The Great Gatsby

Jay Gatsby is a representation of the simple minds of people and the unwavering obsessions for acceptance. Here we look at a man with a complex path of desire who comes into money and extreme lonesomeness. True commitment is completely unheard of in the wealthy population of the Eastern United States. The best example is with Daisy and her spontaneous love life. Groups of people gather at Gatsby's house with no association to each other, but they seem to have known each other forever. Unfortunately, Gatsby needs this for his well being and for satisfaction of his obsession. Jay Gatsby, after his return from the War, is forgotten by the quick moving society. Nick's experiences with Eastern life is also quite negative. He seems stuck in the middle of a society that he doesn't belong. It's strange how his heritage from a different part of the same sets his personality apart from everyone else. Jay Gatsby's view of life is very well rounded after his observation of all the people at his house, but it is also crowded by the hostile nature of wealthy people. When he initiates association with Daisy, Gatsby is so in love with the time he was with her and the time when he was following his desires that he was very hostile towards anyone in his way. This hostility ruined Daisy, who was so content with her simple life as a wealthy American and it led to Gatsby's death in the end. Did he deserve to die? Did he have it coming to him? Those questions are for later pondering.

Disappointing Phones

     Just recently in this summertime fun, I spilled water all over my cell phone and video camera while at Ultimate Frisbee Camp.  I was taking a drink of water and unfortunately I failed to close the cap all the way and the water left the bottle making its way inside the circuit boards of my precious electronics.  Sadly both of them died.  My phone, considering its age and dumbness, was cheaply replaced and it came in the mail last week.  The camera, considering its high cost and unavailability, is not going to be replaced for a while.  I opened my new phone the day after my trip to Six Flags, anxious to feel connected to the world again.  I opened it and started activating it, but to my short temper it wouldn't connect.  I had to call Virgin Mobile and go through layers and layers of robotic commands trying to reach someone, and when I finally did the assistant's voice was just a faint sound in the earpiece of the phone.  Following her directions was nearly impossible, but I focused through and it was activated!
     After using my phone for about half the day, I noticed that the battery was dying quickly.  I charged it overnight and the same thing happened!  The phone was dead before the evening arrived, and this did not correspond with my past phone which was able to go for weeks without a charge.  I expected them to work the same considering they are the same exact phone!  So, I had to call Virgin Mobile again and this time the layers and layers of robot didn't even bring me to a choice I needed!  I had to dial buttons repeatedly such as "0,0,0,0 or 1,1,1,1,1" in order to reach an assistant.  When I did reach the assistant, he ordered me a new battery and it's on its way right now.  Hopefully it doesn't disappoint me like the last one.  Cell phones bite.  

People Watching

     Now I'm sure most people, considering humans tend to be very socially observant, take time to look around at the people in their location. People watching works best in large public areas where many group of people come together with seemingly no past or outside connections. Amusement parks and malls seem the be great candidates for people watching, and my experience will come to you from my recent endeavor to Six Flags. One of the first things to judge is appearance, which is obvious and quite important. See, you can tell from what they look like their self appreciation and social class! If you see someone dressed in a huge Chicago Bulls jersey, they are obviously comfortable about themselves enough to not care about how they appear to others. This isn't completely correct, but no guesses and assumptions will be correct unless you actually know this person. Unfortunately for Six Flags, most people are not low on the social class otherwise they wouldn't be there. Even if someone walks into a wealthier privilege, they will fit in just fine. You usually can't tell someone's income based solely off their appearance. This assumption, although borderline stereotypical and racist, takes behavior and social observations which are even harder to decipher.
     You see, it's easy to classify people into two distinct groups based on the amount of socialization.  For example, people who are talking a lot about their lives outside of the amusement park are usually people who know each other very very well.  People who don't talk or talk mainly about what is going on in the moment don't.  Often times siblings will fall in the silent category, and it's easy to tell that they are just putting up with each other for the purpose of enjoying rides without looking lonely.  See, that's the monstrous necessity that people tend to carry on their backs when in public, and that necessity is camaraderie.  If someone is alone at a place like Six Flags, the first thing you feel is pity for their lonely lifestyle.  Now, let's "take a walk in their shoes" especially because I know what it's like to be alone at an amusement park because of unrelated reasons.  Maybe their group split up because the lonely member actually enjoys roller coasters and wants to ride a few while he or she is at Six Flags!  Maybe they have no friends that enjoy amusement parks, so they have to come alone.  In this case I feel deep pity and wish that loneliness wasn't such a socially awkward thing, but people have created this pattern and it's very disproportionate when someone doesn't quite fit.
     The money factor is often considered when people watching, especially because money is an easy way to classify many parts of a person's presumed life.  This sounds a lot like classifying people into races which is another way to predict a person's characteristics.  When you establish someone as rich, the things you can assume are very rude towards the entire upper class.  For example, you can assume they have a big house and have petty problems regarding trivial problems that only rich people have to deal with.  Unfortunately, most of the people at Six Flags have expendable income otherwise they wouldn't even think about spending excessive amounts of money for overpriced "fun".
     The last and most obvious thing to observe while people watching is appearance.  It's not the most innocent way to view other people and it's quite shallow, but appearance is the most static and reliable way to make generalizations about strangers.  Appearance is very self explanatory and you are probably subconsciously judging people on their looks without even knowing.
 

