The Gift of Giving

So in class we talked about the gift giving. It's that time for santa, christmas, and gifts. I love the holiday season, but always freaking out about gift giving. It's always a shitty situation. One thing we didn't talk about in class is the awkward "Oh, you got me something? shit now i have to get you something". that has happened to me so many times amongst me and my friends. I only really get close friends gifts, but sometimes other friends who i am not so close with get me gifts as well. I never anticipate for it and therefore I have to rush to get them something... usually on sale and last minute. It's never something that I like to do. I like to put thought into my gifts, not get it because someone else got me something.

Another thing that stresses me out about gift giving is the idea of if the person likes it or not. Between me and my family, we are always honest and say "ook i like this" or "ok, no i don't like this". It makes things so much easier, and there is no front that a person has to put on. The person doesn't have to hide their true feelings and wonder "what the hell am i gonna do with this?"

For this christmas my mom is trying a new approach to the idea of gifts. My niece and nephew are both under the age of 10, and this year my mom really wants to show them what it means to give, especially during the holidays. My mom is going to donate money on behalf of my niece and nephew for charity. I feel like that is genuinely the idea of gift giving. Isn't that what the holiday season is for? It's about others. I feel like just giving a gift is not thoughtful mostly. you just feel obligated to get the person something. But for my mom's idea, you are really taking thought into someone's life and giving them an opportunity to share in the holiday spirit. my mom is trying to instill in my family that's it's not always about the materialistic things. The holiday spirits are about compassion and selflessness in such a joyous season. I like this idea. I think this is the true meaning of the holiday season.

Speaker comes to talk about King Corn

The producers of King Corn came to talk to class today. When we were talking and discussing the movie, it was really interesting and made a huge impact on the way I viewed food. It’s so easy to just pick things off the shelves, and never look at what is going into your food. After talking about this, I went grocery shopping and made a conscious effort to try and buy things organic or without high fructose corn syrup or any processed soy beans. What I have found is that it is easy to find these things, but it is also hard at the same time. Soy beans are now taking the place of corn. I found it in almost 10 things I was about to buy. It’s a little harder to find and more expensive to buy organic things, but I feel the change will be healthier. This may be the reason that a lot of people are obese. People are not conscious of the foods we eat, and do not know what is going into our foods. This is kinda scary and I think we need to know and make a change in order to be healthy.

King Corn

King Corn is an independent film talking about the effects of corn, and the American consumption of corn. Corn is one of the highest consumed commodities in America. This is because of the process of corn into ethanol, high fructose corn syrup, etc. 90 million acres of corn is produced in America today. This was an interesting film showing the effects. It’s something that America doesn’t think about. We just consume the product without thinking. It will be interesting to see what the producers will have to say on Wednesday.

Black Friday - DAY AFTER THANKSGIVING

Well, today was the day after thanksgiving, BLACK FRIDAY! Black Friday is also a predictability. Every day after Thanksgiving, there is always sales, sales, sales. People buy Christmas presents because things are half price, full price, or whatever. It’s funny how much this has become part of American culture. People will wait outside of walmart or any store to get their hands on the products before it is sold out. MASS AMOUNTS OF PEOPLE WAITING FOR HOURS ON END TO GET TO JUST ONE STORE! Malls are always packed, there are always long lines in stores, it's CRAZY! But this has also become something that is dangerous. People die over these things. I dunno. It’s a great day because of the sales, but people become so obsessed and crazy, it’s hard to deal with sometimes.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is such a great time of year. I feel like if people didn’t have it, people would be super upset. This is a tradition that is always happening, on the date, same time every year. This goes back to predictability. People always expect turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, pumpkin pie, and stuffing. It’s at almost every thanksgiving dinner, no matter where you are. Thanksgiving is such a festive time, and a lot of people say it’s their favorite. It’s for one reason, and one reason only. It’s not always for family (which I find surprising). It’s the one day that people can indulge in food, and eat copious amounts at a time. People can put their diets away (or not) and reach a state of paralysis. It’s a fantastic holiday. No School, lots of food, and always good company. Who wouldn’t want a holiday like that?

