Triggered: How the Left Thrives on Hate and Wants to Silence Us by Donald Trump Jr.

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am a frequent reader of many memoirs, history, and literature; I was thirty-five years old when I returned to university in order to learn how to become a better writer. I am a disabled mother of two and married to an Afghanistan Veteran. I’ve done a vast amount of reading, listening, researching, and watching ever since I became disabled; however, I haven’t had the financial opportunities to even think of incurring the type of debt it requires to earn a degree in a dying field until two years ago. For years I solely focused on my family and reading while remaining fiscally responsible in a throw away culture. I stopped watching cable television around the time Glenn Beck was fired from CNN and only binge watch a season of a show that has caught my interest on Netflix which isn’t often. I keep up with the news through a variety of sources as I am a student of History and Literature, I read everything with a critical eye. I am a minimalist and wear my cloths and shoes until they have holes in them. I am a person that falls through the cracks no matter which administrative party has been in power and never “qualify” for minimal aid for medical services or food stamps yet a meth/opioid addict who suffers from self-induced brain damage is qualified to have a monthly check. Where is that fair? I value traditions from a Southern Baptist background, yet I identify as a pagan and still love and respect the church family of my youth. Only in America can you claim to do so without being stoned in the streets. Only in America can a disabled person find a purpose. My husband fought for that very ideal.

I have known what I have wanted to do since I was a little girl which is to be a children’s fantasy novelist and followed the advice of the King of Horror, Mr. Stephen King. He spoke at a New England conference in the late 90s that it is essential to read in order to avoid plagiarism. This was eight years before I became disabled which brought my own writing to a screeching halt until I was positive that I wouldn’t fall for common tropes, disinformation, and keep up with scientific breakthroughs. I try to balance my reading by varying an educational view then a conservative side, a liberal view followed by an apolitical view. I counter horror with poetry and comedy. I am providing the previous information for those reading one of my reviews for the first time.

I don’t know if I have a glitch in my audible but does this guy repeat himself a lot? If this isn’t a technical screw up on my end, then this is poor writing. It loops back around to earlier in the book to where I am relistening until new material. Interesting although the lack of editing makes the complete work less compelling. I’m listening to some of the same zingers you hear when you watch his interviews, congressional hearings, rally introductions and etc. I figure that he used the dictation function in a Word doc and sat and talked for twelve hours.

Listening to this book has created a personal “My cup runneth’ over” for an opinion. I have become so incensed that I am compelled to write a review this long. It is now the 1st week of August and Alabama is at the height of its first real wave of SARS-Cov-II and I have left my home less than a handful of times since March 13th ,when my classes were transitioned to an online format. My aim is to provide valid context to this review by volunteering my meager credentials.

Wth is up with the Trump family? I’m listening to Don Jr.s’ book. It’s so fucking confusing! He jumps from topic to topic without any real structure. It’s like he circles right back to some earlier topic that has nothing to do with the other, and then he goes back into his childhood in Czechoslovakia. On another note a lot of this book sounds like Don Jr. is on a see-saw of gratitude and glorification or ridicule and insult flinging. He points at what the problems are but doesn’t explain the steps taken to create real solutions. This book is exhausting and tedious. Examples are vague and lack any depth such as the Envelope incident or when he was accosted while he was with his children. I mean wtf happened step by step. These situations are glazed over and to me seem unbelievable. Which agencies oversee protection of the first family, how sheltered are they in the metaphorical cocoon of vipers? (FFXIII. 2013).

Honestly, I’m so damned tired of the name calling. It makes Don Jr. seem automatically biased. Though he does point out policies that have worked and he reveals much about the deals that were made for various real estate projects. From Don Jr.’s perspective they are a hard-working family but what if their gold standard has driven up expectations (foreign and domestic) and inflated price on everything. Is his story relevant in order to relate with the blue-collar workers(voters)? I am glad that Don Jr has addressed Big Tech in this book but this book was released pre-pandemic, the Big Tech congressional hearing was the day before yesterday. The Trump family has succeeded exposing massive corruption in the bureaucracy, judiciary, and news media which would have otherwise remained buried if Hillary Clinton had been elected president. However, the question remains, what is being done about it now since it has been exposed?

