Could you imagine falling out of a plane, and having no way of slowing yourself down? This is something a family friend of my parents named Jeff Schmidt, had happen to him. He attended The United States Military Academy at West Point, for schooling and as a result you owe service to the army for the schooling. One of his training missions consisted of skydiving out of airplanes to get experience. Sky diving was something he had completed numerous other times, but in this one instance everything went wrong. He was planning on it being just another day when his whole life would be impacted.
He was in the plane and it was his time to jump, he jumped and was now free falling, when it came time to open the parachute the unthinkable occurred, it was twisted up and didn’t open the way it was designed to. I couldn’t imagine the thoughts racing through his head at the time, and how he could manage to stay calm. He was twisting around and dropping at an increasing rate, and ultimately smacked the ground. As a result of the fall he broke his legs and everything from the waist up. Amazingly after all of this he is still able to walk today. He told me about a man who came running over; panicked and yelling “where is the dead man.” This event is something that changed his life forever, he wasn’t able to keep being a part of the army, and went into his career in law.
I first met Jeff as I played football with his son in elementary school, and he was the coach. I would end up playing with his son in football until high school. As a result we became close family friends, and all of us went hunting and fishing all the time together. He was and still is a very intelligent and motivational man, with all of his experiences and ways of motivating others. Due to the sky diving accident he had to have many operations and surgeries to get rid of the many injuries incurred from the event.
As he is growing older, more and more problems are coming out, and mostly due to the fall. He suffers from a lot of arthritis as you may expect, and has pain at all times. He can separate his shoulder just by raising his arms, and has learned to tolerate a lot of pain. He is unable to hunt any more due to the gun kicking back on his arm, and risking hurting his shoulder. Another thing that bothers his everyday life is a problem he has developed with his throat. From impact of the fall his throat almost feels like it is collapsing on him. He usually cannot talk for longer than a sentence or two before he has to clear his throat, because it feels like he is about to choke he says. The worst part about that is that the doctors don’t have a way to reverse it or prevent it from getting worse. He was a very successful lawyer and even his career has been affected. From the throat problem, it caused him to need to leave his career on disability. He was unable to speak for an extended period of time in a courtroom, which is vital for a lawyer to be able to perform, causing him to leave his life career on disability. The good thing about Jeff is that he still has his joking personality and seems to always be happy when you are around him.
It is always sad to see people grow older and suffer from different age related problems. To add to the problems everyone gets with old age, Jeff has to deal with the effects of his skydiving accident that occurred more than 30 years back. It was undeniably a life changing event that he was blessed to survive, but along with that there are many consequences that have changed him physically as a person. As you may expect, in order to get into the Military program at West Point, you cannot just rely on your brains, but you must be a very athletic and healthy person, and as a result from the fall it has dramatically affected his previously active lifestyle. This is the type of event that occurs in one person’s life that they feel for the rest of their life.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Thursday, March 5, 2009
My Mix
Son's Gonna Rise- Citizen Cope
100 Years- Five For Fighting
Someday-Flipside
Sky's the Limit- Lil Wayne
Heart of a Champion-Nelly
Live like you were dying-Tim McGraw
Life is a Highway-Rascall Flatts
Good People- Jack Johnson
Get Up-50 cent
Headstrong-Trapt
Why are these songs important to you? How or where did you first encounter them? (Through a friend? The radio, television, the Internet, or magazine?)
These songs honestly dont have very much meaning to me. I dont find myself trying to relate to the songs that I listen to. These are just songs that I enjoy listening to. I heard most of them on the radio or my friends told me about them. Most of them are pretty mainstream.
What does your mix say about who you are? How much do your musical choices reflect your sense of self and the subcultures you belong to?
100 Years- Five For Fighting
Someday-Flipside
Sky's the Limit- Lil Wayne
Heart of a Champion-Nelly
Live like you were dying-Tim McGraw
Life is a Highway-Rascall Flatts
Good People- Jack Johnson
Get Up-50 cent
Headstrong-Trapt
Why are these songs important to you? How or where did you first encounter them? (Through a friend? The radio, television, the Internet, or magazine?)
These songs honestly dont have very much meaning to me. I dont find myself trying to relate to the songs that I listen to. These are just songs that I enjoy listening to. I heard most of them on the radio or my friends told me about them. Most of them are pretty mainstream.
What does your mix say about who you are? How much do your musical choices reflect your sense of self and the subcultures you belong to?
