Alexwrites

The social issue I chose is drug overdose. I pick drug overdose because it is the leading cause of injury deaths in the Unites States. In 2017, it killed more than 70,000 people in the U.S. and this number will only keep getting larger every year. I feel to solve this problem the communities needs begin to learn about safe havens and how some countries in Europe are using this method to prevent more drug overdose deaths. Basically, safe havens are facilities where drug addicts or other people can go to inject their drug safely and in case of an overdose there is trained staff ready to help with the situation. I chose this topic because I think to solve this problem is fairly easy, but people just need to get together and begin a campaign to let the government know that drug overdose can be stop using this method.

Website- https://alexis10776.wixsite.com/stopdrugoverdose

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/stopdrugoverdose/

Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/Stop-Drug-Overdose-104476291048220/?modal=admin_todo_tour

Canvas- https://www.canva.com/design/DADtefrt6Wo/share/preview?token=5ueCHAhYxmrV5QPAPzmhAw&role=EDITOR&utm_content=DADtefrt6Wo&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=sharebutton

Podcast- https://anchor.fm/alexis-torres3/episodes/Drug-Overdose-e9c4p1

How are you using social media? Social media can be used to find information, watch videos, and participate in social networking. The impact of YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for me is only for entertainment purposes. While, watching videos I do sometimes think to myself I am wasting my time and could be doing something productive.

Even though I haven’t learn how to use social media in a way it could benefit me it doesn’t mean it hasn’t benefit other people like my parents. A year before I was born my parents came into the United States as illegal Immigrants. So, my mom was not able to see her parents for around 14 years. As technology kept growing and applications were developing people were being able to connect to each other more easily.

When my brother learned about face-timing apps and how you could see a person face-to-face from every part of the world. He decide to download an app called WhatsApp, which help people FaceTime in Android phones. By teaching my grandma and my family in Mexico how to use the app my mom was able to see her mom for the first time. It was so overwhelming to watch them FaceTime because you could’ve seen tears coming down their eyes.

Now days my mom FaceTimes to Mexico almost every day and is able to be inform of everything that is happening over there. Being able to FaceTime each other is such an important impact for people around the world, Apple, in 2018 decided to update their software to allow up to 32 people to FaceTime each other. I feel social media has it’s negatives, but if you are able to find the positives it would definitely benefit you.

It is everybody dream to manage their favorite sports team. Every time I see a soccer team getting crushed and the camera closes up to coach, owner, and the players I feel sad for them. It makes me think of never wanting to be on this situation, so I always imagine how I would run a team if I was the owner.

Soccer is a confusion sport because it is always changing. In the past it was played more on offense, but now defense is key because players are faster, dribble quicker, and shoot stronger. The same is happening in the business area because players are going up on value. One example is Ronaldinho a Brazilian soccer player when he was sold from PSG to Barcelona in 2003, it only cost 37 million euros, but now Brazilian player Neymar Jr. when he was sold from Barcelona to PSG in 2017, and it cost 220 million euros.

Since the players are expensive, I feel like battling in the market for this talents would not be a great idea. What I would do is find young prospects from every part of world to make my team a superpower. This works because last year an 18 year old player called Kylian Mbappe, won the World Cup being a starter 11 on all the games and sold for 180 million euros.

According, to retired soccer player and Coach Johan Cruyff, he stated this quote: “Why couldn’t you beat a richer club? I’ve never seen a bag of money score a goal”. Cruyff, establish this style of coaching and won a champions league in 1995, but now days no team does this. It would be awesome to bring this back because it is a way to find talents for cheap and selling them high to make the team successful.

Have you ever felt you know so much about a somebody or something and just want to share the information with everybody? Now days almost everyone has the ability to discuss what they know about a subject with the power of phones and social media. This is called the democratization of knowledge, which in Wikipedia means the spread of knowledge among the common people, not just privileged elites such as clergy and academics.  

Democratization of knowledge has grown so much in the past years, people used to only have access to Ivy College education if they were admitted or attend in person. But, stated by gsablogs.gsa.gov, now many colleges such as Harvard, MIT, Duke, and Standford give out courses online for free. There are also other websites like Wikipedia, Yelp, Facebook, and YouTube where people can upload their thoughts whenever they want.  

