My Area, My Responsibility

Confined, how long?
out the door
hackles up
what has changed here?
relief
I can now go back
what was that?

Last Turn Home

Eveyday, when that last turn is made
in my mind, old visions replay
will the old, blend with the new
the day to know, can't come too soon

LOVE LOVE LOVE, my HONDA motorcycles

Love is a word that is often thrown around freely this day in age, without out much thought behind the meaning. I like my truck, I like my bed, I even like my friends. But I love HONDA motorcycles. Honda motorcycles are quality and always have been. I can't even tell you why that is, I don't even know much about the company really, I know roughly around the year when they started building motorcycles(they also build cars, but completely different operation,) but it has nothing to do with the companies history for me.

The first time I threw a leg over a Honda motorcycle was the summer of 1999. It was my best friend's 1996 Honda CR250 dirt bike. He let me ride it up and down the street, leading to probably the goofiest smile plastered on my face the entire time. I remember, that very day I went home and began devising a plan that would enable me to buy that bike, (that bike, as in that model, because there was no way my friend would ever give up that bike for anything, it being a Honda of course.) From the Red, Black, and White color scheme, to the flying wing of Honda's emblem on the side, I knew that these bikes would be the ones I own and ride for my lifetime.

When speaking with other people who also ride, the conversation usually switches pretty fast to asking, “Hey, What kind of bike do you ride?” As unfortunate as it is to say, when they mention a different brand of bike I kind of stop listening to what they say, as I'm not interested anymore. Like a part of me is hoping that they will say Honda, so I can say to myself, “yeah, this person GETS IT too.” Not that I don't get enjoyment out of speaking to anyone at all that rides, as anyone who does ride shares a common bond with me, that only those who have felt the feeling associated with the freedom of two-wheeled travel can understand, but that I honestly see the other brands as inferior machines.

Unfortuantely, no disrespect to owners of other brands of machines, I just do and if I was between bikes and another brand bike came up for sale in my “price range,” I would, and have waited, saved more money and purchased a Honda instead. Honda motorcycles fetch a premium when it comes to buying and selling, very often these bikes will sell well above their “on paper value,” simply because there are a lot of other people like me who understand that it's a fairly exclusive club to own a Honda motorcycle. Knowing that the bikes I own are both Hondas makes me feel good about myself, there is no guarantee that my bikes will not break down or leave me stranded somewhere, just like any other bike would. But EVERY time I get on one of my bikes, I just know that they wont let me down, I just know it. I have wrecked my Honda motocross bike more and worse than probably most people I know. I walk over to it, pick it up, and wouldn't you know, it starts first kick almost every time!

Simply put, people such as myself are willing to spend thousands of dollars more for a bike just because the emblem on the front is backed up by 40+ years of expertise in the two-wheeled industry. I actually have 3 Honda T-shirts that simply have that name and nothing else on the front. That is probably the most egocentric aspect of it, but really at a subconcious level, I am hoping that somebody, even a complete stranger, will strike up a conversation with me so that I can try to sell them on the “awesomeness” of the bikes I love.

WE'RE ALL DOOMED AGAIN, oh no... MQ

      For this mastery quest, I chose to analyze this article, written by my fellow classmate. The article that was examined was an OP-ED article written by Kevin Cook titled, "Dying to play," published on september 12, 2012 in the New York Times News Paper. In this article Mr. Smith brings to light the devastating injuries, as well as prolong medical problems faced by pro athletes, especially players of the National Footbal League. My fellow classmate correctly identified the basis for this article, which is the very high occurance of head, neck, and spinal injuries suffered by the both college level and professional level football athletes. The original article, written by smith gives a statistic that states,

 "the journal Neurology carried the results of a study of 3,439 retired pro football players. It reported      that veterans of N.F.L. combat are more likely than the rest of us to die from brain diseases including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Not 50 percent more likely, or twice as likely, but three to four times more likely."

I tried researching the name "The journal Neurology," just as it is written in the direct quote above and I was unable to find any such website under that name, nor any search results that would show that it was perhaps a print only publication. Digging a little bit deeper, I was able to do a google search using the search "nfl football players 3-4 times more likely to receive," which resulted in finding an article by www.ScientificAmerican.com titled, "Concussions Exact Toll on Football Players Long After They Retire." On this page I was able to uncover a link to the "Journal of Neuroscience," an actual website with an actual accurate statistics concluding the correlation of concussions suffered by retired NFL football players and neorological deficits. Though, in the JON article the number of tested players was listed as 2,552, not the 3,439 that Smith claims in his original article. Also it is unclear what type of testing in Smith's statistics were performed on these unsubstatiated number of players as his statistics cannot be verified with his information given. The JON article does however, rate the number of retired NFL players at about 5 times more prevelance of some sort of neorologic deficit in correlation with multiple concussions sustained.

