Kayne Colton Leah Cassidy

The biggest thing that i found interesting while reading these essays was that 3/4 share the same veiws with each other as well as mine, in that although the media does influence the decisions we make, it is not the deciding factor that determines our values but rather there are also other things like family, religon, etc. that help us determine what we value.
So as far as reading the essay goes, i can imagine that reading essay after essay with 75% of the same ideas must be pretty burtal. Maybe it was just conincidence that we all essentialy made the same points, but im getting the feeling that that's just kind of how it works. Therefore, reading all these essays really brought out the importance of a strong voice and origianality. Something that "pops" in your essay, dragging the grader out of the sleep-deprived slump state in which theyve been for hours on end.
Another thing that I found difficult to manage was my time. I felt exteremly rushed and uneasy about my points and I think that had i made a breif outline before essentially writing my essay, my mind would have been a lot more at ease, and I think once you get in the literary groove youre able to let it all flow out, using your outline as a guide.
What worked esspecially well were specific examples. I know in Cassidys she used personal experiences and feelings that stood out, Kayne used American Idol as well. Another thing was the sentence fluency and word choice in Coltons was impressive and I definately think that aspect of the essay could really be a deciding factor for the grade you recieve.

SAT Practice Essay Numero Uno

Turn on your regular cable TV set. What do you see? Chances are there will be one or more tall, thin, bright-eyed women accompanied by an even taller, more toned man. No matter what program you tune into, the cast is no doubt easy on the eyes. I realize there are exceptions however, but even a high percentage of those are stories or reality shows or contests based off of the desire for ideal beauty. The media constantly broadcasts the small percentage of the poplulation that look, act, and live a certain way. Rarely do they portray an average lifestyle. Making those of us out of the spotlight want to be more like those in it.
Take one of my personal favorite shows, Desperate Housewives, for example. The story is about five not-so-desperate bombshell housewives that all live on the same street full of lust, betrayl, mystery and romance. In two weeks of the show I remember seeing a proposal, two murders, one drug bust, and another hospitilization. Entertaining, but pretty unrealistic. The fact is, the greater majority of us dont live these outrageous, spontaneous, lavish lifestyles, and we all want what we cant have, its human nature.
There are however some of us that take the exact opposite veiw, those disgusted with the media and "ideal" beauty. Although much of our population, (in America anyway), thrive off of celebrity entertainment, trends, and tabloids, there are still those brave enogh to be origional, living up to their own standards, or the standards of thir family or religon. Those people take in what the media has to say and immediately spit it back out, realizing the rediculousness of it all.
I think the media does determine what is important to some people, and by doing so decides what is not important to others. There is no doubt that the media influences the choices we make everyday but we are still our own people and the standards to whice we live up to, wether it be the medias or not, will always be up to us.

Electric Blue

Looking down on this small square room there lies a girl. Everything motionless but her big brown eyes. Ten little lanterns scattered atop a desk light up the room a with a rosy glow. A closet with mirrored doors reflect nothing, it seems. The room seems bland, all but its walls, and the girls thoughts. Usually there also lies a pile of clothes, sometimes in a plain white laundry basket, organized, but most likely thrown on the floor messily. Unfinished geometry homework left open on the desk and tomorrow's outfit thrown across her bureau. It appears to be a typical room, typical furniture, typical everything. The girl seems to reminisce over the days happenings, or tomorrows. Often times her mind floats into a fantasy, a crazy dream,or an outrageous endeavor. You wouldn't guess that though,what with everything so boring in her room. Except for her electric blue walls, which seem to reflect what her mirrored doors fail to, her dreams.

(that was supposed to be the description of a place you know from an outsiders veiw, like the beginning of poisonwood but im not sure if i hit the target on this one?)

Mr.Burrell's Frightening Video

I wasnt sure on the procedure for commenting on our collaborators webesites, spefically Mr.Burrells class mostly because they use learner blogs, not blog spot. I did however check out their site and if i could comment on the video "Did You Know?" it would go a little something like this:
Although i found the video intriguing, entertaining, and was amazed by the bluntly presented statistics, i found the video to be overwhelming, and overdramatised. They combined frightening numbers with even more frightening sound effects to scare the veiwers into...well i dont even really know what the goal of the video was. What the producers of this presentation neglected to explain was the basis of human growth, and were humans, not computers. They compare past present and future numbers showing the growth of technology, population and overall modern-ness yet throughout the centuries humans have always and will always be the same. What we value will never change no matter how much computers do. Family, love, mystery, romance, remorse, all these things have remained the same throughout the course of histroy and no matter the changes that took place in technology and modernization these aspects of life are what drives us to be who we are. The idea that a super-computer that "exceeds the computation abilities of the human brain" may seem scary to some, but basically all that means is that they can crunch numbers together better than we can, and we already have that, its called a calculator. The fact is computers will never be able to have feelings, and will never replace the human race, so comparing the two is just a little rediculous.

Essential Questions Update

So far, most of my posts have been exploring the question of what is my role or responsibility as a student/citizen/future leader of our society? We've (and i guess by we i really mean my blog and I) talked about things like giving to the needy, how everyones role is necessary in the world, and things that determine our values/what our values are. So the status of my essential questions is as follows:

-What is important to me?
-What is my responsiblity as a student/citizen/future leader to our society?
-What can i do to ensure that which is important to me is the guiding factor of my life? ....or something to that effect.

