Soundtrack to My Life

I have never really thought about what a soundtrack to my life would be before, so I am just going to pick songs that make me think of some memorable experience in my life....

(1) My Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

This has always been my Dad's song for me. I will always remember dancing to it at a relatives wedding with him.  He isn't the kind of person to show his emotions much and be all lovey-dovey, but he always used to sing this song to me anytime it came on, so it's a great memory!

(2) Whip It by Devo

I laugh out loud when I think of this song.  My mom, my brother, and I always used to blast this song anytime we were in the car together and I knew every word to it since I can remember. It is such a lame, horrible song, but I love it! I just watched the video for the first time today, and I'm a little creeped out though...

(3) Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

This is my mom's go to karaoke song unfortunately.  She fell in love with the song from the movie Wayne's World and her and I used to dance to it in my living room when I was little all the time.  Also, we have embarrassed my dad at many New Years parties singing and dancing to this song. It's a family joke now, and we all know every word.

(4) On the topic of karaoke, Is She Really Going Out With Him? by Joe Jackson

My mom and aunt got crazy at another New Years Eve party and acted out every word to this song.  My uncle got the whole thing on video and we watch it every year now, to their great embarrassment, but our great enjoyment.

(5) Still on karaoke topic, And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going by Jennifer Hudson from Dream Girls

I had a few too many to drink one night at my house with my parents, boyfriend, his parents, and a few friends. I sang this song on karaoke. If you don't know the song, it's sung by a larger black woman with an absolutely amazing voice, one I can't come close to replicating. I get made fun of to this day for this, but I love singing this song and pretending I'm as good as her when I'm in the shower, or anytime I'm alone, but it unfortunate it happened over a microphone that once.

(6) Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners

It started at a family New Years party again, but now at just about any family gathering, we end up playing this song and all skip around in a circle until my mom, again, does a hilarious dance at a certain part.

(7) Whatever It Is by Zac Brown Band

I used to absolutely hated country music, but this is the song that got me hooked on some of it.  My, at the time, new boyfriend had sent it to me and it always makes me think of the beginning of our relationship, and how it was the start of something wonderful! Cheesy...

This assignment was easier, and more fun than I thought it was going to be.  It was really fun to actually watch the videos on youtube to these songs because I had never seen most of them before.

Library Continued...

Forgot to post the call number and the bibliographic citation so here it is:
Call number: HB 1054.55 A3 K576 1987
Knodel, J. Chamratrithirong, A. Debavalya, N. Thailand's Reproductive Revolution: Rapid Fertility Decline in a Third-World Setting. Madison, Wisconsin:  University of Wisconsin Press, 1987.

Library Adventure!

So, this adventure was somewhat intimidating for me.  This is the first time that I have checked out a book in a library at school, and I had no idea how to do it.  I searched "Birth control AND Thailand" and the first hit that came up was a book called Thailand's Reproductive Revolution. It was written in 1987, and the topic that I am writing about started in the early 80's and is about Thailand's policies on birth control/population inflation, so I knew that this book would help, and I didn't look much further.

The book was in Memorial Library, which I had only been in once before, but only to study just up the stairs on second floor.  I asked the woman at the front what floor my book would be located on, or some sort of strategy to find it because the code number made absolutely no sense to me.  She told me that it would be on floor 4M and I should take the elevators.  So I got in the elevator with another man who asked me what floor  I was going to so he could press the button for me.  I did not know that floor 4M and floor 4 were different buttons so I just said floor 4.  I go to the north stacks and start trying to read the signs to find HB. I am walking through the isles and passing people in cages studying.  The lights would turn on after I walked past each isle and I was the only person making noise and all I could think is that a group of rabid dogs would jump out of the next empty cage I pass. Thanks. So I finally find the isle and realize that every book is in some Asian-looking language! Finally I realized I was on the wrong floor and it was easier and less scary after that point. I went up a floor and found my book easily.  The books around it were titled Fertility Decline and Children's Education in Thailand, Fertility Among Rural Thai Women, and Fertility Planning in Thailand.  None of them seemed to pertain to my topic, so I only took the book that I searched.  I did check out my book, and I am excited to read it and use it as a source.  Although I was originally upset about this assignment, and even though I was very scared, I did enjoy it and get a good source out of it.

