SHHHHH. There is a hockey game going on

Its June and the Chicago Blackhawks are still playing. With a Cubs team that is on the rise but still young and a last place White Sox team, Chicago sports fans are thrilled about the Blackhawks being in the Stanley Cup again. For the record, people who know me know I am by no means a big 'Hawks fan, but that is due to me just not being too interested in hockey in general.

With that being said, I have enjoyed watching them in the playoffs, especially when having no schoolwork to do the next day so I can enjoy a nice cold beverage (or 10).

The Tampa Bay Lightning have made the headlines here in Chicago with their policies regarding Chicago fans in their arena. It drew enough attention for Mayor Rahm Emanual to touch on the topic.

After looking through some recent articles about the 'Hawks I came across one that just seemed insane to me. Victoria Greene, a Blackhawks fan, was kicked out of a game in Tampa for cheering for the Hawks.

"According to Greene, the officer said the reason behind the removal was that she was cheering too much and was too loud."

Being kicked out of a hockey game for cheering too much. Now I've heard everything.

Easy to judge, difficult to perform - The life of a police officer

Upon graduating this year, I plan on becoming a police officer. I have just taken my 4th police exam this past weekend and plan on taking more this summer. Every department that I have applied to seems to have it's own set of perks which makes me interested in all of them, so I plan on taking the first job that I can possibly get.

So naturally, it irks me how much bad publicity police officers get with today's media. Some events that have occurred with police officers makes most people judge police departments as a whole. If you think this way i will go as far as to say that it is irresponsible of you to do so.

YES, there are going to be some bad police officers as there are bad employees with any job. If you have a bad or unprofessional professor here at North Central College, does that make all professors unprofessional? No, not at all. You may go to your 1:20 class and have the worst educator you have ever come across and your very next class you may have one that you would like to stay in contact with for the rest of your life.

It is very easy to cast judgement on an officer when you only see 10 seconds of a 10 minute video and the media only posting the negative stories because they know a story of a police officer allegedly using excessive force is going to be more popular than an officer helping someone or saving someones life. This should not be the case though. Don't just read an article one of your "friends" on Facebook posted and that's it. Do some research and educate yourself before you judge an officers actions.

You'll see their job is a lot harder than it looks.

Social Media and Social Activism - Is there such a thing as too much?

We all know that social media can be used as a platform to convey a message trying to help people or get a good point across such as the protest movements with the Arab Spring that we discussed in class. With that being said, when is there a line where people try and do too much?

Anyone who is a fan of the NFL or even sports in general has most likely heard about what is now referred to as "DeflateGate". It occurred in the AFC championship game where New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady used under-inflated footballs during the game. It is believed to work in the Patriots favor to use a ball that is more deflated because it is easier to grip, throw, catch, and may even be harder to fumble. The Patriots beat the Indianapolis Colts in the game, 45-7.

After a whole investigation was conducted, Tom Brady received a 4-game suspension without pay and the New England Patriots were forced to pay $1 million in fines. After this, a Patriots fan set up a "GoFundMe" page in hopes of raising money to help pay for the fines.

The creator of the page, Michael J. Whitman, was quoted as saying,

"We obviously know we won’t reach One Million Dollars, however we do believe the fine is bulls**t and want to help anyway we can. So whatever is donated will be donated to the New England Patriots in help with the fine! As we venture with this, we will do frequent updates to show progression of this! If enough is made to make the travel, we will fly down there (on our own expenses) and deliver a check in person!"

Mixed reviews about the page were posted. some fan's were all for the page and many of those donated $12 (the number of Brady) while other fans were sorta pissed about the page.

"I have had a GoFundMe site for 2 months for my 12 year olds much needed special education and I have raised $500. And that is all hugely appreciated. But – what’s wrong with people? Pats are worth $2.6 Billion. Signed, a huge fan living in Seattle."

Was posted to the page.

I personally have to agree with the fan living in Seattle. Tom Brady, who just took a pay CUT in January, is set to make $8 million in 2015, not taking into account his 4-game suspension in which he will not be paid. According to Forbes, owner Robert Kraft is worth $4.3 billion.

I think the organization will be fine without help from it's fans (pun intended).

Convergence

One concrete way that convergence is encouraging consumers to participate in the media would be it's many uses to listen to music.

My father enjoys country music but over time the country music radio station in Chicago, in his opinion, just plain stinks. He really enjoys the country music station that is in northern Wisconsin, where we used to go on vacation for many years. One day I mentioned to him that he could probably find it online and that he should look into it. This was a mind blowing concept for him and he explained how he had no idea where to even start. I ended up searching for the small town station but to no prevail. He then attempted to do the same thing and he somehow stumbled across a station from Little Rock, Arkansas. He tried it out and it is now his favorite station. I rarely catch him listening to the actual radio but when I do it is never US99.5 (Chicago's country station). Introducing him to YouTube has also been a great thing for him because when he is bored or he just wants to hear a certain song he can type the song in and listen to it within seconds.

Bruce's blog interview
http://www.rebeccablood.net/bloggerson/bruceschneier.html

I read the interview that was conducted with Bruce Schneier.

I enjoyed the interview that he gave because of the way he explained how he started his blog. The fact that he started writing monthly e-mail newsletters and over time that transformed into him writing a blog as many as three times a day shows how much technology has developed over time.

The length of his posts also intrigued me since he said that some posts take only a minute to write and other posts can take days to write.

His remarks about blogs which different views are interesting but I believe that more people should adopt his views. He purposely reads blogs he knows he is going to disagree with just to get different perspectives. I think, even though he is going into the blog knowing he will disagree, it is better to read it and maybe get a new perspective on a topic rather than just read similar blogs that only agree with you. That is how a person is able to learn knew things.