Okay, I have a bit of time to myself here, so I'm going to post a few bits and pieces I have been mulling over for course topics.

1.) Unit: Identity
- Virtual vs. Reality = Who are you on AOL, Facebook, and Myspace vs. Who you are in class, in life, in the park
- Masking = Is there such a thing as an identity? Or is it a collection of masks? Is identity just your particular theme choice in masks?
- Factors = In shaping our identities, where do we draw our ideas, our concepts about who we should be and why?

2.) Unit: High School
- How the teens in high schools look to reate their image for four years and usually end up questioning it before leaving
- The system we learn in high school of social standards and gossip and how it is a lifelong plague
- Grading and sheep

3.) Beauty
- Physical or Emotional? = Which one truly wins? Is there a gender dispute at the core of this idea?
- Vanity (Dorian Gray) and Modesty (No example yet)

The sky is beautiful today

So I'm here at work and risking being fired in order to just remark on how beautiful the sky is and how no matter what the day brings, the sky is signal for hope and calmness in an otherwise hectic atmosphere.

A Fresh Start

Okay, so I understand I was late with the first blog. sorry about that. Work tired me out, but now I'm posting up.

1. What ideas or feelings do you find yourself focusing on these days?

Identity is a big one, something that has come up for me a lot. I see that highschool is a lot about identifying yourself, who you are, what you are, and I see that it is a very impressionable time for adolescents. This means that I see many different guiding factors attempting to shape my mind into what they believe I should be. Teachers, parents, and peers all have their ideas about how we should be, and so all choose to convince the others that their own view is correct. This is where I value having a summer job, something to take me away from these influences and lets me get a perspective from outside this school bullshit. I know now better than I ever could exaclty who I am. Ask me in person, though, It may get lengthy and tangential.

2. 2. Its weird that school deeply structures your life for 9.5 months - from 7am-3:10pm you're dealing with school and beyond that, with homework and projects. Then all of a sudden you're in summer vacation and have no institutional structure. How does the contrast feel to you? Does family/capitalist-labor/etc conquer the area that the school has temporarily abdicated, leaving you no freer than before or do you have more freedom? Have you been enjoying your time? Are there aspects of school that you miss? Are there aspects of school that you're particularly glad to have a break from? How are you filling/wasting/enjoying the extra time you now have?

To be honest, although I am trapped in the capitalist machine as a slave, erm, rather, a "laborer", things are ok for me. I'm at the point in my life where I do not yet have to pay rent or bills, so any money I earn is strictly for my own recreational use. Fucked up part is, I work 12 hours a day or more 6 days a week to get it. Also, I get treated like a dog. Or not even, because dogs are pet and stroked and coddled. I get treated like a NYC rat. I'm 17 so I get no respect from coworkers or employers, and I'm a laborer so I get no respect from clients. I hate that part so very much. There are a few workers who I actually look forward to working with, though, people who make the job bearable. I miss seeing some friends everyday, but I like independence to make plans whenever I really want.

3. How many hours a week would you be willing to put towards reading an easyish novel that we were all reading? How many hours a week would you be willing to put towards reading a hardish essay that we were all reading? How many combined?
6:5: 11

4. What is a small - 2-7 hour long - adventure that you'd enjoy doing with the rest of us? For instance - make a short film, go to Rockaway Beach, walk on the Appalachian Trail. see a strange movie?

Short film, i already have a script. Beach day, though coney island, strange movie, yes. Also, visit the freedom tunnel and sit around in a circle or a bonfire sharing stories + making memories.

5. Will you be able to meet in the City for the whole summer or do you have a planned excursion for part of the summer - if so, when?
I'm working all summer for now, though i may go to ireland for a couple weeks late august, haven't decided yet.

6.6. What else would you be interested to address or read other peoples' thoughts on?

Everyones stories, small or large. Also, deep insightful group heart to hearts where we grow connected as individuals.

Final Wrap Up Thoughts.

It's past the time grades were due, and I anticipate I won't use this same blog again next year.
So on the off chance that anyone will still read this, I just wanted to post up a few thoughts. They are still kind of relevant.

Okay, so right now, it's 3:44 and after a walk around outside, I remembered some amazing nights in my childhood. When I was younger, I had a group of friends. In this group were Nikko, Gabe, Robert, Sam, Jay, Philip, and as I remember Matt Smith was in there sometimes. We were a pretty solid group, and now that I can remember without grimacing, we weren’t the coolest kids in the grade. (They may argue that, but at least, thats how I saw things.) It was 7th grade and our group usually hung out our Nikko’s place. I remembered recently (Now, actually) that there were a couple of nights that we would turn out all the lights at 2-3 am and run around the apartment with those old light-up lightsabers. Man, those were the days. I remember having these super intense, gut-clenching lightsaber battles that would occupy our whole scope of life. There were never any simpler times than these. I think that as long as I live, I’ll treasure these nights at Nikko’s place, duking it out jedi-style while the city slept, unaware of the intensity of our imaginations, and the endless boundaries of our simple fun.

I'm not sure why, but I felt like sharing it. And I don't feel like pointing it out, but I feel it is relevant to the course.

Also, I would honestly like to thank everyone who ever looked at my blog, who ever thought something good or bad about anything I wrote here, and finally, for bringing some charisma to the class.

How To avoid a Meaningless life - Final Paper draft 2

Earlier on in the year, I posted a video that focused primarily on being outside and riding my longboard. To me there was no greater meaning in my life. I could condense that Idea to simply doing what I wanted to do, without worry of societal pressure. Or something similar. From then, we have gone through several units, largest of which I would say is the Animal unit. I think that specifically this unit was the most applicable to my standing principles on living a good and meaningful life, second being the health unit, which also applies if you think about it. Anywho, What I was trying to say was this; in connecting the Animal unit and the ideas we presented in it, those ideas of being outside with nature and recognizing our primal need to be surrounded by sunlight and pleasant activity only bolsters my original ideas about the meaning of life. It may not be particularly insightful, but I feel that by touching back to my natural roots as a human animal, I can appreciate the world more for the beauty inherent.
As for the health unit, well that is also applicable. Longboarding is helpful to health and well being both physically from the exercise of the action and emotionally/mentally from the endorphins released and the space to clear my head of everything but the linear: what's in front of me, slow down, speed up, etc. I get the rush of wind through my hair and the burn of exercise, so it's like I'm tackling two fronts in the meaningful aspect. Also, considering that I burn no fossil fuels in the process, I am safely within some parameters of a good life, because I am not detracting from the environment or other people's happiness with my activity.
Now, We have come to see from our analysis of corporate culture that to be happy is the main Idea that companies broadcast as a meaningful and good life. There exist so so so many ads on tv that tell us to put a smile on, be happy, do what feels right, etc. Does the fact that these are corporate sponsored ads mean that the messages are inherently false? I would say not, though to a certain extent this is the easy way out. To be happy is a truly noble pursuit that so few people ever achieve. Being happy is a pleasant emotion for things to feel, and leads to a more productive and less stressful existence. However, the corporate message of happiness seems to be that you can only find happiness with their products, their way of life. This is where the nice sunny, peaceful meadow-esque image of happiness meets the grinding metal and fiery brimstone of industry. Corporations would have Us believe that to be happy is to have expensive clothes and goods, that to be satisfied is to eat at a five star restaurant every night and shop at places like Wal-Mart and Target. I would say that we should take this message as a warning. That yes, we should be happy. Most people deserve happiness. But people should also know that you can be happy without a name-brand wardrobe. You should be informed in your happiness. The best things in life are free. I never understood that phrase until recently, but it is true. A walk in the park will probably leave you more happy than a Whopper ever could.
If you want to live your life with some meaning, you must also do your best to be aware of the things that try to mold and shape you, to turn you into a puppet. We didn't delve particularly deeply into it, but the educational system is just one of the many guiding factors that try to change us from what we want to be into what they believe we should be. If I had the brain and thoughts I do now back when i was a kindergardener, I would certainly put a stop to all this crap they feed us when we are young. I'll use a perfectly fitting personal example. When i was in kindergarden, for our graduating ceremony we had to announce what we wanted to be when we grew up. Like a perfectly sane creative kid, I said I wanted to be an artist. My teacher, and I quote, told me "that job isn't in the book so I have to pick a new one". Whaaaaaaat kind of shit is that? I'm 6, bitch, if I want to be an artist. So when it came time to actually say it aloud on stage in front of everyone, what did I say? that I wanted to be an artist. Now, this is fitting two ways; it shows that from the earliest age, my natural instinct was to live my life happily, doing what pleases me most. Who knows, maybe if I had had that support back then, I would be a phenomenal artist now, but I didn't. i would argue that in order to have a fufilling life, am meaningful life, i would say that you should go with what you are naturally inclined to be. From early on we should have an educational system focused to the kids' interests. Not everyone will need to know complicated math and sciences for their lives, and then some others will not need to know how to structure paragraphs and proper grammar. For humaity in general to reach a more meaningful state of being, drastically altering the educational system will be one of the first crucial steps.