Is this a healthy way of people getting educated and should people be allowed to keep spreading their ideas or data on social media? Some people say it is not a good way of learning new things because people with no college education can write papers or make videos and the information can be false and misleading. According to Dimitris Tsigos, a writer from efront, he stated that learning technologies were a luxury product, but now everything is cheaper to learn. 

Examples are cooking books, magazines, beauty learning, or health diagnostics. In the past people need to pay for all the things I just mention, but today people can search recipes, read magazines online, watch videos on how to get makeup, and go to websites were doctors give you factual information of a disease or injury. According to Jane Weaver, a writer from NBCNews, health companies in 2013 were going to invest $1 billion online, which means the importance of putting factual information about health online.  

Businesses also benefit from the democratization of knowledge because many people can rate and add comments about a restaurant, beauty salon, gyms, or many other local places in yelp or google. Believe it or not many people actually go to these websites to see the ratings and comments before attending the business place. According to Rosie Murphy, author of an article on BrightLocal, she said 86 percent of consumers read reviews of local business and to trust the business they need to read at least 10 reviews.  

I do think democratization of knowledge is a good thing because people are paying more to bring you reliable information. It is also cheaper because you don’t need to be buying every product just to learn something. Lastly, people can see if businesses are good or bad by looking up rating and reading reviews of the place.  

After waking up from a tipsy night and then looking in the mirror finding out you have a tattoo on your face, while screaming “how did this happen?”. It means you dislike the tattoo and would never have done it if you were not drunk. This scene happens in a movie called “The Hangover II”, which is the highest grossing movie of the sequel earning more than a total of $586 million.

The tattoo used in the movie is an exact replica of the Mike Tyson face tattoo, which created a problem for the producers of the movie. Since, the retired boxer gave the copyrights of the piece of art to his tattoo artist Victor Whitmill, so it was his decision if they were allowed to use the tattoo in the movie. By believing that a tattoo is not valuable enough to be copyright, the producers decided to put it in the movie without asking the artist. This ended up on Whitmill, suing the company.

While many people think he shouldn’t have sued because his art was displayed on the big screen and watched by millions of people around the world. Whitmill, was not recognized in the movie and feels like they are not appreciating his art because they are just making fun of it. For a tattoo artist this is a no no because they feel pride in their work. According to Kyle Pryce, a counselor who later became tattoo artist, she has pride even on her first tattoo she did on herself.

I agree with Withmill, for suing because according to celebritybirthdays.com, Mike Tyson is the third boxer most popular in the world. Everytime people google Tyson’s name the first thing that comes out is his tattoo. This helped attract more people to go watch the movie and for the producers to get more money. So, this is why I think he deserves to get some money because he didn’t get recognized, they didn’t appreciate his work, and he helped them win more money.

When is the last time you have seen an attractive person being excluded out of a job? Unfortunately, for non-attractive people according to John Moore, a counseling psychologist, attractive women get a call back rate of 47% more, while attractive men received a call back rate of 23% more than non-attractive men or women. The social experiment was done to managers from Italian companies with job openings, but not to married couples trying to hire a home helper.

Cheating is the worst fear of a married couple, for they find it hard to find the right (nanny, yard worker, pool cleaner, maid, etc.) to hire. Many of them have this fear because of television series, movies, adult content, and celebrity drama. A perfect example would be how actor Ben Affleck cheated on his wife Jennifer Garner with the attractive nanny.

Good looking home helpers should not be categorize as relationship breakers because those scenarios are happening in someone else’s life. They are also either helping the relationship get stronger or end because it was already not working. There are other reasons why I believe married couples should not avoid hiring attractive workers and here are some:

My first reason is trustworthiness because if you had enough trust to get married to he/she why debate on hiring an attractive person. According to Alissa Henry, a publisher, she trusts her partner, but would prefer hiring a mother looking nanny to eliminate temptations. I feel like in her writing, she is just contradicting herself.

What if his best for the job in your area, but you don’t hire him because he is attractive. An example would be a bodyguard, what if the attractive bodyguard knows excellent fighting techniques and shooting abilities, but you prefer to get an unattractive and untrained bodyguards to eliminate temptations because of this they would probably eliminate you.

Would he/she even be attractive to you? What if he/she is already married with kids and needs the money to help support them, but you do not know that. So, you just end up not hiring in him because of his good looks and your jealousy.

