HW 18 - Health & Illness & Feasting

So my Thanksgiving experience Health wise was honestly just as unhealthy as just as everybody else's. An excess amount of carbohydrates from the biscuits and mash potatoes and stuffing. The massive amounts of tryptophan from the turkey that knocks you out into the biggest food coma all year round. So my family pretty much loves to embrace the holiday spirit of unhealthy eating habits of the traditional Thanksgiving rituals. But besides the feasting the immediate health of my was overall good because everyone seems to have lost weight and just overall seemed in a better mood. As well I feel the good mood was attributed to my little nephew whom had his first Thanksgiving at only a the first few months of his life. I believe that because of Leo my family got along a lot better then they use to have, specifically the in law side of my family through my sisters husband, he brings our families together in a better way for us to get along.

Illness during my Thanksgiving Experience really didn't have a threshold at all on my family. The only person whom is really sick in my family is my aunt whom had a small form of cancer but is successfully beating it and my grand father on my mothers side whom is fighting breathing problems and a bad knee from complications of smoking and old age. But since my grand mother and grand father don't get along well they go to separate parts of my families Thanksgivings. This year my grandfather went to my other aunts Thanks giving feast rather than ours and my grand mother went to ours. Of course we love our sick family members but we know now that at the moment they are in good conditions so we really don't stress heavily over their possibility of dying because it is highly unlikely.

XC-Quarter 4 -Babies

Response to question #1:

I believe that all of the cultures presented in the documentary "Babies" show great examples of the different types of parenting different cultures give their young. I feel that there was none the less a best type of parenting of the types that were shown in the film but that doesn't mean that any of them are bad in anyway. At the least they could possibly be described as not as fortunate as other cultures. What I'm talking about is the comparison between the Japanese care giving which I believe was the best, and I'm comparing it to the Namibia care giving. In the documentary I saw the Japanese care giving as the best because It was the most modern, I saw both parents handling the child, and the parents used the Ferber method of letting the baby cry to let them soothe themselves. Now for the Namibia type of care giving I thought it was too much of an type "Old World" of care giving and very unsafe. When the mother wipes her babies bottom with her knee to basically clean him to me I just feel that now a days we have so many new techniques and resources available to us that nobody should not be using. It really hit me when the child was just playing with what seemed to be his brothers and they were trying to eat rocks and just play in the dirt, it just seems primitive to me. And as well for the Mongolian and America(San Francisco) types of care giving I thought really didn't come to par with the Japanese type of care giving either because the American on was modern as well but there didn't seem to be much discipline which I feel is needed when teaching a child how to grow up. And the Mongolian care giving I feel could of also had more care in the care giving I barely saw even the mother with the child at times it was usually just him and his brother just messing with him and making him cry al of the time.

Response to question #3:

What was universal between all of the parents care giving to their children was the love and the teaching that they brought into their children. For example trying to teach them to speak to them, trying to teach them to walk, feeding them, bathing them, and having fun with them by letting them explore. I feel that all of these things are hard wired into every human being from birth. I feel this because every human before us just as you can see as a modern example that still hasn't changed much from it's past the Namibian type of care giving I believe is inside of all of us. Where and what we grow up with determines how we also use the things around us to take care of our children. If you grow up in a modern environment you would alter your form of care giving such as the Japanese and American forms of care giving. But overall what is with us forever as humans is our primitive instincts to take care of our young and nurture them to grow into adulthood and be with them every step of the way. I believe that is our primitive calling as humans to continue to breed and care for our young, die and then the cycle starts all over again with your children and their children.

Knowing this is very significant because it is our primitive calling in life and you can't not comprehend that because if you are part of a family it's obvious enough to see that it's already in you and your family's mind that you and they were cared for that's how your hear now. In the documentary through out all of the four families you see this primitive care giving some less than other's. The Namibian care giving is the most still being connected to the primitive type then comes the Mongolian, then the Japanese and then the American. Almost in every scene of the film you can see this primitive care giving being demonstrated by all of the families as they are teaching the children, going through their daily lives with them, playing with them, and even just watching them the primitive type of care giving is still there in slightly stronger and weaker tones but its still there naturally in all of the parents.

Hw 52-Initial Theories of Human Relationships.

I believe that in our human relationships we tend to do things based on the way each us act to words each other. All instinces are based on what we do and what we say to one another during the interactions that we have in every day life. I believe that we as humans tend to always have a longing for human contact and we need this to stay sane, thats just a need that is set into stone for us. But to further break things down is very complex when you come to think of it. We have so many tendencies to do things some subconsciously and consciously and we have these things that are done by us in these ways because as we start out from birth and grow into adults our families teach us values and morals that we are basically brainwashed to follow.

What I exactly saying is that from babies we are taught certain things in certain ways and we usually chose to follow these things in the way we do because thats the things that we look up to when were young. Just think about when you were a child didn't you follow what your mother and father told you and think that it was the right way. I'm sure you wanted to be just like your mother or just like your father when you were younger and ever still for some people now a days when they are older. Im saying that the first things that are taught to you and dictated to you when you are a child are the things that you will most likely follow for the rest of your life. Yes of course your way of thinking and perceiving different things will change and mold into a more advanced sense but your basic morals and values will stay unchanged or similar to what we were made after a few years after our birth to think.

