Describing a Friend

With dark hair and a skin tone with a sun kissed touch. My friend Christian is a unique person who certainly lets it be known. His hair when wet looks similar to hair on a wet distressed dog. But when dry, he sports a haircut unlike others, one that is done up in some strange pattern with a large amount of gel. His tattoos of the Virgin Mary and angels in gothic form mark his devotion to the Catholic Church in beautiful artwork form. His style is current, skinny jeans and a button up proves that he cares about his look. While someone may think he is tough, those who know him recognize the act he puts on. Apart from being one of the funniest people I know, Christian is among the hardest working. Going to school and working nearly 40 hours a week might take a toll on some people, but for Christian his philosophy is simple. In order to make the money he wants, he must work for it. Not only is my friend Christian one of the most interesting people I know, he is one of the most genuine.

The "Bull"

            After reading, “Bull on the Mountain” by Oliver Sacks, I sat for a few minutes attempting to explain to myself what I had just read. I liked the story, and as an outdoorsmen myself I can relate to a bit of his experience. However, this story had me questioning Mr. Sacks as an avid outdoorsman. First off, he ventures out to climb a mountain by himself in a foreign country knowing that someone did the same exact thing and died doing it. Secondly, his ego seems to be something he is very proud of. All of his work in the gym and the gifts that nature has blessed him with has given him the ability to conquer whatever physical feat lay ahead of him. Unfortunately, he has not conquered fear. At the sight of the bull, he slowly turns around and then loses his cool and begins running. I think pretty much everyone knows that running down a mountain is never a good idea.

            His strength and desire are definitely proved after he manages to climb down after his injuries but I still question what caused them in the first place. Did Mr. Sacks really see a bull? Near the introduction, he has the audacity to call himself a bull referring to his strength and toughness. It’s quite possible that he, “the bull” fell on his own. While maybe as a person, I am not a fan of Oliver Sacks; I really did enjoy his writing style. He was not afraid to make a bit of fun at himself and he certainly did not downplay his self-confidence and I think that added a lot to the story. Overall I thought it was an interesting read and it reminded me a lot of the movie 127 Hours with James Franco who plays a man who is forced to cut his own arm off after getting pinned by a boulder in a canyon. It’s a great movie based completely off of a real story. One of my favorite scenes is linked below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGc8TNRhE8U&feature=player_embedded

The Room

Here in Museum Collections, a building I did not know existed is a room. This room in this “Museum” houses no historically significant objects as far as I can tell. What is this museum then? Some Dinosaur bones on the way in were nice to look at but so far that is all I have seen. But yet we are in this room and it is unique. The glossed over windows make it seem as if it is cold and snowy out. The one window that is cracked open proves otherwise. Sitting in silence, pens floating over paper, all that is heard in this room is the sliding of the arm as we all write about this room.

            However, outside this room, through that cracked window there is the hustle and bustle of life. A motorcycle drives by and the bits of green tree that is visible waves in the breeze. A burst of sirens becomes alive; no one reacts as it quickly fades into the distance. The mumbling of the professor in the next room lets us know that we are in fact not alone and that there are others in a slightly different room that it without a doubt unique to them. In our room, it seems very ordinary. The one thing that really stands out in particular is the poster near the door. On it, a large spider with words underneath him and on the rest of the poster. A few words stick out due to their font color, “Use toxic chemicals for defense”. There is a word in front of that phrase but from where I am sitting I cannot read it. It could be don’t or do or please or never, who knows, but I am curious. 

Why I Hate Scary Movies

Around Halloween time, there is always the release of some very scary movies. Some are filled with gore and guts and others just plain old terrifying. While many people flock to the theaters to indulge in what I consider a sick fetish, I choose to steer clear of these films. Why? Because I simply hate the feeling of sitting down whether in a living room or movie theater where things come out of nowhere and I have no choice but to sit in my seat and watch.

            It isn’t that I hate blood and gore; I just find it completely unnecessary to take it to the extreme like many of these movies do. Here I am having a mini heart attack and I have paid money for this to happen. It just doesn’t really make very much sense to me. I don’t find it fun to get scared, its not how I want to spend my free time. If I really wanted to get scared, I could tell my parents that I’m dropping out of school, then I would be terrified. Its not even that someone is setting up something to scare you, your purposely-paying money to get scared.

            From the scary movies that I have seen, they all start off like this. First groups of people big or small come across some supposedly haunted house or wander into a haunted forest because they heard that it was haunted. Then they all make the clearly poor choice of entering said haunted house or forest and slowly one by one are killed in increasingly gruesome ways. Nearly all scary movies are terrible movies with terrible actors. If I want a movie that excites me and where people get killed, I can watch an action or thriller where the good guy/girl is always a badass and comes out on top. It’s just the idea of paying money or wasting time to get the crap scared out of me is not something that I enjoy.

