Spring Vocab List #1

Adumbrate:
Report or represent in outline.
Ex.
The student adumbrated about Dr. Preston's open source learning idea.
Apotheosis:
The highest point in the development of something; culmination or climax.
Ex.
I always hate the apotheosis of a song, it signifies the end of the track.
Ascetic:
Characterized by or suggesting the practice of severe self-discipline and abstention from all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons.
Ex.
The little boy was very ascetic after getting caught trying to steal the candy bar.
Beguile:
Charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way.
Ex.
Dr. Preston's conversation on open source learning was too beguile for me to ignore.
Burgeon:
Begin to grow or increase rapidly; flourish.
Ex.
The small corner market business began to burgeon all across town.
Complement:
A thing that completes or brings to perfection.
Ex.
The melody and chorus line complement the chord progression and drum beat to the song perfectly.
Contumacious:
Stubbornly or will fully be disobedient to authority.
Ex.
The drunk guy was being too contumacious to leave the bar after the cops arrived.
Curmudgeon:
A bad-tempered or surly person.
Ex.
I'm usually a curmudgeon after working a closing shift at work.
Didactic:
Intended to teach.
Ex.
The student was very didactic when they were talking about open source learning.
Bauble:
An insignificant inanimate object.
Ex.
The autographed football from the Pittsburgh Steelers game was a great bauble to have in our collection.

Spring Vocab List #2

Account rem:
Additional items of dress or equipment or other items carried or work by a person or used for a particular activity.
Ex.
The construction worker uses a lot of different accoutrements at their job.
Apogee:
The highest point in the development of something; the climax or culmination.
Ex.
The engineer began to get excited at the apogee of their project.
Apropos:
Very appropriate to a particular situation, bicker/argue about petty and trival matters.
Ex.
I had an apropos argument with a police officer the other day over a traffic ticket.
Coalesce:
Come together and form one mass or whole.
Ex.
The football team coalesce together and defeated their opponent.
Contretemps:
An unexpected and unfortunate occurance.
Ex.
The cat's death was contretemps to the family.
Convolution:
A coil or twist, especially one of many.
Ex.
The losing team making a come back towards the end of the game was a big convolution.
Cull:
Select from a large quantity; obtain from a variety of sources.
Ex.
There was a cull of choices of spray paint in the graffiti store.
Disparate:
Essentially different in kind; not allowing comparison.
Ex.
The dogs were very disparate to each other.
Dogmatic:
Inclined to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true.
Ex.
The police talked in a dogmatic tone to the young juvenile.
Licentious:
Promiscuous and unprincipled in sexual matters.
Ex.
The young teen was licentious at the moment.
Mete:
Dispense or all of justice, a punishment or harsh treatment.
Ex.
The slave was given a mete for trying to escape.
Noxious:
Harmful, poisonous, or very unpleasant.
Ex.
Having asthma feels a bit noxious at times.
Polemic:
A strong verbal or written attack on someone or something.
Ex.
The girl yelled at the teacher so polemic.
Populous:
Having a large population; densely populated.
Ex.
The graffiti competition was very populous on Saturday.
Probity:
The quality of having strong moral principles; honesty and decency.
Ex.
The boy in church is very probity.
Repartee:
Conversation or speech characterized by quick, witty comments or replies.
Ex.
My friend and I always have very repartee conversations at lunch.
Supervene:
Occur later than a specified or implied event or action, typically in such a way as to change the situation.
Ex.
The couple was so late to the wedding they had to supervene an hour later.
Truncate:
Shorten (something) by cutting off the top or the end.
Ex.
My dad had to truncate the board to fit properly.
Unimpeachable:
Not able to be doubted, questioned, or critized; entirely trustworthy.
Ex.
Joanna is my very close friend because she is unimpeachable.

Vocab #1 Performance Review

To be honest, I knew the outcome of the vocab quiz for me wasn't going to be something to be proud of. Mainly because I didn't study this weekend do to my crowded schedule having to work all weekend and try to spend as much time as I could with my sister who just came down from Colorado. It's definitely not the way I wanted to start this semester, bombing the first vocab quiz, but this moment of failure has opened my eyes more to start finding and making time to get my work and studying done because last semester wasn't fun trying to juggle school, work and other things at once. So for now I'm not happy with my performance on the Vocab quiz, but I shall take this as a learning experience and most definitely try harder next time!

