“Lucys Intro”

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Hey everyone, my name is Luz Garcia I also go by Lucy. I’m 18 years old and I was born and raised in New York. My birthday is on May 20. I’m a Taurus which I believe describes me a lot. I have 2 younger sisters and a new little brother from my father side, who all live in the Dominican Republic. I also have a little sister from my mothers side who I live with. I went to High School of Graphic Communication Arts in downtown Manhattan. I enjoy playing basketball, drawing, listening to music and having fun, i love to laugh. This summer was different from my other past summers, i was getting ready for college, spending some time with my boyfriend, i attended remedial class for math, and i was babysitting.

This semester i’m planing on focusing on my classes to do very good and learn fast about my career. My first experiences in City Tech were good. Since i attended remedial class in the summer i got use to the ways professors taught their class, so i expect to do well in my classes. My mom and my past experiences have given me the interest for the Human Service field. Majoring in Human Services my career goal is to help kids and teens that have problems in their household, streets and/or school. Many young adults have problems and act out in ways that our city frown upon; and because of that, later in life they have trouble finding jobs because of their past choices. My goal is to help those who are having trouble and give them the second chance they deserve to become successful.

One of my weaknesses is expressing my feelings thoroughly. This weakness affects me as a writer because i have problems expressing all my thoughts on paper and it making sense. Other than that i believe writing about things i find interesting in is my strength. I enjoy free writing because i get to write about something i am interested in and about my opinion on it. Attending H.S.GCA i have gained some knowledge on technology, i know my way around a few programs like Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Word etc.

Happiness to me is feeling good about myself in my own skin, and having those i love and care about around and supporting me. Some people may argue that money or material things are important and having these thing make you happy, but i believe true happiness is deeper. Happiness to me would also be finding my own peace of mind and feeling good as a person. I could sit in an empty room but if it’s fulled with people that make me feel good, and that i love then i’m happy.

From this learning community i expect to learn more about society and individual happiness. I also expect to share my ideas and thoughts with everyone. I hope i also get to develop my writing skills more thoroughly in order to express my thoughts into words. Thank you for your time on reading this introduction, i hope you enjoyed it. 🙂

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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”.

Summary/ Analysis of the article “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to Know” by John Tierney

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The article “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to Know” by John Tierney, reveals how a small town called Somerville is providing a slight different content in the new census. The census sent to the citizens in Somerville was altered with a new question ” On a scale of 1 to 10 how happy do you feel right now?” The census was altered due to the advocacy by psychologists and economists, however “… without debate over how to do it and whether happiness is even the right thing for politicians to be promoting.”(Pg1) I think happiness can be promoted and it is promoted in many ways. Social media is used as a tool of promotion about happiness because it makes you believe that you need certain things in order to be happy such as; having the latest and most expensive car, money, good looks, and so on. The government already influences the happiness of the citizens by making decisions that will affect the community by lowering or raising taxes, therefore it is already promoting happiness to society.

The census has turned out to have various reactions from the citizens of Somerville. The author mentions that “… one man gave himself only a 6…” explaining that he is not satisfied with his height and that he wishes he could know Quechua fluently. Meanwhile, other residents “… felt flattered by the city’s attention.” I think everyone has a different meaning of happiness; therefore it would be very complicated for the government to be able to measure it. It depends a lot on the people if it could be measured, just like Connor Brennan said “ Of course, any survey like this is going to depend on the mood of the person at that moment.” (Pg2) However, if it is necessary to have a measurement of happiness in order to improve the community then by all means they should come up with an efficient method to do so. There are methods that could be similarly used such as the one Jetpac startup uses which is analyzing pictures of instagram to determine how happy the community is (click here for the article). Hence, if the government would measure the happiness of communities then it will have to think about all of the resources that it needs in order to do well. It’s just a matter of observing what the community is interested in, just like in Somerville where they are trying to improve the parks and bike paths. Resources such as efficient healthcare, education, and protection systems are important as well for the well-being of the community.

However, it can never be accurate to make every single person happy because as I mentioned earlier, everyone has different meanings of happiness and it would cause more conflict to satisfy all of them. For my well being I would say that as long as I can help my family and other people either economic or emotional wise, it fulfills my meaning of happiness. I also think that even though we all have a different meaning of happiness, we all share at least some general ideas of it such as being economically and socially stable. Therefore happiness could be measured if it’s for the purpose of improving the community, and it can be promoted but it doesn’t mean everyone will agree with it.

