Blog 70

Dear Future Students,

Welcome to English 110 here at The Ohio State University. Don’t assume English here is going to be the same as your high school course, because it most likely won’t be. Most of the time you will be revising your paper and your classmates’ papers. You’ll end up writing two papers, the ARP and the CP, but some of you will be writing more than that. What I mean is that your paper might not be strong enough or it isn’t structured properly, and you’ll have to rewrite chunks of it.

English is definitely not my strong point. I probably learned more about grammar in one class from Ohio State’s English department than my whole life back home. I also learned how to balance writing my papers and going to The Writing Center for help while studying for all of my other classes.

I advise you to make sure you go to The Writing Center for help because you will most likely need all the help you can get. The helpers are very easy to talk to and love helping students. Also, some teachers, like Chambers, gives extra points for it, so there’s no reason why you should not take advantage of that. I also advise you to make sure you work diligently on your papers. Teachers are masters at their subjects, especially English teachers. They’ve seen this material multiple times, so they for sure know what to pick out and mark off for.

Good luck with your writing,

Catherine

Blog 69

SO. Another time-consuming website has invaded my life: Stumbleupon. I’m pretty sure most of you are already addicted to it, but I just recently became a member. I put my interests in, of course some being photography, music, philosophy, animals, nature, dance, and relationships…and sure enough they keep bombarding me with recommended sites. I’m about to uncheck relationships cause it’s just a bunch of mushy bullshit quotes like “I don’t know how I would live without waking up next to your face” and stuff like that. The rest is pretty awesome though. They find the most beautiful nature pictures…it makes me want to travel the world right now (as I’m sitting in the library studying for chemistry).

One of my favorite dances I’ve found so far:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2PzpCc/www.dailyviral.com/2011-5-8/Street_Dance_in_Paris

Another site I just found is DailyViral…another addicting site that posts a new video every day. Not all are winners, but I still enjoy a good laugh from a 1:30 short.

Here’s a Camel “laughing”…?

http://www.dailyviral.com/2011-5-5/Camel_Laughing

Yeah. This is my life. I love being on my computer more than anything. Very rarely do I actually spend on it here on campus. At home, it’s what takes up my late night hours. Although these websites are time-consuming, I enjoy them to the fullest. Maybe I just haven’t matured yet ha ha. I still like the dumb comedies, like Workaholics and South Park (even though South Park is rather clever). It seems like it’s more of a guy thing, in my family at least. My brother, my dad, and I watch these shows together, but my mom and sister absolutely can’t stand them. Well, I’ve always liked hanging out with guys better anyway.

Blog 68

Once again I’m looking out the window and I see people standing on the short pillars that stop cars from driving the path. Interesting. I love when people do things that spark my interest. Usually, you would have to do something pretty weird to grab my attention. Not weird like people doing something obnoxious like a random drunk running through campus naked, but weird as in something different that sparks my intellect.

I like when a random person comes up to talk to me. It shows me that not everyone is putting a wall up. Not small talk though. I kind of hate small talk. It’s an interaction that’s only there to take up a short amount of time to release the sense of awkwardness. What I like is when someone, maybe an older man (like 70) or someone that just looks like a character, strikes up a conversation out of thin air. I was going around campus posting up scavenger hunt hints for my boyfriend’s birthday present, and a guy (looked like a hippie/hipster) asked me what I was advertising. I explained what I was doing, and we ended up talking for a good ten minutes. We saluted each other and then I went on my way. Those kind of things stick with me. Hey, maybe you’ll see me on one of my “Incense on the Oval” days and come join my meditation time. (: Go do something different today. It’s the weekend and prime time for some good ole socialization.

Blog 67

Do you ever think of really improbable situations, but in your head, they seem like those situations could happen any minute? Okay, so you may find this kind of psychotic, but the majority of times I cross the street, I picture a car running into me. Yeah, freaky right? Well, to add to my weirdness, as I am here sitting in my cubicle on the tenth floor of Thompson library, I’m looking out the window imagining an airplane flying towards me, about to crash into me. Some people may think this imagination needs to be put into an asylum …but I consider myself to be an abstract thinker.

It’s not like I’m always thinking of death. Quite the opposite, actually. I like to think that I breathe life. In high school, I put it my spiritual mind that I wanted the student body to see that I was shining a certain light through my actions and personality. When I say this, I don’t mean that I was preaching to others, but I just wanted to show an optimism to influence others to do the same. You know, when someone genuinely smiles at you, you can’t help but feel good inside. It does for me at least. I love observing the beauty of life. Most the time, I don’t look at life’s beauty in social interaction, but rather in what I observe and analyze around me, especially when I’m alone. I try to make sure I set some time out of my day to be by myself and just think. It keeps me at peace.

Blog 66

Today is all about LIGHTS. My friend posted a video blog about her last night, and it reminded me how much of a womance I have with her. LIGHTS, born Valerie Anne Poxleitner, is a Canadian singer that is the most beautiful person ever. She grew up with missionary parents, so she traveled around the world at a young age. She, in her own words, has the style of “intergalactic-electro” music. One thing about her is that most of her music is acoustic. You’d think electro music would show that the artist has a bad voice and is trying to cover it with synthesizers and auto-tune, but LIGHTS is the opposite. I think her voice sounds better without all the equipment. She has such a pure, naked sound.

Other than her music, I’ve got to say the best thing about LIGHTS is that she’s such a luminous soul. Whenever she smiles, she LIGHTS the room up. Ha ha sorry…there’s another thing. She’s just like me. We both make awkward jokes and do weird things, but that’s just who we are. I like quirky souls. They keep things interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7r5N9NLENo

LIGHTS is an rounded artist. Not just with music, she draws, paints, whatever. If you go to her website, you’ll see multiple animated pictures of her that she drew. I think that’s so fun because people tend to have a negative outlook on girls who game or like anime.

She is a girl with plastic toy guns hung on her walls. She has a combover. She has a pet tarantula, named Lance. She makes “sounds that seem like they could have been plucked from Saturn's rings or a meteor belt”. She is her own singer, songwriter, producer, stylist, and assistant. And she’s my favorite(:

Easiest blog ever.

Blog 65

Primary versus Secondary Relationships

A primary relationship is one that includes your family , your close friends, your loved ones, and your significant others. A secondary relationship is one that would include peers, teachers, and bosses. Who do you consider to be your primary relationships? You can look back to elementary school days, where girls call every one their “BBF” or best friend forever. How many “best” friends could someone have? I’d like to consider my whole friend group as my best friends, because if I compare them to the rest of the people I am constantly surrounded by, they are my best friends.

I made a lot of best friends (in my interpretation) this year. You can tell if they are really good friends if you can see yourself talking to them years from now. I have multiple friends that have moved away a few years ago that I will randomly talk to. One of them even came down for a weekend to stay. The best thing is when you haven’t talked to them for ever, but when they come visit, you pick up right where the friendship left off. Just like they hadn’t left.

Also, I am weird about my relationships with teachers. Yeah, that sounds really wrong, but I try to put in my mind that they’re a primary relationship because it helps me get attached to the class…which makes me work harder. I have always tried to do this. Like last quarter, I was completely obsessed [not in an affair way] with my Chem lecturer, Dr. Zellmer. Because I introduced myself the first day and sat in the front row each time, I managed to get a pretty good grade. It works for me.

Blog 64

Week of Chaos

What is this week before finals that freaks me out more than anything? Maybe it’s the fact that the grade of the final test could make or break my grade. How can you work so hard throughout the whole quarter, but if you bomb this test, your grade can be shoved down to the letter below. It sucks.

This weekend I’m going home to see my first baby niece, Ava. It’s such a tease to be able to see my niece for the first time for one day, then have to go straight back to school. I cannot wait to see that beautiful little girl. It’s going to be so weird seeing my sister with a baby. I wonder how much her and her husband have changed.

