Hilarious Picture

haha. I just found this picture online and it reminded me of my roommate...

Table Etiquette

Hello all,
First, I want to give a shout out to all of the people reading and supporting this blog. Second, I want all my haters to screw off.

Anyway... I am taking another writing course this quarter. It deals with a policy or issue that we would like to change. I wrote a policy brief on Table Etiquette. I named the policy brief "The Study Abroad Culture Shock: Table Etiquette".

At DU, nearly 80% of the students study abroad at some point in their college careers, so I decided to try to implement a table etiquette class for each study abroad program. My roommate was my main inspiration for this topic. He never really uses a fork and a knife and is constantly burping and slurping while eating his meals. It got kind of annoying, but it is another culture difference that I cannot really get mad at.


Well, here is my project on Table Etiquette for study abroad programs. (My roommate is quoted in it!!)

Roommate Bonding

It was a beautiful day out. High of 80, low of 60. Spring was finally here, so what better way to celebrate than by purchasing a SUPER SOAKER for the dorm room. Well, it actually turned out to be a horrible idea because squirt guns are made to be used outside and create mold if used indoors. Anyway, my roommate and I decided to prank one of our floor-mates, and here it is:

Fake Alcohol Prank

Ok. A friend and I were kind of bored a few nights ago and decided it would be funny to prank my roommate. Enjoy
                                     

He was a lot of fun that night and was a great sport after we told him that it was sparkling apple cider.

Newspaper Article

I am taking a writing class dealing specifically with writing articles for a newspaper. The most recent event with the Chinese Mafia inspired me to write it. Here it is:

Chinese Students Culture Shocked by Plagiarism Policies at DU

A look into the bigger picture of a cheating scandal involving two Chinese students at the University of Denver.

   Cheating and Plagiarism are very similar in nature.  They are both considered as taking someone else’s work and using it as yours.  They are both not tolerated at the University of Denver.  According to the University of Denver Pioneer Pledge, which every student at the University of Denver works by, a Pioneer pledges, “to act with integrity and pursue academic excellence.” The University of Denver Honor Code later states “Integrity: acting in an honest and ethical matter.”

   Cheating and plagiarism obviously does not simply occur with only Chinese students at the University of Denver.  Cheating and plagiarism occur with students from the United States as well.  However, cheating and plagiarism are looked at very differently between the two cultures.

   Plagiarism isn’t however a complete culture shock to all of these Chinese students.  The students take a class that basically explains to them the dos and don’ts of the United States and the University of Denver.  “There are so many differences between here and China.  It is unbelievable,” one Chinese student said.

   A few weeks ago, there was a cheating incident involving two Chinese students.  One Chinese student simply copied off of another Chinese student during a Calculus Final Exam.   The cheating victim spoke about the event.  “Yes, I know that cheating is wrong.  And yes, the guy who cheated knows that cheating is wrong.  Directly copying off of another person’s paper is not the right thing to do.” The student was then asked about a related issue that is also against the school policy, plagiarism. 

   The Chinese student had a very different take on plagiarism and said, “Back in China, when we write essays, we can use other people’s work and call it as ours.  In fact, it is very common and that is how it is taught to us.”

   When showed the section of the University of Denver Honor Code relating to integrity, the Chinese student said, “I don’t honestly see how the United States thinks that using someone else’s work and research in an essay is considered to be acting dishonestly and not acting with integrity.  Back in China, we can write an entire essay that has none of “our own words” and then turn it in and get a good grade.”

   According to a recent article in “the Globalist”, “China is struggling with innovative thinking and the country is dealing with some major issues relating to quantity over quality.”

   As far as the cheating incident with the two Chinese students, the details are being worked out by the University of Denver administration.

It has been really interesting having a Chinese roommate so far. I have definitely had a pretty crazy roommate situation thus far. I really hope that I will have more stories to come.... until I get killed by the MAFIA!! hahaha just kidding.... but seriously...

