Status Update

Transmissions from Camp Trans:

1. claim: All women straight, lesbian, or trans sexual should be able to use the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival as a place to bond and enjoy music.

2. type: Classical

Dark Webs Goth Subcultures in Cyberspace

1. claim: The internet provides means of communicating and informing the public about things that they may or may not be familiar with such as the Goth subculture.

2. type: Toulmin

The Truck Stop as Community and Culture

1. claim: Truckers are very similar to cowboys, though they may not have the same title in a certain sense they hold similar characteristics, for example both are travelers but one uses motor vehicles as transportation and the other uses a horse. At first glance things may seem very different but if you look deeper they are very much alike.

2. type: Toulmin

House for the Homeless

1. claim: Being homeless is not a choice these people made but a situation they were forced into, and are people nevertheless like you and I they just live a different life.

2. type: Rogerian

At this point in my research paper I have yet to select a topic. I have ran through several possible topics but through research or blogs have found set backs and several reasons why these topics were no good. Some did not seem stable enough to write a ten page paper on, some didnt provide sufficient field sites, or simply were not interesting enough. At this point I am meeting with the teacher to help determine how to go about selecting the right topic. I am far behind but confident once i find a good topic ill be on track.

Paper 3

Topic: Gays & Lesbians

Sources:

Walker, Michael. “Gay Male Youth and the Atlanta Rave Scene”. Features. Oct. 2007. Lunar Magazine. < http://www.lunarmagazine.com/features/gay_youth.php>

Snider, Eric. “Meth Infiltrates Gay Community.” Drug Reporter. 3 Mar. 2004. Independent Media Institute.
<http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/18025?page=entire>

Smith, Frederick. “Right Side of the Wrong Bed.” Kensington: 2007. 256.

“The Way We Were.” 26 June 2006. Say it Out Loud. 13 Mar. 2008. <http://sayit-outloud.blogspot.com/2006/06/way-we-were_26.html>

“Representation of Gays and Lesbians on Television.” Media Awareness Network. 13 Mar. 2008. <>
Reflection:
I think one of the most stereotyped groups of people in this country is gays and lesbians. Often times our pre conceived perceptions of what gays or lesbians are suppose to look and act like come from television, or movies, etc. I think the article provided by Media Awareness Network is a great article because it discusses just that. The article is entitled “Representation of Gays and Lesbians on Television.” It will be helpful in addressing what exactly those specific stereotypes are in order to help discuss them in my paper, and compare them to actuality. There are so many homophobic people in this world, and I think a lot of that stems from the medias portrayal of it so I really think this article will be beneficial in my paper.

Heisenberg Principle

Werner Heisenberg physicist and creator of the Heisenberg Principle, better known as the uncertainty principle, was born December 5, 1901 in Wurzburg, Bavaria, in Germany. Heisenberg had a known “reputation for controversial solutions to problems in quantum theory”, (The Sad Story of Heisenberg’s Doctorate, David Chassidy). While working at Niel Bohrs lab in Copenhagen studying “theoretical investigations into quantum theory and the nature of physics” (PBS.org), Heisenberg stumbled across what now is known as the “uncertainty principle”. A principle that describes through using the example of measuring the properties of electrons with light or radiation as a measuring device, that you can only measure one property at a time, because when measuring the position the energy would throw off the momentum, and when measuring the momentum it would in turn throw off the position. Basically stating the idea that only one quantum variable can be measured at a time, and in order to determine the other variables it is necessary to use mathematical formulas. Formulas that include the following, “the uncertainty of energy multiplied by uncertainty in time, or uncertainty in position multiplied by the uncertainty in momentum”, (Dan Sewell Ward), which is greater than or equal to a constant “h”. A principle which at first glance is a little confusing and can be described by the New York Times as “like trying to tell an Eskimo what the French language is like without talking French”.( Waldemar Kaemppfert 1927). It is merely impossible to describe the theory in words or pictures, and can more easily be described only through mathematical equations. Many for this reason have yet to be persuaded that Heisenberg’s principle holds truth and an article from Slate magazine states, “No scientific idea from the last century is more fetishized, abused, and misunderstood—by the vulgar and the learned alike—than Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.”(Jim Holt 2002). Perhaps what puzzles many more is not the equation itself but how Heisenberg was able to produce this equation so easily.

Who am I?

