wiki 5 - 12/20 no post for 11/6 - Mike, I am giving you some credit here, because you made it and got a post in on Nov. 6 even if it WAS after the 5pm deadline. However, your post falls pretty far short of 200 words... so this is all I can give you.

wiki 5 Pastor Clausing Wednesday’s chapel

                Pastor Clausing did a very good job during chapel in terms of public speaking. He kept a good speech rate and inserted appropriate pauses into his speaking. He did a good job of inflecting certain words and he changed the pitch of his voice well. He had no problems with the pronunciation or the articulation of any of his words. His appearance was good. He kept a good posture throughout the chapel. I could not really se his face so I could not tell if he changed his facial expression or not.

wiki 4 - 20/20 - Good post. Isn't it amazing how much stiffer people were for televised speeches years ago... now it's all about "looking" personal and up close on TV.

wiki 4 - Ronald Reagan "A Time For Choosing"

President Reagan’s rate was fairly quick but at the same time he did not seem like he was in a hurry. He gave an appropriate pause to let the crowd clap but other than that he kept his speech rolling. He used the volume and tone of his voice very well to establish what he was saying as an important or strong point. Also, he had great pronunciation and articulation of all his words. He maintained great posture throughout his entire speech. He good eye contact during the speech even though he was obviously reading it, so that showed that he had practiced it many times and almost memorized it. During the speech, he had appropriate movement with a little swaying back and forth as he made points. However, he did not change his facial expression throughout the speech and he used absolutely no hand gestures. He had a good introduction in which he seemed to be very confident about what he was saying, he established eye contact early on, and he connected with his audience. During the speech he maintained the eye contact that he had established and he used language that effectively got his point across to the audience.

wiki 3 - 0/20 - NO post week ending Oct. 23rd.

wiki 2 - 20/20 - good entry. Isn't it interesting how President's can speak almost without emotion, and we'll still listen?

Ronald Reagan “Tear down this wall”

I think that President Reagan did an overall good job on his speech presentation. He kept a good, upright posture throughout the entire speech. During the speech he kept an almost blank stare on his face and he never changed his expression during the speech. Also, he did not do a very good job of keeping eye contact, mostly because he was obviously reading his speech so he had to look down a lot in order to read it. I think that took away from his speech because it felt like he was almost reading instead of speaking and he was disconnected from the audience. He had no gestures to go along with his speech and he did not change the inflection of his voice at all. He did, however, have a good speech rate and he had appropriate pauses to give time for the audience to cheer after several of his points. He also appeared to be very confident with what he was saying and he seemed as though he could back all his words up. He also articulated his words very well so that they were all easy to understand and comprehend the ideas that he was trying to get across.

PUBLIC SPEAKING wiki 1 0/20 - BE SURE TO SHOW UP HERE EVERY FRIDAY!

The Shot

                He stepped up to the line, the same line that he had stepped up to thousands of times before. The referee passed him the ball and he performed his routine without even thinking about it.

                “Make these shots and put the game away,” he said to himself.

                He had played a great game, twenty points and ten rebounds. His team was up by one point with ten seconds left in the game when he was fouled. If his team won this game they would move on to the state championship. He stared directly at the back of the rim, the crowd roaring all around him and the hope of his team on his shoulders, but he just looked at the back of the rim.

                He rose up and shot the ball with perfect form. Swish, one more to go. The opposing coach called a time out. As he walked over to his bench, he looked up and saw his mom in the stands. He remembered how when he was a kid his dad had taught him how to play basketball. All those hours he spent in his driveway just playing with his dad, they were all preparing him for a moment like this, with the game on his shoulders.

                His dad had been killed when he was twelve. He was on his way to one of his son’s games when a drunk driver ran a red light and t-boned his car. He remembered that game, how he had looked in the stands every five minutes to look for his dad, but he never came. After the game, his coach told him what had happened. He sat on a bench in the locker room and cried.

In his huddle all he heard was the coach design a defense for after he made the shot. There was no plan for him to miss, his coach was counting on him, his team was counting on him. He just had to make the shot.

Again the ref passed him the ball, this time he paused to feel the leather under his fingertips. Then like he had done for as long as he could remember he dribbled the ball three times and stared at the back of the rim. Just the back of the rim, that’s all he focused on.

                Once more he rose up and shot the ball. Clank, it hit off the back of the rim and right to one of his opponents. The player quickly passed the ball up the court. 7 seconds. Another came around a screen at the top of the key. 5 seconds. He caught the ball and in one fluid motion shot it. 3 seconds. Swish.

The game was over and there was player on the losing side that didn’t seem to believe it, it had to be a nightmare. He hadn’t missed a free throw all game, except when it mattered most. He walked down to the basket and just stared at the back of the rim. He had dreamed of a moment like that all his life, the game on the line and its outcome resting on his shoulders, but when it actually happened he couldn’t come through. He couldn’t make the shot. He couldn’t withstand the pressure. He had failed.

