Lets make this greenprint a reality!

A blue print has been laid out on how Silicon Valley can become more environmentally friendly. This article, "Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network lays out green vision for region" states that we can benefit from the climate crisis we are currently enduring. We have the opportunity to innovate and invent new technologies that will help Silicon Valley prosper. Many green jobs are becoming available because of the economic crisis we are in. The formation of the Silicon Valley Climate Prosperity Council has also just been announced. This group is funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the nonprofit Global Urban Development. The purpose of this association is to make the "greenprint" a reality! Along with this, a forty four page document was composed based primarily on "four areas where Silicon Valley's technological expertise and innovative business style can lead to cleaner skies, green jobs and an expanded market for green services and products. And it offers suggestions on how those areas can be improved." The four areas include; renewable energy, building efficiency, clean transportation, and green infrastructure. The article closes with the idea that in order to make this area more environmentally friendly, we will have to spend even more of our government dollars. However, like the mass amount spent on discovering the internet, this amount of money will be worth the end product.

I agree with the ideas and actions wanting to be taken in this article. If we don't realize the condition that our environment is in now and that we need to repair it, what could happen decades or even years from now? It seems that a full proof plan is being laid out and if the right people put it into action, I think Silicon Valley will benefit immensely from this greenprint.

The "AVODAH" Website

People who are very passionate about their beliefs usually want others to agree with theirs and to convert to their religion. The "AVODAH" website is a place where the program is introduced and explained. It also includes excerpts from participants on their experiences with AVODAH. The home page is filled with color and faces with smiles. This immediately has the reader thinking, "Hey, if I join the Jewish Service Corp I'd have a good time." In this program the participants have a year long commitment to social change. They work at anti-poverty locations to benefit people of the effects of poverty in the United States. Based on what you believe will contribute to what you advocate for. I think that being religious would shape advocacy in a negative way. In a religion, you have the way you think everything should be and aren't open for suggestions. This in turn would form strong advocates of certain beliefs but would completely ignore other ideas. These religious affiliations encourage people to become part of their religious community because in their eyes it is the best choice. Included in the website is Alumni Profiles. Each passage had a beneficial outcome and ended with their path towards embracing the Jewish culture. For example, the Alumni stated that they were interested in becoming a rabbi after this program, or studying at the University of Judaism. These paths lead us to believe that anyone who participates in this needs to be Jewish or has a yearning to become Jewish. As a final note I think that this website is a good way to reach others about becoming involved!

Editorial and Opinion Pieces

Chapter Thirteen brought me back to my high school days. When reviewing all of the editorials I could recall sitting in my English class reading pieces of work very similar. It also reminded me of my favorite style of essays to compose, persuasive! Each of the editorials displayed their take on a topic or issue, whether it was obvious or hidden through their text. The author's wrote in a style so that the readers would be convinced to agree with their statements. This parallels the style of persuasive essays, although not exactly. Persuasive essays, in my opinion, are the most entertaining to write especially if it is on a topic you are truly passionate about. For myself in particular, I love to write persuasive essays because I am very opinionated and I love to argue. I am constantly fighting with people around me, debate after debate, to see my side of every situation, as well as trying to convince them that I am right. This is where my mother and I have the same genes, leading to continual arguments. Persuasive writings, just like opinion pieces and editorials have a wide range of what can be discussed. Anything from where you stand on smoking cigarettes to how you feel about animal abuse. Opinion is most fun when you like what you are writing about. This is beneficial because when writing editorials or opinion pieces, these people are doing so because they are fervent about the topic or issue at hand.

Why discriminate?

When browsing through articles in the Mercury News, I found that many topics did not spark any of my interests. After clicking around for a good twenty minutes I came across the special reports category and was intrigued by the title, "We are family, too: Vietnamese gays and lesbians join San Jose's Tet parade". I choose to discuss this article because I am very passionate on the topic. After the passing of Prop 8 I felt ashamed of California. It was the first time that I didn't want to be a part of what was happening politically. The article was not solely based on gay rights, however, on the "coming out" of many Vietnamese gays and lesbians. A young girl, Annie states in the article that "in Vietnamese and many Asian cultures there is a strong held tradition that women should marry and have children". This makes it especially hard for younger people of Asian decent to open up to their families about who they are. Annie was just one of many who joined the Tet parade as a proud lesbian. This was the second time in the parade's history that gays and lesbians participated in the celebration by marching openly. This event was a huge mile stone for the Vietnamese culture to pass because it opened the eyes of many to see that homosexuality is not something to be ashamed of but accepted and embraced. This topic is extremely important to me because, we the people, do not have the right to decide who should or should not get married. Love can be between a man and woman or a man and a man. Who are we to decide?

