Project 3 reflection: Difficult

Project 3 was definitely the most difficult of the three major projects. That be said I do think that there were some things I was able to do well in this project. The first part of the project that I thought went positive was the fact that I knew how to use the garage band on my laptop. I have used garage band before in past projects so I was comfortable with making my project sound as professional as possible. Another thing i was able to do well during this project was making sure to really analyze my topic to make sure I had a meaningful project. There were also a lot of things that I did not do very well during this assignments. The first thing I noticed that was not going as planned was the fact that my rough draft was a little more rough than it should have been. That problem started a chain reaction of things to come for this project because I was not able to get proper feedback about my project because there were still a lot of things I was missing. Another problem I had was waiting until the last minute during this project, I managed to turn my assignment in at 11:59 exactly but didn't get my mp3 part in on time. The last part of the project I didn't feel went as well as I had hoped were getting meaningful interviews. I was able to get two quotes from Arizona State University, but it would have been really great for my project if I was able to get a quote form an ASU football player. I think it is pretty simple how I can improve for the future, just making sure to get my all my stuff done ahead of time is the most important part. When I am rushing to get my project done at 11:00 an hour before it is due I can not get my best work out. If I really took more time to get better quotes and analyze my topic then my project could have gone a lot better than it did. This project has more of a limited use outside of Arizona State than the other projects. This project I will be able to use when trying to find what is important about about different people, groups, or events are important to the community. I think that we need to talk into garage band was another skill that will help outside of the university. It was a pretty unusual project because of the way that we need to have a script instead of a regular paper and how we needed to talk instead of just handing it in. Overall I really do wish I could have done better with this project, but now I just have to learn from my mistakes.

Script Draft: ASU Athletes

English 101 project due at midnight, presentation to be ready for tomorrow at 10:00 AM in WPC 101, and a CIS 101 exam due; these are the least of a college athletes worries. They also have to worry about representing roughly 60,000 students on the field, ice, or court. The life of a college athlete is one of the most demanding careers a teenager could ask for, and they do not even get paid. There are hundreds of millions of dollars that are made by the Universities of these modern day (maybe a little extreme)slaves. You might ask yourself why anyone would ask for such a brutal routine in college and I am here to talk about why that is. As a freshman myself I know how hard it is to stay on track even without playing a sport; tests, assignments, and exams due every week. I could not imagine what it would be like to add an activity that is just a time consuming as being a student, like these student athletes have done.

Sports over the past hundreds of year have had the ability to bring people together all over the world. Imagining a  universe today without the presence of sports and their athletes is a very different place. During the 2004 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, Ivory Coast, was able to suspend their civil war in order to bring the country together to cheer for their home; the civil rights movement had a great impact by sports after allowing blacks to play on the same field as whites. We have every athlete in the world to thank for keeping these sports alive, but most importantly we can thank our Arizona State University athletes for keeping the dream alive. If not for these athletes unfortunate children living in inner-cities all across our country would have nothing to look up to. That is why everyone at ASU should see what it really takes to be a college athlete and why it is that they do it. 

Here I have Jason Kuta who plays for the Sun Devils ice hockey team talking about what it is that makes him want to practice and spend his time representing Arizona State. “I have really always loved hockey and no matter how demanding, it is always a pleasure to be able to go out on the ice and be able to skate. I have always watch the Chicago Blackhawks growing up and I realize that I will never be able to play at such a level, it is nice to be able to represent the Sun Devils and just being able to tell people that I am on the Arizona State hockey teams is enough for me. I am just grateful that Arizona has been able to provide a club hockey so I wouldn’t have to stop playing hockey anytime soon.” Even though club is not as extreme as playing a D-1 sport here at ASU it is still very demanding. The teams have to sacrifice vacations to travel all across the country to play different collegiate teams. 

There truly is nothing like being a football player at this school. Every single player on the team could have continued their careers playing football at some other college, which is way it is something special on its own that they decided to come here to the Arizona desert heat to represent the Sun Devils. This year their hard work is really starting to finally pay off; they beat their rivals University of Arizona, finished 5th in the Pac-12, and they will be playing in a bowl game this year. All these are great achievements are nothing to be overlooked and will be making the school a lot of money. Each player knowing that they will not be making any money after knowing how much money is being made off of them, would definitely be affecting how much effort I put in at practice and in games; but these kids are all out practicing at 6:00 AM everyday  for the love of the game and a college education. (football players interview here)

Even though there is a argument that these colleges are in a way extorting all these student-athletes, it is all for the greater good. At some schools football makes enough money to pay for all the other sports. That is why it is such an extraordinary process, the colleges give every sport a chance which gives any athlete a chance. Talking to Nick Bettancourt who plays for the ASU club baseball team it is clear that these athletes are just happy that they are able to play a sport in college. “I have played baseball all my life and was just not ready to give that up. Playing for a college team has given me a chance to meet a lot of great kids and and continue my baseball career and I am pretty happy about that.” College sports are a blessing to this country. It is one of the biggest industries in the world and employs millions of Americans who without these sports would not have a way to keep putting food on the table for their family. It gives kids hope for a better life making more money then they could ever dream of and doing what they love. If not for all these hardworking, unselfish, athletes who are still seen to many as young men then the dream would be over. At Arizona State University the student body should be thankful for all the student athletes at the school, because there is not other people I could should that represents us better. 

