BetsyLinderJournal

The Lost Boys reminds me of an all boys school that is middle or high school level. The boys telling the story seem to be younger than the Texan or Ladykiller. The storytellers are probably freshman and the Texan and Ladykiller are juniors or seniors. This school is private and they are required to wear uniforms. The school I went to was a public high school. We were not required to wear uniforms. I am not sure if I would have liked uniforms. It would be nice in the morning to not pick out an outfit however I don’t think I would want to wear a skirt or slants with a collared top everyday. I think the way people dresses says a lot about them. You get to see their personality through their own style of clothing. Sometimes that can be a bad thing though. Sometimes kids will just stereotype a person based on what they are wearing. The stereotype is not always true.
The prank with the gray glob and suicide notes makes me think of the senior prank that seniors try to do every year. When my brother was a senior, some boys pulled a really good prank during a pep rally in the gym. The dance team was running out to dance when four guys dumped hundreds of grasshoppers all over the girls. They all started screaming and running around. I wish I would have been there to see it however I would not have wanted to be one of the dancers. The boys that thought up the prank were very intelligent. They programmed the whole thing perfectly. They also got in big trouble with the school. Senior pranks have to be planned ahead and you can’t get caught.
The story also reminded me how much drama there was in high school. Because the school population was smaller than college, everyone knew about everyone else’s business. The popular group was much more important in high school. People were classified into biased groups and didn’t want to branch out into other groups. The jocks all hung out together. The preppy kids all hung out together. The grungy kids were a group. The theater kids all ran around with other theater kids. The “gangsters” would only talk to other gangsters. Every once in a while, a gangster would show up to a preppy kid’s party, for most of the night, everyone would get a long. But usually by the end of the night, someone would get in a physical or verbal fight. It was almost guaranteed. Luckily now in college, we have strayed away from it somewhat. However, the Greek system does sometimes lead to “clicks”. It doesn’t seem to be as bad as high school though. College students seem to be more secure with themselves compared to high school students. In high school, being popular is much more important than in college. There is not one known popular group in college and no one cares about that image anymore. People start to realize that is not important in life. Your social status isn’t what will make you happy in life.

The Pretenders was a good article on imitation bands. I think that imitation bands sometimes can do a good job imitating a band but sometimes they are awful. I saw an imitation band of some eighties group that was somewhat entertaining to watch but their outfits were horrible. I think that original bands should get a lot more credit. They are actually trying to be creative and come up with original ideas. I am sure that it is hard to sound and act exactly like one band but it is not original. Being original is all about any sort of band. You should think of your own image not another image. I wouldn’t think that a band would appreciate someone making money off their own music and image. The article talked about how imitation bands make more money than original bands that no know knows about. I don’t think that should be the case. I can see why this happens. Some people are such die-hard fans of one group that they would even want to see imitations. But someone that is actually making up their own lyrics and image should get more attention and money. They are the ones that deserve the credit.
My senior year in high-school, my dad told me that the Beatles were coming to the Lied, a performing arts theater in Lincoln, Nebraska (where I am from). I couldn’t believe my ears. I wondered though who would do John Lennon’s part since I knew he was dead. My dad said he got tickets and I could invite one friend. I invite my old boyfriend Andrew. I told him that the Beatles were at the Lied and my dad was taking us. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Beatles but I knew it would be awesome. We get to the Lied and I notice that there aren’t that many people there. I figured it would be packed. The show starts and these five guys walk out. They didn’t look like the Beatles. I ask my dad what was going on. He told me it was an imitation band. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t told me that. He figured I knew that. I was a little embarrassed that I hadn’t figured it out. The concert ended up being pretty bad in my opinion. Maybe if I had been a bigger fan of the Beatles, I would have appreciated it more. Everyone around me was at least in their forties. The dancing and costumes were the worst. The singing wasn’t too bad but not the best.
There is one band that no one is very familiar with that is not an imitation band, The Lost Trailers. I have been to a few of their concerts when they have performed at Gypsy Tea Room. They always put on a really good show and they write their own lyrics. I have a lot more respect for them trying to make it in the music industry. That industry is so competitive and there are so many people trying to make it big. At least they are going about it the right way. They are creating their own image and music. They are originally from Georgia. They are somewhat country sounding but with a sound of rock mixed. They deserve the recognition and money more than someone copying a bigger well-known band.

“Visiting Hours” was a very touching and sad story. It was about a boy in the hospital due to a skateboarding accident. He had a concussion and could not remember when his parents had come to visit him. He was depressed and lonely. I have never really had anyone close to me experience a serious accident like him. I have been lucky. My uncle died of brain cancer this summer and I visited him a couple of times in the hospital. The hospitals always have a certain smell. It is a clean smell but it is almost an eerie smell of cleanness. It is sad to think about how almost everyone in a hospital is either sick, injured, or visiting someone that is one of the two. One of the only good things that happens in hospitals is women going into labor and having a baby. The woman is still in pain though when having a baby. I can’t imagine losing my brother at the age of fifteen. Some families just don’t have good luck like the Kennedy’s. My grandmother is a perfect example. My grandma lost both of her parents in a car accident when she was just graduating high-school. She was then responsible for taking care of her younger brother, my great-uncle Rod. She then got married soon after that to a man named Max. She got pregnant with my dad Max. Her husband died in a plane accident while she was still pregnant with my dad. I don’t understand why some people experience such trauma in their lives in such a short amount of time.
Another thing that comes to mind is the topic of euthanasia. Ezra and many other patients sometimes want to give up and end the suffering. It is hard to be confident in the future when everything is going wrong. Depression is a serious factor that occurs in many terminal ill patients or patients like Ezra. Being a teenager and having your whole body damaged would be a hard on your self-esteem. Adolescences typically have lower self-esteems. This is an awkward time in people’s lives. I can’t imagine being in a hospital for so long, not remembering anything and then going back to reality. It would be hard to face everyone at school always hearing the same questions, “How are you?” or “Are you okay?” At first it would be okay to know people cared but it would be very overwhelming.
It is hard to say that euthanasia is okay. Many people consider it wrong and that is why it remains illegal. If the person is clinically depressed, he/she is not thinking in a rational state of mind. They aren’t themselves. However, if the pain will never end and they have no chance of living, is it okay? That is a question that I have not found a good answer to. It is hard to know if someone has no chance of living. Miracles happen all the time. Sometimes terminally ill patients can experience pain that is unbearable and no medicine will help. It is a hard decision.

