selfie

I like football.
I watch every Sunday. I listen to ESPN radio and I have an ESPN app on my phone. I also like tennis and baseball and movies and music and NPR and clothes.
Fashion is fun and purchasing fashionable clothing at really low cost is practically orgasmic.
And my laptop KNOWS this about me.
According to it, Roger Federer and I are good friends. The Bears and the Bengals count on me.
It informs me of this quite often with little pop-ups enticing me and daring me to look and maybe purchase must-have items that declare my devotion and unique expression of love for my teams.

It also tells me that exotic Brazilians nearby want me and apparently my penis is too small but with a pill I could fix that.

I like looking at real estate in various areas of the country so now realtors in Seattle are convinced I'm ready to purchase my dream house in Washington and become a Seahawks fan. They enthusiastically call to see if I'm ready to make the move. While they text and call, ESPN is bombing my phone to make sure I understand Andy Dalton's thumb doesn't require surgery and the Bears moved four positions up in the power ranking this week.
Meanwhile, my good friend Seth Rogen keeps me updated on sweet bud and whatever asinine statement The Donald has made. But now I'm name dropping, so I'll stop.

Even Netflix has an opinion on what I like and should watch based on my viewing habits. I'm a fan of Nazis and the Holocaust in documentary form and Michael Scott and the clan and I do love Piper and the girls (OITNB) but I think my occasional viewing of a good Marriage Bootcamp or Keeping up with the Kardashian's confuses my technology.
It confuses me sometimes.
Based on information gleamed from the ether of the internet I'm a hot, wicked-tongued vixen haunting the web like a ghostly mix of Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer and Hannah Logan (with a small penis.)
(Yes, I know that the Extenze email and pop-up comes from porn surfing. Porn is now mainstream entertainment and there are two kinds of people in the world: those who watch porn and dirty liars who say they don't.)
What technology doesn't know about me is that I'm a woman who loses sleep because I have no clue as to where my life may be going. I cry because I feel fat and ugly. I work at a pizza joint with a boss and customers who verbally abuse me yet I don't bring in enough cash to make ends meet.
I live in a town and go to a university that reminds me on a daily basis that I'm different.

I'm a ghetto-billy from the south side of Chicago. An outsider.

I do my best to remember I have a choice to react or not react to disparaging remarks.
I believe life is an experience, no judgment good or bad, just experience. And sometimes I do well living my belief and sometimes I hate everything and everybody. Sometimes I find the beauty in just being alive.
I like the fantastical life my laptop and phone and TV have decided I live. In many ways it's a design I'm creating of an ideal life I hope to someday live. It's a great escape.
Every night I get to snuggle in my bed and see myself reflected back to me through Instagram and Facebook and pop-ups that Hannah is a hot, sports-loving chick with cash living life like an OG.
AND if I had a penis, I sure as hell wouldn't need a pill. I know this because I had one in a dream once and it was all good.

Facebook Campaign: Jeff Ham Art

I took over the social media aspect of my friend's art career. Along with the Facebook, I also created an Instagram for his business, Jeff Ham Art. 

What worked for the Jeff Ham Art social media campaign:

• First and foremost, Jeff needed an easier way to contact the several galleries his work is in. With the Facebook, the galleries were able to tag Jeff's Facebook, which in return helped Jeff receive recognition for his work
• Galleries were able to message Jeff with information about upcoming shows as well as how much work they were expecting for certain dates
• Galleries were able to double check prices with Jeff
• Gives collectors an opportunity to find the galleries Jeff's work is in, which also promotes those galleries and gives them business
• Allows art collectors to view the range of subjects covered
• Allows art collectors to contact Jeff without giving away his personal phone number
• An ideal outlet for selling giclees (prints)
• Allows the public to express their thoughts and opinions about his work on a public forum
• An inexpensive way of advertising 
• Great way to build a fan base 

Young people are attracted to Jeff's work and Facebook is a great outlet for reaching them. 

The age group that the majority of the collectors are in don't turn to Facebook to find art. However, Facebook is really good for the younger generation of collectors. It is a way to cultivate a new audience and get in touch with them now. 

Jeff is an artist and does work at his own pace and on his own time. Something I wanted to capitalize on was his artwork. With that being said, I was unable to post and share as much as I would of liked to due to lack of work output from Jeff. I noticed when posting a picture of Jeff working or a piece he finished, it received a greater amount of likes than when I posted about a football team or another artist. 

Cross-promoting worked very well. I shared Jeff's page on my personal page and many of Jeff's friends and galleries also shared his page which led to more likes and shares. On Jerry Garcia's birthday, I shared Jeff's painting of Garcia on Garcia's official Facebook and that received numerous shares and likes.

4:00 p.m seemed to be the time more people were on so I would make it a point to post around that time.

The total amount spent on advertising was around $300. A majority of the likes we received were due to the ad that was running. 

Self-Evaluation:

I believe that I did well on my Facebook campaign for my friend. However, I do believe that I could of done better. I could of come up with some sort of alternatives for the work that I would of been posting. I could of used social media to find out what people wanted and expected from the page. I did well at responding in a timely fashion to clients and galleries with questions and prices. With the $300 spent on advertising, I was able to close two deals over the Facebook making around $3,900. Many other prospective clients have since contacted me about ordering originals and prints. I am going to continue to work with Jeff and implement some of my ideas that I think will be effective. 

Sustainability: Madrid

Madrid Social Environment 

Pollution- 

Madrid has new rules establishing warning levels, which if they are sustained, will lead to a progression implementation of restrictions leading up tom a bar on access to some vehicles.

