College Tuition

This article was pretty interesting because I am attending a university right now. Unfortunately, I am one of the many people that has had to take out loans to help pay for college. I would love to attend a larger university but they are so expensive. Although I love where I am, a more prestigious place would be nice. I do not really think about the debt that I will be in upon graduating from college. I know that when I accept those loans, I am going to have to pay them back in the future. I tell myself that every time I check the box that says I accept the terms and conditions of the loan. But if there is one thing that I would like to ask, why do colleges charge so much? I understand that they have the necessities that have to be paid for, but if 20,000 students are paying upwards of $30,000.00 a year to attend the university, shouldn’t some limitations be made. I do think that college tuition costs need to be monitored, without this; any college can raise its tuition when it wants to. Colleges already raise their prices almost every year, and something needs to be done about this. I believe that monitoring the costs will help dramatically. 

Morality Pill

Although the concept of this pill sounds pretty intriguing, I am against the idea of prescribing a morality pill. Our independence of will or autonomy is not something that should be messed with, ever. Yes, there would be no crime and many lives would be saved, but can you imagine just how boring life would be if every single person behaved how they were supposed to? I would not want to live in a world with no misbehavior occurring, it makes life interesting. And if there was no crime, there would be many jobs taken out of society, many very important jobs. These jobs help our economy tremendously and I think that having a morality pill will just negatively affect the economy. Although the thought of living in a crime-free society is quite alluring, it just is not the right thing to do. Our free will is what allows us to be who were are, and nobody can control that. Even though many crimes can be quite heinous in nature, this pill should not be authorized by anybody ever. Almost everybody lives for themselves, and changing that would be hard. People live for their free will; you can’t just expect them to take a pill that is going to turn them into a different person. 

Reading 13

I do not really watch football so this reading pretty much means nothing to me but Tom Brady’s comment was unnecessary. Football should just be football, not trash talking. But the trash talk is unavoidable. I honestly think what he said was stupid and that no attention should be paid to it but that will not happen with today’s journalists running on everything that comes out of a celebrities or athletes mouth. Whatever he meant when he said the comment probably was not meant to get as out of hand as it did. It seems to me that none of the other players really care what Tom Brady had to say. Antel Rolle and Mathias Kiwanuka seemed to feel indifferently towards the subject in their comments. Most of the players just want to play the game; they do not want to get involved in bunch of useless drama. The players have enough to worry about. That is why football should just be the game and not all of the fame.  If fame was taken out of major sports, than fewer accidents like this one would happen. But without the fame not many people would be as interested in the game. 

Gay Marriage

Mr. Thompson, the author of this reading, is definitely sure of what he believes in, as am I. I cannot believe when people are against gay marriage. They are just like us; they are not trying to reap the benefits that are granted to married couples. They just want to be seen as normal. For most of these individuals’ lives they have been unaccepted by their peers and as their friends go off and get marries, they stand there with their partner wishing for more. Some of these people dream of sharing the last name of their partner, but they cannot. Although there are legal ways to change an individual’s name, they are expense and just not the same experience. The author also says something about polygamy. Polygamy and incest are illegal because interbreeding can cause mutations in an individual’s DNA which can lead to sever birth defects and even more. Those laws are there to protect a family from the hardships of seeing the child like that. Although I would love to see every single person marry the person that they love, that just cannot happen. But gay marriage can happen and it should be allowed to happen. I am for gay marriage and everyone should be proud for who they are. 

Age Gap Relationships

In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with age gap relationship ships. People are allowed to love whoever they choose. In fact, my dad married a woman that is over ten years older than him, and I see nothing wrong with that. Now, there are some exceptions. I just couldn’t accept a 90 year old dating a 25 year old. But I still would not judge if that were to happen. Love is love and you cannot do anything about it once it is sprung on someone. But, sometimes age gap relationships can be for money, or that is the stereotype. As long as the relationship is all love and no greed, then it is okay. Now, if my son or daughter came to me and said he or she was dating somebody my age, I would be a little flustered but I wouldn’t just put it down as if it never existed, I would give the relationship a chance. And like the author said, these types of relationships are becoming more popular, I agree with that. I have some friends in the past and even a few now that are dating people that are much older than themselves. I have never judged them for that and I never will. Everyone should be accepted for who they are and who they choose to be. 