Advertisement, Old Spice

The advertisement that I chose to write about is one of the Old Spice body wash commercials.  Old Spice is a body wash for men that, according the the commercial, smells very manly.  The commercial opens with the same suave man that is in all the Old Spice commercials.  He seems to have just gotten out of the shower, and is only wearing a towel.  He is very handsome and muscular.  He is talking to the camera, and we are supposed to assume he is talking to a woman who has a "man."  He talks very fast, and then the bathroom changes into him "us" being on a boat and he has two tickets in an oyster to "that thing you love."  Then the tickets change into a waterfall of diamonds flowing from his hand.  An Old Spice body wash bottle raises out of his hand, and at the end, he is riding on a white horse, still shirtless.  He says, "anything is possible when you man smells like Old Spice, and not a lady." There are many of these commercials with the same style, where this man talks really fast and things morph into other things, and a lot of them end with this same phrase.  They are on TV, but this man has become an internet sensation too.

This commercial is geared towards women who should buy Old Spice for their man, or men who should buy Old Spice to make their woman happy, as he does in the commercial.  It is convincing women to buy the product because the man in the commercial is so "perfect."  He is good-looking, muscular, can take you on romantic places, has tickets for you to whatever you want, and has a flowing waterfall of diamonds.  They try to target "what any girl would want."  The humor in this commercial helps it so that it doesn't come off as cheesy, and make women roll their eyes after watching it, because it is inferring that this is what all women want in their man.  It is funny because of how fast he talks they try to cram as much romantic stuff that a woman could love into a short time in this commercial.  I believe that this commercial would fit best in Fowles' appeals under the need for attention, although it could fit under the need for sex, and need for prominence too.  It is very clear in this commercial that the man loves to be looked at, and is very proud of his muscles, and how attractive and perfect he is.  It gives the impression that "your man" will be one step closer to being like the man in the commercial if he smells like him too. For me, this commercial kind of works.  I love it and it makes me laugh really hard, but I have never thought to buy Old Spice for my man, although if I ever did need to buy him body wash, I guess it would be one of my first options.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE&NR=1

Roberts/Research Question

My research question as of now is,
What are the effects of overfishing?
I have also considered doing a research paper on one interesting person, but I have not been able to decide on who yet.

I believe that my first question easily fulfills Robert's recommendation to write on something unusual. I believe that it would be interesting to write about, because I know almost nothing about overfishing now.  A friend of mine told me that they wrote a paper on fishing and it's effects overall, and I was particularly interested in the overfishing aspect of it.  With this paper, I would talk about the effects of it in the future, and where it could lead us.  Will it eventually lead to no fish in our lakes, and if that happens, what will the effect on our lakes and fresh water supply be? How is it different in our country as oppose to others? What can be done to solve it? Should we put a quota on the amount of fish that fisherman can catch? Is it a problem/risk just for freshwater lakes, or must we worry about overfishing in the oceans too? I hope to answer all of these questions in my paper, I believe that the only risk with this is that it is too broad.  I may need to narrow it down to overfishing just in freshwater lakes, or maybe just overfishing in the united states.  I want to keep it broad because it would be easier to get the length requirement, but I do not want to run the risk of staying on the surface of everything.
I do not know my main point for it yet, but I believe that I will think that overfishing is a threat, and that something must be done about it.  I am afraid that this view is not what Robert's would like me to do, considering I thought of this view off the top of my head, so I will put more thought into it once I know more on the topic and see if I can have a more abstract view on it.

Something Borrowed

In the piece "Something Borrowed" by Malcolm Gladwell poses the question, "Should an act of plagiarism   ruin a person's career?" Throughout his piece, it becomes evident that Gladwell believes the answer to the question should be no, but in the case of literature, the answer is more and more often no.  He gives specific examples of situations where someone has plagiarized and their career has been ruined.  Although the laws are getting more strict about what can be accountable plagiarism, Gladwell believes that they should not be as strict. When a play writer plagiarized his work, he was flattered, but did not feel as if he was stolen from. He also gives many examples of how plagiarism laws are much stricter in literature than they are in the music industry.  Throughout the piece, he shows how plagiarism is hard to define.
Personally, I have never thought about plagiarism further than citing sources in my papers so this piece was very interesting.  I agree with Gladwell's opinions, that the reasons for a person plagiarizing should determine the case.  I thought that the piece was well written because it brought the reader through clear examples that further backed up his point with each example.

