The semester is officially over, and it seems like just yesterday I moved back into RIT. I have learned a lot on my second year, probably more than what I learned on my first year here. I took an interest in marketing and decided that it would be my minor. This semester I declared my immersion as Portuguese and realized that I do not have much time left until I need to start applying for a Co-op. I can definitely say that this has been one of my hardest semesters yet and I have heard from the upperclassman that it only gets harder from here.
I learned a lot about myself this past semester, I learned that I need to work on time management a little more and that procrastination is not ever a good option. For next semester I plan on managing my time more effectively and not procrastinating. It can be an extremely hard thing to do but with commitment and motivation I think that I will be able to do it.
My performance this semester has been good and I am proud of the work that I have done so far. However next semester I hope do better than I did this one. I am exited about my schedule because I have no gaps in between. I am also taking an activity course which will mean that I will have to work out and make time for it.
Staying healthy is definitely a problem that I am hoping to change for next semester. I want to stop buying food from the school restaurants and start making my own food so that I can stay healthy and not gain so much weight while I am away from home. The freshman 15 is definitely not a myth and I gained way more than 15 pounds after my freshman year. Hopefully with my ab core class I will be able to get back in shape for the summer.
Since I have not done a personal post in a while I decided that this week's post will be about an update on college and how things are going for me. After going away for college my life has completely changed and I have changed as well. New friends, a new home and a new way of living happened all at once. I remember the first day as if it was yesterday, I cried as my mother and aunt dropped me off in my dorm room, a decision that I thought was what I was dying to do turned out to be one of the hardest things I had to overcome.
After they left I realized how alone I felt and that now I was on my own, it took me a while to meet people because I felt uncomfortable and I felt like I could hardly relate to any one of the people around me. The floor in which I lived in was mostly made up of deaf people so it was hard for me to communicate with them. I come from New York City a place where mostly everyone is mixed and looks like me, coming to RIT I had trouble relating to most people because they had a different cultural backgrounds. My roommate hardly spoke to me and when she did it was to say "Hi" and "Bye". My first year was definitely not what I expected it to be it was so bad that I started to feel depressed and began seeking for other schools to transfer to. Before I made any decision I emailed my guidance counselor and she suggested I stayed and see what I learned about myself.
It turns out that my freshman year was a year that I discovered many things about myself. I discovered that I am a very strong individual, and that after a while I am able to get used to new things and environments. I learned how to live with people from different backgrounds and that trying new things can be fun. I went to my first hockey game here at RIT and I loved it, the environment, music and the school spirit was something that I had never experienced before. I am very glad that I decided to make the decision of leaving my home because I got to learn responsibility and learn about not only my career but about my personality.
My second year is only half way finished and I continue to learn new things everyday. However, nothing is set in stone and I am having difficulties deciding where I want to end up after I graduate. Coming in with 44 college credits allowed me to be 1 year ahead of my graduating class. This helped me but also made it a little difficult for me because I have to rush into a decisions that I would have had an extra year to think about. I am currently working with my advisers and faculty to decide which decision is best for me.
To anyone deciding whether or not they should go away, I recommend doing it. Had I stayed home I probably would not have learned everything that I did about myself if I had went to school near home. It is a great experience and something that you will only be able to do once in a lifetime.
You can always count on Beyonce' to shock all her fans and do something unexpected. From releasing a new album out of no where, with no mention or advertising to now making this video that no one expected to see. The music video is from her new song "7/11" it looks like it is shot by Beyonce' herself. In the video she gives her fans a glimpse of what she does and how her house looks like inside. She starts dancing in the balcony with regular clothes, she shows us her messy room and messy bathroom while she dances and also twerks on a chair. Beyonce' also does the jerk and talks through her foot as if she were on the telephone. The video shocked us all because we did not expect Beyonce' to do this since most of her videos are high quality and shes always wearing the top designers, the fact that she decided to go on this route was interesting.
Beyonce' is a business woman, and I admire her because she always finds a way to shock her fans and she is unique. This is what drives the sales and what makes people love her. She is a great performer and has an amazing voice, that would explain the millions of fans. I did not really like Beyonce' before but this video made me look at her in a completely different way because she truly commits and always gives her fans the best that she can. She is able to make a song about random things like clapping your hands in the air, and is also able to make a song like "Pretty hurts" which is deep and has a beautiful message.
