Starvation

A problem that really bothers me is the amount of hunger and starvation going on in other countries around the world. Being a U.S citizen, we have the privilege of never running out of food and always having a great amount of food to choose from. If we are hungry for fast food we have a million choices right along the side of a road close to home. If we want a steak we would go to Outback, and if we wanted seafood we would go to Red Lobster. We never have a deprivation of food...never. People in the poorer parts of Africa never have those choices we do. Most of them live in poverty and when they get food it is a blessing. Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas dinners are something that they pray and hope to receive...they do not have the money or the grocery stores to present them with the ingredients to make a great big dinner like that. I see so many commercials and specials on the starvation going on in poorer countries and it makes me so sad and disgusted. We take so much for granted...if we don't like a certain food we eat we just throw it all away, no keeping it for leftovers. Every time I see that happen I think of the starving kids living in poverty, they would give anything to have those leftovers we just threw away. They would eat anything given to them.
One way we could fix this current problem would be sending over some of our mass productions of food we (the U.S) make every day. Just give them three meals a day and maybe we could start up a few markets that have certain price deals so that it is easier for the poorer citizens to afford. I just think it is rediculous that a country as prosperous and as obese as us cannot make an effort to do more for these poorer countries.

My Carbon Footprint :(

My carbon footprint was 13 tons of CO2 per year which is below the U.S national average(27) but it is still a lot of carbon dioxide a year going up and into the atmosphere. A carbon footprint is the total set of greenhouse gases emissions caused by a person, organization, event, or product. Our carbon footprints relate to the concept of sustainability in a negative way. Sustainability is the capacity to endure; to continue to be diverse and productive for years to come. I don't think my carbon footprint helps sustainability at all because I am putting 13 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every year, and that is just me alone. If I add up the entire school's carbon footprints, it would be in the millions. Millions of tons of carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere every year! I think that would definitely hinder sustainability at a faster pace than we want. I think I would start seeing the effects of our carbon footprints in our lifetime...if we keep this pattern going. I know there are ways I can reduce my carbon footprint and I am sure there are other people that know of ways as well. We just need to start now and I know where I have to start.

An area where I can reduce my carbon footprint is my home energy. I don't think about how many electrical appliances I have plugged into my walls but they definitely add up. I just don't think that it would make a difference if I unplugged my ipod dock from my wall or not but I guess it would make a huge difference. I also keep my light on all the time at college so I could also turn it off as well during the day, and I could turn off all appliances when I am not using them. For a week, I will turn off my light during the day and I will not run the water when I am washing my hands. This is going to be hard, but if it will keep sustainability from being destroyed I will try my hardest. :)

Skunk Ape Tutorial Review

After completing the library tutorial, I learned some new skills that I will use that I never knew existed before. Such as, the online FGCU library has so many choices to choose from when wanting to research a topic. I can choose from an encyclopedia, or a magazine, or a journal. The online library website has several tabs to click on in order to get information from a form of academic writing. I knew what an encyclopedia is used for but I did not know I could use a magazine or scholarly journal in my sources of information. I think I need to know where to start when performing basic research but since I am at a university; I can always start with the online library and then search the regular web.

Three things that I did not know when I started the tutorial are: how to use the different data bases FGCU online library had to choose from, what kind of magazines were academic and could be used in research papers while others were just for fun reading, and how to find information in a newspaper, where there are not as many words but still useful information. Another thing that I did not know before the library tutorial was how to use the words and/or when searching a longer topic. To find more information on the topic I should use or, and when I want to get really specific with my topic I should use and. That really helps me because when I would research topics in the past on Google I would never get exactly what I wanted because I always entered in long topics and used the word and a lot.

Three things that I already know that were explained in the tutorial are; how to cite my sources properly, how not to plagiarize, and how to find background information on my topic in order to get more acquainted with it. I always knew the definition of plagiarism because it is something that has always been taught and stressed by all of my teachers since sixth grade. I also know how to cite my sources because I have had many strict teachers that would give a paper back if it had one little mistake on the works cited page, then the student would have until the end of the day to fix it and turn the paper back in.

Overall, I think the tutorial was a good thing for the class and I to do, but there were too many five minute or more videos. I think the tutorial would have been better if there were not as many questions as well at the end of each section. I think ten questions would have worked fine instead of twenty or more. The tutorial could have also put section one and two together because they went hand in hand almost. Putting them together would take out the unwanted information or should I say repetitive information. If the tutorial changes those few things, I think students would take more time on it and actually read all of the sections.

