Community Event

On Saturday December 10^th, I attended the men’s varsity basketball game against Hastings College.  The game was at home, in the Flanagan Center, at 4p.m.  I sat in the student section, about 4 or 5 rows from the top of the bleachers.  It was one of the only spots open.  When I arrived, I sat down with Jake Buelt and as the game went on some of my JV basketball teammates sat behind me.  This was a pretty big game for the team, especially since it was a home game.  Hastings College is a pretty good team.  I believe their record is at least .500.  There were quite a number of people attending this game.  Mostly, the fans were from Briar Cliff considering Hastings is about 4 hours away.  It was a close game.  Both teams going back and forth and every player was fighting for each basket.  When I watch basketball games, it is usually different from how everyone else watches games.  Being a basketball player myself, I tend to notice things that the normal fan doesn’t.  For example, when someone doesn’t play help-side defense or when a play was run to perfection.  Also, I know all of the players personally and I know what their strengths and weaknesses are.  Whereas other fans, like Mark Petersen, tend to just enjoy yelling ridiculous things at the referees and opposing players.  I enjoyed discussing different plays and players with my fellow JV teammates sitting with me.  We congratulate a fellow teammate on the floor for making a good shot, grabbing a tough rebound, or hitting a big 3-point shot. 

The Briar Cliff men’s basketball team was leading Hastings College by around 5 at halftime as both teams went into their locker rooms.  During this halftime, Jake Buelt and I went down onto the court to join in a game of knock out with other students and kids.  I, of course, got out on my first shot.  It must have been a boy’s scout night because there were tons of them everywhere and they had their own game of knock-out on the other basket.  The Boy Scouts also, had a foot race during one of the timeouts.

At the start of the second half, both teams were still going at it.  No one team was giving each other an advantage.  I don’t think the lead for either team got over about 6 or 7.  As I said, both teams were going back and forth but Briar Cliff seemed to be taking control, holding the lead for a good amount of the second half.  Yet, number 33 on Hastings College was keeping his team in it.  He had almost half his team’s points it seemed like and was pretty much the only player doing anything.  I thought our team had the win but Hastings pulled away at the end and won by around 7.  This was one of the better basketball games I have watched, but it all came down to who wanted it most and I guess that team was not us. 

The last one

I, myself am not catholic so I had a first hand experience. This class is not going to convert me but it does give me a new perspective of religion and of life. I think I learned more about the ideals of francis by doing service, donating, and being involved in the community.

Event Reflection

On Sunday, November 6 the Doyle scholars took about 2 hours out of their day to collect items from areas around Briar Cliff to put into the food drive.  At first I really didn’t want to go to the event.   It was from two to four, which is in the middle of the day and I felt like this was time that I could have put to better use.  I just had no motivation to do anything on a Sunday afternoon.  Nevertheless, I went.  Everyone was put into around 15 groups and each group was given a map of the area in which they were supposed to collect food items.  My group was pretty large, with around 8 or 10 people, so we split our group in half in order to get to every house as quickly as possible.  In my group were myself, Taylor Craig, Brittney Walsh, and Sydney Moran.  I nominated to drive everyone to our selected neighborhood with my car.  I really did not want to go to this, but when we arrived in the neighborhood the three girls told me that I could just stay in my car and follow them while they went door to door and collected food items.  Of course I agreed.  I mean why would I want to walk when I can drive.  This definitely helped my morale some.   I drove for a good hour, just following the girls as they collected food and putting it in my trunk, which was slowly filling up.  My trunk was filling up more than I had anticipated.  Almost everyone that answered the door donated food and some people even left food out ahead of time for us to collect.  It was then that I realized what we were really out collecting this food for.  These two hours that I was giving up was helping give food to people less fortunate than the people donating and less fortunate than myself.  I realized the importance of my time spent in order to help get people food. 