Interesting that Newt Gingrich was considered as VP. Holy hell: that is an enormous puzzle piece in the whole effing picture! He turned down the position in order to be more useful on the outside. What a genius political move while keeping his reputation intact. Interesting…

The section on Brexit seems dismissive and this is confusing. I thought it was an important issue, but this isn’t expanded upon at all. Followed up by harsh criticism of the Republican Party. This was a frequent complaint that they heard, and they exploited it as a talking point because they had the platform, opportunity, and finances to push ahead. Experience with the American worker is how this family has come to power. Think of this like the Merchants and the Feudal System of England before the Renaissance. This is how career politicians have rotted our system by exploiting the administrative, health, penal, and education systems by taking that attitude.

I have issues with Chapter 8. It’s like a Chris Jericho flow-chart. Where does this check list have any relevance? Who are enforcing these edicts, I mean seriously where the hell is this shit taking place? Small town Alabama wouldn’t tolerate effing behavior such as this unless you’re in the big cities such as Birmingham or Atlanta. Secondary issue that I have is at the lack of addressing addiction and the connection it shares with mental illness. He eludes to addiction when he writes about his uncle Fred Trump Jr. but cuts off abruptly and doesn’t bring the issue to the front again until he is criticizing the democratic opposition, at the end of the book. A third concern that is an important issue to me. Not once was the issue of legitimate disabled people brought up. Why? There is a difference between disabled Veterans (I can testify that this system has been improved through the VA!); that is not the avenue I am trying to highlight. What I mean are; what of people who are born deaf or blind? People who have Lupus or Chromes Disease? A family doesn’t expect a mother to get breast/cervical cancer or a grandfather to be diagnosed with dementia, but it happens. Where does a family apply for aid, these are the types of things that a laymen isn’t able to find when there are mountains of information on policy to read before coming to lifechanging decisions and usually families have to hire an expensive attorney to argue the case.

One thing I do not understand about this administration is why they haven’t reviewed every branch of the alphabet soup and had the DOJ run counter investigations using metadata of the NSA’s. Japan has an efficient way of restructuring their Diet members, just a thought. In addition, there are more draconian measures such as the Insurrection, Alien and Sedition Acts being reenacted but heaven forbid shit actually gets done! It can be protected because of a National State of Emergency has been in effect since mid-March. Government workers holding the same position for several years leaves enormous room for workers to poison local level administration. For example, bad teachers take a position at the county school boards; police chiefs that make dirty deals sex trafficking by letting truckers to just pass though their local stretch of highway, for a price; all the while the communities bridges are crumbling. Local, local, local. Go through the local alphabet first not last.

Voters hold your local officials accountable first not last!

There is a lot of detail about the election of 2016 yet he’s quiet on the measures being taken towards 2020. I do not see how the DOJ can’t use these books as on record testimonies and why the authors aren’t held liable for slander and defamation. Jr. also name drops a lot. Normal average joes don’t have the security to go from job to job because their parents don’t have that type of flexibility or financial cushion that this family has. Although, I do respect that he knows the business and construction codes and laws. He relates the immigration of his predecessors and the history of massive immigration and why it’s economically bad to have open borders.

He also takes the opportunity to highlight grievances against the “squad” and other democratic congresspersons, such as Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler, Maxine Waters, Doug Jones, and other bureaucrats. While he is laying out exactly what they did to win with their work ethic and new innovations in social media. A flaw that has been brought to the forefront since the emergence of the pandemic is that they are weak without a crowd. DJT figured it out by using Vince McMann’s tricks from the World Wrestling Entertainment industry thus this flaw has had a blaring effect on the overall morale of the campaign, the voters, and Trump himself. I know I will never be able to hear the Village People’s “Macho, Macho Man” the same way again.

The media is a problem; oh, my gods, is that supposed to be a surprise? They have been since well before the Clinton’s ever left office and the birth of the internet. Before it was never noticeable because of the limit of networks, newspapers, and channels. Cable television and internet connectivity in the late 80s early 90s was responsible for many millennials’ advancement and degradation of morality. This has become a more prevalent topic among speakers such as senior fellows from the Hoover Institute, Thomas Sowell, Candice Owens, and Charlie Kirk. Don Jr. also mentions the writers Ben Schapiro, Glenn Beck, Victor Davis Hanson, Mark Levine, Andrew Klavan, and Tucker Carlson whom I have read several of their op-eds and later books. There has been unfair coverage from every prism on this family, so it isn’t a surprise that many real issues that have take place behind the left’s agenda to remove “the Great Disruptor”. Their true agenda was to carry on with the business as usual attitude while the fringes can be compared to the country of Goa from the manga One Piece. (Oda, Echiiro. 1999). Riots sparked by the death of George Floyd immediately reminded me of a scene where the king arranged for the slums outside the city to be burned by inhabitants of the slums while promising them access to their clean city. In the end he double-crossed them. Some of the fictional and real-world parallels Oda writes and illustrates are downright eerie.

