Self Evaluation

The Argumentative essay was probably one of the more challenging essays for me. You really have to look at both sides and be able to back up your argument because there are always two sides to everything. My topic was about the FAFSA. Sometimes I felt that it was a little difficult to explode on it even though I have strong feelings about it. I really liked the quotes that I used to back up my points but I feel that my part of the essay still could have used some work as in transitions. I did work on my transitions but I think they could have been stronger. My ENC 1101 experience has been very enlightening. I really learned a lot this semester. I've learned different ways of thinking and writing. I enjoyed some of the articles that I read as well. All in all, I think that I've definitely grown as a writer because of all the subjects we learned in this class.

Devil's Advocate

My argumenative essay is about how the FAFSA and scholarships need to be revised and how student atheletes get unfair advantages over other students. I agree with these things but if i were to disagree:
The FAFSA is fine as it is. If you have a high enough salary then you should be able to pay for it and if not there are always loans. A lot of people make loans and pay them off after college. There are a lot of scholarships and if you want one badly enough then you should apply to as many as possible. Student athletes give a good name to the school. They practice a lot so that they can do well so they should be able to get other priveleges. Why would you want to play a sport for a college and pay the airline tickets to travel around the states? If you did not get things like that paid for, there would not be sports in college. There really is no excuse for people not to go to college. If you do not try enough and keep making excuses then it is your own fault.

Okay so now that I have written this, I see that there are parts of my essay that I can expound upon. Now that I have written the opposing views, I think that I can back up my essay a little more in certain parts.

Oprah show and 50 Cent

The gentlemen on the Oprah show did not convince me at all. Although they were dressed professionally and spoke professionally as well, their views about the Don Imus' comments about the girls college basketball team and also about Hip-Hop did not convince me at all. Their points were not strong enough and they were basically just trying to get around it and also trying to back up hip-hop. They were backing up hip-hop because that's what they do for a living. They were trying to say hip-hop was wrong without actually saying it. There was one man in particular who I did not agree with at all. He said that hip-hop brought races together. That is the last thing it has done. It has made so many stereotypes and generalizations. He also got very defensive towards the end. One man called people in the hip-hop industry clowns and he was offended by it because he started off as an intern and made his way up to executive of a producing company and he has not once told the artists to use derrogatory language and he has apparently asked them if they could say things without using derrogatory language. I personally do not buy any of this. Why did he sign the artists if he's so worried about derrogatory language? Because he would not have a job, that's why.
50 Cent did not really answer any of his questions straight forward. He just started saying how we forgot about the war and he got off topic. I do agree that the war in Iraq is a big issue but it's not the only issue we need to focus on. None of his points convinced me at all. He was trying to be funny, he got off topic and I did not understand many of his points, and he was trying to promote his new album. That was extremely unprofessional. Obviously he did not care about the issue at all.
Both of the arguments barely talked about the real issue. Don Imus' derrogatory comment about the womans' college basketball team. They just lead it to hip-hop. Hip-hop may have to deal with derrogatory comments against women but Don Imus said this comment. I have a feeling that hip-hop did NOT influence Don Imus to say something demeaning against these young women. He is an older man and grew up in a different time when women still were not seen as equals to men no matter the color. This has been an age-old problem, disregarding color. It is really tough to say what will change people's views about women.

Cultures and Traditions

Understanding different cultures in the world is important and it is something that is lacking in this world. Many people would look at clips about the young boys being cut and the women with the elongated necks and think how crazy the people are but they have reasons for it. I can see why the culture that cuts young boys does that. They want to make sure they know their place. They may be getting older but it doesn't mean they can say or do or tell people what to do yet. This is a problem with the youth of this society. Their are young people who have no respect for authority and elders and think that they can just say and do what they please. There are even adults who act the same way. I'm not implying that we should follow what that culture does but respect is a problem today. The culture that women have elongated necks because of putting coils around it is interesting. I did not quite understand why but I can see why. It's just a symbol of being normal and equal. It's almost like the Scarlet Letter but opposite. If the women commit adultery, they must take their coils off and people will know what they have done. Maybe the coils aren't such a bad thing. It may resist temptation because the women know that if people find out about their affairs, the coils go off and people will probably never see them the same way. However, I do think it's kind of unfair that only women get have a sign of infidelity but that's their culture.My essay partner, Kim, and I are doing are essay on the Black Student Union. It has been really interesting. The meeting that we went to was pretty cool. They had discussions about issues going on in the black community today and not everyone thought in the same way. They all had different opinions.It was also very informative since I had not watched the news in awhile. From just going to the meeting, many stereotypes have been broken. To the people in my ENC 1101 class, you will have to wait until our presentation to find out :o)

