Homework for the 22

The vast amounts of information that we possess and can posses are limitless because we live in a society in which technology is the center. There is a video on YouTube that is called “Did You Know?” that talks about out the exponential growth of the world. In this video it gives examples of how in the future the top 10 jobs were not real jobs until 2004, and how students are being taught subjects to solve problems that are not problems in the world yet. This is proof that with the exponential growth of the world needs technology. When we think of technology, a lot of us think about cell phones and the internet, which are excellent ways to keep up with the news and learn things that would take long amounts of time to learn. Because of the fast pace world that we live in technology helps us do things faster and more efficiently and we all need technology to live i.e. the internet. In the video it also says that there are 3.1 billion searches on Google every month, and from the year 1992-2008 the number of internet devices went from 1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000. This means that everyone wants a computer in their houses therefore meaning that people are choosing technology over everything else. Technology is replacing books, but despite how people feel that the internet is better, people who have books in their houses are much better off than people who only use “technology.” Link to video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nteiqLgZFOU&feature=fvst)

Most will say that there is no way that books can replace computers and the power of the internet; like the You Tube video at the rate technology is growing, by the year 2049, a $1000 computer will exceed the computational capabilities of the entire human species. These facts and numbers may be true, but having books in a house would more beneficial that having a computer and/or cell phone with internet capabilities, because information is good, but knowledge is better. When people Google search, they get short snip bits of information, for example if someone were to type in Pythagorean theorem, the top result would be Wikipedia saying a^2+b^2=c^2 and not very much more than that and how to use it. This is helpful, but it is much better to know that the Pythagorean Theorem can be used not just in geometry, but in calculus and trigonometry. By looking that information up on a computer, one would probably not understand that the Pythagorean Theorem can be applied to the trigonometric property of sin^2x+cos^2x=1. This is when a book would be more helpful than a computer because a book would give examples and explain the relationship between functions and equations.

Roommates!

The first semester of college, I hung out with my roommates/suite mates all the time and I still do, the only problem is that I sense some “bad blood” and quite frankly, I am getting fed up with a few things.  I have decided to room with my friend who lives across the hall, and also with the same suite mates that I have now, and I do not know how it is going to work out.  This semester has been a very stressful semester.  All the homework assignments and the tests just seem to never stop coming and I think that everyone needs a break.  I am wondering if this is what is making the dorm life a little different this semester.  I am a pretty passive person and I tend to let a lot of things slide, and I think that I am a pretty reasonable person, but it seems I have been getting a little more vocal when expressing things to my roommates/suite mates.  This might be a cause to some of the problems, and I really do not know if rooming with them is such a good idea anymore.  I really want to get everything out in the open so everyone in my room knows where they all stand so it will be possible to continue to live peacefully.  The only problem is that I don’t really know what to do because I normally do not like to speak about topics like this.  I mean who wants to tell people there problems with each other?  I know a lot of people first semester had roommate/suitemate problems, and I was wondering what some possibilities would be.  Should I continue to let things slide, or should I start to call out people on certain undesirable things, or is there a better way to go about this whole little predicament?

Comment

I just commented on a post that EAF did which was on whether or not weed should be legalized or not. The blog title was called argument, and i basically said that i do not really have a strong point of view on the subject because i can see both sides of the picture. i think that if somebody really tried to convince me that it was good or bad, i might take a view point, but as a third party i was not really able to take a stand.

The Last House on The Left

Over the break, I saw what I thought to be a truly creative movie called “The Last House on the Left.” It was about a girl and her family going to a lake house for vacation. When the girl goes into town, she meets up with a friend and the two girls meet a young boy who is the son of a murderer family. The two girls go with the boy to smoke weed, and then the family comes back and does not know what to do with the two girls being afraid that the girls might talk to the police, so the family takes the girls to the forest, kills one of the girls, and rapes the other leaving her for dead in a lake when she tries to escape by swimming to her lake house. The family does not realize that a storm has come in stranding them in the forest. The family comes to a house where they find a nice couple who graciously take them in and let them stay in the guest home. Little does both families realize is that the family that took the family of criminals in, was the family of the daughter. The movie then becomes a series of gore and killing as the family get vengeance on the criminals. Luckily the daughter finds the strength to make it back to the lake house and she lives. I was very entertained with this movie, but after, I came to a realization. Why was I entertained? Instead I should have been sick to my stomach with all of the blood and guts that were flying around, I mean a guy dies with his hand in a dish washer disposal and a hammer in his head. Also a girl gets raped, and the main criminal’s head explodes because the father sticks him in a microwave. I mean some of this stuff is sick stuff, but it is weird how the media has made things so blown out of proportion, that this stuff becomes cool. Is there a problem with the way the media makes us think, or do we come to some sort of realization that things shown in the media are so fake, that it becomes entertaining because we know that if given the chance we would do some of the same things?

Southern Millionaires

I like to buy nice things for myself, for example; I like to buy hats, and slippers (flip-flops), but when I say I like to buy nice things, it is certainly different from a lot of students at SMU when they say that they like to buy nice things.  I understand that people like to spend money on brand name merchandise, but what I do not understand is how people at SMU can buy so much.  It would be different, if students were buying nice things with their own money, or buying in small reasonable amounts, but I can almost guarantee that most students are buying expensive over the top things, with their parent’s hard earned cash.  I do not dislike the people who have money, or people who like to shop, but I do not like the fact that people with money show it off, and just flaunt around campus with the newest toys.  To me it gives the impression arrogance.  Sometimes is feel that people think that because their parents have money, they have money as well and are better than those who may have to work for things.  Really does a college student really need a car that costs more than 70,000 dollars, or go on shopping sprees every other weekend?  I feel that some people feel that because their parents worked hard, that they deserve everything in life.  I think that some people should be a little more gracious and understand that spending money to buy things is a lot different than earning the money to buy things.  People here I think spend too much money worrying on how people will perceive them, so they spend ridiculous amounts of money to buy things so people will view them in a certain way.  I am not saying this is for everyone, but for a nice handful of students.

I commented on the post Good Day.....Bad Day.

H2O Flow

For the Past couple of weeks, my floor has been struggling with our water.  As most of us have figured out, the water pressure on our faucets are a lot lower, or they seem to be at least.  This is all due to “the environmental” direction our school wants to take.  The school has replaced all of our faucets with new low flow faucets, so now it seems like it takes twice as long to wash our hands, and really hard to wash our faces.  My floor was going to start a protest, and planned to leave all or our sinks running for 24 hours, but we used our better judgment and decided not to.  I feel that all of our “saved” water is going to water all the new plants that our school put in right in front of the three dorms Cockerel, Morison, and McElvaney.  Is the school really focused on saving water, or did it just need to take our water to water the plants?

Even though I understand making the school more beautiful, I don’t really understand why the school’s main focus at this point seems to be water!  50,000 dollars and they are worried about water?  Really?  I am going into environmental engineering, so most would think that I am down for this cut backs in water, but in reality things that have been so easy have been just now an inconvenience.  Washing my hands takes twice as long, washing off my tooth brush is irritating, and washing my face just pisses me off.  If everything takes twice as long, I would like to propose an experiment offered by my roommate.

Carry a stop with you, and every time you turn on the sink or use the sink, turn the stop watch on and turn it off when done using the sink.  Do this and record the time it takes to do what once took relatively fast.  Then time how long it takes to wash your hands or do things in a regular sink.  Compare the times together, and then let me know your results.  If everything works out like I think it will, by putting in new low flow faucets, the school is actually using a little more water than by using a regular flow.