Entry #11 - Farewell

Well everyone, it looks like this is goodbye. Blogging with you all has been a great experience. I enjoyed it while it lasted. Time flew by so quickly... When I was young it seemed like eight weeks took forever to pass. Now it seems as though I lose track of time in the blink of an eye! Time flow constantly and stops for no one. I guess it flows faster the older you get.

I really enjoyed blogging in this class. It was a great assignment because I was able to connect with new people and learn new things. I also feel as though I have a better grasp on Rhetoric now. I've started applying these new tactics on my tumblr blog and I'd say it's going well. 

I liked having the chance to connect with new people. I made a really good friend through this project and I kind of feel like I need to thank my professor for giving me the chance to meet him. - He knows who he is! - 

I'm going to tell you a short story. I didn't plan on going to GCC until just two weeks before the semester started. I was going to register to be in the same English class as my friend Shelby. However, when I went to register, there were no seats available. So I was put into a random English class. I knew that the class was a Hybrid course, but I had no idea that the course was only eight weeks long. I ended up really enjoying the class! Being able to get everything done so quick was really nice.


I'm really going to miss this blog. I was actually really sad when it came time for me to type up this final blog entry... I know I'll see some of you in the future. I hope to at the very least.

May the sparks from this fire find themselves on a new path. For this is the final spark from this ending flame!~

Goodbye, my friends! Let's meet again in the next life.~

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #10 - Zero

We're all born of the same matter. However, we'e not all born equal. Why is that? So many people are told that they aren't good enough and are told their entire life that they can't be better. They are told that they are Zero. Nothing at all. But isn't it possible for that "Zero" to become something great?

Watch this video clip from YouTube and you'll understand what I mean.

There is another video I want you to watch. I know this is my final entry that I get to put a lot of emotion into... So I want to share something with you.

This video is call "To This Day." It is a very important video to me and I hope you come to appreciate it as much as I do.

I grew up being told that I wasn't worth much. I was a Zero. My mother would always say the stupid rhyme "Sticks and stone may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." I knew that was never true. Words hurt more than broken bones because the damage caused by words cannot be healed by a cast. 

Why are we told that words don't cause any damage to us? I have completely changed because of some of the things I was told growing up. Have you?

~The Final Spark, RIn

Entry #9 - Media Synthesis

So I 'm sure many of you know what the picture of the "perfect person" looks like. Females are expected to be tall and skinny with a large bust and long hair while males are supposed to be tall and muscular. But think about it... How many people look like that?

Many forms of media such as magazines and television shows tell us that we are basically all supposed to look tall and slender. Many people are unable to change their appearance due to genetics or a health disorder. And I'm sure everyone knows that it is impossible to make yourself taller. I'm 18 and 5'3" and I can assure you that I've always wanted to be taller. My sister is 16 and 5'9" and I'm sure you can empathize with me when I say that I am always mistaken as the younger sister.

It's hard for me to feel good about myself when I am constantly bombarded with magazines  that talk about how to lose weight if you weigh over 120 pounds. How am I supposed to believe that I look attractive if I am constantly shown that I am not the ideal body type?

I believe that men and women should be shown accurately throughout media. No more Photoshop and heavy make-up. What do you say?

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #8 - The Munchkin Cat

ALRIGHT GUYS SO I HAVE THIS CAT I NEED TO SHOW YOU SO SIT DOWN AND LOOK AT THIS MOTHERFUCKER.

This beastly creature is called the Munchkin cat! Look at it's short little arms! AHHHHH!!!

Seriously though... These cats are the cutest things I've ever seen. The Munchkin is highly intelligent. Challenge his brain by teaching him tricks and providing him with puzzle toys that will reward him with kibble or treats when he learns to manipulate them.

The Munchkin’s short legs turned out to have a dominant inheritance pattern, similar to Corgis and Dachshunds. The breed achieved full recognition by The International Cat Association in 2003. The Cat Fanciers Association does not recognize the Munchkin. So... The Cat Fanciers Association just does not believe that the Munchkin cat exists I guess. Wow they're missing out.

So what do you think of the little Munchkin cat? I think it's seriously the cutest thing ever - Aside from Welsh Corgis - I only wrote this because I LOVE THESE LITTLE CREATURES!

~The FInal Spark, Rin

Entry #7 - Men In Commercials V.S. Real Life

So there are many portrayals of the way that men supposedly act in the real world in commercials. But is that the way men really act? I have to say no and I'm sure most of you would agree. But what would happen if men acted the way they are shown in commercials in real life?

I was introduced to a website called DumbMen. It is nothing but a database filled with clips of "dumb men" from various commercials. They have quite a collection, sadly.

