Blog Entry 1.4 Reality,TV,and Reality TV

            Does living life without exploring real life events affect the way we live our life’s? It certainly does, if we lived our life’s like reality TV shows do, we would be mount to act a certain way. For example we would be told to do things a certain way or act a certain way. If our life’s were to be lived as a reality show we would not come across actuality, we would be produce into a TV show where our lives would be recorded and staged. For instance the movie Truman Show, the main character Truman Burbank, doesn’t know that his life is been recorded, and doesn’t face real life events. He faces situations that are already scripted in such way that leads on to events that are not authentic.
           Watching the movie The Truman Show we see that the protagonist Truman, lives in a world that is manipulated by other people who are actors. The type of life he lives in is known as a reality TV show. While his life is been recorded everyday, Truman doesn’t notice until he comes to eye opening scene where he sees his father(who died in a boat accident) dressed as a bum and is been taken away by a group of people who were dressed with suits. Later he notices that he’s life is recorded because every move he tries to make is been changed to a “normal way”.For instance in the scene where Truman is dancing he has his sight on a woman who he feels attracted too.He tries to approach her and dance with her and have a word,But it all comes down,where the girl he had laid eyes on is been taken away again,by the group of people dressed in suits.This clearly shows that if truman wasn’t on a reality show he would have fallen inlove with the girl that he actually had his sight on and had feelings for.If he knew what love really was, his life would have been completely different because instead of marrying the wife he was married too, he would have been with Lauren, the girl he wanted to be romantically involved with, But on the contrary he ended up marrying someone who he didn’t love and was part of the cast. At the end of the movie Truman clearly sees that Sea heaven is not the “perfect” so he exit’s his own reality show.
              In the book The Republic by Plato, the story The allegory of the Cave, there are prisioners in a cave who don’t know much about reality.Their reality is based upon shadows that other prisoners create with cut out shapped cardboards. In the story Socrates says “The prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly god knows”(The Republic, Plato).Socrates tells Glaucon that these prisoners have been living here for so long that what they see is the only reality they come across with. Now if we ask ourselves what if they go out the cave what reality do they face? Since they are prisoners, maybe they don’t have an option. But in the story Socrates tells Glaucon that one of the prisoners goes out the cave and sees the light of the actual world that the other prisoners have forgotten about. The prisoners is amazed from what he sees and goes back to the cave and tells his friends but they think that the outside world has made him crazy so they don’t believe in Therefore we see that the prisoners are manipulated to think that there’s no such reality that the reality outside is plain crazy.
          In conclusion we can see that both The Truman Show and The Allegory of the Cave have some similarities because of the way that Truman Burbank and the prisoners where blinded with thinking that what they were faced to see was the only “reality”.We see that living life without real life event s affect their lifes because they don’t have much freedom,therefore we see that these characters don’t live a normal life.They live in a world of deception.

Blog Entry 1.3: My Place in the Cave

        Going back to when I was adolescent, I was always living indoors. I never knew what the outside world had stored for me. I always thought that I was going to stay close home like I had always been. I went to school near my house, for example my elementary school was 4 blocks away. My middle school was right in front of my house. At first I didn’t mind this because I was young and couldn’t travel outside my boundaries. I felt like I was like the prisoners in The Allegory of the Cave. In the book The Republic by Plato, Socrates is talking to Glaucon about enlightenment and prisoners and says “Here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning around their heads” ,That’s exactly the way I felt. But as the years went by I knew something had to change. Always coming home to my daily routine was getting tiring and I was in my last year of junior high school. Now I would have to apply to the high school of my choice and with 13 years of age I knew that the only way out of the four plain walls was to apply to a high school that was not in the same borough, Brooklyn.
            I was so excited when I got the news that I been accepted to a high school of my choice, in the lower east side. It was my escape from the ordinary, yes I was nervous but it was all I wanted. I finally had the chance to travel and meet new places and especially new people. It was mid September and my focus was on traveling to school. With a destination in mind and everything ready for a new adventure, there was nothing that could stop me.
             Walking to the train station, I felt more mature and anxious because I had the responsibility to get to school safe and sound on my own. I didn’t have Mami or Papi along me to take me to school, I was on my own and on my way to a place I have never been, the train. As soon as I got the J train near my house I was timid that something would go wrong. I felt awkward and estranged when I got to the train, I was so small, compared to the people that I saw in the train. I was the youngest and I felt intimidated because I felt everyone looked at me because of my height and my innocence.
             When the train started moving I was amazed of the train movements and how many people kept getting in and out. The part that amazed me was the bridge, crossing the bridge made me feel so scared because I thought that something bad was going to happen. As I got up and I saw my stop in front of me I knew this was it. I was finally on my own and going to school.
Outside was beautiful my experience there was unbelievable, new environment and new surroundings. Everything was different it wasn’t my comfort zone anymore and no matter what there was no turning back, I would be traveling here for four years. 
            According to Socrates when he was explaining to Glaucon, “Whether true or false my opinion is that the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent light and of the lord of light in this visible world” (The Republic, Plato).according to him the journey that the prisoner took, was rewarding because he got to see all the beautiful things that the outside world had for him. I can relate to this because I felt like I was the prisoner who went outside the cave and discovered that there were many things outside and he couldn’t wait to tell his friends. I had no regrets and it was the best feeling.

