Hands like Coral.

His hands burned from the asphalt. Like a coral rock, Aleksi’s hands were indented and red all over his palms. He quickly turned around to look like he could actually play basketball. But he couldn’t. Aleksi knew nothing of the sport and had no idea what any of the symbolic lines meant. He did know and outdoor asphalt court is not as ideal as the indoor gymnasium. But to him he knew it was more important to attempt to blend in than stick out.

He stood up in a way he could try to hind his dishevelment, he fixed his shirt tuck and ran his hand through his hair too quick that it looked odd. Aleksi had not planned on being this embarrassed, an awkward conversation with his classmates or even dropping a pen would have done it. But his dry gulp and rapidly pacing eyes  said otherwise.

“What a fuckin’ pussy” said Tyler.

Aleksi whimpered internally, but outwardly he stuck his chin out.

“Its nothing I’m good man.”

But everyone else was already not listening to him. The entire group have moved with the ball and from his fallen busted self.

Aleksi felt betrayed. By society. By his church. By the school. Even by his parents. Somehow by his brother. None of them were there for him? He is there for them when they call mass twice a week, when school needs him there at 7:15, when his parents need dishes washed, and Aleksi is there when he brother needs someone to play video games with.

The internal wounds of being left alone, being undervalued as even a basketball player -even though he was not one was beside the point- hurt him. He wanted to have the chance to learn from someone about how to dribble the ball, he wanted to know what constitutes a foul. Was what Tyler did to a legal play? Aleksi had no actual idea and looked like a dumb-ass in front of his classmates because he had a suspicion it probably was a foul, be had no way to actually know. Even asking if it were a foul he risked further looking dumb.

So he just stood there, surrounded by people but alone. Completely in contact with adults and his fake friends. No one cared enough to open him up, no one checked on him and these ideas burned in his very soul. Like a com-busting engine this hateful sorrow burned in his core. Tears built up in his eyes but he knew not to blink as to cause them to roll down his cheeks, he just stood there breathing to no rhythm.  His hands went from balled to openly grasping the air. He did not know what he wanted, love from them or the chance to punish them; to hold them accountable from all their trespasses against them.  He knew he needed love, but knew who would give it too them, but Aleksi did know know how to go about it.

Should he have tell the people who should love him to love him?

2:15 Train to Graystown

The 2:15 training to Graystown rattled an electric reel in the distance. Mr. Gray cradled his chapping hands in his pocket, periodically raising them to his lips to breath warmth into them. His chap lips cut and exposed blood onto his dinosaur hands. The cold blue street lamps illuminate the causeway, gum and tar splotched with the aging concrete filling the remainder of what his eye could see of the ground. On his left, a slightly warmer yellow light hit the corner of his eye. He checked his watched, Mr. Gray judged he could be resting his head by 4:30 am. Gray dreamt of the comfort of a blistering shower, he wanted to boil like a lobster. He knew he’d have a ways to go still before he could relax, then he has to be back up at 8:30 am if he wants any chance of being on schedule the next day.

The air brakes of the train broke his train of thought and he lifted his eyes to scan the carriages. 8 people in the first car, 3 with a scarf, two dressed in red.  He found the amount of red in winter mildly interesting, of course there are jackets of all color in winter, but maybe 2 red coats out of 8 is not odd at all. Purple would be odd he thought.

Gray rolled his shoulders, cracked his his neck, and puckered  his chapped lips into his mouth. After a few moments tasted blood, and he gave up. The carriages came to a stop unevenly 7 feet to his right and to far he did not care to count to his left. The doors swish open, despite being sleepy, Gray step off confidently to his plastic mold chair on the train. Gray found a warm colored seat and brought himself down on it.

He settled his eyes on a small sticker on the floor heater:

“You’re Not Being Watched

You’re Not Being Watched

YOU’RE NOT BEING WATCHED”

It was a curious sticker he imagined, who would even put that into print? His eyes fell close with the rattle and rocking of the train car,  and he rolled gently in his seat. He knew his stop was 14 stops away, the announcements of each stop in between only rarely caused his eyes of peep open. His eyes saw like a weighted fish hook.  A woman’s robotics voice crackled gently over the intercom:

“Graystown Terminal Approaching” 

 

Homework Attacks

College is not a lot of fun when your overwhelmed with homework assignments, over lapping research papers, and coinciding exams. In allegorical terms,  the homework assignments are as plentiful as mongol horde and as engulfing as a soviet charge, research papers are like massive hits that attempt to the break the student’s front line of sanity. Assignments overlap like overlapping lanes of machine gun fire, pining students down in libraries and desks. These assignments drive us to the negotiating table during our professors’ office hours.  We each face internal turmoil with mental break down on put by sleep deprivation, missed meals, and burnt out brain cells. Student’s pay a hefty price for coming to university and engaging in it.  We come because we want something it has -a degree- the degree is key to life long job security, it has the promise of a better life. But we pay a hefty toll taking it, we take it the way nations battle over strategic resources, and in a sense our degrees are. We sludge and swing our way through unknown amounts of homework assignments, we call in the air support through rapid internet searches in hopes of pummeling our enemy. Student’s living off rations of caffeine and fast food. Some students are given additional aide from their parents while some are left to fend for themselves. Class after GPA killing class, we are outnumbered and frequently overwhelmed. Given little to no chance to rest, our homework assignments are a clever and cunning opponent. Making s regret even ounce of time not spent devoted to suppressing it. That’s all we can do -is suppress it- there will always be more, and it always has gotten more difficult. Most of us have been fighting this fight against homework as long as we can remember,

