Last Book in the World

When we look back and see all of the mistakes we've made in the past I can't help but wonder if our timelines have a tendency to repeat.  Racial issues have gone back as far as the Romans and some issues before their time.  I feel the Bible a bit suggestive for the choice of book to hold our future by recording our past.  If living in a post-apocalyptic world means re-educating and rebuilding our society to the best of our abilities, I feel it needs to have a more solid foundation of origination than a book written over 2000 years ago that is based on a single religion.  This is not to say that anything in the Bible is fiction nor reality however it is a story told only from one side.  I question daily not only religion practiced in my household but the others around me.  I've always wondered if there is only to be one all-mighty god, why are there so many?  Every race seems to have a different look on religion and some even have different gods they follow for example the greeks had hundreds that they followed who held different powers that controlled their world.  Nowadays we see that as blasphemy, "There is only one god!" Who's to say in another thousand years that the religion of Christianity will be a mere myth.  I feel that if you believe strongly enough in a religion and follow it throughout your life, that is your decision and I support it, however I do not by any means believe that it should be the foundation of a new civilization.  I feel if we learned about our past before the apocalypse, we would have a better chance of learning where it all began.  If I was given the assignment to choose one book that was to be saved from the end of our world as we know it, I would choose our History book.  The World's History book is the only source of knowledge that contain's a foundation that ensures that we never make the same mistakes we've made before and thus learning through experience of how to build a better world.

U.S. EPA's Best and Worst Car MPG

The environmental protection agency (EPA) has dubbed the Worlds worst mileage offender on the latest Supercar the Bugatti Veyron.  This title for the quad-turbo V-16 sports car is anything but a surprise.  After the car left the inspection it was recorded at 8 miles per gallon (MPG) in the city and 15.5 MPG.  Although it's 4 turbos (1 per 4 cylinders) do a little justification on conserving gas, the highly tuned performance vehicle probably wasn't in the market for an energy efficient name.  The Veyron, who holds the current record for fastest car on the planet, not only sucks gas but is also considered one of the most expensive, road legal cars ever produced.  So, although the mpg for this car is shocking, I think one who can afford this car can also afford to keep it going.  On the other hand the Toyota's hybrid vehicle, Prius, is holding the record for best gas saver with 51 mpg in the city and 48 on the highway thereby making it the most fuel efficient car in the U.S.

Halloween Memories

Halloween has been one of my favorite holidays to celebrate since I was a child.  Collecting candy, dressing up in costumes and walking one night a completely different person than you are the rest of the year always excited me.  After growing up it does begin to lose it’s interests.  Trick or Treating is mainly a children event.  When I was a child I always enjoyed dressing up in something scary and terrorizing everyone I walked by, I was never into the humorous and goofy costumes.  I always wished trick or treating happened later in the night, because I always wanted to look scary I thought it was pointless that trick or treating started when the sun was still up.  My favorite memories of Halloween were probably all the nights my cousin and I spent counting our candy and staying the night at each other’s house after a long night of trick or treating.  We’d always stay up as late as we could without passing out playing video games.  Halloween has always been a time where I enjoy being with my friends and organizing either a haunted house or just hanging out afterwards.  In the later years of my childhood after trick or treating got old, my friends and I would always go buy a lot of toilet paper and hit our friends houses and write all over their cars windows with window paint.  Sometimes we got caught and were forced to run to keep from having to clean up our messes, fortunately we never got in trouble with the police.  But for the most part I’d say Halloween’s always been a time of year where I have a lot of fun, I think the fun just changes form as you get older. 

Would I Change WSU?

Here at WSU, I haven’t found anything that I felt needed to be changed.  Academically, this school has every class, I need, to offer.  I was a little disappointed that Wright State did not offer an architecture program because that was what I originally was planning on studying.  But after some thought I decided to enter into a business major which Wright state does support.  I haven’t had much experience in classes and how the university works because this has only been my first quarter attending.  Most of my classes so far, have been classes of about 20 to 30 people.  I feel that I learn the most and retain the most from classes of that size.  Classes of 100 to 200 are a lot less personal, you rarely see any student to teacher interaction.  When I’m in a class like that I find that it’s harder to stay focused on the teacher and the lesson.  One thing I find very aggravating at WSU is all of the websites teachers use.  I think it would be much easier on everybody if we all used the same websites for tests, quizzes, and lessons, instead of having 3 different websites to follow for every different class.  This makes it a lot easier to miss an assignment or a due date if you don’t stay on track and up to date with everything.  

Writing and Revision

All throughout our lives we’ve been writing and revising papers.  Every year I learn something new and it helps improve my writing whether it be a new format of writing that I find easier or if it’s just expanding my vocabulary.  This year, we have been exposed to analytical responses and we’ve been improving our summarizing.  As far as summarizing has gone, I feel I have improved, however, analyzing is a much more difficult style of writing that I need to work on.  My original drafts for this class have, for the most part, been pretty decent, most revisions I make are either spelling or grammar issues.  I actually find the drafting process an effective form of revision, because after writing a paper I find it helpful for others to read it as well and give me suggestions on how to improve.  The drafting process has made a big difference in the way I write because it gives me a chance to see a different perspective and to receive ideas from others with different writing skills and formats.  Instructor comments have also helped to improve any future writings.  The revision process hasn't given me any issues I’ve just had problems with analyzing rhetorical situations which I’m working on improving.

