social class....social profiling

in todays culture we are labeled based on our wealth. the more affluent you are the higher up on the social scale you are. life seems to be alot easier if you are higher up. you get the perks to get the loan to buy the house in the neighborhood to get your kids into the good public school where you pay higher taxes to get a better education, to get into a better school to get a good job to make alot of money to meet a spouse to have kids to raise them in a good neighborhood.... and so on. whereas if you are in the lower class you struggle to find work you get a low paying job where you can barely struggle to make ends meat to pay your rent to stay in your house then you have a child who grows up malnurished or lightly educated and in turn they drop out of highschool get a low paying job that they barely make ends meat in and you all struggle to survive... and this cycle perpetuates itself because of the direct money flow. rich people buy alot so we spend money to lure them into impulse buys and all this money is wasted for this event to occure. when we could be spending this money on better wealfare or better low income housing and most importantally better schools.

teen socialisation or teen boredom...

in the world of tens what are we really alowed to do... we cant drive till 16, but ciggaretts pornography, weapons, lottery tickets, see rated r movies, buy mature games, or even vote. so that leaves us with what... our imagination and crayons. i belive the biggest problem in america with drinking and car accidents is boredom. kids drink in excess where... at parties which usually involve marajuana ( which causes significantly less death) and liquor. so minus the factor of "weed" that leaves us with the "jesus juice" that causes theese problems. people drink then they drive then they die. so i belive that if we did lower the drinking age it would lessen the "forbidden fruit" argument and we could moniter drinking. people in bars are less likely to "drink themselves to death than others. so i pose it to you, do we allow kids to drink in an unsafe environment and end up drinking to much or do we allow them to go to bars and get tipsy to their little hearts desire but be safe??

the life and times of doctor gregory house

on a fine autum evening i setteled in and flipped on the tele and watched a show i like to call house. and as we talked during sociology, men are trained to show no pain fear ro sadness. a prime example is on an episode where a man from cuba rafts over to find house to help his wife. at one point obivelsy is dieing and house could care less about anything else but why. and then comes in his boss cutty. house refuses to pull the plug on this woman whos heart wont start. cutty asks why and house says cause the husband wants to know. cutty states that it is because house cares about this mand and this womsn. but house being a manely man proclaims that he could care less. further pushing the macho man persona.

this plays a huge factor in everyday life. many men in the world feel that if they are not manely then they are worthless. this is why men but suv and hand guns. im not saying that those things are not fun but it is the idea that their "stuff" can kill anyone or run over anything is what makes them, real men.

is this ok for men to feel. we hear all the time that women shouldent feel less of a woman for being a little overweight. that they should accept their body for what it is. but where do people step in and say "hey dudes around the world, go ahead... cry let it out you are not less of a man. like in the scene of fight club in the testicular cancer surviver group, meatloaf says to edward nortan "its ok to cry let it all out". granted that 98% of the movie is about fighting and anarcy. nevertheless men need to show emotions. and as chuck palahniuk said "Love is bullshit. Emotion is bullshit. I am a rock. A jerk. I'm an uncaring asshole and proud of it.”

army of one

-do it your self you dont need any one

hooo raa

guns guts and glory

nowadays we see guns as dangerous. and this is true. guns cause not but trouble. sure when defending freedom we need force, not saying Iraq is about defending freedom, we need to use force.... speak sotly and carry a big stick. but assult or automatic weapons available to the public.... even 9mm weapons to buy at k-mart is crazy bad. this movie shows the true colors of people who when brought up on the issues like people dieing from theese items . they go silent and soft. but it is true that michael moore is a "douchebag:. he attacks people with pointed questions. and while it is our right to bear arms we have no need for a tech nine. thug life!

singing for a reason

maybe those people singing on the street are just looking for someone to sing with not money


what would you sing for

too slow!?

In life we are so needy for speedy results that we tend to forget to slow down and take a deep breath.

realizing this, I decided to take on the challenge. i set out at 11:00 at night and drove at a steady 15 miles per hour..

now i know this sounds weird but this showed me alot...

1. i found that people will think you are doing illicit things.

ex.1 i was pulled over. the cop was ok with it though

ex2. i saw at least 5 dog walkers and 3 of them asked me if i needed something, the other 2 turned the other way.

2. it is relaxing, take a breath and slow down. you see life in a different way... the trees rustle and you hear the ground dispersing pebbles.

i was followed by a police officer before being pulled over.... he thought i was drunk. i was followed by people who where just impatient and drove past me. one person thought i wanted to race and followed me at the same pace then revved his engine and then took off. he thought i was racing.

