Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Blog 12- Ideal University
My ideal university would be an affordable one where you only take the classes needed exactly for what you want to be or get into. Since it cannot be free, I would like one that is $50-$100 per class. College classes range from 20-200 students and my price range seems manageable. There is no need to pay thousands of dollars for classes that are required as general education classes but do not relate to your field of study. Most people end up switching their majors freshman and sophomore year and have to take different general education classes for their new major and that just wastes a lot of money for them. If a student is placed in a class specifically for their field of study and realizes that is not what they want to do with their life, it would not be a waste of $400, it would just be a waste of $75, and people spend that much on a pair of shoes they’d only like two times. Books should be like how they are in high school, free. If the book is lost or damaged then the person has to pay for it, and only then.
The housing should be completely up to the students. They should be able to chose who they want to live with and who is on their floor so there is not one girl who stays up until 2 AM blasting music while the girl down the hall is trying to sleep. If someone wants to switch rooms they should be able to if there is another available room right then. The long room change process is not necessary if someone is miserable where they currently reside. The housing costs should not be $4,200 a year when 30 people are sharing two bathrooms. If five people come together and pay that much, they could get an apartment off-campus for the same price and that is ridiculous. The housing rates should be $1,000 a year because there is so little space in a room and the bathroom situation is so inconvenient.
Athletes should not be treated any differently from non-athletes at a school. Sure they have responsibilities to perform their best on the team, but they should not get first pick on everything on the campus. Even though a person could be the best basketball player the world has ever seen, if they have a 2.1 GPA graduating high school they should not get accepted into a college over someone with a 3.6 GPA. To me that only encourages high school athletes to focus on their sport and just barley pass classes so they can get full scholarships to colleges and not worry about their academics.
The housing should be completely up to the students. They should be able to chose who they want to live with and who is on their floor so there is not one girl who stays up until 2 AM blasting music while the girl down the hall is trying to sleep. If someone wants to switch rooms they should be able to if there is another available room right then. The long room change process is not necessary if someone is miserable where they currently reside. The housing costs should not be $4,200 a year when 30 people are sharing two bathrooms. If five people come together and pay that much, they could get an apartment off-campus for the same price and that is ridiculous. The housing rates should be $1,000 a year because there is so little space in a room and the bathroom situation is so inconvenient.
Athletes should not be treated any differently from non-athletes at a school. Sure they have responsibilities to perform their best on the team, but they should not get first pick on everything on the campus. Even though a person could be the best basketball player the world has ever seen, if they have a 2.1 GPA graduating high school they should not get accepted into a college over someone with a 3.6 GPA. To me that only encourages high school athletes to focus on their sport and just barley pass classes so they can get full scholarships to colleges and not worry about their academics.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Blog 10- Homeboys
The visual and textual rhetoric of the shirts have no effect on me. I see a lot of graphic T-shirts all the time at work. The "Jesus is my Homeboy" and "Mary is my Homegirl" T-shirts just seem like another design that does not stick out to me. The only graphic T’s that get a reaction out of me are ones with Spongebob on it because that is my favorite cartoon, or one that implies something sexual and twelve year olds are walking around in it. I do not see the shirts as a parody because I just do not take graphic T’s serious unless there is negative cursing towards an object or something like that. To me it seems as if Mitchell expects people to notice a small difference in someone’s appearance. He says, “I expected someone to say something, anything. But no one did” (Envision in Depth 324) and that is what I would expect. If it is not something extremely different and bizarre then no one would notice it. Wearing a shirt with a painting of the Crucifixion at a rock concert is different, but people are not there to judge fashion. They go there for the music. I am not deeply religious so that may have altered my perception about this. If the shirt just had the text and not the picture, I do not think the way I acted about it would have changed. The way I interpret Jesus in each shirt is just a religious figure that people are comfortable enough with to talk to about anything.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Blog 7- So Many Problems
1. Love is Blind- This is an R&B song about two people of the same gender being in love and no one else seeing why they are. They want to get married and some are for it and others are opposed. The song explains their love for each other and why they and others like them should be able to get married.
2. The Chance to Never hold You- This country song is about a woman deciding whether or not to have a baby she is pregnant with. She decides to go through the pregnancy and give the baby up for adoption.
3. The Love that Hurt Too Much- This R&B song is about a woman who is in an abusive relationship. The few friends that know about her situation tell her to get out and get help.
4. Bang Bang- This country song is about a young boy who found his father’s gun in a drawer and started playing with it and accidently killed himself. The mother tries to get guns banned in her city.
5. No Meat to Eat- This pop song is about animal cruelty and why it should be stopped. It talks about the bad things that are done to the animals.
In Love is Blind the two men trying to get married try to persuade the public to vote for same-sex marriage to be legalized in the United States. They explain that it will not corrupt the society and that using the excuse that it goes against God is not a valid argument either because not everyone believes in God. It also talks about the reasons why people are opposed to gay marriage and how they come up with irrational reasons for being against it.
The album cover is a map of the world with a sad puppy face on it, a rainbow heart, a gun, a baby’s face, and a tear drop. The sad puppy face represents animal cruelty, the rainbow heart symbolizes same-sex marriage, the gun represents gun violence, the baby’s face is a symbol for abortion, and the tear drop represents the issue with domestic violence.
