A Day In the Life of Me :)

8:00-Wake up unexpectedly early

Waking up this early for any reason is crazy. Why did I do this? I didn't even go to sleep until 2. I guess I should go ahead and get dressed but at least I get to watch OLTL.

9:00- ONTL is over.

What should I d0 now? Really sleepy...and hungry.

Time for breakfast

10:00-Forgotten homework.

Ugh! Forgot to read textbook for class. I guess I should at least skim it. SMH

11:00- Time for class

Can barely stay awake. Looking at art work that I everyone seems to have an open about but me. " It's just a can?"

12:00- Finally class is over.

My eyebrows are kind of bushy....gotta fix them.

1:00- Starving again.

I guess I'll try this Asian cafe today.

2:00- Laundry

Gotta have clean clothes. And can't let it get to 5 loads again. (NEVER AGAIN)

4:00-Homework

Paper, Blog, Wiki, practice problems, read.....I guess I should do this?

6:00- Bored

Can't do homework any more....not getting anything done...time to go exploring :)

7:00- Marble Slab!

Yum Yum!

8:00- Time to visit West Campus!

Sat in the park with friends and then their raided closets.

10:00- PARTY!

Time to get dressed and go out!!!!

3:00- Sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

The End :)

The Electric Chair

At first glance of this work, I simply thought "Why?". The color yellow represents warmth, brightness, joy, happiness...ect. In contrast, electric chairs represent death, despair, and dread. So how are yellow and electric chairs related?

Is Warhol suggesting that in death, there is joy? Maybe. But to get to the electric chair, one must bring misery and pain to another...once again contrasting with the joy of yellow.

Later, I noticed that the chair was unplugged. So could this symbolize the fact that we are moving further away from this method of execution? And the yellow represents the happiness over the death of legal electrocution.

But then again, this could represent an electric chair used in Alabama, affectionately nicknamed Yellow Mama because of its yellow paint coating. So many possibilities so who really knows?

The Big Bad Bully

Remember the Disney movies we grew up with as kids or, for parents, watched and re-watched again and again with your child? Movies like Mean Girls, Max Keeble’s Big Move, and Heavy Weights tugged at our hearts and made us cheer for the underdog. Each had a central theme; bullying is wrong and bullies won’t prevail. In each of these movies there is a ‘big bad bully’ (a vicious leader of the ‘in crowd’, a mean principal, or a crazy camp counselor) that must be overthrown with quirky antics, good spirits, and friendship. In these movies, each bully is given their just desserts and the bullied are freed from tyranny and live happily ever after. However unlike in the movies, many times this hopeful outcome is not attained in reality. This is especially prevalent in the case of cyberbullying. The pervasive trend of cyberbullying through social media changes and intensifies the bully victim relationship, increasing the incidence of teenage depression and suicide.

According to the National Parent/ Teacher Organization, one in every three children will become a bully’s victim via cyber space ("Current Events" 4-5). Some don’t have the opportunity, gumption, or support to fight back. Instead of alerting someone and getting help, ninety percent of children suffer in silence and don’t tell their parents or an official about the abuse they endure (Juvonen 9-18). Not long ago, bullying only took place at school on the playground or maybe at the mall if you were really unlucky. Now kids are harassed and bullied everywhere, even in what is supposed to be their safe place, their home. A shove, a kick, a punch...these were the tools of ‘traditional bullies’. Bullying has changed due to advances in technology, transforming into a new ‘sport’---cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can be defined as “Irresponsible and destructive behavior toward others using technology” (Sabella 1). Victims are harassed through many types of media such as but not limited to email, texts, instant messages, bashing sites, and blogs (Draic). Cyber aggressions not only include the bullying techniques that can be done face-to-face such as talking about another person, but also hostilities like shutting down their email account and post embarrassing photos or videos of them (Calvete, Orue, Estevez, Villardon, and Padilla 1128-1135).

Depression

Because of our prevalent use of various form of technology, bullies have the opportunity to pester their victims mercilessly twenty four hours a day. Victims may find it difficult to secure relief from the harassment caused by cyberbullying (Dooley, Pyzalski, and Cross 182-88). This can cause the sufferer to shut down and shut him or herself off from those closest to him or her. Eventually, this behavior can cause a deep, dark depression. Depression can lead to other stress related conditions such as anxiety, fear, and paranoia.