My response to ” How Happy are You ? ” article

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After reading the article I gotta say adding just a few questions about happiness to a census is not a bad idea. Just like Dr. Gilbert said , “It costs nothing to add some questions about happiness “. So why not do it ! Not only would it benefit the people in Somerville , for example a person would already feel happy knowing their government is interested in knowing wether they are happy with conditions and policies in their town , but it would benefit the government to have a better understanding and knowledge on what should be improved . Now in days people just don’t care about things like voting and participating on political events or even trying to at least find out whats going on in the world they live in. In my opinion adding happiness to the census would bring more citizens to actually fill out a census and really pay attention on filling it out and not just breeze through it just to get it over with. Everyone deserves to be happy where they live and changing the census give people that opportunity and gives them a voice as well.

introductions

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Hey guys my name is Greys . Just wanted to take some time to introduce myself , first off i’m not good at writing ,doesn’t mean I don’t like to write. I know that sounds stupid ,but oh well. Im a very shy person and I guess thats one of my weaknesses I have to work on because how i’m gonna get through life without having a voice in the world. I plan to learn techniques in this class and this school year at city tech that soon will become tools I use in the future that can help me succeed . My goal is to become a psychologist and to be able to work with patients in hospitals, its what I look forward to doing after college, and of course building up my career .

What does happiness mean to me ?

Hmmm … being comfortable in your own skin and being who you truly are. I think being happy isn’t just about feeling it but being it ,and yes theres a difference.  the way I see it is feeling it just means your feeling happy for a short period of time , i mean what happens when the feeling is gone ? But being happy is living life relaxed and stress free . Yes everyone has stress every now and then but being happy can help you move away from that stress and concentrate on being healthy and being in a chilled state of mind. Again I hope this makes sense like I said i’m not good at writing so sometimes my words don’t come out the same way as I sound in my own mind…. =) So thats me hope I didn’t bore whoever is reading this

Article: How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to Know Summary/ Response: Ivyz Fuentes

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The article “How happy are you? A census wants to know” By John Tierney, is basically about Somerville, Massachusetts  officials wanting to track people’s happiness systematically so they can become the first city in the united states to do so. They want to improve the city’s success, economic growth and promote policies that produce more than just material well-being. The people of Somerville got a new question on their census forms that spring, asking them on a scale of one to ten how happy do they feel at the moment. Psychologist  and economist supported the idea of monitoring the citizens happiness but debated on how to do so and whether happiness is the right thing politicians should be promoting.

I personally don’t agree that happiness can be measured and promoted because in my opinion how happy someone feels about certain things can change overnight. For example, on the city’s census form there were questions like “how happy do you feel right now?” and “how satisfied are you with your life in general?” yes i understand where they are coming from with those question but say someone is having a bad day, why wouldn’t they say they aren’t satisfied with life? For the simple fact that that’s how they’re feeling at the moment but tomorrow come and they’re completely satisfied with everything, their life, things that are happening around them ect… Also, I feel that happiness can’t be measured as a whole but individually because different people have different feelings about certain things. What might make me happy and satisfy me might not do so to the next person and that’s where conflicts between individual and community comes in. There can sometimes be conflict or maybe not, depending on what. It also depends on how strong a community is as a whole because it can go smoothly with every individual agreeing with one another or side ways with certain people agreeing with a situation and some not. For example, in Britain and France they also have been analyzing citizens happiness and I’m guessing certain citizens didn’t agree with some decisions because there were violent riots and protest broke out.

In my opinion If the government is measuring happiness and promoting anything it should be to increase happiness. If it isn’t to do so, then they shouldn’t be measuring anyone’s happiness. That’s like everyone in New York taking a survey about how certain things make us feel or how happy certain things make us and the government isn’t doing anything to change that and to make us happier. At the end of the day the government is going to do what they feel, they shouldn’t ask us what makes us happy or how happy are we about something if it’s obvious that a change needs to be made. That’s like raising taxes and asking how do us citizens feel about it. It honestly doesn’t matter how we feel because either way it’ll remain the same.

 

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.

Dominique Brunson Response to” How happy are you? A cesus wants to know” by John Tierney

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The article, “How happy are? A census wants to know” by John Tierney is about a city named Somerville. The government wanted to try something new this year for the census. Somerville received a new question, On a scale from 1-10, how happy are you?. The government asked this question so they can measure one’s happiness. Psychologists and economists feel that to measure one’s happiness it should be monitored a different way reporting your feelings on a questionnaire isn’t as accurate it goes by the mood the person’s in at that point in time. Everyone has different preferences and perspectives when it comes to happiness, what make them happy and what satisfies them. Happiness has a lot to do with satisfaction whether in a community or individually. The government’s trying to figure out how happy people are so they can try and attempt to improve it, ” should we build more parks or highways? Should workers get longer coffee breaks or more vacation days?”.

