Bearing an Ink Pen

What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been

2011-08-07T20:57:00.000-05:00

And Then There Were Ten (Books)

2011-08-07T20:04:00.000-05:00

I've been intrigued by the novel Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand for quite some time. The main reasons I'm interested in the book just seem to be curiosity brought about by the title (I mean, it has a titan in the name, come on). The language in the novel is not difficult and Rand seems to take a very descriptive and detailed style (or at least in a part of the first chapter). From what I've read from the back of the book, the story seems to be about corrupt industrialists and a man who works to bring about his own end. After picking up a physical copy for the first time I realized that the novel should be used as one of the murder weapons in the game Clue. At about 1368 pages, the book is a little thick. (Mrs. Wegyandt, can I just read this one book for the whole year?)

Fahrenheit 451 (1987) is another book I've been wanting to look into just out of curiosity. This book by Ray Bradbury is about 178 pages long. The book is written in the third person limited point of view the main protagonist Guy Montag. In the America of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag works as a fireman (which is actually the equivalent of what we would call a book burner). The book also deals with the hot topic of censorship in books and if we should censor something in a book or the entire book if it offends one person.

Gone (2008) by Michael Grant was suggested to me by a well read friend of mine. The book is of good (well, I would say) length with 576 pages. The style seems to be much more modern than a few of the other books on this list and is thus simple to read. I think I recall hearing a review of this book from a blog of a 9th or 10th grader last year and what was described reminds me very much of Lord of the Flies. That book (Lord of the Flies) rattled me even though I had little to no grasp on all the ideas and symbols at the time. Looking up this book made me so intrigued that I even looked up the Milgram experiment (because it was mentioned in a review of the book that also related Lord of the Flies to Gone).

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle was also suggested to me by the same person who suggested Gone. The main reason that I had asked my friend to suggest a few books was that she seemed to have read quite a few books and I was looking for suggestions from someone with a wide spectrum of read books. From an excerpt, the language was not anything especially difficult though one character in the passage caught my attention. Charles Wallace Murry. In the book, he is the very precocious and extraordinary 5 year old of the Murry family. The ability he displayed in the passage to understand his sister bordered close to uncanny or even unnerving. Another phenomenal aspect of the child would be his ability to immediately speak in full sentences, thus skipping the stages of "Dada" "Mama". Aside from the characters, the story seems interesting as well as it is one of the few Science Fiction books on this list.

His Majesty's Dragon (2005) by Naomi Novik is yet another book that was suggested by the person who offered the idea of reading the two preceding books on this list. Similar to A Wrinkle in Time and Gone, His Majesty's Dragon is also a Science Fiction book (I have this feeling she likes Sci-fi, but that's just me) set in a different time. Having being first published in 2005, the text is not near as difficult to understand as a novel from the 1500s. The story is set during the Napoleonic times and thus includes flint pistols, swords, and dragons (it's Science Fiction remember? Napoleon needed his aerial dragon force for his fights ya know). The book is not extensively long at 384 pages but it is not short either.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972) by Hunter S. Thompson is actually a book (somewhat) suggested by Zane. The title alone intrigues me as well as the themes of heavy drug abuse. Speaking of which, the style of a strung out drug abuser may be a bit difficult to follow at times (such as trying to find the difference between reality and what the character perceives as real). I have a creeping feeling that there will most surely be foul language coming from a pair of hyped up high protagonists looking for the American Dream.

Well, this spot was supposed to go to The Highlander but I found out that it wasn't what I had thought it to be. So instead of The Highlander, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck will take its place. I had heard earlier that The Grapes of Wrath was once a required book (actually, is it a required book this year?) for the highschool English classes. I had also heard that the book was about a group of Okies during the Great Depression (I had heard this while studying the time period in history class) which also intrigued me. From a small excerpt that I read from The Grapes of Wrath I felt that Steinbeck's style was not difficult to understand and even the bit of Southern jargon was not terribly difficult to interpret. Steinbeck also seemed to easily describe human nature through obscure means and even be critical of human nature at times (describing how we had driven people out of their land and claimed it as our own). Somehow, I feel that there is a bit of intertextuality between The Grapes of Wrath and The Road. Both are about a long journey to attempt to find a better life in an uncertain place and both place this trust in mere speculation. (672 pages)

With an interesting title and apparently a cult classic movie (I haven't seen it though), A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess has also been on my list of books to read for some time. The novella is about 240 pages and concerns the actions of the gang leader of a group of ultra violent thugs. Something that I had not considered (I hadn't read the book when I learned this, so I hadn't really had the chance to see the signs) was that Alex could possibly be considered a Christ figure despite the fact that he raped and was almost desensitized as being a human being. While reading about the Milgram Experiment for Gone, I came across the Banality of Evil which seems to be related to the actions Alex takes in the novel (I haven't read the book, so I really don't know for sure). Something that I noticed quickly when reading an excerpt was that the book is chock full of jargon (or "Nadsat") such as goloss, zoobies, and bezoomny. This may prove difficult to decipher is being said at first, but after seeing the words more the language should be easier to follow.

Anthony Burgess' Catch-22 (1961) caught my attention when I learned that a theme of the novel was the idea of being in a situation which was inescapable. To work oneself into a circle with no escape sounded very intriguing and also very plausible. The novel is a bit of a longer read at 544 pages but the logical paradox may carry me through (I think I just love the idea of this paradox or something). The style should not be excessively difficult. Something I think that I recall is that this novel also criticizes bureaucracy (I may just me imagining that though) and is apparently a very funny novel despite being about a bombardier stuck in a war he desperately wants to get out of.

Braden got me interested in the story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)by Ken Kesey as he told fragments of the story in English class occasionally. Also, the book was referenced in one of my favorite video games as a location (and trust me, I did enjoy fighting the lobotomists inside that cave very much). Some of the narration comes from one of the inmates in the mental institute which probably means that these parts would feel simplified in text while a third person narration pulls the simplicity back to normal standards.

One More Time (Well, not really) [Reading Assignment 7]

2011-07-31T23:17:00.004-05:00

I actually had multiple possible interpretations of what is signified in The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield such as the ignorance of the Upper Class to the Lower and even the Middle class, the irresponsibility of the Upper class (which reminds me of The Great Gatsby), and how the world goes on despite personal tragedies. However, I think that I settled on the idea that Mansfield is saying that there just may be a glimpse of passion among those higher than we normal people. I say this because I couldn't shake the feeling of a Christ figure in this story (I think I just like relating that for some reason). There are a few reasons that I felt this way however. When the workmen come to set up the marquee, Laura later questions why she couldn't have "workmen for her friends." The workmen even show a kind of worldly association when the tallest sniffs up the smell of lavender. In other words, she wishes to be among the worldly of her own free will and she even sees the good in those earthly beings. Later, when Laura hears of the death of the father of a poor family, she shows great compassion for the low people. She even goes so far as to try to call off the party (which would be a big ordeal in the time, I believe). After the party, Laura shows even greater compassion when she brings life (or food since: person - food = no life) to the grieving family. She travels into the heart of the low, sick, and grieving to give new life. If it's explained in that way, seems a little like a Christ figure, maybe? When Laura sees the deceased young man, she finds something she did not expect, a sort of peace. She finds a kind of resolution and peace in the death she encounters at the end of her journey.

Well. I feel as though I made a kind of glancing blow at underlying ideas of the story. Foster did mention biblical references (which I'm glad for since my whole text was just about the biblical part). I felt that we went in different directions in our biblical associations, but that's ok I think.

Relating the story to Persephone opened my eyes more to the idea of relating sex and death. It also made me remember Laura's mother since I pretty much completely forgot her in my writing. Relating the stories also tied up some lose ends in my thoughts about certain objects such as the flowers and the ideas of floating among the family. I had the feeling they were especially important, but I could not seem to find what I had meant to say.

Christ figure, wishes to be among the normal, gives life (food), finds resolution in death

One Story to Rule Them All (Sixth Reading Assignment)

2011-07-24T23:18:00.004-05:00

Somehow I thought of houses when I first read the word archetype. I would be thinking of architecture however. The two are not that dissimilar if one thinks about it. The definition of an architecture would be close to "the design of buildings" and so the definition of an archetype may be similar to "the design of stories." Perhaps to clarify what I mean I could add that an archetype serves as a kind of base model from which every story originates.
An example of a strong archetypal story that comes to mind would be J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit." 12 dwarves you say? A wise, old man dressed in white carrying a staff? A journey? To me that sounds a little like 12 disciples, the white garbed shepherd with his flock, and the journey for that valuable (in)tangible object.

Scarhead

   We all know Harry Potter. Be that through the movies or the books. What's less known (or maybe we understand it to be a smaller detail in the bigger picture) are the implications of Harry's scar. I do not claim to be any kind of HP buff, but I have a few ideas of my own of what Harry's scar could mean or represent. The first (and most obvious) use for Harry's scar in characterization is that the physical imperfection sets him apart from any of the other students at Hogwarts because.. well, who else has a lightning bolt shaped scar on his/her forehead?
   The scar may represent the extent to which a mother will go to protect her child. This actually reminds me of the oh so many times that the book Beloved has been mentioned by Foster. During Beloved, Sethe (the mother) kills one of her daughters (Beloved) so that she will not be taken back into slavery on Sweet Home. This may not seem to be as much maternal love as motherly insanity but she kills her eldest daughter because she feels it to be the only way to save her from a life of slavery. Potter's mother did not kill him of course (the opposite, really) but she did take what action she thought would save her son's life from a more terrible existence.
   The scar is on Harry's head, right? So who else has a scar on his forehead. One that marks him as the survivor of a tragic event. One that I feel I'm starting to overuse? One that (indirectly in Harry's case) killed another human being and was marked for it? Harry is no Kane but I cannot shake the feeling that they are similar. As mentioned before; Kane killed and Harry killed, Kane survived and Harry survived, Kane is scarred in more than one way and Harry is scarred in more than one way.
   Now to the actual scar. The scar is shaped like a lightning bolt and I think I just might have an idea to why (aside from it being cool to have a scar shaped close to something primal such as lightning). What is lightning? It is powerful, strong, frightening even. If one stood beside a tesla coil that put out 1.5 million volts of electricity one would most likely agree with me (I got to do just that a couple days ago). Perhaps the lightning bolt is a symbol of the strength and power of parental love. In this case, that love was powerful enough to stop a magic disguised bullet so it's gotta be something formidable in any case.

Baptisms and Broken Bones (Fifth Reading Assignment)

2011-07-17T22:00:00.008-05:00

   A baptism is defined as a "trying or purifying experience or initiation" (as according to Dictionary.com). Even though it is not completely true to form, the main protagonist of 1984 goes through a sort of "baptism". However, fists, boots, truncheons, and torture are employed instead of the conventional use of water in this baptism.

   Winston is taken into the Ministry of Love and beaten cruelly for his defiance of Big Brother. Winston finally finds the place in his dreams that was only described as being the "place without shadows". However, the Ministry of Love is literally a place without shadows in that the numerous lights inside burn all shadows away. Winston is electrocuted, starved, beaten by guards repeatedly, assaulted psychologically for his unconventional perception of what life under Big Brother is or could be.
   After the experience Winston is a much "better" member of society. He hangs on every word of every bulletin and firmly believes that two and two is five and that freedom is slavery. He is a reformed, remolded citizen of Oceania. He no longer feels anything for Julia and no longer has the slightest want to defy Big Brother. He no longer cares for his own life, he only cares that his life be used for Big Brother. And at the broadcast of victory in Africa, Winston's feet "made convulsive movements" at the new news.
   The assignment for reading assignment five was to write of a baptism. Some may say that using torture and the like to baptize a person probably isn't a baptism. To that I have to say that if the book by Thomas C. Foster has taught me anything it is that situations and how they relate to their archetypes are not word for word and even sometimes almost dissimilar in some ways to their root (Agh... run-on). As a result of Winston Smith's insubordination he is baptized with with boots and broken bones.

