Final Project: Farm Market

           If you ask me to buy ingredients for a specific meal I will head to the Gristedes super market across the street but instead I was asked to go to a specific market which I'v never heard of, called the farmers market. The farmers market gives the opportunity to small family farms to promote there farms and to directly sell fresh products to consumers. The farmers market is much more than just a stand with fresh products but more of a cultural event. Many people attend these special daily events to get the best nutrition possible. Every product is naturally grown and even some given to you still with roots, such products like cilantro, tomatoes, broccoli and many fruits are sold along with eggs, milk and bread. My visit to the farmers market was a great first experience I attended with my girlfriend, Sherlyn Olivo. It was her first time visiting as well and she was also very impressed with how big of an event it is an the amount of attendees it attracts. At first I didn't know what meal to make because I have never really cooked a full meal other then breakfast or some rice so I had to find a way to bring all the products together and make a simple yet healthy meal. I walked my way up from 14th st. and broadway towards 17th st. I got to see many different farmer stands selling flowers, fishes, bread, vegetables, fruits dairy products even hunny. My girlfriend helped me think of the idea in making a vegetable omelet since all the ingredients were being sold in the farmers market. I worked my way down the stands picking up cilantro from one stand then tomatoes a bit further down along with onions and then went down towards the egg section. I notice many of these products cost a bit more then it will regularly cost at a supermarket and I believe its because of the fresh products we are obtaining also it takes quite some time and labor to get the products from the farms into the city. But i believe it was all worth every penny, you can smell how fresh these vegetables smelled. I noticed an abundance amount of slim people attended the market making it quite obvious that they eat extremely healthy and keep a good physique. I finished my shopping by spending about $25 and headed home to make my meal. I chopped my tomatoes, onions, and cilantro with the help of my girlfriend and then poured into a bowl with the organic eggs and cooked it on a pan. I wasn't able to eat it because I had just finished eating a meal so instead left it for my mom to eat on the next morning. Her opinion was that the omelet came out delicious and believes it was because of the fresh vegetables in it.

Blog Entry 13: Midterm

      Right or wrong. Is usually the task billions of people debate on, on a daily basis. Whether it's take public transportation to work or drive or maybe buy one brand of yogurt and not the other, or it can even be more sever situations such as "do I get married?" One thing is for sure and that is that many of the decisions we take on a daily basis can affect us in many ways, now and sometime during the long run. In the case of Neo in the 1999 blockbuster hit "The Matrix" he was given a simple choice but one that will change everything he has known about life in general. It was either to take the blue pill and stay in his current existence or the red pill, to find out the "true" answers he desperately desires to know. Personally I am opposed to Neo's decision in taking the red pill and would have instead taken the blue pill for various reasons. One thing i will never do is trust a stranger into giving me a completely unknown pill. And if taking the red pill is going to change my life completely then I am against that too no to mention leaving family and loved ones behind.

      In "The Matrix" Neo is approached by a computer hacker by the name of Morpheus who informs Neo that he knows the answer to which he has been on the search for which is "what is the matrix?" He then proposes to Neo to take the red pill to learn to entire truth or the blue pill and stay living as is. Trusting Morpheus as Neo did would have been a big no to me. How would I know if this guy is trying to kill me, hurt me, or drug me up with this red pill. If anything Morpheus could be lying to me and the pill would drive me to insanity. It's just not moral for someone to randomly consume objects that are unkown to them. Mother always said "don't drink from a cup which is not yours" because you never known and its not worth taking the risk.

      I believe Neo took the biggest risk ever in taking the red pill and accepting to change his life forever. Not many people are good at making life changing decisions with the ease that Neo did it in. I am one to not be able to accept a life changing decision like this one. Unlike Neo I am very satisfied with the way my life is going whether it is a lie or not i am very happy. I have a job, going to school part time, have a loving girlfriend along with family and friends who care about me. These are important factors to be satisfied in life with and that is something Neo doesn't possess. Maybe if he did he would highly reconsider making a drastic decision like the one he took.

      Eventually it all comes down to the way you see your life and how you value your existence. Many would take the red pill for the adventure as a classmate of mine Gabe said but I believe in the long run of taking this red pill it would come down to haunt you.

Blog Entry 9: Telecommute Report-Out

It was my first experience ever having a class online with all my peers on at the same time. I feel this is a great way to start having classes with technology advancing on a daily basis we all need to learn to commute online and learn more from each others responses. I really learned a lot from other students responses on how we all relate on many same ideas but also have different standings on certain discussions. What helped me in this telecommute is that i knew that I had a very well understanding of the movie and i wasn't alone in my ideas. I believe the only problem is the pace in which others response and how both classes aren't having the discussion together but its understandable since both classes have different schedules.