Some people are taught at a young age to hate and not accept any other type of person, this process effects the individual in the future to have the values of a racist and not except these certain types of cultures of people whom aren't their own. And these values stay with you through out the persons entire life, so basically my point here is that your family is the biggest factor that decides your morals and values from birth. So it's usually never the child's choice whom decides what he will actually turn out to think and act in the future unless the child can learn different when he or she grows up and sees that what they grew up with was socially acceptable and logical in the child's standards. Usually in the future when the child grows up he or she will usually either be extremely brainwashed or realize that what he grew with was wrong and independently change his values and morals because his perspective on what he learned in from his childhood has confirmed as wrong, if it was indeed bad.

As well I feel that there some human values that I believe are naturally worked into our heads that aren't even taught to us through our lives, its just learned naturally. I feel that the value of preserving human life is a value that we naturally learn form birth as well for the value of caring for other humans. But with me saying this there are some people out of all of us whom decided to not follow these rules, naturally they know the rules but just chose not to obey them for certain reasons. Maybe it's because they just chose not to care or just enjoy the idea of hurting others and seeing others being hurt. These type of people are in my opinion the lost people in our society. These people whom have no care for human life are the fail sorts of people whom either feel the need to hurt others because they were never taught to care or were never cared for themselves when they were children. In my opinion these people should either be annihilated from society or be treated so our society can be safer in the future.

HW 50- Notes on Finishing Our School Unit.

The only text that truly interests me is the text written by John Taylor Gatto on "How

public education cripples our kids, and why". Even before i read this text as i read the title I

was immediately interested to hear what this author had to say about how the public cripples

our students in todays education system and his reasoning behind it. So as I started to read

the the text what i noticed was his first argument, an example of this is: "Boredom is the common condition of schoolteachers, and anyone who has spent time in a teachers' lounge can vouch for the low energy, the whining, the dispirited attitudes, to be found there. When asked why they feel bored, the teachers tend to blame the kids, as you might expect. Who wouldn't get bored teaching students who are rude and interested only in grades? If even that. Of course, teachers are themselves products of the same twelve-year compulsory school programs that so thoroughly bore their students, and as school personnel they are trapped inside structures even more rigid than those imposed upon the children. Who, then, is to blame?" -Gatto.

I thought that this part of the text really had some kick to it because in my opinion you would never ever hear or see an any adult or author talk about the how teachers are obviously bored while teaching students. As well I'm surprised that Gatto connects these teachers to the same level of boredom that our students of today are experiencing now a days in our so called "compulsory" schooling system. I'll tell Gatto that the whole reason about why we are trapped in this flawed system of schooling that causes mass boredom amongst teachers and students. The reason is us, and i agree with Gatto when he says this in the second paragraph of his text because its my reason one the topic as well. If we make use of our teachers and I'm not saying we don't but what I mean is to actually sit them down and talk to them about the curriculum that they should teach us. What is taught in school should consist of what is interesting to the students on and individual level, this so called "working process" of schooling doesn't give any chance for our students today to actually be interested in school. What it does is make our students exactly feel a way that nobody should ever feel when they are in the process of educating them selves and being educated by others, and the same should go for the teachers in todays schools. Until we can find a way to accomplish this we will continue to lack the true learning abilities of education and we will forever be attempting to learn in a failing system.

Another part of Gatto's text that intrigued me was when he talked about the actually needing an education in the first place. To be specific what made me think this was the text here: "Do we really need school? I don't mean education, just forced schooling: six classes a day, five days a week, nine months a year, for twelve years. Is this deadly routine really necessary? And if so, for what? Don't hide behind reading, writing, and arithmetic as a rationale, because 2 million happy homeschoolers have surely put that banal justification to rest. Even if they hadn't, a considerable number of well-known Americans never went through the twelve-year wringer our kids currently go through, and they turned out all right. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln? Someone taught them, to be sure, but they were not products of a school system, and not one of them was ever "graduated" from a secondary school. Throughout most of American history, kids generally didn't go to high school, yet the unschooled rose to be admirals, like Farragut; inventors, like Edison; captains of industry, like Carnegie and Rockefeller; writers, like Melville and Twain and Conrad; and even scholars, like Margaret Mead. In fact, until pretty recently people who reached the age of thirteen weren't looked upon as children at all. Ariel Durant, who co-wrote an enormous, and very good, multivolume history of the world with her husband, Will, was happily married at fifteen, and who could reasonably claim that Ariel Durant was an uneducated person? Unschooled, perhaps, but not uneducated." -Gatto. Now first off what really got me was when he said that there's 2 million happy home schooled students which i think he's talking about are in the US. This surprised me very much because I didn't know that so many students chose to be home schooled instead going to public or private school. As well another thing that caught my attention is a fact that i didn't realize, that our fore fathers like George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln didn't go to school at all. I really could not believe that I didn't realize this and use it in a conversation as an argument, but now that I actually have been informed about this controversial information I plan to use this as evidence in future arguments and maybe in future papers. I mean just look at them they became the founders of our Nation the United States of America and then just look how we turn out 234 years later to be teaching our our students in a failing education system obviously they had it down packed back then in the years right before and after 1776. Also another thing that kinda made me feel a little inadequate was when Gatto talked about Ariel Durant whom co-wrote "The Story of Civilization" and was in a happy marriage at the age of 15. This make me feel unequivocally out classes by this young woman at such a young age being so morally and mentally secure. It just shocks me that when she was this young and she was at such a level of prestige that early in life i feel like I'm doing something wrong in my life currently.