I just want to end with this quote: “Trust is like paper once it’s crumpled it can’t be perfect again”, so if you trust your partner like paper hire an attractive home helper.

Monday, Dec. 2, 2018
Alexis Torres, alexis10776@gmail.com

Weekend Wrap-Up: Carroll High School to the Quarter Finals, Texas Longhorns loses Big 12 Championship Game, Dallas Mavericks in Full Gear

A thrilling sports weekend in the State of Texas has come to an end. Carroll High School (13-0, 7-0) faced Trinity High School (10-2, 5-1) to enter the quarter finals. Then, the Texas Longhorns (9-4, 7-3) went against Oklahoma (12-1, 9-1) at the Big 12 Championship game and to finish everything off the Dallas Mavericks (11-10) faced Los Angeles Clippers (15-7). And with this, away we go:

Undefeated to the Quarter Finals
Finishing with 116 yards and two touchdowns TJ McDaniel helped the Carroll Dragons (13-0, 7-0) to victory over the Trinity Trojans (10-2, 5-1), 35-7. Where the Dragons quarterback Will Bowers threw 17 out of 22 for 237 yards and two touchdowns. Undefeated, Carroll will face Duncanville High School in their next game, which have also been unbeatable in the season. Brian Gosset from the Star-Telegram has more here.

Will the Longhorns Comeback from this Defeat at the Sugar Bowl?
No. 15 Texas Longhorns (9-4, 7-3) began the game winning by a running touchdown from their quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who passed for 349 yards and two touchdowns with one interception. But, No. 4 Oklahoma Sooners (12-1, 9-1) ended up on top, 39-27 with their quarterback Kyler Murray being the Most Outstanding Player with 379 yards pass and three touchdowns. The Horns will now try to erase this depressing lost, when they faced the Georgia Bulldogs on the Sugar Bowl next year. Wescott Eberts from Burn to Orange Nation has more here.

Everything Works as a Team
With Luka Doncic and Dirk Nowitzki injured the Dallas Mavericks (11-10) work as a team to strengthen their selves to dunk the Los Angeles Clippers (15-7), 114-110. Mavericks power forward Harrison Barnes was the top scorer in the game with 30 points and 9 rebounds. In this game the Mavericks learn that working hard as a team can helped them win games without the need of their superstars. Kirks Henderson form MavMoneyBall has more here.

— #UNTDSportsEnt —

Monday, Nov. 26, 2018                                                                                                                 Alexis Torres, alexis10776@gmail.com

Weekend Wrap-Up: Texas Longhorns Head to the Big 12 Championship with a Win, Lake Ridge Three Overtime Game, Dallas Mavericks Reach .500 Record on the Season.

It was an exciting sports weekend in the Lone Star State. The Texas Longhorns (9-3) went against Kansas (3-9) before heading to their first Big 12 Championship game since 2009. Then Lake Ridge High School (9-2) faced Guyer High School (6-6) in an intensive game and the Dallas Mavericks (9-9) defended home against the Celtics (10-10) without their point guard Dennis Smith Jr. Along with that, away we go:

Suffering at the End Again                                                                                                    No.9 Texas Longhorns (9-3) defeated at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium the No.108 Kansas Jayhawks (3-9), 24-17. Where the Horns were running over the Jayhawks in the first three quarters 21-0, but then they lay back and suffer the consequences of getting scored 17 points in the 4th quarter. Texas quarterback Sam Ehlinger had two interceptions in the game and made the team have more turnovers than Kansas, but they were able to go on with a victory. Wescott Eberts from Burn to Orange Nation has more here.

Nobody Wants Lose                                                                                                               In Pennington Field, No.31 Mansfield Lake Ridge Eagles faced No.67 Denton Guyer Wildcats where the Eagles imposed their strength to win, 50-42. Both of the teams in total made 976 yards with 162 plays and 57 first downs. With the Wildcats in possession of the ball in the 3rd overtime and thriving to make it the 4th overtime, Eagles defensive player Darius Houston sack quarterback Eli Stowers to make it harder for Guyer to score and lose the game. Brian Gosset from the Star-Telegram has more here.

