age." Beijing Review 53.2 (2010): 22-23. Academic

Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Food Inc. pt 2

There is a whole lot of substance in this topic and almost everything I learn makes me want to help the situation out. The biggest way I think I could help is probably to purchase my food smarter. My girlfriend always wants to go to the farmers market...any farmers market anywhere, she'll go and after learning what I have about our processed grocery store food, I respect her a lot for doing so; In fact I wish that I shopped that way.

Im also a big meat eater, and it makes up such a big chunk of my diet that I'm not sure that I could change that or give it up. What I think I can do though, is to be more cautious of the meat I eat. I want to start to go to the farmers market and buy there first. I'll also make a conscious effort to go organic in the stores that I shop at, hoping that those purchases will be better.

In terms of the ethanol that is talked about in this section, people probably aren't going to side with me here but I don't hate ethanol that much. I met a guy once who was working on ethanol as a fuel source and he was so up beat and excited about it. This wasn't the kind of profit hoarding guy who got excited because he wanted to rip people off, this was genuine excitement at the prospect of doing something that helped the world out. When I think about this, I tend to lean a little bit towards this man's side. I know that ethanol research has largely stopped, but while it was happening, what was so bad about taking a crop that we have an excess of and trying to use that excess as a fuel source? In my opinion, if it could be done right, it seems sort of brilliant.

My Position for the Research Argument Paper

For my research argument paper, I intend to take the position that films, especially environmental films, often affect the people who watch them. I want to present the argument that these films have power and their messages can and do influence the viewers who receive them. My topic really doesn't have a clear cut left side or right side to take, so this is what I think would be the easiest distinction, and I also think this would be the most fun to do. I'm looking forward to asserting (and supporting) my own thoughts and opinions on this topic so I hope it will work out nicely.

Food Inc.

Admittedly, I was skeptical of this book and this movie before we started looking at it. I was dreading the day we started looking at this stuff. What could we possible talk about that would be interesting at all? I thought it would be the typical animal cruelty discussion and that would be how we spend the majority of our classes with this topic. Needless to say, I was wrong. After watching the film, I was more than impressed with the information they discussed. I had no idea about the overall structure of our food industry not to mention the affects of that structure. I'm not however, completely naive, I did know that most of the food we consume is processed in factories, but after watching Food Inc, I realized that I had no real idea to the extent which that processing occurs. I didn't know that the meatpacking and production industries are controlled by 3 or 4 GIGANTIC corporations. I didn't know that those corporations pay farmers (poorly) to generate mass amounts of food to be processed. I thought it was gross that the Chickens are fed to get so unnaturally large that they can't walk but more than a few steps. I thought it was crazy that feeding cows corn instead of grass has a huge effect on their health and the health value of the meat we consume. Deadly E. Coli coming from corn fed cows was an issue that I had really no knowledge of. My mom always looks for grass fed beef, and I've never really asked or wondered why...I simply thought it was a weird phase she was in, but now I understand the reasons behind her motivation (Thanks Mom).

I also found it very very interesting how the film highlighted ways in which it's cheaper to eat unhealthy in this country. That's something that I've noticed in my first few years at college, living on my own, buying groceries out of my own pocket...it's much cheaper, and often times easier, to buy bad food than it is to purchase the healthier items. Thats a dynamic that is so backwards it boggles my mind a bit. All in all, I think that this book will highlight a lot of important issues that will be beneficial to talk about. I'm looking forward to the rest of what's coming.

unofficial bibliography

Works Cited

Grant, Charles. "Winner Takes it All." Sight & Sound 20.2 (2010): 13-13. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Grover, Ronald. "Box Office Supercharger." Businessweek 4163 (2010): 30-31. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Hattam, Jennifer. "Pop Corner." Sierra 92.2 (2007): 30-30. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

James, Nick. "Come the Revolutions." Sight & Sound 20.2 (2010): 5-5. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Schueller, Gretel. "Can Hollywood Save the World?" Sierra 86.4 (2001): 68-70. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Schultz, Karen B. "Jack Johnson's Low Impact Tour." Scientific American 18.4 (2009): 14-15. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Svetkey, Benjamin. "New Face of Movies." Entertainment Weekly 1086 (2010): 26-32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Yuankai, Tang. "Cinema's Golden Age." Beijing Review 53.2 (2010): 22-23. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2010.

