Blog 5

How does money affect happiness?

            The question I am using as my critical question is how does money affect happiness.  I decided to use this question because it is something that almost everyone has an opinion on and could answer in there own way.  For my profile I am going to use a wealthy man.  I chose them because if money affects happiness then they have plenty of money and should be happy all the time.  By using this person it will shed light on my question in terms of the actual answer.  It will be someone on one end of the spectrum and will give me an idea if the question is true or not.  I will specifically study the aspects of his happiness well at work and how much he enjoys his job.  Also if throughout his day he ever has to question use of money and just his job relations with his other workers.  The person I am doing knows my dad, I do not hardly know them at all maybe have met them once or twice.  To contact them I had my dad send me their phone number and I called them for my observation and interview.

Questions:

What brings you joy?

How comfortable are you talking about your wealth?

How do your finances affect your daily life?

How does money shape you thinking?

Do you ever find yourself questioning your finances?

How, if at all does being wealthier affect the way you live your life?

Does your family feel as if they are happy?

Do you enjoy your job and working with your co-workers.

How does your job bring you happiness?

What are some times when you are not happy?

In what way does your job affect your happiness?

Does money bring you joy?

If you where not wealthy would you live your life differently?

How did you become wealthy?

What do you do with your money?

Is your wealth something that affects your families life in a positive way?

Would you be as happy if you where not wealthy?

Blog 4

Podcasts:

The podcast that we listened to today talked about many things and raised some questions.  The podcast from the assignment I thought talked a lot about expectations and your idea of expectations.  Also about how different people and groups have different expectations.  I also think a big part of it was how the different experiences we have gone through affect our expectations.  The first podcast I listened to was Notes on Camp by This American Life then I listened to How to become Batman by NPR.  I believe that both of the podcast gave us a look into what we are going to be doing for the next project.  The podcast used a combination of stories from the groups of people, some interview questions and responses, and clips.  The two groups being interviewed where the main source of information for the podcast.  They used the speakers as the people who where asking the questions.  Much of the podcast are the speakers using the questions they asked and having them answered by the group.  When asking questions I think it help you see what it is really like along with get the attention of the audience.  The podcast by NPR is organized by topics and in each of the new segments it leads back to the topics talked about previously.  By going back to the main ideas it helps remind the listeners what the main topic is and how the new topic relates to the old one.  The podcast by This American Life bounced around more and didn’t really have a main point that it helps going back to.  It was more out there.  Both of the podcast did a good job on showing what we will be doing for the next project.  I think that the idea of expectations was very prevalent in the two podcast.  I believe that by the two different podcast you can see total different experiences and how the expectations affect those expiries.  They also talked a lot about the groups and what love was to them and how little things could affect the expectations of the people.  These two different podcast where great examples of what we will be doing for our next project.

Free-write:

I have thought of two different groups I could potentially study.  The first would be the less fortunate and the ones that live in poverty.  For this I think something like going to the homeless shelter or people city mission would be a good fit.  By going and seeing how they live there daily lives and some of the struggles they go through, I think would help answer my critical question.  Also by just seeing if the people there can find joy in anything else other then money.  I do think that this option could potentially be a difficult one just because you do not want to invade their space.  I also think that it would be tough to ask them questions especially considering mine is a lot about money and that would put me in an awkward spot.  I do think I could make this work but think I could also make something work with a different group or person.  My other idea is on the opposite side of the spectrum.  I think that doing the extremely fortunate or rich would be a good option.  Just by watching what they do with there daily lives and how they handle their money could make for a good piece.  Asking them a few questions about what they think about money or how it affects them if it does at all would be good.  I think also just seeing what there job is like and seeing if they enjoy what they do daily and have less problems because they are wealthier.   I think that either of these could be a good option and will provide an answer to my question.  They could provide totally different answers to my question depending on what their daily life is like and how they interact with money and happiness.  I am leaning more toward doing the wealthier person just because I think it will be easier to ask them questions about there money and there happiness.

