Shift Happens

This was a very interesting video to watch/read. Everyone knows that England was the major power house in 1900 but soon fell out to others. This can be seen today with the outsourcing and loss of jobs to other counties here in the United States. I think that China will soon be the new world super power and replace the U.S.

Thinking about the future while watching this video, really started the imagination flowing. If computers start to be smarter then human kind, will we become their servants? Will they take over the earth? I know I have a very weird imagination, but if what this video is saying, then computers will be smarter then humans. Who knows what technology will be developed that could be detrimental to the human race.

I don’t know if our educational system can keep up with the changing technologies. If they are changing and we don’t know what is next, how can we prepare for that change.

I like that the information technology has changed our lives to make some tasks easier. I do think that it will be our ultimate down fall in the future though. We will slowly loose our ability to communicate with each other if we don’t have a phone or computer to type on. We will loose our ability to interact with people on a one to one basis. We need to be out and physically active, but with this technology we are rapidly making our lives easier, which could produce a lot of overweight people that sit in front of the TV and play video games instead of working out side and playing. Oh wait a minute, don’t we have an obese child epidemic in the United States now?

Rural and Urban Changes

I have had the opportunity to live in numerous different environments. The first area was my home town, Lewisburg, PA. This is a small town in central Pennsylvania. This wasn’t an extremely small town, but it had about 6-8000 people in it. It is surrounded by farms community with a downtown area. Life there was simple growing up and it is still relatively the same. The one big reason that I miss this area is the farmers market. This market was cheap, unlike the ones here. You got good quality fruits and vegetables. Bad traffic was a 5-10 minute delay, or being stuck behind a horse and buggy. This use to be the home of Pennsylvania house Furniture. But due to the cost of labor, it is now made overseas. There have been numerous job losses due to companies outsourcing. The quality of air was very good.

The next major place I lived was during my stint in the military. This was Pusan, South Korea. Immediate when I stepped off the plane I knew that I was no longer in the quiet town I was use to. The streets were extremely busy and the air quality was noticeably worse. I was informed it would take about a month or so to get use to the air quality. The thing that I enjoyed while there was the opportunity to shop for items. The prices were extremely cheap and very abundant. While in Korea I went to an island south of the peninsula for a school. This was a very rural setting and was interesting to see how the people functioned differently the their city counter parts. You could buy fresh sea food. Literally fresh. You looked out on the ocean and there were women with mask, snorkels and fins diving for fresh food to sell on the rocks beside the ocean. They would have buckets of fresh food for you to buy on the shore. On the main side of the island, since I mentioned about the traffic before, traffic was terrible. You would have a 5 lane highway go down to 2 lanes in each direction. This caused major traffic issues and then people were trying to cut in front of the convoys.

Now the last place was here in the D.C. suburbs. What fun this place is, isn’t it. There is a lot more to do then in the quiet town that I grew up in, but now you may have to wait in line to do it. I never saw the traffic issues that I see here in PA. People here are in a hurry and are quite rude. Unlike my home town where everyone knew you, you could go days without seeing anyone you know here. I don’t like that feeling at all. Let me go back to the traffic issue. I have lived in Fredericksburg for the last 10 years. I have seen the traffic going south multiply greatly as everyone is trying to buy houses in the cheaper suburbs. It use to be that traffic was extremely heavy traveling south in the summer but then lighted up (moving and not standing still) during the other 9 months of the year. It seamed like in 2005 that changed greatly. The summer exodus stuck year around.

I have been very lucky in my life to be able to visit different places in the world. We all can learn different things from one another about how to live and grow efficiently and how not to grow. Hopefully the next twenty to fifty years can bring smart growth to both the business and social world that we all belong. There is nothing that we can do to stop this growth, it is coming whether we like it or not.

I have found a quick video of the women diving in Korea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=ltsax5Jm_qw&feature=related

This Video on You tube actually tells a little more about the women. The ones in this one work off of a boat. The last 30 seconds or so shows on scaling down rocks to swim out to fish. These were the like the rocks that I was at and observed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBb-oofr-7A&NR=1

Who has the Power

Who welds the power in the United States? This is a very good question. Our nation was developed under the pretenses that the people have the power. I don’t know how true this statement is. We do have some power of the vote. This vote could dislodge our representatives in congress or senators. But how much do they listen to us? If law makers want to “Sneak” a law into existence they attach the bill to another one. If the bill that it is attached to is vetoed then at least they tried. But If it is passed then they are able to get their own way, even if it is not overly apparent to the United States Public. I think that this is underhanded and these attachments should not be made.

