When we, as people, want something, there are usually simple means by which we can find it and get it delivered to our doors. The internet is a wonderful thing, is it not?
Perhaps not, though, for certain businesses and stores.
Our society, our world, has become hardwired with every type of technology imaginable. Devices that allow us to find our way to a location while driving; portable phones that can surf the web, take and send pictures, and play games; the list could go on and on. One of the many pioneers of technology in the world is Apple, Inc., creators of the iPod and other related music listening devices. And, their online store-- iTunes.
Marc Hogan writes on how CD sales nation-wide are plummeting- especially for local record stores that only have a single location, or maybe two. But certain shops are working to bring it back, and have the record shop go from an endangered species in the music world to become what it once was-- thriving, prolific, and a hub for music lovers to obtain their guilty pleasures. But iTunes isn't the only competitor for the physical stores. Websites like Google Music, Spotify, and Amazon's MP3 downloads get all the deals on releases and reduced prices from the popular artists dominating the radio waves and the music charts, but real-life stores don't stand a chance.
If we hear a song on the radio, it's much easier to find it and download it on iTunes in the span of about five minutes for $0.99 to $1.29 than to go to a store to buy the physical album for $9 to $20 dollars, import the CD to your music library, and then put it on your music player (which, let's face it, is probably an iPod) to listen to it at your leisure. Oh, boo, that's so much work. As you could probably tell, I have zero sympathy, and I'd much rather go out and buy the physical album, which gives more profit to the artist themselves, and have the CD for my own that just a JPEG image of the album booklet. There's something much different about struggling with the wrapper, sitting in my car in a parking lot, and trying to get the CD in to my stereo. To me, there's just something much more personal about having my copy of the CD, and building my collection (which personally has reached over 30 in the last year alone). I wouldn't give it up for the world, besides the fact that I'd just waste all of my money if my debit card was linked to my iTunes account (let's be serious, if it isn't cash, I'm terrible with money).
In an iTunes age, do we need the record store?
Sunday, November 20th, 2011 - Term Two, Week One, Post Two
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
"How PTSD took over America"
It's called PTSD. Ever heard of it? Well with how often it's diagnosed here in America, I'd give a nice bet that you have. PTSD, also know as post-traumatic stress disorder
As author Alice Karekezi writes in her article "How PTSD took over America", some people will argue that there is now a recognition of psychological disorders that is a good thing. However, Karekezi seems to disagree, and so does someone else. As explained by Stephen Joseph, whom Karekezi interviewed after reading his new book "What Doesn't Kill Us", the American society as a whole is obsessed with the idea that there is something wrong with us. Joseph believes that we need to draw a line between normal human experiences that shape who we are and psychological disease, rather than instantly assuming something is wrong with us. Just because we change our behavior after a troubling event doesn't mean we have a disorder-- it could be as basic in meaning as simply adapting to changes that may have been made without our control or forced upon us at a bad time.
I found this article particularly appealing because I'm interested in psychology, and how it applies to the human mind-- I want to study the subject, mainly because I believe it could help me create more realistic characters as an author. In years past, PTSD was only a disease for war veterans, people who actually saw the worst of the worst of what man was capable of. While I do agree that incidents like car crashes can be scary, I don't think that childbirth (mentioned in the articles tagline) can be a traumatic event to the point of a psychological disorder.
While Karekezi seems to remain unbiased, I get the feeling that she's also pushing towards more of what Joseph says because she may secretly agree with him. And personally, I do. Some of the examples given don't seem to be very... "traumatic" to me. In other words: man up.
In my experience, I've found that what it sounds like is being diagnosed in patients as PTSD really are simply 'bad memories'. In myself and even in people I know, certain sounds or pictures may trigger negative reactions in their minds. It could be just an embarrassing moment at a party, or it could be a bad event that you just associate with something visual or audial. I agree with Karekezi, and by extension with Joseph. It seems like Americans, in becoming desensitized within the media to violence, find that "real life violence" is much scarier. When it's not on the opposite side of the screen, it's a terrifying thing. And because we are not used to such violence, even the slightly squeamish incidents may lead people to believe they have the intense psychological disorder.
