Birth Certificate

     President Barack Obama finally revealed his original birth certificate from Hawaii this week after his being born in the United States came back into question. This was a major issue four years again when he was running for President, but he was still elected. So why did he finally come forward with the certificate now? I know he will be running for reelection soon and he probably want to silence the issue, but why did he not do this four years ago when the issue first came to light. The whole thing just seems a little weird to me and I was just wondering if anyone else had an opinion on the subject.

Royal Wedding

     I understand that royal weddings do not happen all that often, but should it really be that big of a deal here in America? Yes, our country does have ties in our history with England and we have a good relationship with the country, but I doubt enough American's care. It was broadcast on almost every news station and they covered the entire wedding and talked about it all day Friday. I know that Channel 12 skipped showing the local news to make sure that they broadcast the entire wedding. Our country has its own problems and perhaps the news should focus on whats going on here in the United States, maybe looking at the hundreds of people who died in tornadoes all across the country this week, instead of spending all day talking about things that have no bearing on our country.

Shinto Blog (The Peach Orchard)

  

     The Peach Orchard is a section of Kurosawa’s film “Dreams”. In this section, a young boy follows a girl, which is actually a spirit of a peach tree. In Shinto everything is spiritual and there is continuity between humanity, nature, and spirits or gods. The spirit leads the boy to what used to be a peach tree orchard that his family cut down. The boy is then confronted by the spirits of the trees his family destroyed. 

     In Shinto, kami is the word for spirit or natural forces which is the basis for the Shinto faith. Not all nature is kami, it has to be something that is powerful or amazing. To this boy the peach orchard was kami, you can clearly see that it was powerful to him by his anger when he is speaking to the spirits.

     When conversing with the boy a peach tree spirits says, “The vanished trees are weeping in their sorrows.”  The peach trees had a spirit and they are upset about being cut down. This is evident because, as stated by Professor Rasnic in class, “The ancient Japanese did not divide matter and spirit. They believed they were inseparable.”  

     The boy tells the peach tree spirit, “I love this orchard and the peach trees which bloomed here, but they are not here anymore and that’s why I cried.” It even says he tried to stop them from cutting down the trees. This shows that the boy had a respect for peach trees that once grew in the orchard. This is why the peach trees in the orchard were kami to him, but they obviously were not to his parents.

     In Shinto worship the rights are categorized according to size of the festivals. There are large and medium festivals as well as a few other types and prayer. I’m assuming that this would be a harvest festival for peaches which would make this a large festival. One of the peach tree spirits asks the boy how they are going to celebrate “Doll Day”, which is for peach blossoms. It would be hard to celebrate the harvesting of peaches having cut all of the trees down. By the family still celebrating, it is part of the reason for the spirits’ anger.

Pittsburgh

     As I've stated on my blog numerous times before, I'm originally from Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh. Whenever I make the roughly six and a half drive, depending on how fast I drive, it seems like there is never enough time to do everything or see everyone while I'm back home. Since moving to Virginia about five years ago it seems that as each year passes, I make even less trips back home to see friends and family. However, when I do go back I always have a blast. There are just so many things to do that it makes Richmond look like a small town. You can go see professional sports (Pirates, Penguins, & Steelers), they have finally legalized gambling so there are multiple casinos, for you music lovers there are multiple concert venues, tons of amazing restaurants, and more bars then you will ever want to see for your people who like to get your drink on. So if you are ever in Pennsylvania I highly recommend that you take the time and visit Pittsburgh, be sure to stay long enough to enjoy all of the wonderful things the city has to offer.

Next Weeks NFL Draft

     Normally I would be excited about the upcoming National Football League (NFL) draft, but things are different this year. With the NFL on the verge of a lockout and the two sides no where near reaching an agreement, it has taken all of the excitement out of this event. Shortly after the draft teams start holding rookie  and voluntary  mini-camps which indicate the season is right around the corner, but teams have already canceled these normal practices because of the pending lockout. I surely hope that both sides can come to an agreement and the NFL season will go on as planned. If not its going to be a long fall for me and millions of other Americans who will be missing football. I may have to turn to watching college football  just to get my fix if the NFL season is canceled.

