Call of Duty is a war game that has, for the most part been made my Infinity Ward. The only Call of Duty game besides Black Ops that wasn't made by Infinity ward was World at War. World at War was made by Treyarch. And now Black Ops, the most recent Call of Duty game, is also made by Treyarch. Overall, Infinity Ward has done a much better job at making their games.
Many people were skeptical about purchasing this game because many thought that World at War was a relatively horrible game, and since Black Ops was to be made by the same company, they almost didn't want to take the chance of buying a horrible game. The only reason people liked World at War was because they had a multiplayer game known as Nazi Zombies.
In the new game Black Ops, I feel that they finally got it right. The game is much more enjoyable then World at War. The online play is significantly more fun. Also they decided to once again include the game Nazi Zombies. This was a big deciding factor for me, on whether I planned to buy the game or not. I bought it the night that it came out. I don't play it religiously, but I do play it from time to time. It is still just as fun for me now, as it was when I first bought it. If you're looking for a good war game that you can play with your friends, Call of Duty Black Ops is the way to go!
Friday, December 17, 2010
Blog Entry 6-Mixed Martial Arts
Recently there has been a big uprise in people joining the sport of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). The largest corporation that supports this sport is the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). This company, owned by Dana White, has become a multi-million, if not billion dollar company.
When you consider that they charge $44.99 for every pay per view they sell. It's no wonder how the company is so successful in producing revenue. Many people have said that MMA is going to be as big or bigger than boxing. With more, and more people becoming fans everyday it's no wonder why people think it is "the next boxing". What could be better than having the worlds best fighters in one organization competing for titles in all sorts of weight categories?
Some of the most impressive fighters in the UFC are BJ Penn-Lightweight, Georges St. Pierre-Welterweight, Anderson Silva-Middleweight, Mauricio Rua-Light Heavyweight, and Cain Valesquez-Heavyweight. These men are all champions in their weight division. My personal favorite is Anderson Silva. His stand-up fighting skills are absolutely incredible, and his ground game is "second to none". He could very well be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. I believe that he is my favorite because of his personality. He has a relatively relaxed attitude until you get on his bad side. I enjoy watching him fight because he makes it look so easy. Dana White throws some of the best middleweights in the world, at Silva and simply nobody stands a chance. He's ridiculously fast, and has the best conditioning hands down.
I am a huge fan of MMA fighting. Since I wrestled in high school, naturally I gave it a try on an amateur level. I'm no Mui-Tai kick boxer, so my stand-up game is not too impressive. But I do have a decent ground-game. And since 90% of fights end up on the ground, I like my odds. I haven't actually fought yet, but I plan to after I get back into the gym to start training and get back in shape.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Blog Entry 5-FOUR Loko Banned
Four Loko is a highly caffeinated, high alcohol, malt beverage that has become extremely popular among young drinkers. While working at City Brewery this past summer, I was able to find out some of the effects of this alcoholic-energy drink. The combination of high alcohol and high caffeine result in an overly potent beverage. Which makes it relatively easy to get extremely intoxicated without drinking an absurd amount.
The "big thing" to do at many colleges now is to try the Four Loko Challenge. This challenge is to drink 4 Four Loko's in 4 hours without passing out. When you consider that the drink has a 12% alcohol percentage. At 23.5 ounces per can, this makes each can comparable to 6 light beers. As you may know, alcohol is known as a "downer". This means that it makes you drowsy. Caffeine on the other hand is known as an "upper". As you probably know, caffeine has been known to be used to keep people awake. The combination of using a "downer" and an "upper" at the same time results in a delay of intoxication. When you mix alcohol and caffeine, it causes a person to have high energy while becoming intoxicated. So a person will not reach their highest point of intoxication until the caffeine wears off. Caffeine is also known for giving "crashes". When a person "crashes" they become drowsy. So when someone hits this point in their night, they're not only drowsy from the alcohol, but also even more drowsy because of their "crash". When someone combines this feeling, with that of alcohol intoxication, that person feels even more intoxicated than they normally would. Which is why it has been banned.
Young people have a hard time managing their alcohol consumption. they just don't know when to stop. This makes having this drink available a giant problem. There have been multiple recorded deaths from alcohol poisoning because of the use of Four Loko. The ban states that no stores are allowed to carry, and no breweries are allowed to produce this drink. Now, that doesn't mean that this drink is illegal to consume. So people have been buying and stock piling this drink. So it looks like Four still isn't out of business.... Yet.