Not Against Headphones

Throughout my life, I have always owned a device that required or could use headphones. I have never thought anything of it. Headphones have been controversial but there is really no need for that. Some people just need to escape from their everyday lives and that is how they do it. They put their headphones in and people know that bothering them would not be a good idea. I have always loved having headphones; they allowed me to listen to the music that I wanted to without having any interruptions. One place that I love to use them is when I am walking on campus. Listening to music makes walking on campus so much more interesting. I am pretty sure that other people do not want to listen to my music when they are on campus also, the headphones allow for this privacy. Not everybody listens to their headphones with the volume all the way up. The children that are losing there are losing it because they do not know they safe zone for headphones.  I do not believe that headphones cause an antisocial tendency, that is just ludicrous. Yes, music should be enjoyed by all but sometimes, people just want to be left alone and that makes plenty of sense to me. Without headphones, many people could not enjoy music when they are sitting in a library or lounging in the park. Headphones make it more fun to enjoy your music. 

Overpaid Athletes

Before this reading, I did not fully realize just how much money the athletes that we watch on television make in a year. To think that these people, who are just playing the game they love, make so much money is just ridiculous. These people do not work; they just play baseball or football all day. Yeah, the sport takes a lot of work and you are away from family sometimes but that doesn’t mean you need to make millions of dollars in a year. Athletes should be paid less, the less money they are paid the cheaper it is to attend an MLB game. Many people do not get the chance to enjoy a really Major League Baseball game in their lives, which is because they are just too expensive. They have to charge a lot to make up for the players salary. I believe that athletes deserve a pay reduction, now. These people are just going to keep asking for more unless there is something done. If money really is not important to you, than why do you keep asking for more and more? You can live just fine with 7 million dollars a year; there is no reason to bitch. Athletes earn way too much money, it needs to stop. 

What is SOPA?

According to the author, Brian Barrett, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is essentially a bill that will allow intellectual property owners to shut down a website that they believe is copyrighting their material. There has been a lot of controversy over this bill because if it passed, random websites would be shut down and we would not have a clue. SOPA has been postponed as of right now but voting should happen sooner or later. I honestly do not think it is going to pass because there are so many people that are completely against it. According to Brian, SOPA is just a bad thing. It should never ever be passed. The Stop Online Piracy Act is just like any controversial bill before it, it will take forever to vote on it or maybe eventually it will just disappear and nobody will remember SOPA. SOPA is aimed to protect United States property, and in some way that is a good thing, but the internet is a different story. The internet is not something that is meant to be controlled, no matter how hard the government tries to control it, they cannot. If this bill was passed, the internet would change as we know it today. SOPA just should not happen, and that’s that. 

College Athletes Should be Paid

This argument makes a good point. College athletes do raise a lot of money for their school; they also give up a lot of their free time, just for the sport. There are many sports that are in a college that do not make a profit. But the ones that do, they work hard for it. These athletes do deserve to be paid, maybe not as much as someone in the NBA, but enough to allow them the opportunity to not have a job. These students do not have enough time to get a job and sometimes there academics suffer because the sport comes first. Yes, they are usually going to school for free, but what about spending money? These athletes do a lot of work and they earn the money that they should make. I agree with everything that was stated in this reading. These students deserve to be paid. They make a profit for their school so they in turn should be paid back for all of the hard work it takes. There is so much money in college sports, not paying the players sounds pretty ludicrous. It takes a lot of work to be on a sports team while trying to maintain your studies, they should be paid. 

Fliers, Think Before Turning on Electronics

This reading got me thinking about how many times I have had my electronics on while flying. I never thought that it really mattered if you left your phone on. When I had a phone that I knew how to put in airplane mode, I would. But, most people do not what airplane mode is. If just one cell phone, laptop, or tablet can cause a plane to go down, than I will definitely make sure that I am not the one to cause that. Flying can be scary to begin with, but if someone in the cabin does not turn off their phone, they are just raising the risk. Many people think that the no electronics rule on an airplane does not matter, well obviously it does. Cell phones, tablets, can laptops have caused many accidents, whether airplane or vehicle. People just need to learn how to live without their communication for a couple of hours. Is it really necessary to put everyone’s life in danger? Well, I do not think so.  Whatever it is that you are doing, can probably wait until later. I try to adhere to all of the rules when I am on an airplane, I do not want anything to go wrong. 