 

To be continued

RCL 8 Paradigm Shift Essay Outline

Intro:
Workout culture countered –and still is countering- the obesity dilemma in America, and it shows the concern of the crisis and society’s response to it. In the future workout culture may become so ingrained in everyday society it becomes such a mundane chore like brushing teeth, that it will be indistinguishable. In the modern times, workout culture is a common place in any forms, the gyms in our towns, the equipment in our basements, and the exercise post filling our social media feeds.  
Thesis:
Firstly, workout culture has shifted from a secluded art limited to the wealthy and athletes taken on a more casual role in society through working out becoming increasingly affordable and convenient. Secondly, there has been a shift in how society work out culture is viewed with positive and negative effects.
Examples: Clothing wear, treadmills, etc
1. “literature review” or a review of the theory.
a. Who has already commented on or studied the paradigm
shift: Magazines and low level non academic editorials.
b. What reasons do they give for the shift: None explicitly found, likely due to obscurity of the topic.
c. (during) or after your analysis- will you agree with them?
-Yes I agree a shift has occurred but I have my own theories as to why.
i. What aspects of their theory(ies) do you agree with?
-N/a
d. Are these theories at all helpful? Why or why not?
-Not helpful because of less comparisons but helpful in the sense I can cut my own path
2. Analysis: The large paradigm shift of workout culture turning working out into an everyday routine is accompanied by many smaller “micro” paradigm shifts.
1. Ads: Champion, Nike etc.
2. TV shows: The Office
3. magazines: Runner’s world
Conclusions:
    In short work out culture has changed with the times. The fashion trends generally follow that closely of the decade, they mirror what people already want to wear and do it. Technology, like fashion, shaped itself to support workout culture, even going as far to be stylish just like athletic clothing. Each time as time marches on sees working becoming more and more secular, more and more individualized and private. Fitness mirrors and does what consumer will be proved to buy: what is convenient and affordable. Advertisement campaigns make the products sold and the desired bodies sought after. Fitness is becoming more common knowledge to have long lasting health benefited. All these small shifts in the way we think, spend our money, and view ourselves has caused the paradigm shift in workout culture.  In the future workout culture may become so ingrained in everyday society it becomes such a mundane chore like brushing teeth, that it will be indistinguishable. 

F*ck on Foreign Policy: A passion post

In the past two weeks the geopolitical landscape has seen massive shifts. The US has withdrawn 2,000 troops deployed in Northern Syria, this force act as a shield in the region. Not only did it give peace and sanctum to locals, but it prevented the conflicted expanding the war zones into Northern Syria, it gave a bastion to our allies the Kurds and allowed some forms of resistance against Assad to exist. This area also gave a blanket of security to US informants in the region, that area was America’s ear to the ground.

Leaving the area is not only destroying our ability to collect intelligence about intelligence on the ground, but it also not allowing and risking the rise of ISIS. Prison camps of ISIS prisoners saw 800 escape among the mass Exodus flowing into Turkey amid the -ironic- Turkish invasion. Among the hundreds of thousands of refugees, there are ISIS terrorist in the mix. Further more, ISIS was defeated on the surface in military confrontations, but they maintained a global network. Not only have ISIS veterans been released, they also been given a new recruitment opportunity as Sunnis will face to be extermination with extreme prejudice at the hands of Assad and Turkish forces. These Sunnis men and boys may fall into the arms of a resurgent ISIS as they will have to fight to survive.

This has been a massive geopolitical blunder, condemned by both the Pentagon and State Department. For the US to re-enter Syria, it would take a US ground invasion, US bases have been hastily turned over to f*cking Russian forces,  -US bases, with possible National Security secrets- have been turned over to the Russians.

There are war crimes been committed in the absence of US forces, as global leader, we have shown we can not be trust as a reliable ally and it has given the green light for atrocities and foreign invasions.

Good Day Blokes

-James

TED Talk about work out culture paradigm shift

I have chosen to do my paradigm shift about the paradigm shift in Workout culture.  Intend to have my boundaries along a time line, showing how workout culture has developed chiefly in modern memory. I want to analyze how workout culture went from obscurity and novelty to invading every commercial break, every clothing brand, and becoming a daily habit in more and more people’s lives.

I will tell the story of how workouts culture came from the “strong men” of the late 1800s to early 1900s, to the modern Beats commercial that shows people working out using their product.

Over all I can expect this timeline to be around the last 150 years to present day. This shift merits attention because of how immensely it has grown seemingly out of thin air. It can be found across all forms of media, in first world -and even some third world countries- workout culture can be found at all levels of the social structure. It needs to be understood because it is even still rising in popularity with increasing intensity as it has more recently become a fashion phenomenon.

