Interview.

I plan to interview my grandfather. I want to do so because I have not heard much about his childhood and the things that he has done in his life. All that I know about him is when his parents died and the start of his rebellious youth. I plan to have a strong knowledge of him at the end of this interview. I will need to have a list of questions prepared that will keep him talking and will, hopefully, get him to come out of his shell and tell me something that will be impacting. I hope to learn what it was like growing up in his day and age and how he feels about how is decade determined his future.

Reflective paper:

Kyambadde Stone was a famous, highly talented, foot ball player but due to an incident on the field he was left unable to play anymore. He began to teach a group of children how to play, what we call soccer, football and give them a place where they can be themselves and feel no judgement. Many of these children come from homes with very little lessons being taught so Stone created an area where they can learn valuable lesions such as: practice and hard work. His undying love for the children gave them everything that they needed to be good citizens. And with Stones help that is what they became, they became hard workers, they learned to forgive and forget, they learned how to work.

Stone's lesson was taught among a small group of people, but it spread to a largesse group like wild fire. The lesson being that you have to work hard to achieve. He taught them how to forgive people, with the amazing amount of crime that is committed in their community he taught them not to follow that path. This wonderful life lesson could not have come at a better time, he gave these kids hope. Hope they needed to survive.

When I think about this video, I find myself wondering what would happen if there were more people like Stone in the world. Instead of the lethargic people that we come into contact with in our lives. With Stone spreading his fantastic lessons to his community and living them everyday he made a fantastic difference in the world he lives in. So what would happen if someone with their own impacting lessons came into our lives? They could make wonderful things happen, so someone has to stand up. The world around us is changing, and not for the better. Maybe if each of us had a roll model like Stone we would all be better off.

interview

I interviewed a Pastor at my dad’s church.

His profession is a pastor.

He is credible to my research because he is directly connected to religion.

Questions I asked:

1.       I asked if he felt that the media had a hold on the people in America.

2.       I asked how he feels about religion being so tightly connected in the media.

3.       Then, I proceeded to ask him if he felt it was necessary to have religion in the media.

4.       He then proceeded to ask about my religion and why I was writing my paper about this kind of a topic and if I think religion should be in the media.

5.       I avoided the question because I did not want to offend him but simply asked what his views were about the influence religion holds on America and if he thinks that it is good or bad.

Summary:

                The interview went well, well pretty well, I feel he really helped me to understand the other side of the world, the other percent. He answered questions just like I thought he would; like a pastor. He does think that the media has a hold over us, but he thinks it’s very little. He also believes that it is needed for Americans to get a daily dose of religion and that the media having a more religious opinion is good because they become a little closer to god then before. He thinks it’s a great thing, ‘if it’s actually true,’ (his words).

 

 

Ah Ha Moment:

Throught out my life I have not learned everything about the world, after all, I am only 17 years old. But in my current assignments for Mr. Stanley's English class I have seen many new things that I can add to my personal memory of information that most of society finds useless. So, with my topic of Religion and Media I have been introduced to a majority of facts I once did not know.

One of the things that completely blew my mind wwas finding out that there is a group called the Religious Writers Association. What this group of people does write articles for newspapers that have a religious background. I found it completely strange that these people have an orginization that focuses on religion.

I honestly do not understand why religious articles are even allowed in papers and magazines, mostly due to the facts that there are many different types of religion in the country and the focus in these articles is Christianity. I do not understand the creation of this bias, and why the world is allowed to create the bias. There is a standard that American's should live by, and that standard should be not to offend others of different religions. Also, how can anyone be sure if they are getting the one hundred percent truth about any topic if it is being written by those with this bias. It honestly blows my mind that this is happening.

 

Mr. Stanley, I really enjoyed how we used to do our reflections, and I feel like it would benefit if we went back to that just because it actually makes a student think about themselves instead of something most students would find irrelevent.

Project:

There are many things I would find interesting in our projects and papers. Some of them would include: religious effects in the media, how people try to go against the pressures of the media, and also sexist media tendencies. For me, I am deciding between religious effects and people trying to go against the pressures of the media. But if I was to choose this as my project what would I follow? Would I follow just the basic statement I just said or would I go more into detail with it? I really am not sure because of how many directions I can go with this paper and project.
Now, what would I do for the project? Well a Powerpoint is a no, those are too boring for even me to handle. Maybe I could read something out loud that would be interesting. Or I could even create a small video about the topic. Again, there are so many ways this could be done that would be interesting.
And that documentary we watched in class, it was so unbelievable. I mean, it was so impacting. What they were saying about Fox News was so interesting just because I have noticed those things as I watched it. I noticed the reporters shooting down all of the Liberals that have come onto the show. It actually makes me so mad because of how much control they have on our minds.

