Losing sight of what's important

So I was just randomly surfing the net for any interesting news stories to write about (it's what I do when I don't know what to blog about) when one article's title caught my attention.

It read as "Paying in Full As the Ticket Into Colleges". I was curious to see what this was about. As I read I felt more and more opposition building up. Then it was inevitable...I want to give my opinion on the article.

Basically the article is saying that starting this year some colleges will be considering more "financially stable" aka richer kids who do not require financial aid more than ever before. So lets hear an example of this. Timmy is an intellectually profound student but is part of a middle/low class family with limited income. He works two jobs but will still need a reasonable amount of financial aid to go to college. Bobby is an okay student whose parents went to the same high school and are big donators to the athletics etc. He has always had things given to him and he has never had to work a day in his life. Due to his parents popularity and donations he just so happens to make good grades, but not as good as Timmy's. They both apply to the same college. Who deserves to get accepted? Timmy. Who will more than likely get accepted? Bobby. Do you see what I'm getting at?

What it boils down to is this...it isn't right to base an acceptance into a college on the root of all evil..money. What hope will that give to youth? If the trend catches on and all colleges start choosing mostly, maybe only, wealthy students into their institution kids who are less fortunate will have no motivation to stay in school. There would no longer be equal opportunity. It wouldn't matter if you were a genious...if your parents didn't have the moolah you were SOL. Does anyone else see this as unconstitutional? or better yet unethical? I mean come on.

Oh this was my favorite part of the article.."Colleges say they are not backing away from their desire to serve less affluent students; if anything, they say, taking more students who can afford to pay full price or close to it allows them to better afford those who cannot." You won't have any "less affluent" students if you don't accept them. What are you planning to do? Just have a generation of only rich kids go to college and then expect the others to start applying later? Geez.

Anyways just read the article and decide what you think. I think this would be a killer topic for a debate.

*Lightbulb*...Pop Rocks!

I have to do write and give an informative speech for my COM 110 class. I have thought so hard these past couple of days of what topic I should choose for my speech. I thought about global warming but I'm kind of tired of hearing about global warming and I'm sure my classmates would feel the same way. I was going to do the process of making an animation film but I honestly don't think I could explain that whole process in only 6 minutes. So many ideas crossed my mind but nothing was clicking. I didn't want to do something too terribly serious because a lot of people are doing serious topics. I wanted to so something fun and interesting to research.

It was only until just now that I think I finally came up with the topic I am going to do. I had a random craving and started looking in my room for something to satisfy it. I found a pack of pop rocks and they did the trick. Then it dawned on me...Pop Rocks! I think I should give my speech on the history, production process, and urban legends of pop rocks. Idk it sounds fun to me.

So to get me started I thought about brainstorming with some info on here.

History: Pop rocks were founded in 1956 by William A. Mitchell (General Foods research scientist). They weren't put on the shelves to sell until 1975. They sold for $0.15 a pack.

"Tiny air pockets of carbonation (CO2) are released when melted in your mouth and has a mild 'crackling' sensation and 'popping' noise. The original flavors were Orange, Cherry and Grape."

Urban legends: The main urban legend is that if you eat pop rocks and then drink soda you will explode. This is false. This makes me laugh because I remember hearing about that legend and even though I knew it sounded crazy I was always too scared to eat pop rocks and drink a soda..haha.

There was an urban legend that Mikey (you know the little kid for the Life cereal commercial) ate a pack of pop rocks and then drank a can of soda right behind them. Supposedly this sparked a dangerous chemical reaction and caused Mikey to explode. Obviously this legend is false.

Another interesting myth/real issue has to do with some kind of meth that looks and smells like strawberry pop rocks. You can read it about it here.

Why it pops: The ingredients (sugar, lactose [milk sugar] corn syrup and flavoring) are processed with Carbon Dioxcide. "The ingredients are heated together and boiled. The hot sugar mixture is mixed with carbon dioxide gas at about 600 PSI. The carbon dioxide gas forms tiny, 600 PSI bubbles in the candy."

UNCW Football?

So to be honest, it was hard for me to choose a side to the argument of whether or not UNCW should have a football team/program. It was hard because I don't play football so I don't really feel that I have a say or passion behind the decision. But for argument sake I suppose I will say that no I don't think UNCW should have an official football team. I do however think that an intramural team would be ok.

I did some research and it turns out that one of the main things that holds UNCW back from starting a football program is money. In order to get financial support the school would have to double or even triple the student athletic fee ($389 to like $800). Yikes. Some students said they would be willing to pay, but for most that is a big difference and too much.

Another issue that was brought up was the fact that UNCW already has 19 sports and the athletic department says that money is tight enough already. In 2007 during a football debate/forum (this was the only evidence I found) a student pointed out "I wanted to talk to students about supporting UNCW athletics now. How can we expect to fill a football stadium when we can't fill Trask during basketball season? We need to support the sports we already have established." I think he had a good point.

Now whether you agree with me or not..I'm going to give my opinion. First, honestly since UNCW has never had a football team we have not had the ability to gain any kind of reputation of being a good school for football. In other words why would a star football player want to come play for a team that no one even knows exist? There are plenty of other colleges that are known for their football program. Second, we do have one of the relatively popular college sports (basketball) and we all see how well that is going. We suck! Would football be any better? I can't really say much more because I am no expert when it comes to sports. The only other thing I will say is that I think the university should first just try to have an intramural football team and then see how good the players are. There is no need to build a stadium for an intramural team or anything. You just need a football and a coned zone on the intramural field. If people really want to play then they will. It would be up to players to get their uniform and pads.

