Exposure in the 21st Century

Exposure, right off the bat, is the act of revealing, unmasking, or presenting oneself or rather something. However, the term exposure can mean different things from different aspects. The term has changed drastically in many senses. First, in a biology sense, it refers to “poor health, results from lack of protection over a prolonged period,” as stated by wikipedia.org. In ancient time, people did not that live long, therefore, dieases and disorders that is common today were not seen. However, today, the life span of an average person and the number of dieases have increased. People are "exposed" to many more disorders and dieases such as STDs to disorders such as Panic Attack Disorder. Could this increase in different sicknesses be due to our exposure to harmful chemicals created by humans? Or could it be that these disorders have long existed but were not acknowledge? Or rather, these sicknesses were seen as being possessed by devils or a looked at as a form of punishment by god?

Exposure in a photography sense means something totally different. It is the “Total amount of light allowed to fall on the sensor during the process of taking a photograph,” is another definition written on Wikipedia. But exposure in this sense makes me think of the creation of web cameras, digital cameras, and most importantly the camera phones that many of us cannot live without. A form of exposure in the 21st century in a photography sense can very well be expressed through convenient mobile cameras. About twenty years ago, it was very common to see tourists as well as regular individuals carrying around huge bulky cameras. I remember my dad used to carry one around in a bag that consist of an adapter, a foldable tripod, and some wires you have to attach to the camera in order for it to function. On top of that, we have to wait for days to see the images. It was heavy and inconvenient. Fast forward to today with advanced technology, we are blessed to fit our cameras inside a small bag or wear it around our wrist. Some cell phones also come with a camera function that allows people to snap quick photos and then share them with family and friends instantly. Maybe in another 20 years, our species can come up with another type of camera that is even more convenient. Say, contact lenses that acts as a camera so we are able to keep a copy of images we see with our own eyes. Now that's what I call convenient.

Exposure in entertainment specifies the practice of revealing yourself publicly designed to rouse public interest. I remember watching VH1 on the history of "Playboy" and how it came about. Decades ago, images of nude women on magazine covers were starting to become a trend. More and more magazines started to adopt the popular selling images of sexy "exposed" women. However, it was very uncommon to see regular everyday women taking nude or sexy pictures of themselves and publicizing them. It seemed more appropriate for models or famous superstars to engage in these photo shoots than for common people. But living in today’s world, it "seems" that more and more women are exposing their bodies and there are many ways to to do this. One very popular way to maximize presentation of an exposed self would be a form of visual exposure. Images are common and many online networks such as Myspace and Facebook encourages people to pose their pictures online. It has become the trend that if you have sexually explicit visual images on your profile, people are more likely to want to be your friends, as in the case with uprising celebrity Tila Tequila. She started out with a Myspace page posting very implicit images of herself in bikinis and other almost nude photos. She quickly became the number one person on myspace with the most friends. From this online fame, she was able to earn a reality show and that sparked her career in the entertainment business. This may be a reason why more females are posting revealing photos of themselves. In addition, a site called, "Ratemypix.com" seem to encourage others to rate how attractive a person look on a scale of one to ten. Many people who seek attention or want to be view as "sexy" or "attractive" and to earn a ten will want to expose themselves to get the attention they crave for. A female who pose a bikini photo of herself is more likely to earn a ten than a female who pose a headshot image or one without showing any skin.

On a lawful point relating to indecent exposure, it is the “display of unclothed parts of the human body against local custom and law.” This statement seems to apply to past generations because obviously in today’s society, you don’t see teenage girls getting arrested for posting nearly nude photos of themselves online or see people at nude beaches getting fined. Nudity, to a certain extent, has shifted from being unlawful to a form of tolerable public attention even if it is considered immoral or distasteful by many. I mean if people were to run around in public naked, they would still get fine but the point is, nudity isn’t as an extreme problem in our society anymore, rather it seems more embraced and encouraged by the media and particularly the entertainment world as stated above. Our history of body exposure has changed from seeing mainly celebrities baring skin to seeing the average person baring it all. Moreover, would it be alarming if it became a trend or even the norm to see naked bodies everywhere in the future? But maybe the future of this trend is actually going backward in time to continue what used to be the norm, at least for cavemen. They did not wear much clothes and did not mind exposing their bodies. So maybe it wouldn't be that alarming since we were once that way. Maybe when we are exposing ourselves through explicit images, we can say that we are actually connecting with our roots? So any takers to continue an old trend?

