Do newspapers, magazines, television, radio, movies, the internet, and other media determine what is important to most people?

I believe that the media has a great affect on the ways people think of things because a lot of people trust the media's point of view. Most of the time, people will believe the newspapers and the problem with everyone trusting one source, is that the information may or may not be correct. If the information isn't correct then that means people may think of it differently than if they actually knew the truth. Also, some main problems and topics that aren't emphasized enough in the media so people can't see topics that have importance to them. Sometimes people worry too much about the little things and don't see the big picture. I despise the media for this particular reason. For example, today, i heard on the radio that an "unstable" woman attacked the Pope. By giving this information out, people will assume that she was a crazy lady. But what if she was a devout Catholic who just wanted to praise her Pope? Then that would be a whole different story.

Practical limitations to media neutrality include the inability of journalists to report all available stories and facts, and the requirement that selected facts be linked into a coherent narrative. Most of the authors who write the articles normally sway their reader to believe in his or her ideas which makes it bias. A bias media will change everyone's idea of "important". Another problem is that everyone has something that is more important than another person. So everyone's "important" may not be the same therefore as having a different perspective. I'm not saying that having different perspectives is a bad thing but it can be when the facts are being misused. When they are misused, conflict and propaganda begin and then that leads to argument. I strongly believe that the media has the greatest affect on our idea of importance in life, but we are ultimately challenged to decide in our own minds and hearts what is truly important.

LeBron James

As an athalete, i need to get ready before every game so i can kick some ass. On other words, i need to get pumped. Athaletes have many ways to get pumped including pounding their chest, yelling, listening to hard beat music, or even listening to soft classical piano mausic. For myself, i like to focus on what i want to achieve but at the same time stay loose. Normally, this a ritual so every game they can be use to doing the same thing. As you can see, LeBron James tosses powder in the air in front of the score table to get himself pumped up (and his fans love it).

James was born on December 30, 1984 in Akron, Ohio, and attended St. Vincent–St. Mary High School in Akron, where he became a starter during his freshman year for the Fighting Irish. He averaged 21 points and 6.2 rebounds, and led the team to a 23–1 record, en route to the Division III state title. Keith Dambrot, now head coach at the University of Akron, was the head coach at St. Vincent–St. Mary. Coach Dambrot started working with James doing $1 clinics at a local recreation center.In his sophomore year, James averaged 25.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 3.8 steals.He led the team to a 26–1 record and a Division III state title for the second straight season.He was the first sophomore to be named Ohio's "Mr. Basketball" and also became the first sophomore ever selected to the USA Today All-USA First Team. I think its amazing that a high schooler can make the USA first team. And he was still only a sophomore!!!!

In James' junior year his stats improved again. He averaged 29.0 points, 8.3 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 3.3 steals and was again named Mr. Basketball of Ohio.He also earned a spot on the All-USA First Team, and was named the 2001–2002 boys' basketball Gatorade National Player of the Year. It was at this time that his nickname "King James" became a household staple in Ohio.

Basketball

Currently, i am playing on the JV team for Alameda High School and we just finished two of our first games. Unfortunately, we lost both but we were always in the game. I play basketball to stay in shape for baseball and to keep my legs strong. Also basketball helps me play because it helps my reactions. In the last two years, the basketball program has been a bit shaky because every year, there has been different coaches so the players have to change to the new coach rather than just sticking with the same things every year. But i just try my best and hopefully our team will do good.

I also play basketball because i am actually pretty good at it. This year, i could have played on varsity but i decided to play on JV because i get more playing time and experience. Next year, i plan on being the starting point guard for the varsity team as a junior. Although I like practicing with the varsity because it puts me to my limits and it makes me better guarding players like Taylor Takahashi.

Basketball is also a good stress reliever from school because you get to run around and have fun playing with your friends.

Technology

Just yesterday, i created my own facebook and i realized how advanced technology is these days. When i was in elementry school, i loved the show star gate where they had those cool "wireless communicaters" and i thought that would never happen in my life time. But then two years later people started having cell phones, then myspace, then the iphone, now facebook and twitter. When is this ever going to stop? No one knows. I dear that technology will get so advanced that it will destroy our universe and just rip us apart because people abuse the power and the things they have. If you don't beleive me, it's already happening. Rapist, serial killers, and stalkers are learning how to hack web cams to spy on other people. Web cams were made to conversate between people who live far away from each other and can't see each other. Now, the great idea of web camming, maybe an extremely dangerous aparatus.