Taoism Blog RLS 311

     I feel that Benjamin Hoff did an excellent job of explaining Taoism in the book the Tao of Pooh. The book was able to explain Taoism by breaking it down into small, clearly defined bits of information. Most books discussing religious ideas provide large amounts of complex information to the reader, but they do not explain it or provide direct examples as does Hoff. Although I do not agree with all of the Taoist concepts, I at least have a clear understanding of them due to the information in this book.
     The Tao of Pooh refers to the American culture as Bisy Backsons, meaning that we are busy bodies who have to be on the go constantly. Its hard to argue against this description of the American lifestyle, but I do not totally agree with this classification. For example, I agree with the Taoist philosophy on time. "You cannot save time, You can only spend it," and it can be spent either foolishly or wisely (pg. 108). No matter what you do there are only 24 hours in a day, its all about how you choose to use it.
     However, I do not agree when they say, "Bisy Backson is always going somewhere, somewhere he hasn't been. Anywhere, but where he is (pg. 97). Yes there are some American's who are constantly going and going, but it is not all Americans. I know plenty of people who like to just sit back and relax when they get free time. My other issue with that statement is that you will find people like that in every culture so I believe that it's unfair to direct that statement towards only Americans.
     Alothough I agree with some of the principles of Taoism, I don't think it's the "solution" to the "problems" of Americans. To be honest, I don't even believe that there is a problem with the American culture. The concepts of Taoism come from Ancient Chinese culture which is nothing like the modern world that we live in today. The American culture as well as most Western cultures, are fast paced due largely impart to all the technological advancements of the 19th century. These technological advancements require us to live a fast paced lifestyle and nothing is going to change that.

It's that time of year again.......

     As the title says its that time of year again, what time of year is that you might ask? It's time to schedule for next semester, which for most of you freshmen here at VCU you will find is normally a stressful time. I'm a Health and Physical Exercise (HPEX) major and scheduling every semester is a struggle. I understand that it is not one of the biggest programs here at VCU, but they definitely need to add more sections to the classes that are also requirements for other majors as well.
     Due to the limited number of sections available it's almost certain that it will take you more than 4 years to get your Bachelor's  Degree. When I first arrived at VCU I thought perhaps it was because I was one of the last people scheduling, but as I have progressed into the program learned that its just difficult to get into the required classes. The majority of class that we are required to take only offer one section per semester and some of them only offer one section every other semester which makes it even harder to get into them. I'm not sure if the program has grown faster than  anticipated or if there is a shortage of professors, but this issue needs to be addressed.

So enjoy your scheduling, I know I'm having a blast!

Serena Williams

     I'm not much of a tennis fan, but I'm an all around sport junkie. Serena Williams is undoubtedly one of the best female tennis players of all-time with her 13 Grand Slam titles, but sometimes you just have to question her decision making. As you can see from the picture above she  decided to wear a skin tight pink body suit to practice in for her up coming event and this is in lieu of her recent Wii video game commercial being pulled from television because of her racy outfit. Don't get me wrong this woman definitely has a fit body, but some things just are not meant to be worn to play sports in or to be worn in public period. Leave the fashion to the experts and just do what you do better than any other woman in the world, play TENNIS!

Government Shutdown

     According to the Associated Press (AP) about 800,000 workers are bracing for the potential U.S. Government shutdown. If the government does in fact shutdown these people will be sent home from their jobs without a paycheck. I don't have the time or patience to go into great detail about why the two sides of the Federal Government cannot come to an agreement on the budget for the upcoming year. However, I did find something very interesting about this situation. If the government does in fact shutdown and force people to go home without a paycheck, the Republican and Democratic Congressmen who are causing this shutdown will continue to be payed as normal. I think it is crazy for the people who at the heart of the problem to continue to get payed while thousands of other Americans are forced to sit at home and not know when they would be able to return to work and start collecting a paycheck again.  

The Clarks

     Last Saturday night I went and saw a concert  at The State Theatre outside of Washington D.C. The headliner for the concert was The Clarks. I'm originally from outside of Pittsburgh, PA where the band is from so I have seen them perform on more than one occasion. The band was formed 25 years ago while attending IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) and has been putting on shows  ever since. They put on one hell of a show in front of a sold out crowd and they can still perform after 25 years. Being from around that area and listening to their music for years it never even occurred to me that a lot of people from this area have no clue who  The Clarks are, so if you don't check know out their music sometime you wont be disappointed.

Physical Education Bill

http://www.nbc12.com/story/14315880/mcdonnell-vetoes-unfunded-mandate-on-localities?redirected=true

     For those of you who don't know Governor Bob McDonnell recently vetoed a bill that would have required elementary and middle schools here in Virginia to have 150 minutes of physical education per week. Me being a Health and Physical Education major, I have a slight bias towards this topic so I was wondering how others felt related to this topic. I know some people do not have fond memories of physical education class while in elementary school or middle school, but with childhood obesity on the rise I thought that increasing physical education while in school could help this problem.
     I know that some people are going to say, in my school we did not do that much physical activity in physical education class. Given the fact that youth today would much rather sit around on the computer or play video games, any amount of physical activity is better than none at all. This sedentary lifestyle in addition to poor eating is the prime reason for childhood obesity. If children are not going to be active on their own, then requiring more physical activity in school appears to  be a valid solution. I believe their is only one reason that Governor  McDonnell rejected this bill and it is funding. Physical Education has no Standard of Learning testing, therefore it has no ties to the amount of Federal funding that Virginia schools are going to receive. This just shows that until the Federal Government puts a mandate on Physical Education, state funded public education is going to turn a blind eye to the growing problem.

