My essay was hard to choose a topic for. I couldn’t find any topics that interested me. But then as I searched the Tribune some more, I found a topic about a celebrity sexuall assaulting someone. I automatically knew that that was the topic I wanted to write about.

My thesis statement is as such: “Sexual Harassment. You hear about it every day. You hear about it on the television, in the newspaper, and on the street happening all the time. They could happen at any time. While you’re alone with your boyfriend, walking down a dark alley. Or hell, while you’re on a bus. It’s a scary thing that could happen to anyone. Sadly though, it happens to women the most. Women are beautiful, alluring creatures and it’s no mystery why guys go gaga over them. But no woman deserves such treatment, no matter what they may have done to cause or instigate it.”

It’s a paragraph, but it gets my point across smoothly I think. All my support has been found in the Tribune and from my own personal knowledge from what I dealt with on this certain topic. Trust me, I’ve dealt with this before. But I didn’t go into detail about it in my essay. That would have been too much for me personally to reveal.

I have found suprisingly some very different opinions on how people feel about this topic. Some people feel that any kind of small thing is sexual assault/harassment. Like when I read the senators story about how he touched a mans foot and was charged for it because it was “Sexual harassment”. I couldn’t BELIEVE someone would go so out of hand like that!

I reconcile with these differnt opinions  by just knowing that the legal system won’t let the senator be charged like that. It would be ridiculous on the laws part to charge someone to jail time or whatever so frivirously.

My paragraph also describes different kinds of situations and how some people deal with the abuse or anything along those guidelines. My essay (I hope) covers everything that needs to be covered on this certain topic so that it can be fleshed out as much as possible.

So our next essay is coming up. Its so hard to keep up. But I can only do my best….So now we muyst write an argumentive essay on an issue in the Tribune or the Post-Gazette. I have to chose articles that I can not only argue about, but I have to do something that can be easy for me to go against. I can’t choose something I know NOTHING about and write a successful essay about it! That would just be bad for my grade.

The first issue I stumbled upon was an issue of the new bill being made for “illegal aliens” and abortion. Now, I believe that abortion is up to the person. I don’t like that people do it senselessly when its their fault, but if they are raped and it happens, its up to them. I don’t judge people really. It’s a very confusing article so I don’t think I’m going to do this one.

The next article I looked at wa sthe one about the goverment seeking cyber security in the hopes of protecting us from a huge virus that couild crash every computer in the country, perhaps the world. Personally, I think that we are overdoing cyber security as it is! We already have the goverment watching and hearing eveyrthing we do so why do we need MORE security?! It just doesn’t make sense to me at all… I may do this idea but I’m still in the planning stage so I am not sure what I’m going to do yet.

My final idea for my argumentive essay was something I stumbled upon just recently. It caught my eye and I find it will be very interesting to write about. A woman was killed because of faulty parts in a 2007 Toyota Yaris. Because they didn’t check her brakes properly, she crashed straight into a uardrail and died instantly. I think this will be a very easy topic to discuss to its full potential.

So I am to write my life through someone elses eyes. Well this may be a bit weird for me so I’m going to give a bit of backround on this person before I start. I met this person 2 or more years ago and he makes me shake. He’s probably the scariest person in the history of my life but he is also my complete opposite so I decided to write about him. He is a real person even if I don’t talk to him these days. But he is real. So lets begin shall we?

“What a snowy, dreadful day. It makes me smile to see such dread outside. Snow piling up everywhere, piling up so far that you can’t even see the streets. Look at all those people outside trying to cross through the ice and slush, slipping and sliding. What fools. What could they possibly accomplish going to school through this weather and risking themselves injury?”-sighes- “Sometimes I wonder why people do certain things. But eh, I’ll just let them torment themselves by going outside.”

“Well well, it looks like I will be idiotic and go as well. This snow is so invigorating! It reminds me of all the sadness and pain in the world! The coldness and all the isolation. IT’S BRILLLIANT!”

“Look at all the happy people. It disgusts me. How can they be so cheery and loud and noisy? It makes me want to puke. Especially me. I’m so happy I could kill myself. I’ll just to fix that later….. Now I must go to this class so I can be something in this god forsaken world.”

When I was writing my paper I thought “This will be a piece of cake!” and “I won’t have any problems.” Well boy was I wrong! Due to lack of sleep and not checking it twice before I printed it, I had more problems than one on my assignment.

My first problem was what to choose exactly. I had so many places that meant alot to me that I couldn’t just choose one. A first I wanted to do my hometown. But I have so many stories to tell about my hometown in Hagerstown, Maryland that it would just have been too huge of a paper. The place is a small town and isn’t really famous for anything so it wasn’t all that special except the memories I have of it.