Down, Down, Down to My English Cafe (Fourth Reading Assignment)

2011-07-10T17:43:00.006-05:00

Flight may signify freedom in most stories, but not all freedoms result in a better livelihood for those newly free people . In William Golding's Lord of the Flies a group of young schoolboys become stranded on an adultless, uninhabited island after their plane is shot down. As time passes on the island, the organization among the newly free boys breaks down and they slowly turn from civil to savage.
Even though the plane flight and crash are only mentioned in the book, the plane's flight and fall may reinforce the point of a freedom gone bad as it may also foreshadow events to come in the story. The flight of the boys is their freedom from adults and the restrictions that having adults around brings such as etiquette and respecting each other. However, without adults who is to guard the young boys' innocence? Similar to the plane crash a "fall" comes shortly after their flight. Without any adults, there is no one to restrict or check the dark primal urges all the boys have deep in their hearts. Soon the boys fall from grace as most become savage (examples would be physically hurting the "littluns" and even killing other boys).

Cloudy With a Chance of Meat- I Mean Symbolism (Third Reading Assignment)

2011-07-03T22:25:00.004-05:00

     During a scene in The Cloud Chamber by Joyce Maynard, the protagonist and his sister (Nate and Junie respectively) drive out through the snow to meet their father. There are a few things to know before this is thought up to be a simple visit by a son and daughter to visit their father in a hospital. First of all, their father attempted to commit suicide because of the failing state of the family business in farming. Also, the rifle used could not be found and one of the police officers casts suspicion on Nate's mother by suggesting that she may have pulled the trigger. One other thing. The snow that Nate drives through in his mother's (who doesn't know he's taken it out for a drive) small, non 4-wheel drive car is actually a blizzard on slopping hills.
     Foster describes snow as possibly meaning as much as rain. Specifically, he describes snow as "severe", "inhospitable", and "suffocating". The severe blizzard seems to display the severe and inhospitable nature of the ordeal he and his sister are having to endure. For a young student and his younger sister to suddenly be thrust into the severity of the world by watching their blood covered father escorted from their house may be compared to the suddenness of the blizzard.
     Much like rain, snow forces individuals to seek shelter from it and possibly gather together. Luckily for Nate and Junie, their shelter (the car) is already at hand. This sheltering together may in a way be representative that the only shelter Nate and his sister have in this whole ordeal are actually each other. Another aspect of seeking shelter from the elements is that once under shelter, the individuals inside are isolated from the rest of the world. Nate and Junie are isolated in a different sort of way. After the attempted suicide and being called into question by the police officer, Nate's mother is left resentful, bitter, angry. Her attitude pushes Nate and Junie away from her and farther out into the cold, harsh world. Also Nate's grandfather openly expresses his distaste for Nate's father at home, further pushing them away from home and anyone else actually.
     (It goes On and On and On) Foster mentions sleet in the tenth chapter but says that his experience with sleet is too little to generalize. However, the sleet on the winding roads to the hospital that Nate drives just may represent something. Think of the psychological trauma that Nate (and his younger sister especially) must have been subjected to after witnessing their father as was half-drug by a couple of police officers to the ambulance. Something like that would cause any mind to become brittle. Or maybe a little slippery. Just like the immediate and constant danger of slipping off the road (and dying), there is the psychological danger of spinning out of control and losing oneself.

Bang Bang Bang Bang (Second Reading Assignment)

2011-06-26T21:26:00.020-05:00

Chapter 5 Response

   Intertextuality is (or how I think it is) the interaction between texts of two different works of literature where one is influenced by the other in some way.
   Brave New World and 1984. Very different, right? Well, ok I guess they do share the whole "dystopias/utopias aren't always as great as you would think" feeling (wait, who ever said a dystopia was any good in the first place?).

   In Brave New World, John the Savage is read in many of the works of Shakespeare (do I smell a triple intertextuality opportunity?). He is so well read that he has even gained a strong sense of morality and virtue just from reading. As he learns that the new world is a place of promoted debauchery, John desperately wants to be nothing like the denizens of this new place full of such disgusting infirmities. John even becomes enraged and destroys some precious Soma when he is asked to take some (and become more like the masses by losing his emotions temporarily). John yearns for independence from the government of this brave new world and even a return to older ways (such as those found in Shakespeare).
   On to 1984. Winston is not so different from John the Savage. He also wants independence from his presiding government that is Big Brother. He even exercises his simulated independence by being in a relationship with Julia and committing other crimes such as thoughtcrime. Winston could even be seen as wanting to go back to the ways where people were free to think for themselves. Though the two governments are different, both have a very strong hold on the lives of their citizens (be that Soma or suffering).
   The endings of both works are actually a little similar as well. Conformity and then death.

Chapter 7 Response
*Spoiler Alert*

   It just so turns out that there are quite a few pieces of work in the U.S. that allude to the Bible. And Then There Were None is no exception to this. In this novel by Agatha Christie, ten house guests are invited to Soldier Island. Each is invited for different reasons, some come because of the promise of money and others to reminiscence with old war friends. To the point. One by one, each house guest is killed off. However, the first couple of deaths don't seem as though they would be murder (an overdose and a suspected suicide) and so the house guests are mostly ignorant of the murderer who is now on the loose. As people die off the remaining become less ignorant.
   Towards the end of the novel, Justice Wargrave is killed by a bullet to the brain. The doctor of the guests examines the body and points out a red mark on Wargrave's forehead to indicate that he had been shot. What we don't know is that earlier Wargrave had convinced Dr. Armstrong to help him fake his own death so that he could move freely around and search for the murderer. Convinced, Dr. Armstrong helps the ex-judge fake his death by having Wargrave place a mark of wax upon his own forehead and then examining Wargrave's body and pronouncing him dead (so many hims). After a few more real murders (well, everyone except Wargrave himself) Justice takes his own life by making a complex device to take his own life by shooting himself in the head (he uses an elastic band and a handkerchief, come on that's kinda complex). This leaves a "real" red mark upon his forehead.
   Hold on, a red mark on the forehead of a murderer... What was that biblical person's name who killed his brother? Oh right, Cain. So this makes Wargrave the first murderer, but neither the first sinner nor the first punished. This links Wargrave to Cain, making both evil men and murderers (despite the fact that Justice Wargrave was a judge and has a strong sense of justice).

Vamanos, Vamanos (Reading Assignment 1)

2011-06-18T17:52:00.001-05:00

1984

Quester: an average, mostly nondescript man who has a mind too thoughtful for his own good. This thoughtfulness even plagues Winston at times by leading his train of thought into questioning Big Brother and making Winston realize the obvious brutality of a totalitarian government.
A place to go: there is not one specific place to go. However, there is the ultimate destination of the Ministry of Love.
A stated reason to go there: though the Ministry of Love is not the intentional final destination, the closest to a stated reason to go there may be Winston's fatalism. Towards the start of the novel, Winston accepts the inevitability of his own capture and accepts the idea that he will be taken to the Ministry of Love, tortured, sundered, and reeducated.
Challenges and trials: the thought police, Big Brother, and his own mind are just a few challenges Winston faces in his attempted defiance of Big Brother. The omnipresent Big Brother glares piercingly over the denizens of Oceania by keeping an eye out for even the smallest sign of disloyalty or free thought. If even an iota of free will is detected, the thought police crack down on the resident with brutal force, both physical and psychological. Perhaps Winston's greatest enemy is his own mind. Winston points out that even a tiny facial twitch could lead to arrest. This makes a person's own nervous system an enormous enemy to himself or herself. Also, thoughts against Big Brother, the Party, or in a way that is disapproved of is reason enough for the Party to terminate the person.
The real reason to go: to underscore the brutality measures taken by a totalitarian government to control its citizen's physical and mental existence. (Something to note) 1984 was written after WW2 and during the Cold War. This novel serves as an acute warning against the dangers of totalitarian governments. Also, Winston's sundering in the Ministry of Love may be taken as a sign that totalitarian governments are vampiric in nature. In example, Winston (a man full of life [despite his fatalism], free thought, and sense of independence) is taken in by Big Brother (the Ministry of Love being the tool, perhaps Big Brother's "fangs") and spat out as a thoughtless, nearly lifeless, indoctrinated member of the Party. In the end, Winston is stripped of all that he held dear such as his sense of defiance and free will.

On the Status of Teachers...

2011-04-01T12:03:00.008-05:00

Americans face a serious problem in their educational system. Teachers are no longer respected the way they once were and the status of teachers is at a low. For the United States to raise teachers from their status slump, we should trim out the teachers who are dragging the others down by being beacons of terrible teaching. Kati Haycock weighs in on the same subject. She claims here that "we ought to help the strongest ones and close the weakest". I agree with her. About a year ago, there was a survey on the question if teachers who do not have a degree close to what they teach shoud be allowed to teach. Many agreed that those teachers should not be allowed to teach a subject that they themselves are not familiar with. Those teachers that are taught in the field of what they teach obviously understand the subject better and thus can teach students much more than just textbook information. Those teachers who do not have as much knowledge in what they teach aren't able to help students understand the subject as well and, bluntly, may come across as being idiotic in their own line of work to students. Some may argue that if teachers who are not as good at teaching their subject are let go we would have a shortage of teachers. However, if those less than qualified teachers were trimmed away we would be left with the teachers that truly want to teach and thus will put real effort into what they do. Haycock's agrees with what I have said when she states that "we need to provide strong teachers" and that if we weed out the less motivated "we will interest far more of the bright, passionate self-starters we need to turn our system around". If a teacher is not willing to put forth the effort to understand his/her own subject then he/she is not motivated to teach the students who will next inherit this Earth. Those teachers would be instilling apathy into the next generation of people and the next generation of teachers who could possibly instill apathy into their next generation. If we are to pull our teachers out of their status depression we should trim out the terrible teachers to find those motivated, bright teachers to teach our newest generation.

(ramble mode off)

2011-03-16T12:42:00.002-05:00

(can't articulate a point at all and can't think of something decent to say)

The very last lines of the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are a reflective and slightly hopeless take on how the people of the United States were never quite satisfied with the things they had. The use of dashes, tone, and a metaphor enhance Fitzgerald's ability to push readers into a certain state of mind. A point in American society during that time, lust, is focused upon with the metaphor of the boat and waves.

There is a feathery sense of hopelessness in Fitzgerald's use of dashes, tone, and a metaphor of boats and waves. Fitzgerald is exagerating on the point of chasing after an "orgastic future" as he builds hope that we may make our way to that goal. This sudden, shinning spot of hope grabs attention, but let's it crumble as an unfinished thought. The hope we once had ends in hopelessness despite the fact that we had an idea of how to reach the goal of an orgastic future. As we are sailors on a boat, we must fight the waves of time to keep from falling into the past. People struggle in a constant fight to keep themselves

Humans know no end to lust. The Dutch beheld the "breast of the new world" where the trees simply vanished. The primal feeling of wanting more is among every human being and is expressed when the text claims that a person needs more or that we can just "run faster" or "stretch our arms farther" to

2011-03-10T11:52:00.004-06:00

I have read 3 books, the equivalent of 6 books.

And Then There Were None (272 pages)

Mockingjay (400 pages)

Water for Elephants (335 pages)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie perplexed me with its overwhelming sense of inevitability and mystery. Ten house guests are brought together to Soldier Island for various reasons. Each has a dark secret to hide and as people begin to die off, those secrets begin to come to light. With a foreshadowing nursery poem and a too human fear, Agathie Christie provides an excellent mystery novel.

2011-02-28T13:06:00.002-06:00

Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way… But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.

-Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 1980

After discussing the song Ka-Ching, by Shania Twain I found that the juxtaposition of the three-legged dog and the woman in red was summed up quite well when Peterson stated that for he to increase his standard of living, someone else must lower theirs. This makes sense to me. If we consume quite a bit of resources, there aren't as many resources to go around. The world's not socialistic (not yet, or hopefully ever). The idea that many are made poor and hungry because of one's own abundance reminds me of the many commercials asking for donations for poor, hungry children in Africa and other such places. Peterson even goes so far as to hold the greed to buy more stuff accountable for the hunger and poverty in such places.

