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Spreaker Link

https://www.spreaker.com/user/10273561/podcast-project

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DJ 12

I have thought a lot about how I would like to help/change our world for the better. I think there’s a lot of value in doing little thing everyday, but I’ve also thought about if I would like my career to be in a field that helps people or could improve the world somehow, no matter in how small a capacity. For example, at time I’ve considered studying criminology. Not only is this very interesting to me, but I think it would be extremely exciting and fulfilling to work for law enforcement in a greater capacity than just being a cop (not that there’s anything wrong with being a regular police officer). The amount of bureaucracy and other interests will probably get in my way, but my sister is looking into forensics and criminology as majors and I support her 1 hundred percent if she decides that is the path she wants to take.

I also think it is incredibly important to take care of our environment and pay attention to the ecological footprint we leave behind. I recycle and make sure to clean up after myself, and try and never do things that would negatively impact nature if I can help it. The earth can be a fragile system and I want it to look similar for my children and my grandchildren. I think it is imperative that people know about and take global warming seriously, as this is arguably the biggest threat facing humanity. Any way you can help donate or work to improve the environment is fantastic; I think a lot of people have the mindset of “I will have so little impact there’s not even a point in trying” but that is a fallacy. If everyone recycled, cleaned up after themselves, used paper instead of plastic and many other easy, little things, the world would be an even nicer place.

The final way I’ve thought about helping the world is through supporting and potentially participating in the free press. The recent events happening in politics have been very shocking and scary to me for several reasons, but one of the biggest and scariest reasons is the term “fake news” being thrown around so often and so casually. If we discredit unbiased news sources for reporting facts we will shoot ourselves in the foot so to speak: who else will keep the truth in the light and make sure a despot doesn’t take over, or that the government isn’t doing illegal things? In the past it has almost always been journalists who break big stories and discover important information, so I think it’s a very important job that not many people think about as being crucial to our democracy. I am going to have a journalism co-major next semester (and have had it at another institution) and I plan on pursuing this as much as I can. I don’t know how far I will get, but at the very least I want to gain some skills that might give me more informed opinions or the skills to objectively watch the news.

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DJ 11

I have thought of deleting my Instagram in the past. I definitely realize and feel some guilt for the amount of time that I spend on the app, but at the same time it is pretty much the only social media I use. I deleted my Facebook years ago (and never really enjoyed it even when I did use it) and have never made a Twitter or any other types of social media, so Instagram is important to me for keeping up with old friends and people from high school. I have met lots of people in my short life and I am a fairly outgoing and gregarious person so I really would like to keep in contact with a lot of these people from my past, but it’s not really realistic to be continuously calling or texting hundreds of people that I may just want to “keep tabs on” so to speak. I think Instagram is a great platform for keeping in contact with these kind of people, as well as seeing your closer friends’ experiences and what they’re up to.

Additionally, Instagram is genuinely fun and useful. It is entertaining to look at people’s funny or interesting posts, watch videos, and follow celebrities. Instagram is also a part of modern culture-people will post about things important to them, and you can follow comedy accounts or other interesting things (for example I follow a travel-photography account that focuses on high-quality pictures of scenic and rural places all over the world). You can use Instagram to wish a friend a happy birthday, share your artwork with all your followers, or simply as a social tool to follow someone you met a party and show them you might be interested (while putting in very little effort and not coming across as weird). In this way, Instagram is a good vetting tool: if your lab partner follows you on Instagram and their profile is full of alt-right propaganda and confederate flags, you can probably infer a lot about their values and beliefs.

Overall, while I acknowledge there are some downsides and Instagram probably isn’t the best use of time, I think that it is the best form of social media and I am going to keep mine around for a while. I have had friends delete their Instagrams for a while to try it out (I remember one guy in particular deleted his for an entire summer) and they always re-downloaded and joined back, missing the updates in their social network. I don’t think that it is a negative thing to keep an active Instagram account, especially because I personally don’t use any other social media. In my opinion, it only really becomes a big problem when you care more about your online persona than your real-life relationships, and your use of time reflects that (i.e. wasting hours upon hours online). For these reasons I plan to keep an Instagram as long as the app stays online, and I just hope they don’t ruin it with any updates.

