Summary of "Ha ha,' he said, "ha ha' " by Chuck Klosterman

This article caught my eye in many different ways, ive always been the kind of person that loves watching every kind of comedic show that is on television. To my suprise, i never really thought about the difference between shows with laugh tracks and ones without it. I guess im so used to laugh tracks, i never really distinguised a difference.

I have a really good sense of humor, so if something is funny i most likely will laugh at it. But now thinking back, i guess shows like friends and other ones with a laugh track, i found funny, but not as funny as shows without laugh tracks like the office. I believe what Chuck Klosterman is saying, the fact that laugh tracks are behind so many comedy shows, it really takes away peoples own ability to find their sense of humor, and you end up laughing at anything that has a laugh track.

Also i believe that laughing here in the United States, is a lot different than laughter and humor in other places. In his article he talks about how in Germany they only laugh when they actaully think something is funny, not out of curtiousy or politeness. He also talks about how he felt so dumb in the grocery store laughing about not having exact change. If you think about it, we all do this. I personally laugh at everything. A lot of the time i actually think something is worth laughing at, but in times when i feel awkward i laugh. Not because i want to, but because i think its the necessary think to do to get me feeling less out of place. Also i believe when someone is trying to have a serious conversation you tend to laugh it off or act like its nothing, when in fact you shouldn't be laughing at all.

Even though in some places like Germany, you only laugh at things that are humerous, i think its good to laugh at times other than humor. In my case when something bad happens i feel the need to find humor out of the whole situation. If you take everything seriously youll never be able to get through it. You jsut got to sit back, realize what was wrong, pay the price, then just go with the flow and laugh at something stupid you did in the whole situation. Life goes on.

Overall i really thought this article was a great one. My favorite thing he says is, "The only thing people in New York wont laugh at are unfamous stand-up comedians; we really despise those motherfuckers, for some reason." I think that this quote is so funny, but true. People will sit there are laugh at anything and anyone that comes in front of them, but when someones just trying to crack a joke up on stage, everyone turns into cynical critics that will only laugh if you force them. Its wierd to think about, i guess its just a part of life thats ironic. But in this article Chuck Klosterman really made me think about laugh tracks and society in general and how easily we are entertained.

English undergraduate program

I decided to attend the english undergraduate program for the Panel 12, the speakers that were there was Jenna Enright and Dara Fennell. They both read one of there own pieces. Jenna Enright wrote a short story called "Sitting Outside a Coffee Shop in Paris, France." This story was about a girl, who decided to study abroad in Paris, France. The whole time in this story, she was sitting at a coffee shop, pretending to read a book called love stories, and drinking a cappachino. She sat there all day, and thought about love, and how she never found it. So while she was sitting there she told the waiter that she was waiting for someone, even though she didnt know who that someone was. After sitting around all day, she decided to go sit by the fountain, and give up. Just as she did that the waiter went to her table got her book. and realized it was empty, wrote in it, and brought it to her, maybe soon to be the love she was waiting for.

The other speaker there, Darra Fennell, wrote a reseach paper, called "A Love-Hate Zombie Relationship? : Gender Eqaulity and in Price and Predujice and Zombies." This was a paper that described how the actual Pride and Predjudice book, was rewritten by someone else and they addede zombies into it. I never read either of these books so i thought it was interesting to here the different point of views on each of the books. It was also interesting to learn how such a well known book, published by such a well known auther Jane Austin, was actually rewritten. Overall this paper was very interesting, and it made me think of a lot of different perspectives you can have on something so unbiased.

Overall this program was very interesting, and only took about 40 minutes out of my day. I really liked listening to fellow students read something they wrote, other than hearing them read an original story, already written. It also helps you think of different ideas you can use in your own papers. Overall this was a good experience.

Introduction to the topics

There are two different topics that i am deciding between. The first is how incarceration of adults affect children, and put them into poverty. I first read an article on this through a journal i was told to look at. It came to be very interesting to be because i thought that the facts behind it was very interesting. Its about when a mass amount of adults are incarcertated, it leads to a problem with their families and children. It can cause them to live in poverty because when one of the parents is incarcerated, it can cause a major loss of income coming into that certain household. Also when the children become poor, it leads to many unwanted doors becoming open because they can take the wrong path, becuse they dont have as many opportunities being poor. I liked this topic for my paper becasue its very interesting to me. I would search many different questions on it for example, a lot of statistical facts and different studies that were done to prove this point. I also would ask a question of which minorty groups it affects most, and what's the usual family that is being problemized with this. Also i would look into different job offfers that have at different jails and prisons to see if there was any sort of way to revent this poverty. Even though this would be a interesting reseach topic, im not sure if its that biased so i dont know if i could use it.