My friends are trying to be the little devil on my shoulder. They’ve been trying to convince me that going out on Thursday is a wonderful idea. Thursday before finals? Horrible idea. Sadly, there’s no angel on my other shoulder to help me out. I’m about to shut off my phone and Facebook account until Friday…or maybe until the end of finals week.  Sounds like the best idea for me.

I also have to pack up half my dorm to send my stuff back Friday. It’s going to feel so weird taking everything out, but I cannot wait to be in my own room this summer. I am done with this whole four person to a room thing. Next year, thankfully, I will only be living with one other girl…probably the most I could take.

Blog 63

I absolutely cannot wait until I go home for the summer. This was my first year here at Ohio State and I completely loved it [especially the homework]. So many lessons learned; so many friendships made. I would not change one thing about this year, other than maybe not start my weekends on Wednesday nights. Even though I am extremely to be home with my family, I could not imagine going to a community college. There are just so many things I would miss if I went to a community college, or even if I were to commute. Just some of the things I would have never learned: how to say no whenever someone asks for money, how to live with very different (than me) people, how to balance school and partying, and what the furries are. Yeah, the first time I saw these people in costumes, I went up and hugged them all…learned my lesson. People aren’t as innocent as you may think they are.

Since Christmas, the only time I have been home was during Spring Break. Next Saturday, I get to go home to see my sister for the first time after she gave birth…and I am so excited to see my first baby niece, Ava. The family keeps sending pictures, but nothing could compare to seeing that precious face. It’s definitely going to be a nice change from college scene, where you are constantly surrounded with people and things to do, to the home scene, where you can get away from everything if you wanted to. I cannot wait. (:

Blog 62

I, like most everyone at this age, am pretty terrified of the future. I think one thing that freaks me out the most is that the grades I get right now determine my place in the future. If you walk into my dorm, the BioSci house, and talk to most the kids on my floor, they will tell you how they will be in Med school in a few years. Thank God I am not going down that road because apparently I would not be accepted to any Med school for the one C that I have received. Yeah, a girl asked me if she’d still be able to make it into Med school if she got a C in Chem this quarter (she has a 4.0). Don’t get me wrong, I love the people on my floor, but they tend to freak out about things that shouldn’t bother them to that extent. If you think about it, which it probably would be better if I didn’t so much, there are so many questions like: (1) How am I going to afford Grad school? (2) Who will I end up marrying? (3) Will I end up marrying? (4) What kind of house will I be living in? (5) Where in the world will I be living? (6) What job will I end up with?

The list goes on and on.  I know everything will work out, but it’s just the thought of how do I get to that place of stability?

Blog 61

One thing in the world that is concerning me is the minute amount of concern for the things that need it the most.  The are tons of issues in the world that should be looked upon in a more serious matter than what the hottest look for summer is. It is a sad thing to think that no one cares about the massacres around the world, but they care about the newest edition of Sports Illustrated: Swimsuit Edition. This is not me trying to condemn anyone because we all do it…this is just my sensitive eyes looking at the world. The main reason for this sensitive side is because I have grown up in a church that has taken missionary trips to multiple sites, such as the annual trip to Darfur. Before coming to college, I remember hearing updates from the campsite in Darfur every Sunday. Though these are just a few sites in the world that are in need of help, being exposed these few world issues opens up a new insight on what’s really out there. It’s tough to keep these people in our minds because of how much they don’t affect us. This is the absolute truth: if it does not affect us or our loved ones, we [eventually] overlook the situation. Take the natural disasters that occur every so often. We hear it in the news and see all the relief programs we can donate to, but then it all tends to disappear after a couple weeks. It takes a long time for the nation to fully repair, but we only keep them in our thoughts for a couple weeks.

Blog 59

The biggest mistakes for me are not things that I have done, but things that I do not do. The only regrets I ever have are not taking opportunities handed to me. Whether it be a relationship with someone I could have made, a scholarship I could have received (if only I had written that essay), or even a job interview I didn’t take. Recently, my dad told me about a pharmacist at Meijer he had run into who he started up a conversation with. After my father brags to the pharmacist about my life (which he does a lot, just like any other father), the pharmacist told him to tell me to come visit him and job shadow him. My direction is heading towards pharmacy and I was excited to here this from my dad, but I never ended up going. I feel like this was an opportunity handed to me that I didn’t take up. Also, I find it a huge mistake when people don’t learn from their mistakes. One of the biggest importances in my life is learning from experiences. Sometimes I consider making mistakes just so that I can have those experiences and then learn from them. You don’t know those lines until you cross them, right? Just like when my girlfriends are talking to a guy that some of our friends dislike. I tell them to keep with it just because if the guy turns out to be a total douchebauge, they can learn what they don’t like in someone and then find a better one next time. I think it’s important especially at this age to learn from mistakes.

Blog 56

Emi

Emi was my best friend from fourth to seventh grade. She lived on the street behind me, so it literally took three minutes to walk to her house. We had an everyday routine: meet at my house to go to the bus stop, go to school, come back to her house, play DDR, eat rice balls, draw, take a walk, go home, and start it all over again. It was perfect. We had so much fun. Her family is made of some of the nicest people I have ever met. She was the one to introduce me to my beloved dance studio. She didn’t know at the time, but she started out my whole dance career. Even now, I am studying for a dance minor here at Ohio State.

Back in seventh grade, I went to visit her extended family in Tokyo and Hamamatsu City, Japan. As a thirteen-year-old, that was definitely an experience. I will always cherish that trip. I learned so much just from leaving my comfort zone and experiencing the life of a different culture. And man, it was definitely a culture shock.

The saddest thing growing up was the fact that a lot of my good friends/neighbors would have to go back to their home country because their visa was going to expire. Not only Emi, but five of my other international friends had to move back. It was especially hard this year to hear about the earthquake and not hear anything from her until a couple days after. It’s been one of the hardest relationships to let go.

Blog 55

My favorite place is on my back porch at dusk in the summertime. It is the most calming thing to sit on the porch swing at night after dinner while my dad smokes his cigar and the pup sits in my lap. Sounds like a very country thing, right? Well add this to the scene: the sun lowering in the sky until the cornstalks hide the light. What makes a sunset so beautiful?  It’s at the perfect time of day, where everything becomes calm and peaceful. The heat is dying down to the perfect temperature and the sky turns to that gorgeous mix of pink, blue, and orange blend. Of course my favorite place would be outside. There is nothing more magical than nature. Also, it is a given that my favorite place would be centered around my home. Home is a place where I can get away from everyone - school, friends, passerbys – and simply relax. There is no other place where I find so much relaxation than at my house. I am very blessed with a family that sticks together through everything. The older I get, the more thankful I become for my family. How funny is it that we take things for granted when we are younger? My back porch overlooks our garden that is absolutely breathtaking. Our garden wraps around the house so that it gives us more privacy, without the ugliness of a fence. Summer is very soon…which means anyone looking for me at 7 pm will be able to find me at my favorite place.

Blog 54

So, I had this sick obsession with my turtle, Chad, as a child. I would take him everywhere I went. I would sneak him into movies, walk him at parks, and I even took him to school once. I loved that animal so much. I saved him after I saw him crossing a busy street. He had no chance.

So, there was this one time where I almost drowned in the Pacific Ocean. I was swimming out in Japanese waters when I was thirteen years old and the waves kept getting stronger and stronger. I had no idea that high tide was about to happen because I did not understand the fluid Japanese being spoken over the sound system. So there I was, vulnerable thirteen year old Catherine in her inner tube when all of a sudden, she looks over her shoulder to see a huge wave about to crash down on her. I don’t know if any of you guys have been caught in a wave, but it’s even worse when you are stuck in an inner tube at the same time.

So, as a child, I had these manic reactions whenever someone would try to hold my hand. Whether it be at a store or crossing the street, I would jerk my arm in a certain way that would pop my elbow out of place. There was one time where I was stuck behind a couch (given the fact that I was four) and my brother and sister (given the fact that my sister was 13) were the only ones home. My six year old brother tried to pull me out and my elbow dislocated and I was stuck behind that couch for hours until my parents got home.

