The Last Post

sadly folks, this is going to be my final blog post. its that time of year. the first semester is winding down, and today i finished up with my english 101 class. its gonna be weird not having to blog anymore. to be honest, i really don't get that much satisfaction out of it. to me it seemed more like a diary, because i never new what to write about so i just wrote about what was going on in my life. it wasn't that i didn't like it, i just don't really care for it. im just gonna stick to facebook. its a better way to get responses from people. with this blog, i didn't get any responses unless it was assigned. looking forward, im really excited for christmas break and this year its not so much about the presents. i don't really know what i want. i thought about it really hard and i came up with a list of things that i need, mostly for college, such as a new cell phone or some new flip flops. ive gotten over the whole video game stage of my life i think. i used to be able to sit in front of the tv and play all day non-stop. now, i get bored quickly, and never play more than an hour or an hour and a half at most. im more into going to the gym and working out and playing basketball. video games won't take me anywhere, but basketball might. im really looking forward to having the opportunity to work out with the varsity assistant coach next semester with my friend. we are trying to improve our skills and athletic ability in hopes that we can make the varsity basketball team. so rest assured, i will be working out all thru the winter in preparation for my spring semester workouts. aside from that the most important thing to me this christmas is seeing all my friends again from highschool. i have not had the chance to see my best friends for a long time. it'll be a flashback to my highschool days for sure. ill even get a chance to visit some of my new friends from college that live close to me. hopefully exams go as planned so that i may fully enjoy my christmas vacation. i hope that i stay in touch with as many of you as possible, and im sure ill see you around from time to time in the dining halls, the turtle, and what not. take it easy over christmas break. i look forward to seeing you again in the spring!

merry christmas

ersin

registration for classes

im so disappointed about how my registration for my spring classes went. i only got three of the classes that i wished to take out of six. for one class i did not get the correct schedule which messes with the schedule that i planned on having. because the discussion session is at a different time, i have to shift the other class that i wanted to get but didn't. i didn't get into CLAS170 in which i was put on holdfile. this makes no sense because i met the requirements for the class and a holdfile means that i didn't meet these requirements. something is fishy. i could get into comm107 either although im 3rd on the waitlist right now which is not bad at all. ill probable get that. and as i mentioned earlier i was put into the wrong section for GEOL123. so the only class that seems to be a problem class is my last elective CLAS170. it conflicts with other class times in my schedule. so what i did was sign up for a section that didn't conflict. however, since the system is a peace of crap i got put onto the stupid holdfile. its a mistake, simply that. the system screwed up and now i have to pay for it. everytime i check up on my classes, i notice that there are no people on the waitlist for any of the sections. thats a bit odd considering that there are 21 people on holdfile. im gonna be real pissed if i can't get on this class. my roommate did and he has less credits that i do. now granted, the requirement is that i have 60 credits or LESS to take this class. i only have 29 so it makes no sense why im put on the stupid holdfile. why would i ever try to sign up for a class that im not qualified to take. im working on getting a 4.0 gpa this semester, probably a 3.85, i think i can work out my prerequisites. 

till next time

ersin

game time baby

its almost 11:30 today. do you know what that means? it means im about to register for my classes next semester. im so nervous right now. last night i checked up on a couple of them and i realized that there was only one seat left. that has got to be my seat. i made a perfect schedule a couple days ago with all of my classes including the exact sections that i needed to sign up for in order to optimize my schedule for next semester. there is no way that im am going to allow myself to not have the schedule that i desire. i register in exactly 11 minutes now. im almost at the point of perspiration. if i get all the classes i want next semester could be so much fun. never having to get up at 7 any more like i did this semester. getting enough sleep is really important to me. its not like i have to sleep till noon like some people. i just need 8 hours of sleep. that is supposed to be all the sleep a person needs to get on a nightly basis. since i always go to be around or usually past midnight, i simply can't afford to wake up at 7 any more. i lose sleep, and its the coldest time of the day. leaving elkton at seven is so much colder than leaving it at say 830. okay 9 minutes to go and im even more jumpy than before. i can hardly continue typing this post because i keep having to rewrite what i typed because i miss-typed it because my mind and my fingers are racing, causing me to make a lot of errors. its like having a rush of adrenaline. okay 7 minutes now. time is flying. i gotta go get on testudo and get ready to fly through this registration process

6 minutes and counting

ersin

champions

this weekend ended up being one of the most exciting weekends all semester. we had our third and final club basketball tournament, in the school of public health. i woke up and nine, and didn't get home from the tournament until 5:30pm. this was the biggest tournament of the year thus far. the teams were as follows:maryland, george washington, lehigh, howard, villanova, towson, and georgetown. the favorite in this tournament was howard. they had won the club basketball national championships two years ago, and they looked really good. they had a real coach who wasn't a junior in college. every player was six feet tall or taller, they could all shoot the ball, and they were all very athletic. i recognized one player on howard that i believe played at the bullis school, which was one of my rival schools in highschool. anyway our first game was against towson. towson looked very good but looks can be deceiving. we exploded on towson, and ended up beating them 60-23. after a brief lunch break, we were back at it against a team that did play the way that they looked. villanova was an all white team, with a lot of big burly players. they were a very slow and diliberate team. we played down to our competition in this game, and only won by 20 after a relatively close game. villanova played really dirty. they fouled hard and complained to the refs about everything despite the fact that is was they who were playing unfairly. so being 2 and 0 with a large point differential we were due to play in the finals against howard who had an even greater point differential than we had. they blew teams out of the water by 50 points. this was it; the last game of our season. i hadn't performed up to my ability in the first two games, and made sure i gave 100% in this final game. this was what we had worked so hard for. this was the first time that we played a team that was better than us. howard had better talent and were much more athletic overall. we should not have won the game but there were some variable factors that we did have more of which were heart, determination, and effort. we simply worked harder than howard did. this is not to say that they didn't play hard either. they gave a good effort, and had we not given it our all we would have gotten slaughtered, like the teams that previously played howard. they were winning for much of the first half which ended up being a two point game in their favor. in the second half all of our hard work began to show. howard seemed to get a little tired, but that made all the difference. the shots that they hit in the first half didn't fall in the second half. in their place some of our shots started falling, and our cardio fitness level began to shine through. at the end of the game we ended up winning by 10 points. we dethroned a team that was the national champs just two years earlier. im not trying to brag but im pretty proud of how we played. hopefully to those who watched we proved that club basketball is no joke. we work hard and sprint, and lift just like the varsity team. if i had to make a guess, i would estimate that our club team has the talent of a division 3 or division 2 varsity college basektball team. beating howard clearly shows that we are among the better group of club teams in the country. hopefully we can continue to improve and play well next semester as the national tournament draws closer. 