Research Prospectus

Mitch Barley

English 308J

Research Prospectus

Film and the Environment

In today’s society, media plays an extremely important role in the lives of millions of Americans. First, the Internet could provide an entire world of information at the touch of a button. With the revolution of the Smartphone, people now hold those connections in the palms of their hands. Literally. According to research conducted by Liliana Escobar-Chaves and her partner Craig Anderson, the average American youngster now spends one third of their day with some form of electronic media. With such an impressive outreach, it’s important to look at what messages the American media is sending. Perhaps more important, though, is to examine how we’re responding.

In the modern age of high technology and instant gratification, it seems as though we’re always being told that the film industry is weak and cinema is dying. In fact, however, quite the contrary is true.

Two thousand and nine marked a banner year for the film industry and the cinematic experience. The American Motion Picture Industry raked in a record 10.6 billion dollars. The Chinese film industry brought in 6 billion Yuan, or 882 million dollars, and Great Britain posted its most successful year at the box office since 2002. This past year also marked the evolution of the 3D Imax experience and it’s assault on Hollywood and cinema. In 2009, Imax theaters generated about 15% of the total profit accrued by American theaters yet they make up only less than 3% of totals theaters in the states.

Also in the past few years, America (and really the entire global culture) has experienced an innovative and intensive movement for the betterment of the environment. As businesses and individuals continue to “go green,” further spreads the reach of this concentrated campaign for environmental health. But where did these “green” attitudes come from? How did these ideas become such a global phenomenon? The answer likely contains two parts: 1) Environmentalists have been preaching for years many of the green tactics utilized today; and 2) It was media that finally got people to listen.

In an article published in Sierra Magazine in 2001, author Gretel Schuler explores the question “Can Hollywood Save the World?”. In the article, she examines the efforts of the Environmental Media Association (EMA) to utilize the influence of motion pictures and television broadcasting to promote environmental protection and management. Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Southern California, says that it makes perfect sense to reach people through these media. According to Kaplan, using fictional vehicles tends to be extremely effective because viewers directly connect to the characters and stories. “When people are caught up in a story, they tend to pay more attention to messages like that,” Kaplan says (Schueller).

Now, nearly a decade after that article was published, is Hollywood still involved in the green movement to better our environment? Have the efforts by the EMA to reach people through media paid off or backfired? And, does “going green” really mean anything? Or is it a just catchy phrase being thrown to the public as a pawn in a game where profit is the true king?

It’s important to understand the role of media in our daily lives and to dissect and interpret the messages we receive. What is Hollywood saying to us? What is their motivation? How are we responding? In December of 2009, James Cameron and 20^th Century Fox released the highest grossing film of all time. Bringing in nearly 2 billion dollars at the box office, Avatar has made more money in the theaters than any film previously, and, not to mention, is packed with environmental themes and “green” undertones. It has the potential to reach more people than any movie ever made and it’s important to look at what’s being communicated between the lines and through the cinematic experience that has captivated a generation.

Buckeye Forrest Speaker

When David Maywhoor came to speak to our class last Wednesday, I wasn't quite sure what he was going to talk about. I'll admit that I though exactly how much can a forest commission do? I was honestly pretty much dreading listening to an hour of lecture on trees. But after having heard what David had to say, I'm very much pleased that he came to speak. I was very interested in what he had to say about Haiti and how they're in for even more devastation because of the deforestation in the country. I'm consistently impressed at how many applications there are for environmental knowledge that often gets overlooked.

Paper Topic

For my paper I was originally brainstorming ways to somehow incorporate the movie avatar, and this is what I came up with:

I'm sort of a movie buff, so what I'm thinking about doing is looking at how the environment has been discussed in some of the highest grossing films in the last 5 years. The way I see it, what we say through the media says a lot about us as a culture and If I can examine that through movies, I think that's something I could really enjoy.

Feel free to share and input or suggestions!

Last Third of LM

In the last 1/3 of Lost Mountain, Erik Reece uses Wendell Berry's comparison of the "rational" and "sympathetic" minds to explore differences in the ways people think. Rational minded thinkers think mostly in absolutes. They see issues as black and white matters. There is no ambiguity in the world of the "rational" thinker...they dismiss the "grey area". Rational minds often make decisions based on the best possible outcome for themselves, leaving others in the wake of their choices. They pay little attention to how their choices might affect anyone or anything other than themselves.