False Self Revisited

In a lot of ways we like to look at ourselves in a positive light. However, when it comes to friends, we like to lower ourselves in order to fit in. People will dumb themselves down in order to not cause conflict with their group of friends and themselves. Kids don’t like to be over achievers. Instead they want to seem like everyone else. I don’t understand this. In contrast, I feel that my group of friends did not do this. We never really spoke about grades, or how well we did, but we always said “oh I did good” or “oh I did bad” or whatever. I feel that in high school, it is especially important to fit in and look cool. If you “over-achieve” you are outcast. If you don’t try hard you may disappoint yourself or your family, maybe even your teachers. People also see success as a form of guilt. I find this way of thinking to be odd. However, this causes jealousy. I know within my own family, people are jealous of other people because they have nice things. Instead of just being happy for them, people try to create competition. For what? For recognition? Honestly to me that is stupidity. Either way, it is always a cycle in our society. People always want to do things to fit in. Over exceeding in things is not something that is part of the plan.

Projects

So we have final projects and at first we were going to do the effects of r&b music through out class and culture. However, it’s a big project and 15 minutes might not be enough time. In class we have never talked about the military as an institution. The military has a huge presence in Hawaii, and has had a negative effect on the land on the Hawaiian people. It would be interesting to look at that. I am from Hawaii so I know a lot of the information, but I know there are some things that I do not know. Hawaii is never looked at in a lot of ways. I feel that sometimes Hawaii is the ignored state of the United States. Why did the United States want us anyways? Well the truth of the matter is land and trade. A lot of people never know the history of Hawaii and the struggle that the people have to go through. I think this would be an interesting subject to bring to light, and inform the class and the social, economic, and cultural struggles that Hawaiian People and the land have had to endure.

De-McDonaldization

One of the ways the book talks about becoming de-mcdonalized is to do things without agenda. The book says to do things and avoid routine. However, I feel that this is hard to do. We are a society that feeds on calendars to tell us where we need to be at a specific point, and what needs to get done. We love to time manage our lives and never avoid routine. Routine makes us comfortable. It is predictable. It is what we do. It would be hard for our society to wean ourselves away from this. I know I like tokeep things routine, and the only thing I do out of routine is go downtown to do something. I do this to get away from campus. I guess this is my way of “avoiding routine”. I always feel that when I get out of routine, i.e. swim practice, eating, school, naps, etc. I feel uncomfortable. I also realized that I don’t like to be out my schedule or times of things. If I have something at 10 I want to be there at 10, not later than that. I don’t know. This is something that is so engrained in us, especially as college students, it’s hard to steer away from this. Maybe if I get older, I will be more adventurous.

McJobs

In the book, the author discusses the ideal of employees who have skills, but cannot use them in their jobs. He says “The result is a high level of resentment, job dissatisfaction, alienating, absenteeism, and turnover”. This goes back to the power of authority brought up in “Ain’t No Makin’ It.” The boys of “Ain’t No Makin’ It” hated authority as well as felt resentment and alienation when authority was over them. This was especially apparent when the boys got older because they could not hold a job. It’s funny to think that this could be part of McDonaldization, but as we read, it is.

Predictable.

So we read part of the book describing how things were predictable and calculatable. People need to know that a product will be just as fun, satisfying, tasty or beneficial all across the board. It doesn’t matter where you go. The aesthetic of the stores all look the same, smell the same, have the same merchandise, etc. This is like the Big Mac or even the look of a McDonald’s restaurant. No matter where you go you will always know that McDonald’s will have a Big Mac with two patties, lettuce, onions, that special sauce all on a sesame seed bun. This is also similar in shopping stores that are franchises. Forever 21, a “hip” shopping store, will always have the same clothes in the stores and online. This also is another point for McDonaldization. Instead of going to the store and buying things, people can now turn to the internet and have things at the touch of a button. They don’t have to leave the comforts of home. They can have things when they want, how many days they want it in, etc. Our culture has become so lazy and dependable on efficient things.