Net Neutrality

The video Humanity Labotomy on our class website on Net Neutrality has actually tied in nicely with our SAT practice essay where we were asked if it is the media that determines what we value? and also Mr. Watsons insight on accessibility. By essentialy privitizing the internet we allow telephone compainies like at&t to monopolize everything the internet provides us with today, news, creativity, etertainment, everything. They decide what goes on the internet, what we hear, and what we know. It would allow these corporations to angle stories one way, leaving out essential elements of different issues that could change the way we veiw them. If people think the media controls what we value today, imagine the influence of it if they control the internet. Everything we know would be fed to us, sort of like a telephone company communist cult, for lack of a better word. In order for things to run smoothly there is an esscence of balance that needs to be there. A yin- and yang, negative and positive, beautiful and ugly, what we like to hear verses what we need to hear, and somehow i cant see major corporations displaying the "ugly" problems that society faces and must resolve if they have the option to leave everyone (including themselves) in blissfull ignorance veiwing everything through rose colored lenses. Letting go of net neutrality would be like kissing opinion goodbye.

Experience Is The Best Teacher

The podcast that I chose to listen to was one by Jimmy Dale Gilmore, a more or less country singer/songwriter, entitled "All the Joy The World Contains." (this is the url -> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4538138" ) In his podcast he explained how through much of his life he went around basically feeling sorry for himself and feeling like the state of the world was to blame for his rough life. It was'nt until he hit the lowest of all the low points in his life where he was faced with two options: change, or death, that "my own gratification as the guiding principle" of his life was what was keeping him stuck in this cycle of sex, alcohol, and depression. He says "It came as a great shock to discover that my problem wa not a product of the worlds condition but that of my own self-centeredness" and that "genuine concern for the welfare of others is the gateway to the only real satisfaction for myself." I found his success story inspiring and most of all reassuring that even in todays dog eat dog world, there are people like Jimmy Dale Gilmore who can put the well being of others before their own. He ended with a Native American proverb " all the joy the world contains has come through wishing happiness for others. All the misery the world contains has come through wanting pleasure for oneself."

Stuck For Life

So heres a draft for my this I believe podcast-

I believe in fathers. I believe in mothers. I believe in brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, and cousins. I believe in grandparents, in-laws, nieces, and nephews. I believe in family.
Throughout your life, you are constantly connected to your family. When you are born you are the son or daughter of so-and-so. When you’re sick in the hospital they are the first to get called. When you get in trouble at school, your parents are brought in. When you file for taxes, you count your number of dependents. When you die, your obituary lists surviving family members. Your family is your emergency contact, your security blanket, your bail, and your sure shoulder to cry on, all in one. No matter what you do in life, how much money you make, the trouble you get into, or the bets you loose, you are never without family. Like it or not, you always have them, forever.
Think of a time or situation where you have been in some kind of turmoil. I remember a specific time in my own life when I was in the first grade where my family played the leading role in my emotions. It was time for recess and all the kids were lead outside onto the playground for about 20 minutes. However I decided, for reasons I cant recall, that I wanted to go watch the fifth and sixth grade choir practice. So, while the rest of the class ran around outside I snuck upstairs and hid around a corner to watch the chorus, cool huh? When it was time to go back to class I raced back to the playground so my teacher wouldn’t know where I had been. We got back to class and my teacher, Mrs. Hoe, told everyone to get out our books for silent reading, I thought I was in the clear. She then called me over to her desk and proceeded to interrogate me on my recent whereabouts. It must have been extremely hard for her to realize exactly what I had done through my tangled sentences of rebelliousness muffled by my interminable sobbing. I remembering begging her with tears rolling down my face crying, “Just please don’t tell my dad! He’ll be so mad!” The fact was that I really wasn’t upset because I had skipped recess, more so that I would be disappointing my father.
Even at the young age of 6 years old, I knew how important it was for my dad to be proud of me. Disappointing him was worthy of being sentenced to a life of endless time out, which at that age is really the worst thing in the world. We all have this universal pride in our families, and weather we realize it or not, we all do our best not to let them down. And for good reason too. In my opinion, your family deserves your best effort, because especially in this day and age your family is really all you can be sure of. Weather you like it or not, you’re stuck for life.

any suggestions?

Toga Times Our Big Fat Greek Carnival

After leaving carnival on saturday night, I thought about the different shifts I had worked, and about the work that everyone else puts into the carnival as well. I began to see the carnival as a scaled down example of the way our society works. Determining your role in the execution of the carnival every year is a lot like answering the question of what is your role in society? Weather you were shuttling malasada batter around with food service, painting unicorns on little girls faces, serving up hawaiian plates, or co-chairing the entire carnival, your job is just as crucial as the next persons. During carnival, we rely on everyone to do their part and if someone doesnt, the entire carnival suffers, much like in the real world outside of carnival. In our world we all do our part in holding society together. We may not realize it but without even the seemingly smallest role that we rely on, our daily routine is stunted, no longer running as smoothly as we hope for. The only contradiction in my genius metaphor is the way in which we find our responsibilities. For carnival, we are assigned our roles and the shifts we needs to work in order for everything to fun flawlessly. In the real world however, there is no student worker committee telling us where to be, what to do, and when to do it. We are essentialy our own boss, and we decide what our role in society will be. What we do know however, is that whatever we choose to do, the carnival of life relies on us.