My puppy saved my hometown

The title pretty much explains what went down when my puppy saved Nantucket. This all took place last thursday when a volcano exploded on the island of Nantucket, which is my hometown where I happened to be spending spring break. On Nantucket we are a small town with limited power supply because we are a small island in the middle of the atlantic. But lets get to where my new puppy dog saved the world, I bought her out of the basement of a puerto rican friends house for 200 bucks because they were planning on giving her to the MSPCA where they treat pets and also treat them when they are sick, so it is kind of like the local island Vet. One day I was taking the new, nameless pup for a walk and we noticed no one was manning the storm alert tower and it was starting to become a dark gloomy day, and you know how people can almost smell or feel when rain is coming? Well I had that feeling all morning, and once the clock struck noon I felt raindrops but I was still on crutches from tearing my achilles tendon during basketball season so I could not climb up the tower. I through up bone to the top of the tower and my nameless pup climbed up there, but at the same time i was tweeting that "there is a storm coming and there is no one in the tower HELP PLEASE! I guess the guy that was on duty had fallen asleep and the dog licked his face to wake him up so when he rose he sounded the alarm to alert everyone to prepare for a storm, and soon enough the island began to flood, same old, same old. The next day my dog was published in the paper and she was a hero, so I named her "hero". In conclusion Hero is a hero to the island of Nantucket and saved lives and peoples boats.

Activist through the art of dance

First things first, what is an activist? consists of efforts to promote, impede, or direct social, political, economic, or environmental change, or stasis. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing businesses, rallies, street marches, strikes, sit ins, and hunger strikes. When I think about my own experiences as an activist and/or displaying activism I remember this movie called Honey, which is your basic, average dance flick that comes on TNT every monday or tuesday night. This film is about a ballerina who chose street dancing over ballet and became a hip hop instructor in an old youth center but the bank was threatening to kick them out because they were not making enough money but little did the bank know doing that would cause half of the kids that attended the class to resort to a life of crime and street gangs. So basically this center was the only thing that was giving them hope. Honey comes to the conclusion that they need to save the youth center but doing a dance show for a fundraiser to try to keep their dream and place to let go of anger alive. Honey sticks out to me as a true activist because not only was fighting for this youth center a good cause but a better choice for young kinds living on the streets. This may not seem like a big deal to most people but this film that is best off of a true story impacts a lot of people and encourages them to stay off the streets and do something more productive with their lives besides gang banging. Now, taking a look at the art aspect of this, during this show, honey did not only include hip hop but ballet as well, both of which are considered dancing which makes them both a form of art. In the end they reached their goal and the youth center became not only a hip hop studio but a ballet one as well

Hurrican Sandy on Twitter

Hurricane Sandy blew up on Twitter when it occurred and I mean what can we really trust that is displayed on twitter or Facebook? I think twitter does have some truth to it but most of it is just peoples thoughts and reaction to the severe storm that hit us. I am from the small island of Nantucket in Massachusetts and when hurricane sandy hit everything shut down and the island almost flooded out but there were people tweeting about it like they knew what exactly was going on there, could there have been TRUTH behind what they were saying? Probably but highly unlikely. Facebook to me is a more truthful social media site because when stuff happens in the world not only do people just post their feelings about it but they also post videos of news report, videos etc. I believe truth about something is all in the imagery. Bottom line is I can never TRUST whats on twitter because their are too many bias opinions and too much false evidence is displayed on there, you would have to be dumb to believe everything you read that could possibly be posted by 12 years old who have no clue what they are talking about. I can honestly say I put about 75percent worth  of truth in Facebook and maybe 25percent into twitter.

social media promotions on Facebook or twitter

When you see the title most would probably think that twitter would be better for promoting social media but if you thought that then you would be wrong because twitter is what people are skimming through and it would be hard to notice a small business promotion. Facebook is the way to go for small business promotion because Facebook finds ways to promote your small business through its website, whether you make a like page or you pay to promote is so it shows up on a tab on your own page as advertising. People can even promote things on Facebook through their Facebook statuses and you can get your friends to share what you are trying to promote so you can get more of an audience at their school as well as yours. Facebook wins yay! But there is definitely a bigger audience twitter just because its just so popular to everyone now, professional athletes, the president, etc. My mother for example uses Facebook to promote her cologne and perfume business from her office at home, it didn't start out with a big audience right away but it eventually grew to a bigger audience! Patience is key in waiting to get organized.

Difference between 2008 and 2012 elections on Facebook & twitter

In 2008 the presidential election was a huge deal because the candidates were flocking to social media websites to attract more viewers and get more publicity. News outlets started to post results and different polls so people can see updates of them on news feeds instead of looking them up or seeing them on TV. Fast forward now to the 2012 election that has just past the social media has probably increased ten fold then it was four years ago. I truly believe that people use these social media sites more then the watch the news for updates on elections or to watch clips from debates, more so on Facebook. I believe Facebook has surpassed a lot of things involving news whether its the presidential election to the Super Bowl. Twitter is just more of peoples thoughts but I mean it does present clips and pictures from many things involving news but its more low key. Below are some statistics I found on the internet that seem pretty accurate


"Social media has grown in leaps and bounds over the past four years. Facebook penetration went from 44.3 million users to 143.3 million in that time, Twitter grew from 3.4 million to 24.1 million, and online video viewers went from 121.4 million to 178.8 million."

