Cover Letter

Sandra Witherspoon

M. Tetterton

English 1200-80

2 May 2012

Cover Letter

            To start off I would like to thank you for being an amazing teacher, and say that I am glad to have had you all year, and as my only English teacher I will have during my college experience. Well, hopefully anyways. J I have grown tremendously in this class not only from as a high school writer to a college one, but from English 1100 to now. I have learned more things and became more accustomed to the things I learned in 1100.

            I have learned revision and description in any amount is the key to good writing. Before I really was not keen on other people reading my work, I am getting use to that more now. I have learned that letting someone else read it will make it much much better. That way they will be able to catch things that I would not have been able to because I already have it in my head as to what I was trying to say. Also, if something is not as clear as it should be they can tell me that and I can fix it. These are two very important things in the revision process. So thanks!

I also became more comfortable in adding my own voice in my writing. So hopefully when you read my projects you were able to see that they were mine without even looking at the name. I am still trying to figure out if that is a bad or good thing, because I sure do like to talk. J Well having it in doses should not be a problem as long as it goes with the paper.

Well anyways, thanks so much for being an amazing teacher once again. Good luck with your book! I will buy it as soon as it comes out! Also, good luck with your future plans if that is staying here at ECU, teaching at another school or moving out of the country! Have an amazing summer! 

Annotated Bibliography

Badenhausen, Kurt. "Is Michael Vick Worth $100 Million?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2012.

The author discusses how Vick had an amazing comeback, doing way better than everyone thought, from all the legal drama he was involved in to being among the highest paid athletes in the NFL. Seeing that most people believed he would never even return the the NFL. It goes on further to give some stats on him and how he has grown as a QB. The main part of the article is asking is he really worth the $100 million that he will be getting paid? They are saying that even though now he is a good QB but he is about to turn 30 years old and many people in the past after their 30th birthday passes they tend to slow down tremendously. Overall Badenhausen is saying this is his second chance at telling everyone what was done in the past has nothing to do with his football abilities now. At the end of the day the man is an amazing QB and just an overall good football player, others may disagree just because of his past but the past is the past. Him going to jail and getting charged has nothing to do with his football abilities. 

"Fast Facts." National Center for Education Statistics. U.S Department of Education. Web. 20 Mar. 2012.

This is a primary source that gives fast facts on education. It answers many questions about the world of education. And it also gives table, graphs, and other data that is dealing with teachers, like salary. I used this in my first blog post comparing Micheal Vick's salary to an average high school teachers. This is a facts sheet, no article was included. 

Kercheval, Nancy. "Yankees Offer Cliff Lee $140 Million." Bloomberg. 8 Dec. 2010. Web. 13 Mar. 2012.

Cliff Lee's $140 million contract that the New York Yankee's proposed to him. It also gives stats on the young pitcher and talks briefly about the award he won. It also gives direct quotes from the Yankee's manager about Lee.

Mastroberardino, John. "Best-paid Athletes in 30 Sports." ESPN.com. ESPN, 20 Apr. 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012.

This has a quick paragraph, about eight sentences, that describes what the information is showing. It is the base salaries of some of the highest paid athletes in 30 different sports. This is the latest salary from the 2011 season. It is only the base salary not endorsements or anything of that nature. I used this article and data in my third blog post, for information on how much baseball players make. Also, I used some salaries that were posted to show how ridiculous the salaries are for athletes like Alex Rodriguez and Manny Pacquiao are. 

Mock, Janet, and Julia Wang. "Ashley Olsen Biography." People.com. People Magazine. Web. 17 Mar. 2012.

This is just a timeline of Ashley Olsen's life, including her career as a child to and adult, relationships, and even dealing with health issues. It dates back to when they auditioned for Full House in 1987 all the way to 2011 when she ended her two year relationship. They have each major year outlined with events that have happened to them within that year. No article was used but as stated before each year had like a little synopsis of events. This was used in my fourth blog post talking about the Olsen twin's lives and journeys and how everything has led up to now. 

"Occupational Outlook Handbook." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 17 Dec. 2009. Web. 2 Mar. 2012.

This is a government website from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is a primary source and it is about job opportunities in the armed forces. It gives you various information about the jobs like the nature of the work, employment, earnings, and also the training that goes with the work. I used this in my second blog with the officer and the payment of that officer. The only thing I really used on this website was the bell curve graph that I posted onto my blog. This was a strict information webpage, no article involved. 

Kim Kardashian....Who?

Kim Kardashian, ummm who is that? Yes, that would have been some ones response if you would have asked them a few years ago about her. Now even little children know who she is, people even try to imitate who she is. So now it is quite funny to me that she has a net worth of about $35 million (The Richest People). Yes, that is right $35 million that is way more than I was expecting!

