The rise of "Awesome" (An advanced apology for the last paragraph. Ran out of materials to write because my point is simple and short and strong unlike these newb writers'. I couldn't extend my point any further.)

Central Argument: The meaning of the word "awesome," along with many other words, has deteriorated because of its over-usage and undermination of its value.

Awesome has certainly demoted. Just because it sounds better, even though they probably realize that it means more than "good" or "nice," people replace their shallow compliments with this word. They know it's worth more, but just use it where it means less than it means because it's fun to say it. It's also easy to say unlike "great" or "fantastic," where there are the "r"s and "f"s that Asians have difficulty pronouncing. (Well, not me.)

The author is right. People now use awesome for anything they find merely "good." They use "awesome" instead of any other vocabularies that stand for something acceptable. People mistake themselves to be cool if they use this word, which they were until it was so over-dosed and abused. Wannabes spoiled it.

"Awe" along with "some" would literally mean something that's worth to be awed at. "Awe" is defined as an emotion that combines dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime (Merriam-Webster dictionary). It is about at the level of the terms, "shock," "mind-blowing," etc. So awesome would be an adjective most probably only suitable for God, like how the article's examples of the Bible suggest. However, now it doesn't even reach the depth in meaning of "amazing" or "fantastic." "Awesome" has just become a casual replacement for "good," "fair," or "nice." 

Awesome is said and written everywhere. It is too common now. It is indeed a "worn-out phrase." And due to the lightness people use it with and their lack of responsibility and respect for this word, it has degraded to a common vocab. 

"Hey, we can go to chardukan today." 

"Awesome!"

No, of course being able to go to chardukan is not something that is "awe-some." You don't awe at the 'majestic grace' of the opportunity to have a 'luxurious five-star dinner' at the 'monumental, four beautifully furnished' shops. What the heck is wrong with you?

But I'm not necessarily saying I don't do that...

Well, it's not my fault for using awesome so casually like other people. The society mind-controlled me. They influenced me. Everyone used it so lightly, so I gave it a try too. And it felt beautiful. It was addictive like tapping someone on the back and acting like I didn't do it, or standing right behind someone without them realizing and singing "I'm a creep" by Radiohead to creep them out, or orange juice. So now I became one of the most "awesome"-using person in the entire globe. But this article reminded me, reached my heart, and convinced me about the destruction of the importance of this awe-some word. I was awestruck by the actual definition of "awesome" which I never thought of thinking about before I came across this article. And now I repent and agree with the author. Now I'll stand for the rights of "awesome." It did lose its meaning and I'm going to change it back. I'll make a change. I'm a seed of change. People, let us stop abusing "awesome" and start protecting its awesomeness. Let's be awed at the word "awesome." Is it too late? No, it's never too late. We can make this world a better place. (Sorry, I went a bit too far. I was getting over-emotional. I really want to save this poor little vocaby by reaching out to it and respecting its adorableness.)

What does it mean to be cool?

The author argues that being cool, which originates from the idea of remaining calm even under stress that has eventually transformed into a practiced behavioral attitude by black people, means being a winner without trying too hard to win, without winning everything, and winning unpredictably. He also says living in a constant of alienation because you can't revel in total control or total detachment but have to bring forward unusual constellations of ideas and actions. Cool is a paradoxical fusion of submission and subversion. The author is acting like a dick and making everything so complicated. He thinks he is damn smart.

The author has all his history of "cool" and all this useless bull-crap of his philosophy on what the heck it really means to be "cool," but I don't give a damn about his argument. He failed miserably in convincing, or at least getting his point straight, because it is annoyingly long and unnecessarily complex. I read the whole thing through, some sentences even several times if that's what it took me to see what he was saying, yet didn't quite understand what his actual message was. I don't blame myself because I could understand paragraphs from AP English exam. The only sentence I really got was the "paradoxical fusion of submission and subversion" that my English teacher so kindly explained in details. I do understand parts of the article but I don't see the whole point - the main argument; what he is trying to communicate through this. So what does it really mean to be cool? And after all, I think his definition of "cool" that the rest of the world uses and think of as, is extremely wrong. I disagree with him. Nevertheless, he succeeds in showing the example of "uncool."

Being cool basically means being awesome - being someone that others want to be like; being chill, funny, happy, yet powerful, thoughtful, deep, understanding, skillful, critical, solemn, etc. However, these are only the characteristics that I think are required for one to be cool. It depends on the individuals' thoughts and experiences that have developed their views of being cool. The views of the world, other people, and God. These are all the parts that contribute to building up the conclusion for oneself if something is cool or not. Not just about being cool, but for every single question in life. The answer depends on the education, experience, and mindset of each individual.

