This is an essay adapted from my end-of-semester PowerPoint presentation for my computer class my freshman year at Northeastern State. (I guess it was memorable; I got a 100 for it.)
"We all love it, pretty much. Most people were raised on the stuff. We can make cookies and candy, all sorts of tasty things with it. What food am I talking about? Peanut butter! Of course, the most common way to eat the food popularized by George Washington Carver is through peanut butter sandwiches.
"There are a lot of good points for the versatile sandwich; most importantly for college students, it's cheap. Any way you can save money should be followed. Another plus for students on the go is that it's so quick to make, you can just whip up a sandwich in no time flat and scarf it down while running to the next class. It's also easily customizable, lending itself to a myriad of inventive options.
"Of course, there's also some downsides. By itself, plain peanut butter is rather bland and sticky. While healthier than most cafeteria food, it's still not particularly packed with nutrients, it requires some sort of silverware to scoop/slather onto some other edible surface, and some people are allergic to peanuts.
"The "How-To" of making a basic peanut butter sandwich is very simple, almost too easy to list. Taking a utensil of some kind(generally knife or spoon), peanut butter is scooped out of the container, then spread onto a slice of bread, while another substance such as jelly is slathered onto a different bread slice. The contents will merge somewhat as the bread is pressed together, and then the sandwich is eaten."
"There are varying ways of doing this, however. One way would be making homemade peanut butter, which is often done for health reasons in avoiding preservatives in the typical store-bought variety. Adventure-seekers, spotting a new way to experiment with tastes, also do this. The process used is very simple, dropping peanuts into a blender until a thick, grainy paste appears. This must be eaten quickly or refrigerated, however, as it will separate and be very nasty otherwise.
"Those adventurous folks may continue their trip off the main highway of conformity by diving into a wide array of topping options. This could include chocolate(My favorite, chocolate chips and chopped-up Snickers are recommended), or the typical jelly, with a large flavor-spectrum to choose from, ranging from grape to dandelion. Carrots or some other vegetable could be inserted in an effort to make it healthier, as could fruits like apples or bananas. If the sweetness is a problem, but chocolate doesn't quite do the trick, then honey or sugar might work well. An often overlooked topping that goes well is bacon.
"And don't think that a typical store-bought loaf of white bread is your only option for what to build the sandwich on, either. A tortilla could be utilized very effectively, a pita could work in a pinch. Cookies make wonderful snack-sandwiches, Oreos do a great job in this area. Bagels can add an interesting hearty foundation, making a filling meal. Hot dog/hamburger buns are not recommended, as their fluffy texture overwhelms everything and adds to the blandness of straight peanut butter.
"The average American child eats something close to 1,500 peanut butter sandwiches by the time they head to college, with many more eaten then and later. Maybe next time you find yourself making a sandwich the typical way, consider trying something new. A new favorite might be right around the corner."
Monday, May 6, 2013
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Modern Society's Front Porch
This was my final essay for Comp II my freshman year at Northeastern State.
"It can be a blessing, or it could be the work of the devil. It can wreck a marriage or reunite families. It can be every bit as addicting a drug as alcohol, or it can be a form of therapy. It can help keep friendships alive, or it could get you fired. For every one and many more of these contradictory elements, social media can be either a good or bad thing. It is a tool, and as novelist Jack Schaefer wrote in Shane, a tool, whatever it is, is only as good or as bad as the man who uses it. For the most part, social media, as a whole, is a good tool for communication.
As humans, we are made to connect with others, to interact. We build up nations over time, subdivided by such things as state, tribe, city, neighborhood or family. The basic unit, however, is this concept we call "communities", which is a hard idea to precisely define. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it this way: "All persons living in a specific location; or a group having interests or religion in common; or joint sharing." Stephanie M. Reich suggests that a "community" involves interdependence, communication and emotional connection, and is operated in a systematic way. It also involves dealing with people. (Reich) Over time, as new technologies are developed and distributed among the masses, the sense of community shifts as well, further complicating the issue. While talking of Time magazine in his book The Mechanical Bride, scholar Marshall McLuhan suggests that the press has fostered the image of the world as one single city as a byproduct of their work, in the process creating a new area for communities to develop. With these new technologies, what once was relatively easy to define gradually spread out from a group in the same geographic area to groups with shared interests still with physical interactions, and then migrating into the digital world they became all shared interests with next to no face-to-face meetings. (Reich)
As the Internet grew, sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and Twitter emerged, as well as other sites such as the children-oriented Webkinz, the dating sites eHarmony and Match.com, Internet radio on Pandora and Spotify, professional networking at LinkedIn and image-driven sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr. These can all fall under the general term "social media", which Thomas A. Bryer defines as "technologies that facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration, and enable deliberation across stakeholders". Through social media, content and information can travel extremely fast, city agencies can get feedback on proposed policies as well as draw participation for events such as meetings or ceremonies. (Bryer) Elected officials can become better acquainted with their constituents' opinions and needs. Newspapers, radio and TV stations can find out what their audiences would like to see, as well as get news tips unavailable in any other format. For events of national scale, such as the shootings in Aurora or Sandy Hook, the Joplin tornado, Hurricane Sandy or the Boston bombings, information was first spread through social media sites, and then up-to-date proceedings were delivered via Twitter as the stories unfolded.
