The Dry Box

Have you ever dropped your cell phone in water and had to spend money to replace it? People lose important information every day when a cell phone is accidentally dropped into water. Watching a video today really had me thinking why on earth did it take so long for this invention to be made to save these damaged cell phones? The Dry Box invented by a man named David Marchiori is used to save water damaged cell phones. It looks like a mini oven and takes only 30 minutes to completely dry out water damaged phones. Now many people have hear of the old myths of put you phones in a bag or bowl of rice or cat litter. But in reality that does not always work and it does not remove the water fast enough to save a phones from permanent damage. I cannot wait for more of these machines to be made and placed into convenient places for people to have access to when we have these incidents. I think that this invention was pure genius and hope to see it become a big success so that people can save money and important information that they have on their phones. The following link provides the video that I watched about this invention and I think it was really awesome!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwfeKb9LSg

Live Life and Pour a Soda in Your Car on Purpose!

I watched a video today for my online class Orientation to college and this specific video really inspired me. A man named Dr. Randy Pausch gives a lecture about life. He talks about his life and how he grew up. He also tells his story of how he is ill and has cancer and does not have long to live. This video really opened my eyes to how I should live my life. While watching it I realized that I take things like life for granted. Pausch in his lecture tells a story of how he had got a new car, and when he decided to watch his nephew one day he was not upset when the little boy got sick in the back seat. Before the young boy got sick in the car the boy saw his uncle pour a can of pop all over the back seat. He did this to show that the car was just a thing, it did not have much importance to him. So when the boy got sick he did not feel as guilty for getting sick in the car. I also thought of how I think of “things” to have much value in my life and I always want to treat it the best I can. I don’t think I would ever be able to dump a soda into my car purposely even after watching the video. I would be more caring and understanding that accidents happen and things can be cleaned up if accidents like a child getting sick does occur. I love how the speaker Dr. Randy Pausch says that his parents let him express his creativity in his room by painting the walls. I would have loved this as a child growing up because I always wanted to paint my own room. I like to live every day to its fullest and make sure that I make everything right if I make a mistake. I like how he stated that most people do not apologize properly, because even in my own home when someone makes a mistake they rarely ever apologizes correctly. They always just say the simple and almost meaningless words of “I’m sorry” and walk away. I personally cannot wait for his children to grow up so that they can watch and hear about their fathers lecture. It is truly inspirational and brilliant and he is a great idol to look up to on living a great life. If you would like to watch this amazing video please feel free to click the link below and watch.

Brianna H. 

Sexist Language and being Stereotypical 

While reading Chapter 19 in my English book Joining the Conversation I found my self agreeing many times with how some writers are sexist and stereotypical. Although it is not only writers are judgmental with sex's and stereotypes. Everyday people are judging others and categorizing others into groups depending on sex and race and many other factors. But when writing a paper or a piece of any style avoiding sexist language and stereotyping people will help your writing engage with more readers. I think in the past I have generally avoided using he/she adverbs and say more general terms that can represent both sex's. Maybe if more writers see that they are being this way, than they will try and change how they write , so that they too can connect with a larger audience.

Halloween Gone Forever? 

MSN.com had an article post today of how an elementary school in Pennsylvania has canceled the celebration of Halloween at school. 

The article reads: Put that Angry Birds costume back in the closet, kid, because Halloween is canceled. That's the word from one Pennsylvania elementary school, whose principal has taken Halloween off the calendar due to its "religious overtones." Orlando Taylor, the principal of Inglewood Elementary School in Towamencin Township, about 30 miles outside Philadelphia, sent a letter to parents telling them that "some holidays observed in the community that are considered by many to be secular (ex. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day) are viewed by others as having religious overtones." Because of this, Taylor has canned the school's Halloween parties, costumes and other celebrations. "It is understandable that academics must come first," one angry parent wrote. "However there should also be opportunities for students to have fun and get the chance to celebrate … American traditions as opposed to stripping them all away."  

I personally think that the school shouldn't cancel such holidays. Children should be entitled to celebrate and have fun on these american traditions. Makes me wonder if this school is going to be canceling more  holidays such as Easter or Christmas. Readers can also take a look at this post for them selves at the link below.
http://now.msn.com/inglewood-elementary-school-in-pennsylvania-cancels-halloween-due-to-religious-overtones

Is Bigger Better?

I recently read an article in my English text book. The article was titled " Living (and Dying) Large" by Ali Bizzul. The article discusses how many Americans think it is okay to be heavy and large to be a good football player.  The article states that many teenage males are wanting to eat as much as possible so that they can become noticed as a good football player. Their idols that they look up to are today's NFL players that weigh approximately between 290 Lbs and 300 Lbs. Little do people think about the consequences of being large for the sport. All the weight can cause heart disease and diabetes. It can cause also many body strains and injuries such as joint pain and back pain due to the excess weight your body has to carry. There is not really a good benefit in my opinion for being big for football, because you can not perform as well when players are over weight. I think that today's society needs to see that better football players are more than likely thinner and that it can benefit the performance if all players weighed much less.

I have read a small article in my English text book “Joining the Conversation" and the article was titled “Devices Enforce Silence of cellphones, Illegally.” This article was written by Matt Richtel on November 4^th of 2007. I thought that the author made some good arguments on why people should be able to use cell phone jammers, but he also argued how it can also be a bad thing.  After reading this article I would have to say that I personally think that cell phone jammers are really bad. There are also really good things that these devices can be used for as well if they are in the right hands. Matt explains how Gary a therapist uses a cell phone jammer because he didn't like the disruptions while other people were talking about their life. He felt that it was incredibly rude and hard for patients to open up if there were distractions from cell phones. I think that this was a particularly good reason and maybe they should only be used in places like this. The other reasons that I was thinking of were more on the negative side. Such as when or if we have an emergency and need to call for help. If people could use jammers then we cannot call for help when the time is of the essence in an emergency.  Therefore I think that there are the good and the bad reasons for why people should or shouldn't use cell phone jammers. I guess it all just depends on whether or not people can use them responsibly or if the devices are just not good at all.

Resources: Text Book – Joining the Conversation Writing in

College and Beyond. By: Mike Palmquist

Article read on pages 163-165 Chapter 6.

Hello everyone!

 Today I really just wanted to talk about how I feel I have been doing so far here at ICC. First off I am currently enrolled into 6 courses this semester; two of them are mini semesters. I attend Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's at ICC and I personally think I am doing a good job at keeping on top of things.  I am allowing myself plenty of time to work on homework assignments throughout the week, and I am completing them on time. I am in English 110, Sociology 110, and Chemistry 115 lectures that I attend all days that I have scheduled for the week. I also have a Chemistry 115 lab that I am in only on Wednesdays. I just had my first exam in Chemistry today and I feel that I did a really good job. I took the time to study every day of the prior week for at least 30 minutes. The night before the exam I studied for 2 hours reviewing notes and my text book. In my online course I am learning different ways that I can study for any class. First I had to complete a test to find out what kind of learner I am. When I completed that exercise I found that I am an active learner that learns mostly through experience and repetition. Useful examples to help me study included flash cards and rewriting all my notes for all classes. Rewriting my notes would help my brain remember the information more efficiently and at a more comfortable and relaxed state compared to the rushed state that I encounter in the actual lecture. By using these helpful study tips I felt more confident to take my exam. Hopefully I can continue to succeed and do my best in all my courses that I am enrolled in for the remainder of the semester. I also hope to learn more study tips for any other classes I may take in the future, or even for the ones that I am taking now.

Brianna Heartsfield