Vampire Is The New Black

     The other day I was complaining to my mom about how next week's episode of "Vampire Diaries" is going to be a re-run, (Don't make fun of me, I already have people to fill that job). Anyway, that's when I realized, and I seem to be the last person in the world to realize, that the entire media, whether it be books, magazines, movies, television shows, whatever, has been completely taken over by vampires. There's the notorious Twilight series including the movie franchise, the HBO series "True Blood," the new CW series "Vampire Diaries" and its entire collection of books, not to mention the new movie The Vampire's Assistant hitting theaters this week. There are so many vampires in Hollywood right now, that in Teen Vogue's November issue, the star of "Vampire Diaries," Paul Wesley, remembers a vampire run-in with the cast of Twilight: "the cast was staying at our hotel-- we saw them everywhere and hung out all the time," while New Moon and "Vampire Diaries" were being filmed in Vancouver at the same time. Two vampire families, one city... Great.
     Vampires have made an incredible transformation from the days of Dracula. Vampires were once seen as scary creatures of the night who went around killing people without mercy. Now, vampires have a positive connotation. People see them as sexy, emotionally disturbed, and caring beings who will love you forever (in the literal sense), which are particularly attractive qualities when it comes to teenage girls. Take Edward Cullen of the Twilight series, for example. Edward practically embodies every women's dream guy, and that's what makes him so popular with every age group from young girls to older women. The entire image of a scary vampire is almost non-existent these days. Of all the vampire books, movies, and t.v. shows I've seen, the only truly scary vampire is Nosferatu from the classic silent movie.
     But what is the cause of this transformation from scary to sexy? What caused this boom of a whole new generation of vampires? Is just simply the popularity of the Twilight series that set everyone off? Or does it say something deeper about American society? Americans are no longer afraid of the vampire. They could even be your soul mate. Hell, I want to be a vampire.

                THEN VS NOW                 

Destination: America

     Over Columbus Day weekend, I went with my mom to New York City. We went last year as well, and that's when we noticed it: there were more Europeans here than usual. And again this year, it was absolutely crazy. I felt like I everywhere I went, I was just completely surrounded by Europeans. It was almost as if I wasn't in New York, but some European country. At breakfast we sat next to a German couple. In the elevator there was a man speaking Italian. At Macy's there was a father and daughter speaking Spanish with one of the shoe salesman. In line at a burger joint, a French family ordering fries. At dinner, a Swedish family sitting right next to us. A British waiter at one of the restaurants. The list goes on and on. Believe me.

     But why so many tourists? How is it that my French would become more useful in New York than in Europe? To me, the answer was obvious. The dollar sucks. Right now, the euro is almost 125% stronger than the dollar. (Use the currency converter to see other exchange rates). So basically, everything in America is dirt cheap for Europeans, considering one euro is equal to almost $1.50. It's so cheap to come to America, that even middle class Europeans can afford the trip. Even though it's from a few years ago, this article, entitled "Money Goes Far in New York, if Your're European," describes and explains almost the exact same experience I had in New York this past weekend.

     The dollar is horrible and it's not going to get better any time soon. But there could be an upside to the situation. All of this tourism must add something to our economy, even though contributers to the article above express worry of "currency tension" as the dollar becomes weaker and weaker. But it seems to me that European tourists are buying all the things that Americans can't afford anymore: second homes, expensive entertainment, shopping. The article mentions a Bristish tourist in New York City who says that she "had trouble spending all of her money". I wish I had that problem too...

I Guess You Can Use Physics for Something

     The other day in physics, we watched a movie that was about frame of reference. During the movie, the narrators would say things that kind of confused me and made me even more mad for ever deciding to put myself through such torture that society calls physics. I have to admit that physics is actually pretty interesting, but the concepts sure do not come natural to me.

     The two lines that really bothered me in the movie were this: "These are known as fictitious forces" and "If you believe in the law of inertia". I'm not completely crazy, I have my reasons.

     First of all, the fact that the forces are called "fictitious" implies that there is a possibility that they are not real. So am I wasting seven periods every week learning about something that might not even be real? And what about that ridiculous line, "If you believe in the law of inertia"? Yeah, and I believe in unicorns, too. What does that say about the law of inertia? That it's just a work of fiction and belongs in a fantasy world? For all I know, in 20 years scientists could prove this so-called "law of inertia" completely false.
     During this rant that took place in my mind, and while I was trying to figure out exactly why I ever took physics, I was amazed to realize that this issue of physics and all its uncertainties, is very relatable to another topic that everyone has studies since probably the 6th grade: Greek mythology. The ancient Greeks and Romans used myths and stories to explain things that they could not otherwise explain. They would wonder: "Why is the sky suddenly filled with lightening?" and their answer would be: "Because Zeus is angry, duh!" Their myths aren't real. They made for some pretty great Disney movies, but they're not real. I feel as though physics is trying to achieve the same purpose as Greek mythology; it's simply trying to explain the world around us.
     There is a force that pushes up on us from the ground. We can't see it, but according to physics, it's there. If we can't actually see it, how do we know for sure that it's really even there? I guess that's the annoying thing about all sciences. Everything in science is just a theory, nothing is certain and it is constantly changing. It makes me think of the discussion we had in class today. How real can science actually be? During the 1800s, scientists supposedly found numerical data that concluded African Americans are inferior to whites. The scientist basically found the numbers he wanted to find, and manipulated the information to suit his purposes.  It was a way of justifying slavery, because according to science, it was true. And apparently science never lies. FALSE. Again, the scientist was trying to explain why things were the way they were. And that's all science is. It's simply an explanation. Not necessarily the truth, but an explanation. Can science ever be completely truthful?

Just a bit from the frames of reference movie

For Men Only

     The other night my family and I went out to dinner with my grandpa. Papa is an avid golfer, and he being retired and all, he usually plays at least three or four times a week in the summer, and even takes vacations solely for the purpose of golfing. Whenever I see him, he usually has some golf story or another. So that night, he started into his usual golf story of the day.
     He told us that he had played at the Old Elm Club in Highland Park that day. Then he goes on to tell us one of the most shocking things I have heard in a long time: Old Elm is a mens-only country club. Woman are not allowed to play the course, nor are they allowed to even step into the club house. In my grandpa's own words, "Their spouses are allowed to drop them off at the club, but they can't go in."
     I probably had a very strange look on my face at that moment because I was in utter disbelief. No one but myself seemed to be very affected by this fact. I couldn't believe that places still kept such outrageous rules like that. I couldn't even start to comprehend why anyone would go to such extremes to keep woman out and be so obviously sexist. Did we honestly not learn anything in the past 50 years?
     This made me realize something very important about our society: As much as people say racism and sexism has been completely eliminated in the United States, it is utterly false. Slavery has been abolished, but that doesn't mean there aren't any racists left in the country. The same goes with women's rights. Just because women can vote and be apart of the work force, it doesn't mean that the country hasn't been completely rid of sexists. Take Old Elm country club for example. In our society, men and women are far from equal.