How to Avoid a Meaningless life - Final Paper

Earlier on in the year, I posted a video that focused primarily on being outside and riding my longboard. To me there was no greater meaning in my life. I could condense that Idea to simply doing what I wanted to do, without worry of societal pressure. Or something similar. From then, we have gone through several units, largest of which I would say is the Animal unit. I think that specifically this unit was the most applicable to my standing principles on living a good and meaningful life, second being the health unit, which also applies if you think about it. Anywho, What I was trying to say was this; in connecting the Animal unit and the ideas we presented in it, those ideas of being outside with nature and recognizing our primal need to be surrounded by sunlight and pleasant activity only bolsters my original ideas about the meaning of life. It may not be particularly insightful, but I feel that by touching back to my natural roots as a human animal, I can appreciate the world more for the beauty inherent.
As for the health unit, well that is also applicable. Longboarding is helpful to health and well being both physically from the exercise of the action and emotionally/mentally from the endorphins released and the space to clear my head of everything but the linear: what's in front of me, slow down, speed up, etc. I get the rush of wind through my hair and the burn of exercise, so it's like I'm tackling two fronts in the meaningful aspect. Also, considering that I burn no fossil fuels in the process, I am safely within some parameters of a good life, because I am not detracting from the environment or other people's happiness with my activity.
Now, We have come to see from our analysis of corporate culture that to be happy is the main Idea that companies broadcast as a meaningful and good life. There exist so so so many ads on tv that tell us to put a smile on, be happy, do what feels right, etc. Does the fact that these are corporate sponsored ads mean that the messages are inherently false? I would say not, though to a certain extent this is the easy way out. To be happy is a truly noble pursuit that so few people ever achieve. Being happy is a pleasant emotion for things to feel, and leads to a more productive and less stressful existence. However, the corporate message of happiness seems to be that you can only find happiness with their products, their way of life. This is where the nice sunny, peaceful meadow-esque image of happiness meets the grinding metal and fiery brimstone of industry. Corporations would have Us believe that to be happy is to have expensive clothes and goods, that to be satisfied is to eat at a five star restaurant every night and shop at places like Wal-Mart and Target. I would say that we should take this message as a warning. That yes, we should be happy. Most people deserve happiness. But people should also know that you can be happy without a name-brand wardrobe. You should be informed in your happiness. The best things in life are free. I never understood that phrase until recently, but it is true. A walk in the park will probably leave you more happy than a Whopper ever could.
If you want to live your life with some meaning, you must also do your best to be aware of the things that try to mold and shape you, to turn you into a puppet.

Response to Jared Diamond's Collapse

In Jared Diamond's essay on the collapse of the Easter islanders, we see that these people ran out of their natural resources in an ego-driven contest to be the biggest, richest person around. Right off the bat we see that connection to the American society that is all about ripping off your peers in order that you outshine your neighbor. We also follow in a similar path to that of the Easter islanders because of our dependency on oil and our continued depletion of it. We als

Final Food Paper Draft

In the first few pages of his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan makes the point that America, while being overly concerned with health and the kinds of food we eat, is ultimately less healthy than countries like italy or france because of that. Pollan describes how the blend of cultures in America is a leading reason for the crisis we face when it comes to deciding on a "food culture". I would make the argument that this is in itself a culture of variety, that we as Americans have such a plethora of foods from which to choose that we make our own personal food cultures. Not to mention that food in America also has its own industrial culture - ie burgers, fries, and sodas. As for our seeming gullibility for fad diets and expert advice, I would say that this is just another example of sampling what American food cultures have to offer to consumer. Of course, there is also the fact that humans are little more than two-legged sheep, flocking as a herd to wherever the figurative 'man' leads them. Experts prey on the sense of insecurity that plagues the little sheepies by telling them that they are living an unholy abomination of a lifestyle, that if they only decide to exactly as their told, they can improve from their hopeless situation.
Reading through with a more in-depth approach I found that this book focused largely on an examination at the industrial farm. Specifically focused on the farmer George Naylor, we see that this is your stereotypical American farm, having been handed down through generations of Naylor men. However, we see the impacts of the industrialization of food on this farm, for though the farm yields acres of corn, and will feed approximately 129 Americans alone, Naylor himself will not be initially part of that figure. The corn is "basically inedible" describes Pollan, citing that the corn that is grown on the farm must first be processed and tried to be able to feed humans. That might have been the most interesting part of the chapter- the fact that a farmer's crops simply cannot feed him without the stains of industry first. Another piece of this chapter I found interesting was the sheer amount of corn gathered from a single acre of corn per harvest. Pollan tells us that a single acre of this farm will yield to slightly more than ten thousand pounds of corn. 1.8 million pounds for the whole field. To me that sounds like enough to feed a few towns, not the 129 Pollan had approximated earlier. This leaves me with the question of how many pounds of kernels equates to a single person, so that they get a figure like that.
Now, after reading some of Omnivore’s dilemma as well as seeing videos like the Meatrix and Cows With Guns, I have developed a few ideas about industrial foods. I saw some atrocities committed to animals in the documentary “Our Daily Bread” by workers who seemed emotionless and indifferent and I also saw in the Meatrix some colorful examples of how industrial farms mistreat their animals. This gets coupled with my growing distaste for beef and meat to bring about a desire for change in my diet. I have decided to gradually approach vegetarianism, by initially eliminating beef foods, then moving on to chicken, fish, etc. I assume that by eating simpler foods like salads and fruits, I can be healthier because I’m not absorbing the infected bits of meat that comes from mistreated farm animals. By eating and living a vegetarian lifestyle, you will not only be making yourself healthier, but you will be helping to heal the world. Some facts I found on vegetarian and vegan living show that plants produce 10 times more protein per acre than animals do, and that the use of unused plant protein would help decrease the human protein deficit by upwards of 90%.
I also understand that many

As far as scary food videos, this about covers it. I actually like the ideas though, these fatty American fast foods really will kill you.

Response to Industrial Food Sources

The Meatrix-
This video was very entertaining, somewhat spoofing on the ideas present in the Matrix. However, the content of the video was very eye-opening. The idea that we are being blinded by agricultural corporation to believe things are fine and dandy is a scary one. The fact that cows and chickens are herded by the hundreds into cramped, dark factory cages makes me shiver on their behalf. I've been to a legitimate milk farm in Ireland, my grandfather's, and I can safely say that things there are much more natural and pleasant. Cows get to feed on grass and spend their whole lives in the fields. When it comes to milking, yes, they are connected to a machine, but it is not like the cramped conditions displayed in the Meatrix videos. I believe that cows and other animals should be allowed to live their lives out in the fields doing as they please, and not in a dark cramped space where they get sick, have their tails cut off, and are feed horrible cannibalistic concoctions. Mad cow disease isn't a pleasant thing I'm sure, and if we were to feed OUR children some of OUR blood, we would be absolutely disgusted in ourselves.

Colbert vs. Pollan
I like how relatable this made Pollan seem. After reading some of his Omnivore's Dilemma, I had the impression that he was riding atop his high horse, condemning us normal eaters for our destructive ignorance. This talk made Pollan just a normal guy with the right ideas and concerns for food. By admitting that he permits his son to have the colorful and factory made cereals once in a while is a crucial move for his relatability (evidently this isn't a word but I'm making it one) to the common working parent who might not have time to look for the healthy alternative. Pollan understands that it isn't specifically the food that is bad for us, but the method by which it is made, processed, etc.

Extra Credit Examination of Omnivore's Dilemma

Since we read a few chapters in class already, for my Pollan responses I jumped to chapter two: The Farm.

In my pre-read I skimmed over the first couple sentences of each paragraph as well as the headings for each subsection in the chapter. From this I gleaned that this chapter was about the physical maintenance of the farm, from the planting to the harvesting, and everything in between.

Reading through with a more in-depth approach I found that this was an examination at the industrial farm. Specifically focused on the farmer George Naylor, we see that this is your stereotypical American farm, having been handed down through generations of Naylor men. However, we see the impacts of the industrialization of food on this farm, for though the farm yields acres of corn, and will feed approximately 129 Americans alone, Naylor himself will not be initially part of that figure. The corn is "basically inedible" describes Pollan, citing that the corn that is grown on the farm must first be processed and tried to be able to feed humans. That might have been the most interesting part of the chapter- the fact that a farmer's crops simply cannot feed him without the stains of industry first. Another piece of this chapter I found interesting was the sheer amount of corn gathered fro ma single acre of corn per harvest. Pollan tells us that a single acre of this farm will yield to slightly more than ten thousand pounds of corn. 1.8 million pounds for the whole field. To me that sounds like enough to feed a few towns, not the 129 Pollan had approximated earlier. This leaves me with the question of how many pounds of kernels equates to a single person, so that they get a figure like that.

This has affected my understanding of food in that I realize the taint of industry destroying our crops. I believe that there was a quote that sums up my feelings exactly. Something along the lines of "We haven't aquired the technology that allows us to synthesize food from oil.....yet.

Posted to Kate
Kate-
I like that you acknowledge the soil issue. I overlooked that in my own post, and I will add it to a second draft. Now, when you wonder if technology is a problem, I would say that Kiana's point is essential. Technology, for all of its flaws, greatly reduces the amount of manpower needed, and also allows for more crop to be grown. However, the counter-argument to that is that less technology would encourage more independent farming, so i guess there's that. As for the corn issue, the fact that consumers demand a higher amount of it is a result of a capitalistic idea, the concept of supply and demand. When the demand is greater than the supply, the economy can boost, so perhaps asking for more than there is is good up to a certain point.

Commenting on other people's work

This post is interesting, kate, but it seems to me as though you are only regurgitating what was said in the book, not so much responding to the material. I think maybe you should consider a 2nd draft and post additional personal thoughts on the ideas.
-Posted to kate

I like this post and especially how you referred to AMericans as "they" and not "we", meaning that while they might not be able to see through the fad diet system, you can. I also think it was good for you to reference material discussed in class as evidence to bolster the post.
-Posted to Yu Xi

I think that it's very interesting that your mother cooks what she wants to cook. I just wonder, and this is only nitpicking, where did her own preferences come from? Did her mother do the same things she does now? Also, i think that is nice to have a vegan relative. maybe you should try some of her food if you haven't already.
-Posted to Rachel Jermansky

Easy and Delicious Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients
1 (6 ounce) package refrigerated pie crusts
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk (do not use evaporated milk)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt (I actually use less than this)

Directions
1.) Buy ingredients
2.) Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
3.) With mixer, beat pumpkin, Eagle® Brand, eggs, spices, and salt.
4.) Pour into Ready Crust®.
5.) Bake 15 minutes.
6.) Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F; bake 35 to 40 minutes longer or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean.
7.) Cool.
8.) Serve with whipped cream.
9.) Refrigerate leftovers.

