Truly Interesting Piece Of Nonfiction (or a Memoir)

This piece of text is a memoir  more than nonfiction, but I still recommend it to anyone. Always Running, by ex-gang member Luis J. Rodriguez from the San Gabriel Valley, is now a former author, critic, journalist, and children' s book author. he also has put up a multicultural center in the San Fernando Valley called Tia Chucha` s Center where the Latino community can join and have fun.

In the memoir, Luis explains his troubles as he was getting older. He would inject himself some kind of drug into himself that provoked the body to be really intoxicated and the feelings and emotions Luis felt afterward. It also shows how rough the gang members are between each other. The title itself implies that gang members are always running from police and the law.

What I See Is All in My Head

So I went to this website to check out a cool illusion and my first impressions about the illusion I chose was that it really changes your vision, but just for a split few seconds. Once you take your eyes off the screen, I looked at the back of my hand and it looks really wierd. It looks as if my hand were in some kind of liquid like form. 

Why Seven Times?

NEWS PRESS RELEASE: 13 Year Old Andy Lopez Gunned Down By Santa Rosa Sheriff 

Research on Environmental Racism

This research paper turned into a blog post encompasses racism with the environment because we tend to place stereotypes based on how clean or dirty a certain country looks to be. The jump below this introduction will show you what I mean. Enjoy ! 

Help Needed

I need help, my viewers. I want to add a few more things to my blog but I just can`t seem to find the way how. So if any of you know or would like to share some links to a special website, do so in a comment below. Thanks a lot in advance. 

Melancholic Graduate of 2014

Take some consideration that this is Hamlet in 2014: 
Will I be or won`t I be a graduate of Righetti High School during June of 2014? That is the question. The answer is yes and I am standing here before you giving a speech on how I accomplished my present goals and how I will go through "the road less traveled" (Robert Frost). It is mid-June and it is very hot, so here I go ...

We have all had bumps in the road. Some bumps are larger than others. My mom is having an affair with the "king", she is mentally dead to me, my father has been jailed  or presumably recorded as dead by now, and my biggest task is to go to college? How does something like that happen? Well, we all have to do our homework and classwork at some point. Now for the selection of classes, you have to choose them strategically, almost like a game. If you choose the wrong one, you will lose points and would have wasted precious time in the process. Your scholarship packets are your swords and shields when going into battle with the 3 headed admissions officers. Your armory, if built correctly, will get you through the gate on to a better life. If not, you will be eaten up and spit back out to where you started. But, whose to say that we haven`t all defeated those beasts to get through that wonderful gate? Now what you do beyond that gate is up to you. Now you are a grown, well built man, strong enough to defend yourself. You have just started to live your own life and will be improving the lives of your future family from what you have learned in your childhood and adolescent years. 

Declaration of (Learning) Independence

We the students of the classroom of Dr. Preston, will come together and revolutionize the learning institutions and teaching strategies for future generations to come. As an individual, I wish to learn more about the Internet and its other many functions
To know some of the acronyms and what is their significance in the Internet realm. To realize that blogging and the Internet overall is an untapped potential waiting to be discovered. To learn why the Internet has its pros and cons and how we can eliminate some of the cons to make the Internet the ultimate tool ever invented. To learn how to correctly type on a standard keyboard.  

No Child Left Un-Tableted

I am truly up for going toward the usage of a tablet only as an all around tool. I like the idea of having the textbooks allin one device instead of carrying 2-3 pounds worth of bound up paper. Somehow I still feel like using the traditional pen and paper because then I know my work is written somewhere and it is not some where lost in the cyberworld. The pen and paper method works because your eyes don`t get   really tired from looking at the screen for 7 to 8 hours more or less. 

