Friday, January 28, 2011

My opinions on the OpEd

I thought that the OpEd assignment was a good way to start the year in Writing 150. I enjoy writing my opinions and trying to construct logical arguments to convince people to agree with me, and I felt like this assignment allowed me to do so with enough freedom so as not to stifle my voice.

The voice in my paper was overwhelmingly pessimistic, but as a fairly pessimistic person, it is hard for me to keep that out of my writing, especially when you are complaining about a system that you think needs to be changed. To counter that pessimism in my paper, I came up with what I thought was an optimistic, ideal compromise to the issue I was addressing (general education requirements should be removed).

I am very passionate about my topic, and that made it much easier to write my OpEd and come up with arguments to support my side. I also enjoyed thinking of counter arguments and refuting them in my paper. The assignments where I write about topics I am passionate about are always more fun for me to work on than topics that are forced on you by teachers (which I had a lot of in high school)

The hardest part of this assignment for me was writing a rough draft. This always seems to be the most difficult aspect of writing a paper for me, especially when I am first starting on the paper and have to come up with a introduction. I spent at least an hour just staring at my computer screen trying to come up with a good introduction. It is frustrating sometimes, and makes me feel kind of stupid. But after I get past the introduction the paper almost seems to write itself!

Overall, the OpEd was a challenging but fun assignment, and in my opinion, a great beginning of the semester assignment.

And just because I thought this was a funny picture...


Peer Reviews

I thought the peer review process went great! I got a lot of good advice and feedback from my partner, despite us having very opposite viewpoints. In high school peer reviews were always such a pain and a waste of class time, because no one really wanted to actually review each others papers. The comments from high school were always along the lines of, "Yeah, your paper is good," and didn't provide any criticism or advice for you to use to form a stronger paper. I came out of the peer review process with a few more good ideas and things to change.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Halo Night

Thursday is a day I look forward to throughout the entire week. Thursday night is freedom. Thursday is soothing, relaxing. Thursday night is the one night a week I can forget all about the stresses of school, and do one of the things I love most.

Thursday night is Halo night.




Geeky, I know, but I love video games, and the king of all video games is Halo. Every week I wait and wait for Thursday. Each day that brings me closer I get more excited and jittery. Thursday night is the highlight of my week. You may be thinking, "wow, Connor, get a life, or at least a girlfriend," but let me explain. Everyone has that thing, something that they are good at, something they are proud of, something that they can do that a majority of people can't. For some people, their thing is writing, for others it is music. My thing is Halo.

I knew coming to college my parents would never allow me to bring an Xbox. They are paying for me to focus on studying, and it would be far too distracting to have an Xbox in my dorm. I accepted this as a necessary sacrifice, but I knew that needed to be able to just chill, relax, and play Halo once a week. Playing video games is how I relieve stress, it is my guilty pleasure (everyone has one, don't blame me). But imagine, musicians, writers, and runners, suddenly not being able to do the thing that you love, that you pride yourself in. Imagine having your guitar stripped from your hands, your computer seized from you, your basketball popping in midair as it soars to the basket. Thats how it felt not being able to pwn noobs in Halo when I got to BYU. When my roommate told me his brother organized a Halo night every Thursday, I almost cried with happiness.

We play in the spacious attic of a garage in someone's house 20 minutes from campus. It sounds dark and uncomfortable, but it is a Halo fan's paradise. Halo posters and memorabilia line the walls. A full size cardboard cutout of Master Chief (Halo's main character) looks over you as you play. A refrigerator full of Mountain Dew sits in the corner. Four televisions with four sofas and four original Xboxs face four different ways (to ensure no screen-looking). One side of the room is painted blue for the blue team, the other side is painted red for the red team. The ceiling bears the massive green Xbox symbol. We play from 7 to 11 most Thursday nights, and the whole time we listen to the band Depeche Mode at full volume (that is a story for another blog post). We can have up to 16 people playing in one game, but we normally have a turnout of 8.

I have completely alienated my audience by now, so I'm just going to finish by saying that I love Thursdays and I love Halo. Tonight is the highlight of my week. Thanks for listening. So in the comments below, what your guilty pleasure/thing is that helps you stay sane at college?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

My OpEd: General Education Requirements

My thesis for my opinion editorial is that there should be fewer or no general education requirements at BYU. What I mean is that we shouldn't be forced to take classes such as Physical Science, American Heritage, and yes, Writing 150. I don't think general education classes should be required because they force freshman to fill our schedule with classes that most of us will never use, during a time when we should be exploring classes that interest us and trying to figure out what we what to do with the rest of our lives. Let me know what you think about my thesis please. If you have counter arguments or disagree with me, please include them in your comments. Thanks for reading!

Friday, January 7, 2011

Zombie Invasion Preparedness Analysis

We all know it will come, we somewhat know what to expect, we just don't know when to expect it.

I am speaking of course, of the impending zombie apocalypse.

