[Insert creative post title]

So this is my very very rough opinion piece I wrote during the class exercise:

"I don’t want my kids to learn about evolution in school. I think it’s blasphemy. Who are we to believe hard evidence over belief about how the modern universe came to be. I don’t need proof to know something is real, I mean have you heard of vampires, Santa Clause, and the leprechauns? In fact, why don’t we just get rid of science overall? We can replace Biology with Adam and Eve 101, Cosmology with Heaven, and cut mathematics programs after elementary. Who needs that stuff right? Not me cause I have a superior being that makes everything in the world work around me. Science is just something cavemen made up because they didn’t realize they come from intelligent design. Oh wait, I don’t believe in cavemen. In fact, I also don’t believe in dinosaurs because God made Adam and Eve just after he made the world out of nothing so there was no time for the dinosaurs to roam around. Dinosaurs were just made up by heathen scientists to destroy my beliefs. Why don’t they just go attack someone else’s beliefs, they’re the ones who are wrong, no question about it. I mean have you heard of Shiva? The guy with 6 arms and he floats around on a pillow, ridiculous."

As you can see, it's pretty ridiculous and not serious at all. I think some people would definitely find this offensive or enraging as it may seem to them like I am attacking their religion, however, I am not attacking any specific religion, so this paragraph shouldn't alienate anyone who isn't insecure about their religion. I think my focus was more on ideas and opinions of people more than their religion, trying to show them (in a very exaggerated manner, of course) how ridiculous that idea is.

We Are the Champions (of argument)

One of the five logical fallacies that really stood out to me was We're Not Programmed to Seek"Truth," We're Programmed to "Win". Basically, it states that people's opinions are not likely changed when presented with evidence against their arguments, and thus, are not likely to back down from said argument. This is SO true, I could not agree more with it. The biggest example of this is the ongoing debate of evolution vs. creationism. Creationists continue to deny evolution and assert their beliefs despite the unquestionable evidence. I believe that on a smaller scale this has to do with our natural instinct to assert dominance (and since if we asserted dominance the way most animals did we would all be rapists, "winning arguments is the next best thing). This also goes hand in hand with another of the logical fallacies, Facts Don't Change Our Minds, in which... well the title says it all. I honestly don't think that I fall prey to these particular fallacies, I do a pretty good job of accepting when I am wrong, even when it means losing an argument, because either way I gain new knowledge, and I win.

Women's History Month Conference

Today I attended a panel discussing the messages conveyed in pop culture through gender, religion, and sexuality. It was actually quite interesting to learn about gender roles and how sexuality and religion play a part in gender stereotypes. The first presentation was by Jaime Mendoza, entitled Glee-ligion. Mendoza (obviously) focuses on the popular, and controversial tv show Glee, on FOX. Glee was the perfect specimen to be dissected and examined for a panel of this topic. The show has it all, homosexuality, underage drinking, teenage sex and pregnancy, and controversial stances on religion. Mendoza did a good job in analyzing the clips he showed, but did not come to a main point or even tie his points to the topic of gender. It seemed like he did not prepare his speech well enough and almost like he was improvising. Next came my favorite of the three, Jennifer Berlin's presentation of Smart Women and Stereotypes in Legally Blonde. Berlin's made an excellent point of showing the audience how the protagonist, Ms. Woods, is cast into the dumb, blonde, even comical stereotype, even though she is a smart woman who got accepted into Harvard law school and actually dresses pretty decently never showing a belly or anything above the knees. Finally came Tanya Flores' presentation of Androgyny and Musical identity: Glitz, Glamour, and Everything in Between. Flores started by introducing music and pop art from the sixties up until today and discussed their appearance and performance to their audience. She then made an excellent point of tying music and pop art to modern gender issues, using examples such as David Bowie, Lady Gaga as Jo Calderone, The Velvet Underground, and Andy Warhol. Although, I liked her presentation, I feel like Flores lacked some enthusiasm towards her topic, almost like she didn't really want to be there.

Plagia-what?

