Walmart Incident

I think that what happened at Walmart on Black Friday to that temporary security guard, Jdimytai Damour, is horrible. I think it is even worse that shoppers saw someone on the floor and did not even stop to help him and continued trampling him and other people. Even when the EMS workers came, people still kept rushing into the store and started trampling the EMS workers also. This fact shows so much about this society's priorities and their opinions for other people's lives. It shows that even when theres a person dead on the floor, people won't care about them and will only focus on getting to their "goal" (in this case, getting items on sale). It really shows how selfish and materialistic people are in this world. And then to push the EMS workers when they are trying to help the man is even lower. According to witnesses, when people started hearing that Damour was killed and they had to leave, people started complaining and saying "I've been in line since Friday morning." This really shows people's true colors and how much they really care about other people, even if they don't know them. Then there is the other story about the 28-year-old, 8 months pregnant woman who went to shop at Walmart and got injured and miscarried her baby. I feel terrible for her but she made a stupid decision and did not use common sense. She was 8 months preganant and she knew there'd be a huge crowd and she should't have been shopping.

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

This Thanksgiving, I went to my dad's friends house and He has two daughters and there two cousins who come over. When we sit down to eat, the adults are in one room and the teenagers and kids are in the other. We were not talking about what the meaning of Thanksgiving is but we were talking about the differences between our schools because they live in Westchester and the schools there are very different from schools in the city. We also talked about drama that goes on in our lives and what we do in our free time. Even though we were not talking about celebrities or things such as brands, we still were subconsciously talking about things that corporate culture influences us to believe such as school. Corporate culture said that it is very important to go to school and get an education and that was one of the things we were talking about and that everyone at the table had in common. Corporate culture also said that it is important to have various extracurriculars and have fun with your life. But one thing I noticed was that we kept going on Facebook which shows how corporate culture stresses how important it is to have friends and keep in contact with friends.
I did not go shopping on Black Friday. I never do and that is because I hate crowds and I become mean in crowds and I do not want that to happen. I also do not want to get trampled in a crowd. I do go shopping the day after Black Friday, though, amd I had to go this year anyway to buy a friend a gift. I heard from certain friends who went shopping on Black Friday that the stores were crazy and some of them said that it got so bad that they just left the store. I understand why people do Black Friday-to get very good sales for christmas presents or just items for themselves and everyone loves sales; but some people just go overboard and get so caught up into it and that is unnecessary in my opinion. I also think that stores need to try and figure out some way to be more organized for this day. It will be very hard to do but they should at least try. Personally, I am very into shopping but I would never go this overboard and fight with other people for an item unless it was something really huge. I would rather get something for a little more money on regular shopping days than go into packed stores and risk injury. I believe that people need to really calm down over this because after the end of the day, they are still only items.

Elections

I am very happy that Obama was elected president. I think America needs a change from having a Republican in office for 8 years and they did no good to the country. They made it worse such as starting the war and messing up the economy, putting us in a very bad recession. In addition, the Republicans made practically the whole world hate us and i believe that with Obama, that will change. It will take time, though, but it will happen. It didn't surprise me that Obama won. Everyone, even Republicans, were saying how they thought Obama will win and the polls were also showing Obama ahead. Also, I followed this election a lot and just by reading what people were saying about the Republicans, Obama was doing way better and he had a better VP pick.
The whole night, from 6-12, I stayed glued to the TV watching results. I panicked at the beginning when McCain was winning but then when things picked up and Obama was in the lead, I felt better and then when Obama won Ohio, I knew the Republicans were done. I was extremely happy when they announced Obama won. This was a historical moment and I actually got to experience it. We really needed this and I still can't believe that he will be our new president. President Barack Obama sounds strange to say but it's great. OBAMA!!!!!!

