NBA Playoffs

With the NBA playoffs starting this week, I am going to talk about who I think will win the championship. In the west, I think that Golden State and San Antonio will meet in the conference finals. This will be a great series and probably better than the finals. I think this series will go to seven games and that Golden State will make it back to the finals. In the East, the Cavaliers will have some close series, but will make back to the finals. Once again, I think the Warriors will be too much and win in five or six games.

Top 5 skills I wish to gain

The top five skills that I wish to gain by the time I leave college are better communication skills, better writing skills, cooking, time management, and skills of living on my own. I want to learn how to cook because I want to be able to make different kinds of food and be able to cook for my family. I want to improve my communication skills so I am more comfortable talking to people that I do not know as well and so I am more comfortable giving presentations. I want to improve my writing skills, so I can write better college level papers and learn how write with more detail. Learning better time management will allow me to get assignments done more efficiently and effectively. Also better time management skills will allow me to get things done on time. I want to learn skills of living on my own, so I will know how to live on my own after college, when I get my own house.

Individual Hitchcock Assignment

After reading other groups blog posts, I notice that Hitchcock liked to experiment with new ways of filming, and he liked to use psychology in his films. He experimented with different camera angles to try to create suspense and make the movie more interesting. Also, Hitchcock liked to have elements of psychology in his films. An example of this is when Alicia gets poisoned with the uranium. This makes her sick and tired and she does not know what to do. Hitchcock changed the way that movies were made during his era and he added many elements that were not thought of during this time.

March Madness

The first week of the NCAA Basketball Tournament, also known as "March Madness", was very exciting! There were many buzzer beaters and upsets that busted people's brackets. Middle Tennessee beating Michigan State was the biggest upset of the tournament and one of the biggest of all time. Most people picked Michigan State to make the final four or win the tournament. My bracket is doing alright, as I still have three of my four final four teams left and my championship pick, North Carolina, is still in. Hopefully the teams that I picked keep winning and the rest of the tournament is as exciting to watch as the first weekend.

Small Group Blog Assignment

Psychology is the way we all think, feel, and behave.  Alfred Hitchcock's career was just starting when Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis in the 1920's.  Freud's theory was very popular in many films and books in the United States.  At first Hitchcock was very nervous about the usage of psychoanalysis in his films, but ended up causing his career to sky rocket.

A few examples of psychology in Hitchcock's film called Notorious are the following:

1. The MacGuffin in Notorious was the Uranium hidden inside the wine glasses.  When Alicia discovers her husbands fear of her going into the wine room, she realizes that the MacGuffin must be in that room.  She and Devlin tried the entire party to go into the wine room and find out what was being hidden in there.  When they finally broke in, they discovered that it was hidden in a wine bottle.  They discovered this because one of the bottles fell and broke onto the floor.  When Alexander discovers that they found out where he was hiding the uranium, he went into the wine room to find any clues as to how they knew.  He has to think of so many complex ways to find any clues possible.  This has a lot to do with psychology because he thinks of many different ways to find clues and the way he behaves when he finds out is also a great example.

2. When Alicia was poisoned by Alexander and his mother for being a US detective and finding the Uranium, Alicia quickly finds out that they knew she knew where the Uranium was.  She reacted quickly and became very worried about what was going to happen to her.  Devlin knew that something terrible had happened to Alicia since he hadn't heard from Alicia for a week.  He decided to go over to Alicia's house and find out what was wrong with her and that is when he discovered that she was being poisoned.  This goes along with their behavior and finding out information quickly.

Spring Break Trip

Last week for spring break, the golf team went to Myrtle Beach to practice for the spring season. I got to play some of the nicest and hardest courses I have ever played. My favorite course was TPC Myrtle Beach, which is the home course of PGA Tour player Dustin Johnson. It was also nice to be able to play on a real golf course instead of hitting off of mats inside. Hopefully this trip helps the team get prepared for the spring season, that starts this week weekend at the Mount St. Joseph Invitational.

Differences Between High School and College

Dear high school senior,

     As a college freshman, I have learned that college is different from high school in many ways. One of the basic differences between high school and college, is that while high school teachers are usually generalists, college teachers are specialists. This means that college professors have a job in the field that they teach or a higher, more specialized degree. I have experienced this in business class, because Professor Sholl is a businessman and has experience owning a business. Another basic difference is that college courses are not a direct continuation of high school courses. This means that college courses do not build off courses of a certain subject that you took in high school. An example of this is that in college accounting, we learned material that I did not learn in a high school accounting class. Another difference that I have noticed between high school and college is that in college, teachers don't always tell you or remind you to do an assignment. They expect you to know what you need to do each day and get it done on time. Also in college, most of the work is done outside the classroom, while in high school, most work was done in class. In college you may have much more reading to do each night, or have reports to do on your own, with no class time to complete them. Myths and illusions can be created about college when others tell us things and we believe them, because we have not yet experienced it ourselves. This kind of lying is not helpful because we do not actually know what to expect in college and it can give us the wrong idea and mislead our expectations.