On the other hand, i believe technology can pull us out of our economic crisis. Also, it can help our society and the way people will live only if they use it the right ways. Like if someone invented something to solve global warming, then it's very useful. Or if someone invents a bi-fuel that has a lot of mileage for cars then that would be very useful. I actually had an idea once about making a bi fuel of carbon because the carbon is what is destroying the environment so if we can get rid of the carbon, then it's all good.

Is there always another explanation or another point of view?

In life, there are always different perspectives for any thought, idea, or activity. If there was only one right way to do a certain thing, then this world would be perfect. But it's not. I think that our world would be better if we had more points of views so we could have more ideas to expand on. Also, no one has the same thoughts and ideas as everyone else so there will always be a second, third, or fourth opinion. To me, i like to look at things from all points of view. If i perceive something with just one opinion, i will be very stubborn and will never see "the big picture".

As a basketball player, it is important for me to have many options and see the whole court. Since i am a point guard, i need to open my mind and be creative because its hard to do the same thing repetitively when your opponent is doing anything he can to stop you. This is called flexibility and a lot creativity. If the defender is not letting you dribble left, then you go right. If he isn't letting you shoot, then you have to attack the basket. The problem that people have is that they already make up their minds before they even see what's going to happen. A point guard is really like a quarter back on the football field. They have to "read" the defense and see what they're giving or not giving them and then adjust to do what will work the best. I call it a sixth sense because not all people can have this skill of decision making according to the situation.

This sixth sense doesn't only occur in sports but in everything that people do every day. For example, driving is literally just commonsense. But as we can see, some people can be HORRIBLE drivers. It's not that they don't have any commonsense, its just that they can't see the other cars and are just focused on their path. On the other hand, some people do see the other cars but don't care about them and just go wherever they want to go. I try to be in the middle, i will be flexible when i need to be but i can be pushy and aggressive when i want to be.

Purpose of Blog #2

After reading my past blogs, i realized that they are very boring and random so I'm going to try to focus more on two or three topics such as life, school, and sports. I also may occasionally write a sat essay just for some extra practice because i've already taken three mock tests and i got a zero for the essay on the first test because i didn't follow the topic. Then, i surprisingly received a four on my second essay because the topic was something that i knew very well. But on my third test i dropped one point earning a three because of my grammar and vocabulary.
When young children go to school, they mostly think they are there to get good grades. People all over America debate its importance and what should be taught in school. The most important things you learn in life are not in a classroom, they are out in the real world, everyday situations that we learn and grow from. Children should learn only to brighten there own individual knowledge and to learn moral values that are actually important in life.
The pressure of being important in today's world is greater than ever. Children feel that in order to succeed in life they have to get good grades and attend universities. Parents can be very strict and put massive pressure on there children's academics. In this case, the children are doing it more for there parents satisfaction, not there own. Students are also pressured by what the media tells them. The media represents the main reason for education as making the economy more powerful. The United States is always in competition to be the best in the world. "The children are our future" becomes "The children will make us money." This makes children learn for all the wrong reasons. Learning should be for your own sake and benefit of yourself, not anyone else.
Some things you learn in school might seem completely pointless. What learning is really doing is exercising your brain for hard situations you might have to deal with in life. The motivation and stress you put yourself through to get a good grade will make you a stronger person. Even if you never do a math problem out of high school, the discipline that math class gave you will help you in the real world.

World Series

The 2009 World Series is the 105th edition of Major League Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff is contested between the Philadelphia Phillies, champions of the National League (NL), and the New York Yankees, champions of the American League (AL). The Phillies are seeking to become the first team to repeat as World Series champions since the Yankees did so from 1998–2000, while the Yankees are seeking to extend their major-league record with a 27th World Series championship. The two franchises previously met in the 1950 World Series in which the Yankees swept the Phillies four games to none.
This is the fifth Series played between teams from New York and Philadelphia. The Giants and Athletics faced each other in 1905, 1911 and 1913 in addition to the Yankees–Phillies matchup in 1950.
The series is also the fourth consecutive time that the Phillies face a team from the AL East in the World Series. They faced the Baltimore Orioles in 1983, the Toronto Blue Jays in 1993, and the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008. The Yankees faced an NL East opponent in three of their last four World Series appearances: the Florida Marlins in 2003, the New York Mets in 2000, and the Atlanta Braves in 1999.
The Series started on October 28, 2009, which was the latest start in World Series history. For the first time ever, the World Series is regularly scheduled to end in November. Assuming no weather delays, Game 4 is scheduled for Sunday, November 1 and, if necessary, Game 7 will take place on November 5. Home field advantage for the Series went to the American League for the eighth straight year as a result of their 4–3 win in the All-Star Game.
The Series will be only the third one ever to end in a month other than October. The first was in 1918, which was played entirely in September after the regular season was cut short due to World War I. The other was in 2001, when the September 11 attacks on the United States caused a delay in the season that eventually forced the end of the Series into November.

