The beginning of a New Era; Mine

Justin Vildosola 

Eng 101 

10/18/2014 

Dawn of a New Era 

I knew I would eventually end up in college, I'm actually a little bit disappointed that I came into college so late. I wanted to start college two years ago, but I moved back in June of 2014 and I did not know that you needed to have at least one year living in California to be approved for residency. To some that might not mean much, but to me, that meant the difference between saving a couple hundred dollars that I did not have at the time. Now that I'm here in college, it kind of feels nice because I am doing something productive with my life instead of just working. Don’t get me wrong, working is a great but when all you do is work and you don’t see yourself expanding and trying to go up in the work force; you become stagnate and end up living a sedentary life style of not achieving much.  

Currently, I am pursuing a career as an IT/Computer Networking admin as I am fascinated with how computers work and, for the most part, how the inner machinations work. I've always been interested in computers so when I found out that Oxnard College started offering a computer networking class I got in as soon as I could. Back in 2012, when I first moved here, Oxnard College did not offer a computer networking class or anything similar. The original plan was to take my general education there, once I had that I would be able to transfer to the Ventura College. From there I'd transfer to a four year university, not quite sure as to what university I want to transfer to as I just started college.  

I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can within the time I have here at the college. Nothing excites me more than to learn new things such as Psychology and other language courses; once I'm done with Spanish I want to learn ASL (American Sign Language). Truth be told, some people find it hard to balance both work and college. I've only been coming for half a semester and I can see where some people would see that trying to juggle both would become a bit overwhelming, but I'm the type of person who likes a full plate, seconds if I can help it.  My life has changed, although, I wish it had sooner, but I am very happy with how things turned out; I never would have met my awesome girlfriend or gotten my car, heck, I don’t think I'd be close with my dad as I am now.  

My final advice is this, it’s a Spanish phrase (forgive me Spanish speakers, I am learning it all over again) : "Sigale", which means, in a rough translation, go for it.  

Word Count: 480 

Reality Bites, T.V. that is

Justin Vildosola 

10/10/2014 

Eng 101 

Blog Entry: Reality TV; Breaking the mold on reality 

Personally, I don't watch television anymore. Not that I don't have a T.V., but I spend a good majority of my time on my computer, playing video games, doing homework (as I am now), spending time with my girlfriend, or any other activity that does not involve me wasting time in front of a screen with no real benefits. That’s not to say that T.V. has done nothing for us, on the contrary, it has helped many in different ways. Television has evolved from what it used to be to what it is now; it used to be for news casting and a few T.V. shows such as the Andy Griffith show, I Dream of Genie and many more great series. Sadly, we now have shows like Jersey Shore, Keeping up with the Kardashians, and even Tiny Tiaras. This is not what T.V. was made for, this is not what T.V. is supposed to bring, this is not T.V., this is garbage that is labeled as "Fun, Entertaining, Amazing". I'm only persecuting those types of shows because they ruin the fabric of what makes T.V. so valuable, and how rich and flavorful culture used to be. Let's look at what made Television, what was once the family gathering and even poster board image of how a typical suburban family used to live. 

Go back to the early 1900's, around the 50's and you will see that America was in for its first world war. This was a time where the T.V. was in it's baby steps, and Americans were introduced to its earliest forms of entertainment. What was fascinating about this time period was the fact that, Television being brand new, no one knew exactly what to do with this technology. That is when they decided 'Let's do something with this, can we do this? Let's experiment and see what happens when we do this to the T.V.s. Thus began the first forms of T.V. Shows: The Honey Mooners, I Love Lucy, The Andy Griffith Show, these were some of the very first "Television Series" and they would be the foundation of what made a series great. Furthermore, this was also a time period in which people had said 'Hey, let's see how we can get people to watch the movie 'Casablanca' from their homes'. In retrospect, T.V. in the 50's was amazing, it was good, clean, fun for the whole family 

Up till the late 1990's T.V. was still at its pinnacle of providing great T.V shows that, at the time, pushed the envelope on what could be aired on T.V. before it would be titled as smut. It wasn't until the early 1990's when MTV (Music Television) had aired what America came to realize was "Reality T.V.", life that was televised and unadulterated. The general population was not used to such vulgar and abrasive language coming from a Television series; how do you go from clean wholesome family to fun, to an early college boy's frat years at university? Easy. Reality T.V. made that possible, it was taboo to swear on T.V. but The Real World made that fantasy into a reality. Granted The Real World was a great show, it was a bad basis to build future reality shows off of it; I say this because more reality shows nowadays seem to force the "Real" perspective that made Reality T.V. from the 90's so enticing.  

T.V., for the most part, is still great and clean, family fun for everyone. The best way to avoid shows that people view as demeaning or scandalizing, is to simply turn off the remote. Television has come a long way, some see the 1990's as the point in which T.V. became worse as media saw new ways to publicize smutty material and still label it "Reality".  

Words: 668 

Does this taste like an opinion to you?

Justin Vildosola 

Eng 101 

10/2/2014 

Does this taste like an opinion to you? 

It's true, we are all entitled to our own opinion but they are like arm pits; everyone has one and they all stink. Sure we might not agree with what one person has to offer on the subject, but that doesn’t mean that we should disregard their opinion. You’d be surprised on what that person has to say, it might just be the thing that ends up changing your view on that subject matter. Coming from personal experience, I'm not that opinionated as other people are, clearly, I don’t see myself as someone who thinks they are better then others; I'm more open minded to topics of discussion. What makes this blog so hard to write is not the fact that we have the right to say what we want, but how can we say one opinion changed our thinking? Whose to say that someone who was a die hard conservative all of a sudden heard a speech from a person involved with the LGBT movement and said: "Hey, these guys aren't so bad after all. Maybe we can learn a thing or two from them." It might take hundreds of opinions, facts, or just plain statistics that change our thought process.  

Opinions are great, they offer what the person is saying and feeling at the time and how they believe a certain action works. What I don't like about opinions is how people see it as a way to force their way of thinking down someone's throat: "YOU MUST READ FROM THIS NEWS ARTICLE ON HOW TO LOSE 30LBS IN 10 DAYS TO A SLIMMER YOU!" Ok that’s not entirely an opinion, but doesn't that author or source come off as a bit opinionated? " 'If you drink five gallons of vegetables and fruit in 10 days you will see better results' Jason Clarkson, CI Wakeforest" That's not an actual quote so don't quote me on it. They can also lead to some sticky situations in which the reader might feel threatened about a certain subject, and that that new way of thinking will destroy what they might have built up in their mind as a strong, structured path, that was proven to be correct. 

So if your asking me if there was an opinion someone had mentioned to me that changed the way I thought about something, I couldn't really answer that. I am an open minded individual who sees things from all angles, you may see a cup as just a cup; to me it’s a hat, a shovel, a shoe, heck, it can even be a rocket ship with the right imagination! If it seems like I'm off topic from the question on how an opinion has changed my thought process, that itself is my answer on how opinions have changed me. Do what you will with the information you are given, do so in a manner that does not negatively affect someone, rather, it becomes a beacon of knowledge that opens ones' mind on how a circle can be made out of different objects.