            So after we had been going at it for about an hour, or halfway, I let Taylor (my girlfriend) drive my car while I went from house to house.  My feelings toward this event had changed and now I was perfectly fine with walking from house to house, asking people to donate for the food drive, and carry many bags of food.  We finished in a little less than an hour.  My trunk was completely full.  It a good thing it was empty beforehand, because we ended up having to pile bags on top of each other.  Seeing this only increased my feeling of the good that we were doing in collecting food for the needy and also the goodness of the many people who donated for the food drive.  

Community Event

1. Food Drive for

Arab spring questions

What were the protests like? Were they peaceful or violent? Did you use social networking more during this time.

Learned about the reading

I learned that Egypts leader just walked out of office after protests.

Skills as a writer

Since I apparently never did my post about my paper, I will comment about it here. In writing, I lack description. I don't like to be very elaborate or descriptive. I prefer to be straight to the point much like how I speak. This is bad in writing because the reader needs details and imagery in order to completely understand what it is I'm writing.

My writing probably has not improved since our first paper. I think if I write more drafts though it will help my writing. It allows me to get my ideas on paper first and then go back through and add details.

Two important things

Our gender debate was important because since men are declining and women are going up, women should technically be opening the door for me and let the man go first.

I learned I'm not the only person who plays contract killer.

Awesome article

This article is awesome because it talks about the prevalence of women suicide bombers and terrorists. When someone thinks of a suicide bomber or terrorist, they normally think of a male but about 30% of all suicide bomb attacks are women. This is something that has been happening but no one really thinks of a woman doing something like this. Normally we think of the man sacrificing himself while the woman takes care of the family but in reality it might be the other way around in some cases.


Mother. Daughter. Sister. Bomber. (cover story). EBSCO
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=119&sid=a760ea36-7c67-44e6-a314-0945f178cbc4%40sessionmgr111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=18838904

The most interesting thing in class for me today was the fact that 90% of people in South Sudan live on less than a dollar a day. While the average for everyone is around $3.27. This disparity will be a real problem for the new country.

Service Day

Helping clean the park and the house on Thursday was a great experience for me.  I am from Sioux City so I heard about the flood almost everyday, but going out and seeing it with my own eyes on Thursday is really something you can't describe.  It was crazy to see how some of the residents literally tore everything out of their house in order to preserve it.  The house we went to looked like it was currently being built, but really the owners probably tore out all of their carpet, trim, etc.  Seeing these homes really put into perspective that these people will be out of their home for a long time and not everyone is able to find a different place to stay.  Before Thursday I didn't really think the flood was that big of a deal but I definitely do now.

Immigration Readings

The first two readings mainly contain statistics of immigrants into the U.S. and different laws that the U.S. has imposed on immigration.  Whereas the last article is taken from actual immigrates points of view.  All three articles talk about the decision to either show compassion towards the needy people who come to the U.S. only because it is the only way for them to survive or to follow the laws and deny them access.  There are good arguments for both sides which the three articles point out.  For example, the first article talks about how bad the economies and governments are in some of these countries.  This is why people have to immigrate somewhere else.  They don't have any other choice.  Yet on the other side, the U.S. can't let every single person come into the states because there is simply not enough money, resources, or space to hold them all.

Found Identity to Made Identity

Francis starts off relying on his fathers popularity and money.  He is living in his fathers footsteps and this life is pretty much given to him.  This is his made identity.  He begins to find his identity when he is rude to the beggar in his fathers store.  He then states that he will, from then on, listen to anyone who begs in the name of God.  From then on he goes against his made identity when he begs himself and angers his father.  Francis makes the decision to follow in the name of God, against his father, and does some crazy things like walking naked in the plaza to find his found identity.

Question 2

I agree with Ted that the internet is almost too customized for the users. For example, when I'm on facebook, I find that I see the same people on my news feed everytime I get on.  While facebook might not be that big of deal though, the news is. If users are only shown the news that they enjoy or relate to then these people will only look at things from their perspective rather than from other's perspective.

Question 1

My favorite essay was the one entitled, 1 dead in attic. It intrigued me that this person in the attic could have been the author's barber, served him at a restaraunt, or could still be in the attic yet.  It moved me the most, I think, because of how blatant the message was.  Anywhere else in the world this would be a big deal but this is commonplace for New Orleans.