Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

              As another quarter at South University comes to an end, I find myself reflecting. I learned a lot about the importance of having an "Online Identity" and how to maintain that online persona so that it may help in my professional and personal development  Right away in my English I class, with Dr. Hamon, we started a Gmail account and began our online journey. Many of the things I learned I find to continue to be very useful. Information about the flipped classroom was intriguing, as well as tons of information on the writers triangle and the APA citation format. It was a good class... I recommend it to anyone... : )

The Cost of Living

               It's kind of amazing that from the moment you're born, you are having to pay to live. Well, at first it's your parents paying, but don't worry... 18 years and you'll owe the government. Now I understand "in theory" why we must pay taxes, but hasn't the cost of living gotten a little out of hand? It seems that the majority of problems stem from money and the desire to have it. What happened to the good 'ol days where people used to barter services, skills, and excess products? I scratch your back, you scratch mine; right?...
               You're telling me that money, a paper representation of an amount of gold, means so much to the purpose of life? Just because it is rare, we must base our lives around it and it's pursuit. If we all were concerned with having the best we can have, then working together is the best way. If our goal was to help everyone achieve an acceptable standard of living and beyond that working to provide and use specialized skills for the benefit of all instead ones-self, that would be the end of war, countries, hate, and most importantly money.  

Images & Stereotypes

             In our world of technology and mass exposure, a trend of what people (especially women) should look like has been poisoning our minds. Unrealistic expectations of self image are not only helping to control what consumers are demanding, but also causing severe emotional and physcological damage. Generalized assumtions and stereotypes are commonplace giving rise to eating disorders, self loathing tendencies, bullying, and even deaths/suicides related to and direct results of the images that advertising companies want us to see. Why spend so much time and effort creating a desire to be something that is not attainable. Look at the video below and see the "magic" of photoshop and then the next time you're looking at a magazine remember that it isn't real.

The Current Situation Concerning Police in America

              A very hot subject for many people is the police shooting of a young man in Ferguson, Mo. Over the years there have been many suspects that were shot and killed by police officers. The question/topic on everyone's mind seems to be, "Did the police really have to KILL that person?"
              My respect and understanding for what police officers do is unquestionable. Having someone in my family work as an undercover policeman definitely put things into perspective. Police officers have families that they want to go home to, and many times even a routine traffic violation can turn into a life threatening situation. So I get it, police officers risk their lives to help keep our streets safer... but aren't there rules on what they are allowed and not allowed to do? Is it really necessary to shoot a suspect in the head when an officer is fully trained and capable to shoot them in the leg and properly subdue the antagonist?
              Granted, if a suspect makes a move for an officers gun the said officer has only a quick moment to react and protect him/herself. It's so hard to draw the lines sometimes. What do you think?

Guns, War, & Honor

           In the beginning of civilization, disputes often came to an unavoidable conclusion. Originally the two opposing forces would gather their best warriors, post up on a field and fight until the last man was standing. As upsetting that the two sides could not come to some sort of diplomatic solution was, the loss of human life was overwhelmingly more tragic. But this system of testing a collectives ideals and battling until defeat had it's positives. Warriors had to have the conviction to carry out his duty for the cause of his/her ideals, country, and countrymen. It is in this that I feel that modern weapons and warfare are inferior.
            Any coward with enough fear and malice in their heart can pull a trigger. There aren't any warriors but only assassins, trained to kill and follow orders. Why not then settle current problems and tensions between countries fairly and ethically. If there is going to be a war, select 500 of each countries best warriors and without weapons assemble at a battleground. Last person standing wins... It would sure beat the current system involving, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of lives lost. I understand it is within everyones rights to "bare arms", but at what cost? I dunno, I might just be rambling...

Relationships & Communication

              As with all relationships, communication is key. I'm a Puerto Rican/Italian and therefore, stereotypically speaking, come from a loud and expressive family. I once heard an Italian saying, "It's not how often you and your spouse fight thats important, it's how well you can work things out afterwrds that counts." I truly believe this.
              Too often, the common misconception is that couples and friends should have similar ideas and not disagree with one another. The truth is that you probably won't agree on everything with anyone. Having disagreements are normal and shouldn't create anxiety. Working through disagreements and learning to respect ones opinions and feelings as well as compromising is part of every healthy relationship. At the Tae Kwon Do school I teach at, we tell the students as a rule to be mutually understanding and respectful to others at all times.

Staying Motivated

            For the most part, I've been writing this blog to the readers of my English Comp I class. Since my readers are also students and scholars, I wanted to ask... "Have you remained motivated"?
            I'm going to college to advance my career and provide the type of life I want for my family and myself. Those are my afirmatons, but still I find myself overwhelmed and staring defeat in the face. How do I keep pushing? How do I persevere and stay motivated to study hard, and succeed? If you've got any advice on how you stay motivated, let me know.

