I'm sad to think that this class is over, I had a lot of fun doing the blog, and in class. I'm even considering starting my own blog!
If I were to put myself into the "Future Vision" video, a couple things popped that would either hinder or help my life move forward. To start with the bad things first, my original thought was that things like the man knowing the woman's estimated time arrival to the hotel, could make stalking someone ten times easier, and make avoiding a stalker ten times harder. And as for the man pointing his phone/device thing (I know, super descriptive) at the charity ad to donate, I'm sure that there is a way for someone, somewhere, to be able to hack into that system or even create their own similar one that takes your money if your phone/device is so much as pointed towards it, without having the owner "OK" it. Now to help, it would make my life easier because I could more easily share things with my family members, while multitasking, so I could be looking up a recipe while getting say, my dad's, take on it through Skype, or something similar. Another way the technology could help me is like the calendar example, I'd be much more apt to keep my calendar information in one place rather than having to search my phone to find one thing, one at a time.
I think that it definitely would be a more efficient, and productive world, but better? Not so much. The reason I think this is because I could more effective access my documents on my phone/device without needing my laptop, which would be nice in case I forgot to turn in an assignment, because all I would need to do is pull out the device and send it from there. I guess that productivity could go both ways, because I could be more productive and get things done twice as fast, but I'm almost positive that there will be something on that device to distract me from what I'm actually doing. Here's my reasoning behind it not getting any better: it's impersonal. Technology like that could absolutely limit the amount of human interaction I get, and with how little there already is in the outside world, I don't think decreasing that interaction will benefit humanity anymore.
Two implications of such a world for the media and the industries would have to be newspaper, and books. Newspaper because I think that with that technology, the newspaper will be entirely out of print. It will be completely digital, I honestly think that all paper products could be eliminated at that point. Which leads, me to books. Books would be entirely digital as well. I think that there would be little, if any, paper products, in that world with that level of technology.
I definitely enjoyed this class, and I believe that the most important things to keep up with this class would have to be the blog, and keeping up the amount of student discussion we had! Those were my two favorite things and they worked very well. I think something to add would have to be expanding more on video games, because they are a major market, and the first vide we watched was primarily about them. I know I would have found that really interesting. I think that everything worked well with this class, it was well balanced and you don't always get that from a classroom. This was definitely one of my favorite classes.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Friday, March 6, 2015
Blog Forum Post Nine
I was really determined to do this post earlier then Friday, but I was distracted by youtube videos.. Oops. Anyways, I have a coworker who is fairly conservative, and isn't really about listening to music about sex, or a lot of cussing in it, and to be honest I find it hard to find music that doesn't have at least one of those two things. More specifically, I was playing a song after hours at work, a cover of Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend," being sang by a punk band called "Issues"( I think), anyways, it almost turns into a scream, and at the very end it has some added cussing to it, and my coworker just kind of raised his eyebrow at me like " Really Sydney? You listen to this crap?" And in response to that look, yes, yes I do listen to that, I find it like a billion times better than Justin Bieber's version. I've always enjoyed a good cover song, whether its from a band in an entirely different genre or not.
As for genre, I don't really have one, it kind of depends on my mood. When I'm feeling a little more romantic I listen to country, such as Lee Brice, or Blake Shelton, because country is really good about not being about sex. My favorite country song right now is one by Lee Brice called "I Don't Dance" Lately, when I'm driving in my car, I've been listening to some older stuff like "Pink" by Aerosmith, or my ALL-TIME favorite song ever, "Faithfully" by Journey. As for some other artists that I enjoy, because I don't really have favorites, there is Maroon 5, Train, Panic at the Disco, Sam Smith, and All American Rejects. Like I said, my music tastes depend on my mood, and I'm pretty open to listening to just about anything. With the combination of my parents, sisters, and friends, I've been exposed to a wide variety of music.
Campus Radio is an awesome idea, I think that it is completely feasible. It will bring on more of a sense of unity throughout the campus, and if they play the right variety of music I think that it could work out really well. In order to bring in the loyal audience, I think that the first most important thing would have to be audience participation. Allowing audiences to suggest songs, to offer feedback on songs and DJs would bring in a bigger audience because they have more control over the station and the music really is "their music." Another thing that they should do is to allow small businesses to advertise for cheap, as well as the school, because college students love find things that are cheap and fun to do. Plus, the school could use to advertise up and coming events to students who may not always be on campus to see the bulletin boards that are posted. As for funding, I think that up and coming bands/artists could do shows like once a week or so, charge a dollar or two for admissions, and let the school see their talents, it's a good way to fundraise money, as well as get some of those artist the start that they need. They could do fundraising, bottle drives, just about anything that other places that try to fundraise are doing. The possibilities are endless.
Campus Radio is an awesome idea, I think that it is completely feasible. It will bring on more of a sense of unity throughout the campus, and if they play the right variety of music I think that it could work out really well. In order to bring in the loyal audience, I think that the first most important thing would have to be audience participation. Allowing audiences to suggest songs, to offer feedback on songs and DJs would bring in a bigger audience because they have more control over the station and the music really is "their music." Another thing that they should do is to allow small businesses to advertise for cheap, as well as the school, because college students love find things that are cheap and fun to do. Plus, the school could use to advertise up and coming events to students who may not always be on campus to see the bulletin boards that are posted. As for funding, I think that up and coming bands/artists could do shows like once a week or so, charge a dollar or two for admissions, and let the school see their talents, it's a good way to fundraise money, as well as get some of those artist the start that they need. They could do fundraising, bottle drives, just about anything that other places that try to fundraise are doing. The possibilities are endless.
Friday, February 27, 2015
Blog Post Forum Eight
Thirteen Reasons Why- Jay Asher
The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
Twilight(series) - Stephanie Meyer
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
His Dark Materials - Philip Pulman
Harry Potter(series) - J.K. Rowling
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
As you can see I've read a lot of these books, and there are a lot more that I recognized on the lists. I quite frankly think that it's stupid that people are trying to ban literature. It's just ridiculous. I think that no matter how you try to ban things, your kids, or students, or anybody else, will have access to it. There's a thing called the internet, and you can gain access to just about everything. 12 year olds can gain access to porn, for goodness sake! I cannot stress how ridiculous I think this is. Books need to be accessible to all, if not how are we any different from countries who censor the internet or the media for that matter.
I understand not having something like Fifty Shades of Grey in schools, that's understandable. I saw the movie and that was more then enough sex in it. It's totally acceptable to try and keep children from reading that. That is the kind of thing that would be acceptable to keep out of schools. But I think that people focus too much on that kind of thing when there are much more important things like bullying that needs to be focused on. Kids these days have enough access that if you can't get it from one place, then you can easily find it in another place.
As for my bookshelf, A couple that I do have on my bookshelf are Pulman, Collins, and Rowling, but that's just off the top of my head. I'm personally really into action books, but also books based on mythology related things, I read all of the original Percy Jackson series. I also have a couple books related to swimming, and animals, mostly dogs. I definitely am a person who wants to know more, and history has also been an interest of mine, and I have three dogs, which is why they hold a little more value to my than they may others.
