Guns don't kill people

Everyone at one time in their lives, have heard the saying "a picture is worth a thousand words," but does anyone really know the true meaning of that statement? What it really means is that a picture can tell a story just as well, if not better, than a large amount of text can. Not everyone sees the same things from every image out there though. Some people see a picture of a gun and the words that might come to mind may be violence, or dangerous, or even death. While some people on the tort hand, might think of the words safety, or protection, or life. No one will think that an image means the same thing as someone else, which is also the same for peoples' take on the allowance of concealed hand guns on campuses of higher education. Images people use to get their opinions across to everyone else have been very effective, like the image you see above. Comparing Obama's opinion about gun control to people in history who have tried to control people, can be seen as a negative thing and a positive thing. Negative because the image is pretty much bashing Obama's reputation and calling him a dictator. It is also positive because it might be seen as such an exaggerated attempt to make the president look bad, that people don't believe it, and they end up agreeing with the president. It all really just depends who the person that is looking at the picture, is. Imagery plays a big role in people's lives because images really do speak a thousand words. Whether it is for the allowance of concealed hand guns on higher level campuses, or not. A single picture that convey that as simply as possible, without the use of descriptive text, because sometimes words just can't say what a picture can.

The topic I chose to focus my writing project three on, whether or not allowing concealed handguns on Texas campuses of higher education, does in fact save lives. When they say higher education, they mean like a college campus, or a community college, not a high school or a junior high, or even an elementary. There have been so many incidents when a person that was carrying a concealed handgun could have saved another human being from a reckless person holding a gun. But they could not just whip it out because they would have gotten prosecuted. Prosecuted for trying to be a good Samaritan or some sort, and save someone. Why would someone else go out of their way to help another person, if it is in fact illegal. John R. Lott wrote a book about the advantages of allowing concealed handguns, and how much it would help the community if we had more than just policemen around to come to the rescue. The Texas A&M campus itself only has about 70 officers throughout the campus. That's 70 officers that have to protect the lives of every single student and faculty member on our campus that stretches over 5,500 acres with over 50,000 students. The student to officer ratio would be 714:1, which does not make me feel safe at all. I'm not saying that this campus is not safe, but if something were to occur, I don't see how I can guarantee that an officer will be around my vasinity at the time. But there could definitely be a student around, that just so happened to be carrying a gun around. But will he help me and bust that thing out? More than likely, no, because he will then be risking his own life and a sentence in jail. Guns are not the enemy, just like food is not the enemy, and video games are not the enemy. You put those things in the wrong hands, and that makes THEM the enemy. Guns do not kill people. People kill people. It is as simple as that

For the past few months it has been what I like to call, movie awards season, though I'm sure other people call it the same thing. From the Oscars, to the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, every television station seems to have their own version of a movie award show. Guess every station wants to have decent ratings at least once a year. But are these award shows really going the rightful movies and actors their justice?

When it comes to the "Best Actor/Actress" awards, I would have to say that I agree with the winners for the most part, but when it comes to the "Best Movie" award, I can't always say that I agree. Let's go back to the Oscars for a moment. Best actor went to Daniel Day Lewis, and best actress went to Jennifer Lawrence. Now I have not seen the movie "Lincoln," but I'm sure he did an excellent job, he surely looks like good ole Abe, and Jennifer Lawrence is an amazing actress all the time, especially in her role in "Silver Linnings Playbook." Best supporting actor went to Christoph Waltz, and he deserved it for sure. He is an amazing actor, and he did an excellent job in "Django Unchained." Anne Hathaway took best supporting actress with her in "Les Misérables," and I couldn't be happier about that. That is definitely one of my favorite musicals, and she was so amazing as Fontine. Now when it comes to best movie of the year, I can't say that I'm on board with that. Is it just me, or are the winner of this award always a movie that has some kind of political message in there. Maybe it just bothers me because I'm not a fan of politics, but I don't believe the very best movie always wins this award. Maybe it should be broken up into categories, because how can a superhero movie, or a musical even compete with something such as "Argo?" It just seems to me that politics and the government are just a little TOO involved in our day to day lives. You literally cannot get away from them, they are everywhere. And I'm not even talking about some kind of crazy conspiracy theory. You can see it for yourself. Over the years, the government has done as much as they can to practically control our lives. I'm not saying having a government is bad, but society nowadays seems to depend too much on them. It is as if we can't blow our nose without having to ask them whether we should use a tissue, or our sleeve. The fact that we allow them to influence our choice in movies should open your eyes. OUR MOVIES PEOPLE! They are trying to control our entertainment! And they are succeeding.