This leads me into another example which i would like to share my feeling about. Later in Gatto's text he write about the how the structure of our schooling system today came to be and I always pondered on this fact especially when Andy gave on of his many interesting classes and he taught us that our schooling system started to come into affect during the nineteenth century. As well he said that we adopted it from the education system of the east side of germany during its occupation by the former United Soviet Social Republic when it was being used as soviet satellite state but he didn't really elaborate enough on the specific details as much as I wanted him to. But besides the fact the part of the text where these thought came into my head was: "Mass schooling of a compulsory nature really got its teeth into the United States between 1905 and 1915, though it was conceived of much earlier and pushed for throughout most of the nineteenth century. The reason given for this enormous upheaval of family life and cultural traditions was, roughly speaking, threefold:

1) To make good people.
2) To make good citizens.
3) To make each person his or her personal best." -Gatto I was also as you should think not too surprised but interested in what Gatto had to say here because I thought that we adopted our type of schooling during the years after World War Two,(1945 and so on) but now I understand that we adopted in between the years of 1905 and 1915 and were constantly elaborating on the process and attempting to make it work better. But i understand now and I'm sure that many other people feel the same way as me that it was a change for the worst because our system is failing and not giving our students what they really need to succeed and better themselves through their own personal interest. And as soon as our society can comprehend the fact that this should be our top priority, our schooling system will continue to breed uninterested, compassionless students with on drive or want to actually learn what they truly want to learn.

HW 49-Notes on Finishing Our School Unit.

Well what my personal contribution to the class film was being a "class goon". What i basically took part in was being a member of a certain group of kids that you see in every high school, the punks. These kids who are pretty much just plain out disrespectful don't get their work done and don't care what the teachers tells them to do or say, they just think they know it all,they think their too cool for school. Well so I played one of these kids and I feel I played it pretty well in the film our class made. When we were shooting the team of goons was Evan, Omar, Quinn, and me who were causing trouble in the class room in the two scenes. When Will who was playing the main character Mr. C the alcoholic teacher who lost his wife was attempting to teach the class this was when we would act up and cause problems in the classroom. But this would be halted for a brief minute every time when he would actually stop teaching and try to bring some realization into our lives. He would do this by talking about the way we use electronic devices to constantly stay in touch with our friends and for numerous other things. He would try to make us realize what would happen to us in our lives if we would continue to do what we do in school now by scaring us by basically depicting a prediction our futures to be the lives of criminals, low lives, who are most likely to end up in jail. What i believe is the message of our film is that what you do in your school life is going to reflect on your future of what you do in life, its gunna mold you into what you will become in the future.

This film partly has connections to all of our past Savior Teacher films that we watched. For instance one aspect that our film had was that during the film was the classic trope of the classroom full of the disruptive out of control students whom don't seem to care or even acknowledge the teacher when he or she is trying to acquire the classes attention. As seen in pretty much every movie clip we watched for instance Black Board Jungle, Dead Poets Society, Freedom Writers, etc... But although our film connected to these other Savior films that I have said what I fell that it didn't connect to was the extent of the extremely troubled teacher like Mr. C in our film who was a drunk and had both relationship and family problems. In spite of this connection I believe that salvation can only be found in teaching and schooling if the teacher or student truly wants to open up their mind and learn and/or teach what they honestly want to. But sadly I have to say that this is hardly possible with the schooling and teaching system that we have currently in our lives, it's based too much on what the Board of Education wants to dictate to us and what they think that we need to know to be successful in our lives. As well the society in our time is too dead bent on the straight schooling agenda that the Board of Education has in place to us which is the reason we can never have a chance to accomplish an actual true and honest learning experience that interests us. Until our society stops depending our basic marshal law of schooling that the government has for us we will not be able to change our system to further better our ways of truly learning what we are honestly interested in.

HW 47-Class Film Preparation 1.

I would rather not compose 5 to 10 ideas because i have a great idea in which i would like to elaborate on here a little. Ok, my idea as I said in class two weeks ago before break is to have a story base around a teacher that in a way has personal problems in his life that effect his ability to do his job as a teacher. And as the result of this the teacher is an alcoholic and this affects his influence on his class of high school students that he teaches. But as he's going through his problems he is in such a constant depressing state that his students actually start to notice his depression in his life and try to make him feel better by sharing their own problems in their lives. As they are doing this they persuade him share his own problems and in the end of the film I decided to make then confide in each other, the problem ridden teacher and his class of troubled students and they both actually figure out solutions to their own problems and sit down and start a normal class together. I don't know why i decided to use the classic troupe, but it seemed good at the moment when i thought of the idea and wrote it out on paper.

-Brendan S.

HW 40-School Interviews x 3 & Synthesis (Part A & B)

Part A:

Question #1: If you had the power to change your school in any way possible for the better in what way would you change it?

