The Last Reflection, brings tears to my eyes

Well it seems that this will be that last time that I do the old trusty Reflection on Blogger for the great Mrs. Irving-Rooney. I will of coarse be doing one for the final exam, but that does not count in my opinion. I still think that the first semester was a lot better since we used Black Board rather than Blogger. Blogger just did not do the trick for me for some reason. Well it is sad to say that this year is almost over and even sadder at the mere thought that I may never see Mrs. Irvin-Rooney again. Oh but what a year it has been. We have done so many fun things in this class. I am very frightened whenever I think about the work load of this week. I have to do a lot for every class, but the most in this class. I have to do that huge essay for this class, as well as all of those things for the final exam. That is a lot of work. I will miss this class though.

My Reflection is a must

Well it appears as if it is that time of the week again. It is now that time where I talk about whatever is going on in my life or, as Mrs. Irvin-Rooney calls it, Reflections. I feel like this week was pretty much wasted though. You see, Senior Assassin was going on all week, and I am one of the people that got really involved in that. Let's just say that there was a good chance that I would have one, had I not been cheated. Senior Assassin, for those that do not know, is a game where Seniors try to eliminate their target by getting them wet. At the same time though, the participant has to avoid the person that is targeted after them. I started Senior Assassin with a blast. I quickly eliminated Melissa Houston on the car ride to our English class and stayed away from Lonnie Johnson. In round two, I eliminated Matthew Bobosky a.k.a "Bobo" in the same manner that I eliminated Melissa. I was on a roll. I had eliminated my second target quicker than anyone and was a huge favorite for the win. I did a good job avoiding Ben Verlander and had him beat until the cutoff date. He finally got me on the cutoff date because I thought it ended at 12 noon, when in reality it ended at 3pm. That is why I feel that I was cheated out of Senior Assassin. Shattered Glass was a pretty good movie, too. Although I hated the way that Stephen Glass talked. It was very annoying.

If there something strange in your week, who you gonna call? Re-flec-tions

Aw, nothing like a Ghostbusters reference to start off my favorite English assignment, the reflection. Speaking of which, did you know that they are making a third Ghostbusters over twenty years after the second? That was just a little icebreaker right there. Anyways, this week in class was pretty good. To start things off, we had some more debates. Now I am a man that does his work early, so my debate was already complete. Therefore, Tuesday's class was very relaxing in the manner of just sitting there and watching as two peers equally argue on a controversial issue. I do have to say that I thought that Joe and Cole's debate looked like it was going to get a little heated at some points. It did not though, which was a huge disappointment to me. Thursday's class was even better than Tuesday's. We started the movie "Shattered Glass" with that guy that plays Anakin in the new Star Wars trilogy. Yeah, that guy is not that great of an actor in my opinion. I mean, he is alright, but there is certainly better. Maybe part of the reason I do not like him is because I did not really like the new Star Wars trilogy. They were pretty good films, but no where near as amazing as the original three. That is pretty sad that films made with twenty more years of advanced technology were not better. I guess it just goes to show that George Lucas and everybody involved did an amazing job with the original trilogy and they are all too old now. The original Star Wars trilogy was definitely the greatest trilogy of all time. So that is pretty much what happened in English 112 this week.

Guess what time of the week it is...Reflections time

This week was amazing, truly amazing. Now there is really only one reason that I say this to you and that is because it was Spring Break. There is no greater week in the school year than Spring Break. One of the things that I dearly look forward to during Spring Break is the chance to sleep in late during every day. However, this amazing plan was halted due to the fact that J. Sarge was not on Spring Break the same week as Goochland. Now this strange plan was used in the great Mrs. Irvin-Rooney's English 112 class, but it was used in Dr. Kopf's Bio 102 class, which starts while the moon is still visible. It was slightly sad though that I was forced to go a whole week without being graced with the presence of Mrs. Irvin-Rooney. I still managed to have a pretty good Spring Break though. I hung out with friends and family, went bowling, saw the movie "Date Night," and had a fun day at Kings Dominion, just to put it in a nutshell. It was not the greatest Spring Break, but it was still pretty good. I am deeply saddened that it had to end so soon.