Warnings are issues urging driver to leave their cars at home and the speed limits are lowered on major roads if readings of nitrogen dioxide exceeds 250 micrograms per cubic meter of air reached. 

If the readings remain high the following day, only neighborhood residents are allowed to use the parking meters. And if the levels remain high the third day, vehicles are cut by 50% as odd or even number license plates are banned. 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11444948/Madrid-brings-in-tough-anti-pollution-regulations.html

Philanthropy- 

The Real Madrid Foundation develops social and cultural awareness programs. The main objective of Real Madrid is to promote global comprehension of sports, education, in addition to promoting and disseminating the cultural aspects linked to sports. The Real Madrid Foundation exists due to the contributions of different public authorities, national and international companies, and thousands of Madrid's fans. The foundation divides its activities into five main areas: sports activities, educational and cultural activities, social welfare activities, international cooperation and institutional activities. 

http://www.realmadrid.com/en/about-real-madrid/foundation/about-the-foundation/annual-memories

OTM: Recognizing Default Responses

I've come to realize that being objective is something many people struggle with greatly, including myself. We've all grown up with news outlets leaning one way and discretely placing words and forming sentences to curb an opinion. 

I’ve learned through Inipi (Native American ceremony) and speaking to my teachers that the best way to go through life is with an open heart and an open mind. I'd like to think that this way of life is reflected through my work but I know it is not. We are all influenced by every single thing. What we like and what we hate. 

Like most people, I form opinions and assign labels without realizing. Lately, I've learned that this just makes my life harder, not anyone else’s. So, I should probably just fucking stop doing it and become aware enough to realize when it’s clouding my perception of the world around me.

With most of the OTM assignments, I reference and go off of the opinions and attitudes that I hear from the hosts and the guests. It can range anywhere from the structure of a sentence or the tone the speaker is taking while reporting or commenting on a story. Most of what I wrote about, I already knew about from another news outlet before hearing it on On The Media.

And I learned something about myself: I don’t like religion interfering with the law and I don’t like that women and people of any diverse culture are placed below the middle to upper-class, middle-aged, white man. 

When writing about Kim Davis, I remember being very angry that it was even a story, nonetheless making national headlines. A common theme that I notice through my work and my life is a distaste for organized religion. It makes an appearance every day in my life and I come face-to-face with it constantly because of the school I chose to attend. On days that I’m lacking self-awareness it comes out as anger and a bias. Most days I strive to keep a fair and open mind and understand both sides. That’s easier said than done. 

I’m triggered by issues of equality and inequality. 

As a twenty-year-old from the south side of Chicago brought up by a single, non-religious mom, I was raised to be kind and open to the differences the world has to offer. However, by saying that I do not under any circumstance believe that means I’ll let someone throw their opinions at me like they’re facts and I’m wrong for thinking any different. Sure I have some bias towards certain issues and many are looked down upon in the community I reside in. I believe that as a non-religious student, I should not have to learn about religion when I’m not in a class teaching religion. I believe that morals range from one human to the next, so why so much judgment? I believe that women are just as smart as men and should have equal opportunities. I believe that my best friend Terrence (T-Rexx) should have the opportunity to have a voice, no matter the environment. I believe that my other best friend, Chandler should be able to marry his boyfriend because I can marry my boyfriend if I so desired. I believe with all of my being that we all believe in something different, so who’s to say what’s right? 

I enjoy reading everyone’s blogs because on some level, I learn about the person behind the screen writing them. I definitely disagreed with some of what I read but I get some insight to the way people think. 

Understanding the difference between the suggestions that you grew up with from your parents and grandparents, clergy, wards, aunts, uncles, pastors and bishops, and peeling those away and discovering what you actually think and believe, is the beginning of having self awareness and will lead to you expressing your own beliefs in a honest manner. This self-awareness is what I’m striving for right now, to know what is mine and what are the suggestions that family, culture and society have thrust upon me.  

So far, the best that I can hope for is to have self awareness and be responsible and acknowledge when I'm coming from judgment. 

Everybody is influenced by everything and we're lying to ourselves if we don't acknowledge that. Very few people have original thoughts. As I understand and learn about myself, I can let go of the things that don't fit for me.

Like the students in my Interpersonal Communications class describe me, I’m a “gay-loving, tattooed, culturally diverse, drug dealing-alcoholic.” 

Climate

Climate change is here. And it's happening and it's just going to get worse.

It's appears that most people don't believe it or understand the severity of our situation.

Haileigh mentioned today in class Obama's efforts to combat the climate change that occurs by capping the amount "allowed" to rise at 2 degrees Celsius. 

President Obama attended the climate summit in Paris and was among the Group of Seven (G7) of the world's largest advanced economies. They came to a conclusion and reaffirmed their commitment to keep the globe's average temperature from rising past 2 degrees Celsius. 

To put this in perspective, I'll explain what would happen to the human race and the planet if we got near 2 degrees Celsius. 

Depending on where you're at in the world, will determine how you are affected. Warming over land is twice as intense as over the ocean. It is exacerbated over the Arctic, where retreating sea ice reflects less light and so produces less cooling. 

According to Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist and head of the climate analysis section of the independent National Center for Atmospheric Research, the most severe precipitation patterns associated with a warmer world are already showing up. 

Last year, surface temperatures of the sea in the subtropical Atlantic were as much as 1.1 degrees Celsius above normal and about half of that increase can be attributed to global warming. 

A 2010 report by the National Research Council, breaks down a series of changes. Every one degree increase could lead to 10 percent less rainfall during the North American, southern African, and the Mediterranean dry seasons. This then leads to the loss of crop growth and more wild fires. 

