Writing Project #3 - Soundtrack Of My Life

Vanilla Ice - Go Ninja


Looking back on this strange and humerous music video by Vanilla Ice, people are dancing to the theme song from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There are several dancers all dancing in sequence on stage in front an audience at a concert. All four ninja turtles, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Donatella, and Rafael are all on stage dancing with Vanilla Ice. Human-like turtles, these characters are based off the comic books and movie series. Named after the famous painters from the Renissance ara, these ninja turtles are crime-fighting heros. As a child, countless hours were spent playing with this ninja turtle action figures. With my friends, a whole day may be spent just dreaming up different scenarios with these toys. Our imaginations would run wild and create complex situations between the common fate of good versus evil. There would be epic battles between the teenage mutant ninja turtles and their feared enemies such as Shredder and the Foot Soldiers. We would put the ninja turtles through training, learning new fighting styles and strategies from thier wise mentor, Splinter. Cheap and very durable, these toys were everything that a young boy with a big imagination needed. The action figures created many friendships and memories. Even though that stage of action figures is over in my life, they will always have a significant value from my childhood.

Rodney Atkins - Watching You


In this music video, Rodney Atkins is driving around with his son in their pick-up truck. He is telling several stories about his son and all the similarities they share. His son is paying close attention and being very observant of his father and trying to copy his actions as close as possible. He seems to do everything like his dad, everything from dressing alike to talking just like him. Much like the young child in the video, a great amount of my knowledge and behavior has been influenced by my father. Even though I was not able to spend much time with my father because of a divorce, our relationship still remained strong. Through my younger days and transitioning of becoming a young adult, having a supportive father was very helpful. He was always loving and always there for me no matter what. The lyrics in this song state "I've been watching you, I wanna be just like you." Everyone has a some sort of a role model in their lives or someone they look up to, and my father is defintely one of mine. He has been a very important figure in my life and its encouraged me to be the same type of father to my children someday.

Tupac Shakur - Dear Mama


In this music video, Tupac Shakur's mother is giving a short interview about giving birth to her son. Throughout the video, there are scenes of Tupac with his mother and clips of young children causing trouble with the law. In the song, Tupac's lyrics explain that him and his mother did not get along all the time but yet he loves her more than anything. Even though my mother has caused me a lot of stress and frustration over the years as a parent, there are still feelings of love between us. Even though we would fight constantly, she was always trying to be the best parent possible. Being a single mother with two children is a tough situation for anyone regardless of financial income. As Tupac stated in his song "There's no way I can pay you back, but my plan is to show you that I understand." Raising me and mothering me for 18 years is something that can never be paid back. My mother has shaped me as a person, for her strong character has reflected onto me. Her work ethic and caring feelings as a parent was something that could not go unnoticed. She has been a very influential figure in my life even through all the struggles and hard times.

Brad Paisley - I'm Gonna Miss Her


This music video opens with scenes of Sportscenter on ESPN. The sports anchor is discussing the annual "Brad Paisley fishing invitational" and there a clips of Brad Pasiley with his wife. She becomes very frustrated and upset with him because he made the decision to go a fishing trip rather than spend the day with her. Watching this video reminds me of a all the time that I have spent throughout my life fishing. The sport of fishing is definetely one of the most relaxing activities anyone can experience. Fishing trips to the lake with my Dad and Grandpa were very common as we had a different objective each time. There would be days we would try for bass and other days we would try to catch trout. Not very many people know about ice fishing but it is very enjoyable. Although the weather is cold, ice fishing really allowed me to appreciate the beauty of nature. Time seems to stand still whenever our family goes fishing. Our fishing trips give us something that is far more important than catching the fish, a strong family relationship that will last a lifetime.

Dierks Bentley - Free and Easy


Dierks Bentley has several clips from his various live concerts in the music video. He is on a music tour and traveling from tour to tour. There are images of Dierks Bentley driving in a car showing open fields of grass with cattle. Furthermore, there are very large audiences at his concerts with thousands of screaming fans. For anyone who has grown up in the small town of North Platte, Nebraska, they can definetely relate to this music video. Every summer, North Platte has an annual Nebraskaland Days country festival. The week-long festival consists of a rodeo, carnival and is always capped off with two country music concerts. Attending the concerts every year with friends has created memories that will never be forgotten. The adrenaline rush at the concerts is undescribable for there are thousands of fans bein crazy and completely out of control. Even though country music is disliked by many people, a country concert should be experienced at least once by everyone. Almost everyone from North Platte is always in attendence at the festival days which has led to a strong community connection. Everyone has something in common through Nebraskland Days, creating a form of unity throughout the town.