My First MLA Research Paper

                                              Bobby Rucobo 
                                              Period 1    
                                              12/1/13     

Abstract:
     In this research paper you will read about racial judgments on music preference. You will read about why there is a racial judgment on musical preference and how it has made an impact on the music industry and culture of today. Music is universal, everyone knows what it is and everyone loves it. But people tend to view music in categories, categorizing those to only listen to certain genres of music do to racial stereotypes. Which in my opinion isn't okay because I am a young Latino male who happens to love all forms and genres of music ranging from Reggae, to Rock, to Rap, to even EDM and so much more. people assume off of looks that they would think someone listens to a certain type of genre when it could be the complete opposite. This paper exposes the judgment of musical preference by race to be false and to not judge those for what music they choose to listen to, because we all hold our own preferences for we are all human and are no different from one another. I looked through many different resources from major record labels like Motown Records to the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers). I found a lot of different things looking up these sites, a lot had good racial points in them like the discrimination Motown Records had endured do to their diverse group of black musicians and artists.

Introduction:
     If you were a music manager for a top record label and a young African American male were to walk into your studio to audition for a contract, what form of music genre would you think they would perform?...Rap, Hip Hop, or R&B right? But what if this young man pulled out an acoustic guitar and began to start singing Country Music, I began to notice a lot of judgment on one another for what kind of music they prefer to listen to. For example, this year in my Music Production & Songwriting class I made a comment about an old 80's Thrash Metal band known as Metallica, now a student in that class over heard my comment and responded saying "what do you even know about Metallica?" Little did he know I have been a dedicated Metallica fan since I was 6 years old and know practically everything about the band, I ask him "well what is it that you know about Metallica?" I begin asking him a series of questions, which included, "what was Metallica going to originally name there first album before naming it Kill Em All?" He was confused by the question so I began to laugh and responded with "Metal Up Your Ass or M.U.Y.A. for short", then told him to not judge people on what music they know by how they look. Another big example I have witnessed about miss judgment of music taste was when I watched the movie "Ray" it was a movie based on the musical life of Ray Charles. There is a scene in the movie where a young white man brings young Ray Charles too a Country band rehearsal where another white man immediately stands up and tells Ray Charles to leave, because he's black and that they play only gospel and not black slave music. The white man that brought Ray Charles pleads to the other man to just listen to him play, Ray then finds his way to the piano and begins to play, almost simultaneously the rest of the band begins to play along to Ray's melody and the band let's him in to perform. I'm not exactly sure if this moment ever happened, but it is still a great example of racism affecting others just by how they look they are expected to play certain genres of music when in reality looks are very deceiving.

Methodology:
     I am going to investigate my topic by asking others' views on it and even possibly partaking in some experiments to see how this topic can be expressed with racism. I will also like look up multiple sources for my investigation, like researching record labels, looking up music managers, reviews from music critics, and consumer data. After reviewing some sources, one that stood out to me was ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers). On this site they display a lot of information about the music industry on songwriters, composers, lyrics, etc. I have also looked at a few record labels such as Mau5trap Records and Motown Records, to see if there has been any racial issues involved with either of these labels. And yes there has been, mainly with Motown Records. These approaches are affective, because they give me a bit more sense of direction in my research. It is a bit hard to look up exact information for a topic like mine, but I do still find a great deal of information just by looking up these sources, because they all talk about the diverse culture of music and basically shows many different forms of racism being displayed whether by the record label itself or by the musician. I am also looking at different racial sites such as racialicious.com to see if there are any articles about racial stereotypes involving music genres or any other articles of subjects similar to my topic. Looking at this source I began to understand the story is a bit different for each race but all with the same outcome, expressing how people constantly judge without thought or realizing what they're doing and saying, all though my topic isn't thought of as much, it is a huge factor in the music industry professional critics constantly criticizing artists and musicians by their racial ethnicity as they come out with their music like, Eminem in Rap music or Jimi Hendrix in Rock 'N Roll, even though technically African Americans created Rock 'N Roll, when fusing Blues, Jazz and others genres of music.

