Author Archives: Brandon Richardson

Visions Of Well Being Of NY

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In the 2 victory speeches that were presented on YouTube of both Bill De Blasio and & Joe Lhota, You see that they were both thankful for the fact that they have a chance against making a change for the city of New York. Each of these candidates for mayor had a different approach that had to do with specifically how they would change the living for people in NYC and the educational system in NYC. In the Bill De Blasio video in the time length of 15:35-16:40, He states that NYC is a huge city and that the city has gone through to much to go backwards as a city and should go forward and how different NYC is a different city & he knows that there is a long road of ahead of making a change in the city. But however he thinks that the city should think big as a city and that change is desired and should be simulated always into everything in NY. He doesn’t want to settle for anything. He was very vague in everything he said. He made sure to mention that to mention the police problems of “Stop And Frisk” not making it a safe place for both the new Yorkers and the NYPD. As you can see through the time of 17:00-17:45 he knows and realizes that NYC can change and move as a community and also knows that he cares about the happiness of everybody that lives in NY and wants to try and talk about more of the problems that people deal with in the city rather than the problems in political office. As for however Joe Lhota sounded more of the opposite. Ironically enough he is a republican. I think he spoke more about his office rather than the city itself. Yes he talks about how much value the city should have but I don’t think he went in depth more like the way Bill did on the happiness of the people in NYC. For example, 18:00-19:00 mark of the video with Joe Lhota. He states that we should all just try and support the NYPD because they are just trying to protect the city but however they don’t make the people feel entirely safe according to Bill De Blassio because of things like the “Stop & Frisk” rule that is around.

So the differences that I see in-between both of these candidates is hat both of them have a different type of vision. They both have different types of leadership. However one believes in helping the people more than the other. Like I believed in the beginning that just because Joe is a republican he would talk more about himself and not the people’s desires and changes in the city and that Bill would talk more about changing the city for the better of the peoples happiness rather than him just building off this opportunity to gain his name more attention. In my Opinion it just seems like Bill was more of a mayor than Joe Lhota was as far as speech’s go. Being mayor means putting the city in order and in big city’s like NYC or LA it means a lot to be a leader for the people and not just for yourself because you have to support in making the city a place to be living in. Like making it affordable to live in the cities and making it a safe place by lowering the crime and also making jobs easier for people to have and find. So I just think that one has a more clear vision for the people living in the city while another has a clear vision of just the city itself.

How Much Money Do You Actually Need To Be Happy?

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In the article “How to buy happiness” by Elizabeth Dunn & Michael Norton, It speaks about how people spend there money and how it can effect how happy they are on a daily basis. It also speaks how when people get a large amount of money they spend it on things that are used for temporary happiness. Then how you spend your money is also something that is rather vital to your happiness. It also shows that materialistic things according to science don’t have a everlasting eternal happiness feel to the person who brought the materials. Some people would rather spend there money in different types of ways and occasions in order for example put down payments on a new house rather than just hanging out with your friends and spending money on various things while you are out with your friends. They also suggest and believe that spending your money on people who are lest fortunate than you is a better way to feed somebody else’s happiness rather than yours. Also it states that spending money on experiences on trips rather than materials are better ways to spend money. Basically the people in this article have a belief and understanding that spending money on others is more of a better feeling towards both your happiness and the person your treating than spending it on yourself.

I firstly believe some of what is said in this article is very true but however false on the other hand. Having money is something that should be kept sincere to you. I say this because mostly a lot of people spend money on countless things that don’t matter to much now a days and won’t long term benefit them. For example, some people would think that putting $300 on sneakers for their style is more beneficial to them rather than putting $300 towards a phone or even school supplies or better yet a down payment on a house for the future or in their bank account. People think different and have different intentions so happiness may cover all different types of aspects of a person. When having money that may equal to greed for some people. Greed is something that destroys a person in my opinion because then money ruins their character. But yet it makes their happiness. I think when you buy materialistic things it is like paying for temporary happiness. Will that $400 phone you have or $300 clothing or sneakers be with you when your older ? Something’s don’t indeed last like people assume it to be. I also believe that some people are selfish and believe on spending money on themselves rather than just giving back to others. That brings me back to greed destroying a persons character. It may be their happiness but it also may destroy who they are even though money makes them happy. While some others would love to give back to the people less fortunate or people they love because it gives them a better feeling seeing and making others happy, makes them happy as well.

