ENTRY #11 An Awesome Experience

         It was an unpleasant feeling the first time I got introduced to blogs by Prof Nielson. I almost gave up on the class when he mentioned in the syllabus that blogging was going to be 15% of our final grade. How am I supposed to make an A then, when all the blogs I had read before were written by professional writers? Little did I know that I had seen and read many before that I never considered as blogs because they were very casual. My fear died out and I was so ready to start blogging. Since it was something new, I took a major interest and got serious with it.

        I followed the guidelines provided by Prof. Nielson carefully, especially entries that required us to write about a particular topic. I made sure I stayed on top of my blog writing by visiting canvas every day to check on what’s due; the main reason why I enjoyed it. It is one of the few things I enjoyed doing during the 8 week period. Blogging allowed me to give a voice to my passion. It gave me a chance to put my views on current affairs into writing. An opportunity to engage in civil discourse. More interesting were the comments and feedback I received from Prof. Nielson and peers. They did help in my learning. Since the course required a lot of writing assignments, blogs provided an opportunity for regular practice.

       There were no major challenges since most of the work required us to express our views and opinions. It helped my writing by allowing me to experiment with multiple media formats. As a student, I believe my opinion and experiences would help teach others and blogs helped to put these experiences into writing. It was indeed useful and valuable and I hope future students put all seriousness into it. Other instructors should try and introduce blogging into their curriculum so all students may benefit. It is an awesome experience.

ENTRY #10 A Blessing For All

I was barely six years old I remember, when my father encouraged me to put an orange seed I had finished eating into the earth I was standing on. I don't remember exactly how long it took but after some years, I found myself sitting under an orange tree I had planted myself.
First, my father told me what would come out of the seed if I put it in the soil, "it'll grow into a big orange tree and bear many fruits", he said with a big beaming encouraging smile. I smiled too but mine was mixed with box doubts and anticipation. I was confused but went on and tried.
He told me to water it two times each day, mornings and evenings. Ones or twice when I was late for school, I'd ask him politely to water my plant and he'd say it’s not his job. If such days persisted, I'd come home to meet a shriveled plant that looked like death itself. But when I watered it regularly again for the next few days, it looked fresh.
Many times I had to uproot the growth around it. Once I hesitated to uproot a nice flower that was growing close to my plant but my father said "As much as you love flowers, you don't want any plant competing with the one you planted for nutrients. Do you?" So as difficult as it was, I still had to uproot the flower.
So I went through so much taking care of my plant, especially because I was just a child and not a farmer. But it grew up beautifully and blossomed, yielding many oranges. I had a plan: the orange tree and all the fruits were mine, I own it and I was going to use it alone. But there was some strangeness about this tree; it produced so much that I couldn't eat the fruits alone, not even my family. So sometimes kids from our neighborhood would come and pluck a few oranges without my knowledge. So one day I asked my dad, "Why do I have to work all alone on the tree and when it finally grows up, I can't benefit alone?" My father's reply was weird. I did not understand it until a few years ago. He said, "God knows everyone and his toil, and legitimate hard work will never go unnoticed. When God finally blesses you, there is no room on this planet that can contain your blessings. Even the people around you will be blessed too." He said it is no one's responsibility to help you, that's why he didn't water my plant. He then added that no matter how beautiful something may be, I shouldn't allow them to ruin my bright future. That's why I had to uproot the flower even though I loved it. That way I would grow and be a blessing for all.

