How does one decide what has value? Is it the things that cost more, or is it the things we enjoy the most? What do we value more, what other people and the media tells us is important, or what has the most personal value to us? There are many questions we have to think about everyday in regards to value. How do we know that the brand-name foods are better than the same foods on generic labels? We don't. Advertisements influence how we make buying decisions and what we think is the best. But just because something has a hefty price tag doesn't always mean it is better.
I pull out a huge, quite often dusty jacket from the shelf. I pull out a licorice pizza and put it on the table. Except that it’s not really a pizza, it’s a record, and the table is a turntable, also known as a record player for the uniformed. A few slight clicks and pops as I drop the needle onto the vinyl, and then the music fills the room.
Around January of this year, I was very sick. I ended up going to the hospital and I was diagnosed with diabetes. I had been lethargic and felt terrible all through December and January. When I came home from the hospital, I was a lot more active than I had been before. I decided to go through my attic and see if there was anything interesting in there. While I was there, something caught my eye. It was a small stack of record albums. I have always been kind of living in the past. Most of the movies I watch are from the nineteen-seventies or before. I have huge stack of old junk and some things that are actually worth money in my room. So it was kind of natural that I would eventually start collecting records. This became especially true when I found those albums in my attic. There was a rare east-coast variation of an early Beatles album worth over one-hundred dollars, among others. A week later my mom went out and bought me a player. I think that she bought it for me to make me feel better since I had been sick for so long. Now I’ve been buying records for months and I have a huge collection of albums and singles.
Now maintaining a record collection is not the easiest thing. Records are prone to attract dust, so it is necessary to always be cleaning them. I think it is worth it though, because I love the sound of vinyl. I’ll take my records any day over an MP3. Another reason I love my records is that most of my favorite music is from the 1950’s, the 1960’s and the 1970’s. I’m not totally against modern music like some people are, but I just prefer to listen to older music more. I’ve also got tons of albums and singles that are impossible to find on any other format. Vinyl is also a pretty inexpensive thing to collect, most of the record dealers I know sell albums from anywhere from $1 to $20. A lot of the singles I have in my collection were bought in large groups, and I’ve gotten lots of great deals. Of course, the music is always the most important thing, and I've bought lots of great music over the past months. It helps me relax when I'm doing things like homework or just unwind from a hectic day.
We probably arrived home at about nine at night, we had been shopping. It was just our family, my dad, my mom, my brother, and myself. We put away our purchases and sat out on our deck. Our house is a good distance away from the road, so we have a lot of nice privacy. We have a pool, but it is in our front yard because our backyard has a total width of approximately five feet. The temperature was probably about eighty degrees, and it was probably the most beautiful night of summer.
Of course, it was perfect weather for a late swim. There's some otherworldly beauty in moonlight reflecting off water. It's one of the most beautiful sights in the world. Of course, though it got splashed away as we jumped into the pool. I'm not sure what made that night so great, but I guess it was just having a fun time with people I love.
Relaxing on a summer night with friends or family is great. For me, I had nothing to worry about and not a care in the world. That's a feeling I only get in summer. The rest of the year I'm usually always worried about something. But a summer night? Nothing to do the next day except what I please. There's just something so comfortably lazy about that.
Both my records and a relaxing summer night provide me with an immense feeling of relaxation. This might make me out to seem like a lazy person, but I'm not. These just provides me with relaxation after doing things like homework or just dealing with life in general, which can be extremely stressful. I think I value the things most that allow me to escape from the world for a little while. I think it is important to sometimes take a break and do something that you enjoy. I could not say which of these two I prefer or value more. There both priceless in their own way, even if one does come with a price tag.
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Jon is saying that value of an item is influenced by advertisements and asks questions to the reader to get them thinking about value. He strongly values his collection of vinal records for their financial value. He also values a relaxing summer night for relaxation. He describes the value of the vinal records by giving an example of how to keep the vinal records in good condition to preserve their value. He says "Records are prone to attract dust, so it is necessary to always be cleaning them. " A reason to keep in good condition. It's organization is its overall strength. The paragraphs in perfect alinement.I would suggest adding more detail to the summer night paragraph to show how it is relaxing to you.
ReplyDelete1. The author raises a question about value. He asks if the things that cost more or the things we enjoy most are more valuable. He brings up brandname food vs. generic food and advertisements to raise his point. He values his records and his summer nights.
ReplyDelete2. I thought that the records were most vividly desribed. There was tons of details about the different records he owned. He also told the whole entire story of how he managed to find his record player and how he got his records. That is why I thought the records were more vividly desrcibed.
3. The essay was a great essay with many strengths. The best strength was the details about the records. As I stated above he used details about the records, how he got the records and how much the records mean to him. That was the best strength in the essay.
4. The essay was a great essay and I had a hard time finding mistakes. You should move the title into the right spot. There's also no need for your name and your block. Also spell out 9 o'clock.
1. From reading your essay, I see that you really value your moments even with the records. You value your records not for the music only, but for the relaxation as well.
ReplyDelete2. I think that your description on your records was really good. You described very well what kind of music you like and what the records have on them.
3. I think your strength is your writing style. You made me feel your relaxation in your writing, and how bored you were. I would feel exactly like you if I was there.
4. I think you could describe what it feels like to listen to the music and maybe a little more on your summer night. You did a very good job though.