When the word  “consumer” arises in conversation I think about things that I use on a daily basis or at least more then a few times a month. The main things on my list of items that I consume are normally pretty generic and probably are very common among people today. The list consists of things like different foods, ranging from vegetables to meats and to manufacture food products. Also I am a large consumer of energy whether it be electricity, which majority of the population would also have, or even oil which is used all over the world in the form of gas for just about every mode of transportation. These are large broad topics so I believe that because I consume these then you would probably place me under the category of being an average consumer in the society that we live in today.

I do however believe that I personally consume too much as a single individual and I think that myself and many other people should seriously consider cutting back on the amount of things that we use on a daily basis. I did a small quiz not to long ago in one of my classes where I answered some questions about how I live regarding things I use. It told me that if everyone on Earth lived the way I did then we would need about 5 Earths to sustain that type of lifestyle. From this I have started to realize that I should cut down the resources I use so that others in the future can use the same things that I get to today.

Something that occurs in just about every household, and is very typical especially in the United States is buying an excess amount of objects that are not essential or needed. However most people do not realize all of these types of things that they buy and could easily let go and live without. For instance most people could go with out many of their electronics if they had to get rid of something. But if you were to ask me something that is the most over bought item or items that every one buys too many off, it would be no contest in saying that clothes are the most common item that could be given away. There are so many clothes that people do not wear on a common basis that they could give to someone who would wear them. Even I buy too many clothes that either I hardly wear or only on certain occasions that I would probably be just fine if I had only one or two of those pieces of clothing. That is just how we are as humans though because we are trying to prepare ahead of time in case we ever do need one of those we have it available. This is probably one of the things that people are the worst at is buying things that they don’t need and it ends up replacing something more important that they should buy but end up not wanting to spend that much extra.

Once we had to start thinking about what kind of consumer we are, it really got me thinking about what type of consumer I truly am. Originally I thought that I wasn’t really a very large consumer and I normally only buy things I need and for a decent price as well. However, after truly analyzing the add that I looked at and the photo essay that I created on something I could live with out, I have decided that I am a consumer of brand name items. For instance Red Bull is quite expensive and it does not really have much essential parts to it for me personally. Also, with my E- Trade baby commercial blog it shows that I chose something that I see very often on TV so I end up picking something of that sort. I guess this is exactly what the company is trying to do is to have you like their advertisement so that you will remember their product when you want to buy something in that category. There are also many other things that I own that are not essential in any way but they are something that I want and are generally more expensive then the average of that type of product. Examples of these things range from my Oakley snowboarding goggles that are about $110, some of my jeans that I get for $70 or so, I have multiple pairs of shoes and they really are not very cheap because they are Nikes and Jordan’s, but the more I look through my things I realize how much I enjoy buying brand name items. What I have noticed though about the expensive items that I buy is that since they are expensive and I truly like them, then I take really good care of them and they tend to last quite a bit longer then if I bought one that was cheap and I did not care for as much.After doing an assignment like this I am now starting to tell myself that I should not be buying quite as many name brand things and stop buying multiple pairs of expensive objects.

After talking about all of these things in class I have realized how different yet similar everyone is regarding themselves as consumers. This might not make sense right away but we are all similar in the fact that we all over buy just about everything and would usually rather have all of the nice clothes or new games rather then buying what’s cheapest or the most efficient for you individually. Even though we all over buy things we still tend to buy things that we don’t need in different ways and on different types of things where I might over buy something like shoes and such, someone else will buy things that are more like decorations or commodities where you would only use a few times before you forget about them. Something else that came to me during class was how buying things that are essential but also cost efficient really is not overly difficult and could easily be done by anyone even if they do not have a very large budget like many college students. It first starts in finding a store that generally sells things either used or for a very cheap price and then it is going to those stores and only looking at and buying things that you need. This is a big part of it because it happens so often where someone will go walking through a store only to buy a toothbrush and cereal and end up leaving the store with a cartful of things that were not necessary and are extra things that generally are not essentials. All it will take are a few small steps and I think that many people should give it a shot sometime

For my Invention mob my group and I had an idea to create a mural of some sort that students could add on to create a bigger better piece of art. We ended up using the theme “Shooting for the Stars” because we wanted our project to be about more than just doing the minimum of whatever is required. By using this theme we would have people get in the mind set of going above and beyond what is required and creating something even better since there was not guidelines really. Also, by doing this mural project it would not only be having individuals draw about their dreams and what shooting for the stars really meant, but it also incorporated collaboration by taking each individuals own part and creating an even bigger piece of art work.