From what I can remember most of my books do come from bookstores like Barnes and Nobles, and the one close to downtown, here in Albany. As for e-books. I personally prefer to have actual books in my hand. I like holding it, and I like when I'm reading, to see the slightly yellowed pages, or the dog-ears of a book that I've read of and over. I think that my bookshelf will stay the same, because over the past couple years, it hasn't really changed.
The Hunger Games- Suzanne Collins
Twilight(series) - Stephanie Meyer
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
His Dark Materials - Philip Pulman
Harry Potter(series) - J.K. Rowling
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Harper Lee
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
The Lottery - Shirley Jackson
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
As you can see I've read a lot of these books, and there are a lot more that I recognized on the lists. I quite frankly think that it's stupid that people are trying to ban literature. It's just ridiculous. I think that no matter how you try to ban things, your kids, or students, or anybody else, will have access to it. There's a thing called the internet, and you can gain access to just about everything. 12 year olds can gain access to porn, for goodness sake! I cannot stress how ridiculous I think this is. Books need to be accessible to all, if not how are we any different from countries who censor the internet or the media for that matter.
I understand not having something like Fifty Shades of Grey in schools, that's understandable. I saw the movie and that was more then enough sex in it. It's totally acceptable to try and keep children from reading that. That is the kind of thing that would be acceptable to keep out of schools. But I think that people focus too much on that kind of thing when there are much more important things like bullying that needs to be focused on. Kids these days have enough access that if you can't get it from one place, then you can easily find it in another place.
As for my bookshelf, A couple that I do have on my bookshelf are Pulman, Collins, and Rowling, but that's just off the top of my head. I'm personally really into action books, but also books based on mythology related things, I read all of the original Percy Jackson series. I also have a couple books related to swimming, and animals, mostly dogs. I definitely am a person who wants to know more, and history has also been an interest of mine, and I have three dogs, which is why they hold a little more value to my than they may others.
From what I can remember most of my books do come from bookstores like Barnes and Nobles, and the one close to downtown, here in Albany. As for e-books. I personally prefer to have actual books in my hand. I like holding it, and I like when I'm reading, to see the slightly yellowed pages, or the dog-ears of a book that I've read of and over. I think that my bookshelf will stay the same, because over the past couple years, it hasn't really changed.
Saturday, February 21, 2015
Liam Neeson's Been Taken Again
Taken 3 is the third installment of the Taken franchise, and hopefully the last, because I don't know how many more people need to take Bryan Mills' skills for granted until the world realizes that you shouldn't mess with him, or his family, because he will find you, and he will kill you. This movie is an action/thriller that takes place in Los Angeles. Liam Neeson is an Irish born actor, born William Neeson, in 1952. His first high profile film was Excalibur directed by John Boorman. Some other popular works he's been are Star War's Episode I as Qui-Gon Jinn, Ducard in Batman Begins, and the voice of Aslan in the Chronicle's of Narnia. He's starred in many more movies such as The Grey, Taken, and Clash of the Titans. According to Liam Neeson's IMBD page, his most embarrassing acting moment was when he auditioned for Fezzik, the giant from Princess Bride, and Rob Reiner was disgusted when he found out that Neeson was ONLY 6'4". Liam Neeson, as Bryan Mills, is no longer the predator in a foreign country, but now the prey in his familiar home of Los Angeles, looking to clear his name of murder and find the true killer. According to IMBD, Taken 3 received a rating of 6.1/10 by the viewers 48,000,000 budgetpening weekend 39,201,657, and the gross was 85,549,462 in the US, with 267,549,462 worldwide as of February 11th, 2015.
As the title gives away, Taken 3, is similar to the first two Taken movies, involving Bryan Mills, his ex-wife, and his daughter, being harassed in some way by foreign terrorists, and the American government. The one major difference is that in the third movie Mills being chased, rather than doing the chasing. In Neeson's other works, he often places a mentor role to a younger male character, or multiple younger characters, such as in Batman Begins and The Chronicles of Narnia. Taken 3, when thinking of other movies, reminds me of two other movies, Three Days to Kill, and The Family. Three Days to Kill is about a sick agent trying to take down a big terrorist, while trying to reconnect with the love of his life and his daughter, as well as receive trial treatments in exchange for taking down the terrorist. However, his love, and daughter don't approve of what he is doing. Similar to Mills' attempting to protect his family from his past. The second movie, The Family, is about an ex-mob family that is
Interpretation
I don't really know what the importance of this movie would be, other than the fact that it can be a movie that is less controversial. It's a lot more friendly than Fifty Shades of Grey, and has much less conflict than American Sniper. I've noticed recently that there has been a lot of sequels coming out lately, like Pitch Perfect 2, coming out soon, and a second Magic Mike coming out soon as well (Heck Yeah!). So the fact that they made a third Taken movie, it doesn't really surprise me. Although, I would have been shocked if it was Mills' daughter who was kidnapped again, because that girl obviously is doing something wrong, getting kidnapped and targeted all the time. The terrorists are probably not the smart to keep messing with him, because lets face it, Bryan Mills is a badass, and Liam Neeson just adds to the badass-ary. Since there is a lot of violence and things along those lines, I'm going to agree with the pg-13 rating on it. However, I think that it is geared more towards the older ages, like 20's and up, because it is very action packed. One of the stereotypes that shows up in this that the antagonists are foreign, with bad accents, and big guns. Really bad accents, and even bigger guns.
One of the things that I really like about these movies, is that when he survives something, it can be explained, so you aren't left wondering how he survived a car crash and explosion. I honestly didn't really see any weaknesses because I personally really liked the movie. Despite being skeptical about the fact that there is a third Taken movie, and wondering how great of a father Bryan Mills can be if he is some how dragged through another kidnapping case, but this third movie threw a curve to the viewers and I think that it worked out well. Bryan Mills is no less bad-ass than in the other two movies. I believe that the movie was just as good as the other two Taken films, although I don't remember the second Taken movie entirely. From what I remember of the first one, I really liked the movie. I think that they did a good job making it interesting while keeping up the same general idea of the, of the ex-agent trying to save his family. There are a couple reasons as to why this will be memorable for me. Liam Neeson is an awesome actor and his voice is up there with Morgan Freeman's in my book. I think that they did a good job, of switching around the story line so that, it was still interesting, as I stated before.
I do have a couple of the Chronicles of Narnia movies with him in it, but other that, I don't believe I have any of the others. On the other hand, I have seen The Grey, Batman Returns, and Clash of the Titans, and I enjoyed all of them. I've watched enough Liam Neeson, to assume that when he comes out with another movie, I'm probably going to enjoy it. I know for a fact my friend enjoyed it. Looking into the Rotten Tomatoes review on Taken 3, the movie only got a 3.4/10. I also found another website, themoviereport.com that is saying that it's time for Bryan Mills to slip into retirement.
When looking into this, I definitely realized that I'm not the best at reviewing movies, because, obviously they disagree with my opinion. I also think that I enjoyed doing this over the ad review.
