Why Are Teenagers So Brand Conscious & The Pain of Paying

lizbethgalicia

Why Are Teenagers So Brand Conscious?

Most people say they aren’t brand conscious but what would actually happen if they did an MRI on their brain? The neurologist would probably see the brain activity in their Medial Prefrontal Cortex, this covers the frontal lobe of the brain. The Medial Prefrontal Cortex is in charge of the decision making that will happen and tracks down your social status. For example, how car companies target themselves to consumers is by targeting the specific car as a symbol and associations. If you have a Tesla than that shows that you are a well making person who makes a decent amount of money. Having a volvo makes you the person who cares about safety. All of these different type car commercials makes sure that you recognize the different type of cars in which creates an alternate status system. This tells the  brain that whatever is in trend you have to get it to. You might not notice but that’s what commercials are made for and if you see people who actually have the latest phone you will want to get it as well. You might make up another excuse to why you need that new iPhone 7 but in reality you just want to have the latest trend like everyone else.

Pain of Paying

When I feel the most pain of paying something is when I know I need to get it because I actually need it but it’s way too expensive to buy. It’s like being in between what you actually want and need, and sometimes buying something you want doesn’t hurt paying because you know that whatever you buy it’s going to make you happy whether how much the price is. I for example buy makeup I don’t really need but i still buy it. This is because my brain is so brand conscious that whatever some girl is using it on youtube that I should use it too. We become so obsessed with our social life that if someone starts using something and getting compliments you will want to buy it to because you might get compliments as well. Another example can be when your going out with your friends and you’re spending all this money on food that you really don’t want but still get. This is because all of your friends are buying food that you don’t want buy but if you don’t then you look like the type of person who doesn’t like wasting their money on irrelevant things and you don’t want to look like a greedy person. You sometimes care so much about what people say that you’ll even spend more than what you can afford just to look good in front of your peers. We are sometimes so brand conscious that we prefer spending money on something that we don’t need rather than actually buying what we need and when we actually need to buy something you make an excuse on why not to buy it anymore so you won’t have to spend your money.

 

Money + Corruption = Screwed Up Government

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Do you know what a lobbyist is or what they do ? Well a lobbyist is a person who takes part in an organized attempt to influence legislators. This means that they will fund a campaign for whoever is running for president at the expense of passing or exchange laws to their favor. Lobbyist will pay millions of dollars just for the their future candidate to win. The reason why they donate so much money is because in return they will get what they want and benefit from the laws they will pass making them have more money than what they gave. The amount of percent millionaires pay in taxes is in between a 12-15% of their taxable income. On the other hand, regular people pay a 30-35% of their taxable incomes. You can definitely see a difference and how people get away with anything they want and instead of the government having the same equality for everyone they only give it to some people.

The vicious cycle starts with the wages stagnant which means that the wages stay the same. If the wages stay the same then workers buy less, which means that companies downsize and cut workers. Tax revenues decrease and then government cut programs (after school programs, classes in size increase etc) and then workers are less educated and have less skilled people which means that unemployment rises. Robert Reich talks with so much power about all these stuff and how the economy is not so good as people say it is. The only people who benefit from all of this is people who are rich and they only make themselves even more rich but not the middle class nor the lower class they stay in the same spot. In the late 50’s and 60’s that’s when the economy was at its highest point, this means that the upper class was almost in the same range as the middle class and there was less people in poverty. After it was like that for a few years it went back to the same thing as it is today, a big gap between the upper class and the middle class. It hasn’t changed for decades and doesn’t look like it will until someone raises the taxes on the rich.

Reflection on Hypertension

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What is Hypertension?

Did you know that hypertension is known for as the silent killer? This is because having high blood pressure at first shows no symptoms until you are in a life threatening situation where you are rushed to the hospital because you just had a stroke. Which is one of the symptoms of having high blood pressure if not being treated. You’re probably asking yourself what actually is Hypertension and what causes it to be such a life threatening condition. Well hypertension is a condition in which the force of the blood against the artery walls is too high.

Who is Affected by Hypertension?

Hypertension has been growing immensely and is said that about 1.56 billion people will develop hypertension by 2025. You’re probably freaking out and asking yourself if you might be one out of those 1.56 billion people and in reality everyone infants, teens, and elderly people are all exposed to this condition. African Americans are especially exposed to this condition since it tends to develop at an earlier age and it is said that about 40% of African American people already have hypertension.