Climate change has led to fire seasons that are now on average 78 days longer than in 1970, according to a Forest Service report published in August. 

This isn't just happening on the West coast either, the "wet drought" has hit the soggy Pacific Northwest where snowfall has now turned into rain in the region's mountains. The little snow that does hit the ground, melts early and leaves the land ready to burn in the heat of summer. 

Each degree could bring up to a 400 percent increase in area burned by wildfire in parts of the western U.S. 

July 2015 was the warmest month ever physically recorded on planet Earth.

Take that in.

And with months left of fire season, the blazes of 2015 have already scorched more than 8 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Some of the fires that are occurring in the forested areas could burn until it snows. 

This tragedy of climate-driven mega-inferno is that the fires themselves actually worsen global warming. From these wildfires, megatons of carbon dioxide is pumped into our atmosphere.

According to a new major study by scientists at Columbia and NASA, man-made warming is increasing atmospheric evaporation - drawing water out of Western trees, soil and shrubs. Just in California alone, the epic drought is up to 25 percent more severe than it would have been, absent climate change. 

Humans have never lived on a planet that's 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) warmer than it was before we started burning fossil fuels, which was in the late 1800's. 

Climate experts say we risk fundamentally changing the human race and life on this planet if we do cross that 2-degree mark. 

What would the world look like at 2 degrees?

• Wildfires in the United States would increase 400% to 800% in size.
• Hurricanes are expected to become 2% to 8% more intense.
• 20% to 30% of animal and plant species will be at increasingly high risk of extinction. 
• Certain crops in the U.S, India and Africa will decrease in growth 10% to 30%. 
• The Arctic will keep melting, losing 30% of its annual average sea ice.
• The availability of freshwater is expected to decline by 20%.

And not to mention all of the displaced people that would be left with no home due to rising sea levels. Major cities everywhere will be under water. 

So...

All of those mentioned above are really shitty. 

But it's possible to stay below those 2 degrees. 

Instead of denying the change in climate, let's just agree that it's occurring and all do something together to try and slow down the process.

Let's just stop being lazy and try to make a difference, maybe not for us, but for our children and our children's children. 

We have to stop treating climate change as a political football and acknowledge it as the world crisis it is. It doesn't matter whether humans have accelerated the process but that the process is happening and we must ban together or go the way of the dinosaurs. 

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/06/08/g7-reaffirms-2-degree-global-warming-target

http://www.livescience.com/10325-living-warmer-2-degrees-change-earth.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/what-megablazes-tell-us-about-the-fiery-future-of-climate-change-20150915

Religion 3.0

"Religion is the opium of the people." -Karl Marx, German philosopher and economist. 

The Holocaust, Charlie Hebdo, ISIS, the Crusades, the Inquisition, practically every Middle Eastern conflict, and countless more, all have at least one common thread- religion.

Disenfranchisement, discrimination, racism, sexism, and homophobia all have a common thread- religion.

If you think about it, religion is at the heart of many conflicts and issues that we've dealt with since the dawn of civilized people. 

In all of the great cultures that have come before us, our Christian society has looked back and discounted their religions referring to them as myths. At it's core, myth is simply a way for a man to make sense and find his place in the universe.

All religions are myths. Even our modern day Christian culture is based on mythology. 

They're stories told to make sense of our world and our place in the universe and to give us structure. 

It is an illusion that people use to find comfort and safety in their place and their purpose in life. 

All religions are myths including: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc...etc... 

These are not factual histories though there may be historical facts in them. 

They are works of fiction, or myths, all the same. 

Religions are businesses that are run to make money. They make money by keeping people disempowered and afraid. Instead of unifying, they keep people separate by pronouncing that they hold the real truths. If you do not believe their way, you are wrong, and there begins all matter of chaos. 

Religion is the pill we take to get through the day because we don't want to question or think for ourselves. But there are side effects; we give up analytical thinking, the opportunity to be accountable for our own actions, and the possibility that we are inherently good as opposed to inherently flawed. 

And the reason I say we give up analytical thinking for religion is because why else would a perfectly reasonable human being say that the earth is 6,000 years old? And nonetheless defend that proposition to the death with myth from his bible as though it were fact although hard provable science tells us otherwise.

I would love to think that we can be empathetic human beings that would rather not kill people. And not because we think it's some sort of "ticket" to the heavens but just simply because it's the right thing to do. 

Why are women and gays and people of any sort of color treating so unfairly if religion is all about loving thy neighbor as yourself?

Qur'an (4:11) "The male shall have the equal of the portion of two females."

Qur'an (2:228) "and the men are a degree above them [women]"

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and continue to have - an option to interpret holy teachings to exalt or subjugate women. 

I find it ironic how women are now welcomed into all different levels of professions and positions of authority, but are seen as inferior and are deprived of the equal right to serve god in positions of religious leadership. And this trickles down to minorities. 

Like c'mon, black people weren't allowed to be members of the LDS church until 1978, which isn't that long ago in the scheme of things.

I find it so tremendously difficult figuring out why women, black people or gay people would want to be a part of any church simply because of the unified belief that these organic occurrences are sinful and wrong.

The contradictions and commandments to love and accept everyone unless they believe in a different religion or they were born loving the same sex or are a different color. Churches and religions preach love but their actions are all about separation and hierarchy. Separation being the individual is not capable of communing with god without an intercessor (priest, pastor, bishop, etc..) that the individual needs to have it explained to them because they are not capable on their own of this enlightened understanding. It's a great way to make money and ensure job security. And the person being preached to agrees to this because now they don't have to think for themselves and take responsibility for their actions. We are sheeple just following. 