 

The process of creating our project was fairly simple and straightforward which ended up making the entire project come together quite easily. I believe that this was because of the fact that my teammates and I worked especially well together in planning and communicating as well. My group members that helped create the project and work on it were Marisa Stakes, Stephanie Lincoln- Baines, and Amber Moon. It all started out where my group members and I began to brainstorm ideas until we all agreed upon doing the mural and it seemed as if all of us thought this was a fantastic idea. Once my group got the basics planned out we made designated times that everyone in the group was available so that we could work on the project outside of class. Now that all of the planning and major details were taken care of we were finally able to begin the actual art work itself.

 

First the group had to cut out individual stars because of the fact that this was what we were going to have individuals draw on so that we could place the stars where we felt best and for reasons of efficiency as well. Once this was done the main part of the project was in progress which meant that at this point each group member could take their stars and begin to hand them out to people to draw their ideas of shooting for the stars on. The way that we did this was we would go to people that we saw and we would ask them if they would be interested in drawing on a star about the theme and if they had agreed we would then give them a star where they would be given some time to work on it so they were not rushed. We would then go and pick up the stars when we said that they were to be completed by and we would make sure o get a picture of them drawing their star so that we would then be able to add it on to the website that was created for the project. Not only would a picture be taken of them drawing the star itself but another picture was taken of the star up close so that people would be able to see individual stars if they so pleased.

 

At this point all of the stars had been completed and we had received 25 stars total to add to our mural. My group had then all met up and we began to talk about how we wanted the mural itself to look like and it needed to look really good since this was basically our entire project. We eventually came up with the idea of creating a small piece of the earth showing on the bottom of the page with all of the stars above it covering the rest of the space so it appeared like it was a view of outer space. As of this point we did not have much left to do really, so the last few steps were very quick and we taped the stars to the paper and inserted the earth along with the title “Shooting for the Stars”. We were now finished with the project so all that was to be completed now was the presentation to the class, which we gave just a few days later. Our presentation was basically covering all that we have done including the process and some things that we have encountered as well showing what our final product looked like.

 

During the entire process of the project each member of the team had each experienced multiple failures as well. Personally I had a few failures however they were not too major of issues. The most common problem I ran into was from people who I would ask if they wanted to draw a star would say no they did not want to. This was frustrating at first but later after I had some completed stars I was able to convince more people because I was able to show them examples of what others had drawn and it appeared to make them more comfortable. This was especially true for the people who said that they were not very good at drawing because they were able to see examples where the stars were not drawn with great skills similar to their own skills. This was able to increase the amount of people to draw the stars as well. Another slight problem that I had was when I would tell the person to finish the star bye a certain time yet when I would go and collect the finished star they had forgotten about finishing the star so I would then either have to wait for them to draw it or I would have to return at a later time to collect them. Overall the failures were not too bad and were only minor setbacks that eventually were able to be worked out.

 

I would still be confident in saying that our successes ended up outweighing all of our failures because we were still able to complete our final product how the group had desired. In fact I thought that our product ended up doing even better then I thought it would. I think that getting 25 college students to take time out of their day to draw something that they had no part in was a success in its own because many students are busy a lot of the time and do not really want to draw something without much significance to themselves. Not only did we have a good amount of stars but also I think that the stars themselves turned out very well since there was a nice range of not so great pictures to ones that seemed as if a true artist had drawn them. Not to mention the pictures were not all the same type of picture since some of them ranged from going to cities they wanted to travel to or to doing things that you probably would never accomplish if you did not push yourself above and beyond expectations. Like I said earlier in the essay I believe that the final product was beyond my expectations and I think that my other group members would be able to agree with that statement as well.