Vocabulary I didn`t understand: 

• Adept
• Luddite
• Feasible
• Repudiation/ Kneejerk
• Competence
• Accrued
• apostles
• Caveat
• Dilation
• Raptly
• Besieged
• Bureaucracy
• Conceding 
• Clamored
• Metacognitive
• Cognitive
• Consortium
• Plausible
• Proxy
• Ideological
• Ascendant
• Blubious
• Commodified
• Transformative

Will Study for Food

My plan is to attend Allan Hancock College first and then maybe transfer to a four year university such as California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo or California State University, Northridge. I have visited CSUN two or three times with one of them being the time my middle school hosted the graduation ceremony in one of the auditoriums. I have not visisted CP SLO but from the pictures it looks pretty nice and swell. My only concern is that I have heard that California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo is a little racist toward other races, not be full American. I  know for a fact that CSU, Northridge is more diverse with their students and their ethnic backgrounds.  

My two main majors that I want to pursue are a Business Management and an Environmental Engineering degree, specifically designing  and building new ways to produce renewable resources so we no longer have to use fossil fuels. This includes not using coal to generate electricity. My overall pinnacle goal is to completely erase the use for fossil fuels even for objects that claim to be environmentally stable. Environmental stabilty/sustainabilty/ friendly all mean emitting very little or no greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.    

My only knowledge of the two schools is that Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is a very hard school to get into. on the other hand, CSUN seems like a more affordable choice considering that I know more about that school and that I know more of where that school is located. 

Tools that Change the Way We Think

Passage from Dr. Preston`s post:

From In the Plex by Steven Levy (page 67) 

"Back in 2004, I asked [Google founders] Page and Brin what they saw as the future of Google search. ' It will be included in people`s brains, ' said Page. 'When you think about something and don`t really know muchabout it, you will automatically get information.'

'That`s true, ' said Brin. 'Ultimately I view Google as a way to augment your brain with the knowledge of the world. Right now you go into your computer and type a phrase, but you can imagine that it could be easier in the future, that you can have just devices you talk into, or you can have computers that pay attention to what`s going on around them and suggest useful information.'

'Somebody introduces themselves to you, and your watch goes to your web page, ' said Page. 'Or if you met this person two years ago, this is what they said to you... Eventually you`ll have the implant, where if you think about a fact, it will just tell you the answer." 

RESPONSE:
At first glance and some thoughts, the Internet seemed like a really good idea, especially after having included it into the first smartphones. The Internet is where it is a global library, where you can look up any records for a research paper available online and maybe print out some famous paintings from the cyberworld`s grand gallery choices. The Internet is also where you can buy whatever you may desire, from clothes to shoes to electronics and even pre-order food items that are needed in your refrigerator from your local supermarket to be shipped to your house no time flat. Some examples of online shopping are Amazon or eBay, or just search for your preferred retailer and possibly they will have items to be sold online. People now and before, have gone to the library once or more times to check out some kind of book, newspapers, articles, DVD`s, CD`s, and maybe a cassette. But the Internet has its flipside. The very well known hackers are people who get into the Internet mainframe and rearrange some codes or of the like to be rich or to cyberbully or to create a new identity for themselves to not get caught by the federal authority. The hackers are also who make it difficult to decide whether the Internet should be a "free" place to roam or be very enclosed and locked up very well. My suggestion is to for the government to hack into their mainframe and shut them down, so that way we can live in two "free" worlds, one virtual and one in the reality. 
The reason I have put the word "free" in quotations is because not everything is liberty or of no monetary value in this life. You have to realize that life isn`t handed to you on a silver platter. 

Filter My Bubbles

The responses to the questions: 
A) I learned that privacy is no longer private in this country. Also that the government has been eliminating our freedom to speak or publish little by little. 
B) Doing any engine search changes my way of what I am looking at on the Internet because now I know that the government is looking at it and can be used against me in any way. 
C) The questions that rose from this video about the Internet in generalis that we have left our faith to technology to protect us from the harm of the Internet. In some ways it is good and in other ways it is really horrible. It is good because you don`t have topay for a human being to be controlling the computer processors and that "gatekeeper" as the video called it works intelligently. In another way the "gatekeeper" isn`t that all intelligent because the algorithms it uses sort of are like bribing a security guard to let you in to that really high end restaurant. the system that Google and Bing and Yahoo are using should be changed for the best of humanity for such reasons as Edward Snowden. 
D) I can improve the effectiveness of my searches by going to websites that don`t care who you are or what kind of job you have or what are you are looking for. Those      websites I prefer the most because they are there to help and aid you, not to profile you based on the searches. An example of that would be DuckDuckGo.