Blog 53

FUCK

The word fuck is one looked down upon by many for it’s slanderous uses and inappropriate meaning. However, it is a totally accepted word here on campus. What is it that makes the difference?  Is it just the fact that we are at the age of rebellion and that everyone is much more conservative than us? Most of us wouldn’t use the word in front of adults, especially our parents. It has so many different uses. It can show pain, pleasure, hate, and love. It is give the nicknames of being The F-word. You have probably heard people describing the usage as “Dropping the F-bomb”. I personally find this word interesting because of it’s many uses. I feel like tone is everything when using words. “Cuss words” do not offend me unless they are used in a negative tone.

For example, I’d be totally fine in this situation:

“Holy fuck! You guys are legit!”   (Not my best)

It would be different if someone were calling me “motherfucker” or directing a “fuck you” to me. This is not the only word like this. Any word can be taken offense to when used in a certain way. Please, someone tell me why this word makes someone look bad. I mean, I guess that every society has different levels of what is acceptable to say, but I also feel that America is very easy going on this matter.

The usage of this word can be described in the wonderful Youtube video “Uses of the word FUCK”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzhEt1-qGhk

blog 51

Pharmacy

From botany, to biology, to biochemisty, and finally to pharmacy. I am a first year…and I hope I have finally settled to the right major.  Biology apparently was too vague to find a job. Biochemistry was pushing the limits on my class schedule. I do not know what happened to botany. And pharmacy…involves chemistry, which I love. I still find it extremely challenging, but I am not scared of it. I will take a couple C’s here and there, but I’m also learning how to challenge myself by picking this major. I have always been one of those people to constantly look for a challenge. All throughout high school, I took all the AP classes. That does not mean I got A’s in them, but I figured I might if it is available, I might as well try it. So, pharmacy. Unfortunately, I don’t really know what I have to do to get to that secure pharmacist job, so I just listen and do whatever my advisors tell me to do. Hopefully this pharmacy day and pharmacy research day will help me figure some things out. I have always loved science and I have known since my early high school years that I wanted to follow up on my science courses. So, I took every available science course in high school. Now, I will continue with my chemistry studies because I find it interesting. Not only is it interesting, it comes with money. Ha I know, how greedy right? My dad has always told me to find a nicely-incomed job that you can wake up in the morning without dreading going to work. Being a pharmacist will hopefully be this job.

Blog 50

Chad Urmston

Music is a huge part of my life. Lyrics are the easiest thing I can relate to. Chad Urmston first was the lead singer of a band called Dispatch, then later moving onto a band called State Radio. I feel like you can learn a lot about a person by the music they listen to, in this case, the music they create. Chad sounds like the most beautiful person by his lyrics. I can honestly say that I know absolutely nothing about the man, other than he has a strong stance on peace and equality. From his music, you can feel his love for the world. A main focus of his songs are about war, which tends to be offensive to many, but Chad puts the focus on what goes on within the human mind.

Some of my favorite lyrics:

1. “I ain't opposed to seeking justice but you're going about it all wrong”
2. “If you die will I get word that you're gone

Or will I hear it in passing conversation

Will I stop short and, fall to the ground

Distance is short when your hand carries what your eye found”

My love for Chad’s lyrics is so great because he takes his world experiences and is inspired by them to make his music. He writes his song “Camilo” because his friend who was imprisoned because he was a conscientious objector.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pt9ccupIoE

He writes his song “Elias” because of a trip he took in 1994 to Zimbabwe, where he met a gardener named Elias who hoped that his sons, Honest and Manuel, would one day have the opportunity to gain a higher education. Not only did he write about their story, but he started the Elias fund, just from this one man’s story inspiring him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEw7xPPHj1A

Chad is an amazing being. Simply amazing.

Blog 49

One of my favorite things is how I tend to remember most of my dreams from past nights. I still remember ones from when I was little: the one where I was cornered by a gang of wolves and snakes and the one where I was being chased by a half man half pig creature. Yeah, sounds like typical little kid nightmares, right? Sadly, a lot of the dreams I have had recently have to deal with missing exams or sleeping through my alarms. There’s not much substance to them, and they are really the worst kind of dreams because you wake up stressed. Scratch that, the worst kind of dream is where you feel like you are flying, then all of a sudden, you start falling off a cliff and instantly wake up. Basically, I hate any dream that ends with waking me up because I love getting a full night of sleep. My favorite dreams are ones that revolve around my fantasies, like childhood fiction coming true. I have had dreams of Pokémon being real, which are very interesting since I used to be so obsessed with them.  I also like the dream of me riding on Aladdin’s carpet. I probably loved this dream the most because I was with the guy that I was crushing on at the time. Ha I love any kind of dream that is extremely detailed and imaginative…but on a serious note, the number one dream I have had has to be where I was making out with Ryan Reynolds…just saying.

Blog 48

GRASS.

I know, boring right? So what Catherine…grass is everywhere. It’s green… hum really nothing to it. PSH. Well, have you ever sat in a field in the summertime and just watch the clouds and think? Have you ever looked at someone’s lawn and think how soft it looks? I’ve been one of those people who analyze everything. For work breaks, I would spend the whole forty minutes outside in the ravine tearing blades of grass. Please, I hope you consider me a weirdo after reading this. Believe me, I am perfectly okay with it;) I wrote my college acceptance paper on worms for God’s sake. Really, anything about nature fascinates me. Mostly plants, which could be seen by the fact that I wanted to be a botanist since, well forever ago.

Seasonal affective disorder.

You could say I have it. I am just fine with the snow and cold, but I can’t handle the dead plants and naked trees. I would pick nature over city any time, which is weird since I picked a campus smack dab in the middle of a huge city. I guess this is where I found out I have this disorder. The outdoors has nothing for me in the wintertime. This is the most saddening thing for me. Thank God school was wonderful enough to distract me with loads of chemistry studying. Nature is my place of serenity. It’s my site of meditation (which I do practice). For me, keeping a connection between my mind and nature is one of the most important things. It keeps me in balance.

Blog 47

Connor is the boy on every other page in my diary.

There was a boy that I was IN LOVE with as a kid. and by IN LOVE, I mean we swung on his backyard swings everyday after school together. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, which at that age, I considered to be the most striking qualities. Connor was the cutest kid in our elementary and we were best friends. We lived on the same street, so we rode the same bus, went to the same park, and had the same friends. The funny thing was, we were hooked on each other from kindergarten up until freshman year. We were only “official” from fifth to sixth grade, but we continued to share that bond. How deep can a childhood love really be? Ha we have all heard that in our years. I’m not saying anything about depth, but there was definitely a connection. He was my love. He held my hand. He waited for me after school. That was deep enough for me. It was a quiet love, and there was a point where I didn’t want to keep questioning whether he “liked” me or not, so I was the one who moved on when a guy asked me out to the sophomore homecoming dance. The first love will always be stuck in your mind. There’s so many memories that come with that one person, like how they made you feel. As a kid, of course the feelings are very innocent and cute. That’s what I adore about young crushes. They were simple and cute.

Blog 46

There really are not many things that frustrate me, but there is definitely one that stands out, especially at this age. One of my greatest pet peeves is when I give someone a compliment and they do not take it. Being a girl, I understand that we are self-conscience about literally everything about ourselves, but if I give you a compliment, you better take it. It is a shot at whoever gives you the compliment. This is how it usually goes down:

Me: Oh my god Becky, your hair looks amazing today!

Becky: Ugh, do NOT even joke with me Cat. I look like someone literally took a shit on my head.

(Dramatized situation)

Okay. I don’t know about the guys, but girls, you know you have all done this. I can admit that I have done this, but there was a point where last year, I learned better. I learned this lesson from my last boyfriend: Confidence is key. Confidence is beautiful. It’s amazing what you learn from relationships. It is an ugly thing to constantly knock yourself down like that, especially the beautiful girls. Honest to God, I have a friend who is a shorter version of Megan Fox. This description instantly gives you the idea that she’s gorgeous, right? The only downfall: when you give her ANY type of compliment, she turns it down. WHY? I am going out of my way to tell you that you look beautiful. You know you are gorgeous, I know you are gorgeous, why don’t you just take it and believe it?

