"Cracked" Out

5 Bad Ideas for Dealing with Bullies You Learned in Movies is an article featured on Cracked.com. The article includes real life scenarios of kids being bullied and how these situations were handled in four movies and a TV show. 

All five of the clips show people being pushed around until they become fed up with it and take action. John Cheese, the author of the article gives his analysis of the situation, shares personal experiences, and gives his thoughts on what would happen in real life. 

My favorite of the five clips was the one from "Just One of the Guys". Morehouse was sick of being pushed around and watching others be tormented by this douche bag named Greg. Morehouse stood up on a table and announced to all the students in a cafeteria some embarrassing issues Greg had to cope with himself, like the fact that he was stupid. Everyone laughed, the nerds rubbed it in, and his girlfriend even left him.

Cheese went on to say that in real life Greg would have beaten the crap out of Morehouse regardless. This may be true, but despite being beaten up, I think Morehouse would have still come out on top. He stood up to someone who everyone else was scared of. So if Greg would have taken his anger out on him, no one would have forgotten what he said to push him over the edge. The fact that Greg would become angry over the things that were said shows his insecurity. The tables would have turned on him and he would have to deal with harassment by his peers.

I can relate to Morehouse in some aspect. I got teased in middle and high school. I mean, no one ever threw food on me, but sometimes words hurt. Like Cheese says in the article, "Adulthood means not having to be anywhere remotely near those scumbags", which for me is true. Many of the awful people who gave me a hard time back then have turned into bigger low lifes than they used to be. Most of them ended up staying in the small, rural town that I grew up, complaining how there is nothing to do and that everyone starts rumors that aren’t true (they most likely are), getting knocked up, or knocking up their girlfriend, living in a trailer, and living off the food stamps that are issued to them by the government each month. Some of them even ended up in jail. I would just like to say my life is going places since I was a teenager. I look down on those that used to make me feel like I was lower than dirt and I laugh at their expense.

I chose to read 6 Laws you’ve broken without Realizing It. The title is pretty self-explanatory. The article features “crimes” such as connecting to an unsecured Wi-Fi network, betting money with friends, and possessing a permanent marker in public. Most people have committed these acts from a time to time, not knowing that what they were doing was illegal. I mean, I don’t think a police officer would actually arrest someone for any of these acts, but they could. This is just a parody of our legal system. I can go out and buy salvia, a potentially harmful drug, but it is illegal for me to carry a Sharpie in my backpack.

As for the “bullying” article, I feel that it was a little outside the box for Cracked.com. I think there was more emotion attached to this article than most of their other material. Even though I didn’t find it that funny, I liked the article myself. Think about who the sites main audience is, the nerdy kids who were tormented or the insecure morons who needed to take out their issues on those who were weaker than them. I feel that the majority of Cracked readers could relate to the article and it provides some reassurance that they are better off than the people who made their adolescent lives a living hell.

Website Critique

Recently I have been spending my time surfing the Tumblr website. Tumblr is a blog where users can post pictures, text, videos, links, and quotes and share them with others. People can share the things they find, love, and create. Using the website is often referred to as "tumbling". By clicking the "reblog" button, a post can be spread across thousands of blogs very quickly.  You can "like" (similar to Facebook) posts also, but this does not share the blog with any other users, but lets the original blogger know that you "liked" their post.

I find the site for the most part easy to use. I have had trouble editing my page, but haven't spent much time trying. The "reblog" feature is great for sharing things that you find funny, interesting, creative, etc. It is simple to upload media and text onto the website. The posts of people you "follow" appear on your dashboard. I like how Tumblr is not as popular as other sites, such as Facebook and Twitter. Only four out of the 23 people I "follow" are people that I actually know. Tumblr in my opinion, is some sort of social media get away. Facebook is to New York City as Tumblr is to Shepherdstown

Speaking of Facebook, the layout has recently changed. Every time this happens, many users update their "status" saying how much they hate the new layout. For me, I have always accepted the changes and went out with using the site with little difficulty. Eventually everyone else gets used to it and stops complaining.

The recent changes to Facebook include your news feed. Instead of being able to choose to view status updates individually, you now have to look at them along with other things people posts, such as who they recently became friends with and photos they have posted. You can still view photos separately from other posts, but cannot do this with status updates. I do not like this because status updates are pretty much the only posts I care about.

With the changes have came the live feed, which is on the right side of the page. It constantly streams recent updates from friends. It is easy to use, just not that engaging in my opinion. They have made it easier to upload your own photos and videos. There is also the Ask Question option, where you can poll people about a certain subject. I have never used it. Events do not automatically show up on the homepage, but show up as you move the mouse across the Events link. If someone were to quickly check their Facebook page, they would be more likely to see the events if they were already visible.