The "big thing" to do at many colleges now is to try the Four Loko Challenge. This challenge is to drink 4 Four Loko's in 4 hours without passing out. When you consider that the drink has a 12% alcohol percentage. At 23.5 ounces per can, this makes each can comparable to 6 light beers. As you may know, alcohol is known as a "downer". This means that it makes you drowsy. Caffeine on the other hand is known as an "upper". As you probably know, caffeine has been known to be used to keep people awake. The combination of using a "downer" and an "upper" at the same time results in a delay of intoxication. When you mix alcohol and caffeine, it causes a person to have high energy while becoming intoxicated. So a person will not reach their highest point of intoxication until the caffeine wears off. Caffeine is also known for giving "crashes". When a person "crashes" they become drowsy. So when someone hits this point in their night, they're not only drowsy from the alcohol, but also even more drowsy because of their "crash". When someone combines this feeling, with that of alcohol intoxication, that person feels even more intoxicated than they normally would. Which is why it has been banned.
Young people have a hard time managing their alcohol consumption. they just don't know when to stop. This makes having this drink available a giant problem. There have been multiple recorded deaths from alcohol poisoning because of the use of Four Loko. The ban states that no stores are allowed to carry, and no breweries are allowed to produce this drink. Now, that doesn't mean that this drink is illegal to consume. So people have been buying and stock piling this drink. So it looks like Four still isn't out of business.... Yet.
Blog Revision
Since the Bear Stearns incident on Wall Street, the job market has been pretty terrible. Finding a decent job in this economy is nearly impossible. Many should consider themselves extremely lucky to have a job during this "recession".
One the effects of the Bear Stearns accident, besides the job market plummeting was the reduction of how much the United States currency is actually worth. While we all know that the "value of a dollar" has changed quite a bit over the years, we are now seeing just how "worthless" it is becoming. There was a time when a person could buy a gallon of gas for less than a dollar. Now days, a dollar won't even get you a bottle of soda. I think that it is very apparent that we have no control over the "worth" of our George Washington dollar bills.
The morning after the tumble on wall street, $2-per-share sales were going out for the re-build of Bear Stearns. Many people believe/believed that this was the most significant loss in financial history. Many people have compared this "recession" to that of the one we encountered in the 1970's. There was a very similar plane of events that followed the stock market crashes in both situations. Stocks were being sold for "dirt cheap". People were in a panic. They didn't believe that their banks could be trusted. So as a result, many people started pulling their money out of the banks as soon as they could because they didn't want their financial records to be lost. This reduction in amount of money available to people naturally resulted in a great deal of work loss. Less work means less jobs, and therefore brings me to my next point.
Going into the field of architecture, I can only imagine how tough it is going to be to get a steady job. In the past few years, there haven't been an extreme amount of buildings built. In a local standpoint, many drafters and architects have been having a rough time finding work in the La Crosse area. TCI says that they haven't had many large commercial buildings, or residential homes being designed. They have had quite a few additions to the companies and people that have benefited from these tough economic times.
This makes me wonder if the job market will pick up by the time I am out of school. The way it has been going, it doesn't look like it is going to pick up much. After the last 2 years, architects in the area say that it is just now starting to pick up. Since I have another 4 years at UW-Milwaukee, I hope that by the time I am done with school, that the economy is in a much better condition, so that people start building more, and architectural firms are hiring more and more drafters.
One the effects of the Bear Stearns accident, besides the job market plummeting was the reduction of how much the United States currency is actually worth. While we all know that the "value of a dollar" has changed quite a bit over the years, we are now seeing just how "worthless" it is becoming. There was a time when a person could buy a gallon of gas for less than a dollar. Now days, a dollar won't even get you a bottle of soda. I think that it is very apparent that we have no control over the "worth" of our George Washington dollar bills.
The morning after the tumble on wall street, $2-per-share sales were going out for the re-build of Bear Stearns. Many people believe/believed that this was the most significant loss in financial history. Many people have compared this "recession" to that of the one we encountered in the 1970's. There was a very similar plane of events that followed the stock market crashes in both situations. Stocks were being sold for "dirt cheap". People were in a panic. They didn't believe that their banks could be trusted. So as a result, many people started pulling their money out of the banks as soon as they could because they didn't want their financial records to be lost. This reduction in amount of money available to people naturally resulted in a great deal of work loss. Less work means less jobs, and therefore brings me to my next point.