What Do I Want to Be When I Grow Up?

To be honest, I don't really know what i want to be when I grow up. Some people like my parents think that it's bad not knowing what i want to be when i grow up but i think differently. The way i think about it is that i should have as many options available so if one goes wrong i can try for another. But if i were to only have one option that i really want to do and i fail at it, i wouldn't know what to do after wards. Some people say you'll be more successful if you keep trying on the same thing. But you keep failing so there's really no use. But you can still be successful
In fifth grade, i had to do a report on Abe Lincoln and during my research i found out that he applied, tried and failed at many jobs and look where he ended up. To me it doesn't matter if the job i have is well payed or not. i just want to do something that i like and that can help others and it would be extra nice if it payed well. I believe having a job that you enjoy but doesn't pay a lot is always better than a job that pays well but it's a dread. Also my chemistry teacher, Mr. Joo has been through many jobs and he enjoyed all of them but he thought they were boring and useless. So he decided to teach and he happened to like it. Even though he says he doesn't know chemistry that good, he enjoys giving his knowledge to young adults like me.
I actually have thought of ideas for a future and one that really jumps out is being a professional baseball player because i love the sport, it pays good and i would like to travel to different places in America. Also, i want to become a professional baseball player so i can support my family and friends because i know that they always had my support.

Global Warming - My Opinion/Explanation

Have you ever wondered what will happen in 30 years from now? Based on scientific fact, it is not looking good at all. One of the major problems in the world right now is global warming. Some people think of it as just a major change in weather when it is actually much more extreme than that. Global warming will put small countries and places under water like Japan, Cuba, Hawaii, Alameda and possibly Australia. After watching former vice president, Al Gore's documentary film, "An Inconvenient Truth", it all made sense too me. The main reason why the world is getting so hot is because of the amount of greenhouse gasses we(as in everyone in the world) give off into the atmosphere. When I first heard this, i thought to myself, what the hell does pollution have to with our world getting hotter. But then I realized it had everything to do with it.
10 years ago, the hot rays from the sun would enter the earth's atmosphere, bounce of a part of earth and go back into space somewhere. 5 years later, the same thing was happening but sometimes, the suns rays couldn't go back out because a big huge cloud of greenhouse gasses was blocking it. So instead, it bounced back to the earths atmosphere. From then till now, it has gotten a lot worse. The sun's rays are continuously bouncing up and down between our earths surface and the big clouds of greenhouse gases which are located near the ozone layer. One of my thoughts to this problem is to just get rid of the greenhouse gases. I mean, how hard is it to get rid of a gas? Well after learning more on global warming, it is really hard to get of greenhouse gases. Some examples of greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, carbon tetrachloride, methyl bromide, and methyl chloroform. These gases just happen to be extremely explosive. It could be a big problem when playing with explosive chemicals and impossible to get rid of. But if we can't do that, how can we stop global warming? "That my friends, is an excellent question." We have not found a way to solve this problem yet but we have found ways to help the situation including turning off a light when your not using it, unplug electrical things if its not in use, carpool more often, and a big one is to not buy things that are factory made. Factories are a big factory in the cause of global warming they give off more than half of the worlds greenhouse gases. Global warming is way worse than it sounds.

Fights

Growing up, I didn't get to watch many fights other then the ones on T.V. like wrestling and UFC. Fights aren't really common in Alameda. The other day, I was over at my friend's house because he was showing my friend and I a video in that took place during the Muni at San Francisco and I just watched the fight. I heard there was a short video clip in the news. My friend was just translating it and I watched this in awe.

It started with them arguing and just yelling at each other. The Chinese woman explained the situation, which was the other woman’s purse placed there, and she wanted to sit, so she moved it. So it led to an argument which got out of hand. The Chinese woman was dared to repeat what she just said, so then she got hit in the face. It led to a fight on the muni and the crowd watched and a few people tried to stop her. The Chinese lady was mad and explaining to another woman in Cantonese (or Toy San, a dialect) how she was harassed.