Reflection Numero Dososososo

So this past week in class was probably the greatest of all time. It probably amounted to the most amount of fun that one could have in an English 112 class. Although, with the great Mrs. Irvin-Rooney teaching, how could there be a dull moment? Tuesday was great because we had an all out debate in class. At least I think this was on Tuesday. It may have been last Thursday, but I guess we will never know. Anyways, the debate was amazing and very self-satisfying. It was almost like a relaxing therapy session, getting all that knowledge and wisdom flowing out there. Then, to top off the great week in English, we had debates on Thursday. Now I know that this actually happened on Tuesday. The debates were a lot of fun and they greatly influenced my opinions on a lot of issues. I had a great time doing my debate on former congressman Eric Massa with my fellow student Matt Bobosky. You remember Matt Bobosky from class, don't you? He also goes by "Bobo," if that's what you call him. Well anyways, I would say our debate got a little more inappropriate than I thought it would be. I did not intend for him to describe the term "snorkeling" to the class. I felt like we had the least professional, but funniest debate of all. I did feel like I forgot a few good points though, but for the most part, I did an amazing job in the debate considering I only pre-wrote my sources and not any facts. This past week of class was amazing though and I certainly hope that there are more like it.

Reflections! How have you been? I've missed you, old pal

I am so ecstatic at this very moment for the shear fact that I get to write a reflection again. The blogs just all around sucked, so the chance to return to some familiar territory is amazing. I do have to say that not a lot has changed in the world of Michael Massie since our last encounter, old pal (I'm talking to the reflection). That is not necessarily a bad thing though, as I view my life as a happy one. I did have a bit of an interesting week though. Of coarse, any week where I get to be taught by the great Irvin-Rooney is an interesting one. She was right on the money this week by changing the way that we do things in class. The Socratic version of the blog proved to be a genius idea, in my opinion. We discussed a great many things that should be discussed by human beings and it was incredible. Just the whole manner of the thing was very therapeutic and relaxing. I think that doing things like that just shows how much we as humans have in common. It also stirs an extensive amount of thinking that I find helpful to my mind.

So many blogs that I've lost track, move back to blackboard

Stith Thompson was a professor that for years studied the one thing that is very common to our everyday life; stories. He showed this quite frankly through his text, "Universality of the Folktale." Everyday that we as humans live is filled with words that are spoken, written, and read. These words form to make sentences and these sentences form to make stories. Human communication simply would not exist without stories. Thompson was trying to get this through with this text, although he took story telling to another level. He more so analyzed every detail of common stories and the way that they are told around the world to basically become a pro on the subject. That is a great example of how ethos is used in this text. It was very interesting to read about the way that Thompson analyzes stories.

In "'Cinderella': A Story of Sibling Rivalry and Oedipal Conflicts" by Bruno Bettelheim, we get to take a good look behind the scenes of the classic story "Cinderella." Bettelheim examines this story closely, as he knows that it is probably the most famous fairy tale in all the world. He takes into effect that this story is about step-sibling rivalry, rather than rivalry. Bettelheim states that the reason for this is that no one would ever want or dream of having a pure-sibling such as the step-sisters of Cinderella. He compares this story to the Biblical one of Cain and Able. Bettelheim also digs into the reasons why the step-mother and step-sisters treat Cinderella the way that they do. Deep down, Cinderella knew that she was in fact better than the two of them so they tied her down with dirtiness and filthy treatment. Bettleheim also examines why this story is so popular across the world. The reason for this is that this story shows that no matter how hard life may be for you at the moment, there is a light at the end of the tunnel that awaits for you. The light at the end of the tunnel may be different for everyone, but none the less, there is a shot for everyone to improve their life and they will if they successfully take advantage of these opportunities.

Six blogs later...

1. The thesis is for "Searching for an Identity in a Society Full of Labels" by Laurie Hrydziuszko is, "Searching for an identity in a society that seeks to place a label on each individual is a difficult task, especially for people of multicultural ancestry." She makes this point her thesis because the whole text continuously comes back to the fact that Anna Raya had a difficult time fitting in due to the fact that she is an American with a Mexican and Puerto Rican background. She also eventually ties this thesis to her own life, as she is Polish and Mexican.

2. The majority of the source credibility belongs to Anna Raya's "It's Hard Enough Being Me." The reason I say this is because the whole text Lauriee makes references to Raya's situation. She uses her as a direct comparison and feels that the two of them have a lot in common in today's society. The other sources used in the text though are simply good quotes and information used to increase the level of credibility for this text. They are no where near as significant as the information used from Raya.