Another thing I would like to quickly point out is that there is not always a secret political message embedded writhing a movie. The fact that people were saying that The Dark Night Rises featured the villain Bane was only because of Romney's Bain. Bane is a comic book character people! He broke Batman physically, and mentally. There was no better Nolan could help the Batman trilogy go out with a bang! People read too much into things. Movies are for entertaining, not so much to preach to us about politics and junk. What happened to giving the award to the movie that had excellent acting and a really good story?

Now I'm not angry or anything. It just bothers me that undeserving people get so much praise for their so called work. Our society has changed, and maybe you think it's for the best, and maybe your think it's for the worst. Maybe you'll think twice next time you vote for your "favorite" movie...maybe not.

I'm a connoisseur of old school cartoons. That's just how I was raised, to enjoy the classics, well classic for me at least. Every time I go home to visit my parents, I take full advantage of the fact that they have Direct TV, because they have channels such as Boomerang and Nicktoons. Both channels show the classic cartoons that I grew up with back in the early 90s. Whether it's Scooby Doo, or maybe a little Doug, I really enjoy older things in general. 

My father just so happens to be an elderly man. I won't go into detail about his age, but let's just say that he will be turning 65 next month. Growing up, my family would listen to a lot of oldies, and watch a lot of television, and movies from my father's time period. Of course it was never torture or anything, because i quite enjoy the things of the past. I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't enjoy the old things, and they are more into the modern music, television, and movie scene. Not to say that I don't like modern things as well, because I do. I just know the classics when I see, and or hear it. Frank Sinatra just so happens to be my favorite musical artist, and one of my favorite movies is the Wizard of OZ. My father even impacted my other siblings musically and visually. My little brother is a huge fan of The Beatles, and my eldest brother really enjoys Gumby, and creating stop motion videos with clay. 

When you compare the shows that they show on television, to the shows they used to air when we were children, you can see an obvious difference. The things they air on television nowadays, seem to be so much more vulgar and risque, when you compare the cartoons we watched as a child. But are they really that different? Sure, now we have Family Guy, and American Dad, but back in the day we had Ah! Real Monsters, and Ren and Stimpy. All four of those shows are pretty vulgar when you really think about it. Maybe the vulgarity simply "flew over our heads" as children. It seems to me that our societies have definitely changed when it come to what is acceptable television. Dirty jokes, and bad words are more acceptable nowadays because everyone has just become so lacks in that sense, or at least that is the way it would seem. It can be argued either way. Maybe it's just that back in the day, writers were more clever when it came down to including subliminal messages, and hidden agendas. Maybe it's just that writers are too lazy to come up with ways of hiding the inappropriate, and the vulgar. What do you think is going on here? Is our culture today a factor for the way television has become?

Story Time

Storytelling is something that happens on a daily basis, you just may not even realize it. Just telling a friend about how your day went, is like telling them a recap story. Of course, with this topic being examined in class, I just had to take the topic home with me when I went to visit this past weekend. 

As a child, I always enjoyed listening to stories, and being read to. Whenever we were going on a long trip, I would always ask either my mother or my father to tell me a story about someone in my family, seeing as how I have trouble falling asleep in the car, having motion sickness and all. Loving story time made me become so aware and informed about family members, whether they be deceased, or still alive and well. On my visit back home, my father decided to barbecue, so I of course, decided to have my folks tell me a story to pass the time. I wanted to hear about how my father's father's family came to live in Texas, more specifically Los Saenz/Roma, Texas. My grandfather's family, about three or four generations back, was given land by the king of Spain to start getting others to settle there. I will not bore you all with ALL the minor details, but  here we go. The king gave them roughly a 15mile by 1 mile plot of land to settle in, and so they did. The areas were also inhabited by Indians, and my great great great grandfather found himself being chased by some angry ones. He ended up riding his horse under a low lying branch, got knocked off, and attacked, and killed by the Indians. Luckily he did not leave this world without having a few youngsters first. One of those children had my great grandfather, along with my great uncles and aunts. My great grandfather had seven children, one of which was named Noe. Noe was the second born, but he died at a young age, so the fifth child was also named Noe. Noe is my grandfather, and my father's father. Two of my uncles and my grandfather all served in WWII. My grandpa Noe was stationed in England, where he met my grandmother, Gladys. During the time that his son's were gone, my great grandfather passed away. They were married in England, and had there first born son, Noe, there as well. My grandfather had to come back to the U.S, but as soon as my uncle Noe was old enough to travel, my grandmother and uncle hopped on a boat, and later arrived in Elis Island. From there they rode a train all the way down to Los Saenz where they lived in the house my great grandfather used to live in. Then a few years later, they had their second child, which just so happened to be my father. They had four more children after that, two girls, and two boys. A couple years passed, about 35 or so, my father married my mother, and well, the rest, is history. 