Blog 45

My most memorable and inspirational trip had to be my trip to Japan with my friend and her family, but since I already wrote about that I will talk about the next one on the list. My family never really went on those annual summer vacations like all my friends since it was hard to gather all the siblings up at the same time. There was one vacation to Gatlinburg, Tennessee that we took that I found absolutely amazing. I was about twelve at the time and I remember on the way down, we kept passing places that were very touristy and commercialized. Right before getting to Gatlinburg, we passed through Pigeon Forge, which if you have ever visited Pigeon Forge, you would know why I was disgusted with the thought of staying there (given the fact that I like country better than city). The town is literally one long street of cheesy tourist attractions. It was funny to cross the line into Gatlinburg because it was like going from straight tourism to gorgeous scenery. I consider myself to be very connected with nature, so I was absolutely in love with this place. My favorite part of the vacation had to be being outside hiking. We spent everyday in the mountains, just enjoying the outdoors. Risk takers would probably find me extremely boring. I’m extremely laid-back (not lazy!) and I don’t particularly like rushing down a steep mountain on a snowboard or being caught in a wave on a surfboard. I’ll stick to hiking and fishing. I hope to go back to Tennessee here soon. Maybe by myself this time.

Blog 43

My favorite present has to be my first and only laptop I have ever received. I got my wonderful HP Pavilion laptop about two years ago. There is nothing else that I use more than my laptop. In high school, due to the fact that we barely ever had any homework,  I used to spend about three hours a night in my bedroom, laying on my bed with my laptop, simply searching for new music on iTunes. Don’t get me wrong or anything, I love socializing, but I also love the time I have alone. Every night I had the routine of relaxing and having my own “me” time. This is a hard transition with college because there are always people surrounding me. I literally take my laptop everywhere I go. Whether it is the library, a coffee shop, or a friend’s apartment. I think it is just a thing that all of my friends are aware of. We all know to bring our laptops whenever we get together. We can always have fun watching dumb YouTube videos or looking at ridiculous posts on Tumblr. There’s something amazing about looking up whatever your mind reaches to at 2:00 am. A lot of the times, I search for dance videos that inspire my choreographer’s mind or poetry that makes me think “outside the box”. I find a great satisfaction from finding an artist on iTunes that is not considered mainstream and has amazing lyrics. Thank you HP. You have helped me become a thinker.

Blog 42

I never thought my teenage job would influence my life to such an extreme. Because of this job, I am now a caffeine freak. And by caffeine freak, I mean a person who wakes up, drinks a cup of coffee, goes to class, grabs another cup, studies for a couple hours, and finally orders a doppio espresso. Let me tell you this: caffeine is not supposed to be a major part of your diet. However, I love my job. I am a barista at a Dayton area’s gourmet coffee shop, Boston Stoker. Since the company is small, most of the workers know each other. There are only ten locations, with two being in the Dayton Airport. I love my caffeine freak family because we are all a bunch of crazy people, thrown into a shop with an unlimited amount of caffeine. It gets pretty interesting. On my “last” day of work (before I left for college), my boss chased me down the store spraying whip cream at me. I also love the owner of the store, Don Dean. His is the definition of the coolest older man ever. You’ll see him walk in and put up a sign that says “Hippies always welcome” or give you gift cards to restaurants for the holidays. Another thing I love about this job is my regulars. Since we have a Winan’s and a Starbucks in the same town (my town is small), a lot of people would go there rather than our coffee shop, but there are many people that I have had multiple long conversations with after my shift because they’re such dedicated customers. Some of my favorites are the cops. The cops always come in pairs, and always have hilarious stories to tell from their shifts. Since my father works for the city, I’ll tell him to yell at the cops for picking on me (just to mess with them). I love my job…I should be able to even call it that. I would consider it messing around for money.

Blog 41

I am absolutely obsessed with learning about different cultures. For this blog, I want to pick one my favorite cultures that I know about: Japanese culture. I guess I would have to let you in on my “geek” side. I was obsessed with everything anime, including Dragon Ball Z, Sailor Moon, and the amazing Pokemon. When I was younger, all of my best friends were Japanese, and that’s because I grew up on a street surrounded by Japanese families. The hardest thing about these friendships were when the families had to move to a different job or move back to Japan because their Visa was about to expire. When I was thirteen, I went with my best friend and her family to Japan to visit their family. That was the only time I have ever gone out of the country and I thought it was the most amazing thing ever. I remember when the plane landed, I looked out the window and saw such a different environment. The culture is absolutely beautiful. I never knew Japan was so big on their shrines and gardens. Those gardens were miraculously beautiful, with tons of little shrines all over the place and koi fish in the ponds. It’s funny that when I entered Japan, a lady at the airport slightly bowed her head and said welcome, but when I was entering America, the lady at the airport did not give me anything more than a grunt. I hope to visit their again soon.

Blog 40

The family member I want to write about is my older and only sister. Her name is Megan Oak and to say the least, she’s amazing. My sister just gave birth to her first child, a beautiful girl named Ava Nicole Dever, last Wednesday. It is still weird for me to comprehend that my sister’s last name is Dever now…and now she has a baby?! Growing up with her was perfect because she was a wonderful role model for me. The best thing is that there was never competition between any of my siblings. I can honestly say I have always wished the best for my sister (and my brother of course!), and I hope she feels very blessed with her life as a second grade teacher. Last summer, I visited her down in North Carolina with my mother and we went to see her classroom. It was so perfect and organized…she has always been so OCD with organizing things. I admire her for this. I also admire her for her practicality. My parents have always called me a princess in a teasing manner because I’m the baby of the family. Please don’t assume by this that I act like I think I actually am a princess, but I will definitely carry the act if they start throwing the name out there. Anyways, my sister is simple and practical. It is an amazing skill to have and I wish I had it. Overall, I love my sister and I hope she remains on the path she’s going down because if so, she’ll continue to have a wonderful life and a wonderful family.

Blog 39

For my screw ups with grammar usage, I would have to say the dreadful semicolons have to be at the top of the list. I do not know what it is, but I have always felt like a failure with grammar usage. This is probably because none of my elementary, junior high, or high school teachers ever really focused on it. This is the same explanation I gave my mom every time I got my ACT score back and the English was the lowest score. I swear, the English department in my schools focused solely on reading comprehension. The first time I have ever even used a semicolon in one of my papers is in this class. This year…that is something I should be embarrassed about. I have got to be doing something wrong if I never use them at all. Leslie probably taught me more about grammar in one day than what I have learned in my whole life. Let’s see, apparently these are the times you are supposed to include the dreadful semi-colon: “Use a semicolon in place of a period to separate two sentences where the conjunction has been left out…Use the semicolon to separate units of a series when one or more of the units contain commas…Use the semicolon between two sentences joined by a coordinating conjunction when one or more commas appear in the first sentence.” So yeah, I never use it; however, I will hopefully learn how to use this for future papers. See, I am already learning;)

Blog 38

Hooking your audience can sometimes be a daunting task. Throughout the years, I have been told to start the paper with a question or an interesting quote. I want to hook my readers by displaying examples that are very easy to relate to. In much of my blogs, I have included examples such as multiple celebrities that have had dramatic changes in their lives. Everyone in our generation has heard of Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana). They may not know what has happened in these celebrities’ lives, but they at least know of their existence because of media constantly revolving around them. Another way I want to hook my readers is to use a colorful vocabulary and keep the writing away from being called “a desert on paper” (aka a dry mess). During last class, we pondered the difference between a very dry paper and a paper that had a little more juice to it.  The first paper was very dry and not relatable by many means. There were things left in the air, such as that baseball quote. It was boring and I could barely keep my attention when reading it. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate more of the techniques from the second paper. I think the hypothetical situation blog that we wrote would either be a good way to start or to end the paper. I think a lot can be pulled from that blog to enthuse the audience to stick to the article.