An example of this is the health care reform bill. There were many other bills attached to this document. Some of which could be very costly to the American people. One was that they were going to authorize inspections of houses to see how energy efficient you were being. You would then be required to upgrade certain features of your house. I think that this is a ridiculous idea. I am all for going green, but to have the government make you is ridiculous. I also wonder how many of our representatives actually read all the bill. This bill is huge. What is the impact and do they really know.

I think that we have the original power to place people in office that will do what they say they will during their perspective campaigns. The problem is that when they walk through the doors they tend to forget what they talked about during their last year or two of campaigning and everything is back to status normal.

I think the real power is in the lobbyists. These people have millions of dollars at their disposal and bribe all legislatures to pass items in their best interests, not necessarily the publics. These bribes are not necessarily money, but relocation of factories and bringing more businesses to states that vote in their favor.

Lets look back at the election in 2000. If the people truly had the power to elect those who they wanted to be elected into office, Al Gore would have been the president and not George Busch. I still do not understand the concept of the elector college and those votes counting toward what the people what when it does not reflect what the popular vote actually was.

If the people were really in charge I think that you would truly see change. The first item that really bugs me is the way the federal government keeps spending money that it doesn’t have. We are close to surpassing our Gross National Product for debt. If I ran my house like this I would be bankrupt. We need to get our spending under control and pay off all of our debt. If we can do this then we can really look at providing health care for every legal resident in our country. The interest that we are accruing for our debt would be able to pay for a lot of these programs. Another area that we could cut back is the military. Please don’t get me wrong, I am for a strong military force but why are we spending more half of world spending on the military in our country.

I guess I have rambled on enough. I will conclude that the power of our governmental system is spread out into phases. The first phase we have control over and the rest the government has control over.

Is Wal-Mart Good for America

Wow. This is a great question. I am a bargain shopper and like to pay less for products that I use. I think we all do. We love lower prices. With this current economy we all need to ensure that our hard earned money is being spent in the wisest ways possible.

I knew that companies all over the country were outsourcing their products to China because of the cost of labor. I did not realize how much Wal-Mart had to due with the decision for these companies to outsource their labor over seas. This is very troubling for me to hear. I think that this company has gotten to big and has developed to much control over the market place. By them “bullying” these companies to manufacture products overseas so that they can sell them for less and make a bigger profit should be looked at by the government. I know this would be a touchy subject because of democracy and the freedoms that we have in the country, but how is this type of bullying any different then that on the school ground.

Now that all these companies have sent the manufacturing overseas we can not get away from purchasing things made in china. The products in Target, Kmart and Walmart are all made from the same companies located overseas. So even if everyone would boycott Wal-Mart, we are still buying products not made in America.

I am not buying the argument that Wal-Mart is making everyone in the United States more profitable by selling items cheaper. I would rather pay more for an item that is made in the united states and do without certain things until I have saved up enough money for those special things like a new T.V.

Here is just a thought. With the majority of the manufacturing jobs being shipped overseas, farms closing because they can’t operate due to financial reasons what will Americans do to make a living. We all can’t have office jobs, even those are being outsourced. How many times have you called the help desk for a computer company and talked to someone over seas. Another thought is what happens if the workers in China decide that they deserve raises? Where will the new factories be built?

In closing I want to re-emphasize that I do like low prices, but I don’t like taking jobs away from American people. No matter how you look at it, saving money in the store does not make up for a 40k a year job that is lost due to outsourcing.

Division of labor

Anytime you place something down on paper you are able to visualize what is happening. For me I am a visual learner and conducting this exercise was very eye opening. The way my family is setup with the chores and daily life is very much traditional, the way that I grew up. The majority of the complex work or labor intensive work I perform. My wife gets frazzled over technical items such as programming the VCR or operating any other electronic devices. My wife takes on the majority of the “inside” domestic chores while I take on the outside ones. She takes care of the cooking, cleaning and the majority of the daily issues with the kids. She is a stay at home mom and enjoys these tasks. Another item is that all of her tasks around the house have to be done at certain times like the podcast stated. I never paid much attention to this. The cooking and cleaning needs to be accomplished in a timely manor or we will not have diner or clean clothes to wear. Don’t take this the wrong way, I enjoy and do help with cooking but she is the main cook.