 

The Website that we created also was a great way for not only the group to use to see everything that we have up until that point but it was also beneficial to everyone who had participated. The website not only gave a chance for an individual to see their work that they had done to contribute but it also allows them to see all the other ideas that people had drawn. This is a way to see what their piece ended up being made into being the entire mural with all of the finished stars. On the website there were different pages that were designed for specific purposes. For instance there was a one page dedicated to only the close ups of all the stars so they could be seen clearly and anonymously. Another page was for the contributions, which was all the pictures we had of people while they were drawing stars and creating their own little masterpiece. The rest of the website was dedicated to showing the purpose of the project along with how we went about completing the project and finally the final project itself.

 

Looking back at this project that I completed with my group members I would probably say that it was my favorite part about all of English 101 that we have done so far. I am not sure if this is because we were able to get random people to get together and help on one thing or what. I really like being able to use a type of writing with a hand on type of assignment rather than just writing essay because of the fact that it becomes more enjoyable watching something of this sort come together. I have been able to look at writing in a more positive outlook after this project because it made me realize that writing does not have to boring or uninteresting since you can make it into whatever you want it to be. This project that we did was also beneficial because it was set up so that each group would fail in some way. By having us fail I mean that there would be some minor setbacks that each group would have to find a way to get around so that they could continue forward. This was able to teach us that we should not stop just because everything did not according to what the plan was.  Plus it is also preparing us for the real world where many things are thrown at you that were not expected and you have to find a different way to do something. I’m glad that we were able to sort of end the semester on this project because it is enjoyable and tie in things we have learned as well.

 

 

 

 

One of the biggest problems that we are currently facing is pollution worldwide in just about every single country. Obviously in some places it is more severe then in others based on technology and laws against them, but no matter which place is polluting it is still causing a negative effect on the environment. These pollutions are not one certain type there is multiple types including water pollution and air pollution. Recently we have noticed that these events have ended up having effects on not only the nature but now on sports and activities that humans participate in on a daily basis everywhere in the world.

 

At one time or another nearly every single one of you have played a sport or participated in some way. Some of you might not be directly related but that does not mean that you as an individual do not have an impact on sports because since all of us impact the environment we then have a connection with many sports. What I’m trying to get at is with many sports that are played today all over the world, many of them involve nature in some way. For instance the environment is crucial to the sport of skiing because it is very difficult to go skiing without snow. Another sport that is still connected to the environment but not as much as say skiing would be a sport like baseball where grass is used on the field but it doesn’t necessarily take away the game completely. There are many sports that are dependent on nature and its surroundings to ensure that the sport can be played or enjoyed as much as possible. However the way things are going currently it will eventually destroy much of the environment and change many things that we are accustomed to today.

 

I feel that it a good way to get people more interested in saving the world and nature in particular is to connect what consequences could happen to sports if things don’t begin to change. Since sports nowadays are huge in entertainment and things for people to do in their free time I believe that society would begin to change ways that they live if they knew that sports were in danger of going through some very large changes or even not being possible. For instance if rivers continue to be polluted then eventually there will be no more fishing at all and that would spread to lakes and larger bodies of water. If the water supply becomes so toxic that it is borderline dangerous then sports on any type of lakes will not exist like wakeboarding, tubing, jet skiing and most obviously swimming. Once water is no longer available then sports tat depend on grass of any sort will be changed greatly like golf or baseball. These sports will need to either change how they are played or find a replacement surface because taking those things away is a big deal especially with golf courses. By taking away one part of maintaining a field or course like water for instance you would basically be taking away golf and how it is played, and the same would happen to baseball fields.

 

Just these few examples show how much change would be made to multiple sports that we know today all because of what happens to the environment because of what we are doing. Society has to see that all the harmful things that we are doing are building on each other and making things even worse for the environment which are having consequences with things that many people enjoy very much being sports. By showing what effects our actions could possibly have it will be an awakening to people to start being more proactive or else they will know what will be the fallout and hopefully that’s enough motivation for them.

