Sunday, October 31, 2010
Blog 39
Today I went to Tuttle Mall with my boyfriend, Daniel, and his family. I had tons of fun. I didn’t buy anything, but Daniel bought me shoes that I wanted. It was a surprise, and he’s really really reallyyyy realllly good at surprising me. He’s very sneaky about it. Anyways, we got these huge, yummy burritos to eat there. Ugh, I just ate the other half and I kind of regret it. But it was really fun! I wish I could’ve stayed at the Mall longer, but I had to get home to do some homework! Gotta love it!....not. Yesterday I went to the Halloween parade. That was tons of fun! Daniel and I ended up getting sooo much candy! It’s like I went trick-or-treating! It’s funny because usually they only pass candy out to the little kids, but we decided to stick our hands out as well! It was funny and a “had-to-be-there” moment. That reminds me. I hate when I’m telling a funny story, and it ends up not being funny. You know, because it’s a “had-to-be-there” moment. I always feel retarded when that happens. Well, I’m not sure what else to write about. What else did I do this weekend? OH! I went to eat at Golden Corral with my family Saturday afternoon. That was fun. I hate how I always go to buffets when I’m not that hungry though. I couldn’t handle the first plate I had. I’m not really a big fan of that restaurant. However, I did enjoy their mashed potatoes and gravy a lot! Some people really annoy me though. When I went to get some mashed potatoes, there was this woman being really impatient. She was all up in my business. She was acting like there were no more mashed potatoes in the whole wide world. I hate when people act like that.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Blog 38: Halloween Parade!
I’m trying to get ahead on my blogs. So this is Saturday’s blog.
So tomorrow (Saturday) is my hometown’s Halloween Parade. It’s just this tiny parade that all the Ross County bands attend, as well as football teams, high school clubs, people running in my town, etc. People get to wear costumes and such which is cute. They even record it for television viewers. I’m really excited to go because I enjoy seeing all of the bands and running into people I know. I used to be in that parade for cheerleading when I was in elementary and then band when I got in high school. I loved marching the parade though! I dressed up as Dorothy every year. I know, I know. I probably should’ve been more creative. But people really enjoyed it. We would greet people when we weren’t playing and tiny kids were excited to see Dorothy. I’d always hear people in the crowd shout phrases from The Wizard of Oz as well, like “Where’s Toto??” Or “Auntie Em, Auntie Em!”
Before I was in high school band my sister, Amanda dressed up as the Scarecrow and my other sister, Vanessa dressed up as Dorothy. They even had a few people in their band to dress up as the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man. It was really cute! So that’s how I got my costume—from Vanessa after she graduated.
So, from my last blog, you guys probably know I got my navel and cartilage pierced. Oh my. I didn’t take into consideration that I sleep on my tummy and that I lay the left side of my head on the pillow when I sleep. So, last night was interesting. I’m sure I’ll be okay though.
So tomorrow (Saturday) is my hometown’s Halloween Parade. It’s just this tiny parade that all the Ross County bands attend, as well as football teams, high school clubs, people running in my town, etc. People get to wear costumes and such which is cute. They even record it for television viewers. I’m really excited to go because I enjoy seeing all of the bands and running into people I know. I used to be in that parade for cheerleading when I was in elementary and then band when I got in high school. I loved marching the parade though! I dressed up as Dorothy every year. I know, I know. I probably should’ve been more creative. But people really enjoyed it. We would greet people when we weren’t playing and tiny kids were excited to see Dorothy. I’d always hear people in the crowd shout phrases from The Wizard of Oz as well, like “Where’s Toto??” Or “Auntie Em, Auntie Em!”
Before I was in high school band my sister, Amanda dressed up as the Scarecrow and my other sister, Vanessa dressed up as Dorothy. They even had a few people in their band to dress up as the Cowardly Lion and the Tin Man. It was really cute! So that’s how I got my costume—from Vanessa after she graduated.
So, from my last blog, you guys probably know I got my navel and cartilage pierced. Oh my. I didn’t take into consideration that I sleep on my tummy and that I lay the left side of my head on the pillow when I sleep. So, last night was interesting. I’m sure I’ll be okay though.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Blog 37
10/28/10
I went to Evolved today with my sister, Amanda. It was my first time there and we decided to get piercings together…well, two piercings each because on Thursdays it’s Buy One Get One Free! She got her tongue and her cartilage on her left ear pierced. I got my belly button and the cartilage on my left ear pierced as well. It was really fun. Amanda’s piercer was named Sarvas. He was only wearing a Native American loin cloth. It was hilarious and he was really nice. I got a guy named Ruben! He was a guest piercer which was pretty cool and he was really nice too. He looked like Russell Brand (the guy dating or married to Katy Perry…or the guy off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall).
I don’t really know why I got my belly button pierced. It wasn’t like I was dying to get it done, but I kind of got it as a joke because my mom isn’t a big fan of piercings and tattoos. She once said the only piercing she would approve of other than in the ear is a belly button piercing. I think she was lying.
This brings me back to when I first got my lip pierced the summer before starting junior year in high school. My mom told me I could get it and right when we went into the place, she started making me cry in front of everyone. She then asked me how I was going to pay when she already said she would pay for it. After I said I didn’t want to anymore, she paid for it to make me feel even worse. I cried all day. I only had it for two months. During the time I had it I liked it, but with braces and being a bit older, I don’t think it fits me well. Plus no one can really see my belly button piercing unless I lift my shirt up randomly for everyone to see. Who would do that though? Later!
I went to Evolved today with my sister, Amanda. It was my first time there and we decided to get piercings together…well, two piercings each because on Thursdays it’s Buy One Get One Free! She got her tongue and her cartilage on her left ear pierced. I got my belly button and the cartilage on my left ear pierced as well. It was really fun. Amanda’s piercer was named Sarvas. He was only wearing a Native American loin cloth. It was hilarious and he was really nice. I got a guy named Ruben! He was a guest piercer which was pretty cool and he was really nice too. He looked like Russell Brand (the guy dating or married to Katy Perry…or the guy off of Forgetting Sarah Marshall).
I don’t really know why I got my belly button pierced. It wasn’t like I was dying to get it done, but I kind of got it as a joke because my mom isn’t a big fan of piercings and tattoos. She once said the only piercing she would approve of other than in the ear is a belly button piercing. I think she was lying.
This brings me back to when I first got my lip pierced the summer before starting junior year in high school. My mom told me I could get it and right when we went into the place, she started making me cry in front of everyone. She then asked me how I was going to pay when she already said she would pay for it. After I said I didn’t want to anymore, she paid for it to make me feel even worse. I cried all day. I only had it for two months. During the time I had it I liked it, but with braces and being a bit older, I don’t think it fits me well. Plus no one can really see my belly button piercing unless I lift my shirt up randomly for everyone to see. Who would do that though? Later!
Blog 36
I am so mad at myself. My computer just freaked out and I didn’t save my work so I had to rewrite everything. UGH!
Personal anecdote:
It was the first day of fall quarter. I sat in Evan’s Laboratory where my math class would soon begin. Everyone was chatting and getting to know each other while we waited for class to begin. There it was! The bell started ringing at 11:30am. This is when we first glanced at our math lecturer for the quarter. This skinny man stood before us in this large auditorium. He started talking and welcoming us with his charm and humor, but I knew all the other students were thinking exactly what I was thinking: Why does he only have one arm? Now this wasn’t the only question that ran across my mind as the quarter went on. Shamefully, others that ran across my mind were: How does he tie his shoes? How did he put those jeans on? and How in the world did he roll up his sleeve? Thinking about all of these things made me feel uncomfortable and rude, I’ll admit.
Hypothetical scenario:
Imagine if we all looked differently. You’re probably saying, “But Sarah, we already do!” Well, that’s not what I mean. Imagine if we didn’t have the same body plan. If we didn't have our standard ways of living. Think of it as if we weren’t all supposed to have two arms, two legs, two feet, two eyes, you know. Would this difference still make us feel uncomfortable? Would we still be judging others? The norm in our society would most likely then be being different. We would then see acceptance.
Personal anecdote:
It was the first day of fall quarter. I sat in Evan’s Laboratory where my math class would soon begin. Everyone was chatting and getting to know each other while we waited for class to begin. There it was! The bell started ringing at 11:30am. This is when we first glanced at our math lecturer for the quarter. This skinny man stood before us in this large auditorium. He started talking and welcoming us with his charm and humor, but I knew all the other students were thinking exactly what I was thinking: Why does he only have one arm? Now this wasn’t the only question that ran across my mind as the quarter went on. Shamefully, others that ran across my mind were: How does he tie his shoes? How did he put those jeans on? and How in the world did he roll up his sleeve? Thinking about all of these things made me feel uncomfortable and rude, I’ll admit.