I, on the other hand take care of the more complex tasks around the house. I mow the grass, fix issues with the house and program the VCR. I also tinker with fixing the cars to save money. I also work a second job to try to help support us in buying those extra little items that we want but not necessarily need. By working two jobs and actively taking college courses, it is hard for me to assume the responsibilities that require timely action like laundry and cooking every meal.

With all this said, I am hoping I can divide the labor up between my children when they are old enough so that they can learn the responsibilities of being a part of a family and honestly a team. With their help, willing I hope, the tasks will be done quicker and we will hopefully have more time for the fun things in life like camping and fishing. Both my daughter and my son will help in all arenas of house work so that each of them will see what it takes to keep a house up an running.

Week 11 blog

I believe that society and the world is secularizing. This is evident in every day life. Let’s take a look at the Christian faith since this is the one that I know the best. There are a lot of aspects of the faith that are being waived or modified so that it does not offend people living in today’s social norms. When I say this I do not want to offend anyone, but if you believe in what the bible says and teaches then it needs to be followed. I hear so often that if the bible was written today it would allow for premarital relationships because this is what the times are saying.. I would have to strongly disagree. I believe that the reason they are saying this is because this is how these people are living their lives and don’t want to feel guilty about their actions. People are manipulating religions, any religion, so that they don’t have to feel bad about their actions or to try to ensure they have support for their agenda.

Lets look at the social aspect of church. When I was growing up there was a lot of help from everyone in the congregation. This ranged from child care, teaching classes and participating in choir and other activities that were sponsored by the church. I have noticed a steep decline in participation in activities at church. They are constantly asking for help in the nursery and teaching our children. It is the same people that are constantly volunteering for these tasks and are getting burnt out on them. It is almost like people think that there is nothing in it for them so why should they volunteer their time. This is a direct reflection on the morals and values of today’s society.

I have noticed that the congregation swells enormously for those who practice symbolic religion. During the major holidays Christmas and Easter, there are people that I have never seen before. It is like they know the importance of these days and know that they should be in church.

Earlier chapters talked about racism and prejudice against others of opposite races and ethnic backgrounds. Why is it that we forbid Christian students from praying at the flag pole before school or even before they eat. But when students who are Muslim want to pray they are allowed to. This does not seem right to me. This country was founded on the principle of freedom of religion and this should be the case no matter what your religious background. Sociologically speaking I think it is interesting to see how people respond to certain religious ideas and privileges, but as an American I find that it is very scary to think about where we will be in the next 10 - 20 years concerning our freedoms.

Modern Milgram Experiment

I saw this the other day at work and realized that it is the same type of experiment that Milgram did at Yale University in the 60's. This one was conducted in France under the cover of a game show. It shows that people really have not changed at all from their old tendencies. It also shows that we will do anything to be on tv and to make money.


http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6312067n

Week 10 blog entry

This was a very interesting week of study. I actually got upset at the United States Government a couple of times this week during the course of study. The first was when I viewed the Ghosts of Rwanda video. Our government and other leaders displayed what true bureaucracy is and the need not to be blamed for trouble or deaths that may have occurred if a military option was used. I understand that the government did not want another Somalia but if we would have sent troops over to Rwanda the results would have been different. The military and opposition forces for both Somalia were different. We should have intervened.

The second time I was upset was when I read the articles on how we treated fellow American during world war II. I would have understood if they were known to be actively plotting against the U.S but these were innocent people that showed no signs of resentment toward the U.S. I think that a lot of problems would have been avoided if the government would have used their heads and not the fear and anxiety of the U.S. population, which grew because of the Media.

Hopefully we can look back at the history of the United States and our actions toward others and actually learn from them. By studying history we can ensure that we do not repeat it and make the same mistakes twice. I do think that there are some items that we are doomed to repeat. This is not because of a lack of knowledge but because of the fact that we think we can do it better and differently that ends with a different result. We may be right, but I feel that we will still have the same result in the past.

If Males had Menstrual Cycles

I laughed at this essay. I know that men are typically more competitive then women but I don't think we would brag about the cycle. I, personally, am glad that I don't have to deal with this issue every month. I do think that the essay over exaggerated many of the male traits in reference to this monthly visitor.