ballin!!!

ersin

exams easier than expected

initially i was really worried about my exams this semester. it is my first semester in college, so everything is brand new to me. im still getting used to taking college mid-terms, and getting my time management and study habits down pat. im doing well for now but until i finish a whole year of college, i can't say that i not a lot about how testing happens at the university of maryland. one thing that has eased my stress is the fact that in a couple of classes i am doing so well that i will receive an A in the class regardless of how i score on the final exam. now when i say "regardless of how i score" i don't literally mean i could get a zero and still get an A. i mean that there isn't any pressure to get an A. since i already have an A+ in two classes, getting another A won't help me. I just need to make sure i get something around the 75 range. not that im intentionally trying to do poorly; all im trying to say is that i have some wiggle room when it comes to these exams. i don't have to go out and get an A in order to improve my GPA. i just need to be relatively familiar with the material and i should be fine. the only things that are worrying me are the final english paper. i always worry that i won't meet the required page length, and the rough draft is due soon. once i do a rough draft, im much more relaxed when in comes to editing, peer-editing, and correcting. im also a little concerned about my intro to business class BMGT110. right now i have an 85. the class average is an 82 and the teacher said that he likes the average to be around an 87-88. so he said he will curve the grades. but that puts me right on the line between getting a B or an A, and im not sure where i stand at the moment. this puts a little more pressure on me for the final. i have to get an A to ensure that i get an A on the semester. im also trying to bump up my english grade. i have a C- and a B+ on the first two papers and that puts me between a C and a B. i would be thrilled with a B but it all depends on how my 3rd paper went which i will get back this friday(tomorrow). depending on that ill know where i stand. otherwise im simply going to have to step it up on paper 4. hopefully all goes well, i can smell the christmas season right around the corner. just one final push to get to the finish line.

cya at the finish line

ersin

transfered at last

i had a little dilemma recently. i was checking my academics page on testudo and i noticed that there didn't appear to be any ap scores. i thought that this was odd because i took six ap tests and received plenty of transferable credits. i assumed that there must have been some technical difficulties, and that the grades simply didn't show up on the page, but had still transfered. the reason i even cared to think about this was because all my freshman friends were able to register for classes on earlier days than i could, and i had more ap credits. so it didn't make sense. i should have had more credits yet i was registering on a later date. thats when i knew that it wasn't a technical problem or a type-o on testudo; those credits that i earned actually didn't transfer. my thoughts were confirmed when i did a walk in at the undergraduate office at the business school. it just didn't make sense because before i came to maryland, i was told to bring my official ap grades to my orientation. i did so and my advisor saw them and i took classes accordingly. but if they didn't transfer, how was i allowed to register for courses that i didn't have enough credit for, and how did i place out of classes that i didn't earn credits for? it was almost like my advisor bi-passed the rules a little and allowed me to take the courses. but since the registration process is all done electronically by a computer, the computer should have seen that i didn't have the proper credits, and not allowed me to register. as you can tell im very confused right now. all i can say is that i took the official copy of my ap grades to the office of the registrar in the mitchell building, handed them to the first person i saw, and just like that i was going to have my ap grades transfered in two days or less. now why wasn't i told to do this earlier? i know that technically i was supposed to write on my ap tests the school code of the school i want the grades to transfer to, but when i was taking some of the tests i was a junior in high school and didn't yet know where i was even going to apply to college, and for the ones i took my senior year, i still had some time to decide between three schools. so i finally got the grades transferred, and received the credit that i deserve. now im back on track so that i can register for the courses that i want to register for in the spring semester.

ersin

marathon day

yesterday i was playing basketball at the rec center, which is a rarity for me. since i play club basketball the only thing i ever to in the rec center is practice shooting, lifting weights, and occasionally playing ping pong. i don't really find it necessary to play basketball against inferior opponents when i could just play with better players at club practice. im a pretty good player and the majority of the competition at the rec center is below my skill level. anyway it all started when i saw a couple of my friends playing one on one. we started shooting around with them when they suggested that we challenge the five people on the other end of the court. i thought we would play a game, and then i would go lift with my buddy jamil. however once we defeated that team, more people had arrived, and they were looking to play also. since we were the winners of the last game, we stayed on the court and kept playing. thats the way it works at the rec center. if you win a game you stay on the court (kind of like the king of the court). since jamil is a good basketball player, and my other three friends can hold their own, no one could be us. soon i noticed that we had played 3 games, then it was 4. i looked up at the clock from time to time and realized that it was nearing six o'clock; we had arrived at 4. eventually i started to get really tired and hungry. despite my fatigue my teammates and i pushed ourselves to the limit and continued to beat teams filled with fully rested players. at the end of the day we had won at least 8 games, and it was just past 7pm. words cannot describe how tired my legs felt. i immediately got a smoothy to refresh me. then i went and ate a huge meal at the diner. i was so tire that i didn't even have the energy to raise the fork to my mouth. i managed to eat everything and after my shower i felt much better, but still really tired. we didn't end up lifting at all like we had planned on doing but we sure got a great workout.

