Final Vlog

Final Blog

Media Communications was such a good class this year. Looking back through all of my past blogs, I can see that I have learned a ton from this class. We learned about Media Literacy, photo manipulation, epic characteristics, food companies, and even war technology. By far the most interesting was the Digital Nation part, because I loved learning about new technology. My least favorite part was probably the pulitzer prize photos. I was glad that we learned about Media Literacy and how to interpret the media. Media is part of everyday life, and it is very important that we learn how to read and interpret what we see and here as far as media-wise. I don't really feel that anything should be added to the lesson plan for this class, as I feel that we had a bunch to do over the year. Overall, this was one of my favorite classes so far, and I hope more and more students continue to sign up for it. I am officially done with this class, and two days away from a Senior at Oskaloosa High! This is my final goodbye, and farewell. Peace!

Feed

 

Feed, by M. T. Anderson, is a fictional book set in the near future. It's about a group of teens with "feeds" implanted in their brains like everyone else, and the "feed" does everything for them. They can browse online, chat other people, make phone calls, and even play games, all without using their hands. But when a group of friends gets hacked by an old feed-hacker, one girl, Violet, starts having problems with her "feed". Violet was against everything about the feed and the corporations that controlled almost everything people did. Titus, the narrator, builds a relationship with her and learns from her. She teaches him about the hidden things that the corporations do, and about ancient languages and other stuff. But when really bad things start happening with Violet, Titus starts to panic and wants detachment from her. Violet starts seeing less of Titus, and eventually he breaks up with her and leaves. But Violet is still getting worse, and the doctors say she could die. I wont give away the end of the book, but all in all, Feed is a great book with a real theme. It opened my eyes to what our future could look like, and eventually what could happen to the world. This book sort of teaches people the direction we're headed, and tells them to think twice before advancing technology and media too far.

Other books that are like Feed are The Holy Land, Enders Game, and Oryx and Crake.

I Sound Like A Hippy

After watching Food, Inc., my eyes have been spread wide open on the food industry and everything they’re doing and controlling. It seems that now, the food companies control almost everything having to do to with what we eat. They control what we see, buy, eat, and even what farmers MAKE. Major seed companies are almost dictators when it comes to farming, having total control over what farmers plant as far as soybeans. Terrible things are happening in the food industry, from Kevin Kowalcyk, a 4-year-old healthy boy, dying of E-coli poisoning, to chickens being genetically altered so much that they can’t even stand up, let alone see daylight. Food should be healthy, and we should have a choice with what food we want. Nowadays it seems that the only truly healthy food is organic food, and that is what is the worst. It has changed the way I see food, and brand names, and food companies. I’ll never forget what I’ve seen in this video, and it makes me angry with the food companies for being food dictators. They Should Not Be Controlling How We Eat!

The first few chapters of the movie were about chickens and cows. They said that chickens now have been genetically altered to have bigger breasts for more meat, and to resist diseases. However, this proves very bad for the quality of life for the chickens. Most of the chickens have problems standing because of how fast their body grows and develops compared to how much meat they have and how much they weigh. They also showed that some of the chickens just die, and they don’t know why. The chickens have also been pumped full of antibiotics, which is very bad because the farmers who deal with the chickens have become allergic to the antibiotics just by being around the chickens. We are putting this stuff in our bodies! The very sad thing about chicken farmers is that they have no control over their lives anymore once they are in the chicken business. Big companies like Tyson™ and Smithfield™ have them under contract, and the farmers are in so much debt that they have no vote in what they do or say. The terrible control that these companies have over so much food, and so many farmers, should be illegal, but it’s not.

Another thing that has spun out of control is the corn industry. Almost every product in a grocery store nowadays is made from, or of, corn. There are so many corn products, and the human population is ingesting large amounts of corn, when we are not naturally made to digest corn easily. The government is subsidizing corn with the farmers, paying them to grow corn crops. However, there is already so much corn being made, that corn is now being over-produced and over-grown. We are backing ourselves into a corner with the food industry, because if a corn virus or an insect that attacks corn comes, then our food industry could come crashing down. In addition, our animal industries are being overloaded with corn. The entire beef industry runs off corn-fed cows. The bad thing about cows being fed corn is that their digestive system is not created to digest the corn correctly. Cows that eat corn acquire E-coli in their stomachs. Just one cow that has been corn-fed can eat grass for just five days, and it will lose over 80% of the E-coli in its system. E-coli is very bad as it is a harmful bacterium that has caused many deaths since it’s discovery. The meat industry sees that grass-fed cows taste better, are healthier, and cause fewer problems for the human population that eats beef, but they refuse to switch cows to eating grass because corn is a lot cheaper and easier. Why has our food industry changed to care more about how much money they make rather than the health of the general population? It’s almost too terrible to even say anything about.

Not only has our food industry been compromised, but the farming industry has been, too. Major corporations like Monsanto™ have patented the genetically engineered soybean seeds, and they now control 90% of the soybean seed industry. They have made it where farmers cannot plant seed anymore unless they buy it from Monsanto™.
The patent infringement laws make it to where farmers cannot clean and re-plant their seed anymore, because the actually seed is property of Monsanto™, and it strictly enforced. Monsanto™ has sued many people for patent infringement, and has put many farmers out of business with their monopoly of the seed industry. To me, it seems like they are the seed dictators of America. It’s ridiculous that our industry has come to this. I feel that there needs to be more laws AGAINST the food and seed corporations, to prevent them from attacking farmers and other people who rise up against them, because it is obvious that the industry is becoming communist with how they control everything that happens. Many people who worked for Monsanto™, Tyson™, and Smithfield™ now work for the FDA, USDA, or even the Supreme Court justices. The laws that we try to pass against the food corporations will be shot down as long as there are biased, maybe even bribed, workers in the organizations that control the corporations. So many people have been sued, when the reasons they were fighting against the corporations were person, whether they lost a 4-year-old son, or whether the companies put them out of business. It shouldn’t be that the person with the most money wins the court battle. That’s exactly what our Constitution is against.