Environmentally-Friendly Connecting the Dots

We, as humans tend to connect the dots for everything, from finding the solution to a crime and trying to find the things in common. With that, the paper that we are supposed to write has to link somehow to our future careers and majors to racism, one of the issues facing our world very often. 

The career that I want to pursue is being an environmental engineer. Environmental engineering, in general, is the integration of science and engineering principles to improve the natural environment, to provide healthy water, air, and land for human habitation and for other organisms, and to remediate pollution sites. The engineers are also concerned with finding plausible solutions in the field of public health, arthropod-borne diseases, and to implement laws to remediate and adequately place correct sanitation in urban, rural, and recreational areas such as playgrounds or national parks. Female and male engineers also are in charge of waste water and waste disposal management, the control of air pollution, recycling anything (especially shipping containers), radiation protection (for those citizens that live next to the nuclear plants), the rights to industrial hygiene, environmental sustainability (energy efficiency, water and gas conservation, waste reduction, etc.), and take care of public health issues. You should have some kind of environmental engineering law  school degree with you before you leave college. It is basically the same thing. The only difference is that the law degree gives that person the right to be the lawyer for the better future of the envionment. The "green" lawyer protects any of the above laws if they are broken. The "green" lawyers have to have both environmental engineering and law school to address complex environmental problems, most frequently include land transactions. 

I chose this career as my main career because I am concerned for the environment, that we are burning off tons of fossil fuels and that our present leadership doesn`t seem to look at that. I do believe that renewable energy is the future for the United States, economically as well. We already have some electric cars coming out of motor companies such as Ford, Chevy, Nissan of America, and Tesla Motors just to name a few. The United States could once again be the the giant powerhouse of the world. All we need is for someone to believe in this type of future and implement it into everyday life. 

The way that it fits into racism, profiling and discrimination is how some people are placed in categories depending on the location of their home, either being from a dirty farm or coming from a sleek, industrial-designed megacity. Also race has to do with how sanitary an ethnic group is and how I can help them meet sanitation codes, as the engineer that I will be in the near future. Race and ethnicity has to do with  environmental sciences in general because we tend to segregate those that we think are filthy and don`t pick up for themselves to those that want to leave a pretty, clean, and manicured park the way it is. Also it can be on the city funds, too. Maybe some cities have money to keep the city clean but it is just not enough to keep up with the city`s demand for more street-sweepers and rainstorm drains. 

Notes for the Racial Profiling Research Paper

These are the notes that I took the day we discussed over the paper: 
(NOTE: THIS IS A FUSION BETWEEN MY OWN RESEARCH FROM ONLINE SOURCES AND THE NOTES TAKEN IN CLASS THROUGHOUT THE ONE TO TWO WEEKS.)

• Limitations on the first amendment
• Hate speech
• Obscenity
• Copywriting laws (plagerism, pirating DVD`s)
• Guarentees freedom of speech, press, and religion
• Outlines what Congress can`t do but it limits on what we can say
• Another thing not covered by the First Amendment is any speech said that has immediate or irreperable harm to the nation or its individuals
• en loco parenti "in the place of the parents", for school purposes
• En loco politico "in place of the politics"
• Schema-a representation of a plan or theory in the form of an outline or model. In psychological terms, it is when a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information
• It can be useful because it allows us to take shortcuts in interpreting information in the available environment
• Dangerous because it excludes pertinent information that is available to that environment
• Focuses on things for confirming pre-existing beliefs and ideas
• Can contribute to stereotypes and make it difficult to process new information when it doesn`t go with our personal beliefs
• Stereo types used such as ethnicity/race, religion, gender (the in and out groups)
• Definition: a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image of an idea of a particular person or thing
• Common stereotypes used today are toward politicians, tattoed persons, the elder, and feminists 
• The value of life - who is greater / lesser than in life (could be money, status, etc.)
• Verbal, nonverbal, peraverbal communication (used on a day-to-day basis and can offend other people who take a particular thing the wrong way)
• Verbal-to convey a meaning 
• Nonverbal-body language, hand movement, distance between people personal space, eye contact with one another
• Peraverbal-qualities of voice, volume, speed and pace used by the speaker, tone, talking fluently and then abruptly pausing
• the right to your opinion-how you should question and validate other`s opinions based on cold hard facts provided by them 
• type of experimental ideas:

