The Static Age

As Alex hovers around the room; anyone can see his energy that brings everyone up even in a bad day. How does he do it? “attitude of gratitude” stated Waters. He explained how lucky everyone should feel just to be alive. That is the source of his motivation. Even after an accident like his, there’s always a source of motivation.

Back in 2004 Alex was a freshman playing golf for Morningside College.  During his first semester he suffered an accident after diving into  18 inch deep water. He snapped his neck; leaving him confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

After months in the hospital his journey to rehabilitation was a difficult one. As Alex said ” probably the lowest point of my life” When he realized he couldn’t put on a shirt by himself.  Every single time he would fall into the physician’s arms. For Alex this was a turning point. His life changed completely and so did he.

As he explained; he was not  reaching for personal development before the accident (calling himself a selfish young man). He stated ” I was only focused in three things: golf, money, girls! and not necessarily in that order”.

Nowadays Alex is one of Morningside’s first year student advisors. His job is to guide students during their first year in college. The new source of his motivation. Now he looks to every single one of his advisees as his own children: he goes to their games, celebrates when they get awards, and even tears up out of pride for them.

He even sees himself in some students (before the accident) as he calls the “difficult students”. He wants to make a difference and wants to help every student with their starting point for a hopefully successful college career. So whenever he deals with the “difficult students” he says to them “I had to break my spine to change, I don’t want you to go through that”.

Now everyday for Alex is a busy quest for moving forward. to improve himself and others, make a change, and to give back. he takes advantage of every hour in the day and always gives his students a great advice ” Netflix is fun but you could be changing something… or at the very least studying!

NY Times story

The story focuses on the incoming help from the government to help Puerto Rico. The current state of the country is almost inhuman as described in the article with no electricity, limited water, and restricted cellphone coverage.

The US government is sending troops and supplies.  Many argue that they took too long considering the disaster is even bigger than Katrina’s. Generals and government officials spoke about the issue supporting the cause but asking for more supplies and aid troops.

It’s interesting too see this type of catastrophes. Someone in the other side of the world is having the worst time of their lives and here we are probably complaining about traffic. I believe this really links to what Alex talked in class today, and one of the subjects for my article. It could always be worst! So we should be thankful for what we have.

There’s people waking up at 3 am everyday, trying to get two bags of ice and just a bit of fuel in Puerto Rico. that really puts things in a different perspective .

I guess my real comment of the week comes down to perspective; and how applying it in different ways can actually influence our lives. just to wake up in the morning and to look for the best of the day can actually make your day better.

The person is a female. Not very tall (around 5’1’). Has a very long and almost black hair; and a very marked accent (You could clearly tell English in not her fist language).  She was wearing a big green overcoat, black pants, and had a maroon bag. She can’t really stay still for too long’ so it’s in a constant moving or jumping around. For example, she’s always leaning in one of her legs and constantly changing the balance from one leg to another. She has a small chain in her leg that makes her sound like a dog with a bell; you can always know when she’s near you thanks to the sound.

At first you can only see a small brown ball; with no more that an inch of diameter covered in what seems to be sugar. To the touch it turns out to be firm; not falling apart with pressure (it does not bounce). Smells a bit greasy but what pops out is the common greasy sent of a Krispy cream donut. When eating, the donut will become very soft. The flavor was unexpected was maybe a bit to fresh for what a donut usually tastes likes

NY Times article

The article talks about the measurements and the process Facebook is going through next working with congress to investigate the fake accounts linked to the Russian government where they paid for ads that either praised Donald Trump or attacked Hilary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.

This article caught my attention thanks to the use of quotes, and the meaning behind. during the article they use multiple quotes from Mark Zuckerberg and some employees of the government. It caught my attention because in all of them they make Zuckerberg sound so relaxed and nice. Making him seen like a good guy;  so at first I thought the article was being biased. Then the other quotes came where they explained it took them 10 months to release that information and there they make you think about the other side of the story.

At the end all I know is that apparently Facebook is doing all they can and being cooperative to get the information out and even prevent more in the future. but I also wanted to talk about this article because of the impact it has, or Facebook has. To think that 10 years ago Facebook was just being created and used only in certain colleges; and now is part of a whole secret plan form one government to support or attack candidates and help turning elections around. we’ve come a long way; and this really says a lot about our current society, where the internet makes possible everything that you can imagine. Wonderful sure, but when you look deeper and deeper it just becomes more of a worry.

