thebeard1

Visual Rewrite – thebeard

0:01 – The video starts out with a car driving across the screen. It looks like an old car making the scene seems older. There is a passenger in the car so there is at least two people in the car. In the background of the first second there are lights hanging on a building. It also kind of looks like there is other cars behind the first car. It looks like there might be multiple people in the car.

This first car might be going to the building behind it with the lights or maybe leaving. Maybe there were also just driving past it.

0:02 – In the next second you can see a couple more cars parked, possible at a dinner or maybe a bar. At the farthest car there is a couple of people standing around. From the way that the male is leaning he may be arguing with the girl standing at the car with the door open. Maybe she is trying to get away from him or not let him drive maybe. They may also just be talking and having fun. They are both white.

There is writing on the building behind them but it is hard to tell what it says. It looks like a restaurant though for sure. From the look of the cars it looks like maybe the 80s. It is late at night which makes me think they are at a bar and they may be heading home from a night of drinking.

0:03 – In this scene is shows a blonde women who looks like she may be looking at a person behind where the camera is positioned. The girl has long curly blonde hair. Her hair style looks like a style from the 80s. It looks like she is wearing a long sleeve shirt, maybe a jacket. It makes me think that it is defiantly not a summer month if she has long sleeves on. There is also a man standing next to her, he is pretty close to her so he might be her boyfriend. He kind of looks like he is leaning in to kiss her. He is also dressed like he would be from the 80s. He has brown hair and big round classes. He is also wearing a jacket so it is probably not a summer month.

0:04 – During this second they start to lean towards each other like they are going to kiss but she starts to talk to him about something. There may be things going on behind them but it is really hard to tell because of the quality of the video.

0:05 – He seems really disappointed that they did not kiss. You start to see a car door that the girl is leaning on and it looks like the same door and people that were standing at the car in the second second of the video. It starts to look like there could be people behind them in this scene but it is still hard to tell.

0:06 – The start of this scene is the man and women kissing so he was finally able to kiss her about she said something to him. There is nothing much that really changed in this scene from the scene before other than they kissed.

0:07 – In this scene another girl walks in front of the two kissing and jumps into the car they are standing at. She is holding a bottle of something, probably beer. This new girl has long brown hair and also a jacket on. This makes me think that they are standing outside of a bar and they are heading home for the night.

0:08 – This new girl gets into the drivers side door and slides across the bench seat. The two that were standing outside the car kissing sit in the back of the car. They might be waiting for someone else to come and drive the car because none of them are sitting in the drivers seat. From what it looks the brown haired girl is the only person holding a drink.

0:09 – This scene starts with a guy in a red Letterman jacket. He is probably an athlete in either high school or college. Probably college if they are at a bar and drinking. He has dark blonde hair from what i can see, it is still hard to tell because of the quality. It looks like there is a car door next to him so he is probably the driver that the three others are waiting for. Just from the way he looks it looks like he has had something to drink and should not be driving. There are people behind him at the building that they have been at. It looks like people standing at the doorway and someone right behind him leaving.

0:10 – This second is the guy in the red Letterman jacket walking closer to the car with the other three in it. You can see the guy in the backseat still getting in the car. I can now see that he also has a bottle of beer in his hand. There is more people leaving the bar they are at and also more people walking to go into it. The guy in the red is definitely driving the car and should not be.

0:11 – The guy in the red looks like he might have said something funny to the other guy because he has a big smile on his face or he might just be drunk. They look kinda of young, maybe in high school or young college students. They are getting in the car to leave and go somewhere. possibly home but they should not be driving because they have been driving.

0:12 – They both jump into the car, the one in the red driving, I can now see that he has a bottle in his hand as well and should not be driving. That is one of the dumbest things to do. It does not seem like they are underage since they were at a bar and walk out with bottle of beer. When the two guys get into the car the two girls are talking about something, It is hard to tell if the girl in the back in drinking but the girl in the front has a bottle in her hand still. Hopefully they do not drive away but they probably will.

