Another Pointless Post

So all week long I've been repeatedly going to Andrew Rudd's blog. I look at the long list assignements, almost none of which I have actually completed. Each time I do this it is because I have decided that I should write a blog that is actually based on one of the blog assignments. I should put some thought into what I write and relate it to what we've been learning in class. But I don't like to think. So I look up and down the list, reading and re-reading each of his blogs. Then I come to the conclusion that I don't want to do any of them. Why? Because I am becoming lazier and lazier.
Would you like to know what I have been doing? I've been listening to this song from a YouTube video over and over. I have it memorized now.


I intend to go to a McDonalds and do this same thing. But I think I'll alter the rap slightly because I'm nearly positive that you can't actually order a Dr.Pepper there.

I wish every day was my day to tell a story in class. I love telling stories.

~Nadia

Minority Report

Music is a very powerful thing.

Last night I found myself staying up with my sixteen-year-old brother, once again, listening to Jay Z. “You have to hear this song Nadia,” he said to me. “It makes me feel so guilty. It’ll probably make you feel guilty too.”

At these words I was very prepared not to feel guilty. In fact, I was prepared not to feel any emotional difference after listening to the song. And I might not have if I hadn’t listened closely to and considered the words. But my brother made me listen. He repeatedly stopped and rewound the c.d. to break down the words and make me listen to them.

I've come to realize that my mind is very desensitized and my heart is incredibly insensitive to crisis, tragedies and all such like. After all, most news is bad news. I’ve been hearing bad news nearly every day of my life since I was a child. It’s what is reported. And my mind hardly processes the meaning of anything I hear any more.

The song my brother had me listen to is called Minority Report. It’s about Hurricane Katrina. And when I remember my reaction to the news of Hurricane Katrina I remember feeling sympathetic and being prayerful, but that was about it. I didn’t feel sad or passionate or enraged. I didn’t cry. I didn’t feel compelled to go and help those people. It was just another horrible thing that was happening amongst tons of other horrible things around the world.

I clearly remember sitting in kitchen at my grandma's house with the news turned on. My aunt gasped, "That's awful," she said as she covered her hands with her mouth. Then she turned her head, "Hey, are those green beans done yet?"

But when I listened to the words of the song, I imagined if it was me in the situation if the Katrina victims. I imagined if it was my family sitting on the roof of our flooded home. I imagined my brothers and my sisters wet and cold with nothing to eat, no sanitary place to dispose of waste, or sleep or live for days.

It hit me really hard. "Wait..." I said to Bruce. "How long were they stranded on roofs?"
"For days Nadia." he said.
This is also when I considered the words, "George Bush doesn't care about black people," in a different way than I had before. I had been watching the television when Kanye West said those words. And I had agreed with him. But it wasn't until over a year later that it crossed my mind, "Bruce," I said. "That's inexcusable. And there's no way it would have never happened if all of the victims were white."

Please read the lyrics as you listen to this song. I think the words are more powerful than the images of the video.

Here are the lyrics:

"Minority Report"
(feat. Ne-Yo)

[Intro: News Excerpts]
The damage here along the gulf coast is catastrophic.
There's a frantic effort under way tonight to find
survivors. There are an uncounted number of the dead tonight...
People are being forced to live like animals...
We are desperate...
No one says the federal government is doing a good job..
And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people...
No water, I fought my country for years..
We need help, we really need help..
In Baghdad, they they drop, they air drop water, food to people..why cant they do that to their own people?
The same idiots that can't get water into a major American city in less than three days are trying to
win a war...

[Verse 1 - Jay-Z]
People was poor before the hurricane came
But the down pour poured is like when Mary J. sang
Every day it rains, so every day the pain
But ignored them, and showed em the risk was to blame
For life is a chain, cause and effected
Niggas off the chain because they affected
It's a dirty game so whatever is effective
From weed to selling kane, gotta put that in effect
Wouldn't you loot, if you didn't have the loot?
Baby needed food and you stuck on the roof
Helicopter swooped down just to get a scoop
Through his telescopic lens but he didn't scoop you
The next five days, no help ensued
They called you a refugee because you seek refuge
The commander-in-chief just flew by
Did he stop? No, he had a couple seats
Just proved jet blue he's not
Jet flew by the spot
What if he ran out of jet fuel and just dropped
hu,That woulda been something to watch
Helicopters doing fly-bys to take a couple of shots
Couple of portraits then ignored 'em
He'd be just another bush surrounded by a couple orchids
Poor kids just 'cause they were poor kids
Left 'em on they porches same old story in New Orleans
Silly rappers, because we got a couple Porches
MTV stopped by to film our fortresses
We forget the unfortunate
Sure I ponied up a mill, but I didn't give my time
So in reality I didn't give a dime, or a damn
I just put my monies in the hands of the same people that left my people stranded
Nothin' but a bandit
Left them folks abandoned
Damn, that money that we gave was just a band-aid
Can't say we better off than we was before
In synopsis this is my minority report
Can't say we better off than we was before
In synopsis this is my minority report

