Pirates

With all the rigors in life that one is facing – work, studies, project deadlines, to name a few, it is important to unwind once In a while to ease off the stress and pressure. One can go to a movie house, play his favorite PlayStation game, or simply chill down and listen to his favorite songs. To be able to do these activities, one has to spend money. With the kind of technology that we have today, recreational activities are more accessible today than in the past. Unfortunately, one downside is that with the technology, abusive people take advantage of it, for example, mass-reproducing pirated CDs and sell them around 1/8th of their original price – and the money does not go to the legitimate companies. Because of CD piracy, the entertainment industry loses money, people have warped human values, and the raided CDs contributes to more trash.

Because CD pirates steal contents by mass-reproducing movies, games, music, among others, and sell them for a much cheaper price, the legitimate entertainment companies lose a lot of money. Big syndicates operate around the country despite the government’s anti-piracy campaign, and since CD-duplicating equipment such as burners, rewritable CDs and DVDs, among others, are easily accessed by the public, copyright infringement is rampant. By copying the movies, games, and music and selling them 1/8^th of the original price, the entertainment industries in the Philippines lost around P42.5 billion from January 2002 to August 2003 (Gonzales, Pirates) and that amount should have been a big help to support the local industries keep up with the global competition. With that money, it could generate more jobs and opportunities to produce better movies, games, music, and so much more. Piracy should be stopped because it is affecting the economic progress of our country.

Since CD piracy is a crime, government officials crack down on the illegal vendors and distributors and raid them of their products. The CDs are deemed illegal, and therefore must be destroyed; the officials ran steam rollers over the illegal recordings spread out in an open space. That generated a lot of waste because CDs are not biodegradable. Also, since pirated CDs are of low quality, some are defective and cannot be used at all. People would throw them away. Although CDs can be recycled for example, they are used as reflectors, wall designs, etc., the amount of CDs is so huge the recycling method cannot keep up with it.

Lastly, the availability of pirated CD’s make the people perform actions against their moral upbringing, it corrupts them. People, by instinct, would look for cheaper alternatives, but buying pirated CDs is wrong because piracy is stealing, and stealing is a crime – and the sad reality is, not many of the buying public knows about that. Piracy affects their moral fiber and it will continue to grow, from buying one pirated CD one’s own enjoyment.

In the end, it is up to the people on when CD piracy would stop. They must realize that in the process of buying pirated CDs to save their own money, they are robbing entertainment companies of its money and the salary of its employees; they are contributing more trash that will not decompose for so many years, and that they are becoming morally corrupt. One way of solving the problem is by instilling the thought that “the piracy stops when the buying and patronizing stops.”

In the Beginning -- Entrance Reflective Essay

I have never found an interest in writing or reading books or novels, but because the English teachers back in my high school requires their students to read books and write essays, I developed my language proficiency. Now that I am in college, I’m sure I will further develop my creativity and ideas, my grammar will improve, and I expect that there will be a lot of paper works throughout the term.
Back in early high school, I used to read gaming magazines and comics only. But throughout the years, my reading selection became wider: Shakespeare, Sherlocke Holmes, Twilight, and more. By reading books, I would get new ideas that I use when I was writing blogs, and these ideas somehow affected my outlook in life.
Next are my grammar skills. I would like to improve on it because I find it funny when I notice grammatical errors committed by other people when I can’t even spot my own mistake! It’s irritating because sometimes, I couldn’t send the right message to the reader, just because I couldn’t find the right diction or because of my Subject-Verb agreement. I believe that I don’t commit mistakes all the time, but I would like to become consistent in what I write.
Finally, I expect a lot of paper works because for sure it will help the students learn more and become more used to in writing. Research papers, thesis papers, argumentative papers, etc., will help not only our grammar, but will enable us to keep our creative juices flowing. Also, it is for us to learn more things through research and peer-evaluation.
After I finish this course, I’m sure I will become more competent in reading and writing in English. I will be ready to take and pass ENGLRES/SPEECOM, which will further advance my skills and ultimately will make me more confident in dealing with other people in my respective field of work.

Final Curtain Call -- Exit Level

They say that “practice makes perfect”, but someone was witty enough to say “but no one is perfect, so why practice?” In some aspects, this may be true, but in my case, throughout my ENGLCOM course, I can say that I am now closer to perfection because I believe that I can now write better papers and that I have met my expectations that helped get what I want out of this course.

At the beginning of the term, I was wondering what kind of professor I would have; is he or she someone who likes giving paper works for students? Is he or she someone who likes giving free cuts? Is he or she the same professor that my friend and I talked about? I was hoping that the workload would be minimal since in my degree BS Information Systems, I have a lot of machine projects to do. Instead, my professor gave us a lot of work to do in our everyday meeting. At first, it felt so tiring going to englcom class everyday just to sit and write papers, but as we approached the end of the term, I was beginning to get the hang of it, and my writing skills improved. I have learned how to write better for different writing styles like descriptive essays, argumentative essays, process essays, and so much more. Also, I have learned how to check and compare my paper with the essays of other people. Through peer evaluation, I have learned my strengths and weaknesses and I was able to remedy them. I can also offer advice to my classmates on what areas they can improve on in their essay. My point is, because of the workload that the professor demands from us, I can say that I benefitted from it because I learned a lot.