Kenny Chesney - I Go Back

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This music video opens up with Kenny Chesney standing in a high school gymnasium and reminiscing on past memories. There are flashing images of a high school football player standing on a field through his memories. His mind seems to be swirling and filled with numerous high school memories. After graduating from high school within the last year, it is very easy to remember those memories. When looking back on high school, the most memories come from playing football. The sport has always been a huge passion in my life and will always continue to be a strong interest in my life. A great amount of time was spent in high school playing or training for football. There were not always happy memories from football though for its clear in my mind the memories of morning conditioning and the hard work in the weight room. A lot of tears came from playing football, for coming up short in the playoffs with a loss seemed as if there was nothing left in my life anymore. More importantly, playing high school football taught me lessons that will be valued for the rest of my life as an adult. Football proved to me that nothing comes easy and everything requires very hard work. It showed me that nothing should be taken for granted.

Jim Jones - Summer With Miami


A clear blue ocean and towering sky scrapers introuduce this music video, "Summer With Miami" by Jim Jones. In the video, Jim Jones is living a dream life in the beautiful city of Miami, Florida. He's driving in very expensive cars and eating food with attractive women. The sun is shining bright throughout the video in a cloudless baby blue sky. Everytime this video is shown, memories of a summer I once spent in Miami re-appear in my mind. Spending a week there on a mission trip, many life changing experiences impacted me. We had the priviledge and opportunity to help re-build a damaged church. Additionally, we even had the awesome opportunity of putting on a sports clinic for the refugee children that lived in the neighborhood. Miami was a gorgeous city with palm trees and sandy beaches, but part of Miami that we were in was the true Miami. It was a troubled neighborhood with many homeless people in the ghetto. The impact that we left on the children and the people in the neighborhood hopefully made a difference on them, but they defintely infleucned myself. The joy in the kids faces was amazing when we simply asked if they wanted to play a small game of soccer. Experiencing a troubled area of Miami showed that happiness can come to anyone without money.

Self-Reflection

After taking this English and Writing course at Nebraska Wesleyan, I definitely feel my writing has evolved. It has benefitted me in several ways. For example, I feel as if I am incorporating more detail into my writing, especially my observations. after completing the observational assignments, it proved to me that writing can never go into too much depth when observing a particualar object. It allowed me to look at and focus in on just one particualar subject rather than the whole.

My opinion and attitude toward writing has significantly changed in a positive way. I never really enjoyed writing that much in high school because it seemed very methodical and repetitive after writing all the five paragraph essays. In this class we did many different types of writing assignments that varied in certani requirements. For instance, we were asked to write "free writes", short internet blog posts about whatever topic we chose, which we were very fun. Also, we did many different types of writing by observing a certain object and then analyzing a particular art object and relating the objects to other ideas. And finally, I am looking forward to the last writing assignment about a self-reflection through music because it is something I have never done before. I have never had the chance to write about subjects that I actually enjoy or have interests in but this class has given me the chance to improve my writing. The class has allowed me to improve my writing because I feel as if I'm putting in more effort because the writing is fun for me.

As far as my processes and techniqiues in writing, I feel they are more advanced and more developed. Through writing, I feel I am more intellectual. By this, I mean I feel as if I'm looking for meaning to the messages in my writing. Also, my analyzing of artwork and other's writing has improved. I've never really analzyed or graded another person's writing before, but after participating in this, I have been able to look at writing from another person's point of view or standpoint. It has given me the chance to look at my essays in a different way which enables me to further improve my writing.

Meeting and conferencing with my teacher has benefitted my writing in various aspects. Obviously, meeting with the teacher or advisor helped me fulfill the requirements but more importantly helped me look further into the subject. Suggestions were given to me to helped me elaborate more and really give more depth and detail about the subject. For example, my blog post about the grafitti of Barack Obama lacked a great deal of requirements. After making changes with my instructor, he showed me how I could really go into more detail about the history of grafitti and the meaning it has from a cultural standpoint. There were many questions presented such as "What does the spatial and property use of grafitti mean as a whole and how does it relate to society?" By meeting with a writing tutor, many questions were presented to me that challenged me as a writer.

There are so many different types of writing so it's very difficult to say whether it is "good writing" or not. I feel the key part in creating a successful writing piece is to complete and include every part needed for whatever writing assignment it is. For example, if it is an observation and reflection assignment, there needs to be just observation and reflection writing. There cannot be any other type of writing in the essay or else it will distract the reader and not get the main points across. As long as the essay includes useful information for the writing assignment, the essay will be successful as a whole.