Reflections on Blogging

Like many of us, I feel that this class is truly different yet this difference is very unique and it allowed me a chance to truly express my writing in terms of my personality. To be honest, I did dread this class at the beginning. This is supposed to be one of my two last classes here at UC Davis and so I thought to myself, “Just suck it up and B.S all the way.” I felt this way because many of my writing classes in the past have all been the same boring experience. I never felt like I could learn anything new. I want to be able to walk away from a class and feel like I have grown wiser by picking up something useful.

But this has not been the case. Even when I go to Dutton Hall to get my papers revised, they all seem to only focus on the same thing and that is to correct little grammatical mistakes and make sure you fulfilled all the requirements to get a decent grade. This requirement of most typical papers limits my writing potential and also in a way unmotivated me to write good papers, at least I believe so. This type of writing style in a “container” does not suit well with me. I mean sure, it’s supposed to “help” a person develop an appropriate and a professional paper. But shouldn’t a writing class also enhance and embrace a student’s style at the same time? I would think that at a university level, writing classes should motivate students to write, not make them dread writing classes, like how some of us may feel.Blogging enables more control of my thoughts and allows me to feel like I am an adult who can write about anything intelligently rather than write as an obedient child. Blogging helps me to incorporate all that I’ve learned in the past, including all basic rules such as grammar and sentence structure, but also expresses my own personal style and the flexibility to think analytically.

Another part of this class that I really enjoyed was the daily discussions that take place. Although I’m not very talkative in class, I found many points rose in class to be very interesting and that also helped me to incorporate my critical thinking views and express them in my blogs. In addition, this class allows me to think in ways I have never before, at least to be able to put it in writing. I always thought my views on certain matters and thinking will place a blemish on my writing, but I found this to be an opposite effect in this class. I feel that my best writings come from subjects that really mattered to me.

Recently, I had a discussion with my boyfriend about this class and my writing style in particular. I remember him telling me a few years ago that he was very surprised from reading my emails because he thought they were very good writing. However, from reading my traditional English papers, he thought my writing totally sucked. From this, I realized that my writings are better through a subject I feel passionately about. It takes a lot for me to write a paper with a boring topic because all I really want to do is b.s without the guarantee of it being an “A” paper, yet with a topic I feel strongly about, I can go on and on. Therefore, I really think that blogging can bring out my best writing and helps me rediscover the passion for writing that I used to have. It was lost somewhere along the way during college. But thanks to this class, I have found that passion again and maybe I will take up the suggestion made by Christ on blogging about my dreams again.

Taking mobility for granted?

