My Interesting Prompts

1.) How will our society be different in 50 years when some of us have children and grandchildren? What are some aspects (like music, technology, etc) be the same or different than now?

2.) What is your favorite state that you have been to? Why? What makes it so enjoyable to you?

3.) How should the United States government deal with the national debt in the most effective way that you can think of?

I am answering writing prompt number one.

To me society in fifty years will become more technological than ever. There are positives and negatives to this. Most people will have at least one computer, a tablet, and a smart phone. This is good bc people would be much smarter and our nation's IQ will probably be quite higher. I believe that people will begin to realize that school and your education is extremely important towards being successful in life. The negatives of this would be that everyone would rely on their technology to do everything for them. When citizens were in a situation where they weren't using their technology, they wouldn't be able to do the necessary task. Music, I believe, will become much more of techno too. It will be made by computers and music sang by humans will be rare, that is how it is starting to look already right now. Overall, our society will be better and worse in ways. I would not like this completely technological society because it does not feel good to me when I am barely using my brain with my technology like computers doing everything for me.

what might be interesting? I don't know! (mr. pope voice)

• UK Football
• Whether or not global warming is a myth
• Going to war

This is a football Saturday in October, so I feel like it would be appropriate to talk about some football. I am a big UK fan, but people think I'm crazy when I say that I am a more passionate about UK football. I have issues with the way our football program is being lead right now. Ask Jack and Cameron and they will tell you that I voice my opinions strongly about our coaching and our athletic director. So here we go.

Kentucky plays in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The SEC is undoubtably the toughest conference in college football. Kentucky is not known as a football school for obvious reasons, but under Rich Brooks, UK football has been put on the map. As of late, under the head coaching of Joker Phillips, UK football is gradually falling off of the map. I believe that the lack of success begins at the top of the athletic food chain.

Mitch Barnhart has been involved with athletic departments for about 30 years, and has been a part of "successful" football programs according to himself. I have yet to see that whole success thing in our football program under him and I don't see it going anywhere unless he makes some bold decisions. Kentucky basketball is Kentucky basketball and every person that has any clue about sports in general knows that. Simply because of that, Kentucky basketball will always have the resources it needs, both from the University and from outside sources. More attention needs to be put on football because Kentucky basketball will always be prominent. Football, believe it or not, brings in more money than any other sport; almost every other sport combined. The problem is that not nearly enough of this revenue is being put back into the football program. Kentucky has nice facilities, but not compared to the top tier teams of the SEC.

Coaching has a significant part in the success of any sport. The hiring decisions and the coaching decisions have been mind-boggling. Barnhart knew he needed a basketball coach to save his job, so he went on a nation-wide coaching hunt. He offered John Calipari $6 million per year to come and coach at UK. This hire saved his job. Coach Cal said that he would have come to UK for less and it was not about the money, but who would turn down six million per? This is what I mean when I say more attention needs to be put on the football program. Joker Phillips was named as "coach-in-waiting" before Rich Brooks retired. Now Phillips is the head coach and I completely disagree with the decision to make him coach. Brooks had almost 40 years of coaching experience, both in college and in the NFL; Joker has no head coaching experience anywhere, and it shows. "Coach-in-waiting" is a tag put on an assistant coach that is being pursued by other schools, and the current school wanted to keep him from leaving. NO ONE WANTED JOKER. So why would we name him coach in waiting? Anyone would want to coach in the SEC; all you have to do is offer good money. Why not go on another nation-wide coaching search? It certainly seemed to work out for basketball. Joker is being paid $1.1 million per year, which is last amongst SEC schools...even Vanderbilt. As shown with the Calipari situation, we obviously have the money to pay a coach; so why won't we go get one?

Prices have gone up for football season tickets, but the quality of football has been going down. It has become so bad under Joker Phllips that fans have booed the coaches in every home game this season. He asks for patience from the fans. He deserves no patience after we have yet to see any improvement in 18 games under him. How much more patience does he want? Fans have become upset because expectations have been raised due to Brooks' success. Brook took us from a level 4 to a level 7. Fans went through 6 years to get to that level 7, now they want to go from a 7 to an 8 and so on. Fans are angry because with the hire and performance of Joker Phillips, we have gone back done to a level 4/5 which makes fans feel like they have wasted 6 years. I could go on and on about this topic so I'll leave it at that.

The lack of money being put into the football program, the lack of attention on the football program, the decision making, and the overall acceptance of mediocrity has turned our football program in the wrong direction. Better football=more money..we all know that's what really matters to the University. They need to do what it takes to take our football program back in the right direction.

Why?

1. If you could have one super power what would it be? explain.

2. Is global warming a myth or not? Why or why not?

3. Should we have gone to war in Iraq? explain.

all three of these writing prompts intrigue me this week. obviously it has nothing to do with the fact that i created them, but still they are all unique and interesting topics. the topic that interest me the most would have to be question number two.

in my humble, modest, and correct opinion global warming is NOT a myth. it is real and is a huge danger. in an article by Rolling Stones magazine they talk about global warming, or climate change if you prefer. in this article they write about how Australia is the most fragile of continents and how if any continent is going to be hit first by climate change it will be Australia. after that go on to show pictures of dead kangaroos, the dramatically changing climate (typhoons, drought, fire, heat waves, etc.) it is so bad that scientists are predicting that the great barrier reef will be completely obliterated by the year 2050. thats just forty years from now, so if you want to see it i suggest you go and see it soon. also reports have been done that show that global warming is true and is not just fluctuation in the earths normal flow of things, things have been heating up far too quickly. this website (http://epa.gov/climatechange/) speaks all about what the evidence is and how its being analyzed and such. this is a really helpful website out there for all of you who still need more evidence to be convinced that global warming actually exists.

so even though all of the evidence is out there and has been proven multiple times, it is up to you all to decide whether or not global warming is real, and if you decide that it is (which it most definitely is) to do something about it. i would be very glad to hear all of my fellow peers, and mr. Logsdon's and mrs. carpenters, response to this question of whether or not global warming is a myth or not?