3. I would say that all three rhetorical appeals are used in this text. I found plenty of Ethos when noticing that the author herself was multicultural and faced the same problems as Anna Raya. If she was only one culture and had only written about Raya, then I would have just figured that she knew nothing of the issue. Logos can be found in this when looking through all of the sources used for the completion of the text. The uses of Raya's text especially makes it seem like Laurie knows what she is talking about. A lot of people could say that Pathos is used in this, but it is not as noticeable as the previous two. The author uses the tragedies faced by Raya and herself to, in an essence, make the reader feel bad for her. I would say that it worked on me, for the most part, so that it why I say that this text includes Pathos.

5, 5 dollar, 5 dollar footblogs at Blog 5, eat fresh

1. In the article, "Politics and National Service: A Virus Attacks the Volunteer Section" by Bruce Chapman, there are a few logical fallacies. However, there is not really enough logical fallacies to get all worked up about them. Chapman is basically trying to argue through this article that more people should get involved in public service before the government starts making people do it. I have to say, he makes a valid point with this, but it still has not inspired to do any public service. Chapman presents his point through what looks like an inductive logical fallacy, as the reader steadily learns what Chapman is trying to get across. He really gets his point across though at the end when he says that the government could start suggesting we join public service. He then tells us that the government suggesting something and enforcing something can be viewed as pretty similar.

2. After viewing the biography of Bruce Chapman, I have to say that the guy is pretty credible. He is trying to constantly talking about public service, when he is a guy that has done nothing but political service through his life. He has worked in the Air Force, the RNC, and the White House. I would take this as he knows a thing or two about public service. However much his amount of public service helps Chapman, it also hurts him a great deal. When he is trying to persuade people to enlist in public service, they could just claim that the only reason he is trying to get people to join is because it is all he knows. Also when trying to get the government to not suggest public service as much, they could easily shrug him off by saying that he has gladly volunteered for his public service, so what does he know about being forced into anything. It is amazing how just a small piece of credibility can both help and hurt the writer.

Bloggershop Quartet (Blog 4)

Ex. 5.2
Goochland High School is run by idiots

Deductive
Recent decisions by the staff of Goochland High School has led me to believe that GHS is run by idiots. It all started with the hire of Mrs. Ball. Since she became principal GHS has done stupid things that require a lot of money. For example, they paid a folk singer to come in and teach us old folk songs and he was terrible at it. Due to decisions like this, our school now has no budget left. Since the school has no money, this has led to a shortage of paper. We students are the ones that have to pay the price for this now, as the school has to limit the amount of paper we can use. Also, the administration has made it so that it is easier for a terrorist to get in the White House than for a student to enter the school's library. I thought that this nation wanted students to read more. Now they have this very strict procedure for getting in and it is almost guaranteed to fail.

Inductive
The whole problem started with the hire of Mrs. Ball. Since she became principal GHS has done stupid things that require a lot of money. For example, they paid a folk singer to come in and teach us old folk songs and he was terrible at it. Due to decisions like this, our school now has no budget left. Since the school has no money, this has led to a shortage of paper. We students are the ones that have to pay the price for this now, as the school has to limit the amount of paper we can use. Also, the administration has made it so that it is easier for a terrorist to get in the White House than for a student to enter the school's library. I thought that this nation wanted students to read more. Now they have this very strict procedure for getting in and it is almost guaranteed to fail. It is due to things like this, that I am 100% certain that Goochland High School is run by idiots.

Ex. 5.3
As a senior at GHS, I must say that the recent decisions by the staff of Goochland High School has led me to believe that GHS is run by idiots. In my four years there, I have never seen such stupidity in day-to-day decisions. It all started with the hire of Mrs. Ball at the beginning of last year. The two years that I was there before then were no where near as bad. Since she became principal GHS has done stupid things that require a lot of money. For example, they paid a folk singer to come in and teach us old folk songs and he was terrible at it, if I say so myself. I remember thinking to myself, as I watched this show, "Why did they waste so much money on this man?" Due to decisions like this, our school now has no budget left. Since the school has no money, this has led to a shortage of paper. We students are the ones that have to pay the price for this now, as the school has to limit the amount of paper we can use. Everyday I have to hear the teachers complain about how they could not give us a quiz because they had no paper to put it on. Also, the administration has made it so that it is easier for a terrorist to get in the White House than for a student to enter the school's library. I thought that this nation wanted students to read more. Now they have this very strict procedure for getting in and it is almost guaranteed to fail. I have not once been able to get in there without being robbed of my dignity first. I remember a time when we students could walk in our own library, no questions asked. I have seen better times at my high school and I just wish these times would return.

