The Tourist

Tourists are rather interesting on what activities they decide to partake in while on vacation. The stereotypical tourist is the one with the guide books out, not willing to take a chance at missing what the city has to offer. The increasing problem we suffer with modern day tourism is the rapid rate of globalization, cities are loosing their identities in order to keep up with the modern world. You can find a nike store in just about any country around the globe, walk into a Mcdonalds for a fattening meal, or get sucked into one of Disney's attractions globally. While these phenomenon's may be ruining the whole vacation idea, there is still a positive side for the tourist. Some places are not giving into globalization and stand proud for remaining unique. Whether, you go on a vacation for relaxation, sightseeing or just to get out of town your tour is up to you.

ads Over the Ages

Everywhere you look on cars, buildings and televisions advertisements are there and you can't possible avoid them. Everyone is trying to sell their ideas and there is no better way than through advertisement. Over the Ages ads have drastically changed to keep up with the current trends. Currently ads have become a lot more risque because that is selling in our current culture, our society has shown that the more risque the more profit, we are built around profit. Back in the day the ads were more innocent because it would have been socially unacceptable to run the ads of today. The bottom line is advertisements typically have the first two seconds to catch the viewers attention, once that time is passed and the viewer does not engage in the ad then they have lost a potential client.

The Loss of a Creature

According to Percy we let society get in the way with our experiences to new places. He thinks that you can't truly experience something through tour guides or walked paths. If you want to truly experience it you have to go off the beaten path and become a pioneer. If you take a tour guide you are going to presume that it is going to look and feel like the post card, but that  may not be the case and can dissatisfy many. When going on a trip Percy suggests doing everything that society doesn't want you to see and than perhaps you will discover something great.

Tracks 1

The Disney made Celebration town impacted society on many different levels of income. To live in Celebration it doesn't matter about your current economic situation. There is real estate for sale depending on if you want to buy a one million dollar house, or  if you want to rent an apartment for six hundred dollars a month. All the houses were built close together so it doesn't matter what kind of house you live in everyone is part of the community. All homes in celebration are walking distant from downtown so if you want to get a bite to eat or watch a movie you can easily meet friends and family. This town also has a postal office and state of the art public school. There is many politics going on in this town with the way the public school is run. Many parents got together and complained that the education is a joke and that Disney should change the curriculum. Disney had a good idea to make a futuristic city but it already is seeing complications. Nothing can be perfect especially when a town is built being heavily profit driven. I think it is going to be interesting to see what happens to this town over the next century. I found it very funny that this was a real town where residents live. I hope that this town can work through their problems and that it can be a model for how cities should be built.
       
The second essay was about how the lower class residents loved to call the starlite mobile park their home. It isn't the best of neighborhoods and located amongst  a junkyard but starlight mobile park is a tight knit community. Everyone is friends with everyone, they have block parties and all the kids play together. One of the residents moved out to a neighborhood in the suburbs but moved back. One man had lived there for 23 years and couldn't see himself living anywhere else. Starlite is completely different from Celebration but the idea around community is the same. The one similarity is it doesn't matter where you live if the community is subtle you will be happy.


The last essay we read was about how people materialize objects in catalogs. They think that since they see it in  a magazine that they should buy it. That isn't always necessarily what you need. Objects can't ultimately make you happy. What makes people happy is their own personal demeanor and relationships with friends and family. Once someone gets carried away being materialistic is the point when they start becoming unhappy. A warning sign for this is once you start worshiping the objects that is dangerous behavior.