Final Essay on Meaningful Life

How to live a good life is one of the most talked about and important philosophical subjects in the world. Everyday, people are searching for the way to achieve this good life goal. In the place we live in today, we get our ideas from outside sources. That is why: the corporate culture distorts our society into thinking that consumerism is the way to live a good life.
One of the most important questions people think about is what makes a meaningful life and what people feel to be a good and meaningful life? This question can be thought of in a few ways but the two main ways are: what does culture say about what a good and meaningful life should be and what do people consider to be a good and meaningful life? People see that a good and meaningful life consists of having a good job, a stable family, having power, being smart, finding your true self, and being happy.
People feel that a good and meaningful life is one that involves being smart, having a good job, being powerful which goes along with having a lot of money, and love. This idea is related to culture, which essentially tells us that these things listed above are what makes to be a good and meaningful life. Almost everyone has these ideas about a good and meaningful life. It was almost as if it was plugged into our brains. But it is a natural desire to have these ideas about a meaningful life because these are all very good things that everyone wants so its an instinct to want this. No one will be wishing to be sad, for instance because that makes for a meaningless life where you only focus on one thing. It also seems that people do not want to cause other people to have a bad life-it is almost a natural instinct to help someone who is in need. But I believe that that was not the case during Black Friday incident where a Walmart employee was trampled to death and nobody stopped to help him. They kept making a mad dash into the store just to get flat screen TVs and other material items and they completely disregarded another persons desire to live. That really shows what people's priorities are in this world.
I do believe that having a family, love, money and a stable job, having fun, and getting a good education makes for a good and meaningful life. This is because all of these things get you places in life. I believe that without an education, for example, I would not get a good job, I could not be powerful, and I would not get money. These ideas about a good life go hand-in-hand. I noticed that not many people put down having fun as one of their ideas on a good and meaningful life but I put that down because I think that you need to be able to be yourself and let loose at times. It just makes life more entertaining and fun which is important to me. This idea also goes along with love because you want to be able to have fun with someone you love.
I think that it is very hard to have a good and meaningful life. It does not just come to someone in the blink of an eye. People need to wait for it and be patient. People need to wait and work very hard in their job to become very powerful and make money and hopefully, they get the "dream job". It is the same thing to find your "one true love". There are some people who try very hard for this good and meaningful life and they sadly never get it. Some people wait their whole life for it. Speaking personally, I always try to live a good and meaningful life. I do this by trying to get a good education in order to prepare for college and jobs. I also try to have fun in life so that is one of my sources of entertainment besides technology.
Corporate culture is culture influenced by pop culture such as the media, TV, internet, magazines/books, and advertisements. Commodified culture is taking things that are not necessarily things you can sell but they are then turned into products you can sell and putting it in corporate culture. For example: people a long time ago when cars were first made that you should always look both left and right before you cross the street, and now that is commodified culture because it is put into ads and TV shows to show you this message. Corporate culture's message about a good life is ideas such as being happy, smart, finding your true self, and being unique among many more, but corporate culture also focuses a lot on asthetic aspects such as looking good and feeling good. But by culture telling us to be unique, we are not really being unique because we are following cultures' expectations of us. Everywhere you look, there is an advertisement for a new beauty product or a gym to help you look and feel better.
In class, we discussed and watched some movies that show different messages that corporate culture gives us about how to live a good and meaningful life. In Superbad, for instance, the message for living a good and meaningful life is to meet hot girls, get drunk, get stoned, have sex, have fun, and be very close with your buddies. This can be translated into a not very educational lifestyle where no one is really smart because fun is the only thing they do. In contrast, the movie Music of the Heart shows that in order to have a good and meaningful life, one must help others less fortunate than them, be selfless, and be smart. In the movie, the main character portrayed by Meryl Streep plays a Caucasian school teacher who teaches at a predominatly African-American school which is not good, and she teaches them how to behave and become good members in society.
