Final Blog Already

Wow this semester flew by and I really enjoyed this class.  It has been a few years since I had a class where I could express my thoughts and opinions in a class discussion.  I have learned a lot in this class, but probably one of the most important things is taking what we have for granted.  What I mean by that is how we take life for granted and spend time doing activities that seem worthless. 

We focused on a lot of literature that is futuristic examples of how our society may turn out to be someday.  I feel shameful at the thought that if technology keeps improving we will become even more lazy and socially inactive.  I can only hope that the events that occured in some of the literature we read does not become a reality.  The day when we become only reliant on our feeds (computers), burn books, or lose our rights like in 1984.


I truly believe that all great civilizations or countries/empires come to an end at some time and I hope it never happens to the United States, but it won't surprise me if it does.  Basically since we have been reading this literature I have been responding by thinking what if this happens and then I started to think when will this happen.

A lot of people will struggle once all of the resources available now are gone.  Ever since I started critically thinking about our material I have thought about what I will do.  I plan on living in the country with my family and becoming self efficient.  We already are self reliant by having our own garden and providing our own food through hunting and fishing.  I feel I may be prepared for the worse, but others will not be as lucky.

I'm not just giving up on society though.  In fact I plan on trying to give back to society and educate by becoming a secondary teacher.  After this class I have the desire to do that even more now and to maybe bring up some of the topics we have discussed in our class.  After all the students I will be teaching are the future of our society.
 

In conclusion I feel that we talked about a lot of topics that we live our lives by today.  Technology and the media are such a big part of our lives that its disappointing to see us become lazy and unsocial at times.  Or if we do socialize it is only through techonology.  What ever happened to enjoying nature and other activities outside with family or friends.  All I can say is I hope others in our class thought about some of our topics and maybe want to change something that may be lazy or taken for granted.  We can change so that and we can be a successful society for a long time, but i'm afraid if we keep going down this path that it could lead to many of the topics we have discussed.
   OR

who needs books...

      I feel that books are very important to society, but they are not very important to me personally.  I'm not a person who likes to read books in their free time like others may enjoy.  I'm more of a excercise or go outside kindof person rather than sit down an open a book.  So if the world wouldn't have books I wouldn't be heart broken, but i'm not dumb enough to think that they aren't important.  Books provide us with knowledge and are very important to our lives.  I may think it wouldn't affect me because I don't read, but how would we teach our students.  Not having books would definately affect our society in a negative way and our intelligence would suffer because of it.
     Even though I do not read books I think I would rebel if I wasn't allowed to read them.  It's like not being allowed to drink until your 21, so you try to break the rules, but once your 21 it gets old and takes some of the fun out of it.  So if I wasn't allowed to read I would probably try rebel and read anyhow, but if that rule was changed then it would probably become overrated and I would read less and less.
     I think we burn books today by creating movies based on books that don't even show the whole truth to the book.  We only display the good entertaining parts of the book, but don't include all of the details and I think that this takes away from a book.  We just don't want to add all of the details because the movie would be so long and we get bored easily.  I mean it's not like we have something else to do we will probably just be lazy and watch something else.
     Why are books so dangerous.  Probably because they may take time away from our other entertainment such as TV, sports, friends, and other activities.  I know for me personally I simply choose not to read because I like doing other activities, but every once in a great while I find some free time to read some and actually enjoy it, but that is very very seldom. 

Blog # 8

         After reading The Hunger Games I thought it was one of the best and suspenseful books that I have ever read.  I really like the survival aspect of the book.  I feel that if there was ever a time that we had to live without neglected things such as grocery stores, shelter, cars, and ovens that most people wouldn't be able to make it.  I think the knowledge I have gained growing up will help me survive though and if I had to I could live for a very long time and be self efficient. 
          This novel compared to the other novels we have read is the control by the capitol.  The districts are strictly controlled due to the past war.  The book was really interesting and suspenseful.  I think the most interesting part of the book was probably the action parts such as the fire and fighting the other tributes.  I found myself visualizing the scenes.
          I found this online it's like a quiz that you can take to see if you would be able to survive The Hunger Games.  http://www.thehungergames.co.uk/game
          I watched a movie called The Condemned before and it is basically just like our book.  The only difference is instead of having a reaping or lottery to pick the contestants they just picked the toughest and most deadly people on death row.  In the movie the action is watched online by the audience as the contestants kill each other.  The last contestant standing at the end is declared the winner and is given their life instead of being put to death.  http://www.traileraddict.com/trailer/the-condemned/trailer
         I was actually doing this blog at home and my brother saw me watching the trailer for The Condemned.  He immeadiately said that it was a good movie and I agreed with him.  I asked him why he liked it and he said because it has action from fist fights to guns and it is very suspenseful.  Just thought I would put his opinion in here since he has no idea what we have been talking about in class.  I don't know why we like violence so much but it's really disturbing that we like to watch people kill each other on TV in our free time.  If something like The Condemned was ever put online in real life I am almost positive there would be millions who watch it and like it.....  

