A day in 1980

Beep, Beep, Beep! My alarm wakes me up and I glance at the clock. 7:30am, time to get ready for class. Today is Thursday and I have composition and math class and then it will finally be the weekend. I can't wait, even though my friends want to go see the new Star Wars movie that just came out, which I really could care less about. Maybe I can find a way to get out of seeing it... I put on some leggings and a large over sized sweatshirt, look in the mirror, decide that I am presentable enough, and leave the room to go get breakfast. I start walking uphill to class hoping I will get there a little early so I can get things ready. I finally get to class sit at my normal spot and wait for class to begin, since I am ten minutes early. I watch as the other people in my class trickle in slowly, most dressed in the same fashion I am and the teacher walks in. Class goes on as it normally does, with the teacher writing on the blackboard and us copying down our notes. This is one of the reasons why I sit in the front of the class, since it's harder to see what is written on these blackboards from the back. There has to be another alternative to chalk for these boards or at least something that doesn't make that grating noise when it skips.
Right before the end of class, the teacher reminds us of a paper we have due on Monday. Right, I have to start writing that this weekend, I totally forgot. I should do it tomorrow and use one of those typewriters at the library. I'll have to plan it out that I get one of the better typewriters, not the one that always jams on you or the one missing the "e". By the time class is over it's almost lunchtime and I walk over to the student union. I see my roommate and we have lunch together. She tells me we have to find a radio so I can listen to some new song by Blondie and that I will absolutely love it. I tell her I'll have to listen to it later since I have my math class soon and I walk to class. The class starts and before I know it, it's over and my weekend has officially begun and it's not even 2pm. What to do?
I walk back to the dorms and check my mailbox, and see that my dad has sent me a letter. I like getting mail, I wonder if things will be different in the future like if people will stop sending letters through the mail, which would be weird. I walk up to my room and quickly get the phone that is ringing. It's my friend and she asks if I want to hang out by the student union, I agree and start walking over there. I wish there was a better way to communicate with people than these phones attached to the wall. It would have been much easier if I had a phone on me, that way I wouldn't have to walk back to the student union, I could have just stayed there and waited for her there. Anyway, I find my friend on one of the benches and we start talking.
One of the people on campus comes over and hands us some pamphlets and tells us about some issue that we don't really care about, but we can't just walk away so we stand there and try to look interested. I wonder if years from now, if colleges are still going to have people like that around. I hope not since they can be annoying. We walk around for a bit and some of our friends join us and before we know it its dinner time so we decide to go out to eat. So we all pile into my friends car, and blast the music. I finally hear that song my roommate wanted me to listen to earlier and she was right, I do like it. We eat dinner and drive back to campus just in time for "Mork and Mindy" on television. When that's over my friends leave and I decide to look over the essay I am supposed to write about, and try to come up with some ideas for an outline. It's supposed to be an essay on what life will be like thirty years from now, hmmm, I guess I can think of something to write about.

The Internet: A Clear and Present Danger?

Throughout the entire article it is discussed that the Internet can effect your life whenever it is in use. No matter what you are doing online, whether it be paying bills or just talking with friends on facebook the Internet in the long run can ruin your life. In the beginning of the article Cleaver starts it using examples of how the Internet can effect you. I think that people should be able to uses the resource of the Internet without being worried someone can tap into our information. Parents today have many things to worry about regarding their children and shouldn't have to worry about their children being exposed to child predators while playing on the Internet. The legislation today needs to make all of these activities illegal and put an end to them. Today the Internet like Cleaver stated is used primarily by children and is not good considering many child predators are able to find a lot of information about them by lying about who they actually are. The way Cleaver started her essay really caught my attention and made me think about how all those things relate to me and people I know. The examples she used can happen to anyone and is something that needs to be fixed.

Blog 5: Precious

The Precious movie trailer consists of various clips showing a young, pregnant girl living in an abusive home. Precious is a heart touching documentary about a pregnant teen who lives in Harlem who has gone through many drastic and horrible obstacles such as being raped twice by her own father. Throughout the movie trailer many clips are shown, showing the different actors and actresses. At the end of the trailer simple sentences about life being simple, rich and precious are shown. These three sentences tie in the entire movie and the life story of Precious. In the trailer scenes of the abuse Precious goes through and the happiness she is able to find is seen. The background music in the trailer goes from sounding like there is danger and sad and becomes happy and joyful. The music goes perfectly with the movie because in the end there is a very happy ending. From this trailer, I would highly recommend this movie because it looks like it will be an inspiring and uplifting movie.