I'll Sell You a Life Experience from the Dollar Menu

2011-02-27T22:36:00.007-06:00

This is meant to be read in more of a matter-of-fact tone

than a condescending tone (though the condescension is still intentional)

Advertisement is everywhere you turn. It's unescapable and many people have gotten smarter about what to spend money on after the recent recession. To keep people buying, some business have gone to a technique of implying that buying their product will also give the buyer a life experience. An example from McDonalds would be here (Since this won't open at school, I'll try to my best to describe the video in these brackets. Two different teenagers are hanging out with their own group of friends at a McDonalds. The boy steals glances at the girl in the other group and then they are both glancing at one another. The boy walks over to the girl to talk to her as a voice in the background says, "Where else can you go on your first date without even know it.").

I was raised by my parents with the idea that McDonalds was no place to eat (which I do thank them for). The idea of going to McDonalds could be best represented by a conversation between my sister and father. After being indecisive about what to eat, my father said, "Well, let's go to McDonalds," to which my sister instantly replied, "Eww..."

Back to the commercial. My first reaction was one of disgust and annoyance. "So this ad is saying that people can get a life experience such as going on a first date or having courage in a moment like that or starting anew by eating at McDonalds?" was my first thought. I wanted to speak back and say that that wasn't likely and that they were sending the wrong message to teens (and what about all the concern on the obesity of youth in America?). There was another commercial similar to this one about a group of teenagers hanging out and having fun while eating McDonalds. Needless to say, I had a very similar reaction.

Tvspotstv. "YouTube - McDONALD'S - FIRST DATE." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .

Early Youth Decay

2010-12-10T14:17:00.012-06:00

This post was originally posted Friday, the ending was added that Sunday at 1:00 A.M.

Something no one has thought would happen in our little community has happened. The rumors that are flying around make information blurred and distorted, so I claim that many statements about this that may seem fact could very well be false. However, what I do know is that a student from the high school of which I attend shot a pistol from a moving vehicle at something. What was shot at or the intent of shooting at it isn't clearly known.

The real question should be, why? What would cause, influence, provoke someone to do this? Of course, the only real answer may be in the person's mind, and even he may not know.

Moral Decay in Youths by bfery (or Blake in the comments) explains that children are becoming "desensit[ized] to violence". Bfery gives an example of a 15 year old being "doused in rubbing alcohol and set on fire by a few other teenagers." There's no doubt anyone would find this act atrocious. The author may very well be suggesting we are heading down a bad slope stating that Never once as a kid did [he] experience first hand, or even see for that matter, any bullying to such an extreme extent."

What seems to make the most sense to me is that we, the youth, can get into the bad sorts of activities if we aren't involved in activities that have a reason or aren't given any direction in life. As my father states, "Idle hands are the Devil's workshop." When we find ourselves with nothing to do, we look for something to do that we are interested in, is fun, exciting, or exhilarating. This free time can be beneficial and harmful. People find what they love to do in their free time, other people find what society hates.

Why? I heard the cans outside and some talking and I disregarded them at first. Then I realized what may be going on and ran outside, but if only I had been a little faster or maybe if I had been paying more attention. All along my Father's old van, the one he's had for years, there is graffiti. I'm angry, I want to hurt the people responsible, I want them to pay, I want them to regret doing this to my Father. In my mind this is a crime against everything he has ever done. I curse into the air, I scream, but they've already run away. I'm enraged.

After a few minutes and some pacing, I begin to think again. What makes me better than these people if I want to bludgeon them, to beat them, to make them pay? I'm worse than they are. How dare I even write a blog post about decay in morals of the young when I can't keep my own thoughts from atrocity. What does this make me? This makes me a hypocrite. I am no better than they.

Maybe I wouldn't have hurt them, but stand rigid with anger. I would yell, no doubt. My thoughts are jumbled and it shows. Pure emotion.

Later, I will come back to this and think, "Why was I so angry?" and "What is wrong with me?" But now, I can't help feeling angry, it's only been 40 minutes.

My Syntacular 12 sentence story (not really that great)

2010-11-30T13:01:00.003-06:00

The rocket was ready to fire, its round placed securely in the tube, its fuse hanging loosely from the top of the tube, its fuse lit and running evenly. The tube seemed right; the explosive seemed off. The tube, a little fiberglass wonder, was the barrel tube to our stemless mortar shell. The fuse went up to the lip of the tube, down to the middle, into the round. We all braced ourselves for the launch as the fuse went into the tube. Crack! We searched for any shrapnel and searched for anyone hurt and searched for what went wrong. We were all astonished: none of us understood. Wondered what happened, we all did. So what caused this loud explosion? We all looked for a solution, and thought, and contemplated, and found a simple answer quickly. We all knew what had happened , we all looked at one another anyway, we all thought this to be funny, yet ridiculous, the rocket was upside down.

The Five Stages of Robert Neville

2010-11-11T13:08:00.007-06:00

WARNING: Contains spoilers on the book I am Legend by Richard Matheson.

Many people have seen the movie I am Legend starring Will Smith; fewer people have read the book I am Legend by Richard Matheson.

What many people who have only seen the movie do not know is that the book is very different from the movie. At some point while I was still reading the book, my mother found it and read the whole story in a couple hours. Later, when I mentioned the book to her, she mentioned how Neville had gone through the stages of grief.

After finishing I am Legend, I remembered reading about Neville's anger, depression, and final acceptance, but I hadn't thought that they were tied in such a way. Early in the book, Neville crushes a drinking glass in his hand and becomes infuriated at simple objects such as the mural he painted on the wall. Even though this does not perfectly match the mold for an anger stage, Neville does seem to want to get back at himself for the loss of his loved ones.

Neville's depression is very evident when he spends hours at a time remembering and nearly reminiscing about the past, his wife, and his daughter. At one point, Robert is trying to look for an answer to the plague by looking back into his past and recalls lying half-drunk, fully clothed, crying in his bed after burying his wife.

Acceptance is the final stage of the five stages of grief. As Robert Neville discovers what he has become to the new people of the world, he comes to a personal realization. He comes to accept what he is and what he has become to no longer fear his own ending.

I had read that people who have a terminal illness or only a short amount of time to live go through these stages too. When I read that, I did not think much of what was said. Later, I remembered why I wear my LiveStrong bracelet. My cousin, Jessie, has Neuroblastoma, a form of cancer which is often present at birth. Even with her problems she still manages to smile, boss people around (lol), have fun.

You may feel like Robert Neville but you can always look forward like Jessie.

(I did some research about the 5 stages of grief here and here.

What to read...

2010-10-24T14:35:00.000-05:00

1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins is the third and final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. After reading the first two books, the natural idea would be to read the last book. Although there is something about me and not wanting to finish a good series (of anything really)...

2. I am Legend by Richard Matheson was recommended to me by El Drunko (*cough* *Lauren G* *cough*). What also interested be in this book was that I had seen the movie, which I enjoyed. However, after reading just a few pages into the book, I realize that the book is nothing like the movie, though that is not exactly a bad thing.

3. I first heard about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson over the radio when the speaker spoke of the author's background and how he hadn't intended for his writings go become books. Later, my English teacher gave a short book talk on the book and got me interested in reading it.

2nd Quarter Annotated Reading List

2010-10-19T13:00:00.011-05:00

Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2007. Print.

The book I read, I Am Legend, is actually a number of stories by Matheson. However, in the main story, Robert Neville is the last man on Earth. The rest of the human race has been wiped out by what he could only describe as a vampire virus. Neville deals with the pain of losing his wife and child as he looks for something to do to keep himself from going insane. At times, Robert is enraged at himself and at others, he mourns the loss of his family. As my mother pointed out to me, Robert Neville goes through most of the stages of grief. Who wouldn't be a little unstable after realizing they were the only rational person on Earth who didn't want to drain the blood from people? Neville's story is a very interesting one that I found myself feeling emotions for and is a good book for just about to read (probably not small children). (two books worth)

Orwell, George. 1984. New York: Signet Classics, 2000. Print.

In the world of 1984 the three super states, Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania, are in a perpetual war. Each super state uses the war and other methods such as propaganda and even self-mind alteration (Doublethink) to control all aspects of their citizens lives, even their thoughts. This control was later compared to that of "a boot stamping on a human face--for ever." The duty shown by the residents of the super state of Oceania could only be considered fanatical by our modern day society. Something I always wondered was, "How can these people take this abuse?" The answer is, they don't know any different, if there isn't something to compare an item to, what you have originally seems best just because you have something. However, some of Winston's Smith's old memories begin to surface and he starts to remember what life was like before the Purges. This leads Winston down a path of "unorthodox" thoughts, which lead him to question everything around him. If you would like to find out what happens to Winston or if you like Dystopia/Utopia or fiction books, I would recommend this book. (2 books worth)

Independent Reading: In Development

2010-10-15T11:54:00.005-05:00

Between Odyssey, band, Beta club, NEHS, and work I'm finding difficulty in reading consistently. I still read the required minutes each week, but sometimes that consists of 120 minutes in a day. That's my best excuse, but that's still an excuse. What might help me to read more consistently is to have a designated time of the day to read. Even with that fault, I am doing decently on practicing a balanced reading diet. I read a candy fiction, deep fiction with themes that could relate to modern society, and a nonfiction book about the inner workings of TV News and how facts can be distorted (Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and How to Watch TV News by Steve Powers and Neil Postman respectively). I didn't read Catching Fire with deep thought, besides to paying attention to the storyline. However, I did read Brave New World and How to Watch TV News with analytical thought simply because they were much easier to relate to modern day society. To some extent, I do ink my thinking. I find inking my thinking to be both advantageous and burdensome. Inking does help me to go back and reflect a little on what I read in relating something I just read back to something I read much earlier. Stopping to write something down, especially a longer thought, can cause me to lose my train of thought. For the next nine weeks, I will try to read more consistently and have most of my books read before one week to due date.

Annotated Bibliographies: How to Watch TV News

2010-10-14T21:07:00.008-05:00

Tingle, Greg. "Journalistic Plagiarism Is out of Control." Greatreporter.com. 17 Feb. 2005. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. .

Plagiarism is a problem for many people. There is not only plagiarism in school reports but also in the news. This article describes how "journalistic plagiarism is out of control". Big time journalists, such as Jayson Blaire of the New York Times, even plagiarize and falsify documents. Some reporters will even plagiarize reports from little known sources such as students. A TAFE student in Sydney wrote "article on a historical society issue involving the local council in Sydney's Hill's district." He then pitched his article to a local newspaper, who replied: "'Sorry, not very interested, but you can send over your ideas if you like'". Four weeks later, an edited version of his article was printed in the newspaper. How to Watch TV News describes how VNRs (video news releases) are plagiarized by the general media such as CBS News. CBS News used a VNR by the Institute for Injury Reduction to show defections in safety belts and rollovers without giving credit to the Institute. If people in the news can't come up with something and have to revert to stealing someone else's work without giving credit, how trustworthy can they be in reporting news in the first place?

Jury, By Louise. "An Overpaid Airhead? Not Me, Katie Derham Tells the 'old-timers' - Media, News - The Independent." The Independent | News | UK and Worldwide News | Newspaper. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Many people claim that news anchors are overpaid for "simply to read[ing] an autocue." Both new and old employees in the news agree. Most people say that being an anchor requires very little intelligence. John Humphreys even went to the extent of saying that he thinks his "four-year-old will be ready in a couple of months." However, Katie Durham claims that an anchor must be able to "think on [their] feet." She also claims that if they were not able to think on their feet "the product would be crap and we would be taken off-air." Many newscasters and anchors today are not getting out of the office and into the field to do actual reporting. Jon Snow explains that we are seeing the rise of a generation of anchors who have never been in the field" and that "there are people now who are saying 'Sorry, I don't do that', and 'I don't know how to do that' - and as a result never left the studio." How to Watch TV News explains how anchors are payed ridiculously large amounts of money to capture viewers with their good looks and nice suits.