Blessed

Before I go to bed, I usually watch TV for a little bit. Last Sunday night I turned the TV on as usual when I got into bed and as I was flipping the channels I landed on Mtv 2 and Fall Out Boy had a new video out. I'm a Fall Out Boy fan so I was excited that they had a new song and video out so of course I watched it. Well the video was nothing I expected. I also did not expect to tear up after watching it either. The video is set in Uganda. In the beginning, an elderly Ugandan woman is talking to the people in her town. She is telling them that things need to change and she tells the story of a young girl and young boy. It then goes on to showing the young girl and young boy. They must be around 13 years old. They have a young innocent love or maybe just even a friendship. They then move on to soldiers breaking into the young boys hut and they are gathering other young boys. It is nighttime and there are gun shots and the boy's mother is screaming for him. They show other scenes of the young girl sitting in a spot where they used to sit together, holding a heart shaped stone and just thinking. They also show scenes of the young boy and other boys learning how to use guns and firing. Eventually it seems that the boy has escaped because he returns to his home. His mother is there is so happy to see him. He just collapses into her arms. Later on he is reunited with the young girl. They go to their spot and the boy takes her hand. At the end, The Ugandan woman tells the townspeople that they must do something if not for themselves but for the children. I have included the link for the video because my description does not do it justice.
I personally wish the U.S were doing more to help and I know there are some of our people over there but I think we could be doing more to end this problem. However, disregarding opinions and all political views, after seeing this video I feel so blessed. We don't have to worry about soldiers rampaging into our homes in the middle of the night, taking our brothers, cousins, friends, boyfriends, fathers, or uncles unwilling to fight for something they don't even agree with. We don't have to worry about an army if men raping us or our family members and friends. I know they did not show this in the video, but I know this from watching the news and short documentaries and movies like Hotel Rwanda. I know that here in America we do have to worry about someone breaking into our houses but over there, they know that there is a huge possibility of it happening eventually. After watching the video, the first thing I thought about was my brother. My brother is 21 and I know he is older than the boys that are being kidknapped by the soldiers to become soldiers but the thought still came across my mind. If he were taken captive by the soldiers, I probably would not sleep at all just wondering if he were still alive. They also showed the boy's mother in the video. I also thought about how my mother would be if that happened to my brother and I thought about how I would feel if I were a mother and that were my son. It has to be one of the worst feelings in this world.
So reader's, I know this is a depressing matter but the fact is that it is happening right now. We are living in times of war. Even though it doesn't feel like it, the truth is that there are wars in different parts of the world right now and have been going on for years. So once again, just think about the video without your political views or opinions. To some people America may not be the best country because every country has it's flaws but we are blessed to be in a place with so many opportunities. Something's gotta give...
To view Fall Out Boy's new video go here!
Just incase the link doesn't work, you can go to www.youtube.com and type in Fall Out Boy's New Video and it should be the second choice. The Song is called (Me and You) I'm Like a Lawyer With the Way I'm Always Trying to Get You Off Me. They are infamous for their long and creative song titles :o)

Social Issues

A big issue in the U.S right now and particularly in the state of Florida is education. Even though the U.S is a 1st world country,it still has educational problems. Many European countries have a better education system than the U.S. In some countries, middle school students are learning math that U.S students learn in high school. In 2001, The No Child Left Behind Act was passed. It's basically an act that improves standards of learning and improving the quality of education. It focuses on reading, math, and science. It also helps with yearly testing. If a school fails its yearly test, the school with recieve assistance such as tutoring. The act also makes options available for parents. Parents know which schools have better education and can choose which school to send their children to. Another important aspect of this Act is improving teacher quality. There are programs to support teacher training.
It may not seem that the No Child Left Behind Act is helping education but there are people who are education activists. One of these activists is Dr. Rudolph "Rudy" Crew. He is the Super Intendent of Miami-Dade County Public school. One of the things that he has changed that I found very intelligent is having schools use the same books and lessons. If a child moves, the child won't be very lost. And also if everyone is learning the same things, it will be easier to figure out why some kids are not understanding material and it will be easier to figure out different ways of learning. Teachers talk to each other and discuss their classes and they discuss what works with their classes.
Education needs to step up in the U.S. When I heard some of the things that kids in Europe are already learning at youger ages, it really shocked me. Many of those kids are also multilingual. This is not only in Europe. A student at FIU who is part of a tutoring program is from Jamaica. She tutored me in Chemistry and she said that she's been doing Chemistry for years. I took one year of chemistry in high school and I feel that I just relearned everything I learned in one year in one month in College level Chemistry. I wish that I had taken Chemistry every year.Another problem is extra help. I have not heard of many free tutoring programs for schools. There are teachers who are willing to stay after school and tutor students but there are also teachers who do not. I think schools need to figure out a way to make more tutoring available because not everyone can afford going to expensive tutoring companies and not everyone has parents that can help them with homework. There is a lot of free help in college but there needs to be more free help in high school and elementary. A lot of learning problems that people have come from elementary school because they did not learn the material correctly or not at all.
Education is very important to me. I can remember countless times when I didn't want to go to school or when I complained about homework, tests and quizzes, and even teachers. Even though I said all of these things, I had so much fun in school. I loved reading and experiments and doing in class projects and having discussions. There were certain subjects that were difficult for me such as math but once i finally understood it, I felt so good about myself. Thinking back, I even liked learning about new things. Anytime we learned something new in Science or History, everyone would say, "Oh so that's how it works" or "I never knew that! That's so cool!" My classmates and I never really realized how much we actually liked learning. I might never use some of the things that I've learned over the past 18 years of my life but a lot of the things I've learned are interesting and in the future, I'll probably have to help my kids with it anyway. Education is something that I would stress to everyone.
For more information about No Child Left Behind go here.
For more information about Dr.Rudy Crew go here.