This is based on fear of someone or something different and not love and accepting someone of their own terms. Because of this fear, we try to change or assimilate the outsider to accept our norms. And if they don't, then they are bad. People's feelings then get hurt and then everybody wants to fight everybody because everybody believe that they have the "right" way and all of the answers for everyone else. We tithe and donate to keep these money making, yet not for profit institutions running. The Catholic church is the richest corporation on the planet. 

Yet again, this is all based on myth and no fact, no data to support any of the stories. And everyone is ready to be insulted and persecuted to the extent that they're living to fight and die for a lie. 

Ask most people if Jesus was an historic figure or a myth, they will tell you an historic figure. And there's not one shred of evidence that Jesus ever walked this earth. 

Also, saying "that's not true, it's in the Bible," does not count as a counterargument because the Bible is not fact. 

It infuriates and saddens me that people turn to these institutions for answers instead of turning to themselves for the answers. Instead of questioning the inconsistencies and teachings and stories, they just trust that if they do what they're told, everything will be okay. 

So this justifies aberrant behavior such as discrimination, sexism, homophobia, and genocide as the Lord's work.

I like to keep my options open.  I don't have answers. I don't purport to know the truth. I believe it's okay to just say, I don't know. 

I believe I know the difference between right or wrong, not based on the fear of god but on an intuitive understanding and empathy for the human race that is born in me. Give me science and data and my own experience of the world, not proselytizing and judgment.





OR

My toilet bowl is my spiritual advisor. It keeps me low to the ground and humble and grounds me everyday. And constantly reminds me that I'm full of shit. 

Darkode

Radio Lab-

I think you [Eric Young] mentioned this last time in class and my reaction hasn't changed since hearing it reiterated on RadioLab.

These are the new internet pirates.  Well, internet ghost pirates.
There's not even a place we can go to and beat them up or threaten them for the acts their carrying out.

I don't like it at all. I feel vulnerable because I don't possess the kind of skills to fight back if need be.

It's a freaky situation all around.
First off, our FBI can't even shut them down..
That's most definitely a problem in itself.
They [internet pirates] do such a successful job at keeping their business running and keeping it out of sight from anyone that tries to threaten it. So there's that. TWO WEEKS and their site was back up.
Our FBI can't do anything and I'm no code expert, so I sure as hell wouldn't be able to do shit about it.
This woman had to pay $500!
I definitely don't have that amount of money laying around and I especially don't have it to pay off some crazies to regain my stolen, locked files.

After class on Tuesday I had an epiphany (I guess that would be the best word.)
We are so insanely stupid and unaware and careless that we're letting this happen to ourselves.
After watching the TedTalk about cameras being able to track our license plates all over the country, I had a mini panic attack.
To think this happens all the time is unsettling. I never know when I'm being watched and that does not sit well with me at all.
I went through so many scenarios and options of what I can do to stop this from happening to me and everyone else and the only thing I really came up with was rioting because we know protest don't do anything.. Which rioting isn't cool and it's dangerous so I would rather not do that to begin with. But somehow that's the only option I came up with. And I wouldn't be just me out there trying to do something, everyone must come together to try and stop this invasion of privacy and the raw slaughter of basic human rights.
The citizens of this country that believe our government can do no wrong are stupid.
And I mean stupid with all of the power that comes along with those six letters.
Our government is spying on us and if we would of looked into it, easily we would've known about this and been able to figure out what was going on even before Mr. Snowden leaked the information he did.

We allow this to happen to us by not caring enough and not standing up for our rights.
(Hope you all sang the Beastie Boy's song)

Unfortunately, I don't know enough about this to even come up with a realistic solution.
It's like the Wild West or pirates and the shitty thing is that we can't arm ourselves with guns for protection. We're fighting ghost. The only way we can fight back is with knowledge. Coming personally from me, I don't posses that so therefore I'm extremely underarmed.
Like the founder of Darkodes, the younger generation is raised in this environment of technology where they are exposed to the answers. Whether they decide to use this and arm themselves is entirely up to them.

I think RadioLab did an excellent job as always.

Privacy 2.0- legal, but is it ethical?

The window of the universe- Facebook's newsfeed. 

It seems like now-a-days I open my laptop to a sob fest. From grandparents dancing with one another on their billionth anniversary, to gay men getting married and a little girl greeting her father that's just returned home from overseas, Facebook has some ballsy emotional appeal going on, but did you know it's intentional?

Very few users would notice because let's face it, we all watch the dog videos so it's normal for others to pop up every so often. 

However, in January of 2012, data scientists skewed what almost 700,000 Facebook users first saw when logging on to their page. 

Some of the Facebook users were shown happy and positive, uplifting posts and the others were shown what was analyzed as sadder than average posts. 

Once this trial run of emotion was over, analysts noticed that the manipulated users were more likely to post either positive or negative words on their own Facebook based on what they viewed. 

This experiment is legal and if you read into the actual terms of service provided by Facebook, they're allowed to use their data for "testing, data analysis and research." 

The question is whether or not it's ethical to intentionally manipulate someone's newsfeed to make them feel a certain way for an experiment.  

The reason for the study was to show whether or not emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, which leads to people experiencing the same emotions without their awareness. 

This shows that we don't need direct human interaction to achieve this emotional contagion. 

However, I'm not sure this study achieved this effectively anyway.

