Entry #6: Bad News and Good News

BAD NEWS:

I thought I should start this blog entry with the bad news first. Unfortunately, this will be my last post on this blog.

Although I will no longer post, I wanted to sincerely say that I have had a great time writing my thoughts on different social issues, sports, and topics on here these past few months and I hope you readers enjoyed it. I find blogging enjoyable because it helps inform people about yourself. It's an easy way to speak out and make your voice be heard. I think that blogs have great power and are extremely significant in politics. It's just another way to put information on the web and hopefully it can help people become more educated.

I have taken blogging on here seriously since I first created it. I made sure to do my blog entries ahead of time and I wanted my blog to be interesting and look cool. It feels great knowing that your blog looks nice and people are interested in what you have to say. Also, I loved putting my thoughts on here to help my audience ultimately learn more.

Believe it or not, I have learned a lot about how to blog from this assignment. It helped me employ rhetoric and it helped me understand what most of the public are interested in. I found that my top post was easily the "Top 10 NBA Championship Contenders..." There are several sports fans out there that I knew loved it because that post got at least 80 more likes than any of my other posts.

Blogging is a great tool in English classes because it can help a student demonstrate his/her understanding of English. For me, this blog helped me realize how I can attract a wider range of viewers and how rhetoric can make your blog a big hit or a flop.

For ENG 102, I think some helpful tips for improving these blog assignments could be making the prompts more vague. The reason I say this is because sometimes when I have to write about certain entries it can be totally different from my other self-generated posts. I think this makes the blog seem less specific and at times, random. However, if the entry prompts were more vague, we may be able to connect what we already write about in our self-generated entries to the prompt and make it more similar.

GOOD NEWS:
Again, I want to end by saying that this will be my last blog entry. However, the good news is that there are still other ways you can contact me on the web!

Follow Me: http://i-love-phoenix.tumblr.com/
Follow Me: https://twitter.com/sameen_qureshi
Follow Me: http://instagram.com/sameen_qureshi

NBA Becoming Less Fun to Watch

As you look through the history of the NBA, there have been some really exciting moments. From Tracy McGrady scoring 13 points in 33 seconds to Michael Jordan's game winning jumper. It's always so much fun to watch those close games where the atmosphere is tense and a superstar must rise and win the game. Unfortunately, these close games that are so electrifying to watch are not as common as they once were due to modern "flopping". This term simply defines when a player acts hurt to try and get a foul call and in close games where the time is running out this is becoming more and more common. What happened to the days where superstars would shoot the clutch shot regardless of whether or not they were fouled? Those days when the crowd would erupt from joy? Those days when flopping did not exist and was not practiced as often? Let's show some examples of the modern-day flop:

In the first video the commentator says, "What kind of league are we becoming if that's a flagrant foul?" The commentator asks a brilliant question because honestly, it seems like this league is becoming a league that rewards actors. It saddens me to think about what will happen when Kobe retires. When he retires, the most dominant player and most popular player will be Lebron James. However, Lebron is just not that fun to watch. He doesn't take big shots in crunch time during close games and he flops quite a bit. Now don't quote me wrong, Lebron is definitely one of the most talented players in the game right now but he's just not that fun to watch. Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony have a great future for entertaining NBA viewers but they are not considered as popular and elite as Lebron James. Kobe Bryant has made a name for himself for making big shot after big shot and single-handedly taking over games. Kobe is absolutely unbelievable in crunch time and he knows how to get the crowd going. With the League's new officiating rules and superstars becoming less clutch, it seems as though the NBA will just not be as entertaining as it once was. Here's an example of what will be missed when Kobe Bryant retires from the NBA. 

Entry #5: How I Perceive the Media

Ever since I read the book, 1984, by George Orwell last year, I have become more suspicious and skeptical of the government and how the media impacts our lives. In the novel, Orwell depicts a world where the media is controlled by the government and how the totalitarian government strips humans of their basic rights. Even kids are taught to betray their parents in school if they ever find out important information about their parents.

Although we are obviously not ruled by a totalitarian government in the United States, the media is still designed in a persuasive manner. For example, each news station has a different motive or purpose. Many news channels, like FOX, try to persuade their audience without appearing bias. This works on many people and it's scary to think that some people are brainwashed by whatever they see on T.V.

Since I have been thinking and writing about the media lately, I have begun to realize more about how the media influences us. Smartphones and social media websites are designed in a way that requires users to input information. When you play games on a smartphone, sometimes a message will pop up reading, "Tweet this" or "Connect to Facebook". Additionally, I noticed that after every time you lose in doodle jump it pops up with an advertisement. The objective of "doodle jump" creators is to make money and by sponsoring other corporations, they generate more money. When I watch different television shows, I find advertisements directly related to whatever it is I'm watching. Every application, website, and/or television program has its interior motives which can be displayed in several different forms.

My brother is a great example of how the media affects people. He watches programs like The Colbert Report, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and Real Time with Bill Maher. This may explain why he's a democrat and why he so one-sidedly promotes Obama and the democratic party. There is not one policy that my brother could agree with a Republican on which is not necessarily bad but it does justify the impact of media. In fact, one of the ways presidents get elected is through their online and televised campaigning. Barack Obama has a Facebook page and so do various other successful politicians. And don't you just hate those advertisements that always end with, "Hi, I'm __________ and I approve this message." It is quite evident that the media impacts the people and how they view politics.