Person being asked this question: "Katy" who was a college girl from Texas but lives in Idaho whom I met on my vacation to Los Cabos, Mexico.

She answered: "Hmmm. Well first off I would change the whole approach that are teachers have to words us as students, they treat us like assembly line workers in a way. I mean like a every other class at the end of the week we have to hand in our assignments and don't even get to talk to our teachers about the work we've done. So really to answer your question I would change my college in a better way by giving the teachers more time or maybe assigned time to talk and discuss our assignments so that we can maybe get a little pre feed back before we actually need to hand in our work. You know what I mean? So here.... like ok... an example could be like if I don't understand the assignment for my Culinary Arts and I want to be able to talk to my teacher after the class is dismissed I should be able to, because I would make a change for all teachers to have a sort of short clarification period after each of their classes. Did that answer you question?"

Question #2: How has your experience of being a student changed over the years as you go on through the last remaining years of High school?

Person being asked this question: "Myself"

I answered: "My experience probably for the most part has changed not so dramatically in referance to my last 4 to 5 years of schooling. What I'm here is that since like 7th grade my entire social atmosphere and experiences changed from a sort of kid mode to a young adult mode. All of my interactions to words academic work, my social status and social experiences began pretty much after the start of that specific grade. But as for the years that began and finished after that the experiences and academic work only increased to a greater extent. So I guess I would say that as you schooling increases everything else that becomes a new to you in your early middle schooling period of life and then on to high school and most likely college. As well once again just to clarify the things I'm referring to increase over these years of our lives are a broader social status, personal experiences increasing with the opposite sex, and academic work increasing in the level of difficulty as you go on through school."

Question #3: In your own opinion do you believe that school is a sort of sorting machine that sets in stone students own future's?

Person being asked this question: "Ariella" My ex-girlfriend.

She answered: "Umm, okay well I kinda, I think that a schools reputation creates it's atmosphere. Like... If the school is considered one of the bests the students that go there know what's expected of them, so they work harder, so then the schools graduates all have similar futures. There are always exceptions but the majority of the kids that go to like an upper class/private school will have relatively similar future's. Does that make sense? I mean thats pretty much it... most people act the way others around them do, it's just how we are. And so if your put in a place where people are successful most likely your gonna mimic that and work harder. (Then I asked a secondary question:So as well your saying the same thing goes for the students in an unsuccessful atmospheres in low income schools?), Yea it's just like they are put in an enviorment with the kids that don't give a shit and the school doesn't either. So yea of course there will be exceptions, that tolken kid that gets out of the ghetto and that rich kid that screws up. But mostly thay are going to have they are going to have the futures that those around them have. In a low income situation the schools don't put the same importance on things that schools that cost 30 thousand a year do."

Part B:

Since I could only get internet on my vacation by the end of it I was only able to get one persons reaction from my time in mexico and then i decided talk to my ex girlfriend and ask myself a question to give me a total of three interviews. Through out all of my interviews I noticed that my questions gave back good responses that for the most part broke down all of the important aspects of the questions that I created and asked. Being that Katy is in college and done with high school I believe she gave a more experienced response because of her college as well. I say this because during the interview she gave suggestions on how to make better schooling comparing how the teachers treat the students through out school for her. And El and I gave sort of less experienced responses to words our questions by discussing the sorting machine and developing experiences that students go through. Now I'm not saying that our responses were worse its just that Katy is going through the next level of schooling and there fore has a better comprehension and can pin point flaws in our schooling system better than we can.

HW 39-First School Assignment

Part A:

INTERESTING: #1. Learned how people interact with one another in classes. #2. Learned new things every day in my early years of schooling. #3. Actually understanding just how stupid and useless some of the things we learn in school actually are.

FASCINATING: #1. How as I get older my teachers have seemed for the most part have been getting younger and younger. #2. That all school water fountain water tastes like rusty metal was poured into the schools water supply. #3. That as you get older the curriculum in school get more rigorous with each year being signified as a stepping stone to the greater challenge.

POWERFUL: #1. How pretty much all teachers love to act upon preforming the dominant role amongst the students throughout your entire experience of schooling. #2. That the social world gets undeniable more complex as you progress each year in school. #3. That someone created the "blessing" our teachers like to call homework, which is meant further our progression of our schooling while we are outside of our mandatory hours of schooling.

Part B:

What I believe is strange about our methods of schooling is that in a way its sort of backwards. I feel that if we speed up the process at a young age and learned more complicated things once we learned the basics we would have much better students then we do today in our society now with all of these kids dropping out and failing while trying not to. What we should do is increase the intensity of our young learners so at an older age they will be able to work in school better and learn more effciently.

Now I argue this because at a young age we are programmed at birth to naturally take in knowledge to a better extent then we would at an older age. So as we are now learning harder things at an older age and easier things at a younger age we are basically cheating ourselves when we could be learning so much more while we are younger. If we did this it would benefit us tremendously in and outside of the class room. We would be smarter individuals whom would achieve more and probably give 50% more effort to words accomplishing our studies. I would like to discuss this further in class tomorrow.

-Brendan S.

HW 38-Art Project Cool

Cool Project from julie asencio on Vimeo.

