What i think of Blogging

1. Compared to writing traditional essays as you have in other classes, were the expectations of the blog assignment easier, harder or just different? In other words, was it clear to you what the format of a blog was and how to produce one?
I believe that the blog assignments were just different. Though somethings differed the basic format was the same. You had your thesis (conclusion) and you backed this up through a series of paragraphs giving facts (premises) for your claim. In addition it had to be set up to where people who had no idea of what you were talking about would be able to read and comprehend your stance on the issue. The one aspect that made it a little bit easier was how I was able to use first person grammar "i think, i believe etc. etc.". It allowed me to have something of a personal connection with my blog and as a result allowed me to enjoy what i was writing.
2. Did the blog assignments, and the requirement to create a blog, relate to the class topics and course objectives? Why or why not?
Yes it does. The assignments themselves always related with whatever we were doing in class at that time. Each blog assignment was tied to a certain class unit and that allowed us to see how the class information tied into our everyday lives. Also, just the fact that we were required to be able to write down our ideas and thoughts into a coherent essay that others can understand helps not only in my educational but also in my personal life. It makes it somewhat easier to be able to articulate myself so that i am persuasive and at the same time understandable.

3. Did the non-text elements of the blog program contribute to your learning in this class? Did they get in the way? Or did they have no affect at all?
I don't think that they got in the way more so than i think that it was just a kind of fluff. All the extra elements allowed us to be able to see everyone's individuality and get to know them a little bit better while still allowing us to be able to publish our ideas and thoughts on issues that strike a nerve with us. I did use the extra features but only because i had the time i suppose because when i got onto blogger it was just for the assignment and nothing else. Maybe if it wasn't for class i would use it more than i did but since its the mentality that "its for school" mentally blocks of any chance of using the non-text elements of it.

The Last of My Kind

There are many different types of books in the world today. There are books to be read for enjoyment, others to further one’s for either educational or personal reasons, and then there are books that just make us laugh and smile and brighten our day. So if you were asked to chose to be any book in the world on the condition that you were the last one in existence, what a challenge it would be?? Out of the billions or trillions of books in the world how could one chose. Well it was rather simple for me to choose which book I would be because it’s a book that has touched more lives in the world than any other before or after its release. That book is the Bible.

Considered to be part of the 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written, there really is no book in history that compares to it. Not only as the basis for Christianity, The Bibles shows and teaches ideas that make civilized society as we know it possible. The Ten Commandments is the basis of what we consider right and just today. The Bible teaches that we are all imperfect beings, and rather than judging others and they’re transgressions against us, how we should forgive and learn to love our neighbors. That though we may have done horrible things in our past, it is still possible to change and to change for the better. However there are many atheists in the world and in 2004, as much as 9% of the United States population would be saying that “The Bible” really doesn’t have any importance to them because of their belief that there is no God. However one doesn’t need to believe in The Bible to be able to learn from it. It is true that not all the answers to life’s questions are written within the Bible but the lessons and principals are universal, which all people can live by and benefit from as Titus Shangadi shows. A man once a violent gang member, where anger and violence made up his existence and by studying the Bible he changed his personality and found happiness.

The Bible is an intriguing and important book that has no doubt influenced and changed the world. The lessons and principles that are within its pages show us the best that humanity has to offer: love, forgiveness, peace, happiness, honesty, joy, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. However one of its most powerful qualities that we often overlook is the hope that it gives to humanity. The hope that we can change our lives for the better, that we are capable of more than just being a slave to our own desires and wishes, that though we are sometimes undeserving of kindness we are shown compassion. That is why I would choose to be The Bible, because the hope that it provides along with its teachings not only has the power to change the world for the better but to change humanity for the better.

Dr. check your e-mail

Hello Doctor,

I'm posting this just in case you have not checked your e-mail. I have been completely unsuccessful in posting my blog onto blogger. Every time i try it gives me this...

