Stuff

            Corporations have become so large that they seem to run our country or other countries. Their agendas are to mass produce the product at the lowest cost possible. Our items for the most part are made in third world countries where resources and labor costs are imaginably cheap beyond believe. A level far below what we in America call poverty. These corporations extract the natural resources from these countries to produce products.

        Products which are made relatively cheap, because it is mass produced by stripping the land of natural material and using the labor force in those countries where most get paid a days wage what we get paid for an hour. Corporations who operate in other countries do not have the regulations which we have put into effect in America, which help to protect our enviorment and a standard of living; even though low. We as the consumer have created this atmosphere. We allow this because we would rather pay next to nothing for something than to pay our weeks salary for it. Most of these products are inferiorly made as there is no quality control, therefore forcing us to buy that product again. Too most of us it would still be cheaper than paying an exhorbenant amount. Allowing this we strip the earth of its many resources, we pollute our water and air, we bring our quality of living down.

         What we as the consumer should do is stop buying products which are made elsewhere and buy what is made here. Forcing the corporations to pay living wages, to learn to recycle products therefore helping to stem waste, stop polluting our enviorments, and bringing the quality of life up for all.    

Test day

   Arriving an hour early December 2, 2010  to take the CAT, I found out that the room was not yet accessible. I then parked my butt on the bench in the hall, where i double checked my pockets to make sure that i did not lose the pens and pencils that i put there before i trekked here. Relieved that they were still there i went to the computer lab to pratice with vocabulary at FreeRice.com in order to keep my mind from wandering until the room opened.
 
   I returned to the room a short time later; say around 5:30, took a seat and waited for the handout of the CAT by the proctor. The class was instructed to fill out the required paperwork before being able to read the article. I was estatic when told to read the passage. It was about hard economic times, something with which i relate to very well.  I went home knowing i had finally written one beautifully structured essay.               

Google

     Constant use of electronic devices such as the Internet or phones can cause a persons brain to go numb. As the Author Nicholas Carr points out in his article, " Is Google Making Us Stupid " ; information at a blink of an eye bombards the brain with so much data that we lose the ability to concentrate.  I believe this to be true, our train of thought and ability to think clearly are scattered all over the place as we use devices like these. Devices most of us require or need in order to go about our daily lives.

         I for one know first hand the ill effects of constantly using the Internet. Since becoming Chief of the   the Dept. of Buildings Queens office in 2004 I have noticed that my concentration has slipped, my memory wanned. This position required me to constantly be on the phone and the internet. Information that is  required  immediately so i can make certain assertions in order to make the correct decissions. I believe that this information should be readily availble, but only for emergency situations and not the like of the public some politician who feel their tax dollars demand they can have it now. From that year on my mind has zipped through any and all information regarding my work, but for my personal life  my mind has been a decelarated mode, as if stuck in one gear whenever i attempt to think on other issues in my life.  Only now, as of late, have I taken back my thoughts; by scaling  back the amount of time on the internet.

    The Internet with it's search engines such as Google provide us with information at the touch of a button. Information which was meant to help society function proficiently, helping us in performing our daily tasks. The concern is we have accepted the use of this technology into our lives in order to work, chat or just zip through the web. We as a people should limit ourselves to their usage, we should not rely on them but use them to our advantage. Technology is advancing and companies like Google push their products; selling  the next best thing to help you in your life. All this iinformation is not going to make us any smarter. It may however create a generation of people who cannot process a thought. If  we dont want to become that generation we should all take the time to read or sit and meditate to develope and intrigue our minds                                 

Blog 4.1 not finished

   Reading the article "Rewired" by the author, Larry Rosen, (Ph.D.) I can relate to his statement. Technologies such as the internet and mobile devices are teaching tools for todays kids. Tools which should be allowed but only in a structured enviorment. Where the parents enforce ground rules allowing their usage as it is part of this generations social life. Just as our generation had theirs we should allow them theirs just as my brother now allows his daughter to have.

