Just Walk On By

Staple's describes himself as a shy black man that stands at six feet two inches. Other people see him as a big intimidating black man that is going to hurt them or other horrible things that he would never do. He uses the last sentence to basically say that he acts differently around people so that nobody feels like they are in trouble and it also helps him not feel bad emotionally like he does when people try to get away from him as fast as possible. I identified myself as the person that thinks he is going to do something bad. iIt affected my reading because it made me think of how people feel when someone else walks the other way just to avoid you.

Never Just Pictures

In the essay "Never Just Pictures" Susan Bordo talks about how the media is making both male and females feel that they are overweight because they want to look how the media perceives people to be causing them to have eating disorders. Bordo supports this by giving examples of how celebrities look in magazines and on television and even how athletes look. She gives evidence on these people on how they had eating disorders yet the media celebrates their bodies. I do agree with Bordo's argument because many do look at these people as how they are supposed to look even though the one's that think they are obese may actually be just fine. It can effect people's confidence and also can possibly be depressing to many people. Another reason I do agree is that the eating disorders are not healthy whatsoever which is especially not good if you are already fit. Starving yourself is not the answer yet people believe it's the only option because of the media saying this is how you are supposed to look.

Descriptive Essay

It is basically proven that it is best to have teamwork if you want to win. If you want to win you must have good teamwork but to have good teamwork you may have to sacrifice some things you may not want to give up.

Teamwork in basketball is much more than just passing the ball. Teamwork is doing your job on the court, cheering on your teammates, letting your teammate know when they did something good, helping them up when they are down, not having a huge ego, passing up a somewhat open shot for a shot that is completely wide open for your teammate, and playing as hard as you can so your team has a better chance of winning the game. Teamwork is the key to winning and past teams have shown that it is.

Now to show some past teams that had great teamwork. First up the Detroit Pistons back in the late 80's and early 90's. This team was good to start but they needed more people that were team players. So this team gave up one of their best players (who was good at scoring but was not willing to play less minutes so his teammates could play more) Adrian Dantley for players who were willing to play less and do more than just score. After they traded away Dantley the Pistons were able to win 2 championships. Now the Chicago Bulls of the 90's. During the 80's this team lost to the great teams because Michael Jordan did not figure out yet that you must have good teamwork to win. Once he learned that being a good team player would get him past the hump that he had yet to get over the Chicago Bulls won 3 championships in a row not once but twice. Lastly a more recent team the Boston Celtics in 2008. This team was able to acquire Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to go along with Paul Pierce which they already had. All three of these players were all-stars that scored over 20 points per game every year. They all got pretty close to winning a championship by themselves when they were younger but now that they were older they wanted to win a championship. That year all three of their statistics dropped a little but just by sacrificing that little stat they were able to have the best record in the NBA. This team was also able to win an NBA championship over the Los Angeles Lakers in just their first year together. So just little things like sacrificing points or playing time are all part of teamwork and help you win.

I will now show you players and teams that did not give up anything to try to be good teammates or did not have good teamwork. First up a player that has yet to win a championship and be good team player, Lebron James. He has not won yet because he has not sacrificed anything yet and he basically feels he has to carry most of the load by himself for his team. I'm sure had he sacrificed some of his statistics and his ego he would have already had a championship by now but he does not. Next up is a really good team that just lost its magic the Los Angeles Lakers of 2004. This team had previously won three championships in a row. They had Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'neal along with more star players. This was possibly one of the most talented teams in the NBA of all time but the big egos of Bryant and O'neal could not be on a team any more. The whole year they butted heads and made storylines of how they completely hated each other. This very talented team was able to make it to the NBA finals despite all the negatives. They would eventually lose to the much more team oriented Detroit Pistons. After the season the Los Angeles Lakers had no choice but to break up most of the team.

This just goes to show you that teamwork is needed to be good and if you don't it probably won't end up to good and that if you sacrifice a few little things it will most likely be for the better.

