Miscellaneous

Like most personal web pages, this one is pretty selfish. So I thought I would take this opportunity to try and give something back.

Letters of Passion are letters I (or Dan) wrote in the heat of passion in defense of something worth fighting for. I think they bring up excellent points and are well argued.

Interesting Papers are just that, papers I've written over the years, some for school, some for fun, which I think are pretty interesting. The web-friendly pages are just that, html pages. The printer-friendly versions of the papers are Adobe Acrobat files, and the Acrobat plug-in is necessary to view the files.

Job's Daughters Website Battle
For over a year I have been working on the Virginia website for the International Order of Job's Daughters, which is a Masonic youth group I was active in as a teenager. In September of 2002, I approached the current woman in charge in Virginia (known as the Grand Guardian), and offered to create a new website which would be current and in turn, more useful to any visitors (the last version was rarely updated, and poorly maintained). We launched the website in July 2003 and it has been getting bigger and better since then. Ninety-nine percent of people love it and are thrilled that it remains as current as possible. There is one man, however who felt the need to "put me in my place" and remind me that either he or the Grand Guardian had to approve everything before it could be put on the website. I let him hear it.
Winding Brook Towing Debacle
As anyone who has read my website regarding the summer of 2004 knows, I've barely been home at all. Every week or weekend I'm somewhere new. That's great when I'm off doing new things and seeing new sights, but when I come home from a trip, and my car has been towed, I'm less than thrilled. This set of emails is written in an effort to get reimbursed for my car ($90).
Daniel vs. the Nike Wages Hypocrites
One day Dan was reading people's away messages when he saw a link to something he thought was interesting: a website about Nike, what it pays to its Third-World employees, and the injustice of it all. Too bad none of the arguments held any water. So Dan wrote them and pointed out the flaws in their arguments.

Daniel vs. the SMAD Department
Around the time I started this website, I was in a Multimedia for the Web class with a professor who didn't know anything about multimedia. She was the kind of teacher who penalized you if you went above and beyond the project requirements. When she gave us an assigment to do in Flash, I took the opportunity to learn as much as I could in the most recent version of Flash (Flash 5, which had been out for almost two years). She wouldn't accept it because it wasn't in Flash 4, an ancient version, which was the only legal copy the SMAD department owned (SMAD was my major, School of Media Arts and Design). Included with my finished project, I enclosed a free and fully functional trial version for Macromedia Flash 5, available from their official website. This apparently wasn't good enough for her. She told me that I would have two days to redo the project, and that she was going to take 10 points off for it being late (I turned my original project in on time). When I told Dan what happened, he went to bat for me.

By the way, the project in question, Extreme Rox, can be located in my portfolio (in the Résumé section). I still had to redo the project, but when I redid it, instead of making an ad for something cool like Extreme Rox, I made a tongue-in-cheek ad for Flash 4, with taglines such as, "Over two years old!"
Is It Better to Read the Book Before Seeing the Movie?
With the recent release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I have to wonder if I would have enjoyed the movie even more had I not read the book first. Or on the other hand, would I want to be told what everyone or everything looks like or decide for myself?
The Mane Event
I am a huge fan of Disney, so I take advantage of any academic opportunity to write on the subject. So when we had to choose a thesis for our Hamlet papers, I was thrilled. The connection between Hamlet and Disney? Read and see.
Napster vs. the RIAA
Is the RIAA really suffering? Record sales were up 4.8% in 2000. You do the math. (This was written in November of 2000, so some information might not be 100% accurate now.)
Catcher in the Rye
Excellent book. I despise analyzing books and poetry. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and this is one for me.
My Relationship with Boy Friends
This was my college admission essay. I was accepted everywhere I applied (batting 1,000). I know it wasn't based solely on this paper, but I'd like to think it was.
American Pie
Don McLean did an excellent job of telling the history of rock and roll which followed the deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valenz. This is a basic breakdown of the lyrics.
The Breakfast Club
My Communications professor made us watch this great 1980s movie and write a paper on it. In the web version, be sure to roll over the letter addressed to Mr. Vernon for an added bonus. (Warning: this bonus may take a while to load.)
The 1950s: America's Happy Days?
I'll admit it, I am a fan of American History. I'm such a nerd.