Everyone has their strong and weak points as a writer but fortunately these can always be improved. Although my writing may not be the most intellectual and advanced piece of writing, I feel the strongest point of my writing is that I get my main points and ideas across. My writing tends to have a strong base of ideas but I still need to work on focusing on those ideas and enhancing them even more. I neeed to improve on elabortating them more by going into more detail and give meaning to each individual idea.

3rd Autobiography Object

The automobile is one of the most recognized symbols of freedom in American society. My vehicle, a 2002 Chevy trailblazer, is my most prized material object that I own. Turning sixteen is an age that every child looks forward to when they are young. It is one of the most anticipated ages for it is the legal limit to be able to drive a vehicle on your own, a feeling of freedom that is often taken for granted.

My 2002 Chevy trailblazer is an SUV with a V-8 engine. It possesses a 4.2L I6 DOHC 24V FI engine. The exterior body paint is a dark, glossy black. All the windows have been tinted to a dark shade of 20% tint. The vehicle has automatic transmission with four wheel drive. The type of tires on the trailblazer are P245/70R16 BW AS tires. The interior of the vehicle is a cloth material with a dark pewter color. Inside the vehicle there are six speakers with an AM/FM stereo system. There is also a CD player system mounted into the dashboard. The vehicle is around 50,000 mileage. In the city, the trailblazer gets around 15 miles but on the highway it can reach up to 21 miles.

I'm very thankful for my trailblazer that was given to me as a gift for my sixteenth birthday from my grandparents. I'm so blessed to have a vehicle with so much convenience and durablity. I have a lot of pride and take very good care of my vehicle, a typical stereotype of males and automobiles. Crusing around with friends in my car and jamming out to music is a common occurance in my vehicle. I love the feeling of freedom and appreciating everything around me when driving around in my blazer.

2nd Autobiography Object

First there were record players. Then came tape cassettes and compact disc players. None of these things hardly exist anymore among teenagers. Technology has advanced so much that thousands of songs, pictures, and even videos can be stored in a credit card sized object. These unbelieveable advances of technology are called the Ipods, made by Apple.

The type of Ipod that I received for Christmas is a fifth generation, Ipod video. It features a 2.5 inch color screen that can vividly display photographs and even videos. It has 80 gigabytes storage, enough to store up to 20,000. songs. The ipod is a shiny metallic color in the front, with a shiny mirror-like metal on the black that reflects. There is a spinning wheel or dial on the front that allows me to scroll through all my various songs very quickly. The most fascinating feature about this ipod is the width of the actual device. It is crazy how thin it is, small enough to easily fit into my pocket. The Ipod video is approximately .5 inches in width. It is amazing how such an object so small can contain so much information and capacity.

Without my Ipod, I would not be the same person. It is like another part of me. I take my ipod wherever I go, whether just walking to class or during a workout. It's such a versatile object and can be taken anywhere. The Ipod is very convenient to have, for I am able to enjoy myself and my love for music through the Ipod. Bringing out my passion for music in a very easy and convenient way, the Ipod is a very successful advancement in technology.

1st Autobiography Object

Anyone who has ever had the privilege of competing in the sport of football knows the significance of the helmet. Serving as a saftey feature and requirment in the sport of football, its meaning to previous players is indescribable. Any athlete that has had the opportunity to play football has a lot of pride in the helmet they wore. Ultimately, it the most important piece of equipment and protects the most important part of the body, your brain. By enabling safety, the helmet allows the athlete to compete at their highest level and use their their abilities.

As a child growing up, playing sports, especially football, has also been a passion and a huge part of my life. Strapping up fragile plastic helemets as a kid with the rest of my friends allowed us to imagine ourselves as superstars and our favorite athletes. The helmets gave us hope for our future high school days of football and wanting to play on the varsity field. Having the helmet as a child allowed me to appreciate the sport of football and enjoy the sport for the right reasons.

Once my my high school football days came, my appreciation for the football helmet grew even more. Now my football helemet was sturdy, powerful, and durable. It was a strong helmet that glistened with paint. The helmet gave me the opportunity to represent my school with the paw print logo on the side. Furthermore, it gave me the privilege of representing my community and all the people in my hometown. Everytime I put on the helemet, it was like a second identity. I was not the same person once I had the chinstraps buckled. Comparable to a warrior going out to battle with armor, the helmet gave me a mission and a goal I had to strive to achieve. Playing in those football games with created memories and friends I will have for the rest of my life. Looking back at my high school days and as a child, the helmet always reminds me of the pride and passion I have for football.