It seems to me that Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s main interest in paintings is women however, the women in his paintings never look very pleasant.  After reviewing many of his paintings, every woman I’ve seen in his work has either a look of exhaustion or depression on their face.  I feel like he sympathizes with how women feel.  Women have been put up against a lot of issues in history regarding their rights and just shear respect.  I think Henri is showing his viewers his idea of women’s feelings on where they sit in society.  The painting I’m analyzing, describes a middle-aged woman, sitting by herself in a kitchen or bar.  She doesn’t have very satisfied expression on her face, she also has an entire bottle of alcohol to herself.  Henri displays the woman as one who drinks their problems away.  By the look on her face is appears she has either  just experienced a very stressful issue in her life or is exhausted from whatever she was just doing.  The color he uses in this painting is a very monotone, yellow lighting, perhaps a flickering candle on the wall.  There are some blues associated around the bottle of wine giving a darker mood to the subject.  He eyes are also squinted with a shade of blue showing that she may have no gotten much sleep.  She appears to actually be falling asleep in some sense.  Overall I feel that Henri is portraying a very unfortunate but truthful side of women and how issues they experience in their life affect them. 

Unplugging America

If we unplugged our televisions, I think our world would be a more sociable and lively place.  Children, these days, are more likely to stay inside, sit on a couch and watch television.  Why is that?!  Children have been influenced from a very early age by not only their parents but any older siblings or other people surrounding them. Everyone who allows them to experience a little TV is just enforcing the problem.  And if this becomes an ongoing event, the children soon become dependent upon TV, because they don’t know of any other form of entertainment.  Video games have become the biggest issue in little children today.  Children should be introduced to video games only after a certain age, to establish a ground of social education.  I have first hand experience with children that have been introduced to video games at an early age and those who have not.  My brother is a prime example, after our family got an xbox for christmas, that was the only thing he WOULD do.  After a while the childish games my parents would allow him to play got boring, he began to go outside a little more and actually get involved with school sports. But then, my parents finally cracked and allowed him play the more violent games, such as: Halo and Call of Duty.  After that he reverted back to a regular couch-potato, every day after school the first thing he’d do was sit down and turn the game on.  I feel like video games and television also effect the attitudes of young minds, after my brother was allowed to play these games, his temper has become out of control.  He often found screaming, yelling, and breaking household items.  So personally I would find great pleasure out of completely shutting people out of the digital world and force them to actually make contact with other people.

Why Did I Chose WSU?

My choice to attend Wright State University wasn’t exactly what I was planning for but it turned out to be a great choice.  I had been accepted to both Ohio State and the University of Cincinnati but unfortunately, for the wrong programs.  When I was in the stage of applying for colleges I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to go to school for and when it came down to making a decision I chose a Business Major.  So after getting an acceptance letter from both OSU and UC, I began to question my choice.  I then realized that business wasn’t what I was really striving for.  I then decided that Architecture was what I really wanted to study.  Unfortunately there are special programs you must apply for to get into for an Architecture major, so my only choice from there was to find a school that could get me started on the education I would already be learning over at UC.  After much research I came across Wright State University, although they do not support an Architecture program, the general classes that every freshman must take are universal.  So when I apply for and get accepted into the DAAP program for Architecture, I will be transferring out of WSU.  However, Wright State is an amazing school and I can say that if they offered an Architecture Major here I wouldn’t go anywhere else.

The Power of Advertising

Everywhere around us there is advertisement, whether it’s on out televisions, along the highway, or just about everything we read on the web.  The power of advertisement definitely goes a long way, and advertisers will stop at nothing to make sure you buy their product.  Unfortunately, advertisers find it easier to attract their audiences to their ads with negative attention.  Women’s products ads are always advertised with either some very attractive model or a woman who has been completely photoshopped to appear “perfect” to everyone else, and these ads use these models to make their audience feel less attractive and it makes them believe that maybe if they buy these products they’ll look like her.  Men’s ads revolve more around a sexual stand point.  There’s always a half dressed woman hanging all over some shirtless guy advertising body wash, which to a man that isn’t as attractive might believe that if he buys this product he’ll be able to find his own woman to hang all over him.  The power advertisers have in this world, is based purely on judgmental stereotyping.  The fact is no one is perfect and advertisers use that reality to their advantage, they suck people into their ads by hinting their product will help you become more perfect.  There are a few commercials still out there that give off a positive energy, by addressing their product and  the way their product is explained, they can get their point across and convince us.    I guess the way I see advertisements having power is how they are able to manipulate the minds of their audience because of their tactics whether they are positive or negative.  

You're Gonna Miss This

You’re Gonna Miss This  By Trace Adkins

She was staring out the window of that SUV

Complaning, saying "I can't wait to turn 18"

She said "I'll make my own money, and I'll make my own rules"

Mamma put the car in park out there in front of the school

Then she kissed her head and said "I was just like you"

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

Before she knows it she's a brand new bride

In a one-bedroom apartment, and her daddy stops by

He tells her "It's a nice place"

She says "It'll do for now"

Starts talking about babies and buying a house

Daddy shakes his head and says "Baby, just slow down"

Cause you're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plumber workin' on the water heater

Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'

One kid's cryin', one kid's screamin'

She keeps apologizin'

He says "They don't bother me.

I've got 2 babies of my own.

One's 36, one's 23.

Huh, it's hard to believe, but ...

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this"

Although I’m not a big country fan, I can still relate to the words spoken by Adkins in this song. After the past few years, going through high school, getting my license, graduating high school and moving on to college, this song really speaks to me.  Adkins lays out the story for a random woman growing up.  He first describes her as a teenager explaining to her mother how she’s can’t wait to grow up and leave.  To the parent this may seem like an innocent complaint but in reality, her daughter is only a few years from making that choice, so he reminds us of how important life is in the present and how we need to soak everything in and enjoy it while we can because it’s not going last forever.