Don't be a Douche

                Chivalry, as the majority of us have noticed, is dying. What happened to holding the door open for others? I’d really like to know how this trend had developed and which group of morons started it. It’s not just holding doors, it’s also several recurring events that have labeled this generation as “douche bags.” I’d like to analyze some of the characteristics that go hand in hand with seeing a guy’s actions and referring to him as a douche bag. We see them every day. Some people like to judge guys that wear a polo and boat shoes as being a douche, but that’s just dressing nice and appropriate. It’s all in a guy’s attitude and the way one converses with a group of people that you can tell whether they have crossed the line. I’m trying not to make this a how-to guide on to not being a douche bag, but parts of this blog will go into tips to guys and even girls on what types of guys that are out there.

                First off, nothing gets under my skin more than watching a guy walk into a building knowing there are people behind him and not even consider holding the door open. It’s common courtesy, people. Holding the door open for a girl says that the guy has a good set of manners and will for the most part get a “thank you” as a response, which could even spark a conversation with someone. Plus guys, it gives you an opportunity to check a girl out without it being obvious. Sure you might lose a spot in the lunch line, but in the end it will be worth it. You may think I’m being high and mighty, but this is something people talk about. I overhear people talk about it; believe me these conversations take place.

                Secondly, using obscene profane language around girls is a definite no-no. The odds are that the girls won’t mention anything about it, but that’s just because girls are relatively nicer than guys about things like that. They are polite, and we should be just as considerate as they are. I mean sure there are certain girls that are cool with sex jokes and can talk as dirty as guys can, but to a certain extent it can get out of line. Degrading a woman’s intelligence and rights will get you absolutely nowhere. I’ve witnessed several guys get placed on the “do not associate with list” purely based on the fact that they do nothing but talk trash around girls. If you think I’m lying, observe the way a girl reacts and interacts with you after awhile after you say specific types of things over and over again. It gets old fast. Am I saying that you should never kid around and lose your cool every now and then? No, merely that you should maybe consider their feelings and think that they probably don’t want to compare talking to you as the equivalent of a Chris Rock stand up routine. Over confidence in your speech can also make you come across as a real tool. Sure it’s okay to state your opinions and talk about your day, but you always want to throw in a, “How was your day?” every now and then. In all honesty, nobody cares as much about your prizes and past experiences more than you. So instead of bragging about how good you were at something or speaking religiously about an experience that happened a long time ago, it probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to consider toning it down a notch.

                Another thing, blaring rap music from your ’01 Chevy Malibu doesn’t make you a gangster-it makes you a douche bag. I have fallen victim to this before, so I know how the guy is feeling. You just want to get pumped up for going out with the guys, but you have to know your limits of being obnoxious. I’m sure the 30 year old mom next to you with her 3 year old child doesn’t want to listen to Lil’ Wayne’s new track. Respect comes into play in other areas than just in conversation. I’m not sure what it is about rap music that makes people feel the necessity to blast it in an excessive manner, but I know for a fact that I don’t want to hear it when I’m listening to some mellow acoustic rock and you are repping your “inner hood.” I do know for a fact that when walking across campus and it’s hard for me to hear what my friend is saying because your music is so loud will probably result in you being called a douche bag by a number of people. Let’s be honest people, nobody wants to hear it.

                Now onto the more physically visible characteristics of being a douche bag; if you have to argue with yourself on whether to write a paper or go to the gym, you may want to take a look in the mirror. I understand that physical fitness is a very important aspect in people’s lives, but it can tend to get overdone. So your biceps are bigger than a baby’s cranium; that’s great, but I don’t want to hear your entire workout regimen while all I’m trying to do is eat lunch. I mean I know I like to stay in shape and look good for the ladies, but when there are more ripples on your body than a lake you have probably crossed the line. There are ways you can be buff and still not be a total douche about it, don’t get the wrong impression that you are a jerk if you work out. But degrading people that are smaller than you by saying that you could easily beat them up doesn’t make you tough, it just means that you are more physically fit than they are. Being tough and being strong don’t go hand in hand, so slow your roll.

