Blogging Reflection

Blogging for the last few weeks has been an interesting project. I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would though. Having the opportunity to write about whatever I wanted to and also talk about any other topic that was assigned as well as respond to blogs posted by my classmates was interesting. It enabled all of us to have the chance to voice our thoughts and opinions and bounce ideas off each other. Blogging is definitely one of the projects we've been assigned that I actually somewhat enjoyed doing.

Violence and Women

What happened between Chris Brown and Rihanna has brought up many issues. Not only have celebrities once again opened up the opportunity to be labeled and criticized for the things they've done wrong, this issue has definitely sent out the wrong kind of message to fans worldwide.

"Rihanna and Brown's punch drunk love is sending a dangerous message to their young fans," says Jane Velez-Mitchell. I very much agree with this because not only are they sending out the message that it's okay for Brown to do this with Rihanna forgiving him, it also brings in the fact that it's okay to abuse women.

Violence and women has been an issue for a while. You hear about it all the time but most don't think much of it. It's sad that people suddenly don't start paying attention to such a dangerous issue until something having to do with it and celebrities occurs. This has been a societal problem for a long time. The fact that there is still so much of this that occurs is disturbing.

Barbie Article

Ever since Barbie was first created, people have become infatuated with the image she has created. The image of the "perfect woman," created by Barbie, has mislead many young girls. Like the author of the article explains, young girls worldwide have become obsessed with them but why is this?

Girls have become more envious of Barbie's perfect image however the image that she's created is in reality, quite decieving. I think the real attraction to these dolls is the perfection that they model; every young girl wants to be beautiful, successful, ect. Barbie has become the model for all of this and more. She's labeled as the perfect woman but in reality, if Barbie was a human, she wouldn't be able to walk because her feet aren't proportionate to the rest of her body.

The audience that Barbie is targeted at is young girls. Because of this, Barbie has created this unattainable persona for children all over the world. Barbie is seen as the perfect woman that everyone loves. If you were a young girl, why wouldn't you want to be Barbie?

The Death Penalty Response

Should the United States abolish capital punishment, not because it's an issue of morality but an issue of saving government money during a time of economic hardship? Instead of being sentenced to death row, should prisoners just spend the rest of their lives in a jail cell?

After reading the article about the death sentence, I found myself conflicted as to whether or not I thought capital punishment should be stopped however I did come up with a couple different points of view.

In one hand, the United States wants to stop capital punishment because states have found that it's actually cheaper to imprison convicts for life as opposed to killing them off. My personal opinion aside, why would the United States base their decision of whether or not to stop capital punishment strictly on how much it will cost our country? Is morality no longer an issue? Or should all prisoners be punished with death for their crimes? I think that if saving money does become the real issue, then yes, maybe they should stop capital punishment and use the money toward increasing the value of education or something like that.

After much thought and consideration, in my opinion, I think that the United States should discontinue the death penalty. Not to be crude but i don't think that criminals should be able to take the easy way out with getting killed. If a person is imprisoned for a serious crime, I believe that they should have to suffer for what they have done. I find that with death via the death penalty, gives criminals the opportunity to escape from the world and not have to live with their crimes. I think that a life sentence in prison is far more worse than being killed because all you do is sit in a cell, like a vegetable, for the rest of your life.

Responding to this article was a challenge for me. Talking about a subject such as capital punishment is a strong issue in which I think all individuals should have the chance to express their opinions about, no matter what they are.

Euthanasia Response

I don't believe it's right for a person to have a choice to die. I think that the choice of death should be left up to fate, no matter how devestating and unfair it can be. Then bringing in fate, you bring in the topic of God and religion and that's a whole different subject.

Depending on the situation, choosing to die is both acceptable and unacceptable. If it's a situation involving a thoughtless suicide where one believes they don't have anything left to go on and they're only 23 years old, then that is completely wrong. But if they're in their older years, maybe dying of a painful disease, then sure i think they should have a choice as to whether or not they want to continue longer with this disease or if they want to end it now to stop the pain.

I think the whole "right-to-die" movement depends on a lot of things. I'm not saying it's right or wrong; I'm just saying that no one should want to die. You should always live life to it's fullest.

Where in the World

I've always loved traveling, whether it's by plane, by car, or by train. I have been to so many different countries and seen so many different cultures. I'm hoping to continue my travels throughout college and for years after that.

I've been to Mexico, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Germany, and England. It's not the longest list but I'm hoping to continue my travels and hopefully go back to some of these countries in the near future.

