Author Archives: Katherine Culajay

Technology at city tech (Sophonie, Katherine, Cristian)

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The topic for our project is Technology (computers and Wi-Fi) and our research question is How does technology provides academic success to students?  We came up with this question because we think that since City Tech is a big college with a lot of students, we need more advances in technology so that it could have a positive impact in our success as a student. During the project, some of the places that we are going to observe carefully are the learning center, the library and how does the Wi-Fi works. As we have noticed the Learning center is supposed to be a space where students can do their work without having any problem. However the room is too small and students can barely have space for themselves. Also there are too many students on campus so it would be better if the learning center can provide us with more computers so that everyone can get the chance to get their work done. The library is always full but they don’t have a big amount of computers, so students always have to make a line and wait for a computer to be free. Obviously this is not good for us as students because sometimes we need to just print something but because of the long line we get late to class. Another of the issues that we want to cover during this project is the printer and the copy machine. As students we need to have more access to print our work, but city tech has a rule in which the student is allowed to print just 25 pages per day. If we want to get a copy of a paper we have to pay for it. Finally, the Wi-Fi doesn’t work well and when it does it’s slow and it’s hard for students to get online or finish their work.

We know that the use of technology is a very important and essential factor at city tech because it provides us with an advance tool to success and good grades. However, without this technology students are struggling by getting their work done and this could have a negative effect on their academic success. Some of the questions that we have in mind for this project are: how do you feel by making the line on the library just to get your work done? Have you ever struggled with the amount of paper that city tech provide us? And how does not having Wi-Fi affect you?

My Happiest place in NYC

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People might have a favorite place in NYC based on their attitude or their humor but my favorite place is based on the memories that I have had on that place which is the train station. Even though this might sound weird because for many people a train station would mean something related with dirtiness or unhappy, for me it means the entire contrary because that’s where I had so many memories with my friends who I consider my second family. Every time that I pass through the 50st train station a feeling of happiness and joy comes to my mind because when I was on High School I used to spend a lot of time with my friends and that was the station that took us to many places that made me feel that I had a second family where everyone were united. For people like me memories is what makes a place valuable and important and that’s why I choose a train station instead of fancy places like a restaurant, museum or even my own house. Although I have to admit that I don’t like train stations for different reasons, 50st would be an exception because it reminds me of all the good times that I had in my past and that probably will not happen again because everyone of us took a different path on life.

 

My experiences at City Tech

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People running everywhere, elevators full of students and staff members standing at the entrance door explaining freshman’s where to go. That is the first memory that comes to my mind every time I think about City Tech. While I was in my last year of High School, I had the belief that college was going to be very difficult for me because sometimes I looked at how my sister stress out with a lot of things that professors leave her to do. But the reality is that for me college isn’t that difficult even though the first days I wasn’t prepared for this big step. However, as the days were passing I was more focused and prepared for everything related with college and my future.

Coming at City Tech was something new for me, obviously it has its negative things but it also has its positive ones. One of the good things was that I got the opportunity of choosing my own schedule whereas in high school I didn’t had the best one. Everyone knows that on High School we passed almost the whole day sated in a chair watching the teacher talk and basically just writing. So being able to choose my own classes was good because it changed my daily life style.

City Tech has not only opened their entrance door for me, also it has opened many other doors full of opportunities and goals that don’t come very often. All my life I used to speak on my own language even when I was on high school. Since I am in City tech I have the opportunity of communicating in English and at the same improving my language skills every day. Another good thing that City tech has brought to me is interactions with new people from a different race. City tech is definitely like my second home after my own house. College is where I spend more time and getting more opportunities and new goals. That’s why I can say that i have overcome my college obstacle.

Happiness apps and Big Data

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As the years are passing more technology appears with new things until the point of creating a smart phone application that is based on recording your happiness by taking a survey and giving ideas of how to be happier. The H(app) athon project is a group that is creating an application with the goal of helping people to find their happiness and to do more enjoyable things.  First, they make people take a survey and based on those answers the application uses the information to match people with activities or programs that might create joy on them. According to the article, Somerville is serving as the pilot community for this program which makes this even more interesting because we know that Somerville is always finding ways to help their residents and their happiness. “It’s an ambitious idea” said Somerville mayor.  Well this quote leads up to different perspectives of how to analyze this idea. Probably this application will not be free, meaning that people will have to pay for it. As we know Somerville is a direct source of this program. Even though they are doing this in order to help people with their happiness, they may also be doing this to gain money for that app and use it to create more things on the town that could make their residents happy. Isn’t great to have an application which could know what makes you happy and give you suggestions about enjoyable activities?

On the other hand, another article’s purpose is to inform us about the New York places that make people happier and the ones that make them unhappy based on twitter status. “We find that public mood is generally highest in public parks and lowest at transportation hubs, and locate other areas of strong sentiment such as cemeteries, medical centers, a jail, and a sewage facility,” the report notes. Are you wondering why a simple park makes people happier than other places? Well, the answer is very simple; parks used to be a place where people can have the opportunity of forgetting about their routine and only concentration the natural view that the park is giving to them. But why aren’t we happy with places like a train station when we know that it takes us to our place where we can grow up as professionals and success like our job? Well probably is because some people are tired of the same routine every day and been on a train station reminds them on how their day will be while being on the park the only thing they think about is enjoying the time without stressing.