I actually took this picture after we left the amusement park.  I thought it would be a pristine way to show my appreciation for decoration which really doesn't exist.  

It just looks so innocent and picturesque despite the mayhem that it causes to its riders.  This is a very nice coaster and it's still thrilling after having been on it repeatedly.  

"It just goes up and up and up" 

It amazes me how people are willing to stand and wait for an hour to ride a rollercoaster!  It amazes me how I'm willing to do this as well!  

It's so indie!  I saw the sun behind the coaster and thought that with a disappointing iPod camera and useful filters I could create a nice photo.  

You would think this was while we were waiting in line for hours, but it is rather when we were standing outside in the parking lot waiting to avoid an awkward early arrival to the bus.  

Run For Your Lives

 We are such a happy family as we pose in our rambunctious and strategic grass skirts and flower Leis. Weirdly, our hearts were racing in anticipation for the carnage that was soon to ensue.  This anticipated carnage was finally here, and we were pumped.  After Mom bought the grass skirts, I was saying "There is no way I'm wearing a grass skirt!", but during the race they proved very useful in throwing off the zombies.  They would grab the skirts and rip them off instead of the flags.  It was humorous for other people to see us running with large parts of plastic grass missing from our festive skirts.  Hey, someone needs to bring some excitement to the depressing apocalypse.

 We're all a family... for now.  Ideas of zombie avoidance were fluttering throughout the air at the starting line.  The only part we saw prior to the start was a large gauntlet of zombies which instantly pumped up our adrenaline.  The gates opened with smoke and the race began!  The first few minutes were peaceful, but the trail involved running through a cold creek followed by sand.  At this point, everyone was whining about how hard this was going to be and this was before any zombies!  The first zombies were easily dodged by most people considering they were just alone and didn't really run, but further from the start large open fields were littered with tons of zombies.  The makeup was very intricate, but it was hard to appreciate it when you were "Running for your life".

 The survivor in action!  Mom commented "Wow Mark, you really were sprinting!  Both of your feet were off the ground".  He lived, utilizing the other people to his advantage.  Hey, one of the Zombieland rules says "Keep the dumbs close at hand," and he did.

 I made it!  Dead, but after running through gauntlet after gauntlet of zombies with obstacles in between.  I crawled through rocky rivers, ran through mud, dodged electricity, climbed ropes, and climbed the overhead ladder, and all of this while running from zombies.  If you lived through this, I applaud you and your luck!  Especially towards the end, after I was dead, I was completely astonished at how difficult the course had become!  The gauntlets were horribly congested with brain hungry zombies.  Hopefully I was good bait to those still alive because the zombies still went after me.

 Here's an action shot of me climbing out from underneath the electrified fence with a mud pit underneath.  My uncle, who was spectating, saw one man grab the fence with both hands to get down! He was certainly "in shock!"  This cruel obstacle got Mom, who was very afraid about wetting herself after her friends past experiences with electrified obstacle courses.  Luckily she didn't, but she still said it hurt for a while afterwards.

 Nature's amazing Sundog set the mood for our completion of the apocalyptic race, despite our deaths.  It must be a sign about the end of the world!

 "Ouch, I got shocked!  And I'm really really dead!"

 We made it!  Most of us dead, but dad triumphantly survived.  Joe had a ton of scrapes on his legs from a close encounter with a thorn bush while dodging one of the unforgiving zombies.  Apparently the zombie still took his flag even though he couldn't move.  Joe made some easy food for him.