Part 1: Finding:
     In my research I expect to not honestly find much about my topic because it is a bit different. My topic focuses mainly on judgment of one another over music preference and how it segregates each other, categorizing by race saying they can only be seen producing or listening to certain genres of music. If I were to expect to see any information related to my topic, it would probably be something over a certain person whose race usually isn't seen in the genre of music much, like Vanilla Ice and Eminem in Rap/Hip Hop.

     After doing a bit of research, I was surprised to find some very interesting information on my topic, because I wasn't the only one with similar questions and ideas. On the website www.psychology today.com, I read an article called "The Psychology of Musical Preferences", although this article doesn't speak much about the racial side of the topic, it still does raise a few good points on how music preferences are viewed I two ways, one being that song preferences are completely random and or that musical choices reflect important aspects of our personality. Which the author favored more, the personality side of music preference, with which I agree with completely. As a music lover I listen to a lot of different genres throughout the day depending on my mood, the weather, or how I am feeling at the moment. Another article I found was on the website www.racialicious.com, where the article is titled, "Who Racialized the Music?" With such a bold question for a title, I began to read and understand the author's views and I noticed we both shared the same views and ideas on this topic, the only difference was I am Latino while the author is African American. although I read more of the "black perspective" of my topic, I did notice it was still similar to the same views I had on how you can judge so easily for listening to music genre that is remotely different to what is usually played, which is what the author wrote that he endured this as he attended a Historically Black College/University in Washington D.C., while being the only known black person at the school as it seemed holding more interest in rock, dance, and alternative music other than Hip-Hop or R&B. I have been through the same experiences being around friends and the only one who favored Rock, Old School, Reggae, EDM, and so much more over Chicano Rap and Mexican music,  although I do like certain Mexican music songs even though I may not understand what the singer is saying. The last thing I discovered in my research kind of came by accident. Back then when Vinyl Records were the hip new gadget of the day, there were special vinyl records called "Race Records". On these race records, displayed music generally and a bit stereotypically races other than white people would enjoy. These records mainly targeted African Americans, which proves a point that races were categorized by listening to only certain genres of music at the time. Which in some ways still continues today such as on the Television station BET or Black Entertainment Television. For example whenever I turn the channel to BET when they play there 106&Park show, they only display Hip-Hop or R&B music videos or videos involving Hip-Hop or R&B artists, there isn't very much diversity of music genres except for generally Hip-Hop or R&B promoted on the show, which in my opinion should be more open minded, when African American musicians are constant changing their sounds just like other musicians of today.

Implications for Future Research
     As I continued to do research on this topic I began to find more and more ideas that also seem to come up for question. Such as this little article called "Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics", It talked about how people are at times afraid of Rap music do to it's very explicit and graphic lyrics. Which stirs up the question maybe some people don't listen to certain music out of fear of judgment or being made fun of for liking a certain song, mainly in teens and young adolescents. Or even having parents not allowing their children to be exposed to certain music out of fear of judgment or being made fun of for liking a certain song, mainly in teens and young adolescents. Or even having parents not allowing their children to be exposed to certain music out of fear it will cause them to get a hold of bad habits. It surprises me honestly to see how people can judge upon a certain genre of music claiming its bad when there are also multiple styles like East and West, East having more lyrical and intricate rhyme patterns and flows, like in a Tribe Called Quest, while West had more of that funky, edgy, more in your face and raw lyrics filled with expression and facts or emotions and feelings on subject happening around them like, NWA. It goes to show how some styles and forms of one type of music genre can have an effect on the whole genres reputation, the reputation even carries on to the artists and musicians themselves such as when former President George W. Bush invited rapper Common to the White House, Common was immediately judged for being a thug and hoodlum just because he was a rapper, yet little did the person who said these comments know that Common is actually a well respected artist in the music u industry saying more positive and uplifting lyrics, yet back in the 90's, NWA's rapper Eazy-E was invited to the White House by President George Bush Sr. and yet Eazy-E with the actually label as a Gangster Rapper received no back lash for the invitation. So it makes no sense to judge an artist or musician on what they may look or perceive to be seen as because what people see and who people really are, are two completely different subjects. Another idea I came to question is the judgment that just because different subjects. Another idea I came to question is the judgment that just because you are a certain race you're not as good enough at a certain genre of music like for instance Eminem in Rap, he is white and typically white people don't rap, but he is an amazing freestyle rapper,his cyphers and bars are well said and written in majority of his songs although his best work was his older music, to be honest. The same goes for a white Dubstep music producer known as Zeds Dead, he originally was a hip hop producer, but when he began to create Dubstep he and another artist known as Omar Linx, a rapper who they both created Dubstep and Rap music having Zeds Dead create the well produced dub step/hip hop beat and having Omar Linx spit rhymes and rap to the flow of the beat until its pounded by the usually heavy bass drops. This shows the multiple diversity of music and how different races can contribute different music genres and styles and mix them together producing amazing tracks. Flux Pavillion a European Dubstep producer and Childish Bambino a young black rapper also collaborated together to form dubstep/hip hop music, creating amazing tracks with heavy bass drop like "Do Or Die".