• theoretical-it is the "world" of ideas and information provided
• Applied- that it can be used and tested in the real world and where there will be results

Questions that we came up with:

• How do we know racial profiling when we see it? 
• Why is racism such a huge problem?
• What are the causes of racism and how can it be fixed?
• What forms can be found in racism? 
• Why are people racist? 
• Describe the history of racism in this country going back to about the 1800`s.

For more info, please go to Dr. Preston`s website. It should be under the Research Paper post. 

UPDATED November 20th, 2013: 
Content to the Introduction

• The author should point out the important issue
• Point out that whatever being said, it is contributing to the issue, and helps to fill in the gap
• We ask a question to see how it can be done
• How can you answer the question

Methodology Section

•  what is my strategy to examining the source I am looking at
• Where do I find the sources I need

Five Go-To Sources for Literature

Here are my go-to sources for really good literature
1. Barnes&Noble
2. Google Play Books or the App Store, depending on the type of platform you use
3. Dr. Preston`s shelves in his room 
4. http://www.bibliomania.com/ is for everything other than nonfiction
5. your local library

Netvibes Review

Netvibes is a place more for the person who wants everything news or work related all on one screen to be more efficient and to get on with the day. Netvibes, to me, really doesn`t help me out because I am now used to going to Dr. Preston`s website and looking around for what I need. Also it is a habit now. 

UPDATE: MONDAY, MARCH 3, 2014

On second thought I will be using Netvibes for the six-resources-a-week deal we had. So I'll report back soon.

Fall Vocabulary #3

1. slapdash- very ignorant
2. reprimand- lecture from a higher rank in society
3. annihilate- to obliderate, destroy
4. arbitrary- your personal decision
5. brazen- bold, without shame
6. catalyst- molecule that causes a chain reaction or change
7. exodus- movement of people; massive departure
8. facilitate- to make something easier
9. incorrigible- bad, beyond correction
10. latent- hidden
11. militant- aggressive
12. morose- gloomy or sulky outlook 
13. opaque- stain glass window, unclear, vague
14. paramount- most important, highest, superior
15. prattle- go on and on, like people gossiping
16. rebut- to disprove evidence
17. servitude- the condition of being a slave or being forced to obey someone
18. stagnant- no activity, to stay the same, not changing or improving
19. succumb- to give in to superior force; to stop opposing someone or something, and allow him, her, or it to take control

SENTENCES: 
1. Old people are very SLAPDASH because they don`t really want to hear you reprimanding them. 
2. Time and time again, my mother has REPRIMANDED me on participating in clubs and sports throughout high school. 
3. I will ANNIHILATE the enemy army in Call of Duty by using every resource I have in inventory. 
4. My ARBITRARY is to start catching up on the blog posts because I haven`t been posting like I had before. 
5. President Obama has the BRAZEN attitude to send troops to Syria, even when the public has an arbitrary against him. 
6. The student body president`s speech was a CATALYST for the students to start participating in fundraisers for the school clubs and general supplies. 
7. The Trail of Tears was an EXODUS for the American Indians because they were forced out of their native lands into reservations to make way for new industry and housing. 
8. The technology of today has FACILITATED our everyday life to the fields of medicine, finance and even sports events. 
9. The car, gone to the plains to rust, is in an INCORRIGIBLE state of driving anymore because it has also grown with the earth and the weeds. 
10. A police car was LATENT behind that mound of dirt a few miles back. 
11. My eighth grade U.S. History teacher, which was also my sixth grade World History, was very MILITANT because she had us cut and paste papers into our notebooks in little as 45 seconds. 
12. Eeyore is very MOROSE when he is confronted with a situation. 
13. The test was very OPAQUE because it had material that we had never learned before and that we were going to learn soon in the year. 
14. Hopefully, I turn out to be a PARAMOUNT of a really successful corporation and not be an Earth hater. 
15. Those two ladies sitting at the back of the bus have been PRATTLING since I boarded this bus. What are they talking about? Who knows.
16. In any English class, it is encouraged that you REBUT the teacher in any you can so the teacher can get a feel for the student`s thinking capacities. 
17. SERVITUDE was a huge deal back before the Reconstruction period. Any slave that had left the plantation for freedom in the North was, by mandatory, to be sent back to the slave`s owner and be punished very harshly. 
18. After a Thanksgiving dinner, the family waddled to the living room and sat there very STAGNANTLY. The turkey is the culprit!
19. Do not SUCCUMB to other people when you have the right answer, in some situations.   