The Scavenger Hunt in Comm 208 started and our goal was “simple” … Good conversation!

My hunt began with two objectives: a cellphone photo of the subject, and a conversation about sports. It was not an easy task thanks to most of the people being in class or just doing homework with headphones; making my job much more difficult. A great set back but I sailed with determination to achieve my goal.

After a couple minutes of roaming around I decided the cafeteria was my best choice. Only a couple minutes after I took my decision I realized… the cafeteria opens at 11:00 am. But luckily in the wrong path I found the right people.

In a nice looking table decorated with some Hispanic blankets and signs reading Spanish club I found three very interesting people Aggie Mullen, Evelyn Hernandez, and Tyler Haberman. These three without me saying a word they started talking about DACA and explaining to me the whole situation (one that I already knew about) but they did it in such a passionate way that I just stood and listened. The main focus of my conversation was with Aggie Mullen a sophomore that is currently in the swimming team, she was very informed about the subject and was clearly the most extrovert of the group, at the end they encouraged me to call to congress and express my opinion until, until Evelyn Hernandez made Mullen go quiet and said “Oh wait… you are Venezuelan right? Then just ask your American friends to call… well I mean we’re all American because is one continent, but you get me” after this we laughed and I told them about my scavenger hunt to what they were very happy and even posed for multiple pictures.

After that my hunt continued to an interesting path. I decided the science center on the other side of the college was my next destination. To my surprise it was as empty as a mall after Black Friday. So the time now was 10:55 am and the idea of going back to the cafeteria was the only clear choice in my head.

A good choice indeed, the cafeteria was filled with people doing a line to get and have some food (a true shocker!) in here I met Justin Avereh a freshman currently majoring in music education.  He told me he wasn’t an athlete but game nights with his family was a bug thing in his life, the broncos is the team him and his family support. But his true passion comes down when the season changes to winter and the hockey comes up as he said “hockey is always packed with emotion, not like basketball where the good stuff is only in the last 5 minutes” he also was happy to know that sometimes he didn’t have to pay for big boxing fights when hockey could also provide the fights.

After this I’m happy with my hunt, I met some very interesting people and I feel like I succeeded in my first goal… Good conversation!

Today I want to do something different. I’ve been focusing so much on political and more serious news that I haven’t really being enjoying what I write. So maybe just for this time I will talk about a subject that has my total interest, Television.

using this article by The New York Times: “Game Of Thrones” Will shoot multiple endings to prevent spoilers.

So game Of Thrones is probably one of the biggest things to happen to television in a while, and it should be. It’s a masterpiece on so many aspects the writing, the acting, and directing. Creating one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

The article talks about the impact the show has on popular culture now day, and how producers and writer want to write different endings and actually record them to keep the audience in the dark as long as possible. This comes thanks to the leaks they had in the most recent season, where some episodes were published earlier, causing major spoilers to many fans.

According to the article it is not uncommon for big shows to do this, for example The walking dead did this on the season premiere of the seventh season where they actually filmed the death of 11 different characters to keep the suspense .

The power of television. It’s a wonderful thing and it makes me feel proud of the career I’m choosing. To know there is a world out there that is just hungry for excitement and new adventures is great motivation for a student on his second year of college looking to fit in that word.

The reach this show has and how wide spread it is nowadays, where in some parts of the world everything just freezes on Sundays because Game of Thrones is on. The amount of leaks that this season had was unbelievable, and it wasn’t just mistakes,  in many of the cases there where actually hackers stealing the files and then asking HBO for money or they would release the show. it has come to a point where the life around the production of the show became worthy of its on tv show.

Maybe not everyone is going to think that this is a marvelous thing as I do. But that’s the beauty of this business, in some part of the world someone is going to care. And as long as that stays true, We will continue to live in wonderful times.

Sexual Assaults and rape on college campuses. An alarming problem, and here’s why.As we begin a new year of classes there’s a problem that is not raising enough alarms. Sexual Assaults; as the crime rates of college campuses stay the same thanks to data not including the assaults, we face one of the hardest crimes to track down and resolve. The problem comes down to state laws, lack of reports, and the difficulty of getting a guilty sentence.

