IMDb's Biography for The Game

The Game’s biography was a very intense reading piece because of its content. The Game’s life is full of hardships and struggles. The Game’s birth name is Jayceon Taylor born in Compton, California on November 29, 1979. Jayceon was exposed to drugs and guns as a child because of his parents’ affiliation to the Crips. At the age of seven Jayceon went into foster care because of his parents’ inability to take proper care of him. Then at the age of fifteen he was giving back to his mother. He attended high school and was involved in many sports such as basketball and track. He graduated in 1999 and received many scholarships and was accepted into varies colleges. But just when things started to go good Jayceon got busted for drug procession and his scholarships were revoked. Jayceon moved in with his brother and they quickly monopolized the drug dealing in their neighborhood. One night Jayceon wanted to make a late night sale and he got shot five times and was in a coma for two days. This might seem like a tragedy but that is when he begin to study rap and learn how to freestyle. Then he got a deal with Dr. Dre and The Game exploded and was claimed to bring the west coast back after dropping his first album. The biography hasn’t been updated since the year 2005. Since then The Game has had three successful albums and retired. Now The Game has come back with a new album that will release February 16, 2010. The album is called The R.E.D Album which refers to him being a Blood whose color is red. This is ironic because his father was a Crip whose color is blue. The first official single off this new album is “Big Money” featuring Gucci Mane and produce by Timberland. Personally I have heard this song and it’s definitely full of potential. The Game has had many struggles to get where he is today which is why he didn’t stay retired. He still has so much to express in his music and so much to offer his fans. I am looking forward to see what else The Game has in store for us in the near future.

Better World Video on Podcasting

This week’s reading assignment was fairly easy seeing how we didn’t have to read but watch a video. Andrew Bailey and Peter Osborne are two cartoon characters that go over the different steps towards making your very own podcast. A podcast is an audio program stored as an mp3 file that can be played on and iPod. They discuss three issues: what kind of program you want to make, what are the basic technical requirements, and lastly creating a podcast schedule. To start off you have to know who your audience is, then figure out what is the purpose of your podcast. Once you have your topic figured out the next thing is format, what do you want it to sound like, what do you want to have in it: live discussions, drama, undercover investigations, comedy, satire, interviews, or quizzes. One of the most popular formats is magazine formats which consists of two presenters and live interviews or profile on interesting people. Then the little iPod character goes into organization. He suggests production teams when I was watching this part in my head I was thinking “who cares”. The video was very informative but at times I found myself wondering when it was going to end. I did like how it went step by step and even introduce the Audacity, a free online recording program and the microphone. This made it seem that anybody could make a podcast which to me brought great relief. The video made podcasting seem very simple and most importantly fun. The video ends by saying that at the end of the assignment you should have learned not only how to podcast but also about the topic you are talking about.

Abigail Leichman's Tuned in, zoned out

In the article "Tuned in, zoned out" Leichman explores the idea of iPods making people more anti social. I dont agree with this I just think that sometimes you need to have some alone time but I dont think its like carrying a big "do not disturb sign" around your neck. I personally think that it is worst to interupt someone while they are reading than when they are listening to music. Because when you are reading you are concentrating in what what ever it is that you are reading. It is true that people have there earphones on might be "zoned out" but I dont see it as a sign of being anti social. Ipods serve as a way to carry our entire music library in the palm our hands. Overall this article makes a good point in saying that we communicate less when we have out earphones on but I dont think its a bad thing. We are not in our own little worlds we are zoned out becuase we might just be bored walking around alone and it makes us feel less lonely.

Gregory Mott's The iPod and the Fury

In the article "The iPod and the Fury" Gregory talks about the corrolation between hearing loss and iPod invention. An interesting fact that struck out to me in this article was that the doses of sound that you can get from earphones can be as high as 120 decibels which is an equivalent to a loud rock concert. This can lead to risk of hearing damage after 7.5 minutes of exposure. As soon as I read this I was worried I don’t listen to my iPod really loud but the fact that you can get hearing damage after only a few minutes really makes me think twice before I decide to put the volume up. Many people use iPod to get rid of background noise and once they get use to the intensity of the sound their only reaction is to turn up the volume. I do believe that that this can lead to hearing lost because if you’re in an elevator and you can hear someone else music then that person in the elevator with the headphones that person is “giving themselves a hearing loss”. In my opinion if you can listen to it 65 to 70 decibels which is the equivalent to a normal conversation then one should do it. The problem with earphones is that is that they are going directly into your ears so the effects are much worst as oppose to listening to it from speakers because the music is not traveling directly into your ears. Overall I think that it is not the invention of iPod or portable music players that are causing hearing loss it is loud the music is being listen to. In the end it is up to the individual and high he/she is willing to listen to the music.

Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth

In the article "Exposure to Degrading Versus Nondegrading Music Lyrics and Sexual Behavior Among Youth" a survey was performed to see how much of teens' sexual lives are influenced by the type of music they listen to. In the survey it indicated that the teens wished they would have waited longer to have sex and in other studies it shows that unplanned pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases are common among those who stated having sex early. Even though this might be true I personally don't agree with saying that they got lost in the music and that is why they had sex. I don't feel that a song can cause someone to do something they don't want to do and in any case everyone is different so it depends on the individual. Statements such as "reducing young people's exposure to music with this type of content could help delay the onset of sexual behavior" are absurd because something like banning music would upset many teens who feel like music understands them and if you ban this all it will do is bring more attraction to teens because it will be like "the forbidden fruit" that everyone will want to taste. I do believe that the content to some songs are a little too much but banning could only make it worse.

David Ritz’s The Last Days of Brother Ray

In the article “The Last Days of Brother Ray” by David Ritz the author tells us about his experiences with Ray and gives insight on their friendship and what kind of person Ray was while living. He was blind but he never let that stop him if anything I think it made him stronger. Ray’s biggest influence was his mama because he mentions her numerous time through out the article. Ray was someone who was very blunt and said what was on his mind.