In a day the video has accumulated 10 million views and I am sure that the numbers of views will keep rising because lets face it, its Beyonce'. I love the "7/11" video I think that it is a perfect way of allowing her fans to feel closer to her and welcoming them into her world. I think that the funniest and most weird part of the video is when Beyonce' talks through her foot and uses it as a phone. It really adds something extra to the video. While watching I could not help but wonder though what Blue Ivy, her daughter will feel when shes older and looks back at her mothers videos. Will she be proud of her Mama? Will she feel embarrassed?
Danay Howard about to knock the phone from the guy that is recording.
Danay Howard has brought the 8 ball jacket back in style. The video of Jose Pena and her on the F train has gone viral. Danay starts to make fun of a man on the train and then hits him with her shoes in the back of his head. He then smacks her in the face and this starts a brawl between himself, Danay, a random guy in the train defending women, and her friends. The video has circulated social media and has definitely been the talk of the whole week. The video has been in the English and Spanish news, Memes have been created and has also been shown on Worldstarhiphop.com.
After the video the police arrested everyone involved, Danay Howard was charged with felony assault and disorderly conduct. Jorge Pena the guy in the 8 ball jacket was charged with a misdemeanor and disorderly conduct, but then after the video was released charges were dropped. Kevin Gil the man who jumped in was charged with a misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct, Shanique Campell one of Howards friends was charged with misdemeanor and disorderly conduct for jumping in in defense of Howard.
The slap was heard around the world, news reporters were all over the story. After Jorge Pena was released he gave an interview and said that he is not happy about the way people look at him now. He is no longer able to wear his jacket in the streets because people recognize him as the man who slapped that girl in the train. He does not appreciate the applause and the recognition because he says hes not proud of what he did and that he only acted as self defense.
Jorge Pena shows his 8 ball jacket.
I had a conversation with my roommate about this video and we both agreed that the girl deserved the slap. What we did not agree however is on the fact that he should have slapped her or just walked away. My roommate said that he should have walked away because a man should never hit a woman. I disagree with her because I feel like this is another example of a double standard. Danay should have never hit this man in the back of his head with her heels. The hit although it does not seem so hard in the video made Jorge have to get stitches because it was a deep cut. Jorge was acting in self defense, the whole woman and man thing did not really play a role here. You should never go up to anyone, disrespect them and then assault them and think that nothing will happen. This video is another example of how powerful social media is, it can make someone go from a regular person to being known by millions of people for the most random things. The video was uploaded on Saturday of last week and has 7 million views just on Youtube alone.
Tameka Harris better known as Tiny, the wife of the famous rapper T.I
Tiny showing off her new eye color.
got new eyes this week. Tiny got a permanent procedure done in Africa that is currently illegal in the U.S. Originally Tiny had brown eyes, but they are now ice grey. In an interview with ABC she said that she wanted to change her look, a drastic one if you ask me. Her husband TI was a little skeptical at first but now "He loves them, hes okay with them. As long as they are healthy." She said in the interview.
The way the procedure is done is extremely risky and most people who have done it have been forced to remove them because they have experienced discomforts in their eyes. The procedure is said to take about 5 to 10 minutes per eye. A small incision is made on each eye and then the color implant is inserted through the small opening. Each implant is then spread it out on top of the cornea. This is what changes the color of the eye and makes it look real because the implant is bellow and not on top of the eye. The procedure is illegal in the U.S because it is not proven to be save and can cause blindness.
Before and after picture of Tiny's new look
When I was in my crazy contact stage I looked up information about this procedure. I stumbled upon a few videos on Facebook of people who got the procedure d
one and they definitely convinced me to get this idea out of my mind. Your eyes are one of the most important and one of the most sensitive organs in the human body, making a hole in your eyes and inserting a piece of plastic sounds a little too crazy for me. Another thing that turned me off about the idea is that it is illegal in the U.S so that alone is a red flag as to why you should not get this done. The fact that you have to go to another country like Bolivia or Africa to get this done is another thing that made me realize that this is dangerous.
I don't think getting this done to herself was a good idea, she has a lot of money so much that she would have probably could been able to get some custom made contacts that looked just like this but would be less harmful to her eyesight. Although like she says in the interview its her body, I don't believe that she made the right decision by going through with such a risky operation. She is also a public figure so she has millions of eyes on her including teens, so this might not be a good influence for them. I wish Tiny the best with her eyes and I have that no complications come to her after this operation.