Along with movies, music videos and songs show a lot about what culture believes to be a good and meaningful life. In Kanye West's song "Good Life," he states that in order to live a meaningful life, one needs to be famous, have a lot of beautiful women, be powerful, and have a lot of money. One way he describes being rich is by dropping names of expensive things for example: "I pop the hood, Ferrari". One lyric in the song says: "I'ma get on this TV mama." It shows that he is gonna become famous and be on the TV and live an amazing, luxurious life. In the music video, he is surrounded by pretty women, which shows when you are powerful, you can have all this money and all these women. All the messages from this song are connected to one another. A similar message of a good life is shown in Lil' Mama's song "Lip Gloss." The song describes that to have a good and meaningful life, you have to be popular, have all the boys on you and have girls jealous of you and you get that by having the perfect lip gloss. Lil' Mama says that "my lip gloss is popping/I'm standing at my locker/and all the boys keep stopping." She goes on to say that what people know about her is that she has fabulous lip gloss. Just like in the "Good Life" song, she also name drops lip gloss brands such as Mac and Loreal. The music video for this song also adds to this idea because at the beginning, she is insecure about going to a new school and her mom tells her that if she puts on lip gloss, she will be the envy of everybody and she will become popular. When she gets into school, she walks down the hall and no one can stop staring at her and even the teacher is liking her lip gloss. In contrast, The Beatles song "All You Need Is Love" shows a very different message for living a good and meaningful life. The songs' basic message is that all anybody should have is love and love basically is the fundamental for the world. They are also saying that the world really would not be good without love. One of the lyrics are "All you need is love...love is all you need." They go on to say that in love, "there's nothing you can do that can't be done." This means that love is everywhere and that you will be able to get love in some way or another. In the music video for this song, it shows The Beatles sitting around singing the song and a bunch of people are there so it is probably a party, which most likely represents unification with people and love.
On the opposite side of these arguments, there are marginal messages which are messages that are not considered to be that acceptable in society. For example, dropping out of school is a big marginal message in our culture. In the movie, Pump up the Volume, there are many marginal messages shown but the movie portrays those marginal messages to be the "correct" thing to do and anything else is bad. For instance, the dominant corporate culture tells us to lisen to authority and the marginal corporate message is that it is bad to go against the system whereas in this movie, itis bad to listen to authority and it is good to do your own thing and rebel against them. In the beginning of the movie, themain character, Mark, says about America: "Eat your cereal with a fork, do your homework in the dark." This is a marginal message because in this world, it is frowned upon and not accepted if you do these things. He asks: "Do you ever get the feeling that everything in America is completely fucked up?" He goes on to say that in America, "poor stay poor, rich get rich. Everywhere I look, everything is sold out." This is saying how the American society functions and this is not the patriotic approach to how America really is and this is different. Stated simply, Mark is saying that living a good life means having your own thoughts and being different while a bad life is becoming brainwashed by what the corporate culture is telling us and going along with it. This is also shown in the media in 2008 where people are telling you to "fight against the Man." The movie Foxfire also shows rebelling against "the Man" but in this movie they are rebelling against a teacher who tried to rape a female student. In both these films, the adults are the bad guys.
The next type of message are the folk messages. Those are the messages that are learned from parents and the things they taught you about how to live a good and meaningful life. As a personal example, my parents taught me that to have a good and meaningful life, I have to do very well in school, go to a good college, care a lot about family and friends, work hard then have fun, don't be a follower, and when I'm older, start a family. These messages stick with you for the rest of your life and you will most likely pass them down to future generations. I do think that folk messages derive from the dominant corporate culture messages because our parents probably do believe these things are what makes a good life, but their parents probably got the idea from corporate culture.
We also learned about how food can make for a good and meaningful life. Obviously, we can't live without food and I learned that it is important to know what food we eat and if we care what ingridients we put into our body. Considering that America is the fattest country, I think that most people wouldn't care what goes into their body and that is why many people are overweight from eating fast food a lot. I would think that because you only have 1 life, people would think it is important to know what goes into their food but that is not the case. According to Omnivores Dilemma, Michael Pollan argues that everything we eat comes from corn. For example, high fructose corn syrup which is in all junk food.
In general, throughout this course, i learned about a lot of different ways as shown for how to live a good and meaningful life. There was a lot more but i think that these were the most important ones. I really enjoyed this class and i learned a lot from it. I think i took away a lot of good information on what it means to live a good and meaningful life.

