mmh013's blog

The two articles that we read talk about the Occupy Wall Street movement and what is going on with that. The first one talks about how it is not only going on in the United States, but it is going on all over the world. It is much bigger than us. The second article talks about personal stories of people who are involved in the movement and why they are there. Some of the stories are similar but some are very different. One common thing for all of them is that they don’t want to leave until a change is made, they all want their opinion to be heard.

Honestly, I haven’t really stayed up to date on the whole Occupy deal, so I didn’t really know how big it was. I think it’s crazy how big of a deal this is and what it has become. It has kind of opened my eyes to what this whole thing is about and how strongly people feel about it. This is a big problem, much bigger than just us and it is affecting so many people. It is asking for a change and it will not end until things do change.

This week’s reading was about the arts in schools and how the funding is being cut in order to help the sciences and math. Music education is very important in children and I disagree with cutting funding. Science and math are very important in education, but they don’t allow for very much creativity. It’s always facts, or what is right and wrong. Music education, and the arts in general, allow students to express themselves in a different way and be creative however they want to. It’s one way they can think for themselves and not be told how things should be and how things are.

If the arts are lost in the schools, how do we expect the young kids of our world to express themselves, and learn how to be independent and unique. Art and music are the one things in school that allow for this. I think everyone should be required to take art and music all through elementary, like they are, and also have some requirement for it in junior high and school. It doesn’t have to be much, but this part of education really helps strengthen the school and the students within it.

Until reading about the urban legends and listening to the clip about hitchhikers, I guess I never really thought about either of them. When I hear stories and haunting stories I guess I get freaked out a little too easily and never think about the logic of them. They aren’t always true or exactly accurate. It’s ideas of what could happen, or things that happened but in a different way. Sometimes it’s more about the meaning of the legend than what really happens.

I never really thought about hitchhikers and how they aren’t really around anymore. When I was growing up I never really saw them, so those few times that I have seem strange. I never considered that it used to be more common. Honestly, the whole idea of hitchhiking kind of freaks me out anyways. Like one of the ladies in the clip says, you’re basically handing your life over to that person. So, what’s the point? We’re taught at a very young age not to talk to strangers, much less get in a vehicle with them. So, I guess it doesn’t surprise me that there’s not a lot of hitchhikers. Honestly, people are crazy and there’s always  a chance of getting in a car with a crazy person. I will be one of the first to say there is no way I would ever be caught hitchhiking and putting my life in strangers hands.

Over the years, Christmas has changed so much. When it first started, there was no gift giving, Santa Claus, or anything that has to do with reindeer and cookies for Santa. Although a lot of things have changed, there are some things that have remained the same. Families and towns still gather together to celebrate the holiday for their own reasons. Some may be more religious than others, but they still gather together to enjoy the holiday. We may not know exactly when Christ was born as the New Testament doesn’t exactly say, but regardless, Christmas is a celebration of that day, whenever it was. It is seen as a symbol for what happened.

Gift giving and the some of the material things have become a major part of the Christmas holiday. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with giving gifts and enjoying the gifts you receive. It’s the reasoning behind it that matters. I think it’s about showing your appreciation for the people you love and doing something nice for them. It’s not about the price or size of the gift, but the thought. Even though Christmas has changed so much over the years, the basic reasons for gathering can still be seen around the holidays.

Other than beauty, another theme I have noticed through out the readings is opinion. Opinion is very broad, but basically, the things we were read were based on opinions. In the piece about Calliagnosia it was a battle to enforce calli or limit it for the public. The whole story was different peoples opinions and how it would hurt or harm society. The piece about sports and manliness was conveying the opinions of how people feel about women in connection to sports, and how men should be expected to act. The video about fractals was an opinion on how cool, interesting, and helpful math can be for everyone and everything. Vonnegut’s speeches were his opinions and how he decided to interpret and explain things to others. He was very pessimistic but that’s the opinion he chose to have.

It wasn’t just the readings that conveyed certain opinions though. By reading these, we all formed our own opinions and brought to the table what we got out of them. Not everybody came with the same opinion or left with the same one. Depending on how we look at each of the readings and the message being presented we came away with different ideas. This is what keeps the conversation going and challenges the views being expressed. If we all took the same exact things for each of the readings each week and formed the same opinion, what kind of discussion would that be? Rather short and lacking in content. The opinions presented and the opinions we form really shape the class.

Vonnegut presents his two speeches similarly, but also very differently. I found these speeches kind of confusing to read because of the nature of them. He skips around a lot in the topics and at random times. He goes from very serious issues to random comments, but somehow he manages to link them together in some way. His speeches portray his pessimistic attitude in many different lights. I still agree with some of the things he says, but it’s a different way of looking at things. I agree that we can’t completely rely on science to move us forward in the world. Science has already brought us so far and it is time to look at other things that everyone has in common and can rely on. We also need to help each other out and not leave people behind.

There is a lot of truth through his pessimistic views in his speeches. We are all one and must help each other and work together in things that everyone can benefit from. He says we need to accept new things and not just settle for what we have and know. We can’t just accept everything that we are told or taught, because some things require a challenge and may not be true. We alone cannot change the world. It takes a lot of people and a lot of support, but you can make a small difference that will help begin the change. He says not to take on too much at one time as there is so much out there. Through his pessimistic views I was able to see some very positive and optimistic views shine through.

