"I'm an ass man." *DUN DUN* "Yeah I'm an ass maaaaan." *DUN DUN* greatest.song.ever.

THE GOOCH

i'm 97% sure number 7 is my mom....

This article was tough for me read. I have heard stories of soldiers mistreatment of locals, but I have never read such an in depth article about a particular killing. It is really disgusting what these kids did and I view them as the lowest of the low. Aside from that soldier who tossed a puppy off a cliff in Iraq and the Abu Graib situation, this is the most heinous story about American soldiers I have heard. It is one thing to mistakenly kill civilians in cross fire or in an air strike, but to plan the killing ahead of time is absolutely repulsive. The kid who was killed was only 15 years old. I don’t see how these kids who are only a few years older than this boy, could actually pull the trigger on a defenseless 15 year old boy. I’m sure the soldiers have younger siblings or family members, and it baffles me that they can kill a kid in cold blood and then desecrate his body and treat it as a trophy. Did they not think about how they would feel if an Afghani soldier murdered their younger sibling? These people are the worst kind of murderers out there and should be severely punished for this shit. This story does leave a bad taste in my mouth regarding the military but not to the extent where I would denounce the armed forces in any way. There are always going to be a group of shitty people in the military, but as a whole I believe the people over seas are generally benevolent and actually want to help. It’s a shame that people like this taint the reputation of us as a country because I believe our military is capable of being a great force for good. I know I cant really talk about what I would do in that situation because war does change someone and I think a case can be made that these people just got caught up in the rush of things, but the fact that they had planned it out ahead of time does make me think that these kids have something wrong with them and should not be serving our country any longer.

This particular inmates impression of what it means to be a man is almost identical to the view of manhood that I have crafted over the years. I believe that the common conception of being a man is often skewed by video’s and movies that make it seem like the real man is one who is tough and nasty. I have always believed that you do not measure a man by how physically intimidating he is or whether or not he is emotional. I think it is harder to be the man that is described in this piece than it is to be the atypical hollywood man; one who does not cry or share his feelings, is jacked as all hell, and drives a nice car. I personally just got out of a two and a half year relationship with a girl I thought I loved and through the entire relationship I exhibited most, if not all, of the qualities mentioned in this essay. I’ve never been a guy who just wants to bang or anything like that, I have always tried to treat the woman I’m involved with with respect and admiration, trying as hard as I can to make them happy with the little things. I think the key to a healthy relationship is showing every single one of the qualities mentioned above and to not resort back to being a “no good, low down, trifling man.” This particular inmate captured the essence of being a real man in a poetic manner and should be commended for wanting to teach the proper ways to be a real man. It is a shame that he was unable to realize these characteristics while he was on the outside, but his efforts to teach the commoner the ways to avoid being a douche is an admirable act. The fact that an inmate would recant his ways on such a personal level really shocked me at first, but then I really thought about it and I believe that there are a lot of other inmates who share the same beliefs regarding manhood and how stupid those trifling young men are.

This article really opened my eyes to what life is really like on the inside of a prison. All the stuff that is presented on TV is an extreme exaggeration of what life is like inside a prison because violence is what sells these days. In order to have a successful show (whether it’s a drama or a documentary style show) the average person is more attracted to violence than love or compassion. This letter shows that life on the inside isn’t as violent as TV makes it out to be. The author tells of how the people on the inside band together and become almost family to one another. This is because a lot of people on the inside lack support from the outside (family, friends). However in many cases (and in this particular inmates case) they get support from the outside including family, friends, and teachers. The author says that he sees many younger inmates as little brothers. Personally I would have never thought that inmates would create such a genuine bond. I associated gang brotherhood with inmates until I read this article. The most surprising thing to me in this article is the fact that his high school teachers still write him after he has been in prison for ten years. My high school teachers don’t even write to me and I graduated last summer. He states that there are people on the inside who are completely cut off from the outside world but he attributes this to the “assholes” in prison. This makes perfect sense to me because I can’t imagine anyone who used to associate with one of those men trying to keep them in their lives. Another issue presented in this piece is the fact that many inmates are still good people, they just made a wrong decision along their way through life. The average citizen might think that inmates will never change and that every person in prison is a cold blooded killer or brute. He states quite the contrary and says that in order to have a view of what really goes on in prison, you have to get to know the people that live there.