Another area mentioned in the article, that my contemporay hit on was the increased level of awareness by the NFL to begin actually researching these claims, and also to put protocols in place to better protect the players in the league. This is actual very apparent nowadays even by a casual observer of the game that the penalties for even unintentional helmet to helmet contact can result in hefty penalties, fines, and even suspensions for the at fault players. The leagues seriousness about this issue can actually be seen by the infamous New Orleans Saint's(an NFL team,) "Bounty Gate" scandal, in which apparent bonuses were paid to players who initiated "game or season" ending injuries onto the opposing team. The monetary penalties, and organization wide suspensions handed down by the commisioner of the NFL to anyone found to be involved, were very serious and had never been seen prior.

According to Smith the league donated $30 million dollars to research the long term effects neurological deficits, of concussions sustained by NFL football player, . This along with the newer protocoled cognative sideline tests administered to an injured player before they are allowed to re-enter a game are about the only verifiable things in Smiths article. Though again, it is easy for even the non-fan, casual observer to see that the game of professional football has inherent dangers associated with it, from the violent full speed "hits" that crash with the correlative sound of a monsoon thunderclap, to the twisting of ankles and knees. Smith however loses credibility in his OP-ED because the source he cited was incorrect. As such it makes me that much more leary to value the rest of his article. Though my classmate did a good job in finding and dissecting Smiths article, I'm unable to be convinced that smiths article should have been published in the first place. Though I do think that even with noncredible, and unreliable sources, this still sheds valuable light on what is a very real problem of the injuries sustained by these players for our collective entertainment and enjoyment.

CLAIM : Facebook Ruins Relationships

     The Author Sydney Lupkin, writing for ABC News on May 24, 2012 states that Facebook, as well as other social media sites are responsible for a growing number of divorces and break ups in the United States. She claims that growing numbers of people, across all age spans blame social media for at least some part of the dissolution of their partnerships. Lupkin writes, that according to Divorce Online, an online resource for information pertaining to divorce, “A third of all divorce filings in 2011 contained the word “Facebook.” Lupkin also writes, that according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, also a divorce information resource, “more than 80 percent of U.S. Divorce attorneys say social networking in divorce proceedings is on the rise.” Lupkin states that by 2011, according to the AAML, in the three years prior, the divorce filings containing the word “Facebook” have risen from 20% to 33%. Almost all of these filings contained the mentioning of inappropriate messages to Facebook “friends” as being a catalyst for the ending of the relationships.

      But there is another side to this debate. The side that claims that Facebook and other social media sites have no bearing on whether or not a couple's partnership ends in divorce or breaking up. According to a Wall street Journal article, the numbers of at least the Divorce Online website, referenced by Lupkin are false. The WSJ article explains that Mark Keenan, managing director at the British based, Divorce-Online (which allows British citizens to file, at a low cost, divorces that are being uncontested) was responsible for circulating the 1 in 5 number. According to the WSJ article, “After determining that the word "Facebook" appeared in 989 of the company's 5,000 or so most recent divorce petitions, he had Divorce-Online issue a news release in December 2009 stating "Facebook is bad for your marriage”.” The WSJ article again expounds, “Mr. Keenan acknowledges that his company's clients aren't necessarily representative of all divorces, and he adds that his firm never claimed that Facebook actually causes 20% of divorces. "It was a very unscientific survey," Mr. Keenan says.”

    
     There are some major flaws in Lupkin's article, not only does it seem that Lupkin's article is using either unsubstantiated evidence, as well as evidence that may have some validity but is poorly researched and outdated. It is also possible that she is citing a British source. The wall Street journal article claims that the 1-5 number originated from a british based company, if this is true then its possible Lupkin is using information that is not valid for American statistics. Though when doing an internet search of the Divorce Online(Divorce-Online) website, with or without a hyphen, the results lead to what appears to be an American based website, though a uk version of Divorce Online does exist. It is unclear which "Divorce Online" website she is referencing in her article, as she has no links or works cited. When doing a simple search on the Amercian version of Divorce Online none of the statistics or references to back up her claim can be found. This lends itself as further evidence backing up the claim of the Wall Street Journal Article, claiming the 1 in 5 statistic was started by the British company. This clarity issue is a huge drawback to her argument. When doing a simple search on the AAML website as well, I was unable to find any of the evidence or statistics used or the actual articles themselves that Lupkin eludes to. 