Friday, February 13, 2015
Blog Forum Post Six
I wrote on a newspaper in high school, and one of the stories I had was the fact that it seemed as though West Albany High School seemed to receive more, and better, publicity than South Albany High School did. Now, having attended South, I did have a semi-biased opinion on this subject. When I interviewed, I asked people both from South and West the same question, and from what I can remember, they agreed West got more publicity from the Democrat Herald then South did. To further on with that investigation I asked the sports editor of the time, and I don't believe he agreed with that statement. So, getting to the question as to why I would read a newspaper, I would read them if there was fair coverage off all sides of a story. Not just one sided, when it comes to like rival high school sports. That was the biggest thing I had against the DH. I know that I would most definitely read the newspaper if it looked like the one in the TED talk video.
Another reason I would read the newspaper is that if it was more contextually, and visibly pleasing to me. The newspaper is designed as just that, a newspaper. It looks boring, and there is nothing that really draws my attention other than the occasional catchy headline. I do believe that newspapers are very oriented towards the older generation, and it would be nice if it had things like cheap or free weekly or even monthly events catered to people ages 16-25, or right around that age group. That would make it easier for people like me to find, fun, inexpensive things to do around Albany, especially in the summer. I spend a lot of time on the internet looking for things to do in Albany, because I've done a lot of the things in Albany that I already knew about, so I'm constantly looking for things to do. If the Democrat Herald had a section for weekly things to do in Albany, or like a calendar set aside with up-coming dates, or even had ads for smaller businesses such as the Pix Theatre or the restaurant Loafers, I know that I would pay much more attention to the newspaper.
Like I said early, I think that newspapers need to change their demographic. Often times newspapers are catering towards people who want strictly the stories, but I believe that if newspapers had more things that were catered to all ages, then they would be better suited to survive. As my group and I had discussed, there are several things that the paper could do to address these things. IF the newspaper were to try to cater towards parents or families, they could do a family page that has reader sent in recipes, fun craft ideas, or even like a connect the dot for the kids to color while their parents read. This would bring in more family type viewers, because it could help the families find activities for everyone, in the family, plus ideas that they could do together.
A second idea is to have a classified section that is similar to craigslist, where they only have a cheap rate to place ads for jobs and real estate. They should have an ad site that is aimed towards the young adult demographics, such as textbooks for sale, or tutoring services, or even places like somebody looking for someone else to take over their lease. I think that both of theses are important ideas because they would widen the demographic of the newspapers, to apply to more people. Because the more people there are, the more readers they will have.
The blog project that caught my attention was the one done by Slade, because it was about the movie "American Sniper," on that had a lot of controversy surrounding it, and how a few famous figures are dissing on this story based of a true American hero. When it comes to the "American Sniper" movie, although I'm not a veteran nor am I heading down that career path, I believe that people who are saying things like Chris Kyle being a coward because snipers shoot down men behind their backs is nonsense, because I believe that unless you have walked in his shows or experienced something similar to what he did, then you should never be saying something like that about a veteran. They are there to protect us, and his job was to protect his band of brothers, and the rest of America's citizens as well.
I personally have never been involved in anything military, army or anything along those lines, but I find that those careers are often associated with things like post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. I am a firm believer that if you haven't walked into somebody's shoes, especially with something like that, then you have absolutely no right to belittle their situation. Seth Rogan said something long the lines of the "American Sniper" being something that could be the third part of Inglorious Bastards. Which is disrespectful in the fact that Inglorious Bastards is making fun of World War II, emphasis on the fact that Inglorious Bastard MAKING FUN of a war. Another person who criticized the movie, Michael Moore, is feeling the repercussions for their comments, even to the point of being banned from Brann's Steakhouse and Grille.
Another reason I would read the newspaper is that if it was more contextually, and visibly pleasing to me. The newspaper is designed as just that, a newspaper. It looks boring, and there is nothing that really draws my attention other than the occasional catchy headline. I do believe that newspapers are very oriented towards the older generation, and it would be nice if it had things like cheap or free weekly or even monthly events catered to people ages 16-25, or right around that age group. That would make it easier for people like me to find, fun, inexpensive things to do around Albany, especially in the summer. I spend a lot of time on the internet looking for things to do in Albany, because I've done a lot of the things in Albany that I already knew about, so I'm constantly looking for things to do. If the Democrat Herald had a section for weekly things to do in Albany, or like a calendar set aside with up-coming dates, or even had ads for smaller businesses such as the Pix Theatre or the restaurant Loafers, I know that I would pay much more attention to the newspaper.
Like I said early, I think that newspapers need to change their demographic. Often times newspapers are catering towards people who want strictly the stories, but I believe that if newspapers had more things that were catered to all ages, then they would be better suited to survive. As my group and I had discussed, there are several things that the paper could do to address these things. IF the newspaper were to try to cater towards parents or families, they could do a family page that has reader sent in recipes, fun craft ideas, or even like a connect the dot for the kids to color while their parents read. This would bring in more family type viewers, because it could help the families find activities for everyone, in the family, plus ideas that they could do together.
A second idea is to have a classified section that is similar to craigslist, where they only have a cheap rate to place ads for jobs and real estate. They should have an ad site that is aimed towards the young adult demographics, such as textbooks for sale, or tutoring services, or even places like somebody looking for someone else to take over their lease. I think that both of theses are important ideas because they would widen the demographic of the newspapers, to apply to more people. Because the more people there are, the more readers they will have.
The blog project that caught my attention was the one done by Slade, because it was about the movie "American Sniper," on that had a lot of controversy surrounding it, and how a few famous figures are dissing on this story based of a true American hero. When it comes to the "American Sniper" movie, although I'm not a veteran nor am I heading down that career path, I believe that people who are saying things like Chris Kyle being a coward because snipers shoot down men behind their backs is nonsense, because I believe that unless you have walked in his shows or experienced something similar to what he did, then you should never be saying something like that about a veteran. They are there to protect us, and his job was to protect his band of brothers, and the rest of America's citizens as well.
I personally have never been involved in anything military, army or anything along those lines, but I find that those careers are often associated with things like post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. I am a firm believer that if you haven't walked into somebody's shoes, especially with something like that, then you have absolutely no right to belittle their situation. Seth Rogan said something long the lines of the "American Sniper" being something that could be the third part of Inglorious Bastards. Which is disrespectful in the fact that Inglorious Bastards is making fun of World War II, emphasis on the fact that Inglorious Bastard MAKING FUN of a war. Another person who criticized the movie, Michael Moore, is feeling the repercussions for their comments, even to the point of being banned from Brann's Steakhouse and Grille.
Friday, February 6, 2015
Blog Forum Post Five
After watching the WikiLeaks video, I think that WikiLeaks/Snowden are doing the right thing. As the people, we have a right to know what things like our taxes and our votes go to. I want to know why exactly we have troops where we do. And I want to know what our country is trying to do to prevent wars, rather than egg them on by only adding to the chaos. Think of it this way, somebody has some dirt on you, and they taunt what it might be in your face, but they never tell you. It's childish. We are supposed to be the land of the free, shouldn't that mean free everything? We should have the freedom to be able to know what our voted government officials are up to. Too often today, it seems like we are being more and more suppressed. I was watching a TV show called "The 100," and in the first couple episodes, it was the perfect example of this. Their spaceship home was running out of oxygen, and the man in charge didn't want the people to know, even though their death was set for a month or two away, unless close to 300 of them were killed off in an "accident." We're heading for the exact same thing. How much will be hidden from us? The things they hide, are things that could be the death of us. Everyone has heard of conspiracy theories, right? What if those things are all true, and the people that know the truth are kept hidden from the world. I saw a post on "iFunny" the other day and it through me off my mindset for a minute. It said "Time doesn't exist, Clocks exist." Think about it, it's just another way of controlling us, while making us to think that we're "free."
