My Christmas Break

Hey, everybody, Merry Christmas and happy holidays! I hope everybody had a great Christmas and had a lot of family to celebrate with! It seemed like a perfect Christmas in New Jersey... with the ethereal beauty of the snow on the ground, the warm fire inside of my house, and the entire week off too, with tons of time to spend with my family and friends. However, many saturnine business executives may not be saying the same, because this year has recorded the lowest sales during Christmas in over three decades. To say it in a more laconic fashion: Not Good. Many businesses are giving very amorphous statements, so nobody can tell either how well or how badly they had done this year. One thing is certain though: we are going to be seeing this recession happen for an increasing period of time now. Although it is a nerve racking theory, I am going to try to enjoy my Christmas break and tell you about how I have done.

My mom set up a house with many baroque items that she saves for this time of year. The candles and chandeliers that we use during Christmas remind me of European architecture in the early centuries. All of the other decorations that she used were very nice, too. But that was not something I was too interested in. No, I was going to find my presents prior to Christmas. When I lived in my old house, I knew all of the secret hiding spots that my parents used to hide. Being the surreptitious boy I am, I would look in every inch and corner until I found them. Terrible, I know, but I would do it. However, now that I live in a different house, I was unable to find anything. I had no clues. No dossiers leaving me information about the house, no nothing. So I had to wait. But it resulted in a good Christmas, with a lot of presents and food. My grandma came, who deserves a lot of cachet when she comes because of the great food she makes and the smile on her face. The rest of my mom's family coalesced; my uncle and aunt came with their family, whom I have not seen in more than a year because they live in Texas. My week off was very good for the most part.

Also, this week I have decided to take a break on lifting weights during an off-season and take a week's break. The reason why is that I may have been working myself too hard, and injured my right clavicle head (which is the upper part of my right pectoral in my chest). In order to avoid further injury for sports I am taking the week off. I am really excited to get started again; since I have begun lifting, I have seen a huge change in my appearance and strength.

What's Gonna Change for me Now?

Now that the recession booms on throughout the country, there will definitely be changes to my life and the lives of the people around me. The entire country has succumbed to the recession, and have had to begin to start spending both less and cheaper. Companies have noticed from their (lack of) profits that the country is invidious and will not buy unless companies lower prices. Therefore companies lower prices, less people buy, sucking down to an even higher recession than there was. But we're not going to go into how this started today. Today, I am going to begin to explain how the recession will affect me on a more personal level. What I will use less, what I am (and what I am not) going to buy, and all of that.

Because we know that this recession is not ephemeral and will go on for quite a while, it is better that I start saving money for my parents too. I think that the first thing that I will begin to take a temporary moratorium on the chicken sandwiches I buy for lunch. It's not that my parents have abrogated me to buy them; I simply think that I will do them a favor and make my own lunch (and I'm sure my parents will not be implaceable to such a deal). Chicken sandwiches cost $3.50, and an extra $.25 a day for bacon, which I usually almost have. Believe me, it adds up. If I had that for, say, 160 days of school, that comes out to be about $600! And let's not forget, that's only chicken, not calculating the snacks such as pretzels and ice cream that come with it. Instead, I'm going to begin to just make lunches at home. My mom buys cold cuts every week, so if I wake up five minutes earlier every day, I could make a sandwich for myself. Even just getting chicken at school once or twice a week would save a significant amount of money. Hopefully my sandwiches will be at least a little comestible, and I won't die from them.

Second idea: I'll use my bike a little more. Although gas prices are at very low rates right now, and have continued to drop for approximately 29 weeks now, gas is still a hefty price. My school is only about a mile away; when it gets warmer again I'll probably ride to school like many of my friends who also live nearby do. There are also a lot of friends that live nearby and a town that we hang out in a lot that is close too. I could ride there instead of asking for my parents to take me. Although this idea may seem very quixotic to some because of the cold weather in winter, it really is not too bad. There is one laconic solution to this: wear warm clothes. None of these places are more than two miles from my house; a simple five minute drive.

