Sing Talk

First, watch this video of the parody for Ke$ha's music video "Tik Tok"
Sing Talk (Tik Tok Parody)  


Ke$ha's first song "Tik Tok" took the country by storm and soon everyone was "brushing their teeth with a bottle of jack" while feeling like P Diddy. But when you listen to the artist live or just to her voice, some may start to wonder how much real talent this artist has. I love Ke$ha's music, dont get me wrong, her songs are very catchy but her voice just sounds unrealistic; like it has just been fixed to sound that way. This remix of her video supports my view on Ke$ha. This remix is halarious and works because the lyrics are changed and put into the same beat and the same scenes from the actual music video. This parody is so funny because the lyrics are extremely truthful and all the actors look very similar to the actors in the actual music video. The significance of such pieces are to get a serious point across by the use of humor. This may be a friendlier approach to criticizing famous artists such as Ke$ha. However, this video does serious works because it is talking about how Ke$ha is not a good recording artist. If you listen to the lyrics closely, most people will end up agreeing with exactly what the fake Ke$ha in the video is singing about. An example of this is comparing the two sets of lyrics from the actual song Tik Tok to the lyrics for Sing Talk. The first set of lyrics are for Tik Tok while the second set is for Sing Talk"

"Don't stop, make it pop

DJ, blow my speakers up

Tonight, imma fight

'Till we see the sunlight"

"Sing talk gotta rock

Can't believe I pulled this off

So tight hip hop light

Its like rapping but not quite"

As you can see, Ke$ha is talking about partying, drinking and the life of a rockstar. Whereas, Sing Talk states that she can not sing but somehow managed to ger a producer and create a new type of music that is a mix of a few different types of music.

Problem Solving 101

Ali:
We have all faced many problems in our lives before. The key to problems, however, is figuring out a good way to solve the problem whether its through making a compromise or just making peace. When solving a problem in life, the most important thing is to learn from your mistakes. I have had problems before with friends fighting and its hard not to get into the middle or be seen as "taking sides." One time I had two friends fighting over loud music being played at early hours in their dorm room when the other roommates had commitments to make early in the morning. It was realized by the girls in this dorm that there was a problem when one of the roommates could not sleep due to this loud music. Being kept up by the music made roommate number one very over tired which also made her very grumpy. Tensions started to rise and one night there was an explosion and a huge fight. Others started to get involved and some people were seen as taking sides. To solve this problem we all sat down and talked about why this was happening and how we were going to solve this problem. We came up with many different ideas and theories to help us solve the broken relationships and we decided on different living situations for next year. After the talk, everyone felt much better and took the conversation very well. This essentially solved the problem and took a lot of stress off of everyone to the point where each girl could focus on their schoolwork again.

Katie:
Everyone encounters problems everyday wether they are new or the same from day to day. They can be very simple to solve or extremely hard. There sometimes is a straight answer and sometimes there is a grey area or work the problem out by talking or writing. A few weeks ago I had to write a paper. The topic had to be a topic of discussion in my major.  This was not an easy task for my major is biosystems engineering and is very hard to explain.  Their topics are very complicated to write about in essay form.  Well I set off to do some research. I could not find anything online so I became stumped. I want to some of the upperclassmen in my major and asked them. We talked it out and came up with the idea of alternative energy. They explained what was happening and what the argument was. Then I could begin my research. I formed and great argument and a successful paper then is easy to understand.

Problem Solving Strategies:
Both of these stories explain how a problem was dealt with and how they were solved. They had very similar steps too. Both of us first addressed that there was a problem and it needed solving right away. They have to realize first that they need to deal with the problem or there will be consequences. In Ali's case there will be broke friendships and splitting up groups of friends. In Katie's situation, her paper will not be turned in and very hard to research and write. Both of these problems need to be solved and fast. The best way to solve a problem is to talk about it. If you go out it in a calm and reasonable fashion, you can always find a solution. You must be open minded and listen careful but it will work every time for every situation.

Internet Sources

Students writing papers for school need reliable sources for many different assignment being done in school. The easiest thing today is to go to the internet and find credible sources. This is the problem however, how do you know what is and is not credible when looking for research? The writers of websites should take the responsibility of posting information that is true and that they know is accurate but this is not always what they do. It is hard to spot a good source from a bad source sometimes but we are here to give you a few tips on how to tell the difference between a good and bad website. Be careful when looking at websites or using them as sources because not everything is valid. Anyone can post something on the internet whether it is true or not. Clues to picking up on unreliable sources would be the appearance of the website, the way it is written even the ending of the URL. Commonly, .net, .org and .edu are usually a safe bet to use as a source.