As for when it comes to the freedom of expression and creativity? People are way to damn concerned with money. I'm included in that. How often are we worried about the price of things? There is a reason people are suffering, because they are arrested for stupid things like copyright infringement. What happens when somebody decides that they want to copyright or patent oxygen? What are we to do then? I think that there are more important things for the country to be worrying about, like how we can prevent things like violence, or putting more funding towards the proper diagnosis and care of patients with mental disabilities. As humans, we are naturally creative. When we finger painted we were mixing colors together to make new ones, is that bad? Are big businesses are really that concerned with their profits? I'm sure they make enough money without having to sue people. I think that if you're going to sue normal, everyday people for downloading your songs, rather than paying for them, then you don't deserve my money. Simple as that. I remember when LimeWire was being shut down due to lawsuits, or whatever it was, and I was so worried that somebody was going to show up at my door and take me away as soon as I hit "download." I was a kid. And as kids, most of the time, we don't know any better. I shouldn't have to worry about that, when there are much worst things in the world. Next rant.
I enjoy writing. I enjoy the fact that I can say pretty much whatever I wanted in this blog, and I enjoy the fact that you, the readers, can respond back with what you think. I think that the first amendment is the idea that I can have my opinions, and I can choose to show them to the world, and I have the right to my opinion. And if you don't like it, then you don't have to read it, listen to it, or however, because you have the right to your own opinion. When I get upset, I often just feel like writing something down, often times I don't, but that is how I express myself when I can. Writing is how I enjoy to express myself. When I was little I used to write stories about the most random things, I have one about going fishing with my grandpa and catching a really big fish. I also used to write in a school newspaper, and one time I got to write an column piece, and it was about having a bad day, (I'm going to quote myself now) " Little things help. Find that one thing that makes you smile your silly little grin, and go with it. Take a chance. You don't know what the reaction is unless you try the whole experiment." I honestly should listen to my own advice, but that's not the point. I used that one chance at a column, and I took it, and not to sound cocky, but I think that I did a damn good job.
One of the things I've been hearing a lot about is gay rights. And yes, I'm a firm believer that love is love no matter who it is shared with. It goes back to control, as I was talking about earlier. If you ask, then I will gladly tell you that I support it, and I will tell you that I support it because all love is equal, think what you want about my opinion, but respect it, and I will respect yours. I honestly think that it goes for any kind of topic, you can share it up to the point of shoving it down other people's throats. At that point it has gone too damn far. If you don't like what I'm writing, you don't have to read it simple as that. Now, I'm not super open about religion, and that's my choice, but once somebody continues to use that against my beliefs or to make themselves sound better than the rest of the world, than I think that it's time for the people to stop. Like the Westboro Baptist Church, they have their opinion, I don't agree, but I respect their opinion. But the fact that they show up to throw their opinion around at things like weddings, that's down right rude. How would they feel if somebody came to one of their weddings, and protested it because they didn't like who was getting married? They'd get mad. Just like the rest of us. People just need to respect other people. Enough said. Rant over.
As for when it comes to the freedom of expression and creativity? People are way to damn concerned with money. I'm included in that. How often are we worried about the price of things? There is a reason people are suffering, because they are arrested for stupid things like copyright infringement. What happens when somebody decides that they want to copyright or patent oxygen? What are we to do then? I think that there are more important things for the country to be worrying about, like how we can prevent things like violence, or putting more funding towards the proper diagnosis and care of patients with mental disabilities. As humans, we are naturally creative. When we finger painted we were mixing colors together to make new ones, is that bad? Are big businesses are really that concerned with their profits? I'm sure they make enough money without having to sue people. I think that if you're going to sue normal, everyday people for downloading your songs, rather than paying for them, then you don't deserve my money. Simple as that. I remember when LimeWire was being shut down due to lawsuits, or whatever it was, and I was so worried that somebody was going to show up at my door and take me away as soon as I hit "download." I was a kid. And as kids, most of the time, we don't know any better. I shouldn't have to worry about that, when there are much worst things in the world. Next rant.
I enjoy writing. I enjoy the fact that I can say pretty much whatever I wanted in this blog, and I enjoy the fact that you, the readers, can respond back with what you think. I think that the first amendment is the idea that I can have my opinions, and I can choose to show them to the world, and I have the right to my opinion. And if you don't like it, then you don't have to read it, listen to it, or however, because you have the right to your own opinion. When I get upset, I often just feel like writing something down, often times I don't, but that is how I express myself when I can. Writing is how I enjoy to express myself. When I was little I used to write stories about the most random things, I have one about going fishing with my grandpa and catching a really big fish. I also used to write in a school newspaper, and one time I got to write an column piece, and it was about having a bad day, (I'm going to quote myself now) " Little things help. Find that one thing that makes you smile your silly little grin, and go with it. Take a chance. You don't know what the reaction is unless you try the whole experiment." I honestly should listen to my own advice, but that's not the point. I used that one chance at a column, and I took it, and not to sound cocky, but I think that I did a damn good job.
One of the things I've been hearing a lot about is gay rights. And yes, I'm a firm believer that love is love no matter who it is shared with. It goes back to control, as I was talking about earlier. If you ask, then I will gladly tell you that I support it, and I will tell you that I support it because all love is equal, think what you want about my opinion, but respect it, and I will respect yours. I honestly think that it goes for any kind of topic, you can share it up to the point of shoving it down other people's throats. At that point it has gone too damn far. If you don't like what I'm writing, you don't have to read it simple as that. Now, I'm not super open about religion, and that's my choice, but once somebody continues to use that against my beliefs or to make themselves sound better than the rest of the world, than I think that it's time for the people to stop. Like the Westboro Baptist Church, they have their opinion, I don't agree, but I respect their opinion. But the fact that they show up to throw their opinion around at things like weddings, that's down right rude. How would they feel if somebody came to one of their weddings, and protested it because they didn't like who was getting married? They'd get mad. Just like the rest of us. People just need to respect other people. Enough said. Rant over.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Budweiser gets the Best of Us-- Blog Project One
Drinking and Driving. Everybody has heard the spiel to not do it, but how often do people often pay attention to the commercials or the ads that advocate against drunk driving? We pay attention to the ads that capture our hearts and our attention, but too often are the ads still ignored. This ad caught my attention because it was an ad that, although I don't drink, got me right where it counted. I have three dogs, whom I love dearly and the thought of them waiting for me to come home makes me sad, and to even think about them waiting for me to come home, when I can't because I was out doing something stupid and got myself hurt, or even worse, killed, is probably one of the worst things imaginable. Which I why I think Budweiser really used our emotions to put more consideration into whether or not we should get in the car.