For this assignment please respond briefly to Michael Pollan's argument, in the first few pages of Omnivore's Dilemma, that we as a culture lack a stable food culture like the Italians or French, are obsessed with health, are confused and anxious about food, and therefore easily succumb to various expert-directed food fads.

What food experts do you and your family pay attention to - scientists, journalists, chefs, commercials on tv, doctors, nutritionists, health officials, book authors?

In the first few pages of his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan makes the point that America, while being overly concerned with health and the kinds of food we eat, is ultimately less healthy than countries like italy or france because of that. Pollan describes how the blend of cultures in America is a leading reason for the crisis we face when it comes to deciding on a "food culture". I would make the argument that this is in itself a culture of variety, that we as Americans have such a plethora of foods from which to choose that we make our own personal food cultures.
not to mention that food in America also has its own industrial culture - ie burgers, fries, and sodas. As for our seeming gullibility for fad diets and expert advice, I would say that this is just another example of sampling what American food cultures have to offer to consumer. Of course, there is also the fact that humans are little more than two-legged sheep, flocking as a herd to wherever the figurative 'man' leads them. Experts prey on the sense of insecurity that plagues the little sheepies by telling them that they are living an unholy abomination of a lifestyle, that if they only decide to exactly as their told, they can improve from their hopeless situation.

Grocery Store Assignment

It's safe to say that when my family goes to the store, we aim for the lower prices. We sacrifice name-brand foods for the cheaper knock-offs. Thinking about that, I think that is a much better alternative than looking out for the stuff we see on tv. If you can have the same tasting stuff at half the cost with twice the quantity, why not? I think a lot of that is image. Grocery stores always have to maintain their image, stocking up heavily on the TV advertised foods, while placing a lower emphasis on the general brand sale. Typically when we go to the grocery store, we buy enough food to hold out for a couple of weeks, when we have to go back. We buy a lot of dinner meats as well as a supply of flash-frozen microwavable foods for the days when no one feels like cooking. The stuff might taste like cardboard, but its filling.

My habitual eating habits usually surprise people. I don't eat a whole lot. I wake up and skip breakfast most of the time because I'm never hungry. I eat a school lunch, which means a burger or chicken something. I go home and there's usually some kind of dinner waiting, always with some kind of meat or poultry and carbs. Recently I've been requesting that I have some kind of salad or vegetable alternative to meat because meat has started to disgust me. Not so much because of animal cruelty or anything, but because of it's heavy, bloody, greasy taste. Echh. Other than this I eat sparsely, sometime snacking on chips or what might be in our press.

May Day Assignment

Looking through some of my older posts, I saw before that for the holiday analysis assignment, I focused on Labor Day. So when we learned about May Day in class, I had a vague recollection of the events involved in the making of it as well as knowledge of the fact that it was moved to the first monday in september. Now, without knowing that there had been civilian casualties during the protests for a shorter workday, I might not have cared too much that our day off in May was moved to september. Looking at it that way, it's just splitting hairs to argue that it should rightfully be on May 1st. However, considering the fact that this was a goal fought tooth and nail for by the labor unions of america, by the hard working men and women of the country, I can see the outrage at the fact that the government brushed it aside to appease us. The fact that every other country in the world recognises may day as a holiday shows how the US government mocks the people and takes away the fight from them. May day is not a holiday focused on by the media nor is it truly taught in schools. However, labor day becomes a huge corporate pinata where people flock to sales at their favorite retail outlet. At a certain point, the american people need to take the fight back to the government. The question is why haven't we already?

Food Journal

Starting with last nights dinner, we had pasta in tomato sauce with ground beef. I had a 3/4 cup serving alongside a bowl of salad with nuts, croutons, lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots. Eating these things I felt somewhat disgusted, as I grow ever more tired with eating beef and meat products. I felt healthier eating the salad, because of the lower amount of calories and the lighter feel in my stomach. I ate with a fork in my right hand, using the same fork for the salad then the pasta. It was just me alone at the table as my sister watched TV and my mother was getting ready for work.

This morning I had a chocolate doughnut from a street vendor, feeling guilty about it but needing to stave off the hunger and to get my metabolism going in the morning. The problem is I never feel hungry and so I often skip breakfast although I hear that it is unhealthy to do so, that your metabolism will automatically accept our lunch and store it as fat because of missing breakfast. I brought it into school in a brown paper bag and opened it up in class. Marco asked me for a bite of it and so I offered him half. I ate my half with my right hand, elbows on the table, waiting for class to begin.

For lunch today I had the school lunch version of meatballs and garlic bread, with chocolate milk. I ate this rather disdainfully as the rubbery meatballs tried very desperately to not be eaten, and the garlic bread turned out to be actual sliced white bread with bits of garlic stuck to it. The chocolate milk is a guilty pleasure because it tastes good at the cost of being high in calories. I know I could always go for the healthier white milk, but I really detest regular milk and drink it sparingly. I ate this with a plastic fork in my right hand, with my hands for the bread. We talked at lunch about a few scattered things but mostly we just played the movie game.

Afterschool I had the Make Your Own Choices meeting where we all snacked on gummy fruit snacks and cookies, all washed down with apple juice. While we were doing so me and Chloe remarked on how fat that would make us look in this very assignment. Oh well. It was a happy thing because it was a reprieve from school and exhibitions, so we indulged a little bit. It just means I have to hit the gym harder tomorrow.

For dinner, my friend surprised us and brought over McDonald's cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches. Eager to replace the beef in my diet, I went for the latter. I ate it feeling happier because of the taste, but greasier because of the...grease. After this I sat down and have been doing my exhibition since. And coughing. I ate the food with my hands, absentmindedly chewing while thinking about more important things in my head.

I have just finished eating a chicken cutlet sandwich from the deli down the block. It was delicious, and I feel at leas a small bit healthier because it was deli food and not fast food. I figure it must be at least a little better for me. I ate it in my two hands alone at my laptop while working on my exhibition and so I savored the taste as I tried to focus on finishing my work.

Food Assignment 3

How do I do food? How does my family do food? How does corporate America do food?

Starting with me, my food habits are, for the most part, are pretty standard American. I wake up and skip breakfast most days, or have the occasional bowl of cereal, and then for lunch I eat school lunch, god help me. Dinner is usually home-cooked by my mother, or ordered in when not. I'm not cautious of eating at fast food restaurants, regardless of how fattening the food may be. I do count calories, though, whatever that may mean. I try to keep it all within a 2,000 calorie diet. I think carbs might outweigh proteins in my diet, something I am working on changing.

My family does food in a very traditional irish way. We all sit down for dinner, provided we're all home, and we all eat together. Food is varied, based on what new food item my mother saw on some episode of Rachel Ray. There is usually ample carbs and meat to go with it, usually salad as well. Salad containing nuts, raisins, tomatoes, lettuce in a few colors, and croutons. With italian dressing. Food usually spiced with some herbs, or something. When we have big sunday dinners, its always some classic meal of porkchops and mash or steak and mash or lampchops and spuds. Always. I guess we're pretty white. We take around 30-45 minutes to eat based on the food, after which my brother and I do dishes while my dad retreats to watch some TV or read a book, and my Mom gets ready to go to work. My sister might do something as well, usually glued to the television.

White corporate america does dinner the way I just described above. Mom/wife makes food, family all joins in to eat it, kids do cleanup while parents relax a little bit. The foods represented by corporate Americans are very rich and full, glistening turkeys and glazed hams, always an ample supply of it, regardless of whether or not the family will manage to finish it all.

List of items in my refrigerator:

Box of cherry tomatoes
Can of Coke
2 jars of salsa
Poland spring sparkling water
dozen eggs
Grape and strawberry jellies
orange marmalade
country crock butter
mustard
blackcurrant jam
cough syrup
stick of butter
more mustard
peanut butter
gallon of milk
gallon of water
grape jelly
whole wheat bread
shredded cheese )provolone)
white grape sparkling water
leftover pork fried rice
3 polish beers
mayonaisse
apple sauce
spiced beetroot
marzipan bar
crushed garlic
tortillas
lettuce
orange juice ketchup
6 different dressings
lemonade
hot sauce

Analysis:
Keeping in mind that my mother was recently gone to Ireland on holiday, I think that the state of our fridge is to be expected. Being as my father and my brother and I don't pick up groceries, we can't expect there to be any food of real meal substance. Basically this leaves us with the condiments and stuff that just happens to be there. Analyzing that, I might assume that this fridge indicates a group of people who don't hold the types of food they eat at the highest calibur, but they are aware that some things are healthier than others. the presence of the lettuce and tomatoes might indicate as much. However, the high quantity of sugary jams and jellies indicate that these people do not know the caloric danger of over-indulging on jams and jellied breads.

Thought on Morality and the African Condition

For 200$ and the aid of UNICEF, you can guarantee an unhealthy 3-year old African child the chance to become a healthy 6 - year old african child. You can kick-start the starving children of Africa and give them the foundation they need to live a new, healthier life, allowing them to have a real chance at a real life. This, according to Utilitarian views proposed by Peter Singer, would be the morally correct thing to do. In fact, if you aren't already doing this and can afford to, you are morally wrong in the eyes of Singer and other utilitarian philosophers. Why should we not donate the 200$? What, if anything, holds us back from achieving moral purity? It can be argued that the immediacy of the situation deters many people from realizing that to send this money to the starving children is to save a life. By only seeing the images of the strife from a safe distance, people are not encouraged to act upon their compassionate instinct for their fellow humans. People can sit back and not feel guilty because they reason that surely someone else is taking care of the problem, and why should they have to? They worked for their money, only to send it off to some country they've never been to, to a child they'll never see. On the other hand, are these people right? Are they unknowingly fighting against an unjust enemy? By not donating this money, people like columnist Kevin Myers would argue (http://www.independent.ie/
opinion/columnists/kevin-myers/writing-what-i-should-have-written-so-many-years-ago-1437779.html) that you are doing the right thing by not contributing to dangerous living conditions in places like Ethiopia, which received millions of dollars in benefits from the Live Aid concert in 1986. The conditions of which Myers makes note are those that concern the corrupt system in place in Ethiopia, a system based on Warlords who control the flow of everything from food to money in ethiopia. Myers goes so far as to say that he 'little teary-eyed starving child you saved back in 86' is now a misogynistic 20 something wielding a Kalashinikov. Myers would say that to donate now is to feed a corrupt system that benefits the warlords in charge but ultimately hurts the innocent civilians. He remarks that while the country may have been in dire straights 20-some-odd years ago, the population has been able to more than double, regardless of how badly the economic crisis may have gotten. Acknowledging these two points of view, its is up to oneself to determine which cause is truly more 'noble'; the one who contributes to the cause to give a child a chance at life, with the risk of them growing up to become a misogynistic armed insurgent, or those who choose to not donate and risk the lives of countless innocents caught in the tumult of a country in the gutter. Do or don't is the decision, there is no idle standing by in this situation. I still need five words.