                Another characteristic is taking sports too seriously. I used to be the jock type guy who would always take a pick-up game of basketball or football to the next level emotionally. Being a hot head is never a good way to be around guys and especially girls. Guys will just make fun of you for being a wuss about whatever call went the wrong way and girls will label you as a guy who can’t keep their cool. They might question your ability to keep your cool in a relationship by comparing it to your emotions on the field. Being athletic is definitely a great way to stay in shape and maintain that sort of competitive edge you were used to in high school, but going all out with your balls out during intramurals will only make you look like a dick. So a word of advice, make sure you don’t treat intramural sports as your redemption for glory from your high school days.

                In general, all of these characteristics are mainly seen in the younger generation. I don’t know what has made people feel so entitled to the way they are living their lives, but it greatly perplexes me to the point where I question whether or not I’m a douche bag just by association. We as a society also tend to overuse the term ‘douche bag.’ It seems like that’s the only derogatory name people call each other sometime, even though the person being called that has done absolutely nothing to deserve being called a douche bag. It goes along the same lines as the excessive use of the word “gay.” Now I know that calling some a douche bag isn’t as sensitive as people that call everything gay, no matter what happened. We as a society just tend to desensitize ourselves from basic manners and common courtesy. I guess on one hand we need to have some douche bags around so that people can better determine who the nice guys are these days. Let’s face it, having douche bags around makes it easier for certain types of girls fall for gentleman who respect them. So here’s to the douche bags for making life just a little bit more interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbMl5KV4MWM

               

               

               

                

Let's Get Sexual

                We have all heard way too many times the phrase, “Back in my day we didn’t have…,” but we usually hear the rambling and complaining about iPods, cell phones, cars, and any other valuable commodity we possess in order to exist in today’s society. While thinking about what we have now that wasn’t as easy to get your hands on back in past generations is something that is always present in our minds at one time or another-sex. Pornography is a rapidly growing business that is easier to access than sending a text message. Depending on what kind of phone you have, you could be looking at porn from any place in the world while sending a text message to your girlfriend at the same time. Hell, even while eating at the Commons the other day some of my friends were pulling up porn images to try and see who could find the nastiest picture. Games are now developing by sending porn pictures across meetings to see the reaction people get once the receive it. You could be in a conference call in your office while working on T9 reports while at the same time have a porn site up two tabs over. Today’s idea of having everything at the snap of a finger or click of the mouse is quickly working its way down to the younger generation. The phrase, “Back in my day we didn’t have the ability to look at porn as easily as you kids can now,” isn’t as popular of a statement, even though it’s 100% true.

                Here are some statistics for you: U.S. pornography revenue is $13.3 billion, there are 4.2 million porn websites (12% of the whole internet), 25% of total search requests per day are for porn, and nearly 43% of internet users view porn. So what does that say about our society, that we are a bunch of perverts? Not necessarily. Sex is a part of life. It is in your mind at all times, maybe not as prevalent as other thoughts, but it’s in there. So if the thought of sex is in our brains, a part of our subconscious seeps into our decision making which can cause the typing of “porn” onto Google and have access to 420 million porn pages. The possibilities are endless. In an age where being sexy is the only way to be famous or be accepted in society, more emphasis is being placed on sex in the media. Since there is no way to ignore the media, we are constantly bombarded with anything sexually related without a filter of any kind. Sex sells, it’s as simple as that. You can try to debate it all you want, but the girl that’s selling deodorant in a bikini is going to sell more than the guy with a receding hairline. And you know that there is probably a marketing guy out there who is thinking that would be a great porn sequence, the ideas will never cease to exist.

