Three thoughts from our discussion

The first thing which we talked about in class that I found interesting was the large transition in Francis' life during the second chapter. During the first chapter Francis was a sort of party animal who led a very social life, and was well loved by everyone. At the end of the first chapter, Francis began having vivid dreams that made him want to turn his life around. In the second chapter, he began to help the poor more often. When he met a beggar in the street, Francis gave him money to make his life better. Francis' father began to dislike his son due to this new change in his life. I believe he had the wrong outlook on what Francis was now doing. It is not fair for him to disown his son because he felt that being outgoing by viewing it as a way of being too open about his personal life. I was also surprised that Francis stopped talking to his father at this point. It is hard to believe that someone who led such a religious life to hold a grudge for that long.

I also found our discussion about the citizens' reactions to Hurricane Katrina very interesting. I feel that when something bad happens to people, their first reaction is to blame this act on God. The flaw I find with this is we have always been taught that our God is not a vengeful one. He would never destroy an entire city simply to send a message to its inhabitants. A better reason to ask this question is simply to rationalize why it has happened. If the people were to sit back and think about the wrong things they have done, they can turn these around. This will not remove the damage that has been done to the city, but it could have made it a better place once it was fixed.

Lastly, I would like to discuss a topic that relates the first two together. I believe that had St. Francis been alive at the time, he would have been in New Orleans to help out the survivors of the hurricane. In his time, Francis would travel around to spread the good news of God, and work to help out the poor. If he was here today, he would be doing things no differently.

Sam Spady paper

          Last week we heard the story about Sam Spady, a college student who had everything going for her, until it was all lost in one weekend. Sam's mother came to tell us about our daughter as a way to prevent he same thing from happening to us. Sam grew up in a small town in Nebraska. Her parents talked about how easy to raise she ways, and how good of a daughter she was. She was very involved in high school: she was a cheerleader and on the student government just to name a couple if the bigger activities.
          It's a shame to hear a tragic story about a life with so much potential to be wasted. Sam had literally almost everything going for her. This just goes to show us that nobody is immune from the poisen that is alcohol. It can be a an okay beverage when consumed by responsible adults; however, these days it is being heavily consumed by more and more inexperienced teenagers. A common flaw with these teens is a sense of "invincibility". College students may hear a story like this and not think anything of it because they believe that nothing like it would ever happen to them. This is the worst thing they can believe because with the use of alcohol, the student may do something very foolish that they may not normally do when they are sober.
         Personally, I can pride myself by saying in full honesty that I have never partaken in the consumption of alcoholic beverages. I have a very close group of friends who are all also very against it, so I have never felt pressured into it. It is stories like Sam's that make it all the more less appealing to me. Why would I risk throwing away the promising future I have ahead of me to have a good time for one night. It just seems completely unreasonable and selfish.

Technology blog

The series articles that we read told stories of the various troubles with advancing technology. One of them was about a program called second life, which lets a user create an online identity to interact with other users. While this could be a good way to socialize with others, there are a series of risks and dangers. One thing which the users can do is date and even marry other user's avatars, or online identities. A user could create an avatar that is a different age or gender and use that in negative ways towards other users. Another of the articles was about the dangers about putting information such as credit card mumbers online. This one does not concern me as much, as I do not own a credit card. Even if these articles do not apply to me personally, they have opened my eyes to the issues of putting personal information online.

One Dead in Attic blog

I believe that being identified with a town as strongly as Chris Rose was is a perfectly good thing. I grew up here in Sioux City, and it is the only place I have ever known as home. I have most of my family here and did not want to leave them behind. I may also have a hard time leaving here to persue a career elsewhere after college. The author stated the reason he loved New Orleans so much was because of the music and the rich cultural heritage. He wanted to raise his children there so they could grow up with that culture. In the same sense that Rose wanted to raise his children in New Orleans, I would be willing to raise mine here someday. I like that it is a big enough city that there is typicall something to keep you busy, but it still has a sense of small town hospitality and friendliness.

St. Francis blog

After reading the opening chapter of the book about St. Francis, I believe that he would be one to utilize social media today. In his day, Francis was a very popular young man and many people viewed him as a leader. His family was very wealthy and they were well known for entertaining many people. Francis travelled throughout the area to talk to people. The use of a social media would have made it easier to get his messages out without travelling. To me a found identity is the one which you give to yourself, and a made identity is the one which other people give when they meet you. At this point in Francis's life he had the made identity of a social man and a leader to other young men. Once he had his dreams he found the identity of a religious man. In regards to my own security within social media, I feel completely secure. The only social network that I belong  to is Facebook, and as long as I am careful about how personal the information I put on it is, I will be entirely secure.