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DJ 10

I have had a few different comfort foods throughout my life. I associate certain foods with certain times in my life, and I still get mentally taken back to those times when I have the foods (as is true for most people I imagine). I think “comfort food” could be divided into a couple categories for me personally: there is comfort food that is comforting because it is really familiar and takes me back to one of those times, and there is comfort food that is comforting because I enjoy the taste so much it elicits an emotional response on some level. I’ll delve into what I think are a couple examples of comfort foods for me to further illustrate my point.

One of the comfort foods that I think of first are some staples at my house around holidays: Swedish butter cookies and my grandmother’s special meatballs. The butter cookies come from my mother’s side of the family, the Swedish side. They are affectionately called “Spritz” and my mother makes hundreds right before Christmas. Crunchy, sweet, and totally devoid of nutritional value, these cookies always remind me of my house and my family during winter. The meatballs were made by my grandmother on my father’s side of the family, and the secret ingredient was applesauce. This kept the meatballs from getting dry, and gave them a slightly sweet, savory taste that went great with noodles and the other things she would make. She taught my mother and her daughters how to make them, so even though she passed away a few years ago they are still present at family meals.

I suppose Cheezits and Skittles are my true comfort food: they are my go to snack and candy, respectively, and I have remained faithful to these brands for years. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I just love these foods and will always choose them when I want a reliable fall-back option (I am usually a pretty adventurous eater). Similarly, I love popcorn. Especially movie theater popcorn. I am one of those people that has serious problems saving popcorn for the actual duration of the movie instead of eating it all during the previews. Interestingly, I do not buy into the butter/salt/seasonings they offer at the theater; it all seems really gross to me, and I never defile my popcorn with that stuff. Whenever I see a movie in theaters (which is rare) I don’t feel like I’ve had the full experience unless I get popcorn. Now that I think about it, I never really eat or enjoy popcorn unless I’m watching a movie (at home or in theaters) so maybe I associate the act of watching a movie so heavily with popcorn the two are forever linked in my mind. I could describe watching a movie as one of the most comforting things for me; I think the concept of totally tuning out of life for a couple hours and just taking in this art that someone else made to be watched just really relaxes me, and popcorn is a part of that act.

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DJ9

Gender roles are not especially rigid in my family. Me and all the other members of my household are feminists, liberal, and (in my opinion) fairly progressive, so I am happy to say nobody occupies a role they don’t feel comfortable in just because of tradition. That being said, of course there are different niches and roles different people in my family fill and others don’t. For example, my dad has always been extremely driven and focused in his career. He is a successful guy and was more committed to his career than my mom was back when they decided to start having kids, so my mom kindly stayed at home to raise us and gave up her career. I don’t think this necessarily had anything to do with her gender; rather, my dad had a more profitable job that he also cared about and had spent serious time working towards, so my mother put her career on hold for the family. I think that that is a wonderful and selfless thing to do for someone, and I think that this is a part of marriage a lot of people who think they are compatible will overlook: marriage is a domestic partnership where both partners are equal, and therefore the expectations must also be equal. That is to say it was no more my mother’s duty to put her career on hold than it was my father’s, they just decided it was most logical for my dad to stay focused on his career at the time.

My sister and I also don’t really follow gender roles, but I suppose our roles in the family do differ. I started to notice some of the common double standards that aren’t necessarily really bad, but are aggravating for the individual on the wrong side. For example, in high school my parents always worried a lot more about my sister when she would go out, despite the fact that she is less adventurous than me and was less social. It was because my parents had the idea that the world is much more dangerous for a teenage girl than a teenage guy (and they’re right) but this still enforced traditional gender roles that annoyed my sister.