How Happy Are You ? (Summary & Response)

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In the New York Times article that was published in 2011 named “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants To Know” By John Tierney. It speaks about how he asked a question on on a scale to 1-10 how happy they are currently in their lives. Mostly alot of people gave different types of answers when they saw the survey. In Somerville it is a place that is both between 2 universities which means that the answers may also vary. For example in the article it states that “He gave himself a 6 because he wishes to be 3 inches taller and speak Quechua fluently”.Technically he just want to expand his language and be taller. Also in this article you notice that most people in this are asked how happy they are and mostly the answer is because of where they live. People were also told to rate the police and the schools and the amount of affordable housing that is in the area of Somerville. All people have different opinions on those type of subjects. Some people answered differently based off the mod they were in. For example if somebody was asked in the middle of winter “Do you like living in Somerville” and it was very snowy that day. You may get a different opinion  when it’s sunny in the summertime from that same person.

I believe that this experiment is actually A good idea. Not only because some people may have lived in the area more than others but also it shows that some people may think different about how happy they are not on materialistic things like there houses or even the area they live in but more so of how their lives are lived on a daily. Some people think of happiness to be materialistic things but honestly what happens when those materials are gone? Your happiness just vanishes ? I really believe that happiness doesn’t entirely have to do where you live at but just how to react to where you live. But also in this article I noticed that some of the questions they asked were rather personal which shows the people were looking for the personality of the people that are living in the area. Overall still I think it was a good idea for the survey people about how happy they are. But however I think it should’ve been about if they are happy LIVING in Somerville rather than just being overall “happy”.

Brandon Richardson Introduction

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1391667_620234151360635_1891071375_nHello everyone! My name is Brandon Richardson. I will be 19 on September 15th. I was born in Brooklyn, NY. But lived in Brooklyn for about 18 years. I have to 2 siblings and I ironically happen to be the youngest. My sister lives in California & My brother is in college living in North Carolina. I sometimes enjoy reading because it makes you realize that there is so much in the world to explore but in a matter of somebodies mind and point of view of somethings, It shows that people have different views and looks on things. I already o enjoy reading because of the different thoughts and ideas people make up to be stories. It’s also a escape from reality when reading a book that you are interested in. I personally enjoy collecting and listening to music. I have over 4000 songs on my iPhone. I also enjoy swimming & going to the gym. I learned how to swim when I was 9 years old. It’s a relaxing feeling to just swim laps and is also a workout as well. I entirely ENJOY watching football (The NFL) and football is my favorite sport of all time. My favorite quarterback is Aaron Rodgers but I am a Giants fan at heart.

I thought that my first experience at city tech was very unexpected. I knew that in college that you are truthfully on your own and nobody is going to chase after you to do work. If you make your own bed in college you lay in it. Either if it’s good or bad. I do however like the experience. I enjoyed exploring the campus trying to find my way around to my classes even though they are mostly all in the Namm Building. But I hope for the best in city tech and to have a great successful freshman year. I want to become a Doctor (Preferably a Epidemiologist) because I want to study how to make different type of cures to fight back against nasty viruses that are in the human body. This semester I plan on making sure that my GPA is above a 3.5. I know a 4.0 is a challenge in it’s entirety but however I am up for that challenge as well. I want to end updates make the deans list as well. During my summer break I worked at a hospital (SUNY DOWNSTATE) as a volunteer to help with files and exploring the medical center & seeing how doctors handle things with patients and etc (Technically like a hospital intern). I also when to Toronto & it was a wonderful experience. I loved the fact that it’s like a new world there and the atmosphere there is amazing. 

I mainly like writing but at the same time its a hassle to me. It’s like a love hate relationship with writing. I sometimes like expressing myself depending on the topic at hand but however my strength in writing is developing my ideas towards a topic and writing about it to voice my opinion or answer a question. I’m very eloquent when writing as well. But my weaknesses would have to be my hand writing. It’s like I’m writing hieroglyphics & it turns out weird when other people read it. I however am still working on having a good accurate hand writing. I enjoy expressing my thoughts when writing & I despise writing sometimes because of my hand writing. Me personally I believe that happiness relies on YOU at the end of the day. Nobody can make you happy except yourself. Just how I believe you control everything that YOU REACT towards. If you had a bad day and however you react positive towards it, then that shows you can control your own happiness. Happiness just doesn’t necessarily involve having money or having a wife and kids or even having everything you want in life. Happiness to me is just having a positive attitude towards anything and putting that into the world. When you give out positive types of vibes you get that back in life. Put in negative vibes and that also comes back to haunt you. My expectations for this class aren’t really “expectations” per say but I’m just ready to learn new things with English since this topic gets deeper and deeper every time you move up a grade and now that im in college you get to see the mastery of the English language.