Gender Inequalities

This was an interesting chapter to read. I fully believe that everyone should have the same opportunities in the work place. I strongly believe that jobs need to be given to the most qualified applicants no matter what their gender or ethnic background. I think that there have been big strides to ensure that the pay differences in most job fields are equalized. I do think that the major places where these discrepancies occur are located in the private sector. A lot of jobs in the public area are pretty equal concerning pay for both male and female. The part in the book about women working in the big cities make more then those that don’t is a pretty obvious statement. Anyone working in the city will typically make more then those in a small country town due to the income of that municipality.
I actually enjoyed reading about the different cultures across the world and the different expectations of the house holds. I thought it was interesting that the !Kung tribe the women act like scouts for the men and relay information about animal movements in the brush. The Sudhest Island tribe everything seamed equal up until the part of cleaning the pig excrement. I wish that more of the text would give real life examples of differences in culture and social norms so that we could better grasp theories and ideas presented in the text.
Another portion of the text that I was really shocked about was about the Zuni People of New Mexico. I did not know that know that there were Indian tribes where the men would dress as women. I was always under the belief that this was a relatively new phenomena.
Gender equality in the United States has come a long way with the right to vote, equal pay, and ability to gain employment in mainly male dominated jobs.

Global Inequality

The question is why should we care about global inequalities? Does this really affect us and every day life? I don’t know anyone from a third world country so it really should not affect me here in the United States. Is this what everyone thinks? If so it is the wrong type of thinking.
Have you looked on a toy or product recently to see where it has been made? In the book it stated that the Barbie doll is not entirely made in china but is made in various steps in different countries. This is done so that the cost of the product can stay at a relatively low price. This trend of shipping production overseas has been a trend for businesses for a long time. This saves costs for employment, building and maintenance costs. This in turn gives us a cheap product to buy.
If we made everything here in the United States, the costs of those items would be astronomical. The first thing to look at is wages for American employees would be 100 times more than of those over seas. Then the costs of building the factories and the taxes on top of that would make those 20 dollar Barbies now 100.
We not only benefit from the global inequalities but also reap the negative aspects as well. In the United States, we have laws concerning factory pollution and environmental resources. Now I would be a fool to say all companies abide by them 100 percent of the time, but due to these laws and regulations we have a relatively clean environment to live in. Looking back at the third world countries that we outsource manufacturing to they don’t have the same laws and regulations to ensure that we are protecting the environment. As we all know, there is not a wall that is protecting the U.S. against the hazardous material dumped or produced by other countries. This pollution will reach us one way or another. In essence, we are supporting the pollution of these countries by continuing to outsource labor to them.
Now to the important question of who benefits from global inequalities? Ultimately I would have to say the rich countries will get richer as the poorer countries stay the same. But if you ask who is hurt by global inequalities, I would have to say everyone. From the treatment of the sweatshop workers, to the quality of the environment, global warming (which knows no boundary), we all will be effected eventually in a negative way by the global inequalities.

Social Class

I think that social class in the United States matters to everyone. Nobody likes to be looked at as the under privileged. Everyone that I know of is always trying to get ahead. You never hear someone looking at a homeless person, or an unfortunate person saying, “now that is the life”. We are continuing to strive to better ourselves and acquire more stuff. This stuff in our minds will elevate our social status. This mind set can be directly linked to the thought process of keeping up with the Jone’s. We have to have what everyone else has, if not better.

Let’s take a look back at our high school days. Some of us it may be farther back then others. Who did you hang out and were close friends with. There were many groups that I can recall in high school. The “Jocks”, “Band Geeks”, “Nerds” ect. There was a constant struggle to move up from one group to another. We can all remember thinking why did this person go out for the sport. They might have truly liked to play basketball, but maybe they wanted to try to move to the “Jocks” from the “Nerds”.

Looking at today there are still the social groups that everyone wants to be member. These groups are looked up to and admired. Just at work you can see different social groups forming with the popular employees and the not so popular employees. What do we do. We try to associate ourselves with the people that have established themselves socially and not with the other individuals that might hurt our status or opportunity to move up in the world.

In closing I just want to reiterate that social class matters in everything we do. From how we interact in high school, to work, staying at hotels, and eating in restaurants. Nobody wants to do anything with a 1 star rating if we can associate ourselves with a 3 or 4 star rated item. Social class and how we think about it revolves around most everything that we do in the United States.

Technology and Sociology

As I look around at all my friends and coworkers they all have something in common. They carry around cell phone, have face book accounts and are texting people left and right. I have a cell phone also but the only person that I talk to with it is my wife. Another place to look is on the highways. How many people are using cell phones? A lot. Can you remember a day without cell phones? Can you actually remember when had to ask another human being to borrow a land line (a real phone)?

