Hw 31

Well, I discreetly asked a family member a question of status. I asked the person, why do they curse so much? Is it to show that they are tough? Funny? Smart-ass? The person was at first surprised and to shy to answer. Eventually the person said that they do it because it's in their nature. To me, I didn't believe it. I know this person to watch to much MTV and movies where there is always someone cursing their mouth off. I feel that this person really wants to become like them, so they act out their part and try to follow this role model and hope to become like them eventually.
The only thing i really act out is how quiet i am. I don't really like to talk and it can be interpreted as me being mysterious. Me, i have watch all those movies and crap like that and I would say i have become unknown. If i don't want to be seen as acting like someone else, then who should i act like? If there is no me, then who the fuck is "me"? Yea, this confused me, so i just act like nothing, or at least try to act like nothing.
I guess another way to look at this is that I'm all that meaning I'm too good to be someone, i can be myself by acting like nothing. This is another way to look at how i act. Sometimes I act like a douchebag, getting all cocky and making smart remarks and i know that this isn't me but i feel like this is fun every once in a while.

HW 30

I believe that "cool" is nothing more than a teenager perspective of things. As kids, most of us, can do nothing more than to attend school. For kids, school is their life: their job, hangout, source of education, everything from knowledge to prison. And because most of life's wonder: doing new things, driving cars, having sex, etc, are restricted to adults, what else can a kid do? I believe "cool" is like living. For instance, if a person works day and night and does nothing else, it wouldn't be considered "cool." Same concept applies to kids. We play these roles, genius, athlete, doctor, badass, rebel, philosopher, princess, etc, because they were portrayed by adults that we want to become or at least wish to be. Some people would call this filling a gap in our life, to get attention from certain or all people. We, kids, want to play this game, a game played by everyone, and for everyone, to become heroic as Abe Lincoln, or as creative as Beethoven, and so many more people. People say that they want to be happy, but i seriously doubt that. To me, these roles played by people, is nothing more than playing a video game. To add on, I think that the bottom truth of it all is because we're bored, and I don't mean just teenagers. Everyone gets bored of their roles and eventually grow up and find a new one. You know the saying "A man dies a hero or lives long enough to see himself become a villain"?(I cannot find the origin of the quote.) This game of playing roles have been going on for years to come. The man just decided to change roles, from heroic to villain. There is always role changing. Even as I watch Ripley’s Believe or Not, there is role changing as this man who dreamed of becoming a Tap Dancer, instead decided to become the best limbo player. Everyone is playing this game, it’s rated E for everyone, even when there is sexual content and use of alcohol because anyone one can do that. It’s a game, every role has to follow their rules otherwise they are not playing their roles. And as soon as they get bored of playing the princess or minion, or boss, they move on to do other things. I believe that boredom makes us play these roles, some people get stuck and choose others to fill in the gap, such as religion. Other choose to fill in the gap with whatever, they become whores or idiots. But in terms of “cool,” is a way for kids to cope with their life and cool can be anything, because people grow up differently and in many places will have different ideas of what a cool person is.

HW 29

I don't believe for one second that people act like themselves. If you compare how teenagers act with their friends to how they act with their family, you will see two completely different people. Merchant Of Cool states that we see over 10,000 advertisement by the time we reach the age of 18. With so much influence around, we become the reflections of mirrors. The mirrors being that the media show us whats cool and we respond to it by acting it out. Its like we are the actors and actresses of a play whereas the media wrote the script for us. If the media shows us what is cool, we quickly try to become it so we would fit in with the thousands of other people who are reacting just as quickly as us. I also believe we all want a part in this play, we all want to be recognized by what we do from certain people such as our parents and friends and people we envy. But I don't believe there is anything wrong with this because everyone is looking to be something and we'll get answers from anywhere. Seriously, we'll take any answers that will guide us to be what we want to be, well known. Some people get answers from money, books, television, friends, and religion. All these methods have become ways to become well known and everyone is doing it.
According to the Merchants of Cool, all they do is feed the cool stuff back to the teenagers. Its like in Fight Club where they make expensive soap out of the fats of people and sell it back to them. These products, because they are suppose to be cool, will ensure all eyes on you. And because of this, anyone who is insecure about themselves will copy these traits and hope they get good attention, and quickly abandon their old self. The Merchants of Cool also knows that cool wares off as soon as people discover them, so they quickly try to find the next cool thing before it is even cool to the teens. Since everyone is looking for attention, and teens spend a lot of easy money, marketers know to invest on popular teen products.
I don't think there is a way to completely ban advertisement from teenagers because advertisement comes from all shapes and sizes. For instance, your friends can advertise their shoes to you and you won't even notice it. Or you read that your favorite idol does a certain thing, and suddenly you like it. There is no proper way to completely isolate ads from teenagers unless you put them in one of those white pillow rooms in those insane asylums. Otherwise teens will be exploited to thousands of ads to come.
Yes, i do believe that Rage Against the Machine, Mos Def and all bands that creates songs like them about the bad cooperation and so on should never make a deal with them because it contradicts with the music they made. If they actually fight for what they believe in, then they would not have give in to the people they were fighting against. So them signing the contracts means that they are just looking for money, and they don't care about their message.

