The Sim-plistic life.

I played a great deal of The Sims as a kid. I enjoyed designing houses and making people fall in love. However, until recently I hadn't thought about the Sims. It was when I bought a cheap copy for Gamecube (I don't have a gamecube) off ebay did it start coming back into my everyday life. The other day I was at work listening to some people speak. One of these people being someone I knew pretty well and the other I barely knew. But while I watching them talk I pictured the little man and women cards popping up above thier heads with minus' behind them. These two people were clearly clashing. I pictured the hand movements and the shaking of the head. It was a perfect real life instance of the Sims in my head. I sold the Sims last week and traded it in for another simulation game: The main characters are lost on an Island, you must help them survive. This game also has noises and plus and minus'. But maybe, just maybe everyone will be peaceful while eating thier coconut.

Fiction Readings: "In My Box Called Pleasure" and "Because my father always said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star..."

These readings were both very interesting. "In The Box Called Pleasure" was something that I eventually regreted for the raunchiness of it. It was a great story that kept me interesting but it was really random.
The other story, the one with the long name, was interesting but seemed to get to droning on just like many of the stories. If I didn't have to read it I wouldn't have.

Non-Fiction Readings: "Borrrinnng!" by Dave Berry and "American Things" by Tony Kushner

Both of these readings were chosen due to their titles. The titles are so catching. "Borrrinnng" was my very favorite. Dave Berry could make a chimp eating a banana funny. I loved the way that he pointed out those things that we all see in everyday life and actually talked about them. People really are... boring. Well for the most part. He uses great description and makes me want to keep reading.

"American Things" only kept my interest for the first page. He's very descriptive but tends to drone on after a while. I did like how he mentioned that in America our home rarely stays our home. He still thinks of where he goes home. Truthfully this story bored me to tears in parts. I think if it were cleaned up a bit and those unnessasary repetitions were taken out that things would work better.

What have I done?

It was a warm Saturday afternoon, I sat there at the coffee shop that I loved due to it's name's play on words and typed away on this essay I had to write for class. The warm sunlit coffee shop was dead, it was just me and my two barista friends. As boredom began to set in we noticed that someone had finally came for some coffee. They were two arab men. Both were well dressed, I remember seeing them pull up earlier in the day, but they never got out of the car, they just pulled away. They seemed overly excited to be in the clock filled coffee shop, but whatever that's life. It looked nice, they commented, their eyes looking down at the assortment of pastries that they never even got. It took them forever to decide what they wanted. The younger one, well shorter at least, decided on a iced vanilla latte. I rarely remember who orders what whenever they come in, but he just didn't seem like a vanilla latte type guy. There was something wrong here, their eyes were jetting from one side of the shop to the other. They weren't making eye contact with any of us. Were they nervous? It's just a latte. Did they wait for the place to be empty to come back? I began to wish my fiance, Tommy were there. He could take them, they're small. Then I began to think about it. Were they going to rob the place? What if they had a bomb? Were they going to blow this tiny coffee shop up? I needed to go to the bathroom. It had to be that way. What if it "set them off?" I made my way to the restroom making sure not to look at the two men, who in my mind were surely up to no good. I shut the door behind me making sure to turn the fan on in addition to the light. What difference this would have made I am not sure. It all began to play out in my head. The men would receive their extra girly lattes and pull out a gun. Or what I thought in my mind's eye was a gun. Bennett would storm out back, leaving Julie all alone. She would be forced to empty the drawer into the tip jar that they have already taken from the speckled counter. Bennett would return and "pump them full of lead." Then I would walk out of the bathroom crying about the whole tragedy, hoping that Bennett doesn't end up in jail and that Julie is ok. What was I thinking? I am not sure now. I know that it wasn't my normal way of thinking.
Eventually it occurred to me that I might be influenced by media after all. Was it the media that caused me to stereotype the young men or was it the way the men acted that had me all flustered? I don't know. I don't think I'll ever know, but I am sure if they had looked less foreign to me, I wouldn't have seen them as shady characters as much as weird guys. I felt racist for the rest of the day. I wasn't raised to be racist, I was raised to love everyone without prejudice. Until this day I thought I had succeeded in not judging the book by it's cover. I went home and thought about the incident over and over again. I was sure that something was wrong with those guys. They left as soon as people came into the shop. There had to be something wrong. If they were black would I have just thought they were high? What if they were Asian, wouldn't they just be normal to me? If they were white I would assuredly thought they were drunk or strung out or something. But the point in my mind was that because they were Arab I thought they would be violent, which is wrong, and I remain ashamed of it. So now all I can do is correct myself if I catch myself at it again. Or maybe I should just stop watching the news.

Constance's "Conversation"

I enjoyed this moment in Constance's life. I think this was a great thing to write about because there was internal struggle and external struggle. I enjoyed the glimpses back on her knowledge of the other person in the conversation. I almost want to say that I want more, but it seems that this is the perfect glimpse, and that if more was added it would take away from what was already there.

Ron Carlson's "Bigfoot Stole My Wife" and "I am Bigfoot"

The first story was really cute and funny. He really believed that Bigfoot stole his wife. He felt like he had to believe it. He made me believe it. The details he used like referring to the stinch of bigfoot made me feel like I could have been in the house prior to the kidnapping. I thought it was funny that he added in that Bigfoot would have to struggle to get into his wife's car, but that it was possible. I especially liked "I am Bigfoot." I enjoyed his detailed confession to being Bigfoot. He added in everything that is shown in popular culture that is said of Bigfoot. His confession is almost sarcastic, but it works. When you tie the two stories in together you get a better understanding of each. I like this about these two stories, I enjoyed the fact that they followed one another in the book.

T.J.'s "A Day In The Life"

T.J.'s essay was pure reality and I think it shines through on the page. I enjoyed the details that he used, the white T-shirts and the way that the girl's hand writing looks kind of like his. Then I liked the fact that he did not hide any of the truth. He told us that he checked her out and sized her up. He wasn't afraid to say that he looked at her boobs. These things help us to understand T.J's character more than anything. It helps us to understand that he's just like every other human out there, he checks people out. I felt like this story could go on for ages and I would enjoy reading it. But as the title suggests it just gives us a glimpse of that one day. It still feels like the beginning of a great book on his senior year of high school and how it turned out differently than he originally expected.