Multi media REDO

Here, I shall present the forms of media that have shaped my life in one form or another.

^^^^^Here is my guitar tuner that I use to make sure all of my strings are perfectly tuned when im performing so i dont have to spend so much time boring people while i tune by ear :P

^^^^^Here is my little hand held recording device that I use to record little tid-bits of music so that i can put them together into songs. This helps me out IMMENSELY in being able to remember things that im playing when im just jamming and not really paying much attention to song structure.

^^^^Here is my guitar effects pedal that allows me to plug into my amplifier and have all kinds of cool sounds to add to my guitar such as wah-wah (think jimi hendrix), reverb, and delay. This makes guitar playing much more fun.

^^^^^Here is my guitar amplifier that allows me to make my guitar sound REALLY loud, or just reasonably loud enough to play in a coffee shop or small gig. It makes electric guitars sound much better than they do on their own, except acoustics, they sound pretty good on their own.

^^^^^And lastly, here is my iPad that I use to inject the Facebook drug into my veins, amongst other things like email, Amazon, Word processor, Facebook, Facebook, and uhhh....Facebook These are the main forms of media that are involved in my life. All of the guitar related forms of technology have helped me a lot in being able to shape myself as a musician. I would say that i have used the amplifier, tuner, computer, and effects pedal for music purpouses the longest, the recorder being the newest addition to my musical arsenal. THe computer has allowed me to learn literally EVERY cover song that i have ever learned, using guitar tabs to learn all the notes and put them together into songs...Being a self-taught musician and using the computer as my main source of informational learning, I can definately say that I would be FAR less accomplished musically without the use of the computer. HUZAH MEDIA

Smoke Signals movie review

For my movie review, I decided on the movie Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre which features Adam Beach and Evan Adams as the main characters. I chose this movie because it takes a look into the world of Native American culture in modern day society, and how their lives have been shaped by their forced reservation living. The movie starts out with the two main characters, Victor and Thomas's parents dying in a house fire that, in the beginning, leaves the house fire to the viewer as a mystery. A majority of the movie involves Victor and Thomas traveling to Arizona to retrieve Victor's fathers ashes. The movie exudes a cultural, humorous, and has an older feel than movies today because it was filmed in the 90's. The on-going conflict occuring in Smoke Signals is between Victor and Thomas, which involves Victor trying to teach Thomas not to be so nerdy and annoying, and that he should act more Stoic, or without such intense passion and emotion in his actions. Victor comes from this stand-point because he is a much taller, masculine looking Indian, compared to Thomas who is scrawny and geeky looking who wears a suit and tie and keeps his hair in braids. Victor is constantly annoyed by Thomas's consistent story telling and babbling about utter nonsense, that of which Victor trys to change by telling him "Get Stoic! You need to start acting like a real Indian or else white people will just walk all over you" One of the messages in the movie could be to respect your elders, and no matter how far you need to travel or to what extent you need to go to give that respect, do it. Another good message is to be tolerant of the ways people are, because there is always a reason for why someone is acting that way. Understanding someone can break down many barriers that cause constant discomfort and quarrel between humans.

Walden Two

The book I chose to read for this review was the famous book by B.F.Skinner called Walden Two, which is based off of the Utopian societal ideals of a book by the philosopher Henry David Thoreau called "Walden". The dictionary definition of a Utopian society is literally any place that seems to be perfect in every way, a dream land. Walden Two, which has 306 pages, was published in 1948 by Collier Macmillan Limited. This book begins by introducing the main character and narrator, Professor Burris. Burris meets with his friends whom have returned from World War Two in search of a better life. Along with another professor named Augustine Castle, They all decide to take a trip to a Utopian society named "Walden Two", which they had all heard about from a student of Burris named T.E. Frazier, whom was the founder of this Utopian society. Upon their arrival they all are greeted by Frazier and showed how Walden Two functions. They all discover that the people living there, roughly a few thousand people, are all very highly organized with very little sense of organized leadership. All of the people have perfected and equal healthcare, self-sustained food cultivation and preparation, education and very little work by organizing every single member to work four hours a day in order to meet a number of hours by the end of a year. In order to create this society, Frazier made use of various psychological behavioral control techniques in order to change the way people felt about the world they live in. By raising children from birth with specific psychological guidlines, The children grew up with a natural sense of oneness with everyone around them. "Since our children remain happy, energetic, and curious, we dont need to teach 'subjects at all. We teach only the techniques of learning and thinking....Our children aren't neglected, but they're seldom, if ever, taught anything". This quote demonstrates one of the psychological techniques imposed on the children which made them actually want to learn, so they are not forced to learn things they do not want to in school, whereas they eventually learn all they need to know as they grow. Another point I enjoyed was that in this society, personal gratitude towards someone is highly discouraged, because it is believed that every single person in the society is important, and that one person should never be held higher than another person. The idea of saying "Thank You" to a person for doing something nice for them is a completely alien idea. It is expressed, " It's as if you had handed her a certain amount of money which belonged to the whole community". I found this to be a VERY powerful statement. In time, Frazier helped eliminated jealousy, aggression, contempt, greed and other negative, separating feelings in his society which in turn enabled all of the citizens to work together to understand their communal need for peace. Throughout the book, Castle is the most skeptical about the validity of this Utopian society because he had taught classes on Utopian societies so he had developed a firm, opposing opinion on them because of their underlying motives. Burris, the narrator, keeps a slight sense of skepticism up until the middle of the book, where eventually in the end of the book, he joins the society after running away from the city which he had returned to. I felt that this book gave a very in depth look into the way that a society can live, with very exact details as to how it would be planned out and organized over time, including plans for dealing with future problems and indoctrinating new citizens. Though there were a few spots towards the end of the book that bored me a bit, overall this book helped me to change some of the ways I view the means to attain happiness, and the ways I look at gratitude, flattery, heroism, and ingratiation and the ways that it affects the individual negatively. Though this book had some EXTREMELY important lessons to learn from, it was SUPER heavily wieghed with philosophical and psychological talk, which could get quite boring for someone that is looking for a leisurely read with lots of "grabbing" scenes such as fight scenes, drama, suspense, or any kind of action. If you are willing to devote the time to learning some very important philosophical and psychological lessons about life (some of which completely enveloped me with pure amazement and beauty), then this is would be a very beneficial book to read. In my honest opinion, I would give this book a thumb up and three quarters of another thumb! The slight boredom bits chops off a quarter of the other thumb...

