Ju's Blog

2005-12-05T09:33:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I went on my first holiday shopping extravaganza. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be. I did buy a few things, but most of them were personal in nature and nice, rather than being "consumer crap". It amazes me how much differently I have found myself thinking about the holiday season this year... its fascinating when you discover the history and the progress of a part of your life that people generally take for granted as having always been "the way of things". :-D

2005-12-02T10:01:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while reading a novel called Myth of the Welfare Queen I came across a chapter that was very in touch with the readings we have done in this class, especially the latest one "Wassailing across the color line". The book deals with welfare recipients in Northern Philedelphia, in 1994, (low end of the social hierarchy) before the AFDC plan was cut from the national budget. This chapter dealt with the holiday season and in particular the plan of one Welfare Reform group. They had planned to take over abandoned houses belonging to HUD just before Christmas, hoping to use the charity of the season to make it last. This is parallel to the misrule generally associated with the lower classes around this time, and more importantly is much like the slave uprisings that occured. I found it rather interesting how this idea has still found a place in society, although in a slightly different form. It is interesting how things from this class have made their way into others, giving me a new view on society. That makes me happy. Haha

On another note, I just purchased my first Christmas gift. It is a bear for my girlfriend wearing a tee shirt that says "someone in Geneseo (heart)'s me". Aww, how cute.

2005-11-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

I just got back from Thanksgiving break last night... it was a nice respite from the hectic schedule of school, and it got me to thinking about some of the similarities between this holiday and December 25th. Both holidays seem to have a sense of family togetherness. I wonder whether this is coincedence, or if Thanksgiving too has been minipulated in the manner I now know Christmas has. It makes me want to look into the history of Thanksgiving to see where it really came from!

On another note, I haven't decided which paper I want to revise yet. I really did not like my 5th paper, and I think I would rather re-write that one, but I have to wait to get it back first. Well I've gotta run, I'll come back later.

2005-11-13T14:57:00.000-08:00

I just finished paper 5. I am NOT happy with it. I simply couldn't come up with a concrete thesis. I felt like the paper had no structure, and no matter what I did, it just didn't make sense. I even changed from the theme of time to that of family. I guess that I didn't really understand the assignment or something. I don't feel that I'm going to get a good grade..... but I tried hard. I almost never revise my papers much, and I spent about 3 hours trying to make sense of what I wrote (losing almost a page in the process). Oh well. :-(

2005-11-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

My paper is due Monday. So far I have a page and a half written, and I HATE every word of it. The structure is terrible and it sounds like crap. Problem is, I really don't know what to do to make it better. I don't feel like I completely understand what I'm trying to write, so I find myself writing alot of BS ( excuse my french). I'm just so frustrated right now. The semester is over in less than a month and I'm beginning to feel the strain of everything coming up at once. I think I might just re-write my paper entirely, using a new thesis. I guess the problem is that I've never been forced to create essays from scratch before. In highschool the thesis was always thrown at you, and you just had to plug and chug some information and get an A. Yippee! Now, alas, tis not the case. I feel like I'm drowning in a sea of academia.

2005-11-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

I finally finished A Christmas Carol over the weekend, beside a warm fire with a warm cup of tea :-) I spent a long time thinking about the story, as I have to write a paper on it, and I'm having some trouble with it. The first thing I noticed was how differently it was written when compared to some of Dickens' other works such as Great Expectations. Realizing that that wasn't going to help my paper at all, I began to think about other things. I thought about the idea of charity and its importance, as well as the emotions connected with Christmas. I also tried to think of the story in terms of the modern day rather than the 19th century, to see if it's lessons are as applicable today as they were over 100 years ago. I feel that they are.

I still haven't gotten a concrete thesis for my paper. My rough draft was on the theme of time, but I'm thinking about scrapping that completely in lieu of something better. I feel that the idea of charity is a good topic to write about, and one that is clearly demonstrated in the story.

2005-11-02T09:33:00.000-08:00

This week I read the great majority of A Christmas Carol, and I found myself connecting to it in a very strange way. In going to college, my greatest concern has always been to get a job that pays very very well. I've decided that it is more important for me to be well off, in a job that I don't enjoy, than make less money and be happy. While reading this story, I found myself thinking how much like Scrooge my th ought process has been. It has scared me. I too have started following a golden idol, and in the process I fear I may have lost sight of what is truly important. It really was quite the epiphany... something that I've been thinking about for a few days now. I certainly didn't think that this book was going to affect me in such a dramatic fashion. I'm starting to question if transferring to Cornell is what I really want to do, or if college is even if I want to do. I'm afraid that if i spend my life worrying about money and success, that my life will slip by before I realize whats truly important.

