Sleep

Our parents, doctors, everyone says that we need at least 8 hours asleep at night. 8 hours helps our memory, restores our energy that we used up during the day, rebuilds and restores muscle tissue, helps our mood and concentration, helps our nerve system and immune system, and improves short term memory. If all of this is true, why do college students not aim for more sleep? Why do college students feel “as long as I get 5 hours I am good?” Why are college students still able to function just as well with 6 hours as 8 hours? Why do college students always assume they can sleep tomorrow and then never do? How are college students suppose to balance sleep along with everything else in life? Why do college students only sleep when they are sick? Why do college students also want sleep? When did college students discover that naps are not just for babies? Why are college students always tired in the morning but wake up towards the evening?

Honestly, I have no idea why students do not try to get more sleep because most students complain about not getting enough sleep and are always tired. Whenever you ask a college student “how are you?” they always reply with either “good” or “tired.” I think college students think 5 hours of sleep is enough because they feel homework is more important than sleep. They feel it does not matter how long it takes as long as they get it done. To make them feel better about not going to bed when they originally planned they say “as long as I get at least 5 hours I will be okay.” The next thought is normally “I will get more sleep tomorrow night” which everyone knows tomorrow never comes. Then finally the week is here and no classes and homework is not due for a couple more days, the thought is “I can actually get some sleep. “ However, the phones rings about an activity that is going on tonight and the person on the other lines asks “would you like to hang out this evening?” The thought that goes through the students head is , well I did homework all week and I am pretty much caught up, one night will not hurt. The student does not get back until 2 am and has to be someone where the next morning at 10 am. The student again only gets 6 hours of sleep. The cycle continues….it also does not help if the student works better at night than in the morning.

I think the whole thing boils down to time management. That is the hardest thing for me since I have been at college. Hanging out with friends and doing homework is really not the same thing as hanging out with friends and going to the movies. Unfortunately for us the days of being able to have free time does not exist anymore, that also has a lot to do with your major. It is just not fair how other majors have way more free time than engineering students.

Faceboook! Facebook is probably the biggest distraction for everyone. I know I am guilty of using Facebook to procrastinate homework, and I know if I had a Farmville I would never get off. I know, I know I am probably the only person on campus that does not have a Farmville. If we did not get on Facebook so much and did not have it up in the background when we are doing homework, I know I would finish my homework 10 times faster. The thing that gets me most is why is Facebook so addicting? How can people spend hours on it? I guess, reading other people’s profiles, sending messages and wall posts to people, taking quizzes to see what you are like, playing games, poking people, reading all the news feed, etc is what takes so much time. I know I am guilty, I have literally spent a whole day on Facebook and did not even realize it, and I know for a fact I am not the only one. If we know we would complete the task faster if we were not on Facebook, then why do we get on Facebook anyway? Even after we do all our homework for tomorrow, we still get on Faceboook before we go to bed. This website distracts us and keeps us from sleeping. I heard about it all the time in class, “last night I was watching something on youTube, hulu, and talking on Facebook, that is why I did not get to bed until about 3 am.”

For the people who live in a dorm, it is understandable to be kept awake by all the people hanging out in the hallway. I know one time my roommate tried to go to bed about 9:30pm and I stayed up at my computer doing homework. She stayed awake because there were people outside the room talking and screaming until about 2:30am. So, if it is because you are living in a dorm that is keeping you up at night, then at least it is not your fault. I know my roommate puts her iPod in her ears before she goes to bed and I am sure that helps block the sound which would make it easier to fall asleep.

If you are getting about 8 hours asleep at night, keep up the good work, you are on a roll. If you are not getting 8 hours of sleep you are like the rest of campus and maybe pointing out what the biggest distractions are will help you know what to improve. I know for me, if I improved on time management I might get to bed earlier than I have been which would let me get more sleep. The first step for me is getting off Facebook while I am doing my homework. Good luck on finding your first step.

Random Advice...