Mobility has been one of our popular topics in class and has taken us into many discussions and numerous blogs. Recently, it has been a trend to revisit older posts and reply to it. So here I am, recollecting my thoughts and putting them into a blog. Bernie's blog demonstrates that many of us take mobility for granted. I agree that many of us do take mobility, in this case, laptops, for granted. Laptops are so convenient and light weighted that we are able to take them outside our homes. Therefore, people become very dependent on it, using it almost as much as a cell phone, if not even more. I know I simply cannot live without my laptop. Well, okay maybe I can, it's just that I can do many things very easily on my laptop, and the thought of being laptop free is very scary. I used to carry my laptop everywhere on campus, and the days when I do not, I find myself face to face with a computer in one of the computer labs on campus. So yes, I guess I am one of the many millions of people who are very reliant on a laptop just because it makes my life a little easier but I'm not sure if I do take it for granted. I mean I still have a life outside my laptop because the only things that I really do on it is check emails, blog, manage my accounts, etc. Things that I can easily do at home without going anywhere else. Just like Bernis said in his post about blogging at home rather than driving to school to do it; it's mere convenience. Laptops are designed to make our lives easier, that's the way I see it. I believe and hope that many of us do not just sit and stare at the laptop all day everyday, making it our primary focus, maybe that's what you call taking it for granted? I'm not even sure, how you would go about measuring if a person is taking mobility for granted or not. Where do you draw the line? Moreover, it was mentioned that "There are people who have fatalities, from amputated limbs to permanent, life-threatening disabilities, while others simply cannot afford other types of mobility." He stated that people should appreciate what they have instead of worrying about what we don't have. I feel that many of us at some point in our lives feel this way when a tragedy happens to us or to our loved ones. Sometimes we tell ourselves not to take life for granted, but that thought just doesn't stay in our minds afresh every minute. Therefore, it's very difficult to realize that we do take technology or mobility for granted. But even after we realized that we do take it for granted, most of us are not willing to abandon to prove to people that we do not take mobility for granted. The truth of the matter is that laptops help us in more ways than harm us, so why even care if we take them for granted? As for those who simply cannot afford these mobilities, I feel that if they were able to, they could be one of many, who would take it for granted at one point or another. Simply put, we are a species that depend on technology whether we use it sometimes, use it all the time, or take it for granted. This is, after all, a fast paced world and people learn to adapt to an advanced world by taking mobility for granted, all to make our lives a little easier. And Kudos to "Still, immobility sucks!" I agree!

Perspectives on one photograph

This picture was taken at the end of June this summer. Yes so I cheated. I just feel that this picture captures the innocence and natural expression of two children who were having fun that I can’t possibly duplicate in the exact same sense. They are brother and sister, and they happen to be my boyfriend’s little cousins. You can instantly look at this picture and see that the four of us were unaware of the camera so that encapsulates the naturalistic part of the photograph. Looking at the picture as a whole, one can say that the four of us belong in the same story. Given that we were at the same location and not far from each other and simply put, we were all enjoying ourselves at this wonderful wedding. But when you disassemble the image, you can conclude that everyone is in their own space. Look a little harder and you can see that my boyfriend is in his own world, probably playing games on his phone as he seems to fade away from our perspective. Once he’s out of the picture, the two kids and I dominate the view. Then you can break the picture down even further as you look more carefully. You can simply eliminate my existence as well because I was just watching the children interact with one another. If I remember correctly, I was probably deep in thought as to how much of a pain it was to be there while the weather was a torture. It was over 105 degree Fahrenheit outside and everyone was sweating including me. But you can’t really tell it was that hot by just looking at this picture. So going back to the content of this image, and from my perspective, I view these two adorable kids as the product of one image rather than the four of us as from the photographer’s view. And if my boyfriend happens to look up at us in between his game breaks, he may incorporate my existence in addition to the two kids in his view as well. But then again, a picture can be view from many different perspectives and that’s why I feel that it’s great to just sit back and examine one photo while many stories unravel. Besides, I think that anyone who looks at this picture can come up with their own view and story about us and that is why this assignment is so different and fun. Apparently my story from my perspective will be a little different from my boyfriend and from that of the photographer. In conclusion, I wouldn’t mind hearing other people’s perspective on this particular photograph and what kind of story they can come up with.