Whose a better role model- Playboy Bunny Miley Cyrus or DUI Lindsay Lohan? Both of these celebrities started off as Disney Channel stars, but now they both have grown up and have left that stage behind them. Parents are outrages to see this happen. You know why? Because they know how much media affects our beliefs and decisions and they don’t want their precious, Hannah Montana obsessed six year old to grow up to live as a special kind of bunny.

Blog 37-Personal Anecdote

I can easily connect with the topic of media manipulation, as everyone else can. Even though college has slowed down my television consumption by, well probably by 95%, I am still engulfed in media on the computer for the majority of the day. I am still well-connected with the world and it’s influences. I can also see the trends of the people I pass by. I see all of the Sperry’s and North Face jackets. If a guy’s wearing a rainbow poncho while holding an umbrella with bunnies on it, I can guarantee this guy is going to be judged as a weirdo. I understand there’s a norm to any society, but I feel like media takes too much of a hold on it. Most of the judgments given off by us are kept in our mind, but the media releases the negativity to the world. Personally, I would not want to be a cause of a bad change in someone because of my judgments. I find it peaceful to keep an open mind rather than be clouded with the negativity on the news. I end up changing the news most of the time because the majority of what’s being broadcasted is full of the daily corruption in the area. One of my personal experiences has to be seeing one of the cast members from The Real World at McFadden’s. He is known for being the crazy drunk on the reality (“un-reality” to me) television show. At McFadden’s, Adam was on top of the bar the entire time pouring shots into the mouths of the dancers below.  This is highly expected behavior because that is how we saw him in the show. It would be a disappointment to everyone if he fell from that reputation and just roamed the bar like everyone else. Just like if you were going to pay to see a Lady Gaga concert; you would be disappointed if she came out in regular clothes while she at on a stool and sang. Poor lady, because of media, we now question if she is a hermaphrodite.

Blog 36

Suppose everyone took all the bullshit thrown at us by the media seriously. What if everyone actually thought that aliens existed because of the false UFO pictures posted in magazines? What if society based their political opinions on the campaigners’ commercials? Even better, our children would grow up to be the next Snooki or Miley Cyrus. This world would be full of idiots who could not even pick apart what is real from what is fake. We would be shunning the celebrities that TMZ and E! have been tearing apart over and over throughout the years. The beauty of the human mind would be dissolving because of the incapability of making individual conclusions. The lives of those being picked on would end up living to their reputation, such as Lindsay Lohan being an alcoholic criminal and Chris Brown being a woman abuser. They would have no job, no loved ones, and they would be banished from society. But the thing is, no one actually knows the whole story unless they are a part of it. It is like someone trying to give you relationship advice, even though they could not possibly know the whole story.  Political positions would be handed to the ill-prepared because people only listened to how the “other side” is a horrible person who will lead the country to the ground.  This hypothetical situation leads to everyone hating on those being exposed. The world is full of enough hate and corruption as it is…let’s just add to it by believing the bogus stories given to us by the media.

Blog 35

My purpose to my Commonplace paper is to influence the audience to not base their thought processes and decisions on what media says. It could be said that my paper’s topic is ironic since I will be trying to influence the audience to not listen to the media’s influences. Throughout the paper, I will hit on the topics that we can all examine and relate to, such as the hits against celebrities, criminals, and people you pass everyday. I will also analyze the commercials that affect the way we feel upon different things like politicians and abused animals. I find it important to analyze the affects because it becomes unfair when we judge others by unreliable sources. These judgments can change a person in negative ways, like celebrities that have grown up with paparazzi hunting after them wherever they go. The media’s influence does not limit it’s correlation to only the celebrities, but it also affects our decisions and reputations. We grew up in a generation that is consumed by highly dramatic television shows, such as Jersey Shore and The Real World, and this has the capability of showing teens this is how you are supposed to act. I like this topic because it relates to our age where we start to make our own beliefs, set apart from the beliefs that we have gotten from our parents’ minds. It is an important thing to separate the information handed to us by it’s credibility to create better beliefs and conclusions.

Blog 34

Making media manipulation my paper’s topic will give the audience an understanding that the material in the paper is credible because it is very easy to see what the media does to society. It is very obvious that things influence us, such as family and friends, and one of the biggest of these things is media. Media forces us to feel certain ways. Take the animal commercials, featuring Sarah McLaughlin. You get about two minutes of depressing images of abused animals thrown at you. How does this commercial influence it’s audience to think? Either people will instantly be saddened…or they will change the channel because they can’t handle the poor, innocent kittens in casts. I also have to work on how to “put myself” on the page. This area seems somewhat confusing. The way I am thinking about compelling people is to write a paper that everyone can relate to. You know how comedians are especially funny when they tell jokes that you relate to? This is what I am going to try to do. Creating a relationship between the audience and the author is an easy way to hook the reader. I find this a good tactic because I am a horrible reader. If a book does not grab my attention within fifty pages, it is hard for me to even try to get through the book. This is probably the reason why I only read books that have been highly recommended to me. So, hopefully I will be able to hook the reader with my attitude towards the propaganda given off by the media.

Blog 33

The topic of the day is RELEVANCY. Manipulation from the media is relevant in each of our lives. They manipulate how we talk, how we dress, and how we judge others. If I were to walk down the street, I could make instant judgments on the clothes of everyone I pass. Tonight was a perfect example of this…high street is full of different characters. Now, these judgments are influenced by the visual factor initially, such as what fashions I have encountered in the newest Cosmo or watched on Fashion Police. Now, I will be very defensive in saying how I have a very open mind with my judgments, and I will instantly judge anyone who tries to tell me they do NOT judge. I encountered this type of person at a house…last night. Some guy tries to tell me he does not judge others.  I laughed in his face and said he’s full of crap. Everyone judges. It’s normal. Do you think people are going to judge you in a better manner if you tell them you do not judge others? Okay, enough with this repetition of this word, right? All I am saying is that this happens all day and every day. The biggest thing we have to deal with media is the miscommunication to the audience because of the way they present the material. Because of the fear of someone judging us badly, we turn to the media to tell us what to wear and how to present ourselves.

Blog 32

The amount of media manipulation is even more extent in today’s times. In the early 1900’s, communication through media was very limited, but now our minds are invaded with commercials, labels, television, magazines, and billboards. Media influences how we think of different things, such as styles and even people we don’t know. This is the problem: we’re making conclusions on people we no nothing about, other than what we hear on the news or read in the magazines. Like mentioned in the last blog, this goes into politics and knowing which of the politicians are the better one. Without knowing credible information about each side leads to future problems with how we are governed. This especially pertains to the population of college kids. At this age, we start to make our own decisions, set apart from the beliefs of our parents . It is an important thing to separate the information handed to us by it’s credibility to create better beliefs and conclusions. We grew up in a generation that is consumed by highly dramatic television shows, such as Jersey Shore and The Real World, and this has the capability of showing teens this is how you are supposed to act. This not only affects teenage reputations, but it also affects the reputation of the celebrities of the shows. For instance, Adam from the last season on The Real World was at McFadden’s. Adam is known for being a crazy drunk on the television show. At McFadden’s, Adam was on top of the bar the entire time pouring shots into the mouths of the dancers below.  This is highly expected behavior because that’s how we saw him in the show. It would be a disappointment to everyone if he fell from that reputation and just roamed the bar like everyone else.

