Occupy the world

Occupy wall street and all the other protests in the country have people sleeping on the streets, whether intentional or forceful. In Diego Rivera’s painting, the middle image shows a bunch of people sleeping in one congested area which has a guard protecting them. These people are similar to those protestors; these are people who make up the middle class, put the most money into the economy, and create more opportunities for the lower class to make a bright future themselves. The occupy movement has begun because the upper class has put a halt on the progress of many of the middle class workers.

In the middle image of Diego Rivera’s painting entitled, Frozen Assets, there are a large group of people sleeping together in a tight space. The division of images from the middle to the bottom has this divider that looks like wiring or gears or pipelines that you might find in a subway system. As you may know, pipelines can’t be built by the simplest of people; there must be some form of education to create such a thing. I believe these people sleeping together are the middle class and Diego is portraying that they are the pipelines, gears, and wiring that create everything in the top and the bottom. This middle image shows a connection, both in the mural itself and in society. Diego is saying that the nation cannot progress or flourish without the works of the middle class. The occupy movement consists of many middle class workers as well, who ironically sleep together at night in confined areas to show their togetherness in changing the economy. They want nothing more than to restore their assets and go back to living their lives as before.

Joshua Bennett: A Brave New Voice

I started writing poetry in my senior year of high school. A friend of mine by the name of Christine Ruff got me interested in poetry and its deeper meaning, and I took off like a rocket, composing pieces on a daily basis. I used a hypothetical inspiration to start off and name my pieces, but it wasn’t until I watched a young man by the name of Joshua Bennett on HBO’s “Brave New Voices” that I decided to engulf myself in its culture.  

Joshua Bennett is a recent graduate of the University of Massachusetts, and also a dynamic slam poet who caught my eyes and ears when I first heard him. First of all, slam poetry is performance-style, which means that the artist puts plenty of emotion into their piece. This emotion includes either a combo or choice of anger, sadness, happiness, fear, etc.  Joshua is a master at his craft, being able to incorporate multiple emotions into one stage act. The first time I heard him, he was performing in a 5-man group and by the end of their performance, I had literally shed a tear.  I have never been so touched by poetry in my life, and from that moment on, I made it a must to learn as much as I possibly could about Joshua and the art he professes.

I went on YouTube and looked up as many poems from Joshua as I could possibly find. To this day, my favorite poem is called “10 Things I Want to Say to a Black Woman.” I was so inspired from his piece that I watched it 15 times over and tried to memorize it. I always suggest him to my friends whenever they are looking for a great artist to follow. I have actually composed personal pieces inspired from his writing style, and from this point on, any poem that I write contains some style that he incorporates in his own style.

A Temple and Community

The members of my chosen community are all religious people to say the least.  They range from weekly members to ushers, deacons, pastors and so-on.  Some of us have been members of this community since birth, and some for only months.  Whatever the case may be, we’re all family; we love and care for each other in the same manner.

Interaction between each other is done usually in a genuine manner with each other.  There are some people who don’t get along very well, but every week, we all work on making ourselves better so that we will be a stronger community, thus making a stronger team.

In order to become a member, that person must have a desire to belong to the church, or else they wouldn’t waste their time in the first place.  I attend a Christian church, so it’s beneficial for this person to know who it is that we worship, and if they don’t know completely, they can be taught in new member’s classes.  Some members have been a part of the church since birth, so joining the church isn’t necessary.  They are joined through their parents, and eventually undergo various ceremonies, like a christening.  One thing I like about Christianity is that it’s not a forceful religion.  This means that if someone decided they wanted to leave due to lack of belief or wanted to join another church, there would be no kind of reprimand for doing so.

I enjoy fellowship inside of a small, positive building of people who all just want to better themselves.  I enjoy my church because it is the perfect place to go to turn a life around.  Anyone who is truly in the belief knows that it takes complete faith to experience, and when that feeling is finally accomplished, it can be felt.  Many people don’t believe because they don’t trust something they cannot see, but there is always space to turn around as well, no matter the age.  That would bring up my next reason for enjoying this community: No matter past experiences, a person can rejoin and try to turn their life around. 

The many thorns of Myself

The things that I learned about myself over the past seven weeks will change me forever. The first thing I learned was I actually was able to do homework without procrastinating and cramming it out at the last minute. I also discovered that I have a potential that I never even noticed in myself. I was so accustomed to under-achieving and not caring about the things that I learned, but I guess that was based off the fact that I simply wasn’t motivated enough to push myself and work harder than I’ve ever known to be possible. 