                The evolution of sex is certainly obvious in younger generations. Who had a pregnant girl in their class when they were in seventh grade? Probably not too many people, now on the other hand, there are half a dozen girls pregnant before they even get to high school. It’s no coincidence that this is happening now. The music, movies, television shows, and magazines being produced in mass quantities is clearly having a trickle effect on the less mature minds of adolescents who don’t know the realities of life or realize how their actions can set themselves back numerous amounts of years and could in fact change their entire lives over one mistake. 90% of eight to sixteen year olds have been exposed to pornography. With that age range beginning at such a young age, there is a strong chance that addiction could settle in at an important time in their life. Puberty is a rough enough time as it is, if you throw in a porn addiction on top of that then you are asking for trouble. Your mind will tell you that it’s normal for you to pass a girl in the hallway and then proceed to have sex. Helping a girl pick up her books doesn’t mean she will give you a blowjob, well at least most of the time. In all seriousness, leaving adult and inappropriate images and themes in a mind that isn’t ready to cope with it can cause severe social awkwardness that can result in a miserable middle school experience and may very well lead into high school.

                What shocks me is the fact that birth control is still failing to work. Back in past generations when it wasn’t really prevalent in society or thought of to be effective or useful, people still today refuse to wrap it up or pop a pill. It’s not like you don’t see the Trojan commercials, they’re out there. I just don’t see how teenage pregnancy or any unplanned pregnancy out of wedlock happens these days. With all of the marketing and new variations to catch the younger generation’s eyes, they still hear celebrities say that, “It feels better without a condom,” and girls will go without it because they are choosing to “rebel” against their parents, as if becoming pregnant will draw them closer together. What is the mental process?

“I want you.”

“Do you have protection?”

“Hell no.”

“Ok, let’s do it.”

To me, this whole conversation should have ended after the “hell no,” because obviously the guy sounds like a douche bag…plus he doesn’t have a condom. Is there a lack of gas stations or drug stores around where these teenagers live? Where I grew up there was a Walgreen’s and a Marathon down the street, I think the 2 minute drive is worth it. I really hate to sound so holier than thou right now, but enough is enough at some point. Things are definitely changing in our society, unfortunately not for the better.

                Views of sex differ greatly among generations. Even people from the same generation have different ideas about sex. There are some people who grew up in the “Leave it to Beaver” home who think that’s how we all should live our lives. Others who grew up in that time may have loved to grow up this day in age where you can create a MySpace account and get laid within a few days. That would be a good social experiment, but would probably result in catching a couple of diseases along the way-not worth it. Take the movie “Pleasantville” as an example. To live in a black and white stereotypical world where everything that doesn’t fit the status quo is pushed underneath the carpet and never seen or thought of again. There is no excitement. Nothing ever goes against plan. But what happens once you put sex into everyone’s brains? Things change. Color starts to emerge from everywhere. People of all ages begin to have sex and act on their urges that they never would have acted on if they weren’t pushed to do so. Obviously we need sex to be able to reproduce and is a necessity of life and development, but there may be some other positives that I may not be able to fully see. I mean I’m not saying that premarital sex is a bad thing or anything like that. That’s definitely not what the point of this is trying to get across. But the promiscuity of today is certainly becoming raunchier as the days go on. Pretty soon I’m sure we will all just be naked. Ralph Lauren will just have a fit because nobody would be wearing clothes. If you think about it, we are pretty close to becoming that type of society already. Less is more, right? You have to show some to get some. Those types of lines certainly make guys sound like total assholes; we all aren’t like that…most of the time.

                I doubt that this is the most risqué thing you have ever read, I mean if it is then I feel pretty accomplished, but we are pretty much used to this type of openness to sex in our society that we can just brush it off our shoulders. Good example is that I showed my parents my monologue for Creative Expression, which is an extremely raunchy and sexy monologue, and they were just totally shocked saying how things have changed since they’ve been in college. Duh, I mean it’s pretty obvious that our society is changing. Sex is changing. Porn is changing. Life is changing. We are changing. So, class orgy?