Since this week’s blog can be about anything, I am going to write about why boys think girls are so complicated when really it is the boy that is complicated. This blog is not about me personally, it is just observations I have experienced or witnessed over the years. Do not get me wrong…girls are complicated too but boys make it that way.

For starters, boys do not listen. How many times have you experienced saying something to a boy and ten minutes later he says something completely different. This makes girls angry and that causes boys to think girls are complicated when really it was the guy. They thought one thing and got confused because they did not hear the girl say something else. When a boy actually listens to a girl he is a keeper…whether it is a friendship or a relationship. Yes, I admitted girls do not listen all the time but that causes girls to think boys are confusing. When two people like each other enough, I believe they will listen to each other because they want to please each other and not fight. As the famous phrase goes “communication is the key to any good relationship.” If you cannot say how you truly feel around that person then maybe the relationship is not really working. The significant other in any relationship should be your best friend someone you can talk to about anything and someone that will be there for you in good times and bad. Part of being there is listening to your problems and how you feel. A poster in my orchestra room said “silent and listen have the same letters.” I know that might be a little cheesy but it means something. Another reason boys think girls are complicated is that they do not like to talk about their emotions. Boys have a harder time opening up and talking about how they feel. I do not know why it is, maybe they think they will sound weak. I do not know. This is still along the same lines with communication. If the boy does not tell the girl how she feels then it is harder for her to know how to act in certain situations. In a relationship it takes two to keep it going, if one person decides not talk about it then the other is not sure how to act.

Another reason why boys thinks girls are complicated…I will admit…I do not think girls truly know what they want. Have you ever been in a relationship where at first you thought you liked the guy and then the more you thought about it and realized that maybe you do not. Or have you been in a relationship when you thought you were over the last guy and the more you talk about him you realize you like him more than you thought and feel bad for breaking up with him. Or have you been in a relationship where it was great in the beginning and then at the end all you did was argue. This problem maybe no one’s fault, just that in general we are indecisive people. That does not make us complicated because as I stated earlier, communication will keep the boy on the same track.

Another reason that boys think girls are complicated is that they are not on the same page like they thought they were. For example, the boy is getting more attached to the girl, when the girl is not that attached yet. Or the boy is holding on to the relationship when the girl just wants to be friends. Or the boy does not feel the same way for the girl and does not understand why the girl gets mad when she finds out after they did something.

Relationships in general are complicated, any type of relationship. Best friends can be complicated because how many times has your best guy friend ended up like you? Those are always the hardest and it is a tossup whether they will turn out okay or very badly. I have learned with anything and everything that “time heals all things.” This does not only happen with best friends. Sometimes one person will not admit they have a crush on the other and this leads to nothing happening with hurt feelings. That, however, is better than telling someone you like them and go ahead and try the relationship when really deep down they are not ready for a relationship. That means it is going to explode in their face. That is like a rocket getting ready to launch.

Another reason boys think girls are complicated is some boys literally go from one girl to the next. Yes, girls can do it too. When the girl finds out that the boy just moved on that quickly the girl gets hurt and so she expresses her anger. The boy is probably thinking why is she so mad we just broke up we are both single and free to date whoever we want. This, however, maybe the case but make sure you give it time. Rebounds do happen and they can end very badly. It is harder now to know when two people break up because sometimes it was never really official so the girl may think they broke up a different time the boy thinks they broke up.

I understand that both boys and girls are reading this and that everyone is going to have a different opinion. Relationships in general are hard to categorize because so many different aspects are in the relationships that make it work. One type of relationship might work for someone and might not work for someone else. Boys if you have wondered why you thought girls were so complicated…do not just look at the girl (I admit girls are complicated). Maybe the boy did something too that made the relationship seem complicated. Overall, both just be level headed and listen to each other. If you take the time to listen to each other, you are taking the time to show each other you care.