There is no one answer to the question, "what does it mean to be cool?" And the author is probably nor correct because his silly little philosophy can't beat the belief of majority. Has Darwin's theory of Evolution disproved God's creation of humans as humans? There still are majority that believe that God created humans as humans. Has the Big Bang theory changed people's belief of God's creation? No. As so, most people believe being cool has something to do with how amazingly one deals with certain situations. How so many people like him/her. How awesome he/she is. Not how you paradoxically submit and subverse. People already have developed their own idea of what it means to be cool. Everyone probably thinks slightly differently of cool, but the main idea would be something like "being cool = awesome."

To end with, the ultimate idea of "you" being cool, from my analysis and years of complicated calculations of treads of thoughtful thoughts and considerations, is when someone admits you are cool, despite all the disgusting human traits of ego, selfishness, desperation for attention, jealousy, hatred, etc. Then you know that you are really cool. Or, not giving a damn about it and living your life as it is and as yourself.

Marriage and Single Life

I, the most tolerable of all beings that stand on two feet - including some weird dogs that do so as well - hath not known the foolishest of the foolishest humans that could ever possibly turn this indeed a very appealing topic for teenagers into a fearsome cause of brain seizure. 

The central argument of the author, I think, is that one should marry to reproduce to contribute to the future times and also to be better-hearted and in control with the responsibility of a family to feed, where as a single life wanders in freedom with self-pleasure and humor, and doesn't have to worry about the financial burden of a family, which could possibly help the single ones to be more concerned towards the others and do great things. 

A human, as God has created, must marry. Marriage is the essential element of life. A single might survive, but with loneliness and dearest heart for a partner all along. And I certainly have seen some people that "chose" to be alone, but I could also see the discontent in their eyes. Male and female are meant to be together, with the bond of love between themselves, because they fit just like puzzle pieces. (Yeah, I meant both spiritually and physically.) 

I want to marry right now. I want a woman of my own. Not like any random girl that I'm attracted to or the cutest girl in school, but a faithful, understanding soul-mate that I would pick so pickily and carefully. A woman I would never want to slap across the face, punch right on the nose, or rip open and shatter every bone in the body. I'm joking, but at least a woman that wouldn't make me get sick of her. 

As so, I'm already dreaming about my future wife. Guys need wives to control them from anger, drinking, smoking, killing, raping, etc, and girls need husbands to keep them in the kitchen, all in control. We dearly need each other, don't we, my brothers and sisters? No one chooses not to marry. They "choose" not to marry because they couldn't.

A single man won't have wealth. Trust me on this. It's not that they are single that they have wealth that were spared from wife and kids. It's that they have financial problems that they don't have a wife. Who would marry a broke loser? No one. And even if a single man is rich, does he contribute a lot to the society? No! He uses it up all by himself drinking and smoking because he feels like his life sucks that he doesn't have a partner, and start self-sympathizing that would only increase his hopelessness and loneliness which would result to emotional disorder that might also affect mental disorder and give hard times to others as well and ultimately just end up being a useless, lonely, desperate douche. Then after that, because he feels so bad about himself, he'll start going to casinos where he will lose all his money and get all depressed and finally hang himself. Single life is not a happy life. Single life is no good. My math teacher has problems with anger-management just because he can't get married. Also he acts like a pedophile with female students.

My opinion is, marriage is amazing - I want to get married right now so damn freaking really extremely very bad - and single life sucks it's own cock. (It does make sense!) 

Thinking vs. Feeling: The Psychology of Advertising

The author doesn't really have a straight-forward central argument. Instead, he pulls different researches into his article to argue from many sides, but never draws conclusion that one is better than the other. So his central argument basically is: whether an advertisement is good or not depends on varying factors (target audience, situation, product, etc), and it is yet to be found which type - thinking or feeling, rational or irrational - of advertisements successfully appeal to the audience.
I say, it depends on the product. Even if Spice (a local Indian company) mobile phones come up with the best ad and iPhone doesn't advertise at all, people are still going to buy iPhone. That is because the ethos for iPhone has become too big to beat because it is actually that good. And even if they buy a Spice phone, they will still know that iPhone is better, and would have bought it if they could. Advertisements depend on the product.
Think back to the most memorable or funny ad you have ever seen in your life. Now answer, do you own that product? The answer is no. Just because the ad is good doesn't mean you buy the product. You might entertain the audience for that short while, but that does not make it even close to that particualr audience thinking about actually buying that crap. If I don't like the product, no matter how much I love the ad, I wouldn't buy it. Would you? Well, you should also consider the mentality of the person. Football-lovers don't buy the new Adidas clits because of Messi. They buy it because it is good. Of course they want to wear the same football shoes as Messi, but if it wasn't really good in its performance enhancement, they wouldn't buy it.
So my central argument is that neither one - thinking or feeling - of the psychology of advertising really encourages the consumer to purchase the product. It is all about the product. If the product is good, they will buy it. If the product is bad, they won't. :)    

TV Is Good for You?