Hip hop vs. America a television show that features hip hop artists and prominent politicians all together in one room to discuss the affect if any that hip hop music has on society. The program is run on BET, also known as Black Entertainment Television. So in order to do some background information the first place I looked was BET.com. I began using yahoo, just because it is the default search engine I’m accustomed to using but when it brought up 8,370,000 results, not only because BET.com was the first one but I found it to be the best one so I clicked on it first. BET is not only a station dedicated to the entertainment of African Americans, and minorities, but more than anything it is a music station. I felt encompassing these two purposes it would be the best choice for researching about my topic, and also because they are the station that runs the program. Next because I could not find who produces the show to give me any feedback or background on the motives for why this show was created I decided to research the hosts, Cousin Jeff, and Toure. I then used the website to research any previous works these two men had done, what if any related to hip hop culture, or any other significant works of activism in the community. I wanted to look for their credibility as hosts for this television show in relations to its topic. I also then just to add for some extra information researched through yahoo, some of the guests that were featured on the show that I was less familiar with such as Nelson George, and minister Ben Chavis. I concluded by research by looking at the blogs later posted by viewers, and other artists not featured on the show, just to see what emotional affect if any it had on viewers. I feel BET.com was the best source, obviously because they are the creators of the television program, and apart from that is a station dedicated to the culture of hip hop.

The Streets

November 27, 1978 hip hop birthed a rapper by the name of Mike Skinner known in to the public as “The Streets”. While working and pursuing a rap career while also attempting to start his own label, what once was a group soon became a solo act. Skinner is a middle class native who writes both hip hop and garage music. Although his career quickly took off as Skinner’s albums was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, best album, best urban act, and several others. But after reading about him I begin to question how his role in the hip hop culture affects the larger culture as a whole. He has been accused of using a false accent apart from the one of his native hometown of Birmingham. As many may know in the hip hop culture a big thing that is not condoned is putting on a front. Often pretending you are something you’re not to sell records or gain public attention; leading a double life just for the limelight. People look to something they can relate to, music that reflects what they go through on a daily basis, and they want to hear it from someone who was once in their situation. So the fact that he uses an accent other than that of his hometown to me makes it hard for him to be related to not only in Birmingham, England but outside of the UK. It’s very hard to make it nowadays in the rap industry and one of the key factors is maintaining loyalty to your roots, and fans. Being that he is a UK rapper its hard to say what affect he has on a larger culture outside of that. Here in the U.S. we seldom here of rappers or artists from other countries. Over recent years we’ve just begun to move into listening to other genres such as reggae. In the hip hop culture its kind of like different cliques everyone is content to stick to what they know and are familiar with so we have yet to see a time when rappers or rather hip hop artists can move into other territories. While Skinner is a major artist in the UK and have made numerous top charting hits he isn’t really known outside it.

Peer review.

When typing my draft i had a hard time determining a thesis and what point i was really trying to get across to the reader. As i was writing i noticed that i was jumping around alot and while keeping with the same basic concept i was veering off onto other subjects and wasnt really keeping a clear thesis. Through the peer review it helped me determine what my main concept was a little more when hearing what they felt my thesis was. It was also good just to get to read other peoples paper and see how the directions they took in writing their papers compared with the direction i took, because alot of times people may interpret the instructions differently and have different ideas of what the teacher wants us to write about. Overall i received great feedback and positive commentary, and i felt i was also able to give back that same help to my peers. I just felt that the peer review could have touched a little more on the grammatical aspects of it because grammar is often my biggest weakness in writing, i often use alot of sentence fragments and what not, and have trouble identifying them on my own. Also i felt it was a very short time, and wish we would have had the opportunity to perhaps have another review, and maybe even prepare a second draft to be reviewed. However, overall i enjoyed it and it will be very helpful in assisting me in structuring my final copy.

PCU

In class to coincide with our readings on logical fallacies we watched the movie PCU. One logical fallacy that I think can easily be found in the movie is “Ad Hominem”; the idea that there is an attack on the character of a person rather than their opinions or arguments. It’s when people focus only on one aspect of a certain person or group looking at them from only one view point and basically just highlighting back to the world all the negative things. Being a college freshman in today’s world I don’t feel as though this movie in any way truly depicted how college life really is. I honestly feel this movie and movies like it take 30 percent of what goes on in college and applies it as the face of the term college life in attempts to somehow persuade people to go to college. You don’t walk into dorms and see people high off of drugs, there aren’t happy hippie people singing on the lawns. In fact at Georgia State we obviously have no lawns. Yes there are people who do some of the things shown in this movie like drink, and go out to parties, and are firm activists. But it is not at all to the extreme as shown in the movie PCU. They left out the other 70 percent of college life which includes going to class, doing homework, studying, sitting around with friends and having in depth discussions about life, or just students simply hanging out and interacting without the drugs or alcohol. Even when they showed the feministic women in the movie they portrayed them as women who just hate men when in fact they may simply be a group of women who are out to support women. Seeking to uplift women and give them as much credit and opportunity as men receive in this world. Therefore using an example of Ad hominem, attacking a persons character rather than their opinions or arguments.