2005-10-28T09:37:00.000-07:00

Hey there world! So yeah, I had strep throat. I've been more or less incapacitated all week, but I got some erythamiacin and im feeling pretty good now.. I heart anti-biotics. Anyways.. I re-read the chapter that I didnt quite understand through my fever induced haze and I figured out what it was all about. It was discussing the idea of Christmas as something other than commercial. It played off of the idea of people being selfless and giving and doing things that really came from the heart... the part of Christmas I think most people yearn to see more often. I thought it was very interesting... and I was very surprised that people were recognizing the down-side (commercialization) of christmas so early on in its shaping during the 19th century.

2005-10-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

I feel terrible. I read the next chapter in Nissenbaum last night, but to be honest I dont remember much of it. I think i was delirious from my fever. I want to say that it was about christmas trees or some such thing. I really dont know. I just want to take a nap... I dont even feel like im really awake right now. Perhaps when i get time ill go to the health center and get some anti-biotics, because im fairly certain i have strep throat. The other night I heard my first christmas song for the year.... its still october isnt it? Im gonna have to go and say that thats a bit ridiculous... anyways... im gonna go... ill write more later.

2005-10-21T10:21:00.000-07:00

Last night, while preparing to write paper 4, I read an article dated December 26, 1840 from The New Yorker. First off, I thought it was awesome that I was reading something, in its original form, from 165 years ago. I also loved the way it was written. You can tell that back then, papers werent designed at a 5th grade reading level, and that the average Joe probably didnt read them as a result. The vocabulary was rather large, and i thought, awesome. I'm a big history buff, so i found it fascinating. Second, much of what Nissenbaum wrote about was directly mentioned in the article. They talked about the idea of Christmas being a family event and temperence and all that. What surprised me was that they made direct comments about "Christmas of Old" and the old "Holiday Sports". I was under the impression that the old ways were just kind of forgotten about, but this article talked about how many wish for a return to the old ways. I found that pretty interesting

2005-10-19T09:39:00.000-07:00

See below for my comments for October 19th! Oy.

2005-10-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

Last night I was at Wegman's in Dansville.. and I saw all the Christmas things being put up. If I'm not mistaken, it's still October right??? I find that just a bit excessive. I've noticed since this class started that I'm more sensitive to the corporatization of the holiday season, and it really bothers me to see. Is it possible that we have lost the true meaning of the season.. or has it been manipulated in such a manner that it is not what it once was? The holiday should be about non-material, intangible things... not lights and presents... right? Or perhaps the season has changed so much that presents are the point. I wonder what the holiday will be like by the time i have kids....

2005-10-14T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well I created this on the 14th... but I saved it for a draft and never published it... better late than never i suppose!!
AS FOLLOWS:

"I'm worried about the wiki. Don't get me wrong, it's going great and looks awesome, but I don't know how much I can really add to it at this point! I've added a few paragraphs throughout it, but I don't feel that I've really contributed enough... and I don't know what else to add. It's not that I'm lazy, I just don't see what else to put in it!! OH well... i'm sure plenty of other people have done much less than me i suppose..."

As far as today the 19th today is my girlfriends birthday.. and she just called me because she was so excited that I had flowers delivered to her school. It made me think about how good it feels to give gifts. Perhaps I have been too cynical about the commercialization of the season all year. Sure, people are trying ot make a buck off of the holidays... but it still feels great to give things to the people that you love, and I would probably do it even if it weren't tradition.. although it still bothers me that it was designed as a tradition with profit in mind.

2005-10-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

So Schacht seemed happy that we made a Coffeehouse and have been working so hard on the Wiki. Dan, Kate, Tina, and I got down to business on Friday and put up a list of things we need to do. I think that the project is going pretty well. I'm really hoping to get an A on this, and I think we can pull it off if we take care of a few more things.

