Collapse Assignment 2

I feel that everything must have a beginning and end. Just how the saying says, “all good things must come to an end.” The thought of my life collapsing is a hard one to dig into because there are just so many possibilities to what might cause this to happen. Possibilities that are personal and in my control or ones that are worldwide issues and out of my reach. I feel that the only ones in my control are school and work related. But as a society I feel my life will collapse when there is no more food, or when there is no more fossil fuels to do work for us.
One of the ways I feel my life is going to collapse is when there are no/ a shortage of animals/ food on the planet. This is going to be due to the population reaching its peek where we will lead into a food recession due to there being such a high supply and demand. This is due to us using fossil fuels to beat up the earth and process these foods. Without these fuels there is no way we have such a high supply and demand thus a possible food shortage somewhere in the near future. This will be due to us killing so many animals such as chicken and cattle that we will be running their species to the brink of extinction. Which will be when the earth turns around and says to itself, “holy shit, we really screwed up by killing too many of these wild animals.” And for some people it may not be till animals are extinct that we learn our lesson on how we are “raping,” the earth’s natural food resources. For this part of the collapse to happen it will only be a matter of time because at the rate we are going, there will soon be no cattle or chicken left for us to kill and eat.
This leads into the other half of the collapse which is when the fossil fuels are gone. When the fossil fuels are gone not only is the economy going to go down with the loss of fossil fuels, but there will be a huge and long recession as the result. The reason being is because without fossil fuels we would have lost our way of getting energy. This will cause the planet to go into years of recession because people will have to develop a way of creating safe and renewable energy so that we can have it to power any devise we need to. It will close down millions of jobs especially ones in factories because there will be no fossil fuels to power the machines to make products. And even there was a magical way to make the products; no one would buy them because there would be no fossil fuels to power them. This will not only cause loss of jobs, but also lots of food problems because no one is going to want to go through the manual labor of picking crops. This will cause a hectic situation to adapt to because no one wants to work for it when they used to go to the supermarket.
Therefore this collapse can cause a hectic situation if we don’t act soon. If we don’t the fossil fuels we depend on will be gone. And plus there will be no more animals to eat because they will be extinct and a major part of society would’ve collapsed.

The Final Paper

Taking this course has taught me a lot about what things make life meaningful. Now I have learnt about this topic throughout the school year and I have seen the various aspects that we as a class saw as the most meaningful aspects of life. Some of these aspects are music, family, elderly people, sports, food, friends, and basically any other topic/ activity that interests the person. This has basically told me that the meaningfulness in someone’s life is not only measured by the amount of time happiness is felt but also, in my opinion, how big of a mark you put on others. In my situation in life I feel that my life is meaningful but not meaningful to its full potential. I feel that in order to have a meaningful life I must not only be happy but impact other people in the world besides myself. To make my life more meaningful I must explore the possibilities in life while still obtaining my happiness.
In my future I feel like I have the opportunity to become very big in my field and become a meaningful person on a world scale. The way I feel that I can is by possibly becoming a chef. The reason this would make my life more meaningful because I would be doing something I would enjoy while simultaneously growing on the scale of life/ moving up in society. By becoming a chef I would be in the service of supplying people with substantial meals which affect our people in a positive way, while also doing something I enjoy. This would mean affecting a lot of people in the world because thousands—millions of people could go to the restaurant. And since I would be in a good restaurant I can go home every night with the satisfaction that I affected the world in a positive way. Plus I would put aside all the leftover food to an organization called City Harvest. This organization goes around to certain restaurants, picks up the leftover food, and delivers it to homeless shelters so that homeless people who are in dire need of the food can be fed. This would bring out my “animal instincts,” from within me. The reason is that since I would be happy and worry free I would be like a majestic animal in a forest that can run around happily with no worries. And not only will I be happy I will be affecting the world in a positive way so I wouldn’t be destroying the planet with tons of greenhouse gasses. Therefore, cooking in my life would make my life more meaningful because not only would I be affecting other people positively, I will also be making myself happy.
I also follow folk messages that I believe help me live a good and meaningful life. A folk message that has a major part of how to live a good and meaningful life is friendship. The reason that this folk message stands out to me is because it is something that contradicts dominant corporate messages. The reason it does is because these dominant messages tell us that a meaningful life is having a lot of material objects, money, big house, etc. But this folk message of having friends contradicts that because there can be someone in middle class with a lot of friends and less money, can be happier than a man in upper class with a lot of money with no friends. A person with no friends even with a lot of money is actually less happy then they got no one to share any good times or joy with. It would be like watching your favorite team win a championship and then want to give someone a celebratory hug or high five but there would be no one there. And it is times like these that make even a rich person very lonely and unhappy. Because money can’t buy true friendship, people who are your friends because you are rich aren’t true friends. They won’t stick with them through the good and bad. Real friends stay with you regardless of the circumstances. This is a way that folk messages can be more important than dominant corporate messages.
Another aspect I have learned this year was health and about how to make healthy personal decisions. This means making the right decision that would impact other people positively and the person making the decision. The example we used in class to convey this message of “right decision making,” was the the guy in retirement who has to make a choice between saving the car he has saved money his entire life for or saving a little kid from getting hit by a train. Either way he can’t get both so either his dream car gets destroyed or a kid dies. So in my opinion I feel that the healthy decision would be to save the kid. Even though the car represents the one person’s financial security, everyone should have the right to live. Therefore saving the kid would be more morally right instead of saving a material object. This would be something that I would use in my own life because it tests your ability to make big decisions. I believe that the right decision is the one that would affect the most people positively. Therefore by saving the kid it would affect others in an emotionally positive way instead of that person being brutally murdered which in most cases would result in agony. Instead of saving the car which only would’ve affected one person. In this sense I feel that I would use this in my life to become a healthier person mentally, knowing that I just saved a life.
Observing holidays is another way to live a good and meaningful life. In our culture different holidays are observed for different reasons. I feel that a unique holiday that isn’t technically considered a dated holiday on a calendar is the Sunday the Super Bowl is played. This is a day in the world that people that isn’t even football fans stop on their televisions to watch a football game. The Super Bowl is considered the biggest football game of the year. The game where the two best teams in the league, one from the NFC(National Football Conference) and the other from the AFC(American Football Conference). And for this game it is when fans of their team bring out their true Fanhood. Fanhood is that special passion a person has inside them, passion that can’t be taken away, the commitment to stay up day and night watching ESPN and reading sports magazines and papers in order to be up to date with your favorite teams. Along with all the drama coming with each week, with the game coming down to a 4th Down or that tying/ go ahead field goal with time running out, shocking injuries, off field issues, and the thoughts of will my team show up to play and are they good enough get answered on the day of the super bowl. Other answers come from the individual players themselves. Some players in the super bowl have to prove themselves to their teammates, organization, and mostly the fans. This process happened to New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning last year. After being shelled in the playoffs every year he started in them, he was able to play his best football and shut all the critics up about his incapability to win the big game. He threw only one interception on his postseason journey on the road from Giants Stadium beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, division rival Dallas Cowboys in the Divisional Round, the Green Bay Packers in the NFC Championship, and finally bringing it all together by beating one of the already Super Bowl greats Tom “Terrific,” Brady and the undefeated Patriots taking their possibly historic 19-0 perfect season and making them fall one game short at 18-1.
Besides just the game this day has a lot to do with the people watching it. This isn’t a day where fans go out to watch the game in dress clothes. This is a more casual day where you dress in your team’s colors/ attire. Meaning wearing a hat, t-shirt, jersey, shoes, pants, whatever it takes for you to be satisfied with how you are representing your team. Some people even enjoy using face and body paint. Watching the game with your faced painted with your team’s colors or being topless and painting your entire chest and back in your team’s colors. On any other day of the week people would think you were out of your mind but on this occasion no one cares. This is a unique aspect to how to live a good and meaningful life because it isn’t something that is very common. I feel that acting like an animal, covering yourself in paint, and just having a good time with friends can be one of the most meaningful times of my life. Therefore living a good and meaningful life also means enjoying holidays in your own unique way.
In conclusion, I believe a perfect good and meaningful life is the ability to balance the aspects that I have mentioned before. Being able to challenge life but at the same time having fun with it is the goal because you can enjoy yourself while feeling accomplished. It is only when life has nothing more to give and you can look in a mirror and ask yourself, was my life meaningful? And if yes, then you have accomplished your purpose in life and can therefore live out your remaining days in peace.

