What Do You Mean No More Books?!?!

I for one can honestly say that I would miss books if they were all gone. I became an English major for a reason, I've always enjoyed reading books, and can't imagine what my life would be like without them. I feel like I'm pretty much always reading something. Most of the time it's something for classes, but I try to find time to read for enjoyment and relaxation as well. It's scary to think about a world without books, even the electronic kind.

Everyday we are "burning" books by censoring them in schools or in other areas. If a book is a banned book or anything like that, we are essentially, burning the books for those that might have found use in reading it themselves. We also burn books by ignoring them and their importance in our lives.

Books and language exist as ways to pass down our culture and history from generation to generation. If we didn't have books, parts of our history would definitely be lost. I know from reading Fahrenheit 451 in the past many times (it's one of my favorites), that people begin to resist the book burning by memorizing literature and finding their own ways to pass it on. I've always thought about what I would memorize to pass on to others.

Hunger Games

Hunger Games was an interesting book to say the least. For whatever reason, I really felt like it was taking me forever to get into it. I just felt like much of the book, especially the beginning parts, seemed very predictable. Even though this book was one of the easier ones we've read so far, it took me longer overall, because I couldn't seem to get interested in the storyline for quite a bit. I think it was about halfway through the section on the games itself where I started wondering what would happen. By the end, I was actually interested in the characters and everything going on with them, and then it had a bit of a cliffhanger ending. It was like, "Oh look, Katniss and Peeta both are winners and are going home to District 12, what's going to happen now?? THE END". It was a very creative ending though given that this book is a part of a trilogy, it makes the reader want to read the other books to see what happens. So basically, I started out hating the book for the most part, but then it grew on me, and I'm now actually interested in maybe even reading the other books to see what happens to Katniss and Peeta. This book reminded me the most of 1984. People always seemed to be watching the characters, especially in the arena, and the characters acted accordingly.

I thought it was interesting to see that they're making a movie out of this book. I gotta say, the whole idea of the "games" didn't really surprise me. I've read multiple books or seen movies that follow kinda the same story. Things like Battle Royale, "The Lottery" that we read in class, and also the movie Death Race. Here's a clip from Death Race:

Big Brother Today

I think that Big Brother is watching us today in our everyday lives way more often than we would like to admit, or that we even realize. When you actually stop to think about the many places where you go that have cameras watching you, it's kind of shocking. For example, I work in a grocery store, and know that there are hundreds of cameras all throughout the store. I've been asked to help "watch the cameras" before to help catch shoplifters. It's crazy to think of the places all around us where we are being watched. While the whole novel might seem a little intense that Big Brother is always watching everyone, it makes you wonder how close we are to that at the current time. I feel like it seems a bit "conspiracy theorist" to say this, but are we always being watched in some way? How often are our phone records or even internet records searched through? Would we ever really even want to know?

I found this picture online and laughed when I first read it, but then the more I thought about it, the more I began to realize the sad truth behind it. Many of us allow people to watch or know what we are doing 24/7 through a Facebook page or likewise, and it doesn't even phase us. I guess Big Brother may not be a big government organization watching us. Maybe it's just us (our friends, our family, everyone else, etc.) always watching us.

Thoreau Challenge: The Aftermath

Today was the first day after completing the "Thoreau Challenge" successfully. I gotta say, it's been a weird day to say the least. As awesome as it was to be able to text my friends and get on Facebook and basically just catch up with all of my friends, it wasn't as exciting as I really thought it would be. I've definitely been listening to tons of music all day (I actually used up my entire battery for my iPod throughout the day). I still haven't gotten to watch any movies or anything yet, but I have time. I guess I'm just glad that I made it through an entire week without technology. I definitely learned a lot, and while I wouldn't want to spend another week without technology completely, I could see myself setting aside a few hours or so in order to get a lot of work done.

Advertisements via Feed

If I had my own feed I'm sure there would be some interesting advertisements that would pop up for me. I'm pretty sure the one that would pop up the most often would be for Red Bull.

I'm totally addicted to caffeine in general, especially Red Bull. I feel like this would be a consistent advertisement on my feed.

If I wasn't getting advertisements for Red Bull, I'd probably be getting advertisements for my iPod. I'd be getting information about new models, or what music to download, what music to listen to, etc.

I feel like I would constantly be getting information about the Yankees as well. I'm a huge Yankees fan, and I would be getting constant score updates and other general updates about the team itself.

