Chad’s Blog

Who wouldn’t want a Wii? The Wii is what I am asking for Christmas it costs $249.99 and includes Wii sports along with one remote and one numchuck(its another remote) and Wii Sports. Wii Sports includes five sporting events; tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, and boxing. The Wii uses sensors to catch your movements and from there it relays it to the system. It is fairly easy to learn to play, for baseball you act your going to throw the remote to pitch and to hit you act like your going to actually hit. There are many reasons why I am asking for this gaming device. The Wii is not only fun but it is family friendly as well (as the pictures shows grandma bowling, so if she can bowl, anyone can bowl). Wii is the biggest demand gaming system right now. I have found out the hard way; checking Wal-Mart weekly and they sell out of them usually in a day.  So, hopefully when christmas rolls around I will have a Wii under the tree.

The Overspent American book was a very intriguing book; it made me realize many things about my own self that I never realized before. I remember when I was in 6^th grade living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota I wanted to dress like everyone else. At the time Jnco Jeans were fairly popular and I didn’t own a single pair, so I begged and I begged until my mom finally bought me them ( as you can see they were “skater” jeans and were very baggy). This book reminded me of the middle school and high school days where everyone copies everyone else clothing styles. Some things that I found interesting where the differences between what you actually need and what you want. The stat that I found funny was that richer people who can afford a decent living actually think of themselves of not having the basic needs. The higher the education you have the more you will consume, and parents are the agents in materialism. Whenever I have trouble studying or doing a paper I find myself making incentives for doing work such as if I finish two pages tonight I will go watch a movie or go out to eat. My girlfriend and her dad love secondhand shopping they often wake up early Saturday mourning’s go search the local yard sales.

The weather on the field trip to Wal-Mart was in the mid 50’s and slightly cloudy with rain showers earlier in the day, it was Friday November 14th. As I pulled up I saw the typical scene at Wal-Mart; packed with cars trying to get the best parking spot, so I just cut my losses and parked about a mile away (okay so it was a lot less than that but felt like a mile). As I walked in I was greeted by a nice man sitting in the middle of the walkway chipping tile at me, what a pleasant welcome! As I walked in the super Wal-Mart I first headed towards the food section. The main thing I noticed about the people who were shopping their was that it was so diverse, (who hasn’t gone to Wal-Mart? (besides Paris Hilton “Wal-Mart, what’s that? Do they, like, make walls there?”)). The shoppers in the food section seemed to be the elderly. As I glazed through there shopping carts they appeared to have been shopping for Thanksgiving with stuffing, gravy, green beans, and corn were among the items I had noted. Besides the elderly shopping for thanksgiving I noticed people having basic necessities such as water, coffee, and cereal. There was a sampling area for a product I believe was cereal with a women handing out free samples trying to get the product to the massive amounts of people that come through Wal-Mart which is a great idea. What I noticed most about their selling patterns were in the middle of the aisles they had items that were on sale, the items were all geared towards kids. They had Hannah Montana clothes and backpacks, next they had Barbie’s, and then they had diapers and toys all throughout the aisles. Wal-Mart is known for its cheap merchandise they buy in bulk and break it up to sell it for a lowered cost. They believe if they sell their merchandise cheaper they will sell more in quantity therefore making up the difference. Their selling patterns were to have the major sales in the end capsules and have the new winter clothes facing out so everyone could see it. My connection with the location is that I always go to Wal-Mart, I mean who doesn’t it always has the cheapest prices for school supplies and whatever else you may need. I didn’t really find anything that was out of the ordinary besides the random things people had in their shopping carts like 6 cases of water bottles.

By harming nature we only hurt ourselves in the long haul. By building cities below sea level (look at what hurricane Katrina did), and just filling in swamps and wetlands that should be unstable to use as land for building. Instead we should try to form towards nature; we looked at the community in Texas that was formed around the land and creeks, rather than disrupting the land they used it to their advantage and made it a beautiful place, we should see communities like this more often. Finally when Nixon came into office signed the National Environmental Policy Act; the act stated that their was a national interest in protecting and restoring environmental quality, required officials to prepare environmental impact assessment for federal projects, and established a council on environmental quality to advise the president. This is finally a step into the right direction for trying to set a code of laws that needed to be met in order to build on land. One stat that sticks out to me is: with just a 6-inch rise in level, a 10 acre marsh could store 1,500,000 gallons of water. Those numbers speak for themselves, if we keep these marsh lands free and didn’t build on them we wouldn’t have problems with basements being constantly flooded, we should have set aside some of the marsh land so it could just collect all the water.

I’m in desperate need of a new Minnesota Vikings jersey because my Adrian Peterson is getting used and abused. I wanted to get a defensive player for the Vikings because I have had only offensive player jerseys so I figured I need to reverse the trend. My decision will be between home (purple) or away (white) jerseys. The Jared Allen and Antoine Winfield jerseys cost around $59.99 on ebay or retail for $74.99. Allen is the starting defensive end (7 sacks thus far) and Winfield is the starting cornerback (2 sacks and 2 interceptions thus far). Which one do I choose? Well, the choice is tuff, but if I had to choose just one I would pick Jared Allen’s because he just signed a long term contract and will likely stay in Minnesota the longest and I would not want to spend 60 bucks on a jersey if the player is only going to be playing for another year or two. After figureing out the player it is time to pick a color, do I pick purple, or white? Since the Vikings were once known as the Purple People Eaters I’m going with the BOLD purple!