We already know that we don't need human interaction. Take books for an example. Specifically fictional books allow readers to experience feelings and emotions whether they've actually had firsthand experience with them or not. I believe this was proven a while ago by a study that was featured on NPR that I listened to. Unlike non-fiction, which may or may not have that effect on the reader, fiction allows people to experience the same level of emotion whether or not it's actually taking place. Good fiction tricks the brain into experiencing these emotions.

This is the same thing that is going on in the news programming, and that's troubling. 

News media features stories that are more sensational and negative because those garner higher ratings. They all do this. Depending on which news outlet you listen to, it slants more to their viewers  conservative viewpoint (Fox) and more liberal viewpoint (MSNBC) or CNN, who is just the whore of three who just wants ratings.

The end result being, we don't get an accurate view of the world around us, but a manipulated view that erodes our confidence in the world around us needlessly because it's all feared based. News outlets are just interested in numbers these days as opposed to objectivity.

Furthermore, the Facebook study was flawed in many ways. One being the analysis of different words.

Someone saying "I am not happy" is different from someone saying "I am not having a great day."

The software used to conduct this experiment would target the word "not" and define both sentences as a user being unhappy and not pleased. 

Susan Fiske, the Princeton University psychology professor who edited the study for publication said; "Ethically it's okay from a regulations perspective, but ethics are kind of social decisions[....] there's not an absolute answer but the level of outrage that appears to be happening suggests that maybe it shouldn't have been done and as I'm thinking about it, I'm a little creeped out too."

I have mixed feelings about this.

I never under any circumstance want my feed to be manipulated by some random dude for a study. 

I understand why so many are outraged about that aspect.

However, I believe this comes down to a personal choice.

I believe I have the choice to react to something or not. Whether it's put up there to intentionally make me sad or piss me off, I firmly believe it's my decision on how I continue my day. 

What my friend likes or their friend's friend, it somehow ends up on my feed. Whether it's put up for an experiment or ends up there from my grandma's second cousin liking something from four years ago, I have the discipline to chose the fate of my day. 

I would love to live in a world where I don't constantly doubt the information and the intentions behind it. 

For more information on the study, click here.

OTM: What, Bob?

I just wasted ten minutes of my life listening to two pompous asses mentally masterbate on air. 

This is an example of the kind of minuscule peek behind the curtain mental workings of nerdom that gives NPR a bad name.

No body cares and it makes absolutely no difference what word these wannabe wordsmiths honing their vocabulary skills to find a term to name people who don't believe in climate change use. 

They spent ten minutes on people who over think problems that aren't problems. 

Thanks NPR.

I enjoy On the Media, but hey sometimes you can't always hit a home run.

They really didn't even get on base this week.

Speaking of baseball, Go Cubs! 

Physical- It happened in a recording booth and over the air. 

Psychological- The emotions for me were: pissed, bored and confused.

Social- I think NPR is an excellent outlet for information. However when they can't find any other content and as a viewer I know they're just filling space, it leaves me feeling dissatisfied. 

Cultural- The language of Bob and his guest we're really pointless for me this week. Again, I really love NPR but sometimes they just don't do it for me. 

Temporal- This happened over the air, which I'm surprised even got aired. They were speaking about climate change because the Pope believes we need to take responsibility for our carbon foot print. 

I know my blog is awfully short this week, I had a hard time finding joy in anything I listened to. 

Who represents me, 2.0?

So next fall will be the first time I will be able to vote.
And in all honestly, I have no desire to do so.

Although, I did like Bernie Sanders in the beginning because Neil Young liked him.
Then I read about him....
Also he's Jewish and good ole 'Murica don't like no Jews running this place.

I do not support any politician running for president nor do I support any politician in general (at least the ones I've come across thus far.)
Every time I read into who's doing what, there's is some sort of undertone that leaks from within and leaves me feeling violated.
We've all heard about the issue with Ben Carson and his remarks about Muslims in office and we've definitely all heard about Trump's such lovely words directed toward minorities and women.

Not even as a woman but as a human being, why would I support such bullshit?

I'm not religious and I don't pretend to be to get people to like me.
However, most politicians use religion to pander to a segment of the population in order to get votes.
And religion has no business in politics anyway.
Yet it remains a large factor in determining someone's favorability in polls.
All of these constitutionalist who pound the bible and use that as a foundation of this country should maybe go back and reread what the actual founders of this country wrote and the real meaning of the Constitution.
Anyone who thinks that the world is 6,000 years old, should not hold any political office because they're stupid. (((*Mike Huckabee & Mitt Romney & Sarah Palin etc..*)))
Like come on, can't they do a basic test of these guy's knowledge??

The point I'm trying to get at is most everything we listen to, watch, and hear about what politicians are saying is a lie.
A big, fat lie.
But since they're politicians, it's not polite for us to say they lie, instead they're obscuring facts and giving out half truths and being misleading, but certainly not lying.
My apologies.
However, if you or I were to do this, we would most definitely be held accountable and guess what, we would be liars.
Lying is a conscious altering of facts in order to gain the upper hand.
On the campaign trail, the presidency and the senate floor, this is just called politics.
And that's OUR fault. We allow them to do that by using the excuse that "...it's just politics."

They tell us what they think we want to hear but rarely exposing the truth of who they actually are.
Personally, I doubt they even know who they are.
Because politics is about telling the sweetest lie, the one we all want to hear and believe.
The voters don't hold them accountable, in fact they keep electing the same miserable class of people. The media sure as hell doesn't and the actual politicians certainly don't hold themselves accountable.

So in the end, why would I want to vote for any of them?
They're all wretched liars whose only goal is to get elected at any cost and then hold the position at any cost.