Another aspect of the beneficial uses of digital resources is education, which has and can be improved through the use of social media, as Patrick Larkin notes. Larkin states that one of the basic tenets of public education has been to prepare students for life outside the classroom, and to create tomorrow's responsible citizens. He further argues that to create proper citizenship in our modern world, schools must embrace digital resources, which include social media. A former principal, Larkin outlines the way his school has benefitted from its new status as social-media-literate, with school news posted on a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page, giving the local newspaper instant access to potential stories, as well as giving parents lightning-fast updates on school happenings. These tools can also create easier pathways to learning, such as online classes: "Teacher and students now collaborate with other eager learners from anywhere - at any time - accessing and learning with experts in subjects they are passionate about. Social media is also learning media." (Larkin)
Through LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent, Facebook, etc., jobseekers can land careers in their fields, as well as develop useful contacts to make their jobs run more smoothly. Advice and insights can be shared on how to craft a better-looking resume, nailing that important interview, or new techniques that could improve productivity. Portfolios of previous work history can be developed as companies increasingly research potential employees online, and references can give feedback with just a few mouse clicks.
Journalist Wayne Greene offered an interesting angle into this subject when he commented on air-conditioning leading to the demise of knowing your neighbors. His editorial argued that as families migrated indoors into the newly air-conditioned houses to watch the new device of television, they stopped interacting with their local communities. People no longer sat on the porch with neighbors while their kids played in the street; instead they all sat huddled in their respective living rooms watching Bonanza or Happy Days. Through this new frontier of social media, in particular Facebook, Greene theorizes that "we have a chance to recreate the communities we lost sixty years ago." Used to, in our grandparents' time, you would have conversations with your neighbor over the fence on all manner of subjects, from national politics to the high school football season to where to find a good sale on tomatoes. These are the things we discuss on Facebook, in a sense. Of course, they aren't exactly parallel; at times you are just yelling your opinion out into the netherworld of nothingness, and it can occasionally take a long while before someone replies to your post. It doesn't completely replace the front porch, but it serves as a close substitute for our era. "If we build communities online, all those things we lost when we started coming in every night might be regained." (Greene)
Through Facebook, as we build our online communities, the handcuffs of proximity are loosed, as we can get to know almost anyone we wish, no matter how far the distance might be between us. Personally, I use mine in order to keep track of news and to stay in touch with friends and family, scattered throughout fourteen different states and four countries. Many of my closest friends live in Missouri and surrounding states, and one of my sisters lives in Canada. Through Facebook, I've been able to stay in the loop of what's happening in their lives, in addition to being plugged into the large-scale support network of encouragement and sympathy, laughter and advice of friendship as we try to help each other though this life we live.
For all these reasons listed and many others, the upside to online networking and benefits from utilizing social media far outweigh their deficiencies. It's an unshakable pillar of society that grew overnight, and though it will evolve as further new technologies emerge, our basic need for community is still intact. With so many helpful opportunities that communication through social media offers, we have the tools for changing our world for the better. Our communities exist now because of social media, and that's a good thing."
"It can be a blessing, or it could be the work of the devil. It can wreck a marriage or reunite families. It can be every bit as addicting a drug as alcohol, or it can be a form of therapy. It can help keep friendships alive, or it could get you fired. For every one and many more of these contradictory elements, social media can be either a good or bad thing. It is a tool, and as novelist Jack Schaefer wrote in Shane, a tool, whatever it is, is only as good or as bad as the man who uses it. For the most part, social media, as a whole, is a good tool for communication.