I do you think at times you can tell alot about a person from their music and their personality. I think it may show that I like the type of music that can pump you up, or some country that has a cool lyrics to it. The person who looked at my song list had me right on, he thought that based off the songs that I like sports, hang out with friends alot and that I would dress relaxed. I thought it was kind of funny when I looked at it and he guessed that much correct information from my mix.
What would people learn about you by listening to your mix? What wouldn’t they be able to learn about you?
I guess they could learn that I like the mainstream rap and country that goes around and that I am a into athletics, due to the fact that some of these songs are used for pregame songs for some sporting events. It may be impossible for someone to automaticall ydetermine what type of person someone is by just listening to some of their music, but for some things it may be a good indicator.
What does your mix indicate about your connection to something larger? How is it a reflection of the larger culture?
Im not sure how my mix would relate me to something larger. Possibly that I like to listen to music current with my age group for hte most part, and dont live in the past.
How well did you do making inferences based on your classmate’s list of songs? What did you get right? Wrong? Explain.
I am not sure how well I described the person, based off their music. We didnt get to see the person who had each mix and their inferences made about them. If we would have gone over who each of us had, I do feel like most of the perceptions we got from each others music could have had some truth to them.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Throwing a Baseball
Most people learn to throw a baseball at a very young age, and have to fine tune a few small things to get the most out of every throw. It seems like everyone who throws a baseball has a different throwing style, whether it is sidearm, three quarters or just a little hitch to their motion. Most of the time if someone has an awkward throwing style, their arm will get sore or injured easier than the people with better form. In order to achieve the best form possible, there are a few steps to follow.
The first step to throwing is to get your whole body stretched out and to loosen up your arm muscles as much as possible. Stretching before throwing will prevent injury and make throwing easier to start out. Along with stretching it is important to play catch from a short distance to loosen up your arm, then you can start backing up slowly and lengthening your throws. Before you can start playing catch you will have to understand how to hold the ball, position your body, and how to throw the ball. The first step is learning how to grip the ball, you should have your pointer and middle finger on the top part of the ball, and your thumb should kind of support the ball. It will help to grip the ball so that your fingers cross over the seams, to have control on the ball. Your grip can cause the ball to tail to the left or right if you don’t have the correct grip. The next step is your stance for throwing. Start out by planting your back foot, which is the same as your throwing arm, at an angle of about 45 degrees away from your target. Then with your front foot(non throwing side), step forward and point that foot at your target, leading with your non throwing shoulder. To check your form, both of your shoulders should have an imaginary line straight to your target. If your chest is facing your target before you are starting to release the ball you are dramatically reducing the potential velocity of your throw.
The next step is the actual throwing. With the grip we already went over, put your arm down to your side then extend it straight back as far as possible and at head height. After your arm is as far back as possible and feels comfortable your wrist should be cocked backwards, and relaxed. Making it look like the ball is facing the opposite way of the target and your knuckles facing the target. The next step is bringing the ball forward by pointing your glove at the target and bringing the ball forward at about ear level. Once the ball is near your head, start slowly releasing it, while also bringing your glove into your armpit. This will cause your arm to whip through the zone and get the maximum velocity, and control.
Follow through by having your arm go diagonally in front of your body. Your arm should be in motion across your body, causing your back leg to kick forward in front of your body. You should allow this to happen because it will help your accuracy and also the velocity of the throw. If you stop the follow through it will steal some of the power that generated from the throw.
If you follow these small but important steps, it will prevent injury and help you throw the ball with accuracy and velocity. As I said earlier many people have varying throwing techniques that work for them. It is all about personal preference and what feels right. If this throwing style feels right for you, that is a very good thing. This style is probably the best form in order to prevent injury and get the most out of every throw.
The first step to throwing is to get your whole body stretched out and to loosen up your arm muscles as much as possible. Stretching before throwing will prevent injury and make throwing easier to start out. Along with stretching it is important to play catch from a short distance to loosen up your arm, then you can start backing up slowly and lengthening your throws. Before you can start playing catch you will have to understand how to hold the ball, position your body, and how to throw the ball. The first step is learning how to grip the ball, you should have your pointer and middle finger on the top part of the ball, and your thumb should kind of support the ball. It will help to grip the ball so that your fingers cross over the seams, to have control on the ball. Your grip can cause the ball to tail to the left or right if you don’t have the correct grip. The next step is your stance for throwing. Start out by planting your back foot, which is the same as your throwing arm, at an angle of about 45 degrees away from your target. Then with your front foot(non throwing side), step forward and point that foot at your target, leading with your non throwing shoulder. To check your form, both of your shoulders should have an imaginary line straight to your target. If your chest is facing your target before you are starting to release the ball you are dramatically reducing the potential velocity of your throw.