Donald Trump blocked this agenda ordered by the American people. There’s a popular sign used in the Deep South stating that diapers and politicians should be changed often for the same reason. I suggest that all fellow citizens do their civic duty our ancestors fought and died for us to have the right to do so.

I can’t predict what will happen in November of 2020; the last four years have been so exhausting to keep up with and to me watching anime, the news, and history/political lectures is a hobby. The shear meanness from both sides needs to come to an end, my plea is for the world to just be civil to each other again. Yes, I want debate, but I wish for it to return to where there is a modicum of decorum. Equal justice no matter what your status is!

In the spirit of fairness, I will also be reading Mary Trump’s book after this. I also have several other books on my agenda as well including books by John Bolton, John Solomon, Gregg Garrett, Peter Schweitzer, Rosemary Gibson, Peter Zehan. And many others related to politics and geopolitics. What can I say I’m an overachieving English/History Major? I leave Shawn Hannity the responsibility to sing the President’s praises they are too numerous to list and also just published in his new book.

*shrugs* I am tired and have said my peace.

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The night I finished my cause or effect essay, I went to sleep after reading a chapter of Anthropology and I left my computer open on the desk in my office. I thought everything would be fine I had a few days to submit the assignment and I would have time to make a few changes. My husband didn’t realize he hadn’t shut the door completely after he used the office. He comes home late and studies even later into the night while I sleep. Afterward, my nine-month-old cat Teddy broke into the office and slept on the keyboard. Somehow, which is still a mystery to me, she triggered an upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10, which didn’t successfully upgrade the driver packs. In the end, my computer had to be completely reformatted to factory settings. I slipped into an extreme fit of depression that lasted almost a month with some lingering effects.

I use my computer to read my textbooks, watch the news on YouTube, and practice freewriting on my Goodreads.com account which was easily retrieved. Unfortunately, or fortunately, I was able to clean my house for a few extra hours and I slept more due to falling into the emotional “Pit of Despair,” (The Princess Bride, 1984). I found that I was too dependent on my computer. This, in turn, led me to look for different avenues to print out my study guides and handouts; reply to discussion questions; or to take quizzes on Canvas. I still feel inadequate for the loss of the time trying to fix my PC and managing only with a smartphone. I dislike reading on a tiny screen with my poor eyesight. I have my office set up just so and if one thing malfunctions my productivity flatlines. My computer had lost all my files, pictures, games, and programs. I’ve had the computer for about five years with very few problems, so I was devastated by the loss of the pictures which were of my children and recently deceased grandmother. I also lost many poems, short stories, essays, and journal entries that weren’t backed up on an online cloud. All my hard work; gone!

My mother likes to compare me to Henny Penny, the sky is always falling, and I never realize that it was only an acorn. As a result, I show my stress by how clean my house is. If the furniture has been rearranged it means that I’ve been having a complete emotional crisis. Memories and thoughts catch up and then they begin to spiral. This led me to fall behind in my required reading because two of my textbooks were inaccessible. My datebook was the only way that I kept myself on track. When I fall behind my mind tells me that I’m inadequate, I’m not good enough, they were right that I couldn’t go back to school. I stress and procrastinate more. I try my Focus: Pomodoro app but I just couldn’t concentrate. I would fold clothes in the living room and get distracted by the dishes while I was putting dish towels away, then the dryer would beep. I would run from task to task doing a lot yet accomplishing very little. This made me realize that my children aren’t ready to be self-sufficient yet because neither wholly finish their assigned chores or caused more work by leaving their cups, school papers, and snack wrappers in the family room. My children walk next door to do household chores, when they don’t have band practice, for my mother. I’m left in the moral quandary is it enabling bad habits by me doing their chores or asking too much for them to do double of the same chore that they help their grandmother with?