As humans, we are made to connect with others, to interact. We build up nations over time, subdivided by such things as state, tribe, city, neighborhood or family. The basic unit, however, is this concept we call "communities", which is a hard idea to precisely define. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines it this way: "All persons living in a specific location; or a group having interests or religion in common; or joint sharing." Stephanie M. Reich suggests that a "community" involves interdependence, communication and emotional connection, and is operated in a systematic way. It also involves dealing with people. (Reich) Over time, as new technologies are developed and distributed among the masses, the sense of community shifts as well, further complicating the issue. While talking of Time magazine in his book The Mechanical Bride, scholar Marshall McLuhan suggests that the press has fostered the image of the world as one single city as a byproduct of their work, in the process creating a new area for communities to develop. With these new technologies, what once was relatively easy to define gradually spread out from a group in the same geographic area to groups with shared interests still with physical interactions, and then migrating into the digital world they became all shared interests with next to no face-to-face meetings. (Reich)
As the Internet grew, sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and Twitter emerged, as well as other sites such as the children-oriented Webkinz, the dating sites eHarmony and Match.com, Internet radio on Pandora and Spotify, professional networking at LinkedIn and image-driven sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr. These can all fall under the general term "social media", which Thomas A. Bryer defines as "technologies that facilitate social interaction, make possible collaboration, and enable deliberation across stakeholders". Through social media, content and information can travel extremely fast, city agencies can get feedback on proposed policies as well as draw participation for events such as meetings or ceremonies. (Bryer) Elected officials can become better acquainted with their constituents' opinions and needs. Newspapers, radio and TV stations can find out what their audiences would like to see, as well as get news tips unavailable in any other format. For events of national scale, such as the shootings in Aurora or Sandy Hook, the Joplin tornado, Hurricane Sandy or the Boston bombings, information was first spread through social media sites, and then up-to-date proceedings were delivered via Twitter as the stories unfolded.
Another aspect of the beneficial uses of digital resources is education, which has and can be improved through the use of social media, as Patrick Larkin notes. Larkin states that one of the basic tenets of public education has been to prepare students for life outside the classroom, and to create tomorrow's responsible citizens. He further argues that to create proper citizenship in our modern world, schools must embrace digital resources, which include social media. A former principal, Larkin outlines the way his school has benefitted from its new status as social-media-literate, with school news posted on a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page, giving the local newspaper instant access to potential stories, as well as giving parents lightning-fast updates on school happenings. These tools can also create easier pathways to learning, such as online classes: "Teacher and students now collaborate with other eager learners from anywhere - at any time - accessing and learning with experts in subjects they are passionate about. Social media is also learning media." (Larkin)
Through LinkedIn, and to a lesser extent, Facebook, etc., jobseekers can land careers in their fields, as well as develop useful contacts to make their jobs run more smoothly. Advice and insights can be shared on how to craft a better-looking resume, nailing that important interview, or new techniques that could improve productivity. Portfolios of previous work history can be developed as companies increasingly research potential employees online, and references can give feedback with just a few mouse clicks.
Journalist Wayne Greene offered an interesting angle into this subject when he commented on air-conditioning leading to the demise of knowing your neighbors. His editorial argued that as families migrated indoors into the newly air-conditioned houses to watch the new device of television, they stopped interacting with their local communities. People no longer sat on the porch with neighbors while their kids played in the street; instead they all sat huddled in their respective living rooms watching Bonanza or Happy Days. Through this new frontier of social media, in particular Facebook, Greene theorizes that "we have a chance to recreate the communities we lost sixty years ago." Used to, in our grandparents' time, you would have conversations with your neighbor over the fence on all manner of subjects, from national politics to the high school football season to where to find a good sale on tomatoes. These are the things we discuss on Facebook, in a sense. Of course, they aren't exactly parallel; at times you are just yelling your opinion out into the netherworld of nothingness, and it can occasionally take a long while before someone replies to your post. It doesn't completely replace the front porch, but it serves as a close substitute for our era. "If we build communities online, all those things we lost when we started coming in every night might be regained." (Greene)
Through Facebook, as we build our online communities, the handcuffs of proximity are loosed, as we can get to know almost anyone we wish, no matter how far the distance might be between us. Personally, I use mine in order to keep track of news and to stay in touch with friends and family, scattered throughout fourteen different states and four countries. Many of my closest friends live in Missouri and surrounding states, and one of my sisters lives in Canada. Through Facebook, I've been able to stay in the loop of what's happening in their lives, in addition to being plugged into the large-scale support network of encouragement and sympathy, laughter and advice of friendship as we try to help each other though this life we live.
For all these reasons listed and many others, the upside to online networking and benefits from utilizing social media far outweigh their deficiencies. It's an unshakable pillar of society that grew overnight, and though it will evolve as further new technologies emerge, our basic need for community is still intact. With so many helpful opportunities that communication through social media offers, we have the tools for changing our world for the better. Our communities exist now because of social media, and that's a good thing."
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