Lee, By Douglas. "Firstamendmentcenter.org: Press - Topic." Firstamendmentcenter.org: Welcome to the First Amendment Center Online. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

There is debate whether cameras should be allowed in courtrooms. Some say that when cameras are let into courtrooms, they hamper the ability of the judge and jury to pass a lawful decision. This has many people to claim that they have been denied a fair trial. However, cameras are now being allowed in most places, so long as the policymakers of the federal and state courts allow it. How to Watch TV News explains how many defendants are claiming they were denied a fair trial by the presence of cameras. One person explained that when you add a camera to a courtroom, you turn the "courtroom into a circus." The debate has changed slightly since cameras have modernized. One argument about whether to have cameras in the courtroom was that they distracted everyone. Now, cameras have become much quieter and pose less of a physical distraction.

Dreisbach, By Shaun. "TV News Too Violent for Children? - Parenting.com." Parenting.com - The Home of Parenting and Babytalk. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

All parents (or at least the good ones) care whether their child watches violent TV at a young age, but what if TV news were just as terrifying and corrupting? In TV news, children are exposed to the base of human life (murder, muggings, and crimes) in it's truest form. According to this article "a recent study found that children actually find the news far more terrifying than anything they'd see on a blood-and-guts drama." "The researchers showed nearly 600 kids ages 8 to 12 disturbing TV content -- things like war images, people shooting at each other, house fires, and plane crashes -- then told them what they were watching was either a fictional "Hollywood show" or an actual news program." They found that "children who thought they were seeing real events had significantly higher fright responses -- they showed a greater emotional reaction -- than those who believed they were watching a fictional show," said study coauthor Brad Bushman, Ph.D. How to Watch TV News expresses a kind of worry about children who watch TV news because they are exposed to such acts.

"Fake TV News: News Release | Center for Media and Democracy." Center for Media and Democracy | Publishers of PR Watch. Web. 17 Oct. 2010. .

There are many TV News stations that play video news releases (VNRs) and do not mention their source or that they are VNRs to the public that they show them to. This brings up problems with plagiarism and the possibility that the VNR is fake. Most TV news stations find it irresistible to take an already made news report, say it is their own (or fail to mention that it isn't theirs), and show it to the general public. Most people take these reports as facts because they are not told that the report is a VNR. How to Watch TV News talks quite a bit about VNRs and their ability to be easily stolen by TV news stations. There are a few VNRs that are fake news, which leads to concern in showing these reports to the public when they aren't researched by the TV news station.

"Is Linking an Antidote to Plagiarism in Journalism?" Publish2 Blog. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Even in small states, plagiarism is present. Tammi Marcoullier writes of how she found out that one of her blog posts had been plagiarized by a competing news source. What caught her attention was that the person who she interviewed had said a specific quote which was also included in the other person's report. When Marcoullier called the person she suspected of plagiarizing her blog post, he apologized in a "backhanded way, as if he really didn’t believe he’d done anything wrong." Marcoullier suggests a simple way to avoid plagiarism on the Internet by simply linking sources. Journalistic plagiarism is mostly represented in How to Watch TV News in the use of video news reports (VNRs). Plagiarism is the "worst crime" that can be committed by news sources simply because they do not give credit to the people who actually worked on the reports and have all the credit for themselves.

""What Do We Need Professional Reporters For?"" Small Dead Animals. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

This article deals with the growing number of citizen and free-lance journalists and photojournalists. People in the news business fear that many more people will go to the local news by citizens instead of the highly paid anchors for factual, reliable news. Who wouldn't go to someone they know personally for news (and I don't mean gossip) instead of some good-looking anchor behind a desk reading an autocue? The citizen journalist may have more incentive to get his or her facts straight. If a citizen journalist reported on a major event only to be found out that his/her facts were completely wrong, the journalist would loose much respect, thus less people would trust that person or listen to him/her. How to Watch TV News shows examples of how citizen journalism is being used more often. For example, hundreds of people filmed the events of 9/11 in the streets and around the city. These videos were used in reports about the event and give a different view than one of the mainstream widely known TV news sources.

"Cameras In Courtrooms: Information from Answers.com." Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Whether cameras should be allowed into courtrooms is still debated in various degrees. Now, all US states "allow some type of camera coverage." Even though some people argue that having cameras in the courtroom violates due process rights, experimental studies have, in some courtrooms, suggested that cameras do not interfere with due process. First, the Supreme Court "enacted Rule 53 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, prohibiting all photography or broadcasting of federal criminal cases". The Supreme later reviewed the case of Chandler v. Florida (1981) and unanimously decided that "states should be free to develop their own procedures for broadcasting trials, and that such television coverage was not an inherent violation of due process". Even with Rule 53 not being upheld any longer, the Supreme Court "does not allow photographic or broadcast coverage of proceedings." How to Watch TV News explains the debate about whether or not cameras should be allowed in courtrooms, which they leave up to the policymakers of the federal and state courts.

"Children And The News." American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Children are exposed to news very often and without the reports being sugar-coated for the children, negative effects can occur to the children. Children watching news are prone to "imitate what they see and hear in the news," which is "a kind of contagion effect described as 'copy cat' events". Children who are constantly exposed to violent news are more likely to be fearful and suffer from other such negative effects. With the increase in coverage of crimes ("240%" according to this article) children are much more likely to be exposed to such acts. This article also has suggestions on how to reduce the negative effects of violent news such as "monitoring the amount of time [the] child watches news shows" and "provid[ing] reassurance regarding his/her own safety in simple words emphasizing that you are going to be there to keep him/her safe". Worry is expressed about this subject in How to Watch TV News because TV news stations do not soften violent reports for children.

"Why You Need To Be Careful About Watching The News." Citizen Warrior. Web. 18 Oct. 2010. .

Many TV news stations leave a negative or depressed feeling on the viewer because most feature acts that are out of the control of the victims. People who watch these kind of reports feel a sense of helplessness and hopelessness because "the problems shown on the screen are too big or too far away or too permanent to do anything about". This coupled with our brains having a "negative bias" leads many people into a kind of depression (mild or severe). TV news can more easily impact how a person feels than news in print because "you have no choice over what you take in, and visual images remain in the mind more easily". How to Watch TV News explains how people are attracted to events such as murders and muggings because they think about how they have survived another day or "I'm glad that wasn't me".

Socratic Seminar Reflection

2010-10-11T12:17:00.007-05:00

Late last week and early this week, my English class participated in Socratic Seminars about different themes from the book Brave New World. One of the groups I was in discussed the irony of John the Savage's name and the significance of the names of the various characters. The other discussed the power of language in the book, and the power of the word to influence thought and behavior.

I really did not feel as though I encountered any striking new ideas (or at least ones that would stay with me through the weekend and other school work). I felt as though much of what was said were confirmations of many of my own thoughts. The idea that John was more civilized than the "civilized" world and John's emotional understanding but not comprehension of Shakespeare were already thoughts to me. There were not very many challenging of ideas during our talks (though I think that is mainly due to people being respectful to one another and not wanting to have a bad grade). Even though I did not find drastically different points of view from my classmates, I did found out a little background about background such as character name origins when preparing for the seminars. Interestingly, Bernard Marx somewhat exiles himself from society by going to the Savage Reservation. Similarly, Karl Marx (who Bernard is partially named after) is expelled from Paris at the end of 1844 but then returned when a revolution first broke out (or Bernard returned to society). Also, the name Lenina Crowne is said to come from Vladimir Lennin, who supported Karl Marx. I tie this to Lenina trying to understand Bernard and supporting him.

In retrospect, I think I did fairly well on my parts of the conversation. The most difficult part, I would say, would be trying not to interrupt someone who is speaking when an idea pops into your head that feels as though it must absolutely and positively be said at that moment. Even though we had eight minutes to discuss our topic, I felt as though I hadn't said all I wanted to during that time. During the conversation about the power of words to influence thought and behavior, we did not get to talk about Newspeak from the book 1984 by George Orwell. Nearly all of my research for that discussion was about Newspeak (which included quotes from 1984). Even with my negative comments, I enjoyed sitting down with a group of my friends and mutually being aware that we were about to engage in serious and deep conversation. I would invite people into the conversation more often who weren't given much of an opening during the conversation to speak if I had a do-over. Overall, I enjoyed our Socratic Seminars though I would give a little more time to discuss than eight minutes to let everyone say what they wanted to and cover most everything.

That information about Karl Marx being exiled is from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/marx.html.

Annotated Reading List

2010-10-11T12:14:00.007-05:00

Collins, Suzanne. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print.

Suzanne Collins supplies an atmosphere of oppression and rebellion in her book Catching Fire, which is the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Katniss thought she would no longer have to deal with the Capital and its calmly insane president after her Hunger Games. She was wrong. There is unrest in the districts due to Katniss' defiance of the Capital, and who wouldn't be angry at a government that made you send your children (or you) to entertain the masses by killing one another. Trust is a major theme in Catching Fire because Katniss has to determine who her allies are and who her enemies are. "Remember who your enemy is" Haymitch says to Katniss before stepping into the arena. In the world of Catching Fire, there is the all-powerful Capital to oppress the other districts in a tyranical sense. I can tie this idea back to Brave New World in that there is one tyranical person who controls almost everything in the resident's life. I believe that if the world described in Catching Fire were our world, we would find it to be our "duty to overthrow the government that has not acted in the general public's best interest". However, many people claim that today's government is terrible, yet they do nothing. So if something truly horrific happened similar to the events of Catching Fire, would people be too indifferent to rise up?(400 pages)

Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006. Print.

What is a utopia? Is it a place where everyone gets along well? Is it a place where no one is biased against another person for their physical looks? Is it a place where everyone enjoys their work? The Brave New World in which Huxley writes of is a utopia he believes we will one day become. However, unlike the typical connotation of the word utopia, Brave New World is not exactly a perfect society (or at least at this point in time we would not describe it as such) with its loose sex, approved use of hallucinogenic drugs, and genetic predetermination. Huxley prophesies that a decay in moral values will lead to his (dystopia)utopia. Some of this decay in morals can be spotted in our society such as many people now considering it normal to have lovers in a year numbering into the double digits. Soma, or the drug of Brave New World, is used by the people whenever they want an escape or are feeling too much emotions. Taking a gramme of Soma sends the person on a "holiday" away from reality to a feeling that is described as being "Christianity without the tears." This drug can be related to the want to legalize marijuana in the US. Utopia may not be pretty, but it's "perfect", right? If you wanted a utopia, what would you be willing to sacrifice for it? (259 pages)

Postman, Neil, and Steve Powers. How to Watch TV News. New York, NY: Penguin, 2008. Print.

How to Watch TV News will enlighten you on how to... well watch TV news. How to Watch TV News is both informative and a warning to the general public of what TV news is all about. Money (well, maybe some news too but that's back seat to money). Postman and Powers describe how TV news expose their viewers to ads. One technique is for the anchor to grab a person's interest just as they are going to commercial break so that that person stays with them. Also, "breaking news" may get many people's attention (which equals more viewers, which equals more people watching commercials, which equals more money), even if those first reports are not exactly solid facts. With the age of technology that we are in now, reports can be sent instantaneously back to the studio. These first reports may not be as accurate as news stations would have you believe. If something catastrophic happened five minutes ago, how do you know so much about it anyway? How to Watch TV News describes the inter-workings of TV news and how it affects our perception of certain events. (169 pages)

The annotated bibliographies are here.

Random Stuffs

2010-09-21T21:05:00.003-05:00

Because I was surfing the web and found some stuff that relates to English Class and Starcraft 2 (kinda incongruous, huh?) English related: dystopia (and no, I'm not starting a political war here, it's a joke, don't blog rage), 1984, and some soma.

The source of that above comic and another translated strip here.

Pink and the US' abundance of abundance

2010-09-12T23:16:00.003-05:00

Pink's humorous criticism of American's abundance sheds light as to how America is evolving today. Pink explains that "during the twentieth century", most middle-class Americans aspired "to own a home...." He then states that "more than two out of three Americans own a home in which they live. The use of the word aspiration in Pink's sentence paints a picture that owning a home was more than a simple goal to Americans that could be easily reached. Also, Pink uses a bit of his humorous criticism by later saying that "in fact, some 13 percent of homes purchased today are second homes. This new abundance has left Americans more capable of satisfying one of their needs of survival: shelter. This idea of the elimination of the fight for survival is driven home as Pink describes that "abundance has freed literally hundreds of millions of people from the struggle for survival" and has "made it possible to extend the quest for self-realization." The use of the word "struggle" suggests a kind of air that a great burden is lifted from many people by our abundance. This example explains how abundance has taken away the fight for survival (the use of the words "from the struggle for survival" greatly represents this point) and let people start exploring the right-brain parts of life, thus evolving.