Hypothetical scenario:
Imagine if we all looked differently. You’re probably saying, “But Sarah, we already do!” Well, that’s not what I mean. Imagine if we didn’t have the same body plan. If we didn't have our standard ways of living. Think of it as if we weren’t all supposed to have two arms, two legs, two feet, two eyes, you know. Would this difference still make us feel uncomfortable? Would we still be judging others? The norm in our society would most likely then be being different. We would then see acceptance.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Blog 35: "Plastic Surgery is the new ice cream..."
Reading the articles on Commonplace has made me a little intimidated. I feel the articles I have read are extremely researched and give many statistics which makes me feel like the topic I would want to choose would not fit under the criteria of a Commonplace paper.
Anyways, out of the two articles I could write about, I chose the article, Comfort Food by Morgan Glaze. I thought this article was more interesting than my other choice because it had information that I knew about already. It basically explains that you should be happy with your body and if you do make choices to change it, then you should only do it for yourself. It talks a lot about plastic surgery and brings up Heidi Montag from The Hills. The author states at the end that she wasn’t arguing that people shouldn’t have plastic surgery but that people shouldn’t change for others. When I read the article I thought they were arguing that people should not get plastic surgery so that was a bit confusing.
I really liked the information she used though. It was mentioned that there are plenty of students at The Ohio State University who have had boob jobs and other surgeries. I couldn’t believe that. Then the author said that teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 had undergone “more than 90,000 plastic surgery procedures in 2006.” I didn’t know people that young go would go through those surgeries. Then again, when I think about it, 13 years old is pretty young so maybe these kids are even influenced by their parents.
It was a well-written and interesting article.
http://www.mhlearningsolutions.com/commonplace/index.php?q=node/5648
Anyways, out of the two articles I could write about, I chose the article, Comfort Food by Morgan Glaze. I thought this article was more interesting than my other choice because it had information that I knew about already. It basically explains that you should be happy with your body and if you do make choices to change it, then you should only do it for yourself. It talks a lot about plastic surgery and brings up Heidi Montag from The Hills. The author states at the end that she wasn’t arguing that people shouldn’t have plastic surgery but that people shouldn’t change for others. When I read the article I thought they were arguing that people should not get plastic surgery so that was a bit confusing.
I really liked the information she used though. It was mentioned that there are plenty of students at The Ohio State University who have had boob jobs and other surgeries. I couldn’t believe that. Then the author said that teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19 had undergone “more than 90,000 plastic surgery procedures in 2006.” I didn’t know people that young go would go through those surgeries. Then again, when I think about it, 13 years old is pretty young so maybe these kids are even influenced by their parents.
It was a well-written and interesting article.
http://www.mhlearningsolutions.com/commonplace/index.php?q=node/5648
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Blog 34
My ARP is on ethnocentrism, which is when people thinking their culture is superior and others inferior. I can expand this to others fearing or feeling uncomfortable with anything different they’re not used to. I’m not sure exactly what topic I want to do but an interesting topic I could do is based on polygamy. Most people feel extremely odd about this. There is actually a show called Sister Wives. It’s about this guy, Kody Brown, who lives in Utah and has four wives. All together I think he has 16 children but three of them aren’t actually his; they’re from a previous marriage of his latest wife.
This type of stuff made me feel uncomfortable watching it which is weird because two people of the same sex getting married doesn’t bother me but this does. The fact that this guy has four wives and a billion children and they all live together makes me wonder how they are even capable of handling all the jealousy that they have because they do express it during the show. Our society today doesn’t handle homosexuality okay so I wonder if polygamy outweighs it or not. Maybe since we hardly ever see it out in the open it’s not as big as a subject to feel uncomfortable or have a huge impact on people. I believe it's obviously pushing it's limits with marriage and what everyone's definition of marriage is.
Or I could write about cultural differences. My mother is Mexican and my dad is American. Almost all of my mom’s side of the family speaks Spanish and has different values than my dad’s side of the family. Sometimes I feel stuck in the middle but more uncomfortable with my mom’s side of the family because they live in Mexico while I’ve lived my whole life in Ohio. I don’t speak Spanish and I don’t necessarily share all of their ways of living.
Or I could simply do my commonplace paper on high school cliques! We’ve all gone through that, and I know we could relate in some way.
This type of stuff made me feel uncomfortable watching it which is weird because two people of the same sex getting married doesn’t bother me but this does. The fact that this guy has four wives and a billion children and they all live together makes me wonder how they are even capable of handling all the jealousy that they have because they do express it during the show. Our society today doesn’t handle homosexuality okay so I wonder if polygamy outweighs it or not. Maybe since we hardly ever see it out in the open it’s not as big as a subject to feel uncomfortable or have a huge impact on people. I believe it's obviously pushing it's limits with marriage and what everyone's definition of marriage is.
Or I could write about cultural differences. My mother is Mexican and my dad is American. Almost all of my mom’s side of the family speaks Spanish and has different values than my dad’s side of the family. Sometimes I feel stuck in the middle but more uncomfortable with my mom’s side of the family because they live in Mexico while I’ve lived my whole life in Ohio. I don’t speak Spanish and I don’t necessarily share all of their ways of living.
Or I could simply do my commonplace paper on high school cliques! We’ve all gone through that, and I know we could relate in some way.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Blog 33
This blog will be about naps since I just took one. Last year I used to take naps all the time. When I say that I take naps, I’m talking about AT LEAST 2 hours. When I think of taking naps, I think of anytime I shouldn’t be asleep but I am—like during the day. So when I say I slept for 5 hours during the day I still think it’s a nap for me. What do you guys think? Most people say naps are an hour or less. I don’t know how naps even do their job if you sleep for that long! I know I would be miserable if I let myself sleep for an hour knowing I was ridiculously tired like today. That’s why I slept for three hours.
Then again, could it be a bad thing? I always wake up really cranky. I’m cranky right now. I don’t want to do anything and I want to go back to sleep but I have homework to catch up on. But this was the first opportunity of the school year for me to take a nappy-nap! I had to! My crankiness is wearing off and I’m starting to feel a whole lot better.
I wish my body was capable of functioning off of less sleep. I feel like I’m extremely tired and I get 8 hours, but when I try to sleep in my body wants to get up. I don’t know how I did it in high school with only getting four hours of sleep every night. Oh well, I love sleep!
Then again, could it be a bad thing? I always wake up really cranky. I’m cranky right now. I don’t want to do anything and I want to go back to sleep but I have homework to catch up on. But this was the first opportunity of the school year for me to take a nappy-nap! I had to! My crankiness is wearing off and I’m starting to feel a whole lot better.
I wish my body was capable of functioning off of less sleep. I feel like I’m extremely tired and I get 8 hours, but when I try to sleep in my body wants to get up. I don’t know how I did it in high school with only getting four hours of sleep every night. Oh well, I love sleep!
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Blog 32
Everyone says that college will be the best years of your life. For me, I’d have to disagree. I remember being so stressed out in high school because my parents wouldn’t be pleased with getting anything lower than a 98 on my report card. But I had things to do that I liked doing, like softball and band, and I had the cooolest friends ever! Even though I thought I was unhappy from all the stress, I was actually happy compared to now.
Last year was my first year at OSU. I lived with my best friend, since the 5th grade, and my lovely sister, Amanda. Everything was going okay but it just ended up going downhill from there. My “best friend” and I no longer speak to each other and I don’t really have any close friends to talk to other than my family and my boyfriend. I mean it’s nice to have them but sometimes I think it’d be nice to have a friend.
Everyone says not to room with your best friends because the relationship will be ruined. I didn’t believe that and I kind of still don’t. I just learned who my real best friend was. It’s funny because even though my old friends have treated me like crap, I still think about them and I still care about them too.
It’s hard for me to make friends in college. I’ve tried tons of times and haven’t had much luck. Those friendships stay in the classroom as usual. Hopefully one day I’ll make some friends. Plus it’s so hard to have time to. I feel like I’m constantly doing homework. Maybe it will be easier when I’m done with “the best years of my life.” I can’t wait until it’s over.