Okay, last update just because today was fucking awesome.
I met up with some friend of mine who do Parkour because they had a beginner's session today and they brought me and some others through the basics of parkour. I was out all day long from 11-9 just running and jumping and vaulting. it was so much fun, regardless of how tough the workouts were. I was feeling ecstatic the whole day about the running and jumping. I now wish that I had a good rail to be able to vault over. man it was fun. The sun was high in the sky and made me brighten up my mood. I expect to be tired and sore tomorrow but that's ok, its exhibition day anyhow.

Cataloging Emotions over Break

It's the fourth day of break, if you don't count wednesday afternoon. And I don't, so there. I guess it will just be easier to talk about how my emotional state has gone since thursday morning up until now. I'll update more as time goes by.

So as of thursday morning, my first emotions were basically apathetic, as I couldn't really think of someone who wasn't too busy to hang out with. Everyone I knew was doing something or just couldn't chill. So I spent the morning lazing around after finding out my gym is closed for passover. After a while I went for a skate and that relaxed me, because I brought my carving board with me. I ended up coming home after a few hours because it got lonely and so when my friend got off work I went and hung out with him. Since then I've felt essentially the same, apathetic. But my gym opens tomorrow again so maybe things will pick up.

--UPDATE--
10:53pm Sunday April 12

I just posted a blog post on my personal blog basically about how I'm still in love with my now ex girlfriend and how I'm feeling reflective. This makes my current mood a very somber one, interrupted every now and hen by a hollow kind of happiness as I recall one of the positive days from my relationship with her. Something I said which might wrap this up a little clearer is the line I said that reads: "Sometimes, I wish I could just cry. It seems like such a simple action. Go figure.”

--UPDATE--
11:53pm Sunday April 12

I just listened to my Happy playlist (yes, I have a happy playlist) and now I've managed to pick my mood back up from apathetic misery to average, teetering between smiling and frowning status.

--UPDATE--
1:43am Tuesday April 14

Whoosh. Big day. Went skating because of the pleasant weather, was out for a couple hours texting ex-girlfriend. (In middle of traffic, mind you.) After a little while of happily skating and evading traffic, I got the call to come home and take my little sister to the park. A little bit of a dampening on the mood but I figured I'd still be able to enjoy the weather, just now with a nine year old clinging to me. So I felt the rush of the wind as I raced back uptown, mood locked down into a happy state, because when you longboard like that, you can't focus on much more than the stretch of road in front of you. The farther ahead you look, the more stuff you tune out. I tuned out all the negative energy around me. But anyhow, flash-forwarding a bit, later in the day, after returning home and playing some videogames, I had a conversation via AIM with my ex, outlining how she is very dramatic, to which she very dramatically told me not to ay tat for fear she be compared to her antagonizing older brother. I told her to face facts and deal with it, silently angry but at the same time feeling a guilty pleasure in silencing someone who hurt me. I felt closure to the breakup for the first time, and so I was relieved. Like a weight off my chest. Then I hit the gym after feeling disgusted with myself in not having gone because of passover, and so I worked out my usual routine, feeling tired-ish until I got to the weights room where I always manage to feel inadequate, being as I'm not there as a bodybuilder or some such type, and I'm not doing as much weight as these other gym rats. I try to make up for it by telling myself I'm smarter than them anyway, and that while i might be fat now, at least i'm trying.

--UPDATE--
11:48pm Tuesday April 14

Today's weather kind of impacted my mood. It was chilly outside for a good while, and very indicative of rain, so I wasn't too excited about going skating with Dylan, but I figured the rain might hold off long enough to get in a good session. We agreed to meet up at columbus circle, and so I headed down there from my place. I underestimated how long it would take me to get there and ended up getting there at least 45 minutes earlier than Dylan and so I waited on the stairs by the fountain. A few minutes of waiting passed before this homeless man asked me for a cigarette. I told him I didn't smoke and he shrugged and asked about my board. I explained some longboarding to him and he asked me if I minded if he sat down. I didn't and so he joined me on the step. He smelled heavily of alchohol and staggered a bit, but his words were fairly concise, mumbled through his beard as they were. We ended up having a pretty interesting conversation, he told me some jokes, I told him some, he told me about how he was always around the area and knew the table vendors, some of the bicycle carriages, basically the whole crew who worked there. He brought up my mood because he got me thinking about life. Consider like this; we are all the main characters of our own story, right? So then we know our own background, our dreams, hopes, etc. I started thinking about how everyone else is like a secondary character. How if you go into detail about their stories, your own story becomes a little richer. This is the same for everyone. It's hard to think about the rest of the world having a story much like your own, but it's true.

--UPDATE--
12:39am Friday April 17

Ok, I'll have to recap wednesday while I'm here. I got to sleep in late, to be woken up by a call from my friend reminding me of our plans to hang out. After a scurried shower and dressing, I headed down to union square where i met up with some old friends who graduated last year and who I don't get to see often enough. It was me, Louis, Brittany, and Sandy all hanging out. We went to see a movie, one of those cute comedies that gets you smiling because the protagonist has things end up well even though things ae at the same time pretty shitty. It was a good day, we got to recollect and embrace each other's company, re-igniting our old ties basically. That got me feeling very pleasant inside, like warm almost, but ... satisfied might be the word. Then today I had to wake up early and drive upstate to clean up house, something which isn't a pile of work, but just monotonous, and i felt greatly bored. The upside of today was that I got to get out into a tree and climb, feeling free and natural, and excited over the simplicity of the action of climbing a tree.

--Final UPDATE--
7:43am Friday April 17

Probably the dullest day this break. Haircut and skating was basically all I did. Emotionally I've felt very reflective, thinking about my past, my future. It's a very neutral sort of feeling, not good or bad, just contemplative. I'm tired. Drained.

"Freudian psychoanalysis refers to a specific type of treatment in which the "analysand" (analytic patient) verbalizes thoughts, including free associations, fantasies, and dreams, from which the analyst formulates the unconscious conflicts causing the patient's symptoms and character problems, and interprets them for the patient to create insight for resolution of the problems." - Wikipedia

It seems to me that psychoanalysts are little more than story tellers. The phrase "formulating unconscious conflicts" seems synonymous to "making things up", which means to me that these therapists make up reasons for their patients to continue going to sessions and thus continuing their payment. Psychoanalysis might not uncover real problems, but a positive might be that the analysand finds themselves in a position where they can talk comfortably about their lives and hope to recieve comforting advice and insight. Ignorance is bliss.

Questions on Health and Fitness

1.) What is the world's unhealthiest country? City?

In terms of physical fitness, America is very poor in health, but as for disease and life expectancy, America is among the highest in public health. The unhealthiest city in America is Huntington, West Virginia.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080712083106AA9kaxT

2.) What benefits come from drinking Muscle Milk or other protein supplements?

Whenever you have an good workout routine and are aiming to put on mass and increase lean muscle, then this is the best supplement on the market and can work well as a meal replacement and especially as a before bed protein supplement. While you are sleeping, this protein has the power to repair your muscles from training and will prevent you from losing muscle while you sleep.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Muscle-Milk---Why-Do-Pros-Buy-Muscle-Milk?&id=1486509

3.) What is the most popular type of exercise?

According to recent studies, more than 70 million Americans walk to exercise, making it the most popular form of exercise. Depending on the terrain and walking 3 mph, these walkers are burning 15 grams of carbohydrates per hour (100 lb. person), 21 grams per hour (150 lb. person), and 27 grams per hour (200 lb. person). They are also using about 50 percent of their body's major muscles.
http://www.diabetic-lifestyle.com/articles/nov_burni_1.htm

4.) How many calories does the typical american consume in a day?

A brief perusal of the USA yearbook shows a per Capita Daily Consumption of 3,790 Calories for the 2000-2002 years.
http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2006/12/27/do_americans_eat_3790_calories_per_day.php

5.) What are my caloric needs?
Maintenance:
2956 Calories/day

Fat Loss:
2365 Calories/day

Extreme Fat Loss:
1960 Calories/day

http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

6.) What are he rates of mental illness in the country?

300 professional interviewers traveled 8 million miles over a five-year period to question nearly 9,300 U.S. adults.

Here are some of the key findings of the study, which examined anxiety disorders, mood disorders, impulse-control disorders and substance abuse disorders:

Half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by age 14, while three-quarters begin by age 24. Anxiety disorders tend to begin in late childhood, mood disorders in late adolescence and substance abuse in the early 20s. "This interferes with accomplishing major social, educational and occupational milestones, and can cause lifelong disability," said Kathleen Ries Merikangas, lead NIMH collaborator on the study and chief of the NIMH's section on developmental genetic epidemiology.

The majority of Americans will, at some point in their lifetime, meet the diagnostic criteria for one or more mental disorders. About one quarter (26 percent) of the general population reported symptoms sufficient for diagnosing such a disorder during the past year. Most of these disorders, however, were mild and likely to resolve without treatment. "Snake phobia is a mental illness but if you live on the 35th floor of a building in Manhattan, it doesn't get in the way of life very much," Kessler said. "We need to do a better job of which mild and moderate cases are likely to become seriously debilitating."