.....

so i wonder with all the hustle and bustle of the lives we live do we ever have time to get up... get out.... and go drive 15 miles per hour.

life as we knew it

we are starting to watch the made for TV movie "Tuesdays With Morrie". in this movie Morrie talks about how we spend most of our lives doing something we don't love to gain material possessions we don't need. i feel he applies this to life in a way that is purposefully to life. in life we tend to let all of the precious moments go by because we are stuck doing dead end jobs and will care more about keeping our heads above water. in life i feel that as long as you are an artisan and a citizen then you have fulfilled the basic needs for life.

a teacher i had once said " this isn't a class... its a life style" and i feel this plays a part in the integral role of life. we need not to focus on the "paperwork" of life and live life for he purpose of just being.  i don't mean to preach any pseudo hippie facade with the whole Au natural ideals but it is the root principle. why do we need a piece of paper that says i graduated from Harvard to be successful. if you act on what you know and you don't know how to act you will be both happy and successful.

the american culture

the american culture is split into three things i belive. other countries view us as materalistic people who are interested only in violence food and sex. 90% of all americans eat at mcdonalds over a family dinner. not even 90% of americans vote (50%). maybe if each vote came with a side of fries, or if you could supersize obama fo an extra 49 cents people would vote. when surveyed only 1 out of 10 americans eat dinner with a family member once a week. there is a show on the discovery chanel that is called destroyed in seconds. as assumed by the title it is about events caught on tape where things blow up or are destroyed. video here. we watch movies about a fight club (great movie) and we watch UFC (great sport) all involve fighting. greatest ufc fighter ever. now im not saying theese things are bad ... i enjoy them but it is just how the world sees us as a violence based socioty. now we come to sex.... a three letter word for american media. the more sex americans see the more entertained they are. as in the go daddy ad here.

now i know that this may or may not entirely pertain to women but im just saying that the media markets mor towards men and most forigners see thees ads over ones aimed at women. as a good friend once said while watching sunday night football,

" if aliens came here and only watched tv to learn about us they would all think we eat mcdonalds everyday and have erectile dysfunction"
quote by Phillip S.

to group or not to group.

Recently in class we discussed the idea of grouping vs. sterotyping. we determined that depending on the situation there is a sharp difference in the two. on one hand if you have a pre concieved notion about someone based on nothing that would be sterotyping. because you dont know anything about the person except for how they look or act you make a judgment based on how others act.

for example , you see a group of kids in a car in a parking lot at night. the car is off and the lights are off.... they are not hurting anyone of being a nusance. but you make an assumption that they are up to no good, they are doing something illegal or something frowned apon, on the otherhand without knowing what they are doing, they could be doing something good. they could be saving puppies for all we know.

also, if we generalize people in groups based on what we do we are grouping.

example:

teachers= smart

babies= loud

asians=smart (no offense)

druggies=bad

skateboarders= trouble

hippies= dirty

now in theese categories we know that this is not true for everyone. not all teachers are smart, some babies dont make much noise. not all asians are really intelegent. and so on. but moreover this can be the opposite spectrum. they sterotypes can be true.

whic one are you???

More that meets the eyes

underneath it all there is a spark of inginuity in peoples lives. such as in the reading we did "gang leader for a day" we see that there is more that meets the eye within a gang. this is true in life. you can say there is nothing hard about a mcdonalds job. this is probably true but i have never worked there and i have no idea what goes on. we tend to make assumptions due to peoples appearences. you dont really know who you are talking to until meet them face to face. like a hand shake. it says alot about a person. if its firm and fluid, then the man who probably delivered this handshake is a strong , confident, egar man. if it is weak you are deling with a feeble individual. but on the outsid they can be this emmaculate demi god of a person. but in the inside they are weak.
Like in the story, JT was a college grad and very intellegent. its not all tha meets the eye with who you meet.

awkward situations

why is it that when we are put on the spot we feel embarrassed. today i was walking down the stairs when this girl falls down the steps and lands on me. someone yells that i was a jacka$$  and i am embarrassed  i offer to help her up and take her to the nurse and she ignores me.  i felt embarrassed because everyone thought i pushed her and i felt remorseful. why is it that we can't look past embarrassment and help one another. in this case i tried to help but was pushed away. i believe that since it was an isolated event where ones own fault caused ones own pain that it was others laughed. if it was a different person and a different situation it would not have been so funny. all i'm saying is that i tried to help and people still thought i did it. to me it dosen't matter weather i was to blame but more of the fact of is she o.k.

people

why is it that when you are purchasing something you lose yourself in what you are buying. i work at a store that sells no necesities. we sell pools and hottubs. but when a costumer sees their hottub they become a different person. they are obsessed with it. they want all the best chemicals... which i have to get... they want things to make the water smell good... which i also have to get... they want all of the fun toys, and when we sell one, i have to move it... they are obsessed with having the very best and at any cost. that is how materialistic we have become. since the economy is poor right now people do not travel. they buy pools and hottubs and relax in the comforts of home. and when they want this comfort they come to me.

incubus

I enjoy incubus quite a bit. i listen to them more than any other artist. to me they dont just make music, they make a difference. in 2007 they where awarded the most eco-friendly band in america. they inspire others to do good in their music. their music video for megalomaniac supports the stopping of the iraq war, view video here. Also in an attempt to stop government filtering and our devotion to the media. there video " Talk show on mute" is a throw back to 1984 and the government controlling us in the media. view video here

who am i

^

me at a charity scavenger hunt

If you are asking this question you probably dont know me.my name is mike i got to stevenson. i work at the great escape where we sell pools and hottubs. i play the guitar and bass, i skateboard, i voulenteer outside of school at the center for enriched living. we take care of adults and teens with mental disabilitys. i aspire to be a teacher and to go to siue. my favorite bands are incubus and ludo. i feel silence is only awkard when you are in an unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. this , i think, is why people turn to blogging. its an impersonal way to tell the world what you think and display what you are working for.