"a plague of tics" Sedaris Analysis

After reading this story I got a little confused.  At first all of the rituals the girl was explaining reminded me of having a severe case of OCD but when she was describing how she had to kiss things and lick them did not remind me of OCD at all.  Can licking and kissing things be a ritual for a person who has OCD? I don't know, but overall I thought this story was interesting.  I couldn't even imagine having to count the steps you take or having a voice in your head asking you if you forgot to lick the light switch or kiss the newspaper.  Another part of this story I thought was strange was the girls mother.  The girls mother almost seemed like she enjoyed watching her daughter do these bizarre rituals and the part I thought was the strangest was when a teacher would try and schedule a conference with her mom, all her mom would do is force alcohol down her teachers throats.  I was sure what was wrong with the girls mother either.

WJ #9 - Question and Thesis

            The specific question I plan to write my research paper on is “What does a country club consist of and how is it run?”  My plan was to thoroughly answer that question throughout my research paper.  The reason I chose to answer that question was because I feel there are a lot of parts to be answered in that question and I think it will help to remain focused on the topic.  The thesis statement I think that complements the question I chose to answer is “A country club has many different areas of enjoyment and those areas are all managed in different ways, with different types of managerial staff.”  I feel that thesis statement is good because it sets me up with thoroughly describing all the areas of enjoyment in a country club and how they are managed and how differently they are all managed.  I think that if I explain all of those points thoroughly then that will provide me with enough information to research so my research paper will meet the requirements.  As an overview of what I know about the topic, I know a decent bit because I worked in a very historic country club called Oakmont Country Club last summer.  I learned a lot about the history and got firsthand experience on how it is run and what a high class country club consists of.  I learned all the different types of managerial positions it takes to operate a country club and I also worked in many different areas throughout the country club.  There are many areas of enjoyment in a country club and honestly that’s why people become members.  Although there are many country clubs in the United States and some are run more elegant than others.  I feel that some people choose their country club based upon their economic success.  For example Oakmont Country Club is an extremely exclusive country club; you basically have to personally know a member to even have a chance to become one.  Oakmont’s members are mostly only people who are extremely successful and have a past family history of family members that have also been successful or have made a name for themselves.  Other country clubs are much more public and will basically except anyone as a member as long as they pay for their membership.  With Oakmont you need to have connections within the country club and also provide a large check prior to becoming a member.  This makes the country club extremely exclusive which in return makes more people want to become a member.  I have reviewed five sources so far, four being scholarly articles and one being a book on country clubs.  The scholarly articles were helpful but the book wasn’t but I will look more thoroughly into and hopefully I can find something I can use.

"Ha ha," he said. "Ha ha." Klosterman Analysis

                I’m not sure what to think about laugh tracks anymore.  At first I thought that they were always kind of over exaggerated but after reading “Ha ha, he said. Ha ha” by Chuck Klosterman, it has made me think that TV sitcoms are choosing what everyone watching the program should laugh at.  In way I think that the TV sitcoms are basically molding our minds to a certain type of comedy so we continue to watch their sitcom and we as the viewers are fixated that it is truly funny, when at times it may not be.  In Klostermans story he compares shows like Seinfeld and Two and a Half Men that use laugh tracks to shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office that don’t use them.  At times when I’m watching Seinfeld there will be times when they play the laugh track after the punch line and I will feel that they are almost dragging the laughter on when in reality it really wasn’t that funny.  Like for example have you every really closely listened to laugh track of a sitcom?  Most of the time you’ll hear one individual person out of the group that is laughing uncontrollably.  I feel that no one truly laughs like that unless it personally with some and the joke usually isn’t that funny to begin with.  Also when Klosterman states that everyone in America has three different laughs, I agree with him because I feel that I myself have a real laugh, a fake real laugh and a filler laugh.   

Annotated Bibliography Practice

Kubickova, Marketa, and Heejung Ro.  "Are students real people?."  The use of student subjects in hospitality research.  (2011): 1-5.  Print.

In this article, the objective of the study was to examine three groups, one of hospitality major students, one of students in other majors and one with non-students and all of them experiencing two service failure types.  The two failure types were process and outcome, a process failure happens when service is delivered in a rude or unfriendly manner and an outcome failure usually results when whatever the customer bought or is receiving isn’t what they expected.  The point of the study was to see how the students would react in each given situation.

Richtel Article Analysis

From reading this article I would have to agree that juggling e-mail, phone calls and other information can change how people think and act.  I feel that it is very hard to focus on something when your receiving e-mail, texts and phone calls all from one device.  I also feel that all of this extra information distracts us from what we were doing eventually.  Many things can go wrong from distractions whether it be missing a huge opportunity to make 1.3 million like Mr. Campbell or like getting a text message while driving and getting into a accident because of it.  Overall I feel that these distractions are important but I also feel that you need to make a decision on whats the more important thing in this situation.

About Me

I'm Jared Reed and I'm 20 years old.  I grew up in Plum Borough, which is a suburb of Pittsburgh.  I went to Plum Senior High School and graduated in 2009.  I now go to Indiana University of Pa and am majoring in Hospitality Management.  Some of my hobbies include fishing, hanging with friends, music, video games and sports.