(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

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.

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

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

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)

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

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.