Monday, November 25, 2013
WetFeet University Benchmark Study
Georgia Tech career services asked me to complete a benchmark study about my university career services, potential employers, etc. It's quite interesting because at the end they give you a list of employers you may want to look at based on your responses and statistics about potential salary and GPA compared with national stats and your university. If you participate, you can get two free ebooks that could be helpful for post graduation job hunting. Check it out here! or if the link isn't working properly, visit http://wfsurv.com/refusss14?reid=10099187.
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Poetry, what is that stuff??
I've been writing a lot lately, almost everyday actually. If I'm not writing something new, I'm revising something old. I joined the Google+ poetry community and I'm trying to get myself involved, especially with the critique requested category. I figure that if I can offer another poet a question about their work to get them to think about how to make their work better or a bit of advice, then that means I've learned something.
I must admit that one user posted under this said category and I happened to find his poem, and I politely offered feedback, acknowledging what I liked about his poem too. It wasn't negative feedback, just good old fashioned constructive criticism. After all it was in this category. He didn't respond harshly to my comments, but he did attempt a discussion with other community members about the role of feedback.
Basically, he stated that feedback was not necessary to make one's work better because it would no longer be your work. If other people gave you feedback, to change this or that, add this, get rid of this, it would no longer be your individual creation, it would be a collaborative piece that wouldn't look like your style. Actually 'you,' your voice, would be replaced by other non-you voices.
I have to say that I was kind of pissed off by this, especially about the part that feedback from others won't improve your work. I think that's complete bullshit. I said it. I took a class that was set up like workshop and I've never gained so much knowledge or improved so much before. Taking that class, where we all sat in a circle, sharing our work, reading it aloud, talking about it, blatantly discussing, critiquing and ripping apart one another's work (not worrying about how the author would take it because we were there to learn from one another), was the best thing I could have done to become a better writer. I find what he said to be pure ignorance; it's a refusal to learn from other people who have had more experience writing, and how could you choose to refuse learning from others?
Sunday, July 7, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Follow Me on Twitter
Why?
Here's why:
Because I'm Awesome
Because I Tweet the top stories of the day with amazing analysis and commentary
Because it's more fun and interactive than this!
Follow Me at @_arielc_
Here's why:
Because I'm Awesome
Because I Tweet the top stories of the day with amazing analysis and commentary
Because it's more fun and interactive than this!
Follow Me at @_arielc_
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Thursday, February 7, 2013
Execution by Piranha System
This is an interesting article from Vice.com. What do you think??
http://m.vice.com/read/your-introduction-to-pay-per-view-piranha-capital-punishment
http://m.vice.com/read/your-introduction-to-pay-per-view-piranha-capital-punishment
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Friday, January 25, 2013
Obamascare
Thanks Obamacare! Now my co-pay for my specialist costs over 100% more. Specialist's can't survive without hospitals taking on the responsibility for their potential risk. That's right everyone, Obamacare has changed the country, it's raised the cost of healthcare! I didn't post anything on Facebook the entire election or the years leading up to it. But I can't take people thinking he's a messiah anymore. If you voted for him because you genuinely thought he would make the country a better place, that is pure ignorance on your side and you're living in a fantasy world that doesn't exist. Nothing in this world is free. Birth control isn't free (with that 100%, where do you think it's going, it comes in a punch out pack and you're swallowing it every day.) This country is filled with unmotivated moochers, who are attracted to shiny, dangly things and neon signs with "free stuff" written all over. People need to grow up and rely on themselves. No one owes you anything.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Weather
My efforts to get GaTech to cancel classes on Friday due to some ice storm have failed. They said classes will not be canceled. It's going to be rainy, freezing and icy roads. Just "be careful" they say. This sucks.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Messages in Movies
Here's another 1000 + word essay I wrote for no particular reason...
Do you enjoy the thrill of going to
the movie theatre? Do you like the anything is possible atmosphere, the
multicolored carpeting donning the movie reels of the past, the scent of high
calorie imitation butter and popcorn, the potentially bed bug laden seats? If you’re like me, you love going to the
movies. I like the adventure of going to the movies. That’s what film is all
about isn’t it – taking the audience somewhere new, like Hogwarts in the Harry Potter
series or Middle Earth in The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. But movies aren’t just
made to purely entertain an audience. Recently, it seems that more and more
Hollywood celebrities are becoming the faces of causes and issues. Remember
when Will Ferrell created that ludicrous, yet comical, YouTube video of himself
in a robe, sitting in front of that fireplace, begging for us eighteen or older
to vote to re-elect Obama, and even jokingly offering to buy Obama voters pizza?