2. The Chance to Never hold You- This country song is about a woman deciding whether or not to have a baby she is pregnant with. She decides to go through the pregnancy and give the baby up for adoption.
3. The Love that Hurt Too Much- This R&B song is about a woman who is in an abusive relationship. The few friends that know about her situation tell her to get out and get help.
4. Bang Bang- This country song is about a young boy who found his father’s gun in a drawer and started playing with it and accidently killed himself. The mother tries to get guns banned in her city.
5. No Meat to Eat- This pop song is about animal cruelty and why it should be stopped. It talks about the bad things that are done to the animals.
In Love is Blind the two men trying to get married try to persuade the public to vote for same-sex marriage to be legalized in the United States. They explain that it will not corrupt the society and that using the excuse that it goes against God is not a valid argument either because not everyone believes in God. It also talks about the reasons why people are opposed to gay marriage and how they come up with irrational reasons for being against it.
The album cover is a map of the world with a sad puppy face on it, a rainbow heart, a gun, a baby’s face, and a tear drop. The sad puppy face represents animal cruelty, the rainbow heart symbolizes same-sex marriage, the gun represents gun violence, the baby’s face is a symbol for abortion, and the tear drop represents the issue with domestic violence.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Blog 5- Steroids= Cheating
When I first saw this video I was a little shocked because I thought steroids caused a lot of problems because that is what I heard from other people. When the old man who had been using them for 40 years started talking about how he was in such great shape because he used them caught me off guard. The video fails to address how seeing success stories like the old man influences young boys who want to be in great shape and be muscular. The weak argument in the video was the anabolic steroids show no great side effect to healthy adult men, but they never mentioned the effects on healthy women. I think the video does a good job at suggesting that the steroids could be used responsibly, but then again any drug could be used responsibly.
From the UIL Anabolic Steroid Testing Program site I was surprised to see that within a year the number of positives went from two to seven, and that was just Texas alone. I know high school students take steroids because some are too good to just have talent, but I thought there would be one superstar athlete in a state, if that. I personally think that all high school students should be tested for steroids no matter the sport or how great they are. If they are amazing off of talent only they should not have to be accused of taking steroids, and if they were taking steroids then they should not be allowed to compete. I think if you are taking any type of steroids in high school or professionally then you should not be able to compete because I think that is cheating. You are taking a substance to get better while the person you compete is training harder than you and you become better than them is unfair.
I know America’s culture pushes people to work harder than ever and exceed being the best, but taking steroids defeats the purpose of being the best. That makes you a fraud in my eyes: Being the best thanks to a substance.
From the UIL Anabolic Steroid Testing Program site I was surprised to see that within a year the number of positives went from two to seven, and that was just Texas alone. I know high school students take steroids because some are too good to just have talent, but I thought there would be one superstar athlete in a state, if that. I personally think that all high school students should be tested for steroids no matter the sport or how great they are. If they are amazing off of talent only they should not have to be accused of taking steroids, and if they were taking steroids then they should not be allowed to compete. I think if you are taking any type of steroids in high school or professionally then you should not be able to compete because I think that is cheating. You are taking a substance to get better while the person you compete is training harder than you and you become better than them is unfair.
I know America’s culture pushes people to work harder than ever and exceed being the best, but taking steroids defeats the purpose of being the best. That makes you a fraud in my eyes: Being the best thanks to a substance.
Friday, February 20, 2009
GU Drinking
Georgetown University enforced more rules to try to stop excess drinking on the campus and in housing owned by the campus. Once news of the new rules spread around campus students became outraged and began to protest (qtd. in Kinzie). Although I'm not big on under aged drinking or getting drunk every weekend, I don't think that Georgetown University should suddenly enforce strict drinking rules and expect students to follow them. Dan Castrigano, a student at GU says "Eighteen-, 19-, 20-year-olds are going to drink. You just have to be smart about it." which is completely true to me (qtd. in Kinzie). Since students between the ages of 18 and 20 have been drinking on the campus before the strict rules, they will continue to drink afterwards, but they will just be more secretive about it. I think the university should continue to have events on campus that are not focused on drinking, but at the same time accept the fact that excessive drinking will happen on or off the campus and try to set rules that ease up to the strict rules enforced now. One student says that the university “can't just suddenly clomp down, put all these rules in after letting people do whatever they want for so long" (Brown qtd. in Kinzie) which is understandable and many students would agree with her.
Georgetown University created new rules to limit drinking on the campus and I think that was a very smart idea of them to do (qtd. in Kinzie). I do not like under aged students to be allowed to drink on a campus when it is illegal and get away with it. Students are still allowed to host parties on campus as long as there are two 21-year-old people registering for it and know that there is only one keg allowed per party (qtd. in Kinzie).
Georgetown University created new rules to limit drinking on the campus and I think that was a very smart idea of them to do (qtd. in Kinzie). I do not like under aged students to be allowed to drink on a campus when it is illegal and get away with it. Students are still allowed to host parties on campus as long as there are two 21-year-old people registering for it and know that there is only one keg allowed per party (qtd. in Kinzie).
Monday, February 16, 2009
Portfolio 2 Thesis
There should only be designated smoking areas 20 feet from buildings and no smoking while walking on the George Mason University campus.
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