Collapse Assignment 1

Easter Island seems like one of the few places on earth that actually hasn’t been corrupted by industry. Jared Diamond portrays the island to be very grassy and vast with various stone statues that stand 15-20 feet tall and weigh anywhere between 10-270 tons. I feel one of the most interesting parts of the essay happens to be the fact that this island isn’t developed and still ran by a 3rd world society. This struck a huge surprise between them and our culture because I thought that we would’ve went over there already to try to industrialize the island and make it a new theme park or something. But these artifacts/ sculptures portray how a society that started on this island back in A.D 900 is still being carried out. By the landscape and vibe being what it is, it is a big shock the U.S hasn’t taken it over yet. Because the U.S especially in the 21st century is big on conforming other societies and islands to industrialize like we have. And the fact that we haven’t is in my opinion a good sign for the world because it shows that the world might still have some purity with having this natural landscape and society. Instead of an industrialized mess.

Big Food Paper

In today’s society, the American industrialization of food is basically “bitch slapping,” the planet we live on. This means that as a country we are taking advantage of the natural resources the earth gives to use and using them as a convenience instead of a luxury. These is causing disrespect to the animals by using fossil fueled machines to mame, torture, and kill these animals that farmers and Indians back in the day had to work to get. These machines are killing not only the animals but are “biting the hand that feeds us,” as a human race. By disrespecting and taking advantage of these natural food sources we are eventually going to kill the planet and therefore cause a worldwide starvation alert.
A place where I learnt about how people were taking advantage of wild cattle is in the internet movie series, The Meatrix. This showed me how of course the animals don’t like the treatment from the humans. The site reassembled the corrupting and disrespectful humans as the “Meatrix Agents.” These are the people who try to destroy and corrupt the Matrix just as how in the “Meatrix” the people who kill, torture, and corrupt the animals. The video even showed the agents corrupting the animals with the hormones used to make the cows grow in order to receive the maximum amount of milk. Also by putting the cows in tight crammed up spaces in warehouses where they basically have no place to move and get fed food sprayed out of a machine which is no way to treat an animal that is so important to a human’s survival. Plus then these cows are taken to slaughter houses they are basically lined up on a machine that is used to send each one by a person with a big ass knife slicing each cow’s throat. Now in my opinion I feel this is no way to treat the natural resources that supply and feed the people of earth. If we as a race are to kill cattle, we should cut down the rate of which we are doing it because it is causing a lot of excess death that is unnecessary to the species and to the planet. Furthermore we shouldn’t drug up and torture the animal beforehand. If we are to continue our ways we should consider changing the brutal ways in which we are murdering the creature to make it more respectful. And make it so we aren’t killing as many so we can save the earth’s population of that creature. If we are to do that then there shouldn’t be a big of a panic of how soon an animal may become extinct. Thus we will be changing our ways on not disrespecting the planet and animals like we are.
Another place I learnt about how industrial food is killing our culture is through Pollan’s book called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” From what I read in this book, it showed me how food has been getting corrupted by the corporations that industrialize our earth for food. This in other words means that food has gotten to such a point that we don’t know what to eat anymore. This is due to there being so many voices of diets, ways to stay healthy/ lose weight, and just the supply and demand of all the foods being developed. This has caused food to be some alienated thing that we humans now take for granted and not care/ think about. Instead of way back when the Native Americans felt that every piece of food they were able to get together was something special due to it being a privilege and not a luxury. Now because it’s a luxury, we don’t think twice of where our food has come from and how an animal had to be sacrificed to let us eat a steak. Or the backbreaking labor a man might’ve had to go through to get some fresh fruit. Since corporations have taken over these ideas of food being special, it will eventually kill the planet and alert worldwide starvation because at the rate we are going, the earth won’t have any chance to heal itself and this will cause even the most natural of resources to be obsolete and we won’t have any food to eat anymore due to there being no more earth made food or even animal meat.
If we as a culture don’t start fast, we maybe start facing some alert of starvation along the line in our lifetime. Since we are killing more then what needs to be killed the earth is being torn up by the people who live on it. So that even the most natural fruits like bananas and strawberries won’t even be around because the soils of the earth will be so overworked they can’t fertilize any new plants. Plus even potatoes that are grown out of the earth won’t be around due people digging them all up and possibly wasting them on the billions of junk food McDonalds French Fries. Since this is such a big issue it must be advised and acted upon quickly. If not then the people of earth will be staring right into starvation because the earth will be completely “bitch slapped,” and won’t be able to recover from the brutal torture of the American food industry.

Industrial Food

After watching the “Animal Cruelty,” and “The Meatrix 2.5” video, I have noticed things about the meat I eat that I never would’ve thought of. In The Meatrix video I noticed how the authors of the site used animation and a theme comparing to the hit movie trilogy, The Matrix to portray the message of how animals for food in the U.S have been corrupted. The video showed the animals as the good guys and a pig as Neo whom in the real Matrix is considered “The One.” This showed me how of course the animals don’t like the treatment from the humans. Furthermore the site reassembled the corrupting and disrespectful humans as the “Meatrix Agents.” These are the people who try to destroy and corrupt the Matrix just as how in the “Meatrix” the people who kill, torture, and corrupt the animals. The video even showed the agents corrupting the animals with the hormones used to make the cows grow in order to receive the maximum amount of milk. So I felt that this site used a unique way to get the public’s attention in order to spread the idea of how animals are being tortured and disrespected in order for us people to get our meat.
The other video I watched was the “Animal Cruelty,” one. The authors of this site took a more serious and strength forward look at the issue as oppose to The Meatrix. This site’s video made it more serious rather than a cartoon/ “joke.” But oppose to The Meatrix, this site had a wider spread view of animal cruelty instead of just talking about cows. This site broke it down for animals such as cattle and most of all chickens. Chickens were tortured the worst because they were crammed together in warehouse type facilities where it was hard for them to even move. Then their diet was mutated to the point where most of them would either die of heart attacks or would get so fat that their legs couldn’t support the weight so they would just collapse and not be able to reach their mutated food diet. Then they would be shipped off to slaughter houses where their throats were slit with some of them either dead or still conscious. So as I was watching these videos I actually felt very disgusted in seeing what we as a human race are doing to the creatures of earth. It is messed up in how we are treating our planet and it must be stopped.
Even though I feel these acts of murder and torture must be stopped I feel that I won’t be able to change my dieting/ eating habits due to knowing the ways I actually receive my meat. This is due to being raised to eat foods like chicken, beef, and pork so my whole life so I never trained myself to really think about how the food got there. So even after finding out this information I am able to finally understand more about the world around me but I’m not necessarily able to change. This is because my favorite foods happen to be meats such as beef and chicken. So in conclusion I feel that understanding and following this information is important to the survival of our planet. But if there are people like me that don’t want to adapt their ways, then these animals will come eventually to their extinction.

Responce to Pollan 1

In Omnivore’s Dilemma I agree with Pollan in the sense that America has a lack for a stable food culture. The reason being is that in our country today there are too many messages going around. Ones such as “don’t eat those foods or you might become fat,” or “I think you should eat whatever you want in order to enjoy what you can,” or “you should eat these good foods but not those foods,” and even “be anorexic and just throw up whatever you eat.” It is due to messages like these that America has such a problem developing a steady food culture. It is because instead of just embracing what the world makes and what people develop everyone just puts a “message label,” on a certain kind of food that says something like “I have too many carbs so don’t eat me.” When people do this it cause us to be too conscious of what other people are saying instead of eating what we want to eat. I think this doesn’t just destroy our food culture but it destroys people’s lives. This is so because by food opinions being thrown in from scientists, journalists, TV, and various other places. Those sources should only be giving a person advice on what to do and not how to live their lives. But people take these sources to be like their “food gurus,” and whatever they say the American people listen to. Therefore I believe that Pollan is right that America has a huge lack for a food culture. And those food opinions should be taken as advice and not something that needs to be done to conform to the “American food way,” which basically is just doing whatever the media tells us to do.

cheddar burgers with balsamic onions and chipotle ketchup

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IngredientsOnions:
1 pound red onions, cut crosswise into 1/3- to 1/2-inch-thick rounds
Olive oil
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar Chipotle ketchup:
1 cup ketchup
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped chipotle chiles from canned chipotles in adobo* plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce from can
2 teaspoons (or more) balsamic vinegar Burgers:
2 1/4 pounds ground beef (15% to 20% fat)
Coarse kosher salt
6 thick slices sharp cheddar cheese
6 large English muffins or hamburger buns, split, cut sides grilled
6 tomato slices (optional)
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
Preparation
For onions:Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat): Arrange onion rounds on baking sheet. Brush with oil; sprinkle with 3/4 teaspoon coarse salt and pepper. Transfer onion rounds (still intact) to grill rack; close cover. Cook until grill marks appear, about 4 minutes per side. Reduce heat or move onions to cooler part of grill. Close cover; cook until onions are tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to medium bowl. Toss with vinegar. DO AHEAD: Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover; chill.
For chipotle ketchup:Mix ketchup, chiles, adobo sauce, and 2 teaspoons vinegar in small bowl. Season with salt and more vinegar, if desired. do a h e a d Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover and chill.
For burgers:Shape beef into six 1/2-inch thick patties. Sprinkle patties on both sides with coarse salt and pepper. Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Place burgers on grill. Close cover; cook burgers until bottoms start to darken and juices rise to surface, about 3 minutes. Turn burgers; cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes longer for medium-rare. Top with onions and cheese. Close cover; cook until cheese melts. Place muffin bottoms on plates; spread with ketchup. Top with burgers, tomatoes, if desired, spinach, and muffin tops. Serve, passing remaining ketchup separately.