Online Essay Relating to San Jose

When choosing the online essay I decided to google things that intrigued me so that when writing this analysis I would deliver better insight. For a good fifteen minutes I couldn’t come up with anything until I remembered the San Jose Sharks had a game today against the Boston Bruins. The East meets the West, perfect. I then knew that I wanted to discuss an article written about the Sharks titled “Sharks Standout with Special Teams”. I found this article from the Shark’s official home page. The article opened with Marc-Edouard Vlasic telling us how excited he was to get to play with Rob Blake. These two have helped San Jose’s penalty kill rank among the National Hockey League’s top four. This duo leads the Sharks defensemen in total ice time. Although these two are separated by almost twenty years they get along very well and it is displayed through their teamwork. The Head Coach, Todd McLellan comments on the two players’ ability to rally up their team as well as quiet them down in the moments that it’s necessary. A final component to the Sharks success is their goaltender, Evgeni Nabokov. His stops, with the assistance of his teammate’s defense, are a large contribution to the success the San Jose Sharks have had this season. I choose this article because I think that sports are a large part of a community. The Sharks in a way portray San Jose and carry a lot of support from the city on their shoulders. Chapter 14 states that “we need to have had bodily experiences to understand the pleasures and potentials.” It is apparent that the passion many people from San Jose feel towards the Sharks exerts bodily experiences. The excitement, the intensity, and the fact that they are our home team provides many people the bodily experience that is discussed in Chapter 14.

Print Essay Relating to San Jose

The print essay that I choose to discuss was from LIFE magazine titled, "100 Places to See in Your Lifetime". One of the places was San Jose and they included information about the city. This essay touched upon the fact that San Jose was the first civic settlement in California and was founded by Jose Joaquin Moraga. During the Spanish Colonial Times San Jose supplied people with wheat, vegetables, and cattle to the military. In 1850 San Jose became the main area for chartering, especially trade for gold. After World War II there was a large growth in manufacturing. Electric machinery, aircraft parts, as well as motor vehicles began to be produced in mass amounts. Because of the growth in the manufacturing business, computer programming also became very popular, drawing a lot of attention to the city of San Jose. San Jose is seen as a rich agricultural area as well as an extremely diverse one. I picked this essay because although living my whole life in San Jose, I never became familiar with its history. By looking into this I was able to see how the city began and its growth over the years. It's amazing how a civilization can become so technologically savvy over a period of time. This factual essay on San Jose would be a good thing for anyone to read who was interested in the timeline development of the city we're going to school in. Chapter 14 says "that being able to express yourself in words is a sign of being cultured or civilized or able to think at all". This links to the city of San Jose because our technology and schooling in San Jose gives our children the ability to appreciate words and their importance in society.

Essays on Blogging

After reading the twelve blog insights from professors around the world, I found that two really caught my attention. The one that first jumped out at me was by Billy Clark, titled “How I Became an Academic Who Blogs”. In his blurb about blogs he opens by describing what exactly a blog is, as well as ways to get involved with them by providing two links of websites to construct your own. To me this was very beneficial because if I were to be interested in blogging, his information would have served to be helpful. Clark also goes further by giving links that display other bloggers’ sites. Being someone who was absolutely clueless about blogs, his links allowed me to better understand them. Viewing actual visuals rather than just reading text is one of the main reasons I preferred Clark ’s text. Another writing that intrigued me was by Amy E. Earhart, called “Knit Blogging: Considering an Online Community”. She begins by saying that blogging in her opinion was “nuts” and then explains how her opinion was changed. This amused me because if I thought blogging was absurd than perhaps she could convince me to change my mind as well. Her summary of blogs was particularly appealing because she talked about blogging about a passion of hers. This, to me, gave blogs a whole other side I was unaware of. Not only can someone blog about academics, or what they did that day, but they can also blog about something simply that they love to do and find others who do too. She then ends her blurb with “The fluidity of the presentation, not marked by the physical presence of a person, allows a different and more inclusive community.” This especially stood out to me because I completely agree that someone can show their true colors if they aren’t intimidated by a face to face situation, rather that they can display themselves through words and ideas.