Last year was my first year at OSU. I lived with my best friend, since the 5th grade, and my lovely sister, Amanda. Everything was going okay but it just ended up going downhill from there. My “best friend” and I no longer speak to each other and I don’t really have any close friends to talk to other than my family and my boyfriend. I mean it’s nice to have them but sometimes I think it’d be nice to have a friend.
Everyone says not to room with your best friends because the relationship will be ruined. I didn’t believe that and I kind of still don’t. I just learned who my real best friend was. It’s funny because even though my old friends have treated me like crap, I still think about them and I still care about them too.
It’s hard for me to make friends in college. I’ve tried tons of times and haven’t had much luck. Those friendships stay in the classroom as usual. Hopefully one day I’ll make some friends. Plus it’s so hard to have time to. I feel like I’m constantly doing homework. Maybe it will be easier when I’m done with “the best years of my life.” I can’t wait until it’s over.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Blog 31
I went to my first Ohio State University football game today. My sister, Amanda, bought my student tickets and her student tickets. My sister, Vanessa, received free tickets from her work. So we had four tickets altogether. My brother and my boyfriend came with me and Vanessa. Amanda didn’t want to go and was nice enough to give us her tickets. Billy wanted to sit in the student section so him and Vanessa sat there. My boyfriend, Daniel, and I sat all the way in 10C-Deck with lots of older people. I pretty much had a guy announce the whole freaking game to me.
But it was alright. My favorite part was, of course, seeing the Ohio State BAND!!! I don’t know everything about football and I was in band when I was in high school so my geeky-dorky-band-nerdiness came out (sorry for making up words, teacher!!!) I love it! I really wanted to try out for the band but I recently got braces and I haven’t picked up my trumpet since I graduated. Hopefully when I get my braces off I can start playing again. So that was definitely my favorite part and I hope you guys don’t get mad and think I’m ridiculous because of it.
So, on the way home to Chillicothe the traffic was terrible. Everyone wanted to go to the Pumpkin Show. I kind of wanted to go to it this year, but it still doesn’t feel the same as when I went during high school because my high school band went and marched the parades on Thursday of the show. I got to hang out with my friends and we had a blast. The only part I hated was my band director made us play our school fight song. It was, and still is, Michigan’s fight song. I hated it. That song should be banned from Ohio Schools!!!
As you can tell, I miss being in band. It’s just not fun playing a trumpet by myself.
But it was alright. My favorite part was, of course, seeing the Ohio State BAND!!! I don’t know everything about football and I was in band when I was in high school so my geeky-dorky-band-nerdiness came out (sorry for making up words, teacher!!!) I love it! I really wanted to try out for the band but I recently got braces and I haven’t picked up my trumpet since I graduated. Hopefully when I get my braces off I can start playing again. So that was definitely my favorite part and I hope you guys don’t get mad and think I’m ridiculous because of it.
So, on the way home to Chillicothe the traffic was terrible. Everyone wanted to go to the Pumpkin Show. I kind of wanted to go to it this year, but it still doesn’t feel the same as when I went during high school because my high school band went and marched the parades on Thursday of the show. I got to hang out with my friends and we had a blast. The only part I hated was my band director made us play our school fight song. It was, and still is, Michigan’s fight song. I hated it. That song should be banned from Ohio Schools!!!
As you can tell, I miss being in band. It’s just not fun playing a trumpet by myself.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Blog 30
For this blog, I have no idea what to write about. Then again, I don’t think I ever know what to write about. My brother is watching the Toy Story 2 right now with the television blasting so it’s kind of hard to think of something interesting to write about for you guys. My family always has a television turned all the way up. I come home every weekend and sometimes it’s not the greatest idea because it NEVER seems to be quiet which makes doing homework even harder to accomplish.
My sister just found my blogger and now I’m embarrassed because she’s reading it.
So, since I have Toy Story 2 screaming in my ears, I will tell you that I like Woody better than Buzz. Anyone else agree or no? I guess I’ve just always liked him because he was the simpler toy. Buzz just seemed cocky when he made his appearance and Woody seemed to be pushed aside. Even though Woody did make a mess, he knew what he did was wrong and fixed it. I don’t know. Maybe I’m not making sense. I just liked Woody more. Enough said.
How cute is Bullseye though? Ahhh, adorable!
And last but not least, anyone watch Toy Story 3? It was ridiculously sad. My brother and sister cried. I think my boyfriend cried too but he won’t admit it. I admit that my eyes might have watered. It was funny because when I was waiting in line to go in and the group that had watched it before us left the theater I was wondering why they looked so depressed. I understood why when I finished the movie. I loved it.
How do you guys feel about it? (:
My sister just found my blogger and now I’m embarrassed because she’s reading it.
So, since I have Toy Story 2 screaming in my ears, I will tell you that I like Woody better than Buzz. Anyone else agree or no? I guess I’ve just always liked him because he was the simpler toy. Buzz just seemed cocky when he made his appearance and Woody seemed to be pushed aside. Even though Woody did make a mess, he knew what he did was wrong and fixed it. I don’t know. Maybe I’m not making sense. I just liked Woody more. Enough said.
How cute is Bullseye though? Ahhh, adorable!
And last but not least, anyone watch Toy Story 3? It was ridiculously sad. My brother and sister cried. I think my boyfriend cried too but he won’t admit it. I admit that my eyes might have watered. It was funny because when I was waiting in line to go in and the group that had watched it before us left the theater I was wondering why they looked so depressed. I understood why when I finished the movie. I loved it.
How do you guys feel about it? (:
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Blog 29
Okay, people who have watched the majority or all of Firefly can probably help me on this. Oh and I can’t give you pieces of my actual paper yet because it’s under construction. I’ve changed my argument for the third time so I’ll give you some information on ideas that I need help on.
I’m doing my paper on ethnocentrism, which is the tendency to judge others as inferior and your culture as superior. My paper will be about how Firefly presents this as a serious problem, but that it’s a fixable social problem. In other words, it’s about how people fear what they don’t understand. I’m also going to include it’s ways or attempts to resolve ethnocentrism as the importance of my paper.
The scene I chose to stand out the most is in the episode “Safe.” This is when Doralee, the village teacher accuses River of being a witch and then the whole village is convinced as well. The part I want to show that it’s being fixed is perhaps when Mal comes and rescues them calling the crew “heroes.” So, I got that down, but I also want to show how Rivers abilities affect a few of her relationships with the crew as well. The crewmembers that I want to use are: Jayne, Mal, and Kaylee.
That’s the hard part for me. I’m not sure which exact scenes I want to use for Jayne. I feel like watching all of the episodes gave me a disadvantage because I’m using how he feels about River from more than one episode. I can easily pick out an scenes for Mal and Kaylee but I’m struggling to get one scene for Jayne that shows his ethnocentrism. Maybe it will just take watching over all of Firefly again. Perhaps I can use something from “Objects in Space.” Should I just find a scene where Jayne comes out and just says he wants her off the ship because she’s weird?
Also, I’m going to make my real world connection based on things that make people feel uncomfortable like homosexuality or immigration. Do you guys have any ideas? Maybe race could even work or the roles of women and men.
I appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Blog 28
I took my theatre midterm today and I got a 100 percent which is pretty awesome! I know it’s already known to be an easy class, but it’s still something to be happy about since I’ve been having a crumby school year so far. Scantrons scare me though. I had about four filled in B’s in a row. B’s and D’s were the majority of my answers. I also started making a diagonal line in one of my columns. I wonder if they do this on purpose to make you freak out.
So, did anyone see the article on yahoo news called “End of Earth Postponed?” It made me giggle. What I grasped from it is that they don’t know if the Mayan calendar has ended or when it will end. They think it might be off by 50 or 100 years. So yippee for the end of the world being postponed! I thought it was silly seeing that. Does anyone really find that stuff interesting or does everyone think it’s a little bit exaggerated? I’ve never really paid attention to news like that.
So, did anyone see the article on yahoo news called “End of Earth Postponed?” It made me giggle. What I grasped from it is that they don’t know if the Mayan calendar has ended or when it will end. They think it might be off by 50 or 100 years. So yippee for the end of the world being postponed! I thought it was silly seeing that. Does anyone really find that stuff interesting or does everyone think it’s a little bit exaggerated? I’ve never really paid attention to news like that.