I honestly think that Americans are isolating themselves from social contact more each day with the advent of technology. As I stated above, everyone has a cell phone and they use it non stop to talk and text friends. Everyone I know, even myself, have face book accounts. They are on them all the time. I am probably the exception. I joined to see what my high school friends are doing and where they are living. I go on about once a month to deny some friend requests and that’s about it.

With everyone so immersed and becoming so efficient with technology they are loosing the skills of socialization. To these people they can text while driving but have trouble holding meaningful conversation or be able to interact in public. I believe that communicating in person or in a social event takes different set of skills then on the computer. With technology we can just type and we don’t see the adverse effects of what we said.

I think that this is going to be a big problem in the future. As with any problems we need to start to find solutions when they are small and not too big. I don’t think that we as a society are so far gone and immersed into technology that we can’t turn it around and learn social skills again. But we have to start soon before more advances are made and we don’t have to have any contact with any one else. I know this sound far fetched but you never know what someone will create in the future to make our lives easier.

How to Reduce Crime

I fully believe in prisons and keeping criminals off the street. I do think that they way the United States is going about it a little bit wrong. The first thing is that our social system has to be malfunctioning because of the shear ratio of prisoners vs. population. To think our proportion is 5 times more than any other country is mind boggling. A prison term is supposed to be a deterrent. This is not happening. We need to look at different ways to prevent crime from happening and more efficient ways of dealing with prisoners.
After reading the book and watching the assigned video I believe there may be better ways of preventing the underlining cause of some of the crimes committed. I think that we, as a country need to go back to good old fashion family values. The lack of parental supervision and attention can cause children to go astray. If the parent is not there to guide and direct the child on the proper way to act in society, they turn to other sources (T.V., movies, friends, music) to learn and develop the way to act. As everyone knows, these are not the ideal behaviors that we want our children to possess. Our society has gotten to the point that we need to keep up with the Jone’s instead of providing the necessities and social skill’s for our family.
The death penalty is a highly debated topic. I think in order to be a true deterrent it needs to be administered quicker. Criminals stay on death row for years and years. To be an effective deterrent the sentence needs to be carried out sooner rather than later. Of course this means that the evidence needs to be overwhelming and there is no question that the person committed the crime. Only then should the sentence be carried out. If criminals are being executed within a year of conviction, then this is truly a deterrent.
I think another option to jail time for more minor offenses could be public shame. We need to take a page out of the Japan’s social and criminal justice system. In order for public shame to work, everyone needs to have some sort of social worth. For this to happen we have to refocus ourselves back to a family oriented society and hammer those values into our children. Only then would public shaming have a perverse effect on the individual and the family.
One major thing that makes our society a lot different than others is the right to bare arms. This makes weapons more accessible to people for those spur of the moment crimes. I might step on some toes but, should the U.S re-look at this amendment. The reasoning behind the right to bare arms was a fear of British invasion. We don’t have that looming over our heads anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for home protection. How many weapons do you actually need to protect your home? On the other side of the argument, would this really deter crime in America, probably not because if they are planning this crime out, they will find the means to follow through with it.
I think that we would need a major overhaul of not just our prison system, but the criminal justice system and our society to fully impact the way we deal with crime in the United States. I fully believe the most effective way to prevent crime is at the family level, by instilling good moral values and providing that good example for our kids to follow.

Nature or Nurture

Nature or Nurture


This is a tough decision. I have thought about this for the last two days to try to develop an opinion. I have decided that there is overwhelming evidence that both effect each and everyone of us in different ways.

I can see many different ways that one can argue that nature is a big reason how we develop into social beings. Lets look at ourselves. We were made either male or female. Each of us have different duties in the world. By this I mean that females are made to carry and give birth to children and to feed the offspring. Men are typically more muscular and are able to provide for their families. I am not saying that females can’t, I am just pointing out differences. Men cannot bear children. With these differences comes different hormones and actions. Men are typically more risk takers then females. Even after I typed that comment, I am thinking of my daughter who likes to climb up furniture unlike my son.

