Blogs From 4th Quarter

Over the course of this year, I have learned so many new techniques about blogging, and I think it has tremendously improved. Comparing a blog post from September to one in May, there are many differences seen. One thing that really changed in my blogs throughout this time was being more aware of what was going on around me, and how even the smallest things could turn into a page long blog post, including outside sources and quotes to help prove my point.

At the beginning of the year, I would notice something, quote it, and then be done, but near the end, specifically in the blog post  "Women In Front Of The Camera"  where i took something ordinary that happened in advisory, connected it to an article, and also my junior theme. I think that blog posts like these, with multiple sources backing it up, is the most effective way to prove a point, because it shows that its not just an idea that popped into your head, but instead, something that has been thought out and written about before as well.

Additionally, I think I found a good balance of how long a blog post should be, so that it's short and sweet and to the point, and doesn't drag on too long. Many little changes like that helped shape the progress I have made throughout the year.

"Home Tweet Home"

This morning in the Chicago Tribune, an article in the Real Estate section was talking about how "more real estate agents are turning to social media." It said that now real estate agents are friends with their clients on Facebook, and use that to communicate with them. One interview with Terri McAuley, who is a broker at Koenig and Strey, said that she estimated about 75 percent of her clients have never actually met her in person. With the world of technology emerging, more and more people stop communicating in person or even on the phone, but rather on facebook, twitter, youtube, texting, etc.

After reading this article, I was thinking about the pros and cons to this way of communicating with agents, brokers, etc about important things, such as buying a house. With the internet so easily available, you can much more easily find out information or look at very recently updated listings, and communicate quickly with them, such as through text. However, there is always a risk with never meeting the person who is helping you make such a big investment. There's a lot more room for errors to occur, and it seems a bit laid back to be tweeting and talking to them on Facebook about it. You also get to see into their daily life, as do they into yours.

Do you think this overtake of social media into the real estate business is a good or bad thing? What will it turn into in the future?

Lists, Lists, And More Lists

A few days ago in class, we talked about making lists, and why so many people do it. People were sharing stories from when they were little, like in the Great Gatsby, of lists their parents would make them, lists they made for themselves, etc. I tried to think to myself the last list i had made, and realized i actually did make quite a few. It gives us a feeling of completeness and satisfaction, which is something Americans value. Later that night when I got home, I was packing for a trip, and made a list to make sure i had everything i needed for the weekend. It wasn't until about halfway through making my list that i realized what i was doing, and how often i make check lists of things to do.

There was an article on NPR a few years ago, and it was 10 Reasons Why We Love Making Lists and what it said, which i agree with, is that it helps keep us organized and create as little chaos as possible. Personally, during finals time, i make a list of what im going to study at what time, and it helps me calm down and not stress out as much about whether i have time to study for everything. Being on a timed schedule like that, also helps prevent procrastination, which is something i do a bit too often.Completing a list is something that makes us feel accomplished and finished, and its something we value, rather than having a bunch of stuff to do and never feeling like you complete any of it. Overall, I think list making is something Americans in particular use as a tactic to stay organized and "give ourselves a pat on the back" when we accomplish something.

Women Behind The Camera

While writing my junior theme about the lack of women directors, a statistic i found interesting was how many females are directing documentaries. In one article, it said the ratio of men to women was nearly fifty percent (Silverstein). This made me wonder - why are there so many more women directing documentaries, but then if you look at the number of women directing feature films, they barely make up ten percent? While interviewing Maria Finitzo, one of the many women creating documentaries, she said that "perhaps that is because you don’t make any money directing documentaries, and so the men go for narrative directing." 

This is a valid point, that for the most part, documentaries make less money than top box office hit films, especially in a world where money seems to dominate and is one of the main focuses in many people's lives. Most people want to do something they love, while making a sufficient amount of money - that is the perfect job - but if your passion is directing, wouldn't you much rather direct a movie where you make more money? Most people would answer yes to that question. But for women, where directing is not an easy thing, documentaries can get them much more work opportunities.


