Nick Stach
English 97 F
Professor Shen
15-Jan-2010
Giant White House
The house I am currently living in is a square but yet a circle. Greeting you with twenty foot columns, standing at the front doors of my house they are cracking and peeling showing the raw wood. The solid oak hardwood double doors present an almost picturesque but yet solidly creepy appearance. Staring up at you when you are stepping inside are the early twentieth century brown tiles and a fake, cheap oak hardwood floor that looks so real its almost blinding from the shine of the polish. The aroma of white roses that I had bought for my wife are sitting on the old school antique table in a crystal vase. As you walk through the entry into the living room you will step on the spongy green carpet. You see the sheer white walls covered in pictures of happy memories and artwork that my wife is so passionate for. On the far wall of the giant living room sitting on the floor there is the toy chest, full of what else but toys and baby dolls for my daughter. When walking through the dining room you will see to the right a long pine table that we tend to never eat at. To the left is a generous window that has a view looking out over old farm houses and their fields that now grow wheat grass in the winter months and corn through out the summer months. Straight ahead of you is our giant kitchen. As you walk in and step on the square tiles that remind you of being at the beach because of the sandy color, then you spot the dark majestic forest green granite counter top that holds our stainless steel sink along with all of our silly little appliances like the toaster, blender, espresso machine, and never forgetting the microwave. Just past the never- ending span of countertop is our utility room holding our junky old washer and dryer that looks like they are about to rattle apart from over use. Magically you go through the door at the other end of the laundry room and you are back where you started in our antique entry.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
The way that I am different
I guess the way that I am different from anyone else in my life is 2 different things. The first thing being that I served in the active duty Army for almost four years and I am now currently serving in the Washington state National Gaurd. which makes me the only person in my direct family to serve at all in any armed forces. Even most of my friends have never served I mean their are a couple others that did serve but they arent real close friends more like accomplises but they did their part but never made the same comitment that I did. The other way that I am different from the others in my life is that I am going to be the first to graduate from college in my family so thats kind of a big thing and allot of people are proud of me for accomplishing all that I have.
A realism about life that I have realized is that lif it self is never fair and the more that you work at life the farther it will take you. That is why I stated in the first paragraph that I am attending school and getting ready to get out of the National Gaurd in about 11months so then I will jsut be attending school to try and get as far ahead in this world as I possibly can. because if you stand still life itself will pass you by. Well folks that aint gonna be me I'm gonn try and take as much as I can out of this life because when I die I wanna look dead.
What I got in life that I totally didnt expect to be what it to be. was my little girl she is a little ball of fire I could have never asked for a cuter litle girl. when she and i first met in person. she has grown a little but all she does is make new noises every new day. but our newest thing is that we are starting to hold hand and like to walk with eachother. so in short there is no way that I was able to estamate about how much I totally underestimated my daughter. and how much trouble she gets in every day or how loud she is. But no matter what I love her uncontrollably.
A realism about life that I have realized is that lif it self is never fair and the more that you work at life the farther it will take you. That is why I stated in the first paragraph that I am attending school and getting ready to get out of the National Gaurd in about 11months so then I will jsut be attending school to try and get as far ahead in this world as I possibly can. because if you stand still life itself will pass you by. Well folks that aint gonna be me I'm gonn try and take as much as I can out of this life because when I die I wanna look dead.
What I got in life that I totally didnt expect to be what it to be. was my little girl she is a little ball of fire I could have never asked for a cuter litle girl. when she and i first met in person. she has grown a little but all she does is make new noises every new day. but our newest thing is that we are starting to hold hand and like to walk with eachother. so in short there is no way that I was able to estamate about how much I totally underestimated my daughter. and how much trouble she gets in every day or how loud she is. But no matter what I love her uncontrollably.
I have never kept a diary in my life they have always seemed a little girlie. sorry to all the girls in the class. And of course I have never really ever known what one is for, but I have stollen my cousins when we were little and hid it from her in my old dank dog house.
My life is full of tiny little life boats,all day long I pass them by while im in the fast lane, i dont think that I create any lifeboats but im sure that I do a great job destroying other peoples. I cant see anything in my life that would be considered a life boat and thats that.
My favorite quote Would have to be from page 26 at the very top of the page.
"Naked woman + right hand = happy happy joy joy". I likie this qoute because he goes on to brag about how he masturbate and that he says "Im ambidextrous". I love this quote and I cant believed he talked about masturbation in his book but he does say that everyone does it and that it is a natural thing.