This Budweiser Ad starts out with a man bringing home a yellow lab puppy named "Buddy." As it progresses it shows Buddy and the man playing together, going places, and in general just being together. The song that is playing in the background is called "Friends Are Waiting" by Dan Rodriguez. The pair shares a day at the park, a meal of peanut butter, a wake up call, and a trip to the lake, but towards the end, Buddy is left at home while owner goes out to drink with friends. Buddy is left by himself overnight and whimpers, waiting for his owner to come home. As he waits the screen goes black, and words come up saying "for some, the waiting never ended". Buddy continues to wait, and when his owner finally comes home, Buddy is ecstatic. The pair is united after the owner explains to the dog that he didn't want to drive home after drinking, but that he was back. As for the product placement, it was what the people were drinking at the lake and what was on the table when the pair were sharing peanut butter. Budweiser had previously used a yellow lab puppy in their 2014 Super Bowl ad, which although it wasn't the same puppy, they were from the same breeders. They produced the 60 second, digital broadcast only, ad in part with Momentum Worldwide as part of Global Be(er) Responsible Day. I personally first saw it when I was visiting Youtube one day.
The primary persuasive technique that is used in this ad is hidden fear. Everybody is afraid of losing someone they love, and it's hard to even think about it. Most of us refuse to. This ad brings into account that our human companions aren't the only ones that would be waiting for us to come home. The hidden fear is portrayed through the use of story telling. The story telling is portrayed two different ways, one is that it shows Buddy growing up, and the other is the as Buddy is growing up, the pair are going on adventures, such as the park and the lake. The story telling is effective because it goes to show how the pair has bonded over time, and how Buddy misses his owner when let alone. That's when the hidden fear comes into play, because Buddy is waiting for his owner to come home, and when the screen says "For some, the waiting never ended," the worst is thought, and it is assumed that the man is never coming back, but he does come back, and it's a happy ending for everyone.
Interpret:
Budweiser tends to associate themselves with friendship and good times in their ads, and this one was no exception. Buddy and his owner were close and they went on many adventures together. In their famous 2014 Super Bowl, also know by #bestbuds, an inseparable bond is formed between man, puppy, and Clydesdale, later following up with the puppy idea with the #friendsarewaiting ad. When they produced the video they had people aged 21-27 in mind. They wanted to target people who use social media to spread the message, leading to the trend in #friendsarewaiting on websites like twitter. The ad doesn't show any stereotypes throughout, and rather than offending someone, this ad is more likely to a make them sad, as well as rethink their actions.
One of the major strengths of this ad was the fact that it wasn't intended to scare us, it was meant to give us a different perspective, on how you effect other people. The one weakness that I noticed was the message about drunk driving wasn't until the very end, but even so it was still effect with the actual message. I believe that this ad was memorable, it was one that although I haven't seen it in awhile I knew right away that it was the one that I wanted to use. This ad gives us another reason as to why we shouldn't drink and drive. With my having grown up with dogs, and having three right, I know for a fact that this ad will make me think twice about ever drinking and driving. The ad spread like wildfire, bringing in 10.8 million views in the first four days, and it now has over 21 million views since its posting on Youtube September 19, 2014.
Budweiser was using social media to spread the message to the people under the line #friendsarewaiting. According to AdAge article "Budweiser Says Drunk Drivers Kill Puppy Love" , the ad was timed to be released in correlation with the brewers fifth annual promotion of drinking responsibly worldwide. Based on the ad, I probably wouldn't buy Budweiser, mostly because I'm under-aged, but also because I have little interest in alcohol. I would recommend people to watch the ad because its a different perspective on the whole being against drinking and driving campaign, and the ad is more advocating for not drinking and driving rather than drinking Budweiser itself.
To be honest this is one of the few anti-drinking and driving commercials that's really caught my attention. I saw a different perspective, and it showed me that the decisions we make not only affect us, but those we don't really think it would affect, like our pets, our companions. When I was watching the ad, one of the things that really stood out to me was the fact that the Budweiser products, didn't really stand out to me. They weren't a dominant part of the story. Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that this ad had a happy ending, a lot of the ads I see against drunk driving are ones that end in tragedy, and nobody wants to watch a tragedy fold out in front of them. It was a message that is for wellbeing of people, that didn't try to force it our faces, but rather show us a different side of story. If we call a cab, or stay the night at a friends, then we are not only prolonging our lives, but we are also ensuring that others don't have to wait for something that isn't coming back.To be honest this is one of the few anti-drinking and driving commercials that's really caught my attention. I saw a different perspective, and it showed me that the decisions we make not only affect us, but those we don't really think it would affect, like our pets, our companions.
This Budweiser Ad starts out with a man bringing home a yellow lab puppy named "Buddy." As it progresses it shows Buddy and the man playing together, going places, and in general just being together. The song that is playing in the background is called "Friends Are Waiting" by Dan Rodriguez. The pair shares a day at the park, a meal of peanut butter, a wake up call, and a trip to the lake, but towards the end, Buddy is left at home while owner goes out to drink with friends. Buddy is left by himself overnight and whimpers, waiting for his owner to come home. As he waits the screen goes black, and words come up saying "for some, the waiting never ended". Buddy continues to wait, and when his owner finally comes home, Buddy is ecstatic. The pair is united after the owner explains to the dog that he didn't want to drive home after drinking, but that he was back. As for the product placement, it was what the people were drinking at the lake and what was on the table when the pair were sharing peanut butter. Budweiser had previously used a yellow lab puppy in their 2014 Super Bowl ad, which although it wasn't the same puppy, they were from the same breeders. They produced the 60 second, digital broadcast only, ad in part with Momentum Worldwide as part of Global Be(er) Responsible Day. I personally first saw it when I was visiting Youtube one day.
The primary persuasive technique that is used in this ad is hidden fear. Everybody is afraid of losing someone they love, and it's hard to even think about it. Most of us refuse to. This ad brings into account that our human companions aren't the only ones that would be waiting for us to come home. The hidden fear is portrayed through the use of story telling. The story telling is portrayed two different ways, one is that it shows Buddy growing up, and the other is the as Buddy is growing up, the pair are going on adventures, such as the park and the lake. The story telling is effective because it goes to show how the pair has bonded over time, and how Buddy misses his owner when let alone. That's when the hidden fear comes into play, because Buddy is waiting for his owner to come home, and when the screen says "For some, the waiting never ended," the worst is thought, and it is assumed that the man is never coming back, but he does come back, and it's a happy ending for everyone.
Interpret:
Budweiser tends to associate themselves with friendship and good times in their ads, and this one was no exception. Buddy and his owner were close and they went on many adventures together. In their famous 2014 Super Bowl, also know by #bestbuds, an inseparable bond is formed between man, puppy, and Clydesdale, later following up with the puppy idea with the #friendsarewaiting ad. When they produced the video they had people aged 21-27 in mind. They wanted to target people who use social media to spread the message, leading to the trend in #friendsarewaiting on websites like twitter. The ad doesn't show any stereotypes throughout, and rather than offending someone, this ad is more likely to a make them sad, as well as rethink their actions.
