AAU Basketball

AAU basketball was a great experience for me growing up. My first AAU team was a team out of Van Wert. My friends Nicolle, Maddie, and I would carpool down to Van Wert every Sunday to practice and we would have tournaments on the weekends. This was a great experience for me because my entire team got along and it was more about having fun than winning. Then my freshman year I joined the Northwest Ohio Hoopstars because the Van Wert team was no longer a team. This team was a lot different because there were a ton of girls on the team so you would play with someone different each weekend. My junior year I then switched over to Toledo Elite. This was also a fun group of girls that I played with and our team was very talented. We were invited to play at D.C. This was a great experience for our team. Another memorable experience from Toledo Elite was when we saw Geno Auriemma who is UConns women basketball head coach. Playing for Toledo Elite brought us in contact with many college basketball coaches, but I chose to pursue tennis in college.

Synthesizing the Themes of Hitchcock

Hitchcock used psychology, technology, ethics, and historical context in his films. Hitchcock used many unique techniques and different equipment to create enticing movies that left viewers always wanting more. For the psychology in Hitchcock's films he used Freud's psychoanalytical viewpoints. An example would be when Alicia found out she was being poisoned, she reacted quickly and was worried what would happen to her. For the technology, Hitchcock used many different camera techniques such as zooming in and out on an important item. An example would be when Hitchcock zoomed in on the Champaign bottles slowly dwindling to increase the suspense of the movie. Ethics in Hitchcock include different morals that were broken during his films. A few examples include, women wearing little clothing and kissing scenes being longer than normal. In Alfred Hitchcock's film Notorious they are all after uranium. Uranium is what the Nazis were trying to hide during and after WWII. This would be an example of the historical context in Hitchcock's films.

Top Ten Songs

I really enjoy all genres of music. My favorite is Christian music, but I also like country, rap and R&B.

1. The first song that describes me would be "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me. I love this song because my mother always played it in the car when I was little. Usually both my mom and I get emotional when hearing it today because it is such a positive uplifting song.
2. Another song that I really enjoy is "How Great Thou Art." When my great grandma Matilda was in the hospital after she broke her hip she asked my dad to sing that song for her. I will never forget going to the station to record my dad singing this song for my great grandma. My grandma was close to passing away and the last song she heard was my dad singing, and she had a large tear roll down her face.
3. Another song that I really enjoy is "Go Tell it on the Mountain!" My church presents a Christmas program each year and the ages of the children in the program range from age 5 to age 16. A song that is played each year is "Go Tell it on the Mountain." During the verses everyone would sing very softly and then when the chorus came everyone would shout, "GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN!"
4. A fourth song would be "When the Saints Come Marching In." This was the song that I preformed when I was auditioning for a play in second grade. I played this song on the piano and also sang it.
5. A fifth song would be "Remember When" by Alan Jackson. This song was played at my grandma and grandpa's 40th surprise wedding anniversary. I was very young at the anniversary party, but I definitely remembered this song playing on the slideshow.
6. Another song would be "Replay" by Iyaz. I will always remember this song because it was very popular during my seventh grade year. We would play this song over and over again before and after basketball practice in the locker room.
7. Another song would be "Fireman" by Lil Wayne. This song has a very catchy opening and we chose to use it our senior year in basketball for our run out song. It definitely pumped us and got us ready for games.
8. An eighth song would be "Cinderella Man" by Eminem. This was another song that we would play before basketball games in the locker room. I would always sing the lyrics too high and my friends would yell at me, but we all loved that song.
9. Another song would be "Everlasting God" by Lincoln Brewster. This song is very special to me because Lincoln Brewster was the first Christian concert I had ever been to. He sang this song and I really felt connected to it. I felt so connected to it that I chose the main verse in the song to be my Confirmation verse at church.
10. My last song would be "All American Girl" by Carrie Underwood. This song was big my eighth grade year and my friends and I created a video like the original music video. The video we created is a huge memory of junior high and I will never forget all of the laughs that came with it.