Farmers Market

When I was at the farmers market on Friday I noticed that this place had a much natural feel and atmosphere. What I noticed was that all the food there looked much fresher then from the supermarket. I even bought a quart of Apple Cider from one of the stands at the market and since I love Apple Cider I was able to tell that this drink seemed as though it just arrived and off the farm instead of on a supermarket shelf for weeks or even months. Another thing I noticed was that there was no artificial and processed food. In my opinion the closest it got to “artificial,” was the baked goods such as cookies. And the reason I say this was the closest to artificial is because this was the only sweets there. And a lot of the artificial foods are primarily sugar based and that’s why I say the cookies were the closest to artificial.
But after this experience I think I should go to farmers markets more often. I never realized how good things actually are from these places because I primarily do my food shopping at supermarkets or delis. But at farmers markets the products are a lot more fresher and natural instead of processed in a factory by machines assembling them. Therefore I believe this trip kind of changed my view of where I should buy food from because not only is the food cheaper, it is more natural and healthier then what a supermarket can have to offer.

Grocery Store and Habitual Food

I believe that my family doesn’t do a great job at keeping vegetables in the house to eat. Even though some of the time I have access to fruits and veggies, it is very rarely that I do. I feel that most of my food consumption is mostly meats, cheese, and other junk food. I sometimes consume grains, fruits, and veggies in a typical week outside of home when I’m eating my out-lunch at school. Such as healthy Subway Sandwiches or heroes from the corner-store where I can get some of my favorite heroes such as, Turkey with American Cheese, lettuce, tomato, and Mayo. But at home I rarely consume greens, fruits, grains, or etc.
I have noticed that supermarkets now a day are prioritizing their stock by trying to actually get the more organic and healthier things instead of filling the shelves up with all the crappy junk food we Americans are so accustomed to eating. But now a day the U.S is opening its eyes to healthier foods due to there being a high increase in overweight people. But what I have noticed inside my supermarket is that the stock people organized it so that all the healthy, fresh, and organic type foods are on the perimeters of the store. Meaning all the fruits and veggies are on the left hand wall, meats are straight in the back, and the milk/ dairy products on the right hand side. With all the processed and artificial junk crap in the center of the store. Now I don’t know if this is just coincidental organization or this is trying to send people a message?
I think the message it is trying to send is how a lot of people’s favorite snacks and meals are the junk crap which we consistently consume. While these better and healthier foods are on the perimeter of our liking or on the amount we would like to consume them. Therefore all the junk is in the center of our consumption “circle,” where the healthy foods are on the perimeter of it like in the perimeter of the supermarket. Then maybe a supermarket maybe organized by the amounts of certain types of things they want people to consume. If the healthy stuff is in the center as the majority of their stock then the supermarket wants you to consume healthy food.

May Day

I think that realizing and observing that sense of a past struggle is necessary to live a good and meaningful life. In this case, I believe that more people in the U.S should be more aware of certain holidays such as May Day and observe it like any other American holiday such as July 4th. May Day was a day where workers didn’t go to work to exercise their rights to have time off. This was something similar to the civil rights movement because instead of marching out for work, they marched to get their rights as equals. But why is May Day a holiday to many that has just “Disappeared?” I think it is due to our American culture blocking us from the truth of our actually meaningful rights and feelings.
I feel that the American culture has blocked us off from knowing about this holiday because I feel the government is scared of what the American people can possibly do. I bet they feel that the American public will feel that it would be more meaningful if only have like 1 day of work a week. So therefore we are blocked off from this holiday so we don’t have a high potential from not going to work every day so there would be hardly any work days. If this were to happen then there shouldn’t even be consider a “work week,” if there is hardly any work. Therefore in conclusion I believe May Day isn’t observed due to the American government’s fear of their own people’s ability to walk out of work almost every day and force there to be hardly any work week.

Food internet research

Now as I have researched it, I believe that school food actually isn’t as bad as we portray it to be. The only reason we make it out to be so bad is because it is healthy food. And as kids we think that all healthy food is disgusting but in the big picture, school lunches actually look for us to be healthier. This is to teach us to eat more fruits and veggies and not eat as much crap. But by now knowing this we can change our opinions and use school lunch to the best of our benefit. Therefore, I believe we can make school lunch even better if we just accept it and try to embrace what society is trying to give us.

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4803418.stm

Food in my Refrigerator

· Soda
· Veggies
· Cheese
· Milk
· Salsa
· Ketchup and mustard
· Peanut butter
· Red Bull
· Pasta and shrimp

I believe that food in my refrigerator follow more or less the ideas of the mainstream American way of food culture. The reason I believe so is because a lot of my food I would say is junk food and that is what the American culture tries to do. This is take foods that are considered for “poor people,” and make them look like they are food for a king. Because I honestly think that a lot of the foods I eat are blown up to be classy foods when they are really meant for someone in middle class. So in this matter, I feel that me and my family are victims to the American food culture by being persuaded by the media that the food we eat is awesome for us, when it really isn’t.

Food for the past 24 hours. Night of 4/28/09- night of 4/29/09

· 1 Red Bull
· 2 Gatorades
· 1 7-Eleven slurpee
· 1 hot dog
· Juicy-fruit gum
· Pasta and Sausage
· 2 glasses of Pepsi
· 1 Nesquik chocolate milk
When I consumed these foods/ drinks I am mostly by myself. This is due to when I am at home I eat and do my homework at the same time so therefore I am by myself and not with anybody. The only things I had with other people were my hot dog, slurpee, Gatorades, red bull, and juicy-fruit gum. This is because these are foods that are associated with my friends and I. For example: I drank a red bull to recover from an injury and I was chewing gum at my baseball game because it is something us ball players do.
So as you may notice, this is almost the daily eating routine of my life. I am mostly alone because I usually have to eat alone with only my homework to do. It is kind of a bad feeling to have because sometimes I think about the food I am eating and think about how not being able to enjoy it with anyone is a bad thing. I sometimes try to enjoy food my others like my dad but that is usually only during a sports event. Therefore my eating is usually alone or with my friends and usually always alone at home.

my food, family food, USA food

I believe my food habits are just like my family’s food habits. The reason being is because we are very informal so if there’s a dinner we just go and get our food and just find a seat on the couch to eat. Foods we eat are widespread. Since my family is Jewish we are suppose to be kosher but we feel that there is more to life and we should appreciate food. So therefore we break that rule of being Jewish to eat other foods such as pork. But foods we eat can be anything. Things such as beef, chicken, pasta, veggies, potatoes, burgers, and almost anything else you can think of.
These eating habits differentiate from our American way of food culture. The way it does is because we don’t just be eating from American institutions such as McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Etc. We as a family actually cook our food to be good and special instead of a good for nothing fast food cheeseburger. People who usually cook for holidays are my relatives so that is a special feeling to have. Even though I do most of the cooking in my own apartment. This differentiates from American culture because American culture food like McDonalds is worth nothing. But a home cooked meal by a relative is something special.

Old people questions from class (2nd draft)

1:what percentage of old people are on anti depressants?

i couldnt find a percentage, but i did find that there are 2.4 billion drugs perscribed to elderly people and of those 2.4 billion, 118 million were for antidepressants.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/07/09/antidepressants/index.html
2:how much money are you willing to spend on medical exspences?

i couldnt find for old people, but i did find in a Harvord study in 2005 that due to medical bills it caused 1,458,000 personal bankruptcies.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankruptcy_study.html

3:what are the leading causes of death?
the leading causes of death is Corenary Heart Disease and any kind of cancer.

http://www.libraryindex.com/pages/3158/Older-Adults-LEADING-CAUSES-DEATH-AMONG-ELDERLY.html

4:do the eldery get enough attendtion?
it depends on your situation in life. most people with money and more power are able to get the resources to get advanced medical care. but some are get the medical help if they have a senior medical alert device. which a device seniors can use if they are in need of major medical help.

http://www.medicalmonitoringusa.com/elderly-alarm.htm

5:how many pills do they take a day?
not a specific number was named but there have been a lot more perscribed pills for more healthier people then less healthier people.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1159031/Millions-elderly-patients-prescribed-unnecessary-pills-tick-box-culture-says-expert.html

6:if they have kids, how much do they check up on you?
no specific number stated but there have been stradegies for children to be with frial elders a lot more so the child can understand these adult scenarios plus have these elders live healthier and happier lives.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/fs/fs327/

Health Paper

Since the beginning of this health unit, I have discovered some new views of health along with ones that I have already agreed with. These new ideas consist of the ways of therapy, personal decision, and even food. The reason I haven’t thought of these before is due to the American culture. This has to do with the messages our media gives us and whenever we hear “health,” the first thing people think are “flatter abs.” But as I have learned there is more to health then just those abs because there is more to your body and emotions then just being buff/ physically fit. By learning this I am able to insight my own life through these combined known and used to be unknown idea of health.