The cost in the end is our well-being and our country's well-being.
And we certainly don't hold ourselves accountable, we just bitch about it.


Maybe I'm not the only one who's tired of the same old, same old. Perhaps this is why Donald Trump and Ben Carson are leading in the polls- they're not politicians.
And that's the new, sweet lie we all want to hear.

OTM: Memes-the heart of global education

This shit drives me nuts.

All I could think about throughout the length of this On The Media segment is how awful I feel for the Syrian refugees and their families.
The refugees are casualties of politics and war and now also casualties of immigration agendas and fears.

It makes me sad that anyone would take a meme and seriously apply it to the issues that are taking place in Syria without any other knowledge on the topic.
It's either ignorant or hateful.

I would hope people would realize that memes are not a legitimate form of information.
At its best, memes are great political satire and at its worst they are "truthiness," as Steve Colbert says.
The truth is that lazy people and under informed people use memes as some sort of data in the same way they use Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and countless others as news and data.
Though these people may be looked upon as dispensers of news, they're all really just like memes-
entertaining, rarely informative and all "truthiness."
But they are very easy to digest and always at hand so it requires no effort to read a pesky newspaper or do some research on your own.

Like eating potato chips instead of a real meal.

...everybody loves potato chips.

And everybody loves memes, all you have to do is find a meme that supports your deepest, darkest thoughts, pop it up on your screen and feel like you've actually accomplished something or made a statement.
Meanwhile you've just dehumanized a race of people who've just been displaced from their war-torn homeland by political savagery.
And you feel like you've just made your own world a little safer by keeping them out of your precious boarders.

Isn't it great to be part of the inter-web and see how we open our hearts to the plights of those in need?
Long live the information age!

For more information and wiser insight, listen to OTM: Debunking Migration Memes.

Learning 2.0: We don't need no education

So I spent an inordinate amount of time thinking about what this week's topic could bring up for me, personally.
I eventually figured it out and this is what I discovered about learning-

We only learn as much as we allow ourselves.
It's really that simple.

I firmly believe that the educational system we're all raised in is actually suppressing the learning experience we receive.
I'm not speaking necessarily about college or universities, rather the grades k-12.
Our present school system only teaches to the middle, ignoring the bottom and the very top students.
The way we're being taught is an assembly line, cookie-cutter style that breads mediocrity.
If we don't perform well on a standardized test, it reflects poorly on us as the students as oppose to the curriculum and the teachers.
As an example, John Oliver, host of the HBO's Last Week Tonight Show, did an entire segment on this very issue. He spoke about a female student that was the star pupil. Her school system calculated her expected state test score from her previous grades and achievements. According to the calculations, out of the 800 points possible, the student was predicted to score an 870.
Obviously this is an impossible task and when she didn't accomplish that score, her whole school's average went down and she was looked upon as a failure.
Another example is when students learn about the Vietnam war. Sure after the whole half hour they spend on this they can maybe tell you the dates of when it took place but a student cannot explain or understand the significance of how the Vietnam war impacted our country and continues to today.
Teachers will passionately defend this kind of teaching because their jobs depend on it or they simply just don't understand the significance themselves.

This is why education is an ongoing process and is put on the shoulders of the individual.
Education or schools serve only as a headline to understand that there are things that individuals should learn about but that is something only the individual can do alone.
Every time I scroll down or listen to CNN, The Rolling Stone, NPR shows, or The Huffington Post, I read about the insanity going on around the planet. And I realize then that education is a never ending process that is my responsibility and not the responsibility of the lower or higher educational institutions.
This grants me the feeling that I'm soaking in what's bleeding out. This is not prompted by a teacher or parent, it's just an urge to be aware.
I believe there's always a learning experience present but it's our choice whether or not we notice that.
Learning can be anything or anywhere.
Learning can range from listening to the radio to something as routine as getting the mail.
I do my best everyday to stay openminded and aware of the opportunities that the universe is always gifting me with.

OTM: EFF those Founding Fathers

Oh my "God..."


The Kim Davis situation is ridiculously simple.
No one is trampling on her ability to practice her religion, not allowing her to believe in her belief system or making her do anything against her will.
It's a question of her doing the job that she was hired to do.


If Kim Davis were my employee, I would be brutally straight forward with her:
she does not have to believe in the certificates she is handing out but she must perform the task that she was hired for and agreed to do.

This is an equal rights matter not a religious argument.
I'm sure there are Jewish people working at Albertsons or Kroger or any chain grocer that sells bacon. When I purchase bacon from a Jewish cashier, it does not make them less Jewish.
They could care less if I die of a heart attack.
When I purchase a latte from a Mormon person who works at Starbucks, they are still Mormon and I haven't affected their belief in the church.
Kim Davis would have you believe that she has to give up her religious integrity in order to carry out her job. Whether somebody is married to the same-sex or not does not reflect on her or her belief system.
She is simply rubber stamping a certificate that is endorsed by the state, just like selling bacon or coffee.

Kim Davis is not a persecuted Christian being fed to the lions but a grand standing attention seeking wannabe martyr with nothing to say, much less listen to.
She is only upstaged by the talking from both sides of their face, political hucksters Cruz and Huckabee who shamelessly ride on her back of vapid martyrdom trying to look morally superior and presidential. Whorish is the word that comes to my mind instead of presidential.
And the media sucks at the teat of controversy, all media outlets such as CNN, MSNBC, Fox and NPR.. This is not really a story but it fuels controversy and that makes ratings. And ratings have become news.
This was a story about a woman who refused to the job she was hired to do.
I would have fired her and found someone who didn't have trouble signing a certificate.