Carlos Mencia

I am not one to always take everything seriously and I like to joke around on occassion but a few topics I steer clear of are racial jokes and disability jokes. I think that many people are very sensitive about these issues. I especially would not make fun of people who have learning or mental disabilities. I think it is very hurtful and immature for a full grown man to make fun of kids with mental disabilities. I think he crossed the line there.I personally think it's wrong to tell jokes like that. I can understand where Carlos was going about education though. The standards have fallen. A lot of people just don't care. They are fine with C's. I know a few people who just aim for C's. These people are not getting any help and they don't have any reason not too. A friend of mine has a learning disbility and her grades in high school were better than some of the students who didn't even have learning disbilities. She has tutors and her tutors are actually family members. I think that maybe a lot of kids do have some learning disability or ADD but kids shouldn't blame their bad grades on their disability. There are some parents who also blame their childrens' bad grades on either the disability or get upset at teachers when their children are failing. I do agree with Carlos about that to an extent because he did exaggerate that quite a bit. As for the video about the different races and not being able to say things about other races, I think he was a little less offensive but he still was. Since I've been in Miami, I have already been made fun of or given weird looks at when people ask me what my background is. I tell them I'm Puerto Rican and they either say "Oh I'm sorry "or they just say "Oh" with a little attitude. I don't take it very seriously and I don't get offensive but it still does bother me a little. If I have ever asked someone their background, I never say anything about it. I might say, "Oh I have a friend from there." If the world could only have more respect and consideration for others...

Media and Politics

The media influences many things in our lives. How to dress, what brands to wear,how to act, what words are cool, which celebrities to like,what cars to buy, and even everyday household products. Advertisements for them are everywhere. And of course there's the never ending saga of how Paris Hilton,Nicole Richie, and Linday Lohan are wasting away to nothing. They along with many celebrities influence people, mainly young girls on how to dress and how much to weigh. Some of my friends have mentioned wanting to look just like Paris Hilton. Looking at images of all these celebrities and brands and clothing definitely influences people. Personally, certain advertisements for cosmetics and clothing influence me. I don't actually go and get them but the thought is still there.
What the media should focus on more are politics. Actually, politics is in the media. However, many us of, especially young adults, do not choose to watch the channels or read magazines that are about politics. I know that I personally need to brush up on it. Last year in two of my classes, we had to read newspaper articles 4 days a week and make a journal entry about the particular article. Most of them were about poltics. I used to be very informed about what was happening in the government and other political issues and now i really do not have a good idea about what is happening. The video clip proved that our youth really has no idea about what is going on in the political world. But if they would have asked them about Britney Spears or Paris Hilton they probably would have talked for 10 minutes about their lives. This definitely is not good at all because who runs our country? Who runs our state? Who runs our city? Britney Spears sure does not! Very important people in politics do. They make decisions everyday that effect our lives. They make decisions about taxes and school funding which is actually a big issue right now for FIU and it's pre-med students because some funding for the med school is being taken away. College age students are still the group of people who do not vote enough and it should change because many of the decisions that political leaders make effects college age students.

Miss Teen USA 2007

I think that sometimes it is so easy to just say someone is stupid but I like to put myself in their place. They put a lot of emphasis on pageant questions and the girls are under a lot of pressure and they have to study months ahead. Even though they study,they still get nervous. I know I would. However I don't know that I would have gotten so off the subject but it still happens. I think it was realy brave of her to go on a talk show because what happened to her was embarassing but she spoke about it anyway. She even gave the answer that she would have liked to say and it truly was a much better answer and it was pretty good. I think that pageant girls are viewed negatively and they shouldn't be because not all of them are "stupid, mean, or superficial" as how some people view them. I know a girl that has done pageants before and she is very intelligent and very nice all kinds of people. Many of these pageants are scholarship programs so they are just trying to get money for college just like many of us. I can definitely simpathize with this young lady.

Making a blog

This is my first blog! I had a Xanga my freshman year of highschool but then i deleted it because I found out about MySpace so this brings back memories. I like the fact that we had to make a blog because saying what I mean comes easily for me and I love to talk. Another reason why I like that we have a blog instead of an actual notebook is that when I write in a journal, I just write everything down. This means my handwriting looks messy so atleast on a blog people can understand what I'm writing! The only time I write out my feelings is when I'm angry,annoyed,or upset so it will be nice to actually right about different topics than just angry feelings. So I pretty much like the idea of blogging!