Naples Beach Observations

The first thing I saw when I walked onto Naples Beach Saturday was the ocean. It was a darker blue partly because of the dark, storm clouds along the left side of the sky. It was like the board walk was forming them and pushing them over to where I was laying. Since there was a storm getting ready to come, it was very windy and I was definately getting sandy. It was really hot out, probably 90 degrees, so I was sweating even with my gatorade next me, and whenever the wind would blow, sand would get onto my face and stay there. It also would somehow end up in my mouth and I had no idea how because I had my mouth closed...? Tasting sand is the worst part of the beach besides getting salt water in your eyes because everytime you close your teeth you can feel the sand grinding between them. It is not a very nice feeling and you are basically crunching sand the whole day. Nasty! Naples Beach also has a lot of houses along the back of it and they all look like houses you would find out of a model home magazine. They are beautiful and I have already picked the house I would want if I moved to Naples. It was just starting to get built but the color was a sandy tan and it had dark brown boarders. It was so pretty.

As I spent more of my time on the beach I started to realize the smaller things of the beach, such as different families around me. There was one, very interesting family to the right of me. The husband was rather large and had many punk tattoos on him while the wife was very skinny and had many punk tattoos on her as well. They had two kids, a boy and a girl, and the little boy had a mohawk which just kind of explained the whole family. I also heard the dad telling his kids about dolphins and sharks because they saw a dolphin while they were in the ocean. When I went in the ocean, I realized that the ocean was sort of foggy. It seemed like there was a cloud of sand just above the bottom of the ocean that was blocking my sight from seeing the bottom. I also saw that there were a lot of these certain white shells. I don't know their name but they almost looked like they were bleached and they had ruffles on the top of the shell. It is amazing what you notice and take in at the beach when you have to write it down.

Composing both writing pieces included a different process in my mind. For the informal letter I knew I didn't have to worry about how I was writing because Mrs. V told us to just write to a friend like we were actually sitting right across from them. For the news article I focused on writing it more in a proper way, almost like I was writing a formal paper. I tried to make it seem like I was actually going to enter my article into the FGCU paper.
After I wrote them both I can now see that the letter was way easier to write because it was to a friend and in my own voice...like I was just putting my spoken word onto paper. I didn't have to think about putting my words into a more proper setting.
The major difference between the two written works is that the letter was spoken word and the article was more properly written. Another difference was the structure of each piece. The letter didn't have five paragraphs with an introduction and a conclusion. It was just written freely...informally. I wrote the article with five paragraphs including an introduction,a body, and a conclusion.
When I was deciding what to include in both pieces, there were a few differences but the one subject that I put in both pieces of writing was my first two weeks at FGCU. Then for the letter I wrote about what I would tell my friend if she was sitting right in front of me and for the article I wrote about what FGCU recruits would want to read and hear about. I wanted to answer questions that incoming students would have.
When I was done writing my article I fixed a lot of introduction sentences to my paragraphs to make them more connected to the other previous paragraphs and more attention grabbing. I also think that is my major weakness in writing. Trying to get the reader's attention and making smooth transitions between paragraphs. You all will see as you read my first drafts :)

Hello! My name is Megan VanEtten and you can call me Megan or Meg. I am the middle sister of three and the only one with blonde curly hair and blue eyes. I was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and lived there for thirteen years. I moved to Florida because my dad found a great job as the director of golf at Heritage Springs Country Club. I was upset about the move at first but now I realize how it really improved my golf game. In high school I won three Conference titles right in a row, I won one District title, and was player of the year for three years in a row. I also was awarded female athlete of the year of my senior class which was always a dream of mine.
When I am not golfing I am usually working out or dreaming of being at the beach. My favorite beach is Marco Island and I hope to be going back sometime during the next year. My family and I went to Marco Island six years ago during Christmas break and I think it started my love for the beach! The one bad thing about me and the beach is that my nose always gets burnt and my family calls me rudolph! Not funny!
My dream job is to play on the LPGA Tour but if it does not work out I would like to be a psychologist. I love to help others around me and I thought majoring in psychology would be a great way to make my future jobs enjoyable each and everyday.
I hope to have a good four years here at FGCU and I hope you all do too!