What I See

I am sitting in a hot sticky gym, it does not smell good.  I see little creatures you call children in what looks like one piece swim suits.  I think they are actually gymnast wearing there gym uniform things.  They all seem to be really short some of them maybe 3 foot.  There is an instructor in front of them trying to teach them a dance.  There are US Air Force signs on the wall.  Many people keep opening the doors like they are gonna come in the gym but then they leave.  I few of the girls have there ankles tapped like you would for basketball.  They are almost all wearing different colored gymnast suits, a few of them match as I assume they are gymnast for the same place.  They are learning a dance to Uptown Funk.

I am in a museum i see lots of elephants.  I see little kids walking with there parents.  The kids are really interested in all of the different animals.  They want to touch everything they can even though they are not supposed to.  There are big elephants and little elephants.  There is on giant thing that must be an elephant there are also baby elephants.  They have big husks.  This little boys go running through in excitement yelling, there mom tells them they need to be quiet. I hear a little kid talking and college student just walking around checking it out.

I am sitting outside of The Union.  I see many people walking. Some with there headphones in almost all of them on there phones.  I see a girl with a Starbucks in her hand.  I see a lot of people in red.  I see a guy on his phone with a hat on and a back pack.  I see a pregnant women walking.  I see NSE students all around headed to the dining hall.  I see a guy with a clip board checking things off.  I see Maddie talking.

Blog 3: Question Draft 2 and Artifact Free Write

Does money affect happiness?

            My question I believe fits all of the criteria.  For personal meaning it relates to me because I have to deal with money everyday and also my happiness is personal.  I also have seen the two extremes in people who I am very close to and will be able to relate those to the question.  For the question of does my question fit into society, I think that it affects everyone.  Everyone has to deal with money and happiness.  The question has multiple answers and people can have multiple opinions on it.  There are multiple further questions that can stem off of these.  Some examples are what does money mean to you, does money rule the world, what is happiness to you, does money affect sadness, and how can money affect your happiness.  I do not believe that my topic is too broad or too specific.  The question does not contain my value judgment.  So because of all these things I think that my question is a good question to use.

Potential Artifacts 

     1.    The Pursuit of Happiness

     2.    The news

     3.    http://www.forbes.com/2004/09/21/cx_mh_0921happiness.html article on Forbes.

     4.    One Tree Hill the TV series

     5.    Credit Cards

     6.    Banks

     7.    The Kardasians

     8.    Family Feud

     9.    Money

10.         College Student loans

For a potential artifact I thought that a good one to use would be a popular movie that is shown in school and nearly every person has seen, The Pursuit of Happiness.  I will use the movie The Pursuit of Happiness as my artifact to relate to my life.  In the movie he is depressed because he is broke and his family is splitting up because he has lead them to be broke.  In the movie he tries to sell a health machine to make money but he cannot seem to sell it.  He had bought a bunch of machines expecting to make a lot of money however he actually went broke out of it.  In the movie he is trying to pursue happiness by selling these machines.  Eventually he realizes that it is not all about the money and gets close to his son.  Then he decides it is time to stop being depressed and grow up.  Then he tries to pursue happiness by getting a job.  In the end of the movie he gets a job as an accountant and they are happy and brought closer together.   I am going to use this artifact to relate to my life in many ways.   My dad has got many different jobs to pursue happiness and most recently got his dream job even though getting a pay degrade.  We never dealt with depression or anything like that but my dad pursued happiness not related to money, like in the movie when he realizes it isn’t about the money it is about family.  I think that is very important, not to worry about money making you happy but worry about the things that will last making you happy, like family.  I think that I will be able to relate this two well together in my paper by taking about my dad’s pursuit of happiness and Will Smiths pursuit of happiness throughout the movie.  When using this artifact I am also going to talk about how it kind of contradicts itself in terms of talking about how money isn’t the most important thing but yet they have made millions off of this TV show.  Through these ways I think I will be able to give an answer to does money affect happiness.

Blog 2 Critical Question Draft 1 and Free Write

Looking around the room what catches your eye and why?

Looking around my dorm room what catches my eye is my pictures.  They catch my eye because it reminds me of my friends and family at home and makes me think about them.  Looking at them makes me wonder what I would be doing if I were back in Fremont with them.

What did you think about while you last showered?

When I last showered I thought about how gross the shower was and how I wasn’t goanna shower there anymore.  I thought about how nasty the floors are and how I don’t want my feet to touch them.  I also thought about the nasty shower certain that my body accidently touched as I turned.