APA Format

To reduce bias in your writing and/or papers you must describe the level of specificity. You must also be sensitive to labels. Also you must acknowledge participation in your writing. To reduce bias in your writing you must not mention marital status, sexual orientation, racial or ethnic identity, and fact that someone has a disability. You are supposed to reference a text when work of individuals whose ideas, theories, or findings had influenced your work directly even when paraphrasing or describing their idea. To reference your work you must have them in order by authors name or the first authors name if there is more than one author. You must indent your reference list and you must double space the list as well.

Socratic Seminar

I believe that the seminar went pretty good on Thursday. People were really able to tell what both essays were trying to say with education. The class went through a lot on Thursday but I thought that a big one that we missed was if we actually agree with what they are saying. Can education actually get you out of what some would say is inevitable for certain people? I do agree with the authors to a certain extent, but I believe the authors were not thinking about certain situations. I actually think some people are put in horrible situations at birth. Some people are born in areas where their school is not the best environment or best place to get an education. Some schools do have teachers that don't really care about the students or about teaching them. Another situation that makes education once again not the answer is if these people are really in a horrible situation where they have to work as much as they can so their family can eat and have a roof over their head. Doing all this would leave no time for school whatsoever. If they did go to school while having a job, would the student actually be able to focus on school while putting in as much hours as possible at their job? I honestly don't think so. Now don't get me wrong it can happen I even know someone who has done it, but 1 out of to many isn't that good of a percentage. Education can get you out but it would take a strong person to do it when it comes to poverty stricken families.

The Detroit Bad Boys

On the basketball court these guys were crazy animals. They played the game dirty. Any given night you could see a brawl between them and the opposing team. A common phrased used by them was "No Easy Buckets" and any shot you got off would have to be earned. Not only did they do all of these things but most importantly the Pistons won games. The Detroit Pistons of the 80's were able to beat some of the greatest teams of all time. They were able to edge the great Boston Celtic teams after basically being bullied by them for many years. This team even overcame one of the greatest sport franchises in the Los Angeles Lakers who were the dominant team for years. The Pistons even beat the young Chicago Bulls teams that would later be the dominant team of the 90's. This team was also stacked with some great players, such as Bill Laimbeer, "The Microwave" Vinnie Johnson", Joe Dumars, Rick Mahorn, "The Worm" Dennis Rodman who was in my opinion the craziest and weirdest basketball player of all time but also the greatest rebounder in NBA history, and last but not least their best player Isiah Thomas. What I loved most about this team was the fact that they as a team even with all the great players they had. This team was also known for beating Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls many times. They were able to beat him mentally with what they called "The Jordan Rules" where the Pistons would take him down anytime he would try to score. Not only did they get in Jordan's head but they also got to the whole team in particular Scottie Pippen. Pippen had horrible games against the Pistons  especially in the playoffs. They would feast on the young Chicago Bulls frustration and get to the NBA Finals two years in a row. The Detroit Pistons best things that they did together was winning two championships in a row. It's hard to win 2 championships, even one is hard to achieve and they were able to get two. Their first championships was against the great Los Angeles Lakers that had the Big Three in Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabaar, and James Worthy. The Pistons were able to sweep this mighty team four to zero. A year later they won their next championship against the Portland Trail Blazers. Detroit was able to win their second championship by winning the series four to one. The Pistons were definitely one of the best teams in the history of the NBA. They were the Bad Boys.

Draft 3

"I will not lose, for even in defeat, there’s a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me." -- Jay-Z 
My name is Michael Becerra. I was born on April 25th, 1995 in Tucson, AZ at Tucson Medical Center. My father's name is Richard and my mother's name is Yolanda. I lived in the scorching desert of Tucson until I was thirteen years old. After my memorable years in Tucson, my family and I moved to beautiful Page because my dad got a job at the power plant. The thing that I really like about my life the most is that I have a great family that is always there for me. My family and sports are the reasons for me being where I am now. I believe sports taught me many lessons as well as keeping me from getting into trouble and all those bad things. A couple years from now I see myself in college and hopefully playing basketball for that college. After that I am not quite sure what I'm going to do but right now i am thinking about trying to become a college basketball coach and if that is what I am going to do in the future I will learn from my mistakes and never give up.