The story “Common Scents” talks about many different smells that certain people belong to. Everyone’s own house, clothes and car all have their own scent. The weird thing is that no one can smell their own scent. When I walk into my apartment or car, I don’t smell anything. Whenever I walk into my friend Morgan’s apartment I always smell this certain smell of food and vanilla air freshener mixed together. A smell of something can take a person right to a certain experience or certain person. I have an attachment to certain smells. The smell of my mom’s perfume reminds me of my mother. The smell of my boyfriend’s detergent and soap reminds me of him. The smell of fried chicken takes me right to my kitchen at home. The smell of “Happy” perfume reminds me of seventh grade when that was the perfume to have. The smell of cooked food and moistness makes me think of my grandparent’s old home. One of my favorite smells is when my mom is cooking fried chicken and mashed potatoes at home. It fills the entire house. Another one of my favorite smells is the smell of lilies. It is such a refreshing and spring-like smell. I like the smell of many different perfumes as well. The smell of lavender lotion and Marc Jacobs “Essence” are both very fresh. There is also a wide range of bad smells. I don’t like the way an old sponge in the sink smells mixed with food, 409, and beer. It doesn’t go away unless you just throw out the sponge. I also don’t like the smell of fraternity houses. It is also a bad smell that is a mixture of stale smoke, alcohol, and detergent.

The movie Adaptation is a disturbing but artsy movie. I am not sure if I liked it or not. In this movie, the reputation of an author is at stake. She ends up being a druggie but no one knows this about her. She is a respected writer. A screen writer finds out this fact about her and she threatens to kill him. This screen writer is a depressed man in his thirties or forties. He doesn’t have many friends or a girlfriend. He feels alone and desperate throughout the movie. Most successful screen-writers have a lot of money and people think they lead a happy life. I don’t understand why people think that just because you have a lot of money means you are happy in life. This movie shows another side, a more realistic side. Here at Southern Methodist University, money and materialism are valued things but why? Why do people think that is what will lead to happiness? It is hard not to get caught up in it. What makes someone successful? Does it mean you have to make a lot of money? A lot of people in our society seem to think so. The reality is that many people are happy without money and are successful in life. It is important to focus on things that make a person happy in life; not just what will get a person a lot of money. The movie proves that even if you are working in Hollywood with the movie stars, not everything is as perfect as it seems. Life isn’t about having expensive things or knowing the important people. It is about loving others and doing things that make a person happy.

“The Littlest Hitler” reminds me a lot of how a small town would be. I grew up in a city of around 250,000. It was not exactly small but it wasn’t the size of Dallas. Everyone in this town knows everybody else. It is a town full of gossip. Everyone knows the one Jewish family. Everyone knows about the one slutty seventh grade girl in town. At this point Halloween had already become politically incorrect. I was surprised that in such a small town that it would already be considered wrong since it took place in the 1980’s. I was able to dress up for Halloween throughout elementary school. By sixth and seventh grade the theme of a harvest carnival started to come into effect. It surprised me that any parent would ever recommend his son or daughter to go as Hitler. The son and dad both thought it would be someone considered scary. However, it was already considered politically incorrect to have an actual Halloween party. I can’t imagine it being okay to go as one of the most hated men of our history.
This story also reminded me how mean kids are at this age of around nine and ten. These children picked on Davy for being Hitler when they probably didn’t even understand why they were doing it. At that age I hadn’t learned much about any of the wars. The passing of the notes was also a popular thing to do. At this age, kids don’t think about other people’s feelings. They are growing out of their egocentrism. They want to have friends and tend to be “clicky”. There is always that one girl like Lisette that everyone thinks of as the most popular girl. Anna White was the one in my class. All the girls wanted to be invited to her house after school. Everyone always followed her new trends. When the troll rings and necklaces became popular, Anna was the first one to have every ring in every color. Her hair was always perfectly curled and she never wore the same outfit twice. She was “Annie” at the community playhouse and she had the cutest boyfriend Brandon Rigoni. He was Italian and he always had a tan. I had a crush on him for three years but he was always in-love with Anna.
I also knew a boy like Davy. His name was Drake. He had parents that didn’t care a lot about him. They weren’t considered your politically correct type of parents. They drove a truck like Davy’s dad’s truck. They also let Drake watch R-rated movies. It is sad how many kids there are whose parents don’t care. Davy’s dad seemed to care about him. However, the fact that he didn’t know it would be wrong to dress his son as Hitler surprised me. Nowadays, many parents need to be more educated on how to raise children. There is a reason why eight and nine year olds should not watch R-rated movies. These children look up to actors and think of them as role-models. They don’t know the difference between right or wrong. When the professors of the education program interviewed me for the program, they asked me what I would do if a third grader brought a beer to school. I later found out that this had happened to my professor when she worked at an elementary school. Beer was the only type of drink in the refrigerator. He didn’t even realize that it was illegal. He just got thirst when walking home. This is a perfect example how parents need more education on how to raise a child.