2005-10-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

"The supposed Christianity of our civilization has not kept us, as a nation, from stockpiling weapons to fry our enemies wholesale. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that the modern consumer oriented culture in which we live is, in many ways, the very antithesis of a religion that once advised us not to lay up treasures on earth. Under capitalism, the meek don't inherit the earth but end up tilling it at wretchedly low wages while the landowners ride around in Mercedes. In short we have lost the wisdom of our religious tradition. It isnt't difficult to imagine that perhaps, in a few decades, everybody will look upon December 25th as a commercial festival, quite forgetting that it ever had anything to do with a person named Jesus." (italics added) -Inge Bell "This book is not required"

I thought that was rather interesting. It deals alot with the societal aspect of Christmas, and even the way classes are involved in the holiday much like "The Battle.." Could it be that Christmas has lost some of its most important aspects in lieu of better profits?

2005-10-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

Everytime I try to go to the wiki my explorer stops responding!!!!! And I got up early just to add to it....... now... i think... i may cry.

2005-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Originally I had planned on doing one of the two three page papers to be written by today, but professor Schacht's enthusiasm for the wiki made me decide to jump on board and be a part of something larger than myself. I had planned on writing up the biography of Henry Livingston Jr., but by the time I went on the wiki on Wednesday night, such considerable progress had been made that I had trouble finding something to write! Most of the topics had already been done, so I just added where I could and did a little editing for gramatical mistakes. I must admit, though, I think that this collaberative writing project is very cool.. it seems like a very worthwhile project, I hope that we can pull off a good grade, but ill be working on it over break, and so will others, so im sure it will turn out great.

2005-10-05T09:37:00.000-07:00

Ah it's been a few days since my last post... busy busy busy I have been! Last night I managed to sit down and read a chapter in Nissenbaum entitled "The Parlor and the Street". I found it fascinating that in the 19th century, the Christmas season could be one of two very different holidays, depening on who you were and what segment of society you belonged to. It reminded me very much of Halloween in my own town which has a bit of a reputation for mischief. In fact police coverage is quadrupled in my town on that night. The reason I find this interesting is that most of the hooligans are young men, and 90% of those are from the poor section of my town (and yes, I was almost arrested a few years in a row for my part in some holiday glee, mostly involving paintball guns and unsuspecting people!) I also found it interesting how the media (mainly controlled by the upper echelon of society) tried to discourage the "Misrule" side of the holiday and turn it into something that takes place in the home... namely to keep their kids from being around "undesirable" types. It was a very interesting chapter, and it showed a microcosm of class conflicts in general at that time in America. I like the idea of Christmas in a broader social sense... who would have thought???

2005-09-28T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today in class we discussed Moore and his life. I find it very interesting that Christmas as we know it today came as a result of people who wanted to stay away from the poor! Today we associate the holiday with giving to the poor and being better to those less fortunate... in a way we have reverted to the days before Moore, the days when the rich gave to the poor (only without the singing and the violence)... I wonder when that change began to take place? Perhaps as we continue reading the book we will find out. Oh and I'm feeling alot better today... my nose is still running a bit... but much better than Monday.

PS it's getting cold at night... :-)

2005-09-26T09:32:00.000-07:00

Today I woke up with one of the aspects of the holiday season that I dread, but I can never seem to avoid. I have a cold. This tiny virus strikes me down every year near the holidays, destroying my joy and merriment. Luckily it seems that I have been attacked early this year, so perhaps it will be over in time to enjoy all of the holidays. Or more likely I will just get more than one this year. It never fails.... damn microbes... Let the winter begin!

2005-09-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

So I just finished reading Dana's draft for paper two, and I could tell that she had alot of the same difficulties as me with it. I could tell that she really wanted to voice her own opinion. I found it extremely difficult not to voice my true opinion, and in a way shut down that inner piece of me that wants to speak out. I guess it was kinda nice to see that I wasn't alone in that.

I'm glad that I finally managed to get the piece done after putting it off all week and it actually wasn't that hard to write. By being forced to see things from the other side I understood how they can see things the way they do. Instead of just thinking them ignorant and wrong, I really found some compelling arguments that could sway people into that line of thinking. In having arguments about gun control with my father, I never really listened to what he was saying, because "I knew that he was so clearly wrong", but having to actually sit down and make his side of it win the day made me realize that some of his arguments actually make a very good point, and it got me thinking. I didn't expect that to happen and I was very surprised to find myself proof reading the paper and thinking "Huh, maybe he's on to something when he tells me what he does." I didn't think that writing this would influence me at all, but I guess in some small way it did. Perhaps next time I will actually listen to what people have to say when they are trying to explain things from their point of view....