The happiness project

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The happiness project by Gretchen Rubin was very similar to the Secret by Rhonda Byrne because they both talk about how to obtain happiness by applying different methods and strategies. Rubin was a successful woman who worked with the law, she had a spouse who she loves very much and two daughters the oldest was 7 years old and the youngest one was 2 years old. One day Rubin started thinking about strategies of how to be happier and have a better life style; she wasn’t depressed or ungrateful with her life, she just wanted to experience a new life style with new things and new attitudes. On page 2 from the book Rubin said “I had everything I could possibly want-yet I was failing to appreciate.” As we can see on this quote Rubin knew that her life was complete and that she had a complete happiness that a woman like her could ask. However in some of the occasions she didn’t knew how to appreciate and give a corresponding value to everything that she had, that’s why she began a research about finding different ways of being happy and satisfied with her own life. After all the research that he did about happiness she decided to concentrate on one topic each month. For example in February her central point was going to be her marriage, meaning that she was going to try her best to get a better relationship with her husband Jamie. She also wrote a list if secrets of adulthood that were important lessons that she learned and that could serve her as a material in order to find a better lifestyle.

I think that Rubin strategy to find a better lifestyle and make it better was a good choice because she wasn’t influenced by any type of material that suggest different ways of finding happiness like the secret, instead she found her own strategy and what best works for her.  It is important to say that Rubin didn’t wanted to change herself or the people around her; the only thing that she was trying to find was a better way of dealing with life and strategies of how to appreciate what she had in life.

Trident advertisement

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Trident have been categorized for the ideology where the consumers can have a big smile on their faces because according to the product, it makes people’s teeth more white and brilliant. We can see that this advertisement is letting us know different things from it,but we can take the best one or the one that we could interpret better. One of the interpretations that I got from this advertisement is that if we buy Trident we will have a tremendous smile in our faces but also it will makes us happy on the inside because it will make us feel alive and full of energies due to our own smile. another thing that this product is telling to its consumers is that sometimes our days are not how we expected to be and we end up exhausted or in a really bad mood, so if we buy this gum it will gives us a little bit of happiness and joy because of its flavor.

Having a nice smile and a good mood is something that Trident is trying to give to its customers, but the question is how they can do this? well, trident is trying their best to promote happiness to the people, their goal with this gum is to make people feel happy even on their worst days. Also, they are trying to give special care to the customer’s teeth. In some way by helping customers to have  white teeth it is important for them because it will increase their customers but it also will give something good and a type of happiness to the people who consume the gum.

 

 

The secret

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Have you ever thought how you can achieve the things that you want without putting a lot of effort and having to work a lot? well the secret has all your answers of how to make your life easier and achieve all your happiness. According to the secret, the law of attraction is something that is connected to your brain, for example, when you have negative thoughts or you are thinking that something might go wrong during the day you are attracting those thoughts into your brain and that’s why some people have bad days or have negative feelings in their lives’but it’s not because they are really having a bad day, it is simply because of the thoughts that your brain has. One of the many examples that the secret has is the one of a man who every time that he checked his mail and a bill appeared he pretended that the bill was a check in order to not worry about the debts and the money; instead he attracted the positive thoughts from his imagination (the ones where the bill was a check with a big amount of money.) Something that attracted  my attention from the secret is on page 14 where it says that the law of attraction do not compute negative words such as “no, don’t or not” and that if you are thinking something like “I don’t that person to be rude at me” the brain takes it as if you want that , so that’s exactly what happens. In other words, your brain interpret what you said in something like “I want that person and more people to be rude at me”. In conclusion, the secret has a lot of information about how to be happy and achieve everything that you want, but as the book said; in order to achieve all what you want the persons needs to be more positive and throw away all those negative thoughts that are passing through their mind.

speech revision

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In the speech that the democratic nominee Bill de Blasio gave to his people in Brooklyn after the results from the primary elections he talk about his plans to change New York and how he will do that. First he put the disaster from the 9/11 as an example to show how people were helping others on that day not matter who they were, he concluded that was the New York that he wants, a city where everyone is united. He also said that the people who have power over the city should be very vigilant and use every tool to protect their people in order to create a better city. In the minute 11:29 De Blasio talks about the Tale of two cities that New York has been for many years, the division where a part of the people are very wealthy and could not ask for more, and the other part where the people live under the poverty line and where parents fear for their children education. One of the plans that he decided to put in action is to give each citizen the opportunity to demonstrate their potential but also to find an alternative progressive to the Bloomberg ideas. Also he has the plan of changing the policies that have left behind so many of New Yorkers outside. He knows that the path of this change will not be easy but also he knows that with the support from his people and the initiative of a new change everything will be possible.