I find it kind of interesting that some students don't really understand what plagiarism is. Maybe it is just because I learned what it what at an early age so I just assume it is common knowledge (I tend to assume things like that). Plagiarism can be many things, including passing off others' work as your own or not citing phrases or quotes. Though, I know what plagiarism is, I also learned it is not okay to rearrange a sentence and pass it off as your own. Although I never ripped off whole paragraphs or sentences, I did rearrange sentences and sometimes whole paragraphs in high school without giving credit to the original author. Although I understand now that what I did was plagiarism and that I should be to blame, I think the high school teachers should take some responsibility, because I was never assigned a research paper in which I had to citate in APA format. I never used in-text citations until the summer after graduation, when I took an English class at Portland Community College ( such a long story). I find it very hard to believe that someone could have not plagiarized in high school, simply because it was so easy to, whether it was knowingly or unknowingly.

Community Problem

For my community Problem Report, I will be writing about stem cell research. I am not very familiar with the topic of stem cells or their research, but I am learning plenty as I research it. The more I learn about stem cells, where they come from, and what they are used for, I find myself strongly favoring further research on them. I believe that the public does not know enough about stem cells to make an informed decision about them. The only logical way to make an educated opinion is to fund for more research. I think people are confused about their opinions on stem cells, they could find themselves opposing their implementations but unknowingly be opposing their research. I consider myself as a man of science, so from my point of view, if you can learn more  about any subject, why not do it?

Annotated Bibliography Topic

This community problem paper should be really fun, doing research on any topic is definitely in my top 10 list of hobbies. My original topic of choice was alternative resources to fuel and and energy, however after some thought I decided that I would challenge myself and research something that I am not too familiar with, the controversial issue of stem cell research.

Although I don't know much about stem cell research(other than what I know from that South Park episode), I feel like it is of importance to me, basically because of my personal philosophy that anything I don't fully understand should be of importance. Like most controversial and divided issues, I feel that people judge too quickly something that they don't really understand. My goal will be to educate my audience as much as I can about the topic while trying to keep my opinions out of the way, in other words, to be able to get any reader to reach the same conclusion or opinion as myself with only facts. I believe anyone who considers themselves a human being should care about this topic because, well, it would just be ignorant not to.

Never Camp With Hobos

This is a story about three best friends. Three good friends that had been through so much together, that nothing could hinder their great bond. Amy, Andrea, and Paola met in high school and were inseparable since then. Paola is a beautiful, smart, and ambitious student with sea of hopes and dreams in her mind. Amy is in the Navy  and is soon to be stationed in Fort Lauterdale, Florida. Andrea is an extremely intelligent young woman who graduated early from high school but unfortunately did not attend college.

The trio decided they would get together one last time before Amy's departure, choosing to camp on the bed of the dry Rio Grande river, right under the Artcraft bridge. They brought all the necessary equipment: tents, sleeping bags, food, and.. well.. beverages. Amy is single at the time, but Andrea has brought her boyfriend along, Hobo Aaron. No, that is not a joke or an insult, Hobo Aaron lives in a tunnel and asks for spare change. He is about fifteen years older than her but, well they seem to love each other. Hobo Aaron has an interesting friend with whom he shares a tunnel, Hobo Jeff, but that is a different story altogether.

Now the setting jumps to a warm, chimney-lit living room, The Andromeda Strain is playing on the television. Heimdall is about to call it a night when suddenly, a wild call appears on his cell phone(props if the reader gets the Pokemon joke). It is Paola, who is freezing(what did she expect), and would like her awesome boyfriend's company. So there goes our protagonist, riding into the frozen void on his trusty steed.

When he finally arrives, he parks his bike on the riverbank and approaches the campsite bearing gifts. The gift of firewood is greatly appreciated in the camping realm and he is received with praise. Hemi stays for a good while, joins in conversation by the fire. He also enjoys hot dogs, pork chops, and the occasional sip of beverage. When everyone appears to be getting ready for some sleep, and he has made sure that Hobo Aaron has retired to his tent, Hemi decides it is also time to call it a night, but not before leaving his warmest jacket for Paola to use for the long night ahead of her. He says his goodbyes, and takes off into the night in a t-shirt.

That was the coldest bike ride home in the history of the entire universe.