Observation topic?

I have decided to do my observation report on a Catholic mass. I figured that not too many people around here are catholic and there are many rumors that I have heard about the Catholic faith. These rumors might need to be cleared up. So, I am going to go into mass with a pencil and paper and observe the priest and really pay attention to the details that I have not looked very closely at before. Hopefully, I can enlighten people with the truth about Catholics. Mass is not really something people get excited about either way, but it never hurts to understand what is going on in other religions because it makes people more accepting and less prejudiced towards people. Prejudice stems from people not understanding things and maybe even being afraid of them.

I feel like education can function as a little of both. Once the younger generation gets educated, they can then understand the social norms and choose wether or not to continue with them. They can also choose to be free from the norms of of the older generation. They can break free and experience things and create things that an older generation has never thought to do or experience. Every generation has their mark that they leave on the world and that they are known for. I think that if these generations were not educated, they would not be able to develop their new ideas and thoughts about the world.

In my life, religion has played a very large role. I was brought up Catholic and attended mass every sunday. I went to a Catholic high school and was required to take a religion class. We also went to mass during school once a week. I also love to learn new things and experience new ideas. I particularly like biology, and the Theory of evolution has done nothing to draw me away from my faith. I know that people can choose to believe what they want to believe, but my roots are too deep into the Catholic faith to believe that there is simply no higher being. I am very open to the idea that evolution happens (and it does happen), but with the help of this higher being, or God. I refuse to just think that everything happens by complete coincidence.

So, in class today we forced Bobby and Elliot to sit face to face and have a conversation with each other while we all watched and took notes on what they were saying. Right off the bat you could tell that Elliot was extremely uncomfortable and I felt bad because I would have been too. Before long, Bobby was feeling quite anxious himself and began to look around the room. I have to hand it to Bobby he handled the pressure well and kept the conversation going even while Elliot was a bit unresponsive and answering his questions with one word answers. Of course eventually, everybody runs out of things to say if the other person is giving them nothing to feed off of. When the whole class was feeling bad for the two of them (or maybe it was the boredom), a few willing individuals began to talk to the two of them sitting in the middle of the room. I kept out of it to keep observing. The worst part was that I wanted to talk and add on to their conversation because the topics brought up had some potential, and I had some personal experiences that I wanted to throw in.

When I first watched the short movie "A Typical Conversation with my Mother" in class, i noticed all the things that people notice when they are just watching and not really observing. But each time I watched it I noticed more and more. The difference when I watched it at home was that I started to relate things being said in the clip to things that happen to me in real life. For example, my mom likes to put celery in her tuna fish and she constantly does it when I have told her I hate celery being in there. When the mother comments about getting a jacket for later I immediately thought of how my mom gets cold very easily and never forgets to bring jacket if we are going out, even in the summer. When I was home watching it with my eyes closed, I began to visualize what was happening on the screen at the time the words were playing. I could see the pictures in my head that went along with that part of the movie. In class I was too involved in writing things down and trying to pick out small details to actually listen the way I did at my house.

I don't know if it is just me but Dr. Freilich out Chemistry teacher is a nut. These first few weeks of class he has come into class five minute slate each day and yells at us for not being prepared. I swear this guy is on something. Also, all these things that are supposed to be "review" from high school are not really review. My Chemistry teacher in high school did not teach us much of what we are flying through in Freilich's class. So, naturally I'm a little behind. It may have been that my high school chemistry class went over it, but that was over two years ago now. How many people can remember things as detailed as stoichometry for over two years? I will tell you. Not many. So Dr. Freilich no offense but COOL IT MAN. Your class is not the only class in the world and we have enough on our plates already.

This past weekend I watched the UT Volunteers play the UCLA Bruins in football. My favorite team is the Volunteers so naturally I was pulling for them to win. It started off looking fairly good for the Vols but the quarterback, Jonathan Crompton, who played awfully last year showed his true colors once again after having and amazing first game against WKU Hill-toppers. Crompton decided it would be fun to throw three interceptions on consecutive drives ultimately blowing the game for the Vols. However, I cannot blame it all on Crompton, because the standout freshman, Bryce Brown, did not look like the player he as made out to be either. Overall, it was a disappointing weekend for Big Orange Country.

Anecdote:

As a junior on my high school baseball team I was put through the most rigorous conditioning training I or anyone else i know has been a part of. Our conditioning coach was literally cut from the same cloth as the likes of Hitler or Stalin. We were out in the sleet and ice cold rain the entire fall and winter until the spring season. All of this was apparently to make us a better team.

What it says about me:

It shows that I can work hard when it i necessary and I will get the job done no matter the circumstances.

What it says about me that is different than what I want?

It might seem that I am complaining about the severity of the conditioning. However, after talking to friends on other baseball teams from other schools I feel that I am entitled to my complaints. I do not want it to look like I was not up to the challenge.

How can people identify?

Most people have had to endure an intense workout regimen for a sport or something that they are training for. If people want to attain a well conditioned physical state it take hard work and discipline.

pg.7

1. The last difficult writing assignment that I had to write was due in December of my senior year. It was a seven page research paper on an unsolved mystery and i picked the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle. It was assigned in late October and was due in early December so we had a lot of time to finish it.

2. After receiving the assignment i had to pick a topic to write on. Once I picked the Bermuda Triangle, I had to find sources, pick what I was going to use from those sources, and paraphrase them so i wouldn't be plagiarizing. I was writing because i needed a good grade and my intended reader was my english teacher and a few classmates that had to proofread my paper.

pg.23

1. split, rounding, trailed, picked, chased, smashed, entered, ran, coming, wound, chased, glanced, pounding, fling, point, chasing, impelled, compelled, tore, running, discovering, caught.

2. considered, entered, fling, point, find, slow, discovering,

3. The air was cold; every breath tore my throat.

We kept running..., running a frantic course and choosing it simultaneously.

pg.24

1. "He was in city clothes: a suit and tie, street shoes."

"He was a tall thin man, all action."

"...a man in his twenties"

"The man's lower pants legs were wet... cuffs were full of snow, there was a prow of snow beneath them on his shoes and socks."

"... driver of the black Buick."

"sainted, skinny, furious redheaded man..."

2. He doesn't seem to really be mad once he catches them. He simply says "you stupid kids" in his Pittsburgh accent.

3. I see a middle aged man who seems very angry with the children but seems to get out his anger during the chase. He ends up a long distance from his car soaked with snow.

1. perfectly white snow, perfectly spherical, and squeezed perfectly translucent.

2. I can really identify with the comparison of "every breath tore my throat" because for off season baseball practice we would have to run in the freezing cold with every breath feeling like ice.

pg. 25

1. She makes it seem as if the chase and chewing out wasn't really worth the crime and the man was only chewing them out because he really had nothing else to do at that point or he would look stupid.

2. "I wanted the glory to last forever"