Skills I Would Like to Learn

1. After college I would like to have learned successful note taking skills. My major is Early Childhood Education and I think note taking skills are very important. I will also need to know how to note take for my every day life after college. Learning how to take good notes will keep you more organized in your everyday life.
2. Another skill I would like to have for after college would be organization. Many times at home and at college I am not very organized and I will need to be organized for my job. I will need to have lesson plans typed out and worksheets printed. In my every day life I will need to make sure that all the bills are paid and that I am not spending more money than I have coming in.
3. A third skill I would like to have would be how to work hard and have strong motivation. Sometimes I like to procrastinate and wait until the last minute to do everything. This is not a good skill to have, instead I need to learn to work hard in each class because it will carry over after college. I will need to always stay motivated throughout the school year as a teacher.
4. Another valuable skill I would like to have would be finances. During college many students go in debt from taking out many student loans. I need to learn how to balance my money and learn how to balance out my check book as well. By learning these things, I hope to be successful after college. 
5. The last skill I will want to have will be how to successfully work with others. In college you do a lot of group work in class and you will also need to know how to work with others in your field of work. Going into early childhood education, I know I will need to work with the other teachers in my grade on lesson plans and other activities. I will also need to work with others such as an accountant or others as the need arises in my everyday life.

Matches Down in Hilton Head

While down in Hilton Head, South Carolina the women's tennis team played three matches and the men's tennis team played five. Many of the matches were very close, but unfortunately the girls team finished with an 0-3 record and the boys finished with a 1-5 record. One thing that I struggle with frequently is third set tie breakers. Almost every single one of my matches went to a third set tie break. My first match, I lost in a tie breaker 9-11. In my third and final match I lost 8-10 in a tie break. To fix this problem, I have decided to join a tennis team this summer to work on tie breakers and to overall get better. One of my favorite moments at Hilton Head was when Adam and James came back from being down 6-0 and won 8-6. This match took place at night under the lights and it was a very cool atmosphere overall. In Hilton Head we had great competition and learned many new things. I had never played on a clay tennis court before and down in Hilton Head our second match was on clay. It was fun to experience a new court and figure out how to successfully move and slide on clay. I am very excited to travel down to Hilton Head next year and hopefully redeem ourselves.

Group Work

     Hitchcock has many different technology techniques that he uses in his films. He uses the use of uranium, different camera angles, rear projection process shots and more to create suspenseful films that others want to watch.

     In the movie Notorious, the main motive of Devlin and Alicia is to investigate the Germans and their suspected use of uranium. Uranium is a radioactive that can be used for energy or weaponry because of its radioactivity. Radioactivity can be defined in terms of the atom, which is the smallest part of an element that can exist. Some atoms are unstable and break down into new atoms. When this happens, it gives off energy, referred to as radioactivity. A radioactive element emits energy in the form of waves or particles. As for Uranium, it  primarily emits alpha particles which are the biggest and most destructive type up until a point. While alpha particles are big and bad they can only penetrate so far because of their size. They can be typically blocked by a piece of paper and at worst external exposure can give you a bad burn because it can not penetrate farther than your skin. However in the movie, Alicia ingests the uranium which is a huge problem. Inside the body alpha particles can do tremendous damage to the body and all the organs. Within the first hours  of exposure you can experience headache, fever, diarrhea, nausea and, vomiting and within the week Weakness, fatigue dizziness and disorientation. All of these are symptoms that Alicia experienced.  

      One form of technology that Alfred Hitchcock used was different camera angles. In many of his movies Hitchcock would focus on the character’s eyes to create suspense. Eyes are a great way of relaying emotional messages. Hitchcock portrays many different character emotions by showing what they are looking at, or by actually showing an image of their eyes. One scene in Notorious that focused on the characters eyes was when Alicia realized that she was being poisoned by the tea. The characters do not come right out and say, you poisoned me, but instead Hitchcock shows Alicia’s eyes. The audience can see the fear in her eyes, as the camera moves from her eyes to the mother and then her husband. Also during this entire scene in the right hand corner was an enlarged tea cup. This also helps to create the suspense in Notorious.