At the same time, my parents never shoehorned us into certain activities or told us we had to behave a certain way or like certain things because we were male or female. I would watch Project Runway with my mom, dad, and sister, and I started idolizing the designers as much as I did action stars. I did sports just as much as art and theater as a child, and enjoyed all immensely. It is so important for people to explore anything they are interested in, and I think social stigma due to gender holds a lot of people back from being truly happy. I think families who expect their child to be a certain way are doing a huge disservice to that child and themselves, because rarely will anyone end up being like what you want them to be like.

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DJ8

I love Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays, if not my favorite holiday. This year I have narrowed my selection down to two choices: Green Man or Ricky from Trailer Park Boys. Both options are good, and this post will likely help me think through this difficult choice. 

Green Man is an obvious choice-any It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan will tell you so. For those unfamiliar with the TV show, there is a character named Charlie Kelly on the show. Charlie is illiterate and somewhat mentally deranged, but he is also a very complex and multidimensional character. He is shown to be a savant in some respects, but still has a propensity to do absurd and bizarre things. One of these things is “Green Man.” Every once in a while, Carlie will wear a lime green morph suit (one of those skin tight suits that completely cover your body) and start dancing and running amok. The other characters always express great annoyance at Charlie when he becomes Green Man, and Green Man has caused a lot of problems for the cast. The reason I’m considering Green Man is more out of utility: for my birthday last year my sister gave me the same kind of green morph suit from the show. She and I watch the show a lot together, and it became a big bonding activity when we were both still in high school, so being Green Man for Halloween would be an easy and popular choice. My biggest internal argument against it would be the fact that I was Green Man for Halloween last year. 

Ricky is probably the more likely choice. Ricky is a main character in the Canadian mockumentary “Trailer Park Boys”. I could fill an entire post just with little anecdotes about this show, as it’s pretty much unlike anything else on television. It has been on Netflix for years now and is the definition of a cult hit. Ricky is a dimwitted criminal that lives in Sunnyvale trailer park, a fictional trailer park in Nova Scotia. Along with his friends and fellow petty criminals Bubbles and Julian, Ricky is always getting arrested and trying to turn a quick buck. I thought Ricky would be a great choice because I kind of have the same hairstyle as him, and when I don’t shave we actually look pretty similar. He’s pretty iconic for guys my age, so I definitely think he would be a hit at college Halloween parties. I also have a friend that looks like another character on the show to a decent degree, so if we linked up and got a group costume theme going it will look great. 

Now that I’ve got it all out there, I think I’m gonna go with Ricky. Halloween is a time for new costumes, plus morph suits are extremely inconvenient: with your fingers covered it’s pretty much impossible to use touch screens. The suit also zips up in the back, and when it’s zipped up all the way it is near impossible to see anything; vision just becomes green. 

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DJ7

While I think an even better question is what emoticons did the world NEVER need (for example having both a female and male juggler), I have definitely spent minutes searching for an emoticon that would perfectly describe my emotions, and then come up depressingly short. I remember a couple weeks ago I had the need for an “evil smirk” type of emoji, like a more animated version of this >:) . I flipped through the pages of cartoon characters, squinting to try and find my guy-to no avail. We could also use more animals in the mix as well, and maybe even some mythic creatures like the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, and a Chupacabra. I’ve always been really into “cryptids” and other mysterious stuff like that, so a Mothman emoji would be perfect. Especially with Halloween coming up I feel like there’s a huge untapped market in monsters and paranormal emojis. 

I think it would also be pretty cool if Apple put out some iconic people from the past as emoticons. A Julius Caesar emoji for when you just came, saw, and conquered an exam would be perfect. Albert Einstein could be very useful for all sorts of different circumstances. I feel like maybe a Gandhi emoji might be good for when you’re trying to diffuse an argument, and a Winston Churchill emoji might be good when you have a wise quote or something clever to tweet. 

