Below is my peer review draft.

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WOW! The semester is almost over. Just 6 days of classes left and then finals. I can not believe it. Can you, at least the people that go to St. Johns. It seems like I just started college yesterday and now my freshman year is done. It has been an interesting semester. Better than the first one I must say. Being new in a big campus is very hard. You dont know where anything is and the freshman are all lost. It takes a while for everyone to find where they belong. I have found out that I am the type that does not like to be in a group. I rather be friends with everyone. My classes have been entertaining also to kind of balance the work in the classrooms. Now it is time to decide where I am headed in my school career.

But before that, summer is here and it is time for relaxation. In English class, we have had to have a blog for our work and post almost everyday. Some might be relieved to stop and some might actually miss, at least those that are regular bloggers of some kind. Me personally, I do not whether I am happy about it or kind of sad. It has been a journey for me. I have never been a blogger before. When I learned that we had to post, I dreaded it and did not understand why. I guess it worked out and we interacted with other people.

It has been a pleasure to write in this blog and to share my ideas and express what has been happening in my life. A blogging quote from finestquotes.com, “~ The heart and soul of blogging is the individual and/or the group of individuals opining on the fly and responding post-haste to one and all. ~ ” Who knows? Maybe I will continue from time to time just to express what is in my mind. I have written about starvation, our economy, my fiance and his obsession with cars and movies. Many different topics with some school work added in there too. I never thought my topics could attract viewers but they did. Take care all.

Our economy is not doing so well as of now and lately. It feels like we are in spiral going down and we do not know how to stop it. According to the definition, a recession is a decline in a country’s real domestic product or negative real economic growth for two or more consecutive quarters in a year. I am learning about this in economics class, for macroeconomics. We talk about the economy every day and all the students keep saying we are in a recession but our professor gets mad because he states the obvious that it is two consecutive periods and that has not happened yet. Depends on who you ask, a lot of different opinion will surface.

Bush said in a White House Conference, as written in msnbc.com,

Bush’s view of the economy was decidedly rosier than that of many economists, who say the country is nearing recession territory or may already be there. “I’m concerned about the economy,” he said. “I don’t think we’re headed to recession. But no question, we’re in a slowdown.”

Prices are going up like crazy whether it is gas prices or food prices. I remember when the fridge could be filled with close to 300 dollars, now when my family goes food shopping, it takes 600 dollars or close. That is so crazy and the big issue is that prices go up but salaries don’t. I don’t know about many of you but my father is the only one who works and he has my tuition and my sister’s who is in a private elementary school and then the rest of the house. In my opinion, the economy is so bad and I never thought that it could happen in the US. I mean Europe is doing better than us and we are supposed to be the number one country, but I guess when you hit the top, there only down left. There is a stimulus package that is for 600 dollars from the government, but will that help? What will people do with that money? People are having problems but 600 dollars is like pocket change. Our economy is still at risk so we will have to watch what happens.

OMG! What is going on? Gas prices are going up and they continue to do so with almost every day that goes by. Two weeks ago, I was on my way to school and stopped to fill up my car, and I realized that the gas prices went up. I was shocked and mad. I mean, I knew that it would happen since the news has been predicting it since a couple months ago that the prices were going up for the summer. Then a week later, again I was headed to school and soon I found out the gas price was $3.59. I just wanted to cry. Mind you, that where I get my gas, they always have cheaper gases than other gas stations, so imagine what the others were. Then 2 days after, which was today, I went to fill my car and the price changed again… it was $3.73. It was just 2 days ago!!! What is going on here? When I got home, I opened the TV and the news was on and my luck, they were talking about gas prices going up 20 cents in the next few days. I truly can not believe what is happening.