    Children today are very knowledgable around technical gadgets. These gadgets have become a way of life for this generation which they now call Gen X. I wonder why? Maybe it's because technology is advancing so rapidly, changing the way we perceive things by touting the newest model or program to help us with our daily lives. Kids want what others have and there parents buy it for them. Everywhere you look there is a kid spending a lot of time with some form of technology. Take for example the new Blackberries with its expanded memory capacity and battery life. A multi use gadget which can take and send pictures through the internet, text, and download information all in a blink of an eye. I believe this to be an essential  learning tool as we are always entering into an ever changing landscape for the way we live and work. I don't agree however on their usage; spent sitiing around playing with all these different types of technolgy. Doing so can increase health concerns such as vision  problems when one has to look at glaring fine print. The possiblity of obesity is another concern when one has such a sedentary lifstyle. Larry Rosen came up with up formula in his book "Rewired" to allow kids to

Parents must involve themselves and limit the exposure their kids have, they need to structure what, when, where their kids can along with other acvtivities. I dont believe they should  take away from them their social life by not allow the usage of technolgy.

         My brother Brian, has a daughter who is uses different technologies. My niece Emily, now 14 is now faring better than the prior years. Aboout two years ago she was constantly using on the inernet and her I-Phone. When ever i would stop by she would come out say hello and then disappear . I actually found it amazing how she could spend so much time chatting on the internet as well as the phone . I would go as far to say multitasking because she was also doing her homework. Emily started to slack off in her grades, she was putting on weight do to no activities because she never ventured outside. My brother eventually put his foot down and structured a way for her to use her phone and the internet keep abreast with her friends. He allowed her enough time for her social life after her studies were complete. Her grades have really improved, she is graduated with honors. My brother help structure an enviorment by allowing her to continue her social life as long as she met certain criteria which he laid out.


  Technology has advanced us in so many ways and is always moving forward. Children today have to maintain their social lives as we did ours and they should not be prohibited We as parents need to provide direction. As parents we have to structure what , where and when they can use technology.                
            

newschool099: CATW # 5

newschool099: CATW # 5: " In the article ' How to do One Thing at a Time' by Nancy Jones in Women's health magazine, the author begins to explain that a lar..."
She understood the article and has made the claim by agreeing with the author . She quotes two studies and uses two examples but tends to lose the thought by not explaining correctly . Sentence structure needs some work ( to long or  run on sentences ). Grammer needs a little attention. overall i can make sense of her essay.     

Fast food 3.5

          It is true that you are what you eat. The author points out vividly that the poorer neighborhoods are riddled with fast food restaurants. Food loaded with high levels of fat, colesterol, and salt. Food which is relatively cheap to buy. This quality of food is usually consumed by children and the poor regulary and eating like this can cause many health related issues.

        These restaurants as the author Greg Crister spoke about in "Let Them Eat Fat" such as Mcdonalds, Krispy Kreme and others like Kentucky Fried Chicken use advertising specials to entice the public. To a work force that discharges around five or six o'clock; or school children going home from school. They are prevelant in society by being everywhere, especially in your poorer neighborhoods. You can even find them    in highly populated work or tourist areas. Their food is cheap and readily available. Advertisement is explicitely done ,offering specials, such as more for less , supersize for a few pennies more, or all you can eat deals. People who live in these poorer neighborhoods don't have supermarkets offering a variety of wholesome food. So they purchase what is readily available; that which is forced upon them through advertising gimmicks.

       A person who lives in a poor neighborhood would have to travel far, sometimes into another borough or county to buy healthy food. I could vouch on that fact, because i have had to do just that many a time when working in neighborhoods which were poor. I would have to travel into an upscale community to get a healthy meal. I at least could afford to do that. Most of these supermarkets are in upscale communities. so even i f a person from the poorer community could travel they probably would not very often be able to afford the cost because of the location it is at. This is why fast food restaurants set up more in your poorer neighborhoods and why your chain supermarkets don't open up in these communities. It is a matter of their bottom line.