       According to the Wall Street Journal article, an American publication, “both the marriage and divorce rate in the U.S. have declined as Internet usage has risen, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.” Though Lupkin did a poor job in identifying reliable sources to back up her claims,  I am still inclined to lean towards the side of the possibility of social networking sites being a catalyst in some cases for breakups and divorce, as I have personal experience. Though the statistics reflect differently the subjective nature of the debate cannot be overlooked or discounted.

5 TRENDS AND 5 FADS

HERE ARE 5 TRENDS AND 5 FADS THAT I SEE IN MY EVERYDAY LIFE.

TRENDS

TREND 1.) TATTOOS

     Tattoos are one of the biggest trends this day in age.Tattoos started out as what I would consider a fad. I would say starting in the late 90”s is when I first started to notice the “boom” of people starting to get tattoos on a regular basis. I would say that the two groups that probably had the most to do with the explosion of tattoo's popularity are bikers and rockstars. The reason is simple, people like to emulate what they will probably never have a chance to be. They want to pretend they are the 1%'er biker, rasing hell in the streets of a small quaint town, or pretend that they are ROCKSTAR on stage and singing to thousands of people. Either way just the sheer volume of tattoos being applied to the entire population of the world currently, makes it a definite trend that has been growing in popularity for years and may never end. This idea is supported by this NewYork Times article which states that, "A report by the Food and Drug Administration estimated that as many as 45 million Americans have tattoos. The report based the number on the finding by a Harris Interactive Poll in 2003 that 16 percent of all adults and 36 percent of people 25 to 29 had at least one tattoo."

TREND 2.) UNDERAGE DRINKING

     The second trend that I identify with even on a personal basis is underage drinking and drugs. Though I have never done any drugs, beer was my buddy even at the age of 18. I do not think that I am alone on this either. It used to be that when I was that age everyone did it. Though obviously very illegal to consume alcohol underage, I believe most “kids” then and now justify it as not the most illegal thing you can do. Meaning that say at the age of 18, in 3 years what is illegal now wont be then. In the laws eyes these young adults are committing a crime, but to them they are just “practicing” for the life they will have in a few years I guess. Honestly looking back I can say that I wish I never would have picked up my first beer at no matter what age, because all it did was detour my life's greater ambitions and goals, by doing something I thought was the “in” or "cool" thing. Unfortuantely this is also a trend because more and more kids every single day make the choice to pop the top on an addicting substance that is not very easy to quit. And when people can't quit something the trend grows. A fact check of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website backs up this claim, by stating that, "Alcohol use by persons under age 21 years is a major public health problem. Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among youth in the United States, more than tobacco and illicit drugs, and is responsible for more than 4,700 annual deaths among underage youth. Although drinking by persons under the age of 21 is illegal, people aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States. More than 90% of this alcohol is consumed in the form of binge drinks."

TREND 3.) UNEMPLOYMENT

     The next trend that I can identify with is unemployment. Now some people may disagree with me on this classification as a trend. But to me the definition of a trend is something comes into existence and affects entire cultures. Unlike a fad that leaves no remnant once its gone, this trend of current unemployment in the United States as well as the rest of the world will be seen and felt for many years to come. Unemployment and under-employment are also nothing new as we in the “civilized western world” have gone through many periods of economic tribulations. I believe the current unemployment crisis in the U.S. lies in the circularity of our type of economy, as we are largely consumerists now as opposed to a manufacturing country as in times past. We cannot buy goods if we don’t have a job that gives us the money to buy them, and the person who's job it is to sell us those goods won't have a job to sell us the goods, because there are not enough customers. Therefore the vicious circle can continue unabated. I will not get into politics here. But just suffice it to say that I have recently seen a statistic that states that 50% of recent bachelor degree or higher college graduates cannot find employment in their field of study or at all for that matter, causing some to even move back in with their parents after school. Just this statistic alone and the sheer volume of college graduates annually, will unfortunately make this a trend that will be seen for years to come. According the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, around October 2008 the rate of unemployment began to rise, and it has not seen the levels prior to this rise since. From a purely objective, statistical point of view. the chart diagram on the BLS website speaks volumes for itself.

