Month: October 2012

The plan was perfect; it was a simple race against the clock and I was pretty sure I was going to make it. The objective? Ask my girlfriend to prom in a cute and personal way. My plan was to surprise her after school at her place before she arrives. It was a Thursday and I lied about me not being able to come over that day because of family but I was trying to catch her off guard and make her smile. I had almost no afternoon classes that day so I thought the timing would be perfect as I can take the 4 train, go down to Grand Central Station and transfer to the 7 train to Flushing and then to the Q17 bus to Fresh Meadows. My girlfriend gets home at 3:45 and I leave at 1:30 and the traveling time takes about 2 hours including the flowers. After my last class ended, I ran to the Bedford Park Station in 5 minutes and immediately caught the train. 10 minutes ahead of schedule. The 4 train was perfect and the 7 train showed up right away. 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I went to the flower shop to buy my favorite number of favorite flower and her favorite number of her favorite flower. Basically, I bought 7 roses and 9 lilies. The thing is, I did not know how much lilies costed and I don’t remember exactly how much it costed but it hurt my wallet badly. It took a little longer to choose and buy the flowers than I thought. 10 minutes ahead of schedule. And then I just missed the Q17; I was so mad. Luckily it came relatively quickly and I got on with 5 minutes ahead of schedule. However, the bus was packed and I was worried for my flowers because there was a huge amount of them. The seat opened up right in front of me but here comes this disrespectful obese lady who pushes me to get the seat. I was unbelievably mad. She saw I had a lot of luggage and if anything, I would have been nice enough to give the seat to her if she simply asked but no. I simply turned around and moved down the bus a little, I could not stand the look of her face anymore. Then comes the worst part, there was a traffic jam! Oh boy, I waited in that jam for at least 20 minutes. I am now 15 minutes late and that was all the time I could afford because I allowed 15 minutes extra. When I finally got off that awful bus, I called my girlfriend and asked where she was. She said she will be home in 5 minutes. I froze. I thought to myself that this was no time to give up. I quickly hung up and ran as fast as I could trying to keep the flowers from moving around too much. Somehow, I ran there with like 2 minutes left. I got her sister to open the door up and then washed my face of all the sweat and everything. She rang the doorbell and when I opened the door for her she looked so happy and surprised. I didn’t think her smile could get any bigger but it did; when I took out my flowers and asked “Will you go to prom with me?”

So I actually wrote a different monologue – one that was more personal in some sense (as in it lets you get to know me better), and if it was written thanks to some midnight inspiration burst, it has to be good. But alas, I accidentally deleted it instead of my cheating reaction blog and so after much cursing and crying towards a phone, I bring you my adventures I had on Sunday.

I awaken around 11:23 am surprising seeing as how I managed to lug myself to bed around 2:23 after finishing my anthropology paper. Yes, that’s right, I pulled a somewhat all nighter a day before its due. Sad, I know. I laid there on my bed, not knowing I was home alone. So when I dragged myself out of bed after hearing the doorbell ring, I was very very disappointed that I couldn’t play Dance Central.

And so after eating some Chinese food, turning on my computer only to turn it off because I wasn’t in the mood to start writing that English paper I really should do, I settled for reading some fanfics on a handy dandy phone.

I read a few stories on the coach before I remembered my promise to myself that I would do something productive instead of being a bum. And so I started cleaning around the house all the while having a phone in my hand while reading fanfics and crying to myself that I shouldn’t be doing this.

I hung up my sweaters scattered around the house and put them back in my closet all the while reading entertaining stories on my phone in one hand and crying to myself that I can’t read material as amazing as this for anthropology.

Then I get tired of that and find a broom and start sweeping the floor. Or at least make some movements that sorta seem like I’m trying to sweep. Yes, doing this while reading fanfics on my phone in the other hand and crying to myself that I can’t write about these works of literature for my English paper and that I shouldn’t be doing this.

And then I gave up since my Internet connection was being difficult, but I didn’t really mind since I found an alternative to cursing and trying to copy an entire fic into my notes on my phone for when I want to read on the train… or when Baruchs wifi decides to crawl.

And well… after that I sat in front of my computer surfing the World Wide Web all the while crying to myself that I shouldn’t be doing this. There’s an English paper you need to write.

And so this ends my day… or at least up to 7:21 pm on a Sunday where I am currently writing these words and crying to myself cause my thumb really hurts from scrolling on an iPhone with one hand. And at least I get to check “monologue” off my list of things to do and for once I actually am not going to say “I shouldn’t be doing this” but rather “I finished, yay. I deserve a break and that paper can wait until tomorrow night when I’ll be cursing and crying for not starting this earlier even though I promised myself on Thursday that I won’t do anything but my papers this weekend.”

