Values of an I-pod on the First chair
As citizens of America we have many things that we could possibly value. Actually thousands, most of them are not priceless. But for the few that are priceless how do they compare to those activities or items that are? Playing a game of fetch with your dog may not have as much glory as getting 25 kills in a game of call of duty, but which is of higher value? We need to think what items are of real value.
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I plug in the headphones and turn the volume all the way up. All of a sudden all other sound is gone, and so am I. Lost in the music during the car ride I am taken by surprise when people start hollering that we are there.
Listening to my I-pod actually starts the day before on my computer. First I have to update it and create some new play lists that suit what I want to listen to at that moment. Then I have to charge it all night by leaving it plugged in to my computer. Roughly I have 300 songs on my I-pod each coming in at $.99 each. So keeping my I-pod up-to-date is harder than it seems. Making play lists is also very time consuming, but very worth it once I am able to tune out to there amazing sounds.
Buying songs to fit my new play lists also takes time. I need to find out what kind of play list I feel like making. Then I buy some songs if I don’t already have them. After I buy the songs and create the play list then it’s ready for the next day. But before the job is done I plug the I-pod into my I-home and play it on a low volume when I am sleeping, on the I-home it stays charged while it’s playing. Now the job is done and I can relax with the sounds of my choice playing in the background.
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In the morning when I wake up I have 1 hour to get ready before I leave. I stretch and crack my back after a good night sleep. Next I get my I-pod and plug it into the headphones. I benignly place it on the counter where it will rest until I have to go. I get my snow pants, jacket and, boots. I dress for the 25-degree weather. I put on my base layer then a fleece hoodie. For pants I have a tight fitting base layer and I wear pajamas over those. It takes me 15 minutes to find my snowboarding socks. Once I find them I put on my snow pants and boots so I can get out of the car throw on my jacket and start riding. On my way out the door I grab my I-pod which is essential to my peace in the car and when I’m riding. As we pull out of the driveway I turn on my I-pod and start to zone out.
As we arrive I whip open the door and run to the trunk throw it up and grab my board. As my Capita Stairmaster 156cm with union data pinstripe bindings and I jog to the lift I think about what the brand new park will be like. I get to the lift strap one foot in the bindings and wait with my friends to get on the lift. The anticipation of the new park is killing me as I ride up the lift. Once I come to the second to last pole from the top I throw up the lift guard.
Finally the chairlift ride that felt like forever is over when I glide off and wait for the rest of my group. I can see them and I start getting antsy as I think about the glades and beautiful new park. The rest of them hop off the lift and we start cruising on the green circle that leads to the terrain park. We go the first chairlift ride of the whole season and there are only a couple of other people on the mountain. The group I’m in comes to the park entrance and sits on the top of the drop in for a minute and gaze at the beauty that is all ours, for now at least.
Taking the first carves up to the first set of boxes feels like the first time I went swimming. But at least I have my I-pod with me blocking out the sounds around me that could possibly distract me. In a sense it’s exactly like going in the deep end for the first time, I don’t’ know how much speed to bring as I come off the top of the jump and 50-50 the boxes. It wasn’t the hardest trick to do but for the first run through a park this season its fine with me.
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Both my I-pod and the feeling of the first run on a deserted mountain are of very high value to me. My I-pod is an item of financial worth and its value is probably $350. It is my second most expensive possession besides my snowboard. It allows me to drown out my surroundings and focus on the task at hand. It is three generations of I-pod nano old now but I still like it. My nano is about 3 inches tall and holds 1,000 songs. It is silver gray color and is not at all glamorous. That is another reason I like it because it gets the job done perfectly fine without looking like a showoff.
While my I-pod lets me escape into music my snowboard lets me escape in a different way which is why I value it. My snowboard is 156cm tall and is a capita stairmaster. It gives me a ton of pop and control in park and jumps and in powder. My snowboard allows me to get the first run of the day. Getting the first run is amazing; all the trails are nice and groomed whit fresh corduroy. I value this because it is really nice to ride on.
I value this item and this experience for similar reasons. The main reason I value them is that they let me escape. My snowboard lets me escape into a world of riding and serious concentration. But my I-pod lets me go into a completely different world of music and bass. That is why I value these things.
3 comments:
in Andrew's blog he says that all people value different things weather it be a video game or playing with a pet. I think that Andrew likes to snowboard more than listen to his i-pod because he can listen to his i-pod whenever he wants but he can only go snowboarding during the winter.
An example of something that was vividly described was when he goes snowboarding and said "Finally the chairlift ride that felt like forever is over when I glide off and wait for the rest of my group."Thhis was good because it has good word choice such as glide that really makes me able to see him get off the charlift.
In Andrew essay I thought his introduction was very good. "Playing a game of fetch with your dog may not have as much glory as getting 25 kills in a game of call of duty, but which is of higher value?" I liked how he included the Call of Duty video game and the dog because people can really relate to that.
One thing that you could do to improve your essay is to reread or have a friend read it and double check for errors. Nice Job Andrew.
Andrew agrees that there are many things in life that Americans can buy. Yet, he also points out that many things of expense are not things of priceless value. He uses a good example in the first paragraph when he talks about playing catch with a family pet.
Andrew does a nice job using vivid adjectives to describe the snowboard and his first "escape" down the mountain. He talks about the snow as a "white courderoy." This lets me picture the freshly fallen snow on the ground and his snowboard carving through it.
Andrew was clever in making his two values, the i-pod and the first snowboard run of the season work together. He talks about using the i-pod at home each morning, but he also talks about taking it snowboarding and using it on the slopes. The riding on the snow is an escape and the i-pod is an escape. It's great how his two value items are connected.
Andrew may consider putting his thoughts about the i-pod together and the snowboard thoughts together. At the end of the essay, he seems to continue to give me new information when I thought the essay was almost ending.
After reading Andrew's essay, it was still a little hard to understand what his opinion on value is. However, he did make it very clear that he is more of a materialistic person, based on his love of his iPod, and how his snowboarding moment consisted of so many valuable items, such as the iPod and his snowboard.
I thought that he described his first item, the iPod, the best for two reasons. Firstly, he desribed his emotions when listening to it very deeply and compasionately, which I found very interesting. My second reason is that he also described the iPod throughout his description of the snowboarding moment, meaning that he prefers to discuss it.
The strongest part of this essay was the way that he described both his iPod and his snowboarding experience. You could feel like you were right there as he was riding up the mountain, and his "iPod feeling" seemed so vivid and real.
For improving this essay, I think that Andrew needs to go back through and make a clearer distinction between his iPod and his moment, because these topics really blend together at the edges of his paragraphs. Lastly, he should probably also concentrate more on the actual snowboarding instead of getting dressed in the morning for it, if that is going to be his experience. Overall, though, nice job, and it only needs a little work!
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