0:13 – As the two guys finish getting into the car the driver hands the girl in the passenger seat his bottle and goes to turn the car on. He kind of drunkenly hands the girl his bottle so he should for sure not be driving. The two in the back are sitting pretty close so it makes me think they are dating.

0:14 – The guy in the back seat leans forward to tell to guy driving. Hopefully he is asking him if he is alright to drive. I hope that the guy says he is not but I know that he wont and he will say he is fine to drive even though he probably is not fine.

0:15 – They continue to talk about something in this second. Probably something about the night or if the guy in the red can drive. The girl in the front seat is still looking towards the girl in the back probably still talking about something. Maybe they are talking about how the night is going or maybe what they are going to do after they leave.

0:16 – The guy in the backseat is leaning over talking to the guy in the red still, he has a look of concern on his face. It seems he might be telling the guy not to drive or asking if he is alright to drive. The guy in the front seat seems like he is telling him he is fine and to not worry about him. He probably has on had a few drinks but he should still not drive even if he only had a few drinks.

0:17 – The guy in the front starts to say something back to the other guy. Possibly saying that he is fine to drive.

0:18 – The guy in the back sits back in his seat fine with what the driver said. Seems like they are going to start driving away which they probably should not be doing.

0:19 – The girl in the back seems fine with whats going on because she is smiling or she has no idea what is going on and is just really drunk. The guy in the back starts to put his arm around the girl next to him. They are more than likely dating.

0:20 – This shot shows all 4 of them in the car. The girl in the front seems like be closer to the driver now. They are probably also dating. The guy in the red seems like he is trying to start the car now.

0:21 – This second is the driver trying to find the whole to put the guy in for the car. He is struggling to put the key in so he should for sure not be driving. He is probably more drunk than he thinks he is.

0:22 – He finally found the hole for the key and starts the car.

0:23 – This second show two skeletons in the back seat like they have been dead for years. Maybe it is just to show that drunk driving kills and instead of using actual dead bodies or ones that are meant to look dead they make them skeletons. It seems really bright almost as if there was an explosion.

0:24 – This second shows the front two people also as skeletons now like they are all dead or have died. The care also looks like it is not in good condition. It is hard to tell from the quality but it is for sure not in the condition it was before they drove.

0:25 – It is now darker, if there was an explosion is is might be all smokey now. Probably aftermath of an explosion.

0:26 – This scene is a human hand of the left of the screen going towards the middle of the screen. And another hand on the other side that is a skeleton hand. They are moving towards each other like they are about to shake hands. On the screen above the hands it says “Drinking and driving can kill a friendship.” The four people in the car definitely drove and died because they were drunk.

0:27 – The two hands start to shake almost like they were friends but now the one on the right has died and they aren’t friends anymore.

0:28 – Basically the hands are just on the screen now and the video fades to black and ends.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZSvNP2Sd90

Stone Money Rewrite—thebeard

A Penny For Your Thoughts

“Money is fiction” is one of the weirdest quotes I have heard from the NPR Broadcast and just one of the oddest quotes I have heard in general. I could have never thought of the money that I have not actually meaning something. The money that I have in my wallet or bank account is the money that I have to spend and I need that money to buy something. The little piece of paper that I receive from the ATM that tells me how much money I actually have in my account is as close to holding all my wealth in my hands. When I heard the story of Stone Money I did not think this could actually be real.

When I was reading Friedman’s essay I was just thinking about how the Yap money system is so similar to ours. The money that the Yap use are big round stones, called fei. The fei have a hole in the middle so when they are created they can easily bring them onto the island and leave them in one spot for eternity. The Yap have their money just sitting in the streets but they know who owns which stone. They don’t need to see their money to make a purchase to someone, just like I don’t need to see my money to use a debit card. That money just goes from my account into someone else’s account. The German government put red X marks on the Yap’s stones saying that they were the governments money now. The Germans did not move the money back to Germany but just simply left it in the same spots, but now with a red X on it. What the Germans did with the fei is almost similar to the the French did with the US gold. They just put a label on it saying that it was now theirs and couldn’t be used. Its odd that just labeling some gold in a basement could cause the Great Depression. The US could have just given France the gold and taken the money from them and maybe the Great Depression wouldn’t have happened. It is crazy to think that a label could do something like that.