Got a deathstick?

2010-08-26T17:02:00.005-05:00

(click the image for a better view)

Above is an ad for a "New crush-proof box" for cigarettes. The ad is, of course, denouncing cigarettes and not promoting them with the box being a casket among other details.

Though the ad is short on very long text, the longest string of words explains that "The Surgeon General has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health." This may seem as if it were one of the most obvious facts in the world; however, the fact that this statement has been determined by the Surgeon General makes the statement much more credible. Most people would trust the word of anyone who could rightfully be called a surgeon but if that surgeon were the Surgeon General, who wouldn't believe what he or she has to say about your health? If this person were important enough to have a title that no other surgeon has, one would think that that person were much more knowledgeable than many other surgeons in the world. Another credible source to help strengthen this ad is the text about the use of the FTC method at the bottom of the image. The FTC method has been used to tell the amount of tar, nicotine, and other substances in cigarettes since 1967. The FTC method has been revised since to show the levels of tar and nicotine when a cigarette is smoked under higher intensive conditions. Because the FTC method is used in all cigarette advertisements and by the major cigarette companies, this bit of fact is not to be taken as a said statement by an untrustworthy source.

A few facts around this ad state a few hard facts such as the amount of tar and nicotine per cigarette and the Surgeon General's warning. 8 mg may not seem as though it were that much tar, but how many cigarettes are in a pack and how many packs do some people smoke in a day? Some people may consume up to 32 ml of tar a day, or even more. Again, the Surgeon General's warning has the simple fact that smoking is dangerous to your health. That simple statement states a fact which is impossible to argue with.

The largest part of the above photo is that of the coffin with a few cigarettes tucked into it's bed. The coffin may be reminiscent of the passing of a loved one or someone a person knew. From there, one could go as far to relate the loss of a loved one to lung or similar cigarette caused cancer. This thought can really pull on the heart strings of someone who has actually lost a loved one to cigarette smoke and even bring back painful memories. Even the joke at the top of the ad about the "New crush-proof box" has a kind of emotional appeal. At first a grin may cross a viewers face, and then a grimace after a little consideration about what is being said. The joke may even be suggesting that the smokers are more concerned about a few precious squeezed cigarettes than their health or the health of those around them.

Ethos, Logos, and Pathos are used in this advertisement against cigarettes by borrowing some of the Surgeon General's credibility, stating a fact about tar content, and reminding us of lost one to this addiction. This ad blends all parts of Aristotle's persuasive appeals to persuade people to not use cigarettes.

Something Taken for Granted

2010-08-07T23:54:00.003-05:00

Late last night, while trying to find a topic for my final thINK summer assignment, I glanced at the counter to find food from my mother’s parent’s house. The food looked great; a kind of flour chips, a sauce, dried onions, and banh xeo comprised this tray of brought home food. I just had a sample of each but as I lay in bed, I realized how important home cooking is.
Both my maternal and paternal grandparents cook their own meals. I’ve never known any of them to so much as look at a fast food restaurant. What is a fast food joint anyway? Is it a place to find a good deal or delicious food? I beg to differ.
Even though the fast food places may seem to be a cheap place to get food, if one were to look a little closer, questions can be raised. If the value menus are composed of $1 items, what is the quality of the actual food? Restaurants are built to make money, not give it away, so how would they make money by serving high grade food for such a low price? I have watched my father cook a $40 batch of gumbo which fed my family and friends for days. How much fast food could a person get for $40 at not even a fraction the taste?
Besides being healthier and more cost efficient, cooking meals yourself brings people together. Why go eat out somewhere when you can cook for a friend or a loved one? If that cook doesn’t want to cook alone, they could get a loved one or friend(s) to help them cook, this is actually quite fun.
Whenever you get the chance, cook a nice home meal for yourself or your family. Not only will you hone cooking skills and save money, you will also get to spend valuable time with family and friends.

Money, Greed, and Temptation

2010-07-24T23:40:00.004-05:00

Money leads to many problems in life and some go so far as to call money "the source of all evil." Money causes tragedies when in excess or when people think they need much more.

These ideas are expressed vividly in the short story The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving. Tom Walker was a meager, miserly fellow who lived just a few miles from Boston, Massachusetts during 1727. In short, Tom met a man claiming to be Old Scratch. He offered Tom the treasure of a pirate for the usual price. With much greed in his heart and fear for not wanting to lose the treasure, Tom struck a bargain with Old Scratch to be his "usurer" of money. Tom gained vast amounts of money by squeezing the money from poor debtors and land-jobbers. One day as he was about to foreclose on an unlucky land-speculator for whom "he had professed the greatest friendship", Tom lost his composure and exclaimed, "The devil take me if I have made a farthing!" Old Scratch was glad to comply.

Tom showed much greed when Old Scratch instructed him to "lend money at two per cent. a month" and he replied that he would charge four. Tom shows an even deeper greed and selfishness as he replied to Old Scratch's instructions to "extort bonds, foreclose mortgages" and "drive the merchants to bankruptcy--" by saying that he would "drive them to the devil."

Pink Floyd actually has an entire song about money and how it affects people. During the aptly named song, "Money", Pink Floyd explains how money changes people into greedy and selfish beings that "grab that cash with both hands and make a stash". Pink almost seems to compare money to drugs as he sings, "Money, it's a hit" in that we can't get enough and need another hit similar to a drug. Pink later goes on to sing about man's selfishness by stating "get your hands off my stack." This statement describes how people would not be moral enough to share any of their money.

In this society money can be the illusion of happiness, the more one has, the happier that person is. We see money's corrupting hand in our government and in other organizations. Even children are affected by money, some have too little, just enough, or too much for their own good. Many crimes are driven by the hunger for more money such as robbery, muggings, and the sale of illegal drugs and substances.

Be very careful when you handle money. Keep a firm grip on what cash means to you or it can posses you. Ultimately, I agree with Pink Floyd's lyrics, "Money, so it seems, is the root of all evil today."

The Men Who Shouldn't Come Home

2010-07-08T11:05:00.001-05:00

This post contains spoilers about the short stories The Open Window and The Monkey's Paw.

Death is an inevitable part of life, we all know that. But what would you do, or could you think, if you saw someone who you knew was dead walk again? This might be harder to take in than the person dieing in the first place. Seeing someone dead and then seeing them walking again would be beyond reasoning. We know that once someone has passed, they don't come back. This belief is a part of our understanding of life. So what would you do if someone you knew was dead came walking in your front door?

I decided to read The Open Window by H.H. Munro. Many (well... maybe most) people would not interpret this story the way I did, which is their translation. Towards the beginning of the story, everything seemed to be normal with a simple exchange between Framton Nuttel and Vera about the loss of her aunt's husband and two younger brothers. What struck me as odd was that Vera had said that when the brothers and husband had drowned in the marsh that "Their bodies were never recovered." The story takes on a more solemn tone when Mrs. Sappleton remarks gleefully that her "husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting". Believing she had lost her mind, Framton thought the talk of the "shooting and the scarcity of the birds" was "purely horrible". The atmosphere turns ghastly when Mrs. Sappleton exclaims, "Here they are at last!" As Framton turned to look, he spotted three silhouettes "walking across the lawn towards the window" "in the deepening twilight". Not knowing what to do, Framton simply grabs his belongings and dashes out the door.

After I read The Open Window, I immediately thought of the story The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs. The Monkey's Paw in a nutshell is about Mr. White wishing for two hundred pounds because his friend, who gave him the paw, had told him to "wish for something sensible." Perhaps completely in coincidence, Mr. White receives two hundred pounds at the cost of his only son's life. A week after burying their son, Mrs. White demands that Mr. White wish for their son to be alive again. With much fear and demanding by his spouse, Mr. White wishes that his son was alive again. At that exact moment, there is a subtle knock at the door that resounds throughout the house.

I believe I made a connection between these two stories because of implied ideas about the living dead. Is there really a correct way to react to seeing someone you knew was dead walk again?

After research here, here, and here I realized that I horribly misunderstood the story of The Open Window. Vera's story and reaction when the men came home fooled me and if you knew me, you would know that I take everything anybody says very seriously and that I am very gullible. This would contribute to how I can not sense sarcasm unless it is extremely excessive. I believed Vera's story because she broke her self-possessed composure with a little shudder at the end of her story and a look of horror when she saw the husband and two younger brothers coming back from their hunt. When Mrs. Sappleton exclaimed that the men "looked as if they were muddy up to their eyes!", I believed that this was implying that the men had crawled out of the ground. However, we learn more from our failures than our triumphs.

My annotated photo/story

2010-06-22T21:36:00.000-05:00

Here's my first Summer assignment for English class about who I am as a writer, reader and who I am myself.

Of Mice and Men

2010-05-29T01:14:00.000-05:00

From his first paragraph, John Steinbeck sets the scene in Of Mice and Men through his use of imagery as he describes the natural world as a parallel to later events in the novel. From the sentence describing "the Salinas River" dropping "in close to the hillside bank and" running "deep and green", a few words stick out to me. "close" reminds me of being close to someone (as in a relationship). "River" sounds similar to a nourisher or life giver. Parallels to the story from this sentence would be that Lennie (hillside bank) and George (the River) are close and George provides for Lennie (ex. food). The "slopes" that "curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan mountains" partly describes George and Lennie's relationship to one another. "curve up" sounds as though the mountains and the river are related to or close to one another (relationship). The mountains being described as strong and rocky are similar to something coarse and mighty. The parallel to the story could be that Lennie (mountains) and George (the slopes of the river) are close to one another and Lennie is very strong. One of the more interesting descriptive sentences about leaves "under the trees" lying "deep and so crisp" describes how protective each is to the other. The word under may refer to protecting or covering. The crisp leaves may be something unhurt and unmolested by trampling feet. To the story, Lennie (tree) and George (the leaves) or vice versa each protect each other and watch out for one another so no harm will come to the other. Even though there may not seem to be parallels to the story in the first paragraph, upon reading the book many parallels can be seen throughout the story.

The second part of this analysis involves quotes from the story and interpretations of the tone. The first tone word I came up with was unfortunate. George still stared morosely at the fire. "When I think of the swell time I could have without you, I go nuts. I never get no peace." "Well, we ain't got any," George exploded. "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God a'mighty, if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job an' work, an' no trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want... These quotes show how unfortunate George may be because he has to look after Lennie. George expresses how much more fortunate he would be if he didn't have to look after Lennie all the time. The second tone word I came up with was the word dire. The hand shook violently, but his face set and his hand steadied. He pulled the trigger. The crash of the shot rolled up the hills and rolled down again. Lennie jarred, and then settled slowly forward to the sand, and he lay without quivering. "Well, that girl rabbits in an' tells the law she been raped. The guys in Weed start a party out to lynch Lennie. So we sit in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day. Got on'y our head sticking out from the side of the ditch. An' that night we scrammed outta there." These quotes show how dire George and Lennie's situation was at times, mainly caused by Lennie's mistakes. The drastic measures George and Lennie took to avoid these consequences and what reactions these situations called for show how dire their situation was.

