Skateboarding#4

           Skateboarding is one of the most recent well known sports that have been made. It started out as a hobby that surfers took from the waves to concrete. It was founded in the 50's and has grown to become one of the United States favorite sports. A crazy fact I came across while doing research was that it's actually the sixth most popular sport in the entire world. The thing is that not everywhere is as full of skaters as California. California holds over half of all of the skateboarders in the entire nation! What was once a hobby definitely became a serious, yet smooth sailing sport. From street competitions to X-games, people are watching and loving skateboarding more and more. Statistics show that there are about 20 million skateboarders in today's age and date. Its amazing to think that just about 50 years ago we were riding planks of wood barely able to do an ollie and now people are flying off mega ramps doing 1080's. Skateboarding has come far in the last few years and intends to go farther. There is a big question that has been up in the air for the last 10 years or so and that is if skateboarding will ever be able to join in on the Olympics. There is a huge controversy with many people that skateboarding is still not considered a "real" sport. I find this quiet ridiculous and many other skaters do too. I mean just take a look at a video on Youtube.com and you can tell for yourself! It takes time, patience, skill, sweat, balance, passion and even a competitive mind set to further yourself to learn more tricks. Most skateboarders agree that every single person that loves to jump on a board wants to try a trick that no one has done before or find a spot that has been untouched by another. As a skater myself, every time I glance at a staircase I think of what tricks I could do down it or even up it. It is totally something that becomes more than just a hobby, it becomes apart of your every day life style. Even going down the street or going to class, you'll think twice about walking and grab a board off the wall and cruise over there. Many skaters are trying their best to be able to open up the Olympics to having skateboarding join the crew of sports. Unfortunately last we've heard from the Olympics is that International Cycling Union president, Pat McQuaid, gave information to ESPN that they abandoned the idea of letting skateboarding become one of their sports. But one response from a lead skateboarder that has come up in the past to years is word from Tony Hawk saying in a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates, "I think the Olympics needs skateboarding much more than skateboarding needs the Olympics". Ironic enough when I met Tony Hawk we talked about this issue and came to an understanding that it will most likely happen within the next several years. This happening still hasn't occurred but I'm sure many people other than me are keeping their fingers crossed. And its very true that the Olympics needs skateboarding more than skaters need it. Many people are starting to find the Olympics to be dying out because its the same thing every year. The problem is that one of the 28 sports has to drop in order to let skateboarding in to the picture. There is even a few skaters that oppose having skateboarding in the Olympics. Lance Mountain being one of them believes that skating is like an art. Having it in the Olympics would be like having Rush, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles and the Sex Pistols all play a set, then judging them. I myself feel as though skateboarding should be apart of their gig. I don't even watch the Olympics but if skating was jammed up in there I would definitely put some time out of my day to watch it and I think a lot of others would agree with that notion. If the nation is still growing to see more than 20 million skaters when the sport has only been around for 63 years, I think it needs a little bit more attention than the X-games. There are so many combinations and tricks that can be made and would wow the audience. It's about time to wake up the Olympics and add some spice to their mix.










http://ezinearticles.com/?Interesting-Skateboard-Facts&id=1849719

http://xgames.espn.go.com/skateboarding/article/8253956/skateboarding-unlikely-become-olympic-sport
http://www.tmz.com/2013/02/18/tony-hawk-skateboarding-olympics/
http://skateboard.about.com/cs/boardscience/a/brief_history.htm
http://www.skateboardingskateboards.com/skateboarding-history/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skateboarding
http://skateboard.about.com/od/proskaterbios/p/ProTonyHawk.htm

Blog #4:Darling Argueta- Music&Emotions

How does music effect on people moods/emotions?

Music does have an effect on people's emotions. Through out my research a lot of different views of what emotions could be and how they can be express have come up. Furthermore music has an effect on the part of the brain were emotions are activated.