Blog Entry 8: The Truman Show

            We are easy to criticize the world we live in and the way society runs on a daily basis. Many say its a cruel world and how they would change it in a quick second if they could, but would you really want to make everything around you perfect ? Christof was able to make this possible for Truman Burbank in the 1998 drama-comedy film "The Truman Show." This film showed the idea of a producer and creator Mr. Christof adopting an unborn but unwanted child by the name of Truman. He then sets up the perfect town of Seahaven which is a dome under where everyone is an actor to live around Truman. He's is set to live the most perfect life and be broad casted on a 24/7 schedule with thousands of tiny cameras scattered around the town capturing his every move. Now many may think this is the most convenient and great way to live with little worries and perfect standard of living everywhere you go. But I for one don't believe this is fair and it's cruel to have someone living that way and not knowing what the real world is. I would prefer living in the real world in which I live in today because even though there is a lot of evil and problems to deal with it's still our home and wouldn't want to live a lie.
           Truman lived the most perfect life under Christof's dome with most concepts going his way having a home and a wife, a great job. But he also had many issues that kept him in Seahaven in the first place such as the death of his "father" and with making flights and travel an impossible mission for him. Truman was living in an unbarred cell where we was the entertainment for the audience he wasn't given the liberty to do anything he wished to do starting from he was a little boy and it's very upsetting to know people will sacrifice another humans life for entertainment and money. I believe Christof also had a message towards Truman and the audience by showing how good of a world it can be if we all lived by the rules and didn't corrupt society. Its an exceptional message but delivered in the wrong way by sacrificing Truman in the middle of all of it.

Blog Entry 19: Watching and Responding To The Story of Stuff

          The United States have one of the highest consumer percentages in the world. Resources are obviously needed to produce products for the high demanding consumers in this country and with most of the resources gone, we go on ahead and start consuming third world countries natural resources. A very big issue has arised because of this and its mostly due to the greediness of the large business corporations. With supplying themselves from third world countries these establishments know they have to pay little, close to nothing for the resources they would be consuming and not only that but they wouldn't have to deal with the damage left behind after whats needed is taken. Many suffer but the only beneficiaries are the large corps and the consumer who buys without fully knowing the process it takes to buy there "needs"

Blog Entry 16: Let Them Eat Fat

          On a daily basis I come out of work and think to myself if there would be time to eat a full healthy meal at home or if maybe I would need to stop by somehwere quick to get a bite. Now I've noticed I don't work in the "richest" neighborhood and also that there are an abundance amount of schools around. With that being said I estimate at about a 10 block radius there are about five fast food restaurants on a single avenue. Fast food restaurants have been known to target poor income tax communities opposed to the higher income communities. Now why is it structured that way? It's pretty simple, it is highly believed that because the hard working low income tax workers need a bite they can feel perfectly pleased with a five dollar meal at Wendys. This is very tragic towards the lower class citizens because of the amount of calories that are consumed in every bite.

             In the super speed society that we live in today, most people seek the faster, cheaper way to go. And what better use of this saying then with the food we consume. But fast-food food chains thought to themselves that they need something new to catch the eye of the consumer and for the last 20 years they started on a theory of "super sizing". Super size meals have grown extremely popular for the average low class citizen. For a mere seventy-nine cents they can go from a regular size meal to jumbo size. You might think well that's great I just doubled my meal for less than a dollar how much better can it get? But what some don't realize is that they are also going to be doubling the amount of calories being consumed. I've caught myself plenty of times falling for the "super sizing" theory, but then felt guilty after I saw how many more calories I have taken in instead of going for the normal meal. So this causes a great deal of concern because our poor inner-city folk are getting bigger and bigger each day that passes by which can lead to many health issues.

So ask yourself next time what is the difference in calories that I will be taking in between choosing a jumbo meal or a regular one? Well recent studies have show. That the average calorie consumption at a fast food restaurant is around 680 calories. Compare that to 1340 calories in a jumbo meal. This brings many concerns to nutritionists who see that we are also living in a day in which physical activities are at a all time low. So Instead of going the easy unhealthy way use those five dollars to buy some pasta and Ravi sauce. I believe it fills you up a bit more than a jumbo meal at Mcdonalds plus leftovers.

