Winter Posts --- Ebay *Re-do

Over the winter break I went to the Ebay website and randomly looked over some of the categories that they had on the home page. To be honest it wasn't really all that appealing. So I typed in something that I knew for sure would interest me: Twilight (A book series) . There were a number of things that came up, I don't really remember all of the items, but a few of them did catch my eye. I saw a bracelet that I had liked alot. There was only one bid on it and the starting price was 17.99. It didn't seem like alot of money for this one item because it was something that I actually wanted.

My mother still protested buying the item so I used the watch this item option. I checked the item two days later and the price had gone up to 19.99 and now had two bidders. A 2 dollar increase didn't really seem like alot but it made me think about how people willingly spend money for things they probably wont need or use. I last checked it on the 2nd and the price had rose 3 cents. It appeared that this bidding game would go on forever because when you want something you can be relentless until you get it.

Winter Posts --- Connecting X-mas to AWOL

This Christmas was especially different and I do believe that it was all because of the lack of money in the economy. I think in general money makes the world go round and as shallow as it seems, money is the heart and soul of America. So in this especially difficult time for our economy America suffers more changes than it expected. Back in 9th grade (give or take) Christmas break was always the best time of the year, free presents, no school, snow. Everyone I remember would always be so excited about this time of the year. December 08' gave a whole new outlook on this and showed a clearer connection to money and Americans. Before school let out I talked to a few students and asked the simple question "Does this feel like Christmas to you?" they would ponder the question thoughtfully then give a confusing "No". Usually i would expect the answer to be something like "Hell yea" or "What other holiday could it be?!" Because America is slowly dwindling down on its $ America is unknowingly changing its attitude. Because money runs everything here like a puppet show -- work -- get money -- spend money -- save money (maybe) -- and the cycle starts all over again. So once something is messed up in this delicate cycle everything goes wrong. Once our economy was messed up, Americans attitudes slowly started to shift without them noticing So Americans who would see Christmas as a great time to spend with family and just relax could very well have a new outlook on life because of the economy and not even know it. All because of money.

Whats weird is how even in this financial crisis we still see fit to spend money anyway.

Winter Posts -- Describing My Holiday

This Christmas holiday was a bit different than previous Christmas holidays. I got my tree much later than usual. My family and I would usually try and get our tree near the begginning of December, this year we got it Christmas week. There were a few unexpected changes this year such as, my mom wrapping a large majority of my brothers presents in front of me. When she would usually just wait until we were all asleep to wrap them.

Christmas didnt really feel the same to me as it did in previous years. But as break went on the vacation got better. I spent the second part of Christmas at my Aunts house and by Christmas night I was seeing my cousin off to Las Vagas for a basketball tournament. On the 28th my family and I went to Atlantic City. We stayed for 2 nights and shopped alot. We returned I spent some more quality time with my mother watching the action movie Eagle Eye and New Years Eve I went to a party.

"A Day Late and A Dollar Short" --- Ebay?

So, last week we had an auction at school. It was supposed to show us the important values of capitalism ex. us the buyers and the proctor the seller, which is how life in America usually works (people buying and people selling stuff to earn money). I think that the auction was sort of a good idea, the things were limited and honestly to me the items were not worth the labor. My experience was not all it could have been since my credit process was messed up on an account of bad computer reception.
I think that the E-bay simulation was also a bit of an overkill, because i think the auction was good enough and just about the same thing. Even though I wasn't given the credits i was supposed to receive, i got the gist of the simulation. I think it would have been better if there were a lot more things to bid for and if there were more things that the majority of the bidders were interested in.

I think it also would have been netter if we had a better more generous source of money or a longer amount of time to gather the money. For example Like in the real world if you bet or want or buy something that you wanted you usually are able to earn money for a while and you wont buy anything unless you are sure you can pay for it. Whereas in the auction we only had a limited time to earn our "money" so if we wanted more time we didn't have it. I think it would have been better if we had a longer time to experience the class auction. As fir the E-bay assignment, I was not able to do it. My mother which is my source of money since i don't have a job, did not agree or take well to the idea of buying something for an assignment. It was made clear that you could bid on something small in order to conserve money but there was also the large possibility that someone else would bid against you and in the end the price would have gone up greatly. My mother didn't like that possibility. Honestly I think that the auction in class was enough and E-bay would have been another excuse to spend money.