ASU reacts: Election 2016: Too Soon?

In the NPR article I discussed, the topic was about how it is never too early to start talking about the next presidential election. After such a close election just a few days ago there is already talk about who the next candidates will be in 2016. The speaker, Ken Rubin, shares his knowledge about who would be chosen and why for each political party. For example, he assumes that Republican party could choose Marco Rubio based off of how Mitt Romney did in this recent election. The latino vote was one of the major reasons Romney lost Florida, one of the most important battleground states, and Rubio having great response from the latino voters as the senator could have a better shot with that state. Rubin also has sources in the democratic party that thinks Hilary Clinton could have the best shot at the democratic nomination even though it usually goes to the vice president which would be Joe Biden. Biden would be 73 years old for the next election which is seen as many as too old to take office. 

“I think it is definitely to early to already start thinking about who the next president will be, but this article does do a good job at showing who the future candidates could be. I feel comfortable that Rubin knows what he is talking about when it comes to politics because the way he is introduced as a political junky.” 

This has a very clear argument pertaining to who the presidential candidates will be in 2016. That being said the article could do a better job stating its sources to give the listener more confidence that the speaker knows what he is talking about.

Genre Evaluation: Election 2016: Too Soon?

Election 2016: Too Soon?

In the article I chose to listen to the speaker, Ken Rubin, gives his opinion towards what the election of 2016 will most likely look like. After these last few weeks of non-stop political talk with the election between Romney and Obama, the speaker takes a different route and uses sources to relay the ideas of who could be considered by each party to run for president in 2016. He does not use sources to tell exactly who each party would be choosing in the next election but instead states the information taken from a source and draws his own conclusions towards who the parties would most likely be considering. For example, Marco Rubio a senator from Florida is consider as a top choice for the republican party because of the fact that Florida is one of the most important state in the election which is always very close, and his ties to the latino community could really help the republican party. Rubin drew this conclusion because Romney did not receive as much of the latino vote as the party would have liked which in the end cost the electoral votes in Florida and maybe the election. Another conclusion that was drawn by the speaker was how instead of the usual vice president running for president after the end of the president’s term the democratic party could instead decide to go with Hilary Clinton. The speaker heard from sources that Joe Biden could be considered too old to be considered for the presidency job and Hilary Clinton would be the obvious choice for the party. Rubin does not do a good job when it comes to citing his sources though, in the article you pretty much just have to take his word for it because he just talk about inside sources in each political parties but doesn't define his exact sources. It is easy to tell the Rubin is consider by the host of the show and himself as a political expert. In the beginning of the show he is introduced as a “political junkie” which makes the listener confident in the Rubin knowing what he is talking about. It is obvious that the information and statistics given by the speaker is provided to help support his opinions on which candidates will be chosen in 2016. The thoughts were expressed very simply, Rubin started with an introduction on how the democrats won this year and what the republicans did wrong; then talked about what the republicans choice of candidate should be, followed by the democrats choice for the election, and finishes with a short expectation of the 2016 election. This article did do a good job on shedding light on what the next election will look like, personally I think it is too soon to already start predicting the next election but for someone that is interested it is an interesting article. 

I am still not 100% sure on what my topic for project three will be, because I was not in class on Monday I am still going to wait on more information on the project. That being said I think it could be interesting to do a project on playing a sport at school, being a business student, or being a part of greek life. 

Project 2 Reflection: Dorms

There are a couple different things that I thought I did well on in this project. The first thing I thought I did well was prepare for this project, I usually wait to the last second to do all my projects but during this project I was able to write a good draft that really helped me make the best possible final project I could. During the first project I didn’t do a rough draft and I think that really hurt my grade in the end. Another thing I think I did well was finding as much information I could to do the best possible evaluation I could. I learned as much as I could on eat dorm so that my evaluation would not be bias in any way. Something I struggled with in this project was my initial evaluation of each dorm. I don’t think I really understood what a true evaluation was until I was able to talk to Professor Linthicum and get his feedback from my first draft. After getting the feedback I was able to really improve my project which I did not have a chance to do during my first project. Another thing I struggled with was the work cited, it was difficult to find a good source for my topic so I think I might have settled with an average quote for my project. I learned how to really produce a true evaluation during this project; you have to take the good and bad of each subject and really evaluate which is better based on sources and reason. I do feel that I was able to craft a good evaluation, I took everything I knew and researched about each dorm and based off of studies and valid sources found out which dorm could be considered the best at Arizona State University. I came to the conclusion that Hassayampa Academic Village was the best place to live as an incoming freshman based off of all the good thing and bad things and comparing it to the other dorms, but not only comparing based off of my opinion but finding valid sources about what would make a dorm room good or bad. I could use this work probably every day of my life whenever I need to make a decision. Whenever I am forced to choose between different choices all I have to do is remember what I learned in this project to find the good and bad about each choice to really find out what would be the best choice for me. 