http://nofilmschool.com/2014/09/alfred-hitchcock-use-eyes-subject-video-essay

       The use of the camera in Notorious helped let the audience and viewers know something was important. In the movie Hitchcock would focus in on objects as well as characters. He would start the scene high and wide, then ending it low and close In one of the scenes Hitchcock zoomed in on the cup of tea Alicia was drinking which had something in it which made her very ill. Hitchcock uses this technique very well.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NotoriousTrackingStart.png

        While we see plenty of outdoor scenes in Notorious such as the drunk driving scene at the beginning, the scene of the plane flying into Brazil and the scene where they are watching the horse race, none of those scenes were actually shot outside. In fact, the only scene that was shot outside was the scene where Develin and Alicia ride the horses next to Sebastian. Hitchcock instead used rear projection process shots (prerecorded backgrounds) to achieve the appearance of being outdoors. Hitchcock preferred filming indoors because it gave him maximum control over filming throughout the day. In other words, he could film a day time “outside” scene late in the evening and it still appear to be early morning.

Drunk driving scene that was actually filmed indoors.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notorious_(1946_film)#Production_2

      One form of technology that is often overlooked in films is the physical positioning of the camera.  Before the time of green screens getting a shot with the background that the director wanted was much harder.  At times the director would have to take multiple takes from multiple angles in order to complete a scene.  One example of this is the shower scene from the movie Psycho (1960).  In this scene, first link below, multiple camera angles are used to create an overall sense for the action that takes place throughout the scene.  Because of the size of the set multiple takes of the scene had to be conducted in order to collect enough film for the scene.  In the picture below the shower wall was removed to allow for the point of view shots that are spread throughout the scene.  Another example of this is in the movie Notorious (1946).  In an early scene the viewer sees Ingrid Bergman waking up with a hangover.  As Cary Grant approaches the camera rotates as if you are viewing him from the point of view of Ingrid Bergman.  This scene, second link below, was filmed in two segments.  The first consisted of all the shots of Ingrid Bergman in the bed.  In the second the bed was moved and a camera was placed in its place to give the audience the correct angle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WtDmbr9xyY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl-SWWJb62E

Letter to a High School Student

Dear High School Student,
Enjoy high school while it lasts because college is a lot different than high school. One specific difference is college work requires new kinds of motivation and self-discipline. Remember yesterday when your mother woke you up three different times just to get ready for school. Yeah, that doesn't happen in college. You will live in a dorm room and will count on your alarm clock or maybe a close roommate to wake you up each morning for class. And lets hope you do not get an eight a.m. There will also be many distractions once you get into college. You will not have your parents breathing down your neck and making sure you attend every class and get every assignment done on time. You will need to find the motivation to get up each morning and attend class. This does not mean you can't go to class in your pajamas. Another difference is college courses are not direct continuations of high school instruction. This means you can get straight A's in all of your high school chem classes, but your first college chem class could be completely different. This is because college professors each have their different ways of teaching and it will be different than your regular high school teachers. Also college professors are much more strict when it comes to assignments and projects and their tests and exams tend to be a lot harder than high school. Another difference I have found is note taking is a lot different in college. Note taking in high school was usually fill in the blank where the teacher gave you each direct answer and did most of the work for you. In college you are lucky to get an outline from the professor. Note taking is done mostly on your own and requires you to learn different note taking skills that work best for you. Another difference I have found is designating time. In high school it was easy to get all of my homework done in study hall or when we had free time at the end of class. In college, professors jam pack the lessons and then give you a lot of homework to do all outside of class. Very rarely do you get to work on things in class. Many people think that college is a time to party and will be a breeze, but really college requires a lot of extra work. After all, you are paying for your own education. Work hard in high school and have fun because college is right around the corner.
Sincerely,
Hannah

Spring Break in Hilton Head

While I was in high school, my family did not take many vacations during spring break. I was very excited to find out that this year would be the first time the women's tennis team would get to travel to Hilton Head with the men's team. The week before we left, I checked the weather for the week. I compared Ohio to South Carolina and I was very excited with what I saw. The low for the trip would be 68 degrees and that is shorts weather for people who live in Ohio. We left at seven o'clock on Friday and arrived at Hilton Head around 9 o'clock in the morning. The weather was perfect and the complete opposite of Ohio. My mom sent me a snapchat of snow in Ohio and I sent her back a picture of the beach. Also our house that we stayed at for a week was very nice. It had six or seven bedrooms with multiple beds in each. We also had an in ground pool in the backyard. We spent most of our days laying out at the beach and the other time playing tennis or hanging out at the house. Overall it was a great week in South Carolina.