What were you thinking about as you fell asleep last night?

Last night right before I fell asleep I was thinking about the bible verse I had just read and how it relates to my life and the people in it.  I was also thinking about my family hoping that my mom wasn’t to sad that I went to college the other day and just wishing I was at home in my own bed not in the tiny bed that my feet hit the end of.

What was your favorite class in college/high school and why?

My favorite class in high school had to have been PE and that was probably the class I took the most of.  It was my favorite because my basketball coach was the teacher of the class and we got to play games.  If I had to pick a real class that was my favorite I would have to say that is math.  Math is my favorite because it comes easy to me and I enjoy solving number problems.

What was the most recent debate/argument you had with a friend or family member?

The most recent argument I had was with my friend about whether or not a certain boy was attractive.  I thought that he was super attractive, however she did not think that he was attractive.  I don’t really enjoy arguing with my family and friends however I like to be write so often times it happens.

What are you feeling/thinking about right now? Why or how might that be interesting?

Right now I am thinking about my knee.  I am thinking about my knee because I have ice on it and I really need to take the ice off.  I am also thinking about it because it kind of hurts right now.  I am thinking about when the next time I will be able to play will be and what it will be like.  You may think this is interesting or are wondering why my knee hurts.  It hurts because I had ACL surgery on it and am recovering from it.  It also hurts because I just got done with a pretty hard pool workout. But I am thinking that when I get back I will be stronger then I was before I got hurt and really ready to play.  I also think that when I can play again I won’t take it for granted because I know what it is like to not be able to play.

Imagine your home community. What does it look like? Who is there?

My home community of Fremont Nebraska looks like a lot of small towns in Nebraska.  On your way into Fremont you will see cornfields with tractors on them, you will see farms with lots of cows, then you will see the rivers.  Once you have got to the river you will see the town of Fremont.  It looks like a nice community; it has lots of baseball fields, but lacks in number of restaurants.  The town smells like cat food because there is a cat food plant and often times just smells bad because there is a Hormel food plant.  However it is a great town full of many great people.  In my hometown is all my friends.  They would probably be outside tonight playing softball, sand volleyball, or out at the lakes.  My family is also in Fremont and they would either be at the gym shooting hoops or at the lakes tubing, wakeboarding, and having fun.

What are the buildings and places you see? What questions emerge from that place or memory?

The building I see is the state capital.  What comes to mind are memories.  First like the time I went there with my family and met the governor who knows my dad.  Another memory would be when we went on a tour of the capital in 5^th grade.  Last memory would be when we took the Lincoln Journal Star Super-State pictures in there my sophomore yeasty.  Some questions I ask myself when looking at it are how tall is it, what is the building made of, and how do they clean the golden sower on the top of it?

How does money affect happiness?  I have chose for this to be my critical question that I will use for the course.  I think that this is a question that people have two different opinions on.  I think some people would say that the more money you have the happier you will be.  I also believe that people would say that how much money you have has nothing to do with how happy you are.  I chose to use the question how does money affect happiness because money is something that we use everyday and whether we want to believe it or not it is something that affects all of us.  I think that everyone has an opinion on this question, and it is a question that can have many different answers.  The question is prevalent to me personally because everyday I use money and I see the two extremes of people who do not have money and people who have plenty of money.  I also see it with my family; I have one side of my family that is not very wealthy, and one parent who grew up poor.  Then the other side grew up with enough money to live comfortably.  The question is relevant to everyone because everyone must deal with money everyone is either happy or not and you have to decide whether or not money is going to affect that.  I also think that other questions that can come off of this would be are rich people happier then poor people.  I plan on relating this question to project number 1 through a TV show that shows how they perceive a family that is poor and there happiness compared to a family that is rich.  For the second project I plan on finding a group that lives and isn’t very rich but yet still is happy and enjoys life.  For the third project I plan on giving the different views you could have on this question and looking at it from the real world and what an audience would think about it.  I think that through these 3 projects I will be able to give my opinion on the question and explore it more.  I think that is a good question that everyone will have and opinion and many different view on.

         The only real question I have is wondering if this topic will be a good one and if I will be able to answer these questions correctly.