49ers New Stadium Proposal

The San Francisco 49ers may relocate to Santa Clara. A few months ago, officials proposed a new stadium for the 49ers in Santa Clara, which would be located next to Great America off highway 237. The stadium would be completed in 2012 if Santa Clara accepts the proposal. It would cost an estimated $950 million to build it according to a SJ Mercury article. http://www.mercurynews.com/southbayfootball/ci_5595601. This price would make it the "most expensive open-air NFL stadium ever built." However, Santa Clara has to come up with $180 million. It is unclear to me how they will pay for it. A possible idea is to increase the utility bill for Santa Clara residents and use this money to fund the project. I know that this may anger some people. Despite residents paying for the stadium with money from their pockets, there would be some positive things for the city. The stadium would create more jobs, boost the economy, and bring people to the city. When people attend the games, they are likely to go around the city, before or after the game, and possibly go shopping, spend the night in a hotel, or go to a restaurant. This would be great for the city because people would spend money and the businesses will benefit. The only worry is that too many people may congest the area causing traffic and possibly disturbances.
The city of San Francisco is trying to keep the 49ers where they currently are. They proposed a new stadium at Hunter's point, however, this seems unlikely because they have to build new roads to make it easier for people to access the stadium. (A news report on channel 2 says the roads would not be finished before 2012). Santa Clara offers great access to nearby highways: 237, 101, and 880/17. There would be little traffic congestion here, unlike San Francisco. It looks promising for Santa Clara and I hope the 49ers move here.

High Gas Prices

According to a BBC article, oil prices increased to $68 a barrel, which is a six month high. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6506005.stm# Gas prices in the bay area are easily greater than $3 per gallon and one main contributor to this is the problem with the West and Iran. Earlier this week the British sailors that are being held hostage in Iran were broadcast on television, which increased hostility between Iran and the West. This, in addition to the extremely high demand and diminishing supply of oil, is continuing to cause gas prices to increase. Iran has also been trying to gain nuclear power which is causing tensions to grow. The article says that the shipment from Iran has continued to remain constant, but there are fears that they may begin to decrease.
The high gas prices have caused people to look elsewhere for transportation. I have noticed there are more people taking the light rail to work and school, probably to save money. I am glad that I don't have to drive a long distance to work or school, but some people commute over an hour to work. Also, the demand of SUVs may begin to decrease because of the high gas mileage that they have. The problems with the West and Iran have greatly affected all of these things.

Second Life

I first heard about the term "Second Life" in my Bus188 class earlier this semester. My teacher explained that it was a website where people could walk around a mall and go into different shops and buy various items except it is done on a computer. People do not even have to leave their homes in order to go shopping. They control a person by using the mouse and keyboard and they can walk around a virtual mall and actually buy items. But I thought that this was pointless because people go shopping online all the time on different websites. Also, it seemed similar to a video game called "Sims" in which the player creates a person and does various activities. However, this idea of "Second Life" has grown tremendously over the past few years. According to the article found on the following link, http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_5545786?nclick_check=1 there are more than 5 million members. One of the reason for the huge growth is the money generated through advertising and buying and selling large amounts of goods. Large corporations pay for advertising space so that consumers will see it as they walk through the virtual mall.
The article focuses on the educational use of Second Life. Stanford has used it to create a "virtual museum" to show a professor's work. It is great that people around the world are able to enter the museum from their computer and see the artwork from Stanford. Without Second Life, people would only be able to view it in real life. I think that Second Life will continue to become more popular as more people learn about it and understand how useful it can be.

Tooth Implant

I was looking on the BBC news website and I found an article about a tooth implant that "releases drugs." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6400021.stm). According to the article, the implant would be placed inside two artificial molars and secured inside of someone's mouth. It has an "electric timing mechanism" that is programmed to release the particular drug into the persons mouth at certain times. The article contains more details on how it works. If the testing goes alright, it could be available by 2010. The implant could possibly eliminate people having to take pills or get shots. People would no longer have to worry about taking medicines at certain times throughout the day. This implant seems like it would be great, however, drug companies may be greatly affected in a negative way. If pills are no longer necessary, how will the companies make money? I thought that there might be a deal between the drug companies and the maker of the implant, but there is no information in the article. This implant an example of a technological advancement that benefits some people but hurts others.
The concept of the implant seems great, but there may be some problems. The implant releases the drug into a person's mouth, but I wonder what it would taste like. What if they choke on the liquid because it releases at an unexpected time? How much will it cost? What if I don't want 2 of my molars removed? These are only a few of my questions and I am sure people will be asking a lot more in the future.

Resume Help

I found this article and I thought it would be helpful for the class since we will be preparing a resume in the following weeks. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16931758/. It is very challenging trying to put together a resume in a short period of time. This article gives 10 ideas to help people either update their resume or begin a new one. I recently had to write my resume and I was worried that I wouldn't know what to do or how to do it. I wish I had read this article because it does include some good tips. Tip #2 says to "avoid vague objective statements." This is very important because the people that are looking to hire people read a lot of resumes and they probably do not want to be bored reading unclear phrases. Be concise and to the point. The objective statement is very important. It is one of the first things the reader sees because it is near the top of the page and because the phrase states the job that you are looking for. I suggest spending some time thinking about the objective before doing anything else.
I had a lot of help from a friend of mine and without him, I definitely would not have completely my resume. He directed me to the website at SJSU. http://www.careercenter.sjsu.edu/jobsearchtips/jobsearchtips.html. There are sample resumes and a lot of helpful tips. The most helpful thing I found on this website is the list of keywords. These are basically words that sound sophisticated, but really are not. For example, use the word facilitate instead of help (The thesaurus is also a great tool). Facilitate just sounds better than help does. The sample resumes on the website give people an idea on how to format their resume. A basic format would be to include your name and address on the top, followed by the objective, education, previous jobs, then activities and interests. One more very important tip is to check the spelling and grammar. Even though it may seem like a small thing, it does give the idea that attention to detail is not important to you. Have a few different people read the resume carefully in order to catch any mistakes.

teachers vs. administration

Last week, I learned that there were serious problems between the CSU teachers and the CSU administration. I spoke with a teacher regarding this issue and I learned a lot of interesting things. First, the administration at SJSU recently received a huge pay raise. I do not know how much of a raise they got, but I was told that some of them make upwards of $120,000 a year (compare this to some teachers that get $40,000 per year). Something is wrong with these numbers. Teachers directly interact with students and they help them earn their degrees while the administration sit in the office and increase the student's tuition so they can get a raise. Second, student tuition will be raised in the next couple of years. I do not know the exact number, but a 50% increase could be possible. I wonder where this money will go? I can take a guess...into the pockets of the administration. I think tuition should remain the same, but if it does go up, the teachers should get a raise. This situation at SJSU is probably going on in a lot of other colleges. It is ridiculous how the school officials and people involved in running the school are fighting over money. School is not about money, it is about the students. The students are the future and the administration should focus on us and not themselves. When these administrators say that they care about the students, most of them are lying because they are obviously only concerned with themselves. They are being very selfish and it looks bad to the students and it sets a bad example. I am just glad I have one more year left before I leave school and the politics involved

Introduction

My name is Clayton. I was born in Santa Clara, CA. I graduated from St. Francis High School in 2004. I went to Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock for my first 2 years of college. I transfered to SJSU in the fall of 2006. This is my second semester at SJSU. I like to play basketball and watch movies. My major is Finance.