I also wanted to do my trip to Germany. But just like my hometown, there was so much stuff I did that I couldn’t have shortened the essay enough that it wouldn’t be ridiculous size. And on top of that, there’s so much history about the places I went like Koln and Amsterdam ((yes I know in Holland, but I went)) that it would have made the paper even MORE ridiculous!

So I finlly settled on Otakon because not only did it have alot of information but it was also holding alot of meaning for me and enough to reach the requirements of the paper. So I decided to write about Otakon in the end. All my experiences, feelings, events, and most importantly, how much it meant to me.

My angle for this paper would have to be that I not only wanted to show that aniem conventions aren’t “weird” or “bizarre”, but I also wanted to share how much one little palce means to me and how it changed my life.

So our assignment today is to describe a historic place in pittsburgh without giving away what it really is. So lets begin:

This place has lots of bones. Bones from everywhere around the globe. And it also has bugs and animals, big and small. They have been all throughout time and are sometimes historic. Parents and kids both enjoy this place very much, with its vast knowledge. It stays open til 8 p.m. and though it costs money, its fun to go regardless.

Its located on Forbes Ave. and it begins with a C. It is not connected to the school its name origniates from, but it is connected to the library with the same name. It ha four other buildings distributed throughout the city with different things in each building. Many famous people also visit to talk about nature and other things that they have done pertaining to the subject.

This building also allows home schoolers and other public school kids to visit so they can be educated and see what they need to see for such an occassion.

SO good luck! Its probably easy to figure out but do your best to figure it out! Bye bye!

When I heard of Pittsburgh, I thought of Steelers fans, seering cold, and lots of garbage. Literally. But when I visited the very first time it wascompletely different from what I thought! Minus the cold anyway…. I get easily cold so I hate the cold very much. I’ve even been known to get blue lips because of cold!

But anyways, I was worried I would miss my friends alot. And my boyfriend. And my family. I was worried that I would never see them again because I’d be so busy in college and such. But I managed to balance it out plus my family is only 3-4 hours away or a phone call or e-mail. The world of communication is so vast these days.

I also thought that only cop movies were filmed in pittsburgh. Hell, I didn’t even realize that films were filmed here! I remember when I heard that Russell Crowe was filming a movie right across from the Shannon Hall dorms! My mom flipped! She wnated autographs, pictures, the works. But I couldn’t get to him due to him working so that plan failed.

In short, Pittsburgh is a really big city but at the same time it is very unique as well. And I like living here with all my friends.

“Hello everyone! This is my first post on here. Wow its so weird posting on a blog site. Lets see….. Right now I am getting ready to go on a cruise with my family. It’s called the Lynyrd Skynyrd Cruise or “The Simple Man” cruise as  its known. It’s basically 4 days of free concerts, food, and a trip to the beach. I’m probably renting a Dune buggy with my mom and traveling Mexico.”

“It’ll be lots of fun but at the same time it will be lonely. Most people on this cruise are like my dads age so they don’t have anything in common with me. And I can’t talk to my friends at all. It’ll be very lonely. I usually forget about it though and just have fun anyway. I’ll have work to do when I get back but it’ll be worth it. Spending time with my family is very important to me. After all, it’s only once a year.”

“ I’m really excited for my life drawing class. It’s extremely intense. We draw for 45 minutes straight without stopping. What do we draw? The model. Its usually a nude model unless its a guy who usually wears a small speedo thing. I find it kind of unfair that girls can be nude but guys can’t but eh, its whatever.”

“So over the weekend I went to Dave and Busters with my friends for the first time! It was like heaven and so much more! It had awesome food and awesome games. I wanted to get a  new backpack but I didn’t have enough tickets so I couldn’t get it. I was very sad. But It was a time to let loose and have fun. I really enjoyed myself. And it was only $25! WHAT A DEAL!”

“I think I’ve finished most of my work except this one. I may stress about it when I get back but not as much. The only one I will worry about is recreating a Greek statue of Hermes the messenger to the gods. I’ve always had an interest in them since I met my friend Cipriano. That’s not her real name but part of her family is mafia so we call her by her cool last name. She told me if anyone messes with me to tell her so they can go swimming with the fishes! She’s kind of crazy but she’s a really cool person and I don’t know what I would do without her. She’s like my sister in a way. She’s been there for me when no one else was. She’s a very interesting person too. She believes in mother nature and a bunch of other things that I can’t say. I think she lives with her dad now but I’m not sure.”

“Well, thats all I have to talk about right now! See you all in 5 days! Have a good rest of the week! BYEEEEEEE!”

                                                                    ~Sally Newlin aka The Madame