Entry #11: Dear Future Student,

Just going to throw that out there and assume. Let me give you one little piece of advice, though: DON'T. It's not worth it in literally every situation of your life but especially here. Self-generated blog entries are a billion times harder if you have to think of all your topics at once. Pace yourself. If you look far back enough, I wrote a whole blog entry on procrastination and down at the bottom I have some self-help links for your viewing. 

Now let's get down to business... and we are not going to defeat the huns. Please just pretend I'm amusing. 

ANYWAY, blogging is totally what you make it. If you think it is going to totally suck, like I did, it will either be kind of okay or it will ruin your life. Strangely enough, I don't totally hate it now. I just probably won't ever do it again. 

FUN FACT: I FINALLY LEARNED HOW TO PUT PICTURES IN WITH THE TEXT. Just drag it. You're welcome. 

The goal of blogging was to allow us to find our voices in writing or something like that. I'm 900% sure Professor Nielson worded it more eloquently than that but let's pretend that my wording is good enough. This can do that, if you let it. It can also let you run your writing into the ground, I'm sure, too. See, a lot of this blogging experience is dependent on you which is kind of the cool part about it. 

or not, if you don't want to be.

Your growth depends on how much you want to grow and how much this sucks correlates with how much you want it to suck (subconsciously of course). That's the challenge. Are you going to push yourself to succeed or not? It's your choice. 

Now let's talk about what I learned from all of this. I learned that blogging is about a billion times more challenging than I thought it could be and, while I still think blogs are pretty pointless, I have a lot more respect for people who do it than I did before. 

I learned that there is a whole other world of writing that I had not explored before because my previous writing experience had been ruled by schoolwork. It also allowed me to learn to be more comfortable with myself which made essay writing a little easier although it is possible that this newfound comfort has made my writing too casual. We'll see. I don't think this process taught me anything about being a student, though. I've been in college for three years now and while most of my courses have been music related, I'm pretty comfortable in a school setting at this point in my life. 

I think some people want blogging to be this crazy, life-altering experience. The truth is: it isn't. In this situation I guess it gave me an opportunity to learn more about my classmates but, realistically, when looking through and commenting on other blogs the goal is to just find one that doesn't hurt your eyes and talks about something just not-stupid enough to respond to. A list of links hardly makes the blogs of classmates seem enticing and so it wasn't necessary to go through and look or learn about others so it kind of makes the whole writing the blog thing seem like a waste of time. 

The blogger software is so user-friendly that pretty much anyone who has any sort of technological background (so basically everyone nowadays) can figure it out with little issue. This is definitely not the hardest assignment you will ever get. 

With all of that being said, this whole blogging thing has been an eye-opener for me and it probably will be for you, too. Just roll with it and see where it takes you! It has helped me and I didn't even want it to so I bet it can be beneficial for you as well. Yes, I still think it is kind of annoying but I almost kind of like it now, too. 

But, then again, I'm just some random college kid you don't know. By the time you see this you'll be sitting in a classroom thinking you know everything and what I say doesn't matter. 

That's okay. 

Sincerely, Samantha Barthel

Entry #10: Sleep

Everyone needs sleep. Yet, why is it that we seem to make fun of people for sleeping too much? Making fun is not quite the right phrase. It's more like we seem to praise people for hardly sleeping at all. "Oh, you got a whole six hours of sleep? I only got three." or "How much coffee have you had today? I've had three cups and it's not even 10am." It's phrases like these that make this whole thing weird. If we all need sleep, and we all understand that we all need sleep, why is it encouraged to sleep less and less to the point of exhaustion? Why is it that "I'm tired." has become one of the most common responses to "How are you?" 

But how much sleep is really enough?

I couldn't figure out how to insert the video (here) from the National Sleep Foundation but they have a pretty nice chart that also works.

The problem is that we've glorified not sleeping to the point where younger and younger people are sleeping so little that it's messing with their brain development. It's almost like we see the need for sleep as a weakness. It's impossible to be as efficient if we sleep too much, right? 'Just have to stay up late and get this thing done so that I'm ahead tomorrow.' Wrong. The resulting sleep deprivation usually leads to decreased performance the next day. Sleep deprivation is a real health issue. Here is a chart showing negative effects of sleep deprivation. It's too big a chart for me to put on here which is saying something.
We shouldn't have to pump ourselves with caffeine just to make it through the day. To too many people, the idea of giving up life-saving coffee is beyond comprehension.

But there is no real solution to this problem until everyone understands that it is one. It's a problem society and culture has made grow to the point where everyone just accepts that coffee is life-blood and sleep is a waste of time. But imagine what kind of amazing things everyone could do if we just slept enough?
Get some sleep. Figure out what you can really do. You've just got to make a little more time for yourself. You're worth it. 