Facebook Campaign

Page Name- Jeff Ham Art

Page link- https://www.facebook.com/artjeffham

Mission- As the administrator of my friend's business Facebook page that I created, my mission is to get his name and work out and into the public eye. Along with recognition, I would also like to have a place buyers/collectors can go to and view his work and get a feel for the type of art he does. Also, if clients had an issue or question or would like to speak with Jeff, they could contact one of us through the Facebook page.

Market Personas- 

Stephen is a 64 year old man. He is a retired cardiologist that lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. Stephen has always loved art and until his recent divorce, he wasn't free to purchase pieces that he admired. Stephen's home is arrayed with a range of different contemporary artist's work. Each room possessing a different theme. Now that Stephen is newly divorced, he's interested in fresh, new work.

Blake is a 22 year old college student that grew up around different art studios. Her dad worked as a commercial illustrator from the time she was a little girl until now. Since going to college for fine art with an emphasis on sculpting, she has expanded her art horizons. Blake's way of understanding art is  observe artist while they're working. She also looks up art on the internet to discover new artists.

Joni is a 29 year old that just graduated from Stanford University. Her and her fiancee, Neil, (30) are aspiring lawyers on the up and coming. Joni and Neil are establishing their names in the New York City market. They recently bought their first place together and are looking to furnish their New York City apartment with contemporary artwork.

URL- facebook.com/artjeffham

OTM: Ashley Madison-Cheaters getting cheated

Ashley Madison is a website that is available for people that want to have an affair. Ashley Madison has been in the news lately because the website was hacked and the hackers are demanding users to pay them in order to keep their profile private and away from their partner.
There are even sites that you can go to and type your partners name in and find out whether or not they're registered with Ashley Madison.

First off, if you're going to cheat on your partner so be it, that's not my issue.
My issue is that these cheaters are actually being cheated out by the actual website.

8% of the "females" on this site are real women..
The other 92% are robots.
You are cheating on your wife/husband with a computer.
They found out that the number of actual human women were staggering low when the IP address for thousands of the accounts were the exact same along with the email addresses as well.

60-70% of the revenue was just men paying to talk to bots.
Nice.

I'm all for people experimenting and living their lives the way they want to. I don't condone cheating but the circumstances are never specified.
According to OTM, Ashley Madison is actually more of a fantasy site.

There are things called "purpose bots."
Ashley Madison offered a "guaranteed affair" for the price of $250.
The bots engage with the high rollers and then pass them along to affiliates.
As listeners, we don't know who or what the affiliates are.

Men that access the site after monitoring porn sites are given off to a "porn bot."
These lovely bots talk dirty to the guys and send "adult content" to the user.

Again guys, these are computers..

People are being exposed for being on this website and their partners are divorcing them because of an affair WITH A ROBOT..
Makes sense.

Depending on where you came from and how much you make, different types of bots were programmed to talk to you.

Instead of Ashley Madison making a profit off of affairs, it's actually making money from just pure fantasies.

On The Media related the two by saying Ashley Madison and the stupid app Farm Ville are the same exact thing in many ways.
A couple being you're creating this alternative universe that you're engaging in imaginary activities while using and paying for imaginary objects.

Physical- This happens everywhere. Obviously in the world of Internet though.
Psychological- I think a lot of different emotions come up when talking about such an iffy topic. My feelings toward the Ashley Madison controversy are really slim to none. However, partner's of these people that are involved with the website... I'm 100% they feel a little differently.
Social- I think in today's society there are so many rules. I hate it. I think automatically many people that hear and write about Ashley Madison are happy that these people have their information out there and have been exposed. I, on the other hand, disagree. How can someone know someone else's life? They don't. I don't know the circumstances that entice a partner to cheat on their partner. And I never will know.  But I do know that circumstances arise and it is what it is. The "rules" of what is right and wrong are such bullshit.
Cultural- Oh the morals.. The morals of people differ from every single person to the next. Again, I don't know why a person is a member of Ashley Madison. Does this disrupt my life and make me lose sleep? No. I'm faithful to my honey and wouldn't think about joining something like Ashley Madison because I have no desire to. I don't believe this is the same for every person. So I do not judge. Morals of one single person does not mean shit to the next.
Temporal- The hack just happened in the last couple months I believe. So the wounds are still fresh.

Hey if you want to cheat on your partner, so be it.
No judgment from me.
And if you specifically would love to cheat on your spouse with a robot, well my friend ashleymadison.com is where it's at.

On The Media: Ashley Madison

Racism 2.0

Racism-

(n) The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

My whole life has been based in a whole other world from St. George, Utah. I grew up on the south side of Chicago which is one of the most criminally dangerous areas in the country. 

An example being, when the Chicago White Sox won the world series in 2005, there was a shoot out between the police and the residents of the area. 

However, I wouldn't ever change any experience about my life if I had the opportunity. 

Since coming to St. George, I, personally, have been turned down from serving a table because of my tattoos. And that's just the beginning of it for me. 

I can only imagine the loads of shit that any sort of racially diverse person gets. 

I often times go to The Huffington Post for information and so again today, I did.

I researched "racism" on their site and multiple posts and links came up to a wide range of different views on the issue. 

Of course Donald Trump was the first thing that popped up but the one post that really caught my eye was a story about a black family reunion that went wrong.

The story starts out talking about the Allen family reunion that took place at Rollins Lake in Nevada County, Sacramento.

It then goes on and talks about a white family showing up at the lot adjacent to where the family reunion was taking place.