“…then [I would] run to the toilets and cry” (Sloan). These are the words of then thirteen year old Georgia Woods. She had a fight with a friend which resulted in nasty and rude messages and groups on the social networking site Bebo. “…I even put my school tie around the toilet door to try to hang myself, but couldn’t go through with it…” Georgia faced severe depression as a result of the cyberbullying. Although she didn’t share her feelings with her parents, they discovered her issues by looking through some art Georgia created to express her feelings. Her parent we able to get her help and counseling before her depression escalated.

Suicide

Constant bashing and humiliating messages can cause extreme emotional distress to anyone, but especially to teenagers that are still determining themselves as a people. When teens receive endless messages from multiple tormentors defaming their character, they may feel as though everyone is against them, as if they don’t have anyone to turn to. Victims of the cyber abuse may feel as though there is no help or escape. Suicide becomes their only relief.

For example, Megan Meier, a 13 year old teenage girl living with attention deficit disorder and battling depression, hanged herself in her bedroom closet. The cause? Like many people, she had MySpace account. Sometime after befriending Josh Evans, a person she believed to be a teenage boy, Megan began receiving derogative messages from Josh and others began posting cruel bulletins about her. The last message she received before ending her life was from Josh. “Everybody in O’Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you” (Pokin). This account of cyberbullying shows that words can cause the same if not a worse effect than a traditional bullying.

Resolution

The Megan Meier tragedy of 2006 sparked demands for legislation discouraging cyberbullying. Currently, Congress is debating the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act. This bill would prohibit “interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior” (Rep. Sanchez Introduces Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act). Basically, this bill forbids the harassment of others through electronic means. With a punishment of two years of prison, fines, or both, this bill –if passed –may find difficulties with enforcement. Many of the possible offenders of this future bill would be today’s youth, some as young as eight years old. If an eight year old child threatened someone’s life online, should we send him or her to prison? No, because the average eight year can’t kill someone. However, if a teenager threatened to kill another person, then sure send him to jail. Essentially, what I’m saying is that if passed, this bill should include discriminative guidelines for punishment based upon age.

Of course, we must realize that cyberbullying cannot be eradicated, but we must try. My mom has always told me education was the key. So I believe this is true here. To help solve this problem, we can educate our youth about the impact a few typed words can have on a person’s essence. We can show them how immoral tearing down another person is and help them make wise decisions while online. As Attorney General Goddard suggests, we should urge the youth to “take the Megan Pledge and take a stand against cyberbullying” (US Fed News Service, Including US State News).

But I’m Being Cyberbullied!

So what should you do if you are cyberbullied? There are many steps you can take to stop the abuse.

1. First, you should alert someone—a parent, a friend, or an official. Let anyone know that you are being bullied.

2. Keep a record of all the abusive communication.

3. Don’t respond. Many times bullies are looking for a response. If you don’t respond, they will move on and leave you alone.

4. Block your attackers. Remove those abusing you from your pages.

5. If the abuse becomes more than you can handle, notify the authorities. Often times, they can trace were the attack is coming from and stop them (Sabella 1-8).

Works Cited

“Attorney General Goddard Encourages Kids to Take Megan Pledge to Stop Cyberbullying.” US Fed News Service, Including US State News, (2008): n/a.

Calvete, Esther, Izaskun Orue, Ana Estevez, Lourdes Villardon, and Patricia Padilla. "Cyberbullying in Adolescents: Modalities and Aggressors' Profile." Computers in Human Behavior 26.5 (2010): 1128-1135. Web. 28 Jul 2010.

"Cyberbullying Teens Say It's Time to Stop the Hate."Current Events 28 Sep. 2008: 4-5. Web. 28 Jul 2010.

Dooley, Julian, Jacek Pyzalski, and Donna Cross. "Cyberbullying Versus face-to-face bullying: A theoretical and conceptual review." Journal of Psychology 217.4 (2009): 182-88. Web. 28 Jul 2010.