Going into the field of architecture, I can only imagine how tough it is going to be to get a steady job. In the past few years, there haven't been an extreme amount of buildings built. In a local standpoint, many drafters and architects have been having a rough time finding work in the La Crosse area. TCI says that they haven't had many large commercial buildings, or residential homes being designed. They have had quite a few additions to the companies and people that have benefited from these tough economic times.
This makes me wonder if the job market will pick up by the time I am out of school. The way it has been going, it doesn't look like it is going to pick up much. After the last 2 years, architects in the area say that it is just now starting to pick up. Since I have another 4 years at UW-Milwaukee, I hope that by the time I am done with school, that the economy is in a much better condition, so that people start building more, and architectural firms are hiring more and more drafters.
Blog Entry 4-Inception
The new movie Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has been a big hit all over the United States. A movie that took over $160,000,000 to make, made over $62,000,000 over the first weekend, and grossed over $292,000,000. While I won't tell you what the movie is about, I will still tell you a little about the movie.
To the people that had the opportunity to enjoy this movie will be glad to know that the movie officially came out on DVD and Blu-Ray this past Tuesday. This makes this particular movie the perfect "stocking stuffer" for the holidays.
While many people found the movie somewhat confusing. I must agree that it was relatively hard to understand. It required your undivided attention. If you were able to pay attention the whole time and follow the story, most people were able to understand it. I understood it perfectly well. But now that it is available for purchase, more people can experience the movie at home and have the opportunity to understand parts that weren't so clear in theaters. As for me, I have already purchased the movie and can honestly say that I enjoy it just as much as the first time I saw it.
To the people that had the opportunity to enjoy this movie will be glad to know that the movie officially came out on DVD and Blu-Ray this past Tuesday. This makes this particular movie the perfect "stocking stuffer" for the holidays.
While many people found the movie somewhat confusing. I must agree that it was relatively hard to understand. It required your undivided attention. If you were able to pay attention the whole time and follow the story, most people were able to understand it. I understood it perfectly well. But now that it is available for purchase, more people can experience the movie at home and have the opportunity to understand parts that weren't so clear in theaters. As for me, I have already purchased the movie and can honestly say that I enjoy it just as much as the first time I saw it.
Blog Entry 3-Job Market
Since the Bear Sterns incident on Wall Street, the job market has been pretty terrible. Finding a decent job in this economy is nearly impossible. Many should consider themselves extremely lucky to have a job during this "recession".
Going into the field of architecture, I can only imagine how tough it is going to be to get a steady job. In the past few years, there haven't been an extreme amount of buildings built. Many drafters and architects have been having a rough time finding work in the La Crosse area. TCI says that they haven't had many large commercial buildings, or residential homes being designed. They have had quite a few additions to the companies and people that have benefited from these tough economic times.
This makes me wonder if the job market will pick up by the time I am out of school. The way it has been going, it doesn't look like it is going to pick up much. After the last 2 years, architects in the area say that it is just now starting to pick up. Since I have another 4 years at UW-Milwaukee, I hope that by the time I am done with school, that the economy is in a much better condition, so that people start building more, and architectural firms are hiring more and more drafters.
Going into the field of architecture, I can only imagine how tough it is going to be to get a steady job. In the past few years, there haven't been an extreme amount of buildings built. Many drafters and architects have been having a rough time finding work in the La Crosse area. TCI says that they haven't had many large commercial buildings, or residential homes being designed. They have had quite a few additions to the companies and people that have benefited from these tough economic times.
This makes me wonder if the job market will pick up by the time I am out of school. The way it has been going, it doesn't look like it is going to pick up much. After the last 2 years, architects in the area say that it is just now starting to pick up. Since I have another 4 years at UW-Milwaukee, I hope that by the time I am done with school, that the economy is in a much better condition, so that people start building more, and architectural firms are hiring more and more drafters.
Blog Entry 2-Recent Weather
As many people have probably noticed, the last few weeks has severely had a change in weather patterns. The La Crosse area went from relatively seasonal weather, to extreme cold and large amounts of snow. Weather changes like this cause someone like me to ask myself "Is global warming real?" Whether it is, or isn't real, something is seriously causing the weather change.