Well I will end this blog with some randomness and a picture again. I was looking through the pictures on my family’s main computer and I see a picture of me and my family after my graduation in 2009. It was a nice family picture, right? Well, I was clicked on the next picture and I see that someone has painted a beard on my face and named the picture file as “Graduation_Jesus.” I wanted to be angry but I could only laugh. Thank you to my sister, Amanda, for the laugh. I hope you enjoy it as well.
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| Left to right: Daddy, Papa, Mama, ME, Mommy, Vanessa, Billy, Amanda |
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Blog 27
Okay, so this blog will most likely be a bit random. I have to study for my theatre exam tomorrow and do some Spanish homework which makes me sad because I actually wanted to take time to try to write a neat and interesting blog for once.
So, we get to the Firehawk and it is everyone’s first time riding! Before we got on, someone threw up standing in line right in front of us and the ride kept shutting down due to some problems but we were determined! We looked for the camera while standing in line so we could prepare for our awesome picture. Wanna see it???
As you can see, you CAN’T see my smiling face because of my hair. I laugh when I go on rollercoasters. I don’t know why, but it’s better than screaming I suppose. My sister, Amanda, who is terrified of heights, is giving the heavy metal death horns. My brother, Billy is….well, I don’t know what he’s doing but it was funny. And last but not least, my daddy is clenching onto his dentures. We laughed so much that day. Any of you guys have funny amusement park stories?
Well, I just got back from my math exam. I already know I didn’t do well. I felt like I studied my butt off and it didn’t help. So, if any of you are good at math 150 and are willing to help a classmate out, it’d be much appreciated. Who knows? I could buy us some food to snack on as well.
Anyways, two years ago my sister, brother, daddy and I went to Kings Island. It was my little brother’s first time and he was excited! Well, we end up riding everything and I was extremely proud of him for not being a chicken. If it would’ve been me at 11 years old, I would have probably cried.
So, we get to the Firehawk and it is everyone’s first time riding! Before we got on, someone threw up standing in line right in front of us and the ride kept shutting down due to some problems but we were determined! We looked for the camera while standing in line so we could prepare for our awesome picture. Wanna see it???
As you can see, you CAN’T see my smiling face because of my hair. I laugh when I go on rollercoasters. I don’t know why, but it’s better than screaming I suppose. My sister, Amanda, who is terrified of heights, is giving the heavy metal death horns. My brother, Billy is….well, I don’t know what he’s doing but it was funny. And last but not least, my daddy is clenching onto his dentures. We laughed so much that day. Any of you guys have funny amusement park stories?
Monday, October 18, 2010
Blog 26
I never imagined that I would be doing English homework in the Math tutoring room. I do not feel prepared for this week. I have a math exam tomorrow and I’m not so confident going into that. I’ve been quite alright with all my other math classes I have taken so far, but I feel like Math 150 is kicking my butt. It frustrates me that I have never had the opportunity to learn pre-calculus until now. It makes me feel really dumb. But I guess all I can do is try my best.
I will now talk about my pet fish. I don’t know why but I named my fish Garth Algar. He’s a pretty cool fish. He’d rather be by himself in his tank because he doesn’t like sharing his fish flakes. He also likes floating upside down. Well, I’m not sure if he likes doing that, but he does it a lot, especially when he’s hungry. Does anyone else have pet fish that do that? He scares me a lot because I always think he’s dead and I’m afraid one day, I’ll see him floating and think he’s just playing but he’ll actually be dead. He also lets me pet him. We have a computer desk right besides where his tank is and he stares at me when he’s hungry. He’s one of the weirdest fish I’ve ever owned.
So, any of you guys have pets that do funny/weird things? Any funny names? I also have a Chinese Crested. Those are the hairless dogs. He’s actually much cuter than what they typically look like. We named him Kimo.
I also used to have this rooster. He didn't have a name. We just called him rooster. Well, we let him run around loose in the yard and when he got hungry he would peck his beak on the front door like he was knocking. It was hilarious. I'm done talking about randomness. Talk to you later!
I will now talk about my pet fish. I don’t know why but I named my fish Garth Algar. He’s a pretty cool fish. He’d rather be by himself in his tank because he doesn’t like sharing his fish flakes. He also likes floating upside down. Well, I’m not sure if he likes doing that, but he does it a lot, especially when he’s hungry. Does anyone else have pet fish that do that? He scares me a lot because I always think he’s dead and I’m afraid one day, I’ll see him floating and think he’s just playing but he’ll actually be dead. He also lets me pet him. We have a computer desk right besides where his tank is and he stares at me when he’s hungry. He’s one of the weirdest fish I’ve ever owned.
So, any of you guys have pets that do funny/weird things? Any funny names? I also have a Chinese Crested. Those are the hairless dogs. He’s actually much cuter than what they typically look like. We named him Kimo.
I also used to have this rooster. He didn't have a name. We just called him rooster. Well, we let him run around loose in the yard and when he got hungry he would peck his beak on the front door like he was knocking. It was hilarious. I'm done talking about randomness. Talk to you later!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Blog 25
I have felt really tired and crappy lately. I’m still working on my thesis, but I think this time I actually know how to move forward and fix it. I just get really frustrated with writing. It’s my least favorite subject. I hate writing. I hate arguing. I hate analyzing. I wish I did like it though. It’d make this paper much more pleasant to….write.
I envy people who do like writing and reading. I’m not big on reading either. I just can’t get myself to sit down and read. It makes me really sleepy. Is anyone else like this? Speaking of school subjects, how did any of you decide what major to pick? Was it obvious to you? If so, I hate you. I’m just playing, kind of. This is my second year and I have yet to declare a major. I thought I wanted to go through with middle school education and teach math and science. Then I thought, and realized that I don’t love those subjects. As a matter of fact, I’m tired of school so why would I want to have school in my life for…well, the rest of my life?
So now I’m turning a different direction and looking into nursing. Anyone know anything about it? I’m just exploring majors. I know people say not to pick jobs because of the money, but at this point I find it hard to pick a major that I will know I like. I wish there was a major that required chilling at home doing whatever I wanted.
Sorry about all the negativity. I suppose I just needed to vent. (:
I envy people who do like writing and reading. I’m not big on reading either. I just can’t get myself to sit down and read. It makes me really sleepy. Is anyone else like this? Speaking of school subjects, how did any of you decide what major to pick? Was it obvious to you? If so, I hate you. I’m just playing, kind of. This is my second year and I have yet to declare a major. I thought I wanted to go through with middle school education and teach math and science. Then I thought, and realized that I don’t love those subjects. As a matter of fact, I’m tired of school so why would I want to have school in my life for…well, the rest of my life?
So now I’m turning a different direction and looking into nursing. Anyone know anything about it? I’m just exploring majors. I know people say not to pick jobs because of the money, but at this point I find it hard to pick a major that I will know I like. I wish there was a major that required chilling at home doing whatever I wanted.
Sorry about all the negativity. I suppose I just needed to vent. (:
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Blog 24
I went to a Chinese buffet today. Oh man, I love Chinese food but after eating it, I feel like I gained 30 pounds. I always think it’s a great idea to go to buffets and then I regret it afterwards. By the way, can a buffet place kick you out if you stay all day? I was wondering and considered testing it out. Anyways, today’s blog, as you probably already noticed, will end up being me blabbing and not making any sense.
So, anyone else really enjoy Firefly? It’s really funny because I was terrified when our teacher said we had to watch science fiction and I thought she was exaggerating when she said that most people who watch it end up liking the show. She was definitely right. I watched all of the episodes for my entertainment and it makes me really sad that there aren’t any more to watch.
In other news, my dad bought apple cider and apples from a farm called Hirsh’s in my hometown, Chillicothe. He went in asking the employee which apples were the best and they pointed them out for him. He goes to check out his items and it rings up as 23 dollars. He said, “They must be reallllllyyy good apples!” It was funny. It was around 18 dollars for a bag of 14 apples. They were definitely worth it though. I had one this morning. They are huge, juicy, sweet apples. It was the best apple I have ever had in my life.
Okay, I’m done rambling. I have math homework to do. Night!
So, anyone else really enjoy Firefly? It’s really funny because I was terrified when our teacher said we had to watch science fiction and I thought she was exaggerating when she said that most people who watch it end up liking the show. She was definitely right. I watched all of the episodes for my entertainment and it makes me really sad that there aren’t any more to watch.
