Dream Jobs

I have two dream jobs. The first one is more like a fantasy but I guess that could be considered to be a dream. I think about being so rich that I could open homeless shelters all over the state. If I was a multimillionaire that would be my dream job. Everywhere I go there are homeless people. I realize that some of them have only themselves to blame, others have mental issues, and some that are normal, for the most part, have just had bad luck. I don’t care what their issues are. It would be really nice to be able to help.

                The more realistic dream job I’ve had is to be an EMT. I know CPR and get a lot out of the fact that I can save people’s lives. Over the last fifteen years I was fortunate enough to save the lives of three people, two of which were my friends. I can’t begin to explain how extremely great it feels to bring a person back to life. Helping people is in my nature. That is the way I have always been and that is how I will always be. I decided to be a radiology technician instead of an EMT because I don’t think I could handle seeing all the carnage day after day. By being a rad. Tech. I can still help people and that is what I’m going to do.

Out West Novel Blog

                I read the novel, Out West, written by Fred G. Leebron. It was published by Doubleday in 1996. It is a story about new beginnings for the two main characters that meet by chance in San Francisco and get entangled in a murder when their pasts come back. The first main character is named Benjamin West. He is traveling west to San Francisco for a fresh start after being released from prison in Pennsylvania. He already has a job line up along with a place to live. The other main character is named Amber Keenan. She has moved to San Francisco after ending a relationship with a cheating man whom she tried to kill before the move. To make a long story short, they get romantically involved. Amber’s x shows up, beats her, and rapes her. Benjamin later on swings a crow bar, the ex is dead. Neither one wanted to call the police so the remainder of the book ends up being them trying to hide the body and get away with murder.

            Suspense was a big element in this book. You never knew if each of their plans were going to work. If it was going to end badly, if they were going to be caught. It seemed as if someone was just a step away from catching them. From finding out about the murder, the body. There was one point in the story that you really got the feeling that it was all over for them, when they were driving around with the body in the trunk and a police car was following them. “‘What?’ the beer had spilled in her lap. ‘What is it?’ He nodded at the rearview mirror. She leaned into him and looked. She could see the wide square headlights set in a shadowy oversized grill, the black shining hood and the encased blank siren of a police cruiser, tailing them at twenty yards.”

            I didn’t like this book. The rape and beating women got to me. It seemed as if the story should have been over a long time before it actually was – like it was dragging on unnecessarily. I wouldn’t recommend it because of these things. It was a thumbs down book for me.

Northern Coast Enjoyment

I'm going to start by saying that ever since I was very young I've always loved the out doord. I especially enjoy the coast and the mountains. My parents took me on so many trips to both that I can't even remember them all. I moved here from southern California about nine years ago. There is a big differnece between southern California and northern California. Let me bore you with some details. Down south if you want to see the hills, mountains, etc, it takes four hours just to get there. Up here it only takes, if I had to guess, an hour or less. Down there to get to the coast doesn't take as long as going to the mountains, maybe a twenty-minute drive down the freeway. The coast is nice but most of the beaches are flat for the most part. In northern California we get to take beautiful drives on highways instead of ugly freeways with no trees. The coast here has trees, cliffs, huge rock formations in the water. Down there I had a few favorite spots in the mountains and on the coast. Up here it seems that everywhere I go is my favorite spot. This might sound stupid to some of you but try living in both "worlds," and you will understand.

PBS Culture Shock

I like the option to give a personal opinion about things. It makes you think about different aspects and at the same time I was also thinking about how other people might think. It wasn’t hard making decisions with my partner because we agreed on everything.

                Using the video game image on the home page was, in my opinion, perfect because it jumps out at you so to speak. It gets you ready to think about what is ahead for the whole subject.

Questions

1.       Video games are a form of art because there is so much detail and work that go into the images. If the manufacturers were to just put a description of the game out there then it would have nowhere near the effect it has as compared to the images.

2.       I think the image of the lady with one of her eyes shot out didn’t need to be there. That was a little extreme. I don’t play the games that often but I don’t think shooting old ladys in the face is in many of them.

3.       It wasn’t difficult to decide on that particular image.

4.       The quote from Bill Clinton is absurd. A lot of the images on these games happen on the streets all over the planet on a daily basis. Unfortunately that’s the way it is.

5.       The representation of violence is designed to entertain. Who wants to play a boring video game with not action? For example, nobody wants to play a bird-watching game and get the high score by the number of different types of birds that you see? The players will fall asleep before the game is over. In contrast, with some people especially the youth, aggressive games might tend to make them more aggressive because of the simple fact that they would be more easily influenced.