Only in Minnesota..

So while i was browsing the Craigs list arts and crafts section there was one listing that caught my eye. "Pheasant Feathers Over a Thousand- $50". Alot of the time I consider myself somewhat of an Arizona native, and in Scottsdale you couldn't get one dollar for thousands of feathers, let alone 50. Only in the midwest or would someone collect buckets of Pheasant feathers from hunting and then sell them on the internet, and then in the discription area write "I no It is sad that I have to sell them but but"... can someone say redneck? I don't mean to be judgemental, but the Minnesota manly, hunter/hicks never cease to entertain me. I can just picture this guy now with a sweat-stained worn camo baseball hat (which only gets removed for funerals and the Starspangeld banner at sporting events), Polished, duped out Ford F250 which he talks about on a constant basis, and at least 10 stuffed-dead animals located throughout the house as hunting memorabilia. Okay, I am deffinately being judgemental, and maybe a little bit mean, but it is just extremely entertaining to me and I still get amazed with some of the Minnesotan interests.

There are many benefits to using visual aides in the classroom in my opinion. Since a majority of learners are indeed visual learners, using examples such as videos, powerpoints, or other multi-media aspects help reach out to all different learners. The most recent video shown, Once, was an excellent example of a personal narrative. It depicted a musician searching for his life, and finding the way through a young woman he met on the street. Through their enchanting duets and moving lyrics the duo charms the audience, but the catch is that they both are in love with other people. This semi-romantic musical was shown through the eyes of the un-named man, and visually depicted his experience. While the film was playing, I was trying to visuallize the story in writting, and I asked myself how to put this in words and still get the same emotion and feeling evoked from movie. For people like me who do think this way, showing examples of our upcoming writting assignment helps the viewer to figure out how to approach the paper and what to use or avoid. Overall, I think that the use of digital media and visual's was effective and absolutely right. The only one that may not have been all that cohesive to the topic was "The Office" episode... but that was still okay becuase it was funny. :)

Pound Puppies

Back in the day, when I was much younger and more adorable than I am now, I had alot of favorite stuffed animals and dolls that I loved to play with. But my favorite toys had to be little Pound Puppies. My sister and I collected these little adoreable dogs, and a few fabulous felines, and would always line them up and either train them how to be good little puppies and kitties or pretend they lived in "Dogmacticallicaland," a special place where the streets were made of Oreo cookies, it rained chocolate milk, and of course, animals did not get sick from eating chocolate (you could say that my sister and I enjoyed our chocolate and wished that dogs could enjoy it too). We would appoint each of the Pound Puppies a different possition in Dogmacticallicaland, such as the official butt sniffer and fire-hidrent pee-er, and five times each day the dogs all were rubed by gigantic hands for 10 minutes. :) My sister and I were very special...

One thing that is obvious from my sister's and my favorite toys and time spent in Dogmacticallicaland, is that were were, and are still to this day, animal lovers. We both enjoy careing for pets we used to want to open up a pound of our own some day (only a good one where they dont euthanize any of the animals). Although today it is very doubtful that this will still happen, we both still love dogs and cats.

educational entertainment

I admit that I am somewhat of a TV addict. As much as I wish I could say that I am the kind of person that would rather go out on a walk or go play catch instead of watching the tube, I can't. I also admit that the majority of the shows that I watch are not very rich in substance and creative writ ting. I am a Rock of/Flavor of Love kind of "reality" shows which are horribly skanky and cheesy yet incredibly addicting. But there is one show that I was a fanatic of that I believe was not a complete waste of my life and was not just interesting but also taught me alot about politics and the government. This show was The West Wing. I have always been interested in politics and the government and this show fulfilled all of my political cravings. It takes the viewer into the White house doors and gives them a view (although not completely accurate all of the time) of what the cabinet staff and the President's lives are like. It not only informative (bringing the viewer through the political process of running for President, dealing with economic, domestic and foreign issues) but it is also entertaining and, at times, suspenseful. The West Wing covers the characters lives both in the office and out and brings up issues that the President's office has to deal with. For all of these reason, there is no other show like The West Wing.

tears of joy

I have always been an extremely emotional and sensitive person who takes almost everything to heart. This has turned out both good and bad for me. Sometimes I have a tendency of taking things a little bit too personal and getting very sad and down about whatever that statement, comment, or issue was. But other times, if even the smallest thing is done for me or said to me I get overwhelmingly happy and cheerful. The most recent event that has evoke an extreme emotion from me was actually last night when I was talking to my boyfriend.