Math really isn’t my subject or my strong point. It’s not even really in my interest field normally, but I found this kind of interesting at times. It’s funny how new things are constantly being discovered in math and science and we never know everything. I guess that’s why it just doesn’t interest me. I never really thought about how math is in nature and other things than just the classroom, but it really is everywhere. The idea of fractal geometry is kind of interesting.

One thing I thought was interesting was the potential use for medicine that fractals could have.  Eventually, the use of this mathematical system could help detect cancer earlier and help to save lives. It can do this by finding blood vessels that don’t match the other ones and don’t follow the fractals. It’s amazing the things that fractals can help with and do for our world now. It’s kind of eye-opening how much math can do for us when you really think about it. This video helped me to see this.

The first reading talks about opinions and views on professional athletes and what they should or shouldn’t do. People were making a big deal out of one guys doing a photo shoot and another one missing a game for the birth of his own child. It also brought up the issue of women in sports and how controversial of an issue that is. Men say they won’t want women in the press box or doing anything with announcing because they think a woman’s voice over the intercom is annoying and they don’t want to hear it while they are trying to watch a sporting event.

I don’t see what the huge deal is with missing a game for a child being born. It’s his own son and a big deal is being made. Family comes first, before anything else. Majority of celebrities do some sort of photo shoot at some point in time, so what’s the difference with an athlete doing it? It’s still the same concept just a different person. Sports judge women so harsh. Not all voices are annoying but because one or two have been before it’s stereotyped that way. But what about men? I know I have heard some very annoying men’s voices coming over the speakers at sporting events. Just because it’s a man and sports though, it doesn’t matter.

The second reading, “The Televised Sports Manlihood Formula” , it talks about how many hours boys spend watching tv and negative effects it has on them. It doesn’t just talk about the shows being negative, but the commercials are almost worse than the actual event they are watching. The commercials are sexist and racial, using mostly white males and conveying the message that women are prizes. It also talks about how even if you get hurt you’re supposed to play and go against what you are told to do. It also talks about if you are mean and aggressive you are not good. In order to be ‘good’ and effective you must be over the top aggressive.

I’m in no way against boys watching sports on tv, I think it is good for them to watch some. Not everything comes down to what they see and hear on tv. That doesn’t make someone who they are. It’s the combination of the home life, what they are taught at school and by their parents, and what they watch on tv. However, I am completely opposed to the commercials and how they depict women. It’s not right in the first place for only white men to be used on commercials, there’s the occasional minority group shown but not that often. And women? It’s degrading having them in very little clothing and showing them as prizes across the screen. That’s not how women should be seen. Unfortunately, the things that are talked about in the second reading happen all too often and are true in today’s world.

In Cicero’s De Inventione Book 1 he discusses the different sides of eloquence and public speaking. The main question throughout the piece is: Is eloquence good for a speaker? Public speaking can be good or bad depending on the use of eloquence, and how the speaker presents the speech.  Cicero points out that eloquence used with wisdom can be good and helps to achieve many things, but eloquence used without wisdom is just asking for a problem to occur. It can be the greatest service one can give to our country if it is approached the right way.

Cicero talks about what makes an eloquent speaker and how to go about it. He discusses the good side of it and how to use it to the best of your ability for the good of society. The bad side is also discussed with how to use it the wrong way. A good side is that many cities have been established and wars ended due to eloquence. But on the bad side, people have been misinformed and battles started that never should have. It basically depends on how eloquence is used as to whether it is good or bad.

Response:

I thought this piece was kind of confusing at first, but Cicero makes so many good points. I don’t think it’s just about how the speaker uses eloquence, but it’s also left up to the audience. The point of a public speaker is to get a point across and influence you one way or the other. At the same time the audience chooses what they listen to and how they interpret it. Some people that are very good public speakers have the worst intentions and as an audience, we have to be able to tell the different and make a decision based on beliefs and morals.

Eloquence in public speaking tends to challenge ideas and beliefs. It makes people really think about what they want and how they want things done. It really can be good or bad depending on how it is used and interpreted. Cicero really made that point clear, I thought.

The article, Liking What You See, discusses the controversial issue of the importance of beauty in our society. This is discussed through the use of Calliagnosis and many different people’s views on the subject. Calli is a device that can be turned off when one turns eighteen, but until then it blocks a person’s view of ugly features and beautiful features in another person. This device is very futuristic and tries to convey the issue of beauty in society and how judgemental people are. It challenges ethical views and challenges beliefs because it does not allow people to see true beauty. Calli makes everyone look uniform and takes away the unique features that separate one person from another. Through out the article, groups for and against Calli exaggerate their sides in order to get their way with the device.

To me, Calli seems like a way to avoid the truth and make everyone the “same.” Part of life is being different and unique while still being accepted in society. The little imperfections that each and every person has makes them different in their own beautiful way. Life is not all about how people look and that seems like the basis of some people’s thoughts. If that is all people look at or think about then there are a lot more issues than the judgement of physical features. Calli distorts what a person can see on another person. It’s part of life to see the people the way they are and accept them for that. With Calli people get the wrong idea and don’t know the truth. Tamera’s view says that Calli makes everything fair, but even if we had Calli in society today, people would still find something else to judge others about. It’s the way people are.

This article was very interesting to me and made me think a lot. Beauty seems to be such a big issue in our world today. But why? It’s not just about how someone looks and that seems to be what people focus on. What matters is on the inside and you have to get to know a person before you can judge those features. In order to appreciate someone’s real beauty, you have to be able to see them, and see them in their everyday, normal state. With Calli, that normal state is hidden by trying to take away true beauty. Beauty does not make someone better than anyone else, it is just simply the way they look.