Last but not least, I would be getting tons of advertisements for Giant. I work at Giant, and feel as though sometimes, my job has taken over my life completely. The majority of my friends and such are through Giant, and I (sadly) end up spending much of my time there.

Thoreau Challenge Days 4-7

Day 4.

Day 4 was a hard day. I kept thinking about how much longer I had to go in the week, and was realllllllllllllllllllllly missing my iPod. A lot. I ended up having to drive around a few places, and it was difficult to fight the urge to turn on the music in my car. I was really glad that it was at least somewhat nice outside so I could open my window a bit to have some sound. I ended up playing my guitar for about two hours to have some music, which was pretty awesome given that I had been meaning to play for a few days and haven't gotten a chance. I also got a lot of reading, both for classes, and for fun done.

Day 5.

Part of today was difficult. Every Friday, I end up driving home to work for the weekend after I get out of class. I live in Mechanicsburg and it takes about 45 minutes or so to actually drive home. I had decided that I was going to be good though and not listen to music the entire way home. Definitely not the most fun drive I've ever had in my life. The drive seemed to completely drag on as I passed each mile marker on the highway. Luckily, the rest of the day I spent at work, so I was too busy to really think about using my cell phone or any of that stuff.

Day 6.

Again today I ended up working pretty much all of the day. It was kinda weird that I didn't even really know where my cell phone was for the entire day but didn't really seem to care about it either. At work of course, I end up having to use the phone and computers and such all day long, and it was really a good change of pace from the week itself. I came home to my parents watching a movie on TV. They ended up turning it off as I walked in the door so that I wouldn't be watching it at all.

Day 7.

The last day of the challenge. I hung out with a few of my friends that I had seen the day before at work and we had set something up. It was hard to figure things out without having my phone to use to text or call people. I actually think the last day was the hardest day. I kept wanting it to go by quickly so that I could use my phone, listen to music, watch a movie, all of that fun stuff. I just kept thinking though, I've already made it this far, what's one more day? Definitely could not wait to use all of my technology though as soon as I could.

Thoreau Challenge Days 1 - 3

Hi my name is Rachel and I've been technologically sober (for the most part) for three days now. Yes this is what I have actually been telling my friends when I start to tell them about my participation in the "Thoreau Challenge". So far it has definitely been an interesting experience, as I figured it would be. Following is my experience so far, day by day.

Day One.

To get ready for my technology free week, I let my friends and family know what I was doing and told them if the really needed me, that my phone would still be on and to call me in case of an emergency. I set up my cell phone so that the only thing I can do on it is receive phone calls and use my alarm. I apparently forgot to tell some of my friends though, because when I ran into them on campus, they all told me they had sent me texts and wanted to know why I hadn't responded. All in all, the first day was not really all that hard.

Day Two.

My second day became a little bit more difficult. My roommate came back to the apartment and decided to watch a movie in her room. It just so happened, that she had to pick one of my favorite movies to watch and I could hear it from my room. I explained to her what I was doing, and she has been trying to watch her movies or listen to music with headphones so that I don't have to relapse into my technological addictions. It's really funny trying to explain the technology free week. Pretty much everyone that I told about this either asked why I would do it, or they just completely thought I was nuts for even trying it. Is our society already so obsessed with technology that the majority of us could not even live without it for a day? I ended up doing a lot of reading on my second day and read ahead for a lot of my classes. I had to use my computer for a lot of homework, given that many of my classes involve doing a lot, if not all, of the homework with typing and such. So far, I've done very well though with not going to other sites or doing things on my computer other than homework.

Day Three.

This would be today. Not going to lie, I totally had a dream about texting last night. Definitely one of the strangest dreams I've ever had. I woke up to find myself moving my thumbs on my pillow like I was trying to actually send a text. The funny thing is, I really don't even text or call people on my phone all that much. I haven't even taken my phone with me anywhere, it has stayed plugged in to the charger, on silent, next to my bed since Sunday night. The hardest thing for me so far, has definitely been the fact that I haven't been listening to my iPod. I am ALWAYS listening to music on my iPod, on the way to class, in my car, doing homework, getting ready in the morning. I really don't have a big problem with cutting out watching TV shows, given that I don't have cable hooked up in my apartment even. I do typically watch a lot of movies though, and I'm definitely missing that. I'm thinking I'm going to have to break out my guitar tomorrow so I can play some music before I go insane. I think it's also going to be hard that the weekend is coming up and I'm going to want to watch a movie or something during my free time.

Oh well, three days down, four to go. I can do this. Here's to hoping my week of technology rehab works, and I don't relapse before then.