Blog Entry 1.2 My Heroic Day

As I woke to the smell of breakfast, I knew I had the responsibility to get things done before I went to school. For starters I had to eat breakfast to get energy to start of my day right. The first thing I had to do was my laundry. Without laundry, there would’ve of been a pile of dirty clothes. Every week is my responsibility to have my clothes wash and dry. Stepping out the threshold of my apartment, I figures that I was going to place where a lot of people stare at you while you wash your clothes. I felt relieved when I noticed there weren’t so much people. That meant I had the chance to do my laundry peacefully with no one focusing on me.

After I finish with my laundry. I went back home were the couch and the TV were waiting for me to relax. I only had a few minutes to rest when my father approached me and said “Let’s go out to grab lunch”. I felt annoyed but I had to eat before I went to school. As we drove around we were undecided of what to eat. I called my mom and asked what she wanted us to bring her to eat, because we were unsure what to eat. She immediately said Italian food,(since we didn’t have Italian food for a while),I thought it was great idea and made me and my father ,and sister come to an unanimous decision to order take out from our favorite Italian restaurants called “De’aleos Pizzeria”. I was brave enough to go to the pizzeria on my own and place my order since it as crowded and of course I was very shy.

After enjoying my food, I knew I had to rush and get ready for school. When I was all ready I had exit the threshold and outside where I had come across rain. I wasn’t prepared for this kind of weather so I had to go back home and change into my rain boots and light sweater and umbrella, of course, to come home without being soaking wet. As I walked towards the train station and looked at my watch, I figured I was going to be late because no trains were passing .Finally a train came and luckily went express and felt a relieved because I got to class on time.

Once in class I didn’t realize that the rain that was going on was actually a storm, a storm that complicated my day when I got out of school, because when I was making my way over to the train a girl was saying there weren’t any trains. I began to get scared and almost panic because all I wanted to do was to go home. I had to find another alternative to go home and found my own way to another train station were the trains were running. It was already 9:00 and I was still stuck on the train because of the storm, I was frustrated and hungry and simply tired. But once I stepped in home I knew I was in my comfort zone. Home sweet home.

Blog Entry 1.1 Technology and Me

Technology has become a daily base utility in my life. Technology is one the things that I need to get throughout my day. If it wasn’t for technology everyone would be doing things the old fashion way, for example, instead of having an alarm you will have to listen to the rooster sing in order to wake up.

If it wasn’t for technology I would not have attended class because of not knowing my schedule. The reason why is because nowadays, most people would say they use technology such as their phone, in order to do things in their life. Some of the useful things that technology brings to us are that we can use our phone as a way to be organized. For example a calendar that notifies you with alarms for an upcoming event or birthday or helps like schedule, like in my case. Therefore I believe that technology has become something that everyone uses.

Technology has minimized my time management. We all know that technology makes things much easier to do. Technology doesn’t complicate any one’s life because it is one of the easiest things you can use. An example of making things easier would be ordering food. Who doesn’t know how to order food? Well a person who doesn’t have a source technology wouldn’t. But if you’re a person who doesn’t like waiting in lines of a takeout restaurant, you can simply use a computer or a phone to place your order. Most people may say that is laziness, but if you think about it, it saves everyone day and your time. With the use of technology you use your time more efficiently, by a click away you can be having dinner without stepping out of your house or having to make a line of course. Technology is just a way to make things much simpler.

Another example of technology making your life easier as a utility is interacting or socializing with someone who is not next to you or in front of you. In my opinion, this has become on e of the most popular ways of socializing with another person. With the help of technology, the internet has helped us stay in touch with friends or family by using Facebook, Aim, MySpace, Oovoo. With these interacting tools that technology provides us with, we can use a keyboard and camera build in a computer to send pictures and write letters, instead of making a trip and visiting a friend or family member.

As a user of my phone, I can say that I do depend on technology a lot. I believe is not a bad thing because if you are an organized person that depends on technology and your a person who cant get used to it then it can affect your daily life and the way you get throughout the day. For instance, not having technology can complicate your life, if you don’t have your phone in which you have everything saved on and have all your to do stuff. Therefore I believe that technology is one of the things that are a big part of my life.