Assigned Entry #6

The Atom

Where can the internet take you? From your room to outer-space. The amount of information provided is beyond imaginable. Sharing your thoughts brings happiness, sadness and sometimes anger. Digging through other people's mind can be interesting but searching through your own is more challenging. Fingers idle on a keyboard is like holding a pencil on a blank piece of paper. And sometimes it is hard to overcome a blank piece of paper and screen.


This is writing. This is the world wide web and blogging is just a small piece of that world. Incredibly small. Pretty much micro small. Like looking at an atom that is how small. But like an atom it is useful. Companies use it to post up and coming events and information. Everyday users post anything from useful information to children's photos.


Blogging is fun, no doubt about it. I enjoyed it. But I could have done more research and time into it.  I enjoyed last semester's blogging more, but may have been because all that I needed was at my fingertips. For this semester blogging I took a bite too big to chew. Originally I wanted to personally take photos, ask people out on the street and even the people behind the counter. But instead I ended up not having time for that, or even going out. Which is what my blog centered around.  I am going to miss blogging and this class. Farewell, goodnight and I hope to run into you again sometime.

A Little Shot of Java

 The best places are hidden in a little alley way, in a lesser known place. Like the pizza place, that was one of my first entries, Slices, Shot of Java is hidden away. Tucked into an alley. But it has the best chai tea that I have ever tasted. Yes, I have tried Starbucks. I have tried tons of other places tea but none compare. Not even homemade. This is the perfect little shop to relax and have a drink. All the art in the shop is from local artist that are for sale. All the pastries are from local businesses.

On Thursday nights there are open mics, which is more like karaoke. The owner of the shop is normally behind the counter making, ordering, and ringing up the costumers. She is extremely nice and very connected with her community.

Every time I go in there I always tell her that I wish that she had more coffee shops, because she, in my opinion has the greatest little coffee shop ever. She just says, "Someday" with a big smile. I truly hope someday comes soon.

Assigned Entry #5

I Am A Mother Father, Post?

A hundred years ago this kind of music would be banned. In fact more then half of our music would be. Modern music has a huge influence on today's younger generations. And their parents are not helping, I see all to often parents purposely telling and making their childern say/ see/ do very adult things that will cause a psychological issues is the future. Why is there this need to have the most famous kid out there on the internet? Or belief that it is cute when a baby's first words are "fuck?"

 What brought this to my attention, besides working with the general public is when I happened across MattyBRaps Cover of PSY's Gentleman. Thankfully his parents (or he) was wise enough to change the lyrics to the song.

  Although the song is originally in Korean the song talks of some pretty disturbing things that young ears should not listen to. Take a listen to many of the songs on the radio, they too are probably not acceptable. IJustine from Youtube has make a video giving some of the original translated lyrics from Gentlemen.When looking into the lyrics myself I found to be what IJustine found to be correct to the best of my knowledge. You may look for yourself of course. Here is the website I found.

 

 This is the original video.

As I said before it is not only music that is the problem. Some parents practically encourage their children to use profanity like there's nothing wrong with it. Parents rarely discipline their kids when these words are used in school. You can see in this next video of a parent taking no notice that their child is using such words.

 

 In the past parents spanked and put soap in the mouths of their children when they swore. I am not encouraging abuse or anything like that. But when I grew up we had a jar where if any of us in the household cursed then we would have to pay the jar; and who ever cussed the less got the money.  My parents at the least were trying to be role-models, not hypocrites. Which is what we need much more in society. I am not saying ban the music. I am saying set an example that they would want to follow, that will lead them to a path of success.

Con_ NIchiwa!

Conventions are always fun, no matter how interest you are into the subject that is at hand. Well unless it is a business convention. There conventions for everything and some are huge. The largest of them all is Comic Con. But there are others some more general, others more specific.


Welcome To Con_nichiwa!


A Japanese manga and anime convention. Taking its place in Tuscan, Arizona; it is a nice little get away. One thing you should know about cons, it is always better to dress up as something rather then nothing. Though this was a anime convention, many still dressed up as something else that was still dear to a nerds heart. Video games, legends of comic books even stormtroopers and mermaids come out for the event.

