Interview with someone different

Tarek Mohamed Nouradine Fathy Shalaby is an 18 year-old Kuwait born Muslim male who is a freshman at the University at Albany this year. He was born to Sawsan and Mohamed Shalaby in Kuwait City, Kuwait on August 11, 1989. He has 3 siblings, a brother from a previous marriage, his twenty year-old sister Yasmine and 8 year-old brother Omar. They all have lived together with their parents their entire lives.

Shalaby’s mother is Palestinian and his father Egyptian. When asked where he is from, he says that he is Egyptian. He explained that and Arab child takes on the nationality and religion of the father regardless of where he/she is born. He is a U.S citizen but also a citizen of Egypt because of his dad. The first place the family went after immigrating to the U.S.A was Virginia. They lived there until Shalaby was in the 3rd grade. Then they moved to Queens until he was in the 5th grade and he attended junior high and high school in Roslyn, Long Island. He says that his parents get bored of certain cities and like to travel. They are currently in Florida at one of the homes they own.

Shalaby has never lived in or even visited Kuwait. His parents left the city when he was 6 months old because of the coming Gulf War. He has family in Jordan, Egypt, an aunt in Kuwait and another in London. He is just like his parents with his passion for traveling. Arabic, Spanish and English are the 3 languages he speaks but he said he spoke 3 and a half languages. The half is French; his parents want him to learn it. He is self aware and his friends would call him conceited. “I like the way I look” says Shalaby, with his honey colored skin and straight glossy black hair. He is tall with a burly frame. He personifies youth and happiness but his statement of “I’m not afraid to die” shows an underlying sorrow that is felt for the Middle East from U.S soil.

An interesting statement made by Shalaby was “I don’t like journalists, American journalists. They are biased. Their goal is to make my people look bad. Why would I like them?” That statement provoked the question, do you follow the news and how? He replied that he gets his news from the paper everyday, the Daily News. He doesn’t listen to the radio, just music on his ipod video and he doesn’t use the internet as a source of news. Shalaby stated that internet news is all about celebrities.

When asked what he will major in, he says, “right now, human biology, to go to med school but I’m thinking about being a teacher. I like kids.” He says that being a doctor is his father’s dream and his mom doesn’t mind his profession as long as he is happy. As a part time job Shalaby works with the Liberty Partnership Program as a tutor to middle school kids from the Albany area. He expresses deep concern for the child he is assigned to and speaks of him as his own family member.

When asked who he believed would be the next President, he said, “probably Clinton because of her husband and America is more ready for a female than black president.” The conversation went on to abortion and he started with “it’s her choice” then said no, the decision should be met by the mom and dad of the fetus with no input from anyone else unless their opinion was asked for. His ideal family is a married couple who is wealthy or a little over economic stability with good jobs. The kids should come after they can be afforded. This is because “kids born out of wedlock are miserable” he said. “Single parent homes can cause damage.” For someone who has “no tolerance for ignorance,” he isn’t careful with his words. It seems that he says the first thing that pops into his head. But anyone can have an easy conversation with him, no matter their religious background or economic status. He said that he does not judge when making friends. He also said that he has been interviewed by a lot of people so this was nothing.

Wednesday, February 11th 2008, OUTSIDE

For a tropical native who is used to swim suits, t-shirts and short skirts, Albany is like a snow globe. There’s ice and snow everywhere, the trees are all glazed and the sun isn’t out. To freshman Sasha Williams, in Albany “when it’s cold, its freezing and when it’s hot, it’s too hot. There’s no intermediate.” She said that she didn’t slip or fall while walking through the slush that is everywhere but she had to be extra careful.

The usual rush of students from Indian quad to the podium looks like a mass of bent over waddlers. Everyone is still in a rush but anyone could tell that no one wants to be outside. When asked if she played in the snow, Williams said “no, I did not play in the snow. It’s dirty, mucky and just eww.”

Who could blame her? The snow was ranging from the shades cream to black, and everyone around is trying to walk around and jump over the puddles of dark slush. Most people aren’t wearing rubber boots or boots at all. Even with her long wool coat, Williams is unprepared for the weather with orange low cut sneakers. The attire of the other students’ is similar. Most are not even wearing jackets, just sneakers or shoes, jeans and sweaters. They must have lots of complaints about the weather.

