Brooks and Graham

What I gain from the conversation from Brooks and Graham is that, the two articles from Brooks is that he talks about the fear of worry and the other he talks about our generation. Also, the other part is Barbara Graham talks about how she was addicted to quitting. But what gained form it is that do not worry about things it will lead to stress and if you keep quitting you will have to start all over again.

            The most interesting connection for me, is Barbara Graham’s article. Because I used to quit a lot and try to find another idea to move on. But later I learned, I had to stick with it and I did. I will tell you, I had a project due the next day and if I did not finish it I would had failed the class. I said in my mind just forget about it you are going to fail anyways, but I learned if I did that I would graduate either. So, I did it and passed. Barbara Graham’s has its similarities with mine too, she quit and move places to places and could not stop until she was happy. But she had a son a she learned that she would have to for her son, like any mother would do no matter how bad her emotions and life were. At least she got it done and did I.

            What was interesting to me from all three articles is “The Epidemic of Worry”, he talks about anxiety and how the election is a major factor in it. Because anxiety has been destructive character on the nation stage. We hear things that gives us fear for America and the World. What Donald Trump says give worry about mass deportation and wanting to build a wall, even though there is already one built if you see it. Also, Hillary Clinton’s email are threat to this country, we do not was in them they could be recipes or nuclear plans. The interest for me is that David Brooks says Hakuna Matata. We can have no worries let things go by and see which one can do good job on America.

            While discussing this my peers helped through this article, because I did not even know some of these words in the article. I was like what are these words coming form, but I understand now since we did all the time now.

Anxiety

David Brook’s article talks about anxiety on how America has been affected, by this crazy election. It also says that anxiety has been destructive character on the national stage, because we all have heard what Donald Trump has said to the American people. Some of us are scared what he says, because who wants to build a wall on the south border if there is already one. He is just putting us in more debt and also some of businesses had failed. We were already went through the Great Recession, we do not need to back and start all over. Also Hillary Clinton has some bad things on her and that also worries America, she deleted thousands of secret emails that have America’s secrets in it. That worries us because it gives us stress about what country will receive these classified emails.

            The rich countries are more anxious than the poor countries. For example, Luxembourg is one of the richest countries in the world and all they want is money, and sometimes they have “anxiety” that they do not have enough for themselves. On the other hand, there is Nigeria a poor country that people live in shacks. The reason they have less anxiety is that they grateful what they have and they are happy with it. As I gave this example David Brooks mentions it too on percentages and by say this “anxiety” is a powerful thing in our lives. It can either break you or make you, depending what is your situation.

             The next thing is that David Brooks’ mentions in his article that the less educated are to have more anxiety than the well-educated because they think the election is rigged. In my opinion I do not think the election is rigged, it is just what Donald Trump said that gave people worries about their vote. To me I am still going vote, but the thing is my vote does not count because the electoral college is the only one that matters to win this presidential election. Also, why do people worry about this election it is the worse, because I talked to my grandfather about the election and he said do not worry about it. “It is not worse than the Jimmy Carter administration where everything had collapsed”. He said he had too much worries about getting a pay check and also the interest rate was bad back then. To me we should not have anxiety on this election because what can be worse than Jimmy Carter. “Hakuna Matata” (No Worries)