After about six months of being off Instagram, Rihanna has returned to using the social app. The instagram beef started when Instagram took down a few pictures that Rihanna had posted and considered to be inappropriate. Instagram has strict rules about posting violent, nude, partially nude, pornographic or sexually suggestive photos and celebrities have been proved to be no exceptions of these rules. Rihanna has not been the only celebrity that has been upset with Instagram about deleted their pictures online. Scout Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis, also deleted her account after Instagram deleted some inappropriate pictures according to their rules. After that Scout took it upon herself to start a campaign against Instagram, she walked around New York City topless in efforts to giving the issue publicity. The campaign was taken to Twitter and its called #freethenipple.
Chelsea Handler is another celebrity who deleted her Instagram because of the same reason after posting a picture of her topless Instagram deleted her pictures as well because they considered them to violate Instagram rules. In my opinion, I believe that Rihanna made a good choice by returning to Instagram. Social media sites are the way in which celebrities communicate to their fans. I follow Nicki Minaj on Instagram and if she was to delete her account or stop posting, I would wonder what she is doing for the first few months but eventually I would loose interest and start following other artists. The rules imposed by Instagram are fair to me because children who are following these artists are exposed to nudity and that's unacceptable. I understand that the whole women and male thing is important to a lot of people but anyone with common sense would see that it is not really a male versus female issue, it is just Instagrams way of making this app at least pg 13 so that everyone can enjoy it.
I recently watched a video on YouTube called "The Fabulous Life of Beyonce and Jay-z. Together the celebrity couple is worth 1 billion dollars. Watching this video really shocked me because I knew that Beyonce and Jay-z were a big deal, but I was shocked by how much they spent and how much they actually had. Starting from Beyonce's $5 million engagement ring which is one of the most expensive rings in the world, to $40 million private jet a gift from Beyonce to Jay-z. This couple has so much money that they don't mind spending ridiculous amounts of money on small things. One example of this is Beyonce spending $21,000 a year just on eyelashes. The couple spent about $200,000 on their daughter Blue Ivy's first birthday.
F Watching this video made me think about how different my life would be if I were as wealthy as Jay Z and Beyonce. Being rich and famous comes with benefits but also comes with its problems. Celebrities do not have a "regular life" things like going to the store to buy something or just taking a walk is much harder for a celebrity than someone who is not famous. They are constantly being followed by paparazzi and their personal life is practically public.
Beyonce and Jay Z also have their daughter Blue Ivy to worry about.There are malicious people out there that would do crazy things, for envy and recognition. The baby has to be watched at all times and surrounded by security. Blue Ivy also has to grow up not having a regular child life, she has to deal with the same adversities that her parents have to deal with and grow up not knowing who really likes her for her and not for the things that she has.
There are pros and cons about being rich and famous, for now I decided I am where I should be though I would not mind being rich, not so much famous. Here is the video "The Fabulous Life of Beyonce and Jay Z"
About four months ago Glu Mobile released a Kim Kardashian game called Kim Kardashian: Hollywood. In this game players begin as an inspiring star and work their way up to become an A list celebrity with the help of Kim Kardashian. In the game users have their own manager and they also have a publicists. Just like in the real world there are paparazzi, celebrity parties and you can even get married. Here is a trailer of the game:
I have been wanting to download the free app for a while now so I finally did on Friday and I wish I hadn't. I am completely addicted to the game, which is horrible for me because before the game I hardly had any time and now I have less. The creators of this app are extremely smart, the game is designed so that every action you do requires energy and when you run out of energy you have two options wait about 30 minutes for your energy to refill or go on the star shop and purchase stars to convert them into energy. In the beginning of the game they let you play for a little while giving you energy and stars but after you have played for a few minutes your energy starts to decrease and you can only find money and other irrelevant stuff on the objects you can click to get free stuff. The player is forced into having to buy money and stars to convert them into energy so that you can keep playing and buy things you need, if not getting out of the E list will take forever.
I don't ever spend money on games but for this game I decided I wanted to get more stars because I wanted to keep playing. I bought the $4.99 package which gives you 50 stars which get converted into 40 energy. The $5 I spent vanished in like 3 minutes, I was extremely upset. The developers leave an active user no choice but to have to buy energy and this is why they are so smart. Analyst forecast that the Kim Kardashian: Hollywood app will bring in about $200 million by the end of this year according to reports by Bloomberg.
Although money is important, I feel like Glu mobile should focus more on the experience of the game rather than only on making money. By experience I mean not just looking at the users as dollar signs but allowing the users to be able to enjoy the game without having to spend so much. When you go on the star shop their are not many opportunities for players to watch ads for stars or do other things that don't necessarily involve out of pocket costs. I think that Glu mobile should add more opportunities that way we users don't feel like we have to pay so much in order to succeed that would enhance the experience immensely.