Favorite Place to eat in Richmond

     My favorite restaurant in Richmond is Texas De Brazil. Its located on the west end outside or Regency mall. It is an expansive meal, but it is definitely worth your money. This is an all you can eat Brazilian buffet. I believe the entire buffet costs 49.99 per person or you can get just the salad bar for 29.99 (I only eat here when I have a coupon). You can register on the Texas De Brazil website and on your birthday and/or anniversary they email you a buy one get one free coupon.
    This restaurant has an extremely large salad bar featuring 50-60 items daily. The salad bar includes such items as shrimp, salmon, and sushi as well asthe various salad bar items and soups. In addition to the salad bar their are Gaucho's walking around serving about 10-12 different cuts of meat. These include flank steak, filet mignon (bacon wrapped and non), sirloin, different types of chicken, prime rib, leg of lamb, lamb chops, as well as sausages. If you are a carnivore you will love this restaurant, but it also has the best salad bar I have ever seen. So if you get some extra money sometime check out his restaurant, but I recommend you make reservations.

Two Wars is Enough

     With American troops still fighting in and dieing Afghanistan and no end in sight for our war in Iraq, I feel that putting more American troops into another battle overseas would be a terrible idea. I understand that whats going on in Libya is not humane and something needs to be done about it, but I feel the United States should let other nations intervene this time. The way that President Obama is talking about the need to get Muammar Gaddafi out of power reminds me all to much about what was being said about Saddam Hussein before the second Gulf War, in which we are still fighting.
     If we were to put troops in Libya I can foresee the exact same thing happening their that is currently happening in Iraq. American soldiers would end up getting stuck in a country that only wanted us their for one reason, to remove their ruler. Not to mention the fact that it would cost more American soldiers their lives. In addition, it would cost the United States Government more money. I feel that we are already investing a great deal of money in Iraq, when we have enough economic problems going on right here in the United States. I hope for the sake of this country that President Obama and Congress come to their senses and pull the American forces out of Libya before we end up with another Iraq on our hands.   

Romance/Sci-Fi Story

            It was Marie and Wayne’s wedding anniversary, so they decided to go and spend a romantic weekend at the beach. Their first day there was going great; the weather was perfect. So they spent most of the day lying out on the beach soaking up the sun while going in and out of the ocean. They were both tired from sitting in the sun all day, so they decided to go back to the hotel and rest a while before going out for dinner.

            Upon returning to their room, Marie and Wayne got carried away by the romantic setting in the hotel and beach and made love. The passionate love-making made both of them even more exhausted, so they easily dosed off to sleep. They were both so exhausted that they over slept and missed their dinner reservations. Then Marie thought it would be romantic for the two of them to take a picnic to the beach to watch the sunset.

            While Marie was getting ready for their beach dinner, Wayne went and picked up their food and a couple of bottles of wine from a local store. Once he returned, they went down to the beach for their picnic. They found a secluded spot on the beach, with a great view of the setting sun. They ate their dinner and drank the first bottle of wine, as they watched the sun set over the ocean. After the sun set, the temperature began to cool. Wayne put a blanket they brought along around their shoulders and they started on the second bottle of wine.

            Before they knew it, there was a light in the sky that was moving quickly in their direction. They watched as the object got closer and closer, and bigger and bigger! It was not long before a large circular object was hurling towards the beach, it seemed right towards them. The next thing they knew, there was a loud crash and the large object had crashed into the beach about 100 yards from where they were sitting.

            In fright, Marie quickly gathered all of their things so they could leave. Wayne, however, wanted to go and check out what landed on the beach. He talked Marie into going to check it out with him. When the two of them arrived at the site, they were not sure if it was some type of unidentified flying object or if it was some type of government plane. The circular plane was about the size of a Volkswagen beetle. As the two of them were inspecting the object, something on the side of the plane began to open up and out of the opening stepped a shadowy being.

            The shadowy figure began speaking directly to Wayne. “Wayne, you are the only living being that help the people of my planet. I need you to come back with me.”

            Wayne was curious, so he asked, “What is it that I can do to help your people?”

            The shadowy figure moved forward and showed herself. She was an attractive creature with a curvy figure; teal colored skin and long, flowing, and purple hair. She looked directly in Wayne’s eyes and said, “Why, you are the only remaining male human who survived after my people’s experiment on human’s in the late 1980s. Now, we need you to breed with other Czirxians for our kind to survive.”

            Well, Wayne thought this particular Czirxian was sexy, and forgot about Marie standing behind him on the beach. So, he got on the aircraft with her, leaving Marie behind, to go and procreate with the sexy Czirxians. As the flying object took off, Marie stood there in awe as she watched her husband fly away into the unknowns with a mysterious, unidentified creature.

Buddhism Blog Assignment #1

            This video clip I found at YouTube.com is a spoof of a Buddhist practitioner talking about meditation. In this clip, the lady talks about a pill called Narcophrenokenosisallogos, which will provide one with instant meditation. It will empty all of the thoughts from one’s mind so they can achieve instant enlightenment. This exemplifies the stereotype that people of Western civilization think a pill can cure or fix anything.