In the news, they only showed a small 5 second video clip, which made the Chinese woman look bad, but in reality, it was quite understandable what she did. I would stick up for her if I was on the muni. I think its a little internal feeling to just help your own race. There’s a love deep down inside and I feel the need to defend her, other then the fact that she was provoked and not the other way around. The news clip made her look bad and it was in a way, misleading information. It was biased because you only seeing the African American lady get clobbered for no reason and people can assume.

Stereotyping

(9.) Stereotypes, omissions,[7] and distortions all contribute to the development of prejudice. Prejudice is a preconceived[8] judgment or opinion, usually based on limited information. I assume that we all have prejudices, not because we want them, but simply because we are so continually exposed to misinformation about others. Though I have often heard students describe someone as not having “a prejudiced bone in his body,” I usually suggest that they look again.

(10.) Prejudice is one of the inescapable consequences of living in a racist society. Cultural racism—the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of Whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color—is like smog in the air. Sometimes it is so thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent,[9] but always, day in and day out, we are breathing it in. None of us would introduce ourselves as “smog-breathers” (and most of us don’t want to be described as prejudiced), but if we live in a smoggy place, how can we avoid breathing the air? If we live in an environment in which we are bombarded with stereotypical images in the media, are frequently exposed to the ethnic jokes of friends and family members, and are rarely informed of the accomplishments of oppressed groups, we will develop the negative ideas about those groups that form the basis of prejudice. […]

These two passages in Beverly Tatum's book tells how our society affects the way we look at other people. If you live in an all-white society, seeing people that aren't white will be very strange because you won't be use to it. But race isn't the only factor to this. Rich, poor,upper class, lower class all have effects in making people prejudice. Because everyone is different, everyone is prejudice im one way or another. Even if you say or do things that may prejudice, your thoughts about others still may be. For example, if a quite, nice, average school girl encounters a big, loud, black guy, she will stereotype him as a criminal or bad person. One day in class, Marcus mentioned that if you like racist jokes, then your prejudice. At first i didn't think that statement was true but then when i thought about it, i agreed. Racist jokes emphasize the negative ideas on other people of different race. Being prejudice is the same thing

My High School Baseball Career

The Black Sox is an 18 year-old and younger baseball team. I joined the team last year as the only freshman and I wasn't expecting to play at all because i was the youngest member of team and I was still learning how to be a good an infielder. But surprisingly, my coach (Erik Schuler) had confidence to play me in the games and the best part is that i never failed him. Except my batting was shaky because the pitching was very fast for me at that high level. After the summer, I was ready to go for the high schoolseason.
For the Alameda High baseball team, I made the junior varsity team and was the starting short-stop and batted lead off hitter the whole season. I did excellent that season having a batting average of .403 and a ridiculous on-base average of .864. Our team had a succesful season and tied for the league championship with Berkley High School. Near the end of the season, I got moved up to varsity.
Varsity was an extremely faster and much more intense level of baseball. The practices were a little more intense but they were also longer. After two weeks of practice, we were in the NCS playoffs. Our first game was against, Rancho Cotati and we beat them easily. The next game, the semi-final, was against Cardinal Newman, and we came out with the win. After the two exciting games, we we're in the NCS finals against Clayton Valley at the A's colliseum. We have already faced them earlier in the season and we beat them. We pitched the same person who pitch to them the first game which i thought was a mistake. Their first batter lead off their team with triple. Our team only had two hits the whole game. One from Dan Smith (Spike) and the other from Joe Norton. After Joe's hit, I pinch ran for him. This was the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my whole life. The pitcher picked me off. Even though I thought I was safe, I went back into the dug-out and I felt so terrible that i just sat the very end of the bench embarrassed and pissed off. After we lost the game 3-1, I had a very quite car ride home. When I got home, I knew I wasn't going to anything besides lay down, think about what happened and get more pissed off. So I thought of something else to do. Then a very touching thought came to me. I was thinking to my self, why i love baseball so much and the first thought i had was that it was fun. After that, I realized what I was gonna do. So i called some friends if they wanted to go play some stick ball (playing baseball with a wood bat and a tennis ball). We played, laughed, and just had a great time. After I got home from playing stick ball, I realized that it was okay being picked off because baseball is all about having fun and enjoying the game. The most awful thing happened in the best day of my life. After that game/day, whenever something bad happens while I'm playing, i just remember that im out here playing ball with my friends having fun.