Fall Vocabulary #1

1. expository-to describe something 
2. composition-the ingredients that compose an object, literally or figuratively
3. assuage-to appease, to make milder or severe, to soothe, calm or mollify
4. decadence-deterioration, moral degeneration or decay, excessive self indulgence 
5. hackneyed-made commonplace or trite; stale; banal
6. coalition-combination or alliance, temporary one too; union into one body 
7. transcend- overpass or exceed; elevation, extent; independent of 
8. meritorious-deserving praise, reward, esteem; praiseworthy
9. lurid-gruesome, horrible; glaringly vivd or sensational; terrible in intensity
10. petulant-moving to or showing sudden, impatient irritation, especially over some trifling annoyance

SENTENCES: 
1. The journalist was very EXPOSITORY when he said the airplane ran on only diesel fuel. 
2. The blog will be COMPOSED of posts that are very critical thinking questions. 
3. I hope we can ASSUAGE the baby down because he has been crying alot lately. 
4. Over the course of time, the DECADENCE of our nation`s bridges begin to lose their strength due to natural wear and tear and weather beating. 
5. The loaf of bread has become HACKNEYED because we don`t eat the bread that`s bought for that specific reason.   
6. Cesar Chavez started a COALITION to end the discrimination against the grape and farm workers of the San Joaquin Valley. 
7. We are TRANSCENDING our national debt by comparison of any other country on Earth. 
8. The parents gave the student a very MERITORIOUS gift at the end of high school, a brand new computer for college.
9. The 70`s were LURID period in our history because there were new trends in fashion at that time. 
10. Some people that are very PETULANT, especially the kind that can`t stop talking, are the kind that I can`t tolerate. 

Fall Vocabulary #2

1. obesity-the condition of being very fat or overweight 
2. accumulate-to pile something on, form a steadily increasing quantity
3. mass-body of coherent matter, usually of indefinte shape and size 
4. disease-toxicity from poison, etc.,that harms the body
5. diet-such a selection or a limitation on the amount a person eats for reducing weight 
6. prevalence- condition of being prevalent or widespread
7. stigma-mark, wound, or place that is a stain, reproach, or an ID to someone 
8. prevent(able)- to stop something from happening, or stop someone from doing something that could otherwise be irreversible
9. adolescent-encompasses both physiological and psycological changes
10. cardiovascular- of or relating to the heart and blood vessels
11. excessive(ly)- going beyond the usual, necessary or proper limit 
12. mechanism- assembly of moving parts performing a complete motion
13. sedentary- to take little exercise
14. predispose- give an inclination or tendency to beforehand
15. syndrome- a group of symptoms that together are characterized as a specific disorder, disease, or the like. 

SENTENCES: 
1. OBESITY is a very big problem around the world because the fast food corporations are stationing in other countries aside from the U.S. locations.
2. I should start posting the assignments up on my blog, or I will have an ACCUMULATION of other posts to create. 
3. Most of the time, very well built corporations create their own products by the MASS to keep up with the public`s demand.
4. The Black Plague DISEASE killed many people in Europe during the early 16th to the late 17th centuries.
5. Keeping a DIET to lose weight is alot worse than not keeping a diet at all because you tend to double your weight after a few months the diet has come to its end. 
6. You should be really PREVALENT in high school especially so colleges know are very active in everything. 
7. Middle-Easterns tend to have a STIGMA toward the United States, for most of the anti-democrats, because they believe we have caused the chaos in their country. 
8. Fires can be PREVENTABLE if everyone does their part to put the campfire out. 
9. The ADOLESCENT needs to shape up if he really wants to participate in the army or to get a job.
10. The CARDIOVASCULAR system tends to work faster because when you are obese, the heart is weighted down by the fat molecules. 
11. The high class society spend an EXCESSIVE amount of money on themselves and don`t help out to pay off the national debt. 
12. In the near future, human body MECHANISMS will be replaced with bionic parts to help the disabled achieve basic tasks such as grabbing and walking. 
13. I, just like most of America, like to be SEDENTARY, especially when the winter season comes around. 
14. I give a PREDISPOSITION toward eating that plate of ribs by myself. 
15. Children with down SYNDROME can`t really speak or move any body parts. 

