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.