The Last Straw

Posted on by Nick M

After a great semester in Professor Brown’s ENC 1102 class, we have come to the end of the navy blue and grey road. (That IS Santa Fe’s colors right??) We have the option to keep writing on this blog or we can stop posting and delete it. I plan on writing a blog every week until I am out of college. (just kidding) I do not plan on deleting my blog, but I do plan on eventually writing in it at some point.

Anyways, we have a free post today. Let me tell you, I do not know what to write about. Currently, Tyler is sitting behind me in my humanities class. It’s 8:26 and the post is due in an hour and four minutes.

Yesterday was my 20th birthday. I had a great birthday, but I started throwing up after dinner. I went to Yamato and did not eat anything because I felt like shit. It is okay though, I got to spend time with my family which was good. I was supposed to go to Tyler’s house after dinner but I could not make it. I wish I could have, shoooot.

I heard the weirdest quote ever the other day. I was talking to my manager and an associate at work, and I brought something up completely randomly. My friend said “What does that have to do with the price of tea in China?” …… I went blank. I did not know what the hell that meant, but now I use the quote often and I think it is pretty cool. Ha.

If you guys have not already, you need to watch Longmire (2012) on Netflix. It is about a Wyoming sheriff who everyone thinks has lost a step but Walt Longmire is on a mission to prove everyone wrong. It is a crime solving thriller that is just about the coolest show on Netflix since Breaking Bad in my eyes.

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Pretty bad-ass crew if you ask me.

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Goodbye, Until The Next Time I See You.

Posted on by Nick M

Well my friends, it is nearing the end of the semester. It truly has been a joy to have everyone in this ENC 1102 class. I am dedicating this post to the wonderful people and the timeless memories we have made in class. Please do not get mad at me if I don’t remember your name. I’m really a bad person when it comes to names, so do not feel offended.

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It’s more than likely true that this happened.

First off, Tyler you ugly as hell boy. Shooooot yeah bubba. I cannot believe you would get higher grades than me on some of these assignments though. Like really I would be like wtffff dude….

To my boys Austin, Jacquez, Andres, Hayden: I really hope I see you guys around Santa Fe, or anywhere else at that. You guys are some cool people and I wish the best for you all. Maybe one day I’ll catch you guys at some random place because this is a small world and we’ll catch up and also talk about Professor Brown’s class.

R.I.P Chad. I haven’t seen him since he unfortunately dropped the class. He doesn’t even go to my publix to shop anymore. Sad.

Shout out my boy the guy who works at Best Buy. You always sounded like you knew what you were talking about when it came to tech stuff, just like when Tyler paid $70 to be on this website.

Shout out to Scott. You reminded me that I’ve actually known you way longer than I remembered. It’s cool that you remember me. I could have sworn I recognized your face but I couldn’t put a memory to it. I’m glad you did.

Shout out Breanna. We go back. Well not really. Except for the fact your brother coached my basketball team. Other than that not so much haha. …….

Shout out the blond girl that sits next to Jacquez all the time. I think it’s pretty sweet you drive a truck bigger than mine.

Shout out to the guy I saw walking on 34th. I talked to you one day when we were both printing something out, late, and I don’t recall the name. Same for the guy with the cool ass arm tattoo that sits in the back corner of class.

Shout out Kashard. 1900 for life homie.

I know I’ve left some people off but I love all y’all the same. Soon as we don’t have a class anymore it won’t matter anyways. Sad but true.

One final shout out goes to Professor Brown. Thanks for being so lenient on some of our stupid asses for turning things into the wrong places and forgetting to turn things in sometimes. It’s been a great class and even though it was a lot of work it has been fun.

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“Romeo and Juliet” Review

Posted on by Nick M

“Romeo and Juliet” by Gareth Hinds is a refreshing spin on the classical tale of “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare. I believe that the use of a graphic novel opens up the audience of the story to younger children. The use of pictures in the story made it an easier read. This book is a pretty neat adaption for an ageless story that to this day is used in many english classes in high school. I wish that this could have been used in my freshman year of high school because I probably would have done better in that portion of class. (No I did not fail….. that bad.) The Shakespeare version of “Romeo and Juliet” uses many words that I had no idea existed.

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Quite the cover!