One of the ideas of that I have learned are the ways of therapy. By learning about ways of therapy I was able to infer how a therapist helps dictate how to live our lives which is actually unhealthy. When a person pays a therapist for help they are actually not telling us to be ourselves by to conform to the way society says we should be which is unhealthy in my opinion. I feel as though a therapist should advise a person’s qualities to tweak them up in order to live a healthy life. Not try to mold a person into something they are not. By learning this I wouldn’t pay attention to this sort of health. The reason is because I don’t want to change who I am. Except tweak up certain aspects for the better.

Another aspect of health I have learned about was personal decisions. The example we used in class was the one with the guy in retirement who has to make a choice between saving the car he has saved money his entire life for or saving a little kid from getting hit by a train. Either way he can’t get both so either his dream car gets destroyed or a kid dies. So in my opinion I feel that the healthy decision would be to save the kid. Even though the car represents the one person’s financial security, everyone should have the right to live. Therefore saving the kid would be more morally right instead of saving a material object. This would be something that I would use in my own life because it tests your ability to make big decisions. I believe that the right decision is the one that would affect the most people positively. Therefore by saving the kid it would affect others in an emotionally positive way instead of that person being brutally murdered which in most cases would result in agony. Instead of saving the car which only would’ve affected one person. In this sense I feel that I would use this in my life to become a healthier person

The final main idea I never thought about was food. Food is something that is very healthy for a person not only in a physical way but also in a mental/emotional way. The reason this part of health works both ways is because for the physical aspect there are considered healthy and unhealthy types of food. So for those good healthy foods it helps a person stay physically fit to do daily activities. Even non everyday activities such as sports or special types of expeditions that people take when they go on adventures in the wild. But at the same time this also affects the emotional aspect of food. This is because most people who are naturally physically fit and not on steroids; it will usually impact the mind in a positive way. This is due to being able to be able to do wild things you want to do and plus have people look at you in a respected way. Instead of that ugly, cranky, fat ass that no one wants to be around. Therefore I would use this aspect of health in my own life because I want to be looked at as one of the cool healthy people instead of the ugly fat ass. Plus playing sports is important to me so I can’t eat all junk food and be happy if I expect to succeed in sports.

All together, I have really changed some of my aspects of health. Because before I thought it was all about just being happy with flatter abs. but as I have learned throughout this unit there is more to health then that because if it was all flatter abs then there would be no reason to be therapists in the world. Plus we wouldn’t ever think about observing the value that certain things, like food have behind them because we as a capitalist society don’t even pay attention to those types of things due to our media.

Break Emotional Health

During my break I have had a various amounts of emotional states. Some that extends from being very happy to extremely pissed off. Times where being very happy has occurred is when I was playing baseball and being with my friends. This was because I was getting out of my boring concealed house and getting out having fun. Also this was due to me being able to use my body in a lively athletic way which I enjoy doing though the way of baseball. But the times that I was actually pissed off were times when I actually caused the problem. This was when I forgot to call my dad when I went over to a friend’s house and I was then not allowed to buy New York Rangers playoff tickets. But after this experience I have learned that to help my emotional health all I have to do is listen. So then I will be able to be happier and live a freer life.
In my opinion I don’t believe being emotionally healthy means being happy all the time. I believe it means have the proper balance between the good and bad emotions. The reason I believe so is because nothing I meant to be perfect. So I believe that having a balance of emotions is better than being happy all the time. That is because those people who are too happy and then have to deal with a tiny issue can have the tendency to freak out and blow the issue out of proportion. The reason this happens is because the ones who are too happy don’t know how to deal with adversity. They feel that everything goes their way, so when they get a problem they don’t know how to handle it. That is why someone with a balance is emotionally healthier because they know how to react and live with good and the bad in a balance manor. Instead of getting extremely pissed off at the small things and not caring about the big important things.
Connecting back to the therapy methods I believe that my theory of balance and the therapies ideas of resolving all issues don’t connect. The reason I believe so is because what I have noticed throughout my whole life is that not all problems are going to be solved and life isn’t going to be perfect. So that even though I do believe that talking to a therapist can help, it won’t ever be a permanent solution a person’s life. All it is is a stepping stone for capitalism because what happens is you are able to resolve some issues and you keep coming back for more to attempt to resolve the really hard ones. So when the issues don’t/ can’t get solved you keep going back to therapy for more because your therapist believes you need it. So I believe that having therapy is a temporary cure for some issues, but can never a permanent cure for all/ or big flaws in a person’s life.

Co- Counsiling

I feel that this technique can be rather helpful towards many people but I specifically point out teenagers being the best for this method in my opinion. The reason I think so is because Co-counseling has to do with the two people sharing each other’s issues to help find a solution. The reason I feel teenagers are the best for this is because if the person finds a co-counselor with similar issues, the person won’t feel that they are the only ones out there with those issues. And so therefore and work together and resolving their issues without getting too angry.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Co-counselling

Health Questions

1. Why is my health so important to me?
Health is important to me for a various amount of reasons but there are only a few main ones. The main ones are that I like being physically fit because it makes me happy and I’m an athlete and because it makes me feel mentally and emotionally good about myself. The way it affects me mentally and emotionally is because these two things have to do with how I feel on a daily basis. When I don’t get out to play and exercise enough I get a feeling of being “fat,” and like crap. So therefore my health is important to me because it affects me on a daily basis.
Source: myself
2: how diverse are types of care of people with health issues?
The types/amount of people in the U.S with extential health care was very shocking. On a pie chart I found it stated that 30% have hospital care, 21% in physical/ clinical services, 10% in retail- RX drugs, 7% program administration, 6% nursing homes, 3% government health care, 3% home health care, and 10% other activities. This tells me that there are much more people in the U.S with health difficulty then I thought. I think it is mostly due to accidental injury, developing something inherited throughout life, or even receiving something from another person. The reason I think this is because I believe that people don’t become unhealthy on purpose, it is that they are either inflicting some personal issue on their health or they had nothing to do with the problem. Because I don’t think people try to give themselves cancer on purpose.
Source http://www.kaiseredu.org/images/issue%20module/Health%20costs/National%20Health%20Expenditures%20distribution,%202006.jpg
3: what does health mean?
Healthy - having or indicating good health in body or mind; free from infirmity or disease; "a rosy healthy baby"; "staying fit and healthy
Source: wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
4: how many people eventually end up with some sort of cancer?
On a worldwide scale in 2002 1,151,298 people had breast cancer, 1,023,152 had colon cancer, 1,352,132 people had lung cancer, and 679,023 people had prostate cancer.
Source: http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=89797&catid=847
5: what are some ways serious health defects can be avoided?
The main reason according to this site that there are defects on a person life is through alcohol. So for alcohol what people can stop doing is drinking too much of it and constantly getting drunk to enjoy a moment or especially drinking during pregnancy because alcohol causes birth defects so the baby will be born with health issues.
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Bad-Health-Effects-of-Alcohol:-Worth-Avoiding&id=405130
6: are people who are mentally ill considered healthy?
As interpreted from the web page, being mentally ill is not considered healthy. The reason being is that to be defined as mentally ill you must be in distress in various aspects of your life such as work, social situations, etc. so it can therefore be interpreted that being mentally ill is considered unhealthy and there is no alternative point of view to it because, for example: you can be in a coma and be mentally stable at the same time.
Source: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/mental-illness/DS01104
7: what are the main personal reasons people try to stay healthy?
Main personal reasons to stay healthy are for things like family, financial, and even your own personal survival. By being healthy you are almost assured to live longer and have more energy throughout a day then someone who isn’t healthy. And not only does health affect yourself but it affects the family too because when you are very unhealthy your family members might get worried about how long you will be alive for.
Source: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/reasons-to-stay-healthy/
8: how does mood affect health?
A way that mood affects a person daily is going through something as simple as having an argument with another person. This causes the body to take longer to repair itself. This test was conducted with daily arguing couples at Ohio State where scientists would give the couples tiny blisters and then see how long it took to heal. It ended up it took 40% longer then if they didn’t argue.
Source: http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/70342/how_your_mood_affects_your_health/
9: is perfect health possible?

