Advertising

Three places where I spend most of my time is my room, UMD campus, and my work.  There are many different logos that are around me when I am at these places.  Advertising is everywhere.  It appears where ever you go, and is becoming very important in the world.

The main logos that are located in my room are sports logos.  There is the Detroit Pistons logo, the Detroit Tigers logo, the Detroit Lions logo, and the Detroit Red Wings logo.  The other logos that are located in my room are Nike, Reebox, Adidas, and Converse.  I have these logos located on my shoes and on other sports equipment.  Another logo that is located in my room is the Macintosh Apple, which is on my laptop I am typing on right now.

At UMD, there is advertising everywhere.  UMD has posters on walls, logos on shirts, and even logos in textbooks.  I see a lot of logos for Macintosh, PC, Michigan, Michigan State, and other colleges.  What is also very popular at UMD is the advertising logos for clothes brands.  The brands I am talking about is Hollister, American Eagle, and Abercrombie to name a few.  I also see different logos for bands.  Advertising has a lot to do with music, and people show it off through logos on hats, shirts, and pants.

At work, there is advertising but not as much as there was in my previous two examples.  Most of the advertising I see at work is for my work.  I work in the IMSE office at UMD.  We have posters everywhere that talk about engineering and why people should choose this for their major.  Other logos I see are for Bic, Staples, Sticky Notes, and Elmers.  

Advertising is so wide spread in the world that it is everywhere you look.  It is so important for businesses to get their product known.  Technology is so advanced now and the way for people to find out about new products is through advertising either on the internet or on the T.V.  There is also a lot of advertising still in newspapers and magazines.  I can't even imagine what the world would be like without advertising.  Would there actually be blank billboards and blank buses?  I know that sounds weird, but would there even be billboards then?  Advertising goes from school, work, gym, car, rooms, and even public bathrooms.  Advertising is very important in the world today, and it is a very smart idea.  Advertising adds up to over $200 billion dollars spent each year which equals $700 dollars a person.  There will never be a time where advertising is not present in the world.

Political Blogs

I believe that Mr. Kiskas presentation helped me a lot on how blogs work. He presented how blogs are started and which ones are reliable. He also told us some sites for blogs that are based primarily on politics and the upcoming election. My personal favorite that he told us about was the "forum blogs." I really liked americanthinker.com The reason I like these kinds of blogs is because people can add to the topic you are discussing. People might say, "well can't you just write comments on peoples blogs so they will see it?" The thing about that is not everybody will read the comments. It is more likely that somebody will read what you wrote in the forum if you following up on the specific topic. Another reason why I liked this one is because anybody can place their opinion on the subject. You can add pictures, videos, and even songs. The forum blogs start up a lot of discussion faster than regular blogs do. It is very interesting to read the debate that is going on between a republican and a democrat. These kinds of blogs might not be as reliable as most political blogs, but it gets you the information you want to hear about quicker than other blogs. My personal favorite forum entries has to be the ones about Sarah Palin. A lot of people are saying she's the anti-christ and the total opposite of what we need in office. I actually think she is exactly what we need to help assist our president. She gets right down to business and doesn't linger around certain topics. She gets right to the point which doesn't question her qualification for the job.

Working with the Text

FLORIDA

Creativity is important

Culture-(dress, music, hobbies)

Want action rather than to sit around

Want to stride towards something

A lot of people don't care about what other people think

Some people want to become somebody than a lot of people aren't

CONNER

Youth does want to follow in peoples footsteps

Youth wants to be apart of art but not the main part

Most youth would rather follow than lead

Some youth want to create their own image

Some youth want to make their own form of art and writing

Youth is different from what it used to be

Florida talks about how youth people "define themselves in terms of a creative ethos."  Towards myself, I believe he has some good points and some bad points.  He is right because people of youth have different styles of cultures that fit in with other people.  This has to do with the way people dress, what kind of music they listen to and what kind of television shows they watch.  It is very hard for a teenager to sit around and not be doing anything.  We are better off moving and keeping busy as much as possible.  Florida could better define his observation by explaining what he means entirely.  There are some teenagers that could careless what other people think about them.  They would rather create their own trend, then to follow someone else's trend.  Youth people are still trying to come up with ways of doing things on their own.  They want to show everybody that their generation is still alive and running.  They want people to look back and say, "Wow, they sure lived in a great generation."  We want to be creative at work so we aren't bored all the time.  We try and make every aspect of our life more exciting than it was before. 

My Personal Cultural Inventory

My cell phone woke me up around 9:15 with the ringtone "All Summer Long" by Kidrock.  I get out of bed and go to the bathroom.  After that I decided what I was going to wear to class.  Since I heard earlier in the week that it was going to be a little colder the next couple days, I put on jeans.  I then picked out my blue Hollister shirt and put it on.  I walked upstairs and let my dog outside to go to the bathroom.  I let him in and then decided to eat some breakfast.  I couldn't decide between fruit loops, cookie crisp or cinnamon toast crunch.  I decided on fruit loops because of the fruity taste.  After my delicious breakfast, I brushed my teeth and was off to class.

On the way to class, I listen to 99.5, which plays country music.  I've noticed so many different types of country on this channel that fascinates me.  In my head I try and think of what kind of people would like the specific type of country music that is on at that very moment.  My personal favorites are Keith Urban, Gary Allan and Kenny Chesney.  I stop at a red light and see a bumper stick on the car in front of me that reads, "Obama 08."  The next red light I am stopped at I see a sticker on a car that reads, "NObama 08."  It is very interesting to see the different kinds of style that gets put into politics.  Politics are so important in the United States right now that people go to different extremes to get their point across.  

I arrive at school and park in the "F" parking lot at school.  The reason I park there is because on Fridays I only have my math class which is room 1096 in the CASL building.  As soon as I walk through the door that is from the parking lot I parked in, my class is located in the first room on the right.  I arrive in my math class and sit down to get prepared for class.  The class ends at 11:10 and I walk to my car.  I notice people sitting on benches smoking cigarettes and reading the newspaper.  I get in my car and drive home.  After I am home for about an hour, my friend Joe calls me to ask if I wanted to go to the rec center to play basketball and to work out.  It sounds like a great idea to me so we decide to meet there at 2:45.  I arrive there around 2:45 and meet up with Joe.  We get asked to play in a basketball game right away and play for about two hours.  After basketball, we head over to the lifting part of the center and bench press.  Everyone around me is listening to their Ipods while running on the treadmill, pedaling on the bike or lifting weights.  Joe and I lifted for about an hour before we decided that we were tired and decided to go home.  

I arrive home and as soon as I walked through my front door, I could smell pizza.  I took a long, cold shower and got dressed.  I decided to just put on a t-shirt and sweat pants for dinner.  I ate dinner which consisted of pizza, breadsticks and salad.  It was very delicious and filled me up perfectly for the rest of the night.  My friend Brian calls me and asks if I wanted to go to the fair and I told him yes.  He picked me up and we went to my old grade school fair.  At local fairs, it is very easy to notice the different styles of people.  I saw Goth, preppy, gangster and punk just to name a few.  We left there at about 11:30 and Brian dropped me off at my house.  I ended the day by brushing my teeth, washing my face and watching sportscenter.

I learned that every single day is different, but there are a lot of cultures that are the same.  Even if it consists of music, bumper stickers or clothing, there are different themes of my daily life that are interesting.  I just had a normal day in my life, but different things seem to jump out at me that fascinate me.