Overall, the changes aren't that great. I feel that a large number of people have gotten bored with Facebook and if the right changes aren't made, some users may convert to other social media sites.

Another website that I am a big fan of that has undergone some changes is Pandora. Pandora is a free internet radio service that plays music similar to previous selections made by the user. You can find any mainstream music on the site and even less popular music. I am a big fan of the site because I have found many new songs and artists just by setting a station to one of my favorite artists. My favorite stations as of now are Kid Cudi Radio and Queens of the Stone Age Radio.

I would like to upgrade to Pandora One to avoid the commercials that are played after hearing so many songs. You can even skip songs that you do not want to hear. There is a "thumbs up" option that you can click when you hear a song that you like and they will be played more often and a "thumbs down" which eliminates songs from the stream that you do not want to hear. The upgrade also includes free song lyrics and biographies on the artist that is currently playing.

The new layout of Pandora is more pleasing to the eye than the old layout. It is more colorful and the graphics look more high tech. With the changes, I haven't heard advertisements playing while songs are playing, which was a problem with the old layout. The "I'm tired of this track option" is gone. It basically served the same purpose as the "thumbs down" button.

Educational Games Test

The first game I played was 3rd World Farmer. It is made for ages 11 and up. Players are being taught how to manage a farm, how poverty and conflicts (civil war, bad harvest) can effect the farm, and also how to manage money. The game does depict real hardships of 3rd world countries. If one thing goes wrong in the game it can cause many hardships for families in these countries. It can be used to teach children about these issues. The would be more challenging if you could manage more than one family at time.

The second game I played was Pirates of the Preamble It is made for ages 13 and up. The game is trying to teach players about U.S. history and government. If you answer a question incorrectly twice you have to start over. There are internet sources provided to seek answers from. The game is set up to be like a pirate treasure hunt and you find "X marks the spot" after correctly answering a question. The game was a bit challenging for me. I had to look up the answers to some of the questions. Better rewards could be given for answering a question correctly.

The third game I played was Consumer Consequences. It is made for ages 16 and up. The game asks you questions about things most people do on a daily basis such as, driving a car, eating out, and buying new clothes. Your answers determine how bad your everyday habits harm the environment. Americans make up 5% of the world but use 25% of its energy resources. The game explains that how if everyone on Earth lived like you, how many more Earths would it take to accommodate them. I didn't feel Consumer Consequence was much of a game. It was more like a questionnaire that showed the results as you went along.

The last game I played was Bumble Numbers It is made for ages 5 to 12. The object of the game is grab numbers with a bee and pollinate flowers that have math problems on them. You have to drop them in the correct flower while avoiding a mosquito. The game is great for teaching kids additions. They are challenged by the problems are dodging the mosquito. The only suggestions I have would be to make the levels longer.

Womens Roles in Music Videos

In Sut Jhally's video Dreamworld, he talks about how women are used as sex symbols in music videos. In his film, he refers to the "dreamworld" as a place depicted in music videos where women are nymphomaniacs and their purpose on Earth is to fulfill the sexual needs of men. You can find women in many music videos playing different roles including anything from a dominatrix or being a jealous slut who is in competitions with other women similar to them, for the affection of the main male character in the video.



I decided to analyze "What Goes Around...Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake.

 The video starts out by Justin Timberlake approaching a women (Scarlett Johansson) on the rooftop of a 1950's Moulin Rouge circus-themed club. He begins to flirt with her and she plays hard to get. After some persistence, she ends up leaving the club with him.

The video then flashes from scenes of J.T. singing in the club and him and Johansson making love. The video continues to a scene where Johansson jumps into a pool and starts drowning. J.T. jumps in to her rescue, only to find that she was pretending to be the damsel in distress . They begin to make out in the pool.

It cuts back into scenes of J.T. singing in the club with other girls dancing with rings of fire. The video shows their relationship progressing. The next scene shows J.T. and Johansson with a male friend and three showgirls from the club. J.T. starts bragging to the male friend about how he wants to marry Johansson. His friend gave off the impression that he was jealous. I thought that the other girls could be hookers or just gold diggers. There are more scenes of J.T. and Johansson being intimate.

As we get farther into the film, he walks up a stairwell and catches her cheating on him with his friend from the club. He punches his friend in the face and starts to argue with her. He follows her down the stairs and outside. A car chase begins between J.T. and Johansson, where she crashes and dies. The video ends with J.T. staring at her lifeless body.

All the other women performers in the video are dressed in the same fashion as her and looking for a the right guy to go home with. They aren't shown interacting with men, but seen performing for an audience. I would refer to Johansson's character in the video as a succubus, because she is an attractive female and she seduces J.T. by having sex with him. The video matches perfectly to the lyrics and title of the song. She deceived the one that loved her. Karma comes back around and she ended up getting a taste of her own medicine.