But is money the only reason? It's been a question for years, and researchers have found hundreds of statistics, but never a solution to this problem. But what is there to do to fix it?

Women In Front Of The Camera

While researching my junior theme, why there are so few women directors, one idea i came across is that women were wanted in front of the camera rather than behind it in positions such as directing. ""It seems as if historians were primarily interested in women in front of the camera as actors and sex objects" (Link). Women in film, tv shows, advertisements, etc. also have a certain "image" they want to follow, which makes everyone else look like that. A few weeks ago, my adviser was talking about wearing high heals, and how we see a celebrity walking around in them, so we automatically think they wear them around 24-7, so we should do. However, in reality they wear them for twenty minutes during an interview, or just walking down the red carpet. 

While reading another article, it said "The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound" (Link). There is a huge pressure put on celebrities, which then puts the pressure on everyone else. Even in computer or video games and animated childrens movies, this image is already introduced to them. For example, in Disney movies, the size of the princesses are very inaccurate and not proportional at all. Pocahontas is a good example of this. My adviser also brought this up one morning, and how it puts stress on everyone to have their body like this, when it reality it is nearly impossible. 

White Noise In Film

About a month ago, we read the book "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. In the book, there are many common themes brought up throughout, including the importance of media, death, success, and fame. Jack Gladney, the main character, teaches Hitler studies at a local college. This program that he created has brought him much fame and success, which is what he really wanted. A friend of Jack's, Murray, who works at the same college wants to also get the same kind of recognition that Jack is receiving, which is why he wants to start an Elvis department. This fame is very important to both of these men, however there seems to be a lack of recognition going out to the women in the book. Even less important characters, for example Heinrich's friend, Orest, demonstrates a sense of power when he is training to be in the book of world records for sitting in a cage with deadly snakes. This sense of power and strength he shows, as he has confidence that "they wont bite me" (197). Even though this character is far less important to the book, is still a greater power than Babette demonstrates.

Babette, Jack's wife, is very concerned about living a long, healthy life, and is not powerful at all. This lack of power mirrors the lack of power women have in the film industry. For the little over a century that film has been around, the number of female movie directors is a bit pathetic. While doing my research, i learned that it wasn't until 2010 that a woman won best director at the Academy Awards, in which Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurtlocker. I found it interesting that it took over 100 year, and 82 years of the Academy Awards,  for women filmmakers to even be recognized at the Oscars.

The roles between men and women in the book are very different, as the men are very determined, hard working people. For example, Jack's son Heinrich is always interested in everything going on around him and tries to be informed about the world around him. There is not a woman character similar to this in the book, which relates to the film industry, and how the men were always seen as more "sophisticated" for the job of directing.

The way that women appear throughout history has always been similar, as they are usually a less dominate character, and this is portrayed in both the film industry as well as in DeLillo's book White Noise.

Satisfaction.

In my last blog post, i talked about Kony 2012, and how we are interested in it because it is a problem that is somewhere else in the world, relating to a quote in the book White Noise. I also stated how it went so viral because of technology, and how easy it is for you hundreds of facebook friends to see your one shared link, and then for them to share it with all of their facebook friends, and it just keeps going and going. Technology has really helped make things viral, from Kony videos to songs put up on youtube.

What i found interesting about Kony, is how people want to take action after watching a 30 minute video, when they really know nothing more about the subject, except what is displayed in the video. Yes, it makes you want to help make a change, but is buying a bracelet really doing a significant amount? Probably not. In 7th grade in my social studies class, we all bought invisible children bracelets, because we were learning about it in class. Everyone felt like they were making a huge difference by buying one bracelet, and people wore them around for about a month of two at most. Afterwards though, the topic was completely dropped.  No one did anything else to help the cause afterwards, because we all thought that by purchasing one bracelet wehad made a difference, and were satisfied by making a minimal contribution.

We all thought we had helped change Africa, and this bracelet was proof we contributed, because we all wanted a satisfied feeling. We would all most likely feel guilty by not buying one, and it is something Americans are known for. We like to be the "peace makers" of everything, though it doesn't always turn out that way.