Racism

In Rand's piece on racism, she describes her own views on what qualifies as racist.  She believes that racism is judging people as a racial group, or by their ancestor.  First she explains how she believes that collectivism causes racism.  That when people think of other people in society as a group, it causes racism.  She then goes on to explain how the implementation of capitalism has been a step in the right direction.  Capitalism views everyone as an individual and Rand believes that that is the only way that to help the issue of racism.  She states that the problem of racism is "currently" getting worse.  Because there were some "Negroes"in leadership positions, that they were making the problem of racism worse by implementing the idea of quotas.  She said that they are giving special powers to certain racial groups, which only makes racism worse because it doesn't treat people like individuals, but as a group based on the race. Finally, she says that passing the civil rights bill would be the greatest evil of all because it would take away the rights of the individual.

This piece was interesting because I have never heard this extreme view on racism before.  Rand did have some good points about how people should not be judged for what their ancestors have done as a group, but I think she takes it too far maybe? I don't think it qualifies as racism for someone to be proud and boast about their ancestors.  I agree with Rand however on her view on quotas.  I have always thought that quotas seemed wrong and that they do not help racism.  Quotas do not view people as individuals, but separate them out according to their race.  At the beginning of her piece, I thought that she did support her arguments, but at the end it seemed that she didn't support her ideas enough.  Overall, her piece was well written and definitely invoked emotion, but was very extreme.

Sedaris

Solution to Saturday's Puzzle by David Sedaris is probably my favorite humorous piece that I have read. I was so excited when I saw that this was our next assignment, because I probably know this piece by heart I have heard it so many times from my Mom and brother! My mom owns this book but unfortunately I have not read it yet, although I have been planning to. The humor in this piece definitely comes from Sedaris' sarcasm.  He uses the crossword puzzle for humor by writing what he would like to say to her, but can't.  My personal favorite example is when he describes how, before the trip, he truly hoped that there would be grocery store close to where they were staying so their vacation would turn out great. And mine and my mother's favorite part to quote, "Why don't you go get your toenails done, buy yourself a nice pair of cut offs..." Also, a cough drop falling from your mouth onto the crotch of a stranger on a plane where you can't get away. Sedaris only adds to the humor of the  story with his witty crossword answers and commentary. 

My joke:

Hi my name's Cliff.

Drop over sometime.

The Klansman Who Won't Say the N-Word Review

Ronson's main objective in this chapter from The Klansman Who Won't Say the N-Word is to bring to light the fact that not all people involved in the Klu Klux Klan are how they are represented in Hollywood.  He illustrates how genuinely friendly, nonaggressive, and easy-going the leader of the KKK is. Ronson does not base his information on opinions, considering he is Jewish, but only writes about the facts that he observed when he spent time with the Klan.  Although there is still some use of words such as "Jew" and "nigger," the Klan is very different compared to the way they are represented in Hollywood.  Ronson wants the readers to realize that there can be false representations of a group of people in the media.
I found this chapter incredibly interesting.  The fact that they did not know that Ronson was Jewish also made it incredibly humorous! It was interesting because Ronson gave the reader almost no bad impressions of the KKK. I enjoyed this text very much because I have never learned anything about the KKK besides what I have seen in the movies, which is always very hostile and scary. This piece definitely changed my view of the members of the Klu Klux Klan.  I now understand that they are normal humans who can fit into society, and not crazy, violent, and hateful people who only live with their Klan members, and I think that this was Ronson's main point.

BITCH

One of Beverly Gross' main point in her piece, Bitch, is that this label on women is a way of keeping women "in their place."  The label solidifies the idea that men are dominant and women are submissive.  She states definitions of the word from many different dictionaries and in almost all of the definitions, it is referring to a female who is bossy, selfish, or cruel.  She says that men feel threatened by women who are successful and that they use it to keep their power over women.  The label is a demeaning term that is incredibly offensive to women in any circumstances.
I believe that this piece is very outdated.  Today, many women embrace being a bitch and even call themselves one, proudly.  Being a bitch to a woman means that they are successful and powerful and don't let anything stand in their way. As in, "Hell yeah! I'm one powerful bitch!"  Personally, I do not think that the term is used by men to show that they are more powerful.  I hear men being called bitches or referred to as bitchy just as often as i hear it about women.  I think that because women use it proudly, it has turned the word around completely and the word has lost it's hurtful meaning, which Gross does refer to with the example of Madonna at the end of her piece.  It is definitely still used in a negative way, but it is used in a positive or humorous way much more often in my generation and age group.  But, in reviewing this article as a piece of writing, I thought it was very effective to use all of the definitions throughout the piece to truly get her point across. Her piece would have been more convincing if I were from an older generation I believe.

First Post

Hiiii!