E-Portfolio

Welcome to my E-portfolio!

My name is Benjamin Ruiz de Gamboa.  I am currently a first year student in the College of Liberal Arts at the Pennsylvania State University.  Please allow me to introduce and present myself further through this e-portfolio.

About me

Fall 2011 - Spring 2012
My collegiate career really began while I was still in high school.  I started taking AP classes in my sophomore year.  Technically, I am actually a sophomore at Penn State with all the AP credits that transferred into University Park.  Through my high school experience, I brought in 21 credits to college.  Growing up, I always pictured myself going to law school to study either constitutional or civil law.  However, my first year in school has enlightened me to think about whether I should pursue graduate study in mass communications.

Introduction

This e-portfolio will serve as a space for a compilation of works throughout my collegiate career as a student.  These works include written, verbal and interactive forms of communication.  Its main focus is to encapsulate who I am as a student.  For any inquires, or if you would like to just reach me in general, you can send me a message through the methods listed in my contact page.

E-Portfolio Link

Summer Breaks in College

What ever happened to those summer days with hanging out with friends everyday?  Remember those summers of constant sleepovers and hanging out everyday by the community pool.  Is it that when we grow up that things change and people change along with it?  Or is it attributed to the fact that we just grow up and these things are less appealing.  Ever since I entered high school I have been working.  Summers now are less for fun and games and more to develop experience for the real world for when we leave college.  I hate to say it because I miss those simple times, but it is what it is.  Summers nowadays involve taking courses over the break, internships, or full time paid positions.  What ever happened when we were kids are just mere memories.  I hate to sound like I am reminiscing about the past because that makes me sound like a grumpy old man, (which I hope to never be) but it is the truth.  When I graduate I plan to take one full month off and relive some of these childhood memories.  I urge everyone to do something similar because everyone is always still in some capacity a kid at heart.  It is probably said somewhere that we must let our inner child relax at some points in life.  I bet some Freudian psychologists would argue that.  I know I would.  I know the first thing I am doing this summer after I unpack and stuff is to hit up some of friends and see what they are doing.  Maybe I can convince them to do something we used to do as kids in the summer.  That’s going to be plan.  I hope it works.  Have a great summer break!

Truth About Natural Gas

Recently I saw the documentary, Gasland in my Media and Democracy class.  It was quite compelling because it showed the real dangers with fracking natural gas.  For those unfamiliar with the process, hydraulic fracturing is pretty much drilling a hole into a well and pressurizing or pumping the water into the ground to then extract the produced water that contains mixtures that form natural gas.  The problem with this system, however is that it leaves environmental impacts on the environment.  This process contaminates water supplies and pollutes the air.

Companies like Halliburton and EnCana Oil & Gas take advantage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 because this bill exempts fluids used in hydraulic fracturing from policies like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act.  It wasn't until last year, after the documentary was released that Congress proposed the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act to make it so these companies disclose the types of chemicals they use for these processes.

Unfortunately, one year later Congress still has not passed the bill. I wonder if it is for political reasons (We are in an election year and gas companies are major lobbyists and campaign contributors on the hill).  So what are the repercussions to "fracking?"  Well for starters fracking leaves detrimental effects on drinking water.  Gas companies request to lease the land of private citizens to drill for gas in exchange for a nice check to landowners.  What they do not know is after they agree to that, their health will start to deteriorate.

Gas companies say it is safe to drink from the tap, but it is not.  After they agree to lease their land, the water becomes contaminated.  In the film, they show some families whose water had become flammable.  And if it isn't the water that leaves, lasting neurological and physical effects, (i.e headaches, brain damage, fatigue, cancer) it is the air pollution that surrounds fracking sites.  After extraction, they have something called "produced water" that is whatever is left after the fracking process.  Typically the companies let the water to evaporate if they do not put it in streams or rivers.  After a while the water does evaporate, but it ruins the quality of the air because it emits tons of gases like methane and such into the air.  This can then create acid rain which can affect vegetation.

I just found this documentary shocking and inhumane as it looked into some eyebrows it raised because the government is not fully protecting its citizens.  Certain policy changes can and should be enacted to change this.  I find it mortifying that thousands of Americans have to live like this.  The whole video is on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E61okw2RlzE

Multimedia Devices: Helping or Hurting the Youth of America?

While I was growing up, my parents used to lecture me about how privileged and blessed I was.  This was due mostly to all the things that my generation developed around.  In my parents’ time, there was no such thing as a mobile phone, a computer, or an iPad.  If my parents seeked any form of entertainment, they went outside and played.  If they wanted to communicate with someone they would actually talk with them.  Unfortunately, nowadays if you were to tell a kid that, it would be the equivalent of speaking a foreign language to them.  With the use of multimedia devices, it has become so easy for people to forget some of the most basic things we do as human beings.  That is to socialize.  Now could be that we are moving forward in how we socialize? I doubt that is the case.  Could it be that we live such busy lives that sometimes we choose the convenient way of sending a text or posting something on someone's Facebook?  This could be true.  Technology is always finding more ways to make our lives easier, yet is it really helping or hurting our social interactions with others? My question is, does this having lasting implications on the youth of America that is getting more involved with these processes?