push it to the limit

ersin 

turkey day

for my thanksgiving i traveled up to lutherville close to baltimore. this year we had thanksgiving at my uncles house. this has been the tradition in my family for as long as i can remember. we might have had it at my house one year, and we have definitely had christmas celebrations at my house at least a couple times. but usually its always at my uncle's house. the house is great for family gatherings because it firstly is large, secondly because it contains many things that entertain little kids (like me and my brother when we were younger, or my cousin's children), and thirdly because he has the most comfy couch that i have ever sat upon. this couch is so comfy that after a long meal, you just sit down and pass out in front of the tv and the fireplace. nothing could be more relaxing. over the years, something has always occurred that has caused me to not enjoy thanksgiving. one year i spilled orange juice on myself, another year i had diarrhea, and another year i got sick to my stomach after spending too much time in an outdoor hot tub when it was 15 degrees outside. this year went very smoothly. no illnesses whatsoever, and i was able to finish all my food, which usually doesn't happen. usually my eyes are bigger than my stomach and i leave the table having only eaten three quarters of my food. this year i had a plan of attack. i ate all the turkey first because thats what usually fills me up. its harder to finish the turkey if you have already eaten some stuffing and beans. after the turkey i ate all the potatoes, beans, corn, stuffing, and bread. in using this coordinated plan of attack i managed to put away two mountainous plates of food, in addition to consuming a whole plate of apple crisp, pumpkin pie, and ice-cream. yup, this was the best thanksgiving meal i have eaten in a while. thats why turkey day is my most favorite holiday...good food and lots of it.

happy munching

ersin

put out the fire

im loving the free time provided by the thanksgiving break. since i don't have any work to do this week i have oodles of free time. thats right i said oodles. i can do that cuz its my blog. today i after finishing up my last class at 2 o'clock i headed over to the recreation center to play a little basketball and then lift with my buddy jamil. i played a little before he arrived, but once he arrived he wanted to play also. he is slowly but surely recovering from knee surgury and has just been cleared to jog so you can imagine how excited he is to get out and run around. so we ended up playing 4 or 5 games of basketball in a row. it was awesome because we never seemed to leave the court. i was pushing myself and dousing everyone as i made it shower(aka i scored a lot). all the lifting i have done over the summer and this first semester is paying off. i have been able to jump up, absorb contact like nothing happened, and score the basket. also since i have been running suicides and doing other sorts of sprints and cardio training, i am in great shape and im able to run non stop and beat everyone up and down the court, pushing myself to the limit. i stopped playing because my legs began to cramp, which means the tank was empty. after that i enjoyed a nice raspberry smoothie and chilled out watching some tv. i still have no work to get done so im gonna chill and watch some monday night football. i hope everyone is enjoying these final days of school as much as i am.

be easy

ersin

this weekend chiiiiillll

this weekend was real chill. thats the best way to describe it. it was chill as in it was cold as hell outside, but it was also chill as in a got my work done early and just took it easy for the rest of the time. on saturday morning i cranked out the rest of my english paper, leaving only the bibliography and other minor aspects remaining for sunday. knowing that sunday would be a breeze, saturday night i went to a frat with a few of my friends. i went 8-0 in bp, finally proving to my friends that i kick ass in bp. im so good because im a good shooter in basketball and the same arm motion translates to bp. of course this was after the florida state game which was a huge waste of time. at least i wasn't cold; i was wearing a shirt, two layers of under armor, a jacket, and then a long sleeve black shirt over my jacket. i also sported some gloves and two layers of pants. i could have been out there all night, but was so disgusted at our performance in the game that i left. today (sunday) i worked out for an hour in the morning before breakfast. then i chilled all day watching football while finishing my bibliography and listening to my music. hopefully after today i will be rested because i literally took today off. its smooth sailing till thanksgiving for me. i just have to print and turn in my paper and then i'll be done.

chill out

ers

almost there

only a week and a couple days to go until thanksgiving break!!! im so excited for this little break, not just because i get to go home( i have done that enough already) but because i get to eat good food thats not going to cost me a fortune or kill my diner points. seriously, the diner points here are ridiculous as i have already discussed and analyzed in past blog posts. the best part about this thanksgiving could truly be that i don't have to worry about my meal plan for a little while. ill be running out soon so anything that i can do to prolong that unfortunate day is a good thing. as usual, im going to be the most lazy person i can possible be on thanksgiving. i just need a ton of food, and a big tv to watch football on. im traveling to my uncles house in the baltimore area this year. this has been the tradition as long as i can remember. i really hope my whole family can make it up because its way more fun with a large crowd. there is a small downside though. im positive that i will get bombarded with college questions from each of my relatives. ill probable spend most of the time answering questions instead of watching the football. thats going to be really frustrating. but overall it'll be really nice to be away from school for more that a day. i also get to look forward to seeing how i compare with my uncle and cousin. they are both 6 foot 8, just a little taller than me, and they both have around 70 pounds on me. so every time i show up im always greeted with, "whats up short stuff", or "string bean". ill still be a little smaller because i have successfully avoided the freshman fifteen. whatever happens it will be a thanksgiving to remember, thats for sure.

ersin

oops my bad

i goofed big time this weekend. i had a little schedule mix up and ended up not doing either of the two activities that i had hoped to part-take in this weekend. mistake number one: i thought my club basketball game was today (saturday) at 3:30. mistake number two: thinking that the UNC game was at 1:30. okay number one is really the only mistake; number two was just a little slip up that didn't really mess anything up. heres what went down. i canceled my UNC ticket because i thought that i would be at a basketball game instead. so i arrived at school and began to get ready to go to the SPH building for my game, when i ran into my friend joey. i said i was off to the game and he said that he heard it was on sunday. sure enough i checked my schedule and found that he was correct. there were three problems with this. i left home early today so that i would be back for the game. i haven't been home in a month so instead of staying saturday night and enjoying a home cooked meal, i get diner food. second, i completely wasted the opportunity of watching the UNC game; a game that i had my eye on watching since september. third, i was in game mode. i was so focused, and pumped for the game, and then it was all for nothing. so i had all this energy just waiting to explode but i had to hold it in and take a seat on the couch and watch the UNC game, while doing homework. so today pretty much turned out to be quite un-productive, but i did have some fun with my friends on my floor in the process.

my B

ersin

new kicks

i im so excited. last friday i finally received my long awaited birthday present in the mail. you're probable thinking, "gee thats kind of late" because my birthday was september 24th. i just wasn't sure about what i wanted for my birthday on my birthday so it took me a few weeks till i finally realized what i wanted/needed. I really needed a new pair of basketball shoes. the shoes that i currently had were the team shoes from my senior varsity basketball season in highschool. they were a good design, good color, and lightweight, but they were worn out. the soles were coming off and there was a gaping hole in the back of the heel. i new that i wanted a solid pair of shoes that would look really cool, be lightweight, and also be high quality, so it would last at least a few years. i went on nike.com and searched through the basketball shoes. i found the pair i wanted and noticed that i was able to customize the shoes to my exact preferences. so i fooled around on the computer until i came up with this killer design. they were black red and white to match maryland's colors. i was even able to write my nickname and jersey number on them. i quickly ordered them. the website said that they would arrive in the mail approximately 30 days after i ordered them. that sounded like such a long time, but they actually came in 21 days, which pleased me. the shoes are even cooler when they are in your hands(or on your feet). i love them, and hopefully they last a long time. 

