What Would Life Be Without Music?

sometimes i wonder what life would be without music. At first i thought that if we didnt have music then life would be boring or less entertaining. A music-less world is like taking a huge chunck of culture out of each race, religion, and background history (like the slaves who made music about their problems). Then i thought that if the human race werent introduced to music in the first place, that it may be normal for us not to have it. You never know what you're missing if it isnt introduced to our knowledge. Same goes for the way we know music to be. Since we (mankind), already know what music is we are used to it and it is normal to us.
            But if we think about a world devoid of music, it is a world devoid of possible entertainment. Take movies for example. In a scary movie, the creepish music that always indicates something bad will happen, adds to the intensity of the movie and how we as people are feeling about the movie. It keeps us on our toes to know that the music means something will happen. Without the music, there would be unexpected surprises that may be tiring to the watchers after a while. Music in movies gives the watchers a sense of how to feel in any genre; Romance movies may have something soft that touches the audience when something touchy in the movie is happening. In action movies, the high paced thrilling music paces the watchers to move at the same speed of what action is taking place. So movies without music leaves the people watching without feeling many of the stressed emotions of the film. Plus one of my favorite kind of movies, musicals, would not exist.
            If you were asked what do most people do while driving in a car, what would you say? Would you say "pay attention to the road," "talk on bluetooth," " talk to the people that may be in the car at the time being,?" Surley what may come to a person's mind is to listen to music. Think of a long drive from Oakland to L.A. About six to seven hours. You are driving alone, left your phone at home, and there is no such thing as music. That sounds boring just at the thought of doing nothing in the car, hearing nothing but motors of other cars on the road. Now at least with music, one can entertain his or herself by singing along to the tunes recognized. Without music in cars, cars would be less intresting, except for the fact one doesnt have to walk or take dirty public transit, and the fact that they are much faster than doing the two.
          Plus what about the activities that work by having music.What about Halftimes, parties, Broadway, Church,Disney movies (most include songs). What about karaoke, musical chairs. They wouldnt exsist. The shows on Television that include singing or dancing; American Idol, Dance Your Ass Off, Dancing with the Stars, Don't Forget Those Lyrics, America's Best Dance Crew. All the shows that are so popular now would not exsist. We would watch sitcoms and reality t.v shows about love, and who wants to date a millionaire (you get the point) --all without music. No ipods, itunes, i-anything. Its screams boredom.
         One of the things that i listed up above that would suck without music is--drumroll please, Church. Imagine sitting in a place for hours and all you hear is talking, talking, talking. Yes, Church isn't supposed to be about the music, but the inspiration of the words spoken, and some churches may not have music. But i cannot for the life of me sit somewhere, other than school, and only hear talking, no music. 
         So a life so dull is the equivalent of a life without music. I guess I answered my own question. =]

FaceBook Respond Post

Response Post To Ruby Rew’s Blog: Facebook Is Annoying

I agree to the fact that facebook is annoying. I don’t go on facebook much but from what I see and hear, FB or facebook is highly addictive. I mean FB is a great way to stay in touch with those people who live further away or who don’t have the time to hang out, or whatever the case may be. I think that FB is like a drug to some people like my cousin for example. Her life at the time being is to check facebook constantly. Just by seeing her on facebook 24/7 is annoying. I refuse to let the FB trend consume me into dedicating my life to checking it every other hour or half an hour. 

Another reason why I think that FB is annoying/irritating is because there is nothing to do on there. I don’t understand most of the apps. Like the poking and food fighting and pets. Whenever I get on facebook which is literally once every two months, I feel that all I’m doing is wasting time.  FB is also annoying because (i know this may sound weird) but because the backgrounds are so plain and simple. The one thing that I liked about Myspace is because they allowed people to personalize his or her profile. 

