Culture

Material culture can be defined in many different ways. Culture, being the root of anthropological study, is one of the most widely defined words of the English language therefore we should first examine its many meanings and interpretations.
Culture is a shared set of learned behaviors, values and meanings. It assumes that there is a pattern to social behavior and it is widely accepted or distributed by the entire society. In other words there is a certain appropriateness that people share in how they act in public versus how they act at home. Culture is structured with dominant patterns that constantly change because there are a number of influences that come outside the mainstream culture (sub-culture) that challenge the patterns set forth by the dominant culture. Having said, there is no one dominant group that determines what a culture is, however, in a structured society, we find that certain groups have more influence over others. This hierarchy of social structure is clearly visible when Britney Spears started to wear trucker hats and soon there were lines galore at Hat World© for the latest style of Von Dutch’s mesh-backed hats. In other words, there exists a struggle among the ‘lower classed’ or non-dominant social force to grasp what it is the dominant class is up to, but yet there is a limit to everything. At some point there exists a level of tolerance among the non-dominant culture group, believing that this is the way it is supposed to be and I’m ok with my average car and average home.
As a result of the said definition of culture, material culture examines a culture through all of its material aspects i.e. what kind of cars they drive, while still focusing on the attitudes and beliefs (culture) towards these objects and their impact on or what they mean to society. Material culture focuses on every member of society, from Bill Gates to John and Jane Doe, and it is not exclusive to any dominant or non-dominant portion of society. By examining and focusing on material culture, it provides an outlook or identity to the person and their impact on society.

My 2nd Concert

My second concert experience came on March 25 at a local bar here in the town of Crawfordsville. Even though I am not of age to be at a bar, I got in but just could not drink. One of my friend has a band, Transient Clef, in which he has competed in many competitions gaining statewide attention such as the Battle of the Bands at Birdy’s and the Music Mill in Indianapolis. They perform a lure of songs that may be classified as punk or alternative. They write all of their own songs and don’t perform any cover songs. Transient Clef used only your typical amplifiers for two guitars, one lead, one bass, and microphones for the drummer and the vocalist respectively. I learned about this event through word of mouth as well as many fliers that had been put up around the town. They do have a CD out, but I’m not sure of the name of the song that I like. It sounded awesome performed live, though. This concert was very well performed. They did an excellent job of gaining audience support and maintained it well throughout the performance, despite such a small venue. Their songs are really catchy, or at least good enough to make a CD, and are even that much better performed live. The lead singer doesn’t play an instrument and just concentrates on singing, something of which he does very well. I would absolutely recommend this to anyone and everyone that I know. They need as much publicity as they can get and word of mouth is the best form of communication! In order to spread their popularity, I might get them to give out some music samples, for example CD’s or perhaps a free concert somewhere. Needless to say, Transient Clef is a band on the rise. They just haven’t been heard by the right person yet.

Air Conditioning

It is almost unheard of these days to not own an air conditioner to cool your house. But there are a rare few out there. Air conditioners have been a round for a long time. Today they are becoming cheaper and more environmental friendly. So who wouldn’t want one? You might know what the air conditioner is but you probably don’t know how it actually works.
Usually you will see a square or circle unit sitting up on some kind of pad. What is the pad for? The pad it sits on is the unit can sit level and not sink in the ground. As you look closer from the top; you will see a big fan through a grill looking thing. This is to draw the hot air from the coil that surrounds the entire unit. The coil consists of copper pipes running through these little aluminum fins. The coil is surrounding this black cylinder that sits in the middle on the bottom. This is called the compressor; it all starts here. A compressor is more or less like a pump. It has two different size copper pipes running out of it. The compressor pumps a gas called refrigerant through these two pipes which go inside. Each pipe takes the refrigerant in a different direction. From the outside unit these copper lines bring refrigerant to an inside coil also known as a furnace or air handler. The gas changes into a liquid before entering the inside coil. This is where you get your cold air from. The cold air is then blown through the building or house. This is the whole cooling process.
Having an air conditioner is not necessary but it is good to have for your comfort. There are different air conditioners that cool buildings different was but all work about the same way. If you ever need to buy an air conditioner or need an air conditioner worked on; you don’t have to know how to do it. You can just call a local service company and they will get you straightened up. It can be expensive but it is necessary.

Snow Days

Not that I can really remember the very first time I saw snow. But one of the first times that I do remember was about second grade. The winter of second grade was the starting point of sledding with friends. I woke up one morning to get ready for school when my mother told me that it was canceled. Being the person that I am I wasn’t too bummed. Later on in life I would have went back to bed and slept all day. But I was young so I had energy. I called up all my friends and we rounded up sleds and headed to our near by hill. This hill was special because all the other kids did not know about it; so it was never to busy. Being only a couple blocks from the house our parents would let us go by ourselves. Every snow day that we would have from now on we knew what we were going to do and where we were going to be.
The hill consisted of this big valley that ended up running through the woods. Before it go to the woods though you could sled down either side of the valley. This soon became a hot spot as we grew up. There were a lot of memories that we had at the hills. It was where I had my first kiss which was really EXCITING. Also became the first place my friends and I got drunk. About 200 yards back from the sledding area was sugar creek; which would become our swimming hole during the summer time. This place will always be in our memories. The good and bad memories that is.
As my friends and I grew older and started skateboarding; once it snowed we would have to turn to snow boarding. No where else better to try to snow board then our hill. Since skateboarding wasn’t too hard, snow boarding was not either. We were not professionals but we tried our hardest to be. We would build ramps that got bigger in size as we gained more experience. I was lucky enough to have never broken anything but two of my friends did. Once we were better we started snow boarding down the wooded side of the valley. Which we considered the advanced part of the hill; just because of all the trees you had to dodge. Forget the snowmen I think that every child’s past time is sledding.

