FD4

Timothy Lum

December 12, 2010

FD#4

Dork?

It was a cool Hawaiian night in the fall of 1998.  Somewhere in the post dawn hours of late night television shows and refrigerator raids came a boisterous cry, "booyah! level 100 Charizard jerk holes!"  Minutes later someone shouted out, "ah! touchdown!", which disrupted the shortly lived silence within the confines of my cousins' two story house.  I was a guest that night at my cousins Mike, and Tom's house.  Evenings were usually split between watching sports and playing videogames.  My cousin Mike was primarily a sports fan, and Tom was primarily a videogamer.  Society has taught us many lessons, one of which is the concept of social hierarchy.  With just a brief description, most people would have already categorized my cousins into two distinct groups.  [Thesis]Often times, society's lessons are observed only by our mind's eye.[Thesis]

Mike was a medium built high school senior with short buzzed hair.  He was a member of the varsity tennis team, as well as their star doubles player.  Since his childhood, he has always had an abundance of stored energy waiting to be unleashed.   Tom was spiky haired and also of medium build.  Tom participated as vice president of the Pokemon Club at school, as well as Mike's tennis partner.  Despite being identical twin brothers, Mike and Tom lead different social lives. 

Tom did not get nearly the same amount of attention from girls as Mike had.  Mike would get far more invites to social gatherings, and calls to the house would more often be forwarded to him as well.  Mike's inner circle of friends had a healthy male to female ratio; while Tom's inner circle consisted only of males.  To anyone who has been through high school, this is about as shocking as a two wheeled bicycle.  Stereotypically, Mike could be considered the cool jock, while Tom had the lead role of dorky outcast.  If aliens from a galaxy far far away had to research how humans socially ranked one another, they would be hard pressed to find a consistent system.  In the case of my cousins; both subjects shared similar DNA, had similar faces, and both conducted themselves in a very similar manner.

Mike and Tom were very enthusiastic with their hobbies and interests.  Mike would endlessly scour the internet for the latest news concerning his favorite athletes.  He would also read several commentaries concerning certain players matches.  Tom was no different in burning the late night oil in order to gather more information.  Tom's internet browser was filled with bookmarks to videogame sites; the sites were also separated into distinct categories.  Tom would read gamefaqs.com to familiarize himself with new game strategies, and for purchasing advice he would travel to ign.com.  Before the era of internet cafe's, wifi, and iPhones; there weren't too many outlets available to feed a person's addiction for information.  The answer to that conundrum lay in picture laden periodicals, also known as magazines.  Tom had subscriptions to Next Generation Gaming and Playstation Magazine; while Mike subscribed to Sports Illustrated and Tennis magazine.  Having bountiful resources of information endowed the brothers Mike and Tom with special abilities.  From memory, Tom was able to inform you that the pokemon Charmander, evolves into a Charmeleon at level 16 before becoming a Charizard at level 36.  Mike possessed a similar ability; from memory he would be able to tell you that in 1998 Andre Agassi won five titles leaping from world ranking number 122 to number 6 in one calendar year. 

As is customary with many sports fans, Mike would proudly display his favorite teams’ logo on his clothing.  A typical outfit Mike would be clad in included a black and red baseball cap featuring his beloved Chicago Bulls, a collared black and white Andre Agassi tennis shirt, and a pair of black Babolat tennis shoes endorsed by Andy Roddick.  Tom would also sport clothing exalting his devotion to a hobby.  Tom had a very extensive collection of tee shirts featuring many videogame characters; his favorite being a black tee shirt featuring the golden Tri-force logo from The Legend of Zelda.  Their attire matched beautifully with the decor of their rooms.  Tom's walls were blanketed with posters featuring his all time favorite videogame character, Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII.  Tom was especially proud of his rarest wall scroll; it featured a spiky yellow haired Cloud on the back of his immense black motorcycle Fenrir.  His shelves were littered with videogame strategy guides, game magazines, and plastic robot models featured in the game Virtual On.  Like Tom’s room, Mike adorned his room with posters that featured his favorite athletes in action.  Above his bed was Anna Kournikova with her backhand in full swing, behind the door was Pete Sampras in mid serve, and just above his computer was a poster of Andre Agassi diving for save.  Mike's collection of tennis posters were so extensive, it featured players from Andre to Venus. 