In other news, my dad bought apple cider and apples from a farm called Hirsh’s in my hometown, Chillicothe. He went in asking the employee which apples were the best and they pointed them out for him. He goes to check out his items and it rings up as 23 dollars. He said, “They must be reallllllyyy good apples!” It was funny. It was around 18 dollars for a bag of 14 apples. They were definitely worth it though. I had one this morning. They are huge, juicy, sweet apples. It was the best apple I have ever had in my life.
Okay, I’m done rambling. I have math homework to do. Night!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Blog 23
Wow, the first day I get to decide what I want to write about and I have no clue. I will now start rambling. Well, I just got done writing my second draft for my Analytical Research Paper. I’m glad I have finally found a direction to move towards. However, I’m a little afraid of the response I will be getting soon. I’m never confident when it comes to writing. I’d rather do 32893289328 math problems than write a paper. I don’t even really like math.
So, I was glancing at a few of your blog and I find myself being a little jealous of your fun weekends arriving. :p All I get to look forward to is studying for Spanish, Math, and Theatre exams/quizzes coming up at the beginning of the week. Ick!
But I’m home for the weekend, as usual. It’s always nice seeing my family even if I have to study every day of it. Oh and after tonight about 57 more days until Christmas break!!! Anyone else like counting down the days? I’m usually not that type of person except when it comes to having a break from school.
So, how about the weather? I’m not sure if I’m ready for it to start getting cold. I’m really nervous for when the time comes for it to start snowing. Has anyone else lived off campus before? It takes me a little under 30 minutes to walk from my apartment to class every morning so I can only imagine how long it will take me when it snows. I enjoy the walk but I’m not a big fan of being cold.
So, I was glancing at a few of your blog and I find myself being a little jealous of your fun weekends arriving. :p All I get to look forward to is studying for Spanish, Math, and Theatre exams/quizzes coming up at the beginning of the week. Ick!
But I’m home for the weekend, as usual. It’s always nice seeing my family even if I have to study every day of it. Oh and after tonight about 57 more days until Christmas break!!! Anyone else like counting down the days? I’m usually not that type of person except when it comes to having a break from school.
So, how about the weather? I’m not sure if I’m ready for it to start getting cold. I’m really nervous for when the time comes for it to start snowing. Has anyone else lived off campus before? It takes me a little under 30 minutes to walk from my apartment to class every morning so I can only imagine how long it will take me when it snows. I enjoy the walk but I’m not a big fan of being cold.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Blog 22 I think.
So, today I have just come up with a completely new thesis. I realize that I’m going to be missing information for this blog that must be researched and given better thought to. So I apologize and in the mean time, bear with me. By the way, I wouldn’t mind any feedback!
Religion is a major part of many lives. Many of these faiths have certain ways of living, certain beliefs to hold, and certain standards to follow. When someone has a religion, they tend to believe everything that they are to believe in as a fact. Often they impose those beliefs on others who don’t hold the same faiths, or even those who don’t follow their organized structures the way they do. Most people get so involved in their religion that they fail to see that they’re choosing standards for everyone else. What is neat yet scary about this, is that these standards that human beings choose to live by could simply be made up. With that said, Doralee accusing River of being a witch demonstrates that belief systems, such as religion, cause one to make inaccurate judgments on others by referencing their beliefs as fact.
In the Firefly’s “Safe,” River and Simon are kidnapped and taken to a small village in need of a doctor. While being there, River has bonded with a little girl named Ruby who hasn’t spoken for the past two years and is believed to be mute. After a day of playing, River explains Ruby’s past to Doralee, a village teacher, and Simon. Doralee was amazed and thought of River as an angel for getting Ruby to talk. This moment quickly turns when River explains that Ruby cannot talk because her voice had been scared away. Doralee then accuses River of being a witch and says “thou shall not suffer a witch to live.”
This brings me to my real world connection. I want to write about the witch trials, politics over topics such as abortion, and perhaps the preacher that goes on the oval and yells as students walk to class that they’re going to hell because apparently he’s the only person that believes in his religion. :P
Obviously, I have yet to look into some articles and information to further explain the real world connection, but I’ll get right on top of that!
Religion is a major part of many lives. Many of these faiths have certain ways of living, certain beliefs to hold, and certain standards to follow. When someone has a religion, they tend to believe everything that they are to believe in as a fact. Often they impose those beliefs on others who don’t hold the same faiths, or even those who don’t follow their organized structures the way they do. Most people get so involved in their religion that they fail to see that they’re choosing standards for everyone else. What is neat yet scary about this, is that these standards that human beings choose to live by could simply be made up. With that said, Doralee accusing River of being a witch demonstrates that belief systems, such as religion, cause one to make inaccurate judgments on others by referencing their beliefs as fact.
In the Firefly’s “Safe,” River and Simon are kidnapped and taken to a small village in need of a doctor. While being there, River has bonded with a little girl named Ruby who hasn’t spoken for the past two years and is believed to be mute. After a day of playing, River explains Ruby’s past to Doralee, a village teacher, and Simon. Doralee was amazed and thought of River as an angel for getting Ruby to talk. This moment quickly turns when River explains that Ruby cannot talk because her voice had been scared away. Doralee then accuses River of being a witch and says “thou shall not suffer a witch to live.”
This brings me to my real world connection. I want to write about the witch trials, politics over topics such as abortion, and perhaps the preacher that goes on the oval and yells as students walk to class that they’re going to hell because apparently he’s the only person that believes in his religion. :P
Obviously, I have yet to look into some articles and information to further explain the real world connection, but I’ll get right on top of that!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Blog 21: Integrating Quotes 2
We as human beings, make decisions and judge based on information given to us. We often do not fully know the full story to many people, places, and things. Usually, when given information that guide us toward negativity, we think whatever it is we are judging is bad. If we are given positive information, we will think positively. It depends on the outcome. Both Rocio Garcia-Retamero and Jorg Rieskamp, faculty of the University of Granada specializing in psychology, help justify my argument when they said, “when people face an inference situation with missing information, they will, on a basis of learning, most likely apply the mechanism for treating missing information that leads to the best performance.” (Garcia-Retamero and Rieskamp, 1991). The authors are stating that people make opinions based on the information they are given. This is great for explaining why people judge the way they do. For instance, most viewers think Jayne, from Firefly, seems to be a horrible man. The director of the show chooses to let scenes of Jayne’s selfishness stand out. However, if a person does not watch all the episodes of Firefly and makes the accusation that Jayne only cares about his self, they will not know that he actually does contain a considerate and generous side of him. This brings to me my last point. Maybe it is okay to make judgments based on the information given to us, but should we also think about the possibilities of what makes information seem good or bad? The real life example could simply be one choosing a political party to side with. Seeing negative information about a party could sway you to another and vice versa. When we choose, we tend to see if one aspect outweighs another to make our decisions. If, however, we don’t research all the information of politics, we could be making the wrong assumptions.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Blog 20: Integrated Quotes
Caring for one’s own family seems to be one of the top priorities in life. In many cases, even mine, family cannot be replaced and they tend to come into play when making even the simplest decisions. Fleming, a journalist, helps justify this when he states that, “The lines are always drawn first around one’s own family.” (Fleming, 25). What Fleming is trying to say is that we are genetically loyal to our families. He argues that this loyalty within family is what causes unfairness, tension, and fights with others. This is because of the simple fact that we have that bond with our families that seems to be stronger than connections with people who aren’t genetically related. He also states that this is problematic when resources are limited. This information helps relate to why Jayne backstabbed River and Simon in the episode “Ariel.” We learn that from “The message,” he is sending money to his family, where we also learn that his sister is ill. This shows that Jayne took advantage of an opportunity that would get him money faster to care for his family. It might seem like Jayne was being selfish, but he was being selfish for his family. This is what we usually call being ‘selfless.’ A real world connection could simply be parents working for a reasonable salary to support their household. Jayne’s relationship between his crewmembers might not be as strong as his bond with his family, but that still doesn’t necessarily mean that he doesn’t care for human beings besides family (which I will also argue at a different time because this doesn’t relate to my integrated quote.) This quote helped me better understand Jayne’s actions.
Monday, October 11, 2010
Blog 19: Article FOUR
The fourth article deals the most with what I want to argue. Finally! This article is called, “Family bond obsession: A form of racism.” I was looking into the article to see why family ties are strong. However, I did not find much information on that besides the fact that it’s genetic.
The author’s argument is that it’s racist to want your child to succeed and for other children to fail. We see that in everyday life. Everyone is competing. Most parents want their children to succeed. There is actually a term for it!
“Genism: favouring your own child over everyone else.”