For example, this article about medical marijuana is not the best source you could find to use for one of your papers. You can tell that the website is designed poorly. It does not have that much information and even the adds along the sides of the web page make it seem more unreliable. The commercial-like set up lets the researcher know that this is not a professional site so they probably do not want to use this website as a reliable source. On the other hand, this article would be perfect. It is designed well and is well organized. It provides you with links that could help you with your search. The website has a cool feature where it has each state and their views on medical marijuana. The website also provides detailed information about the clinics in that state so you can find one close to your house. The website goes on to explain the application process to see if you are eligible for the usage of medical marijuana. The structure and grammar of this article is laid out well showing that the website is professional. Another clue right off the bat, is looking at the URL. This particular one ends in .net explaining that it is made by a network which happens to be Pain Management of America. Just this title itself lets the reader know that this is a reliable organization who is for the legalization of marijuana for medical use only. Lastly, be smart when looking for good sources and remember these few tips so you can have good research and reliable sources.

Do You Buy Clothes Made in a Sweatshop?

As consumers we should be aware of where our clothes are made. The treatment of people working in sweatshops is extremely cruel but many people do not realize their favorite clothes are being produced in these harsh quarters. Some people argue that we need these sweatshops so the poor children can have a way of making money whether it is morally correct or not. Others may argue that these sweatshops are a huge part of our national and worldly economy and they need to stay to keep the economy strong. These arguments leave consumers questioning where they should be buying their clothes from and what stores are not producing their clothes in these terrible sweatshops.

Most of our daily clothes have tags made from China, Philippines, and India. Even though we do not want to support sweatshops we do buy their products.  Most clothes are not made in America and would be hard to find.  For example, Nike is everywhere. All of their shoes, clothes and other products are made in sweatshops in third world countries. Even though everyone has heard about these awful working conditions they still buy Nike.  Consumers are responsible for cutting back on buying these products. It is going to take more then one person but it can be done. It is hard to try to stop buying clothes made in sweatshops because most of the clothes bought today are produced in these conditions. Unlike, a farmers market in a town, you can not just go and buy products made in your town. This is the problem with trying to buy clothes not made in sweat shops; there are not such places to buy  clothes made in safe conditions in the towns close to you. Today, buying clothes not produced in sweatshops is especially hard because people do not produce their own clothes anymore. Next time you go to buy your clothes, keep this in mind of where you are shopping.

Learning to Read

Ali:
My first memories of reading started in kindergarten. This was the easy stuff; small words and lots of pictures. As the years started to progress the reading got harder and harder. As a young child I remember not being the strongest reader. I must not have done extremely well on those tests they would give you each year because I had to get extra help with my reading. First, I had to go to extra help in my elementary school and then go to tutoring outside of school. I remember this like it was yesterday. My neighbor happened to be a teacher so a few times a week I would go to her house and read to her. I hated going to her house; I tried everything in my power to get out of it (which never worked I may add). She made me read the book "Saving Shiloh" and I just hated it. The only good thing about the tutoring was that I would get cookies! To this day I still vividly remember the tutoring. The funny part about this whole experience was that as soon as I got older the lady, who the next year was my third grade teacher, moved out of the house. The family that moved in had young children so I would babysit for them and go back to that same house. Every time I go back to that house, I remember Shiloh the dog and the cookies I would always get from my tutor when I was learning to read.

Katie:

I was introduced to reading in kindergarten.  The first step was learning the alphabet.  Sounding out vowels and consonants after our teacher wrote them on the white board.  We then had to come up with words that started with those letters. From then on I learned to read picture books and little kids books. I had a two favorite books; "Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear" and "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".  I must have read them both a million times. Finally I think I just had them memorized so they didn't help much. My mom then introduced me to "hooked on phonics" which I hated. I would get stickers at the end of each lesson. I loved those stickers. Those were my first memories of learning how to read.

Between these two stories, the general concept of learning to read was the same. Both of us were first taught to read in kindergarten. We remember reading picture books and small words. Then moved on to longer books. Those books we read will stay with us forever. The most important similarities were being rewarded after reading. Ali received cookies while Katie got stickers.  Our generation  did not realize the importance of reading. We just read to be rewarded. Reading is so common to us that we take it for granted.