What the Heck is an iPod?!

Title:  What the Heck is an iPod?!

Topic:  Cultural Change

Source:  Robbins "ANTHRO" and own experience

Relation:  As I reminisced about my first music media player which was a CD player, I began to wonder how much music media has changed since I was a child.

Description:  Growing up in a low income family, I never had the privilege to have nice things. My friends would talk about having Nintendo game systems and stereos to listen to their music, but I never had one. When I was in 6th grade, I was able to purchase my first CD player. I was so excited that I couldn't believe I had a CD player and could carry my music everywhere I went, well until the batteries died. Going into middle school, I thought I was cool because I had a CD player, but then I started seeing people with blocks in their hands. I didn't know what they were or why they had them. I soon found out that they were music media devices called iPods. I asked one of my friends to see what it was and he said it's like a CD player, just all digital. I began to get sad because I had just convinced my mother to buy me a CD player and now I had to buy something new. It wasn't until my Junior year of high school when I got my first iPod which was the 32 GB video iPod. It only lasted until the beginning of my Senior year because the screen had broke and yet again there was a new iPod, therefore I couldn't get a replacement. I began to realize that as the years went on, the music media device that was an iPod continued to get smaller and thinner. By the end of my Senior year, there was an iPod touch which was super thin and had a touch screen. In the modern day of 2012, the iPod nano went from looking like a stick to looking like a bottom on a jacket. As the years keep progressing, so is the music media device. they continue to make them "better". At least I think they are trying.

Commentary/Analysis: As I think back to when I was a child and wonder why people would buy all these devices, I never would have thought that the world would make more of them. The Apple iPod family alone has grown so much that there are more iPods then anyone can remember. That doesn't include other music media devices such as regular MP3s and what once was called Zune. But why does the music industry continue to put out new produces when there are good ones already? Money? makes them feel better? Who knows, but someday in the future someone will talk about iPods and say "What the hell is an iPod?!"

Title: Fútbol or Football?

Topic: Cultural Texts (Balinese Cockfight and American Football)

Source: This week’s reading in ANTHRO, and own culture

Relation: cockfights and American Football are both sports in totally different places, but sometimes not everyone understands why such as Latinos who think Fútbol is played with their feet.  

Description: Growing up, I never had a fascination with sports like most young boys have. I never got into sports, maybe because I found it to be very boring. While in elementary school, my class would play little sport games such as basketball, dodgeball, soccer, and kickball. I thought that those games were great, but I always wondering who invented the games and why? Where did the names come from? I never found out the histories about this sports, but I went along with them. When in sixth grade, my mother tried to get me to go along with society and enroll me into Little League Baseball, this was the worse experience of my life. I always had a fear of getting hit with the small, but deadly ball and little did I know that one day it was going to get me. It was the last inning, all bases were full and I was next to bat. As I swung to hit the ball, everyone yelled at me to run for it. So much was going on that I froze in place. Everyone soon turns to me and start to scream "are you okay?!" I didn't know what was going on, but as I turned my head down, I saw blood gushing out of my right thumb. After that, I never played sports again. Going into middle school, I met a boy who was from Mexico and had just moved to the U.S. One day he asked it I wanted to play Fútbol, I told him no thank you. I already lost one nail, I don't need to lose another. He looked at me as though I was on something. "You don't need your hands to play Fútbol, you kick the ball". being latino, I didn't really know about the sports in Mexico. I only knew about the 'American' sports. From that day, I knew that people always mistake sports and some have a hard time realizing what makes a sport in different parts of the world.  Another thing I found out was that cockfights is also a sport in Mexico and it is sort of looked as a dueling/"who's the better man" kind of sport. 

Commentary/Analysis: As I looked at other world's sports, I began to think about what makes a sport. I think a sport can be anything that brings together groups of people to have "fun". The reason for fun being in quotation is because every person has their own definition of fun. When I would visit my family in Tijuana, Mexico, they would always ask me, "Porque juegan ustedes  Fútbol con las manos y no con los pies?" I personally couldn't answer their question because I didn't know why Americans played football with their hands and not feet. Why not call it handball? I still don't know why it was called this, but I guessing it was all culture. Latinos call soccer, Fútbol, Americans call football, football.  All around the world, people wonder how a certain sport is a sport, but its all about the culture of the people who play the "sport".