Animal Paper

Today in society, most humans classify themselves as being humans, instead of a part of animal nature and they are highly mistaken. Due to people acting the way they do and having the technology we have, we believe that we are not a “part,” of the planet earth. That there is earth and then the humans that rule it. This has to do with obstacles that lead us to believe that we aren’t a part of nature and that we aren’t animals.
The first obstacle is the religious Genesis. This obstacle conveys the religious message about being human. What the Genesis means is that god created humans and humans are little parts/ minions of god. Saying that since we are as part of god we aren’t animals. This makes it so that we think we are the rulers of the earth and we have no connections to the other animals around us. So this is a way that we are blinded from being aware we are animals
The second obstacle is scientific classification. This obstacle tells us that we are a completely different genus from other animals. This means that on the animal “web,” humans descended from other animals/ humans and therefore achieve our own genus as Homo Sapiens Sapiens. This tells us that scientific classification wants us to believe that we are an entirely different genus from other humans/animals/species to come before humans. That we should forget about what made us and just forget how it was animals and these earlier human forms that created the humans we are today. Plus forget how these earlier human forms are the ones that were close with animals due to the hunter-gatherer ways people used to survive in the past. So this is the way scientific classification tells us we shouldn’t believe we are animals.
The third obstacle is that we only chill with other animals. This has to do with mostly the communication and physical skills. A reason we don’t chill with animals is because we believe that we have nothing in common with them which is a complete lie. Things we actually do have in common with animals are the more natural things such as birth, eating/ drinking, mating, strength/ weakness, power, and many more. But we don’t look at these things because all we as humans think about are, who has the new Sidekick and, where did you get those Jordan’s? Since other animals don’t have these qualities, we are blinded from them and therefore feel we have no connections with other animals around us.
The fourth obstacle is being forced to do non animal like things such as going to school and sitting in a class room. This has to be one of the biggest things that neglect us from being the “animals,” we are supposed to be like. Sitting in class dulls us out and is so boring by listening to things you don’t care about and having to sit in those hard metal chairs/ wooden stools all day is just torture. Plus the fact that now a day things such as TV, video games, and sitting in front of a computer working are emphasized higher in today’s culture. While there are wild animals in the world doing their learning hands on and experiencing what it is like to live. An example is when we as a class did the activity when we were on the roof and acted out what other people did in a moving “live,” activity. Instead of being lectured we were able to achieve a better feeling through getting up and having some fun by being able to tap into animal feeling. So therefore, this is how school is a big obstacle in blocking us from knowing we are animals.
The final obstacle is Decart’s theory of Dualism. This is the theory of there being humans and every other creature to us is just an object. This hides us from feeling that we are animals because if every other species is an object, and we don’t believe we are also objects, then we feel we are separate from other animals. This is the reason why scientists perform experiments on live animals because they believe that the rabbit or mouse they are conducting the experiment on is just an object. Therefore, these are the obstacles to why we believe we aren’t animals.
But on the contrary there are things in the world that make us want to believe we are animals. The first benefit for knowing why we are animals is the most natural of them all which is child birth. Child birth is something that helps us want to believe we are animals because it is supposed to be one hundred percent natural. Since getting pregnant to have a baby is natural then the birth of it should be just as natural. Meaning no epidurals or c-sections which disrupt this natural process of being a human and using your natural animal trait of giving birth. This is a benefit of how humans get to know how they are like animals.
The second benefit is knowing that our bodies matter and emphasize on the physical aspects of life. This means that we should look at getting out into the world, getting athletic, or just using the animal senses that we have. So by sitting on a couch playing video games isn’t something that an animal would emphasize. Emphasizing doing things like running around, using our bodies, and getting the “blood flowing,” is something that some people look past. But the benefit of knowing what to do is a good thing because then you know you can build on getting out and using the body more. And knowing that our bodies do matter and that sitting playing a video game really doesn’t.
The third benefit is using our minds the proper way. This means that instead of using them on things we don’t care about, we should get back to our animal instincts and use our minds for more things that animals are interested in. Things such as mating, food, instincts, being athletic, etc. By using our minds in these ways we are able to tap into a part of the brain that helps convince us that we are animals so that therefore we should use our minds that will give us a further connection with nature, instead of meaningless things like school which animals don’t think about. An animal’s school is basically getting out and experiencing nature to learn. We as humans have to sit in classroom uncomfortably and using mind power for dumb things when we should be outside experiencing things and tapping into our inner animal world.
The final benefit is called, No Special Rescue. This means that as a human being we think that we are the most important creatures out there, that no one can destroy/ kill us, and that if something goes wrong there is always someone looking out. But truth is we as humans are wrong. The only reason we think this is because our conscious is telling us we can’t be killed and become extinct. But if we tap into our animal selves we will realize that sometimes there isn’t always someone looking out for us. The way we would figure this out is by looking at the history of animals getting killed off and becoming extinct. This would make us realize that no one was looking out for them so therefore the same thing can happen to us. So by knowing this can further tap into our animal senses and realize that we can have the same fate as other animals did so therefore know that we are indeed animals too.
In my own opinion I believe that we must as a human race better understand how we are animals and understand how it is more meaningful to understand our animal qualities instead of just neglecting them. By understanding how we are animals we can live life more to its fullest because we will have the capability to “escape,” our homes, TV’s and video games and be able to enjoy the outside life more like an animal would. This would allow us to not only be healthier but be a happier human being. This is by being able to exercise and not being trapped in a house or apartment because to most if you were trapped inside for too long you will start to get out of shape, lazy, tired quicker, and worst of all lonely. People who have realized and accepted their animal parts of them have gone on to live happier lives. People such as athletes who embrace the reality of getting up, getting out, and playing a sport tend to live happy lives because they enjoy the outdoors like an animal would and they are doing something they enjoy because they don’t feel like they are trapped like a student in a classroom. So I believe that people must embrace, understand, and take advantage of their animal selves because by doing this it can lead to happiness, meaning, and a better understanding of life.

"Living Funeral,"

If I was given a rough diagnosis with some fatal sickness I really wouldn’t know who id want with me at this “Living Funeral.” At first I would probably want everyone I know and care about there because I know that there is only a limited time left to see everyone I know. But if I had to break my imaginary list down to main people. I would have to say id want my family and my closest friends there. This is because I could go down a list of dozens of people who I know who I would want to be with. But there is only a smaller amount of people who would actually care about me with a terminal disease/ sickness. Others might just take the “Duuudddeee, that sucks,” attitude. But others will actually be sad and care about me eventually dyeing. And what I have also noticed is that when some is dying, the people who come to comfort you are the ones who are your true friends. I really don’t want to have someone with me who always leaves me hanging when I was down or need something. It is always in situations like this when a person’s “true colors,” show and how meaningful they really were in your life.

Interview of Grandfather

what aspects of life must be adapted to in order to accept the reality of life after 55? there really arent any. i was able to maintain a similar lifestyle throughout most of my life.
who do they most likely interact with? i mostly interact with people my own age.

if they have kids, how much do they check up on you? i have a daughter that check in most of the time and my grandson who say hi too.

how does an elderly person keep a positive attitude realizing they didn't achieve a childhood dream? i actually didnt have that problem because i was just able to move on from my childhood.

what lifestyle changes must be made in order to maintain a meaningful lifestyle as a person ages? none must be changed, its only a matter of those you are able to keep.

how do elderly people adapt to the vast changes in world culture? i didnt change. i still dont even belive in cell phones and getting one. so in our normal and technological culture i just never completly adapted

is there a common situation that elderly people try convey to younger people?
no because every person in the world is different so therefore they might want to handle different situations differently or the young person might need help in different ways.

what can elderly people do in order to keep their life stimulating and fulfilling.

it all depends on the person. i get up early every morning, get out and run daily errands, go fishing, pay attention to sports, and just try to get out.

Interview of Aunt

Aunt

1. what aspects of life must be adapted to in order to accept the reality of life after 55?
   that life can get boring due to not having energy or the want to go out and try new things. plus having to change values to adapt to life style.
2. how does an elderly person keep a positive attitude realizing they didn't achieve a childhood dream? it isnt really that hard due to establishing new goals to achieve. it was difficult at first but after i was about 57 i was able to move on from childhood dreams,
3. what lifestyle changes must be made in order to maintain a meaningful lifestyle as a person ages? i had to learn to eat more healthy due to having health problems such as cancer and this taught me to cherish everyday that i was living and apprieciating how to live life to the fullest.
4. how do elderly people adapt to the vast changes in world culture?
   they have to adjust lifestyle to the social norms of present day life. i did it by just going along with how society had been changing. when things like segregation ended i learned how not to be the oddball by changing to a new and what i thaught was improved my of life.
5. is there a common situation that elderly people try convey to younger people? yes because many youth/teenages go through similar life obsecles that the elderly did so the elderly give messages on how to hope for the best possible outcome for a situation.
   what can elderly people do in order to keep their life stimulating and fulfilling
   it really depends on the person. for me it is spending time with my great nephew Zach and having fun at ball games and traveling.
6. who do they most likely interact with?
   i try to pretty much balence it out between old and yound but I'd say about 85% my age and 15% youth
7. if they have kids, how much do they check up on you?

i dont have any kids but Zach checks in pretty frequently just to see what going on.

