New York City

New York City.  The Big Apple, The City the Never Sleeps, A City so Nice, They Named it Twice.  But is the Capital of the World actually that nice?  Most people would agree that it is or must be a pretty nice place judging by the cultural diversity, famous landmarks such as the Empire State Building, and its ability to produce some of America’s most successful artists and musicians like: Jay-Z, Lady Gaga, and Tom Cruise.  It is nice place to live or visit if you discount some parts such as cost of living, crime rate, homelessness, traffic, safety, and the consumption of resources.

In Manhattan alone, the average house price is around $1.3 million.  The national average home price is around $272,900.  That is a 76% difference and doesn’t sound too attractive to homebuyers.

New York City has a relatively high crime rate compared to the U.S. national average.  However, that is a common characteristic in big cities due to many factors such as homelessness, and the high cost of living, and the effectiveness of the police force.

Homelessness is another big problem the city faces.  There are roughly over 50,000 individuals who rely on public shelter in New York City according to the Coalition for the Homeless and that does not include the many thousands that sleep on the streets at night.  So don’t expect to see just a few homeless people when going to New York.  It’s likely you will see even more if you plan on living there in the future.

Big cities, especially one as big as The Big Apple will face tremendous traffic problems.  Even with its famous network of subway stations and trains it cannot prevent the many problems pedestrians and drivers face on the streets of New York.

Safety and the consumption of resources are other dilemmas faced by New York City and big cities in general.  It can be very hard to maintain the peace and bring in enough resources when there are millions of people that need them.

As you can see New York is obviously not the nicest place.  Whether it be living there or visiting there you will face more risks than visiting or living in a smaller city.

Sonnet 138 When my love swears that she is made of truth: Reflection

This sonnet describes the relationship between Shakespeare and his mistress, the dark lady.  Both partners in the relationship are lying to each other.  The man lies about his age and the women lies about her fidelity.  However, both the man and the mistress know they are lying to each other as if to flatter each other.

As the man grows older he becomes insecure about his age, he starts to lie about the fact that he is much older than his mistress in order to sound more youthful and inexperienced.  He also acts young by trying to make her think he is unsophisticated by believing the lies she is telling even though he knows she is lying.  The “Dark Lady” is lying about her faithfulness towards her relationship.  The man knows she is lying and she knows he knows she is lying.  This is almost exactly the same as the man lying about his age.

I found this sonnet to be very interesting in that both lovers are lying to each other just for the sake of flattering each other.  Even though they both know what they are both saying is not true, they say it anyway.  What can be said is that these so called “lovers” are only together to fulfill their desires of sexual pleasure as well as make the former.  Shakespeare’s use of words also makes the sonnet interesting by having words have two denotations.  Such as the word “lie,” which can mean not telling the truth as well as lying in bed with another man, which is clearly made known in the poem itself.

Shopping in Tuckahoe: Reflection

Shopping in Tuckahoe is a very direct poem as of reading it.  It’s about a mother and her daughter, the mother being the speaker, going shopping.  The mother is waiting for her daughter who is looking a pair of jeans and is taking a considerable amount of time to do so.  The mother makes a humorous remark at the beginning of the poem saying, “one could spend year in this parking lot waiting for a daughter to find just the right pair of jeans.”  However, she begins to become enticed by the deals being offered at the mall, garden related things such as seeds, husks, vines, and bare sepals in particular.  A great deal of imagery is used in the second stanza and on, especially when describing the things the mother is buying. 

By the end of the poem in the fourth stanza, it becomes less direct when the speaker makes a sarcastic remark saying, “By the time my daughter reappears, trailing her scarves of pink and green, she will be old enough to drive home alone,” implying once again that her daughter is taking a very long time finding “the perfect pair of jeans.”  I found this poem very easy to understand, mainly because it is relatively direct with only two shifts in mood.  Shopping in Tuckahoe is almost the complete opposite of A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne in terms of how direct it is, especially since Donne uses puns and religious references in the latter poem.

A Cartoon Character I Like

In the animated cartoon series, American Dad there is a character named Roger, who is a space alien resembling a grey (alien with grey skin and enlarged head) and the body like that of the alien in the E.T. movie.  He is wacky, crude, devious, and often misleads and finagles others to achieve his desires.  Roger also lacks all sense of social norms, social acceptability, and lawful behavior.  He's often seen behaving in ways that are depraved and cruel.  His depravity and cruelty are often delivered in combination with his typically lighthearted and carefree temperament.  This can be seen in the episode:  “Tears of Clooney,” where Roger adopts foster children to use as slave labor for his own private vineyard.  These characteristics are also demonstrated in the episode:  “Moon over Isla Island,” where he becomes dictator of a fictional island nation and demands extravagant services from the populous such as painting the island yellow.

Aside from these characteristics, Roger also has habits such as being very self-indulgent, drinking alcohol in excess, using recreational drugs (tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, steroids, LSD, MDMA, and a variety of other illegal substances), eating junk food, and watching soap operas.  He also has the ability to excrete waste in the form of gold with encrusted jewels and float in water even when held down with weight.  Roger also possesses skills that include the ability to speak multiple languages, planning large-scale events, and move at lightning speed.

With all of these characteristics put into consideration as well as watching him in the show itself, Roger the alien is the funniest character in the show, American Dad in my opinion.  These characteristics and habits are obviously unfavorable in a real person, but when put inside a fictional cartoon character, they can be seen as very humorous, especially in crude and inappropriate comedy.