      This bottom line has become a big business for fast food restaurants. They force their products through advertisements and your poorer communities buy them as they dont have quality supermarkets to buy  wholesome healthy food. Food which the goverment states a person should have from the four basic food groups. We know well to often that when a person eats poor their health deteriorates; becoming ill; catching virus and diseases. Children don't develope and grow strong. Obesity and heart disease has been on the rise. These restaurants will not relent in pushing their products even on the behest of nutrionists.Goverment should intervene in either forcing restaurants such as Mcdonaldsand the like to offer healthier choices at a cheap cost or give incentives to the chain supermarkets to open up business. Until then more and more of the children and poor in your diadvantaged communities will become unhealthy, especially children. That is not a good start for a child.                

Meatrix 3.4 Summary 2

        The illusions that the corporations give us through advertisement make you believe that their products are produced on a small farm by a farmer; say, named John Pickle. Advertisers portray a senerio where his cows are but a few, feed in the pasture every morning and then milked by him or member of his family. That the chickens eggs are picked up daily from a meticulous hen house. In reality what happens is not what is shown to the eye but by information released from insiders to the public. Where artifical growth hormones ( which are banned in Europe and Canada ) are given to farm animals to have them  grow larger and produce more. How unsanitory the conditions are from overcrowding and craming of cows into confined spaces where their excrement is pumped to our land and streams infecting our water supply and spreading the chance of  hoof disease , salmonella, cholrea and so on. Diseases we thought we basically eradicated. Take for example the recent  breakout of mad cow disease in England which had been spread recently due to feeding farm animals with by products of other farm animals which were infected with the disease. People were becomining ill and dying with a form of spongevirus and it was later tracked back to the beef and the way it was processed. The country had to slaughter thousands of cows and a ban was put in place to not by any beef from England.         

Meatrix 3.4 Summary 1

      Farming  has become a big business for corporations. The way of the small farms in the old days is slowly disappearing. Corporations have been squeezing alot of farmers to sell their land so they can enlarge their stake in farmland in order to mass produce for a greater market capitolization. Mass production may have intended to be a way to satisfy the ever growing population, but it has gone astray. Animals are forced to reproduce, then coraled into cramped quarters, pumped with steriods and antibiotics in order to produce bigger stock. Chickens lay more eggs, cows are producing more milk and beef, calfs are strapped and hung to keep their bodies tender to produce veal. The mass production of pumping drugs into farm animals has begun to have serious consequences. Bacteria and virus have mutated and become resistant to the drugs meant to help us. The human population as a whole can now become infected with new drug resistant strains because of greed.   

CAT # 3

     Sticks and Stones may break my bones and hurt me but words will evidently kill you hold true as this article would suggest. As in the old days when someone was an outcast they would have been picked upon and physically beaten up in the street or a playground. Typically over something mundane as being a nerd, a social outcast. Back then they would have lived with it, as only those in the neighborhood would know of  what transpired and why. When someone puts pen to paper and spews vicious words it can be detrimental to the mental health of the person being attacked.

      One such instance i can recall that made headline news around the world is the "Columbine High School Massacre". This happened on April 20,1999, where two stundents; Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went beserk killing 12 students and injuring about two dozen other students and teachers. These two students had become social outcasts, they were not in any cliques, they frequently bullied and picked on for being who they were or were not. Years of mental abuse caused them to become secluded in their own world, a world of violent video games and gun magazines. Possibly delusional from this abuse they decided who should die. This day in April they came to school to take the lives of those who made life difficult for them. They then  killed themselves. Bullying others as was done to these two students not only took their lives but that of others in their path.

         As the professor John Suler has suggested in the online book "The Psychology of Cyberspace", " people say and do things on the cyberspace that they wouldnt orduinarily say in a face to face world."  I believe that to be so true as i have said some harsh words to people, which would cut that person right down to the bone; emotionally, menatally. When i was in my early twenties. I've seen that person, a co worker of mine become so disheveled, distraught over the mocking words i said; words that were said amonst his peers and friends. Those words had a lasting effect on him as most of his friends were not friends anymore. No, he did not attempt to kill himself, but he was seriously depressed, alone and secluded.