Six percent of Americans have a severe mental health disorder, reporting a mean of 88.3 days during the past year when they felt they were unable to carry out their normal daily activities.

Anxiety disorders were the most prevalent (affecting 28.8 percent of Americans at some time in their life), followed by impulse-control disorders (24.8 percent), mood disorders (20.8 percent) and substance use disorders (14.6 percent).

In any given year, 18.1 percent of the adult population suffered anxiety disorders, 9.5 percent experienced mood disorders, 8.9 percent experienced impulse-control disorders and 3.8 percent suffered substance use disorders.

In the United States, females have higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders, while males have higher rates of substance abuse and impulse disorders.

For almost all mental disorders, individuals delayed getting treatment. The median delay was about 10 years. For social phobia and separation anxiety, the delay was 20 to 23 years and, for mood disorders, six to eight years. Almost half of all lifetime cases of substance use and impulse control disorders never obtained treatment. "Early-onset disorders are, in general, more persistent and more severe than those that start later," Kessler explained.

http://www.coolnurse.com/mental_healthusa.htm

7.) How can watching TV be harmful to your health?

Cornell University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The researchers studied autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not.
http://www.slate.com/id/2151538/

8.) What benefits can be derived from video games?

In the latest study to address the impact of video games on game players, researchers at the University of Rochester and Tel Aviv University have found that action-oriented video games can improve players' vision.
The findings, reported in the March 29 issue of Nature, indicate that action games offer players the chance to improve their contrast perception by as much as 58%.
http://www.informationweek.com/news/personal_tech/virtualworlds/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216401807

9.) How might mental fitness impact physical fitness?

Research shows that anxiety can make you sleep fewer hours, get sick more often, remember less, become more prone to long-term disease and—as if you needed reminding—eat more. In a recent Self.com poll, 85 percent of women said that worries interfere with their ability to catch zzz's, while 71 percent say they're more irritable due to stress.

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthieryou/9061/stress-is-sabotaging-your-diet-success/;_ylt=Asnoiev5bNOCGrZw9n4Lr_sQ.ZN4

10.) How can we defeat stress, and improve our mental health?

Turn up the tunes. Listening to music that has a steady (not frenetic) beat may cause brain waves to keep time and relax you, research from a music symposium at Stanford University in California reports. Load your iPod with a playlist of the songs that make you happiest.

Break a sweat. Exercising for 30 minutes makes your body release chemicals that dull the physiological effects of stress response for up to a full day. But the effect only works when the activity is something you really want to do, so make sure you're psyched about channeling your energy in that cardiovascular direction.

Use a better bulb. Outfit your office lamp with an incandescent bulb, particularly if your cubicle is brightened by fluorescent lights. Incandescent and fluorescent lights work together to more closely mimic outside light. And it's sunshine (or the perception of it) that regulates the body's biorhythms. Not getting enough of it can affect hormone levels, suppressing the immune system and increasing the probability of mood swings, depression and sluggishness.

Animal paper

Explain and analyse the most important of the 6 cultural obstacles to seeing ourselves as animals - explain and analyse the most important of the 4 benefits of seeing ourselves as animals for living a good and meaningful life. Conclude with your perspective, perhaps including additional obstacles and/or benefits. Please speak your own truth

As human beings, we have gone to great lengths to truly distance ourselves from our natural animality (my computer tells me animality isn't a real word, but who cares. Shakespeare did it and so can I.). To really rationalize our concept of separation from nature, we have created a series of reasons that perpetuate the illusion that we are different from other animals. These reasons include; the book of Genesis, which describes us as the god- proclaimed rulers of nature, evolution which presents us with the idea that all things evolved in order to make a path for us as homo sapiens sapiens to exist. Then there is the fact that we spend the vast majority of our time as animals with only other humans who share the delusion that we are separate from other animals. There is the idea that body and soul are separate as presented by Descartes, and then again the similar idea of a soul as represented by religion. Finally, humans are forced into non-animal positions such as schools with uncomfortable plastic seating that argues with the natural inclination to be free, running and playing. By realizing we are animals, we can drastically improve our lives. Animals live lives free of the stressful constraints that humans live by, i.e jobs, school, bills, etc. Animals have natural birthing processes which enforces the idea of survival in the young so that those not strong enough will not survive, and it helps control the populace. Animals live healthier lives in that they eat from the food of the earth, no unnatural substances like trans-fats and added sugars contaminate their foodstuffs. Living like the animals we are will also allow us to live life the way were naturally planned to do so. nature requires nothing more of us than to live and procreate, if even that.
The book Genesis in the bible as read from the bible according to Jospeh tells us that god created us in their image. It might be important to note that god had created the sky and water animals before us humans, along with the land and sea. So up until our birth, it can be assumed that these animals were the designated rulers of the world. It was written that on the sixth day "God said, Let us make man in our image ... in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them." God created humans and the land animals "according to their kind" on the same day, which can be implied to mean that we are similar enough in nature to be equals. However, God evidently disproves this when they say "let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." This is the religious example of how we believe ourselves to be better than animals. We can't help our superiority, it was defined by God themselves! However, being as God themselves did not physically write the bible, this information is only as good as the ultimate source, which would likely have been one of many faithful disciples back in the 20-80 a.d. period. So if this isn't true, does that mean one of the others will be?
Evolution is the single largest competitor of the Christian creation story as far as human creation explanations go. Science has been desperately trying to debunk the myths that surround the origins of the universe, but have never been able to concretely identify why the universe came to be. The big bang is one major idea, but the reasons provided that may have caused it have been largely inconclusive. However, the point is that while evolution may argue religion on the point of how things came to be, they truly both say that everything has been put in place for the all-seeing, all-conquering human race. Evolution appears to some people as a more credible version of the same story, so they never challenge the focus of the issue, which is that both science and religion put us first before other animals. Granted, it is usually the means by which we came into the picture that captures the interest of the people, but they fail to understand how one sided their thinking is. They focus all their attention on how they are designed to be the rulers of the earth so much that they forget their citizenship of it.
The average homo sapiens sapiens spends about 95% of their time with only other homo sapiens sapiens. The other 5% may be devoted to time spent with family pets, trips to the zoo, the occasional trip to foreign countries where they enjoy the different wildlife, etc. This means that we have basically isolated ourselves as animals from the rest of the animal kingdom. We cage other animals in order to look at them "safely" and without danger to ourselves, but never imagine how it might feel to be in the cage. By separating ourselves physically from other animals, we clearly develop the predisposition against them that they are stupid,filthy creatures who are violent and wild. God forbid we take a look at ourselves like that. Oh wait, racism? We do it too? We're violent and wild? Oh my.
Both Descartes and popular religion entertain the concept that we humans have souls that exist separately from our body. Re-Education (Through Labor). This idea contributes to our separation from animals in that we as humans have souls while animals don't, and are confined to their all-too-mortal bodies. in Christianity, human souls separate from the bodies upon death and fly away to heaven or hell based on their lives, while animals like cows, sheep, dogs and others are only here to supply food for the planet. Descartes supposes that animals are soulless and that humans have souls because of their ability to think. Hopefully Descartes became part of the earth in the form of a tree, that a bear then defecated on.
Finally, we humans force ourselves physically into positions where we are forced to abandon our animal nature and adapt to become almost robotically. To completely rip off Andy's idea, it is as if we humans go from box to box, the boxes becoming increasingly smaller be it sitting at a desk in school to sitting in a box on the train to sitting in a box at your table writing a paper on your laptop due sunday at 9:00 am. These boxes are almost intentionally placed upon humans in order to drain the animal sense from them as well as their sense of rebellion and insurrection. How can schools ask their students to think outside the box when they are purposefully placing them inside the box? Disco Science.
Now that we have developed some sense of the anti-animal shackles that get thrust upon us, we must identify ways that removing these shackles will benefit our lives. To start, non-human animals live a much freer life than we do. They have no regimented boxes in which they force themselves, their job is only to exist as beings of the earth. They do not waste potential playtime hours by contemplating why they were put here or what their schedule is like, they simply exist in the moment. animals are very reactionary in the sense that what comes at them is dealt with when it hits, not before, not after. (As opposed to political reactionaries). Pork and Beans. Nature doesn't force expectations on animals, so why do humans act as if it does? Why does humanity go against nature and set up societies that develop expectations and norms? Living like an animal would liberate us of societal regiment and order, and people would be a great deal happier.
Another thing is that Animals eat healthy naturally. Humans have to go on diets that tell you what human-made foods you should avoid. What the (expletive deleted) is that? Gorillas don't worry about eating a banana as opposed to insects, they just know that they are hungry, so they eat. Animals have no trans-fats, no added sugar and they don't worry about their cholesterol. Empty Walls. Animals are natural healthy or unhealthy, and they can't help it. In that vein of health, Animals also give natural births that help to control the populace at the same time that it leads to a healthier birth, no intervention by doctors or any form of medical exercise. animal birthings, as in the case with the giraffe, are on the whole a very impersonal affair, the mother giraffe standing upright to let the baby fall out and get up by itself. If the baby is unable to do so, it dies. Nature would not have it any other way. Human babies are delivered in a strange room and subjected to all sorts of regulations, and are initially separated from the mother to be placed in a terrifying plastic incubator. It is a cold, heartless practice that gets dolled up and broadcasted as the safest way to have a baby. Thank god we have the memory of an earthworm at that age, or we'd be scarred for life.
Essentially, other, non-human animals live the good life more than we do. As for how meaningful the lives they lead are, it seems fairly simple that their lives are meaningful. They live happily for the most part. They exist and make the most of their time on the planet before they die or become a meal. Living like an animal is liberating at the same time it is trying. Having become so adapted to the lives we lead as humans, we are now unnaturally inclined to our TVs, video games, and internet connections. How many of us still take walks in the park? Or ride down the street powering yourself for motive transport? We are dying as animals and becoming more and more autonomous every day.

Class Today

I really Liked being in History class today.


