Just Wondering

I have always been intrigued by the origin of communication. I have frequently thought back to that first conversation-like exchange of man, deciding that words, no longer grunts and hand motions would be used for communication. It must have been an excruciating process trying to teach a whole community a consistently spoken language. It is fascinating how countries landed on different systems of dialogue; different languages, different accents, pronounciations, etc. This thought led me to another thought; is there such thing as a natural language? Crying and laughing are two completely pure processes. So, then, is there a natural way of speaking that is unprocessed from the influence of location and learning from repetition of hearing? This is a hard question to ask, because one could never learn to speak without hearing someone else's words, that have technically been processed through location. I thought about singing. Singing is as natural as it gets. According to Wikipedia, "Singing is the act of producing musical  sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm." Have you ever listened to the Spice Girls? The Beatles? (Probably the better reference.) Both of these groups have members with British accents, though when they start to sing that accent disappears. Could this possibly mean that the American accent is the most natural of all? Just a thought...

3-2-13

3-2-13


Three wins, two ties, and thirteen losses. That was the record of my 2010 soccer season at Rhode Island. With a team loaded with talent, how could this be? With each frustrating loss, the drama on our team escalated. 

My team has had many struggles in the past...on the field, off the field, you name it, we’ve struggled through it. One of the most glaring problems that we have had is a lack of leadership. This lack of leadership has translated into an unsuccessful past fall season. At the end of the season, our team received a new coach. This coach has addressed the leadership problem, and has formed a leadership group of ten girls who will be a foundation for leadership throughout the team. With this new leadership group, I am left to answer the question, “What really is leadership, and why is it so essential?”  So I turned to the dictionary. 


Leadership
-noun
1.The act of leading a group or organization of people


Too vague. After careful thought, I put together the definition of a leader that I have formed over years of playing soccer.

First and foremost, I would describe a leader as an individual whose every unselfish action benefits a group that is greater than him or herself. Leaders are confident. Their actions are never forced. A leader doesn’t think, “Wow, I really worked hard today.” A leader always works hard. They have that inner drive that is solely second nature. Great leaders are supported. They create a network of people around themselves who want to work for them.  A leader can balance on the thin line between friendship and integrity. Good leaders instill trust in their teammates. People can talk to leaders about whatever their concerns may be. On the field, leaders are vocal. They are encouraging without being offensive. Leaders motivate. As essential as communication is on the soccer field, actions speak just as loud. Leaders bring teams together. They create a sense of the word  “team.” On a true team, not only are you playing for yourself, you are playing for every single one of your teammates. Leadership is essential for any team. A teams without a sense of leadership is misguided, and will not be as successful.

Our new coach has already given us an air of confidence. We are starting from scratch, learning the foundations of what it means to be on a team. We are fixing the parts of the machine that were broken last year. I do not have a doubt that we will be winning games next season. Lots of games. Winning games starts with gaining leadership, so here’s to the 2011 fall season.

What I Learned in Florida

This vacation, I learned a valuable lesson from one of the local Miamians. After a week of being on the beach with men and women running around shirtless with thong bathing suits and margaritas in hand, my friends and I decided to hit the streets for some shopping. It was the last day of the trip, and I wanted as much of the Irish equivalent of a tan that I could get, so I threw on my bikini and tank top. It was Miami Beach, people walk around in bathing suits all the time! Had it been New York City, I may have taken another thought. I was sitting outside of Starbucks with my friends Brooke and Ashley, when an old lady approached me. Her leathery skin and linen body suit told me she was close to seventy years old. I turned to this woman, she looks me up and down, and pretty much told me (I'm keeping it very clean) that I shouldn't be wearing that bathing suit. Well, she actually said MUCH more to me that wouldn't be appropriate for a school based blog.

So, there I was in the middle of Collins Ave, squaring off with an old lady. I was polite at first, telling her "Thank you for your opinion", hoping that she would walk away. Her rant went on. She picked a stubborn girl to share her rude opinion with. I wasn't going to just walk away after the things she had said to me. So I asked her,  "Excuse me, are you my mother?" She took off her sunglasses revealing her silvery-blue eyeliner and eyeshadow combination that reached all the way to her penciled in eyebrows. "Do I look old enough to be your mother?", she asked me. I wanted to tell her she looked old enough to be my grandmother. That's when I knew she was a little off kilter. We had drawn somewhat of a crowd at this point, and I wasn't about to smack this old lady right across the face - even if she DID very much deserve it, and if I very much wanted to. Sorry lady, I left all my white linen jumpsuits at home. I'll pack accordingly next year. I turned to my friends and asked them if we could leave. The last thing the woman told me before storming her way back to Starbucks was, "If you are an American, be an American." I thought being American meant having the freedom of expression. The liberty to dress and act as I choose, within the boundaries of the law. Her caustic words reminded me that I am blessed to be an American. I am grateful that I do not live in the Middle East, where under the law I would wear a Burka, concealing all but my eyes from the world.