From what I remember from last year, we didn't have any snow that stayed on the ground until weeks after Christmas. And now, all of a sudden we're having below-zero temperatures, and mass amounts of snow. The La Crosse area accumulated about 18 inches of snow withing 48 hours. Which is amazing when you consider that we have probably gotten more snow within 48 hours this year, then we did the entire winter of 2009/10.
Since I participate in the immensely enjoyable activity known as snowboarding, I benefited from this snowfall. On the other hand, many people do not appreciate the snow as much as I do. It made it practically impossible to make it to work. But again on the other hand, it supplied more time to enjoy with ones' family.
From what I remember from last year, we didn't have any snow that stayed on the ground until weeks after Christmas. And now, all of a sudden we're having below-zero temperatures, and mass amounts of snow. The La Crosse area accumulated about 18 inches of snow withing 48 hours. Which is amazing when you consider that we have probably gotten more snow within 48 hours this year, then we did the entire winter of 2009/10.
Since I participate in the immensely enjoyable activity known as snowboarding, I benefited from this snowfall. On the other hand, many people do not appreciate the snow as much as I do. It made it practically impossible to make it to work. But again on the other hand, it supplied more time to enjoy with ones' family.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Blog Entry 1-Brett Favre
In case you haven't heard, Brett Favre has officially ended his "streak". Monday, December 13th was the first time in over a decade that he did not start in a game. When you consider that it is a minimum of 16 games per season. You realize just how incredible that is. Starting in over 160 regular season games. In this time he has won 1 superbowl, 3 most valuable player awards, and 11 pro bowl selections.
This year has been an extremely tough year for Brett Favre. While he still manages to have fans, it is no doubt that he has lost many and gained few this year. Probably the worst part of the year for him was when he was accused of sending inappropriate pictures of himself and voicemails to Jen Sterger. She is a reporter for the New York Jets, and also a supermodel. Brett, accused of sending these pictures, of course, denied the whole story.
Personally, I think that Brett did send them. Why would somebody make something like that up? The obvious answer is that, they wouldn't. There is plenty of evidence proving that he, indeed, did send all that he was said to have sent.
I think that people think that Brett deserves to be treated special because of who he is. Again, personally I think that he deserves no special treatment. I think that he should just admit to what he did. Also I think that he should give up football. He has become nothing more than a liability, and a drama queen.
All this aside, Brett Favre is an amazing man. He has done a lot for the NFL. I do respect him for all that he has accomplished. Even though recently he has made some not-so-favorable decisions lately.
This year has been an extremely tough year for Brett Favre. While he still manages to have fans, it is no doubt that he has lost many and gained few this year. Probably the worst part of the year for him was when he was accused of sending inappropriate pictures of himself and voicemails to Jen Sterger. She is a reporter for the New York Jets, and also a supermodel. Brett, accused of sending these pictures, of course, denied the whole story.
Personally, I think that Brett did send them. Why would somebody make something like that up? The obvious answer is that, they wouldn't. There is plenty of evidence proving that he, indeed, did send all that he was said to have sent.
I think that people think that Brett deserves to be treated special because of who he is. Again, personally I think that he deserves no special treatment. I think that he should just admit to what he did. Also I think that he should give up football. He has become nothing more than a liability, and a drama queen.
All this aside, Brett Favre is an amazing man. He has done a lot for the NFL. I do respect him for all that he has accomplished. Even though recently he has made some not-so-favorable decisions lately.
Steven Chu
Many people may not have heard of Steven Chu. Many of you that will be reading this, may have heard of him, but don’t know much about him. Well I can assure you that he was and is a very important man. You may ask yourself, “If he’s so important, then why have I not heard of him?” After reading this paper, I hope that you have a little better understanding of who he is, and what he’s done for the world that’s made him worthy of the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Steven Chu’s father, Ju Chin Chu, made his way to the United States in 1943 so that he could continue his education at MIT.(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) He studied chemical engineering, and was later joined by Steven’s mother, Ching Chen Li, who came to the United States to study economics. In this time, China was very economically unstable which made the decision to move to the United States a wise one. After Steven’s parents had moved to the United States, they decided to start a family. They became married in 1945, and had their first child in 1946.