TREND 4.) ONLINE DATING

According to statisticbrain.com, the annual revenue for the online dating industry is $1.049 Billion. The days of meeting potential spouses, girlfriends/boyfriends, "friends" through the normal conventional means of yesteryear, seem to be indeed a thing of that yesteryear past. Now instead of the potentially awkward "pick up" lines divied out by the bravest, or most intoxicated, some people choose the route of narrowing down potential candidates by similar interests, age range, and a bunch of other ways in an effort to cut down on wasted time in this "right now" world we have created for ourselves. According to statisticbrain.com, "there are 54 million single people in the U.S., 40 million people have tried online dating, with the top 2 Online Dating websites of eHarmony.com, and Match.com, claiming 20 million for eHarmony, and 15 million match.com members respectively. That is a little over 10% of the U.S. population being active members of online dating sites, and these figures only take into account the 2 largest sites. Just these staggering numbers alone make online dating a definite trend.

TREND 5.) REALITY TV SHOWS

     Reality tv shows. Unfortunately, sometimes, unbeknownst to these "contestants" they are being chosen for a show strictly for their shock value and for needed ratings for the producers. The reason that reality tv is such a trend is because humans in a sick way, sometimes love to watch carnage and destruction, it somehow makes us feel better about our lives if we see a human train wreck happening before our eyes on the television set. (Did you know most people watch a NASCAR race just so they can see the big wreck?) These “contestants” then somehow try to morph their 15 minutes of shame into something long term to feed their narcissistic egos. But the unfortunate part is “we,” and I use that term loosely because I don't not watch these types of shows, feed the need for more and more of these shows with our veracious appetite to see people ruin their lives. Again, just literally to boost our own egos and say well, “at least my life isn't that bad” so until our behavior as viewers changes – reality tv probably wont – then this trend is just going continue to gro and grow. According to http://www.trendreports.com/research/reality-television, "Reality television series began gaining extreme popularity in the 1990s with shows like Survivor. Almost twenty years later reality shows are still an integral part of pop culture, with game shows and dance reality shows at the forefront of television programming. Consumers are even starting reality TV blog sites to stay up-to-date and keep others informed on shows like The Hills, and are extremely active in sharing this content online."



 

FADS

FADS 1.) FASHION/SKINNY JEANS

     Well here it is, the first fad, Fashion. This is a hard one to even grasp sometimes because something can go from “hot/in” to overnight now its not. One of these trends I see currently and it honestly makes me giggle like a little school girl when I see it is, Dudes wearing skinny jeans. Now I'm not talking about jeans that maybe are designed to accentuate a particular area of a persons lower body. I am talking about the jeans that are darn near “painted” on and their 12 year old sister is upset because older brother jimmy stole her favorite pants so he can fit in at school. I definitely have no idea in the world why these jeans came into existence. I do know that the first time I ever saw them utilized was in the Bmx bicycle riding culture. I do not know how long it will take for this finite fashion fiasco to fizzle out, but I'm counting the days until this fad is a distant memory. Though it is difficult to label this as a defintite fad, because frankly we are in the midst of the boom of skinny jeans. According to http://fashion.about.com/od/latesttrends/a/trendover.htm, the final ending to a "trend" as they put it occurs when, " The trend becomes saturated in the market, usually at very low prices. With trendy items like a must-have designer handbag, the item becomes widely available as a knock-off." For the definition in this class, a trend has a long lasting, changing effect on the populus, while a fad goes away without much remembrance of it afterwards, such as the "Spandex and leg warmer combo of the 80's" that was very popular but now a distant memory to those who lived, the big hair days.