Blog #7

So I decided to watch the Biggest Loser for this week's blog.  The Biggest Loser to me is a show that shows real people with some real bad weight problems, who are trying to turn their life around for reasons such as health, family, love, and other personnal reasons.  It is a shame that some people let their weight get out of control, but this show seems to be a motivator for not only the contestants on the show, but also other overweight Americans.  This show is a competition among the contestants to see who can lose the most weight during the season of the show.  I never really watched the show until this year because one of the contestants is a role model of mine.  It is hard to believe, but Rulon Gardner is a contestant on the Biggest Loser and he is a former Olympic Wrestling Champion!  Rulon is a person who was on the top of the world a few years ago when he won the Olympics and now he is an emotional mess on a reality show. 

http://cdn.babble.com/famecrawler/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Rulon_Gardner.jpg
http://cdn.wg.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/biggest-loser-rulon-gardner.jpg

I enjoy watching the show because I am a wrestler and I admire what Rulon did in the past as well as what he is doing now to save his relationship with his wife by losing weight.  That is the only reason I am watching the show.  Like all realtiy shows the Biggest Loser uses a suspensful attractant and cliffhangers to keep their viewers turning in the next week.  I'm not really a big TV guy, but I may tune in for the season finale to see if Rulon adds a championship from the Biggest Loser to his reseme.  If I was him I would feel ashamed of myself, but proud all at the same time.  I know this isn't where he wanted to be, but he is doing the right thing by getting back into shape.  That goes for all the contestants too! 

http://www.nbc.com/the-biggest-loser/contestants/rulon/
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?sid=13826433
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NdEg9hKmIs&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trkMdEcnEms&feature=related

The only reason people watch this show is to motivate themselves or to feel better about how they look.  It's a shame that we have a competition to lose weight when we should just lose it on our own instead of trying to be a celebrity and be on TV or any of those reasons.  I know a lot of people who watch this show and it is kindof a disgusting show to watch overweight people work out and take their shirts off to weigh in.  It just goes to show how attracted we are to TV, not only for the violence and sexual shows, but also emotional and life altering shows such as the Biggest Loser. 

By watching this show I felt disguested, but also interested at the same time.  I would say mainly because of Rulon being on it, but isn't this what reality shows want?  I'm sure the producers just didn't say oh Rulon Gardner wants to lose weight sure I guess we can help him out.  Noway it is like an advertising plan because they could reach the audience of athletes and wrestlers.  Having Rulon on the show just gives them more viewers and a guarantee to have the show again next year.  It's a shame, but myself and others are just fueling the fire!  I think this is as real as a reality show can get because the contestants aren't getting paid to be followed around and the emotions of this show are on a whole other level, but these contestants may get benefits after the show or if they win so it is not only do they want to lose weight, but i'm sure their thinking of their future money oppurtunites too! 

Overall I feel that TV is a huge part of our lives and is making us lazy and overweight because we watch too much of it.  Isn't it ironic that there are lazy people out there watching the overweight contestants on the Biggest Loser fight obstacles to lose weight and better their lives because they didn't excercise enough and because they were lazy and watched TV?  Like the contestants on the Biggest Loser we need to change and better ourselves, but we will just keep watching shows like the Jershey Shore and Survivor because they have sex and violence in them and we are attracted to it.  What ever happened to spending time with our families and friends?  I am all for watching TV or playing video games every once in a while, but do we have to all the time. 

Here is an amazing quote from the website linked below.

"According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than 4 hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In a 65-year life, that person will have spent 9 years glued to the tube." http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html  

 

Is the TV really that important instead of working out and staying healthy or going out and enjoying life?

Blog #6

          Today we are constantly being watched on cameras.  About every building you walk into that sells some sort of product has a camera.  Even some private houses have video cameras set up incase of a crime  may occur.  I believe that the reason we have cameras is to identify individuals who commit crimes.  In 1984 the reason they have cameras is the same thing, to keep people from going against the party.  They need to control the population in Oceania because the party is represented by the smallest amount of people.  I don't feel like the cameras set up today in society are for control as it is in 1984.  I feel it's just for safety and protection against criminals.  I don't mind cameras being set up in stores or in parking lots, but I do mind cameras being put in bathrooms.  A bathroom is a private place not a public place in my opinion.  If you are worried about crimes being committed you can put the camera outside the bathroom and see the suspect coming and going.  The only thing is with that you may not catch the crime on tape, but I would rather have privacy in the bathroom.  I couldn't live in Oceania and have to fear for my life everytime I do something against the Party.  Our society isn't that controling with our security cameras, but if it ever becomes like Oceania I will most likely be changing my opinion.  As of now I think these cameras as a good thing in our society and help accuse people committing crimes on tape.