Yes, I agree that the meaning of the song is that all you need is love and that that is what you need to have to live a meaningful life. Also, the song is saying that you can't really do anything without love. I also think that the Beatles are saying that love can be found in every aspect of life.
The lyrics that stand out to me are "all you need is love...nothing you can sing that can't be sung." That line shows to me that no matter what you do, love will always be there and that there can't be any words used to express what love is and how it feels like. It is also saying that love is everywhere. Another line that stands out to me in the song is "there's nothing you can make that can't be made." This shows that love already has to be there- you can't really make it work. It takes time.
The video for this song shows the Beatles sitting around a room with a lot of people singing the song and playing different musical instruments. There are balloons ad streamers around the room they are in, which means there is a party going on. Everyone is sitting together, which might signify love and togetherness. I also know that when the Beatles wrote this song, it was in the time when peace and love were very big topics at the time, mainly because of the Vietnam war and that was very important to the Beatles. This is probably why they wrote this song in this time period. They were all about peace and love and spreading those to messages/ideas around.

Pop Culture Meaningful Life

I am analyzing the song "My Lip gloss" by Lil' Mama. The basic message of the song shows that you need to have lip gloss on and look good in order to have a meaningful life. Also, the song is saying that by wearing the lip gloss you will be feeling better about yourself and that is meaningful. Lil' Mama also states that "my lip gloss is cool all the boys keep jockin' and chase me after school." She says that wearing lip gloss will help more boys come to her and "the girls don't speak they rollin' they eyes, cause they lip gloss cheap." All the girls are jealous of her and want to be her so perhaps that is meaningful. Pop culture is telling us it is important to look good and be popular. The video's images reorients what I said because there are scenes in the cafeteria where all the boys and girls are looking at her in awe or jealousy because they don't have her lip gloss. Also, there is that one scene where she gets called in to the principal's office and instead of being punished, the secretary or principal starts commenting on how she likes Lil' Mama's lip gloss and wants to know where she got it from. I noticed that in the beginning of the video, Lil' Mama is sitting in the car and talking to her mom about how she wants to be cool and popular in school and her mom gives her the lip gloss and says it will work. I think this is showing how corporate culture has also affected the mother and how pop culture says that looking pretty and wearing lip gloss can make someone feel popular or more confident with themselves. It is the idea that aesthetics are very important in our culture and that it is meaningful to look good.

Essay About Meaning of Life

When I interviewed my mom and dad about what they think the meaning of life is, they both gave similar answers. For example, they both said that love (people who love him and people he loves), talking with interesting people, and work were meaningful to them. But they also said different things. My dad, for instance, said that just looking around and taking the world around him in is meaningful and that having a fulfilling private and public life is meaningful to him. My mom said that learning new things and sharing her ideas are meaningful to her. I also interviewed two people on the street and Nora and Francesca about what they thought the meaning of life was. I noticed that between the adults I interviewed and the teens I interviewed, their answers were similar but the adults had answers that were a little more in depth, probably because they lived their life longer and know more about the world. I also thought that more people would say that friends are important to them but not many people said that.
Except for Nora, everybody said that family was very meaningful to them because they raised them and watched them grow. They also said that they will always be there for them. Nora and Francesca also said that friends were also meaningful to them because they make their life more fun and interesting to have someone with similar interests as you to talk to. The two people on the street and Francesca all said that it "really depends on who you ask-if you ask random people if my life is meaningful, then they would probably say no but it depends on the person's own point of view" (Francesca). Nora said that "just being alive is meaningful because she was adopted and would have had a very bad education and could have been starved to death" so she is very grateful for what she has. She also said that living life to the best of her ability is meaningful. When I asked Francesca how meaningful her life was on a scale of 1 to 10, she first said 8.5 but then she said that she could not really answer that because she thought she was being biased and it was not really truthful. She then said "what is the scale based on?" "Who is judging this?" They all had different answers but at the same time, they all had a common theme.