I don't know...I guess overall if people want it bad enough they will "hand over the checks" according to the chancellor.

Newborn baby found in "rubbish bin?"

How about "No Giving Birth in Toilet"?

What is wrong with people in the world today? You will be asking this same question if you watch this news story from CNN.com.

Apparently, a woman had a baby...on a plane...in the toilet...and abandoned the newborn in the "rubbish bin". Ok so first of all, I agree with one of the passengers that were on the plane when they mentioned the fact that it is hard to believe that no one noticed that she was having the baby. I mean I personally witnessed my mom give birth to my little sister and she was not quiet about it. There is no way that that woman gave birth that quietly. Second of all, how could anyone in their right mind purposely leave a baby in a trash can??? Geeeeeeeez

The kicker of the story is that the woman, who gave birth and was trying to abandon the baby, while getting off the plane had to report to authorities to report a missing passport. The authorities noticed that she was pale and her clothes were stained in blood. This woman is not very smart at all. If you are trying to abandon the baby why would you draw attention to yourself like that? Wait hold on...the woman shouldn't be abandoning the baby in the first place.

I guess it never ceases to amaze me what crazy stuff goes on in the world today. Before you know it abandoning babies in trash cans will be considered more politically correct than abortion.
Anyways, I am going to get back to editing my paper for english. So far so good...for the most part. I guess I can only do what I think is right and hope for the best.

Jeff Dunham

So I didn't really know what to write about for this blog...until I just happened to pay attention to something that is on my desk in my dorm. I have an Achmed doll that talks. For those of you that have been deprived and don't know who Achmed is...he is one of the famous characters created by ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. Jeff Dunham is my favorite comedian so I think I could dedicate a blog to him.

It all started about three years ago when my older sister had mentioned to me about some dude that made dolls talk and was hilarious. I was a little skeptical at first, but I love humor so I gave him a shot and watched his first special. It was love at first laugh. From his character Walter, a grumpy old guy who isn't afraid to tell you how he feels, to Achmed, a dead terrorist who had lived his life as a suicide bomber, there wasn't one moment when I was at least smiling. I'm going to talk about the top 4 characters Jeff has created, but there are a few more.

The first character Jeff normally starts his shows with is Walter. Walter is an old retired man who seems to be grumpy constantly. What makes Walter hilarious is the fact that you get the sense of "hey he reminds me of so and so" and then from there you can't help but laugh. Walter has so many funny jokes that I can't name just one. Just watch the special or at least search him on youtube and I guarantee you will laugh.

Another popular character of Jeff Dunham is Bubba J. Bubba J is a complete redneck who has a drinking problem. I mean who doesn't know at least one redneck in their life? You know the neighbor who has a big ole truck with hunting stickers all over it and never mows his or her lawn...yea it seems stereotypical but it's still hilarious.

Achmed has probably become the most popular character of Jeff Dunham. He is a skeletal version of a terrorist who used to be a suicide bomber. He died due to a "premature detonation" while practicing bombing techniques. The phrase most people recognize from him is "I KEEL YOU!" I don't even feel the need to go on because you just need to watch the specials lol.

Finally, Jeff's character Peanut is a purple, energetic, crazy looking islander that could make you laugh simply by his appearance. He is considered to the sidekick of Jeff being that he was the first puppet created by Jeff.

Basically I'm not saying that Jeff Dunham is the funniest man alive..I am simply saying that he is an incredible comedian and if you haven't seen any of specials you should consider watching at least one.

Outline..yeeeeeeaaaa

Outline for 2nd Paper

I. Introduction

• Things being compared- Article- "Is Global Warming Killing the Polar Bears?" and Commercial- Noah Wyle for WWF Polar Bear Ad
• Media types- Newspaper/article vs. TV commercial
• Basic, similar message of the two- global warming has endangered the polar bear species
• Which I found more effective- the commercial
• Three aspects to talk about: Appeal, Credentials, and Purpose

II. Body

1. Appeal

• Visual appeal of commercial vs. written article
• Effect of picture, music, and tone of voice from the commercial
• Persuasive speech, depressing music, sad tone of the commercial
• Article- more descriptive and informative than commercial
• Still have overall general, similar message

2. Credentials

• Sponsor of commercial- World Wildlife Foundation vs. Source of information from the article- Jim Carlton and U.S. Minerals Management Service
• Using a celebrity to represent the foundation for the commercial
• Which is more recognizable?- WWF
• Which is more reliable?- WWF

3. Purpose

• Although the two sources convey the same message, do they both have the same purpose?
• Purpose of the commercial- persuade you to donate to the World Wildlife Fund to help the polar bears
• Purpose of the article- simply to inform you
• Ultimately the difference between articles and commercials- most commercials are advertisements that try to get you to do something but not the case with most informative newspaper articles

III. Conclusion

• Basically restate the point of the paper (basic info in intro)
• Make sure to say which I found more effective- commercial
• Restate three main aspects I compared/contrasted
• Bring it all together and close it