We have not been dating that long (only about seven months) but its one of those relationships where it feels like seven months has been seven years. We are extremely close and passionate for eachother, but sometimes he is kind of a jerk. He has a tendency of saying things in a harsher tone than intended, and me being the sensitive person I am, I always feel like he is either yelling at me or being cruel. But last night, it was the exact opposite during my moment of need. There are some changes happening in my family right now, where my mom is 95% sure she is going to be taking a job in Brussles and therefore moving to Europe and my 16 year old sister wants to move back to Arizona, where my mom happens to be living right now. There is a lot of conflict between my parents and they do not speak very often (and when they do its not pretty) so this situation is difficult for my sister. I have been overwhelmed with guilt because I am the one who asked her to move back to Mankato with me in the first place. So I have been thinking of options that would make this easier on my family and esspecially my sister and moving to Arizona is one of them (a very plausable one). I am of course conflicted on this issue, but my boyfriend, Chris, has been there helping me and attempting to be my voice of reason every step of the way.

Last night, Chris and I had a long discussion about the possibilities of moving to Arizona and he said something to me that just made me break down and start to cry. Not tears of sadness, but rather tears of joy and adoration. He told me that where ever I decide to go, what ever I decide to do, as long as I still want him he will be with me through anything and going anywhere. He told me that he would move away with me and start a new life rather than leave me any day with no hesitation.
It may sound a bit extreme, because we have only been dating for a short period of time, but him saying this evoked a happier feeling than I have had for a long time.

advertising age.

Advertising is a crucial part of bringing a new product or service into the market. With out advertising or marketing a company would have no way of selling their new product/service and, therefore, won't be able to make money. Advertisers have to be creative and original in order to be successful and make the viewer want to go out and get their product. In my opinion, cell phone companies have some of the most hilarious commercials. The Alltel commercials, with Chad and the other guys representing the other big names in the cell industry, capture your attention and keep it through out the duration of the commercial and get their promotion (my circle) across to the audience. Another advertising campaign that has recently come out for AT&T is the stream of commercials where a person leaves a message on their own phone (like the dad looking for his daughter, saying that he didn't get her message saying where she was because he didn't have AT&T and didn't have service so now she is going to be humiliated for the rest of her high school career). These commercials are effective because they make the message clear (that Alltel has their "my circle" promotion where they can call any 5 people from any network and AT&T has excellent service) to the viewer, the viewer remembers the name of the company and also it is a conversation piece for them later on.

Obama and King

Prejudice and discrimination have always been hot topics in American politics and society. Although much progress has been made through the last couple of decades, I believe there are still many more bridges to be crossed and steps to be taken in order to have a country that treats every person, regardless of sex, race, religion or ethnicity, equal. Recently, Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama gave “A more perfect Union” speech which addressed his thoughts on America’s racial and prejudicial state. This speech has been regarded as one of the top speeches to be given in the last couple of decades and will go down in history, along with his status so far in the Presidential elections, as a monumental moment in US History. His progress so far is a milestone that Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of in a brighter America, and this is quite evident in his ”Letter from Birmingham Jail” which addressed the issues that African Americans faced in their day to day lifes dealing with segregation and oppression. These two works, by two of the most influential African American men in America, both past and present, have documented the times and ideals of their age.

Obama’s speech and Dr. King’s letter have many similarities as well as some stark differences in style and content. As far as style and technique are concerned, the biggest difference has to do with the audience being addressed. In Obama’s speech, he is speaking to the American people, as a fellow American, and is noting the strides taken towards the end of inequality and “racial superiority” between white people and black. Barack also points out that there is still much more work to be done, however while giving this speech he is addressing a much more accepting audience than Dr. King did in his letter. If Obama gave a similar speech back in the 50’s, he would have never been given the time of day and hardly any members of the American public would have paid attention other than to ridicule it. Dr. King paved the way through letters and speeches like the “Letter from Birmingham Jail” which was only addressed to clergy men, and Dr. King was begging for their attention. King was pleading for the Clergy men to understand his message and to act according to their faith to see not the color of a person’s skin but rather the goodness that is in their soul. He pointed out the oppression that black people have faced through out their lives and tried to emphasis how they were people too, and they were no less loved by God than any other white male or female, but they were being treated as if they were diseased beings forced to do every thing separate from the white man.

Time has changed and with time has come acceptance. With the 45 years that have passed since MLK wrote his “Letter” there is still some segregation in the US, as Obama pointed out, and there are still racist thoughts and minds through out America that, in some ways, continue to restrict African American people from achieving as much success in the work place, but the differences between Dr. King’s time and Obama’s time are remarkable. There are still African Americans who feel that the ‘white man’ continues to hold them down, people such as Obama’s former reverend, Reverend Wright, who preach about the continued oppression and the anger of their people. But Obama effectively points out how nothing is going to change over night, but in no other country can a man have an African father, white mother, been raised by white grandparents, and have cousins of different ethnicities and colors over three continents and be accepted as a candidate for presidency. Although he has had to work through barriers placed upon him due to his race, he has overcome all that has come in his way and continues to amaze and be regarded as an important figure in history. These two works by these two remarkable men are examples of the changing of the times and how nothing is achieved through just laying back and watching the world around you. Like Mahatma Gandhi said, “You must be the change you want to see in the world”. These two men truly exemplify this saying.