Final Blog Post!

Dear incoming English 110 students,
Prepare to engage in an English class for the 21st century. Coming into the first week of class, I had no vision of being assigned a blog such as this, or of eventually writing a paper for an online/public website. I envisioned what most other English courses have been for me in the past, which have been, read these 40 pages for tomorrow, write 3-4 pages about this chapter, etc. etc. This English course definitely gives a slightly different perspective into English writing, and was actually an entertaining change.
Now to be successful in this course, there are some straightforward tips I can give. First and foremost, as in any academic course, keeping up with the assignments is crucial. Personally, I tended to slip into pulling papers together last-minute, which isn't the most effective strategy. Once a paper is mentioned, I would start thinking about it right away, and even jot down some preliminary ideas so that pulling the final paper together is much easier down the road.
Also, finding your own "voice" and style of writing is very important. Follow the prompts as they are given, but be true to yourself and your own experience as a writer when putting together the major assignments, the ARP and the Commonplace papers. Also, when choosing topics for your major writing assignments, of course make sure it fits in with the course theme well, but also make sure it is something that you are passionate about/interested in. This will make writing the papers alot easier, and it will be more entertaining and enjoyable for you as a writer.
With these things in mind, I'm sure anyone can excel at English 110 and come away with helpful tips and strategies for writing academically and publicly.

Sincerely,
Chris Milligan

Foreign Food FTW.....

Well, I recently decided to use my photoshop skills to turn myself into an Avatar after having watched the movie last week. So i felt like showing off the finished product. Then i thought of a way to tie in the picture with foodways and my view of food. It's a bit out there, but here it goes: I love foreign food, whether it be Mexican, Chinese, Italian, etc. etc. So for my ridiculous analogy......I like foreign food and look like a foreign alien in this picture. HA HA HA, right?
Ok so much for a career in comedy............But seriously, I don't know what life would be like if all I could eat was American food. It would be so boring and uninteresting!

Blog #3

For the 11 or so years that I lived in Camden, ME, there was one special dish that I never was brave enough to eat, or maybe it's just that I'm not a real big fish eater, but either way the biggest food specialty in alot of areas in New England is lobster, those red crustaceans that at first glance don't exactly look like a delicious meal. Lobster was the staple dish that about every "Mainer" ate for special occasions, whether it was a family dinner, a date, etc. etc. Lobster fishing as a whole was HUGE in Maine, as I knew at least a dozen or so families who had a fishing boat of their own.
One of these days, I'll have to actually try it, and if any of you ever visit any of the upper New England states, you have to have lobster just once.

Possible PSA choices?

VAN HALEN -

UP FOR BREAKFAST

Well!
She treat me like a personal Jesus
Got the hand...put it where its gonna heal ya
Got the finger...put it right there on the trigger
Well, pump it up, pump it up
Baby make it bigger

Well... I'm Going crazy

Pumping it up, pumping it up
(ewww ohhh ya)
It's gonna heal ya

She put the cream in my coffee (first thing in the morning)
Put that butter on my biscuit (honeydew my melons)
Cherries on bananas (gonna need a second helpin')
You know I'm up for breakfast so early in the morning

Lock the front ...Leave the back door open
Hot tub loosen up ...baby been soaking
Been tokin'...been sippin'
Slip slide slippin' ... all got me tripping

Well... I'm Going crazy
Keeping it up... pumping it up, pumping it up
Ain't gonna kill ya

She put the cream in my coffee (first thing in the morning)
Spread that butter on my biscuit (honeydew my melon)
Put berries on bananas (I need a second helping)
That's why I'm up for breakfast so early in the morning

Wake me up babe
Hold me up, wake me up... Gotta get up, gotta get up, gotta get up, gotta get up.

She put the cream in my coffee (first thing in the morning)
Spread hot butter on my biscuit (honeydew my melon)
Like them cherries on bananas (gonna need a second helping)
That's why I'm up for breakfast so early in the morning

Got bacon on the table (first thing in the morning)
Squeeze some honey on my biscuit (honeydew my melon)
Spread some cream on my bananas (I need a second helping)
You know I'm up for breakfast so early in the mornin'
Hot sweet sticky
Get it up, get it up, get it up

Wake me up babe
Wake me up babe
Lift me up baby
Gotta get up, Gotta get up
Hot coffee first thing in the morning
Gotta get up

To start off, I'm a hardcore classic rock fan, it's all about Van Halen, Motley Crue, Kiss, AC/DC etc.......so it's not a surprise that the first thing I thought of was a set of song lyrics as a paper topic. This song is a good rock song, and it's one of those songs where the singer uses food as a metaphor for love/sex, as discussed in Thursday's class. It's always kind of entertaining to see how many metaphors that artists can come up with to reference sex, without actually saying anything explicitly. This is one such song, and I found it interesting the choices of foods that Sammy Hagar (the lead singer) chose....ones that aren't commonly associated with love/sex/romance etc. Coffee, honeydew melon, bacon, biscuits? These choices are unique, and a little more creative.




I just recently watched Saving Private Ryan, which in my opinion is the best war film of all time, and after being assigned this blog, a particular scene jumped out at me from this movie. It's very short, but I believe it's very powerful at the same time. If you or I were to see coffee being poured or a sandwich sitting on a table, we wouldn't think anything of it. We would simply keep moving right along, or possibly decide to get ourselves a cup of coffee or a sandwich. However, if you're in a situation where "normal" everyday food is hard to come by, those types of foods suddenly take on a whole new meaning and importance. The way Tom Hanks (the actor in the clip) just stares blankly at the food he is seeing is very telling of how strange and exotic everyday food can become when people are put in survival states of mind, such as in times of war.

So I wasn't initially very inspired about what to write for this blog-post. But then today inspired me. It being Easter, I realized what kind of food i really enjoy, and that is all-you-can-eat brunches!!

My family and I went to a restaurant called Salvi's Bistro, which I had never been to before. Their brunch is absolutely delicious. So I suppose this is pretty telling of what type of person I am. If it were possible to do, and still maintain any sort of health, I'd most likely eat all day, every day. I swear that I feel hungry every waking moment! Brunches are awesome because I like mixing and matching all types of food together. I don't like generic dishes with a set layout. I'd just as soon have breakfast food mixed in with lunch food for every meal of the day.

Now to regress slightly, as I haven't properly introduced myself, only my sense of food, my name is Chris Milligan, I'm a first year engineering major, I was born here in Columbus, lived in Maine for about 11 years (I understand if you don't know where that is, It's as good as living in Canada), and have now been back in Ohio since last February. I love playing the drums (percussion or drumset --> looking for a band just fyi) and am a pretty big gamer.