Wherever I look, I seem to find a celebrity endorsing a product, a person or a
cause. Take a look at all the weight loss commercials for Weight Watchers,
Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem – all of them are using celebrity endorsements.
We know what these political
puppets are doing. They are trying to entice the viewer to partake in whatever
they are selling. You may recall a negative campaign video (negative campaign
videos are in fact more effective than positive campaign videos, both parties
just don’t want to admit to it) that President George W. Bush used against Al
Gore during the election. A screen shot of the word “rats” was inserted into
the sequence of images the audience viewed. This is what you might call
subliminal imagery. Subliminal imagery leaves a lasting impression with
viewers, without them knowing it, hence subliminal, and it’s completely legal.
In fact, when you are sitting in the movie theatre watching the trailers of
upcoming films, an image so quick that we don’t really see it, say an image of
a large soda, may flash on the screen for mere fractions of a second, and in
turn, causes you to experience thirst. And inevitably you’ll end up running to
the concession stand for a twenty-dollar soda (price gouging at the theatre is
another story and I won’t go off on that tangent now) before the film begins.
This ‘brain washing’ technique got
me thinking just a tad bit more than I usually do about film. A new film,
Promised Land, is out. Promised Land stars Matt Damon, Francis McDormand and
John Krasinski. The film is about a salesman working for a natural gas company.
Apparently, the company Damon’s character works for wants to frack for natural
gas and there ends up being a bunch of hoopla about it. According to IMDB, Matt
Damon, as Steve Butler, “experiences life-changing events”. First of all, lets
analyze this - take Damon’s character name. Steve Butler. It’s a nice, simple,
average-joe kind of name. But, let’s look at his last name. Butler. That’s
right - it’s a not-so-secret secret message. I guess the character is like a
butler, a man that is about to do some sort of dirty work for another person,
and this person just happens to be a corporation (and remember a corporation is
a symbol for capitalism, the free market, an entity which some people despise).
Take a look at the title of the film. Promised Land. If you don’t see the overt
covert message in that, well then, I don’t know what to tell you.
So you thought you were just going
to see a movie for entertainment, for enjoyment, from a break from reality,
right? Wrong. Like anything, those commercials about losing twenty pounds for
twenty dollars, Damon and his crew are trying to sell you something. This film
is political statement. And the message that they want to instill is that
fracking is bad and so is capitalism. Fracking is a method for extracting
natural gas and oil. Fracking is something that we could do, on American soil,
to produce useable energy. Fracking, along with wind, solar and nuclear power,
would help us become energy independent, meaning we wouldn’t have to purchase
oil from people who completely loathe and despise us and what we stand for.
Energy independence is a good thing, but some politicians, what Bill O’Reilly
calls leftist loonies, and oddly enough, actors, who know next to nothing about
producing energy, engineering energy, or really politics, don’t like fracking.
So the people that fight for energy independence really don’t want energy
independence.
Think of all the films you can, and
analyze them for yourself. For laughs, take a look at An Inconvenient Truth,
which is a complete and utter fantastical lie. The center of Earth is most
certainly not millions of degrees hot. And that graphical representation that
Gore needs a ladder for (who made that for him in the first place??), is also a
complete farce. Talk about a political puppet, it’s no wonder why his wife left
him.
Another recent, yet well-crafted
piece of cinematic art is the film Lincoln, with Daniel Day-Lewis, directed by
Steven Spielberg. It is a prodigious film, I must admit, and it is a wonderful
representation of politics at it’s worst, or best, depending on how you look at
how the practice of politics interferes with policymaking. Truthfully, it looks
to me like nothing in Washington D.C. has really changed in the last hundred and
forty plus years. Today we still have policies being pushed through, to which
“we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it” as Nancy Pelosi
says regarding the then 2010 bill deemed Obamacare, votes being bought and
politicians flip-flopping from one side to the other.
Would you define yourself as a
critical thinker? Do you see yourself as an independent thinker? Are you aware
of the messages sent from Capital Hill, from celebrities, from television, publications
and other sources of entertainment and media? Have you even thought about this
very subject? What do you think about what I have presented here before you?