Homeschooling

          On the subject of homeschooling, there are many people that feel it is still inferior to public schooling, but why do they feel this way? Most of the time you'll get answers like, "Kids don't get proper socialization when homeschooled" or "I don't have time to do all that work". These may have been true at one time, but now are common misconceptions.

Freedom to Kill

              America... land of the free. With so many freedoms, could any of them be considered problematic?
              When on the subject of national health standards, one could ask if it is ok for a company like "McDonalds" to sell food that is known to be unhealthy and provides a significant percentage of the population with unhealthy dietary choices. The arguement being that, it is within our means to choose whether or not to eat this food. But with advertising, unbeatable pricing, and the sheer convenience of things such as fast food it's no wonder that one of Americas biggest killers is obesity. So why not make it illegal to sell something that can potentially kill you? Because it is our right to choose to kill ourselves???... I thought suicide was illegal. If as a country, nay as a species, we thought about the greater good and only focused on making health a priority for all of us, we could be way farther along as a species.
               Even on the subject of GMO's, we seem to be conflicted as a nation. Genetically modified organisms that allowed an easier mass production of food has also genetically changed the make-up of the food we eat, and could have negative and/or unforeseen repercusions. In many countries GMO's are illegal, but not in the united states. Isn't that messed up?

The Writer's Voice

            When writing, a writer must first consider his/her reader. If the reader is a scholar or an industry 

professional, then the writer must write in a fashion that is conducive to mutual understanding amongst those readers. If the writer is writing to kindergarten students, then perhaps the writer should stick to smaller words and even incorporate illustrations with the text. This concept is coined the writers "voice". Similar to speaking in a particular vernacular to be understood by the individuals receiving the message, a writers voice is the essential persona that the writer wishes his/her readers will perceive.     

Education reform anybody?

           How many of you can think back to all of the things we had to learn in high school and wonder, "why?"...
            What has knowing the pythagorean theorem helped you with in your life? What about the quadratic formula, has knowing that greatly improved your life? It seems to me that high school was mostly spent wasting my time learning things that I would never use again. And most people would probably agree that they haven't used a significant amount of the knowledge that they aquired during high school. I understand that some of my personal ideals on what should be taught in high schools could be considered quite controversal. Myself included, along side many of my peers from my childhood have, since high school, had hard times financially. Why not teach how to balance a checkbook, or how to establish credit in high school. How about teaching high school students how to be self sufficient, eg. learn how to have a balanced diet and how to cook meals. This is knowledge most would say is for the parents to teach their children, but when a parent is working all the time and trying to keep everything at home functioning where is the time to adequately teach all of these life skills. Shouldn't high school be more about preparing an individual for the real world? So many high school students graduate and have no life skills, they only know how to go to class and do homework. Specialized skills like advanced algebra and Chemistry should be a part of focused college classes that pertain to ones individual area of study. Things like English and mental math should be more of a focus so that when students leave high school they can add, subtract, multiply, and divide easily in their head and should be able to speak, read, and write efficiently. Forget competing with countries like China where students don't even have a summer break, functional skills are what we need. What do you think?    
           

Do you know how to defend yourself?

             Do you know how to defend yourself? For most people the answer is, unfortunately, no. For some the answer is yes but this a false sense of confidence, which can sometimes just make a bad situation worse. Does anybody really "know" how to defend themselves you ask... Yes. Can anyone learn to defend themselves? Sure... With the proper mindset, an individual can be more prepared for a self-defense situation even without years of in-depth training.
             Simple concepts like being aware of ones surroundings can be a huge contributing factor when it comes to avoiding bad situation. What about when you can't avoid having to physically defend yourself? Remember the concept "Flight or flight". If a situation is life threatening, then you must have it in your mind that you will do whatever you must to survive. There are no rules like "no hitting below the belt or no biting" in self-defense. Claw, bite, gouge... anything that you can do to get yourself out of that situation where your life might be threatened. Theses are things that you already know how to do, but are you willing to do it or will you freeze. That's what I'm talking about when I say "it's a mindset".
              I've been training in martial arts for 23 years, and I've been teaching Tae Kwon Do for almost 11 years now. In that time I've cultivated a mature understanding of self defense, and I've taught many. The most common misunderstanding is that you should know some fancy moves, and sure knowing proper technique will greaten your chances but isn't completely necessary. But knowing how to jam ones thumbs into an eye socket isn't exactly rocket science, you've just got to think quickly and logically about how you can put an attacker out of commision.

"DOC2" : The Flipped Classroom

            So the next assignment in my English Composition I class is now underway. This time, my professor asked for an informative paper analyzing and explaining the flipped classroom teaching module. Now I've already talked about this topic before, so where do I begin.

         First, the search for information.I'm about to begin an hours long search for credible information pertaining to the "flipped classroom". It will be grueling, but seeing as how this topic interests me it shouldn't be too bad. 

             Then the writing begins. I know that my audience/readers are college students and more 

specifically my fellow classmates in my English Composition I class.

            Finally, for now, my fellow scholars can have a look and help me revise and refine my paper. Then the process can begin a new...