This is the last blog post i am going to write and i was wondering if anyone in class ended up liking their blogger account and is going to keep using it even after the class is over. I'm not going to keep publishing any more posts after today but it was a good experience and i am glad i got to learn about this tool.

Merry Christmas everyone. Its so close to christmas break and the end of the semester. I cant wait to get out of here for the break but i am also really nervous for my finals next week. I hope i am ready for them and i dont get too nervous and screw up. It seems like a lot of people do that, they think they are ready for their big test and usually they know the material pretty well but they just get too nervous when it is time to take the test and it ends up hurting their grade. Im just ready to get my tests over with.

I got a parking ticket today. What makes me mad is that i paid ninety dollars for a sticker to park here but if you have to use another vehicle for the day or something like that then you get a ticket even though you already paid a ton for a parking place. That is exactly what happened to me today. When i got back from thanksgiving break i had a different vehicle than the one i had before ( i had been using my parents car for a week to get mine fixed). I happened to leave before remembering to change the sticker and so i got a ticket. That sucks.

I cant wait for this semester to get over with. It is nice because everyone is starting to wrap up their classes and get ready for their finals. I have a little less homework this week and i am so relieved to have presented my final presentation in class today. Thats some weight off my chest. I hope i did alright. Thanksgiving break was nice but I already cant wait for christmas break. I get to start out with all new classes when i get back and i am that much closer to getting through this.

I can't believe that this semester of college is almost over. After thanksgiving we only have three more weeks. My first semester of college was a huge change for me and i am still getting used to it but i am making it through alright and so far i am doing pretty good in all my classes. Im already signed up for my classes for next semester and if it goes by as fast as this one then i wont have time to turn around before my entire first year of college is over with. It is kind of exciting. Im looking forward to what the future holds.

Falling gas prices

It is awsome that the price of gas is this low and still falling so far. I dint think that they would drop this low this winter. It is sort of weird though. Does anyone know why they are dropping so low right now? I know that they always drop a little bit during the winter months because there is less demand but were they expected to drop this low? I haven't heard why they are dropping like this. Maybe i haven't been keeping up on my news and thats why I dont know and if so i should start watching the news. I would like to know why they are so low and if they are going to stay low. I just figured that they dropped prices so we would start using more gas again and then they would just raise the prices way up next spring and really get us. Well whatever it is i sure hope they stay low.

Ski season

It seems like everyone likes to go skiing or snow boarding. Well then everyone should be happy that the ski runs are starting to open and that we have gotten a little bit of snow. I love this time of year for tons of reasons but i have never acctually gone skiing or snowboarding. Everyone always thinks that is so weird when they hear it, especially when they learn that i have lived around great places to ski all my life. My home is only about forty five minutes away from Telluride and i have lived there my whole life. Maybe i am weird but thats ok I will leave the skiing and snowboarding to everyone else. I have plenty of other great things to do. Happy skiing everyone.

New in amerca

That short clip that we saw today in class was pretty eye catching. It is neat that a Fort Lewis graduate made it but what caught my attention was that the people that were being interviewed were all people from other countries that have been exposed to the major news stations that we listen to every day and they all had very bad things to say. They said that there was no real news and that very little important stuff was acctually talked about. They also said that we were not really aware of it because we had no other news to listen to for us to get the big picture. We are all being brain washed is what he is kinda saying. I think that it was going a little too far but it is scary to think about though anyway.

Thanksgiving is in sight.

Im getting excited for thanksgiving break. Since school has started there hasnt been a single day off and i am more than ready. Thanksgiving is great anyway. I love this time of year. If you are far from home though this year because of school then it might be hard to find a place to stay. The college is closing the dorms up for the break. That means if you dont have an appartment or something else on campus you have to leave and live somewhere else. That is no problem for me but i can see how it could be for some people. It should be no big problem though.

Advertising in our daily lives

I just read chapter twelve and it is about advertising. I didnt know that advertising is such a huge industry. I guess i didnt ever really think about it. I am so used to seeing advertisements now that they are sometimes part of everyday life and i start blocking them out and forgeting about them. When you do think about it though you realize pretty fast why it is such a huge industry. It is almost impossible to get away from ads now days. If you live in a city or own a television or radio you will see and hear hundreds of adds every day. It seems like half the television programming these days is commercials and advertisements. Ads are on everything we buy and look at. They are everywhere and sometimes it can get pretty annoying. Oh well I guess we have to put up with it for now, i mean if i wanted to sell a product that i made i would advertise it too.