Conclusion
     In conclusion, racism in music comes in many different forms of judgment, racial judgment of music preference is just one of these. But it's an important subject, because there are thousands of young individuals like myself who hold love for all forms and genres of music beyond the stereotypical views. It's another small way to show that no matter what race you are, we are all equal, we all like the same things, and have and share the same views and ideas. We are all the same we are all human, there is only one race in music and that's the Human Race.

Work Cited

www.ascap.com, (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers)

www.psychology today.com, article "The Psychology of Musical Preferences"

www.racialious.com, article "Who Racialiazed the Music?"

www.Wikipedia.com, article "Race Records"

www.mau5trap.com

www.motownrecords.com

Fried, C. B. (1999), Who's Afraid of Rap: Differential Reactions to Music Lyrics. Journal of Applied Social Psychology

7 Times

After reading Erica's post and the Article on the 13 year old boy who was shot for caring around a fake fire arm, I begin to look at myself kind of scared, yet relieved. Because when I was around the age of 7-8 years old I too ran around with a fake gun, (like most younger boys would) but my gun was a old rifle that did look very real if you looked at it. Me and a friend of mine at the time were outside playing with our guns, and as we played we thought as a joke to hind behind parked cars and as soon as we saw a car pass by we would jump out and aim our fake guns at the cars passing, well from a innocent impulse of fun turned into a very serious situation, because the driver stops her car and  immediately runs out with her phone in her hand yelling to drop the weapons and that she was calling the police. Thankfully my parents saw the situation and came running out to clear the air of confusion, I was amazed to see the lady get so afraid, that after that moment I never brought my gun outside like that again. Now the reason why I bring up this story is because well, what if what happened to this young boy happened to me? What if the lady did call the police? Now I wouldn't have aimed the fake gun at the officer but I would've definitely been traumatized by the officers presents. Now looking at my view on this tragic moment, the question comes to mind... Why did the boy aim the gun at the officer in the first place? I mean I was 7-8 years old if the officer came up to me at the time I would've dropped the gun immediately! But this boy was 13 years old about a 4-5 year difference, wouldn't the boy have more common sense to have put the gun down like I would have at a much younger age? The situation could've ended on a much better and less tragic note then how it did. Now I'm not on the officers side because shooting the boy more than one time is pretty ridiculous, because one shot would've just been enough to end this terrible situation, so the officer is wrong for that, but yet the officer had a right to fire his weapon, because what if the gun was real? If the officer waited to figure out whether the weapon was fake or not, their life could've been just as easily put in danger as of anyone else who was around to witness. I just don't think it makes sense for the boy at his age to have made such an honestly stupid move such as to aim the weapon at the officer. So my view on this is this situation goes both ways, but its tragic and terrible to have happened, but it could've easily ended on a much better note than it did if only the young man had obeyed and put down the weapon like he should have, he would still be a live, a mourning mother wouldn't have to bury he own son and possible a police officer wouldn't have to go to sleep every night knowing he killed a young 13 year old boy.

