As i write my final reflection i will look back and examine a lot of my research in order to come up with a conclusion. I am pretty sure on were i stand and believe that i found an answer to my question. The revitalization of Buffalo, Is it really possible. A city which looks like it can never be what it was. A city that was known for its ports and an always busy downtown, to now being known as the second poorest city in the United states. I believe that we can become that again. however this change will not be any time in the near future. The change will have to start not only with the government but with the people of this city as well.

Many obstacles are in the cities way. For example the cities tax rate, bad economy, vacant homes, even are teen pregnancy rates. It does not sound to appealing for upcoming business owners who are the people who can actually help rebuild this city. It is difficult to say when or how it is possible for this city to get back to what it was. It Has been to many years of a declining economy to bring back up in the matter of a couple years.

All the research that i have found should have lead me to the conclusion hat Buffalo,NY has no hope. Such as are difficulties with are social security issues and are poverty rate being second in the nation. This is a great obstacle to overcome. So i decided to conclude with all the information that i have learned and researched that it is in fact possible for this city to get back to its old ways, although i can not guarantee that its going to happen this decade. So the new question would have to be, not if the city would become successful but when will it become a popular city again.

Learning How Teens Cope

When i started my research on how teens cope with too much responsibility, I soon learned there are many different problems that teens cope with.  I went to Google and did a search on effective strategies for teen coping.  I found an article titled "Helping Teens Cope" published by The Public Health Agency of Canada.  The article explains a few things that teens may have difficulty coping with.  For example, "natural or human caused disasters, such as earthquakes, health emergencies, terrorist attacks, or acts of war" ("Helping Teens Cope").  If I was in one of these situations, I can imagine what they're going through.  The article said that is  was normal for teens to worry about their surroundings.  Most people I know don't stress about natural disasters, but they tend to worry about gangs, drugs, violence, or their parents fighting.  

The article says also shares couple of expected ways that teens react to stress.  For example, teens drink or do drugs to cope with the stress.  Teens may also have problems sleeping, eating, have a poor attitude, or do have poor grades.  I have sleeping problems all the time.  Before I go to sleep I always think about things that are going on in school with me, family, work, and the world around me.  Sometimes it takes me hours to go to sleep.  I toss and turn, move to the couch or into another room where it's colder, try to always think about one thing, but it turns into thinking about many things.  I see people I know and care about take drugs to help deal with life.

"Helping Teens Cope." Public Health Agency of Canada 21 July 2005 28 May 2008 http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/publicat/oes-bsu-02/teens_e.html.

The Final Reflection

Well with the last entry, I hoped to have made a major step in this project, in that I have found different views of both wars, and one in particular that stuck out was the draft situation.I didn't live in the 60's but I asked my Dad and a few other people and it was an intense situation. People were risking going to jail, going to different countries to avoid it, it was just outrageous. So many marches, protests, burning draft cards, and speaking your mind really broke through a lot, especially after the "safe era" of the 50's in which everything was so proper and well.

Finally, people were able to see the war first hand from home with all the video equipment and the excessive media coverage. It gave people a better idea of what was happening, because before this technology, anyone could lie to you can say the opposite of what was really happening. Coming with this were more educated opinions about the Vietnam War, such as: the US was fighting a war against the wishes of the majority of the Vietnamese people. And it's true they were. It was as if the US was forcing themselves and this push for democracy on a people that didn't want our help.

But as this project went on, I was researching the similarities and differences between the Vietnam and Iraqi war, but as this project went on I fell upon the topic of the draft. This was not included in my essential question, or my foundation questions, but it was a very large part of my research, because it was the largest difference between the two wars, and it is still argued whether or not the draft should be re-instituted.

With this project I learned that there as no actual answer just opinions to my essential question of "What are the similarities and differences between the Vietnam and Iraqi War?" But the idea of a draft coming back was intriguing to me, because maybe more people would start to pay more attention to the current war, and as I have stated in a previous post, more people know who was the last contestant voted off "American Idol" was, rather than know that the current war is a major cause in the inflation of their economy.