What Will Happen If It’s Not Being Treated?
High blood pressure can cause a lot of problems if left untreated. Hypertension is the leading cause of strokes and heart attacks. It also increases the risk of having heart and kidney failure and hardening of the arteries ( a condition called atherosclerosis). It also damages the cell of the arteries which limit the blood flow throughout your body. It can also lead to an aneurysm which causes an internal bleeding.

Some Ways You Can Prevent Hypertension

There are a lot of ways you can prevent hypertension, some of them is by just doing some little things that you don’t normally do. Exercising is a must since the more you weigh the higher your blood pressure will be. Drinking or smoking a lot also affects your blood pressure and will only make it worse if you don’t stop. Hypertension not only has it increased but will keep increasing, this is why we should all be aware of the things that can happen so we can stop it from happening to us.

Freakonomics or Freak-On-Ecomist?

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In the podcast called Could A Lottery Be The Answer to America’s Poor Saving Rate?. It talks about how many people who say they won’t be able to have 2,000 dollars in 30 days but have money to buy tickets for the lottery. In the survey Peter Tufano did he said that half of americans said that they wouldn’t be able to get the money in time. Some thing I found very interesting was that people spent more than 1,000 dollars a year and 809 billions dollars in revenue and more than 60 billion dollars will be spent this year. This means that more people buy more lottery tickets than trying to buy some grocery food. One thing I found interesting was that Peter and Melissa came up with an idea that were going to make more people win the lottery more often and then their dreams would could come true.

You’re probably thinking to yourself how they are going to do that and they came up with the program “Save to Win” and this program allowed people from only Michigan to be able to join this program since no other state would allow them too. This program made it easy for you to win and the way you would do it is by making a savings account starting at 25 dollars and with those 25 dollars you would be able to win 100, 500, and even 100,000 dollars. The way they get the money is by taking some interest out of the people who have saving accounts and they take the interest for people to be able to win. The credit union is the one who is with the program “Save to Win”. Some people think this isn’t a very good investment where people could trust, but it is secured by the FDIC and can give you you full money back only if you have 250,000 or less than that. I think this is like the same thing as what happened in 2008 where all of these banks who said they had money on people’s mortgages. I think the only reason why some states only approve of this is because what if the people start taking out their savings and then more and more people do that and then the new clients are relying on people’s interest for them to be able to win some money but the credit union won’t say that to you and instead will lie to you like all of the banks and business people do. I personally think this is a good idea but at the same time its not because you never know what lies they can be telling you just for you to become one of their clients.

 

Final Semester Evaluation

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Wellness Blog Post #1

1. One Wellness Blog Post I really enjoyed doing was the Financial Wellness. This blog talks about how people should learn how to deal with their money and not spent it all at one time. This means that you have to not just think of the present but also on the future because you might never know what’s going to happen and if you could of saved the money you spent all on food on something more productive.

Wellness Blog Post #2

2. The second blog post I picked for this evaluation is my first blog I did of the year, Emotional Wellness. This blog post talks about how you have to be emotional stabilized in order for you to be a good person within yourself and within others. Emotional Wellness talks about how to you should be able to talk about your feeling to someone and still feel comfortable with them afterwards. It also talks about how good or bad you are with your sleep and stress level.

 Blog Post Of Choice

3. My third blog post of choice is the Environmental Wellness. On this blog it talks about how everyone should be grateful that there’s an a planet that we can live on and should learn how to take care of the Earth. Should learn what mother nature has to offer and not just keep on polluting the ocean or the air. This post makes you learn about things that you don’t think about everyday and if you’re one who isn’t doing 1 0r 2 things that say you should be doing then you should start doing it before it’s too late.

Small Business Blog Post

4.  My small business blog post is about Car Meet Enterprises Inc. On this blog post I talked about how our plan started out, the brainstorming, our business plan, what type of advertisement we would do to make people go to our business, and the elevator pitch.

Discussion Post

5. On my discussion Post I picked Discussion Post #2. This reason why I choose this one is because the way it’s setup. I inserted a quote from an article, proper citation. This discussion post talks about if voting should be mandatory or not and why do you think it should or shouldn’t.

