Vikings vs. Lions Game Preview

• 

  Lions

• 

  vs

• 

  Vikings

John Bitz

December 6, 2019

Vikings vs. Lions Game Preview

After 13 weeks of NFL regular season play the Minnesota Vikings find themselves in a position where they control their own destiny make the postseason. As of right now, the Vikings hold the second wild card in the NFC Conference with a record of 8 wins and 4 losses. However, they are only up by one game on the Los Angeles Rams, who have a record of 7 wins and 5 losses. This means that the Vikings will need to keep winning to make the playoffs. This week, the Vikings will host the Detroit Lions at U.S Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There are a few keys to the game for the Vikings to win this game and stay in the playoff picture in the NFC Conference.

                                                Three Keys to the Game

1. Taking care of business– It no secret for the Vikings that in order to win this game, they need to take better care of the football on offense and play well on defense. Last week, the Vikings did neither of these in their 37-30 loss to the Seahawks. On offense, the Vikings committed 3 turnovers and lost the time of possession battle to the Seahawks by a whopping 19 minutes and 30 seconds. On defense, the Vikings allowed the Seahawks to get 444 total yards on offense including 218 rushing yards. This cannot happen again if the Vikings want to win against the Lions this week. Even though the Lions have not had a good season and are nowhere near as good as the Seahawks, the Vikings still need to treat them like a regular opponent and play good on both sides of the ball to win the game.
2. Understand the mindset the Lions will be playing with- The Detroit Lions have had a very disastrous season. They own a record of 3 wins 8 losses and 1 tie in a season where they were supposed to show improvement. For this reason, their head coach Matt Patricia is on the hot seat and in danger of losing his job at the end of the year. At this point they have nothing to lose as they have already been eliminated from the playoff picture in the NFC. They will be starting an undrafted rookie by the name of David Blough who is making his second start this season. In his first start on Thanksgiving, Mr. Blough threw for 280 yards and 2 Touchdowns. The Vikings cannot take Mr. Blough and the Lions offense lightly as the Lions have been a team that can put up points in a hurry. The Vikings secondary will be tested by Lions wide receivers Kenny Golladay and Marvin Jones Jr, both of whom are having career years and rank as two of the better wide receivers in the NFL. The Vikings will have to play disciplined defense against the pass and run in order to stop the Lions offense this Sunday.
3. The Vikings offense needs to take advantage of the Lions poor defense- The most important key to a victory for the Vikings this Sunday is for the Vikings offense to take advantage of a poor Lions defense. This season, the Lions defense ranks 30^th out of 32 against the pass, 23^rd out of 32 against the run and 29^th overall on defense. However, the Lions do have one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL in Darius Slay. He will likely be covering Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs. This will be a matchup to watch. Besides Mr. Slay, there really is not much to speak of about the Lions defense and the Vikings offense should be able to dominate this game without too much trouble.

Prediction

 I think that the Vikings will likely go with a run heavy approach against the Lions and attempt to dominate the time of possession battle. The Lions really do not matchup well with the Vikings and will endure a tough time in Minneapolis. My thought are that the Vikings will win in dominating fashion, while I get to witness my first NFL regular season game in person at U.S Bank Stadium. Vikings 34 Lions 20

Thank you for reading my blog and be sure to stay tuned as I will be posting soon about my first experience going to an NFL regular season game at U.S Bank Stadium.

Works Cited

“2019 NFL Standings.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/nfl/standings.

“Lions-Vikings Preview Capsule.” Detroit Free Press, Associated Press, 5 Dec. 2019, www.freep.com/story/sports/nfl/2019/12/05/lions-vikings-preview-capsule/40765461/.

Thompson, Eric J. “Vikings vs. Lions Week 14 Preview: Handle It.” Daily Norseman, Daily Norseman, 5 Dec. 2019, www.dailynorseman.com/2019/12/5/20995214/minnesota-vikings-detroit-lions-preview-2019-week-14-nfl-picks.

“Vikings vs. Seahawks – Game Summary – December 2, 2019.” ESPN, ESPN Internet Ventures, www.espn.com/nfl/game?gameId=401128112.