Your Brain on Fiction EC

This article opened my eyes to the possibilities of reading that I had not yet considered. When we are reading a novel that is dealing with multiple sensory details, our brains are percieving those interactions in the book as if they were actually happening in real life. Our brains are referring to the last time we had experienced whatever is being explained, and trys to replicate that by stimulating our brains. Reading novels allows us to be more successful in interacting with others because reading novels is actually putting our minds into a sort of virtual reality! This improvement in social interaction in turn leads us to being more academically successful by interacting more positively with our teachers, class mates, employees and employers.

PBS Culture SHOCK!

HELLO...I return with more blogging... Due to my sudden absence on monday, I was unable to pair up with a partner so I checked out the website on my own. The experience had some good points, yet also had some cheezy arguements against violence in video games. The good points were that they were discouraging violence in video games because of the influence it has on growing children, and how it shapes their acceptance of violence in their lives. Perfectly rational, yet one of the article bits said something along the lines of "With the influence of these games in our minds, we go out into the streets with cross-hairs embedded on others" which seems a bit overthought. Then there were images of some lady with her eye poked out, and St. Sebastian with a spear through his head, obviously not related to video games. On top of that, it was connecting violence in video games to police brutality and war, with images of a building about to be bombed in the middle east, and a protester being beaten by police officers during a protest at the WTC in 1993. This was COMPLETELY out of context, the fact that they were attempting to relate the brutality of police officers and the corruption of the U.S. in war to violence in video games. Anyway, the image they showed first of wasnt even that violent! All I saw was robots and flashy lights!! I clicked yes... :P In a way, I would say that video games are an art form, as they are an incredible invention, especially in our age of video gaming, things have gotten really intense with the graphics and details put into these games. It is an art form that requires the collaboration of many brilliant minds that, in a literal sense, interact with peices of metals, plastic, chemicals and electricity to be able to put these complete masterpeices on to grapefruit sized peices of plastic! I suppose that the claim of video games " the representation of violence reduce mayhem and murder to an experience designed to entertain" has its truths, yet the only way I can relate is by comparing my experience seeing my brother play Call of Duty, a brutal war game. I would say this is true, yet have no idea how millions of others apply this sense of entertaining murder into their lives. I can relate from my childhood in regards to letting out aggression through violence in video games, because I did that a lot :D....that is all...I rambled on for long enough.

ATDPTI(part one)

I suppose blogger decided to delete my first post, so here is the first question for the ATDPTI post At his new school, Reardan, Arnold gets to know a book-lover named Gordy, who says that “life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.” How does this idea relate to Arnold’s life? This quote directly relates to Arnold life because of his new struggle of feeling at home on the reservation, and feeling like hes doing something good with his life by going to Reardan.