Blog 31

My idea for my commonplace paper is to describe the situational manipulation media displays and the affects on society. Perez Hilton, TMZ, D-Listed, and any chic magazine will show tons of gossip about celebrity lives. The E! channel also does this, with shows like Fashion Police, Chelsea Lately, and The Soup. These examples all attack celebrities by manipulating different situations, which leads to the audience looking down upon them. This also leads to the celebrities living up to their demented reputation given by the media. I highly doubt Lindsay Lohan was a drug addict when she was younger, but through the exploitation of the media, I believe she developed in a more distorted way than if the media hadn’t been a part of her life. One of the biggest signs of manipulation through media can be shown during campaign season. We are shown multiple commercials for a certain politician where the only material to the commercial contains hits on the other side. This affects us as a society when it comes to voting time. If people go into the booth and vote without knowing BOTH sides’ views, our country could end up with the lesser of the two politicians as leader. If you watch the news, you’ll have to get through tons of crime stories before seeing the news piece you wanted to watch. News channels show the criminals. This leads to criminal profiling and ecological fallacy. If you see a person on the street that looks like one of the people you saw on the news story, you might suspect them being a criminal themselves.

Blog 30

This commonplace article, What a Guy Wants by Erik Vossler, talks about how advertising is not only insulting to women, but also to the men they are trying to attract. He is insulted with the fact that so many ads just have pictures of the “ideal” girl clinging onto the man holding the cologne bottle or wearing those designer jeans. I love that Vossler put this into his paper: “When do you think was the last time a guy looked at one of the airbrushed, clothing deprived models in Maxim and said ‘I bet you she got a 4.0 when she was in school.’ Actually, it was probably around the same time the last girl said, ‘I’m really thrilled that guy I hooked up with last week never called me back.’” This is a perfect explanation of the difference between lust and like. To be blunt, if wanted to see naked people, I’d pick up a porn magazine. Obviously I am not a guy…but I agree that advertisers rely on using nudity too much in their ads. Keep it out of the advertising for once. The amount is also very prevalent in female magazines, which present a manipulated picture of what makes a woman beautiful. On the other hand, Vossler says “Personally, I would be terrified to go out with a girl that looked as if she were going to pass out from starvation”. The manipulation of this image makes girls self-conscience and guys stand-offish. The important thing to remember is to stay healthy; looking skinny doesn’t make you more beautiful.

Blog 29

The commonplace article I chose to read today was “Don’t Forget About the War in Uganda” by Nikki Brown. This article struck me as interesting before even reading it because there’s so much corruption the world but there’s so little thought of it in the minds of people who aren’t being affected. This author goes into detail about the children that are abducted and thrown into the army because they are the easiest to brainwash. The war in Uganda is absolutely horrible, but when have you been in a conversation where someone starts talking about it? To me, this is a simple concept: wars, chaos, and disasters are mainly going to affect the people who are living there or have a connection with someone going through it. Take the tsunami in Japan. It got a whole two weeks of mourning in the United States, but they are still trying to work through the destruction overseas. It was a little different for me because one of my best friends and her family moved back to Japan a few years back. It was hard to think about what could have happened to them in the time where we had no communication because of the power shortages there. Now if there was a terrorist attack on Thompson Library, that would affect us a hell of a lot more…simply because this is our home.  This author tells us to inform others and act upon the situation. Yes, I agree that ignorance is of high levels with these situations, but what else can you expect when it’s not affecting us?

Blog 28

Today, I chose a topic that all of us can relate to: materialism within college life. "Everyone is Buying it" by Krysta Suydam analyzes how materialism runs through our veins from an early age and continues the idea with sharing the constant desires in college. This immense amount of materialism has continued to increase in today’s society, even when the money is scarce and we should be investing it rather than spending it. Look around campus and what do you see most of? Sperry’s…North Face jackets…Ray-Bans…ipads…and the dreadful UGGS…these are all objects that could possibly be spotted on 1 of the 3  Ohio State students that you pass next. Suydam goes into this analysis deeper by talking about how ads affect people. We see about 5,000 ads a day which easily grab our attentions. We have a huge denial to the fact that these ads affect us, but even though you may be denying this, ads have a huge affect. We have these constant wants, which is especially hard for us college students who will later have to pay off those wonderful college loans. We have crazed desires for the latest fashion trends and technology…basically anything that’s considered the newest thing. This can’t really be considered a bad thing since all of society goes through this. It’s human nature to constantly want to reach the next level. The only problem is when this level of desire reaches past the limit, into the possibility of debt. The lesson to be learned is to be smart with your money. It’s a hard task, but it’s an important thing to learn.

Blog 27

When the controversial issues of organ trafficking or human-animal hybrids are introduced to society, a mix of different thoughts are immediately brought to attention. So many opinions swarm these topics, but how many of those opinions are actually worth taking into consideration? The opinions of society on scientific developments can be broken down into two groups: (1) those who are supportive for the continuation of research and (2) those who are skeptical about the benefits and believe they violate humanity values. The scientist population is subject to being thrown into the first group. It’s a necessity for the mind of a scientist to disregard moral issues. Otherwise, progress will be brought to a standstill. It doesn’t make sense for a scientist to be studying cloning processes if they believe it’s considered “playing God”.  Does education on a subject’s matter make a difference towards the future in research and advancements? It’s necessary for an individual to compare their views to educated opinions rather than ignorant opinions. Ignorance is a direct cause of misleading conclusions. An episode of Dollhouse is compared to a real life conducted survey to show the differences in credibility of opinions between uneducated and educated opinions. After analyzing a large amount of credible opinions, it is important to create a checks-and-balances system that will not exceed the limitations brought upon by humanity. This allows for the avoidance of future problems within science experimentations. While a variety of opinions are available for any controversial issue, the opinions derived from an educated population are the only ones that can be considered credible.

Blog 26

This episode of Dollhouse helps me realize the differences in a population’s multitude of opinions. Included in the main argument, this episode and my real world connection, the survey on “Designer Babies”, show the differences between the opinions of an uneducated group and an educated group, respectively. Researching these differences led to a realization of how communicating and teaching society about a topic will lead to different views. This brings to the proposition that certain advancements that seem controversial in society would be accepted if only a bit more in-depth information on the research was introduced to the viewers. Especially in this era, society is being ignorant towards the potential that science holds for us. Advancements come with technology, but advancements can easily be halted when the someone stands up and proposes a problem, many times due to moral issues. If humanity is benefiting, there should be times where absurd morality should be shoved to the side. At the same time, checks-and-balances should be in order to not have the world go haywire. The world has learned this from the horrible experiments done within The Holocaust. Even though the experiments could be said to be beneficial in experimenting future medicinal purposes, the testing of humans would not be accepted anywhere. History is something to learn from. The real world connection shows the views of an educated audience. The results shown were of acceptance to the idea of “Designer Babies”, but it also allowed for the checks-and-balances, which was indicated by the disapproval of non-medicinal uses, such as perfecting the unborn baby. This gets me thinking, how reliable is the information within today’s news? When a reporter is asking random people on the street a question, should their answer really be taken into consideration when we don’t know how much knowledge they actually have on the topic? Once knowledge has been contributed, then shall we make our conclusions on a controversial issue.

Blog 25

Educated opinions need to be taken into major consideration with technological advancements. A survey was conducted to view the opinions of young people on the topic of “Designer Babies.” This topic should not be looked at as the idea of changing the sex and traits of your unborn child. The Human Genetics Commission debates that this terminology can refer to a multitude of uses for this technology, such as changing the sex to avoid X-linked diseases and preimplantation genetic diagnosis to find embryos that don’t contain disorders.  Rachel Iredale, a senior lecturer at the School of Care Sciences, conducted this credible survey by separating it into three main uses of the technology: (1) to prevent possible inherited diseases, (2) to save a medically ill child’s life, and (3) to predetermine the child’s sex (as a non-medical use). This process of the experiment goes into depth with this controversial issue, rather than simply asking the participants if “Designer Babies” are a good or a bad idea. Throughout the survey process, the young participants became more educated about the subject through video clips, newspaper articles, and a series of speakers.

There were multiple results with this experiment. With “designer baby” technology, the majority of the jury ended up approving the capability of parents to “prevent inherited conditions from being passed on and to prevent serious suffering” (Iredale 211) and to save an existing child of it’s serious medical conditions. On the other hand, the majority of the jury were of opposition to predetermining the sex of the baby. After all of the education was embedded into the process, the results should be looked upon as credible sources of information with the technology.