I surprised myself two major times last module. The first time was winning the Elevator Pitch competition, and second was being awarded Top Performer in my section. In both of these events, I had no clue that I was going to receive these awards because I didn’t find myself capable to earn at that level. It seems like the past 3 years of community college really took a negative toll on my confidence.  I was disappointed in myself when I earned the many infractions on my account. I only have 185 points as of now, and I know that I can do much better.

PLUS/DELTA of myself

Plus(+)	Delta(Triangle)
1.    Earned “Top Performer” in BC 2.    Won Elevator Pitch 3.    Didn’t procrastinate as much 4.    Paid attention 5.    Used professionalism 6.    Was given much praise for blog posts 7.    Got to know many people	1.    Should study more 2.    Talked too much 3.    Missed small things 4.    Pay more attention to detail 5.    Be more unbridled

Not a "product", but a "quotient"

As a child, I chose to live by some wise words which my mother gave to me: “Instead of being a product of the hood, live to be the quotient.” I didn’t know what that initially meant, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that being a division of the neighborhood would allow me to stick out and make my own identity. 

I grew up in Inglewood, California, which was once a rather nice place to live. I was born one year before Los Angeles really went into a pit of crime, drugs, and violence. By the time I turned five years old, Inglewood was nothing more than a part of an epidemic. My neighbors, luckily, were very nice people. I got along with all the kids on the block, and was fortunate enough to be the last generation of children to be able to play outside without parents worrying about anything that could go wrong in the process, other than some scraped knees and broken toys.

Inglewood has a handful of sections, some worse than others.  I often visited 93^rd, and Hindry, which was somewhat close to LAX Airport.  This part of Inglewood wasn’t like my block.  I often heard gunshots and yelling from abroad.  My brother even had a traumatic experience when he was in middle school. He actually ran into a dead body one night while taking out the trash.  I was really young, so I didn’t find out about this until I got older myself.  I’ve gone outside to play with friends and noticed blood streaked across the cement, most likely from the night before. These are things that become normality to many who live in these environments.

I am who I am despite of the neighborhood I live in. It’s because my mother trained me in a certain way that I dedicated my future to being the type of person I choose to be, and not what society wrapped around my eye.  Some kids at school made fun of me because I was more “proper” than they were.  This was satisfying, because it reminded me that I was moving in the right direction.

Some things just can't be fixed...

I wasn’t sure of what to expect after reading the title of this article and reading one paragraph.  Once I realized that it was about credit corporations, I instantly knew what was coming up next.  I remember learning about credit back in high school in my economics class.  I saw a documentary that spoke on how the companies make their money through scams, some legal and some not so legal.  Reading this article just revived some of the things I had forgotten from before.  Living with a hole in your pocket is never easy, but when you already have no money to your name, it only makes life worse. 

Credit card corporations trick consumers into believing that this "borrowed" money is like a dream, which is actually a nightmare that many have no clue of.  They amplify the opportunity divide because they constantly prevent low-wage workers from creating cash flow in some way so that they can be a part of the elite earners of the world: the middle and high class workers.  These companies are succeeding at keeping the lower class of people down and out to the point that some people are stuck with a bill for the rest of their lives.  What makes matters worse is the fact that interest rates can continuously increase for people who can’t liberate themselves of the debt already amid their lives, thus digging a deeper hole and further exacerbating the opportunity divide.

Who do we point the finger at when it comes down to the bottom of it all?  In my opinion, the credit card companies are responsible for creating the stipulations and consequences which put the consumer’s financial status in jeopardy, so they should be responsible for assuaging the whole issue.  I think that changing all interest rates to a low, fixed rate instead of something exorbitant would be a nice start.  If people’s debt can be slowly fixed, this nation can also become affluent like it once was as well.

If I were a Costco Sample...

The name “Mind Craft” was inspired from a video game called “Mine Craft,” a sandbox builder which allows you to create essentially anything with the tools given to you, even things you didn’t think were possible. My blog title is a play on words to say that I can create anything with my mind, as long as I know of the tools I possess within my own sandbox.

I love to do activities that challenge me mentally, because I’m constantly looking for ways to broaden my knowledge. Some of my hobbies are playing video games, exercising and debating. I only have one true passion, which is writing poetry. As I said before, I love activities which challenge me mentally, and poetry is one of the best ways to force the mind to step outside of the box. 

The Year Up program has helped elevate my self confidence, and I hope to do great things over the next few months because of it. I don’t know what I want my future career to be, mainly because I don't know where I'll be for sure this time next year.  Whatever it is that I venture into, I want it to support my focal motive, which is independence.  This is just a sample of Michael Jones. There's so much more to know.