While listening to the NPR Broadcast it really made me think what that would be like to just have a new currency. Its weird to think that Brazil can just create a new currency but they did and it made their economy better. I feel like it would be hard for Brazilians to trust the new currency at first because it is something brand new to them. If I was a Brazilian during the whole crisis I would have defiantly loved the new currency. From what it seems I would be paying so much less for things that I need and want. I feel that it would have been easy for the Brazilians to trust the new currency, it helps them out. They would be able to save their money and not spend it right when they received it. They would not be over paying for some necessities.

While listening to the guys at the NPR Broadcast I find out that even thought the Federal Reserve includes the word “federal,” it is not actually part of the government. They are tasked with something simple but very large: Creating money from nothing. It is really cool how they make new money and suddenly it is in people pockets. Well not instant but almost. The Federal Reserve buys bonds from banks and the banks then give the money received from those bond purchases out as loans to people. See pretty easy, for the person trying to get the loan it sometimes turns out in their favor because interest will go down so the bank can get this money into circulation. It is crazy to think that my money is just transferred to someone else’s account when I buy something. Even if I use cash it will soon be in someones bank account and eventually in someone else’s after that. From listening to this podcast and and reading the articles its really made me think what my money is actually worth to me. These flimsy slips of linen covered with silly green symbols seem so worthless; do I really work hard at my job to earn a handful of these? Then just to spend them on worthless items.

I decided to read two articles about Bitcoin. It has always been something that interested me but I have never really looked into anything about it. In the article “Bitcoin has no place in any portfolio,” it says that the value of bitcoin has ranged from $13 in January of 2013 to roughly $1150 at the end of November 2013. The value of bitcoin changes almost every day just like the stock market. Most investors do not like to use bitcoin simply because they do not understand it. You can also simply go from millions of dollars worth of bitcoins to zero the next day if someone hacks into your computer and takes them. The cool thing with bitcoin is that you can exchange ownership of products very quickly. I read a story that some people buy expensive gaming graphic cards and sell them on bitcoin for more and that is one reason that makes those certain products hard to find in stores like Best Buy. There is no guarantee that bitcoin will be around for a while but for now it is a good way to make money and buy or trade products, that is if you know what you are doing.

So after reading and listening all of those articles about different types of money, it is still hard to tell what money actually is. Could it be a big round stone sitting next to my house that may or may not even be mine or is it a virtual coin that I may have received from trading a product I bought online. Maybe money is fictional and its just the trust in our government and each other that its is actually in our bank accounts or wallets and that we can use it to purchase our needs or wants. I have never really thought that my money that I use to purchase things with could really just be a number going from my account to someone else’s account. Just thinking back the Yap must think we are crazy when we want to buy something and hand the cashier a plastic card or paper. But then again we think they are crazy for trust that someone has a stone in the bottom of the ocean that gives their family wealth. It is also crazy to think that just a couple of guys can create a whole new currency for the people of Brazil and have it actually work out in the countries favor. Those guys basically saved that country when they were in a crisis. We live in one crazy world. But I am still going to go to the store tomorrow morning before work and buy a cup of coffee with my money that may or may not be fictional.

Works Cited

“Bitcoin has no place in your – or any – portfolio.” Marketwatch.com. 31 Jan. 2015

Friedman, Milton. “The Island of Stone Money.” Diss. Hoover Institution, Stanford University , 1991.

Renaut, Anne. “The bubble bursts on e-currency Bitcoin.” Yahoo.com. 13 Apr. 2013

“The Invention of Money.” 423: The Invention of Money. This Is American Life, WBEZ. Chicago . 7 Jan. 2011.