Reading 5

This reading brought to me a whole new insight as to how prevalent hazing is. Hazing is a terrible thing. People are beaten and mentally abused just to obtain entry into some club or fraternity. Innocent individuals die from hazing just because they want to be in that club. Hazing is not needed to make sure that someone is good enough to be in the club. Robert Champion just wanted to play his music for everyone to hear, he did not deserve to die. He shouldn’t have died when he did. Colleges and universities need to pay more attention to hazing on campus. But not only do they need to pay more attention, they need to punish the people who have been participating in the practice. Punishments should be more severe and the students should actually be afraid of the consequences of getting caught. Something needs to be done. There is no need for people to be beaten and scorned just for initiation into a club, sport, sorority, or fraternity. After suspending over 100 students from the band, wouldn’t you think that administrators would catch on? Well, obviously not because an innocent student is dead and many others are emotionally and even physically scarred. 

Q.U.B.E

The game Q.U.B.E seems like a pretty interesting game. I believe that this game is just a hint as to what most games will be like in the future. There are so many negative opinions on violent video games that many game developers may be looking to change their bad rep. this game is aiming to challenge that mind rather than drain in it violent shooting or random colorful images. There is a point to this game, the person actually accomplishes something. I, as a puzzle loving person, would thoroughly enjoy this game and I would not mind telling people that I have been playing with blocks all day. The game is simple, yet challenging at the same time. A person must keep their mind active in order to achieve even the slightest bit of anything in this game. Solving puzzles does not get boring, because you’re always attempting a different challenge. The fact that one can use their entire body in this game adds to its appeal. The plugged-in generation can enjoy this game while at the same time enhancing their thinking abilities. Other video games just drown a person, and expose people to violence that should not be accepted. Although I have played Call of Duty, I would rather unlock a challenging puzzle. 

Reading 3

This reading was hard to understand because I have never read any of these books, nor have I seen any of the movies. Even though I have not seen the movies or read the books, I understand why the author is angry. When I read a book, the movie that is made for it better represent the book fully. Some mistakes are okay but big ones, come on. According to the author, Erik, many of the characters took on different roles in the film than they had in the books. This can be an unwelcoming surprise when one goes to a movie about their favorite book. Even though Jackson messed up, I am sure he did that best that he could. Characters cannot always represent their book counterpart to a tee. Lord of the Rings is not based on anything that could truly happen, making it difficult to translate into real life script. So many people love these books and movies, I am sure that this movie will be just as successful as the others. Jackson and his co-workers represented the book to the best of their abilities. Mr. Wecks needs to see that not everything in the move can be perfect, especially with a book that is sort of like a fairytale. 

Visual Argument

The first picture, “At the Time of the Louisville Flood,” represents a contradiction. The sign above the line of people waiting to obtain food says “World’s Highest Standard of Living,” when exactly the opposite is occurring. Seventy percent of Louisville was flooded during this hard time. Many people were homeless and hungry. The point that this image is trying to make, in my opinion, is that the American lifestyle is not always very pretty. Obviously the people in this image are struggling to hold on while their lives have been reduced to shambles. America has always been looked upon as the land of opportunity but this image represents the hardships people may go through in life. The second picture is of an old woman wrapped in an American flag blanket waiting outside of the New Orleans convention center after hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina devastated many peoples’ lives. This image also portrays distraught after bad weather hits. The old woman’s name is Milvertha. She is waiting to receive food and shelter after a massive and devastating hurricane struck, probably taking her house with it. The convention center was the safest place in New Orleans at the time but there was an overwhelming amount of people that wanted to gain entry. She probably had to wait for hours just to obtain a small amount of food. The picture proves that many people suffered hardships after this hurricane. 

Religion in Harry Potter by Ari Armstrong

This reading by Ari Armstrong was quite interesting. I did not know that many people believed that Harry Potter was written with in a religious manner. I’ve read almost every one of those books and I’ve never once thought that they represented religion in any way. They are about sorcery, not a God. Some of the topics can be mistaken though. I never thought of religion when reading these books, I just thought that magic isn’t real but it would be awesome if it was. Harry Potter is a wizard, not a messiah or a religious figure in any way. This reading showed me how ridiculous some religious individuals can be. I really enjoyed this reading though because it was pretty insightful. I never really knew that people thought of Harry Potter in this way, but now I do. The book is about wizards going to wizard school to learn magic. That cannot happen in real life unfortunately. These books should not be looked upon as religious novels. Harry Potter does not represent Jesus or any other religious figure. Although some of the topics are close to that of a religious novel, Rowling probably did not do that intentionally. Every person reads this book differently, but it’s not the bible.