Gaining from the Blog Assignment

What I am gaining from this Blog Assignment is, that it is easy for me to write a four hundred word essay now than it was for me in high school. By saying that it would takes me forever to write a four hundred essay back then because I would procrastinate a lot when I come home at 8:00 at night from football practice. I would be so tired from it and wake up early in the morning to practice, I did not even have enough time for it. Now I have more time on my hands since I am in college and not playing football and try and make any essay as good as possible. It is funny it would take me week at most to finish this, but now it would take me about two hours or so to finish it. I kind of enjoy writing an essay for this class, because it makes me brainstorm and finds me my peace when it is quiet. Also the one thing writing an essay is reading others, it is interesting how my classmates can write so many things from the topic you give us. When I get the topic during lab I ask Rashael “How do we do this”, she laughs and says “Just do it. Besides that I enjoy reading my classmates work, because we leave comments about it or how well they did. Sometimes I leave a long comment about what they talk about, I do not know if they read it or not, but I hope it will help them out. When I receive comments they are usually have seven words in it and that bothers me because with all that hard work you get a couple words of comments. I like it when Professor Still reads it, because his comments about it and they are not too short or not too long just the right amount. What stands out for me on our Blog Assignments is that how we came so far from it, because when we got our first blog I thought it would take me the whole day to finish it but its cake. When I wrote an essay about Mike Rowe’s interview we needed only four hundred words for it and I wrote five hundred twenty-eight words. That’s how engaged I was in the essay, because I like writing essays’ “now” and I also liked the questions he answered during the interview.

Mike Rowe

The introduction of the video says Mike Rowe is an opera singer and has done bits for the Baltimore Opera, also an air pitchman for QVC, and also a longtime host for “Dirty Jobs”. In his video he mentions about what jobs he seen. But let me start from start to beginning. He talks about the real problem is college and that we push kids go get a four-year degree and causes trillions of dollars’ in debt, they need a skill gap to do this. He mentions a welder that makes one-hundred dollars from Butler, North Dakota and said he loves it because it pays well. To me that’s good money for just welding and will not mine that. He also says that they are sleeping on community college, because he heard from his counselor when he was young its below your potential. He was kind of upset that he heard that and also “Work smart NOT hard”. So he changed it to “Work smart and hard”. Speaking of this Mike Rowe does not support that taxpayers should payoff student loans, for kids that have no hope paying it back.

            Also the cost of a degree has increased five hundred times since the 80’s and Mike Rowe cannot believe this is not daily headlines, because he says he is Anti-debt with this kind of stuff. You can do anything with your work ethics to manage this. He also mentions his grandfather could do anything with just an eighth grade education he had strong work ethics.

            The development of a strong work ethic is being too suspicious for being too easy and the wiliness to find and communicate. He asks a guy from Wisconsin cleans septic tanks and ask him what he do before this, he was a guidance counselor and was just tired of hearing other peoples’ “B.S.”. He owns his business and is very happy with because of his sting work ethics. With all this it reminds me of the farm near Cameron, I still want get a degree in Agribusiness. Because it’s the passion I have and I love to do it, by that I mean by selling cows. I sat in an office before and its boring, because I want strong work ethics.

            There is also jobs that concerns Mike Rowe, because of credentials of what people have. He went to Marine Corp Ball and talked with a medic from the Marines. He cannot find work because he does not have credentials and Mike Rowe hates when somebody can do it, but do not have the credentials. Also the interviewer says about earnings in 2012, that a person with a high school diploma makes $652 with unemployment of 8.3% and a person with a bachelor’s degree makes $1056 with unemployment of 4.5%.

            We have become efficient, but the more efficient we become a less work force we will have. Which is kind of a Karl Marx thing with it. Mike Rowe loves welders, because they are an industrial art in what they do. The opportunity for a welder is that they pay well and there is a underserve with it. Basically everything requires these things.