ENTRY #8 Racism or Pride

"It's hard to understand", these were the exact words used by former President George Bush as he describes the jury decision in the Eric Garner case. A lot of Americans including myself are finding it difficult to understand. Did the so called "grand jury" see the video at all. I was never in surprise when the Michael Brown case was dismissed because i did not know what happened at the scene, and maybe what Officer Darren Wilson said about Brown charging him was true. I had already given a no-charge verdict in my mind for Officer Darren Wilson just after watching Brown's store robbery. However, I believe an indictment should have been the least for Officer Pantaleo, even if he would end up being found not guilty in court. That would have shown a little regard for human life. Or does the grand jury believe a black man's life is not that important? All these after hearing a man scream for his life, and still officers wouldn't let go off the choke hold. This goes a long way to say that Barack Obama's statement about equipping policemen with cameras is rubbish. There were discrepancies and controversies in the witness statements involving Michael Brown shooting, all because we didn't have it on camera. Now here is a perfect case where everything has been captured on Camera, and still a grand jury sees no reason for indictment. I believe the only solution is education for the black man. If this is a case of racism as many people are saying, then the black man should live a good life so that we could have more minorities in the jury. If we educate ourselves and become responsible in the society, we have great chances of being selected among the jury in cases like this. Getting ourselves involved in drugs and gangsta life would only end us in jail and cause us to lose our civil rights. We have the power to vote and the right to be selected among the jury if we have our civil rights, so the black man should educate himself.

Entry #9 Power of Media

I have always perceived media to be very influential. They have the power to make or unmake, create or destroy. As a great fan of music, first hand access to a lot of songs on my playlist was through the radio. I have come to acknowledge how influential they are as their reviews about a particular product influences my decision. At the same time I have always been a follower of radio hype, being a product. service, artist, or music. Justin Bieber was an American darling a few years ago, but through media and the likes of TMZ, Bieber is a devil now, that even some people are advocating for him to be deported to Canada when they have never set eyes on Bieber before. Sometimes we might feel that we're never influenced by media in any way because we do not watch TV or listen to radio, but asking "siri" for the nearest barber shop is a direct way of media influence.  For the past few weeks, I have been paying critical attention to how media affects myself and the people around me. This goes from how consumers purchase choices are influenced by adverts, to how hiphop partly influence the gang-bang and killing in our black neighborhoods.
It was no surprise to me when Obama's declaration of immigration reforms died completely just two days after it's announcement. This is only because big media outlets refused to show the live declaration, and even refused to give commentaries on it even after it's declaration, such a big issue in the history of America. On the other hand, ebola was the subject on American's lips for about three months all because the TV and radio wont stop talking about it from morning to evening. This has made me come to believe that the world is now controlled by media and they could do more than we know of. http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/19/media/networks-and-obama-speech/

ENTRY #7 Dumb Men

I have always been of the believe that advertising have very strong effects on individuals even when you don't pay attention to them when they come on. Like myself, many people would change channels when their programs go on commercial break. For this reason, most of the commercials on TV today are found to have a little comedy or humor to grab attention of viewers or readers. I think it does work, because in many circumstances I have witnessed people discussing about some of the funny commercials on TV. I experienced tons of these funny commercials when I came into contact with the website http://www.dumbmen.com/. I believe the purpose of the site is to expose how some TV commercials make men or males look stupid. It is not clear to me who the intended audience for the website is, but I believe it basically targets men. I can say the site is very boring and underdeveloped. Even some of these adverts contain jokes but I never found any one of them to be funny. Too much pathos in all the commercials made me lose interest in them.
One commercial that grabbed my attention was the minute maid advert, where a guy had to drink a minute maid to nourish his brain in order to remember that he is talking to his child's teacher and not a lady he had slept with a long time ago. I had to sit down for a minute to analyze the commercial and watch it over again before I could grab what it really meant. The commercial advertises minute maid and portrays that all men are dumb until they drink minute maid to get their brain thinking straight. The intended audience, I believe is the general public. A great message but too much pathos causes it to lose the main idea behind it.

Extra Credit Entry#7 What A Great Way To Convince The Masses!

