Cult. Op. #2

During the month of October I attended the musically choreographed piece Stomp. This piece was performed at the Peoria Civic Center. Stomp is a talented group of dancers that perform a choreographed piece by banging on over one hundred objects. These objects range from trash cans to stop signs and cones. They even clap and of course stomp making the most unique kinds of beats.
Stomp originated sometime in the late 1980’s early 90’s when the leader of the group was sweeping one day and started pounding the broom and swishing it to make different sounds and eventually started making beats. It didn’t take long for the public to take notice of this out of the ordinary yet unique act. Within a year and after hundreds of hours of practice, Stomp was formed and was touring around the world to amaze people with their beat-making talent and incredible dancing.
My favorite part of the show would have to be when all the lights turned off and the group stood in a line in the center of the stage, all with Zippo lighters. They all synchronized together and flipped and closed their lighter at certain times to create a masterpiece. All this was going on while the audience was sitting in the dark, which made a cool effect of just being able to see the flame of the lighters go out and then light back up again. Stomp was a great group that I encourage anybody who likes dancing and beats, if you have the chance, to go see them. It was a great time and I enjoyed myself and didn’t get bored; as the routine flowed smoothly from beginning to end.

Cult. Op. #1

On September 27th I attended A Party to Murder at the Performing Arts Center at Illinois Central College. The cost for attending the play was five dollars. A Party to Murder was a comedy about a group of five people coming in secret on Halloween to play a murder mystery game at an island cottage. The group was invited by Charles Prince for a weekend set for fun, but when ghosts from the past come to haunt them it becomes clear it is not what it seems.
Valerie was one of the characters in this play. She was portrayed as a successful business woman. Valerie’s part was performed well all the way up to the end when she got shot. Valerie way overplayed her part and was a million times dramatic than she needed to be.
Henri was Valerie’s shy younger sister in the play. Henri’s part was played poorly. Her accent was too fake and she sounded like she was trying too hard. Her volume when speaking was well done from where I was sitting. Her attire for the part fit the aspects of Henri very well. Overall she was the most annoying part of the play.
Willy was a humorous character. He was played as a retired pro football player who faked an injury and put himself in a wheel chair. His accent was well done and fit his part well. His lines were spoken fluently and at a high enough volume for all to hear. Willy was the funniest character in the play. Having his accent and facial expression added a lot to the play.
Elwood was another character in the play. He was portrayed as this powerful business tycoon. The guy who played Elwood’s role played it with too much confidence. His laughs were annoying and he wanted all the attention on him. His part was poorly and selfishly played. His volume when speaking was way too loud, which in turn made it hard to concentrate on what was going on elsewhere on stage. Overall, it was not a good performance by Elwood.
Mackenzie was Elwood’s young girlfriend and a model for Vogue. Her part was played well. The way she spoke her lines and her body language really added a lot to this play. She spoke fluently and loud enough for the audience. She didn’t try too hard or over-play her part; she was smooth with everything and performed really well.
The lighting for the play was done with excellent fashion. At one point one of the characters was walking across the stage with a candle and the light crew brightened and dimmed the lights in sync as the character walked across stage. This was a really neat effect. Also, there was a storm the night the group stayed at the house and the light crew had white lights flashing through the windows to simulate the lightning. The special effects during the play were done well also. At one point in the play a character walked outside during the storm and when they did the wind blew and leaves came into the house which made it seem even more real. Overall the play was performed well on special effects and lighting, but not so much on the acting. I felt like I was at a high school production. There is plenty of potential and room for improvement for the actors. This could be the result of a bad night but either way it wasn’t that good.

Crazy Weird!!!

So I have been having this problem with indecisiveness lately and I don’t know what has been causing it. The other day I was at work and I was taking two deliveries to two different places. I had delivered the first order and then on my way to the second order I pull up to this stop sign and sit there. I literally just sat there for a good 3-4 min. Why you ask... because I couldn’t decide which road to take to the next delivery. Both roads took about the same amount of time, but I couldn’t force myself to make the decision. Pathetic I know. So finally I creep out onto the road because I had thought I had decided to just go straight but at the last second I whipped my car to the right and went the other way. I just didn’t understand why I couldn’t make that simple decision of what road to take.
Again the other day, I was on my way to work and I wanted to listen to music so I was searching through my cd case and picked out two cds but I could not decide between the two and I have no clue why. So here again I just sat there in silence and by the time I finally chose a cd I was at work already. So yeah I’m still trying to figure this out, so if anybody can relate to this please let me know lol.