Blog 4: Up in the Air

Up in the Air is a transporting comedy that takes the viewer through a turbulent romance, the tops and turns of a cratering economy and takes George Clooney, playing Ryan Bingham, on the ride of his life. Ryan's job is to fire people from their jobs which causes him to travel back and forth all the time. He has a very sterile apartment in Omaha, Nebraska but is very rarely home because of his high traveling job. When firing people from their jobs Clooney explains to them that this is just an opportunity for them to grow and make the best out of their lives. The movie is very flight forward, flying you from city to city watching Ryan Bingham fire many people. Natalie(Anna Kendrick) comes into the film about halfway through where she dismisses Ryan calling his style of firing people old and not modern.
The movie was very good and created a very flightful feeling. The appearance of actual workers being laid-off made the idea of recession more personal. The twist at the end was executed very well and left you thinking and talking about the movie after.

Less Privacy is Good for Us (and You)

The article by Amitai Etzoni discusses how the government is the "big brother" in today's society. Etzioni discusses with examples how the privilege Americans have with privacy has changed throughout the years. Today we are faced with obstacles that could ultimately change how much privacy we actually have. The question raised after the article was how does Etzioni's article help readers to see the complexity of privacy issues? Etzioni does a great job in explaining the issue of privacy today. Some of the examples that impacted me include the HIV testing as part of prenatal care, biometrics in the future, and bosses and neighbors listening in or getting into personal information. In my opinion I don't feel the government is listening into all of out phone calls because there can't be someone that does that all the time. I feel that the government only does it, if they actually do, in situations pertaining to the lives of others. The issue of women being tested for HIV and it being an issue of privacy I can't seem to grasp. I feel that a woman should want to know if they have HIV to protect the child they are soon to conceive. They should want their child to have the best of health they can.

Immokalee

Both of the videos on Immokalee were interesting in my opinion. It was neat to see how the community went through its hard times during its development. Immokalee, known as Gopher Town before, was home to the Seminole Indians. After the community had the water drained all of the animals the Seminole Indians lived off of died and the community became better for farming and brought railroads. The railroads in turn brought about many job opportunities and developed Immokalee. Even with more development today, Immakalee is still a farming based community.
I was born and raised in a Neptune Beach, FL which is a small city in Jacksonville, FL. While watching the videos they reminded me somewhat of Neptune Beach. The city right next to Neptune Beach is Jacksonville Beach which lately has grown a lot. Every time I go home there is a new condo being built or a new shopping center. Even though Neptune Beach is right next to Jacksonville Beach the community has come together to not allow for the building of larger condos or shopping centers. I feel like Neptune Beach is wanting to stay as a small community just like Immokalee and will learn to adapt in order to keep it this way.

"A Quilt of a Country: Out of Many, One"

In the article "A Quilt of a Country: Out of Many, One?" by Anna Quindlen the idea that America as a whole is created by many diverse cultures religion's and people is made up. In the article it shows that the United States is made up of numerous amounts of races, religions, and colors and have come together as one. Quindlen writes "nation built of ever changing disparate parts, is held together by a notion, the notion that all men are created equal"(15). Throughout the article it is discussed that only part of the notion "all men are created equal is true. Not all people are created equal in America, and many cultures have their way of things compared to one another. Even though there are many cultures made up in America Quindlen writes that when a disaster happens we all come together as one to help out.
I believe this is a very inspirational and powerful article. I think that mostly everything about it is true. America as whole is made up of many different people and within in each person is many cultures. It is sad to knowing that America as a whole comes together mostly when there is disaster are natural events like hurricanes or earthquakes, but at the same time it is nice knowing that we will come together in times of need. Quindlen's explanation in the article on America being a strong nation because the people come together as one is something I agree with and hope it will stay that way. It is sad knowing that there is still racism an discriminatory thoughts in people in America but maybe someday America will go by its notion "all men are created equal".