Finally!

This past week the NFL commissioner, Roger Goodell, and the NFL referees came to an agreement in order to bring back the official NFL refs. This action was taken after yet another week of poorly reffed games. The replacement refs that Goodell brought in to take the place for the NFL refs were sadly unprepared and were not ready for football's biggest stage.

Over the past four weeks the NFL has been plagued with bad calls culminating in the one on September 24th's Monday night game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers. This bad call was that of awarding the Seahawk's receiver, Golden Tate, a touchdown on the final play of the game giving the seahawks a win. This play was 'upheld' after official review when it should have been an interception.

The Green Bay Packers may not appreciate it but the rest of the league and the fans blew a sigh of relief this past week when an agreement was reached with the official NFL referees.

I look forward to watching much better officiated games the rest of the season and hope that my team, the Indianapolis Colts, are not robbed of a game like the Packers were.

Have a Great Day!

Over Time

Over the 4 weeks here at campus some of the skills and abilities that I have developed are that of time management, and preparation.

The time management aspect has really developed in the fact that I have started to use the awkward breaks in between classes to get work done instead of sitting around and wasting a half hour to a hour. This has built up and I now realize how important it has become because it allows things to be broken into not so time consuming of tasks.

The preparation ability which I have been developing here in college is that of being prepared for the next class by keeping up with the syllabus. I realize now that the teachers will not always give you a heads up on what will be due soon or needs to be read for next class. This caused me to fall behind in the beginning but now that I'm getting a hang of it I am able to be prepared for what is coming.

My ability to manage time better and to be prepared will help me to give appropriate amount of time to work on it by knowing how to set up my schedule for the next week or so.

Have a great day!

Typing on a phone

Something that I have never done before is writing on a smart phone. I figure that since phones have become such a large part of our culture now I figured might as well try it. I find that it is extremely challenging for me to do as my fingers are not accustomed to typing or texting on a phone. I have reached a whole new level of frustration as my big fingers don't fit on the keyboard and I accidentally keep pressing buttons.

Well I guess now that I tried it I know it is not something I want to spend my time doing

Have a great day!

Johnson or Stevens?

After having read both Johnson and Stevens articles I have come to the conclusion that Johnson may be right in that modern TV is more cognitively challenging than older TV in that it has more plot threads. I do like Stevens point that the same old Starsky and Hutch are still enjoyable to watch again even though it is so supposedly simple.

I still have a problem with accepting Johnson's idea that more complicated shows have made us smarter by watching them. I agree with Stevens in that watching more complicated shows has made us better at tracking with the more complicated shows and not necessarily with life in general.

Pop Culture

There is a sad situation which is going on right now in the world. The dumb choice of a couple people are causing the deaths and injury to people and property.
I don't know if people have heard but there was a guy who made a movie about the life of the Islamic prophet Mohammed and it has a caused a lot of uproar. The movie mocks and insults the prophet which has caused a huge backlash. There have been riots in numerous countries where the American embassies have been attacked and other such as the German embassy and a nearby British mission.
several people have died because of this one persons decision to make this movie. It makes me extremely sad about both the decision by the movie creator and the people who have decided to take out their anger on people who have nothing to do with this mans decision and have in no way supported it.

It makes me extremely sad that people's lives have been lost because of this.

The truth about first drafts

I think that Anne Lamont's advice in the reading is understandably right for me. Sometimes you just have to get what you're thinking out on paper to help you realize that either you are on the right track or you need to completely change your direction. Another thing about getting out on paper is that you can begin to re-arrange the ideas so that they do become coherent.

This advice at times is similar to my drafting style when I just can't function mentally, I just get it out on paper so that I can have something to work with.

In the Student A's essay on the TV article I was confused at first by the 1st body paragraph in that I wasn't sure if the student was arguing for or against Johnson's ideas in how the student's last sentence ended. The student however does a good job later in clarifying the argument, being against Johnson's approach.

Just on a personal note on the essay- I don't agree with the student that It's OK for adults to watch the kind of things he mentions as it still has a pull on them even if they think they 'know' or are 'above' it.

Have a great day! 

Pop Culture 2

One thing that I've noticed this past week that is a matter of 'popular culture' is MTVU. This is what has been playing in the cafeteria every time that I go in to McCallie's. What it seems like to me is a bad taste in music being played most of the time and only every now and then will a song that I enjoy come on. It is interesting for me to think that MTV is something that, from what I've gathered, is very popular among other people in my generation. I know that MTV and MTVU is different but still the idea that this TV is popular is hard for me to grasp. I guess it's just not in my taste.


Have a great day.

Preparing For Class Discussion

To prepare myself for class and the class discussions I try to make sure I have covered all the material that has been given to cover, such as reading the prescribed writings and doing assignments. When in class, if I am prepared for the subject, I usually like to get involved in the discussion as it helps to keep me mentally engaged and also the fact that I like for other people to know my thoughts. I know that I like to talk a lot and tell other people what I think in a way that makes it seem like I'm right and so I try to remind myself of that so that I don't hog a discussion to myself. I do notice that class participation helps because when I'm not mentally engaged in the class I find myself lost as to what I need to be doing and how it is done.

Have a great day!

Does watching TV make you smarter? Hmmm

Johnson's 'Watching TV Makes You Smarter' is an article that argues that modern TV is promoting cognitive function in that the plots of modern TV shows for the most part have complex in having multiple story threads to follow as opposed to the older TV shows with few threads or even a single thread to follow. I agree with Johnson in the fact that TV shows are not all easy to follow. There are some, movies included, which are just plain simple and take no cognitive function at all in that they include all the "arrows" that Johnson mentioned. The idea that having complex shows makes you smarter as an individual is stretching it for me. I admit that I enjoy watching on occasion such shows as 24, lost, and the mentalist. I enjoy trying to guess what is going to happen next, however, I don't think this is making me into a smarter individual. Even if it is true that TV may be helping one to exercise your brain but not to a great extent, because even if you have to guess a little bit the answer is eventually provided to the viewer. So even if Johnson is right there must be better substitutes for exercising your brain than trying to count couch entertainment as such.

I almost feel like this article is trying to give an excuse to being lazy and watching TV.

Have a nice day!

Pop culture encounter #1

This past week I went to my first ever live comedy show. It was a lot of fun to be there with a bunch of friends and to be able to walk out the Murphy center quoting the comedians. I went to the Angela Johnson comedy show, which included two former MTSU students who introduced her act with their own small acts. It was enjoyable to go to and I think I may go to another if the opportunity presents itself. 

On another interesting note related to the comedy show, I had never watched MTV or any other show of the sort and so I went to my room and looked up several videos with the popular comedic figure "Bon Qui Qui" who is Angela Johnson's character. It was actually pretty funny and I enjoyed sharing the videos with some of my friends.

Have a great day.