Blog Entry 15: Responding to the Meatrix

             The human race wouldn't be able to survive without it. One of the many things we all have in common is the consumption of food. Different foods from vegetables, fruits, meats and dairy poducts. Most of these selections are produced and or grown in enourmous farms where the animals are raised and the plants are grown. We might sometimes believe the milk, eggs, pork or steak are healthy for us but what we don't know is the truth behind how these products are really "assembled" behind closed doors. Big farm corporations have damaged the true meaning of agriculture and have (in some way) fed us all pieces of there garbage. I believe its a great harm to the community in having the big corporations taking over the agriculture industry. There have been numerous cases in where many people have been extremely ill because of how foods were processed. Not to mention how these industries have slowly taken over and destroyed small family farms who do process food the healthy way.

              The way that "big time" farming corporations work is with the theory that the more they produce at faster speeds the faster they can get it to consumers and the more money they make. To do this corporations have ways to speed up the process which is not always the "safest" way to proceed. Speeding up processes include antibiotics and artificial hormones to boost the rate in which the animals can produce goods. Because of this humans blindly start taking in the goods they purchased at the super market and end up sick. The most common of sicknesses are food poisoning which can easily have you end up in a hospital bed. I'v had a couple of friends end up in the hospital from bad food poisoning just from drinking a cold glass of milk without being lactose intolerant.

Blog Entry 14: Meatrix

The 1999 blockbuster film "The Matrix" was used as the base for the spinoff  "The Meatrix" because of the many similarities they have. In the short clip of "The Meatrix" Moorpheus explains that the food processing has changed alot since agriculture corporations took over the small family farms. The small family farms took care of there animals and produced healthy goods but at a very slow rate. On the other hand agriculture corporations uses hormones and other ways in producing goods faster but at the same time making unhealthy food. "The Meatrix" shows that many people dont know what they are really consuming when they eat the food that agriculture corporations produce. And like "The Matrix" Neo lived a fantasy without knowing what the matrix or "real world" is.

Blog Entry 12: Reflection and Evaluation

Professor Smith has made ENG 099 a great experience for me in both learning and revising old strategies into writing a successful essay. Even though I have learned much of what it takes to write a wealthy essay in the past, this course has given me more practice and more experience for future courses and or careers. In the way that I decided to come back to my studies and this class has refreshed my memory. I believe I'v satisfied the professor in my writing but also need just a bit more to get into an exceeding expectations level. I dont think I need much improvement in most of my writing except for having a grammer problem. Such as using simple words instead of using a thesaurus to help me using healthier words. The one challenge that bothers me every day is that once I forget to post one blog, more assignments in the future start to be missing and I feel thats a very bad habit of mine and I would like to just sit down and concentrate on catching up on my blogs which is very difficult for me to do but I will get it done by the end of the semester. So far I know most of the basic skills into writing a thriving essay but I feel like I prefer to be more challenged and learn what is needed to getting to write real college essays. But I shouldn't be thinking about that now because I'm pretty sure in the near future those tasks will come and be a very difficult obstacles for me.

Blog Entry 11: CAT-W Practice

      Reality television has expanded enormously over the course of 20 years. They are now shown on most popular networks such as "ABC Family", "MTV", "TBS" and many other major networks. But There have been many critisism over how reality television sends out negative messages to there viewers, especially teen-agers and or young viewers. Reality shows usually consists of either competitions between a group of people or just following the lives of a group of people. The viewers than start to believe that life is a competition and that following the new hip image is more important. Worst of all it has started to affect education in America. Timothy Sexton from "Buzzle.com" has written about just how dangerous reality tv has become and I totally agree with him in the sense that this type of programming has its cons.

      Reality shows such as "Survivor" or "Who Wants To Marry a Multimillionaire" deliver a false message, that is that life is a competition that rewards you with lots of money at the end. The television networks taht promote these shows want the public to be engaged in there business. Businesses and major corporations are out to get the publics eye and encourage them to watch the shows because the better the ratings, the more money is receieved. In magazines I have seen and read how many people who want to participate in these reality shows, camp outside and try so hard to be chosen as a winner. Also known as a free ticket to luxury.

       There is also the message that appearence is everything rather than the ability to be able to do something well. Shows like "American Idol" and the "Apprentice" are great examples of this negativity. It is known that producers on "American Idol" look for the better looking, rather talented contestant to win the competition. They have even gone to the extent of trying to completely change the appearence of the contestants as they progress through the reality show. Participants on "The Apprentice" enforce this thought even further. Usually the competition always comes down to the contestant who is better looking oppose to the one with the brains and "personality". This is a way for the television networks to make more money off the public by having the prettier face on the cover of there billboards.