This week we talked about this environmental movement which led to conservation. Also, we talked about when GIs come back from the war they all needed housing. Before the GIs came back from the war houses were hardly being build, but as soon as they came back production of houses increased dramatically. Production lines of building the houses helped decrease the price and also helped speed the process of the houses going up. Roosevelt upgraded mortgages programs and created FHA which gave loans to buy houses. Air conditioning and heating were once accessories when they first came out; now their necessities, I couldn’t imagine life without them. I must say its horrible to admit, but when the heat hits in the 90’s or when the winters bitter cold is in the 30’s, I flock near the heater and air conditioner and couldn’t imagine life without them. Talking about how bedrooms, dining rooms was also intriguing. I found this information very comical because my grandmas’ dining room is setup just as we talked about. It made me realize that as werid as it may seem, such colors (pink yellow and green) were in style (werid!!!). It was really cool to see how the modern homes have changed over time.

The video we watched this week was interesting besides the 5 second pauses (haha). The thing I found most interesting was the fans of the group Insane Clown Posse. These fans dressed, acted, and even painted their faces just like the groups and what they wore was photographed, and later only resold back to them. This was interesting to see how this process worked. This is what Britney Spears did to the teenage and younger crowd; she dressed in short skirts, revealing shirts and make-up; all of which was directed towards the younger crowd. I find this trouble some that she would target such a young audience because over time it’s only going to get worse. Cool hunting was the coolest article I read thus far. It’s crazy to think that all or most of our clothing trends come from these people who try to separate themselves for everyone else; the coolhunters hunt these people down on the streets and photograph them. Later these styles are resold to the mass market. Coolhunting will never end and only get worse because people will constantly try to be different from everyone else and therefore only shorten coolhunting from years to seasons from seasons to months.

The last time I remember licking and chewing the favorable delight of cotton candy I was at the county fair in middle school. Why did I let so much time pass? I don’t know, but I do know Charms fluffy stuff cotton candy brought back those memories. I had the urge for cotton candy for some weird reason, so I headed to Target figuring they would have it because Halloween is coming up. I went up and down seven aisles weaving through parents with their kids (one little girl sang song to her mom “Halloween, Halloween, Trick or Treat, were the class that you can’t beat” funniest song I’ve ever heard for Halloween). There wasnt ANY cotton candy at Target, I left Target disappointed because they had not let me down before, so I headed to the Dollar Store.  They had exactly what I wanted, what I had been craving COTTON CANDY!! The dollar store is great because everything costs a dollar(unless noted on the product), but the only downfall to it was that they only had one cash register open.   I found this very annoying because every time I have been to the Dollar Store they have been busy and only had one register open. Besides the long lines they had Charms cotton candy in hand for only a dollar, so I couldn’t have been more satisfied.  Charms Cotton Candy is fat free therefore making it a even more tasty treat.

We first talked about the destruction of the battle field of Manassas for a shopping center; this was very interesting article because this happened in close to this area. Preservation of such vital lands is very important for our generation but also all the generations after us. It was cool how eventually people got involved in the decision making process and made their voices heard rather than let them build on the land. We than talked about religion and how it plays in consumerism; they basically said that it is like guerilla warfare cause it prays upon the weak and gets people to buy things, they are manipulated by the market. Choice was another key word we learned and that you have choices between what they want to buy choices to buy this disempowered woman and the young.  It gave the young a sense of false empowerment because they can spend all their money on shopping because parents take care of them and they don’t have to pay for bills and other things. Shopping malls are extension of domestic space, full of woman ,children, and walkers.  It’s a controlled environment, everything’s controlled such as the temperature inside, how much lighting, and the price of merchandise.

I attended Spotsylvania Mall in the afternoon (2:00pm) on a beautiful October Friday; it was in the mid 70’s with a nice breeze, perfect shopping weather. I walked into Hollister and it had very dim lights, loud music and reeked of over sprayed cologne, everything a teenager embellishes. The employees in general were young compared to the downtowns and weren’t as nice. Champs displayed their new shoes styles out side so everyone could see them.  Shoppers seemed to be by themselves, mostly young adults or families with children along. Pac-sun displayed new jeans styles and jackets for the fall and winter. As I walked to the back of the store I realized they had sales on summer clothes mostly board shorts and shirtsleeve shirts trying to rid them for the upcoming season. Most of the clothing shops had a general scheme of where their clothes were located: sales of summer and spring clothes that were usually in the back of the store, while the newer styles were generally in front. Hollister outside was shaped like a hut with a roof and columns sticking outside of the store which I found the most unusual of the shops displays; it was also very cool as well. My connection with the area was that I Have always come to this mall. Years ago it was the worst mall ever. It hardly had any good shops before and wasn’t in the best of shape (not very appealing to customers at all), but as time has pasted stores have come in and they have/are reconstructing it making it look up to date unlike before which are bringing in more customers(as you can see in the pictures this is what spotsylvania towne centre has planed for expansion). Merchandise seems to be geared towards kids and young adults (mostly women). Kid’s stores included Build A Bear Workshop, Ridemakerz, and Itzapuzzle to name a few. Young adult’s stores included Hollister, Aerospatiale, American Eagle, New York & Co., Charlotte Russe and Papaya Clothing. For being so early in the afternoon their seemed to be a pretty good amount of people at the mall.

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