Plenty of Fish is right!!

For a dating website I decided to join the most unsafe out of all the websites and I mean it seems like a great way to meet people but its just not for me. I have been on this site for a full week and I have a total of 20 messages from strange women that live close by me. I did manage to find some friends from school on there as well which is i guess somewhat comforting and expected. I did interact with one person on there because she messaged me saying she saw me play her school in basketball during the season earlier this year and she said we should play sometime and i agreed. I think people really join this website because they are desperate for companionship because it honestly isn't that hard to meet someone in person, but if your shy I guess I recommend this site to you.....

Pinterest.....Amazing

When I first signed up for Pinterest I have was really uninterested because I thought heres another site where people just like pictures of things that they think are interesting and/or like but no its more then just that. Going through photos and photos I found a lot of interest quotes that people put up that are framed that I found very interesting. The recipes that are put up are interesting as well :) but I would say those are more for women just because not a lot of guys cook full course meals in college except for ramen noodles which is my specialty. I haven't had a chance yet to put up my own pictures of anything on this social networking site yet but I will once I'm more acquainted with the site. I also believe the maine purpose of this site is to get peoples attention to show each others interest more specifically and post it to see if other are interested in that same thing. :) This is like a social network but a more discreet and clever for people to interact with each other almost like instragram and less like Facebook even though you can connect the site to Facebook and share post...

Wheres My Cellphone?

4-6 hours without my cellphone didn't seem like a lot of time without it but little did I know it was going to be bad for me. But lets just start with the first hour without it, I found myself laying down for the majority of the day except when i had to move and get up for class. Everything seemed uninteresting and I couldnt find the motivation to focus on what my teacher or what my peers were saying. I swear it felt like I was in a dream or something. This first hour was prob the hardest to deal without it and I knew at some point I would try to reach for it but I asked my roommate to hide it somewhere so that wouldnt happen. All I could about while I didnt have my phone was "I wonder how many times my mom has called mom", because she tends to call a couple times a day and when i dont answer she thinks something is wrong, worry wart. I do everything on my phone especially play video games like a child and watch TV. IM a big texter, if I cant text I cant breathe. So for the whole 2nd hour things got easier and I just decided to take a long nap until it was all over. Woke up 5 hours later, having gone over the time I was supose to be without and I didnt even care, I just went right back to sleep for the rest of the day. The next mornign when I woke up and grabbed my phone, it took me half and hour just too sort through all the missed messages and everything. WHAT A TEST!!!

FACEBOOK RULES ALL

When we think about all these social groups the main titles that come to our minds are twitter, facebook, instagram and even Instagram. People say twitter wules all because its better and easier to upload thoughts but i beg to differ its obvious that people spend their time on facebook the most uploading family photos, breaking up and starting new relationships, adding friends, catching up with friends ect. I a huge twitter fan but i spend most of my time on facebook checking on old friends and chatting with people. Facebook has aslo entered to the world of education as teachers use it to connect with their students easier and post assignments, which is what we do for this class. Facebook can be used for many different things if used appropriate. Im not big on posting feelings and stuff like that on my facebook but more like inspirational quotes or the news. But alot of language between the younger crowd isn't doing much good for the facebook with all the arguments, breakups and facebook arguments, creating a smoke screen for it, making it look as if it were a bad decision!

Twitter hashtag

As I was following the twitter hashtag, "#getmoney" I have come to realize that it was the biggest waist of my time. I usually follow my friends or people I look upto like professional athletes and singers and actors as well. From stocking the hashtag #getmoney all it talked about was getting money, doing drugs and getting girls, now I'm not saying there is something wrong with that but is it stuff that is necessary to share on twitter for everyone to sees. Now a days I don't ever really see a lot of important things on twitter, but mostly people talking shit about each other and girls getting into fights, crazy stuff like that. Twitter is like a more secure Facebook except people don't talk shit directly too you they post it for everyone to see (immature). I honestly do not post important stuff on twitter because I usually post whats on my mind, jokes and other things that make people laugh because thats what i like to do. Many people at the University of New England tweet about how much it sucks here and how there is nothing to do on the weekends. What do I consider important on Twitter? I personally do not consider anything that is put on twitter important, If I want to find out important news, I watch the news!

