Assigned Entry #6 It's All Over Now.

This is the end of another semester. This will most likely be the last blog entry I make. I hope you all enjoyed reading about things I find interesting. Overall I really liked making this blog, The blogging process is kind of relaxing. I am usually browsing around the internet reading science articles or stumbling through forums, it's nice to have a place to share things I find, and also hear what other people think about that stuff. Blogging is a great place to practice having a voice in writing. It is an easy medium to express yourself however you want.I like that there was structure to the whole blog process. I think it would have been difficult to stay on top of the blog if there were no assigned entries, but also I think the assigned entries could of have been a little more broad. All and all I think it was a great way to practice certain elements of writing that were necessary in every paper we had to turn in, and also a fun way to get that practice. Much better then some other English classes I've been in which just have assigned reading, tests, and papers.

Why I Hate School but Love Education

I have always been the kind of person that want to learn new things. I really do enjoy learning, I however do not always agree with the education system. I feel like the system gets bogged down and doesn't do a good job recognizing everyone as a unique individual with something to offer.  Here is a spoken word video I found that expresses my thought on the education system perfectly. 

Want I want to do for the rest life requires an education. it's something I realized at a young age. I know that I want to be a veterinarian, and I know there is no way of getting there without doing well in school, and pretty much doing exactly what this video is speaking against, but it doesn't make this video any less true. This same kid does another video in fact I think it's the first one in this series. It makes a similar point I'll post it here as well. It's important to to realize no one is saying that you shouldn't educate yourself, just standardized testing doesn't accurately measure the diversity and different strengths we all possess. 

Assigned Entry #5 The Media and Me

When I think about the word media like most, I think of major media outlets. I always have to approach all mass media as a skeptic. I am a huge proponent of social media being used as a source of major news. the social site Reddit.com is a great example of media, and news being socially generated. sites like this make it possible for information to travel at alarming rates. as well as allows people to instantly discuss and debate any news story being presented on the web. With the recent Boston marathon tragedy, for example, I was amazed at just how much more information I had just by browsing the front page of Reddit then the majority of people I talked to. Basically, I don't believe in every crazy conspiracy theory I have heard, but at the same time I feel that I am intelligent enough to draw my own conclusion on any given topic. I enjoy educating myself on a topic before just believing what I heard on the news, or radio. Perfect example is again with the Boston Marathon explosions, the day after the event all of the major news outlets were all releasing incorrect information about suspects, ect. Just because they all wanted to be the first to release information, even if it was wrong. I'm just not o.k. with that. I prefer to research and form my own conclusion, hence browsing reddit.com/r/worldnews was a great way to stay up to date and not have to deal with "More on this developing story, @ 10:00pm"

Anyway...

Tl;dr: Don't believe everything the mass media tells you, use your brain, and think to draw your own conclusions. oh also if you don't already browse Reddit  and you like learning new things. it is worth looking into.

Reddit.com

My Robot is Better Than Your Robot!

So I found this video and I just wanted to share it, I wish that we had videos like this to help get kids motivated on science and math. I know when I was a kid, I was always the nerd, or the geek. When I was in  elementary school I was excited to be a part of the math club, my favorite subject throughout high school was always science. I remember taking aviation science / astronomy my sophomore year, so I could take physics my junior year. It just makes me happy to see videos like this because when people stop caring about science and math... Well I saw the movie "idiocracy "

"Not everybody's going to be a basketball player. So if there's a basketball court in every single elementary school, then there needs to be science programs." -will.i.am

Assigned Entry #4 The 99%

Capitalism an American Love Story in my opinion was a really informative movie. We've been learning about ho to use rhetoric to persuade or to inform. I think this movie did an excellent job informing.From discussion in class it seems everyone thinks the purpose was o persuade, but really what is Michael trying to persuade you to believe? This isn't the same as a movie about being pro-choice where at the end you can still make a moral decision about the subject. In the case you would need to be persuaded to one side of the argument or the other. With the American Love Story, we don't really have to decide if the big banks are screwing us over at the end. We know they are. Michael Moore is just pointing out the injustice, he's just making sure that the big banks are not able to get away with theft, at least not without keeping us informed.

Movies like this are important to spreading awareness about any kind of injustice. I personally think that Michael Moore is a credible journalist. He is just reporting on some majorly controversial topics. For some reason or another people have a hard time hearing the truth. I think that is why some people have such a big problem with with Michael Moore, and he knows that people don't like to hear the truth, that's why he has so much comedy in his movies. He knows if he just threw hard facts at people the whole time he would loose his audience pretty quick.

"I refuse to live in a country like this, and I’m not leaving."- Michael Moore

This Is A 'Mostly' Science Blog.

Holy High Definition Batman!

I just have to take a moment and tell you guys about how incredibly excited I am for the release of the new expansion to Starcraft 2 "The Heart of the Swarm" or 'HotS' The game officially launches tomorrow, and could not have come at a better time. I was playing in open Beta since January and have grown attached to all the new units, and changes they made. Beta was closed on March 1st. Right now you can still log into the Classic Starcraft 2 servers and play games. and Tomorrow they will re-open the Heart of the Swarm servers for the official game launch. I'm extra excited just because I've had the opportunity to practice with all the new units and will probably rank higher when the game launches.

Starcraft 2 has become a huge competitive E-Sport.

"The GOMTV Global StarCraft II League (or GSL for short) is a large tournament-based League held on location in South Korea and holds multiple events each year. Having started in late August 2010, the league was first step towards a professional league in South Korea for StarCraft II. The event is broadcast 3 nights a week (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) on GOMTV.^[1] The Team League is broadcast the remaining 2 weekdays. (Thursday and Friday)"

http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/GOMTV_Global_StarCraft_II_League

The GSL Prize pool pays out pretty big too:

Winner: 100,000,000 KRW (aprox. $85,700 USD)
Runner-Up: 30,000,000 KRW (aprox. $25,700 USD)
Semi-Finalists: 10,000,000 KRW (aprox. $8,600 USD)
Quarter-Finalists: 4,000,000 KRW (aprox. $3,400 USD)

Anyway, I am in no way a pro gamer, and I am not going to devote my life to Starcraft, BUUUT I do really enjoy working through the ladder and seeing progress, with time spent. I currently rank Gold, and when I started I was ranking in Top bronze and Silver.

Entry #3 Shorter Class, Good For You A.S.U.

Is adding  71/2 week classes to it's Spring and Fall face-to-face semesters.

I don't really know how I feel about this, I get that everyone is different and maybe this does appeal to some people. I get that some people can handle cramming everything down to half the amount of time and not go crazy trying to juggle school, and life. I just don't think I wouldn't want to put myself through that kind of stress to graduate a little sooner. 

This is cool though because usually people who want that kind of fast paced class environment like the article said are having to take online course to accomplish that. Online course at A.S.U. even for an instate student are treated as out of state for tuition purposes. So now people who need to have a shorter class time to allow for more time for working, or things like that, are able to.

All and all I think it is a step in the right direction, and also the article does say that they realize not all classes are able to be condensed down like this. Not all material can be taught in a 71/2 week format, but for the more general classes this is a great move on A.S.U.'s part.