My First Ohio State Basketball Game

My family has loved Ohio State ever since I can remember. In fact, my brother is going to school there currently. Growing up my family was always wearing red. At every birthday party or get together, Ohio State was always on the television. We were all very excited to find out my cousin Wes was asked to be the manager for the basketball team. He was a manager for Jon Diebler, Evan Turner, Deshaun Thomas, and Jared Sullinger in his four years, but my all time favorite player was Aaron Craft. My cousin would get four free tickets each home game for his family and he asked my dad and I if we wanted to come to a game. We went to the Ohio State and Morehead State game. This wasn't supposed to be a big game for OSU, but the game was very close until halftime. After the game, my dad and I got to meet all of the players. We bought an Ohio State basketball and I got everyone on the team to sign it. Overall, it was a great day in Columbus and there were many memories made.

My Biggest Regret

Many times in life I regret not doing something. My biggest regret in life is not playing tennis sooner. I regret it because I spent all of my time playing basketball. I got burnt out of playing basketball and I needed something new to do. At first, I thought tennis was a joke. I didn't think it required much effort and anyone who played tennis was weird and definitely not athletic. I thought the only "real" sports at my school were basketball, softball, and football. They were the only sports that really got attention in our small community. There were not many popular kids at my school that played tennis. In fact, for a short time I didn't even know our school had a tennis team. I am so lucky that one of my good friends told me about tennis. The first time I stepped out on the tennis court, I knew this sport was perfect for me. I found out very quickly that tennis required you to be very athletic. Tennis is a sport where you are constantly moving back and forth and forwards and backwards. You also need to have very quick reactions because the ball is always moving fast toward you. I am glad I fell in love with tennis. I think I have turned this regret around because now I play tennis in college. It makes up for the time in high school that I did not get to play. In life you should take risks and try things you have never tried before. You only have one life to live. This relates to our theme of lies and deception because many times when people regret a decision they have made, they lie about it. They do not want people to know what they have done.

Ted Talk Response

1.) Lying is a cooperative act, because someone has to believe your lie and go along with the lie. I agree that lying is a cooperative act because everyone lies and you always tell the lie to someone else. If they do not call you out on the lie than they go along with it and believe your lie. I also agree with it because many times someone just agrees with a lie so they do not hurt someone's feelings. An example would be telling someone they looked great in a dress, even if they might not look the greatest. We lie so we can feel better about ourselves, so we can be the person that we've always hoped to be. Maybe that means you want to be taller or prettier.
2.) I agree with truth number two, because it has become part of our culture. We lie because we know that it is culturally okay. If it fixes a bad situation that we are in, many people think it is okay to do.
3.) Sometimes people give non-contracted denials. An example would be saying did not instead of didn't. They will also try to use formal language instead of informal. People also try to distance themselves away from their subject to try to get out of the lie. They also tend to have a tense upper body. I am going into teaching so lie spotting will be a good technique to learn. By learning these it could help you figure out situations where you know one person is lying.
4.) I agree that honesty is worth preserving. I think that we need to always be listening and watching around us. We need to strengthen the truth and not be a part of lies. To create a change we need to recognize falsehood and try to be honest always.

Fourth of July Weekend

During the summer my family enjoys going Randall lake in Coldwater Michigan. Fourth of July weekend we always have pig roast with the whole campground. This weekend we had to move the time of the cookout earlier, because the weather forecast showed a storm coming. After the cookout, my mom and I went back to our cabin with my aunt and uncle. The whole campground was quiet and all of the trees were still. The birds were hushed and the lake was calm. We decided to play a hand of cards, but just as we got the deck out the wind started to blow. My mom, aunt, uncle, and I went into the cabin expecting rain and sure enough the rain began. About five minutes after the rain began, we heard a very loud thump. We looked out the cabin windows and we saw the first tree fall. Soon after we heard another thump. In total about 20 large tree fell down. We watched a family run out of their camper, right before a tree came down and sliced the camper in two. After the storm finally passed, we walked outside our cabin to look at the damage. Right beside our cabin a tree had fell down on the storage building and it also crushed our neighbors mini van. Miraculously, only one gentleman in our whole campground got injured. He had a mild concussion from falling during the storm and hitting his head on his trailer. I am so thankful everyone was safe in this scary event.