Dracic, Sabaha. “Bullying and Peer Victimization.” Materia Socio Medica, 21.4 (2009): 216-219

Juvonen, J. "Extending the School Grounds?--Bullying Experiences in Cyberspace." Journal of School Health 78.9 (2008): 9-18. Web. 28 Jul 2010.

"Rep. Sanchez Introduces Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act. " US Fed News Service, Including US State News 14 Apr. 2009,Research Library, ProQuest. Web. 26 Jul. 2010

Sabella, Russell. "Cyberbullying:Who, What, Where, Why, and What Now?." Counseling and Human Development 41.8 (2009): 1-14. Web. 26 Jul 2010.

Sloan, Jenna and Lowe, David, “Victims of Cyber Bullying Talk.” Live it Real Life Women. The Sun. 13 Jul 2009. 29 July 2010

Pokin, Steve. "POKIN AROUND: A real person, a real death." St. Charles Journal (2007): n. pag. Web. 28 Jul 2010.

Sitting At The Kids Table

Long gone are the days of only the formally educated elite researching, spinning, and reporting the news. Because of technological advances and the advent of blogging, anyone with access to an internet connection can voice their opinions and report news relevant to their interests. Blogs provide different viewpoints and takes on the various issues weface each day. Aside from who writes them, blogs and online journals have many similarities and very few differences. So why shouldn't bloggers receive the same rights, privileges, and protection as journalists? Shield Laws protect journalists and give them the option of disclosing their sources in a court of law. Many states have a form of a shield law but Congress is still debating upon who and what to include in the federal law. Blogger Andrew Moshirnia addresses this hotly debated topic in his blog, Why Are Bloggers Still Sitting at the Kid's Table? The Popularity of Online News and the Federal Shield Law. Moshirnia effectively uses several key rhetorical elements, such as metaphor, appeal to ethics, and an informal writing style, to develop his argument.

Beginning with the incredibly long title, Why Are Bloggers Still Sitting at the Kid's Table? The Popularity of Online News and the Federal Shield Law, Moshirnia uses a metaphor to show the absurdity of withholding the Shield Law privileges from bloggers. In many traditional families, there are at least two tables that friends, family, and guests gather around to eat holiday feasts during Thanksgiving and Christmas, the adult table and the kiddy table. At the adult table, parents and mature, older children discuss “noteworthy” topics while at the kiddy table, the younger children discuss “trivial” matters. The idea of the kiddy table implies childish conduct as opposed to the adult table, reserved for maturity. In this scenario, blogging would be the child, print journalism would be the elder, and the Shield Law would be the adult table. Even though blogging is halfway through its sixteenth year and has grown into a prominent source for information, it still has not been afforded the honor and privilege of sitting at the adult table with journalism. Bloggers have not been granted the same deserved protection as journalists.

Moshinira’s appeals to ethics build credibility through the use of strong facts and statics throughout his blog. He uses details and direct quotations from the Pew Internet and American Life Project to show how important mediums other than print journalism are to the way the public gathers information. The Pew Report is one of seven divisions that make up The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. They are a non-profit, unbiased organization that finds, analyzes, and distributes facts and statics about the usage of a variety of factors shaping America.

This blog is informally written which helps put the reader at ease and connects him or her to the blogger, developing a kind of relationship. Usage of the word “we” conveys a sense of community and unity. This word choice makes the issue involve the readers so that they have a vested interest in the outcome.

The very last point in the blog is a command, “so tweet grace and pass legal protection”. This charge gives the reader the idea that the issue is important enough for them to do something and makes the readers seriously think about their rights as bloggers. It creates a sense of urgency makes the readers want to proactively work towards obtaining and using their rights.

Moshirnia points out and describes the opinion of the opposition. By doing this, he shows that he has critically thought about this topic from another perspective, adding to his credibility. Those opposed to Moshinira’s view believe that the Shield Laws should only apply to traditional journalists and columnists. Through diction, Moshirnia points out the fallacy of this opinion by calling their view “silly notions” and states that most people don’t receive their news solely from print newspapers. He calls his view of focusing on the function carried out by the individual “common sense”. Many people get their information from multiple mediums including blogs and online journals. So if bloggers and journalist perform the same exact tasks and only differ in the way they present their ideas, online versus print, why shouldn’t bloggers receive the same rights and protection as print journalists?