Ersin

prices suck at UMD

i haven't been home for a while. usually thats where i do my laundry because i don't feel like paying to clean my clothes. it just doesn't make sense that we have to pay to use the laudry machines. we don't pay for the utilities that we use in our rooms and bathrooms. think about it, if everyone just left all the lights and electronics in their rooms on, all day every day, and left the water running, and took hour long showers, we still wouldn't have to pay for it. that would be incredibly costly to the school. but people only do their laudry once in a while and it uses far less water and electricity than all or our other dorm activities. we should be charged for our personal utilities use in our own rooms before we are charged to do laundry. not that i think that we should be charged for either. its just ridiculous. 

this kind of adds on to my frustration with the food pricing on campus. in general, we get charged for every little thing that we do, whether it is laundry of food. we get charged 55 cents for putting cheese on a sandwich. honestly, who gives a shit. cheese is just an essential part of any sandwich, why do we get charged for it? they might as well charge for the lettuce too. i noticed one morning that a single tiny piece of sausage costed $1.50. this isn't the top of the line sausage either, its the crappy diner sausage made in bulk. i could get three bags of food from a vending machine for that price. whoever makes the pricing scheme here is really cheapa and  probably thinks that students will disregard the 55 cents, but over a semester that adds up, in addition to paying for takeout which costs 25 cents. and we don't even get a choice sometimes. getting takeout is mandatory during certain hours of the day. it also seems as though prices have gone up from last year. my friend who is in his second year here has verified this and said that last year, almost everyone was above the certain cutoff checkpoints that your meal plan goes by. this year almost everyone is below the cutoff. 

one more question. why are the prices of food still high? its understandable that the prices are high because gas prices are high, which cause the price of shipping to go up, etc. but the price of gas is approximately half of what it was and the end of august. why haven't the prices of our food gone down. the people running the dining services are inflating prices and disregarding national norms. all of my friends from other colleges say that they pay 6 bucks a meal and can get whatever they want, and as much as they want. here 6 bucks gets me one small meal, and leaves me hungry and dissatisfied after i have finished eating. this needs to change. not that im fat or anything but i don't get enough food. students shouldn't be left feeling hungry after a meal. the point of eating is to satisfy hunger, and if you can't do that then something isn't right

club bball tournament

i already mentioned that last weekend the club basketball team took a trip out to william and mary for a basketball tournament. i thought it was only a three team tournament, but there were more. it was maryland, radford, uva, georgetown, william and mary, and one other team (i don't know the name because their jerseys were plain). so it was a lot more exciting than a had expected. actually i never realized it but william and mary is really close to some golf courses that i played on for vacation a couple times, so i was able to recognize where we were as we got close to the school. anyway, we played two games and we won both. both wins were pretty decisive. in the first game we beat radford by 20+ points, and in the second game we beat georgetown by 10 points. i know a ten point game doesn't sound decisive, but we were leading by 20 points late in the game and our coach pulled the starters, allowing the other team to make a game out of it. personally i played the best two games i have played all season. i scored 16 points and 12 points in the first and second games respectively. i simply wasn't missing many shots, and as i got more confident and excited to be playing, i stopped realizing that i was tired. it was almost like i was running on adrenaline. even though i should have felt really tired, i was enjoying the game so much that i didn't notice, and was able to continue playing 100%. our team was fired up for this tournament. after losing 2 out of the 3 games at princeton, we made sure that we played hard this time around. we didn't want to drive 3 hours back to college park disappointed. all in all, nothing could have made the trip any better. i even got to hang out with a highschool friend, who attends william and mary, in between my games. as of now the club basketball team is 5-2, an legit winning record. we have another tournament coming up next weekend!

BALLIN!

ersin

are you ready for some football

this monday night i will be going to the redskins game against the steelers. it is a monday night game which is a huge deal. i have never been able to go to any previous monday night games that the redskins played in because my mom would never let me go. but now im in college and i can do whatever i want so i can go! im going to watch it with my dad. we have season tickets for the redskins, but we never go to many games. we don't find it worth the time to go to redskins game just to see them play pathetic football. usually going to a nfl game takes a lot of time. you have to account for the time you will spend sitting in traffic, going both to and from the game, and the game itself is three to four hours. the beauty of this football game is that no driving will be involved for me. im simply hopping onto the metro and getting off at the stop right by fedex field. then is only a three quarter mile walk to the stadium and im set. hopefully it won't be too cold. we have had great weather over the past few days but you never know whats going to happen. as long as it doesn't rain or snow i can always bundle up. this year the redskins are playing really well so its worth the time to go watch them play. im really looking forward to it, and im going to have a blast!

william and mary

next weekend the club basketball team is traveling to the college of william and mary for a tournament against georgetown, rutgers, and william and mary. as usual, i have absolutely no idea about how good any of the teams are. what i have noticed is that even though our team is usually way more talented than our opponents, we are never able to crush any of them. its ridiculous, some of our players have already played college basketball elsewhere, and some have played for high schools with high reputations in athletics, especially basketball, like dematha for example. we seem to have trouble working together as a team even though we have been practicing for almost a couple months now. there are some players that i must admit are hurting the team in games. im not going to name names but its obvious to everyone else who these individuals are. its not like they are bad players, but their styles don't work well with our team. im sure in time we will start playing properly but that might not be till next semester. anyway, for this next tournament, im not sure if i will be on the roster. i had a really bad game last weekend and i was late to a practice. so i have to bust my ass this week in practice to get onto the roster. i work hard outside of practice by playing pickup and lifting a lot so i just have to show what i got this week and then ill be able to see my friends that attend william and mary!