Going back to my parents, I think I can relate more to their childhoods because up until maybe middle school we used to entertain ourselves.  We were self-sufficient in that regard.  Prior to that, we didn't have cell phones.  If given the choice between going onto the internet and having a "play date" we'd take the play date.  I have a little seven year old cousin.  My uncle is contemplating getting her a blackberry.  I didn't get a cell phone until I was twelve and guess what it was a hand-me-down Nokia in black and white with no keyboard nor camera.  I was only allowed to use it for emergencies.  The thing is kids these days are growing up in a much different world compared to the one people my age grew up in.  That was not all that long ago and if you look at the future, you have to wonder if there any damaging effects from this on kids.  I mean kids are socializing in different ways through texting and Facebook at much younger ages, but is verbal communication and physical interaction being overlooked?  I think it is called our formative years for a reason.

Rhetoric of Lewis Black

(Courtesy of hometheaterinfo.com)

As many of you may know, Lewis Black is a comedian.  For those of you that have not heard of him, he is your typical Jewish, liberal comedian.  I have been a fan of his work for several years and I just saw him here at Penn State tonight in the Eisenhower Auditorium.  And I thought to myself I have to blog about him for this week.  About 95% of the time he was communicating his messages through comedy, but when he wasn't cracking jokes he was communicating his thoughts like your average speaker.  As a speaker, he establishes his creditably with his audience through his jokes.  When he is not using profanity, hyperbole or satire to try to make the audience laugh, he is speaking to the crowd like an average Joe.  And yes he persuaded me!  While I was watching him tonight I realized that even though he is incredibly funny.  He relies mostly on these methods to make the audience laugh, yet the only person this had consequences for was himself.

At some points his hands were shaking so much from his constant yelling, convulsions, and gestures.  For someone that also suffers from anxiety, I can relate.  Although, I do not have anywhere near a case as he does.  I really wanted to get him a Valium or something.  I mean he is sixty three and he may be a little old for that kind of stuff.  I guess those are the kinds of things you notice out of people speaking, especially if it is for a long amount of time.  He was truly great though.  He spoke about the rhetoric of his generation compared to ours, our world with regards to social media and how Congress does not get shit done.  So it was pretty much the usual topics of discussion.   Nonetheless, it was quite an entertaining performance and in the end he got a standing ovation from the crowd.  For those of you not familiar with him, you should check him out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbt_sqeW4ko

Marijuana in the Public Mind

So what is the first impression you get from this title?  Oh great this kid does weed.  Well rest assured, I have never smoked marijuana before in my life.  However, I like many others, regardless whether or not they do smoke have opposing views on it.  Should we legalize it? Should we not legalize it?  Personally it is indifferent to me, but could others with stronger views say the same.  Recently, in my Media and Democracy class we discussed the commonplaces held by society over the use of Marijuana.  It is clearly not portrayed correctly in movies and popular culture.  Is it right to make fun of it?  Is it wrong to condone it?  To answer that question you really need to know its history.  I recently watched the movie, Grass to get a better sense of the role of the drug throughout the years in society.  I felt I understood the issue more.  The controversy it is has caused and the lasting implications of it.  Through it, I was able to view the different thoughts of people in society.  Some may think, "Hey if I am not harming myself nor hurting others, why should I be told that I cannot do it?"   Others may think, "It leaves permanent effects on the human mind and it is a gateway drug to others." Personally I do not think it will be legalized at least anytime soon.  The reason for that is that there is no way to regulate it.  I do not mean the regulation of it through taxation.  I mean the regulation of it in terms of a legal limit that can be distributed or consumed.  For instance, breathalyzers are used to indicate the level to which someone is intoxicated when they are under the influence of alcohol.  But what is out there to see the level to which someone is high off of weed?.....not a damn thing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1450016703688449604

Rhetoric of Social Media

For the millions of users on Facebook and Twitter, It is a commonplace to share and express their ideas through words, images, tweets, etc.  However, how credible is social media and how much information should we put out there for others to see?  Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter use the Internet and once something is on the Internet it stays out there forever.  I remember in high school when I disabled my Facebook for a while because I just didn't want someone, somewhere keeping tabs on me, but then I realized in a Google search something.  It still was the case.  Even though I closed my Facebook I found all the info I had public on there on a Google search.  My first impressions were great.  That is quite reassuring.  Then I did more searching on Google.  There were county swim records there, honor roll mentions, and even articles on other random things I had forgotten about.  So I came to the conclusion that I might as well be like everyone and have one to use as a form of communication.  I thought it really did not matter whether I had one or not because my stuff was already out there.  That was close to four years ago when social media was just starting to get hot.  Nowadays on Facebook there is that timeline shit.  I refused to get that crap until about 3 weeks ago when Facebook forced me to.  I don't know how that came to be because there are plenty that still do not have it, but one day it said “make changes to your timeline before it goes public in 5 days.”  Anyways now with that it is even harder to delete posts and stuff.  Whatever is there is meant to stay.  The thought of that is scary folks.  Wow I just checked out things on my timeline from prior years and there are things I remember deleting that are coming up.  Social Media is pretty shady and with all that information in the wrong hands that cannot be good.  It is a good thing I keep Facebook clean, but you have to feel sorry for others.  I am referring to those that put things out there that they do not want potential employers to see.