And like Ruby said, it becomes one main source of communication. Instead of calling someone, most people i know would go on FB just to say something that would take only seconds when speaking it. I find it somewhat funny how people go through all that trouble instead of just calling, with the exception of people in other states etc. For example, my cousin, who lives only down the street from me, always messages me on FB and tells me things that she could have said faster by calling me. 

So when people ask me why i don’t get on FB, I get annoyed because i feel that facebook isnt the main source of communication and It isn’t my life’s main goal, to constantly log into Facebook. That is why it is annoying to me.

Americans and Pronouncing T's as D's

Americans And Pronouncing T’s as D's

My older sister brought to my knowledge that people in America don’t pronounce their T’s in words like butter, panties, metal, bitter, button, better, and with names like Peter. instead, most Americans pronounce the T’s in words like these and replace them with D’s. Instead of butter, most tend to say budder. Instead of metal, medal. Bitter, bidder. Peter, Peder. What I want to know is why most Americans do it. Now that I pay attention to how people I speak to pronounce these things incorrectly, I wonder if they ever think about the correct way of pronouncing them. I also catch myself saying the D’s and quickly stress the T’s. Immediately the person i may have been speaking to laughs or exchanges a humorous expression, usually the side tipping of the head with the added furrowed brows. An explanation always follows close behind. 

In the well known adult comedy cartoon show, Family Guy, the main character Peter, is always up to no good, his name always being called. Peder never pronounced Peter like how it is spelled.  Not only does the cartoon characters say it wrong, the people who does the voices for the characters most likely does the same as well.

Last week my uncle came over and wanted to make some toast. After he toasts his bread, he likes to put butter while the bread is still hot, so the butter would melt into the bread perfectly and smoothly. He asked me as i walked into the kitchen, “Wheres the budder?” I again stopped to explain to yet another person what was faulty about saying D’s in words where T’s are formally placed. 

So in conclusion, not many people know that they, on a daily basis say words that have incorrect pronunciation. It’s something that i think people should be aware of or try to notice. I even caught the president, Barack Obama, saying D instead of T word, and didn’t seem like he noticed. Why is it that Americans don’t pronounce these things. Is it that it takes to long to pronounce all the way?

Blog Post----->Speak

       As I finished up the second marking period of the book, Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, I noticed that there is a similar theme in the novel How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez-- Dominant men. In Speak, main character Melinda has been a victim of rape but hasn’t told anyone about it. The rapist, Andy, goes to her school and in sick little ways torments Melinda, thinking what he did wasn’t wrong. For example, if he happens to be in the same area as her, he would do thinks like smile or wave maliciously causing Melinda to either run on instinct or stop dead in her tracks. In How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the men have ways of keeping their women “in-line,” as if he were the boss. The men in this novel see nothing wrong with how they treat their women and nobody has any say of what they do--especially the women. I think that these two stories have a great purpose or moral but Speak is more realistic. Speak is an example for young women to be unafraid to speak up when situations like rape happen, unlike Melinda who doesn’t say anything at all but keeps all her pain bottled up inside her. I think that the author is hinting at the importance for young adults, or anyone, telling someone about these kinds of situations. She shows what its like to not tell anyone through this young women’s story and anyone who reads this book will see how life changing it could be.
       If I had to recommend this book to anyone, it would be to all teenage girls in middle and high school to get them better informed on how to handle dramatic situations like rape. I think that every girl should be aware or cautious of the situations they may put themselves into because it may turn out ugly. Like Melinda where she went to a party with a friend, when they both started to drink and become intoxicated they lose sight of each other and unfortunately one girl was raped and it forever changed her life. that’s what I mean by being cautious of the situations one puts herself or himself in.

Overall Thoughts About The Book: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Book Post #3

      When I read the first couple chapters of how the Garcia Girls Lost Thier Accents, I thought that there was something very unique and intresting about it. I picked up a message that the author was trying to send the readers: That men and women are both equal and should have the same rights. I strongly felt like the book was going to become more deep and the understanding more complex and hard to figure out, too complicated just to read and immediately understand the full concept ( like the kind of books I like). However, it got boring which made it harder for me to want to continue reading. I got the message that the author pointed out for her readers to see, but the constant reminding that men were more dominant and had the "upper hand" in thier romantic relations with women started to get played off and annoying to read about. The author constantly told stories around those subjects and made the stories predictable.