It is clear that many things need to be done to change the food industry and what is going on with what we eat, how we eat, and even what is made for us to eat. I’m not saying everyone who reads this blogpost (a pebble on the beach of the Internet) should fight the corporations and start eating everything organic. This post is meant to strike into the mind of whoever reads it and to make them think about what is going on, and hopefully, the reader will make a smarter decision next time they go to Wal-Mart™ to buy their favorite foods.

Vlog #5

Two parts to this one.

PART ONE

PART TWO

Digital Nation Presentations

The past week we have been watching our peers present their tabs from Digital Nation. Everyone had great information to share, and it was very interesting.

First, I would like to talk about Brant and Keith's tab, Living Faster. They provided some interesting facts and points on the way technology and information is affecting the human body. They said that 60% of the brain prunes off when someone grows up, meaning that the brain is most affected during the teen years of adolescence. This is important because it is mostly teens who use technology and the internet and social media. So therefore, they are most affected by it. There was also the discussion of how multitasking could be the opposite of focus, but some people seem to think multitasking is just focusing on many things at once. These are both true, however, while multitasking, the focus is split up into smaller and smaller portions to keep track of each thing being done. That's what I believe. Brant and Keith had a good presentation of interesting facts about their tab, and it sparked good discussions that people might still have questions about.

Second, Justine presented her and Shelby's tab, Relationships. The information and videos that Justine shared with us were interesting, disturbing, and definitely discussion-worthy. She gave us many ideas and opinions about what she saw on her tab, including the question of "Should the internet be censored?" She had one point that actually applied to me, about how people emphasize what is bad with online dating, but about 60-80 years ago people all over the country used to fantasize about their favorite popular celebrity, and what would be the difference between now and then? Having strong feelings for someone whom you've never met isn't new, but some people treat it like it's foreign. Justine also showed us the video about the girl with anorexia. The girl found a website that was about people who love that they are anorexic and they actually refer to anorexia as Ana, the goddess. I felt that this was very disturbing and this is what sparked the discussion of should the internet be censored.

Last of all, the tab Virtual Worlds was presented by Willie, Cody, and Kinsey. They had a bunch of good stuff too. Kinsey mentioned that there is a website called Second Life, where anyone can go and create their own avatar of themselves, and live in a virtual world with jobs, money, relationships, and life problems. There was also a program that takes the digital image of you, and creates a virtual image of it in 3D. Much more technology has been created that can make things more realistic digitally. It's crazy to think where we will be in 10 years from now. There are already virtual programs that they are doing to trigger memory, or for therapy. Cody and Willie also talked about video games, and how they are either good or bad. An expert said that violent video games don't make people violent over the long-run, but maybe shortly after playing the violent game they are hyped-up and violent, but not for good. Violent video games don't make people more violent. They said that video games can be helpful, and can teach many things. Overall, they had a great presentation with a bunch of interesting info.

Vlog #3

Vlog #4

Power to the Points

Recently, we watched many PowerPoint presentations over epic comparisons of different movies to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many of the presentations were interesting, and all of them were well-done. Out of the many that we watched, I had three favorites. The first one was the presentation Chris gave over Avatar. He made many parallels between the two movies, especially great parallels between Jake and Frodo. Jake showed many signs of bravery and compassion throughout Avatar, and Frodo did the same in the Lord of the Rings. This was a great parallel between the two major characters. The main thing I liked about Chris's presentation was the great pictures and the good parallels between creatures and setting, like with how he compared the horses and creatures they rode to the Nazgul and the hyenas. He chose a great movie to compare to the Lord of the Rings, and he did a good job making the parallels stand out.


The second presentation that I really liked was Brant's. He compared the Star Wars Episodes I-III to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and did a great job with details. He talked about how the main characters in each movie were being pulled on by an evil force, and had to resist it with their purity. He made great parallels between sub-heroes, and explained just how vast the setting really was. He also discussed the use of supernatural forces within both movies, talking about the Force and lightsabers, while also mentioning the powers in the Lord of the Rings. Brant made great parallels between the good and evil of both movies, talking about how both Anakin and Frodo are pulled to the evil (dark) side at the end. He also used a few good images, but he could have had more character and setting images to show detail about setting or characters.


The last presentation I really liked was Shane's over The Princess Bride. This movie is such a great and comical movie, but it still holds a ton of qualities of an epic. The main character Westley is similar to Frodo in his bravery, determination, and compassion. Westley had to infiltrate a castle to save the one he loved, while Frodo had to infiltrate Mordor to destroy the evil that could destroy everything he loved. Shane had a great presentation, with really good pictures, great parallels, and good designs. He used a ton of good pictures of characters, and a few scene pictures. He made parallels between the plots and characters, like Gimly and Fezzik both being strong yet unintelligent. He made good parallels with the vast settings, and the guides. Such as Gandalf compared to Miracle Max. He also explained really well about the in medias res of both movies. Such as when Westley tells the story of how he became who he was. Overall, Shane had a good presentation, explaining really well about both movies.

Slide Share

Iron Man vs. LOTR

View more presentations from Oskaloosa High School.

Second Vlog

First Vlog