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Comment below |
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V (this is a down arrow, not an uppercase 'v'...)
all comments welcome....
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Random Long Essay
Here's an original 1000 word plus essay I wrote for you to read -- If no one comments, I will assume it's because no one cares and people think that this whole gun/mental health issue is a government conspiracy theory...
I went to a local sport and hunting store, went to the guns
section and was shocked to see the cases practically empty. The phones were
ringing off the hook and it was pure pandemonium. I saw first hand how out of control this gun
control issue has gotten - people are absolutely terrified that their second
amendment rights are going to go ‘poof.’ And I can’t help but thinking that the
President and Vice President doing the wrong things, threatening to limit our
second amendment, rather than taking appropriate action. This issue, like all controversial
issues do, made it to Hollywood. Remember those trailers for Gangster Squad?
Well, because of the Aurora, Colorado shooting, producers decided to delete a
scene, apparently one that was creepily reminiscent of what happened, and
reshot a new scene, not to mention they postponed the release of the film. My
issue with this is that film is art. And this is censoring, and I don’t believe
it’s right to censor artistic expression.
But now let’s go back to my argument; what would President Obama
and Vice President smiley-face love more than taking away assault weapons?
Taking away guns from ordinary people that is. Why so much focus on the guns
issue when the core issue is mysteriously fading from the media spotlight? I
think the media and government have swept the central issue under the rug; the
mental health crisis in the United States. Gun control is now being called gun
safety, as Michelle Malkin says on Fox and Friends, because gun safety denotes
a less radical, less intrusive way of limiting a constitutional freedom.
It’s not the guns
that kill people, it’s people that kill people. Can there be another anecdote
that brings out the absolute worst in people? I think not. Sandy Hook was an
incredible tragedy, but you can’t let the spin from media on the web,
television, newspapers, college professors or the government mask the truth.
Most people that own handguns are ordinary, law abiding citizens, who use guns
as protection, not to destroy human life. I do recognize the difference between
assault weapons and personal handguns. I am not certain that the best thing to
do to prohibit the use of assault weapons by civilians. But I know one thing,
if our second amendment rights are fringed upon, the south may just succeed after
all. Seriously. I go to Georgia Tech and cannot tell you how frustrating it is
to receive a clery act for armed robbery in the my morning email. There aren’t
nearly enough Georgia Tech police and concealed carry, in my opinion, on
college campuses needs to happen.
But, on a more important note, I have a concern with Vice
President Joe Biden, with his Cheshire cat (no offense Chesh) smile, with
claims to do “something” about gun control…I mean safety. Biden wants President
Obama to perform an executive action to do “something.” But Biden’s objective
is not only to do something about assault weapons; I fear something drastic,
with the second amendment.
It’s not the ordinary people with handguns that kill the
majority of people dying from gun related crimes. It’s the criminals that are
responsible for the majority of gun related deaths and criminals don’t care
about any type of executive action taken – criminals will buy and sell and
carry weapons no matter what; that is one reason why they are criminals - the
law has no effect on their behavior. I can’t help putting some of the blame on society
for the perpetrator’s of the crimes at the Aurora movie theatre, Columbine,
Sandy Hook and Virginia Tech. In each instance, the gun-wielding male was
mentally ill. How can society not notice these individuals, these individuals
who are withdrawn from society, who don’t interact with their fellow man, who
seem awkward, who claim that they will hurt people and animals or do something
through social media outlets? You can’t not notice, you cannot be so blind, you
can only ignore.
Since I’m blaming society, I might as well just go full
force and blame the families of these individuals at fault as well. They should
be held accountable. They should have said something, done something. If your
child kills animals out in the backyard for fun, you know you have a problem.
If your child is disruptive at home and school, you know you have a problem. If
your child is defiant, impulsive and has committed criminal acts, you
definitely know you have a problem. I can’t see nor believe that parents,
family members, teachers and other community members didn’t notice or couldn’t
tell that something was wrong (that’s just a bunch of b.s. and denial). This
could be the most infuriating part of these occurrences – the complete
blindness and refusal to take action on part of the closest to the gun-wielding
psychopath.