            This stereotype is definitely a negative and has lead to many problems in our society. Many people think that they can do whatever they want now and use pills to fix whatever issues accompany these choices as a result of their decisions. For example, if you decide to eat fast food every day, there is a pill that will help you lose weight. Or, if you need to stay up all night and study for an exam, you can just take a pill that will make you not be tired anymore. Not only do most of these pills not do what they claim to, like the pill in the video, but some do more harm to our bodies than good.

            In the video, Narcophrenokenosisallogos has side effects that include internal bleeding, cancer, AIDS, and/or explosive diarrhea; and that’s just to name a few of them. Yes, this is a fictional pill, but the real pills that people are taking to treat one disease or ailment sometimes come with multiple side effects. Sometimes these side effects can be worse than what they are actually taking the pill to treat. As for how this relates to Brad Warner and “Zen Wrapped in Karma Dipped In Chocolate”, when he found Buddhism, he was actually looking for answers in his life related to the fact that he could die a horrible early death due to Huntington’s disease (page 4).

            Early on in the book Warner makes reference to many other forms of Buddhism and he says, “Ain’t no such thing as instant enlightenment” (page 13). Yet this pill Narcophrenokenosisallogos claims that by taking it one can achieve instant enlightenment. All you have to do is take one of their pills every 15 minutes to clear your mind. Warner also says, “No miracle drug. No miracle process. Nothing. Imagining you could get enlightenment quickly would be like imagining you could do 15 minutes of sit-ups and get a bod like one of the chicks from America’s Top Model” (page 28). We have learned that one cannot reach liberation in this manner; it’s a process that that can take life times to achieve.

            Warner also makes reference to a Buddhism movement in America that brought back an idea of taking psychedelic drugs. They claimed that taking a dose of the drug could achieve what Buddhists spent years trying to achieve (page 26). This is once again another example of how Western Culture believes that drugs (i.e. a pill) can help a person cure or achieve anything. Warner disagrees with these movements and even says, “Buddhism in America sounded like a complete catastrophe” (pg. 26). Warner is by no means your stereotypical Zen Buddhist and he is a firm believer that all of those instant or rapid approaches to enlightenment are nothing more than a rip off. 

NFL Labor Talks

     Talks between the National Football League (NFL) owners and players are still going trying to reach an agreement, so there will not be a strike next season. As the previous labor agreement came to an end the two sides were able to come to an agreement on one thing, that was to extend the previous agreement by 24 hours. Lets get real though if they were unable to come to an agreement over the past few months what makes them think that 24 hours is going to help? I don't think that it is going to help, but what do I know I'm just a football fan. I'm one of the people that will actually be affected by an NFL strike. Not the millionaire or billionaire owner's of the teams or the players that make millions of dollars each year.
     The fans are the people who make the billion dollar business of the NFL possible and without us, the players would not have jobs and the owners would not be making billions of dollars every year. The major issue for both the players and the owners is money, whether they want to admit it or not. The players want a bigger slice of the pie and the owners don't want to share any of the money that they are racking in. Yes their are a few other issues, but everything stems back to the money.
     For us die hard sports fans if you think back to a few years ago when Major League Baseball (MLB) decided they would strike due to similar reasons. They lost many fans and at the same time the league and players lost money. It would be smart for both sides to come to an agreement so they can avoid the same mistake that MLB made, it took years for them to get their fan base back and they are still trying to fully recover from that mistake. Only time will tell if the owners and the players will wise up and come to an agreement or if they are willing to chance losing all that money next year.

"Duty, Honor, Country"

     This may not be the best speech ever given, but this is definitely a good speech. I choose this speech because I figured that most of the class would choose the most popular famous speeches and I wanted to be different. 

     This speech was given by General Douglas MacArthur as he is accepting the Thayer Award at West Point University. This award is given every year an outstanding citizen whose service and accomplishments in the national interest exhibit the Academy's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country." General MacArthur goes on to say "Duty, Honor, Country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points: to build courage when courage seems to fail; to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith; to create hope when hope becomes forlorn." He goes on to talk about how duty and honor molds the soldiers, makes then strong and proud, and gives them the courage they need in the face of danger. This speech would be a motivational speech to anyone who is serving or has served in the military. He also talks about the struggles and dangers of being a soldier and I believe the purpose of this is to let public know that young men are risking their lives to give us the Freedom and liberties that many of us Americans take for granted. This speech both motives and informs, this is why I feel its a good speech.

Dialogue Story

“Hey Mark, Where you been? I have not seen you in over a week.”

“Man after that party last weekend I got arrested.”

“Arrested, what the hell did you get arrested for?”

“When I was walking home last weekend, I heard a crash and a woman screaming coming from              
 a house.”

“So what did you do?”

“Well naturally I ran towards the house to what was happening. By the time I got to the house where all the    noise was coming from all I could see was a person in dark cloths running down the street and the door to the house hanging wide open.”

“Man that’s crazy.”

