Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Soundtrack to my life

An older song that I absolutely love to hear is "Delta Dawn" by Tanya Tucker. This may not be the soundtrack of MY life, but it definitely has an important part in my life. This song is my grandpa's favorite song in the entire world, so hearing it always makes me smile and reminds me of him. It's such an old song that I probably wouldn't really know it if it wasn't for him. Every time I get the chance to see him (like once a year), he belts it out with his horrible voice or makes my sister sing it for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRYMiitmho

Another song that came to mind when I started thinking about this assignment was "Dreamer" by Chris Brown. It's inspiring enough just to listen to, but every time I hear it, I instantly think about volleyball. Volleyball has been a huge part of my life and my senior year of high school, my whole team sang this song in the locker room together before our game. It ended up being our last game, which was a very sad night for me. Hearing this song just reminds me of how much I loved volleyball and  how close I was to my team and coaches. I think it also makes me want to work harder, since the game ended with a loss and we didn't make it to sectional finals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAFtcYa3PDU

"So Small" - Carrie Underwood. I just love Carrie Underwood in general, but this song is one of my favorites. I think the message is important and perfect for my life because I feel I let the little things get the best of me when really there are more important things going on in life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEQj6RrQbgA&feature=artistob&playnext=1&list=TLT8S3YdoCG2M

"Mrs. Steven Rudy" - Mark McGuinn. This song is kind of stupid, but it is one of my favorites because it reminds me of my mom. We used to sing to this is our car rides picking up my sister from her rehearsal for the plays she did as a kid. We always got excited to hear it on the radio and to this day, if it ever randomly plays, my mom will instantly text me or I'll text her. It's just one of those that makes me so excited to hear because of her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIjjhVWvguQ

I really enjoyed doing this assignment; I think I could have went on and on!

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I used MadCat to search 'pet therapy'. I got a number of results and found one that wasn't checked out in the Social Work Library. I was kind of excited to see where this was because I had never even heard of it. It is located off of Linden behind a few buildings. I found the entrance in a back parking lot with the help of a lady who was luckily there to show me the way. The library was very small and the book was much easier to find than the library itself. I found the book right away because it was located right next to the stairs I had to take to get down to the library. It was really interesting to see a library other than the big ones that I usually go to.

The book I checked out is called Pets in Therapy. It was written in 1997 by Margaret N. Abdill and Denise Juppe. The book looks very helpful and filled with good information for my research paper. It includes a variety of animals, so there will be a lot of information I can get from it. The books surrounding it weren't related to this book much at all. One was about nurses and therapy. The other was just about social work in general.

Call number: RM931 A65 P485

Abdill, Margaret N. Juppe, Denise. Pets in Therapy. Ravensdale, WA: Idyll Arbor, Inc., 1997.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Advertisement

One of my favorite advertisements on TV is the Doritos commercial that was shown during the Super Bowl. It shows a guy in an office finishing up a bag of Doritos and another guy comes right up next to him and asks if he is going to finish them. When the guy eating the chips says no they're already gone, the other guy grabs his hand and starts licking the cheese off his fingers, claiming that is the best part. It shows another guy in the office also finishing up a bag of Doritos and wipes his hand on his work pants, getting the cheese on his pants. The same guy who licked the fingers also rips off his coworkers pants with the cheese on them. After getting a good sniff of the cheese, it ends with the guy yelling "DORITOS!", showing how amazingly good they must taste.

I laugh every time I see this commercial because it is so ridiculous. Although it would probably never actually happen, the message they're showing is in any place, Doritos are just that good that you even have to lick the cheese off of your fingers. This would fit into the physiological need for food. Plus, it adds humor, making it that much more appealing to watch.

Doritos Finger Licker Pants Sniffer

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Research Question

How effective is pet therapy?

This question really interests me ever since I came to college and see signs in my dorm about dogs coming to visit the students as a way to relieve our stress. Having pets, I am curious as to how the relationships between humans and their pets impact the person. I do not know much about this except for what I have heard, so I think researching something like this will keep me interested in learning more about it and finding in depth research on pet therapy. I also love animals and see myself doing something for them in my future, so having the chance now to pick a topic to research, I thought this would be best.

I really want to study if pets really do help with stress or anxiety. I want to find how effective pet therapy is on patients in hospitals, students, etc. I also want to research a little about the importance of the relationships people have with their animals and how the relationships effect them, whether positive or negative. I hope to find good information on the topic. I might have to narrow my ideas down a bit, but that is the question I want to start with.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Something Borrowed

Malcolm Gladwell brings up different viewpoints on the idea of plagiarism in his piece "Something Borrowed". He uses different examples to create questions on plagiarism and if in some cases, what was taken can really be considered plagiarism. Gladwell talks a lot about the situation of Dorothy Lewis and the playwriter Byrony Lavery. Lewis believed her life was stolen for Lavery's play "Frozen". It is true that Lavery used much of Gladwell's interview of Lewis to write part of her play, but Gladwell questions if this is really plagiarism. One good point he brings up is that parts of his exact sentences that Lavery used could have easily come from a previous piece and how can he really be upset by another person using these sentences. Gladwell says "I could also simply acknowlege that I had a good, long ride with that line-and let it go". Gladwell also talks about the composition of songs and what can be considered plagiarism. Writing and songs are much different in the laws of plagiarism. He says how much is copied is what is most important in songs, compared to what is actually copied.

I really enjoyed this piece of writing. At first, it seemed boring, but I found it interesting once I heard most of his points. It developed my knowledge and understanding on plagiarism. I found that using specific examples, like the play "Frozen", helped get his points across very effectively.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Racism

I believe in the piece "Racism", author Ayn Rand is trying to explain how racism seems to never end or go away and how it pertains to many different aspects of a person, including their background, character, and attitude. She explains different views of racism and how it is negative however you look at it. Rand talks about how individuals are immediately judged by their race and how racism is used to gain self-esteem. It is compared to collectivism and according to Rand, racism has risen and fallen with collectivism. Capitalism and individualism are concepts that counteract racism and she gave good explanations as to how. When talking about the "civil rights" bill, Rand is not too thrilled because she thinks the bill is also an act of racism. It is a violation of individual rights; the government does not have the right to "discriminate for some citizens at the expense of others".

I would have never looked at the civil rights bill in a negative way like Rand did. She put a whole new twist on this bill that I would have never picked out; I thought it was one of the most interesting parts of this piece. The whole piece showed a lot of anger, which is understandable considering she was talking about racism. Rand does have good points, such as talking about the collective racial guilt; but she also did not see any of the good in the civil rights bill or give an alternative to fix this problem.