My voting experience

Tuesdays election went pretty smoothly for me. It was the first time i had voted and i was kinda nervous because i wasnt sure what all was involved and how hard it would be. It turned out to be very straight forward and i got it done pretty easily. I started out going over to the Concert hall at about nine that morning and i couldnt find the right door so i thought that it wasnt open yet. I went back to eat breakfast and found a sign that said it would be open from seven to seven so i went back and finally found the right entrance. When i got in there was a small line. I only had to wait about five or six minutes. They told me to turn off my cell phone and show a picture ID. I said that i wanted to vote with a paper ballot and that was it. They gave me the ballot and I filled it out in a quiet place where i had some privacy. Everyone was nice and it all went smoothly. What really helped me was talking to my mom the night before. She helped me understand all the new ammendments and everything that i would be voting for and just helped out all around. The election didnt turn out how i wanted but oh well, at least my first voting experience was ok.

Halloween!:)

Its already Halloween! I love this time of year. Its turning cold and all the trees are turning colors and the best part is that it is hunting season. Im going home this weekend and i can't wait. I just wish that we got friday off or something for Halloween. Oh well it will still be great. Is anyone else gonna go around and try to get some free candy?
Happy Halloween everyone.

Reaction to hit and run last weekend

I thought that Miss Sotosky captured some really good footage last weekend at the presidential rally here in Durango. I cant believe that she was shooting those people right as the SUV hit them. After the discussion though and watching the film, i don't think that the accident was intentional at all. Even though the driver was on opposite sides, regarding the presidential campaign, of the victims she was just a high school student and was probably not angry at anyone. The sun was in her eyes and there were people everywhere in the streets. It was a total accident. I can see how someone could really distort the report if they wanted to and say that the rally ended in violence or something like that but i don't believe thats what happened at all.

Just a reminder

I thought that i would use one of my blogs to remind everyone to be careful when you are out partying. Don't drink and drive, it is not worth it. I am saying this because last weekend there was a car accident in my home town. All three kids that were in it were kids that i had gone to school with and two of them were in my graduating class. One of them was killed and the other two were seriously injured. They were coming back from a party and they were drunk. It was not worth it driving home that night. Everyone needs to be careful for your safety and for the safety of other drivers.

Advergames!

I used to play this game all the time when i was little. I never really wondered why i was a piece of Chex cereal in the game but when we learned about advergames in class yesterday i realized that this was just that. You used to be able to get this game by sending in box tops to chex cereal boxes and stuff like that. It was just a game to help advertise their cereal. It probably worked good because it was a pretty fun game and i bet a ton of kids played it over and over again just like i did. I just thought this was a great example of an advergame that i actually have played.

MySpace

I also have some comments on the group presentation about MySpace. I Don't have a MySpace account so i found the presentation to be very helpful and it gave me lots of information. I still dont like the sites like MySpace and facebook though. Theres nothing really wrong with it or anything and it can be fun, i have got on and messed around on it with my girlfriend on her account with her and it does allow you to meet new people but only through a picture and some blogs. I guess thats just not how i am. I dont really even like the blogging that i am doing right now. i think that you do lose a lot when you are just sitting in your room all day in front of the computer and talking to people that way. Your still sitting there alone. And i dont really like having a ton of people sort of know me, i like having a few friends that i can truly call my best friends. Whether that is family members or whatever. People are relying on computers too much.

Enzyte

In Class today the presentation that i found the most interesting was the group that did their presentation on Enzyte which is that male enhancement pill that you see on commercials all the time. They had a lot of interesting information on why it was such a hit. First of all they said that when they looked at the ingredients it wasnt that special. It was very similar to the ingredients found in most energy drinks. There was nothing that it really did except maybe help increase blood flow in the body. Also, there was a lawsuit that came up because the makers of enzyte were releasing false information about the benefits of their product, but after having a lawsuit against them and having a product that doesn't really do anything, Enzyte is still making tons of money. The group presenting credited that to the great advertising. It is kinda funny and catches you attention right away. That has made it so almost everyone remembers the product and knows what you are talking about if you mention it to them. It also makes sure that everyone know that it is all natural and has no big side effects. I guess that makes for a pretty good advertising scheme and seems to be working great for Enzyte.

Army vs. McCarthy case in our reading

This week we read the chapter in our book about television and cable. When they talked about how television can send a message to a huge audience and influence them, it brought up senator McCarthy and the case the army eventually had against him. In class we watched a movie about it. I really liked it. It told how television and the news stations were the ones who ended up making people realize that senator McCarthy was way outa line. He had been accusing tons of people of being affiliated with the communist party. Lots of people were being sentenced off of very weak evidence and even off of what their close family or friends were like. One news station decided to fight him and that is what the movie was about. It really showed how in real life the power of television as a mass medium can change and influence peoples oppinions. It was a good movie and i enjoy watching that kind of stuff in the classroom.