 

We have to open up our eyes because the things that I was talking about are only things that could happen and haven’t begun yet. This means that we still have time but not very much because we have already had an encounter where pollution nearly canceled a sporting event. Plus the event that it happened to be is one of the largest events if not the largest event the world has, The Olympic Games. This specific incident was the 2008 Olympic games that were held in Beijing, China and it had to do with the air quality in China due to air pollutants. There was actually quite a few of the Olympic athletes who were threatening not to participate in the games due to such bad air quality but somehow it was able to be resolved before anyone had quit the games all together. The athletes were concerned about the levels of carbon that were in the air and they were afraid that it could harm themselves by breathing it in for too long of a time. This is the most recent scare our world has encountered and it was a good thing in my opinion that it was brought to world news in the way that it did and hopefully our world could avoid things of this sort for a while.

 

We have had a difficult time in recent years of keeping our oceans protected and healthy. We have been losing many of the bigger sized fishes due to overfishing them and we have lost many other species to other problems we have caused. What our actions as humans are doing is we are warming up our oceans as well which is creating an unlivable environment for some species. In fact of all of the earths heating that has occurred, about 84 % of all of that has gone into heating up the oceans. Once we have informed everyone that there is a problem we must start asking ourselves important questions like, is the U.S. doing enough to protect oceans so that we will have resources from the ocean for years to come?

Another question that is critical and will help us for figuring out an answer is, Since humans are the ones that have caused harm to the ocean what can we do to not only stop harming the ocean but to actually reverse the affects and have the ocean thrive like it once did? Obviously it is the people of this world’s fault that the oceans have become to be in such bad shape that they are in today and we have to do something about it before it is to late and the damage is irreversible. This is our last stand to make things better and save our Oceans for now and most importantly for future generations.

 

It is pretty easy to see the problems that our oceans are currently facing today. You could ask anybody on the street and they could say things like nearly all the Oceans in the world are being polluted and different species of fish and mammals are dying. This shows that finding the problems is not the problem we are facing so we shouldn’t be focused on that since we know what most of the problems currently are. The thing that we should be putting our money and research into are ways to fix these problems and look for potential solutions. The things that I think should be looked at are the overfishing problems because that problem is causing problems for the ecosystem and also for many countries all over the world that rely on food from oceans. One way I believe that we can possibly stop this or at least slow this down a little bit is to limit each fisherman to a certain amount of fish per year and not be as worried about how or when fisherman are catching it. This is usually done by giving out tradable permits that represent a fraction of the total catch allowed each year in the fishery. As of right now there are already two countries that have already done this and they are New Zealand and Iceland regulate most of their fisheries with quota systems. However, just like any problem that the world is facing today, the hardest part of it is trying to find a solution that will work and last but is also the best option we have that does not cost to much and is environmentally friendly. That last point is the most important because if we decide to use a solution that is not environmentally friendly then we are just creating another problem that we will have t deal with later in time whether it be in the near future or not for 80 to 100 years.

 

The first problem we should address as a nation and as a globe is overfishing all the species in the ocean. We have been losing many of the bigger sized fishes due to overfishing them and we have lost many other species to other problems we have caused. What our actions as humans are doing is we are warming up our oceans as well which is creating an unlivable environment for some species. In fact of all of the earths heating that has occurred, about 84 % of all of that has gone into heating up the oceans. We are creating conditions in the ocean that are simply unlivable for almost all species of fish and mammals to live in and it is nearly all because of us. Unfortunately us human being have been doing things for thousand of years that have not been beneficial in any way at all for the oceans and it goes all the way back to the medieval times when they would throw garbage and useless leftover material into the water. Back then there was not the same amount of pollution going into the water but regrettably we did not learn from this since there was not any noticeable damage at that point In time and ever since this point we continued to pollute the rivers which would lead directly to the ocean. We now have come to the point where in India the rivers are more relatable to something like dumps and around 50,000 people die in India from the pollution that is put into rivers and drinking sources of thousands and we have no idea how many aquatic species are also killed because of it.