Now, even though wanting a child to succeed is not the argument I want to make, I can still use this. You see Jayne portrayed throughout Firefly as a backstabbing, selfish, always-thinking-about-himself man. That’s what I thought of him. But looking closer, I realize he is doing those things not only for himself but for his family. A lot of people in today’s society feel very protective and loyal with their family. I know I do. In my case, my family comes before anyone else.
In this article, the author explained that our genetic loyalties are the causes of all the fighting and all of the wars. He is mainly saying that we should not only wish the best for the ones we care for, but wish everyone the best.
I can see that in Jayne as well. In “The Message” you see that he is giving money to his family, but in other episodes, you can see that he cares for the crew as well. Even though his loyalty and bonds might not be as tight with the crew as with his family, he is still capable of caring.
Fleming, Peter. "Family bond obsession a form of racism." 23-25. Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, 2007. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.
The author’s argument is that it’s racist to want your child to succeed and for other children to fail. We see that in everyday life. Everyone is competing. Most parents want their children to succeed. There is actually a term for it!
“Genism: favouring your own child over everyone else.”
Now, even though wanting a child to succeed is not the argument I want to make, I can still use this. You see Jayne portrayed throughout Firefly as a backstabbing, selfish, always-thinking-about-himself man. That’s what I thought of him. But looking closer, I realize he is doing those things not only for himself but for his family. A lot of people in today’s society feel very protective and loyal with their family. I know I do. In my case, my family comes before anyone else.
In this article, the author explained that our genetic loyalties are the causes of all the fighting and all of the wars. He is mainly saying that we should not only wish the best for the ones we care for, but wish everyone the best.
I can see that in Jayne as well. In “The Message” you see that he is giving money to his family, but in other episodes, you can see that he cares for the crew as well. Even though his loyalty and bonds might not be as tight with the crew as with his family, he is still capable of caring.
Fleming, Peter. "Family bond obsession a form of racism." 23-25. Eureka Street Magazine Pty Ltd, 2007. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2010.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Blog 18: Article 3
The next article I decided to read is “Is Greed good?” Now, I’m not sure what the author’s answer was to the question: Is greed good? But the article did give me good ideas that helped me bring up some questions about Firefly.
The article was based on experiments on EBay. It let me see the percentages on sellers willing to sell their items and buyers willing to buy. It explained that if the seller sells the item and fails to send it, buyers will give bad reviews and even though the seller has the money, they won’t get any more sales.
I was always wondering why Mal was able to return the money to people that gave him business when he wasn’t able to complete the job, especially when people like Niska threaten him. His job is sort of like EBay. If Mal fails to do his job, or if he charges too much for his items, it will get around and he will not have any more job offers.
I’m not sure I can agree with that. I am willing to share like that but I don’t think most people are like that. This leads me to use Jayne as an example. If Jayne was willing to share money, he wouldn’t have secretly turned on River and Simon during “Ariel.” I do see that he was willing to share in later episodes, but I believe it’s because he is able to stay alive and stay on Serenity. That is fair for him also. So he isn’t really losing anything.
Hopefully I can incorporate this article in my paper. I did like some of the points brought up.
Uhlhaas, Christoph. "Is Greed Good?." Scientific American Mind 18.4 (2007): 60-67. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Oct. 2010.
The article was based on experiments on EBay. It let me see the percentages on sellers willing to sell their items and buyers willing to buy. It explained that if the seller sells the item and fails to send it, buyers will give bad reviews and even though the seller has the money, they won’t get any more sales.
I was always wondering why Mal was able to return the money to people that gave him business when he wasn’t able to complete the job, especially when people like Niska threaten him. His job is sort of like EBay. If Mal fails to do his job, or if he charges too much for his items, it will get around and he will not have any more job offers.
Another point I would like to make is that the article explained that a lot of people are fair even when given the chance to be greedy. It gave an example with a child having jelly beans. If the child’s friend asks to have some of the jelly beans, the child will most likely end up giving up close to half or half of his jelly beans to his friend.
I’m not sure I can agree with that. I am willing to share like that but I don’t think most people are like that. This leads me to use Jayne as an example. If Jayne was willing to share money, he wouldn’t have secretly turned on River and Simon during “Ariel.” I do see that he was willing to share in later episodes, but I believe it’s because he is able to stay alive and stay on Serenity. That is fair for him also. So he isn’t really losing anything.
Hopefully I can incorporate this article in my paper. I did like some of the points brought up.
Uhlhaas, Christoph. "Is Greed Good?." Scientific American Mind 18.4 (2007): 60-67. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Oct. 2010.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Blog 17: Article TWO
Apparently, I'm still working on making a thesis since I failed to do that in my rough draft. I guess that's the hardest part for me. So, I'm looking at articles relating to selfishness, greed, and selflessness. I'm hoping that can guide me somewhere. Well, for today's blog, I decided to read a very interesting article called "The Paradox of Selflessness." If anyone's in for a short but good read, I would definitely view this.
I believe that the author’s argument was that there is no such thing as selflessness. There were some neat reasons to back this up. She states that when you do a selfless act, you are actually doing it for a selfish reason--to feel good about yourself. Or you could being doing that act to give yourself piece at mind. For instance, I could see a homeless dog outside of my home and give it food. Sure, that sounds selfless. But here’s the thing to consider: the thought of not doing that “selfless” act would haunt me. Therefore, I’m being selfish because I’m doing this act for the sake of having piece with myself.
Another neat point she brought up is forgiving someone for doing wrong to you. Is that really being selfless? Let’s say that my friend stole my money. I would be upset and angry. I control how I feel though. I’m the one destructing myself. Forgiving my friend is being selfish because I am healing myself from my own harm. I hope this doesn’t sound too confusing. I think I want to head down this road for my paper. It’s interesting and arguable.
Marques, Joan. "The Paradox of Selflessness." Journal for Quality & Participation 30.1 (2007): 17-19. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Oct. 2010.
I believe that the author’s argument was that there is no such thing as selflessness. There were some neat reasons to back this up. She states that when you do a selfless act, you are actually doing it for a selfish reason--to feel good about yourself. Or you could being doing that act to give yourself piece at mind. For instance, I could see a homeless dog outside of my home and give it food. Sure, that sounds selfless. But here’s the thing to consider: the thought of not doing that “selfless” act would haunt me. Therefore, I’m being selfish because I’m doing this act for the sake of having piece with myself.
Another neat point she brought up is forgiving someone for doing wrong to you. Is that really being selfless? Let’s say that my friend stole my money. I would be upset and angry. I control how I feel though. I’m the one destructing myself. Forgiving my friend is being selfish because I am healing myself from my own harm. I hope this doesn’t sound too confusing. I think I want to head down this road for my paper. It’s interesting and arguable.
Marques, Joan. "The Paradox of Selflessness." Journal for Quality & Participation 30.1 (2007): 17-19. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 9 Oct. 2010.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Blog 16: Article 1
The first article I chose to read for my Analytical Research Paper is called “Too good to live.” The argument that I feel the author of it tried to make was simply this: No one likes people who are selfish, and no one favors people who are selfless, also.
This article was based on an experiment. The experiment was that a person would play a computer game with three other computers, thinking the computers are actually other human beings participating. In the game, the players were given 10 points in each round. During the game, the players could put points in a combined back called “Kitty.” Doing this doubles the points in the Kitty and then each player is allowed to take a quarter of the points from the Kitty to put in their own personal bank. I’m not sure what the actual game was about because it was lacking some information about the game, but at the end of it, the points would be turned into lottery tickets for meals.
After having participants participate in this experiment, a survey was done. The survey concluded that people should only take from the kitty as much as they’re willing to put in. However, the participants didn’t like the selfless players (the computers) because it makes anyone else look bad for taking points out of the Kitty.
Maybe this doesn’t necessarily relate to the topic I want to discuss for my paper, but I can relate it in certain ways. For instance, I don’t think Jayne liked the fact that the community still thought of him as a good person in “Jaynestown” after they found out what he had actually done. This caused him to destroy his statue and call a boy that jumped in front of a bullet for him “stupid.” As a viewer myself, I did not like that Mal and his crew are crooks. The part that bothers me is that there are other ways to go about money.
It was an alright article.
This article was based on an experiment. The experiment was that a person would play a computer game with three other computers, thinking the computers are actually other human beings participating. In the game, the players were given 10 points in each round. During the game, the players could put points in a combined back called “Kitty.” Doing this doubles the points in the Kitty and then each player is allowed to take a quarter of the points from the Kitty to put in their own personal bank. I’m not sure what the actual game was about because it was lacking some information about the game, but at the end of it, the points would be turned into lottery tickets for meals.