Final Project Blogs Tour

John Bitz

December 5, 2019

Final Project Blogs Tour

Today, I am going to be taking a day off from writing about the Minnesota Vikings. Instead, I will be writing about a few of my fellow classmates’ blogs that I recently visited. The blogs I visited are as follows, “It starts it the weight room” by Michael Cole, “Drew Brock’s Blog” by Drew Brock, and “Further Up and Further In” by Mercy Honermann. I will be given a brief overview about what their blogs are about and some things I like about their blogs.

When I see Michael’s blog, I can immediately tell that the theme of the blog is about weightlifting and how it translates to the football field. He lists 10 different types of workouts that will translate to success on the football field. These include power clean, front squat, dead lift, walking lunges, pull ups, DB rush press, rolling shrugs, resistance band sprinting, plate workouts and core workouts. I was able to find information about the Power Clean workout is good for Linebackers because it will increase their strength and explosiveness on the football field. If I ever decided to get into serious weightlifting or be a strength and training coach for football. I would have to visit Michael’s blog to learn more about what workouts to do that would translate to success on the football field.

https://michaelcole2180.wordpress.com/?wref=bif

Next up is Drew’s blog, whose theme is about politics. When I visited his blog, I was able to read a few good posts that caught my eye. Especially when I consider that they were all unbiased because usually most political blog has a strong bias to them and his does not. One of these posts that caught my eye was about the state of Minnesota’s political map. He started off by joking about how politics were a dinner table topic that no one wants to speak about and Minnesota’s government setup. Now I already knew that our governor was Tim Walz (DFL), our senators were Amy Klobuchar (DFL) and Tina Smith (DFL) and congressional district representative from my district was Jim Hagedorn (GOP). However, I had never known about the state senators and representatives. What even impressed me more about this article was the Drew found the political maps and put them in the article for all his readers to see. This taught exactly how Minnesota’s political map works. I must give Drew all credit for the work he has done. He has consistently kept up his blog and done a great job of creating an unbiased political blog.

https://drewbrockrctc.wordpress.com/blog-feed/

Lastly, I will be writing about Mercy’s blog, whose theme is about traveling across the world. I really like what she has done with her homepage as it is well done overall. She has a lot of variety to her posts as she posts about going to a different location in different countries in each post and she has a featured image of herself going to these locations. So, I must give her a lot credit for going out of her way to make her blog exceptionally well done. When I read her post about going on a Mediterranean Cruise, I was not only impressed by the texture and crispness of her pictures but her writing style as well. Her writing gave me the visualization of exactly what it was like to be there firsthand and it was very well written. I would say that Mercy’s blog about travelling the world is excellent to say the least and I was very glad that I was able to read about her experiences.

https://mercyanne23.wordpress.com/

Visiting these blogs was a good and fun experience for me as the blogs I visited were well done. I hope see them again soon and I hope you will continue to follow my blog.

What Kind of Self Brings Out the Best in Us?

When I read the third chapter of Jill Walker Rettberg’s book, “Seeing Ourselves Through Technology”, I learned some about some good information, but I was left with an unanswered question. My question is which kind of self-representation is the best way to represent ourselves out in the modern world? In this article, I will attempt to answer which one of the three forms of self-representation, cumulative, constructed, or authentic is the best form of self-representation today.

First, I am going to be writing about the pros and cons of constructive self-representation. When someone thinks of the word constructive, they can root it back to the word construct which means to build something. An example is ExxonMobil an oil and gas company constructing oil rigs in certain regions of the world. The idea of Constructive self-representation deals with building oneself up in any kind of form. The pros of this form of self-representation are uniqueness, and it is constructed by you in a form you should enjoy. The cons of this form of self-representation are unpredictability, dependence on public image and the possibility of flaws turning into something bad.

Next, are the Pros and Cons of Authentic self-representation. When we think of the word authentic, we usually think of something more traditional, or “Honest” according to Jill Walker Rettberg (Rettberg 27). An example is of Olive Garden serving authentic Italian meals to their customers. The idea of Authentic self-representation has to do with a summary of what you know about yourself and think of your self-image. The pros are predictability, accuracy, and reliability because you know what you are getting with this form of self-representation. The cons are internal dependence, and little to no uniqueness or change.