It also wasn’t helpful to bottle up grief, for over a year I had prolonged grieving over my grandmother’s death from Alzheimer's. I was her part-time caretaker in the last few months and was numb when she passed. This semester, my father had quadruple bypass surgery and a separate surgery to implant an internal defribulator. Little did we know he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's; the surgeries progressed the symptoms. This time has been full of unease for my entire family but to me, it seems like a reoccurring nightmare. On my husband’s day off, which are few, he was finally able to fix my computer. Then Murphy's Law decided to apply itself to my life directly, resulting in a tooth breaking off at the gum line and a filling in another tooth came out within days of each other. The following week my car broke down. Leading up to turkey day and no school for a week.

The week of Thanksgiving I got away from it all. I went walking twice to pick up aluminum cans, in all I walked four and a half miles. I took my time the first day, but I started back early on my second walk. I didn’t bother getting the litter on the walks; although, I plan to go again once finals are over. I collected over twenty-two pounds in a little less than six hours. It was a good thing I did this; it was a good way to put my thoughts in order and I was able to do something constructive. I listened to The Federalist Papers by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton; going one way and walking back on the opposite side of the road I listened to a humorous book called Kill the Farm Boy by Kevin Hearn and Delilah S. Dawson. The landscape certainly changed in Ohatchee since the last time I beat the streets. In my Human Development course, it calls this mourning, grief work, and acceptance. Later I remembered Terry Pratchett wrote in I Shall Wear Midnight, “She heard him mutter, ‘Can you take away this grief?’ ‘I’m sorry,’ she replied. ‘Everyone asks me. And I would not do so even if I knew how. It belongs to you. Only time and tears take away grief; that is what they are for.’”

When I returned home after the second walk, I had a good cry; put on my favorite anime One Piece; ate the last piece of pumpkin pie; and proceeded to bed. I watched the harrowing adventure of a pirate chasing his dream of being the pirate king, gathering crew members, and facing the underlying social issues of the places his crew visited. The next morning, I woke up feeling not great but better. I ate the frog and finished one assignment at a time. It was enough to focus on just that day and that’s how I’ve had to take things. The AA motto: “One day at a time.” I would only add; a datebook helps. I took the time and filled in all the important dates the first week of class using the syllabi from my instructors.

Coming back to school has taught me new ways to cope with my anxiety and depression, but this course taught me the most. I learned something new in every lesson that I didn’t know before such as learning how to cite a source. Learning the structures of essays will help me move forward in the next writing comp class. The discussion question due dates in my datebook kept me tethered and kept me from throwing my hands up in the air and giving up. Many thanks.

written in November 2019 for EH101 as a reflective essay

#sixthcollegeessay #reflectiveessay #essay

What does a breakfast diner and the Earth have in common? They both rely heavily on plates. The crust of the Earth is ruled by the movements of tectonic plates, meaning they move and shift. They are contained in what is called the lithosphere. National Geographic magazine (2014) teaches, “The movement of the plates creates three types of tectonic boundaries.” They are named; convergent boundaries, divergent boundaries and transform plate boundaries. Additionally, “most geologic activity stems from the interlay of where the plates meet or divide and move at a rate of one to two inches per year.” I will explain these differences, give an example of where these plates meet, and what happens to the surrounding shifting Earth.

The first type is a divergent boundary. These plates pull away from each other afterward magma rises to form new crust. This is a process very few get to witness because most divergent boundaries are on the ocean floors like the Mariana Trench. According to my World Book Encyclopedia, “This process creates about 1 square mile (2.4 square kilometers) of ocean crust a year.” Furthermore, the African Rift is our primary example above ground. In the Olduvai Gorge area, many exciting discoveries were made by Donald Johansson and the Leaky family. You have probably heard of Lucy, which is believed to be an early ancestor to hominids. The Leaky family found even earlier fossils which are called Australopithecus Robustus. The gorge was in a way a time capsule(Haviland, ). In sum, these discoveries were breakthroughs for the scientific community. Which isn’t as interesting as my next point.

Convergent plate boundaries are by far the busiest and have multiple examples. Firstly, it would be the Himalayas. When landmasses on the plates collide, they buckle making mountain systems. This is called continental-continental convergence. Geologists estimate that this occurred around 55 million years ago when India and Asia came together. Next, there are places called subduction zones. Think of a big plate sliding over one another, while the bottom plate is getting recycled into the mantle creating deep ocean trenches. In some areas instead of mountains, deep ocean trenches are formed. Finally, these subduction zones can generate powerful earthquakes and often form a chain of volcanoes on the overriding plate building up until islands such as Japan, Java, or Hawaii exists (USGS, 4). This is called an Oceanic-continental convergence which makes up what is aptly named the Ring of Fire.