    In the story, there are four characters, four sisters more likely, who are stuck between wild America and their  male controlling homeland The Dominican Republic.Chapter after chapter, one after the other, where they are shifted from being in the U.S  back to their homeland and over and over again.  When a writer repeatdily picks at a subject it gets painful to read and tortures those who are assigned to read the story, which was exactly my situation during this piece. It was annoying.

     And finally, the way the book was put together really didnt make any sense in  my opinion. Yes, it was a creative and unique way of writing, but did the author really have to choose that writing style for this particular book where it was already hard enough to read due to the facts I have listed above. This just was not the right book for me and i would not reccommend it to anyone else.

Book Post #2: How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents

       On the second paper clip section of "How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez, one main theme that i picked up as I read was the distinction between America and the Dominican Republic. As one nation has more freedom and more reign to do what one wants, the other is old-fashioned, meaning they still believe in old ways. Men control the women in that nation (Dominican Republic); women barely have any rights or any say in things,  like back in history where women couldnt do the things the opposite sex could. This distinction made the Four Sisters act differently. In America they experienced many things that they probally couldnt back on their Island. For example, smoking weed, and hanging out with boys more often were some things that they got to do. They became independent and showed that they could handle the "American life."
       Back home, the girls experienced things differently. Men had the right to tell a lady what she could or could not do. They had the right to take advantage of a lady and wouldnt be punished for it but instead praised. One character, a male named Manuel Gustavo, is one of those men who was raised in the Dominican Republic and who was taught that men have the "upper hand" in their relationships. Fifi, the sister that is involved with Manuel, is treated poorly whenever he is around her. Blind to the situation, Fifi's other three sisters decided to step in and try and talk some sense into Manuel, telling him that women have rights also in the Dominican Republic. Manuel replies back with a clever response that stumps the three sisters: "Yes, women have rights, but men wear the pants" (122). Once again another example of a man shutting up a lady and her opinion (or in this case a man and three women).
      The girls go to having complete, or almost complete, freedom in America to having almost none at all back on their Homeland. Stuck between these two places i wanted to know, do they ever get the two places mixed up and maybe are too wild on their Island or too conservative when back in America? They seem to be used to both places but i think that the girls may like America more because they feel they have more rights than they would if they were home.

Book Post: How the Garcia Girls lost Their Accents

       Throughout history, women have been considered one group which was looked down upon because of their abilities of doing things. Men have taken advantage of women in the past by scarring them into doing as they were told; Many women were way too obedient to the commands, demands, and to the needs of their husbands or to men in general. In Julia Alvarez's national bestseller book, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, the first part of the book continuously talked about women and their ineractions with the opposite sex, men.
        Yolanda,  one of the four sisters introduced in the story, had a remarkabe experience when she was introduced to a male character, Rudy Elmenhurst the third, and their college romance was based on sexual temptation, at least to Rudy the man of the relationship. Throughout the relationship he always complained that she couldnt keep his intrest because he couldnt have interact with her on a sexual level. They broke up and five years later met again. Still, he wanted to have intercourse with Yolanda; this shows that he still, even after five years, only wanted to get on more than a social level with her, a sign that men mostly think of women as someone they can get pleasure from.
     Yolanda's father, a traditionally old fashioned man, wanted badly sons to carry on his name and instead got four daughters.  He seems as though he still isnt over the fact that hehas no sons and holds a grudge toward his daughters, making them feel like they are not worthy enough for his sentimental love. He shames them for not being boys and for not doing the things men could do.
      So throughout the first part of the story men have been introduced as the "bad guys", the ones who keep women for feeling worthy of being loved.