This is the End

                “This is the end, beautiful friend.” There is only one song that can revolutionize a generation, tell a story, involve Greek mythology, and can freak you out at the same time. That song is “The End” by The Doors. Whereas fast food chains only cater to 4 different types of people, this song is able to branch out to all types of individuals that are in need of something intellectual, psychological, or spiritual. It can create an effect on poets, teens, conservative elderly men and women, educators, hippies, musicians, or just anyone that wants to listen to a song with a purpose. There are several lyrics that stand out among the rest and that could present a different viewpoint. The opening line of the song, “This is the end, beautiful friend,” already causes a huge can of worms to be opened. Is Jim Morrison conveying the message that mankind is now nonexistent? Or is he using this term as a reference to express the extinction of the conservative world and the rebirth of America with him as the poster child of mass chaos and psychedelic poetry that infuses foreign thoughts into the younger generation’s innocent minds that have never been in contact with the Lizard King?

                Let’s look at it from the perspective of a teenager. A young man or woman is tired of listening to Nat King Cole that is constantly playing at the dinner table, so they are more inclined to want to branch out and find a more diverse group of tripped out men that are interested in one thing-the music, and probably the chicks too. That kid has a choice to make. Stay along the primrose path of contemporary living or go against the wishes of the parents and pursue the psychedelic and “dangerous” works of The Doors? It’s clear what the answer was. Now look at the perspective from the same teenager’s father. An army veteran more than likely that is in his forties and doesn’t want his child to see the horrible things in relation to war that he has in his past. He feels that if he can control certain aspects of their life then he can harness their decisions. If his teenager chooses to stray away from him in a way that he sees unfit, then he will more than likely do anything in his power to bring his child back to the “right state of consciousness.” Thus the relationship between father and child could rapidly develop into a hatred that stemmed merely over a music group. If that were to happen, then that would most definitely leave a trace of history that they would never forget. In a way you can’t blame the father, he is only trying to do what he feels is best for his child. In another sense, you can blame him in the fact that it’s not his life to be lived and that his child should find out what the real world is like without his help.

                “Can you picture what will be so limitless and free?” If you think what that question is really saying, it’s issuing the idea that entices you to imagine what the world would be like without any boundaries. No rules. Who would find that statement more offensive, parents or kids? Obviously the parents would find this attitude totally inappropriate and would not tolerate any such kind of blasphemy inside of their home. The teenager would be appealed to this lifestyle because it lets them think for themselves instead of being a slave to their parents’ beliefs and thoughts on how they should live their lives instead of doing what they want. The parent of course wants their child to be free, but only on their standards and only certain people should be able to be granted these freedoms. Sure they trust their child, but trusting their peers is something totally different. What would happen if their child was influenced by someone else other than them? That would be a total bummer.

                This song not only brings out emotions involving the political battle of control, but also the psychological value that could open up “the doors of perception” to potential intellectuals who are keen on discussing poetry and what not. Music sets people apart by our experiences and how we can relate our life to what kind of message we want to set across to others that judge us. Listening to psychedelic rock can send out the stereotypical view of pothead or a dude that loves the acid, but there is much more behind the music than drugs. Jim Morrison was raised in a situation very similar to the template being discussed here. His father was in the military. One of Jim Morrison’s earliest memories was driving down the road in New Mexico and seeing a Native American dead on the side caused by a car crash. From then on he claims that he saw the spirit rise out of the Native American and enters into his soul. Such a traumatic event like that at such a young age could set any normal kid off the tracks. His poetry developed as he grew and reading psychologist’s books became a frequent habit. The music recorded was previously written poems that he chose to express with the psychedelic sounds of keyboard, guitar, drums, and his sultry voice that was wildly untamed with minimal background. Now that I’ve gone off topic by turning this into a biography, let’s get back to the grind.