“That’s not even the worst part, since the door was hanging wide open I yelled into the house to see if everyone was alright, but no one answered.”

“Dude, please don’t tell me you went into that house.”

“Unfortunately I did and the next thing I remember is waking up on the floor and being surrounded by cops.”

“What the heck happened when you went into the house? I’m guessing the homeowner must have thought you were the burglar. “

“Yes she did after I walked into the house she hit me upside the head with a baseball bat.”

“That must have hurt like hell.”

“It did believe me; look at this lump on the back of my head.”

“Damn, so how did you convince the cops you were not the burglar?”

“Luckily for me the real burglar went and sold some of the stolen goods to a local pawn shop that the lady reported stolen and the cops were able to track him down.”

“You got lucky that the thief was not very smart.”

“I sure did, I’m guessing that I would have went to jail for a crime I did not commit.”

“Thank god thieves are not the smartest people on earth.”

“True dat, I’m just glad to be a free man again.”

“I’m glad you’re alright. So are you coming to my party tonight?”

“I would not miss it for the world bro, I’ll be there.”

SOL Testing & No Child Left Behind

     Being an education major as well as having a wife and many friends who are also teachers in the public school systems, I feel like talking about the Standards of Learning Tests (SOL's) and the No Child Left Behind Act and perhaps get a few other peoples opinion on this topic. The SOL testing is a Virginia Public School school program, it sets forth learning and achievement expectations for grades kindergarten through twelfth.  These standards are a direct result of the No Child Left Behind Law that was passed by President George W. Bush back in 2000. The tests measure student performance in English, Mathematics, Science, and History. In order to graduate from high school students must pass a specific number of SOL tests in each of the four target areas, in order to pass an SOL a student must score a 66%.
     This is where my first problem with the SOL testing arises. Its not very hard to pass a multiple choice test when you only need a 66% to pass test. In every school I have ever been enrolled in a 66% is at best a D if not an F, and in my opinion neither of those should be a passing grade. The purpose of No Child Left Behind was to ensure that all students receiving public education are receiving the same type of education. What type of message are we sending to children if you are telling them that they can pass a test with a 66%?
     My other problem with the SOL testing is that the entire school year is spent teaching to the test and not necessary focusing on aspects of the course that may help the child later on in life after graduation. The school systems only care that their students pass this test so they do not lose Federal funding. To me if your trying to make sure that "No Child is Left Behind", it would make more sense to teach the children things they will actually use in their life's rather than something that is only going to help them on a standardized test.
   These tests are so important to the schools that they are even willing to let students who have failed a class, receive a passing grade for the year if they can pass the SOL testing for the class. Yes, you heard me right, a student who failed all four nine weeks will be given a passing grade for the year if they pass their SOL. As I previously mentioned my wife and a lot of friends are teachers in public schools and I know of more of than one school that this has occurred at. What does it tell a child when the school administrates are willing to let a child who failed a class simply slide on by just because they were able to get a 66% on a multiple choice test. When something like this happens it appears to me that these children are still being left behind, but its being covered up by the administration because they are not really learning the material. I don't claim to know the answer to what needs to be done with public education, but this clearly is not working.

Luck

     I'm not a very superstitious person nor did I used to believe in luck, but recently I have began to think that there are people who are unlucky and some people who are just lucky. I'm an avid poker player, I usually play a few times each week, whether it be in tournaments and/or cash games. As of lately though I have been on a terrible run which is what made me start to think some people are just more lucky than others.
     Those of you who play poker, or know anything about the game, know that it is considered to be a game of skill. Whether you try to read your opponents body language or pick up on some type of tell they may have to help you gain information about their hand. The goal is to take your opponents money, or chips. The game is not as simple as people think it is; it's a numbers game that involves a player knowing their percentages of hitting a hand or even how many cards they have left in the deck to win with.
    This is why I think some people are lucky and others are just unlucky. For the last month or so, I have been consistently losing hands in which I'm statistically supposed to win. When your supposed to win so many hands by such large margins and I'm losing them all of the time, a person cannot help but wonder how much of a factor luck is. Now I'm not saying that poker is all about luck, because when you're playing with thousands of dollars on the table thats different than playing for a few hundred dollars. I don't consider myself a lucky person at games or anything which is why I'm wondering how other people feel about luck. Let me know how you feel about the subject of luck.

Amount of Money Professional Athletes Make

     As I have already stated on my blog I'm a huge sports fan. There are a couple of interesting issues currently going on in professional sports recently that have caught my attention. The first of which is the pending strike next season for the National Football League (NFL) and the other is Albert Pujos's contract negotiations with his current baseball team. Both of these issues have one thing in common, they are all about money.