FADS 2.) VEGAN DIET

     Who doesn't like a medium rare ribeye steak? Vegans! Thats who. For some reason these people are for the time being growing steadily every year. The reason for this diet usually falls in to two main subcategories according to the people I have talked to. 1.) Are the people who are going to save the world by converting one non-vegan or saving one cow, and pig at a time. Sort of like the people who say, “if everyone in the world doesn't buy gasoline on just one day, then they can bankrupt the oil companies” these people feel that if they can convert people to their lifestyle then we can save all of the meat animals from slaughter. Unfortunately this idealism falls short because people have been eating animals for thousands of years. It is my contention that it is more wasteful to let the already butchered animal waste away in some styrofaom/plastic wrapped container at the grocery store, than to be thankful for this animals sacrifice for human nourishment. 2.) Are the super health conscious group the ones that monitor everything that they intake into their bodies, possibly for fitness reasons, food allergy or unjustifiable lifestyle choice. Either way this fad is destined to die out soon enough, after all we are humans in the end, and at any event, in a worst case scenario any one of these people would eat the guts out of a dead caribou to save themselves and survive. Now for the supporting stats. According to http://www.vegsource.com/news/2011/12/new-poll----there-are-more-vegans-than-vegetarians-and-other-data.html, there was a poll conducted in 2011 by the Vegitarian Research Group that showed a rise vegitarians and vegans in the United States. The poll suggests that as of the poll, 3% of the population is Vegan, while 2% claim to be vegetarian. The difference between vegetarian and vegan being that as well as not consuming meat as the vegetarians, the vegans also do not consume dairy or eggs. It should be noted that this poll involved 1,010 adults ages 18+. It was conducted as a phone poll which are known in some cases to not be the most accurate. That said taking even the higher 3% number, means that only 30.3 people out of the 1000 people polled considered themselves to be vegan. With the U.S. national population of approx. 330,000,000 million people, using the same data would put the nationwide average of vegans at almost 10 million people. a good chunk but not nearly enough people to consider this eating type as a trend as of yet, these statistics also don't take into account sampling errors in the polling which can be as much as 3 percentage points, as well as the way questions are worded and unfortuantely people who don't understand the complex completely and may unknowingly give misleading information eg. that being a vegan means no eggs or dairy, but a cold glass of milk on a hot summer day is ok, if the other 364 days of the year. they dont drink milk at all. These possibilities create flawed data. my favorite annecdotal evidence of this is the old lady who when asked if she has high blood pressure?, she tells the EMT no, then upon finding blood pressure medication later on and requestioning the lady, she states, "well, I don't have high blood pressure because I take those pills that make it normal"

FADS 3.) THE DUCKFACE

This fad is a mostly girl thing, or maybe guys doing it that are making fun of girls. Either way it is a pretty unnatural facial expression that has been seen recently. It is where a girl(or guy) will take a picture, usually of themselves. while making an unattractive facial expression. According to ohinternet.com, "Duckface is the common term for a hideous facial expression, popularly used in self-taken photographs, in which the lips are pursed and flattened, usually accompanied by widened eyes which rarely look directly at the camera. It is mainly used by the subject to show how cute and "random" they are." I have already seen that this fad is on its decline with other websites such as antiduckface.com leading the charge against informing these people how they are perceived by most people.

FADS 4.) PLANKING

   STIFF, is the new cool. Kids all around the world have caught onto this fad. It involves lying in the prone position, with hands to the sides in a variety of places and sometime precarious positions. Here is the ultimate reason why this will never move past the threshold of fad. This fad was started in Austrailia and has now reached nearly the entire world. Unfortunately Kids are dying! As msnbc.msn.com reports, "A 20-year-old man plunged to his death after "planking" on a seventh-story balcony in Brisbane, Australia, the Brisbane Times reported Sunday." As a result of the death. The police are cracking down on plankers. The report states, "On Friday, the Herald Sun of Melbourne, Australia, reported that police won't tolerate the dangerous stunts : Penalties range from fines to jail in extreme cases." "Clearly, conduct that threatens public safety will not and should not be tolerated," a Victoria state police spokeswoman said. Being as planking originated in Austrailia and Austrailian authorities are the ones putting the brakes on kids attempting these stunts. It should only be a matter of time before new rules are put into place all over the world as well, that will at least stop the prevelance of planking.

FADS 5.) COLORING HAIR WEIRD COLORS

     Now this one is just comical to me most of the time. I did do the bleach blonde hair, and then to be the anti-everything I went to the jet black hair, yeah! Cause I was different of course! The difference between these natural types of hair dying that most people pursue throughout life and these off the wall hair colors that are seen recently are the difference between fad and trend. The bright pink, neon green, and electric blue hair dyes are a fad that I don't see lasting much longer. The people that I have come into contact with actually might rock that color in their hair with the utmost pride, but for only temporarily. I think they realize pretty quickly afterwards that they probably look pretty ridiculous and thats why their girlfriend hasn't been returning their phone calls lol. Either way I don't believe that people coloring their hair wacky colors will ultimately cause any sort of significant and lasting cultural change so it is a fad.

Popular Culture Tour Voicethread

Hey there. Here is my Voicethread of my popular culture tour. I chose 4 types of popular culture Genres, hope you like it :) https://voicethread.com/share/3398704/"