Kony 2012

As many of you have probably seen on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and many other websites, Kony 2012 has been a huge topic. Seeing the video tuesday night, I was inspired, as many other people were as well. However, what i found interesting was how viral it went in such a short period of time. Wednesday when i came home from school, the numbers kept increasing of how many people shared the link on facebook. My cousin in Germany had even shared the link.

With technology as advanced as it is today, spreading news has become so much easier. Sharing a simple link on facebook or twitter can do so much, and Kony 2012 has gained so much support through this. This reminded me of in White Noise, when Alfonse said "For most people there are only two places in the world. Where they live and their TV set. If a thing happens on television, we have every right to find it fascinating, whatever it is" (66). This quote is basically saying that we are always interested in learning about catastrophes that are happening other places in the world, as long as they aren't happening to us. We want to take action to help these people in Africa, similarly to when we see videos on the news, etc like in White Noise.

Technology, which is a major theme in the book, as well as it being very prevelent in our everyday lives really helps make people aware of what is going across the world. For videos to spread from country to country in just a few hours, it really has a huge impact on our society, and i think will continue to in years to come.

TV Tokenism: Parks and Recreation

Parks and Recreation:

Leslie Knope, the main character, is the most developed character.

Ann, Chris, Ben, April, Andy, and Ron are supporting roles in the show, but they are also fairly developed, and you learn about their lives outside of the office.

Donna is the only African American, and is least developed of all of them. She receives very little screen time, and you don't know much about her.

Tom is used as the well-dressed "funny man" in the show, who you also don't know a ton about.

Smoking In Asia

Over winter break,  I travelled to Singapore. On our way home, we had a four hour layover in Japan. While sitting in a chair at our gate, I looked over to see a smoking room. During the many hours i was sitting there, i noticed tons of people walking in and out, and was actually surprised by the number of people going in for a smoke, especially since it was early in the morning. I was reminded of this a few days ago, so decided to do some research. What I found out, is that Japan has a fairly high smoking rate, and i came to the conclusion that it's because they are less restricted then most other countries. From statistics, I learned that in 2010, the total smoking rate was 24%, 36.6% of Japanese men and 12.1% of women. Also, it is not as strictly banned in restaurants and public places like we are used to. Upon reading this, I began to wonder if it was just Japan, or other places in Asia as well. 


In Singapore when walking down the main streets, I noticed many more smokers than I was used to seeing walking around downtown Chicago or anywhere else in the country. China also has very high smoking rates, and this is also due to the fact that Japan and China are very large producers of tobacco, and that in some cities, it is even socially acceptable to smoke in public.


In the picture to the left, Japan (purple) is usually the highest, aside from the Netherlands (red) a few times. Why do you think the Netherlands has such a high percentage? What other factors do you think attribute to why smoking rates are significantly higher in Japan and Asia in general? 

Don't Do The Crime If You Can't Do The Time

Looking through the Chicago Tribune website, there was a list of articles that went on for pages and pages. When looking at the context of each article, i noticed a similarity throughout. In the first ten articles alone, six of them had to do with people being sent to prison. This made me think of back to last week in class, when we were learning about the Civil Rights Movement, and how there are more people in prison now then there were back then. 


That was a statistic that shocked me. Learning about that time period back in elementary and middle school, for every violent occurrence i was taught, i would hear how many African Americans were arrested. The numbers just seemed incredibly high to me, and i always assumed it had lowered down from that time. In reality though, the numbers jumped from 350,000 in the 1970s, to nearly 2 million people in prison today. 


While reading different causes to why the numbers are so high, one explanation was because the United States has longer sentences than everywhere else in the world. One example i read, is that  the average burglary sentence in the United States is 16 months, compared to 5 months in Canada and 7 months in England. My opinion on this though, is better safe than sorry, and i think keeping people in prison longer would usually be better. A study was done showing that within three years of being released, 67% of ex-prisoners re-offend and 52% are re-incarcerated. From these statistics, wouldn't you rather have people in prison for longer, even if that means we're known as having the highest incarceration rate in the world?