Bill de Blasio have some good plans and alternatives for the city in order to create a better future for everyone. In the speech, he said that the person who govern the city must be vigilant and use every tool to protect their people, meaning that this person should pay attention to every detail of the city, but also he must have almost the same responsibility as the one that the president has. As I said it on the summary, one of De Blasio’s goal is to give each citizen the opportunity to demonstrate their own potential and abilities. I think that his plan is something that promises the opening of new doors specially for the people who cannot afford to pay their own education but they have a lot of potential to demonstrate. We can see that Bill de Blasio’s priority are the citizens, that’s why creating more opportunities by opening new doors and creating a united city is very important to him.

In the speech that the republican nominee Joe Lohota gave to his people in Manhattan, he talk about some of the issues that New York have and what it needs to be done in order to reconstruct it. According to Jhoe Lhota now is time to come together and unite for something good by finding issues that New Yorkers have and at the same time finding solutions. In the minute 4.09 Lhota said that this is the country of new opportunities and where dreams come true and that’s why he will unify his party in order to help his people to accomplish their dreams. One of his many plans that he have for the city is creating a better education for children by creating more charter schools with good teachers and professional training. Also he said that he will support the NYPD to stop crime, but he will need the support of his people to keep the streets organized. He will also create a plan with business in order to increase jobs and give people a better life style. Lastly. he will rein stain a monthly town meetings to speak to him about issues because the only thing that he want is a city where he can live, work and raise their families.

Even thought Joe Lhota’s speech was very straight to the point and also in some point it was very confusing, his plans were good and concrete. One of the best plans that he have in mind is giving to every child the right of a better education by creating more charter schools. I think that this is a good plan because he is also thinking in the future generation and on those kids who someday will be professionals and will give so much to the United States. Another topic that was very good was the one from the NYPD. We know that the NYPD play a great role in the city and that’s why we need to support it, but I think that Joe Lhota will need to create another more effective plan to support it because he can’t just said “I will support the NYPD” without giving any prove of how he will do that.

We know that Bill de Blasio’s plans are similar with the ones that Joe Lhota has for NY but it also has their differences. For example, Joe Lhota is just speaking what he will do but without giving any concrete prove of how he will do that, while Bill de Blasio is thinking about some really good plans that will benefit each citizen. In my own opinion, I think that The best candidate for winning the elections in November is Bill de Blasio because he knows what he is doing and he is demonstrating with action what he will do for the city.

Mayoral candidate speeches

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Democratic Nominee- Bill de Blasio

After watching the results from tuesday’night Bill de Blasio gave to its people a speech in Brooklyn where he talk about everything that he wants to do for New york as a mayor. First his daughter Chiara started talking about his father like a heroe for achieving something that many people thought he was not going to be able to do, also she was thanking to all those who have always supported her dad and his campaign. When Bill de Blasio came to stage he started his speech by talking about the tragedy of the 9/11, by saying that in those moments was when new yorkers were united and that’s what he want to do for the future. After talking about the 9/11 and how the people was supporting each other, de Blasio started talking about his plans on how to stop New York from been a “tale of two cities” and about the police policy.

Analysis

Bill de Blasio has a concrete way of viewing happiness in the city. For him in order to be happy and succeed the city need to have equality, the opportunity to demonstrate their potential and goals that could transform the future into a positive way. During his speech he said that NY is like a “Tale of two cities” because it is divided into two different parts, the the wealthy rebounded from resesion and the ones who live in poverty and bad conditions. In order to change this city from this tale of two ities he has the plan of giving every child the opportunity of a better education so that in the future they could change the poverty that the city have. According to Bill de Blasio the city can not keep looking forward the future because of the guilty of thinking too big but also because of there are those who said that ambitions for the city were too bold. De Blasio’s goals in order to reach happiness in the city are very good and stable but in order to do that he has to do a lot of things that could beneficiate their citizens.

Republic Nominee: Joe Lhota

Joe Lhota speech was very good and straight to the point. When he was on stage giving his speech he said that he was thankful for having all those citizens by his side but also that the journey continues. Alsohe said that his goal is to unify their party and resolve the issues of vision, principles and experience. Another of his goals is to build a strong future so that all the citizens could have a better opportunity in life.

Analysis

As I said it before on the summary, Joe Lhota’s speech was very short but also straight to the point without saying a lot of goals and things that he want to achieve.The view of happines that he has for the city is only unify it and do everything that could be possible for creating a better future for their citizens. In other words he is thinking more in like busssiness and industries for the economy of New York.

Compare & Contrast

We can notice that eventhough Bill de Blasio and Joe Lhota have the same dream of been the mayor of New York city they both have different perspectives and strategies of how to make the city succeed. Bill de Blasio wants the city to be united and also creating more opportunities so that children who lives in poor condition could have a better education and future. Also he wants to offer a progressive alternative to the Bloomberg narrow. Mean while Joe Lhota is concentrating more like in bussiness and he doesn’t have like a certain goal to make a better future for the city. I think that Bill de Blasio’s strategies are better than the ones from Joe Lotha because they are more concrete and they have a better base.