Zain Nensey's Weblog

I always wondered why people live for the best they can. No one is ever satisfied with what they have, although it is for various reasons. People who are successful in their businesses attempt to expand their business until they can’t handle it any more. Sports teams always look to find the best combination of players and coaches so they can win the championship. I always look for the best deal I can get whenever I decide to buy something. What is our obessions with the best? Do we just like the idea of being the best? Or do we try to be the best so we can get recognition for achieving the best?

Week 9, Entry 2

Another semester, almost gone. It is kind of sad at this point, but hey, what can you do? I plan on majoring in accounting because it will only take four to five years and then I can start earning decent amounts of money. That in itself is a good thing, plus I have gotten great reviews about the accounting program here at USF from quite a lot of people. In fact, one of my older friends who graduated from USF as an accountant a couple of years ago says that the program is nationally ranked. Of course, that means that this will be incredibly difficult to do, but I’m ready to do it. There are other factors for my decision as well. First off, one of my dad’s friends who has a cousin a who works as an accountant says that a lot of jobs are going to be opening up with the government in a few years because all the current accountants will be retiring. In addition, I find it interesting that the mathematics portion of accounting is overrated- apparently, according to my friend, accountants don’t actually do that much math. However, the idea is something I look forward to, and I hope to own my own accounting firm someday. After having done an entire career map on accounting last semester, I like the oppurtunities that accounting offers and I hope it will help me along the way.

Week 9, Entry 1

I found this semester that the style book itself is a very useful resource, especially in constructing sentences. Frankly, I always heard in high school about how it was always good to vary your sentence structure to create more variety in the paper you were writing. I suppose that to some extent, it was that because the paper could not always be a series of simple sentences. The lesson on shape was a good example of how to make those sentences flow better. However, the presentations themselves were not always the best. Admittedly, the ones early on were pretty good and I learned a lot of useful information from them. However, as the semester drew on, it seemed that the presentations were more a lesson in how to fix technological issues than actual style presentations. I feel like that at times, people were rehashing what was said in the last lesson instead of coming up with a different look on how to improve writing. It is not that this in itself was always bad, but I go to class to learn something new, not to find out something I already knew. That is something I hope to accomplish in my English course next year.

Week 8, Entry #3
It seems that we always are competing to prove ourselves. I admit to doing so myself. Recently, I had some really good grades that I showed to my grandfather, because he had been nagging me about my study habits. Does anyone else do this? Some feedback would be nice.

Week 8, Entry 2

The message of this ad- get ready for a new era of communications, because it’s coming, and it’s coming fast. The people who made this ad are trying to appeal to everyone by making a claim that soon, television will be spread throughout this world, and it will change the way in which people think and react, and also live. They make this claim with the prediction that it soon will be in the classrooms, the living rooms, and in many other places. This DuMont company then has created a need by making it hip to own a TV. The TV was spurred on by some war, likely World War II, and now people should be ready to embrace a well designed technology wholeheartedly. Now the advertisement is trying to get you to buy one of their TVs, since it will help you be ready for the new era. How do they do this? By saying that they already are. The logic in this is that if they are ready for the new era with DuMont televisions, then you should be too. Once you’re ready to embrace this new and wonderful technology, the future is here for you and you are ready for the new era. So why not go ahead and buy it, since DuMont won’t be here in fifty years anyway?

Zain Nensey
Week 8. Entry 1

This poem’s message is most definitely about living life as an ordinary person. No one but the people who know an ordinary person know about this ordinary person. They live life, repeating the cycle of people in years past- grow up, get a job, get married, and go on in their ways. That is the first and foremost point of this poem. The poem seems to have a theme of inevitability, which is in line with how the poem is talking about. “Anyone” lives. They fall in love with “someone”. “Everyone” falls in love with “someone”. They constantly build towards a future, a future of easy living. Then they “reap what they sow”, and go along their way to the end. For something so simple, it seems incredibly meaningful, because it reveals a potential. People are ordinary. When they diverge from this path, then they are no longer ordinary- they are outside ordinary. The potential is there to become one way or the other. People will care about someone who is outside the ordinary because they are now unique. Some people say that everyone is unique, and in some ways, everyone is unique because they all have their own ways of navigating life. However, the means of navigation are often defined by society in some way. Some people are incredibly lazy, and they get through life on the backs of others, or perhapse not at all. Some people are workaholics, and these people get through life on their own. But they do not diverge from an ordinary path. To diverge from this path requires an element of difference. For example, let’s couple that workaholic with a talent for making things happen on the fly. That may result in a Hall of Fame athlete, or perhaps a skill for debate in the public forum. How about if we take that incredibly lazy person and make them the only survivor of a plane crash? People can change, they just need a medium to do so.