Old people questions from class

1. what percentage of old people are on anti depressants?
2. how much money are you willing to spend on medical exspences?
3. how much money are you wllling to spend on viagra?
4. do you have life insurence?
5. how often do you need medical attendtion?
6. do you ever neglect medical attendtion?
7. what are the leading causes of death?
8. do the eldery get enough attendtion?
9. how many pills do they take a day?
10. who do they most likely interact with?
11. if they have kids, how much do they check up on you?

Paragraph on opinion of eldery people

In my family and outside family life, I have mixed about elderly people. The reason this is, is because I feel there are two types of old people. There are the nice and kind old people, and the cranky and short tempered one. And in my family the nice person is my aunt and the cranky person is my grandfather. I happen to have a very strong bond with my aunt. She is one of my go to relatives when I have a problem and a person who I enjoy spending time with. Whether it is on New Year’s Eve, a Yankees game, having a bite to eat, or even just chilling in the apartment. I feel that she is one of those elderly people who is more down to earth and is in tune with what’s not just going on in the financial and global fields. But also the technology and topics that we teenagers are familiar with. Whether it be sports, iPods, video games, DVD’s, or even lady advice. But she is one of the old people I like because since she still has some of her youth in her so she understands where I am coming from with certain things. She understands what it’s like to be a teen and I can talk to her as if she was one of my friends that I would chill with on the weekends. But not just this, she also gives me a ton of advice on situations. This is due to the fact of her not getting crazy and calmly explaining to me of how I was right and wrong and I what I could’ve done to avoid/ help a situation. This happens to be a connection that I don’t have with many people and it is nice to have some who can truly understand me and where my fuck ups come from. This is how I feel about the old people when it comes to the nice ones that can understand who you are.
On the other hand I have my grandfather. Now, I have nothing against my grandfather. I love him to death, I have a very strong connection with him, and he’s a very smart and wise man. But he just pisses me off sometimes. He is one of those people who are trapped back in the “dark ages,” when it comes to how teenagers are. Due to the fact that he is a hardcore fisherman every time I go to his house I have to wake up at about 7:00am. This is because to him at 7:00am is like that day is half over. So he almost has to wrestle me out of bed because my attitude is, “who the fuck wakes up at 7:00am on a Saturday/ Sunday?” He doesn’t understand that we teenagers hate waking up to go to school every day and Saturday and Sunday are our only two days to sleep late. So the occasional times I’m there and he does this it really pisses me off which is why I don’t go to his house as much as I used to. Plus he has a real short temper. It is like asking someone to do something one time it was too many times. He is one of those people who gets aggravated too easily. I believe this isn’t due to any personal tragedies but because of his slowly rising age. Plus the annoyance of his old time crap. Always singing old songs to me and asking the rhetorical question “do you know what song this is/ who sings this?” and I just sit there like “he is dead serious? I don’t give a fuck about some dude singing 70 years ago.” So this is how I feel about the cranky annoying old person. I’m not saying they are bad people but without enough youth it just kills it because it is hard to connect to experiences or ways to handle things. Some with some youth will handle something differently then someone who has completely forgot what it was like.

Questions about how old people live a good and meaningful life.

1. what aspects of life must be adapted to in order to accept the reality of life after 55?
2. how does an elderly person keep a positive attitude realizing they didn't achieve a childhood dream?
3. what lifestyle changes must be made in order to maintain a meaningful lifestyle as a person ages?
4. how do elderly people adapt to the vast changes in world culture?
5. is there a common situation that elderly people try convey to younger people?
6. what can elderly people do in order to keep their life stimulating and fulfilling 

Online Folk Sourses/ Advice

The first page I looked at was, How to get an autograph at a baseball game. This one struck me very hard because this is something that really relates to me. The author of this shows the obvious dominant message is that getting autographs is good but also showing smaller messages with it. The author did this when he/she said “Don't shove things in their face. Be polite and act how you would want someone to treat you. Avoid getting into a feeding frenzy for an autograph… Some players will prefer to address autographs to you personally. "To John, Thanks for being a fan..." The personalized autographs don't sell for as much but are more sentimental to the diehard fans.” This shows that when trying to get an autograph it’s not all about being aggressive or an asshole to the player or the people around you. It shows the lesson that if you be nice and treat people with respect you will have a higher chance of getting what you want. People who practically throw things in the player’s faces are the ones who get rejected. But this also teaches how to cope with not getting what you want. The way it does is that even if you follow all the steps mentioned, doesn’t mean you are assured an autograph. Lots of players may stay they can’t or due to it being in the middle of a game they don’t want to be disturbed. So by doing this people are able to learn valuable lessons just by trying to get autographs. This folk message of trying to get an autograph is a key component to having a good and meaningful life because it shows a balance. A balance of a corporate message in trying to get a little bit of profit through maybe selling the merchandise but also folk message by going after something someone who is 12 years old who probably want.
The other one I read was, How to be a good Yankees fan? This one connected to me stronger than any other one I read due to the fact that I’m a diehard Yankees Fan. The author shows the dominant message which is, how to be a Yankees fan, but I also am able to see through that to see the corporate and folk messages. This is by knowing that what the author is trying to do is give the outline on what to do, but being a Yankee fan myself I also see he is saying you have to have money to go to games(corporate message), but also be passionate to something greater then you(folk). Lines that tell me the corporate message are “When you go to a Yankees game try and sit in Section 39 with the Bleacher Creatures, if you’re not from New York, and have never been to a Yankee's game in New York. You are a bandwagon fan, try getting to a game when they have Old Timer's Day.” These quotes mean that in order to be a part of the Yankees community, you are required to have money and spend it to go to certain games and sit in certain parts of the ballpark. Otherwise you are a fake fan or not even a fan at all. This is how corporate messages play into being a Yankees fan. But there are also folk messages that play a role in this too. Lines that show me this are “Watch the game with a friend or family member who is a baseball fan. That way, you will learn more about the sport itself and the team and the players, Stay strong. Red Sox fans will try to break you down. Don't ever turn against the team though. Just remember the Yankees and their glory!” These lines show folk messages through saying that you don’t want to be a lonely person. That watching the games with friends can be more educational and plus more enjoyable. So you don’t have to be a rich guy who goes to all the games by him/herself but instead watch the games with friends who care about you. Also being a Yankees fan shows you how to cope with people who are assholes (Mets or Red Sox fans). The way it does is because they will try to bad mouth you about your team even when your team is actually winning. So by being a Yankees fan you are able to practice how to let things go in one ear and out the other.

Big Paper Revised

Intro

Don’t you ever sit in class during a random discussion/ lecture and think to yourself, is my life meaningful? And the answer to that question is based on the person who is answering the question because there are a various amount of answers. Some people will give you the answer “well of course my life is meaningful just because I’m me,” there are those others who will give you the answer “I think my life is actually kind of average and that it isn’t nothing special,” and then there are those who are just like “my life don’t mean shit.” These answers come from inside and deep down where u can honestly and rationally think about life. And the answer to this has to do with a person’s situation in life. Most of the time if a person has a very rich family they feel that their life means everything, usually the middle class can go both ways, and lower class feel like shit because they have no money so they feel like they mean nothing. The reason this is, is because those with good grades and a lot of money feel that their life is going somewhere but poor people with their life in turmoil feel their lives are meaningless because they feel they are so far down the shitter and can’t get out. In my situation I feel like I’m in between the middle class perspective and the lower class perspective. The reason I think so is because my life is kind of messed up now because of my grades and that my parents keep taking things away from me. But this doesn’t mean that my life is meaningless in my eyes. To me it says my life can be more meaningful if I just do something about it. To have the most meaningful life you possibly can is by having an equal balance between dominant, folk, and forbidden messages by determining, what is most important? Dominant corporate After watching the music video, All You Need is Love; by The Beatles it gave me an entire different view of having a meaningful life. On the contrast of Kanye with being pimped out with cars, money, and ladies. The Beatles demonstrate an entirely different point of view of a meaningful life by saying to have meaning is to love. So like if you don’t love something, it doesn’t mean anything. By saying this it practically pushes aside everything that Kanye stated in his video that you need money and ladies. But The Beatles think that love makes life meaningful. That money can’t buy you happiness. It’s only that if you find something in life that’s close to you and you can live by and then you will be happy. Also in the video it was not as hyped and crazy as Kanye’s was. Kanye’s was more flashy, new, and louder. While The Beatles was a lot mellower, the music was more like a melody then a tear up the club song, and it was sending message in more harmonic way. So all together, The Beatles had a way different view on a meaningful life then Kanye did. After watching the music video, The Good Life by Kanye West I feel that this pop culture message was faced more towards the messages of corporate culture. The reason I bring this up is due to the fact the video is practically what the title of the song is “Good Life.” And Kanye West is portraying this message of a “Good Life,” to mean that you are crazy rich, have all the new technology, be pimpin’/ have lots of ladies that want you, etc. This supports corporate culture messages because in lots of magazines/ newsstands/ newspapers, the people with a “Good Life,” are the rich and powerful ones like Kanye is showing in his video. In the verse in his video where Kanye says “Y'all pop the trunk, I pop the hood, Ferrari. And she got the goods. And she got that ass, I got to look, sorry,” says that while most people will be needing help with their car and needing to pop the trunk, Kanye is showing off his hot ride by popping the hood of it to show off his nice fast engine. Then he starts talking about the ladies by stating “she got the goods. And she got that ass; I got to look, sorry.” Which is saying that a woman has a lot to show off like a big ass and other things
and if you living the “Good Life,” you have women like these. So all together, Kanye is saying the “Good Life,” is to pimped out with money, cars, and ladies.

