Korner Diner

I drove up I-95 to Newark, DE a couple weekends ago. I was meeting a friend at the Korner Diner for a late lunch. The mood inside the diner that day was a buzz of energy, but I could sense an undertone of sadness. It was as if the whole room could feel that their time was almost up, but nobody wanted to acknowledge it unless they had to. They were all going about their business like it was any old day. The jukebox began echoing the mournful notes of Coldplay’s The Scientist. I looked up from my French fries into the face of a waitress with tears trickling down her face. Today was the death of the Korner Diner.

My friend Bethany goes to the University of Delaware and has worked at the Korner Diner for the past four years. Every time I visit her at school we always end up at the diner. Any time of day we can walk in the doors and expect to find familiar faces and someone to sit and chat with. For Bethany, the Korner Diner has been a home away from home and her coworkers have become good friends. When she heard that the diner would be closing for good, it was by far the most disappointing thing to happen to her during college.

As the last customers paid their bills, the jukebox moved on to Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven. And there were more tears: another waitress hugging one of the hosts, Bethany tearing up over the last milkshake she’d ever make. I know what you’re thinking. This all sounds so sappy and cliché and it was just a diner after all. Well you’re right, it was just a diner. But it was our diner.

An Ideal Career

I’ve never been one to get really excited about “what I want to be when I grow up.” It’s taken me most of my life to get to the point where I am now. I’d most like to work in a media-related field, like radio, television, or something similar. I’m not looking to work a job that requires a lot of sitting around in an office setting. I would like to be able to do different things every day at work and to truly enjoy my job, something I’ve noticed a lot of people are missing.

I think this says that I value simple happiness more than I value getting ahead in this world. My ideal job does not revolve around making as much money as I possibly can; instead it must be a job that I would not dread showing up for every day. My American dream is a very personal one. I just want to find something I love to do and do it, and then figure out the rest of my life.

Word Count: 175

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

My worst educational experience was during 11th grade. I was in Spanish III with a teacher who most of the students in my school loved because she was always trying to come across as a "cool" teacher by telling us how to curse in Spanish or things like that. For some reason, she took an instant dislike to me, which eventually had an unpleasant effect on my Spanish grade throughout the year because were always clashing on things in the classroom. I began to dread going to Spanish class more and more, which was new for me because I'd always been very interested in learning the language. After a tedious year in her class, I decided to quit Spanish and didn't take it my senior year because of all the crap I'd had to put up with in her class.

On the contrary, my best educational experience happened during my senior year of high school. I was taking a semester-long history class on Eastern religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.) and my teacher assigned us a project where we had to go to either a temple or meditation center and take a tour if possible or participate in whatever ceremony, service, or classes were taking place on two separate occasions. Our assignment was essentially participant observation for the purpose of writing about our experiences. I got to pair up with one of my friends and together we went to a Thai Buddhist temple in Silver Spring, MD and were shown around by one of the monks. We stayed and meditated with him and even got to see where they monks lived, ate, and worked. It was an experience I probably wouldn't have otherwise had and I learned a lot about a culture that was completely different from anything I had known before.

This I Believe - Spending Time Alone

I believe in spending time alone, whether it’s in the car, in a store, taking a walk, or just sitting around reading a book. I haven’t always felt this way. For me, it’s a sign of growing up, something I was all too eager to do until it actually came time to do it.

When I was younger, I felt completely incapable of doing anything on my own. When my family would decide to order pizza from home, my mom would urge me to make the call myself and place the order. I was terrified of calling a number and having to talk to a stranger on the other end of the phone. It’s hard to think back on that time in my life and remember exactly why I felt that way, but I think it had something to do with my childish optimism that if I ever did need one of my parents they would always be there to help.

As I got older and had to take on more responsibility, I slowly tried to let go of some of my quirks about being on my own. In high school it was easy to avoid being alone; I carpooled with other students to school, had classes all day, practice after school, and on the weekends would go to the movies or to a friend’s house. When it came time to go to college, I picked the University of Wisconsin in Madison, more than 800 miles away from home. I can remember the exact moment when I realized that I was truly on my own for the first time in my life: I was standing on a street corner outside my freshman dorm watching my parents pull away in their rental car after a long day of helping me move in. In that moment I felt a sense of panic so severe that I almost began bawling right then and there. I thought I had been prepared for the independence that goes hand in hand with college. Apparently I wasn’t quite as grown up as I’d thought.

Since that day, I’ve come to realize that being by myself is not such a bad thing after all. In fact, some days I prefer to get away from people just so that I have time to think. Spending some time alone means I don’t have to make compromises. I get to be in charge, which has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. I don’t have to put up with any BS, and I can enjoy a silence that never gets awkward. It also means that I have had plenty of time to get to know myself, a task that I’ll probably be working on for the rest of my life.