It’s happened, but what can we really do now to prevent it
from happening again? VP Biden blames video games. It’s not the video games – I
play all kinds of video games, from Viva Piñata to Gears of War – and I’m just
fine (but I didn’t sit in front of my Nintendo 64 when I was eight years old
for eight to ten hours a day). I do know that studies have shown video game
violence transfers to the real world. But then you could say video games are
prepping the young to become soldiers. I guess, video games are to the Third
Reich as the associated violence with video games is to the Nazi Youth. So ban
mature rated video games to adults eighteen or older. But will that work? I
seriously doubt it. Mature rated video games will be like alcohol and underage
kids – they will figure out a way to get them anyway. This plausible solution
isn’t the right or only solution to the problem, because video games aren’t the
true cause.
It’s a mental health crisis.
I may be going out on a limb here, but let’s take solutions to the
extreme. Psychopaths (also known as sociopaths unless you’re going to
scrutinize the differences down to tiny attributes) have noticeable brain abnormalities;
ventricles in the brains of psychopaths are enlarged. Maybe from birth, we can
give every newborn a CT scan to look for brain abnormalities. It could be
possible that the medical community could identify psychopaths even before they
take their first steps. But what would we do with these ‘invalids’ (yes I’m borrowing
this word from Gattaca, because it
helps make my point). We would have to exterminate them, how about that for
anti-human rights, or lock them up in children’s prisons (but little kids grow
up, right?) We could start up gladiator teams, with little kids on each, and
use them for really disturbing entertainment. Or we could use them for cosmetic
testing (free the animals!).
What do you do with psychopaths? Currently, we just ‘lock em
up’. Medications don’t help unless they are psychotic. Lobotomies could work,
right? Yeah, I vote for lobotomies. There’s nothing more gratifying than
turning a cold-blooded killer into a complete vegetable. Setting aside the
satire, really what can we do?
Friday, January 18, 2013
Hey, It's Friday
I forgot to post a 1000+ word essay that I felt like writing...I guess it'll have to wait till later...
Oh, and by the way, it's Friday :)
Oh, and by the way, it's Friday :)
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Dun Dun Dunnnn......
So Spring Semester started and it's pretty busy, so.... I doubt I'll be posting many posts. Stay tuned though because you haven't read the last of my posts(?)...
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Spring Semester...but it's only winter?
It's a sad, sad time of year. The holidays are over and so is winter break. I'm back at school ( :( ) again. Only two semesters and the 15 weeks of this one and I'm done. yip yip hooray
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Brilliance Seeping Out
I think I wrote a brilliant piece today. So that makes two works of complete genius in 48-ish hours. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait to read them on arguethat.com where I am going to be a featured writer!!! Go me.
Friday, January 4, 2013
How much is my education worth?
The new semester and recent articles in newspaper
publications have me thinking about the cost of a four year college education and
the true value of it. Some people would say that I am lucky to receive the HOPE
scholarship – a scholarship based on merit, not financial need. But I worked
for the scholarship. I was an A/B student, mostly A’s, in high school, and I
maintained my high performance in college from the beginning. I have a 3.80 GPA and
“am lucky enough” to have 100% of Georgia Tech tuition paid for. In-state
tuition, the amount HOPE pays for, is under five thousand dollars a semester.
A roommate from last semester is an out-of-state student.
Her parents, as she said it, shell out forty grand a year for her to attend
Georgia Tech. I knew the tuition for out-of-state students was high, but I
hadn’t thought of myself, or my parents, paying that much for my education, especially for an undergraduate degree. I
was wondering if my roommate thought that she was receiving forty
thousand dollars worth of education. But then again, how can you measure the
worth of an education. It can’t be based on where undergrads go to graduate
school or how much money they make at their first job because these are not
guarantees. Georgia Tech cannot guarantee me admittance to Columbia or NYU, nor a job.
It really infuriates me that ‘the rising cost of tuition’
can be attributed, partly, to colleges and universities ‘hiring more
administrative staff’. First of all, some of the administrative staff is useless;
fewer employees are needed to actually to get the job done. Secondly, if I have
a question, I receive an automated response or a response by a student
employee.
I honestly cannot say whether I have or currently am
receiving a forty thousand dollar a year education. I find it difficult to give my
education a price tag. I don’t know what the true monetary value of the quality
of my, or for anyone else’s for that matter, education is. Realtors ask, “How much
is this property worth?” Well, the answer is “what someone is willing to pay
for it.” If colleges had open seats, and had a pool of applicants that were
‘pre-approved’ and then would be allowed to bid on how much they would pay for
that spot, then, and only then would we know how much an education would be worth.
