Homework #28, Informal Research- Internet, Magazines, and Tv Shows

Even before the research, a quote from an anonymous, cool guy who's a friend of mine: "Lol nah I'm too cool to be ashamed of myself."

There's also a shirt that says "I'm right 97% of the time, and who cares about the other 4% of the time?" Get it?

Another quote I think is cool because it's really down to earth: "But I'd rather be working for a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery." The First Day of My Life, by Bright Eyes. Link to lyrics here
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Dec. 8th, 2009: This morning, I happened to turn on the radio and I was listening to z100. I used to listen to this radio all the time, until the "popular" music started being played too much. Yet in the mornings, the radio hosts only talk on the station. So this morning they were discussing how come hot people don't read, and I felt like it was very realevent to our "cool" unit. Some quotes that I wrote down from people calling into the radio station are:
"Because when hot people read, I don't think they're hot anymore" (She said something like that..)
"Hot people remain hot until they read".
"Hot people are more into visual stuff, and reading is kind of plain. If they were reading a magazine it would be me interesting."
"You can be hot and read. You just might not be picture hot."
"They go home, change their clothes, take out their contacts and put on their glasses. They slip into their nerd skins."(I wish I could make sure I had these quotes more exact, but they're pretty close and I couldn't find the conversation online.)

Sometimes they discuss really stupid things on the radio in the morning. I usually turn the radio off after a couple minutes because they don't play music and they talk about things that I don't care about. Yet when I was getting ready for school this morning I found myself paying attention to the radio, and taking some notes on what people were saying. I found this morning's conversation to be very interesting though. Most of the people calling in said that it was weird and uncommon for 'hot people' to read. I really loved the person that said that hot people "slip into their nerd skins." I think this is really funny, because I can relate to it. I go home, put on pajamas, and take out my contact lenses. Then I read, hang out with my family, text my friends, and eventually do homework. I don't care if people don't think of me as "cool", or if they do think of me as "cool". Society's definition of cool can be pretty twisted most of the time anyway. Society seems to think that the popular people are really cool: the person who gets high all the time, has sex with too many people to count, shoplifts.. Is really mean to people. While in reality they can be very shallow, are unaware of themselves, can be sort of unintelligent.. All of these are negative things. Do people really want to look up to people who are ruining their lives?

Also, another young female called in and said that she was hot and that she read. They asked her if she could send in a picture of herself. They asked how hot she was on a scale of 1-10, -ten being the hottest- and she gave herself a nine. A woman on z100 said "If you think of yourself as hot, then why didn't you give yourself a ten?" I thought that they were tearing apart people for no reason. Cool people can read! In my mind at least. I'd prefer a real, smart, fun person than a "perfect" person with a fucked up life. I thought that the woman calling in was cool, because she was standing up for herself. I was going to call in and send in a picture of myself as well, but I was about to be late to school.
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“How do you turn from geek to cool?”
http://www.ask.com/bar?q=from+geek+to+cool&page=1&qsrc=0&dm=all&ab=6&title=WikiAnswers+-+How+do+you+turn+from+geek+to+cool&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwiki.answers.com%2FQ%2FHow_do_you_turn_from_geek_to_cool&sg=JfrGZArsupxOZN3E09xYnWowlJZ2OTSTq1ixD3aQy90%3D&tsp=1260212380794
This is a very short post that can be edited by anyone if they have a username and password to the site. Yet it sounds like one author wrote it. While I was doing searches on being “cool”, I looked for an answer to this question: “How do you turn from geek to cool?” The author discuses how she is popular, dresses up, goes on dates, as well as liking anime and going to anime conventions. The idea of being both a geek and being popular don’t always fit in the typical “cool” role. In the post it says: “Just because I'm a geek doesn't mean I'm not cool. It's the same with you, sweetheart. Don't give up yourself.” This tip may be familiar, along the lines of “be yourself” or as she says “don’t give up on yourself”.