That being said, I think we should probably scale back the usage of emoticons and emojis. Recently even extremely minor celebrities and “social media personalities” have been cartoon-ing themselves and trying to sell their emojis! Why would anyone pay for the ability to send a Kim Kardashian or Kylie Jenner cartoon? It’s gotten so bad that social media personalities so minor they don’t even have a Wikipedia page are selling emojis of themselves. I’m honestly really surprised that more corporations don’t use emojis/emoticons to promote upcoming movies or other aspects of the entertainment industry; maybe they do and I haven’t been paying attention. 

The rapid communication we’re now used to through imessage and smartphone texting has streamlined communication and culture to a point that people would rather just send little pictures than formulate and then express a full thought. I don’t want to sound holier-than-thou or blame technology, or try and create some grand problem that doesn’t exist. That being said, I’ve met a lot of people my age and older that really struggle with grammar and basic writing skills, and I think that the lack of formal writing and the way daily interpersonal communication recently evolved has permanently changed the English language (and probably many others). 

Anyway, back to emoticons: I think it could be a good idea to make having an emoticon a great honor. People like Barack Obama, Mother Theresa, and Bill Gates all get custom emoticons of their portrait, and there’s a big ceremony for the inductees every year. That would actually be a pretty effective way of immortalizing great figures in this day and age. 

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DJ6

For a long time, I did not hold any strong opinions on catcalling or other unfortunately common forms of sexual harassment. I certainly did not support it, and I always thought that it made the perpetrators look very ignorant, but until I witnessed it firsthand I didn’t understand how pervasive and sexist this particular type of harassment could be.

The first incident that comes to mind happened at Churchill Downs during the Kentucky Derby my senior year of high school. I was walking around the infield with a girl I was dating at the time, gawking at the absurd scenes and crowds of well-dressed ruffians making fools out of themselves. Suddenly, an extremely drunk man that looked to be at best in his late twenties approached us and started saying strange and inappropriate compliments to my girlfriend. We were both caught off guard and it took a minute to disentangle ourselves, but we soon managed to get away without anything bad happening. That kind of run-in can, at the very least, put one on edge for the rest of the day.

A couple months later I was on the EL train in Chicago with a friend and his girlfriend. It was pretty late at night, and we were travelling outside of the city and had a good journey ahead of us. After a couple stops a very obviously intoxicated man got on and sat across from us. Much like the first time I described, this man made inappropriate comments to both the woman I was with and us males travelling with her. He assumed one of us was her boyfriend (a true assumption, but still inappropriate) and commented on her looks. This uncomfortable rambling went on while we nervously ignored him, until his stop came up and he shuffled off the train. All of us were a little shaken by this bizarre one-sided exchange, especially the girl. I watched her go from being relaxed and content after a fun night, to on-edge and anxious in an unfamiliar place. While people may think it’s funny to call women or make comments, it is a breach of the courtesy one should give fellow people.

These incidents opened my eyes a lot about how the world works. Not long after these events transpired and I had reflected on the situations and how to better handle them, I noticed some commonalities. One important similarity was that in both situations I was with a female who was the true victim of the harassment. In this way I realized that as a man I will almost certainly never understand the different treatment women receive in our culture, and I checked my own behavior in order to be a more courteous member of society because of that. I also noticed that substances were a major part of both encounters, and I think our culture tends to give both men and women a “free pass” on otherwise unacceptable behavior in certain places where intoxication is expected (bars, clubs, and large festivals/events for example). Harassment like this, no matter how small, should not be tolerated.

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DJ5

I feel extremely proud of my last name. Generations of Howards have come and gone, and without all their decisions I would not be here today. My name can also be very common. In Whitesville Kentucky, near Owensboro, there are tons and tons of Howards; it seems like half the town would be related if you looked back far enough. My paternal grandfather was a pediatrician in Owensboro and was the doctor for pretty much all the kids (who are now my parents’ age) and so anyone I meet in that part of the state likely knows my grandfather, something I’m proud of. My grandmother (and his wife) was a nurse practitioner for many years until she started teaching as she got older; in this way she was able to teach entire generations of nurses in the area and become a staple in the local medical community, all while representing the Howard last name. 