[Verse 2 - Ne-Yo]
So many times I'm, covering my eyes
Peeking through my fingers
Tryin' to hide my, frustration at the way that we treat
(Seems like we don't even care)
Turn on the TV, seein' the pain
Sayin' such a shame
Then tryin' to go on with my life
Of that, I too, am guilty
(Seems like we don't even care)
So we send a lil' money, tell 'em it's alright
To be able to sleep at night
You will pay that price
While some of these folks' lost their whole life
(Seems like we don't even care)
Now it wasn't on the nightly news no more
Suddenly it didn't matter to you no more
In the end almost nothing changed
What the hell, what was that for?
(Seems like we don't even care)

[Outro: News Excerpts]
...Buses are on the way to take those people from New Orleans to Houston
...They lyin'
...People are dying at the convention center
...Their government has failed them
...George Bush doesn't care about black people

You Guys Want Some Cookies?

This isn't actually related to anything we're discussing in class; I just want to see what people think about is.
I was thinking the other day about the phrase, "in love." What does it mean to be in love? I was puzzling over phrases like "I thought I was in love." or "Have you ever been in love?" or "How do you know if you're in love?" when a thought occured to me. I've never actually heard a real person that I actually know describe the way he or she felt as being in love. And that brought forth this question.

Was the phrase "in love" invented by the media?

I'd like to know what people in my Mass Media and Society class think of this. I really want feedback so I have a bribe for you. I will bake cookies for the first five people to give their thoughts on this matter.

Go.

~Nadia

Response to Blog Four

Okay, let’s go with The Coming of the Messiah. I think this myth is most prominent in fairy tales. Wouldn’t you agree? I absolutely love fairy tales, particularly fairy tales in the form of Disney Movies, so I think that Sleeping Beauty would be a marvelous (and obvious) example.
The Coming of the Messiah is a myth in which something goes horribly wrong and one person (or a group of persons I suppose) comes along and fixes it for everyone.
In Sleeping Beauty a baby princess is given the “gift” (I’d say it was a curse) of death by a rather grumpy fairy. All of the other fairies are giving her gifts that more like blessings. They gave her beauty, wit, grace and musical talents. But then here comes along Miss Grumpy Pants Maleficent ruining the party by making it so that at the age of sixteen, this baby princess will die.
Here enters Messiah number one: Merryweather
Merryweather is a good fairy. She tries to reverse the spell, but that would make the story absurdly short and uneventful. So she instead is able to make it so that Princess Aurora will not die on her sixteenth Birthday, but fall asleep until she is awakened by her prince charming. And to keep them from grieving, Merryweather makes it so the entire kingdom will fall into slumber along with their princess.
For her protection, Princess Aurora is raised by the good fairies for sixteen years. And even though they know about the curse (or gift or whatever it’s supposed to be), the fairies do a rather lousy job of watching over her. Maybe it doesn’t matter anyway because if she was supposed to prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep, she was going to.
So a spinning wheel magically appears before Aurora while no one is looking. She is drawn to this spinning wheel and next thing you know she’s pricking her finger on a spindle, just as Maleficent planned, but she didn’t die. She fell into a deep sleep, just as Merryweather intended. And the entire kingdom fell into a deep sleep as well. How terribly awful!
But wait! There is no need to fear. For here enters Messiah number 2: Prince Philip.
Hooray for true love. This daring young man comes along to save everyone from eternal slumber. He kneels next to his sleeping beauty, and with true love’s first kiss, unbinds her. She and the kingdom awaken and they, most likely live happily ever after.

So there we have it. Sleeping Beauty = The Coming of the Messiah.
Hooray.

~Nadia

I lied

The previous post is actually a response to blog four. I would change the title but I couldn't figure out how. The next post will be the actual response to blog six. But that title will have been taken already by that imposter blog so maybe I'll title Response to Blog Four.