Next, I think my expectations were correct with what I was about to do everyday, four times a week. In my first essay, I wrote there that I believe that I will write essays everyday, but I did not expect that we were only allowed to write them in class. I don’t really see the point in that, but I feel it helped me better because if I write my papers in class, I can ask the professor for pointers and even ask my seatmates for some opinion. I feel that maybe, If students were to write the essays at home, they can get distracted a lot because of TV, computers, etc. I believe that it is better to write in class because it helps the students get their creative juices flowing and the time pressure, although it’s not really emphasized, helps get the student to be productive with the given time.

In the end, I would like to thank my professor because I learned a lot not only for my better writing skills, but because I learned new things from the class discussions and peer evaluations – things that she keeps on emphasizing about. Because of this course, I believe that I am now ready to take up the next courses that are ENGLRES and SPEECOM.

Global warming mythbusters -- Definition

People are wondering why there are times when the weather seems hotter than before, or why it is cooler than usual. In the recent years, people come to realize that the sudden change in temperatures is quite abnormal, yet most do not believe that something is happening already. Global warming is an issue that a lot of people have misconceptions about, for example; most people believe that global warming is natural; people think that the only issue is ozone depletion; and that people do not notice anything significant in the weather.

People believe that global warming is a natural occurrence because they think that the Arctic has warmed up in the past. That is wrong because people cause global warming by burning fossil fuels and the buildup of CO2 into the atmosphere is faster more than ever because of increased human activities. Also, scientists have known that CO2 and other greenhouse gasses trap heat and warm the earth. In the earlier 20^th century, it is true that the Arctic has warmed up before, but that warmth did not affect many areas, according to limited records. There is no expectation that the current upward trend will reverse unlike the earlier periods of Arctic warmth, because the thing that prevents that from happening is the rising concentrations of greenhouse gasses.

Another misconception about global warming is that people think that the real issue is ozone depletion. The depletion of the ozone layer, which is roughly 9-21 miles above the earth’s surface, is due to man-made chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) that come from air-conditioning units, spraynets, among others. As the ozone layer becomes thinner, more harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaches the earth’s surface. On the other hand, global warming is the increase in the earth’s average temperature due to the buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Lastly, people who are staying in one place or region do not notice that in other parts of the world, the weather is abnormal. Warm winters and cold summers occur, although the latter happens less likely. Over the last century, measurements show that the earth’s climate has warmed overall, in all seasons and in most regions. The public was mislead when climate skeptics claim that the winter of 2003-2004 was the coldest ever in the northern United States. That was only the 33^rd coldest in the region since records began in 1896. Furthermore, a single year of cold weather in one region of the globe is not an indication of a trend in the global climate, which refers to a long-term average over the entire planet.

In the end, people cannot deny that global warming is happening and that it becomes worse everyday. Sure, maybe people do not know that the changes in weather is about global warming, but they have to feel that somehow, something is wrong and that people must do something about it. Several steps on how to lessen global warming includes walking instead of using vehicles when the destination is just 5minutes away, turning off appliances when it is not being used to save electricity, and so much more. Those earth-saving steps may be big or small, but at the end of the day, what matters most is that everyone helped reduce global warming.

List of reference:

http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=1011

Battle of the Sexes -- in school (argumentative)

They say that education is very important to ensure that one will get a good job in the future. That is why parents want the best for their children, so that one will be equipped with the right knowledge that he or she will use in his or her respective field of work. Knowledge alone is not enough, for one needs social skills in order to work and interact with other people, and the school being co-ed or exclusive has an effect on that skill. In the debate of learning proficiency in schools, boys and girls should have different schools because students in exclusive schools rank higher academically than those in co-ed schools, “brotherhood and sisterhood” is more evident in exclusive schools, and social interaction with the opposite sex is possible outside exclusive schools.

First of all, students from exclusive schools rank higher academically than those from co-ed schools. In a study by Edison Trickett and Penelope Trickett in comparison of students from private exclusive schools with students from private coed schools in the United States, they found out that students from exclusive schools had more positive attitude towards academics than those from coed schools. Also, even though Philippine Science High School, De La Salle Zobel, and other coed schools manage to send students to the top 4 universities in Manila, if one would look at the top 20 who passed the College entrance exams, majority of them came from exclusive schools like Ateneo HS, La Salle Greenhills, Assumption College, Poveda, among others.

Next, “brotherhood and sisterhood” is exemplified more in exclusive schools because students find it easier to “belong” to a group because they have one thing in common: gender. For example, a boy finds it easier to bond with other boys who like to play computer games or play basketball, rather than to hangout with a girl who loves writing poetry. Although students from coed schools may have “brotherhood or sisterhood” in their barkada, it is less likely because in their groups, the probability of having a barkada that is composed of boys or girls only is less likely to happen.