Entry #9: Media

What is media? In my head 'the media' has always been the news or other things on television like the news. And, of course, there is Facebook and Twitter or social media as they've been labeled. But I hadn't thought of basically everything around us as a form of media. I hadn't realized how much of our society is based around relaying information through different mediums. 

Honestly, I'm still struggling with wrapping my head around this whole 'media' thing because it went from being this specific thing to this very broad expansive thing. It's kind of overwhelming. With that being said, much of my thought process on the subject has been in attempt to accept this media-filled world and figure out what all of this really means and how it impacts me. 
Something that has been especially strange for me to grasp is that video games are a form of media. There are people like Frank Lantz who say that statement is incorrect and that video games are, in fact, not a form of media. Lantz has made a career out of teaching game design or working in game centers and his feelings on the topic are here. I don't know, though, if I can agree with him. He says that video games are not a message the way stories are because players are not an audience, they are a part of the action. So I guess then it can be argued that not all video games are media but is that really possible? Most popular games of today are story focused where players get to choose how they go about doing things but regardless the main story gets told to players. It's a story that could change slightly but it is a story that gets told. Does that make it media? If books are media, how is -basically- a visual representation of a book not media? Many games could become books with a little tweaking. Many games have been blurring the lines between game and movie by adding extra video components to go along with their games without being a part of them. Halo has been trying this stuff for years and a similar situation can be found with Assassin's Creed. Halo has multiple movies, books, and things relating to the story their games portray. Assassin's Creed has released little movies to go along with games. That is all media, right?  
I don't really watch TV or the news or anything like that. So I've always assumed that the majority of media hasn't gotten to me. But I do play games and I do go on the internet. The internet is probably one of the biggest media sources of today! 
Media is everywhere and literally everyone is impacted by its presence. I can't imagine that there is anyone that can escape its touch. It's weird to think about but I think I'm slowly starting to understand what this all means. 

Entry #7: The Hashtag

Hashtags originated to be helpful but have since plagued more areas of society than originally intended. The concept is great: Create a symbol that will link posts of the same topic from multiple users of social media. So anyone talking about dogs, for example, can post something and put #dogs into their post so that others can find what they had to say on the topic of dogs. Unfortunately, this is another one of the products of the internet that has bled its way into every day life. 

Realistically, though, hashtags aren't necessary for most of the situations they're used in. Sure, they've helped people and certain causes gain enough attention for some change to happen but a large percentage of hashtag users look like this: 

And that is the problem. On top of that, there are people who even verbalize their hashtagging in speech. Many people were alarmed and disgusted when people started saying text speech like 'omg' or 'lol' out loud but not enough people are having a crisis over the hashtag problem. Hashtags have become such a popular thing that many kids don't even know what the symbol is aside from a hashtag. 

I work in different band classrooms in the Peoria Unified School District and the lesson that I now dread teaching is the lesson about key signatures. Why? The hashtag. In music, the very symbol that has taken popular culture by storm is used to depict a sharp note. Depending on the teacher I'm working with, we've had to put a ban on the word hashtag once students enter the band room. Without that ban, we ask students what the symbol is and instead of waiting to be taught, providing a possible educated guess (because we usually teach flat signs first), or knowledge gained elsewhere (like piano lessons in most cases), students all shout "that's a hashtag". 

Maybe I'm too anti-trend for all of this nonsense or maybe I'm just mentally an old person. Either way, the growing popularity of hashtags is beyond frustrating for me and hopefully others like me (that are preferably closer to my age than my parents). I can accept that there are instances where they're good and the intentions are only to help/raise awareness like #PrayForParis which went around last year after the terrorist attack on Paris or the many others that supported causes that needed more public attention. But I don't hashtag and I won't. To me, hashtags seem just as pointless as half of the other attention-seeky things we do on the internet, like blogs. Unfortunately, society has changed to a point that if it is not on the internet and becoming viral, people don't care or notice. 

Regardless, hashtags shouldn't become a culture and there are too many people abusing them on a daily basis. If you're worried that you're part of the problem, here's a nice list of the types of hashtag abusers for you to reference. 

Entry # 6.5: Michael Moore

I had never really heard of Michael Moore before. I didn't know that a lot of people don't like him or anything aside from being told something like 'regardless of your feelings about Michael Moore' before we started this film in class. I was fresh and unbiased. 

What I saw was fascinating. I hadn't seen information presented this way and the man narrating seemed to really know what was going on. I was into it. I could see the clear bias in the man who took a company big-wig ignoring him as some sort of conspiracy, but I didn't really care. Sometimes severe bias is what it takes to inspire change, right? 

I guess not in this case, since most people hate Michael Moore. 

I don't know a ton about the guy and I don't really care to look too much more into it. So let's just talk about his film making abilities. 

He seeks to mix giving viewers information and emotional responses. He starts this film showing clips of people getting evicted from their homes which automatically makes a lot of people feel bad because no one wants to experience that. He shows scenes of people getting laid off from factories talking about how these kinds of things are happening all over the place because big businesses don't want to pay that many workers. He wants people to feel. 