The final type transform plate boundaries neither collide nor do they pull apart. They merely slide past one another horizontally. The Bear state California has a perfect example involving the San Andres Fault, where the North American Plate meets the Pacific Plate. This fault is connected to a ridge that runs the span starting at the Gulf of California to a trench off the Northern California coastline. It’s a spectacular sight in the late afternoon but my advice is to wear good boots or shoes when visiting. Hiking here is one of my favorite memories of when I was a teenager going on vacation with my mom and dad. In the 1990s there were hiking trails maintained in several sections of the fault; although, I cannot vouch for them being there today. Since this section of land is on the Pacific Plate it is not a question of if California will separate from the continental U.S. but when? The changes will be slow; however, earthquake activity dictates how quickly the plates will move.

When one considers what happens to the Earth in these places, it’s clear that there are differences between divergent, convergent and transform plate boundaries. Therefore, we humans must adapt to the changing geography without changing a cycle that has been in play since before the early hominids or risk disrupting this delicate balance. It will be exciting to see new islands and mountains be formed albeit slowly. Mother Earth is far from finished sculpting her masterpiece leaving scientists as well as tourists in awe of the world we live in. What secrets will humans uncover in our insatiable curiosity as time passes? What tragedies might occur? Only time and our willingness to adapt will foretell the outcome.

Works Cited

Cloos, Mark. “Plate Tectonics.” The World Book Encyclopedia. 2007 ed. 2007.

Hiviland, William A., Herald E.L. Prins, Dana Walrath, & Bunny McBride. Anthropology: The Human challenge. 14th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Centage Learning. 2014.

National Geographic. “Science Reference: Plate Tectonics.” National Geographic Society, 2019. web,.

17 November 2019. <https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/earth/the-dynamic-earth/plate-tectonics/>

USGS. “Understanding plate motions.” usgs.gov 15 Aug 2014. Web,. 17 November 2017. <Https://pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/understanding.html>

written in November 2019 in EH101 as a Classification Essay

#fifthcollegeessay #classificationessay #essay

The further I progress in college I have noticed older professors have stricter attendance policies. The first time I entered college I was eighteen years old which resulted in the effect of a failing GPA. This was due to my poor attendance because I was more concerned to socialize during the late hours than to wake up and attend my 7 am classes. I passed the courses but had failed the strict attendance guidelines giving me no credit for the courses which ultimately led to me dropping out of the university. Fast forward fifteen years; I have returned to the university and I look on in pity when I see other freshmen making the same foolish mistakes I once did. Then I feel angry when asked to copy my notes because they just want to skate by in the course. This puzzled me until I pondered on the topic and followed up with further research. I have found that attendance matters whether you’re in high school, college, or in the workplace. I explored additional causes of poor attendance, the view of students and subsequent attitudes professors adopt.

Studies have shown that attendance is an important factor for comprehension, retention, and application of skills. The study conducted by Procedia, an academic journal, released an article on the view of the student's attitudes toward absenteeism. Sadly, few students in the study found my reason acceptable.

“Students expressed their highest frequency reason for being absent the one in cases of emergency (illness or important tasks), The lesson’s not being interesting is expressed as the second-highest frequency reason. Visiting the family being the third.”

Later in the conclusion, the writer of the journal acknowledges that most miss class due to events that aren’t planned. Although, some students realize that the course is easy after they’ve taken the first exam which leads some to undergo academic dishonesty by finding another student that attends to take notes for them. I underwent this obstacle recently; I’m convinced this needs to be a consideration that professors take notice of and put a stop to. Leading me to my next argument.

