Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.

John Adams

War is a series of catastrophes that results in a victory.

Georges Clemenceau

Make Up Journal

Final Journal

When I came to class on Monday I had a four and a half page paper that needed to be corrected. I had written the paper the night before and knew that it needed a lot of work. The goal of the paper is to have a first person narrative of how I did my research for my last paper. When I wrote the first draft I had tried to avoid putting to many claims or personal feelings into it. I did this because I was not sure exactly what the teacher wanted from the paper. When I asked my teacher the questions I had about the way the paper was supposed to be written I was able to clarify it for me. I learned that I needed to put more personal feelings into it and make few claims based on facts. Because I had only written the first draft of my paper I knew that this would not be a problem.

When I had my paper peer-reviewed, the first student said similar things about my paper. He said that I needed to add some more personal feelings to my paper and include more of my thought process. The first students, Sergio, who read my paper said that I needed to have better transitions, but the second student, Matt, said I had good transitions. I found this confusing, but still helpful. I know that I need to look at my transitions and probably change them. Matt also said that I needed my personal feelings in my paper so I know I need to change that for sure. I found the peer-review session very helpful.

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone again. Lots of food, and even more dishes to clean up. But that's not all. There was the big games. Football all day long for those who want it. But most of all, I think there were people trying to remember that this is a holiday that we are supposed to give thanks on. Whether or not you thought of it during the actual day of Thanksgiving, I'm sure you were thankful for something.

Ahh, but those thoughts, whether you thought them or not, where soon fleeting with others to take their place. For after Thanksgiving comes the biggest shopping day of the year. This is where our consumer selves show themselves like wolves in a field of sheep. Okay, bad analogy. But seriously, on Black Friday more people go out and shop at one time than at any other time during the year. I woke up at four in the morning, an unrighteous hour for anyone. I splashed some water on my face grabbed a bagel and hit the road. I got to the store at about 4:20 and found a parking place farthest away from the store. I didn't chose the farthest parking place, it was one of the only ones left. I headed for the store and saw the line. I followed this line down past five other stores to where it stopped. There was a good 200 people in line, at least, and this was at 4:30. Thirty minutes later there was another 200 people behind me waiting for the store to open. When it opened there was a mad rush for the doors and then I was in. With 401 customers in the store it gets a little crowded. People were trying to find their coveted items, and rushing to grab them. I got lucky and found the first item on my list quickly, but they were flying off the shelf as fast a people could grab them even then. I took three of them and rushed for my next item. It took a while to get through the crowd but I was able to get it. By then it was 5:20 and I started to look for a line to get in. I found the end of it and the back of the store. I got in line and started waiting. I waited the first hour and had only moved about ten feet forward. After the next two hours I started to hear people say things like, "I can't leave now, I've been hear since the store opened!" and "Well at least we are doing our part to help the economy." I spent 4 hours in line. Others did the same. Our culture is so concentrated on being consumers that we will go to any means to be them.