How PTSD took over America
As author Alice Karekezi writes in her article "How PTSD took over America", some people will argue that there is now a recognition of psychological disorders that is a good thing. However, Karekezi seems to disagree, and so does someone else. As explained by Stephen Joseph, whom Karekezi interviewed after reading his new book "What Doesn't Kill Us", the American society as a whole is obsessed with the idea that there is something wrong with us. Joseph believes that we need to draw a line between normal human experiences that shape who we are and psychological disease, rather than instantly assuming something is wrong with us. Just because we change our behavior after a troubling event doesn't mean we have a disorder-- it could be as basic in meaning as simply adapting to changes that may have been made without our control or forced upon us at a bad time.
I found this article particularly appealing because I'm interested in psychology, and how it applies to the human mind-- I want to study the subject, mainly because I believe it could help me create more realistic characters as an author. In years past, PTSD was only a disease for war veterans, people who actually saw the worst of the worst of what man was capable of. While I do agree that incidents like car crashes can be scary, I don't think that childbirth (mentioned in the articles tagline) can be a traumatic event to the point of a psychological disorder.
While Karekezi seems to remain unbiased, I get the feeling that she's also pushing towards more of what Joseph says because she may secretly agree with him. And personally, I do. Some of the examples given don't seem to be very... "traumatic" to me. In other words: man up.
In my experience, I've found that what it sounds like is being diagnosed in patients as PTSD really are simply 'bad memories'. In myself and even in people I know, certain sounds or pictures may trigger negative reactions in their minds. It could be just an embarrassing moment at a party, or it could be a bad event that you just associate with something visual or audial. I agree with Karekezi, and by extension with Joseph. It seems like Americans, in becoming desensitized within the media to violence, find that "real life violence" is much scarier. When it's not on the opposite side of the screen, it's a terrifying thing. And because we are not used to such violence, even the slightly squeamish incidents may lead people to believe they have the intense psychological disorder.
How PTSD took over America
Sunday, November 13, 2011
"Wildefire" by Karsten Knight
The very first thing I knew about this book was that it was the story (often referred to as a biography, via the author calling himself the biographer of) a teenage polynesian volcano goddess. And that could either sum up the entire story and cause you to turn away and not find it necessary to delve into the 393 pages this book has to offer; or, if you're anything like me, it makes you have to read it, obsessively almost, until you've finished it, only to find yourself cursing the ending and creating mental pleas for when the sequel (and fortunately for me, there are two planned so far) will hit bookstores for your reading enjoyment.
The book was given to me as a present for my birthday, a little 'thank-you' gift from the director of that show that I had been working on for these past three months as a production assistant. And so when the announcement was made that we were allowed to choose our next outside reading book, I picked the newest addition to my ever-growing book collection, rather than fight myself for days before selecting a title. So without any research on the book or its author, I dove right into Wildefire and its 37 page long prologue. The story instantly intrigued me, pulling me directly from my couch on my porch and into the school parking lot of Scarsdale High School in New York on a September afternoon where a fight over a cheating boyfriend was in full swing-- only to be interrupted by a crazy older sister whom had been AWOL for months after her own incident which got her expelled.
For reasons that are to be undisclosed here to promote this blog to be spoiler-free, Ashline and Eve part on unfriendly terms, and eight months later, Ashline finds herself across the country, attending an elite private boarding school nestled among North California's famous Redwood Forests. And of course like any private school children in the middle of no where, they have to find some outside entertainment-- of course, in the form of a cocktail or two and a game of billiards at the bar down the road from school. And it's here that the story truly begins.