Overall, I liked the book. While I learned many new words in Shakespeare’s tale, Hinds helped visualize the story in a way Shakespeare did not. The pictures really kept me going. The graphic novel would be good to use to reiterate the original Shakespeare tale. The book features multicultural main character which I thought was pretty sweet, especially considering the cultural issues that are tearing America apart right now. I did not like that some of the bigger portions of the main story were not in this book. This book seemed like one of the Cinderella stories we read, as it was altered but not changed.

The author’s note that Hinds wrote explains that he tried to portray Verona, Italy as best as he could. His attempt worked well, and this story did a great job of portraying the setting of the story as it would have happened in the 1600s. Hinds does a great job of personalizing the story and adapting it in his own way, much like the overall theme of our English class.

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Music Connoisseur

Posted on by Nick M

There is a commonly used term “the jack of all trades” that describes someone that can do many things. I believe that the term can be used for my music choice. I love all types of music. There is only one type of music that I can not stand at all, and that is the scream-o music that features people literally screaming over electric guitar and drums. It kind of freaks me out.

One of my favorite genres is hip-hop. While I can listen to the new school hip-hop, I love the soul that came with the old school generation.

Kodak Black, Lil Uzi Vert, and Skeme are a few of the artists that fall in the label as new school. These guys definitely know how to set a mood that can only be matched by sitting in a man cave eating pizza and playing video games.

While these rappers can definitely “set it off”, I also like to throw it back to the 00’s and listen to artists such as Lil Boosie, Lil Wayne, Eminem and more. I usually like to listen to this music when I am by myself driving around town. This list usually does not get listened to as much as the new school or the old school. I consider these guys middle schoolers, because these were the artists I listened to in middle school when I played basketball.

Old school hip-hop is where the soul of the genre is. Tupac is definitely my favorite artist of this generation. Biggie Smalls is a close runner up, with Nas finishing up the top three. I listen to these artist more often than the other two sections, because Tupac is the greatest rapper of all time. His soul for his art shows in every song. He spoke on problems that were arising at the time and was relevant to today’s problems as well.

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G.O.A.T Pic

While Rap is what I listen to more, don’t get me wrong I LOVE country music. Nothing can beat the vibe of ridin’ around in my truck with the windows down listenin’ to some good ole’ country music.

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Drew Bleeze

Posted on by Nick M

I have a confession.

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Don’t say anything stupid

I’m a fantasy football fanatic.

In fantasy football you pretty much manage your own team against other managers in a league for a whole season. The goal: score as many points as you can with the players you have drafted, traded, and picked up in the waiver wire.

It’s kinda like being involved with a real NFL team but not quite corporate. You feel me?

It’s just fun.

The name of my team this year is Drew Bleeze. Why? Obviously because Drew Brees is my QB1 this year. I have a pretty good team. Unfortunately, my season has started off with the wrong starters in some games, narrow losses in other games. Currently, I am 1-4 but I’m only 2 games back of the lead. It appears (knock on wood) that I’m going to win this week, unless I lose to Brandon Marshall scoring 40. If that happened, I wouldn’t even be mad.

Anyways I’ve had many ups and downs this year. My first pick was Adrian Peterson. Yeah. I really wanted Tom Brady as my quarterback this year when he was done serving his suspension. Unfortunately, he got picked right before I could get to him. It’s okay, my back up was Ben Roethlisberger. Too bad he got picked up right before I could get to him too. By the same person. Asshole.

A cool thing about fantasy football is that there are also one week leagues you can play in. Draft Kings and Fanduel are both websites that host weekly leagues you enter with a couple bucks with hopes to win thousands. We’re not gonna get into these leagues. I suck at them.

For future reference, if anyone needs one last player to join their league, 9 out of 10 times I will join your league. I love playing fantasy football. NBA basketball is coming up and you can play fantasy with that as well!

 

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Where’s My Mojo?

Posted on by Nick M

There was never a better time in my near-20 year life than when I was 13. Everything was great. I was young. Didn’t have to worry about a damn thing. My family and I would travel often. We visited places like Detroit, Atlanta, and even Toronto. The best AND worst part about it: the van. Who knew the best part about the trip would be a 2003 Chrysler Town and Country?