It is quite funny that she is such a big name and made lots of money for herself from starting out as a girl who just dated lots of celebrities. Before she had the tape out with Ray J she was just an assistant and stylist to the stars, and now she is considered a star. She makes about $40000 per episode on the show “Keeping up with the Kardashians” (Television Stars Salaries). What in the world, she is not even doing anything!!! I seriously do not even understand what she even does on the show except be rude to everyone because she thinks she is just the ‘ol mighty one. And people wonder why she was only married for 72 days.

She does not have a legitimate career yet she is still raking in the high money with the best of them. I am completely confused on what she does and why in the world she is making that much money. Entertainers in reality television as a whole just get me upset, because they are making money either by doing nothing or by making a fool out of themselves, sometimes even both. It is sickening especially when you see people out here actually trying to have a career and trying to make money while actually working hard. 

Everyone tries to make it seem like she is a successful businesswoman who made a name for herself, but geez people have you forgotten the main reason she was in the media to begin with. Besides that her father was a lawyer that got a killer off!, but let’s talk about that another time, she was in the media because she had a sex tape out with the r&b singer Ray J. So a few years ago she was known as the girl in the video, not “The Kim Kardashian”. So maybe people should start remembering this when they are paying so much money for her clothing line, and watching her television show, and even allowing their children to imitate her. 

Money Does Not Buy Happiness

              The Olsen twins started playing Michelle Tanner when just when they were a few months old, and then they were paid $2,400 per episode (Mock and Wang). Really though a baby needs to be paid that much per episode for literally just lying down and smiling and doing what babies do!! Their salaries were raised from $4,000 then $25,000 and eventually by the end of the show the little girls were earning a whopping $80,000 per episode (Mock and Wang). Would I want my children to make that amount of money...you got it, dude!! 

Keep in mind by the end of the show they were still extremely young! I know I hope I have twins with talent like theirs, geez I could retire before I was off bed-rest and back to work!! So by the time they were six year old they were millionaires! What in the world!!! They were six year old millionaires, and it all actually came from them working and not being born into money. Even though the amount of money they were paid and still making is absolutely absurd I will say that they did work for what they have and they have worked literally all of their lives.

             In 2007 the Olsen twins were listed #11 on Forbes Top 20 Richest Women in Entertainment. With a combined net worth of $100 million, at that time they were 21 years old (Forbes). I bet they had an amazing 21^st birthday!! At age 20 they started running their own business, which was started in 1993, which sold merchandise anywhere from clothes, movies, hair products and makeup. It sold about $1 billion worth of merchandise a year (Celebrity Net Worth). That is a lot of clothes, movies and hair products. But hey who would not want to buy from cute little Michelle Tanner anyways! 

But, just looking at their journey in life with making all of that money in the early years and still today you cannot say that money buys happiness, because they have been through a lot in life. Making that much money early in life can ruin a person’s life. If you look at all the child stars what ends up happening? They usually end up addicted to something, not necessarily drugs, or getting in trouble with the law. So maybe the "industry" needs to reevaluate what they are doing to these children's lives and know that even when they are babies everything affects them in life. 

                

Baseball and the Outrageous Salaries.

Baseball and boxing are tied for the highest paid sports (Mastroberardino, 2011). The total amount of money earned is about $238,536,500 (Mastroberardino, 2011). Yes that is in the billions, and yes it did take me three times to even read the number!!

The Yankees offered Cliff Lee, a free-agent pitcher, a deal which is worth up to $140 million that could be made over six years (Kercheval, 2010). He must have an arm of a God! Lee is only 32 years old and he is the most sought-after pitcher right now. The Yankees are not the only one after the amazing arm, others are too like the Rangers. Looking at his stats I could understand the reason many would not mind him being on their team, he has a 102-61 record and he also won the 2008 Cy Young Award as the American League's best picture (Kercheval, 2010). I mean $140 million though, even if he is the best pitcher in the game that is still a ridiculous amount of money to pay someone.

According to the ESPN website the average athlete gets paid $5,547,360. In the list of the best-paid athletes in 30 sports, Alex Rodriguez and Manny Pacquiao were the highest paid in 2011 with their salaries being $32,000,000 each (Mastroberardino, 2011). If that is not a eye opener then I do not know what one is.  It is absolutely ridiculous that America is in trillions among trillions of dollars in debt but it is OK to pay one person millions of dollars a year. It is just mind blowing to me, and unacceptable. 