        Reality television goes as far as impactng the education of the young viewers. Reality shows usually say they pick random people to star in there show, which everntually leads to popularity and or being a celebrity of the casties. Because of this many young viewers believe they can one day get lucky and be picked up into stardom without having to lift a pen and a text book. The only expertise required in the field is to be able to humiliate yourself and do as told by producers. This is pretty much called the easy way out to money making careers rather than a hard working student trying to get thru and pay off loans from a 4 year college.

        These are just some of the negative impacts that reality television has. It will only continue growing and growing with false inside messages coming out every season. Instead of "reality" tv they should rename is to "false" tv and then send out the same messages just to see how far they would actually go.

Blog Entry 10:

Claim (by Gabe Lang) -

I would take the red pill and never look back, never mind that blue
one, because I'm the type of person how enjoys being liberated with
the truth. Look at neo he diden't regret it now did he?

Reason - This claim is interesting to me cause it seems like this person is willing to go for anything for the thrill and new experience. There isn't much of a problem with that except for maybe running a little risk in what your getting yourself into. People dont realize that a stranger giving you a pill is probably 98% a negative and that the truth about the way you live is what ever makes you happy.

Evidence - A great example was how Truman from "The Truman Show" lived such a happy life without having to leave his town with having his loved ones (except for his dad) near him and just living a rnomal life even though he was living a lie. Sometimes we are so comfortable with the way things are that it doesnt matter wether its the truth or a lie.

Blog Entry 7: Reflection and Evaluation

I must say I'm pretty impressed with the way I have been performing in this class even though we havnt been graded on so far I'm pretty positive with my performance. I say this because writing would be the worst subject I would score on during junior highschool on to highschool. I believe I started improving during a speech course I took at BMCC in where i was obilgated to learn to write speeches and essays. In this course I have added more to my knowledge about writing for example identifying an idea in a passage that I feel is important. Flaws that I would like to overcome over this course is to stay more onto the topic and differ between the assignment I am given and what I want to write on the page. I have a problem with staying on topic and tend to drift off during the explanation of a thesis statement. My CAT-W pracrtice exam was about the affect that texting has on our teenagers. I found this article pretty simple because I am a texter and could relate to what the author is stating. I agreed and disagreed with the author on this topic cause there are certain ways to control texting in teenagers. I stated why I agree and disagreed with the author gave reasons why I do and examples from personal experience and experiences of others around me and also used facts from the excerpt to back up my statements.

Blog Entry 6: Review Socrates and Plato's Allegory of the Cave

       Being chained for most of the life that you can remember from neck to ankles. It's the false life Socrate's describes to Glaucon in "Allegory of the Cave". A life of deception and lies not knowing nothing else other then what they saw in front of them. We live that concept without even realizing it. Most of us have had that sort of deception hit us at one point in our lives or another. Whether it be during your childhood with the tooth fairy or maybe now as an adult with things such as politics, we all must have had a belief that we truly believed but ended up seeing it in a totally different way. Certain situations can totally change the way you see things now from one belief into another. In my situation I have been raised to think that the United States of America had one of the best education progams and establishments in the world. From personal experience I dont believe the U.S. is superior in education, atleast not anymore. The United States has slowly fallen behind many countries in World Education Rankings. This is believed to have happened with the government focusing on other important issues such as immigration reforms , tax breaks for the uber-rich and war. Like the prisoners in "Allegory of the Cave" it took me a very long time to realize that America's education is not what they once said to be.
I'v opened my eyes clearly now and have traveled to different countries and also have had friends from different corners of the world and one of my questions to them is always how is school on your side of town? It impressed me how much these friends knew and how well educated they were an half of them were younger than I was. I couldn't believe it and thought to myself maybe there education system and how the teachers are instructed to teach are better then the United States. The Organization for Economic Cooperation places the United States 18th among the 36 nations examined. That makes you think how did the world leader in economy drop so low? I want people to realize that the United States needs to get back on track on making education a priority. Involving students more in activities making learning not a job but more of a hobbie. I myself would become a teacher to conribute and show students now that learning should be of great importance and mke it fun at the same time. Going back to help others is what we should all do.