This is Julie an I's video project on the reality of cool in our school of School of the Future. Julie and me decided to create this project in a sort of collage type of way with a meaning full song about the experiences of the American youth. I'm very pleased with the way that Julie and me worked together on this project with me putting getting all of the pictures from peoples facebook's and getting the song to use for the audio of the video. But most importantly it was Julie who actually but it together when I sent everything to her on friday. But overall we both had jobs in our project of equal importance that we both accomplished successfully. I hope you enjoy the video with the song, "The Youth of the Nation" in the back round. I feel it reflects the reality of cool in our school to the utmost extent.

PLEASE COMMENT!

HW 34 - The Cool Pose and Various Approaches to Life Rooted in Class, Race, Gender, Age, etc.

I feel that all of these patterns that people follow are solely based on what social atmosphere is around them. In other words what the people around you do to be cool in their own perspectives the person growing up with these people tends to follow and do the exact same technique to try to be accepted by the rest. You can't deny it because it's true for every culture in society, black, white, spanish, asian etc. Every society has an image of cool that is known to the masses of the society some images positive and some negative. It just depends on the choices the person makes that will define what he or she is gonna do in their lives follow the norm or go down their own path, (their own path being a different image of cool that isn't the image that their culture has pressed upon them).

In my own experience I guess I'm following my own white cultural image of cool. Me being a typical italian kid who plays sports gets good enough grades and follows what his family has taught to him to do in his future. What I mean by this is that my father in his younger years was a marine and when I was a little kid I always dreamed of being just like my father as a kid. As well as I got older my perspective changed a little to words what my brother did, a lacrosse player just as my brother was. So to basically sum it all up my own experiences are a great example of how people follow an image of what they believe to be cool. But as well as people progress in their own lives their images of cool constantly change depending on the people that they are surrounded by and chose to be influenced by. 

 Now the reasoning to support that the fact that people follow what they believe is to be cool from a young age and their own image of cool constantly changes based on the people they chose to be surrounded by is simple. Just look at young people in general and all of these stupid trends that they follow through out their lives, thats a great example. the reason being is that these kids jump back and fourth between old and new trends which they feel is cool at the time being. Then the next month or however long the kids will change their own out look of cool based on the other kids choices of cool that are around them in society. It's an ever changing cycle that will never change, these are my thoughts on the subject of cool which is also an ever changing topic.

HW 33-Cool Paper Outline

Introduction:Introduce my thesis. Then describe definition of coolness and I plan on elaboration on the meaning of cool deeply for the entire intro  as well as to introduce my arguments supporting my thesis. (I still am working on a thesis).

5 Body Paragraphs:Next I plan on writing 5 big paragraphs on discussing the arguments with 5 examples that support my thesis in each paragraph. I plan on using examples form the Hair resource, using the poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, Goffman, and my own life.

Conclusion:I plan on restating my thesis and wrapping up my paper with my arguments as well as restating my own thoughts on cool, and ending the conclusion with a witty sentence about  the role of coolness in our lives.

HW 32 Tattoos & The Presentation of the Self

Tattoos are all instances of cool some people simply chose to resist from this so called trend and some chose to embrace it deeply through out their lives. To me tattoo's signify many different meanings like love, pride, being religious, reckless or even just trying to be a bas ass. I personally have many friends that have tattoos, one of them was trying to get closer to his religious roots in his family and got his name, (Bilal) tattooed on his arm in arabic. He I feel in fact was doing it for the sole purpose of trying to be different from everybody else, trying to basically be "cool".

 In some situations he benefitted from having the writing on his skin like when I was at a party with an few of my friends and him ask he was talking to some girls he was trying to get with he was succeeding in doing getting their numbers because he seemed interesting to the girls. One big sign I'm sure of them thinking he was interesting enough to hook up with on a prior ocassion was his tattoo. Now another situation he went through that didn't turn out so well was a job interview that he went to to work  a public libary. When he went to the interview he covered up the tattoo with a jacket and a sweatshirt but as the interview progressed to to words the end of the interview he was asked if he had any tattoos or body piercings. So they told him to show his forearms and shoulders because they would be pretty much the only visible part of his body that would be exposed to customer so he didn't get the job. Now I'm one hundred percent sure that he didn't get the job because of him having the tattoo because why else would he not get it he's a smart kid. Because of him getting his tattoo there was both a positive and negative effect that his tattoo had on people in different atmospheres , he seemed to achieve what he wanted in his social aspects but not the professional aspects of his life.

So i guess is Bilal's mind he thought that it was cool to get in touch with this religious roots by getting a tattoo but I think that he really didn't think about it before he got it. Before he got it he was telling me that he was planning on getting one and the day before he got it I was trying to tell him to think about it for another day and not to get it on your fore arm but he didn't listen to me. Not yet I bet he regrets getting it but as he gets older I'm sure he will think back and see just how uncool and stupid it was to a tattoo on your forearm for the world to see. After witnessing and hearing about him going through those positive and negative situations I personally learned from his actions enough to at least get a tattoo somewhere else where people can't see it. Right now in my life I'm not sure if I would even want to get a tattoo of my owe because my definition of tattoo's being "cool" is not yet clear to me. Maybe one day I will get one maybe I won't, only time will tell and change my perception of cool in the future.

HW 30 - Psychological and Philosophical Theorizing of Cool

How does this emptiness feel?