My family and I nearly lived on the interstate when we traveled. I-75. The drive to Detroit totaled 17+ hours. It’s like taking a plane trip to the other side of the world (which I have done) but being allowed pit stops. One thing that’s better than planes, though, is that we got to choose the movies. Shrek (2001) was a good movie. We also played A Kid in King Arthur’s Court (1995), which was my all-time favorite movie that is about sports.

The whole Austin Powers series is my all-time favorite movie of any category. These movies were probably the most played of all the movies we played. One of the funniest parts is the introductory credits, where the main character Austin Powers walks around a hotel naked for 3 whole minutes. During his naked mile, his private parts were censored the whole time, but in a new way every couple seconds.

 

 

I used to always crack my family up reenacting scenes of Austin Powers. My favorite person to impersonate was Dr. Evil. His trademark was putting his pinky to his mouth, pausing for dramatic effect, and saying something really stupid. This worked out for me because I was exceptionally well at “acting” stupid. One of Dr. Evil’s best lines is when he was frozen and lived to the next century, asking the white house for a million dollars (thinking it was a lot) and got laughed at for the amount being such a small ransom. The ironic part is when he lived in the past he asked the government for a billion dollars and they laughed at him because there wasn’t even a billion dollars in the country.

 

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The Fairy Hunter

Posted on by Nick M

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Malinda Lo’s Ash is about a girl, Ash, and the tales of fairies. Ash lived with her mother and father in the beginning of the novel. She was always told stories about fairies by her mother Elinor, much to her father’s dismay. Her father, William,  disliked the viewpoint that Elinor had on fairies, but would not disallow Elinor to tell them to Ash. The two, at one point in the novel, got into a heated argument one night while Ash was eavesdropping.

Elinor passed away and left Ash heartbroken. She would sit where her mother’s grave was most nights and stay there late into the dark night. Maire Solanya, the greenwitch, was good friends with Elinor. She would eventually take a big role in Ash’s life when her mother passed away. She too was a believer in fairies.

When her father remarried, Ash was extremely distraught.

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This was the exact forrest Ash hunted in (maybe). 

One night, Ash went to the Woods to try to find the Fairy Hunt. After successfully finding the handsome men riding on the horses like her mother once told her, the men were angered and sent her back to where she came from. The next day her father came up sick, eventually passing away and leaving Ash with her step-mother and step-sisters.

My favorite part of the book is that it was different from the normal Cinderella stories. Both parents passed, the sisters and step-mother weren’t so ‘evil’, and Ash fell in love with a woman. The story exemplifies how a Cinderella story does not have to be between a man and a woman. In the first couple chapters there was a story of the farmer and the Fairy Hunt, it was a sad story of a man named Thom who was in love with a girl, Grace. She turned into a fairy and Thom wanted to go with her, but Grace turned him down and told him to forget about her. Sadly, he tries to find the hunt again and eventually dies. There were hints of foreshadowing in this tale.

 

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Muggle World

Posted on by Nick M

As a child, one of my favorite things to do was read. Oh, how things change.

When you’re a child, your imagination runs wild. There’s no overthinking, analyzing, comparing and contrasting, just a free running mind. My favorite part of the day was sitting down and reading a book. The best part about reading was that you could let your thoughts flow just as fast as the words in the book would come. I saw every book in movie form while I was reading, or so it seemed.

The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling, tops the list of my favorite books. I remember not being able to wait until the next book would come out. In the magical tale, Harry Potter was admitted into a school of wizards and learned the ropes of witchcraft and wizardry. He and his new best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger work together throughout the books to learn wizardry, explore the world, and fight the evil beings.

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The moment when the newest book comes out!

One of the coolest things about the Harry Potter series is that the first book came out when I was 1 year old, in 1997. Obviously, when I was 1 I couldn’t read. I first started reading the books when I was about 8 years old, my older sister would read them to me. She always would make me laugh by calling Hermione in a different way. Her reading the book to me helped me get into the book. The 7th and last book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, came out in 2007, a whole 10 years after the first release. By the time the last book came out, I was all caught up and roaring for the final book to come out. My aunt came to pick my sister and I up to take us to Sam’s Club to buy the last book. When she came inside she tried to fool me.

“Harry dies! I saw people outside in the street revolting because Harry died!”

She lied, but boy did she have me going. I was crying. I couldn’t tell if I was crying because Harry died or because that spoiled the book for me.