     Professional sports has grown into a multi billion dollar industry over the years in which the athletes are making billions of dollars each year just to play a game. I understand that these people are elite athletes and that it is their job to go out and play a sport that millions of people watch on television or see in person person, but do they really need to make upwards of 30 million dollars a year to do that? The answer is no, they get to play a game for a living which is fun. There are billions of people who have to work "real" jobs, most of which are not fun and most of them wont make as much money in a lifetime as these athletes make in a few years.
     As for the owners, they would like to expand the NFL regular season by two games. The prime reason for more games is more games means selling more tickets and longer television contracts. Perhaps the funniest thing about this with this is how the NFL was trying to make player safety a top priority in this past season. Would making the players play more games in such an impact sport be better for their health? Once again the answer is no and its all about making more money. If these athletes and the owners of these teams would think about the game and its integrity  more than they money, it would make the games more enjoyable for the fans.

    

RLS 311 Pop Culture Music & Hinduism Part 2

Success Songs:

DRAKE & LIL WAYNE, TREY SONGZ, “Successful,” Rap , 2009

Pink Floyd, “Money,” Rock, 1973

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkhX5W7JoWI

DJ Khaled, “We Taking Over,” Rap, 2007

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmXaMUvM0Ko

Jennifer Lopez, “Jenny From the Block”, Pop, 2002

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sob1LcGkdMg

Fat Joe featuring Lil Wayne, “Make it Rain” Rap, 2006

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_asu7n6QUc

Liberation Songs:

Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Free Bird,” Classic Rock, 1975

Beyonce, “To the left,” Pop, 2006

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EwViQxSJJQ

The Clash, “Should I stay or should I go,” Rock, 1982

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqH21LEmfbQ

The Beatles, “Free as a Bird,” Classic Rock,  1995

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqHjXF1gUWU

Deborah Allen, “Break these chains,” Country, 1994

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjSksm-bNLE

     The two aims of Hinduism we are looking at here are success and liberation. Just like with the first two aims we looked at, which were pleasure and community service, one of these aims was by far easier to find music relating to it. This time that aim was success, which includes anything related to wealth, power, and fame. I cannot think of anyone who does not want to be successful at something during their lives so a lot of people sing songs relating to success. Oh the other hand, I had a lot of trouble finding songs related to liberation or being free from something. As I already stated the reason for this is because everyone want wealth, power, and/or fame.

      In Hinduism worldly success is something that everyone attempts achieve at some point during their lives, which is basically the same in Western world. The major difference however, is that people in the Western world are willing to do almost anything to achieve their wealth and fame, legal or illegal. People who practice Hinduism will follow the laws of morality while trying to achieve their success. This aim is definitely the more important of the two to both Hindu’s and the people of the Western world. Just that fact that everyone achieves success and one point or another in their lives, but not everyone achieves liberation proves this.

     Achieving liberation or Moksha, is not something that people of Western culture usually concern themselves with. This is why songs regarding liberation are not nearly as popular as songs about success. The songs I did find regarding liberation or feeing oneself were not even concerned with freeing ones soul, but rather freeing themselves of some unwanted person or thing. In Hinduism Moksha is the ultimate goal, although everyone does not achieve Moksha everyone is striving to achieve it. Liberation in terms of American culture has nothing to do with freeing oneself from the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

Why does Richmond not have a professional sports team?

     I like many other Americans am a huge sports fan. I watch hours of sports each week, I watch football, hockey, baseball, basketball, so if you get the idea I will basically watch anything sports related. So why does Richmond not have any major professional sports team? I grew up outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania watching the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates. So a few years ago whenever I moved to Richmond, I started to wonder and even asked people who were from this area why are there no professional sports teams here in Virginia? I mean Richmond is the capitol of the state and one of the largest cities.

    Some of the people would give me the answer that there are professional teams here in Richmond. At the time there were the Richmond Braves, a minor league baseball team and the Richmond Renegades, which was a semi-professional hockey team. To anyone who has ever been to a professional sporting event you know that the atmosphere is totally different than that of a minor league baseball game or that of semi-profession hockey game. Yes Richmond does a major NASCAR track, but I’m talking about the four major sports in the United States.

    Other people would give me that answer that Richmond was not a big enough city to support a professional team and some people would even say that if there was a team here it would not be completive enough to draw fans. Remember I’m from outside of Pittsburgh, the Pirates have not been a competitive team in over a decade, but they are still making money or the team would have left a long time ago. The rely on the more competitive teams coming to town and drawing crowds of fans to come watch their super stars play. So you don’t have to have to have a winning team to have one.  

    That only leaves the other answer I was given, that Richmond is not a big enough city. According to 2009 statistics the population of Pittsburgh was roughly 311,000 and Richmond was 204,000. So yes Pittsburgh is bigger than Richmond, but you have to remember that a lot of the major cities in the north have professional sports teams. So if Richmond had a team it would draw more people from the surrounding areas to come watch a professional sporting event.

    I understand that it costs money to build a stadium or an arena for a team to play in and someone has to be willing to buy the team and move them here to Richmond. So it does take money to get a team up and running, but professional sports is a billion dollar industry no matter which sport it is. The smaller market teams are even making a profit thanks to the profit sharing methods that all of the leagues use. I think if Richmond brought a professional team to this area it would give the economy a boost with all of the people it would draw to the city. That is just my opinion on this subject and if you can think of any other reason why Richmond does not have a profession sports team please feel free to let me know.