What I like most about traveling is the opporunity I get to see and experience other places. I'm hoping to get a better camera soon but I love photogrpahy so when I'm traveling around Europe, I take tons and tons of pictures. I love what a lens can do to a landscape- it just creates instant beauty that I find mezmerizing. I think when i'm older, I'll move to Europe and travel around to every country there, just to capture beauty in a snapshot =]

Random Assignment

So in one of my creative writing classes, we're exploring different literature in different cultures. Currently, we're working on researching about Mexican culture. So this morning, Mr. Craddock gave us a list of some Mexican directors and we were told to youtube search them to see some examples of their work. The first person on the list was this director named Luis Bunuel so my friend Kelly and I clicked on one of the videos that came up and this is what it was- but just so you know, the video is a little disturbing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZE2w0QlmVU

You're going to have to copy and paste the link because i can figure out how to put up the actual video from youtube. But not only was this video completely random, why would someone choose to create a little film about it?

Ohh My Puggies

I have two pugs. The first one, Nessie, is about ten and she's really old, obese, and adorableee. We first got Nessie when she was just a little baby. She was sooo cute but as she's been getting older, she's been getting lazier and she eats the tissues out of my garbage a lot... but i still love her =]

I got my second pug, Paisley, about a year and a half ago. She was rescued from her previous owners who abused her and kept her in a cage only for breeding purposes for about six years. We heard through some friends that she needed a family and since we were thinking about getting another pug anyway, we decided to take her in.

During the first couple months that she lived with us, she was very skeptical about everything. She flinched whenever there was a loud noise, if you moved towards her too quickly, or if she heard a deep voice. She was very scared because of how she was previously treated so it definitely took a good half a year until she became more comfortable in her environment. Because she stayed in a cage basically her whole life, the front half of her is overdeveloped so she looks kinda butch and then her back two legs have a lot of nerve damage from not being used so she kinda drags them around. She still scoots around pretty fast for only having two well-working legs but she has to wear a little doggie diaper because her bladder is unpredictable from the nerve damage.


Now a days, Paisley and Nessie spend their days sleeping in their little beds by the heater, playing with their toys every now and then, and eating lots and lots. I love my little puggies so much so that's why I thought I'd write about them =]

Response to the Jacob Weisberg Article

"The sorry predicament of the newspaper industry has given rise to a testy argument about journalism's future." As said in the article, "Dubious New Models for News," reporter Jacob Weisberg points out the commonly talked about issues among many different news corporations around the world.
There are many different ways of accessing international news whether it be through the internet, on the radio, through print journalism, etc. The internet however has served as a primary source for attaining news. In the article, some editors argue that news organizations are careless to release their news for free on the internet for they don't make a profit when really, organizations draw in the majority of their revenue through internet advertising.
I think it's a wise move to release news through more than just the classic style of print journalism. With the technology we have today, there are so many more ways to connect to people all around the world all through news.

A Common Topic

Seems to be anything having to do with college, whether it be the application process, awaiting to hear back from colleges, or the excitement of being accepted. I was recently accepted to SUNY Buffalo State college and I feel extremely accomplished. Although Buff State is my second choice college and I haven't heard back from the other three that I applied to yet, I'm really relieved that i at least got into one of my tops schools =]

The application process is really quite extensive and requires a lot of time, energy, and possibly a couple months, depending on how many schools you're applying to and whether or not you have your materials together in order to complete the things you need to before sending in your apps.

Though many of you are most likely all only waiting on replies from your colleges, my advice to all current high school seniors and future high school students is to get everything done ahead of time. That way, you'll have everything taken care of and it'll take off a lot of stress by the time Christmas comes around. Good luck to all of you on your college apps!

Caitlin's Lost Kitty

So one of my co-workers, Caitlin, lost her kitty the other day. It wasn't on purpose but somehow the little kitty escaped and whichever roommate who accidentally let her out was too lazy to go and get her. So now she's gone. Her name is Gremlin but will answer to Fluffy or Fluffy Monster. She's about 6 months old, incredibly small and fluffy, and lost out in the cold. I feel really bad for Fluffy. It's quite unfortunate that she's lost aaaanddd that there are mean kitty eating dogs in the neighborhood... that kind of sucks. So if you see a small, fluffy-looking, lost kitty around the Goodman/ Clinton intersection, it's probably Fluffy.

Poor little Fluffy.