The authors' Jake Simms and Larry Magid note in their article that whether its a case of defamation, outing, joking or just being plain mean, cyberbullying can inflict mental anguish which can haunt that victim forever. As what seems to have happened to a teenage high school girl recently. She was outed over the internet on facebook about being easy, a slut, that she would have sex with anyone. She became so depressed she attempted suicide. The internet reaches the masses and can change a person mentally, not knowing that someone you never met knows what was said about you.

A bully gets satisfaction from seeing others quiver and in the old days it was physical. Nowadays the mental anguish of words or video posted through cyberspace can have a profound effect on the victim as we really don't know the their state of mind and if they can deflect what was said . it is said when someone takes their life 

                                          

Claims, Reason, Evidence

Personal electronic devices:

Blackberry,  computers  cell phones  walkie talkies nextel radios  gps extremely handy annoying accessibility
instant information, distorted,  interuptions, cut off, poor signals, convienence, work related,  time warp, large data storage, stolen inrofmation

Claim:  Is society annoyed with its PEDs as much as the love affair it has for wanting the next new one.

Claim:  Has society gone mad with its love hate relation to PEDs


Reasons: 1. People love their computers especially to chat, but freak out even go ballistic when it freezes up
               2. Cell phones are such a convienence these days that they drive people crazy over lost signals                    of an important conversation. Or of distorted voices where the information meant something
                    else.
               3. Knowledge is readily obtained from the large data storage (memory) that PEDs have but can be
                    if the system crashes.
               4.

Chris: Fourth Lab: A Coppertop's Life Artifacts

Chris: Fourth Lab: A Coppertop's Life Artifacts: "Hello Dr.X I was trying to put in the pictures for each of my 250 word blog entries but I dont get why it wont paste. I will ask u this on M..."

Reading blog: A Coppertop's Life Artifacts

Reading blog: A Coppertop's Life Artifacts: "To much TV for kids,even the TV gets sick when he watches the same person for hours, but we don't. I picked this picture because almost eve..."

Three Artifacts #3

Looking to date and chatting with another person online may be a form of communication. Ferretting out the information you share to see if you are compatible can leave one in another realm. When that person describes themselves to you that they are 6 foot, 190 lbs.,good looking, physically fit and posts a photograph of themselves for you to see. You  visualize this person with whom you are talking with, so you agree to a date. When you finally meet the person you envisioned you realize it was all an illusion created by the perpetraitor.  Others may not care what anothers appearance is or even that they have lied. The illusions that are fabricated can be dangerous; as one does not know the delusions of the other person.  Before online chatting and dating people socialized and engaged with others. Online chatting is now allowing more in  society to become socially inept . A person never leaves their enviorment. http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6dd080e255/online-dating     

Three Artifacts #2

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009_swimsuit/more/cover.html
Photography was once a true image of the subject being taken.
Now photographs which are taken of the original subject are then brushed to enhance the image. These images are made to appeal to the public. For example in the Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated, the model poses to show off the swimsuits. Their natural bodies are then brushed showing their skintone basically flawless. Their bosoms are enlarged to attract people but as we all know, this is not exactly what the model looks like.
The advertisers here, create an illusion in order to sell their magazines and the clothing that the models wear. The reality is that people reading these magazines believe this is the norm. This is bad because it affects the self esteem. People think they have to be thin and they have to look perfectly flawless when in essence people are imperfect.
The male population, after looking at the photographs believe that every woman should basically look as beautiful as this. And they go out into the world looking for this beauty but are disappointed as to what they find because this is not reality. Women then feel they are not up to par and they don't meet the man's standard because of brushed photos like this.
Young children growing up also learn these traits of their fathers, brothers or friends and they believe that they should have a woman as beautiful as in the magazine not realizing that a woman next to them is as beautiful as the photo. And they are losing out on finding that someone.

Truman Syndrome diagnosed

         Life does imitate art as the author suggests in his article, "Truman Syndrome diagnosed". Some of us enjoy living vicariously through others and visualizing ourselves as that person; becoming the star in our world.  Most people though, awake from that moment, that delusion; as we are able to differentate our true lives from that realm. For others life seems to be a reflection of what they perceive to be real. Everything around them is a stage and they are the main character. Where reality and illusion coincide with each other. In the studies, the subjects struggle to seperate reality and illusion. Is this life  they lead a delusion caused by a want of  fame or a paranoia due to a mental illness or breakdown.