Another topic which i am really leaning towards is, how mass media affects crime, and if its factual or an ideology. I found this topic by looking through the internet and trying to find different things that i thought were interesting. After looking and not being able to find anything, i was watching tv and all throughout the news was about differnt murders, rapes, robberies, and burglarys that have occured. And i thought to myself, they really amp up these stories to scare the public. I also learned that in my criminology courses. For this topic, i would search up and ask a lot of questions about the actual number of crimes that occur each year. I would also base a lot of my paper on how the media affects us, by putting so much fear into our minds about crime. when in reality its a lot less then we think. Another thing i would like to look up is how and where the most crime is happeneing in our counrty, and which news media is really taking it out of proportion. Also i would look on how different tv shows and commericals make crime up to be something its not. This is a really interesting topic that im probably going to choose to be mine.

full annotation

Defina Robert H. Hannon Lance. "The Impact of Adult Incarceration on Child Poverty: A County-Level Analysis, 1995- 2007." The Prison Journal.09 (2010): 377-396. Online.

. The article was about how in some cases, “incarcerating vast numbers of people from a restricted number of communities can create adverse social dynamics within the affected neighborhoods that can actually foster more crime”. By saying this, they mean that sometimes imprisoning high numbers of people, can cause more ex convicts to re-commit crimes. Also they say that because of this, it causes more children of adults who are incarcerated, are more likely to be living in poverty, because they don’t have the full support from their parent or parents. It also is due to many other factors like not enough jobs, and it also causes families to fall apart. Because of this, it then causes juveniles of these parents, to become more prone to be a criminal, because of the hard ships they are dealing with. Overall they talk about a never ending cycle of the negative things that come out of incarcerating at high numbers. I believe i could use this in my paper, to help better understand the difference between children with good parents, and children with parents in prison. Also it could help better understand the lives of prisoners and how they get by.

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Thoughts about Technology

During this article, there are many different things that caught my eye. It was a really interesting piece of literature, because it talks about if technology affects people in a negative way by making them multitaskers who can't seem to retain and focus on information. Some scientists and researchers however say, that the brain is always changing and adapting, and by always doing something with the technology if helps people find more efficient information.

One test suggests that the negative affects, out way the positive affects in different way. The study done by Mr. Ophir, the subjects of the experiment were separated into two groups, multitaskers, and non-multitaskers. He proceeded to show them red rectangles, and then they showed them another pictures of more red rectangles and asked them if any of them switched positions, but there was a twist, they added random blue ones into the equation, but they specifically told them to ignore them. After this was conducted they realized that a lot of the mulitaskers did a worse job at trying to find if any were switched then the non-multitaskers. They stated that this was because they couldn't filter out the blue ones because it was irrelevant information. They also said they weren't as good as juggling problems.

To me this shows how people who are always on their electronic devices, have a lot harder time paying attention and really focusing on one thing. Because they are always doing like ten things at once, they just barely remember or figure out one thing, because they have their focus spread out between a lot of things. As for example in this story, they talk about Mr. Campbell and his family. Mr. Campbell himself seems addicted to technology. He even missed an email for a agreement for about a million dollar deal, probably because he was too busy multitasking and not paying full attention to his email, so he missed it. To me that's seems like a problem because, that's a huge deal, and if he would of never seen that email that would of been devastating to his life. Also his son is like him, always on technology and his school grades are dropping. That's a huge problem because he can't focus on his homework or school work because he is always thinking about face book or video games.

Even after all this technology talk of making you a multitasker, it also seems to put a toll on family life if your that addicted. The Campbell family has to fight to stay off their electronics just for family time. I don't think that's right. Family will always be more important than checking facebook. So in order for technology to be ruining a family, i think that's terrible. Overall this article was interesting, it opened my eyes to see that it does have a huge impact on everyone, and everyday. Technology is only going to get worse, and could cause more problems in the near future if people don't start some balance between their life and technology.

Heyyyy!

Hey Everyone! My names Corrine Filipczak. Im a sophmore at IUP. My major is criminology, I'm not quite positive what i want to become when i graduate but ill figure it out. I'm 5'6 and I have reddish brown curly hair and brown eyes. Im from a really small town called Marion Heights, its about three and a half hours from Indiana, Pa. I have a wonderful family, my mom, dad and my brother. Were always having a good time, and we barely fight. We all have one thing in common and thats our love for the Boston Red Sox, even though im the biggest fan in the family. My cats name is niko, hes the fuzziest thing you'll ever see. I have a lot
of best friends, some from home and here at school. Theyre always there for me no matter what happens. I also have a boyfriend, who I love a lot, we usually get along and tend to have a lot of fun. I love collecting movies, i have literally every love story that ever came out. I also love the band the Kings of Leon, i listen to them religously, then tend to calm me down when im not in a good mood. A lot of people probably think im crazy, but i just love to laugh and crack jokes at any moment of the day. It helps you get through the day, or makes you feel better when your not too happy. I probably couldnt live without my cell phone, ipod touch,or laptop. Thats sometimes a bad thing, but thats how a lot of people are these days. Theres defiantly a lot more i could write about myself, but that would take awhile!