We we we so excited about Saturday.

We stumbled upon this video when looking for a Rebecca Black parody which was not difficult to find. Obviously if there are hundreds of parodies, the there must be something to be made fun of in the original video. Almost everyone has seen the original video for Rebecca Black's "Friday."This topic is easy to make a parody of because college students usually find the video annoyingly catchy but absolutely ridiculous.

This video is a parody for several reasons. First, the main character is a grown man rather than a fifteen year old girl. Because this change is so drastic, it is obviously a joke. Second, the day that is emphasized is Saturday instead of Friday. Third, the way the man portraying Rebecca Black acts is purposefully stupid. The audience thinks the video is comical because it takes Rebecca Black's Friday video and makes everything opposite. One would think the opposite of the Friday video would be actually entertaining compared to the real video.

Parodies can make fun of any video, piece of art, article, book, etc. Usually parodies have to be taken with a grain of salt. Obviously we don't know Rebecca Black's feeling towards the thousands of parodies on the Internet. But anyone with even a slight bit of fame, should know that some sort of parody will be made. We think parodies can shed light on details on the video that may be overlooked. For example, the Rebecca Black video is so catchy that the ridiculousness of the video may be overlooked by its audience.

If you gotta problem, yo I'll solve it.

Problems solved:

Sarah: My senior year in high school, my school did a fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation. I was student council secretary. My small private school had never ventured to raise a substantial amount of money for an organization. Besides help a terminally ill child, our goal was to unify our K-12th school. I was in charge of a talent show. I had never really headed anything because I was never really willing to accept that kind of responsibility. Nevertheless when it came time to volunteer to be the chairperson/ head of the committee for the talent show, my hand shot up. Immediately I began planning tryouts, sponsorship, public relations, and emcees. I proved to myself that I could effectively lead without being bossy while solving the problem of unity as well as those of the Make A Wish Foundation. Everything ended up coming together! The talent show made several thousand dollars and I felt such a feeling of accomplishment. Because the acts were preformed by both middle school and high school, there seemed to be a better bond between the two sections of the school. In the end, from the dodgeball tournament, talent show, penny wars, etc., together our school raised around $12,000. My leadership class and I were overwhelmed with emotion as we handed the check to the Make A Wish child's mom.

To trust or not to trust: That is the question.

It is very important to look for a variety of online sources when researching a specific topic. The question is, can these online sources be trusted?

WIKIPEDIA: People argue that sites such as Wikipedia cannot be trusted. As we discussed in class Wikipedia has a very strict editing process that happens when someone changes an article. One student said that they changed an article once and within five minutes Wikipedia had sent an email to him threatening the student to never change an article again. Wikipedia should be used with discretion.
BLOGS: Blogs should be trusted with caution. An example of a trusted blog was shown to us in class about a famous writer. If you know of the blogger's work and know it can be trusted, then the blog is fine to use. Sometimes blogs from reliable sources can add extra and insightful information to an essay or article.
DATABASES: Databases can always be trusted. Most universities and some high schools offer easy access to a variety of databases across the web. It is usually very easy to cite sources from databases because the cite is sometimes given directly on the database page. We are always encouraged to use databases over any other sources.
SCHOLARLY JOURNALS: Much like databases, scholarly journals can be highly trusted. They can be found on several sites, including Google, which has its own scholarly journal site.

When looking for reliable sources for a paper or project, it is always a good idea to use discretion when finding the sources you need. It is usually not a good idea to type in your topic on Google and use the first website that comes up. This can lead to using false information and misleading others.

Sweaty Sweaty Sweatshops

As consumers we have the responsibility to pay money for the clothing we buy. We think it is beneficial to know where the clothes we purchase come from. Even though we think that buying clothes from sweatshops in Asia is not necessarily correct, we do not believe that our consumer behavior will change. After recently reading an article over how sweatshops can be beneficial to a third world country, our perspectives changed a little bit.
We think that modern culture does not care enough about third world countries to stop consuming goods made in Asia. We are too comfortable wearing our sweet Nike kicks to even give a second thought to who made them. Rarely ever do we put on our Polo hats and Citizens of Humanity jeans and think about the small child in China who made $2 making them. We do however agree that it is ridiculous that the people who make our tennis shoes or jeans make cents per hour while we pay close to a hundred dollars for them. The shoes should not necessarily be cheaper, but the country who made them should be paid more for their work.

Finally, we do not believe that culture will ever recognize where the goods they buy come from. We will probably forget we even learned about sweatshops in six months. As stated in numerous articles, sweatshops are a complex issue that no one can truly understand, and neither can we.

Regardless that these shoes were made by a five year old in a sweaty sweaty sweatshop in China, people will completely overlook this detail when purchasing the Nike shoes they have wanted for months.

Wiz Khalifa Remix-Black and White ft. The Heavyweights

Peggy McIntosh suggests that every white person is born with an innate sense of superiority and equipped with an "invisible knapsack." This knapsack contains “maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks." The documentary "Brazil in Black and White" also suggests that because one is born a certain race, he or she automatically possesses an advantage. Through examples of different students in the documentary, the viewer is able to see a direct parallel from race to university admission. 

With the possession of the invisible knapsack, one is capable of overcoming many obstacles in life. After watching the documentary, it is evident that race is a huge factor when looking into college admittance. 

McIntosh's article is all about privilege. Privilege is defined as "a special right, immunity, or exemption granted to persons in authority or office to free them from certain obligations or liabilities (www.dictionary.com)." The "politically correct" answer is that white people are not at all in authority or in office over other races. But in the culture we live in today, the past has effect on the present. This is a case of de facto segregation. Segregation has always been part of our culture. I do not believe that anyone can change the past in order to make segregation non-existant. All we can do is to decide for ourselves how we would want to be treated. The knapsack is not necessarily a negative thing, but rather something that culture and historical events have created. 

The American Thanksgiving

Above is a parody of Norman Rockwell's famous painting portraying an American thanksgiving dinner. Fifty years ago, a family would sit down together to share a warm and traditional thanksgiving dinner of turkey, cranberry dressing, and pumpkin pie; now, it is completely different as the picture above illustrates. America has a new perspective on what is acceptable. In modern culture, everything is acceptable. The picture portrays a grandmother smoking and placing a platter of Kentucky Fried Chicken on the table. The children are laughing while sitting in front of several mugs of beer a this is not what the American Thanksgiving should be. The difference between the two paintings is incredible. Modern culture has changed what should be a warm tradition of family to basically what can be thrown together the quickest. Norman Rockwell seems to be mocking what has happened to the traditional American Thanksgiving. He believes that society has completely altered a once celebrated tradition.