The diversity event that I attended Dia De Los Muertos Ceremonia. This event explained a 500 year old tradition that is native to Mexico. The title of the event is translated to The Day of the Dead Ceremony. The festivities are centered around celebrating the lives of deceased family members, rather than mourning the loss of a person. Dia De Los Muertos is held every year on November 1 & 2. Traditions in Mexico, Central America, and some places in the U.S. are to dress up in skull masks and costumes to dance in honor of their relatives. In rural Mexico people visit the grave sites of their deceased and decorate them with marigold flowers and candles. I learned that this celebration is also known as "All Saints/Souls Day" by the Spaniards to make it more religious.
The speakers at this event were very informational about the customs and traditions of this Mexican tradition. I knew a little bit about the ceremony, but learned quite a bit from them. The first day, (Nov. 1) is dedicated to the children who have died. The day is called Dia De Los Angelitos. The second day is actually called Dia De Los Muertos. I learned that there are many other activities that go along with the ceremony. People bake all kinds of goods. Sugar skulls and spicy chocolate called mole are a couple examples.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Social networks seem to me what all the buzz is about this day and age. People of all ages are using these sites to keep in contact with friends, family, businesses, and many other uses. I have noticed people who have generations of family members on their friends lists, even as old as grandparents. As technology advances in our society, we will continue to see these trends, and more people will eventually jump on the bandwagon of using social networking sites for an array of activities.
After my experience with Twitter I have learned a lot of great uses for this social site. Whether I use the website to obtain bits of news, information about events, or to keep up on the celebrity gossip, something always keeps my attention. Twitter allows users to keep in contact with your friends, family, and favorite celebrities or athletes. I have also learned that Twitter is a good way to get our name out for potential employers. Many businesses will tweet about positions and openings available within their company. I have used my twitter account, http://twitter.com/#!/mkloewer, for interacting with friends and meeting new people. I plan to keep my account to use in the near future for employment and contacting family members.
While reading the article http://www.balkhis.com/twitter/25-reasons-why-someone-should-join-twitter/, I learned a few more ways that we can use Twitter. By using the site, we can learn so much more about a person and their feelings and experiences. Many people have used Twitter as a primary source of becoming an entrepreneur and following ideas that were inspired by others or even ourselves. One last example that Twitter is beneficial, is that it can save us money. By using Twitter rather than text messaging, we can save on our phone bills.
All in all, I have enjoyed the experience of using Twitter. I will continue to use the social networking site for all of the reasons described above. Peace Love Go Pack.
All in all, I have enjoyed the experience of using Twitter. I will continue to use the social networking site for all of the reasons described above. Peace Love Go Pack.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
State Soccer 2009
I time when I was at my best would have to be during my junior year of highschool. I went through quite a few changes during this time in my life. My mom and brother had recently moved to Sioux Falls, SD, and I went to live with my dad and his new family in my hometown of Spencer, IA. The idea of living in a totally new envrionment was not exactly appealing to me at the time, but I had to make the best of it. During this year of school, I learned a lot about myself and how to become more independent.
School became more challenging due to the level of difficulty in classes. I learned how to balance schoolwork, sports, and home life significantly better than what I was used to during my first two years of high school. During this time, my relationship with my dad, step-mom, and step-siblings became a much stronger bond. I learned a lot of life lessons through my dad that I likely would not have learned. I also became more involved with activities in school.
When spring time came around, soccer season was ready to get into motion. The previous year of soccer, our team qualified for state and took home a 3rd place trophy; this year we were going for it all. Many of my teammates and I started training for the season in early February. We hit the weights and started conditioning in the early mornings. When the season began, I knew from the start that it was going to be a good year. Every team we played, we "walked over". When we made it to state, the familiar nervous butterflies erupted in my stomach; however, when the game started, my confidence was high. We played through the next two games at state with some crazy performances. The first game was one in a penalty shoot out and the second game we ended up winning due to a first-half performance. The final game was by far the most tiring of them all. Somehow we ended up winning and becoming State Champions for 2-A soccer.
Throughout all the experiences I had my junior year, every single detail helped me to become the person I am today. I am thankful for the experiences I had, and would never change anything. I hope to continue making a promising future this year at Iowa State based on everything I have learned since then. I know that if I strive to do my very best, anything is possible. College is a big deal to many people-or at least it should be. By making it to where I am today, I can only hope that I stay on the right track to becoming a successful individual.
School became more challenging due to the level of difficulty in classes. I learned how to balance schoolwork, sports, and home life significantly better than what I was used to during my first two years of high school. During this time, my relationship with my dad, step-mom, and step-siblings became a much stronger bond. I learned a lot of life lessons through my dad that I likely would not have learned. I also became more involved with activities in school.
