To Laugh Or Not To Laugh?

Okay so I honestly I had no idea what the article "Ha ha" he said "Ha ha" by Chuck Klosterman was about, Justus has brought up the idea of laugh tracks in class quite often, so I should've seen it coming. I must be off in la la land lately hoping that spring time would finally come but yet again we have been bombarded by mass amounts of unwanted snow. Anyways as I was reading this article I was quite surprised by how easily it flowed and brought up ways about viewing laugh tracks that I had never thought of before.

It was funny ''ha ha'' because he listed a lot of shows that I've grown up with and loved, but never really thought about the fact that they contain laugh tracks. It is so weird that we as a society are so conditioned with media and that we don't even realize that maybe our humor is constructed for us.

I really liked the reference to Germany since it does make sense that we as a culture have a different humor than others but once he analyzed the way us Americans use laughter in everyday conversations. It really took me back and I reflected on instances that I've talked to people. I just thought oh garsh, I hope that I don't fill in silence with fake laughter. I must admit that I am a chatter box, so if there is any space to be filled it most likely will be with nonsense babbles. The part referring to Friends I completely agree with what he says, purely for the fact that I am a huge fan of the show. I totally invest myself in the odd and quirky characters and tend to reference their crazy antics during situations that occur in the everyday situations of my life.

Unfortunately, I do think that a significant amount of the American population will fall into the category of media constructed humoroids from these laugh tracks in a majority of our tv shows. However, I do feel we find humor from so many things in life that do not fit into the television laugh-track category. I believe we do create our own laughter, rather it's out loud, internalized, or during those times of your favorite film where no one else is laughing. Humor can be constructed to an extent but not entirely.

Link to an episode of Friends - Laugh Track Free...Very Interesting to watch if you are a Friends lover or not.

Ha-Ha

Contrary to the previous article, I have to say I wasn't too syked to read this article, "Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age" by Trip Gabriel, because honestly I loathe how it is repetitively discussed in every class. Personally every class makes me feel like the professor is telling me about something that is just common sense.

However, after reading this article I hadn't realized that so many students seem to think that it is okay to plagiarize and don't even think twice about copying and not referencing sources. As the article discussed the reasons as to why students plagiarize it completely made sense. I mean I am student so I can understand that most students want to get things done fast so that it is finished on time. I do agree that at times I just write things to get a grade rather than really investing myself in the piece, specifically if I don't really enjoy the subject, but never would it dawn on me to copy and paste someone else's work. Although students are the prime suspects to this crime, the source of the problem is also education. Schools should also make an effort in teaching the ins and outs of referencing. I just know from my experiences in writing that I still have difficulty with referencing and I always get nervous that I reference wrong.

Here's a link to a youtube video I found which is in a different language, but totally worth taking a glance at. It's a play off of scrooge and how this student plans to plagiarize his paper.

Interesante

Floating In Possibilities.

Gosh, so I have a slight clue into what topics I would like to research but I just can't decide which one is the right fit for me just yet. I've found so many topics that I am completely invested in because I have some sort of connection with them. Here's my list of the few that I can say that I would enjoy investing my time in :

1. FUEL - (Sundance Film Winner) The concepts that are discussed within the film about having a sustainable energy and resources and could a revolution come from these ideas to bring people together, and can america really turn the economy around to be less dependent on oil?

2. Gender Socialization - Even though america is seen as fast pace country, advancing in so many fields and breaking past traditional values, are we still stuck in a society that is still gendered and fed gender ideals by everything around us from the time we are born?

3. Traveling - How much of an impact traveling can do to someone and really change their ideas of cultures to be more open minded and become more in tune with the rest of the world.

4. Media - News media specifically, how it can portray the opposite of the truth and how news creates moral panic. This can also go along with how it creates more crime rather than decreasing crime.

So there they are my so called prize topics I have come up with, not quite sure if they are correct or even something I can make into a research piece, but I feel very invested and connected to each topic so hopefully that will help.

Open Your Ears & Mind.

Honestly I never knew about the English conference that was held at IUP until Justus had brought it up in class. It was interesting to attend a one hour sharing of pieces that students had written. I had attended one that was from 10:10 till 11:00 on Wednesday in room 218, where three students read aloud their pieces. The first girl had written a story called “My Sanctuary” which was from what I had understood was a true story of where she grew up. The story was very interesting because it took a full circle from explaining how her mother was ashamed of their living arrangements, but for the writer she had always seen their home as part of the love, enrichment and in essence a part of who she was. In the end the overall story had to say to the audience that we should appreciate what we have and little things matter because life is what you make it.
The next short story was called “Belvedere’s Shaking Hand”, this story was very descriptive, ironic and quirky. At first I wasn't quite sure what it was about, but eventually you could understand where the story was going. It soon dawned on me that this short story was about a previous tenant in the room that the girl reading had moved into within the past year, and all of the things that were referred to in the story were things he had left behind. The story was interesting because she had made a whole person and personality that had gone along with all of these left behind items. It was neat to think that such a simple concept had grown into a mystifying story. In the end most people do make assumptions of the type of people who were there before when certain items are left behind.
Third to read was a boy who read a poem titled “Dead Sea” which ended up being about 3 or 4 pages long, he informed us later that this piece was a small part of a bigger piece. I had spoken to him before he was ushered to the front of the room, and insisted that he was nervous, but really once he read the poem it was so powerful and no trace of nervousness. The poem was a speech that a man was giving partly to relate to the theme and ideas that run throughout the novel 1984. If you had read the novel before you could totally understand exactly what was going on throughout the poem.
Lastly the first girl to read filled in for an absent student and began to read another story that I’m guessing was real. I can’t recall the title, I’m not quite sure if it had one, but it was journey of this young woman who was in love, but at the beginning there were quite a few clues to her being pregnant. Eventually it was brought up so that the audience knew for sure what was happening; it told of the growth of love between the two main characters until the day she had a miscarriage. This event changed everything for the two love birds, and skips to the future where they don’t end up together and nothing seemed to ever be the same. The end of the piece left you hanging and basically with the idea that she needed to heal, but nothing more was told.
I think that this was a good experience to listen to students that are putting their work out there to be heard. I liked that fact that this particular panel was very different in their stories and demeanor because it made things more interesting and diverse.