Blog 24

Asking the opinions of someone about an unknown subject creates misleading conclusions for others attempting to learn about the subject. For example, initially learning about which politician to vote for becomes confusing when viewing each side’s commercials. These commercials are simply full of criticism towards the other side. The instant response after watching one of these commercials would be to dislike the side being condemned. This is misleading because one politician is manipulating the views of the other politician so the audience will agree with him. Educating a group of people, THEN creating a survey to capture their opinions is a better way to obtain credible opinions. The group of people shown in the sixth episode of Dollhouse represent the uneducated group. They are uninformed about anything to do with the Dollhouse. In contrast of this group, a survey was conducted about the idea of “Designer Babies”. This idea was captured before and after the participants were educated on the subject. The group of participants were educated about the subject so that the researchers could obtain reliable results. This real world example is showing a group of educated participants whose results ended up with different outcomes after they were educated on the subject. The differences between the interviews within the episode and the conducted experiment can be analyzed to show how credibility changes with education. This credibility has an importance towards the future checks-and-balances dealing with scientific developments. If ignorance prevails into the future, science will have deal with more halts and problems. Understanding of the pros and cons will assist with avoiding this problem.

Blog 23

In the pieced together scenes of the interviews, Joss Whedon is examining numerous reactions to scientific developments. During the interviews, looks of disgust, interest, and desire arose. What was interesting, but not abnormal, was that most of the reactions given by the participants were only half serious. Some answered the question like it was a “what would you do if you had a million dollars” question and most answered it as a “what would you do if you could have a doll” question. The reporter simply asked what they thought about the operation as a general idea, but the participants took it in different ways. The phrasing of questions can create for totally different results. The scholarly expectations for these opinions should be quite low due to the fact that the participants had no earlier knowledge about the Dollhouse. From this scene, the main argument is how the reactions cannot be viewed as credible analyses. The only interview that should be taken into consideration is the scientist because he would be more educated on scientific developments than the random citizens roaming the streets.  Even his opinion cannot be thoroughly be considered plausible because, although he is a scientist, he is not familiar with the Dollhouse operation. Joss Whedon put this character at the very end of the scene because it allows for a deeper inspection by the audience. Opposite of the others interviewed, the scientist says that the Dollhouse will lead to the human race being inferior to the technologically perfected people.

Blog 22

In the sixth episode of Dollhouse, “Man on the Street”, there is a scene that plays along with the title. The scene being analyzed consists of multiple interviews with random citizens walking through the streets of Los Angeles, California. The clip is actually pieced throughout the entire episode. Multiple opinions were collected by an television interviewer.

The first shot is of a reporter giving the background on some history about the Dollhouse, saying that it has been an urban legend since the late 1980’s and it rents programmable people to the very rich and very connected. The camera turns over to a man who is sure that the legend is a real deal. The next being interviewed is a very negatively opinionated woman. She directed her view to the idea that people will always have a need for slaves. The others involved in the interview included: a woman who found the Dollhouse to be something she’d sign up for, an elderly man who said if he could, he would have an “Ida Lupino” every night, a female teenager who thinks the dolls are beautiful for wanting to help, a woman on a bike calling the Dollhouse “human-trafficking” and repulsive, a man who is against the controlling of another being, and some others who simply shared their fantasies. The last of the interviews showed a scientist who believes that the technology will be used and abused if it exists. These interviews show the opinions from people who know absolutely nothing about the Dollhouse, other than what the interviewer briefly said.

Blog 21

In the survey, also described in Blog 17, the participants express their feelings about different opinions about designer babies. Although the majority (11 out of 14 participants) agreed that this technology would be useful for society in the future, the majority (12 out of 14 participants) also said that the technology is considered risky.  “The perceived risk related almost entirely to ‘misuse’ of the technology rather than to any inherent clinical dancers, for example creating babies for frivolous reasons, or systematic attempts to impose certain options on would-be parents” (Iredale, 214). This will be the second quote I’ve used from the What choices should we be able to make about designer babies? A Citizens’ Jury of young people in South Wales article. This quote can be compared to the first one used from earlier in the article by explaining the need for a checks-and-balances with scientific developments, but the difference between the quotes is how this quote is directed more towards the idea of getting out of hand with advancements than introducing differences between certain uses.  There are obvious examples throughout history of scientists getting out of control with their studies, such as countries using their prisoners as their lab mice. Here, history shows the world that scientists are not the only ones that can have an input. It will do the world good to educate spectators other than the scientists involved and use their opinion for beneficial input. In this day, there is a greater capability of transferring and receiving this information accurately and efficiently. Therefore, let us be resourceful with the technology that we have now to develop future technology.

Blog 20

In the article Embryo Stem Cell Research: Ten Years of Controversy by John Robertson, the argument given is about the acceptance versus disapproval about stem cell research. Everyone has the capability of creating an opinion on an issue, even if they don’t have a true understanding, but the opinion can end up either being very definite or sometimes cloudy. In this article, Robertson discusses how the sides of stem cell research can be just that. For example, the very strongly opposed will not allow for any research being conducted, even if the embryos were going to be discarded anyway. Then there are those who think the embryos are too elementary to contain individual rights, but in this case, they find it intolerable to create embryos only for the use of research. These are the people who earlier in the article said the embryos should not be protected at the detriment of significant scientific research. “If the embryos are at the same stage of development in each case, then how can one set of embryos deserve protection and the other set not?” (Robertson, 193). Their opinion should be considered cloudy here due to the fact that they will permit the use of embryos in stem cell research, but at the same time, they will risk the loss of scientific discovery from creating embryos only for this research, even though some will be discarded anyway. This cloudiness shows a need for checks-and-balances. Even though not everyone will be of acceptance, there will always be a limit to what should be considered tolerable to avoid future problems.

Blog 19

Immoral Science by Dan Jones is an article that establishes a view on how some scientific developments create for an intense emotional response. Why is it that experiments, such as human-animal hybrids, genetically modified organisms, and designer babies, get the title of being “immoral” research? “As societies become more scientifically literate, scientific developments may well be judged more from a position of knowledge and less on the basis of intuitive responses driven by moral heuristics” (Jones, n.p.). This quote examines the different opinions between the uneducated and the educated audience. Ignorance can be correlated with the rejection of valuable scientific research. Without any knowledge, the idea of creating human-animal hybrids and cloning sound pretty appalling and unsafe, but by educating, the analyzers obtain a better sense of the pros and cons that go into the research. For example, during the interviewing of random people on the street in the sixth episode of Dollhouse, none of the people interviewed had any idea of what the Dollhouse was, other than being told that it was a place where rich people would buy programmed people. Most of the people said absurd things that did not even provide a scientific view. Of course their opinions were not legitimate. None of them had any idea about what the subject had in store for humanity. Also, it is important to notify that knowledge will not directly create for an instant approval of an experiment, but it’ll create for better opinions to be considered by the world.

blog 18

The article Designer Babies: Eugenics Repackaged or Consumer Options? tells the audience about the history of designer babies and introduces possible pros and cons to the advancement.   According to Stephen L Baird, a technology education teacher at Bayside Middle School, designing babies comes with arguments on both sides. The fact that Baird is a technology educator gives the information more reliability. This article adds to the discussion of developing a checks-and-balances system within scientific experiments. “We could get carried away ‘correcting’ perfectly healthy babies. Once we start down the slippery slope of eliminating embryos because they are diseased, what is to stop us from picking babies for their physical or psychological traits?” (Baird, 16). This quote initiates a question of humanity to the audience. Although it’s one of those “what if” questions, but these types of questions are still very much legitimate when it comes to research that has a possibility of hurting the future of the world we live in. These “what if” questions need to be taken into consideration to create a greater level of assurance that the minimum amount of problems will occur. Using the operation to pick a baby’s physical and psychological traits could mess up a perfectly healthy baby. There are many movies, such as GATTACA and The Island, that make these questions come to life. Another thing that legitimizes this quote is how people always want the next better thing. Perfection is what we’re constantly trying to strive for, but there needs to be some limitations. Perfecting everything will lead to greater consequences, such as those “perfected” segregating those that were born naturally.