Positive Numbers                                                                                                               NBA team No.9 in the Western Conference Dallas Mavericks (9-9) defended their territory against the No.7 in the Eastern Conference Boston Celtics (10-10), 113-104. Bringing the team back to .500 the Mavericks had five players with 14 points or more, but Harrison Barnes and J.J. Barea scored 20 points each to become the high scorers in the team. The Mavericks will then face the Houston Rockets for their next game to go back above .500. Matt Galatzan from 247Sports has more here.

— #UNTDSportsEnt —

Friday, Nov. 16, 2018
Alexis Torres, alexis10776@gmail.com

As His Worst Critic, Veteran Play-by-Play Announcer Thulin Continues to Strike for Greatness

(Dallas, Texas) – His passion to be a play-by-play sports announcer as a kid, propelled Ron Thulin to a career any sports fan could dream of.

With 44 years of experience, Thulin has covered all sorts of sports such as basketball, football and multiple Olympics. Currently, he is broadcasting games for Fox Sports and the University of Texas at Arlington.

Having the ability to sit right outside the field or court, Thulin has met with some of the most famous professional athletes. In one occasion, he receive two autographs from the distinguished Michael Jordan and he took a picture of his daughters with Shaquille O’Neal on his prime days.

Luckily, for a Sports & Entertainment Class at UNT Dallas, Thulin stop by to share some of his ups and downs in his career as an announcer. He cover it all in his speech, here are some of the things he said:

What does it take to be on Television?
Thulin – “If you want to be on TV and you do not have thick skin get out, do not even try it, if you want to get on TV to get rich do not do it, stay out of it and find something else because you need to have a passion.”

Do you had a purpose on why you want it to be a play-by-play announcer?
Thulin – “My purpose in life was to serve others, that was the way I was brought up and I knew that by doing what I do on the air as an announcer I will be able to serve other people by doing this.”

How do you prepare for unknown sports?
Thulin – “I call all the people I knew that had done swimming and just tell them to tell me about this event, and you just start calling people because there was not internet back then, but now you can just search up something a get everything you want.”

Did you ever had second thought on becoming an announcer?
“You will go through those times were you tell yourself what am I doing? There has to be a better way, but I had people that supported me to be an announcer.

How do you adjust yourself through out the years?
Thulin – “Always being your worst critic, I’m my worst critic; I am tell you nobody takes it worse than me when I make a mistake it keep me up at night and hate when my wife says nobody notice, but I did I notice. I’m a professional I should not be making that mistake.”

— #UNTDSportsEnt —

Thursday, Nov. 15, 2018
Alexis Torres, alexis10776@gmail.com

UTA Cantu
Learning the Outline

(Dallas, Texas) – A Media Technology Program in High School was the first step for David J. Cantu to become a teacher and producer in communication.

Following his career, Cantu worked as a Media Technology Instructor, but thriving for something new he is now the communication coordinator for Northwest ISD and video producer for the University of Texas at Arlington.

In this positions, Cantu is in charge of reaching the district through electronic newsletters, social media platforms, print media and video production. He also, needs to coordinate game producers and camera operators for UTA.

Cantu is a great example of how to work hard to establish yourself in the position you always dreamed. Fortunately, for the UNTD Sports & Entertainment Writing class, Cantu free his schedule to talk about how to be successful in Media Technology.

“You have to start at the bottom and work your way up to earn your stripes and do the grump work that a lot of people are not necessarily happy,” said by Cantu to explain that when starting at the bottom a person gets to watch everybody and learn everything.

“Where ever you go Network, Network and Network,” eagerly stated by Cantu because he feels that networking is the most important thing in the business because if people like the way you work. They are going to remember you and would always comeback to help you.

“Always have other stokes in the fire no matter what because you could go broke, so always have additional jobs,” Cantu said this because he knows that some jobs can be fun, but the hours are not enough to get the amount of money in a week to pay bills.

Since, Cantu is a minority when asked about the challenges of being a minority he stated this:

“You are not going to face a lot of adversities in the sports business because it is dominant by minorities, they are just going to look at your skillset and what you bring to the table.”

The class then gives him Cantu a gift and respectfully he hands out business cards to the students and tells them to contact him if they need help with other questions involving Media Technology.

Cantu— “You have to have that outline, you got to know what is you have to do before you start shooting, a lot of kids say I’m going to shoot a video and they have a camera but do not have an outline.”

— #UNTDSportsEnt —