49ers Draft Day

Although I did not watch the draft, I believe the 49ers did a great job getting the positions filled that they needed.  For the first round they traded up thirteen spaces with the Cowboys to snag Eric Reid,a safety they desperately needed after Dashon Goldson went to the Buccaneers.  Free Safety was their most need spot filled and I believe they picked up a very talented and humble young safety.  He joins a defense that was ranked 3rd overall last year and has a new deep secondary.  The loss of Goldson does hurt, but I believe Reid will fill in quite nicely, and with more experience will become a great safety for an already great defense.


Eric Reid

Next, in the second round, the 49ers drafted Cornellius Carradine, a defensive end who will most likely play outside lineback in their 3-4 defensive scheme for now.  He is a pass rusher with tremendous speed off the snap.  I believe when the Man-Beast known as Justin Smith finally retires or goes to another team, he will fill in.  The depth at defensive end was shallow last year.  Justin Smith went out the last few games with a torn tricep and the defense just was not the same without him.  Aldon Smith did not record a sack when he got a hurt after going 19 1/2 sacks in 12 games (which by the way is pretty damn impressive).  With Cornellius it not only adds depth, but also another pass rusher to an already great pass rushing defense.


Cornellius Carradine

The last person I will talk about because it would take me all day to write about all 11 players they drafted is Vance McDonald.  When the 49ers lost Delaine Walker to the Titans, they needed another tightend to fill his big shoes.  He was the back up to Vernon Davis, but he is agile, fast, creates mismatches, can catch the ball extremely well, and above all can block in the running game better than any tightend I have seen.  But, I believe the 49ers drafted a great young prospect in McDonald.  He is a terrific run blocker (maybe not better than Walker, but he will learn), he has great hands and can catch any ball thrown his way, and probably the best attribute about him, he is a whistle-to-whistle player.  He does not give up until the ref calls the play over, which is exactly what the 49ers are all about.


Vance McDonald

All in all, the 49ers may not have gotten the best picks, or the best players in the draft; but they sure as hell filled the spaces they needed with good quality players that are humble, work hard, and are team players.  What more could you ask for.

Revising for Dummies

When this class started, I did not have a good way of revising essays.  But, I can officially say now that I do.  We have learned various ways of editing papers, and for me, they are new.

I remember the first revision workshop.  Our group was the only one who did it wrong.  Instead of individually reading it and critiquing them on it, we all read ours and then revised.  It worked, but not as well as the assigned way.  We were not able to finish in the fifty minutes we were allotted, and most of us did not remember most of each others essays at that point either.

So, then the second workshop came and we knew what to do.  We read the papers one by one and gave tips to the writer, and I might add, it went smoothly.  This part is actually my favorite of the revising because we each would read our own stories out loud and catch all the little mistakes that came about.  Then, if we missed our own mistakes, classmates would catch the majority of them and let us know.  Although, there were lots of mistakes on my paper; I did not get down about it.  The classmates would tell me what they thought was great about the story while telling me what needs more description.

Later in the semester, we got this punctuation sheet which is absolutely amazing.  It helped us understand punctuation like I personally have never learned before.  The detail and rules were all on one page.  At first, the paper was confusing, but once the teacher started going over it, punctuation started becoming extremely easy.  Yes I am not an expert with it, but I do understand punctuation much better than before.

All in all, I enjoyed the revising techniques Professor Mathes taught us not because it was easy, or took up all class period.  But, the revising techniques actually work.

A Place To Stand Review

Dr. Baca's story, A Place To Stand is very inspirational.  I enjoyed reading it from cover to cover.  It just shows no matter how hard a person's life is, they can always turn it around with the right mind set and ambition.

Jimmy Santiago Baca was in and out of jail since he was a teenager (13, I believe it was).  He had a rough childhood, one many people do not bounce back from.  In prison, he brutally beat a guy up with an angle iron.  He felt so bad that everyday after, he asked the guards if the man was okay.  The guards were such assholes and kept telling him, "That's for me to know, and you to find out" (Baca, 124).  This part was my favorite.  Not only did it have violence (I love violence), but he also showed humility and regret afterwards.  The only reason he did that was because the other inmate was going to use a metal pipe to do the same.  I was in the Marine Corps and the motto is, "Kill, or be killed."  I totally understand his reasoning for doing what he did, and would have reacted in the same exact way.

Being illiterate his whole life, and learning how to read and write while in prison is impressive.  That part is what stuck out to me most.  Then to come out of prison, earn a GED, bachelors degree, doctorate, and become an accomplished poet/novelist really puts perspective on what kind of character Dr. Baca has.

Jimmy today is doing quite a bit to give back to the community.  He conducts writing workshops in prisons, libraries, and many more.  In 2005, he created the non-profit organization Cedar Tree Inc. which gives people the opportunity to become more educated and improve their life.  I love reading about people who are more fortunate, give back to communities that are not.

His story is remarkable and I recommend this book to anyone.  This book will really open a person's eyes as to how hard their life really isn't; or if it is this hard, how anyone can overcome the obstacles that life throws their way.