Racial slurs were heard by the members of the Allen family  and one woman says, "when you're African American, you have to do that [ignore the slurs] in order to move forward."

The slurs went on and escalated to the point of the other family yelling, "I didn't come here to sleep next to any fucking niggers."

As the weekend went on, shovels were thrown at the Allen's camper and threats were made that if the Allen family didn't leave, they would be killed.

The Allen family went on to say that maybe they were a bit naive to think that they could go into an area that's not necessarily known for diversity and thinking nothing would happen.

This is where I would like to point out how insane the world we live in is. 

Why can't anyone of any race go anywhere they wish without getting shit?

And this is why it's hard for me living here.

I know it's this way a lot of places in the U.S. Some incredibly worse than others.

The aspect that no one is understanding to my knowledge, is that if we don't address this issue, absolutely nothing will change. 

I would like to use St. George as an example again.

Today is class we discussed some of the issues I'm writing about.

A couple students pointed out that they don't see issues so it's really something that they don't need to worry about or are a part of the problem because they haven't personally experienced it.

This pisses me off and is a crystal clear example of a group of people that don't want to acknowledge there even being a problem. 

My friend Terrance said today that he rather not speak about it, meaning racism.

I don't want anyone, let alone my good friends, to ever feel like them not speaking is better.

Sadly, specifically in this community, but many others in America, large amounts of people feel the same was Terrance does including the woman in the above story.

Speaking out and acknowledging one of the biggest issues for our country is important.

I can only hope the world my children and my children's children live in so much less shitty than this one. 

If you would like to read the article, click here

On the Media: The Fat Jew

The Fat Jew-

I was glad to hear that "The Fat Jew" (Josh Ostrovsky) was finally called out for his lack of talent, comedic skills, or anything resembling substance on NPR's On The Media.

I became aware of The Fat Jew through HBO's 3AM, a half-hour reality show and was shocked to discover that Josh was already well known and had 5.8 million followers on Instagram. I was also taken back that he was featured on HBO, seemingly only because he is savvy at social media and tries to defuse his lack of talent by stealing other people's material and calling himself a "fat Jew."

It was refreshing to hear Maura Quint and other comedians calling him out in public and in public forums like On The Media. 

The show focused on how people in social media can manipulate and steal content via images or written words and use them with no credit to the originators. In Josh's case, stealing them to create the illusion that it is his creative property. 

In the show they use the term aggregator, in this case meaning someone who collects and collates property. 

Though in Ostrovsky's case because he never gave authorship to the creators, he is not collating or collecting for our amusement. He is just simply stealing to attain attention and fame. 

In social media, this problem has been around before Josh Ostrovsky and will continue because social media allows anonymity. We can all steal, paste, and package anything that we find because few people seem to care or even know that they should care. Many who are stolen from never know it has even happened to them or they find out too late to do anything about it.

Our obsession with social media and being known for simply being known continues to spiral out of control. The Fat Jew is just one stupid example that comedians are upset about but no one else seems to care because we want what we want and we move on.

I disagree with the host's claim that the Kardashians don't fall into that category. I feel as if they most certainly do. They're simply known for being rich, they possess no talent to speak of. They are vapid, mind-numbingly boring and suck the oxygen out of the universe leaving a vacuum where my brain used to be. 

It seems to be a dumbing down of our culture as well as the whole planet. 

Social media is everywhere and with so much information at our fingertips, few people seem interested in using it to explore origins of art, commentary or thought.

Social-
Below you'll seem more in depth of how this contributes to society. The roles stealing ideas takes on the social aspect of life is ginormous. We don't want to take accountability for not being able to come up with our own art so we end up stealing other's ideas and saying they're our own for the pleasure of feeling good about ourselves and also how other's see us.

Cultural-
Again I spoke of these headings throughout my blog but I find it sad about low my generation can go when it comes to plagiarizing. We, including myself because I know I'm not above it sometimes, find it so easy to copy and paste someone's work and not credit them one iota. Our "I don't give a shit" attitude toward doing so is so incredibly discounting to the creator.

Temporal-
This is happening as my fingers type these words. I can't think of a time that ripping other people off isn't occurring. I think having such people called out for doing theses acts may be able to shift some sort of cultural attitude. I have no idea.

Physical-
Stealing ideas happens everywhere.
And not just in the good ole 'Murica.
Each little country that inhabits this planet has stolen some sort of idea from another.

Psychological-
I find a lot of times that calling people out for stealing ideas doesn't ever escalate and go anywhere. So I think more people just don't bother sometimes.
BUT, when someone that cares genuinely about their/other creator's work I know that when you get called out it's not pretty.
Coming back to Josh Ostrovsky.
His whole entire career will maybe consists of doing a game show, according to OTM. Getting caught in the act can ruin a career and maybe your life.
I know the emotions run high when a producer of an idea or whatever it might be, finds out that their work has been stolen/ripped off. I know when I write something that I may be semi-proud of and someone else uses it on Facebook or Instagram or whatever it might be, it pisses me off. And I'm a twenty-year-old that currently lives in St. George, Utah. So I can only imagine how infuriating it must be when you're a big deal and that's what you do for a living.

We are the ones who create the Fat Jew, the Kardashians, Paris Hilton and myriad others. Because we mindlessly support the vapid mediocracy and talentless hacks by not questioning authenticity and by simply watching. 

Maybe when we watch these talentless people and see them reap the benefits, it reflects back to us the possibility that maybe we can do that too. 

It looks pretty easy.

Check it out for yourself-

https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/527686

The Fat Jew: Super star or Super Villain?