On the other hand, "sympathetic" thinkers embrace the "grey area" and often heavily consider the implications that are carried in the ambiguous areas of complex issues. Sympathetic thinkers significantly weigh the affects of their actions on others. They consider how their actions and choices will effect others both directly and indirectly. Their prime concern is still to reach the best possible decision for themselves, but they want to reach the best possible decision with the least amount of negative affects on those around them.

In a large way, the entire book Lost Mountain is an example of Reece applying his sympathetic mind to strip mining and mountain top removal in the Appalachians. He examines how this practice negatively affects the inhabitants of the area, both human and animal. He looks at how it negatively affects the mountain itself.

In the final chapter Reece wraps up his account with a lot of statistics and more examples and a general summary of mountain top removal and the many reasons why it's a practice in need of significant remedy. But, my favorite part of Reece's conclusion was when he was talking about writers and their accounts of the nature they fell in love with and ultimately, how, as a culture, we've fallen out of touch with that sort of connection to nature.

"What is disturbing and destructive is that our ethical values, our spiritual values, and our aesthetic values have not kept pace with science. A scientist can explain the exchange of atmospheric vapors that give color to a sunset, but only a poet like William Wordsworth can convey the aesthetic, the spiritual, the inexplicable value of the same sunset. The poet understand the natural world not as a machine, but as an organism with intrinsic values and laws more mysterious than we might have otherwise accounted for."

I know that is a long quote, but I found it profoundly moving and exceptionally convincing. My personal beliefs are a lot on par with the wording in this quote. So many things in nature are mysterious far beyond our comprehension. Its possible our scientists can regurgitate formulas attempting to explain it, but explanation does not always demonstrate understanding. In our many times over active and over industrial world, we too often forget about the mysteries that surround us in nature. We lose touch with the real value of the things around us and when that happens, I believe, we lose small pieces of ourselves.

"

LM Through 162

At this point, we've pretty much gotten to the meat of this book. The further we dive into Reece's research on Lost Mountain, the more his stories hit the hard places and the deeper they twist your stomach.

In this section of the reading, I found more than one example where Reece's experience impacted my emotions. For starters, when he talks about the Slurry runoff (pg 129)....Something like 300 million gallons of toxic coal runoff seeped into Coldwater Creek and Wolf Creek, two bodies of water that people depended on. To me, slurry is probably the scariest aspect of the mountain top removal. Sure, a lot of it is wrong, but I could let a little bulldozing go if I had to. What you can't ignore is when people are put in harms way as a direct result of strip mining and the practice of mountain top removal.

Another danger that Reece touches on is the risk of falling land and rock; he calls it "flyrock." The example he gives about a couple who was rudely inturrupted by a stray boulder stuck out to me. With all the dynamite and explosions, nearby homes are at risk for debris and that's something obvious that I feel is often over-lookcd.

While this book does a good job getting the point across, I, personally, am beginning to feel that I got the point already and now its just being driven home. I just feel like I get the point already and maybe Erik Reece has said all he has to say. Each chapter sort of says the same thing in slightly different language. "Strip Mining and Mountain Top removal is unethical dangerous and terrible for the environment"....I understand.

pgs 1-85

In the first part of Erik Reece's book Lost Mountain, he begins to paint his picture of strip mining coal in the Appalachian Mountains. He tells his story through his observations of a mountain in Kentucky called Lost Mountain. He starts by describing the wildlife that typically inhabit the Appalachians. He talks about different birds and animals and how their habitats are being destroyed by the mountaintop removal practices of the coal industry. Along with completely demolishing Appalachian wildlife habitats, strip mining coal from mountaintops also releases toxic chemicals into the wilderness, and produces a toxic runoff called slurry making the areas inhabitable. Reece does a really nice job accounting his first hand individual experiences. Though I've never been to see the effects of Appalachian strip mining first hand, I have seen a few segments of a documentary depicting the same problem in West Virginia Appalachians. The footage I've seen its pretty captivating and it's really amazing the destruction that these coal mining practices cause.