Blog 17

A survey was conducted to view the opinions of young people on the topic of “Designer Babies.” This author is making an argument that the opinions of the public should be taken into major consideration with technological advancements. Throughout the survey process, the young participants became more educated about the subject through video clips, newspaper articles, and a series of speakers. Rachel Iredale is shown as a reliable source. On the first page, the article mentions that Iredale is a senior lecturer at the School of Care Sciences. This gives an assurance to the audience that Iredale is providing a justifiable procedure for the conducted survey. “The Citizens Jury was divided into three stages, relating to three of the main potential uses of the technology: (1) to prevent inherited diseases, (2) to save the life of an existing child with a serious medical condition (saviour siblings), and (3) for non-medical reasons such as sex selection” (Iredale 211). This quote lays out how the survey goes into depth with this controversial issue, rather than simply asking the participants “Are Designer Babies a good or bad idea”. The first two of these potential uses instantly creates for a positive application to humanity, but there could be some possible questioning when it comes to the third use. This quote also shows a possible need for checks and balances with technological advancements. Although the results are not shown within this quote, the audience is able to pick up the differences between the uses. Preventing inherited diseases and saving the life of an existing child are far higher priorities than changing the sex of the baby.

Blog 15

Following up on my “controversies within science” theme, I read an article about stem cell research. This, in my opinion, is one of the more well-known controversies in today’s society.  This article, Embryo Stem Cell Research: Ten Years of Controversy by John A. Robertson, describes the reasons for the battle on this research. Some see this research as a type of abortion, because of the destroying of the embryonic cells. Robertson goes into further explanation saying that one side views stem cell research as murder because the fertilized egg is considered a human being, with individual rights. The other side sees the fertilized egg as too undeveloped to be defended from scientists’ hands. Like all other controversial issues, there are two sides that debate about their personal moral beliefs. This article discusses ethics throughout history. On the religious standpoint, the article describes how “The drafters of the Declaration of Independence had various uneasy relationships with organized religion, but all agreed on the proposition that ‘all men are created equal’ and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, beginning with life” (Robertson 213). This can be argued since Caucasians enslaved African Americans back in those times. It’s quite interesting how people can have such high moral standards with some things, yet disregard some other things, such as enslavement…but I suppose this can be semi-explained from old ethics versus new ethics. This goes along with Dollhouse because in episode 6, people (with different ethics) gave different views on what they thought about the operation.

http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=939daeab-eeb0-40c4-9ee3-2e630a1246b0%40sessionmgr15&vid=12&hid=21

Blog 14

Today, I read an article about the views of immoral science in recent years. The article, Immoral Science, is written by Dan Jones and discusses how with increasing technology comes with a greater list of what people consider to be immoral research. Some areas on this list include: “nanotechnology, synthetic biology, genomics and genetically modified organisms or so-called ‘Frankenfoods’… cloning, designer babies, stem-cell research, human-animal hybrids” (Jones). This article supports my interest in the theme of my paper because it gives more information about the differences between science and theology. For example, scientists have to disregard moral issues if they really want to find an answer to their experiments. It doesn’t make sense for a scientist to be studying cloning if they believe it’s considered “playing God”. It also discusses how people tend to “accept” some scientific studies more than others. Like I asked in a previous post, is there a definite line between what’s moral and immoral, given the fact that everyone has different values?

Another thing mentioned in the article is the idea of organ trafficking. When the proposal of selling organs for a good $150,000 per operation is introduced, people become disgusted with others for putting a price on human life. It seems that an issue becomes more likely to upset the public when money is involved. Is that perhaps proof that the Dollhouse is on the public’s hate list? Another connection easily made to the Dollhouse within this article is the snippet saying, “…measures would be put in place to help the poor, so they would not be driven to sell their organs out of desperation” (Jones). This connects in the way that the poor in this show give their bodies up for a long-term period, due to extreme desperation.

P.S: I think I'm changing my theme from researching the line between science and theology to controversies within today's scientific studies. This way I can still hit up the morality side of it, but obtain more information, since the topic is a bit more broad. Does that sound any better?

Blog 13

Tonight, I read the article Is Science Very Different from Religion? A Polanyian Perspective by Priyan Dias. This article is not one of the ones I specifically chosen in the beginning, but this concept is a big issue within the Dollhouse. Initially, I wanted to write my paper about the line between theology/morality and science. The argue behind the article, shown by the title, explores the differences and comparisons of science and religion. This paper holds four claims: inquiry, whereas religion is characterised by practitioner subjectivity. “1. Science is based on verifiable facts, whereas religion rests on faith that is not amenable to verification. 2. Science is carried out in a way that the practitioner is detached from his. 3. Science has had its theories overthrown by better ones, whereas religion is characterised by dogmatic attitudes. 4. Science seeks the assent of all its practitioners, while there are very contrasting views from one religion to another” (Dias 43). Within these claims, a main comparison of this paper is how both science and religion: they are both human pursuits for discovery and action. Claim one is basically saying that scientists rely on experimentation and results supporting their hypothesis for actuality, while religious believers rely on historical concepts rather than evidence. Claim two summarizes that knowledge is brought upon by a personal involvement and a passion. This is for both science and religion. Claim three is about how science and it’s theories are always evolving, but religion is about a structured, concrete set of ideals. Finally, claim four is about how science is a work of all scientists, checking each other’s work, but different types of religion end up bickering and fighting about their own views.

Blog 12

Today, I read an article from the book called The State of Greed by Harrison Rainie. This article talks about the greed displayed in today’s world. As the years go by, greed is becoming more present. “A generation ago, a three-car lifestyle would have been thought opulent; these days, it's often essential in suburban families with multiple earners and a teenager or two.” This can be supported by the fact that technology is constantly advancing. It’s human nature to want whatever will put them higher than others. Another big issue this article introduces is the reason why people think greed is actually a bad thing. I mean, greed is increasing the amount of money in our country. The article says that “greed is tied to the broken health care system, the degradation of the environment, the behavior of welfare recipients and sleazy acts by professionals and politicians. People believe the love of money is a large contributor to our moral decline.”

This article can easily be compared to Dollhouse because of the greed shown within the show. The clients are the perfect example for this. Why else would they order a preprogrammed piece of perfection? The greed level is so immense…but would it be considered any more than the average person? Think about it…if we had that much money, would the average person do the same thing? Like mentioned in the earlier paragraph, technology is constantly advancing. Dollhouse shows the greed level increasing because the level of technology the scientists use in this show is so high.

Blog 11

The article I decided to read today, What Choices Should We Be Able to Make about Designer Babies? A Citizens’ Jury of Young People in South Wales, observed the outlooks of young participants with the idea of “designing” their own babies. These observations showed that the participants found areas, such as preventing inherited medical conditions, where altering the baby’s genes would be beneficial, but they also found a level where baby designing was not acceptable, such as changing the sex of the baby. This was described in the article as being “purpose-specific.” This can be connected to Dollhouse with the idea that the scientists went to such an extreme level of altering a person. There was one handler that did not find the operation morally right. This article is wonderful because it holds plenty of information that displays the idea of ethics behind the science and technological advancements. It goes through a whole experiment with statistics of the types of people in the jury. The results came out to be the majority of the jury approving the capability of parents to “prevent inherited conditions from being passed on and to prevent serious suffering” (Iredale 211). There was one man in the group to disagree with this. “No-one in the UK should be allowed to scan and remove illness as illness is an important part of society… if we remove illness where do we end, removing everything we believe to be undesirable” (Iredale 211). This shows a different side of morals. He is the representation of science being totally immoral in this sense. In my view, there’s no real point where you can decipher if something is immoral in scientific view, since everyone has different morals.