Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Inexplainable feelings?

Let us not call it angst, but in better terms, curiosity. How do I seamlessly extend my emotions, my words, to another being? It is an art only existing in the mental framework of the single human mind. So many things occur in this mind. Nostalgia, pain, sorrow,  . How can true feelings be shared. 
I’m sitting here trying to explain my thoughts. In text. It’s impossible.
I never regret anything.
But why, why is it that I have deep embarrassment for actions of the past?
Is this regret? 
Have I lost my moral principles?
Am I just human?
Why must I be human.
Why can’t I be a parakeet?
Or a frolicking rabbit?
Or an ant?
Am I an ant?
Am I just another one in the army of a million, serving a nobility?
What is the nobility?
Is there a cause that I must commit to?
The answers to the questions can only hurt. 

Friday, May 13, 2011

The McChicken we call America

Well, I'm in McDonalds, and I have to say I'm both impressed and disgusted. In order for this blog to be read and comprehended through my eyeview, it would be best if I explained my day and who I am.

I am a 16 year old male honor student, who had just finished taking his AP exam. That morning, on my way to the exam, I stopped by CVS to purchase a pack of mint gum (to help me perform better mentally, idfk, it's some statistic I read). After picking up the gum, I notice there is Arizona tea on sale, buy one get one. I fell for CVS's marketing tactic and bought one and snagged another for free. 


At the Exam
AP Human Geography, not too mind stressing of a subject, I did fine on the exam, finished the free response section (three 25 minute short essays) with 30 minutes of extra time, so I drew a dolly (or dally? I'm unsure how it's spelt..) on the free response insert- which is not graded. I also drew the tissue box infront of me and made it angry. Later, I also drew a detailed parakeet. My teacher gets it back in two days, hopefully it'll make him smile :). (afterwards I'd be glad to upload images to this blog). Anywho, after the exam, we're allowed to be dismissed earlier than other students (excused) so I decided to head towards the mall next to school to get my hair trimmed, so I'd look like a normal human being. After doing so (and respectively draining a can of arizona tea) I took a nice pleasant walk, hoping to get to the sprint store to chat with someone about phones, but I realized all who work at cellular stores USUALLY have absolutely no idea what a phone is. Since I couldn't go to the sprint store, I decided to head to Subway and grab a footlong. I check my wallet while walking to find that I only have $10 on me, and a few needs to be set aside for bus fares. I realize there's a McDonalds very close to Subway, I've heard about their "dollar menu", and I haven't been there for a while, so why not grab something?


It's impressive how McDonalds fame and advertising campaigns allow it to be so well known.


Usually, I ignore and forget ads, but to my utter surprise, I was extremely familiar with the burgers and such on the menu. The iconic "big mac", the "Angus" burgers, and what I ordered, the rediculously cheap "McChicken". The McChicken is something worth admiration. Such admiration, how it can single handedly ruin a country. The McChicken might as well be the symbol of America. America has a delicious taste, America has delicious freedoms, freedoms such as purchasing $1 burgers to single handedly clog your arteries. America has a too-good-to-be-true value, $1. America is cheap.


While enjoying the delectabillity of this McChicken sandwich:
I can't help but shed a tear at the paraphernalia of the restaurant. Oh the paraphernalia! It's marvelous aesthetics, the color scheme of creams and browns. It's wallpaper, patterns that make you feel like you're in a fancy coffee shop. It's tables, always clean! 


I can't help but shed a tear at the people of the restaurant. Oh the people! I see well dressed business workers out for lunch, a successful yet busy looking asian man flipping through papers and punching keys while munching on his considerably large fries-- he must really like his fries..


I can't help but sed a tear at the interplay of multimillion (or billion) dollar companies. Oh the interplay! The ~40in monitor across the room from me playing the news, the same monitor on my right across the room playing Nickelodion. One cannot help but notice the monitor simply on to ADVERTISE McDonalds own product! Long gone are the days of a simple ordering display in text or lit with simple led lights, the McCafe has it's own monitor! And to imagine how many monitors the McDonalds corporation owns, MULTIPLE for every restaurant, the hundreds of thousands of restaurant establishments! I may be going overboard with the statistics, as I am simply typing this up on my Sprint Palm Pixi, not caring to research at the moment.. Lets not stray off topic now.


Ah, yes, the shedding of tears. The paraphernalia, the theme of the room, this wealthy corporation, masking it's faults by claiming they advance the idea of staying "active" with a poster display of a family, running outdoors, smiling. And then another display: "directly improving the health and wellbeing of children" with a small thumbnail sized image of the McDonalds charity logo. I burst into laughter and tears.


Ah, the well dressed people, how they look so successful. It's a shame 4 out of the 5 in the group are morbidly obese men. It's a shame how much they ordered. One man might have had 5 McChickens stacked in a Pyramid shape! Oh how I pray for the wellbeing of the nation. It's a shame my prayers would  have no meaning as I have abandoned god. It's things like this that explain my reasoning for doing so.


And the coalation, almost, of corporations, throwing money around promoting products. Dora the Explorer displayed on a monitor, children, not yet in school, clapping silly and smiling while chewing on their chicken nuggets. A child sheds tears as he drops a nugget, and to waste it must go. I shed a tear for this child. I also shed a tear for the child who sits there, crying because his mother wouldn't get him soda, and instead got him a chocolate milk. Oh how we raise our children to become materialist scumbags of society. It's materialism that will ruin every drop of good may ever hope for in the future. It is materialism that has caused societies to crumple. Look at the romans.


I have to sincerely apologize for the discord in my writing (grammar, spelling, vocab, all of it); I don't have a very delightful tone, if you haven't noticed.


But, my fellow human being, (whom I must express my dear love for, as you have spent your time reading this novel of what a meaningless 16 year old punk brat has to write about), isn't the idea of this wealth sickening? The idea that a foundation in which there are 15 or so human beings operating, a foundation in which is being broomed every 20 minutes may, a foundation in which the materialist face of America is symbolized in a one dollar chicken sandwich? Isn't this idea of this wealth all being revved up by one dollar chicken sandwiches frightening?


My friend, it is a cruel world we live in.


What have we done?