One of the major strengths of this ad was the fact that it wasn't intended to scare us, it was meant to give us a different perspective, on how you effect other people. The one weakness that I noticed was the message about drunk driving wasn't until the very end, but even so it was still effect with the actual message. I believe that this ad was memorable, it was one that although I haven't seen it in awhile I knew right away that it was the one that I wanted to use. This ad gives us another reason as to why we shouldn't drink and drive. With my having grown up with dogs, and having three right, I know for a fact that this ad will make me think twice about ever drinking and driving. The ad spread like wildfire, bringing in 10.8 million views in the first four days, and it now has over 21 million views since its posting on Youtube September 19, 2014.
Budweiser was using social media to spread the message to the people under the line #friendsarewaiting. According to AdAge article "Budweiser Says Drunk Drivers Kill Puppy Love" , the ad was timed to be released in correlation with the brewers fifth annual promotion of drinking responsibly worldwide. Based on the ad, I probably wouldn't buy Budweiser, mostly because I'm under-aged, but also because I have little interest in alcohol. I would recommend people to watch the ad because its a different perspective on the whole being against drinking and driving campaign, and the ad is more advocating for not drinking and driving rather than drinking Budweiser itself.
To be honest this is one of the few anti-drinking and driving commercials that's really caught my attention. I saw a different perspective, and it showed me that the decisions we make not only affect us, but those we don't really think it would affect, like our pets, our companions. When I was watching the ad, one of the things that really stood out to me was the fact that the Budweiser products, didn't really stand out to me. They weren't a dominant part of the story. Another thing that stood out to me was the fact that this ad had a happy ending, a lot of the ads I see against drunk driving are ones that end in tragedy, and nobody wants to watch a tragedy fold out in front of them. It was a message that is for wellbeing of people, that didn't try to force it our faces, but rather show us a different side of story. If we call a cab, or stay the night at a friends, then we are not only prolonging our lives, but we are also ensuring that others don't have to wait for something that isn't coming back.To be honest this is one of the few anti-drinking and driving commercials that's really caught my attention. I saw a different perspective, and it showed me that the decisions we make not only affect us, but those we don't really think it would affect, like our pets, our companions.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Blog Form Post Three
And we're back at again with week number three.
Since I already used my work as part of my blog response, I think that I'm going to just stick with that theme for now. I've been working at PizzAmore for about two and half years now, and for as long as I can remember the only advertisement I've ever heard my boss talk about is word of mouth, which is just about all the advertisement we do, but on the other hand, we do have a facebook page that gets updated, if you look there's even a picture from when the staff dressed up for Halloween. Looking further down, a lot of the status updates consist of reminding followers that our seasonal pasta is back or that we started a new seasonal salad over the summer. A picture was posted saying that we were hiring and every single of the comments had a name in for somebody to look at. Now, we're a relatively small business in Albany, with there being only one of us, but we are definitely oriented around all ages. There are a couple older posts about our seasonal beers or that we were hiring. As a whole we have a wide variety of customers and I've had many customers walk up to the counter and tell me that they heard about PizzAmore from so and so, old and young alike, so I would think that with that being really our only form of advertisement, we're doing pretty solid.
Continuing on with the PizzAmore topic, Jeff Jarvis talks about how google is changing the way advertising is looked at and from what I read, I agree. What really stood out to me was the five lessons that Rishad Tobaccowala described when asked how he was trying to create a new ad agency around what Google has taught him. The one that stood out to me was number four " Make money through the side door." He stated that the way to "make money by giving a key part of their business away for free, and then making money on something else." I believe that PizzAmore is a good example of that. We don't spend money on TV commercials or newspaper ads, not even when we're hiring, so we aren't making money on customers that ads are bringing in, we aren't charging ridiculous amounts in order to fund that kind of thing, keeping our foods cheap. And in turn our quality is bringing in customers who heard from other people and that's how we're really making the money. We're making money because we have people coming in from within the community and outside of the community telling their friends about us and our food. If that makes sense?
One of the ads I consistently hear is for Kiefer Kia, and does boy does that ad make me change the station. I regularly listen to 104.7 kduk on the radio and the ad plays constantly. I honestly doubt there's been a day where I haven't heard the ad at least once. It's ridiculous. I'm going to assume that the target audience is anyone and everyone just because of how much they play it. The "persuasive" technique definitely has to be the irritation factor, because its "Kiefer Kia" this, come to "Kiefer Kia," zero down at "Kiefer Kia." Constantly. I honestly don't think that the ad is working because I know that I am definitely one of the people who changes the station when I hear it, or at least turn it down. I feel as though if you need that much advertisement and repetition then maybe something isn't working. Or I could be completely wrong and it really works for them. But I stick to what I said about there being WAY too much advertising going on in that situation. I think that it could be a situation similar to the one stated by Jarvis about Dell not focusing on their customers.
Another ad that I've been hearing lately is from I Heart Radio. The add is basically a singer talking very briefly about their station or to try to listen to similar ones, or even listen to their own personal station that they listen to. The two I've heard were Ed Sheeran and Tove Lo, both artists that are played on kduk as well as ones that I listen to on a regular basis, which would instill the famous person testimonial technique. Another reason I believe that this worked, was because not only did the ad use two different singers at two different times, the ad isn't constantly playing with is nice on the ears, especially when I can get back to listening to their station. I Heart Radio is definitely using the right station because kduk is generally for people that are on the younger end, teens through early 20's maybe even older than that, but its advertising with people that would actually download the I Heart Radio ad and listen to those singers.
Since I already used my work as part of my blog response, I think that I'm going to just stick with that theme for now. I've been working at PizzAmore for about two and half years now, and for as long as I can remember the only advertisement I've ever heard my boss talk about is word of mouth, which is just about all the advertisement we do, but on the other hand, we do have a facebook page that gets updated, if you look there's even a picture from when the staff dressed up for Halloween. Looking further down, a lot of the status updates consist of reminding followers that our seasonal pasta is back or that we started a new seasonal salad over the summer. A picture was posted saying that we were hiring and every single of the comments had a name in for somebody to look at. Now, we're a relatively small business in Albany, with there being only one of us, but we are definitely oriented around all ages. There are a couple older posts about our seasonal beers or that we were hiring. As a whole we have a wide variety of customers and I've had many customers walk up to the counter and tell me that they heard about PizzAmore from so and so, old and young alike, so I would think that with that being really our only form of advertisement, we're doing pretty solid.
Continuing on with the PizzAmore topic, Jeff Jarvis talks about how google is changing the way advertising is looked at and from what I read, I agree. What really stood out to me was the five lessons that Rishad Tobaccowala described when asked how he was trying to create a new ad agency around what Google has taught him. The one that stood out to me was number four " Make money through the side door." He stated that the way to "make money by giving a key part of their business away for free, and then making money on something else." I believe that PizzAmore is a good example of that. We don't spend money on TV commercials or newspaper ads, not even when we're hiring, so we aren't making money on customers that ads are bringing in, we aren't charging ridiculous amounts in order to fund that kind of thing, keeping our foods cheap. And in turn our quality is bringing in customers who heard from other people and that's how we're really making the money. We're making money because we have people coming in from within the community and outside of the community telling their friends about us and our food. If that makes sense?