I don’t just consider the paternal side of my family as my ancestry: my mom’s parents are just as influential on me and my name. My grandfather on this side was a golf pro for many years until he started a successful golfing school and instructional series, and my grandmother is still an artist to this day. They also have a wide network of people and friends they have influenced, and while their name is technically my middle name (Turner) I still am the sum total of these two halves of my family, and that is what makes up “Patrick Howard”. 

My aunts and uncles on both sides as well are part of what makes up our “Howard clan”. Amongst my parents’ siblings there is a school superintendent, administrators, legal experts and techies. Our family members have all sorts of different jobs, but we are all united by our last name. I am the oldest cousin on both sides of the family, so no one in my generation within the family has settled into a single career or life path, but I’m excited to see what we all end up doing. As I’ve gotten older I’ve gotten serious joy watching my friends and family make life decisions and seeing what path everyone goes down, and I have a feeling people will surprise me more and more as we all get older. Regardless, my goal is to represent my name to the best of my ability and be a contributing member to its legacy. 

It’s not just the older generations of my family I’m proud of either. My younger sister makes me proud all the time, as does my father and mother. My father is a loving, successful man who works hard to ensure my sister and I have all the opportunities we could ever need, and I respect and love him for it. My sister is a talented and funny person who I can’t wait to watch grow, and my mom has co-authored a book and was a fantastic stay-at-home mom. When I think about my last name I think about all the people that represent it and make up the body of our family’s reputation, and I am happy and proud to continue that legacy. 

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DJ4

I have had multiple interactions with police over the years. My first memory associated with police came late one night when I was probably in second or third grade. My family and I were driving on the interstate late one night, my father behind the wheel, and he was pulled over by a state trooper. The trooper walked up and asked my father, “Sir, any reason you were speeding back there?” My father explained that both my mother and sister were feeling ill, but this turned out to not be enough to convince the cop to drop it. 

Similarly, a few years later I was driving back from a football game with my dad (one may be able to see a trend) and right before we were about to cross the bridge into Kentucky from Indiana, an Indiana state trooper pulled over not just us, but the car in front of us as well! The cop approached us first. He walked up to our window and said, “Sir, WHAT is your hurry? Are you aware how fast you were going back there?” at a very high volume. My dad apologized and talked another couple minutes, and then the cop walked to the car in front of us. It looked like he really tore into the woman driving, and she probably started sniffling a little because he was a lot calmer when he came back to our car. My dad cursed the Indiana state police and we continued on our way. 

I have also had contact with the cops on foot. My freshman year of college I was at a party that had started spilling into other yards and was close to getting out of hand. I was standing towards the outside fringes of the party using my phone to try and find my friends, and I feel a hand grab my shoulder. I turn around and there’s a cop right behind me. He says something to me that I can’t hear, and I say “I just want to find my friends and go home.” He instructs me to bring me to my friends, and so I just start to push in the crowd. I try to weave away but he catches on and he tells me to slow down. After a minute of fruitless search, I just say, “Look, I have no idea where my friends are, but I’ll just go home right now if I’m allowed to.” He acquiesced, and we went our separate ways. I wasn’t doing anything illegal so I was pretty calm the whole time, but it was still a strange encounter that I remember well to this day. 

I have one final police story: when I was still in high school I was at another party, this time in a large and newly-built apartment complex. There were far too many people attending for an apartment that size, and kids were spilling out the door. Right as the party was hitting a peak, a cop bursts into the middle of the apartment. This was one of those “record scratch” moments, and the entire room froze until she (the cop) yelled, “STOP!” at some kid and sprinted towards them. My friends and I got over the shock and quickly left.