After having participants participate in this experiment, a survey was done. The survey concluded that people should only take from the kitty as much as they’re willing to put in. However, the participants didn’t like the selfless players (the computers) because it makes anyone else look bad for taking points out of the Kitty.
Maybe this doesn’t necessarily relate to the topic I want to discuss for my paper, but I can relate it in certain ways. For instance, I don’t think Jayne liked the fact that the community still thought of him as a good person in “Jaynestown” after they found out what he had actually done. This caused him to destroy his statue and call a boy that jumped in front of a bullet for him “stupid.” As a viewer myself, I did not like that Mal and his crew are crooks. The part that bothers me is that there are other ways to go about money.
It was an alright article.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Blog 15: What do I hope to find?
For my Analytical Research Paper, I want to know why people make their life revolve around money. I guess I could say that Jayne has his job for the sake of making money fast. Of course, that’s why we all have jobs—to make money. Saying that does give me confusion. I say this because money is a necessity. Can materialistic items really cause humans to be so selfish and willing to hurt or backstab others? These little pieces of paper seem to have a lot more power than living things. What makes money so important that it convinces people it is acceptable to acquire it by having types of jobs, such as thieving, even though there are more moral means of achieving a salary? And are we all untrustworthy to an extent? I hope to find the answer to those questions.
Works Cited
Engeser, Stephan, and Thomas Langens. "Mapping explicit social motives of achievement, power, and affiliation onto the five-factor model of personality." Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51.4 (2010): 309-318. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.
Works Cited
Engeser, Stephan, and Thomas Langens. "Mapping explicit social motives of achievement, power, and affiliation onto the five-factor model of personality." Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 51.4 (2010): 309-318. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.
Holden, Stephen. "FILM REVIEW; You Insecure, Back-Stabbing Superhero You." New York Times 22 Sept. 2000: 22. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.
Leinwand, Donna. "Fine line between stealing, surviving." USA Today: Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.
Parks, Craig, and Asako Stone. "Too good to live." Economist 396.8696 (2010): 67. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.
Sandberg, Jared. "Sabotage 101: The Sinister Art Of Back-Stabbing." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 11 Feb. 2004: B1. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Oct. 2010.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Blog 14: "Ariel" - Firefly
I picked Episode 9 which is called "Ariel" as the focus of my research paper, well as of now. The reason I picked this episode is because it has a lot to do with Jayne and he was one of my favorite characters from the beginning. Watching this episode has made me change my opinion about him. Of course, I still think he is hilarious, but I do have a love/hate relationship going on with the character.
I believed Jayne to be a trustworthy guy. I disregarded how he got onto the ship, what he had done in the episode “Jaynestown,” how he wanted to ditch his crewmembers at times to deliver the goods, and a few other events that should’ve let me to believe otherwise. That’s how I felt before this episode.
A recap of what happened in the episode is the following. Simon comes up with a plan to break into the hospital and steal medicine that is supposedly worth a ton of money. While doing this, Simon also wants to do this job to do a scan on River with the hospital’s technology to help figure out what is wrong with her. While the crew is busy with stealing the medicine, Jayne is to stay with Simon and River while they’re doing the scan. Jayne, however, sneaks and calls the Alliance to turn in the two fugitives, Simon and River, for a big pile of reward money.
Jayne doesn’t end up getting the reward money and helps River and Simon escape because he is tied up with them as well. No one knows what Jayne had done in the end except Mal. It’s funny, too, because Jayne does end up getting money in the end still. He got his share of the medicine money.
I want to write something along the lines of: With Jayne’s life always revolving around money, it is impossible for one to not be greedy. Who knows? I’m indecisive and might change my mind on what I want to write about.
I believed Jayne to be a trustworthy guy. I disregarded how he got onto the ship, what he had done in the episode “Jaynestown,” how he wanted to ditch his crewmembers at times to deliver the goods, and a few other events that should’ve let me to believe otherwise. That’s how I felt before this episode.
A recap of what happened in the episode is the following. Simon comes up with a plan to break into the hospital and steal medicine that is supposedly worth a ton of money. While doing this, Simon also wants to do this job to do a scan on River with the hospital’s technology to help figure out what is wrong with her. While the crew is busy with stealing the medicine, Jayne is to stay with Simon and River while they’re doing the scan. Jayne, however, sneaks and calls the Alliance to turn in the two fugitives, Simon and River, for a big pile of reward money.
Jayne doesn’t end up getting the reward money and helps River and Simon escape because he is tied up with them as well. No one knows what Jayne had done in the end except Mal. It’s funny, too, because Jayne does end up getting money in the end still. He got his share of the medicine money.
I want to write something along the lines of: With Jayne’s life always revolving around money, it is impossible for one to not be greedy. Who knows? I’m indecisive and might change my mind on what I want to write about.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Blog 13: "War Stories" - Firefly
Watching “War Stories” made me think of when we, as a class, were talking about loyalty within the crew. In the episode, Wash gets jealous of Mal and Zoe’s relationship. He doesn’t like how close they are and how well they work together. In this episode, he asks Zoe when she’s ever going to have her own opinion because she always agrees with Mal.
Also, did anyone else catch Kaylee's reaction in the end when she saw River? She seemed a bit freaked out because earlier in the episode River was able to shoot the enemies with her eyes closed. I'd probably feel the same way.
I believe that since Mal and Zoe have been together, they both think very similarly. They both have captain/leadership qualities in them and they’re always one step ahead of the game. Is it possible for people to think that much alike though? Or maybe Wash is right. Maybe Zoe isn’t capable of having an opinion besides Mal when he’s in the picture.
Also in the episode, Wash decides to go do some business with Mal instead of Zoe. I guess you could say he was second-in-command for the day. He does this because of his jealousy. Well, business goes wrong and Niska, an evil man in business, kidnaps them for torture. While they are busy getting tortured, Zoe and the rest of the crew realize something went wrong. Zoe collects all the money they have. She goes to Niska to trade the money for her men. Niska allows her to take one. It was surprising to see that she took Wash. I know it is her husband but she is so loyal to Mal. Maybe she realized that Mal was strong enough to last while she could figure out how to save him. Maybe she was just committed to her relationship with Wash. Either way, I think she made a good choice.
The crew all works together to get Mal back. They end up breaking in Niska’s ship and they shoot all of his men. Well, Simon couldn't aim and Kaylee was too afraid, but Book and River sure did good with shooting. With that said, I think Jayne is growing to care for his crew. He kept telling Zoe the plan to just go in and attack was suicide but didn’t hesitate to go with his crew and get their captain back.
Also, did anyone else catch Kaylee's reaction in the end when she saw River? She seemed a bit freaked out because earlier in the episode River was able to shoot the enemies with her eyes closed. I'd probably feel the same way.
Monday, October 4, 2010
"Ariel" - Firefly
Watching episode 9 of Firefly gave me plenty to think about, but the most I focused on was Jayne. Throughout the episode, each one of the crew members helps each other out in one way or another. But surprisingly to me, Jayne turns on Simon and River for reward money.
Simon composes a plan for the crew to steal medicine from the hospital they’re near in return that they help him and River get into the hospital so Simon can do some scans on River to figure out what’s wrong with her. While no one was watching, Jayne called the Alliance to catch their fugitives so he could score big time with reward money. Jayne, however, doesn’t receive the money and is now locked with River and Simon. They do end up escaping and the whole crew reunites on Serenity without ever knowing what Jayne did.
In the end, Mal realizes what Jayne has done and confronts him by almost letting him fly out of Serenity for punishment. Jayne said he didn’t do anything to Mal or the other crew members. He only did it to Simon and River. Mal immediately says that turning on any of the crew members is like turning on him. So, questions that I have unanswered are: Was it fair for Mal to say Jayne turned on him also? I recall Mal leaving Simon and River in a town in one episode after they had been captured. Even though Mal did come back for the two, he still left. Can that be equal to Jayne turning on River and Simon because in the end Jayne fought to help all three of them escape? Was it okay for Jayne to turn on them? In one episode, Simon almost let Kaylee die if the crew didn’t help him and his sister escape from the Alliance. In this episode, River tried attacking Jayne and ended up cutting him. Would that be considered her turning on the crew also? Or is that incident allowed to be overlooked because she has problems?