Take a look at this YouTube clip. Borrowed from DumbMen.com

In this Verizon commercial, the man is violently pounding on the glass that leads to a room full of infants. He states that the child being wheeled over is the best baby out of all of the newborns in the room. Everyone else just watches as the man yells and pounds on the glass. They then go on to say that basically all hockey fans are like this just to try and advertise for alerts relating to a fan's favorite hockey team.


But what happens if you do something like this in real life? Hockey player Steve Sullivan - Now the Coyotes development coach - gets his revenge on a fan who decides to heckle him after being hit in the face due to high sticking by another hockey player in the video below.

As you can see, Sullivan gets his revenge on the fan who decided to push the wrong buttons. This goes to show that people who act like the people portrayed in commercials aren't well liked. Would you heckle a man who was just hit in the face by a hockey stick? I know I wouldn't!

So do you think that men and women are portrayed accurately in commercials? What do you think we should do about this problem of generalizing and stereotyping!

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #6 - The Useless Web

I'm sure many of you spend a lot of time on the internet doing useless things. You know. Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, etc... Well I bet you didn't know about many other useless websites.

I'd like to introduce TheUselessWeb.com

This website will redirect you to a "useless" website with just the click of a button. Feeling bored? No problem! You can just click the big pink button and explore some fun websites. I discovered this website about a year ago and completely forgot about it until recently. I like to go on here when I'm feeling burned out and need a place to go to ease my mind. 

The website has an immense collection of websites and you will rarely be taken to the same one twice.

IF YOU HAVE EPILEPSY DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE. http://www.staggeringbeauty.com/

I cannot stress this enough. I just wanted to give you a heads up just in case.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this website as much as I do!

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #5 - ASU To Offer Shorter Classes

In January at Arizona State University, the amount of 7.5 week classes will increase dramatically. This will be more cost efficient for the students and will allow them to complete their degree in about half the time compared to students taking full 15 week classes. According to this article, the university hopes to draw in more students and make classes more flexible for both them and faculty.

Will this truly be a better thing for the students at ASU? Being a college student in an shortened English class myself, I can honestly say that it is a lot of work. It would be extremely difficult to complete one of these classes if I had a full time job. There are days when I have to stay up late into the night because of the amount of work I had due.

Despite that however, the class itself is very enjoyable. This is the second 8 week class I have taken here at Glendale Community College. I took English 101 like this as well with the same professor because I enjoyed it that much.

So what's your take on these shortened classes? Do you plan on taking any?

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #4 - Big Hero 6 - Baymax Schematic

So I'm sure everyone here knows about the robot Baymax from the new movie Big Hero 6. Invented by Tadashi Hamada, this robot was originally designed to be a "personal healthcare companion" capable of scanning its patients for injury and using its knowledge of over 10,000 medical procedures to provide medical assistance. 

Is it possible that something like Baymax could be available for use in the real world? "Robots as caregivers -- it's going to happen," says Chris Atkeson, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. "There are a lot of people who need physical help -- people with disabilities, older people.

'Terminator'-like technology is scary; if it falls on someone or closes its hand at the wrong time, it could seriously injure someone. So how do you build something where even if it crashes, you are still totally safe? The idea was to make them as light as possible, and one way to do that is to make them inflatable."

The physical concept of a real world Baymax is simple. Tadashi used vinyl to create the "non-threatening, huggable look" and a Carbon Fiber skeleton. Simple, right? Well sort of.

While the physical concept of Baymax may be somewhat simple, the actual "brain" part is far more complex. The robot would have to be able to sense what is happening and also have the ability to make the correct decisions and interact with humans.

So what do you thing about having your very own "personal healthcare companion?"  To me, it seems like it would be revolutionary.

-SOURCE-

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #3 - Slanted Reporting

There have always been cases of slanted reporting on news channels such as MSNBC and CNN. However, one of the most biased news channels is Fox News. The amount of slanted reporting on this channel is immense and many people no longer watch Fox News due to the recent increase in this reporting tactic.

In this article, FactTank describes the flaws relating to Fox News' reporting style. They used actual statistics to show how the news team used slanted reporting to sway the opinion of their viewers. 

For example, The graph above -Borrowed from the article linked here- Shows both the positive and negative reports of both candidates of the previous presidential elections on news channels CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. As you can see, all three popular news channels used slanted reporting to try and change the opinion of the people watching their reports.

Slanted reporting occurs just about everywhere. It's up to you whether or not you choose to listen to just this information or do your own research on certain topics.

