James

The Power That Words Can Have 2-7-14

I believe that it is crucial to be critical about the words we say. A few years ago I wasn't very careful about what I said and who I said it too. Eventually I realized some of the words I said offended some people. Since then I have been very careful about what I say because I don't want to offend anyone. Words are very powerful and can affect people in ways you didn't mean them too. For an example in Brother Ali's article __ [|The Intersection of Homophobia and Hip Hop: Where Tyler Met Frank] __ Tyler the Creator said " What I was too ignorant, and probably too careless, to understand was that using that word was co-signing the narrative that being gay means a person is weak and doesn't deserve respect". When people say things, other people can interpret the meaning of words differently from the person who said them. People say offensive words to add effect to what they are saying but it is really hurtful to many people. In the end it doesn't matter what we mean when we say something. What matters is other peoples interpretation of what you said. This is why we should always be careful about what we say so we don't offend anyone. Words can be very powerful and you can never know what the effects of what you say will be.

[|The Intersection of Homophobia and Hip Hop: Where Tyler Met Frank]

The Affect Clothes Can Have On Others Views 2-21-14

The article [|Clothing for boys...and Girls] explains how manufacturers are still producing sexist clothing products. The example they used was how Marvel manufacturers made sexist t-shirts. The t-shirts suggested that girls need someone to take care of them. The second article [|Wear What Where?]explains how lots of girl's clothing is sexualized. It explains how this clothing affects how people think about them. It also explains many reasons for why girls wear these types of clothes.

What we can #|learn about society from these articles is that society is still very sexist. For example the Marvel t-shirt #|shows how society thinks girls are weak and need to be taken care of and looked after. It also shows that society thinks girls need to look a certain way and where certain clothes. Many companies only sell girl's clothing that is sexualized. It is also a very popular style of clothing and people want to fit in. This is a problem because in the second article Professor Murnen's research indicates people think differently of people #|dresses this way. People think they are less intelligent or not taken seriously.

What Character Traits Should Be Valued? 2-28-14

People who have the characteristics of the standard hero archetype are today's heroes. This includes people like soldiers, policemen, and firemen. Examples of society's ideal characteristics are bravery, loyalty, and patriotism. These are the characteristics that todays hero's have. I believe there are many characteristics that should be valued in society today. The main characteristic that should be valued is self value. I believe everyone should value themselves and try to do what they want to do. The problem that Sinead O'Connor addresses in her [|letter to Miley Cyrus] is that people are trying to alter beliefs about who you are and who you want to be. In the [|first article] Miley calls herself a feminist and says she empowers woman. I disagree with this because I think she isn't doing what she wants to do, she is doing what #|makes money. Jennifer Lawrence addresses, in the [|third article], how these behaviors #|make lots of money. Society thinks success is an ideal character trait. Of course in this case success is defined by #|making lots of money. I believe if you do what you want to do in life, then you are successful. That is why I think being yourself and doing what you want to do should be society's ideal characteristic. These characteristics should not different for different genders. Unfortunately in todays society this is not the case.

Why Beef Nachos Are My Favorite Food 3-14-14

Every time I go to a Mexican restaurant I order nachos. I never get tired of them because I usually have two weeks in between eating them. Beef Nachos are my favorite food for many reasons. The main reason is they are delicious. Another reason is I always have them when I go to my moms house. I go there every other weekend because I usually live with my dad. Since it is the weekend when I eat them it is usually stress free. It is also always at a Mexican restaurant which means there is always chips and salsa to eat first which is also delicious. Whenever I go out to eat with my mom and my step-dad we have very good conversations. We generally have lots of fun together and that is the main reason they are my favorite food. When I say beef nachos are my favorite food I'm not just talking about the food. I am talking about the experience I usually have while I am eating them.

Dakota Senator Phil Jensen 3/23/14

Dakota senator Phil Jensen thinks that businesses should be able to not give business to certain people based on their race or religious beliefs. He claims that since people have the right of free speech and association that it should allow business owners to deny business to people of their choosing. I do not think this should be allowed because it would be like going back to segregation. Instead of segregation however it would apply to anyone the owner of the business didn't like. This is why it would be worse then segregation. He made another argument that if someone did this people would stop going there and the business will eventually shut down. If this was the case than why would you even want to allow business owners to deny business to others. It would be pointless because then you would risk losing customers. This is why I disagree with him and his argument.

Mayor Advertisement Project Reflection 5/12/14

In this project we were assigned a candidate for mayor that we had to make advertisements for. We had to make mailors, a speech, an issue piece, and other forms of advertisement. Our group used the testimonial technique on our mailers because Uncle Phil endorsed our project. We also used positive words to explain who our candidate is. We did this on the mailers and on the speech. We also made a slogan so people would remember who our candidate was.

I think the most challenging part of the project was understanding what we had to do. Many if the things in the list of stuff we had to do weren't fully explained. For example our group didn't know what the issue piece was. Overall the project wasn't hard once we figured out what we had to do. I liked how the project changed on the second day once everyone had something bad about their candidate that they had to address. I think we had enough time in class to do the project and it wasn't very hard.

In the future I will use the techniques I learned in this project to help me with other projects. I liked how you weren't specific about what we had to do. Now when I don't know exactly what we need to do I will be able to figure it out more easily. I can also use these advertising techniques in the future. I will be able to know what ads are trying to make me think so I can evaluate the products more easily.