Annotation of Suggested Article.

McIntosh, Peggy. "white privilege and male privilege - A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in women's Studies". Collection of literary passages Privilege: A Reader. Westview Press, 2003. Print.

This article touches on a few things, McIntosh starts off the article trying to better understand and justify why men don't get why they have certain privileges over women. Although through the process of doing this analysis, McIntosh found herself assessing her own privileges. Eventually she came to the conclusion that not just genders have privileges over one another, but also anyone can have a privilege over another. Be it race, social status, ethnicity, age, education, etc. She towards the end of the article brings up that privilege also can be seen not just as something one wants, but also something that can infer dominance or control over someone else.

I think that this article was very helpful in understanding how to use research and make it so that you can better understand a theory or even a simple concept. I know now I can pick out certain themes in an article or journal and not just go by the title, but further read into it. I probably wouldn't have thought that this source is where my teacher had pulled her activity in class from, but now knowing the process of how that activity came, I can better appreciate it.

I also really enjoyed this piece because it surprised me, at first I thought it was going to be simple, yet really it was a very complex article and it made me think further into the idea of privileges. I think this activity as small as it was, really opened my eyes to research and how it can really benefit you. I also like the fact that this reinforced how you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover.

Overloading of Information.

While I read the article 'Attached to Technology and Paying A Price' by Matt Richtel in the New York Times, I couldn't get away from the feeling that I was reading a tragedy. Reading about Brenda & Kord Campbell and their struggle with a day to day relationship as a family, couple and self all because their lives have become so centered around technology. I have always felt that technology was a good thing because it helps us to gain more information in a faster way. But at these costs and at this amount of technology on a regular day to day basis I really think it is going to be detrimental to your relationships and how you are as a person. I really agreed with the last statement at the end of the article which said "paying attention to each other makes you become more human because it shows how much you care". I just wanted to point that phrase out mostly because I feel that even though the two parents are at almost a no turning back addiction of the technology, their children are just beginning in their footsteps, but at a earlier start and in bigger doses. Their eldest child was already having trouble focusing, and their youngest in second grade, Lily is already hooked to her personal laptop, iPod touch and portable DVD player. I have learned in a child development and even as common sense, that a child is very impressionable, nowadays you even see on commercials that a baby can learn another language before turning two years old. How easily do you think a child could become addicted to technology if that's all they live their life through? I doubt many of them would want to stray away from the enticing digital media that is being spurted out of technology now a days. In the end in my opinion I think that technology is needed and useful in society but people can take it out of its context and have an overload to the point that they don't remember how important human contact is. How it feels to be standing out in a field with the wind at your back as the smell of windflowers fill the air, rather than sitting in front of a computer screen, iPad, or video game imagining you're in that scene. Technology is so new and evolving that you can get pulled in and slowly forget what life should be full of; and for me that's family, friends and the love that you feel for them.

Let Me Introduce Myself.

I suppose this can be just about anything, I'm not quite sure how to go about introducing myself. Here it goes, I'm known to many by the name Erin although I have quite a few nicknames ranging from childhood ones like monkeybutt to my most favorite recent one, Eron. I am originally from the Poconos, although I've spent most of my lifetime in the center of Pennsylvania, State College aka Penn State country. I am huge goofball, I barely know what's going to come out of my mouth when I'm around my friends, and they love to remind me of all the interesting things that I've said. I absolutely love meeting new people, I think that's why Im in the major of Sociology. It's so interesting to learn about so many cultures and why people do what they do. I also am in love with Photography which happens to be my minor and a tattooed camera on my finger gives out this notion of my love to everyone I meet. I love hiking and being outdoors, one of my favorite things to do is pick up my camera and go for a long walk, adventuring around. I want to travel so much in my lifetime, and I've already started with Costa Rica, England and some of Europe. I really think it is important for everyone to atleast see one other culture besides their native one. I plan to have a very non-traditional lifestyle once I graduate and I don't know exactly where I'll be after I do graduate but I know that I'll be out there helping others and that's all I care about.