Time Is Money

"Time is money and money is time." Making things faster and efficient has taken our society by storm. Internet is always trying to get faster, cars are always trying to get faster, e mail replaces postal service mail. EVERYTHING IS FASTER! Highways make transportation faster, chain restaurants make food faster, having a gas station every 20 miles makes things faster. Everything must be faster in society today. I don’t know a time where if things weren’t fast. If it’s not fast it’s deemed not good. Take for instance a restaurant. You want to sit down, have your food within 15 minutes then leave. Everything has to be fast. Wasting time is wasting money, and I feel our society is really starting to take hold of this idea. But sometimes, having something that is made cheap or fast doesn’t always equal a better product. It may be worse than the product that took just a little longer and can with hold for a long long time. So which is better? Fast way or slow way? I don’t know the answer yet. I’m still working on that myself I guess.

Does Faster = Better?

McDonaldization is the idea that our society is obsessed with time and how to make everything faster. Our society is so wrapped up in this ideal. I don’t like McDonald’s because of it’s food quality. But this is just personally. I know a lot of people who pick up McDonalds because it is convenient. It’s easy and fast food for a reasonable price. You drive up to the window, you place your order and you’re out. Food is a basic necessity in life, and well McDonalds prepares the cheap and efficiently. Efficiency equals more time you have to do other things. Time is important to us. Can’t we just slow down a little bit?

A Reflection I guess...

So, after talking about gender roles in the last blog, my boyfriend and I were talking and I realized some things. My boyfriend has a hot temper because of his job. He knows that I don’t like it when he’s angry cause he takes it out on me. So, he tries to calm himself down before talking to me. I realized that maybe I am a person who is promoting the false self. Because I was satisfaction in the relationship, I am trying to make him cater to me. This is just my point that I was trying to make in the last blog. We are always trying to make others happy. We are always in a constant struggle to try and please other people.

Another thing that brought about this blog is reality t.v. shows. I must admit that I am a t.v. junkie, and I like to watch reality t.v. shows. One of these shows is called Rock of Love 2 with Sharron Osbourne. I feel like with a lot of reality t.v., people put on this front and depict someone that they really aren’t. I feel like the maybe by having these things so visible in our society, it strengthens the idea of being submissive to other people and to trying to make other’s happy. I dunno just a thought.

False Self

In life, no matter it be work, school, friends, etc. we are always putting on an act. O.K. well maybe not all the time, but sometimes. Like the book says, we have a false self for the gratification and satisfaction for other people. I worked at retail store called Honolua Surf Company. Everyday, we had to put on an act for customers to make THEM happy. It didn’t matter if they were pricks or assholes to us, we had to be of service to them. I don’t understand why. This can also be seen through genders. For instance, if you are not nice to a customer and are a female you are considered a bitch. The customer will complain the manager, you get a warning, and the list goes on and on. We are a country so built on other’s doing things for us it’s unreal. Also, we can see that sometimes this is prevalent in the home. Mother’s come home from work, but instead of taking time for themselves, they have to take care of their family and cater to them. Instead of having some time and space to relax, their thoughts and feelings must be pushed aside in order to make their family happy. This is a gender role that is placed on by society. Dad works hard at work so he gets time to relax. The mother also works hard at work, but also must take care of the house and the family. Why is this so? American’s are so fixed on this ideal that its hard to wean them off of it. Kinda screwed up.

November 4, 2008 – EPIC!

Today was one of the most historic days of our countries history. Barack Obama, an African-American man who grew up on the small islands of Hawaii is now the president of the United States. That is epic.