Ex. 5.4
Recent devastating decisions by the lackluster staff of Goochland High School has led me to believe that our once great GHS is now being run by idiots. It all started with the shot-in-the-dark hire of Mrs. Ball. Since she became the tyrant, GHS has done incredibly stupid things that wastes tons of money. For example, they paid a way-past-his-time folk singer to come in and teach us old washed-up folk songs and he was terrible at it. Due to decisions like this, our school now has the thinnest of budgets. Since the school has no money, this has led to a shortage of the necessity, paper. We misrepresented students are the ones that have to pay the punishment for this now, as the school has to ration the amount of paper we can use. Also, the diabolical administration has made it so that it is easier for a terrorist to invade in the White House than for a student to enter the school's library. I thought that this great nation wanted students to read more books, rather than spend hours playing video games. Now they have this very strict unlawful procedure for getting in and the lovely entering attemptee is absolutely guaranteed to fail in a simple walk into the school's learning center.

I don't even know what to call this thing, but its from the Fun with Punc. thing

Punctuation is a very mysterious thing sometimes. It is the only thing other than tone that can completely change the meaning of a sentence. It is just crazy how that works. A person could just spell a word wrong and have completely different meaning to their sentence. For example, if a friend were to type to me, "What's that under there?," then I should respond, "Under where?," if I do not understand the area that he is describing. However, if I were to respond with "Underwear?," then I would be ridiculed for talking about under garments. So the spelling of just one measly little word can completely alter the outcome of a conversation. The exact same thing can be done with punctuation. If I were to mess up the comma placing, the period, or even the spacing, then the sentence could be taken in a completely different meaning. I really liked the example used in "Fun with Punctuation." You know what I am talking about, the quote, "Let's eat Grandpa," and "Let's eat, Grandpa." One can be taken that you want to become a cannibal and the other suggests that you are ready to eat with grandpa. 197 Another classic comes from the movie "The Love Guru." This one is, "If your Uncle Jack helped you off an elephant, would you help your Uncle Jack off an elephant." The reason this is funny in the movie is if you forget to capitalize "Jack" in the second part of the sentence then it can be taken pervertedly. It is amazing how just a slight change in punctuation can make something so funny.

Blogger 3: Revenge of the blog

"The Stanford Prison Experiment"
1. Zimbardo's primary goal through this experiment was to better understand the process of people becoming prisoners and losing all of their rights. He also sought to get a better understanding of the social power that prison guards have.
2. The profiles of those selected for the experiment were "normal-average." They consisted of twenty Caucasians and one oriental that were middle-class college-aged males. They were all "emotionally stable, physically healthy, mature," as well as avid law abiders. This certain profile is significant because their was no noticeable difference between the prisoners and the guards, so the experiment could really speak for itself.
3. The "process" for becoming a prisoner that Zimbardo speaks of is the phases that it takes for a person to become a prisoner. A person does not automatically become a prisoner just because they are handcuffed. They have to first have a number of demeaning things done to them until they accept the fact that they are prisoners and are ready to follow the prison rules.
4. The two have a approach by the guards has the inverse effect on the prisoners. For example, the more strict that the guards became, the more obedient the prisoners were.
5. As a result of the prison "riot" that occurred the guards became a lot more powerful. They put the leaders in solitary confinement and then put them with the good prisoners so that this would not happen again. They also began to harass and intimidate prisoners more effectively.
6. The prisoners did not respect themselves because they were always being put down by the guards and no one was their to pick them back up. They did not respect other prisoners because the other prisoners just watched as the guards humiliated them. They also did not have any personal conversations where they got to know each other better, so they probably did not know how to pick each other back up.
7. The journal of Guard A shows that Zimbardo was completely right by referring to this experiment as the "gradual Kafkaesque metamorphosis of good into evil. I say this because Guard A started off as a nonaggressive pacifist that could never see himself as a violent man with power. However, as the experiment advanced, this man went into a power-hungry abusive guard. He went from struggling to not smile at the prisoners to beating them and trying to force food down their mouths.
8. The reasons that anyone would volunteer to be prisoners are that they either needed the money or always wanted to see what it would be like to be a prisoner in a jail.
9. The mind can keep people in jail by having everything around it seem like jail. The loss of freedoms and constant abuse by guards can make the mind think it is in jail. Also, after the prisoner gets out, the mental scarring from that situation can make them believe that they are still prisoners.