ERROR

Your HTML cannot be accepted: Tag is not allowed: META

so what I have done is e-mailed you a copy of my blog with my hyperlinks in an effort to at least prove to you that i had the assignment completed on time. I hope this will be enough and I will continue to try and post my blog but i wouldn't get your hopes up. thank you and good morning

--randall brumund

animoto assignment

i hope you guys enjoy it!!

http://animoto.com/play/PLQqqJuAt9KRaLP0ZLR42A

I Want to Believe

    Every day we go through life experiencing some degree of uncertainty. Whether that be going to work that day or deciding if we are going to have either the sushi or the calamari for lunch, life is filled with insecurity. So with uncertainty surrounding us every day, it's only natural that we look for things that are always certain, things that have been proven to bring some type of order to our chaotic lives. However there are many people today who believe in things that haven't or cannot be proven: Big Foot, the Loch Nest Monster, aliens, even the existence of God. However the question then arises in why? Why would someone believe in something that might possibly never be proven by science and society? Though many would be quick to dismiss such things, people chose to believe in them because of the possibility that they are true, though the lack of evidence.

 

    We tend to think of modern science today as something that has validity to it. Physics, Chemistry, Anatomy, things that have been proven and refined, proven and refined, over and over again through time to produce what we know today. However it hasn't always been that way. It was once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe until a man by the name of Nicholas Copernicus was able to prove that it was indeed that the Earth revolved around the sun. The reason that I mention it is because at the time, the idea of the sun being the center of the "universe" was foolish and ridiculous and those to think or believe other wise were shunned much like today. We look at people who believe in the Big Foot and aliens as idiotic. However this is the same ignorance that once was present when Copernicus proposed that the sun was the center of the universe. It is mentioned in the book How To Think About Weird Things that though the idea of Big Foot and aliens hasn't been proven "just because a claim hasn't been conclusively proven doesn't meant that it's false." That it is the possibility that I could be true that allows human being to believe that which cannot be proven.

    

    Many find it hard to have this sort of blind faith in anything. That might be the reason why many are turned away from the idea of a God. That it is hard to believe in an all powerful being when there is no way it can ever be proven and inevitably that is what it comes down to, faith. That though it may never be proven, it is the sense in believing in something bigger than themselves. So though we may never know why people believe in things that have not been proven, whether it be because of faith or because of the possibility it may be true, a part of humanity will always believe in the unknown, whether it is logical to do so or not.

The Wrong Deduction

    People in general tend to always think that we know everything; whether it has to do with their educational, personal or financial lives. However the sad reality is that we don't and this isn't any more obvious then when we think we know what's going on in a particular scenario to only later find out that we had misunderstood the situation. Recently I have had a situation like this that was and is still somewhat personal. Without having all of the facts I had come to the wrong conclusion which almost cost me my relationship with my girlfriend.

     Now in a previous relationship I was in, I was being cheated on the whole time and ever since then I have always been very cautious in trusting women and this whole situation developed out of that fear of being cheated on again. Now at the time my girlfriend and I were not boyfriend and girlfriend but we had started dating. We had been really good friends for a while and at that particular time it was starting to develop into something more. We had both been hurt in past relationships due to cheating so we agreed that if we were to be dating, it would be monogamous. Well, one weekend she went with a couple of her friends to a quince out in Wickenburg to dance and what have you. So that night I had talked to her for a bit before she left and I did not see her till the next morning. Now though it is hard to admit, I did get a little jealous because I couldn't help to think that there might be some guys wanting to dance with her and hold her and maybe try to get with her. Also it didn't help knowing that a particular "friend" of hers was going to be there because this friend of hers had been trying to get with her for years. Well long story short, the whole time she was there I was left wondering and hoping that nothing would happen.