That is all blokes!! Good day!

-Jame

Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub

Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub!!!!!

I started watching Rick and Morty again, which I have not watched in years since the fandom of the show become outright toxic and a meme through r/gatekeeping. Its a great show with some of the best world building I have ever seen in my short life, but it is communicated in such a effective way. The show also touches on deep topics and even the art it self is complicated that seasons are routinely delayed due to the quality of production.

Nonetheless I started watching this show again as a mental unplugging from the fucking week that is midterms. The crunching of homework, the insane assignments, which may not even be that formidable in the long run, and the over lapping assignments. The course load killer is out there, and right now it is open season and people are getting toe tagged.  I myself feel frickin dead right now, I got 20 hours of sleep in the past 72 which is not even as bad as some people. My girlfriend is getting slaughtered by math assignments, language homework,and all that on top of studying. I myself found out I am 170 pages behind in my Archaeology class, and I am now several pages behind in Russian work, AND I being a complete Nin-ca-poop I took the wrong online quiz and had to ask the professor to let me reopen it.

If this week was not stressful enough all ready I had my bank account frozen which I had to spend hours diligently working through. For the record absolute headache especially on no sleep, but I loved the cutomer service staff and they certainly made the whole experience bearable.

And for reasons like these is why I need mental unplugs, brain drains too. This why I saw Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub, which means “I am in great pain” according to Birdperson from the show. No other phrase perfectly encapsulates my status as a being and yet puts it in a apparently blissful acceptance of your own situation.

So for now, Wubba Lubba Dub-Dub

-Ya boi Jame

Paradigm Shift Topics

I think there few topics I am considering for my paradigm shift essay is the shift in workout culture, dating culture. Firstly workout culture has shifted from a secluded art limited to the wealthy and athletes taken on a more casual role in society. It is a accessory to one’s life in present while it originate as what feels a professional undertaking it is something that can be found on every level of society. It has become more powerful and meaningful, in someways spiritual, as excises are pushed into the increasingly obese american society. Workouts now involve groups, goals, and some like the Murphy challenged -inspired the workout of a Navy Seal who attended Penn State- have become something to bring communities together. Exercises have even breached into the american mindset as something every one should undertake weekly. The intensity and type of workout individuals undertake is flexed around as a sign of status.  Workouts used to be generally limited to men, but as gender dynamics have grown and evolved over the past 200 years so has how the genders workouts. Women even had to do workouts in “athletic” clothing, similar to the swim wear in their respective periods, both clothing showed hardly any skin and cover the women near head to shoe. In each decade approaching the present women’s athletic clothing has gotten more and more freeing. There is not as much an impact in the prospects of men’s clothing in the athletic department, but we have seen in both realms of male and female is the athletic clothing is also attached to the fashion trends of each era. In 2019 women and men, boy and girls, can be seen wearing athletic gear in everyday life despite doing no workout in the mean time. Even grossly overweight people ironically wear athletic clothing. Athletic brands like Nike and Under Armor have followings and fan bases. Other brands like Champion who is riding the waves of a new revival and comeback see themselves grow as people consuming the product have associated it with clout.

Without getting too bogged down in one idea, which I think I like more than the next because I came up on my own. Dating culture was something we talked about in class and I feel multiple people may cover this topic so I view the topic as a whole less appealing. I feel very passionate about dating and I’m sure so many of us do. On top of that none of us are really qualified to speak on dating but at the same all of us are in our own experiences. To be honest dating has and has not changed in a lot of aspects. There has a been a paradigm shift in who is “wearing the pants” in the relationship because we are no seeing the rise of more Matriarchal relationships and more egalitarian ones.  As women have grown in their empowerment, women has gained more control in their relationships, consequently men lose some control. It is now abnormal to see the man calling all the shots in the relationship, it is viewed as backwards and bigoted. In my personal life I have always looked for equal status, control, and significance in a relationship. In 2019 I and most men I feel do not want to be the lead in a relationship, and sure there are times when one partner has to lead, but that should not be 24/7/365, if anything the leading should be equal and mutual going forward.

So certainly control aspects of dating culture has seen a paradigm shift.  The big picture may be slowly changing but what is indisputable is the short game changes in dating. People who want to date used to have to only pursue people they could physically meet and make acquaintances with. Now you meet people over the internet you would have otherwise never crossed paths with. Online dating also provides the advantage of a new medium to meet girls and to shot your shot with out risking public shaming, but at the same time it enables cheaters and players to run game on multiple people all across the world with out any knowing.

That is all I will touch on for the time being with some key ideas and remarks for each paradigm shift idea. Have a great day!

-ya boi James

Outline of Rhetorical Analysis Essay

I want to analyze “I Voted Stickers” for my artifact.

Thesis: The stickers promote civic engagement by encouraging through subliminal messaging to participate in the democratic process.

Body Section 1: My interpretation of the stickers in encouraging civic engagement, the implication of that, and an example

Body Section 2: How the stickers have changed in meaning, the implication of that and an example

Body Section 3: Effects of Voting Stickers, and how their meanings to different groups of citizens can be used to see the path of politics in America.

Conclusion: Closing remarks on sticker