Without the distractions of school, due dates, and tennis practice; Mike and Tom like do their research in the field on the weekends.  Tom would frequent the most popular arcades as judged by his peers; the most popular being Hawaiian Brian's.  Hawaiian Brian's was a dark and smoky environment.  At the door you were instantly greeted by the scent of second hand smoke, and deafened by the music coming from the Dance Dance Revolution machines.  At Hawaiian Brian's, Tom would learn and implement new strategies by watching and competing with the people there.  Crafting friendships with the other regulars, Tom was able to acquire more information.  Mike would frequent the Kapiolani tennis courts late at night.  At 11pm, the Kapiolani tennis courts were still quite busy.  Usual waiting time for an open court was nearly an hour.  However mind numbingly boring a wait could be, it did not phase Mike. While waiting for an open court, he would closely examine each player’s style of play.  Mentally noting each subtle movement and reaction, Mike would employ their techniques during practice.  The reason behind Mike’s late night tennis sessions, were because graduates of the same alma mater played there at that time.  Mike would not only have a chance to learn from the upper classmen, but they would give him inside information about his upcoming opponents.  For instance, Mike acquired information that Kalani High School's first seed doubles net player was very easily intimidated.  In order to psych out that certain player, all he would have to do is forfeit one point.  That is, forfeiting a point by hitting the ball at full strength straight into the net in the direction of his opponent. 

With all hobbies and interests, information is useless without application.  Tom would often spend his mornings by saving the world from a galactic threat, or rescuing a princess from an overgrown turtle creature with spikes on his shell.  On his way to school, he would continue playing via his custom blue metallic Gameboy Color.  Even though videogames were contraband, Tom held a secret alliance with his homeroom teacher Mr. Ihara.  Behind closed doors during lunch, Mr. Ihara allowed Tom and his friends to use the classroom television to hook up their various game consoles.  After tennis practice, chores, and homework; Tom would play another round of videogames until his optical and mental strength gave out.  Mike was no exception to obsession either.  Much to his parents’ dismay, Mike would spend his mornings practicing his forehand against the side of his house.  Between classes, Mike would practice a common yet difficult tennis technique used to promote quick net play.  The technique involved placing a tennis ball at the top of the strings; the person would then proceed to flinging the ball upward as if they threw it, as the ball descends, the person would catch the tennis ball by matching the velocity of the falling tennis ball with their racket.  At lunch, Mike and his friends would gather in front of the school gymnasium and throw around a football; all the while discussing previous games and scores.  After Mike had finished his homework and house duties, he would immediately go to check his Yahoo! fantasy football account.  Employing his knowledge of statistics and player history, Mike was in first place in his fantasy football league. 

Looking with the minds' eye, it is easy to conclude that my cousin Tom should be rightfully dubbed the outcast in high school society.  However, from an objective point of view, the lines between cool and dork are blurry.  In our minds' eye, the line is usually drawn at social interaction.  The general connotation behind dorks and outcasts is that, they have limited interactions with the population.  This misconceived idea is simply untrue; just about every hobby or interest worth being obsessed about has a large following.  Many people with similar interests will eventually congregate with one another in large numbers; Star Wars conventions are a testament to this.  Both parties devote countless hours to their sport, and both parties is able garner many social interactions with peers. 

_X_Nov. 9t- Intro to Paper #4: Read Guidelines for Paper #4: Literary Journalism (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_Nov. 15M- Complete readings for paper #4: chap. 15 (Confirmation reply required.)
_X_Nov. 22M- Laulima Discussion #1.
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_X_Dec. 9-12- FD4 due [150 pts] Review the guidelines. (Confirmation reply required.)