Now with the nurture side of the argument I think that we are definitely influenced greatly by outside sources. One of the biggest sources that I see is in almost every single house hold in America. This is the television. Think back to when some of you were growing up. For me this was 70’s and 80’s. The shows on television were typically family oriented with little swearing and minimal violence. There was a wide variety of cartoons on that I would not hesitate to let my children today watch. Now you have shows that have even more violence, sex and language during the times that children are watching television. I have an antenna for my television and have been told by friends that I need cable. The main reason for the cable is it is a great baby sitter, so my friends tell me. This means that our children are not being raised by their parents but by the television. On the same lines as television is video games. Instead of parents sitting down and playing games with their kids they by them video games which can give kids a warped sense of what is right in society.

There are could be a lot of arguments made for either nurture or nature being the only factor but I think the more appropriate argument is which one affects us the most socially. I believe that the answer would have to be nurturing.

Hugh Laurie Video breakdown.

This was a pretty funny clip. I think a lot can be said for sub messages in the whole thing. The first thing that I notice is that Hugh is dressed up in what outside people may believe we all dress up in. Flannel shirt opened with a white tee shirt. He is also wearing jeans, but now days this is not just a symbol of the US. The next thing is that he is wearing a camouflage bandanna. Citizens across other nations may view the US gun toting people ready to defend our country.

I believe that during the song it is saying that we are full of ourselves and believe that we are the best. Now, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with pride, but it may be a little overboard. I think that the audience is laughing at the song because they see our flaws and realize that we are not as great as we believe we are.

The ending I believe is construed as a typical reaction from the United States. If someone is picking on us we will use force to bring peace between the nations and stop the ridicule and “injustice”.

I don’t know if I am analyzing this video properly or not but this was what I was thinking while view the clip.

Prison Experiment

I believe that the experiment started ethical but by the end of it I would have to say it changed to unethical. How could you have known that this was going to be the results of the study? Studies and experiments occur all the time with surprising results. This result, I believe, was not one that was expected. In a prison setting there needs to be a clear cut line of who is in charge or else there is chaos and danger for the guards and the inmates. I believe that this is the line that the student guards were trying to create because they knew what needed to be accomplished. Placing a student into any of these roles will change there actions and personalities to match these roles. Like I said before, you never know how something will turn out until you try it. I think it would have been more ethical to follow a first time offender in the prison system to see the social interactions between guards and current inmates. This would not involve innocent people trying to play roles that they are not use to.

While viewing the video I was thinking was this a sociological or psychological experiment. After watching the comments by the professor I think this was mainly a psychological experiment that also has sociological results. Like I had said above, a clear line of authority needs to be established and human nature is to push those boundaries and they were pushed on both sides. The players in the experiment had to place themselves into what they believed the roles encompassed. This portion I think is the psychological part. Seeing what fellow students were doing and following would be the sociological part.

The last comment of the student prisoner I find was incredibly interesting. When the student guard asked him what would you have done if you were in my position. I believe his response was extremely accurate. I don’t know.

As a little bonus I will let you know what I was thinking while watching this video piece about the prisons. I was a Military Police Officer in the army for 7 ½ years. I was trained in the basics of prison set ups and operations. More in depth training was given to the corrections personnel. Looking at the sequence of events, the “prison punishment”, looked more like a basic training situation then a prison scenario. In basic training you try to break a recruit down and rebuild them into what you want them to be. A prisoner is a totally different entity. If you have a prisoner that is misbehaving you don’t punish by having them do pushups. You place them into isolation to remove the problem from infecting the rest of the population. This punishment could relate directly to sociology. The general population will feed on the prisoner’s misbehavior and spread like wild fire. Before you know it a whole cell block is out of control.

Week One Blog Entry: Introduction

Hello,

I am 36 years old and have started my college education a little later then normal. I am a Firefighter for Prince William County. I have been there for almost 10 years (in July). My major is Fire Science Administration. I started this process in 2005. It seems like it has taken forever to get to this point. I am hoping that during my career I will be promoted through the ranks to Battalion Chief or even an assistant Chief in the department.

I am enrolled in both NVCC and TCC to complete my degree. I had to enroll into TCC to take some of the fire science classes online because NVCC doesn't offer them at this time. I am unsure of which college I am going to transfer to after I graduate for NVCC. As of right now I am tired of taking two or three classes a semester so all I can say is it will drop dramatically soon.

I enjoy fishing, boating and camping. I haven't been able to do any of these recently due to college work load but after my VA benefits run out in March I will be reducing my college load to one class a semester.

I am married and have two kids, three if you count the dog. We live in Fredericksburg.

That is all I have to say for now. I look forward to getting to know all of you during the studies of this course.

Bill