The Great Gatsby

To start out this wonderful blog on famous "Gatsby", I would like to say I thoroughly liked the movie and book, very much. I, like many girls, like classy (and somewhat sexy) men who parade around in fancy suits and are extremeley romantic. Although, I can also see why people weren't too into the movie and the book.

One particular part about the movie I thought was fantastic was the music. It was a great mix between the 1920's and todays music. The upbeat parts of the movie had lots of lively music with lots of trumpets and upbeat instruments, along with beats and bass from todays era. During the more emotional, mysterious parts of the movie the music changed to a piano room feel with a mixture of softer beats. I thought the music really added to the movie by giving each scene it's vibe. For example, the song "Young and Beautiful" by Lana Del Ray, was played during every scene that included the love between Daisy and Jay. It was played in a bunch of different variations which I thought was so cool and really added to the movie. I think the music not only added to the auditory greatness of the film, but also to the theme of the film.

Social Mobility

As portrayed in just about every movie, book, article, or text: America is the land of dreams. I myself, believe that to be somewhat true. I have seen people come from rags to complete riches, in my family and others around me. Although sometimes that's not the case, I've seen the poor get poorer and the rich become richer. I think that is one problem we have here, and that there is no happy medium anymore. Either people want to be the top spot or they become the lowest of low. Why can't we be okay with just enough?

Now that racism is somewhat set aside, as is sexism, we have a new problem on the rise: social classism. I know I have personally felt affected by this. When I tell my friends (of a higher class) I can't come to dance saturday mornings because I have to work, I feel as if they don't understand. I think this goes along the lines of the aritlce we read titled "No Rich Child Left Behind", in the article it talks about how kids in families with more money, are more prone to be in extra curricluars. Maybe the reasoning behind this is because they have to work for their money, and that is a priority over sports or even education. One other part of the article that actually made me giggle a little was the section on social class rankings and college completion. If you are around the age of a college student, or are a parent of a college student, you know how ridiculousily expensive it is. "families who earn a bachelor's degree has increased by 18 percentage points over a 20-year period, while the completion rate of poor students has grown bt only 4 points." This sentence was obvious to me, of course this is true it's not only expensive to go to college but it's also miserable going through debt because of student loans. This takes it back to social mobility, how are the poor people going to become successful and earn enough money to be content, if they aren't even able to afford the proper education to do so?

Source D, an article written from the stand point of an immigrant, also touched base on the topic of social mobility. Some parts of it very much confused me, but he had really good and valid quotes that brings together todays world and social class. One quote from the article that made me think that social mobility is still possible today was the one about Oprah Winfrey, "Oprah grew up in abject poverty, only to become one of the richest women in the world". Even are current president didn't grow up with (by any means) the money that he has now. In the article he talked about how our climate is so pessimistic, and after all the attacks made on the U.S. that hatred for us is common. I think this was more of a valid text since it's seen through the eyes of someone who has experienced first hand, social mobility.

The article, "Economic Mobility is Determined by Personal Choice", really made me angry and made me realize how much I wish politics don't exist. It is an overgeneralization of "liberals" clearly told by someone who considers themselves conservative. I think that his opinion is unfair. Being a liberal myself, I believe that social mobility is not as prominent today because of people who feel they need all the money in the world. While reading this article all I could think about was the saying, "the rich get richer and the poor get poorer".

I got Bourgeoi Vous (can't quite remember how to spell it) and I think that I fit fairly well in this social class. I don't generally consider myself someone who is from the upper middle class, but I do think sometimes I live the lifestyle of one. I feel this way because I work alot so I have all this extra money I don't have to spend on rent, bills, and etc... Sometimes I find myself splurging on something designer. All though usually I consider myself and my family middle class, I think the description I received from the quiz was rather accurate.

The story we read about social class being harder to read was interesting ("Shadowy Lines That Still Divide"). I didn't really quite agree with the article. For example, in class we talked about the seperation of classes just in the city of Madison. If you compare the west side to the east side, you will be able to tell which side is wealthier. On the west side, the mall has nicer more expensive stores, nicer buildings, nicer schools, and newere houses. Another example that makes me think that social class has a look is at dance competitions I go to. You can tell who has more money by the warmups they wear and the name brands on their clothes. I don't believe in stereotyping, and I don't think you can just look at someone and determine if they are rich or poor, but I definitely think you can somewhat tell which social class people are from. "It has become harder to read people's status in the clothes they wear, the cars they drive, the votes they cast, and the god they worship, the color of their skin", a quote from the article that I have mixed feelings about. I think that you can most definitely not tell by the color of their skin or who they worship, but I do think that the materialistic things somewhat show what social class they come from.

Sound and Fury

I thought that the film was very interesting and gave all of us a different look at the deaf culture. There were a couple main arguements to point out in the film- was it disrespectful to the deaf families to get a cochlear implant, should heather get the cochlear implant, and how is the cochlear implant going to affect the future of the deaf culture. The twin's mother and father made the decision to give their son a cochlear implant, it was devistating to them because coming from a family of deaf people they did not want their child to grow up the same way. Their descision to give their son the cochlear implant really hurt their family, ecspecially the mom's mom. I think that it was hard for her mother to really understand because her whole life she was deaf and she doesn't know any other way. I think that if we switched perspectives, ( which this would never happend) if a family member came up to us a said I want to go deaf we would all be shocked and wonder why because that would be different from us and why would you want to do that?
Heather's father ecspecially made it seem as if he was against the hearing world, he loved the deaf culture. He was trying to argue that Heather did not need the cochlear implant because she would stray away from the deaf culture. He also felt disrespected if she were to get the implant. Her father was also worried about the deaf culture disinigrating. I personally don't think the cochlear implant is a bad thing because like they mentioned in the movie it opens up lots of new opportunities for people who are born or who have gone deaf.

Lilapsophobia

I have never in my life seen a tornado, nor have I experienced anything close to even a twister, yet nothing more in this life frightens me more than the sound of the sirens on a gloomy, hot afternoon. Once those screeching sirens go off my body tightens, and I feel as if I need to be in a dark cold basement until it all goes away. If I am in a car, or looking out the window my anxiety hits the roof. Having to be tortured by those dark, deathly looking clouds makes me feel as if the apocalypse is right around the corner.

Some people think I'm crazy, but yet the news feels the need to alarm us every 10 seconds when we are simply trying to watch a good show. There is just nothing more frightening than the thought of a whirly swirly cyclone of debris come at you full at speed. Here is where I would probably give you a bad experience I had with a twister, but in all honestly I haven't even come close to a tornado. When the big one hit in Stoughton ( a neighbor community to my own) I was luckily in California. This is one thing about summer I never cease to miss, the nice humid day at the pool can instantly change into night 4 hours earlier. For those who can tolerate these scary storms, good for you. This is something in my life I don't think will ever really change.

response to free speech

To me it seems that his motive is to try and help the U.S. but when i read things that say the consequencs of some of his leaks could be "potentially severe and dangerous" makes me think he is more of a traitor. If the U.S. Secretary of Defense is a witness against Assange, it makes me lean more towards the fact that these people are doing these leaks against the United States. I am confused though because when we watched the interview with Julian Assange he made it seem as though he was saving the world, this article made it seem as if he is hurting the U.S. ecspecially our military. Another thing from the article that makes me a bit untrustworthy is the opening sentence stated that he was in custody of having committed sex crimes. hm..