On my trip to Miami I learned two things. First, I learned that when confronted with crazy, I can stay strong but sane. And finally, I learned that it would be smart to pack pepper spray next year along with my bikini.

iWant an iPhone

In this new age of technology, I think it is becoming more and more necessary for someone to actually own an Iphone. And yes, I am using the word 'someone' loosely. No, I don't think it's dire for the iPhone to be in the hands of a 75 year old man, though I think a student like me could benefit from one. The internet is opening up a whole new world. I am finding that more and more of my classes rely on internet based-sited like Sakai or GoogleDocs. Because of this transition, I have to lug my computer along with me to classes every day, instead of having that luxury of opening up Safari right off my phone. If you were to ask my back, it would be in favor of an iPhone.


My phone is stuck in the stone age; it flips, it has no touch screen, and it has the battery life of an old walkman.  It does what a normal phone is supposed to do. It can make calls and it can send text messages. My argument now is that I believe phones are evolving as everything else in this world does. I think the definition itself of 'phone' is taking a new shape. With the iPhone you can leave your digital camera, book, maps, computer, GPS, phone book, calculator, notepads, word processors, and essentially anything else at home. I have resisted my desire for an iPhone for a while, but now I can say that I really want one of those damn phones. It's either that, or I'm going to start walking around campus wearing tool belt with a GPS, digital camera, phone, walky talky and more glued on. I want to be able to check my email in between classes. I want to look up the nearest restaurants. I want to get lost and actually say that my phone guided me home. Most of all, I just want to be able to play "Words With Friends" without having to be in an area with WiFi. Get me an iPhone!

The Big W

I’m sure that the name ‘Charlie Sheen’ couldn’t be brought up in a room without a rush of people jumping at the opportunity to scream quotes from clips of his most recent interview with 20/20. Sheen, after being fired from the hit show Two and a Half Men, has hit rock bottom. Sheen is reportedly a self-destructive drug addict who has finally snapped. Professionals strongly urge Sheen to seek professional treatment. In an interview with 20/20, when a reporter brought all these raw facts to Sheen’s attention. His response was, “I’m Winning”. 

For about a week, the only thing the media has emphasized was Charlie Sheen. His face was painted all over the internet, newspapers, magazines, and television. His clips on youtube have gone viral. So, I’m left to think: Though Charlie Sheen’s career is at an all time high while is life is at an all time low, could Sheen actually be winning? This whole immediate fame has the potential to blow over as quick as David’s did a few weeks after he left the dentist. In this crazy day and age, though, I wouldn’t put it past anyone to make it big. So, I’m not going to jump to the conclusion and say that Sheen’s fame is short lived. Not for now, at least.  

Well, I can tell you one thing, when Sheen says that he is winning, he isn’t very far from the truth. He’s winning all over the media. The Headlines are as follows:  1. Unemployment Numbers Hit New Highs. 2. Hell Continues to Break Loose in the Middle East. 3. Our Country is Still at War. 4. Charlie Sheen Gone Insane. Given the choice, most of us are reading that headline about Charlie Sheen. People can’t look away. Charlie is taking over our news and he is winning our attention. His crash of 2011 is stealing public interest from pressing issues. If we could get Americans to find half the enthusiasm they have while reading about Sheen, we would have a more aware America.

I’m not sure how long this winning streak will last, but I think it’s safe to say in one sense, Charlie Sheen is in fact winning.

A Realization?

After a class assignment in JRN 115 that required us to schedule an interview with a professional journalist, it’s safe to say that I feel more comfortable in my major. I had the honor of interviewing Ryan Vella, an associate producer for CBC News in Canada. I got lucky finding Ryan, because he is the cousin of a teammate of mine. If life and success it isn’t all about connections, I am finding that it is at least a little about connections. I left the interview with not only a positive attitude about journalism, but also an idea of where I want to  take my blog. The idea was staring me in the face the whole time, I guess I just needed someone to say it out loud. 

One of the first questions I asked Ryan was what he liked the best about being a journalist. Ryan claimed that every day in journalism was different. “For someone like me, who loathes monotony, I like that I never know what’s going to happen on a given day.” Didn’t I say something like that? Yeah, remember. I’m that girl who can’t stand when her bedroom walls are the same color for too long. If I’m stuck in a fixed schedule of monotony, things just start blending together. I love the spontaneity of life, I can’t see myself in a job that will end up feeling like I’m stuck in a re-run of a bad television show, day after day. 

Ryan went on to declare that “Even on days that aren’t that eventful, I still get to learn something new everyday...by covering so many stories and topics in a given day, we have to be mini-experts on anything and everything. Variety is indeed the spice of life.” With that line, I knew exactly where my blog was headed. I am going to start my journalism career early by becoming a mini-expert on, just as Ryan says, anything and everything.