CHINESE MAFIA!!

The end result of this situation forced me to write a police report to detail the story. Here is the police report I wrote up at 3 in the morning the night of the incident (and I have added some comments).

Yesterday, January 3, 2011, James (roommate) told me that his professor accused him of being involved in a cheating incident. He was very confused and told me that initially he had no idea of what was going on, so he talked with the professor to ask him what was going on. The professor sent James an email showing him the emails he and the other cheater (another guy from China) sent to the professor. James had no recollection of sending this email that was just shown to him and James told me that the other cheater found out James’ email username and password and logged on as James and sent an email to the Professor telling him that James was responsible for the cheating and then he also sent an email from his own email account to the professor saying that he was innocent. (see email documents) I was very confused myself and was confident that the University would work something out with James to prove that he was innocent.

Today, January 4, 2011, between 5 and 8 pm, James walked into the dorm room, I asked him how he was doing and he said that things JUST GOT A LOT WORSE. He said that the cheater kid talked to him and GRABBED HIM BY THE NECK and told James that if he did not confess to cheating to the professor in 24 hours, he will either kill James (by stabbing him with a KNIFE) or commit suicide in James’ bed (3FT AWAY FROM MY BED!! KIND OF FREAKY). 

I really didn’t want this situation turning bad (resulting in DEATH), so I talked to a buddy of mine about what I should do about the situation and we contemplated calling the police because we thought someone’s life was in jeopardy, but we ended up waiting about 30 minutes to talk to our RA (Austin) to see what he had to say about the situation. At that point, James was scared (like he should be). At some point in the conversation, Austin and I both thought that we should call the police.

We approached James and let him know that we were going to call the police because we didn't want a Virginia Tech situation on our hands. James immediately interrupted us and said that we couldn't call the POLICE! "Why?" we asked. APPARENTLY THIS KID'S FAMILY IS HIGHLY INVOLVED IN THE CHINESE MAFIA AND JAMES FELT WORRIED FOR THE SAFETY OF HIM AND HIS FAMILY back home if the kid found out that we were trying to get him in trouble.

Well, I guess we can't really call the police now..... shoot!

A few minutes later, the kid called James again and demanded that they meet again in our room immediately.  I set up a video camera in the corner of our room, then left the room for them to speak with each other. When I came back to our room, the kid was gone and James was already talking with Austin and a different RA. The video tape (according to James’ translation) showed that James was cornered in the room and the kid was demanding 100,000 dollars from James’ father and then he would leave James alone. James originally told him that he will not pay him the money and the kid stormed out of the room and apparently said, in Chinese, ”I will see you in China”. James later called his dad again and explained how the kid just demanded money in order for James to be safe. James' dad then told him that he should say that he will give the kid the money (but not actually do it) in order for James to be safe.  James told me that he did as his dad said and offered the kid the money.

On January 5, 2011, at about 2:00 am, everyone involved except for the kid, gathered in a room and discussed everything that happened with Campus Safety.  Campus Safety immediately recommended that James get the Police involved as soon as possible. Though still a bit hesitant, fearing for his family back home, he wanted the police to get involved. The police arrived and James filed a report. The CRAZY kid was sent to the hospital (because of his suicide threat).

I decided to go to sleep in a friend's room for the night just because I felt more comfortable there. I woke up around 9:00 AM and did my normal morning routine. I later found out from a few of my floor mates that James came out of our room with a bloody nose and a cut on his forehead. I was also told by one of my floor mates that there were two policemen standing outside of our door in the morning. James later told me that he fell out of his bed (which gave him the injuries).

WHAT IS HAPPENING!! AHHHH!!

New Song: Bad Day (Chipmunk Style)

My roommate came out with another song. His dream of becoming a viral sensation isn't going super well. His videos only have 300 or so views, but I guess you have to start somewhere.
Here is the new song. Like all of his videos, it is a bit creepy.