Awareness

September is National Eye Cancer Awareness Month. I bet that more than half of the people that will read this did not know that it was. It's somewhat shocking that there is so little said about eye cancer and that there isn't much that we like to say about it. I think that those that have not been affected by eye cancer have never seriously thought about their chances of developing it. I know that I had never known anyone that had eye cancer until I met my cousin Betty. She was only 18 months old when she was diagnosed with retino blastoma or childhood ocular cancer. Even an infant can develop something that could take down the strongest men on earth. How unfair for life to set such a high hurdle for such a young woman, but Betty is an astounding child and an incredibly strong one. With more research maybe we could find a way to regenerate lost tissues due to surgery or finding better ways to treat it that wouldn't be so invasive to the surrounding organs or tissues. If you would like to do something to raise awareness for this terrible disease and wear a yellow ribbon on a shirt a couple of days next September or just visit www.cancer.org/cancer/retinoblastoma/

The Uppers

Lower-upper class and Upper-upper class seem to be differentiated by a small handful of things. There is not much in my eyes that actually creates these labels. The small distinctions are things like buying overly expensive things because they want the best of the best. These material people shell out money like it's nothing because they can and they want to. They have to keep up the appearance of upper-upper class with all of their name brand, top-of-the-line items so inevitably they spend more money and perpetuate the notion that there are two different types of upper class people in this world.

A much more evident line is drawn between middle class and working class. I think that people in working class live paycheck to paycheck without almost any luxuries. Middle class people aren't too much higher on the totem pole, but they do have the money to buy gifts and have things that they wouldn't if they found themselves in the working class. 

Just to show that people can laugh at themselves no matter how much money they have here is a Monty Python video.

Social Deviants :P

Control theory advances the proposition that weak bonds between the individual and society free people to deviate. Labeling theory states that social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance. These two theories seem to come to mind when I watch this video. The first attacker of the man in the business clothes is labeled by the reporter as a punk for kicking the man while he was down. He said that it was a terrible thing to do and showed the true extent of these two assailants' deviance while putting the deviant “in their place” with snide remarks coolly calling him a coward. These two most likely do not interact with everyone like the rest of society does. Their weak ties and complete lack of social justice just goes to show that control theory actually represents a great number of criminals because they become somewhat numb to others and act out or deviate from the social norm. 

WARNING: due to the GRAPHIC NATURE of this video some people may be offended

In-Groups & Out-Groups

I wouldn't call football a conflict but it was a great example of definite out-groups. Our entire school would be in a fierce competition with the other school and things would definitely be divided. All throughout the week we would joke at the other team's expense saying things like: “They have more turnovers than Arby's” or “They couldn't run their way out of a paper bag” because we just felt like we were better than they were even if we hadn't beaten a school in four or five years. The other schools were cast out even more at the games where their stands were on the coldest and windiest part of the field. All of this soon lead to more snickering and joking about the other school and their not so stellar plays and or penalties, while still praising our players even if they lost by more than thirty points.

I wouldn't say that we made plays like this when I played... All I'm saying is that no one ever had a camera when we did. Enjoy:

 

Presentation and Power

       You have total control over the way the world sees you by how you speak and how you are spoken to. If you are a confident and strong spoken person then the way people see you is much different than if you were shy and soft spoken. It definitely shows your social status when you have a conversation. Like for instance if a manager is talking to one of their employees then they speak in a different way than they would to their significant other at home. The way in which we speak to someone is the way that we see them.

At work I deal with customers daily and I have to speak to them as a knowledgeable and professional man. Like for instance this morning I was speaking with a lady about her car and she didn't quite know what was going on under the hood so I took my time and carefully explained exactly what everything did. Normally, if I were talking to someone else that I work with then I wouldn't have to explain what was going on. On, the other hand if I spoke down to her and talked like she was inferior then it definitely would have been off putting.

       In some situations it definitely calls for the speaker to be different from normal everyday life. You must be professional in some areas of life and it is better to have that professional side apart from your everyday life so you can have some relief.

I work at jiffy lube so I thought I would share some random car facts with you:

Socialization

When I was younger there were so many shows streaming on every channel that it was hard to keep up with all of them, but I made sure to keep up with my favorites. I used to watch Mythbusters, Sportscenter, and Family Guy to name a few, but it was more than just my choice than to watch them; there was a public pressure, for me to watch. All of my friends watched them and If I ever went anywhere that's all I would hear about so naturally I grew an interest in these shows. My parents didn't really care what I watched because I was a pretty well behaved child so what was it hurting? I had friends that watched the exact same shows that I did so it fell pretty well in our “beliefs” or our ideal culture. Today I hardly ever watch television because of work and school. I do however enjoy The Walking Dead and watching sporting events on television. My friends and I at work converse about this weeks happenings.

Here's a short couple of clips from one of my favorite shows Family Guy:

   

Hawai-not?

So I decided that I would like to go to Hawaii. Most people would say that it's so beautiful and part of The United States so it must be a very similar experience to being in a beautiful place throughout the contiguous states. The cute luaus and Hawaiian speech, the alohas here and there as you strut down a beautiful sandy beach and all the keiki (young children in Hawaiian) play in the crystal clear water just of the beach. Doesn't it just sound so amazing?

If only the visit would be so fun and joyous. Don't get me wrong Hawaii is an amazing place but its not the rainbows and ukulele songs that we all hear when we imagine a getaway. There are certain customs and rules that you must follow when going to Hawaii because of the celebrated and rich history and us being Ha'oles (foreigners) we are almost sure to know none of these customs. My friend from Hawaii and I were talking yesterday about little known important facts and she told me that you have to be at least 75% Hawaiian to be able to even step foot on Lana'i. The strange thing about that is, that there are no 100% Hawaiians because they come from Somoa or Tonga or other small Pacific Islands. It's really easy to see that this surprises most people who hear that their notions and thoughts of the people of Hawaii aren't completely Hawaiian. The way that she says they treat outsiders is also very conflicting with the way that we see nice jolly Hawaiians. They aren't very tolerant of those who aren't from the same kind of backgrounds as they are. For example there is a song called Hawai'i Pono'i sang at all the games and even graduations. She said that she was part of a group that was to sing at the graduation and she was singled out because they didn't want a ha'ole singing their traditional song and she ended up not singing because of their immense close-mindedness.

This just goes to show you that anywhere that you go there are unspoken but well-known traditions that we foreigners are completely oblivious to; even in The United States!


(This is the traditional song Hawai'i Pono'i)