After changing into our fresh clothes, we sat around listening to a nice band while celebrating the end of the world with the rest of the racers and the zombies who chased them.  Here we our with the final results: Joe died, Sam died, Mom died, and Dad lived.  The guy on the left looked quite hungry for out brains, but luckily he didn't attack.  He must still have a little bit of a soul.

Les Miserables

     Just last week the Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert came in the mail from the infamous Netflix.  I decided that I would watch and understand the whole thing in anticipation for the show's stop here in Chicago.  After I watched the concert, I had mixed feelings.  At first, I thought "This is really lengthy."  After I finished the whole thing though, I realized that it was actually really good.  I thought the music was boring, but that's because every word someone says is sung.  That got a little old, but it was still impressive.  My favorite songs, as the case usually is with musicals, are the songs that involve an entire ensemble such as "Red and Black" and "One Day More".  I cannot wait to see this show when it comes to Chicago because I'm sure that when stage movements and acting are added, it will take on a completely different level of impressiveness.  This is the world's most famous musical for a reason.  

Relay Pictures

Relaying for Life

     It's been two days, and the effects of the overnight endeavor are still within me.  They include sleepiness.  I feel lethargic, but what I'm feeling right now is nothing to compare to Sunday, two days after.  Relay for Life is an annual event that spans over two days from 6 pm the first day to 6 am the next day.  At least one person from your team is supposed to be walking at all times, but usually that doesn't happen like it did with my group.  See, at around midnight, people didn't want to get up and walk anymore because they were too comfortable on their nice lawn chairs.  Here's my philosophy, if people can battle for years with cancer and go through absolute hell then we can easily keep one person walking the track all night.  It's just a complete lack of effort and consideration which caused this discrepancy.  Now, my views of the event were much stronger than most of my teammates so I would willingly get up and walk.  I always had a friend from another team that would walk with me, so I never hesitated to ditch my lame group to walk around the track.  Plus, I had more energy than my whole group!  It must be because I exercise, but I doubt that's why.  Some people even slept, which is completely wrong in my book because that makes the night just like any other.
     It was a fun event, but my group disappointed me.  They were a fun group to be with, but they didn't seem to understand what Relay for Life was.  A lot of them just saw it as a social gathering when it is, in fact, a community service endeavor!  You don't give to your community by sleeping or just sitting in a circle.  You give to the community by putting the effort forth to show that you care about other people, and that involved being consciously responsible for someone walking at all times.  The ceremonies were very inspirational and well done, and I truly enjoyed having the survivors and care givers honored in the way they were.  It was very impressive, but otherwise I enjoyed the peace and quiet associated with walking.
     The most amazing thing I saw at Relay for Life was Kathy, Mrs. Staines' sister with Cerebral Palsy.  Mrs. Staines is my neighbor who cuts my family's hair, and their family is very into Relay for Life, especially Kathy.  Her goal was to get 101 laps, one more than last year's 100.  When I saw her going around the track, she was always being pushed by someone until I saw her one time pushing herself.  Now, her limbs are bent up and are very small and she can barely talk, but she was still pushing herself backwards around the track in her wheel chair.  That defined perseverance to me, so I decided to push her for a lap to help her reach her 100.  All of my friends were amazed at how kind I was!  It's strange how they wouldn't do the same, but I don't do things like that for other people that often.  It was this moment at this place that I decided to help someone.  After I pushed her for a lap, I gave her to one of her teammates who ran her around a few times, but almost all of her team left her.  This surprised me because I would think that a completely healthy person should last longer than her, but apparently not.  Most of the time I saw her, I saw her pushing herself until the last two hours where people were running with her around and around the track, ensuring that she reaches 101 laps.  That was amazing to me that she made it, and it's also amazing to know that I helped make one of those laps possible.
     I've never been hit with cancer in my family, and I'm very thankful, but I feel ignorant to not know how if feels to experience such a battle.  I look at these people and feel sad for their losses, but I truly don't know how they feel.  Sometimes I wonder if they wish for other people to feel their pain, but I know that idea is absurd.  I hope that I never have to experience cancer firsthand, and I hope that the small amount of money I raised helps someone in the future overcome their battle triumphantly!  We can find a cure, we have hope!