"The greatest achievement is selflessness.
The greatest worth is self-mastery.
The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.
The greatest precept is continual awareness.
The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything.
The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.
The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.
The greatest generosity is non-attachment.
The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.
The greatest patience is humility.
The greatest effort is not concerned with results.
The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.
The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances."
Atisha

As I read this example I began to think about the meaning of emptiness and meaninglessness in peoples lives as well as my own. I have confirmed that if you practice the religion of Buddhism you are taught to understand and attempt to follow these words of wisdom taught buy Atisha. Now I too have taken a little bit of his teachings by reading his writings and attempting to comprehend his teachings of how to live ones life. When he says "The greatest achievement is selflessness.The greatest worth is self-mastery.The greatest quality is seeking to serve others.The greatest action is not conforming with the worlds ways.The greatest magic is transmuting the passions.The greatest generosity is non-attachment.The greatest goodness is a peaceful mind.The greatest patience is humility.The greatest effort is not concerned with results.The greatest meditation is a mind that lets go.The greatest wisdom is seeing through appearances." he is saying how these are the things that you should abide by throughout and I understand that. I believe that this is the true way to live a truly and purely live life, but now a days people strive to live a some what cool life where they constantly follow other peoples looks and attempt to act pretty much like the popular group ninety percent of the tim during their lives which is in a way mindless. I say this because we constantly are thinking of cool cool cool, whats cool, who's cool, wheres cool, how can I act my part, this action of thinking to me in my own mind is mindless and I'm sure many people would agree with me on my thinking. So as these people are striving to accomplish there points where the emptiness sets in in between the highs becoming temporarily cool. Some people find it depressing or a set back and some like the Buddhists find it as being a healing process of the mind and a sense of awareness. I say this because of this example in Atisha's teachings:"The greatest precept is continual awareness.The greatest medicine is the emptiness of everything." So as Atisha says this he means that as you feel the meaninglessness and emptiness it is clearing your mind and making you more conscious of what is going on around you and as well that when your feeling this it is good for you because you get a chance to blank out everything out of your mind and just think while being aware. As well I agree with this because I believe it to be true, sometimes when I think to myself, (when I don't feel significant to anyone in particular) about things that are actually important in my life. To me thats being aware and while I'm doing this it makes me feel better about myself and I like that. So in conclusion after reading and taking in the insight of the great teacher of Buddhism Atisha my thoughts on the feeling of emptiness is that it's a great thing every once in a while that can make you feel better about yourself and more aware to the important things that are going on around you.

HW # 29 - Merchants of Cool

Essential Question: Is it evil for the corporations to manipulate the minds of young people for the sake of profit?

Well what I believe is evil is the fact how these kids find themselves buying into these corporate vampires organizations in the first place. What these kids don't see is thats its a power struggle between these organizations to see who can influence the most teens. While the kids blindly buy into the corporate empire they continue to profit no matter what the circumstance. It's just plain out wrong how this process works in our world today, I can't help but feel sympathy for all of the teens whom have fallen for this mindless degrading scheme. This is what I find truly evil that these kids get themselves involved with these corporations just trying to be cool.

They are basically prey for these organizations it's just sad how this cycle in our society works. An example of this :"Girls are taught (by Britney Spears type media) to flaunt their sexuality even though they don't understand it yet." Here is a great example of what I'm trying to say. As these kids are struggling to be cool, once they actually find a way to accomplish that they never are really able to because they really don't even know what they are doing because they don't have a clear reason for why they are doing it. This is exactly what I find evil that these kids spend their money aimlessly on these stupid items that make them even less cool them they previously were and the corporate businesses profit off these teens foolishness, and thats whats truly evil in my perspective.

In conclusion I feel that it is evil for the corporations to manipulate the minds of young people for the sake of profit because these kids today are just confused and don't understand that they are wasting their money on things that won't even help them be cool. What these kids really need to do with their lives is concentrate on the aspect of success in life because that is what I feel is the key to coolness in our society. I say this because in the world if you look at all of the famous people, actors, business tycoons, sports stars etc, they are all successful in their own lives which has made them cool to the outside world. So if you ask me what it takes to really become cool I will answer: "Once success is acquired the limits to coolness are endless".

HW # 28 - Informal Research - Internet, Magazines, and TV Shows

5 sources of "cool" to me.

My Father- "MARINES THE FEW. THE PROUD.." AMERICA'S FEW. ©2009 U.S. MARINE CORPS, Web. 8 Dec 2009. .

My Brother- Pastore, Gregg. "SUNYAC Online." SUNYAC Men's Lacrosse Players of the Week. SUNYAC SID, Web. 8 Dec 2009. .

College- "MARITIME COLLEGE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK."APPLY ONLINE. ©2009 SUNY Maritime College, Web. 8 Dec 2009. .

Soccer- "THE OFFICIAL SITE OF MARITIME COLLEGE ATHLETICS."MARITIME COLLEGE ATHLETICS. Copyright � 2003-2009, SUNY Maritime College., Web. 8 Dec 2009. .

House Music- "Tiësto." inthe booth. © 2005 Tiesto.com, Web. 8 Dec 2009. .

