This particular blog entry is more of a gripe session for me.  The topic that I have chosen is simply the question of why is college so expensive?  I mean, to go to a decent school for four years makes a regular person end up paying bills and student loans back over the course of several years even after they graduated.  And that is if they have chosen to get a degree in something that they do not change their minds about later on.

Take me for example.  I started out in the fall of 2011 at Lackawanna College because I wanted to pursue simply and associates degree in Criminal Justice because after graduating the police academy I was told that I would receive 21 credits towards it.  So I enrolled back into school and began taking the courses needed for the degree's completion.  Later on I decided that I wanted to do better than that and wanted to obtain a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice because now a days you can't get any full time law enforcement job without one.  So after researching credits and classes that are transferable from Lackawanna College to Keystone College, I enrolled in several of those courses, spending a substantial amount of financial aid and student loans in the process.  Now during mid semester I decided that I wanted to switch my degree program from Criminal Justice to Forensic Science.  So I began researching that program at Keystone College and came to find out that only two of all the classes that I have taken actually transfer to that particular degree program.  After finding that out all I could picture is myself throwing money into a paper shredder and realizing that the past year of my life has been a complete waste of time and money.

But really it is a catch 22.  In order to get a good job that pays a lot of money you have to get a college education.  But first you must pay a lot of money to get a college education in order to hopefully get that good paying job.  I guess it comes down to the old business saying of you have to spend money to make money.

This article I actually saw this morning while watching Good Morning America.  I then went to http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/minnesota-teen-cant-bring-porn-star-prom-221942746--abc-news.html and located the article.  The story is about a teen from Minnesota who asked several girls at his school to the upcoming prom.  All the classmates that he had asked turned him down.  The teen then went onto Twitter and began asking celebrities, mostly adult film stars, if they would go to the prom with him.  It was stated that the teen asked over 600 adult film stars, and one of them actually responded and accepted his invitation.  The adult film star stated that she would love to go with him because she missed out on going to her own senior prom and she would love to make his prom dream and hers come true.  But school administrators banned the film star from attending the prom. In a statement given from the High School, they said that the adult film stars attendance would be prohibited under their prom procedures because it would be inconsistent with two school district policies. The 19 year old adult film star lives in Los Angeles.  The teen then said that he was going to hold his own prom at his house and that all the students are invited.

This is probably one of the most biased things I have ever read. You know for a fact that the school administrators simply do not want the publicity of having an adult film star at the school event.  Even the teen's mom told the news that she does not see what the girl's profession has to do with anything.  In my opinion, a job is a job. If the teen said that he was bringing a non-pornographic actress to the prom, I am willing to bet that the school would lay out the red carpet, but due to the fact that it is a profession most find to be distasteful, the actress is banned.

I chose to read this article because it couldn't fit the requirement's of the assignment any better.  In my opinion, why should someone be banned from doing something just because they don't agree with their line of work?

Between working two strenuous jobs for an average of 50-60 hours a week and going to school full-time, I do find it incredibly difficult to find time to actually step back from everything and to have time to myself.  My schedule is very hectic and nothing is set in stone, so I am forced to play each week by ear and find the exact times in which I will have nothing to do.  One of my favorite hobbies right now is sleeping.  I know this sounds wierd, but for the longest time it would be rare for me to actually get a full 8 hours of sleep, so I try to do it as much as I can because I do not know when I will be able to do it again.

Besides that, my all time favorite thing that I do to unwind is to ride my motorcycle.  This is one of the most relaxing things I do because nothing gives me more freedom.  When riding I feel like I leave everything behind and that is a great feeling.  Sometimes when I ride I find myself in a difficult position on whether to apply the brakes so I can turn around and head home, or to simply pull back on the throttle and just keep going.  I especially love going to Bike Night at the Quaker Steak and Lube in Dickson City on Wednesday nights during the summer.  Hanging out with a bunch of my friends and then going for a ride really does make me feel like I do not have a care in the world.

Another activity I do to unwind is that I love going to the gym.  Lifting weight is one of the greatest stress relievers, and sometimes if I had a very bad day I like to take it out on the punching bag.  Running is great to because it makes you not really think about anything else.  When I run I always just focus on where i'm running to.  Instead of saying I will run around the block, I say I am going to run to that stop sign, and from there I pick something else out.  It is just a really good way to focus your mind on something other than work or other problems and honestly puts me into a happy and relaxed frame of mind.

The peer review is a very helpful process when writing a paper, especially if you are not an experienced writer. A strength of the peer review process is that you have another set of eyes going over a paper or an essay you have written.  In the writer's eyes, everything could look and sound extremely well put together.  But in the eyes of another person, there could be several mistakes that the original writer did not see, and the paper may be viewed to not be as well put together. A major weakness with the process of peer review is the fact that the second pair of eyes going over the paper is not going to be the teacher, it is a fellow student.  I have openly admitted that I am a horrible writer.  Papers and essays never have and never will be my strong point.  So who's to say that my peer who is reviewing my work isn't as inexperienced in writing as I am.  They may say that my work is outstanding, and then I hand it in without making any changes and I get a poor grade on the assignment.  This is never an excuse though because one thing I have learned thus far is that each and every person is responsible for his or her own work.

One thing that I did find beneficial about the peer review process is that it is like having a second person writing the paper along with you.  The second person could read it over and say to add something that the original writer may have not thought of.  Or they could say to take an idea that was written and explain how to take another idea and branch it off of that one.  I am not sure however if there was anything specific I would change about the entire peer review process because honestly this is the first time since probably middle school I had to do it, and that was what seems like a lifetime ago.  If it was a process that I have done more often, then it would give me a better outlook on it and to see what if anything I would change.

I was nervous when I started the pere review, honestly because I had a fear of giving someone the wrong advice that would decrease the grade of their essay.