My life is full of tiny little life boats,all day long I pass them by while im in the fast lane, i dont think that I create any lifeboats but im sure that I do a great job destroying other peoples. I cant see anything in my life that would be considered a life boat and thats that.
My favorite quote Would have to be from page 26 at the very top of the page.
"Naked woman + right hand = happy happy joy joy". I likie this qoute because he goes on to brag about how he masturbate and that he says "Im ambidextrous". I love this quote and I cant believed he talked about masturbation in his book but he does say that everyone does it and that it is a natural thing.
The Armpit of The World
Nick Stach
English 97F
Professor Shen
4-Feb-2010
The Armpit of The World
I left for Iraq on the 27th of October 2006. Spending 16 months in the worst place imaginable was so much fun I miss it. The reason for this is because I was excited to see what was always about to happen. I had all the friends that I needed and all the heartache that anyone could ever want. Leaving my new wife of only six months was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I couldn’t wait to see the extremes that I have gotten my self into. The results of me joining the Army is for me to get shipped off half way around the world.
My troop (containing 75 people including myself) ended up in Mosul Iraq where we spent 8 of our 16 months. We were the tip of the spear inside the city (meaning we were the people that reacted to everything). Being in Mosul was the most awesome part of being in Iraq. Driving through the city unprotected, and standing up out of the top of the truck was a blast. It was my job to be a gunner while on patrol, so basically from my chest up was exposed and unprotected for as long as the patrol would lasted. It wasn’t just me toughing it out. There were 5 trucks in our patrol so that means that there were 5 gunners. It was our job to protect the convoy from people that wanted to shoot at us, or try and interrupt the mission any way that they could. They would even try to throw rocks and glass bottles or jars full of rocks at us. To be in a city where it felt that everyone hated the site of you was a very creepy feeling. All of this was good but that was only half the fight. We fought dysentery every single day on and off the forward operating base (f.o.b.) we were getting sick and having uncontrollable bladder problems. For all of this punishment and pain that we were putting our selves through. We had all picked up horrible habits of drinking energy drinks by the dozen after taking diet supplements. The usual combination was three to five Hydroxy Cut Hardcore pills and four or five Monster energy drinks to stay awake. And that was just one combination that we would use to prevent sleep. Allot of us were addicted to nicotine, we would just pile smoking and dipping on top of the taking of the sleep preventatives. It was unimaginable of what I did to my body while I was there.
Going on multiple area and recon patrols that would go either two ways, we would get Shot at or the patrol would go untouched and we would return to the f.o.b. with out having fired a single shot or having one shot at us. We had almost completed 269 combat patrols by the 4th of July. When I spied a man standing on a terrace on the 3rd floor of a building that had a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). He shot at the first humvee missing it by only a few inches. We were then under heavy attack. I turned my turret towards where I had seen the man standing on the terrace but he had darted back inside the building. So I rotated back towards the fight and fired a few short bursts from my .50 caliber machine gun towards the enemy that was shooting at us. Then as soon as it started it was over. I don’t know why that one fire fight stands out more than any other one does. But I think that it sticks out because no one was hurt. I had been in worse and longer fire fights, we were in some that took place while we were mounted and on the ground. Mounted meaning being in our humvee’s and obviously on the ground means we were on foot walking around in the streets. Those were normal days for us. Going outside of the not-so-safe f.o.b. was always a different experience. I was always flabbergasted by how the people of that country could just stand by to all of the hating and killing that was taking place there. I think it was because I grew up thinking a different thought. It was a popular question around the troop to ask if all of this hate was happening in the United States the people would stand up to it and fight back.
From all of the irresponsible acts of trying to stay awake and all of the sickness that we endured, I came home at an unhealthy weight of 185 pounds. I looked like I was wasting away and I had no idea, My wife was the first person to say you need to eat something. In my eye though I felt good and didn’t need to do anything, She showed me pictures that scared the crap out of me. I looked so spindly and weak so of course I started eating. Of course I was having a little bit of a tough time when I first got back, but now all I really got going on from all of my experience is sleep insomnia and other sleeping problems.
Almost everyone I know has asked me so how was it over there and what was it like? All I was able to say was, “Standing up for the right thing when everything around you is so wrong is the hardest job in the world.”
English 97F
Professor Shen
4-Feb-2010
The Armpit of The World
I left for Iraq on the 27th of October 2006. Spending 16 months in the worst place imaginable was so much fun I miss it. The reason for this is because I was excited to see what was always about to happen. I had all the friends that I needed and all the heartache that anyone could ever want. Leaving my new wife of only six months was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I couldn’t wait to see the extremes that I have gotten my self into. The results of me joining the Army is for me to get shipped off half way around the world.