Although Andrew Moshirnia’s blog has some good points, there is a problem with his argument. A number of the links included in the text did not lead to reliable or scholarly sources. For example one link led to a Wikipedia article about Judith Miller. To strengthen his argument, Moshirnia should have linked to the biographical information on her website instead. Overall, Moshirnia effectively uses rhetorical tools to persuade others to agree with him. The use of the metaphorical table was a good hook to get the reader interested in hearing his claims. Including a command, telling the audience to do something, may persuade readers to really consider what he says and the importance of the issue.

My Random Thoughts of the Week

Okay, so today I have decided to celebrate the randomness of life with a few random questions I found on the internet .

1. What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?
2. What color do Smurfs turn when they are choking?
3. How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink?
4. Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
5. Why do they sterilize needles for lethal injections?
6. When you’re a main witness in a case and you’re asked to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, what happens if you say “no”?

Thou Shall Not....

Imagine spending years writing about your heart breaks, disappointments, and other personal life experiences, essentially pouring your heart out onto paper and eventually transposing it into song. You spend months perfecting, promoting, and selling an album that you poured your soul into. Then someone takes your hard work and posts it to a forum for the entire world to download without your permission or any compensation. Pilfering, pocketing, pinching, and pirating are all words describing one corrupt action, stealing. Every day, millions of songs are illegally downloaded though the use of Napster, LimeWire, 360 Share Pro and hundreds of other “sharing” programs. The average person does not walk into F.Y.E., For Your Entertainment music store, with the intent to steal several songs or CDs; however, that same person may very well leave that store, return home, and illegally download hundreds of songs. Because of all the information available via the internet, it is important to remember the morality of stealing another’s work. Several elements in John S. Pritchett’s editorial cartoon, The Eleventh Commandment, address this prevalent issue, including the financial and moral issues of piracy.

The Eleventh Commandment shows Moses coming down from Mount Sinai to recount the commandments of God to the Israelites. As the title implies, the cartoon Moses, dressed in a cream, brown belted robe and a red jacket with his staff, gives one extra commandment, “AND FINALLY, NUMBER ELEVEN: THOU SHALT NOT DOWNLOAD MUSIC OFF THE INTERNET.” The fact that the artist used the scenario of Moses with the commandments, a highly revered point in biblical history, conveys the severity of the musical piracy. A commandment condemning stealing, “THOU SHALT NOT STEAL” is already established in the original list of the Ten Commandments. Piracy is such a big concern that even though it is already covered by the stealing commandment, it needed to be targeted again with its own commandment. In the year 2008 alone, forty billion or ninety-five percent of downloaded songs were downloaded illegally.

In the cartoon, Moses displays a stern, parental facial expression adding to both the seriousness of the topic and the humor of the cartoon. Combined with the facial expression, the lightning bolts in the right hand corner plays upon the well known adage of a person being “struck down by lightning” because of sinful behavior. These components stress the implications that occur if piracy continues to be an issue. When lightning strikes a person or object, it is likely that the person will die or the object could burst into flames or simply be destroyed. When people choose to pirate, they are cheapening the artist’s work and essentially destroying its value. Although it is highly unlikely, one could theorize that piracy could eventually demolish the entire music industry. When people steal from artists, obviously the artists do not receive any money or credit from their main commodity, the music; therefore, they lose a critical incentive to create music for the public. Assuming an artist does not quit the music industry, he or she may decide to enter other industries and make music secondary to other projects, lowering the quality of the music the artist may be publishing.

Pirating may provide enjoyment for the pirate, but it damages the business of the artist that provides the pleasure. When a song is illegally downloaded from the internet, not only is the song being stolen, but so are the songwriter’s years of hard work and finding the right words to express his or her feelings. This cartoon suggests that we should consider the consequences illegal downloads and if they are worth being struck down by the hand of God.