Final project ideas

1: the friendly faces of Indian Quad
who are the staff
where are they from
why the like working here
do they interact much with the students
what do they think of us?

2: Five quad
what's it like for a freshman bio major
a shift with them

Saying much using few words response

I have lost my way again.

Annually compounded interest

Question: Let's say I have $100 in a savings account. I was told that it would be compounded annually at 10%. What does that mean?

It means that the bank will add 10% of my original amount to my savings each year and it will go up to $110 after the first year. I can get to this number by using this math equation. A= P(1+r)n

P: is the original amount deposited
r: is the annual/ yearly rate of interest
n: is the number of years the money has stayed in the account
A: is the amount of money in the account after n amount of years, this includes the added interest

The trick is to exponentially raise (1+r) by n rather than mutiply it after the first year.
An example would be calculating annual compounded interest after three years. Then the equation would look like this:
A=P(1+r)ⁿ where the n would be the three years.

So after three years, I would have $133.1 in my account.

The lead for : Interview with Rosemary Armao

A brief look into the life of Rosemary Armoa gives hints on how she settled at the University at Albany. From our little chat in a classroom setting, with other conversations going on, I found that Armao's passion for traveling has taken her to many places. To name a few, she has been to all but five U.S. states, Bosnia, where she was living before coming to Albany, and Uganda.

What is PLAGIARISM?

The American Heritage Dic.tion.ar.y, third edition, defines plagiarize as " to use and pass off as one's own (the ideas or writings of another)". Plagiarism is also the use of someone else's ideas or work without giving clear credit to them. In our society today, plagiarism is a major deal. People's reputaions have been ruined becuase they were accuse of plagiarism. Some have lost their jobs. Plagiarism is even punishable by law if the item being plagiarized was copyrighted.
To me, plagiarism is using someone else's work without giving them "clear credit," whether it is thier creative thought or hard work. It seems unfair that one person should do work and another take their work, make it sound better and get credit for it. If the original creater were acknowledged by the borrower of their work, clearly or in writing, then the use of a borrowed idea is not plagiarism. If the borrower forgets or just doesn't care about the original source, it is plagiarism.

A link on plagiarism if you're interested.
http://www.cs.umd.edu/~oleary/gradstudy/node13.html

How a bill becomes a law

Every bill starts off as an idea. Let's say that Mr. Scheme wants all garbage to be collected by atleast 8 pm in his neighborhood. He writes a letter to his Congressman, Mr. Done, about this idea. The idea gets written into a bill that will be placed in a box called the hopper, with other bills so that they can all be read to the memebers of the House of Representatives. The bill is assigned a number and is then sent to a committee that specializes in the area that it is intended to affect. That committee looks it over and can change things in the bill. They also argue over whether those changes are neccessary, so a bill can be changed repeatedly and still go back to being the same as before the changes.
The next step is when the committee agrees that the bill can go on or they can say that it isn't nessecary and stop it at the previous step. If the committee agrees that it is ready, the bill is sent out with a report and is given a date on one of the house calendars. On that date, it is sent to the house floor where it goes through a similar process as before but faster. It is read once and debated over. It is read a second time and changes are made to it. After the third reading, the members of the house vote on the bill. The bill is sent to the Senate if a majority of the house vote to pass it.
In the Senate, it goes through a similar process as it did in the house. This is to ensure that a law is made democratically. The bill gets looked over, it may have changes made in a special committee and then voted on. If it passes, it is sent to a conference committee to compare the changes made by both houses. If everyone agrees, as in majority rules, the bill is sent to the president to be signed. He can sign it and make it into a law, veto it or take no action and leave the decision up to congress. If the bill is vetoed by the president, it can be sent back to do the entire process again but if enough members of congress disagree with the veto then the bill is taken to override. If both houses can get two-thirds of it's members to vote to override the president, the bill becomes a law. On the other hand, if the president signs the bill, it becomes a law.
You don't believe me? Check it out for yourself.
http://clerkkids.house.gov/laws/bill_begin.html

Electoral College

The electoral college is simply a group of 538 electors who directly vote for the presidential candidates. The electors are chosen in each state and the number of electors for each state is determined by that states population. This was laid out in the U.S Constitution and the 12th Amendment.
http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/faq.html