Although being your brother's keeper is not always easy, one must remember that your brother will keep whomever keeps him as well. "So we sit in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day. Got on'y our head sticking out from the side of the ditch. An' that night we scrammed outta there." This quote shows how dire George and Lennie's situation was and what measures they took by sitting "in a irrigation ditch under water all the rest of that day." Carlson was not to be put off. "Look, Candy. This ol' dog jus' suffers hisself all the time. If you was to take him out and shoot him right in the back of the head-" he leaned over and pointed, "-right there, why he'd never know what hit him." This quote, while foreshadowing, illustrates that the people during this time would do what had to be done by shooting "him right in the back of the head". A show of mercy is also realized in this quote when Carlson says, "why he'd never know what hit him." Recently, I have had an instance of watching out for someone, and then having the favor returned. A couple weeks ago, I found a class ring that belonged to someone I knew from the band. I returned his ring and he replied by saying that he "owed me one". While taking a quiz in Chemistry class later that week, I came upon a question that I just couldn't remember. Part of the question had to do with "the partial pressure of a gas on the surface of a liquid". I wracked my brain to remember what the answer was, but I just could not remember. Mr. Russell, our Chemistry teacher, gave my class a hint by saying that "there's an eleventh grader with this same exact last name". After he had said that, I remembered who I had given the class ring back to and wrote his name down. Because of this exchange of favors and indirect favors, I made a one hundred percent on the quiz and raised my class grade to an eighty-eight percent.

(Direct book quotes are in blue.)

Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother

2010-05-24T19:59:00.000-05:00

Nearly everyone has seen the photo of Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother at some point. Some may not have even known when this photo was taken. Even if someone doesn't know when this photo was taken, anyone can see and recognize the expression on the woman's face. The lines of a face which should be smooth and the (what seems to be) sped-up aging of this "thirty-two" year old woman are apparent. Even though you cannot see this in this picture, "she sat in that lean- to tent". The children's dirty, matted hair and the look of uncertainty and fear on their mother's face provoke thoughts of how cruel the Great Depression was or might have been for some or many people during that time.

(citations and image from here.)

The Giver

2010-05-24T19:38:00.000-05:00

The Giver by Lois Lowry moved me and gave me second thoughts about utopias and dystopias. In particular, I took joy in Jonas' emotions and his dissimilarity to the rest of the community. I also enjoyed the theme of this story.
In The Giver, Jonas is the main character and the new Receiver of Memories. Jonas is picked out from the other forty-nine children in his generation for a special duty, to receive memories from the Giver. During times when the Giver gives Jonas memories, Jonas experiences emotions which no one in the community has ever experienced. Jonas begins to see color and the blanket of Sameness is lifted form Jonas. How Jonas deals with these emotions is very intriguing because in our world, we would not have thought that anyone could not have experienced these feelings (warmth, cold, the pain of a sunburn). This newly developed recognition of everything around Jonas sets him apart from the rest of the community. An example would be when Jonas recognizes that an apple is red colored and he tries to tell his friend that the apple is red. His friend does not recognize that the apple is red because of Sameness and thinks Jonas is acting strange. One physical difference of Jonas and the Giver from the rest of the community is that both are said to have "light colored eyes".
The theme of The Giver is a very deep one. What exactly is a utopia and can you have one without a dystopia? The community of The Giver is obviously supposed to be one of a utopia. One can argue that this so called perfect community is, in fact a severely flawed community. For example, if there are twins born, one must be Released while the other goes to the nurturing center. If there is no wrong, is there a right? What's to base off of that tells what is right when there is nothing wrong? This may lead many to think that a utopia cannot exist without there being some sort of dystopia.
I enjoyed The Giver and would recommend this book to anyone who likes almost-modern day sci-fi or to anyone studying utopias and dystopias.

Animal Farm: Thoughts on Orwell's use of animals as characters

2010-05-06T14:23:00.000-05:00

This is just my opinion, so people may disagree or see differently than I do, which is awesome.

George Orwell's Animal Farm is a very thought provoking story of the fictional revolution of animals on a farm. George Orwell uses animals as the characters in his story instead of humans, which I thought was odd when I first began to read this story.

This use of animals is effective in helping me to understand how this society is similar to a utopia/dystopia. In my mind, the different animals of Animal Farm are similar to people born with different characteristics such as Boxer seeming to be born into manuel labor and the pigs being more clever and smarter by who they are (as in pigs). Animal Farm is a parallel (is that the right word?) to Joseph Stalin's Soviet Russia during and around World War 2. The animals other than the pigs and dogs can be compared to the proletariat of Soviet Russia during that time. The separation of the animals by species greatly helps to represent who they were, such as the sheep and ducks, who were much less intelligent than Boxer. This separation by species seems close to the separation by a different kind of person/people. This is somewhat hard to describe unless you know what I'm thinking or talking about.

Cross Examination

2010-05-06T14:07:00.000-05:00

A: So, what're you doing?
T: Homework.
A: That doesn't look like homework.
T: I mean I was doing homework, but I'm taking a break.
A: So can I see what you were doing for homework?
T: Well, uhh.. I already closed it.
A: Can't you just open it open again?
T: That would take too long, plus I'm busy.
A: But you would only have to make a couple clicks.
T: Well, I'm doing research now.
A: That's Youtube.
T: Yea, I'm doing research on Youtube.
A: What assignment is this?
T: It's the Research-Youtube-by-looking-at-videos-assignment, now get off my case.
A: There's no such assignment.
T: Yea there is..
A: I just looked at the assignment and there's nothing about Youtube on there.
T:Well... umm.... ALRIGHT, I'M NOT ACTUALLY DOING HOMEWORK.
A: I could of told you that.
T: Gaaah!! Look! I'm doing homework now, happy?
A: Wasn't that due three days ago.
T: *throws up his hands and leaves the building*

Finding Hope

2010-04-13T17:05:00.000-05:00

they may seem dark at first

billowing a surging

overwhelming

and overpowering

but look closely

you might see it

that edge of silver

at the edge of the cloud

Celebrate

2010-04-13T17:04:00.001-05:00

"For what can you celebrate?" I think that I could celebrate being alive. Without being alive, you couldn't really do anything. Every good (and bad) memory you have is due to your aliveness (that doesn't sound phrased right...). At times being alive may seem difficult to celebrate but if you just take a second to think, you may find hope in your situation.

Rain

2010-04-02T18:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a blog post that I thought was very interesting. The topic is on one of my most favorite phenomenon of our planet Earth... and that would be rain. I love everything about it. Many times there aren't even words to describe how I feel when rain is pouring outside. I agree with this person's thoughts (though I don't know the songs that he speaks of). Follow my lead.

The Mask I Wear

2010-03-31T13:32:00.000-05:00

--->(no sense intended here, so I guess you could call it a rant)

Outside never seems right,
Contained so others won't see.

I wear the mask lightly,

but not tightly.

My haven is safe;
I open up to myself there.

Keeping to myself is what I do,
As solemn as I keep myself.

Truly I'm a virtuous person;
Altruism is what seems to ring out.

What does St. Patrick's Day Mean to you?

2010-03-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

I have never really thought very much about St. Patrick's day. When I remember St. Patrick's Days of the past, I remember a day of either remembering to wear green and being safe or forgetting and preparing to get pinched. Now that I give more thought to luck and such, I become more grateful for all the lucky moments in my life. One such lucky moment would probably be when my Dad and I were filling a PVC tank full of compressed air to check for leaks and the tank exploded in our hands. Any amount of air pressure can be dangerous but I had the luck to walk away unhurt from this potential catastrophe. While in Houston, Texas my family and I went to watch a parade. Afterwards, we were walking back to a train station to get back to our car. We encountered a crosswalk that had a stall near the left of the road and limited our view. As my sister was crossing the street, I spotted a car speeding from our blind side. Immediately I understood what would happen and I yelled out her name. She danced back just as the car sped by. I am very grateful for this bit of luck.

Call of the Wild Book Review

2010-03-15T01:24:00.000-05:00

Jack London's The Call of the Wild electrified me with its tale (no pun intended) of a harsh Northland. I also enjoyed the character's involved in the story.

The Call of the Wild follows the journey of the dog Buck through his adventure into the North. Buck has to survive in this harsh, new environment virtually on his own. He soon picks up habits and lessons from the other dogs through watching. One such lesson would be when Buck finds out his teammates have burrowed in the snow to stay warm during the night. Other such lessons are when Buck learned "to bite the ice out with his teeth when it collected between his toes". He also learned that "when he was thirsty and there was a thick scum of ice over the water hole, he" could "break it by rearing and striking it with stiff fore legs." Maybe one of the most important lessons Buck learns is that if a dog goes down in a fight, that is the end of him.

Characters in The Call of the Wild are quite amazing. Buck, the main character, almost seems as though he is a human rather than a dog simply by his rational thoughts and way of doing tasks. In a fight, Buck is being severely beaten and has no way to back out of this fight. He finds a way to adapt to his foe's movements and tactics and soon brings the opposition down. John Thornton saves Buck later on in the story. John Thornton is played out as a very kind and likable person, which he is. He stands up against Buck's current owner and saves Buck from certain death. John Thornton also shows that he understands Buck when Buck "would often seize Thornton's hand in his mouth and close so fiercely that the flesh bore the impress of his teeth for some time afterward" to be a sign of admiration and love.

I enjoyed The Call of the Wild and would recommend this book to anyone who likes nature, learning about primal instincts, or a good read.

Book Review: The Bar Code Tattoo

2010-03-08T18:17:00.000-06:00

Suzanne Weyn's The Bar Code Tattoo astonished me in how I could see our world in a similar situation.

A major idea of the The Bar Code Tattoo is that all people would (will?) be identified with bar codes. These bar codes would identify the person's blood type and other medical specifics. What if the codes told more than just these medical specifications? What if we were tracked through these codes? What if our lives were controlled by a few simple black bars? That's a tough set of questions. In the story of The Bar Code Tattoo bar codes are beginning to be used for everything from buying items to getting a job. In the story, a character compares the degree of government tracking individuals by saying that "they first started out using Driver's Licenses as IDs, then credit cards were tracked" and so on.

Kayla, the main character, resists the bar code and joins a group against the bar called KnotU2. This group is centered around working against Global-1. Global-1 is a large organization that owns all farm production and many other vital businesses. This reminds me a little bit of our (somewhat) monopolies in our society. Though not on the same level, what if these large corporations turned into an all-controlling monopoly like in the story?

Our world may be moving in this direction if we are not careful of our government and business corporations. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes semi-futuristic or action themes.

Persuasion

2010-02-23T20:13:00.000-06:00

I do not use persuasion very often. I am not very good at persuading people, which is probably because I do not use persuasion very much. If I do have to persuade someone, I will probably talk out the situation and give reasons/facts for my point. Persuasion is not very important in my life.

Winning

2010-02-19T19:20:00.000-06:00

Winning can mean doing better than other people in an activity or overcoming a personal obstacle in yourself. Winning does not always mean receiving a tangible reward. I am both ashamed and proud of many things I have won. Even though winning doesn't always mean receiving something tangible, something I am very proud of winning is academic medals during Junior High. I was given 3 (maybe 4) rewards for the highest grade in class. The classes I remember are Art, Computer Technology, and History.

Commitment

2010-02-17T21:16:00.000-06:00

I believe that I could commit myself to being better at playing the marching snare. I will commit myself to learning to play the marching snare better. Making myself better at the snare is important. Next year, (this season is already over) there will be only one person on snare who has had any experience with the marching snare. Also, he is going to be a Senior, so I have to learn as much as I can from him before he leaves. This is even more important when I remember that I am the only person moving up (maybe, this could change) from the bass drum (which is what everyone on the Drumline starts out on).

2010-01-25T01:09:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I saw a mug in Barnes and Noble that made me smile. The mug read: "Be the change you wish to see in the world…" (just in case you didn't notice that large image above). The quote was by Ghandi (something else you might not have known if you managed to miss that picture), which made me more interested in this particular cup. Really, if you think about this, you can figure out pretty easily how you influence other people. There are more quotable mugs that are good, if you are willing to take a look.

I took the image from here.

The Red Badge of Courage

2010-01-19T11:55:00.000-06:00

Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage amazed me with the main character's tale of bravery in the face of death.