Steven was born in St. Louis on February 28, 1948. (Marquis Who’s Who in the World) In 1950, the family settled in Garden City, New York. Steven said, “There were only two other Chinese families in this town of 25,000, but to our parents, the determining factor was the quality of the public school system.”(Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 2) In Steven’s family, education was highly looked upon. Out of his family of scholars, Steven became the educational “Black Sheep”. (Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 2) When compared to his older brother, who set the record for highest cumulative average in their high school, Steven simply couldn’t compare. He was a relatively average student. “Occasionally, I would focus on a particular school project and become obsessed with, what seemed to my mother, to be trivial details instead of apportioning the time I spent on school work in a more efficient way.” (Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 2)
Even though it seemed so, his life did not completely revolve around school. He, like many other children, got the chance to enjoy plastic model airplanes, erector sets, and eventually homemade rockets. His parents didn’t know that the money they thought was going towards school lunch actually went towards the funding of the homemade rockets he and a friend were making. He also devoted some of his time to sports. He played football, baseball, basketball, and sometimes ice hockey. He also taught himself how to pole vault by using bamboo poles that he accumulated from the local carpet store. Even though he was able to clear 8 feet by his own teaching, he did not make the track team.
On the academic side of his high school career, he took AP(advanced placement) physics and calculus his senior year. He enjoyed these classes because they were similar to his geometry course, which didn’t have many formulas to remember, but instead had basic ideas and sets of assumptions. He admired his physics teacher Thomas Miner greatly. Steven said “To this day, I remember how he introduced the subject of physics. He told us we were going to learn how to deal with very simple questions such as how a body falls due to the acceleration of gravity. Through a combination of conjecture and observations, ideas could be cast into a theory that can be tested by experiments.”(Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 8) Personally I wish that my physics teacher in high school would have taught with the same mentality, but I guess not everyone sees physics in the same way.
Steven applied to many colleges in the fall of his senior year. But because of his standard A-average, he was rejected from the Ivy League Schools. Although he was accepted at Rochester, he still did not compare with the rest of his family. His brother attended Princeton, two cousins attended Harvard, and a third cousin attended Bryn Mawr. His younger brother got away from the family standard and avoided getting his high school diploma or any sort of scientific degree. Instead he obtained a Ph. D at age 21, and eventually went to Harvard and obtained a law degree, which led him to become a partner at a major law firm. I’m not entirely sure how he obtained the Ph. D or any sort of degree without obtaining a high school diploma. But if I could do the same, I definitely would have.
Steven’s sophomore year in college at Rochester, he became much more interested in mathematics, so he declared his majors to both mathematics and physics. His goal when choosing these majors was to become a theoretical physicist. He applied to Berkeley, Stanford, Stony Brook, and Princeton. He chose to go to Berkeley, and entered in the fall of 1970. While attending Berkeley he had spent much of his time trying to determine the deceleration of the universe with experiments that his professor Eugene Commins gave to him. He worked on this for many months, but decided for 2 of the months to take a break to tinker around in the lab. He had many “play” experiments, one of which he noticed that he could pick out the out-of-tune notes played in a fast run by a violinist. “A simple estimate suggested that the frequency accuracy, times the duration of the note, did not satisfy the uncertainty relationship . In order to test the frequency sensitivity of the ear, I connected an audio oscillator to a linear gate so that a tone burst of varying duration could be produced.” (Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 16) Steven worked with many people. One in particular, Art Ashkin, had a dream to eventually cool and trap atoms by use of a laser. “Uncharged particles such as neutrons or atoms are manipulated by higher-order moments of the charge distribution such as the magnetic or electric dipole moments.” (Particle Trap Para. 6) This began an experiment that would be known worldwide. Eventually, Steven ended up going to Stanford to work on his world famous experiment.
This experiment that Steven, Claude Cohen, and William Phillips began is what brought them to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1997, their hard work finally paid off. They had won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with a laser light”. They are now known worldwide for their accomplishments. While Steven still continues to trap and cool atoms, he decided to stay at Stanford where he has been working for over 2 decades. “As a scientist, he made major contributions to laser spectroscopy, analysis of positronium atoms, and studies of gaseous sodium at temperatures approaching absolute zero” (Chu, Steven(1948-) Para. 1) He has truly shown what you can do if you set your mind to it.
Steven Chu’s father, Ju Chin Chu, made his way to the United States in 1943 so that he could continue his education at MIT.(Massachusetts Institute of Technology) He studied chemical engineering, and was later joined by Steven’s mother, Ching Chen Li, who came to the United States to study economics. In this time, China was very economically unstable which made the decision to move to the United States a wise one. After Steven’s parents had moved to the United States, they decided to start a family. They became married in 1945, and had their first child in 1946.