Professors attempt new methods of teaching to encourage student attendance such as rearrange seating, assigning homework, adjusting the material or calling the roll. In 2014, The Chronicle released an article of two professors from George Mason University with vastly different takes on attendance. The first, Michelle LaFrance, argues that using the first five minutes of class with a “free write,” by assigning a prompt related to that day's course work has been her method for better student attendance. While Steven J. Corbett remarks, “It’s all about professionalism. Every professional -- from athletes to business executives—needs to make sure they do one thing: Show up. If you don’t show up, you can’t play or get paid.” I agree with Mr. Corbett calling roll is the most efficient method. Assigning homework is effective yet troublesome to students that are parents of pre-school age but not when the children are of school-age themselves. Arranged seating can also have negative outcomes for some students with mental illnesses; such as a Veteran with PTSD generally have difficulty talking to classmates and would rather no attention be drawn to or around them. Perhaps a survey the first day of class would be a useful tool to in assessing who are parents, workers, Veterans

The negative aspects a professor might undergo include stricter policies being made, a lack of empathy towards students or occasionally a negative outlook on their performance. The American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education highlights this by stating, “negative variables that contributed to poor classroom attendance included the class being either before or after an examination in another course, faculty members who do not supplement their provided notes, personal logistics, and extended breaks of 2 hours or more between classes.” Furthermore, the journal reflects students that don’t attend lowers the morale of professors and fellow students.

I feel that it must be frustrating for a professor to see so many students fail because they didn’t attend the lectures especially when the teacher works so hard to prepare the material, but as an older student, a small amount of stress is added when many are absent. I stress the importance of attendance to my own children stating that “How can you learn if you aren’t there?” My daughter quickly responds to this question by saying she can’t. If a thirteen-year-old understands this why doesn’t a freshmen college student? After many years of wanting to complete what I started has been rewarding in a way I didn’t appreciate in my younger days. Although in today’s culture I believe that with freshmen a harsher policy should be required as they are less likely to have legitimate excuses when older students are aware that attendance matters and have already spoken with the teacher at the beginning of the semester about any possible absences. In conclusion, a student’s attendance is a crude gauge of predicting how well these students will perform in future careers which in turn keeps our society running.

Works Cited:

LaFrance, Michelle and Corbett, Steven J. “A 21st- Century Attendance Policy.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. July 14, 2014. https://www.chronicle.com/article/A-21st-century-attendance/147693.

Stoner, Steven C, and Jack E Fincham. “Faculty role in classroom engagement and attendance.”

American journal of pharmaceutical education vol. 76,5 (2012): 75. doi:10.5688/ajpe76575

. Ugurlu, Celal Teyyar. Koc, Canan. Usta, H. Gonca Sayin. Simsek, A. Sailh. Et. Al. “Faculty of education students’ views on absence attitudes.” Procedia- Social and Behavioral Sciences vol.46. (2012): 3401-3408. Print.

written in October 2019 for EH101 as a Cause or Effect Essay

#fourthcollegeessay #Causeoreffectessay #essay

How to Train Your Dragon. The books; even though the movies are wonderful. Sometimes names or the plot is a complete 180 degrees from the film yet it still embodies the spirit and theme. Enciteful with compelling wisdom to teach children lessons about acceptance, resorcefulness, and optimism.

There have been hard times when I didn’t know how my family would be fed. In a seventeen-year marriage there are instances when one spouse or the other becomes unemployed, when this happens putting food on the table becomes a challenge for many families across America. I was fortunate to grow up in the South and I was taught how to cook by five women that lived through the Great Depression. They mainly taught me how to use what I have and how to live as frugally as possible. I am going to share an easy recipe that came from one of these unexpected experiences; a casserole my son calls the Beefy Feast.

The first step when cooking should always be sanitation. Food poisoning occurs when kitchen surfaces and poor hand washing practices occur. To prevent this start by washing dishes, cleaning the preparation space, and stove. This is also a good time prepare the main ingredient, the beef. After cleaning my space, I use a gallon size Ziploc bag to marinate two pounds of beef stew meat with two teaspoons of garlic paste, three teaspoons of ginger paste, one half teaspoon of salt and pepper, one fourth of a cup of honey and soy sauce. Seal and massage the bag for a moment to make sure that the meat is evenly coated then set to the side or return to the refrigerator. The longer the beef sets the more flavorful it is; although, if time is short marinating can be skipped.

Next, gather the dishes needed which are: a thirteen by nine-inch baking dish, a searing pan with lid, measuring cups and spoons, a whisk and a mixing bowl. The ingredients needed are a Family Size Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, two cups of milk, two cups of rice, a can of drained green beans, French fried onions, and two pounds of beef stew meat. Green beans can be substituted with a can of drained peas and carrots if preferred. This is the perfect time to preheat the oven to 375 degrees and spray the baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. It is important not to forget using cooking spray or the rice will stick and bake onto the pan which makes for difficult clean up. Who likes staying up late scrubbing at stuck on food?