Reece also starts to talk about how mountain top removal not only effects the wildlife but also affects the people living nearby the mountain. Some of the most compelling information that Reece gives was the firsthand account of Kentucky resident, Teri Blanton. Her testimony includes the story of a well that becomes so overwhelmed with toxic chemicals that anyone who comes into contact with it wont live past 55. To me, that is overwhelming evidence that there's a problem. Later, in the same chapter, Reece mentions his own sort of diagnosis of the situation. He starts to look politically at how the coal companies are 100% aware of the adverse affects of their strip mining practices, and yet they continue to turn a cheek and even go as far as to acknowledge that a more environmentally friendly alternative may exist but they make more of an effort to avoid the new alternative in favor of the more environmentally harmful option because it saves money. On page 50 Reece says "the White Star Cemetery is a collection of terminal facts." This was the perfect quote to end the chapter with and the one I found most captivating. I look forward to continuing my journey through Lost Mountain and I think it will be a very informative and eye opening book.

Clean Coal

So for my class we're supposed to look into the two sides of the clean coal debate by examining two websites, one pro clean coal and one against it.

The first website I checked out was the main website for a campaign against clean coal called "This is Reality". Initially I definitely was entertained as a cartoon canary flies around the screen and takes the reader from fact to fact. With each surprising fact, the canary poetically dies as you read (I say this is poetic, because canaries were historically used to warn miners of dangerous gasses in the mines. The indication of danger came when the toxic gas killed the canary first, thus alerting workers to get out.) The site looks like it's targeted predominantly for individuals who've heard of the campaign and want to learn more/get more involved.

The second website I looked at was Americas Power, a site sponsored by the Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is dedicated to showing the important role coal production plays in our society and how research efforts are underway in an attempt to develop a clean coal technology (or eco friendly coal production) that will revolutionize the industry by making it clean. This site, like its message, looks clean and crisp while seeming intellectual and trustworthy. Based on appearance alone, I felt comfortable that the information on this site was credible. The "reality" site is much darker and much simpler than the bright "power" page. At the power page, it seems that the target audience might be a homeowner, a husband/wife, somebody who pays the bills. The site looks to inform them that coal is a necessity in their lifestyle.

The clean coal debate is essentially this: Coal Production is a dirty industry. It produces a huge amount of greenhouse gas and damages our environment. Clean Coal is a concept that would allow production plants to trap their CO2 emissions prior to their release into our atmosphere. According to "America's Power," over $12 billion is being put into clean coal research, and in the mean time, the coal industry has lowered its toxic emissions by 77% since 1970.

The flip-side of this, and the true thesis of the "reality" campaign, is that the coal industry uses these facts to make the public feel comfortable and content with their efforts, but the reality is that there is not one clean coal plant that exists today.

In my opinion, each site has some strengths and some weaknesses. The "reality" definitely has the edge when it comes to emotional appeal. When the cartoon canary dies as you finish reading the facts, a part of you dies with it and you want to bring down the coal companies. Coupled with the canary's presentation, the emotion brought on with each fact is maximized.

However, the "power" site gets the edge in the logical department. There is so much going on at this site that you can find support for their position in almost every offered link. The "power" site is much deeper than the "reality" site and in my mind, depth of knowledge gives you more credibility. Thus, I also give the edge to the "power" site in terms of trustworthiness. Though this is a close call because there are many powerful facts (with sources) that make up the "reality" site.

To conclude, I really think that these two sites are arguing completely different things. The "reality" site, wants to dispel any rumors that clean coal exists, but on the "power site" there are no indications that they are claiming clean coal plant DO exists, but rather, the research to develop it does. Really I think that both of these sites want the same thing: a clean alternative to the pollution ridden coal production industry that we have today.

About the author

My name is Mitch Barley. I'm a twenty-one year old college junior at Ohio University. At OU, I'm an advertising major with a sociology minor. I created this blog for an English class that I need to take before I graduate in a year. Anyways, my first assignment is to post about myself, so here comes a little rambling:

Hudson, Ohio is where I call home...it's a town that sits right between Akron and Cleveland...and I like it there a lot. I'm not one of those kids who doesn't like to go home, actually, I enjoy it quite a bit.

I'm a big Cleveland Browns fan, and with a family full of Steelers fans, it was incredibly nice to enjoy a victory this year over the black and gold. I LOVE movies. I actually think that my appreciation for movies has a lot to do with why I've chosen the major I have. That's another story that I might be posting about later....but I see a lot of movies.

Lastly, I'll mention that I've been dating my highschool sweetheart for more than 4 years and I couldn't be crazier about her.

Good Day,