Presidential debates

This morning i was listening to the news on the radio and they were talking about the presidential debates that went on last night. I didn't actually watch the debates but the news said that the main topic was our economy. Thats no big surprise right now with all the stuff thats going on with the bank bail outs and all. What was interesting to me was when they started interviewing people that watched. Many of them still didnt know who the were gonna vote for. It was very interesting what some of them said. A few people described the candidates as being kind of childish. They said that there was name calling and pointing of fingers. I think thats kind of funny. I can understand that at times they can get mad at each other because they have different oppinions about different things and they are trying to get their point across, but if it was that noticeable then maybe they were being a little too childish. Or that could mean that it was just a very good debate. Either way it is pretty interesting.

Scare tactics in the media.

In our classroom conversation today we were talking about how people got so cared when the radio play the war of the worlds was aired. That topic brought up a discussion about how scare tactics are used in media to catch our attention and keep us listening. What came to my mind was the terror alert system that was on major news stations like Fox for ever after the 9/11 attacks. They always cared me to death. Every day they would say that the terror alert was severe today. It always seemed to be either high or severe. Every day then i would think that they had a good reason to say that and i would be sure that we were gonna get attacked again. It got pretty rediculous. I remember hearing on the news that people were starting to get tired of always having a high terror alert. It was always the same and it was scary. But after a year or two of that something needed to be done. That is a good example of a scare tactic that the news stations used to keep people watching.

Reaction to movie rating system

That video about how movies are rated taught me a lot. For one thing, i never knew that there was an independent board of unannounced members that rates the movies. It was interesting to learn how they actually rated them too, like counting the number of swear words and thrusts in sex scenes. A lot of it did seem unfair, such as how much harshly sex scenes are rated compared to scenes of violence, but i agree that there should be some kind of rating system. It comes in very handy. I dont think that the members need to remain so anonymous though. So, in all i think there could be improvements but that movie ratings are very important.

The Dark Night

I havent seen this movie yet but everything that i have heard about it is awesome. All the commercials and ratings say that the acting was fantastic, especially with Heith Ledger's role as the joker. Its supposed to be a great movie, and it is extra long so that makes it even better if it is as great as everyone says it is. I cant wait to see it.

The shooting that happened yesterday

I havent actually looked it up but yesterday in class we got on the subject of the shooting that happened over in Europe. They said that a man went and shot like nine people and then shot himself. He later died in the hospital from the wound. That is too bad. The worst part is that it will probably have concequences even over here. Hopefully they dont try to just make more gun laws here. Gun laws arent gonna stop violence so why should all the responsible people have to be punished for one stupid one.

The future of magazines

What will the future of magazines be? A few magazines such as Slate are all online now. I personally hope that magazines dont end up all online. I think it is much more enjoyable to acctually have a magazine in your hand. I am not the kind of person who likes sitting in front of the computer all day and that is what you would have to do if everything you read was online. I, for one, think that not everything should be online.

Scary future

I thought that the parts of this movie that we watched in class really helped prove a point. Even though it was really over dramatized from the real world it was a good example for showing that we need to fight the banning of books. It is no where near that bad in real life but there are books that people want banned. Some have better reasons than others but everyone should always be wary of how far it might be taken. Free speech is very important and we need to protect it.

Reaction to chapter three

This chapter was all about how books are a part of the mass media and that they are a great way to get very good information on about everything you need. Lately though, since the internet and other reasons, fewer people seem to be using this valuable resource. The book brought up a neat issue though. The Harry Potter novels. Since these have come out there has shown to be an increase in younger people reading more books. And not just the Harry Potter books themselves, but there seemed to be an increase in kids checking out more books in general in libraries. Some sources in the book thought that the Harry Potter novels helped to revive books in the younger generation. I have read some of the books and i loved them too.

Ok that link didnt work

Ill try it again you can go to this site and look at it. Like i said, it is pretty interesting. I had no idea that people watch that much tv.

Im going to try to link a site to my blog.

I was working on my mass media paper and found an internet site that had some statistics on how much TV people watch. It's pretty amazing how much we do watch. You should go look at the site it might make you decide not to watch as much TV. The tv is still by far the most widely used form of mass media that we use.

Readings on chapter one

I thought that chapter one in our textbook had a lot of interesting information. The part that I most enjoyed reading about was the history of written language. The book explained how writing started out as very complicated diagrams that stood for some object or idea. It was very complicated and difficult to read and write so only a select few people could read or write. As time passed though, symbols started being used that stood for sounds and when they were put together they made words. That was the beginning of the written language we have today. It was very interesting.

Hello class!

My name is Trevor and this is my first blog ever. I didn't have much trouble figuring it out so i think everyone else can too. If I can do it then so can you.