The questions I asked made me feel a little bad for Jayne and made me realize that everyone has faults. But did he go too far? I can certainly say that I’m disappointed in him the most. By the way, aren't those two Alliance men crazy? Why doesn't that high pitched noise stick make them bleed to death? We now understand "two by two, hands of blue!"
Simon composes a plan for the crew to steal medicine from the hospital they’re near in return that they help him and River get into the hospital so Simon can do some scans on River to figure out what’s wrong with her. While no one was watching, Jayne called the Alliance to catch their fugitives so he could score big time with reward money. Jayne, however, doesn’t receive the money and is now locked with River and Simon. They do end up escaping and the whole crew reunites on Serenity without ever knowing what Jayne did.
In the end, Mal realizes what Jayne has done and confronts him by almost letting him fly out of Serenity for punishment. Jayne said he didn’t do anything to Mal or the other crew members. He only did it to Simon and River. Mal immediately says that turning on any of the crew members is like turning on him. So, questions that I have unanswered are: Was it fair for Mal to say Jayne turned on him also? I recall Mal leaving Simon and River in a town in one episode after they had been captured. Even though Mal did come back for the two, he still left. Can that be equal to Jayne turning on River and Simon because in the end Jayne fought to help all three of them escape? Was it okay for Jayne to turn on them? In one episode, Simon almost let Kaylee die if the crew didn’t help him and his sister escape from the Alliance. In this episode, River tried attacking Jayne and ended up cutting him. Would that be considered her turning on the crew also? Or is that incident allowed to be overlooked because she has problems?
The questions I asked made me feel a little bad for Jayne and made me realize that everyone has faults. But did he go too far? I can certainly say that I’m disappointed in him the most. By the way, aren't those two Alliance men crazy? Why doesn't that high pitched noise stick make them bleed to death? We now understand "two by two, hands of blue!"
Sunday, October 3, 2010
"Out of Gas" - Firefly
For the episode of my choice, I watched “Out of Gas” which is the 8th episode. This episode flashes back to when Mal was just starting his career as a thief. So basically, it was when he was purchasing Serenity and putting together his crew. Zoe was already by his side. He finds a mechanic who wasn’t Kaylee. Next, he finds his pilot, Wash. It’s funny because Zoe did not like him when they first met.
While Mal was fixing up the ship, he went to check on his mechanic to see if he made any progress to get the ship running, meaning it still wasn’t able to fly. When Mal did this, that’s how we meet Kaylee. The mechanic took Kaylee on the ship to have a little sexy time. When Mal confronted him, the mechanic said why he wasn’t able to fix the ship. Kaylee makes the mechanic look like a complete idiot by actually telling Mal what was wrong with the ship and then fixes it. Mal immediately offers her the job.
Next that comes in the picture was Jayne. After doing some work, a team that Jayne was on was holding Mal and Zoe at gun point to steal what they had. Mal questions how much Jayne is making and makes a deal with Jayne to give him a job on Serenity with his own room and more pay. Jayne immediately turns on his old team and joins Mal.
I find it funny that Jayne turned on his old team. I don’t think he would ever turn on Mal or the crew now even if at times it seems like he would. I can’t remember which episode it was, but Jayne was offered more money than he was getting, enough to buy himself his own ship, if he turned on Mal. Saying that, I think Mal put together a great crew.
I want to give a little more background about the episode so I can hit on my last point. So, Serenity has a problem and catches on fire. The crew ends up getting the fire out but now the ship needs a part that they don’t have. Without the part, the ship will not run and they will run out of oxygen and die. Mal tells the crew to take the shuttles and he will stay behind to see if he can pick up signal with other ships for help. Mal gets a signal from another ship. When the captain of the ship boards to give Mal the part he needs, they shoot Mal and try to take Serenity. Mal is able to get a gun and threaten to shoot their Captain if they don’t get off Serenity and leave the part.
In the end of the episode, the crew ends up saving Mal. They come back for him even though Mal gave them orders to fly off in the shuttles and not come back. This reminds me of what a family would be like. It’s nice to see that strangers can be so loyal to each other and are willing to protect each other. I guess another example would be making friends. The more we’re around someone and actually like them, the more loyal and trust there will be. It was a great episode.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
"Jaynestown" - Firefly
Episode 7 of Firefly focuses a lot on Jayne, which I was happy about. He always makes me laugh.
The crew goes to this small town where they’re going to buy stock for business. Jayne flips out and wears ridiculous clothing to hide himself from enemies he said he has there. When they get there they see a nice mud statue of Jayne. Later on at a bar, a man starts singing a song that apparently the whole town knows. It was about Jayne being a hero. It was hilarious! The crew was shocked. Jayne explained that he stole money from the boss of the mud work. He was a hero because when he escaped in a plane he dropped the money on the workers who were treated badly and didn’t get paid right. The townspeople took that as him stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Later on, we find out that Jayne didn’t mean to drop the money. He tried to push weight off of the plane because it had been shot at and needed to be lighter so he could escape. It was more of an accident. Once the people of the town find out Jayne feels extremely bad, admits the truth, and destroys his unworthy statue.
Did Jayne use his title as a hero to an advantage? I think so. I think he liked the attention that maybe he was lacking. I believe this could happen to anyone though. You'd have to put yourself in a position where you were trying to gain for yourself. Instead, you make a mistake which gains for others who are also in need. Even if it were a mistake, wouldn't you still feel a little proud of yourself? I am pleased that Jayne had enough guts to admit what he did and didn’t ask anyone to feel sorry for him.
And the scene where River was “fixing” Shepherd’s bible was amazing. She is so smart that she overanalyzes things. She said the Bible didn’t make sense, not with all she knew. Shepherd basically said that you can’t fix faith but if you allow it faith can fix you. It was neat seeing River put the Bible back the way it was. It also looked like she was copying one for herself as well. She took what Shepherd said and simply applied it. Maybe it will help her out in the end.
Friday, October 1, 2010
"Safe" - Firefly
I watched Episode 5 of Firefly for my choice. There were many things I could analyze but I want focus on something Kaylee said to Simon during a tiny argument. The argument took place in a tiny gift shop when Kaylee asked Simon if he was having a good time and having fun. He responds with sarcastic and rude comments about Serenity, Captain Mal, and living on the ship. In other words, he wasn’t enjoying his stay on the ship especially while having to deal with his sister River.
Kaylee responded in a way like: If that’s what you think of this life, then you can’t think much of that choose it, can you?
I agree. A lot of people comparing lifestyles to the ones they want, are in ways ranking or judging others who actually do choose any life they don’t choose. It happens all the time. It’s funny because when I hear people talk about how much they hate their life they’re usually not happy with themselves either. Simon the doctor is ranking Kaylee’s life lower than his because he is a doctor who lives more of the high class life while Kaylee absolutely adores working on Serenity as a mechanic.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on jobs. One job doesn’t necessarily make another job better because it pays more or it’s needed more. I believe that a person should pick a job that makes them happy. If you don’t like a job or lifestyle, don’t put other people down who are completely content with THAT lifestyle. Find one that pleases you. Kaylee really surprised me in this episode. She stood up for herself and for what she believed was right.
On a side note, did it make anyone else mad that Mal left Simon and River? I was really disappointed in him and I didn’t give him any credit for coming back to get them at the end. Maybe Kaylee told him “behind the scenes” that it was wrong for him to ditch them. :P
Kaylee responded in a way like: If that’s what you think of this life, then you can’t think much of that choose it, can you?
I agree. A lot of people comparing lifestyles to the ones they want, are in ways ranking or judging others who actually do choose any life they don’t choose. It happens all the time. It’s funny because when I hear people talk about how much they hate their life they’re usually not happy with themselves either. Simon the doctor is ranking Kaylee’s life lower than his because he is a doctor who lives more of the high class life while Kaylee absolutely adores working on Serenity as a mechanic.
Maybe we shouldn’t be so hard on jobs. One job doesn’t necessarily make another job better because it pays more or it’s needed more. I believe that a person should pick a job that makes them happy. If you don’t like a job or lifestyle, don’t put other people down who are completely content with THAT lifestyle. Find one that pleases you. Kaylee really surprised me in this episode. She stood up for herself and for what she believed was right.
On a side note, did it make anyone else mad that Mal left Simon and River? I was really disappointed in him and I didn’t give him any credit for coming back to get them at the end. Maybe Kaylee told him “behind the scenes” that it was wrong for him to ditch them. :P
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