The day is filled with panels that either educate, have contests, evoke debate on a subject or to just have fun. Which it is all fun. There are dances at night, the pool is cool and welcoming and the people are just as friendly. This one come once a year for a weekend. But there is others, many others. There is another anime convention coming up at the end of August, called Saboten Con. This one is bigger and is a lot closer to home. In fact it is right by the Cardinal's Stadium. And I would like to say hey come on over to step out of reality and into fantasy.

Assigned Entry #4

It is pretty amazing what America has come to. I do not believe George Washington would have ever expected it. He expected other things like if there were ever political parties that people will vote for the party not the idealism of the people that are running it. But not this. After watching Capitalism A Love Story by Micheal Moore, one really gets to see how messed up America is. Some things are just beyond common sense. Our country is not billions of dollars but trillions of dollars in debt. 59 trillion dollars in debt as of today and is increasing second by second. Some of it is us as, citizens, spending money on things we can not afford. Then there company bailouts. Which is ironic. Capitalism is supposed to this ideal system where people has a chance to try and make the best thing out there and if they do then they will become rich doing it until someone else makes something better. This is a system that is supposed to encourage growth in both better products and encourage people to be the best one out there. One of the natural things that is supposed to happen in this system those who get beat by another are to fall. To fall because they did not adapt to the new need of the public. But that is not what is happening today. These business have gotten so big, greedy and controlling that when they fail our government bails them out. Bails them out because supposedly without them we would be worst off. But why is the government meddling with this system? If these companies are not able to handle their money wisely and each time they fail our government bails them out then what is stopping them from not trying to succeed in being debt free? They get basically free money when they choose to be careless with it. Why are we promoting this? In just bailouts alone we are 9 trillion dollars in debt. Would you keep letting a friend borrow money from you, knowing they will never at least try and pay it back? I hope not. This film is filled with facts of how America is tainted. This was something that bothered me, but there is certainly more bothersome things that happen in there. And is why I am asking you to view this film, critically (because everybody has a lean on something), and start changing how you look and the businesses you go to and the in debt government that pays them to keep their doors open.

Huzzah!

One of my favorite times of the year is not Christmas, nor is it Easter. It is the Arizona Renaissance Festival.

Far, far away in a land filled with turkey legs and oddities. There was performers and acted their part to symbolize and romanticized version of the renaissance. Dressed all up and in the best of moods they helped the people of this day and age escape. Escape into great food, great entertainment and some of the best handmade stuff out there.

It is nice to step into one of the most romanticized time periods. Not only all the staff dress to fit the 1500s, so are some of the costumers. Including me. To me it has always been more exciting and interesting to dress the part then to dress in "normal" clothes. But the clothing is just the icing, in fact it was just me getting ahead of myself. This festival has a permanent structure that is stylistic the time period.Venders come in each year to sell (normally) hand crafted items including, corsets, goblets and wands. But there are many, many more. The are a verity of acts that go on through the day; my favorite is Hey Nunny Nunny and the the last jousting of the evening.  But Some of the most popular ones are the Dead Bob show and Barley Balanced. This place is filled with magic and a great time, and I would recommend it to anyone. Because with all the stress of the real world it is nice to get away.

Assignment #3

Crashed Course

 Arizona State University is to offer more short classes. A crash course of a semester. Many fear it, some recommend it.  But ASU is not the only campus to do this. Both Grand Canyon University and Glendale Community College offer these classes. To me I believe it is excellent for students to have a choice. I currently have two of my close friends, Amber and Emela, attending GCU and are both taking these short classes. From what they tell me they like how they only have to focus on 2 to 3 classes at a time and because it is half the time, one semester is 5 to 6 classes.But having jumped right into this style classes, both have never experienced a full "normal" course of college. But when hearing of my "normal" classes in college, Amber stated, "I think I would prefer to take the short semester classes because even though they are

compact I only have to worry about a few at a time, instead of taking four to five at one time and trying to keep up with all of them." In some ways this is something that I might prefer as well. I have heard many talk of how a shorter course and a faster graduation will make the students from college less ready for the"real" workforce then the regular set of students. I disagree. The schooling process for a lot of colleges is not what it needs to be. The students coming out of the short classes should be the same amount of unprepared as the other students. Although the crash course semester is getting a larger amount of classes done in a shorter amount of time, it does not mean it is a shorter amount of school hours worked.  Each person should know which would be better for them and whether or not they can handle it. To each their own.