There are so many things that surrounds and controls our environment that we may not know about. Sometimes we hear them talk about these things and argue on Tv but we dont pay any attention to it because that doesn't put food on our table as well. However, Im so glad to have gained a little knowledge about a few of these things; capitalism and socialism. "Capitalism: a love story", a movie by Michael Moore has given me a highlight of what these politicians sometimes talk about. The purpose of the movie, I believe, was to provide a concrete argument as to why capitalism is evil and enemy to society. The delivery of the story was so powerful that I can say I got moved by it. The content couldn't have been delivered any better. One thing the story failed to provide was a counterargument and rebuttal. However, I still believe there were some areas in the movie that tried on that approach. For example, the writer tried finding an explanation for stocks, and many of the things that happen at wall street. I believe this was a way of employing some counterarguments into the movie, but answers from professors, and mathematical formulas that were provided from these wall street moguls clearly shut down any attempt to oppose. Delivery was superb in convincing the masses that capitalism was evil that came to hurt the poor. It also highlight the importance of socialism as a savior for the average American. You could tell on the reactions of people when Obama was announced as the winner of elections. Because people believed Obama has come to save them from the hands of socialists. On one account, the movie is very enjoyable and fun to watch as the writer involved a lot of humor into play. This is clearly seen in areas where he tries to find answers from CEO's and banks, walking in front of banks and asking about money that belongs to the American people. Without too much knowledge on capitalism, just like myself, one is definitely bound to agree with what the movie was intended to achieve. It is definitely a great way to convince the masses and the average American to hate capitalism and love socialism.

ENTRY #6 A Tale Of Kanye's Innocence

Unlike the other music genres, Hip Hop is extremely explicit. It is this explicity that makes it extraordinary. When rappers talk about the guns, sex and drugs, they don't usually actually mean them. It's just a way of making their music look 'gangsta'. Like an illusion, this has always been Hip Hop.
In 2004, Kanye West released an album that deviated from the normal concept of Hip Hop. He did not talk about guns or drugs the way Hip Hop usually does, it was all about the normal everyday stuff you may even hear in a Pop song. It was a super hit debut. My favorite and perhaps the one critics use to compare his latest songs is 'Jesus Walks'. It got the Christian community feeling like God might have sent an angel. After a couple of platinum albums and finally getting rich, Kanye raps and sings like the devil himself! About five years from 'Jesus Walks', he collaborates with Jay-Z on another called 'No church in the Wild'.
So now Kanye has absurd and weird signs and pictures in his videos which people compare to the Illuminati; or as he calls it his "beautiful dark twisted fantasy". The question is, if you were in this clustered industry, what could be the limits of the things you would do to maintain the popularity and hype so you can keep on selling records? Come to think of that, haven't people revealed naked photos online to gain or maintain stardom?
This looks like a Kanye West defense but it isn't. It isn't a tale of his innocence either, it is however, a tale of his "dark, twisted" strategy of staying relevant in the Hip Hop industry. Attributing his attitude in the last few years to the loss of Donda, his mother would be very unfair to his ego; he's had it since he came into the limelight, even when he sang "Hey Mama" with Donda West on her birthday.
Kanye West is identified not only by critics (who may be biased by judgment) but also the whole public to be extremely arrogant, egocentric, defensive; couple that with extreme hard work, innovation and talent and you'd be probably be looking at none other than a genius. His devil-like indications in my opinion do not actually make him evil as the critics say but just an outcome of ego and talent coming together to maintain popularity. We live in an age where people believe everything new they hear and see. People do not investigate anything, they just yearn to see and hear new things and follow the trends. There are a few geniuses however amongst us who are ready to give these people something to believe.
Do you ever wonder why people can't stop talking about Lady Gaga or Rihanna or Kim Kardashian? Do you even read on how the Beatles stayed relevant? Let’s not forget Kim is the talk of the moment as her recent instagram picture on a magazine cover has the whole of showbiz America going crazy. I think Kanye is achieving the same result in a different scarier style. So therefore, I believe people who think Kanye West has changed may be getting it so wrong. I believe he is a genius in his trade and he's got to be respected for that.
Once again, this isn't a tale of Kanye's innocence.