24 hrs. Without a Source of Technology

     After some careful thought, I decided that I would give up using Facebook for this assignment. This meant that I had to change my internet homepage from Facebook to something else  before going to bed on Tuesday night so I could start the assignment on Wednesday. It was actually easier to go an entire day without Facebook then I thought it would be. The only things I missed were messing around with some of the applications and knowing what all of my friends and family were doing. Since I was unable to use Facebook, I actually got more school work done and even had time to study, imagine that!
     It was a little weird the following day when I logged back onto Facebook and had to catch up on what everyone had done in the previous day that I missed. That was probably the first time I had not checked Facebook for an entire day since I  made an account there. Going 24 hours without the use of Facebook was no where near the end of the world and it actually a good feeling having that extra time. However, if I had to do this assignment again I would try to find something that was much more difficult to give up.

Poem following Raymond Carver's Theme in Photograph of My Father in His Twenty-Second Year

July, It's evening in this wonderful place.
I stare at the water shooting into the air
as well as the lights and their reflection off the water.

Behind the water and the lights
You can see the enormous building towering into the sky.
You can tell that the lights water, lights, and the building are meant to draw ones attention.

This is the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.
It is a magnificent site, and perhaps the nicest Casino in the town.
Man do I want to go back to that place.
When will I see Las Vegas again?

RLS 311 Pop Culture Music & Hinduism Part 1

Pleasure Songs:

Ludacris, “Whats your Fantasy,” Hip Hop, 2000

Keith Urban, “Only you can love me this way,” Country Music,  2009

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXr6geMms5E

Limp Bizkit, “Nookie,” Rock, 2000

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

Marvin Gaye, “Lets get it on,” Soul/ R & B, 1973

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

Meat Loaf, “Paradise by the dashboard light,” Rock, 1993

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

Community Service Songs:

Black Eyed Peas, “Where is the love,” Hip Hop, 2003

Band Aide, “Feed the world,” Pop/Rock, 1984

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDo-2LE1nd0

Michael Jackson, “We are the world,” Pop, 1985

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwblvqir-s

The Beatles, “Help,” Classic Rock, 1965

                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7JjJJZi1Q

The Temptations, “Lean on Me,” Soul, 1972

                     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVatt3BplaQ

     The two Hindu aims we are looking at here are Pleasure and Duty/Community Service. My personal opinion is that Duty/Community service is the more important of these two aims. Pleasure is definitely the more enjoyable of the two, but it takes a better person to be willing to help another person than to participate in something enjoyable to them. As well learned, not every Hindu accomplishes the Duty/Community Service aim because of this. While searching for songs related to pleasure and community service I learned that in American culture related to music there are far more songs related to pleasure than there are related to community service. This is probably related to the fact more people are interested in pleasure then they are in helping others.

     The Hinduism belief is that a person can have or do whatever they want to as long as they follow the basic laws of morality and they seek their pleasure intelligently. This differs from the songs sung in American Pop culture in a couple ways. The first difference is most of the songs relating to pleasure merely just focus on the pleasure they receive from doing something. The other difference is they don’t worry about doing it intelligently. All they care about is the pleasure that they receive. No matter what the cost or costs that are associated with receiving that pleasure.

     In relation to duty/community service, I feel that American culture places far less emphasize on this then the people do in Hinduism. Just the fact that there are so few songs relating to this topic proves that we do not emphasize this enough. In addition, more people in our culture are self focused on themselves rather helping others. Everyone who practices Hinduism is not interested in duty/community service either though. This is why not every Hindu reaches the third and fourth aim.

Event In My Life

How I met my wife:


     One evening while bored out of my mind at my parent’s house, I was chatting to one of my friends online. My friend lived in a different town than I did, so we had a lot of different friends that the other did not know. I asked my friend to give me the instant messenger names of some girls that he knew so I could chat with them. My friend kindly sent me a few names and I started talking to them. After a few weeks of talking to the one girl, one day she had an away message up that said she was at class. Me being the smart ass that I am, I left her a message that said “no body at IUP (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) goes to class.” Well, when she got back to her dorm, her and her friend saw my message and her friend started talking to me. We talked for a little while and they invited me to come up and visit them one weekend. I chatted back and forth with them for the rest of the week and eventually agreed to go visit them over the weekend. As it turns out after meeting both of the girls I liked my friends’ friend better and shortly after that we started dating.

     After doing the first part of the assignment, I had a conversation with my wife about her recollection of the how we met. She had a slightly different memory of how we met. She said that it was me who wanted to go and meet them, but it was only after seeing a picture of my now wife. She also added that I was primarily going to meet her because she was the one that I was interested in. She thinks that the friend who gave me the first girls name, whom she also knew, gave me that girls name to be funny. 