Five individuals, our main cast of protagonist characters, are introduced in a squabble in which henchmen try to kidnap a poor little blind girl who seems to know a little more than she's willing to let on. Ade Saint-Cyr, Lily Mayatoaka, Rolfe Hanssen, Raja Neferet, and Ashline Wilde-- each person with different stories, who all have the same things in common. Among them, each has had a tumultuous past and an event which named the awakening of their powers-- their abilities, as different incarnations of Gods and Goddesses around the world. Ade is truly Shango, Zulu god of thunder. Lily's true name is Konohana, Shinto goddess of the blossom; Rolfe's is Baldur, a Norse warrior known as the father of justice, and the god of light; and Raja was formerly known as Isis, Egyptian goddess of the dead. Each of them are given a scroll with instructions as to what their destiny is in preventing Ragnarok, or, the End of the World.
Did I mention all of this information is delivered by the same little blind girl the rescued from kidnappers, Serena, who claims herself to be a Siren, as in of Greek mythology? Good, I was hoping I didn't miss that part.
However, Ashline is the only one without a name on her scroll, for she is also the only one without an event in her past that announced the awakening of her powers. All in order to please the whimsy of a poor blind girl, the five are forced to believe their destinies are contained on the parchment of these scrolls, given to Serena by a mysterious man known only as Jack-- someone, Raja points out, she's never even seen. But Ashline has a scroll as well, with her destiny summed up in three words (no, I will not tell you what they are because yes, you should read and find out yourself). Thus, the immortal gods and goddesses are finally made aware of why their jumbled up pasts happened, and a lot suddenly makes sense to them all-- all except for Ashline, who is still buzzing with questions.
Knight's vision of immortality is very different than most. Instead of living forever and never aging, the Gods and Goddesses of mythology live among the human population, and in some cases the people of their culture. Adopted at birth to live normal human lives, they are reborn every century or so, after suffering a death like any other human. To be immortal as a God in this world does not mean to live forever, but it means to continuously cycle, being reborn and given the chance to live and rediscover your powers again and again, with a clean slate and no memories of your previous life or lives.
The chapters, instead of being numbered at each interval, are labeled with days of the week-- totaling nine different days, and the epilogue of sorts being named as 'One Month Later'. In my opinion, having the book structured in such a way makes the story much more real, giving almost pinpoint ideas on dates (it's roughly mentioned that the last half of the book takes place in the first week of May, with the third of the month thrown out as a date). To show that so much can happen, solely in the time span of nine days-- two weeks, give or take, if you add the prologue and the unspecific passage of time during the final chapter. It's similar to what I do with a project of my own writing, giving specific days so that certain events line up and make sense. Knight does a wonderful job, in my opinion, of bringing his readers directly into the story and truly making them feel as if they are there, alongside all of the characters, watching everything that happens.
One only unique feature about this story is that instead of focusing on one specific part or one nation's mythology, Knight instead incorporates mythologies of all around the world. He even references it, in-text at one point, in which Ade comments to Ashline about where they are: under the roof of a Catholic Chapel, a Zulu God and a Jewish-raised Polynesian Goddess, listening to the song of a Greek Siren and the pipe organ music of a French professor. The reason for the mash-up of cultures is explained later, when it is revealed that slowly, over the generations of reincarnations, less and less of the gods make it through their cycles and on to the next, and fewer are reborn. It's unknown what happens to them, but, they aren't surviving, their cycles are being broken, thus throwing the whole harmony of the world out of balance.
The harmonious way the different mythologies coexist in attempts to aid one another is an interesting concept to myself especially. I found it tugged at my heartstrings a bit, where I personally struggle with finding a peaceful state of mind to accept things of my own religion (that of being Roman-Catholic) and what 'we' as a religion have to say on worldly issues (such as war, abortion, homosexuality, divorce, and the like. And because I hate arguments, I'm not even going to go NEAR my thoughts on ANY of those subjects).