Just giving you the heads up. You know, so I don't throw you off guard.
Yup yup.

~Nadia

Response to Blog Six

I have decided to write about one of my favourite semiotic domains despite the fact that am hardly a part of it anymore. Or perhaps I am in some sort of way, but not in the way that I used to be.
When I was a little girl my mom took me to see the ballet. When I saw the images of dancing sugar plums, nutcrackers and snow flakes it seemed clear to me that this performance could be nothing other than the product of magic. Immediately upon seeing the wonders of the lights, hearing the wonders of the music and feeling the wonders of this magic I fell completely in love. I wanted nothing more than to be a part of this magic. I knew in my child’s mind that if I could not become one of the ballerinas up on that stage, my life would never be complete. So in order to complete my life my wonderful mother enrolled me in ballet lessons at The Canton Ballet. At the age of six, the completion of my life began.
I danced with the Canton Ballet for eleven years. I was an awkward dancer compared to the other girls who seemed to be so petite and somehow, more perfect. But I loved ballet, despite the fact that it didn’t take me long to know the blood and sweat of hard work from discipline, and unknown magic. I was quickly disenchanted.
Words like tendu, plie and releve took on meaning and I knew when to stretch my leg forward and point my toe, bend my knees and, rise onto pointe. These things were drilled into my skull so deeply, that I could be seen in the school hallways doing ballet, and I wouldn’t even realize it.
Ballet is one of my favourite semiotic domains because it had a great impact on my life. Even though I rarely dance these days some of my best friends are people from my affinity group (look at me using vocabulary) at the Canton Ballet. Ballet is still very much a part of who I am. I’m not one of those dancers who started dancing as soon as I could walk, or went onto a school of dance after high school, but it instilled a love for performing in me, off and on stage. Singing, dancing, acting and playing music became what I was all about. And if you pay attention you’ll probably notice me still standing in first or fifth position every now and then. Yup yup.

~Nadia
So hooray for ballet.

My Brother's Affinity Group

I didn't even realize when I started our assignment of experiencing someone else's affinity group. I just went up to my little brother's room to study because he has heat in his room and mine is freezing. I started to complain when he turned on Jay Z, even though it was his room.
“No, we’re going to listen to Jay Z.” he said. And that was the end of that. I could either listen with him, or I could leave. And seeing that I enjoyed the cozy warmness of his room, I decided against the latter.
As I made an attempt to like my brother’s music while I did my work, it dawned on me that I was listening to music outside of my affinity group. “Hey Bruce, what’s the name of this album?” I asked. “Kingdom Come.” He said. “Why?”
“Why do you like Jay Z?” Apparently this question warded a look that clearly said, “Are you out of your effing mind?” because that’s what he gave me. And he immediately began to ramble all of the things that make Jay Z a wonderful music artist.
“He’s not hot headed,” he said. “And his words actually make sense. He makes good albums. Not good songs, good albums.”
So I listened closely to the lyrics of the songs. And despite the horridly atrocious grammar I did enjoy some of the lyrics. I especially liked the song Minority Report. These were my favourite words:
“People was poor before the hurricane came
But the down pour poured is like when Mary J. sang
Every day it rains, so every day the pain
But ignored them, and showed ‘em the risk was to blame”
My little brother then shared with me his other favourite music artists. His top five were:
1) Nas
2) The Game
3) Jay Z
4) Kanye West
5) Eminem (And I actually love Eminem too)
I like a wide variety of music, but rap is probably one of my least favourite genres. That isn’t to say that I dislike all rap music. I am a very big fan of Eminem and I absolutely love some of Ludacris’s stuff. But my when I listen to my brother’s music I am most definitely listening to music outside of my affinity group. And although I did enjoy listening to Jay Z’s album with him, it is very unlikely that I would invest my own money into such music or listen to it on my own.

Mission accomplished

~Nadia

Meh

Well, it's been two weeks and I've posted nothing. I have no excuse for my laziness so I suppose I will post a blog now. Actually, I will post two blogs. Three if you include this third pointless post. I enjoy the pointless posts though. There will probably be more.

~Nadia

So indecisive

I am so indecisive right now. I have been indecisive for several days. And so I will post nothing.

This post was pointless but I wanted to do it anyway.

~Nadia

This is a Test Blog

Esto es un blog de la prueba.
C'est un blog d'essai.
Est a teste blog.
这是测试blog
這是測試blog