One of the ads I consistently hear is for Kiefer Kia, and does boy does that ad make me change the station. I regularly listen to 104.7 kduk on the radio and the ad plays constantly. I honestly doubt there's been a day where I haven't heard the ad at least once. It's ridiculous. I'm going to assume that the target audience is anyone and everyone just because of how much they play it. The "persuasive" technique definitely has to be the irritation factor, because its "Kiefer Kia" this, come to "Kiefer Kia," zero down at "Kiefer Kia." Constantly. I honestly don't think that the ad is working because I know that I am definitely one of the people who changes the station when I hear it, or at least turn it down. I feel as though if you need that much advertisement and repetition then maybe something isn't working. Or I could be completely wrong and it really works for them. But I stick to what I said about there being WAY too much advertising going on in that situation. I think that it could be a situation similar to the one stated by Jarvis about Dell not focusing on their customers.
Another ad that I've been hearing lately is from I Heart Radio. The add is basically a singer talking very briefly about their station or to try to listen to similar ones, or even listen to their own personal station that they listen to. The two I've heard were Ed Sheeran and Tove Lo, both artists that are played on kduk as well as ones that I listen to on a regular basis, which would instill the famous person testimonial technique. Another reason I believe that this worked, was because not only did the ad use two different singers at two different times, the ad isn't constantly playing with is nice on the ears, especially when I can get back to listening to their station. I Heart Radio is definitely using the right station because kduk is generally for people that are on the younger end, teens through early 20's maybe even older than that, but its advertising with people that would actually download the I Heart Radio ad and listen to those singers.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Blog Forum Post Two
Hello!
I haven't really taken a look at the kinds of things that I follow on my Facebook lately, but I did notice three that stood out to me; "College Humor", "I f*ing Love Science", and "SomeEcards". First off, College Humor is ridiculously funny, I absolutely love the skits they do. They also post some pretty funny articles such as one that I just read called "The 10 Most WTF Shipped Couples," of course with Elsa and Jack Frost at the top of it...Big surprise, right? And if you haven't heard of the massive Jelsa ship you should look into on apps like iFunny, or Deviantart. But on to the next one, I f*ing Love Science, they post some pretty interesting articles as well, and they aren't boring ones, which makes it even better. I think that the reason I initially "liked" the page was because of how they presented the articles, they first thing that the show on their posts is a picture that captures my attention, then my attention drifts to the title of the article and it just make me want to click on it. Last, SomeEcards really make my day. The sarcasm ones of them really get me. Some of them even apply to how I'm feeling at the moment and if I can relate to it and it still be funny then that makes it all that much better.
Looking on my Facebook some more, I was scrolling through my newsfeed and I came across my friend who shared a picture that said something along the lines of "How I'm handling life"( I lost the post so I don't think that's exactly what it said, but..) and it had a girl slowly knitting herself a bright red yarn cocoon, and I don't even know why it was funny, but the last little frame of he picture had her all covered and laying down on her side. I'm seriously wondering if I could do this. If I could figure out where it went, I would "like" that so hard.
To be honest, I don't really follow the government or politics, unless it's something that really captures my attention. So I can't really give you an honest opinion on that. If it is something important, I usually hear it from my grandparents, who only watch the news for their source of information. If anything the things that Facebook keeps me most updated on is the things that are going on within my community, like when South Albany is presenting a play, or like who's having a garage sale and where. I just tend to avoid things like politics, and the government because some stuff is just extremely frustrating.
One concept that Jeff Jarvis brought up was really there being very little need for the advertisement business, because you can count on the consumers of your product to spread word about your service and your product quality. I also very firmly agree with the fact that there should be someone on the inside to help not only work with the customers, but also make sure that the people are being heard by said business.
I'm currently working at a pizza joint by the name of PizzAmore, some of you may have heard of it, if not it's a little hole in the wall that serves primarily Italian food. But if you do know about us, then you know that we're famous for our garlic rolls (not knots, not "buttons," ROLLS). That's beside the point though, walking into the restaurant you may see the "Like Us on Yelp" sticker we have up, our restaurant doesn't do advertising and we trust our customers to pass the word along(whether good or bad) to their friends, and so on and so forth. We strive to make sure that everything is correct and we work to please all of our customers, but not everything is perfect because, yes fast food and restaurant workers are human too. When something goes wrong, the servers try to fix it first, then if they can't handle it or are unsure, they take it to the management level to see what they do. We're a small place and we do what we can. If you want to check out some of our reviews, you can find them on our PizzAmore Yelp page.
One of the other things that was discussed about Jarvis was the "Internet Arguments" video. One of the first things that he answered, was that the internet is a way that anyone can express themselves in anyway. Damn straight, excuse the language, but I completely believe that its a way to express yourself. If I want to start a blog and post about things like relationships, or make-up, or video games, or whatever, if you don't like what I'm writing then you don't have to read it. My Facebook is full of photos and status updates, and some of them have comments and some of them don't. The comment sections is the perfect example of how I or anyone else can express ourselves. Granted if it's offensive, I have the ability to respond to it, or to take it down, but the opinion can still be presented.
I haven't really taken a look at the kinds of things that I follow on my Facebook lately, but I did notice three that stood out to me; "College Humor", "I f*ing Love Science", and "SomeEcards". First off, College Humor is ridiculously funny, I absolutely love the skits they do. They also post some pretty funny articles such as one that I just read called "The 10 Most WTF Shipped Couples," of course with Elsa and Jack Frost at the top of it...Big surprise, right? And if you haven't heard of the massive Jelsa ship you should look into on apps like iFunny, or Deviantart. But on to the next one, I f*ing Love Science, they post some pretty interesting articles as well, and they aren't boring ones, which makes it even better. I think that the reason I initially "liked" the page was because of how they presented the articles, they first thing that the show on their posts is a picture that captures my attention, then my attention drifts to the title of the article and it just make me want to click on it. Last, SomeEcards really make my day. The sarcasm ones of them really get me. Some of them even apply to how I'm feeling at the moment and if I can relate to it and it still be funny then that makes it all that much better.
Looking on my Facebook some more, I was scrolling through my newsfeed and I came across my friend who shared a picture that said something along the lines of "How I'm handling life"( I lost the post so I don't think that's exactly what it said, but..) and it had a girl slowly knitting herself a bright red yarn cocoon, and I don't even know why it was funny, but the last little frame of he picture had her all covered and laying down on her side. I'm seriously wondering if I could do this. If I could figure out where it went, I would "like" that so hard.
To be honest, I don't really follow the government or politics, unless it's something that really captures my attention. So I can't really give you an honest opinion on that. If it is something important, I usually hear it from my grandparents, who only watch the news for their source of information. If anything the things that Facebook keeps me most updated on is the things that are going on within my community, like when South Albany is presenting a play, or like who's having a garage sale and where. I just tend to avoid things like politics, and the government because some stuff is just extremely frustrating.
One concept that Jeff Jarvis brought up was really there being very little need for the advertisement business, because you can count on the consumers of your product to spread word about your service and your product quality. I also very firmly agree with the fact that there should be someone on the inside to help not only work with the customers, but also make sure that the people are being heard by said business.
