Just Another (Short) Political Rant

So...if people who claim to be Republican read and listen to the news we read/hear, the ACTUAL TRANSCRIPTS AND WORDS THAT COME OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY...not just in "libtard" news, but on all channels, all over the internet, in YouTube videos and interviews (we consume too much political content. It's no longer healthy)...to HEAR what these people say...they are so grossly unAmerican. Yet they are championed.

You have to be kidding thinking any of the thought processes of these people are healthy. The majority of the [GOP] government party is comprised of hateful horrible selfish people.

There needs to be something better than any of the options...because while Republicans/The Tea Party are just batshit crazy...the Democratic party...who are the Democratic party...

This country is destined to be the next fallen empire. Following in the footsteps of history, too ignorant to have learned, too ignorant to recognize; the people are too stubborn, too scared, too indifferent, to get out of the mess.

It's a persistent festering problem.

The government is not necessarily to blame. The people definitely are.

Stop being selfish, start caring for each other. Move past the bigotry, move past the religious posturing; stop being afraid of change.
Elect better people.
Your country depends on it.

Photography Alterations (In Magazines): Homework Highlight #4

This critical thinking assignment was about how magazines use Photoshop, and other photo editing tools, to change pictures, and whether or not there is a time when it is appropriate.

These may seem like soft subjects to you, but as a (Mass) Communications major, these types of things are at the foundation of media ethics.

Here we go...

"The altering of photographs is very disturbing; especially with the great lengths they go to these days. It would be much better if the photographers learned how to use light and shadow, and other photography techniques, in lieu of blatant trickery. 

You know, learn to be a professional photographer. 

I find it particularly disgusting that they take already attractive people and turn them into something society holds up as a standard people try to attain; when in fact nobody can look like that, because if they could the photographers and magazines would not need the extensive airbrushing and manipulation techniques they use. 

 

I think, in this society, it’s pretty well known by the majority of adults that all magazine content is airbrushed to some extent. I don’t, however, think that children of a certain age understand it, and when they see those covers while standing in the line at the grocery store at very impressionable ages they are indoctrinated with a warped idea of what they think society believes is beauty. I find it rather tragic.  

 

Sometimes alteration of photos may be appropriate if they are trying to remove something from it that wasn't supposed to be there (maybe a dog “photo-bombed” an otherwise perfect shot.), which seems unlikely in this digital age, because you would know it immediately and re-take the shot. (in the case of professional photo shoots), or if they are trying to make a statement. 

However, if the photos are manipulated too extensively, other than just changing the light of the overall photo, or perhaps removing a blemish, then it should be stated somewhere in the photo credits. 

When altering of photos goes so far as adding things in that aren't there, or removing them, for the purpose of clear deception, I think there is a real problem, and it should be exposed. 

But then, I’m not even a supporter of adding and removing things from photos (like people, for example) and passing them off as legitimate original photos even in the most "innocent: of cases, which now can be done with just a smartphone app."

Not groundbreaking...but you should read the pap the other students write...
Literally two sentence answers saying that they have no opinion.
We're required to read and comment on at least two a week to even get our assignment graded...*jabs self in eye*

So far we have been heralded by students for having interesting content. *pats self on back*...so just because YOU don't think it's interesting...

A Saturday Night Rant

Recently we had a blog comment from someone who had an opinion about our mental "illness".

Based on nothing, making claims with nothing backing it up, this "troll" basically stated that because no money was being put into the research of our mental illness (a lie), that it was therefore illegitimate...and shouldn't we just "give it a rest"..."get over it"...

We deleted it. Because who needs to read that over and over.

Not us.

People struggle, from childhood-based post-traumatic stress disorder (which is what dissociative identity disorder is), to adult post traumatic stress, to bipolar disorder, to depression...and beyond.
How dare someone discount another person's life-long coping mechanism, another person's life experience, another person's mental health...because funding is not being put into its research.