Moving to the next step is cooking the marinated meat on low and covered until thoroughly cooked, stirring occasionally. Cooking the meat on low and with the lid on ensures that the beef will be tender and easy to chew.  As the meat cooks, this is enough time to assemble the wet ingredients in a mixing bowl, whisking the soup and milk together, while making sure the lumps in the soup dissolves. Incorporate the rice and green beans into the wet mix, then transfer to the baking dish. Use a fork or spoon to make sure the rice is in an even layer across the bottom of the dish. When the beef is finished cooking, drain off the fat and any leftover soy sauce mixture using a slotted spoon to evenly distribute the beef across the wet mix. Garnish the top of the casserole with French fried onions and sprinkle with a pinch of pepper; by this time the oven should be preheated. Next comes the simple part.

The final step is to cover your baking dish with a sheet of aluminum foil, this allows for the rice to fully cook without turning crunchy and guarantees that the meat will remain tender after cooking on the stovetop. Place the baking dish on the center rack of the oven for the best results and cook for one hour. When finished remove the pan from the oven to rest while remaining covered for an additional fifteen minutes. This will give plenty of time to wash the dishes used during the preparation stage and do a few other household chores, such as taking out garbage or sweeping the floor. Afterwards, serve with brown gravy and with a side of deviled eggs.

This is a simple process that has a delicious outcome that surprised my entire family. I’m grateful to my deceased family members for teaching me their tricks to cooking; however, my only regret is I couldn’t share this wonderful meal with them. Little did they know their wisdom would be shared to the next generation with my daughter and son which are now able to cook this dish. I have prepared this several times for various family reunions, yet this is the first time I have ever shared the recipe with anyone excluding my children. If a twelve-year-old can make this dish, then anyone should be able to make it with relative ease. Try it tonight!

*Written in October 2019 for EH101 as a process essay.

#thirdcollegeessay #casserole #processessay #yummy

Reading has been a long-time hobby of mine for many years; in addition, it has also been a struggle since I was small child. I was a poor student throughout elementary and high school. Audiobooks enriched my learning experience. Hopefully, I can help others come to the discovery that they are helpful and not a lazy way of approaching your education. They can be a useful tool to help anyone with the same problems I battle daily. There are differences of time, memory retention, and possible health effects. How both traditional reading and listening to audiobooks may contain the same information yet differ in all three of these aspects.

The first aspect is the difference in time. Reading a physical book is much slower as opposed to listening to the same material. A person’s vision, touch, smell and attention may take moments of time to focus yet this is the reason why many can recall facts. Hearing is usually the only sense that is not actively engaged while reading although a large short coming to listening is the absence of seeing how a word is spelled, how a paragraph is constructed, or how a sentence is punctuated. Concentration is an easy thing to break and sometimes a reader has urgent matters in life to attend to such as making sure dinner doesn’t burn and remember what was happening in the book. I have chatted with many fellow students and they have told me that it takes them months to read a 300-page book leading them to listen to the same title in audio and were able to finish in a matter of days. Radio programing was used widely during the Great Depression to bring the common folk news because many were illiterate.  This brings me to the next aspect; memory retention. Is there a difference?

As I mentioned before, some people struggle to retain the information they read; I am one of these people. On the other hand, others have difficulty remembering what they hear. This scenario is a double-edged sword I discovered after years of reading and listening. When studying for school, I must read the physical text in order to retain the knowledge as opposed to only having a vague idea of what the book was about when listening to the text. When combining the two however I rarely forget the subject's theme, examples given, or the details included. The Department of Education has widely advised that parents read to their children during the developmental stages of childhood.  Can we speculate that audiobooks might be a new link in a learning chain? To improve brain development in early childhood or prolong plasticity of the brain in late adulthood due to failing vision or mental deuteriation? Is improvement possible for children with dyslexia? These questions tie in with my next concern.

Possible health effects of listening to audiobooks could result in an active and cleaner lifestyle because of the urge to do something with your hands. I usually reserve science fiction or adventure audiobooks for tasks that I don’t enjoy doing, for example, folding laundry or mowing the lawn. I listen to history or political science books while I walk my dog and will change direction and listen to paranormal thrillers such as a Stephen King novel while I wash dishes. With exercise and a clean-living environment, a person’s health can improve however this can lead to over exhausting oneself when you are a beginner. Traditional reading only can lead a reader down a more perilous health avenue over an extended period, for example, weight gain, depression, and high blood pressure. Falling into the pages can also cause a reader to procrastinate doing chores or find the time to exercise, making their lives unhealthier by poor sanitary practices. Headaches caused by poor lighting or poor posture are also common. 