Rhetorical Analysis

This week’s blog post topic is on rhetorical analysis. I read chapter 5 but I am still not sure if I did it right.

iTunes

This advertisement is trying to sell iPods to the youth. It is achieving it by having all the teenagers look like they are having a lot of fun at a dance party by listening to their iPods. This is effective because it is not very common that a teenager does not have an iPod. A logical look at the picture, makes is seem like no one is sociable anymore because everyone is in his or her own little world and not listening to what everyone else is listening to it. At a normal dance, all the teenagers are listening to the music and discussing it and talking about what they like and what they do not like. The music company is saying that everyone needs an iPod, by showing everyone in the picture with an iPod and dancing up and down to their music. It is has some pathos saying everyone has one jump on the

bandwagon and get one too. Saying you do not want to be left out or you will feel really bad. It has some ethos because who is going to know iPods better than the people who have them. This is a social argument because it is relating to pop culture.

Above the influence

The advertisement is trying to get teenagers not to do drugs or smoke. They are achieving it by showing a bug about to eat bug spray, which would kill them. This is saying that if you do drugs you could die from it. It depends on the strength of bug spray that will kill the bug. For example, a cockroach will not die from fly spray but it will from cockroach spray. It uses the ethos approach because above the influence is a reputable source. This source is known to teach teenagers to not do drugs, that is why their advertisements tend to be in magazines, on popular teenage television stations, and on popular teenage websites. It is more powerful with the question at the bottom that states, “what’s the worst that could happen?” This question is rhetorical because it is obvious that a bug will die from bug spray. This is a very social argument because it is relating to pop culture. The argument is trying to show people that are thinking about doing drugs and people that are doing drugs that it is more harmful than portrayed. The people that are thinking about doing drugs or the ones that are, are the only people that are really gaining from the article because if someone believes strongly in not doing drugs this advertisement will hardly affect them.

Geico

This advertisement is saying that switching the car insurance is really easy, do not worry about it, just do it. It is achieving this by having a caveman; someone who is thought to not be intelligent, saying I can do it you can do it too. This, however, does not make much sense because cavemen were the ones that came up with fire. This is appealing to younger and older adults, really anyone who would need insurance. Children are not going to need insurance. It is using some emotional appeal because it is like a challenge. If he can do, so can I. The person is going to want to change the car insurance because he wants to prove someone wrong. It does not seem that trustworthy because it says “get a free rate quote,” nothing is free in this world. Saying “you could save hundreds on car insurance,” does sound believable but, that would vary from person to person and “could” is the key word that most people would not have picked up on. This advertisement has been on the radio, television, internet, and magazines. This advertisement is more political because it is a law that everyone has car insurance, which is the main reason why everyone has car insurance. Because of this law, car insurance companies are trying to make it easier for people to get car insurance and by saying a caveman can do it, is implying that it is easy.

Smoking (I am sorry that I cannot show the picture but here is the link: http://www.geckoandfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/stop_smoking_kills6.jpg)

This advertisement is really trying to get people to quit smoking because it not only kills you but is kills everyone else around you. It is achieving this by showing the three different pictures. The first picture is very powerful with the statistic “3,000 nonsmokers die every year from secondhand smoke.” It is an emotional argument because it is making someone feel bad (touching their hearts) about smoking and how they are killing people. Similar to feed the kids in the third world countries; it feels like if we do not send the money then we are killing them. The first picture shows the smoke reaching out and going to kill someone. The second picture shows them having fun while they are smoking and how it looks like noting bad can happen. The third picture shows them trying to fight for their life and how they are about to die. This is social argument because it is trying to tell people not to smoke like the rest of society that it is bad for you. It can kill you. The language is very strong because it has that statistic of all the deaths. This advertisement is found in a magazine and is one that will make a person look at it because it has such a powerful message. The advertisement is presented in a chronological way. It shows what happens first and then what happens next. The advertisement is appealing to anyone who smokes or is thinking about smoking. It is trustworthy because of the statistic and the underlying message. The only problem is a statistic can be skewed in any way to give the message it wants to give. The fact is it is not going to catch all the people who died of secondhand smoke and it is going to make false assumptions about some people that did die from secondhand smoke.