Tennis

My sophomore year of high school I did not have a ride home from school. Every day after school I would wait around and do homework until my mom came to pick me up around 4:30. My friend Krista told me I could come with her to tennis practice after school. Before my friend told me this, I didn’t even know our school had a team. I figured the coach would not like it if I came after school, but Krista said she would not mind. The next day it happened to be raining. You cannot play on tennis courts when they are wet. You could get seriously injured from slipping and sliding. The coach hated cancelling practice so she took the team out to the wresting annex. In the annex was a small T.V with Zumba on the screen. The tennis girls cheered when they saw what was on the T.V, so I figured they must have done this before. For about an hour long we all danced Zumba moves. I had so much fun the first day that I came back after school the next day as well. It ended up being just as fun as the day before. After a long practice the coach took the girls on a “polar pop run.” This meant they all lined up in a row and ran to Circle K to get polar pops. Then they walked back. The coach said this was great because it gave the girls a reason to run and they enjoyed doing it. My sophomore year they named me the official ball girl of their team and my junior year I went out for tennis. I am so incredibly glad that my friend Krista told me about Archbold tennis.

Responses to Ads

Video 1.) This advertisement was directed to any non iPhone users. In the ad they said 99% of people who have iPhones love their iPhones, so they are trying to get people really interested in their phones. The music in the ad is also very upbeat so they may be trying to catch the attention of teenagers and people in their early twenties and thirties to buy an iPhone.

Video 2.) This advertisement was directed to anyone who needs a new T.V. In particular, this ad is targeting males because the main character is a good looking female. In the ad the female is testing out her new Samsung Smart T.V, but all the men think that she is waving to them. On the flip side, this ad could be targeting females. It could be saying if you get a new Samsung T.V then you can attract many men.

Video 3.) This advertisement is directed mainly at families. The ad uses a young child as the main character to attract families. The young child walks in the night all the way to the police station just to get a ride in a Mercedes-Benz car. This could show families that this car is loved by children and that it would be a good choice to pick if the young boy walked all the way just for a ride in it.

My Trip To New Orleans

I feel like I have told this story a hundred times, but it was a very important lesson in my life. My brother always talked about how much fun he had on the mission trip he attended down in New Orleans when he was in eighth grade. The summer of my freshman year, I also had the opportunity to go to New Orleans on a Lutheran youth gathering. I knew this would be a great opportunity to become closer to God and become closer to my church youth group. I filled out all of the paper work and packed my bags for the week trip to New Orleans. Many of the churches were flying down, but my church could not afford to fly all of our youth. So instead we decided to take a charter bus with two other church groups. We left our church at about 6 o'clock pm on a Tuesday. The plan was to get to New Orleans at lunch time on Wednesday. The bus ride would be a little over twenty hours with frequent breaks. Our first bus driver took us eight hours down into Tennessee where we switched bus drivers. Our second bus driver was ten minutes late and seemed very frazzled. When she pulled the bus out of the parking lot she made an illegal U-turn in four lanes of traffic. A police officer was sitting at the stop light and pulled us over. We thought our bus driver would get a ticket and a small fine and we would be back on our way to New Orleans. This unfortunately was not the case. As we waited on the side of the road, we noticed more police cars coming. I counted seven police cars at one time. We were all very confused and did not know what was going on. Finally a cop came on our bus and told us our bus driver was drunk. They gave her a breathalyzer test and it was so high they took her to the station to confirm it. At the station they took her blood and found out she was indeed drunk. Our charter bus sat on the side of the road for about an hour, while we waited for our old bus driver to come pick us up. He drove us to Wal-Mart where we waited another two hours for a new bus driver. The whole situation brought me closer to God and my church group. I learned on this trip to never take life for granted. Even though we were on the charter bus for over twenty four hours, it was well worth the crazy experience.