Corporate misery

While our discussions of having a good and meaningful life came the idea of misery. The theory that all lives must follow this line of corporate misery and we just use their products to get happy. Like the company Apple for instance. If you feel bad inside because you can’t listen to your music on the go, Apple will tell you to buy one of our music products such as the I-phone, I-Touch, and IPod Nano in order to get happy so you can listen to music on the go. But then you will feel like crap again when they come out with a new piece of “I,” technology and you say to yourself that you want that instead of what you got and then feel like crap because you can’t get it. So we people in the world follow this line of products as distractions to make us happy. Another theory of misery that I have is the idea that life is meant to be miserable. And people reading this might say to themselves, “Well I’m happy, I feel no misery.” But the fact is that if a person’s life was a “perfect fit,” for them, in my opinion life would just feel like it would have no meaning and just be plain out boring. The reason that in life when we are having fun and don’t want to stop it is because we want to stay distracted from the bad. But if there was no bad, there would be no reason to good and vice versa. It is all the bad times that make the good times feel so much more special. For me it has to do with my want to not be in school and rather being out doing something that I’m interested in more. But I think if life was like that and I was allowed to do what I wanted all the time without do consequence, I would believe it would get boring because I would be doing it so much. All that time of being bored and having that “I can’t wait to do this,” feeling and then actually doing what you wanted to do feel totally awesome. In my case for example, a couple of weeks ago I got tickets to the Cowboys vs. Giants game for a Sunday afternoon. And I knew I was going with someone who is a very special person in my life and that I’ve known since middle school. And the Tuesday I found out she could go made it extra exciting to see my favorite football team for the first time against our NFC East rival Dallas Cowboys knowing that I was going with someone who is special. But the part the spiced up this excitement that led to a great time and a great game was that school misery I had/ still have. That feeling of being totally bored the majority of my week and then being able to have the experience of a lifetime with someone who is special and had a great time too was a great experience. But having these great experiences isn’t always a good thing. The reason is that even though we don’t want it like this but to some, having too many good experiences can be bad things. The reason is that if you get too used to the good, you will forget how to cope with the bad and it can lead to an endless list of consequences depending on the person. To some it might lead to getting down and negative about an issue and took others it might lead to crazy aggression. This isn’t saying that having good is a bad thing, but having too much good and then just losing all or most of it can lead to worse things than if you had a lot of bad and a little bit of good. In my case for instance, I feel that my schooling is being affected due to a lack of balance of the good and bad. I am having too much bad happen in my life and not enough good. So every time I have an opportunity for good I take it even if I know it’s not the right time. This has been affecting my schoolwork because the only time I can look for good is when I’m doing homework because that’s the only time I know I’ll get it. So instead of concentrating on the task at hand, I’m looking for the good at the wrong time due to losing all my good and now facing “the withdraw of good,” or just retaliating because I’m not used to this much bad.

Marginal corporate messages

Marginal corporate messages are those that we see come up but not as frequently as the dominant ones. These messages are things such as woman can be bad ass just like men, “fight the power,” don’t be part of “the system,” just go crazy with life, and many more. In my opinion so of these marginal messages can have more meaning then the dominant messages that people are so accustomed to. The reason being is that these dominant messages have to do with a system. Systems in which we all are suppose to follow as human beings. These things consist of getting money, having a good job, being a good person, going to school, doing work, and not enjoying life for the most part because we are always doing something that’s part of the system. But it’s some of these marginal messages that can make life so worthwhile. It is like being able to fight the power of society is so much fun because it is something we are not required/ expected to do. Marginal messages are the fuel that keep us going because it is that little voice inside us that just says “Fuck the system, I’m doing what I want to do.”These marginal messages are expressed in many places, but I’d say the most are in movies. In the move Pump up the Volume, HHH (Happy Hairy Hard On) is an anonymous radio host that goes on air at 10pm every night. And on this show he shares his true feelings and views about life with his listeners. But in his “real life,” he feels trapped in this suburbia in Arizona. He goes to school, writes papers, does his work, and reads like every other person in a suburbia that goes to school. He is like that outcast geek that nobody wants to talk to. But at night for his radio show, all his views and feelings about life change. It is like silent by day, let it all out by night. On his show he does things like fake masturbating, playing fight the power music, smoking cigarettes, chewing gum, and wearing “bad ass,” clothing. So what he does is show his true self on his show. Telling us to go crazy in life and forget the system/ don’t let the system stop from being who you are. Or how the world is seriously corrupted by the people that run it and how the system take away from who we really are. Because “the system,” says we practically go to school, go to work, be cool, have money, and get various material products. But HHH is saying that this isn’t necessary, that it is still meaningful to do what makes you feel good inside. Even if it isn’t what society wants it to be. But it only matters if it satisfies the individual. In the movie there is quote from a song that states “Everybody knows that the war is over and the good guys lost.” This means that those who are those “good,” people who fought the power lost and those who follow the system won. But even though these people might’ve lost compared to others, as long as they make their life meaningful to them that’s all that matters. That even though they might not live in a huge house, have money, family, and material items doesn’t mean life is meaningless to that person. As long as you can feel proud of what you have done with your life, be able to say “I did what you wanted and it was worth it,” to go against the system, and maybe I might not be the richest man out there. But I think that where I am in life is ok in my eyes. So marginal messages are what can fuel a person’s life to be happier.Another movie that shows us these marginal messages is Fight Club. This movie is about a group of people who start a secret place where people fight. And it isn’t the fights; it’s about the dialogue that the characters use. The characters are all trying to send the viewer a message that aren’t represented by a material object such as money, cars, houses, etc. Not even the kind of job you have. You are represented by your true self and how you act. Just because you have a bad job doesn’t mean you are a bad or stupid person. It just means you didn’t make it up in society. But this movie says that you shouldn’t care about that stuff and that you are who you are and no one can change that. “You aren’t your khakis, you aren’t the contents of your wallet, you aren’t your job.” This quote means that you aren’t anything else but yourself. That you should let the world be and be who you are, not who everyone else is. It’s like the way we look at people. We can see someone who is very rich and just think he’s a good guy because he has a lot of money and a big house, and then turn out to be another asshole. But then again someone who is poor can be a much better quality of person but just not have a lot of money or a big house. So just because you are rich doesn’t mean you are a good person. This supports how you must not judge yourself by the kind of job or amount of money you have. As long as you can feel proud of who you really are that’s all that matters.