What If History is Made Believe

One particular post caught my interest. After reading his post, I decided to take a hit at it to express my point of view on history. According to Warren Tan’s post about “Mystory,” he mentioned, “we can really only know for a fact what we see through our own experience.” But I feel that even if you do experience something, how can you really conclude if that something is a fact? I mean nothing is definite. For instance, I’ve taken an Abnormal Psychology course, and have learned many disorders that gives people illusions and wild imaginations that only they experience. In this case, can we say that people with disorders experience things that are real or factual? Also, certain drugs can alter people’s state of mind. So what if during the time of writing history or actually experiencing certain events in history, people are on drugs? Wouldn’t that change their perspective on things and in turn give false information that could have been added to our history? How can one really say what people see or hear or experience is indeed a fact? On the other hand, I agree that people tend to believe in things that they want to hear rather than things they do not. Most people would believe in things that they find interesting or curious about. Personally, I wouldn’t believe in something at first, but then at the same time, I would feel like, “hey you never know, anything is possible and start to think it may be true and thus start to believe in it. It’s like my curiosity takes over and then self fulfilling prophecy happens.

In addition, it is sad that we can only base our information on science with forming theories and then testing it or disproving it. It would be more convenient if we can get our information on history from another source. Maybe a higher power or even a really smart computer that can answer just about anything. But since those things do not exist or so we believe, we would have to stick to science and try to disprove theories. But even if we can disprove something, it doesn’t mean it is true because we cannot prove if things are true. This is what I learned in some psychology courses, that we cannot prove things; we only can disprove them. Thus, can one really say that the sun rises every morning and sets at night? There is no way to prove that this is true. Most of us just assume this is true because it seems to happen that way since the existence of humans. However, one cannot say that it is true simply because it had happened in the past. What happens in the future is another thing. What if one day, the sun does not rise and set like it normally does? So we can’t really conclude on that because we would not live long enough to find out. But then again, that reminds me of a phenomenon called, "the Midnight sun," (also see above image) where the sun does not rise and set everyday. But again, even in the midnight sun's phenomenon, we cannot conclude that this event happens all the time. However, we can say that it does happen. While the scientific method seems to be reliable, we cannot prove if something is in fact true. Would there ever be an alternative way in finding out the facts of history that would give us 100% accuracy? Conversely, wouldn’t it be amazing if there was some sort of higher power we can turn to for answers about our history? And what if that higher power really exist and is controlling our history and making us believe in certain things? But that would just be scary!

Moreover, another point in the post discussed, “buying a used car and not knowing if the facts written about the car is true or not,” reminded me of the movie, “Matilda.” This movie is about a little girl with powers and her dad is a mechanic, fixes old cars and is also a salesman who resells them with a really high price. The interesting thing is that he turns back the mileage on the cars and thus increases the value instantly. This particular scene in the movie made me think and question the real value of used cars. I mean it is a movie, but there are people who deceive others and disclose false information on used cars in order to sell. This made me shiver and wonder if there is a trusting place to buy a used car? Sometimes, it is scary to not know the “facts” about the things that we end up purchasing.

Nevertheless, I really enjoy reading this post because it makes me think, “what if everything in history is not true? Then what? It’s kind of crazy to really think about this and the effect it would really have on many people. I mean if everything recorded in history is false, then the majority of us would really start to freak out and wonder if the world we are living in is a safe and trusty place to live in. But then again you never know because anything is possible! Our history can be all true or it can be merely made believe. But that is something we may never find the answer to.

Dragon fruit for at least $1000

Since the primitive time of our first ancestors, food was very important to us. Food to us is like adding gasoline to a car. Without food, humans would perish, just like a dead car without gas. Thus, humans in general eat to survive. At least that is from a biological point and it is true.

However, fast forward a few thousand years to our modern time, and we have discovered that we, as a human race, not only eat in order to survive, but we eat because we enjoy good food. Well at least the majority of us who can afford it. I guess we have now altered our biological purpose a little bit. We don’t just buy any kind of food to satisfy our hunger, but we choose the food that we love. We would even go out of our way and go that extra mile in obtaining the desire food of our hearts. Heck, we would even pay more just so we can taste it and just to satisfy our hunger for delicious food. I certainly am one of those people who would pay $1000 worth of airfare to go back to Vietnam just so I can eat great food. I'm really picky with the foods that I eat so I wouldn't mind spending the money if I have it. On the other hand, it doesn't have to cost a lot, it just have to agree with my taste buds.