2005-09-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

I've never had trouble writing before, so why am I sitting in front of the computer staring at a blank screen? This paper is nothing difficult at all, and yet I've spent all week thinking/stressing about it.... I'm about fed up with myself.

2005-09-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

I really can't think of anything to write right now. I'm completely blocked. I'm also terribly frustrated. I still haven't figured out what to write draft 2 about, although I'm leaning towards something religious/political because those are issues that I know pretty well from both sides... but I just don't know! I need help.

On the brighter side, I heard some kids talking about how they are scared of the winter here because they aren't used to so much cold/snow. Being from near Buffalo, I laughed pretty hard. It got me excited for the snow to start flying and the holidays to approach.

2005-09-19T11:50:00.000-07:00

Paper 2. Its one paper after paper 1, and a paper before paper 3. It's also a bit tough. I've been sitting here for about ... ohhhh .... a half hour trying to figure out what to write it on. The easiest things seem political. Gun control, abortion, gay rights, stuff like that. But it would be hard for me to write about that from the "other side".... because they are so clearly in the wrong lol. I'm trying to think of something a little more outside of the box... and failing miserably.. Perhaps an argument about how important a college education is... I dont know... oh well... I suppose I will continue to think on this one.

2005-09-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday we read a story from Ancient Rome, dealing with a slave and his master. I found this dialouge very interesting because it touched on the hypocricy of the master, and the aspects of Christmas that pre-dated Christianity. The reversal of roles was one aspect that was very important in these days, and I thought it a very shrewd move on the part of the Catholics to bring that part into the Christian version of the holiday. We still see this today to an extent, such as in Britain when the officers serve the recruits on Christmas Day. Any tradition the can last thousands of years is a pretty nifty tradition.

2005-09-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today in class we edited papers written by other students. The paper I read was pretty well written, and I was surprised to see that it had the same theme as mine. The idea behind both our papers was that the traditions and ideas behing Christmas are an excuse to see family and be together with family that you usually dont have time for. It seems to me that this is the big reason behind many people celebrating the holiday, especially in this age when families are often seperated by hundreds or thousands of miles, and people are often too busy to spend time with aunts, uncles, cousins and other extended family.

2005-09-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last night I wrote my first paper for the class on which this blog is based. I was surprised at what a hard time I actually had with it. I realized that I have never placed much emphasis on Christmas, and although our family does have some tradition, it really wasn't enough for me to write three pages about. It was difficult for me to describe in detail the things my family does, and extremely difficult for me to explain why we do it! Hopefully this will get alot easier as we talk more about the holiday and I get into "the holiday spirit" a bit more, or I may find myself having some trouble with this indeed...!

2005-09-07T11:34:00.000-07:00

Today we just got out of class, and discussed chapter one of the novel The Battle For Christmas (that should be underlined I know). I found it very surprising what Christmas used to be, with the switching of roles for the day and the indecency that seemed to be the theme of the season. "Misrule" was the term used to describe the antics of the people during the 17th - early 19th centuries.. and I found it rather intriguing that we have come so far from what we once considered this holiday.

2005-08-31T14:09:00.000-07:00

On day 1 of my blogging experience, I find myself wondering what I would like to tell the entire world about myself, and more importantly about my experience with Christmas. The beginning, I imagine is the best place to start.
My earliest memories of Christmas include a large dinner table and family I barely knew. For years we spent Christmas day at my Grandmothers house, and the entire family would come, despite their inability to get along with one another. Most of what I remember consists of food being thrown, clothes that never quite fit, and chasing around my cousins like a small demon.
As I got older I discovered the true meaning of Christmas. Cherry Pie. Since about the age of 12, and the realization that my family cannot be near each other for more than 20 minutes without endless bickering, my Christmas day has almost revolved around the eating of as much Cherry pie as I possibly can, and keeping as far as possible from the family. I suppose my Christmas morning has often been viewed more as a battle for supremecy over the sweets and survival against the warring branches of the family than as a time for sharing and caring.
About 4 years ago my grandparents moved to Georgia, and without their unifying powers, the family breakfast and giftgiving dissolved faster than the Holy Roman Empire after Charlemagne. Now it is a time I spend with my immediate family and often friends that like to escape the tortures of being with their extended family for the day and seek refuge in my home. It is here that I began to appreciate the warmth of the season, and Ive been looking forward toward December every year since.