Burying women with vodka

Out of all the ADs given in the text book, I chose these two because they somehow seemed related in my head...A vodka advertisement, and...dead women? sunglasses? a suit? a nice car? a shovel?...whatever they were trying to sell in the Jimmy Choo advertisement. A) In the Stolichnaya vodka ad is clearly targeting young women who like to party, and horny guys, with the hook being two hot steamy women who look ready to drink a bunch of vodka. 1) The women in the ad connect to the product for the same reason above...(hot steamy women looking to drink a bunch of vodka, which men like a lot. 2) The target audience would be men ages 18-40 who enjoy drinking, and women...You would most likely see this ad in a Playboy magazine, or a biker mag. The ad seems to be effective considering the attractiveness of the women, and of all the different flavor choices they give you on the side of the ad. 3) The women in the ad are in a nightclub looking setting, ready to party. The lifestyle projected promises a lavish,nightclub type lifestyle, promising sex through drinking and partying. 4)The text below the photograph unclearly implies seeking variety in both the product, and in women. It is also telling you that you should try all the different flavors in order to find the one that you think you like, which seduces the target to buy a bunch of bottles of vodka. The reader could be anyone from a child to an old man, yet it is presumed that the reader is between the ages of 18-40 B)Jimmy Choo advertisement was just creepy, wierd and unclear. It could be targeting rapists and murderers of any age, or people that like suits and sunglasses...the hook is clearly the seemingly dead woman in the back of the nice car. 1)In this ad, some guy is preparing to bury a woman who seems to be dead in the trunk of a car. The product being sold is not clear at all, yet it sells whatever it is selling by shocking the target. The desert setting just makes it look like the guy is trying to find a good place to bury the woman. The only thing im expecting in this ad is a murder case. I would have no clue what was being sold, even with the ad name presented. I probably would stop to read the ad, just because of how stupidly shocking the ad is. This ad obviously promoted women violence, the fact that there is a dead white woman laying in the back of a car with a black dude digging a hole to put her in... the whole scene is in pretense, leading up to your expectation that the guy is burying this woman...The whole ad was strangely mind boggling

ATDPTI!!!!!!!!

wanted to add two more questions on here for you know what ;-) What are some of the ways alcohol affects Juniors life? Well....1) Most of the people on his reservation are total drunkards( which I hear is actually true on a lot of reservations)...He grew up around drunkards and pretty much learned how to live through drunkards...not to say Junior is a drunk or anything. 2) Junior's parents were drunks, along with Rowdy's father too, which Junior got to see the worst of first hand by Rowdy's father beating Rowdy all the time, leaving him all bloodied up, which most likely affected Rowdy's sense of toughness. Arnold says he and Penelope are supposed to be happy with their limitations. Explain why dreams are so important to Arnold. Dreams are so important to Arnold because he has spent his whole life growing up around people who are unable to fulfill their dreams due to the living conditions they are placed in. He has been told to be satisfied with what he has because "its all he's ever going to get" which is what he has learned from those around him. Also dreams are the only thing he has to hold onto to feel happy, one dream being the fulfillment of being an artist, which keeps him sane. BAM

6 word memoir

Sifting through doubt to build strength and another one that is more of a grounding tool for getting rid of unnecessary thought patterns like negative self doubt, judgement, worry, and so on. Listening to sounds,quieting the mind

Smashing the teacher

For my cartoon I chose the one that shows Arnold throwing his outdated textbook at his teachers FACE, which is something I have wanted to do to a few teachers on a number of occasions. This cartoon symbolized Arnolds fury towards the living environment he was experiencing and how trapped he felt. It was a cry saying " SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE NOW! I NEED OUT!" Yeah, pretty much. This is the closest I could find to the actual cartoon, much more detailed, yet no graphic facial obliteration.

Modern day zombie apocalypse!! BIG VISIBLE WORDS

            Sebastian here again...Ill try not to go off so much on this one like I did with the Axe ad :-P
In Damien Cave's article, "On sale at Old Navy: Cool Clothes for Identical Zombies!",
 Cave makes the point that clothing stores like Old Navy, Gap and Ikea have learned to sell products to consumers that sell the idea of "anti-corporate cool". I disagree with how its being pointed at Old Navy and Gap because that anti corporate style is sold EVERYWHERE...and plus, it doesnt seem like people that want to feel anti-corporate or whatever would even shop there in the first place...it would be more like Hot Topic or thrift stores or something...but I guess there are people that would think Old Navy is pretty cool, outlandish and mystifying...oh well...IM STOPPING NOW :-)

blog seed/sexual objectification

Hellooo I am Sebastian and this is my first blog post for english 100. This is mostly going to be about this Axe body spray advertisement i found on google images. This image seemed to be the best demonstration of cool and acceptance for men in America. This image shows a guy lifting his shirt up, with two seemingly beautiful women embracing him(you would assume this is because he is doused in Axe). "if you wear this product, you will be more sexually appealing to women, and will be happier" As well as selling their body spray product, this company is selling the idea to both boys and men that being attractive and sexy to women is important, and that wearing the product will improve their chances of achieving that goal. To me, this is a very sad part of Amerian culture, because it is implanting in the brains of boys and men that looking like this guy is important, and that women are attracted to guys that look "sexy" or "mysterious" and masculine. For guys that do not fit into the stereotype this company has depicted, what is created is a need that this product does not satisfy, only another peice to add to the self conciousness and self doubt that so many boys and men feel in America.