TV is good, at least for rural women, because it makes a suitable substitute for education and can possibly work its "magic" on the powerless women to change their attitudes, especially towards their abusive husbands.

Nooooooooooooooooooo, it's not.
TV is not good whatsoever. Many people tend to acknowledge TV for its educational facet, but they often refuse to mention its consequences.
My brother had to wear glasses since elementary school because he was usually home alone with the sole entertainment of TV. He grew out of it after a few years, but in the beginning he hated wearing the funny-looking ovals around his eyes. However, mom forced him to wear it because if he didn't his eyesight would only grow worse. To describe how much he hated it, he slid it into his pocket as soon as he walked out the front door and put it back on only when he came back home. Of course one day mom caught him and scolded him, making sure he wore it after then.
It's not much of a problem from adolescence because it becomes very common - including some people that want to wear it. Still, it gets troublesome when it comes to rough sports, sleeping (you have to place it somewhere safe), washing, etc. Also, worst of all, you have a bad sight which might cause difficulties in certain circumstances.
Adding to effects on eyesight, TV-watching is also addictive, and possibly results to stupidity. One of my classmates, who only knew about studying before he came across a TV episode called "Chuck," gradually started spending more time watching than studying. After a few weeks, he started downloading every new episode on his laptop and watching it everywhere, every time. He even reached to an extent where he started watching the show in the middle of classes. Long time back when my family still lived in Korea, my mom was also addicted to a Korean drama for which she so strictly sacrificed her two hours every week. Nowadays, I avoid TV - especially the endless dramas - because I know it can get very addicting.
I don't have a scientific support, but I know from experience that staring at the screen of an electronic device for a large amount of time destroys your brain. I went through it. I'm adjusted now. School did get harder as I moved to higher classes, but it is also true that I don't try half as much now as I used to before, because I find it too much for me. I was considered a smart, scholastic kid years back. I excelled in math and science, and never missed A honor roll for seven semesters straight since I first came here. However, now, I don't bother to do homework because it just takes up too much time, I find every single curriculum very challenging, and I can't even concentrate in classes. It was ever since I got my laptop and iPod. I spend most of the time staring at the screen (because now most of the homework are also to be done on computer) that torture my eyes and head. TV is definitely not any better than laptop.
There might be many other bullshit people come up with to excuse themselves for watching the stupifying device, but from my experience/philosophy/logical calculations that take place in my head every single moment, I can, without a second of hesitation and without doubt, say that TV is bad.

FAVORITE SONG

"Rocketeer" by Far East Movement

Challenge 36

238. If your entire memory were wiped out except for one experience, what would you choose to remember?

I would remember writing and posting this, so that I would know that I lost my memory if I do. That’s all I need to know. My family and friends will remind me of everything again. And it’s not like I have ever had a splendid experience in my life that I don’t want to forget. I’d rather instead forget some.

I’m just slightly worried on how to get back the awesome mindset I’m living by at the moment. I would have to learn it all over again. I would have to learn my values and principles all over again. But I believe I’ll do that successfully because I’m just freaking amazing.

Guess what? It’s not like my memory’s ever going to be wiped out with just one experience that I remember. Therefore, I would not like to waste my life detailing on what I would choose to remember. If this would come to use in the future actually and it was something realistic, I would get serious with it and write so much, but it would look silly if I did so when it won’t actually happen. I don’t want to make a fool out of myself, so I will stop here. Period.

Oh snap. ß It’s only 200 words right till there. So I have to write more. I have to write more than 300 words. I mean, by writing all these bullshlaka like “oh snap, it’s only 200 words right till there,” I’m accomplishing more words, and I admit that is sly. And right at this moment as I explain you all these unnecessary stuff I’m accomplishing even more words, but really this is the last blog for holiday so you know how it feels. I just want to finish it quickly. I can’t concentrate. I can’t wait to finish it. And I’m watching a video on Youtube right now so I don’t want to be disturbed.

Anyways, Mr. Plonka, thank you for making my winter-break exciting with this assignment. I mean it.

That’s it. I said I would remember writing this so I could read it if I lose my memory. That’s why I wrote all those “useless” stuff above to remind me who I really am. I wrote this blog to be so like something to have been written by myself to realize who I am by reading this. I’m unique. I’m one and only. I’m the best. I think this will be enough to bring back my dope-ass way of thinking, behaving, and living life. 


The End