Reflections on Week One

1. The factor that is going to affect my learning experience is the Internet hotspot that I have at home. Sometimes it does not work and sometimes it does, so I can`t really assure that I will have my blog up to date whenever I can.
2. My best ever learning experience was last year with the Marine Science teacher, Mr. Davis. he had us do a project on a marine animal, create the presentation, and present the animal after Spring Break. Well, I accomplished all the requirements, and my day to present in front of the class was here, and I was really nervous. I felt like my throat was starting to close up and that I was feeling really thirsty. But, now I know not to get nervous and keep a very small distraction nearby.
3. I am excited that other people will be looking at my blog and commenting on my posts for me to here what they have to say.   

My Opinion Is Not (A) Right

I found a few of confusing words in the article
Epistemic-of or pertaining to knowledge or the conditions for acquiring it
Infirmity- physical weakness or ailment; lack of strength

It`s All Latin to Me

Dimidium facti qui coepit habet: sapere aude, incipe
Translation to English: "Dare to be wise." or "He who has begun is half done: dare to know, dare to begin!"

This phrase means to me that your journey is far from over. You still have a long road ahead of you. the original author of the quote is from the Roman poet Horace who wrote this quote in the year 20 B.C. According to Horace, he suggested the value of the human endeavour, that we should persevere and persist and put the most effort when we are confronted with the most difficult and challenging obstacle , only so we can move forward in more ways than one. There are few examples in American history where this qoute can be applied to, such as the first person to land on the Moon, when Henry Ford is credited for creating and using the assembly line, Marie Curie and her discovery of the x-ray, the Great Depression of the 1930`s and 40`s (how we got through it with the New Deal plans and President Roosevelt) and the Dust Bowl, and maybe even the the launch of the first few video game consoles to hit stores by the 1980` s (for a few laughs and giggles). There are many other examples that put our country aas the stronger world nation, although other placed their contributions as well.  

Will this blog be seen tomorrow?

Personally, I really love how we are advancing in technology, science, medicine, the military, etc.,  but when we need technology to help us get a cup of water, that is taking it way over the line. Don` t get me wrong, I still love how our smartphones and Internet-integrated televisions work, and anything else that starts with "smart". I also like that we are trying to improve the education system with the new technology. I do find some defects to this kind of teaching model. First, is that if homework will be done on a regular basis online, that would be a problem for somebody who doesn` t have access to the Internet for whatever reason it may be. the last problem is considered toward the instructor. How will the teacher keep tab of all the 100-150 students in his class at once for homework or classwork or anything related to academics? Again, I love how technology is advancing and making our everyday lives better, but it needs some improvement, especially for the education of today
P.S. I still love Dr. Preston` s way of teaching!!!

My Big Questions

My question depends on our nation`s future. The questions are -Will there be ways to eliminate the use of petroleum altogether so other nations aren`t fighting about it? and Can we find a way to not keep the Earth from being covered in so much trash, despite the population growth? If we find a solution, then my next question is about the economy. What are some ways to decrease the national debt? Many people have many questions about this topic and the government doesn`t seem to tackle it any way possible.

From the Pixar film WALL-E

What is Expository Composition ?

Definition (given by dictionary.com)
Expository-of the nature of exposition; serving to exbound, set forth, or explain
Composition-act of combining parts or elements to form a whole; manner of being composed or structured. My own definition of expository composition is that you express yourself in a different way instead of the traditional textbook routine, reading and comprehending the text.