Super Bowl XLV Preview

     This game is going to be a clash between two great franchises, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers. This will be the Steelers third trip to the big game in the last six years with them winning the first two of them to become the only franchise in the National Football League (NFL) to have won six championships. The Packers on the other hand are one of the oldest and most historic franchises in the league. The Vince Lombardi Trophy, which is awarded to the winning Super Bowl team, is even named after the former Green Bay coach, Vince Lombardi. Now that we have a bit of history on the two franchises let’s take a look at the how they match-up.

     The Steelers have a solid group of veterans with Super Bowl experience; twenty-five players to the Packers two. Although experience cannot win the game alone it does give them an advantage. Both of these teams have top notch defenses that can take control of a game and create points on their own. The Steelers prefer to control the game and the clock with their rushing attack, but turn to the passing game to make most of their big plays. On the other hand, the Packers prefer to attack teams with their passing game and primarily use their ground game to set up the pass.

     This game has the potential to be one of the best Super Bowl’s in recent history. Both of these teams have a huge following and I expect that it will have even more views than the previous Super Bowl record. So who is going to win this game, the terrible towels or the cheese heads? You will have to wait till next week for a more in depth look at the match-up and my predictions.

Why am I at VCU?

     According to Ken Steele, I would be a careerist, a person attending college as a means to an end: getting a job. Now don't get me wrong, I am attending college so that I can get a job. However, that is not the only reason that I'm attending college to become a health and physical education teacher. Not only am I interested in health and physical education for my own life, I would like to help teach the subject to the youth of America.
     When I was in high school I don't feel like I learned much about health or physical education. In health class I learned basic information related to our bodies and a very little about nutrition, the nutrition I learned being the food pyramid. In physical education class the only that I learned was how to play sports, but I was never taught the sports skills or anything about the components of fitness. With childhood obesity on the rise due to lack of physical activity and poor dietary choices I feel that children and teenagers need to be better educated on those areas.
     I know that when I was growing up if I would have known more about physical activity or about nutrition I would have made some better choices. This is why I chose to become a health and physical education teacher. I want to help give children and teenagers, a better understanding of just how important fitness and their diets are in their lives. I guess I would classify myself as an educator, a person who goes to school because they have an interest in a specific field and they want to pass that information on to others.

AFC Championship Game

Pittsburgh Steelers (13-4) vs New York Jets (13-5)

     The Jets are flying high after defeating the Indianapolis Colts and the New England Patriots both on the road, but this is the week I believe their season comes to an end. During the regular season the Jets got lucky and beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh. However, in that game the Steelers were without two key players, Heath Miller and Troy Polamalu, but both of them will be playing in this game. In addition the Jets young quarterback Mark Sanchez and has been playing mistake free football, but the Steelers number one defense will confuse him and put an end to that this weekend. The Steelers have a group of experienced players who are used to playing in big games and that experience will prevail in this game.

Lets see how the teams match-up:
Quarterback (QB) - Advantage Steelers; Ben Roethlisberger is the hardest QB to bring down in the league and is the most accurate QB outside of the pocket
Runningback - Even, This is perhaps the key to the game, whichever team is able to run the ball can control the clock and keep the other offense off the field. The Jets probably have a slight advantage because of their line.
Wide Receivers - Advantage Steelers; This is another close call but the QB play gives them the edge.
Offensive Line - Advantage Jets; The Jets have a solid line and need to protect their QB to have a chance in this game. The Steelers line is riddled with injury and must play better.
Defense - Advantage Steelers; Pittsburgh has the number one in the league with the best safety in the game and the best group of linebackers. However the Jets do have a pair of top rate cornerbacks and they need a big game to give the Jets a chance.
Special teams- Advantage Jets; This was the difference in the first game when the two teams played in the regular season and could decide this game once again.

Predictions:
     The Steelers are not going to lose their record breaking 15th championship game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. It will however, be a close game with the Steelers winning 24-17 to advance to the Super Bowl.

Bucket List

Here is a list of things that I would like to do in my life:

Graduate from VCU with my bachelor's in Health and Physical Education
Get a job teaching Health and Physical Education in a high school
Become a high school football coach
After gaining some coaching experience; coach college football
Backpack across Europe
Attend graduate school after completing my bachelors and finding a job
Become an athletic director for a high school
Own a sport's bar
Start a family with my wife
Visit the Grand Canyon
Exercise more often
See the Egyptian Pyramids
Attend a Super Bowl game
Play in the World Series of Poker (Main Event)
Finish this semester with a 4.0 grade point average
Watch this years Super Bowl with my friends
Wash my car this week
Pay off our house
Go wine tasting with my wife this weekend
Build a deck around the pool this summer
Learn to speak Spanish
Pay off my car
Take and Pass the Praxis II test
Go visit my friends and family in Pennsylvania this summer
Learn to play the drums
Attend a VCU basketball game this year
Find a part-time job for the summer
Visit Niagara Falls again
Take and Pass the VCLA test
Buy a sports car