 Research on Discrimination

6. My research paper on discrimination was on disabled people. It inspired me to write about this because most people only focus on people who are only mentally disabled but my focus was on people who have suffered an injury that led them to be disabled. On this mini research paper I focus on how normal people should not treat disabled people differently since all they want to be treated is the same way as you would treat someone who is normal and not on a wheelchair.

Journey to Topaz Journal Entries (5 Entries)


  1. Chapter 11:  A Home in the Desert, pages 93-102

    I am the mom.  We have gotten to Topaz and both of my kids hate this place already. Yuki was more excited when she saw some flowers and nice things but that wasn’t the place we were going to. We were just passing by their to end up in a place so ugly, hot, and dusty. The place they assigned us is a mess and I am so tired that it makes me not want to clean it up at this moment. This is how tired I am right now and we still haven’t unpacked or done anything. I am very worried for Emi since she’s getting very ill and I really hope what she has is a flu and nothing contagious.
  2. Chapter 12:  Dust Storm, pages 103-109

    I am Yuki. I was so scared when Emi fainted and I didn’t know what to do but i’m glad I was able to save her life when I found those doctors that were about to leave. Now that she has been admitted to the hospital for 24 hours I went to go see her and they told me that it was best for me to not go anymore since only family members can go see her. I still went to see her either way because I already miss seeing her. I decided to go see her without my mom’s permission and it looks like she is getting worse by the day. I really hope she gets better soon.
  3. Chapter 13: A Last Visit, pages 111-116

    I am Kenichi. Now that we are in Topaz my mother has been begging me to go back to college but I don’t really want to go back. I have to now take care of the family and bring some food to the table in order for us to survive here in the sandy, dusty desert. I was going to college to become a doctor but my mind has frozen and I can’t find a way to unfreeze it. Since we got to Topaz I have been working at the hospital as an orderly and I have been learning lots of new things, I hope I can keep on learning more stuff so then later if i do end up going back to school it won’t be that hard to catch up.
  4. Chapter 14:  Tragedy at Dusk, pages 117-122

    I am Emi’s grandmother. I have just been told that my husband has been shot. I had to pause for a moment and realize has had just happened when Mr. Toda had told me the news. I just couldn’t believe it and neither did all of the people in Topaz. After I had received the news some guards came to pick me up and take me to the hospital. That ride felt like forever and on the way over there I  just kept thinking to myself of all of the good times I had spent with my husband and now I wasn’t going to make any more memories with him. My husband was another victim of this war.
  5. Chapter 15: Good News, pages 123-12

    I am Yuki. After I received the mail of my father coming to Topaz I was so excited that I didn’t even care if people were grieving about the death of Mr. Kurihara death. I was really intrigued to know that my dad was going to hopefully spend Christmas with us. I can’t wait for my dad to come. It’s Christmas Eve and I just have a feeling that my father is coming home today. Like Mrs. Kurihara says that you have to keep a positive attitude in order for good things to happen so I won’t let anyone tell I am wrong.

First Semester Reflection

5.

a. Reflect on your learning from this semester…
What I learned throughout this semester is how you can become a business person and what steps you have to take first in order to make it happen. I learned that the process is very long but it’s worth it. Another of the many things I learned how to do was how to set a blog post properly and to not procrastinate on my work. I also learned about the UNSDG’s goals. I never knew what these goals were about but it made me learn abscreenshot-2016-12-11-at-6-34-51-pmout the goals the whole nation is trying to accomplish. The goals we learned about made me understand more political stuff like why Hillary wanted to start saving the climate. Learning about the 17 goals was a good thing since I now know more about what needs to be done in order for the world to be a better place. I also enjoy learning about the internment camps that happened after the bombing of pearl harbor. I really enjoyed learning about this because no one really talks about it anymore and if no one knows about it it’s like nothing happened. So I really took interest in this since I like learning about new stuff that are interesting.

 

b. What did you like/not like?

What I liked about this semester was being able to get to know more people and becoming more close to them as well. I like collaborating with other people because if we all do the same amount of work and we stay on task and we get the work done faster. This also made me get good grades on my assignments (which was almost all of them).  I really can’t think of something that my teacher did that I didn’t like yet.

c. In what ways did you grow?