If they are getting paid that much in one year, then I do not understand why they continue to work. Geez Louise, if you cannot live off of 32 million dollars for the rest of your life then I highly recommend you to reevaluate your budget. My whole family could live off of that, and when I say my whole family I mean everyone immediate and extended family members. There is no way you can spend that much money, so basically it is just money piling on top of each other that is probably not going to get spent, and if it does it is probably not on the best things that it could be used for. You sit there and think what you would do with that amount of money every year; I bet you could come up with quite a few things that the money could be used for. Of course that is too much money that one person makes, but if they are making that much money than they should be required to at least set up a charity or donate to it. 

The True Heroes.

Right now if someone asked you who was your hero what would your response be...a family member, someone famous, or a random person on the street? I really hope a famous person is not your response, unless you have a good reason for it. It really gets me going when people start talking about singers, actors and sports players and they say that they are their heroes. Yet there is, according to the United States Department of Labor, over 2.4 million people serving for this country (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Those people are the true heroes, those are the people that we should be looking up to and giving beacoups and beacoups amounts of money to. When you look at someone serving in the military for six years, which is usually the starting time when you sign up, and someone say like Beyoncé, and you compare each person’s salary for the six years, the difference is absolutely astonishing. 

                So looking at an E-4 Petty Officer 3^rd class in the Navy, the U.S national average pay is anywhere from $19,000 to $25,000 a year (Salary Wizard). (You can look at the bell curve graph below.) So that would be around $120,000 for six years. Beyoncé makes about 35 million a year (Pay Wizard). WAIT WAIT WAIT!! YES that does say 35 MILLION and yes it does say ANNUALLY! It comes out to be about 140 thousand dollars a day (Pay Wizard). 140 THOUSAND DOLLARS A DAY!! I could not even fathom having that much money in one day’s work. The E-4 Petty Officer would be making $52-$68 a day. The numbers are crazy are they not. People do not usually think of it that way, but once someone does it makes your eyes get big once you read it right. This is absolutely ridiculous!

10th%

25th%

75th%

90th%

$14,546

$19,580

$25,109

$25,109

          Usually people’s heroes are singers, song writers, producers, or actors. Not someone who serves for his/her country by putting their life on the line and keeping America like it is now, a free country. If it was not for the men and women serving in the military Beyoncé would not have a career like she does now. And you can easily tell who the media, and many Americans idolize more because of the amount of money each makes. Because in all actually if people did not idolize, listen, and pay for Beyoncé’s music then she would not be making any money at all. This is sickening in all honesty, and it really just grinds my gears. And after reading this I hope it makes you angry too!! And if it does make you angry, if enough peoples attention is brought to this topic then maybe just maybe the pay role playing field will be evened out. 

Is there such thing as TOO BIG??

     The image to the left is Micheal Vick's old residence in Atlanta, Georgia. He bought it for $3.75 million  (Upscale Swagger, 2009). If I were to work everyday since the day I was born, I still do not think I could afford a home for $3.75 million! Nor do I think I would want a house of that size and price even if I had it. Seriously no one no matter how big you are needs a house of this size. 
According to National Association of Home Builders, the average American home is about 2,100 square feet and cost about $377,624 (Emrath, 2010). See the image below for an example picture. Micheal Vick could fit and buy multiple homes into this gigantic mansion. Many may think that a home this big, is just simply too big, and I agree! For him to be able to afford a home like this he must be getting paid one beautiful penny!

And just as suspected, he is getting paid a beautiful penny, quite an amazingly gorgeous penny it is. In August of 2011, NFL quarterback, Michael Vick signed a six year contract worth $100 million. WHAT!!! $100 million, for throwing a ball, maybe I should have been more athletic as a child or something. Geez. Obviously most people are in the wrong profession, or teachers anyways, because the average teacher’s annual salary for 2010 was $53,230 in a total of six years the teacher would only earn approximately $319,380 (U.S Department of Education, 2010). I mean I’m not a mathematician or anything but that just seems totally uneven to me. Especially if you consider what each one does.They would never be able to afford a house like Micheal Vick's in their lifetime just living off of that kind of salary even if they wanted to. 

So if you actually sit down and contemplate what each one does for a living and the amount of money in which they are paid, you might be a little baffled. So just consider the average high school teacher and what he/she does and how they contribute to society. They come to class everyday sometimes even during breaks to prepare lessons to teach your children. Football players play in a total of 24 games during the season and when it’s not football season they workout and do what they wish. Teachers are helping the community by giving the youth knowledge to be able to succeed in life and providing them with hope of a better future, seeing that eventually these young adults are the ones running things. Football players on the other hand, run around a field passing catching and running a ball to each other’s goal line. There is one BIG thing they do which is keeping the men occupied on Sunday’s and out of the ladies hair! In which NFL we thank you for oh so very much.

So after reading this are you as baffled as I was??? Sometimes there is big and TOO big, in this situation football players all around have everything TOO BIG!!