We understand how illogical our condition is and seems; we also know that our real life experience with who we all are is real. It sucks. It's hard sometimes. Some days we want to die. But it is all we have ever known; without each other we would be dead many times over...we are our own safety net, full of holes, but still here.

Hey, asshole. DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) has no specific symptoms that can be cured by a pill, that there doesn't already exist one for. Money for research dedicated to the study of it is not freely given, because nobody can make money from it - only profits from some of the symptoms, which medications already exist for.
Or maybe you don't understand how Big Pharma works.

Don't fuck with how people cope with life. One in five Americans are diagnosed with a mental illness, and still, many go undiagnosed, sometimes because of the fear of people who make assumptions, based on nothing at all, just because they don't understand. Don't be that ignorant asshole who just wants to destroy the harmless inner-network of someone's life, just because you don't understand.

<end rant>

A Day In The Life Of A "Non-Traditional" Student: A Classroom Experience

("Non-traditional" is just a fun politically correct way Universities classify "older students" *gag*)

In a class today, where the discussion was racial stereotypes in the context of how history forms what we think and know, when asked what comes to mind when you hear the word "terrorism"...while our answer was "Timothy McVeigh"...many others' was "Osama Bin Laden"...and other such Middle Eastern references.

Few of the students had ever even heard of Timothy McVeigh...(what proceeded was a mini-lesson by the instructor)

That name is synonymous with the first time we can recall knowing terrorism was even a thing (April 1995), much like they equate Middle Eastern peoples with the same thing, for much the same reason, because of 9/11.

Despite the class being a college composition II class, the instructor (who is top on our list of favorites) has chosen the book Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Lowen (amazing!) to use as illustration in teaching the class how to write academic level essays.

There tends to be A LOT of discussion on the facts that history left out, why they were left out, who they were left out by, and what impact that has on today's society and ways of thinking, and the influence new knowledge has on prior knowledge.

Needless to say, as far as this class could go...it's right at the top of things most of us love to think and talk about. And class participation is kinda "our thing".

Back to the topic.

Today, sitting in that classroom with people who had so little life experience, comparatively, was a real-life experience of how even today, mere omissions in national conversations of recent historical events, omission of information, can completely alter ways of thinking.

These kids (ages 18-20) only know the things they do through the eyes of media, textbooks, and limited parental intervention. Primarily, in this case, they only understand terrorism as a USA vs. the "Middle East" issue. At the heart a racial issue.

Like issues with poverty, drugs and violence, much of reporting and teaching of history is framed in a racial context (but when was the last time you heard the rising problem with Meth, or Molly (MDMA/Ecstasy) being referred to as a "white problem") most people look at things through a lens of their own experiences and what they have been taught. But if they are taught a very limited view...how can they grow. How can they understand.

Today's experience was very visceral. If you ever have a chance to pick up the book, it's highly recommended. You'll probably hear about it again from us...there's currently a paper in mid-grading that discussed Lowen and his writing style...

(this topic deserves more...and we barely gave the book the credit it deserves...but it's late at night...and it's Friday...give us a break)

(Thanks for reading!)

The Case of the Curiously Bad Grade

Remember last Thursday when we lamented about how we got a bad grade on a test in the class we felt really confident in (material wise)?

We had a sit down with the T.A. (Graduate Teacher's Assistant - he co-teaches the class) after sending an e-mail immediately after getting the grade and requesting that we go over what we got wrong.

That sit-down happened today.

Turns out we only got 2 wrong out of 30 questions we answered.
There were 40 questions.

Somehow on the back of the second page there were 10 questions we missed, so the answers never made it to the "bubble sheet", so they counted as 10 wrong answers.

Yeah. That happened.

The nice thing though was the instructor said he had been equally as perplexed about the grade because "I" am one of the few who heavily participates in class, and, I guess, knows "the stuff".
Plus we write wicked assignment blogs.

So, the case of the curiously bad grade has been solved.
We're not as dumb as we thought we were after all...at least where atmospheric science/meteorology isn't involved...we're just bird-brained.