It's All About The Internet

After coming home from school today, I was sitting at my kitchen counter trying to think of a blog idea, when my mom tells me I should check the newspaper from today. And what was my response? "Nah, i'll just look at newspapers online." What i found interesting from this was how my mom suggests the printed newspaper, while i of course say it's easier to just look online. Immediately after saying that line, I began to think about the huge generational gap between my mom and i. Her generation is so used to everything being in print, while we look to the internet to find a news article. Another example of the different between our generation and our parent's, is the world of texting.


I'm sure many of us have been through the painful moments of watching our parents try to type out a text. For my mom, she will tell me to go "email my friend" when in reality, she means text. This mixup between the two would probably never happen to us, but our parents got locked into a world of email when computers were becoming popular, and they still stick with that. However, would you go send an email to a friend to invite them to dinner or ask them a question? Probably not.


And like with most things, there's a negative side to this. One of the obvious ones, that is playing a role now, is illegally downloading music. This increase in technology has brought the music industry down significantly. Not only is the downloading off of websites hurting it, but also sites like pandora, where you can listen to songs for free, so then what's the purpose of buying it? I, like many, have a pandora app on my phone, where i can listen to it anywhere, anytime, so why would i go to iTunes and download the song for a dollar?


What's your opinion on this? Do you think this is just going to continue to get worse, with more and more websites and apps come out, making it easier to listen to music without purchasing it?

Womens Rights

In class lately, we have been coming up with plans on how to "reconstruct the reconstruction" that occured after the Civil War. One of the groups made a point that they wanted more equality between men and women, because since we know what happens in the future, that problem does not get fixed for many years, and in fact, is still something we are dealing with today. While sitting in art class yesterday, we were assigned to think of sayings that had to do with the word "bone." People were shouting out examples, like "throw him a bone" or "he doesn't have a bad bone in his body." Something i noticed about what everyone was saying, is that they always used the word "he" or "his" or "him." Not once did someone say "SHE doesn't have a bad bone in HER body." I found this very interesting, and it helped to prove my point, that there still is a huge difference between men and women today.

Though women have gained many rights throughout the years, like the ability to vote, work, etc, there is still a hidden feeling that men are ranked higher than women. In recent years, we have even had women run for president, which definitely shows how far we have come, seeing as women at one point were supposed to stay at home and work around the house, not run for president, or even get a job at all! However, there is still the issue of generically referring to men, when talking about an unspecified person. What i wonder, is will this ever change? Will there ever be a time where men and women are truly equal?

Harsh Conditions

Today in class we briefly talked about the factory conditions people around the world are working in to make our clothes. The idea of the factory conditions has come across my mind a few times, but i had never thought much about it, until now. Searching through google to find out the "Nicaraguan factory conditions" since the sweater i was wearing was made there, i began to really think about the horrible lives they are living.


This brought me to thinking about the scenes i have seen in movies, and how it is probably very close to reality, while when i was little and would watch movies with these scenes, i never connected that people were still living like this. In the factory in Nicaragua, for example, the monthly salary is $130. I couldn't find the exact hours per day they worked, but i can only assume it was very long, meaning they get paid barely anything per hour.

This led to me think about the sweatshops around the world, including still in America. I never really considered how badly workers are treated even in this country. I was reading an article about sweatshops in LA, where the women were working 12 hours a day in horrible conditions, surrounded by rats and other rodents. To just think that these conditions take place all around us is shocking to think about, and has made me wonder, how can we stop it. Of course we need all the clothing being produced, but there has to be a better way to make them.

Its all about AP

As course selection for next year begins, students are in a frenzy to figure out how many AP classes they can possibly fit into their schedule. Especially at New Trier, everyone wants to take as many as possible, and a lot of the time, it is used as a bragging right. People taking five AP classes love to go around complaining about the homework load they have, or how hard their classes are, when in reality, why are they in those classes then? Of course APs look good for college and help avoid taking some classes in college, but they also seem to put students through too much stress.