Instead of a how-to on transforming from a geek to a cool person, this post shows a life of being a popular geek. This is worth reading for anyone who feels like being a geek is a bad thing. This is especially appropriate for all the people in the cool unit who have felt bashed about lately for being different.
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Sandy Fertman Ryan, “The perfect girl.” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IBX/is_1_11/ai_n6151475/ Girls’ Life, August-Sept, 2004.
This article, written by Sandy Ryan discuses a perfect girl (Kathryn) with a not so perfect life. Kathryn’s parents both have fairly important jobs, her dad is a successful international lawyer, and her mom is a systems analyst. Ever since she was very young, she was brought up to be the best. She was considered to be “the perfect girl”, with good grades, striving to be number one. She grew up thinking, “to be beautiful, you have to be thin”. This article tells a story of Kathryn’s life, and how bulimia almost took it away from her.

This is not an example of how to be cool, or popular, but it shows the problems one may face if put under too much pressure. She was considered the perfect girl, yet she was under so much stress that she started being bulimic, and almost killed herself. This story is very tragic, yet I thought it was important to post it as an example of someone falling apart under trying to be societies’ definition of cool. There is a quote that sort of fits with being “cool”: control. Kathryn said she “purged to feel like [she] had control over something in [her] life, since everything else seemed to be totally out of control.” She had felt like she had little control in her own life, so she started making herself throw up to try and make herself thin.
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Robert. “The Trouble Makers Guide To School” http://www.freewebs.com/thepractical_joker/
This is a guide to being a trouble-maker in school. The first thing he wrote under the title is “don’t worry, if you get in trouble, blame it on me.” Soon after that he says: “here is where you can find cool pranks, from ME, Robert the Great!” A couple sentences into the post and he’s already showing signs of being really confident with himself. He gives fourteen tips on how to cheat on tests, some of which include writing the answers on your arms, pretending to yawn and look at someone’s paper, as well as writing the answers on a piece of paper and keeping it in your shoe.

One of his tips is: “try to make friends to all the smart people you know, but don’t hang out with them a lot.” (Tip #7) Of course, because if you’re seen with the smart people then it takes away from being cool, yada yada. Another of his tips is: “ask your friends the question, so if your not next to a smart kid, sit next to your friend. (Actually I’d rather you sit next to your friend)!!” (tip 13) This whole blog is a tip on how to cheat on tests, as well as cool tricks to prank people in school. If you’re a trickster who’s run out of cool tricks, you should check out this guide.

How to be Cool in High School, http://www.ask.com/bar?q=how+to+be+cool+in+high+school&page=1&qsrc=178&dm=all&ab=0&title=How+to+be+Cool+in+High+School+%7C+Quazen&u=http%3A%2F%2Fquazen.com%2Fkids-and-teens%2Fschool-time%2Fhow-to-be-cool-in-high-school%2F&sg=gh0lmFIi9CW1jrU0zkhJ1JO5zFYzvPjTDf92zOSJdJM%3D&tsp=1260212226313 March 25, 2008.
This person says how the “Goddess at my High School is not the prettiest girl,” and that even though she wasn’t the prettiest girl in high school, and the prettiest girl wasn’t noticed. The reason the “Goddess” was noticed is “Simple. Projection”. This person also says how the popular boy did not look like the typical hunk, but that he was still popular because of his ‘presentation’. It also says things like “Being cool means you run things, things don’t run you.” And: “So that’s your mission, if you decide to accept it. Great posture, easy gait, no rushing or dawdling; thinking; It’s All About Me.”

This website doesn’t look short, but it is very simple to read. The main trends are to be confident, even if you don’t look cool, project, and present yourself well. It tells you how to observe the cool kids in school, and how to be the cool kid. It can be very helpful if you can actually take it seriously.
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And last but not least:
Kris, “Smooth Operator/ Ten Steps to being Cool” http://www.smthop.com/article.aspx?newsnum=147 June 30th, 2003.
This ten step guide is a little out of date on how to be cool, but it shows what this guy tried to say was cool. Before I looked at the date, I thought this kid was joking the whole time, then I realized that it was six, nearly seven years old. He says -in a summery- to talk cool, dress cool, watch the right tv shows, pose cool, listen to the right music, have cool friends, be in a band, and to do something cool. It also has oh so helpful pictures along with the ten steps.

This guide is worth reading to see how the kid jokes at being cool. He doesn’t seem to mind making a fool out of himself on the web. He’s confident, and trying to be ‘helpful.’