Racial Profiling Lives On

As I read the article it began to make me a bit furious because some of the examples of actions that Bloomberg stated did actually happen to me. During my sophomore year me and a friend were walking down to this new Dollar Tree that just opened down the street from our houses at the time. After receiving applications for a job at this Dollar Tree, me and my friend head back home where we unknowing are being followed by a Santa Barbara County Sheriff. Now me and my friend didn't notice but the officer was literally following us on the side of the road in his patrol vehicle until he finally drives up and pulls us to the side saying in a very sarcastic tone "So what... you two couldn't notice me trying to flag u both down?" Now me and my friend were confused because we never noticed that the Sheriff was even following us? Then he began to question us asking our names, home address, and if we were on probation or not. Now, this whole situation was completely irrelevant from the beginning because why did this officer have to stop two Latinos who are not doing anything at all but walking home and question them like they were doing something wrong? It makes me mad to know that some officers take there badge a bit to seriously, its in uncomforting because when u read on every patrol vehicle they all say some quote like "protect and serve" well who are they protecting and serving if there basically harassing 2 teen aged Latino boys for no apparent reason. Its one thing if we had an ankle brace on, dressed like thugs and or in a bad neigbor hood but we both hold clean records, dressed like any average teen, and were walking in a very calm and quiet neighborhood in Orcutt, CA ? This article to me just shows how certain people don't see the other side of the badge and how it effects everyone in there own way. Til this day I shall never fully respect a Sheriff or Police official, now I'm not saying I'm going to be rude and disrespectful, but if the officer is going to be cool with me, I'll be cool with them about the situation, l but if they are going to be rude like the Sheriff that pulled me over then yeah, they can basically kiss my rear end! Police officials shouldn't base there suspicions on race, because race doesn't commit crimes, people do such as guns don't kill people, people kill people.

"To be or not to be"

As) In the soliloquy "To be or not to be", Hamlet basically talks about his hardships and strains of life, by contemplating on how he should handle these situations or escape them. He thinks of possibly taking his own life as a way of escape or even killing the person who causes these hardships for him. He constantly struggles to understand a way of living a much better life than he does now, but he has no idea if escape or he is too afraid of what ideas may pop into his mind. He over thinks everything he thinks of and that simple what if factor comes to play that simple note of curiosity takes hold but he is to afraid to take on the challenge and actually try to escape to a better life.

B) The level of meaning to live or die speaks to MD in a sense that we live to die. Which in some form of way is true. We live our lives everyday knowing one day we will die and it will all be over, but what I don't understand is why don't we life as much as we possibly should? Now, I'm not saying for us to go wild and live like a complete free spirit, because we need some form of order in our lives to keep hold of some sanity. But, why do we as human beings not enjoy our lives as much as we possibly should? Why is it that when ever someone gets a chance to do something they actually would like to do they don't take the chance as much as they should, there's always an excuse or reason behind there absence whether it is school, work, family issues... Etc. Isn't life all about exploration, experiences, and trying new things? I believe religion, government, work, and other forms of power play a huge role in why we all don't take as many risks as we should. Whether we'll be judged, arrested, or considered unholy for an action that may seem wrong to others, but right to you. I believe we own the right to our own lives and the we should truly take control of our sacred rights, but now day society is so contaminated by what is being said or told what is "right and wrong", that we fear what the out come and consequences may be if we do a random off the wall action. To live or die, pretty much speaks to me in a sense that one must look live life the way they feel is best for them or die trying.

C) In my own personal life I currently take the path to following and achieving my goals one step at a time, taking control of my life and focusing on what it is I truly want to do with my life. Now my plans may seem a bit extreme or even impossible to some extent, but, I believe if I have the strength and will power to fight for these goals that one day I will reach them and look back at my past and feel that it has finally paged off and I am finally a success. Life is about choices and following your dreams, and I will learn to follow them take the risks and continue to choose to reach my future.