According to RAINN (Rape Abuse & Incest National Network) “Among undergraduate students, 23.1% of females and 5.4% of males experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.”.  These numbers are especially significant during the so called Red Zone (August, September, October, and November) where the 50 percent of all sexual assaults happen.

The difficulty of tracking down and resolving sexual assault cases comes down to three major factors:

First, there’s a major problem with the definition of rape. For example, the case with the ex Stanford student found guilty of sexual assault; technically not being a rapist according to California law because he as Lydia O’Connor explained in her article for The Huffington Post. “didn’t penetrate his victim with his penis. Instead, prosecutors could only charge him with sexual assault — a lesser charge — because he penetrated her with a foreign object, his finger.”

Second, approximately 63 percent of the victims for these crimes don’t report immediately and could actually never report them. Even with the recently raised awareness campaigns in college campuses; women and men feel the need to hide the crime and just forget about it.

Third, when survivors come forward, prosecutors decide to pass on their cases. Thanks to the difficulty of getting a guilty verdict on sexual assaults. The prosecutors pursue only the strongest cases (that of course guarantee a win). The lack of witnesses and the usual presence of alcohol make this task even more complicated. Making the survivors feel this is as an uphill battle from the beginning.

The way college campuses handle the sexual assault cases has been considered inefficient; a drifting perception nowadays thanks to the push of the 2011 title IX guidance or “dear Colleague” letter released by federal government. The letter as Anne Ard Executive Director at the County Women’s Resource Center in State College explained to Joan Raymond from NBC News “required schools to address complaints of sexual violence or risk losing federal funding”

Most campuses try to be an addition, not a replacement for what the police does. Focusing on the priorities of the assaulted student; providing all the necessary elements for the individual to continue her or his career. For example, dorm and class transfers, as well as mental health support.

Others say that colleges don’t do enough. Some colleges decide to not expel the student who committed the sexual assault. Only one in every three students found guilty of sexual assault gets expelled. And the reason is not marked on the student’s transcripts; creating concern in the community.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/college-game-plan/what-you-need-know-about-red-zone-when-campus-sexual-n649686

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sexual-assault-explainer_us_5759aa2fe4b0ced23ca74f12

http://www.dailypress.com/news/education/dp-nws-evg-campus-crime-20170821-story.html

https://www.rainn.org/statistics/campus-sexual-violence

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/09/north-korea-tech/538959/

I thought it was a good lead because it immediately raised my interest. For a long time everyone says” yes they threat but they can’t deliver” but now this article wants to change that with a question and an immediate answer, when did they get good at this?… well they been systematically underrated for years. just the lead does a couple things right in an instant: it has timeliness for the crazy times we live in, impact for the possible number of people that could be killed in a nuclear war, conflict because this all comes down to a political debate.

This article basically does an exposition of what’s happening in North Korea right now, they are making missile tests and every day their success rate goes up, considering how poorly equipped they were a couple years ago, to now jump into a 67% success rate of their launches in this year, this should raise at least some alarms.

In North Korea they are having an increase in their military infrastructure and are making a part of they every day that the politics, military and scientists go hand by hand.

Now, how do we react to this? Not panic, but definitely some awareness is needed. This reminds me of the story with the hare and the tortoise  America is this giant machine that goes a thousand miles per hour, and we see North Korea just getting close, such a small threat, no one listens at first, but if we give them enough time and space, they might do as the tortoise and win the race.

It’s moments like this one in history when in a couple years we might look back and say  : wow we should have done things differently. Now if that differently refers to a possible world war three then it’s a whole different scenario. This is a moment for the international community to come together and actually find solutions; because this might be a problem between two nations but nothing ever just stays that way, this might expand.

A cat stuck 50 feet on a tree was rescued by local fire fighter Bob Harwood.

At 102 11th Ave. A calico cat belonging to the twins Suzanne and Samantha decker . Harwood ran to the scene in order to help the twins, climbing 50 feet into the tree. After getting the cat everything was smooth until just 15 feet before the ground a dead limb broke and Hardwood (and cat) fell resulting in a broken leg.

After being rushed to St. Lukes Hospital harwood is doing “just fine” as well as the cat that fell on top of him.