Humans fear change. We instinctively want things to remain the same and carve out our daily paths similar to that of the previous days. When talking in terms of financial change, winning the lottery is as big of a change as one can undertake. Skyrocketing from the lower or middle class to the upper echelon of society has a great deal of negative aspects. While yes money can temporarily ease any pain endured, it is only a temporary solution for permanent issues and feelings. I believe that the average person would think that people who have won the lottery and aren’t happy have something wrong with them. This article has shown many of the negative impacts coming into such a large amount of money can have on a person.
In the case with the mother with four jobs, money revealed that she was surrounded by a bunch of two-faced greedy snobs who had their own agenda to push on her. Everybody thinks that they have surrounded themselves with the best group of individuals for their own personal survival and well being, but money can expose the true intentions of those who surround you. The average person most likely overlooks such burdens that come with winning such a large sum of money, especially if the winner is from the lower classes (which they most likely are).
This article does a good job in bringing the issue of personal change associated with winning the lottery to light. While the winner may not change on a personal level, whether it be views or behavior, it is the way others see you that changes. The article talks about a personal interaction with a friend and says that it may make friendship, one of the basic necessities of human life, feel more like a transaction. I had not thought of this issue in that manner before but it really resonated with me. Now that I have read that, I can see how easily even the most loyal of friends’ view of you can change due to the fact that you are now on a higher pedestal financially.
While winning the lottery is commonly viewed as a blessing, it can make for one of the hardest times in ones life.

This letter shows that no matter the color of ones skin, all humans are connected by the fact that each and every one of us has a soul. J.V.G writes about his ethnic backgrounds in a way that makes him relatable to people of all different races. He classifies himself as a “man of the world” in the words of Socrates.
This story of his life outside the prison system makes him seem like just a regular person and, in fact, if I had not already known that this was written by a lifer I would have pictured a regular kid writing this essay. His idea that every person is related by the human soul is an extremely complex theory that has been debated for centuries. We have no idea what happens to our soul after we die but JVG proposes that it is an entity that in life connects all humans on earth. People are very biased against lifers and many argue that they are soulless, amoral, savages that have no compassion and are different from people that have not committed crimes in their life. This essay allows the average person to peer into the soul of a convicted criminal that might scare some that his is not much different from that of their own. The way he carries himself outside of prison is something to be admired. He does not judge based on skin color or creed, rather he feels that everyone is somehow related and ties can be drawn all over the world.
The fact that he does not mention what he did to get convicted makes me wonder how someone as knowledgeable and compassionate as JVG gets into a situation that is deemed worthy of a life sentence. It makes it very clear that every single person on earth is capable of being put into situations that can severely effect not only their own lives, but those of others as well.
People think that criminals are so different from the average person, but this essay really points a finger at these naïve people. No one is perfect and situations can escalate by even the smartest and compassionate of people.

I think this video is quite hilarious for multiple reasons. All through out high school I was regarded as physically the whitest kid in school due to my ghostly complexion. But I think that being the “whitest” guy around has much more to do with the way one interacts with others. Characteristics may include extreme awkwardness in both the oral delivery of words and the physical way one interacts with another.
The guy in this video comes across as extremely white because he seems to possess both of these characteristics. The way he pronounces and delivers his words are choppy and do not flow in the slightest bit. He fully enunciates every word without the use of slang. Whether or not you consider him to be the whitest guy around, he definitely is an awkward orator. I find the part regarding the removal of his pants extremely funny. When he says “When I unbutton my pants everything will be okay” it just screams white guy to me. The awkward silence that follows is priceless and adds another layer of awkwardness to the video as a whole. Another factor lending him to be the whitest man on earth is the subject matter of the video. While I do support the second amendment I think this subject is just quintessentially something a white person would talk about. While people of all races carry handguns I personally would not expect this video to be “hosted” by someone of color. This guy is just typical white guy with his white shirt tucked into non descript blue jeans and reminds me of a less many Brett Favre.
When I look at the guy I do not get the impression that he would ever need a gun and that he is just extremely cautious, something I often associated with being white. The fact that he spent money on something that is just a jock strap with a slot in it is also hilarious to me. I would keep the 50 dollars that he spent on that holster and go buy some new jeans that could support his gun on the waistline.

Tim Minchin defines love in a way that I have never thought of before in this song. Especially with Valentines day in mind, this song is so much funnier to me. Valentines day in our culture is supposed to be the one day where you celebrate your love with your partner(s) and do romancy stuff. This song points out the real reasons why two people (especially in our age range) are actually together and telling each other that they love one another. The truth of the matter is that most likely the two individuals are together due to proximity, not a cosmic attraction to the other person. I can see how this video can be viewed from both an optimistic and a cynical standpoint. On one hand it shows that you could have easily ended up with someone else but somehow the two people in the relationship paths crossed whether by fate or coincidence. On the other hand the cynic would point out that your love for one another could easily be projected onto another completely random person and it would be the same. While it is statistically highly improbable that at our age we have found a soul mate, it does not rule out this phenomenon completely. You’re most likely to date within your social and cultural class which presents the point that your true soul mate could be living in a 3rd world country but since they are so different and far away, you may never cross paths. This is kind of depressing in a way, to think about all your other relationships as settling but if you never know there is someone else who is perfect for you, your not missing anything. Much like how dogs don’t know how awesome opposable thumbs are. He also points out how we as humans view the concept of love by voicing the view of breaking up with someone. Many people think that it is the end of the world but in reality it is just a minor obstacle that can shortly be overcome, and your love for that person can project itself onto another human being. Whoever it may be.