Now, I will write about the pros and cons of cumulative self-representation. When the word cumulative comes up, I usually think of something accumulating or accruing up to a certain degree or quantity. Ms. Rettberg expands on this by writing how “Cumulative logic is built into the software and into our habits of reading and sharing online, and it acts as a technological filter that lets certain kinds of content seep through while others are held back” (Rettberg 35). An example from my past would be when I was in Pre-Calculus last year and I had to take cumulative tests at the end of every unit that included problems from the quizzes I had taken during the unit. When it comes to cumulative self-representation, the idea is of how we see ourselves from both the inside and outside. The pros are getting to experience both the internal and external worlds that exist and seeing both the constructive and authentic parts of you mesh. The cons are that sometimes these two parts can collide and leave a person in a tough position of trying to find ways to balance both forms of self-representation.

When I get back to the question of which form of self-representation is best, I must think of the equation that I formed from reading the third chapter of Ms. Rettberg’s book. The equation is Authentic + Constructive= Cumulative. My final answer would be that cumulative self-representation would be the best because it is the best way to bring the authentic and constructive self-representations together to form a clever cumulative self-representation that can balance both forms of self-representation in harmony.

                                                Works Cited

Rettberg, Jill Walker. Seeing Ourselves Through Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Impact of Filters

John Bitz

Robinson

English 1117 Section 37

October 24, 2019

Impact of Filters

When I read the second chapter of, “Seeing Ourselves Through Technology”, by Jill Walker Rettberg, I found the main idea of the chapter to be centered around filters. In the essay, Ms. Walker Rettberg, points out many kinds of filters and how they are used in the modern world. Some examples of these filters being but into action are through aesthicising, anestheticising and defamiliarising. This made me think about ways that I could make a connection where I have used these techniques in my own life. A good connection I found was through my hobby of photography.

When I do get some free time on my hands, I enjoy taking and editing pictures. The subjects of my pictures vary from a lot from each other. They range from pictures at weddings to pictures of my sister’s dog sitting in her place. I do enjoy taking pictures at weddings and of my sister’s dog. However, I have been meaning to try and branch out to taking more pictures of more exciting subjects. On Monday, I was able to break through and finally capture a picture of something far more interesting. After a huge rainstorm came and went, I was able to go outside for a walk and get a picture of an actual rainbow.

• 

Before

When I came home, I went on my phone and looked at the picture I had taken. I was totally shocked that I was able to get a picture of an actual rainbow. It is not something that is seen every day. Then I decided that I wanted to change up the picture. The process of changing this picture took me about, 15-20 minutes, as I had a desire to create a picture that would stand out. I began by tampering with the frame of the picture by changing it to a Palma frame. This added more life and defamiliarization to the picture. Next, I went and changed the dimensions of the picture and the angle. Later, I decided to go into Amazon photos and aestheticize the picture. I did this by bleaching the picture to put more focus on the rainbow. I also added some contrast and saturation to make the picture more light than dark. The last thing I did was change the focus of the picture to make it seem I was off the ground in a position where only Superman or Green Lantern could be when I took the picture. The result was a beautiful rainbow that is aestheticized and created by the impact of filters. It was the best picture I have ever taken and edited for now.

After

                                               Works Cited

Rettberg, Jill W. Seeing Ourselves through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and … Shape Ourselves. Palgrave Macmillan, 2016.

My Relationship With the Blogosphere

John Bitz

Robinson

English 1117 Section 37

9 October 2019

My Relationship with the Blogosphere

    There are many scientific theories being proposed every day. Some are valid and some are not valid.  One theory that has been proven true, by science, is the round Earth theory. I hate to break it to you flat Earth theory people, but the Earth is not flat. Now with that out of the way, let’s talk about the blogosphere. When I think of the blogosphere, I think of a round, inter-connected planet that exists within the internet. It is a place where all blogs including my own are located. Over the past month and a half, I have discovered many eye-opening experiences with my blog in the blogosphere. It has helped me to develop a new sense of awareness of the internet.