                Slowly he walked off the court and to the locker room, his teammates all trying to tell him it wasn’t his fault. But it was his fault, if he could’ve made the shot they would still be playing. He got to the locker room, sat on a bench and cried.

Wiki 5 - Interesting entries... I especially enjoyed your list! Lots of travel and excitement built into that one!

week 5

1.Would YOU want to live in a family that kept "secrets" from one another the way the Hawley family did?

I would not mind living in a family that keeps secrets from one another like the Hawley’s because they were only doing it for the other person’s good. They just did not want to see each other burdened down with whatever the secret was and I would be okay with that because they would be doing it because they love me. Minta and her father wanted to see the mother live her last days as she had lived the rest of them, happy and carefree not bogged down with the pain of knowing that she was going to die in three months.

2. Bucket List

     1. meet Albert Pujols

     2. Visit London

     3. Visit Paris

     4. Bungee? Jump

     5. Drive a Motorcycle

     6. Get married

     7. Get a Degree

     8. Drive a Lamborghini

     9. Visit Italy

     10. Make the national news

week 4

1. When and how was prejudice confronted in this one?

Prejudice was confronted at the beginning of the story when the gang is first meeting T.J. T.J. faced prejudice from the rest of the gang because he was the new kid in town, he was from the South and he had a funny accent. He confronted this prejudice early by not even allowing it to take place in the first place. He asserted who he was and that he was proud of that and did not care about what anyone else thought of him. He kept the rest of the gang to make any assumptions about him by letting them know who he was.

2.  Many "experts" claim  that EDUCATION is the secret recipe for success.... then how do we explain people who get college degrees but still live in their parents' basement? Or people who have advanced degrees and FAIL in life? What are the other factors that must be present for success? (Also how do you explain a guy like Bill Gates who dropped out of college to "tinker" with computers???)

One reason that many people with college degrees fail in life is because they get a degree in something that they really do not enjoy so their life becomes miserable because they hate their job and they do not try hard at their work. Another reason that they fail is they have nothing that drives them to be successful. They do not have any reason to try hard and put forth their best effort so they fail at what they do. Guys like Bill Gates succeed because they find a job that they thoroughly enjoy and want to succeed at it.

week 3

Great job on wiki 3! I liked your analysis this week!

1. Does this story fall more into the category of horror... or into the category of sci-fi? How do you think it stacks up compared to the original by Poe? Is it better or not as good? Why?

I thought that this story was more sci-fi than horror. I thought it was more sci-fi because the way that the people die and there is an exact replica there watching it does not really make the scene horrific. Even as a reader knowing what is really happening it is still dulled because no one in the story is freaking out by the fact that people around them are dying. The shock of people dying is also dulled after the first or second person dies because you know what is coming. I think this story was better than the original by Poe because he doesn’t spent half of the story describing things.

2. How did it make you feel when at the end you had rooted for an "anti-hero" (Stendahl, the murderer) to succeed? How was Bradbury able to make you want to see him succeed?

I did not really have a problem with rooting for the anti-hero in this story. One of the reasons was that he was not portrayed as being some kind of monster; he was portrayed as being someone who was trying to correct a wrong that the government had done. At the end of the story I was happy to see Stendahl succeed and kill Garret. Garret was portrayed as being heartless and having no compassion for other people’s dreams and feelings. Bradbury portrayed the government and its officials as being part of an overbearing almost totalitarian state that controlled its people with an iron fist.

week 2

Good job on Wiki 2! One thing, your second post is a tad too short for full credit. 18/20

1. Would you consider what Mike did an act of deception? Is he lying or not?

I don't consider what Mike did as lying because he never told his grandma that he was her husband, he just let her go on thinking that he was her husband. He didn’t do anything wrong he let his grandma get something off her chest that she had been holding in for years and she needed to her husband, or someone she thought was her husband, to say that he forgave her for accusing him of adultery. He did not lie to her in any way he told her that he forgave her when she told him to and didn’t say if he was or wasn’t her husband.

2. Your thoughts? Is it right or wrong for Mike to do what he does to (for?) his grandma?

What Mike did for his grandma was good. He made her feel better and now she is at peace because she thinks that her husband forgives her for accusing him of cheating on her. If I was in the same situation I would have done the same thing because as a grandson all you want to see is your elderly grandmother to be happy and to see her smile. He just wants her to feel good about herself.

week 1

1. Was Sammy a "winner" or a "loser" for making the choice he made in the story?

Sammy was a winner because he didn't stand for the injustice of the manager towards the girls. He stood up for teenagers everywhere by quitting. He learned that he couldn't stand idly by while younger people were being mistreated by older people because of their age.

This entry is too brief for full credit.. you need to shoot for 100 words on each entry.

2. Why is violence more often seen as the "easier" answer to a conflict situation? Is it really?

Violence is seen as the easy way out because it takes time for them to think of a different way to solve the conflict and violence is the first thing that usually comes to mind. Also it is harder for two people to agree on a resolution rather than them just fight about it. Violence isn't really the easier way out because it usually is followed up with consequences that turn out to be much more difficult than just talking through the conflict.

Good second entry.  15/20