I'm not trying to prevent you from watching Fox News or any other news broadcasting stations. I just hope you can realize that most news channels use this tactic. Enjoy watching biased news stations as usual!

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #2 - Halloween Makeup Skills

Alright so I'm sure you all realized that Halloween has just passed. How was your holiday? Mine was filled with friends and makeup. Lots and lots of makeup. Not for me though. I did my friend Stephan's makeup to look like The Spine from Steam Powered Giraffe. For those of you who don't know who that is, here's a picture of the group. The Spine is the one on the far left.

The Spine is my favorite member of the group, so I eagerly agreed to make Stephan's face look like his. We went out to Arrowhead Mall to purchase the necessary makeup for this project and I let him borrow one of my collared shirts to wear for his costume.

I started with the forehead, eyebrows, and eyeliner. That was probably the most time consuming part of the process. He looked so strange with just his eyebrows and eyeliner done, huh? But look at how happy he looks! He was so ecstatic to be getting his makeup done like The Spine.

Keep in mind I had never put makeup on another person before. I'm also a perfectionist so it took me forever to get the lines just right.

I knew that getting the cheeks just right would be another difficult part. His facial structure is a lot different from that of The Spine's. So we had to make sure to bring out his already prominent cheekbones using the makeup.

As you can see in the picture to the right, The Spine's cheek makeup highlights his facial structure. - His makeup here is a newer version than the one above. This is what we went off of. - 

There is also some shading going on. I had no idea how I was going to pull this off. We had been watching a tutorial off of YouTube for a majority of the time and when it came time for the shading I lost the connection to my home Wi-Fi. I improvised and I'd say I did pretty well.

         

So how'd I do? I'd say I did pretty damn well. I know Stephan was pleased. It took me a little over three hours to accomplish this feat!

~The Final Spark, Rin

Entry #1 - My Opinion On Blogs

There are many different kinds of blogs out there. What kind of blogs appeal to me? I follow so many blogs on my tumblr and there are so many things that I enjoy seeing on my dashboard. Here are just a few of my favorites. 

David Michael Bennett's Blog

So this one may be a bit biased. This is David Michael Bennett's tumblr blog. You probably won't care much for this one unless you like the band Steam Powered Giraffe. He's very informative about all of the band's happenings and he also posts some pretty funny things on occasion. 

Psych2go

The blog Psych2go is a psychology blog on tumblr. They discuss anything from personality traits to the basic functions of the human brain. I've learned many things from them and they post new things almost daily. If you take interest in psychology be sure to check them out.

Colossal

This blog focuses on art and visual details. They post many interesting things about art from around the world. I only recently started following them but they post many amazing things. If you like art you'll like them I'm sure.

So what kind of blogs do you like? There are so many kinds of people out there and so many different interests. You may discover something new if you follow a blog you never thought about following. Why don't you try it out?

~The Final Spark, Rin

Introduction

Hello everyone.

My name is Carina. I'm sure some of you may know me as Rin or Sparky and that's okay too. I'm the girl wandering campus with the Steam Powered Giraffe lanyard if that would help you spot me.

I took ENG101 earlier in the semester and I have my previous blog linked on the sidebar. I wanted to make  new one because I thought it would be less confusing. I just had to go through and change the URL to xTheLunaDivinerx to allow me to have my MEID as my URL for this blog.

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So I'm sure if you're reading this you're wondering who I am. Well as stated above, my name is Rin. I am a Glendale Community College first year and I am majoring in Music Education. I have been involved in music my whole life and I don't plan on stopping any time soon. I've been in choir since I was in first grade and I have played violin for almost eight years. I also play other instruments like piano and a little bit of bass guitar. I also write my own music. I've been doing that for almost five years and I will continue to do so with the help of Stephan Luna.

I am a quiet introvert who isn't very good at sparking conversations with new people. So if you want to get to know me you're going to have to talk to me first. I'm not the kind of person to approach new people on my own. The only place I really open up is on my personal tumblr blog and the only people I open up to are people I feel as though I can trust. I apologize but I guess I'm just shy.

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I'm fairly certain you've noticed the music player at the bottom of my blog. Who are they you may ask? Well they are none other than Steam Powered Giraffe. These guys are my favorite band and they're music is phenomenal. My favorite songs by them are Wired Wrong, Photographic Memories, and Electricity Is In My Soul. If you like them then we should talk because I'm sure we would have a lot to discuss. We can fight skeleton pirates on the backs of killer whales!

If you feel as though you really want to get to know me, you can follow me on my tumblr: xThe-Final-Sparkx

I hope we can spark a conversation sometime in the future!

~The Final Spark, Rin