Also, feel free to admire this picture I whipped up (which is supposed to be a picture that represents me) after realizing that a 3 panel comic accompanying my monologue would be too much work and would be getting in the way of me enjoying my hot pocket–

It was the first week of kindergarden.  I was sitting on the bus minding my own business when she walked by.  Butterflies.  Thats all I felt at the time.  Not the regular type of butterflies one might get before a test or an interview−the type of butterflies that kill your appetite and cause you to freeze up.  The type of butterflies that cause you too lose control.  She gave me these butterflies on a daily basis.  I had a crush on this girl since nursery.  All I could do at the time was thank G-d that she walked by, hopefully finding another seat on the bus… and then she walked by again… and again.  There were no more seats.  Everything was moving so quickly.  The next thing I knew the assistant bus councilor sat her near me. To talk or not to talk, that was the question.  I opted on keeping it quite , playing it safe.  Everything was going great.  I was looking out the window and she was turned towards the aisle.  And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, completely out of the blue… I peed.

As much as I might try to erase this event from my mind, it wont go.  It refuses to be deleted.  I carry this burden upon my shoulders everywhere I go.  When I think about it I can almost feel the butterflies rising up from my gut, taking over.  This moment humbles me when I’m feeling too cocky, and always leaves me wondering, did she notice?

 

I am new to blogging and have never done this before, before this class. I enjoy blogging because you are able to write whatever’s on your mind and you are able share your thoughts with your class mates. Blogging is fun and it’s nice being able to read what other people to writes. I enjoy blogging and am happy that we arable to write in this class.

I do not believe that there is one set solution to the widespread problem of cheating. It happens everywhere; on tests, in sports, in relationships, and no matter how much you do, the problem will ALWAYS be there. Making an example of someone who has cheated will not stop others from cheating. I believe it will just make them to be “more careful” if they are cheating. There is no way to completely eliminate cheating from todays society because there is no way of changing someone’s morals or views.

Cheating, both academically and generally, has been and always will be a continuing problem in our society. It is very unlikely to eliminate the problem altogether. However, we can contain or reduce the problem through enforcement and by bringing the problem to light. I personally believe that Baruch is playing a great part in reducing the possibilities and intuition of cheating through the school’s strict academic integrity policies. By addressing the problem publicly in mediums such as the school newspaper, the existing problem of cheating is addressed and acknowledged letting students be aware that the school is in fact enforcing academic integrity regulations and playing a part in the reduction of cheating.

In the short time i was a student here at Baruch i have come to realize that Academic Integrity is taken ver seriously here. To my surprise Baruch was in the news about a cheating scandal. I thought to myself schools all over the country must create a better policy to prevent this. It is so intriguing to the students, why noteasy A if we dont get caught. but we as students should not cheat its just not right. I hope that Baruch resolves this problem and we all can graduate with full integrity.

 

After reading the article, it has come to my knowledge that cheating has become a huge problem in this country. More law should be enforced to prevent cheating from occuring. Cheating is wrong no matter what the situation is, however, everyone did it, I did it, probably everyone in Baruch did it but are ashame of admitting it. It’s only human nature to chose to cheat when in hopeless situations. It is wrong but it can’t be stopped. Even if I’m here talking about how wrong it is to cheat, somewhere in my heart I really don’t care much because I don’t want to be a hyocrite and talk about how we should stop cheating and blah blah but then next day cheats on my math test. However I do my best to keep cheating to a low degree, hoping someday I’ll completely get rid of this bad habit.

Though cheating takes place in schools across the country, I feel like not enough is being done to dissuade students from not taking part in it. Publicized punishment of students who do cheat will accomplish very little, in my opinion. Students have to realize within themselves why cheating is morally and ethically wrong.  However, when it comes down to it, there will always be those who will go down the path of cheating, and then those who will produce work with honesty and integrity. Though the article in The Ticker was a good one and may discourage some from partaking in cheating, there will always be those who do, whether it is against school violations or not.

I found the article very interesting. When first starting here at Baruch just a month ago it was obvious how serious plagiarism and  cheating was taken here at Baruch. Besides this article Baruch has been sending out emails to inform students and parents that they are taking this very seriously. I like how they don’t just try to put in under the rug and act like it didn’t happen. They acknowledged it and are addressing it in the right manner and I believe it adds to the image of the school. Because although cheating may have taken place at Baruch they are taking it very seriously and investigating it as well as keeping the student body informed.