Sure, a lot of the stuff he says is true enough but he mostly just wants to show one side of things. He wants to get the American middle and lower class on his side because he apparently fights for us. Moore has a scene where he tries to get an audience with the owner of GM (I think, I may have remembered wrong) and the security guys won't let him into the building. He turns that situation into this big deal because someone who is clearly pretty important won't take time out of their day to talk to a guy they probably know is just going to make them look like a jerk. A lot of what he does is to try to make other people look like jerks. He interviews people and either agrees with them and uses them to his advantage that way or totally makes the viewer hate them. It takes skill to do what he does. He says things in just the right way, shows just the right things, and so he seems believable maybe even trustworthy. He certainly knows his field, I'll give him that. 

I could have liked him had I not learned better. 

Entry # 6: Depressed People

Diagnosed depression is becoming a more and more common thing. Some people think it's a lie, sure, like depressed people are just choosing to be lazy and making their lives suck more on purpose.

But why would anyone do that? Seriously. 

I feel like the initial reaction of most people is to try to tell a depressed person to get over themselves and make their lives better. To be fair, I use to not understand the whole concept either. I also saw a lot of people who were just lazy or sad trying to call themselves depressed. I think it's probably one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses. Google it and prove me wrong, if you want, but I'm going to go ahead and make that claim. People try to treat depressed people like they're just moping around and can get better whenever they decide to but I've learned that there is a very different method to dealing with people suffering this way. 

This is about to get personal. You don't have to read this. 

I'm going to have to give you a little bit of backstory for some of this to make sense. 

My little brother is two years younger than me. My mom moved out and took him with her when I was like.. 15? He ultimately came back because she decided he was too difficult and so then it was just my dad, my brother, and myself living in the house I grew up in. My whole house was pretty much this big box of sad.

My dad has been pretty much the same person since I can remember. But I didn't realize until it was just the two of us that the reason he is the way he is goes hand in hand with depression. Once my brother came back, I saw it even more. I was living in a box of sad with two of the hardest people to live with. I use to get so frustrated. Why wouldn't they do anything? Why was my mess a problem but their mess okay? 

I found some answers in a blog. This blog, to be specific. 

Basically, what I learned is that the boys were going to get overwhelmed -a lot- and the more I comment on it the more they were going to shut down. I learned that the boys were going to be more of a project and that I was going to be responsible for taking care of them. I learned to not look at the rough times and get mad but to enjoy the good moments when both of them were in an up phase at the same time even though those moments were super rare. 

Recently, my brother moved back away to be with our mom again. I visit often because he's pretty much my favorite person, no matter how difficult. But she doesn't understand him; she is one of the people that believes most mental illnesses are fake and medications are stupid. She tells him he needs to do all of these things around the house or he can't live there. She tells him he sleeps too much. She tells him he needs to get his life together. But it's not all that simple. She doesn't understand that the amount he sleeps correlates directly with how overwhelmed he is feeling. She doesn't understand that everything she nags him about only makes it worse. 

Today, I sat with him and talked to him while he filled out his first job application. When he seemed frustrated, I read the application to him and explained that it is simpler than he was making it in his head. When he got done, I told him how good he is going to be at whatever job he gets. We talked about all of the cool things he could do with money from a job. We made jokes and we laughed. He even told me he would buy me lunch sometimes to make up for all of the lunch I've bought him. He's probably the cheapest person I know, so that was impressive. 

And, before I left, he thanked me for understanding and helping him get through something that he had been wanting to do for months but just couldn't wrap his head around. 

That is how you live with and love someone with depression. 

Entry # 5: A Thing

Hey, here's a thing: Thing

Go read it. 

Okay, let's talk. 

Before we talk about the article, though, let me get one thing out of the way: I think classes should take the full semester to complete. Anything faster than that kills the typical class layout that the public school system has tried so hard to engrave into our brains. I'm only in an 8-week course because I was an idiot and chose the wrong class number. I'm not bitter, I swear.  

The article introduces the concept and tries to sell it by saying students can finish faster and spend less money on tuition. Who doesn't like more money? Definitely not college students, we love more money. Sure, online courses have revolutionized school for the self-starter and self-learner but the whole concept of saving money draws more than those kind of people to these kinds of courses. 

But all of this talk of saving students money is a bit silly because, let's get real, since when do universities care about saving students money? These kinds of classes allow ASU to cut some of their less successful 'fast-class' courses so that they can be replaced by these lower maintenance courses designed to pump students through as fast as possible. It's ultimately more money for them because they can process more students this way. 

So reality for students only shifts from 

to

Maybe it will save students money in the long-run but is it really worth it? Are they really getting the kind of education that they want? Most people who have gone through the public school system can't cope with the kind of high stress and pressure that accelerated programs offer. 

But, as the article ends, "Everyone is different".