My youngest brother, Vinny would be a good example of someone who could be diagnosed with such delusions.  His reality was that he thought everyone including myself was out to fool him.  In essence his own mind played these scenarios. Vividly believing everything someone said as if it was his own story.  A story which a friend of his spoke of turned out to actually become my brother's. My sister in passing conversation recently spoke about his delusions. Telling me in detail how my marriage with my wife is actually his. Vinny lives his life through others' stories. Much of his fabricated reality though  is due to the effects brought on by drugs and alcohol.

       I  believe that just as the author has stated, that drugs  play an important role on the growing number of people portraying a Truman syndrome personality. In a day and age when advertisement is forced upon us our minds become susceptable; especially when on alcohol or drugs.                      

Three Artifacts

http://www.rockstargames.com/IV/#undefinedVideo games can sharpen cognitive and motor skills but many times they create a virtual simulation of reality; where one believes they are actually there in the game. Played often enough some believe that the game is what their life is. Take for example Grand Theft Auto. Gamers who played this game repeatedly where often found to have acted those same senerios when not playing the game. They were unable to differentiate between the game and reality. In there minds life was the game and the game was life.  We should also take a look at the Wii game. hardware made for the game allows one to interact with the game as if it was real.

Warrior Archetype

    Always felt  i should be fighting for what is right. That good will always prevail over evil, right will triumph over wrong. I look at things in black and white, not the color that many people see or want. Standing in the trenches leading and fighting for my believes, defending those who need to be stood up for. Born into the world at a time where character and integrity meant something and was taught to me by my father. My father always helped those who needed it, and i;  i try to do the same. A warrior is one that steps forward to do battle. Sometimes with weaponry and often in the line of fire, with or without a plan of action, but with no hesitation.  People respect me for they see that i stand up for others, that i lead by example.                 Warriors lead the charge and will not stop until victory has been achieved.

        Take for example the character that John Wayne portrays in many of his movies. Such as in McQ. Here he is a police detective investigating the murder of his friend. The investigation leads him to find that narcotics and corruption was at all levels of the department. Here he soon finds out that he is just not fighting the mob and protecting the public from them, he now goes to war with the police force and the friends he once thought stood for the same values, to battle wrong, to protect the innocent from harm.       

Truman 1.4

         
The Truman Show is a movie about a man who tries to find himself in a life scripted for him since birth. Watching The Truman Show for the first time the other night, I began to see how most of us in society are puppets or prisoners in some fashion or another. We go about our daily lives performing tasks we learned from the moment we could speak and walk. Our way of thinking is skewed because we are brainwashed to see things the way others want you to perceive them. Our parents, our employers, advertisers and let us not forget big brother, our government with its no good politicians push their own agendas.

Our minds are bound by the information given to us. Instead of exploring the world outside ourselves, we are chained to the lives which have been given to us. Women, for example, were taught to believe that the only jobs they could obtain were housewives, cashiers or seamstresses in a man’s world.  Now they have jobs as CEOs of corporations. They own their own businesses and they manage as single parents in families. Even now as an employee of the City of New York, I know I am bound by the rules and regulations that are forced upon me. These rules inhibit me from helping people because if I don’t enforce them, I could lose my job.

The Truman Show is a reflection of Plato's Allegory of the Cave.  Both Truman and the captives are prisoners in their own world; a world that was made for them.  When one day, they realize that there is another world outside the world they know. In Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners only know life presented to them by the shadows on the wall. When one prisoner was freed from his chains, he left the cave and saw the sun, sand and trees.  He was awed by the magnificence of the landscape so he ventured back into the cave to tell the other captives to come with him. However, they thought he was crazy so he left them in the cave because he knew there was a better world outside. 

Like the freed prisoner in Allegory of the Cave, Truman also believed that there was a better world outside.