Best of luck,
Drake

Spring Break Trip

Next week for spring break, the golf team is going on a trip to Myrtle Beach. This will allow us to practice for the season and play some beautiful, but challenging courses. After hitting balls inside for the last month, it will be nice to be able to play outside and actually see how I am hitting the ball. I hope I can hit it straight, because most of the courses look tough and one course has 13 holes with water! We will also play against 3 other college teams, to get tournament practice. This trip will be a great experience and will get the team ready for the season, which starts in just a couple weeks.

My biggest regret

My biggest regret is not studying as hard as I should have in high school. My regret follows the same "not" pattern as many of those in the video. While I did homework and studied many hours a night, I feel maybe I could have studied more and worked just a little harder. I did get good grades, but I see now that if I would have put in a little more effort and tried even harder, going above and beyond, I could have gotten even better grades. High school is over, but I could turn around this regret by giving everything 110%, now that I am in college. I can try to have better study habits and make each assignment or test a top priority. Having regrets relates to lies and deception because if you regret not doing something, you could think that your life could have been better if you had done that specific thing. While this could be the case, you could also be deceiving yourself into thinking it could have been better, when in reality your life is just as good or better, having not done it.

NBA Dunk Contest

The NBA dunk contest this past weekend was one of the best in the history of the event. This helped the dunk contest gain popularity back, after many years when it was not as exciting. In the finals, Zach Lavine and Aaron Gordon were going back and forth with some of the best dunks we have ever seen. Zack Lavine won the contest, but I think it should have been a tie, as Gordon's dunks were just as good or maybe even better than Lavine's.

NCAA Basketball Tournament

My favorite time of the year in sports is when the NCAA basketball tournament starts. I like to fill out a bracket and see if I picked the correct teams to win. Also, it is exciting to watch all the games to see who advances and who will win the tournament. It is even more exciting when my favorite teams, North Carolina and Michigan, are in the tournament and I have a team to cheer for! The tournament is usually wide-open, as many upsets occur throughout, making it fun to watch. This year should be another great tournament, as there are many teams that have a chance to get in and make it to the final game

Meyer Ted Talk

When Meyer says that lying is a cooperative act, she means that lying takes more than one person and that a lie gets power when other people believe that the lie is true. I agree because some people will believe anything you say and think it is true. When she says that lying is a way of connecting what we wish we were with what we are, she means that lying to people makes us feel better as a person and that lying can make us who we want to be.

Yes, I agree with truth number two, because people do not like others who lie, but in some instances people tell you to lie about certain things and some people like to lie to sound cool.

Some techniques to spot liars, are to listen to the words they say, watch their body language and find discrepancies between their actions and words. We would want to learn these techniques so we can tell easier when someone is lying and not listen to or believe them.

Yes, I think that honesty is worth preserving and that we can create a cultural and societal change regarding lying by changing our attitudes about lying and not always thinking that it is an okay thing to do

Audience for ads

For the iPhone ad, I believe the intended audience is younger, active people with good jobs, who want the newest products and technology. Most of the people in the ad look to be in their twenties and all seem to be active and energetic. There are no kids in the ad, because they may not have the money for this product and no older people, because they may not be interested in such technologically advanced features on a phone. They show features such as FaceTime, editing pictures, watching movies and texting, that would be popular with a younger audience.  For the Samsung Smart TV, I think the intended audience is mostly men. They show the young, pretty woman and all the men watching her and going to her. This would also attract men to watch the commercial. Although the woman is the one watching the TV in the ad, I think men are more interested in the newest technology and features on this type of television. In the Mercedes ad, I think the intended audience is parents of young children or with families in general, who are concerned about safety. They show how safe and comfortable the young boy feels in the Mercedes when he walks all the way to the police station, apparently more than once, just to get a ride home in it. We should be critical of the intended audience in advertisements to reach the most consumers who may actually be interested in buying that particular product.  When you know your intended or target audience, you can focus your ad more on that group's wants and interests to draw them in and make them interested in buying the product.