"Uncivil Disobedience: Violating the Rules for Breaking the Law"
1. The organizations today are different from those of the past because they do not handle situations with the same care. Those that showed civil disobedience in the past were peaceful about it and went along with whatever punishment they deserved. They showed a respect for authority that is commonly ignored today.
2. The "four essential components for civil disobedience" are to "identify an unjust law," to "refuse to obey it," to "accept the consequences," and most importantly, but often forgotten, to self-purify.
3. The teaching of civil disobedience, according to the authors has been slightly defective. The teachers have taught students to not only do things like stand for what they think is right, but also think of those from the past that showed civil disobedience. However, they do not tell them to accept the consequences or self-purify afterward. Because of this, kids just go out and show full disobedience and fight the consequences to follow. This gets them into worse trouble and makes their image look bad.

They call me W, HW (as in homework)

Activity 1

1. The existing problems in our currently lacking public school system must be stopped as soon as possible by means of cutting poor-performing administrators and teachers, hiring well-educated people to fill those roles, and reducing spending.

2. There is only one way of solving the constant problems of the homeless, and that of coarse is money.

3. The average American would probably say that homelessness is caused by alcoholism, laziness, and drug-related problems. However, the most common reason that one finds himself/herself as homeless is that they have a mental illness that restrains them from living the American Dream.

4. When trying to do anything of mass importance, I find that there is nothing more distracting than a cell phone due to the texting, the ringing, and the conversations.

5. There is no greater choice in this world than for an expecting mother choosing to have an abortion because they are choosing whether or not they could parent a child, as well as if they want to take the life of an unborn fetus.

6. One of the biggest ways that people get injured these days is by a motorized scooter because 2,250 injuries have been reported by emergency rooms around the country.

7. There is no higher problem in the elementary schools than that of ADD because it is distracting to the child, his/her classmates, and the teacher.

8. There is no greater problem for a computer user than a computer monitor because they cannot always research what they have the need to research.

Activity 2

1. It was very interesting, but it was just one big run-on sentence. A conclusion should be several sentences that summarize the paper. They do not use any of the techniques that well in this conclusion. They could provide more information and tell a little more about their point they are trying to make.

2. This kept me interested only because I was trying to figure out what the heck they were talking about the whole time. This conclusion clearly did not restate anything from the paper. It was like it was the resolution of a story, but you would have had to completely stick with the story the whole time to understand it. This was very poorly written and had some bad grammar at parts. I suggest that they completely redo this conclusion and try to just tell what the paper was about and restate some previous points.

3. This one was a complete mystery to me. The mystery I was trying to solve is if this person dropped out of school after the 3rd or 4th grade. The grammar was terrible and their were sentences that had a subject, but no predicate. It did however, give me a good idea of what the paper was about. It also had an inspiring message to it that made me wiser. It probably could have used a little more detail though.

4. This one was very interesting and it gives a real idea for what happened in the story. It could have concluded with a little more detail, as well as restate some previous points a little better. It had a few grammatical errors, but for the most part was pretty good. It got the point across and that is all that one could really ask for.

Bloggy blog 2

"Opinions and Social Pressure" by Solomon E. Asch was about a very knowledgeable experiment. It deeply answered the question as to what is more powerful, the the human mind's beliefs or social pressure. Asch put this to test by having a group of volunteers look at some lines on paper and say which one they thought was the longest. However, all but one of the volunteers were told to answer incorrectly to some of them before the experiment. It was then down to the last person to decide whether to say what they thought was right or go with the majority. Most of the time the person went with the majority showing that social pressure usually does override personal opinions.