From above the rim,

Ersin

fin, the end, whatever you wanna call it

i just finished all four of my exams that occured in october. please hold on a minute while i celebrate...............................okay all done. now the only thing left to do in october is to write this english paper. plenty of other cool stuff has occured besides exams being over. recently there was an event called maryland madness, formerly midnight madness; and event which officially marks the beginning of the basketball season. all the teams and the players were introduced in a flashy light show with lots of dancing, cool music, and flaming acrobatics. no kidding i actually mean flaming; the gymkana team vaulted through and in one exception over a blazing ring of fire. it was spectacular. the evening was tipped off by the entrance of gary williams in his under armour-mobile/tank/armored vehicle. he literally drove onto the basketball court in this monstrous car with flashing lights, in a entrance of power. the scrimmages of the mens and womens basketball teams were not too impressive in my opinion as a pretty decent basketball player. im no division one player but im good enough to know when the game is being played correctly or not. hopefully they will pull it together by their first few games, or else my poll on my blog will tip in my favor ( the club bball team will have a higher win percentage than the varsity bball team). okay so i only mentioned one cool thing going on but im getting sleepy. its 12:20. so goodnight

from the top of the world

ersin "ersdaddy" levent

salary cap

im a huge football fan, particularly a fan of the washington redskins. given this, i absolutely hate the dallas cowboys. they suck, and so do the giants and eagles, but for this post im focusing my hatred on the cowboys. their stupid owner jerry jones has a has a pocket that is infinitely deep. and he has money in this pocket im referring to. he has picked up huge big name superstars in the NFL which cost loads of money and still seams to stay under the nfl's salary cap (more like the nfl's radar). he just acquired roy williams from the detroit lions, who is a freak athlete wide reciever who can catch anything thrown at him. his is a huge superstar and he is being added to the list with, tony romo, jason witten, terrell owens, roy williams (the safety), marion barber, zach thomas, pac man jones, and others that i can't remember who are all probowlers and demand to be paid lots of money because of their stellar performances over the recent years. there is now way that they are managing to stay under the salary cap. this is so ridiculous. with the roster the cowboy's have it should be impossible for them not to win the superbowl. they would actually have to try to lose in order to lose. unless of course they played the redskins (#1 team ever). now i get to be the fortune teller and predict that some sort of salary cap scandal is going to pop up in the near future about this. 

stay tuned 

Ersin 

GO SKINS!

a week or two in my future

its getting crazy. last weekend we had a basketball tournament up at princeton. it was the nicest campus i have ever seen, except for college park. we won only one out of the three games we played but it was still a lot of fun. i enjoyed getting a chance to play different teams, and the 6 hour commute was actually a lot of fun because i got to know the people on my team a lot better. now that im back i am thrown back into academics. i have an exam tonight at 7 for statistics, and one tomorrow afternoon for business management. im pretty stressed about it, not because i don't know what im doing, but because its the first exam for both of those classes. i really want to get off on the right foot this semester, so its essential that i get a B or and A. plus its tough because i have never taken an exam for either of my professors so i don't really know how they test. next weekend i want to go to the wake forest game, and i have another basketball game on sunday, but im also trying to go home for one night and do some laundry. thats going to be tough to work out but ill figure out a way to manage it all. and right after that crazy weekend i have my fourth and final exam of october on monday for MUET 220 better know as ethnomusicology, which i think will be my hardest exam. so as they say, shits bout to go down. im bracing myself so i hopefully won't collapse under the pressure. im sure you all have exams too, its about that time.

good luck

Ersin

Rhetorical Analysis 1 (the appeals)

I’m selecting the first YouTube clip. This clip is an advertisement for a new Volkswagen model.  The intended audience of this commercial is a younger audience. I say this because the car that gets smashed is a tricked out car of a young male character. Volkswagen is saying to all the young car owners in the world, that their new Volkswagen is better than whatever they are currently driving. Young people are always looking for the next trend or the next popular product, and by smashing what appears to be a cool car; Volkswagen is demonstrating that their car is more hip, trendy, and contemporary than other presumed "cool cars".  In addition the two Germans in the commercial are wearing contemporary clothing, with electronic/techno music playing in the background, and the German male in the advertisement references things that a young person could relate to. He says “drop it like its hot”, which is a popular line from the song “drop it like its hot” by a famous male rapper named Snoop Dog. Hip-hop and rap are generally associated with the younger generation, so this has a strong connection to people in their teens and in their twenties. Also, at the end of the commercial the German man makes a VW sign with his hands. Its hard to catch at first, so initially it looks like some kind of cool hand sign that is also associated with hip-hop, and the younger generation. 

            The strongest type of appeal in this commercial is Pathos. Pathos appeals to the emotions of the audience. Because the Volkswagen is portrayed as this hip, contemporary car, it makes the audience think that if they own that car, they too will appear hip and contemporary. There is good looking woman who crushes the young mans car because she prefers the Volkswagen. This appeals to young males, making them think that they will come off as more attractive to women if they drive that Volkswagen. Because the intended audience is a younger one, it is easier to connect with them through their sense of emotion. Generally younger people are more easily persuaded by what they see, and don’t think things through as well as older people, so a commercial like this, which challenges “coolness”, is extremely effective.