In The Red Badge of Courage the youth (as he's called throughout the story) leaves home to fight in the army during the American Civil War. This in itself is the youth taking a stand against his mother, who wanted nothing to do with the War. I believe that the youth might have felt a little bit obligated to serve. However, this idea is mostly thrown off when the youth confesses to himself that he joined for the wrong reasons. Those reasons being that he wanted more so to defy his mother. The youth also joined because he saw, or rather imagined, himself as being a hero among the soldiers by using courageous speeches and battlefield survival. Another stand is taken by the youth when he and one of his friends overhear an officer saying to a general that he (the officer) can spare their (the youth and friend's) own regiment the best of all to lead a suicide charge into the enemy on a different front. The officer even goes as far to say that the regiment "fight like a lot 'a mule drivers". During this charge, the youth is reminded of the officers words and grows agitated. Later during another charge, the youth had made a resolution in his mind of retaliation against the officer. "It was clear to him that his final and absolute revenge was to be achieved by his dead body lying torn and glittering, upon the field. This was to be a poignant retaliation upon the officer who had said 'mule drivers,' and later 'mud diggers,' for in all the wild graspings of his mind for a unit responsible for his sufferings and commotions he always seized upon the man who had dubbed him wrongly."

I enjoyed reading The Red Badge of Courage and would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Civil War stories or tales of bravery and courage.

Image from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www2.scholastic.com/content/media/products/76/0590021176_xlg.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp%3Fid%3D168551&usg=__Tb7vB4Gse49Z7V4U06-Q03Xpu9I=&h=252&w=230&sz=19&hl=en&start=97&sig2=ixS7v-aAFav33hMkEuFWpA&um=1&tbnid=HJwvbv8pLezgNM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bred%2Bbadge%2Bof%2Bcourage%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DN%26start%3D90%26um%3D1&ei=wDJWS5T-DYq4tgPmwbjZAQ

Taking a Stand

2010-01-17T19:49:00.000-06:00

This post may seem a little obvious with what tomorrow is, but I'm going to write on this subject anyway. I admire Martin Luther King, Jr. for his stand against many of the United States.

Even though nearly everyone knows his story, I'm just going to give a quick refresher. At the time, there was major segregation between Blacks and Whites in the US. The segregation went to far as to have Whites and Blacks separated into different schools and even to have different restrooms. Martin Luther King, Jr. took a stand against all this and most of the US (and by most, I don't mean all). Martin Luther King, Jr. used non-violent protests to get a point across (which was partly inspired by Ghandi's way of protest). He succeeded in changing the entirety of the US and how people look at the small differences in each the other man. In the end, as everyone knows, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

I admire Martin Luther King, Jr. for his capability to stand against such a large mass of people, something I don't think I could ever replicate. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s peaceful protest inspires me to do the same with conflict among others. Even in the face of danger and death, he did not use violence, something that inspires this non-violent method even more. Martin Luther King, Jr. had everything to lose, his home, family, and even his life, and yet he still stood up for what he believed in.

Against all odds, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood up for what he thought was right and I admire him immensely for that.

Image from

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm1.static.flickr.com/113/286476887_d43f3cff29.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.knowmoremedia.com/influences/&usg=__6wugj_gkpccYJVzolyfCpqaGVgQ=&h=393&w=500&sz=140&hl=en&start=9&sig2=xjWTweVENKcCT7LltjntUw&um=1&tbnid=5u1k79LU752-WM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmartin%2Bluther%2Bking,%2Bjr.%2Bmarch%2Bon%2Bwashington%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26um%3D1&ei=fMhTS5XQEJLytQOIu43hBw

Something I wish I could change, but really can't

2010-01-14T19:08:00.000-06:00

Less homework. I really am just writing about this because I don't want to get into politics or war. Homework can be a major dampener on study time and free time. I believe that if you are really taught what you are supposed to be taught at school, you should not need to learn more at home on your own time. I believe that time at home should be used to study or relax.

Taking a Stand

2010-01-11T15:30:00.000-06:00

Many people may think that taking a stand for what they believe in is difficult. Taking a stand can be very difficult, if you make it difficult for yourself. I took a stand for what I believed in. This was no small task for me.

First, a little background info. I moved into a new house about a year ago. This new house is actually a warehouse and it wasn't exactly in the best condition when we moved in. Ever since, my family and I have been working on our new home. Everyone does their part, some more than others, but it is still help none the less. My Father is home nearly all the time and he does about 90% of everything that gets done around the house. My Mother helps all she can, though she has a day job and isn't home nearly as much as my Father.

This is where explaining gets difficult. My Father doesn't exactly have a day job he goes to every morning at 8 but still gets payed even though he is home most of the time (and I don't mean he has a job on the computer at home or anything). My Mother does and usually gets home around 5. Honestly and bluntly, my Mother complains of (nearly) all that my Father does even when he does his best and just does what's best for us.

Back to what I've been meaning to say from the start, taking the stand. At the time, I was playing at the computer when my Mother and someone she was talking to walking into the room a couple steps away. My Mother said something to the effect (that's probably the wrong a/effect) of complaining about the trimming near a door being off the ground. The person she was talking to agreed and said that they had suggested the same.

I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up and walked over to my mother. I explained to her that my Father does much more for us than she knows and that he does what he does because he loves us. I didn't wait for a response as I turned back to the computer.

Some teenagers may have little to no respect for their parents and think that this stand is nothing compared to what they do. I respect my parents very much which made this stand that much harder for me.

Book Review: 1984

2009-12-16T20:15:00.000-06:00

George Orwell's 1984 amazed me with the style of writing and Orwell's concept of a future dystopia.

1984 is told through a third person point of view, with a little twist. Most of the actions throughout the story are told in the normal third person view, or the one most people are used to. The twist comes when the reader sees and hears into the mind of the main character, Winston. In the world of 1984, fear is the main way that the government controls its members. This is known better when you see into Winston's mind and can feel his fear. Winston's fear cuts deeper when he is faced with death and his most feared figure in his life.

Even though the year 1984 has passed, George Orwell's concept of a future dystopia seems to grow ever more possible in our world. Orwell's dystopian government is ruled by fear, torture, false accusations, self-destruction, lies, oppression, poverty, deception, and a form of mass hypnosis. If someone were to compare what seems to be our government's direction that we're beginning to take, they could begin to pick out some similarities. The government of 1984 is one of blind devotion and the consequence for being too smart or mutinous is simply death.

I would recommend 1984 to anyone who like an "Alternate Future" kind of book. The story does get more and more depressing the more one thinks about the subject though. The government of 1984 may seem closer than someone may think.

Book Review: Julius Caesar

2009-12-14T18:56:00.000-06:00

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar challenged me with its moderately complex text and kept my thoughts of irrational behavior in check with the results of the actions taken.

Julius Caesar was written in the year 1599 by William Shakespeare. Since this novel was written a little over 400 years ago, finding the text complex in our time is easily understood. However, attempting to just read through the novel without looking at the side notes can make someone misunderstand the plot or get lost in translation. The side notes (or foot notes, I'm not really sure which one is the correct term because the notes are on the page next to the play's text but that's just me rambling) help immensely in understanding what is happening in the play and give a little insight as to what people of the time referred to. Reading the side notes is a trade off between understanding the story and the time needed to read the novel though I prefer to understand what I'm reading.

The decision to kill Caesar is justified by Brutus to be for the good of the people and is made in haste. This irrational decision has both its short and long term results on the conspirators and all the people of Rome. At first, the conspirators celebrated the assassination of Caesar in seeing that his death was the end of the beginning of an empire. In the long run, the conspirators must face the consequences for their irrational behavior. These actions and consequences in the novel make me question my own thoughts when I think irrationally and help me to think more clearly. Even though the gravity of the situation in the novel and in my own mind are quite different, I still find the story to teach me of my own behavior and its consequences.

Julius Caesar is a very good novel, despite its age and somewhat alien references. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the times of Julius Caesar or his assassination. I would recommend this book only if one is willing to read the side notes though, because the dialogue makes much more sense with them.

What Makes a Leader a True Leader?

2009-12-13T10:10:00.000-06:00

You may know many leaders, from the ones known by everyone to the ones only you know of. The question is, what makes a leader a true leader? This subject is easily debatable so keep in mind that this is my opinion and yours may differ, and that's fine. One of the first characteristics of a leader that comes into my mind is charisma. Dictionary.com defines charisma as "a spiritual power or personal quality that gives and individual an influence or authority over large numbers of people". Being a natural leader helps in many ways. Another characteristic of a true leader, I think, is being willing to lead in your endeavors. A leader sitting in the rear of the action isn't really a true leader if he doesn't stand up himself for what he wants is he? A true leader must inspire the people he leads, if he doesn't, the people he leads are just blind followers.

-This blog post is for a class I barely care for at the moment, so it isn't the best I can muster

Shared Book Review: The Lovely Bones

2009-11-30T21:46:00.000-06:00

(This is a very rough draft, so there is much editing to be done)

(Also, there is mention of violence, murder, rape, and spoilers in this review, so you are forewarned)

(This book also contains adult situations, language, and other situations everyone might not enjoy reading about)

The book is called The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. The main character in this book is Susie Salmon who was murdered on December 6, 1973. She was 14 years old. She was coming home from school when a neighbor asked her if she wanted to see what he built in his cornfield. She thought it would be ok because she had seen her Dad talking to him before. He had built an underground bunker of sorts. When she goes down there, she doesn't feel easy but he was showing her. He rapes her and cuts her in pieces. He puts her in a cloth bag and takes her mutilated body back to his house. When she dies she feels her spirit rising up to Heaven, but on her way, she accidentally touched a girl that was near the school, who's name is Routh. She realizes that she is in Heaven, but then realizes that's the in-between. She meets people there that she doesn't actually know and remembers a gazebo a neighbor had built and wishes for a gazebo in her world. Everyday, she looks over the edge of the gazebo and watches her family below and tries to contact them. The family soon realizes that the girl is missing and another neighbor's dog finds her elbow which leads to finding very much blood in the corn field where she was murdered. Since there is no solid evidence, the police cannot do anything to help. Each member of the family takes the murder differently. The father tries to find the murderer and such... Susie watches over her family from her Heaven and also keeps an eye on her murderer and learns that she is not the only one that he's murdered. Susie's sister, Lindsey, talks about going into the suspected murderer's house and tries to find anything that will help with the murder of her sister. She kicks out the basement window and sees a sketch book of houses and beams and such. She sees the picture of the underground hideout in the cornstalk field. She doesn't hear him coming home, she tears out the piece of paper and manages to get out through the window. The neighbor remembers Lindsie's jacket number and calls the cops on her, but acts calm. Later, he packs up and leaves without a trace. About ten years later, her sister Lindsie comes home when her father has a stroke. Routh, an unpopular artist, touched Susie's spirit as she went to heaven and finds that she can see dead people and understand their death. She kept books of Susie's death. One day Routh gets a letter from her Dad that there is a sinkhole and they decide to check it out. Mr. Harvey, Susie's murderer, travels around undercover to stay under the radar. He gained a lust for killing from a young age and tries to curb his appetite but he soon gets too hungry to bear. As he follows a young girl, he is impaled by an icicle and dies. Susie is trying to cope with being in her heaven because she is stuck in the in-between due to her want for worldly things. Routh goes to the sinkhole and spots a beat up vehicle and recognizes that it's Mr. Harvey's. She faints immediately and when she wakes up, she is Susie (Routh is a kind of an in-between for Susie and the real world). She disliked the book because there was no closure for the book and many more questions were left unanswered than were answers. You would think that Susie was going to get some kind of closure by having her body discovered by her parents or such. All that happened was that Susie got to go back and spend time with Ray (the person who had a crush on her). The story ends as Lindsie gets married and the family working out their differences. All of Susie's simple desires were granted to her in her in-between Heaven. The story is basically about a family moving on after the death of a child or sister and that it is difficult in the way that each family member copes with the loss. Also, she doesn't care if it was on the number one national best seller and hopes that the movie is different from the book (basically she said the book ending sucked and it kinda ruined the other parts of the book).

Reason for the Season

2009-11-24T12:36:00.000-06:00

Top ten reasons for the season:

Family-family is forever
Friends
Food-we couldn't live without it you know!
Health
Wealth-even though many people whine and complain about being poor, they're actually quite a bit more wealthy than they think
God
Jesus
Affection
Random Acts of Kindness-being either on the receiving end or giving end, it's something to be thankful for
A Home-even a new one is a roof over your head

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens

2009-11-10T21:35:00.000-06:00

Sean Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens truly enlightened me with it's numerous anecdotes and the habit that changed the way I look at solving problems, Habit 4 - Think Win-Win.