All in all though, I felt this search was successful, however now that I have this information, I planned to have a more educated opinion about the war, but even after all the research, and the composing of these blog posts, I don't think I have a full opinion quite yet, but I will be sure to keep more of an eye on what is going on in my country, because not only does it effect what will be my job, but it will effect my everyday life as an American.

Should we draft again??

When I posted those pictures about the draft, I thought maybe I should research how the draft was in the 60's and why we don't much of a draft now. I know just from history classes that the draft was a huge deal, and many people were against it, and I also can understand why, but I want more of an in depth answer.

During the Vietnam War, people at home could finally see what was really going on in the war, and were personally affected by it. Because of the mandatory draft, everyone knew of someone who went to war, died in war, evaded the draft, or protested against the war. Also, this was known as the poor man's war, because the rich could easily evade the draft by sending their kids to school (Yahoo Answers).

With people burning draft cards, protesting the war, and people such as Norman Morrison, Roger La Porte, and Alice Herz literally burning themselves to death over this war, why did they do it ? Also, was this considered an attack on people's rights to decide whether or not to fight for their country (Vietnam Protest)? As this may be true, it is also an opinion, but we are all citizens of the United States, and if we are called upon for duty, why evade it? In some Scandanavian countries, it is mandatory for young men at the age of 18 to do two years of service for their country, and they don't protest about it. And I understand that this is a country built on democracy, and freedom, and the right to free speech, but if someone may harm your homeland, would you not be mad?

So the question is "Should we draft again"? And if so, how can it be done? Before the lottery was implemented in the latter part of the Vietnam conflict, local draft boards called men classified 1-A, 18 1/2 through 25 years old, oldest first. This resulted in uncertainty for the potential draftees during the entire time they were within the draft-eligible age group. A draft held today would use a lottery system under which a man would spend only one year in first priority for the draft - either the calendar year he turned 20 or the year his deferment ended. Each year after that, he would be placed in a succeedingly lower priority group and his liability for the draft would lessen accordingly. In this way, he would be spared the uncertainty of waiting until his 26th birthday to be certain he would not be drafted (Draft Laws). With these laws implemented, restricions do apply, and no person under 20 could be taken, which does save many young lives, but is a draft really that bad? Every person is entitled to their own opinion, but I can understand why people would despise the draft. But, usually the only people that support it are the ones who can't be taken, such as, politicians, and the rich who can't have their kids taken. So it all comes back to being a rich man's war, so in my opinion a draft is a bit far off of what should be done, and if a young man or woman would like to voulenteer themselves, more credit to them, because you are doing something that is extraordinary, and it is to protect your homeland.





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Draft Laws." 21 May 2008 .
"Vietnam Protest Movement." 21 05 2008 21 May 2008 .

The Buffalo News..

In the city, the Buffalo news paper often consist of many interesting articles which have to do with the way the city is doing. Such as new jobs, a business opening, or new talk of what the city plans on doing to attract new people or keep people here.

So this time i decided to read the local News paper and obtain some information from there. I found many interesting things. Both good and bad stories That could help out he cities case. For example an Article read "Falls plant to bring 500 jobs" articles like this are popular because it seems that in this city the employment rate is so terrible they must advertise every single job opening in order for readers to believe here are in fact jobs that are still here. (McPherson A2)

However of course there are still some negative statistics in the paper. I began o read an article tittled "Waiting For a Lifetime". As i began to read more i discovered that it was talking about the social security benefits in buffalo. One statistic really stood out. "buffalo office is ranked 19th worst in the nation". In the rest of this article Sharon Linstedt presents many different cases in which waits for a court appearance to appeal for social security could be up to 668 days. It is very interesting to me that almost every thing that follows a topic on Buffalo is followed by nations worst. These findings are interesting too me because i feel i begining to conclude on finding my answer.

Linstedt, Sharon. Waiting For a Lifetime." The Buffalo News 21 may 2008: A1.