Article Review

This article talks about how technology has taken our social life. By that, it means we do not talk face to face anymore we just use technology to use it. For example, we can just say “wyd (what are you doing)” and etc. Also this article says it is an “opinion page” but gives informative issues about social media troubles. For example, it says in 1985 “ten percent of Americans said they had no one to fully conifer in.” It has reached twenty-five percent in the present time. What is interesting to me, is I know that technology has been a dominant reliability in the world. But I did not know how bad we use it every four minutes, that is just crazy to hear and also we check it two hundred twenty-one times a day. I mean can we just lay back and go outside and be active. Also in this article it says technology makes us lonelier, which for me I talk to everybody. I use my phone but I do not message them if they are right across form me. I know loneliness can cause anxiety and depression. We do not want that in our society were that can cause serious consequences. It says researchers say that technology does not make us lonelier, but they are tools. I do not believe that on bit when we this read this in class, I seen this happen before and it is not pretty. Because it says social media has a darker side to it. For instance, there is cyberbullying and that is problem with society. It can cause serious troubles and consequences because it can lead to depression and that is why I did not believe that technology cannot make lonely, if you see it yourself. There are also good things about technology, it’s a good resource to use. Mainly this articles says to me is we need to more active and layoff Facebook, Instagram, and etc. Because we have become addicted to it and we can lose ourselves. Also I will say it again we have relied on it too much. I really stated everything I said about informative facts, how its taken over our life, the dark side and the loneliness which it causes.

What I did this Past Summer?

The topic I will talk about today, is what I did this past summer. What I did this past summer? There was a lot of things I did this summer, I basically had a good summer. I graduated from C.H. Yoe High School and left a legacy there for future the Yoemen that will take the throne and probably win several state championships. I also traveled across “The South” by “vehicle”. The reason I say that, I traveled by vehicle because I listened to “On the road again” by Willie Nelson. I do not know why I play this song, its fun to hear over and over again. I guess it makes since when you travel state by state and have adventures with your family. But again I traveled to Atlanta, Georgia to go see my dads’ family, we made pit stops while on our way there. By meaning that we took the long way to Atlanta, to tour around each state and have fun. We toured through Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Hattiesburgh, Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, Auburn, and finally Atlanta. The interesting thing about this trip was going through Vidor, Texas. I only experienced discrimination once in my life and it happen the second time in Vidor. I heard stories about Vidor on how they discriminate the Mexican-Americans and African-Americans, but I did not believe in it until some man said to my family and I “we don’t accept your kind”. It did not bother me one bit, because I still eat and go to sleep. Also I was spending time with my family. After all that confrontation, we still got our snacks and left to our trip to Atlanta. As soon as we got to Louisiana my sister wanted to go to Baton Rouge and New Orleans to go see the “Death Valley” and the “Superdome”. She is a big fan of LSU and Saints, that is why we took the long way. We continue on to our trip, we stopped at Hattiesburgh, Mississippi and ate dinner and spend the night there. As soon as we were ready to leave we caught a flat, but lucky me I remember to put the spare in the back. We got back on the road and later toured Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, it was cool seeing where Alabama plays at. The next town was Birmingham, that place had so much traffic I thought we would never get out of there it took three hours. It was exhausting and five hours later we got to Atlanta. We stayed there for a week and my uncles took us everywhere. They took us to Six Flags, Braves game, Zoo, Aquarium, Olympic Park, and Forest Park. It was fun spending time with them even though, I have not seen them in fourteen years. But again the best part of my summer was graduating and having “adventures” to Atlanta. On the way back home it was more ease, with all the crazy stuff happening from Atlanta to good ole Cameron, Texas.

How was the first exam?

My first major in exam in READ 0304 was not that bad, I took a while but it is how you finish. My expectations for this exam was challenging but it was not hard, for example I thought it was a sixty three question test like the rest of my classes.But somehow it reminded me about high school, because my teacher Coach Webb never gave a multiple choice test it was always free response. I thank him for that and thank you Professor Still for some refreshing and bringing back the free response test. It was a beneficial process, because the steps were moderate and also going to your office hours helped out a little on "How" and "What". Writing a full short answer that will affect your grade, was kind of difficult for me because I got stuck halfway through the paragraph. I just had to look at the wall or the professor to remember every little bit of information, because one time my high school teacher got mad at me for just looking at him. He thought I was playing jokes on him, but that is how I think under pressure. Also in the exam there was one part that was hard, it was the vocabulary. I struggled with the vocabulary bad, I  made flashcards, wrote them down and even made a Quizlet on the vocabulary. I got some right, but I am not guaranteeing that I got most of them. But the point of this exam, is that if I do bad I have to find redemption on the next exam and if I do good on the exam. I can improve by studying even more even though I am sick. Also on the exam that interest me was the article about how the divorce rate is lowering year after year and how the author says "Where's the Epidemic?". She proves it with facts. 