I got to sort of one-up Andy. Kind of. I guessed the right word in his game of hangman, and I knew that a platypus was a non-placental mammal. It felt good to defy his expectation that we don't know anything of much interest. I dunno, maybe I'm being narcissistic. But regardless, It felt good to be able to see Andy say "Damn it! How did you know that.?"



I'm weird.

Living Funeral

I found that I really agreed with Morrie when he said that it's a shame that the dead never get to hear the good things said about them at their funerals. It's true, people say things at funerals that the newly deceased would have been happy to hear in life. It may seem to be a bit selfish to some, the whole idea of wanting to be able to appreciate your praise, but to hell with that, I'm dying.
I think the strange thing about death is how it can affect other people. That's why I think If i had a living funeral, I would use it to my full advantage. I know who I would invite, but more specifically who I wouldn't - it sends a more lasting message, one that says exactly how much I thought of the person. i would have the funeral on a wednesday. It's in the middle of the week so that means people would have to rearrange their schedules, and at least im not forcing people to sacrifice their weekend. When I made my list, I realized how stressing an assignment this was. I mean, who would I invite? Would these people even care to show up? Would they go just to avoid the guilt of not going? Would they cry, be truly sad? Or would they just sit there quietly until it was done? I know I wouldn't like to drag it out, pushing people deeper and deeper into discomfort. I also wouldn't require people to say anything. I was really...depressed by this list making. I couldn't see why people might want to come to my funeral if i was still alive, like maybe they would be more comfortable if I were actually dead and couldn't see how they reacted. I do know that if anybody mentioned going to heaven or religion or anything, I would make them run a lap of the room.

Class questions

Class Questions

!.) When did we come up with the idea for an old person bingo night?

2.) How common is it for old people to interact with teens?

3.) What % of old people are sexually active?

4.) Do old people have a dress code?

5.) What do old people find attractive?

6.) What do old people do for fun?

7.) What percent of old people wear tupees?

8.) Did today's old people grow up playing videogames?

9.) How often do old folks go to the bar?

0.) How lonely are old people?

Questions & Answers

Questions and Answers
1.) What % of Old people are sexually active?

The nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults ages 57 to 85 found that more than half to three-quarters of those questioned remain sexually active, with a significant proportion engaging in frequent and varied sexual behavior. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202000.html)

More than 60% of individuals over 60 have sex at least once a month.
>http://std.about.com/od/stdsspecificcommunities/a/elderlystd.htm

2.) What % of old people experience hair loss?

3.) What % of old people have recently contracted STDs?

Recent statistics from the CDC have shown that the number of new HIV infections is actually growing faster in individuals over 50 than in people 40 years and under.

4.) What is the ratio of people over 55 to people under 18?

5.) What is the population of old people in homes in the US?

As of a year 2000 consensus,
65 years and over 1,557,800
65 to 74 years 210,159
75 to 84 years 574,908
85 years and over 772,733

Total of old people: 3,115,600

6.) What percentage of old people believe in a religion vs the percentage who do not? (Kate's Question)

7.) What percentage of old people still have a driver's license?

8.) How long does the average American person live? (Henry's question, tweaked)

We live until about an average of 75.37 years old. So technically, we are old for 20 years of our lives.
http://www.sciway.net/statistics/scsa98/vs/vs8.html

9.) What is the average annual expenditure of the elderly?

Interviews with the Old

After interviewing my grandmother, I decided to go out and hit the streets. My first place to try was the park, it being such a beautfiul day and all. I went on an old people hunt to fufill the interviews I needed. Note: Certain approaches work better than others. What follows will be the succesful ones.

Old Couple In CP
Me: Hello there, great day, isn't it?

Old woman: Oh yes it is. So surprising for february.
Old Man: What's that you're holding?

Me: Oh, this is my writing journal.

Old Woman: Are you a writer?

Me: Of sorts, I guess. Would you mind If I asked you both a few questions?

Old Woman: What sort of questions are you asking?

Me: Well, for my Meaning of Life course, I was asked to interview people to determine their views on what a good and meaningful life is.

Old Man: Sounds like a bunch of baloney. (He really actually said that.)

Me: Be that as it may

Older Folks

To be quite honest, up until this new unit I never put a thought to old people. I never thought about how life may have been different back in the day, how they may have had similar experiences in different contexts. The only interactions I have with the elderly are with my grandmother via telephone to Ireland. In general, when I am called to think of the elderly, I think of them as typically a little more mature than people in their 20s to 30s. I understand that the common media projects the elderly to be fragile and useless, what with all these ads floating around - ads like "Lifealert" and "Jitterbug", products that force us to view the elderly as nothing more than a hopeless mess with no one to turn to but us able-bodied people.

Discussion of the Elderly Perspective on the Good and Meaningful Life

This is the basic transcript for my conversation via telephone with my Irish grandmother. Some words may have been replaced or edited for an easier reading. After the initial greetings of Hello, how are you, how's everything, we finally got to the meat of the conversation.

Me: So, Granny, the thing is, I have to get the elderly perspective on what a Good and meaningful life is, and how someone can live one.

Granny: Well you shouldn't be talking to me, so.

Me: Well, my teacher's criteria for elderly or old people was 55 and older, so technically you fit that description.

Granny: Well let me tell ya, your teacher doesn't know what he's thinking if he's going about calling me old. There'd be very few other Grannys like me float'n around I'll tell ya, boy.

Me: Well, ok. Not old, but...experienced?

Granny: Ok so, what was you had in mind?

Me: My first question is just, How old are you?

Granny: 67

Me: Would you consider yourself old?

Granny: I most certainly wouldn't.

Me: What would you define as old?

Granny: I think that the people who spend all their time sitting around doing nothing. You don't see me practicing any needlepoint in front of a fire.

Me: Ok, so let's get into the heavy stuff. What would you say are your ideas on a good and meaningful life.

Granny: I I'd have to say keeping a family, being a wife and mother is the most meaningful a life you can have.

Me: What makes you say that?

Granny: It's because you bringing new life into he world and caring for it and loving it, and when you see it go off on its own you have a feeling of happiness that you've done something for the world.

Me: Where do you think you got these ideas from?

Granny: Well, I've been very much like a mother since I was very young. My mother, your Great-Grandmother died when I was about 9 years old, and since I was then the oldest in the family, I then had to help take care of my siblings. There were four of us in total.

Me: And that shaped you into these ideas?

Granny: Of course. We weren't very well-to-do you know. I grew up on a farm and so that meant that I had a lot of responsibility. Beside taking care of the little ones I had to muck stables and feed the animals and all that tripe.

Me: If you could have changed anything about the life you lived, what would it be.

Granny: Gavvy, I wouldn't change a damn thing, and I'll tell ye why. I've lived a happy life and I expect to continue doing so until the Lord in heaven sees fit to have a meeting with me. Now, off and away wit ye. I have to head off into to town to say hello to Gracie.

Me: Okay, Goodbye Granny.

Granny: Goodbye Gavvy, talk to soon. Bye.

Big Paper New Draft

Welcome to the good life. We have pie and punch.

Intrigued? Well the good life, or rather, the concept of the good life is essentially that simple. As Americans, we are bombarded from all sides by images of what the good life entails, and thus everyone has built a perspective of "the good life". I propose that the good life is a life of awareness - most people are not aware that they are being controlled and impacted by pop culture and living what they think is their idea of a good life, an idea supplanted into each of their minds. Many people have their own take on the good life, some people I interviewed, some people who broadcast their ideas through music and others who sell it to us by other means. Perhaps the good life doesn't exist, and it is only a concept created by corporations to help sell their products. Perhaps it does exist and it is easier to attain than one would think. Based on many perspectives, we can work towards debunking the concept of a "good life".

Perhaps the best way to start unraveling the theory of a good and meaningful life is to start with my own belief system. I hold it true that a good life is something people must strive for, not something that you can be born into, such as may be the case with material wealth. No, I find that a truly good life is a life where you operate in full awareness of the factors guiding your life, factors trying to mold you into their image. Becoming aware in the sense that you can see the puppet strings that try to attach themselves o you is not an easy task, one that I am not versed in too deeply. It is the case for many people to subconsciously adopt the motto "ignorance is bliss" wherein what you don't know cannot hurt you. In this case it can be inferred that if you are ignorant of an assailant creeping up behind you, you will be perfectly fine, but if you are aware of his presence, then you are in some serious danger. What good can it do you to be unaware of the puppeteer that is controlling your every action and controlling every thought you think is your own? The way I see it (or perhaps I have been conditioned to see it this way, it is certainly a possibility) someone should try to be as aware of both themselves and everything impacting them as they can.

I am well aware that my ideas are not my own. I doubt that any of my ideas concerning my life and attitude have anything to do with me. I am a product of my environment. I can tell you, it’s a very uncomfortable position to be in; you don't know exactly what your beliefs are, you second-guess everything because you know that it came from one source or another. That's why I believe I find the most meaning in writing. True, most plot devices and in general, plots, have been created before. But the truth remains that when you put pen to paper or words to a screen, it is an original burst of thought from yourself. Even for those not gifted in writing can create something original and meaningful. The quality of the work doesn't have to be good, but it is meaningful in that it was created from the author's originality. Creating a fictional story, a poem, really any form of creative writing has meaning because it defies corporate media. If it's original, it's unaffected by anything but imagination. Perhaps it is cliché to say this, but imagination ultimately boils down to the best tool to defy social norms.

I talked to several people to determine what they felt made a good and meaningful life. Talking to these people made it evident that some people have not given a whole lot of thought to their life’s meaning, and much less to the concept of meaning in general. Person A said "Meaning, well that's the stuff that has importance to you, like, the stuff you like." similar to this was Person B who said that meaning "isn't something that can be easily tossed away, more like the stuff that's precious to you." From these two, we're left to wonder exactly what importance is - what makes something a necessity to someone? I think people have been greatly encouraged to not think critically about "abstract" things like the meaning of life and what makes a good life. Instead, people focus on the more concrete concepts of "things". People put significance into objects, like their new phone, their clothes, and their cars. It seems that people hold things important, and the better the thing makes you look in person, the better and more important it becomes to you. Things in themselves hold little actual value, however. Sometimes people use these things to stimulate other ideas. A person may find a photo album important, as it documents what they see as important events in their lives or the lives of loved ones.