 

Personally I believe that we have not seen the last of problems like the 2008 Olympic games mainly because of the fact that I do not feel as if other countries are worried about taking the next steps in trying to stop the pollution problems that are occurring and hopefully reversing them in some way. That is why I believe our Oceans will be the first things in danger by these actions. Like I said earlier it is not as if only one specific country is the problem because it would make things a lot simpler since we would be able to help them correct that. However we are at the point where the world has to get together and find a way to run things in a more environmentally safe way. Once everyone is on board with this idea we can begin to make process on changing things so that we are beginning to live in a place where we will not have to worry about the environment ending up hurting how we live and the things that people enjoy doing or our own personal well being.

 

We have finally arrived to the end of the semester, which means that we have learned all of these different strategies and concepts since the start of the semester. In the most part most part many people who take a class normally are better at the end of the class then when they had just started because they have practiced more and become better at the task they have been studying. This is also applicable to myself and the other students in who have taken English 101 regarding our writing skills and writing in general. Since this happens quite often to people I always think that it is sort of fun and interesting to see either how our writing has changed or how our views and thoughts have changed concerning a specific topic that we wrote about earlier in the semester.

 

In the case of our class in English 101 our very first writing assignment was to write a small piece on what we thought communication means and why it is so important in today’s world. After looking back at that assignment and what I had previously wrote about communication, I would say that my view is still fairly similar but I have also added things on to what else I believe communication means and how it is used now a days. In my original thought on the topic I said that “A very popular way to communicate even now is through writing, whether it be emails or even papers or letters, and since it is used so much it is very important to learn how to write.” And I still agree with this statement however I believe that we need these skills for other reasons. What I am trying to say is that I now do not necessarily believe that the main reason that we communicate is specifically to just write something and have them flat our read what the words say. If this were all we were trying to do then communicating really would not be that big of a skill that we would need to have. Communication is when you tell someone something specific but you do it in a way that you the audience can easily understand what you are saying and they also understand how you are saying it as well.  Then you can get your point off in the way that you desire in the way that you meant it to be taken. This is something that I have began to understand over the course of this semester is to try and find out what the speaker is trying to have me get out of what they are saying by looking at how they deliver the words.

 

During this class we have had many different blogs, which is a good thing since you can generally find one that ends up being easier to write about then others. For me I believe that it is always easier to write something about what you have either done or just talking about yourself in general. This is also true with people in general because I can tell you from experience that if you ask certain people a question about themselves they can go on and on about themselves, and I am sure that you have also met people like this as well. Since, that is what I feel like is easier to write about then I thought that my favorite blog that I have done would be the one about myself as a consumer. I particularly enjoyed this one because it also gave me a chance to reflect and actually analyze myself as a consumer and look at what I buy at. Generally I do not do this because I feel as if it is normal to buy things that I do and I would look at what other people buy and I look at what they buy and guess what kind of consumer they would be. I also think that I enjoy doing papers on subjects about myself because I have noticed that a lot of times I do not take the time to look at the things that I buy and how I am as a person, so it is fun to sort of dissect all of my actions and find connections between them that have never been apparent to me. Since it was interesting to me to find connections about what I do that in turn ended up making it very easy to write the paper and I had no problem with finishing what I had to do regarding length of the paper.

 

Every time you have something were there is a favorite chosen between a category of some sort then there is almost always one that you could classify as your least favorite one. When it comes to the blogs that we have done this year there were a few that were a little bit more difficult and there was also some that were not that exciting to write either. The main one that pops into my head would be the Ted Talk or the research paper mainly because of the fact that it was not something that I had done like the Invention Mob essay or like the Consumer essay where I could talk about myself. It could have also been the fact that throughout all my education I have done multiple research type of essay’s and I knew that it would not be fun from previous experience, so I also went into the paper with a negative thought about it all together. Also the difficult part about the research paper that I did not enjoy was the fact that with all research papers you must do some type of research that was not required for all of the other essays that we had previously done up to that point or even later on in the semester. Luckily we only had to do one paper where I just flat out did not like it at all because it made the class better and it gave me a better outlook on writing when I was able to enjoy writing.