 Music, Emotions, and Truth:

In this article it talks about how music has been seen as way of people expressing themselves and how music is seen ass away to describe what people are feeling. Music is seen as something natural however music as been seen by scientist as something that has multiple theories. For example the Arousal Theory is “that music has properties capable of arousing emotions or feelings in listeners. The arousal may take place because of some causal mechanism in which sounds and the dynamic properties of music affect the human body and mind” (Elina Packalén). This describes how music music has an effect on people's mind and body. I really agree with this theory because everyone time I heard a sound that has a fast rhythm I would want to dance and I would feel happy, even though it is a theory I think it is true. Another theory is Cognitivist theory which is “the emotions expressed in music as unfelt, necessarily publicly displayed, and objectless.  In Davies’ view, emotions expressed in music are thus different from emotions felt by people.” (Elina Packalén). This describes how music is can be interpret differently by the listener than the artist. I personally disagree with this statement because I think that when an artist want to express their sadness, happiness, struggles the listener would feel it too because of what the lyrics say. The last theory is the Symbol theory which is “we express our emotions in utterance and behavior is at least to some extent dependent on our culture, personality, and temper.” (Elina Packalén). This shows how music is away of identity to people it can represent there personality, their culture, and there temper. I really agree with this Theory because the type of music someone listens too is a part of them and it can describe who they are and were they come from. For example i personally listen to music from my culture and more specifically the country I am from which is a part of me. 

Here is a video of the type of music from the country I am from 

which represent apart of who I am. 

Music and emotion: The effects of lyrics and familiarity on emotional responses to music:

This article describes how music influence what people feel and the way their body reacts. Film makers and artist take advantage of this to be able to sell there product. This article also talk about the fact that music is used as away to express what people are feeling and what the artist are feeling while writing it. Something very interesting about this article is the fact that apparently sad music changes the way people feel, and the way their body reacts. For example sad music causes changes in heart rate, blood pressure, skin conductance, and temperature. Happy music changes people's respiration. While fearful music cause largest change in blood transit, and amplitude. I found this very interesting because when I think about emotions. I think about how people feel not about the way the body reacts to does feelings. I think emotions are connected to the way the way the body reacts depending on the emotions. 

Psychology of music:

This article talk about a study that was done where participants took individual test. They listen to multiple type of music. Where they would them describe what they felt when they listen to a particular type of music. In this study it was discover that only six basic emotions the participants felt which were happiness, anger disgust, surprise, sadness, and fear. However these emotions were not connected to people childhood or personal traits. This means people experience has nothing to do with what there feeling when they listen to music. I disagree with this because their are some songs that I listened to when I was little, and I have memories of my childhood or an event that happen. I think it can change the way people feel with a particular song.  

Here is a video that elaborate on the way music effects people's emotions. 

Links: 

http://www.livescience.com/25611-why-music-moves-us.html

http://0-search.proquest.com.opac.sfsu.edu/docview/305215316/previewPDF?accountid=13802

http://0-pom.sagepub.com.opac.sfsu.edu/content/39/4/503.full.pdf+html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SePL2w5f6dE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z71K-jQ4j2E

Blog#4-Chris A-Spirituality and Religion

So picking up from where I started from my last blog, I am both spiritual and religious even though both have different meanings. I lean more towards being spiritual because religion has too many obligations in order to classify yourself as "religious." This distinction between spirituality and religion is an important one because a lot of the time people say they are religious, but they what they really mean to say is that they are spiritual. It is important that those of you reading this blog understand and realize that spirituality is not the same as being religious.

This year, I have taken my spirituality to another level, a new direction, a different approach. I have began to train my mind to do certain things that is above what the mind can do. This will be a little hard for most to comprehend, but if you try to look past the material things in the world, and really try to put your mind in a state of "non thinking" you will realize that your mind has the ability to operate more than what we can perceive...

Through my research I have come to find that all of us believe that we live in the third dimension, but many do not know that there is the fourth dimension and the fifth dimension.   
Our reality comes from this 3rd dimension concept that revolves around space and time. There is a valley though, that comes between the 3rd dimension and 5th dimension. This valley is long and may take a long time to get across (meaning it may take a long time to enter the 4th dimension),  "Yet, by applying Love, Trust and a willing heart, you can create your own reality shift from the mundane experience of simple third dimensional living into a life of purpose, joy and flow as you cultivate your expanded spiritual self in the fifth dimension." - Spiritual awakening and consciousness website. 