P.S.

The movies were good too!!

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Netflix and Chill?

Posted on by Nick M

Everybody knows about the TV show/movie streaming website Netflix. It is (or should be) a household media player. You get the bang out of your buck with the amount of shows/movies and quality of service for $9.99. With what seems like millions of options to watch, it is often hard to find something to binge watch or have a movie night with.

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Currently, the show that I have chosen to watch is the thrilling action series The Blacklist (2013) on Netflix. The Blacklist is about Raymond Reddington, otherwise known as “Red”, a world renowned fugitive who concedes his knowledge to the FBI. He does this so he can execute a ‘blacklist’ of criminals he has arranged as the most dangerous to society. In exchange for his services, he requires just one condition: he will only talk to rookie agent Elizabeth Keen. Red starts to become what seems to be protective over Keen, who Red eventually starts calling Lizzy. Keen, so far in what I have watched, has not figured out why Red, the world’s most dangerous criminal, has made his only stipulation her communication. At some points in the show, FBI head officials begin to become suspicious of Keen, often trying to remove Keen from various cases. All in all the TV show is awesome and I highly suggest you watch it if you have not. If you have already seen it, watch it again. 

While Netflix is my primary source of watching TV shows and movies, I also watch a lot of sports on television. My favorite channel to this on is ESPN. This channel hosts the best basketball, soccer, and football games. ESPN helps keep me updated in the sports world and without it I would be pretty lost. The best part about ESPN is the show SportsCenter. It is the easiest way of catching up on everything that has happened in sports the past few days.

 

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Introduction

Posted on by Nick M

Hello everyone, my name is Nick Margjoni.  I plan to get my AA degree in business and eventually go to one of Florida’s universities. I plan to become a millionaire before 25 years old. My dream is to run my own business or be the CEO of a highly touted company/corporation.

1. Currently, I am watching the series The Blacklist (2013)on NetFlix. Who doesn’t love to netflix and chill? I’m not a good movie watcher. I tend to fall asleep halfway through or I’ll lost interest quick, so I stick to TV shows on NetFlix. This series is about the world’s most dangerous criminal joining sides with the FBI and the two sides begin to take out other criminals.

2. I enjoy searching images online. I like to look at many different things, like

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Or even,

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and also different future vacation spotstop-vacation-spots-in-the-world-best-summer-beautiful-vacation-5

3. One thing about myself that I think people would/should like to know is that I don’t really mind much. If something happens, it happens. Sometimes you can’t control the things you or someone does, so there’s no point in getting mad about things. Being angry, mad, and upset is a waste of time.

4. I’m a very interesting person with some big aspirations that loves meeting people. I have some bizaar ideas/theories that I can usually back up and make you start believing, all you need is an ember to start a fire. Tupac is still alive by the way.

5. I currently am a basketball coach for Florida Splash and will be returning to the head coaching position in the spring with 9th grade boys. I love the relationships I have made with the kids from coaching them. I have a strong passion in helping kids out to match my love for basketball.

6.  I graduated from THE Gainesville High, so I am a local boy. I know everything about Gainesville, ranging from people, roads, and places. Although I grew up in Gainesville my whole life, I was actually born quite far out in a little town named Lezhe, Albania on November 29, 1996.

7. I’m an Apple guy. I just could not see myself moving from my iPhone to an Android. Maybe one day I’ll eventually get a laptop that isn’t a mac, but for now I’m sticking with Apple.

8. To match my loyalty for Apple, I have a love for Publix Supermarkets. I’ve been working there since October 2014 and love everything about Publix. Publix is a fall back plan for me, even though it is a great career to partake in. I currently own stocks in Publix so it wouldn’t be a bad idea.

9. Sports is life. My favorite basketball team is the Lakers(unfortunately). I like the Atlanta Braves. My NFL team is my fantasy team. I think I may have a borderline addiction for gambling on sports too.

10. Not only do I like to watch, play, and coach sports, but I also like to play video games. Add me on PSN NickMargjoni22. No one can beat me in Fifa or 2k. I’m decent at Call of Duty and I hate madden.

This is just a few of the many different things about  myself. I’m not scared to talk about myself so if there’s any questions PLEASE do not be afraid to approach me. I’m a cool guy I think. Good luck this semester!

 

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