Lastly, since students in exclusive schools see people of the same gender most of the time in almost anything that they do, in P.E. or laboratory, among others, it is quite difficult to interact with the opposite sex – but it is not impossible. Classes can set up a soiree, a social gathering with another class from another exclusive school of the opposite gender; for example, Ateneo and Assumption. Students can also throw parties that are open to other schools. In prom or graduation balls, students can invite people from other exclusive schools of the opposite gender. School fairs, concerts, fund-raising events are possible meeting places. There are a lot of opportunities to interact with the opposite sex, not just in the 4 walls inside a classroom.

Education is very important, that’s why choosing the right school is very crucial to ensure a child’s growth. If one would pick between an exclusive school or a co-ed school, one must weigh his or her options with the given arguments regarding students from exclusive schools and those from co-ed schools.

List of references:

Wikipedia.org (n.d.) Single-sex education. Retrieved April 6, 2010, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-sex_education#Criticism

(Single-sex education”, n.d.)

Sugden, J. (December 4, 2009) A debate on co-ed education. Retrieved April 6, 2010,http://www.whyboysfail.com/2009/12/04/a-debate-on-co-ed-education/

NAASPE (n.d) Single Sex vs. Coed: the Evidence. Retrieved April 6, 2010, http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-singlesexvscoed.htm

PlayStation 3 Slim vs Xbox 360 Elite

In the past, kids would play native games such as Tag, Tumbang Preso, Piko, and so much more. The materials needed to play the games were very primitive, one can get it almost anywhere. As technologies advance, the recreation of kids come along with it. The game "Pong" was first introduced, then brick games, Nintendo, arcade games, Family Computer, and so much more. Through the years, the graphics and gameplay of each gaming console never ceases to improve. Today, the "needs" of a gamer and his or her demands from a modern, next-gen gaming console varies, and the PS3 Slim and Xbox 360 Elite can satisfy those needs. The features that set the PS3 and the Xbox 360 Elite apart from other gaming consoles are its superb hardware, different game selection and prizes, and multimedia capabilities and functions.



People often judge things depending on how it looks, what it's made of, among others. In other words, one would judge according to parts and specifications or "specs". In the gaming consoles, although the PS3 slim and Xbox 360 Elite may look and function the same, but in reality, it doesn't. The PS3 Slim has a Blu-ray and DVD player, it can store up to 120GB worth of files, HDMI output with 1080p support, and no external power supply -- all packaged in a slim, compact design. On the other hand, the Xbox 360 Elite may come close, but it cannot play Blu-ray CDs, it has a noisy DVD drive and cooling fan. It also has a huge power supply, no built-in wireless networking, and proprietary wireless format limits third-party accessories. The PS3 Slim and Xbox 360 Elite are both upgraded versions, but one of them fell short. In terms of hardware performance, it is safe to say that the PS3 Slim wins round one.


Next, graphics-wise, both platforms excel with their high-definition visuals, but the element that really matter are the games themselves. The Xbox 360 came out a year earlier than the PS3, and that helped establish the game titles of Xbox 360. It offers excellent selection of games and most of them are exclusive for the 360-platform only. It also offers Xbox Live for online multiplayer gameplay that requires a monthly subscription payment. On the other hand, the PS3 is not far behind, as the game makers has not yet tapped the maximum potential of what the PS3 hardware has to offer. The PS3 game titles are almost at par with those of the Xbox 360, as it also has some PS3 platform exclusives. It also offers multiplayer gaming, and the clincher is that it doesn't require additional payment. On a side note, since the PS3 games are in Blu-ray format, it cannot be pirated, unlike the Xbox 360 games that are in DVD format. That means all PS3 games must be bought original, which costs around P3000-P5000 per cd, unlike the Xbox 360 games that can go as low as P100 per CD. Piracy is frowned upon, but not every gamer is rich. With these explanations, Xbox 360 Elite evens the playing field; 1-1.


Lastly, every gamer wants to get quite a bit more "bang for the buck" or some extra features that may or may not be connected to gaming, but is still useful and entertaining. Both platforms offer some extra feature, but one seems to outperform the other. The PS3 Slim, for instance, has a built-in web browser, it has a Blue-ray and upscale DVD player, it offers free online multiplayer gaming and it can play PS2 games. On the other hand, the Xbox360 Elite has a user-friendly Dashboard interface, it supports wireless controllers and accessories, doubles as a digital media hub and windows media extender, and the online Marketplace allows users to purchase minigames, add-on gaming content, and movies and TV shows in high-def. Each console has its own strengths but both lack in one area or another. Even so, both are still considered as top-of-the-line gaming consoles. In terms of extra features, it ends in a tie.


In the end, with all the arguments that have been presented, one can weigh his options on what he really wants from a game console. If one prefers the hardware and the potential that it will offer for more better games, he may opt to buy the PS3 Slim. If one prefers the quality and the affordability of games that are being offered now, he may pick the Xbox 360 Elite. Or if one has simply too much money and he wants to enjoy both sides of the fence, he may buy both consoles. It is up to the gamer to ponder on which one is better, but at the end of the day, rest assured that one will find himself or herself spending countless hours playing his or her favorite games, whether it is from the PS3 Slim or from the Xbox 360 Elite.