In America we are greatly exposed and more or less run our lives by Popular culture. Within Pop culture lay three different but not necessarily separate categories: Corporate, Folk Culture, and Big Subcultures. For this unit we have delved deeply into personifying Corporate Culture. Within this subcategory of Pop culture lie more subcategories that classify the messages broadcasted by corporate culture. These categories are Dominant, Marginal/Fringe, and Prohibited/Unacceptable. Dominant messages are those that are the basis of the music videos, movies, and books that we all consume. They typically involve "good" values of misogyny, heroism, and going with the flow. Marginal or fringe messages are those like "You can smoke pot and be a drug addict while you're young and single, as long as you clean yourself up and get settled with a nice wife and 2.5 kids.” They start off "bad" and end up "good". In prohibited messages, however, you will only see the direct opposition to the Dominant culture, and this is why you hardly ever see these kinds of messages being tossed around casually. The instances where these are shown are often found alongside the marginal messages, as the two are related. A prohibited message might encourage you to take to the streets and start the revolution, destroying every piece of corporate anything you find.

One medium that essentially serves up corporate messages to teens on a silver platter is the ever-expanding world of video gaming. With 3 current-gen gaming consoles, the attraction to video gaming ranges between age groups of 8 to 20s and 30s. Most every video game has a plot in which you must defeat a foe of some kind. In most of these you play the story's hero. You are the cream of your village's crop, there's something special about you, and you have a predetermined destiny for greatness. This serves as a drag for many teens, albeit subconsciously. They need the affirmation that they can be better than what they are now, that they can do more. Other than that, gaming is like a new sport between teens, a new form of competition where you can truly outshine your peers and earn your bragging rights without ever actually accomplishing much. It is a form of grandstanding, with every game becoming worse and worse, making you capable of doing more and more to humiliate your friends. Not to mention that the games' level of violence is another huge draw; it gives teens the ability to commit deviant crimes without suffering punishment. It allows teens to battle against armies of "evil" creatures, without doing much to reflect on the evil of killing said creature. For social devolution we can all count video games as a major player, no pun intended.

Another method of providing corporate messages is through literary media. Institutions like publishers and bookstores have a huge say in what we the people read. The process of putting a book through publishing from first draft to final, printed copy is a long and hard ordeal involving many rewrites and drafts. Typically we end up with the watered down and editor approved version of the author’s ideas. When the writer first sets his pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) he or she puts out an unpolished brick of a story, one that needs refining in order to pass through to publishing. The first brick of text contains all the author’s ideas for the work and everything he sees going into it. Some of those ideas get lost in the editing process and thus the author is limiting the ideas and the opinions in the text. Clever authors are the ones who lose very little to the crippling gaze of the publishing fiend. Take for example that most Fantasy stories follow the same string of plot as every other one. However, we do have those that pop up to take a different tact. Every story has a hero. Every story has a villain. Every story with a hero has a conclusion where typically the hero is victorious over the villain. He may even fall in love throughout the course of the story. Books provide a raw source of folk messages that have turned corporate, the concepts of the true love, the happy ending

To look at the blend of corporate culture and folk culture as a transitionary tool, I bring up the example of the Christmas holiday. I remember a time when I would eagerly count down the days until Christmas came, waiting impatiently for the mystical Santa Claus to appear and deliver his various Christmas gifts to me on the 25th of December. It used to be a time of complete and unbridled happiness, and no, I'm not overstating that. However, as time progresses and one grows older, discovering certain truths about your childhood beleifs, Christmas becomes just another day in the year, except you are presented with gifts by people and are expected to give gifts to others. Things reverse polarities, where I would have found myself counting down days until Chrismas arrived, this year I found myself shocked to find that Christmas was three days away, and I had nothing done in the way of shopping for my girlfriend, my family, and whatever friends I planned to shop for. So there's that, the gifting thing. Another slight example of how things switch around between childhood and adolescence is gifts. When I was a kid, and I'm positive that most of us think this way, I hated getting clothes as a gift from my relatives. I would always want this or that new toy or game, usually because I had seen it on TV. Now I find myself asking for clothes as opposed to whatever else they might imagine I want, mostly because the clothes you wear can depict social status.

Connecting this consumerist state of mind to the material we have discussed in class, I can see clearly the corporate strings attached to the Santa puppet. The entire concept of Santa Claus is a machination of the Coca-Cola company to sell more of heir own product. Our parents perpetuate the lie because it has become imbedded in our American folk culture- A magical being who rides around the world and delivers presents to "good" children and coal to "bad" children. Folk culture present in this ritual is the concept of good and evil, though perhaps a bit downplayed. Santa, the judgement figure, akin to Jesus, declares that good children recieve gifts as a reward of their goodness, similar to getting into Heaven, and bad children should get coal to serve as a punishment that isn't too harsh, but a reminder for them to get back on track, a downplayed Hell concept. Seeing as Santa does not actually exist, and no parent gives their kid coal, every Christmas-celebrating kid in the world is led to beleive they are good. Imagine the narcissism THAT can breed. It's just another one of those self esteem-boosting rituals, much like the gold star. "Let's have these kids all feel good about themselves and be all chipper and whatnot." It is a representation of people's constant need of affirmation that what they are doing is right and they should feel good about themselves.

Moving into folk culture, America has had its even share of nursery rhymes, stories, and life lessons that are handed down through families and teachers to the ever-so-receptive ears of the moldable child. Most of us come packaged with the sense of right and wrong that was taught to us as children, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, eat over your plate, chew with your mouth clothes, keep your clothes on in public. No one is told as a child that they should gnash their teeth around whilst eating or that they should pick on other kids and torment them regardless of what they have done. No, the kids who turn out like this are not because of instructions that lead them to do so, but instead a lack of healthy instruction that tells them what is good and moral. Kids with parents who don't tell them how to live a good and meaningful life have no guideline with which to follow and typically form their own agenda, usually a bad one. Without a guideline, even a wrong one, a kid cannot successfully emerge from their infantile state into their adolescence. It is true that people generally consider the teenage years to be the formative years where you decide who and what you will be, having gotten past the childhood years and already with a strong parental influence on your life. Perhaps that is why there is so much variation from teen to teen, many different groups and cliques all forming different identities. If there were no guidelines set up in our youth and we decided to follow our own paths then, maybe life would be very very different now.

MLK Reflection

To be quite honest, there isn't a whole lot for me to reflect on for this Martin Luther King Junior Day. I was not plagued by the media that honors his movement for Black rights, nor was I subjected to hearing his iconic "I have a Dream" speech. Andy has said that the Dream speech is his worst speech. But, based on what? the content, or the affect? Personally, I think it may have been one of his greatest, if not THE greatest speech he ever gave. Over 250,000 people were present that day on the Lincoln memorial steps. That day, whether or not you care to admit it, Martin Luther King Jr. delvered a speech that drove the Civil Rights Movememnt into a higher gear, having impacted the entire congregated mass in such a manner that there was not a word spoken whilst the man spoke. His mastery of the english language was evident in the speech that spurred on the Civil Rights Movement's pressure on president Kennedy.

Other than that, I can't reflect a whole lot on the day off that we got in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Perhaps he may be a postage stamp saint, compressed into a bite-sized sound byte, but at least his message is a good one. They may have covered up some of his more radical positions, but he is honored yet for his undying devotion to his people and the movement he helped create.

Inauguration Day Assignment

LDH2BM - What aspects of our lives were emphasized by the speeches, ceremony, music, song, spectacle? What image of "the good and meaningful life" was strengthened and what sorts of lives were implicitly or explicitly critiqued?

Barack Obama has officially been sworn in as the 44th president of America, not to mention the first African-American President. At his inauguration speech, Obama addressed much, from the path America must walk to restore itself to its once "great state" down to the reduction of our carbon footprint. Wait? Reduce the carbon footprint? Im guessing he means that we should start doing so tomorrow, right? Because my sentiments mirror those of David Freddoso from "The Corner": "Just based on the 500 to 600 private jets that came to today's event, you can bet that the carbon footprint for this inauguration more than makes up for the conservation efforts by Democrats on Capitol Hill - probably for years to come. But throw in all of the buses that are idling along Independence Avenue today, and we might actually have warmer weather by the end of the week." I think that was a little bit of a subtle contradiction. However, it is true that this is a first address, and we can't expect Obama to be specific in his thoughts and plans for leading the country out of the "storm" in which we find ourselves. What I can appreciate in this speech is Obama's bluntness - he wasn't candy coating it too much. he acknowleged that we are in an economic sludge, that we are at war against a hateful adversary, our education system is shot to hell, and health care is too expensive. He acknowledges these as "indicators of crisis." This is where the folk messages of America come into play. Obama tells us that we will meet these challeneges head on, using the all-american values of hope over fear and hard work, determination. Barack relied on the cornerstone of all American folk messages, telling us all that it is our job now to carry on "the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness." Coming out of the the mouth of this African American man raised by a single mother and put through Colombia and Harvard, the man who has become the president, this notion almost sounds beleivable.