EO3 Critical Reading – thebeard

Section 17

1. Later, she reminds me that Lasagna Night can come apart in an instant, if Caleb has a “bad PTSD moment.”

Lasagna Night has probably fallen apart many times before since she says that she is reminded.
Caleb probably has PTSD moments a lot that causes problems at home.

2. These are supposed to be her easy months, she sighs, April and May and June, before the anniversaries of his worst firefights—many of them in Ramadi; a lot of bad things happened in Ramadi—exacerbate his flashbacks and nightmares.

These months are supposed to be easier, Caleb hasn’t had many PTSD moments in these months in the past from what it seems.
Caleb probably wasn’t deployed during these months when he was in war or he wasn’t in the fight.
The worst of his firefights must happen in month after June.

3. That’s usually September through January, the “really bad” months, whereas in the spring, she gets a bit of “vacation,” time to clean up the house and catch up on work, rest.

From September through January Caleb has a lot of bad PTSD moments.
He probably has bad flashbacks of what happened during those months when he was in active duty.
In spring Brannan gets time off from the PTSD moments. Caleb may not be home or he is more calm and doesn’t think about them that much then.

4. She used to ask Caleb what was wrong, why he was coiled so tight and poisonous, screaming and yelling at everybody. That just agitated him more.

It is smart not to ask Caleb what was wrong when he was yelling. This made him more angry.

5. Haven’t you noticed I’m having a bad time? he’ll ask. And then she’ll just sit and listen while he says he cannot get it out of his head, about how if he had caught that fucking sniper, that enemy sniper he’d been trying to get, that’d been following them around, terrorizing their unit, if he’d have managed to kill him like he was supposed to, then the sniper wouldn’t have gotten off the shot that killed his buddy.

This is something that he has thought about a lot, Caleb lost a friend from this and it haunts him a lot. He always thinks “what if” something else would have happened.

Summaries – thebeard

1. Serious Psychological Disorders in College Students

It seems counterintuitive that college students deal with so many mental issues while at school. Many university administrators and mental health professionals have increased their awareness of these mental problems students go through. Despite different kinds of efforts from college staff, it doesn’t really lower the thought of suicide in the students during the school year. Each year more and more students start to deal many of the disorders and never want to get help. Most of the time when a student does try and get help it they are forced to leave school to try and get better or take medicine they do not want to. Sometimes this even discourages other students from coming forward and saying they don’t need help because they may not want to leave school and get better. Also many students believe that they will just get better with time, which usually does not happen.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-campus/201111/serious-psychological-disorders-in-college-students

2. Close call in death ruling of potential organ donor

It seems counterintuitive that the doctors that save lives could simply declare someone brain-dead who is nowhere close. Doctors would rather take one persons organs to donate to another than try and save the first persons life. It is very rarely a patient is wrongfully declared brain-dead; this happening could sour the public and even the ones who many depend on for organ donation. If someone in my family, that was an organ donor, was close to death but could be saved I would want the doctors to do everything in their power to save them. Doctors should not be worried about the organs that might help someone else out but worry about the person whose organs they are in the first place.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/apr/12/local/me-transplant12

3. Where can you choose to end your life?

It seems counterintuitive that we have to give people the right to end their own life; it is terrible if someone wants to do so but it should be for a good reason. It makes more sense if someone wants to end their life if they are already dying and want to end the suffering. What if someone is going through a rough part in their life and don’t want to continue anymore? They should still be able to choose whether they want to live or die, it would be ashamed if they did end their life because of the people they would hurt by doing this, but it should be their choice. In many countries, such as the Netherlands, they have been helping people choose a way to end their life. The Netherlands is said to possibly be the best-know place to end their life in an assisted way. In the United States only some states allow assistance in death but it is only if the patient has terminally ill criteria. In most places this a choice for people, whether you take it or not it is still an option till the end.

https://theconversation.com/where-can-you-choose-to-end-your-life-56246

Visual Rhetoric – thebeard