 

I said earlier in this particular essay “most part many people who take a class normally are better at the end of the class then when they had just started” This statement is true for myself because I truly do believe that this class has helped me become a better writer overall and it has also helped in other areas as well. If someone asked about how my English 101 class was, I would say it was not a traditional writing class that you would expect where all you do is write essays every week and then revise them. This class has taught me things about writing that I had not considered as important like thinking about your topic and finding a way to make that topic become much more interesting then it actually is by using more creative ways to talk about the subject. I have noticed that this class in particular was not all that focused on the grammar part of papers and checking errors because those things were not the reason your paper is above and beyond but it is the actual content of the paper that can separate yourself and your paper from being mediocre. I remember how I used to be a cookie cutter like person when it comes to writing because of the fact that all papers were all certain lengths and requirements but now I really have become more creative when it has come to writing and my style of writing. For example now when I am writing my paper I find a way to make my topic more interesting and exciting because it makes it more enjoyable to read and it also helps me out while I am writing because I can have fun with writing it as well. This class has also helped me become someone who can analyze things better because many of our blogs and essays have been about analyzing the topic and digging deeper to finding more connections with them then if you were not looking for them. I can now use this for years to come by thinking deeper and it will not only allow me to write other papers with better connections but I could also read someone else’s paper and analyze that almost as if it was my own. Looking back at this entire semester in this class I would easily come to a conclusion that my writing has improved and I think it will show later on as I continue to increase my writing skills for years to come.

We have finally arrived to the end of the semester, which means that we have learned all of these different strategies and concepts since the start of the semester. In the most part many people who take a class normally are better then when they had just started because they have practiced more and become better at the task they have been studying. This is also applicable to myself and the other students in who have taken English 101 regarding our writing skills and writing in general. Since this happens quite often to people I always think that it is sort of fun and interesting to see either how our writing has changed or how our views and thoughts have changed concerning a specific topic that we wrote about earlier in the semester.

 

In the case of our class in English 101 our very first writing assignment was to write a small piece on what we thought communication means and why it is so important in today’s world. After looking back at that assignment and what I had previously wrote about communication, I would say that my view is still fairly similar but I have also added things on to what else I believe communication means and how it is used now a days. In my original thought on the topic I said that “A very popular way to communicate even now is through writing, whether it be emails or even papers or letters, and since it is used so much it is very important to learn how to write.” And I still agree with this statement however I believe that we need these skills for other reasons. What I am trying to say is that I now do not necessarily believe that the main reason that we communicate is specifically to just write something and have them flat our read what the words say. If this were all we were trying to do then communicating really would not be that big of a skill that we would need to have. Communication is when you tell someone something specific but you do it in a way that you the audience can easily understand what you are saying and they also understand how you are saying it as well.  Then you can get your point off in the way that you desire in the way that you meant it to be taken. This is something that I have began to understand over the course of this semester is to try and find out what the speaker is trying to have me get out of what they are saying by looking at how they deliver the words.

 

 

 

I will need to revise my research essay because I felt like it could be improved more. There are a few parts that are not to the point where I want them to be at. What I will do when revising my essay is:

1. look at the order of the paragraphs and its organization

2. Add pictures to help get my point across

3. Go through and find more supporting words

4. Proofread the paragraphs for minor issues.

5. Find better transitions between paragraphs

For my Invention mob my group and I had an idea to create a mural of some sort that students could add on to create a bigger better piece of art. We ended up using the theme “Shooting for the Stars” because we wanted our project to be about more than just doing the minimum of whatever is required. By using this theme we would have people get in the mind set of going above and beyond what is required and creating something even better since there was not guidelines really. Also, by doing this mural project it would not only be having individuals draw about their dreams and what shooting for the stars really meant, but it also incorporated collaboration by taking each individuals own part and creating an even bigger piece of art work.

 

The process of creating our project was fairly simple and straightforward which ended up making the entire project come together quite easily. I believe that this was because of the fact that my teammates and I worked especially well together in planning and communicating as well. My group members that helped create the project and work on it were Marisa Stakes, Stephanie Lincoln- Baines, and Amber Moon. It all started out where my group members and I began to brainstorm ideas until we all agreed upon doing the mural and it seemed as if all of us thought this was a fantastic idea. Once my group got the basics planned out we made designated times that everyone in the group was available so that we could work on the project outside of class. Now that all of the planning and major details were taken care of we were finally able to begin the actual art work itself.