You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is 'never try'

I honestly think that anyone who can write their name or something just as simple as a few numbers on a check is considered a writer. It is common for one to think of a writer as somebody who writes stories or novels. This is not the case. Writing is all around you believe it or not; there are just different kinds of writing. Texting, for example, is a form of writing. It would be considered as a non-formal kind of writing. Yes it may be silly to think of this as writing seeing that you might only text a few sentences to a friend or even just ask them what they are doing but in the end you are writing a message to that friend. So I believe in this case you are considered a writer. Even in cases when you are working on a math problem, signing your name, typing an email, or even writing a check you are writing. Every person who can physically write is a writer; it’s just a matter of how one perceives it. Even though I am considered a writer, there are certain forms of writing that I do not like, such as, papers for school. I dislike being forced to write case study blogs on myself and what it means for someone to be a writer. It is just like filling a page with nothing. Is that even possible? The way I feel about this whole thing is if I am being forced to write I’m not going to produce anything useful. Basically the only time I write papers is when it is required for a class or for a job even. I am not one to just write papers for fun. I personally don’t have any interest in that what so ever, although I do like writing songs and even poems sometimes. I often listen to my friends complain about how much they despise writing and they never want to do it, but this never makes sense to me because of the way I perceive the word writing. I would then ask them what they mean and they would respond with, “I don’t know I just hate writing.” So then I would ask them why they dislike writing there name or writing a check. I am just saying this to explain that people perceive the word “writer” differently. This is my opinion on what I think it means for someone to be a writer and why I consider myself a writer.

Oh its a blasty blast, you gotta try it!

After 9/11 struck our country and the immense rise of workplace violence, employers are running to investigative companies in larger numbers. Employers are doing background checks on their current employees and their family members as well. They are especially running checks on positions that were never given much consideration before. Employers are now also requiring security checks for the “high tech” positions such as computer programming.
In these employee background checks, the employer will also do checks on the spouse and sometimes other members of the family. If one of the members or spouse has a criminal record, the employer has every right to decline the application. This is not only true for military jobs or defense contractors, but for the “high tech” positions as well. This could make it difficult for some people, seeing that one’s chance to get a job is determined on their marriage, but a dishonorable discharge from the U.S. military will automatically eliminate the chance of one to get a security clearance.
There are some pieces of information that cannot be given to the employer. This information includes civil lawsuits, judgments older than 7 years, paid tax liens and collections paid after 7 years, and bankruptcies older than 10 years. Employers are prohibited from requiring applicants to provide copies of their criminal records, but they can receive this information from other sources such as, private agencies.

Just because I don't care doesn't mean I don't understand.

Of all my times of writing there have been a few times where my writing went particularly well. I was a junior at Limestone Community High School and it was the grand ole time for the term paper. Oh yeah, that big ten page long paper that every junior student stresses about and the one that is required to graduate high school. Well I was considered one of these stressed out students worrying about the term paper. I walk in the class and the teacher says, “Well class it’s the moment you have all long waited for…the term paper.” Yeah my stomach twisted and turned in ways I thought it never could. I started worrying about what my topic would be, if it would be a good topic, would it be easy to research, and most importantly would it impress the teacher. So I thought long and hard about the topic that I wanted to research and I came up with cyber-bullying. It’s pretty much the same thing as bullying at a school, but instead the bullying is done on the internet.
There was a certain way I went about my work for the term paper. First off, my teacher gave the class a due date sheet and had multiple things due over the course of three weeks. This made it much easier for me to do the term paper. Since everything was spread out, I didn’t feel pressured to have that ten page paper done by a certain time. It was spread out, making it less stressful on me. This being said, I was able to really concentrate on the content that I put into my note cards and eventually my paper. When it the time came to write the paper, it went pretty well. I had all my research done and my note cards as well, so it made the writing part pretty easy. The teacher was also pretty lenient with my class so she gave us a second chance to revise our paper and have it checked again before we turned in our final draft.
So after all the freaking out, worrying, stress, and three weeks of time I handed my term paper in. I felt confident in the research and work that I had turned in. I also believed that I went about my work in a responsible and timely manner. In the end, my hard work had paid off and I was pleased with the grade I received on my term paper.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

Some people ask, are law and justice the same thing? In my opinion, law and justice is not the same thing, although they do go hand in hand. Furthermore, each one relies on the other. We have laws to protect the community and to keep everything in order and when one breaks one of these laws they have to suffer some sort of punishment or serve justice depending on the seriousness of the violation. Our law and justice work as a system; without one the other is not effective. If there were no law, justice would be ineffective. People could violate a law but then they would have no justice to serve. If there were no justice to serve, the law would be pointless to have because one could violate a law or regulation and not receive any form of justice or consequence, end of story. People would just be able to do what they wanted and get away with it. Eventually the people would start taking law and justice into their own hands by making their own laws to abide by and punishments for those laws. This would get pretty ridiculous in a very short amount of time. Society as a whole would not be able to function. In the end, this is the meaning for our system. Law and justice work together hand in hand, but there is a difference between the two. Let me know what you think!