hw 28

How I meet your Mother is a television show about a guy telling his kids about how he meet their mother. One guy who i thought was cool or trying to play the role of a cool guy is Barney Stinson, played by Neil Patrick Harris. Barney portrayed as a womanizer who leads a life of randomness. Although not the main character, Barney takes the main character around places, mostly strip clubs, but often makes the main character do crazy things. Barney portrays the free willed cool guy and even though he can be an asshole at times, this makes people want to follow him around more.

Jeff Bayer. http://www.askmen.com/money/how_to_250/252b_how_to.html, Fitness Specialist, Every Monday. Seems to be like the example that Andy gave for HW 28, except i think that more people follow this concept. On Andy's website, it tells you to not give a damn about what people think of you, and to do things your way, i.e. be yourself but nobody does that and even if they do, its hard to tell. This site, as much as i hate it, seems to be more accurate. It tells you how to be in the middle of a pack, and tells you how to make the least amount of mistakes when looking cool. It tells you how to interpret how people would see you if you do something wrong, and teaches you tricks on how to please someone without over doing it.

Alan Who. http://alanwho.com/ask/how-to-be-cool/ 2/16/09. This looks like it was posted from Nickoloeon or something. First off, it tells you that no matter who you are, your cool, then it contradicts itself by giving you a list of whats cool. Anyways, this list says that being cool means to never lose your cool and to learn from school. goth kids are never cool, always obey the law, always be nice, and explain yourself. This is how Alan thinks cool is.


Krystle C., Nandita Singh, Lucas Halbert, Joli, Leona, Mark, AlienBoy and others. http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Cool-at-School. This site is about how to be cool in school. It tells you to not, like all the other sites, not be so hot headed, and be nice, and be clean, and have your own style and have a little humor. These tips are more specific for school and if you want to learn more about how to act cool, just click on the hyperlink there...you know that blue link. If your to lazy to find it, ill just paste it again right here (http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Cool-at-School). There we go.

Scott Christensen. http://www.a1b2c3.com/suilodge/metfun1.htm. 1995. Anyways, i got bored of looking up things that makes you cool when they are just recycled crap, so i took a different approach of "cool". Did you know that there are other "cool ways" too? Not just how to be cool in school, there's how to be a cool role model, how to do cool things, and finally cool ways to die. I've just read some of them such as the "Bullet in your head" or the Death by Seinfeld and i wonder, how are these things considered cool? Is it how hard they are to attempt? Or how it will look to other people? Are these "cause of death" cool because they have the word cool entitled just like the many other things that are labeled cool because people find them cool? If this isn't cool then how much can we trust other people when they find something cool?

Overall, there is no way to seem cool to everyone. Just like in Alan Who's document, you're already cool, to some people and best to find them too. No matter what you do, piss off the principal, become a lapdog for a girl, do something extremely illegal, you are cool to a certain type of group that can be found anywhere thanks to the internet. All these repeated nonsense about being cool is just an act, just like in How to be cool in school, forget what you think people will think about you. think of them as a worthless human being with no future if it helps being yourself. And that's the only method i agree with form all these sites. Any other method it more like how to be a celebrity because it teaches you how to deal with attention. If your an attention freak, follow the steps, otherwise don't give a damn about other people, just deal with your own life.

HW 27

Richard: Sir, do you have a moment.

Some Guy on the Street: Sure

Richard: Who do you think is cooler, Obama or Bush?

Some Guy on the Street: Whose cooler? Um..i would say Bush, i mean its cool that we got a black president, but Bush as funnier.

Richard: So funny makes someone cool?

Some Guy: Well a lot of things are considered cool. I mean Obama is cool in his own ways because he thinks about the people and Bush is cooler because he is funny without realizing it.

_____

Richard: Hey can i talk to u for a minute?

Friend: Sure what do u want?

Richard: wat does it mean to be cool?

Friend: wat do u mean? wat do i think is cool?

Richard: Sure

Friend: i think cool is being urself

Richard: do u really believe that?

Friend: i dont kno

Richard:...ok wat to u is cool?

Then his internet connection died...

_______________

This is a family interview...sort of.

Richard: Hey, what do you think is cool?

Family Member: Why are you asking this?

Richard: School homework

FM: So...why are you asking me?

Richard: ummm...yea...

Silence...

Richard: At least answer this, who do you think people should live their lives?

FM: I don't know, let them do whatever they want.

Richard: So your philosophy is let live? Even if that meant killing people?

FM: People are doing it today aren't they?