If you couldn't already tell, I loved this book, and I would highly reccomend it to anyone-- so long as they are prepared to be so drawn into a story that they refuse to go out, even on a weekend, all because they want to finish said book. (Okay, maybe that was just me because I can't do anything anyways because of my ankle injury, but hey! You might be that in love with it, too.) Needless to say, when after reading a chapter or two and I turned to the back cover, I was surprised to find that the author was a man. It just goes to show you how with the right skill level and commitment to your work, writing as a teenager of the opposite gender is possible, after all. Kudos to you, Karsten Knight-- I felt like Ashline was pulling thoughts from my own sixteen year old, sophomore self at times.
So you must be wondering after this long-winded book review homework assignment, what DOES happen to the five, newly aware gods and goddesses? Well, as the inside cover of this lovely book states, when warm and cold fronts collide, there's guaranteed to be a storm.
Knight, Karsten. Wildefire. New York: Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2011. Print.
The book was given to me as a present for my birthday, a little 'thank-you' gift from the director of that show that I had been working on for these past three months as a production assistant. And so when the announcement was made that we were allowed to choose our next outside reading book, I picked the newest addition to my ever-growing book collection, rather than fight myself for days before selecting a title. So without any research on the book or its author, I dove right into Wildefire and its 37 page long prologue. The story instantly intrigued me, pulling me directly from my couch on my porch and into the school parking lot of Scarsdale High School in New York on a September afternoon where a fight over a cheating boyfriend was in full swing-- only to be interrupted by a crazy older sister whom had been AWOL for months after her own incident which got her expelled.
"Ashline Wilde was a human mood ring. Sixteen years old, and she was a caldron of emotions--frothing, bubbling, and volatile. She had never heard of "bottling it all up inside." She was as transparent as the air itself." (Knight, 1)Part of me is torn with whether or not to explain what happens between the two sisters of the book. However, the part that has won my mental battle tells me that you must find out for yourselves. Our protagonist (and, you guessed it, that teenaged Polynesian Volcano Goddess I was talking about earlier) is Ashline Wilde, adopted daughter along side her older sister, Evelyn "Eve" Wilde.
For reasons that are to be undisclosed here to promote this blog to be spoiler-free, Ashline and Eve part on unfriendly terms, and eight months later, Ashline finds herself across the country, attending an elite private boarding school nestled among North California's famous Redwood Forests. And of course like any private school children in the middle of no where, they have to find some outside entertainment-- of course, in the form of a cocktail or two and a game of billiards at the bar down the road from school. And it's here that the story truly begins.
Five individuals, our main cast of protagonist characters, are introduced in a squabble in which henchmen try to kidnap a poor little blind girl who seems to know a little more than she's willing to let on. Ade Saint-Cyr, Lily Mayatoaka, Rolfe Hanssen, Raja Neferet, and Ashline Wilde-- each person with different stories, who all have the same things in common. Among them, each has had a tumultuous past and an event which named the awakening of their powers-- their abilities, as different incarnations of Gods and Goddesses around the world. Ade is truly Shango, Zulu god of thunder. Lily's true name is Konohana, Shinto goddess of the blossom; Rolfe's is Baldur, a Norse warrior known as the father of justice, and the god of light; and Raja was formerly known as Isis, Egyptian goddess of the dead. Each of them are given a scroll with instructions as to what their destiny is in preventing Ragnarok, or, the End of the World.
Did I mention all of this information is delivered by the same little blind girl the rescued from kidnappers, Serena, who claims herself to be a Siren, as in of Greek mythology? Good, I was hoping I didn't miss that part.
However, Ashline is the only one without a name on her scroll, for she is also the only one without an event in her past that announced the awakening of her powers. All in order to please the whimsy of a poor blind girl, the five are forced to believe their destinies are contained on the parchment of these scrolls, given to Serena by a mysterious man known only as Jack-- someone, Raja points out, she's never even seen. But Ashline has a scroll as well, with her destiny summed up in three words (no, I will not tell you what they are because yes, you should read and find out yourself). Thus, the immortal gods and goddesses are finally made aware of why their jumbled up pasts happened, and a lot suddenly makes sense to them all-- all except for Ashline, who is still buzzing with questions.
