Subdivision

    How must one be accepted to society? What if that society is outside of the country? Back in 2005, I was a 12 year old, shy child at the time. My brother, Alex, and I constantly get into fights for no apparent reason. Some fights were either verbal or sometimes physical. One time we were arguing about whose turn is it to vacuum the house and soon enough we were fighting physically. My Mom, she watches us fight making sure that it is not severe and she had no problem with us fighting and it didn’t bother her until that day. She had enough of us fighting, so she recommended us that one of us should live in Japan with our grandparents for a year. I took up on that offer and viewed it as an opportunity to start a fresh life there. A few months later, my mom got me a ticket to the Providence of Nagasaki and I was ready to go. I said good-bye to parents and to Alex, because I know I won’t have any trouble with him. On the way to Nagasaki, I got really excited. I was acting like a kid on Christmas day, despite the fact I had to sit on a plane for ten hours.     Upon arrival, after grabbing my luggage, I was immediately introduced by my grandparents, my cousin Shinta, and his mom Kikuko. Thrilled to see them, I realized one thing, Japanese people don’t hug anybody at all unless you’re in a relationship, so instead they just waved and bowed their heads down and it was something I had to get use to. Shinta and Kikuko told me that I would attend to Kamigoto Junior High School and everybody over there was really looking forward to my attendance. I continued nodding my head due to the fact that I have trouble understanding Japanese and it took me awhile to understand what they where saying. At first, I felt like a rock star, many other people wanted to see me so that got me excited. A few weeks later, I started school and one huge difference I noticed was that everybody had to wear a uniform to a public school, along with that you had to greet every teacher that walks by you, unfortunately for me, I didn’t greet a teacher and they warned me that I need to for now on, if not, they will report me to the vice-principal. One of my classes started, I made it just in time. One major thing that every student did before any lecture was that they all bowed to the teacher, I didn’t know that, so I was the only one sitting down as everybody bowed. The instructor noticed me sitting down and told me I needed to do that from now on. After a few months of having trouble getting use to this big change, I started to notice how people were treating me.     Whenever I asked one of my classmates  a question, they always  responded in a mean tone,. One of my teachers directly told me (note this was all translated and I still have trouble with my Japanese);  “Hey, Tylor” “Yes sir?” “During our English lecture, try not to show off your English speaking ability to class.” “Why?” “You see, many of your classmates are jealous you.” “I overheard some of your classmates talking negatively about you, saying you’re getting special treatment from the other teachers.” “What did they say about me?” “You don’t want to know.” I lay off my English during lecture, but unfortunately for me, more people were picking on me and giving me a hard time, some would even grab me by the collar of my uniform and  gave me death threats and telling me to go back to America. Soon, I felt isolated. No one could give me any guidance, any advice. I couldn’t talk to anyone, even my grandparents, because I’m still having trouble with my Japanese. I couldn’t call my parents because I didn’t want them to worry about me. I had to be self reliant and go through all this on my own. I was alone. I couldn’t bare this agony much more, to the point where I was about to consider suicide, but what would that make of me? If I were to kill myself, it’s only going to make my family worry. So, I decided go through with this agony until the end of the year.     During the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, everybody would make origami cranes. I decided to take part of this and ask one of my teachers to teach me how to make one. Mine was terrible compared it to my teachers and other classmates; after all it was my first time making a crane. The head was too big, the wings were uneven, and the body was just mess. After my poor excuse of a crane, a student that was younger then me said, “Your crane looks so terrible.” “Sorry, it’s first time” “Go back to America!” At that moment, I was filled with rage and anger. I decided to let all of my anger and agony out on this kid, so I grabbed the collar of his uniform pulled him up to my face and started shouting at him. After, I shouted at him, it just hit me; I’m just like the older students who picked on me. Fearing that I would end up like them, I quickly apologized to that student, but unfortunately he didn’t accept it. After awhile, I managed to make a few friends towards the rest of the school year, but most of them where younger students.      The year had finally come to an end; it was time for me to go back to California. Before the day of my departure, everybody where giving me flowers and taking pictures of me, probably because teachers wanted every student to get involved. I left Nagasaki, relieved that I didn’t have to go through a living hell. Although I didn’t enjoy the experience, it made me a better person. I learned to never pick on anybody for any reason and I learned to become self-reliant. After another long flight back, my parents introduced me with a huge hug and Alex even gave a hug. After that, I could tell that we are going to get along easily……unfortunately we got into another fight, but it wasn’t too serious.

Who are you texting to?