            There is also a little bit of ethos. Ethos has to do with credibility; in this case the credibility of what a company is promoting. The two Germans make the Volkswagen seem like it has some sort of “street” credibility. Again this refers back to how the company is making their product seem cool and trendy. In addition, the man says that the car is representing Deutschland (Germany), and a narrator comes is saying that the car is pre-tuned by German engineers. This gives the car even more credibility because Germany is known for making excellent cars, and has a history of high performance engineering, when it comes to vehicles of transportation. There isn't any Logos in this advertisement. Logos has to do with logic, facts, and reasoning, and none of this can be found in this advertisement

kimbo slice

last saturday night there was a big fight on tv. it was saturday night fights and the main event was the fight that kimbo slice was going to fight in. for those who don't know, kimbo slice is this huge scary african american man who has become famous for his success in street fights. he has many videos on youtube of himself fighting bare-fisted street fights for money. he usually crushes every opponent he faces and in some way disfigures their faces. this made the name kimbo slice more common than many professional cage fighters. due to this overwhelming popularity, UFC decided to sponsor kimbo slice so he is now a professional mixed martial arts cage fighter. back to last saturday...the fighter that kimbo was scheduled to fight was not allowed to fight due to some medical condition. kimbo was assigned to fight some random guy who was called up due to the particular situation. he didn't have to fight the new guy because kimbo did not agree to fight him originally so he had the option of opting out of the fight. but being the beast that he is kimbo he decided to give the fans what they wanted, a fight that he was almost guaranteed to win, and probably by a flashy knockout. the fight began and kimbo somehow got caught by a sucker punch that dazed him a little, and his opponent jumped all over him, and started wailing on him, forcing the referee to stop the fight. kimbo lost. i could not believe that someone as strong and scary as kimbo could lose, especially to some random guy. it was so disappointing because i waited all night for the fight and it only last 10 seconds, and kimbo lost. i suggest looking up his videos so you can see how incredible this guy is, and so you can understand how i came to believe that he is unbeatable. 

ersin

i still got the magic touch

as usual i was home again this weekend. no im not going to publicly complain about the downsides of off campus weekend work. im actually going to talk about my little go practice i had today. since i was not doing homework and i finished my work i decided to go to the driving range at the country club that i belong to. i usually go to the range to practice and work on my swing but today it was simply to see if i could still make contact with the ball. this is something that i usually would never say since im a 1 handicap which is pretty good (im trying to be humble) but since all i have been doing for the last month and a half is lifting, running, and playing basketball. lifting is so bad for golf because golf is a game of precision, touch, and feel, and lifting simply deals with using your muscles to the max. as i began pitching the ball around the club felt like a feather in my hand and i was hitting the ball really poorly. but to my surprise i started striking the ball so purely; i was hitting it long and strait. the club pro, who was actually giving a lesson used me as an example to the person he was teaching. i was so nervous because he didn't know that i hadn't played in a month and a half; the last time he saw me play was when i won the club championship.  but i knew, so i was literally shaking and praying that i would made a good swing. i made a great swing, under the circumstances, and it seemed to satisfy the example that the pro was trying to demonstrate. i only stayed for half an hour because all i was trying to do was to see if i could still play the game, which i could. this made my saturday so awesome in addition to other things i won't mention. 

only a slightly different note club basketball has a game tomorrow (thats sunday october 5th) at 12:30 pm at richie coliseum. any support would be greatly appreciated. 

CYA

Ersin

feeling the heat

college has just begun to get difficult (as of right now). the reason its getting so difficult is because i have so many things to manage and keep track of. I can't afford to slip up because in most classes i don't have the opportunity of being graded frequently like in highschool. this means that if i mess up, i won't have many chances to make up for it, where as in highschool i could literally make up for a mistake the next day. so in october alone i have 4 exams and 2 papers to tackle. so basically im feeling the heat right now. i have already completed one paper, but i now have to manage researching and completing our english paper while trying to find plenty of time to spend preparing for my exams. in the midst of all this there are the daily homework assignments, and in all of my classes i will be literally learning new material up to the last class before the exam. so i have to overlap studying old stuff, while trying to learn the new stuff. at the end of the day its all one massive headache, and it leaves me wondering when i will have time to chill out. Every time i feel like taking it easy i always remember all the crap i have to get done and then i can't really enjoy taking a break, and sometimes i don't take my break and i keep working. so i have discovered that the biggest change from highschool to college is that you have to be an expert at managing your time. i have to manage academics and club basketball with my free time. i never know when its truly appropriate to take breaks. it seems like i could always be studying something, especially music because i don't know anything about what im learning in that class. im honestly screwed in that class. all we have learned about is chinese, japanese, korean, and indian music. all asian words look alike. its insane, i can't tell which one of those first three im reading about. i have never seen so many k's x,y, and z's in a book. october is gonna suck, okay maybe not halloween.

cya in the library

ersin

victory!!!

i finally reached the five page minimum requirement on my ethnomusicology class research paper. your probably wondering what the heck is ethnomusicology. well im in the class and i couldn't even tell you. my short answer is MUET220. from what i have experienced it seems to deal with music and its cultural context. we have learned about a lot of weird musical cultures in china, japan, korea, and now india. anyway back to the paper. i had to choose a genre of music that is represented in the united states by a certain ethnic or cultural group within the united states. after some searching i decided to write my paper on the Mariachi (famous mexican/mexican american bands); ill leave it at that because otherwise i'd pretty much be writing my wholepaper over again haha but its not funny. this has been the most annoying project ever. i can't really find too many resources that are academic that give me the info that i want that will allow me to complete this assignment the way that i would like to complete it. so i find myself bs'ing a lot. im sure almost everyone of you knows about that. i know many people depend on this strategy to get through papers with long page requirements, or short answer questions on tests. the whole idea is to get a lot written down so that it looks like its a really good piece of work before its actually read and the reader finds out that you know nothing. well i know a little more than nothing about mariachi but certainly not enough to write a minimum 5 page paper. i could condense what i have written down to a page or two. but i have just passed the five page mark and there is no end in sight. i just have to concentrate on actually making it a good paper as opposed to a good looking paper. time to leave you. i have to go make a good paper.

later

ersin

pump pump pump it up

in case you haven't noticed im ridiculously ripped. hahaha just kidding. i've always been kind of skinny but three weeks before the end of highschool i decided to get serious about lifting weights. the largest problem that has ever faced me in any sport that requires strenght is that i never had enough of it. i was always a finesse player. the problem was that everytime i tried lifting or working on my strength, i would continue growing and stretch out all the beautiful muscle i had worked so hard to sculpt. i am currently 6 feet and 7 inches tall, and im pretty sure that im done growing, which now has given me the opportunity to grow outwards and not upwards. im only 175 pounds with barely any fat so im really light. i'd like to be 200 pounds, but the weight i put on has got to be muscle. i have been lifting everyother day for around 4 months. i have grown stronger over that period, and i certaintly look bigger, but my weight has only increased a mere 5 pounds. it seems as though i have hit a wall at this point. no matter how hard i work at it, i can't increase the weight i put up in the gym. i feel that this is because im not gaining weight, which i feel is caused be a lack of protein in my diet. i try to consume as much protein as possible but with the ridiculous dining plan its hard to eat the way i would like to, in order to improve my physical situation. so my mission this weekend is to go and buy a gallon of protein powder; the stuff that you can mix in water and drink twice a day or so. its the all natural stuff of course, im not trying to hurt myself with harmful artificial enhancers. thats a NO NO. i feel like for all the hard work i have put in over the last 4 months, i deserve to see some results. im going to break throught that wall really soon, so look out!