Assignment 6:Create Your Own Adventure

What interests you? What is your point of exigence?

This week, create the three writing prompts that you find most intriguing. Then, choose one prompt and respond to it.

Ready...

Go!

Due Sunday, October 2 at 11:59 pm

Step Aside Nobels....

What does it say about our society that the Emmy's have so much glitz and attention and the Nobel Prizes are quietly announced in the news? Is this bad? Good? Appropriate?

What kind of world do we live in nowadays? We live in a world where the actors who do the best at playing a cop on TV show or the show where the worst singers draw in the most viewers are more popular than scientific innovation. What a sad, sad world that is.

But why is this? Could it be because people aren't as entertained by scientific discoveries as they used to be? I think the most logical explanation is simple: entertainment. Everyone loves Law and Order and American Idol, but most people don't get really excited about quantum mechanics. Anyone, please try to refute that.

Chances are, you don't know who won the Nobel Prize this year for Physics. I sure don't. I'm not even positive they've had the awards ceremony yet. But I'll bet you know who won Best Comedy TV Show this year at the Emmys. Or Best Picture this year at the Oscars. Is this a bad thing? No. Does it have the potential to be a bad thing? Absolutely.

I am not saying that the Emmy's or TV shows are bad for us. In fact, TV shows are a lot of fun, and they bring us a lot of enjoyment. But everything is about glamour and ostentaciousness, and the world is slowly becoming more and more shallow and swimming farther and farther away from the mainland (where we used to be).

Television is a helluva drug

Look at the image beside this text, and then try to tell me that TV hasn't infected your mind. If you don't recognize what's so funny about it, congratulations, you have not been hypnotized by the world's most successful salesman. I'm not talking about the geico man, although he is fairly successful; I'm talking about television itself.

Television is one of the most obvious marketing operations in the history of the world. Its strategy is genius: distract people with quality entertainment, and then drill them with catchy tunes and iconic pictures to sell stuff. The plan is so obvious that most people don't even realize how effective it really is. The archetypal ACME co. salesman is now invited into your own home.

Regardless, I wouldn't say that television is a harmful phenomenon; it's not. With all kinds of opportunities to learn about world news, science, and even *gasp* well marketed products and services, television is at the center of the information revolution right alongside the internet and the cell phone. Quality entertainment is to be had in front of the humble idiot-box, and time is ripe for the wasting. From wonderful cult classics like "Doctor Who" and comedy gold like "The Office" to the gut wrenching "Jersey Shore" and relentlessly misinformational "Oreilly Factor," TV has seen us through the best and the worst in entertainment.

What is television exactly? Is it a successful door-to-door salesman or a modern vaudeville performer? I say it's both. Only fool would say that television isn't an effective marketing tool, and only Helen Keller in all her senseless majesty would deny that television is entertaining. What a truly magical invention television is.

I never asked for this...

...Terrible scheduling of television shows.

You’re paying for a service that doesn’t let you control anything, forces you to watch things on its schedule, and to top it off, a third of what you get are ads. That’s how “basic cable” works. All I’ve got to say is that we’re getting ripped off. There are plenty of services that are completely free, where you pay to remove advertisements and get even more features. At least we’re moving away from that. With services like Netflix and Hulu, we’re only adding a few dollars to our monthly internet bill. That, and the ability to watch anything whenever you want with no advertisements, seems like a great deal. Heck, even a DVR is great for breaking free of the scheduling-menace that is television.

I used to watch TV whenever I had free time, but eventually shifted to watching everything on my computer and Xbox through Netflix. Once I started using Netflix exclusively, I realized that this was definitely a much better deal than cable television. On Netflix, I could watch 33% more of what I wanted to watch with absolutely no advertisements or commercials. This also let me watch anything I wanted to whenever I wanted to. That meant that I could pause whenever I was busy, and resume at a later date. This flexibility removes much of the problems people have with cable these days.

Television is a gigantic time vacuum. You spend hours, watching one unrelated program after another, changing channels on a whim. That’s why moderation is a good thing. Like anything else, learning when to stop will change a television addiction to using it for recreational and entertainment purposes.

As per my first blog post, I watch a lot of television. Currently, I’m watching and/or have watched:

· Doctor Who – It’s a British show that’s been airing since 1962. The show’s main character is The Doctor, who is a time-traveling humanoid alien. He travels across time and space, visiting many places in the past, present, and future in different planets and galaxies. It may seem cliched, but Doctor Who was probably the show that started the trend.

· Chuck – Chuck is a show on NBC about an “ordinary” person, Chuck Bartowski (played by Zachary Levi), who has his brain implanted with the entire CIA database. Needless to say, this leads to a lot of strange scenarios.

· White Collar – Con man Neil Caffery is captured by the FBI after years of being chased, and offers to help them solve cases using his connections, experience, and skills, in exchange for his eventual release.

· Psych – After an odd situation forces Shawn Spencer to pretend to be a psychic, he must use his actual detective skills and wit to pretend to be a psychic while solving crimes for the Santa Barbara Police Department.

· Scrubs – This show follows the antics of J.D. (John Dorian) and Christopher Turk through their experiences at Sacred Heart Hospital. With a bunch of slapstick humor and short episode times, watching Scrubs is great for relieving stress after a long day.

I watch TV for the reasons posted above. It’s for entertainment and for when I have free time, and it’s a great escape from the pressures of life.