It All Comes Down to This

Everything has a story behind it, and you think that you can find answers to anything but thats not the case for me in this project. I thought I had some good questions that would be answered but I was wrong. I found nothing except for peoples opinions on what motivates them and how they become prepared. I guess noone really thought about doing a interview on this topic until I came across it. I really havent learned anything I already knew but Ive learned that every body I talked to found that music helps people cope and motivate themselves. I didnt find out what the bigger percentage of people do but I did find out that the people I did talked to had very limited answers. They all told me that they like to listen to music before and during there skate session and they also need to skate with there crew. They also stated that if your with your crew you feel more hallenged to better your self because one person is always better then you unless you are the best of the best

After this project I was thinking about furthering my search and really trying to find an answer because I would really like to know what people do for this. Now I had a short amount of time for this project so I didnt really have alot of time but in the end it was all just a failure anyways. No matter how hard I tried or how long I sat at my computer and searched for something, anything I found absolutely nothing. Its frustrating becasue here you sit thinking you are all set and you think you will find something but then you get shut down with blocked sites or sites with no information about the topic.

I dont know about anyone else out there but to mean this makes me feel like I have failed, its nothing big but I dont like to fail at anything I do weather its school work or sports failure is not in my vocabulary, so now Im disappointed. Now that I am disappointed and frustrated I am determined to find an answer weather its in a few months or when im 50 I will get to the bottom of this sooner or later.

No more lazyness!!

Well lately I've been putting this project off, because it was irritating me. There were so many websites to go to, and reading some of this stuff in a way bores me, but I am still interested in the topic. But, today I finally stopped being lazy and started looking again, and found a very interesting view on my topic. It stated that the only difference between these two wars is that in the current Iraqi War there is no draft...yet ("Differences and Similarities"). Also, these two wars seem to be profit motivated. Not to mention that the difficult task of establishing the appropriate balance between winning hearts and minds with aid and reconstruction and using force to root out insurgents ("Why Compare"). What all that means is that you are really fighting two different wars, because you are not only fighting the army of the country, but the citizens of it as well, because we are intruding their country, their land, their home. And I'm sure if a country were attacking us on our home land we wouldn't like it very much, just as we didn't like when we got attacked on Pearl Harbor, or when the 9/11 attacks happened.

But I can see why people think this war is profit motivated for example, when I went to my DEP meeting in fact every time I go down to the recruiting office there are always people screaming to me "Don"t do it son!!" or some kind of jeer like that and they always have signs saying "Rich man's war, poor man"s blood!",or "Blood for Oil!". All of the signs and chants they do are all about the war and how the United States is only doing it for oil,money, and it's "greedy pride". But at least this shows people are somewhat paying attention, even though it may not be my opinion or the "correct" opinion the people that do this have a right to do so, and if they weren't so naive they would realize that they can do this, because of the young men and women enlisting everyday. And as you can see above in the photos each generation, each person has his/her own way of going about things and decisions. For example the two photos at the top show young men protesting their war. In the 1960's burning your draft card was a demonstration of not wanting the Vietnam War to continue, and maybe since what happened in the 60's is the reason why we don't have draft cards today..yet. So even though you may not support the war, support your troops America they are the reason you can freely protest, practice any religion, and have the opportunities you do such as, going to school, having a healthy meal, and even waking up safely in the morning. And although I may not have an educated opinion on the war yet, I am proud that I enlisted and by not having an opinion makes me feel like I HAVE to research this topic, because if I don't I would be blind to what I am about to get into.




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Blunden, Andy. "Burning draft cards." 19 003 1966 08 08 2008 .
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"Oil War." 08 08 2008 .
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Yahoo Answers, "Differences and similarities between Iraqi War and Vietnam." 07 05 2008 .
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Yahoo Answers, "Why compare the Vietnam and Iraqi Wars." 08 05 2008 . http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070302065118AA59ROP

