Blog 7

For this blog entry, I would like you to reflect on the research and writing process and narrate (tell the story of) how you got the Essay 4: Media Mid-term paper and PowerPoint completed. What was the process? If you had a “do-over” what would you do the same? What would you do differently? Finally, on a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your effort? On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate the final product?

My midterm project is about "How Elvis Presley Impact the Media." Doing the research paper was kind of tough. I have done a research paper before but the ones I have done they weren't seven or six pages long. My topic was tough to begin with, Elvis Presley did a number of things during his lifetime such as movies, charities, his music, and more. So I decided to focus on one thing about Elvis, which was about his music and how he effect the change of it. So I started my research about the man himself before I started on his music. When I found information about Elvis the Man, I moved on to find information about Elvis the Singer. Next I moved on to the type of music he sung. After that I focus on Rock n Roll, before, during and after Elvis. I search about Rock n Roll roots, such as whom or what started who were the pioneers, and who gave Rock n Roll its name. Then I search about Rock n Roll during Elvis, how he broke the color line so black artist can perform for whites and whites can perform for black. How he was both a Rock n Roll star and a Rockabilly star. Many other artists follow after him such as the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holley. Last I search about Music after Elvis, how after his death Elvis still influence about of music artist and people. How some artists say without Elvis they wouldn't have been who they are.

The PowerPoint was much easier. I know almost everything about using PowerPoint. I used PowerPoint all during high school. I used about six slides(Slide Titles: Slide 1:How Elvis Impact the Media Slide 2: Summary of Elvis, Slide 3: Music before Elvis, Slide 4: Music During Elvis, Slide 5: Music After Elvis, and Slide 6: Conclusion) and instead of using the backgrounds that PowerPoint provided I used pictures from Google as my background. I added "Jailhouse Rock" and "Hound Dog" on to two of my slides. Then I added two videos from YouTube onto my slides as while. (With the help of YouTube and Dr. Smith.) Then I put simply brief facts on each slide.

If I had a chance to do it over I would have picked a different topic. I would have picked "Radio," "DVDs, Blu-ray, and VHS," or "Stereos" as my topic. So basically I would have done something different. The number of slides would probably stay the same, the only differences with the PowerPoint would have been the titles, the sound and the videos. On the scale of 1-10 I would rate my efforts a 5. I believe I could have done a little bit more with the paper part of the project. On the scale of 1-10 I would rate my final product a 5. Like I said I believe I could have done a little bit more with the paper part of the project.

Blog 6

7. Consider yourself in Truman’s position. If presented with the choice to remain in Seahaven, a place where you have been promised that “you have nothing to fear”, or to enter into another world that you know little or nothing about, which would you choose?

I would choose to enter into another world. Why did I make this decision? I made this decision because entering into another world that I have little knowledge of would give me the chance to start on a new leaf. Gives me the chance to explore, to find people who are real and not fake ones who gets paid to be a friend, neighbor or family member. Maybe I would feel a little lost in this new world but that would be only because I live in a non reality world. A world with nothing to fear sounds like a good world but it wouldn't feel real. I'm not saying that I want to be scared of anything, I probably would be scared that Seahaven has nothing for me to fear.

It would have me question the people in my neighborhood. Like "Why is my next door neighbor so happy even when something sad happens?" Or why does the something happen every single day like my life is on a loop. So by starting a new leaf in the other world would be good. I can make real friends instead of having people being paid to act as my friends and likewise for my family. I quess it has alot to do with free will. I have a choice to make either stay in Seahaven or enter the unknown world. No one would know what decision I will make, so it's not fate. It's free will.

Blog 5

In "Fate, Freedom, and Foreknowledge", Schick explores the possibility of the existence of freewill both inside the Matrix program and, more broadly in Neo's life. Do you think your life is determined by a special, individual fate, or are you free to choose as you wish? Use your own life as the basis and compare to both the Matrix film and at least one of the philosophical positions Schick explores.



I think my life is determined by freewill. I believe this because I choose whether or not to do something. I know what's right or wrong. We all are in control of our lives. Sometimes we may lose control of our lives to fate once in a while but we still have control of our lives. But sometimes I think our lives can also be determined by fate. I guess it can be both fate and freewill that determines our lives.


In the Matrix Neo tells Morpheus that he doesn't believe in fate. He doesn't like the fact that he's not in control of his life. Both the Matrix the movie and Philosopher Richard Taylor believe that fate exists. Nothing happens by choice, it happens because it was meant to happen. Christians say that God is the almighty, the all knowing, and the all good. Christians believe that we have freewill. But the book is says that if God knows what we will do before we do it then it’s not freewill at all its fate. I guess really that we have both fate and freewill, we have the right to do anything we want but with God knowing what we doing its fate.

Blog 4

The Metaphysics of the Matrix" (55-65)--"Metaphysics" is the study of what is real and what is knowable; the term "Meta" meaning "overarching" or "all inclusive" and "physics" meaning "the study of reality". At the very simplest, then, metaphisicists try to come up with a system (a metaphysics) that explains the world that we live in and how we experience that world--how we know what is "real" from what is "imaginary". On pages 61 and 62, Gracia and Sanford us the terms "source" and "ontological status" to make distinctions that allow them to claim that the world in the Matrix is "unreal" and the world outside of the Matrix (outside of the program) is the "real world". What they heck do they mean by "source" and "ontological status"? Using whatever sources you see fit (though tell us where you looked!) come to an understanding as to what these terms mean, define these terms in your own words, and then tell us whether or not you agree with Gracia and Sanford's assessment.





What they mean by "source", they're talking about how everything started, where did all begin? On page 61 Gracia and Sanford says, "We know that machines and electrical signals are produced by humans and artificially intelligent machines. We know that human beings born in the city of Zion come from their parents. But we don't know the ultimate source of these things." Basically they are saying that where did these humans and A.I. machines come from. Who build these machines, who birth the first child? No one knows this information at all. What they mean by "ontological status", they're talking "plainly as the way things exist" (page 61 last paragraph). They base this on the dependence of each world. Gracia and Sanford says “The real world in The Matrix, as we can tell, does not depend on something else for its existence; it stands by itself. But even if there were that is even if the existence of the things in the real world were dependent on such a genie, the ontological status of the unreal world can be seen to be much weaker, much less independent than that of the real world." Basically from this quote it saying that the real world is independent, they depend on no other existence but theirselves. While the unreal world is not independent at all, they depend on another existence, which tends to be the real world. The A.I. machines live in the real world and the humans they made live in the unreal world, so the humans in the unreal world depend on the A.I. machines to give them experience in what to do. The machines tell them how to run their lives, what to eat, sleep and live. Without the A.I. machines running the unreal world, they humans in the unreal would not exist.


To me "source" means, where from. Say if information on something and your teacher asks you "What are your sources?" She's asking you where did you get your information from. It couldn't just fall from the sky and into your lap. For ontological I didn't really know the meaning of this word until I reread that section and looked it up on dictionary.com and both says it means "Of or relating to essence or the nature of being, or the nature of existence or being as such." With agreeing or disagreeing with Gracia and Sanford, I'll have to say that I disagree with what they are saying. If it wasn't for God no living creature would exist. Yet, he doesn't send electrical signals to our minds telling us what our jobs are going to be or how to live our lives. We're independent yet we are dependent. We're both we can't be either or, it’s the way the world works.