Word Count: 472

Point--->Click

I’ve decided to name my generation the Point-and-Click Generation. We are the first generation that has to worry constantly about the newest cell phones, digital cameras, and mp3 players that come out, furiously browsing through pages of products in the web. Not only has having the coolest laptop become an important, but also being able to do everything on your computer is ideal. We shop, go to the bank, order food, communicate, entertain and inform ourselves all by using the internet. Our generation has become an entity that relies on technology more than any other before us, which I think has earned us the title of the Point-and-Click Generation. Word Count: 109

A Chuck of a Different Color

I have chosen to do a semiotic analysis of Converse's Chuck Taylor All Stars. These sneakers have been around for the better part of the last century, first as a basketball shoe, progressing into a casual sneaker that can go with almost any outfit. Their logo is a simple star enclosed in a circle, with Chuck Taylor's signature sandwiched between the words "Converse All-Star", the same as it has always been which is a testament to the popularity of this truly all-American shoe. These shoes have been adopted by many different groups (and individuals) within American society from the quirky musician to the punk high-school kid. The simplicity of the All-Star is obvious in its design, yet the abundance of colors, patterns, and styles appeals to consumers and allows them to assert their individuality through their footwear.

The Converse All-Star was first produced only in black, but in the year 2008 there are hundreds of different Chucks to choose from. The majority of Chucks are made of canvas, a cheap material for sneakers thus making them affordable for almost anyone. In addition, the shoes themselves serve as a makeshift canvas on which artists can add their own personal touch. With the variety of All-Stars available, each person can head to the Converse website and sift through shoes looking for the pair they feel best represents who they are. I think this buys into Americans’ desire to make decisions about the aesthetic quality of the material goods they buy. As a society we love to have lots of choices so that we can pick items that concur with our own personal taste. In making these choices we are outwardly displaying an internal identity to those around us, communicating something of ourselves through what we wear and own.

This particular brand of shoe says a lot about my personal identity. For starters, I generally regard comfort as one of my highest priorities when shopping for shoes (and clothes, for that matter) and Chucks have always been some of the most comfortable shoes, in my opinion. Secondly, the shoes were originally produced as a basketball shoe, tweaked by Chuck Taylor himself to be more comfortable for players, so the shoe has a history that defines what it is today. In fact, the original design has stayed essentially the same for all these years, and it is still today an extremely popular shoe. Of course now its popularity is with kids, teens, and adults of all walks of life, rather than among professional basketball players, but I am impressed with the brand's resiliency and ability to remain appealing to consumers of all ages. My tastes when it comes to clothes are simple, and Chucks speak to this sense of simplicity: plain rubber-soled, lace-up sneakers that come in a wide range of colors and patterns to choose from. Also, it’s hard to think of just one type of person who wears Chuck Taylors; tons of people love them, dress them up or down, and wear them until they fall apart. I think my love of Chucks shows that I prefer not to be pigeon-holed into a “type”, instead I’m as versatile as my sneakers are.

I'll have turkey on wheat, with a side of today's election coverage.

My relationship with the media is extensive, but rather than going on about the various particulars of my daily interactions with television, radio, internet, newspapers, etc., I thought it might be more interesting to look at things from a particularly relevant perspective this time of year: election coverage. I'll freely admit that I am normally not someone who follows politics closely, but this particular election, aside from the fact that it is the first election I can vote in (I turned 18 about a month after the 2004 Kerry/Bush debacle), is becoming particularly legendary. For one thing, we might be heading towards the first black American president. For another, the hype that has been created revolving around Sarah Palin and her family seems to demonstrate the news media's tendency to lean towards the side of entertainment rather than information. I find this to be particularly disturbing in the heat of such an important election because the coverage that Palin-related gossip is getting is truly taking away from the actual issues that these candidates stand for. We're spending too much time as a country wondering if Bristol's baby daddy really did intend to marry her before it was confirmed that Sen. Palin was John McCain's choice for vice president. I personally don't want those reporters who are trying to get down to the nitty-gritty of a subject to be denied the chance to bring Americans the information they want and deserve. Just an example, Campbell Brown's interview with Tucker Bounds.

One particular blog that I've been familiar with since last year (I started reading it for Professor Snyder's MCS 222 class and continued for most of the year), the Daily Kos, was cited for a posting that discussed rumors about Palin's newborn son - that he was in fact her grandson and that they had covered up her daughter's previous pregnancy. Although these rumors were soon after proven to be false, I was still taked aback by the boldness of what I consider to be a generally trustworthy, albeit extremely liberal, news source. I try to remain objective about the things I see in the media, but it is hard for me to fully put aside my liberal-leaning tendencies. On the other hand, I do see it as almost impossible for anyone today to get the straight story without some sort of bias; we tend to gravitate toward what we know, or at least what we want to hear.

Though I am not a media addict, I am far from a Luddite. For most of my life my parents have listened to NPR in the car and at home, subscribed to The Washigton Post and the Wall Street Journal, and watched nightly news shows including PBS, MSNBC, CNN, and occasionally the major networks as well. This has pretty much meant that whether or not I wanted to be, I was constantly surrounded by information about what was going on in the world. I have gotten better about paying attention to the abundance of media sources around me in the years since high school, but I think I still have a long way to go before I am sitting down every day reading the Post through, front to back. I can only hope that in the future my habits will gravitate more towards hard news and away from the bored indifference I have occasionally been known to display. As long as there is something important being covered, on a national, local or even international scale, I will be a rapt listener.