My new Jeep-Blog 1

I knew it was time for a change when my tires began to just spin in the snow and ice this winter. I was fed up and wondered why on earth I had gotten a car. Finally the warm weather began to sink in and I knew it was time for a change. One night I headed on over to Kahlo Jeep in Noblesville to pick myself out a new ride. I knew right then exactly what I had wanted; a black Jeep Liberty with all of the extras. But when I arrived I had realize I had wasted about a half a tank of gas. Bummed and ready to give up I slowly head back towards Crawfordsville. I was going through Lebanon when I noticed a small car lot and right there shining beautifully was a brand new Jeep Cherokee Laredo. I slam on my brakes and pull into the lot. I had never thought about buying one of these, but something in my heart tugged at it. It was a shimmering black with leather seats and "oh my goodness" a sunroof. I thought to myself that this thing was perfect. I just was really worried about the price...could I afford something like this. I walk slowly up to the door hoping to talk to one of the usually annoying salesperson, but I could not find one when I wanted one. I looked on the door and noticed that I had arrived fifteen minutes too late. Bummed, I drove back to Crawfordsville. I knew that I could try again in the morning. That night I tossed and turned just thinking about driving that black beauty. I jumped out of bed as fast as I could at 8 o'clock in the morning and drove to Lebanon with great speed. As soon as I pulled in, but what do I see? A friendly salesperson just waiting there for me, it seemed as if he knew what I was after. He was extremely nice and worked within my budget. We crunched numbers for what seemed to be hours. Within' the day I must have signed away my life 100 different times until a hand shake ended the deal. And lying in the palm of my hand was a set of keys with a yellow tag that said..."2005, Grand Cherokee Laredo, Black." Now the only thing missing is my Dave Matthews Firedancer sticker sitting on the windshield; trust me I am stilling waiting for that to come in the mail. Then the Jeep will begin to feel like ALL mine!

Goofy Golfing! Blog 2

So the other day Megan and I had the great idea to go to a driving range and hit golf ball. We both do not have any experience with golfing and we knew this would be a laughing good time. As soon as I was leaving my last class in Lafayette, I called Megan up to tell her to head over. I knew we were going to have a blast. We then decided that my mom should go with us. Since she is so much fun , she is like a teenager ,and always makes any situation a blast. We soon all piled into my Jeep and headed to the driving range near New Richmond. We head out and saw such a funny sight...someone driving a machine that picks up the golf balls. It reminded us all of Happy Gilmore and we began making bets to hit that machine. I grabbed my bucket of golf balls and they followed close behind all the way to our spots. First thing I do is grab my camera and began taking pictures of my mom and Megan hitting golf balls. Let's just say this was such a funny sight to see three goofy girls trying our best to hit golf balls. We all missed the balls and did a funny spin. Right after I missed I turned around and a golf ball came flying at me. Somehow Megan had hit me with the golf ball. This made us drop to the ground and just die laughing. I can't remember the last time I had cried from laughing. I was extremely excited to hit the ball clear to the yellow flag which to everyone else was only 160 yards. Lying out in front of Megan was a huge pile of white....let's just say she did not hit her golf balls very far. My mom had the best golf swing I have ever seen. Her little body put out so much effort and will all that strength behind her swing, the golf balls seemed to only travel with a slow pace. I had such a great time that day. We all knew the next day we would be sore, because it must have taken us two hours to get through our huge bucket of balls. I can not wait until the day that we can go golfing on a real course, since we have become instant pros overnight!

Advertising blog 9

We talked about advertising in class, and if the messages they send do or do not affect how we think. A lot of people got upset at the thought that advertising effects how they think, but if you think about it; it does affect us greatly. If you look back to even the early 1900’s advertising had an effect on what was bought, what was thought, and what was worn. The propaganda that was used did influence people’s thinking. During WWII they had posters about car pooling, about how evil Japan and Germany were, and to buy war bonds. People believed these advertisements and propaganda so strongly that even today you can see the effects of them. After WWII, there was the McCarthyism that struck the country. McCarthy was a senator that tried anyone who was different and said that they were communists. There was propaganda up about that and people freaked out. This continued until McCarthy attacked the U.S. Army; causing him to be discredited. I know that people want to think that they are totally independent, but they’re not.
Even now we have advertisements that shape our way of thinking. Just think about the concept of beauty. In Marylyn Monroe’s time, a beautiful woman was considered to have big hips and big breasts. Later on it became a skinny woman with no hips or breasts. Now it is a skinny woman with large breasts but no hips. You want to know how you can tell the tastes have changed? Just look at who the famous models are now. They have gotten that way from advertising. All of the latest styles come from Italy usually, right; those styles come here and presto, instant attractiveness change. It is amazing. How do you think you want to wear Abercrombie and finch? You see sexy people in those clothes and it goes to your mind that, “Hey, if I dress like that then I will be coo and sexy too.” Why else would you pay almost 100 dollars for ONE pair of jeans that are going to fall apart soon anyways?