1. http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/20568813?&Search=yes&searchText=meditation&list=hide&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dmeditation%2B%26acc%3Doff%26wc%3Don%26fc%3Doff&prevSearch=&item=4&ttl=73017&returnArticleService=showArticleInfo (JSTOR)
2. http://www.lavoisier.fr/livre/notice.asp?ouvrage=1785777 (Google Scholar)
3. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15979795 (NCBI)

1. http://www.examiner.com/article/spiritual-consciousness-moving-from-the-third-to-the-fourth-and-fifth-dimension

2. http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/freedom/freedom_04.html

Blog #4: Christian Hawkins- Steroids Era

I have decided to take a different route with this blog. A more controversial topic if you must, steroids. 

What are steroids and what do they do?

"A steroid is a type of organic compound that contains a characteristic arrangement of four cycloalkane ring that are joined to each other. Examples of steroids include the dietary fat cholesterol, the sex hormones estradiol and testosterone and the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone" according to Wikipedia.org. But who really understands that! The english version; steroids are either taken oral or injected with a needle to gain strength and/or muscle. 

What are side effects of taking steroids?

For males:

• Shrinking of the testicles
• Reduced sperm count
• Baldness
• Difficulty or pain while urinating 
• Development of breasts
• Enlarged prostate
• Acne
• Jaundice
• Swelling of the feet or ankles
• Bad breath
• Reduction HDL, "good" cholesterol 
• High blood pressure
• Aching joints
• Increased injury to ligaments and muscles
• Threat of AIDS from using dirty needles
• Cancer
• Heart/ Liver/ Kidney failure
• Emotional illness

You may find yourself asking, "Why would anyone want to put their bodies through this?" I ask myself the same thing! Putting their lives at risk just to try and be a stronger batter and have a better arm to throw is not worth it to me. In 1991 Major League Baseball banned the use of steroids, but it was not until 2003 the league implemented league wide PED testing. There have been 128 major league baseball player who have been linked to either steroids or Human Growth Hormones(HGH), both illegal. After a player has been proven guilty of taking steroids, they are placed on suspension. Depending how many times they have been caught depends on how long they will be on suspension. One of the most well known player for being suspended was Manny Ramirez from the Tampa Bay Rays, he was out for 100 games.

The way that I see it is if a player is taking steroids it is taking the whole point away from the game, to have fun. Sure if a player is taking illegal supplements they will have a much stronger swing, sending the ball way over the fence for a home run or even being able to have a stronger arm to throw as I stated before. But for me, a baseball fanatic, the game is about rooting for your team and just having fun. If I knew one of my players were on steroids, I look down on them. They were scouted back in the day because they were good just as they were. Even if the player is setting records for the team, none of that matters to me if they are on steroids. I would rather root for a team that is not doing the best, rather than go for a team who is amazing but using illegal supplements.

Above is Barry Bonds. He played for the Pittsburg Pirates from 1986 to 1992 and then was signed to the San Francisco Giants in 1993 to 2007. In 2007, he was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury during the government's investigation of BALCO, by testifying that he never knowingly took any illegal steroids. 

My outlook on steroids as you can tell is that they make the wonderful game of baseball a negative thing.

Sources:

• http://ezinearticles.com/?Baseball-and-Steroids--The-Controversy&id=12718
• This article gave me all the information on the controversial issues with baseball and steroids.
• http://espn.go.com/mlb/topics/_/page/the-steroids-era
• This site was one of the most informative because it taught me about the Steroid Era.
• http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~shumow/iit/Steroids.pdf
• I was able to learn about all the dangers of steroids and who uses them other than just athletes. 
• http://www.baseballssteroidera.com/bse-list-steroid-hgh-users-baseball.html
• The statistics from this page helped me with all the players who have been suspended.
• http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/acrobat/2007-12/34253184.pdf
• This paper informed me about the history of baseball and illegal supplements. 
• http://0-web.ebscohost.com.opac.sfsu.edu/ehost/detail?vid=3&sid=458a897d-402e-4aad-8ad4-442c7b23ef2d%40sessionmgr115&hid=112&bdata=JkF1dGhUeXBlPWlwLGNvb2tpZSx1cmwsdWlkJnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=J0E084345287813
• This article informed me even more about the history of steroids and baseball.