Sports, When I was younger

I have been playing sports since I was 7 years old. When I started off I played football and you can say i specialized in that for about 2 years playing at the Boys and Girls Club on Nantucket, which is where I grew up. When i reached the age of 10 I played almost everything (soccer, basketball, baseball, football). My dad thought it was best to play all of these sports to stay fit for football and stay active throughout the year. My father, Elvis Butler is a former professional of the San Francisco 49ers in which he played for 2 years until he tore his acl and had to stop. I know a lot of kids that are sons and daughters of pros don't get pressured by their parents as much as their peers, because when I think back all I heard was "josh why aren't you as big as your father" or "how come your so soft". It got to me a lot when I was a kid and i eventually grew mature enough to ignore it when I got to high school. I played football all four years of high school and my dad was hired as the defense coach, our relationship when real close playing wise because I was getting recruited to Division I schools that he got offers from when he was a kid but I had plans to play Basketball in college and thats when the trouble and the arguing started between us. 

When I was a junior in high school he put a lot of pressure on me to have a successful season and he wanted me to play for myself so that I could stick out. When it comes to football its very difficult to play for yourself because its the most team oriented sport in the world to me. I played Wide Receiver and Safety, and I was a tall one at that so a lot of passes came my way and I would never get any breaks whether it was on defense or offense. My sophomore season was pretty successful, I led the league in interceptions. But my sophomore and junior season was pretty unsuccessful but I still managed to stick out. 

Once basketball season came about, me and my father rarely spoke to one another. He would still make an appearance at my games after work but I just didn't feel enough of his support  like I did with football. Our Basketball season was off to a great start I had been a starter on the team since I was a Sophmore and I was a hell of a leaper in the post. Sophmore year our high school held the best record in its school history (16-4). 

Skipping all the way to my senior year I became a hot head, always full of anger all the time. During football season we had only 14 kids come out for the team and I thought I was the man, nobody could tell me anything. Me and my dad would always get into these arguments during practice and curse each other out, and I also was suspended from 4 games that entire season. So you can say i had quiet a few burnouts. I felt like he wanted to live something through me and still had something to prove instead of just supporting me. Every game i played that year I averaged over 100 yards receiving and set a school record for the longest reception touchdown. Yet I still felt like there was nothing for me with football and I only looked forward to Basketball. My senior season with basketball I averaged 21 points a game, I had the best times of my life with my team and they selected me as captain that year. 

Ethics in Sports, Uconn Basketball

The NCAA defending Basketball champions have been denied a waiver that would let them participate in the 2013 tournament in which they were banned from due to below average academic standards. Basically none of the players were going to class and getting the right grades to play but were still allowed to participate. To me this is one of the most important college rule there is, this isn't the NBA, school comes first and playing basketball while in school (college) is a privilege and a lot of spoiled Division 1 athletes don't seem to understand that concept now a days. According to the NCAA, the Academic Progress Rate (APR) is a term-by-term measure of eligibility and retention for Division I student-athletes that was developed as an early indicator of eventual graduation rates. Everyone knows how great a program UCONN mens basketball team is and how a lot of players from there have great chances to continue their basketball carriers in the NBA. But with that being said it is still UCONN's duty as an academic institution to meet the minimum academic standards. The NCAA believes that they are making an example of UCONN to show they don't mess around when it comes to academics. I believe this is a fair punishment. Recently the APR has raised from 900 to 930, which translates to about a 50 percent graduation rate. In order for this to be fair to other schools the NCAA has allowed schools to have a four year average of 900 or a two year average of 930 in order to stay eligible for the 2013 tournament. The average APR in Division I men's basketball is 945, so UCONN being the NCAA defending champions are seen as a model program and with that being said should set an example for other basketball programs at the Division 1 level. The percentage of NCAA mens basketball players that make it to the NBA is approximately 1.2%. Also there are currently 11 former UCONN Huskies playing in the NBA who range from having played since as early as 1997 (Ray Allen) to being in their first season (Kemba Walker). From what we know UCONN will most likely appeal the NCAA's decision, but we won't find out the what will happen until april of this year. But little do some people know, not only is this a problem for UCONN but it will effect future recruiting as well. "This should teach student athletes that there is more to life than sports and they will face consequences if they do not perform academically. At the end of the day, many of these players are going to be future lawyers and businessman and their scoring average isn’t going to get them as far as their GPA will" (Todd, 2012).

This issue would be relevant to any sports organization because to keep it short and sweet, "You don't get good grades, YOU DONT PLAY" (Butler 2012). When hearing the facts I believe this would affect the people is a highly negative, for example other college athletes that strive in the classroom and work hard to have good grades. I feel this particular issues intensity is about a 10 on a scale to 10 which no longer makes it an issue but a public crisis. 

I believe the NCAA really has no other choice but to implement this punishment. It seems only right that they make an example out of UCONN to show that they don't mess around when it comes to education. As the facts show, UCONN clearly did not make the required APR so there is no reason why they shouldn't be punished. There could be other options for the NCAA to take action but I truly believe this option would send the best message to the public and would help get their point across. As I have said before playing a sport in college is a privilege and should be earned in the classroom as well as on the court.