"The Perils of Obedience" by Stanley Milgram was another knowledgeable experiment that was a lot more schematic. In this experiment, Milgram wanted to test whether or not the typical human would put obedience above their morals. He tested this by having one volunteer as a teacher and the other volunteer as the learner. The teacher would have to teach a word pattern to the learner, who was strapped to chair with electric impulses ready to strike. If the learner answered incorrectly, he would then be zapped and the voltage would increase with each wrong answer. What the teacher did not know, however, is that the learner was actually an actor and their was no electrical shock. The teacher would usually go along with the experiment and whenever one stopped to question the observer, the observer would tell them to continue on. Almost all of the teachers continued on until the end of the experiment, teaching Milgram that obedience does, in fact, usually override the human morals.

I think that the two experiments used in "Opinions and Social Pressure" by Solomon E. Asch and "The Perils of Obedience" by Stanley Milgram were both crazy experiments that I could not have thought of to save my life. However, both were highly effective and they certainly taught me a lesson. They taught me that we, as humans, need to stand up for what we think is right more often, no matter the cost. If that means looking like a fool (with your pants on the ground) by making an observation that everyone else does not agree with, then so be it. If that means disobeying orders from some guy you just met, that for some reason has the urge to shock the crap out of some helpless life form just because they do not know some stupid word pattern, then all the better to you. The fact is that we can not just sit here and let our fellow brothers and sister become stupider by knowing the wrong facts or by having electrical shocks enter their brains.178 If we just sit around and let things occur that we do not think are right, then we should not just stand their and take orders from our peers or our higher rank. If we let this freedom of speech go from our mouths, then we might as well just call up Osama and tell him to take this country because we simply do not want it anymore. Opinions and morals used to soar in this country and I think that this should happen again.

I still consider this Virtual Class

1. In a way Milgram and Zimbardo were "obeying authority," in that they did what they needed to have a successful experiment. They might have inflicted a short-term mental anguish on their subjects, but by telling the subjects the truth behind the procedure afterwards, they forfeited any uneasiness from the subjects.

2. The "Prisoner's Dilemma" really has a genius premise. It is basically testing how well two separate parties can collaborate with each other. They can either both collaborate, both defect, or one betrays the other. After playing the game myself, I found that I tied with the Serendip. I guess this would mean that we helped each other out in a way, as if there were a clear winner then it would mean that someone was betrayed.

3. I think that having a real arrest take place makes the whole thing seem likely that it is real. However, without great acting of everyone involved, this would be a failed experiment. The "prisoner" would catch on and see that none of this was real by the bad acting alone.

Massie's blog debut

Opinions and Social Pressure
1. Suggestibility is basically a less extreme version of hypnosis that involves repeating instructions constantly until the instructee feels they must do it. Suggestibility kind of is social pressure because the repetition of instructions makes the person feel pressured into making a decision without thinking for themselves.

2. There is about eight men in a room and they are asked to compare the lines on two large white cards. All but one of these men are asked to miss some questions on purpose. They start out with all of the men agreeing with each other. However, as the experiment continues, all but the one person start missing questions intentionally. The experiment is to see whether or not the subject falls into peer pressure or goes with what he feels is right. The results tend to fall more towards peer pressure than instinct.

3. The more people in opposition, to a certain point, the less the person fell into peer pressure. The change from a unanimous opposition to a few who answered correctly with the subject had a tremendous effect. The subject would generally go against the majority if he had some assistance.

4. Consensus involves everyone thinking for themselves in order to obtain the answer. Conformity is falling under the pressure of the masses no matter how crazy it sounds.

1. I completely agree with Asch when he stated that it is very easy to shape one's opinions or attitudes by social pressure. I see cases all the time where someone knows what they feel is right deep inside, yet they conform to whatever the majority tells them to. One good example that I have seen is that people that were raised by their parents to be Christians, later become Agnostic because their friends or lover are. In this situation, both phases were an example of a person conforming. This person should go by what he/she feels is right and not let whoever he/she is around effect their decisions. It really is a sad thing that people are so easily swayed. Not only does it make for a weaker society, but it makes for a less-educated one as well.

2. The results to this experiment do not surprise me at all. I have seen the way that humans react in society. I have been around enough to know that most of us have no backbone when it comes to right or wrong. The only thing that surprised me is that there is no change in social pressure after being over powered by about three. I have found in my experience that it is a whole lot tougher to put my opinion against thirty people rather than four. I guess that is why they had to test this theory several times before this fact was discovered. Everything else in this study though was just a painful state of the obvious. I knew that social pressure was one of the most powerful things on the human mind.