Amanda Bynes is one of my favorite if not my favorite nickelodeon star. She starred in the shows All That, The Amanda Show, and What I like about you which aired in CW11. Amanda also starred in many movies like Hairspray, Love Wrecked, and Shes a man. I enjoyed watching Amanda because it seemed like she was full of life and she was just so funny. The atmosphere and what she stood for was something that I loved, and for that she was one of the people which I looked up to.
Unfortunately Amanda had a fall out and has been getting into trouble.She announced on twitter that she had retired from acting and wanted to have her own clothing line. After that She has been the talk of tabloid magazines and blogs for a few months now. She has had problems with the law has been stopped for DUI's, accused of setting a garbage can on fire on someones private residence, and has been tweeting and posting extremely bizarre things on social media. Amanda has also been arrested for possession of marijuana, throwing her bong of of the window, accused of multiple hit and run incidents and shop lifting from clothing stores.
These are some of the tweets that Amanda has tweeted, in these tweets Amanda Bynes dissed Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Obama and even her father:
This is an interview from five years ago, Amanda seems to be in a good place and seems to want to continue her career and stay out of trouble. Everything that she says in the interview is extremely the opposite of what she has been doing recently.
One of the things that shocked me the most from this interview was when she says that she does not drink nor has been around anyone who has offered her drugs bu then I see this picture online.
This is a picture taken by TMZ of Amanda Bynes smoking out of what looks to be a marijuana pipe
According to TMZ Amanda was placed in an involuntary
psychiatric hold on October 10, 2014 . Sources say that she was tricked into
going she thought she was meeting with lawyers about suing her parents but
really was being taken to the facility.
I am so glad that Amanda is finally getting the help that she needs and
I hope that she gets better. It is really sad to see someone as talented as her
so out of control. when I first heard about all of this I was completely
shocked because Amanda Bynes is someone who I grew up watching. I hope that
she gets better and that she continues to make movies, shows and entertaining others, but in a
healthy way not like this.
About three weeks ago I wrote a post about Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa's marriage. The post was about Wiz Khalifa not being sober during the entire relationship. Its sad to say that Amber has actually filed for divorce from Wiz. However, Wiz being high all the time was not the reason for their break up. Amber and Wiz have a one year old son together named Sebastian, they had been married for a year. According to TMZ in the divorce papers Amber stated that the cause for their divorce was "Unrecognizable changes in Wiz."
According to Rosengber from hot 97 Wiz Khalifa cheated on Amber Rose with twins. After Amber discovered that Wiz khalifa had cheated on her she filed for divorce. He is very close to Amber Rose they have been friends for a few years now. Rosenberg also cleared up some rumors that are not true, posted by mediatakeout.com and TMZ. He stated that Wiz and Amber had been having problems even before the cheating incident between Wiz and the twins happened. He also stated that Amber was trying to work things out and that she thought that after the tour was over they would work out their problems. This however did not happen and Amber filed for divorce.
A picture of the twins that Wiz cheated on Amber with.
There is no indication that they will be getting back together, although Rosenberg said that he believes that if Wiz called amber and tried to work it out she would take him back. Wiz has not reached out to Amber as of yet.
This is the Hot 97 video, where Rosengberg explains what really happened between Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa.
I really hope that they work things out because I love Amber and Wiz together. They were just perfect together. What do you guys think about the Wiz and Amber break up? Was he being under the influence a factor? Comment bellow!
Growing up I wanted to be like the celebrities in the cover of magazines. I would always look at their videos and pictures and think "Wow! I want to be like that someday." No matter how hard I tried, I would not look like the pictures in the covers. After watching a video in my 9th grade class on Photoshop, I realized that most pictures and videos are been fixed or made to look "better" by using photo shop. Some of the pictures were distorted to the point that the before picture looked like a totally different person than the after.
This is a vogue cover magazine of lady gaga.
Here is another picture of Harry Styles from One Direction.
This is a Madonna, picture photo shopped to make her look younger.
These pictures were altered to make the celebrities look skinnier:
What is photo shop really saying? Why is it done? What does it tell the kids who are growing up looking at this?