Thoughts:

When I wash my hands I really like washing with hot water because the hot water kills germs. So, when I was waiting for the water to heat up I started thinking about how your blood temperature is 98.6 degrees, and if you're someone who really likes hot showers the water is hotter than your blood temperature, so it's probably around 100-125 degrees. But if someone says not to touch something that may be around 100 degrees, but you don't listen and touch it then you act like you hurt yourself. Well, there are more nerves in your hand which is why you feel things with such detail but it's still the same temperature as your shower. So, therefore, our brain tells us it hurts but honestly it really doesn't because we do something with the same amount of concentrated heat everyday. It's very strange, how we don't even think about how hot the water that we stand in everyday is. Maybe we don't care, but it does interest me. How completely oblivious we are.

Who am I; Holden Caufield.

"I felt like praying or something, when I was in bed, but I couldn't do it. I can't always pray when I feel like it. In the first place, I'm sort of an atheist. I like Jesus and all, but I don't care too much for most of the other stuff in the bible. Take the Disciples, for instance. They annoy the hell out of me, if you want to know the truth. They were all right after Jesus was dead and all, but while He was alive, they were about as much use to Him as a hole in the head," (J.D. Salinger, page 99). As I'm reading the book titled Catcher in the Rye written by J.D. Salinger I think about how lost of a boy the main character Holden Caufield is.

When he's talking about the bible I couldn't help but chuckle to myself because of how he cannot make up his about anything. First he's saying he's an atheist and then he likes Jesus but hates everything else about the bible. It's actually kind of humourus because he has this idea that he really knows what he is doing with his life and what is happening around him.

I feel that many people that are Holden's age have the same thought process. One minute they believe something and then the next they don't. Which is why I believe it's kind of a waste for a teenager to form any type of opinion about really anything. In the real world there are these people that try to make changes, and try to influence people to believe what they do. But the simple fact of the matter is they will probably change their mind in the next ten years, especially if the person is a high school student. Holden I feel is actually very similar to a real world student. He has the same ideas, foolish ideas and stupid plans. 

In his mind he has everything figured out completely, and it's so funny because it's completely untrue. He can't even make up his mind about if he believes in a god or not. This just takes me back into the very begining of the book when I was complete confused about what he was even talking about, but now it's more clear. He really has no idea of what is happening and just like many other people in the world I feel he's going to have a rude awakening.

Observation:

Today, as I sat in a down town tennis place as I watched an elderly woman I know. As I sat down on the couch I couldn't help but notice the complete and utter boredom in everyone's face. All the players, mostly women, walked around like they only are actually playing to keep the pounds from showing around their waists as they got older. Then the more women that walked in, the more I saw how completely uninteresting these people were. Just talking about their damn kids like they're the best thing in the world because they can draw stick figures in their second grade art class. Completely irrelevent. Then as I watched the woman I'm babysitting I could tell her confusion of where she was and why she was there, unfortunatly she has Alheimer's and cannot remember what's happening. But as she fidgited around in her seat my attention grew more on her and less on the woman with completely un-interesting storys that I could'nt help but listen to. Although you could tell that she had no idea what was going on, she had some type of bliss in her face, just because you could see that she enjoyed meeting the new people, although she's met me damn near 50 times now. Throughout her throwing my food at me and swearing like a sailor I couldn't help but wanting to listen more and more. Like I was hypnotized. 

I am who I am, and no one else.

Fraser, Michigan. How could I tell someone the atmosphere of this little town? I would say full and exciting, yet also sad. Fraser isn't often heard of so I guess it's sad. But this town really has made me who I am, yeah I know everyone says that but I really do believe it. The music I listen to and the friends I have are all because of this place. I listen to rock music because I don't live in Tennessee and Keith Urban isn't very popular here. And that music type introduced me to the friends I've made in a school I don't like so much. But it's all because I'm here, all because I moved into this house when I was four. And the fact of the matter is I don't really believe I made the choices to be who I am, they were sort of made for me. Just simply because of where I live, and the people I'm forced to be around. So when I think of Fraser, Michigan, I don't just think of a town, a community or even my house there; I think about me, and what happened here to make me the way I am.

Fraser

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