Steven was born in St. Louis on February 28, 1948. (Marquis Who’s Who in the World) In 1950, the family settled in Garden City, New York. Steven said, “There were only two other Chinese families in this town of 25,000, but to our parents, the determining factor was the quality of the public school system.”(Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 2) In Steven’s family, education was highly looked upon. Out of his family of scholars, Steven became the educational “Black Sheep”. (Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 2) When compared to his older brother, who set the record for highest cumulative average in their high school, Steven simply couldn’t compare. He was a relatively average student. “Occasionally, I would focus on a particular school project and become obsessed with, what seemed to my mother, to be trivial details instead of apportioning the time I spent on school work in a more efficient way.” (Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 2)
Even though it seemed so, his life did not completely revolve around school. He, like many other children, got the chance to enjoy plastic model airplanes, erector sets, and eventually homemade rockets. His parents didn’t know that the money they thought was going towards school lunch actually went towards the funding of the homemade rockets he and a friend were making. He also devoted some of his time to sports. He played football, baseball, basketball, and sometimes ice hockey. He also taught himself how to pole vault by using bamboo poles that he accumulated from the local carpet store. Even though he was able to clear 8 feet by his own teaching, he did not make the track team.
On the academic side of his high school career, he took AP(advanced placement) physics and calculus his senior year. He enjoyed these classes because they were similar to his geometry course, which didn’t have many formulas to remember, but instead had basic ideas and sets of assumptions. He admired his physics teacher Thomas Miner greatly. Steven said “To this day, I remember how he introduced the subject of physics. He told us we were going to learn how to deal with very simple questions such as how a body falls due to the acceleration of gravity. Through a combination of conjecture and observations, ideas could be cast into a theory that can be tested by experiments.”(Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 8) Personally I wish that my physics teacher in high school would have taught with the same mentality, but I guess not everyone sees physics in the same way.
Steven applied to many colleges in the fall of his senior year. But because of his standard A-average, he was rejected from the Ivy League Schools. Although he was accepted at Rochester, he still did not compare with the rest of his family. His brother attended Princeton, two cousins attended Harvard, and a third cousin attended Bryn Mawr. His younger brother got away from the family standard and avoided getting his high school diploma or any sort of scientific degree. Instead he obtained a Ph. D at age 21, and eventually went to Harvard and obtained a law degree, which led him to become a partner at a major law firm. I’m not entirely sure how he obtained the Ph. D or any sort of degree without obtaining a high school diploma. But if I could do the same, I definitely would have.
Steven’s sophomore year in college at Rochester, he became much more interested in mathematics, so he declared his majors to both mathematics and physics. His goal when choosing these majors was to become a theoretical physicist. He applied to Berkeley, Stanford, Stony Brook, and Princeton. He chose to go to Berkeley, and entered in the fall of 1970. While attending Berkeley he had spent much of his time trying to determine the deceleration of the universe with experiments that his professor Eugene Commins gave to him. He worked on this for many months, but decided for 2 of the months to take a break to tinker around in the lab. He had many “play” experiments, one of which he noticed that he could pick out the out-of-tune notes played in a fast run by a violinist. “A simple estimate suggested that the frequency accuracy, times the duration of the note, did not satisfy the uncertainty relationship . In order to test the frequency sensitivity of the ear, I connected an audio oscillator to a linear gate so that a tone burst of varying duration could be produced.” (Nobel Prize Autobiography Para. 16) Steven worked with many people. One in particular, Art Ashkin, had a dream to eventually cool and trap atoms by use of a laser. “Uncharged particles such as neutrons or atoms are manipulated by higher-order moments of the charge distribution such as the magnetic or electric dipole moments.” (Particle Trap Para. 6) This began an experiment that would be known worldwide. Eventually, Steven ended up going to Stanford to work on his world famous experiment.