see ya at the gun show
ersin

hey its been a few days since my last post. but a lot has happened since then. i don't remember if i had already mentioned this so just in case i did, ill keep it brief. i was trying out for the club basketball team and as i already mentioned there were some communication issues, which have been resolved. we have had five practices and i am now officially on the team. out of the 30-40 people who attend practice i was chosen along with 12 others to been on the line up for our first game, which is on october 5th. thats a sunday and the game is at 12 noon at the Richie Colliseum right next to frat row off route across route 1, so if anyone wants to come support us that would be really appreciated since we are not expecting too many fans. 

in other news, i have this ridiculous research paper that i have to do. no its not for english, its actually for my ethnomusicology class, which has to do with music and its cultural context. i thought that this class would be fun and easy but its actually turning into my most demanding course, and im in the business school so its not like the rest of my courses are easy. im researching on the mariachi, which is a very popular traditional mexican genre that involve a lot of upbeat tunes with exciting instruments like the guitars, trumpets, bass drums, and violins. thats about all i know so far and the paper is due next week. thats why im currently in the library about to commence researching for the remainder of my day before my basketball practice at 10. 

and my birthday was this week on wednesday. i just turned 19!!! i didn't go out last night for the simple reason that i still have class and i can't be hungover with all this work and research to do. but im going out friday night which is going to be a lot of fun. and im not working this weekend for a change. im actually celebrating my birthday with my family. it'll be nice to have a home made cake, and i can get my laundry done because im too lazy to do it myself at school. 

anyway thats whats going on in my life at the moment. post something if you know any sources where i can find tons of info on the mariachi.

HOLLA

Ersin

narrative

I took the AP environmental science class my junior year in highschool and it was one of the best classes that i have ever taken. It really opened my eyes to the issue of the detrimental relationship between humans and the environment. i realized what the true causes of global warming and how we, in America, have the largest impact over any other country in the world. We demand so much and never realize the consequences of our life styles. It seems that just becuase we can have something exempts us from taking responsibility for the affects that product may have on our surroundings. I went to a private highschool; one in which you could consider the majority of the students families to be really wealthy. I never noticed before taking envronmental science, but most of the students drove SUV's or gas guzzling cars...tbc

first look fair

I don't know how everyone else feels about the first look fair. for most i assume its an amazing opportunity to find your "niche" at UMD, and its pretty cool to just walk around, get some sun and enjoy the day. for me however i see a big sign hanging over the festival that screams FREE STUFF. when i started marching through the festival i was just trying to find out where the free stuff is and how easy it is to get my hands on it. because i have a problem with eating too much at the diner i was really interested in getting tons of free food, but getting free tee-shirts would sweet as well. unfortunately it wasn't as easy as i thought to get free stuff. in order to get the free food you actually had to talk the the people at the desk and pretend to be interested in whatever obscure club or activity that they were promoting. i actually won a free shampoo at some hair cuttery but since i don't really have to much hair to shampoo or even to cut, i just gave it away to a friend. but i got a couple free notebooks, which will really come in handy next semester when i need to re-stock up on basic school supplies again. i have this really cheap friend (who will go un-named) who snatched up 5 notebooks, which was hilarious. so although i never got my free tee-shirt or the free food. it was fun just to see all the cool clubs and activities there are at UMD. they even had this really cool rock wall that i wanted to climb but decided it wasn't worth getting sweaty over. it was surprisingly hot and i was wearing a black shirt and long sleeved under armor so i was baking. im already doing club basketball so i wasn't really hunting for a club, but if you still need to be part of one i would highly suggest checking out the first look fair. its a lot of fun and its nearly impossible not to find something that you would enjoy doing. and if your in this position you will definitely be able to get free food because you'll actually be talking with the representatives of the clubs. 

Ersin...out!

work sucks

last weekend i wasn't really able to stay on campus saturday night and party with my friends because my stupid boss decided that i should work on sunday morning at 7am. so while most of you were probably tucked in your beds enjoying a day of sleeping in i was out carrying two bags out on a golf course for 4 hours in one of the most humid days this fall. for those who don't know i am a caddy at columbia country club in bethesda, MD. its around 25 minutes away by car. back to my point; because of my work i had to leave school saturday afternoon after the CAL game to go home and get ready to wake up at 545am. some of you might have still been partying at 545. so basically i didn't get anymore sleep last weekend than i normally would get during the week because friday night i partied late and i had to wake up early on sunday.

so i thought that after last weekend i wouldn't have to go back for at least a couple weeks but my boss conveniently calls me and lets me know that he needs me bright and early next saturday and sunday. so im going to miss out on another saturday night and friday night. i know "thirsty" thursday is big here but i have basketball practice until midnight on tuesdays and thursdays unfortunately. ill have to grind it out for another weekend. but i will not work on sunday because i have a business statistics exam next monday (mentioned in previous post) and i need at least one full weekend day to devote to studying and simple taking it easy. i have so much free time in college but i don't use any of it to relax and get my strength back. im either going to class, working out, doing homework, or staying up late in the lounge for no reason. the latter is what kills me. thankfully the weekend following this upcoming one i will be able to chill out at college park!

till next time

Ersin

random stuff

this is going to be a random post with quick little things going on in my life so far. i might elaborate on them more in future posts.

