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. 

The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser

This story by Tim Kasser was extremely psychologically related. We have yet to have a reading where it is all about psychology. This story was about the psychological effects of materialism. Kasser and Ryan performed an experiment where the people were tested to see just how materialism ran their lives. I think this experiment should be done more often because people are too materialistic. This experiment was pretty extensive and really specific. Psychology subjects are pretty interesting and this reading was quite informational. I found it to be an easy read since I love psychology so very much. Ti surprised me when the test revealed that people who are focused primarily on financial problems are going to be unhappy, stressed, and not fit in well with society. This experiment proved to me that being materialistic can be extremely self-destructive. The America dream is all about financial success, so the American Dream could be ruining people without any of their conscious awareness to doing so. The most surprising thing of this blog was the bit about illegal substance, alcohol, etc. I had no idea that materialism had to do with a persons want to do drugs and continuance with the drug. This story opened up a lot for me to understand the materialistic views of society. I will concentrate more on when I am thinking materialistic than unmaterialistic. 

Abortion Is Too Complex to Feel All One Way About By Anna Quindlen

      Anna Quindlen and I can definitely agree that you cannot just think about abortion in one way. Abortion is a very complex subject and once brought up in a conversation among friends, it can ruin it. I can say that I am 75% Pro-choice when it comes to abortion. Sometimes it is just the right thing to do. Yes, you are “killing” an un-born little person but what would happen if that child was unwanted. Honestly, I would rather get an abortion myself than allow my child to be unhappy. Getting an abortion is a big thing and even if you are for it, you will feel terrible for the rest of your life. Even so, I still would do it for the sake of the child. What if that child was a product of rape, incest, unplanned pregnancy etc? Do you think that child will be brought up in a wonderful household? Maybe in some cases but in most cases, a child being born to family that does not want and is not ready will most likely lead an unhappy life. I feel as Anna does on the case of abortion. The other 25% of the time when I doubt that abortion is an okay thing to do is when I see happy couples do it just because they can. They could have put the child up for adoption. Yes, there are many other way to deal with an unwanted child other than abortion. If a mother gave birth to her child that was conceived through rape, she will see the eyes of that person who did that too her. She will relive her experience and she will doubt the life of the child. This may not happen in every case but it does for most of them. Abortion is a tough subject and that’s that.