Another thing that I could definitely cut down on is the amount of money I spend on video games and other kinds of games every year. The first reason to this is that video games are not a necessity; they are only something that one chooses to use. I could definitely spend a little less time on those, and a little more on something at least a tiny more productive. Also, my parents deprecate some of the video games that I play, saying that they are too violent and that they are not doing any good for me. I always cryptically respond that I won't use them as much, however after I go downstairs and continue.

One last thing that I can think of right now would be landscaping my house. Now that I moved, I only have a backyard. However, landscapers still came throughout the end of last year to cut the lawn for us. In our new house, we have a lawnmower, and although I am a bit maladroit to use it, it is definitely something I could use. I was not very familiar with it, however, and was very credulous when my friend said it turned itself as I went straight into a fence. However, as soon as i start getting used to how capricious the lawnmower is, as it moves very sharply, I will get the hand of it pretty easily.

These are the many things that I could do to save this family money as we head into the worst of the recession, in which hopefully we will come out of soon. I do not mean to equivocate anyone that the recession will either end soon or not end soon, because nobody knows what will happen. I also apologize for the sudden argot from place to place in this blog, because I have to try to fit in as many words as I can before this assignment ends. I do not speak this colloquially to my peers, however I must write this way in order to receive a decent grade for the assignment. I also hope that you do not find the sudden bounce to bounce in my subjects to be garrulous; I simply think about any subject I want to talk about, and write about it.

Can the American Dream still be Applied Today?

"The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position" (James Adams, Epic of America, 1931).

Question: Can the American Dream Still be Applied Today?

This question has emerged from the playwrights of Death of a Salesman, The Glass Menagerie, and many other books that we have read in the past. I have written papers about the American Dream, and the strenuous life, and if the American Dream can still be applied to today. In the beginning of the year, I was a solidified believer in the American Dream. In my opinion, if one works hard and absolutely toils then they will be able to follow in the roots of the American Dream, and will be able to own their own house and have a family. However, throughout this year I have read several books, those in which have described how false the American Dream really is, and it involves one more thing in the equation that we will talk about later; luck. First, I will go over my pre-beliefs of the American Dream, analyzing my idea of why the American Dream no longer exists.

The idea that many people (immigrants specifically) believe in the American Dream is that if they toil and work extremely hard, they will be able to live the "American Dream." Throughout our history, America has seen examples of the American Dream. Briefly I will explain some examples. Immigrants, many immigrants who have come to the United States to work, come to our country in order to find jobs. They start off at the bottom of the chain, which in this case is going to various estates, physically mowing the law. Today we find that most of these managers and bosses happen to be the people who began working at the bottom of this chain. In the landscape industry, roughly 71% of the bosses and managers of these companies began working from the bottom of the company. This is seen in places like Wal-Mart also, where many people have the opportunity to rise through the business and become a top manager in the company. However, in the playwrights Death of a Salesman & The Glass Menagerie, the idea of the American Dream is seen as only an illusion.

For those who do not achieve what we call the American Dream should not leave a stigma on their confidence. I think that America has beguiled this amount of greatness that America has. I do not mean to excoriate the American Dream, but in my opinion, there is one thing that is able to make the American Dream so achievable: luck. The only salient way that can make one achieve the American Dream today is not hard work, but luck. In today's world, there are very few people who can say that because they worked extremely hard they achieved the American Dream. I think that those people who have achieved it received luck in one way or another.

For example, people define the result of the American Dream as owning a house with a wife and children, etc. However who are the percentage of Americans that have this? Well, Mostly the people who started out as middle-class and high-class citizens when they were children. I consider this luck because they were born to an advantage, and because of this advantage, they were able to meet more people and get help from many people that they would need in the future. For the most part sycophants and the sons and daughters to the managers of companies receive the same jobs because of their parents' roles. Of course, from personal experience, we see this happen all of the time. For example, Fred Burton, manager of Bally Shoes, is retiring this year, and giving the job he once had to his son. His son usurped the job, although never even working in shoe business before, nor apparently having a degree in business. They could have hired a number of different people who are more qualified for the job, but because that kid had more luck, they gave it to him.