My realtionship with words

          My relationship with “words” in my life is quiet, because I always keep to myself. However, when somebody gets hurt (bullied), talks trash, or speaks explicit language that is when see a bad side. The table has turned for me, because I do not want that in society. I use my “words” to defend people and sometimes to inspire or motivate.

            Basically, when people get to know me I talk a lot. One time, I met a mutual friend and she never heard me speak, until she got to know me, Then, she said “You talk? Your always quiet”. It is kind of funny, but I like to I keep to myself.

           I talk more now because I am in college and meet new people every day. That is why “words” are becoming good for me.

            The bad side of words is ugly for me. I remember when my cousin owed me $5,000. I gave him six months to collect the money and everything would be alright. He never paid me and I started to speak angry words that I never said before and later my “words” turned into “action”. My “words” failed me, because I was probably too nice, but my “actions” finally woke him up. It hurt me to take matters into my own hands, because my “actions” had to step in.

            Some of my words inspired people and kids, for example I talked to “The Young Yoemen” and “The Mighty Yoemen” and tell them “it doesn’t matter what your background is, you represent the name on the front not the back”. I am proud that coaches still ask for me to speak to the team I played for in high school. That is an honor to speak to the present and future leaders of that team.

            Words that inspire me are quotes from Muhammad Ali, such as “I am gonna show you how great I am”. It gives me chills because I can change the world and inspire others. You can be roughest and the toughest, but you cannot stop me from my goals. I set a goal before I came to college, that I will finish off Blinn and Texas A&M no matter what it takes. I used my “words” to promise myself I will reach my goals because “I am gonna show you how great I am”.

Introducing Myself

My full name is Pablo Cesar Rodriguez, but some people just call me “Po” or just “Pablo.” I am 18 years old and look forward to even more. I went to C.H. Yoe High School in Cameron, Texas and played football for the "Cameron Yoemen". We won three state championship in a row, but we couldn’t win the state title my senior year, due to fact that we lost our star player and best friend on a horrific injury and play. I also can tell you I made the All-State Team academically and athletically, also received 3^rd team All-American by Semper Fidels Poll. I do not even know how I got All-American honors but I did, also I was inducted into the Cameron Yoemen Hall of Fame with Mike Perrin, everybody knows him in Austin. Because he is the new Athletic Director of the University of Texas at Austin, that was kind of cool for me at that moment meeting him person during the ceremony. Let me tell you about my family, basically I grew up with one sibling; she can be a handful when you are the oldest. However, everything is good when we get along. My parents are kind of strict on me, but I never miss behave or talk back to them, because I love them. Also I miss them, but they told me I got to go get an “education.” I study every day; even when I am not at school, I take a book and start reading it. Speaking of reading, my favorite book is Night by Elie Wiesel, it draws a lot interest to me, about he suffered in the Auschwitz Concentration Camp and almost giving up hope. But furthermore reading is my weakness in my classes, my strongest subject is math. I could probably solve any math problem, so that is basically what I am good at. I am good at lot of things, for example I am good at Chess and Card games. But I am mostly good at chess, everybody I played chess in high school, usually get beat because I was good at it. One time my Calculus teacher played me, he was good at chess but I beat him, but the second time he got me good. Also another thing about me is my hobby, I collect coins, there all stored in the bank. But I have lots of Gold and Silver Liberty Coins, I know they are worth a lot of money but I just keep them for just a collection. This is how I introduce myself, former football player, introduce my family, tries to study hard, likes reading Night By Elie Wiesel, and also I like to play chess and also collect coins.