Texting. A typical way of having a conversation now days that doesn’t consist of using a house phone, it requires using a cell phone and typing with your keypads to communicate with one another. All though it’s nice texting to friends and family during class or meetings, if you don’t get caught, but what is the point of texting? Unless you’re a fast typer, it takes a few minutes to type down something to someone when you can say the same thing you where going to type someone in a few seconds. Why do texters text instead of calling each other? Isn’t that the purpose owning a cell phone, to call? According to an online article, “Teens text a lot, Adults worry” by John M. Grohol, PsyD Founder & Editor-in-Chief of the website psychcenteral.com, he wrote down that “Texting is the next generation’s of telephone conversation” as the title of one of the sections of the article.

            According to an article, “The psychology of texting ,The shaping of the new language”  Sunday, April 4, 2010, by  Tim Speciale, BA Psychology, “there was a study done by two gentlemen named Crispin Thurlow and Alex Brown of the University of Washington-Department of Communication utilized 159 college freshmen and Cardiff University (Wales, UK) and analyzed 544 individual text messages for 1.) Message Length 2.) Main linguistic content, such as actual text, or emoticons, and abbreviations”. After the study Thurlow and Brown found that only 23% of texts where friendship maintenance, 17% were salutary, and 15% were plans to meet. The other 45 % consist of favors, romantic, sexual, and chain messages.

            To the texters, why do they text instead of calling? After getting a chance to speak some texters, only a few of them brought up a good point and they stated that; “It helps keep there conversation private instead of talking out loud for other people to hear.” It makes perfect sense that they rather text then call, is that the only reason or is there more to it?

I want my MTV

           

I can not stand reality shows. Short and simple. Why do I hate reality shows?  Some of it is stupid and some of if it is ridiculous. Many people exploit themselves on television for the exposures to society hoping that can lead them to fame or a huge amount of cash. If not fame, they hope they would have a legacy worth remembering. I tend to stay away from reality because it’s not worth my time.

MTV, VH1, and FOX (I’m sure there are other channels) are the big three when comes to reality. MTV stands for Music Television. If you check what is on MTV you’ll get some reality show instead of anything involving with music. On MTV, the reality shows they show are; Teen Moms, The Substitute, Rob and Big, The Real World, True Life, Made and MTV’s hit Jersey Shores. I don’t watch MTV anymore due to the lack of Music involving that channel, that’s why I watch VH1 Classic.

VH1 also shows nothing but reality shows, although there are a few shows involving music such as Behind the Music and music countdowns. VH1’s reality show consist of; Basketball wives, Celebrity rehab, La La’s full court, What Chilli wants, and Ton of Cash. I checked the guide and I cant find any other shows that would show in that channel.

FOX has to be the father of all reality. My first and only reality show I watch from that channel is COPS, I remember my Dad was watching that show when I was about 7. Other then COPS, there plenty of reality shows, from what I can remember there was; Hell’s Kitchen, The X factor, So you think you can dance, Nanny 911, Are you smarter then a 5^th grader, Joe Millionaire and the biggest show on FOX, American Idol. There are still plenty more but FOX discontinued most of its reality show into a sitcom.

So, reality shows ruin my interest towards television. I don’t plan on watching anything involving cash prizes towards the end (unless it’s Fear Factor), that is why I stick with movies and old shows I use to watch.

I'm lovin it

            When you think of fast food, what is the first thing do you think of? Mostly when you think of fast food, it always involves with burgers. When ever I think of fast food, I always think of spending money. Probably when I was younger, my family take me to any fast food restaurants once or twice a week and at that time, I didn’t mind; I get to eat food that I liked and it tasted good. We always eat either McDonalds or Burger King, me and my brother always get a happy meals, my Dad either a Whopper or Big Mac, and my Mom a simple burger. Now I don’t eat fast food restaurants as much as I use to, but now that I think back, the only thing I liked about going out to fast food restaurants was the point that I get to spend time with everyone in the family because my Dad was busy in the military and my Mom busy at work I only get to see them during dinner time.

           

            Now that I think back in my early childhood, I’ll miss consuming fast food and at the same time regret it. I’ll regret it because I use to be on the heavy side before I lost a good amount of wait. Now when I go eat at any fast food restaurant it doesn’t bother me a whole lot because now I exercise, for example; I could order a Big Mac combo meal and not regret that I’m going to mess with my health. Every time I go to any restaurant, weather its fast food or a sit down restaurant, I will spend at least $10 or more just to eat food that’s appetizing. I don’t go to any fast food restaurants as much as I use to, now it’s probably once a month because I sometimes forget to bring my own lunch from home to work during my break. Sometimes when my Dad comes home from outside the state he normally takes the family out somewhere out to eat, whether its fast food restaurant or a sit down restaurant. If I ever go to any fast food restaurant, the main reason would only be eating something sweet such as ice cream or milkshake.

            In my future, I hope I rarely go to any restaurant, unless I’m on a date, that way I can easily save my money on things I could use rather then fast food.