My Feed Advertisements

          I would have sports advertisements mainly on my feed.  Basically because sports is pretty much what I do and the feed seems to figure out what their users like and what interests they have. I will describe the four advertisements and then put some links where those advertisements can be found.
         The first advertisement that would be on my feed is the advertisement of hunting equipment.  Basically like a Gander Mountain advertisement for camoflauge, guns, ammo, or bows.  I love to hunt and it is my passion.  The feed would definately figure this out by me surfing for hunting videos and looking for good deals to buy hunting equipment. http://www.gandermountain.com/
         The second advertisement that would be on my feed would be a wrestling equipment advertisement.  Next to hunting wrestling is my next favorite hobby and I have wrestled for sixteen years of my life.  I am constantly buying wrestling shoes because I ware them out so fast and get about two new pairs a year.  I probably wrestle atleast 180 days a year.  I would say that I am on the mat practicing or wrestling in an actual match about 500 hours a year.  500 x 16= 8000 hours of my life has been on the mat. Wow I never thought of it before now. Wrestling shoes, kneepads, and headgear would definately be advertised on my feed.  http://www.eastbay.com/catalog/advancedSearch.cfm?SID=8035&inceptor=1&keyword=asics+wrestling+shoes&cm_mmc=SEM-_-Engine-_-Google-_-asics+wrestling+shoes 
          My next advertisement would be for bowfishing equipment.  I do a lot of bowfishing during the summer and I'm constantly breaking or losing my arrows and I need to replace them. The arrows are actually expensive and I wouldn't mind the feed letting me know when good sales are happening. http://www.bowhunterssuperstore.com/bow-fishing-c-31.html?osCsid=15bac911bff38414ecb4ce8471d19f15  
          My final and last advertisement would be an advertisement for new items at restaurants.  Wrestling 180 days out of the year i'm constantly losing weight, so I love food more than your average person.  I also like taking my girlfriend out to eat and it would be nice to know where there are new items on the menu to try or where a good quality cheap meal is at because i'm by no means rich.  I think a good feed would be like an Applebees advertisement because they are always have new item commercials on TV and have the 2 meals for $20 deal.  http://www.applebees.com/ 
         The four of these advertisements would definately be on my feed.  The feed seemed to link your personality, past purchases/interests, and hobbies to what they should advertise you.  I don't think the feed would have any problem figuring out what good advertisements for me would be.  Apparently Gander Mountain, Asics, East Bay, and Cabela's know what I like and keep track of my purchases from their stores because i'm always getting magazines and other advertisements in the mail from them.  It's funny how advertisements are such a huge part of our life that we don't even notice them.  Everyday when we get dressed we are like walking billboards showing off American Eagle, Columbia, and Nike brand materials.  It's a shame that we are so easy to market to by getting the celebrities to wear something and having millions wanting that same look.

Live Free or Die Hard

For this blog I decided to talk about living freely or naturally without any technology.  First of all I am more than capable of doing this because I grew up on a farm and understand what I have to do to provide for myself.  As for not having any technology the biggest thing would be not having my cell phone to talk to my girlfriend, but heck she is dating a redneck like me so I can bring her along to the little olde cabin I plan on staying in.  Technology has never really been my life so I really wouldn't have a problem leaving it behind.  People may not understand that even ovens, showers, and toilets use electricity and are considered technology.  That's right I would have to resort to buckets filled with water and showering outside most likely and cooking on a wood stove.  I really wouldn't mind living without technology because we are too attached and need to experience the outdoors and natural beauty that surrounds us.  As for food there is no problem there.  I have been hunting all my life and am capable of supplying plenty of vension and fish.  Gathering also is key to living in the outdoors and knowing what type of berries make you sick and which do not is great knowledge to have.  It may be hard for people to leave technology behind but it really isn't that hard to live on your own and provide for yourself.  Food, water and shelter is all you need and you would do just fine, learning as you go.  Trust me if you had to figure a way to live you would learn fast.  I have joked around to my conservative grandfather, that if I ever won the lottery I would buy a mountainous lot build a house and then mine the road so I'm secluded from everyone and do not have any drama in my life.  I'm a conservative guy and don't like drama or politics and let's face it life today is all about both.  Whether you are looking at the economy or the styles that people dress or act like I believe it all comes back to drama and politics.  So I'm just gonna seclude myself from all of it and live free rather than die hard and unhappy worrying about the decision between purchasing a PS3 or Xbox to play during all my free time off the computer and cell phone.