Hearing other's stories, or anecdotes, helped me to better understand some of the situations I was facing. Handling a new situation on your own can be very difficult, but learning from others or telling others about the problem can be the best to learn to handle the situation. I probably felt better reading the anecdotes because I'm not much of a people person (well... most of the time anyway) and I feel that I wouldn't have to expose myself (which is really something I should work toward being able to do... maybe). While reading some of the anecdotes, I felt as though I could really connect to a few of them.

After reading Habit 4, I gained a little more insight into the other side of deal-making. Before reading Habit 4, I truthfully looked more toward my benefit when making deals. In retrospect, if I were the person on the receiving end of a bad deal I probably wouldn't feel too good about the situation. The next time I make a deal with a person I will most certainly put myself into the other persons shoes to see how I would feel about the deal.

Perhaps just from the examples told in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens I could say that the book is extraordinary. However, I would not give justice to the book if I did not say that the seven habits make the book more than simply extraordinary. I would definitely recommend this book to any and maybe all teens (even if you think you don't have any problems or actually don't).

Bruises Never Felt so Good

2009-10-19T20:29:00.000-05:00

So I probably should have written this blog a few weeks ago, but there seems to be less and less free time in my schedule for blogging (and by free time I mean time I'm not wasting on the Internet). I posted about going to a paintball game with friends a few weeks earlier (if you didn't know that, just scroll down some) and had forgotten about telling how the game turned out. In short, it was awesome! Playing the game is just half the fun in most activities, it is the stories that you walk away with that really matter. So here's my story...

I wake up at 8 reminding myself that I'm supposed to be at Corey's church at 10:30 and take a shower getting pumped up (yes, in the shower... what? don't judge me!)for the game at hand. I get dressed (blue jeans, underarmor, and a black hoodie over that) and check my bag for the fourth time to make sure I have everything. It's time to go so I get my Dad to run me up to the church to find that there's no one in sight of the meeting place. I phone Corey and he explains that we're meeting at 12. I head home and call Sam, who originally told me the meeting time was 10:30, and tell him of the new time. He offers me a ride back to the church and everything is back on course. About 9 other people turn out for the game and we're soon underway.

The next few hours are really a blur of paint, mud, running, and near misses. There are a few points that stick out in my mind in particular though. First being during one of the first capture the flag games when I distinctly heard a paintball whistle as it flew into my gut, run the curve of my body and bounce off. I also remember my visor fogging up about 3 minutes into every game. The precipitation was so bad that I would usually identify opposite players by their position on the field or the direction they were running.

During a team deathmatch game, I was pinned down behind a low barrier from 2 points and I remember nearly getting my kneecap busted from a paintball that went through the edges of the barrier. One of my favorite memories is being behind the same low barrier and popping my head over the barrier to find out where the people where that were pinning me down. I saw the person fire at me and immediately ducked my head back into the bunker. As my head was about half-way back into the barrier, a paintball exploded a matter of centimeters from my head and splattered all across my vision. I called for a paint check and I was ok.

During my last game (a speedball match) I ran deep into the left mid-field and nearly knocked over the inflatable obstacles I was trying to hide behind. As I checked my position, I found that I had come out ahead of my teammates by about 2 rows of obstacles. During a previous game on the same field, I found myself feet away from an opposing player hiding behind the obstacle next to the obstacle that I described above. I knew I would feel bad if I shot this person in the head at such close range so I tried to use the other side for firing. But on the same note as the sentence before the previous, I saw that there were people who could flank me from the right. As I sat and figured my position, a paintball whistled by and glanced off of my kneecap. Needless to say, it hurt and I had a limp for the rest of the hour. I knew that Evan Ramsey's dad, my archenemy during all of the games, was close to the right so I decided to check on him. As I shifted to the right, he jumped from his cover and shot me just a couple inches above my heart. I fell and rolled backwards from the impact calling for a paint check even though I knew I was gotten. That was the only time during all of the games that I had been shot, it felt good. Back home and I'm on the computer for a while, then off to bed. The next day I'm sore all over. When I try to sit, I can manage to get about half way before collapsing into the seat. But I don't care, cuz the bruises have never felt so good before.

Here's a few tips from an amateur paintballer for anyone interested in playing.

ALWAYS find cover. (even if that cover is a shallow hole that doesn't even go past your ankles)
Never look over cover. (you can be shot from a 360 degree angle over cover but at a much smaller degree from beside cover)
Don't try to wipe paint off of your visor, it will only make it much worse.
Make sure that you have enough ammo and air before a game. (one of the worst ways to get out in a match is a lack of ammo or air that you forgot to replenish before a match)
Run, don't walk. (I literally watched as one of my teammates walked for cover and got gunned down)
Keep your barrel clean. (ammo can go crazy with a greased or dirty barrel)
Don't be afraid to slide into a mud pit for cover or otherwise get knee-deep into a mess. (trying to save your favorite pair of blue jeans from a little wet Earth is an easy way to get out)
Have fun and don't get angry if you get out, it happens to everybody
Tell me when you're going to play a game! I'm always up for a good game of paintball

Book Review: The War of the Worlds

2009-10-18T01:14:00.000-05:00

H.G. Well's The War of the Worlds slowed my down with it's slow pace, but amazed me with its unique and original idea.

Even though H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds was published in 1898 the speed of the story telling can become slow and encumbered. These times of slow progression could be blamed on the now unfamiliar language used and slang of the time. The unfamiliar language is not helped with a lack of footnotes, which helped me immensely when reading The Time Machine. However, there were times when the story progressed in great pace to what I am typically used to reading. Thinking of locations in relation to others and general directions can be very difficult if the reader does not live in the general area of London or does not know the towns and cities nearby. Luckily, most of the locations do not have a great impact when following the main ideas of the story. Towards the end of the book, H.G. Wells conveys the narrators feelings in an incredible and easy way. My chest swelled with the very same feelings of the narrator when his words were used and I had a very real feeling of recognition for all the small things of our world.

The most unique characteristic of The War of the Worlds is the plot behind the whole book. Very similar to The Time Machine, the ideas in The War of the Worlds are very unique in just the thought of how H.G. Wells could have imagined this up, especially during his time. Just the concept of how the martians looked and how they were described blew me away. Also, I can scarcely imagine how H.G. Wells could have thought up the process in which the martian war machines were built as the narrator of the story watches from a nearly destroyed building.

H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds is probably one of the best sci-fi books I've read thus far in my life, even with the sometimes crawling pace of the story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about unique alien technology, martians, or sci-fi in general.

Book Review: The Time Machine

2009-10-05T22:48:00.000-05:00

Try to think far into the future, as far as you can. H.G. Wells' The Time Machine teleports you straight into the future thousands of years from now, or according to the book it does.

I remember that I was once told that ,”The past is a strange, distant land.” That might not be exactly what was said, but the general affect is still given. H.G. Wells published The Time Machine in 1895, which can easily be picked out by the writing style that H.G. Wells uses. I feel a slight air of dislike for the writing style that H.G. Wells writes in, but I remember that his style was the normal in his time. Some of the vocabulary can become confusing because many are no longer used in the same way. Even though the vocabulary may be strange, the words used seem to better get a point across about the mood than I think normal writing would. An exert from The Time Machine reads, “The Eloi, like the Carlovingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. They still possessed the earth of sufferance...” If it were not for the footnotes on each page to help me to translate and understand some of the words, there is no doubt that I would have read this passage differently than was intended.

It must have taken a vast amount of imagination to think up the environments of The Time Machine. The present day surroundings would not seem that odd to us even in this time. When the Time Traveler moves through time though, the area opens wide to vibrant and sometimes scary future. As the Time Traveler traveled, he thought to have seen many amazing advancements, “I saw great and splendid architecture rising about me, more massive than any buildings of our own time, and yet, as it seemed, built of glimmer and mist.” We are left to our own imagination to think of the advanced buildings. As the Time Traveler stops moving through time, he finds himself first in a dim world occupied by a single sphinx statue. This world opens to be what could almost be described as a strange paradise. However, beneath this paradise is later recognized as a grim situation between fellow man. The final known setting of The Time Machine is simply barren land. The description given by H.G. Wells gives the feeling of depression or giving up and letting what will happen happen.

The Time Machine, I believe, could easily be the definition of Science-Fiction because of its ability to draw imaginatively on scientific knowledge and speculation. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Sci-Fi or who delights in looking deep into a story to pull out different meanings.

As the paint flies

2009-10-05T19:19:00.000-05:00

On weekends during this month, I usually have marching competitions and such. Now don't get me wrong, marching contests are awesome and all but I'm worn after each contest, and it tends to eat up my weekends pretty fast. However, this weekend we don't have a competition OR a Friday night game to play at (YES! haha). My friend ever since I can remember, Sam, told me today that there's going to be a church paintball game this Saturday for Corey's (another friend) church. Sam, Corey, I, and a few other friends usually have Airsoft games during the weekends of the year. I've played in the church paintball game last year, so it will be awesome to get back and play another game. I can't wait till Saturday! I'm definitely looking forward to nailing some people with a hail of paintballs, haha.

Book Review: Uglies

2009-09-23T16:51:00.000-05:00

Imagine a world of flying cars, hoverboards, and incredible beauty. Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies barreted me with the emotions and moral choices contained within its folds.

A story can only be as unique as its environment. If this is true, then Uglies would most definitely be one of the most unique stories I have ever read. The setting ranges from a super high-tech town, to valleys of orchids, to a camp in a valley. The setting of Uglies stars in the high-tech town of New Pretty Town, or rather, the outskirts, in a place called Uglyville. Tally Youngblood, the main protagonist in the story, constantly dreams of when she will become a pretty and move to New Pretty Town. New Pretty Town is where all of the new pretties live after they have had the operation. The town is always crawling with activity ranging from parties to parades. The town is also brimming over with extraordinary technological advances. Unused items can recycle themselves and everything is automated. During a point in the story, Tally drops a plastic mask after finding what she was looking for, but before she can pick up the mask and put the disguise back on, the cover had already recycled itself and absorbed into the carpet. Later on, the setting changes to a camp ground in a valley. Not much can be said of the camp ground, because too much information on the story may be told. However, the valley is described as being extremely beautiful. The area is also described as if a feeling of true freedom were felt when seen from high in the mountains.

Uglies is packed with morals and moral choices throughout the book. Simply put, any choice, large or small, can have a much greater impact than one might have initially thought. Through much of the story, Tally conflicts with herself on whether or not she truly wants to become pretty and what she’s willing to sacrifice to get what she wants. Tally also gradually realizes how many other people she will effect with her moral choice.

Uglies is a very unique story in that this adventure can easily pull the reader in and hold them there. I would definitely recommend Uglies to anyone who likes Sci-fi technology and an engaging read. (425 pages)

Universal Signs

2009-09-09T20:52:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed universally understood symbols or sayings? I mean something like a thumbs up, or a peace sign. This is random, I know, but I guess most or some people think about it at one point.

Crossover words and cognates also remind me of this. Crossover words are same words with the same meaning in two different languages. Cognates are words that sound very similar to the same word in a different language. That was just something I picked up in Spanish class.

My original idea for this whole post was me actually thinking about when people connect a whole bunch of /'s, |'s, and "'s and other keystrokes to form a larger picture. Almost as if it were a collage of punctuation marks. But back to my main train of thought, why can't I find any readily made thumbs ups punctuation collages? Perhaps no one has thought of it, or decided to put it on the Internet that was search able through Google? You're guess is as good as mine at this point. You've probably seen someone post a sign of punctuation's somewhere though, be that YouTube comments or forums.

It all starts with a thought

2009-09-01T13:23:00.000-05:00

So I'm sitting here in class trying to type this and listen to Ms. Gillmore at the same time. Me catching bits of what's she's saying, "...wiping the memory completely..." "...tonight's homework..." which is reading. See, I can still pay attention. But I have to finish this so I can get to other subjects. I'm going to go think some. Is it possible to think about all the things you can think about? That's a hard question... I'll stop rambling and get back to work... it all starts with a thought.