This experiment that Steven, Claude Cohen, and William Phillips began is what brought them to be nominated for the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1997, their hard work finally paid off. They had won the Nobel Prize in Physics “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with a laser light”. They are now known worldwide for their accomplishments. While Steven still continues to trap and cool atoms, he decided to stay at Stanford where he has been working for over 2 decades. “As a scientist, he made major contributions to laser spectroscopy, analysis of positronium atoms, and studies of gaseous sodium at temperatures approaching absolute zero” (Chu, Steven(1948-) Para. 1) He has truly shown what you can do if you set your mind to it.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Toughest Day of My Life-Personal Narrative
The Toughest Day of My Life
Monday Oct. 4, 2010, started out as a normal day for me. My alarm went off, and as usual, I hit the snooze 5 times. After finally rolling out of bed, I made myself an outfit, and took a shower. After my shower, I grabbed my backpack and a Carnation Breakfast, and headed to class. I walked to class that day, which was not a normal thing for me. But for some reason, I thought that walking would be a good idea.
After class was done, which was about 2:30 P.M., I asked my friend Owen what he was doing that night. Without any hesitation, he said that he was going to go workout then he planned to drive home. I told him to give me a call when he wanted to lift. As usual he responded with “Hell Yeah!” So I proceeded to walk out of the classroom, and headed home.
When I arrived at my apartment, I realized that all of my roommates were sitting in the living room, doing homework. So I instinctively pulled out my laptop and joined them. While working on my personal narrative assignment for my Written Communications class, my roommates began to talk. Considering that I was almost done with my narrative, I began to listen. Eventually the conversation turned into an argument about something so small that I didn’t feel the need to express my opinion to my roommates. So instead I decided to give myself time to think more about my narrative, and go take a nap. It was 4:00 P.M. when I headed to my room to sleep.
I slept for 3 hours, which is a pretty normal nap for me. After my nap, I felt refreshed, and ready to finish my narrative. When I moved to my living room, I thought to myself that Owen was supposed to call me to go work out. Shortly after thinking about that, I began to think about all the good times we used to have, and how I wished that we were as close as we used to be. Owen used to spend days, upon days at my house last year. But over the summer, we didn’t keep in touch. But I, knowing how busy Owen always was, waited for him to get in touch with me. This probably wasn’t the best choice, on my part.
I worked on my narrative for about 3 hours. This seems like an extremely long time for the little bit of work that I had left to do, but having 5 roommates means many distractions. After finishing my paper, I decided to watch a movie. We decided to watch Tommy Boy, which is one of my favorite movies. We finally started the movie at 11:30 P.M. We watched the first half as usual, meaning; plenty of laughing, and making fun of the movie. But at exactly 12:19 A.M., I received a text message that would change everything.
The text message came from Krista Himley saying, “Did you hear what happened to Owen?” Since I hadn’t heard from Owen all night, I replied, “No? What Happened?” Shortly thereafter Krista texted back saying, “He died in a car accident tonight.” After reading the text message in disbelief I glanced at my computer, only to see all of the comments on Owens Facebook Wall. My heart sunk after I read some of the comments that were posted. I didn’t know what to do. I told my roommates, even though only a couple of them had met Owen. Naturally they were upset, and they were there for me if I needed it. At about 2:00 A.M., I received a phone call from Kaila Karlen asking what had happened to Owen. I told her as much as I had known, which wasn’t very much. That night was very long for me, because not only did I not have a clue about what to do about the situation, but I kept getting text messages asking what had happened.
The next morning finally came around, while I debated going to school, I thought about all the people in my classes that I shared with Owen. So I put some clothes on, and headed to class. When I arrived to class, I saw that everyone was crying, so obviously they had all heard about it. I sat down in my desk, shortly after my instructor Mike Poellinger, asked me what had happened to him and when I found out. I told him that I didn’t really know what happened, but I had found out at 12:00, the night prior.
By this time the tears had been falling from my face for quite some time. Then we had a school counselor come in to talk to us. For me, this was the hardest part. When it was finally my turn to talk, I talked about how I would miss his smile, and the energy that he brought into every room he walked into. Actually talking about it, made it “real” for me. Listening to all the things that the others in the class had to say about him made it very tough to believe that something like this could happen to a nice kid like Owen. I guess the saying is true that “only the good die young”.
Even though this was, and is a very tough time in my life. I try to look at it in the most positive way that’s possible. I remember all the good times we had together, and the life lessons that this has taught me. I dislike how it takes a situation like this, to realize how much somebody means to you. Owen meant/means a lot to me. And not a day goes by where I’m not reminded of him. I appreciate my friendship with others more than ever. I hope that my friends appreciate my friendship as much as I appreciate theirs.
R.I.P- Owen Fitzgerald. You’ll be missed and loved by many!