While reading an article from a little over a year ago and also thinking about this a lot, it seems that many people are just taking these classes to say they have, even if it is not a class they are prepared to take. Many take these classes and struggle a lot, but are hesitant about dropping down, because they like the idea of being in an AP.


This relates back to the expectations set upon us as students. As a country as a whole as well as from our parents, town, and school, it is stressed that we should take AP classes. These being the hardest classes offered at our school, everyone wants us to reach the top, which is ultimately what taking an AP class means. It shows that you are 'smart enough' to handle these rigorous classes, and also shows you challenge yourself, when in reality, many that take APs are being challenged in their normal 3 level classes, but still feel the need to move up. Many students want to take these classes to live up to the expectations set upon us.

Meta-Blog Post

While looking through my old blog posts, a reoccurring theme that kept popping up was the idea of competition and always becoming the best. I have always found this topic of the American goal, and what we want in our future very interesting. It is something that everyone can connect to, because no matter how wealthy a person is, everyone has a similar goal, and it's always to get more. No matter how wealthy one is, it's never good enough. There is always a better job they want, or a better education, etc.


This is an idea that was discussed extensively in our class, and that I reflected on a lot at home as well. One of my first blog posts, "Finding The Right School," focused on "The many choices we are given when choosing a college, as well as the competition involved in that." Being one of my first posts, it was not as developed as i would have made it now, and i didn't have any other sources, besides mentioning a Thoreau reading discussed in class. Though this post does relate to a larger theme in our country, outside sources were always and still are a struggle of mine while blogging. It is something that i continue to work on today, however i think i have improved a lot, and am now including other sources, articles, etc that relate to my post.


As the year progressed, I continued to write blog posts that connected to the competition we all experience in the US. Another that i wrote, called "What's Next?"once again brings up the topic of competition, but this time referencing the kindle, and when there is a limit on the technology invented, and "if we would ever take it too far." We always seem to need something better, which relates back to the idea of competition. Lastly, my most recent post, "Cometition and money - our main focus"once again focuses on reality shows, and how they are all about the competition. Throughout all of my posts, i think these 3 posts show my improvement the most, especially because they are on a topic i find very interesting.


The blog posts in between those three do not reflect my best work, mainly because they would just be about something i find on a news site, or something i hear about somewhere that are random. The ones about the goals we have as American's are the ones that i have the most knowledge on, and it therefore reflects in my writing. In the future, i hope to broaden the topics i blog about, but also make sure they are something i am very interested in, because those seem to show my best writing compared to the others.

Competition and Money - our main focus

In our world, and specifically America, competition has been becoming more and more important everyday. Looking through the channels on my t.v. trying to find something to watch, i couldn't help but notice how many shows were about competition. Shows like "cupcake wars" "top chef" and "next great baker" all have a prize the contestants are trying to win; and it's usually money. Reading an article about when all these shows became popular, i learned that it began around 2000, when the shows "survivor" and "big brother" premiered. These shows were a huge success, seeing as one of the main focuses in our country is both competition and wealth. In fact, by 2003 the Emmys had created an award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.

In our world where these two ideas are very prominent, many shows like these become popular because we are interested in these topics. Even with a topic like "Paris Hilton's My New BFF," they still have more than one season of the show, meaning there must have been a fair amount of viewers in order to last longer than one season.

While reading another article dating back to 2001, it stated "Reality TV allows Americans to fantasize about gaining status through automatic fame. Ordinary people can watch the shows, see people like themselves and imagine that they too could become celebrities by being on television. It does not matter as much that the contestants often are shown in an unfavorable light; the fact that millions of Americans are paying attention means that the contestants are important." This is saying that another reason us Americans are hooked on reality shows, is because the contestants, though they are shown in bad light sometimes, whether they have an embarrassing fall in "Wipeout" or make a huge mistake on a cooking show, the t.v. exposure is all they care about.

This idea of competition for money is very exposed in our world today, and it is reflected through the many t.v. shows we have about this topic.