My troop (containing 75 people including myself) ended up in Mosul Iraq where we spent 8 of our 16 months. We were the tip of the spear inside the city (meaning we were the people that reacted to everything). Being in Mosul was the most awesome part of being in Iraq. Driving through the city unprotected, and standing up out of the top of the truck was a blast. It was my job to be a gunner while on patrol, so basically from my chest up was exposed and unprotected for as long as the patrol would lasted. It wasn’t just me toughing it out. There were 5 trucks in our patrol so that means that there were 5 gunners. It was our job to protect the convoy from people that wanted to shoot at us, or try and interrupt the mission any way that they could. They would even try to throw rocks and glass bottles or jars full of rocks at us. To be in a city where it felt that everyone hated the site of you was a very creepy feeling. All of this was good but that was only half the fight. We fought dysentery every single day on and off the forward operating base (f.o.b.) we were getting sick and having uncontrollable bladder problems. For all of this punishment and pain that we were putting our selves through. We had all picked up horrible habits of drinking energy drinks by the dozen after taking diet supplements. The usual combination was three to five Hydroxy Cut Hardcore pills and four or five Monster energy drinks to stay awake. And that was just one combination that we would use to prevent sleep. Allot of us were addicted to nicotine, we would just pile smoking and dipping on top of the taking of the sleep preventatives. It was unimaginable of what I did to my body while I was there.
Going on multiple area and recon patrols that would go either two ways, we would get Shot at or the patrol would go untouched and we would return to the f.o.b. with out having fired a single shot or having one shot at us. We had almost completed 269 combat patrols by the 4th of July. When I spied a man standing on a terrace on the 3rd floor of a building that had a rocket propelled grenade (RPG). He shot at the first humvee missing it by only a few inches. We were then under heavy attack. I turned my turret towards where I had seen the man standing on the terrace but he had darted back inside the building. So I rotated back towards the fight and fired a few short bursts from my .50 caliber machine gun towards the enemy that was shooting at us. Then as soon as it started it was over. I don’t know why that one fire fight stands out more than any other one does. But I think that it sticks out because no one was hurt. I had been in worse and longer fire fights, we were in some that took place while we were mounted and on the ground. Mounted meaning being in our humvee’s and obviously on the ground means we were on foot walking around in the streets. Those were normal days for us. Going outside of the not-so-safe f.o.b. was always a different experience. I was always flabbergasted by how the people of that country could just stand by to all of the hating and killing that was taking place there. I think it was because I grew up thinking a different thought. It was a popular question around the troop to ask if all of this hate was happening in the United States the people would stand up to it and fight back.
From all of the irresponsible acts of trying to stay awake and all of the sickness that we endured, I came home at an unhealthy weight of 185 pounds. I looked like I was wasting away and I had no idea, My wife was the first person to say you need to eat something. In my eye though I felt good and didn’t need to do anything, She showed me pictures that scared the crap out of me. I looked so spindly and weak so of course I started eating. Of course I was having a little bit of a tough time when I first got back, but now all I really got going on from all of my experience is sleep insomnia and other sleeping problems.
Almost everyone I know has asked me so how was it over there and what was it like? All I was able to say was, “Standing up for the right thing when everything around you is so wrong is the hardest job in the world.”
Dear Readers
Dear readers,
I have had some life experiences that I think are qualifying enough for me to be able to say that I have truly enjoyed being able to attend school and trying to further my education and making my life better. I would say that to be in a situation like my own takes a long road of trials and tribulations, the key to remaining sane is to be as optimistic as you can. I have found that being optimistic has allot of good qualities but there are a few draw backs as well. So to be in this situation that I keep finding my self in is always a little awkward, even though it is sometimes a hard road traveled I keep my head up and my eyes forward. To establish a good standing in my life has taken allot of hard work.
When I started going to this school it was to attend the adult high school completion program and take a couple of criminal justice programs. I stared off doing all of that because I had dropped out of high school because I had received a job offer to make 22.50 an hour. So being the naïve teen that I was I jumped at it, Not knowing what I know now I should have never taken that job I should have stayed in school and graduated with the rest of my class. I had to work twice as hard being a full time student and a full time employee of a cabinet shop. I had to pay for my own tuition and I had to pay for my own books. It was the hardest thing that I had done in my life till that point and time. The reason for all this work was so I could advance my life by joining the army. I decided to join the army so I could get myself out of the slump that I had gotten my self into living in the town that I was born in.