Hawaii

During last summer, my family and I went to vacation to Hawaii on a cruise ship and spent two days at each island. Without a doubt, my favorite island was Oahu because it was very friendly, always busy, and the beach is the perfect place to be. I also like Oahu because i want to go to college there. Not only would i want to attend Hawaii University but i would love to play baseball over there too (hopefully on a scholarship). Oahu also has a famous land mark known as Diamond Head. I really enjoyed hiking up Diamond Head even though it was very long and strenuous but the view at the top is priceless. I have a lot of memories from that vacation but the most memorable one was right before i got off the plane, the flight attendant looked at me and said, "Mahalo Welcome home!"After she said that, i couldn't help but laugh. Another memory of my trip to Hawaii was when i had my first virgin pina calada. I was never a fan of coconut but since i was in Hawaii, i thought i should try their famous drink and surprisinly, it was delicious. from that point on, i love coconut in any shape or form. I actually saw a hawaiian native make coconut milk by hand at the plynesian cultural center.
Speaking of foods, we visited two very interesting places that make very delicious treats. We first visited the Mauna Loa Factory with their famous macadmia nut products. My favorite is the chocolate covered/cocnut macadamia. Another place we visited was the sugar factory. In the factory, they had an exhibit of the history behind the sugar. They still make their sugar from pure sugar cane and they produce it in a similar way when they first started producing. The ironic thing about the sugar cane factory was that it smelled REALLY bad. The reason for the bad smelling was because sugar needs a lot of fertilizer to grow properly. The last and the coolest out of all the factories was the Dole pineapple plantation. First of all, my sister got pearl ear rings outside the plantation and i the pearls were straight from the oysters. After that, we went into the plantation and it was very interesting because it had all the different kinds of pineapple in the world. Also, there was a maze that we went through and it was funn because we had to follw the certain type of pineapple to get to the end. Overall the trip was very funn and amusing. I wish to go to school, play baseball and live in Hawaii one day.

Purpose of Blog

For my blog, I plan to write about the following topics: Baseball, my personal life and school. I thought it would be cool if my friends and I could share the latest updates on scores and statistics. So if anyone needs to know a score or certain statistic on a game or player I can have all the information. I also want to spend time writing about myself so I’m going to make a private blog as sort of a weekly diary. If you really think about it, a lot of things happen during the course of a week. But sometimes it goes by so fast that you forget and I want to keep track of the highlights of every week in this school year. School is an important aspect in my life and I need to constantly keep track of my assignments in all my classes. As a student, I know that I cannot relax if I do, my grades will drop tremendously. Some students can relax and take a break but still get good grades. For me, I am not that type of student. Therefore I need to be focused on my academics first.
This year, I want to improve my writing so I am more fluent, not as redundant, and I really want to expand my vocabulary. I have a problem of getting off topic a lot of times so I want to learn how to stay on topic because I learned from taking a practice SAT that if you don’t follow the prompt, your score will be a 0. Due to being off topic, I tend to be very repetitive on my thoughts. I think I’m repetitive partly because I run out of ideas to write about so end up just repeating the same idea over and over again. I hope I can improve my writing this year so I can improve my essay score for the SAT tests I take in the future,

Kanye West Controversy

During this years VMA's (Video Music Awards) Taylor swift won her first VMA award at the age of twenty for her song called "You Belong With Me." While she was in the middle of her speech, Kanye West walked to the stage unannounced, took the microphone from Taylor and stated that Beyonce's video was "the best of all time." Now this is disrespectful in many ways. First of all, why would you interrupt anyone in the middle of their VMA award even though you may disagree. But its especially rude in this case because it is her very first VMA award and he just ruined her moment. I think that it was right that Beyonce went up to the stage to apologize but its wrong that Kanye West didn't. I think Kanye West did a bad thing and i don't agree with actions, but personally, i don't think Taylor Swift should have one the award over Beyonce. To me there is no comparison between the two. Beyonce is clearly much more talented than Taylor Swift. But don't get me wrong, Taylor Swift is young and her songs are good but Beyonce was just straight out better.
I think Kanye West has put his reputation in the line and from what I'm looking at, it is not good at all. Personally, I still like Kanye West as a singer and artist but not as a person. I think his music is awesome and i almost have all his albums and songs on my ipod. I think Kanye West is stupid for what he did because before the incodent, his songs were at the top of every hitlist but now the respect of his songs just dropped tremendously. When he first went up on stage, i thought it was like a skit that was practiced because it was near the beggining of the ceremony but then after i realized it was for real I was speachless.