My Reflection

Well the end of my project is here and I have learned allot about music artists and internet piracy and how they are still making profit.As we already know, Bands make allot of money and illegal downloading takes away from that. It is obvious that money is being lost due to internet piracy but most people would not think that it would really take as much money out that It already does. Between 2000 and 2006 illegal downloading has accounted for 23% loss of profit. That is nearly a quarter of their total profit. It is true that they still generate profit because of merchandise sales but that is not the point. If they are going to sit there and work to make the music, they should get profit for it. It should be their choice as to weather or not people have to pay for their music, not "the consumer".During my research I found the drummer from Metallica was also upset at the situation (Internet Piracy). He even took Napster (a file sharing website a.k.a. illegal downloading) to court. The head of Napster said that if people listen to the music offline then they would but the albums but I disagree with this because if people can get it for free offline then they are going to keep it that way and just download it.I brought up my idea in an earlier post that the music industry should have find a way for blank Cd's to have some profit generating for them. Because if people are going to keep illegally downloading music offline then they should make some money for the sale of blank Cd's. then they are at least generating some profit off of it. Some agencies are also taking action against internet downloadingers. It is called the three strikes regime. If people are caught illegally downloading music offline then they are suspended from their internet privileges. If they are caught doing it more then three times then they will permanently lose their privileges. Internet companies have to enforce this also and if they are caught not enforcing this then they too will be penalized. So this is a lose lose situation for everybody if they do the wrong thing so they should just the right thing. It will make life easier for everybody, especially the artist that created it because then they will get profit off of it.Plus this is a bad situation becaue like i said earlier that if you get caught using illegal sites more than few times you could get in trouble like losing your internet privliges. But what soe people don't know is that you can also go to jail if you continue to dissobey these rules.

So next time you or somebody you know is about to illegally download music offline maybe you should reconsider what you are about to do after reading my reports. I hope that It helped make people realize what they are doing wrong and that it does matter if they do or not. Not just because it is the right thing to do but because it effects peoples' work. Remember, it is stealing. If you wouldn't steal something tat somebody made then why would you steal some one's music(their project).

Finishing up in my Project

Well it is toward the end of my project and I have got allot of information that has helped. I have answered my questions the best i can.The last question that I am going to try to answer is "what are some other ways that the music industry makes money because of internet piracy?"? One way is by concert. A lot of people go to concerts. Even though you can still download them offline, it is not the same. It is a whole different experience to see the band live. Almost every band has concerts. Even if they are just coming up they still have little concerts in coffee shops or local places and they still generate some money. I know that Extreme Wheels have some concerts. That is just a local place in my neighborhood that is an indoor skate park. But either way, no matter where you go there is always going to be a place that a band will perform.A good example of this would be classical music, they have concerts and allot of times they would be in a church.St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church had a classial band perform and had 400 people come.it cost 5500 dollars to perform amd they slod tickets for 20 dollars each. So that is 8000 dollars.That is a 2500 dollar profit (CARNEY, Leo. "Turning the Profit." The New York Times). Now picture that on a larger extent such as a "big name band" that allot of people are in to where thousands of people go to and an average of 60 to 80 dollars a ticket.Another way they make money is by merchandise sales. This contains shirts, wrist bands, hats, posters, and etc.The Desdon Dolls make over 1000 dollars a night in merchandise sales(UnArchived ArticlesBand Merchandise, a journal artical). If they are just starting they can also start fund raisers. There are allot of people that would happily donate money for the starting of a new band. they would start with their friends and they would tell their friends and etc.The more attention that you have the better chance of making money you will have. bands become well known if several ways. A band can start a myspace and then get allot of friends and then post the dates of their concerts and then there is a better chance of more people coming. So like I said, there are many different ways for bands to make money, even if people are illegally downloading music offline.

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CARNEY, Leo. "Turning the Profit." The New York Times
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"Promote and Support your Music." UnArchived ArticlesBand Merchandise:

frustration is building

From all the interviews and all the research I have done I decided to take a step back and find out what motivation actually is. I've found out that motivation does not really have a specific meaning to it and its basically whatever you can do to perform better in whatever your doing. Not everybody can do the seme thing as everyone as does to get motivated but some people listen to music others just sit around and think about whatever they are about to do so they can get there head into the game or school work or whatever they are doing. Different things can motivate people as well like some people will be motivated by there family, freinds work, or even school work. Some people seek motivation bytrying to improve themselves at whatever they are doing or whatever the goals are that they are trying to reach. Theres only one problem its tough to stay motivated you have to keep building your skills and keep building your mental and physical preperation for the task you are trying to reach.

