WJ #12, Mazer Response

Overall, I really do not have a strong opinion on the whole "Power Team" act and how Jacob runs his operation. I have personally seen the performance when I was younger and thought that it was pretty cool. However, our class discussion made me see how some people could find the act troubling. In particular, I enjoyed how Justus brought up the controversial ending of the performance when they ask for the people that have been spiritually moved to, step forward, and than fill out a "Decision Card." The team than sends a card to that person welcoming them to their crusade of spreading the word of Christ's strength. This was very interesting because it represents that some people do/will get left behind by not stepping forward. Another way how I could see this article to be offensive, is how Shazer states "The Team's display of masculine muscularity is derived from, and provides a model of, an idealized Christian Patriarchy." Throughout history, there has been a notion that, only the strong survive. I feel the Power Team's performance supports this idea and that, they try to give their opinion that Christians are not sissy's and in fact, are the strongest in their faith.

In my own opinion, your religious decisions should be made whenever you are capable of forming an educated opinion on religious beliefs. Also, I feel that the stage of life in which a person is exposed to a religion is important. I for one grew up Catholic and was forced to go to CCD every Sunday up until I made my conformation in 8th grade. I never used to enjoy it, but now after becoming older and understanding the world a little better, I can see why it was important for me to go. I think that people go through trials in their lives and that they deal with these trials through a set of personal beliefs that allows them to cope and understand why things happen. I did not agree with all of Sharon Mazer's opinions's, but I did listen to them and respect what she thinks as an individual.

WJ #11 Reaction to Sedaris

"A plague of tics" is exactly how I can explain living with that condition; a plague. Through my entire life I have struggled with impulse tics, and Sedaris captures what it is like to live with the disorder. The way the boy talks about the complicated processes that he goes through each day made me remember a time in my life where I had very little control over my own tics. Sedaris states, "a person had to do these things because nothing was worse than the anguish of not doing them." The aches that I would go through if I did not satisfy the tics was unbearable and prompted me to shake my head, open my mouth, or roll my eyes. My childhood consisted of frequent doctor visits and diagnosis for what new types of pills I should take to try and subdue the tics. Needless to say, I was very similar to the boy in the story. However, my family was always supportive, and understood that I could not control some of the things I was doing. I felt so terrible for the boy in the story because I could not imagine ever getting over the disorder without the love and support of my family; in particular my mother. The way his mother was making fun of the boy's condition to his teachers made me sick to my stomach. Although tics can be terrible at a young age, they do become more subtle and controllable as you get older. I had a problem with controlling my tics up until high school where I was able to start gaining a mental advantage over my impulses. It was very interesting how the boy started to gain control in college after being introduced to drugs, drinking, and smoking. It is particularly interesting to me, because I was also able to shed my habits through experiencing with drugs, smoking, and alcohol. Overall, this story was perfectly written and really summarized what its like to live with tics and habits on a daily basis. Reading this story made me feel better about my life, because it showed me that I was not the only kid to encounter such problems. This story is encouraging to any child who currently suffers with their tics because, you CAN and WILL get better. It just takes time.

WJ#9

1)     the specific question you propose to answer for your final research paper

The specific question I would eventually like to answer for my final research paper, is why tobacco marketing strategists heavily target a young demographic. I feel that the primary reason is because as college students and young adults, we are still progressing in the social status of our society and are therefore extremely susceptible to try new things. Something else that I feel will be important for me to address, is how marketers see the opportunity to promote their products at night clubs and bars on or around college campuses. The 18-24 demographic is the youngest available to tobacco companies which is why they typically tend to target urban areas populated by college students.  I have also grown up around people who smoke my entire life, and wonder if there are any specific marketing techniques that introduced them as young adults into using tobacco products.   

2)     your working thesis statement (i.e., a sentence that tells what you think you will prove in that paper, a response to the question you will answer); 

Thus far, I have these two sentences as my working thesis statement; “To me, it is apparent that although we live in a society that holds a double standard for smokers, the marketing of nicotine and tobacco related products towards a younger demographic is essential to large tobacco company’s success. Despite the shrinking number of public places that allow indoor smoking, college night clubs and bars remain attractive venues for marketing strategists to host events that promote youthful tobacco usage.” I feel that this is pretty solid so far, but still might need a couple adjustments before I finish writing my research paper. I know that right now I want my thesis to deal with night clubs and college town bars, but maybe I can go somewhere else with it too. The economic standing of heavily targeted area’s is something that I also might want to incorporate into my thesis.

3)     an overview of what you currently know about the issue 

Currently, I have a pretty wide variety of knowledge about tobacco usage and who they try to aim their products at. Through some of my research, I was able to find out some interesting facts about who exactly the marketing strategists we’re choosing to go after. For example, before looking through my sources, I had no idea that Asians are currently one of the heaviest targeted groups by tobacco corporations. I recognized the correlation between college night clubs and bars with tobacco, so I definitely want to designate a large chunk of research to how exactly students are targeted. I see how people use cigarettes and alcohol conjointly through my fraternity and college life in general so alcohol definitely plays a huge factor when considering when people smoke. Also, I found out that smoking is higher among young adults who do not attend college and live in high crime rate areas.

4)     An overview of what you need to find out about the issue.

What I still need to find out about my topic, is what kind of sources I want to use. I have several scholarly journals that I will be using, but have not really found a good book to read through and use as a source. So far in my research, I’ve found that journals are easy to find, but I need to broaden my research horizons. As I said earlier, I will be conducting a survey on smoking habits so that will be one of my other sources. I also need to find out the specific techniques that marketers use to grab the attention of college students.

5)     A list of arguments which oppose the one you plan to make.