Death of An innocent

“For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief’s” (1Timothy 6:10). It is the idea that today’s world is so consumed by money that I feel that a character like McCandless very well could exist. It is for the same reasons that McCandless lived his life that I feel this way. Things like poverty, world hunger, and peoples absorption in the idea of money and material things, is what drives people to live lives like McCandless secluded from the world in constant states of isolation in search of answers to life’s most difficult question. Can money truly buy happiness?

Especially attending Georgia State University right in the heart of Atlanta one of our country’s most popular and biggest cities, we are surrounded by poverty everyday. The homeless people seem to flood our city streets in the same way students and the men and women of corporate America commuting to work and school do. They are wandering around trying to find places to get warm, change to spare, and food to eat. You have to wonder why it is that we cannot provide shelter and jobs for these people when five escalades on 22 inch rims just passed right by then music blaring windows tinted, completely obliged to their surroundings and the suffering that exists just a few feet away. To have to live this way with no help from those around you, why wouldn’t you be pressured to live a life like Alex McCandless? Why wouldn’t you want to run away from the cold hearted realities of the world?

And right behind the walls of that two story 6 bedroom red brick house lives a family that from the outside can easily be perceived as living the American Dream. Daddy makes six figures, mom stays at home with the kids, their oldest child is the captain of three athletic teams and on the Honor roll. But daddy’s never home because he has to support a family and stay at home mom, mom is all alone struggling to raise 5 kids on her own, and the fathers gambling problem is slowly dragging the family into debt, but they wear they’re smiles of deception well. See we’re often led to believe go to school, work hard, and be rewarded with a high paying job and live the good life. But we often are misguided, not taught about the true struggles and pressures of adulthood. They skip over money management, how to deal with adultery, raising teenage kids, paying bills on time. Life is hard no one teaches you how to deal with emotional aspects of it, how to react when thrown face to face into the battle ring with reality.

Nowadays to even get a minimum wage job without a high school diploma is difficult. Gas is sky high so you can barely get to work, the price of buying homes is constantly increasing, and foreclosures happen on a daily basis. We are often forced into going to college into working that 9 to 5, because as far as we know unless you can act or sing there is just no place for you in this world. But where do we place the people who although equipped with the mental tools to achieve the degree and job, just don’t want to live that life. Who like McCandless can’t bear to sit around and watch people around him suffer and want to get away? I don’t think at any point in time will we not be able to live lives like McCandless because of economic reasons. It is economic reasons that in my perspective are the exact reason people are driven to live that life. Hitch hiking from place to place roaming the backwoods of Wyoming, and mountains of Alaska. If for any reason that lifestyle couldn’t exist in today’s world it would not because of economical reasons but because of the people we are forced to live with, the amount of killers, pedophiles, and rapists seem to be steadily increasing with the years. McCandless lived a life of peace he did what made him happy and didn’t feel pressured to please his parents and take his Emory degree and pursue a career as a doctor. He roamed the world documented his travels and did what he loved everyday. His story is proof money cant buy happiness.

Benetton advertisement

After looking at the photo used in an ad campaign by the clothing company Benetton I feel it was a target at attracting more consumers. While it may have aided in drawing more attention to the disease, I feel marketers looked at this tactic as a money making scheme. By appealing to consumers emotions they were able to sell clothes. After seeing this ad I think it would prompt not only previous consumers but even new ones to stop and look at their clothes. They will want to see who it is that produced this ad and what they have to offer. The picture is something that will stick in their head and also the name printed on the photograph so when people see the name while out shopping they will be tempted to stop and look at the clothes. While some may argue that the company Benetton donated a portion of their profit to an AIDS foundation I feel that what they donated in comparison to what they make is a small amount as it often is in many cases. Even looking at the time period early 90’s where people were more close minded and uninformed about the disease, some may argue it was a big risk to use the ad knowing that people were so against those who had AIDS and afraid of contracting it, makes it an even bigger money making scheme because that right there to me creates controversy and controversy gets you publicity, its nothing more than public attention seeking. I’m sure sales went up after they used this ad, and if sales hadn’t gone up I’m sure the ad would have been immediately removed.