Knight's vision of immortality is very different than most. Instead of living forever and never aging, the Gods and Goddesses of mythology live among the human population, and in some cases the people of their culture. Adopted at birth to live normal human lives, they are reborn every century or so, after suffering a death like any other human. To be immortal as a God in this world does not mean to live forever, but it means to continuously cycle, being reborn and given the chance to live and rediscover your powers again and again, with a clean slate and no memories of your previous life or lives.
The chapters, instead of being numbered at each interval, are labeled with days of the week-- totaling nine different days, and the epilogue of sorts being named as 'One Month Later'. In my opinion, having the book structured in such a way makes the story much more real, giving almost pinpoint ideas on dates (it's roughly mentioned that the last half of the book takes place in the first week of May, with the third of the month thrown out as a date). To show that so much can happen, solely in the time span of nine days-- two weeks, give or take, if you add the prologue and the unspecific passage of time during the final chapter. It's similar to what I do with a project of my own writing, giving specific days so that certain events line up and make sense. Knight does a wonderful job, in my opinion, of bringing his readers directly into the story and truly making them feel as if they are there, alongside all of the characters, watching everything that happens.
One only unique feature about this story is that instead of focusing on one specific part or one nation's mythology, Knight instead incorporates mythologies of all around the world. He even references it, in-text at one point, in which Ade comments to Ashline about where they are: under the roof of a Catholic Chapel, a Zulu God and a Jewish-raised Polynesian Goddess, listening to the song of a Greek Siren and the pipe organ music of a French professor. The reason for the mash-up of cultures is explained later, when it is revealed that slowly, over the generations of reincarnations, less and less of the gods make it through their cycles and on to the next, and fewer are reborn. It's unknown what happens to them, but, they aren't surviving, their cycles are being broken, thus throwing the whole harmony of the world out of balance.
The harmonious way the different mythologies coexist in attempts to aid one another is an interesting concept to myself especially. I found it tugged at my heartstrings a bit, where I personally struggle with finding a peaceful state of mind to accept things of my own religion (that of being Roman-Catholic) and what 'we' as a religion have to say on worldly issues (such as war, abortion, homosexuality, divorce, and the like. And because I hate arguments, I'm not even going to go NEAR my thoughts on ANY of those subjects).
If you couldn't already tell, I loved this book, and I would highly reccomend it to anyone-- so long as they are prepared to be so drawn into a story that they refuse to go out, even on a weekend, all because they want to finish said book. (Okay, maybe that was just me because I can't do anything anyways because of my ankle injury, but hey! You might be that in love with it, too.) Needless to say, when after reading a chapter or two and I turned to the back cover, I was surprised to find that the author was a man. It just goes to show you how with the right skill level and commitment to your work, writing as a teenager of the opposite gender is possible, after all. Kudos to you, Karsten Knight-- I felt like Ashline was pulling thoughts from my own sixteen year old, sophomore self at times.
So you must be wondering after this long-winded book review homework assignment, what DOES happen to the five, newly aware gods and goddesses? Well, as the inside cover of this lovely book states, when warm and cold fronts collide, there's guaranteed to be a storm.
Knight, Karsten. Wildefire. New York: Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2011. Print.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
"Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" by Martin Gansberg
This is a re-written journal entry, the prompt from which is found on page 124 of the Patterns for College Writing book, responding to the narrative article "Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn't Call the Police" by Martin Gansberg located on pages 120 through 123.