To summarize there is potential in using audiobooks to educate many different groups or to entertain the disabled. With the right tools more people can be more productive and procrastinate less while honing their auditory senses resulting in a heightened vocabulary. Incidentally a concern arises that some would start to fail to recognize the written word. The human body was made to be active as well as for thinking, finding a right balance is the challenge.

*Written in September 2019 for EH101 as a Comparison Contrast essay

#secondcollegeessay

Greetings. My name is Samantha Tolleson. I’m from and live in Ohatchee, Alabama. I’m a mother of two and married to an Army Veteran. I am thirty-five years old and pursuing a bachelor’s double major of History and English, then to pursue a master's afterwards. I’ve been on the ‘so-called’ fence of what my minor should specialize in. Political Science is a passion, yet I find Anthropology equally fascinating. Both could benefit me in a career in writing. I also like to rate or write reviews, for the books I’ve read, on goodreads.com. In a way my profile is a personal journal while sharing my thoughts to a vast book loving audience. I have read extensively for many years and as of August 2019, I have completed 4,330 books however this doesn’t earn me a degree. Nevertheless, I feel prepared to take on the courses required for whichever road I decide to follow.

As a hobby I like to walk the roads of my community and pick up litter and aluminum cans. I recycle the cans at a local scrap yard on Alabama Highway 144. All the while, I listen to audiobooks. I’ve been chased by dogs and sprayed by a skunk. I’ve walked alongside an armadillo and found roads that I never knew existed in a county I’ve lived in my entire life. I find my outings as an adventure every time, so I have a better knowledge of my geography. Unfortunately for safety and medical reasons I can only perform this service when the conditions are cold and dry. Cold because snakes and bugs are hibernating and dry, to reduce the chance of catching a cold. I always end up coming home and taking notes of curiosities I cross or bridges I traverse.

I was a stay at home mom partly due to my son being developmentally delayed and still in elementary school, but mostly because of my poor immune system. In January of 2014 my appendix ruptured then two weeks later my spleen did likewise. I can no longer work in a retail or factory setting, much to my chagrin. I decided to come back to school at the end of 2017 and finally was able to start again in the Fall semester of 2018. C.S. Lewis once wrote, “You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” This is advice I attempt to live by every day.

My current goal besides being a student in History, Archeology and Writer’s Clubs, is being there for my son and daughter when the OHS marching band takes the field at every home football game. My husband juggles work at the Jacksonville Wal-Mart and is also attending Jacksonville State University. Our furred and feathered friends comprise of one dog, thirteen cats, three hens and one rooster. We stay busy with chores, band practice, taking care of our critters, studying and mostly keeping to ourselves. In conclusion, I wonder if we’ll get any sleep this semester.

*written in September 2019

#firstcollegeessay

Sleep eludes and aches unravel.

It’s almost dawn and still no entrance

To that ever-elusive realm.

Traveling pain always comes with the rain.

Overflowing waterbeds making new little streams.

The land still resisting human will.

My dying heart aching to be filled.

Love turned bitter or doesn’t have a taste.

Stinging emptiness with longing for purpose.

Make me want to dream again,

Of days gone past and of new days to come

Where memories don’t seem as brittle as glass.

Sleep continues to elude.

My thoughts,

becomes sadly crude.

Terror will ensue

When dreams

Are in que.

written in Jan. 2020

#poetry

My poison the thing I can’t give up,

whispering taunts to come back into the fray.

How to run away,

to fight, and resist its sway?

No! No! Don’t go!

The rain is falling, it isn’t good for you.

Step away your head doesn’t need to go flying.

Fluttering pages sit sighing, it’s time for a switch.

Thrilling my mind and making my fingers itch.

Toying, cloying.

Closing the air out.

My fear turns my mind off,

a wheel ever turning, turning, turning.

Go further, don’t fall!

Another word, another tune.

Something new because it’s all over too soon.

Clean living makes it longer.

Good morals make it stronger.

*written in Feb. 2020

#poetry