When spring time came around, soccer season was ready to get into motion. The previous year of soccer, our team qualified for state and took home a 3rd place trophy; this year we were going for it all. Many of my teammates and I started training for the season in early February. We hit the weights and started conditioning in the early mornings. When the season began, I knew from the start that it was going to be a good year. Every team we played, we "walked over". When we made it to state, the familiar nervous butterflies erupted in my stomach; however, when the game started, my confidence was high. We played through the next two games at state with some crazy performances. The first game was one in a penalty shoot out and the second game we ended up winning due to a first-half performance. The final game was by far the most tiring of them all. Somehow we ended up winning and becoming State Champions for 2-A soccer.
Throughout all the experiences I had my junior year, every single detail helped me to become the person I am today. I am thankful for the experiences I had, and would never change anything. I hope to continue making a promising future this year at Iowa State based on everything I have learned since then. I know that if I strive to do my very best, anything is possible. College is a big deal to many people-or at least it should be. By making it to where I am today, I can only hope that I stay on the right track to becoming a successful individual.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Beloit College Mindset List
The Beloit College has written up a list of random facts/opinions believed to be true about the class of 2014. Many of these stand to be true, but there are also many false statements in the list. In fact, many of the statements on the list, are things that we have learned about the past years of schooling. Most of the stuff is simply forgotten because we view it as outdated, useless information in a soceity that is developing faster and faster.
The first thing that I find untrue deals with the statement that few in our class know how to write cursive. I disagree with this idea, because from elementary school to the entering of middle school, most schools required us to ONLY write in cursive so that it stuck in our heads for when we needed it "Later in life". We usually started learning the letters in second grade or so, and from that year on, most assignments dealing with writing were supposed to be written in a cursive format. I will say that as we grew older, most of the classes throughout high school, did not require a certain writing format. This is not to say that most of us have forgotten how to do it; having year after year of repititious practice more than likely drilled it into the backs of our heads.
I would agree with the statment that says we seldom if ever use e-mail (snail mail) in some instances. It is much easier now days to simply text someone information, or use social networks to obtain or send out mail to friends, family, and others. Many of us have multiple e-mail accounts whether it is through Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, Gmail, or any other type of service. The only problem is that we rarely use all these accounts, let alone even one. On the contrary, e-mail is still a vital tool for keeping in contact with people such as professors, family members, and many other people. Having a designated spot to receive important information about due dates of assignments and other events is vital for us.
The statement, computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive, can be applied in some sense to our generation, but we were still computer literate during the time in which we had Apple computers with a floppy drive. I remember playing Oregon Trail on the computers with the monitors that projected two main colors, green and black. It was a tradition at my elementary school to wake up as early as possible, get to school when the doors opened, and try to beat Oregon Trail before the bell would ring for the start of classes every day. Many people may never have even had the chance to use these computers, but it was one of the best memories I have from my days of roaming the halls as a big sixth grader.
Regardless of our age and the advances of technology, I think that even though our generation is growing up in such a tech-savvy world, we still have the opportunity to learn about some of the important events that were before us. Sure, we have IPods, Xbox, and Droids, but that doesn't mean we haven't lost touch with our past. Whether it be something as little as a simple task learned in second grade or a famous person from the 70's, we still can learn about it at any time. The technology we have today helps us research the past in ways that would never would have been thought possible twenty years ago. I am proud of what we've become.
The first thing that I find untrue deals with the statement that few in our class know how to write cursive. I disagree with this idea, because from elementary school to the entering of middle school, most schools required us to ONLY write in cursive so that it stuck in our heads for when we needed it "Later in life". We usually started learning the letters in second grade or so, and from that year on, most assignments dealing with writing were supposed to be written in a cursive format. I will say that as we grew older, most of the classes throughout high school, did not require a certain writing format. This is not to say that most of us have forgotten how to do it; having year after year of repititious practice more than likely drilled it into the backs of our heads.
I would agree with the statment that says we seldom if ever use e-mail (snail mail) in some instances. It is much easier now days to simply text someone information, or use social networks to obtain or send out mail to friends, family, and others. Many of us have multiple e-mail accounts whether it is through Hotmail, MSN, Yahoo, Gmail, or any other type of service. The only problem is that we rarely use all these accounts, let alone even one. On the contrary, e-mail is still a vital tool for keeping in contact with people such as professors, family members, and many other people. Having a designated spot to receive important information about due dates of assignments and other events is vital for us.
The statement, computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive, can be applied in some sense to our generation, but we were still computer literate during the time in which we had Apple computers with a floppy drive. I remember playing Oregon Trail on the computers with the monitors that projected two main colors, green and black. It was a tradition at my elementary school to wake up as early as possible, get to school when the doors opened, and try to beat Oregon Trail before the bell would ring for the start of classes every day. Many people may never have even had the chance to use these computers, but it was one of the best memories I have from my days of roaming the halls as a big sixth grader.
Regardless of our age and the advances of technology, I think that even though our generation is growing up in such a tech-savvy world, we still have the opportunity to learn about some of the important events that were before us. Sure, we have IPods, Xbox, and Droids, but that doesn't mean we haven't lost touch with our past. Whether it be something as little as a simple task learned in second grade or a famous person from the 70's, we still can learn about it at any time. The technology we have today helps us research the past in ways that would never would have been thought possible twenty years ago. I am proud of what we've become.
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