Some ways I grew was that I didn’t procrastinate as much as I did last year on my work. Also I tried really hard on doing a good job at my work and not just doing the minimum. What I really liked was when I did a good job on my work and got good grades which kept me from working even harder and if I didn’t get a good grade that I was satisfied then I would work on it for a better grade. I also improved my grades to a whole drastic level. Some thing I also grew was in my learning on the six dimensions of wellness. This is because many of the students in PLA that were asked if they wanted to keep on blogging about the dimensions of wellness and most of them said no, I on the other hand didn’t care and instead I kept on blogging about it which made me learn more about the different types of wellnesses.

d. What insights did you gain?  About yourself or others or our community…

Some of the insights I gained this semester was being able to not only learn how to be emotional stabilize but being able to know how to take care of the environment, financially, and intellectually. I also gained a lot of knowledge about the election. I learned the perspectives of both of the candidates and the propositions they were proposing. Not just on that but the way our teachers make us learn new things and the way they make it fun to learn.

Intellectual Wellness

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Are you the type of person to procrastinate alot? Or don’t have the best study skills ? Well maybe you need to learn how to improve your study skills, and your time management skills. Well maybe I can give you some tips that the University of New Hampshire of Health Services  provided for health purposes and for people to be better purposes.

Signs of Intellectual Wellness are..

  • Development of good study skills and time management
  • Ability to challenge yourself to see all sides of an issue
  • Becoming a critical thinker
  • Development of your own ideas, views, and opinions
  • Exposing yourself to new ideas, people, and beliefs that are different from your own
  • Become aware of who you are and what you value

 

Improve Study Skills by reviewing the material within 24 hours before the class you’re studying for so it will be fresh in your head for the next day. Taking notes when doing a lecture or when you’re reading a novel. Make a study group session with other classmates. Also when you’re studying study in an environment where it’s quiet and won’t distract you from your work. Try color coding when you’re learning a new topic.

Improve Time Management by making a “To- Do List” which makes you prioritize tasks in order to finish the the things you need to do first. Keep away from social media so you won’t get distracted and actually get things done. Also don’t work long hours, that will cut you from having time to study.

Remove Objectivity by knowing that their isn’t just one way to getting things done and learning that there aren’t always just one answer but multiple ones you can get. Try to have an open mind for new ideas and thoughts.

Improve Critical Thinking by participating on class discussions so you understand better. Another thing you can do is ask questions to yourself and reflect on the questions other people are saying so you can connect examples to your 0wn personal life. Last but not least always keep thinking and questioning your brain for it to stay active.

Business Project

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Personal Reflection 

For the month of October our PLA teachers were making us do a business project where you first had to pick 20 problems from our community that we thought were a threat.We were then suppose to brainstorm 20 major problems we had in our community, then we were suppose to lower it down to 10 problems, eventually to 5 problems and finally pick 1 major problem you and your partner could work with for the next 3-4 weeks. The problem we choose at first was littering, but then we didn’t exactly think outside the box  when we choose our problem and we were actually thinking about the problems we only had at school and not outside the community. When we were trying to find a solution to this problem we were only thinking about how people could volunteer to help out and pick up trash but we weren’t seeing how we would be getting money out of this problem. We then came to a conclusion that littering was a problem but many environmental clubs or teen programs would make their clubs go do community service and make them pick up trash in places where you commonly see trash, for instincts the beach. So we then chose street racing,  we choose this problem because we recently saw an increase of street racing in our community and deaths caused by it as well.

Business Plan

The plan we made was that we would make a facility where people would be permitted to have their car meets, or even have a place to race. We would make the facility a safe place to race and would provide some sort of First Responders if  you would to get hurt in some sort of way. There would be a fee to enter the facility and even food stands where you could buy any type they would be providing. We would then host car events, or rent them for parties to get money and actually finish building the place faster. A link will be provided with further details of our business plan.

                                                                              Advertisement

The screenshot-2016-11-02-at-11-52-18-pmbusiness advertisement me and my partner did was a yelp page. We put exactly the same things a yelp page would contain. Which includes, the name of the business, where its located, the time its open and what time it closes, reviews that we put in saying how good of a place it is, and even a contact information if people had any questions about the place.

 

 

 

Elevator Pitch

My elevator pitch was based on how we want to have a better community with less crime and want to lower the increase of street racing by 50%. I feel like if we have the power to stop accidents from happening and can help saves lives then it’s totally worth investing for. Some drivers don’t always want to race,  all they want is to see what other car owners have to offer them or even if it’s just to spend some time with their friends and have a little talk for a while. Many car owners from the ages of 16- 21 years old tend to have car meets once in awhile but always end up getting kicked out of places due to the property they are in. We don’t want that to happen anymore and me and my partner want to have a place for them to have some time without having the fear of getting kicked out at any moment.