Pretty soon, are people going to be driving at all? It is not worth it to drive if most of our paychecks are going to be going to buying gas. There are people that can afford that but most of Americans are middle class and do not have the money for these gas prices that are being raised. What about college students. A lot of students drive to school and they work part time jobs. What is left to be done first? Help pay for their tuition, the basic needs, pocket change or gas for their car. I would fill my car for $45 dollar a month ago and now it takes more and there is not stop. Will gas prices ever go down? Probably not! I feel helpless in this situation as many others do too because we can not do anything to stop it. People can not afford to boycott not driving because they need to get places. And to think, in a few months, I am buying a new MDX which is an SUV and bigger tank. OMG!  That is when I will be losing my mind when I see the prices go up.

Below is my discovery draft for unit three.

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Well, the semester is coming to a close and summer is almost here. I know it might have not felt like it untill recently but summer is coming. With school ending, I made sure to make my schedule safe to work. Yup… I am going back to work. I have started working since I was sixteen. No one told me to but I felt that I wanted to make my own spending money. I wondered what it would be like and little did I know it was not so much fun. At first it was okay but then the environment changed and how people were treated also changed. It became to the point of where I did not want to goto work anymore. Be careful what you ask for. Since then I have decided to concentrate on my school work and I think I have gotten a little comfortable just going to school and staying home. Well, it is time to get back to work.

I went to a neighborhood bank which used to be North Fork Bank and I realized that Capitol One Bank had taken over. Anywho, I went inside and asked the branch manager if she was loking for anyone and just my luck, she was. I was so happy to hear that but also a part of me was hoping she was not. I know…Crazy right? But because I gotten used to staying home, I was comfortable. Also I think a part of it is because I am afraid of being the new girl on the job. How will the people be? I think that most of us have these feelings.

I took a chance and today I went for the first group interview and test. Let me tell you, I was horrified today! I did not want to go. I just wanted to stay home but I went. It was in Long Island and so far from my house. I am horrible with directions so it was a hectic morning. But I made it there and finished. It was not that bad, at least as bad as I thought. I think I did fine, and now I have to wait for more details to follow. I still have mixed feelings about starting work again but we need to get back out there even though the past experiences were awful.

Does it really matter what religion we are? Aren’t we all children of God? It is so easy to make a new religion just based on person or so says my theology professor. He told the class that if he wanted he could start a religion and call it something and try to get others to join. I do not see the point in doing something like that but it does happen. It happened when King Henry VIII wanted to leave his wife and marry someone else. But the church would not grant him a divorce so he went about to create his own Anglican Church. See how easy it is…if you don’t like some rules then you make your own.

To me, what religion we are doesn’t matter. I am Albanian and most Albanians are Muslims for the fact that when the Turks took over, they forced the religion on the people. Since then people just have stuck with it but most of them are liberal when it comes to the Muslim religion. They have the name of the religion but they do not practice it. I know that my family believes in God and they pray but they are not religious. I have taken from them. I don’t have any ritual that I do and anything that I follow. I know there is one God and he loves everyone and he is the one who hears our prayers. All the religions come from the same root so it is pointless to be against one another.  

I have been going to catholic school since I was in the 7th grade and I have become known with the religion and the beliefs. I had no problem going to such a school and no one in my family had one either. Now if I need to pray and  if I see a church walking by then I will go inside and pray and talk to God. My theology teacher hints about changing my religion but I find it ridiculous because there is no point. No religion will make me follow the rituals. I have a relationship with God in my own way and that is all that matters to me. Even though my fiance is Christian, it does not change my mind. We both dont follow anything but still believe in one God. Religion should not matter and it should not tear people apart.

So the blogs continue and still there is so much left that can be done to promote our blogs. I have tried my best to promote my blog and to date, I have had over 500 visitors in stats. That is a big number for me because I never thought that I would be able to pull so many people. I actually am  proud of myself. So to recap what I have already mentioned, the way to promote blogs is first and fore most, chose interesting topics. People will be drawn in to a blog that has something to say and something that they have interest in and might want to get a second opinion. Then I also mentioned that tags were very helpful for people to visit your in return. By just putting key words in a sense, people will be able to find you easy just by searching for what they have an interest in.