I would say that Obama's proposed guidelines for living a good and meaningful life are proposed with that last sentiment In the above paragraph. Obama said that it would be up to us to carry on the american tradition that dictates we are all born equal, all men having certain inalienable rights, etc, etc. Yes, Barack Obama seems to be lending some credence to that American myth, but it still does not hold true for the vast majority of Americans. Black poverty rates are nearly triple for hwat they are for whites. Women still make only 70% of every dollar made by a man, and the is general inequality throughout the states. It may be Barack Obama's hope that with this change of office, things may fare better for the disadvantaged members of society, but with all that he has on his plate, Barack may forget to throw the dog a bone. As for messages that Obama gave about how not to live a good and meaningful life, those were fairly clear and abundant as well. "Those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you." This seems like a fairly nice rehashing of the same stuff we've been fed for the past 8 years. Sure, It's worded a bit nicer and he made sure to include that these people slaughter innocents, but essentially it still boils down to "we will kill all of the 'terrorist insurgents' because of how they impose their ideals on others." Continuing his tirade against the evils of the world, but still maintaining his Obama-esque civility, Barack pressed on to say "those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist." This, to me at least, appears to be a strike on Putin indirectly, but also an invitation for a new alliance. Obama is clearly very intricate with his words - take the hand that is offered to you, or we will make sure history remembers you as the ones who raped and pillaged and ultimately lost.

I Ain't gonna work on Maggie's farm no more.

Big Paper drafté

Welcome to the good life. We have pie and punch.

Intrigued? Well the good life, or rather, the concept of the good life is essentially that simple. As Americans, we are bombarded from all sides by images of what the good life entails, and thus everyone has built a perspective of "the good life". I propose that the good life is a life of awareness - most people are not aware that they are being controlled and impacted by pop culture and living what they think is their idea of a good life, an idea supplanted into each of their minds. Many people have their own take on the good life, some people I interviewed, some people who broadcast their ideas through music and others who sell it to us by other means. Perhaps the good life doesn't exist, and it is only a concept created by corporations to help sell their products. Perhaps it does exist and it is easier to attain than one would think. Based on many perspectives, we can work towards debunking the concept of a "good life".

Perhaps the best way to start unraveling the theory of a good and meaningful life is to start with my own belief system. I hold it true that a good life is something people must strive for, not something that you can be born into, such as may be the case with material wealth. No, I find that a truly good life is a life where you operate in full awareness of the factors guiding your life, factors trying to mold you into their image. Becoming aware in the sense that you can see the puppet strings that try to attach themselves o you is not an easy task, one that I am not versed in too deeply. It is the case for many people to subconsciously adopt the motto "ignorance is bliss" wherein what you don't know cannot hurt you. In this case it can be inferred that if you are ignorant of an assailant creeping up behind you, you will be perfectly fine, but if you are aware of his presence, then you are in some serious danger. What good can it do you to be unaware of the puppeteer that is controlling your every action and controlling every thought you think is your own? The way I see it (or perhaps I have been conditioned to see it this way, it is certainly a possibility) someone should try to be as aware of both themselves and everything impacting them as they can.

I am well aware that my ideas are not my own. I doubt that any of my ideas concerning my life and attitude have anything to do with me. I am a product of my environment. I can tell you, it’s a very uncomfortable position to be in; you don't know exactly what your beliefs are, you second-guess everything because you know that it came from one source or another. That's why I believe I find the most meaning in writing. True, most plot devices and in general, plots, have been created before. But the truth remains that when you put pen to paper or words to a screen, it is an original burst of thought from yourself. Even for those not gifted in writing can create something original and meaningful. The quality of the work doesn't have to be good, but it is meaningful in that it was created from the author's originality. Creating a fictional story, a poem, really any form of creative writing has meaning because it defies corporate media. If it's original, it's unaffected by anything but imagination. Perhaps it is cliché to say this, but imagination ultimately boils down to the best tool to defy social norms.

I talked to several people to determine what they felt made a good and meaningful life. Talking to these people made it evident that some people have not given a whole lot of thought to their life’s meaning, and much less to the concept of meaning in general. Person A said "Meaning, well that's the stuff that has importance to you, like, the stuff you like." similar to this was Person B who said that meaning "isn't something that can be easily tossed away, more like the stuff that's precious to you." From these two, we're left to wonder exactly what importance is - what makes something a necessity to someone? I think people have been greatly encouraged to not think critically about "abstract" things like the meaning of life and what makes a good life. Instead, people focus on the more concrete concepts of "things". People put significance into objects, like their new phone, their clothes, and their cars. It seems that people hold things important, and the better the thing makes you look in person, the better and more important it becomes to you. Things in themselves hold little actual value, however. Sometimes people use these things to stimulate other ideas. A person may find a photo album important, as it documents what they see as important events in their lives or the lives of loved ones.

In America we are greatly exposed and more or less run our lives by Popular culture. Within Pop culture lay three different but not necessarily separate categories: Corporate, Folk Culture, and Big Subcultures. For this unit we have delved deeply into personifying Corporate Culture. Within this subcategory of Pop culture lie more subcategories that classify the messages broadcasted by corporate culture. These categories are Dominant, Marginal/Fringe, and Prohibited/Unacceptable. Dominant messages are those that are the basis of the music videos, movies, and books that we all consume. They typically involve "good" values of misogyny, heroism, and going with the flow. Marginal or fringe messages are those like "You can smoke pot and be a drug addict while you're young and single, as long as you clean yourself up and get settled with a nice wife and 2.5 kids.” They start off "bad" and end up "good". In prohibited messages, however, you will only see the direct opposition to the Dominant culture, and this is why you hardly ever see these kinds of messages being tossed around casually. The instances where these are shown are often found alongside the marginal messages, as the two are related. A prohibited message might encourage you to take to the streets and start the revolution, destroying every piece of corporate anything you find.

One medium that essentially serves up corporate messages to teens on a silver platter is the ever-expanding world of video gaming. With 3 current-gen gaming consoles, the attraction to video gaming ranges between age groups of 8 to 20s and
30s. Most every video game has a plot in which you must defeat a foe of some kind. In most of these you play the story's hero. You are the cream of your village's crop, there's something special about you, and you have a predetermined destiny for greatness. This serves as a drag for many teens, albeit subconsciously. They need the affirmation that they can be better than what they are now, that they can do more. Other than that, gaming is like a new sport between teens, a new form of competition where you can truly outshine your peers and earn your bragging rights without ever actually accomplishing much. It is a form of grandstanding, with every game becoming worse and worse, making you capable of doing more and more to humiliate your friends. Not to mention that the games' level of violence is another huge draw; it gives teens the ability to commit deviant crimes without suffering punishment. It allows teens to battle against armies of "evil" creatures, without doing much to reflect on the evil of killing said creature. For social devolution we can all count video games as a major player, no pun intended.

Another method of providing corporate messages is through literary media. Institutions like publishers and bookstores have a huge say in what we the people read. The process of putting a book through publishing from first draft to final, printed copy is a long and hard ordeal involving many rewrites and drafts. Typically we end up with the watered down and editor approved version of the author’s ideas. When the writer first sets his pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) he or she puts out an unpolished brick of a story, one that needs refining in order to pass through to publishing. The first brick of text contains all the author’s ideas for the work and everything he sees going into it. Some of those ideas get lost in the editing process and thus the author is limiting the ideas and the opinions in the text. Clever authors are the ones who lose very little to the crippling gaze of the publishing fiend. Take for example that most Fantasy stories follow the same string of plot as every other one. However, we do have those that pop up to take a different tact. Every story has a hero. Every story has a villain. Every story with a hero has a conclusion where typically the hero is victorious over the villain. He may even fall in love throughout the course of the story.

To look at the blend of corporate culture and folk culture as a transitionary tool, I bring up the example of the christmas holiday. I remember a time when I would eagerly count down the days until Christmas came, waiting impatiently for the mystical Santa Claus to appear and deliver his various Christmas gifts to me on the 25th of December. It used to be a time of complete and unbridled happiness, and no, I'm not overstating that. However, as time progresses and one grows older, discovering certain truths about your childhood beleifs, Christmas becomes just another day in the year, except you are presented with gifts by people and are expected to give gifts to others. Things reverse polarities, where I would have found myself counting down days until Chrismas arrived, this year I found myself shocked to find that Christmas was three days away, and I had nothing done in the way of shopping for my girlfriend. Another slight example of how things switch around between childhood and adolescence is gifts. When I was a kid, and I'm positive that most of us think this way, I hated getting clothes as a gift from my relatives. Now I find myself asking for clothes as opposed to whatever else they might imagine I want.
Connecting this to the material we have discussed in class, I can see clearly the corporate strings attached to the Santa puppet. The entire concept of Santa Claus is a machination of the Coca Cola company to sell more of heir own product. Our parents perpetuate the lie because it has become imbedded in our American folk culture, a magical being who rides around the world and delivers presents to "good" children and coal to "bad" children. Folk culture present in this ritual is the concept of good and evil, though perhaps a bit downplayed. Santa, the judgement figure, declares that good children recieve gifts as a reward of their goodness, and bad children should get coal to serve as a punishment that isn't too harsh, but a reminder for them to get back on track. Seeing as Santa does not actually exist, no parent gives their kid coal, so every Christmas-celebrating kid in the world is led to beleive they are good. It's like another one of those self esteem-boosting rituals, much like the gold star. It is a representation of people's constant need of affirmation that what they are doing is right and they should feel good about themselves.
Changing pace for a minute, I would like to point out how the Christmas Holidays change from beacons of happiness to ultimately depressing slumps. Consider it like this; you've lost faith in your shiny, polished idea of a benevolent gift-giver, your relatives don't know you well enough or don't see you often enough to know what gift to get you, and so they just give you money to make up for it. You find out that Christmas is a shallow holiday of give and receive, emphasizing on your own reception. Turning on the tv presents a barrage of holiday themed ads desperately trying to get you to buy their product. Christmas can bring me down like no other thing, making me just regret the fact that all the people around me feel the "Christmas Spirit" and i can't. Every year, my mother plays the same CD, a christmas collection Cd. John Lennon, Live Aid, thta kind of stuff. When I was younger I couldn't really understand the lyrics, but it certainly set the mood. That music meant it was christmas time. We played the same songs this year, but now I understand the lyrics and I can't identify how they set off those Christmas sparks inside me. I wasn't satisfied with just being devoid of Christmas spirit, so I asked my immediate family if they felt it. They all said yes. This meant to me that the spirit isn't determined by age. I still haven't found out what exactly causes it, or lack of it.

Moving into folk culture,