iPod Loss

This past Friday, something terrible happened. As I was about to listen to my iPod, it malfunctioned and for some un-known reason, all the songs on my iPod were deleted. At first I was really mad, but I told myself that I would just have to put all the songs from my iTunes library back onto my iPod. I would be annoying, but the problem would be fixed. However, when I tried doing this, the songs wouldn't upload to the iPod. I've had by iPod fro about four years, so my parents said it was probably just old and needed to be replaced. We decided to go to the store today and I was fine with that until I had to go through all of Saturday without it. I listen to my iPod a lot and not being able to was a shock. I went into an iPod depression.

During this depression, I realized how spoiled I was. I thought of all the people who weren't able to afford things like iPods and, going even further, I thought of all the people who can't even afford food. It's sad that I couldn't even go one day without an iPod. It's also sad that in the community we live in, it's thought of as weird if you don't have one. Obviously materialism is a high value around here, but would it be possible for any of us to go without our iPods or cell phones for a week? Probably not for me.

Barbie: a Harmless Toy or a Corrupting Machine?

As I checked my email today after school, I came upon an article. It's apparently the doll Barbie's 50th anniversary. After reading most of the article, it started talking about Cindy Jackson, a 53 year old woman who was supposedly a "plain-looking" girl growing up. When she saw the Barbie-doll for the first time, she fell in love with her look. Since then, she's gotten 13 full-scale operations to achieve the "all-American beauty" she said that Barbie had. When I read this, I was thoroughly shocked. Getting plastic surgery to look like a doll? That's crazy! The image of Barbie is so fake, it's not even funny. It's said that if a Barbie doll were blown up to a human-sized figure, she'd fall down because her body would be so disproportionate. Why someone would want to look that fake and artificial is beyond me. The Barbie doll, in my opinion, is giving young girls the wrong view and image of women. If Barbies are having grown women get operations to look like them, what affect are they having on tweens?

What do you think of Barbies? Do you think they're corrupting young girls?

Harassment at the State Meet

On Friday and Saturday of this past weekend, the Boys State Swim Meet was held at New Trier. Me being a swimmer, I had to work at the meet. Although at first I was bummed, it turned out really well; although it was claustrophobic with the mass amount of people, I was right on deck and I was able to see all of the races. One of my jobs was to guard the girls' locker room door-to make sure only female officials and coaches went in. Why I had to guard it, I don't know, because those were the only females on deck. But I was sitting right next to the Evanston team, and during the whole entire meet, they were trash-talking New Trier. At first I just ignored them-I knew they didn't like us. But then one of them went off on one of my friends on the team, and that got me really upset. I was debating whether I should say something to defend him and our team, but I didn't. I didn't want to get involved and have them all hate me too. As I think back on it now, I realized I should have.

This goes back to the rules and morals stuff we learned in elementary school and junior high. That if a friend was being bullied, you should defend them. But, if you're actually in that situation, it's harder than it sounds. Would you defend someone who was being harassed? Even if they weren't your friend?