Zain Nensey
Week Seven, Entry #3

I honestly do not know not know what to talk about this week, because a lot has happened, especially in Pakistan. For example, Pakistan’s cricket coach was murdered on Monday after his Pakistan side suffered a shock loss to Ireland in the World Cup, eliminating them from advancing past the first round. A lot of people on cricket websites have said that perhaps it is time that people took a step back and examined the role of the sport in this world. When people are willing to murder a sports coach, what does that say about a country’s image? It seems highly likely that the suspect was a Pakistani, especially because Pakistanis are crazy about the sport. Any major loss is a cause for anger. Even before the murder, people were burning effigies of the coach and team captain in the streets of Multan, one of Pakistan’s larger cities. In the past, fans in India have been known to throw such things as squid on the field if their team was performing badly. It is like a more violent version of what happened to Alabama’s Mike Shula after the 2006 season simply because he couldn’t beat Auburn. Woolmer, the Pakistan coach, was likely to be let go anyway, but I still find it hard to believe that anyone would capable of such a despicable act. This isn’t an endorsement of the coach- I don’t think he was the right fit for Pakistan, although he was a pretty good coach in his own right. Perhaps Pakistan should stop playing cricket for a couple of years. If Pakistani fans can’t appreciate the fact that they have one of the best teams in the world, then maybe a time of separation will make them realize how much of a game it really is. Pakistan values cricket as a diplomacy tool with India; indeed, matches between the two sides have a level of rivalry that the Red Sox and Yankees simply can not match, and diplomatic relations began to thaw in 2004 because the two sides started playing each other again. But it is still simply a game-one that some people in both of those countries need to realize.

Zain Nensey
Week 7, Entry #2

It is most definitely important for Americans to be knowledgeable about the rest of the world. We now live in a day and age where any thing people might do in one part of the world might cause severe repercussions in another part of the world. For example, let’s say that we had bothered helping Afghanistan recover after the Soviet Union left after their defeat there. At that point in time, the Americans were highly regarded by many people in the country for several reasons. First off, they had helped the mujahedeen by providing weapons to resist the Soviet occupiers. Second, the Americans themselves had formed alliances with many governments in the region, so people were supportive because their government was supported by a superpower. Of course, after the Americans left, the power struggles began. The Northern Alliance at that time was as bad as the Taliban, heavily predicated in Wahabism, and not at all the diverse coalition it is now. It was this hostile atmosphere that caused terrorists like Osama bin Laden to take root. If the Americans had known more about that part of the world, it would improve our image there because we would know how to treat the people there and not simply ignore what they want. The reason the United States is not liked currently is because our government acts like the people in countries like Iraq do not know what’s best for them. If we bothered asking the people in these countries what they wanted, maybe we would actually get results.

Zain Nensey
Week Seven, Entry 1

My spring break was a very relaxing, yet productive spring break. Most of my mornings were devoted to studying, but we always went out during the afternoon. The first Monday of spring break, we went to the Florida Aquarium, which I have never been to before. I rather enjoyed the opportunity to do so, especially because they had sharks- I’ve never seen sharks before. The next day was even more fun, because that afternoon we went out fishing by the Sunshine Skyway. My brother got the biggest catch, although it wasn’t match, just a small barracuda. My father and I caught several fish, and my dad’s friend, who invited us, managed to catch a decent eight pound fish which we didn’t know the name of. The next day was not too bad either, considering we went go-carting (although it is far too expensive), but the day after was the best by far. That Thursday afternoon, we left to go visit some good friends in Ft. Lauderdale. I finally got to play on a Nintendo Wii. I have wanted to get one for several months, but probably will not until summertime. The Saturday night before we were to leave was not a packing night though- that night we went to a Pakistani concert with a rather legendary Pakistani singer called Munni Begum. She is an icon on the level of the Beatles in Pakistan, so it was rather impressive that she would come to such a small gathering (only about one hundred people. She normally has crowds numbering in the thousands). So all in all, it was a rather enjoyable spring break, even if we didn’t go on any tourist trips.

Week 5, Entry #2
Zain Nensey

Bush’s new budget, which was released recently, is actually a decent budget for once. However, it still focuses too much on the military. According an article on CNN, the new article will get an eleven percent increase in its budget, which is the highest of any for any department. However, this does not account for approximately $235 billion in war costs over the next 18 months. In addition, while they are not receiving decreases, the Education and health programs of our administration are barely receiving anything, and tax decreases are forcing it so that there may be cuts in the next few years. Another problem is that the elderly population is growing, so it means we obviously need to devote more to our medical growth. The major problem here is the war- if the government found a way out of Iraq, then a lot more money would be available to spend on reducing the deficit, allow for increases in medical spending, or to spend more on education or alternative energy sources, both of which are very important. However, without eliminating at least one of these major functions, it will be difficult to allow us to reduce the deficit. For these reasons I do not agree with the President’s plan. If I could change the way the government is running, I would submit a plan that would force less military funding to force the Iraqi government to take more charge in fighting the insurgencies in Iraq, which would allow us to focus on our own problems. We have enough problems that we do not need to try and solve another country’s problems.