      

Blog Entry 5: Allegory of the Cave

Humans are imprisoned by body and mind by being chained from neck and feet. Only knowing what the eye sight has let them see which is shadows on the wall casted by a fire behind them. Now what would happen if one prisoner is released and let out to the world. The prisoner would be frightened by the light from the un not ever being in the outside world. The prisoner feels like his whole entire life has been a lie in the cave now with the sun in his face he is able to see truth and wants to let the others in the cave know about it. Some will believe him and some won't.

Blog Entry 4: Hype Workshop

      The excerpt "Hype" written by Kalle Lasn is mostly about how advertisements have grown over the years especially with new technology such as cell phones and the internet. The author believes ads are one of the most mental polluting objects around. She claims "commercial pollution floods your brain at the rate of about three thousand messages per day". It is true that ads are found almost anywhere from filling your car with gas or at an atm machine at the bank. I myself am aware of thousands of ads around me on a daily basis but on the contrary believe that this is a positive way to expand business.

      The brain is commercially polluted at all times of the day. An estimated 12 billion ads are advertised daily in North America alone. Ad usage has grown with more places to host them. Gas stations ATMs and wheat fields are just a few places that are polluted with ads. There are televised ads on shopping carts while you shop. There is no getting away from advertisements no matter where you go.

       With out ads one wouldn't know of upcoming sales or new business deals or openings. Ads have had a boost in places where they can be found with recent technology from cell phones and the internet having a major impact a side from the usual buses, billboards, stadiums etc. The author continues to explain how ads are everywhere around us and in some way implying that it is getting out of hand with the certain locations that these ads are in. For example the author states that there are an "estimated 12 billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials, and more then 200,000 TV commercials are dumped into North America's collective unconscious". I believe the author is kind of bothered with the way the advertisements in North America have gone a bit too far. She explains hat there is "no where to run" and explained how in the silent moments of her life she was able to hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony playing in her head and now instead heard kids singing the Oscar Meyer wiener song.

      I believe she is being a quite bit over exaggerate and doesn't realize the ads around us makes the major business's and small business work together and profit the world economy. Ads in some way has its pros and cons but no matter what it will continue to grow in this country.

Blog Entry 3: Summarizing "Hype"

The brain is commercially polluted at all times of the day. An estimated 12 billion ads are advertised daily in North America alone. Ad usage has grown with more places to host them. Gas stations ATMs and wheat fields are just a few places that are polluted with ads. There are televised ads on shopping carts while you shop. There is no getting away from advertisements no matter where you go.

Blog Entry 2: Reflecting on Annotation

1. What did you get from thinking about annotations with the class?
    That it is a strategy in helping you to respond critically to a text by writing while reading to catch main points.


2. What did you get from writing annotations for "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" with your partner?
     I was able to improve my comprehension of the article and increase my concentration on the text.


3. What did you learn about the reading by annotating it?
    Annotation provided me with a purpose for reading it over and over again understanding the message the author is   trying to deliver. I learned that many distractions on google can affect the way you search and the information you are intending to look for.


4. How may annotating make you a better writer?
    Like I said before it may improve your comprehension of the subject you are intending to write about. For example you may need to annotate the main idea of your paper to stick to a certain subject and keep yourself on point.

Blog Entry 1: Hype

The excerpt "Hype" written by Kalle Lasn is mostly about how advertisements have grown over the years especially with new technology such as cell phones and the internet. The author believes ads are one of the most mental polluting objects around. She claims "commercial pollution floods your brain at the rate of about three thousand messages per day". It is true that ads are found almost anywhere from filling your car with gas or at an atm machine at the bank. I myself am aware of thousands of ads around me on a daily basis but on the contrary believe that this is a positive way to expand business. With out ads one wouldn't know of upcoming sales or new business deals or openings. Ads have had a boost in places where they can be found with recent technology from cell phones and the internet having a major impact a side from the usual buses, billboards, stadiums etc. The author continues to explain how ads are everywhere around us and in some way implying that it is getting out of hand with the certain locations that these ads are in. For example the author states that there are an "estimated 12 billion display ads, 3 million radio commercials, and more then 200,000 TV commercials are dumped into North America's collective unconscious". I believe the author is kind of bothered with the way the advertisements in North America have gone a bit too far. She explains hat there is "no where to run" and explained how in the silent moments of her life she was able to hear Beethoven's Ninth Symphony playing in her head and now instead heard kids singing the Oscar Meyer wiener song. I believe she is being a quite bit over exaggerate and doesn't realize the ads around us makes the major business's and small business work together and profit the world economy. Ads in some way has its pros and cons but no matter what it will continue to grow in this country.

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