October Sky Festival

For those of you who do not know, Rocket Boys is a book based on Homer Hickam’s life about being something more than what he was destined to be. He grew up in Coalwood, West Virginia. This town had all its income for the mine and Mr. Hickam (Homer Hickam’s father) managed the mine. Mr. Hickam kept telling his son that he was going to work in the mine for the rest of his life and eventually become the manager. Homer saw more to life and wanted to build rockets. His father did not approve and his mother said, “Don’t blow yerself up, now.” The whole story is about him following his dream of becoming a rocket scientist. The three other guys who helped him out were his best friends. He eventually graduated from high school and went to Virginia Tech to become a rocket scientist. He worked at NASA until he retired and now he is a full time writer and promotes his book, Rocket Boys. Rocket Boys was also made into the movie October Sky. Fun fact Rocket Boys has the same letters as October Sky…I heard that is where the name came from.

Anyone who wanted to sign up to go to Coalwood for the October Sky Festival with Hypatia and Galileo (the girl and boy theme housing for engineers) for a day and manage a booth could. We also got ten hours of community service when we did it. J We departed from Virginia Tech at 5:30am Saturday morning and did not get back until 6:30pm that night. Everyone was asleep on the bus. When we arrived we set up our tent for the activities we had planned for the little children to do to get them interested in engineering. We had three ideas but only two were successful. The first idea was to make slim out of water, borax, and food coloring. That was a lot of fun to play with and it seemed like all the little kids enjoyed it. The second was to make paper airplanes out of card stock and cut different flaps to decide which way you want the plan to fly. The third that did not work were the pop rockets. We used film canisters and poured vinegar in about three fourths of the way and then dropped a half of tablet of alkaliser and then you have a rocket. The only problem we ran into was the film canisters were not air tight so the experiment was a bust. Good news is we had the other two to cover up for not having one.

Since there were a large group of us there, the people that were not helping out with the projects would walk around passing out “Love an Engineer” Virginia Tech buttons. That is what I did. We would also tell people about the booth and that they should go check it out to make some cool things. One little kid had a Virginia Tech hat on so I went to go talk to him about the Tech booth/tent. When I did he was like no I do not want to go make stuff and then I said “would you like a button” and he took it but it was obvious he really did not want it. So maybe an hour later the kid with the Tech hat is at the booth making stuff. Someone told me he went twice. That made me mad because he told me he did not want to go over there. Kids!

There were many activities they had planned other than the booths, such as the parade, showing of October Sky, rocket launches, etc. We stood to the side and watched the parade. Once the parade was almost finished there was a group of (I am guessing middle school) kids with name tags on. As they walked by we gave each one of them a button and with all the other buttons we passed out, we got rid of all the buttons J It was awesome because later that group had a picture taken with Homer Hickam. Since Homer Hickam had a pen and so did all the kids it was an awesome picture.

I was able to have Homer Hickam sign a copy of Rocket Boys for me and Natalie Canerday (the actress who played Mrs. Hickam, Homer Hickam’s mom, in October Sky) sign a picture of her for me. I also was able to get a picture of Homer Hickam and me and Natalie Canerday and me. Both of them are very nice people. Very easy to talk to and made you feel at home, very comfortable.

I had never been to West Virginia before until last Saturday and I learned how country it really is. When you drive there it is like you are entering a different world. I am from Chesapeake, Virginia so I am used to Norfolk’s skyscrapers and Virginia Beach’s beach and all the hustle and bustle. When I got to Virginia Tech, I would joke that all we have for a “downtown” is one street. I thought Blacksburg was country, very cozy and homey none the least. Driving through West Virginia, I realized that Blacksburg is not country. West Virginia is the true country. We drove through little towns that did not have any chains, all were owned by towns people and the town’s built up area lasted about three min on the bus ride. It really made me see that America has more sides than what is publicized. We briefly learn in history how country West Virginia really is, but seeing it, is believing it. After what I saw, made me appreciate even more what Homer Hickam went through to be the successful man he is today. What he did gives young people hope that they can make tomorrow what they want it to be; all they need is will power and motivation. As the old saying goes, “where there is a will, there is a way.”