My First Yellow Card

It was a Tuesday morning and my entire class was excited. Tuesdays meant gym class and gym class meant fun. We all gathered in line and I remember my best friend Cassidy asking a question to the boy in front of us. She asked, "What do scissors do?" The little boy replied back to her, "Cut." At this moment Cassidy thanked the boy and we both cut in line. The walk to the gym was supposed to be quiet, but we all were guessing what we would be playing in gym that day. My guess was dodge ball, while another guess was basketball. When we got to the gym we were greeted by our gym teacher Mr. Harris. We all thought Mr. Harris was the coolest gym teacher around. He was very strong and the muscles on his arm were bigger than my head! He would occasionally let kids in my class hang on his arms, while he flexed. We started gym class by stretching all of our muscles. The grasshopper was my favorite stretch. After stretching we each got to go get a scooter. The scooters were always a favorite among my friends. By the time we were done on the scooters, gym class was over. We all got in line and made our way back to the classroom. In elementary school we always had to change our gym shoes after gym class. After getting a drink from the fountain, I sat down and tried to get my gym shoes off. The first shoe came off very easily, but the second shoe I could not slip off. I pulled and pulled at my shoe, but it would not budge. By this time everyone else was in the classroom except my friend Jessica and I. She was always the last one to get back into the classroom. Finally I thought of an idea. I was going to kick my shoe off. I swung my foot back and forth and before I knew it my shoe was flying in the air right at Jessica's face. The shoe smoked her right on top of the head and she began to cry. It was not my intention at all to hurt Jessica, I just wanted to get my shoe off. Before I knew it my teacher was out in the hall questioning me what happened. She asked if I hit Jessica with my shoe, but I had to lie because I did not want to pull my card. I was a pretty good kid in elementary school and I did not get yelled at often. I was very embarrassed and did not want to tell the truth. I ended up feeling so bad that I told my teacher everything that happened. She made me pull my card to yellow, but explained to me that I was not in trouble. She also told me to tell the truth from the beginning and I would not have to pull my card at all. This was a great lesson for me and I was honest the rest of my years.

College Experience

College has been a huge change for me. It is a brand new experience that has taken a while to get used too. To save money, I chose to commute to college. I knew my first obstacle would be making friends. In high school, I relied on my friends for almost everything. They had been my friends since kindergarten. If I ever had a problem, I knew I could always go to them. I would have called myself a follower in high school. I watched my friends and I followed many of their actions. The first week of college was difficult because everyone who lived on campus already had a lot of friends. They all knew each other and they could also pick out the commuters. I don't know how many times I heard, "I haven't seen you in the dorms, you must be a commuter!" I knew I had to be a leader in college because I could not rely on my high school friends anymore. Luckily, in my first week I saw a few familiar faces in my classes and I soon realized I had many of the same people in all of my classes. I also found out that there were more commuters than I had realized before. Now in my second semester of freshman year I have many friends and I continue to meet new people every week.

One Fiery Night

My head was spinning. I awoke in a jail cell with a thumping headache. I couldn't recall what happened the previous night, but I did find a large goose egg on top of my head. My jail cell had a very strange odor. While I stood up to walk to the bars of my cell, I felt something jingle in my pocket. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a fake ID. I also felt something sharp. It looked like a tab off of a beer can. The night was slowly coming back to me. I remembered borrowing my friends ID and going to a bar with some other friends, but how did I end up in jail? I reached into my other pocket and pulled out my car keys. I also found a diamond bracelet that definitely did not belong to me. The last item I found was the finishing piece to the puzzle. I pulled out a box full of matches with one match missing. Then it all came back to me. While at the bar, I saw my boyfriends ex-girlfriend. We got into a scuffle and I got kicked out of the bar. I was so angry that I drove to her house, broke in, and stole her expensive diamond bracelet. While in her house, I saw an old picture of her and my boyfriend. This sent me over the top! I went to my car, pulled out my spare can of gasoline, and lit her house on fire. As I was walking back to my car I remember hearing someone behind me and then I woke up here in this jail cell. One thing is certain, I had one hell of a night.