Padd Solutions

Several news outlets today reported that a Dallas Dollar Tree customer made a purchase of a banner of an American Flag. There were some issues with the banner that the customer noticed and made a complaint. The flag banner had 61 inverted stars all clustered in the blue background. The red and white strips were placed incorrectly top to bottom. The flag banner was made in China.

It's just a banner. It is not a real flag.

So why the big deal? Would there really be an issue if the July 4th Holiday was not upon us?

The American Dream has become a bad diet of consumer economy debt feed to us by commercial materialism from large corporations who are trying to live the dream of Capitalism. Is it really all that bad? We as a nation have really lost sight of our goals.

I can not think a colonial farmer who would spend all their time and money to have a green front lawn like modern city folk do.

So what is the American Dream? If I relied on consumerism to tell me the definition is anorexic and shallow.

You get an education, to get a better job, to buy stuff.
But the stuff never lasts.
It isn't so cool to have the cool gadget of last month.
The style changes.
The music gets stale.
The ipod will die.
The computer will get a virus or the OS changes and all your games no longer work.
Worse, you drop your phone in the toilet.

I am just sure I can not buy into this American Dream. I really would rather talk face to face than twitter my friends. I would rather really kiss my wife than emoticon xoxo's.
Don't send me a youtube video of you jumping your bike down at the canyon. Tell me the exhilarating experience over a cold one. Show me the scraps and cuts too.

There is the human experience that we have taken out of the staple of this American Dream.
What do you do to bring the American Dream into reality? You could really help a parent
who is being pressured to buy a teenager a new ipod. Just because the "black one doesn't have
as much gigabytes as the white."

After making a decision that I need to move through my college curriculum at an accelerated pace I am going to CLEP some of my core hours. English 1302 will challenge my grammatical and style ability. I hope to avoid some prevalent violations that I commonly catch myself doing. Here's a look at 8 of my common writing glitches:

1. Its vs. It's No big surprise by this one. It has plagued my writing because common sense nudges me towards seeing the apostrophe as a possessive instead of a contraction. Commit to memory this phrase. It-apostrophe-s has one meaning -- a contraction for it is. Everything thing else is its.
2. Then instead of than I tend to over use than, misplacing then, in my fictional writing.
3. Cliches Not including the accent over the 'e' doesn't go the whole nine yards on this puppy. For me it is just a sign I am getting lazy in my writing.
4. Overuse of 'that' It gets overwhelming to see how many times that is used when trying to make a point that needs some supporting description or evidence. Try to read the sentence again with the 'that' taken out and see how it sounds. Does it have to be there? If not, nuke it. Also, don't confuse who and that.
5. Comma Splices There is phenomenon that I try to stay away from, once I have delivered the subject-verb-object content of sentence structure. Instead of attaching a comma to a butt end of a sentence. Just end it. Don't even go a third or fourth time. Writing a sentence needs not be a buffet experience to fill the paragraph.
6. One word vs. two words Some common mistakes with adjectives and nouns are to use a one word version instead of the proper two word version. I blame laziness of email and everyday usage of the advertising media. Billboards, menus, and ads full of slogans that promise "Everyday Value", or "Everyday Freshness." Everyday is an adjective. When will Walmart start promising savings or freshness everyweek or everymonth.
7. Acyrologia Nope not a horrible disease. Though I am sure there are many english professors who would disagree. Acyrologia improper use of a word. The prescribed treatment is a Dictionary/Theusarus combination paperback. Use often. I often see this kind of examples in the sports section of the newspaper.
8. Dangling Dependent Run-on Sentences I work really hard to avoid these things in my writing. I already have too many dependents who dangle their run-on sentences with emoticons I don't understand in txt messages I rarely understand. Why create more?


I know I have more writing issues to work on and through. I know the CLEP will not be easy, in fact, it might be easier to take the class than to test out of it. Got to give it an attempt. What are your writing or grammar issues? If you need to find out more about the CLEP you can visit the Testing Center on campus and pick up a brochure.

My name is Brandon Carpenter and I will be adding my Amarillo College experiences to the AC blog. I plan to tell you, not in a cloyingly cheerful way, what you can expect here at Amarillo college through what I experience.
Let's finish the introduction.
The economy and technology advances have created an opportunity to change. I am a returning student, changed my major, to a degree that has more possibilities. I am a husband, father, step-father, full-time student, somewhat employed. With my degree plan in Mass Communications I plan on working in New Media Journalism.
I still get to keep doing some of the technology I have been using in the workplace and to continue to write. Hopefully to even get paid for writing.
For my summer classes, I decided to fill plate with Government in Texas, Oceanography, Intro to Mass Communication and the TV Workshop. All my classes are online classes, except for the TV workshop.
The TV Workshop focuses on screenwriting. There are eleven students in the class, all I think are Mass Comm. majors. I will have to let you know more about the class and what the results will be. There just might be Quentin Tarantino on campus.
Oceanography does have complete kit and manual. The online lessons heavily use the American Meteorological Society and the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration websites.
The Government in Texas is quite insightful. There is no physical textbook, the online lessons contain the reading material and lecture notes. I still think it could use some audio or video links.
The Intro. to Mass Communication has been revelatory. Opening my eyes to media ethics, entertainment buzz and insight about the industry. That class is taught by Jill Gibson, who is 2010 dual recipient of the John F. Mead Award.
Of course all these classes take lots of study time, but I do schedule some time with family.
Follow along and I will share insights and helpful tips at the AC campus.