Big Paper--start "mesh of ideas"

I think this shows American's at their worst, the facts show : a mob of angry people killed a man to save a couple bucks on some clothes and electronics. When you put it like that of course it sounds horrible and the article managed to successfully describe Americans as "savages". And to a point the article makes the reader believe that we as American's are savages who only care about making money and saving money. But the author of the article also managed to not get any quotes from people who were shopping. The article puts down anyone who wanted to save money for that day. I agree that the people didn't have to be that extreme but the words the author used did sound a bit extreme. Maybe it would have been a little bit more convincing if there were alternative view points.
Above: is a previous post about an incident that happened the morning of Black Friday. It involves my thoughts about an article that someone wrote describing how crazy American's get just to say a few bucks on something, this proves that they would even go as far as kill a man.
I am focusing on how an inanimate object, how little pieces of green paper with DEAD people on it can essentially run an entire society. I want to focus on the history of money and how it came to be the most important thing to many Americans. I would also like to connect the value of money, the greed that people develop for it and how far people are willing to go to get money. Lastly I will connect money to AWOL.

Comments on Sandy's Part D

I like the way you elaborated on your favorite question. You mention what you believe the main aspects of AWOL are. But i noticed that you left out one major aspect, MONEY until further in the question. I liked also how you cited the amendments you referred to. Do you think that money trumps education? Also I'm not sure i agree that congress is closest to the people. I like your thoughts on it, but i can't help but to think that nothing in the government is close to the people. Do you honestly think that people have any say in the government? and if they wanted to they might even be able to make some sort or change in the constitution?. When i talked to you, we spoke about amending the constitution. I said that i would involve all races and genders and anything else in the constitution and not just throw them in the amendments. What caught my attention was when you said that "values were different then and what they included in the constitution was what they believed in at the time. and when the values changed, there were changes made to the document". I agree with that, because i can see how if at a certain point in time you believe in one thing, then values change, you add it to what you believe in. Thus the amendments. What do you think about the time gap between the 12th and 13th amendment? I also noticed that you believe that the constitution connects to daily life, do you think people live more by the book or do you think they do what they want?

Part D

Part D Question 1-
I for one wouldn’t want that power. But since this is homework I have no choice but to answer it. I would define the word “citizen” more clearly and I would make sure that equal rights for all races and both genders were included clearly and understandable in both the bill of rights and the constitution. I would also be very careful to not include laws and amendments that may contradict each other or other laws that other businesses may have i.e. MTA searching. I would also try and make the laws and amendments reasonable gaps from each other unlike the gap between voting rights (12th amendment) and abolishing slavery (13th amendment). Also I would make a law or amendment giving the citizens more power to have a say and input in what the government controls.
When the constitution was made it only benefited the rich people and white people. The amendments were made later to help include other races and females. That says a lot about the government. If it weren’t for the 27 amendments I have no idea how life would be now of how much worse life would have been for other races and females. The constitution alone just looks selfish, sexist and racist. I would change that anyway I could.

Part D Question 4-
I think the general and most common attitude and tone of the constitution is to try and be fair and to try and sound as stern as possible. When I read the amendments it sounded to me like the tone was forced. It gave me the impression that the amendments were slipped in last to attempt to be equal and fair. Even though the amendments do help out other races and females, that doesn’t stray, people to forget the inhuman way that people were living before the amendments were established. There were limits put on the government, which I believe is only fair since they have majority of the power. i.e. the separation of powers makes sure that no one part of the government has too much power. I don’t know about the betrayal of public officials. Take the 19th amendment for example. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. But I just can’t believe that people honestly honor this amendment. I’m sure that women have been denied jobs just because they were women since this amendment was ratified.
But I would believe that the government isn’t exactly a beacon of honesty. The history of America speaks for itself, from slavery, to massacres, to segregation, to assassination to wars. When all this is going on it makes it hard to focus attention to a piece of paper with a few laws from over 100 years year ago scribbled down. I believe that sometimes we may look to the constitution sometimes for order and the basis of laws for our county, but I don’t think that we uphold them or even follow them the majority of the time. What good is a piece of paper, when American’s do what they want all the time?

Part D Question 5-
I think that it would be ridiculous to say that we follow all of the rule and law as stated on the constitution. I don’t think that the constitution makes America what it is today. Maybe when the constitution was written, the people back then lived their lives by the book and followed the laws of the constitution. But today I think in a way American’s have made their own laws. I’m not saying that the laws are useless and pointless, because for the most part the laws are important and in some way they do shape how we live, but I don’t think they make a huge difference in our daily lives. Up until 2 weeks ago I knew nothing about the amendments or the constitution and I was living my daily life just fine. I guess that’s why I believe the constitution and amendments aren’t all they are hyped up to be. But I could be wrong; maybe when I get older they may play more of a role in my life. But I’m sure that for countless other American’s the constitution and the amendments shape out important aspect of their lives.