Blog #3 Alicia - The Importance of being safe and wearing the proper gear

Wearing protective gear is one of the most important aspects of this sport. BMX is a competitive sport where both the boys and girls get aggressive and for their safety it is important that they wear the proper protective gear. It is ABA rules that although you get to chose the amount of protection you want yourself or your rider to wear, the rider must sport an "approved basic helmet, long sleeve shirt, long pant, and closed toe shoe." You will not be allowed ride on the track without those basic items of clothing. Cause lets face it, you're going o get hurt in this sport, even its Olympic riders get hurt. Berlin "Bubba" Harris III a rider for the American men's cycling BMX team was practicing in the 2008 Olympics and dislocated his entire ankle luckly he was wearing proper padding and gear or his injury could have been much worse.

So in this blog I will be arguing that it is most important for the ABA to uphold these basic rules of safety for their riders. With the amount of concussions, fractures, and broken bones received in a riders lifetime, it is important to keep these rules and regulations. The process in which these events happen is somewhat mesmerizing. Friends that race together are not afraid to go after each other but sometimes will just stop and watch what happen, and they'll be in the middle of a race! The matter in which it happens is by no means beautiful, but it is definitely graceful.

While looking through my options of academic and non academic sources it wasn't to hard to find articles on bmx and its riders that have crashed.

Now we all think that we know why its important to wear helmets and full on gear, but lets pose the question why for a moment? Why is it really important for riders to wear the gear that they do? But before answering that all for lucid question of WHY, let me give you a little bit of background on the gear and its purposes.

So first The Helemet:
- This is obviously the most vital part of equipment worn in the sport because it protects the most important part of your body - the brain. The helmet in BMX is exactly like the one worn in motocross because it is a shock obsorbing helmet that obsorbs the impact of the blow to your head. After one good blow, it is reccomended to get the helmet checked to see if the shock worth is still there, if not get a new helmet. If you have a $40 brain, then grab that $40 helmet.. This is the piece of gear where you dont want to skimp on price wise.

The Shirt and Pants:
- Race-specific jersey and pants are most recommended by ABA. The shirt gives more protection while keeping the rider cool with its mesh design. The pants provide more protection for your knees, hips, and shins. And believe me, you'll want that extra padding if you're getting ready to eat dirt. Although it is acceptable to wear short sleeves and shorts to the track it must be followed by full elbow and knee pads.

The Gloves:
- The gloves are not required to wear but are wanted if you have ever gone down in an asphalt turn and ripped up their hands. Gloves come in all sorts of materials and designs so your hands will feel normal, but safe.

The Shoes:
- Any tennis shoe will do for racing bmx, but the flatter the soul, such as skate shoes, the better the gription on a platform pedal. As you move up in the ranks (Intermediate and Expert) you might want to move to clips, a spring loaded pedal and cleated-shoe that clip your feet into the pedals so while riding your foot doesn't slip and cause you to crash.

So now that you know more about the gear used in the sport of bmx we will go back to the question of why.

Why wear this gear, and why be mandatory?

- Riders should wear the gear because if they didn't I'm sure there would be fatalities. It has never been heard of that at national races or local track races where not one kid or even adult doesn't crash. Whether it be fatal or not there are always going to be injuries in the sport of bmx racing. It should be common sense that parent and riders that wearing this gear is important. Plus its all you ever see people in at the tracks so its also a fashion statement. If you're not wearing gear most of the time you're a spectator in the stands, and from what I've learned so far that can be a little insulting to a rider haha.

Now that you know a little more about the sport and the gear that is required by the Association, I hope you may consider hopping on a bike and maybe riding down to your local track. The bxm community always welcomes new riders with open arms and are always ready to help.

for this video skip to 26 seconds.. The guy in all white in second place is my best friend. If he wasn't wearing his gear he would not have come out of this crash walking.