So what is the next part in promoting our blogs? How about design? Design? Yea, designing your blog will help. Make your blog YOU! People who visit your blog want to get a sense of you and it might make them come back. If your blog is plain and simple and dull, then it will not interest people so much. Some might come and visit once or twice, then they stop. But if your blog has a design, it livens the place up. It shows the readers of your blog that you are passionate about what you write and how you handle your blog.

What else can we do? Visit other people’s blog! That way you let people know that you are out there and therefore they will know you exist, that your blog exists. Leave comments on people’s post and they will do the same. That is another way that we can get visitors to our blogs and in the end promote our blogs. Some more tips can be found in a blog that will help promote blos. So in conclusion for this part and recapping some old views, we have to choose carefully what we write about and make sure we make our topics interesting. It will help with viewers. The next thing is tags. Make sure you write keywords that will lead others to you. Then make your blog decorative. It will impress others and show them you care. Finally, go and visit other blogs and leave comments. Others will do the same to you. So go and promote your blog.

Writing a critical review can be very hard. Whether it’s critizing the bad or giving praise to the good. When evaluating a film, it is hard to pick the most compleling arguments. Others might not agree but that is the job the crtisizm is supposed to do. It is supposed to show the readers that there is truth behind the words.

The movie A walk to Remember has left an impression on me. A very good impression in fact. Even though I love the movie, I can see it’s faults. When the movie starts, We start seeing teenagers yelling and acting crazy. The first scene though when the actors are speaking, the acting seems very weak. The scene itself makes the audiance feel uncomfertable, I know it made me sort of uncomfertable. It was not convincing enough. It seemed practiced and not flowy.

But the acting between the two major characters, Jaime and Landon played by Mandy Moore and Shane West, was very pure. The softness between them pulled us in and kept us there. It was the first movie for both actors to have a dramatic role. Since then, Mandy Moore has not put a performence like she did in A Walk to Remember. Up to date, that was her most beliveble role. It had truth behind the acting.

The ending of the movie might have mixed reviews by people but sometimes sad endings are needed. The ending of A Walk To Remember is a very sad one when Jaime died. But such as an ending like that is needed and makes the story more heartfelt. It is because of that ending that drew people to like the movie. It might seem like a bad thing to say but it is true. When the film is build on such a dilemma in a case that Jaime had leukemia, if she ended up ok then it would have been a good ending and we would have loved the happy ending and we would have been happy overall with the movie but the twist that she dies makes the movie realistic. People die even at such a young age. The scene makes people cry and it is heart felting. It makes us remember the movie.

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Friday night came rolling around and usually I never have time to go out on weekdays because of school, even if that was not the case, who goes out weekdays late at night? Anyways, my fiance and I went out with his friends from upstate. After going to a club, they wanted to catch a late movie. I was so tired but still agreed. Any who, they wanted to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall because they thought it was a funny movie. There were other choices for me but overall, the vote for that particular movie won.

So we went and saw the movie. OMG…may I say hilarious. The scenes were out there. The movie was very graphic. I honestly did not expect to see so much of Jason Segel ( the main character ) but his private was out there for the audience to see and not only once. There were so may times where we saw things we should not have. The first scene where Jason drops his towel, the audience was in shock and you heard everyone saying “OMG” and “EWW”. It was hilarious. You could hear the surprise of the people because no one thought the movie would actually show what it did.

One thing that I did notice about the movie is that when it gives the preview, we see the main male character put posters up and talk badly of her to the tabloids and she says he is being childish on tv but those scenes were not in the movie. I was shocked that the whole movie took place in only Hawaii. I had something different in mind and maybe others knew that it was just for promotion but I certainly did not. I think the company did that as a promotion preview for the movie. I had the idea that the movie was about him going around all over and vandalizing billboards to get his message across but it was not the case. Still, it was a terrific movie and people should go and see it. You will laugh in the theater and be prepared to see graphics. Just do not bring any young siblings. Go out and see it with your friends or your significant other.