If luck were exonerated from the American Dream, there would not be an American Dream at all nowadays. This is only a ruse used in America, that deceives more and more people as they enter the country. I am not saying that there are bad jobs in the country or that jobs are deceiving and are hard to find; People would not burgeon into the country if it were better in theirs. I simply think that luck is the word that is excluded from the equation, where it should be spoken about more. The American Dream may look tawdry, however there are many things calculated into it that make it more difficult than it really is.

Ridiculous...

"Yeah, so that situation is pretty bad there. But it's still Thanksgiving here."

This was the exact quotation that I saw while I was in vacation on the news last Thursday, after the Mumbai attacks the night prior. This just made me extremely angry, considering the horrible sorties that are currently taking place in India. I think that this taught us many different things about the news in general, which was something that I began to ponder. I am beginning to doubt the news and how they cover news; sometimes, we are too self centered in ourselves rather than thinking about the world in general.

The news on the attacks in Mumbai must have covered a total of maybe more than a minute on the news, probably only because there were many Americans injured during these attacks. Even worse, immediately after, the co-anchor of the show tries to change the mood immediately, giving a great smile at the screen and saying that it is still Thanksgiving, and switching off of the topic as quickly as he could. By the news just ignoring the news like that, it really expresses that they are hectoring these other countries. They believe that the attacks of the show was the nadir of the program,and that no one really cares to listen to it. This is the problem I have with the news and our media right now. It is extremely depressing that I would not have even known about these terrorist attacks in Mumbai if I had not checked the world news online.

The way that the news interpreted the attack was almost like the news derided the situation there. It's obvious of how self-centered our media has become. As one can tell, the way that the news acted about the attacks was extremely insulting to these people. Hundreds of people die everyday, and all the media could think about is the toppings that they would put on their turkey and what kind of stuffing to use. In my opinion, the news only thought of this as sheer ennui; it was only an annoyance to them, that only resulted in the boredom of them and their watchers. That is ridiculous.

Many Americans, sadly, still have not heard of the attacks yet, which is extremely maudlin. The fact that we do not discuss world news or negative news is extremely upsetting, and makes me very upset that this has not been brought up more and spoken about. The fact that we think we cannot allay ourselves of the incidents is very upsetting, and I really feel like our media is a huge embarrassment.

Change?

I will start this off making a pretty horrible reference. Change is as needed in this society as my sink in the basement needs to begin creating potable water that I would be able to drink. But what is this change? And why does it attract such a large attention, that America longs for so much?

Of course as an outsider looking in on the situation, I will first state that the candidates' minions really have to take a step out of the circle and begin looking elsewhere for their change. I do not find any of these qualities of this "change" that Americans look for in these two men. And I feel that after the election is won, America will be importuned with various requests regarding tax raises and other things that will show up in the near future. I thought I should write about this quickly today because not only am I about three vocabulary words first, but I am so furious with the government today and how we decide who we vote for and the various propaganda that these politicians spill to their audiences. In my opinion, these two politicians are only frauds who are nothing more than epicures; they are only here for the power and to wine and dine with those who are at the top of the power list.

In a quick conclusion, I would like to state that I am in complete abeyance from this election. Although it still goes on, I remain suspended between the slow fate of the election turning into the hands of either one decent politician or the other. Change is now? Please. Take this enigmatic concept into the equation. Change is all the time, and change is happening. Obviously it is, but it gives everybody a different idea of what the positive change will be, not what the actual change will be. In conclusion, I am very upset about this election, and hope that it will soon change for the better, instead of just change.

A Look in the Past

Progressing from recent years to now, I have seen an extremely vast change in myself and my lifestyle. The two lifestyles that I have gone through within my previous years of high school almost see each other as antipodes; they are, in my opinion, exact opposites. And now, looking backwards, I almost feel as if I could have been able to preclude all that has happened over the past couple years and prevent it. I will begin with my freshman year in this blog entry.