Monday Oct. 4, 2010, started out as a normal day for me. My alarm went off, and as usual, I hit the snooze 5 times. After finally rolling out of bed, I made myself an outfit, and took a shower. After my shower, I grabbed my backpack and a Carnation Breakfast, and headed to class. I walked to class that day, which was not a normal thing for me. But for some reason, I thought that walking would be a good idea.
After class was done, which was about 2:30 P.M., I asked my friend Owen what he was doing that night. Without any hesitation, he said that he was going to go workout then he planned to drive home. I told him to give me a call when he wanted to lift. As usual he responded with “Hell Yeah!” So I proceeded to walk out of the classroom, and headed home.
When I arrived at my apartment, I realized that all of my roommates were sitting in the living room, doing homework. So I instinctively pulled out my laptop and joined them. While working on my personal narrative assignment for my Written Communications class, my roommates began to talk. Considering that I was almost done with my narrative, I began to listen. Eventually the conversation turned into an argument about something so small that I didn’t feel the need to express my opinion to my roommates. So instead I decided to give myself time to think more about my narrative, and go take a nap. It was 4:00 P.M. when I headed to my room to sleep.
I slept for 3 hours, which is a pretty normal nap for me. After my nap, I felt refreshed, and ready to finish my narrative. When I moved to my living room, I thought to myself that Owen was supposed to call me to go work out. Shortly after thinking about that, I began to think about all the good times we used to have, and how I wished that we were as close as we used to be. Owen used to spend days, upon days at my house last year. But over the summer, we didn’t keep in touch. But I, knowing how busy Owen always was, waited for him to get in touch with me. This probably wasn’t the best choice, on my part.
I worked on my narrative for about 3 hours. This seems like an extremely long time for the little bit of work that I had left to do, but having 5 roommates means many distractions. After finishing my paper, I decided to watch a movie. We decided to watch Tommy Boy, which is one of my favorite movies. We finally started the movie at 11:30 P.M. We watched the first half as usual, meaning; plenty of laughing, and making fun of the movie. But at exactly 12:19 A.M., I received a text message that would change everything.
The text message came from Krista Himley saying, “Did you hear what happened to Owen?” Since I hadn’t heard from Owen all night, I replied, “No? What Happened?” Shortly thereafter Krista texted back saying, “He died in a car accident tonight.” After reading the text message in disbelief I glanced at my computer, only to see all of the comments on Owens Facebook Wall. My heart sunk after I read some of the comments that were posted. I didn’t know what to do. I told my roommates, even though only a couple of them had met Owen. Naturally they were upset, and they were there for me if I needed it. At about 2:00 A.M., I received a phone call from Kaila Karlen asking what had happened to Owen. I told her as much as I had known, which wasn’t very much. That night was very long for me, because not only did I not have a clue about what to do about the situation, but I kept getting text messages asking what had happened.
The next morning finally came around, while I debated going to school, I thought about all the people in my classes that I shared with Owen. So I put some clothes on, and headed to class. When I arrived to class, I saw that everyone was crying, so obviously they had all heard about it. I sat down in my desk, shortly after my instructor Mike Poellinger, asked me what had happened to him and when I found out. I told him that I didn’t really know what happened, but I had found out at 12:00, the night prior.
By this time the tears had been falling from my face for quite some time. Then we had a school counselor come in to talk to us. For me, this was the hardest part. When it was finally my turn to talk, I talked about how I would miss his smile, and the energy that he brought into every room he walked into. Actually talking about it, made it “real” for me. Listening to all the things that the others in the class had to say about him made it very tough to believe that something like this could happen to a nice kid like Owen. I guess the saying is true that “only the good die young”.
Even though this was, and is a very tough time in my life. I try to look at it in the most positive way that’s possible. I remember all the good times we had together, and the life lessons that this has taught me. I dislike how it takes a situation like this, to realize how much somebody means to you. Owen meant/means a lot to me. And not a day goes by where I’m not reminded of him. I appreciate my friendship with others more than ever. I hope that my friends appreciate my friendship as much as I appreciate theirs.
R.I.P- Owen Fitzgerald. You’ll be missed and loved by many!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
My Weekend
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Introduction to ME
Hello, my name is Nick Sosalla. I am in the Architectural Technology program at Western Technical College. Some things you may not know about me are; I recently started working at The Buckle at Valley View Mall, I love to snowboard, I am addicted to Facebook, and I do love puppies/dogs.
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