 

First the group had to cut out individual stars because of the fact that this was what we were going to have individuals draw on so that we could place the stars where we felt best and for reasons of efficiency as well. Once this was done the main part of the project was in progress which meant that at this point each group member could take their stars and begin to hand them out to people to draw their ideas of shooting for the stars on. The way that we did this was we would go to people that we saw and we would ask them if they would be interested in drawing on a star about the theme and if they had agreed we would then give them a star where they would be given some time to work on it so they were not rushed. We would then go and pick up the stars when we said that they were to be completed by and we would make sure o get a picture of them drawing their star so that we would then be able to add it on to the website that was created for the project. Not only would a picture be taken of them drawing the star itself but another picture was taken of the star up close so that people would be able to see individual stars if they so pleased.

 

At this point all of the stars had been completed and we had received 25 stars total to add to our mural. My group had then all met up and we began to talk about how we wanted the mural itself to look like and it needed to look really good since this was basically our entire project. We eventually came up with the idea of creating a small piece of the earth showing on the bottom of the page with all of the stars above it covering the rest of the space so it appeared like it was a view of outer space. As of this point we did not have much left to do really, so the last few steps were very quick and we taped the stars to the paper and inserted the earth along with the title “Shooting for the Stars”. We were now finished with the project so all that was to be completed now was the presentation to the class, which we gave just a few days later. Our presentation was basically covering all that we have done including the process and some things that we have encountered as well showing what our final product looked like.

 

During the entire process of the project each member of the team had each experienced multiple failures as well. Personally I had a few failures however they were not too major of issues. The most common problem I ran into was from people who I would ask if they wanted to draw a star would say no they did not want to. This was frustrating at first but later after I had some completed stars I was able to convince more people because I was able to show them examples of what others had drawn and it appeared to make them more comfortable. This was especially true for the people who said that they were not very good at drawing because they were able to see examples where the stars were not drawn with great skills similar to their own skills. This was able to increase the amount of people to draw the stars as well. Another slight problem that I had was when I would tell the person to finish the star bye a certain time yet when I would go and collect the finished star they had forgotten about finishing the star so I would then either have to wait for them to draw it or I would have to return at a later time to collect them. Overall the failures were not too bad and were only minor setbacks that eventually were able to be worked out.

 

I would still be confident in saying that our successes ended up outweighing all of our failures because we were still able to complete our final product how the group had desired. In fact I thought that our product ended up doing even better then I thought it would. I think that getting 25 college students to take time out of their day to draw something that they had no part in was a success in its own because many students are busy a lot of the time and do not really want to draw something without much significance to themselves. Not only did we have a good amount of stars but also I think that the stars themselves turned out very well since there was a nice range of not so great pictures to ones that seemed as if a true artist had drawn them. Not to mention the pictures were not all the same type of picture since some of them ranged from going to cities they wanted to travel to or to doing things that you probably would never accomplish if you did not push yourself above and beyond expectations. Like I said earlier in the essay I believe that the final product was beyond my expectations and I think that my other group members would be able to agree with that statement as well.

 

The Website that we created also was a great way for not only the group to use to see everything that we have up until that point but it was also beneficial to everyone who had participated. The website not only gave a chance for an individual to see their work that they had done to contribute but it also allows them to see all the other ideas that people had drawn. This is a way to see what their piece ended up being made into being the entire mural with all of the finished stars. On the website there were different pages that were designed for specific purposes. For instance there was a one page dedicated to only the close ups of all the stars so they could be seen clearly and anonymously. Another page was for the contributions, which was all the pictures we had of people while they were drawing stars and creating their own little masterpiece. The rest of the website was dedicated to showing the purpose of the project along with how we went about completing the project and finally the final project itself.

