Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Copy Edit the World

This is from an article on Time's website. The writer uses resume three times. The first two times are without accent marks while the third time has accent marks. Also, a comma is missing after instead in the second sentence.
This is also from Time's website. In the bottom paragraph, the writer uses "raises" when the correct form should be "raise."

I saw this on 'Good Morning America.' The word "says" is used when "say" should be used because the subject is plural. 
Here is a link of resources from another one of my classes where the professor misspelled Madame Blavatsky's last name. She spells it Blavasky. 

Monday, April 28, 2014

Japanese Internment Memorial Essay

The Japanese American Internment Memorial is dedicated to those Japanese Americans who were placed in internment camps after Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.
Sculpted by artist Ruth Asawa, the memorial was unveiled in 1996. Each panel has incredible details of the depicted events on both sides of the wall. Asawa is a Japanese American artist who was among those interned during WWII.
Both sides have similar details but unique in meaning, such as barbed wire.
On one side, the barbed wire is curled, symbolizing the farm wire as seen in farms owned by Japanese American citizens in California prior to the removal. The other side depicts straight barbed wire that was used as part of the barriers for Japanese American internment camps.
San Jose itself played a role in the internment process. A San Jose State University building was used as a processing center for Japanese Americans who reported for relocation. The building was later named after SJSU judo trainer by the name of Yoshihiro Uchida, who served in the US Army during WWII.

Can something like this happen again? Most likely not since the current state of the world is a lot different than what it was back then. It shouldn’t be seen as impossible to happen again but realistically I don’t see it happening in the near or distant future. The countries of the world today are surely not at peace with every other country as there will always be turmoil among nations for whatever reasons.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Fish Out of Water

I went to a hockey game that saw the San Jose Sharks face off against the Los Angeles Kings. I'm not a fan of hockey nor have I ever been to a hockey game. I can't say that I'd ever go back because I have nothing invested in the league or any teams as local as the Sharks are. It's also a sport I've never played before in any way, shape or form.
The only reason I went was because my friend had an extra ticket he didn't know what to do with. He knew I never talked about hockey but didn't want it to go to waste so he asked me and the rest is history.
I figured at least I'd get to experience something I've never seen in person before. Maybe I'd go home wanting to see more of it and become a Sharks fan like some of my friends and family are. Boy was I wrong.
It was the most boring sporting event I've ever been to. Granted, I didn't know the rules, players or anything about the league really. But my experience did everything but convince me to want to become a fan of the sport and at the very least, return to see another game in person or even on television.
What did it for me was the environment of the arena. It was loud which I assumed it would be but I didn't think it was going to be that loud. My ears are still ringing. I also couldn't see the puck at all. I just waited until the other attendees jumped off their seats and clapped to know when a goal was scored. I guess they're all used to moving their eyes back and forth constantly for around three hours. I give them credit for staving of dizziness which I felt almost instantly.
I also noticed there were more Caucasians than any other ethnicity at the game. They all wore teal to represent the Sharks while I looked out of place with a red jacket on. I guess I didn't get the memo. That's what the whole night felt like; me not getting the memo. It was like the game was an elaborate inside joke that everyone was in on except me. Never before have I felt more like a fish out of water.

Wednesday, April 16, 2014

IMHO (In My Humble Opinion)

In my humble opinion, the MTV Movie Awards are a joke. My opinion on this event got fueled when the 2014 rendition aired this past weekend. There are so many things wrong with this "awards" show that ironically they are the same reasons it will probably be on for years to come.
For one, the show doesn't take itself seriously. To be fair it doesn't claim to be an Oscars competitor but they just seem not to care about the quality of their presentation. They film parodies based on the biggest movies of the previous year, and by biggest I mean the ones that had the most explosions and/or crude humor.
 Secondly, the categories are the silliest ones I've ever seen on an awards show. I saw the Kid's Choice Awards last month and the categories on that show weren't even as childish as those on this show.
 Lastly, there's the logistics of the show's existence altogether. The channel it airs on is MTV which stands for Music Television not Movie Television. The channel is mostly known for reality shows nowadays.
There is no other channel as misnamed as MTV. If this show were aired on Comedy Central, which is its sister network, then that would make more sense being as this awards show relies on its humor and foolishness to keep its audience from changing the channel. I myself could never sit down and watch a whole telecast, being an age within the targeted demographic.
The MTV Movie Awards isn't the most ceremonious or kid-friendly awards show on TV, but given the channel it's on and the targeted audience I can see why it's lasted this long.


Here's what USA Today took from this event. http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2014/04/13/ten-moments-you-missed-mtv-movie-awards/7689289/

Here's Time's explanation of the event. http://time.com/12615/conan-obrien-to-host-mtv-movie-awards/

Word #10

1. serendipitous
2. The three conditions many sociologists believe to be the keys to developing lasting friendships: proximity, repeated serendipitous interactions, and a safe setting.
Article: Facebook’s Friend Problem // Site: TheVerge.com
3. (adjective) occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.
4. After a series of serendipitous events, the Sharks managed to win the game.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Word #9

1. bloatware
2. In addition, Samsung's efforts to streamline its own custom interface and reduce pre-installed bloatware pay off.
Article: Samsung’s Best Phone Gets Better // Site: Cnet.com
3. (noun) software whose usefulness is reduced because of the excessive disk space and memory it requires.
4. My phone didn’t perform as well as I thought because of all its bloatware.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Drinking Coffee Elsewhere

It's evident that ZZ Packer is a very talented writer with her own extremely unique style. I feel like I'm sitting in front of her as we're drinking coffee and she's telling me these stories. She takes us into the lives of these characters in a tone that doesn't get stale nor repetitive. She has various themes in her stories that are great from keeping the reader from getting bored such as a group of drifters in Japan who are starving and unable to find work and a girl living in a ghetto who has ambitions of the larger world she's seen on the TV screens in the store nearby where even the shopkeeper has his own hope for fulfilling his own American Dream. When you mix similes and metaphors at the appropriate times as well as Packer's own vision imbued in the stories, you get an interesting read.