                “Father, yes son, I want to kill you.” Morrison slowly strengthens the intensity of the lyrics by inferring that he went to his brother’s room and sister’s room to kill them. I have a pretty good idea that the vast majority of men who were fathers had a shiver go down their spine after they heard this line. The father would be greatly distraught over the fact that his own son would want to kill him, let alone be so blunt about it as to tell him right to his face. This type of attitude could drastically change the emotions of any confused and possibly psychotic youth of the time to say that they should just blame their father for everything and kill them for it. Since I’ve been talking about only the teenager’s and father’s point of view of all these lyrics, now would be a good time to get a standpoint of an intellectual poet or educator. This series of lyrics in the song is a metaphor for the story of Oedipus Rex who killed his father and had sex with his mother, which is exactly what Morrison states as wanting to do in this song. To be able to reenact such a popular story out of Greek mythology and apply it to pure poetry set to music would probably lead any mythical loving and music craved intellectual thinking about how they went in the wrong direction in life and how they should have stuck with the guitar in the garage with a joint on the side. These powerful and mind-numbing lyrics not only change the feeling of the song, but they also changed the feeling of the generation and future generations wanting to know more about the psychedelic visions of The Doors.

                The second to last line in the song, “The end of nights we tried to die,” can represent a number of things it could be referring to. Extremists could take this line and twist it into a federal case about influencing the youth of the generation to commit suicide. Morrison talks throughout the song about the end of all the plans and hard work that had been conjured up in the minds of great thinkers and the death of freedoms that the rest of the lost souls have been looking for. The song reaches out to those looking for a way out of their everyday mundane lives. Those who are tired of being berated by authority figures and those looking to find an outlet to their inner self that is intrigued and affected equally by the music as the rest of The Doors do. An end to the battle, and end to rules, an end to the so called normal life, that’s basically what Morrison is trying to establish here. This could shape someone into any contorted and distorted shape imaginable, figuratively of course. Psychologically there are ways that someone could take this song and apply it to their everyday life and treat everyone equally, live everyday as if it was their last, be a generous individual, and love. Those seem like pretty good qualities compared to conservative elderly people calling the music a travesty and that it’s not real music unless it’s Miles Davis. “The End” didn’t draw much radio play with its eleven minute and fifty-two second length, but to those dedicated to Mr. Mojo Risin’ it was a culture shock. There will eventually be an end, but it will unfortunately not be described as well as Jim Morrison has done for us. “This is the end.”

Taking Freire to the Bank

Imagine that you could know the most about any subject in the world. Think about how many lives you could change with your knowledge and how you could spread it throughout your environment. Consider the fact that you are the greatest mind of our generation and that everyone else bows down to your extraordinary mind. Now what is it that you want to know the most about: World War II, politics, chemistry, neurology, grammar? I’m sure the majority of us would want to know the most about something that would factor into giving someone a well-rounded education that could serve a purpose to them in the future. I, on the other hand, would choose to be the minority. I would like to know the most about pop culture. It ranges from movies, music, and television. My mind works differently, I think, from others. Freire’s banking principle applies mainly to our minds absorbing pointless knowledge that some of us really wouldn’t give two sh*ts about, pardon my French. Countless numbers of teachers don’t care about how their students are supposed to learn the material presented to them or how well the students can relate to the subject matter at hand when the teacher “teaches” the class.


I know that there was a class my senior year of high school, World Civilization, that my teacher wasn’t too concerned with teaching. He would sit at his desk in the front corner and give us an assignment that had been written on the board all day for his previous classes. The work would usually be a section or two section reviews filled with vocabulary, a few important guys and documents, and then some critical thinking questions that played no factor in my education whatsoever. He would also never take up the homework, so it rarely got done, which means that I didn’t get the full experience that I should have if it had been presented to me in a different way. That sounds sort of bad. I obviously should have done the work so that I would be able to understand the material in a more complex way, instead of using my teacher as a vice. With that said though, I had to work twice as hard when studying to remember the facts because I had to teach myself. If it had been presented to me first, and then studied, it wouldn’t have been the same situation.