 

Looking back at this project that I completed with my group members I would probably say that it was my favorite part about all of English 101 that we have done so far. I am not sure if this is because we were able to get random people to get together and help on one thing or what. I really like being able to use a type of writing with a hand on type of assignment rather than just writing essay because of the fact that it becomes more enjoyable watching something of this sort come together. I have been able to look at writing in a more positive outlook after this project because it made me realize that writing does not have to boring or uninteresting since you can make it into whatever you want it to be. I’m glad that we were able to sort of end the semester on this project because it is enjoyable and tie in things we have learned as well.

 

 

One of the biggest problems that we are currently facing is pollution worldwide in just about every single country. Obviously in some places it is more severe then in others based on technology and laws against them, but no matter which place is polluting it is still causing a negative effect on the environment. These pollutions are not one certain type there is multiple types including water pollution and air pollution. Recently we have noticed that these events have ended up having effects on not only the nature but now on sports and activities that humans participate in on a daily basis everywhere in the world.

 

At one time or another nearly every single one of you have played a sport or participated in some way. Some of you might not be directly related but that does not mean that you as an individual do not have an impact on sports because since all of us impact the environment we then have a connection with many sports. What I’m trying to get at is with many sports that are played today all over the world, many of them involve nature in some way. For instance the environment is crucial to the sport of skiing because it is very difficult to go skiing without snow. Another sport that is still connected to the environment but not as much as say skiing would be a sport like baseball where grass is used on the field but it doesn’t necessarily take away the game completely. There are many sports that are dependent on nature and its surroundings to ensure that the sport can be played or enjoyed as much as possible. However the way things are going currently it will eventually destroy much of the environment and change many things that we are accustomed to today.

I feel that it a good way to get people more interested in saving the world and nature in particular is to connect what consequences could happen to sports if things don’t begin to change. Since sports nowadays are huge in entertainment and things for people to do in their free time I believe that society would begin to change ways that they live if they knew that sports were in danger of going through some very large changes or even not being possible. For instance if rivers continue to be polluted then eventually there will be no more fishing at all and that would spread to lakes and larger bodies of water. If the water supply becomes so toxic that it is borderline dangerous then sports on any type of lakes will not exist like wakeboarding, tubing, jet skiing and most obviously swimming. Once water is no longer available then sports tat depend on grass of any sort will be changed greatly like golf or baseball. These sports will need to either change how they are played or find a replacement surface because taking those things away is a big deal especially with golf courses. By taking away one part of maintaining a field or course like water for instance you would basically be taking away golf and how it is played, and the same would happen to baseball fields.

Just these few examples show how much change would be made to multiple sports that we know today all because of what happens to the environment because of what we are doing. Society has to see that all the harmful things that we are doing are building on each other and making things even worse for the environment which are having consequences with things that many people enjoy very much being sports. By showing what effects our actions could possibly have it will be an awakening to people to start being more proactive or else they will know what will be the fallout and hopefully that’s enough motivation for them.

 

We have to open up our eyes because the things that I was talking about are only things that could happen and haven’t begun yet. This means that we still have time but not very much because we have already had an encounter where pollution nearly canceled a sporting event. Plus the event that it happened to be is one of the largest events if not the largest event the world has, The Olympic Games. This specific incident was the 2008 Olympic games that were held in Beijing, China and it had to do with the air quality in China due to air pollutants. There was actually quite a few of the Olympic athletes who were threatening not to participate in the games due to such bad air quality but somehow it was able to be resolved before anyone had quit the games all together. The athletes were concerned about the levels of carbon that were in the air and they were afraid that it could harm themselves by breathing it in for too long of a time. This is the most recent scare our world has encountered and it was a good thing in my opinion that it was brought to world news in the way that it did and hopefully our world could avoid things of this sort for a while.

 

Personally I believe that we have not seen the last of problems like the 2008 Olympic games mainly because of the fact that I do not feel as if other countries are worried about taking the next steps in trying to stop the pollution problems that are occurring and hopefully reversing them in some way. Like I said earlier it is not as if only one specific country is the problem because it would make things a lot simpler since we would be able to help them correct that. However we are at the point where the world has to get together and find a way to run things in a more environmentally safe way. Once everyone is on board with this idea we can begin to make process on changing things so that we are beginning to live in a place where we will not have to worry about the environment ending up hurting how we live and the things that people enjoy doing or our own personal well being.