How could something like this happen? How? I want to ask myself over and over again why and how this event was allowed to unfold and run its course, but then I remind myself, it was an event over and done with before I was ever born. I have a very strong sense of justice, I believe, and I greatly fear getting into trouble or danger in general. I know that in that situation, I would want to call the police-- but a part of me feels I would be much too timid or afraid to actually press send after punching in the number. I think, despite how I spoke earlier in class, I'd be too scared to actually make the call. I'd make someone else do it. I'd... I wouldn't be able to. I, personally, would be in a shock.
That being said, you can very well assume that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to go outside and help. I hide, cringing, scared, probably crying, and would want to do anything to involve myself. I'd pretend it didn't happen. I'd block my ears to not hear the cries of help I would be too terrified to aid. Call me a hypocrite, but it's just not something I am capable of. It's like I had said the other day in class, when reading my free-write aloud-- I think I think too much, and I think far too much on my fears. And that, I fear, will be my greatest downfall.
How could something like this happen? How? I want to ask myself over and over again why and how this event was allowed to unfold and run its course, but then I remind myself, it was an event over and done with before I was ever born. I have a very strong sense of justice, I believe, and I greatly fear getting into trouble or danger in general. I know that in that situation, I would want to call the police-- but a part of me feels I would be much too timid or afraid to actually press send after punching in the number. I think, despite how I spoke earlier in class, I'd be too scared to actually make the call. I'd make someone else do it. I'd... I wouldn't be able to. I, personally, would be in a shock.
That being said, you can very well assume that I wouldn't be able to bring myself to go outside and help. I hide, cringing, scared, probably crying, and would want to do anything to involve myself. I'd pretend it didn't happen. I'd block my ears to not hear the cries of help I would be too terrified to aid. Call me a hypocrite, but it's just not something I am capable of. It's like I had said the other day in class, when reading my free-write aloud-- I think I think too much, and I think far too much on my fears. And that, I fear, will be my greatest downfall.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Time.
Sorting through my papers and organizing my binders tonight, I found the page that I used for the in-class free write from September 20th. Piecing together my choppy thoughts, I expanded on a few ideas and decided to share them.
Are Today's Youth Really a Lost Generation?
A quick note before I begin: After finally sorting through all of my endless technical difficulties and finally (hopefully...) having figured out how to work this Blogger thing, my much overdue posts are here. (I’ve had them saved in a word document until now.)
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The title alone of this piece caught my attention, because at my theatre, one of my directors often says that, according to her sources, our generation has been given the name “The Crystal Children” or “The Star Children”, because we are supposed to fix and change everything that the past generations have wronged with the world. So when the idea of being named “The Lost Generation” surfaced, I was immediately interested. The article hits home for me, because really, my sister is facing a lot of the troubles and difficulties that the author writes about. She graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in May with a major in Photography and Digital Imaging, and is having a bit of trouble finding a permanent job, which is why she’s, for now, living back at home with us. I don’t mind it nearly as much as she does, since I get to spend the time with her that I missed over the last four years. (A quick edit: good news! Job opportunity has come through, and in the first week of November, she’s moving down to Shreveport, Louisiana! Sad that she’ll be so far away, but she’s getting a great opportunity!)
Along side the article, a few inserts were included: charts with numbers and bare facts to accompany the research. One titled ‘LOST: By the Numbers’ reveals that 20% of young men within four years of graduating college are still living with their parents due to income issues, which is twice the amount of young women. That adds up to 5.9 million individuals, Americans ages 25-34, living at home. That number used to just be 25%, back in 2007. It’s unfortunate what four years can change in a statistic like that. And among the younger people who have joined the adult and professional worlds, 37% of young families with heads of households younger than the age of 30 that are currently living in poverty. So while experts estimate that the Great Recession will end in the coming years, what the author, Cymru, calls the ‘greater recession’ doesn’t show any sign of ending. And that ‘greater recession’ is what all of those statistics say-- that the young adults are in trouble, and might not be able to fix their problems.
[http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/09/are-todays-youth-really-a-lost-generation/245524/]
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