I decided to do this my own way because it seemed like an easier way of explaining to you the things that I actually think is cool to me in my own personal aspects of my life. The first thing that probably has the biggest influence of cool on me is my Father so since I can't really cite my Father I cited a United States Marine Corps website. I did this because my Father in his earlier years was a marine himself leading his very own fire-team in the Vietnam war during the years of 1967-1968 and I'am extremely proud of that. I see my pops as an idol whom i want to be like when I get older and progress successfully in life. Just as he was I too want to be a reacon marine and have the responsibility of leading some of the most prestigious and elite man powers in our country.I'm saying this because my Father is the drive that creates me to want to strive to do make this possible in my near future. Now for my brother I cited his player of the week article because I felt it was cool that he even got one because to become a player of the week is pretty hard. As well I see my brother as a role model just as my Father and when I go to college I want to get the player of the week too for Soccer. So as I grew up seeing and hearing about my brother getting these write up and playing Lacrosse it made me think that one day I too want to accomplish this for myself in my own way of being cool for instance for my sport soccer. So thats why I cited my brothers player of the week articles because I think that they are cool and maybe that one day when I get to college that I could also get player of the week a few times along my four years that I will be attending college. Now I also cited Maritime College State University of New York because since I want to join the Marine Corps this college would be a cool college to attend since it will prepare me for the Marines. As well it is also a great college that has been on the list of "Best Colleges of 2010" in the "U.S. News Magazine" as for many other companies that promoted the school. But I didn't even know this till I actually went to the site and got some information about the school and it turned out that I liked what I say and thought it was cool to go there based on the things that I want to do in my life. Now I also cited the Maritime College site again Because I thought it was cool to plan that if I actually get into Maritime to try to get onto there College Soccer team because I've been playing soccer in high school and since I can remember from birth. Since I thought that the school was cool I thought why not the schools soccer team too?AND that why I added that citation for the reason of it being significantly cool to me in the future. Now finally to get to the citation about my favorite House music Dj, Dj Tiësto. I obviously find him col because he composes music that my brother and me love , and I mention my brother because if it wasn't for him I wouldn't even know of this Dj. So i wouldn't even think he was cool if my brother never showed him to me. As well this citation kind of adds to the citation of my brothers because basically everything that my brother thinks is cool I do.And lastly I feel that it's like this with everyone's families because we see our elders as role models to look up too and follow to become similar to but in a way as we are trying to be like them we have a tendency to strive to be alike but better in a way than them in the end of our lives. These are just some thoughts I have on this aspect of coolness and the way we take it in from our families.

HW # 27 Informal Research Interviews and Surveys

Street Interviews: Will and Me interviewing on the streets outside the school.

The types of questions that Will and I asked were:

-What is your defienition of cool?
-In what ways are you cool?
-How do you think others see you as cool?

-Do you think that most people are blending or conforming with society?
-Who do you think is cooler, President Obama or Pope Benedict XVI?

The people that we attenpted to were many businesssmen, tourists and homeless men.
We weren't very successful with about 6 people denying our interview in the beginning. As well to add to the unsuccess in the end we only had 2 people whom had given us feedback when we interviewed them. One of the people that we were successful with was a businessmen having a smoke outside his office buliding. What he said when we asked him our questions was pretty bland and dry:"Things that are interesting, that I like. Well yea people do conform and try to blend in with society." See what I mean? We didn't have time to ask him all of the questions because he said he had  limited time and had to get back to work. So we walked away and looked around for more people to interview and we found these two very interesting homeless men who had quite a bit to say:"Somebody who understands people only knowing them briefly. Somebody who has internal style and gets along with everybody has their own style. someone whose unafraid of people casual and can hang with the cool crowd. I think the Pope because he got his position by competing against 12 denominations with 10,000 others in each denomination and the President only had to compete with a few other elected candidates. Also I think I'm cool because I'm a valley boy from california whose into alternative and euro tech types of music."  I feel this was our only successful interview that we had at all that day, those homeless guys were pretty interesting.

HW # 26 Photos and Interviews.

"COOL" INTERVIEW QUESTIONS:

#1. The definition of "Cool", what does it mean to you; what do you believe the meaning of it really is?

#2.How do you believe the average person tries to become cool or act cool?

#3.What type of archetypes do you think other people try to mold themselves into?

#4. What type of archetypes do YOU think you try to be in your life?

First Interviewee: My Pops

He answered the following by saying,

#1:"Thats a very good question... a person who has his life together, it says a lot about the person that they have goals and objectives that they want to achieve. I think thats a cool person, smart, and good morals. A person who has his life in order; you don't need a lot of words that's it. Ask your Mother..."

#2:"I just think its...how they become cool...I think its those things that you can't see..maybe the way you were brought up the things you do with your friends, home, school, extra after school activities, and your success in school. I think becoming cool is part of life, some people will be cool, some will be idiots you gotta have your life in order. You learn it from your family your grandparents and friends, the things you have experienced with them and learned from them. Being cool is having your live in order not being a follower."