The strongest counter-argument I want to use, is the significance of who is the youngest and most easily acceptable demographic to market too. If you were thinking adventurous, young, naïve college students, you would be correct. Pretty much everyone in college is old enough to smoke and is willing to accept some sort of free tobacco product if offered it; for FREE! I want to put an emphasis on free because I remember reading the book “Predictable Irrational” and it had a chapter pertaining to the power of the word FREE! This is legal to do from the tobacco company’s point of view, and probably a very smart and effective way to keep the youth of America addicted to tobacco products.  

6)     A list of sources you have looked at on the topic at this point.

Rogers, John D. “Test marketing of new smokeless tobacco products in four U.S. cities.” Nicotine and tobacco research, Vol. 12. 69-72. Web. 3 March 2011.

Facts. (n.d.). Retrieved October March 19, 2011, 2009, from thetruth.com: http://www.thetruth.com

Connoly, Gregory, and Carrie M. Carpenter. “Using Alcohol to sell cigarettes to young adults: A content analysis of cigarette advertisements.” Journal of American College Health, Vol. 56. February 28, 2011.

“Tobacco industry targets College Students.” Data: The Brown University Digest of Addiction Theory & Application; Vol. 24. Feb 2005. PDF File.

           

Cheap-cigarettes.com/Marlboro-cigarettess.(n.d.). Retreived October 20, 2009, from cheap-cigarettes.com:http://www.cheap-cigarettes.com/Marlboro-cigarettes.

Paul Metzler's survey of IUP students and their smoking habits.

To laugh or not to laugh

To laugh or not to laugh, that is the question... Apparently no one in America understands this question, let alone knows how to answer it. After reading through Chuck Klosterman's "Eating the Dinosaur" I really thought about all the different misuses of laughter in American society. Although I am a huge fan of laugh-box comedies like Friends, and Seinfeld, I suddenly realize how stupid the idea is. Canned-laughter is simply someone in the back of your head giving you the green light to laugh when something is supposed to be funny. I liked how he talked about Germans being very frank (no pun intended) and generally evasive towards laughter in common conversation. This is strange for Americans to comprehend considering we use laughter as an everyday tool of communication. American laughter is purely conditioned by the entitlement to politely, obligatorily, and reflexively laugh at anything that might seem funny during conversation (Klosterman 187). The whole idea of canned-laughter suggests that Americans are to dumb to know when to laugh, and I really don't know if I can condone that behavior anymore. The world might be a better place with more laughter, but does laughter also make the world a dumber place? I don't know the answer, but I will say that I kinda like the fact that Americans enjoy lots of laughter. It makes us seem a lot more human, and a lot less like those super serious Germans. Besides, German is a dying language anyway.

Bibliographic Annotation Post, thoughts, experiences

"The Foreign Language Annals"
Produced by members of the ACTFL (American Council on the teaching of Foreign Language).

The professional journal, "The Foreign Language Annals", was what Dr. Eileen Glisan referred to me as the most effective form of communication in the Spanish Education field. I can describe it as a peer edited journal in which members of the ACTFL submit professional articles on new forms of educational approaches. Thousand of articles are submitted to be in the journal, which is printed quarterly, but only 10 are chosen to be published. This journal enables Foreign Language teachers across the United States to communicate their views to each other in an effective manor.


The following is a quote on the effectiveness of the content in The Foreign Language Annals, that I feel are appropriate to post in this Blog-liographic Annotation. "The resulting document represents an unprecedented consensus among educators, business leaders, government, and the community on the definition and role of foreign language instruction in American education." This quote defines the who's and what's of the professional journal. I can't really assess it anymore than by summing it up with the previous exert from the summarization of the annals.


In conclusion, "The Foreign Language Annals" was a relevant article for me to read, and I am pleased with some of the information that I have acquired. It is the official journal of Foreign Language learning techniques amongst American teachers, and therefore their most prestigious form of communication. The interview assignment allowed me to gain insight on this Journal, and hopefully i'll find use for it sometime in the future.

-Sorry for the boring post everyone; sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do!

Hooked on Gadgets and Paying a Mental Price; here's my opinion

Well, after reading this article, I feel that I might have some useful information for the rest of you. First off, I want to address whether our focus is being undermined or enhanced. Although I would like to say undermined (take for example the Bing commercials for search overload), my gut instinct tells me that our overall focus benefits from technology. Its possible that our focus might be diminishing from multi-tasking, but our brains are now being enabled to focus on multiple things.

My personal belief is that technology is the new coffee in the world today.

We crave it, need it, can't wake up in the morning without it. This need for technology free's up personal time by doing necessary tasks quicker, and letting us check our e-mails and look up more exciting information in our new found free time. Anyway, "the bottom line is, the brain is wired to adapt" -Steven Yantis.

All era's have experienced a sense of distraction whether it be Beatlemania in the 60's, or the Disco party lifestyle brought about in the 80's. It is our generational obligation to address our deep seeded problem with technology, and find out how it is affecting our brains. Anyway, this is pretty much all I want to say via blog. Hope you enjoy and agree with the things that i've previously mentioned.

The Intro to my life

Well, now that I've went through the actual process of setting this blog up, what should I talk about? I guess the first thing i'll do is just give you a little overview of who/what  I am. I am a 20 year old Indiana University of Pennsylvania (yes the nickname "I Usually Party" does explain us well) who loves college, has already started to explore the world, and wants more than anything to just make a comfortable life for myself in the future. I like to think that I am driven for success, and that small day to day events pave the future for the men and women we have yet to become. Optimism is the key to success. Go Steelers, Go Penguins!

Okay, I feel a little bit to much like Mark Zuckerberg in "The Social Network" right now so, good bye and stay tuned for some of my future thoughts. Thanks!