Thoughts and Opinions

         Puerto Rican culture is typically associated with the Spanish Europeans, which isn't terribly shocking considering the legacy of Spanish colonialism. What is less known however, is that Puerto Rican culture did not start with the Spanish. When the Spaniards colonized Puerto Rico centuries ago, they did so over the backs of the little known Taíno. In fact, according to the Smithsonian, “Across the Caribbean, in Jamaica, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Haiti, you can find indigenous influences: herbal traditions, local spiritual or religious traditions, memories associated with the landscape, traditional agricultural crops and farming methods, home-building techniques, crafts like basketry and fishing nets, and Taíno words.” Additionally the Smithsonian adds, " Many words today, especially in the Spanish Caribbean, reflect Taíno influence, including the names “Cuba,” “Haiti,” and everyday vocabulary like “barbeque,” “canoe,” and “hurricane.”"  (Smithsonian Global) .

 I am currently writing this as an assignment reflecting on the status of the blog right now. The goal of this particular assignment is to assess whether or not the blog is keeping up to par with the expectations of the course work. One question posed from this assignment is whether or not this blog meets all the rubric criteria. As it stands, I think this has been mostly  satisfied, though I have been dinged before for not adding pictures to these blogs on a consistent basis, much to my chagrin. The next question asks if any portions of the writing assignments have been confusing or have caused stress of any kind. I would say no to stress  though I have questioned the wisdom of some aspects of the rubric. In a sense, this could be a type of confusion. However, I am not the professor and/or school management and therefore my own opinion on the subject is quite irrelevant.  The question after that interrogates as to whether or not I have been putting my best effort into the maintenance

Puerto Rico is currently a territory of the United States of America. As it stands, it does not have representation within it's main legislative branch, Congress.Nor does it have the ability to vote for President of the United States of America. This makes the subject of statehood a rather contentious one. Several attempts in the territory's history have been made trying to attain statehood, but so far they have repeatedly failed. That is, until recently. As a result of the conditions that permeated under former President Trump, Puerto Rico held a referendum on the territory's potential statehood. According to the final tally, the referendum was passed by a 52% - 48% margin (rounded up). From what we can infer about those results (“CEE Event”) , the desire for statehood is split down the middle, though the problematic actions of the Trump administration likely had a lot to do with the increased desire for statehood. However, Puerto Rican statehood is not an issue that is un

                             Puerto Rico has a rich and interesting history. Although they don't exist anymore, the Ta íno were the original indigenous people of Puerto Rico, as far as we understand. However, as Columbus and his men made short work of the land and the people of them, it quickly lead to their downfall. According to various research, " By 1514, barely two decades after first contact, an official survey showed that 40 percent of Spanish men had taken Indian wives. The unofficial number is undoubtedly higher," (Poole). The island wasn't captured immediately one in one big, dramatic fight, but incrementally over time. Columbus met the Ta íno sometime in 1492, but as Poole describes it, " In short order, Columbus established the first American colony at La Isabela, on the north coast of Hispaniola, in 1494. After a brief period of coexistence, relations between the newcomers and natives deteriorated. Spaniards removed men from villages to work in

Puerto Rico is a wonderful place with lots of things to visit and see. For one, for U.S. residents, Puerto Rico does not require a passport of any kind which makes travel much easier. As such, it becomes very easy to get a direct flight from a major U.S.  city straight to Puerto Rico. This lessens the cost and difficulty that comes up when making arrangements to other resort locations, leaving more money on hand to have fun with in Puerto Rico. Of important notice is to avoid the territory on it's holidays. One holiday specifically would be The Three Kings Day. Most places for tourists to have fun will be shut down on this holiday, which falls on January 6th. If you are interested in golf, Puerto Rico has some of the best golf courses in the world. One of the perceived difficulties of going to another country is dealing with language barriers. This is not such a big deal in Puerto Rico. While Spanish usage is very big there, English is also recognized and used quite frequently. One

 My name is Luke Akridge, and I am a Computer Science major at Georgia Gwinnett College. Related to that is my interest in programming. Programming is a field that relies on being able to process written information quickly, and make it applicable within a specific context. Syntax is incredibly important as the way computers function and operate is very different from how humans do. In programming, it can be assumed that most of the time is spent coding, but most of the time spent working is actually reading and re-reading code. Thus, reading and comprehension skills are vastly more important than writing a lot of code. Instead, too much code can often be considered to be a bad practice; efficiency wins out over fluff! Computers are also not as competent as they are often assumed to be. In fact, one of my favorite expressions is "computers are stupid." If given the opportunity, they will gladly shoot their own foot off and be confused as to why everything is malfunctioning.