            Don’t get me wrong I love Halloween. I love dressing up, I love candy I actually like haunted houses too but I hate sitting and watching some stupid people get killed in gross ways. I can think of many other ways I would like to spend my time.

Daughters from Danang

I found this documentary to be an interesting mix of emotion and frustration for me. Although it was easy to feel for Heidi and her inability to fit in her homeland, I felt incredibly frustrated by her lack of knowledge and understanding. She experienced a stereotypical case of culture shock upon her arrival causing her immediate anxiety and emotional distress. I just don’t understand what exactly she was expecting. Here was a family she had barely ever known back in a third world country ravaged by a gruesome and vicious war. And yet she is taken aback by the poverty they live in.

            What stuck me first about Heidi’s complete lack of knowledge was her dress code. This lady travels to a southeastern country nearly on the equator and walks around dressed in leggings and long sleeve shirts. When I visited Vietnam I wore gym shorts and a tank top and I was still hot. The other article of clothing that really stood out to me was the jewelry that she wore the whole time there. Gold rings, a watch and a necklace really made her not just stand out but show her actual family that she was well off.

            When Heidi finally does meet her real family, the happiness is short lived. The language and cultural barrier makes conversation and interaction awkward. Heidi feels suffocated due to her real mothers desire to spend ever waking hour together. The worst comes when Heidi is asked to bring her mother back to live with her in the United States. It is understandable that this is a request that Heidi does not want to make, but the request for Heidi to send some money back monthly I think is not. This becomes a clash of cultures. The family lives in less than ideal conditions so that when a family member does move away it is customary they send money back. But Heidi cannot move past her feelings of resentment and doesn’t grant either request choosing instead to leave early back to the life she knows.

            For Heidi to abandon her family giving nothing back I thought was selfish. If Heidi was able to send even $20 a month back to her real family, I know it would make a huge difference in their lives. But she chose to leave and forget wishing she had left the curiosity alone. Daughters of Danang displays stereotypic American cultural ignorance and selfishness at its finest. The fact that she wished she never went, never wrote back to the letters they sent her and never met and reconnected with her real family proves her self-centered personality. She visited a life that she should have been living only to forsake and wish to disremember instead of embracing and cherish.

Aligning the Internal Compass

In Jessica McCaughey’s “Aligning the Internal Compass”, I found a short story that brought me back to the days of my study abroad program and my attempts to travel in unfamiliar places. Your internal compass from my experience seems to be something that isn’t just inherited. You either possess the ability to thrive in uncomfortable situations or you are prepared with knowledge. Your ability to decipher maps that are in foreign languages or find seemingly invisible landmarks is an important aspect to travelling both efficiently and effectively.

            In this day and age, technology has given those who are not directionally enabled a tool that is worth its weight in gold. Smartphones equipped with GPS can tell you where you are and if for some reason you can’t find the place you are going, then you have the world wide web – both in the palm of your hand. I will not go as far as to say that I’m am directionally challenged mainly due to my impressive feat of navigating the Tokyo subway system by myself one day but I definitely have my bad days. The first necessity is to have a game plan, even if it is very vague. The city you want to visit and what you would like to see and do when you are there. Secondly, you need to use and possess the resources that are available to you; maps and guidebooks are really the only tools that will help you help yourself. In Tokyo, the first thing I did was find a subway map, with this in hand I figured out the subway system I was by reading signs and then looked to see where I was planning on going. The night before I had made a list of stations that I was told to check out, I found them on the map and then began plotting my route toward them. Efficiency was the key since I had a clear time frame. However, given the different number of lines and transfers it was no easy task. But, I was prepared with knowledge and a plan and so I was just fine.

            This brings me to the story of McCaughey and her father and their pathetic attempt to navigate the woods. It was clear to me that from the beginning, it was not going to go so well. Their lack of knowledge and preparedness prove to be harsh when they become lost and unable to read the map. As an Eagle Scout, I spend my fair share of weekends in the woods and on backpacking trips through the mountains where it was vital that we know how to us these basic and frankly ancient tools of navigation. It seemed to me that with all of her attempts to try and improve her sense of direction, she just never seemed to improve. Barely making it out of the woods as one of the last groups (I saw that coming) it was clear that she and her father should either never go back into the woods or actually take a real instructional class on navigation. From my experiences, once you can figure out your current position and have a good idea on how far you walk (which requires setting a pace), it is not very hard from then on.

            I found the story overall humorous and entertaining although at times frustrating that they just could not figure out where they were or where they had to go. The origins of directional skills in my opinion depend on your preparedness and experience. It isn’t really something you are born with, maybe your comfort level in sticky situations can play a big part but being able to use the tools you are given properly makes the world of a difference.