Research Sources: W.P. Carey Dorms

This project is not an easy one when it comes to finding an interesting topic. It took me a while brainstorming to try and decide on what the main topic of my project would be. I eventually decided on the residential dorms on campus at Arizona State University. Being in the W.P. Carey School of Business the decision was made to only focus on the dorms for the business student so I would be able to go more in depth on each dorm. The dorms that are being occupied by mostly business students is Hassayampa Academic Village, Adelphi Commons 2, Sonora Center, and Palo Verde Main. Palo Verde Main is not normally considered as a business school housing dorm, but because it is my dorm I decided to add it to the list. After going through 2 months at Arizona State University and seeing a lot of the dorms I am interested at what dorms could be considered the best on campus, and I think for this project could be a fascinating topic. I am looking forward to figure out what most students look for when going to live in a dorm for the first time and what is most important to them.

The first source I would be using is DeVillers, Julia. The College Dorm Survival Guide: How to Survive and Thrive in Your New Home Away from Home. New York: Three Rivers, 2006. Print. Im hoping that this book will be able to point out the best parts about living in a dorm and what to look for when living in a dorm. I am confident that this book will be the most important source because it is an un-bias source that is not just focusing on one college but instead every dorm in America. My topic being which dorm is the best to live in I will be looking for what dorm is the easiest to correlate with the different positive guidelines in this book. 

Then the next source is a scholarly Charles F. Thwing LL.D. (1909): DORMITORY LIFE FOR COLLEGE MEN, Religious Education: The official journal of the Religious Education Association, 4:1, 34-40. This is an article about what a young man goes through while attending a University. It is able to show a lot of the perks and benefits of living in a residential dorm rather than off campus. It is also able to talk about what different students should look for when moving into their dorm or before attending the college.

My last source is going an article by TIME magazine by Zoe Fox “Ranking the Residences, Georgia State Tops Nation’s Best College Dorms”. This is a great article about the what the best dorm rooms in America are and what makes them the best. It also has the worst dorms in America and what makes them the worst. Im hoping that I will be able to take the information given about both of these articles to see what would make the ASU dorms the best or worst for the W.P. Carey School of Business.

Evaluating Liar, Liar

One of the most recent movies I have seen is “Liar Liar” starring Jim Carrey as Fletcher Reede. This is not my first time seeing this movie it is actually one of my favorite movies, Fletcher Reede is a divorced defense lawyer living in Los Angeles, California and his job forces him to be a compulsive liar. His career is really starting to look up when he gets a case where a cheating wife is trying to receive half of her ex-husbands fortune. A lawyer with normal morals would not be able to take this case because it would take a lot of lying and deceiving, and Reede having the reputation he has is considered the perfect man for the job. He also loves spending time with his son Max, and is a great father when he is around but because of his job does not have much time to see him. When Reede is forced to miss Max’s birthday party, which he promised to not miss, Max makes a wish that forces his father to not be able to lie for 24 hours and the day of the big case. Fletcher goes threw a lot trying to make Max take back the wish so everything can go back to normal and he can win the case, but nothing seems to work. This is also the day that Fletcher’s ex-wife Audrey threatens to move Max to Boston with her and her new boyfriend Jerry. After trying to delay the case Fletcher is able to find a loophole to win him the case without lying. After the victory Reede sees the cheating ex wife try to take her husbands kids away from him after admitting he is a good father but want the kids for the extra money in child support. After Fletchers ex boss and new partner says how he loves kids in a case like this because they are such leverage Reede has a realization that his being a father should be more important than his job. Reede then trys to have the judge take back the ruling and in doing so gets thrown in contempt of court where he is forced to miss his last chance to keep his son in Los Angeles, but after a friend bails him out races after him at the airport and stops him from leaving and also wins his ex-wife back. 

The main themes of this moving are very clear, the first one being how important it is to keep promises and tell the truth. Reede’s life seems to be going great when he is going through it as a compulsive liar, but when his ability to lie is taken away from him realizes what is really important to him. He also makes a lot of promises to his son Max which he is never able to keep until the end when he has a realization that he will never break anymore promises or lie to him again. Another theme is the importance of being a father, throughout the movie when he is around Reede is able to be a great father. He jokes around with his son and always promises to play catch, but when all these promises fall through he doesn't realize how much it affects his son. When he realizes he is a bad father, he does whatever he can to be there for Max. The director was able to do a good job showing these themes and how important they are to try to reenact in real life.