Analysis and Insight

4. I assess how meaningful my life is emotionally and mentally. People I love such as my friends and family are emotional because they will most likely always be there and things such as fashion are somewhere in there because I have always loved it and I plan to go into that line of work when I'm in college so that's really important to me. Mentally, things such as sports events and concerts because I could live without them but I just enjoy doing it, so things I love and things I like are included in this and that helped me to assess what is meaningful in my life.

5. No, I don't really think there is a pattern to what is meaningful or meaningless in my life. But I did organize my video in a way that somewhat showed what parts of my life were more meaningful. For instance, my friends and family came first because they are the most important things to me and then the concert and sports events pictures along with pictures of my Sidekick and Ipod came in the middle because they were somewhat important and then fashion came last because that was another really meaningful thing in my life.

6. I think that my video is a fairly accurate description of my life. There were some things I didn't include such as me just sitting there bored, which is meaningless but overall it was accurate. I don't really think it makes me seem more interesting or exciting. I'm just showing what my life is like.

7. I don't really think that my life would seem meaningful from an outside perspective, except for the friends and family part. It was done from an inside perspective because I'm just showing how I'm like and what is meaningful to me in my opinion. I think aspects such as the fashion might not be meaningful to a lot of people but it is very meaningful to me. This goes along with the idea that everybody's definition of meaningful and things they find to be important really varies between people.

8. As of right now, I don't really have any questions on living a meaningful life.

I like how you included lots of photos of your friends because that really enhances the idea that friends are really important to you including your family and i like the photos you chose

I like how you shot the video in your own perspective and i also liked the parts where you talked and the end where you had people hold up a sign that said "start a revolution" BTW: did you know the people who held up the sign or were they random people on the street?

I liked this video because it was different and unique. i also liked how it was not disorganized and it had one common idea that you focused on and i like that

I like how you used the song from My Big Fat Greek Wedding haha i also really liked the pictures you used because i could tell that they really were meaningful to you and they all had the common theme of friends and family which is good!

I really love your video because it looked like a professional photographer shot it and it looked really organized and i felt you worked very hard on it Good job! :)

Juliette's Life on Video

DESCRIPTIVE

1. In my video, I included pictures of my parents, my sister, my friends, homework assignments, concert pictures, Miami and France vacation photographs, baseball and hockey game pictures, my Sidekick and Itouch, my clothing, my FIT identification card, and pictures from a fashion show.

2. I think that everything I put in this video is meaningful to me because, in some way, it helps my life to be better or more entertaining. For example, I can survive without using my phone and Ipod, but it just makes my life more fun if I have those two things with me. But other aspects, such as my sister and my parents are very important to me because they grew up with me and they see me all the time. In addition, homework is something I don't like doing but I have to do it because it makes me smarter and it helps me get a better education. Other things such as baseball and hockey game pictures are not that meaningful to me because they do not really change my life in a drastic way, but I have a lot of fun watching them so I like that. The pictures having to do with fashion are also meaningful to me because that is what I plan to major in and it is a very important aspect of my life. Even though some of these things here are not that meaningful, speaking generally, I still find them meaningful because it is things I love and things that I enjoy doing in everyday life, but even things such as homework are still meaningful to me because it will help me in the long run.

3. I would have liked to included a bigger variety of pictures instead of having very similar pictures. I wish that I also had more pictures to show. I would also have liked to included some video and maybe some various special effects. If possible, I would also liked to have added words onto the slides.