The army was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. I was a Cavalry Scout, my job was to be the eyes and ears on the battlefield for the commanders. I enjoyed almost every minute of being in the army, besides all the B.S. that you go through just to get a simple task done is one of the main reasons why I got out. If it wasn’t for all the semantics and the politics that has to happen I would have seriously considered reenlisting for another term. But I didn’t I couldn’t handle it anymore I had enough so I got out. While I was in though I made great friends and I had traveled to a third world country that is currently at war. I was given the opportunity to serve my country by being in Iraq for a fun, long and arduous 16 months.
I got out and decided to come back to school to further my education in the Criminal Justice program by taking classes in what ever I could. During my second quarter I decided to take philosophy 101 and English 97. By being in English 97 I learned that I was making a substantial amount of grammatical errors. Not including I was having a problem with fragments and comma splices, even though I was making these mistakes with nouns and verbs. To kind of put it simply I was having total trouble with my sentence structure. Being in this class has been a great tool that I was needing to continue my college degree in what ever that may be. Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to exceed in what ever degree I choose with taking English 97 was going to be impossible because my writing was just not up to par. While in English I learned the proper procedure for a couple different writing techniques. Being able to write a descriptive narrative, a narrative, and a couple journals along with some blogs about a book that was the book of the quarter.
I am deciding to show you in a chronologic order of my writing, to show you how I improved from sloppy writing to able to have proper structure. I am trying to prove that my writing skills have improved though out the quarter.
I have had some life experiences that I think are qualifying enough for me to be able to say that I have truly enjoyed being able to attend school and trying to further my education and making my life better. I would say that to be in a situation like my own takes a long road of trials and tribulations, the key to remaining sane is to be as optimistic as you can. I have found that being optimistic has allot of good qualities but there are a few draw backs as well. So to be in this situation that I keep finding my self in is always a little awkward, even though it is sometimes a hard road traveled I keep my head up and my eyes forward. To establish a good standing in my life has taken allot of hard work.
When I started going to this school it was to attend the adult high school completion program and take a couple of criminal justice programs. I stared off doing all of that because I had dropped out of high school because I had received a job offer to make 22.50 an hour. So being the naïve teen that I was I jumped at it, Not knowing what I know now I should have never taken that job I should have stayed in school and graduated with the rest of my class. I had to work twice as hard being a full time student and a full time employee of a cabinet shop. I had to pay for my own tuition and I had to pay for my own books. It was the hardest thing that I had done in my life till that point and time. The reason for all this work was so I could advance my life by joining the army. I decided to join the army so I could get myself out of the slump that I had gotten my self into living in the town that I was born in.
The army was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. I was a Cavalry Scout, my job was to be the eyes and ears on the battlefield for the commanders. I enjoyed almost every minute of being in the army, besides all the B.S. that you go through just to get a simple task done is one of the main reasons why I got out. If it wasn’t for all the semantics and the politics that has to happen I would have seriously considered reenlisting for another term. But I didn’t I couldn’t handle it anymore I had enough so I got out. While I was in though I made great friends and I had traveled to a third world country that is currently at war. I was given the opportunity to serve my country by being in Iraq for a fun, long and arduous 16 months.
I got out and decided to come back to school to further my education in the Criminal Justice program by taking classes in what ever I could. During my second quarter I decided to take philosophy 101 and English 97. By being in English 97 I learned that I was making a substantial amount of grammatical errors. Not including I was having a problem with fragments and comma splices, even though I was making these mistakes with nouns and verbs. To kind of put it simply I was having total trouble with my sentence structure. Being in this class has been a great tool that I was needing to continue my college degree in what ever that may be. Knowing that I wasn’t going to be able to exceed in what ever degree I choose with taking English 97 was going to be impossible because my writing was just not up to par. While in English I learned the proper procedure for a couple different writing techniques. Being able to write a descriptive narrative, a narrative, and a couple journals along with some blogs about a book that was the book of the quarter.
I am deciding to show you in a chronologic order of my writing, to show you how I improved from sloppy writing to able to have proper structure. I am trying to prove that my writing skills have improved though out the quarter.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Journal post
I chose this journal as my last post for the fact that I wanted to do a project that I did at the begining of the quarter to show how hard of a time that I was having at the begining of the quarter. If you dont like this post than I am sorry but I think that it is funny. This quote is really funny and shows what teenage boys are really like. So if that affends you, you can leave me a message or a comment. I believe that I really was not the best writer and I still need allot of practice, although I am still trying and I will be taking more english classes I want to do the best I can.
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