I think our minds learn what they want to learn. If you try to teach me rocket science with a side of calculus, you’re wasting your time; on the other hand, if you give me the Rock n’ Roll Encyclopedia I would be much more inclined to read and learn interesting things about each topic. Yes, the banking system will be used. No, it wouldn’t be a chore to read something that interests me. What would be the perk of beating ourselves useless knowledge into our brains, if we are only going to forget it by next weekend when we go see a movie and understand the plot of ‘Inception’? That movie took a couple years off of my elementary education. (SPOILER ALERT! Who saw that top coming at the very end?) Anyways, the point of that is that we learn what we want to learn.

I remember one day in class my teacher started getting pissed off at us and decided that the next review was going to be taken up for a grade, so naturally fearing our lives we all did the review. What happened next class? He doesn’t take up the review. Yeah, we were royally pissed at the man. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m sure that we all could have done something better without time than to do a review that wasn’t going to be graded or be relevant to the test over the chapter. For instance, there was probably an episode of 24, Lost, or American Idol that I had to miss because I had to learn about how Napoleon Bonaparte was a bastard. It may seem that I’m bashing education, and I partially am, but in a way it’s important that we see both sides of the importance of knowing about the French Revolution and how to configure chemical reactions. Honestly, I have no intention to do anything close to resembling math or science when I grow up, or who the king of England was in 1054. If you know who the king was…awesome, if not…good.

We all have dreams. We all have aspirations of what we want to be or do. So who wants to bother with other events that only seem to derail us from our overall goal someday? If I were to be a mailman for the United States Postal Service after I graduate from college, then that would probably be a waste of time and money to have spent on an education. If I end up deciding I want to be a businessman and end up running Apple by the time I’m 38, then learning all that I could have in college would be highly appropriate. Then again any one of us could drop dead tomorrow, which would be quite a tragedy. Sorry for taking it to a dark place, I’ll try not to lead you back down there.

Have you noticed I’m trying to bring up how education might be a good thing? Education is obviously the cornerstone of our society and civilization as we know it. How cliché is that, right? But for real, if we didn’t have the capability to comprehend certain principles and functions then we would be nowhere as a creative being. There would be nothing but grass in the fields because we would be too brain dead to come up with anything, such as a house. I’m getting pretty off topic, I know. And for that I apologize, feel free to haze me with hate comments. Just don’t taze me, bro! This is slowly beginning to become non-educational, maybe I did that on purpose.

Going back to sitting up against the heater next to the window on the bottom floor of Owensboro Catholic High School, I begin to wonder what the teacher’s perspective was of his students. We thought of him as a lazy dude who just wanted to have fun with us and be Mr. Chill, but I’m sure he saw us as diligent and hardworking students who should be interested in Napoleon Bonaparte and the king of England in 1054. I now ponder if he ended up being disappointed in us when we failed to do the review for him that he said was for homework and actually was for homework. He has every right to be angry. That’s his job. His vocation as a human being is to mold young minds. If we don’t respect his and every other teacher’s goal then we are declining our minds for the growth of education. We need to appreciate the fact that these people have dedicated their lives to teaching our generation because education is the future of civilization for our country.

I never would have imagined that I would use my high school teacher who wasn’t a great example of teaching as the center for a college paper, but I have now realized that all of my past experiences have become pre-requisites for my future learning. One of my friends who is still in high school mentioned to me that everything I have ever learned or achieved has gone completely out the window, but I disagree. Even though she is a great friend who I love that I always agree with, I had to go out on a limb. All of the information that I have compiled over the years has been crucial to my study habits and pursuit of happiness…yeah that was a Kid Cudi/Will Smith reference. I would like to feel as if everything that has been accumulated and pounded into my brain over the past eighteen years of my life has been for a purpose. I’m not positively sure what the purpose is, but I have a feeling that it is for my best interest and will serve me well as I grow into full adulthood with my wrath of education.