#3: I think everyone wants to be successful, people would like to model themselves after a successful person. I wouldn't model myself after a popular person because it might not be a character you would want to be... if the kid could be failing in school. I would think most people would want to model themselves after being successful, there many different types of success. There could be the kid who is successful in school, successful at sports and successful with friends therefore very few kids want to model themselves after people who are failing. Tiger Woods and President Obama those are good role models because they have their lives together. There are bad role models and good role models; you've got to pick a role model who is going to give you success in life. You want people to want say wow I want to be him. It's the kids.... well some kids unfortunately who pick the wrong role models and have major issues and have a hard life. It's about decisions, make the right decisions, people who make the wrong decisions will fail in life; it doesn't matter who your role model is..... if you made the wrong decisions you're going to fail.

#4:Successful, like to me it says so much, a good person, do the right thing. Your role changes too as you get older, because as you get older people start to look up to you as a role model. I think now that I'm older I should be a role model for you, the people who are part of my organization..... I'm a role model for them, they watch how I act..... the things I say.... the things I do, how I act.... people watch me. So that's what I'm saying as you get older your role changes and you might be a role model to others. I had a teacher it didn't necessarily mean I liked him because he failed me, he always passed me in June with a 65 ....he was mean but I realized he was doing that for a reason. He wanted me to learn grammar and he knew I could do better and he wouldn't pass me until the last report card. I had him for 3 years in a row, I did like him he was a mean son of a gun but don't forget he did pass me in June so I didn't have to go to summer school because I really was a really good student. The 64 was a message to me I'm smarter than that, what he wanted me to do was work harder. Later on I learned why he did but I did like him, I always just thought he was a nut.

Second Interviewee:My Ma

She answered the following by saying,

1#: I believe cool is marching to the beat of your OWN drummer! THAT'S COOL!!

2#: The average person tries to gain "coolness" by being part of the "in" crowd. I don't agree with it but I believe it's part of reality. I also believe people are always trying to keep up with the Jones's... another sad reality. You can"t be who you aren't!!

No matter what! It catches up to you sooner or later!

3#: I will first start off with hoping that people try to mold themselves into all that they are, all that they're made of and all that they strive to be. I think all too often people try to emulate styles of notoriety and popularity without the tools that are necessary to tow the line. People need to be true to the themselves and all that they can be without putting on any false heirs.

#4: I think I try to be ethical, honest, and straight forward with respect for others. I also think you get out what you put into whatever you believe in. If it's hard work and a good work ethic that you strive for then you will earn positive self esteem knowing that you were true to yourself and others, understanding that life is not always fair and we all have to deal with the human element. It is however not always easy to stay strong and not fall prey to materialism and the pressures surrounding us in our daily lives. Keeping focused on our true ethical standards and practicing them daily will hopefully reinforce our stand on the truly important things in life.

HW#16 Big Paper Outline

THESIS:
Social communication and digital devices in our age has benefited us as a whole by helping people live progressive lives as well as saving peoples lives.

ARGUMENT # 1:
Everyday problems that Digital Devices solve.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/152210/gadgets_that_solve_everyday_problems.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS101190+08-Oct-2009+MW20091008

ARGUMENT # 2:
How Digital Devices help our economy progress.

http://www.cellphonedigest.net/news/2008/03/are_cell_phones_in_a_major_eco.php

http://www.healthcare-packaging.com/archives/2008/10/pharmaceuticalmedical_device_p.php
ARGUMENT # 3:

How Digital Devices save and have the ability to save lives.

http://www.bloglongtermcare.com/long-term-care/storage-device-for-electronic-medical-records-may-save-lives.php
http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2009/04/20/story3.html

Interesting link:

http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam/papers/Samuelson_IP_dig_eco_htm.htm

HW # 15 ABCDEF Treasure Hunting

Dear Devin,

I believe that your arguments in your HW # 14 post about how the author is making an point that television has a larger passive effect on people then video games is well supported by the examples that you have displayed in your writing. In my opinion your best example that supports your claim is where you talk about the author describing in depth about the "multi threads going on" among the advanced and complicated television shows. When you quote the author on this I feel it's your most strongest point because you continue to back that point with even more information of the weak side of television shows. You go on about television shows that are so easy to comprehend with "two main characters and a conclusion that even a monkey can follow without any effort". As your adding your own thoughts and quotes form the author I feel that your first summing up of excerpt one was completed very nicely as well for your reaction to it in the third paragraph. This was what I thought was your strongest piece of your blog from HW # 14.

Brendan S.

HW# 11 Self Experiment

What I chose to do for my self experiment was overload of digital technology. Specifically what I did was from when i got home on friday was play Xbox all through the night till about six or seven in the morning. So basically your classification of this was digital doubling. It affected me in a way that I suffered from severe fatigue and the desire to fall to the floor in a deep sleep. While playing online I discovered that the games actually did a outstanding job of keeping me awake which I'm guessing is the main reason why I was able to stay awake playing all night long. After experiencing this I can understand that being on a game all night is pretty much number one a waste of time and energy. I could of been sleeping and saving energy and woke up refreshed, but I had the complete opposite experience. Since I fell asleep at about seven am I ended up waking up around 2 o'clock in the afternoon and I felt like shit. Even though I have done this before when I was younger I did it again just for this experiment and now sort of regret it because it messed me up pretty bad for the soccer game I had the next day. But regardless it was a homework assignment and I had to get it done. Now that I'm older now I think I won't be doing this ever again because of the sleep deprivation it caused me the days after.

Brendan S.