I remember my trip to Vietnam eight years ago. It was a hot summer and all I remember about the trip was the numerous authentic dishes and the many exotic fruits that I found unforgettable. The fruits, particularly, looked interesting and were very scrumptious. I have a weakness for fruits and when I was presented with a plate full of weird, exotic, and heavenly looking fruits, my eyes lit up. Each and every one of the fruits assembled on the patterned plate was seductive in its own way and looked rather inviting. However, my eyes lingered on one particular fruit; it is called the dragon fruit which tastes oh so wonderful. It does, in a way, look sort of like a dragon with fusia like skin color with many fin-like leaves attached to its body and they sort of resembled fish fins to me. Anyhow, with just the first bite, I was seduced by it’s sweetness but there was something else. I started to search for its distinct flavor. As my tongue bonded with the partly smooth and partly rough flesh of the dragon fruit, I was amazed. It was sweet, yet sour, but then again kind of milky, and oh I mustn’t forget about the juicy and thirst quenching part of it. The dragon fruit did not have a distinct flavor rather it is a combination of flavors working together to please every single one of my taste buds. The flavors left my taste buds begging for more. Needless to say, I fell in love with it and ate to my heart’s content. I even skipped a few main courses and dive right into the other exotic fruits that captured my attention. Not only were they mouthwatering but they were also exquisitely beautiful. I ended up going back there two years later just to please my taste buds once more. But that isn’t enough; I’m planning to save up enough money for another trip this year. Oh the things I would do for these fruits.

Start Walking, it is Good for You

“Mobility” is a term that shifted my thoughts from the movie, “Hancock” to “walking.” I had just finished viewing “Hancock” at Union City Theater and I think it would be really fun and convenient to just stomp my feet, damage some concrete, and fly with magnificent speed to wherever I want to be. Will Smith, who played Hancock, used flying as his primary or secondary form of mobility. Yes, not a car, but flying. Who says you can’t substitute driving with flying? The way I see it, if you are able to fly, and no not in a jet or an airplane, then I say go for it. As long as the alternative type of mobile isn't hard to obtain and is more affordable than gas, then it is advantageous and a great substitute for driving. But let’s face it, we’re not Hancock, and our lives aren’t scripted. Therefore, flying isn’t an option for us, but walking is. Not only will walking save us money, it also comes with many other great advantages. First of all, we can spend our saved money from gasoline on other things. Things that we wished we had extra money for. Things such as a new dvd player, a great new laptop with a build in web camera, or even a new pair of jeans that's totally out of our budget. Most people would prefer to pay $50-100 a week on gasoline but a little walking here and there can save us some of that hard earn money and use it towards something else. I mean you're not require to walk everywhere, just whenever it is possible and in the right weather. A little money save here and there may go a long way since everything in today’s economy is increasing. Not only that, but walking is a great form of exercise. Walking can improve our well being by helping us burn fat, improve our heart rate, and help with blood circulations. Moreover, we can tone our calves, arms, and legs just by walking short distances everyday. Also, a person can lose a few calories easily. (Ask our professor, he walks a lot!) In addition, taking walks in this town called Davis can help improve moods. There are many trees, flowers, and other nature influenced scenery that imitates mother nature itself. I learned in my Health Psychology course that being able to see images of nature will help improve mood. Just by exposing yourself to the great weather, the natural Davis environment, and exploring the town a bit may put a smile on your face. Therefore it is a good idea to just take a moment in this fast pace world to notice the beautiful and natural scenary around you. Go ahead, put that foot mobility to good use and take that nice summer walk with a good friend. Let the warm summer breeze ruffle through your mane and lighten your mood. For a change, let your feet do some work rather than your gas padle for a change.