For a while now, I have been analyzing the preparedness of the Utah Valley for the coming infection that will ravage our landscapes, raze our cities, turn us against one another, and bring humanity to the brink of extinction. And I am pleased to say, that I believe our chances of survival in the Valley are high.

When you look at the evidence, you will see what I mean. The mountains of the valley that surround us create a natural barrier from any army of the undead that may seek to consume our flesh. All we would have to do in the valley to remain relatively safely protected from the hoards of infected in the outside world is to seal off a few highways leading into the valley, building walls on them that the zombies couldn't penetrate.

Another thing absolutely necessary for the survival of a community during a zombie apocalypse is a fresh water supply. Here in the Utah Valley, we have a basically unlimited supply of water from Utah Lake and snow runoff, further increasing our chances of survival.

Non-perishable food is also in abundance in the valley due to the food storage of thousands of individuals. There is enough food storage in the Utah Valley to allow us to survive for years, and thats without taking into account the food that we can produce from the land or forage.

Firearms are also quite abundant in the valley as well when compared to other cities and communities. Utah has much more lax gun control laws than states such as New York, Illinois, and California, and as such, we have a much better chance at fighting off zombies within and outside our defensive perimeter.

Another thing the Utah Valley has going for it is something that people complain quite a bit about around here. The cold. Because zombies have no blood flowing through their body, the only way they can keep their decaying bodies warm enough to function is from the heat of the sun, and by consuming the flesh of the living. At 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the liquid in the bodies of the undead begin to freeze, and the zombie freezes with it. Since temperatures during winter in the Utah Valley drop far below 32 degrees, and the sun isn't out long enough for zombies to maintain their core body temperature through natural means, all that the inhabitants of the Valley would have to do to freeze the zombies is cut them off from their food source, humans. Once the zombies have dropped and are covered under a thick sheet of snow and ice for the winter, the survivors will be free to leave the valley and search for new resources and materials until spring, when the zombies will thaw and reanimate to once again hunt for food.

As you can see, the Utah Valley has all the resources and protection necessary for survival of a very large community, however, it remains to be seen how the inhabitants will react to the apocalypse when it occurs. The most important period of a undead invasion occurs within the first 24 hours of it starting. We living in the Utah Valley may have the ability to survive independently for years during an apocalypse, but if poor decisions are made during the first 24 hours of the infection becoming known to us, we stand no chance against the armies of the undead. For example, if our leaders hear rumors of strange occurrences around the globe and just write them off as hoaxes and refuse to take preparatory action, we can pretty much kiss our survival goodbye. But if at the moment we hear of this epidemic of epic proportions, we immediately take action, sealing all roads in and out of the valley, quarantining Salt Lake International Airport, and only allowing refugees into the valley after a thorough screening for wounds and bite marks, we have a high chance of surviving this catastrophe. Once our defenses are erected, we will only have to contain the outbreak within our own walls, which should be simple enough with the weapons at our disposal.

After the necessary steps have been taken, the largest threat that the survivors will have to face is not from the undead, but from themselves. With the American government in tatters, there will be no one left to govern the Utah Valley. The fate of the survivors will largely depend on their ability to work together and govern themselves. No one can predict how this will play out, whether we will be able to establish our own government to fit our new needs, or if competing factions will take advantage of the chaos to gain power and we will be plunged into civil war within our own defenses. We will have to see how it plays out in the near future when the dead rise to walk through the deserted streets of what used to be great cities.

In the meantime, take the necessary precautions for the zombie apocalypse right now. Stockpile food, weapons, and ammunition, and learn the necessary survival skills to make sure that a zombie will not be sinking it's teeth into your tender flesh when the invasion comes. Your survival is entirely up to you.

Brainstorm

Topics I am thinking about writing my OpEd on are:

The primarily test-based academic environment at BYU
The strict rules on having members of the opposite sex in dorms at Helaman Halls
Required/General Education classes
The dating environment at BYU
The pressures placed on men at BYU (and in other environments) to serve a mission

This are a few topics that I think are interesting and that I could write a good OpEd on. If you like a certain topic above the others, let me know, I would appreciate your feedback.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Who am I?

My name is Connor Matthews. I live in Chicago, Illinois. I have two younger brothers and a younger sister, and two dogs. My first dog, Chili, is a chihuahua, and my second, Ringo, is a bulldog/shitzu mix. You can see Ringo as my profile picture to the right.

I love college and BYU. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to go here for college, maybe because both my parents are alumni and they talked about BYU quite a bit. I love the atmosphere at BYU, and that I can get a great education for fairly cheap compared to other universities. I really enjoy learning about politics and current issues, so I figured I would major in political science. I also want to become a lawyer, so I figure a political science major will help prepare me for law school.

Other than going to law school, I don't really have a plan for the future. I don't know where I will end up. When I was in high school, this was a big stressor for me, and caused me a lot of anxiety. But I have learned to just try to take things a day at a time, and eventually everything will work out. Right now, I just need to finish this blog and get a good grade in Writing 150. Fingers crossed...