There are other people who have their own interpretations of what a blogosphere is like as well. For example, Graham Lampa, writer of the essay, “Imagining the Blogosphere: An Introduction to the Imagined Community of Instant Publishing.”, wrote how he believed a blogosphere to be an, “Imagined Community”, where bloggers interact and share their thoughts more freely than more traditional media outlets (Lampa 1). In this Imagined Community, Mr. Lampa also points out that there is still a dependence on traditional media sources in order to get breaking news and insights in major investigations that will probably never change. The good news, for all of you who like me are part of the blogosphere and want to write freely is that the blogosphere is starting to go in a different direction by forming its own, “symbiotic relationship”. This cements our rights to be able to write anything we want as long as it does not violate the first amendment.

 I would say that this will have a major impact on my personal experience in the blogosphere because it will allow me to be able to write more free-thinking posts in my blog. I am someone who enjoys speaking my own opinion when it comes to major political issues that face our world today. Believe it or not, I am not scared to talk and write about politics in the United States of America. When I write about politics, I go about it as an independent who attempts to see both sides of an argument on a political issue and make logical arguments about the pros and cons about where both sides stand. Using the blogosphere, I will be able to write from my personal ideas and hear what other bloggers ideas have to say about it at any time.

                                                Works Cited

Lampa, Graham. “Imagining the Blogosphere: An Introduction to the Imagined Community of Instant Publishing.” Www.conservancy.umn.edu, conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/172820/Lampa_Imagining%20the%20Blogosphere.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Accessed on October 8, 2019.

Seeing Myself Through Technology and Sports

John Bitz

Robinson

English 1117 Section 37

3 October 2019

Seeing Myself Through Technology and Sports

When I read Seeing Ourselves Through Technology by Jill Walker Rettberg, I had to wonder how I could see myself through technology over the past of couple of years and how I have developed some good interests because of it. I looked back and saw how I displayed characteristics of written, visual and quantitative self-representations. It came in a wide variety of places but one common theme I found was sports.

In my fantasy football league where I play with and against my cousins on my mom’s side of the family, I found a lot of written self-representation. I will admit as I look back and see some of the posts, I have made over the past few years in the group chat, I see that I have really changed a lot from a self-representation standpoint. In some of the earliest posts in the group chat my cousins and I loved to dive deep into family gossip. Early on, we were writing a lot of written posts and self-representations that involved a lot of trash talking about how our respective teams were going to defeat one another. What has really been beneficial for me by being involved in this group chat is that I am always getting advice from my cousins with English majors about how to improve my writing skills. Eventually, I became the commissioner for the league and I wrote regular summaries about developments in the league such as player trades.

From a visual perspective, I am of a quiet person. I am not someone who takes a lot of selfies or pictures of myself. However, I do like to take a good picture at an event that I attended. For instance, when my brother-in-law and I went to see a baseball game in Kansas City, Missouri, we were able to get to the game early to see the starting pitchers warm up. Right in front of us, we got to see Cy Young Award winner Jacob DeGrom from the New York Mets toss 100 mph warm up pitches. Before he left and went to the dugout, I got a picture of him. Later, I went home and got visually creative and edited the picture to be centered just around him. The result was one of the nicest pictures I have ever taken and one I will put into my scrapbook.

Quantitative self-representation is my favorite of the three self-representations. I say this because, I have always loved working with numbers, doing statistical analysis and playing in sports competitions that center around win probability. Every year, my brother-in-law and come together and play in his work’s fantasy NFL football league. The are over 100 members in it. We do data analytics and use sabermetrics to try to pick the teams with the highest probability of winning the most games for the entire season with only a limited amount of money to spend and only rule being to pick at least four teams. We have done this for the past six seasons, and we are very competitive most years.

Overall, I believe I have been able to find many ways to improve my self-representation skills over the past couple of years through sports. I have been able to build some good relationships and build my confidence with technology. I regularly use my smartphone to speak with my friends about a wide variety of personal issues sport and family events. I also use my phone to do research for homework as well. My hope is that maybe I can branch out a little more and find some other interests where I can continue expand my written, visual, and quantitative skills during my time here at RCTC.

                                                Works Cited

Walker Rettberg, Jill. Seeing Ourselves Through Technology. Palgrave Macmillion, 2014, link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2F9781137476661.pdf. Accessed on October 3, 2019.