I don't know about you guys but I am always getting distracted when I go on YouTube to look for one video and end up watching more than I should. I came across this video of Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa, if you guys don't know they are currently married. Wiz Khalifa is a rapper and Amber Rose got famous after dating Kanye West's who is also a very famous rapper. In the Hot 97 interview she was asked if it bothered her that Wiz is high all the time and throughout their entire relationship. Amber said that she does not mind, in fact she said she does not even know what Wiz Khalifa's real personality is and she seems to be perfectly okay with it. I found this extremely crazy because shes married to someone who she does not know how he truly acts when he is sober because he is high all the time. He also added that the longest he has been without smoking is 9 hours and that was because he was in jail.
Amber and Wiz also have a baby together, Sebastian who is 11 months old. This means that Wiz has never been with his son while being sober. Again this is something that shocked me because hes high all of the time. The only time that he has been sober is when he signed his marriage papers and when he proposed to Amber.
Imagine being in a relationship or married to someone who was never sober? Would you stay with this person? I guess you could say that it depends on the factors, like if you really cared about this person. Another thing that would probably affect this decision is if the person had money. Wiz Khalifa has made a name for himself in the rap industry and is in a position where he doesn't have to work an 8am to 5pm job.
This then raised the question of the things that money can do and how it shapes our perception. What if Wiz wasn't rich and famous? What if all he did was smoke all the time?What if he had no money? Do you think that Amber would look at Wiz differently? I do want to stress that I love Amber and Wiz and this is not a bash Amber and Wiz post its a lets look at things from a different perspective and question how we perceive things when you add money to the equation post.
We do this all the time it is human nature, Imagine meeting someone who you think is homeless for the first time. The way in which you view this person is probably with pity and you perception of them was probably not the best one. What if this person invited you out, and this person is okay for your liking but again he or she is homeless. What would you respond? But what would happen if you then find out that that person is a billionaire? What would your answer be then? Money has an incredible impact over our perception of people. It has power to shape the way in which think and the way in which we act. Although its sad to say I feel like we have all done this once or twice in our lives. In today's society a person who has money is perceived as a person who has power, the more you have the more powerful you are.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
The Eyes of Others
College is not all about books and grades. It is also about the experience and about learning new things about yourself. So far I have discovered a few things, like my passion for music, my interest in writing and many things about my personality that I did not know before. I also realized that the way in which people viewed me had always been extremely important to me. It was the reason why I dressed the way I did, the reason why I talked the way that I talked and the reason why I began to wear contacts.
I wore them everyday and sometimes
they would bother me to the point that my eyes would be red and irritated, but I refused to take them off because people thought they were actually my eyes. Or the
fear of meeting someone new and not "looking nice". Till this day I
still wear contacts occasionally, but thinking back it amazes me how how much trouble I went through to please the eyes of someone else while mine
where in pain. This got me thinking about plastic surgery which is almost like
my contact situation, people risk their lives to please the eyes of
others. You may argue that some people do it for themselves, I don’t believe
that’s possible and I’ll tell you why. If a person was to be given the
option of getting plastic surgery that no one but themselves would be able
to see, the flaw will remain evident to the rest of the world but themselves, would they still get it? More than likely they would choose the one everyone can see. This is why I don't think its possible for someone to get it only for themselves to feel better about themselves. A person would not pay thousands of dollars for
a surgery that no one else but themselves would be able to see. Don’t get me wrong I am not against plastic surgery, by
all means if a person feels the need to get one or many they can, I’m not here to judge anyone. But this left me wondering about the things we put ourselves through to please the eyes of others. Lets look at some celebrities that decided to get plastic surgery to cover up the "flaws" that they believed to have:
1996 2014
Donatella Versace is the Vice President of the very exclusive Versace brand.
1980 2009
Michael Jackson also known as the "King of Pop" was a famous songwriter, dancer and performer.
"Lil Kim" is an American Rapper, singer-songwriter, and actress.
1992 2014
La Toya Jackson is an American singer-songwriter, and actress.
1970 2014
All these people felt like they had a "flaw", to prevent the rest of the world from seeing this "flaw" they decided to surgically remove the "flaw" they thought they had with the risk of something going extremely wrong. All of these before and after pictures made me think a lot about what we as society considers a "flaw" and what we consider to be beautiful. I then thought about where I am now and reflected on whether I still cared about how people viewed me, and I still care. I care less, a lot less but the truth is we will always care. Even if we say we don't it is human nature to care about what others think about them some people's opinion will matter more than others but we will always care about how we are perceived.
I learned a lot about myself this past semester, I learned that I need to work on time management a little more and that procrastination is not ever a good option. For next semester I plan on managing my time more effectively and not procrastinating. It can be an extremely hard thing to do but with commitment and motivation I think that I will be able to do it.
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