You Write The Story

lizbethgalicia

The first Fast and the Furious movie has come out to theaters and there’s  thousands of people who want to see the movie in theaters. There’s many people who want to see it on the big screen but since there’s only few auditoriums who provide the movie and there’s a lot of people who are still waiting to see the movie but the next show time is not until 2 hours. They eventually give up trying to see the movie on the big screen and just wait to see it when it comes out on DVD. Many people then start doing the same thing. After many people start doing the same thing and it’s not on movie theaters anymore, at that point many people have already forgotten about the 5 star rated movie they rated a couple months ago and other people are doing the same thing.

After 3 years later they announce that the second movie comes out, 2 Fast 2 Furious and many people want to go see the movie on big screens. Many people by then already forgot what had happened in the first one so they start seeing the movie again. As the months past by and the date gets closer many people start doing the same thing and it starts to have a high demand on popular cites where you can see movies online. The media then starts realizing that the first movie, Fast and the Furious is almost as popular as if it had come out for the first time.

screenshot-2016-11-02-at-10-18-53-pm

 

 

Financial Wellness

lizbethgalicia

Are you the type of person who spends their money right away? Or do you have a piggy bank where you put all the change you have? Well if you’re the type of person who likes to spend  money on everything you crave or want well then you might have a problem with Financial Wellness. The first sign of being financially well is 1. Learning how to manage your money and establishing a personal budget. If you said “well I’m screwed” to yourself then you need to find another strategy to try and save some money for bad situations that you might have in the future.

Making  A Plan To Start Saving Lives

Maybe you’ve always wanted to start saving your money to get something you’ve always wanted but never got to save enough to buy it so you bought something else. One thing I do when I want to start saving some money (which is rare) is I try putting my money in a place I won’t have to see it everyday. This really helps me think I don’t have money and not actually spend it on something stuff I don’t really need.

Signs You Need To Know How to be Financially Well

You going to need to learn how to manage your money eventually but you don’t know to start, below are some ways you can start doing in order to manage your money effectively. The University of New Hampshire haves some signs for you.

  • Learning how to manage your money and establishing a personal budget.
  • Not living beyond your means.
  • Learning to not let money be the driving force of your life.
  • Donate some of your money, if possible, to a cause you believe in.
  • Make a plan to pay back your student loans.
  • Not getting into credit card debt. Try to pay off the entire balance each month to avoid interest.
  • Thinking long term – set up a savings account.

Environmental Wellness

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Environmental Wellness means that you have to be aware of your interactions between the environment, community, and yourself. What this means is that you not only have to be aware 0f the people who surround you but also the place you are in and what mother nature has to offer you. Environmental Wellness is making you think outside the bubble that every single person has and to actually take a moment to appreciate the place you’re in and see the things you like and don’t like about it.

Many teenagers are going off to college or they might just want to get out of their parents house and go get a place to themselves. Many teenagers don’t actually think about the view or where it’s located, they only think about how much the place is going to cost and if its close to school or their work.

On the other hand some people are the opposite, these type of people are already older and are trying to find a place to live with there soulmate and their future kids. This couple thinks a little bit more different than a teenager whose just trying to get out of there parents house. They actually think outside the box and think of the worst things that could happen to them if they would to live there. They ask questions like, Whose lived there before? Is the house located in a safe neighborhood? When was the house built and/or remodeled? Do neighbors respect your property? Does the house have reusable resources? These are some of the many questions some newly weds might ask due to the fact that its not only them that they have to worry about but worry about little human too.

Below are some signs you have to think about before going out to a public place. For example If I want to go hang out with my friends I would pick the beach because who doesn’t like the beach and seeing the sunset. Or sometimes I go with my church friends and we pick up trash from the beach and then after we are done we get to enjoy going in the water for a bit.

Oceanside Pier Sunset

The Signs of Environmental Wellness

  • Being aware of the limited resources the worlds has given you
  • Conserve Energy
  • Recycle anything that is recyclable
  • Enjoy what mother nature has to offer.
  • Don’t pollute the water, air, and the Earth