     

HERO 1.2

        Awoken at five o'clock in the morning by a thunderous roar to find that the sun is just starting to rise, that there is not a cloud in the sky. I then realize it was the rumbling from a dream that woke me. Starting the day off early by jumping into a cold shower as it is an extremely hot and humid morning. Ready to go to work  i leave my abode. Crossing that thresshold which was my safe haven into the realm of uncertainty. The road that i take on my journey begins by traveling on the iron horse.
          HereI cross the thresshold as i descend into a dark subterrain where every morning lurks the unknown. Species of the human race who push into one another craming themselves in like sardines in a can. The selfish, inconsiderate who look the other way; like what happened to me this day, where an elderly woman who inevitable needed a seat. I in turn attempting to give her mine had been intentionally taken up as i vacated the seat. An extremely arrogant mid thirtyish female who happened to get in my face with her attitude when i told her that the seat i got up from was for this elderly woman. She didn't seem to care basically telling me too bad; " i am in this seat now ". Becoming infuriated I grabbed ahold of her arms, picked her up from the seat so the elderly woman was able to sit. The rest of the human race applauded after seeing what had transpired, and that thirthy something year old female, she didnt say another word. She actually stood by the doors waiting; evidently embarrassed or humiliated and exited the iron horse as it pulled into the station.
              Arriving at my destination; the jobsite, being the restoration and reconstruction of a stone behemonth high above the concrete jungle below. Every morning a discussion is held with the men as to what  the day's  workload will be. This morning was no different than any other except we were short on man power. My brother; Brian, who also worked with me on this project was alright working alone and went on to perform his work. The day had progressed along beautifully repairing the behemonths frame, removing decayed sections in preparation for its new parts to maintain character and stability. The next few minutes although were very harrowing. That thunderous roar that awoke me just happened again, but i am wide awake now and wondering were it occured. My brother then just yells out for help. Immediately i spring into action and over to where he was working. The platform he was on while being suspended had given way on the one end. Brian was now dangling on that same end. I rushed for rope, secured it and sent over two lines; one for myself and the ot other for the platform. I propelled over the side of  stone behemoth and tied the platform off with the other line. My brother then grabbed a hold of me and tied in. We propelled down about forty feet to safety. Hearts still racing ,adrenaline still pumping i now realize what that thunderous roar was. It was a premonition of what was to pass,but didn't have the final outcome because i was awoken prior.
            Standing up for others when they need it shows your integrity. Being respected for it is priceless and heartfelt.  Acting spontaneously and saving my brother s life was the real reward for me. I still have him around to cherish, to talk with and laugh aloud just as we did when we returned to my abode. We drank and remanist about the past and the future never alone.
               

Tecnology

             The different types of technologies that i have to interact with everyday do have an impact on my life today, but i dont believe that would be the case for each piece of technology which i have. Technology has advanced us in ways most of us would not have imagined and i believe i wouldn't be able to get by without the use of my television or phone.
              First , i have 2 cell phones; one being my personnel phone the other which is for work has a direct connect radio. I also have 2 computers one being my laptop and the other the agency network. To start off, at work the computer and the phone are basically glued to my hip for the majority of the day. Here i am required to have them per the protocal and procedures of the agency which i am employed by. The phone or radio give me instant access to the employees under my direction. The computer and its vast data base permit me to obtain required and personnel infromation at the touch. These types of technologies are in essence a blessing to have especially when an immediate response is required for either party. A case in point would be when a few years ago the agency was notified of a of a building vibrating. This is considered a priority and i had to dispatch an inspector already in the field immediately The dirct connect phone was used. the inspector arrived on scene moments later. He then had to relay back to me for immediate assistance as that vibration was due to work at the job site next door, which was in the excavation stage. this excavation caused a serious crack in the building next door and we had to vacate the structure due to a possible collapse. The agency's computer was  used to retrieve pertainant information, to send emails to other agencies to halt mass transit that was nearby, to have construction equipment and material delivered expediately. Here i could not have completed these tasks efficiently without the use of technology which makes me dependant upon it.