How long players should have to stay in College before going to the NBA

The NCAA and the NBA need to change the rule for how long college basketball players have to stay in school before being drafted. The rule states that players must attend college for one year before they can go to the NBA. I think players should have to stay in college for at least three years, like they do in football. This would allow players to develop more and would make college basketball programs better. Also, it would improve the quality of play in the NBA. Many players leave college after one year and end up not getting drafted to the NBA. Others who do get drafted, are not necessarily ready to play in the NBA when they get there. Staying in college longer would give them the opportunity to mature and grow, both personally and athletically.

My Childhood Memory

In June of 2008, when I was eleven years old, my baseball team, Omni Source, won the league championship game! It was the final game of the season. We played at the K of C baseball complex, against KFC. Omni Source and KFC both had two loses for the season. KFC had been our rival the whole season. Which ever team won this game would be the league champs, so the pressure was on!
Our one advantage was that we were the home team and batted last. I started out playing first base. For the first two innings, nobody scored. KFC had gotten a couple hits, but I got them out at first. My team had gotten a couple hits and had runners on base, but left them stranded. KFC was up to bat in the top of the third inning and had another scoreless inning. Finally, in the bottom of the third, my team scored! We had been hitting the ball and getting guys on base, but also getting outs, and not moving players around like we needed to. When I was up to bat, I got hit by a pitch and got walked. I then stole second base on a wild pitch. My teammate, Scott, was up and blasted the ball into center field! I ran as fast as I could, and my dad, who was the third base coach, waved me around third. I was almost home and saw the ball coming in. I slid into home before the ball got there, and was safe! We were now ahead 1-0!
Our lead didn't last long, though! In the very next inning, KFC was on a hitting streak and got one run in, before we could get three outs. We didn't score that inning, and went into the fifth inning tied 1-1. We held them in the top of the fifth and remained tied. In the bottom of the fifth, we got a few more hits and managed to get one more run. We were in the lead once again!
It was the top of the last inning and we were ahead 2-1. If we could hold them, we wouldn't have to bat and we would win. Our starting pitcher's arm was tired, so I had to pitch the last inning for our team. It was all up to me now, and I was very nervous. If I gave up any runs, our team could lose. I focused on the batters and threw my hardest.  Amazingly, I struck out all three batters for a shutout inning! We had won the championship! Everyone cheered and my teammates picked me up and carried me around the field, while screaming and jumping up and down! It was a very exciting day, that I will always remember!

My Favorite Sport

My favorite sport is golf. I have played golf my entire life. I got my first set of golf clubs for my third birthday, and began playing at real courses with my dad. I have played in many junior tournaments throughout northwest Ohio, which has given me experience playing competitively and playing under pressure. Playing in these tournaments and playing golf in high school has allowed me to make friends from other schools, and gave me the opportunity to play with and against some of the best golfers in the state of Ohio. Being on the golf team at Defiance College has allowed me to make new friends and the chance to play a variety of nice courses.

How I Ended Up in Jail

I wake up from a deep sleep to the sound of an alarm on my phone. I get up and look at my surroundings. I do not recognize where I am, but then I realize I am in a jail cell. I have no idea how I got here or how long I have been here. I grab my coat that is sitting next to my bed and I feel something in the pockets. The first thing I pull out is a golf ball, which reminds me that I was golfing the evening before. The second item I find is my scorecard which tells that I quit playing after 15 holes. Next, I find a note from the golf course that tells me I can not come back there for at least two months. The fourth item I find in my coat pocket is the head from my broken putter, which I now recall slamming against someone's golf cart for yelling and causing me to miss a putt. The fifth and final object in my pocket is a piece of tree bark. The driver of the golf cart had gotten out when I hit the cart with my club. I then jumped in the cart and sped off, driving the cart straight into a tree and hitting my head. I got out and tried to run, but was so dizzy, I fell to the ground and the owner caught me. As I rub my head, I notice a large bump and now remember being told I needed to spend the night in jail for destruction of property and trying to leave the scene.

The Time I Got a Hole-In-One

One fall afternoon in 2012, my dad and I decided to go golfing. The weather was nice and we figured this would be one of the last opportunities to play before it got too cold. We got to the course and checked in and then began playing. After the first two holes it was just a normal round of golf. Then at the third hole, that all changed. We got to the tee box and after checking the the yardage and wind direction, I decided to hit a pitching wedge. I hit the ball, and I knew it was a good shot. As it went through the air it was going directly at the pin. When it landed, I could not see the ball and I thought it went over the green. We got up to the green, we began to look for my ball and could not find it. After I looked over the green, I decided to look in the hole to make sure it did not go in. When I looked in the hole, I was shocked as I found the ball. I had made my first ever hole-in-one and the only one I have ever made, to date.