Clashes of Feelings Between The Industry and The Artists

Finally I have found some information on how some artists feel and how some of the downloading sites feel on this subject.Lars Ulrich is the drummer for Metallica, a heavy metal band, talks about how he feels. He said that it is his work and he should be rewarded for it and he should pick what happens to it and how it should be distributed.He compares his work to that of a carpenter. He says if a carpenter makes a table then it is his choice if he wants to sell it, keep it or just give it away. This is a good point because if you make something it is your spot to decide what should happen to it. He says this is just like music artists, they made the music so they should be able to decide what should happen to it. The rapper Dr. Dre agrees with him and in April of 2000 they took Napster to court for copyright infringement(is the unauthorized use of material that is covered by copyright law). Napster is a web site that allows you to get fies offline without paying for it and allows you to share it with other people.In court Napster's head(Hank Barry) states that his website is actually helping the music industry because by letting people sample the music it will make them want to buy the album. I disagree with this because if people are going to download the music offline then they already have it and there is no point to buy it. And if they do want the CD then all they have to do is go to the store and buy a pack of blank Cd's. So in my opinion that website is not helping the music industry. Some ideas that i have to help is maybe we could let those sites have the music on them but instead of having the whole song, just have like a quarter of the actually song. then if people like that part of the song then they will want to buy the CD to listen to the rest of the song and album. Or maybe since allot of people just buy blank Cd's to put there own music on, maybe a percentage of the sales of blank Cd's could go to the music industry. Those are just a few ideas and I'm sure that if people just sat down to think about the situation that they could actually think about more ideas or more effective ideas.




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" Rock Musicians Warn Legislators of Internet Piracy Peril." The New York Times (2000):
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As my search continues and the end of this project is near, I decided to give up on researching online. I decided to interview some of the people i know on what motivates them and what keeps them pushing themselves. I interviewed my buddy Mike Matesick he's a well known skater in Buffalo. So i asked him what he thinks the best way to become prepared and what motivates him. When i asked him he stated "Music is a big part of it and friends, you need your friends or else you have no one to compete with and get better" this is basically what every one says but the question is, is it true? Or do people just like to say this because there's no true answer to this question. He also stated that people give up to easy and that's there problem they do not work for what they want. (Matesick)

I also interviewed my friend Dave Soluzo he skates for a well known company named blondie. i skated with him gor a few years so i asked him the same question. what he thinks the best way to become prepare and wha motivates him. His anwser was almost the same but he stated that "To me you need your crew, its never fun and competitive if your alone, I like to stretch and get my head into it by listening to music" Which for some people works just as good. Stretching is a huge part of it because you dont want to get hurt because you dont stretch thats never good. Some people have different ways of becoming prepared but it seems like everyone listens to music and likes to skate with friends because its more competitive. I guess its what people are comfortable with wheather its musci, friends skateing alone or even just cruising down the street no matter what people do they always have something that motivates them. (soluzo)


Soluzo, Dave. Peronal Interviem. 4 May 2008
Matesick, Mike. Personal Interview. 3 May 2008.

What Needs To Be Done.

In order for buffalo to become a successful again the city wold have to find a way to create attractions in order to attract people. One of Buffalo's ideas is to re-create the Buffalo harbor and waterfront which has all the potential to be the cities local hot spot. With this information i have decided to look up on how the city is going to do this and will it be happening soon. So i came across a website Buffalowaterfront.com and it gave me the information that i was looking for. Everything sounded great such as adding condominiums over looking the water, town houses, other restaurants and attractions. All this is good but will it be done? Stuart Bridge wrote in this article that the ideas were good but with the contreversy and differences in ideas are really going to set back all these plans. "Many good ideas are being presented, but if none agreed on this will never happen" Bridges said. So i am still getting the impression that this city has some hope. Rather or not it will happen in this lifetime or next is probably the question. It will be difficult because the decrease in population in New York as a state. I am looking foward o finding out more.


Bridge, Stuart. "New waterfront plans opens access, Might spur harbor rebirth." Buffalo Waterfront development 19042008 14may2008 .