More than 7,500 people responded and mailed back the survey without efficient answer’s whose to say the people of Somerville put in enough effort to take the survey serious. Happiness cannot truly be measured. A small thing such a height can effect one’s happiness, In response to the question, ” How satisfied are you with your life in general?”, One man gave himself only a 6 explaining ” I would like to be three inches taller and speak Quechua fluently”. Everyone have different meanings of it what may make one person happy may not make the next person happy,

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone wants to change the Somerville community for the better a  whole ,” Somerville is a great test tube for such a experiment”. Changing the community around making it a better environment overall to live can effect the people’s response’s to the survey and their happiness to a certain extent. Curtatone wants to be more involved in the community worried about the communities well- being as well as individuals. If you satisfy what people may want they’ll only be satisfied but for so long you have to find out what the people may need as a community ( fulfillment).

Trying to improve the community and be involved reassures the people of Somerville that thing can change. The things that are important in well-being would be love, happiness, satisfaction, family, & success .Everyone individually should live their lives to the fullest and focus on what make the happy as a person first before it can be on a community level. The survey is a great start in improving the community and promoting happiness.

How Happy Are You ? A Census Wants to know . Summary/Response. : Katiria Altruz

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The article “How happy Are You ? A Census Want to know by John Tierney is about a city named smoverville. It’s a city where they had to fill out a census form so the government can know how happy they are .So this census was based on the question “How happy do you feel right now ?” which the people from somerville had to answered from a scale to 1 to 10.The government want Somerville to be the first city in the U.s to keep records of people’s happiness.Beside promoting things that only can they sell , they want to promote happiness for everyone .But some don’t think that happiness should not be promoted by the politicians like the psychologist and economists because happiness can be right but its not the same as writing it or saying it on a questionnaire.Since more than 7,500 people have mailed back the survey , some of them did not clearly answered the questions on municipal concerns.Most people aren’t satisfied even if the questionnaire  was supposed to help but it didn’t they still trying to find a way to make people happy.

Everyone has something that make them happy so no one knows what truly make someone happy because it can change any moment or anytime.Happiness cannot be measured because they cant go by what the people fell that they want , instead they should see in what they need .Not everyone the same so of course there are going to be people who won’t give their opinion  because everyone thinks differently or do things for themselves .The survey shouldn’t be based on a person mood at the moment because the information that they had might get lower and might not help the people be happy at all .The kind of things that would be important in a well-being is happiness , life satisfaction ,fulfillment , families , and the role of parenting.Its unmeasurable because those things people do for a living and its things that matter most to them.some people don’t want to be part of the community  because they want to do things on their own and work hard for the things that they need and want.Being in a community is a big thing you have to help others and be a part of them.

Happiness cant be promoted because everyone has a different ways of being happy. Happiness cannot be measured because only the person can decided what make them happy and no one else.The government shouldn’t be promoting or measuring happiness because they wouldn’t know what people would want or feel because it takes a lot of effort and time .Happiness cannot be brought or maintain because its like the weather it comes and go . It very unexpected .For others happiness is just having the company of others like family or friends or playing your favorite video game .The kind of things important for your well being is having good company , love from the one who are close to you , good mental state , having a balance diet and living stress free.

Lilisbeth Castillo Response to “How Happy Are You? A Census Wants to Know by John Tierney

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In this 2011 article it states how things can hopefully change people’s happiness such as having parks or bike paths or even mass transit but this isn’t always to people’s satisfaction. For example if the metro card fare stays $2.50 people will be happy with that but if the fare goes up to $3.25 no one will be happy about that. I don’t agree that happiness can be measured or promoted because every time something is wrong or people don’t like an idea than the government will have to change it to make people happy. If this is the case than they will always have to change or bring new ideas to satisfy people’s happiness. One thing I don’t agree with the article is how this is a good idea because policies can be changed to make people happier but what if it isn’t such a good policy and the government doesn’t agree with than people won’t be happy.

I don’t agree too much that happiness should be measured or promoted by the government because people are always changing there minds on things. People want things the easy way sometimes and things that will make them real happy. Unless the survey focuses only on specific things that can really make people happy and they don’t change that than maybe people can actually be happy about things for sometime.

Things that can be important to people’s well being can be having opportunities as a child to make things right. Having a place that you feel comfortable to talk about things. Having many options to join something that you might become good at. For the well being of the community I feel that resources and services are always good because people have many places to go to when they have many resources around them such as post offices, supermarkets, school etc. If there are many services to in a community you have help available for you always.

There can possibly be conflict between individual and community well-being because an individual might want something that the community feels is not worth it. Also the community might not listen to just one person’s well being but try and think as a whole.