Monday, September 18, 2017

Sam Speaks (more like a rant)

Hi, hi.
Sam here!
Quick word from the mind of a retail worker:
Please, for the love of whatever you think is good in this world, be kind to cashiers, waiters/waitresses, fast food workers, and retail workers. We can't control the prices. Rarely do we have full control of the products or services we are providing. We're doing our best. We're not paid very well.
Please do not try to get us to bend rules for you; we can risk our jobs doing that, and we have bills to pay, too. Please forgive us if we aren't 100% sure on some information; we have to remember a lot of things. Please do not get mad at us when computers or systems stop working or malfunction or go down; often times these machines are outdated and we can't afford to upgrade.
Above all, please don't get mad at us. Personally speaking, angry people make me more frazzled and I make more mistakes. I do my best to do everything I can, and you trying to make me go faster or purposely making messes doesn't make my minimum wage job easier or more fun.

I'm just trying to pay off college costs, man.

I Don't Want to Live in Public

I'll be honest, Josh Harris's "experiments" in the documentary "We Live in Public" disturbed me--specifically "Quiet" and "We Live in Public." I don't understand what could have possibly gone on in his head to drive him to do these things. I don't understand how someone could want to collect so much video footage of other people not only during their more private moments, but eventually of them changing and devolving into something almost animal-like. Then, when he streamed his entire life with his girlfriend 24/7, I wasn't surprised when she seemed to get tired of never having a private moment. Sure, it's an interesting way to interact with others, but only in short bursts. Doing that all day every day is a huge invasion of privacy and Josh didn't seem to care about baring himself to his audience. Knowing full well that cameras were on them and people were watching, he still wanted to be intimate with his girlfriend. He even put a camera in his toilet. Everyone could see everything. The cameras never turned off. I'm a shy person when I meet new people and I like my privacy, so this entire concept seems incredibly bizarre to me, and the extent Josh takes it to is disturbing. There were several times I almost stopped watching.
I was also shocked by the response people had to the Quiet project. People seemed a little nervous about being on camera 24/7 at first, but after a while, not only did they not care, but they weren't acting like themselves. People walked around naked, waved guns around, openly used the bathroom and didn't care about people watching them in the shower. They didn't have any shame and were incredibly careless. I don't know how people could have changed that much over such a short period of time.
Now, I know last we heard, Josh is on an apple farm by himself. He's doing the complete opposite of what he did with the "We Live in Public" project. He barely talks to people and he just farms apples. I want to know what he's up to now and his thoughts on how people stream on Twitch and YouTube and how people make money for it--but they only show glimpses of their lives. I'd also ask him what made him think of doing his "experiments."
However his projects definitely made me reevaluate why I want to film myself on trips or at cool places. This is my life; why would I want to share it? Maybe Josh Harris' story should be taken as a cautionary tale. People (myself included) should be careful with how much of ourselves we post online and make sure we keep our humanity and decency. With internet privacy becoming an ever-increasing concern, maybe we should cut back on how much we live in public.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

I would sell my soul...

One interesting fact about me: I HATE BEING SICK.
I am so, so sorry for all the times I've coughed and sneezed in class. I've been sick for almost two weeks and this dumb @$$ cold won't go away, no matter what I do. It's only getting worse.
I swear, I usually rarely get sick. I'm pretty proud of that. BUT. When I DO get sick, it kicks my butt.
I've told my friends before how much I hate it, and recently in a conversation with one friend, I blurted out that I would sell my soul just to never be sick again.
She started laughing at me and I said, "No, seriously. Never be sick again? I'd sell my soul for that."
Now I actually want to know, what would you sell your soul for? What's something you want badly enough that, theoretically speaking, you would "sell your soul." 
I don't mean to be dark, or morbid. That's just kind of my sense of humor.
Anyway, my stupid cold was so bad, I didn't even go to my classes on Monday. I was up all night coughing and sneezing, and when I woke up from the 2 hours of sleep I did get, I felt much like a zombie. I normally don't like missing school, but I made the call, knowing I wouldn't get any work done at school in my condition. Hopefully, I didn't miss too much.

Alright, one last thing:
If you have any tips or suggestions for the design/layout of my blog, I would still very much love to see it. Lemme know. I can handle criticism.

The only thing I can't handle IS THIS STUPID COLD. UGH. Wish me luck at getting this thing to go away.