My life is a complete aberration from what it had been a couple years ago. Entering high school, I lived an adorned lifestyle; I had, what I assumed, two loving parents, and two great sisters who (for the most part) I have gotten along very welly with. I was at the time what I thought was the right thing to do. At the time, I was a much more gregarious person, and would be much more studious than occupying myself with what was more important at this time of my life; school. I found socializing and becoming a more popular person a more important thing to become at the time rather than working as hard as I should have on my school work. Looking back, I see that what changed me is the divorce that came upon my parents in the beginning of my freshman year. At one point in time, I started to see something else in my family. Unlike However, when my parents had abjured to their marriage, it changed my priorities completely.

For years there were many different signs that a divorce was coming, but ironically I had missed them all. There were many times when I heard them fight, but I instantly assumed that this is what most parents do and move on. Whether I lacked the age of understanding the concept of what was happening or whether I purposly remained ignorant of it, when I could no longer shade it from my life, it absorbed me. Quickly I reset my priorities into an entirely different direction, and overall I had learned something from it. I had to take care of my sisters much more, because I quickly had to make the change from the man of the house. I became almost a pariah at school, because I became so entangled with my studies and home chores that there was hardly a time to catch up with my friends and socialize with them.

The way that my parents told me how they broke up was filled with complete brio that came out of their mouths and into my brain to decide who was either correct or wrong. While they were speaking, they both used bombastic tones in speaking to us, however trying to convey the message of how the other had screwed up (which now reminds me of the Coca-Cola letter that we had gone over in class, whereas the bombast they used in their voices was very impressive, however there was an underlying meaning under all of this). The way that they had spoken of each other caused me to have very different contraceptions of both, unfortunately, enforcing me to envision a path that I had to make, not someone else for me.

Although this probably was more of a rant that I had to get off of my chest, I hope I explained my recent years well.

My two days off!

If one was looking for a halcyon story, full of easy and tranquil days, they are not to find it here. My mom tried asking me to skip either one activity or the other, because of her concern that I would miss two extremely important days of school. After that had not work, she exhorted me, almost demanding for me to either skip one activity or the other. I, however, decided that I would attend both my Peer Leaders meeting and my varsity debate. This blog will capture all of the events that had took place between the past two days with my extra curricular activities. Although challenging, I managed to do so with enough time on my hands to do homework.

First, yesterday I attended a Peer Leaders training, where a person came to speak to us. All of us assumed this training would be almost a bacchanal,whereas we would have more time to spend time talking to our peers and having a sort of party instead of going through one of the most maudlin experiences of all of our lives. The man who talked to us had confused us at first; he seemed very desultory, jumping from one subject to the next very quickly, leaving most of the leaders extremely confused. However, he did something next that had put all of the peer leaders into a shock. He quickly noticed an ingénue who sat close to me that answered a question, and began asking her about her life and how many times she did something just to please other people. Immediately, after she gave her answer, she began crying hysterically. The paroxysm she put fourth had put the entire classroom into an absolute state of shock. Today, everything was going to be laid on the table honestly, and that this person was only trying to help us all. He honestly had imbued me, and I truly drank in a lot of what he said and learned a lot from what he had taught us.

Today, I went to my first varsity debate and learned a lot from the experience. My partner and I were extremely nervous, however did well for our first varsity debate. My partner, Dave and I are almost antipodes of each other. We think extremely differently, and are almost opposites of each other. During a debate, we both put on various cameos to induce the judges opinions and side with us. Luckily, my two extremely eminent debate teachers, Kelsey Shields and Jess Mortilaro prepared an entire diagram of how to take down different plans by using various quotations. Although we went 1-3 for the day, Jess told me that it was a solid start for my first varsity debate. Something that I must work on is to be less chary; while I debate, sometimes I become very cautious or wary and often do not have the brio to take charge in these debates. Some of these groups exacerbate and almost scare me because they continue to make the situation more violent and hostile. I have to be the person who commandeers the debates, steering them in the direction that I want and taking them down in my favor.

These two days were overall a very fun experience, in which I really believe that I had learned a lot from. Peer Leaders really gave me a broader perspective on why people react and how to have a broader look on others. Overall, it was a positive experience that I hope to do soon.