June Jones, Fairy Godmother?

Jude Jones... could he be the fairy godmother that turns SMU into a rags to riches football team like back in the glory days of Doak Walker, or will he just be another coach despite amazing efforts could not turn our team around?

He seemed to be just what Hawaii needed to soar back into the college football radar. He had a very succesful year at Hawaii and if he does well at SMU come fall he may very well be known as NCAA's very own turn around coach.

At this point the question I have is, has the death penalty dragged SMU so far down that there will be no hope of ressurection? Should something that happend several decades ago be affecting SMU's football team so much that there will surely be no huge sucess in the near future?

I think out boys deserve a chance to show what they can do and not have mistakes of the past impeading on their efforts. After all, it is not their fault that players were paid in the past. When will the lingering effects of long ago be forgotten?

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

Mourning over the rich and famous, understandable to a certain degree, but when does it go too far? I was sad over the loss of such a fine specimen of human that was Heath Ledger on Tuesday, however, my younger sister pointed something out to me that made me realize something. I tried to make a comment to her telling her that I thought his death was sad because he was portrayed in a different light than many actors. He seemed to stay out of the party scene and also appeared to be a great father to his two year old daughter.

My sister responded saying "I understand that. It's just that people die every single day. Good people who do have kids and who are a good example to society even if they are of the smallest status they still make a difference. I'm not saying that Heath Ledger wasn't a good person, I'm saying that he wasn't the only good person." Wow for a fifteen year old she is pretty good. The point is that we constantly look to celebrities to lay down mores in our society. When one of those celebrities goes against the grain and does good things with their lives we becoming intrigued. Heath, I am sure was a great person, but so are so many other people and we are not mourning their death on a national level.

My question is, do we have a different level of standards when it comes to celebrities? Should we be over-involved in the death of an actor if we are not equally as in involved in that of a common well-moralled man? Or maybe the question is was he just a man who happend to be famous and his death is more of a representation of all of those like him who just did not live in the limelight?

Here is my attempt at starting a "discussion"

How funny, my first post in a blog is about blogging itelf. Anne Bartlett-Bragg from the University of Technology in Sydney seems to grasp the real essense of what this is all about. My assignment today is to respond on an article discussing why blogging in the classroom is such a positive thing. Bartlett-Bragg says that blogging for learning's sake is helpful because of the "interactive nature" of the blog.

Though this is my first real experience in the blogging world, I can already tell that my teacher is on to something. She wants us to blog in order to fully understand our thoughts behind what we are saying. Writing is a powerful tool when used in a more candid sense. I could easily write a paper to my teacher telling her everything she wants to hear, instead I can come here and write about not only my assignments but comment on what others have to say. I am able to express mysel in a different way. Bartlett-Bragg says that students who blog "have a voice and the other students read it and respect it." Online more students who have a fear of speaking out in the classroom have their opinions weighed on by others when there is no fear of what will come out of it.

In the blogging world, as I understand it, arguments are not started, instead discussions are created, right? Did Bartlett-Bragg get it right, are students more inclined to be themselves when they have no fear of who is looming in cyber-space to respond to them? I know this is a mojor step for me, I have to move from the safety and comfort of my teacher reading what I have to say and responding with a nice red pen to the whole world, or those who participate in blogging I guess, to decide if what I am saying is right or wrong.