I am in my junior year of college and so, naturally, I am
preparing for the future. This means deciding on what to do for graduate school,
because let’s be honest, you can’t afford to not make money and I don't want to struggle to live how I want. I’ve come to the
decision that law school is what is at the top of my short, short list – that
is if I can get into one of the top ten law schools in the US (and I greatly prefer
Columbia University or NYU and I do not want to go to a school in California so
Stanford is out of the running). If I can’t get into one of the best, I am not
sure it would be in my best interest, or in the interest of my parent’s bank
account, to go to a lesser school for a J.D. It’s too bad that apprenticeships
in the field of law just don’t happen too much anymore (will firms want you if
you do an apprenticeship?) because we all hear that it’s experience that
facilitates learning. I like the idea that I would take the LSAT’s, apply to
law school and then, I would go shopping around for a sponsor, a law firm, that
would pay a percentage of my law school tuition (some or all of it) guaranteed if I
commit to working for them when I graduate for a period of time. This way I
would be guaranteed the funds to make it through law school with little to no
debt, and a job (that's unheard of...just kidding)! Anyone out there want to be my sponsor? Yes?
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The Cost of Freedom...It's Sarcasm People
Government bans light bulbs and government bans plasticwater bottles in Concord, Massachusetts. Government bans extra large sodas,unpasteurized milk and foie gras. People ban books and limit the number of catsyou can have in Wellington, Kansas. We might as well ban all sugary drinksincluding, but not limited to: fruit juices, regular sodas of all flavors,coffee creamers, milks, and teas. Fast food should be eliminated because it’sfull of fat, sugar and salt and makes us fat. Chocolate is evil because it’sfull of sugar. Cheese shouldn’t be produced because it makes people obese. Infact, depending on what kinds of medication one is on, one should not beallowed to eat foods that correspond to contributing to the health issues, i.e.if you are on high blood pressure medications, you shouldn’t be allowed to eat anythingwith salt. All processed foods should beeliminated from the diet because it causes obesity.
Just as most types of food aren’t healthy, other behaviorsaren’t healthy. Condoms and birth control should be banned because it promotespre-marital sex and when the technology doesn’t work, it causes abortion.Abortion should be banned because it’s murder and it was sinful to do you knowwhat when it should only be legal to do it for reproductive purposes. Alcoholshould be banned because it makes people stupid and it’s poison. Cows andchickens and fish shouldn’t be farmed as food, they’re friends. Cell phones andcomputers should be banned because they keep us sedentary and make us fat.
Plastic surgery should be banned if it’s being used forreasons other than reconstruction. Breast augmentations, rhinoplasties,face-lifts and botox injections are dangerous and unnecessary. Cosmetics shouldbe totally eliminated because they are made of chemicals. Leather clothing,accessories and furniture should stop being produced because that’s animalcruelty. Cars should be outlawed because they are weapons of mass destructionand cause pollution. Hand dryers in restrooms should be banned because theyactually blow the bacteria onto your hands and can cause illness. The using ofhand sanitizers should be made illegal because it’s really unhygienic andpromote resistant bacteria. The hem of women’s and men’s shorts should be noshorter than three inches away from the top of the knee cap to eliminate anindividuals bodily fluids from escaping their body and contaminating chairs,exercise equipment, benches, seats on buses, planes and trains.
Old people smell and it’s unhealthy and distressing foryounger people to see older people become decrepit; therefore the elderlyshould be banned and properly disposed of. Flowers should not be sold as indoordecorative pieces because they can carry bugs. Aluminum should be bannedbecause it is known to cause Alzheimer’s if consumed. Socks should be sold inmultiples of three because, inevitably, one always gets lost. These itemsshould be banned as well: magazines, tablets, vitamins, x-rays, dentalcleanings, swimming (deadly amoebas), airplanes, museums, movies and freespeech because it can be hurtful.
Doesn’t it seem that our freedom is becoming less free? Are we really that inept that we need an institution to make our own decisions forus? Are we so stupid that we don’t know what is best for ourselves? I think Jonathan Swift had a brilliant idea – we should farm infants for food. And Iknow just the place – Russia. They have thousands of orphaned, invalid childrenplumping up. We could harvest them, chop them up, package them in recycledmaterials and ship them over to Africa where we can hand out a freeze-driedpackage of Russian orphan to every polio vaccine recipient. We can solve worldhunger and eliminate a disabling illness all at once.
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