I'm currently working at a pizza joint by the name of PizzAmore, some of you may have heard of it, if not it's a little hole in the wall that serves primarily Italian food. But if you do know about us, then you know that we're famous for our garlic rolls (not knots, not "buttons," ROLLS). That's beside the point though, walking into the restaurant you may see the "Like Us on Yelp" sticker we have up, our restaurant doesn't do advertising and we trust our customers to pass the word along(whether good or bad) to their friends, and so on and so forth. We strive to make sure that everything is correct and we work to please all of our customers, but not everything is perfect because, yes fast food and restaurant workers are human too. When something goes wrong, the servers try to fix it first, then if they can't handle it or are unsure, they take it to the management level to see what they do. We're a small place and we do what we can. If you want to check out some of our reviews, you can find them on our PizzAmore Yelp page.
One of the other things that was discussed about Jarvis was the "Internet Arguments" video. One of the first things that he answered, was that the internet is a way that anyone can express themselves in anyway. Damn straight, excuse the language, but I completely believe that its a way to express yourself. If I want to start a blog and post about things like relationships, or make-up, or video games, or whatever, if you don't like what I'm writing then you don't have to read it. My Facebook is full of photos and status updates, and some of them have comments and some of them don't. The comment sections is the perfect example of how I or anyone else can express ourselves. Granted if it's offensive, I have the ability to respond to it, or to take it down, but the opinion can still be presented.
Friday, January 9, 2015
Blog Forum One Response
Hi everyone! My name is Sydney Christopherson, and currently I'm working towards an AAOT, with my major undecided. I'm hoping to transfer to Western Oregon University once I have completed my AAOT, though. I decided to take this class because I enjoy writing and I feel like I have some strong feelings about society's dependence on media. With that, I took journalism and worked on the school newspaper for three years in high school, and I'm hoping that this class will give me different takes on media, as well as influence my interest of the world of journalism.
My favorite part of journalism would have to be the stories that are actually affecting myself, and those around me. What I want to learn about the most would be why are we so affected by social media stories and magazines that aren't directly influencing our lives, and why, if they are influencing us, do they give us that mindset. I guess my outlook would have to be why media does so strongly influences us and changes us daily? Why should I care that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie wore match red outfits to the Oscar's? Why should I try and change myself to look like an unrealistic Victoria Secret model, when having images like that circulating the media only hurts me and others who will never reach the "ideal" model image? Why is it such a big deal to society to know these things?
What's the point?
Back to talking about myself a little bit, I don't think I'm passionate about one thing in particular. I love doing all sorts of things; reading, writing, playing with my dogs, and hanging out with friends are all in that category. I also like to travel, I've never left the west coast, but I've recently taken a bunch of fun trips just here around Oregon. Something I really want to do is to go on what I like to call "food adventures" and visit places in Oregon that shows like "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" have visited to test out the food for myself. I love good food, especially a good pasta dish!
As for gaming, awhile ago, I actually got back into laying World of Warcraft, with my most used character being a Worgen hunter(if it can have an animal companion, I'm probably playing it). But because of things picking up at work, I haven't played it in awhile. When I did play it, it was maybe for an hour or two after work, maybe once or twice a week, and yes, I was actually playing with somebody close to me, so I was a bit more involved. I also play games like Diablo 3 but never online, just in co-op campaign. But the most recent game I've been playing is the Sims 4, which I guess could be considered online, but not really. How often I play online games depends of how my week goes. I find these games interesting because sometimes it is nice to escape from reality and feel like I can accomplish something, other times its just fun to run around and button mash.
I personally think that maybe Jane McGonigal had a point, but because I don't think that many people use games like the ones that her workplace created, I think she needs a different approach. Like the mathematical algorithm that the gamers solved that the researchers couldn't. I think that in order for her idea to work that there needs to be something more like that, something that baffles some people, but interests the gamers and the population into wanting to solve or improve it.
The documentary "Second Skin" did open my eyes about some things, but I feel like it really only showed two sides of the story, it was only black and white, and I believe that there is a gray area, because I believe that I am part of that gray are. Yeah, I play video games a lot, but a lot of the time I play them when I'm sitting next to someone who is playing along side me. I still have the ability to go out and hang out with friends, do homework, succeed at work, and go to school. Granted, I don't get enough sleep, but that's not because of how much I play video games. I know a lot of people who play video games, and I actually know people who become "gaming widows," stuff like that does happen and its not just to an online game like World of Warcraft. That was only one example. I disagreed with the video because I only saw two sides of the story and they were both two extremes. I believe, like I said in class, that it all depends on how you approach it.
My favorite part of journalism would have to be the stories that are actually affecting myself, and those around me. What I want to learn about the most would be why are we so affected by social media stories and magazines that aren't directly influencing our lives, and why, if they are influencing us, do they give us that mindset. I guess my outlook would have to be why media does so strongly influences us and changes us daily? Why should I care that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie wore match red outfits to the Oscar's? Why should I try and change myself to look like an unrealistic Victoria Secret model, when having images like that circulating the media only hurts me and others who will never reach the "ideal" model image? Why is it such a big deal to society to know these things?
What's the point?
Back to talking about myself a little bit, I don't think I'm passionate about one thing in particular. I love doing all sorts of things; reading, writing, playing with my dogs, and hanging out with friends are all in that category. I also like to travel, I've never left the west coast, but I've recently taken a bunch of fun trips just here around Oregon. Something I really want to do is to go on what I like to call "food adventures" and visit places in Oregon that shows like "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" have visited to test out the food for myself. I love good food, especially a good pasta dish!
As for gaming, awhile ago, I actually got back into laying World of Warcraft, with my most used character being a Worgen hunter(if it can have an animal companion, I'm probably playing it). But because of things picking up at work, I haven't played it in awhile. When I did play it, it was maybe for an hour or two after work, maybe once or twice a week, and yes, I was actually playing with somebody close to me, so I was a bit more involved. I also play games like Diablo 3 but never online, just in co-op campaign. But the most recent game I've been playing is the Sims 4, which I guess could be considered online, but not really. How often I play online games depends of how my week goes. I find these games interesting because sometimes it is nice to escape from reality and feel like I can accomplish something, other times its just fun to run around and button mash.
I personally think that maybe Jane McGonigal had a point, but because I don't think that many people use games like the ones that her workplace created, I think she needs a different approach. Like the mathematical algorithm that the gamers solved that the researchers couldn't. I think that in order for her idea to work that there needs to be something more like that, something that baffles some people, but interests the gamers and the population into wanting to solve or improve it.
The documentary "Second Skin" did open my eyes about some things, but I feel like it really only showed two sides of the story, it was only black and white, and I believe that there is a gray area, because I believe that I am part of that gray are. Yeah, I play video games a lot, but a lot of the time I play them when I'm sitting next to someone who is playing along side me. I still have the ability to go out and hang out with friends, do homework, succeed at work, and go to school. Granted, I don't get enough sleep, but that's not because of how much I play video games. I know a lot of people who play video games, and I actually know people who become "gaming widows," stuff like that does happen and its not just to an online game like World of Warcraft. That was only one example. I disagreed with the video because I only saw two sides of the story and they were both two extremes. I believe, like I said in class, that it all depends on how you approach it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)