The next day I had asked how the dance was and she said that it was ok and later that day I went onto Myspace. I noticed that some of her friends had posted some pictures of the dance of the night before so I figured, "what the hell?" and looked through them. Well one of the pictures I saw was of my girlfriend being held by her "friend" and if that wasn't bad enough, when I went into work, her friends came up to me saying that she has this boyfriend already and that they couldn't believe that she would be leading me on how she was. Now when I heard that I was devastated, it seemed that all of my suspicions were true and that everything that could go wrong was. So when my girlfriend would come up to me I would and want to talk I would just blow her off and ignore her. She was confused by how I was acting and when she went to her friends to talk about it they explained what they had told me earlier at work. Now it turned out that her friends had lied to me, saying what they had said to see how I would react to the news of her being with another guy and though I was relieved to hear that it was all a bad joke, it had put a small rift between my girlfriend and I which over time we got over.

Though we were able to work through that whole ordeal, the whole fiasco could have been avoided. Instead of going to her directly with what I had heard I jumped to the wrong conclusion and allowed myself to dwell on the fact that my love history was being repeated. Just as how Chuck Shepherd had found all the murderers whose middle name was Wayne because he was looking for it, so did I think she was cheating on me because of my self-perpetuating thought that it was going to happen again. So the best thing that can be done is to just go to the source and get the whole story instead of having a couple pieces and trying to make them fit.

The Unforeseen Ramifications

    It seems that now days you can't go anywhere without hearing about how society has entered either the "information age" or "digital age." For the past 50 years society has been introduced to technological advances that have forever changed how we look and interact with the world. With the introduction of television (TV), it was the first time that everyone who had a television set could all get important information on current events or just sit back and watch a show and the internet allowed anyone with an internet connection to access information that would have been extremely difficult beforehand. Though these technologies are making our life easier, the impact of these technologies has produced unforeseen ramifications which are changing our society for the worse.

    Though television is an outlet for relaxation and entertainment, it is attacking not only the health of its viewers but sending out messages that set an unrealistic view of beauty. Before TV, many people had to go out in search of entertainment, whether that was joining a sports team or having a game night with all of your neighbors or having Sunday drive out into the country side. However with the introduction of television into the American home, society no longer needs to go in search of entertainment because entertainment comes straight to us in our very own living room resulting in many becoming very inactive and unhealthy. However television has its good side.  It can be entertaining and even educational, and can show kids a whole new world, allowing them to see and experience things that they many have never been exposed otherwise. But what happens when you replace that positive message with a negative one? Children are spending up to 1680 minutes (that's about 28 hours) a week watching tv. Combine that with a study that the Kaiser family foundation did revealing that kids are exposed to 3,800 images of sexual situations on a regular basis, you have a society that is breaking down the fundamental idea of what true love and beauty is. As a result we have our young folk being more sexually aware which has lead to unwanted pregnancy, STD's and a lack of self respect and self worth.

    The internet has evolved so much since its early days. Once only used by the Department of Defense is now used by 74.2% of all Americans, it allows us to be continually aware of current events, research information, and even allows us to check what time the movie starts at our local movie theater; it allows us to connect with people that are as old as we are and have similar interests as we do. However it's this option of connectivity that has created an unhealthy social withdrawal for many people. The virtual world of Second Life is a fine example of this unhealthy outlet. As the name suggests, "Second Life" allows people to live other lives on the internet, allowing them to be who they "truly are" or who they fantasize to be because the computer acts as a buffer between them and the rest of the world. MTV's True Life did a documentary following Amy, was a musician who was a rock star in Second Life but when it came to performing live in front of people was too shy to do so in I Live Another Life Online. Certainly there many people who use Second Life as well sites like Myspace and Facebook for recreational purposes, these sites have opened the door for creating a lost generation. Japan has to deal with hikikomori's developing in their own society and to believe that it couldn't develop here in the states is a delusion at best.

    Though technology has given us many advances to ease our lives and make it enjoyable, the darker side of such advances is starting to come to light. Though we may like to believe that no harm can be done or is being done to our society, society must recognize that these issues must be addressed if we are to halt the must be done if it is to stop the slow decay of itself.