Dominant folk messages

Folk messages are also impacts on how to live a good and meaningful life. Folk messages are the ones that pop up occasionally but not everywhere. These are messages we get from our family, books, or even our teachers who try to tell us things that other dominant corporate places such as movies won’t tell us. These folk messages consist of topics such as love, attitude, insight, family, religion, work, death, and even aging. These are those smaller messages that aren’t looked at as much as the dominant ones but are just important to leading a good and meaningful life. I feel that these are actually more important/ significant then the dominant ones because these are the ones that are closer to the heart and soul of a person. A way this is true is because something like an iPod or a Ferrari won’t make a person happier long term, but something as close as a friend can make you happy for a lifetime.
A folk message that has a major part of how to live a good and meaningful life is friendship. The reason that this folk message stands out to me is because it is something that contradicts dominant corporate messages. The reason it does is because these dominant messages tell us that a meaningful life is having a lot of material objects, money, big house, etc. But this folk message of having friends contradicts that because there can be someone in middle class with a lot of friends and less money, can be happier than a man in upper class with a lot of money with no friends. A person with no friends even with a lot of money is actually less happy then they got no one to share any good times or joy with. It would be like watching your favorite team win a championship and then want to give someone a celebratory hug or high five but there would be no one there. And it is times like these that make even a rich person very lonely and unhappy. Because money can’t buy true friendship, people who are your friends because you are rich aren’t true friends. They won’t stick with them through the good and bad. Real friends stay with you regardless of the circumstances. This is a way that folk messages can be more important than dominant corporate messages.
Another folk message that contradicts the dominant corporate messages is the message of religion. The way that this does is because this can be used by any person in the world, upper, middle, and lower class people. But in my opinion I feel that those in the lower to middle classes have more connection to their religion then those in the upper classes. The reason I think this is because these people with less money are more connected because they actually have to hope and pray for dreams to come true and become reality. For a poorer person to prey to get an Xbox 360 it seems more spiritual and connecting because they got to work one hundred times harder because they can’t get things to come as automatic like rich person could. A rich person can make an Xbox 360 appear in two seconds if they want to. But it’s not even just material objects to prey/ hope for. It’s even things like happiness. Rich people always think they can buy happiness. Buying cars, houses, big screen TV’s, and various high priced objects. But the middle—lower class people prey for it and hope it comes true. They can’t just buy it and instantly make a material object appear like a rich person could. So therefore, the folk message Religion contradicts dominant messages because believing in a religion is the ability to believe in a higher power to help life change for the better. People in middle – lower class use this ability more and a lot stronger because they have to believe and prey for better things to come. Rich and upper class people don’t really have to because they usually take the attitude, “ill donate a little of my money and I’ll be doing a good thing.” But a poorer people would consider a good thing being like “I was able to make sure my kid had a happy birthday.” The way these things differ is because rich people consider giving money to be a real special deed. But it isn’t. A special deed is something like making sure a kid has a happy birthday. And by doing this, you are crea
ting opportunities and happiness by not using the dominant message of money, but the folk message of religion.
When I asked other people on the street, I was getting mixed answers. And the variety of these answers had to do with the person’s situation in life. I remember I asked this guy who was sitting on a bench on 22nd street and he told me that his life wasn’t really meaningful. He said that on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the most meaningful that his life was a 4/10. And the reason he gave me was that he was having problems and he didn’t know where his life was going. In my opinion he wasn’t rich and he was struggling to find his way in the world. On the contrary the dean of SOF Mr. Marks actually feels very confident about the meaning of his life. He felt that on the scale of 1-10 that his life was an 8. This tells me that because of his occupation he feels that his life really means something. That it is meaningful to make sure that kids are safe, a school system is running smoothly, and that he has the good feeling that he is sending America’s youth into college. So different people have different views on their importance in life based on their current situation in life. Another place where Folk messages are used on holidays. For my “Christmas,” celebration, I was one of those people who stayed with family, ate good tasting food and chilled. On Christmas day all I did was watch all the basketball games and eat. Some friends of my dad came over to add to the occasion. It was fun considering what we were doing. This year it my first time looking at Christmas and somewhat observing it. Due to my dad’s friend, she persuaded us to have this little Christmas dinner in our apartment. The food was good, but the presents or I should say, present was better. For Christmas all I got from my dad was 50 bucks. And it wasn’t even supposed to give it to me for a Christmas present. He gave it to me or as a, “here is 50 bucks, now get the hell away from me,” sort of thing. So all I did was take it and took as “merry Christmas.” So in other words, my family didn’t have a traditional Christmas. We had the necessities such as a fake tree, food, people over, and somewhat presents. But it wasn’t even close to what other families do. Going all out to get the best looking tree, decorating the entire house with stockings and ordainments, getting that Christmas mood, presents under the tree, and having a bunch of people. Mine was very small and more chilled out. My family kind of followed the Christmas way but in a very cheap way. This in its ways goes for and against the so called “American way of life,” that pertains to Christmas. The reason is that even if you don’t have a whole “parade,” for Christmas doesn’t mean you are bad but just mean you just don’t have enough money to afford it. But on the other hand people might think you are low in society because you can’t afford a banquet Christmas.To add on to the idea that I ended on in the previous paragraph, I think that this connects to the dominant and marginal messages of corporate culture. I would believe that the dominant messages are to have a huge festival with food, decorations, people, presents, huge tree, and just have it be a whole big expensive thing. This connects back to the American message of being super rich and having money to get all these material possessions. Because if you look at Christmas through a different lens, all it is is spending money for other people and yourself. So in other words having lots of money, buy gifts for you and others that you are close to, and this results in more material possessions. A marginal message is for those people who are in middle—lower class. The people in these classes don’t have a lot of money to spend so they follow the message that “even though we aren’t rich, we can still make due with what we have.” Which mean that you don’t have to be rich to celebrate Christmas. That even though you will consume it won’t be on such a large scale, it will be like the small things such as family and love means more than an Xbox 360. This is a marginal message because it is something you hear people say in most places but not all which is you should celebrate Christmas but if you don’t have a lot of money to spend it isn’t a bad thing.

MLK Day- belatedly posted

This weekend is a weekend that is celebrated by everyone in the U.S. the reason it is celebrated is because on Monday it is MLK (Martian Luther King) day. This day is observed by many because MLK was a very powerful figure due to his leadership in the tough civil rights movements. The civil rights movement was when the blacks in our community were fighting to get equal rights and benefits as the white people did. During this time the whites treated the blacks like shit through brutal ways such as rioting/ beating them, making them sit in the back of the bus, separate water fountains and eating sections, and even a diverse school system. So what the whites were doing was making the blacks look like garbage by treating them with disrespect and hate. Then MLK came into the picture. MLK was a man who moved the blacks to revolt and rebel against the whites in order to get the rights they deserve. He organized marches, meetings, and speeches to help him and other blacks to get their message out there that they won’t take what the whites are giving them. Especially the famous rally where he gave his “I Have a Dream,” speech. And eventually the civil rights movement was a success and MLK was a big face of it that many gave thanks to for helping do what must be done.So on this holiday I ask myself, how is this holiday relate back to how to have a meaningful life and what it really shows? And in my opinion it can be viewed in three different ways. The first way is for those who don’t even care about the holiday. These are the people who will say “Thank you MLK for giving us a day off from work/ school.” The second way is trying to perform characteristics of MLK. Meaning trying to get out into a community and being a leader, team player, determined, and focused to make a change in society like MLK did. And the final way is for those who want to observe the actual change. Those who thank MLK for giving their people freedom and changing what could’ve been their future. The way this connects back to having a meaningful life is because some people feel that observing this holiday in different ways is meaningful. I feel that for most the most meaningful is observing the change that this man made. I think this because I wouldn’t think that people would want to hassle to leave their homes and make a scene for one day and that would be it. It would be very meaningless to try to make change for one day because if making change actually meant something to the person, it would be a mission to make that change every day. Not just one day out of the year.
But on the other hand I feel that this holiday gives us some sort of a distorted perception of Dr King. The reason I say this is because what I have noticed from these assigned readings is that back in Dr King’s day, he wasn’t close to being someone who should’ve been appreciated or even having a day to celebrate him. One of the things people thought he was was a communist. This is not the kind of person the people of the U.S should want to be celebrating considering we live in a capitalist society and communists are our enemies. This is one of the ways how we get a distorted image of Dr King and not a complete truthful view. This is due to him only being remembered for his actions in the civil rights movement and the good he did for our society. This holiday also in a way messes up our view on how to live a good and meaningful life. Our definition of a good and meaningful life is being able to follow what you believe is meaningful and meaningful to others. But this holiday says you can be somewhat juvenile and still be a good person. And usually it is the bad juvenile people go to jail and not get celebrated. At the same time though it actually goes with the idea of having a meaningful life. The way I see this is because the idea of a good and meaningful life is doing what means most to you and others. So maybe doing what you want even if it is bad for others can be meaningful in a sense to. Because in the big picture, no one will be nice 100% of the time so maybe it is ok to be a little juvenile and still get appreciated.

Inaugeration Day

During the inauguration day ceremonies there were aspects of life that were shown discreetly. These are aspects such as wealth, power, money, and popularity. These are things that most Americans would concider major factors on how to live a good and meaningful life. Being able to be adored and looked up to by everyone, having the power to make major changes to your favor and the ones around you, having a family and kids, and be pretty well taken care of when it comes down to the money. Aspects like these are the ones the majority of America goes after. Feeling/ being at the top of the hill instead of being that middle—lower class person who nobody thinks or cares about. In an American view we always see and hear about the upper class celebrities and people who are just rich because people see them as the “American Dream.”
During the speech and ceremonies these things were being portrayed in small ways. The way something like power, wealth, and being rich was portrayed in small separate ways. Power was being shown though him swearing himself to his presidency. He had to swear that he would serve, protect, and defend the United States and make sure the country is living peacefully. Being wealth and rich was shown though something you had to notice which was what the important people where wearing. All of them were wearing their best clothes and jackets for this historic occasion. But during Obama’s speech he was also cristising the lower- middle classes. The way he did this was saying that due to the stock market and the economy going to shit, the lower—middle class people are really suffering and was therefore critiqued by saying that he will higher taxes for the upper class in order to help out the lower—middle class. He is critiquing this because these people can’t afford to live on their normal budgets with this economy so therefore he was critiquing it by giving his people a plan of action to make our living situation better.