The next step is the actual throwing. With the grip we already went over, put your arm down to your side then extend it straight back as far as possible and at head height. After your arm is as far back as possible and feels comfortable your wrist should be cocked backwards, and relaxed. Making it look like the ball is facing the opposite way of the target and your knuckles facing the target. The next step is bringing the ball forward by pointing your glove at the target and bringing the ball forward at about ear level. Once the ball is near your head, start slowly releasing it, while also bringing your glove into your armpit. This will cause your arm to whip through the zone and get the maximum velocity, and control.
Follow through by having your arm go diagonally in front of your body. Your arm should be in motion across your body, causing your back leg to kick forward in front of your body. You should allow this to happen because it will help your accuracy and also the velocity of the throw. If you stop the follow through it will steal some of the power that generated from the throw.
If you follow these small but important steps, it will prevent injury and help you throw the ball with accuracy and velocity. As I said earlier many people have varying throwing techniques that work for them. It is all about personal preference and what feels right. If this throwing style feels right for you, that is a very good thing. This style is probably the best form in order to prevent injury and get the most out of every throw.
Out of Comfort Zone-Dress Up
The clothing I chose to wear was just a really bright pink T-shirt. I am not the type of guy who likes to wear pink, therfore it fit the role of taking me out of my comfort zone. I didnt want to go too far overboard, because I didnt want people making up false assumptions about me. For example, like the example wearing makeup, (wasnt even a thought to do that) I wouldnt want to walk around all day and be known as the guy who wore makeup by people who didnt know why I was doing it.
I actually wasn't treated differently by my peers, I think it is because some guys do wear pink. It just wasnt something I liked to do, but I dont recall my friends saying anything until I told them what I was doing. I know for sure my friends in highschool would have given me crap for wearing the bright pink shirt, as a joke, but maybe its just because I knew them better.
Like I said, I didnt hear anything about my clothing, but I am sure some of the kids in our class heard some laughs or whispers about what they were wearing.
I can still say that clothes have alot to do with someones personality. We wore our flashy clothes for a class, therefore that obviously doesnt represent the persons actual style or personality, but it was more of a joke. I feel it is fair to say that clothes do have alot to do with a person, because people do choose what they wear. I dont think that saying clothes can say alot about a person should be negative thing as some might percieve that statement. Rather it is an oppurtunity for people to express themselves and their individual style.
I actually wasn't treated differently by my peers, I think it is because some guys do wear pink. It just wasnt something I liked to do, but I dont recall my friends saying anything until I told them what I was doing. I know for sure my friends in highschool would have given me crap for wearing the bright pink shirt, as a joke, but maybe its just because I knew them better.
Like I said, I didnt hear anything about my clothing, but I am sure some of the kids in our class heard some laughs or whispers about what they were wearing.
I can still say that clothes have alot to do with someones personality. We wore our flashy clothes for a class, therefore that obviously doesnt represent the persons actual style or personality, but it was more of a joke. I feel it is fair to say that clothes do have alot to do with a person, because people do choose what they wear. I dont think that saying clothes can say alot about a person should be negative thing as some might percieve that statement. Rather it is an oppurtunity for people to express themselves and their individual style.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
My Findings
After looking into this assignment it has really shown me the culture and many different things that go into every university. Most universities are very similiar and their main goal is to inform students about topics and help them develop skills for the future. I have became more knowledgable about our university like the Blugold question and about the different sculptures on campus.
Foriegn Differences
After reading My Freshman year, we have all heard the stereotypes and things the foreign students say about us and our university. After Jordan and I talked to Chee from China, he said the system here has many more options for students than in his country. He did admit that the classes do seem more laid back as well. I think it proves the points made in My Freshman Year, I think it may be true that our classes are more laid back, but I somewhat disagree when they say that you can go to an exam here and not study the info and get a b or higher. For me at least I dont think it is that easy, ike Rebekkah Nathan says in the book.
Students Study Habits
I interviewed multiple kids and most of them preffered different studying environments. I talked to a student named Adam who likes to study in his room with his stereo playing at the same time. Drew said he likes to study in the basement of Murray Hall, Joey studies on his bed, with headphones on, and the other Drew I surveyed prefers to study in a fairly quiet place, which is usually his room. Finally I did talk to one student named Jake who actually likes to study in the main library at night in order to be the most productive. I think it is interesting that with only 5 people that I interviewed, they all prefer different places to hit the books. Myself I have to study in a quiet environment, usually my room is the place I prefer as long as it is fairly quiet.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