My family used to be very close, literally because everyone lived in the same areas, and because we all used to get along so well and loved being around one another. Though we do not see each other much anymore, telling these stories makes me feel that much closer to all of them. Story telling has always been a huge part of my life, and without it, I wouldn't know the things about my family that I know now.

Who Stole The Cookies From The Cookie Jar

The high increase in obesity has become a very popular topic in the United States over the past decade or so, especially the increase in childhood obesity. And why shouldn't it be when a child can be considered obese at the prime age of 2?!? Let's see how Pat Hartman and the bloggers at Spark are able to convey their opinions by using different forms of rhetoric.

Throughout More Emotions, Eating, and Obesity, Hartman describes obesity as being an "addiction" more than just a normal ole medical condition. Dr. Pretlow, being a doctor that specializes in childhood obesity, hears stories from other doctors around him all the time. In basing his blog on a man such as Pretlow, gives Hartman the credentials to form such a credible post about this topic because Pretlow is "obsessed with emotional eating!" Hartman is able to really catch the readers attention with his use of Ethos, in the form of personal anecdotes, that Pretlow has heard from individuals who have gone through childhood obesity themselves. There was one individual Pretlow heard from that said she had been overweight ever since McDonald's came to her home town when she was just 9 years old. Pretlow continues by saying that "she said she was in her clinic, and nurses had brought in some dark chocolate brownies, and this pediatrician said she kept trying to stay away from them until finally she just overdosed on the whole 12 brownies on the tray. She said afterwards she was sweaty and had palpitations and turned gray, and the nurses even worried that she was having a heart attack. At that point, she said, she realized that she was just like an alcoholic, an addict in the gutter. It was a stark realization to her, what was going on." Such an extreme case gives the reader more reason to also agree that obesity can, and is caused by the having an addiction to food. This story can also be seen as using pathos because it is quite an emotional story of a woman struggling with her own self worth and self control over food in her life. Hartman also includes information from Elizabeth Hartney, who just so happens to be a journalist. Hartney says that "in laboratories full of expensive equipment, experiments have been shown that both substances produce opiates in the body, which the brain welcomes just as it does any other opiates." Hartney's use of parallels with sugar, fats, and drugs can give the reader a different understanding of how food really can be seen as an addictive substance, through the use of pathos.

In Child Obesity Research Studies and Facts, the bloggers at Spark on the other hand start their blog off with Michelle Obama's action to battle with the epidemic the country is having with childhood obesity. Michelle Obama is a very influential person today, and by using her gives Spark's blog the credibility it needs to form a good sense of ethos. Spark's also is able to give a very vivid image of just how extreme the obesity problem is in the U.S., by having charts and images of how childhood obesity has progressed over the past 30 years. Spark's uses mainly logos throughout their blog to explain the ever prevalent existence and progression of childhood obesity.

When you compare the blogs of Hartman and Spark, you find that Hartman was able to base his blog off of patients' testimonies, and the use of emotions to get the readers attention. Spark was more about giving the reader figures and numbers to persuade the reader that there is in fact a problem going on here. Hartman sees obesity as being caused by a psychological problem with food addiction, while Spark blames obesity on bad lifestyle habbits, such as poor diets and not having enough physical activity. Whatever the case, obesity has quickly become a huge problem for the children in the world today, and needs to be changed before it gets even more out of hand.

TV ain't so bad

I do not understand how certain people just don't watch television at all. Sometimes I feel as though that is all that I do. Sure it can get a little boring at times because there might not be anything to watch, but with the amount of channels there are available nowadays, how can you not find something? I can always find a defeat movie, or a decent television show to numb my brain with. And what's better than that? I love watching movies. If I could watch movies all day, everyday, for the rest of my life, I would definitely do that. If I could make a living off of watching movies all the time, I would be the happiest person in the world. People say that watching too much TV turns your brain to much. Well I'm here to tell you that I've been able to learn countless things from turning on the boob tube. Maybe it does have negative effects on other people, but I don't feel as though it's doin anything bad for me.