Sources:

LexisNexis - http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.opac.sfsu.edu/hottopics/lnacademic/?

ProQuest Newsstand - http://0-search.proquest.com.opac.sfsu.edu/newsstand/docview/324373138/13D4F71B37D583FD4F5/37?accountid=13802

USA BMX - http://usabmx.com/site/sections/6#helmet

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f90Vj4Fok2w

                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCMA23knzbI

Blog #2 Alicia - It all Began With a Kid and His Bike; BMX History: The start of it all

For this blog I will be telling you about the BMX racing history and will be sharing some of the sources I found helpful while doing research for this topic.

It all began with a kid and his bike

Doing research for this particular part of my blog I found it difficult and not very helpful when looking at my academic sources given through the J Paul Leonard Library database and analysis and wanted to go straight to the source that I knew would have the full story. But unfortunately this assignment does not allow me to do that haha. So as I grit my teeth here is what I found looking through a couple of my academic sources.

• From ProQuest Newsstand I found an article by USAToday in September of 2008 called "BMX racing gets bum from Beijing". In this article by Sal Ruibal he first starts to talk about the 2008 Beijing Olympics and how BMX Supercross Racing was going to make its first ever national television debut, but then follows with the sport of bmx. Ruibal claimed that BMX started in the 1960's in California as a kids variation of motocross racing. He then follows with that bmx racing was the start to bmx freestyle in the X Games in the 1990's, and helped create "the next big cycling boom" of that decade as big time riders started heading towards other cycling sports such as mountain biking and then later to road biking as well. In the article Ruibal finishes off with BMX in the upcoming 2008 Beijing Olympics and the many summer Olympics to come. 

• From Google Scholar there wasn't much for this academic source so I did my best with what I could. On google scholar I found a book called BMX Racing (Torque Books: Action Sports) and from the basis of this book it explains the fundamentals of the sport and what it takes to be essentially "the best". I did not like this source because it did not give me the results I was hoping for. 

• And as my third and final source I chose usabmx.com because I knew that it would be the source I could most rely on. On this website it has the full history of bmx. From the time it was rumored to start, to how it was started, and to the starting and usage of the ABA (American Bicycle Association). Its arguable that the sport was born in 1969 or 1970, but it is confirmed that it was started in Southern California with a couple of kids, their modified Schwin Stingray bicycles, and a dirt track as they pretend they were racing motocross. Hence where the name bicycle motocross came from, bmx for short. In July 1971 the first 4 minutes and 7 seconds of kids flyin' on their bikes down the street in Bruce Brown's motorcycle film, On Any Sunday, would "spread the BMX word like wildfire." A new sport created for kids by kids was born. In one short summer bmx grabbed the attention of thousands of kids all over the US. Boys and girls on their modified bikes were seen going fast through the berms and jumps of any dirt lot they could find. By 1977, "pockets of loosely organized bmx races dotted the nation from coast to coast" and by then it was time for a "national sanctioning body" and thus the American Bicycle Association (ABA) was created. The ABA for the next 35 years from that point on completely changed and formed the future of the sport. The first steps were to create a system of qualifying participants that was not only fair but add to the competitive nature of the sport itself and still gave every rider the chance to become a winner. This led to the transfer system where the winner of each moto advanced to the next round - be it quarter, semi, or main event. The ABA was the first of many things in the sport; some include the first national tour, the first cruiser class competition, the first sanction to call fouls as they were occurring  it was also the first to have a starting light system, automatic gate system, voice command, and duel announcing in the sport. It was also the first to use a computerized system for its members and to be used as an interactive website where the members could check on races and their points. In 2008 American racers who raced on both ABA and NBL (National Bicycle League) tracks went to the Beijing Olympics to go and win 3 Olympic medals and racked 9 BMX World Cup (Supercross) events; more than any other country. In 2011 the ABA and NBL joined together and are now united and have become the USA BMX Association.

Now here are just 3 sources of what I found on the History of Bmx racing and its History. 

Here is a picture of what a bmx  race bike might look like. This is my friends 20" Supercross race bike

In the top right hand corner of this photo is the USA BMX logo