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DJ3

My family has sacrificed so much for me to be where I am today. My father is a lawyer who works in Cincinnati, even though we live almost an hour away. He makes the long drive and works long hours so that we are all provided for and given the best opportunities. My parents also sacrificed a lot just by having children: my mother had me and my sister very close together, so for years she accepted her role as a stay at home mom and put her career on hold to raise us. Similarly, even though my dad makes good money, my parents have always invested heavily in me and my sister’s education. My parents could have lived a far more comfortable lifestyle or traveled more had they not spent money on the resources for us they have, and I am extremely grateful that they invested in their children the way they did. My sister also recently made a sacrifice to help me out: she is not allowed to have a car her freshman year of college at her university, so she is letting me use hers this semester (even though she doesn’t fully trust me). 

My grandparents have also made sacrifices. On my mother’s side, my grandfather was a golf pro, and his family supported him and moved around a few times over the years for his opportunities. On my father’s side, my grandmother made several sacrifices. Despite the fact that later in life she and my grandfather did not get along, she stayed in the marriage for her religion and family (and probably the greater tradition and stigmas of small-town America). She was also a very intelligent woman who was born in the wrong generation: any other period of time she likely would have been a surgeon or doctor (like her husband) but because of the inequalities of the time she was a (very skilled and respected) nurse. She sacrificed personal pride and ego for the benefit of her family, and I love and respect her and the rest of my family for it. 

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DJ2

I would say one of the biggest “disconnects” between my generation and older generations is our attention span. As a member of the first generation to have access to cell phones and the internet, both myself and my peers crave constant entertainment. It is almost disconcerting to be sitting around a table with my friends and to realize everyone else (and possibly myself included) have just been staring at our phones. I think there is more of a stigma about getting personal with someone and really opening up, as so much of young people’s identity is connected with their social media. Older generations might misconstrue this as vanity or poor self-control, and to a certain extent it is, but it is also an unforeseeable byproduct of technological advancement.

I also think that the internet and social progression, in general, has benefitted millennials. We are very accepting and have a more global perspective. Older generations don’t always realize that younger people have been able to google any question they’ve had for their entire lives. We are a very informed generation, and often understand multiple cultures fairly well. I look at pop music now and the fact that former sub cultures like electronic music and hip hop are so popular is telling that artistry and innovation is very highly valued, as opposed to cultural appropriation. 

Finally, I think that younger generations are more “romantic” types. Another byproduct of cell phones is that millennials are in near contact with their significant others. The old saying “you’re too young to be in love” certainly has some merit, but when you can talk or snapchat someone all day a 3-month relationship becomes more intense. Older generations don’t realize that the relationships that can be formed over facebook or other social media can be very real to those involved. 

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DJ1

This school year marks both a drastic change and exciting new start for me. As a transfer student, I was initially nervous about the upheaval of my social life and lack of familiarity with the University of Kentucky, but I went into this new experience optimistic. I valued my relationships at my old school a lot, but all the new people I’ve met have been great and I am glad to push myself. Another aspect of the transition I was more than a little nervous about was the new campus: coming from a smaller school, Kentucky’s campus was fairly imposing for someone like me that is not great with directions. Thankfully this has not been too much of an issue so far. I also value my free time (possibly too much), and the school year starting always signifies an end to the days without any work to be done. Finals and midterm season are especially dreadful periods of time. 

That being said, there’s plenty of aspects of U.K. that I’m really excited for! There are so many food options all over campus, and it is extremely convenient to feed yourself around here. My last school had no good football or basketball tradition, and I appear to have arrived at the Mecca for college sports. I can’t wait to check out the games, as my high school didn’t even have a football team. The library is also an amazing resource I’m looking forward to taking advantage of. As I mentioned earlier I have already met lots of new friends and reconnected with some old ones I never expected to see again. It’s due to situations like these that I truly believe everything happens for a reason; meeting with and seeing childhood friends that also attend U.K. is something I never expected to happen but I am pleasantly surprised by this turn in my life.