im finally back on track with my meal plan. during the first week i didn't really know that we had a limit on our meal plans and i just ate as much as i wanted until i was full every meal. this ended up costing me 30 dollars a day. i figured there were about 100 days this semester; multiply that by thirty=3000 dollars...i had 1150. so after a week of thirty dollar days i was forced to cut down, minimizing my costs while maximizing my benefits (kind of like economics). anyway now im more or less back on track. i believe the next deadline is this friday the 19th. we have to be down to 950 by then im around 965. i have discovered a new trick to helping cut back on my dining dollars for those who need a tip or two on how to save. i discovered that i have around 250 terp bucks, which i can basically spend anywhere except the diners. so i tend to grab a power bar or two everyday which helps me to not want more after each meal. i also drink water all the time which is free!

im sure others are in the same boat as i am regarding my next topic for argument. i have an exam next monday (22nd) in business statistics. how ridiculous is that (rhetorical)? i don't think we have had any more than 5 classes ,not counting two discussions, and we have one more on wednesday then we have an exam. i know im not the only one but this seems a little soon to be getting tested. its different for ENGL101 because the first paper, while being due a little soon, is not asking for a lot. its only a few pages and no research will be required until future papers are due. back to stat. we don't even have a book to study out of. we have a photocopied mound of teachers notes that we had to pay for and get a binder to put it in. personally i think an extension of one week wouldn't be too unreasonable. obviously this won't happen but i can dream. to top it off its right before my birthday (24th) so if i know i did poorly my birthday won't be as enjoyable. if you, my classmates, actually read this, holla at me and tell me what you think.

PEACE

Ersin

weekend work

so i went home this weekend to work. man that was a mistake. first off i couldn't party saturday night which was a downer but i also had to wake up at 545 today to be able to work and watch football. i try to start early because the football games start at 1 o'clock and since a golf round takes about four hours i prefer to start before 8am. i was dead tired already because i stayed up late watching college football plus i had gone to the terps/cal game earlier (yeah terps). 

it was 75 degrees at 7am today. thats so hot for that early in the morning. by mid round i probably weighed five pounds less because of the water weight i lost from sweat. i think it got up to around 95 degrees with tons of humidity. since i keep myself in good shape i could handle it; i just had to hydrate a lot later. i only made 60 bucks today it was pathetic and i worked my ass off. but i get 40 from the club so its really 100. i caddied for the father of one of my high school friends which was really weird. 

i finished eighteen holes at eleven and went home so that i could watch the football. unfortunately i ended up taking a three hour nap and missing the whole skins game which according to my dad was incredible. now im back in my dorm about to pass out from this ridiculous heat. im in elkton and there isn't any air conditioning. personally between going the the terps game, travelling, and working today, i didn't have much time to just chill out and do my homework so im about to start that. we need three day weekends and four day weeks. i guess im kind of excited about waking up at seven tomorrow. that gives me two more hours of sleep than i got last night.

Bad communication

I have always been a good athlete, but i have been especially good at basketball and golf. so since i have been staying in decent shape over the summer i have decided to go out for the club basketball team. so i thought i would email the person in charge and find out when the tryouts start. i emailed him and he said the first tryout was on september 7th at 10pm. i thought this sounded a little weird cuz it was late at night and on a weekend. anyway i wrote it down so i wouldn't forget and got ready to go.

so i get to richie colliseum sunday night at 10pm when i could have been watching football or making a better blog post for the first assignment, and see that there is absolutely no one in the gym. i was so pissed because it was a complete waste of time and i got all excited and was wearing these sweet bball socks thinking i would look sweet at tryouts. since i was already there and i didn't want to make it a complete waste of time, i got a locker and a basketball and worked out by my self which was a little boring. but i guess im just that much more prepared for next time. oh and after i was finished working out it was around 11pm and i was waiting for the bus for ten minutes until i realized the bus didn't stop at richie that late so i had to walk nearly a mile back to my dorm. to save time i jogged. what a waste

1. hello. im ersin levent. i was born in georgetown, d.c. but i grew up in rockville, md and have lived there for my entire life up to this point. i went to elementary school and st. francis in potomac, maryland and attended the Landon school for 3rd grade thru highschool. i decided on maryland because i wanted to study business and maryland has an excellent business school. i am going to major in finance.

2. i have done all sorts of writing in highschool, from short in class essays, to longer 4-6 page papers, to lengthy 10+ page length term papers. so far at umd i have only done one short essay. outside of school i don't really write. just texting, email, and facebook

3. i spend a lot of time thinking about the topic and developing my argument. from there writing the paper goes smoothly. the early stages are the hardest. after that writing the paper is easy i think.

4. writing of any length on a topic that is connected to me and that i am very passionate about. this makes is seem less like writing a paper and more like speaking your mind.

5. it was a paper called an i-search paper in which i had to connect a book and a personal experience to the "american experience" and it had to be around 12 pages long. it took many weeks to prepare because i had to read a book, then think of a personal experience and then connect the two to the american experience and create a thesis. i learned that its better to work hard and efficient in the early stages to set yourself up well for the writing portion of the project.

6. i learned alot about creating an effective thesis that made sense and that i could easily follow and argue for the entire paper. i learned also to not over complicate things and write what comes to your mind first then go back later and revise. revising too much on the fly can become tedious and confusing which can cause you to lose track of the big picture of what you are writing about. 

7. my strength is being able to write quickly and efficiently once i have set my goal and realized my thesis. it doesn't take me long to write papers it takes me a long time to do the research and preparation necessary to write the paper. sometimes i have a lot of trouble coming up with a paper topic.

8. definitely the preliminary stages, not the writing part. once i know what i have to do i can do it with relative ease. but in terms of finding a topic and doing the research to develop a thesis, i can be really slow and i get bogged down quick and a little discouraged.

9. i like to write about topics that address the global community. topics about wars or the environment really appeal to me. also writing about anything concerning athletics is cool too. im really into athletics and i watch a lot of ESPN. 

10. i associate the term argument with a discourse between two people or one person against many people that aims at learning more about a certain issue and helping others to do so as well. this helps us a society learn and grow to become more successful and efficient. it is not necesarrily two people yelling at eachother; not literally and angry argument/fight. i am glad that this course focuses on argument. it was a key component of my humanities class i took back as a junior in highschool when we learned about the ancient philosophers so im looking forward to learning more about argument and how to become a better arguer.